As Vodrik was contemplating the option to jump to his death rather than climbing the cliff, Weylin took out something from his backpack.
"Here, drink this" said the dwarf, giving him an odd looking vial. Vodrik looked at it with suspicion. The liquid inside the vial had a strange color, a weird mix between brown, green and gold. Before he could voice up any complaints, Weylin spoke again.
"It's a healing potion. Yeh can't climb the cliff with yer nose like that, yeh might get dizzy and fall off. Life tip : yeh don't want to fall while climbing a cliff."
Fairly happy to get rid of his condition, Vodrik gulped the potion down. The strawberry taste was surprising, just like the effects that came after. He felt something growing and moving under his skin, as if hundreds of worms were crawling. This strange feeling spread over his face before concentrating on his nose, giving him the furious envy to scratch it. Weylin caught both of his arms, leaving with no choice but to endure the sensation.
"I think we're good to go now. If yeh just follow meh yeh'll be fine. If yeh have problems with heights just don't look down, okay ?"
"Huh, okay..." reluctantly said Vodrik before taking a hook in each hand and following Weylin to the bottom of the cliff.
'Ok, it's just a game. Should be easier. Just do it like you ' He started to climb, paying close attention to the path that Weylin took. The first part of the ascension was surprisingly easy, and Vodrik was surprised by the hooks, who always sinked in the rock and firmly anchored themselves. 'It's like they're reacting to the actions I want to take...' He felt even more confident as some prompts popped up from time to time.
'So you can gain stats through physical actions... Now that I think about it, what should kind of character should I build ?'
As he did not expect to play the game before a long time, Vodrik had no prepared plan for his character. Being a dwarf reduced his choice, but there still were numerous paths to take. Moreover, the goal of this playing period was to gather information on the game. Him and the other testers were going to have a hard time to discover the game. At the same time, they had a two months advance on everyone. 'This might turn into quite a profit' he thought greedily.
For now, following Weylin seemed like a good idea, even if they had a bad start. The NPC probably had knowledge about this world and the Dwarves. If he didn't, then he could at least guide him to the town he was supposed to be.
Vodrik had to switch his focus back on the ascension as the difficulty increased. His muscles started to burn, but the pain was small enough to be ignored. He kept climbing until he found himself blocked by natural rock formation. To continue, he had to jump on a large platform on his left. The gap was almost three meters wide.
If he had a human body, he could have reach it without too much problems. Vodrik being a dwarf, the small gap became a massive obstacle. Climbing was easier and harder at the same time : he had superior strength and endurance, but his small height and lack of agility were quite problematic. He wasn't afraid of heights, but his arms felt tired and he couldn't see any clear footholds. Suddenly, a cry came from above.
"Hey, what's wrong ?" Vodrik looked up and saw Weylin looking at him from the top of the cliff. 'When did he even got there....'
"How do I continue ? I can't see the way from there !" he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Yeh have to jump there ! Just stick a hook in the wall a bit further and swing yerself to the other side ! Then yeh pull on the rope to get yer hook back !"
'Say what now ???'
"Are you fucking nuts ?!"
"No, I'm a climbing pro !"
It took a few minutes, some insults and a dire reminder of the storm to come - huge black clouds in the distance - to convince Vodrik to attempt the jump. Slowly, very slowly, he pulled one hook out of the rock and immediately grabbed a hold with his hand. Checking he had a good grasp on it and that the hold was sturdy, he placed himself back to the cliff and pulled out the other hook. He retracted his arm before swinging the hook toward his left.
With the momentum and Vodrik superior strength, the second hook hammered itself into the rock, a bit higher than his current position. Pulling a bit on the rope, he checked the hook's anchoring before turning his body to face the wall.
"Okay, let's do this" he mumbled before taking two deep breaths and jumping.
Vodrik immediately entered a pendulum motion and felt all his weight pulling on the rope. Midway, a quick glance told him that the hook was starting to loose anchor. In a total panick attack, he let go of the rope and extended his arm toward the other side. Time seemed to stop for him as he flew toward the small platform and suddenly realised he was loosing speed.
Panicked, he started flailing his arms in the air, trying to grab hold of something. He managed to catch the edge of the platform with one hand before violently slamming on its base, but the impact was mitigated as he used his legs to reception himself. After a few seconds of disbelief, Vodrik regained his composure and manged to pull himself up.
'Holy shit ! Thank god for those stats, never thought I could hold myself in the air like that !' Sitting on all fours and panting heavily, he suddenly laughed a bit before leaning his torso back, throwing his arms in the air.
"WOOOOH ! I'M ALIVE !" he screamed with glee and a smile on his face, as his cry echoed on the mountain.
"Yeah, and how are yeh going to climb up without the needed tools, yeh bloody dimwit ?" reminded him an seemingly pissed Weylin from the top of the cliff.
"Oh shit !" exclaimed Vodrik as he realised the dwarf was right : he had only one hook left. The other felt down as he did not thought about attaching it to himself and jumped Tarzan style. "Can't you throw me yours ?" he asked hopefully.
"Hell no ! Even in the small probability they actually fall on yeh, it's dangerous to throw those, they're heavy as hell. Yeh just don't feel it cause it's enchanted for easier use. No, I need to get some help from the outpost. I will be back soon, don't move !"
"Hey wait ! What about the storm ?" cried Vodrik, but no reply came this time.
'Fuck, he already left' thought Vodrik as he watched the heavy clouds slowly coming. They would probably be upon him in 10 or 20 minutes. 'I just hope he will be back before that...' As he was contemplating the darkening sky, he noticed a small blinking blue square on the corner of his vision. Frowning, he mentally focused on it and was surprised by the apparition of a few prompts. 'Alriiiiight, notifications ! That's cool.'
"Surviving a fall is often more a question of luck than knowledge or skill." - Foranzio Deltun, Member of the Kragmar Climbing Guild.
- 5% chance of avoiding damage after a fall.
'What the hell ? I lost Wisdom ???' Vodrik was staring at the windows dumbfounded. That was a first, a game making you loose stats depending on your actions. "Passive isn't going to be that useful, although I don't say no to any bonuses... I have to be way more careful about what I do. At least that's some good info to bring back..."
Having nothing to do while waiting for Weyling to come back with help, he looked at his surroundings. The platform he was on was small, but large enought for him to lay down without any fear from falling. Laying down, he peaked over the edge and saw his other hook way down below. A small area around it was showing cracks, proof of the weight of the now shattered object. Looking upwards, the climb seemed fairly hard, at least with one hook he didn't knew how he could do it.
The wind suddenly blew on his back, carrying a smell of rotten eggs. 'Ugh, that stinks ! Where does that came from' he thought, turning around. At first he saw nothing, as the cliff was making an angle whick blocked his line of sight. It took him a few minutes and some hardcore contorsions, but Vodrik finally managed to look around the corner and saw some sort of cave entrance in the cliff, with a really tight track linking it to his platform. 'That's not even a track, just a rock a bit longer...'
Although his curiosity was piqued, he refused to go. What if Weylin came back during that time ? What if he simply fell again ? He doubted his new passive would do any good against a fall that long. 'Better to wait. For all I know there might be nothing in there.'
About 10 minutes later, things started to look eerie. The wind became stronger and colder each minute that passed, and the rumble of thunder was getting closer and closer. Vodrik couldn't see any sign of Weylin and became really worried. 'Did he just left me there ? Screw this, I need to get to the cave or I'll just be blown away by the storm !'
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
It took Vodrik a long time and some big frights, but he managed to get to the cave. He collapsed inside mentally exhausted, thanking the fact that it was really close to the platform. As he was laying there, the storm finally raged down upon the mountain flank. He forced himself to get up and go a bit further into the cave to avoid the rain faliing on the entrance. He finally sat against the wall and pondered what to do.
'Clearly, they're not coming to get me in this weather. I should check a few things on the U.I.' Vodrik opened his status.
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Name: Vodrik | Race: Dwarf, Male | Clan: (None) | Neutral Alignement | LVL: 1
Health: 140/140 | Mana: 60/60
STR: 14 | TOU: 14 | DEX: 10 | PER: 10 | INT: 7 | WIS: 6
Stat Points: 0
Great Spirit Affinity: Earth (Strong)
Titles
-
Racial Traits
Mountain's Son | Dwarven Heritage
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Curious, he decided to check the dwarven racial traits. Since those were not displayed during the race selection, it would be good information to collect. A list of all racial traits would come in handy for sure.
Natural strong relationship with the Spirit of Earth | +25% recovery rate in mountainous/underground areas
Vitality and Willpower replaced by Toughness.
Dwarven Language : Mastered
Crafting skills can be raised to Grandmaster Level | x2 experience required to level up crafting skills
Can use all armor types | Can use all weapon types
He was a bit surprised at first, but the racial were pretty good. The only downside was obviously the experience needed for crafting, but he wasn't planning on doing much of it in any case. Just enough to understand the crafting system, and he already had a nice information there : the Grandmaster level. Going by name, it was certainly the top level you could reach in crafting. From there, he could deduce the different degrees of skill : Beginner or Novice, probably followed by something along the line of Apprentice, Adept, Journeyman, Expert, Master and finally Grandmaster.
'Which means 7 tiers for skills. Need to discover the inner workings now. Probably 10 levels per tier ?' What was really unexpected though, was the Dwarven Language Mastery. It meant that each race had its ownn, and that he would have to learn it to talk to them. He was torn between hoping it was simple by pure lazyness, and wanting it to be hard, so it would be harder to share information.
Curious about Endurance, Vodrik decided to take a look at the specifities of attributes.
A measure of how physically strong you are. Controls the inventory maximum weight and the damage of melee attacks among other things.
Armor and weapons might have a Strength requirement.
A measure of how sturdy and resilient you are. Toughness is a special attribute for a few selected races.
Controls Health Points and resistances to special types of damage (physical, magical, poisons, etc.) and other afflictions (fatigue, curses, illness, intimidation, etc).
A measure of how agile you are. Controls your proficiency with weapons and crafting.
Ranged weapons and crafting tools might have a Dexterity requirement.
A measure of how open to your surroundings you are. Controls the chance to detect vital clues, ennemies or hidden objects.
Affect the accuracy of ranged attacks.
A measure of your character's problem-solving ability. Rules over your control of magic and learning potential among other things.
Magical objects, spells or artifacts might have an Intelligence requirement.
A measure of your character spirituality. Controls your mana pool among other things.
Affects interactions with Spirits or their representatives.
As he was thinking about it, the smell of rotten egg came back, clearly coming from further in. Curious, Vodrik decided to investigate. After ten meters or so, he became surprised at the cave's length. 'More like a tunnel... Maybe I can get to the city this way ?' It was tempting, but there was one big problem : the tunnel got darker the more he advanced. Soon, it would be pitch black.
Trying to find a solution, he called up his inventory but found nothing helpful.
Equipped
Linen Shirt | Linen Pants | Leather Climbing Shoes
Available
100 Gold | Barley Bread (x10) | Weylin's Enchanted Hook (Right Hand)
'Oh yeah, he sais it was enchanted. Let's check it out' he thought, pressing the hook Icon. Which made the hook appear in his hand. In the dark, he took notice for the first time of the glowing runes engraved in the handle.
Belongs to the Dwarf Weylin Drokarosh. Part of a set of climbing hooks.
The enchantment wears the signature of the Drokarosh Clan and reduces the hook's weight.
Durability: 75/90 | Restrictions: 13 Strength
The hook gave off a tiny glow, but it was enough to slightly light his way in the dark. Like one meter in front of him, but at least he could see where he was stepping. He looked back at the entrance. The storm was going at full strength outside. He had no idea when it would stop. 'Well, nothing better to do than some exploring.'
Putting his left hand on the wall by caution and raising his lantern-hook in front of him, Vodrik slowly disappeared in the dark and ominous tunnel.