by K R Dimmick
Sure enough, it was like the bunny’s forehead had suddenly gotten 30 feet closer.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Snipe.
Snipe is part of the Archery Skills
It is linked to the stats Strength and Dexterity.
Increase your Strength to increase your physical attack damage.
Increase your Dexterity to increase your physical attack speed.
Increase your Archery skills to increase the accuracy of Snipe.
“Breathe in. Hold it and release.”
I did just that, and the arrow hurtled directly toward the bunny’s forehead. Unfortunately, just before it was about to hit, the curse kicked in. The arrow made a nearly 45 degree turn and embedded itself in the back of Colt’s head.
He went down instantly.
A member of your party has died.
Everyone turned to look in my direction, shock written on their faces. The bunny, however, had no such problem. It took the opportunity to jump sideways, landing on Saris. There was a short scream cut off by a rather nasty crunching sound.
A member of your party has died.
Havlor and Jace turned to run, while Baynor bravely stepped up to distract it so they could get away.
Suddenly, I heard a loud twang and the bunny fell over dead with an arrow between its eyes.
You have received 500 XP
“So that’s where the cursed bow ended up.” Mikael said, standing up and slinging his bow over his back.
6
Purple Haze
Havlor and Jace stopped running and came back to the group as I walked toward the dead bunny lying in the clearing.
“What the hell happened?” shouted Baynor.
“I don’t know. I’m guessing it’s because I have a cursed bow. It was going to hit until the arrow got a mind of its own and changed course. At least Mikael finished it off.”
“Who?”
“Mikael.” I said as I turned around to introduce him to what was left of the group, only to find the area of the forest behind me completely empty. “Guess he didn’t want to stick around. Oh well, Colt had it coming, in my opinion.”
“Hmm.” I could see the side of Baynor’s mouth twitching.
“Shame about Saris though, she didn’t deserve that.” I said, looking down at the dirt under my feet.
Before he could say anything, the dead body of the vampire bunny started to vibrate. The two of us quickly took a few steps backward, worried it was about to explode.
“It’s just the body disappearing,” said Havlor, “nothing to worry about. There will be a piece of loot left behind. Remember, if you can see something, it’s yours. You won’t be able to see anyone else’s loot, so go ahead and pick up whatever you see.”
I looked to where the body had been, and sure enough, all that was left was a simple looking white cotton shirt with some pretty blue embroidery on it.
“ARRRGH, that hurt!” shouted Colt, before I could pick up my new top. “Jace resurrected me, you simpletons.” He said in response to the surprised look on our faces.
I looked over at Jace who shrugged.
“Well, don’t just stand there, resurrect her, too,” Colt admonished, pointing at Saris.
“I can’t,” replied Jace. “I can only resurrect one person every 24 hours.”
“Hmmph. Pretty useless if you ask me, but at least you picked the right person,” declared Colt.
I reached out and picked up my loot, wishing he’d resurrected Saris instead of Colt.
You have received: Cotton Top of Intelligence
+ 3 Intelligence
+ 1 Wisdom
Quality: Basic.
Rarity: Common.
“What? Why am I getting useless gear? I need something that gives me Dexterity, not Intelligence and Wisdom.”
“Ah, that would be because the gods track your skills and look inside your heart, so you receive rewards that will help you toward your ideal build.” Jace explained as he leaned forward to pick up something I couldn’t see.
“Hmm. That, or the game knows you’re stupid and thinks that you having some Intelligence might help the rest of us survive a bit longer,” Colt grumbled.
“Miss? Here’s your 3 Florins for completing the quest.” I reached out to accept the coins from Havlor.
Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Village Terror.
You have received 5,000 XP.
You have received 3 Florins.
Once again, that little green bar at the bottom of my vision increased in length. By the look of it, I was just over a third of the way to level 2, which was awesome.
“Hmm. I don’t see why she gets any rewards. All she did was kill me and get Saris killed.”
“Actually, she was the one who finished the bunny off,” said Baynor. I was about to correct him, when I saw the briefest shake of his head. “So, I think she deserves the rewards as much as the people who didn’t even finish the fight.”
He bent down and grabbed what looked like a leather jerkin, and before the red-faced Colt could have a go at him, he stormed off back toward the village. I decided making myself scarce as well was probably a very good idea, so before anyone could say anything, I headed straight into the forest, toward where I’d last seen Mikael.
Putting my new top into my inventory, I equipped it with a thought. Even though it wasn’t what I’d hoped for, some extra stats were better than none.
Thinking about stats, I pulled up my condensed stats sheet to have a quick look.
STATS, ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
NAME: Orianna
RACE: Human
LEVEL: 1 (Progress 37.5%)
HEALTH (HP): 100 (10 x 10 + 0 + 0)
MANA (MP): 130 (10 x 13 + 0 + 0)
STAMINA (SP): 100 (10 x 10 + 0 + 0)
STRENGTH: 10 (10 + 0)
DEXTERITY: 10 (10 + 0)
INTELLIGENCE: 13 (10 + 3)
TOUGHNESS: 10 (10 + 0)
ENDURANCE: 10 (10 + 0)
FORTITUDE: 10 (10 + 0)
WISDOM: 11 (10 + 1)
Physical Combat Skills:
Archery: 1 (Progress 10%)
Dodge: 1 (Progress 5%)
Hand-to-Hand: 1 (Progress 5%)
Stick Fighting: 1 (Progress 5%)
Non-Combat Skills:
Inspect: 1 (Progress 10%)
Crafting Skills:
Gathering: 1 (Progress 50%)
There was a little red circle next to each of the skills listed. I focused on it to work out what it meant.
To remove a skill from the condensed sheet, simply click the red circle.
Excellent. There was nothing worse than looking at a stats sheet that seemed to go on forever, especially when it had skills in it, like Hand-to-Hand combat, that I was hopefully never going to have to use again. I thought about clicking the red circle next to Hand-to-Hand, and sure enough, it disappeared from the table. I did the same for Stick Fighting.
I crossed the tree line and started looking around for Mikael. How hard could it be to find someone who was well over six feet tall and had only been here minutes before? After wandering around for what felt like an hour, the answer was clearly: extremely hard.
“Looking for someone?” Mikael was casually leaning against a tree, not even trying to hide the smirk on his face.
“Nope, just out for a nice walk.”
“Well, in that case, you might want to be a little quieter. I’ve never met someone who knows as little about walking through a forest as you do. It’s amazing there’s any wildlife left in the area.”
“Thanks. Just what I needed to hear. ‘Cause so far, today’s been great. I’ve been sent into this stupid world with 6 days to solve a riddle I can’t make heads or tails of, and if, or more accurately when, I fail, I die. Not a temporary death, either. I’ll be dead, dead. On top of that, I’ve got this stupid stripe in my hair, which makes everyone I’m with think it’s okay to treat me like I’m nothing. And just in case that wasn’t enough,
I got two of my team killed because the only weapon I have is cursed. So yes, thanks so much for pointing out just how little I know about walking through a forest. Really helps.”
“Hey, calm down, I was only teasing. What are you really out here for?”
“Well, I was looking for you.” I said, feeling a little guilty about my outburst. “You seemed to know something about my cursed bow, and I was hoping you might be able to teach me a bit more Archery, too. “I looked at him hopefully. “Plus, I was wondering why you simply disappeared after you killed that thing off. No one believes someone was there, yet I seriously doubt they think it was me that killed it, either.”
“Okay, well, firstly, the rest of the travelers in your group all belonged to the Dragon Hunters guild. That’s why I left. I won’t talk to anyone in that guild. Since you weren’t one of them, and you didn’t look like you knew what you were doing, I thought I’d lend a hand.”
“They can’t be part of a guild already, we only just arrived. And even if they did join, what’s wrong with the Dragon Hunters guild?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Mikael’s eyes developed a cold, hard look. “Let’s just say they’re bad news and leave it at that. Now, how about I help you with your bow and some Archery skills instead?”
“Yes please. If I can at least stop shooting the people in my team, things are bound to look up.”
We walked toward a clearing where there was enough space to shoot an arrow.
“Let’s start with your bow. While it says it’s cursed, it’s actually not.
“Is this another joke? Because it changed direction when I shot that arrow and normal bows don’t do that.”
“No, not a joke. What you have is a bow that only a magic user can use. And thanks to the Dragon Hunters guild, there aren’t too many magic users anymore. So, someone simply mislabeled it. What you have to do is channel your mana into the bow and then direct the arrow by using your intention. I’m told it’s similar to how a mage would direct a fireball. You can’t just throw it and forget it, otherwise it fizzles out. You have to stay focused on it and direct it.”
“Okay, so why did the arrow I shot turn and hit Colt?”
“That’s easy, I should imagine you were thinking about him. Either that you didn’t want to hit him, or, more likely, you were thinking about how he deserved to get hit. Yes, I overheard what was being said before you started the fight.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling rather embarrassed.
“I was on my way there to kill the beast myself, so I was following your group to make sure they weren’t up to something.”
What level was this guy if he thought he could do a level 3 group quest on his own? I Inspected him.
Mikael Jaeger - 17
Wow, that was a pretty high level for somewhere that could only be a starter area. Interesting name, too. I guess the game developers had enjoyed themselves.
“Yes, well.” I coughed. “Interesting name.”
“Thanks,” he said, standing up straighter. “I grew up living close to the elves. One of them taught me how to hunt, so I adopted their naming tradition and named myself as a hunter.”
I must have looked confused, because he carried on.
“Jaeger means hunter.”
“Oh,” I didn’t know what to say to that. Totally not what I’d expected. “So, how do I go about channeling my mana into this bow? And for that matter, how do I direct the arrow afterward?”
“Well, it’s going to be trial and error, since I’m not a magic user.” Mikael grinned.
“Great. Just what I wanted to hear,” I muttered.
I held the bow in my hands, without drawing the string back. Focusing hard on the bow, I willed something, anything, to happen. Nothing. I supposedly had 130 MP (mana points) since my new shirt gave me +3 to Intelligence. Trouble was, I had no idea where that mana existed in my body.
I’d read a lot about Qigong and Tai Chi growing up and I’d even had a chance to have a few lessons until Liandreth had gotten bored of it. Maybe mana was like chi? I focused inward and noticed a slight tingling sensation below my belly button. ‘Did I even have a belly button in this game?’ I thought. ‘Okay, not the time. Come on. Focus!’
Reaching toward that tingling sensation, I imagined bringing it upward, into my chest, and then down my arms, into my hands. From there, I tried pushing it toward the bow. Amazingly, the bow started to develop a slight purple haze around it.
“I did it,” I shouted, “The bow’s gone purple.”
“Great. I can’t see it since it’s your mana. But what you need to do is keep that purple haze going while you prepare to fire the bow and an arrow gets produced.”
I pulled back on the string, and just as he’d said, instead of a black arrow, there, in the bow, waiting to be shot, was a lavender-colored arrow.
“Now focus on that arrow and guide it to where you want it to go. I suggest the large oak tree on the other side of the clearing.” Mikael pointed toward a huge tree that took up most of the space.
I focused on the arrow and thought about where I wanted it to hit and then let it fly. It was working. I’d done it. All because I went in search of Mikael. Suddenly, the arrow stopped in mid-air, flipped end over end and started flying back toward us. Or more specifically, straight toward Mikael.
7
Outcast
“Focus! You can’t think about something else while you have an arrow in the air,” Mikael yelled.
I imagined the arrow hitting the center of the tree. I kept repeating ‘tree’ to myself, over and over. Thankfully, the arrow stopped again and sped back toward the tree, finally embedding itself with a thud into the oak tree, exactly where I’d thought of it hitting.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Guided Arrow.
Guided Arrow is part of the Archery Skills
It is linked to the stats Intelligence and Wisdom.
Increase your Intelligence to increase your magical attack damage.
Increase your Wisdom to reduce your casting time.
“Sorry, I got excited and forgot to keep focusing on the arrow,” I said, feeling like the worst student in the world.
“Not a problem. Just don’t do it in the middle of a fight, okay? At least not while I’m around,” he said with a laugh. “The other thing you should probably know is that, while you can shoot a simple arrow with this bow, I wouldn’t advise it. Without your mana creating those lavender arrows, you’ll have a lot less control over the end result.”
“Okay, no basic arrows.” I looked sideways at Mikael, “So, since I managed not to kill you, are you going to tell me what you have against that guild now?”
“The Dragon Hunters? Well, a lot of people have been disappearing recently, for no reason. It started around the same time the corrupted monsters appeared. Ones like that vampire bunny. I don’t know how yet, but I’m pretty sure they’re responsible. So, I’m keeping my distance until I find out what’s really going on.”
With that, we parted ways. It was time I got some quests going and started grinding some levels. Plus, I needed to start solving this riddle if I was going to live longer than a week. The more I tried to pretend not to see it, the more that large, red number one grabbed my attention. So, I headed back to the village and their quest board to see what I could do.
I looked at all the quests available on the quest board. There was a request to help someone move a bunch of barrels, with only 500 XP as a reward. I doubted anyone would do that one anytime soon. Isviar had another quest for herbs. I picked that up, thinking that it would help my Gathering skill increase while probably being a nice add-on to whatever other quests I found.
You have received a quest: Fungi
The Herbalist Isviar Wyrten needs 20 Sky Mushrooms.
Accepting this quest will mark possible locations on your map.
Completion of this quest will give you 1,000 XP and 500 Shekels.
Do you accept? Yes / No
&n
bsp; I thought yes as I started looking at other quests I could do at the same time. I needed to level up my Archery, so I needed a killing quest. Finally, I found an interesting looking quest from the local Alchemist.
You have received a quest: Alchemy Ingredients
The Alchemist Aliz Rynemann needs 50 Gladiator Spider venom sacs and 50 Hammerhead Bat fangs.
Accepting this quest will mark possible locations on your map.
Completion of this quest will give you 1,500 XP and 2 Florins.
Do you accept? Yes / No
Thinking yes quickly, I brought up my map to see if all the things I needed could be found in a single place. Sure enough, I could see red dots for the sky mushrooms littered all over my map. However, there was only one place with blue and green dots for the fangs and venom sacs respectively. Thankfully, there were also some red dots in that area, too. So, that was where I needed to go. Unfortunately, it was covered by the gray mist that meant it was in an area I had yet to discover, so I had no idea what was there.
I turned around to leave the village and found a woman standing behind me. Surprisingly, it was a player, not an NPC.
“Hi, I’m with the Dragon Hunters guild and I noticed that your other friends joined up, but I didn’t get a chance to speak to you yet. I’d like to offer you a guild invite. We’re the largest guild in this zone. Well, actually, we’re the only guild in this zone,” she sniggered. “We offer all newbies a chance to join, free of charge, and power leveling. Would you like an invite?”