Chapter 4
It took thirty minutes of the automaton beating the crap out of me for me to learn guard. I had just taken a hit to my head and fallen over. The automaton paused when I fell so I proceeded to pick myself up. As I did, multiple blue boxes appeared in front of me.
Due to constant effort the skill ‘Basic Boxing: Guard’ has been learned
[Basic Boxing: Guard: lvl 1 (0/100)]
The following skills ‘Basic: Boxing Guard, Basic Boxing: Hook, and Basic Boxing: Jab,’ have combined to form the skill ‘Basic Boxing Punches’
The following skills ‘Basic Boxing Punches and Boxing Footwork Basics’ have combined to form the skill ‘Basic Boxing’
Due to skills combining, you have learned ‘Basic Boxing’
[Basic Boxing lvl 1 (0/200)]
Quest ‘Boxing Training III’ Complete
Reward: Basic Boxing: Guard, Basic Boxing
I excitedly started reading the information and let my guard down. I received a punch to the face for that mistake. I had set the combat system to only allow boxes to appear outside of combat and since the automaton had stopped fighting, that was enough for the boxes to appear but the automaton continued its fight after ten-seconds, just like Sergeant Guff had programmed.
“Stop!” I yelled out as I stumbled backward. When I did, the automaton immediately halted and went into a sort of standby mode. It withdrew its fist and then stood ramrod straight, its arms by its side.
I then approached Sergeant Guff. “Sergeant, I finished learning the boxing skill.”
He nodded. “Good, good. I can see from the bruises on your face that you learned it the hard way. Now that you have learned the skill, you can see the special abilities it gives you by saying ‘Skill List.’ From this window, you can see all the skills you have and what they do. Also, you can choose to learn some special moves for a price. Would you like to see the available skills?”
Hmm. This must be like the quickshot skill Arya learned. “That sounds tempting, but let me view my skills first and I’ll decide afterward.”
Sergeant Guff nodded. “No hurry young man, think it through. Just come to me and ask to view ‘Basic Boxing Special Skills’ to choose one in the future.” I nodded. This would obviously help the AI to cut down on processing speed. It was just another subtle hint that this was a game and not another world.
Anyways, it was time to see what bonus the boxing skill did. Arya said her archery skill gave her a 10% increase in arrow firing speed, 10% damage, and let her recover 50% of her arrows as loot. I wonder what Boxing would give? Time to find out. “Skill List.” Immediately, a blue screen appeared in front of me.
Skill List
Active Skills:
[Avatar of Fire (Racial Skill) lvl 1 (max)]
[Body Transformation (Racial Skill) lvl 1 (max)]
Passive Skills:
[Basic Boxing lvl 1 (0/200)]
[Earth Body (Racial Skill) lvl 1 (4/100)]
Huh? Was that all? There wasn’t even a basic description! I tried mentally selecting the boxing skill and it expanded.
Basic Boxing: The first steps in boxing have been learned. 10% increase in damage dealt with fists, attacks blocked with guard do 10% less damage, and 5% increase in critical strike damage dealt with fists.
Critical strike damage. In other games it was determined by the computer, I wondered how it worked here in Virtual Fantasy. Another question for Guff then. Sighing, I dismissed the screen and approached the Sergeant. “Hey Guff, how does critical damage work?”
Sergeant Guff glanced up at me and grinned. “Ah yes, that. Well you see boy, critical damage is defined as damage done to vulnerable parts of an opponent’s body. You can calculate it by adding your strength and luck points together. Critical hits cannot be reduced by armor so if you hit an opponent in the head, no matter how much armor they have, you will still do full damage. Of course, this only applies if you make contact with the opponent’s actual skull and not their helmet.
Currently, my stats were
Strength: 13(11) Agility: 10
Dexterity: 5 Vitality: 11
Wisdom: 10 Intellect: 21(11)
Stamina: 0(10) Luck: 10
According to what Sergeant Guff said. My critical hit damage would be 23 in my elemental form and 21 in my elf form. Pretty nice. However, I still needed some clarification. “So Sergeant Guff, what are some examples of vulnerable parts?”
“Well, let’s see.” Sergeant Guff put his hand on his chin to think. “On a human there’s the head and heart, on slimes and elementals there’s their core, and of course on birdmen, there’s the wings. Those are only some examples. Each monster and race is unique though if you swing for the head, you’ll be right 90% of the time. The other 10% is monsters that have a specific weakness like the cores or are simply invulnerable to physical damage.”
I nodded. At least luck wasn’t some abstract concept that vaguely influenced calculations behind the scenes. I mean, what kind of game designer would put something as abstract as luck into a game? No, it had to do something concrete like critical damage. I did remember that it influenced loot drops but by how much? I was a numbers man, vague sentences like that wasn’t going to convince me.
It seemed like a good stat for assassins to have though. Being able to neglect all armor was a real boon to that kind of fighter. Anyways, it was a stat that I wasn’t really interested in. Now that I had figured out what everything did, it was time to see the available special skills.
“Sergeant, I would like to see the Basic Boxing Special Skills.”
The Sergeant smiled. “Alright boy. I have three types of skills for you to choose. Go ahead and take a look and if you want a demonstration or have further questions just ask.” He waved his hand and a blue screen appeared in front of me.
Basic Boxing Special Skills
Strong Punch: At the cost of 2 stamina, the next punch belonging to the ‘Basic Boxing’ skill will do twice as much damage as normal. Cooldown: 30 seconds
Stiff Guard: At the cost of 1 stamina, the user takes 0 damage from the next physical attack blocked with guard. Cooldown: 10 seconds
Fighting Spirit: At the cost of 5 stamina, do 30% more damage for the next 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes
Hmm. They’re basic but pretty strong. Fighting spirit is definitely useful for long fights, but it has a long cooldown time. Strong punch and stiff guard were both good for one-on-one fights or at least, taking out an opponent quickly. I decided, if I could choose one of the skills, it would be fighting spirit. If I could pick a second it would be strong punch and stiff guard was also good for defense
“Sergeant Guff, I choose fighting spirit.”
He held out his hand. “Alright then. The cost for that skill is eight coppers.”
The skill was certainly worth that, but I wanted to make sure that I could buy a sword though. I shook my head. “I changed my mind. Sergeant, could you teach me the longsword now?”
Sergeant Guff nodded. “Of course son. Come on over here and we’ll get you fit with an appropriate longsword.”
He led me over to the rack of weapons while I was still in my earth elemental form. Sergeant Guff looked at me before looking back at the weapons. “Well son, I’m afraid that none of the weapons here will match ya. I’ll have to go back to the specialty weapons to find one that suits ya.” I followed him as he walked over to a shed at the edge of the practice field that I hadn’t noticed before.
He opened it up, revealing an odd assortment of weapons. “You see, we often have travelers that are more… unique, than others. An example would be a dwarf. If one wishes to wield a longsword, it needs to be shorter than our normal ones or a pixie since their only a foot tall at most. They use something like needles for swords, truly weird those folks. Anyways, here you are.”
He pulled out the sword. It was slim, around two-inches wide and four foot long. I picked it up. It was well balanced. I swung it a couple times. It was somewhere between the greatsword and longsword I had previously used. The handle was the right size for my hand and while I couldn’t swing it as fast as the first longsword, it was still far faster than the greatsword. I nodded at Sergeant Guff. “Thanks. This is a far better sword than the ones I tried to use earlier.”
He laughed. “Of course it is! Those are meant for slim elves, not hulking elementals like you!” He knocked his fist on my rocky side. “Next we need to pick a shield. A buckler would be a nice pick for a longsword. It’ll be small but sturdy, light too.”
He ruffled through the shed before picking a circular shield, 2-foot in diameter. “This is a buckler. It’s not meant for protection from projectiles, though you can use it like that. It’s meant to be used for melee combat and batting your opponent’s sword. A normal buckler’s only 1-foot but since you’re so big, I figured you could use one bigger than normal. Here, try it on.”
He held out the small shield to me. It had a metal grip on the back. I held it in my hand, the flat end facing to the left of my fist like you saw in the movies. Sergeant Guff laughed. “No no no. You’re supposed to put it on like this.”
He grabbed it from me and put it on his left hand. This time, the flat end was parallel with his fist. It was more like brass knuckles, just wider. Sergeant Guff gave it to me and I put it on. He grinned. “Now that you are equipped, I’ll teach you the tricks of a longsword.”
I groaned but followed him as he went to the now familiar dummies. It looked as though I was going to have to train for a while longer.
It was long, just like I thought. It took close to three hours for me to learn Basic Swordplay (Longsword) and Basic Shield Play (Buckler). Before we began, Sergeant Guff had informed me that I could learn the longsword skill without the shield, but that it wasn’t recommended. Who was I to go against the experienced soldier? I decided to learn both. I remembered that I had wanted to learn the spear and bow as well. Based on how much time I had spent just learning the three skills I had already, I decided I had to skip them. Honestly, at this point, I wanted to kill something. Anything besides just training. I wanted to play the game!
Anyways, back to the training. For the longsword skill, it went just like learning the boxing skill. First I was taught the stance to hold the longsword and shield. Then I was taught Thrust, Slash, and Parry for sword skills. For shield skills, I was simply taught Deflect and Bash.
Bash was actually classified as a punch using the shield as a weapon which allowed me to use the boxing skills. Quite interesting really. Deflect was essentially me slanting my shield so that the blow would pass by me. Some of the damage still bled through but it was done to my shield instead which reduced its durability. Sergeant Guff warned me about keeping an eye on my shields durability since it could be destroyed by an enemy attack.
Thrust was using the tip of the sword and stabbing forward. Useful for stabbing from afar. Slash was, of course, slashing with the sword. Parry was just that, parrying the enemy's blade away. I actually had the most trouble learning that skill since I had to learn how to parry thrusts as well. Being skewered by a sword when I missed was not fun, even if it didn’t hurt. The skills were worth it though.
Skill List
Active Skills:
[Avatar of Fire (Racial Skill) lvl 1 (max)]
[Body Transformation (Racial Skill) lvl 1 (max)]
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Passive Skills:
[Basic Boxing lvl 1 (0/200)]
[Basic Shield Work (Buckler) lvl 1 (0/200)]
[Basic Swordplay (Longsword) lvl 1 (0/200)]
[Earth Body (Racial Skill) lvl 1 (4/100)]
Basic Shield Work (Buckler): The first steps in shield work have been learned. Shield can deflect certain magical attacks and 10% increase in damage dealt with shields.
Basic Swordplay (Longsword): The first steps in swordplay have been learned. 10% increase in damage dealt with swords, 10% increase in swinging speed, and 5% increase in critical strike damage dealt with swords.
The sword skill was very similar to the boxing skill I received. The shield bonus was a true boon though. Inwardly, I was a little nervous since a sword didn’t seem like a good defense against magic. With the shield skill, I now had a chance to block magic. It truly took a load off me.
I decided to check out the special skills for the shield and longsword skills.
Basic Swordplay Special Skills
Strong Slash: At the cost of 2 stamina, the next attack belonging to the ‘Basic Swordplay’ skill will do twice as much damage as normal. Cooldown: 30 seconds
Sharp Blade: At the cost of 3 stamina, the next attack belonging to the ‘Basic Swordplay’ skill will cause a bleeding status effect. The effect is activated only if the enemy takes damage. Cooldown: 1 minute
Fighting Spirit: At the cost of 5 stamina, do 30% more damage for the next 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes
Basic Shield Work Special Skills
Shield Bash: At the cost of 2 Stamina, the next attack done with a shield will stun the opponent. Cooldown: 45 seconds.
Tough Shield: At the cost of 2 Stamina, the next attack blocked by the shield will not damage the shield’s durability
Spiky Shield: At the cost of 5 stamina, return 30% of the damage the shield received for the next 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes
Again, these skills were infinitely useful, though I was seeing a pattern. Sharp blade was a terrifying skill at the moment simply because it guaranteed 50 damage on the target. Right now, I only had 55 health. If I was hit by that skill, it was a certain death. Of course, it only did 50 damage. Once I reached a higher level, it would probably not even make a dent in my health, not to mention I could block it with my shield so it wouldn’t even take effect.
Speaking of my shield… shield bash was definitely a control skill, but it was only really useful on opponents close to my level. Tough shield was good for blocking a single powerful attack, and if regular games were any indicator, it would be useful in a boss fight. Spiky shield was really useful but it cost a lot of stamina as well. I only had 10 stamina and it would immediately cut me down to half of that. I guess if I was being attacked a lot at once it would be nice to have. If something like a Gatling Gun attacked me and I returned 30% of the bullets, it would be a nice surprise. For me.
Anyways, it was time to make a choice. What special skill would I learn? I asked Sergeant Guff and all of the skills cost eight coppers. Considering I only had ten, I could only choose one. Which one would I choose? Sharp blade of course!
Beginner monsters had low health points and with the skill, it was a pretty much one hit kill. It was definitely a great skill to have at the beginning since I could end the fight with one blow, though it would take awhile before it came into effect. It was a great skill to power-level with. I went over to Sergeant Guff. “Sergeant, can I buy the Sharp Blade skill from the Basic Swordplay Special Skills?”
Sergeant Guff nodded. “Of course you can. Eight copper please.” He held out his hand. Reaching into the money pouch beside me, I fished out the eight copper and paid the Sergeant. He counted them and stuck it into his pocket.
You have paid ‘Sergeant Guff’ eight copper coins to learn the skill ‘Sharp Blade’
[Sharp Blade lvl 1 (0/100)]
“Alright, Sharp Blade is now in your Skills. Now that you have learned the skill, you can see the special abilities it gives you by saying ‘Skill List.’ From this window, you can see all the skills you have and what they do.”
“Skill List.” I definitely wanted to check out my new skill.
Skill List
Active Skills:
[Avatar of Fire (Racial Skill) lvl 1 (max)]
[Body Transformation (Racial Skill) lvl 1 (max)]
[Sharp Blade lvl 1 (0/100)]
Passive Skills:
[Basic Boxing lvl 1 (0/200)]
[Basic Shield Work (Buckler) lvl 1 (0/200)]
[Basic Swordplay (Longsword) lvl 1 (0/200)]
[Earth Body (Racial Skill) lvl 1 (4/100)]
Cool. I can’t wait to try this out. As I studied my skill, Sergeant Guff started talking. “You can also buy a weapon if you want.”
I nodded. “I think I’ll buy a longsword and buckler of the same make as I have now. How much would it cost?”
Sergeant Guff looked at them for a second before nodding. “You can buy your current equipment. 1 copper for the sword and 1 copper for the shield for 2 copper in all or you can buy a real sword and shield for 20 copper.”
I winced. “Sorry Sarge, I’ll have to buy the training sword and buckler.” After I paid I decided to ask for a quest. Never too early to get one and I had no idea what else I could do. “Sergeant, do you know if there is anything I can do to earn some money around here?” He should have some kind of task. If not, I could ask Arya.
Sergeant Guff scratched his head. “Well, now that you mention it. I heard that Farmer John at the end of the road was having a problem with wolves. How about you check it out? I think he’ll pay well.”
“Thanks Sergeant Guff.” He pointed out the way to John’s farm and I quickly set out, my [Training Longsword (Common): 2 damage] and [Training Buckler (Common): 20 durability, 1 damage] equipped.
I walked down the road and noticed how the houses became farther and farther apart. I could tell I was reaching the edge of the town. Soon, I came across a large red barn. A man in worn cotton clothes was using a hoe to till the ground in front of the barn. After the ground was broken up, the man reached into a leather pouch around his waist. He scattered some sort of seed on the ground before moving on, continuing his farming.
I approached the man. “Hello! Are you Farmer John?”
The man startled and turned towards me, his hoe raised up as though to defend himself. When he saw me he didn’t relax. “I’m John. Whadda ya want?”
I raised my hands. “Whoa. Don’t do anything stupid. Sergeant Guff sent me, he said you had a problem with wolves.”
Farmer John relaxed. He rested the hoe on the ground and smiled at me meekly. “Sorry ‘bout that. I know everyone in town and the only strangers we get are otherworlders and bandits. Otherworlders are just as likely to be bandits too.” He spat on the ground. “Anyways, I do have a problem with wolves. Killed some of my sheep in the back. If you kill some of ‘em I’ll be mightily obliged. I’ll pay five copper for each wolf killed, though you gotta kill at least two of ‘em fore I pay ya.” A blue screen appeared in front of me.
Sheep Killer I
You have been asked to hunt at least 2 wolves
Difficulty Level: D, Quest failed upon rejection of hunting
Reward: 10 copper and 5 copper for each additional wolf
Penalty: None
Accept Quest: Yes/No
A scaled quest? Seems as though I’ll have to kill as many wolves as possible in order to get some money. Then I can buy some more skills and proper equipment. I accepted the quest and nodded to John. “Just leave it to me, I’ll kill them for you.”
I went to the back and saw a wooden fence surrounding a field filled with sheep. I opened the gate and closed it behind me. I walked to the middle of the field. Before I reached it though, I heard a growl and sheep bleating. I looked at the sound and saw a wolf. It was about the size of a normal wolf so nothing abnormal there. Its fur was gray and scruffy. I could see the ribs of the wolf. Must be why they were attacking the sheep. I would have to give the developers a raise when I finished playing, they really outdid themselves.
The wolf was ignoring me and chasing one of the sheep. I tried to run after the wolf but it was too fast. I dropped my longsword and picked up some rocks. I threw one, miss. I threw another. It was a hit! The wolf stopped and faced me. I saw saliva dripping out of its mouth as it snarled at me. I gulped. This thing was scary. My rational mind overcame my fear though. This thing was just bits of data, packets of information. It wasn’t a real wolf. Funny, I came here to live in a world of magic, yet the thing I reassured myself with was the fact that the world wasn’t real.
The wolf started to run at me. I picked up my longsword. I fell into the stance that Sergeant Guff had drilled into me. It was comforting. I studied it as it ran towards me. Level 5 Starving Wolf 100/100 hp. Crap. This was way out of my range. I gripped my sword tightly before loosening it. This was just a game. If I died, oh well. The level was just a suggestion. Besides, the wolf was only five feet away, I couldn’t run away even if I wanted to.
The wolf leaped at me, fangs bared. I side jumped, avoiding its jump. I swung my sword backhanded, landing a glancing blow on its shoulder. 84/100 hp. It seemed as though I might be able to kill it after all! Normally I would have done 15 damage but I did an extra 1.5 damage due to the longsword skill. The .5 was left out allowing me to do 16 damage. Not great, but every little bit helps.
I landed on my feet and the wolf landed behind me. I spun around only to be greeted by the fangs of the oncoming wolf. It had leaped again! “Sharp Blade!” I slashed at the wolf, hitting it on the head. 57/100 hp. My critical damage was 25 with a +2 damage bonus from the sword skill allowing me to do 27 damage! The wolf now had a red teardrop behind its hp bar. Its hp bar was no longer the vibrant green it had been when I first saw it but now it was a sickly yellow. The wolf took the blow, its head now had a red slash through it where I had hit it with the blade. The wolf crashed into me, making me fall. Its jaws clamped down on my throat, startling me.
33/55 hp. Instantly, my hp dropped by 22 points. These wolves weren’t as strong as I had feared! I stabbed the wolf twice in its side with my blade as it bit my throat. 36/100, 31/100, 4/100 hp. The one in the middle must have been because of the bleed effect. The wolf howled and jumped off me. I got to my feet. I could see the red line on the wolf’s face from where I had slashed it. It pulsed once and then the wolf staggered and fell. That must have been the bleed indicator, every time it pulsed the wolf would take 5 damage. Since its health was already at 4 hp, it had died from the bleed effect.
I started to approach the wolf and a blue screen appeared in front of me.
Congratulations! You have killed a ‘Level 5 Starving Wolf!’
You dealt 100% of the damage. Due to the level gap, you receive four times the normal amount of xp and receive 80 xp.
Previous: lvl 1 (80/100) Current: lvl 2 (0/110)
Sweet! I did kinda cheat by asking one of the developers about the equation for each levels xp. I figured it was common knowledge and wouldn’t give me a leg up in-game. The equation was 100+10x^2 where x is the previous level. So level 3 would be 140 xp and level 4 would be 190 xp. Level 10 would be 910 xp. A normal wolf only gave 20 xp so it would take 13 wolves to go from level 5 to level 6. Sheesh. I just needed to find a second wolf and I’d be level 2.
Now. How did the loot system work? I poked the wolf curiously and its body started to dissolve into white light. What was left behind was two strips of fur, an ear, and a chunk of raw meat. I touched the strip of fur hesitantly.
The system has detected your activation of the loot system. Would you like a guide?
Choose: Yes/No
I immediately chose yes.
Loot System: The loot system is how loot is given in-game. In order to gain loot, touch the corpse of the defeated enemy. The corpse will dissolve and leave behind the loot items. By touching one of the items and saying ‘add to inventory,’ you can place the item inside your inventory space.
I dismissed the screen. I decided to try out a hunch of mine. “Inventory.” A blue screen with a grid on it appeared in front of me. It was currently a 2x2 table with nothing inside. I touched the two wolf fur strips. “Add to inventory.” The wolf fur strips dissolved into white light. An icon of the wolf fur now filled one of my slots with a small x2 in the bottom right corner of the image. That was definitely useful. Though the small amount of inventory tabs was going to make it a hassle. I put the raw meat and wolf ear inside the inventory as well.
I stood up and started to look around for more wolves. I heard a growl coming from right behind me. I turned and saw two wolves facing me. Crap. I forgot that wolves are inherently pack animals. Of course there would be groups of them. I must have gotten lucky last time and found one by itself. I don’t think I could face two of them at once, especially since I only had 33 hp.
They crept closer to me, not running at me like the last one. One of them startled to circle around me, attempting to get behind me. If they did, it wouldn’t be good. “Sharp Edge.” Now I was prepared. I waited as the small 30-second countdown in my upper right vision disappeared. It only had ten seconds left when the wolf that was circling around me was almost out of my vision. I couldn’t wait any longer, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to react if the wolf sneak attacked me. I jumped forward, thrusting my sword at the wolf in front of me. It struck the wolf directly in the neck and went up to the hilt of the sword. 73/100 hp.
The wolf howled in pain and bit my arm. The red mark where I had stabbed my sword pulsed red. 68/100 hp. I ripped the sword sideways out of the wolf’s body. 41/100 hp. The wolf was flung sideways. I turned around to see the second wolf leaping at me. I punched outwards with a jab using the shield. The wolf bit the shield, holding onto it. I slammed the shield into the ground. 85/100 hp. I then stabbed the wolf in the belly. 69/100 hp. I saw the timer go out. “Sharp Blade!” The wolf was still biting my shield, allowing me to stab it in the head. 42/100 hp.
I used the shield to throw the wolf sideways and sprinted away. I looked back at the wolf I had stabbed the first time. 21/100 hp. The other wolf was now at 37/100 hp. The first wolf had a small red cut on its neck. The second wolf had a small cut almost directly beside its left ear. Both of their wounds would occasionally pulse dropping their health by 5 hp. Both of the wolves were on their feet now and were running at me. Drool could be seen around their mouths as they bared their teeth at me as they ran.
With their health, they would be killed by the bleed status soon. No need to worry about them for now. Instead, I turned around and started running away from them. I could hear their panting behind me as I ran. It was getting closer, and closer. One of the wolves let out a yelp. It must have been the wolf that had been low on health. That meant that it had been five seconds. It would take three more seconds for the other wolf to die. I suddenly flew forward as something hit me in the back. I felt a pinching sensation on my back and my health dropped. 14/55 hp. I rolled, trying to dislodge the wolf. I felt its body stiffen when I rolled over it and the pinching sensation disappeared.
Congratulations! You have killed ‘Level 5 Starving Wolf’ x2!
You dealt 100% of the damage. Due to the level gap, you receive four times the normal amount of xp and receive 160 xp.
Previous: lvl 1 (80/100) Current: lvl 3 (30/140)
You have leveled up x2!
Gain 10 free status points, 2 strength, 2 vitality, and 2 intelligence.
To assign free status points, say ‘Status Window.’
My health went from 14/55 hp to 24/65 hp. Great, so the additional hp was added, but the already depleted hp wasn’t replaced. I stood up and saw the dead wolf below me. Looking back, I saw the other wolf around 5 yards away. I touched the wolf’s corpse below me. 1 wolf ear and 1 raw meat. Storing them in my inventory, I went to the other wolf corpse and checked it for loot. 1 wolf ear, 1 wolf pelt, and 1 wolf tooth. Now my inventory had 3 wolf ears, 2 raw meat, 3 wolf pelts, and 1 wolf tooth. With my low health, I would die if I ran into another wolf. I immediately started running for the gate.
I was almost there when I heard growls. I quickly glanced back and saw three hungry wolves. I was so not ready for this fight. I hurried on towards the gate and opened it, closing it swiftly behind me. The wolves watched me go and didn’t chase me, instead they started hunting the sheep. Why fight something that’s already leaving?
I leaned against the gate and sighed. Earning money sure was hard. If I hadn’t had the Sharp Blade skill or had mana replace my stamina, I would have been dead! I wasn’t sure what the exact penalty was for dying, but I didn’t want to find out right now. I went over to Farmer John who was still tilling. He saw me and straightened his back. “Hello again. Did ya kill some of the wolves?”
I nodded. “Sure did, I killed three of them.”
Farmer John smiled. “Good. Give me the wolf ears to prove you killed them and I’ll give you the 15 copper I owe ya.”
Ah. I thought it was weird that all of the wolves had dropped wolf ears, so it turned out they were a quest item. “Withdraw three Wolf Ears from inventory.” I decided to follow one of my hunches. White light filled my palm before disappearing, revealing three wolf ears that were now in my hand. “Here you go Farmer John.”
The old farmer took them and looked at them for a second. “Good, they’re genuine.” He fished into his pockets and pulled out something. “Here ya go, all ta’ money I owe ya.” I took the money from his palms and a blue screen appeared in front of me.
Quest ‘Sheep Killer I’ Complete
Reward: 15 copper
Farmer John started talking. “It’s weird that so many wolves are appearing in my fields. Maybe ya could see if I have a hole in my fence and kill some wolves while you're at it? Same reward as last time but I’ll pay ya twenty copper if you find a hole in the fence.”
Sheep Killer II
Farmer John suspects his fence has a hole in it. Find it and kill any wolves you come across.
Difficulty Level: D, Quest failed upon rejection of hunting
Reward: 20 copper and 5 copper for each wolf killed
Penalty: None
Accept Quest: Yes/No
I had almost died once, no way was I going to tempt fate again. “Sorry Farmer John, I have other business to tend to. Maybe I could do it some other time?”
Farmer John shrugged. “I think by then the wolves will be dead or moved on. Best not to come back if you don’t want to kill ‘em now.”
Quest ‘Sheep Killer II’ Rejected
Penalty: None