SUMMONERS TALE
Godric was running.
Earth Barrier: -30 hp.
No, it was more accurate to say that he was fleeing.
Earth Barrier: -30 hp.
Fleeing with his tail tucked between his legs, fleeing for his life.
Earth Barrier: -30 hp.
It had all started so well.
Earth Barrier: -30 hp.
Earth Barrier has been depleted.
He'd confidently entered the main Casak Forest in search of foxes to hunt.
Barrier: -35 hp.
The first fox had found him, as planned.
Barrier: -35 hp.
It had attacked and bounced off his barriers, as planned.
Barrier: -35 hp.
Barrier has been depleted.
Godric had used the opportunity to chant Rock Bullet and strike back, as planned.
Godric: -22 hp.
The fox had dodged with an incredible burst of speed, that was not as planned.
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So here he was, trying to outrun a creature that was fast enough to continuously dodge his only attack spell and more than capable of keeping up with him in the thick underbrush of the forest, it was not going well.
Unfortunately for Godric, he'd panicked when he'd been forced to flee and run off in a random direction, which was probably why he'd ended up lost in the forest.
Godric: -22 hp.
'Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.' Godric chanted, continuing to run as fast as his low agility allowed.
He was already out of breath from low stamina so he couldn't even call up the air required to chant another barrier spell, the fox was far too fast to hit with a Rock Bullet and swinging his staff at it did such minuscule damage that it wasn't even worth the stamina required to swing the weapon.
Godric: -22 hp.
'Where the hell am I!' Godric screamed in his mind, streaking across a small clearing in an attempt to avoid the creature nipping at his heels. 'At this speed, I should have reached the village a long time ago.'
Godric: -22 hp.
Lost in a forest, hunted by a feral predator and almost out of stamina, this was his lowest point since starting Royal Road.
'Still..' Godric mused with a pained grin. 'This is pretty exciting.'
There was a strange thrill in fleeing for his life, a thrill that he'd never gotten from sports or any other video game, Royal Road was truly in a class of it's own.
Godric: -22 hp.
'Shit, this is no time to be admiring this game.' he cursed, glancing back and blanching when he noticed that two more foxes had joined the first in this mad chase and that they were taking turns attacking him. 'I'm seriously going to die at this rate.'
Godric: -22 hp.
Just as he was resolving himself for a futile last stand, something flew in from off to the side and struck the lead fox, knocking it down with a spurt of blood.
"Yah!" a brute of a man shouted, leaping from a bush with an ax in one hand and a shield in the other, the missing red dot denoting him as a player rather than an npc.
'Holy shit, I'm saved.' Godric cheered as the first player was followed by two more, a woman dressed as a priest and a male archer firing arrows as he advanced.
"Holy spirit, grant me aid and the power to save those who are hurt, Recovery." the woman chanted, her staff raised up and turned towards Godric.
Godric: +250 hp.
All negative effects have been dispelled.
Stamina has been recovered.
Fully recovered, Godric stopped gasping and turned to the fight, hoping to lend what aid he could.
It wasn't needed.
Driven back by the two males, the foxes had stopped chasing Godric and were instead targeting the first man. The warrior, on the other hand, was more than capable of handling himself. He was using his shield to knock the foxes back for the archer to shoot while his ax lashed out at quick speeds, slowly chipping away at their health and cutting them down one after the other.
One fox was already down and the last two seemed to be on their last legs, the fight was already over all things considered.
"Thanks for the rescue." Godric called out as he walked towards the priest and archer.
"No problem, what were you doing out here on your own?" the priest asked after a moment, half of her attention on the warrior in case he needed healing.
"I was trying to solo a fox but it was way too fast for me to handle." Godric replied, he supposed he should feel ashamed or something but these things happened in games so he had no problem admitting it. "I tried heading back to the village for safety but I guess I got lost."
"Hah, I'll say." a deep voice chuckled, the warrior had already finished the battle and was walking towards them. "The village is in the other direction man, you're lucky we found you, this is almost in wolf territory."
"Oh dang, I'm definitely lost then, thanks for the help." Godric replied, they had literally saved his life. "You guys are hunting wolves?"
"Yup, I'm level 15 so we can handle a few wolves with Selena's blessings and heals." the warrior replied, looking him up and down. "Want to join? We could use a mage along."
"You sure Blaine?" the archer asked, glancing at Godric in appraisal. "He looks like a noob."
"Be nice Carver, you were a noob once upon a time, a week ago if I'm not mistaken." Selena countered before turning to Godric with a smile. "Sorry about him."
"It's fine." Godric replied, he did in fact look like a noob with his low level gear so there was no reason getting mad. "I'm only level 5 so I'm still a bit of a noob."
"It's cool, every little bit helps and you can help Carver draw aggro." the warrior, Blaine apparently, commented. "What sort of mage are you by the way?."
"I'm Earth," Godric replied. "But I've got Healing Hand and Barrier, plus I can cook and apply minor enchantments."
"See, there you go." Blaine grinned, clapping a hand on Godrics shoulder. "This guy knows what he's doing, even picked up the supplemental spells already."
"I guess he's not much of a noob." Carver sighed, turning away. "Just don't get get in the way.."
"Oh! I'm Godric, nice to meet you all." Godric greeted at the other mans pause, he hadn't introduced himself to them yet.
"Nice, I'm Blaine, he's Carver and she's Selena." Blaine replied, following after Carver. "Come on, let's kill some wolves."
"Don't worry, they're pretty strong and I'll watch your back." Selena added as she followed the other two.
[p=center]You have been invited to join a party.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Accept?
Yes | No[/p]
Godric nodded as he accepted the invite and followed along, this was a pretty lucky break for him, he could get some good levels by tagging along with a good group.
Several hours later, Godric couldn't how lucky he'd gotten, the three players he had met were good at their roles and effectively covered one another, they were quite the effective hunting party.
Blaine the warrior was the parties tank, leaping headfirst into battle with his shield and ax as the other two covered his back, he was good at drawing attention and holding off enemies. Blaine was a bulky human warrior who had chosen to start in the forest village, his avatar was quite tall and muscular with reddish-brown hair and a trimmed beard.
Carver served as the parties ranged support, he drew aggro on far off enemies with his bow and quickly dealt damage to them as they approached before allowing Blaine to take over. Carver's avatar was a wood elf with long, black hair and tanned skin, he was fully focused on his speed-archer build and didn't much care for learning craft skills or magic.
Selena was the healer for the party, she was a Priestess of Freya who focused on healing and blessing over the few offensive combat skills of the profession. Selena was also a human that had chosen to start in the forest village, her avatar was a pale skinned, young woman with blonde hair and green eyes.
Godric tried hard to slot into the party, there wasn't much he could do but he found a way, learning to work well with others was a skill he would need in the future.
Before each battle, Godric would join Selena in layering buffs on the party, he could only apply his barriers to one person at a time but putting them on Blaine allowed the warrior to handle more wolves at a time. Once the battle began, he would switch to firing Rock Bullets at the wolves, dealing a small bit of damage in contribution but being careful not to draw aggro off of the tank.
Working like that, the team had spent many hours hunting wolves, resting and splitting loot in between fights before continuing on. They even found themselves fighting through the night, Godrics assistance allowing them to handle the wolves that were 50% stronger at night, they couldn't fight many at a time but they were able to kill a few wolves.
"Ah, this is pretty fun." Blaine announced during one of their breaks. "I haven't tried hunting at night before, it's pretty exciting."
"Yeah, I guess the noob is pretty helpful, there's no way Selena could heal all the damage fast enough." Carver added, nodding to Godric in respect. "Those barriers and Healing Hand are quite useful."
''For sure, I can't cast Recovery all that fast yet." Selena spoke. "The extra help is really appreciated."
Godric almost blushed at all the praise, almost.
"It's not just me, we're a pretty decent team." Godric replied, nodding to each in turn. "There's no way I could do this on my own, I'm just glad we work so well together."
He was quite glad to have joined this party, the group hunting had been far better than he could have done on his own. Not only had he managed to hit level eleven in just a few hours, he'd also gained a new spell and a ton of loot, mostly crafting materials but useful loot all the same.
Not to mention his silly new hat which he could now equip.
"Yeah definitely, we need to do this again when we're next on." Blaine nodded, apparently he and Carver were roommates in real life and both had work in a few hours so they had to log off.
"We should try Kobolds or Goblins during the day, they're about as strong as wolves are at night." Carver added, nodding along with his friend. "Godric can put his new spell to good use with them, they work in groups."
"Yeah, I'll have to grind some levels on the skill before we meetup." Godric agreed, the new skill was an AoE but it was quite weak at level one. "I'm free for another day in game so I'll be all set when we meet."
"Awesome, see you then man." Blaine cheered, logging off in a flash of light.
"Yeah, see ya." Carver nodded, vanishing along with his friend.
"Are you off too?" Godric asked, turning his attention to Selena.
The woman paused for a moment in thought before nodding.
"I might as well, I don't have anything to do but I'm pretty tired." She replied, standing from the stump she was using as a seat. "Can you find your way back to town?"
"I'll be fine," Godric answered with a nod, he knew the correct direction to head and they were on the edge of the wolves territory so he didn't have to worry about them.
"Alright, see you later Godric."
With that, Selena disappeared in a flash of light, leaving him alone seated next to a dying campfire as the sun steadily rose.
'Well, that was quite worthwhile, I wonder how much I improved.' Godric mused, bringing up his stats and skills.
[quart=Character Name,Race]Godric,High Elf[/quart][quart=Alignment,Level]Neutral,11[/quart][quart=Profession,Title]Earth Mage,None[/quart]
Character Stats
Fame
0
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[quart=Health,Stamina]830,380[/quart]
Mana
2400
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[quart=Strength,Agility]38,44 (10)[/quart][quart=Wisdom,Intellect]165 (25),210 (30)[/quart][quart=Elemental Affinity,Spiritual Presence]45,33[/quart]
Vitality
58 (25)
Luck
0
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[quart=Attack,Magic Attack]14 - 19,70 - 73[/quart][quart=Defense,Magic Resistance]14,0[/quart]
'Not bad.' Godric nodded, reviewing his stats.
His higher intellect had greatly improved his damage to the point that he could now one-shot a rabbit, the increased mana and health was also good as well.
As for his skills...
* Woodworking (Beginner Level 4 | 72%)
* Reading Comprehension (Intermediate Level 8 | 72%)
* Enchanting (Beginner Level 4 | 98%)
* Tailoring (Beginner Level 3 | 33%)
* Gem Cutting (Beginner Level 4 | 2%)
* Gem Faceting (Beginner Level 2 | 94%)
* Alchemy (Beginner Level 4 | 14%)
* Cooking (Beginner Level 4 | 55%)
* Herb Gathering (Beginner Level 8 | 56%)
* Detect Trap (Beginner Level 3 | 15%)
* Arcane Mastery (Beginner Level 7 | 1%)
* Handicraft (Beginner Level 3 | 15%)
* Rock Bullet (Beginner Level 6 | 12%)
* Earth Barrier (Beginner Level 5 | 19%)
* Healing Touch (Beginner Level 7 | 10%)
* Barrier (Beginner Level 4 | 86%)
Quagmire (Beginner Level 3 | 33%)
Creates a bog to slow and entrap enemies.
* -Mana Cost: 300 mp.
His new spell was quite useful in battle, with it he could now solo foxes and if he aimed well, he could trap multiple enemies at once and pick them off with his Rock Bullet. Other than that, his battle spells had all leveled from constant use but his other skills hadn't improved at all, he'd have to sit down and grind them with all the mats in his inventory soon.
Satisfied, Godric closed the two menus and stood from his stump.
"A quick stop in town to clean up my inventory then some solo hunting,'' Godric muttered to himself as he set off into the forest. "I should try and buy some mana potions while I'm at it, that should speed up my fights."
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