On the way back to the river Michael, saw many ice leaves on the trees, at first glance he felt as if the leaves had grown after the fight. But the weirdness of it lead to another idea, popping up inside his head.
What if they were always there, but he was incapable of recognizing them as ice leaves?
That made more sense, in a this-weird-world kind of way. If becoming a Nomad made him capable of accessing new skills, it was not farfetched to think there were other milestones, allowing them to touch new areas of the world.
“Do i become some sort of superior being?”
“Do i become more attuned to the world?”
“Do i need a pet to talk to?”
Whatever, shit happens.
Al this meant is that Michael had to poke around, and try to interact with the world in different ways.
So far he had harvested twenty ice leaves, and ten ice rocks, and was sitting on the riverside, holding one on each hand. Striking them against each other to see if something happens.
“I have a rock, i have a leaf, rockleaf.”
“I have an ice rock, i have an ice leaf, ice, ice, baby!”
On the distance, a baby bear clumsily got out of the river, and went towards the direction of the mountain wall. Deep into bear territory.
It was too far away for Michael to reach it before it disappeared into the forest. He got moving anyway.
On this side of the river the trees actually grew ice branches, but none were spiky, just regular ones. Michael knew some items could only be crafted once or twice, and reasoned that a regular branch could be sharpened to develop piercing damage. But maybe a branch that already had piercing damage, could be used for weapons that stacked on that same piercing damage.
“Should i use it?”
The ice ent’s piercing branches were good enough to combine with his wolf totem, but he had no idea what would become of them, so he was reluctant to simply use them.
Michael decided to experiment a little more.
Improvised crafting – 10MP
Rock
Modifier
-Rock
(Ground)
Rock dust
Crafting material
“Ha... kind of makes sense. Kind of? It totally makes sense, l but it looks weird compared with the previous results.”
Improvised crafting – 10MP
Ice branch
Modifier
-Rock
(Blunt)
Stone hammer
Damage +1
“Mmm... lets switch things up.”
Improvised crafting – 10MP
Sturdy branch
Modifier
-Ice rock
(Blunt)
Ice hammer
Damage +1
Cold damage
“As expected, the thing on the end changes the affinity.”
This could meant it was ok to craft the wolf totem, as everything had ice affinity on this place, and the bears would surely resist the ice, even if they were vulnerable to piercing. He only had ten regular sharpened branches left, but the wolf totem may be able to give the ice branch a neutral affinity.
On the good side, ice branches could still be used to make regular stone hammers.
“I need more information, i guess i have to unlock regular crafting first.”
He sharpened all the ice branches he found, and went bear hunting.
*****
The bear rolled, trying to ram into Michael, he switched his sharpened branch to a stone hammer and hit into the bear ball. A forty damage rose from the monster, while a five rose from Michael.
A worthy exchange, Michael found this method when he tried to throw a stone and a hammer to the rolling bear, but the damage was merely one. The stabbing with regular branches caused thirty damage, while the stabbings with ice branches caused twenty. Just as expected.
The bear bulked up, ready to activate its healing ability, and Michael took the chance to hit it on the head.
The healing stopped at merely fifty points.
Michael had clearly slacked on his experimentation. And they were many ways to help himself on battle, or to interfere with the enemy. It was not simply a matter of exchanging numbers, as he did first.
“I have eyes, but i cannot se the mountain, all because a stupid bear is blocking the view, die!”
The bear unleashed the claw strike and Michael got closer, before the claw could descend, hitting the bear straight on the head with a sharpened ice branch.
It caused forty damage, twice as regular, taking advantage oif his close proximity Michael stabbed again, and rolled back to escape the retaliation, but the bear vanished into light dust.
You have slain a Level 30 Blue bear
You have gained a level
Bear claw
Cold damage
Crafting material
It worked, Michael was down to ten cheeses left, but it worked. The bears took an annoying amount of time to kill, but it was feasible. He just had to save his regular branches for whatever boss bear he found at the mountain wall.
But first, Michael went back to the forest entrance and spent almost a day stocking on goat cheese.
*****
Another day went by, and Michael had killed many more bears, by his own calculations he was two thirds into their territory. He had five bear claws and decided to take a break for experimentation.
“Time to try again”
Improvised crafting – 10MP
Sturdy branch
Modifier
-Bear claw
“Combine“
Spiked branch
Damage +1
Cold damage
The claws were not full paws, but single claws, similar to long, curved nails.
The resulting item was as if someone had nailed the claw into the branch, as crappy and simple as tools came.
“I wonder what would happen if i combine one branch and several claws?”
“Would it look like one of those wooden poles, with nails hammered on one side?
Crafting unlocked
“Nice”
Michael got to try if a previously crafter item could be crafted again.
Crafting – 20MP
Rock hammer
Modifier
-Small rock
(sharp)
“Activate”
Stone axe
Damage +1
Assuming the spikes were piercing damage and the hammers blunt damage, this was his first instance of cutting damage.
“I dont think it would work that greatly against the bears, but it would have been great against the ents”
So far into bear territory there were no other monsters, but Michael still crafted a lot of axes, just in case.
“Now, for the really god stuff”
Crafting – 20MP
Rock
Modifier
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
-Small rock
(sharp)
Sharpened rock
“Oooooooh”
A great upgrade, and it opened the door Michael had been waiting for.
Crafting – 20MP
Sharpened branch
Modifier
-Sharpened rock
“Do it”
Stone lance
Damage +1
Michael contemplated the object on his hand, the previous branches merely changed the damage from blunt to piercing, but this one actually gave +1. Just as he expected
“Now, if only i could find a consumable to empower my weapons.”
Michael made a batch of eighty lances, and then decided to experiment with the leaves.
Crafting – 20MP
Ice leaf
Modifier
-Rock
(Ground)
“Grounding the leaves?”
“Does it gives me tea? Iced tea?”
Ice powder
Reagent
Reagent. It implied the existence of reactions, combinations, formulas, recipes. Whatever it meant, there was another method Michael had no idea how to use. But he would find out.
But it was “ice powder,” not “ice leaf powder,” Michael had a hunch.
Crafting – 20MP
Ice rock
Modifier
-Ice rock
(ground)
Ice powder
Reagent
“This...”
Michael tried again.
Crafting – 20MP
Ice rock
Modifier
-Rock
(ground)
Ice powder
Reagent
Somehow, the materials consistently gave the same reagent. Michael observed the stones around him, and repeated the initial experiment of getting closer and further away, until they melded into a big lump, or separated into several stones.
“Its like that ancient alchemical theory” He mused to himself “About there being certain base elements that combined into creating matter.”
It was nonsense, of course, chemical elements were a reality, but “elemental elements” were fantasy. Mana attuned when traveling through certain structures. But this world played by its own rules, and took shit from no one. A true rebel.
“So, how do i use this reagents?”
Michael tried infusing it on his stone hammer, and it took a blue hue.
“Fair enough, this will be veryu useful if i find a door to a desert, or a volcano.”
He swung the hammer around, half expecting it to drop snow as it moved, but nothing happened.
“Blue is my hammer, and blue are my leaves, im blue badadi badidadi” Michael said, jumping around with his blue hammer.
He could actually equip rocks as weapons, but infusing an ice rock with ice powder did nothing.
Instead, tried another angle, and activated combine consumable.
Ice powder 110%
Reagent
That was two.
Ice powder 121%
Reagent
That was four.
Ice powder 133%
Reagent
That was eight.
Ice powder 146%
Reagent
That was sixteen.
Ice powder 160%
Reagent
That was thirty two.
Ice powder 176%
Reagent
That was sixty four.
“Should i continue?” Michael was grinding the powder on the fly, so he was almost out of leaves, as he could only stack ninety nine. But he was too invested to stop, and went to forage for more.
This time when the leaves got to the cap, he powdered them and stacked the powder, then went for leaves again.
Ice powder 189%
Reagent
That was a hundred and twenty four. And just like that he was forced to go gather more.
Ice powder 200%
Reagent
Two hundred and forty four.
With a double effect, he could use the powder for... for... for...
“What the fuck im i doing?” Michael asked himself in exasperation, he had spent hours making a single serving of powder. And his current enemies were resistant to it. He felt so stupid.
“Whatever, shit happens.”
He stored the powder on his inventory, it took a single slot for itself. A reminder of his obsession.
Michael kept advancing next to the river, battling bears along the way.
His strength had barely increased, but his variety of weapons gave him an edge on battle, and a hammer on battle, and a pointy stick on battle.
Variety, resourcefulness. If he kept exploring the world and untangling its mysteries, he may find a way to empower his astral form and return home.
*****
Kartgman The Bold and his friend Gorgmund The Brave fought a wolf on the forest outside the city of Rivety Rivera, they were level three, and the wolf a level five, but that was part of the appeal. The enemies were designed to be easy to kill as long as a group had teamwork, in order to foment the creation of teams.
But they could also be hunted solo if one wanted to try the hermit approach. Thats why such style required crafting, and the foraging of lots of consumables. Both things that appealed to lone players.
The wolf lunged at Kartgman’s side, and Gorgmund intercepted it with a shield. Kartgman activated one of his alchemical recipes.
Fire flower
3 Fire powder
1 Fire flower
A red flower a meter wide bloomed in front of the wolf, spinning as it opened. At this distance the damage was considerable. Gorgmund moved to the wolf’s side and pummeled it with his mace, and the wolf died.
You have slain Dire wolf Level 5
3 copper
White bone
Despite the difference in levels, enemies were easy if one was prepared. The real problem was to be prepared to face a large number of enemies. A player’s consumables usually lasted for ten to twenty encounters, unless they took a good time to collection. Or made a proper synergy.
The two friends wanted to join a caravan and cross the continent, thats why they assembled their base near the coast. So they could teleport back and cross the ocean, or to go deeper into the continent.
“We should try the iEnts” Kartgman said to his friend.
“Are you stacked enough?” Gorgmund asked.
“Fifty bones, thats more then enough.”
Gorgmund agreed with a nod, and they arrived towards the iEnt area.
iEnt Level 6
As expected, the fight began with a volley of apples, which were deflected by Gorgmund’s shield. He took five damage, but the real benefit of parrying was the negation to health shock. Thus Gorgmund advanced amidst the projectiles, clearing the path for his friend.
Kartgman had taken Consumable On Weapon as his free skill, and his iron axe grew bony protrusions. Kartgmanh jumped outside the vanguard’s protection, and hacked at the iEnt while activating Double Edge. Which he had learned at the berserker’s hall for two points.
The bone enhancement was small, but the trick to consumables was... to consume them.
Double Edge caused damage that scaled with the amount of bonuses a strike had on it. Bone enhancement amplified any melee attack by one, but Double Edge also destroyed the bonuses on the weapon to cause more damage.
Consumables already had a hidden extra bonus, because they vanished immediately. And both bonuses could combine even further.
The strike landed a whole twenty damage. Whenever the iEnt attacked the tank parried the whip branch, for merely five damage. And at the same time, released a fire flower that caused six instances of ten damage, and opened a window for the attacked to land several hits.
Only three attacks were bone enhanced to save on resources. But the iEnt fell in no time.
You have slain iEnt Level 6
2 Neutral leaf
4 copper
With every reagent costing one copper, this battle gave back six reagents from the tree he had expended. Kartgman had chosen the bone and neutral affinity, and Gorgmund the fire and neutral as their starters.
The fire reagents had to be purchased, but it was a solid strategy.
Sure, Gorgmund spent eight consumables, but they could forage something on the way.
The real problem was finding materials to upgrade the wagon.
A ton of sturdy branches would do for the dump components, but every upgrade had to be based around a special material, to determine the base’s abilities. Thats why they were going downstream, to find the place where the ponds became so dense it was almost a swamp. The boss on that place dropped some materials that could be used as the base reagent for the upgrade.
The boss was sometimes a fish, sometimes a toad, and sometimes a spitting vine.
The fish dropped the mirror scale, which would be nice for magical resistance.
The toad dropped the elastic skin, which would be nice for blunt damage resistance.
And the vine dropped the thick sap, which would be good against alchemic attacks.
Really, one could only go wrong by using common materials as the base. This would change when they wanted do build some kind of synergy with their own classes, but that was far into the future.
They advanced among the ponds, hunting the occasional horned rabbit with the old and proved pond fishing tactic.
Really, those were pretty much freebies for the new players to have a source of income, and try combinations of reagents. Or to afford the purchase of some basic skills.
The regular vines were easy to dealt with thanks to the shield, and Gorgmund had no need to use his iron sword.
As for the poison spit, there was a simple available counter.
Neutralizer shield
5 Neutral reagents
It only worked when imbued on a shield, but it was good enough.
It was expensive tho, so they had to rush and take advantage of every time the vines went into cooldown, to end them rightly.
Their whole journey took them around half an hour, and they defeated more than fifty monsters, gaining only one level, but ending with a decent net gain on consumables. Fights could be very long, if one took the macho approach and went in with just a weapon and shield.
But the game was designed with several systems working together, so the players could overlap whatever they required at the moment.
Thats why the stats were so small as compared with other games. To give a clear idea that leveling up and gaining raw stats was just a secondary component of the fun.
In a sense, every enemy was like a small puzzle. And it was up to the players to solve them as fast as they wanted. A combination of micromanaging, and long term planning.
They arrived to a circle of wide rocks, arranged around a pond much wider than the previous ones. The scenario for the boss battle.
The water exploded, and a figure rose from the depts.
The pond was only up to a player’s chest, but the boss always came from below ground, so the players could not see it beforehand and farm them. Not to much, at least.
It was the toad.
As big and wide as a bull is long, its brilliant green skin filled with warts the size of a face.
Its front limbs were clean, finishing on red, round toes, but the hind legs were rough like bark, and had a green-blue hue.
The most striking feature was its mouth, long like a crocodile, and filled with teeth just as sharp. The top of the head was triangular, and instead of scalerds it had long, horizontal skin folds mimicking a crocodile’s scales.
Toadile Level 8
“Oh noes! It doubles us in level!” Kartgman said while gesturing with his hands.
“But there are two of us! So we are even!!!” Gorgmund said valiantly. And they both chuckled.
Some displays of “bravado” were fine from time to time, to give flavor to the endeavor.
The toadile opened the fight by throwing a tongue strike.
Gorgmund jumped into it, letting the organ stick to his shield and drag him into the mouth, where he unleashed a fire flower.
The toadile took thirty six damage.
Fights were easier at lower levels, to give the players time to accustom themselves to the game’s mechanics, but they required much more skill and preparation as levels became higher.
First thing first, even a boss like this had no special moves, only a ranged attack in the form of the tongue. But even that could be used to get close.
Gorgmund took twenty damage, at level four he only had fifty base HP, but his equipment provided another thirty. He immediately consumed a berry and recovered fully.
Gorgmund took another ten damage as the toad let him go. He consumed another berry.
In thye meantime Kartgman got inside the pond, and unleashed all the axe strikes he could, each fully empowered by his bonuses. At fifteen damage each, it was less than his friend, but he had space to accommodate four strikes.
The toad tried to target Kartgman, to cause more damage as he had no shield. And it worked once, but both friends came fully stocked.
Inventory 4/5
-White bone 40
-Lesser berry 24
-Neutral powder 30
-Neutral leaf 15
Inventory 5/5
-Fire flower 20
-Fire powder 60
-Lesser berry 60
-Neutral powder 30
-Neutral leaf 12
The bosses’ main strategy against parties laid on their sheer size, which allowed them to attack several players at once. Their attacks tended to be area damage for the same reason.
This meant that bringing more people would increase the speed at which they took it down, but the individual challenge would only vary if the numbers doubled or tripled. This was a mechanic made to allow flexibility on the team formations.
At higher levels a bigger party meant little, and preparation was key. Forcing the players to adop different builds as they moved around the world. The players that wanted to minmax the same build all time, would see themselves forced to stay on the same area.
The toadile also used its tongue to strike on swiping motions, they were rather easy to dodge, as they were no special abilities. Merely limb strikes.
With more damage taken, the toadile began to jump all over the pond, and even onto the rocks surrounding it, trying to relocate itself away from danger. And relying on tongue swipes to cause damage.
But the friends had proven they could afford some damage in order to cause extra damage.
Kartgman activated another recipe.
Bone protrusion
5 bone reagents
5 neutral reagents
The bone coating on his axe grew to become as long as an arm. The weight made it impossible for him to carry around with his constitution. But if it came to swinging it to the side it was perfectly feasible.
Still, the toad moved too much to realy on that, so he activated another recipe.
Bone neutralization
Five bone reagents
Matching number of bone or neutral reagents
One minute
This recipe allowed the user to offset the problems caused by a bone recipel, being enemy buffs or the own user’s penalties. It took him ten reagents in total, but he could eliminate the extra weight of the axe. And for a minute he boosted incredible attack.
Those were the two recipes everyone had before level ten. And their combination alowed them to resiust the toadile’s attacks and strike it down.
You have slain Toadile Level 8
You have gained a level
Elastic skin
Crafting material
Tongue scarf
1 silver
“Nice, lets go get ourselves a class” Kartgman said. And they went back to the city.