Levitating 5 feet off the ground in front of us was a tall Elf male wearing dark red robes and a cloak around his shoulders.
Who the fuck are you? (ML)
That’s no way to speak to your elders young one. (???)
Sorry about our friend there, he’s a little rough around the edges. I’m Mike, the rude ones Matt, and that’s Eli, Zach and Cody. (M)
But he has a point, who are you? (Z)
What do you mean elders? You look younger than we do. (E)
Looks can be deceiving you talking trashcan, I’m 122 years old. You may call me V. (V)
Hey my armor doesn’t look that bad. Right guys? Right??? (E)
Wait your name is Vee, like V E E? ©
No my name is V like the letter V. (V)
Like Vendetta? (M)
Like what? (V)
Never mind. (M)
So what are a couple of newbies like yourselves doing out here in the Devouring Woods so far from Oasis? (V)
Devouring Woods? Oasis? Is that where we are? (Z)
Yes we are currently in the Devouring Woods, it gets its name because of how few people make it through the woods alive. It’s crawling with tier 3 creatures which are extremely dangerous to newbies like yourselves. Luckily I’m here and I can help you get to Oasis, which is the only safe place in the entirety of the Devouring Woods. (V)
Hey, who you calling a newbie? (ML)
The five LVL 1 greenhorns in front of me? (V)
Fuck you. (ML)
How can you tell our levels? And what is Oasis? (Z)
I can tell your levels because I know the spell Scan, it allows you to see a target’s stats. Oasis is a city not beholden to any country. It is ruled by a council of the seven strongest people of the city. It’s about a mile north of here if you walk. (V)
Can you show us the way there? If there are so many Tier 3 creatures won’t it be too dangerous for us? ©
Can you teach us Scan? Sounds like it would be quite helpful. (M)
Sure. (V)
Slow down guys. I have a couple questions for the talking meteor. Why are you helping us, what exactly do you have to gain? (Z)
Woah there Billy, chill the fuck out. I’m just your friendly neighborhood Elf, trying to help some lost travelers that I happened to find out in the woods. Now do you want my help or not? (V)
My name’s not Billy. But yes, we would like your help. (Z)
So how do we learn the spell Scan? (E)
Basically I’m going to send the spell knowledge straight to your brain all you have to do is let it happen. (V)
As he spoke, a ball of mana came out of him splitting into five parts and going into all of our heads. A prompt appeared in my head.
New spell knowledge detected would you like to accept?
I accepted it and a wave of knowledge washed over me. It was like I had known the spell my whole life. I just knew how to use Scan. I turned to Zach and scanned him. A flood of information washed over me and appeared in my peripheral.
Zach
Race: High Elemental (Water)
Class: Sorcerer
Affinity: Water
LVL: 1
HP: 50/50
MP: 320/320
This was crazy. I then tried to use it on V.
V
Race: Elf
Class: ???
Affinity: ???
LVL: ???
HP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
Hey, don’t do that, it’s rude. Ask before you scan someone. Also you should say the phrase “spell list” to bring up all the available spells and skills you can learn at level one. You can only pick one though so choose wisely. (V)
How come all your stats are question marks? I could see Zach’s why can't I see yours? (M)
Because I’m a higher level than you. Don’t worry about it too much. (V)
Spell List (Everyone)
We all brought up the spell list to see what spells were available for each of us. My available spells were as follows.
Arcane Arrow: Caster shoots a condensed arrow of mana (Cost:15 DMG:15)
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Void Slash: Caster focus void energy on their hand or blade (Cost:20 DMG:35)
Detect Trap: Allows user to detect traps (Cost:15 DMG:X)
Detect Poison: Caster can detect poison (Cost:20 DMG:X)
Night Vision: Gives user ability to see at night time like it was during the day (Cost:25 DMG:X)
Smokescreen: Creates a smokescreen around target (Cost:20 DMG:X)
Cloud Clone: Creates an illusionary cloud clone that mimics the caster (Cost:30 DMG:X)
Minor Teleport: Teleport 10 feet in any direction that is visible (Cost:25 DMG:X)
Minor Dispel: Dispels all magic of this tier and below (Cost:50 DMG:X)
Summon Familiar: summons casters familiar (Cost:20 DMG: X)
I guessed that spells and skills were dependent on your class and affinity. All of them seemed so useful. Summon Familiar sounded different but I already had enough friends with me. Detect Trap and Detect Poison would prove useful in the long run but after reading the list I knew what I had to pick. Minor Teleport was too cool to pass up. A teleporting Assassin, sign me up. As we finalized our choices we huddled up to discuss what we all had picked.
Rollcall. What spells or skills did you guys pick? I picked Minor Teleport. It has a range of ten feet in any direction I can see. (M)
Forcepalm for me. It fires a condensed burst of force at an enemy. It’s not long range though, but hopefully my armor can tank some of the damage I’d receive when fighting something. (E)
The system actually let me pick two spells. I chose Water Bullet and Icicle, the first spell shoots a bullet of water at the enemy, and Icicle shoots well, an icicle. Both are long range attacking spells (Z)
Well the main character needs survivability so I picked Unyielding Spirit. It allows me to survive any attack with one health as long as it’s not like a beheading or something. (ML)
I chose Minor Heal it heals 1 HP every 5 seconds, it costs 1 MP per HP I heal. ©
Right after we finished having our discussion we heard the trees start to rustle. A loud hissing sound could be heard. I had a bad feeling about this, a VERY bad feeling about this. Just as I had this thought a gigantic snake barreled into the clearing where we were gathered. It was at least 150 feet long and 25 feet in diameter. Oh and did I forget to mention it had two heads.
Hissssss (Twin Headed Basilisk)
Maybe its friendly guys? (E)
Somehow I doubt that. (Z)
I used Scan on the creature and it really didn’t look good.
Twin Headed Basilisk
LVL: ???
HP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
Okay so clearly this thing was a higher level than us. A significantly higher level than us more than likely.
Guys I can't see its level or health or anything. I think we’re in some deep shit here. (M)
Yeah thanks man, really helping the morale. (Z)
Maybe V can help us. (E)
No can do Kiddos, I do not do snakes. Toodles. (V)
V’s eagle then swooped down and grabbed him soaring into the sky. Looks like we were on our own here. The snake was staring at us with both of its heads, watching and waiting. It looked like it was sizing us up to see if we were going to do anything.
Codes you got a plan? (M)
Yeah, SHIT! Umm I’m thinking. ©
Codes just think and relax man, you're supposed to be the calm one (M)
Okay, okay. Alright I got an idea. Zach start pelting him with Water Bullets. Matt you pull aggro but try not to get killed we have no idea how hard this guy hits. Eli try to get in close and do some damage with your new skill. Your armor should hopefully cushion the blow if he hits you. I’m going to cast my healing spells on you guys and try to keep you topped off. ©
Got it! (ML,E,Z)
Wait Codes, what about me? (M)
You’re our wildcard Mike. Just go where you’re needed and do what you can ©
Just as we finished our discussion and got into our positions, the Basilisk hissed at us and started its attack. It charged at Matt. He tried to dodge but the snake was just too fast. It slammed into him. Right before he hit the tree we heard him cast Unyielding Spirit. He hit the tree hard and slumped down. I used Scan on Matt to check on his health.
Matt
Class: Knight
Affinity: Blood
LVL: 1
HP: 1/328
MP: 0/50
Well it looked like Matt was down for the count. I teleported to him, hoisting him over my shoulder and then teleported away. I checked my MP and it had gone down by 75. It looks like teleporting another person counts as it own separate teleport cost. I only had 115 MP left. Which means I had another four teleports before I was out of MP. Zach was pelting the Basilisk with water bullets. It was now soaked in water and so was the surroundings, but it didn’t seem to be doing too much damage. The Basilisk now focused on Zach. Things were starting to look bad.
ZACH RUN! ©
The basilisk then swept its huge tail at Zach. If that hit him it was game over, and I don’t think this world has respawns. So I once again teleported in shoving him out of harm’s way but the tail grazed me flinging me into a tree. I had landed on my arm. I looked down and my arm was bent at an odd angle. That was going to hurt in the morning. My HP was now at 88, that hit cost me 100 HP. But for now I tried to push past the pain, the fight was still ongoing. By this point Eli had starting baiting the basilisk’s attention.
HEY YOU SCALY PIECE OF SHIT. I’M RIGHT HERE COME AND GET ME. (E)
Eli kept chucking rocks at the Basilisk and had successfully pulled aggro away from Zach for the moment.
Guys my armor says to aim for its eyes, it’s that things only weak point. (E)
Wait did you just say your armor talks? Shelve that topic for later but if we get out of this we’re having a long talk about everyone’s capabilities. (Z)
Codes Heals please (M)
Got it Mike. Minor Heal! ©
Cody started healing me, and my HP was slowly climbing back up to full. It didn’t however do anything for my broken arm. Eli darted forward towards the Basilisk as it swiped at him. He dodged low and the tail missed him. He tried using Forcepalm but it didn't seem to be doing any damage. Cody’s heals combined with my base health regen, meaning I had 20 HpM. So it would only take 5 minutes to get me back to full health. Matt was still off to the side unconscious, Cody was busy healing me and I was running on fumes. Zach and Eli didn’t seem to be doing much damage to the creature. If we didn’t think of something fast we were all going to end up as snake food.
Codes any ideas? (M)
Thinking man. ©
Not trying to rush you or anything but could you possibly think faster? (E)
Yeah I’m currently sitting at 30 Mana, I only got three spells left so we better make’em count. (Z)
Okay I got an idea. Zach summon an icicle, Mike try to teleport above the snake and jam the icicle into its eye. Eli hammer it home. ©
Zach summoned an icicle and tossed it to me. I grabbed it with my one good arm and boy was it freaking cold. Then the snake stared at me with both heads and it almost looked like it’s two heads were smirking at me. It was time to show this thing we were not to be fucked with. It dashed at me with its mouths wide agaped. Guess it figured it was just going to eat me and be done with it. I teleported straight above it. It lunged at me again and I narrowly dodged it. I tried to grab onto its neck but it was still slippery from all of Zach’s attacks. I teleported on to the top of its head and jammed the icicle into its eyeball with all my strength. It screeched in pain. I then teleported away to safety. My job was done. Zach had summoned his last two Icicle spells and had fired them at the snake he luckily got a shot straight into the other head’s eye. He had zero MP now so he was effectively useless. The Basilisk was roaring in pain and thrashing around on the ground. It had two icicles jutting out of each one of it’s head’s eyes. Eli then rushed at it jumping into the air.
FORCEPALM! (E)
He slammed the first icicle into the right head’s brain like a jackhammer killing it instantly. The snake didn’t take this lying down, it slammed into Eli knocking him into a nearby tree. His armor seemed to have barely kept him alive. By this time I was back to full health. I used Scan on Eli and his HP was in the red so to speak.
Eli
Class: Barbarian
Affinity: Fire
LVL: 1
HP: 42/283
Armor HP: 1/100
MP: 45/75
Codes! (M)
On it buddy. ©
Cody started focusing on healing Eli so he was once again predisposed. I had a broken arm. Zach’s MP was regenning at a rate of 16 MpM so he wouldn’t be back to full for another twenty minutes. By this point I had regenerated enough mana for one last teleport.
ZACH toss me an icicle! (M)
Got you man. (Z)
The now one headed Basilisk was now eyeing us much more carefully as I wielded my makeshift ice sword. It finally got tired of waiting and it at charged at me. I used my broken arm as a shield. The snake bit into it sending jolts of pain into my brain. This was the worst pain I’d ever felt before. I couldn’t even describe it. Barely standing, I then used my good arm to bring down the icicle into the beast’s other eye. Blood spurted out of its eyes, coating me in it. It started twitching on the ground as it let out one last hiss.
Is it finally fucking over? (Z)
Then I passed out from the pain.