Theron Gray | Class: Novice | Rank: Unranked
Class: Novice| Level: 5 | Next 245 xp
Mana: 14 / 14
Summon slots : 0/4
Essence: 1405
-Attributes | Free points: - (+1/level) -
Might: 6 (+1/level)
Speed: 5 (+1/level)
Magic: 9
Toughness: 6 (+1/level)
Resistance: 10
Abilities - Active
Abilities - Passive
Necrotic aura - lvl 1 | Summon Aspect
Extract Aspect | Unsummon Aspect
Necrotic touch - lvl 1
-
Theron’s party brisked through the mist-free Ghostwood grove, eyes gaping in search of quiet treants hiding behind their near-perfect guise. It didn’t take them long before one such moving tree appeared—its body distinguishable now that the mists had dissipated. His eyes tracked its location, leaning behind another tree of a similar color, then approached with his black bear as their vanguard. Lux kept its mouth shut, as commanded by Theron.
First, with the additional member in his party, the scope of his commands changed from handling a single entity to two—it sounded trivial at a glance, but once they entered combat, it took a while before his mind fully adjusted.
The dark furs of his bear unfurled as it zipped through the gap between their position, roaring as it painted slashes on the treant’s trunk, its speed a touch higher than before. Theron kept his shield high, braced fully for additional support. Despite its ranking up, Borys only earned a few additional points in might, so the changes weren’t drastic. Yet.
It took a while before the treant let go of its defenses, allowing Borys to carve into its face through its bark, yet, the kill took it a few extra seconds before it lobbed its head off with a mighty swing. Borys took superficial damages this time, retaining most of its fur, with only a few gashes sporting around its figure. All in all, not too shabby.
[You gained 80 experience points!]
Still eighty… They approached its carcass with caution, then the two aspects acted as sentries as he extracted.
[Rank 2: Ghostwood treant. learned. Progress: 80%]
Once done, he retrieved the small treasure map from his satchel, reading the inscription once more.
[Hidden between the edges of two cliffs, A circle of stones awaited the coming of its guardian. It rises when the time is right; when the sky is black, and the moon shining atop its resting grounds.]
Yeah… not too… descriptive. Theron couldn’t help but grin. Two cliffs could mean anything; hell, this whole zone was located below a cliff, after all. The passage about a circle of stones did allow him some sort of clue of the size of this location—wherever it was, it couldn’t be within a small crevice. He brushed the treant’s surface once more as he scanned his surroundings.
Rows and columns of trees filled every inch of his vision. With the mists gone, his eyes saw as far as the horizon allowed him to.
The creaking of woods snapped his eyes to a small thicket of trees a few feet away from him, and within, a group of treants surrounded an inlet, a body of running water separating his side from the other. He spotted three of them planting their arms into the rivulet, their barks bulging and pulsating. They’re drinking? He observed with utmost silence, hunching behind a tree. So far, none spotted his presence, permitting him a moment to consider his approach. As strong as Borys and Lux were, fighting multiple treants with vines reaching three times their height was a threat he couldn’t ignore.
“It’s time for you to shine, my friend,” He gave a loving pat on the wolf’s bushy head, “Let’s see what you can do. Borys, stay a few steps ahead of me, over there-” The bear waddled awkwardly to its designated spot, “-good…”
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Do your thing, Theron eeked out a command as he pictured his wolf launching some kind of a magical attack toward the treants. Aim for the closest one. His glare rested at a quiescent treat subsisting from the running water. A dim glow beamed its somewhat lengthy horn, a chill wafting from its tip, nigh freezing the air encompassing it. A small orb the size of a baseball blossomed from the glow, the cold from its core growing before it burst, launching toward the unaware treant.
None reacted before the projectile landed with a boom. Ice particles splattered on the point of impact, drizzling a blueish mist fogging the back of its body. A flood of sharp, jagged ice clawed upward, coating its gray bark in its frigid cold. From its groans, Theron surmised this one attack was indeed, effective. With additional investments in Lux’s magic stat and enough levels, a time would come when one ice shot from Lux spelled doom for one of these monsters. The treant shook the ice off its rigid bark, shattering its melting glass-like surface mantling its back.
All three treants turned their heads toward the source of their pain.
“More,” Theron whispered his next command, maintaining a close look toward the waggling treants. At this distance, it would take a few steps before they reached a striking distance. “Retreat… slowly.” He added, and the three backpedaled their way behind as Lux launched another one. Their steps thudded as the icicle punched the head of the same treant, stumbling it backward. Not dead yet. He grimaced while watching the incoming barrage of vines, which Borys defended against by brandishing its claws, ever so slightly dented from their attacks.
Two more shots blasted before the first treant died. So… four icicles for a kill… alright.
[You gained 80 experience points!]
Borys sidestepped the incoming vines as the party picked up their pace, gaining enough distance so that their vines nigh reached them. Then, he repeated his strategy. Lux expended four more mana before its pool dropped to two, to which Theron opted to end the final treant with the old-fashioned melee strikes from Borys. The last kill took a lot longer, eventually urging Theron to use Emboldened claws in fear of attracting the attention of other treants.
[You gained 80 experience points!]
[You gained 80 experience points!]
[Aspect of Ghostwood treant is added to your compendium. You can now summon it after materializing the aspect using an aspect core.]
[You obtained a materia: R-2 Ghostwood treant.]
[Rank 2 materias found! You can now craft skill stones.]
Even more craftable stuff?
Theron studied the frozen marks from the dead treants. There’s a tiny hole where the impact point is, a hole which allowed the rest of Lux’s magic to do its work, freezing its… veins? Within its wooden body. The brittle chips of wood shattered as he put force into its skin. It was during this time he understood how icy the icicles were—to freeze this much from a few bolts impressed him, and cautioned him to avoid tanking one of those horn pulses if he could.
Cupping a few gulps from the river, he resumed his trek in the forest, hopeful for more levels and rewards.
###
[You gained 80 experience points!] x 2
Two more treants interrupted their approach before he saw it—a circular valley walled by pillars of rocks, atop which the moon gleamed into its center. Night wind brushed his skin, a slight chill ran his back as he abused Borys’ large size as a shield against the cold, to which the bear obliged with a mirthful gaze. Only dead trees and the swaying of thin sward painted the landscape below, the eeriness ushered by the whistle and quavers of the wind sloshing against the jagged edges. Everything stood too still, too quiet, too dead for his tastes.
He clicked his tongue, unable to reach a decision. The map mentioned a mighty guardian; a foe of which he had close to zero clue about—not even a hint of its abilities and form, or… anything, really—although, given the treants populating the forest like flies, an elite treant seemed to be the most probable monster.
He loathed losing another aspect here, especially so when there were no revives left post-Lux’s resurrection, losing an aspect—a rank two, no less—would hamper his progress significantly. He bit his lips to tide the frustration seething in his heart, unable to come to a decision.
A rush of wind blasted as they peered over the canyon, refusing to glance a single dot away from the center. With a squint, he noted a slight plinth erected by some entity, and atop it, a monstrous humanoid made of nothing but rocks hushed. The decor carving its torso denoted some kind of knight, its form hulking and imperious. A set of a shield and a massive blade rested on both of its arms, stretching to reach the moon above.
[You possess the treasure map. Enter the canyon and use it to rouse the guardian.]
Yeah… about that. This thing oozed the same kind of vibes the spined bear radiated back in the tutorial zone, and it smelled like death too. He was certain of the impossibility of triumphing over this monster, or was it even a monster? With no signs of life, and the frigid, arid air desiccating his skin, a choice had to be made, and quick. He could risk a tour around the block, there was a slight chance the stone knight would be ponderous. Its slow speed permitted them a chance to wail on it with attacks, certainly, but that only worked if his attacks… well, actually hurt it. From a glance, ensured with a piercing stare, he knew no amount of ice bolts posed a threat to this thing.
And so, he planted a mark of this location in his head and withdrew into the forest.
###
[You gained 80 experience points!] x 2
[Your aspect core - Full-grown horned Gray Brute Dire wolf leveled up! It gains +3 might, +2 speed, +4 magic, and +1 toughness. +2 free attribute points.]
[Your aspect core - Sable Metal-clawed Bear leveled up! It gains +4 might, +4 speed, and +2 toughness. +2 free attribute points.]
[You leveled up! You gained +1 Might, +1 Speed, and +1 Toughness. +1 Free attribute point]
[You completed a quest!]
[You obtained a materia: R-2 Ghostwood treant.]
The treant missions… Did I kill 10 of them already?
A duo of treants blocked his path as he trekked his way back to the checkpoint; the blinking post on the pillar acted as a lighthouse to the hostile night. He eyed the growths of his aspects as he found a safe enough spot away from prying tree eyes, then allocated appropriate attributes to where he deemed them best. Lux gained +2 magic on top of its growth, its mana pool ballooning to 16 in a single level, then Borys acquired more bite in its claws. In theory, Lux nigh doubled its magical output from a single level up, yet there was no guarantee each point of a stat carried the same value. If that was the case, Theron would be quadruple as strong and thrice as speedy as he used to be, but never had he felt that way. At best, he could bench perhaps 15 more pounds—an unproven estimate—and he could sprint a few seconds faster in a 100-meter race. Granted, he wasn’t a top athlete at those fields, so his anecdote should be taken with a grain of salt.
Would he be hunkering behind his aspect forever? Or would his role change come the near future? Perhaps a new class permitted him a more proactive role later?
Only time will tell.
Shoving his ruminations to the side, he returned to the soft blinks of his checkpoint, alone, and somehow… comfortable.