Note: This chapter has not gone to my editors and events may change before final release. The below is also unedited and in a raw non-polished form.
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When the lights cleared, Toaby found himself standing on the same spot of rough packed dirt he first entered Midgard on. The sun was setting, and he contemplated moving away from the forest this time, but if he couldn’t kill a squirrel, he certainly couldn’t kill anything that was hiding in the mountains. With his mind made up, he headed back into the forest, but before he could deal with his archenemy, he had another problem to deal with. His stomach growled loudly.
First things first. I need to eat. He looked around for anything edible when he spotted an icon of an apple next to his health bar. Before focusing on it, he was pleased to see that his wounds were gone and both his health and stamina bars had returned to full. One benefit of dying, I guess.
You are hungry. You will suffer a 10% reduction in experience gained until you satisfy your hunger.
He took a deep breath to stop himself from shouting. I get it. It's a prison, but seriously? Not only do I have to eat, but I feel hungry and I’m getting penalized for it. He thought about just killing another squirrel, but that wouldn’t help. Even if he managed to not die, he had no way of cooking the meat. Could I eat some of these plants?
He rummaged through a patch of grass but found nothing fruitful. That's it! Fruit. He looked around in the trees. After a few minutes of searching, he found a tall tree with a weird oval shaped purple fruit growing from its branches. At least he assumed it was a fruit. It looked like a mix of a pear and a coconut because he could see that it had fur on its tough outer shell.
He had found something he could potentially eat without it eating him back. Hoping he didn’t have to cook the strange fruit, he looked for a way to get at it. The tree was roughly twenty feet tall with most of the fruit being close to the top as the tree didn’t have any low-hanging branches. He looked around for any similar trees he could attempt to gather from but didn’t spot any.
Well. Guess I’m climbing this one then. Wrapping his arms around the tree the best he could, he lifted himself off the ground. He made it a few feet up before his green stamina bar blinked and he lost his grip. Ok, then. I’ll just have to be quicker. Cracking his knuckles, he got ready for another attempt. This time he got a running start and jumped. He easily cleared three or four feet in his sprinting leap, but he also cleared out most of his stamina and fell again.
“What the hell!” He kicked the tree with all of his might.
You deal 2 blunt damage to an Odalon Tree.
He wasn’t sure what an odalon was, but he looked to see if any of the fruit fell loose. Many of them wobbled, but none fell. “Dammit. Just fall!” He gripped his weapons out of anger, ready to slash at the tree, but he paused. These are meant to be used as throwing weapons, right?
Taking a few steps away from the tree, he located a fruit near the end of a branch and with little foliage. He didn’t want his weapon to get stuck up in the tree when he missed, after all. He threw one at a time, that way he could use his second weapon to free the first if need be.
He tossed his francisca up at the fruit. His stamina dipped by a point as he did, but his attack actually hit! Nice! The odalon jostled and came crashing down alongside his axe.
“Shit!” He jumped to the side to dodge both the weapon and the hard fruit. Score! I got one.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill Throwing Mastery.
Throwing Mastery: You learned how to throw things. Something your ape ancestors learned a long time ago. Aren’t you feeling smart? Provides a 1% accuracy bonus per skill level.
Score again! A new skill. A little crude of a message, though. I’ll have to ask Heimdall about that and how skills work next time I die. But now, it’s time to eat! Toaby looked at his spoils. The fruit did indeed have the general shape of a pear, but with an outer shell similar to a coconut. Hair and all. Picking it up, he looked for a way to peal it open.
You have received Odalon Fruit x1.
Odalon Fruit - Ingredient
A sweet fruit used in cooking. Can be consumed raw.
2/2 Durability
Not the information I was hoping for, but at least I know I won’t die from eating it. Thinking back to when his family went on a cruise and how they enjoyed coconuts on the beach, his heart hurt. I have to stay focused on bringing down Techavant. Can’t think about the wife right now. He did his best to think of anyone or anything else, but his wife’s face was burned into his mind. The image of her bloody body in his arms. His fist clenched tightly around the odalon.
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“AHHHHH!” He smashed it hard against the side of the tree. Not once, but over and over. Screaming in a mad emotional frenzy, he just kept smashing. The fruit didn’t last long, its outer shell being as thin as it was. By the time the rage left him, the fruit was mush in his hand. Its juices ran down his forearm.
He picked the best looking bits of fruit out of the mush and tossed them into his mouth. The odalon was just as described, extremely sweet, but that didn’t bother Toaby. Just the opposite, he thought it was great tasting.
Resolved to get another, he took aim and threw his axe. He missed, but luckily his axe didn’t get caught up in the tree. Another few tosses produced a couple odalon, and a welcomed system message.
Congratulations! You have increased your Throwing Mastery skill to 2.
After eating his fill, the hunger icon disappeared. He had one odalon left, so he tucked it into his belt and proceeded deeper into the forest. While the day was productive, night had come upon him.
One thing Toaby forgot about was just how dark the night could get without civilization. He was hoping the moon would light his path, but the forest had become too dense. The tree’s foliage prevented most of the moonlight from bleeding through. After stumbling into his third object, he stopped for the night. He was getting tired anyway.
Doing his best to locate a large tree, he slumped to the ground. Leaning against the trunk, he closed his eyes. His eyes immediately flew open when he heard wolves howling.
If a squirrel ruins my day, how am I going to survive a wolf? He looked around pleadingly. Desperate to spot anything in the darkness that could aid him. Nothing was jumping out as helpful, but he thought he spotted some light between a pair of trees.
Edging closer, it was indeed a light. Even from this distance, he could tell it was some form of campfire. He was still too far away to see much of anything or if anyone was at the campfire but he picked up his pace. Running, he waved his arms in the air and shouted out. “Hello. Is anyone there?”
A man came into view and frantically held his hands up. He was gesturing for Toaby to stop moving. Toaby was too excited by the sight of another person, so he ignored the instructions and kept running.
Unfortunately for him, by running he was producing a lot of noise. Trampling leaves, breaking twigs, and stomping the ground with his sturdy booths. That noise prevented him from hearing the growling come from all around him. The wolves attacked descended upon him. He only glimpsed them before he received a familiar system notification.
A Wild Forest Wolf has bit you for 11 piercing damage.
You have suffered a Minor Wound.
A Wild Forest Wolf has bit you for 10 piercing damage.
You have suffered a Major Wound.
You have died! You got a new record this time. You lasted a couple of hours! And let's be honest. Dieing from a wolf is much better than a squirrel. Good job, you.
A kaleidoscope of rainbow lights filled his vision for the briefest of moments before clearing and revealing Heimdall’s garden. Once he had control of his faculties again, his system message updated.
You have died, and Heimdall has judged you.
You have lost 2 experience and have received a death time of 30 minutes. You may skip your death timer if you pay double experience loss.
Toaby turned his head on a swivel until he found what he was looking for. Heimdall was standing near the edge of his garden, looking out into empty space. Toaby strolled over and tapped him on the back.
“Yes, arbiter? How can I be of assistance?” Heimdall didn’t bother turning around. He was focusing on something in the distance.
Toaby followed his gaze but didn’t see anything other a star filled landscape. “What are you looked at?”
“I’m watching some Humans fight on Midgard. You will be pleased to know that the men you were about to interact with managed to slay the wolf that killed you. You were a fantastic distraction for their hunt.”
“That doesn’t really make me feel better, but that does remind me. What’s going on with all these rude messages?”
Heimdall turned to face him. “Rude messages?”
“Yeah. I haven’t gotten a lot of them, but they’re a bit annoying.”
“Can you give me an example?”
“When I died, I received a message congratulating me on dieing to a wolf instead of a squirrel. Also, when I learned my new throwing mastery skill. I got a message comparing me to an ape.”
Heimdall chuckled. “That would be Loki. Among our normal duties, we Gods split up the responsibility of creating the messages people receive. He tends to be more… mocking with his descriptions. It can be quite boring writing thousands of messages to people. It’s all in good fun.”
“Who created the messages for my original skills? Those were well written and polite.”
“That would be Forseti. He created all the descriptions for the arbiter position.”
“Forseti? Why him?”
“He’s the god of justice. He created the arbiter class.”
Toaby’s eyes went wide. “Then why haven’t I met him? Shouldn’t he have been the one to offer me the class?”
Heimdall shook his head. “As I said. We all have our roles to play. Among mine is the initial judgment of new Humans and class assignment.”
“Well, can I meet him? If he created the arbiter class, doesn’t that make him my boss or something?”
“You will. You must prove yourself a good arbiter first.”
“Why does that matter? No offense, but shouldn’t he be the one telling me all this?”
“He’s not strong enough to make contact.” Toaby cocked his head. “Forseti manages justice in all the realms. Most of the realms are fairly lacking in that department. Most of his power came from the order in Midgard. When Midgard was repopulated with the reincarnated souls of criminals, his power faded. The greater the justice and order, the more powerful he becomes.”
“And the lack of any order or justice in Midgard is zapping his power.” Toaby slowly nodded. “So the better the Arbiter I become, the more powerful Forseti gets?”
“That is a little oversimplifying the situation, but you could look at that way. He will make contact with you when he is able.”
“Ok. I just have to keep learning new skills and enforcing the law of the land. And!” He said excitingly. “I met some Humans. Who knows, maybe they’re halfway decent.”
“That’s a possibility. I suppose.”
Congratulations! You have increased your Truth Seeker skill to 2.
Toaby eyed Heimdall. “You know I can tell when you’re lying, right? Are they not good people?”
“Look at that. Your death timer is up.” Heimdall waved a hand and Toaby was reborn.
He screamed as the rainbow lights took him. “I still have a lot of questions about Midgard and skills! Wait!”