Chapter 6: First Attunement

“How are we supposed to fight something like that?” Riley asked to the group.

“Raid,” Nermit answered, as if that was explanation enough.

“He’s right,” Heather said. “We’re not supposed to. We’re in a raid, not a dungeon. If we had ten people in our party? Or twenty? That encounter might have turned out differently. I think we’ve done enough scouting, it’s time to head back to the clearing.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Before we head out,” Casey said, stopping the group, “there’s a little business we have to take care of first. Scott owes me a shot,” she said, smugly.

“Wha-?” Scott started. “No, what! How?” He looked at his sister incredulously.

“Guys, care to share with the group?” Heather said.

“Scott and I had a bet to see who attunes their ability first. I was able to attune my Shadow Step ability.” Casey said, she crossed her arms and lifted her chin up, so she had to look down upon the group. “You may all bow down before me.”

Riley snapped his fingers, “so that’s how you were able to circles around those rabbits.”

Casey nodded. “At first, I was just activating the ability normally. But as I was traveling through the — shadow world for lack of a better term — I noticed how the energy in my body flowed differently. As I kept using it I was able to consciously align the power within me to match that flow and everything clicked all at once.” Casey was staring off into the distance as she tried to find the right words. “It was like suddenly everything felt right.”

Riley hadn’t been paying attention to the power inside when he had been running. He hadn’t even considered it. The power flowed as it did, it was automatic. He would have to pay more attention in the future. He could have used a stronger heal.

Nermit put his hand up in a ‘wait a moment’ gesture. It took a minute but one of his notifications appeared for the group to read.

Congratulations! Basic Heal has been upgraded to Quick Heal. You have attuned Quick Heal.

Quick Heal

Quickly heal your target from moderate injuries.

He looked smug as he pointed at Casey and said, “Shot.”

“Ooh, yes! Shot!” Scott jumped in, happy to share his misery. “Nermit upgraded his ability and attuned it. He clearly wins.”

“Nermit wasn’t even a part of the bet,” Casey hedged. She turned towards Riley looking for support, “what do you think?”

Riley’s eyes widend as he was unexpectedly put on the spot. “Well, uh, I guess he did do better.”

“Ha, yes. High-five!” Scott said, raising his hand in the air for Riley. Casey intercepted it, pulling her brother’s arm down.

“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal,” Casey lamented. “Heather, you’ll support me, right? Us ladies have got to stick together.”

Heather shook her head. “I’m not supporting any of this. We shouldn’t be doing shots right now anyways.” This earned her a round of boos from the group. Nermit expressed his disapproval by showing a thumbs down. “You know I’m right. Scott, how many points do you have left?” She asked.

“Only a couple hundred,” he said after a moment.

“Well buy us some clothing, mine is torn to shreds,” Heather said

Riley’s eyes moved before his brain could catch up and she was right. There were rips and tears all over her body, bloody marks showing the toll the horde had taken. Riley averted his eyes quickly, hoping he hadn’t been caught peeking. He noticed his own clothing ripped to shreds, specifically on his left side where he didn’t have the shield to protect him.

The clothing the store provided were simple linens. They bought only the cheapest of the clothing, hoping to save their points for actual armor, so the clothing was slightly itchy where it touched Riley’s bare skin. The group also decided to splurge on buying boots for the rest of them leaving enough of their pooled points to afford a few more quivers of arrows in case Scott needed it. There was a self-refilling quiver in the store for a thousand points that made the group’s shortlist for items to buy.

Riley used the down time to check his notifications from the chase. He had plenty of kill notifications which he ignored after he learned that the level of the creature killed determined how many points it was worth. With a level 1 bunny giving him a single point and a level 4 bunny giving him four points.

Riley checked his status screen briefly.

Status

Riley Pocket

Basic Mask: Level 6

Body: 30

Magic: 8

Spirit: 7

Abilities:

Leech

Locked

Locked

Locked

Locked

He had leveled up five times during the chase, his level now showing at level 6. The group confirmed that just selecting your first ability raised you to level 1, though you didn’t get any stat points for that. Each level up had given him two stat points to assign wherever he liked. He had thrown all of his into Body during the chase, however he resolved to experiment with his future points by putting them in to Spirit and Magic to see what they did.

At only two points per level Riley would have to choose between the lesser evil of raising both his Body and Spirit to a nice round 10, but leave his Body stat at an odd number. Or keeping his Body stat even but leaving one of his others at an odd number. It wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things but to Riley it would be like an itch he couldn’t scratch every time he looked at his status. He decided he would rather try to not look at his screens very often. He could do the math.

The group looked warily back towards where they had come from. No one wanted to follow their trail back towards the clearing, fearing another attack from the horde. Fortunately, the game trail had been traveling north, and they had fled west so they had a general idea of where the clearing was supposed to be. The group decided to head straight south for a bit in order to avoid as much of the Horde’s area of the woods as much as they could.

The forest they were traveling in was very different than the initial forest they had started in. There were no saplings or medium sized trees. Every tree was a giant, fight for space in a crowded market. Green light filtered through the canopy casting the forest into an eerie shade. What pure beams of sunlight did leak through came from where trees had fallen over. The group had to walk around the rotting logs as they were too tall to climb. It would have taken three Rileys standing on top of each other’s shoulders to even reach the top of the fallen trees.

The sounds of the forest were quiet here. There were no birds calling, no squirrels chittering. The silence weighed on the group, and they unknowingly followed its lead. Conversation between the group died down and they stalked their way through the woods. The lessons they had learned from their last encounter fresh in their minds. Each snap of a twig or rustling of the bushes had the group turn in unison.

Casey took to scouting ahead again, this time keeping closer to the group just in case. With her Shadow Step ability she should be able to flee from anything in these woods.

Casey appeared out of a shadow to the side of the group. She had a worried look on her face, but she didn’t say anything. She put a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture and waved the group to follow her.

They circled around where they had been heading before. She stopped the group at the edge of a tree and pointed towards where they had been heading. Riley carefully peeked his head around the tree and saw what had worried her. Had they not moved they would have walked directly into the path of a stag. It’s gorgeous twelve pointed antlers were contrasted by the sickly pale coloring of its coat. The stag was standing in front of a giant, cave-like, hole in a tree and moved jerkily as if it wasn’t fully in control of its own limbs. Its eyes were a milky white and Riley could just make out the buzzing of flies around an open wound on its hind.

Royal Stag (Infected): Level 32

Riley slowly drew back and let the others have a look. Silently the group retreated directly away from the creature, keeping the tree they had hidden behind between them and it.

When they were far enough away the group decided that they needed to leave this forest as soon as possible. The bunnies were preferable to the nightmares in the giant forest.

They were more careful on their way out of the area. Casey scouting ahead and the group taking frequent breaks as they tried to avoid what little life there was in the forest. There were a few other groups of animals that didn’t have the infected tag, their levels much lower at around 15. But no one wanted to get into a fight and risk having a high-level monster hear the battle.

The only other infected group they saw was a fluffle of bunnies. The lowest of their levels was 20 and they moved in a perfect synchronicity. Every head and movement making the exact same jerking motion as the bunnies ambulated around. At the same moment each of the bunnies turned towards something in the distance and turned into a blur as they disappeared. Riley hadn’t even had time to blink before they were gone.

When he had raised his body stat Riley had briefly experimented with the changes. He was stronger, his limbs more flexible and responsive to him commands. It was hard to tell exact numbers, but he didn’t feel 50% stronger at a Body score of 30 versus his original Body score of 20. More like he was only 30% stronger. It was still a significant difference. He wondered just how much Body he would need before he could keep up with a level 20 creature.

The trees started reducing in size and the noises of the forest returned. Casey had found another game trail and Riley was leading the group down the path when a sharp crack sounded. Riley felt a hot spray on his back and turned to see Nermit fall, the front of his chest blossoming into blood.

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