[Status Effect: Exhaustion.]
Well, that's not surprising. A minute-long sprint first, then two more as regular running before spitting my lungs out. My stamina wasn't full before starting either. This got me near the south-eastern spawn point, about half a kilometer from that battle.
It should be far enough, but if there were a stamina potion in my backpack, I would have run further. Now there is no choice but to wait and chill, finding a spot that's out of the way and won't draw attention to me.
It's because sitting gives a bonus to recovery, taken from the logs and the modifier. Lying down would be even better if I had a sleeping bag. Too bad it didn't fit into my inventory while looting the bandit camp. It might be worth going back for it.
A tree trunk wide enough to hide will do fine for now, there are quite a few in this forest. It's the perfect moment to eat a bite, even if the character's Hunger needs are almost full. It also helps with recovery, whether it's HP or stamina.
The minimap's counter stays at zero, and the woods are quiet as always. Sure, it's early to talk about long-term experiences, but it was the first I saw players out here. Apart from getting caught in the crossfire, they almost gave me a heart attack.
It's odd, but my stupid brain didn't even consider running into people near the village before. Farming the zombie spawn points seemed like an easy way to get Exp, yet thinking about it now, it was quite risky.
They are outside the perimeter, so no Guardian Angels would come to save me. I only thought about this after DragonSlayer brought me to the bandit camp. It should have set a red flag when half of the spawns had already cleared out whenever I got there.
It also made me wonder earlier, Selena mentioned farms that the zombies attacked. Yet, I only found a road cutting through Origin from east to west, and a dense forest surrounding the village. So where are those farms? And the houses that Wrodditor mentioned.
Did the devs terraform the whole village in one of their patches, or are they further out? Is it because the character didn't reach the tenth level and can't travel yet? CineMraft has so many mysteries, that it is hard to figure out where to start asking the questions.
For now, it should be 'what to do next?' The stash is another half a kilometer away, and the bandit camp is another half beyond that. With the escalation plan, there is some extra time on my hands. Plenty of loot is still waiting for me to haul it over and sort them out.
There are things to experiment with too. Like that heavy bow, how different equipment behaves, and how much stamina they need. Then the spawns are also near for the extra experience points if the air is clear.
After all, even though it's rare, my best items were all dropped from zombies. Pondering helps refill my stamina too. Those twenty seconds felt like an eternity while waiting for the timer to run out during the ambush. Lying down now, these five minutes go by so fast.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The status effect disappears and the character almost completely recovers. The main reason why fighting zombies might be a good idea is to get used to the light swings and the stress. Build up some muscle memory, or a fighting habit.
Even though I practiced it right before the ambush, the bandit got a heavy stab from me, decapitating him. It was lucky since my aim was all over the place and if he had the shield and sword equipped, he could have blocked me.
Then there would have been no time for a second strike, not one of those heavy ones anyway. Still, the panic and adrenaline almost made me throw my sword at him, hoping for the best. This is what the tutorial said too. Practice is worth more than stacking stats.
YouCube must be full of HEMA videos and fencing tutorials. They have everything after all. It's time to get serious and learn how to fight before one of those close calls turns into a full restart. Not while outside the village and trying to avoid contact of course.
No. Let's check on those spawns instead and hope, that no other players show up. Then move on to the eastern ones, organize my stash, and see what might be useful from the bandit's camp. Do players carry around tents? Aren't they too heavy for adventuring?
As Selena pointed out there are pack animals in the game too but what happens when the owner dies? Do they run away with the loot or drop it in place? There wasn't a single horse or donkey in the starter village. Are they invisible, like an inventory extension?
Too many questions and the fact that there's an in-game browser that's too risky to open out here kills me. It would kill me if I didn't notice someone sneaking up on me while reading up on stuff, so let's leave it for later.
The first spawn looks deserted, no monsters or players nearby, and it's still not getting dark. The second one has four zombies, which is also strange. These points come in pairs so why would players clear one but not the other?
One fetching quest took me to suck a place before, yet those are no longer valid missions, so what is going on? Glancing around, there are no obvious hiding spots and the counter is still on zero, so it should be okay to clear it.
"Hello green ones, would you mind a little fencing?" As usual, they only react after the first strike, so a light and precise one takes them out immediately. Despite that debacle near the dungeon and the recent ambush, they no longer make my heart throb.
Whether it's a good or a bad thing, they attempt a slow counter-attack, and one more goes down before they even turn. Yes, these precision strikes work wonders on them, and they aren't tiring at all. The shield blocks the claws of the closest one, and the second is too far.
"Come on, lads, look how gentle I am with you." A clean stab into the heart, and the third one turns into pixels too. It's like day and night, if I can keep my cool, this fighting style would be amazing. They are large, slow, and easy to hit.
The last one loses its head before it can reach me. I expected he'd survive another strike, yet the rusty sword deals way more damage than the old wooden one. And my stamina bar is almost full, they didn't even make me break a sweat.
"Okay, I could get used to this. This is more of my Jazz than slashing around like a berserker." Saying that while doing it all the time might be pretentious, but it's all one big experiment. The system has a steep learning curve with minimal pointers on what to do.
I'm up for the challenge, it pisses me off when I can't master something on the first try. Once their crystals are in my inventory, let's study jogging to the eastern spawn next.