by Edward Brody
“That was badass,” Aaron said and slapped Donovan on the shoulder. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
“I trained in the Queen’s army,” Donovan explained. “I suppose I still have a bit of fight left in me.”
“Your calm demeanor doesn’t match the ‘crazy’ that you and others speak of dark elves,” I said.
“It only makes you crazy if you can’t take the pain. At least that’s what they say.”
Aaron grabbed on to Donovan’s wrist. “And what is this thing?” he asked. “Some sort of arrow gun?”
“A mechanical, mini crossbow,” Donovan said. “After I turned—to a dark elf, that is—I felt ashamed more than anything. I wandered alone for several weeks until I stumbled into the valley of Gnominom, where I came upon a group of gnomes whose home had been invaded by a monstrous beetle. I managed to slay the beast, and as a reward, the gnomes fitted me this armor from the beetle’s chitin.” Donovan banged his knuckle against the smooth surface of his armor. “Much lighter than plate armor, but nearly as strong. The crossbows they fitted into the gauntlets were just a bonus.”
“And then you came to Edgewood?” I asked.
“I remained with the gnomes for some time. To my surprise, they didn’t care about the fact that I was a dark elf, or even an elf for that matter. They treated me as their own kin. But the forest still called to me, and eventually, I heard that many dark elves were gathering in Edgewood. I traveled there to make my home.”
“I’d like to check out Gnominom sometime,” I said.
Donovan’s eyes looked up and into the distance as if he were remembering something. He paused and said, “It would be nice to see my old friends. If we remain acquainted, perhaps you can accompany me for a visit in the future.”
“I’d like that.”
“Me too,” Aaron said. “If they can craft things like that—” He pointed towards one of Donovan’s gauntlets. “—maybe I could learn a thing or two.”
“But for now, I should return to Edgewood.” Donovan pushed his mug to the side and gathered himself out of his chair. “I’m afraid I’ll attract more drama if I stick around too long. I’ll accompany you to the mine whenever you’re ready.”
“Thanks,” I said. “You can ride the horse back if you can hold on to it ‘til tomorrow.”
“That’s quite alright,” Donovan replied. “A long walk sounds nice about now.”
Donovan said his goodbyes and headed out the door. He was brave to risk walking alone after the encounter.
“I think I’ll go try to do one of those quests that I found on the bulletin board,” I said to Aaron. “Wanna join me?”
“Ehhh…” Aaron whined. “Quests usually involve fighting. I think I’d rather play Pig… since we’re here and all.” He looked curiously over to the table of gamblers.
I chuckled. “Alright. I’ll meet you back here later.”
Aaron nodded and winked. “Remember what Jax said, now…. Be careful.”
Chapter Five
01/08/0001
I headed east of Thorpes on foot, stopping to check the crude map on my Garden Trouble quest several times to make sure I was headed in the right direction. I attempted to will my coordinates and even said, “Show coordinates,” verbally, but apparently, coordinates were either something that were earned or required a skill or item to get rather than being a default handout in the game. Still, I was pretty sure I could follow the map by eye.
Walking in the Freelands really gave me a sense of just how large the world was, with long lots of green and rolling hills stretching miles in every direction. In the distance, I could see travelers traversing the roads, some on foot and some on horseback, and in the far distance I could see the boundary of Edgewood. It was mostly silent outside, save for the sound of the wind or the occasional low voice or rustling that would catch the wind.
I approached a completely flat area with thick grass, and scurrying through the small meadow were several rabbits. I stopped and pulled my bow off my back to break the monotony of the walk and took aim at one of the creatures.
Name: a small rabbit
Race: animal
Level: 1
Health/Mana/Stamina: 5/0/25
Status: neutral
The rabbit wouldn’t provide much experience at level 1, but I figured the money I’d fetch for its pelt would be worth the time killing it. And while I still hadn’t learned to skin an animal, maybe someone would be interested in buying the entire carcass to skin it themselves.
I paused for a moment and lowered my bow as an alternative idea crossed my mind. The rabbits posed a good opportunity for me to try something I hadn’t tried yet.
I put away my weapon and thrust my hand onto the ground. “Sora!”
From behind me, I heard the patter of footsteps, and when I turned around, Sora roared and knocked me over as she jumped on top of me.
Holy shit!
Sora nuzzled her head against my neck and purred loudly. She had grown substantially since I released her the day before, and while she was nowhere near as massive as her mother, she was two thirds the size of a full-sized panther that I might have found on Earth.
There would be no more riding on my shoulders, that was for sure.
Name: Sora
Race: Great Beast
Level: 6
Health/Mana/Stamina: 60/30/60
Status: friendly
Sora flopped on her side, and I rolled around with her in the grass for a bit. She licked and nibbled lightly with her sharp fangs. She was getting bigger alright, but she was still the same ol’ Sora. I had never had a pet back on Earth, and being able to wrestle with her made me realize how much joy I had been missing out on.
I got up from the grass and rubbed my fingers through Sora’s fur. I hadn’t tried hunting with her yet and wanted to see if I could get her to follow my commands.
“You see that?” I asked her. I turned towards the thick grass in the distance and pointed at one of the rabbits. “Can you catch it?”
Sora’s eyes honed in, and she licked her upper lip and nose as she took a cautious step forward. She glanced back towards me with an anxious look to get going.
“Get him!”
Sora darted off without giving it a second thought, and the poor rabbit didn’t stand a chance. The furry bunny dashed off as fast as it could when it realized a predator was about to pounce, but Sora had too much speed. She jumped on the rabbit and buried her teeth in it, killing it with a single bite.
You have gained 15 XP!
Nice… I thought. I still gained a bit of XP from Sora’s kill. Another nice perk of having a pet.
A moment later, Sora was in front of me, dropping the carcass by my feet.
I kneeled and rubbed the fur around her neck. “Good job, girl!”
I placed the dead rabbit in my bag and continued to walk towards my quest location with Sora, stopping to send her off to kill any small creatures that I spotted along the way. By the time I saw the house—which looked to be in the location of my quest, though I couldn’t be sure—Sora had netted another three rabbits and a prairie bird.
The house in question was positioned near a hill with a large cluster of trees behind it. The forested area wasn’t large enough that I’d call it a forest, but the trees were thick enough that you could go inside unseen. If it was a small forest, I doubt it was significant enough to have a name.
The house itself was a small, brown, wooden house with a large garden beside it that had obviously been ravaged by something. All that was left were a few stems of vegetation poking out of the soil and kicked up dirt with animal footprints all around.
“Wait right here,” I instructed Sora when I was a few meters from his front lawn. She sat down in a resting position in obvious understanding.
I double checked my map one more time before walking towards the door. I considered reaching for the handle like I would if I were playing any other MMO, but I remembered that Eden’s Gate was far di
fferent than other games. While I hadn’t walked into anyone’s house unannounced yet, I was pretty sure the risk of death or dismemberment was high if I were to try.
I knocked on the door and waited.
There were no sounds coming from inside the house, but a few seconds later, and old man opened the door just enough that he could peek out at me. “Yeah? What can I help you with?” he asked.
“I got your request for help.” I held up the post from the bulletin board.
“Oh!” he said, suddenly more enthused. “You’re here to get rid of those howlers!?” He swung his door further open and stepped outside, holding out his hand towards me. “The name’s Conrad.”
I reached for his hand and shook. “Gunnar.”
He caught sight of Sora out the corner of his eyes and tensed up, placing his hand back on his door handle.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “She won’t hurt you.”
“She’s yours?”
I nodded.
“A panther?”
I nodded again.
He raised his eyebrows and grinned. “Then maybe you’re just the man for the task.”
“So you have a problem with your garden?”
The man was almost completely bald but still had patches of hair on both sides of his head and four or five strands combed over the shiny center at the top. He stepped off his front porch and motioned towards his garden. “Do you see what ‘dem howlers have done? I’m telling you! Every time anything sprouts, they’re out here within minutes tearing it up!”
“What’s a howler?”
He turned to me. “You don’t know what a howler is?” The man tilted his head to the sky and howled like a wolf.
If I had a camera and had posted the video of him doing that on Youtube, the thing would have gone viral overnight and been remixed a hundred times, I tell you. It was freaking hilarious.
“Howlers are damned wolves that howl all night long. I don’t mind the howling so much since I sleep with my earplugs in, but I damn well have to eat! If they steal my food, then I have a serious problem.”
“Okay, so how do I help you? I just go in this little forest area over here and find them?” I looked to the trees beside his home.
Conrad waved his hand. “No need for that. I can place a few pieces of produce in the garden to lure them out. Once they come out, just kill them! Got it?”
“Yeah, I’ll give it my best.”
The man went inside his home and emerged a minute later with a handful of fruit and vegetables in his hands. We walked around to his garden, and he spread them out across the soft soil. As soon as the last vegetable was placed, he ran back. “Come on!” he hissed, waving his hand as hurried back to his porch.
I tilted my head towards Sora. “Mind if she comes inside? I’d rather not risk her getting hurt.”
The man gritted his teeth and nodded reluctantly.
I called Sora, and she came running my way as Conrad opened the door to his home and waved again to usher us inside. The interior of the home looked a lot larger than it appeared outside, and it was decorated nicely. His fireplace was lit, and there was a heavy rocking chair sitting in front of it. Hanging on the wall was the head of a large moose and pelts of various animals. Also on the wall closest to the door was a glass case with reagents inside, and directly below it was a small desk with an unmarked parchment, an inkwell, and a scroll.
I immediately noticed that it was a fire magic scroll.
Scroll: Igniting Touch. A touch of your flesh ignites your target into flames, causing fire damage over time. Requires 15 Intelligence. Fire Magic Level 5. Durability: 8/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 0.1 kg
Conrad shimmied over to the window and stared outside. “Now we just wait for them to come. It won’t be long, I tell ya! They come every time.”
I patted Sora on the head and pointed toward the open area near the fireplace. She obeyed and posted herself where indicated just as she had done outside.
I walked beside Conrad and looked out the window. “You’re a fire magic user?”
The man turned and twisted his lips. “What? Why would you—“ He paused, and his eyes looked to his desk. “Oh, you saw the scroll on my desk?” he asked confidently.
“Yeah, I figured you might be a magic user because of the scroll.”
The man sighed and shook his head. “No, I’m not a magic user. I came across that scroll a few years ago when I was cave-diving for mushrooms. Never been taught fire magic, and I prefer staying at home and farming anyway.”
“So why not sell the scroll?”
The man shrugged. “Oh, I’d never sell it. I like having it around the house. The scroll, the herbs, the sword,” he pointed to a plain, iron sword he had hanging on another wall. “It helps an old man like me dream up adventures when I’m writing in my journal.”
There was a loud howl outside the house and then another—wolf sounds that sounded so out of place given how peaceful the surrounding area was.
But even after hearing the howlers howl, I was still distracted by the scroll. Since I was level 6 in fire magic, it would be a nice addition to my repertoire. I sure as hell could put it to better use than the old man who just looked at it while he wrote in his journal.
“There they are!” Conrad grunted.
I peered out the window and could see four black-furred wolves running out from the trees. They were slightly smaller than I would’ve expected a wolf back on Earth to be, and in comparison to Fenris, they looked like pups.
Name: forest howler
Race: animal
Level: 9
Health/Mana/Stamina: 120/0/120
Status: unknown
The four wolves immediately went for the vegetables that Conrad had placed in his garden and started chewing on them like they hadn’t eaten in days.
“Get ‘em!” Conrad shouted. “Don’t let them eat it all and leave!”
“Ughhh…” I groaned, pulling my bow from my back. Fighting a level 9 wolf didn’t seem like a big deal, but I wasn’t sure if I could handle all of them alone. Still, I had to try my best to not fail my quest.
Sora seemed alarmed, but I gave her a slight nod, indicating that everything was okay.
I bolted out of Conrad’s door, and as soon as I had line of sight with the wolves, I nocked an arrow and pulled back, taking aim with a snipe shot. I let go as soon as I was still and sure of my accuracy, and the arrow slammed into the side of one of the howlers’ neck.
The wolf yelped, and the arrow knocked it on its side, startling the other three momentarily. The three uninjured howlers let out a synchronous howl as I fastened my bow and unsheathed my sword. I reached my hand out and shot a Fireblast as the injured wolf was getting to its feet, and the other three howlers sprung in my direction.
Fire Curtain, I thought, and a wall of flames emerged in the immediate path that the wolves were running through. They attempted to stop, but their momentum was too strong, and they all three slammed into the barrier of fire, causing their fur to erupt in flames.
The howlers wailed and flung their bodies around as I rushed forward and slashed my sword against one of their rumps, then lifted the hilt high and slammed the tip of my blade hard into its neck. The wolf fell as I spun around, whipping my sword against the face of another, pulling the sword back and tearing a large pink cut against the wolf’s charred, black abdomen. Another slash ended its life just as the third howler was regaining its balance and leaping towards me.
I skipped backwards in an attempt to dodge, but even in its smoldering state, the wolf was fast and managed to slash me with its claws and dig its teeth into my leg.
I grunted as the scratch and bite knocked 20% off my health, and with the wolf latched onto me, I couldn’t help but think of how convenient it would be to have the Igniting Touch spell that was inside Conrad’s home. Assuming it worked as indicated, I could’ve activated it right then to burn the beast off me.
But I still had less refined wa
ys of handling things. I reached my palm down into the face of wolf, and a Fireblast erupted out of my hands, the impact of the blast knocking off half the face of the howler and causing its body to drop limp the ground. Given how I used the spell, the blast ate another 15% of my health as well and left a deep burn in my leggings.
“Don’t let him get away!” Conrad yelled out his window.
I looked up, and the first wolf that I had hit with a snipe shot and a Fireblast was trying to retreat back to the trees. “Fuck!” I grunted and started running after it.
If the howler wasn’t severely injured, I’m sure it would have outrun me, but it was running with a bit of a limp, giving me a slight speed advantage and allowing me to close some distance as we pushed deeper and deeper into the woods. When I was in close enough proximity and had a clear shot, I reached out my hand and hurled another Fireblast in its direction, smacking the howler in the rear and ending its life.
You have gained 880 XP!
You have completed all requirements for the quest: Garden Trouble! Return to Conrad to collect your reward.
I leaned over, placing my hands on my knees and trying to catch my breath. My stamina was almost fully exhausted from the fight, and I felt like I really needed a drink of water.
I chuckled low at myself. I had took out four level 9 howlers on my own? I was really starting to get a handle on my skills, that was for sure. I was nothing like the bumbling idiot that spawned with a copper training dagger and was eaten alive by maggots in Nambunga’s Cave. I was starting to feel more confident in my spells and abilities, but even more than that, I was starting to feel a desire for power.
I didn’t want to just kill howlers. I wanted to take on bigger monsters, to eventually slice the head off things like the Swamp Lord that Kronos took down in Gramora.