Chapter Eight
The next day passed uneventfully. I had gotten the hang of a three-ball cascade while running by our noon break. A quick meal of apples from an abandoned orchard and a dip in a nearby stream. Then we were off again.
I had been hoarding my points until I had a better clue where they belong. There were so many things I saw a need for. Strength, more damage, more stamina, more everything. Constitution, for more hit points and to gain more stamina, plus resistances to things like poison. Intelligence for a larger Chi pool and better efficiency in using it. Wisdom affected the rate of recovery and helped the activation speed of Chi abilities. Agility, the core of my defenses and the accuracy of my strikes. Even Charisma, which while it helped in relations and negotiations, was even more important in the perfection of the body, who had ever heard of an ugly Hero? Whoa, five days of jogging and juggling had shown a real effect on my stats.
With a flick of my eyes I brought my Charisma up to average, added the bulk of the points to Strength, Agility, and Wisdom, while Intelligence and Constitution got the rest. A huge pool of Chi served little purpose if it never filled.
I confirmed expenditure and felt briefly dizzy, but soon I was moving faster, my footing more certain.
I then turned my attention to my skills, my punch and kick I took into the apprentice level, Dual Wield and Dodge got a point each.
You have earned a new Title! Apprentice of the Leaping Fox
I had been ignoring my title, and when I looked at it I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
Merciless – Your foes have heard of your actions and knowing what fate may lay before them are 10% less likely to surrender. Additionally, Favor penalties in PvP actions are reduced by 5%. They weren’t expecting Mercy from you anyways.
Apprentice of the Leaping Fox – Your continued growth in your skills has been made known to all Allies of the School, +50 Favor. Rival Schools and Enemies have heard of you as well, -100 Favor.
So, meh… I wasn’t expecting great, but getting so-so kind of hurt.
:: Titles – Merciless, Apprentice of the Leaping Fox
:: Name – Growlf
:: Race – Fox-kin
:: Primary Class – Martial Artist L2 (32%)
:: Secondary – Undefined
:: Tertiary Class – Undefined
:: HP – 280
:: Stamina – 217
:: Mana – 286
:: Piety – 0
:: Alignment – Neutral
:::: Order – 100
:::: Chaos – 200
:::: Balance – 150
:: AC – 11 (Damage Reduction 2)
:: Evasion – 15% (14% + 1% Trait)
:: Dodge – 21% (when activated)
Stats – Points Available 0
:: STR – 35
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
:: CON – 28
:: AGI – 35
:: INT – 22
:: WIS – 18
:: CHA – 10
:: PER* – 22
:: LUCK* – 2
Skills – Points Available 0
:: Tracking (P, I) – 3
:::: Scent Tracking (P, I) – 2
:: Chain Weapons (A, S) – 3
:: Martial Punch (A, P) – 12 (83%)
:: Martial Kick (A, S) – 12 (44%)
:: Martial Grapple (S, A) – 6 (17%)
:: Dual Wield (fists) (A, P) – 8 (81%)
:: Aimed Strike – 6
:: Dagger (A, P) – 1
:: Sling (A, P) – 2
:: Medium Armor – 0
:: Light Armor – 1
:: Toughness (C, S) – 3
:: First Aid (W, I) – 1
:: Dodge (A, W) – 8
:: Stealth (P, W) – 3
:::: Sneak Attack – 2
:: Awareness - 2
:: Observation – 8
:::: Spot Hidden - 1
:: Chi Manipulation – 9
:: Meditation – 8
:: Balance – 5
:: Literacy: Chinese – 4
:: Penmanship: Chinese – 4
:: Lore – 3
:::: Beast-Kin History (I, W) – 5
:::: Fox-kin History (I, W) – 10
:::: Legends of Wing Chun – 3
:::: School of the Leaping Fox – 4
=-=-=-=-
“Wise and grateful Student, we will stop and sleep here tonight.”
The area around us was plain forest like so much else we had passed by. There would still be a good two hours until dusk I estimated. The previous days we had moved until dusk, that plus the backhanded compliment made me cautious of some trick.
“Here? Okay, Sifu. But why here and not two hours down the road?”
“Because we are here. Because a young Student needs their rest. Because I said so. After we eat, rest and sleep the full night, you will need it.”
Okay, now I knew something was up.
After we ate, I lay down to rest and…
*Logout*
=-=-=-=-
Ugh, I swear, the place seemed dingier every time I logged out. The drones kept it all clean and dust free, but was the color on the wall screen always that washed out and pale? I stood to empty a ridiculously full bladder, and fell flat on my face. Doh! Right, feet, not paws. I walk on my heels here, not my toes.
Nothing new in the email from Dan or Hector, but their guild ‘Sons of Light’ was featured as a prime player in the currently running World Event – Dark Hordes Rising.
Damn, it seemed world events were blocked by the beta barrier.
Reading the text, Gallu, the child of the God of Death, Mallu, was rebelling against his Father. Using talents, he learned from his Mother, the Goddess of Life, Gaea, Gallu has caused the Dead to rise once again. Oh, now I am jealous. If his plans were defeated the dead would go back to rest. If Gallu survived and matured, players who were infected would be allowed race changes to the newly risen Undead. Ghouls, Skeletons, Zombies, Vampires, Liches, oh nummy.
So that is how they introduced new game content.
God, did this pizza always taste like cardboard?
I stretched and awoke in my bed, glancing at the clock. Nine hours? I hadn’t slept anywhere near that long in, umm, how long had it been? A month and a half in game time, so like eleven days here in the same-old, same-old?
I climbed into the shower and it occurred to me, this was the first shower since the game opened. The stubble on my chin had become almost as familiar feeling as my fur did. At least my Fox-kin didn’t have these embarrassing bald patches on my cheeks…
=-=-=-=-
I opened my eyes to the sun already well above the horizon. Damn, I screwed up the hour conversion.
The first thing greeting my eyes was a paper crane on my chest. The wings and body bearing traces of writing. I carefully unfolded the dew saturated paper,
Idiot Apprentice,
The quest ahead is all yours, it would be wrong for my sage and enlightened advice to influence your choices. So, I take my leave of you. Come visit when you are done, there is plenty of space left in your empty head for new lessons.
As always, be safe and, blah, blah, blah…
Master Lin Bao
Damn, he actually wrote blah, blah, blah. The bastard.
My breakfast that morning was terrible, a handful of broken rice in a pot of boiling water, without even salt. At least the charred portion on one side had some flavor, just not a good one.
I policed the camp and made sure the fire was extinguished. I started jogging as the balls flew in arcs before my eyes.
OH! DAMN HIM TO HELL!
Now I was pissed. Not five minutes down the road and I arrived at civilization. Well, the start of it at least. There was an Inn with a stable, a coach in the yard had four ponies in traces. We could have slept in beds, I could have had real food for breakfast. The vague image of some dried rings, floating in milk that had gone questionable in another world really didn’t count.
Between me and the Inn was the most ridiculous sight. Straddling the road was a large stone archway, two wooden gates stood open in the archway. The wall only ran maybe three or four paces to either side.
In front of the open gate were two, I guess they had to be Halflings, in full plate, armed with halberds. I guessed I was maybe a meter and thirty, these guys didn’t reach that even with the spikes on their helms.
I smiled and decided to play along. Focusing a second,
Daniel Hilltop
L4 Halfling Soldier
80/80
Samuel River
L3 Halfling Soldier
55/55
Wow, even with their plate armor these two couldn’t defend their gate from much more than a breeze.
“Hail, the gate!” I called out with a smile.
The Halberds came up in defensive postures.
“gabble garble gabble gobble” Oh, you have to be kidding me.
“Not even a single word in common? Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Habla Espanol?” Not that I spoke more than those three words of German, and not much more than that in Spanish, and my accent pure New York.
“GABBLE! Garble garble arrest!”
Wait, a word I understood? The flashing icon in the corner of my eye was most illuminating.
You have learned spoken Halfling, L1
Come, freaking, on! I was willing to bet Master Lin spoke Halfling flawlessly. Once they got done prodding me to raise my hands at the point of their halberds I would have to be sure to learn some of the choicer words, just to bring home as a gift to Sifu. It had taken most of a week getting here, would take about the same going back. So I had at most two weeks to learn a new language, find the Merrow’s relatives, and convince them to take over a farm that would be in another goddamn world from this place. Yeah, sounded Easy to me too…
“Hey! Watch it! Those things are sharp!”
“GABBLE!” Damn, no language skill up.