Atticus had finally figured out how to access his character sheet after Phen kindly explained how to do it, explained as if they were explaining to a small child who was bad at paying attention. Despite the condescending manner in which they explained the steps to access the character sheet, literally, just think ‘view character sheet’ and it will pop up in front of you, it was very simple and he felt stupid for not thinkg of it. He checked his progress.
Name
Race
Level
XP
XP Modifiers
Atticus
Wolfkin (Modified)
3
3600
x0.8
Stat Scores:
Bonuses
Modifier
HP
HP/h
Racial Abilities
STR
20
20
+5
180
6 HP/h
Lupine Movement
Savagery
Lupine Endurance
Weakness to Silver
AGI
16
18
+4
Mana
Mana/m
END
20
22
+6
N/a
N/a
INT
10
10
+0
Armor
Dodge
Cores, Subcores, & Traits
WIS
10
10
+0
0
1%
CRM
12
12
+1
Damage Reduction
Tank Class Core (2/4)
1. Stalwart Defense
2. Taunting Yell
Barbarian’s Rage Subcore (2/4)
1. Bloodstained Weapons
2. Barbarian’s Cleave
Sadomasochism Subcore (2/4)
1. Punishing Strike
2. Pain Reflection
LCK
16
16
+3
9% (19% Stalwart Defense)
Weapon & Armor Proficiencies
Skills
Titles
Kursari-Gama
Heavy Armor
Athletics
Nature Knowledge
Manaless
He had other options he could slot in other subcores, but this combination provided him with the greatest potential for damage reduction and the greatest potential for damage dealt, he calculated. He was glad to finally get numbers associated with his health bar, though he wondered if there was a way to calculate stamina because he wanted to learn better stamina usage through his fights. He thought he could optimize his attack patterns to not run out of energy midway through a fight. Luckily the enemies he had been fighting all had been fairly easy to dispatch, slow and relatively harmless. If they weren’t spawning so fast and destroying crops he’d feel bad about slaughtering them.
He had a quest to rid the farm of 50 of them. They gave like 5 XP a piece, but the quest was worth 750 XP for a grand total of a 1000 XP. It also gave him confidence with his weapon of choice. He was starting to get the hang of it without having to rely on luck to land shots where he wanted. The bladed end still gave him a little trouble to get the blade at the correct angle to be useful, but he was improving. Another of the weird bunny-cow creatures wandered into his area. He taunted the creature to attack him, and after it hit doing little damage, He struck back with a [Punishing Strike] dealing 66 damage to the level one creature. It died instantly and Atticus was healed for 5. He discovered the creatures had 36 HP earlier that day so he had been slowly building up his pain absorption to be able to carry damage over on subsequent strikes with [Bloodstained Blade] procced. It was slow going at first as he had to sustain large amounts of attacks and subsequently damage to deal more than 10 points of damage with a single [Punishing Strike]. But now that it was working, man it was a breeze, especially if he waited ten minutes for his [Stalwart Defense] to proc and give him more damage reduction. It was a really cool combo, and if he started to take too much damage his [Barbarian’s Rage] would boost his damage output as well.
He taunted another one using his [Taunting Yell] but before it struck him it was killed in a single hit. A girl’s laughter echoed from the tall grass around him. “Didn’t you warn me to watch my back, Mr. Big-Bad-Wolf?”
“Zari,” Atticus growled, “Why don’t you come out and play?”
“Oh, I’m fine where I am. I can steal all of your kills and you can’t stop me,” Zari said.
“Do you even have the quest for these,” Atticus asked.
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“Well, no but I’m getting experience.”
“Tell you what, join my party and I’ll share the quest with you and we can tackle them together. Maybe we’ll both get the same amount of XP.”
“Hmmm… Nah, I’m having fun stealing your kills.”
“Your loss. I’ve got other quests I can tackle if you insist on being this immature,” Atticus said.
“Immature? You’re the one who can’t take a joke,” she said.
“Yes, because kill stealing is a joke. It would make a fine prank between friends I suppose and only when used slightly. But you clearly don’t want to be my friend so I’ll go play elsewhere. Your fun isn’t my problem.”
“So grumpy. It’s not like you can hurt my feelings with your words. Watch your back Wolfie or you’ll find my dagger in it.”
“I still think we should group up. I’m willing to be your friend if we team up. But your idea of fun being toying with me isn’t my idea of fun. We could make a pretty good team if I was getting credit for taunting them and you killing them. It would be more fun than wandering around by myself, but it’s on you now.”
“Fine, I guess I’ll join your group. But just because you’re too right that it is soooo boring being by myself out here,” Zari said.
“By the way, Did you get any cool subcores from training yet?”
“Yeah, I got a couple of good ones for getting into places I don’t belong and for staying unnoticed. I also have an attack that does extra damage against distracted opponents. I can also make attacks that deal less damage and give me the chance to pick my opponent’s pockets, not that it’s a great chance mind you, but still when it’s maxed out I have a 50% chance of being able to steal something. And I get better deals at merchants and better chances of fencing stolen items.”
“Sounds like you’ve got quite a head for mischief, but doing extra damage to distracted enemies can be great. I’ve got a decent combo going with damage reduction that powers up my strikes and any excess damage after landing a killing blow is saved for my next attack and I get healed for a portion of it. Plus you’ve seen my taunting ability first hand. Right now I can only taunt up to 3 creatures, but that will go up as I level.”
“Oooh, that sounds fun. You are definitely crunchier than I am how much health do you have like 120 or something?”
“Try 180 hit points,” Atticus said.
“No way, that’s a hundred more than I have!”
“It’s true. Being a tank has its perks.”
“That would explain it. I should’ve put that together sooner. You are super crunchy, no wonder you didn’t buy armor. You don’t really need it yet, best to save your money.”
“My thoughts exactly. Plus up until level ten i get 3% damage reduction each level. I don’t think I’ll ever really need armor with my build. It would just reduce my effectiveness. I think at level 50 I could probably solo end game bosses if I could kite them well enough.”
“Wow really? Is your build that powerful?”
“Potentially, but that sounds lonely as hell.”
“Yeah, but still that is insane,” Zari said.
“If I do end up that powerful I’ll need someone to help me get the best deals, for a profit of course,” Atticus said and winked at her.
“Well shit, count me in Dogbreath.”
Atticus laughed and said, “You’re losing money every time you call me names.”
“Gah, you’re no fun.”
He just laughed all the harder.
Dusk was closing in on the pair as they were closing in on level 4. The game punished Atticus for being in a party by reducing the experience gained from the monsters. The two of them together really mowed down all of the slow moving monsters. But once Zari killed her 50th monster they started to head back to the farm when they came across the bizarre sight of a slow moving battle between two groups of the bunny-cows. Four of the monsters savaged one of their brethren causing the herd to attack the four. It was like watching a car wreck in slow motion. Atticus and Zari heard a familiar voice say, “Yes, you stupid animals attack your family. Dumb bunny-cows.”
Zari turned to Atticus, “Ugh, James.”
“Let’s try and go around him. I don’t feel like getting in a fight,” Atticus replied.
They tried to skirt wide around the area where they thought the voice was coming from. Zari had dropped into her shadowy-stealth skill. They miscalculated because sitting in a chair on the patio gesturing like a composer (or a mad man) was James. Luckily the darkness prevented him from noticing either of them right away and when he did look he only saw Atticus. “Woah there, Wolf-Man. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
“I was moving at a normal pace and not sneaking. Maybe you need to pay more attention to your surroundings and not get caught up in whatever that is,” Atticus gestured to the monsters who were now in a free for all.
“Yeah, whatever. There’s a tax to get through here. Two gold coins,” James said holding out his hands.
“Nice try, don’t make me break you,” Atticus replied.
James muttered a spell under his breath and threw a pinch of dust in Atticus’s direction.
Atticus got a notification that he was paralyzed, but it wouldn’t take affect for three minutes. He walked right up to the small human, leaned over him, and asked, “Did you just try to paralyze me?”
“I--, um, that should’ve worked!”
“Wrong answer,” Atticus said and stabbed James in the neck with the bladed end of his weapon.
He dealt 55 damage to the jackass. Killing him instantly and, miraculously enough, transferred the paralyzation debuff, which Atticus hoped would trigger on respawn. “God I hate punk,” he said as he got experience from the kill. He left the loot, but he did kick a pile of the bunny-cow poop over it preventing Zari who was eyeing it from taking anything. “Let this be a lesson to him. Don’t fuck around with me.”
“Damn, I’ll learn that lesson too.”
“You haven’t come anywhere near as close to pissing me off to the level he has.”
“Between attacking me unprovoked and the way he treats women he deserves much worse. Still, hopefully he can figure this out and correct himself.”
“He is a creep. I don’t think I ever thanked you for sticking up for me back at the apartment.,” Zari said.
“You’re welcome. I’m sure you can handle it, but if I let it happen I’m part of the problem I gotta call men out for their shit behavior when I see it otherwise I’m not living up to who I want to be.”
The door to the patio opened and a winged elf and a troll exited the house, “You really can fly? That’s damn impressive. I wish I had thought to get some wings when I was creating my character.”
“Yeah, it’s really great. I have incredible range on my spells, pretty much line of sight is all I need if I can see you I can heal you and there is very little that can hit me if I’m up high so it works out,” the winged elf was saying.
“Oh hey, more people!” Zari shouted and ran off to meet the new players.
Atticus shook his head as he watched Zari introduce herself to the pair. “...and that wolfkin over there is Atticus. Be warned he doesn’t like wolf related nicknames.”
“I never said that, I just said you couldn’t call me them.,” He said.
“Seriously, you’re zero fun. Luckily, I’ve made new friends and will never have to be in your party again.”
“Haha, very funny. I’m sure the troll would make a decent tank, but you can give up on your first friend like that, can you? Do you really want me to be lonely soloing those bosses and selling all that sweet loot by myself?”
“Fine, you have your uses,” she reluctantly admitted.
“Glad to know I’m useful. Now, I didn’t get your names, could you repeat them for me,” he said as he turned to the new players.
“Sure, I’m Bella and I might be able to off tank, but I don’t generate much aggro so tanking is better left to others, but if you need someone punched into the ground? I’m your girl,” the troll woman said.
“And we’ve met on the outside, but I’m Phen. I’m liking the loincloth only wolfman look. It suits you.”
Atticus blushed, but he was pretty sure his fur did a good job of hiding it, “Thanks. I’m a tank as you probably gathered. I am definitely interested in teaming up with a healer and more damage dealers never hurt if we get overwhelmed. That pile of literal shit over there is covering James’s corpse but from what I saw of his abilities he is crowd control. We’re just missing ranged damage to round us out as a full party. Not that I’m suggesting teaming up with that pile of crap, but if he chills out and stops being an asshat I’m willing to reevaluate.”
“Good call. I hate guys like him. I heard from Emily that he is a complete misogynistic tool. I’m Eric by the way,” A man said from through the doorway, well it sounded like a man and it was even vaguely man-shaped, but it was definitely not a human male. “My race is doppelganger that I tweaked to be a little less monstrous. I’m a ranged weapon expert and have some infiltration and diplomacy skills.”
“Welcome to the team, if you all are agreeable to be a team. I feel we can get through levels and such much faster if we work together,” Atticus said.
Everyone agreed, well everyone who wasn’t waiting to respawn so they could do a corpse run from the graveyard, agreed. James was just pissed off.
***
James waited, fuming that he was killed by that dumb fucking dog. How did it shrug off his paralysis spell? Something was fishy. He was being toyed with and that shit wouldn’t fly. It probably was a glitch because stupid women were working here. Everyone knew that they belonged at home cooking and cleaning. The only other thing they were good for was sex, but only for him. If they slept with anyone else they were obviously sluts. The timer counted down the last few seconds and James was thrust from the ‘spirit realm’ back to the Training Village’s graveyard. He respawned and instantly fell face first into the muddy grave dirt. He couldn’t move and the way his face was buried, he couldn’t breathe either. He looked and saw he had a paralysis debuff on him and he had lost all the XP he had earned today. What the fuck was going on. Someone fucked up and they were going to pay. He died from suffocation before the paralysis wore off and watched as he lost an even larger chunk of XP.
***
Atticus was pleasantly surprised to get another small boost to his XP. When he checked what it was for he laughed out loud. He had somehow gotten credit for James’s character dying again.
When the others asked him what he was laughing about he just waved them off, “It’s a surprise, but I’m sure we’ll be hearing about it when we log-off.”
Zari tried to weasel the info out of him, “C’mon you laughed pretty loud. You won’t even tell me, your first and best friend here?”
“Why would I tell you? You just tried to ditch me.”
She huffed in annoyance. The group laughed at how he turned the tables on her and they all joined Atticus’s party.
They went back out into the field to slay more bunny-cows since the new members of the group had just received the quest. It was a fun experience Atticus would taunt a group of them and then it was a race by his new teammates to kill them off. Meanwhile Phen was keeping his health from depleting too much and she was even able to take a pot shot at a few of the further out bunny-cows bringing them into the group to be slaughtered.
After everyone got credit for killing 50 of the creatures it was closing in on midnight. The group was at the far edge of the fields and started the trek back to the farmhouse when a roar resounded from the woods nearby. Birds flew away from the roar in massive flocks.
“That sounds like a boss, anyone wanna take bets,” Eric said calmly.
“No takers, it’s probably the leader of the bunny-cows angry that we’ve killed so many of their lessers,” Phen said.
“Yeah, could be. Or it’s a monster that preys on them and is angry because their food supply is short,” Atticus said.
“Now there are betting options,” Zari said.
“I’m gonna have to side with Atticus on this one. It definitely sounded like a predatory roar,” Bella said.
“No way. That was totally an angry momma-bear bunny-cow’s roar,” Zari said.
They bantered back and forth for a bit before deciding to investigate.
***
James was furious. Who the fuck did these assholes think they were messing with. He was going to get his dad down here to sue the ever-living-shit out of these people. He had never been more humiliated in his life. First he gets one shot by that dumb dogman and then he suffocates from a paralysis spell. But that wasn’t the worst of it. No, that was reserved for the fact that his corpse from his first death was covered in bunny-cow shit and was missing all of his items. According to the tool-tip he received when he found his grave marker, ‘All items vanished back to the aether after dying a second time before recovering them.’ But to see that message he had to dig through the shit and find his body. Fuck these people, he was going to call his dad as soon as he logged out, but first he would get revenge on that asshole who killed him.
He was following the path of dead monsters, though it was less of a path and more the entire field, but eventually he heard the wolf yell its dumb taunt. He was getting close. Then out of nowhere the ground shook and he heard the most terrifying roar he had ever heard. If anyone was looking they would’ve seen him quivering in fear, though he would later claim the shockwave from the roar knocked him into a pile of bunny-cow dung which was why he was smelly.