Chapter 1.11 First Contact

Melinda continued to study the changes in her player status. Next, she opened the "Traits" submenu. Here alone, only one trait is present.

Name: Melinda Banhart

Age: 27

Race: half human

Gender: Female

Active traits:

Battle Fury →

As previously, after saying the name mentally, a window appeared in front of her with a description of Battle Fury.

Title

Battle Fury

Description

• During battle you are insensitive to pain and have no fear.

• Rationality control is decreasing.

Bonuses

• Ethics: Chaos +1

This trait bothered Melinda the most. She had always considered herself a cold, calculating person, and this trait was the exact opposite of that. She didn't want to become impulsive and be like her mother at all. Chaos was already +2, yet still neutral.

The last thing she opened was the Skills submenu.

Name: Melinda Banhart

Age: 27

Race: half human

Gender: Female

Skills Achieved:

Unarmed Battle Level 1

Battle Concentration level 1

Evasion Level 1

Melinda gained three Level 1 skills in a short fight.

Interesting was the mention of the word "Achieved" rather than " Gained. This meant that all skills get achieved through the player's personal actions. Perhaps as a result of gaining knowledge. This is very different from the usual mechanics of RPG games, where skill levels gain through quests or as the player levels up. True, in that case, they would increase through honing skills. It meant "grind," which she particularly hate in games. And if there's "Achieved," perhaps there's "Lost" too?

To test her theory, she decided to experiment. Melinda found a tree nearby, with a fairly long and straight branch, but not too thick. She easily broke it and quickly peeled off the side branches and leaves. She now had a long, straight stick in her hand. Melinda grimaced at the sight of her tool. However, this would do for the experiment.

She chose a tree with a comfortable clear spot around it. Imagining the tree as the "Wolf" and the stick as a one-handed sword, she began "beating" it, meaning striking at it. Barely ten minutes later, she heard the message.

Ding • Your skills are growing

Achieved: One-handed Combat Level 1

A faint smile appeared on Melinda's face. The guess turned out to be correct. She had plenty of time, so she moved on to another experiment. She gathered small stones under her feet, scratched an improvised target on the trunk of a tree, and started throwing them at it. This time it was more difficult and longer. Only after fifteen minutes and the fifth group of stones did she hears the message.

Ding • Your skills are growing

Achieved: Throwing level 1

Melinda decided to take a little break. Soon she heard a noise, and a short time later she heard voices coming from the edge of the forest on the other side of the clearing. Several people came out into the clearing. At first, Melinda thought they were human, but soon enough she realized she was wrong.

She counted ten people. Three of them were women. All were heavily armed. Two of the women wore robes and carried a staff. They had daggers on their belts.

'Probably wizards,' Melinda thought, though they differed highly among themselves in their style of dress.

Two men and one woman wear light leather clothes. Behind their backs, they carried bows with quivers of arrows. A pair of daggers hanging on their belts.

'These are most likely hunters or trackers,' she thought, but she could not determine their exact identities.

Another five men wore heavy metal armor. On their belt hung a long one-handed sword. Rounded shields were visible on their backs.

'These are typical warriors. Although one of them seems to be their superior.'

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

They moved about quite freely, talking softly among themselves. But they stayed cautious, checking for anything suspicious. For a minute, Melinda watched them.

'That warrior and that magician in charge,' she concluded.

Now the main question troubled her: were they after her or not? And if not, were they hostile?

Melinda was in no hurry to go to them. She still sat motionless near the tree with the wolf carcasses piled next to her, watching their group. All their attention was on the crater, which they slowly approached while staying cautious. One of the hunters felt her gaze on him and turned his head in her direction. Their gazes met. The hunter froze in surprise, catching the attention of the others. After a quick word, ten pairs of eyes stared at her. A brief discussion ensued between them, after which the chief warrior quickly headed in her direction. One of his subordinates tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen. There was no trace of the warrior's former caution. The head female magician followed him, giving the others an order beforehand.

Soon Melinda could get a good look at the main warrior. He wasn't very tall, 1.85 meters or so, burly with broad shoulders. His face looked about forty years old, by human standards, of course, but with the usual human eyes and blue pupils. He had a steel helmet on his head, with horns about fifteen centimeters long, sticking out to the front and the sides. The main thing that caught her attention was that it had a long tail, wrapped in armor. The tail was in shape much like her own, like a lizard's tail.

Then she turned her gaze to the female magician. She was taller, 1.95 meters, with a narrow waist and a rather noticeable bulging chest. She was much younger than the warrior, about 32, with green eyes and the same shoulder-length dark green hair. Her dark green robe was draped over a two-colored white-and-green dress. The tailoring of the dress was the same as Melinda's. However, it was of higher quality and more expensive materials with silver embroidery around the edges. She, too, had a tail, the tip of which sometimes showed from under the skirt of the dress. On her head grew two long horns, up to twenty-five centimeters. They went upwards and then rounded backward, ending with a sharp end. She also studied Melinda with great interest.

"Young lady, how did you get here," the warrior addressed her, in a language she could understand. When he saw the cuts on her dress, he asked, "Who attacked you? Where is this bastard? Let me punish him for you!"

Melinda smiled and pointed her hand toward the four wolf carcasses. The warrior looked in their direction.

"Mhm, shadow wolves. They are not the weakest, and always attack in a group. Even an armed hunter may have trouble dealing with a group. Hmm, no sign of weapon wounds. Who did that to them? Was it magic?" the warrior asked in surprise, turning back to Melinda.

This time, Melinda pointed a finger at herself.

"Ha-ha, young lady, you're a funny one," laughed the warrior, not believing her. Then he changed the subject. "By the way, young lady, have you seen any outsiders around here? Strange aliens? The crater seems to be their doing."

'What a weirdo,' thought Melinda mentally with a chuckle.

She was still pointing the finger at herself. At that moment his companion squinted her eyes and covered her mouth with her hand and turned away slightly to keep from laughing out loud.

"Did these evil aliens frighten you so much, young lady, that you have lost your speech ability out of fear?" The warrior did not stop.

'Is he serious? Why does he care about those aliens?' thought Melinda.

She sighed and shook her head and looked at his companion.

"Is he always like this?" She asked the woman.

"Always," the woman confirmed with a barely contained laugh, "he's a bachelor and a bit unlucky. But he goes for every pretty girl. So… Ha-ha," she laughed out loud.

'She's got a nice melodious voice,' Melinda noted mentally.

The warrior turned to his companion and was about to say something, but Melinda was ahead of him.

'I am your evil alien,' she said, standing up and dusting herself off. She towered over him by a full head, "and I killed those wolves, too."

When he saw her height, he squinted his eyes and was about to say something, but now the female magician was ahead of him. When Melinda stood up, she noticed the wound on her tail and immediately rushed to her.

"You have a serious wound on your tail," she unceremoniously pushed the warrior aside and stepped closer to Melinda.

"The wound doesn't hurt anymore. I think it'll be alright," she tried to brush it off. It really hadn't bothered her anymore. The pain and bleeding were gone. There was still some tingling and aching when she moved.

"You can't do that, young lady," the mage disagreed and leaned toward her tail, "I'll fix you now."

The mage brought her palm to the tail. Melinda watched in amazement as the tail became obedient and remained in place motionless. A second later a magical weave appeared, and soon the tail envelope in a greenish glow. The bite wound began to heal right before her eyes. It didn't feel good, though. She felt as if her skin were literally being pulled over the wound. She clenched her teeth so she wouldn't scream. She couldn't take it much longer, but in a couple of seconds, there was no trace of the wound. It was all over.

"Now, that's better," said the mage, satisfied. "Are there others besides the wound on your arm?"

"On my leg," Melinda said, lifting her skirt to her shin.

Her tail, as if out of curiosity, also moved closer to the mage. Apparently, he didn't have enough.

"I'll heal you quickly, young lady," she said and turned to the warrior, "dear James, turn away. It is unsuitable for a warrior to gaze upon a young girl's delicacies."

The warrior reluctantly obeyed and turned away.

'Strange,' thought Melinda. 'She and I have deep necklines on our chests, yet she worries about a bare shin.'

After a minute, all the wounds were healed, and they proceeded to formally introduce themselves.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the magician began the introduction, "Countess Angelina Daily, currently the head priestess of the local shrine dedicated to the goddess of rebirth. I am also head of the local mage guild. "

'Wow, what an important figure is here,' thought Melinda.

The fact that the magician Angelina Daily was an aristocrat embarrassed her a bit, but she quickly pulled herself together.

"Melinda Banhart," she introduced herself, "a traveler from another world."

"Viscount James Stonehead," the warrior introduced himself, " both head of the local guard and head of the adventurers' guild."

'And him too!'

Soon the rest of their group approached. Melinda was able to get a good look at them all. Fortunately, the others were not aristocrats. They all had tails and horns like hers. All three women in the group were taller than the men. But most importantly, they all had beautiful facial features and attractive figures. Melinda wondered if all the inhabitants would be equally perfect looking.

The three in the light armor are indeed hunters. As she found out later, their job in this group was to take everyone to their destination through the woods and back. The group had come here specifically for Melinda. The time and approximate area of the unusual landing had been given to them by Countess Angelina Daily. But she did not say how she knew about it.

Melinda's arrival was visible from afar. The comet-like ball of fire in the sky was hard to miss. Also, the loud "boom" at the landing site hearing far away.

Immediately after the landing, a search party set out from the nearest town, Littlecreek. It took them two hours to get here, first by road to cut down the hardest part - through the woods.

"What's in that direction," Melinda asked, pointing with her hand in the direction she went into the woods.

"That side?" One of the huntresses replied, " There's just dense forest for days, then there will be elven territories. The road to their territory is to the south, and we used it to get part of the way here."

Melinda sighed heavily. She was very lucky that she had chosen to return to the clearing rather than continue her journey into the woods. She could have easily gotten lost there.

"Is there anything to be afraid of out there? You know, animals or more intelligent creatures?"

She suddenly remembered her encounter with wolves, which, with less luck, could have ended badly.

"Of course, there are. The Shadow Wolves are the most harmless of them all," the huntress also pointed her hand at the wolf carcasses, "By the way, Lady Melinda, what are you going to do with these carcasses?"

"What do you mean?" Melinda didn't understand the question," Is there anything else you can do with them?"

"You don't know anything at all?" Asked one of the hunters. Melinda shook her head negatively. "You can often find their crystallized essence in a beast's body after death. There will definitely be one in the leader. Also, from them, pelt and fangs are taken. Occasionally alchemists may need their liver or eyes. And since you killed them, all the spoils are rightfully yours."

Unexpectedly for Melinda, what was said sounded a lot like the mechanics of RPG games. It reminded her again that she was in virtual reality, not in another world.

"But I don't know how it's all extracted."

"For a small fee, we'll do it ourselves, Lady Melinda," the huntress smiled at her.

"Then I don't mind."

It took half an hour for the three hunters to skin the wolves and get everything they could out of them. They got four pelts, three essences, six fangs, five eyes, and three livers. As the hunters said, it was an excellent result. But what to do with all this stuff, Melinda didn't know. So, she turned to the Countess and the Viscount with this question.

"Apart from essences, you hardly need the rest, young lady," Lady Angelina said, "essences are absorbing to cultivate magical elements. The essence of fire from the leader will definitely come in handy. The other two can be used to create weapons."

"You can make a pair of great kitchen knives out of a leader's fangs, and his pelt would make a great cape," the viscount added.

"All right, we'll do that then," Melinda agreed, "and sell the rest? How much do I get for the rest?"

They offered her almost two gold coins and thirty-five silver coins for the rest of her trophies. There were three kinds of coins - gold, silver, and bronze. One gold coin was 100 silver, and one silver coin was 100 bronze. This was not the end of the variety. There were also the denominations of each coin, the place of minting, and even the year of production that could affect it…

After finishing everything in the clearing, the group soon set off on their way back.