Fang sprinted through a forest enjoying her newfound speed.
I should have done this earlier. This is awesome!
Apparently, all of her previous troubles had been because she hadn't used her stat points.
Who woulda thunk? Stat points make you stronger…
…and sarcasm made things more enjoyable.
Behind her she could hear the sound of large paws, growls, and howls. In front of her, were all the pitfalls of the forest such as branches and roots. In her mind… she was making new lyrics for an old song.
Now’s the time to frolic with wo-lves~
Fa la la la la la la la la~
The-ey want to kill me slowly~
Fa la la la la la la la la~
I am so-o very de-ead~
Fa la la la la la la la la~
So I’m running very fa-ast~
Fa la la la la la la la la~
Man, she lived for moments like this. A merry chase through the woods, a manic grin on her face, on her heels a huge pack of wolves, and in her bouncing sack, six... bright-eyed… wolf... pups?
To a keen observer and/or unfortunate bystander, this situation would likely be strange and terrifying: a black haired player in mismatched gear, carrying a bouncing sack of bright eyed little furballs, charging through the forest with at least forty snarling, snapping wolves close behind. To understand this situation, they would have to have observed this player from the beginning, a couple of days ago at a small farm near the fringes of the woods.
***
After wandering out of the capital to test her power... Fang found herself at a farm at the edge of a forest.
Well, while I’m here, I might as well see if they need any help, I might just get an interesting quest.
Fang surveyed the farm. All around her, she could see small signs of disarray and neglect.
“Um… hello?” She called out as she approached the farmhouse.
Three small faces peered out the window and Fang put on her best harmless and charming smile.
“Hey, there, I’m a hunter looking for work. Are your parents around by any chance?” she said.
The door was flung open and a small figure darted out. “You’re a hunter!?!”
“Ah… yes?” Fang replied.
“Help us! Wolves attacked the sheep and dad went out to stop them!”
“What? Where?”
“That way! Follow the path!” the child said and pointed in the direction of a small dirt path.
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“Stupid Quest windows! Out of my way! I’m already going to help the kid!” Fang grumbled to herself as she ran down the path.
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***
“Back! Get Back! Stay away from my sheep! Back you! Go! Get!”
A farmer’s roar could be heard. He had somehow managed to get the sheep into an area where they were protected on three sides. He brandished his pitchfork in his hands at the menacing wolves who were looking for an opening.
Fang quickly took in the scene before her.
Hm… well, he actually seems to be doing just fine by himself. He’s actually managing to keep back half a dozen wolves. The wolves haven’t noticed me yet either. I think I’m downwind from them. Well, a little help couldn’t hurt. I could probably scare them off, and this is a quest. Yeah…
She drew her bow and nocked an arrow.
Let’s see… which one looks like a leader. Is it one of the ones in the front, or one of the ones in the back? Ah, screw it, let’s just hit the…
One wolf darted in and was promptly struck by an arrow in the back. It yelped, stumbled and fell before trying to get back up. Fang frowned.
I wanted to kill it in one shot! Guess the in-game system isn’t enough; I’ll have to practice then.
The other wolves backed away while they looked for Fang. She quickly nocked another arrow and picked her next target. A yelp and a whimper was heard, and the wolves backed away further and retreated. It wasn’t in their calculations to have to face two humans. They would look for a better chance before returning.
Fang approached the injured wolves that couldn’t leave and quickly dispatched them with her boot knife.
“Thanks for your help!”
“Happy to be of service!”
“Oh yeah, who are you?”
“I’m Fang, a hunter!”
Fang gave the farmer her best brilliant smile.
“A hunter, you say? I’m Eastin, a farmer, and I could use your help.”
Ooooh a quest? For me? Yaaaay!
Farmer Eastin found it hard to meet those shining eyes that had lit up with excitement.
Is helping people really that exciting?
Fang paused and composed herself.
“What do you need help with?”
“Well, I need to do something about the wolves in this area, so if you could clear out the wolves in the area, I would be grateful.”
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Yes! Experience, rewards, and practice at the same time!
“Of course I would, good sir. I would be absolutely delighted to help!”
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The farmer did his best to maintain a straight face.
Good sir? Delighted? What the hell is wrong with this person!?!
***
Fang spent time learning the layout of the forest and did her best to track the wolves. Whenever she spotted an animal, she’d hunt it and take its drops. Whenever she got hungry, she’d eat barley bread.
I will endure! Meat can be sold for a good price, and barley bread is cheap so I’ll make a profit!
Eventually Fang managed to find the wolves’ den. She arrived at it right after the wolves had come back. She scanned the surroundings and found a tree she could climb so that she would have a safe place to shoot from. Fang prepared her arrows and counted her targets.
Well at least it was a small pack. I kind of wish there were more. Four wolves, huh? Let’s see if I can take them down with four arrows!
In the end it took her 7 arrows. She managed to prevent three from running away by using her Quick Draw skill to injure them so they couldn’t retreat into the den. One of them had escaped into the wolves’ den. When the first one was shot, the rest of the wolves were surprised for a moment. Two took off toward the den and the other ran into the forest. She’d managed to shoot the one who ran for the forest and one of the ones who went for the den.
Fang had carefully finished off the ones on the ground before climbing down the tree. She approached the den with a dagger in each hand and held them in a reverse grip. She lowered her center of gravity so that she would be able to reduce her chances of being knocked off balance. She heard a whimper from inside the den and felt a tiny pang of conscience.
Sorry wolfie, but it’s a quest. Besides, you hunted the sheep when you could have hunted bunnies or something.
She ignored the growling that intensified as she got closer to the den entrance. When she was just a few feet away from it, the remaining wolf threw itself at her throat. She caught it across the jaw with a right hook. Since she had the edge out, the blade cut the wolf and it was knocked away.
Yay! I’m glad I put some into strength! If those stupid perverts come at me again, I’ll just do that to them!
It snarled and tried to circle around. Fang turned her body to face the the wolf as they tested each other’s defenses.
If I throw myself at the wolf it could just evade and then bite me, because I wouldn’t be able to guard, I’d better wait for it to attack me.
Fang lowered one of her knives a bit and hoped it would seem like an opening. The wolf took this chance to make a feint and Fang reflexively struck out. It jumped at her while she was off balance. She turned her blade in the other hand and stabbed sideways across her body and then stabbed down with the other hand. She quickly yanked out her daggers and jumped away. Because she was off balance she didn’t go that far away. The wolf was now between her and the den now and it stood at the entrance on shaking legs.
Is it trying to escape?
Fang jumped in for the last fatal blow.
Yes! Loot and experience!
She quickly gathered up all the loot the dead wolves dropped and stuffed them into her bag. Before entering the den she surveyed her surroundings to make sure there weren’t any other wolves. When she saw no movement, she went into the den.
The sound of whimpering met her ears. She backed outside and made herself a makeshift torch before going back inside to find the source of the sound. Inside the den, six tiny balls of fur faced her. They stood on trembling little legs and did their best to snarl and growl at her in terrified defiance. Fang felt like someone had stabbed a dagger into her heart and twisted the blade.
***
It was night time. Outside the den, there was a small fire. Fang sat inside the den, no more than a yard away from the puppies. She couldn’t leave them alone, because if she had killed all of their pack, they would die. They were whimpering and whining.
Maybe they’re hungry. Can they eat meat? Well… it probably wouldn’t hurt to try.
Fang dug into her sack and pulled out a small chunk of rabbit’s meat. She chopped a bit of the meat into tiny pieces and slowly held it out to the puppies. They growled and backed away from her. She grimaced a bit and then lowered the meat onto a dried leaf and took her hand away. They eyed her suspiciously for a long time, before one cautiously moved closer and snatched a piece of the meat. It retreated quickly among its siblings and gulped down its food. When the others saw Fang do nothing, they too grabbed some food and darted away.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Fang felt a bit of relief though this scene didn’t ease the tight knot of guilt in her stomach. She began cutting up more meat so that the puppies would get their fill. She moved the next pile of food closer and closer to her until they were within a foot of her. By that time, they were full and so they would come no closer.
The next morning, she tried again and they reacted to the food faster until they would eat out of her hand. By this time, Fang was sure that there were no more wolves left in this pack, and so she scooped the puppies up and put them in her second bag on a pile of deer and rabbit furs.
If I put them on the wolf furs, they’ll probably get upset, and if I put furs on top of the meat, they might dig down and start nibbling on the meat or suffocate.
She put a little makeshift frame in the bag so that the little puppies would be less squashed together and set off.
***
That human has stolen wolf pups!
This cannot be forgiven!
Sisters, brothers, we must rescue the wolf pups from that wicked human!
Wolves spotted Fang as she wandered around in the forest. The little puppies had their heads poking out of her sack as they curiously examined their surroundings. Whenever it got too bright or they got tired, they’d duck their heads back into the sack and nap. If they got hungry they’d whine and whimper and Fang would stop to feed them and let them move around a little. Due to this, she spent a longer time heading back, and unknowingly entered another wolf pack’s territory.
There was a howl from not too far away as wolves passed on the message of a wolf-pup-thief. Fang jumped to her feet and scooped the puppies into her bag before running away. Perhaps she might have considered hunting the wolves before, but right now, she didn’t want to hunt wolves in front of the puppies. Instead she ran and ran through the forests enjoying her newfound speed as a growing pack of wolves chased her.
***
Fang was beginning to be worried. Thinking about her situation, she couldn’t run back to the farmer’s house, not with such a large pack on her heels, and her stamina wasn’t limitless. If this kept up, eventually she would be run down by this pack. Even though she had already composed a merry little song in her head, she was actually in a tough situation. Now that she was coming down off of her adrenaline high (or perhaps she had accustomed herself to it) she began to realize she would have to do something about this situation.
She sped up. She managed to gain a bit of distance while she scanned her surroundings for a good place to hide out. Finally she found a tree with a relatively low branch and threw herself at the branch. She pulled her legs up and narrowly avoided getting bitten. Through great effort she managed to pull herself onto the branch and began to climb higher, well out of reach of the wolves.
Well, now that it’s out of the way, I can ask for some help.
She whispered her newfound high level friend. He would be able to take on all these wolves without a problem.
“Sup, Dammage? You busy?”
“Er… hey... No, I’m not busy right now. Is everything alright?”
“Yup, everything’s fine. Hey, did you know that being chased by a pack of wolves is actually pretty fun?”
“Haha, yeah, I do that all the time.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, you’re not living if you don’t get chased by a pack of wolves at least once a week!”
“Haha, that’s probably true. It’s a lot of fun when you can outrun them. It’s definitely a thrill. Anyways, I’ve got a few wolf pups with me, and I’ve been treed by the wolves. There’s around thirty of them I think, and I don’t want to bring them to the farmer’s house. Do you think you could come here?”
“Wait, what? Are you serious?”
“Oh yeah, heh. I got a quest to take out some wolves, and wound up finding some wolf pups, and now this huge pack is after me.”
“...ow…”
“Did you hit your head again?”
“No, I wouldn’t do that!”
“Right…”
“Alright so where are you?”
“I don’t know… in some forest somewhere around the capital?”
“....owwwww… You should be a tour guide. You could tell people how to get to a monument with those kinds of directions.”
“Hey! I’m good at finding my way around, I just suck at explanations!”
“Uh huh…”
“Hey! I’m not the one who enjoys killing brain cells for no good reason!”
“I’ll have you know, I’m a genius!”
“Riiiiight, anyways…”
“Don’t change the subject!”
“...remember where we separated?”
“Heeeeey!”
“Follow that road and…”
“Don’t ignore me!”
“... when you reach the…”
Fang gave Dammage directions to find her using landmarks and pathways. When the puppies got hungry, she fed them. Since she was bored, she spent time trying to count the wolves below.
***
Dammage arrived to find Fang swinging her legs just out of reach of the wolves below and teasing them with staying just out of reach. Her bags were hanging safely on a few branches. She took a stick in one hand and swung down so that she was hanging by her legs and one arm, then began to swat wolves where they couldn’t reach her.
“Heh, missed me!”
She taunted one who tried to jump up and bite her. She swatted its hindquarters with her stick. The wolves, in their anger, hadn’t noticed Dammage’s arrival. It seemed that Fang, also hadn’t noticed Dammage, because when he let loose his first arrow, she jerked and nearly fell. She clambered back up the tree and looked down from her vantage point as Dammage dealt with the wolves. For someone of his level, this many wolves weren’t a problem, even if he was just an archer.
***
“Wow, that was great! You shot really well! You managed to take down all 47 of them without too much damage! How’d you do it?”
“Thanks, I’m in an archery club, and my level is much higher than the wolves’ levels.”
“Ah, that’s true, that’s true. Thanks for coming to help me! I got great exp out of it, and you let me get most of the loot. You’re so nice!”
“Er… it’s no problem. Don’t worry about it.”
As they walked Dammage kept averting his eyes. He felt a bit uncomfortable with all of Fang’s praise and flattery.
“So um… what are you going to do with those wolf puppies?”
“I don’t know, raise them?”
“All of them?”
“Well… no… they’d be hard to feed. Um… do you want one?”
“Sure, wolves are cool.”
“Yeah… they’re so awesome!”
“They are. I mean…”
After that, their conversations were mostly about wolves and animals, and nature in general.
***
Chomp!
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“D’awwwww! It’s so cute! It wants to play!”
“.... you’re bleeding…”
“It’s okay, it just doesn’t know how to hold back!”
Grrrrrrr!
“See? It just wants to play tug of war with my hand.”
“....no… I don’t think that’s it…”
Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!
“Awwwwww the other ones want to join in! They’re so cuuuuuuuute~!”
“Uh…are you okay?”
Dammage and Fang were resting at Farmer Eastin’s farm after their adventure. Dammage stared at Fang who had six wolf pups biting her arm. Fang, who should have been upset at being bitten, had a look of absolute bliss and adoration on her face.
Uh… this person has an ‘interesting’ personality.
“I’m fine~! Aren’t they adorable? Here, you hold one too!”
Fang pried a pup off of her arm and held the squirming, growling pup up to Dammage. It snapped at him as best as it could.
“Uh… no… I’m good.”
“Really? But… how can you resist the adorableness?”
A better question is how you can still find them adorable…
“Doesn’t the biting hurt?”
“Nah, I’m used to it. I used to try to catch the neighborhood cats so that I could pet them, but they didn’t like it much and so they bit me and scratched me all the time. I used to chase the rabbits and squirrels too, but they were hard to catch. I raised chickens once too. They were so cute and fluffy as baby chicks, but they pecked me when they grew big. One even pecked me in the eye. I also tried to pet the neighbor’s dog when there was a hole in the fence. It bit me and I had to go get shots just in case. Then there was the time my other neighbor got a puppy, and we played tag, and it bit my ankle when it was trying to catch me... Then there were the times I went to the petting zoo.. and the goat tried to eat me… and that one time I went to a wildlife park and those ostriches and emus… Then there was the time I was trying to feed some ducks….”
Dammage listened with a growing sense of disbelief. Was it possible to be someone so hated by animals?
He decided he would help Fang out a bit, and gently pried one of the wolf pups off of Fang’s arm as she continued to ramble on about the animals that had bit her, scratched her, or ran away and hid when she stalked them in the past. It tried to bite him too, but he moved his fingers out of the way and started gently scratching it behind its ears and petting it. At first it tried to bite him, but he kept deftly avoiding its little teeth and petting it while making soothing sounds. As he pet it, it slowly stopped growling, and when he rubbed its cheek, it licked his finger.
Fang was quiet for a moment as she watched him.
“I hate you.” she grumbled.
All she got was a brilliant smile in response.