New World Day 31

  The third day of my new daily routine brought about changes. I walked the fence line of the front field and found something disconcerting. Clawed footprints from multiple individuals. The damn goblins were back. I tracked the footprints back to where they exited the forest. I had suspected that they lived to the west, and these footprints strengthened that suspicion. They led from the west into the front field and onto the roads. Were they foraging, hunting, or taming more forest coyotes? Maybe all of the above.

  There was no water pooled in the tracks which meant they happened either this morning or late last night after the storm passed. I turned away from the footprints and continued my circuit around my territory. First my chores then the goblins. I failed to run into them while acquiring my lunch and dinner. That meant their destination was likely the forest. They would keep for the moment. I wasn’t going to chase them into the forest without more information than I had at this time.

  I strode along the forest edge and failed to find anything else out of place in my territory. I turned my back on the grasses of the orchard hill and took a handful of steps back towards the house when my ears twitched. The slightest rustle of grass had reached my ears, but there wasn’t any wind today. Something made that noise. The odd footprints from the previous day popped into my mind. My hands grew moist and sweaty, and my knuckles grew white as I clenched the handle of the rune axe. There a second rustle. Just as quiet as the first. It was still there. Whatever it was. Strength erupted from my body as I kicked my Mana Enhancement into high gear. Fear gripped me. I worried that if I walked away that the entity would strike at my back, but if I turned to investigate, it might see it as a challenge and attack.

  A third rustle slid through the air. Hesitation was worse than a poor choice. I pivoted around and swung the rune axe in front of me. The whirlwind blow bit nothing but air. The creature didn’t attack, but it did reveal itself. There was a small green mouse. The green fur was so dark that it was almost black, and there was a clump of grass growing from its back. The grass looked similar to the dark grass that arrived with the New World, but to my mana vision it was like a roaring fire. Interesting.

  A steel gray blur burst from the grass. There was a flash of claws and just a moment to react. I thrust the axe out with both hands and caught the assailant’s claws on the haft of the axe, but it still drove me to the ground. Mud and water sank into my shirt and sent a chill up my spine as my back crashed into the drenched grass. I wove my head left and right as a maw filled with four inch long fangs struck towards my face again and again. The attacker’s claws circled around the haft of the axe. It reared its head back and I caught a glimpse of short arms and dagger like claws. I seized the moment it shifted its weight back to push with all of my strength. I threw it backwards off of me and rolled to my feet.

  The ground rumbled as the creature slammed into the ground. It pumped its legs and shifted its body side to side in an attempt to copy me and roll to its feet. I swept forward and chopped down with the axe towards the creature. The shriek of metal striking metal tore through the air drowning out the creature’s shrieks. The axe and my arms bounced back up in the air while the force of the blow slammed the creature flat against the ground. Mud splashed out from beneath the creature and stained my jeans brown.

  I slashed down again with the axe each time my arms were forced up into the air. The creature’s arms and legs flailed out in an attempt to claw me away, but I danced around to its back and continued my assault until the axe sank deep into its chest. Blood swelled up around the axe head and streamed down its chest staining its steel gray scales crimson. Mana began to leak out along with the blood. It was the first time I saw even the slightest hint of mana from it. The creature’s struggles slowed then stopped. Its body lay still atop the blood stained grass as a mist of mana hung around its body.

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  I backed away from the body and struggled to catch my breath. With the danger passed, I had the time to examine the creature. It was a velociraptor if a raptor had metal for skin. The signature claw of a raptor was curved in such a way that it didn’t always touch the ground. That was the reason for the lack of a third claw mark in its footprints. I wrenched the axe out of its body and reached through the wound to tear the mana stone out of its chest. I worried that the axe might have chipped or dulled thanks to the durability of its skin, but it turned out there was no need for worry. It’s edge remained razor sharp. In that case there was something else I wanted to do. I hacked away with the axe until I had cut the legs off of the raptor. I found it much easier to cut through its skin this time. Its defense must have fallen after its death. Did that mean that it was using magic to harden its body? I’d have to look through the System for a similar skill. A skill like that would fix one of my glaring weaknesses.

  Enough of that though. I had a use for these legs. I took off my shirt and used it like a rope to tie the legs together and slung them over my shoulder before I sprinted for the house. I feared the noise and blood would attract the python. I ran to the front of the house and yanked open the door but closed it softly behind me. I dropped the legs on the kitchen floor and crept into the great room. The lower windows had all been broken and boarded up, but the window in the door that used to lead out onto the deck was still there. I put my nose to the glass and searched for any sign of the python. I couldn’t see its form, but I noticed that the trunks of a a few trees were shaking. When I craned my neck to look up at the tree tops, I saw the flick of a sleek black tail disappear into the thick crown of a tree near the big barn. Looks like I was stuck in the house for the rest of today. The goblin hunt would have to wait till tomorrow.

  I returned to the kitchen to pick up the raptor legs and headed downstairs where I dropped them off in the garage. The legs left a small pool of blood upstairs that I hopped back upstairs to clean up real quick. I had enough blood stains spread throughout the house already. I didn’t want any more if I could help it.

  The raptor’s ambush and the appearance of the python cut my day outside short. I was stuck inside for the second day, but that might not be a bad thing. The storm had cooled the area off so that it felt like fall instead of spring. My pants were drenched and caked with mud after wrestling with the raptor on the damp ground and taking off my shirt to carry the raptor legs didn’t help matters. I was shivering like crazy.

  I threw a few logs into the fireplace and started a fire to warm myself up. As I waited for the fire to take off, I dumped the raptor legs upside down in a pair of buckets to catch the blood and pried off my clothes. I set them to the side near the fire, pulled on a dry set of clothes, sat in front of the fire, and held my hands out to the flames. I closed my eyes and relaxed. There was nothing quite like warming yourself up next to a roaring fire. The fact that near death encounters like the fight with the raptor didn’t concern me anymore bothered me more than I would like to admit. I needed something to distract me before I started worrying myself to death. I opened my eyes and stared into the fire. Mana lenses formed on my eyes as I resumed my experiments and pushed my concerns to the back of my mind.

Amateur Chronicler Job reached level 2!

The level up increases Endurance, Spirit, and Mind by 1, awards 6 bonus stat points, and 5 Job points.