After collecting both of his daggers Shaun stumbled to the wall and dropped down to the ground, exhausted from the battle he just needed a bit of time to recover. Even though the battle only took a few minutes he had never felt more tired than he had in that moment, his body ached, his arm was throbbing with pain but even with all of that he was happy, excited and even impressed with himself. He still hadn’t even gotten to the best part of the fight, the gains.
*You have defeated a (Cave Salamander – Lvl 2). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained. 20 TE awarded*
*You have defeated a (Cave Salamander – Lvl 1). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained. 10 TE awarded*
*Class: Rogue has levelled up by +1 levels. Rogue [Basic] has reached Level 2. +1 Str, +3 Dex, +1 End, +3 Per gained*
*Race: Human has levelled up by +1 levels. Human (F) has reached Level 1. +4 Ap gained*
*You have defeated a (Cave Salamander – Lvl 2). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained. 20 TE awarded*
*Class: Rogue has levelled up by +1 levels. Rogue [Basic] has reached Level 3. +1 Str, +3 Dex, +1 End, +3 Per gained*
Looking over the first set of notifications he could see that he had gained two class levels and one Race level. This was a big increase compared to his first day in the tutorial and it had only just started. As with the previous time he had levelled up, he felt the warmth rush through his body, it was more intense then the first time, probably because he hadn’t just gained one level but three all at once. Shaun closed his eyes and welcomed the feeling, his body started to lose the aches he had just been feeling and even his arm didn’t hurt as much. When the feeling faded he opened his eyes and went through the rest of his notifications.
*Multiple Skill Level ups: [Basic] Short Blade – Level 8*
*Multiple Skill Level up: [Basic] Stealth – Level 10*
*Skill Level up: [Basic] Detection – Level 7*
He had gained three levels in his Short Blade and Stealth skills and one level in his detection skill, having already gained a level when finding and following the original salamander. Sitting back and smiling to himself, he had done well, looking over his status sheet he could see the rise in his stats from gaining the levels in his class and also the 4 unassigned attribute points.
Status:
Name: Shaun Clermont
Race Human (F)
Level: 1
Class: Rogue [Basic] - Level 3
Profession: N/A
Health Points:28/70
Stamina:16/130
Mana: 30/30
Stats: (Available Points: 4)
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 17
Endurance: 13
Vitality: 7
Intelligence: 8
Perception: 16
Willpower: 6
Soul: 3
Affinity: N/A
Titles: New Initiate
Skills:
Class: [Basic] Short Blade (Level 8), [Basic] Stealth (Level 10), [Basic] Detection (Level 7)
Profession: N/A
Looking at his stats he now had over half of them over 10 with Dexterity and Perception being closer to 20, he couldn’t wait to see what it felt like to move now that his Dexterity had more than doubled since he started in the tutorial. He needed to consider what kind of build he was going to go with now that he had AP to assign, he could invest in what his class was already giving him or look to shore up his other stats and go for a more balanced build. He ruled out adding to Soul as he had no skills that used mana and it wouldn’t help keep him alive in the immediate future, Intelligence and Willpower weren’t helping at this point either but he assumed that they would have an impact on the future, but still it didn’t help him now. His health and stamina had taken a hit during the fight, he had taken a damage when he was knocked to the ground and then again when he was being attacked by the salamander’s claws, without contemplating where to put the points any longer than necessary he willed all 4 points in Vitality bringing it up to 11, the reasoning being the more health he had the less likely he was to die, once he was done he saw his health rise to 68.
Having now finished with his stats he moved his attention to his arm, it was still bleeding but significantly less than earlier. Considering drinking his health potion, he decided against it as he could need it for something more important later on, instead he ripped off the bloodied sleeve of his shirt, then the other, and started wrapping his arm with the material, it wasn’t perfect but it would do. He would deal with it for now until he could come up with a better solution later.
Standing up he walked to the monster’s bodies with the intention of looting each of them before doing a quick clean up of the tunnel to try and make it look less obvious that a fight had occurred.
*Would you like to loot two Cave Salamander – Level 2 and one Cave Salamander - Level 1?*
Responding in the affirmative, he was thankful that he would be able to loot all of the monsters at once rather than having to do it individually, which would get annoying if he had to walk around to each body every time he was in a battle.
*Three Salamander skins from multiple Cave Salamander added to inventory*
*Salamander meat from multiple Cave Salamander added to inventory*
He was thankful for this looting ability, if he had to butcher the bodies by hand he would have no idea where to start, this was not only much quicker but cleaner. Looking around the tunnel there was nothing he could do about the blood on the ground so he didn’t even try, walking over to the broken glass from where he threw the vial he scooped it all up into his hand tried to put it into his inventory, figuring it was better then leaving it there or putting it into his pouch, with a glow it disappeared. With a final look around he could still see some signs of a fight occurring but there was nothing more he could do.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Ready to head back to the cavern, he figured he had only been gone for 30 minutes, even with the time he had spent going over his notifications and assigning his AP he had plenty of time before he would be expected to wake everyone up. While he walked back he reviewed the fight with the salamanders, killing the first one had gone well enough, he needed to work on his aim with the dagger but overall it was a success. His first real mistake was getting distracted afterwards, that left him open to the second monster which didn’t go anywhere near as well as the first, throwing the dagger gave him the distraction he needed to attack further and for his first time throwing a dagger it wasn’t a bad throw, if he had more practice and threw it with more strength, that attack would have killed it in one shot. His last mistake was leaving himself with no weapon to defend himself with, to resolve this he either needed more short blades to go with his skill or just learn to hold on to them.
After about 15 minutes of walking the tunnel started to lighten, in this time both his health and stamina had both started to recover but his arm still hurt. As Gabe came into view he made sure to make a bit of noise, he dropped out of stealth so that when he approached he wouldn’t scare him again. “It’s me Gabe, no need to worry.” He called out loud enough for him to hear but not too loud that if anyone was awake inside the cavern that they would hear him.
“I have been worried the entire time you have been gone man, it's so good to see you back! Wait what happened to you?” Walking into view Gabe caught sight of him, he didn’t look that bad, sure he was a little dirty and had bloody rags wrapped around his arm but it wasn’t like he was limping or showing any signs of pain. “Are you bleeding?” rushing forward to get a better look at Shaun, he grabbed hold of his arm and looked him over.
“I’m fine,” getting a sceptical look from Gabe, he chuckled, “no seriously I’m actually doing pretty good. I will let you know what happened if you keep it between us, the people in there aren’t exactly happy with me after everything that happened yesterday and if they found out I left watch it wouldn’t go over well.” Getting the nod from Gabe he continued, “I came across a monster, it wasn’t one of the spiders, it was a lizard, well a salamander, eh they are really just the same thing. I followed it and it led me to a little room where there were two more of them. One thing led to another and I got into a little fight. I won, obviously, one of them got a few scratches in but I got it in the end. I even gained a few levels which was pretty amazing.”
Taking a step back Gabe shook his head, “You shouldn’t have gotten into a fight Shaun,” Ready to interrupt him Gabe just shook his head for him to stop “let me finish. It was risky, you could have gotten seriously hurt, even died down there and no one would have known until we set out today. But I get it, alright? I have been thinking about it for a while, especially since you've been gone, the only way we are going to survive is by getting stronger and to get stronger we need to fight. Part of me is angry at you for taking on such a risk, but honestly, a bigger part of me is annoyed that I didn’t get to come with you. I will keep quiet about this but next time I get to go with you. Deal?”
Thinking it over Shaun didn’t see a reason to say no, he would have to adapt his approach a little but if he had someone there with him when he was fighting the salamanders he would have made it out of that fight without a scratch. “Yeah, I think we have a deal, friend.” Surprisingly, it felt good, to call someone a friend and mean it, he trusted Gabe to have his back, just like he was doing now.
“I have an idea about your arm as well. Follow me.”
Walking behind Gabe back into the cavern, everyone was still asleep, it was about time to wake them up but he didn’t see how that was going to help him with his arm. When they started walking over to Danielle he finally understood what the plan was. Gabe bent down and slowly nudged Danielle awake, making sure to be quiet so as not to disturb the others. “Hey Danielle, it’s time to wake up.” he said softly. As she slowly came too, he placed a finger to his lips indicating she should be quiet, with a wave he asked her to follow him out to the tunnel. Once they were all far enough away from the others he explained what he needed, “We had a little trouble on last watch, no monsters or anything but we were practising our skills and Shaun got hurt. He wrapped it up with his sleeves because we didn’t want to wake you but it's kind of embarrassing you know? Is there any way you could heal his arm before we wake everyone else up? We don’t want anyone to know, so can we keep it between us? Please?”
Looking over at Shaun, finally taking in his appearance and the bloody arm she chuckled, “It seems even in the middle of a crazy situation boys will be boys. I can try to heal him but you need to be more careful,” giving them a firm look “both of you.” Stepping forward to grab a hold of his arm she focused on healing him, as her hands started to glow Shaun could feel energy travel into him as the pains in his arm slowly started to disappear. When he felt like his arm was back to new she pulled her hands away from him and gave him a nod, “All done.”
Slowly, Shaun started taking the rags off of his arms and when they were finally off he could only see faint white lines that marked his skin, a reminder of the mistakes he had made earlier, but he could feel no pain. Looking up from his arm and right into Danielle’s eyes he thanked her, promising if she needed something in the future he would do what he can to help. “I think it's time to wake everyone up and get the day started.”
As they re-entered the cavern they split up, Gabe went to get Eric who was still on guard in the other tunnel while Shaun and Danielle went around slowly waking up the group. Once everyone had woken up, had a drink from the pool and was more alert they all gathered in the centre of the cavern. Before they could start on the plan for the day Shaun was questioned on his sleeves and without even looking at Danielle or Gabe he simply replied that he thought the outfit looked better without sleeves., the little bit of humour went a long way with raising people spirits, although he did actually think that the sleeveless shirt did look better and a bonus was that it was easier to move in.
Eventually Michael cleared his throat to gather everyone’s attention, “The first thing we need to do today is find food, I know everyone is hungry, so am I, so that has to be the priority.” No one disagreed with this, they hadn’t had anything to eat in over a day, what followed was people putting forth their opinions on what they should do, there were suggestions that they should try eating the plants by the water but that really didn’t hold much appeal to anyone.
“If Shaun didn’t loot the spider we could have tried to see if anything on it was edible at least. Instead, he decided to take that decision away from everyone, only thinking of himself, isn’t that right?" This came from Trevor, who was eyeing Shaun like he had just put him in his place. No one knew what Shaun did, that Trevor and the others were trying to loot the body before he had even approached, there was also no point in bringing it up, he couldn’t prove it and he had nothing to gain from even bringing it up. Instead, he decided that now was the perfect time to put Trevor in his place instead.
“Your right, I wasn’t thinking, looting the spider did get rid of it body and we could have tried to find something edible from it.” He looked around at everyone staring at him with accusatory looks all over their faces, until finally he looked back at Trevor, “Thankfully when I looted the spider, I also got some of the meat from its legs, here let me show you.” Pulling all of the leg meat out of his inventory, he held up both of his hand, as there was too much for him to hold in just one, “It’s all safe to eat, I checked it with Identify, it's not enough for everyone to get a full meal but it should tide us over until we hopefully find another monster. We just need a way to cook it.”
Everyone started asking questions after that, everyone curious as to if he got anything else, which he answered honestly, if he had any more meat, which he again answered saying he had no more spider meat, technically not lying as he didn’t have any left from the spider, that earnt a raised eyebrow from Gabe which he decided to ignore. The conversation then turned to how they were going to cook it, there was nothing to use to start a fire and eating it raw did not appeal to a single person there, everyone quickly fell into silence, slowly giving up hope on being able to eat the meat cooked.
“I have an idea,” Jessica spoke up, “it might not work but it's worth a try right?” Taking a piece of the meat from Shaun’s hand she placed it on the ground, “Everyone might want to take a step back.” Once everyone had moved away, now forming a circle around the single piece of meat on the ground, Jessica took out her wand and pointed it at the meat. With a flash of light she cast Mana Bolt at the meat, when it cleared what was left behind was what could only be described as a very well done piece of spider leg. “Anyone willing to take the first bite?”
The group all looked at each other, no one wanting to be the first to try an unknown piece of mana cooked meat. “I will do it.” Michael said stepping forward, picking it up off the ground, he hesitated for a second before taking a bite out of the leg. Well he didn’t spit it out, Shaun thought. “It’s edible, although barely. That was good thinking Jessica.” What followed was the rest of the meat being blasted by the two mages and once everyone had had something to eat they knew it was time.
Eventually they had all agreed, now that they had a reasonably safe place to stay the only thing left to do was go out and hunt monsters for more food. It was decided that they would split up, Danielle wanted to stay in the cavern and both Richard and the other archer decided they would also stay to both protect Danielle and keep the cavern free of monsters, the rest of the group set out down the tunnel to see what they could find.