image [https://i.imgur.com/8GUmoqI.png]
Dark Forest
Going deeper into the woods, the harmless herbivores make way for the fiercer predatory species.
It couldn’t have been more than a minute before a very disoriented wombat found himself sitting in what looked like the middle of a dense forest. A fact which the message screen that immediately popped up in front of him seemed to confirm.
Though for the life of him, Will couldn’t remember going deeper into any woods. Or any harmless herbivores, other than himself. The thought of fierce predators was also very unwelcome, and Will swiped the screen away as fast as he could, so it wouldn’t block his sight.
Only to be immediately confronted with another message screen.
Main quest
Slay 10 Dark Forest Wolves.
Reward:
Space rank-up
100 XP
1 skill shard
There was quite a lot to unpack in that, but the howling voices of far too many wolves started coming from somewhere ahead of Will. Swiping the message away, Will turned in the opposite direction to the howls and started running away as fast as his short legs could go.
Which… turned out to be fairly fast, all things considered. Far faster than Will could ever have run as a human, in fact.
Yeah, but I’m not trying to outrun myself as a human, Will grumbled.
It wasn’t easy to gauge how far away the wolves were from him. The dense trees were distorting the sounds more than enough to confuse him. But it very quickly became clear that the wolves were getting closer.
To make matters even worse, some of the howls were starting to move sideways. Still behind him, but spreading out to either side.
Bastards are trying to flank me! Will thought frantically. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to send a wombat hunting for wolves? I’m a freaking herbivore, for God’s sake!
It was surprisingly easy to run through the woods. He’d have expected to be tripping over bushes, rocks, and raised tree roots, but his new wombat body seemed to navigate the hazards without any problem. Unfortunately, the wolves weren’t having any problems either, and the howling sounds kept getting closer and closer.
I don’t think I’m going to be able to outrun them, Will thought. And I probably don’t want to let them finish encircling me either.
Before he could second guess himself, Will broke sharply to his right, going towards the sounds of one of the flanking wolves. His actual plan, as much as he had one, was to simply break out of the circling wolves and keep running.
The closest wolf, however, didn’t seem to be in a cooperative mood, and managed to place itself directly in Will’s way, baring his fangs at the running wombat.
The woods were so dense, that Will barely had enough time to see the grey-furred canine before he was right on top of it.
Far too close to stop.
Running as fast as he could, Will found himself slamming into the wolf.
And bowling it over.
Seeing the fallen wolf, Will started attacking. Herbivore or not, his wombat body had claws and teeth that didn’t fall short of the wolf’s, and the aggressive instincts to go with them.
He also had the advantage of still standing on his four feet, while the wolf was lying on its side, and still a bit dazed from Will’s charge.
A slash of his claws opened up a trio of gashes in the wolf’s stomach, and a bite punctured the fur on its foreleg, leaving behind punctures that Will estimated were at least a couple of centimeters deep.
It also filled his mouth with a taste that his herbivore’s taste buds didn’t like at all, and Will retreated from the wolf, spitting and trying to wipe his mouth on every piece of available vegetation.
The wolf, freed from the frenzied marsupial’s attack, shook it’s daze away and got back on its feet, and charged at its stocky tormentor.
Even bleeding and limping, the wolf was bigger and heavier than Will, and the distracted wombat found himself facing a canine determined to give as good as it got.
Fortunately for Will, the wolf got him facing the other way, and the canine’s fangs closed on the wombat’s behind.
Which, for some reason, ended with nothing more than a pair of shallow scratches, rather than the nasty puncture wounds Will’s own teeth inflicted on the wolf.
It was still enough to remind Will that he was in a fight for his life, and the wounded wombat ran away from the confused canine, putting enough distance between them to spin around and charge right back.
The wolf was not expecting another marsupial charge, and Will slammed into it at full speed, biting and clawing like a wombat possessed.
Even caught off guard and wounded, the wolf still gave almost as good as it got, and Will got bitten on his left ear and clawed on his left shoulder, but before long, the wolf was lying lifeless on the forest floor, and Will was receiving and dismissing a bunch of message windows as fast as he possibly could, and without even attempting to read the contents.
After swiping away five message windows, Will could finally see again, and wasted no time before getting back to the serious business of running away from the rest of the wolves.
The fight with the wolf didn’t take more than a minute, and having broken their encirclement, the wolves’ howls were now solidly behind him. But they were still faster, and Will didn’t think he could actually lose the predators.
I’m smaller than the wolves, and as far as I can remember, wombats are burrowers, Will thought frantically while running deeper into the woods. I need to find a tunnel to hide in.
It took several more minutes, but Will finally managed to spot a hole beneath the roots of one of the larger trees. Diving head first into the offered refuge, Will crawled as far inside as he could go, leaving his apparently armored behind facing the exit.
The wolves weren’t far behind him, and before long he could hear them right at the entrance to his hidey hole. He couldn’t actually see what was happening outside, but from the darkening of the tunnel and the scrabbling sounds behind him, he could assume that the wolves were trying to reach him.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Without any success.
I think I’m safe here for now. And I can probably use my Dice Roll ability to leave these woods. Hopefully into somewhere less dangerous.
Using the Dice Roll ability, however, proved easier said than done, and Will found that doing his business with a whole pack of angry wolves snarling behind him and trying to get at his (not so) tender backside took more concentration than he could muster.
I need something to distract myself. Wish I could read those messages I ignored earlier. Some of them seemed long enough to be important.
As if on demand, a message window appeared in front of Will.
Dark Forest Wolf slain!
Gained 10 XP
Huh. Nine more of them to get to level two, I guess? Whatever that even means here. Next.
New achievement “Chaaaaaarge!”
Into the valley of death,
Rode the six hundred.
You know, for a given value of “valley”, “death”, “rode” and “six hundred”.
But hey, it worked out a lot better for you than it did for the Light Brigade!
Go you!
Reward:
1 common cavalry skill shard
Who on Earth is writing these? But at least this one has a reward attached to it. Not sure what a skill shard is. Something useful, hopefully.
New achievement “Purple Heart”
You got wounded in battle.
And this time it wasn’t against yourself!
This is progress. Way to go!
But really, not getting hurt would probably work out better for you.
Just sayin’.
Reward:
2 bandage rolls
Oh, sure. More snark is what I need here. It’s not like I got hurt on purpose, you know!
No answer came from who, or whatever was responsible for the windows.
And what am I even going to do with bandage rolls? I don’t even have hands anymore!
More silence was all the answer he got, and Will shrugged and swiped the message away.
New achievement “Killer Instinct”
You killed your first enemy.
And a poor endangered wolf, no less!
I hope you’re proud of yourself.
Reward:
1 common weapon
What do you people even want from me? You flat out told me to kill those wolves! And they attacked me! Not to mention that wolves haven’t been on the endangered species list since twenty twenty!
Will swiped the message away angrily.
Quest in progress
1/10 Dark Forest Wolves slain
See? You gave me a quest to kill them!
With the last message window dismissed, Will was left alone with to his grumbling.
So it said that I got a skill shard (whatever that is), some bandages, and a weapon. Both of which I probably can’t use, because, well, wombat. Where precisely are those things?
Wait. That screen I saw back in the grassland said that I had received two hundred copper bits, and the other screen said that I had those copper bits in my inventory. Maybe that’s where the new things are? Can I see what’s in my inventory?
With that thought, a new screen opened in front of Will. Instead of snarky words or terse, informative messages, this screen was split into small squares. Most of the squares were empty, but four of them had small icons inside.
A pile of coins, with the number “200” at the top right of the square, which Will figured must represent his copper bits.
A piece of crystal.
A roll of cloth with the number “2”, which must have been the bandages.
A set of claws.
After some short experiments, Will quickly found that focusing on any item changed the window to showing just that item, with a short description below it.
Copper bits
Amount: 200
The smallest coin used on the Board.
The Board? Never mind. I don’t have anything to do with these right now anyway.
Skill shard: Unstoppable Force
Tier: Basic
Type: cavalry
Cost: 10 stamina/attack
When performing a charge attack at an enemy, increase chance of knockdown to 100%.
If the enemy is knocked down, perform an extra trample/claw attack, and continue moving.
Can continue to charge at enemies in a straight line until enemy resists the knockdown.
More like, Unstoppable Farce, amirite?
Huh. That looks useful. Still not sure about those damage categories, but more should be better. Now how the hell do I use this thing?
Absorb skill shard: Unstoppable Force?
Yes/No
Well. That’s helpful. Sure, let’s absorb it.
Absorbing the skill shard felt like remembering something you’ve forgotten a long time ago. The shard vanished from Will’s inventory, and suddenly he just knew how to activate his new skill.
That was weird. Then again, everything since I woke up has been weird. Let’s check the next one.
Bandage rolls
Amount: 2
The simplest healing item on the Board. Reduces the damage category of one wound. Can only be used once on any given wound.
Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’
Though your tears are fallin’
Keep your wounds a-healin’
Ban-dage!
Great. This would have been really useful if I had hands and could actually use it.
To Will’s great surprise, a new window appeared in front of him.
Use bandage rolls?
Available wounds:
Left leg: Least
Left ear: Least
Left shoulder: slight
The shoulder wound is nastier than the other two, so “slight” is bigger than “least”. Let’s see what using the bandage does.
Careful to choose the shoulder wound and not any of the others, Will could feel the pain suddenly lessen. He couldn’t actually see the wound, but it definitely felt a lot better.
Use bandage rolls?
Available wounds:
Left leg: Least
Left ear: Least
Left shoulder: lesser
And “lesser” is smaller than “slight’, but bigger than “least”. Good to know. That song still doesn’t rhyme at all. Last one.
Bronze claws
Rarity: common
Type: claw enhancement
Cover a beast’s natural claws with sharpened bronze, increasing claw damage by one category
Yo, Wawm! I heard you like claws, so I put claws on your claws so you can claw while you claw!
Ooh. Looks like I actually can use these. Let’s see. What the hell is up with those flavor texts though?
Using the claws proved to be as simple as using any of his other items, and while Will couldn’t see much in the darkened tunnel, he could feel the metallic weapons covering his front claws.
While Will was focused on his messages and new items, the wolves behind him grew tired of trying to squeeze into the tunnel, and pulled back out. He didn’t trust the now quiet canines to actually leave him alone, but he had enough peace and quiet to let nature take its course, and soon felt the strange combination of moving and staying still that accompanied his moving to somewhere else.