image [https://i.imgur.com/Jhx0Ro5.png]

Cycle finished!

Gain 200 copper bits.

4 new Crankscouts created.

Crankscout camouflage improved.

All wounds improve by one category.

All “per cycle” abilities refreshed.

Four more Crankscouts, and I’ve killed four on the previous cycle. Not getting any progress on that, but not falling behind either. I’ll need to do better than that though.

Anyway, let’s see where I am now.

Tundra

At the edge of the Frostlands lies the tundra. Warm enough that the ground thaws in summer, the tundra allows for at least a little vegetation to grow.

A field of snow stretched in front of Will. Sparse bushes were growing through the white carpet, small and hard looking leaves trying to catch every little ray of sunlight that might reach them.

Will shuddered at the cold air, his short fur insufficient for the cold Space, and his metal armor only making things worse.

Brrr. This isn’t going to be fun. But it should be an easy Space, at least.

Main quest

Gather 5 bottles of Wild Sage oil.

Reward:

Space rank-up

50 XP

1 skill shard

Yeah, there it is. Fifty XP means I’m probably going to face easier monsters. I probably shouldn’t be skipping it then, even if it is freezing my tail off. That said, I really don’t want to know what “Wild Sage oil” is all about.

Any direction of the tundra seemed the same as any other, so Will just started walking. There didn’t seem to be anything in the area, other than the plant life. The tundra was really quite beautiful, and Will would have felt it to be relaxing, if it wasn’t for the cold.

A few minutes into his search, Will started to notice a strange, yet somehow familiar, smell.

What is that? I swear I’ve smelled this before, but I can’t place it.

Without noticing, Will stopped at sat down, sniffing and trying to identify the smell.

Damn it. It’s right at the tip of my tongue. Where did I smell this befo… Ouch!

A series of sharp stinging sensations shook Will out of his thoughts, to find himself surrounded.

By plants.

The were about half a meter tall, with slender, finely divided silvery-green leaves, a cluster of small yellow flowers crowned the plants.

Drops of blood on some of the leaves of each plant indicated where the stinging sensation came from. Will tried to break free from the encircling plants, but his body felt sluggish and uncoordinated. Switching tactics, Will started blasting the plants with Shock Bolts.

The plants proved to be vulnerable to lightning damage, for a change, and not very durable. It took two casts per plant, and Will quickly finished off the offending vegetation.

3 Wild Sages slain!

Gained 15 XP

But not before delivering a second round of slices.

Wounds

Head: least, least

Front right leg: least, least

Back left leg: least, least

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Butt: least, least

Ouch. Death by a thousand cuts, and it seems like the damn things are completely ignoring my armor. I’m not sure it’s even worth the mana to heal those wounds right now. And what the hell did they do to me to make me unable to escape?

You’ve been poisoned!

Concentration and movement are impaired.

Severity: lesser

Duration: 2:16 minutes.

Nasty. Was it the smell or the cuts? Doesn’t matter. The duration will run out before I’m done harvesting them, so harvest first, then we’ll see what next.

Thirty minutes later, he had a new batch of loot.

3 Wild Sage corpses harvested!

Gained 3 Wild Sage leave pile (average)

Gained 2 Wild Sage Oil bottles

Sage as in the plant? That’s a lot less disgusting than I’d imagined that oil.

Unfortunately, he received another message, with less welcome news.

Environmental hazard!

Due to the extreme cold of your environment, and your lack of appropriate defensive measures, you will suffer least cold damage for every 30 minutes spent in this space.

Lovely. I assume the volcano would have given me a similar message if I’d stayed there long enough? OK. I’m going to have to do this faster.

He did take some time to look over his loot, and to his surprise, found that the Wild Sage oil was a useable item, as well as a quest target.

Wild Sage Oil

Rarity: uncommon

Type: consumable

Protects the user from environmental cold effects.

Duration: 2 hours

It works, but you’re going to smell green.

So I can either use it, and then I’ll have to hunt for longer, or save it and deal with the hazard? Let’s think about it. I know what to look out for now, so this Space shouldn’t be that difficult. I can probably manage it without too much damage, and the hazard is only two health every half an hour. On the other hand, I wanted to start dealing with those Crankscouts, and an easy Space might be a good opportunity to see if I can find more than one. I’ll use the oil, and see what next.

Using the oil involved rubbing it under his nose, for some reason. Which he didn’t even know until he opened the bottle. Fortunately, the knowledge appeared in his mind before he could try and drink the viscous liquid.

And it definitely smelled green. There was no other possible way to describe it.

Speeding up in order to get the most out of the oil, Will moved deeper into the tundra.

Now that he knew what to look for, it wasn’t that hard to spot the Wild Sages, and Will found that he could easily snipe them before he got lost in the smell again. He’d also managed to find a Crankscout fairly easily. Its leaves actually looked real, but the stalk was made of brass pipes, and its flowers were made out of cogs.

It was as resistant to lightning damage as any other Crankscout Will had seen so far, but the thin metal rods it was made of were fragile enough that Will had no problems taking it out, after zapping the two real Wild Sages that came with it.

By that point, Will had used another bottle of Wild Sage oil, and had three more in his inventory. He’d also managed to avoid taking any more damage, since the plants didn’t seem to have any ranged attacks.

It’s about time Shock Bolt actually worked for me. Will grumped. Half of these spaces seem specifically immune to lightning, and my wand only has three charges every cycle. Wait. The wand. If I’m fighting plants here, I can create pickles, can’t I? Do I even want to make pickles? Fili made it sound really bad. But Fili is also sitting safely in his inn, and I’m here facing the monsters. To hell with it. I want to at least see how it works and if the result is even worth it.

Making a pickle turned out to be extremely easy. All it took was one shot for the Wand of Vinegar Steam. The Wild Sage he’d targeted just immediately turned a darker shade of green, and started fighting its ex-allies.

The downside to pickling the Wild Sage was that Will couldn’t harvest its body, therefore missing out on a pile of leaves and a possible bottle of oil. It did, however, net him a new achievement.

New achievement “Baby’s First Pickle”

You have pickled a plant.

Your first step on the road to cackling evil!

Hoards of Preserved will descend upon your enemy!

Or garnish your vegi-burger. Whatever works for you.

I’m so proud of you!

Reward:

1 Acetomancer skill shard

Though possibly not a very welcome one.

The skill shard was interesting. Not something Will wanted to use at that point, but interesting.

Skill shard: Pickle Dead

Tier: Basic

Type: Acetomancer

Cost: 20 mana

Level 1

XP 0/100

Use on a recently dead plant or vegetable to revive it as a pickle under your command.

Can control up to 1 pickle per skill level.

They will all fear your might!

And your smell.

The pickled Wild Sage swayed in the breeze in front of Will. It looked just like it did while it was alive, but slightly darker in color. It also smelled. Somewhere between the entrancing scent of the Wild Sages and the familiar smell of pickles. A few tests taught Will that the pickle could follow simple commands, but anything more complex had to be broken down into simpler steps.

A short march later, he’d also discovered that the pickle would immediately attack any living Wild Sage it encountered. He could stop it from attacking, but the default was to attack.

Will decided to stop at one pickle, and save the rest of the wand’s charges in case he really needed them.

It only took one more fight to finish up his quest, and he was rewarded by another Gatherer skill shard, which he figured he’d probably sell to Kili.

For the first time since finding himself on the Board, however, Will didn’t immediately move on. Instead, he continued to hunt, looking for more Crankscouts.

He was also expecting to find elite Wild Sages and whatever the rank one enemies for the space were, but by the time he’d decided to move on, none had appeared.

Maybe the rank up only happens after I leave the space?

He did manage to find another Crankscout, after a couple of hours of fighting. But even five hours later, a third one didn’t appear, and Will decided it was time to move on.

All told, he’d killed twenty-three Wild Sages and two Crankscouts. He had twenty-two piles of leaves, since he couldn’t harvest the pickle, and three leftover bottles of oil to show for it.