The river was a good land mark to follow rather than take the chances of the creatures of the forest. The path was also easier to walk as it had less foliage and under brush than that of the forest. The over head trees provided shade, but were far enough out of the way to allow the sun to shine down. The breeze was cool against her face, and she had long ago taken the cloak off to roll up under her pack with the bedroll.

Moving over fallen trees and around large rocks, she stayed heading up stream. Which in hind sight was a silly idea. She should have headed down stream if she wanted to find a settlement. Janet didn't want to turn back right now. But after a couple of hours of travel she activated the herbalism skill, and saw tags pop up. Crouching near a plant, all it said was medicinal herb. When she picked it, she got a minor amount of experience points, and a window stating that she needed herbalism rank 10 to identify the herb. She collected four different types of the plants. Noticing when she added them to her inventory they stacked with each of their kind. And they stacked quite a bit.

Lost in the repetitive nature of plucking plants, she lost track of the time. But it did take time for her to pluck them all, but she was also a distance away from the river now too. Wiping some sweat from her brow she made a step back towards the river when an arrow flew past her and impacted the tree she was next to.

Eyes scanning the forest underbrush she caught sight of the acid yellow eyes of the goblin archer. It wasn't alone however, it was mounted on a shaggy canine creature. Swallowing the lump of fear in her throat, she stood stock still as the canine stepped into the small clearing, saliva dripped from the frothing maw.

That's going to hurt.

Summoning the blade to her hand she waited. The goblin had taken a stone blade from its back, its grin was jagged and sharp. The canine leaped towards Janet. Moving to the side she attacked the canine, ignoring the rider. The goblins hadn't been too bad yesterday.

The dark blade made a shallow slice along the canine's side. However the goblin's stone dagger caught her shoulder, and she clamped down on a wail, as a massive -7 appeared in red.

Instantly she was glad she added points to her constitution. Maybe it wasn't a knee jerk reaction after all.

That didn't stop the problem she had now, however. The canine's matted grey brown coat started to turn a rusted red. The creature rounded and came after her again. Stepping to the side the dagger wasn't on, she jabbed her soul blade into the thick fur. It was a struggle to get more depth than a couple of inches. Still she turned out of the way, and lunged forward, catching the canine in the hind leg.

That area was softer and it yelped and rounded clamping it's jaws over her forearm. -8 appeared in her vision. Not having time to think about that as the goblin rider screeched. Janet shoved her sword into the dog's mouth and pushed just as the dagger stabbed into her other shoulder. -7.

Hit points flashing red she backed away leaving the fallen dog where it lay. Now she had the goblin to deal with. The blade vanished as the goblin rushed at her. Stepping to the side once more, Janet sliced off one of its ears in her counter as it lunged dagger first. It howled in pain as it spun and looked from Janet to the new blade she summoned to its fallen mount. Reaching up with its free hand shakily it touched the severed ear.

Damn thing is lucky I don't have magic right now.

The goblin snarled at her and leapt, stabbing with its stone dagger. Janet shifted her feet as it leapt and thrust her sword out, she had the longer reach. Letting the goblin and the blade fall from her hand she leaned against the nearest tree. Just to catch her breath and to listen, carefully.

I wonder if it got separated or if this was a scout. Either way, I don't want to stay long to really find out.

The goblin had a few coins on it, but nothing else of note. Tossing the coins into her pack she started off back towards the river.

Continuing up stream she moved at a quicker pace. Even if she checked to make sure she wasn't being followed, it wasn't like she wasn't making a trail that was easy to follow. She was going to need to take a hard look at some of those passive abilities.

The good news, there was passive healing. The bad news, it was slow. Really slow. She had no idea how long she had been on the move, but her health had only improved by five points. By this point the sun was past the half-way mark and she plopped her butt on a rock near the water to catch her breath. She had no way to tell what time it was other than the sun, and her stomach as it let out a loud protest. It was too early to set up camp, and if she was honest with herself, she wanted to get farther away.

Standing up from her rock she started to move when something in the river caught her attention. The thing was clinging to a branch stuck on some rocks shivering.

This is a dumb idea Janet.

Nonetheless the pack hit the ground and she waded carefully in the cold water until she grabbed the furry thing by the scruff of its neck. Back on shore she looked at a white grey canine pup, likely a wolf of some kind. Reaching into her bag she grabbed the clean, but ruined shirt from her battle yesterday and dried off the pup. "Where did you come from?"

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She only flinched a little this time. I'm getting better at least.

Wrapping the now mostly dry pup in her cloak she slung it around her back to rest the heavy thing on the pack. Then she started to walk up the river once more. Staying closer to the bank.

After a bit the pup started to wiggle and whine. Stopping to let the pup out of the cloak she watched as it shook its fluffy body and looked around. Janet had never been an animal person, even in video games.

So she rolled her cloak and started walking. The pup stumbled along behind her whining. The canine followed her, even as she slowed down. The pup ran ahead at the mass of fur laying near the river. She knew bodies stayed for a while, but she never stuck around to find out how long that while was. The adult canine was dead, Janet could tell even from the distance she noticed it. Crouching down she laid a hand on the mother wolf. Several pups dead near her. She reached and grabbed one of the arrows and pulled.

It wasnt crude like the goblin arrows, and they would have taken the corpse no doubt back to their den or village to eat.

Event: Would you like to keep the wolf pup? Yes No

Janet looked at the screen that opened before her eyes, and she wanted to select no, her hand hovering over the button. It was the way of life, more so in video games where everything was created so players can gain exp. Regardless of the situation, monsters, animals, respawn. Right?

She selected yes. "In the very least you can keep me company and I wont feel silly talking out loud," she said in her orcish deep voice.

A new window popped up.

You have acquired a new ability: Tamer Rank : 1 Cost : -- Range : -- Tame target Creature : Limit 1 Name your Tame :: |

A key board appeared with the screen and she mulled over a few names. Fern, Grove, River, Pine, none of those seemed orcish enough, and having a pet wolf was... actually it fit for both of Cagen's parents if Janet was being honest with herself. But something in her said this was more of her, new, orcish heritage. She typed in Fang, in the end. Obvious enough, wolves had teeth and could bite.

The pup's sheet popped up next, and other than the status didnt give as large of an increase as hers did.

Yay isekai cheat.

They still weren't anything to scoff at. The pup was as dangerous as a goblin she assumed.

"It feels like a waste to leave the fur," she said to Fang. She called her Soul Blade into a dagger. A simple pop up asked if she wanted to use Survival in place of Skinning as a skill. Selecting yes, she gagged as she worked on skinning the wolf, following the instructions and guide that popped up. The skill didn't do it for her, she noticed. Also the Skinning Skill was now apart of her skill list.

Fur stowed away in her inventory she cleaned her hands in the water and her and the pup started on their away again. When the sun started to set Janet was much more relaxed walking along the bank. She hadn't encountered any more goblins and she could hear the rustling of the forest animals. The pup would need to eat with her, tomorrow she would try her hand at hunting, for now, fish would make due.

The evening hours made it easier to see flickering light, and she slowed her pace as they neared a fire. At first unsure if it was goblins or not. However she understood the language.

"Man this game is brutal!" called one of the camp inhabitants. "Fighting goblins is a chore, and we're a day away from the road."

Janet put her cloak on and covered her lower face with the face cover it came with. The wolf pup walking at her heels.

"You've been looking at your message box all day Phionex, has the message not come in yet?" a woman asked as Janet neared closer. One of the group noticed her approach finally, and he stood up.

"Not yet, I hope they are having fun," the red haired man answered and stood up as well. Janet could see him move his window away.

Janet could see name tags above each of them.

The large man still sitting was Jones, his armor was thick leather, human from the looks of it. He had short brown hair and dark eyes, a wooden shield and hammer sat near him. The one that stood first was a more lean man, elf judging from the pointed ears, lighter armor, daggers on his belt, half cloak, hood down. Blond almost white hair long bangs, green or blue eyes, Janet couldn't tell in the dim light. The woman was still sitting, elf, blond almost white hair, same eyes as the first, she was in blueish tan robes, a staff across her lap. The last one red, dark hot rod red, hair pulled back over his shoulders, and in a simple tan brown robe, he also carried a staff.

Simple four man party, a tank; she looked at the first elf again; a rogue, a healer, and a mage.

"Its just an NPC," said the elf, whos name was a bunch of vowels with a new constants and impossible to pronounce, she dubbed him, Ellik, it was the first part of his name.

"Obviously, its not hostile," Jones remarked and poked the fire with a long stick. "Oh! Does it have a quest?"

Janet didn't like being called an 'it'. Sorry to all the NPCs I treated this way in the past.

Ellik walked up. "Hi, do you have a quest?" Phionex placed a hand on the rogue's shoulder.

"Sorry about my friend's rudeness. Do you need assistance this evening?" Phionex asked.

Janet looked at her friend Heater's new character, and she wanted to cry again.

"Butterfly," she said in her orcish voice. Phionex twitched slightly.

"Butterflies?" the rogue asked. "Is this some joke?"

Phionex looked at her. "It seems a player is messing with us." A small smile twitched his lips. He looked sad.

"How did they hide the player tag?" the female elf, Lorali, asked.

"Maybe in the start up options? There was a lot to go through," Jones responded.

Janet wanted to move away from them. She wasn't sure how she wanted to play this off yet. She moved to walk around the camp.

"Hey, its dangerous out there at night," Jones said. "More for solo players, you can set camp with us."

"I apricate the offer, but I will be fine," she said. The wolf pup yipped and growled, an early warning.