Another day of work done and another day closer to his mini vacation next week. He was excited to get back in the game. He just kept dying at the end of every session and he planned to go out and finish the bunny hunting mission not long after he actually got set up in the game! He had spent the day thinking on the mission, to the point where his boss had to yell at him for his inattention oops, and thinking of how to maximize his ‘Variable’ reward.

Since the deity he followed was invested in knowledge and he mentioned something about tamers, he figured he would try to scan bunnies for their knowledge, before attempting to tame the one for his quest. The game only mentioned showing it who was the boss and had a variable reward so surely making his mortal enemy hopping mad before bending it to his will was the best way to show it. Though he wasn’t exactly sure how taming worked in the game, nor did he know if it was possible to tame it as a Necromage.

He figured he might be able to ask his deity about it though, so Dan lifted his feet and left the spawn room and made his way to the temple. It seemed to be slightly more packed today for some reason so his progress was unreasonably slow as he moved through the crowd. He had to push several people as they just decided to stand in the middle of the road looking at shops nearby. Finally he made it to the beautifully made marble temple and headed inside. Heading over to his Deity’s shrine he touched it and was transported to his God’s realm.

“Ah, if it isn’t Dan! Welcome welcome! What can I do for you today? Though I can’t do much of anything until you start scanning creatures. I do understand you ended up dying before you could the before yesterday though.” The god was in the middle of trying to set a marble fox on a broken pedestal when Dan entered and he couldn’t help but wonder what he did all day. Though one thing he said struck him as odd.

“The day before? What do you mean? I didn’t meet you until yesterday?” Dan opened up his quest menu and saw indeed that more than a day has passed on his rabbit killing quest.

Rabbit Hunter: The same rabbit has humiliated you not only once, but twice. Killing you at the height of your Bunny reviving power! Make this rabbit know who the true master of the woods is within 3 days! Reward: Variable. Failure: Title gained - Bunny Bumper (1 day remaining)

“Ah, I thought most of the Travelers had heard when they came through to this world. The time in the world passes twice as fast as it does in your own. While you don’t notice it right now, since your mind is able to process more in this realm without worrying as much about your other body.”

Dan was shocked at this news. That meant the deadline on any quest he had was halved. Wait a minute… that meant he only had three days left on his quest from the blacksmith! Pulling up the quest he saw indeed he was right. Almost panicking he decided he would do as much as he could tonight. As long as he didn’t die that left him with plenty more time in game then he thought he would have. “Ah, well God- uh, sir? Lord?”

Dan stumbled over the address as he had no idea what to call this deity. The God waved him off. “Just call me Cladicus, I have no need to inflate my ego. Now spit it out. I only have so long to talk with you with my limited power.”

“I was hoping to learn how to tame things. I have a quest to show up a rabbit that has killed me twice so far and I figured the best way to do that was to tame it.” Dan looked hopefully over to the hairy God as he scratched his chin thinking. His face was hard to read but he didn’t seem to be against the idea.

“That… is one way to finish the quest. I’m sure killing it would be easier but taming it would really be a way to gain more rewards... yes yes. While right now I have no way to help you… buuuuuut if you were to scan three rabbits then I would be able to do something in that regard. Yes, now go. Finish this task and you will be rewarded.”

Dan felt himself almost pushed out of the shrine and landed on his bottom as he returned to the regular game world. Deciding not to take offense to the God that was helping him, he got up and began to walk towards the gate. Goal in mind he figured he could easily kill three rabbits. And since the crowd was so thick he had plenty of time to go through his notifications from last night on his way there.

Congratulations! You have raised your first animal as a Necromage and are well on your way to becoming a force to be reckoned with! Based on your current stats, skills, and titles your Necromantic Resurrection now costs half as much health to use!

That was something. Dan was thinking he’d have to either find a bunch of healing potions or bump his health up to ridiculous levels if he was going to be a tank for his group while also reviving things. It took a crazy amount of health to resurrect just a single rabbit.

Skill Increased: Shield Mastery (Novice II)

That was a nice bonus. It seemed the rabbits had four health based on the one he killed so despite the ridiculous damage he should be able to one shot them once he increased his skill again since it seemed he did one damage on top of his shield mastery score due to his strength,

Skill Gained: Mana Manipulation (Novice I). Where others are content to throw unseemly amounts of power into a spell-swiftly fueling their own destruction- you use a lighter touch. -30% mana and +1% spell efficiency per skill level. (Maximum 25% efficiency).

Dan stopped in the middle of the road, and someone swore as he walked right into the shield strapped onto his back, before trying to shove him. It seemed he had little strength so he just grunted as he couldn’t seem to move the large man and gave up as he just walked around Danny. Not noticing any of this Danny quickly checked his stats to see if this could possibly be right. There was no way he had just lost a third of his mana for doing something the game itself told him to do.

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Name: Danny_The_Miller ‘Fools Frontline;

Class: Necromage

Profession: Locked

Level: 1 Exp: 0 Exp to next level: 1000

Hit Points: 130/130 (60 + 10 per point of Constitution)

Mana: 96.25 (125 + 12.5 per point of Intelligence)

Mana regen: 3.75 (2.5 + .25 per point of Wisdom)

Stamina: 185 (50 + 5 per point of Strength + 5 per point of Constitution)

Characteristic: Raw Score (Modifier)

Strength: 14 (1.12)

Dexterity: 10 (1.00)

Constitution: 18 (1.17)

Intelligence: 11 (1.13)

Wisdom: 15 (1.15)

Charisma: 6 (0.04)

Perception: 17 (1.15)

Luck: 12 (1.12)

Karmic Luck: -3

Dan groaned. Even with the increased efficiency from his skills he couldn’t use his one spell right now. It cost 98.5 a whole 2.25 more than he had. It seemed his mana would increase to it’s normal amount, or perhaps even more at higher levels, but for now he was stuck with what he had. Not only that though, his experience was back at zero after dying again Finally he started moving yet again and was soon at the gates.

Walking past he saw the bunnies, and knowing he couldn’t even use his necromancy right now, he decided to just stay on the path and in view of others since he was going to focus on using his shield to kill the rabbits.

After moving up to the nearest one he moved behind it and slammed the spiked part of his shield into it. Not even bothering with aiming at it’s head. The Rabbit let out and indignant cry and jumped at him as he backed off. With a ping off his shield a few health point down he moved forward and smashed his shield into the rabbit again, killing it this time. This felt… too easy.

He supposed these were starter area enemies and when he hadn’t prepared properly the first time he now had no trouble with these creatures since he knew what he was doing. It seemed they had very high damage in order to punish players who didn’t prepare themselves for the harshness of this world. They had very low health though in order to let you quickly move through them when you knew what you were doing.

Dan felt a bit better about it now that he understood the logic of this area, and bent to pick up the loot. A pelt appeared next to the rabbit, wasn’t that handy, and he cast ‘Scan’ on it. The corpse melted into the ground… though that wasn’t the best way to describe it. It’s as if the earth started to become one with the Rabbit and slowly dragged it down into it. A strange way to scan things but at least he didn’t have to do anything else. Before he could move on he got a notification.

Congratulations! You have scanned your first creature for your God. He has deigned to grant you a new skill to use as a reward.

Skill Gained: Necromantic Healing (Novice I). Using a nearby corpse you may heal either yourself or an ally depending on how much Mana is devoted to it. You may only use 10 mana per level of the creature used for healing. Health Gained 5n where n equals level of the creature. Cost: 10 mana per second, nearby corpse or corpse in your inventory. Consumes corpse on use.

Dan was a bit surprised this had nothing to do with taming. Though he guessed it was a separate reward for doing… well what he was supposed to for his Deity. Strangely he felt a little more knowledgeable about rabbits now.He guessed the knowledge went both ways for him and his Deity. Getting ready to move on Dan realized… he didn’t have any kind of backpack or bag of holding or anything like that. He completely forgot to grab something. There was no way he was going to be able to carry ten pelts for his quest.

Reluctantly leaving the pelt on the ground he moved onto the next rabbit and killed it with the same amount of effort as the one before. Quickly scanning his body he moved onto the final one and saw it seemed a bit different. It seemed larger than the ones around it.Maybe it was higher level or something. If it was, likely he would gain more rewards or favor for scanning it.

Getting behind the rabbit he raised the spike and slammed it into the Rabbit’s head, only doing 1 damage this time. It seemed the Rabbit’s defenses were higher than the others. Not only that, but instead of stupidly jumping at the shield that just hit it, it jumped around where Dan was crouching and rammed the rough stump of a horn into his side dealing a whole ten points of damage. Grunting in pain Dan realized he could at least start to ignore it now. Instead of letting himself be pushed over again, he swung the shield around and used the side of his shield to slam it a few feet away. It may be tougher than the other rabbits but it was still light and he was a fair bit larger than it, so it was easy to throw it around.

Getting back up and charging at Dan he positioned the spike in the path of it and inflicted his third point of damage on it. Dan assumed this Rabbit likely had more health than the others so it was no surprise when it didn’t die on the fourth hit. It started hopping to one side of him again so Dan started to move his shield in time with it until it put on a burst of speed and hopped the other way slamming into his side and doing another twelve points of damage. Roaring with pain Dan tried to smack the bunny with the side of his shield again but it swiftly dodged out of the way of the expected attack and smacked him again from a different angle.

He was at a hundred two health, his health regen passive doing it’s job to slowly let him take a bit more punishment, so he wasn’t worried about dying, but the pain was starting to get to him and he was breathing hard as the cuts quickly scabbed over and vanished as if they weren’t there. The Rabbit getting cocky did a headlong charge and ended up impaled on the spike of his shield, taking a critical hit and dying to the two damage it inflicted on itself.

For surviving a tougher battle you have gained +1 intelligence due to keeping your cool and not letting yourself be overcome by the enemy.

Not much, but he’d take it. And that put him at 104.3 points of mana so now he could cast his resurrection spell.Perhaps he should keep this corpse as a way to potentially help him tame the rabbit ahead. He could kill a smaller rabbit and tame it. With a sigh, he picked up the rabbit corpse and slung it over his shoulder, wincing at the feeling. Ugh, some parts of Necromancy were a little gross. He really needed to pick up a backpack or something.

Quickly dispatching a weaker rabbit he was given yet another notification so he also checked the notification of skill points from his last couple battles while reading that one.

Your Deity is pleased with your work to restore knowledge to his pantheon. He has blessed you with yet another skill.

Skill Gained: Taming (Novice I). A group? Who needs that? You can tame wild animals to do your bidding now! You may attempt to tame an animal or monster that is no more than five levels higher than you. Success is dependent upon knowledge of the creature you are taming, your mental fortitude, and your target’s mental fortitude, as well as your own wisdom score! Weakening the creature may help with taming it. Beware, using this skill on other humans is considered a crime! Stamina Cost: 20. Takes 1 second to cast and the Battle of Wills may last up to five seconds.

Well that was a bit more direct then Dan was expecting but it was nice to not go on some grand quest to a dusty library to learn this skill. Strangely enough it was the first skill to cost Stamina he had come across. It made sense though, since it was going to be a primarily hunter or ranger based skill he would guess. Though it’s strange that the effectiveness is based on wisdom in that case. Shrugging it off Dan looked about the forest realizing he had no idea where his mortal bunemy was hiding.

Opening the quest again he realized he could now sense the general direction the rabbit was in and set off. After about an hour of walking he finally saw his target, Setting down the Rabbit corpse he was still carrying he took a deep breath to calm his nerves and started the chant to revive the rabbit. Both nervous and excited to have his first boss battle of the game. And this boss... this boss was going to be his!