It wasn’t much yet, but with my ‘Perception’ skill and the large number of subskills I had for it, the pair stacked nicely. I know ‘Detection’ wasn’t very strong but using it would help me level the spell and by using it with ‘Perception’ I got a little boost. And even small boosts helped. Hopefully that would allow me to see anything lying in wait.
Perception
Level: 90
Experience: 0.00%
Skill Range: 19.00 yards
Chance to See: 32.50%
Chance to Identify/Track: 55.00%
Subskill: Find Weakness
Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see the weak spot of a target.
Subskill: Beast Tracking
Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see animal tracks to better hunt them.
Subskill: Humanoid Tracking
Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to track humanoids.
Subskill: Eye for Detail
Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see details that would be missed otherwise.
Subskill: Spot Trap
Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see hidden traps.
Subskill: Analyze Stamina
Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see targets Stamina
Subskill: Analyze Mana
Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see targets Mana
Subskill: Dark Sight
Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see better in darkness
Subskill: See Injustice
Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to see criminal activity and suspicious behavior
Subskill: See Intrigue
Skill Effect (Passive): Enables you to look at a person or item and spot unusual behavior or out of place details.
With the limited range of the skill, I stepped away from the large stone platform that the portal sat on to have a short look around. I circled the platform twice just to be safe before I went back through to Root City.
“And?” Olaf asked as soon as I appeared.
“Looks safe enough. I saw a herd of some kind of elephants about a hundred yards off. Not sure exactly what they were but they had four tusks,” I said.
“Are they on the road?” Olaf asked.
“There isn’t much of a road. It’s barely two-wheel ruts,” I replied. “And I couldn’t see any sign of the city from the portal so-” I added, trailing off.
Olaf cringed. “Nothing to be done about it now. We’re committed and I don’t want to spend another day or more looking for a suitable province.”
“Agreed,” Rose said. “I say we go.”
“Also agreed,” Micaela said.
“We can give it a few days at least,” Baby said noncommittally.
“I’m just here for the show,” Titan added, earning a sour look from the rest of us. “What? I am.” His input wasn’t really needed or wanted.
“You lead, we follow,” Marie said.
“Same for Sooty and me,” Loral added, Sooty nodding his agreement.
Harrison nodded.
And finally, Nahid . . . well, Nahid didn’t get a vote.
“Alright, then let’s get this show on the road,” Olaf said, walking through the portal first, his only remaining hand-cannon ready just in case.
“Wait,” I said, noticing someone was missing. “Where’s Barclay?”
“I sent him on another mission,” Marie answered. “He will not be much help to us in the ‘Endless Savanna’.”
“What mission?” I asked.
“I will tell you if he is successful,” Marie said with a wink. “Now, enough standing around. Let us go!”
I wanted to press for answers, but we really did need to get moving.
The other side of the portal was just as I left it, though most of the four tusk elephants had begun moving away. The largest of them was facing away from the herd, trumpeting loudly, then rearing up on its hind legs and stomping the ground in front of it violently, causing a trail of dust shooting into the air twenty yards in front of it. I guessed it was some kind of earth-based magic, but I couldn’t see why it was doing it. I could only guess it was under attack by something. From that perspective, it seemed the four-tusk elephant was protecting his herd.
“Olaf, let’s help it,” I said, not liking the idea of the beast dying protecting his family.
“Bye-bye, this really isn’t-” Olaf started then trailed off, his eyes widening slightly.
My head swiveled back to the animal and I understood why Olaf’s eyes were wide. “Marie, is that a grootslang?” I asked, seeing the large serpent with the head of an elephant rearing back and trumpeting louder than the bull. It was quite a bit smaller than what I had imagined, its head was large, probably just large enough to eat a baby elephant but small enough that it was easy to miss if it was laying in the tall grass. This didn’t fit the image of a beast capable of eating a fully-grown elephant in a single bite.
“I would say it is just a juvenile, but yes. That is a grootslang,” Marie answered.
“Will it have the diamond heart I need?” I asked, already pulling out my spear.
“It might, I have never heard of a juvenile grootslang straying too far from its mother. That said, you might not get a better opportunity to fight one,” Marie replied.
Olaf groaned. “I don’t like going into a fight like this without both hand-cannons, but you all heard Marie, let’s go kill us a grootslang. Marie, Sooty, Loral, Harrison, and Nahid, all of you stay back here where it’s safe. If we somehow end up dead, step back through the portal and we’ll meet you in Root City as soon as we can. Rose, you’re up first.”
Rose clapped her two shields together excitedly and started moving toward the grootslang. I made sure to buff her before she got too far away. First, ‘Beginner Combat Blessing’ to give her more HP and more Strength to increase her threat generation, the Stamina boost didn’t hurt either.
Beginner Combat Blessing
Level: 4
Experience: 2.47%
Spell Duration: 10 minutes
Spell Cast Speed: Instant Range: 25 yards
Spell Mana Cost: 100
Spell Effect (Active): Increase Stamina +26, Increase Strength +26, Increase Dexterity +26, increase Endurance +26.
Then a little more defense.
Beginner Holy Barrier
Level: 3
Experience: 9.11%
Spell Duration: 10 minutes
Spell Cast Speed: Instant Range: 25 yards
Spell Mana Cost: 256
Spell Effect (Active): Create a thin barrier of Holy energy around a target that absorbs 106-points of incoming damage.
And finally her mental stats and mental defenses.
Beginner Mental Fortification
Level: 4
Experience: 1.11%
Spell Duration: 10 minutes
Spell Cast Speed: Instant Range: 25 yards
Spell Mana Cost: 100
Spell Effect (Active): Increase Intellect +26, Increase Wisdom +26, Increase Resistance to Fear 26%, Increases Resistance to Mind Control 26%.
With Rose covered, I repeated the buffing process for the rest of my friends. My mana took a hit, but I had time to take a few drinks of water before starting to move myself.
A banging on the wagon drew our attention. “Graveyard is most likely close to the city,” Gras . . . Sooty volunteered. “If the beastie does not come after us, it would be better if we start heading for the city and meet you there.”
Olaf didn’t think about it long before answering, “Sure, use your best judgment. But don’t endanger yourselves.”
I listened, but mostly I was watching Rose. As soon as she was fifty yards ahead of me, I started my own run toward the monster, excited at the prospect of being able to upgrade my spear sooner rather than later. It didn’t take long before I could see its nameplate,
As soon as Rose was in range, her figure blurred, her shoulder slamming into the side of the
grootslang, knocking its attack off course and drawing its attention. The elephant, who’s nameplate listed him as a
The grootslang was fast, it recoiled and slithered around to face Rose instead of the elephant. The monster trumpeted loudly before lunging forward, its tusks slamming into Rose’s shield, knocking her back a few feet.
Rose retaliated, slamming the edge of one of the shields between the monster’s eyes, earning a roar of pain before she was suddenly knocked off her feet when her legs were cut out from under her by the long tail of the grootslang. Rose was suddenly tucking in behind her shields while she was on the ground as the beast started pummeling her.
While this was happening, I was not idle nor were my companions. Seeing as Rose didn’t have the chance to turn the monster away from us, I made my way around behind the beast. As soon as I was behind it and in range I struck with ‘Beginner Holy Shock’ stunning it.
“Rose, get up now, while it’s stunned!” I called, letting her know to move.
Rose was back to her feet in a second and it was good she was. The beast didn’t stay stunned for the full 5-seconds it was supposed to. It was more like one and a half seconds, maybe two. Thankfully, it was enough for her to get back to her feet, but not enough to prepare to block the two tusks that were driving at her. She managed to get her shield up for one of them but the other skewered her shoulder.
Luckily, Baby was already working to heal the wound after Rose was jerked free of the tusk and landed a few feet away. Clearly, she was rusty, that or the grootslang was just that powerful. Rose was again, tucked in behind her shield-wall as the grootslang’s tusks battered at her.
When I saw the tail start vibrating, I had a feeling it was going to attack Rose similar to when it first tripped her. If she got hit with that while she was on the ground, it could do significant damage. “So much for making sure she has aggro,” I mumbled to myself, leaping into the fight. I aimed for that tail, looking to skewer it and if possible, cut it off. I hit with ‘Justice Strike’ to start but activated ‘Impale’ before I pulled the spear free, surprisingly severing the tail and earning a howl of rage from the monster as what remained of the tail flicked through the air angrily.
“Jack,” Rose called out in warning when the battering of her shields suddenly ended.
I was already flipping away as the tusks stabbed into the ground near where I was standing only moments before. And then barrel rolling away as the next attack came just as suddenly. It was surprisingly fast for its size.
“Hey, ugly, over here,” Rose taunted once she was back on her feet, drawing the attention back to her again. The monster struck her shields again, but this time Rose held her ground, barely sliding back an inch if that. “Give me a minute, I think I’m getting its attack pattern,” she ordered, blocking another strike then countering as she used ‘Shift’ to move around to the side of the monsters face and strike it with the thorny shields, slicing up the face and gaining a bleed effect. Rose quickly separated her shields, holding them to either side of her body as the grootslang’s bloody tail whipped around, hitting one shield and a tusk hit the other. Rose used ‘Shift’ again to get back as the tail turned even bloodier after hitting the shield.
“Start slow,” Rose warned after a few more attacks.
At this point, my ‘Beginner Holy Shock’ was off cooldown, so I hit it again dealing -560-HP and gaining a bonus to physical damage. I was happy to followed that with ‘Justice Strike’ for -578-HP, which also added a bonus to holy damage. And then I got to use my ‘Lesser Holy Blast’, firing it into the serpentine body. It was like a shotgun blast of holy bolts of energy impacting for -591-HP, and once again weakening it to physical damage.
“How many hit points does this thing have?” Olaf yelled, another boom from his hand-cannon cutting off any answer.
I wasn’t looking at its health or stamina or anything else. I was focused on shaking off the rust and adjusting my rotation. So, when I did look after a few rotations of attacks, I was worried. It wasn’t even down 5% of its health pool. The five of us should have been able to deal with a level 22 monster better than this.
“Just keep fighting,” Rose said, grunting after another impact with her shields.
We didn’t have much choice in the matter. Retreat really wasn’t an option at this point, the monster was small enough it could potentially chase us through the portal, though I was sure there was some kind of protection to keep that from happening. Still, we weren’t at the point where retreat was necessary yet.
I added another stack of ‘Beginner Holy Fire’, bringing it up to its capacity of four stacks of the damage over time ability. What we needed to do was start looking for weaknesses. Finding ways of inflicting more damage. This is where I needed my ‘Perception’ subskill ‘Find Weakness’ and ‘Hit Them Where It Hurts’ to kick in.
Hit Them Where It Hurts
Level: 19
Experience: 61.14%
Skill Effect (Passive): Striking the weak spot of an enemy increases damage dealt by 11.90% and critical strike chance by 11.90%.
Sadly, nothing lit up in my vision, meaning either I wasn’t strong enough to see the weakness or it just didn’t have any. I was inclined to believe it was the former.
It didn’t matter in the end. We got the monster down to 72% and were starting to feel good about the fight, we had its pattern by that point. It was just a matter of fighting and winning a war of attrition. Then came the trumpeting of something that I honestly thought shook the world, causing the grootslang we were fighting to suddenly freeze, ignoring our continued attacks. That was when the beast in front of us let loose its own trumpet, not nearly as loud or earth shaking but maybe worse, if only due to our proximity to it. Whatever power was in that trumpet, sent us all running in uncontrollable fear. And when the fear effect wore off, the grootslang was gone.
“Well that sucks,” Rose complained, sitting down heavily and panting in an effort to catch her breath. The game effects were strange sometimes. While we were fighting, we don’t usually feel the effects of getting tired or running out of breath. But as soon as combat ended, it was like all that fatigue and energy usage hit all at once.
“Did anyone see which way it went?” Micaela asked between breaths.
“No idea,” I said. “Maybe one of our other friends saw?”
“Personally, I’m just glad that whatever called it away didn’t come looking for us,” Olaf said. He had a good point. If that was the mother Marie mentioned, then I definitely didn’t want to meet her any time soon.
It turned out, no one saw. The fear skill the grootslang used on us affected everyone that heard, including the oxen, nearly destroying the wagon in the process of them trying to flee.
“Alright, that was a bust but now we know our target a little better,” Olaf said, trying to look on the bright side and keep us motivated. “It also tells us just how much work we’ve got ahead of us. We’re all several levels above our stats. That is something we’re going to need to fix if we want to take that thing down.”
“You also need to improve your coordination,” Harrison chimed in. “You all worked together pretty well, but there is room for improvement. Ways for you to coordinate your skills to boost each other’s spells and skills. I want each of you to come up with at least one way that one of your skills or spells can help one of your companions in a fight. And pick someone other than your significant other.”
Olaf looked put out by Harrison’s comment and assignment, looking ready to voice it when Rose jumped in.
“We’ll do that Harrison,” Rose said. “You did agree to help us train our teamwork.” It seemed to work, reminding Olaf of our conversation from that morning. Though I was sure Olaf still wasn’t happy about it.
I think Olaf and I were both expecting something a little more scheduled and not right after a battle. But then again, maybe that was for the best. Something to think about while it was fresh.
It took a little while for Sooty to get the wagon ready. After an inspection he found some of the straps that held the oxen to the wagon had come loose.
“Sorry we didn’t get the grootslang,” Rose said as we walked with the wagon.
“It’s okay,” I said. I honestly wasn’t that disappointed. Even if we had killed it, and even if it did have the ‘Diamond Heart’ I needed, we wouldn’t have been able to make use of it without going back to Root City to God Ivaldi’s temple and his Divine Forge. “We’ve got a whole month and next time we’ll be better prepared.”
Rose smiled and nodded, taking my hand in hers, walking companionably along with the wagons.
We spent hours on that poorly marked road. Stopping frequently to calm the oxen every time a beast made a noise in the distance. The grootslang certainly left an impression on the oxen, which left them completely spooked and panicking at the slightest hint of danger.
“Alright,” Sooty called. “Time to make camp.”
“But we don’t even see the city yet,” Baby protested, flying down from the platform mounted to Titan’s blue bear.
“It will not be long before sunset. Best to set up camp while we still have daylight,” Sooty replied, then pointed to the south of the road. “Fresh water and good cover,” he added, his finger aimed at a small lake or pond and then to a copse of Acacia or Umbrella trees as they were sometime called. Sooty actually knew quite a bit about the various trees and shrubbery, pointing them out to us as we traveled the road. Telling us a little about them as we passed, things like if they had a medicinal purpose or were poisonous.
“You heard him,” Olaf said. “I’ll get to work on setting up a perimeter and traps.”
World Tree Online- the Endless Savanna- 3rd Dive Page 16