by Dakota Krout
Joe nodded and they moved along the path again. He dismissed the notification informing him of his twelve points experience from the fight and tried to search out any other trail signs or ambushes. It took nearly an hour of walking, but they finally began encountering Wolfmen along with packs of wolves. “Thank goodness. I was worried we were going to be wandering around the forest for the whole day.”
“Alright, remember that the real prize from the Wolfmen Scouts is the antidote vials they have. They are really potent. We can sell that back in the city for up to fifty silver each. Hopefully, we won’t need to use them if we do get hit, but remember that our lives are worth more than a little silver. I wouldn’t like to lose fourteen hundred experience today.” Tiona made them get into position.
“That much experience loss?” Joe muttered to Dylan as Chad lined up a shot.
“Yup. Two hundred per level. Unless you are killed by another person, then there is no experience loss.” Dylan tried to keep his voice low. Joe got a bit miffed when he realized that the Hardcores hadn’t cared about getting red names when they planned to kill him; they had just wanted him to jump so he lost experience.
His ruminations were interrupted as howls rang out. Chad had missed his shot targeting the head, only hitting the Scout in the arm. Three wolves raced toward them while the Wolfman lifted a thin javelin. Chad quickly fired another arrow, but his target’s reflexes were excellent. The Scout dodged the arrow and threw his javelin, which was dodged just as easily. Dylan stepped forward and thrust out his shield, knocking over one of the charging wolves. The other two moved around him, one biting his leg while the other engaged Tiona.
Tiona’s version of training with her sword was designed to control the flow of battle, and making your enemies attack where you wanted them to was a key component of this path. She swung in specific patterns and chopped brutally and effectively as the wolf moved into the desired position. Its head fell to the ground, cleaved off in one efficient strike. Guess was already engaging the overgrown mutt latched onto Dylan, and she activated a skill that allowed her to stab four times in a blinding flurry. Whimpering, the wolf tried to retreat, but Dylan reared back and stomped heavily on it, breaking its neck.
The final furry beast was back on its feet as the Wolfman jogged closer, and it lunged at Dylan. The powerful warrior was thrown off balance and tackled to the ground as the snarling wolf landed on him. Dylan struggled mightily and was just barely able to keep the flashing teeth away from his neck, but then the animal changed targets and tore into his face and shoulder with terrifying brutality. Another javelin flew through the air, finding a home in Chad’s foot. The battle had devolved to a brawl, and even with Guess stabbing her daggers into the wolf, it clung to life–and Dylan–tenaciously.
Tiona suddenly bellowed, then imparted a devastating kick to the wolf. It landed on the ground in a poor position before weakly trying to roll back to its feet, but Guess had already landed on its back and was stabbing it repeatedly. The canine dropped and this time stayed down. As Tiona and Guess closed in on the Wolfman Scout, Joe dropped down next to Dylan and started pouring healing magic into him. By the time he finished healing the man, the battle had come to a close.
“Dylan, the next time you ‘face off’ with a wolf, you don’t need to be so literal about it.” Joe chuckled at the sour look the man sent his way.
Chad dropped to the ground, panting heavily and pointing at thick black lines that were tracing their way through the veins on his leg. “Help.”
“Oh, dang! Forgot about that!” Joe rushed over to the fallen archer, pulling out the javelin and healing the open wound. He activated cleanse, and a spout of water drilled into a vein. Wincing, he apologized, “Oops, should have left that wound open a bit.”
“Don’t care, please stop poison,” Chad gasped. Apparently this wasn’t a happy little non-painful toxin. Joe poured more and more mana into the process, but his skill level wasn’t high enough to negate the effects. He was able to slow the spread, but the poison kept doing damage over time. After five minutes of struggle, Tiona walked over and made Chad swallow the antidote that had been on the Wolfman’s body. Joe reeled back; the sudden cure had created a bit of backlash on him. He shook his head to clear the lingering pain, and a notification appeared in his view.
Skill increase: Cleanse. While others hope to get well eventually, you fight the issue at its source. Though you weren’t powerful enough to stop this poison, it was not due to a misunderstanding of the human body. Your failure was simply because you had not needed to combat this particular damage before. Since you understand this process so thoroughly, and have been able to prove it, skill has increased to (Novice IX).
Holy! Joe was flabbergasted. That meant he had jumped eight skill levels! It was because he used his knowledge of the body to cleanse it? Did that mean… if he healed a body carefully instead of just allowing the power to wash over it… would his skill go higher proportional to his actual knowledge of healing? He just had to demonstrate his skill for the system to recognize it? He was determined to do his best to focus his power the next time someone needed to be healed.
“Alrighty, that was a good test run,” Tiona announced once everyone was calmed down from the intense fight. “Yes, we lost the antidote, but now we know what sort of fight will be coming our way. Let’s work on keeping our formation and targeting together. If we had all been hitting one enemy at a time, they would have died much faster. I was able to kill one right away with a lucky critical hit, but we all saw how hard it was to kill the one that knocked Dylan over.”
“Sorry about that. My daggers were too short to penetrate the fur, skin, and any vital points I targeted. I’ll try to get at the neck or face next time,” Guess volunteered a solution to her shortcomings.
“I got knocked down because I overextended,” Dylan grudgingly admitted when Tiona looked at him. “I need to keep my feet planted and my shield up.”
“Good. Chad?” Tiona stared at the archer, who was looking anywhere but at the party leader.
He seemed to deflate. “I missed my first shot because I was trying to be fancy. If I had aimed center mass instead of at his left eye, I’d likely have done a lot more initial damage.”
“Right.” Tiona held his gaze. “Remember, when we have mastered the basics we can try for more advanced techniques. Joe, where did you go wrong?”
“Me? I don’t know, I thought I was doing everything correctly?” Joe looked around at all the mirthful faces. Everyone else knew that Tiona wouldn’t like that answer.
Tiona’s eyebrow twitched. “So you are saying that there was no way for you to improve? All you learned from that battle was… nothing? You may have earned ‘exp’ but unless you correct your mistakes you won’t get real experience. Now, try again. How could you have done better?”
Joe thought over the combat. “I could have helped attack the wolf?”
“Not your job,” Tiona cut off anything else he might have said. “I’ll give you a freebie since you haven’t done this before. You were way out of position; you need to be in a central location of the group so that you are able to provide healing. You should have pulled the javelin out of Chad and healed him before going to help Dylan. You weren’t able to start on Dylan right away because there was a wolf in your way, so you should have done what you could to help in the meantime. Instead, you stood around and waited for the wolf to be out of your way. You need to always be doing something in combat.”
She thoughtfully paused for a moment. “Also, you need to adjust the settings you are using for your notifications. You are too distracted. Set them to only show when you call them, the importance is high, or you are not doing something else. Doing it like this will also delay level-ups so that you can use them at a fortuitous time. Remember, I expect a proper answer next time.”
Feeling a bit attacked, Joe nodded sharply and looked away. He adjusted his settings quickly, but before he could get too down on himself, Chad punched him in the
arm. They were walking deeper into unknown territory, and the ranger needed another person to keep an eye on the surroundings. “Take it easy man, all of this is so that we become a better team. It isn’t personal, so don’t take it too hard. We all went through the same thing with her.”
“Right.” Joe walked on, trying to find something else to look at. Only a few minutes later, they found another set of enemies. This time, combat went far more smoothly. Joe had to reluctantly admit that talking it out had helped team cohesion quite a bit. They fought for a few more hours, only stopping for lunch. By the time they had completed their quest, it was also time to return to the city. Joe decided to look at the gains from the last few hours and so called up his notifications.
Exp: 852 (12 * wolf x38 + 20 * Wolfmen Scout x10 + 196 healing bonus.)
A respectable amount for a day’s worth of grinding, but Joe had to wonder how much he would have gained if he were able to stay in town and work on his own projects. He sighed but knew that he needed the combat experience if he were going to progress in the game. They were almost back to town now and hurrying because night was nearly upon them. The sun was dipping below the horizon, and they were not going to make it to safety.
Joe was slowing everyone down. Even with his bonus move speed from adding on his jump modifier, he simply didn’t have the stamina for a forced march. “You guys… *pant*… go ahead! I’ll be fine!”
“That’s not how teams work, Joe,” Dylan replied, even as he sadly watched the town gates closing in the distance. “If we’re going to die, at least we can do so together, right?”
“We have a chance of surviving.” Tiona’s voice was cool. “We’re in rabbit territory and right next to the town wall. Let’s get close and set up camp, putting our backs to the wall. It’ll be a long night, but if anyone can survive it, we can.”
“No one has survived outside at night,” Guess muttered robotically.
“Then we will be the first, and we’ll likely get an achievement for doing so!” Tiona scowled at Guess. “Get your rear in gear!”
Now rushing to find shelter by the wall, they were assaulted on all sides by howling and snarling. For some reason, the others began stumbling over obvious obstacles. Joe suddenly remembered that his class had granted him darkvision, and the fading twilight didn’t have a negative effect on his sight. They reached the ‘safety’ of the man-made barricade, getting into formation. If they were going to successfully survive, it was sure to be a long night. Joe looked across the flat expanse and saw creatures lurching toward them nigh silently, and he waited to hear any indication that the others saw them coming. He growled at himself; of course they didn’t see the monsters coming!
“We have incoming,” Joe stated as calmly as possible. “Three big somethings coming this way.”
He waited for questions about his abilities, but all Tiona responded with was, “Good eyes. Keep watching them and tell us when they are getting too close to ignore.”
~ Chapter Fifteen ~
“They’re here.” Joe’s grim words made the others clench their weapons tightly. “They seem a bit confused, as if they don’t know what we are. If we hit them hard enough, they might scatter.”
To the other members of the party, it seemed that a large shape was suddenly looming over them. Without Joe’s advance warning, it was highly unlikely that they would have been able to muster any defense whatsoever. Dylan braced himself and prepared to take the hit from the monster. It was good that he did so, because a massive paw slammed into his shield with enough force to send him to a kneeling position. The wind was knocked out of him and he felt the joints of his arm strained to their limits. Luckily, his appendage only bruised heavily instead of shattering like it should have. Coming to Dylan's rescue, Tiona’s return strike landed with perfect timing, lopping off the limb that had attempted to savage her subordinate.
A high-pitched scream echoed out from the creature, which cut off quickly as an arrow entered the open mouth and tore out the back of its throat. The beast fell heavily, and a pool of blood was pumped out of its severed arteries as the straining heart beat out its last rhythm. “Another on your left! Guess!” Joe called over the din of combat.
Guess dropped to the ground as a dinner-plate-sized paw swiped past her head. She sprang up and stabbed a dagger into the creature’s armpit, being forced to leave it there as she tumbled away from another attack. The third creature was hanging back, observing the proceedings with a fairly intelligent glare. Joe was most worried about that creature joining in.
Dylan bellowed at the shadow-cloaked creature and charged into it, knocking it to the ground. Guess slashed and stabbed at the beast as if trying to win an award for putting the most knife wounds into a creature without it dying. Sadly, she didn’t even come close to setting a new record as the creature died without another chance to regain its footing. The third beast had crept closer, trying to use the distraction to complete a sneak attack on Tiona. Joe tried to warn her, but she was only able to dig a light wound into it before the furry animal tackled and drove her to the ground.
Chad shouted and fired arrow after arrow into the thing, while Guess and Dylan were indisposed. Joe watched as Tiona was mauled by the beast, and her screams pulled him out of his shock. He jumped at the beast, covering the few feet in a flash. His scepter arched around him like a baseball bat, and he tried to score a homerun using the creature’s head.
Scepter activates ability [Turn Undead]! As zombie is at half health or below, it is disintegrated!
The sounds coming from the creature abruptly vanished, as did its body. Unfortunately, disintegrating the body created a flash of light that could easily be seen across the open plains around the city. Joe had no doubt that they would have more unwelcome company soon. He dropped to his knees to heal Tiona, who was just barely holding onto consciousness. Healing water washed over her, and he made sure to try and focus his magic to knit torn tissue together and restore vital fluids in her body. Joe walked through all the steps he knew were necessary, keeping pressure on the wounds, cutting off blood flow where needed, and closing the wounds manually so that mana didn’t need to be wasted to create the same effect. When he stopped to take a breath, a deep *gong* sound echoed through the silent night.
Zone quest completed: Waste not… The innumerable bodies left lying in the open have allowed a corruption to take hold of the rabbit population! After much toil, the wastefulness in the area has been forcibly expunged. Total zombie rabbits destroyed over three days: 26,842. Rewards: Based on contribution!
Your contributions: 40 zombie rabbits, 3 Zombie Bunny-Bears (Mystically altered). Ardania reputation: 430. +100 Guild reputation with Ardania. Strength +1, constitution +1, and dexterity +1. Participate more heavily in the future to gain higher rewards!
Zombie Bunny-Bear killed x3. Exp: 150.
Skill rank up: Heal (Novice VIII). You begin to understand much in the ways of healing! Your treatment of wounds has increased, showcasing your skills!
“Wow! I got five levels in my heal spell!” Joe called out in astonishment. “Hey, did everyone else also get stat points from that quest?”
“I did,” Chad admitted energetically. “I think everyone who avoided that quest because it was only offering reputation is going to be pretty upset about it tomorrow.”
“We might not be able to see it if we die out here,” Tiona reminded them of their current plight. “Joe is there anything you can do? Can you see any creatures?”
“Not very close, but I think we will be having trouble pretty soon. That flash of light wasn’t exactly inconspicuous,” Joe stated flatly as Tiona regained her feet. There was a soft tinkling sound as something fell off her and onto the stones. Joe looked down and saw a gentle blue light emanating from near his feet. “A monster Core!”
He scooped it up and saw the standard notification asking if he wanted to convert the Core into experience. He dismissed it out of hand and smiled. “There actually might be something I can do.” Takin
g a swift look around to check if any enemies were closing in on them, Joe then pulled his book on rituals out of his ring and started flipping through the pages. He began muttering as he looked, causing the others to stare at his silhouette. “’Blood boiler’, ‘Leaden footsteps’, ‘Overburdened back’… here! ‘Predator’s territory’!”
Joe looked through the requirements, nodding as he rummaged through the components he had stored in his bag and ring. “Why didn’t I think of this earlier? Oh right, Cores are flipping expensive and hard to find. Okay, red pepper, wolfsbane, mint, crushed amethyst, pure salt, iron shavings, orange kyanite, three ounces of mercury, and…” he looked around and tried to estimate how much room they would need, “two ounces of silver wire should do it. Nine hundred mana investment, so four-fifty for me. Optional healing potion? Sure. Highest level person’s genetic material for strongest setup… Tiona most likely. Double circle around the group. Guys, I need someone to draw a double circle around us. Tiona, I need some blood or… oh, I'll just use what's all over the ground. Perfect.”
“Joe, what are you babbling about?” Dylan inquired as Guess shrugged and began cutting into the earth with the hilt of her dagger.
“Quiet, I’m being magical, mysterious, and useful.” Joe plopped all the items he needed into the pool of blood where Tiona had lain, and arranged them in the ‘mystical’ order shown in his book. Once he saw that the second circle was finished, he began a short chant while pouring mana into the ritual. His chant came to an end quickly, but the outpouring of mana continued, straining him to his absolute limits. Nearly collapsing as the components dissolved into the air and swirled around the group, Joe struggled to activate the ritual. He dropped to the ground, entirely exhausted as the monsters that had been creeping closer came to a halt. Ever so slowly, the things that went *bump* in the night shuffled away.