by M E Robinson
Now, Eric thought, loosing the arrow. Before the arrow had even left the string, he could already envision the result, watching as the arrow leapt forward to skewer the wolf’s eye as it brought its jaws down to snap the woman’s neck.
[Red-Maned Wolf has died]
With a simple system message, the battle was over. All three wolves lay dead, while two of the three members of the party had died, leaving Eric and the injured spearwoman the only beings left alive in the glade.
- Chapter Twenty-Two -
Wolfish Tendencies
Panting, the spearwoman clutched her spear for support. Looking up, she glared in Eric’s direction, hidden as he was by the brush at the edge of the stream. Eric hesitated, unsure of whether or not he should emerge and help her. On the one hand, he had just watched as her party was destroyed and then almost killed her with a stray arrow. On the other hand, the odds that she wanted to turn him into a flag with her spear as the pole didn’t exactly seem low at the moment...
Opening her mouth, the spearwoman looked like she was about to say something, perhaps a harsh accusation or condemnation of his actions, or maybe a thanks for saving her, when the sound of roaring flames filled the air. Without warning, a fireball burst from behind the fallen tree in the middle of the glade. Turning, the spearwoman didn’t even have time to shout before she was engulfed in flames, the fireball exploding against her unprotected side. With the sound of a small explosion and the smell of burning cloth, the woman was thrown to the ground, her spear falling lifelessly from her hands.
Shocked, Eric crouched down lower, abandoning the plan to emerge from hiding as he looked for the unseen assailant. Was there some sort of monster in these woods that could use magic? Stealthily as he could, he knocked an arrow to his bow and peeked through the leaves. For a moment, he couldn’t see anything out of place in the clearing, just the corpses of monsters and men littering the once pristine forest floor.
“You might as well come out from hiding, archer, I know you’re over there,” came a voice from the same direction that the fireball had appeared from.
As Eric watched, a hooded figure emerged, a woman wearing the same beginner gear as the other players he’d seen, as well as a hood attached to a frayed cloak. In one hand, she wielded a large lumberjack axe, while in the other, faint magical traces could be seen as she held another spell ready to cast. A wandless caster, Eric realized. This could be trouble.
“Don’t you want to avenge your friends? Come on, fight me.”
“They’re not actually my friends, so I don’t really care too much about avenging them and all that.” Eric said, emerging from the brush and into the sunlight. Doing his best to appear casual, he allowed his bow to rest casually in one hand, the arrow nocked but not drawn. In his other, he brought forth mana, the flame coloured energy swirling around his hand, mirroring the pose of the mysterious woman.
The woman furrowed her brow, “Aren’t you party members? Why wouldn’t you want to fight after they died?”
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding here. I was just hoping to steal their drops. I only decided to help them on a whim,” Eric explained, allowing the flame mana to swirl around his fingertips. “I don’t really give a damn about you killing her, I just want the loot.”
At this, the woman bared her teeth in a feral grin, “Well in that case we’re at odds. Because I want the drops as well.” With that, she suddenly extended her arm, the flame mana condensing as she rapidly formed a clumsy Flame Strike. As the spell completed, she thrust her arm forward, sending the spell roaring towards Eric’s position.
Swearing, Eric rapidly formed his own Flame Strike, firing it at her. The two spheres met in mid-air, exploding into a furious display of roaring flames which set the grass of the glade on fire.
As the spells collided, Eric readied his bow only to notice that the woman had already closed half the distance between the two and was quickly approaching the brook. At this part of the glade, the brook narrowed to only two meters in width, hardly enough to act as a barrier for his opponent. Bringing his bow up quickly, Eric fired an arrow at the woman and began to run parallel to the brook, not even pausing to see if his arrow had hit as he grabbed another from his quiver.
Thwock! A meaty thud announced that his arrow had found a new home inside the woman’s upper chest, but she barely even hesitated, adjusting her trajectory and jumping directly over the brook. As she landed, Eric fired another arrow, this one soaring over her left shoulder as she moved agilely to one side before charging towards him with her axe raised high.
Finding himself in the open, Eric prepared another arrow. Raising his bow, he fired another arrow which smashed into the woman’s right side. Backpedaling furiously, he attempted to put distance between them as he tried desperately to nock another arrow to his bow.
With a ferocious yell, the woman jumped into the air, her axe crashing down towards him. Throwing himself to the side, Eric rolled lightly. As the woman jerked her axe out of the ground, he jumped to his feet, tossing away his bow and grabbing his dagger as he did so.
Holding the dagger in a reverse grip, he attempted to cast an Arcane Strike but the woman gave him no time to complete the spell, diving towards him and swinging the axe up in a diagonal slash. Abandoning the spell, he threw himself hastily to the side, barely dodging under the axe as he performed an undignified tumble on the ground. This was clearly what his opponent had been waiting for as she used the momentum of her swing to follow his roll, kicking him harshly in the ribs and bringing her axe up for an overhead slash.
Rolling to his knees, Eric desperately brought his dagger up in the guard position just like he’d practiced in the tutorial against Astrid. But how could a dagger block an axe? The axe deflected slightly off the dagger, it’s trajectory changing and slamming into his shoulder instead of his head.
Instantly, Eric’s healthbar went from just over 90% full to below 40%. Taking advantage of the fact that his opponent’s axe was still buried in his shoulder, Eric kicked out viciously, his foot slamming into his opponent’s knee, forcing her to the ground. Even as she fell, she still launched a punch at his head, but with a light shake of his head he dodged it, pouncing on his downed opponent. The axe clattering uselessly to the ground beside him.
Holding the dagger to her neck, he conjured a Flame Strike and held it above her face. Just as he was about to finish her, he hesitated.
Surveying the scene around him, Eric took in the corpses of the wolves and dead adventurers, the burning foliage, and the torn up grass. Looking back down at the player killer, an idea began to form.
“Nice fight. How would you like to join me?” Eric asked, his dagger and spell both ready to end the fight should she show any sign of resistance.
Confused, the woman gave him a perplexed look. Now that he’d gotten closer, he could make out her features beneath the cloak. She was an elf, with golden skin and shoulder length black hair. A small freckle adorned her left cheek. But by far her most striking feature were her eyes, with one violet and one a deep amber.
“What do you mean join you?” she asked, her voice a low growl.
“I enjoyed our fight and want to add you as a friend. You’re pretty skilled, even if I’m better,” Eric replied, giving her a lopsided grin.
“Not interested, I play solo,” she replied, but the hostility was gone from her eyes. Eric’s grin widened.
“Come on, I know you enjoyed that fight just as much as I did. Tell you what, add me as a friend, and if you ever need help or even if you just wanna spar, I’ll be there,” he suggested.
“You won, get it over with and kill me.”
“Aw come on. I like strong players. And you’re pretty good.”
“Just kill me.”
“Nope, you don’t have to join my guild or anything. Just think of it as a mutually beneficial partnership.”
“Kill. Me.”
“How about this. You don’t have to party up with me, just add me as a frien
d. Then you can reconsider it later on.”
She rolled her eyes in frustration, “Fine I’ll think about it, but only after you get off me.”
“Add me as a friend first and I will.”
“Fine but you have to get off!”
Bringing up the UI, Eric looked through the options, finding the one he wanted. He sent a request to the woman still lying beneath him at knifepoint. Was this blackmail? Or extortion? Eric wondered idly as he waited for her to accept the request.
[Seryllia Vespin has accepted your friend request. You are now friends!]
“Now get off!”
Allowing the mana to dissipate, Eric jumped up, reaching down to help her to her feet. Ignoring his offered hand, she clambered to her feet on her own. Grabbing her axe as she rose.
Collecting his bow and returning his dagger to its sheath, Eric looked over at Seryllia. Glaring at him, she removed the two arrows from her body, snapping them off in the process.
“Hey! I needed those!” he protested.
“And I needed to not get shot, you’re lucky I don’t chop you in half right now.”
“Awww come on Sery, don’t be that way. It was a great fight. Plus you attacked me first!” Eric retorted. He was the victim here!
Ignoring him, Seryllia walked over to the edge of the glade. With one last annoyed look, she disappeared into the woods. The forest swallowing all traces of her passing.
After she vanished, Eric collapsed, wincing as he felt the numbness that indicated his shoulder wound. A few inches to the right and she probably would have just oneshot him. Checking out the wound, Eric noted that there was significantly less gore than he’d expected. Unlike his injury at the hands or rather paws of the Demonic Rabbit, this wound was much cleaner, with far less blood and gore despite the increased severity of the wound. Interesting, Eric thought to himself idly as he recalled the fight.
That was probably the most intense fight he’d had in any video game ever. The way she just kept advancing, ignoring all defence reminded him of a berserker. And the way she’d forced him to dodge so that she could follow up, setting up for an execution style chop with her axe had seriously given him chills. If he hadn’t practiced that guard move in the tutorial, he’d have been a goner, seriously.
Ah well, he’d won in the end. Plus he’d gained a fairly cute girl as a friend, even if she did seem to have some serious personality problems, like her tendency towards murdering innocent passers by. Anyways, now that she was gone it was time for the best part of any fight. Picking up the loot!
- Chapter Twenty-Three -
Active Learning
Hauling himself to his feet, Eric checked his event log window which was glowing vibrantly, much more noticeable than it usually was. Opening his event journal, a slew of notifications flooded his vision.
[Adventurer Alexnir has been slain by Red-maned Wolf!]
[Adventurer Katzy has been slain by Red-maned Wolf!]
[Basic Archery has advanced to Beginner 6]
[Red-maned Wolf has died]
[Adventurer Tamira has been slain by an adventurer!]
[You have entered into combat with a player killer!]
[Basic Fire Magic has advanced to Beginner 2]
[Flame Strike has leveled up to Beginner 2]
[Basic Archery has advanced to Beginner 9]
[You have learned a new active skill! Evasive Shot]
[Basic Evasion has advanced to Beginner 4]
[Sword Technique - Guard has levelled up to Beginner 3]
[Your left arm has been crippled for one minute!]
[Militia Swordsmanship has advanced to Beginner 4]
[Basic Martial Arts has advanced to Beginner 5]
[You have forced Seryllia to retreat!]
The notifications flew across his vision, skill level ups, combat notifications, and player deaths all in chronological order. Despite the two fights having lasted no longer than five minutes, he had gained numerous skill levels and even learned a brand new skill. Considering that leveling should get harder the higher his skill proficiencies climbed, he’d gained more in these five minutes than he had in nearly three hours of hunting demonic rabbits.
Next to his healthbar, which was still blinking red as his HP slowly crept up from 30%, an icon bearing the image of a torso showed the left arm glowing red. A timer at the bottom of the icon was counting down with just under ten seconds remaining. Watching the time tick down, Eric could feel his shoulder slowly healing, the numbness fading as the timer slowly ticked down to zero.
Seems that the game’s not entirely realistic, which is probably good for balance, Eric thought to himself as he rotated his left arm, testing to make sure he had regained his full range of mobility. Satisfied, he gave a quick nod before checking on his biggest reward from the fight.
Bringing up the skill window, Eric took a careful look at his first active skill.
[Evasive Shot] - Beginner 1
Active Skill
Entering a state of increased focus, you gain the ability to shoot as you evade opponents attacks. Stamina usage is increased and accuracy decreases while using this skill.
Eric whistled, this was definitely a good skill. As long as he leveled it properly this skill would allow him to get first blood in almost any fight, provided he saw his opponent before they saw him. The state of increased focus was also pretty interesting, this was definitely going to become one of his main skills.
Closing the window, Eric moved over towards the pile of corpses at the edge of the glade. Since the party had died, it was up to him to take the loot dropped by the wolves. After all, if he left the bodies here then they could attract even larger monsters, endangering all the players nearby. It was his duty as a fellow player to take this loot and keep the forest safe!
Looting the wolves and the rabbit, Eric looked towards the bodies of the three party members. They wouldn’t mind if he took their stuff right? After all, he had saved their party member from a wolf, and if he hadn’t fought off Seryllia then their possessions would have landed in the hands of a player killer. No, him looting their bodies was definitely what they’d have wanted, Eric told himself, crouching down over the corpse of the warrior. As he extended his hand a system message appeared.
[As Alexnir’s karma is good, his three most valuable items cannot be looted.]
Eric frowned as he looked at the list of items he’d obtained from Alexnir. While there was a large number of rabbit pelts and horns, the man’s sword and shield were excluded from the loot. Pacing over towards the spearwoman, he received the same system message and found that her spear was not included in the drops, nor was the dagger hanging at her waist. The same held true for the mage, whose dagger and wand were both conspicuously absent from the drops.
It made sense, Eric supposed with a small sigh. If players could lose all their possessions from a single death then they would most likely be crippled financially fairly early on. As players acquired more gear however, the number of items carried would increase and the odds of getting good items from other players would rise.
Finished with the loot, Eric stood up and prepared to leave, watching as the now looted corpses began to dissolve into motes of light. Interestingly enough, their weapons didn’t dissolve directly into the air as their bodies did, but rather were sucked into the pouches at their waists. Turning around, Eric made to leave the glade, now noticeably worse for wear than it had been only minutes before his arrival.
Leaving the glade, Eric began to trek back towards Tonbura village, intending to safely logout and meet with the guys on Strife. He encountered little resistance on the journey, with Demonic Rabbits unable to dodge his arrows and encountering no wolves or other creatures which could have given him trouble.
As he travelled, Eric ruminated over the rewards and results of the events that had just transpired. The official site for Hurricane had stated that traditional grinding methods would not be optimal for leveling in Fate and it seemed that this was true. After t
he first demonic rabbit, it had required increasingly dangerous situations for his skill proficiencies to rise. And he hadn’t gained an active skill until he shot the red-maned wolf, despite taking careful aim at several points in his quest for total rabbit genocide.
From the events that had transpired, it seemed that situations with increased levels of danger, as well as fights where the player pushed their limits to the max, such as in his fight with Seryllia, were when a player had the highest chance of increasing their skills’ proficiency levels or even learning new skills. This meant that grinding on lots of weaker monsters, while safe, would most likely slow down a player’s skill development, he theorized.
“Definitely something I’ll have to test after I get back on,” Eric murmured to himself, already considering venturing deeper into the woods to find more difficult monsters like the red-maned wolves.
As the edge of the woods came into view, Eric emerged from Stillwood Forest back onto the grasslands, with Tonbura village visible only a few hundred meters from the forest edge. Checking the time, Eric picked up the pace, trotting towards the village gates, still manned by the same sleepy guardsman who’d watched him leave hours before.
Nodding to the guard, Eric entered the village. Passing the row of thatched roof houses that lined the main road, he quickly made his way towards the militia barracks. As he was about to knock on the door to alert Alistair to his presence, a loud shout made him pause.
“I knew you’d be here, give us back our stuff, murderer!”
