Day 7 - July 14:51

After One had continued to question the NPC for fifteen minutes he finally got all the information he needed. He received three more death threats, but did not care much for it. His own provocations were of child like nature anyway. One was quite sure that NPC’s in this game were able to attack and kill players as well, if the players did something wrong or offensive, but he would test that later when he was actually able to kill one easily. Which he was quite far off.

Ubbe told him that there was a large cave further down the woods, on the other side of the lake. Sadly there was no information on what exactly lived there. Wolves, bears, goblins? Maybe even another NPC? One would just go and find out. He cycled around the rather huge lake, and headed where he was told to search. The journey went rather smoothly, nothing special happened and besides the countless fish he spotted out in the waters, he was not able to find anything of interest. The assassin told him about the weapon type as well. A soul weapon was a soulbound weapon that could only be used by the person it was bound to. Craftsmen or blacksmiths were able to upgrade these special weapons, and while it’s a huge challenge to upgrade them they are the most powerful weapons you could find early on.

As One reached the other side of the lake he could already tell where the exact location of the cave was. The whole forest was going downhill towards an entry that was very easily visible under a huge rock. Since there was no real road and the entry was easily a couple hundred meters away One decided to move through carefully. Without any skills and only relying on auto attacks he really did not want to start a fight. With anything. Stealthily he marched through the woods, after a couple meters he was able to spot a wolf in the distance. A beautiful beast. Dark grey fur, dark pitch black eyes, enjoying the wind blowing against himself. One was careful that the wolf did not realise he was there while steadily moving closer towards the cave. Luckily he was not noticed at all and without any further incidents he reached the entry.

It was not all too dark, the light reached quite far in. There was moss growing on the moist parts further in and usual grey stone walls where the sun reached more easily. One inspected the stone.

[Basalt Stone.]

[A grey type of stone called Basalt. It can be used to build, create sculptures and many other functions as it is quite hard.]

[You need to be at least [Miner: Beginner II] or higher in order to mine here.]

Hmm. Nothing special here. One decided to pay more attention towards ores and minerals when he was walking around. If he was lucky he might be able to find something of great worth! As he reached further in he spotted various stone and wooden weapons lying on the floor. They were rather small, almost child-made and were crafted with cavemen or ancient craftsmanship, yet they were in perfect shape. Definitely a sign for goblins right? One eyed for a iron chest that was lying around in the back. Maybe he could find a dagger locked in there? He kept his eyes carefully pinned on the darker parts of the cave further in. Hopefully there were no goblins here. The cave could also have been abandoned by them. He would die for sure if something like them spotted him. He inspected the brown and dark grey iron chest.

[Iron Chest: Very Rusty]

[A very old and quite damaged Iron Chest. You need to be [Thief: Lockpicking II] or higher to unlock it. As this chest is quite damaged already and a lot of rust carved away at its material. Brute force may be able to open it.]

Lucky! One immediately began hammering onto the lock of the chest. His wooden dagger seemed to not really do that much damage though. Visible the lock barely got any scratches. The durability of his weapon dropped rather quickly too, but it should be able to do the trick. The loud clunk! sounds he made with while working echoed through the cave. One really got annoyed with the speed of his dagger work. His attack speed was only 0.85! With that he was not even able to attack once per second. With every attack he got more and more nervous. Should he just take the chest with him? But then he had to come back if it did not contain the soul dagger and the wolf was still lurking outside as well. Yet the chest was pretty much the only thing that came to his attention. Further down the cave there might be more, but he could not be expected to go and fight goblins for it, since this was a beginners quest?

After a while the lock looked seriously damaged. One was not able to inspect for any HP-Bar so there was no telling how long it still needed to be hit either. Ten hits later there showed a large crack in the lashes of the lock. It was still not broken, yet it would most likely not take that much longer.

Suddenly there was some noise in the cave below. A lot of noise. First very quietly then the bickering increased again and again. This time One was a hundred percent sure! Goblins! A lot of them too. Quickly he stored the damaged chest in his inventory and turned to run. Quickly the light, that was falling in from the entry, blinded him for a couple of seconds. Then he froze in fear. The wolf was standing right in the entryway. Just at the very worst time. One’s mind was racing. How could he pass the wolf and flee? The goblins behind him would catch up to him soon, and once they discovered him he would surely be chased down and killed. The wolf however could just run alongside him casually and kill him at any time too. His movement speed was a joke after all! Damn beginner stats. Hoping that he was not hungry would most likely be senseless too. This was a game after all. Inspect!

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[Grey Wolf Level 72]

[This powerful creature is blessed by Fenrir in the woods of Loki. It’s strength was increased considerably.]

[Fenrir's Blessing: +60% Movement Speed; +60% Attack Speed, + 200 Strength, +600 Vitality, +2.000 HP, +600 Armor, +600 Toughness]

[Fenrir Affiliation: [Grey Wolf] sensed your Fenrir Affiliation. +20% Attack Speed if domesticated or befriended.]

What a powerful creature. One really thanked god for his unbelievable luck. He finally was not being trolled by the game continuously anymore. The base affiliation he received alongside his ingame name “Uffe” would most likely allow him to interact with the creature. He quickly looked it up in his player profile to be sure.

[Fenrir affiliation: 20% attack speed for allied wolves / +80% domesticating to wolves and dogs / heightened chance to gain lycanthropy]

Immediately he pulled out some [Fresh Meat] he still had stored away from hunting bunnies earlier. Very slowly he approached the giant beast. It only tilted its head slightly and looked at One with curious eyes. One laid down the meat in front of it and pulled back a bit. The wolf smelled on it briefly and then ate the meat.

[[Grey Wolf] Status changed from Enemy to Friend. Through continued acts of Friendship it may be tamed.]

Interesting. With this One could really build up a mighty army of wolves! And if they all were so strong they would clearly be feared by any player or crush those dumb enough to march against him! This affiliation was truly awesome. Suddenly the ingame world felt not so cruel anymore.

A strong feeling of impact came from his back.

[You took 32 damage.]

[Enlightened was activated. Movement Speed increased.]

Another arrow flew past him and hit the wolf on the head. It did not even flinch. One walked around it, laid his hand upon the beast's head and looked downwards. Hordes of small goblins, falling over themselves, pushing and shoving themselves forward and forward towards him. Yet he would not have to fear them anymore. He looked down on his newly found friend. His hand briefly stroked its ear, then he drew his dagger. Another arrow was shot from the backlines. Without a doubt a hobgoblin had fired it, but One evaded it by stepping to the side.

The wolf dashed forward. One knew what the beast would be able to do with these small fries. Teamed up with this awesome creature he was invincible right now! Before One reached his first enemy the beast already ripped its way through all of the small pests and killed the hobgoblin leader. Its speed was remarkable. Distracted by the awe striking performance of his ally One took the swing of a rather big stone axe head on.

[You took 47 damage.]

[Enlightened was activated. Movement Speed increased.]

These goblins packed quite the punch. Without a doubt he would have died without the help of his newly found ally. The movement speed he received in addition from his buff saved him from the second strike. Before One could retaliate the wolf already ripped the head of the goblin. The wolf was truly fast, a godly berserker. Shivers ran down One's spine. Terrifying. He wanted to have so much speed and damage as well. Around him there lied the remains of approximately thirty goblins, the hobgoblin was ripped to shreds so much he was unable to even find it. Sadly none of them were lootable. The kill credit belonged to the wolf entirely.

The raging beast now stood above his enemies, truly the master of the forest. Green blood was running of his paws and muzzle and the fierce blue eyes pierced One strangely. What did it see? Prey? Right the moment he had finished his thought the wolf attacked him. Like the flash of lightning the wolf was upon him, ripped its teeth into his neck and throat and pressed him into the ground. Strangely enough no damage window appeared, yet another one did.

[[Grey Wolf] used [Rage of Fenrir] which left a [Mark of Fenrir] on you. The attack put you into a state of confusion. Duration: 25 minutes.]

[Fenrir Affiliation activated.]

One felt weird. The wolf let him go and disappeared, up towards the entry of the cave that now was filled with dead goblins. The color around him now seemed rather strange, oddly different from before.They were more active, more impressive and drawing him in. In his state of confusion he got up and scouted around himself. Where was he again? He stumbled upwards, towards the light that cast so many beautiful colours!

He wanted to catch the small shiny coin that flew right above his head. No matter how much he tried he always fell over as he tried to reach it. He knocked into some hard pink and blue kingsize beer bottles more than once. When he realised that he missed beer in his life a lot, he tried to climb up, but it was really hard and slippery! And the top was so far away! Right next to this shiny coin he wanted to catch. When he finally succeeded with his climb the beer bottle took shape into multiple smaller ones.

One tried to rip one out and start to drink, yet was far too weak to get it! And the shiny coin was now much closer. Maybe he could use it to buy himself a bottle? Reaching for it he fell off the blue and yellow beer pile and more of this oddly shaped things appeared before his eyes. He swiped them away! They were annoying! They tried to stop him from getting his beer! One yelled out loud: “Beeeeeeeeeer! I want my beer!”

Some small cushions tried to sneak past him. They were really fluffy. One wanted to lie on them for a bit since they were of such a beautiful neon green color. But they rolled out of his way quickly and it made him loose footing again. Maybe he should just sit and wait for the coin to come down to him? How long could a coin stay so far up anyway right? It HAD to get down at some point. All the oddly dyed grass and flowers really confused him though. Had it always been yellow and black grass? Dizzy One rolled around in a sea of colours.

Today was a really weird day.