The Beast
Chapter 6: Gobblin’
A Royal Road Fan Fiction… of sorts
By Halosty
A pack of wolves was surrounding a lone rabbit. The tasty morsel had just wandered into their turf. They had little else to do, so they would play with it for a while before eating it. Not that they could even do much of that with a weak rabbit. The wolves howled, and then a chill swept over all those who were present.
It was not the wolves who were frightening. No, it was something else. The wolves had instincts very important for determining whether or not something was prey or predator. They felt a predator, but could not figure out where it was. Still, they were frozen in fear.
Then, The Beast used the full might of his Fighting Spirit. The wolves realized the source, and scattered in fear.
The Beast was bored with wolves. He wanted to move on to something else. He had just come out to play for a little bit.
Wolves had ceased to be a challenge quite some time ago, because of The Beast’s skill in combat. Of course, there were also the numbers.
The Beast did not think about the numbers, but another may have done some simple calculations.
The Beast was currently at level 30. This was not a particularly high level, although it was plenty for fighting wolves. However, The Beast had also eaten a very special carrot. It gave him +10 to all stats, which was something like 10 or more levels worth of stats in effect. He had also completed the beginner’s training course. This gave him something like 30 levels worth of stats. A frightening, level 70 monster indeed. However, that was not the limit of The Beast’s strength. With his 240% stats at night, he was something akin to a level 168 creature. Of course, he was almost completely without equipment. Players often gained somewhere between 20 and 50% of their statistics from equipment, so he was really more around level 100.
He was undoubtedly the strongest rabbit in the history of Royal Road. Of course, that had also been true when he was level 3, but nobody would really have called him strong then.
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In the many strange tales told in Royal Road, one of the most wild and least frequently believed was the one where an entire pack of wolves turned into vegetarians. Rangers and other elves around Heartwood Forest of course knew this was not true. However, some of them said something even stranger. The wolves still ate meat, but they never hunted rabbits. Nobody knew what could cause such a phenomenon, and everyone wrote it off as fiction.
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When Lailam logged back in, she found Roger sleeping next to Arasel’s vegetable stall. The fan club had long since dispersed, since Roger was no longer doing anything very interesting. Of course, some had watched him sleep for a little bit, but it got uninteresting very quickly.
“Hello again. I see you’ve been taking care of Roger?” said Lailam.
Arasel lifted her head up from the bored pose she had been in. “What? Oh, yes. I guess so. Someone has to eat my carrots after all.” She was surprised at someone talking to her.
Lailam looked slightly embarrassed at the thought of her animal companion eating all of somebody’s wares. “Well, he won’t trouble you much longer since we’re heading on to another area soon. Come on Roger, we’re going.”
Roger’s ears perked up at this, and he walked over next to Lailam. They started to head away.
Arasel sighed. There went her only entertainment in this game. She would have to find something else to do.
“Um, wait a minute please.”
Lailam turned around.
“I was wondering if I could come with you. I know I’m not any good at combat or anything, but I want to travel out of the city. You don’t have to let me join your party, so I won’t take any of your experience, I just-”
“It’s fine, you can come with us. Besides, you’re Roger’s friend, right?”
Roger nodded vigorously. He didn’t exactly understand friends, but he knew it was a good thing, and this lady had carrots.
Cael’van and Aeltas gladly accepted Arasel into the party. They may not have seen much use for her in combat, but they would be glad to have another pretty lady around.
Lailam and Arasel easily hit it off, with them both sharing a love of cute things, and in particular Roger.
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During the day, Roger wasn’t much stronger than either Cael’van or Aeltas. In fact, if they had slightly better equipment then they would surpass him. This meant that all the party members were all about the same level of strength… All except Arasel. As she was not a combat class, and almost entirely without combat skills, she could do very little in combat. Technically, she had a sickle, but that was really more a tool for harvesting plants.
Not that Arasel was entirely useless. Outside of combat, she could bandage wound, and combined with her herbalism skill, this reduced the downtime required between combat. She could also cook some, so the party didn’t have to eat rye bread. Last and most importantly, at least to Roger, she provided carrots and other vegetables.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Cael’van noticed how much Roger ate. “Is he eating after every battle? I’m pretty sure he’s eaten more carrots today than his body weight.”
“Of course. He eats a lot. Is that not normal?” asked Arasel.
“You shouldn’t eat when you’re full, Roger,” admonished Lailam. “You’ll get fat.” She wasn’t actually sure if he could get fat, but it was still
‘I’m not full. Food is energy, so I eat after battles to get energy.’
Lailam translated what he said for the group.
“I’m pretty sure he converts his satiety bar into stamina,” said Arasel. “I was watching him run around in town and he never had to slow down except when he hadn’t eaten, and then he was running again right after he ate.”
Roger nodded at this.
“So, if I feed you during battle, you can just keep using stamina as fast as you want?”
Roger again nodded. Thus, Arasel’s position in the party was upgraded from “nothing” to “bunny feeder”.
That day the party was hunting goblins near the town of Riverwood. Yes, the elven towns all had wood in their names. This didn’t change that goblins sometimes infested their forests. Although they were around level 30, since they never came in groups less than 5 they could be quite troublesome for solo players. They weren’t a challenge for the party, but the level of goblins rose sharply in the next area.
It was Cael’van’s job to find the goblins and pull them. Of course, he also tried to kill or seriously injure one before they could get to the group, just to make it easier.
Aeltas would then gain the attention of about half of the rest of the goblins, as well as watching for any party members who were in danger.
Lailam healed anyone who was in trouble, provided buffs, and helped Cael’van finish off the first goblin.
Roger got the attention of the portion of the goblins Aeltas didn’t, and used his Quick Attack ability without sparing any stamina. When he ran out, Aeltas would taunt them while he took a quick break.
Arasel now had a job to do, and that was to feed Roger when he was out of stamina. Although she was embarrassed to admit it, she actually had a skill, “Hand Feeding”, that increased the amount of satiety gained from food. It was too embarrassing to use on other players, so she normally only provided the benefits to herself, and she had considered it useless. However, with Roger using stamina, and thus satiety, like a bottomless pit, Arasel was glad to have the skill. Every little bit of speed helped, and Roger had to get back into the fight as soon as he could.
This strategy of hunting worked well for the party, and they kept it up until nightfall.
In a normal party, at night time you would stay fighting the same monsters, or possibly easier ones to make up for the increase in strength. However, this party was different. They moved deeper into the forest, where goblins were in their 50’s. Although most of them were at a disadvantage, Roger was so much more powerful that it was like having 3 more people at night.
Arasel was properly surprised at the change in Roger’s abilities. She had seen him in the training hall, and he was pretty fast and pretty strong. She had never seen him at night before. She had merely thought of him as an exceptional rabbit. Now, he appeared more like a lion or cheetah trapped in a rabbit’s body.
The battles went much the same, except Roger focused on finishing off a few of the goblins before he ran out of stamina. Aeltas may have been good at his job, but he would be hard pressed to take on more than two or three monsters who significantly outleveled him. Cael’van helped focus on killing Roger’s main target. Lailam saved more of her mana for healing, since healing was more critical for Aeltas, and Roger even took some damage from the concentrated attacks of the goblins. Arasel… just kept feeding Roger. She had noticed that varying the vegetables she fed him was more effective, so she took care to do just that.
Between battles, Aeltas and Cael’van rested to restore mana and stamina. Lailam did so too, but not before casting some magic to help Arasel quickly grow more for Roger to eat. If they didn’t, they would quickly run out of things for him to eat. The quickened growth did make the vegetables slightly less effective, but they didn’t have the luxury of time or a proper garden.
After the night, the party had to log off. They had spent more than twelve hours playing, and they had things to do in real life… like sleeping.
Roger decided to go visit the peaceful river he had seen near the city. If only there were another one of those training hall thingys in Riverwood… but he had checked, and there wasn’t.
By the river, all he saw was an elf napping. Of course, the elf was probably nominally fishing, but it was safe to say he was napping too.
Roger decided to nap in a field near the fisherman, on a nice field of clovers. He hadn’t really taken time to rest, and although he didn’t need to sleep, he was due for a nice break.
End Chapter 6: Gobblin’