Michael was completely lost, and he had no idea how to reach the cave he emerged from, but that was merely a small problem, as his destination was the mountaintop.
His newfound strength made it easier for him to climb, and his tireless body allowed him to jump vertically whenever he ran out of slopes and edges to move on. He had slipped and fallen a couple times, and the damage he took scaled with the height, which made total sense. Albeit Michael was half expecting it to be a flat amount of damage. Just because.
It was not to long until he found his first enemy, a mountain goat.
The animal was chewing on grass, its hooves clamped to the wall as if it was a spider. When it saw Michael the goat jumped from small ledge to small ledge until it was on ramming distance. Michael recognized the signs and let himself slip down the mountain, carefully controlling his fall, until he landed on a wider area.
The goal landed just after him, and unleashed its ram attack. Its horns glowing like the horned rabbits.
Michael threw himself to the ground and the goat fell into the far away mountain base. It disappeared into a bunch of light.
Michael received no notification for it.
“I guess that doesnt count as killing it” he said to himself, and began plotting how to take donwn a goat. Well how to kill it without literally taking it down.
The slippery animals had the terrain advantage, and this little stint set him back several minutes of climbing. But every enemy dropped something the first time he killed them, and he was itching to find what could be extracted from the goats.
It was cheese.
Half an hour later Michael finally took down his first goat, on a display of bravery or stupidity, Michael let the goat ram into him and both of them fell from a ledge. It was a calculated risk, as Michael had just left a bigger area a moment before being ambushed by the goat. Both fell back on that wide area and Michael could take it down with merely three hits.
You have slain Mountain goat Level 18
Goat cheese – 1
Restores 40 HP
Strength + 2
Ten hits
He hads taken some damage from the fight, so he readily eat it, and counter with the number ten showed up on the corner of his vision. Tentatively, Michael swung his branch and the counter didnt decrease, then he hit the mountain and it stayed the same.
Ten hits against enemies?
Not bad.
From there on Michael went out of his way to hunt the goats, he had no way to forage foir berries or apples on the mountain, but the damage taken from the fight was easily offset by the cheese. Only one in five goats dropped it, but he was getting better at killing them.
Eventually, he reached level eighteen
Michael Thundercock
Level 18
Strength 11
Constitution 8
Channeling 2
With the boost from his items and his constitution, he was capable of resisting the ramming from the goats, even if he was climbing. All he had to do was to strike them down when they jumped at him, and then continue the fight on whatever ground they landed on.
Granted, his constitution allowed him to resist the ramming force, but he still took eight damage every time. A very acceptable price.
Twelve hours later, Michael was out of fruit and with thirty cheese to his name. he arrived at a plain on top of the mountain, and a new forest welcomed him.
This forest was made of tall trees, their bark mostly white and the leaves mostly pale blue. All the treetops had very heavy accumulations of snow, some as thick as the tree canopy itself.
Michael went it carefully, expecting any monster to jump at him at any minute.
As expected, a blue bear showed up with a roar.
Blue Bear Level 25
A bear, Michael had little confidence on taking something like that with his branches, but went in nevertheless.
As expected, the bear opened with a paw strike, and Michael parried it, taking only one point of damage.
HP – 188/190
Michael hit the bear on the arm, its body too far away to risk getting himself on the range of its claws.
It took six damage.
Michael had a suspicion when the bear showed up, and this confirmed it, the bear’s thick fur protected it from the blunt strikes of his branch, and he had no idea what kind of special skill it had.
“This is going to be long” Michael said to himself, and consumed another cheese.
The fight went on for ten minutes, and the bear had used two special abilities.
The first one was a powered claw strike, that Michael expected and dodged.
The second one was an ability to curl into a ball and roll against him.
Michael assumed this was his chance and dodged to the side, and then hit the bear as it passed him. The bear took six damage, but Michael’s branch broke and he took ten damage from it.
“So heavy! How high is its constitution?”
Michael had little time to be surprised, as the bear rose to its feel in a single leap, thats when Michael realized the roling attack was also useful for the bear to get closer to him.
The bear’s powered claw strike hit him clean, and he was sent tumbling away like a ball
HP – 20/190
One hundred and fifty of his health were shaved away on a single movement. Michael consumed four cheese balls on a single go.
“Its a bad thing the strength increase doesnt stack”
After this scare the fight took a turn for the better, as Michael knew what to expect. Whenever the bear rolled he simple jumped away, the claw strike had no big openings he could exploit, but the bear0s arms themselves were an easy target to hit.
At the twenty minute mark the bear died
You have slain Blue bear Level 25
You have gained one level
Bear bonete
Constitution +1
HP + 40
The loot was a square fur hat, with two small bear ears on top, blue, of course.
“The clothing here is rather colorful” Michael said to himself, speaking alone was becoming a habit way back on his tower, he really had to get himself a team, or a pet.
Michael went inside the edge of the forest, left and right, he fought other goats, this ones bluer than the previous ones, their cheese gave constitution rather than strength.
No other bears showed up, and after clearing the edge of the forest Michael went back to the edge of the plain, and took a look at the world.
It was big.
At the south the forest extended, the many ponds glittering like small mirrors.
To the west and east a lot of hill rose, each with patches of grasslands and forests, but without ponds.
To his right a river descended, and maybe this is where all the ponds feed from.
Far into the sout-west Michael could see a circular structure, the details were hazy, but it was clearly a city surrounded by walls.
He had a destination to follow.
Predictably, the city was located on the path of the river, so he also had reliable way to reach it.
But most striking was the sky, as dense white clouds spread around the mountain in circles. Some of the clouds so high they looked like fluffy floating mountains, on the lland bellow Michael could see the shadows cast by those clouds as they moved.
On the vast horizon a glimmer of reflected sunlight, the ocean.
It was not completely right to call it beautiful, which it was, but when seeing those vast areas filled with mystery and rewards, all Michael could think its that it looked really cool.
*****
Kartgman The Bold checked his status, the new server gave him a chance to start fresh and to make a new group, but everyone was still on the solo adventurer phase, and had no intention to join a group yet.
Same for him, after things got heated up on his old guild, about the endless dilemma of “Gif versus Jif” they had to disband and end things for good. Lest they become bitter archenemies.
Now, Kartgman was in the mood to lead, and assemble his own team.
He, of course had the absolutely, indispensable, totally original build of a DPS and required some explorers, tanks and crafters to make a nice core group.
He would also require some grinding areas that could be accessed soon, before the place got too crowded. His previous experiences taught him that a good guild was built on the idea of exploring. And the feeling of satisfaction that came from being among the first ones to discover a new area.
Not to mention that being first meant discovering the hidden events faster than any other group, and bragging rights became scarce as the server got too populated.
He looked around the squared plaza, looking for his bro to arrive.
They promised to meet at the chicken-shaped fountain at the center-
Bro, im doing overtime, gotto arrive later
Fetch us a building on the meantime
Again, ugh.
Whatever, Kartgman opened his map, the cathedral at the north, the adventurer guild at the south, the crafting infrastructure at the west and the merchant branches at the east. And all the residential areas in the middle.
It was a little annoyed every time he opened a map inside a city, as it was way bigger than the one granted by his Spellblade class. No matter, such was the price of coolness.
Kartgman went west, to take advantage of the crafting bonuses granted to the residential buildings on that side.
The NPC realtor was an elf in business suit, and it opened him a series of windows showing the places for sale.
The first one was a dilapidated place, the idea being that a faction had to spend money on the construction, but it had the most potential for personalization. Similarly, finished buildings had basic functions, which saved time on specialization, but were less flexible and more costly.
Kartgman went through the clownhouse, the gothic cathedral, the fast food joint, the underground mad science lab. Then he accessed the paid options and was presented with the really nice stuff, the hidden realm, the spaceship, the submarine base, the mobile fortress, the airship, even the damn space station. All of them with the ability to portal back and forth.
The hidden realm was out immediately, it was nice but just an oversized garden, the spaceship and the submarine base had nice views, and the options for the players to walk outside, but were mostly cosmetics. Except for the zero gravity experience, but there were homebrew games for that.
The space station had the gimmick og being able to hover like a flying castle, to deploy players directly on a place already scouted by a single member, and the ability to freefall made it very tempting, but it was too expensive. Same with the airship, which also had the disadvantage of being too easy to spot and folow, giving other players a free scouting.
That left the mobile fortress, the ability to set a respawn point on the go was the main appeal of those three last options, and they all could be disguised, but the fortress was cheaper and had wider levels of customization. It was the one with the most begginer-like requirements.
And thus Kartgman The Brave, wallet warrior, smurf of the countless servers and oh-so-powerful minmaxer, valiantly snatched a mobile base from the jaws of the company. But he paid a terrible price, for all things good and bad have a price, and his example would be remembered for the generations to come and go from his guild.
Mostly, because dumping a month worth of salary into a game was overkill, but whatever.
Kartgman strolled to the building he purchased as a base to teleport back, it was a two-story log cabin to match the looks of the base, and it also had a basement for crafting.
Making stuff on your secret underground place had a certain appeal, and thus underground laboratories, smithies and similars were aplenty.
The cabin was wide, with a main hall for gatherings on the first floor, a central chamber to host reunions on the second, five limitless storage rooms, one front fountain and three smaller ones fort allocation. Twelve illumination píllars made of three stories high glowing crystal, four lounges, a library, and the all-purpose crafting station on the basement. And lots of slots for personalization and growth.
The cabin even had a special ceiling allowing for plants to grow on top, currently it was filled with pines and grass, but they could transplant stuff they foun on the road.
It was called a cabin, but it was more of a mansion amde of thick, rough-looking logs as wide as a meter.
The front area was roofed to serve as auditorium and parking lot, and a vehicle rested there.
A wooden cart the size of a small truck, a horse automaton strapped at the front.
Kartgman checked the cabin, and as promised, it had only three features. A respawn crystal, two portals, one at the side to reach the main hall, and one on the floor to access the underground crafting station. The other feature was a mana cannon mounted on top.
The reason to pay a premium (besides the tons of customization slots) was to obtain the ability to set a mobile base with integrated defenses, which would alow them to easily be accepted into big events like sieges, wars, or raid caravans.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“This place is lit” Kartgman said, while taking selfies of himself on al the areas of the base.
“But i want to hit the road” he said, he sat on the wagon and directed the horse towards the city gates.
*****
Michael ran away from a bear, this one a level thirty. They were still as resistant as ever, and the easy monsters like the rabbits were harder to come by.
The fight was even, with Michael using his hit and run strategy to accumulate damage, but the bear buyked up, its fur sponging like a cake, and it displayed a message saying it recovered a hundred health. Considering Michael had only inflicted seventy damage he had to escape and plan again.
Michael dove into the river, the same one that reached all the way to the city on the distance. The water current was not that strong on the plain, but the flow was heavy and pushed him efficiently. He got off the water a while after.
This had been his strategy as of late, he would advance upstream and challenge the monsters on the way, while foraging whatever he found. When the monsters proved themselves too tough for him he would jump into the river and undo his progress.
Every time he would return to the latest safe area he found beforehand, and try again.
He called it a “save point method” while congratulating himself for his cleverness. Surely in this world only the smartest of minds could come up with such a sophisticated strategy.
Fortunately the water had no enemies, because his movement was very sluggish inside. Michael saw some fish but nothing that preyed on them, and so far he had been unsuccessful on catching them. And he had to find a way to make progress and overcome the bears’ thick fur.
Inventory 5/5
Thick branch – 30
Goat cheese – 25
Blue goat cheese – 12
Blue tea leaves – 66
Ice rock – 30
“Why those monsters dont eat the cheese anyway?” Michael asked to himself out of habit. He had tried to ambush the bears with some cheese as bait, but they simply ignored it.
They did fight the goats, but they mostly hanged near the plains’ edge, and so far in there wa no way to lure a goat into the territory of a bear. Not to mention there was no real way to profit from such an encounter.
In the end Michael could only dodge and hit the bears until they fel, but as the enemy levels increased his effectiveness became lesser.
Michael Thundercock
Level 24
He had reached the same level as the average enemy, and this made it harder to level up. But he had noticed the bears growing stronger the deeper he went, as if this was their territory.
The enemy grows stronger while he stays the same. That could have been solved with persistency, but the level thirty bears displayed a new ability, which confirmed his suspicions that enemies had new abilities every ten levels.
Michael could simply go downstream and reach the city, but he felt as if this ice forest was “his” ice forest, and he wanted to conquer it before going back
Not to gain loot or levels, but to be able to look back from the edge of the plain, knowing he stood up to the challenge.
“I arrived, i basked on the scenery, and conquered the place” Michael said “That sounds great, i should make it into a catchphrase or something.”
So, the bears.
Michael went to the side of the river, to explore further than before.
His only hope being to find a new resource that would allow him to bridge the gap in skills. Or a new skill. Thats why he got himself out of the river on the opposite shore, to try his luck on that side
Michael found an enemy. An ent disguised as an apple tree.
iEnt Level 23
The ent swung its branch, and the apples flew towards him describing a wide arc. Michael positioned himself on the area where fewer apples would fall and hit with his branch to parry them.
He took five damage, perfectly aceptable.
The ents’ strikes were stronger than the bears’, but they were much slower and their branches made an incredibly wide arc after every swing, giving him enough time to get close and strike.
Their only difficul attack were the two initial apple volleys, and the rest was just a matter of grinding them down.
The end fell with no trouble, and there was no loot. But Michael finally leveled up.
Congratulations
You have reached level 25 with no class
You can obtain the Nomad class (rare)
You can obtain the Stoic class (rare)
You can obtain the Scout class
You can obtain the Barbarian class
Complete a class and choose another!
“A class!”
Michale almost jumpeds from the surprise, after reaching level five and seeing no indications of a class, he had resigned himself to the idea of classes being something obtained in cities, maybe passed down from instructors. And it was one of the reasons he refused to go downstream yet.
If classes were necessary to close the power gap, would it be amazing if he conquereed this place without one?
He had no clear indication of what was a class, but he assumed it to be simmilar to a magician’s specialization.
In any case, discovering a class by himself was different to getting it from a city, so, in his mind it still counted as conquering the forest on his own.
“Time to find if im right!” Michael said as he checked his status.
Nomad (rare)
First tier
A class focused on movement and discovery
-10% reduction to movement penalties
-10% increase to movement bonuses
-10% bonus to effects from foraged consumables
-10% damage reduction from new monsters
-10% damage bonus from defeated monsters
-10% damage bonus from equipment personally found or crafted
Beginner skills
-Improvised crafting
-Foraged consumables bonus (passive)
-Movement up
“This... what is this?”
Rather than simply developing new abilities, this class change felt a lot like changing his whole race. He was aware that elves, dwarves and other species had better affinities in some areas and worst in others, compared to humans.
“How exactly does this works?” Michael said, rising his hands in exasperation.
“Whatever, shit happens” he said, taking it as it came.
“This looks pretty good to go around on my own, and the most tempting one is the crafting option.”
Michael had tried to sharpen his branches by rubbing the extremes against the rocks, to no avail. To require an ability to craft was a revelation, but shit happens.
“Lets see the rest.”
Stoic (rare)
First tier
A class for those who can endure and persevere
-10% bonus to effects from consumables
-10% reduction to health shock
-10% reduction to recoil
Beginner skills
-Endure
-Delay debuff
-Double edge
“Health shock?” is that the thing i get instead of pain?
Getting a shock reduction would mean he could theoretically keep hitting an enemy up close, instead of having to run back and forth. It would meant exposing himself to a lot of damage, but the consumable upgrade obviously took care of that.
“This class seems to be made for someone cold and efficient, i like it”
Scout
First tier
A class for exploration
-10% increase to movement bonuses
-10% increase to perception bonuses
Beginner skills
-Movement up
-Increased sight
“This looks straightforward, but clearly has less stuff, i guess the other will be the same”
Barbarian
First tier
A class for fighting
-10% increase to melee bonuses
-10% increase to endurance bonuses
Beginner skills
-Strength up
-Double edge
“Yep, just as basic as the scout.”
His mind when back to the fight with the first bear, and how he had to damage himself in order to damage it, when it rolled around.
“I guess thats recoil, and Double edge must be something that causes that on purpose. Al this classes seem to be based on my actions so far. I like it”
“And this also has the Double edge ability, i guess is something that allows to fight recklessly to cause more damage. I assume the stoic can endure more to cause damage long term, while the Barbarian just takes the damage and hits harder.”
The Nomad was maybe a superior version of the scout, but that would become evident over time, as they both had “begginer skills,” which implied the existance of advanced ones. Maybe a scout could develop better perception abilities. Who knows?
But the Barbarian was clearly worst that the Stoic, as it favored a reckless fighting style... then again, he had a decent amount of food, so it may not be that bad.
It was more of the opposite, the Stoic had complementary abilities to plan ahead as the fight went on. Michael could respect that.
Then again, relying too much on the shock reduction would expose him to unknown attacks, it was both a merit and a demerit.
But his lack of resources settled the options form him, and he choose the Nomad. As he was completely lacking in equipment.
“Lets see how it goe...-“
Michael’s musings were interrupted by another iEnt. He fought him and was annoyed to have not chosen a skill before the fight.
You have slain iEnt level 22
Bark vambrace
-Constitution + 2
-HP+ 20
“Finally”
Michael returned to his class menu and purchased the three available skills, they were two skill points each, but he had plenty from his levels.
Movement up
10% increase to speed
-20% increase to speed if there are no enemies near
-One minute
Cost – 10 MP
“So thats what MP is for!” Michael said in delight, he had only twenty MP, ten from his initial stats and ten from the point he spend on channeling.
“Now all thats left is to find how exactly Channeling works”
Next he checked the Improvised crafting ability.
Improvised crafting
Base material
Modifier
“Wut?” Michael said, tilting his head in confusion.
He tried inputting a branch in each box.
Improvised crafting – 10MP
Sturdy branch
Modifier
-Sturdy branch
(Blunting)
“Will this make the branch blunt? How does that works?”
He accepted the option and the branch developed a thicker side, clearly meant for smashing.
Blunt branch
Damage +1
“Branch plus branch equals thick branch”
Michael took long breaths.
“Shit happens, breathe in. shit happens, breathe out”
He had nothing else to use with the branch, but after taking a class his inventory had grew by five slots, so he could store some rocks and try again.
Ten minutes later he had his rocks, and his MP refilled on its own, much faster than his HP.
“Ok, second try”
Improvised crafting – 10MP
Sturdy branch
Modifier
-Small rock
(sharpening)
“Now, that looks promising” Michael said and activated it.
Sharpened branch
Piercing damage
“No damage increase?”
Improvised crafting – 10MP
Sturdy branch
Modifier
-Rock
(Blunt)
“Lets try again”
Stone hammer
Damage +1
“The small rock disappeared, but the normal one fused with the branch”
“I guess materials of a simmilar tier are processed together, while lesser materials are used as tool for processing”
Michael tried to process the hammer and spiky branch, but nothing happened. Then he used his whole stack of branches, to make half into lances and half into hammers.
“I guess i can take on the bears now”
He still had the Wolf Totem, and it said it was a crafting material, but to use it on a branch felt like a ridiculous waste. And it was special to him as it came from his first great foe. He would holkd onto it and craft it with a more worthy equipment.
Before going back and cross the river Michael decided to see this side to the end. The whole plain ended on yet another mountain top rising on the distance, covered in snow, which clearly was the source of the water. And this side of the river was closer to the mountail wall. Thats why he decided to explore the other side first, as it promised to have more stuff. But since he was on the smaller side he may as well complete it.
He used Movement up, and the benefit was small, but easy to feel. Then he went back to his notifications.
Intermediate skills
-Crafting (locked)
-Consumable on weapon
-Consumable combination
-Movement up 2
The skills showed up after he purchased his previous beginner ones. Michael has graduated from the magical academy, and it was not hard for him to imagine how this worked.
The previous skills were marked as “Begginer skills,” if a class was supposed toi be taken at level five, an beginner skills had a cost of two skill points each, then a person would have to reach level six to purchase the skills. Assuming they didnt purchase any skills before, as he did.
With three skills of his own, Michael would have to wait until level nine to obtain the beginner skills and complete the “beginner’s course.” Unlocking the next tier.
His class also had a change.
Nomad 25/30
Each skill had a cost of three points.
“Assuming there are advanced skills, and assuming they are four points each, this costs eighteen points so far, and the class can grant thirty points until completion, this leaves twelve available points.”
“If they are four points each there can only be three skills that can be purchased.”
“But what if there are more skills?”
“And i im already three points short, this means i can only afford two advanced skills.”
“Then again, Barbarian and Stoic shared a skill, so there is a chance several classes can grant simmilar skills.”
“Under this reasoning, it makes sense to select a class compatible with the one i already have, in order to access all the available advanced skills.”
He purchased all the abilities.
Crafting (locked)
-Craft 10 different objects in order to unlock this ability
-Craft 100 objects of repeated types in order to unlock this ability
-You can combine objects with 1 slot
“Mmm...”
“I guess i need to learn how to stack stuff together, such mysterious technology.”
Consumable on weapon
-Spend a consumable to grant the effect to your weapon
-You can grant the effect to an ally’s weapon by touching it
-You can select a stack of consumables on your inventory and assign it to your weapon
-Each hit spends a consumable
-Consumable weapons such as arrows use up one consumable, regardless of landing a hit
“Pretty reasonable, but i dont have any poisonon myself, maybe i should have hunted those spitting vines?”
Consumable combination
Select two consumables of the same type
-Combine them
The resulting consumable has 10% more effect
“I can see the appeal, if i ever find myself with too much of the same type.”
Movement up 2
20% increase to speed
-40% increase to speed if there are no enemies near
-One minute
Cost – 30 MP
“The MP consumption is too high, i guess i need to spend more points on channeling.”
“But this is weird, i had no need to consume skill points to elvel up my other skills.
General Skills
-Smash 4
-Parry 6
-Dodge 8
“Obviously i lack information, i guess i reach level thirty, clean this palce and go to the city, before i do something too stupid with my points.”
Michael went all the way to the mountain wall, and found a cryustal tree, as pale as the snow around. It had deep blue leaves embedded with whie patterns that looked like snowflakes, growing from angular, spiky branches.
Snow accumulated all over its canopy. It had a sort of quiet beauty, standing alone on a clearing.
Ice ent Level 25
“Of course.”
The ent stood imobile, and Michael got closer and closer, trying to gauge at which point it would attack. But it did not.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained” Michael said, and checked his back to see if there were other monsters around. They were none.
He equipped his stone hammer and hit the branch furthest from the trunk, causing twelve damage. The ent shuddered and unrooted itself, snow falling on the process. Then the fight began.
Having fought other ents before Michael remained on the periophery, to gauge its branch speed. It was faster than the iEnts, but not by much. After hopping back and forth several times Michael tried to parry it, and did it, but he stil took five damage.
“Perfectly acceptable” he said.
Then again, he parried the extreme of the branch, and there were plenty of spiky branch growing from the middle section. It would surely get a lot of damage in, if he got hit by those.
iEnts had a volley attack and a whip-arm attack, thus Michael expected something simmilar, but the ice ent did no whipping. Instead of two branch-arms it had three, and it kept rotating, hitting him with rather regular strikes that Michael could parry. But he was wary until he could see its two skills.
They were the same level and Michael could feel the raw strength in possesed, every time he parried an attack. It was obvious that people here had lots of skils to make up for the difference in stats, so he wanted to be cautious. The minutes went by, and he did small progress, then the ent glowed blue and activated a skill.
HP + 200
“Come on!” Michael said with a groan. But then recomposed himself. this was the same problem he had with the bears so me may as well practice here.
He went on a fiercer offensive, taking the occasional damage from the spiky branches, it was only ten each time, but the fifteen he caused were not enough to justify it.
His own HP was two hundred and sixty, and it kept fluctuating around one hundred and fifty.
Then the ent shuddered, and the branches made a whiping motion upwards.
It threw its leaves upwards, and snow fell from the mountain in small lumps of snowflakes.
The leaves spun around the clearing, forming a whirlwind. Then it began closing in.
One leaf shoot out and hit Michael, taking ten HP, ten seconds later another fired itself at him.
“Thats cheating!” Michael said, while eating one of his many cheeses.
A minute later the leaves began to home on him two by two, with a difference of one second each. The loss of HP was not that terrible, but the shock caused by taking damage hurt Michael’s coordination, and he got hit with a full branch, taking a whole fifty damage.
Michael eyes the leaves, trying to gauge how many would hit him at once if he tried to escape, if more than thirty homed in he was done for. And the cost of reforming an astral form increased with every new attempt. By his own estimation he had three respawns before vanishing.
“I guess i should have acted with more caution” Michael said “But if caution doesnt cut it, i guess i can only be reckless.
This time he ran towards the main trunk, and landed a hit on the very center, causing thirty damage. He opened himself for a branch attack, and even when dodging it, he still took twenty five damage. Then he eat another cheese.
This continued for another minute, with both wasting their healing resources, and inflicting damage. Until a branch broke.
It shattered into light dust, and the ice ent had a big opening.
It could not whip its arms, so Michael just had to spin around, matching the ent, in order to keep hitting the trunk with his stone hammer.
It caused three hundred damage.
The ent activated its healing ability and the branch regrew.
Looking closely Michael realized the other branches had small cracks, so he targeted the most damaged branch, and focused on hitting it.
The leave projectiles increased to three every ten seconds, but those times Michael just jumped outside the ent’s range and let himself be hit, while eating a cheese. Then he rushed in to crush the branch, which vanished like the other.
Michael repeated the same stint, causing another three hundred damage.
The ice ent unleashed its healing ability, but instead of regenerating the branch it healed itself.
“Got you!” Michael yelled in excitement.
If the ent gave priority to its HP, it can only meant it was close to dying.
It fell at the two hundred and forty damage.
“And it only costed me twenty five stone hammers.”
You have slain Ice ent Level 25
You have gained a level
-3 Ice branches
+1 damage (piercing)
Crafting material
10 Ice leaves
-Consumable
-10% Resistance to ice damage
-10% ice damage
Crafting material
You can now harvest ice consumables!
“Sweet, time to go for the bears!”