by K R Dimmick
All of a sudden, the mushroom let go of the ground and I hurtled across the floor with the mushroom in my arms.
You have received: Sky Mushroom
Quality: Raw
Level: Novice
Uses: Unknown
I hit the opposite wall with a thud that took 10% of my health. Letting go, I reached back to push myself up. The mushroom started to rise off the ground, so I quickly grabbed it and stuffed it into my inventory.
Twenty minutes later, I was the proud owner of 20 Sky Mushrooms and 49 Gladiator Spider venom sacs. One more to go, and then I’d have to work out how to find the bats I needed.
Having developed a nice rhythm of shooting arrows and avoiding the return attacks, I found that I could take down the spiders quickly, before they could poison me. After the fifth one, and a brief bout of being poisoned, I’d worked out the telltale signs of their lunge attack. Then it was simply a matter of watching them carefully and Dodging at the right time. This was going much better than I’d hoped and I should be back and claiming my rewards within the next half an hour at this rate.
I’d also managed to get to level 2 in Perception, Dodge and Archery, which was a nice bonus I hadn’t been expecting. I was so busy congratulating myself that even with the level up in my Perception skill, I failed to notice the slight whispering sound behind me.
9
Never Say Never
I felt a huge weight land on my shoulders and pain erupted at the back of my neck. I fell over backward in an effort to shake off whatever was attacking me. The move was met by a deafening, honking sound that reverberated around my head and the caverns.
A red icon that looked like a swirl appeared in the bottom left of my vision, showing that I had some kind of debuff.
You are dazed.
Duration: 5 seconds.
I shook my head, trying to clear the dizziness that had suddenly taken over my world.
Reaching back with my hands, I grabbed the monster. I wrenched it from the back of my neck, causing a searing pain as its fangs left my neck and a red tear-shaped icon appeared in my debuff area.
You are bleeding.
Duration: 5 seconds.
Throwing it to the ground in front of me, I kicked it hard.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Kick.
Kick is part of the Hand to Hand Combat Skills
It is linked to the stats Strength and Dexterity.
Increase your Strength to increase your physical attack damage.
Increase your Dexterity to increase your physical attack speed.
Increase your Hand to Hand Combat skills to increase the accuracy of Kick.
Never say never, I guess. It looked like I would need to use my hand-to-hand combat skills from time to time.
I touched the back of my neck. Unsurprisingly, my hand came away covered in blood.
In all the confusion, I’d dropped my bow. I scrabbled around on the floor, desperately trying to grab it before the mob attacked me again, and I lost more health. I could hear a faint flapping sound, almost like a whisper. I’d just gotten my fingers on my bow when the monster dived at me again, out of nowhere. I rolled to the side just in time, causing it to miss. Before I could get up though, a dark, flexible wall slammed into my face. I couldn’t see a thing. I reached up and clawed at it, trying to get it off me.
Once again, a deafening, honking sound exploded in my ears. The red swirl icon reappeared on my debuff bar. I hadn’t even noticed it disappear the last time. Unfortunately, the teardrop one was still there. With less than 50% health left, I shook my head, trying to work out which way was up.
I ripped off whatever was covering my face, just in time to see a second shadowy mob dive at me. I rolled to the side, charging my bow as quickly as I could. I drew the string back. Picturing the arrow hitting the monster in what I hoped was its head, I let it fly. The mob flapped its wings and flew above the arrow. Somehow, I remembered to keep focused. The arrow stopped in midair, changed direction and thundered into the back of the monster’s head from behind.
At the same moment, the second mob bit the back of my neck. I screamed. Pain tore through my neck once again. My health plummeted down to 10%. I spun around, trying to find the second monster that was attacking me. Suddenly, a glob of green goo hit my chest. A red skull and crossbones debuff icon popped up, confirming I’d just been poisoned. Sure enough, a gladiator spider I hadn’t spotted stepped away from the wall.
The last thing I saw before my vision went black was a large bat with an elongated face, huge mouth and red eyes laying on the floor next to me with a lavender arrow sticking out the back of its head.
Commiserations! You Are Dead.
You will respawn in 5 minutes at your last spawn location
All stats remain the same after respawn.
Please note that death penalties are level dependent.
Have a nice day and Rest in Peace.
“Arrrgh,” I felt like I wanted to curl up and die again. ‘Careful what you wish for,’ I thought.
Unlike the last time I’d died, this time I’d had some XP the death penalty could claim. I glanced down at my XP bar and discovered I’d pretty much lost all of the 500 XP I’d gained since I’d been in the dungeon. Talk about adding insult to injury.
“Arrrgh,” I felt a bit better after the second scream. At least I hadn’t lost any of my gear or the contents of my inventory. I had no idea how I was going to kill those bats though, if they grouped up against me again.
I stood up next to the marker stone and could feel a gentle warmth radiating from it that I hadn’t noticed before. Somehow, the buffs from being well fed were still in effect, which made me laugh. Just as I was about to walk away from the marker stone, the bat I’d been fighting flew into view. I guess my scream had attracted it.
It flew closer, opening its mouth to deliver that horrible honking noise. I covered my ears in an effort to avoid the dazed debuff, which thankfully worked. The bat flapped its wings, rising higher into the air, and without warning, plummeted down toward me. I ducked, but instead of it hitting me, it seemed to bounce off the light around the marker stone and fall heavily onto the floor.
Well, at least I had one thing in my favor at the moment. I reequipped my bow, thanking everything I could think of that I’d gotten my hands on it before I’d died. As the bat shook itself, presumably trying to get rid of its own dazed debuff, I reached for my mana. There was nothing there. I started to panic. I tried focusing on why I couldn’t access my mana and a notification appeared.
You are within the protection zone of a marker stone.
Nothing will be able to hit you or affect you in any way. However, you will also not be able to access any of your skills while within this sacred space.
Once you leave the protection zone, the only way to re-enter it is to die.
Okay then, panic over. I was safe for the time being. It probably wasn’t my hands over my ears that had stopped me getting dazed, either, I thought ruefully. Now though, I had to somehow get out away from the stone with enough time to charge my bow and shoot the arrow before the bat attacked me. The only question was, how? The light field may have surprised the bat the first time, but it would work out it couldn’t reach me in here pretty soon. So, I had to act fast. Maybe if I went around the stone and exited the area at the back, the bat wouldn’t be able to catch me before I could shoot. I stepped around the stone and was about to step out, when a glob of green goo hit the side of the light bubble and fizzled out of existence. Wonderful. The spider had come here too. I thought about my options. Both of them had the ability to effectively stop me from being able to attack for five seconds. Either I’d be immobilized or dazed, or worse yet, both. One could poison me, the other could make me bleed. Then an idea popped into my head and I started grinning. It might be a little crazy, but I had to try something.
I grabbed a venom sac from my inventory. Stepping toward the spider through the edge of the light, I felt the sligh
t warmth disappear. I threw the venom sac straight at the spider and grabbed my mana, forcing it into my bow. As I ran around the pillar toward the bat, it opened its mouth to make that racket again. I shot the arrow into its mouth, and without looking behind me, I Dodged. Sure enough, I’d timed the spider’s web attack correctly. Its net landed on the bat instead of on me. The surprised looking bat fell to the floor, immobile. I spun and fired an arrow as fast as I could at the spider. I had five seconds to kill it before the bat could attack me. I knew it took four arrows to finish one off. The spider crouched down, ready to lunge at me. I Dodged again, coming up behind it. Two arrows landed in the back of its head. It turned and threw its finished web at me. I dove to the right, narrowly avoiding it and landed the final arrow among the spider’s eyes. It rolled over dead, with its legs curled up toward it.
My five seconds was up. The bat, somehow managing to look angry, flew into the air. It tried its noise attack, only to find an arrow was in its way. Yay me. I focused, sending four arrows, one after the other, into it, while avoiding its dives. What felt like minutes later, but was probably only a few seconds, the bat finally hit the ground, peppered with lavender arrows.
I took a deep breath.
I looked around and found the venom sac from the spider I’d just killed. Behind it was the other one I had been hoping would have exploded over the spider, but hadn’t. At least it had distracted it for that crucial split second. I finally had all of the fifty gladiator spider venom sacs that I needed.
Turning to the bat, I watched its body disappear, leaving behind two sharp fangs and two leathery wings. On closer inspection, one of the fangs sadly turned out to be broken. I started picking up my loot.
You have received Gladiator Spider Venom Sac x 2.
You have received Hammerhead Bat Fang.
You have received broken Hammerhead Bat Fang.
You have received Hammerhead Bat Wings x 2.
I placed the lot into my inventory. It was time to go pick up the wings and fangs of the other bat I’d already killed, and then finish this quest.
I walked deeper into the cave, carefully looking around for other mobs, but nothing appeared. Arriving at the site of my latest death, I picked up a further two bat wings and two unbroken fangs.
A while later, I’d collected another 47 fangs and 60 more bat wings. I’d also found a second patch of sky mushrooms and picked enough to do the quest twice, just in case.
Happy with my progress, I walked back toward the entrance portal.
After another unsettling trip through the portal, that thankfully worked both ways, I found myself stumbling out into the area in front of the dungeon. It seemed like I might be mastering this portal travel stuff, since I didn’t end up on my hands and knees for a change.
With a smile on my face, I approached the marker stone and reset my spawn point back to Milgate village, my previous point.
I walked in through the gate at Kailu’s place.
“Kailu, I’ve come for my trousers.” I shouted into the empty space. “Okay, that didn’t come out quite right. Are you here?”
Kailu came out of his hut laughing.
“I take it you managed to complete the quest, then. I have the leggings, as promised.” He held up the dark blue leather trousers.
“I most definitely did. Only died once, too.”
Kailu blanched and nearly dropped the leggings.
“I can’t imagine experiencing death over and over,” he shuddered. “Once will be enough for me, when the time comes. I don’t know how you travelers manage it. Rather you than me.”
I took 15 bat wings out of my inventory and handed them over to Kailu, taking my new leggings in return.
You have received: Dragon Spirit Leggings
+ 6 Intelligence
+ 6 Wisdom
+ 6 Dexterity
+ 6 Fortitude
Quality: Superior.
Rarity: Rare.
Set bonus for 3 pieces + 10% effectiveness to Spirit Magic
Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Leather Please
You have received 1,000 XP.
The green XP bar increased in length. 45% of the way toward level 2. Things were looking good.
I put the leggings into my inventory and quickly equipped them with a thought.
“What is this Dragon Spirit gear made out of?” I asked Kailu, hoping it might be something he had more of lying around.
“It’s vampire deer skin. Quite rare, since they’re extremely vicious. I have a little bit left, but not much.”
“Any chance you’d have enough to make some boots with?” I asked with a big smile and a hopeful look on my face.
“Hah. I thought you didn’t have any more coin? And I know the spiders and bats in that dungeon don’t drop any, so even if I could, how were you thinking of paying me?”
“Would you be interested in some more Hammerhead Bat wings, by any chance?” I asked slyly.
“I can always use those, you’re right. They do make the softest leather vests,” he said wistfully. “Are you after the same stats or something different?”
“I could really use some different stats, I think. Maybe some Toughness and Endurance so I increase my HP and HP regeneration. Then again, if I keep increasing my Dexterity and Intelligence, I don’t have to worry about my health, as whatever I’m fighting will be dead before it can hit me.”
I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I take a chance and go with a min/max build, trusting that the best defense was a good offense, or should I put a little bit of effort into increasing my HP, so I didn’t die as easily? While the death penalties weren’t that bad at this level, the notifications did say they were level dependent, so I could only assume they’d get worse. Probably a reasonable assumption since a beginner was bound to die more often than someone who had more skills and knew how to use them.
“You know what, I’m going to take a chance and go with the same stats. I’ve always wanted to learn magic, so I’m going to try and find someone to teach me. Any chance you can also put a 4-piece set bonus on them so I could get the boost to Spirit Magic for 3 pieces and a boost for another type of magic for 4 pieces?” I put my best smile on and looked up at Kailu.
“I can, but it’ll cost you,” he said with a grin.
Obviously, he loved bargaining. Very well, I was up for the challenge.
“25 Hammerhead Bat wings,” I said pulling myself up as straight as I could. “You said they made the softest leather vests, so I’m sure you can sell those for a lot, and you’ll be able to make a lot of vests with that many wings.”
“45,” he said with a straight face, although the corners of his mouth started twitching.
There was no way I was going to be out bargained again.
“30. I know how much those vests go for in the market.”
“35,” he said. “If you know how much they go for, then you know you’re getting a good deal.”
“33. I died for these wings. That’s something you couldn’t do, so you know they’re worth more than that.” I claimed.
“34. Final offer.” He didn’t look quite as pleased as he had before, so I knew I was finally getting a decent deal.
“Done.” I said, retrieving 34 bat wings from my inventory and handing them over. “How long will it take to make my boots?”
“Not long,” he replied. “I’ll do them while you wait, however, I don’t have any more of the blue dye, so they’ll have to stay the original brown color, unless you want to wait a few weeks for the dye?”
I shook my head. A few weeks was longer than I had.
“Any idea what branch of magic you’d like a boost to for the 4-piece set bonus?” Kailu raised his eyebrows.
“I don’t know, what choices do I have?”
He laughed.
“I can’t believe you don’t even know what branches of magic exist yet.”
I glared at him.
“There’s Spirit Magic, which is mostly to do with he
aling and buffs.”
My heart sank. I really didn’t want a support build, so my first set bonus was probably going to never be used.
“There’s Arcane Magic, which lets you use lightning and gives you the power to create magical items.”
That sounded interesting.
“Mind Magic lets you influence your opponent’s mind. Great against people, less effective against monsters. Dark Magic is all about poisons and curses. If you’re going to be trying to solve that riddle I suspect you have, I’d stay away from that one or you’ll end up with negative Karma, which will hurt your chances of succeeding.”
My ears perked up at that, I’d have to see what else he knew about the riddle.
“Lastly, there’s Fire Magic, which is rather self-explanatory.”
Now that sounded right up my alley. I didn’t know anyone who wouldn’t love to be able to produce a fireball in their hands out of thin air.
“Fire Magic. That’s the one I’m going to get unlocked.”
“Thought you’d pick that one,” he laughed. “I’ll start on your boots.”
“Thank you. Any chance I could come and watch? And maybe ask you a few more questions, too?”
“Of course you can. Not many people come out this way, so it’s nice to have the company,” he chuckled, picking up the bat wings I’d given him. He started walking toward the hut with me in tow. “I’m going to have to make a change to your other 3 pieces to get the 4-piece set bonus to stick. Just so you know.”
