Chapter Five: Becoming Stronger

Removing his spear from the corpse of a Frogera, Kaze let out a sigh of relief. He had been hunting these monsters down for the past few hours, and it had been hard work. It had been worth it though. A lot of new knowledge had been gained, and he had gotten more powerful. He had also seen other players like him, hunting these monsters too, but he would get to that later.

Thanks to how many times he had fought a Frogera, Kaze knew quite a bit about their attack patterns. Whenever they were going for a powerful strike, they would let out a furious croak. If you were able to dodge the attack they would soon unleash, the Frogera would be left defenseless for a few seconds. And a lot of damage could be dealt in that short amount of time.

Another thing he had learned was that their favorite weapon seemed to be a spear. He had fought quite a bit of them, and he had not seen any of them use anything other than a spear as their weapon. They also had remarkable teamwork. Kaze had the unfortunate pleasure to fight three of them at once, and he had almost died. The only reason he had survived was because of his potions. He was forced to use all of the ones left in his inventory just to win the battle. It was then, that he decided to leave groups of three or more Frogeras alone until he was stronger.

One on one battles with a Frogera is where he exceled. Thanks to his increased stats, not only did he deal more damage, but he was also faster. This meant that he could attack more and dodge attacks easier. He hadn’t realized how much stats could improve him until he had defeated multiple Frogeras without taking any damage.

In order to make battles easier for him, Kaze had devised a few strategies. Most of them involved using his bladed legs as weapons. He might as well use them, seeing as how they were a unique trait his race had. He would use any advantage he had in order to get stronger.

Thanks to how much he had been fighting, Kaze had gained a couple of combat skills. These were the ones he had gained:

Debilitating BlowDescription: Allows the user to release a blow with immense power by sacrificing stamina. 

+ 6% chance of staggering opponent.Skill Type: ActiveSkill Level: 2 (54%)

Spear MasteryDescription: Allows the user to wield spears better.

 + 6% damage when wielding a spear

+ 3% attack speed when wielding a spearSkill Type: PassiveSkill Level: 3 (10%)

These two skills proved very useful in the battles he had fought. He had gained debilitating blow after shoving his spear into what he thought was his 19th enemy. This skill allowed him to strike an opponent with a powerful blow that had a low chance of stagger. The only downside of this ability was that it consumed a good chunk of stamina. Normally the skill would have been at a higher level, but he just didn’t have enough stamina to use it as often as he would’ve liked.

It was situations like these that reminded him of just how powerful alchemy was. If he made a good bit of stamina potions, then he wouldn’t have to worry about using debilitating blow. This was because whenever his stamina got too low, all he had to do was drink a potion, and a chunk of stamina would be restored. He had only created one before he went hunting, so he would have to wait until he got back to town before he could create more.

Another thing that he liked about debilitating blow was that he didn’t need a spear to use it. Imagine his surprise, when he learned that he could use it with his bladed legs. This revelation made him twice as dangerous in battle. His enemies would have to worry about more than his spear if they wanted to stay alive. A bladed leg to the chest would hurt just as much as a spear would.

The second skill he gained was spear mastery. This was because he used a spear in every battle he had fought. He had tried using a spear and a dagger at the same time, but this method proved too unwieldy. Due to their differing lengths, he could only attack with one or the other. He had tried using two spears, and although he dealt more damage, he was twice as slow. This led him to taking more damage than he would’ve liked. So in the end he chose to use one spear and his four legs as his go to weapons.

It was after killing a few Frogeras that Kaze had wandered into another player. Nothing exciting happened like the male beastman attacking him or anything. All he did was nod toward Kaze before disappearing deeper into the forest. Kaze was glad he was friendly, seeing as how he had run out of potions quite a while ago. Plus fighting an actual player would be considerably harder than fighting a monster. Because although some monsters were pretty smart, they would never be as intelligent and cunning as a human.

Thanks to all of the monsters he had killed, Kaze was now level five. Once he hit the level five mark, it began to get harder to gain experience from lower leveled monsters. That wasn’t the only problem though. It also turned out that level five Frogeras and above never traveled alone. They always had at least two or three lower leveled Frogeras with them. Until he went back to the village and made some more potions, he wasn’t confident enough to try and attack them.

Kaze took a few moments to make sure he was alone before opening up his status screen. A Frogera had tried sneaking up on him before while he was doing this, and he wanted to make sure that situation never happened again. Once he was sure no monsters would sneak up on him, he looked at his stats.

Character StatusName:KazeGender:MaleLevel:5Race:AraneaeHealth:130/150Mana:100/100Stamina:160/200Stat Points:0Strength:24Dexterity:25[+6]Vitality:15Endurance:20Intelligence:10Willpower:10

Kaze put most of the stat points he got into strength and dexterity. When he got debilitating blow, he began putting points into endurance so he could use the skill more often. He also put two points into intelligence and wisdom each, so he could bring them both up to ten.

But even though he had one hundred mana, he still didn’t have a skill that used it. Based on the other games he had played, he could assume that he needed mana in order to cast spells. Seeing as how he didn’t have any spells, the mana he had would just have to go unused. He had tried creating his own spell and yelling out fireball, but nothing had happened. If he wanted to learn a spell he would either need to be taught one, read a book about one, or learn one from a skill book. Sadly none of these options were available right now, so he would just have to wait. He would have to ask Tharja about it whenever he got a chance.

Now that he thought about it, Kaze remembered reading something about magic. The only thing that people knew about it, was that it was extremely hard to learn. You couldn’t just yell out the name of a spell like he did and expect to create one. There were a bunch of things involved in a spell that you needed to do correctly or else nothing would happen. And that was the best case scenario. Dying from a faulty spell was a common occurrence.

Moving his train of thought back to his status screen, Kaze looked at his stats once more. Even though he had been fighting for quite a while, he had only gained one point in strength and two points into dexterity. Although he had only gain three points into his stats overall, he was happy. A point gained in a stat meant a point he had saved from spending.

He had a feeling that the reason he had gained more points in dexterity than strength, was because he had been dodging more than anything else. Every point he put into dexterity made him faster. And since he was fighting enemies with the same stats, he could dodge their attacks easier. Attacks that would’ve did quite a bit of damage previously, no longer seemed all that dangerous to him anymore. But even though he said this, that was only true in one on one fights. He lost his advantage in speed when he fought more than one opponent. Sure he could dodge one blow coming towards him easily. But two or three, not so much.

The reason he had a six next to his dexterity was because of the equipment he was wearing. One dexterity came from his gloves, while the other five came from the Frogera necklace. The necklace seemed to be a rare drop since it was quite a bit better than the gloves he had on. Still, the level requirement that was on it stopped him from being able to use it until recently.

Necklace of the FrogeraDescription: A necklace made by a Frogera shaman that is imbued with power.Defense: 1Effect: +5 DexterityDurability: 25/25Requirements: Level 5

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When he had first received the necklace, Kaze had immediately put it on. Although the game said he needed to be level five, he still wanted to see if he would be able to equip it. Surprisingly he was. However, he did not gain the five points of dexterity, or the defense the necklace was supposed to give him. In the end, he decided to keep it in his inventory until he was level five since he didn’t want the durability to go down with him having it on. That would just be a waste.

Closing out the blue boxes in front of him, Kaze moved on to his skill screen.

SkillsHerbalism Lvl 4 (12%)Alchemy Lvl 1 (70%)Debilitating Blow Lvl 2 (54%)Spear Mastery Lvl 3 (10%)

His herbalism had grown to level four, thanks to all of the plants he had gathered. It was actually quite easy to gather plants while hunting, since they were usually close to where Frogeras were. The only thing he had to be on the lookout for was surprise attacks. For example, whenever he dug out Feroku, he would have to be extremely careful in order to not get poisoned. If an enemy attacked him while he was doing this, he would either have to take the hit, or get poisoned. And neither of these two options was good.

His alchemy remained his lowest skill at level one, but it would not remain that way for long. Once he got back to the village, he would be able to craft multiple potions from his many herbs. Then his skill would advance by leaps and bounds.

Closing out his skill screen, Kaze glanced into his inventory to remind himself what he had. Because of the amount of Frogeras he had killed, he had gained quite a bit of loot. He wouldn’t know if any of it was good until he got to the village.

The first two things he had in his inventory were a small dagger and twenty five wooden spears. The dagger was what he started with and the spears were from the Frogeras. Normally he would’ve had more, but he had broken a few with his debilitating blow. It was a shame, but it was a sacrifice that had to be made.

The next two items were his four loaves of bread and his twelve Frogera legs. Thanks to how long he had spent out here, Kaze was forced to eat his bread just to continue on. It turned out that hunger was a very real thing in this game. At first he tried to just fast, but as more time went on, the weaker he became. He had a feeling that if he continued any longer than he had, his health would’ve started to drop. Because of this, he was still hesitant on selling the Frogera legs. These were the only other food he had, so if he cooked them, he wouldn’t have to worry about going hungry. Still, he might make a few coins off of selling them. It was something to think about.

Last but not least, Kaze had twenty five copper coins and his herbs. He noticed that higher leveled Frogeras were more likely to drop loot than lower leveled ones. This was mostly the reason he didn’t have any more copper coins than he did. He had a decent number of herbs, but Kaze planned on getting a lot more. He wanted to make a ton of potions so he could use some and sell the rest. His previous battles had showed him that potions were dire when he was fighting multiple opponents. Without them, he would be in for a tough time.

After reviewing everything, Kaze took the next hour to gather herbs. If any Frogeras stood in his way, he  would kill them. But he wouldn’t go actively searching for them since his main goal right now was gathering. Once the hour was spent, he headed back to town. It was time to make some money.

Walking into the village of Melisa, Kaze noticed more players running around. Even though he said more players, there were only two newcomers rather than the ten or twenty that would spawn in the capital. Once again he was glad he had chosen this small, out of the way village. He didn’t hate other players, but he had seen plenty of videos where people killed each other just for some loot. To make sure that didn’t happen to him, he was always on the lookout for potential enemies.

As he walked towards the general store, he watched quietly as one of the newcomers bolted off into the forest while the other one started wandering around. From the looks of it, she didn’t know where to go and she soon began looking around in confusion. The moment she caught sight of him, her eyes lit up and she began to quickly approach him. After a quick glance around, Kaze confirmed that the newcomer was in fact coming towards him. Letting out a small sigh, he turned towards her and prepared to listen to what she had to say.

As the newcomer came closer and closer, he took a couple of seconds to examine her. It seemed that she had chosen a nature based race. He knew this because instead of having skin on her body, she had wood. This wood formed the shape of a humanoid body with several key differences. One was that she possessed claws rather than the fingers of her human counterpart. Another difference was that she had wooden limbs jutting from her head like antlers. If he had to guess, he would say she chose a spriggan to start off as. He could be wrong, but he doubted it.

“Um, excuse me. Do you know where I could find the blacksmith?”

It seemed that he had been correct in guessing that she was lost. He couldn’t blame her for asking him for directions, seeing as how he had done basically the same thing when he started. He briefly wondered if he should ask her to pay up if she wanted the information, but decided against it. She probably didn’t have that much money seeing as how she had just started. Plus he would feel like a dick for asking.

“Yeah, follow me and I’ll show you where it is.”

With a spriggan in tow, Kaze began walking towards the location the blacksmith was at. He also showed her where the alchemist store and where the general store were. He didn’t have too, since she only asked where the blacksmith was, but he might as well. She would need to know where these places were sooner or later, and it would save him from being asked about it later. Judging from the look  of appreciation on her face, he could assume she knew that he was doing her a favor.

After a few minutes of exploring the town, Kaze and the spriggan stopped in front of the blacksmith store. Turning towards the spriggan, he began to speak.

“This is the weapons and armor store run by a blacksmith called Eryia.”

Just a few hours ago, he had been told the same information by Tharja. Due to this, the information she had told him was still fresh on his mind.

“If you wanted to be a blacksmith or want a quest from her, all you have to do is ask. That’s what I did for the alchemist.”

Some people might’ve withheld this information because of greed, but Kaze didn’t see the point. He wasn’t going to become a blacksmith, and he had a sneaking suspicion that the spriggan in front of him wanted to. Why else would she want to go to the blacksmith first? To buy a weapon? Hah! The idea was laughable….or maybe it wasn’t. Either way, he said what he needed to say.

Bending down into a bow, the female spriggan began to thank him.

“Thank you for showing me where everything is. I will remember what you have done for me in the future.”

After she said this, she started to head into the store. But before her body was halfway into the store, she stopped and turned to look at Kaze. The spriggan looked at him for a couple of seconds before typing away at the air. A few seconds later, a blue box appeared in front of him.

The Player Hana has sent you a friend request. Accept? [Y/N]

Clicking the yes button, Kaze watched as Hana’s face lit up. She looked at him one more time before waving goodbye and heading into the store. As she disappeared, he thought about what he did. There was really no reason for him to refuse the friend request. He was surprised he had even gotten one. It was nice though, since he was more of the loner type. Plus the spriggan looked pretty nice, and that was a bonus in his book.

Turning around, Kaze resumed his trek towards the general store. He had meant to sell some things when he had entered the village, but he had been distracted. Only time would tell if this distraction turned out to be good. With a deep breath, he entered the general store. He had some loot to sell, and he wanted to know how much money he would get for it.

AN: Thank you for reading and thanks for the positive comments! They really do mean a lot.