Joe sat on the large fieldstone he had jumped off of earlier, working with a corner of cloth he had cut off one of his sacks. Using a folded stalk of grass as a needle and his twine as thread, he was closing the opening in the loose burlap around Madina Spooner’s magical river stone. It took a bit of effort for the makeshift needle to find the gaps in the loosely woven material but Joe was also killing time while he watched the field of grass around his perch. It would have been faster to just wrap the twine around the opening in the burlap but Joe was enjoying the moment of calm. Creeping through the tall grass, where any step could have put him face to face with something trying to kill him or steal his mind, had frayed Joe’s nerves to the breaking point. This mindless task was recentering him.
He also was waiting for a beetle.
Movement in the grass a few yards away was the signal he was looking for He had finished his crafting a little while before. Joe left his pack on top of the rock. Taking just his staff and the hand axe he moved into the field to meet whatever it was. Joe caught a glimpse of black in the grass and assessed it.
Grassward Stag Scarab: Level 2: Vermin: Brute: Vigor: 28/28
‘So they do come in levels higher than level one.’ The third beetle he had fought had taken a few more hits than the first two, but he had been distracted and hadn't thought to assess it at the time. This second level bug had basically the same amount of health as Joe did. He considered chucking his hand axe to get an extra hit in early, but the entire reason he had hooked the hatchet to his belt was to have it as a backup weapon. Throwing it away defeated that whole idea.
Gripping his polearm, Joe dashed forward and swung the staff as hard as he could at the legs closest to him. A sharp crack followed the strike and the beetle screeched. Even with an obviously broken leg, the scarab spun around with its insane turning speed. Joe was ready for it. He jammed the lower end of his staff toward the creature's face, aiming for its eye. He missed the faceted orb but the blow still slammed hard into its brow, stunning the bug. Joe stepped back and swung as hard as he could twice in a row, each hit cracking his enemy in the head.
Joe stepped back to recover his balance. As he did so, this beetle surprised him. It ducked low and charged. They had never done that before. The scarab plowed through Joe’s shins, knocking him off his feet. His staff went flying out of his hand as he smashed hard onto the ground. Knowing how fast these creatures change direction, Joe rolled onto his back and kicked even before he saw a target. His foot smacked into the lunging insect, catching on the bug’s lower neck plating. Joe slid backward a couple inched through the grass. Thanks to his wedged foot, the mandibles slashed through the air above him instead of into him.
Grateful he was not tangled up in his backpack, Joe fumbled to get the handaxe out of its sheath. He kept pushing with his leg keeping the beetle’s head as high above him as he could hold it. One of the bladed tusks gouged his arm, which Joe healed as he finished extracting the axe.
‘Now what?’
Joe was holding roughly a fifteen-inch long hatchet. The creature had three-foot long heavily armored mandibles. How was he going to get the axe into the bug from down on the ground? He thought about throwing it again and mentally kicked himself. ‘You’ve never thrown an axe in your life before, idiot. Stop thinking about throwing it.’ While he had no skill with thrown weapons, Joe did have one strength, which he knew really should not be his go-to combat tactic. Still, being able to take a hit was the one thing he excelled at.
Joe shoved as hard as he could with his foot and popped up onto his feet. Sure enough, the beetle lunged forward and snapped his pincers onto his leg.
A Grassward Stag Scarab has injured you. You have lost 32% of your Hit Points.
Ignoring the pain, Joe started chopping with the hand axe. He was not very skilled with the weapon but hacking madly did not require all that much skill. As the shell splintered under his assault, Joe was sprayed with chips of carapace and the pale glop that flowed through the creature.
You have slain Grassward Stag Scarab.
You have reached level 3 in your Healer Class. You have gained 1 unassigned attribute point.
He also had a new point to spend. Just one point, though. Joe scowled and felt a bit of his euphoria fade. He had expected more. At first level, he had received four attribute points. He had gotten two at second level. Why only one point at third? At that level of decline, it looked like these were all the points he was going to get.
‘Hey, Hawking? What’s with the single new attribute point at this level?’
Not every level provides the same number attribute point increases. At every level from 1 to 10, you will receive one unassigned attribute point. This rate of growth will diminish as you reach higher levels.
Additionally, on even levels for this range, you will receive a class skill. Whenever you receive a class skill from leveling, you also receive the attributes required for that class skill. For example, at second level you received a Common Skill, [Assess Wounds]. Since this is a Perception-based skill, you received a point in Perception for that skill. New skill awardments will be less frequent as you reach higher levels.
The first level you gain in a new class will likely award you several new skills and therefore the attribute points needed for those skills.
‘So, this level, as well as level 5, 7, and 9, will just be single points.’
Correct, unless you take a new class on one of those levels.
‘Ok. I had been hoping for more. I guess one will have to do.’
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Gaining only a single point to work with limited his options. Joe still had two unspent attribute points but he was saving those for the Cure Disease spell he was getting from Granny. She might be offering him a common spell, but if not he wanted to make sure he had enough points for an uncommon. If push came to shove, he would spend those too. It would better to survive and make it back, even if the Dellhams had to wait for him to level up again, than it was to die out here and have no treatment for Sarsa at all. Joe also had a problem with the being dead part as well.
'So where do I spend the one free point?' Joe had two attributes he was wanted to improve. Now, he had to pick between them. All of his attributes could help him but he had limited the field to two he needed right now. Strength would be great if he met more scarabs on the way to the Beguilburr plant, but his plan was less about fighting. Perception would help him spot trouble but since he knew where Kaid was already that attribute could wait too. Spirit was his go-to for his healing spells but he already could heal pretty much his whole health with each [Healing Touch].
The two he had to decide between were Dexterity or Vigor. He was going to need all the agility he could get to pull off his plan. He was going to have to dodge zombie-Kaid and not get entangled by the main plant if it had grasping roots or something similar.
On the other hand, Joe was tired of walking the fine line between full health and just plain dead. He had had only 29 total health. Sir Grouch’s semi-casually backhand had done more than that in a single hit. Joe’s healing abilities allowed him to have far more hit-points than most of the creatures he would face but only if he could keep healing before he ran out of health. He needed a bigger buffer to prevent getting one-shotted.
Joe made his choice. With his skillset, he decided it was better to have the bigger pool of health than a small increase in avoidance and maneuverability.
You have increased your Vigor to 3. You now have 43 points of Health and 103 points of Stamina.
‘That was worth it. I should find some skills that use stamina. With Efferous Endurance, I could keep those going for ages.’ Between the level gain and the Vigor boost, he had just increased his health by a third.
He walked back to his rock to collect the rest of his gear. Not having his pack had saved him during that last fight but once things started burning he did not want to have to try and make his way back here. He had already taken out of the pack the three flasks of lamp oil that came with the lantern. The jars were made of thick glass, each holding around a pint of oil. They reminded Joe of little old-fashioned milk bottles. He was going to have to throw them at something hard if he wanted them to break. He also had out the two torches. The cool thing about these torches was that they had an oilskin cover that, once it was peeled off, revealed a scratchplate on the side of the oil-soaked wrappings. The plate was covered in some substance, which looked like sulfur and flint. They were essentially giant strike-anywhere matches. The last item he had prepared was a small pile of strawberry-sized rocks he had dug out of the ground around his boulder.
Joe looked at the tools for his plan and ruefully shook his head. He had played in many table-top campaigns where, when faced with problems the players could not surmount, there were almost always a few default suggestions. Dropping heavy objects on really big monsters was one. Another go-to plan was often ‘set something on fire’. If there were too many of the enemy to tackle or you needed a good distraction, setting things aflame sooner or later was suggested. It was surprisingly effective, granted there was almost always far more collateral damage than what the players intended. Even with the potential for an uncontrolled inferno, this was Joe’s one and only plan.
He was almost positive the Beguilburr had to be a plant. Plants burn. But so do grasslands and forests. The idea of purposefully starting a forest fire gave Joe more than a moment’s pause but he had no better ideas. He really hoped there were no elves or fey creatures around here that were going to come and hunt him down for this.
Joe pulled up the party screen and checked again. Kaid’s health and stamina were a little lower but not significantly so. More importantly, by focusing on Kaid’s portrait he could sense the gnome was still in the same spot deeper into the field, near the edge of the wood. That is where Joe was assuming the Beguliburr was.
He strapped his staff to the outside of his backpack. Even though it was the weapon he was the most accomplished with, it was a two-handed weapon and Joe was going to need his hands for torches, stones, and oil. Using his ball of twine, he tied the oil flasks and burlap pouch to his belt. He held one torch in his hand like a club. The other one he hooked into a loop in his backpack where he could reach it later. The stones went into a pocket. As ready as he could be, Joe headed into the grass once more.
Joe began to sneak through the tall field toward where he sensed the thief was standing. Even though he was trying to be stealthy, he quickly discovered that it was almost impossible to move through the high vegetation silently, at least without a stealth skill. Pushing through the stalks invariably caused a swishing sound. Of course, every whisk sounded insanely loud to his ears. The closer he got to the treeline the more paranoid Joe became. With every step, he wondered if the rustle was his own, or if he was about to step forward right onto one of Kaid’s daggers.
Then there were the burrs to contend with. Laced as they were through the field, Joe picked up a hooked ball regularly in his trek through the grass. His [Iron Mind] ability entirely blocked up to five burrs, but it did not warn him when he had any attached to him. The sixth burr started to make him lightheaded. He had had close to a dozen on him after the flight from Kaid which almost overpowered him. He was not sure if the effect would be stronger the closer he got to the main plant. To be safe, Joe checked himself for burrs every couple of minutes, pulling them off as soon as he noticed one.
Eventually, he came across another large rock that jutted up out of the ground. By this point the stress of the journey had him sweating again. With this chance to see further and get his bearing, Joe climbed up onto the rock, staying low at first. Once he was set, Joe slowly rose to his full height. He was nervous that Kaid would spot him but he was now able to see all around himself.
Looking in the direction he felt Kaid was in, Joe spotted the Beguilburr easily. Even around thirty yards away, the distinctive plant was impossible to miss. The tree was only about twenty-five feet tall. Huge fuchsia-colored fronds spread in a canopy over a fat twisted purple trunk. At the intersections of the long thin leaves, Joe could see dozens of the brown spiky burrs hanging in the joints.
Mesmeric Beguilburr: Level 4: Elite Plant: Commander: Spirit: 76/76
On the ground at the base of the trunk, a mass of large thorny roots formed a ten to fifteen-foot web across the ground. The roots were covered in small bones and decaying rat carcasses. Thankfully, Kaid was not among the roots as well. The burr-covered gnome was standing a little way outside the vicious-looking tendrils. He did not look well. His shirt was stained with sweat. It looked to Joe like the little man would succumb to dehydration soon unless the clouds thickened up enough to give him some cover from the bright sunlight. Kaid’s face was slack-jawed and vacant. Of course, he still carried a wicked-looking knife in each hand. Joe guessed the Beguilburr must have him on guard duty until he passed out and then he would become food. If this did not go well, Joe was unsure if he had time for a Plan B to save the thief.