The vine wrapped around Gregory's throat and pulled him up into a standing position and then off of his feet. The vine was full of thorns, and his neck screamed with pain as they stabbed into him. The pain was so sharp that it almost drowned out his panic at being deprived of air.
He tried pulling the vine from his neck, but it was tough and strong enough to resist him. He reached down a hand, scrambling for his sword. He grabbed and fumbled the hilt once.
Wait, don't panic, idiot. If I drop this I'm dead, he thought.
He carefully slid his sword free. Once it was firmly in his grip, he charged it with mana and swung it as hard as he could through the vine above his head.
The vine, for all its physical strength, was no match for the magically enhanced cut. His black and white blade cut through the vine, and he dropped to the ground, slamming against the mercifully soft dirt.
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Quest: Strangleroot Vines - 1/15 Collected.
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Gregory wrenched the severed vine from his neck, gasping for air. He coughed and held a hand to his neck. He could feel the torn flesh beneath his fingers, wet with blood.
These vines were no joke.
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Health: 55/80
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"Could have been worse. At least I have a chance to use my new skill."
His hand, still pressed against his neck, started to glow with a soft, warm light.
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Healing Touch
* Spell: Healing
* Cost: 8 mana
* Bestow a small amount of healing with a touch. You can heal yourself or anyone you can touch. The effect is enhanced by touching injured areas directly.
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A wonderful warmth spread through his neck, and he could feel his cuts closing quickly. He didn't think he had any more open wounds, but his hand and neck were still bloody, so it was hard to tell.
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Health: 75/80
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"Twenty health, not bad. I think I can increase that if I bump up my intelligence. Let's see, how close am I to the next level. All those ghost howlers should have pushed me pretty close."
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Class: Magician's Apprentice, Level 1 (99%)
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"Oh wow, even closer than I thought. Time to hunt some vines!"
He cut the end of the vine off and stashed it in his bag. When they had picked up the contract, the details said that the apothecary only needed the last six inches or so of each vine. After seeing how massive the vines were, he was glad to leave most of it behind.
He found the next vine before it caught him unaware. Without the vine getting a jump on him, it was an easy victory.
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Magician's Apprentice has reached level 2 (0%).
You have gained 4 attribute points. You have gained 1 skill point.
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"Ooh, a skill point! Nice. And I can put my attribute points wherever I want."
He decided to save both for now. He still wasn't sure how to build out his stats, though he thought focusing on spells for a few levels would be helpful.
He continued his hunt. He found a few more vines that were just lying around, apparently dormant. There weren't any requirements that the vines had to be active, so when he identified them, he cut them apart before they could do anything.
After that he remembered to check his bearings. He climbed up a tree far enough to see the open sky. Based on the mid afternoon sun, he was, fortunately, heading back in the general direction of the city, though he had no idea how close he actually was.
Another vine and a short time later, he encountered a familiar noise screaming through the jungle canopy.
"Ghost howlers?"
He spotted a pair of very much alive howling monkeys, descending towards him. These must have been regular howlers, as opposed to the ghost variety. He readied himself as they came closer, drawing his sword.
The howlers either didn't care about his sword, or didn't know what it was, because they barely flinched back as he swung at them. He scored several solid hits, noting that these regular howlers were a little more damage resistant than their ghostly counterparts, though they weren't incorporeal. After a couple more hits, they howlers retreated, and he was forced to blast them with mana bolts.
When he had hit the ghost howlers with mana bolts, they blew into glowing white material that evaporated immediately. When he blew apart the regular howlers, it was significantly messier. He was glad they had retreated from him.
He was accurate enough with his mana bolt that he was able to finish both of the howlers off with two bolts a piece, but it left him completely out of mana.
That wouldn't have been a problem, except that was the exact moment he was ambushed by another strangleroot vine.
He couldn't charge his sword with mana, since he didn't have any. So he had to try to cut through the vine with his strength alone while it dangled him above the ground.
Gregory found himself on the ground again, gasping for breath, bloody and significantly closer to death than his first encounter had left him.
He couldn't let that happen again. He ripped off the vine and stood, collecting his sword on the way up. He needed to stay vigilant until he recovered enough mana to heal his ruined neck.
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Health: 14/80, Mana: 2/40
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"On second thought…that's way too close for comfort."
He assigned four of his attribute points into Mana, giving him five mana per attribute point spent.
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Bonus mana granted.
Mana: 27/65
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"Oh nice! I can still get bonus stats."
When leveling, sometimes it was possible to gain more stats than normal. It appeared that he would need to assign his points in order to get the bonus stats.
Gregory healed his neck again, now that he had the mana. He decided on two heals in quick succession. He would be low on mana, but he could still fight with low mana. He couldn't fight with no health.
The carnivorous vines liked to wind their way down trees, and then approach their prey from the ground. Gregory scanned the ground carefully. He could beat one back now if he needed to, but there wasn't any point to being careless.
"I don't even know how many I have."
His new quest ability helpfully gave him an answer.
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Quest: Strangleroot Vines - 6/15
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"Whew. I bet Cooper would be done already. I bet he can smell the vines."
He eyed the surrounding swamp. He had been working his way down a long stretch of dry land between two wet areas, but it looked like he was running out of land to traverse. He would have to cross over some water along the left side of the path he was on. That would keep him closer to the city.
He crossed, the dark water hid roots that made him trip twice, and a third time he discovered that the strangleroot vines didn't mind hiding in the swamp water.
It didn't have a chance to get to his neck, and was fairly worthless against his leather pants and boots, so he was able to sever the monstrous vine easily.
Making a direct line back to the city, he was able to collect all of the strangleroot vines he needed. He hadn't encountered any more howlers, and the experience for the vines themselves had been rather low. When he gathered his last vine though, he got a pleasant surprise.
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Quest: Strangleroot Vines - 15/15
You have completed a quest for your mentor.
Reward: High Experience, 0 attribute points, No magical items
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Magician's Apprentice has reached level 3 (0%).
You have gained 4 attribute points.
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"Yes! Okay, I'm no longer mad at Olivander for shoving me out here. That is amazing!"
He held onto these points as he had meant to with the first set. He could see some city buildings through the trees, and he headed in that direction.
Once he found the entrance, he had to explain to the guards that he had been teleported out of the city to work on a contract, and that he wasn't just some hermit from the swamp trying to sneak into the city. Gregory idly wondered how often that happened for the guards to treat it like it was a problem.
After getting some directions, he headed to the guild hall to turn in his contract. The city streets were busy with people finishing work for the day and heading to their homes. Street carts sold easy to eat foods, and a wide variety of entertainers performed in intersections, trying to get a few coins for the aforementioned foods.
Gregory tossed a coin into a hat beside a man who was juggling while riding some kind of one wheeled bike. He wondered what the man's dexterity needed to be to accomplish such a feat.
When he finally arrived at the guild hall, he was met by an unexpected sight.
Olivander and Cooper were sitting under a faintly glowing awning across the street from the guild hall. They were at a table with three random people. It looked like they were playing cards.
"Gregory! How was the hunt?"
"Good…who are your friends?"
"Ah! Of course, how rude of me. This is Bruce, Ricard, and Bruce. There was some sort of misunderstanding in the guild hall, so we set up to play some cards out here, and these fine gentlemen wanted to join us."
"Fine" and "Gentlemen" were two words that Gregory wouldn't have used to describe the three men, who looked like they ate swords for breakfast. They eyed him, keeping their cards out of his sight, but otherwise didn't say anything.
"Alright everyone! I've called, so let's see those hands!"
Olivander had a pair of twos, both Bruces, oddly, had three of a kind. Ricard grinned and he revealed a flush, only to have the grin fall from his face as Cooper deftly flipped over his own cards, revealing a full house.
"Again?" one of the Bruces complained.
"It's awfully suspicious. I'd say he was cheatin' if he wasn't just a dog. Where would he put the cards?" the other Bruce said.
"Come now, gentlemen. We were just playing for sport. What reason would Cooper possibly have to cheat?"
Ricard shrugged and stood. "Thanks for the games, Olivander, Cooper. I have to run before the wife thinks I've really been out playing cards, if you know what I mean."
The two Bruces shared similar sentiments and departed as well.
Gregory sat down at the table.
"So why are you out here playing cards?"
"Olivander got kicked out of the guild hall. Banned for a month, they said."
"Jeremy?" Gregory asked.
Cooper nodded.
"My suspicions are well-founded, I'll have you know! Maybe I pushed a little too hard. Anyway, Gregory, you were successful on the contract? You certainly look dirty enough."
"I was! When you pushed me through the portal, I actually unlocked a new ability!"
He described his "Magician's Quest" ability, and the whole trip to the swamp.
"Very well done! I'm unfamiliar with the Magician's Apprentice class, I had no idea such a thing was possible. Most magicians just awaken some lesser spellcasting class first. My first class, for example, was minor conjurer."
They chatted a little more. Olivander asked about his skill point allotment, and he let Gregory know that he still approved of expanding his resource pool as he had already done. Olivander did suggest starting to put a point into wisdom and intelligence every level or two, so he would slowly raise his damage output and regeneration. All the mana in the world wouldn't matter if he couldn't punch through an enemy's magical resistance.
Finally, Olivander waved him into the guild hall.
Gregory turned in his contract, and the factory cleanup contract, with Jeremy at the desk upstairs.
"A fine job with these Gregory! You're well on your way to iron rank!"
"Thanks, Jeremy. Say, do you know what's going on with Olivander? He seems fixated on you for some reason."
"Honestly, I think it's kind of funny. He doesn't seem to understand that I'm just joking with him."
Gregory thought about all the times Olivander had pushed him around. It was mostly good natured…well, some of it was good natured. After a few moments of contemplation, an idea started to take shape in his mind. It would take some setup and luck, but he thought that it was the perfect time for some payback.
"Is there any chance I could convince you to escalate things a bit? I have an idea that will really drive him crazy."