Soren’s fingers and nails lengthened, while some kind of weird scales started appearing on the rest of his hands and forearms. The nails became talons, meant to tear and slash, no longer to hold weapons. Eventually, both his hands became mangled and scaled, looking incredibly deadly, reminiscent of a hawk.
And then he lunged towards Yunya.
If Yunya didn’t have as much dexterity as he had, he would’ve been skewered. He still got his in his shoulder, but Yunya got far enough away to evade any immediate follow up attack Soren could’ve done.
“Damn it.” It took everything Yunya had to just dodge and run back. The druid had finally gone truly mad, acting on instincts alone. And that instinct told him that the archer in front of him was an enemy.
“Where’s Zephyr? I don’t have the health to dodge forever. We need to slow him down.”
No one had an answer for him and attacks from Breeze did hit, but didn’t deal nearly enough damage to attract attention. Even worse was Path, who could barely keep up with the chase at all, let alone properly attack. The one silver lining was that a crazy Soren could no longer control other animals, so at least those sparrows and hawks disappeared.
Yunya kept jumping back, with barely any opportunity for him to fight back. Only with Precision Shot could he actually hit Soren. Any other attack would miss both due to Soren’s behavior and Yunya’s backwards dodging.
Yunya and Path dealt the same, little amount of damage, with Breeze being the only real source of damage. And until Zephyr returned, it would stay like that.
“When is Zephyr getting back?”
“I’m close. I can’t move that fast during Stealth. But Ashen, you’ll need to create an opening. Otherwise, both you and Soren will be caught in the same trap.”
“How big of an opening do you need? Two seconds?”
“Should suffice if you give a heads up.”
“Alright, let me know when you’re actually here.”
Taking a gamble, Yunya for once dodged forwards, ducking under a swipe of terrifying talons to end up behind Soren and just ran for it. And in the split second the druid was caught off guard, Zephyr deployed a trap. It couldn’t keep Soren occupied for too long, but it gave Yunya some much needed respite, both to use a health potion and to simply catch his breath. And to put yet another arrow into Soren. The girls weren’t slacking off either, with Breeze raining down magic missiles one after the other and Path charging in to deliver a big Chop. Soren roared, but the trap made him too slow to retaliate against the warrior in front of him.
It took a long time, but with a last Chop in his ribs, Path took the last bit of hp Soren had, causing him to drop to his knees. His body became completely human once more and his eyes gained an unprecedented clarity.
“Thank you. Would you people be so kind as to let an old man speak to his daughter one final time?”
“Sure,” Yunya said, waving over to Almina, who had been hiding far away.
“We’ll leave you guys alone. If either of you need us, we’ll be just a shout away,” he said to Almina once she arrived.
“Thank you,” a small voice came out of the otherwise tough herbalist.
“You think it’s safe to just let them be by themselves?”
“Soren is no longer dangerous. You could see it in his eyes, dying cured him of his craziness, for the final moments of his life.”
“You know, for someone with a class, he didn’t feel that much stronger than someone like us with just an archetype.”
“Because he didn’t use it properly,” Zephyr snorted. “Almina said that a druid is known for three things: nature magic, healing and shapeshifting. And what did Soren do? He healed his hands once, used vines to briefly restrict two people and fought with a staff. And then lost his marbles and went crazy and used talons in close combat without really dodging. At a bare minimum, he should’ve used his hawk eyes to see attacks coming and dodge them.”
“He’s right. If we ever fight a proper druid, don’t use this fight as an example.”
“Exactly,” Zephyr nodded at Breeze.
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 and you managed to stop him. Reward A personal favor from Eldwin. Almina will look at you more favorably for letting her close a dark part of her past.
“Oh? Looks like their talk is over,” Yunya said as he looked at his interface first and then at Almina who was walking towards them with a notebook in her hands. Behind her, Soren lay down on the ground, never to get up again.
“Are you okay?” Path asked.
“I’ll be fine. Thank you for this. My father’s actions have always cast a shadow on me and now, that shadow is gone,” Almina said as she bowed.
Both girls hurriedly tried to prevent her from bowing, with Zephyr and Yunya awkwardly looking away. Clearing his throat, Yunya asked if there was anything else they could do, especially with all the nearby dawn herbs.
“No need. My father might’ve taken his experiments a little too far, but he did gain results. He noted everything down, so I’ll try my best to make something out of this. If any of you ever need to improve your shapeshifting powers, feel free to come ask me. With some more research, I should be able to use the dawn herbs to help you out.”
Breeze shook her head, “I want to become an elemental mage, I don’t think I’ll have any need for this.”
“But, we would like an explanation of the herbalist profession,” she added with a wink.
“And I would be glad to do so,” Almina smiled. And it was a genuine smile, probably for the first one in a very, very long time.
Reached level 6, 1 free attribute point has been awarded.
After they made it back to the village and Almina’s hut, she gave a lengthy explanation to both Yunya and Path about herbalism, Path decided she would pick herbalism as her profession once she had the chance to do so. Almina explained that you could only pick a profession in Eagle’s Watch, which was the big city closest to Red Reef. But, you could always go to others with the same profession to learn from them, even if they aren’t not from any of the big cities.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“So, Starlit Path, you’re always welcome to come back here if you have any questions.”
“Thank you, I will.”
When they were about to leave, Zephyr had one final question.
“I don’t know how to bring it up any other way, so I’ll just ask. What do we tell Eldwin? He gave us this quest in the first place, so he will want an explanation.”
Almina looked at Zephyr and sighed. “Thank you, but that’s something I will have to tell Eldwin personally. You can visit him tomorrow, I’ll have talked to him by then. As for the rest of Red Reef, please don’t tell them what really happened. The past should stay in the past.”
After assuring they wouldn’t, they said goodbye to the herbalist and left her hut.
“So, what’s next?”
“Get to level 15 asap.”
Yunya looked at the time and sighed, “I still have my job. I don’t know if I’ll hit level 15 by tomorrow morning, but I hope I do.”
“You need to go work tomorrow?” Breeze asked in surprise.
“How else am I gonna be able to pay my bills?” Yunya said as he looked at her.
“Oh, right. Glad I don’t need to worry about those things.”
“I’m just taking a few days off from school. I might even drop out,” Zephyr shrugged.
Path didn’t answer, but Yunya knew that someone like Mia O’Donnell wouldn’t ever have to worry about money. With another sigh, he said he was gonna focus on getting better gear and decide on his profession as well.
“And then we need to visit Eldwin. Almina said tomorrow, but the time in Infinite Odyssey goes twice as fast as in real life, so let’s meet up in a few hours? Unless we want to continue questing together.”
“Path and I decided we want the maps you already have, so we were going to do that first.”
“I hit a new level, so I should be good to do the quest for my new weapons,” Zephyr said as he also went his own way. And with that, Yunya was alone again.
Making his way to the archer outpost to get quests for better gear, he decided to ask the receptionist or even Desmond himself if they knew which profession would suit an arcane archer best.
“You want information about which professions fit which class?” the receptionist asked. “Hmm, but not for free though.”
Coincidentally, another player arrived just after Yunya did, asking the same question. The npc at the reception looked them up and down and thought for a while.
“A djinn and a tiefling, huh? Alright, let’s see which of these unusual races for an archer is the better archer. You guys hold a contest, the winner gets the information for free.”
He led both of them outside, where he explained that he’d judge them on prue archery prowess and they weren’t allowed to use their skills either.
“It’ll consist of four different parts, starting with distance. See those targets in the distance? Shoot them. No need to hit them in the middle, as long as you can actually hit them. Accuracy will be the next test.”
The tiefling started and managed to hit 16 out of the 20 targets, whereas Yunya only hit 14. For the accuracy test though, Yunya hit 18 of 20, with the other player only managing 17 shots.
“Next up is speed. I’ll throw 10 different targets in the air for each of you, hit as many as you can before they hit the ground.”
Both of them had the same score here, so in the end, the tiefling had a one point more than Yunya going into the final part of their little competition. With the tiefling wanting to become a beastmaster later and Yunya an arcane archer, neither had the advantage right now, which made their scores so close.
“Oh, this is exciting,” the npc grinned.
“Range, accuracy and speed are all similar, so in the end, it’ll come down to whoever is better in actual combat. I’ll even allow skills. In that arena over there I’ll release a wolf. I’ll judge you on both time taken and hits taken. Mr. tiefling, you go first. Djinn, look away for a bit, I don’t want to hear any possible complaints about cheating.”
Yunya had no issues with that and gladly turned his back towards the arenas. Desmond came by to talk, but Yunya explained that he was in a little contest, so he couldn’t really talk all that much. They just talked about random stuff until the receptionist called Yunya over for his turn. Talking to Desmond had made Yunya lose track of time, so he had no idea how long the tiefling took to kill the wolf. Not that it mattered, since he’d try his best anyway.
“Can I spectate?” Desmond asked the receptionist, who had no issues with the arcane archer npc watching a djinn archer, as long as Desmond didn’t disrupt anything.
Inside the arena, Yunya stared at the gate the wolf would come out of.
“A simple wolf is no challenge, but to do it without being hit in as short a time as possible? That’s a different question.”
Yunya positioned himself to the side, already having nocked an arrow. The gate opened and a cautious wolf came out.
Yunya greeted it with a Precision Shot in its side, which the wolf clearly didn’t expect. Having taken the initiative, Yunya didn’t let up and kept up the pressure, while slowly retreating backwards. Compared to his fight with Soren, this was much easier and he had plenty of chances to attack back, even without needing to use Precision Shot.
He kited it around the arena, never giving it the opportunity to attack back. That very first Precision Shot must’ve hit an exceptional weak spot, since the wolf was quite the letdown. Eventually, Yunya killed it in a little over 4 minutes without taking a single hit.
“In just 4 minutes without a hit versus 7 minutes with two hits, you more than made up for that initial one point deficit, djinn.”
“But he got lucky with that first shot! If he didn’t injure the wolf like that, it wouldn’t have been so easy for him,” complained the tiefling, who had watched the fight.
“So you think that Ashen Fall just so happened to stand to its side and hit a weak spot with a skill meant for it? You think he didn’t do that on purpose?” Desmond intervened.
The tiefling had no response for it and wanted to sulkingly leave. But the receptionist stopped him and said that despite what he said at the beginning, he had always been planning to give both of them the information they wanted. He just wanted to use the competition to liven things up. However, the winner should still get a price, so he gave Yunya a couple of better arrows.
Item Steel arrow x10 Prerequisite / Description Not your standard arrows Effect 10% damage increase
“Desmond, you’ll talk to your djinn?”
“Sure. What’d you want to know?” he said as he faced Yunya.
“Which profession would fit with arcane archer.”
“Ahn, that is quite the conversation. Let’s go sit in the shade over there.”
“So, which professions are you thinking about?” Desmond asked as he leaned against a tree.
“I have five options I’m considering,” Yunya said as he cleared some space on the ground in front of him and drew a starting line.
He laid down a stone for each option on the line and moved three of them back a bit.
“As a djinn, I already have an innate boost to mind. Enchanting, alchemy and investigator are also mind related, so from the start, they have a disadvantage.”
He then moved back two of them even further.
“Both enchanting and alchemy need a workbench. I don’t want to be restricted to that, I want to be able to practice it anywhere anytime.”
He moved the last mind-stone forwards, easily crossing the starting line again.
“Investigator though, I can really see the value in that. Making it easier to find clues or solve riddles wherever you are, no matter if it’s a puzzle I’m solving or trying to explain a person’s behavior. I don’t think it’d be a huge boost, but it’s something that could help out in so many different scenarios.”
The remaining two stones got moved forward, about the same distance the mind-stones got moved back initially, but not as far as the investigator stone had landed on.
“Professions that boost dexterity would naturally compliment me, so they have a head start. First up is herbalism. I can literally do that everywhere, but it feels a little odd that I won’t have any finished products, always just selling the herbs so that someone else can use them,” Yunya said as he moved one of those last stones backwards a little, to then move it forward again, now in the lead.
“Although I have a good relationship with a certain herbalist already, so that’s a plus.”
“Finally, cartography. Besides a major focus on dexterity, there are some benefits to mind as well,” Yunya said as he moved the stone forward even more. “And with an unexplored world, everyone finds maps useful,” referring to the fog-of-war effect.
In the end, Desmond was silently staring at these stones. The cartography stone lay in first, followed by the investigator and herbalism, with alchemy and enchanting somewhat far away. He then took a stick to move some of them, with drag marks in the dust signifying his own changes.