Jeff used his new Tracking ability. The ground before him glowed showing the clues of the trail. The ability was only at low mastery, but it still provided plenty of hints as to where his prey had gone.

He flickered the ability off and was baffled how he couldn't keep track of all the signs of the monster passing through here. Still, using it even for a brief moment helped him rediscover the trail. It felt very game-like, as though he were turning a HUD element on and off.

He didn't want to strain his spirit too much after last night. There was still a sort of soreness in his spirit, but leveling up seemed to heal his spirit a bit. At least, it did more than his meditation through the night.

He took several steps forward and triggered his Tracking ability again. He had sensed something off to his left. Sure enough the monster trail made a sharp turn in that direction.

He changed his relaxed sense field into a more directed one. He could partially sense something before. It was like feeling someone's eyes on you, but ramped up to an almost physical feeling. Now that his spiritual senses were focused it was like he could picture the large caterpillar in his minds eye. He still couldn’t see the monster visually through the dense underbrush, but he could tell it was eating leaves off a tree.

Jeff began creeping forward. He tried his best to keep the large halberd he purchased away from the the thick foliage, but kept getting it stuck. For the hundredth time he regretted his decision to purchase it. He needed a weapon that he could hold with his left hand and still use effectively. He was right handed and needed to keep that hand free for throwing discs. He had thought about getting a shield at first, but his new ability kind of took that need away.

New Disc Ability:

Energy Shield

Create a flat circle shield before you that cannot be broken. The shield moves with you and you move with it.

He was surprised it wasn’t ‘Disc Shield’, but Kazi had explained how some Myst Connections shared Abilities. The System helped decide how abilities formed when he connected with the Myst. Energy, Shield, and Disc connections all could get the ability, and probably several others besides.

With the Ability, and how well it worked with his Disc Manipulation, it made little sense to get a weapon instead of a shield.

He also was looking for a weapon to help when he was too close to throw the disc or too help when his spirit was strained. The hard decision was due to the fact that he wasn’t left handed. He thought of getting a sword, but it wouldn’t have done much for him in the fight with the crab or the beetles. He needed something that could fight large monsters and a smaller sword in his weaker left hand felt like a poor choice.

A mace or hammer would have been helpful, but only if he could get enough power behind his blows. He thought if he could quickly switch them to his right hand they might be useful. But, ff he had enough time to switch, he had enough time to throw a disc instead.

Then when he saw the halberd on the Pillar shop it got his wheels turning. He could hold that in his left hand. He wasn’t as coordinated with his left, but he could tuck it under his arm. He could fend off larger monsters with the spear point at the top. Then he could still swing it back and forth to use the sharp axe head and back spike. He could also see that working well against low to the ground monsters like the caterpillars that weren’t that fast. If he switched to a two hand grip he could do a whole lot more with the weapon. It wasn’t his first choice, but it fit his situation too well not to purchase.

The shop didn’t have any items that provided attribute boosts like he had hoped. Kazi said that those weren’t available till after the tutorial. He would have to find them himself. So Jeff got some weird looking purple leather armor that hopefully blended in with the purple forest. He got some thick leather pants to go over his basketball shorts. He also purchased a few essentials like a bed roll, a canteen, and a backpack to carry monster parts in. Then, with a thought, he had added a long knife to strap onto his right leg.

Jeff took several more stealthy steps forward. The caterpillar was on the other side of a thicket of trees. There wasn’t a good path for a disc without an imaginative use of disc manipulation. He decided to just squeeze his 6 foot halberd up over a bush. Then with both hands brought the weapon down into the bug.

The axehead slammed into the midsection of the monster caterpillar and stuck. The bug writhed and tried to wrench away. That only caused the spiky bottom of the axe to tear further into the squishy bug. He twisted and shoved the halberd forward and soon felt the caterpillar come to a rest.

You have defeated:

Forest Caterpillar - Level 1

The caterpillar dissolved and he was able to bring the halberd back to him. There was a bit of mucusy blood on the weapon that quickly dissolved as well. Jeff was glad. He wouldn’t have to deal with cleaning his weapons. He’d still probably have to keep them sharpened though and made a quick mental note to look for a whetstone in the Pillar shop later.

Jeff quickly grabben the monster’s stinger that was left behind and put it away in his backpack. He spread his awareness out again. He was hoping to find more easy monsters to kill, just like that one.

“Kazi, can you pull up my quests?”

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Quests

Complete all Trainee Quests: (1/5)

Reward: Upgrade Spore Suit to Boschyan Recruit

Trainee Quests

Kill 30 Monsters: (7/30)

Reward: New Weapon

Reach Level 10: (4/10)

Reward: New Ability

Survive 10 nights in the wild: (1/10)

Reward: Personalized Pillar Room

Earn 500 Merit Points: (45/500)

Reward: Spore Suit Attachment

Improve Depth to 5: (Completed)

Reward: New Myst Connection (Accepted)

Jeff was hoping to complete the kill monsters quest next and then earn 500 merit points around the same time. But he had to kill higher tier monsters to complete it before killing 30 monsters, and that just seemed too risky. He had survived against high level monsters so far, but he didn’t want to push his luck. Based on the number of Pillars that fell just in his little city, the ‘Chosen’ were pretty expendable.

He wished he could level up faster by fighting strong monsters, but survival came first. If taking on smaller monsters meant he had a higher chance of seeing his kids again then that was what he would do. With that said, he intended to push himself hard. He hoped to kill as many monsters as he could each day. His new tracking ability had already proved its worth and he was ready to put it to the test again.

He relaxed his senses to spread them out to max distance. His sense field had grown ever so slightly with the buff from the new helmet. He could sense about 80 meters in each direction now. Then he activated his Tracking ability. He caught onto another caterpillar trail and started trekking after it. His new halberd snagged a few times along the way, but he was getting more use to how to manuever it around the dense foliage.

Jeff started following along the trail. Pretty soon he felt a twinge in his spiritual sense. He narrowed his awareness and couldn’t quite tell what he had stumbled upon. About 40 meters ahead of him was a plant that didn’t feel the same as the dormant ones around him. It was a short green-leafed tree that only grew about a meter taller than himself.

He cautiously approached the plant with an Energy Shield keeping pace ahead of him and a disc in his hand. He neared the tree and poked it with his halberd, reaching around the side of the shield. He jumped back as the tree shuddered slightly. He felt a warning of sorts coming from the tree with his spiritual senses. It didn’t feel like a threat, just a growing tree that didn’t want to be bothered. His focused senses also noticed something within the short tree’s canopy.

He saw what he at first thought were bright red flowers. Now, up close, they looked closer to small pine cones. They hung heavy from the branches and flowered out like ripe pine cones. He let the disc in his right hand hover in the air and he reached out to pluck one from above. As he did the tree gave a huge shudder and a branch from above made a weak attempt to smack him. His shield took the blow and he stepped back.

The tree quickly calmed down and he looked down at the object in his hand. Except, it wasn’t in his hand anymore. He saw the tell tale sign of dissolving Myst from where he had held it.

Well, crap, he thought. He felt guilty for angering the tree and wasting the plant. The tree calmed down quickly and he edged forward again. He hadn’t had a chance to use his Foraging ability and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Except, he had no idea how to use it.

He tentatively reached out for another red flower pod. As his hand closed around it he reached out to his new ability. He felt a bit of Myst burst out of his hand and fed itself to the tree right where the pod connected to the branch. Then a bit of his spiritual power covered the red flower pod in a tight wrapping. He felt the transaction of sorts complete and he twisted it off the tree.

This time the tree seemed delighted with the exchange. It readjusted itself so some of the more hidden flower pod, pine cone, things were closer to his reach. He checked the one in his hand and it did not dissolve to Myst. He could feel a little bit of the same energy that made up his discs and shield covering the pod. The flower in his hand was somewhat hard, like it truly was a mix between a pine cone and a typical flower. He tucked it away in his backpack and reached up for the next one.

The tree gladly accepted each activation of his skill. After he pulled the 15th flower from the tree it lethargically moved its branches out of his reach.

Jeff placed his hand on the tree where he had initially poked it and activated his Foraging ability one last time. He didn’t take anything in return, he just gifted it one last little burst of Myst and then stepped away from the tree.

“It’s spore says ‘thank you’,” Kazi said after he finished.

“You can speak with the tree?”

“Kind of,” his spore continued. “It’s not a fully sapient spore, so it doesn’t have the same level of intelligence as you do. At least, not at it’s level. The tree’s cognitive attributes put it somewhere near the intelligence of an elephant or dolphin from your world.”

“But it said ‘thank you’?”

“I have the ability to communicate with nearly anything that has a spore. There are many animals back on your planet that could probably hold a simple conversation if only you could understand them.” Kazi said in his matter of fact tone.

Jeff considered that and shrugged his shoulders. It wasn’t that unexpected. He had met some pretty smart animals in his day. If they had the ability to communicate, without actually having to form words with their mouths, then he guessed they would actually have a lot to say.

He felt something sickly enter into his sense field. He turned toward the monster and saw it near the edge of his sense field about 75 meters away. The large caterpillar hadn’t noticed him yet and stopped to chomp on a large leafy plant low on the forest floor. The monster must have some sort of ability to eat the plants, or it just subsided off the Myst that dissolved into its mouth.

Jeff readied his shot. This was a pretty standard distance for a disc golf hole. He brought the disc across his body and ran up two steps as he prepped his throw. Then he released.

The disc flew through a gap in the trees and curved to the right to avoid a large tree, then swerved back to the left in a downward dive. The golden energy disc sliced clean through the monster and stuck into the ground with a bang.

“Ace!” He shouted. That was his first ever hole in one and it felt spectacular. “Magic is so flipping awesome!”

You defeated:

Forest Caterpillar - Level 3

Abilities:

Strong Bite

Poison Mucus

Myst Rewards Accepted