Whatever it was, it was coming straight for him and it was fast. Luke almost wished he’d put a few AP into agility instead of perception, just because he felt like it would allow him to attack with both branches more efficiently, and he very much wanted to attack with both branches now that he had one in either hand.
“Uh, System? What can you tell me about this?”
“Apologies. I am unable to assist you with information about a specific individual.”
“Thanks for nothing,” Luke said, his eyes on the whatever-it-was moving through the grass at him. At least it was probably going to be worth a lot of XP. He considered stepping back into the trees to try to fight it there, but they were tight enough together that he suspected it would hinder him more than it would an animal that attacked with lunging bites and scratching claws.
It leaped out of the grass at him far sooner than he was expecting, from over ten feet away. It was another blademouth marmot, he thought, though it was bigger than any of the other ones he’d fought. It had darker fur and the proportions were slightly off, like it had been stretched out. It was also faster than the ones he’d been dealing with, and Luke barely had time to side-step the lunge and bring his club down on its back.
The marmot twisted in midair and took the blow on its flank, but if it was hurt, it didn’t show it. It landed in a skid, pivoted, and came in for another attack. This time it kept low, and Luke had a harder time judging how to move with all the grass in the way. He jerked his leg back just in time to avoid the marmot’s mouth, but not fast enough to dodge its body.
The vermin crashed into him, knocking him over and causing him to release one of the clubs he was holding so that he could catch himself with his free hand. Before he could get his bearings, the marmot pounced on his chest. It was surprisingly heavy, enough so that he felt the air being driven out of his lungs.
But stats weren’t just for show. His agility might not have been enough to dodge the attack, but his enhanced perception gave him the time to see it coming. He brought his tree-branch club up in front of his face while the marmot was jumping and lashed out with it when it landed. The vermin didn’t have the chance to snap at him before it took a thick piece of wood to the teeth.
It wasn’t a good angle for Luke, but fortunately for him the monster was only relatively heavy compared to the other ones he’d been killing. It still weighed at most thirty pounds. He was able to smack it away with a one-armed swing while flat on his back. Luke was kind of surprised it worked as well as it did, and chalked it up to [Mace Mastery] being useful after all.
He didn’t waste the opportunity to scramble to his feet and go after the stunned marmot where it lay, reeling in a bed of crushed grass. Normally, a marmot went down with one good solid whack to the skull, maybe two, but that was also with a baseball bat and with him having the time to line up a good shot. This battle was far more frantic, and his opponent was significantly bigger.
He brought the branch club down on it, targeting its joints where he could reach them while he circled around to get a clean shot at its head. The marmot didn’t just take the beating, of course. Even with all the blows he’d landed, it was alive and kicking. In fact, it was even more pissed off now than it had been when the fight started.
Worse for Luke, he could already see cracks running through the branch. He grabbed it and brought it down in a single ferocious two-handed chop, right on its skull. The branch didn’t explode like his baseball bat had. Instead, it just snapped in two, each end connected by a loose, flexible strand of wood.
Luke scrambled to recover his back up club before the monster could regain its feet. He snatched it up out of the grass and spun back to face the giant marmot, only to discover that his fight hadn’t gone unnoticed. A regular-sized one was coming his way, only visible because of how much the grass around him had been trampled during the fight.
With a glance at the oversized boss marmot to ensure it hadn’t recovered from the beating he’d given it, he set his feet and waited for the lunge. It came in low and fast, but Luke was ready and he splattered it across the field. It must have been one of the weak level 1 versions, thankfully. A quick glance around showed no further threats incoming, at least none that he clocked with a perception of 5.
The mega marmot was back up, though instead of attacking, it was limping off into the grass. “Oh hell no!” Luke said, pursuing it. If it thought he was just going to let it walk away after trying to jump him, it was dead wrong. He wanted that sweet, sweet XP.
He smacked it again on the skull and it fell onto its belly. A solid kick rolled it over, and after a few more whacks to the face, something finally cracked and fluids started leaking out. He got the kill notification, and let out a sigh of relief.
[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 1). 1 XP awarded.]
[You have slain Blademouth Matriarch (lvl 7). 50 XP awarded.]
“For real? 6 XP short of leveling up? Damn it, where’s one of those little guys at?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Luke stalked through the field, watching and listening for the tell-tale rustles of grass until he found one. He cracked it across the face and sighed when he got the next notification.
[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 2) 4 XP awarded.]
“I swear to God if the next one is one of those level 1 weenies…”
Two minutes later, he found another one.
[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 2). 4 XP awarded.]
[Congratulations! You have reached level 5. 5 AP awarded for use.]
“Damn right! Okay System, what do I do with this AP?”
System appeared and looked around. “Well done. It seems you’ve killed a strong enemy. As far as using your AP, I’m afraid I’m able to offer only limited assistance. As I said before, a long-term plan is vital, as AP is limited and should not be wasted frivolously. Statistically speaking, most creatures will raise all stats equally to a minimum threshold before they start to specialize in the ones that help them most in life.”
“Yeah, that’s why I focused on perception and stamina first, but now they’re my highest stats. Should I just boost agility next then? What about some more skills?”
“I am not able to offer advice on a specific build. I’m only able to clarify any questions you might have about the system-generated descriptions. If you need advice beyond that, I can only tell you that almost every sapient species possessing a written language has written frequently on the subject.”
“Which does me fuck-all right now. I’m hundreds of miles away from that city you mentioned.”
“Valtira,” System supplied.
“Yeah, that one. Isn’t there anywhere closer?”
“There are several goblin settlements in this valley, though despite the capacity for the written word, goblins very rarely feel the need to write anything down.”
“Anywhere closer that’s human, I meant.”
“There are quite a few small villages and isolated farms between the valley and Valtira. I am unable to be more specific regarding their locations beyond their general direction at your current level of system access.”
“They don’t sound like they’d be helpful anyway,” Luke said. “Okay, back to right now though, where should I- oh damnit!”
While he’d been standing there talking, another marmot had found him. Fortunately, his perception was high enough to see it coming even when he wasn’t actively hunting it, and they always seemed to attack in the same way. He set himself in a baseball stance, tree-branch club held in both hands, and smashed the marmot in the face as soon as it leaped up out of the grass at him.
[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 1). 1 XP awarded.]
“Screw it, I don’t have time to stand around. Everything is going up to 5. I’ll bank the last AP for later use. I can do that, right?”
At System’s nod, Luke went ahead and spent 1 point in strength and 3 in agility. The strength increase wasn’t something he could really feel, but such a drastic increase in agility was noticeable. He unconsciously adjusted his footing to be better balanced, something he hadn’t even realized would help until he’d already done it and felt the difference.
“I need a better weapon,” Luke said, holding up his club. It was still in one piece, but it wasn’t going to last much longer. “Something metal would be helpful.”
“There is a blacksmithing skill, but you cannot afford it with your current AP total. Additionally, you lack all of the tools needed to successfully craft anything.”
“Maybe I’ll just steal one from something else. You said there were goblins, didn’t you?”
“There are, ranging from level 7 up to 21.”
The marmot matriarch had been level 7, and it had cost him one of his clubs killing it. If he hadn’t had a backup weapon, he would have been forced to punch and kick it to death. If the weakest goblin was the same level, and they came in groups, there was no way he was ready to take them on.
He could keep chopping up new branches, maybe find some thicker ones or something that was sturdier than pine, and grind it out on marmots for a day or two. He didn’t love that plan, but at the same time, he did love not being dead. He could acknowledge a bit of luck in making it this far uninjured, but sooner or later something was going to take a bite out of him.
“Weapons. Armor. Higher stats,” he muttered. “More skills. Better skills. It all comes back to grinding out XP to get stronger, and getting out of here so I can find some other humans. Hey System, if I just leave the valley, could I find a safer area to grind out XP?”
“Safer than the marmots you’re currently fighting? Probably not. There are a few places, but by the time you could reach them, you would be far beyond them. Safer than the valley as a whole? Definitely. There are several creatures here that could easily kill you if you encountered one.”
“Shit. I guess it’s marmots then. First though, time to make a few clubs.”
Neither the serrated knife in his multitool nor the fold out knife were especially good for what he was trying to do, but it beat trying to break branches off with his bare hands. Luke spent about an hour warily watching for threats while he fashioned new clubs to use. Occasionally a marmot would find him from the field side, but nothing ever attacked from the depths of the forest.
Luke found that incredibly suspicious, but System was unable, or just unwilling, to give him any detailed information about Tenebrous Valley. “Stupid name for a place anyway,” he muttered.
Finally, he had five clubs fashioned from the branches that he thought were sturdy enough to hold up to a dozen marmots each. Surprisingly, half way through he got another system notification.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Woodcarving (1) skill. 25 XP awarded.]
“What the hell? System, what is this?”
“You have gained enough knowledge of a trade that you qualify for the skill. If you were to purchase [Woodcarving] at this point, there would be significant overlap, so the system rewarded you with an official ranking to the skill, allowing you to skip it and purchase rank 2 if you desire. Additionally, you receive a small amount of XP for the achievement.”
“So what you’re saying is that if I wanted to invest every point into stats, I could pick up all my skills the old-fashioned way?”
“That is one option that some people use, though it is not particularly successful. It is the work of a lifetime to become skilled enough at a trade to reach the top rank, for example. It is rare that anyone ever practices a skill enough to raise it past rank 2 or 3.”
That was a nice little bonus, but the next level was over 200 XP away. Luke was determined to get there before it got dark. Once he was level 10, he’d see what there was to those goblins, see if he could find some real weapons to use.