It was sun I felt, before all else. The sunlight made blinking it away necessary, the brightness too sudden for me to take all at once. But it was gentle, a caress. It was all the more pleasant by the easy breeze that rustled the leaves around me.
I realized I was looking out upon a branch, thicker than any tree had the right to have. Larger in girth than I was tall. The place was enormous, and with a whirling sense of vertigo, I dared to look down and past. The ground was lost due to the sheer distance, and I cautioned myself, keeping my center of gravity carefully controlled.
This was a dungeon after all.
I took in my surroundings. The invisible portal lay just behind me, I could feel its presence as sure as I could feel my own hand unsling my bow from my back. I held an arrow ready at the string, crouched low and wary. Peering out from my cover.
There was an aspect of The Woods, that kept me constantly aware. Humans were most definitely not at the top of the food chain, they were challenged all the time. So was my experience. The predators of The Woods weren't any to take lightly, and they would poke and prod and stalk until they got your measure. It was precisely the reason I learned early to be constantly aware.
I was nearest the base of the branch. Turning, it seemed the entrance was in fact, the trunk. As if we were exiting a woodpecker's hollow. It was there I found myself, perfectly concealed and protected.
I heard the screeching of birds above, peeked out of my hollow, and found the leaves of the tree instead. Lush and green, soaking in the sunlight happily, they were easily as large as I was. The cawing of birds again caught my ear and I craned my head towards the noise.
It was easy to feel small, I certainly did, but somehow the feeling remained that everything was instead just large. Because when I looked towards those birds, I couldn't shake the sense of their magnitude. They took flight as easily as any bird I've thus far seen, but if my eyes weren't lying, they were easily the size of an ostrich.
One landed on my branch which encompassed the size of a regular road. It had a bug, fatter than anything I'd seen, in its mouth, no doubt intent on choking it down. I shuddered when the bug screamed, something I wouldn't have thought audible.
"Aggressive wildlife." I reminded myself under my breath.
The bird itself was feathered in dark red plumage, its features were no less sharp than its beak. Its eyes definitely had the look of a predator. Like any other bird of prey, this one had talons digging into the branch. Unlike any other bird of prey, this one's implements were razor-sharp and looked like knives. Despite my attempts to bring up some kind of information on the bird, my vision was left not flashing blue. I noted the fact my power wouldn't be giving me any free information.
I took aim, understanding that these birds were not little in number. If anything, they seemed to dominate the huge tree I found myself in. If I were to start moving, traversing across the branch would be a death sentence if any of them took an interest in me. Too exposed to my liking. No, I was safest here, despite my desire to explore.
The forester in me spoke out against needless killing but that wasn't what this was. [Treetop Heights] as I understood was a hostile region where every bit of fauna would try and kill you. Here, I had as much a right to kill as any other creature. This was an aspect of my power I would have to accept. But thinking about that came later.
Needless killing though? If not for self-defense, then for resources. My stomach was rumbling. Lunch hadn't been too long ago, but moving through The Woods was taxing no matter who you were. If it were a particularly active day, I'd have had more than three meals already. Climbing the highest tree in the region was by no means not an energy-intensive task.
Besides that, this was largely an opportunity to explore my powers more than anything.
I leveled my bow as I always did. The arrow came perfectly aimed. The tip was honed to perfection, and again, the arrowhead was glinting in its shine, clean. Too clean than what was strictly normal for an arrow pulled out of my quiver.
"[Cleanshot]." I whispered, barely a breath. My aim was drawn to the bird's heart. A critical point I wouldn't have found easily given the difference in size compared to my usual quarry. This kill wasn't ordinarily a single arrow's worth.
My arrow flew true and the bird squawked through a burst of feathers. That sound, aside from the impact of the arrow itself, was the only noise the bird made before it fell over. A burst of flame erupted from its plumage in a blast of warmth I felt from all the way here.
I stared wide-eyed and trained my arrow again. The bird barely twitched, but I sent another arrow right to its chest again. It planted firmly, without a response as the second arrow thudded beside the first.
"Some type of flame defense? Or attack?" I thought to myself. It was the first time I'd seen a supernatural creature, but not the first time I'd seen the supernatural. And there were many augmented creatures as a result of an enhanced's powers. That being said, the nature of the creature was not impossible, just out of the ordinary.
"Although," I spoke to myself. "An entire dungeon of them." I said, peering out of my hollow.
That was much more extraordinary.
My power didn't seem to award me anything by killing the creature, but then I pulled up my Status and checked my progress.
Name: Ludus Silva
Race: [VIvalef]
Level: 3 (0/100) Titles: [Basebuilder]
Traits: [Woods Man]
Perks: [Low Profile]
STR: 8
CON: 9 DEX: 10
INT: 13
WIS: 7 CHA: 11
Skill: [Animation] 1
Abilities: [Animate] 1
Skill: [Bow Mastery] 1
Abilities: [Cleanshot] 1
Skill: [Construction] 1
Abilities: [Woodcarve] 1
Character Effects:
[Vivalef]: +5 INT, +5 CHA
[Basebuilder]: +20% increase in function to [Home's] facilities
[Woods Man]: +10% increase in movement while in [The Woods] , +25% increase in food harvested from [The Woods] , +10% increase in combat effectiveness in [The Woods]
[Low Profile]: +Immune to unwarranted means of impersonal detection
[Animation]: +1 to Max Number of [Animated] , +1% increase in quality of [Animated]
[Bow Mastery]: +1% damage with the bow , +1% accuracy with the bow
[Robes of the Animator]: +3% increase in [Animated] vivacity , +2% increase in [Animated] intelligence
[Ring of the Animator]: +2% in [Animated] strength , +2% in [Animated] dexterity , +2% in [Animated] constitution
[Staff of the Animator]: +7% effectiveness in [Animate] , +5% in animated intelligence
[Bow of Silva]: +10% damage ,+10% increase in resources from kills made in [The Woods]
[Animator's Set Bonus]: +1 to all [Animated] attributes
"Woah, two whole levels." Though the first levels meant little, it was still a jump considering how much EXP my first Quest gave me.
I also noticed the EXP required for the next level was still 100. Which had to mean that rather than increasing the number, everything scaled accordingly. Another one of those birds wouldn't net me two levels.
As it turned out none of my Skills or Abilities rose in level, which was understandable, I had barely used them. Although, I had the choice of it with my Stats.
The two Stat Points I received due to my level up, I immediately applied to CON which would help my survivability. That brought my total CON from 7 to 9. In a world of supers, I felt that most prudent. And following that application, I felt myself become more durable. There was nothing more to say than just that, I felt like I could get a completely different result in the constitution test.
My plan was to bring everything up to 10 first. This would bring me to peak human, and theoretically, in a fair fight, I could hold my own against most anyone non-super. And that was more than some supers could say, truthfully. That might not be too long from now either if these birds kept giving as much EXP as I thought they were.
In all honesty, if I didn't have my bow I couldn't fathom another way to take down such a large fowl safely. Anything within melee range would've resulted in severe burns or outright death depending on how physical the bird wanted to be. Those talons weren't for just grabbing branches, they could shear my entire arm off. Not an easy foe at all. Perhaps with upped STR or CON as well as a good weapon, it might've been doable, but then that leads to the earlier problem of exposure. That wasn't even factoring in any melee Skills or Abilities that might aid in the fight.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
And above all, I didn't have a level to go off of. There was no metric to gauge the strength or overall power of these birds. Not compared to me at least. Maybe I needed to examine the bird more closely to reveal something about it.
Come to that, the notion of loot wasn't necessarily taken off the table. If I wanted to find that out for myself, I needed to check the body.
I watched the movements of the flocks above carefully. They were of various colors and it wasn't until I saw a flash of lightning erupt from a flock of yellow birds that I gave their plumage any significance. "Were they elemental?" I spoke to myself. "No, there are too many colors." I reasoned, still unsure. But my eyes were drawn to the corpse of the red bird, one which the birds flying above didn't find interesting at all. Red meant fire, didn't it?
I watched a pair of black birds fly between branches, far enough to seem normal size. Shadows? Blue might be ice. But other colors were up to interpretation. Some were colored grey, others green. It could've meant a number of things but I was confident of my classification.
Through my observations, I realized that for a while, my branch had been ignored by every other bird but the red ones, which occasionally flew by. If one of those red birds did land, they pecked at the bird I slew, but flew off just as fine. Other colors craned their heads, but none ever landed as the red ones did.
That only made me more suspicious so I watched the branch now. There was nothing immediately telling. And then, after a long moment, there still was nothing telling.
And then the bug crawled out of the bird's mouth.
It crawled onto the branch and avoided the red-feathered plumage that had been struck from the bird's chest and onto the branch. Avoided was less correct than recoiled. And then it crawled off the branch, but I could only assume it continued onto the underside.
When the yellow bird landed I was surprised. None had done so before. Interestingly, I found that the color wasn't the only thing that differed between the birds. This one was wider-beaked, it's feathers, physically, were much longer and narrow. And they sparked.
Soon, it became clear why this one landed where none other dared. It was breathing heavily, and I could only assume it was resting from flying so much.
The second its talons had thumped against the branch, however, a small tide of bugs seemed to crawl up from nowhere. The bird squawked, a flash of lightning followed, destroying a number of the bugs. But the tide was too thick. The bird jumped, taking to the air shortly, and landing a ways away.
One bug latched onto its leg, and from there it was only moments before it was overwhelmed, no branch close enough to retreat to and too tired for extended flight. It was inevitable. The bugs crawled over the yellow bird and left nothing. A rumble of sparking electricity showed from under the blanket of bugs, but it did little to stop their weight.
It was picked clean in minutes, and all this while, the corpse of the red bird was still left untouched.
I shuddered. "The bugs can't handle fire. That's why they stay away from the reds."
I watched this process a total of five times before I became confident that the bugs were sensing the birds as they landed. The heavy thump as they did so always triggered their appearance. I doubted their sense was magical or technological so I assumed [Low Profile] to be little help here. Instead, I assumed it was evolutionary, which meant vibrations. It didn't explain the fact that they ignored the red ones, but it was all I had in the way of guesses.
That meant I might be able to sneak across. But doing so quickly was necessary, I doubted the birds wouldn't swoop onto me if they saw me. Unfortunately, quickly might mean loudly, and loudly meant vibration. The birds weren't aware these particular bugs occupied this branch, and it was all too clear that they knew they were a threat. If I wanted to buy the time I needed the bugs to come out. That might stop the birds from approaching long enough for me to check the body.
I used [Woodcarve] on the trunk, creating a very thick arrow. More blunt than piercing. It came off the hollowed wall heavily, more so than the wood I was used to, in a spray of wooden spirals and chips. It had heft, and only using my bow for years allowed me the intuition that my bow could shoot it. Albeit, nowhere as far as normal, but still more than enough. The limitations of [Woodcarve] made for a much smaller arrow, but the density of the wood made up for the lost volume.
I brought it to my cheek, crouched low, aimed high and far.
I launched the arrow far past the red bird's body and closer to the end of the branch. The resounding thump sounded loud in the distance, and instantly the bugs swarmed the area. That, at least, confirmed their sense of motion. They tripped over each other in confusion as they found nothing at the spot of impact. My arrow had succesfully drawn their attention, and better yet, they continued to mingle over the spot as if expecting some kind of mistake.
My feet darted across the wood and I found myself moving faster than what was strictly normal for me. It looked like this was still considered [The Woods] and all my bonuses were kept. I reached the body and knelt, inspecting the bird. It was larger than I thought, prehistoric in feature, nothing like what modern big birds looked like.
I approached cautiously, aware of the birds' hectic squawking above, but wary of the red feathers as the bugs were. I watched its plumage, remembering the bursts of flame produced from them, but the pressure of the birds above was urging me faster. It was only the threat of the lethal bugs that were keeping them from me. I reached to pluck a handful of the red bird's feathers. Unfortunately, I had no butchering tools nor the time to do so.
A few feathers were acceptable.
[Red Feather of Flame] (Uncommon)
A red feather of an [Elemental Raptor] imbued with the element of fire. The single most potent feather of the [Elemental Raptor] lucky enough to contain its magic as it passed from life. It offers enhanced flames and the protection thereof.
Effects:
+5% power of Fire-based damage
+5% resistance to Fire-based damage
The feather immediately appeared in my hand. Having no time to really marvel at it, I tucked it into my robe and darted away. The bugs hadn't sensed me but judging from the loud birds above I had been spotted by more than one of them. One yellow and one blue raptor. I noted the fact that they were indeed elemental, their feathers would give away their attunement if it ever came to blows. Though, it seemed their squabbling was keeping me momentarily safe, that and the bugs.
They were circling too fast for me to get a bead on them. They were racing for me, the closer I got to the hollow the further I was from the bugs after all. My aim wasn't good enough to track them at their speed while running at my best, so rather than try to shoot them down I kept running. Not to mention the angle I would've been shooting either. My feet pumped and I dived into the hollow, safe. With trunk surrounding me, I turned quickly ignoring the bruises of my landing.
The birds dived for the spot I was just at, crashing into each other. Talons came up to swipe at each other, ignoring me completely, and red blood was drawn. A frosty mist appeared and icicles formed, sharp and deadly on the blue bird's plumage. They shot out from his feathers and embedded themselves into the yellow bird. It's wing stabbed with icicles, the yellow of the two roared like thunder and jolts of lightning zapped the blue raptor, causing it to fall down in paralysis.
All the while, I was watching from the sidelines, bow and arrow trained on them from the edge of the hollow's opening. Ready to shoot, retreat, or react. The bugs were closing in on them, and neither were in any condition to fly.
I took the moment of reprieve to check the feather in my robe. Ducking to the side and out of sight, I could feel the heat radiating from the brilliant feather, more scarlet than the bird was red in life. It was more vibrant, hot if not warm. It was a little burning spot of fire in my hand that did me no harm. I kept it in my robe, internally whooping at the Uncommon item. It was more an accessory than anything, so long as I held it I felt the effects. That so, I tucked it back into my robes, there was nothing really to attach it to.
And I had bigger things to attend to than a feather in my pocket.
The battle of the raptors was going poorly for both. While it seems the blue was disadvantaged due to his ice being conductive from the start, it seemed the yellow was equally immobilized, which meant both were fodder for the feasting bugs approaching their movement.
I'd have to stop their thrashing about before their movements attracted too many of those things.
"A single arrow for each then." I said, pulling two from my quiver. I held one against my string and pulled it taut, holding the other securely in the same hand.
They were both too clean, too spotless to have been pulled from my quiver. All of my arrows had seen gore and death, and while I washed them, that didn't mean they were kept pristine. That wasn't their function. And yet, all the same, they were.
"[Cleanshot]."
Both [Elemental Raptors] fell to the branch. Two arrows, shot in rapid succession, lodged into each of their chests. They twitched and squawked, fighting each other even in their death throes. None aware of their prey being their true death.
When the bugs came I didn't waste my good arrows on them. I began using [Woodcarve] to create arrows right out of the trunk. They were all wood which normally would've been a problem but absolute control of their form gave me more than enough leeway. They were as sharp as wood could be, and their fletching was as thin as I could make it, while their shaft was as any regular arrow. Add to that, the wood from this trunk was a tad denser than normal, which gave it some stopping power. Perhaps the only difference was that these arrows were much smaller than normal, as the one I had made earlier was.
Nonetheless, they were enough to punch through chitin.
I released arrow after arrow into the bugs as they began to crawl over the [Elemental Raptors]. Some didn't pierce, some didn't even stop the bugs when they did. But more than those both actually killed. More stunned. I knew my arrows and my strength. I didn't know the bugs, but I was certain some of these arrows shouldn't have gotten through.
Something told me it was the increase in damage I was getting from [Woods Man] and [Bow Mastery]. That was what was allowing me this small advantage. Not that it mattered. The bugs were ignoring me or were completely unaware of my presence. I hadn't been making any noise or moves.
But then again, maybe there weren't sensing that. Maybe they were sensing the magic of the [Elemental Raptors]? If that were the case then the only thing of magic that I had on me was the [Red Feather of Flame] and if you could argue my [Staff of the Animator] was such an item, then it was a good thing I left it in my workshop.
If it was a magical sense they were using then [Low Profile] was blocking them out completely. This was the first taste of my Perk serving me well. It meant they could only see me physically, and if at this range they hadn't noticed me then they didn't have that good of eyesight.
Still, it was best I kept out of sight as much as possible. Although that didn't mean I wouldn't deign to thin the herd.
They were the size of my arm, and in numbers, obviously, they could take me down. As easily as if I were one of those raptors. It was the reason I didn't mind killing off a chunk of however many resided on this branch. If ever I wanted to cross it, I'd hope that the birds were the only problem. It wouldn't do to have to look above as well as below.
Soon the raptors were nothing but their skeleton and the bugs had long gone save for their dead. As before with the previous yellow raptor, nary a thing was left, not even a feather. Climbing out and checking their skeletons was low risk, they were positioned close enough to my woodpecker hollow that I was comfortably within retreating distance should anything happen.
Despite being skeletons I could feel some magic from them as I knelt to examine each. The yellow one seemed to be electrifying the air, while the blue one frosted it, in much the same way that red feather I had heated my robe. Though it seemed their bones were less potent, it was noticeable.
Nothing prompted me. No items appeared in my hand or anything. So I approached the corpses of the bugs next, pulling the wooden arrows from them when they weren't shattered on impact. Eventually, coming to a corpse prompted something.
[Chitin Fingerless Gloves] (Uncommon)
An armor crafted from the hard carapace of multiple [Hunter Termites]. Unlike regular chitin armor, this piece is made flexible on the hand with multiple moving pieces all interconnected. The breath and flexibility of such a piece is a rare commodity.
Effects:
+1 DEX
+10% grip strength
Rather than appearing in my hand, as the [Red Feather of Flame] did. This simply appeared on it. Like what I assumed now were [Hunter Termites] the fingerless gloves were a dark brown to match the wood I stood on. There was a perceptible change when they appeared. I felt surer of my body.
It was the first item I had attained that gave a direct increase to my Stats. The grip strength was an odd thing to boost, but given the context, I assumed it had to do with how these termites clung to the tree.
I retreated to my hollow, feeling that I had pushed my luck enough. Immediately as I entered, I could feel that connection to the portal. As if it wasn't even there unless I was looking for it.
I pulled on it.