Overnight healing!
Having rested for a full night in a comfortable location, the following wounds have improved:
Left shoulder: Least wound healed up completely.
Right shoulder: Least wound healed up completely.
Right flank: lesser wound improved to least wound.
Butt: lesser wound improved to least wound.
Butt: lesser wound improved to least wound.
Face: lesser wound improved to least wound.
Back: lesser wound improved to least wound.
Back: minor wound improved to slight wound.
Will felt about a thousand percent better when he woke up. And even better than that after a round of Least Cure Wounds. Though seeing the message detailing just how many wounds he’d had after the dungeon definitely made him shudder.
OK, definitely going to wear the armour. And maybe see if Fili has more that I can buy. I just hope I’ve gotten enough loot to trade for everything I need…
Will’s list of “everything I need” was getting pretty long at that point.
Let’s see. More armour. Something that lets me fight things like those dust devils. Something that lets me fight enemies that can fly. something to mitigate the penalties of the armour, since Heavy Armor Proficiency isn’t going to be enough. Maybe some more healing, since Least Cure Wounds won’t work on more serious wounds…
When Will came out of his burrow, Kili was standing behind the bar, cleaning a mug with a piece of cloth, as if he hadn’t moved a single centimetre since Will went to sleep.
“Good morning mate! I trust that you’re feeling better after a night’s rest?”
Morning, Kili. Yeah, I feel much much better today.
“That’s great to hear! Would you like some breakfast? I’m afraid the only vegetarian option is still salad, since I need to restock my root cellar.”
I might be able to help you with that, Will said while Kili went into the kitchen to retrieve his breakfast. I got some drops from the monsters in the cellar that sound like they should be edible
“I won’t buy any pickles!” Kili was quick to protest. “Don’t even try to foist those on me!”
Nothing pickled, I swear! Here, take a look.
Will pulled a rutstabaga root out of his inventory and placed it on bar in front of Kili.
It was the first time he’d actually looked at the loot drops from the dungeon, and the rutstabaga root looked… completely and utterly normal.
Half-spherical and purple at the top, tapering to a point on the yellowish-white bottom. The only thing that set it apart from a completely mundane rutabaga was the size.
The root had a diameter of half a meter.
Kili lifted the root and looked at it carefully. He shook it and listened to whatever sounds it might have made. He sniffed it. He tapped at it to check firmness. He even took out a belt knife, cut off a tiny bit of the root and tasted it.
“hmmm. Firm, no smell of vinegar or brine, tastes fresh. I’ll give you twenty bits for it.”
Will had absolutely no idea what a beach ball sized root vegetable should be worth. Especially not in copper bits. But he did know that he was absolutely crap at haggling. The one time he’d tried it, on a trip to Turkey with his brother, he ended up somehow raising the price of the Schibriyya he’d been haggling over.
Sold. I’ve got 3 of those, and some potantoes and garlic.
Kili bought the potanto tubers for ten copper bits each. The sight of the black garlich cloves, however, made him blanch.
“Those are Preserved! I don’t want those things anywhere near my kitchen!”
Will just shrugged and returned the cloves to his inventory.
Do you know who I can sell them to?
“My brother will buy them, probably. They’re of use to alchemists and such.”
Thanks, Kili. Will finished his salad and got down from the bar stool. I’d better gear up and go get my trading with your brother done before I have to go.
“You’re welcome, mate. Have a good cycle!”
Fili was doing something with a sharp metal tool and a large piece of hide. Will had no idea which tool it was.
Good morning, Fili.
“Good morning mate! My brother told me you’ve had quite an interesting cycle here.”
Yeah, it was definitely… something.
“Well, I’m glad you got those Preserved out of the cellar. It would be bad if those had gotten out and attacked the customers.”
Which brought into focus something that had been bothering Will for a while.
What customers? This is the second time I’ve been here, and there’s nobody but you two around!
“Of course not!” The dwarf laughed. “You and the other guy are the only ones who can enter this instance!”
What other guy? The kangaroo? And what do you mean “this instance”?
“I don’t know anything about a kangaroo,” Fili shrugged. “The other guy hasn’t been around yet, but I know there should be two of you on the Board.”
And the instance?
“Well, there’s only two of you here, right? Doesn’t make sense for an establishment like this to only cater to two people. But there are also hundreds of these little mini worlds the Students make, and they all need shops and whatnot. And you don’t want people from different mini worlds confusing each other with information that is only relevant in one mini world and might hurt someone from another. So we split the place into instances, where people from each mini world can only interact with their own cohabitants.”
Students? Mini worlds? What… You know what? Never mind. I can see that’s one rabbit hole I don’t need to go down.
“Why would you go down a rabbit hole to begin with? Wouldn’t it be a wombat hole if you’re the one using it?”
It’s just a saying! There’s this book where I come from and… No. Not going into that one either. I’ve got things I need to sell and things I need to buy, and I don’t have long before I need to roll the dice.
“Trading is what I’m here for! Let’s start with what you have.”
A short session of not-haggling later, and Will sold his regular rat and rhinobbit pelts for five copper each, the giant rat pelt for ten, both venomtooth rat fangs as a bundle deal for fifty, and all ten black garlich cloves for another hundred, coming out two hundred and seventy copper bits richer.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Now I think I’m going to need some advice on what I want to buy.
“Sure thing, what do you need?”
Well, I’ve got some armour I want to use, but it increases the cost of skills by too much, so I need to either get more stamina and mana, or reduce the cost. I also want more armour, since I only have a breastplate. And I need some way to hit monsters that fly, and monsters that aren’t physical. And…
“Hey hey! Slow down a little! I can barely follow you! Let’s start from the beginning. If you’re going to use armour, you’ll probably want the proper armour proficiency skill.”
Yeah, I’ve got a shard of heavy armour proficiency, but it only gives ten percent.
“You’ll have to get the XP and level it up. That’s how it works with all skills, you know. There aren’t any shortcuts.”
But I saw that I can use more skill shards to give the XP?
“Well, yeah. There’s always a short cut if you’re rich enough. But I don’t think you can afford fifteen more shards just to bring it up to five. And that’s without any rarity increases and…”
OK, OK! I got it. No short cuts for poor wombats like me. So what can I do?
“Well, if you have the armour proficiency shard, I can’t help you more with that. I could sell you the things you need to boost its rarity, but that’d actually hurt you in the short term, since it increases the XP cost.”
OK, then can I boost mana and stamina somehow?
“Sure. I’ve got skill shards for mana and stamina pools. Both types of shard for each, of course. Health too, if you want it.
Both types?
“Yeah, there’s Mana Pool I, which adds a flat twenty per level, and Mana Pool II, which adds twenty percent per level. Same for stamina and health.”
Which one is better?
“The type II shards are almost always better. Unless you only have the basic hundred in the pool, and then both types will give you the same boost. Of course, if you’re serious about things, you’ll want both types for all three pools.”
Going to run out of skill slots really fast at that rate though.
“Not really, no. You sold me those black garlich cloves, so you have to have hunter-gatherer, which means you know about skill merging. You can merge those six shards all the way to a single rare skill.”
But that would raise the levelling costs, right?
“You’re starting to understand. For a beginner like you, I’d suggest just one or two to start with. Type I is cheaper, but if you’ve cleared a dungeon, you’ll get more out of type II.”
And how much would those cost me?
“Two silver marks for a type I, three marks for a type II.”
That’s nearly all I have. And I still need the other stuff.
“Sorry, mate. Those are both very much in demand.”
Let’s talk about the rest of it, and then I’ll see what I can afford. Wait, what about recovery? Do you have shards that increase that?
“Not me, mate. You don’t get recovery from just skills shards. You need to add mana and stamina aspects for that.”
And you don’t sell those?
“I’m just a trader. I need people to sell things to me before I can sell them to you. And everybody always needs more aspects, so nobody sells them.”
So the only way is to get lucky and have one drop?
“Or buy it from an enchanter. They make them, so they have them for sale. But they make my prices seem dirt cheap.”
So that’s for the future. If there’s even an enchanter to find here.
“There should be, somewhere on the mini world.”
OK, thanks. What about more armour?
“You’ll want to find an armorer for that. I don’t stock armour or weapons.”
Does that mean you don’t have anything that will let me hurt flying and non-physical monsters either?
“No, that I can help you with. You probably can’t afford anything better than a basic mana bolt shard, but that will cover both your needs.”
How much for one of those?
“Two silver marks.”
Damn it. I’ve only got five hundred and seventy copper bits. Will opened up his inventory, trying to see if he could scrounge up something more to sell. Wait! I’ve got a spare hunter shard and a spare gatherer shard! Those should be worth some more, right?
“I’ll give you a silver mark each.”
What? But you sold me the hunter shard for two!
“Got to make a profit,” Fili shrugged.
Will grumbled quite a bit, but he ended up selling both of the extras to Fili, and then using nearly all of his newfound wealth to buy three new shards.
Skill shard: Stamina Pool I
Tier: Basic
Type: Resource
Level 1
XP 0/100
Increases your stamina pool by 20 points per level
Seek medical attention if skill use exceeds 4 hours.
Skill shard: Mana Pool II
Tier: Basic
Type: Resource
Level 1
XP 0/100
Increase your mana pool by 20% per level
Mana mana mana,
Must by funna,
In a wizard’s world
Skill shard: Mana Bolt
Tier: Basic
Type: Mage
Cost: 10 mana
Level 1
XP 0/100
Fires a bolt of pure mana up for up to fifty meters distance, dealing lesser magic damage
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Done with his shopping spree, Will went into the bathroom to don his new armour and roll the dice. Getting into the armour turned out to be a lot more complicated than Will expected. The lack of opposable thumbs, coupled with the fact that he couldn’t stand on his hind legs for more than a few seconds at a time, meant that the whole endeavour could very well have been taken in its entirety from a Looney Toons sketch.
Eventually, though, Will was clad in his armour and ready to take on the (mini) world. He called up his status screen to check out his information, trying to decide if there was anything else he could do.
Name: William Jackson
Race: Wombat
XP: 180
Health: 110/115
Mana 132/132
Stamina 130/130
Innate abilities
Dice Roll (2)
Skills 7/10 (8)
Name
Type
Tier
Level
Unstoppable Force
Cavalry
Basic
2
Hunter-Gatherer
Harvest
Advanced
1
Least Cure Wounds
Healer
Basic
1
Dungeoneer
Special
Unique
1
Heavy Armor Proficiency
Defender
Basic
1
Mana Pool II
Resource
Basic
1
Stamina Pool I
Resource
Basic
1
Mana Bolt
Mage
Basic
1
Attacks
Claws – lesser (least) piercing damage
Bite – lesser piercing damage
Charge – minor (slight) bashing damage (Slow aspect)
Equipment
Bronze claws (front claws)
Wombat Breastplate of Lesser Life
Wand of Vinegar Stream
Inventory
1 Electrical aspect shard
5 minor healing potion
1 Backstab skill shard
70 copper bits
Status effects
Wounds
Back – lesser
He still had the backstab shard, the electrical aspect shard, and enough XP to bring a common skill up to level two, but using any of those was a decision which would require some thought, and he was starting to really really need to roll his dice and move.