Chapter 8: First Contact

With 16 stat points to spend after a double level up, I could make some serious alterations to my character's strength. After some consideration, I put 4 points each into constitution, dexterity, and strength. Reading over Blade Manifestation , I realized I could currently only cast the spell twice at most in a full fight, and so I equally divided the remaining 4 points into Intelligence and Wisdom. Remembering my race, I brought up my experience page, noting that my experience was about a quarter full. My mutation bar had finally made some real progress, matching my experience bars completion.

I continued down the river, stopping every so often to listen for more potential fights between monsters.

Slowly daylight began to wane, and after another twenty minutes of walking downstream, I had slain one more wolf drinking at the river, but heard nothing new.

As twilight came about, I decided it would probably be worth finding a place to camp out for the night, or at least make some kind of light source. Wandering into the forest, I was set on finding a thick tree limb to soak with resin for a torch.

The crack of a branch sounded to my left, a little farther into the forest. I whirled, prepared to fight a wolf, or maybe run from a Rimefang. To my surprise, I could make out a humanoid silhouette in the twilight.

“Hello…?” I asked hesitantly, really hoping it wasn’t some kind of humanoid monster.

The figure straightened, and began to advance towards me

“Oh, sorry, we thought you were some kind of monster!” a high pitched and amiable voice said, stepping more clearly into my vision.

We?

I immediately inspected the man.

{Thomas}

HP: 50/50

MP: 75/75

Type: Player

Race: Human

Level: 2

Class: Mage

Once he could clearly see me, his smile flickered into a cautious grimace. His eyes went unfocused, and I realized he was probably inspecting me. When he refocused on me, his smile returned. With the crunch of unpacked snow, two others stepped out of the shadows to stand beside Thomas. I Inspected them both.

{Jark}

HP: 85/85

MP: 50/50

Type: Player

Race: Dwarf

Level: 1

Class: Warrior

{Sarguhl}

HP: 75/75

MP: 60/60

Type: Player

Race: Troll

Level: 1

Class: Cleric

“Sorry friend, your race startled me a little bit!” Thomas the mage said, tone never shifting from overly friendly.

“It's really no problem, so you all chose the tundra? How did you find each other?” I asked, voice neutral.

“Indeed we did, and to answer your question, we created a signal to locate each other before entering the game! Say.. are you out here all by yourself? You’re welcome to join us if you’d like.” Thomas said.

I internally squinted at the man, something was off about the way he spoke, just a little too knowing and friendly. His lackeys seemed to lack the ability to speak.. they just stood there, and with none of the cheer their leader displayed.

“Oh! Where are my manners! I am Thomas, and my two friends here are Sarguhl and Jark.” he said, in a tone suggesting he knew that I had already inspected each of them.

“Nice to meet you all, I'm Locke.” I said.

Before Thomas could reply, I realized that I actually did need the answer to a question.

“Oh, by the way, has your group managed to find a town, or some other sign of civilization?”

His face took on a faux sadness. “Ah, I'm afraid not, we all spawned relatively closely to one another, although it was still a pain finding one another. Since then we have simply wandered around.”

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“Ah, that's alright. And while I appreciate the offer, I’m usually a solo player.” I said

“Well that's just a shame, isn’t it.” Thomas replied, his tone losing all inflection.

“See you around.” I said.

I waved goodbye. As I turned to walk off, I casually lowered a hand to one of the two sheathed matching blades I carried on each hip. Almost without thought, I began to flood mana into the weapon, forming a specific pattern within its steel.

I heard no crunch of snow from Thomas and co. indicating that they were departing. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the mage fidgeting in a strangely aggressive manner. He muttered something to his teammates, and then nodded at me.

Immediately, the Dwarf warrior sprinted towards me, bellowing a challenge. My muscles locked up, and hatred filled my mind. The only thing I could think about was destroying the small statured warrior. I yelled incoherently, ripping both blades from their sheathes. The dwarf seemed surprised when one of my swords was wreathed in a dangerous looking silver aura. I swung the glowing sword at the dwarf, who had precious little time to take cover behind his buckler. A faintly translucent silver arc streaked towards the man, and when it impacted his hastily raised shield, he grunted and stumbled backwards, barely catching himself from falling. To my dismay, he recovered rapidly, and swung his axe in a vicious arc, but even the unnatural rage that inhabited my mind couldn't prevent my Peerless Rhythm from forcing my body out of the blow's path.

“How is he dodging with a taunt on him!?” the dwarf growled.

A bolt of fire streaked towards me, impacting against my chest. The intensity of the burning agony wrenched me out of the taunt, and I took several leaps backwards.

Glancing at my health, I noted that 30% of it was missing, and from just one spell.

I can’t get hit.

I forced the pain to the back of my mind, and wiped the grimace from my face. I looked up at Thomas.

“Really?”

“You’re level 3, I'm sure you have something good on you!” Thomas said, a malicious smile marring his innocent face.

I nodded, and began to focus on channeling another Blade Manifestation. My sword bursting into shining silver light once more, I swung, but not at the dwarf. Thomas' smug expression was quickly replaced by fear as his feeble attempt at dodging narrowly transformed a mortal wound into a glancing blow.

I forced myself to think analytically as panic pressed in at the edges of my mind.

I can’t lose, not again.

They were all below me in level, so it was likely that they each only had one ability, as I had received Blade Manifestation at level 3, but no skill at level 2. The warrior had a taunt, which had to be on cooldown, and Thomas had some kind of fire based projectile spell. I glanced at the Troll who held a book in one hand and noticed they were looking at the dwarf while mumbling something.

Definitely some kind of spell, gotta stop that

I turned, began to sprint away from the dwarf, weaving in and out of the many surrounding tree’s. Catching brief glances of the dwarf between trees, it was obvious he was having difficulty following my movements. After emerging from behind a tree I turned, immediately attempting to channel another wave of cutting energy as the dwarf approached. My eyes widened as instead of a blade illuminated by a silver luster , I was left with a mundane weapon. The dwarfs' panic shifted to confusion, and then realization. He lowered his shield and charged. Feeling the song began to fade, I met the dwarfs charge with one of my own. Feigning a strike to meet the dwarfs blow, I slid under his strike, narrowly avoiding the weapon. Regaining my feet, I dashed towards the Troll, who seemed more focused on his mumbling than the battle raging only a few yards away from him. Blades crashing into the Clerics hastily raised Mace, I interrupted whatever mischief he was up to, and caused him to stumble onto his backside.

“Can you not hold aggro for TEN SECONDS?” the Troll shouted, glaring at the dwarf.

“He’s not some dumb AI you moron, he won’t mindlessly attack me while you two whale on him!” the dwarf replied in a vaguely Scottish accent.

Ah, so there's some dissent in the ranks?

I laughed, preparing a taunt of my own.

“You guys don’t have very good coordination!” I said, mimicking Thomas' obnoxiously cheery tone.

This drew both of their attention, and they glared at me, the cleric resuming his low muttering.

Ah, maybe not a good idea

I could feel the thrum of the rhythm present in my mind. I checked my mana, but it was not quite high enough for what I had planned. I cursed, but turned to the dwarf.

“Let us engage in honorable COMBAT!” I shouted at the dwarf in a mocking tone.

His face turned crimson, and he charged me for a third time.

This time, I met his charge, dancing around his relatively slow strike, and slashing at his back as I passed him. He whipped around to face me, just in time to kiss my boot.

“I didn’t even need to lift my foot that high, it's like kicking a kid!” I said.

The dwarf's face turned from red to purple, and he ground his jaw.

I danced out of the dwarfs' blows, always keeping myself between the Cleric and the mage.

After playing cat and mouse for a few swings, I turned around, and winked at the mage, whose staff was glowing a deep red. As a golf ball sized blast of fire hurled at me, I slipped to the side, letting the fireball splash against the troll. Thomas and the Cleric cursed at the same time, the look of hatred on the mages face darkening into something a little terrifying.

The troll's skin had burst into flames, and he screamed as if he had just witnessed the murder of his entire family. Before Thomas or Jark could act, I darted towards the burning Cleric.

“No one likes a pocket healer,” I said, adopting a lecturing tone.

The troll had dropped his mace, and so was unable to defend against my lunging thrust. His eyes widened even further in agony as I pulled both swords free in time to throw myself to the side as clomping footsteps approached from behind. The dwarfs axe passed over his teammate's head, who had the good fortune to be keeled over, hands pressed against his wounds. I kicked the back of the dwarf's knee, who had followed through on his overstated blow and left himself exposed. I drove a closed fist into his jaw as he fell.

You have learned the skill Unarmed Mastery, Novice: 1!

Description: The only weapon you can count on is yourself! Train it well, and fail you, it will not.

I smiled, and turned to the Cleric to issue a Coup de grâce. As my sword bit into his neck, he dissolved. I turned to face the dwarf, when another firebolt impacted me, this time scorching my face. I spluttered, and felt a sharp object smash into my chest, crushing something vital and knocking me down. I hastily rolled to the side, and an axe buried thumped into the ground where I had laid.

I can win this, the mage has to be nearly out of mana. How many spells was that?! 3? 4?

I used my hands to spring to my feet, immediately stepping backwards to avoid another powerful swing of the dwarfs axe.

I took a few calming breaths.

I looked over Jarks shoulder at the mage, who was once again channeling a firebolt. I grimaced and focused my attention back on the dwarf. I tightened my grip on each sword so hard that I could hear my bones creak in protest.

The mage needs to go

Feinting a swing at the dwarf, I sprinted past him as he raised his shield to defend against a blow that never came. A glob of fire rocketed towards me, and I slid under it, my eyebrows singing slightly.

Once I regained my footing, I grinned savagely as I witnessed Thomas’s look of shock. Slamming the pommel of one sword into his temple, he crumpled.

Raising my sword to issue a finishing blow on a different variety of cowering spellcaster, I heard a whistling sound from behind. I whipped around just in time to see the warrior's axe spinning end over end at chest level. I lunged to the side in hopes of avoiding the strike, but it planted itself in my chest, draining the last of my health.

My vision went dark.