Despite the reasons for their formation, Johann’s team did not immediately head towards the giant sloth. For one, it was still a boss, or at least a boss-like monster, and they had no real understanding of each others fighting patterns. Even though Johann and Mary had watched Meliandra, Ishtar and Happy fight it was massively different watching someone fight and fighting alongside them.

There was also the matter of Johann’s debt. Since he had to forfeit the rewards of his first quest he’d rather it go on a low reward quest than lose out on something potentially game-changing. Whilst the rewards were unknown before the quest was finished they were always matched with the difficulties of the quest, meaning that the best reward for an Aphid quest would still be worse than the worst reward for a Giant Sloth killing quest.

Fortunately another Ratatösk was close by and even more fortunate was its quest, to kill ten Aphids. The quest took the group less time than it had taken to find the Ratatösk and they soon had their rewards, everyone other than Johann receiving five Altru berries capable of providing a full days sustenance each. With that out of the way they returned to the snoring Sloth.

“Dear gods that thing is loud!”

No one else spoke but everyone agreed with Happy’s statement. The five of them, six if you counted Malek, stood a hundred meters from the Giant Sloth. Staring at the hill sized beast Johann couldn’t help but feel nervous. Something that big could roll over in it’s sleep and kill them all without even noticing.

“Alright, let’s go over the plan one last time.” Johann said. He was delaying things and everyone knew it but since they were just as hesitant to get started they let it go. “The Sloth is big and slow but hits like a truck, so we’ll mostly be using kiting tactics. After the initial burst phase Malek, Happy and Ishtar will be in charge of kiting, Meliandra and I will be the damage dealers and Mary heals anyone who gets hit.”

“When I call Switch the next person begins kiting the sloth. Happy takes over from Malek, Ishtar from Happy and Malek from Ishtar. When I call Stop Meliandra and I will cease attacking. That will only happen if we pull too much attention on ourselves, in which case the person who’s busy kiting needs to pile on the damage and regain attention.”

“Other than that remember to keep an eye out for it’s two main skills. The first is either an illusion or mental passive ability. Even though it’s slow it can alter your perception and make you think it’s further away than it is. To combat that I’ll be warning you if it’s getting too close so make sure to listen.”

“The second thing to watch out for is it’s extending arm. Since we don’t have much experience with it we have no idea about it’s characteristics other than doubling the length of its arms. For the first two or three uses someone is pretty much guaranteed to be hit so we’ll treat it like any other hit; if it’s too strong get healing and the rest of us will cover for you. I’ll be keeping an eye out for activation behavior so I should be able to give out a warning.”

“Other than that, let’s keep our heads calm and our bodies loose. If you feel yourself getting overwhelmed say so and we’ll retreat, it’s better to stay safe than risk losing someone. Okay, everyone ready?” Everyone else nodded. “Right, let’s get into position and get started.”

The group spread out in a circle around the still sleeping Giant Sloth. Once everyone was in position Johann began casting [Natures Grasp]. During the conversation with Yggdrasill the tree had given Johann so much insight into the nature of plants that his [Grasping Roots] spell spontaneously evolved into [Nature’s Grasp], the spell no longer being limited to roots but now letting him use any part of a plant to wrap up his foes.

The newly evolved spell let him mold the bark of Yggdrasill to grab onto one of the Giant Sloth’s arms. The sudden constriction of its limbs was enough to finally wake the massive beast, a roar sounding out that was amusingly less noisy than its snores.

As soon as the limbs were restricted everyone sprang into action. Meliandra began firing off spells as quickly as possible, taking care to avoid Happy, Ishtar and Malek who were rushing in to slash at the Sloth with wild abandon. With their target being so massive the group took care to aim for weak spots, going for the neck, joints and ears. Since the melee could only reasonably reach the ears and Meliandra didn’t have the right angle to hit the sloths face Johann was responsible for attacking the Sloth’s eyes. Without sight or hearing the Sloth would become much easier to fight.

Sadly, that wasn’t an easy task to accomplish. Even after using Yggdrasill’s bark and attuning to Plants [Nature’s Grasp] barely held the Giant Sloth for more than ten seconds. The team had given their all but the Sloth’s high Vitality and thick fur made the damage minimal. Johann had the greatest success thanks to the Sloth breathing in his [Icy Fog] but his original target, the Sloth’s eyes, was left virtually undamaged.

The results were somewhat disheartening but the burst phase was always more of a bonus than their main plan. When the Giant Sloth began to rip through the bark everyone but Malek held off their attacks. Malek had managed to climb on top of the Sloth and was busy clawing at its throat when the beast tried to grab him.

Malek had never seen the Sloth’s abilities in effect. The arm lengthening strike was easy to imagine, even for a wolfhound that wasn’t used to imagining, but the deceptively movement was beyond Malek’s ability to conceptualize. As the Sloth moved to grab Malek the wolfhound was able to witness the ability first hand, though he didn’t realize it until afterwards.

Malek noticed the claws reaching for it, how could he not, but a small part of his mind kept insisting that he had plenty of time to escape. Even with the Sloth’s hand a meter away the Wolfhound still felt as if it had days in which to make it’s escape. When Johann shouted for Malek to move the Wolfhound felt annoyed at his person for doubting his abilities but nevertheless leaped off the Giant Sloth.

When the Sloth’s claws slashed across Malek’s legs the Wolfhound was astonished, for a moment believing that the Sloth had suddenly sped up immensely, but as he tumbled through the air and the Giant Sloth’s skill stopped effecting him Malek was suddenly shocked by how close he had let the Sloth get to him.

Johann froze for a moment as he saw Malek get hit, an arc of blood spraying out as his friend was sent spinning through the air, but let out a breath of relief when he saw Mary’s heal land on Malek. Focusing back on the fight Johann conjured up another bank of fog in front of the Sloth’s face before he switched attunements and started casting [Nature’s Grasp].

Happy leapt in as the Sloth started getting on its feet, hacking and slashing at its feet in an attempt to both bring its focus on him and to try and cripple the Sloth. The crippling attempt didn’t work out but Happy did manage to cut off a toe which definitely got the Sloths attention.

Having already fought the Sloth once before Happy was familiar with it’s skills and did not take any chances, turning around and bolting away as soon as he got the Giant Sloth’s attention. The Sloth lumbered after him with large ponderous steps. It got all of two steps before it found one of it’s feet stuck fast in Johann’s spell.

The spell didn’t hold the Sloth for long, it’s claws making short work of it, but the spell bought Happy a chance to dash back in and get a few more strikes in. Keeping the Sloth’s attention while running away from it was not easy and Happy had to take any chance to do damage that he could get.

Largely because of Meliandra. All this time the princess had been steadily firing off spells to damage the Sloth as much as possible, mainly aiming for the Monster’s joints in order to cripple or at least slow the monster, which was the main plan.

The Giant Sloth had high Vitality and Strength, making it tough to kill and exceptionally dangerous. Kiting was an effective strategy but the longer it went on the higher the chance that someone got hit, making it a short term strategy at best. The better strategy was for Meliandra to cripple the monster and then bombard it from a distance.

Which I exactly what they did. Other than the near disaster with Malek at the beginning the rest of the fight was relatively simple. With Johann’s spells slowing the Sloth’s movements and obscuring it’s vision kiting the monster became almost easy, which led to it’s own problems. The easing of pressure made those kiting more susceptible to the Sloth’s perception altering ability, in turn making Johann’s job that much harder.

The Giant Sloth’s first use of it’s elongated arm came as a shock to Johann who had been paying careful attention and still failed to see it coming. The Sloth swung another slow swipe, just as it had a dozen times before, when suddenly the arm doubled both its speed and length and batted Ishtar, the warrior skipping across the bark like a more painful version of skipping rocks.

Malek immediately launched himself at the Sloth and ripped and slashed away at one of the Sloths tendons as Mary rushed to Ishtar’s side. The warrior was bleeding from multiple wounds and had three ribs and an arm fractured so ranged healing wouldn’t cut it.

Fortunately Mary’s healing was up to the task and Ishtar was fully healed before his next turn kiting when, against all odds, the Sloth once again swiped at Ishtar. The warrior wasn’t caught as unaware as last time and tried to leap over the arm but only came close, the arm clipping his feet and sending him into an uncontrolled octuple flip.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Johann quickly cast [Icy Fog], the spell forming a small cloud around the Giant Sloth’s head, as Ishtar scrambled to his feet and limped out of the monster’s range. The Sloth reared back at the sudden appearance of the chilly cloud and swatted at it with a slow swipe. The fog managed to keep it distracted enough for Ishtar, who was apparently a glutton for pain, to return with freshly healed legs and continue kiting it.

Fortunately for Ishtar his bad luck ended as the next person to be hit by the elongated arm was Happy, who very much wasn’t after being sent flying. Ishtar wasn’t the only one feeling happy as Happy was sent flying, Johann had finally figured out how to predict the attack. Every time before the Giant Sloth extended its arm a wave appeared in its fur going from its shoulder to its hand. As long as Johann looked out for that happening he could warn the person currently kiting.

Which he did, thereby taking away the last real threat. The extra second let even Happy, the slowest among them, dodge with relative ease. From there on the biggest difficulty lay with Johann who had to make sure not to relax and let the Sloth’s perception altering ability affect him. Fortunately for the team, Johann was the disciplined twin.

The battle continued steadily for the next few minutes until, with a sickeningly wet crunch, one of the Sloth’s legs snapped, the ponderous beast smacking to the floor with an agonized cry. The cheers from the team would have been quite cruel if the Sloth hadn’t been a mindless monster created solely for this Event.

Seeing an opportunity Johann immediately cast [Natures Grasp], the tendrils of bark reaching up and grabbing onto the prone Sloth’s face and keeping it’s head face down on the ground. The other members of the team took this as a cue to promptly start attacking the Giant Sloth with full fury, Malek, Happy and Ishtar charging in to hack and slash while Johann and Meliandra fired off spells. Even Mary joined in and fired a few [Mana Bolt]s at the downed monster.

The Monster managed to wrench itself free of the trappings of Johanns spell within seconds but in that time the team had opened up quite a few wounds on the beast, Happy even managing to open up a vein that gushed like a geyser. The Giant Sloth had exceptional Vitality for a Tier 2 monster but the accumulated wounds were overpowering it’s regeneration by large amounts, especially with the crater in it’s leg and the blood geyser in it’s side.

The fight ended just over three minutes later. There were no horrible accidents, the Sloth didn’t make a terminal rally and the team didn’t pull of some kind of finishing move. They simply kept piling on the damage from afar and Johann occasionally opened up opportunities for the melee to get some attacks in.

The fight had managed to get most of them a level, other than Johann. Levels were generally gained by doing activities related towards the class, such as fighting for Warriors or spell slinging for Mages. Druids, on the other hand, seemed to get most of their levels when by attuning with nature. Simply mastering the three attunements had brought Johann to level 9, just a small step from level 10 and his next class. Annoyingly though, that last level seemingly refused to come.

The six of them traveled back over the branch towards Ratatösk, eager to reap some rewards. On the way they encountered a couple groups of Aphids, the large insects dying quickly to the team’s attacks.

Reaching the squirrel they found Ratatösk holding a weird pose while standing on a bright blue mat. As they approached Ratatösk the squirrel moved off his mat and proceeded to roll up his mat and stuff it in a pocket that it very much shouldn’t have fit in.

“Greetings young ones, glad to see that you have returned successfully!” Ratatösk said, his voice bright.

“Thank you Mr. Ratatösk. If I may ask, what was that you were just doing?” Meliandra asked, her tone polite yet curious.

“Of course you may and please do call me Ratatösk. This mister business is far too formal.” Despite his words Ratatösk looked very pleased at Meliandra’s words. At least, Johann thought so, it was hard to tell with a squirrel. “That pose I was just doing was part of a new meditation exercise discovered on a recently initialized planet called Yoga.”

“There’s a planet called Yoga?” Happy asked, slightly bemused.

Ratatösk chuckled. “Good heavens no, the exercise is called Yoga. The planet is just another variation on Earth, number 358.3 I believe, but enough about that, let us talk about your rewards. For the slaying of the Giant Sloth that was causing such a ruckus you are each awarded a random Skill Tattoo.” The squirrel paused to let the exclamations die down before he realized that there were none.

Thinking a moment he said “Ah yes, I completely forgot, your world hasn’t yet been introduced to Skill Tattoos. Very well, I shall explain. A Skill Tattoo is essentially a piece of magical equipment that can be permanently attached to your skin forming a tattoo. This tattoo is capable of creating an effect that is determined by both the location it is placed and the type of tattoo. For instance, a basic fire tattoo placed on the palm might be capable of casting a [Fire Bolt] when fed mana but if the same tattoo were placed on the back it could reserve a portion of your mana regeneration to create an aura that burns nearby enemies. Tell you what, as a favor to the polite young miss here, I’ll give you this pamphlet detailing common placement effects and types.”

Area’s Of Placements And Their Effects (Humanoid Version):

Chest: Most commonly grants internal buffs like increased attributes or resistances

Back: Most commonly grants external effects like aura’s and armors

Legs (x2): Most commonly grants internal effects such as enhanced speed or leaps

Feet (x2): Most commonly grants external effects such as fiery steps of explosive bursts

Arms (x2): Most commonly grants internal effects such as enhanced strength or energy absorption

Hands (x2): Most commonly grants external effects such as elemental bolts or weapon enhancements

Disclaimer: Tattoos are inherently random and can produce effects that differ massively from what is written here.

Common Tattoo Types:

Skill Tattoos are as varied as Skills themselves with Types ranging from broad Types like Fire to extremely specific Types such as Wooden Bows. No Type is inherently superior to any other.

Common Types include the elemental Types such as Wind and Attribute Types such as Strength. Less common Types include Weapon Types and Class Types.

Disclaimer: Types give only a general sense of what kind of Skill Tattoo will be formed and should not be relied upon. For instance, a Strength Skill Tattoo placed in the hand could increase the strength of that hand, increase the strength(durability) of any weapons held in that hand, increase the strength of any spells cast with that hand or grant strength increasing enchantments to any items crafted with that hand. Effects may will vary.

Even though the pamphlet made it obvious that the information was wildly unreliable the team still got wildly excited when they read it. Seeing that the team now understood the value of what they were getting Ratatösk smiled and continued.

“Now that you are all properly acquainted with Skill Tattoos, I shall give you the rewards.” With that Ratatösk pulled out a inky black rod from one of his many pockets and pulled it open as if it was a scroll, turning it from a rod into a void-like square. Placing the square on the ground Ratatösk then lifted it up again, a small ornate chest appearing when he did so. Snapping the square back into a rod he stuffed it back into his pockets and gestured the group forth.

Johann stepped forwards as team leader and opened the chest. Inside, resting on a velvety inlay, were five discs. Each disc was approximately two inches across and made of a milky white stone that was polished to a shine. Each was inscribed with a different symbol. From left to right they had an anatomically correct heart, a ball of flames, a sun, a large bear and a sword with lines drifting off it.

Johann looked at Ratatösk, a question on his face. Ratatösk looked back at him an eyebrow raised. “If you are wanting to know what the symbols mean, they should be self explanatory. Vitality, Fire, Sun, Bear and Magic Sword. Actually, I can see why that last one could be confusing. As for the strength, they’re all medium strength, well done.”

Johann thanked him and looked back at the rest of the team. “Is there any that any of you particularly want?” he asked.

Ishtar immediately spoke up. “If all of you do not mind, I would like to take the Magic Sword tattoo. I believe it will fit in well with my plans to become a Spellsword.”

Johann nodded. “Sure, that sounds like a need if I ever heard one. Everyone else okay with that?” Everyone nodded and Johann handed Ishtar the disc. “Alright, anyone else?”

Happy spoke up. “I’d like either the Vitality or the Bear. Being a tank means being tough and strong and either of those should work.”

“I would also like Vitality, I believe it could boost my healing.” Mary said. “But I am also okay with Sun, I think it could do well with my trait.”

Johann really wanted to ask what her trait was but that was taboo so he held off.

Meliandra added her request. “I’d like either the Fire or Sun. I could probably do with Vitality as well, but I doubt I would get as much use out of it as either of you.”

“And I would like Vitality, Bear or Sun. Alright, since all of us want multiple and the randomness of the tattoos make their usefulness an unknown, let’s just roll for the each one. Everyone got a dice?”

Everyone nodded and pulled out a twenty sided die out of their pockets. Johann wasn’t surprised, a twenty-sided die was part of every good adventurers kit. For the Vitality tattoo Mary rolled a 13, Johann rolled an 8 and Happy won it with a 16. Meliandra chose to abstain. For Sun Meliandra rolled a 6, Johann rolled a 17 but before he could celebrate his high roll Mary rolled a 20. With only Bear and Fire left there was no more rolling needed, Bear went to Johann and Fire went to Meliandra.

With all the rewards handed out Ratatösk vanished, leaving a tired but happy group of people. Despite really wanting to see what the tattoos did the group agreed that a break would be best so they could figure out where best to place them.

So, they took a break.