“I’m sure it can wait until we reach the town.”
“I really don’t think it can though you see I’m quite famished and I don’t believe you understand the severity of my hunger it’s quite aggravating a constant gnawing on my psyche and it’s rather unpleasant if you’d be willing to give me just one-”
“God take a breath would you!? I know you want the other truffles, but proverbially and literally drooling in my mind is not going to do you any good! We eat when we get to town, this is fine with you, yes, Jasper, yes, Jerry???”
“Mhm.”
“Well, at the least Jasper agrees, and she hasn’t eaten in much longer than you have, so she has the final say on it as far as I’m concerned. Dismissed!”
And so, she finally shuts up for at least a moment. Screech has had… a lot to say to be perfectly clear. A lot, a lot, a lot a lot. Too much to say. Way too much. Every time she opens that beak of hers it’s to let loose like a twenty second long tangent! I get you don’t need to breathe or pause or whatever to have a mental conversation, but it’s unnatural to just go and go. And also mildly annoying, like having to listen to TV static.
There isn’t even the din of combat to drown it out because-
+8 exp!
…Because that, that’s why. Or, more specifically this is why.
Elemental Magic LVL 2-Gain the ability to create basic attacks of either water, earth, fire, or air. The strength of these attacks vary based on environmental factors and MP used in their creation, uses magical power for damage scaling instead of physical power. Magical power is determined by intelligence as opposed to strength.
Basically, just gives them the “go ahead and do whatever” pass. You’re a wizard Screech!
Wasn’t exactly wrong earlier when I figured the rainstorm could still be bad news, but for the most part Screech certainly seems to be a fan of “explode everything in that general direction”, given fire is her general modus operandi. Fireball some random monster before I see it, fireball that dog thing in the distance, fireball the cliffside and nearly get us hit with a rockslide… wait, what?
“Oh, that might be a slight issue,” she mumbles to herself as my head turns in the direction of a sloped surface, which had just been blasted by one of her attacks. Off in the distance, I spy with my little eye a monster running for the proverbial hills, which was probably her target. But, she clearly missed.
“...You don’t say?”
Actually, now isn’t the time for sarcasm, that’s an unknowable amount of rock and dirt coming down from like… I don’t even know how high up that is, but from one of the limestone peaks above comes cascading… probably literal tons of the stuff.
I didn’t even know this kind of thing could happen! But I suppose the treacherous landscape would point towards it being a possibility. Not like I haven’t seen massive piles of the stuff around while we’ve been walking, but I just figured… that was just environmental design. Not an actual thing that could happen if you hit the map hard enough!
Welp, no time to cry over spilt rocks, we are moving!
The force from the rest of the rocks has caused more and more to start falling, to the point where I’m not actually sure if I’d be able to outrun the fallout of the thing. They’re all sliding in from the right side of the path, but the left is remarkably clear, and that’d probably be because it’s not a sloped surface, it’s just a straight incline.
So, instead of taking a page from the Prometheus school of running away from things, I turn on my heels and [Recall] Jasper to their immediate confusion.
“What? There’s not much you can do to help here, and I can’t imagine you’d like to eat rocks tonight.”
She clearly just didn’t want to leave me to deal with it on my own, which, thanks I appreciate it, but at the same time there really is nothing she can do. Then, you may ask, why do I not [Recall] Screech as well?
Well, obviously, because there’s something they can do?
“Alright, are you ready to-”
“One truffle.”
“...”
“...”
[Recall]
“No. And you’re waiting another week because you asked.”
“Well that’s simply not f-”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Tuning her out for the moment because I cannot be bothered to listen to her ramblings right now, I turn my focus back to the wall as the rocks get closer and closer, their rumblings now pounding in my ears.
With a breath in and out, I slip off my gloves before beginning the climb. I’m not sure how exact physics are in this game, but a few of the higher quality games I’ve played like to stay consistent to the real world. I can’t put the possibility of grip strength and friction and what not mattering here, this isn’t exactly an easy wall to scale from the looks of it, so every precaution is necessary.
One more breath, and out… and I leap for the first visible hold.
The wall’s cracked and clearly old. It’s not as if this has just been carved out, lines guide themselves across its hull indicating the course of thousands of years having passed through it, but, for my purposes? Those serve very nicely as holds for me mmmmyessss.
I think I need to get about… ten or something meters off the ground to be perfectly scott free? Otherwise I will be mashed to bits by the incoming tide of rocks, and well, that’s not a very enticing prospect to be honest. I don’t think I want to walk the entirety of the way from Resiala to here again…
So, reaching for yet another crevice in the wall, I haul myself up and make it a very important point to not look down. This was a spur of the moment decision and all, but I’m not much a fan of heights. I don’t think I would’ve very well made this decision if it wasn’t a uh, figurative do or die moment.
Bolting up the cliff… (karst-side? I’m gonna call it the karst-side.) karst-side, my fingers find purchase in opening after opening, kicking the toes of my boots into them moments later as I passed over them near completely.
Admittedly, totally forgot to take off my boots, and gotta admit, these aren’t the best things to be climbing with, but it’s also entirely possible to kick my toes in with enough force to uh, widen the gap so to speak.
It kinda hurts, and I’ve taken a few chunks out of my health pool, but oh well, I do indeed believe it’s better than being a pancake. Unless somebody would like to contest me on that? No, no? Cool.
I’ve gone up a pretty fair distance at this point, so I think… oop, just made that mistake.
Yeah… I’m pretty far up. So…
My grip on the wall tightens exponentially, to the point where it feels like my fists might just explode under the pressure. Even on 3.5%, my entire body is aching under the recent strain, which… isn’t a great feeling. But, knowing what’s about to come, I only latch onto the wall even tighter.
And then… BOOM.
The entirety of the slide crashes into the flat wall almost at once, the rocks colliding with thunderous force that shakes the surface of the karst-side all the way up to where I find myself hanging onto at the very least. The impact likely rocks its way all the way up given the force that found its way to me…
Okay… that’s the worst of it! What's left is just glorified pebbles compared to THAT. Now the issue becomes, how do I… get down?
Surely you can just climb back down right-NO! HELL NO! I climbed up WAY higher than I meant to… dah, damnit. Chill, chill, take a chill pill, calm down, you’re not THAT… high up… just, just a game. Just a game, not gonna go plummeting and shatter your shins.
What I should be scared of is dying and losing progress, cause that’d suck. Alright, given durability isn’t a thing…
I yank my sword out of its sheath with one hand, clinging onto dear life with the other, suck in another breath, then let go.
I plummet instantly, and with it my heart drops as well. But, there’s no issue, there is NO issue, of that I am supremely certain.
Stats in this game make you superhuman, this isn’t some small incremental increase with each level up, no, you put five points in strength and suddenly you go from being a fifty pounds max to doing three hundred three hundred reps. So, I know for certain this will work, and if it doesn’t… oh well, fall damage! It won’t kill me, it WON’T.
And… WHAM!
I jab my sword into the rock with as much force as I can muster in that moment, and with a CRCK
…The sword breaks.
Sunnuvabitch.
Longsword (LVL 1 Common) has broken! Take it to the proper craftsmen to have it fixed!
Well, this is gonna h-
94!