The next clearing looked like a city street. One- or two-story houses lined the road on both sides, made of white and grey clouds molded into the shape of bricks. Will tried the first few doors, but they wouldn’t budge even to a full speed wombat charge. He figured they were either really well made and locked, or just a prop. Both options seemed reasonable, in the strange pseudo reality of the cloud kingdom.
The street turned left about fifty meters into the clearing, and Will peered cautiously around the corner, but as far as he could tell, things looked identical to where he was standing. Not seeing any reason not to, Will kept walking down the street. He’d gotten midway to the next turn when one of the doors right next to him opened, and a cloudkin came staggering out.
It was dressed in a rumpled looking shirt and pants, had an unkempt cirrus beard, and was holding a glass bottle filled with what looked like a miniature storm.
And the minute it caught sight of Will, it went on the attack. The bottle came up and smashed down on Will’s head. The wombat didn’t even feel the blow itself, thanks to his new helm, but the as soon as the glass was broken, the contained storm blasted him with wind and lightning.
As heavy as the armored wombat was, the wind was still enough to lift him and blow him to smash into a wall across the street. Combined with the lightning, it was enough to stun Will for a few seconds.
Which was just enough for the cloudkin drunkard to pull another bottle out of somewhere.
This is seriously messed up.
Not that he had time to dwell on the messed upedness of things, with the cloudkin running towards him, bottle raised.
Will’s muscles were still locked in place by the lightning, so he couldn’t move away from the charging cloudkin. He could, however, use his Shock Bolt skill. And while he knew that the bolts wouldn’t do much damage to the cloudkin itself, the bottle it was holding had proven to be very breakable.
One Shock Bolt hit the cloudkin, blowing away a tiny bit of the cloud it was made out of, but obviously doing minimal damage. The second, however, hit the bottle and shattered it.
The storm inside the bottle erupted, winds blowing the cloudkin away from Will and lightning striking in random directions. One of the bolts did hit Will, but it was far less than getting the full bottle smashed on his head.
By that point, Will could move again, and he charged at the cloudkin, who was still trying to get up after the wind knocked it down. Will didn’t give it a chance, and attacked it savagely with is claws. The drunkard pulled out another bottle, but Will kicked it away before it could bring it to bear.
And since the cloudkin didn’t seem to have any other method of attack, the battle was over soon after, with a somewhat singed Will victorious.
Blechs. Will stumbled back from the dead cloudkin and flopped down on the cloud road. These things look far too close to being human for me. If it wasn’t for how contrived these scenes are, or that blind rage they get whenever I show up, I’m not sure I could keep fighting them. Still, I’m halfway through. May as well reach the end of this quest, and hope I don’t land here again.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
A quick check of his health showed that the cloudkin were still as hard-hitting as ever.
Wounds
Whole body: lesser
Head: least, minor
The least wound must be from the bottle hitting me, and the minor from the lightning. Which makes the lesser wound from hitting the wall, I guess. OK. That’s three least cures, leaving me with a minor wound. At least I’m getting something out of leveling it up. On the other hand, I have enough XP to level up Rock. Let’s see what I get.
Skill shard: Heavy Armor Proficiency
Tier: Basic
Type: Defender
Reduces the stamina and mana penalties for using skills while wearing heavy armor by 10% per level.
This still won’t let you fly like a butterfly, but at least you’ll be protected when the other guy stings like a bee!
Aspect: Rock
Tier: Basic
Level 2
XP 0/100
Mitigate all damage by one extra category, as long as the hit was on a part of the body covered by heavy armor
Level 2: Mitigate all earth damage by one extra category, as long as the hit was on a part of the body covered by heavy armor
God damn it! Not even a little bit useful here!
Grumbling to himself about the lack of any information about what levelling up his skills and aspects actually did, Will continued on his way down the street. There was another cloudkin beyond the corner, this one wearing armor and carrying a club. It didn’t come out of any hidden doorway, however, so Will saw it in time to charge and kill it before it could do any damage.
Some sort of guardsman, I guess? Will shook his head. Nope. Not going to think about them as anything other than the mob du jour. Onward.
The town ended after the next corner, and Will was on the cloud road again. The next clearing was a repeat of the first, complete with corn field, farmer and ox. Knowing that the ox was the main danger, Will had little trouble with the pair. He left the clearing two living clouds and four cloud corn ears richer.
After that was another forest, with a hunter, a hound and a deer. They were all real cloudkin this time, but the hound still attacked the deer, leaving the hunter for Will to handle alone.
He still took a lightning bolt to the face before he could close in, but the fight wasn’t any more difficult than the previous ones, and Will finally got a long-awaited message.
Quest complete!
10/10 Cloudkin slain.
Reward:
100 XP.
Claw Proficiency skill shard
Claw Proficiency? That looks like something I could use. Let’s see now.
Skill shard: Claw Proficiency
Tier: Basic
Type: Beast
Increase the damage of natural claws and claw weapons by one category.
The claws that catch!
Damn it! I really want to use that one. But I only have two slots left! Damn it. No. Not using any more skills before I know how skill merging really works. I really don’t want to run out and then discover I can’t merge and reduce skills because I don’t have any slots left.
There was nobody around to see him, but Will still went behind a tree to do his business and move on.
But damn it. I want that skill.