Defeated Herald of the Forest. Touch Orb of Resonance to Manifest Treasure.
Only when she saw the system notification did she breathe a sigh of relief. She’d done it. She’d escaped.
She slumped to her knees, the tension leaving her body as the rush of energy from the level up kept her conscious. Exhaustion and elation mixed overwhelming her senses.
The notifications kept coming.
Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 9.
Wind Step has increased to level 5.
Stealth has increased to level 9.
Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 9.
Atmospheric Sense has reached the First Step! Congratulations!
[Your mastery of this skill has awarded you the following stats:
+ 3 Per
+ 2 Ala
+ 1 Dex
+ 1 Res]
Stealth has reached the First Step! Congratulations!
[Your mastery of this skill has awarded you the following stats:
+ 3 Dex
+ 2 Per
+ 1 End
+ 1 Ala]
Elemental Manipulation has reached the First Step! Congratulations!
[Your innovative use of Elemental Manipulation has opened choices.
1. Gain Skill: Shape Stone (lvl 7), Forsake: Elemental Manipulation
2. Gain Skill: Summon Water (lvl 5), Keep: Elemental Manipulation (lvl 5)
3. Keep: Elemental Manipulation (lvl 9)]
Three skills hit the First Step!
That was—
Cass toppled over, her body colliding with the forest floor. Blood pooled around her abdomen. The air smelled heavily of iron.
Right. She was bleeding out. Why did this keep happening to her? She hadn’t bled out once before she came here.
How did one stop bleeding again?
Bandages? Pressure? Magic?
She was pretty sure she didn’t have any of those.
Camping would help. She pushed herself back up into a sitting position, her core screaming in pain with the effort.
Blinking blearily, she pulled up a small fire ring in front of her, barely bigger than her palm. She retrieved a flintshroom from a pocket and dropped it in the center. With some effort, she lit it with Elemental Manipulation.
Immediately, a warm bubble of safety enveloped her. Cass breathed out in relief. She pressed the tattered remains of her PJs into the wound to staunch the bleeding. Between that and Beacon of Hearth and Home, she probably wouldn’t bleed out.
She turned her attention back to her notifications, specifically the Elemental Manipulation First Step.
Once again, Cass discarded the option that forsook Elemental Manipulation. It was easily her most versatile skill and she wasn’t about to toss it for something as narrow as Shape Stone, even if the starting level had increased since the last time she’d been offered it.
Summon Water was moderately tempting to her collect-everything-you-can-get-your-grubby-hands-on-gamer brain, but realistically, she didn’t see it being worth lowering Elemental Manipulation’s level again for it. Right now, she didn’t see any future situations where summoning a lot of water would be useful to her.
In the creation of her pure water shield, the control over the water had been the bigger bottleneck rather than the ability to summon enough.
That said, resetting Elemental Manipulation was tempting. What would she be offered next time she hit level nine with it?
But, no, she would keep Elemental Manipulation as it was this time.
You have confirmed Elemental Manipulation’s First Step!
[Your mastery of this skill has awarded you the following stats:
+ 3 Wll
+ 2 Ala
+ 1 Res
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
+ 1 Vit]
She was mildly disappointed Atmospheric Sense and Stealth hadn’t offered her any choices, but then, she hadn’t been using them in unusual ways so perhaps it was to be expected.
Waiting Choice:
[Tutorial Sub-quest: Defeat the Lords’ Heralds Checkpoint (2/3) Completed
Reward Remaining: 1 Choice of 3 options.
1. Skill, Dex based, Aura
2. Trait, Minor, Domain
3. Buff, Beginner, Stat]
Cass didn’t know what to make of these three options any more than she had the last time. But, in the end, she picked option 3 for the same reason. A buff was likely a bigger bonus than something that was supposed to be permanent like a Trait or a Skill. Plus, Beginner Buffs were permanent for her now, with the reward for killing the Lord of the Deep.
Reward Selected: Increase Vitality by 25%
Cass frowned. It boosted her Vit from 11 to 13, so it rounded down. That was somewhat underwhelming given she’d almost died for it.
If it had been a bonus to Will instead, that would have been something. 32 points of Will would have netted her an 8-point increase, which was about an entire level’s worth of stats.
She shook her head. Now she was just being greedy. Vitality had to do with healing, which was what she needed most right now. This was good. Those were two points she didn’t need to spend free points on.
Speaking of free points, she had eight to spend, four from her previous level up, four from the one just now. She’d had some idea about banking some to deploy in case of an emergency, but realistically, she wasn’t thinking about the stats during crisis. It was probably a better idea just to spend them all.
[Str - 10 Dex - 24 End - 21
Wll - 32 Ala - 28 Res - 27
Frt - 10 Per - 19 Vit - 13
Free Points: 8]
The pain of her wounds was mounting. She should put a few in Frt to counteract that.
A few more in Vit would make the most of her new buff too, and maybe speed along the healing process. And perhaps she should accept that she needed more Str, too. Her ranged magic attacks still weren’t hitting hard enough against a lot of enemies, despite the higher Wll empowering them. That or she was doing something wrong with Wind Blade?
Speaking of which, maybe a few more in Wll would be the tipping point between her Wind Blades glancing off and slicing easily.
Cass settled on 2 points for each:
Str 10 -> 12
Wll 32 -> 34
Frt 10 -> 12
Vit 13 -> 16 (11 -> 13)
The pain reduced, but it still hurt. Who knew having your chest crushed by a giant lion would do that to you?
She sighed. She’d be okay.
Stamina: 36/63
Focus: 52/243
Health: 50/60
Her Health was dropping but in this case, that was a sign she was healing. It was a good thing. And it was still plenty high. She’d be recovered enough to walk in no time.
Probably.
That left just one reward from this whole spontaneous and undesired encounter: the Herald’s treasure.
She pulled the orb from her pocket. It emitted a faint green glow, unlike the orb she’d gotten Salos’s necklace from. She identified it quickly before it activated.
Orb of Resonance
[The treasure entrusted to the Herald of the Forest.
Last retrieved: 7 years, 2 months, 8 days ago.
Last manifested as: Herald’s Bell]
Beginning Treasure Manifestation
[Calculating Need…
Calculating Trial Difficulty…
Modifying based on last Claim…
Modifying based on Participant Level…
Modifying based on Contribution…
Achievement Calculated.
Applying Achievement and Need Modifiers to Reward Pool…
Manifesting Traveler’s Bag]
The glow of the orb grew brighter and brighter until it exploded into glass and light. Cass shielded her eyes. When she could see again, a simple canvas bag hung from her outstretched hand and two small green marbles sat in her palm.
A traveler’s bag? That was the reward for nearly electrocuting to death? This was what the system thought she needed? And what were these marbles?
She started by identifying those first:
Orb of Lesser Resonance
[Treasure reward for accompanying party members.]
Cass raised an eyebrow. So Alyx and Salos would both receive a reward too? That seemed far fairer than she’d expected from a system built off of slaughter. Then again, had she seen any indication it wasn’t fair?
She slipped them into her pocket to give them when they regrouped and turned her attention back to the utterly boring bag. She almost put it on without looking at it further but stopped as she draped the strap over one shoulder.
She blinked. Should she be so eager to put strange objects on her body? The last system reward she’d been given was Salos’s necklace. That had worked out in the end, but there was no denying it was a cursed artifact.
But this bag was very ordinary.
Even the name was ordinary. Traveler’s Bag. Definitely not the name of a cursed object. It sounded more like basic adventuring equipment. Did she need to Identify everything? It was just a bag.
She adjusted it so it slung conveniently behind her, but so she could still pull it around to access it if she needed to. It was a comfortable bag.
A bag that was definitely totally normal.
Cass sighed.
Definitely totally normal?
Something was going on with the bag.
Even focusing on it was difficult. Her eyes wanted to slide off it, even while she was wearing it. Something kept catching her attention as she attempted to Identify it. An interesting plant over there. An unusual eddie in the winds.
It was definitely redirecting her perception similar to how the traps in the temple had hidden themselves. So all she needed to do was make a conscious effort to focus on it, and…
Traveler’s Bag
[Class: Inventory (Enchanted)
An entirely ordinary bag made of durable canvas… which also acts as a storage space capable of holding 27 times the apparent physical capacity without the weight of stored items. Additionally, obscures perception of item, reducing chance of discovery of item’s properties. The bag is waterproof and temperature resistant.]
Cass’s eyes went wide. A storage space? As in, a personal bag of holding!
She immediately turned out her pockets and shoved the couple handfuls of herbs and mushrooms she had stuffed away into the far more spacious bag.
Just imagine how much more she could carry now! She didn’t have to worry about herbs falling out of her increasingly ratty pockets! How many sweet potatoes could she put in this thing? She could store her pots and stools instead of recreating them every evening. Maybe throw some firewood in there so she could have more impressive campfires than the little flintshroom fires?
She took a breath. She was getting all together too excited about a bag.
It was a really cool bag though.