by Dakota Krout
“Done!” Jaxon announced a few minutes later, ignoring the screams of pain resounding through the area. Was it his fault there was no available pain medication? “Those should heal straight and proper! If you have a healing potion, I recommend drinking it; that should get you going again! If you don’t have one available, I do have a spare that I’ll be happy to sell to you for a slight upcharge. I’ll need to go get another one, so the premium is justified.”
It didn’t seem that the man had a potion, and no one else was offering, so Jaxon pulled his out and had him drink it down. Jaxon gave it ten seconds to take effect, then motioned for the man to try moving his arms. “All better? Excellent, the total bill will be–”
“Are you kidding me? You just tortured me! Why would I pay you for that?” The man finished his sentence by screaming, though the Monk was not sure how he managed it. From the abuse this person put his vocal cords through while Jaxon set his bones, he really should have lost his voice by… oh right, the healing potion.
“Well, you did agree to pay me. The work is complete, you are healed, so if you refuse payment at this point, I will need to undo the work that I have done—including extra for the potion, naturally.” Jaxon was sick of people’s attitudes! Why shouldn’t he be paid for healing this man? He would have languished here in pain for hours without the Monk’s help!
“I… I…! Fine!” The man threw a few coins at Jaxon as hard as he could. Thankfully, his arms were still sore, or he may have even hurt the Monk with the rapidly moving metal. This kind of attack was entirely unwarranted and uncalled for, and Jaxon growled a low threat at the man.
Skill increase: Intimidation (Journeyman III).
This skill was silly. It increases for just… no reason at all. Jaxon thanked the man for his patronage and moved down the line. For some reason, the other people were insistent upon waiting for the healers. Perhaps their rates were lower than his?
“You there!” Jaxon heard a voice rasp at him.
He turned around to see a guild officer staring at him, several Warriors accompanying them. “Oh? Are officers still around? I thought the guild had mobilized? Are you here for some chiropractic care? I suppose I could give a group discount; that one would be easy enough to explain if needed.”
“That is unnecessary! Maggot, you are speaking to a guild officer! Atten-tion!” The man barked the order gleefully. His expectant look faded after a moment when Jaxon stared at him without moving anything but his fingers. “Ah. Aren’t you part of the Wanderer’s Guild? This is easier then. Grab him–”
“I’m part of the guild. Why do you ask?” Were they here to give him a medal? They seemed like the kind of people that would put a lot of importance on shiny bits of metal.
“Then why aren’t you responding properly?” The man’s brow furrowed. “What squad are you in? Squad name. Now.”
“Oh boy, that’s a head scratcher right there. It… name… hmm. I think we are the Special Forces or something similar? I heard us called the Hail-Mary squad by Aten?” The look the man gave him was… unamused, to put it lightly. “Does that help at all?”
The Officer’s mouth did that strange out-of-sync thing. “We’re going to march you out into the woods and cut you open. If we see you back here before the main forces of the guild are back, we’ll keep doing it. You need to leave the area until Aten is able to return and control you properly.”
That was some serious hostility! Jaxon thought ‘intimidate’ and activated his skill, deciding to use this man’s words against him. “You dare threaten me in front of a crowd? Who do you think you are, maggot?”
Swords and various weaponry appeared in the hands of the entire group, and Jaxon knew that they were getting serious. Currently, they were pale and shaking, but to their credit, their weapons were pointed unerringly at him. “Y-you… you’d better get out of here!”
“I have business to attend to. I’ll be leaving as soon as I’ve met with a merchant, and outfitted myself for–”
“The merchants are gone!” His voice cracked! Jaxon did his best not to laugh at what was apparently a teen playing at being a powerful man.
“Ha! Where’s the fire and condescension that was in your voice a few minutes ago, brat?” Jaxon showed some teeth in his smile as the young man figured out what to say next.
“You get out of here, or we’re going to–”
“Oh, just stop. You aren’t going to do anything to me. I could walk through all of you without breaking a sweat. What are you, twelve? How are you shaking so badly against a mere human when you had Wolfmen attacking you two days ago?” Jaxon tried to lock eyes with everyone in the group facing him. “I think you need an adjustment to your willpower, and I’m offering my services right here and now. Be better than your base nature! Be strong, and work to bring glory to the guild and yourselves!”
The only response to his words was a firming of faces, a tighter grip on weapons, and a step forward in preparation to attack. Good. They were able to grow in the face of adversity. Even though Jaxon really believed that these people still needed to ask permission to go to the bathroom in real life, at least right now they were acting like adults. “Excellent reactions, it looks like I properly adjusted your attitudes. Guess I’ll be off then. See you all in a week or so!”
“As if we’d just trust that you’ll actually leave.” The leader disdainfully snorted at him.
“I am disturbed by your lack of faith,” Jaxon rebutted in a deep tone.
“Men, form up. We’ll escort this torturer out of our territory!”
The small unit stepped forward together, responding with a resounding, “Sir!”
Chapter Four
“While I am thankful for all the assistance in getting out of town so swiftly, I do hope that you aren't going to be trying anything foolish today.” Jaxon looked around the grim faces of his guild members, noting that they didn’t look like they would be reasonable. Jaxon prepared to fight them… no! He prepared to destroy them.
“Men! Retreat!” The people backed away from Jaxon, spears still leveled at his heart. When they were a dozen paces away, they turned and marched off. One yelled back to him, “You’d better stay gone!”
“Stay gone? Did he mean stay away? Why are they so nervous? Is there a monster around here or something?” Jaxon looked around the area with interest. If there was a monster around, it might have a unique bone structure! Maybe he’d take a look around before heading off on his ambiguously phrased quest. Jaxon turned in a circle and tried to pick the best direction. Nothing looked good, so he decided to leave it up to luck. Jaxon spun around, throwing his hand out and pointing as he came to a stop. That way it is!
Jaxon started skipping into the forest, kicking hard to add as much height to his skipping as possible. This burned through three points of stamina per skip but also propelled him a meter and a half each bounce. He’d say that it was more efficient than walking, but sadly, it simply wasn’t true. Walking didn’t drain stamina; on the other hand, it didn’t increase his jump skill at all either. For Jaxon, it was far more important to increase his skills then it was to be conservative about stamina! Not only that, but with over five hundred points of stamina—not to mention his regeneration rate—Jaxon could keep this pace up for hours.
Monsters, monsters, monsters. Where would they be hiding in the forest? If this was reality, they would have either run away from the gigantic blast coming from the town the other day or they would have been lured in to face whatever was making the noise. Jaxon had explored this area fairly well with his team, and until they got into Wolfman lands, they had very few issues. Actually, as long as Jaxon didn’t see any bears, he did not think there was anything around here that could give him significant trouble. Then again, if his sense of direction was correct, continuing along this path would put him in range of the Wolfman Scouts. Should he turn? Should he take a different route?
*Crack*!
Oh? Something trying to sneak up on him? Drat… Jaxon’s pe
rception was too low to see what was going on in the dense underbrush. It was unfortunate since Jaxon would have to charge into the thorny bushes that lined the road if he wanted to find what was making the noise. That could leave him vulnerable, put him in a bad position, or possibly drop him directly into an ambush. Ah well, no help for it. Jaxon decided he just needed to man up and dive headfirst into trouble. He skipped into the thick brush, leaving the beaten path behind. The quiet sounds that Jaxon had been hearing became far louder as whatever it was… ran away? Well, now Jaxon needed to follow.
The Monk trailed the disturbance for a few minutes, the sounds ahead of him becoming more frantic by the second. It was strange that this much noise was being made; Jaxon really thought that something living in the forest would have better stealth capabilities. He was on guard but was still startled by bursting through the underbrush and into a clearing at full skipping speed. He ground to a halt as he noticed a ball of fur sprinting toward a group of… Wolfmen?
“Whoops, it seems I’ve stumbled into something I shouldn’t have.” Jaxon prepared to turn and run for help, especially seeing that dozens of claws and a few actual weapons were leveled at him. Snarling words were passed between the leader and…
“Puppies!” Jaxon joyfully called as he flipped around and charged the group, reaching out an excited hand to pet the adorable little ball of floof. Jaxon pulled back his fingers as a massive paw ripped through the air where his appendage was moving. “Now that I think about it… puppies. That… that isn’t a thing, is it?”
Jaxon looked around at the different forms, realizing what was actually going on, why it had been so easy to dodge the attack from the defending Wolfman. His face firmed up as he saw the sorry state of those around him. These weren’t combatants. If anything, these were refugees running from the armies rolling through their lands. This group was entirely women and children or whatever the proper nomenclature was for their race.
There was tension showing in the faces around him, and they were obviously expecting him to attack. Sad. Jaxon raised his hands, palm up, and they tensed further. Hmm. Perhaps they thought Jaxon was a Mage. How do dogs show that they don’t want to fight without showing submission…? Ah yes. Jaxon dropped his hands and raised his chin, showing his bare neck. The group in front of him relaxed incrementally, and Jaxon received a notification.
Skill gained: Wolfman Language (Spoken/body) (1/10). You have learned the bare-bone basics of the Wolfman language! As this is a basic racial language skill, there are only ten levels available, unlike the typical ranking. Skill points cannot be devoted to this skill; it must be increased through study and practice.
Title gained: Linguist. By intuiting the body language of Wolfmen during a chance encounter and not through study, you have learned how to ascertain body language and speech patterns! +20% speed in learning all spoken or body languages.
That was a nice little bonus. It would also help with his profession if Jaxon could see which Wolfmen were showing signs of fatigue or back pain. It would be even easier if they could just tell him! Now… it seemed the Wolfmen were edging away from him. Right, Jaxon supposed that he had been standing there smiling and staring at a tribe of noncombatants for almost a full minute. He had been too deeply invested in looking over all of his notifications and thinking about their implications and uses.
Enunciating clearly and loudly, Jaxon stepped away from them, “I am Jaxon! I am so sorry to have scared you! Jaxon go now! You go be safe! Raise many adorable puppies! Bye-bye now!”
There was snarling and vaguely threatening motions, but nothing came after him as Jaxon backed away. He was betting that the Wolfmen were wondering whether to pursue him, perhaps concerned that Jaxon was simply running off to gather reinforcements. Nonetheless, as he walked away, he was left alone. Jaxon soon returned to skipping, crashing through the forest in an attempt to find the beaten path once more. He was definitely lost, though, and paused in his movements to try and get his bearings. As he did so, an arrow slammed into a tree Jaxon should have been passing, sending bark and slivers of wood flying from the impact site.
Luck +1.
Well, that was beneficial at least. Seven more of those and Jaxon would become twice as lucky as a normal person! What was actually concerning to him at this point was not the fact that an arrow hit the tree he should have been passing by; what worried him was that it did not come from the direction of the Wolfman but from deeper in the forest.
An archer popped into existence about ten feet in front of him, holding up his hands. “Whoa, so sorry about that! All I saw was a brown something hopping through the forest! I really thought you were a deer, promise, dude!”
Jaxon looked down at his brown robe, thinking about what the archer was saying. The explanation made sense, so he smiled at the archer, who took a step back after seeing the radiant crescent. “Not an issue, bow-using new friend! Just out for a hunt?”
“Wow, that’s… that’s some smile you have there… friend. No, I’m actually looking for my party. They split off from the various armies after finding some Wolfman tracks in the area. I told them not to bother, but here we are, lost and separated in the woods. They really want the bounty for hunting down the Beastmen.” The archer was smiling for real now, but Jaxon could feel his own expression slipping. The puppies!
“I don’t suppose you would turn around and leave if I asked you to do so?” Jaxon’s voice came out sounding much harsher than he had been hoping for. The Monk was nearly positive that some intimidation must have leaked through because the man frowned and vanished. “Darn my low perception! He could be right in front of me, and I’d never be able to tell! No, no, no! This is bad! The puppies!”
Jaxon fretfully pulled at his hair. No real choice here! He turned around and began crashing through the forest as fast as he could move, his extraordinary dexterity allowing him to avoid tree limbs, roots, and catch his balance anytime he should have fallen. Jaxon returned to the Wolfmen in record time, arriving just as first blood was drawn by human adventurers.
Chapter Five
“Stop right there!” Jaxon shouted with all the force he could muster, pumping so much intimidation into his voice that he actually burned through fifty points of stamina. Jaxon had no idea that he could enhance intimidation like that! This required further research! His voice seemed to shake the air itself, and everyone in the local area froze… momentarily.
The armored man standing above a whimpering Wolfman female looked at Jaxon with annoyance written large on his face. “This is our bounty, freak! Get out of here before we send you to respawn!”
Jaxon couldn’t believe what he was hearing right now. “Are you out of your minds? Look around! These are civilians! These are women and children! How can you attack them?”
“Easy, you aim a little lower and don’t use as much force! That way you can save your energy for the fighters!” A man twirling knives stepped forward with a laugh, raising his blade. Jaxon darted forward as the dagger stabbed down at a puppy, poking the attacker’s elbow three times in quick succession. On the third poke, a small needle extended and retracted from Jaxon’s glove. The penetration should have gotten him right in the tendon and funny bone, but from the resounding scream, Jaxon doubted it felt ‘funny’ at all.
The armored fighter rushed Jaxon with a roar, as did two other members of the group. Mr. Rogue was still clutching his arm but seemed to find that anger was the solution to his problems, so he reached for a throwing dagger. Jaxon countered by activating Adjust before dodging the sword coming his way. Thirty points of damage rocked the Rogue as his elbow twisted, and the dagger he had been preparing to throw instead fell to the ground and stuck into the dirt. Jaxon risked himself for a moment to try and understand the group he was looking at. As far as he could tell, it seemed like this was a fairly standard group: two melee fighters, a Rogue, an archer that was thankfully not here, and what appeared to be a low-leveled Mage. Perhaps some form of combat buffer?
Either
way, the tactics for fighting a group like this alone were very clear: don’t do it. They were used to working together and protecting their team, so the only way to win this would be to follow the standard practice of taking down the squishies. To get at the Mage-looking fellow, Jaxon needed to get past the Warrior-tank man and what appeared to be a lumberjack. Not sure why he used an axe like that or what merchant was making flannel in this world, but it was a good look. Jaxon wondered if he could find a flannel Monk’s robe, and his distraction almost cost him dearly.
A sword point was whistling through the air towards Jaxon’s eye, the Warrior behind it obviously expecting an easy kill when Jaxon didn’t move as swiftly as he had been. Jaxon leaned back and threw a couple needles at the Warrior, making him sputter and block his face with his hands. He nearly dropped his sword as well, but Jaxon didn’t use the opening. Instead, he used the distraction of the Warrior blocking his own sight to slip around and kick him in the back of his knee, at the same time pulling down on the back collar of his breastplate. The Warrior toppled to the ground as Jaxon bent sideways to avoid the swing of an axe.
“Where were you when we were in the stupid instant dungeon?” Jaxon shouted at the lumberjack, spittle flying. “The enemies were trees! Lumber men! Trees!”
Jaxon’s sudden fury made the fighter stumble backward and raise his axe defensively. Exactly as planned. Jaxon ducked and spun, using the motion to arrive in front of the magic man hiding at the back of the group. Three full-force punches into a magical neck, which included an extending needle, ensured that there would not be any spells flying around. As long as the Mage needed to speak to cast, Jaxon should be fine to leave him alone, especially since the angry, stabby person was closing in on him from behind. As a knife came at his spine, Jaxon stepped to the side and let the blade swing past him. Jaxon grabbed the extended arm, twisting and throwing the Rogue over himself to land heavily on the ground.