He had wandered into the darkened village and found everything closed up apart from the inn. He sat on a bench in the centre of the village and tried to reason what to do next. His musings were cut short by a notification.
[You are Hungry. -50% XP gain -50% Regen]
Wonderful, he thought, Hungry with a capital H, as he sat alone, battered and clothed in bloody rags. He was chilly, and he could feel himself starting to slow down and his stomach rumble. He wondered idly if it was possible to catch a cold. He turned towards the inn. After a moment, he headed over.
An elderly man stood behind the bar now, slowly polishing a glass. He raised an eyebrow at Morgan's appearance as he came in. "Alright, young one? What you having?"
Morgan fished in his inventory for 1 silver and 50 coppers, and it appeared in his hand. "I'll take some ale and some bread, please. As the man exchanged the meal for the coins, he said conspiratorially, "You know, lad, you can get those clothes washed and mended for a few coppers if you get a room here tonight. They'll be good as new."
Morgan thanked him and told him he'd think on it before heading to the bench closest the fire. He was delighted to find that the bread was warm from the oven, somehow, and also came with a knob of rich butter. He noted that, while painful, his wounds were healing up. The last merloc's scratch had disappeared already, though the deeper wounds remained. Eating the bread and drinking the ale boosted his spirits, and the bread had removed the Hungry status, replacing it with +15% XP for 4 hours. He started to recount the day's adventures. He'd sure gotten hurt a lot, but it had been an awe-inspiring foray into this new world. Getting lost in the flow of memories, he started to drift to sleep.
"Oi, lad."
He was roughly woken by a shake of his shoulder, the man from the bar standing over him. The man continued with a frown "Don't be cheeky, buy a room or leave."
Morgan, tired and irritated from the sudden awakening, suddenly and passionately decided he did not want to give this man his money, and tiredly got up from the seat and left the inn.
He looked around the village, and up into the sky. The moon had cleared the zenith, but it'd still be hours before it was day again. Kicked from his warm, cosy perch and now out in the cold he wondered what to do with himself. He decided that perhaps he could fight through the tiredness and level his new blades skill somehow. He recalled some haybales from a field on his way into the village and decided that if he could level maces on trees, he could level blades on haybales. He walked reluctantly through the buildings until he came across the field with the bales.
Hopping over a fence, he started feeling a bit better with the bales in sight, imagining releasing a flurry of blows into the hay, slicing and dicing it. As he moved towards them to start trying, a flurry of cold rain started to come down on him, soaking him instantly and making the stains on his clothing run. With a sudden fury, he charged the nearest bale and hacked at it wildly with his sickle. The sickle wasn't enough to chop cleanly through, and stuck in the bale, his hand continuing with the momentum and shooting off the grip. Growling softly, he retrieved the sickle, and tried to aim for a shallower cut. This time it went through, but the ground beneath him had started to become slippery, and he span with his momentum before falling to the muddy earth.
[Congratulations, your Blades proficiency has raised to level 2]
As he rose from the ground, another notification struck,
[You are Tired. -50% XP gain -50% Regen]
Cold, wet, and now Tired, he spun on his heel and dejectedly made his way back to the inn.
He pushed open the door and came once again face to face with the old man, who now looked at him expectantly. He withdrew 15 silvers from his inventory and handed them over without a word. The man smiled graciously.
"Room number 2, up the stairs on the left. Leave your clothes outside the door with 10 copper per item and we'll make 'em good for the morning."
Morgan thanked him and headed upstairs. The room was cosy, a single bed with a surprisingly soft mattress awaited him. Once he'd gotten into the room, he stripped off his clothes, and made a small pile, his shirt, trousers and shoes. After a moment he added his underwear, and adding 50 coppers to the pile, opened the door a crack and placed it all in the corridor. There was a low sink with a mirror, and he began to wash, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He looked tired, and his eye was still black from the Merlock's punch. He cleaned himself of the blood and dirt that he could, got into the bed, and fell asleep immediately.
He awoke the next day to the bright sunlight streaming in his window. He slowly opened his eyes, looked about the small room, then closed them again and snuggled deeper into the bed. After dozing for a while, he realised he could do some checking of his status from the comfort of the bed and started taking inventory. He first smiled at the rested buff he had gained, +10% XP gain all day. He checked his bag. He had his crystal, the beetle scales, the shiny apple, his stick, some silver, and the solitary Ragthistle. After his first day, he was down to 32 silvers. Granted, he had the 30 silvers in escrow with the alchemist, but he wasn't sure now if the quest was even possible for him and he didn't really want to give the sickle back. It had lost a handful of durability points from the fight, and he also didn't know how that would work out, or how to get it repaired. Pondering these thoughts, he gathered up his clothing that had been placed inside the room, and put them on, taking a moment to marvel at how pristine they were now, the rents, the mud and the blood vanished as if the trials of yesterday had been just a dream. Once he was dressed, he headed down to the bar.
"Good mornin' sleepyhead" Ma baker grinned at him as he came down the stairs "I heard you were havin’ some fun till late last night. Breakfast?" Morgan nodded as he pulled up to the bar. "It's a hell of a world you got here. Yes please, I'll take 2 loaves." She cackled as three loaves appeared and he handed over his silver. "Of course, sweetheart, made 'em myself. One extra for you." She winked at him. He gratefully accepted the pile of bread, and took it all to a table. He withdrew his apple from his inventory and placed it on the table, then attempted to fit two of the loaves into the slot it came from. They both shrunk down and floated in the grid. Pleased with this, he turned to his meal of bread and butter. The 15% XP buff, like before, popped up. He ate the apple after, and saw that no buff was applied from the apple, presumably as it was of lesser effect than that of the bread. He was about to get up and head into the village when Ralph came in through the door. He cheerfully waved at Morgan and headed over.
"Great to see you, man! I should have come with you yesterday, my mate never showed, something to do with the kids." Ralph shrugged before asking. "What you up to now?" He sat down, as Morgan told him of his defeat and subsequent flight at the hands of the merlocs, and how he was just wondering if he'd be able to complete the alchemist's quest.
The dwarf replied to the tale, "Man, that's the quest we were gonna do yesterday; for some reason I got a different quest, collect some kinda mineral, wasn't very hard. My friend needed the Ragthistle, but he snoozes he loses, know what I mean? We can do the quest now if we're quick, I've got a few hours. Infact, maybe we can collect some for him too, I'll take his share. Deal?"
Morgan replied with a grin, "Thats great news. Also, I'm looking forward to see you swing that axe of yours."
"OK, let's party up." said Ralph, and a message appeared.
[Ralph invites you to their party.]
[Accept?]
Morgan accepted. In his vision, another bar showing Ralph's name and HP appeared above his own. "How did you do that?" Morgan exclaimed. Ralph rolled his eyes, "You really don't know anything, eh. Look at a player and think 'Party'. Look at a party member and think 'Leave' to leave, or 'Kick' to disband them if you're the leader. Come on, lets go"
The man and the dwarf left the tavern, and headed south.
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They chatted idly as Morgan led the pair to the copse. Ralph told him about a few of his adventures in Brogue. "...So, it turns out we were doing all these stupid boot related quests; bring 5 hides to the tanner, a small introduction to crafting as they made the boots, deliver the boots to the guardsman, learn how to repair the boots. That kinda thing. So, get this, right. As me and Chris were finishing up after all that, Chris turns to me grinning like a loon, and you know what he says?" Ralph tried hard to squeeze the words out around his laughter, "Ralph mate! This place is a goddamn boot camp." Morgan rolled his eyes exaggeratedly and laughed along with him, and they were still chuckling when they reached the spot by the lake where he'd been attacked earlier.
"You gather some of the thistles and I'll keep an eye out?" Ralph suggested. He got his large axe out and rested it casually on his shoulder.
"Sounds good." Replied Morgan, setting to work on the nearest thistles. Of the 5 nearby, only 2 were successfully harvested. A far better ratio than before, at any rate. He informed Ralph, and they set off through the grass to find some more. After 9 more thistles and 4 successful harvests, he received his next Harvesting level. He was chatting with the dwarf as he worked. "Earlier you said you learned about crafting and repair, anything you can pass on? This game is a bit of an enigma." Ralph was leaning on his axe, his eyes scanning the long grass. "Crafting's not my thing, so I didn't really absorb much info. The repair though, man, you can either go to a crafter type for them to do it, or buy repair kits, which transfer their durability across to the item. The repair kits are a bit pricey but it's good to have in a pinch." He got a small metal case out of his inventory and showed it to Morgan. "It's like a small bag, you open up the inventory and put the weapon in there. Shut the case, open, and ta-daa. Kinda silly but whatever." He shrugged and returned the case to his inventory.
He was up 11 more thistles and another level when Ralph spotted movement in the grass and beckoned to Morgan to follow him. They moved slowly to a clearing with a fallen tree at one side of it that they had just come through and settled in with the fallen tree to their backs.
It only took a few moments for the merlocs to bust into the clearing. The three he'd fought yesterday came into view, including the magic user and the one with the limp left arm. Two more green skinned merlocs came into view to join them, clutching long sharpened wooden sticks, and the two groups stared at each other for a moment. He identified one of the new arrivals.
[Identify - Murloc Spearman - Level 2]
[Race - Monster/Amphibian]
[HP - 180/180]
[SP - 170/170]
The merloc with the half-severed arm was the first to react, gurgling in rage before charging at the pair. The other four amphibians barely had time to move before Ralph calmly stepped forward and swung his large axe down like he was splitting a log. The axe blade neatly intersected the monster's charging head, and the force of the blow almost split the creature in two.
[A party member has killed a Merloc Scout - Level 3 +172XP]
Morgan looked on, part impressed, part horrified as the dwarf put a foot on the merloc and wrenched his axe out of its corpse. The other merlocs gurgled a cry of rage before springing to action. One of the spear wielders and his old nemesis, who seemed to have replaced the rock that he'd left in Morgan's back yesterday, charged at Ralph. The big blue-green merloc started to cast, icy blue crystals forming in the air, and the other spearman rushed at Morgan. He managed to sidestep the spear that was thrust at him, and once inside the weapons reach, he swung his weapon at the creature's neck. The tip of the blade sank in deep and he ripped it out, a spray of green blood covering his clothes. Morgan paled at the gore and had to consciously stop himself from retching. He’d just cut a creature's throat, a humanoid creature.
[Crit - Throat - 132 Damage - Heavy Bleeding]
The merloc recoiled from him, bringing his free hand up to the wound, and flailing his crude spear wildly. Morgan stepped back from the wild swings, one of them bouncing harmlessly off his vambrace. He saw Ralph standing over a freshly downed spearman and then kicking the other merloc hard into the caster. The two merlocs connected and tumbled together to the edge of the clearing. The interrupted spell exploded, covering the area where the channelling creature had been standing with small shards of ice. The spearman that had been flailing at Morgan suddenly dropped to the ground, lifeless. The dwarf began to charge the remaining pair, and Morgan, with his one-on-one combat so swiftly over, followed the dwarf to battle.
The two merlocs had managed to get to their feet, and the caster struck the ground with his staff as the two approached. He managed to get his staff up in time to block a blow from the axe as a wave of frost travelled towards the players and stuck their feet to the ground. The smaller merloc took advantage of their surprise to duck in and strike the dwarf in the chest with his stone, scoring a deep hit. Ralph grunted in pain, disengaging from his strike at the caster, and swinging hastily at the merloc who had just stabbed him, forcing it to jump away before it could strike again. As Morgan had been running when the frost wave struck, only one of his feet was frozen to the floor.
While the enemy were distracted with Ralph, he used his free foot to stamp down on the ice around him, managing to free himself by the time the caster stepped out of the axe's range and started chanting again. Ralph looked over to him, hearing the ice shatter. "Cover me while I get free!" He shouted to Morgan. The shattering sound also bought the attention of the stone wielding merloc, who charged at him as the bigger creature continued to cast. Morgan tried to repeat Ralph's trick and lashed out his leg at the onrushing merloc, trying to kick it into the caster. The merloc, wise to the move now, easily dodged the blow and stabbed at Morgan while he rebalanced, slashing his stone shard across his torso.
[-33HP - Bleeding]
A jagged wound opening up on his chest, he winced with the pain as he clumsily bought his own weapon down, managing to drive his sickle into the creature's shoulder.
[Hit - 44 Damage - Bleeding]
The merloc gurgled angrily and jumped back a step and it took more damage as it moved, pulling the sickle that was stuck in its shoulder out of Morgan's hand, the spearman's green blood on the handle making it slippery. Thinking fast, Morgan grabbed his stick out from his inventory, and in a fluid motion, speared it towards the surprised murloc, slamming it in the nose with a meaty crunch.
[Crit - Head - 102 Damage - 1 Sec Stun]
He used the momentary stun to wind up another lunge at the creature, but his strike was too slow, and he missed the falling opponent. As the stunned merloc hit the ground, Morgan heard a final low gurgle from the caster and looked over, just in time for a shard of ice to hit him in the face.
[ -271HP - Crit - Frozen - 5 Sec Stun]
Morgan blacked out.
He awoke a minute later, his face a sore mess from the impact of the frozen missile. Ralph helped him to his feet, having dispatched the last two merlocs while Morgan was unconscious. "Thanks for the cover", grinned the dwarf. "You alright? That bolt looked nasty, man. You've been out cold for a good minute." he laughed at his own joke. Morgan tried to join in, but his facial muscles felt like they were going to shatter. He slowly retrieved his sickle from the shoulder of the merloc he'd left it in and sat down on the ground.
"Ow." Said Morgan as he slumped on the floor and checked his notifications. The fight had pushed him over level 3. "That really hurt." He nursed his face. Ralph pulled a small vial of some ointment out of his bag and handed it to Morgan. "Here, mate. Slap a bit of this on your face, it'll help it heal a bit and take some of the pain away. You only need a fingerful, mind." Morgan identified it as he took it from the dwarf.
[Identify - Valoplant Sap]
[Use: Heals up to 100HP over 30 seconds]
He uncorked the vial and dabbed his little finger into the milky green ointment. As he slathered it on his face, he could feel the soothing coolness from the paste radiate into his face. He sighed in relief.
"Thanks, that feels so much better already. Give me a moment and I'll get back on with the thistles. We're almost at half what we need. Hopefully no more of those buggers show up."
He gestured to the merloc bodies. "Anything good drop?" He then asked, as he handed the jar back to Ralph with gratitude.
"Well," replied Ralph, "Apart from two sharp sticks, and two sharp rocks, the shaman dropped his staff, which is honestly not great, and a charm which is interesting, if pretty crappy - it allows you to walk on water, but only for 5 steps every 2 minutes. They did drop 24 silvers between them though. How do you want to split it?"
Morgan considered this for a moment. "I don't really have a lot of space in my inventory. Are the staff and charm of equal value?"
The dwarf shook his head. "I think the charm is way more valuable. The staff is crap as a weapon, and only gives +1 to intellect and +1% to spell power."
"Ok. We'll split the silver in half, I get the staff to sell and you get the charm, as arguably you did most of the work and I get the quest reward. Sound good?" Ralph nodded his cheerful assent. "Your loss, man" He grinned as he stuffed the charm, a small colourful seashell, in his bag and handed 12 silver and the staff to Morgan.
[Identify - Boneheaded Staff]
[Durability - 9/10]
[Melee Damage - 12-55]
[+1 INT, +1% Spellpower]
He put the staff into his inventory in the slot his stick had been. His trusty stick lay on the ground a few steps away, and he picked it up, noting the durability had fallen below half. He placed the stick back on the ground, saluted it for its service, then moved to the nearest Ragthistle and got to work.
The sun was high in the sky by the time he'd gathered all 40 of the required herbs, keeping up a steady pace and acquiring another two levels in the process bringing his Harvesting up to 4. The pair split the Ragthistle between them, then headed back into the village.
"It's pretty nice up here, but if I'm going to make my fortune I'm going to have to head to a bigger town." Ralph explained, as they walked through the village boundary. "Thanks for the company, man, and that was a wild fight" He laughed, before continuing, "and Chris is going to be delighted when I give him the thistles. He works too hard in the real world, crazy guy. I've added you to my friends list, feel free to add me. We can catch up that way, and I'll be happy to answer any questions if you got ‘em. Ah yeah, you don't know how. Look at me and think 'Add friend'. You can reverse this with 'Remove friend', got it?"
Morgan tried it out, and a bold white 'F', presumably for 'Friends' appeared in his interface underneath the Q for Quests. He focused on it and saw Ralph's name, with a green dot at the end that seemed to indicate that he was online. As he thanked Ralph, a notice appeared in his vision.
[Ralph: If you focus on the name, you can send a message like this, see?]
Morgan focused, and sent the dwarf a notification of thanks, following it up with, "Cheers Ralph, you've been a great help. I couldn't have done that quest without you for sure."
Ralph beamed. "No worries, mate. It's been a lot of fun. I got to chip off now, duty calls. Throw me a line sometime and we'll hang out."
Morgan nodded vigorously and promised to get in touch. As the dwarf logged out, his body faded gradually and evenly, disappearing from where he'd stood on the cobbled street. Morgan gawped at the spot where his new friend had been a moment ago, before shaking his head and heading to the alchemist's shop.