by R K Billiau
Critical hit! You have been pummeled for 79 damage!
The attack spun us all around and this time my zombie fell to the dirt and disintegrated. As soon as I could orient myself, I stood up and darted toward the dead wolves.
Popping open the loot and scavenging windows, I quickly scanned for what I was hoping for. The first corpse had nothing but a wolf pelt, but I smiled when I saw the second window. A wolf core!
Your party has slain a minor tutelar!
You have gained 15 XP; You have gained a party bonus of 5 XP!
Kai’s health was yo-yoing while Madison healed him, becoming the target for the tutelar. Enemies always hate the healer. I quickly ripped open the loot windows on the last corpse to find a core. Then a Lucky Find window popped open with another core in it. Lucky indeed! I left one of the soulbound cores on the corpse. The new guy would need it.
Congratulations! You have increased your Lucky Find skill!
Holding the wolf cores, I smiled. I finally had some potential in this fight. I held the two cores and concentrated, and a million tiny fragments of light rushed from one core as it dissolved in my hand. The bits of light raced together and in an instant, a large, snarling gray wolf appeared. I could feel it’s hot, wet breath on my arm. There was something so powerful about standing next to an enemy I had defeated and having complete control.
I slammed it into attack mode, slapped it on the rear, and it charged into the fray. I took a deep breath and concentrated on the next core, and it too dissolved, summoning a wolf. I sent it into sentry mode also and grinned as it charged in with its brother.
“Yes!” I shouted, “get them my minions!” My joy was short lived as another tutelar started howling and released its special attack.
Critical hit! You have been pummeled for 89 damage!
My wolves dropped to half health instantly, and Kai and I were both at less than 10%. I was out of tricks, so I ran up and grabbed the discarded spear and got into the dirty work.
“I’m down to Stamina for heals now,” Madison said, “gonna have to conserve or I won’t be able to move.” This fight was closer than I wanted it. I may have gotten a little pouty about knowing I was going to die.
One of the tutelar started howling and winding up for its special attack, while Kai landed a sweeping roundhouse kick on the tutelar right in front of him.
Your party has slain a minor tutelar!
You have gained 15 XP; You have gained a party bonus of 5 XP!
Kai and I exploded into light as we leveled up, our expendable bars refilled, and I caught a glimpse of the same light off in the woods where the new guy had run. Then the tutelar’s special attack popped off, ripping huge chunks out of our newly refilled health and finishing off my wolves.
My wolves had done good work with their attacks, though, and Madison was able to finish off the tutelar they had focused on with ease, leaving only two. Kai waded in with no regard to his own safety, throwing kicks and punches while Madison and I focused on the one closest to us. We finished the remaining tutelar with no trouble and stood there after the combat, panting.
“Well that was close,” Madison said, smiling.
“Yeah, but at least this time I wasn’t useless, well, for part of it,” I said. “It felt good to actually be helpful, although, it would have been nice to not have to use those wolf cores right away. Ah well.”
Kai rubbed his hands on his pants. “That was a good fight,” he said, picking splinters from his palms. He turned towards where our new friend had run. “Come out, we defeated them!” he shouted.
I started looting the corpses while the man cautiously walked out from behind a tree and inspected the scene before him. “Damn, you guys are good! I had a hard time taking even one of those things out!” He held his hand towards us. “I’m Carl, nice to meet you.”
I waved absentmindedly at him and looked at the loot windows that popped up. I found a tiny agate, and two small agate, pretty rocks that could be used in crafting.
Kai met the man's hand. “Kai. This is Madison and Hudson. Graham from the village said we might run into you. Are you trying to complete that quest?”
Carl's eyes lingered on Madison a moment longer than I thought necessary before he nodded, a sour look on his face. “That Graham guy is a jerk. He killed me for no good reason, all I wanted was to get into the village to rest and eat.”
“Yeah,” I said, “they seem pretty touchy about that. We got the same quest. Wanna join up with us?”
Carl looked at us dubiously. “I should be asking if you want to join me.” He smirked at us. “I know where the tree is.”
“You’ve seen it?” I asked.
Carl nodded. “I have. But it has a lot of guards surrounding it.”
“Greeeeeaaaat,” I said, “what kind of things are guarding it?”
“Well,” Carl said, “a bunch of those little tutelar, and also a huge guardian; like the bigger, badder brother of these things.”
Chapter 7
“Well that sounds fun,” Madison said, her bubbly demeanor making it hard to tell if she was being sarcastic or not. “Anyway, we’re from the other side of the forest like you.”
Carl smiled. “Well I guess that would explain why you weren’t trying to kill me right away,” he said with a laugh.
I gestured my head towards the orange glow of the fire burning and started walking. “Oh come on, they aren’t all that bad.”
“Yeah,” Madison chimed in, as the group all moved toward camp. “They just want to protect whatever secret they have in the village.”
Carl seemed unimpressed. “At the cost of others’ lives? Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?”
“Well, it’s not like you really died. You just respawned,” I said.
“I don’t know if you’ve died yet, but it still hurts,” Carl said.
Madison laughed and I side eyed her.
“We have all had more than our fair share of deaths,” Kai said. “We were caught in the death trap too.”
Carl hesitated. “Sorry, it just really pissed me off when he killed me. I’m sure the fact that it was so easy for him had something to do with it. I’m only level two, well three now, since that fight.”
“That’s right! It was some pretty good experience! I’m already a good chunk back to 3,” I said.
“As am I,” Kai said. “I wonder if there will be more wolves out tonight, we might be able to gain back our lost levels.”
“How did you guys lose levels?” Carl asked. “I didn’t even know you could do that.”
Madison chuckled and winked at me. “Hudson’s kind of an expert at that.”
I blew out an exasperated breath. “Yeah, well. When you die, you know that tunnel with the light in it? You can will yourself out of the tunnel faster, but if you do, it doubles the Death debuff and takes away some XP. Kai and I were caught in the death trap for a long time and tried a lot of stuff to get free.”
Kai nodded. “It cost us both several levels, it is rather frustrating.”
“I bet,” Carl said. “How long have you all been here? I just uploaded a few days ago, and was excited to get into the game, but when I left the tutorial zone I was attacked by a bunch of tiny little vicious rabbits. I died and got stuck in what I think you’re calling the death trap. The thing where you die, come back through the tunnel just to be killed again by a bunch of zombies? It wasn’t the best start.”
Madison nodded at him. “Yep, you weren’t alone in that.”
I brought Carl to the wolf corpse with a core left on it and opened the lucky find box to the public. “Here man, equip this. It helps lower the aggro on you, makes you not so tasty a target for, well, everything.”
Carl looted it and inspected it before equipping it. “Is that why they were on me so fiercely?”
“Yep,” I said as we moved around a thick grove and our little camp came into view. “The wildlife thinks non-attuned things are like, kill-on-sight or something, go figure.” The fi
re tinted everything orange, and though we hadn’t even been here a whole day, it felt a little homey. I guess that’s what sleeping without shelter, beds, or even blankets will do to you.
We naturally gathered around the fire, and I grabbed some food from our packs and passed it around.
“So, what’s your plan for this quest?” Carl said around a mouthful of trail biscuit. “You’re going to try to complete it, yeah? I have a Hunter class, so I guess I’m pretty good with a spear, even though I lost mine.”
“You can keep using my spear,” I said. “I can go back to throwing rocks. Hopefully.”
Kai put his hand on my shoulder. “We will get you another spear as soon as we can. Perhaps we will find Carl’s in the forest.”
“Yeah, it’s cool. Though I felt like I was getting the hang of it.”
“And throwing rocks is pretty lame,” Madison said, shoving at my shoulder.
“Hey! It might be lame, but it’s been good to me so far!” I said, half in jest, half feeling weirdly defensive over my hard mineral sidekicks.
“So what classes are you guys?” Carl asked. “I don’t even know what there is. The System just gave me Hunter, I thought we’d get to choose.”
“I’m a System Cleric,” Madison said, “Kai is a Martial Artist, and Hudson is a Treasure Hunter.”
“Woah, those are all way cooler than mine. How did you get them?” he asked, sounding a little fan-boyish.
“You touched the glowy cube on the island right away, didn’t you?” I asked.
“Yeah? Didn’t you?”
“Nope. I cleared the island; it was an instanced dungeon. I was awarded an Advanced class and got to choose from a bunch of different ones.”
After a bit of silence, I nodded at Madison. “I think we should try to find more wolves until we hit level 3, then call it a night. I really want to try those bedrolls.”
“I agree,” Kai said, and stood up. “Do you suppose we should just wander the area?”
I stood too and brushed the dirt off my pants. “Yeah, let’s go together. They didn’t show up on my mini-map until right before they attacked last time, so they must have some stealth skills.”
“If it’s all right with you guys, I will wait by the fire,” Carl said, leaning back on his elbows.
“Me too,” Madison said. “You two big, strong men go find us something to kill!”
“You sure?” I asked Madison, wondering if we should leave her with a stranger.
“Yep,” she said happily and smiled. It’s true, the girl could take care of herself.
I nodded and set off with Kai. We wandered for a bit, and I was lamenting the fact that I couldn’t level my skills up. It felt weird to not be doing anything while we walked. I had always been a fan of those games where even in getting from one place to another you could level up skills, jumping, running, whatever. But until Kai and I got our levels back, our skills were frozen.
We walked quietly together, eyes on our surroundings, and trying to be actively perceptive. Which is quite the feat when you’re exhausted. Even still, I was surprised when three red dots appeared suddenly on my mini-map, and a snarling wolf lunged at me.
“Woah!” I yelled and jumped. I dodged but didn’t get completely out of the way of the beast and one of its paws scraped against me, doing minimal damage.
We weren’t that far out of range from Madison, so I started pinging on the mini-map our location. After a few pings I got a single pink back from her, her signal that she was on the way.
Meanwhile, Kai had jumped into the fray with the wolves. Literally jumped. Like, way higher than should be possible. From behind me his foot- with the rest of him attached- flew out of the darkness and collided with a wolf, causing it to yelp and stagger back. Another wolf circled Kai and when his back was turned it crouched to lunge, but a well-placed rock to the jaw of that beastie stunned it.
“Boom, headshot!” I shouted.
The next wolf did its own jump attack, flying toward Kai. Who miraculously caught it midair in somewhat of a chokehold, then rolled over onto his back, flipping the wolf with him and sending it crashing down hard. I was shocked that it hadn’t snapped the wolf’s neck. Kai was grinning like a madman, and I threw a rock point blank range at the wolf’s head.
Sucker Punch! You have caught your target unaware!
Critical hit!
The severely wounded wolf scrabled in the dirt to get up, but another rock kept it down for good.
Congratulations! You have slain a wolf!
You have gained 10 XP; You have gained a party bonus of 4 XP!
I wasn’t too worried about Kai, who had a handful of different dodging abilities. He effectively dodge-tanked the other two wolves, waiting for an opening to attack. His moment came when, howling like a maniac, Carl came running in with his spear out. The wolves turned their heads toward the distraction, and Kai’s lightning fast snap kick sent one wolf flying ass over teakettle into the woods.
The last wolf standing seemed to understand its fate and tried to dash away from this overpowered group, only to have Carl’s spear hit it in the flank, hobbling it. It yelped. Poor thing. Madison came into view in a leisurely trot and quickly put the wolf out of its misery with a well-placed spear strike.
Congratulations! You have slain a wolf!
You have gained 10 XP; You have gained a party bonus of 4 XP!
Kai finished off the remaining stunned wolf and we all stood there, not even out of breath and barely bloody. “Boy the fights sure seem to go a lot smoother when we’re the ones doing the hunting,'' I said with a laugh.
Kai smiled. “It is all about mindset. Here, as the aggressor, your mind was ready for action. Before, you were not prepared, and it showed in your combat.”
I gave this some thought. I would have to spend more time studying with Kai. My combat skills were terrible, but I was beginning to think he was right about my mindset. I had come here initially wanting nothing to do with it, even choosing my class to avoid it. But I was coming to terms with the fact that this was my new life, so I needed to embrace it fully. I think a part of that also meant accepting that this world is filled with violence, like any game, and if I want to live to my full potential, I’d have to get better at fighting. I didn’t have to like it or become a violent person, but I would do what needed to be done.
“Hudson?” Kai asked, “are you okay?”
I shook my head. “Yeah, sorry. What you said kind of hit home for me. Do you think maybe when we get into the village you could train me in Martial Arts?”
The grin on Kai’s face widened. “I would be happy to,” he said. “It is something I miss, having students.”
I smiled at that, and we continued, all four of us this time, to find more wolves. I paid very close attention to the world around me, determined not to allow the wolves to sneak up on us again. I heard a slight rustling of leaves and caught a shadowy glimmer of silver fur seconds before the dots appeared on my mini-map and I cried out an alarm. This time the beasts didn’t even get a chance to snarl as our group dismantled them.
We continued this one more time, hitting a groove with our teamwork, even including Carl. As the last wolf was slain, Kai and I burst into light. Finally, we had gained our third level back and we decided to call it a night. The bedroll was calling me, and after divvying up guard shifts at Kai’s suggestion, we finally got to go to bed. Madison and I were sharing a tent and I was nervously excited at being that close to her and getting a chance to talk alone, but the second I settled onto my bedroll, sleep hit me like a debuff I had no resistance to. I just hoped I didn’t snore.
Chapter 8
I had been hoping for the Good Night’s Sleep buff but was still satisfied that the Bad Night’s Sleep was gone when I woke up. I opened my eyes to an empty tent and immediately felt stupid for falling asleep so quickly last night. I don’t even think I told Madison goodnight.
I jumped out of bed and left the small tent. I stretched hugely, bending and twist
ing my back as I squinted my eyes in the bright daylight. I would have to remember to thank Graham again for the bedrolls. It felt like it had been forever since I had slept in any semblance of a bed, and even my perfect, 18-year-old body appreciated the comfort.
Kai had already struck his tent and was exercising off to the side of the fire pit while Carl and Madison sat around it in the dirt, chatting. Madison was making huge gestures in front of her like she did whenever she spoke. She glanced over my way and while I smiled like a big fool, and it was met with… was it a stink eye? Whatever it was, it wasn’t her normal.
“Ah, Hudson. Finally,” Kai said. “We have been waiting for you, we should leave soon.”
“You guys could have woken me up,” I said.
“No, it’s fine,” Madison said, and this time her look was downright icy. She walked over to the tent and quickly took it down and put it away.
“Ooookaaay,” Carl said and stood up. “You guys want me to lead the way, yeah?” He seemed eager to get going.
“Yes,” Kai said. “You lead and we will all be on guard along the way.”
“Let’s head out now,” Madison said and gestured into the forest. Carl nodded and started walking. I dug through my inventory for a trail biscuit and munched on it, bringing up the rear because there wasn’t a doghouse.
Walking through the forest. Again. Yay. I was getting sick of this place. Scratch that- I already was sick of this place. It would be one thing if there was anything besides these trees to break up the monotony, but the lack of fauna or other flora screwed with your mind. Trunks and dirt as far as the eye could see.
I brought out my infinite notebook and started archiving everything I had learned about the wolves. I hoped that if I archived enough, I would learn how to detect them better while they were stealthed.
Congratulations! You have increased your Archive skill!
“Yes!” I shouted and fist pumped the air. The rest of the group stopped and turned to look at me. “Oh hah, sorry. I just increased a skill, it’s so nice to be able to do that again!”