We headed back towards the edge of the bloodfields in formation and only encountered one small patrol that we made quick work of. Soon enough we set up a camp and gathered to have a meeting by the fire. “Today was our hardest day as a team, but like always, we pulled through.” Gary said to the group. “Good job, everyone.” I nodded in response, today was easily one of the most difficult days of my life. “I’m not sure if we’ve been pushing ourselves too hard or the perfect amount,” Gary continued, “What does everyone think?”
“It’s definitely been more difficult than I expected, but at the same time we’ve already reached level three in our classes.” Gabrielle said with a thoughtful expression.
“I agree, we’ve been advancing extremely quickly but it’s not worth it if we barely survive the day. I think we should focus on the closer dungeons along the edges of the Bloodfields moving forward,” I decided to tell them how I felt, although I was willing to consider what my team had to say as well.
“That sounds like a good plan, Eli.” Aaron responded, “We might not make as much money or advance as fast as before but what we need is time to level up our new skills and learn to use them properly before we take on harder dungeons.”
“Yeah, during the last dungeon I wasn’t sure when to use the majority of my Essence on Meteor.” Gabrielle quickly spoke up after Aaron finished, “I was thinking on the way back that it might have been better to use it as an opening to take pressure off of Zack and Gary in the front.”
“Don’t let it go to your head, Gabrielle,” Zack said. “There’s always going to be a better way for us to use our Skills and Essence. As long as we improve throughout our fights it’s the best we can do.”
“All right, starting tomorrow we’ll head along the edge of the Bloodfields after we enter and look for one of the younger dungeons. Let’s spend the rest of our rations this trip and then for our next one we’ll have another discussion on how we can move forward then.” Gary stated after we had everyone’s agreement.
After our discussion everyone split up to take care of their gear and study our status screens.
Eli - Lvl 3 Druid
Experience - 170/1000
Strength-6 (+1)
Dexterity-6 (+1)
Perception-4
Vitality-5
Spirit-7
Willpower-7 (+1)
Barkskin - Level 5\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 312\1600
Thornbolt - Level 2\20 Upgradeable
Experience - 388\400
Rejuvenation - Level 1\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 120\200
I studied my Status with a grin. Strength, dexterity and willpower had all increased today, not to mention I nearly made it to level three with Thornbolt. I was starting to reach the point where I wasn’t sure which skill I should focus on the most. Rejuvenation was already powerful at level 1, but Barkskin and Thornbolt were the skills that I relied on during combat. I spent a few minutes thinking on it before I headed to sleep for the night.
We spent the next 10 days fighting patrols and the occasional dungeon within the first mile or two of the Bloodfields. All of the dungeons were easier than the few that we had defeated so far, and mostly consisted of goblins, wargs and the occasional hobgoblin for a boss. We managed to find four dungeons and complete all of them without anyone receiving another serious injury. While I found that my statistics didn’t increase nearly as much as before, my skills still made a good amount of progress. We decided to head back once we had three days of rations left so we could take it easy along the road back.
“So, does anyone want more time at the city once we get back?” Gary asked once we started on the road back to Gorok. I didn’t have much of an opinion either way so I stayed silent.
“Well, how much did we make this time, Aaron?” Gabrielle asked since he told us he would count it all out last night.
“With five dungeon cores, 7 bags of bloodmoss and a ton of warg fangs it came out to 39 silver 40 copper. We also have those plates from the beetles, too, which we don’t know the price of.” Aaron grinned as we all stopped to stare at him. “I bet with those plates we’ll make 50 silver this trip!”
“What!” Gabrielle screamed, “We’re rich!” I laughed for a moment with everyone, but I realized my parents had given me three silver to help me get started. They made decent money in Brightswell but I doubted it was more than 20 silver a year. In two weeks, I probably made half of that.
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“Wow,” I trailed off after a moment lost in my thoughts. We continued down the road for a few minutes before Gary slowed to a walk beside me.
“10 Silvers each will gave us enough money to seriously upgrade our equipment. The first thing I’m doing is buying that steel-tipped ashwood long spear we saw last time,” he said.
“Yeah, this spear was a huge upgrade from those goblin sticks. I still plan on buying a shield, but other than that I’m not sure.” I responded. I’m sure I could spend the rest of my money on upgrading my leather armor but maybe there’s something that would be better.
“A shield will be good for you once you learn how to use it. Other than a new weapon I’m just going to be focusing on getting better armor. We’re a long way away from affording anything enchanted,” Gary said as we walked.
"Yeah, armor is probably for the best,” I agreed. “Do you know anything about enchanted gear?” I asked towards Gary and Aaron who sped up to join the conversation.
“Unfortunately, my father never traded in anything like that. I’d guess even cheap enchanted items are over a gold in price. They don’t even sell them in shops outside of the nobles district.” Aaron replied.
“We’re a long way away from even thinking about enchanted gear, but every trip back to the city we’ll probably be able to afford some sort of upgrade to our gear.” Gary shrugged, and I found myself agreeing.
The next two days passed quietly as we focused on hiking and training. A few hours into our third day of travel we reached the city gates and joined the queue into the city. As we waited I pulled up my Status to see the results of the past few days of training.
Eli - Lvl 3 Druid
Experience - 730/1000
Strength-6
Dexterity-6
Perception-5 (+1)
Vitality-6 (+1)
Spirit-7
Willpower-7
Barkskin - Level 5\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 1440\1600
Thornbolt - Level 3\20 Upgradeable
Experience - 748\800
Rejuvenation - Level 3\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 40\800
The increase in levels for Rejuvenation had not reduced the Essence required to cast it, unfortunately. I still needed a short break before I could cast it two times in a row, although it healed more quickly throughout the thirty seconds that it lasted now that it had leveled. Thornbolt stayed the same size at level 3 but it flew more quickly and penetrated more easily. While we stayed in the city I planned on advancing Thornbolt to level 4 in the training yards. The rest of my Essence would go towards leveling Barkskin.
The line to get in the city went by quickly and we decided to head straight to the adventurers guild to unload all of our loot.
“Good afternoon, how can I help you?” The attendant asked as we arrived at the counter. Aaron quickly handed over all of the items on the noticeboard and received 40 silvers in return.
“We also encountered a different creature in the Bloodfields that we harvested the carapace plates off of. Do you know who I could see about getting them appraised?” Aaron asked. The attendant raised her eyebrows in surprise before she responded a moment later.
“Well I might be able to appraise them if they’re on a noticeboard for another area. Sometimes monsters that are rarely seen in the Bloodfields spawn in one of the dungeons. Usually these monsters are common in other areas and already have a price set for any usable materials.” she explained as Aaron placed the black plates on the counter.
“Interesting. These are from an Iron Beetle, which are usually only seen in the dungeons by Wydenhald, two silver per undamaged plate” she said before she pulled out a binder that she began flipping through. “Four silver per undamaged plate of these dark red plates, which are from an Iron Scorpion, according to their Adventurerers guild.”
“Oh, Gods,” Aaron mumbled as he began placing all the plates on the counter. All together we had a total of 16 plates, bringing us another 48 silver to spread among the team. Aaron quickly finished the transaction and we sat at one of the empty tables by the bar.
“88 Silver, leaving us with about 17 and a half silver each,” Aaron said with a huge grin on his face. He handed me the largest amount of coins I had ever owned at once.
“We struck it rich!” Zack yelled as he thrust a fist into the air. The rest of the group laughed and I noticed a smile on everyones face. A server came by and soon after we each had a large meal and a mug of ale. All I could think about was the food that actually had taste after two weeks of eating plain rations.
“Do you guys think we could get some better rations? We have got to be getting the lowest quality food out there. It’s not healthy, I’m telling you,” Zack said after we finished eating.
“Definitely,” Gabrielle said, “I can get some spices, too. I’m so over eating bland rice and beans every meal.”
“Deal!” Gary chuckled for a moment. “How long does everyone want to stay in the city?”
“Three nights?” I suggested. “I could use some time to relax and do some training with a shield before we set out again.”
“Some training, he says,” Aaron grinned. “I better not get woken up by Barkskin again. Three nights sounds good to me, too.” The rest of the team nodded and I headed to the bathhouse to get cleaned. I passed the rest of the day lounging pleasantly in the baths before I went back to the guildhall to sleep.
I left with Gary the next morning to work on getting our gear purchased. After stopping at one of the seaside stalls to get some more grilled fish we found the weapons stall that we purchased my spear at during our last trip there. Gary purchased a reinforced ashwood long spear with a steel-tip for four silver. It had bands of steel that helped to increase the durability of the spear shaft, unlike mine which was just unadorned ashwood. The attendant pointed us towards a nearby stall that sold me a reinforced ashwood buckler for 4 silver. It was a round shield about three feet tall that could cover my side well and didn’t seem to be too heavy.
“Back to that leatherworker that we purchased our armor from last time?” Gary asked after we left the stall. I nodded in reply and we headed back down the busy market street towards the leatherworker.
The same attendant from last time met us at the front of the stall a short time after we arrived. “Hello, what are you looking for today?” he asked with a short nod to greet us.
“I want to see about a better quality leather jerkin and some leg-guards.” I replied. “Maybe some pauldrons too if they won’t limit my mobility too badly.”
“I see. We have a reinforced leather jerkin that’s about double the weight of the one you bought here last time. It costs 6 silver. We have some thigh guards that cost 1 and a half silver. As for pauldrons we only have a reinforced version that will cost 4 silver.” he responded with the prices. I debated for a moment before I grimaced and pulled out 11 silver to pay him for all of it. Just like that and I had less than three silver remaining. Gary decided to buy the same outfit that I did after he saw me wearing it all. The pauldrons and jerkin were fairly heavy but my strength had increased a lot over the past weeks and this could help to continue training it.
“Well, I’m going to head to the training grounds back at the guild,” I said to Gary after he finished up at the stall.
“Yeah, I’ll come. It’s going to take a while for me to get comfortable fighting in this new gear.” he replied.