Start of Book 2
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“Damn, my body feels light.”
Yunya jumped up and down a few times and went to the archery range to get used to what felt like a new body. From level 4 to level 5, his dexterity attribute had gone from 6 to 10! The archetype, the bonus and the free point made him almost double that single attribute.
He also took some time to get used to his new skill, Precision Shot. When Yunya activated it, it felt like his eyes zoomed in. On the practice target, his eyes focused on the bullseye, but on a monster? It might be its eyes, nose, soft underbelly or any other gap in their defense. Fifteen minutes later, Yunya stopped his exercises and messaged his friends. Path was also doing a quest for a better weapon, with Breeze tagging along. Zephyr had found a quest for a better weapon, but he needed to be level 7 to equip it, so he hadn’t bothered with it just yet. Thus, he was more than willing to join Yunya.
“Have you looked at the specific classes from your archetype yet?”
Zephyr’s question caught Yunya off guard, “No, I haven’t.”
“Why not? You seemed like the type of guy who would do that immediately.”
Yunya hesitated, before sighing. “I didn’t know we could do that. I guess you can once have selected an archetype?”
At Zephyr’s nod, Yunya continued.
“Although, I don’t think I really have to. I know there is at least one magic archer class out there, but I doubt there are multiple.”
“Probably. But I’d check just to be sure if I were you.”
“I will. So, what did you find?”
“Trapmaster class most likely. Literally a class all about trapping opponents. Infiltrator is a maybe, it’s kind of a ranged assassin.”
“A ranged assassin? You mean an archer?” Yunya laughed.
Zephyr shrugged, “It’s a class from the rogue archetype. Blowguns and crossbows and stuff. I heard they even have a grappling hook to regain their distance.”
“Alright, I admit that does sound more rogue than archer.”
While talking, they’d been searching the forest and had found the groove the quest had indicated. It was near the bottom of a cliff, with a panther sleeping on a rock. Said panther had ambushed the apprentice of the archer outpost, causing it to drop its bow. The apprentice didn’t care much for the weapon, but it wanted the panther dead.
“Can I try to steal it?”
“Steal the bow?”
“Mhm,” Zephyr nodded. “No harm in trying it, right?”
“Sure, just don’t step on that cat’s tail.”
The rogue grinned and activated his stealth skill, slowly fading from sight. Because he’d seen it happen right in front of his eyes, Yunya could still see Zephyr if he paid close attention. But within seconds, he was gone. Yunya would have no clue about his companion’s whereabouts, if it wasn’t for the swaying grass. Thankfully, the panther was asleep, so it didn’t see anything like that.
Slowly but surely, the little patch of swaying grass was moving closer. The bow was stuck in a gap of the cliff not too far from the panther, so Zephyr had to be careful not to wake it. Either way, they’d have to kill the panther, but just looking at Zephyr trying to stealth his way around it was an anxious experience, even if Yunya just looked on from the sidelines.
“It’s stuck,” Zephyr said via dm. “I can pull it out, but if I do, I’m almost certain the panther is gonna wake up.”
“So we ignore the bow for now and kill the cat first?”
“Seems like the smartest thing to do. And if we can open this fight with a big attack on an unsuspecting target…” Zephyr didn’t finish his sentence, but didn’t need to. And coincidentally, Yunya did just pick up a skill for dealing more damage.
“Good. I’ll start the fight then, I have a nice surprise for it.”
“THWANG”
Yunya had aimed at the panther’s eyes, but it had insane reflexes. It had felt the arrow coming and moved its head at the last second, but was still too late. The arrow hit, but resulted in the panther's nose being hit.
Thankfully, Zephyr was close by and immediately trapped the panther, preventing it from going after Yunya right away. He fired a few more arrows, but didn’t dare to get any closer. Zephyr occasionally dealt damage, but was focusing on using traps. And considering how much that restricted the panther, Yunya wasn’t surprised at how smooth the fight was going. The panther’s main form of attack was a forward leap, but one of the traps had covered it in a kind of slime, making it unable to properly jump.
“It can still jump?” Zephyr cried out. “Why are you not rooted to the ground?!”
“I have a feeling it’s not going to answer you,” Yunya laughed while he dodged a claw attack. “Besides, I think that trap is pretty good, I’d say it shortened the distance of a jump by about 50%.”
“A trap that cost me 50 copper should have prevented it from even leaving the ground,” the rogue mumbled.
Yunya didn’t answer anymore, but was curious nonetheless. Zephyr was a normal rogue, not even having the trapmaster class, but already restricted an opponent by this much and was still angry it didn’t do enough? That was one scary perspective, yet ambitious at the same time.
“Do all your traps cost that much money?”
“Not all, but the better the trap, the more I need to pay. I like the thought of the thief profession, ‘cause I’d be able to place my traps even more secretly, but maybe I should get one that allows me to craft them myself? It sure would save me a lot of money.”
“Or you stick with thief and just steal enough money to be able to afford them,” Yunya replied. Amidst their happy chatter, one would almost forget they were fighting a boss. Something that the boss was about to remind them of.
Instead of attacking Yunya once more, it snarled fiercely.
“GRRARGH”
And from the trees surrounding them, a response was heard.
“GRRR”
Two whiskerkin came out.
“Fuck, that’s not a panther, it’s a whiskerking. Zephyr, how long can you keep it busy?” Yunya yelled.
“Not for long, but it should be plenty for you to kill its helpers!”
“Counting on you!” Yunya said as he resolutely turned his back to the boss and faced the two normal whiskerkin.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
He immediately focused all of his attention on the left one, aiming at its paws only. Precision Shot came in clutch, causing a sizeable wound on one of its paws, slowing it down considerably.
“Hmph.”
Yunya jumped backwards just in time, only getting grazed slightly by the other whiskerkin. But with the other one slowed down, it turned into one on one, Yunya versus one whiskerkin. In a direct confrontation, the ambusher was not much of a threat and it soon died.
“Shit,” he suddenly heard. “Ashen Fall, look out!”
Yunya barely dodged the boss, who had broken free. He couldn’t afford to take out the other, limping helper anymore, having to put in all his effort into dealing with the whiskerking. Thankfully, Zephyr managed to take it out without much trouble.
The boss didn’t seem too happy seeing both its helpers being eliminated like that. It was his trump card, it had nothing else up its sleeve! Yunya and Zephyr both noticed the look in its eyes, but didn’t let it get to their heads. Slow and steady wins the race after all. In its desperation, the whiskerking started taking unnecessary risks, which caused it to make mistakes. Its last ever move was jumping right into Yunya’s Precision Shot, leaving it with only 1 hp. The boss was too close for him to dodge, so Yunya just smashed his bow into its face, dealing exactly 1 damage and killing it. Unfortunately, he also destroyed his bow in the process.
“Nice homerun,” Zephyr innocently said. “But man, if this had gone on any longer, I’d have run out of traps.”
“You’re that low already?”
“After one fight? Yes, I really need that trapmaster class. They make using traps actually viable. Right now, it’s not really,” he grunted before grinning, “Not like picking the Stealth skill first helps me either.”
Yunya in the meantime had arrived at the stuck bow, pulling it out of the rock wall. And like what they had been expecting, the moment he pulled it out, the rock wall collapsed. Not only would it have dealt damage if they hadn’t expected it, it would absolutely have awoken that whiskerking.
Item Apprentice bow Prerequisite Archer Description Better than a basic bow, but not by much Effect +1 dexterity when attacking
“Not bad.”
“Not that good either, but at least better than that one,” Yunya laughed as he pointed at his old, broken bow. “By the way, why did you try to sneak over to that bow if you couldn’t even pull it out of the rock?”
“I’m tryna see whether I would like the thief profession. If I pick it, I’m sure I’ll get skills to silently pick up loot or something similar.”
Yunya decided to let Zephyr keep all the loot from the boss, since got a new weapon and a completed quest out it, while Zephyr had just been tagging along for fun. And had spent a good few traps.
Back at the archer outpost, Yunya met up with Desmond and confirmed his earlier thoughts. There was only one archer class that dealt with magic, called arcane archer.
“Boy, did you really think there were multiple options? Maybe if you were incredibly lucky, but that’s not something you get to decide on your own,” Desmond hinted, before he started to explain the other archer classes.
“There’s five basic archer classes in total. All of them have archery at their core, but with their own twist. Arcane archer, which I am, obviously combines archery with magic. A beastmaster has an animal companion, with a myriad of uses. I’d say they’re probably the most picked archer class. A ranger is more for lone wolves and they even know how to use some small weapons, making up for an archer’s best known weakness. A special breed is the sniper, excelling at ultra-long range,” he said as he pointed at the giant player Yunya had seen earlier, who was firing arrows far into the distance with a greatbow. “Instead of pure dexterity, they also need a lot of strength. And finally, the crossblades. They use all different kinds of ranged weapons, from throwing knives and caltrops to crossbows or chakrams. You never know what they’re gonna throw at you next. And I mean that literally.”
“What class is Thelonius?”
“That idiot? I’ve seen him play around with knives and spears before.”
Yunya arrived at the village square, meeting up with the others.
“Time to go profession hunting!”
“How are you gonna hunt a profession when you can’t obtain it yet?”
Yunya’s seemingly honest question dashed Breeze’s hopes, but not for long.
“Time to go profession information hunting! Let’s go, mr. Guide!”
Zephyr raised an eyebrow, but Yunya simply ignored him and led the way.
“Alright, alchemist is up first.”
“Next, herbalist. Is what I wanted to say, but let’s save Almina for last. I have a feeling that the moment we see her, we’ll advance our quest and won’t be able to leisurely talk to other npcs anymore.”
Breeze wanted to scold Yunya for trying to worm his way out of being a guide, but she couldn’t. All of them had the same feeling he had, thus Breeze could only tacitly agree.
“Let’s hit up the mayor’s neighborhood next. Not that Red Reef is rich by any means, but the few npcs that do have money all live together. The painter and tinkerer are in that yellow building, the tailor is right next to it. The jeweler and enchanter have a joint shop across the street and are neighbors to the cartographer and archaeologist. Finally, the architect, scholar, scribe and librarian are all in the mayor’s employment. How about we talk to who we want in there, then meet up in an hour?”
“Sounds good.”
“Alright.”
“How do you know all that, Ashen Fall?”
Yunya looked at Zephyr, explaining how he had gotten both maps and the achievement for even more POI’s, thus being an excellent guide. And then said that was the reason Breeze was so happy to have him along.
“That would explain a lot,” the rogue chuckled before he too went his merry way.
A while later, Yunya coincidentally met a confused Path.
“What happened?”
“That old man in there is being god damn insufferable. Why on earth would I need an achievement to talk to him?”
“An achievement to talk to the cartographer? You mean the one I have?”
Path froze, her eyes now fixed on Yunya.
“Let’s go mr. Guide, time for you to guide me towards cartography information,” she said as she shamelessly copied the nickname.
Yunya shook his head, but allowed her to join anyway. Before she was rudely kicked out of the building by the cartographer npc.
“Who do you think you are to try to talk to me when you haven’t done anything related to maps or cartography? Not even a single thing! You should take a look at this young man here, he should be an example for you!”
Both Yunya and Path were dumbfounded. Before either could say anything, the npc pulled Yunya along, disappearing into his chambers, leaving Path outside, all by herself.
Yunya had been concerned with Path, but those thoughts were soon pushed aside when the npc explained that besides a major focus on dexterity, there was some attention to mind as well. After all, no idiots could make intricate maps. In fact, most professions had a small, extra focus like that. The alchemist they’d visited earlier said that a good alchemist excelled at combining seemingly incompatible things, such as opposite kinds of magic. But a profession that gave both dexterity and mind? Had Yunya initially only been interested in cartography due to Infinite Odyssey’s fog-of-war mechanic, it now had his full attention.
An hour later, they all met up and to their surprise, Zephyr had found the spy npc here. All that was left now was the investigator for Yunya and Breeze, dancer for Path, thief for Path and Zephyr, and lastly, survivalist and treasure hunter for Zephyr.
He mentioned that the treasure hunter, the thief and the investigator were in the rogue outpost, so that’s where they went next. Yunya flawlessly led them through the maze at the entrance, to the other's surprise. Path and Breeze were surprised by the maze itself, while Zephyr didn’t expect Yunya to know his way into the rogue outpost.
“I’ve been here before. And when I was, I saw a certain someone trip over his own trap.”
Zephyr cringed at Yunya’s words, even if he had heard them earlier. No one likes to be remembered about their own failures.
“Which ones do we have left now?” Path asked after they left the rogue outpost.
“Archer outpost for survivalist, while the dancer is not too far from there, being married to the farmer. Not that we need that last npc though. And then the herbalist would finish my little tour,” Yunya mocked himself.
Giggling, Path went along, eager to meet the dancer, while Zephyr went to meet the survivalist.
“Hey Breeze, what’s the difference between scribe, librarian and scholar? Aren’t they all the same profession?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. All I remember is that scribe would be good for making your own magic scrolls, which you could sell to other players. Besides that, they all sounded the same to me.”
“Ye, right,” Yunya thought. “I’m sure there’s a big difference somewhere, you’re just not interested in book-related professions. Only the money-making scrolls from the scribes managed to catch your attention.” Not that he would say any of that out loud.
Both him and Breeze had gone silent, both lost in thought. Yunya was considering his options. No matter what he was going to pick, he knew he wanted to at least do something with his profession, not just use it for the added attributes.