Thinking ‘hack’, I feel my body readjust itself slightly as my axe flies down with a rewarding *thump* sound as it embeds itself on the rabbit’s head.
*Ding*
Taking my axe back out I send a clap towards Husky who finally reached level 2 like the rest of us.
Looking back at the body the usual window comes back up
Do you wish to reclaim this body for the Goddess?YesNo
A nifty little thing to get rid of game corpses without it being too fake.
Pressing yes the rabbit’s body disperses into particles and a small chunk of meat is left behind as well as a copper coin.
Picking up the coin I hand the meat to Husky as it’s his turn to collect and we continue to scour the land for more rabbits.
Hmm, I think I got a bit ahead of myself there. Right, I’ll go back to where we last left off then.
…
…
After we all said the same thing, we decided to go round and pick up the quests the others had picked up.
On Husky’s side he had picked up a mining quest from Jearth the blacksmith as well as got a hint about a higher-level quest from the barracks next-door.
He also found his two other houses to be a tailor and a skinner, but they weren’t giving quests out yet it seems.
He also found out a little about our location; we’re right up north, like edge of the world; pretty literally nowhere near civilization. To get to one of the main 3 cities (Didn’t catch their names) we’d have to traverse across the snowy peaks they call The Ice Needles.
So we’re going to be stuck here for a short while I assume.
Jöt, on the other hand found his buildings to be the general goods store (run by Linda the wood-elf; this he told us with quite some excitement for some reason.) and the other houses to be locked, well Jöt wasn’t allowed entrance anyway.
While talking to Linda he got a quest to collect rabbit and elk meat while he collected some history about the place.
According to most of the villagers this place is the only remaining village in the North of The Ice Needles and this was due to conflicts with Ice-trolls as well as Carestia the reigning Ice-dragon of The Ice Needles. Thus most people in the north fled the cities and towns leaving them to be destroyed and populated by other creatures. This town was built from people who wanted to stay but had been forced from their homes one way or another. Thus Glacia the last town of the North stands alone.
Don’t know how I remembered all that, but then again I do love lore.
The most interesting part is the fact that this world has history and seemingly we’ve just taken maybe a tiny spoonful of it(and I somehow remembered it too). I think when I find a library I shall be a very happy man (I do enjoy lore in games and often read all of it spending many many more hours reading than playing).
Anyways we walked around and got the quests (except Jöt didn’t take Path Of The Warrior quest) from their respective givers before heading out of town.
And thus five hours after leaving and hunting rabbits we arrive at our present time.
Now the reason Husky just got to level 2 while the rest of us were already so is because he’s died 4 times. This is because-“AWOOOOO”. Guess I won’t need to explain
“And here we go once again” With a sigh Jöt starts to run
“This time I shall run faster and not lose to you Wolf!” Boasts Husky
“Just get running already” I say with a smirk as I activate ‘Sprint’ and start to run across the snowy fields.
Ah right, give me a sec:
SKILL:Sprint [lvl4]Active Skill [82%]You have run many miles and thus doing so has become easier and you have become faster through training. When activated: +8% movement speed and 100% Satiety ConsumptionCost: none, Duration: Sustained
You can tell we have done this ‘run away from wolves show multiple times already. Well this makes it the 52nd time.
Almost every time we kill a rabbit, we run into a wolf because they are simply everywhere.
Sometimes the wolf comes for us before we reclaim the rabbit so we’ve had to leave our spoils of battle behind. Luckily we’ve still been able to collect 45 rabbit meat so far (15 out of 20 needed for the quest) and since each rabbit gives us a good 4% to our experience bar we’ve all leveled up to level 2 (I’m almost level 3).
However the wolves are a huge pain in our sides. Firstly they make us have to run back to the village each time (its only at most a kilometer run) and secondly on the rare occasion they manage to trip one of us and after that, well you don’t need help to come up with what happens to the poor victim.
Husky has died 4 times so far losing 20% of his xp every time he died whereas Jöt has died 2 times but he’s still almost half-way to level 3. Me, I died once so right now my xp bar is at 60%. I’ve died the least because due to my lack of armor I have a bit better mobility so I can dodge better.
But anyways, once again we are on the run from a wolf. However we all have Sprint (which is mildly depressing) and thus we get attacked slightly less than before, only once every 50 metres or so.
Doing a few ‘Switch guards’ as we run away we have to let Jöt remain in the front after his third icebolt because he’s on the verge of death.
Oh right, completely forgot to mention about that. Jöt is a rage mage. Yep he uses rage to cast spells, but how does he get the rage? Easy, he stabs himself since its 1 point of rage per health lost and his icebolts take 30 health each.
Pretty crazy yes, but hell! I like the way he does things (although stabbing one-self does not seem like fun at all).
Without too much trouble this time, we make it to the village border and dive inside (it’s become a thing for us; if we dive we’re safe).
Husky is the first to get up and brushes the snow from his shoulders. He isn’t wearing any plate anymore for two reasons: one, the plate is just getting destroyed by the wolves and its quite expensive to repair and two, it lowers his movement by a substantial amount.
So now there are two party members who bare their chests to the icy cold which seems so damn refreshing after these repeated sprints.
We’re in a pretty decent mood because we’re getting better at running away from the wolves and we are getting somewhere with our quest. I mean the only problem we have right now is that it’s taken us 5 HOURS to level once. Now if we were in our mid 30’s then yes that’d be a good time but we’re level ONE so that is the most horrible leveling efficiency ever. If those damn wolves weren’t there we would have finished this in 1 hour at most.
But we can’t complain at our own choices.
After resting for a minute, we start to walk back out nodding at Gerard; a Golem who guards the north exit. We got acquainted with him through passing him 52 times already today.
Anyways. We head back out and within a minute of scouting we find a rabbit hopping around in the snow peacefully. Checking for wolves. Clear.
We move up to the rabbit and it just looks at us with its eye but does not do much apart from that. Fun fact is that passive animals such as rabbits don’t attack unless attacked and even then-
-9 (71/80)
-3 (107/110)
They’re attacks are pretty poor so we can handle them with ease.
While me and Husky rotate killing the rabbits Jöt stands guard being pretty much useless because he kind of needs to kill himself to do anything, and with his spell being the only thing that stops a wolf utterly massacring us at times when running away, we leave him at full power.
It’s simply adorable to watch the rabbits jump and bite Husky as he laughs, grabs the rabbit and pops off its head. The game company did boast of its high degree of freedom, but still that’s pretty terrifying.
Anyways this time we get another 2 rabbits, reclaiming all before a wolf howls and comes for us. Time for sprint number 53.
…
..
.
DIVE!
...
Standing up and brushing off some snow I help Jöt back up. Only 13 more rabbits to go.
Finding another rabbit its Husky’s turn to destroy it and he does so with vigor.
*Ding*
We both look at Husky who gives us both a maleficent grin
“I’ve just gotten unarmed combat mastery”
Well popping off bunnies’ heads paid off? I thought for a second there he got a title such as the Bunny Beheader. That would’ve been truly terrifying.
But still it just means that he now is much better and killing cute bunnies with his hands.
Anyways our bunny killing spree only lasted for another 2 hours and we only had to run away another 8 times (our bunny killing speed rose so we got more before a wolf came after us).
After killing bunnies straight for 7 hours, we finally had all 20 pieces of bunny meat for each of us and my sprint had leveled up to level 5 in the process.
With delight, we head over to the general goods and bought some bread. We’ve had to spend all our money on food because out satiety dropped about 12 points each time we ran. So every 4 runs we had to eat 1 piece of bread to recover our satiety.
However 1 piece of bread costs 2 copper and we only earned 1 copper per rabbit. Since we needed bread for all 3 of us our money pouches are light as a feather. Luckily we all started with 10 pieces of bread each but that was gone after about 4 hours and since then we’ve had to spend literally half our earnings on bread.
Then we had to spend money repairing our weapons somewhat and our equipment that must be repaired. We ended up opting to repair my axe and everyone’s boots. Since Husky got used to only using his hands it got a lot cheaper for us.
Now the three of us munch on some well earned bread while we inspect our party savings: 4 coppers.
Thank god we have a place to rest for free.
After filling our satiety bar with tasteless bread (I don’t really mind the taste but after having that soup…) we get back up and trot back to the snowy plains.
There is a few kilometers and a bit of plains all around the village and then there is a ring of forest around that. Usually in RPG’s, forests will have harder monsters than plains so we’re not going in there for a while.
We scout for a few minutes before we finally see what we are looking for: An elk with soft brown fur (leather? Hide? I don’t know, it’s something!).
The elk is grazing(?) in the snowy plains and looks quite majestic with its metre-long antlers protruding from its head.
But we don’t care about its supposed majesticness; we’re here for its meat.
Husky takes the left side which is closer to the forest while I take the right to block it off. Jöt stays behind and looks out for wolves.
We crouch and sneak up to it with just small crunches in the snow but once a few metres away the elk raises its head and looks right at us.
We look at the elk with a smile because it’s passive, so that means we can attack it first before it does anything.
Well that’s what the theory was anyway.
Like with any good theory, there’s always one who just has to come and smash it.
This elk was the one, as it bolted away from us much to our surprise and dashed off into the forest. We could still chase after it, however we’re a bit dumbfounded at its sudden action.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“I guess we gotta do a Hercules” I point out and they seem to understand.
“And I was thinking we’d only have to run for the wolves” Husky whines but he still flashes a grin
“Oh don’t worry we’ll have to do that again inevitably” Jöt our bag of optimism
We just watch the elk run away just like our hopes of finishing this quest.
Now what?
We look at each-other for a minute wondering what we’re going to do about it when a wolf growls at us, Damn it.
…
DIVE!
Ok back in town.
Heading back out.
Finding a damn elk.
Level 4 elk, let’s kill.
“Jöt”
-33 (167/200)
The elk elks (?, like a strange bleat) and then charges at us in anger. Aggroing, the best way to get things to fight you.
Me and Husky run out in front of Jöt, who takes up watch.
Husky grabs the elk by the antlers and although is quickly taken off the ground he stops the elk long enough for me to slice one of its legs
-7 (160/200)
I quickly roll through its legs as it chucks Husky into the air and swings its head towards where I was.
-9 (151/200)
The elk turns towards me as I finish laying a thin line across its stomach and it tries to gore me with its antlers but Jöt sends another icebolt into its face wrecking havoc
Crit -66 (85/200)
The elk stunned for a second after getting an icebolt to the face takes an axe chop to the head while Husky grabs one of its leg and snaps it
-20 -16 (49/200)
The elk aggroed onto Jöt tries to hobble for him but when flanked by me and Husky, it experiences a swift death of axe and fist.
Reclaiming the corpse, we get 6 copper coins, 1 elk venison and 1 antler.
We almost break out jumping in joy but we hold ourselves back because we still need to find and kill another 14 before the quest is finished.
However I am happy right now because I just got 10% xp to next level. MY GOD WE NEED TO KILL MORE ELKS!
I am quite surprised how we worked well together although we didn’t speak about our plans. Ah playing with real gamers is always the best.
But back to the situation we decide to hunt for another elk avoiding any wolves we can see in the distance.
Luckily no wolves decide to chase us as of yet and we quickly find another elk.
We go with the same process of Jöt aggroing with an icebolt, Husky tanking at the front while I take agro. It was going well till we got the elk to half health
“Awooooo!”
Ah dammit. We all turn away from the elk and I get some antlers in my back (-43 health ouch!). The wolf starts bounding towards us and we start running the hell away.
The elk chases us angrily and gets an icebolt in its face for its troubles. But the wolf comes up to it and steals our kill, along with all the xp.
The wolf then turns to us who are running away and comes after us with a howl
…
DIVE!
“That wolf stole our prey” Jöt ever so straightforward
“That bastard”
“I agree with you there, next time we take the elk at all costs” Husky demands it to the sky and I’m inclined to agree.
But we decide that battling a wolf is not going to help us much, it’ll just get us killed.
So we head back out, giving a wave to Gerard and go hunt another elk.
We soon find one on the outskirts of a forest and this time we go all out:
Critx3 -192 (8/200)
I slice the elk while it is stunned
…
..
.
I actually felt a bit of pity for the poor guy as getting 3 icebolts in the face looked extremely painful. Hell me and Husky were just looking terrified at Jöt; who just shrugged at his overwhelming power, although he only has 20 health left after that strike.
Dude’s got some serious power…but he has to stab himself to get it, nasty but I respect his play-style.
Anyways, we quickly reclaim it and almost cry at the 6 coppers on the ground.
We move quickly to the next elk leaving pretty much all the work to Jöt.
…
…
With his help we finish off another 12 more elks with ease, but we ended up having to run another 16 times (Some wolves caught us before we reached an elk). Since Jöt couldn’t help us at all when wolves came for us I ended up dying another 2 times in sacrifice for the others. I lost a good 40% experience which put me at level 3 with 80% experience. Jöt was 10% ahead of me while Husky 20% behind. However the fact remains: We finally gained another level.
How long it took us? Ah only about 3 hours and a bit. It’s 7:43 in game now and the sun is setting, it should be down in a short time. Usually the setting of the sun means a peaceful end to the day however for us it’s not.
Why? Because we need 1 more elk before night comes. Why? Because at night everything gets stronger and when you’re in a place where everything is already too strong as it is, how would you feel if they got even more beastly?
By the way Sprint is level 6 with 33% progress (as you can tell; too much running today). However our finances have improved dramatically: 44 coppers remain in our party purse after this ordeal.
With silent tears of happiness in our eyes, we can finally sustain our bizarre amount of calorie intake as we’ve eaten 20 pieces of bread today, 20.
That’s literally an insane amount of calories.
Ok so back onto the task. We head out of town finding that Gerard is changing with an orc who looks permanently grumpy. Hmm watch switches.
We go to the plains and find our last elk grazing in the snow once more just like any other elk. However it is not just like any elk; its hide is snow white along with its antlers and hooves even being bleached white.
*Whistle* “Damn, 1st day and we’ve found a rare” Husky exclaims appreciatively
“I just hope it gives us that meat” I think Jöt has gotten bored of killing elks (well I don’t blame him)
“I reckon we should drag this one back and get its hide taken off by the skinner” What can I say, I’m a pragmatic guy
The other two grin at that…hehe, gamers will take any good thing they can.
We go towards the elk and before attacking, I check its monster window.
NAME:Frishha the White (Rare) [lvl ???]600/600
Wow a Rare elk, but its level ??? which usually means it’s over 10 levels above us. Seeing as though level 8 wolves have 320 health this elk should be around level 16.
…
..
.
“Suicide attack?” I ask the guys
“I’m pumped and ready to go, Valhalla here I come!”
“This isn’t going to end well”
With the supposedly unanimous decision we all charge towards the elk
It raises its head and looks at us before turning away to run. But 3 icebolts fly across the sky to intercept it before it flees.
…
“Eh?” The icebolts fly past, no, through the elk and we falter slightly as the elk wavers and then disappears appeared a good 30 metres away.
We, of course run after it as fast as we could but the elk or the afterimage of it is far out of our reach.
After a great 30 second run after it, we stop because there’s no way we can catch the deer which leaves afterimages due to its speed.
Huffing and puffing we take a minute break in the edge of the forest before we see an elk appear a short distance from us in the plain.
However, a wolf’s howl from behind distracts us. But this was not like any wolf’s howl. No…it was deeper, gruffer and had a strong intent to kill; sending shivers down our spines. It was a monstrous howl indeed.
Immediately we run across the plains, towards the elk of course and massacre it within a split second causing Jöt to level up (health full, perfect) and we reclaim the elk quickly.
From the trees comes bursting a Black wolf with blade-like hair and tunnel-like eyes. Its canines stick out of the wolf’s mouth and are easily the length of my arm. Right I forgot, the wolf is the size of a horse.
NAME:Gannor the Black (Rare) [lvl ???]1030/1030
…
..
.
“RUUUUUN!” I do appreciate my luck in finding two rares within such a short time of each other but still JESUS NO FREAKING WAY AM I FIGHTING AGAINST THAT EVER!
We all sprint down the snowy meadow moving a 112% thanks to our ‘Sprint’ but that seems like nothing compared to Gannor who catches up to us within seconds and tries to take a bite out of Husky.
Whoosh
-1 (1029/1030)
…
..
.
HAHAHAHAH WE ARE SOOOOO DEAD
Gannor stops its attack for a split second as the icebolt touches his nose shattering on impact.
It looks at Jöt and he…smiles (Creeepy!)
300 metres left (oh doesn’t that sound ironically familiar)
4 seconds flat, Gannor makes up 30 meters of distance and tries to pounce on Jöt who retaliates with double icebolt to the face.
-1 -1 (1027/1030)
That does keep Gannor at bay for about 0 seconds before he grabs Jöt’s head between his jaw (it already looks like half of Jöt was swallowed) and bites.
Me and Husky run like we’ve got the dough and the cops are on our tail… FREAKING FAST!
The snow flies up from behind us as we push our bodies to the limit moving at 112% but that still isn’t enough as Gannor rakes Husky with a claw.
Husky runs fora few more seconds before his body splits into pieces (JESUS THOSE CLAWS ARE SHARP!!).
260 metres left
Gannor bounds and pounces onto me but I hit the deck and roll to the side dodging his claw by an inch. The snow erupts where he lands creating a small crater of grassland.
Keeping my speed I run and run but only get another second before the sky goes black and I feel a really heavy pressure on-top of my head for about a second.
-4021 (-3911/110)
My world goes black.