Skill Stealth Prerequisite Rogue Description Become invisible in front of most eyes. This basic skill has no effect on smell, sound or touch. Cooldown Be out of combat. Engaging in any form of combat disables the skill

Stealth was one of the three basic skills for rogue, together with Backstab and Stun. Zephyr had never been one for direct combat, so Stealth was the obvious choice. Hiding from people while he set up traps was exactly what he wanted. The reason why he was leaning towards the thief profession was because they could enhance this skill to the next level! Unfortunately, he never thought that the first real opponent he’d face after getting this skill would be able to see through it.

So nobody, especially Zephyr himself, expected the hawks to suddenly attack this invisible rogue. And with everybody else down on the ground, no one could see it either, making the situation even worse. By the time Zephyr reacted and jumped out of the way, he had lost nearly all his health. Crawling away in the grass, he cursed. At the very last second, he had seen someone standing in the distance, but before his brain could even formulate a single thought, he’d been attacked.

“Damn it,” he cursed. Taking a health potion, he messaged everyone about what just happened and about the person he’d seen in the distance.

“Soren must have a way to see through my Stealth, those hawks just attacked me. But right before I got attacked, I saw someone in the southeast corner. Soren probably came out of hiding to find us and clearly, found me.”

“Of course he can see some greenhorn who only just obtained Stealth,” Almina barely managed to hold in a scream after Breeze told her Zephyr’s message. “Did I not say Soren has hawk eyes!?”

“At least we now have a more accurate location?” Breeze asked, trying to divert the npc’s attention. Which worked.

“And that’s where we’re going right now.”

“Uhm, Almina. Are you sure we can handle Soren?”

“What do you mean, girl? Are you afraid of a battle?”

“The others might not know, but I know that druid is one of the classes for the mage archetype. We only just got our archetypes. So, are you really sure we can handle your father?”

Almina stopped walking and looked at Breeze.

“If it was the old Soren, then I wouldn’t have brought you guys here. Hell, I wouldn’t be here myself. Just like me, he’s also an herbalist. Together, we found this valley, these dawn herbs. My father has always had a curious nature and loved to try new things. Unfortunately, for an herbalist, it also means trying new herbs.”

“That,” Breeze tried to interject, but the npc didn’t let her.

“Let me tell me my story, girl. One of the experiments he did with these herbs was to eat them. At first, it didn’t have much effect. But one day, my father… he changed. He lost control over his druid prowess and he… he took someone’s life. He never meant for it to happen. The event drove him mad. He stormed out of Red Reef and no one could stop him, not when he had no control. He killed one of the guards that tried to stop him and wounded many others. Eventually, he fled into the woods and we never heard from him again.”

The last few sentences had been whispered, causing Breeze to answer with a whisper as well.

“And then we showed up with half-eaten dawn herbs.”

“And then, after more than four decades, some kids who weren’t strong enough to have an archetype yet, came to my door with half-eaten dawn herbs. Imagine my surprise. Besides, Soren is a druid, not a shapeshifter. Since you recognize that first class, you should also know the other one. And the difference between them.”

“Oh, you’re right. I’d been so caught up with Soren having a class I didn’t realize what class it was,” Breeze exhaled the breath she’d unknowingly been holding. “Druids are a bit of everything. Some nature magic, some healing magic, some shapeshifting powers. On the other hand, shapeshifters are exactly that. Purely focused on shapeshifting.”

“Yes. Although my father never was too good with the whole healing thing, more with shapeshifting and nature magic. If Soren was a true shapeshifter, I would not have led you guys here. But a druid, a jack of all trades? That should be doable. Especially since he’s old and never really focused on being a druid, paying more attention to his herbalism.”

With those words, Almina resumed going towards Soren’s location, with Breeze in tow. Breeze was silent, but her mind wasn’t.

“You might say that he’s focused on herbalism and not as much on druids, but that was forty years ago. Let’s hope that’s still the case.”

Unaware of the conversation, the others also slowly made their way over to where Soren was. Except for Yunya. He could see the southeast corner from where he was, so he decided to hang back and provide cover. He’d positioned himself behind the tree, to hide from Soren’s sight as much as possible. Not that he could hide much from the man’s hawk eyes, having had to kill quite a few hawks already. On the other hand, he did manage to keep the druid occupied, preventing him from looking for his friends.

“I doubt he’s that dumb not to notice the others are approaching him, but we can only hope we’ll get as close as possible before he notices. If only I could hit him from here though, he’s a little too far away as it is. I wonder if more strength would allow me to shoot from farther away?”

He’d have to look into that last thought at a different point in time, because yet another hawk tried to attack him.

*THWANG*

To no avail. One by one, these hawks didn’t pose much of a challenge to Yunya, something Soren seemed to have realized with this last one. Now, three different hawks attacked at once, with Yunya hitting the first one and dodging the second. The last one however did hit him, even if it didn’t do that much damage.

On the other hand, Soren seemed to now have a fixation on him. Hawk after hawk was sent after Yunya, chipping away his health bird by bird.

“Hurry up!” Yunya urged his teammates. If he’d done the math right, he wouldn’t even survive 10 minutes against these birds, even if he kept killing them one by one.

Updated quest Secret of the boars II Description Eldwin has a feeling there is more to the story behind the pregnant alpha boar. You somehow convinced him to let you investigate this further and have discovered that the herbs she was eating seem suspicious. Together with Almina, you have found out that her father, Soren, is responsible. Stop him. Reward A personal favor from Eldwin

Path was the first to get to Soren, which updated the quest. Up close, Soren was truly an old man, with gray hair, a staff to walk and glasses. Although those classes looked odd with hawk eyes behind them. She didn’t dare to engage him yet though, waiting for Zephyr, Breeze and Almina to meet up with her. And maybe, maybe Almina could talk some sense into her father.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

But those were idle hopes. The second Almina showed up, Soren went insane.

“Alminaaa!”

With a single shout, he went after her. With wide swings, he went after Almina, who was too shocked to react after actually seeing her father up close after so long.

Right before the staff destroyed Almina’s face, Path jumped in between to deflect it. And earned Soren’s rage by doing so.

“Move!”

And as a reply, Path sent a sword strike his way. Furious, Soren jumped back and stared her down with a maddened look on his face. And when he saw Breeze, he instantly kneeled down and thrusted his left hand into the ground.

“Watch out! A druid also knows nature magic!”

Yet before either Path or Breeze could react to Almina’s shout, both had been rooted to ground with vines, locking down their feet.

“Could’ve said so earlier!”

“Sorry Path, I really should’ve.”

Both freed themselves soon enough, but Soren had already closed the distance on his daughter again, clearly intent on getting rid of her before anyone else. Until Breeze shot him in the back with a magic missile. The split second it took him to regain his balance, Path had moved herself between father and daughter again.

“Move. I only want her, you all don’t matter.”

“Thanks, but I’ve heard better flirting,” Breeze said. “Mind explaining why you want to kill your daughter so badly?”

“Why? Why did she never come looking for me? Why did…”

“Because you killed mom!” Almina screamed. “Because you were so caught up in your own world, you experimented with unknown herbs and killed your own wife, the love of your life. Because you just ran away after that, like a coward.”

That last word was spit out and Soren took a step back, visibly shook.

“No, you’re lying, Lyria tried to take away the herbs! I just defended them.”

“Then why did you run away after that?”

“I, I don’t remember. That is blurry.”

“And you never came back to look for your daughter yourself?”

“But she did not look for me first!”

Ignoring the arguing between Breeze, Almina and Soren, Zephyr messaged Path.

“You think we should kill him? Or just let them talk it out?”

“You’re here? How much did you hear?”

“I am, just in Stealth. I don’t think Soren can see me as long as he doesn’t focus on it. And I heard the entire conversation.”

“Enough to realize Soren is not a normal person?”

“Yes. Consuming these dawn herbs changed him. For the better or worse, I don’t know.”

“You think it changed him for the better? Look at him, he tried to kill his daughter just because she never came looking for her presumed dead father.”

“I don’t know. Compare the fact he killed his wife and fled afterwards without saying a word and now he’s here, actually discussing. Even if his way of discussing is a little different from how you and I would,” Zephyr gestured at Soren, who still had his eyes shapeshifted and aggressively pointed with his staff. And was shouting. A lot.

“Fighting the effects of the herbs?”

“Or getting used to them after so long. Who knows how long he’s been like this.”

“Breeze said Almina last saw her father four decades ago.”

“Damn. After so long, those herbs definitely did something to him. I doubt he can even live without them anymore.”

But then they got interrupted by Soren’s shout, but not aimed at Almina for once.

“YOU! You killed so many of my birds!”

At last, Yunya had arrived.

“Because you sent them after me to hurt me. You think I will just stand there like a statue? Also, what’s going on with this shouting match?”

Path quickly brought him up to speed, while also subtly mentioning Zephyr being nearby. And Zephyr informed Yunya about what he and Path’d been talking about.

“So you want to kill your daughter? No way around it?”

“She gave up on me!”

“So that’s a yes, I assume. And you, Almina?”

Almina simply looked away, not having the courage to say it out loud. But she too knew her father was too far gone. And while Yunya realized that, Soren did too.

“Coward!”

Even faster than before, his staff shot out aimed at her face, threatening to completely crush it. Simultaneously, Path deflected the staff, while Yunya fired a Precision Shot at the druid, hitting his hands.

“One or two more shots like that and he won’t be able to hold his staff anymore.”

“Leave, birdkiller!”

Hawks descended upon Yunya once more. And the more of them Yunya shot down, the angrier both Soren and the flock became. And up above, the flock of sparrows expressed their dissatisfaction. Not that they could actually do anything.

“Zephyr, can you use another smokebomb to take Almina away? We need Soren to focus on us, not on someone who isn’t attacking back.”

“Depends on Almina herself. But it’d also make it so I won’t be able to trap him.”

“Not now no. But if you disable your Stealth while you bring her away, Soren will not see you coming if you return in Stealth.”

“True. Alright, tell Almina she needs to leave. I’m not coming out of Stealth if I’m not sure I’ll be able to convince her.”

Yunya nodded and while firing another shot at the druid’s staff, turned to Almina.

“Almina, go! Your father will stop at nothing to kill you.”

“I’m a distraction, aren’t I?”

“I wouldn’t call it that, but I admit it would be easier for us to focus if we knew you were away and safe.”

“Those are kind words for a harsh truth,” Almina smiled. “But you think my father is going to let me leave?”

“Oh, he won’t have a choice,” Yunya grinned. And with those words, Zephyr threw down a massive smoke bomb, disabling everyone for a few seconds. When the smoke cleared, he and Almina were already quite the distance away, giving the three others plenty of opportunity to beat up Soren without any distraction.

Which they did. Soren might’ve become an old man, but it didn’t make him weak. What did hold him back however was his anger-fueled madness. The dawn herbs had done something to his mind, that much was clear. And with Almina out of the picture now, his already unstable mind crumbled even further.

“Back here, Alminaaa!”

Defending against a barrage of staff swipes, Path was sweating.

“Is he starting to forget words?”

“I think so. Better not dwell on it, he’s getting more and more aggressive.”

Yunya then whispered, in a tone only Path and Breeze could hear, “I’m afraid that at some point, he’ll charge through us, ignoring any wounds we would inflict, just to get to Almina.”

“I’d like to see him try. That Charge skill book we got earlier is made for chasing down idiots. Combined with Chop, I can do some serious damage when you’d least expect it.”

“Tsk, if only that boar had dropped an archer skill.”

“THWANG”

“Not that Precision Shot is bad,” Yunya grinned as Soren finally had to drop the staff from his injured hand.

Birdkiller!” Soren roared. And in his ever increasing anger, not only did his injured hand heal up, but both hands also started changing.

“Good news and bad news, guys,” Yunya chuckled awkwardly. “Good news is, he’s no longer going to simply go after Almina. Bad news, he just entered phase two. Worse news, I seem to have become his main target.”