You have prepared Spiced Bread.
Spiced Bread (1) added to your inventory.
Cooking trade: +1.
Current level: Pupil (1/100)
You have received experience points for progressing in a trade: +1.
I glanced into my bag. It now contained a bread icon. The description said that eating bread would restore ten health points. Not bad.
The ball was rolling. Sitting by the fire, I kept cooking, appreciating the scent of fresh baked goods. The experience points came as a pleasant surprise. It was easier to get like this than spending half a day hunched over in the quarry.
Ten minutes later, my bag was twice as heavy, half-filled with spiced bread – fifty little fist-sized rolls.
Cooking trade: +1.
Current level: Pupil (43/100).
You have received experience points for progressing in a trade: +1.
The last points in the trade were an ordeal. The recipe was too simple, and in order to keep levelling, I needed to make more complex dishes.
I stood up to get to the next part of the plan, but then it dawned on me. Aw, what the nether?! I pulled the Zombie Rat Innards out and threw them in the pot.
They were still “fresh” so they hissed and spattered, and a smoldering black smoke rose up out of the pot. The guts sparked and caught fire. A few seconds later, all that remained was char. And a second after that, it was gone too. Only the black smoke curling upward was left to remind me.
Attempt to create a new dish!
Failure!
That bad? But I was on the right track, right? I snorted and threw another set of chitterlings into the pot. Failure! Another failure!
I pulled out my last one. I'd forgotten to check the value of this "ingredient" at auction, and now I was tormenting myself imagining that I was destroying something that might be worth an unbelievable amount of money. "Very rare alchemy ingredient. Required to create invincibility potion. Value: 1000 gold," I imagined. At first I hesitated, then I decided not to get too crazy over this. I mean, when had a rare ingredient ever come from a noob ins?
Without a doubt, I threw the last rat zombie innards into the pot...
"Chh!" a plate armor boot, scattering the coals, kicked the pot so hard it flew seventy feet.
Iron clanged and a wide blade pierced just under my ribs.
Player Crag (Tobias Asser) has damaged you: 31.
Health points: 22/53.
I turned my head and saw the lamentably familiar warrior. He was smiling. Vista was standing next to him, now level three, and another player I didn't know named Rashidos was with them at level nine.
"You're pretty hard to kill, scum," Crag said in dismay, and twisted the sword.
Player Crag (Tobias Asser) has damaged you: 7.
Health points: 15/53.
"You shouldn't be sticking your nose out of town," he said. "We’ll find you every time, got it? Although... I'm in a good mood today. I trust you brought the belt?"
"Nuts to you, no..." I coughed and, twisting like a rotisserie chicken, collapsed to the earth.
What would happen when I respawned right here, how would I explain that? You can't leave the game in battle, nor can you exit while dead. Damn, damn, damn...
"Finish him off, Crag. What are you drawing this out for?" Vista said. "If he has the belt, won't it drop?"
"Not for sure," the warrior frowned. "He could have hidden it in his chest, plus the drop chance for blues is not one hundred. So Scyth, I’m going to ask you again. Do you have the belt?"
"Go f..." I started coughing again.
Crag stuck the sword between my eyes. A sharp pain pierced my head and I shouted.
Player Crag (Tobias Asser) has critically damaged you: 52!
Health points: 0/53.
You are dead.
Remaining time to respawn 9... 8... 7...
"Aw, nether, no belt! Just potions, some bread and a rusty sword!" Crag kicked my things in disappointment, and Vista ran to pick them up. "Come on, drop that trash! Let's hurry to the cemetery! We'll head him off there before he buggers off to his room!"
"Yeah," Vista agreed. "He'll be more talkative with the memory of your sword in his stupid face!"
"He should be glad you didn’t go for the ass!" Rashidos jeered right in my face.
They laughed and ran off toward the city gates. Even when Ed mocked me, it didn't hurt much. But now I felt a true rage.
Remaining time to respawn 4... 3... 2...
Still, it came together in my favor. They left and I was in the glade – alone. Also...
I couldn't smile as a corpse, but still I was laughing inside. No, not because those bastards didn't stick around to dance on my corpse. I was delighted by the logs I saw before I died:
Attempt to create a new dish!
Success! You have created a new cooking recipe: Roast Undead Rat Chitterlings!
Experience points received for new cooking recipe: +100.
You have prepared Roast Undead Rat Chitterlings.
Roast undead rat chitterlings (1) added to your inventory.
Cooking trade: +10.
Current level: Pupil (53/100)
You have received experience points for progressing in a trade: +10.
In one second, I'd stand up and see just what these Roast Undead Rat Chitterlings really were!
Chapter Fifteen. The Road to Gloomwood
THE BLACK AND WHITE purgatory was replaced with the world of the living once again. Not moving from place, I took a look around: there was no one in the clearing. A few steps from me a level-one grass snake slithered past but didn’t see me. I never saw a status bar over it. A fuzzy bumble-bee flew past as well.
The fire was out, and around the huge spread of ash there were white chunks of bread. My sword, and the health and mana potions I found in the underground chest had been taken by Vista, and the bread constituted no more than one stack. No biggie, I'd write them off as a loss.
I added Crag, Vista and Rashidos to my enemy list so I wouldn't miss them coming near again. The bread, wood and fire-starter took back their slots, and I went to find my pot.
I had to search in the overgrown bushes for a long time and, when I found it, I couldn't hold back an explicit outburst. The cast-iron pot had a hole in it! Either Dis had realism problems, or Crag's strength was so high he could rip through cast iron like paper.
Not feeling sorry for myself – I'd buy another one – I opened my inventory. Now I could see what kind of new dish I'd managed to invent. I wondered whether it was my success chance, or just that Crag had quickly taken it off the fire.
Roast Undead Rat Chitterlings
Ingredients: Zombie Rat Innards.
This truly shameful dish can boldly take its place among the worst plates of food ever made! Its inventor Scyth is probably not too proud of his creation. After all, these disgusting rotten undead rat innards spent only a few seconds over scorching heat. Still, that was just enough to tame their unique tang and give them a razor thin golden crust.
Special effects when eaten: +1000% to skill levelling rate for 1 hour.
Effect is removed after death.
Value: 1 gold coin.
I turned the unappetizing seared glob over in my hand, then it flew into my inventory.
No idea better than selling it at auction came to mind. Seriously, to me it was useless, because I died more often than a hummingbird’s heartbeat. I suppose I could hold onto it for better times to level skills. Although... Nether, I'm stupid! Evidence of the sleepless night, no two ways about it. I was yawning now as well, risking dislodging my jaw. But I decided to bear it.
I needed to figure out the optimal route – not the longest, but the one that would keep me from encountering any Tristad guards. I really didn't want there to be talk about a weird level-two noob.
The map was showing my path first through the forest to the East, then over the Tremitelle river into Gloomwood. And that path would be full of pain and death. My deat
h...
The first problems began just one hundred yards from the glade where I was cooking. And even that distance was not made easily. The dark forest with its high trees had a canopy that didn’t let one single bit of light through from the moon of this world, which was called Geala the thorny bush...
But I overcame it because I knew that my body was safe in my pod at home, and the scratches and injuries I was taking would heal in a matter of seconds. What was more, I now had a new skill:
Night Vision skill discovered!
Vision radius in the dark increased by 10%.
Current level: 1.
Improve this skill by staring into the darkness, but take care. It might start staring back at you!
You have received experience points for discovering a new skill: 10.
Experience points at present level (2): 330/900.
The new skill helped, or I simply had gotten used to the dark, but I saw the spider before it attacked.
Night Spinner, level 6
The long-legged blood-drinker gracefully descended from a higher branch. I got scared and not only because of the spider's anomalous dimensions. I was also just scared of the deep darkness this was all taking place in. I didn't manage to dodge, the attack was lighting fast and hit me on first try.
The damage from the bite halved my life, but the DoT of nasty poison was quickly taking down the rest. Still it was not fast enough to kill me right away, so I managed to jump on the spider. My teeth clenched in pain, now particularly acute due to the little spines that covered its back, I pressed down with my feet and rained down a hurricane of blows. In real life, it would have been hard to miss. I mean, my whole field of vision was occupied its body. But here misfires happened often.
Still, my fists made a dent in its chitin, doing one damage here, zero there and missing, slipping off, my knuckles were cracking and bleeding and... I died.
You are dead.
Remaining time to respawn ... 9...
I didn't wait. I respawned that very second, and the spinner's squeal of celebration was cut off when my fist clabbered its mandible. Bite! Death. Get up! Hammer! The enraged insect ran a leg through me like a spear and I died again. Then I made another attack.
When killing, the mob chirred victoriously time and again. I started to seethe with hatred for that specific spider and, driven on by adrenaline, tried to tear a piece of flesh off it whether with my teeth or fingernails.
Between deaths, I had time to read about a new skill and accompanying ability.
Resilience skill discovered!
Resistance to all types of damage increased by 1%.
Pain reduced by 1%.
Current level: 1.
Improve this skill by fighting enemies of your level or higher for additional bonuses and new special attacks.
You have received the Stoneskin ability!
Cost to use: 3 mana points.
Increases resistance to all types of damage by 10%.
Duration: 1 second.
You have received experience points for discovering a new skill: 10.
Experience points at present level (2): 340/900.
Only a masochist like me could level this skill! I chuckled, reinvigorated, but the laughter gave way to a cough when the spider spit poison and it landed in my mouth. He got me!
His dim bulbous little eyes stared senselessly until I started pulling them out one after the next. Each eye I removed took a few deaths, but soon all twelve were gone. How do you like that, blind freak?
Unarmed Combat skill improved: +1.
Damage dealt without a weapon increased by 30%
Attack accuracy increased by 30%.
Current level: 3.
Improve this skill by fighting enemies of your level or higher for additional bonuses and new special attacks.
Hammerfist improved: +1.
Cost to use: 2 mana points.
Deals 250% of normal damage.
Ignores 2% of armor.
Pay a visit to a master of Unarmed Combat to learn more special attacks!
Now there was an idea. I guessed that the higher my enemies' level, the faster my combat skills would improve, but I hadn't found a confirmation in the forums. In a world where any victory was the result of gallons of spilled blood and years of time, and where your success defined your future in the real world, no one shared any real guides or secrets.
With a third of its life remaining, the Night Spinner tried to run, but I caught it in a jump and grabbed it by the leg. Its leg joint couldn't take the strain and just popped out. Ichor spilled from the wound, I licked it carnivorously, took a DoT of poison and died. After getting back up, I looked around for my victim, but its trail had gone cold. Probably hidden up above, the vile bug!
I was not in combat, so I took my fallen bits of bread and devoured three, restoring my health. I needed it to climb up the tree in one piece and find this thing.
My breathless body fell off the tree fifteen or so times. Nothing remained of the spiced bread, but I balked. I climbed up the tree again and again, flaying my whole body, found a huge cavern that served as the spider's den, and tried to take down the mob as it recuperated. It met me on the threshold. Poisons, punctured organs, falling from a tree, bits of web gluing me in place – the variety and amount of damage I was taking leveled Resilience.
That in turn improved Stoneskin, which turned out to be a very useful ability. It was the very reason I eventually was able to take down the spider. I had just a few bits of health left, and landed two Hammer blows. One of them was a crit. The chirring stopped and the arachnid splayed out at the cavern entrance.
I got twelve experience and a quick look around netted me the same number of spider eggs. These were Cooking ingredients for an omelet. But unfortunately I'd just lost my pot.
I came down from the tree feeling tired. My adrenaline had boiled off. I considered the fact that this was only first mob in my long road to Gloomwood and felt despair. Fainthearted, I thought it would be nice to get some sleep so I could continue my journey tomorrow with renewed strength. But while I thought and found more and more new reasons to leave Dis, my legs started moving all by themselves.
I continued arguing with myself, but didn't stop. I encountered no mobs, and eventually reached a dock in the Tremitelle river. The swift waters of the river just flew into the Bottomless Ocean, and the question of how to get out without drowning occupied me for ten minutes.
I made up my mind and jumped in the water. The current immediately pulled me down and dragged me along the stony bottom. I tried to keep my head above the surface as I paddled toward the opposite bank. And it should be said it didn't really work.
Many damage messages poured in, first about scratches and blows on rocks. Then I was brought down to the bottom, and damage was added form the bites of some small but very sharp-toothed little fish called Stone Grabbers.
The water was too cloudy to see what they looked like, but they really ripped my flesh. Whoo-ee! I used the timer between deaths to the maximum, so my body would be carried as far as possible from the predatory fish.
But a few seconds later, they were next to me again. I got the impression that the river was teeming with them, but that was to my advantage. Resilience leveled up to three, reducing pain and incoming damage by three percent.
I resurrected, activated Stoneskin and took a few paddles to the opposite bank. Eventually I did get close enough to it to latch onto the root of some huge oak. The hardest part of the swim was not forgetting to pick up the baked chitterlings that dropped after I died. Good that the river carried them at the same speed as my body. I had plans for them. But I lost the spider eggs and didn't even realize.
The sky began to glow when my foot stepped into Gloomwood. My eyes closed, I was falling off my feet in exhaustion and lack of sleep but I was satisfied.
Suddenly in the complete silence, I heard a barely audible rustling from the bushes. I raised my eyes... and my gaze started rushing around in searc
h of the exit button, having seen a huge dark silhouette approaching me with the description:
Crusher, level 15
Wolf
Class-A Threat (Disgardium Book #1) LitRPG Series Page 13