Waking some time later in the afternoon, the sunlight still present although muted below the canopy, I was wracked with pain. Survival instincts had saved me from much of the pain during combat, I was feeling it now. The potion cooldown was long finished so I popped another of the major health potions. My health bar was back up to about 3/4 full, my shoulder felt healed but my face still felt broken.
The falcon was resting on my shoulder, eyes alert as it scanned the forest. It had excellent eyesight and often saw beasts well before I did. There was an urge to be angry at it for not noticing the apes, though it was young and the anger passed as quickly as it came. There were notifications blinking in my vision so I went over them while waiting to take another health potion.
Congratulations! You have reached level 28!
Congratulations! You have fully bonded with Dusk Falcon! Dusk Falcon has reached level 4!
Congratulations! You have a new Quest!
Congratulations! Identify has reached level 12!
There was a sort of irony in the framework congratulating me for nearly, but not quite, dying over and over again. I dumped both skill points to Beast Companion which rose to level 20. There was a new menu available for Beast Companion so I opened it and found the Dusk Falcon listed. I looked over at it sitting on my shoulder and reached up with my healed arm to rub its feathers. It gave a satisfied chirp and nuzzled its head against mine.
“We’ll have to give you a name now, little one” I said softly to the falcon.
It sent back a feeling of happiness and contentment. I felt the emotions clearly for the first time, no more ambiguity of how the falcon felt. Thinking of a name for the falcon while I chugged another health potion and looked out over the forest, I checked the new quest available.
Active Quest - Defeat the pack leaders of the forest (1/10) - Reward - 100g / 1 Ruby Item Box.
There were more details available under the quests menu.
Active Quest - Defeat the pack leaders of the forest (1/10) - Reward - 100g / 1 Ruby Item Box - The forest is home to many beasts that live in packs. Defeat the pack leader of each pack for a reward! There is only one additional requirement, Survive!
Camile had told me quite a bit about the quests system from the tutorial that residents of Burch underwent. There were local quests that were triggered in proximity to towns and cities that would require removal of beasts, gathering of ingredients, improving the town, things like that. Regional quests usually involved powerful beasts such as my quest to defeat the regional beast lords. Kingdom quests could only be activated by the King and would involve war with other countries or great services to the Kingdom. World quests would span multiple kingdoms and nations, accomplishable by anyone who completed the objectives.
Quests were typically awarded based on the role a person performed. My class was designated as a combat class and therefore most of my quests would be combat related. Camile had one quest to motivate a member of the town each day for a month. Arthur had quests related to improving the equipment of the town as the blacksmith. Rian and Ryen had quests related to successful guard duties. It was a way to balance the leveling system by rewarding experience to non combat roles.
Next I read over the combat log to see how much damage each action had caused. Methodically going over the combat logs to see how effective my weapons were was a new habit of mine after combat. It was reassuring to see my damage delivered and damage received laid out in numbers. What had seemed odd and impossible to discern at first had become a creature comfort.
It took my bow an average of three hits to take down one of the regular apes just by damage numbers. Arthur and Camile had tried to explain the health system in more detail but it was still a little confusing. My bow had a base damage of 20. When I thought of my bow inside my equipment interface, I could see that it was tied to my agility. I gained 0.2 points of damage per agility point. Thankfully my agility was fairly high and it allowed me to shoot each arrow with a base damage of 27.4.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Where you hit or got hit also mattered in damage calculations. There was an entire category for what was called a critical hit. This referred to any hit in a body part that would cause greater damage, such as my dagger thrust to the neck of the pack leader. My dagger had a base damage of 20 as well, like my bow. It was bolstered by my strength, giving it 0.2 points of damage per point of strength. Each dagger hit had a base damage of 26.2 points of damage. The critical hit to the apes neck had done 104.8 damage, a 4x multiplier.
Resistances mattered when it came to elemental or damages with a type. The ogre from the survival event had an explosion resistance that had made it nearly invulnerable to explosions when active. Beasts could have resistances to any of the elements and it could be tied to a skill or innate. Damage types were listed in item or skill descriptions, my bow and dagger were listed as physical.
Armor values would directly affect damage received from physical sources. My armor value was 75 in my uniform and cloak, this reduced physical damage to protected areas by 7.5%. The pack leader had hit my unprotected face, meaning my armor did not reduce the damage, which led to my nose breaking and losing nearly half my health.
My dagger was the only melee range weapon that I had with me. The spear I had used in Burch had been left in the town, none of the residents were trained or used spears regularly. Most of the guards preferred swords, my comfort level using a sword was low. I would need to get another weapon soon, the dagger allowing beasts too close for comfort.
Punches and kicks without weapons were calculated based on strength levels as well. They did far less damage than a weapon, only around 5 damage on average for me. It was enough against the weakest of foes, the beasts in the forests all had a significant amount of health.
My health bar was nearly full now, the pain in my face had receded. I stood up and gathered my pack, checking over my supplies. I was down now to 6 arrows in my quiver so I replaced them from the surplus and gathered any that I could from the ape corpses. There were 8 health potions remaining and my armor was in good shape. The closest resource marker was a few miles away so I began to walk in that direction.
“Maybel?” I asked the falcon, thinking of a childhood friend.
The response was a noncommittal feeling, neither positive nor negative.
“How about Shuri?” I tried again.
The falcon gave me a playful peck on the head and sent back a negative feeling.
This game continued for a few more minutes as I suggested names that the falcon shot down while I jogged to the first marten flower. There were several in this area so I spent the rest of the afternoon harvesting them. The sunlight began to fade noticeably faster this deep in the forest. I guessed I was 20 miles from the mine. Winter would begin soon and the daylight hours would shorten even more. Arthur didn’t know what the weather would be like in the forest, Burch experienced a harsh winter being on the plains with it being windy, cold and snowing almost daily.
Settling in on a large branch that was a dozen or so feet off the forest floor, I tied my pack to the branch and stretched out. Having healed from the previous encounter, my body was feeling good. My cloak was large enough to wrap around my limbs and thick enough to take the edge off the temperature. It was getting cold at night, almost too cold for sleeping without a fire.
I sent a quick thought to the falcon to keep watch while I slept, it replied with agreement. It still didn’t communicate with words, just strong feelings that I could understand. Whether that was the framework interpreting or the falcon understanding, I didn’t know. My last thought before falling asleep was a name.
“Marci,” I exclaimed and looked over at the falcon perched on my shoulder.
The mental bond stayed quiet for a moment before acceptance and agreement poured through it. I smiled and stroked the falcon down its spine and closed my eyes. It let out a chirp of contentment and nuzzled against my head.
Marci - Dusk Falcon
Level
4
Health
10/10