The trip to the woodland wasn’t a long one. William’s party reached the crest of the final hill before their destination. He however, wasn’t anticipating the sight before them. A group of...something was before them roughly fifteen meters away between William’s group and the woodland. To call them mere livestock would be a severe misrepresentation. The beasts were about the size of sheep, but instead of wool, they had thick scaled hides up to their thick, tree-trunk wide necks where a white and furry mane was puffed up to the beasts’ jawline, as if they were like those centuries old aristocratic collars nobles used to wear. He couldn’t remember the name of them though. That wasn’t the only weird as fuck look William beheld. Each of them had 6 scaled legs akin to wyvern legs in games he had played, but where he expected clawed feet, he was surprised at the sight of...hoofs? They looked similar, but looked like they were conjoined to another, like Siamese hoofs if that was a thing.
William rubbed his temples at the sight, they were fucking confusing. The head didn’t help, as what appeared beyond the fluffy mane was an insectile head with pincers surrounding a mouth with square teeth lining it, currently chewing grass.
“Are these...the cows of this world?” William said, now absolutely bewildered at the things.
He didn’t really want to waste an identify use as his Mana was still limited, needing more time to replenish fully than he had at present.
“Jane, can you identify them? My MP is half empty at the moment.”
Jane gave a teasing smile before replying, “Don’t you mean half full? Ever the optimist I see.”
William rolled his eyes then continued to give Jane a knowing look before replying, “So...Identify?”
“No please?”
“Fine, please can you identify them Jane.”
“Was that so hard?” Jane finished giving him a teasing wink before raising her hand at the beasts.
She described the prompt content:
{Ascension_Protocol}
Grass Chomper Level 2
{End}
The group stared at Jane for a few moments before William said, “Okay, what are they actually called?”
Jane gave them all a flat look, “Grass Chompers. I’m not joking.”
The group turned to look at the creatures again and William begrudgingly had to concede that Jane was probably serious. They seemed to be doing what their name implied anyway.
“At least it means they aren’t likely carnivorous then.” William said, hoping that they weren't omnivores.
That was when William noticed a familiar beast emerge from the tree-line, then another, then a third.
William drew his sword and pointed in the direction of the woodland, “Horned Lynxes by the trees, get behind me and get ready to fight.”
William stepped forward and took a defensive position hearing mixed footfalls move behind him. "Good, no arguments," he thought, it would make combats flow easier for the group. After a few moments William realized that they weren’t the ones being hunted. The Lynxes were in fact, after the Grass Chompers. The predators pounced at their prey and as a team, were upon one of their prey before the rest let out panicked chittering and bolted northwards. They moved in a herded stampede as the Lynxes were wearing the cornered beast down rapidly.
“They’re moving in herds. They do move in herds.” William said grinning at his reference slightly.
He heard Jane let out a long suffering sigh behind him.
“Movie references. Really William?” Jane said dryly.
“Of course, it was a great opportunity for it.”
“Comedy isn’t your thing, dear brother.”
William turned in mock affront at Jane’s words. “You wound me my dear sister. If I remember correctly, when we watched that movie you got so scared that you p-”
“NO! You don’t need to say any more about it. You win.” Jane barked in a panic.
William beamed victoriously at Jane and said, “GG.”
He then noticed the rest of their party looking on at the siblings.
Stacey eyed Jane curiously and said with an equally curious tone, “I kinda want to know the rest of that story.”
Jane went bright red like a polished apple at that and covered her face with her hands.
Jane then said in a muffle, “No, never. That’s going to my grave with me.”
Stacey giggled at the reaction and William felt his face warm slightly at the sweet sound.
John looked on at William as curious as Stacey, “What’s GG mean?”
William remembered then that they weren’t gamers like him. “It means Good Game. Used in gaming when you win over your opponent.”
Wallace then pointed behind William, “Lad, looks like they’ve almost killed that thing.”
William turned back to face the Lynxes and as he saw the scene, he heard the last chittering of the dying Grass Chomper. The vibrations in the ground had also softened significantly as the herd stampeded on without looking back at their fallen member. Yep Definitely herbivores William thought. The Lynxes were about to tuck into their quarry when one of them looked up at the Party and stared briefly before letting out a hiss. The Hiss drew the attention of it’s friends and the three creatures slowly began to stalk towards the party.
Stolen story; please report.
“Oh no. Shoo kitties, be good girls and boys.” Stacey said with growing uncertainty in her voice.
William stepped forward a couple paces and was impressed at how quickly he came up with a plan even if it was rudimentary, “I'll draw the attention of the two on the left, and other than Jane, you three cast Fire-bolt on the third. Jane, be ready to heal any of us. Stacey, if one gets close, draw your daggers and just try to stab it in the neck or head if you can. John, if you run out of MP, switch to your bow and just do your best to hit the target. Your class might give you some intuitive help to do so but I can’t be certain of that.”
William didn’t wait as he clanged his sword against his shield and charged at the approaching Lynxes roaring in a fierce battle-cry. This drew the attention of the two Lynxes he was running at. The third Lynx as predicted ignored him, most likely sensing easier prey. William got close as the Lynxes started to run at him too. As William neared his foes, he did a slight hop to the left of the first Lynx that reached him, and inspired by his brief fight with the bandits in his dream, pivoted, slashing at the back leg of the beast, gliding cleanly through as the beast let out a whimper. William didn’t stop there though as he shouldered his buckler into the charging second Lynx, bracing his fortitude just in case the beast’s horns pierced his buckler like the last time, but his earlier maneuverer had fortunately made him off center to the second Lynx.
The Lynx’s two horns glided off of the buckler as William struck with a well timed Swift Thrust, plunging his blade straight into the chest of the beast. With a sickly noise, William pulled his blade form the creature and after a gurgle and some whining, the Lynx fell to the ground having succumbed to it’s wound. William pushed the prompt aside as he turned to face the first Lynx that was now moving towards him growling a hateful intent to destroy and devour William. The beast was slowed due to it’s injury but didn’t waver in it’s hunt as it approached. William dashed forward and with another sidestep, turned and brought the buckler into the side of the Lynx’s head with a Shield Bash, then followed up as the beast lurched with another Swift Thrust, piercing the beast’s neck. The beast was not long for the world after that and fell to the ground, joining it’s friend in the afterlife. William looked on at his party and saw that the Lynx in front of them was covered in burns and the smell of burnt fur wafted in his direction, making his nose wrinkle slightly. The beast still approached even though the Fire-bolts were slowing its speed significantly.
William ran towards the beast to dispatch it, and as he neared it, the beast leaped straight for Stacey, she brought her hands up to cover her face in reflex. The next few moments were surreal for William as on reflex with his off hand, he drew his dagger and picturing the character he used to play in his favourite MOBA infused his dagger with Mana, picturing the speed rune in his mind, then launched the projectile at the beast. The blade launched forth at incredible speed and pierced the beast through the throat before propelling the beast about thirty meters through the air and down to the foot of the hill they had climbed from before.
Stacey didn’t feel teeth, but instead felt warm blood splash onto her. William felt sympathy for her as he knew too well that being bathed in blood was horrible. It was only a small splattering too and not a fountain of the stuff that hit her. That was probably why she didn’t throw up. He then felt a change in his mind and then a prompt appeared:
{Ascension_Protocol}
Through combat, you have gained experience with the manipulation of Mana and Ley-lines to enhance your attacks in new ways, adapting your learnings from the Enchanter class. [Skill learned – Mana Investment]
{Mana Investment – With your level of intelligence, the manipulation and adoption of Mana techniques feed into your physical deeds. Picture a rune that you know and infuse the relevant Mana to temporarily enhance the item of your choice with the effects of that rune. Stacks with other material effects. Stacks with other runes engraved onto the physical item. Ignores limitations of rune capacity. Ignores negative impact of over enchanting the physical item. [Cool-down – 5 Seconds][Cost – 60MP]}
{End}
Just like that, William had gained yet another skill, this time in his Enchanter Class. He then spotted everyone else including a grimacing Stacey looking into space until he realized that they were probably reviewing their prompts. William continued with his review:
{Ascension _Protocol}
You have slain: Horned Lynx Level 4
Bonus Enchanter EXP for slaying a creature with an Item enchanted by you.
Bonus EXP to all Classes from working with a party.
You have slain: Horned Lynx Level 5
Bonus Enchanter EXP for slaying a creature with an Item enchanted by you.
Bonus EXP to all Classes from working with a party.
You have slain: Horned Lynx Level 5
Bonus EXP to all Classes from working with a party.
{End}
No level up for William but he could feel that his Enchanter level and Fighter level were both close to doing so.
He closed the prompts and looked back at his party who were all smiling wide, “So I’m guessing all of you guys levelled up?”
They all grinned wider and after a brief discussion, he found out that Jane reached Medic five and Human five, the others had reached Mage four and Human four. William then considered the words he had read for the kill notifications he received about bonus EXP for being in a party. He had just done what a lot of people did when dragging IRL friends into MMOs; Power Levelling.
After giving them the stat application guidance they wanted, he walked down to collect the dagger from the Lynx that had joined the William I space program. A few minutes later, he regrouped with the others who were looking on at him in awe having recalled what William did to the lynx that he was carrying up the hill with him.
“Show off,” Jane said with an amused expression.
“Who me?” William replied with mock affront before tossing the Lynx down next to its friends.
“Yes you, why didn’t you just use that to begin with instead of charging into them?”
William chuckled at that, “Because I only learnt it then when the beast leaped at Stacey. I intended to throw the dagger, but somehow felt it wasn’t enough and so infused some Mana into it hoping that would work. It did as you could see. New skill gained for Enchanter too. Maybe I’ll teach you some time,” and he shot Jane a mocking wink.
Jane let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head then replied, “I’m guessing you also levelled up.”
“No, they were all too low level for me to gain much from the fight.” William returned with a shrug of disinterest.
William turned to look at Wallace and said, “Think you can get meat from the Chomper over there as well as these Lynxes?”
The older man looked over at the Chomper corpse and seemed less confident but gave a partial nod before replying, “Dunno lad, I’ll give it a go though.”
William smiled then picked up the Lynxes and dumped them next to the Chomper. They still had to get a good haul of berries too and Jane had emptied her belongings from her pack into Stacey’s to use her own for berry collection. The party didn’t need to venture in far before finding several bushes of the red berries William had found previously. They didn’t encounter anything dangerous while doing so either making William kind of bored honestly. After about an hour of gathering, the bag they used was full. The party returned to the corpses and Stacey pointed out that the boys should carry the bodies of the beasts back citing a skewed gender focused Hunter vs Gatherer comparison that William had no interest in disputing. He hated headaches after all.
William picked up two of the Lynxes, John picked up the third, and Wallace carried the Chomper. Together the party set off back home. The day was still fairly young so William consulted Wallace on defenses they could set up for the village on the way back hoping for some insights from the ex-soldier.