by K R Dimmick
Finally, close enough to get a better look, we could see that instead of antlers, it had a pair of downward facing tusks that looked exactly like fangs. It looked vicious. Written in red above its head were the words Immature Vampire Deer - 12.
“Let’s pull it over here in case there are others we can’t see in the trees.” I said. “I know I can Snipe it from here. If this one is level 12 and it’s still a baby, the last thing we want is more than one of them.”
“Agreed. But I think Baynor should be the one to pull it. I distinctly remember what happened to me the last time you shot a bow,” sneered Colt.
“Whatever. As long as someone pulls it, or I’m going to go in there and backstab it,” hissed Saris.
Baynor knelt down, sighting along the arrow that had formed in his bow, and just before Colt could get too impatient, the arrow left the bow and flew straight at the deer.
Startled, it reared up and let out a loud, high-pitched screech designed to attract help from everything around. Cursing loudly, Saris and Colt rushed in to silence the deer. We’d lost the element of surprise and the health bar under its description was still 95% full.
I ran to the left, around the clearing, thinking I’d get a clearer shot and be less likely to catch either Colt or Saris. Baynor, standing up, must have thought the same thing as he followed me. We pelted through the trees. Noise didn’t matter anymore. Anything we were going to alert had already heard the deer.
We skidded to a stop on some dry leaves, just in time to see the mother deer come crashing out from the cover of the trees, looking extremely angry. It was between us and its baby, so thankfully it hadn’t spotted Colt and Saris yet.
A quick Inspect showed her to be level 15. We were toast if we didn’t do something fast.
“I’ll kite her.” I yelled at Baynor. “You help take down the first one.”
Suddenly, the mother noticed Colt and Saris, who had both frozen on the spot. She put her head down, ready to charge them.
Without waiting for a reply from Baynor, I launched myself into the clearing, screaming and making as much noise as I could. I quickly drew my bow and shot at the angry mother. Her head swiveled upward to focus on me. With a defiant snort, she started running at me.
I ran away from the others as fast as I could. Hopefully, they’d take the baby deer down before the mother killed me. A quick look back confirmed she was still coming my way. I detoured behind a tree in an effort to try and counteract her vastly superior speed.
Screaming like I meant it, which I did, I hurtled across the clearing to the other side. The mother started to slow down as if she were losing interest in me. I turned and shot another two arrows in quick succession, grabbing her attention once more.
At that moment, the baby deer let loose another high-pitched screech. A quick look confirmed that Colt, Saris and Baynor had managed to get it to 50%. Obviously, it had some kind of special effect trigger. Trouble was, that got the mother’s attention. She turned her back to me and headed toward the true enemies who were trying to kill her baby.
I fired several shots in a row with no effect on the mother. I needed to try Snipe in the hopes that the harder hit would do it. I threw myself on the ground.
“Incoming! I lost agro,” I shouted to warn the others in case this didn’t work.
I pulled back the bow. Focused past the tip of the arrow. Finally, the back of her head came zooming into focus as if it were closer to me. I let the arrow fly and silently hoped this would work. If it didn’t, we were going to wipe.
The arrow hit the back of the deer’s head with so much force her head dropped forward. She stopped and started looking between me and the rest of the party. Clearly unsure of which way to go. I drew my bow back, ready to Snipe her again and persuade her I was the more dangerous opponent. The arrow flew once more and hit her between the eyes, taking nearly 10% of her health. I guess those 5 points I’d put into Strength made a big difference. The last hit convinced her. She turned around, dropped her head and charged me.
Somehow, I managed to Dodge at the last minute. I felt like one of the old Spanish bullfighters I’d read about in stories. Minus the red cape, of course. My distraction cost me as she gored me from behind with her tusks. My health plummeted to 10% as my vision started flashing red at the edges.
With a thought, I grabbed a health potion from my inventory, downing it in one gulp. The empty potion bottle disappeared in a puff of smoke with a faint popping sound. My HP shot up to just over half. I Dodged again as the vampire deer dropped her head and charged.
My little green XP bar trickled up a fraction and I realized the others must have finally killed off the first deer. I just had to survive long enough for them to reach me.
Turning around, I started running as fast as I could back to the others. I had to dive out of the way a few times as the mother attempted to finish me off. Then suddenly, my legs felt like they’d turned to lead. I came to a screaming halt and noticed I’d completely run out of stamina. I grabbed a stamina potion and threw it down my throat. Just as she was about to hit me, something tackled me from the side, and I was pushed out of the way. Pain tore through my side, confirming the sound of crunching bones must be coming from me.
Baynor rolled off me and onto his feet in one smooth movement that made me realize he, at least, was made to be an archer. Colt and Saris had both arrived and were tearing into the deer with their swords and daggers. Baynor, keeping himself between me and the deer, started peppering her with arrows.
I took yet another health potion out of my inventory and drank it quickly. This time, I noticed it tasted like raspberries and chocolate. So, it was true, I thought, chocolate really did cure all ills, no matter where you were. My broken ribs miraculously knitted themselves back together, and while I still felt like I’d been beaten to a pulp, amazingly enough, my HP was back up to 90%.
After I joined the fight, we finally dispatched the second vampire deer.
We all collapsed on the floor, exhausted. A flash of what looked like fear briefly crossed Colt’s face before being replaced by his usual sneer.
“Thanks for coming to my rescue,” I said. “I thought I was going to die for sure.”
“It was definitely close,” Baynor laughed.
“Yeah, couldn’t have done it without you kiting that second one,” Saris looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time.
Colt, on the other hand, was silent.
15
Karma Beware
My inventory was full of crafting materials. Both of the vampire deer had unfortunately only dropped crafting items. On the plus side though, we got a heart from both of them, so we didn’t need to find any more of the vicious creatures to get the items on Andrew’s list.
We still needed some more leather, but otherwise, the only item we had left to find at all was some wild strawberries. There were little red dots on my map showing they were over in the hills around Ben Sering. Instead of going back to Milgate, the search for the vampire deer had taken us quite a long way west, so we simply headed south toward Telemachus Dungeon, which was a good source of bat wings for the leather we still needed. With the four of us all at level 5, we would have a much easier time in there than I’d had soloing.
Colt was still sulking and giving me the evil eye, which, as far as I was concerned, was a step up from his usual running commentary about how much better he was than me. I was rather happy with the change, which seemed to annoy him even more.
The hills around the dungeon looked steeper than I remembered and there were a lot of loose rocks. Clambering on all fours up a bank of shale finally got us to our first patch of strawberries.
As I bent down to gather the tiny fruit, an arrow sailed through the space my head had been in only moments before.
“Look out!” yelled Baynor. “We’ve found a harpy nest.”
Sure enough, a gray-skinned woman whose legs ended in bird claws instead of feet hovered in the air ahead of me on a six-foot span
of leathery wings. She held a large bow in her hands and was aiming at me again. I threw myself on the ground.
Another arrow whooshed past the side of my head. Baynor fired back and the strange woman zoomed up higher into the air with a flap of her wings.
“To me!” shouted Colt, who’d pulled a huge shield out of his inventory and was currently using it to protect himself and Saris. Baynor and I slid down the scree toward them. A split second before I could reach cover, the harpy shot another arrow at me. This one found its mark in my right leg. I screamed and my HP dropped 20%. A small red teardrop icon told me I was also bleeding. My health started dropping at 10 HP a second. Baynor fired frantically at the harpy, ducking back behind Colt’s shield between shots. The shield was starting to look more like a pincushion than a weapon. Saris flung some throwing knives, one of which hit home and momentarily brought the harpy down to the ground.
“Copy me,” Baynor said urgently. He leaned back, lifting his bow like he was going to shoot into the sky. As he pulled the string back, five arrows materialized, and he sent them upward to rain down on the harpy. I did the same.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Rain of Arrows.
Rain of Arrows is part of the Archery 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 Archery skills to increase the accuracy of Rain of Arrows.
With ten arrows plus several throwing knives all descending on the harpy, we grounded her. Colt rushed forward with a yell. He brought his sword back and plunged it into her chest. With a final screech, she died.
“Time to get that arrow out,” Saris looked at my leg. I still had the bleeding debuff and was now down to 50% health. “Get an HP potion ready.”
She grabbed the arrow and pulled it out. That made the bleeding worse. I quickly downed the potion and watched in relief as my leg started to knit back together again and my health increased. I know the pain was supposed to be muted in this game, but really, I wish they’d muted it more.
“I got a ring, what did you guys get?” Baynor walked back over from where the harpy’s body had now disappeared.
I looked up and all I could see were the huge leather wings.
“Looks like I got the wings.” I said. It was disappointing since everyone else had gotten rings, and I’d yet to get any jewelry. From the look of things, we could wear ten rings, two bracelets and a necklace. Well, I figured I’d get one soon enough and this amount of leather meant we could leave once we’d picked the strawberries.
We looked around for more harpies, just in case, but somehow, we’d been lucky and there weren’t any more of them around. The others wandered off a little distance and started picking the wild strawberries.
You have received: Harpy Wing x 2
I picked up the huge wings and thankfully looked down as I tried to cram them into my inventory. There, on the ground, was a glittering silver ring. Picking it up, I noticed it had several small, lavender-colored stones around the band.
You have received: Amethyst Ring of Healing
+ 20 HP
+ 10 Wisdom
Quality: Exotic.
Rarity: Rare.
I slipped it into my inventory. I had no illusions that I’d be able to keep this, as an exotic ring must sell for a lot of coin. Somehow, I was going to have to work out how to keep this hidden.
Time to pick the strawberries. There were little plants everywhere. The wild strawberries themselves were tiny compared to the ones I’d seen as a kid. Smaller than the nail on my pinky, yet oh so sweet. I ate nearly as many as I put in my inventory, they were so good. Just as I was about to give up picking them, I noticed a faint blue glow around the leaves. That must mean they were also a crafting item, so I grabbed several handfuls of the leaves as well.
“Since we’re done with the list, I’d like to head back to Milgate and see what quests they have on the board.” I said.
“I’m going back to the guildhall and I think we all need to stick together,” announced Colt. “Just because you got lucky with that deer doesn’t mean you’ll be okay on your own. What would Andrew say if you died and ended up going back down to level 4?”
“Fine, I’ll stay too. He did tell us to level up, after all. And frankly, I think it would be you who’d be in trouble on your own.” Saris glared at Colt.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Colt looked as us with the promise of trouble and vanished into a portal we couldn’t see.
Baynor shrugged and vanished as well.
“Wow, why does Colt hate you so much? I’d assumed we all met for the first time at the lottery”.
“We did. All I can think of is that it’s because I was an aberth.” I said as we started to walk toward Milgate.
“I never fully understood that. I grew up in Reeds, which was one of the poor areas. I always thought that aberths were lucky since they lived in the noble’s estates.” She looked at me like she wanted to know more.
“When a noble is born, their parents pick 10 babies of the same gender born within a month of their child. Sometimes, the parents get money in return, but most of the time, they just give the baby away because they can’t afford to feed it. After all, I’m sure you noticed that most women seemed to be permanently pregnant. That was so they could avoid being called in the lottery. It’s stupid really, since the lottery came about because of the overcrowding, but people have kids to avoid it. Well, I guess no one ever said politics was sensible.”
She laughed.
“Anyways, I was one of those babies. Life was good before we all came of age. The noble family had to educate us so we could get a job once their child passed culling age. So, I spent a lot of time in the library.” I grinned. “Then we had our first lottery, and everything changed. Liandreth continually played us off against one another. She either threatened to pick us in the next lottery if she got called or promised she wouldn’t if we did certain things. I’d rather not talk about it if you don’t mind. We were essentially slaves whose lives depended on the whims of a spoiled brat. She picked whoever had slighted her the most that month. I’m sure Colt was just as spoilt and manipulative. For him to be here, he had to have been picked in the lottery more than ten times. That’s not that likely, so most nobles seem to feel safe and see lottery days as a social event. I’m sure he saw his aberths as worthless things to be sacrificed in his place. Now that we’re all equal, he can’t stand it.”
We walked on in silence, not quite friends yet, but at least things seemed to be turning a corner since the vampire deer fight.
We arrived at Milgate and went in search of the quest board. I wanted to see if I could find either Isviar or Mikael as I needed to stash this ring somewhere Andrew would never know about it. While I had no idea how he would know I’d received it, I was sure he would find out and since it was perfect for a magic user build, I wanted to keep it.
“I found something interesting in the library this morning,” I said. “From what I can tell, part of the riddle is to get to level 10. I also think we need to have a certain amount of Intelligence and Wisdom, too. That means Andrew is getting us all to create the wrong builds.”
“No! There’s no way he’d do that,” Saris looked shocked. “He’s trying to help us. Look at what he’s done already, with the new gear, the power leveling, the free dorms and food. Not to mention saving our lives with that potion.”
“It’s hardly free,” I laughed. “We lose 50% of our XP and 50% of the loot we pick up. Plus, we can’t create the builds we want. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful I’ll have some time to work out the riddle without as much pressure, but if he’s steering us in the wrong direction so it becomes impossible to solve the riddle, then that’s a problem.”
“Hmmph. Colt was right about you. Why can’t you just do what you’re supposed to do and quit r
ocking the boat? I don’t know why you think you know better than someone who’s been looking into this problem for years, when you’ve been here a mere two days, but it’s unbelievable. I’m not going to get dragged down with you. If you want to get yourself kicked out of the guild, I don’t want to be associated with you.” Saris stormed off, waving her hand in the air like she was accessing her interface, then suddenly vanished as she traveled to the guildhall.
Well, that didn’t go so well. Maybe I should rethink taking this to Andrew. On the plus side, I could now go find Isviar and see if he’d keep hold of my ring for me.
On my way to find Isviar, I passed the Alchemist’s shop. I could see Aliz in there, working away, so I knocked on the door. Maybe she could talk me through making that first health potion, so I didn’t injure myself again.
“Hi Aliz, do you have a moment?”
She turned to look at me with a smile on her face. I saw her eyes briefly pop up to my name tag. All of a sudden, a look of horror flashed across her face. Her chin came up and she squared her shoulders.
“I don’t talk to Dragon Hunters,” she declared. “Get out of my shop.”
With that, she shut the door and deftly flipped the open sign over to say closed.
16
Enlightening
What the…
“I thought I warned you to stay away from that guild.”
I turned around to once again find Mikael leaning against the wall with a twinkle in his eye.
“You did, but their offer was just too good to refuse.” I said.
“Really? Enlighten me,” his voice took on a hard edge.
“You wouldn’t understand. It’s a traveler thing.” I muttered. “Look, I get why you’ve got something against them, at least I think I do, but why won’t Aliz talk to me? She’s supposed to be the Alchemy teacher. How am I supposed to level Alchemy?” I was getting indignant now. It was one thing to have some kind of secret storyline going on that I could hopefully tap into, but when the NPCs refused to talk to you, that just wasn’t right.
