The Beast
Chapter 5: Cult Hit
A Royal Road Fan Fiction… of sorts
By Halosty
A teary eyed Lailam looked down at Roger.
“I’m sorry I won’t be able to visit you very often for a while. I have finals, so I’m going to be very busy,” she sniffled at this point. She couldn’t bring herself to say much more. “Are you… are you sure you can find food?”
‘I can find food.’ Roger said as he nudged her hand. ‘Don’t worry.’
After Lailam did her magical logoff thing, Roger wondered… ‘final whats?’
Some people used very strange words. Roger didn’t really understand what they meant. However, he knew in this case, Lailam would be gone for a while longer than usual. This would give Roger plenty of time to do things at that “training hall” place.
First, however, he stopped by the vegetable seller’s stall. He had learned that if he wiggled his ears and made cute noises, he got food faster. It did seem to give people weird sparkles in their eyes though. Sometimes they would stare or make weird squealing noises as if they were in pain, but it didn’t hurt Roger, so he was fine with that.
Roger went into a still empty training center. He again started striking these “scarecrow” things. They didn’t even look anything like crows. Then, something a bit different happened. Someone looked into the training center. Very few people even knew about the increases one could gain from the training center, and fewer were willing to go through the process. People also rarely tested their skills on the scarecrows, because it was more practical to do so on monsters most of the time. The person who looked in just happened to be walking by.
Roger didn’t really pay much attention to them, but they seemed to stay and watch for a while. He didn’t think much of the incident and forgot it shortly after they left.
Later, more people showed up, but he couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to them. He was concentrating on learning a new technique. His hop ability, while powerful and quick, left him open at either end of the hop, when he stopped. He was attempting new ways to use it that would allow him to keep moving. Because of this, he was actually moving back and forth between quite a number of the otherwise unused scarecrows.
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Arasel was sitting at her shop in the market. She loved gardening in real life, so though it would be an interesting thing to do in Royal Road. In fact, she was quite happy when tending her vegetables. However, nobody bought them. She couldn’t even do much real adventuring, because nobody wanted to group with a gardener, who had practically no combat capabilities.
She had been planning to quit playing, but then recently a reason to stay around had appeared in Royal Road. He was handsome and charming, as well as mysterious. He liked her vegetables, and often stopped by to see her. He didn’t talk much, but she found his shyness appealing. She could only like him more if he were human, or an elf. Instead, he was just one of the cutest rabbits every. Her eyes sparkled thinking about him.
Then, the sound of people talking took her out of her daydream.
“Hey, did you hear about that rabbit at the training center?”
“Yeah, I hear it’s really cute. I hear it’s hopping around on the heads of the scarecrows.”
“I watched it playing in there, and it’s adorable. I wonder why it’s there, though.”
Arasel knew it had to be the same rabbit. It was only logical, since rabbits generally didn’t come into the city, or really do anything but sitting in the field being experience for low level adventurers. She wanted to go watch him, but she had to run her stall.
Then she thought about it. Her stall was literally useless as it was. It didn’t even matter if it was there, since no one ever bought anything. She packed up her goods, because although nobody would likely steal them, she felt better having them with her. Then, she went to see the training center.
Inside was definitely the same rabbit who visited her stand. A few people were standing around watching him. He appeared to be jumping from head to head of the scarecrows, as she had overheard. Well, it really looked more like bouncing. The cute little rabbit didn’t stop long, as he bounced back and forth between two a couple times, or sometimes in a triangle. After a number of bounces, he would stop and rest on the ground. Arasel thought he looked rather hungry.
She took out a carrot and walked inside. When she got close to him, he turned and looked at her. He quickly came up and nuzzled her hand. She fed him the carrot, and watched him nibble on it. It was really cute. As Arasel walked back out of the training center, she saw some other elven ladies who were watching. It was obvious from their eyes that they, too, could not resist the charm of the rabbit. Then, she got a brilliant idea.
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Roger could not ignore the crowd anymore. Well, he still could have, but he no longer wanted to. At some point, after a visit from the nice vegetable lady, people had started bringing him more food. He had quickly gotten stuffed from all their tasty presents. He worked harder to spend his stamina and thus use up a bit of satiety, just so he could eat more tasty carrots.
*Ding*
You have gained a new skill!
Ravenous Hunter
As long as satiety doesn’t drop below 10%, you can convert satiety directly into stamina. Higher levels will increase the rate of conversion.
Stolen story; please report.
Roger found this to be an excellent ability. He could use his hop ability many times in a row, as well as striking the scarecrows. Then, when his stamina was low, he could convert satiety into stamina to keep going. The best part was, people kept bringing him food. This meant he had almost unlimited stamina. He knew he obviously couldn’t count on this while hunting, but it was a very convenient ability here.
Because of his effectively increased stamina, Roger was able to perform more consecutive uses of hop, until…
A skill has changed!
Hop has become Quick Attack
Beginner level 7
Your powerful legs allow you to leap onto the enemy, and then back off, disorienting it and possibly causing stun. Consecutive uses will use 10% more stamina and cause 10% more damage, up to a total of <7> in one effectively continuous movement.
Damage, stun chance, and jumping height increase with level, stamina cost increases with height and power of jump, but decreases with level.
Number of consecutive jumps increases with level.
This was exactly the kind of skill Roger had been hoping for. It allowed him to make many attacks consecutively, and as long as he was careful with his stamina, he could use it defensively as well.
Roger started practicing Quick Attack, as well as his basic strikes on the scarecrows. Stat increases were still popping out of them, so he had no reason to stop yet… except at night, when he would hunt.
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Arasel was proud of herself. She had found a way to sell her vegetables, although maybe not the way she had originally envisioned when she started out. She was somewhat surprised that the little rabbit wasn’t the size of a cow by now. Then again, she had seen him moving, and all that jumping around must use a lot of energy.
She looked at the crowd of people watching that was constantly changing in size. Although it was mostly women, there were a few male elves there as well. Either those who were there with their girlfriends, or those who were willing to admit that they thought rabbits were cute too. They didn’t have to stick with the traditional view of what was manly, since they were already elves. Nobody could blame them anyway. It was an undeniable fact that this rabbit was cute.
Well, some people denied it. Although it should have been a given, some people didn’t think the rabbit was cute. Some people just didn’t care, while other actively ridiculed the crowd, calling them an obsessed fan club. This didn’t deter them, however. It just gave them a common sense of identity as a fan club. Not all of them were content to just watch, or buy the rabbit carrots. Some of them actually tried out the training center as well. There were plenty of scarecrows to use, so they used some that were away from the rabbit’s rather large area.
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Roger trained during the day, and at night he hunted anything he came across as The Beast. His growth was not terribly quick due to the lack of worthy monsters near the city, but he steadily advanced in both level and basic stats. Then, with one particularly good strike at a scarecrow…
Agility rises by 2 points. (+2 AGI)
Vitality rises by 1 point. (+1 VIT)
Fame rises by 20 point. (+20 FAME)
Health rises by 100 point. (+100 HP)
He had completed the training. The instructor who had been watching him came up to him.
“So, little one. You have completed the training. You are the first one to do so here. You cannot use what the standard reward would be, but I have something for you anyway. I think you might be able to use it.”
The instructor held out a ring. Roger touched it with his nose to determine what it could do.
Wooden Ring
This is a specially made award for being to first to complete the Beginner Training Program in Heartwood.
Equip:
+5 STR
+5 AGI
Special:Adds 5 base damage to natural attacks and unarmed strikes
Roger thought it was a very nice ring to give him strength, agility, and damage. He was just unsure how he could use it. He showed a puzzled look to the instructor, who then slipped it over his paw. It was just big enough. Roger could wear it something like a bracelet. He rubbed it against the floor to make sure it wouldn’t fall off. Then, he thanked the instructor the only way he could. He put off a burst of fighting spirit. The instructor smiled.
Meanwhile, the members of his fan club who had been training felt a sudden chill along one or two more people who had learned of the benefits of the training center. They dropped their weapons, and looked around for what could have caused it. However, all they saw was a tough looking elf talking to a cute little rabbit.
Roger was happy to be done with this training, and was waiting for Lailam to come back soon, so he could move on to a new place.
End Chapter 5: Cult Hit