I was thrilled to be on my first quest, even if it was an escort quest. Kittikork didn’t seem to care about my excitement because she headed straight for the woods. I ran after her or did my best impression of running with bowed legs. It didn’t help that my back side kept itching, and it was all I could to keep from digging at it non-stop.

Trying to get her to slow down, I yelled, “Wait, Kittikork. I have to protect you.”

At least she waited, but she clearly wasn’t happy about it. She gave me a measuring look. Ogress or human woman, I knew that look. I had just been found completely lacking. I was now dismissed. “Hurry then, mez wantz to find herbz before it getz dark.”

As soon as I was next to her, she started off into the woods again. She wandered around not quite sure where to find what she was looking for. At first that was fine. It gave me the opportunity to get used to the surroundings. The forest was an old growth with towering trees as the dominant landmarks surrounded by varying generations of small trees, down to brush.

I was glad that the underbrush wasn’t too thick, as it would hopefully make it easier to spot predators. I realized I had never been in this part of the game. I pulled up my map and fortunately the player interface I had received as part of my quest was working.

I was in a zone called Hod’s Underfoot. Who Hod was or what an Underfoot was escaped me, but I could pull back on the map and saw that this zone was next to one of the level ten human hunting zones. It matched up with what the AI had told me.

Because I was looking at my map, I stumbled and tripped over roots a couple times. Kittikork laughed each time. I didn’t care. I was only here with the ogres for long enough to level up. The question was how high I should level before joining the players.

The zones around Hod’s Underfoot were all level ten zones, meaning that they were good for players from level six to level fifteen, with most of the mobs being around level ten. If I wanted to get a party in one of those zones, I would need to be at least level six and since I would be looking for a pickup group, it would be better if I were level ten.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a squeal from Kittikork. I’m probably a bad person, but the first thought that went through my head was to cheer. Hopefully, she was being attacked and I would get to kill something for XP. Of course, that wasn’t it. She was just excited to have found some fungus growing on the side of a log.

She bent down and pulled out a small knife to begin carefully collecting the moss. It was one thing about Legends of Selmia that made the game so engrossing. Some things like looting monsters could be done automatically, but gathering skills required you to actually perform them. The game never made it tedious, but you couldn’t just wave your hand at the moss and instantly gather it all.

I tried paying close attention while she gathered. Herb gathering was one of a handful of gathering skills that were useful in the game. Although I snorted as I realized I should start referring to this as my life. It was all that I had left.

The key was picking the right gathering skills. If you did, then they would have synergies that would help with your crafting skill. Herb gathering was useful for Alchemy, Medicine, or Cooking. If I could learn this while out on the quest, then maybe an escort quest wouldn’t be such a waste of time.

When I was a player, I had intended to be an alchemist. Arguably the three most useful crafting skills were Alchemy, Blacksmithing, and Enchanting. As I stood here watching her, I wondered if I should modify my goals. This was my life now and did I want to be focused on making potions? It was going to require some thought.

Then Kittikork yelped. This time I knew for sure it was pain. She pulled her hand back from inside the log and there was a wicked gash from the middle of her forearm down to the top of her hand. She stumbled back behind me. As she did, I quickly assessed her to make sure she was okay.

Average Success- Kittikork the Ogress Class: Outcast Level: 4th Occupation: Herb Gather HP: 318/340 Mana Points: 180 Highest Stat:? Resistances/Immunities: ?

What I saw made no sense. I had more HP and the same MP as she did, but she was three levels higher. Not that I had time to think about it because as she jumped back a creature made its way out of the tree trunk. I immediately recognized it as being like a badger. If its temperament was anything like a real badger, then it would be very territorial.

I immediately saw the blue aura around it, which indicated it was an appropriate level challenge for me. Likely it was within one level of me +/- but there were other factors which the game designers had been reticent to tell the players. Either way, I had a long, pointy spear, so I was ready for it.

As it leaped out, my superior reach allowed me to attack it first. The first thrust drove the tip of my spear into its chest. Now that I had a better look at it, the creature was clearly about three feet long and a foot wide. The claws it was bearing were curved and likely four inches long.

The spear impacted, and I got a damage notification. My setting still showed me damage automatically. I was gonna have to figure out how to shut that off. It might get me killed in the middle of a battle. For now, it was nice to see the creature’s health bar and the damage. It gave me a baseline to work from.

Piercing Damage: 51

That knocked the creature’s health bar down by just over a third. So safe to assume it had around one hundred and fifty HP. It must be a durable little bugger, given that I had an enhanced spear and a higher-than-average level skill for my level. It began clawing at my weapon, but I pulled the spear back.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

I managed one more glancing blow against it, which hit for (32) damage, but that didn’t stop the little monster from leaping up and burying all four sets of claws into my leg as it tried to take a bite at my ogre jewels. They might not be the pride of any family, but I wasn’t gonna have them bitten off on the first day.

I felt the rage rising within me, but I didn’t want to waste that racial skill right now. Another notification popped up but at least it wasn’t a damage one, so I could ignore it. Presumably, I resisted the rage because I maintained control of my faculties.

It was tearing into me and those claws really freaking hurt, but I ignored the pain and the damage as I slammed the butt of the spear against its head. I wasn’t going to stab at my leg with the pointy end and it would have required me to flip the weapon around anyway.

The blunt end wasn’t as effective, but apparently the creature was more intent on killing me than it was on protecting itself. Maybe it had a rage mechanism. Either way, it let me bash away at it. Finally, on the fourth blow, I felt the head cave in and suddenly its little body went limp.

I began to pull the claws out of my leg, but then wondered about ogre physiology. It was too close to my femoral artery for me to be comfortable if I were human, so I cast Regeneration. It was lackluster, to say the least. At my current level, it only healed me for 12 HP. The only comfort was that I got two level ups which pushed it to 21 HP per casting.

The little bugger had done over one hundred damage to me, but it was all but healed up now and so I felt more comfortable prying out the claws. By that point, Kittikork came over and assisted me. She kept staring at me strangely between pulling out claws, but I figured if she had something to say, she would say it. I had to remind myself that these weren’t my people. I wanted to hang out with players, not mobs run by AIs.

One more Regeneration closed up the wound the rest of the way after the claws were gone. Then I looked at Kittikork. The wound on her arm was still open. That didn’t make any sense. She was an Outcast, like me. She should have had access to the same spells I did. Why wouldn’t she have healed herself?

I cast my heal on her and was pleased to see it go up to level four, which meant that it was now healing a whopping 4 HP per second or 32 HP over the duration of the heal. As I thought about it, the spell was scaling pretty quickly. It wouldn’t exactly be an answer for critical damage, but it might actually end up being useful.

When I finished and made sure the wound was closed, I asked her, “Why didn’t you heal yourself?”

“Mez not past first threshold yet. No learn magic till then.” Then she added, “How youz know magic and be only level one?”

I wasn’t sure what the mobs knew about players. I knew that the AIs knew all about them, but how was I supposed to handle this. The contract rules said I couldn’t tell other players about being a former player but did that apply to mobs? But then again saying, “Hey, I’m a human,” probably wasn’t gonna earn me any help from the ogres.

“I was just born this way,” I said, opting to play dumb for now. That probably went with the ogre motif anyway.

About that moment, I saw the little badger’s big brother coming through the woods for us. Or maybe it was its mother. Heck, I didn’t even know if the mobs made baby mobs or not. I couldn’t recall seeing any babies in the game except related to one quest and giant eagle eggs.

Either way this thing was over six feet long and almost two feet wide. It was barreling down at me. Without thinking I just lifted my hand and called out, “Flameburst.” No special aiming, I just wanted to try to hit it. Well maybe in the face if I could.

Once, twice, three times, I got off Flameburst before it was too close, and I had to lower my spear to attack it. All three of the mini fireballs still didn’t hit as hard as a good spear thrust but at least they hit from a distance. The biggest problem was that they used up the rest of my mana and that wasn’t a good thing. It was gonna take me over half a minute to regain enough mana for even one regeneration spell.

Fortunately, I had learned my lesson. I traded a better hit for pivoting out of the way of the charging monster. My spear took it in the shoulder, but I kept a firm grasp on it. I didn’t let the weapon sink in too deep and get stuck. It worked because I hobbled the beast’s leg, which bought me the time for another thrust into its side before it whirled on me.

I was anything but agile and almost tripped over my own feet trying to get away from it. The creature was also bleeding badly now. It was down to almost 40% health, but I knew better than to hope that it would run away. This thing was a bundle of fury. Even with its lame front leg it tried to leap at me.

I kicked up at it and sent it flying twenty feet away. Of course, that time I fell backwards over my own feet. By the time I stood back up, it was charging back at me. This time, I thought to try and use my size to my advantage. I lifted the spear up high and thrust down at it as it came at me. My strength drove the spear into the creature’s back, pinning it to the ground.

It was left with only a sliver of life and was bleeding out, but still had enough vigor to slash a set of deep gashes into my leg before I could back out of range. I waited for it to die as my mana built back up and I cast regeneration on myself. It made a bunch of pathetic noises as it died, but I have to say that for some reason it didn’t really bother me that much.

As soon as it was dead, it was like Kittikork had permission to speak. She came over to me and put her hands on the sides of my face, moving it from one side to the other as though inspecting me. “Youz have fire and healing. Wez must go back and tell auntie right away.”

I wasn’t sure what was so off about this but, she had that look. She wasn’t gonna be deterred, so I followed her. I asked, “Did you at least get enough herbs?”

She said, “No. Must getz goodiez from bodiez. Mez no knowz how. Leave here. Ask auntie. Shez know what to do.”

“We have enough time. I’m not going to change. Let’s loot these and finish your gathering, then we will head back.”