I found myself standing in an open meadow, not unlike the one I stood with Emerald in, just without all the animals. As I looked around I saw no people, a harsh start to this new world, I was gonna have to figure it out on my own. I had been in VR before so I figured I should see what held true and what didn’t. Playing around I noticed I could easily summon my health, stamina and mana meters. Unlike VR there did not seem to be any virtual bag, but there was my lack luster equipment screen. I was still wearing my normal clothes, so just a t-shirt and some jeans, other than that I had my scythe and arcane compendium. My spellbook showed that I knew no spells but could learn rank 1 soul magic spells, and here I was hoping for some sweet magic to help me along. Finally I opened my character screen:
Character Status:
Name:
Will
Race:
Human
Level:
1
Title:
None
Health:
96
Hp Regen:
4/5sec
Stamina:
94
St Regen:
4/5sec
Mana:
72
Mp Regen:
2.5/5sec
Strength:
7
Intelligence:
3
Dexterity:
6
Wisdom:
5
Constitution:
8
Charisma:
7
Luck:
7
It looked good and my extra stats were sure to help me along, I was a bit lacking in spell casting but considering I had no spells that didn’t seem like a problem. Onto my next problem, I had no clue where I was or how to use a scythe as a weapon. Seeing as I had nothing I could do about it I decided to move on to find someone or something. After looking up at the sun I figured it was around dawn and decided to head towards the sun, vaguely east as I could use that landmark to not walk around in a circle. The shrubbery and trees made traveling a pain but I eventually found an animal path heading in my direction and decided to follow it. Through my limited experience of hunting with a few buddies I figured it was probably an elk trail or something of similar size.
I stopped abruptly a few hours later when I heard voices coming from further along the trail. The sound was guttural and sounded angry. I could make out at least two distinct voices as I moved towards them..
“Get away from me!” I suddenly heard a third voice say, this one I could understand. I quickened my pace and as I moved forward and saw a glade with two goblins standing under a tree shouting. In the tree I saw a terrified young man, he held out a sword towards the goblins, but it was obvious to all that he had no clue how to use it. Deciding I could not let the first human I saw die I started sneaking towards the goblins.
As I was closing in on the goblins the man spotted me so I put my finger to my lips in the universal shut the fuck up motion in order to not have him give away my posistion. To my surprise he actually started taunting the goblins and going lower to distract them. As he taunted them I attacked, with all my might I swung my scythe, point first, into the bigger of the goblins heads. The point easily punched through the goblins head and splattered blood and brains all over the other goblin. Will strike Goblin in the head, Sneak Attack + Critical hit deals 300 damage, Goblin dies. I did not expect that to be as easy as it was, but there was still another goblin standing.
The other goblin turned towards me, wiping his face of his comrade. He roared and charged me, swinging his axe, instinctively I raised my scythe and blocked the blow on my handle. I released my right hand from the weapon letting his axe slide down the shaft as I use the butt to pummel the goblin in the head. Will pummels Goblin, Critical hit deals 20 damage, Goblin suffers concussion. The vibrations shook my hands so hard I almost lost my grip on the scythe. I quickly backed away from the goblin and grabbed my scythe with both hands again. The goblin staggered towards me getting ready to strike again. I used my superior range to strike with another stab, I aimed for his head but it ended up only striking him with the handle as he moved into my reach. Will’s handle hit Goblin in the head, Critical hit deals 15 damage. The goblin moved quickly in for a strike but I backpedaled which made his axe only graze me, still hurt like hell though. Goblin strike grazes Will’s stomach for 13 damage. My scythe was behind the goblin so I pulled it towards me, the scythes sharp blade went straight through half of his stomach, almost splitting him in two. Will cuts Goblin through the stomach, Critical hit deals 200 damage, Goblin dies. Goblin level 3 grants 55 xp, Goblin level 4 grants 58 xp. Congratulations, you’ve learned the Scythe weapon skill. Congratulations your Scythe skill has leveled up to level 2. Penetration power increased by 2%. Grass, fear me!
I fell back on my ass and panted from the exertion. I then noticed my notification box in the lower left of my vision, slightly opaque until I focus on it. Hell yeah I learned my first skill. I had to check it out later as the man was coming down from the tree he was hiding in. I finally got a closer look at him and saw he had dirty blond hair slightly longer than mine. He was wearing a robe that probably used to be white but was filled with dirt and grass staines.
“Thanks for the save, don’t think I’d make it out of there without you.” He shouted and flashed me a smile. “God I hate goblins.”
“No problem, I just wanted to help.” I said cautiously, having no clue how the natives interact.
“You seemed to take them out cleanly, are you a soldier by any chance?”
“Hate to break it to you but no, not even close, I actually took a hit as well.” I said as I finally looked at the gash across my stomach. It wasn’t deep but bled quite a bit and hurt like hell.
“Let me help with that.” The man said as he raised his hands, palms towards me and muttering something I couldn’t hear. A white light suddenly enveloped my stomach and I felt a pleasing warmth from it. It reminded me of taking a hot bath after being out in the cold for too long. Man heals Will for 30 health.
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“Shit, you’re a healer, thank you!”
“Once again, I am the one that should be thanking you, and of course to you go the spoils.
How could I forget the spoils, there were goblins that needed looting. I got up and walked towards the closest goblin I had just slayed. In terms of armour he was wearing a shabby leather vest and kilt, commando mode. I took the vest and kilt, avoiding looking closely at the goblin as I did so.
Goblin Leather Vest
Type: Chest - medium.
Requirement: Goblin
Quality: Poor.
Defence: 3
Durability: 5/20
Weight: 3kg - 6.6 lbs
Goblin Cloth Kilt
Type: Legs - light.
Requirement: Goblin
Quality: Poor.
Defence: 1
Durability: 8/20
Weight: 1kg - 2.2 lbs
They were both pretty bad I couldn’t see myself trying them on, seeing as they were too small for me. What was worth a damn was the 2 silver I found in the pockets. I also picked up the axe but knew I wouldn’t exchange my scythe for it so I just carried it all over to the other dead goblin. I immediately noticed his gear looked better and he had a ring on one of his fingers. All in all he had a vest, some bracers, a ring, axe and a kilt.
Goblin Cloth Kilt
Type: Legs - light.
Requirement: Goblin
Quality: Poor.
Defence: 1
Durability: 8/20
Weight: 1kg - 2.2 lbs
Goblin Leather Vest
Type: Chest - medium.
Requirement: Goblin
Quality: Common.
Defence: 5
Durability: 10/20
Weight: 4kg - 8.8 lbs
Iron Ring of Strength
Type: Chest - medium.
Quality: Common.
Durability: 15/20
Attributes:
+1 Strength
Goblin Leather Bracers
Type: Chest - medium.
Requirement: Goblin
Quality: Common.
Defence: 2
Durability: 13/20
Finally some useful loot. I instantly put on the ring and decided to try to put on the bracers. At first it seemed like the bracer really was too small to fit me, but to my surprise the bracer grew to fit me, it was not perfect by any means but it still fit. Racial skill used, you’ve learned the skill Goblin Armor level 1.Armor is worn with 30% penalty to stats and 10% penalty to speed. You now know what it’s like to be inside them… Finally I knew what that skill did and it was awesome. Knowing this I decided to take the leather vest as well and equip it. I took my time checking the pockets and found 4 silver coins and a healing potion.
Small Potion of Healing
Type: Consumable
Quality: Common
Use: Heals you for 15 hp
I decided to put the potion in the pocket of my newly equipped vest, but noticed that I had no clue how I was supposed to carry all the other gear I'd picked up. The man saw my issue and held out a small pouch towards me. Not knowing how it would help I sceptically took it from him.
Small Bag of Holding
Type: Container
Quality: Common
Capacity: 10kg
Use: Lets you carry up to 10 kg at 10% of the weight.
Shit, a bag of holding already, awesome! I stuffed the pouch with all the gear I had found and no matter what I put in the bag stayed the same size, magic is awesome
“Thanks man!” I said cheerfully.
“Once again, you did save my life so it is the least I could do, but honestly a bag like that is only worth around 1 gold coin where I am from.” He said reassuringly.
Having no real clue about the economy of this world I couldn’t say whether that was a lot or not. So far I’d gotten 6 silver and gaming knowledge told me 100 silver was the same as 1 gold. Either way it was great to have a bag and some money, I’ve got to hit a town sooner or later.
“So, who are you?” the man suddenly asked me.
“Oh, I’m Will, short for William. What about you?”
“Kamina, you can call me Kam if you want to but either is fine.” He said nonchalantly.
“So what are you doing here Kam? Being chased into a tree by goblins.” I inquired.
“Ah, that, long story short, I’m here with a caravan to sanctify Castrum in Caelum, or Heaven’s Castle as it is known. Damn priest always having us study the ancient language, makes speaking to non-priest a lot harder. Like is there anything wrong with just calling Heaven’s Castle.” He started going off on a rant.
“Yes I get it, damn priests, but what happened to your caravan?”
“Oh, they’re all dead” He said with a deadpan voice..
Slightly worried that I was dealing with a psychopath I timidly asked “And you’re okay with that?”
“Well, it’s not like they were good people, money grabbing merchants who apparently saved a pretty penny on security. I would suggest not going back to the caravan, these goblins you’ve killed are babies in comparison to the warriors who hit the caravan, needless to say I legged it away from there.”
“Well, then where should we go? I don’t know this area very well.”
“Probably best to head towards the castle, but best to avoid the main road, the castle still needs sanctifying.”
Seeing as I had no better plan I simply replied: “Lead the way.”
We started walking towards the east, threading through though terrain of brambles and other plants with the occasional animal path to follow. On the way we heard goblins talking to each other and detoured a bit to avoid confronting them. With no way for me to ascertain their level and power before they die, I couldn’t risk them killing me when I had finally found somewhat of a guide to help me in this new crazy new world. Instead we simply walked around them, lucky for us, goblins are a noisy bunch. Kam told me that the higher trained goblins are excellent sneaks but these bunch were just a random raiding party.
Eventually the woods gave way for a rocky landscape of sandstone and gravel. Trees became scarce and the terrain was dotted with hills and inclines. That made it a pain to traverse. Night was approaching and the risk for accidents would be higher during the night, so we decided to find shelter and call it a night. Kamina told me that caves were quite common and would offer the best shelter against the wind which plagued us. We started traversing the harsh landscape. The further we traveled the more downhill we were going. The hills and inclines became a canyon with serpentine roads going along the sides. Luckily the cliffs weren’t too steep but falling of the paths would probably still kill you. Kam told me that there was a bigger path further to the north with a bridge passing over the river at the bottom of the canyon, and that we would have to go across it tomorrow.
Turns out finding a cave that is adequately large for both of us was harder than it would seem. Kamina wanted to stay away from the larger caves as animals were prevalent in those but he also didn’t want a shallow cave. Eventually night came and we ended up in a cave quite far down the canyon. It was also off the beaten path so nobody should stumble across us. To Kam’s dismay the cave was deeper than he would have liked, as we could not see the far wall but our feet were too tired to try and find another.
I decided we needed a fire, not only for heat but to be able to see anything. I took the goblin axe out my bag of holding and walked to a patch of trees not to far away from the cave. I found a smaller tree which I decided to cut down. Congratulations, you’ve learned the skill Lumberjack. +1% penetration power. Penetrate that bark. Awesome, more abilities, but what was with these horrible jokes, if they could even be called that. After cutting down the tree we had plenty of wood to start and keep a small fire. I had a small problem though; I had no way to light it.
“Need a hand with that?” Kam asked.
“Definitely, I have no clue how to light it without matches, not in my repertoire.”
“No problem, lucky for you I happen to know a fire spell, my one and only.” Kamina snaps his fingers and a small ball of fire appeared in his hand. “Really the snapping isn’t necessary but I do love theatrics.” He said giggling a bit.
Kamina then let the ball fall down towards the stacked logs. As the ball touched the logs they instantly caught fire and showered the cave in light. Finally, we could see something in this cave. When I looked deeper into the cave, I could see a pair of ominous stone doors with carvings on them.
“Not good.” Kamina whispered, losing his grin.