Day 3 - 15:27
Ones Health Points reached 53. Another status window appeared:
[Dizzy. Due to continued damage to your head you feel disoriented. Speed reduced by 50%. Damage taken has increased chance to be critical. Duration: 1minute 57 seconds]
Oh fuck. He overdid it. Besides the debuff he really lost track of time while raging out. This old (and very bad) habit cost him a lot of equipment back in his pc gaming days. Keyboards sometimes his mouse and very very often his headset were slammed or thrown at random when he got mad. But even more important than this debuff he received: How can he get HP back? From his stats he was able to tell that he had no health regeneration. This could be a real problem. He hurried to the High Priest Eric. “Good Day High Priest.” He bowed down. “Good day. How can i help you child?” Putting up a curious face One continued. “I hit my head pretty hard while running errands for the other priests. Does the honorable High Priest know where i can find a person familiar with healing?” Eric made a regretting face, showing sincere sorrow. “No, sadly our healer died a couple years ago. We have not found any replacement as of yet I´m afraid. But our cook may be able to help you. Bring me some [Cooked Meat] i can bless it for you. Eating something that is blessed by Loki may restore your health.” One smiled. “Thank you.” Well maybe this was not as bad as it could have been.
[Received: Quest: Blessings of Loki.]
Objective: Bring [Cooked Meat] to the High Priest.
Reward: Chance for the ingredients to turn out blessed. [5% Chance]
Warning: Failed attempts will be sacrificed to Loki.
No experience. But maybe this reward was worth it? Having his health being restored was very important right now. He had to put up traps while being exposed to threats, maybe even fight! One had no desire to be One-Shot by a random attack from wolves or some other animal at all. After throwing the 30 [Cooked Meat] in the evil Abyss of the quest only the last one turned out to be [Blessed Shadow Realm Meat]. Shadow Realm? One was curious, but he wasted enough time as is. After seeing the effect of the buff food he decided to get out of the temple as soon as possible. This would help a lot retrieving the lost time! After consuming the flesh the effect popped up.
[Blessing of the Shadow Realm: Health Regeneration is increased by 1 HP per second. Duration: 47 hours 59 minutes 45 seconds.]
Totally fucking broken! Within about a hundred seconds he would be full HP again! This super buff had to be exploited! He headed outside. It was still quite cold, but as long as he stood in the sun and was not exposed to sharp wind it was alright. The buff would help a lot. The health regeneration would be disabled by the Freezing effect. But he was able to regnerate all his health back at the temple or the farmhouse. And since spring was already knocking at the door this would not be of concern for long. The snow had already melted down quite a bit and he was able to find his way towards the farmhouse quite easily. The [Freezing] effect had already set in when he searched for sticks. He would need 50 wooden sticks to get the 10 tokens he needed from the quest. Walking beneath the trees, where hardly any snow had fallen he found quite a few. Oddly enough they were classed as weapons.
[Wooden Stick]
[A normal wooden stick, easy to find nearly everywhere in nature. Blunt Weapon. Strength Requirement: 5. Increases the attacker's damage on hit by 20. Chance to critically strike your enemy +5%]
Wow. This increased his damage per second output by a huge amount! With this he might even be able to handle dogs or other, bigger animals. He equipped the stick immediately. After a while he noticed the snow bunnies hopping around all over the place. At first he was hardly able to see them. White like snow, they blended into their surroundings perfectly. But One showed them no mind. Finding the 50 Sticks came first. After two hours he was finished. Since the Freezing debuff now gave him 15 Damage every Minute it was really time to get inside. He hurried to the farming house and entered. A Farmer and a Priest sat on the table and played something that resembled chess. The priest looked quite young, wearing a black robe like all the others. The farmer was clothed rather poorly but the straw hat made him really look like one who tends to the fields, rather than a beggar.
“Hello. Sorry for just coming in like this. I am very cold, may i sit by the fire?” They both looked at him and nodded. They really did not give a damn. Perfect. One spent his time warming up with setting up traps on the floor. The freezing state would vanish faster like this. After all it was already at the second state [Freezing II]. The speed reduction had increased to 40%. As soon as the debuff would disappear, the health regeneration would kick in again. He decided to grind his Hunter Job Mastery by setting up those traps. At first he failed to produce active traps nonstop. After a couple hours the fails stopped.
His Hunter Job Mastery had increased to 22%. Seemingly this was also the success rate of him setting up traps. Not all too great. At least his health regenerated fully and he could finally start finishing putting up traps. Grinding the Hunter Job would take up at least another day. He decided that 22 % were enough. Before he headed out he was curious if the two old guys would give a quest. One approached them quickly with a thankful smile. “Thank you for letting me use your fire. Very kind of you! How can i pay you back?” The false smile and fake insecurity was working wonders. “Oh, no don't worry about it young one! No trouble at all.”
Hmm. No quest? Maybe speaking to them some more would do the trick? Or maybe gifts? He pulled out two apples and handed them to the priest and the farmer respectively. “Here. This is the least i can do for storming in like this.” They tried to decline at first but then accepted gladly. One was able to get 2 quests after this.
[Received: Quest: Getting dirty.]
Objective: Help the First Priest Thorkell digging for dirt. Bring it back to him, the dirt is needed to build a important damm. Bring back 50 [Dirt] or 1 [Stone Block].
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Reward: Nothing but a shoddy, old [Token of Dirt].
Declining will grant “Dedicated Atheist” for 45 days.
[Dedicated Atheist: +65% Attack Speed; +30% Movement Speed; +20 Strength; +100 Toughness; +50% Experience gained. Also destroys all relations to the Order of Loki and their Faith.]
[Pickaxe Level 1]
[Even though the pickaxe looks sturdy and is pretty heavy it does not posses any battle strength. Using it will unlock the [Miner: Beginner I] Jobmastery.]
Another important one for the Quest: Sacrifice. And it triggered a Job Mastery as well! Mining could come in handy. Maybe he could mine for gold at some point? Or be the first one to have valuable material for crafting? Blacksmith Job Mastery maybe?
Another thing came to his attention: 45 days. This strong buff would really come in handy, and they baited him more and more. Too bad his curiousness would not let One do that. And a time limit buff was hardly worth anything. A few levels, an advantage he possessed with his 24/7 play already anyway. The second quest took his attention as well.
[Received: Quest: A real cruel foe.]
Objective: Help Sigurd the Farmer to dispose of Tangun, the Cruel. He is found disturbing the fields near the woods. A vile, evil and very dangerous beast.
Reward: 10 [Fresh Meat]; 2 [Stone Block]
Decline: Not disposing of this evil foe would result in the whole temple suffering. Everyone would reward you for disposing of Tangun, the Cruel.
Interesting. A named monster? Most likely a kobold or a goblin that attacks Sigurd while he is farming? He would search for that one while setting up traps in the woods. Maybe One would get lucky? It was already quite late and night had set quite some time ago. It was 23:02 now. Still a couple of traps to set up until midnight marked the new day. Even though night set, the extreme cold was not setting in. It was still enough to haunt him with the [Freezing I] effect, but not as fast as before. Finally spring would come. One set up the traps between the trees and some out in the snowy field. The last hour to midnight passed very quickly.
Day 4 - April
The snow melted more quickly now. After setting up countless traps and raising his Hunter Job Mastery to 47% he headed back in. His HP were at 12 when he reached the warm, welcoming fireplace of the farmhouse. The priests were sleeping in the straw. Sleep. One could not even put it in words how much he appreciated not having to sleep. As he had nothing better to do he practiced setting up traps for another couple of hours. As the passive [Patience I] set in, he continued a little bit longer. In the end it would raise his Patience Mastery alongside the Hunter Job Mastery so it was not wasted time at all.
He headed outside at 4:27 for the first time. The snow was all nearly gone. Finally spring. The cold feeling was nearly gone too. One followed the traps. Some of the traps that he put up were destroyed, others held prey! Rabbits, some squirrels and even a single bird was caught. He killed the bird with two heavy hits, since it was not injured. Sadly it did not drop anything. Then One looted the squirrels and rabbits. They gave him 16 [Fresh Meat], 3 [White Rabbit Pelt] and 2 [Squirrel Fur].
With the 10 Fresh Meat he would receive from the Boss Monster Quest he had nearly enough to complete the Hunting Quest for the temple. Maybe Tangun would drop some meat too? Very doubtful though, since Goblins should most likely not be edible right? If it even was a Goblin. The Fur and the white Pelts should give a good price at a NPC at some point. Maybe one of the Priests had a quest for it? Filled with good spirit he headed down the fields. He searched for a whole 20 Minutes, but a small Goblin-like creature could not be found.
Just as he wanted to head back to ask for further information because he missed something he stumbled upon his prey. Tangun the Cruel, was sitting right in front of him on the snow. It was not a Goblin. It was a big, white rabbit. Heavy scars drew all over his body. He looked very mean. And also fluffy. Maybe he was sleeping? One reached for his stick. Prepared to attack this adorable creature he advanced. Tangun did not like that. Immediately he hopped up, wide awake. Then he screamed. Loud, short and bone-shattering.
[Tangun´s Cruelty was used against you. Buffs that strengthened you were all dispelled.]
Fuck. How broken was this ability? His godly buff so easily dispelled by a mere rabbit? That fluffy thing was really a boss monster. One attacked with a wide swing of his stick and hit Tangun right in the snow white face. Unimpressed the bunny jumped to One´s left afterwards. The inflicted damage was minimal. Tangun dashed forward. Fast! Very fast! The white bunny hit him right in the bowels.
[You are stunned. Duration: 2 seconds.]
[You took 16 damage.]
Fuck. What the hell is with that damage? From a bunny no less. Well that are MMORPGs for you. Even the smallest creature can inflict damage beyond believe. While falling down it bit One directly in his leg.
[Bleeding. Duration: 4 seconds.]
[You took 12 Damage.]
[Bleeding caused 2 damage.]
Holy hell! This rabbit would kill him! Immediately as he came out of the stun effect he swung for Tangun. No second too late. This time his dash was interrupted.
[Bleeding caused 2 damage.]
Waiting the next jump of his enemy One waited.
[Bleeding caused 2 damage.]
This time he dashed towards his feet. The wooden stick clashed with the rabbit. Then the bleeding effect ran out and inflicted another 2 damage onto him. 73/109 HP. Straight up like a pokemon battle this little shit would win. One was 100% sure of that. But the battle was running in his favour now. Waiting for the dashes, he waited like a baseball batter. Time and time again the rabbit drew the short straw. When the white hare reached low health a sudden popup appeared.
[Durability of [Wooden Stick] reached 0. It broke.]
FUCK. YOU. GAME! One was running around trying not to fall prey to this constant dashes while equipping another Stick from his inventory. Some had a higher Strength requirement, which he could not use. FUCKING HELL. Tangun the Cruel hit him again. Another stun and bite combo later he found himself in quite the hassle. 32/109 HP. Another hit onto him would really kill him! Killed by a low level boss monster. A rabbit. What a fucking disgrace. Shame on his house and name. Not that he had this kind of sense for honor. Finally he equiped another stick and returned to his old strategy. Finally he was able to overcome this devious little shit.
[Title unlocked: Bunny-Hater. Your everlasting hate for rabbits, bunnies and hares made you especially cruel while fighting them. + 20% damage while in combat with Rabbits.]
Well. That title would be useless for sure. One walked closer to Tangun to loot the corpse.
Then a huge explosion blew away his field of vision.