Jem made a beeline in the direction of the forest where Haywood had taken before but Aoife halted him with an immovable grip, presumably when she realised where he was heading. To be fair to Jem he only knew one place he could find monsters.
“We are not going where you went with him.”
Aoife swept Jem up in a bridal carry and started running through the streets. Resigned, Jem thought her cloak probably made Aoife look rather dashing, while he probably looked like a helpless damsel. At least no one knew who they were.
Aoife accelerated once they were out of the city walls and it was only a few minutes to the outskirts of the forest. Jem felt battered and bruised.
Aoife unceremonuiously dumped him on the floor. At least he’d figured out how to get up from the ground despite his new leg situation.
They were in a short queue to enter the forest along a cobbled road. From Jem’s low vantage point he’d seen how strange the road was. Instead of individual cobbles it seemed as though it was all one large sheet with uniformly spaced lumps. He asked Aoife about it and she gave some vague answer about horses and traction. It made sense but it was awfully strange to Jem.
The guards didn’t give them any trouble as they showed their tokens and passed through. It seemed that going through where you were expected to resulted in fewer objections.
They went along the road and Aoife picked him up again. Though he did extract the promise of healing from her first.
The scenery transitioned from dark forest to a wide open plane. Along the way there was a bustling port on the side of a wide slow flowing river. It seemed as though there were even more guards there than around the city.
Every last one of them wielded a spear with a glowing tip and Jem watched on as a large crocodile like creature raised up only to be stabbed into by four guards before dropping back below the water.
Aoife answered his unasked question.
"Those monsters are coming from an underwater dungeon that's overflowing. It's not practical to clear so they're just using the most cost effective option."
"What about the ships?" The ships didn't seem to hold any of the spearmen though there were other people on their decks.
"Ship guards need to face more than just overgrown swimming lizards."
"Oh should I level off them then?" asked Jem. "The lizards I mean."
Aoife sped up moving them away faster. "You don't have a weapon that can make up for your stats this time. You cannot kill an overgrown swimming lizard."
Jem looked back over Aoife's shoulder. "Couldn't I just borrow one of the spears, I'm sure one of them would be up for a break."
"They aren't just going to hand over a magical weapon, let alone to a child."
"I'm not a child." Jem glared at her through the mask.
"And how would they know. Anyway what's the point of levels if you don't gain the skills to back them up?"
Jem knew she meant the non magical kind of skill but he still hoped he might be able to level up some of his skills too. She was probably right. “Okay then, where to now.”
“I’m going to find you a worthy adversary.”
The adversaries Aoife had found Jem did not feel worthy, and yet they had bested him multiple times.
The herd of Slippery Steeds were all around level 1 and 2 according to Aoife they were technically monsters but they rarely sought conflict themselves. They moved together like zebra or a school of fish. Aoife had said they were mostly harmless, and despite his encounter with a pair of hooves Jem had to agree.
The steeds resembled miniature horses which meant there was a real limit on how much damage they could do, at least provided he stood upright. When they’d kicked they hadn’t broken bone or anything. It was more the location that had given Jem pause and a very important part of him wanted to rethink the fighting idea. But he decided to temporarily set one thought threads to thinking about all the reasons why it was actually something he both needed and wanted to do. A kick to the groin, even one that popped his balls like a pair of overripe grapes was not ample justification to give up on everything.
It just highlighted two things very clearly. First, that he needed a plan to deal with the absolute bastards, especially the one that had kicked him and second that he needed a way to heal from wounds, a way to reduce pain would also be a bonus. Thankfully Aoife was taking care of his healing for now.
The main reason the Shifty Steeds were a problem, and why Jem had thought sneaking up on one from behind might have been a good idea was that the moment they were spooked they teleported and when one teleported almost all of them tended to follow suit. They might not be the most dangerous of monsters but Jem still had to figure out a way to pin them down to kill them.
Unless there was a different angle he wasn’t considering. He turned to Aoife. “Am I supposed to kill them with the sword of can I use magic? I could make my own incatation?”
“Did that pony kick your head too? No incantations. And yes use the sword, I’m sure you can think of something better than just running at them.”
Aoife was going to be of no help. Jem examined his surroundings more closely, shifting his second thought thread to coming up with better ideas of how to deal with the beasts. It quickly noted that having a bow would have made this much easier, even if just for the ability to shoot into the horde. If he fired enough arrows one was bound to die.
The problem was he didn’t have a bow and he wasn’t especially sure about a bow’s long term value. There wasn’t much around, it was a large uninterrupted grass plain. Long grass lay on the ground and there was the occasional tree that had somehow managed to survive past the stage of sapling. Maybe if the Steeds moved around there would have been short windows where life could grow.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
He shook his head. He was getting distracted. His last girlfriend had been studying ecology and he’d of course been more interested in talking with her about her work than actually doing his. But that might be a decent idea. Not the ecology or the avoiding of work but the trees and the grasses. Clearly there was no way he could sneak up on one of them without them either kicking him or teleporting away,
Jem lay down, sword in hand and grass pricking into the back of his neck. Aoife had promised she wouldn’t let him die or get seriously hurt, so even if there were dangerous snakes or something he felt it was an affordable risk if not a good habit to form. Risks with someone competent and powerful around weren’t the same as risks by yourself. Jem lay in wait.
Eventually one of the horses came close enough that he might be able to swipe at it. Jem aimed for the neck. Jem hefted and swung the blade. It was heavier than it looked. If the sword Haywood had given him felt as heavy as a knife this one felt as heavy as a set of weights. Not that Jem had typically used many sets of weights in his lifetime. Perhaps it was time he added strength training to his list of things to do. Cardio was one thing, but Haywood had espoused that stats worked as amplifiers to what was already there. In other words he might get a lot of strength stat points compared to the average person, but he still didn’t have the physique to best make use of it.
Distracted the blade swung wide Jem inwardly cursed himself, he’d been bored for ages and then when he’d finally had the chance to make the swing he’d allowed himself to be distracted. It seemed that even with the 4x thought processing speed it didn’t free him from being distractable.
There was no point in thinking about more options if he wasn’t going to properly test the ones he’d already come up with. Jem once again reallocated his secondary thought thread this time encouraging it to focus exclusively on controlling the blade as he attacked a steed. Jem decided to stay in the same thicket and wait for another steed to come close.
Jem felt hot moist air before he actually saw the steed. It was grazing at the grass right next to his head, somehow, miraculously it hadn’t noticed him. But it did confirm something for him. They weren’t particularly smart. Jem lined up the blade, and he thrusted.
Jem watched in slow motion as the sword entered the creature’s eye, the membrane bulged inwards before the sword sliced in, the eye’s fluid leaking out. While hasted Jem had felt like a god processing and doing everything faster than the things around him. Now pushing the blade as fast as he could it felt like trying to swim through a lake of tar.
Jem felt the Kol around the steed come alive. Some of it passing down through the blade and into him. He continued pushing the blade home and the Kol continued growing, more of it flooding into him. It felt like something was about to happen and Jem didn’t particularly want to find out what. Like he was the final card at the top of a house of cards that had already begun to topple.
Jem let go of the sword and the Steed disappeared. Jem’s eyes opened wide as he saw it. Instead of teleporting away, it had teleported directly upwards, the sword still embedded in its eye. If he had held on he wouldn’t have come out unscathed. She’d probably have caught me– Wait what am I doing?
Jem rolled out of the steeds path narrowly missing the sword hilt that had landed exactly where his head was moments before. His heart beat fast hin his chest and he felt out of breath. Jem felt a pair of a notifications.
*Ding* you have slain a Slippery Steed Lvl 2
*Ding* The Lost Child has reached Lvl 1: +2 all stats, +4 unallocated stats, +1x4(r)(S,V,W,I)
Jem felt a wave of power go through him. It clashed the fading adrenaline in a way that made him feel woozy. He lay on the floor unmoving. Thankfully none of the other steeds came over to investigate.
Jem pulled up his Status and allocated his 4 floating stat points to wisdom, he wanted as big a mana pool as he could get as fast as possible.
(Note the achievements that Jem has hidden may also add small increases to his stats) (also note some of his skill levels are increased in the meantime)
[Status]
Name: Jem Asterion
True Name:
Age: 21
– – – – –
Stats:
Vitality: 13 (+7.5%)
Wisdom: 17 (+7.5%)
Toughness: 9 (+7.5%)
Intelligence: 12 (+7.5%)
Strength: 10 (+7.5%)
Dexterity: 16 (+7.5%)
– – – – –
Classes:
Starting Class: [The Lost Child S*] Lvl 1
Modifiers: [Uncapped], [+4 Stats(R)], [Enhance Class Skill: Emulate] and [Expert Skill Descriptions]
Stats Per Level: [All Stats +2], [Free Allocation: +4] and [Randomly assigned +4]
Class Skills 3/3: [Alcohol Immunity Lvl 0 (P)(L)], [Poison Resistance Lvl 0 (P)] and [Emulate Lvl 0 (e)(L)]
Further Class Information Locked
– – – – –
General Skills 12/12: [Identify (E) Lvl 3], [Altered Presence (P)(L) (B) Lvl 3], [Damage Smamage (A) Lvl 1], [Stable Hoofing (C) Lvl 3], [Self Aware (D) Lvl 3], [Flame Retardant (P) (C) Lvl 6], [Thought Management(B) Lvl 1], [Lighting Resistance (P) (C) Lvl 5], [Attention Regulation(D) Lvl 2], [Unflinching (P) (D) Lvl 1], [Meditation (D) Lvl 0] and [Analyse Skill (D) Lvl 0]
– – – – –
System Presence: 1421
Tongue and Tooth of Faith and Fae
– – – – –
Key:
Skills: [(P): (passive) A skill that is always active], [(L):(locked) A skill that cannot be removed through the typical process of dismissal] and [(E*):(enhanced) A skill that has been enhanced]
Class Modifiers: [[Uncapped]: A class modifier that reduces experience gain for The Lost Child S* by 25% while also removing the maximum starting class level cap], [[+4 Stats(R)]: A class modifier (for The Lost Child S*) that grants +4 stats per level randomly applied], [[Enhance Class Skill: Emulate]: A class modifier that enhanced the class skill Emulate. See skill description] and [Expert Skill Descriptions]: Grants improved skill descriptions]
Other: [Tongue and Tooth of Faith and Fae: A ritual involving both divine and fae ritual magic. Grants the ability to comprehend and communicate in almost all languages known to the fae. *May have unforeseen consequences for those of Fae blood*]
– – – – –
Skill Descriptions:
Class Skills:
Alcohol Immunity(locked): No longer able to feel the effects of alcohol. Immune to alcohol poisoning and related damage from alcohol consumption. Higher levels of the skill may impart resistance to other mind-altering substances.
Poison Resistance: Poisons deal reduced damage and leave fewer long-term effects. Increased levels may impart further greater resistance.
Emulate(enhanced): With an intimate understanding of a skill you can emulate its effects. The emulated version is weaker than the original. Enhancement: becoming sufficiently familiar with an emulation allows you to obtain the original class skill(Lvl 0). Higher levels may improve the power of emulated skills. Increases learning speed and reduces the requirements for initial emulation.
General Skills:
Identify: A skill that can be used on living beings. It reveals Class/monster type as well as level information. If the user is too low-level exact information will not be revealed. Follows the following trend: [Lvl 0-4?], [Lvl 5-9?*], [Lvl 10-49??], [Lvl 50-99??*], [Lvl 100-499???]... Higher levels of identity allow accurate identification of levels
Altered Presence(variant): A high-rank skill that alters the perception of others. Unless they know the target well, they are more likely to assume the target is younger than they are. Greater levels
Damage Smamage- Once every 10 days if dealt a wound that would be fatal if left untreated for an hour gain 1+ stat applied to the lowest stat. Higher levels reduce cooldown.
Stable Hoofing Makes your footing more stable. Increased stability and reduced impact on surfaces with higher levels.
Self Aware - grants awareness of ailments and ongoing effects. Especially those not commonly found on the status sheet.
Flame Retardant - more resistant to catching fire, reduced damage from fire and fire magic
Lighting Resistance - reduced damage from lightning and lighting magic
Thought Management Think twice the volume up to four times as fast. You are able to have two independent threads of thought that can focus on separate things. Each thread is able regulate its processing speed. This rate can be up to 4 times faster or slower than current processing speed. With higher levels granularity of control increases. With higher levels rate can be modified by greater amounts.
Meditation - clears the mind, increased health and mana regeneration during meditation
Attention Regulation Manually set a topic for your thoughts and your attention will not waver until an amount of time elapses. Or a condition is met. Can also be used to blacklist certain topics from your attention. Warning this skill impacts your mental functions and may have implications for your safety. Higher levels will allow you to focus attention and blacklist with increased specificity and set a wider range of conditions to end concentration.
Analyse Skill - can be used to analyse your own skills or the skills of others. Higher levels result in more accurate and detailed results