“That’s so not the point,” Madagascar said, waving a hand at me. “What if you sneezed like that time we went hunting and you accidentally shot old Gunter in the knee? What happened to his adventuring days?”
I gulped. I really did not want my adventuring days ended so early on by an arrow to the knee. If that happened, I’d be stuck here telling the new adventurers about my troubles and waiting for someone else to find the soul stones.
“That is a fair point, but totally not what would have happened. That’s like one in a million,” Marth said, but the fight had gone out of him.
“Can we get back to training?” I asked, pulling the apple off my head and breathing a sigh of relief. I was sort of dazed at what had just happened. I mean, I hadn’t wanted Marth to shoot at me, but at the same time Marth was an NPC, there was no way he’d miss and kill me if he had shot, right? I mean, we were in a safe zone, so I shouldn’t have died anyway, but then again, he wasn’t a player, he was an NPC. Maybe they had different rules? Either way, I was glad not to have to find out. An arrow to the eye would have sucked.
“Yeah, come here,” Marth said, taking the apple from me as he slung his bow over his shoulder. “I still can’t believe you were going to do it.”
“Well, they were also going to go after imps at their level too,” Madagascar added unhelpfully. “So they’re not the sharpest knives in the drawer. Definitely blunt force instruments.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Marth said, reaching out and pressing one hand against my forehead. As he did, heat exploded across my forehead, and a training montage flashed through my brain just like it had when I’d learned the spells from Gereng.
“You have gained the basic proficiency of archery. Your bow skill is currently level one,” Elizabeth the HUD helpfully told me.
“You’re next, Oversize,” Marth said, turning toward Two’ Manchu. “Come over here and let me touch your body.”
“Man, that always sounds creepy when you say it like that,” Madagascar said, shaking his head in dismay.
“Yeah, that’s why I do it,” Marth replied as he moved toward Two’ Manchu. “Now it’s time for me to reach out and touch somebody.” He grinned and pressed his hand against the reluctant barbarian’s forehead.
Two’ Manchu yelped, leapt backward, and then stood there dumbfounded. “Wow, that was intense. Thanks!”
“Don’t mention it,” Marth said, smirking. “I love helping people. It’s my nature.”
“Don’t listen to him. He’s an ass through and through,” Madagascar said, clapping Marth on the shoulder in a way that suggested the two were good friends and giving each other shit.
“Say, could you teach us to use a spear?” Two’ Manchu asked, his gaze swinging around to Madagascar.
“Sure could. If you had a spear, anyway. Get one, and I’ll be happy to oblige you,” the guard replied. “Now you better get a move on. Gereng is getting a bit antsy. I can hear him stalking the pigeons.”
“Thanks for all your help,” I said, waving to them as I pulled up the map in my HUD. The red dot labeled ghouls wasn’t too far away and seemed to be in an area called the Wasteland of Chaos, which didn’t seem like a fun place to visit. Still, it wasn’t very far away, so it had that going for it.
“So, where are we going, exactly?” Two’ Manchu asked after we’d walked for a few minutes along a path that led us through the bunny hills.
“Sup, jerk,” George called as we passed by. “Finally man up and kill those goblins? Or are you still being a giant pussy?”
“Dude, did that rabbit just talk to you?” Two’ Manchu asked, looking at George who was hopping along next to us.
“Yeah, that’s George. We met earlier. He led me to a goblin treasure that nearly got me killed.” I narrowed my eyes at the rabbit as he followed us and wondered what he’d taste like if I jammed a stake through his tiny body and roasted him over a fire.
“Almost is the key word. Why it doesn’t even matter unless we’re talking about horseshoes, which we most certainly are not.” He shook his head, causing his huge ears to flop around his head. “So what are you two losers doing?”
“Going to hunt ghouls,” Two’ Manchu said, shrugging in a way that told me “When in Rome…”
“Oh, I love fucking up undead,” the rabbit said and grinned at me in a way that was fifty shades of creepy and begged me to ask questions I did not want answered. “Mind if I tag along?”
“Um, kind of,” I said, scowling at the rabbit. “The last time you left me for dead…” I cracked my knuckles, wondering if I’d turn into a goon if I bopped him on the head. “I mean who the fuck does that?”
“Man, this guy, right?” George said, gesturing at me while looking at Two’ Manchu. “You’d think he’d get over it. Instead, he keeps bringing it up over and over like a whiny little bitch.”
“I don’t think he likes you much,” Two’ Manchu said, tearing his gaze from the bunny and looking at me.
As I opened my mouth to tell Two’ Manchu that I didn’t give a flying fuck what an NPC rabbit thought of me, the bunny injected himself into our conversation.
“I can’t see why he wouldn’t like me,” the bunny said, disbelief filling his voice. “I’m as cool as silk and twice as sexy.”
“Right,” I said, shaking my head in annoyance because while I definitely didn’t have time to deal with a ridiculous, and untrustworthy, rabbit, he might prove useful. That said, something told me I was going to look back on this moment with regret. “Anyway, I guess you can come.” I wasn’t sure what harm the bunny could cause, but I was sure he’d find a way. Still, it seemed like he wasn’t going to leave, even if I asked nicely. No, this was definitely a choose your battles situation.
“You won’t regret this, boss!” the bunny said seriously. “I’m going to be a big help. You’ll see!”
“Wait, I totally expected him to call you a fucker or something…” Two’ Manchu said, and as he spoke, Elizabeth whispered seductively in my ear so I heard both of them simultaneously. “You have tamed a monster. George the bunny is now your pet.”
A quick glance in my pet window revealed it was true. The first slot was taken up by a level one rabbit with ten health and a hundred and fifty mana, which seemed insane to me, but what the hell did I know, I wasn’t a hunter and knew nothing about pets.
“I think I accidentally tamed him,” I said, staring at the bunny as he followed us toward the Wasteland of Chaos.
“Well, then you can’t put him back. His friends will smell you on him and won’t accept him,” Two’ Manchu remarked, raising an eyebrow at me in a way that suggested he’d actually dealt with this sort of thing before.
“I think that’s just with baby birds and kittens.” I watched the rabbit. “So, you ready to level the fuck up, George?”
“Damn straight. Let’s drive our enemies before us until we hear the lamentations of their women!” He raised a bunny paw into the air. “Huzzah!”
18
As we stepped over the last ridge and stared out at the dark wasteland below us, a shiver ran down my spine. Black sand littered with the bones of fallen beasts the size of skyscrapers filled the horizon for as far as I could see. The moans of lurching undead filled my ears as the smell of musty moss and decay filled my nose. I rubbed my arms. Even through my leather coat, goosebumps rose on my flesh.
“So, new plan. We go back to town and fuck NPCs until our brains explode,” Two’ Manchu said, glancing at me. “I mean what’s so great about having a body, anyway?”
“Um, having a real dick, you nitwit?” offered the rabbit who didn’t have a real body either, but I could tell from the way the bunny’s ears had flattened against his head and how he was pressed against my leg, he was scared too.
Still, there was no reason to panic because we were on a tall ridge. While there might have been zombies and ghouls shambling through the wasteland below, they were terribly slow so I wasn’t exactly worried about an ambush.
“
Nah, we got this, guys,” I said, pulling out my bow and nocking a silver arrow like how Marth had showed me via mental training montage.
“Are you sure?” Two’ Manchu asked, swallowing hard as he followed suit, pulling out his bow and staring at it helplessly.
“Yeah. If we fail, we teleport home and go kill gnolls.” I sighted the closest undead monster, a zombie, and concentrated, hoping the arrow would hit. Then, just as I was about to let go, I stopped. Would skills from other games work too? I mean, so far, I’d just tried ones from Titan Gate, which was annoying because I didn’t know the hunter tree and here I was with a bow, but what if I could use skills from say, Diablo III?
I wasn’t sure if it’d work, but this time as I sighted the zombie, I concentrated on the skill my Demon Hunter had used in that game, hoping there was an equivalent version here. He’d had an attack called Hungering Arrow that, while low level, was pretty sweet because it homed in on the target like a heat-seeking missile.
“Hungering arrow,” I whispered and let my attack fly. The silver arrow cut through the air with a skill level I’d never have managed outside of Ruul. Unfortunately, the zombie lurched to the left, moving away from the spot where I’d thought he’d be. I was going to miss.
“Come on!” I growled, willing the arrow to adjust course. Blue light wrapped around the arrow as it sailed through the air, and like fucking magic, it turned in midair and struck the zombie in the chest. A horrific scream tore from the creature as it turned around in confusion, desperately trying to find me. Only it never would because I was too high up. Bwa ha ha!
“You have learned the skill Homing Arrow. It is now available for use,” Elizabeth told me as I hurriedly nocked another arrow and let it fly.
This one zoomed through the air and struck the zombie in the side of its head. The creature’s head exploded, spraying pus and slime in every direction as it collapsed sideways to the ground, and lay there, flailing. Evidently, headshots didn’t one hit zombies here. Good to know.
“How the fuck did your arrow move like that?” he asked, glancing at me as I got a third arrow ready and released it. “It’s like your arrows have a mind of their own, and I’m sorry to say, but you’re not that good, Kahn.”
“Remember Diablo III?” I asked as the third arrow sank into the zombie, finally reducing it to glittering shards. My experience bar lurched to nearly full. One more kill would have me leveled. Sweet!
“Yeah, what about it?” he asked, fixing his eyes on another zombie. “And wow, these are worth a lot. I’m already ninety percent of the way to level three!”
“Well, I played Demon Hunter in Diablo 3, and he had a homing attack I used a lot.” I aimed at the zombie the barbarian was targeting. “I just visualized that skill, and it gave me a skill called Homing Arrow. It costs two mana a shot.”
“Okay!” the barbarian growled, and a look of concentration that reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop spread across his face. “Come on, Homing Arrow!”
He let the arrow fly, and while the shot was wide, it became wrapped in blue light and veered toward the zombie like it had a mind of its own. The shot struck the monster in the shoulder, and an enraged squeal erupted from its grotesque jaws.
I followed his attack up with a shot of my own as Two’ Manchu’s eyes glazed over, indicating he was looking at his skill window.
“Sweet, I got Homing Arrow too!” He grinned as my third shot finished off the zombie. “But I don’t have enough mana to use it much.”
“Level up!” Elizabeth said into my ear as blue light surrounded me. Next to me, Two’ Manchu’s form glowed with blue light, indicating he’d leveled as well.
“Awesome,” I said, looking around for more zombies. “This place is like free experience.”
“And you wanted to go hunt imps,” Two’ Manchu said, shaking his head at me. “I’m going to have to level a bunch, though. I only got two mana when I leveled.” He sighed. “Seven mana isn’t going to cut it. I’m really wishing I’d put the six in Wisdom instead of in Intelligence. Then I’d at least be rolling with a six-sided die instead of a four-sider. I’d figured since both kind of sucked, I’d rather hit harder, but I didn’t realize skills used mana too.”
“Yeah, I lucked out having high wisdom,” I said, and then before he could ask what my wisdom was, I continued. “We’ll stay here for a bit. Maybe you’ll level enough to get ten mana.” I smirked as I glanced at my stats window. Now that I was level six, I had almost a hundred and fifty mana. I was going to do Homing Arrow like it was going out of style.
Unfortunately, there were only a few more zombies close by. Once they were dead, we’d have to venture out of our safe spot and into the wasteland itself. I swallowed. That wasn’t something I was looking forward to doing, but as I took out another zombie, I realized that all the monster’s loot, including Rhuvians, were falling to the ground beside where its corpse had been. Evidently, we were beyond the range of the loot distribution system. If we wanted drops, we’d have to venture closer.
“I’m still not quite sure what the point of leveling in this game is. All it seems to do is increase my health and mana, and not by that much,” Two’ Manchu said, his eyes glazed in that way that told me he was checking his new stats. “I’m not gaining more strength or anything.”
“Yeah, I remember Ivan telling me we can only increase our base attributes like strength after we reach level fifty. Then we get one point to distribute accordingly,” I said, trying to remember exactly what he’d said.
“Yeah, but I have eighteen strength, how does that correlate to damage and actual strength?” Two’ Manchu said. “I feel like we should have damage tables.”
“Well, I know when I hit level five I gained an extra damage because I had high strength, so you should too. I think all our secondary stats are affected by our base stats so when we level, we get one damage at five levels instead of six levels or whatever.” I shrugged. “I mean, besides, it’s nice having more health and mana, right?”
“I guess,” he said, shaking his head. “I just wish I knew how much I could lift here. Like is is a hundred pounds or a thousand?”
“Do you know, George?” I asked, glancing at the rabbit.
“Um… I believe each strength after ten gives you an additional ten percent carry capacity. It’s the same with constitution.” George scratched his ear with his foot. “But what do I know, I’m a bunny.”
“Jesus Christ, where’s Ivan when you need him?” Two’ Manchu growled as I sighed, wishing the same thing.
Then I decided I didn’t care all that much. Every level made me stronger. I didn’t need to know anything else. No, I was going to level up and get fat loot. Once I was higher level, I’m sure it would matter more, but since I couldn’t change my base stats, understanding exactly how I became stronger was moot. Once I was fifty and had actual stat points to add, I’d find out more, assuming I didn’t already know by then.
“Can we hunt now?” I asked, eyeing a particularly groany zombie down below as I nocked another arrow. “We’re burning daylight.”
19
“Well, that was cool,” Two’ Manchu said as we finished up the last of the zombies wandering around below the ledge. He looked over at me as the leveling glow faded from him, signaling he’d gotten to level four. I was about sixty percent of the way to level seven, but I was confident the gap between us would decrease pretty soon. Then he could start being useful since he’d have enough mana to actually use Homing Arrow consistently.
“See, I told you this wouldn’t be too bad,” I replied, wishing there were more zombies close by so we could keep shooting them from the cliffs. Then we could level up without the risk of dying. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Who knew how long it would be before several more zombies spawned. “Let’s go down and collect our drops. Then we can find some ghouls.”
“Wait, you want to go down there?” he asked, swallowing hard. “What’s wrong with staying on this ridge and waiting
for them to respawn? I like it here, it’s a nice ridge.” He tapped the ground with his foot a couple of times.
“Then marry it, pansy. Boss says we’re rolling deep into the wasteland so get your shit together,” George said, hopping along after me as I began the climb down. The path was steep and filled with junks of jagged, gray stone, but as long as I was focused, I could pick my way down easily enough. Getting up might prove to be tougher, but it definitely wasn’t going to be insurmountable because I wasn’t a shambling undead.
“I cannot believe I just got called a pansy by a fucking rabbit,” Two’ Manchu exclaimed and I fought the urge to snicker because damn it all, George was pretty entertaining.
As the barbarian followed us down the bunny trail, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was funny to watch him come down after me. Since he was huge, it was immediately apparent, he wouldn’t be able to slip down the rocky face of the cliff as easily as me because he wouldn’t fit in the places I could step.
“If the shoe fits,” I replied as I stepped foot into the wasteland well ahead of the barbarian.
The mud squelched beneath my boots, and as I took a few steps away from the path and scouted around for danger, another zombie spawned a few feet away. One moment I was staring at blank earth, and the next a horrifying shriek filled my ears.
I spun toward it as a pair of zombie hands burst upward from the muddy earth and grabbed ahold of the ground. The decaying fingers tore furrows in the mud as the zombie pulled itself free of the earth like it was no more difficult than pulling oneself from a particularly enjoyable bath. It crawled free and looked around with vague, empty eyes. The smell of the thing nearly made me gag. It reminded me of the time a rat had died in the walls of my dorm room, only way, way worse.
“Zombie!” I cried, unslinging my bow and nocking an arrow as the thing sniffed the air like a dog. It must have caught my scent because its head jerked violently toward me and its teeth began to gnash. Green slime dripped from its broken teeth as it took a lurching step toward me.
Soulstone: Awakening (World of Ruul Book 1) Page 12