I spent five minutes or so reading over the berserker trait, I had missed it when I had selected the berserker class. Raven was keeping herself busy swinging from a nearby branch, dropping down and disappearing into the trees shadow before re-apearing momentarily. It was hard not to focus on her but I needed to learn more about my class.
*Berserker - This skill allows the user to send themselves into a primal rage. The legnth of time this skill is activated will depend on the skill points assigned to this skill. While enraged the Berserker will see a temporary bonus to health, stamina and stregnth stats for the duration that the skill is activated. This skill has a ten minute cooldown period. *
“Ok, that seems simple enough.” I said closing the menu and focusing on Raven who continued to dive in an out of the shadows around us, in a childlike, playful manner. I had to remind myself that she was just a kid, regardless of how dangerous and deadly she was, while she was playing around, she just looked, well kind of innocent.
“Do you know anything more about the berserker class?”
Raven stopped what she was doing, she was hanging upside down, the back of her legs wrapped around a thick branch in the crux of her knee. She swung back and forwards for a moment, her red curling hair escaping from her black, torn hood. Eventually she shook her head at me before allowing herself to drop once again and disappear into a shadow.
My heart raced for a moment as my mind still thought she was going to crash into the ground like a sack of spuds and break her net, each time she would just vanish into whatever the void was she was entering. It was pretty cool to see and I knew it would take me a long time to get used to seeing her do this.
“From what the class information is telling me, the higher my level, the longer I can activate my berserker skill. Ive got two questions, one my menu says I am level two right now which seems pretty weak, is there a way to get stronger before we go to this ‘terror camp of doom,’ and two do you have a class like I do.”
Raven was nowhere in sight as I shouted out as if trying to reach into a darkened cave. Anyone walking past would have thought I was a mad man, rambling like this, I was questioning it myself. After a moment Raven popped her head out of the shadow of the tree unto her shoulder, it was like she was rising up out of deep water and I started thinking about what it was she was standing on in the shadow. That was a whole rabbit hole of theories that at this moment in time my brain could simply not break down.
Raven paused for a moment before hopping up to of the shadow and landing on solid ground, she gave me a subtle nod.
“Erm, is that for my first question?”
She nodded again.
“Great, and the second?”
Raven nodded again.
“That’s good to know, is there any chance you can communicate what kind of class you are?”
Raven started gesticulating her hands and signing towards me aggressively, her expression told me she was frustrated, or pissed off at me but I had no other way to communicate with her.
“I don’t know what you are saying,” My own frustrations were growing and I raised my voice slightly which only seemed to raise her frustrations further.
It was a sign she had used a few times now, a combination that I was starting to find familiar. She had both hands closed say for her first two fingers, a bit like when you make an are quote, the best I could describe it was if you were to try and make a shadow puppet of a rabbit or bunny. She was placing the inside of her palms together before placing an open palm on the back of the other hand and lift ing it up as if pushing something away.
Raven sighed again and hid behind a tree before poking her head out from behind to scowl at me, her green eyes becoming more expression ate.
When I looked at her, she pulled her head back behind the tree before sneaking out from behind it, taking large over the top creeping steps until she hid behind another tree and poked her head out once again.
“I get it, I get it. You sneak around, are you a rogue?” Raven hopped out from the tree and waved her hand from side to side in a kind of gesture.
“Ok great, that will do for now. So we have a berserker and a rogue to break into this terror camp, what could possibly go wrong. Now how about getting stronger?”
Raven’s eyes seemed light up, a new found energy about her and a cheeky smile pursed in the side of her mouth.
“Ok you like the sound of that then,”
She gestured over to me to follow her and turned, heading into the trees so I wasted no time following her. After all I did not want to be left on my own in this place.
I followed on her tail for around fifteen minutes, Raven continued to look around her intently like she was searching for something very particular. It gave me an opportunity to take in the forest or jungle terrain that we were in. It was like a perfect blend, tall pine trees scattered around us, reaching far higher than I had ever seen a tree reach before, creating a fibrous green canopy above us. The climate was warmer than Iw Ould expect in a. Forest, almost muggy like the air we were breathing was warmer than the climate I was used to, at times the air felt claggy and my clothes stuck to me as I sweated. There was no denying it though, as deadly as this place was the forest was kind of beautiful. Large flowers and plants were scattered intermittently, reds, blues, yellows, pinks and purples, gave a splash of colour against the brown and green backdrops. Which from time to time gave an alluring fragrance, a blend of pine and honey, making the air taste as though it was sweet.
When Raven stopped suddenly, I did too, she held up her hand to gesture for me to stop and I paused as I waited to see what her next move was. When she smiled and waved me over I couldn’tt help but think she had found what she was looking for.
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As I reached her I took hold of the bush she had pulled back and my mind imploded at the creature that I was looking at.
*Spore Spitter*
*Level 2*
*Inhabiting dense forests or overgrown ruins, these creatures add an element of environmental hazard to battles, requiring careful positioning and quick reactions*
It was the strangest looking thing I had ever seen and that was saying something given the things I had already bore witness to in this world. The creature was toad like, pale green in colour and had a large bulbous body and smaller head which seemed to merge without the need for a neck. It dint appear to have lips just an open mouth that pushed out from its face like a snout. Small red eyes with black pupils centred the Spore Spitter’s face, they looked like shiny marbles as they fixed on to me. A tiny singular horn protruded from one side of ts head, I couldn’t tell if this was by design or the other had been ripped off. It had short dumpy legs, they looks like thick vines entwined together. Its arms were equally short, only slightly longer than its legs, sharp claws protruding from the end of its fingers that looked as white as bone china. Every gap and crevice of the creature had forest growth packed into it, flowers and leaves growing out of its flesh, strange spiked, red flowers growing out sporadicly from the leaves with the same flowers dotted around its head.
The Spore Spitter hissed at me, a strange rasping noise that I instinctively took as a warning from it. Orange a red welts seemed to pulsate under its blistered skin.
“What the hell is that!” I said, turning to see a wide eyed Raven smiling like a maniac at me.
The Spore Spitter started stamping its feet, leaning from side to side as it tried to stare down and intimidate me, It was about the size of a small dog, like a Yorkshire terrier or a pug. It took a deep inhale of breath and the leaves around its neck puffed out like a fan. The best way I could describe it was like one of those dinosaurs I had read about when I was a kid and it cave me a flash of its green, slime covered mouth.
“What do you want me to do?” I asked, dreading Raven’s response.
She continued to smile goofily at me before jabbing forward with a stabbing motion, two or three times until I eventually got the message.
“You want me to kill it?” I said, I struggled to digest the thought. This creature hadn’t done anything to me, as hideous as it looked I felt like I was stepping into a farmers field and killing a lamb.
The Spore Spitter was becoming more animated as it continued to stamp its feet on the ground, a croaking noise now escaping its throat. It started shuffling towards me at a slow enough speed for me to get a grip of it. It waddled from side to side and I wondered if it moved any faster if it would simply fall over. That would certainly make it easier to kill.
I dawdled too much, staring in disbelief at the monster that continued to move towards me and I should have taken more notice of what the creature was called.
It took a deep breath, tilting back slightly before flapping its clawed hands around quickly. When it leant forward it spat a green goo through the air which spattered into my shoulder.
“What is that!” Instinctively I raised my hand to the goo that spread accrues my chest and upper left shoulder. The goo felt sticky like a strange gunge, is was a thick viscous like mucus that surprising smelt sweet, not what I expected.
When I pulled my hand away from my shoulder the goo stretched old, dripping slowly off my finger tips as I pressed my finger and thumb together as I inspected it.
*Poison Effect*
*You have been poisoned by a toxin*
*Disorientation, although not deadly this toxin is designed to slow prey down.”
No sooner did I see the effect flash up in my menu I felt as though I had drank a few pints of beer. Everything around me seemed to move that little bit slower, or at least my reactions were. It wasn’t unbearable but it definitely surprised me at how fast it had taken effect on my body.
Before I knew it the Spore Spitter was at my ankles and took a swipe at my shin.
“Ow!” I called out as I stepped back away from it before it could try and sink its spiky, stubby claws into my leg again. The pain was more intense than a fire ant bite and my leg started throbbing. Other than the pain there didn’t seem to be any other toxins in my body.
Spinning around, my vision took a second longer to catch up with me as I looked at Raven who was rolling around on the ground in delight at what she was seeing.
The Spore Spitter kept moving towards me, croaking and hissing aggressively towards me as I tried to keep some distance between the two of us. With little other option I took out my cleaver and lunged for the master, grabbing the blade into its body. It let out a high pitched wail that pierced my ears, causing my eyes to water before exploded right in front of me. It wasn’t a forceful blast designed to cause destruction, a puff of spores flew up around me, engulfing me as I coughed and struggled to breathe. My lungs burned as whatever the spore was entered my stem and I waited for a status effect to flash up but nothing did, just crippling pain that felt as though I had eaten molten shards of glass.
Staggering backwards I grabbed hold of my throat, worrying that my airways were about to close up at any moment. When I looked at where the Spore Spitter was, all that remained were its legs and lower torso, it was like looking into a hollow flower, or mushroom, I didn’t know what it looked like other than it was messed up.
I fell backwards and started to roll around in the dirt, the pain was excruciating as I just prayed for it to stop, I had read somewhere about a cactus milk that was basically like drinking acid and I imagined this is what that felt like. Dreading to think of the damage it was doing to my body as I continued to writhe around in pain.
The next thing I knew Raven was kneeling by my side, she wafted a large leaf like some kind of fan to blow the remaining pores away from us. She was still smiling and enjoying every moment, what was with this kid. She pulled something out and held it over my face, it was some kind of vial that looked like it had been filled with mud, the kind of thing I used to make in the garden when I was a kid, keeping myself entertained when I was told to play out because it was a nice day by my mum.
Raising the vial to my lips I instinctively drank it in and gagged almost straight away. It was like drinking mud, grainy and earthy, I struggled against it wanting to spit it out of my mouth but Raven grabbed hold of my nose, focing me to open my mouth and drink all of it it. As horrible as it tasted I was greeted with a soothing sensation in my throat as the heat from the spores began to fade away replaced with a cooling sensation like I was drinking syrup that was lining my insides.
I started gluing the vial like a was a baby being given a bottle until there was no more, I didn’t care how it tasted anymore but I was grateful that the pain was gone.
Raven knelt back up, allowing me some space to gather myself as I leant forward on all fours panting like I was a dog.
“Why didn’t you warn me!” I spluttered, my chest heaving but breathing more freely than a few moment before.
Raven simply scowled at me before giving me the farmiliar sign from before.
“Sorry,” I said.
As I stood up, I started looking over the carcass of the Spore Spitter before I was interrupted by a new notification.
*Level increased to 3*
“Holy shit,” I said, the experience from killing the monster had given me enough of a boost to raise my level forward. I felt a sense of pride in what I had achieved, despite how clumsy it likely looked to raven. My thoughts were disrupted when another notification flashed up.
*Skill tree unlocked*