I had never been happier to see that plucky, overgrown lizard than I was right then. And from the way she was clawing them from behind, she looked pissed.
Taking full advantage of the situation, I grabbed my bow from the grass, activated double and fire arrow and let loose on the two wolves. Together, we burned down the second wolf in record time.
750 (x2) xp gained
Trexxa hissed and turned her attention to the other snapping, snarling, slavering wolf. I glanced over to Esmerelda and saw that she'd brought the alpha down about half, but she was severely injured herself.
"Take a potion!" I cried out, then turned my attention back to the wolf, who was happily chewing on Trexxa's face.
I rooted it, then instructed Trexxa to get back out of its reach. As much as I wanted her clawing and shredding it, there was no sense in her taking unnecessary damage.
She did as I asked and watched as I plunked arrow after arrow into its snarling face. The hatred from its eyes was palpable and I knew if looks could kill...
Esmerelda popped a potion and continued draining her mana into the alpha wolf. I wished I could help her, but I had my hands full with this bloodthirsty beast.
"Get em!" I yelled to Trexxa when I saw the roots loosening. Try as she might, though, she had lost aggro and could not get it back.
I backed up slowly, then danced around the raptor as I shot arrow after arrow into the vicious animal.
I cheered when it lunged and Trexxa timed her attack perfectly, knocking it out of the air and onto the ground.
Honestly, I didn't know what I would've done if Trexxa hadn't shown back up when she did. She saved my fucking bacon, that's what she did.
Trexxa hissed and jumped on top of the wolf, clawing and slashing with her feet. A few more arrows and the wolf lay still in the grass.
750 (x2) xp gained
"Help Esmerelda!" I shouted to Trexxa as we turned our attention to the mage. She was getting beat pretty badly and even though she'd already taken a potion, her health was in the teens.
I froze the wolf in place as Trexxa came over and starting wailing on it, trying to distract it and grab aggro. The imp had already bit the dust and I wasn't feeling so hot myself.
One thing this showed me was that we really weren't ready for the boss yet. We needed some additional levels and I needed some gear.
Trexxa was growing up fast, but would she be fully grown by the time we had to face the boss. Of that I wasn't sure.
Grateful for the help, Esmerelda stepped back, knocked back a potion and came back into the fray just as the alpha wolf was thawing out.
A moment later, he was dead.
1700 (x2) xp gained
"I thought I was a goner!" She said, panting and resting against a tree when we'd finally slain the last of the pack.
"I think we can say for certain that this was the toughest fight we've faced so far." I said, taking a deep drink of my ale. It tasted so cool and refreshing that I nearly drank it all.
I offered Trexxa some and she slurped up a few mouthfuls.
"Yeah, who would've thought that a handful of wolves would be so tough."
Trexxa sat in my lap as we gathered our strength. "We still have to skin them." I reminded her.
Esmerelda nodded. "Let's rest a few first."
We discussed what I'd thought about earlier. We simply weren't ready for the boss fight. We knew she was going to be 15th level. And that was going to be nearly impossible if I didn't get my ass to 10 as quick as I could.
I let Esmerelda rest a bit longer as I pulled out my dagger and began the task of skinning the wolf. There were three pelts for each wolf, one for each of us.
Wolf pelt x1
Wolf pelt x2
Wolf pelt x3
Interestingly enough, the alpha had enough hide for two pelts each.
Wolf pelt x5
Which meant we were halfway to our quest goal. Which was good as that meant we likely only needed to kill one more pack.
"This time," Esmerelda said, draining the last of her ale, "let's all focus on one. That's our strength."
"Agreed. We can trap and use Trexxa to kite the others around until we're ready for them."
The next pull went a lot smoother. I was able to keep the alpha wolf trapped the entire fight while we burned the others down. Trexxa only lost half her health, which I was able to bandage right up after the fight. Esmerelda took one nasty bite from the alpha wolf and by the time the fight was over, I was down to 65 hp, which I bandaged up to full.
We quickly skinned the wolves, got our pelts and set off back to the city. There was enough meat here to last us a long while and we carefully chopped it all up and split it up.
"Yes, Trexxa, some of this is yours. Don't worry." I threw her a large chunk of wolf meat and she wolfed it down greedily.
750 x3 (x2) xp gained
1700 (x2) xp gained
Putting me pretty damn close to leveling. I wasn't sure how much the quest was going to give me, but between that and the Patch delivery quest, I should easily be level 9.
I looked through my HUD, but couldn't find what the next level spell was. Would it be a new type of arrow? Or something else?
I was so giddy with excitement that I nearly passed right by the quest giver.
"Uh, this way..." Esmerelda steered me in the right direction.
"Oh, sorry." I said sheepishly.
The quest giver happened to be the local tanner.
Quest complete: Skin the Wolves
Experience gained: 2250 (x2)
New quest objective: none
That put me almost exactly 2k away from leveling. Maybe I'd hunt a bear or something on our way back.
He was surprised by all the pelts that we laid out on the table for him.
"You did the quest, too?" He arched an eyebrow at Trexxa.
"Yes!" She nodded and hissed. "Trexxa party member!"
I nodded. "That she is. That she is."
"So, what about the reward? The note said something about a choice of weapons?"
"Oh, yes! One minute." He hurried to the back room and came back with a crate of weapons. "Just got these in this morning. Figured I'd use them as a reward for some new skins. Take whatever you want."
Esmerelda peered hopefully into the large crate. She moved around some ordinary-looking daggers, steel blades and even a pike. But underneath it all was a nice staff.
She smiled. "What is this?" She turned to the tanner, but he shook his head.
"No idea. But it's yours if you want it."
Esmerelda shrugged. "Sure, why not."
I didn't see anything particularly useful and asked if he had anything else.
"No, not really." He shook his head. "However, I can give you a credit that you can take down to the weaponsmith. Maybe he'll have something more to your taste."
We thanked him for his time and started to leave, when I felt a tug at my tunic.
I looked down at a very sad Trexxa. "What is it, honey?" I asked, patting her scaly head.
She pointed to Esmerelda's new staff, then back to her.
"What? I don't understand."
Trexxa jumped up and down in frustration.
I opened my mouth to inquire further, but Esmerelda interrupted me.
"Oh! The baby raptor wants HER reward."
"Yes!!" She hissed and jumped up and down. "Reward!"
I looked back to the tanner and shrugged my shoulders. "What do you have for an overgrown lizard?"
"Hiss!" Trexxa replied.
"Well, not much really. Unless she wants some leather armor or something."
"You want some armor, Trexxa? It'll keep you alive longer." I asked. This whole thing with my pet being a full-fledged PC was really weird, I had to admit.
She nodded her head vigorously and strutted around the room with her chest puffed out. What a character!
"Okay." The tanner agreed. "Let me see what I have. Be right out."
"I'm sorry we forgot about you. We're just not
used to it is all. Okay?" Esmerelda hugged the raptor to her chest.
She sniffed.
"You're a good girl, Trexxa. And we promise not to forget about you again. Right, Ivan?" She glared at me.
I laughed. Then saw she was serious. "Oh, ahem. Yes. That's right Trexxa sweetie, we promise not to forget about you again." I didn't know that I could swear to it. But I'd do my best.
A moment later, the tanner came out with a grin on his face, holding a small, leather vest in his large hands. He fitted it around Trexxa's small frame and found that it fit perfectly.
"Wow, thank you!" Esmerelda said. "I think you just made her the happiest raptor ever."
"Well..." He blushed. "I try. Let me know if you guys are in need of any other armor. I can hook you up with some custom stuff."
"Actually, that's a good idea. Let me get another level or two under my belt and then I'll get back to you." I said. "Come on, Trexxa, let's go."
We waved goodbye to the nice tanner, vowing to come back. Trexxa positively beamed, sporting her new leather armor piece. She looked absolutely spiffy.
Getting on with the delivery quest, we followed our maps to a food vendor who sold what looked like sausages. Trexxa followed her nose into the shop, right up to the counter.
"We're...uh here for the delivery quest to Patch's inn." Esmerelda said.
"And apparently, she's here for some grub. Right, Trexxa?"
"Hiss!" She agreed, rubbing her belly and licking her lips.
I put 5 sp on the table. "I'll take however many sausages that can buy."
The man brought out 10 sausages, looked at me, then Trexxa. "You want them cooked any special way?"
"I'll take mine cooked nice and juicy. She'll have hers raw." I explained.
The cook gazed at me with a perplexed look, but did as I said. Esmerelda ordered a few for herself.
Once we'd finished eating our sausages, we stored the rest, grabbed the package for delivery - probably a crate of sausages - and hopped on our horses.
"Oh, while we're here, let's pick up some more oats for them. They eat like it's going out of style."
Esmerelda agreed and I spent a gp on getting enough oats to supplement the natural grass they find. That left me with 69 gp. I'd kept the gold and threw all but a handful of silver into the bank.
"Since I've only got a couple thousand xp to level," I told Esmerelda as we were slowly riding our horses back to Thronn Town, "I was thinking maybe we could find a bear my level or something on our way."
Esmerelda nodded. "That actually sounds like a good plan. Do you know where one is?"
I nodded, smiled and rubbed my hands together evilly. "I do, indeed."
A few minutes later, we came upon the exact spot where I had died. I pounded my fist into my hand. I had some payback to administer.
It took a bit of searching, but we finally found the bear that had put me out of my misery.
"Is that the one?" Esmerelda pointed to a large, brown bear off in the distance.
I nodded and pulled out my bow. "Can you handle a bear, Trexxa?" I asked.
She nodded and repeated my actions, tapping her claw into her hand with a hardened look on her face.
"On my mark..." I activated my usual openers, pulled back the arrows, took a steadying breath and released the two arrows at the lounging ursine. A thrill coursed through my veins as I thought about exacting revenge on the only creature in this whole game to have killed me.
"Attack!" I yelled, the moment the bear had become encased in ice. Damn I loved that spell.
Trexxa hissed and raced off toward the frozen bear as fast as her little legs could carry her. Esmerelda pulled out her imp and the two of them began casting fire spells at the hapless ursine.
I have no idea how the fire didn't counteract the ice. Probably magic, I surmised, but I was glad it didn't.
Once the bear was out of the ice, he stood on his hind legs, roared, batted Trexxa away and raced toward us. My heart thudded in my chest as the large, terrifying beast closed the distance with minimal effort in seconds.
"Trexxa!" I cried out as the bear was suddenly upon me. I glanced at his deets and saw that he was, indeed, my level. But his hp was still above half. And he was terrifyingly angry.
Oh shit.
He went after me first and I danced around the mage and her imp as we blasted him to hell and back. Trexxa shook off the bear's mighty blow and attacked from behind. But still he persisted.
He swiped at me and narrowly missed. With his thick hide, my arrows caused him very little damage. They just bounced off him. The fire spells, on the other hand, did a tremendous amount of damage and I was thankful I wasn't fighting him alone.
I rooted him in place, allowing us all unfettered access to him. Before it had a chance to wear off, we had burned him to the ground.
1500 (x2) xp gained
Congratulations, you have reached level 9. You now have new spells available.
"Yes!" I fist-pumped and cried out to the startled forest.
"Good job, pet!" Trexxa patted me on the back.
"Trexxa!" Esmerelda admonished the overgrown lizard. "That's not nice."
"Sowwy. Just a joke." She apologized.
I could scarcely concentrate as my new spells flashed before my eyes.
Mark of the Hunter I - now you can single out a mob
Double Arrow II - Now cast two sets of double arrows
"Holy shit! Did you see that?" I asked.
"No, what did you get?" Esmerelda looked over my shoulder at my HUD.
"Look!" I scrolled back through and showed her.
Her eyes widened. "Those are some very useful spells. Congrats!"
"Thanks! Now we can see for certain who we're burning down." I explained. "And that double arrow ability now gives me four shots with two pulls. SUPER useful."
I was pleased at my level 9 spells. I looked at my hp bar and saw that I now had 150. That was going to up my survivability massively. However, now I needed another 100k of xp to level. It was getting harder and harder and I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to do it in time. But I had to try.
"After we turn this in, let's go back into that dungeon. I've got a shit ton of xp I need to farm and finishing those quests will help tremendously.
"Yes, I want to clear out these quests. Hey," Esmerelda snapped her fingers, "why don't we share them with Trexxa?"
I nodded and Trexxa hissed.
"Okay.” I brought them up and shared them with the raptor.
She took the quests, hissed and jumped up and down in glee.
I loved that stupid raptor.
We hopped on our mounts and rode our way silently back to Patch's. I was lost deep in thought thinking about my new spells. This was going to be a game changer. Now I could point out to Esmerelda or Trexxa which mob I wanted us to attack first.
There was no cooldown, but there was a note that I could only have one mark active at a time. I was guessing that the new mark would overwrite the old one.
"Hey, Patch!" We burst into the room with 3 crates of - presumably - sausages. "We've got something for ya!"
Patch wiped his hands and appeared from the backroom. "Yeah?" His eye lit up. "Oh, what's this?"
Trexxa took her crate and pushed it with her nose up to Patch. He bent over, patted her on the head and examined the crate.
"Oh! These are the sausages I ordered last week. Finally! Thank you!" He scratched the overgrown lizard behind the ears. "Let me get your payments."
Trexxa hissed and jumped up and down as she held out her gold pouch. Patch dropped 5 sp inside and Trexxa looked so happy she could cry.
He took our crates and gave us each the same 5 sp. "I wasn't expecting 3 crates worth, but I can make it work. Oh, your friends have been looking for you." Patch added.
"Yeah?" I cocked my head as I dropped my silver into my pouch. "What's up?"
"They told me to tell you to meet them down in Orge's lair. Sounded pretty serious."
I
shivered at his words and glanced at Esmerelda. I had a sinking feeling I knew exactly what was happening.
"We'll head there right away." I filled my canteen and with great haste the three of us hurried down into the sewers to see what was up.
"It's time, isn't it?" Esmerelda said once we'd descended, her voice shaky.
"I think so. We may not have much time left." I could feel my stomach tighten as I thought of that.
"Do you think we'll be facing her today?"
"I don't know." I shook my head. "I hope not. I'd like to at least get to level 10 before taking her on. Otherwise I'm going to be as useless as a tooth on a chicken."
We quickly made our way through the long corridor. It was Trexxa's first time and she was practically drooling at the big, fat rats that were watching from the corners.
"They're not hostile, Trexxa." I reminded her. "If one attacks us, you have my permission to kill it."
She whined, but nodded. Silly raptor.
I turned to Esmerelda. "I remember when I first came through here. I was just second or third level and these guys were absolutely brutal. It's also where I found this." I pulled out the black dev stone.
Trexxa stopped, sniffed the stone, then proclaimed very loudly. "Key! Key!"
Esmerelda knelt down before the raptor. "What do you mean key, honey?"
"Use key..." Trexxa jumped up and down. "Key when spider queen near death..."
Esmerelda looked up at me.
"Go on..." She urged.
Trexxa looked back and forth between us. "Use stone. Kill queen. No takebacksies."
I shook my head. "You mean if we use the dev stone when the queen is low on health she can't be rezzed?"
Trexxa nodded vigorously.
This was a development I hadn't thought of.
"So...are you saying..." Esmerelda thought aloud. "That without the dev stone, she can't be killed?"
"Yes!" Trexxa hissed and rubbed her belly.
I fished a sausage out from my pack and threw it to her.
"This changes everything." I said as we continued walking. "I would've never thought to use the dev stone on a boss."
Digitized Online Page 26