“The cult won’t follow us out of the treeline, we should be safe to rest for a minute.” Panda wheezed as I fiddled with the magic armband and removed it from him.
I helped him out of the truck and we sat together in front of it, resting against it as we looked out towards the city.
It was still a bit of a walk from the treeline, but it was big enough to take up most of the view; a sprawling metropolis of modern skyscrapers, wizard’s towers, and cathedral-like architecture.
It certainly didn’t look like the medieval village I’d imagined. It was kind of a mix between Prague and Tokyo. Of course we weren’t close enough for me to make out much more than that. Apart from the moat.
The city was cupped by a wide river that seemed to run in a semi-circle, starting in the ocean, wrapping around the city, and ending back in the ocean. It had to be manmade. The ocean itself stretched all the way to the sky, it was hard to tell where the water ended and the sky began from our vantage point.
As we took a moment to rest I decided to look at my notifications and there were quite a few.
You have defeated:
Chrysus Cultist Worker (lvl 5)
Experience awarded.
I had two other carbon copies of this notification, so I assumed it was referring to the box carrying cultists. I was pretty happy at their levels; it would surely mean that I’d get some impressive exp. I wasn’t wrong.
You have advanced to lvl 6
+ 5 free stat points
You have advanced to lvl 7
+5 free stat points
Two whole levels from killing three guys seemed like a worthy trade off. They weren’t the easiest of fights, though I guess I did take them down pretty fast considering I was so hopelessly outnumbered.
During the fight I acted mostly on instinct but my instincts seemed to be right on the money for the actual fighting. It was strange considering I’d barely trained in a marital art and I’d never being in the military or anything.
I wondered if it had anything to do with my dagger combat skill. I’d never received an explanation as to what that actually meant so it had to be a passive skill. Perhaps it helped guide me in knife fights or something?
Skill: Dagger has advanced to lvl 4
Skill: Bow has advanced to lvl 3
During the fight I had killed the final box carrier with my bow and fired a few successful shots into the crowd of charging cultists. I hadn’t killed any of them that I was aware of but I was happy for the level up all the same.
“Panda, do you know anything about skills?” I asked.
“I’m more of a spiritual guide than a walkthrough but I know a little bit, what do you want to know?” He replied, sounding tired.
“I have a skill called bow and one called dagger. They never came with explanations but they seem to level up when I kill things. In that last battle I felt like my instincts had more experience fighting than I did, so I leaned into them. I just wanted to know if that was because of the skills?”
“No idea. Skills like bow and dagger track how good you are with a specific weapon. They’re basic passive skills that really only hone the technique you already have, they don’t impart knowledge though. You could train them up pretty easily if you practiced with them under a tutor and learned real technique. Active skills are the opposite, they come with an inherent knowledge of how to use them and they can be used on command. There are also passive skills that are just on all the time, like your novice bowman skill but you can gain knowledge from them too.
“Because that skill is always active, you’ll always be a better shot than you were without it. That’s not to say you can’t get better by training on a range but if you outclass that skill with your own ability it’ll probably upgrade itself to match your ability.
“The system likes things to be in order and it has certain rules it has to follow. At least during the lower levels, and you don’t need to concern yourself with what comes after those just yet.”
I nodded along as Panda explained. It still didn’t answer my question of how I’d done so well in battle though. Maybe it was just luck and adrenaline. After all, I’d fought the box carriers but there was nothing to say that they were actually trained fighters.
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Putting my thoughts aside I continued with my notifications.
You have defeated:
Chrysus Cult Guard (lvl 11)
You have received bonus experience for defeating an opponent with a higher level than you.
You have advanced to lvl 8
+5 Free stat points
You have advanced to lvl 9
+5 Free stat points
Two levels for a single kill. I almost cheered as I read it. In that battle I’d nearly doubled my level and I now had 20 free stat points to use. It also meant my HP and Stamina would increase my 20 as well.
I knew I was still a low level in the grand scheme of things, but it felt pretty good to be able to see my progress appearing on my HUD.
I opened the next batch of notifications.
Achievement Unlocked!
Roadkill
Who taught you to drive? You used a vehicle to kill an enemy. Poor Timmy, he had a family! He was only two days away from retirement and you killed him with your truck.
Timmmmyyy!
Reward: Roadkill Loot Box
I had a bunch of loot boxes to open now. I needed to find a safe space, whatever that was, so I could open them. There was bound to be one in town. I was still betting it would be an inn. I really hoped I’d get clothing in some of them.
Quest Completed!
Sink or Skinned
You have been captured by a hunter who wants to take your skin and sew it together with other skins to create the map. It’s probably in your best interest to not let that happen. This is what you get for ignoring my friendly advice when I told you not to eat the stripper.
Objectives:
Escape 1/1
Free yourself from your binds 1/1
Free or kill the other captive 1/1
Kill your captor (optional) 1/1
Hidden Reward: 1000 gold
*You have qualified for a hidden reward due to completing all optional objectives*
I actually expected this notification to pop up. I’d remembered that I still needed to escape to complete it so naturally leaving the compound would meet the requirements.
I was pleasantly surprised that I got a reward after all though since one wasn’t originally posted on the quest. I didn’t know if 1000 gold was a lot yet, but considering I’d only gotten 10 gold for looting the cultist I’d killed after leaving the prison room I was guessing it was a pretty penny.
That reminded me, I didn’t get the chance to loot any of the guys I’d killed during our escape. I cursed myself silently at the potential loot I’d missed. Not to mention to the gold I could have had.
Achievement Unlocked!
Parking Prodigy
You’ve run out of mana and now your car won’t work and to make matters worse you’ve parked blocking off the entire road. What a douche. The way you pulled in makes me wish your dad pulled out.
Reward: Fuck you.
Well that was disappointing, and a bit passive aggressive. I really couldn’t tell if the system liked me or not. One minute it was praising me for killing folk and the next it was being arsey with me for blocking a dirt road with my truck.
Either way, I had gained some pretty good experience overall and I had a new loot box to add to my growing collection of shiny things I couldn’t play with yet.
“Panda, I’ve gone up a few levels. Got any advice on where to put my free points?” I asked.
“You’d be best saving them until you get your class really, but honestly your stats pretty much do what they say on the tin so there are no bad ways to spend them.”
I nodded and dove into my stat sheet to disseminate them. There was no way I was waiting for my class. I knew we were going to get it once I was in town but if there was no wrong answer then why would I hold off?
After a bit of thinking I decided to do something a little odd and put all 20 of them into my strength stat. It’d raise my Stamina but more importantly I needed to be stronger physically.
Thinking back on the fight earlier I’d struggled to get my dagger out of the cultist’s skull. I had to literally leverage myself and pull with my entire body. That was no good.
What happened if next time I got it stuck but the guy wasn’t dead? I’d be screwed.
So I put all 20 points into strength and then I read through my upgraded stat sheet.
Status Sheet:
Name: Kaleb Akabane
Race: Outworlder
Level: 9
Map Pieces 2/10,000
HP: 41/56
Stamina: 53/76
Strength: 26
Agility: 12
Perception: 8
Vitality: 6
Intelligence: 7
Personal Skills: Speak English Damnit!
Combat Skills: Bow (lvl 3), Novice Bowman, Dagger (lvl 4), Dhampir Dagger
Blessing: Blessing of Wealth
Familiars: Panda (Daemon)
My stamina had increased by quite a bit and strength was now my best stat by a country mile. I also noticed that my stat sheet had updated to include a familiar’s section which was interesting. The plurality of it made me wonder if I could summon more than one, though that would have to wait for another day.
For now Panda was right, I needed to get a class. Panda was still worn out from using so much of his mana so I offered to give him a piggyback ride.
He grumbled at first, but pretty soon he was on my back as we walked towards the city. He felt really light for a bear. Perhaps it was my new strength stat but I felt like I could carry him the whole way there with relative ease.
The area I needed to cover between the truck and the city was an open grassland with a few farm-looking buildings dotted around and the occasional windmill. All in all it was a pretty serene looking place.
After about an hour of walking along the dirt road the sun began to sink towards the edge of the sky, it was mirrored in the ocean as a cascading shimmer of brilliant orange light lit up the plain.
It was one desert short of a cowboy cliché.
Just as the sun had crested the sky and darkness fell, we came across a small house next to the road and decided to approach it. Panda said it was dangerous to be out at night as monsters were higher levels and more likely to attack unprovoked.
I opened a small, wooden gate from the dirt road and we walked towards the little house.
“Do you really think whoever lives here will let a half-naked man and his Panda stay the night?” I asked as we walked up the garden path.
“You won’t know unless you ask.” Panda replied.
With a sigh I knocked on the door to the house and a little porch light came one. The door creaked open and I could see a bloodshot eye peeking through the crack from behind a door chain.