I turned slowly, painfully slowly, so as not to scare the growling creature into pouncing. It was one thing knowing that I was weak, but a whole other thing entirely now that I was faced with actual danger. This beast, whatever it was, could potentially rip me limb from limb in my current state. I gripped my knife—yes, my butter knife—firmly as I turned to face down the…
Wolf.
Of course it was. A small, scrawny, wide-yellow-eyed wolf. The classic start to learning a combat skill; it was almost like the Architects themselves were watching out for me. And a weaker one, at that. As it bared its teeth and continued to growl, I risked a cheeky identification on the creature.
Level 2 Wolf
Variant: Basic
Identification — +100xp
A level 2 wolf with no power variants? The Architects really were smiling down on me—maybe there was a side effect of this Legacy of Sisyphus that I wasn’t yet aware of, because I really couldn’t have done any better with my first opponent. Particularly that it was a basic variant. Not that you’d expect much variance on a creature like a wolf, but if it was, say, one of the elemental variants or—my least favourite—armoured, I might have had a little more difficulty.
But a basic? Honestly, even a butter knife might have been overkill. Suddenly I felt a whole lot more confident about this whole thing.
I held a hand out behind me, towards Val. ‘Stand back,’ I said. ‘I got this one.’
‘Are you sure, Mr Butter Knife?’ she replied. ‘There’s no shame in asking for help; that’s the agreement, after all—you come with me, I help.’
‘I got it,’ I repeated, stressing the words maybe an ounce more than was polite, creeping into “stroppy” territory. I didn’t think myself a stroppy man.
‘What you gonna do, slice ‘em to death? With that?’
It was too late to relent now. I whipped my head to face Val, and said, again, ‘I got it!’
Unfortunately, this was the moment the wolf chose to pounce.
A blow to my back knocked me to the floor at Val’s feet, and though I was fortunate in that the wolf was low enough a level that its claws struggled to break even my skin, I was unfortunate in that I got to see my new sorcerer acquaintance smirking down at me.
‘Got it, huh?’ she asked.
I had no choice but to focus on, you know, the rabid beast atop me, and so I could not continue verbally sparring. Engaging my stamina bar, I pulled my knife from its sheath and sliced down the length of the wolf’s body—but, just as the wolf’s claws failed to break my skin, the knife failed to break the beast’s. I brought my knee up into its rib cage instead, and the wolf staggered off me.
‘Alright,’ I said aloud, pumping my shoulders. ‘New strategy.’
‘Good idea.’
I held my blade high as the wolf and I began to circle one another. This blade wasn’t gonna cut it—pun not intended—in its current state. I was going to need to either put a hell of a lot of weight behind it, or…
‘Come on, then,’ I called to the beast, hoping that the tone of voice would be enough to communicate it as a taunt.
‘I don’t think it speaks the Common…’
The wolf pounced again, but this time I was ready for it. I raised the knife the moment it moved, engaging my stamina once again and waiting to slice. This time, though, I positioned the blade high, aiming it towards the wolf’s snapping jaw.
I thrust the blade forward as the beast was in mid-air, and instead of slicing at its thick hide, I struck at the inside of its mouth. Even with the damage reduction accompanying my equipped butter knife, a blade to the skull… had to hurt.
The wolf cried out with pain, landing heavily on the ground before staggering back up to its feet, my knife still buried deep in the roof of its mouth.
‘So now you’ve let yourself be disarmed,’ Val said. ‘Nice—’
The beast fell to the ground, lifeless.
‘You were saying?’ I asked.
Level 2 wolf defeated!
Knifework — +500xp
Knifework increased to level 2!
Knifework increased to level 3!
Base Points gained — +2 DEX, +2 STR, +4 Free Points (VIT/DEX/STR)
I sighed, breathless, placing my hands atop my knees and taking a moment to recover. ‘Whew,’ I said, wiping my brow. ‘Don’t remember it ever being this hard.’
‘You’re like an old man. Or a newborn baby.’
‘Thanks.’
‘How many xp?’ Val asked.
‘Five hundred.’
The sorcerer shrugged. ‘Not bad, for what it was. Guess that’s your status effect you got going on. So you still need, what, a thousand more, before you get to level five?’
‘Before I get my first ability selection, yeah. A thousand.’
‘So two more wolves, then?’ Val asked.
‘Yeah, but one was enough for—’
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And just like that, I heard growling behind me. Louder, this time.
As I turned to face the source of the noise, I realised I was mistaken—it wasn’t just louder. It was… two of them. ‘...Huh.’
‘A lovely coincidence,’ Val said, echoing my own thoughts—though mine had been followed up by “but I wish they hadn’t both come along at once”.
I jumped to the body of the first wolf, wrenching the blade from its mouth just in time to turn and use it to protect myself against the next to pounce. The force of the leaping beast was enough that my instinctual slice did cut into its hide some, but not enough to do any reasonable damage.
‘Alright,’ I muttered, ‘two on one. I can do this.’
‘You can always ask for help if you need it!’ Val called out, musically, from her position sitting on a nearby fallen tree.
‘I got it!’ I said once more, and leapt towards the closer wolf. If one of them leaping at me was enough to give my knife a reasonable chance of slicing flesh, then me leaping at them, hopefully, would do much the same.
Swinging the blade down, I jammed it into the first wolf’s head, and though it cut the thinner flesh on its scalp, I failed—obviously—to pierce the skull. The beast was enraged, but still alive.
I yanked my arm back as the growing beast snapped at it, almost pulling my flesh entirely clear.
Almost.
Fangs clipped at my skin, ripping a pair of thin slices in my forearm and spraying a gentle coating of red over the wolf’s grey fur.
I wasted no time in slicing once more, aiming the butter knife again for the beast’s gums—as nowhere else could I do the damage required to fell it—and draining my stamina bar a not-insignificant amount in the process. But lightning didn’t strike twice, as they say, and my attempt to jam knife between snapping jaw ended up only with me catching the wolf’s fang and my weapon being knocked from my hand.
I staggered backward, putting some quick space between me and the two opponents, for what little good it’d do me. At this moment, I considered calling for Val’s help—what chance did I have, bare knuckle style, against these creatures. What I really needed was a—
‘You levelled up, right?’ Val said. ‘Cos you dropped something back in Umlok—thought it might come in handy.’ I glimpsed her raise a deep, shining knife in the air, then toss it towards me.
I made no attempt to catch the knife in mid-air—I’d learnt by now just what I was and wasn’t capable of—and instead let it fall to the ground. Only once it had clattered to a stop on the dirt did I leap for it.
Item Equipped — Basic Cooking Knife
Basic Cooking Knife (Blunt) — +2% to quality of prepared food.
I flashed the sorcerer a smile. ‘Thanks.’
New blade in hand—and one that didn’t suffer an 85% damage reduction, such a novelty!—it was time to deal some real damage.
I spun on the spot, flailing my knife towards the nearest of the wolves, slicing at whatever part of its body was closest to me. This, as it turned out, was its snapping maw, and the blade slashed at the edges of its lips. The beast recoiled, squealing, and I pressed the advantage before the other could swoop in. I charged forward, slicing again, and watched as my stamina bar dipped below the halfway point—another few slices and I’d be drained.
Fortunately, this swing of the blade caught the wolf by the throat, spilling more blood than it could afford to lose. As this beast fought its rapidly incoming fate, I turned my attention to the other. I eyed up my stamina bar. By the speed at which it was draining, I only had another three or four good slices before it was finished. Once my stamina was drained completely, I’d need Val to swoop in to save me. And I didn’t exactly like the idea of it coming to that.
I stared down the other wolf, flexing my fingers around the handle of the cooking knife, and then we both moved at once. I sliced forward with my blade while this wolf lashed out with its claws.
Neither of us hit our target, and instead we collided with one another, the stench of the filthy fur filling my nostrils as I’m sure my fading scent did its, too. I rolled onward with my momentum, using it to spring back upright—but the wolf was spry, too.
Two slices left. Better make it count.
The beast growled at me, and I stared back. I couldn’t risk lashing out blindly, I needed to be damn sure that blade met flesh—and met it well. I needed to wait for the beast to pounce once more, and this time—
It leapt.
Before I knew it, I was rolling forward once more, back towards it, and reaching out my knife in an arc in the process. I sliced, leaving myself with just a smidgen left in my stamina bar, and as I completed my roll, I plunged the blade upwards into the jumping beast above me. It sliced stomach, and it sliced it deep.
Val followed this move up by standing from her log and offering a round of applause—though I couldn’t tell if she meant it sincerely or not.
2x Wolves defeated!
Knifework — +1,100xp
Knifework increased to level 4!
Knifework increased to level 5!
Base Points gained — +2 DEX, +2 STR, +4 Free Points (VIT/DEX/STR)
Level up!
You increased to level 4!
Ability selection unlocked
...
‘A couple more for you!’ Val cried out.
I looked up at her, pained, and eyed my remaining stamina supply. It was… low. But I didn’t want to lose face now.
‘Alright…’ I told myself. ‘Two more. You can—’ I was cut off by one of my legs buckling beneath me. That was what happened when your stamina got as low as mine was—things stopped working. Maybe it was time to admit defeat. ‘Alright!’ I cried out. ‘I admit it. I need help.’
With a wave of Val’s hand, the wolves seemed to suddenly… lose interest. The remaining pair ambled back into the woods, stopping only briefly to lick at their wounds.
I looked from Val’s waved hand, to the retreating wolves, and back to her hand again. ‘That was you?’
‘You said you wanted a wolf fight.’
‘When!’
‘Back in Umlok.’
‘I…’ I shook my head. ‘I… suppose I did?’
‘I’ll take that as a “thanks”, shall I?’ Val asked me.
I ignored the jab—I’d had quite enough of those—and went instead to a question that was weighing on my mind. ‘How’d I get 1,100 xp from the first pair, back there?’
Val shrugged. ‘I threw a level three in the mix. Wanted to see if you’d notice. You didn’t.’
‘Well I didn’t exactly have time to hang about identifying them, did I? And… wait. Those weren’t spirits, they were wolves.’
‘Well observed.’
I held up a finger to indicate that I wasn’t finished. ‘What I mean is, that’s not like any sorcery—any conjuration—I’ve ever heard of. Spirits, sure. Spectres, demons, revenants… yeah. All normal conjuration stuff, as much as certain administrations don’t like it. But wolves?’
‘And you have lots of experience in advanced magicks, do you, knife guy?’
Before I could respond, the sorcerer opened her mouth once more.
‘Come on. Plainside is another few hours. And I wanna get there by sundown.’
With nothing else for it, I held at my wounds and limped after her.
"Styk"
Level 4 Peasant
Base Stats:
Vitality — 2
Intelligence — 5
Dexterity — 8
Strength — 9
Wisdom — 8
Charisma — 0
Skills:
Knifework — Level 5
Identification — Level 4
Stealth — Level 1
Abilities:
Slice (Knifework) — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
Basic Stealth Attack (Stealth) — Passive. 10% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.
Basic Identification (Identification) — Discover basic attributes for a particular object or person. Ability scales with [WIS] + [INT].
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +400%