Walking through the forest brought back memories, of playing with my family. It had been a long time since my character had needed to travel the low-level forests. Also, it had been a long time since my clothing had been this weak. Watching as everything moved around me knowing that if a group of mobs stumbled onto me, then I’d probably die.
After an hour walking the sound of something moving through the trees caught my attention. Reaching into myself looking for my magic. Making sure it was ready if it was needed. Rounding a tree, something was eating something else though neither were something I recognized.
Life-drain worm
Level: 1
HP: 20
Thinking about how to approach this, if I attacked it was probably that it would turn and attack me. Which while not knowing how strong it was compared to my body was foolish. Though if it couldn’t climb, I could use that to get the high ground. With my 50 mana, I could cast 5 Arcane bolts. One more than needed.
My mana regenerated at just about 11 per minute out of combat right now, so that was about 5 or 6 per minute in combat. Suddenly my gratitude for the goddess allowing me to keep my Meditation ability was very high. Without that it would have taken much longer. Climbing the tree thankfully wasn’t too hard because of the low branches, though I did hope that didn’t help the monster. Swinging two branches high and looking down the about 10 feet to the ground.
Figuring this was high enough, I raised my hand and called the spell to me. Magic thrummed through me almost in a rush, releasing the bolt it slammed into the back of the creatures head, or what I had assumed was its head.
Critical hit X2
Sneak attack X2
Vital spot X2
Damage: 25
Dead, 5 Exp
“Alic?”
“What it was the same level as you, you attacked it from behind and got a vital spot. You got the crit because of the combination of the vital spot and the sneak attack. For a novice level 1 spell that was amazing.”
“I know it was amazing, I just didn’t expect to kill it in one hit like that.”
“Always prepare as if it is a boss and be happy when you can kill it with one spell.”
“The experience was crap though.”
“As expected, but look at the skill progression.”
“It added 10% to the skill, so I kill ten more things and it will raise me to novice level 2?”
“Correct, but as the skill gets higher you will need to hit more. Through novice, every level knocks half a percentage off, so at level 2 you will get 9.5% per hit,”
“That’s fair, though I dread the higher levels.”
“Yeah, but you can use skill books at higher levels if you can afford them, or find the right one. Oh and don’t think you can walk through the forest and blast everything, still be careful.”
Walking away thinking about what this meant. I had already tried looting the body but there was nothing on it worth anything. With being in the forest for as long as it would take, there was no sense gathering a bunch of stuff that I couldn’t use.
What bothered me most, was there were probably herbs that were useful, but there was no way for me to identify them. Alic could probably help, but I wasn’t sure what his limitations were.
After about another hour walking through the wood, a noise caught my attention. There were 3, level 1 Life-Drain worms feeding. Climbing into a tree, and launching my first attack. Thankfully like the first time, it was a simple one shot, Hitting the second in the head as it turned offered me a critical hit, for ten damage. Hitting it again killed it. Leaving the third worm, though I’d used 3 of my 5 shots, if the 3rd worm was like the second I could kill it in the two hits and not have to wait to regenerate mana.
When I launched my attack the worm shifted, so instead of hitting its head, I hit the tail, causing 5 damage. Mad at the botched hit, had me throwing another bolt. This one also hit the tail. It seemed this worm had learned from the death of its friends. Since it was trying to attack me from the ground, I wondered if falling on top of it would take the last 10HP from it. Though uncertain if that was the wisest course of action.
Waiting for the 10 Mana only took two minutes, but if I wanted to kill the creature I would have to make sure it couldn’t dodge the hit. A scene from a movie popped into my head, it would require me to get much closer than I felt comfortable with. Shrugging I tossed myself out of the tree, and as I slammed into the monster, I released the bolt in its face, killing it. I also took 20 damage. 15 from the fall and 5 from the monster biting me.
Overall it wasn’t that bad, 20 experience for the 4 worms and 70% progression on my Arcane Bolt. Though still no place to make camp. Thankfully there wasn’t anything around as while walking through the forest. Which was good because my mana needed time to fully regenerate. During this time there was also a cave it seemed empty, but when I looked inside there was something in it. So I chose not to enter. It didn’t look friendly. After walking slowly away, Alic told me it was a level 5 Cave bear.
It took me another hour of walking through the forest before there was an empty cave. Looking it over showed that it hasn't been used for some time. Alec said it was safe and counted. Smiling and looking around. Alic created a tent and set it against one of the walls.
“How did you make that?”
“I didn’t the goddess gave me basic materials to set up the camp. No there are no items to help your person. I believe she has already given you many bonuses.”
“I agree, I’m not greedy, just was curious about the tent.”
“It isn’t anything overly special. We will need to find some animals that you can kill as well as dried wood for to create a fire. First though find some place and bind yourself. Think I want this to be my respawn point.”
Finding an out of the way rock and binding myself to it brought a smile to my face. This was turning out to be much more exciting than what I had been expecting. There was a lot that needed to be done, but there was time for that. If what they were saying was true and I was now immortal this could be amazing. Though I did wish my brother could be here with me.
With my spawn point set, a notification of the completion of the quest telling me about the 50 Experience gained. Which brought me up to 70 out of 100. So far this was going pretty well.
“Being under 10 you will not lose anything if you die,” Alic informed me as we prepared to leave camp.
Nodding that I had understood, we started on our way. Trying to be as quiet as possible. It only took a bit and I found some tracks. They were familiar a hunter had posted them in the hall of a mercenary guild. With a quote saying that every great hunter had to start somewhere. They were rabbit tracks.
Tracking - Novice 1
You have discovered a track. Tracks are now easier to discover and follow. Easier if creature tracked is your level or lower. Harder for high-level creatures.
1% easier to notice and follow.
I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a skill, but it probably wasn’t one that would get a lot of use. Not after getting out of this forest anyway. In this forest, it was probably going to be very useful. Being as quiet as possible we walked through the forest looking for the rabbit, Half expecting a sneak skill to pop up, though it didn’t.
We found two bunnies resting after having eater. Neither was facing me which was a bonus. There would be no way to attack them both with Arcane Bolt. One would scatter when the other died. Drawing on my knowledge of magic, and preparing an arcane bolt in both hands. Focusing to make sure one would attack each rabbit. Releasing my breath and launching the bolts. Dual casting them was harder now that it had been before. Though they were being aimed at two different targets.
It wasn’t so much as dual casting as it was casting the spell twice. Watching as both rabbits died, brought a smile to my face. It had worked and now we had meat for dinner. Which reminded me, Cooking would probably be a good skill to learn. Between everything that was needed there just wasn’t time to get it all done. The rabbits offered me 5 experience each. Placing both rabbits in my bag, worrying about how to skin and cut them. It was time to find wood or cutting them would be the least of my worries.
This inventory bad was small, it could only hold 20 things. Thankfully weight wasn’t something that would affect what it could carry. Setting off it only took an hour too collect the wood. My bag wasn’t full of wood, but I had tried to grab every piece that was around. Heading back to camp, my thoughts drifted to how we were going to light the fire. That was a problem for later.
On the way back there was some rustling in the bushes. Climbing into a tree, I could see a wolf on the other side of the bush, it was tearing a rabbit apart.
Omega Wolf
Level 2
40HP
I could cast 5 bolts, if there was a way to hit it in a vital spot when using the first sneak attack, I might be able to take it down in five hits. With it being an Omega, it probably didn’t have a pack that it could rely on. Though being a wolf, I didn’t know if they could climb trees. Aiming for its head, and releasing my spell, it hit. But it only did 15 damage, bringing the wolf down to 25 health.
As it spun to face me, I released another bolt right in its face taking another 10 damage for the critical hit. Luckily when it had hit the wolf had opened its mouth so the bolt went down its throat.
With 15 health remaining, I had 3 bolts. Which should be more than enough to kill it, but being careful with my aiming. The third bolt hit the wolf on the side doing 5 damage, but the wolf hit the tree and knocked me off my branch. Though I was still in the tree. Aiming another hit at him smiling as it did 7 damage this time, leaving the wolf with three health. Launching my final bolt as I fell from the tree it grazed the wolf's leg for 5 damage. Killing the wolf.
Scrolling through my notifications, seeing that my Level and Arcane bolt were both level 2 now. Which was why the one did 7 damage. That was the new base damage. Also leaving me with 3 attribute points to spend. Quickly placing all three in Wisdom to increase my mana pool as well as regen. My mana pool doubled with all the extra points placed in it. It was enough to make me smile. Putting points into Intelligence was important at higher levels, you wanted to get your intelligence as close to 1,000 as possible for the 100% bonus to spell damage.
That made me smile, I couldn’t believe I had forgotten. Part of the reason that my spells were doing so well against the monsters was my bonus 20% spell damage. That was why they seemed to be ignoring defenses and hitting at higher values. Now I could cast twice as many bolts at a time. Which should make this even easier. Though knowing that I couldn’t just pump points into wisdom, this needed to be thought out. My intelligence needed to be raised as well as a few other options so that I would remain balanced and someone wouldn’t be able to kill me with a sneak attack.
Deciding to head back to camp to try and figure out what to do next, we headed off. It didn’t take long before we found the camp, thankfully it was undisturbed.
Setting a ring of stones in the middle of the camp area and placing some firewood inside of it. I tried to think of how to light the fire. There had to be a way. Entering meditation thinking about fire, fire spells were popular and I knew many of them before. With my knowledge of magic, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure one out.
Focusing on the feel of the fire, the way the magic would have to move through my body. The basic spell formation.
Fire - Torch
You have learned to summon fire into your hand. It is a small flame and it solely created from your mana. This is a non- combat spell and cannot be leveled. 2 mana per second.
Sighing, I had been trying to remember the basic fireball spell to give me another offensive ability, but this would probably work better.
“I don’t suppose you have a knight to skin the rabbits? Or the wolf?” I asked.
“No, but if you try looting them you should get a few pieces of meat. It won’t be as much as if you skinned them, but it is better than nothing. We will need to search to see if we can find useful items tomorrow.”
“Fair enough.”
Looting the rabbits and the wolf netted me a few rabbit haunches and some pieces of wolf flank. Lighting the wood on fire, setting everything up. The rabbit and wolf started simmering and even though it lacked any seasonings the smell was amazing. Looking into how the cooking skill worked in Etis would be essential if I was going to have to learn to take care of myself here.
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