“Dark Sight is one of the first skills I will be learning once I am leveled,” Onre announced as we approached Passing Stream. “I don’t mind the night, but it sure will be nice to not depend on moonlight.”
Like Earth, Heere has a single moon, but it was slightly larger than Earth’s. A lunar month is also longer, but does not align exactly with Heere’s calendar months. There is no way it could, especially considering the 4-day Period of Reflection between Tenthmonth and FirstMonth.
“Lenyet, if we travel downstream for a few minutes, the stream joins a river. The junction forms into a nice place to swim. I know we don’t need that for what you plan, but I don’t think Forrest has had a chance to use his ability to breathe underwater.” I confirmed what Onre said and added that it was indeed something I was anxious to try.
We walked to the river, and Lenyet laughed to himself for a moment. “This is the river my village is named after, the River River. I never realized it flowed near Cottages as well”
And I never bothered to look at it on my map. At least they didn’t name Lenyet’s home ‘River River Village’.
Lenyet enquired if my water breathing would require ki. I told him it would not; Arrjee had used his at Level 0. “Good. We can drain your ki, then we can all take a swim. Heal Other is a localized skill, correct?”
“Yes.” I realized I had not explained my healing skills except for HPR Boost. So I read him the other two skill descriptions. He commented that Bless Blood’s broad capabilities would prove very useful while adventuring.
“I am sure that is true,” I responded.“ Einvigi told me that I would be getting some more specific skills later. For example, Bless Blood only affects blood-based poisons. If somehow my brain or kidneys get directly poisoned, it would not help. Eventually I expect to get a Cure Poison skill.”
“Heal Other is much less expensive than HPR Boost,” Onre noted. “But it is not really effective when a person has damage all over. Forrest tried it on Arrjee and me after Einvigi had let a muscle poison circulate in us for a while. Healing damage in my upper arm didn’t help the rest of my body. After applying it with limited results four times to each of us in various spots, she finished healing us herself. Share Health at Level 7 will fill that gap.”
“That is an interesting mechanic,” commented Lenyet. “Giving up health to heal someone else. I had not heard of that before you discussed it earlier.”
He strategized, “How does this sound? Both of you strive to attack me. I will not fight back, and will take minimal self defensive actions. I will not use Dodge. Once you have done 40 damage, I’ll have you stop attacking, and Forrest can heal me. Please avoid attacking my face and my crotch. Onre, you may use your knife.”
We agreed, then I requested, “One second.”
“Interface, query Heal Other.”
Heal Other, E + 203 / 317
1 rp per 2 HP healed. Would you like me to calculate its ranking?
“No thank you. I will do this one.”
114 rp needed, or 228 HP to heal. Healing 40 HP will cost me 80 ki and gain 20 rp. So we’ll have to do this over five times, at a cost of about 450 ki. Since my max ki is 295, we won’t finish in one sequence, but we’ll have well over half of what I need.
“It’s going to take a bit over five 40-HP rounds to rank. Even with my Ki Regen boost earlier today, it looks like we won’t finish before we swim. Currently my ki is 256 out of 295, and I’ll spend 80 ki per round. Still, we should get most of it done, take a swim, meditate some, and finish off. Is that okay?”
Onre asked what my intelligence was. I told him 19. “No wonder.” Inwardly I laughed; he didn’t even know how I arrived at the five and a half rounds.
But his int is going to start increasing soon.
Neither was in a particular hurry to get to bed. We all stripped to avoid damaging our armor or getting it wet, but I put my armbands back on after the pair of sleeves was removed. Lenyet then started us. “You boys can begin any time.” I analyzed him so that I would be able to watch his stats.
At first we both tried attacking his upper torso from the front. We were immediately getting in each other's way, because we had little experience fighting as teammates. Onre reminded me that when we had fought the spiders we were on opposite sides of it. So for this first round, I focused on Lenyet’s front and Onre attacked from the rear. Lenyet was not allowing us to use him as an unmoving punching bag and blocked or otherwise avoided many of our attacks.
I was sure that when either of us did connect it was because he allowed it. Onre was using self-defense techniques he had learned both from his adventuring school and from Master Brune Thorm. He hadn’t learned many weaponless offensive moves, but when a kick connected, I knew it would hurt. I used both Ki Punch and Claw Strike. Fortunately, they both allowed me to control how much ki I wanted to apply, and most of the time it was near zero. Lenyet made sure we paid with our stamina, though. He allowed the round to last about five minutes before receiving sufficient damage. His maximum HP must be pretty high, because the 40 damage never dropped at least 10% of his health, and his stats never showed up in his Analyze window.
I guess it was the same for his stamina and ki usage.
Max stats for anyone at Level 30 are quite high.
“Thanks, Interface. That means his HP Regen is very high too.”
Yes.
“Lenyet, your stats are not low enough for me to see them. Please let me know where you are least injured first, so those areas don’t heal themselves before I get to them.” He had me get his right forearm first, and directed me from injury to injury.
“Forrest, do you gain more rank points in healing multiple small injuries than one or two large ones?” I responded that it is one rp per two HP, regardless of how many wounds. “Then for this next round, you boys should focus on one area each, making it more straightforward for Forrest to completely heal me. I will also allow about 50 HP of damage this time to offset my own HP regen. That should insure that Forrest heals at least 40.” Then with a grin, “You still won’t be able to see my stat bar, though.” I closed his Analyze window.
This time Onre took his front. He consistently kicked at Lenyet’s right knee area, and I clawed and punched at his upper back between his shoulder blades. Again Lenyet timed it for about a five-minute session. Onre could at least take credit for making him limp slightly on his right leg. There were a couple of shallow, bleeding scratches on his back and I was sure of some damage from punches as well. It was considerably quicker to heal just the two regions than the multiple ones before.
We “fought” and healed for one more round. I had regenerated enough ki to go for a fourth, but since we were over halfway done, we took our swim break.
----------------------------------------
We were headed for deeper water, but at two yards from shore it was only about halfway up our thighs. Suddenly we heard an angry, high pitched cry. I turned to our left and saw something rising from deeper water, and then flying out of it.
Level 7 Flying Water Salamander – youthful, sexless, angry
Attacks with talons and bites
Sprays a slightly poisonous spit
The tone of its cry was not neighborly. Its wings bore feathers and had a span of over a yard. Most of its double arm-length body was leathery. Somehow it managed to fly, even though it probably weighed as much as I did. It was basically a big, wet, flying lizard, with webbed talons on its front legs, and more normal lizard feet in the rear. It initially flew away from us, apparently to gain some altitude before it attacked. My suspicion was that it would attack us in fairly fast aerial passes.
Lenyet commanded, “Onre, get your knife! I’ll back you boys up, but the salamander is yours.” Before he went for his knife, I warded him against poison, and myself as well. I wasn’t sure it would work on this kind of poison, but it would not hurt. Without really thinking about it, I adopted the Angry Ostrich stance. Lenyet had backed away and Onre had gone to shore. When it turned for attack, it targeted me, still at our original location. As it approached I activated Dodge.
It spat from over a yard away. The spray connected – dammit, Dodge doesnt help against area of effect attacks! I did avoid the talons though. The spit smelled awful and the viscous, almost snot-like substance was all over my lower face. I’m glad I had my mouth shut and that it missed my eyes.
Onre returned. He had been quick enough that it had not had a chance for a second attack. Judging its return trajectory, he positioned himself far enough from me not to interfere with my attacks, but still close enough to strike as it swooped past. I renewed our blessings, and when it flew down and attacked, Onre knifed a wing. I got a good Ki Punch slamming its center body, this time not holding back my ki.
With its wing damaged, it could no longer fly. I shouted, “Will there be more?”
Lenyet replied loudly, “Unlikely. These monsters spawn and generally live alone.”
I’m going to have to find out the difference between an animal and a monster.
Onre stabbed the beast in its midsection, but that allowed it to bite off a good chunk of flesh from his forearm, about half as big as my palm.
These guys don’t mess around.
Monsters seldom do. Some are friendly, though.
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While it was distracted, I clawed a lot of the backside of its body in one swipe, from its neck to just past where its tail started. Onre had transferred the knife to his undamaged arm and quickly stabbed the monster twice more at an open part of its side, not blocked by a wing. I punched its head, my left followed by my right.
It stopped moving. And vanished in a puff! “Where did it go?” I shouted, very worried.
Onre and Lenyet both laughed. My Master responded, “That is your first monster, Forrest. You boys killed it, and it returned to the aether from which it spawned. Wait a moment for your reward.”
I guess I know the difference now.
A lot of it.
Learned Skill: Basic Martial Arts, F
“Basic?”
Arrjee has Basic Swordsmanship; you have Basic Martial Arts. It is your fundamentals.
Just then there was a concentrated glow from about a foot above where its abdomen had been. Onre instructed, “Grab it quickly, Forrest. It will soon drop into the water and sink.” I was torn between immediately healing him or grabbing it, but I did what he said. It was some kind of jewel.
Cool! That must be it.
Most of it.
I analyzed Onre. His HP gauge was greenish yellow, and down almost 20%. “Hold your arm still so I can heal it.” He did as I asked, and I commenced Heal Other. It took five seconds; I estimated that I healed about 20 HP, then dosed him with 4 seconds of Bless Blood to restore what he had lost.. Apparently with him being younger than Lenyet, revitalizing him had a stronger effect.
Age 14 and 10 energizing ki equals hard on. Good to know.
Yes.
I submerged my face under water to wash that damn spit off. Etc. Once I didn’t feel the stickiness any more, I stood back upright.
“I could see where you were looking. No, it is not fully hard.” I apologized. “For what? I’m sure I’ll be checking too. You are a guy; you are going to look.”
Lenyet had joined us, “What do you mean? If he were a girl, he would also look.”
That’s true.
“Forrest,” he asked me, “did you analyze the salamander?” I responded that I had. “If the report says ‘sexless’ it is almost always a monster. There are a few natural creatures where you will see that, but you should not encounter any sexless beasts until you are facing foes above Level 20.”
Now that is it.
“Good to know. Monster = sexless + aether + reward.”
And the reward includes xp.
“Oh! Query detailed breakdown of xp from salamander."
1 level 7 flying water salamander: 2408 xp, split
* Onre Litman: 50%, 1204 xp
* Forrest Rhodes: 50%, 1204 xp
Since we were not in a party, Lenyet did not get any.
Yes.
“Why did this level 7 have more xp than the level 8 zebor? I think it was only 1500.”
1579. Monsters have more xp than beasts of the same level.
I finally got around to analyzing the jewel.
Pink Tourmaline Stone – exceptional quality
“So no enchantments or charms?”
No.
I asked, “Do you guys have any idea what this is worth? One of my armbands has a tourmaline stone, and the stone was hundreds of bronze.”
“That sounds about right, then,” guessed Lenyet. “I do not believe the pink color adds or detracts value.”
I announced, “We’ll sell it and split the proceeds three ways.” Lenyet deferred; he said he didn’t do anything except tell Onre to get his knife. While true, just having him there had boosted my confidence immensely. I tried to argue.
“Don’t worry about it,” he told me. “You’ll be paying more than my share for your next session.”
“Alright. But I have another worry. Is it safe to swim here?”
“Yes,” he answered. “We were very unlucky to encounter the monster. While it is more dangerous at night, there should be nothing in this region that you two boys could not handle even on your own. Before we start swimming, however, please explain why you chose to begin battle with the Angry Ostrich Stance.”
Uh-oh. I was hoping he hadn’t noticed.
“I know you said it was for near-equal and weaker foes. I was 4; it was 7. While yes, that is almost twice as much as me, but it is only three levels more. The zebor I fought with Arrjee was seven levels higher. It might have been a dumb choice, but it felt ‘near equal’ to me, and I knew Onre would be fighting, too.”
Who helpfully added with a grin, “He almost didn’t suck.”
Master replied to me, “Not dumb. You made an effective choice, and I am not critical of it. Acting quickly and intuitively is a good thing, apprentice.”
I’m glad he noticed.
You are sometimes inconsistent.
“Let a boy bask.”
“I see you learned the Basic Martial Arts skill. I knew with your training earlier today and fighting the monster now, you would be learning it any time. I’m curious why you did not say anything.”
“I got it right after the salamander died. With Onre’s arm injury and it bleeding like that, my gain didn’t seem like something I should announce right then. Thank you for teaching me, Master.”
Onre wondered if he should learn it also. Lenyet replied, “It would not hurt, but it may not be something you will develop. Brune told me you were on the path of self defense skills utilizing small weapons. While this does not conflict with Martial Arts, the bruiser-type capabilities you will develop with him will be different than I teach. But if you want to spend additional time learning unarmed fighting as well as fighting with a bo, you certainly can.”
Onre thought for a moment. “Hmm, I am two weeks from becoming leveled. Then I’ll have my granted skills to train as well. I’ll focus on what Master Thorm is teaching me. Thank you, though.”
I finally took the opportunity to learn to breathe underwater. I had to fight myself to inhale, but once I did something happened in my upper throat, and all that reached my lungs was air.
Cool!
I swam using the butterfly style for about 10 minutes, but I did not breathe while my head went above water. I chose butterfly because it makes a lot of noise. Swimming underwater at night seemed like it would be asking for trouble. Something could grab me, and my friends would not even know something was wrong until minutes later. With the butterfly they could both hear and see me. Well, Lenyet could see me, anyway. I was happy to see that Dark Sight kept working underwater. While there was no reason to think it would not, I had just never thought about it before.
I told them that 20 minutes of meditation would be plenty to regain sufficient ki for two more rounds of our training. That was probably all I would need, because I already got a half round by healing Onre. So I went ashore and took a seat.
“Interface, alert me in twenty minutes.”
Before I knew it, I heard birds chirping. Happy birds.
“Disney movie, maybe?”
Brief clip from Snow White.
I checked my ki, and saw well over 200. “Guys,” I shouted, “I’m done meditating and we can finish whenever you are ready. About 10 minutes later:
Achievement: Heal Other, D
After quickly checking its values, “I got it! Heal Other is D now. Like I thought, its efficiency has improved from -50% to -40%. I laughed when I told them that the ki cost had gone up from 8/sec to 10/sec. They asked why that was funny. “At 50% of 8, I was healing someone with 4 HP/sec and energizing them by 2 ki/sec with 2 ki/sec dissipating. Now that it is 60% efficient, I’ll heal at 6 HP/sec and still energize them by 2 ki/sec. I just thought it was funny that even though I waste less, the total wasted ki remained the same.” Onre joked he liked getting excited. “Do you like getting a chunk bitten off your arm?” He did not bother answering.
I put on my boots, and picked up the rest of my armor. Lenyet asked if I was not dressing. “Arrjee taught me if I’m going to strip in a few minutes anyway, why bother dressing?” Onre followed suit, but Lenyet put his armor back on.
----------------------------------------
Finally we started back to town. It was 0:41 by the time we walked through the gate. Lenyet was headed for the inn, and we said our goodbyes. In just a few more minutes, I was at my house, and Onre continued to the alchemy shop.
I headed up to my room. Once inside, I sat my armor on the desk and removed my boots. I saw my undergarment folded over one end of our small clothing rack. Just like last Tuesday, my presence and motions awakened Arrjee, and we remained quite awake for some time. Unlike last time, I was able to include a “lesson” in Infertility, skipping the aetherial part that would complete it if he were Level 1. Before going back to sleep, he concluded wryly, “I’m going to need a lot more lessons before leveling.”
I meditated in bed for another two hours. Or I fell asleep before then; I didn’t notice Interface shutting it off. The morning was a little different because as Arrjee started to get out of bed, I woke up. I pulled him back to me, and we did not make it out of bed for ten more minutes.
I told him about our salamander battle last evening, then asked him if he knew anything about pink tourmalines. He did not, but suggested I sell it to the jewelsmith. We got dressed in loincloths and sandals and headed downstairs. I brought the stone with me to show Mom and Dad.
They and Carrie were up. This morning Carrie was making breakfast. It looked like some type of fried bread, pork chops, and there was what looked like a pitcher of red juice on the table.
Looks like? “Interface, please analyze the juice.”
Tomato juice – slightly salted
It just occurred to me that the day had been so busy, I never ate anything. I didn’t even think about it. What kind of teenager am I? I analyzed the bread, pork chops, and everyone in the room. Carrie asked if I was going to eat. I acknowledged with a strong yes and told her I was very hungry, having forgotten to eat anything yesterday Arrjee added a place setting to the table. They assumed I would skip it like I had last Tuesday. But today I had an excellent breakfast.
We spoke about numerous things while eating. They were pleased I had been able to fight a monster without anyone getting seriously injured. Onre’s two years as a cadet and my training had enabled us to defeat it with much more confidence than I had in the zebor fight. We cleaned up the kitchen after everyone had their fill, and at 6:15 we went separate ways.
During my morning run, I met up with Onre. He joined. We soon met Asha Yon; he was on horse and headed back to his duties with the guard. Not too long after, we saw Lenyet and invited him to join us, which he did. After a couple laps around town, Onre asked if we would like to go swimming, in the light this time. That sounded like a great idea and we ran through the back gate and then more slowly up the stream to River River.
The somewhat foreboding atmosphere I had felt in this spot had vanished with the sun. The monster’s presence had become a memory instead of a worry. None of us had any qualms about stripping and heading into the deeper part of the river. I swam freestyle most of the time, not feeling the need to make as much noise as I had last night. And I had no qualms about swimming underwater, which I could now do for as long as I wanted.
I’ll have to thank the water elementals some time.
I finally came up to see Onre and Lenyet engaged in horseplay. My Master had let his sensei persona drop and he was just out here having fun. Well, three can play at this game, and we did. We certainly did not maintain Earthly decorum.
As 8 approached I told them I wanted to go home and put on my armor. I wanted to be ready for whatever at my spawn point. We got out of the water and dried in the sun for a few minutes before donning our boots and loincloths. In town we went separate ways, with me and Onre going to our homes, and Lenyet headed to the school to observe or assist.
If I am serious about teaching First Aid, I’m going to have to spend time there also.
I was the only one home. I donned my undergarment and basic leathers and armbands. I also put on my belt, bearing its knife and bag. I went outside to say goodbye to Eager Beaver. Before it could respond, I was gone.