The once bright and sunny sky, hovering above the forest, was now dark and starry with a moon in place of the sun. Archie, still sitting in the large field of stumps, looked at his greatest masterpiece.
Effigy of Healing (Common):
An oak wood healing effigy made in the design of a Potion of Health imbued with the feelings of healing belonging to an F-Grade human and empowered with lesser elemental spirits. Allows lesser increased health regeneration for 10 minutes by the one who activates the effigy. Effects: Lesser Increased Health Regeneration. Requirement: Lv 10+ & Humanoid Race.
*Your Profession has reached Lv 8– Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
*Your Race has reached Lv 21 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
Archie looked at his first-ever Effigy of Healing (Common) within his palm, completely drained of stamina and mana. Looking around him, ignoring the scattered wood shavings, he saw to his right a large pile of Effigies of Healing (Initiate) easily around twenty of them.
To his left he saw the even larger piles of broken effigy statues, looking at the pile he shivered a bit remembering the explosion of wooden shrapnel turning him into a human porcupine.
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Archie had finally carved a Wooden Miniature Sculpture of Common quality and had just finished imbuing it with the feeling of healing. The only step left was to empower it with spirits, using Spirit Link. As darkness enveloped Archie, he was once again sent into the spirit realm for the 43rd time today.
Within the spirit realm Archie might have been a bit impatient, instead of slowly manipulating a few spirits into the Imbued Wooden Miniature Sculpture of Initiate quality, he grabbed a large handful of them forcefully and shoved them into the effigy.
Upon leaving the spirit realm, Archie said, “Uh oh” as he felt the Effigy start to crack; the imbued wooden sculpture of initiate quality unable to handle the power of 30 spirits.
Archie was unable to toss the sculpture spirit bomb far enough causing his hands, face, and abdomen to be stabbed with jagged splinters. Thankfully Archie had enough time to cover his eyes from being pierced like olives causing him to retain his vision.
The aftermath of the explosion covered both him and the area around him in wooden shavings. Coughing Archie looked at the explosion site that covered his makeshift effigy carving workshop, then at the splinters that covered the upper half of his body.
Sighing, “Me and my impatient ass,” Archie mumbled as he started to pluck the jagged splinters from his body.
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Archie then looked at the one Effigy that lay alone in front of him, he identified it once more.
Effigy of Harm (Common):
An oak-wood harm-inducing effigy made in the design of a Potion of Health, imbued with the feelings of anger and frustration belonging to an F-Grade human and empowered with lesser elemental spirits. Allows lesser health degeneration for 10 minutes for all within a 10 USM circle, except for the one who activates the effigy. Effects: Lesser Health Degeneration. Requirement: Lv 10+ & Humanoid Race.
“I still don’t know exactly how I made that one,” Archie admitted, his tone tinged with both annoyance and confusion. “I was just pissed and annoyed that I hadn’t managed to create a Common rarity Effigy of Healing yet, and somehow, I ended up making a Common rarity Effigy of Harm instead. I modeled it after a Potion of Health, so how the hell did it become an Effigy of Harm?”
“Whelp I’m gonna head to bed, my brain feels like mush,” Archie said, gathering up as many effigies as he could and heading back into the cabin.
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Waking up once more from the greatest bed in existence, Archie opened his status page to see:
Archie Gracefield
Race: Human F-Grade Lv 21
Class: Warrior Lv 23
Profession: Shaman Lv 8
Health: 892/892
Mana: 280/280
Stamina: 450/450
Stats:
Vitality: 85(89)
Strength: 95(99)
Endurance: 45
Agility: 75
Intelligence: 65
Wisdom: 28
Willpower: 29(30)
Perception: 44
Free Points: 14
Skills:
Basic One-Handed Weapon Mastery (Common)
Basic Light-Shield Mastery (Common)
Identify (Initiate)
Savage Charge (Rare)
Adrenaline Rush (Rare)
Warrior's Resilience (Rare)
Deep Meditation (Rare)
Mana Manipulation (Common)
Spirit Link (Epic)
Effigy-Carving (Initiate)
Bloodline:
Adrenaline Junkie (Unique) [+5% to Strength and +5% to Willpower]
Titles Collected:
Bloodline Progenitor [+10 Vitality and +5% Vitality]
Tutorial Points:
1,306
“Nice, but I should increase willpower by eleven points and place two points into wisdom, making them improve my Effigy-Carving skill. Albeit I’m unsure how wisdom could help, more stat points in my mental class could only mean good things.” Archie said before using his free points.
After placing those free points, Archie’s stomach grumbled. “I hope there is something to hunt while in the forest,” Archie mumbled lightly afraid of eating random berries or tree bark, especially the berries within this forest.
Any bright-colored thing in the wild is poisonous, Archie remembered his father telling him once when he tried to eat a red berry on a hiking trip. His father had grabbed his arm just before he popped the berry into his mouth, his voice stern yet calm as he explained how anything bright in the wild is most likely very dangerous.
After passing through the doorway and into the forest, Archie saw his wooden shaving-covered makeshift workshop and got an idea, “When I hunt for food I can learn the feeling of stealth, and I can use that for the Effigy of Stealth.” Archie said with a smile on his face at the chance to hit two birds with one stone.
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Archie was currently staring at his hunt atop a tree. A few meters below Archie was a large black bear, nibbling on some black berries and bark oblivious to everything around him. But the bear cub was not his target, rather it was the four green goblins who stalked the brown bear cub.
Identifying the goblins and black bear, he read:
[Goblin Lv 29]
[Goblin Lv 31]
[Goblin Lv 28]
[Goblin Lv 33]
[Bear Cub Lv 28]
That’s a bear cub? That’s easily two meters tall, Archie thought. What’s with the system and roiding-up baby beasts? First the gorilla and now this?
Archie then stared at the goblins; they wore mixed mashed fur armor, but they weren’t completely covered in armor; feet, heads, shins, and arms were uncovered. They resembled generic goblinoids, with thin, leathery-textured skin, hooked noses, bald heads, and a height of four and a half feet. Two goblins carried stone-tipped spears, and the other two goblins had slings made from vines and a piece of leather.
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The spearman goblins started to approach the bear cub spears parallel to the ground, while the slingshot goblins stood in the back each loading rocks into their slings.
One of the goblin spearmen stepped on a twig causing the bear cub to stop eating and face his stalkers. Standing on its back legs it roared in defiance toward the four goblins, the goblin spearmen gave up their stealth attack and charged at the bear cub.
One spear stuck into the lower left abdomen of the bear cub, while the other stuck into its lower middle abdomen. The swiped down with its left clawed paw across the skull of the level 29 goblin, causing it to let go of the spear handle and grab at its face.
The level 33 spear goblin pulled out its spear and thrust its spear into the bear cub’s unprotected neck. Unfortunately for the goblin, the fur and thick muscles on the bear cub’s throat stopped the thrust of the spear from going deeper than a few centimeters into its neck.
The bear cub lunged at the goblin spearman, but then its face was knocked to the side as rocks punctured into its face. Roaring in pain the bear cub fell to the ground, and both the level 33 and 29 goblin spearmen, the former now up from the ground, jumped atop the bear cub and started stabbing the bear cub to death.
The four goblins squealed in joy and started to dance around the corpse of the bear cub. After a couple of minutes of dancing, they started to cut apart the bear cub. One goblin, in particular, took a bite of some bear meat but then got hit in the face by another. Soon enough a fight broke out between the two goblins while the remaining two goblins continued to take apart the bear cub's corpse.
Archie watched the whole fight from afar completely hidden from both the bear cub and four goblins, fully submerged in trying to stay hidden from the combat. Confident that he understood the feeling of stealth, he was about to jump down and attack the four goblins.
Just before Archie jumped from the current branch he stood on, Archie heard stomping, loud stomping fill the forest.
The goblins stopped whatever they were doing and grabbed their weapons, as the stomping became louder and louder. But then Archie heard it, the most chilling sound he had ever heard.
ROOOOOOAAAARRR!
Goosebumps covered Archie’s entire body, Adrenaline spiking, Archie stood crouched on the tree branch and witnessed a slaughter that would permanently etch itself in his mind.
A large black bear standing easily at a height of 4 meters, its black fur across its body was covered in scars, muscles rippling with every step it took. Archie Identified the bear:
[Hulking Black Bear Lv 49]
Upon reaching the group of goblins, it squashed the level 33 goblin easily, the level 33 goblin’s body crushed like a can under a hydraulic press, causing its yellow blood to splatter everywhere. The three remaining goblins still in shock haven’t moved an inch, the large black bear swung its paw once more, claws cutting deep across the body of a goblin.
The remaining two goblins, finally able to move, turned back to run away from the bear, scared out of their minds. But just as they started to run the bear lunged forward and slammed one goblin into the ground and chomped down on its head. The last goblin ignored the death of its group and run full speed trying to escape the bear, the bear not oblivious to the last goblin it chased after him.
Now alone from where the massacre took place Archie quietly chuckled, a grin unnervingly painted across his face as he thought, I guess I found the feeling of wrath I was looking for and what I’m going to base my Effigy of Wrath on. Archie then jumped down, grabbed a few large chunks of bear meat the goblins had collected, and headed back to his makeshift workstation.
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Back at his makeshift workstation, Archie stared at the effigies he had just created:
Effigy of Stealth (Common):
An oak wood stealth effigy made in the design of a cat, imbued with the feeling of stealth belonging to an F-Grade human and empowered with lesser elemental spirits. The user’s presence is harder to detect for a period of time for the one who activates the effigy. Effects: Lesser Presence Suppression. Requirement: Lv 10+.
Effigy of Wrath (Uncommon):
An oak wood wrath effigy made in the design of a Hulking Black Bear, imbued with the feeling of rage and anger belonging to an F-Grade bear that heard the dying cries of its cub and empowered with lesser elemental spirits. Low increase in strength for a period of time for the one who activates the effigy. Effects: Low Increased Strength. Requirement: Lv 15+.
Surprisingly he had just taken a single attempt at crafting them both, seemingly gotten more skilled at effigy carving. Looking at the Effigy of Wrath, he felt melancholic as the only reason he was able to make it was due to a mother losing her child. Shaking his head in an attempt to get rid of the somber mood that fell upon him, he looked at the notifications that he ignored while being fully focused on creating the two effigies.
*Your Profession has reached Lv 9 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
***
*Your Profession has reached Lv 15 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
*Shaman Profession Skills Available. Choose one of the options*
*Your Race has reached Lv 22 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
*Your Race has reached Lv 23 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*
Skill Upgrade: [Effigy-Carving (Initiate → Common)]
Effigy-Carving (Common):
Effigies are the most basic crafting abilities of a Shaman, allowing them to create unique effects when in use. Due to improved proficiency in wood carving, wood becomes easier to shape. Effigies crafted will provide lesser bonuses.
Looking at the Shaman profession skills, a few caught his immediate attention.
[Hex of Weakness (Common)]: The shaman calls upon the spirits to drain an enemy’s strength, weakening their attack. The weakening of the attack is proportional to the mana you use when casting the hex.
[Shatter Spirit (Common)]: The shaman calls upon the spirits to attack their foe’s soul, fracturing it minorly. Nevertheless, due to the fragility of the soul, your foe’s magical connection is disrupted.
[Material Insight (Uncommon)]: The shaman taps into their connection with nature to identify and locate materials for their crafts.
“The first two are great for combat, but I think I can handle combat just fine so far. Material Insight is probably best. If I can find any better materials for effigies, I get some cool added effects on all my effigies.” Archie said while choosing Material Insight.
Archie placed the two effigies into his potion pouch, grabbed some chopped logs and set them alight. Placing the bear meat on the fire he opened the dungeon objective tab and saw:
Profession Challenge Dungeon
Objective 2: Create 4 effigies: Wrath, Healing, Endurance, and Stealth (Common+) 3/4
Reward: ?
Smiling, he decided to make his final effigy, Effigy of Endurance.
GROWL!
Sheepishly, Archie looked at his stomach, I’ll make it after I eat some food.
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Squinting from the bright sun as he passed through the doorway, Archie walked through the forest until he found his ‘workshop’. Sitting down, back to the same stump as always, started to carve out a turtle, with his Effigy-Carving skill now at Common rarity, he managed to finish carving the turtle in a few minutes.
Wooden Miniature Sculpture (Common):
A wooden carving made from oak depicting a Frostiron Tortoise.
Holding the Frostiron Tortoise miniature within his palms, he remembered his first night entering the tutorial. That night was the worst he had ever endured in his life, both the fight with the wolf and when he stayed up the whole night in the freezing cold, forcing himself to stay up.
Imbuing the Frostiron Tortoise miniature with his memory of his first night during the tutorial, he then activated Spirit Link. Upon entering the spirit realm, he noticed that the spirits were somewhat larger and brighter than when he had entered before when gathering spirits for the Effigy of Wrath.
Not seeing anything else different with the spirits, continuing with effigy making, he manipulated the spirits into the Frostiron Tortoise miniature.
Upon leaving the spirit realm he Identified the effigy that he now held.
Effigy of Endurance (Common):
An oak wood endurance effigy made in the design of a Frostiron Tortoise, imbued with the feelings of Endurance belonging to an F-Grade human and empowered with lesser elemental spirits. Increased stamina regeneration for a minor period of time for the one who activates the effigy. Effects: Lesser Stamina Regeneration. Requirement: Lv 10+.
Hearing a system ding, he read the notification:
Profession Challenge Dungeon
Objective 2: Create 4 effigies: Wrath, Healing, Endurance, and Stealth (Common+) ✔
Reward: Spatial Ring (Rare)
*Your Profession has reached Lv 16 – Points allocated, +1 Free Point*