Carrow sighed, finally realizing the true depth of what she had gotten herself into.
On the surface, helping these Adventurers gain experience and levels had seemed relatively simple—but that was before Carrow had actually swung a sword for the first time. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of spending who only knew how long getting gnawed on by Coyotes and any other monsters wandering these parts… but unfortunately for her, she had already agreed to help them, and she wasn’t about to go back on her word.
“Let’s go,” Zaccai grumbled. The Warrior muttered the words under his breath, but Carrow still heard them.
“Just a minute,” she shot back, not bothering to moderate her own tone. All of this was a lot for Carrow to take in, and it wasn’t Carrow’s fault that Zaccai was wandering around the woods in his skivvies. Zaccai’s petulance worked its way under her skin irritatingly easily, but Carrow decided that she’d had enough of always being polite and amicable to every Adventurer that crossed her path. She was the one doing a favor for them, not the other way around, after all.
“We need to loot the corpse, anyway,” Shiya reminded them, already on her way to do just that.
Ignoring Zaccai for the moment, Carrow followed Shiya so she could retrieve her sword. “Anything good?” she asked as the Mage passed the weapon over and then knelt down to rummage through the items the Coyote had dropped.
“Couple copper, one pelt, one broken claw—junk—and… a pair of Holey Boots!” Laughing, Shiya straightened up and held them out.
Trevien’s face fell when he saw them. “Aww, I thought you said holy boots.”
“Negative,” Shiya chuckled. “Though these look like they’re made of more holes than leather. Well, here you go.” Shiya held the boots out toward Carrow.
Hesitating, Carrow looked around at the rest of them. “Don’t you need gear, too?” she asked reluctantly, eyeballing the boots hanging from Shiya’s fingertips—literally hanging, as Shiya had looped her fingers through a hole in each of them as she held them out.
“Yeah, but you’re first priority for anything you can use to help kill stuff faster,” Shiya replied, wiggling the boots a little.
“But I have boots,” Carrow protested. She stuck out a foot, demonstrating. The ones she wore were nothing fancy, just worn and scuffed plain leather, but they had always served her well enough… for wandering around the packed dirt roads of Highspring, anyway. She would need something sturdier if she wanted to keep tramping through the woods and killing things, but the looted boots looked like they would last all of thirty seconds before disintegrating completely.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Zaccai muttered from somewhere behind her.
Shiya was more patient than the Warrior. “What level are yours?” she asked. “Go to the menu, then Equipment.”
Biting back a sigh, Carrow did as she was told. Now this was interesting. Before, Carrow had been able to tell general things about any items she had in her inventory, such as their name and whether or not they were magical, and she could get a general feel as to their rarity just by looking. But now, information about her items was blatant right before her eyes. Her Fingerless Gloves were level one, their name grey in color; her Roughspun Linen Shirt was level one as well, but its name was white and it provided her with +1 Armor, as did her Worn Leather Breeches with Overskirt.
On a hunch, Carrow looked at her Inventory, too. This, at least, she knew how to do without being told. And just like with her equipped items, she could see details about her belongings that she’d never been able to see before, only somehow know without realizing how or why.
“Well?” Shiya prompted.
Carrow closed her inventory and made the menu vanish. “Level one,” she admitted grudgingly.
“And these are level three with plus two armor. So, even though they look like trash, they’re actually better than what you have on.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Carrow grumbled, although she reached out and accepted the boots. She put them on with a thought, frowning down at her feet.
“I’ll take the old ones if you don’t need them,” Trevien said, nodding his head toward the pair Carrow had removed.
“They don’t do anything,” Shiya reminded her friend.
Trevien shrugged, smiling sheepishly. “Yeah, but I feel weird without shoes on. It’s not like it hurts to walk around without them like it would in the real world, but…” He trailed off, wiggling his bare feet.
Carrow passed them over to the Cleric without hesitation; they weren’t worth much, and it wasn’t like Carrow had anyone to sell them to, anyway… even if she still thought it was ridiculous that the scraps of leather currently on her feet were still somehow “better” than what she had given Trevien.
“Boots and underwear. Stylish,” Shiya giggled, and Trevien grinned at her as he struck what Carrow presumed was intended to be a sexy pose.
The Cleric did look amusingly ridiculous, but Carrow had something else on her mind. “Hey,” she said. “What did you mean about the real wor—”
“Can we go already?” Zaccai asked loudly, drowning out Carrow’s question.
“Geez. Calm your tits,” Shiya huffed.
“My tits are fine,” Zaccai said flatly. “Sue me if I don’t want to spend all my game time standing in the woods with my thumb up my ass.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Shiya replied.
Trevien turned to Carrow. “You good to go?”
“Yes, I—yes, actually. My health has gone up.” Carrow blinked at the Cleric, surprised to see that her HP was up from 168 to 220 and climbing as she watched.
“M-hmm,” Trevien said. “Health and mana regenerate outside of combat. Well, usually. There are a few curses and things that can prevent it, but they seem to be rare at low levels—I’ve only read about them on the forums.”
Deciding not to point out that the Cleric surely meant that he read about it at the forums—not that there were any cities anywhere nearby large enough to even have a forum—Carrow simply nodded.
“All right,” she said with a sigh. “Let’s go find some more monsters.”
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By the time the sun rose the next morning, Carrow was thoroughly sick of hunting Coyotes.
The group had been successful so far, in as much as Carrow had killed eight more Coyotes, ranging from Level 2 to Level 4, and none of the other Adventurers had gotten eaten in the process. The accumulated experience was enough for the others to all get to Level 3, as well, which they were happy about. The spoils of war were lacking, however; after all that effort, the only useful item they had managed to find was a weak wand for Shiya. Other than that, it was simply some other odd bits of clothing that didn’t provide any defense. The Adventurers still put them on just for the sake of it, but all of them had really been hoping for more.
The one upside was that all the pelts they had collected could be sold whenever they got to another town and that money could be put toward armor and weapons. Although, Carrow realized, she didn’t have any idea how much money the other Adventurers had. Carrow herself had only around 12 gold with her, and she felt a sudden flash of regret as she recalled how much had been sitting in a locked chest in her home.
Well, money was something to worry about another time. Right now, Carrow was occupied with trying to think of a way to speed this process up as the group continued what felt like their millionth loop through the same patch of forest, looking for more prey. The Coyotes came back fairly regularly—“respawned”, to use the Adventurers’ terminology—but not quickly enough to keep this from being fairly boring.
Carrow never thought she’d ever think of fighting as boring, yet here they were.
Sure enough, she wasn’t alone in her boredom. “Maybe we should find another area?” Trevien suggested, the first one of them in a while to break the silence with more than a sigh.
“I second that,” Shiya said immediately. “There’s gotta be somewhere around here with more mobs or a higher respawn rate or something.”
“Fine by me,” Carrow said with a sigh. She felt like she knew this little patch of the woods better than she knew Highspring at this point. It was an exaggeration, of course, but she was more than happy at the prospect of finding another patch of woods to circle through a hundred times.
A short while after agreeing to head a bit deeper into the forest to see what they found, Carrow was starting to get the feeling that they would have to go back, or at least work their way back to the road and head for a completely different area. There wasn’t anything around to fight at all, other than occasional rabbits and birds.
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“We may want to turn around,” Carrow ventured, perhaps needlessly since she only had to glance at the others to see they were all thinking the same thing. It would only take a few minutes to get back to where they had previously been hunting the Coyotes if they cut straight back instead of kept sweeping back and forth in wide arcs like they had been.
“Man,” Shiya grumbled. “Where’s a convenient rat-filled sewer when you need one?”
“I don’t think there are any sewers around here,” Carrow told Shiya, frowning.
The Adventurer rolled her eyes. “I know, it was a joke. Obviously there wouldn’t be a sewer in the middle of nowhere. It’s just a stereotype that there’s always a quest to kill rats in a sewer in most—”
“Look!” Zaccai exclaimed suddenly.
Shiya turned her head to the Warrior, likely to snap at a him for interrupting her, but her eyes widened when she followed Zaccai’s line of sight and saw what he was looking at. “Oooh!” she breathed, eyes widening. “A Rare!”
Carrow stepped toward them so she could see around the tree blocking her vision, curious. Sure enough, she could see a monster pacing slowly through the trees down a slight incline. It was far enough away that it hadn’t noticed them yet, but Carrow could tell at a glance that it wasn’t a typical Coyote. It was larger, for one thing; if Carrow didn’t know better, she would have thought it was a Hyena of some sort. Its coloring was different too, darker where the other Coyotes had tended to a ruddier color.
Excited and nervous all at once, Carrow read the words that popped up as she looked at it—not green-colored like all the other Coyote names had been, but yellow, with a small bronze skull preceding its name:
Den Mother
Level 5
HP: 125/125
Not your average Coyote…
“Level 5, though,” Trevien said doubtfully as they all stared at it. “And it’ll be stronger than normal, since it’s Rare…”
“Pssh, It’ll be fine. I’ve got a wand now—I can help with the pew pew finally,” Shiya replied, drawing the wand. It was really more of a stick than anything else, but Shiya waved it around in the air in the direction of the Coyote like it was the mightiest sword, grinning all the while.
“We need the XP, and it’s the first mob we’ve found in a while,” Zaccai reminded Trevien, folding his arms.
After a moment, Trevien sighed and nodded. “Just be careful,” the Cleric said with a shrug. “If we get in over our heads, we might have to try and run.”
“It’ll be fine,” Shiya repeated. Then, turning to Carrow, she waggled the wand again. “Ready?”
“I guess,” Carrow replied. Her health was full and there was no reason not to kill the beast. She’d just have to keep a closer eye on her health throughout the fight and make sure she landed as many hits as possible, right?
Telling herself there was nothing to worry about and she could surely handle a Level 5 Coyote—she’d managed a couple Level 4s already, after all—Carrow headed in the Den Mother’s direction, sword and shield at the ready. Shiya followed behind, perky as ever, and the other two trailed at a safer distance.
Planting her feet once she was in range that it would hear her, Carrow waved her arms in the air. “Hey,” she called. “Hey, you! Coyote! Over here!”
The Den Mother’s response was immediate. Its head swiveled around, the fierce amber eyes fixated on her, and a loud snarl filled the morning air. It was still a ways away, but the Den Mother didn’t hesitate before charging.
It wasn’t the only one.
Abruptly making a decision, Carrow broke into a run, charging at it, too, trying to head off its inevitable lunge attack. Carrow swung her sword as they met, twisting to the side as she did so to avoid a collision—and to avoid its teeth.
Den Mother takes 15 points of damage!
“Oy! You’re almost out of range!” Shiya hollered, running in their direction. A few steps later, she swung her wand in a wide arc and a wobbly ball of white light floated out of it and smashed into the Den Mother a moment later.
Den Mother takes 9 points of damage!
Shiya skidded to a stop and quickly shuffled to the side to put Carrow between her and the monster, which was good—the Mage didn’t have nearly as much health as Carrow did, and Carrow didn’t want the Den Mother to notice and decide to attack her.
As usual, the creature was quick in its recovery. It was on her in an instant, all jaws and claws, and Carrow winced as she immediately took 21 points of damage. She retaliated with a sharp jab of her sword, then groaned when the Den Mother twisted out of the way without taking any damage. This wasn’t uncommon for Coyotes, but it was always annoying; Trevien had explained that some creatures had a naturally high dodge chance, while Carrow would have to put points into Dexterity if she wanted to increase hers. In a fight like this against a strong monster, that one missed hit could spell disaster later on if Carrow wasn’t careful.
“Boo,” Shiya called. She attacked again and managed to hit the Den Mother for another 9 points of damage, but it wasn’t enough to distract the beast from the attack it directed at Carrow.
Carrow takes 23 points of damage!
Grudgingly thanking the Holy Boots she wore for giving her a little bit more defense and keeping the Den Mother’s attacks from being worse than they were, Carrow lashed out and hit the beast for 14, followed by 8 more from Shiya. She took another 19 points in return and hunched down behind her small shield, carefully eyeballing her health. It was okay—for now.
“Take tha—oh come on!” Carrow groaned as the Den Mother dodged again. She had tried to clip the Den Mother’s head with a backhand swing of her shield as the Den Mother recovered, attempting to stun it in the hopes of giving herself and Shiya time for a couple quick attacks before it recovered, but the Den Mother apparently had other plans. Not only was it stronger than a typical Coyote, it seemed to have a better chance to evade their attacks, as well.
“It’s fine,” Shiya said, darting aside for just a moment to send another magical bolt toward the beast before returning to her safe spot directly behind Carrow. “We’ve almost got it down halfway, and you still have plenty of health! Just keep going!”
Den Mother takes 8 points of damage!
Growling, the Den Mother danced back a few steps, carefully putting itself outside of Carrow’s reach. Carrow tensed as it crouched, assuming it was going to lunge at her again. Instead, the Den Mother craned its head back, looked to the sky, and let out a fearsome howl that seemed to shake the world around them.
Den Mother summons Coyote!
“That’s not good,” Carrow muttered, half to herself. She scanned around, trying to find the new Coyote without taking her eyes off the Den Mother… but it wasn’t until she heard Shiya swear loudly from behind her that Carrow realized where it had appeared.
Shiya takes 16 points of damage!
“Get off,” Shiya snapped, lashing out with her wand. The magical bolt hit the Coyote at point-blank range and it danced away from her, shaking itself in what looked almost like irritation.
Coyote takes 8 points of damage!
“Are you all right?” Carrow asked, trying to angle herself such that she could see both creatures at the same time. It was impossible, though; the new one was far enough behind her that she had to look away from the Den Mother to see it and vice versa.
“Fine,” Shiya snapped. “Just keep it away from me!”
Taking a risk, Carrow turned her back to the Den Mother so she could face the new Coyote. Yelling had worked to attract the Den Mother the first time, so she tried it again. “Over here! Look at me!” Carrow cried, waving her shield and sword in the air to attract its attention. It worked and the Coyote turned to snarl at her instead of at Shiya, but Carrow paid for turning her back to the Den Mother.
Carrow takes 23 points of damage! Carrow takes 11 points of damage!
The two beasts attacked one after the other, leaving Carrow no chance to try and defend herself in between. She stumbled and nearly fell, wincing as she quickly looked at her health as they both stalked to and fro to either side of her, looking for another opportunity to attack. Thirty-four points of damage was a lot to take that quickly. She still had 148 HP left, but that wouldn’t last long if both beasts attacked her like that again. And if they managed to get a critical hit in, especially the Den Mother…
Trying to take the initiative, Carrow charged forward and swung hard at the Den Mother. The blow landed for 13 points of damage, but Carrow twisted her foot oddly and nearly lost her balance as she tried to step back out of range, leaving her open and unprepared to guard herself against an attack.
Luckily, Shiya was paying attention and had her back. “Duck!” Shiya hollered.
Carrow didn’t hesitate, immediately dropping down to one knee. As soon as she did, a bolt of magic sailed over her head, nearly singing her hair off as it passed. The Den Mother’s mouth was wide open in anticipation as it leapt through the air toward her, and Shiya’s attack caught it right in the teeth for 9 points of damage. Nothing could stop its airborne momentum, however, and Carrow just barely managed to get her shield up to protect her head as the Den Mother’s claws raked at her. It worked, and Carrow was relieved to avoid taking any damage from the Den Mother.
She remembered the other Coyote an instant too late.
Critical hit! Carrow takes 25 points of damage!
The Coyote’s claws raked at her as she stood, and Carrow had to force herself not to instinctively look away from the Den Mother toward it. The Den Mother was the bigger threat here, and it was down to 40 HP. They needed to finish it off before worrying about the Coyote if they wanted to make it out of this alive.
Steeling herself even though she hated the idea of having her back exposed to the Coyote, Carrow darted in to the Den Mother for another attack. Her sword slammed into it for 15 points of damage, dropping it to 25 HP—not bad. It would probably only take two more solid hits from Carrow and maybe one from Shiya to take it down. All they had to do was focus—
Den Mother summons Coyote!