The Roll Behind skill confused Andrew, he had expected his skill to allow him to do something new but instead it allowed him to do something he could already do just better. He needed to be close enough to the target that he could reach out and touch them, he guessed it was defined as “Melee Range” or some such, and then he would activate the skill and then… well… it was like he was rolling to the side of the target to get behind them but faster? It felt like he was covering the ground a lot faster than normal and he seemed to usually have an opportunity to be within reach of an undefended area of the opponent at least once during the trip… Though the rabbit he had tested it on had managed to cut his hand with its back claw once during his tests… so being faster wasn’t proof against getting hit back during the trip. Using the skill was exhilarating and the testing had netted him another achievement.

Achievement Get: Why so slow?

Description: Repeatedly dodge an opponent faster than you.

Stat: +2 Dodge Speed

Stat: +2 Reaction Speed

Ultimately his plan hadn’t worked yet. The goal had been to get a monster themed achievement by using a claw weapon for his first monster kill and while the roll behind skill was a little exhilarating it certainly wasn’t what he had been trying to get.

Maybe he needed to kill more monsters with the claw, maybe he needed to act like a monster, maybe both at the same time. Monster behavior seemed to be characterized on a per monster basis. There wasn’t any monster specific behaviors he could think to emulate. He shook his head, he could try out some things and see if anything worked. If not, Naomi had mentioned Monster Essence and said that he could use the Quest system to get quests to try and move forward in a specific direction. As he understood it the quest system had a week long cool-down like his skill and if he screwed it up he could use it again in a week.

He wanted to be careful what words he used for the Quest system. Getting the (Clockwise) portion of his Roll Around Town achievement and the Roll Behind skill he figured that the system had a sense of humor. He didn’t want to get some quest to kill all the children around town or something if he asked for quests to “become a monster.” He considered “Steal Monster Essence” before discarding the idea, he didn’t want to be a thief. Finally he settled on the wording he felt fit his desires and activated the Quest Board.

Quest Board: “Harvest Monster Essence”

-Obtain a monster pup and train it:

Reward: A chance at a tamed monster. (Warning: Not all types of monsters may be tamed. Just because a monster is tame doesn’t mean it won’t try and eat you if mistreated or hungry.)

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-Speak to the local herbalist to see if there is anything they need:

Reward: More Quests

-Bring monster parts to the local Tanner. Bring a live monster to the tanner in the tutorial village: (Repeatable)

Reward: Leather Goods (+!)

After perusing the results provided by the quest board Andrew was puzzled. None of the quests seemed like a direct path to what he wanted and the fact that the last quest offered had been… redacted… revised? Seemed significant to him. While the idea of having a pet monster was interesting… he didn’t know what kind of monster he would want and didn’t want to spend the time the quest would obviously entail. He didn’t see how it could hurt finding the herbalist and asking if they needed anything… As his mind continued to think about the quest board results, he was struck by an interesting idea the, the word “Repeatable” stuck out to him as interesting. With a grin he went looking for Bee and Naomi.

They hadn’t been back in the bar or in the streets of the town. He had ended up finding the herbalist before he found Bee and Naomi. Her shop shelves were completely empty, even of dust. She was dressed in the same cloths as the other shop keepers but they had a slight green tinge to them. The woman herself was short and gaunt. Her eyes were dull like the other shop keepers but they somehow still shown with a hungry glint.

Andrew: “Is there anything I can get for you?” he asked.

The herbalist robotically intoned her reply “My supplies are critically low and I could use some supplies, I would go myself but my leg isn’t what it used to be. Collect ten of the red flowers that grow outside of town and I will reward you with a healing potion.”

The quest in his quest board updated

-Collect 10 red flowers: Reward: 1 least healing potion & More Quests

While his knee and hand didn’t hurt he could tell that they were still damaged and the idea of drinking something to fix that appealed to him… and who could say no to yet more quests?

After deciding that Bee and Naomi weren’t in town he grabbed a few blankets from the empty npc houses and climbed the city wall. There it was… in the distance he could see what could only be two figures and a boomerang spinning through the air. He climbed down collected the blankets once more and started jogging towards the two ladies… then he decided to cover the distance faster… as he picked up the pace just the feeling of running made him decide to push himself… too far it turned out… he hoped they hadn’t seen when he had thrown up behind the bush before resuming his run...

Achievement Get: Run like a fool

Description: You ran until you couldn’t breath and then tried running some more… While people were watching….

Stat: +1 Lung Capacity

Stat: +1 Leg Speed

Well… that was too bad…

As he reached the two friends he gasped out “Naomi…” He then sucked in a breath and managed… “Bee” before he sucked in another breath. how had he not gotten more achievements that gave him air capacity or stamina or some such yet… Something to look into later.

The girls looked at him expectantly... and with amused expressions...

They could see that he needed a moment but after a few seconds Bee quipped “sup?”

Andrew composed himself after a few more breaths and smiled ‘How would you ladies like to do some shopping?”