Daryl sat on his backside as he looked down at the blacksmith. “So, we have some new equipment to go over. I’d like to finish off the set of Stone Ape armor. We farmed some parts so I should have enough for the rest of the set. That will give me a few new abilities. But tell me more about the sand serpent armor. Cindy loves to collect full sets so we might need to talk about that.’
Cindy was off at the farm collecting and setting up her next harvest. Daryl had done that pretty quickly as he was somewhat prepared for it. One thing caught his attention though. They could find a rare stone ape drop that acted as fertilizer for the crops that would speed up their growth and yield more of the rare herbs for potions and traps. That and a quest to help the farmer upgrade his abilities. It would open up to four separate crop options so they could double the production they had now. Orin already completed the quest but Cindy was open to taking the quest.
“Well there isn’t much about the armor that is noteworthy. It comes with a poison immunity skill as well as a grappling skill for melee people to hold monsters in place at the cost of stamina per second. If your strength is higher than the monster it costs less stamina per tick. With your stats it might be wise just to farm that piece. Good thing unending stamina is capped at time otherwise you would be able to permanently lock down a monster.” The blacksmith brought up an option menu and seemed to look over it some more. “The skill is on its weapon,” He stroked his chin in thought.
Daryl weighed the options. It wouldn’t do well for him to sacrifice unlimited stamina just for a different set of gloves. With how draining the martial art skills were becoming it would be wise to have a burst of time where he could go all out and unload his damage. The stone ape armor offered a great amount of damage resistance as well. The vulnerability to water damage though would lock Cindy out of that school of spell. “Well, let’s make the rest of the stone ape armor and weapon, and I’ll take the weapon for sand serpents. It wouldn’t hurt to have that option.”
The blacksmith nodded and the globes of golden energy transferred to the man as the hammering began. Within moments more motes returned to him and the armor filled his inventory. The glowing light encompassed him. His helmet was like that of a sallet, his hands were wrapped in stone gauntlets and his chest armor reminded him of the roman cuirass you’d see in films. The straps on the armor were made out of vines keeping it locked together. Giving him a very nature’s avatar look.
“Thanks, I’ll see you in a few days most likely.” Cindy had bought her own armor as well. She had insisted that they stay until she got her full sand serpent armor. Orin didn’t plan on waiting around that long though. He was feeling confident with his new set up and wanted to party with a larger group for the next set of monsters.
Cindy wasn’t too fond of the idea of taking more people into the party. Daryl insisted they should try sooner or later just to be safe. It would have to be decided soon. Fleeing the monster would be a little harder unless Daryl kept ape leap in his back pocket as a means to escape.
Cindy ran up to him. It was pretty early in the morning and with them spending the last few days farming apes and serpents it was time to do the farm quest together. Daryl knelt and picked up his daughter bringing her to his shoulder. She clung onto his ear as she sat on his shoulder.
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“So, time for the farm quest. It’ll be more like how we relaxed a few days ago. It would be great if we manage to finish this by the end of the day. We need some rare herbs, eggs for some reason, and some dung beetle drops.” Cindy was kicking her legs back and forth lightly as they strolled out of town.
“Where do we find all these materials then kiddo?” Daryl asked as he paused and looked at the expanse of wilderness around them. Pulling up the quest log he looked at it.
“The farms need compost! Doing so will open up more options for all the people using them will be a great boon to the community. Farmer Jerth says, ‘Compost is a great addition in making more of our fields grow dense mixes of your favorite herbs. I’ll even be able to supply some rare resources if it grows in your crops!’ You heard him hunters, time to help make his dream a reality. Requires; 5 Small Monster Eggs, 5 Rip Roaring Peppers, 10 Dung Balls.”
Cindy’s eyes flashed as she searched her maps for the different areas they would have to visit that day. “Well, the dung beetles and small monsters are in the southern woods. We will have to be on the lookout for Boroclops but we can handle them just fine. We will have to head to the plains to the east for the peppers. I even heard that eating them will give you a flame aura that damages monsters for a short time.”
“South first then. We can knock out two birds with one stone. Plus it will take us longer to collect that full set of items.” Daryl started to walk through the brush of the southern woods and kept his eyes out. Cindy’s eyes flashed as she used her harvester goggles to highlight collection spots.
Daryl let Cindy take the wheel in all this as she pulled out her net and collectors bag snagging beetles that Daryl couldn’t even see. That was the thing about being so big, it made things seem so insignificant that it was hard to spot the small things. Instead he kept his eyes out for signs of boroclops that could threaten the two of them.
They found a large nest that Cindy could fully stand in without any problems. She seemed to be looking at a prompt and Cindy stopped in her tracks. “Dad, eggs don’t drop from monsters. We have to find nests and carry the eggs it seems for thirty seconds. Any damage we take drops the eggs and any small monsters around will instantly aggro.”
“Oh, well only one of us needs to collect the eggs. You grab them and I’ll lift you out of the way. Can you cast spells while you’re holding the egg?” Daryl looked down at Cindy waiting for her answer.
“I’m not sure, let's try this and find out.” Cindy knelt and grabbed the one huge egg. It took her using both of her hands and leaning back to hold onto it properly. She looked up at him. “I don’t think I’ll be able to be picked up. I’ll drop it for sure.”
Daryl stepped over his daughter and got in a fighting stance as the sounds of a bunch of wild monsters started to run through the brush at them both. Snapping feet and fists sent the small beasts flying around as he did his level best to defend Cindy. A bird swooped down from the canopy impossible fast heading straight for his daughter.
Cindy hopped the best she could sideways at the last moment barely avoiding the creature as she screamed in surprise. She was yelling out spell names and nothing was happening while she called for more and more help. She was hopping out of the way of others with the narrowest of margins as Daryl continued to swipe, punch and kick the beasts away.
“I hope this doesn’t knock you down!” Daryl leapt into the air activating ape leap and quake stomp at the same time. Suddenly he fell like a rock and smashed two hands into the ground sending a shock wave in one direction clearing out a swatch of monsters in front of him like a stream of destruction.
With a whoop of joy the egg disappeared from Cindy’s arms and she called out in success. “Stone Rain Pulse!” A rain of boulders fell suddenly from the sky hammering a dozen other monsters killing them.
Both of them grinned wickedly at their success.