Village of Noobtown: A LitRPG Adventure (Mayor of Noobtown Book 2)

by Ryan Rimmel

  It snarled, as I got back to my feet. Then, it leapt on me, knocking me right back down like a bowling pin. It bit and clawed, while I slashed at its unprotected belly. Eventually, it too perished, bleeding out from its facial and stomach wounds. I was left alone with my damaged armor, listening to the sounds of Badgelor fighting to my right. Groaning, I got to my feet and stumbled over just as Badgelor managed to get his jaws around the creature’s neck.

  The audible snap told me the fight was over, but Badgelor was thorough. A few moments later, he’d used his claws to remove the creature’s head from its body. Then, he tossed it aside like so much trash and sat back on his haunches.

  “Well, that was rough,” stated Shart. “I think I might have taken a point of damage. Are you alright, Dum Dum?”

  “Fine,” I grumbled, taking out my dagger. I was going to have to skin these cats. That wouldn’t take very long, fortunately. Looking at my map, I guessed that it was about half a day’s travel from here to the city of Narwal, so, I certainly had time.

  “Ha,” stated Badgelor. “It’ll be easier from here. All we have to do is just keep going forward, counting on my awesomeness to get us through.”

  “Of course,” I chuckled. “Seriously, how hard could it possibly be?”

  Chapter: Fecking Puma Forest

  Two days later.

  Jim

  HP: 52/300

  Stamina: 87/315

  Mana: 16/60

  The sickening weight of impact sent me stumbling forward, skull first, into a large tree. A think a branch snapped off, thanks to the contact it made with my face. I felt the bite clamping around my neck, even as the claws began tearing into my back. I suffered a stun effect for 3 terrifying seconds. Those three seconds seemed like an eternity of helplessness while the cat tried to end me.

  You have suffered 29 points of Damage from bite and claw wounds.

  As the stun faded, I reached behind me, furiously grabbing for any part of the puma. I grabbed a handful of fat from the feline’s side and aimed for the outstretched spike of wood where the branch had broken. I rammed both of us into it, piercing the cat’s side. It hissed as its claws continued to tear at my skin, the attacks becoming desperate rather than deliberate.

  My longsword was out of reach, so I slammed my shoulder into the cat. The puma was driven further into the spike. Fully impaled now, the creature’s growls faded into whimpers, and its movements became mere twitches.

  Level Up, Beast Master 7

  You may select one perk

  Your Hit Point total is increased by 10. Your Stamina is increased by 10.

  I laughed a short mirthless chuckle. You could say whatever you wanted about this terrible place, but it was great for experience. I sank to the ground for a moment, fumbling for my nearly broken blade. It remained intact solely because I’d taken Sword Master as my Warrior perk earlier in the day.

  A slow growl to my right startled me. Damn it. I know not to let my guard down here. As I reached my hand out for my sword, the animal moved at the speed of lightning. It bit down hard on my outstretched hand. I screamed, and a second puma pounced from my left. I was sent careening across the ground without my sword.

  My hand was fountaining blood. I could tell through Iron Will, and through the shock, that it was bad. I clutched my hand to my chest just as the second puma caught up with me again.

  Shart was suddenly there, interposing himself between the cat and me. HIs little demon body was covered, from front to back, in deep claw marks. As the cat swung, I heard Shart scream. I didn’t totally understand my familiar’s sense of time, but I imagined he had what seemed like hours to watch the attack unfolding. Claws tore the demon open, again, causing a fountain of black blood to splatter all over the cat.

  Instantly, there was a hissing sound. Small bursts of green fire erupted over the cat. It yowled, jumping backward. Shart lay on the ground in a pool of his own blood. The pool, too, had small wisps of flame. The grass and foliage nearby shriveled; nothing green would ever grow there again.

  Badgelor had reappeared from his last fight and began wrestling with the puma that bit me. I stared at my hand. Two of my fingers were gone. My hand was ruined. I coughed out a single sob as I tried frantically to get to my character sheet. There had to be some way to fix this. For several long, excruciating moments, I couldn’t focus enough to bring up the sheet.

  I was curled into a ball when Badgelor stumbled next to me, “We have got to move. There are more coming.”

  “I’m hurt,” I coughed, trying to get my shit together.

  “We are all hurt. We need to go, or we are all dead,” growled the badger. He grabbed at my arm and tried to pull. Then, he saw my hand.

  I yanked it back, curling around my wound. I was so tired and so hurt. There must be a point where I could rest, even for just a few minutes. I didn’t need long, just a bit. I just needed enough time to recover my wits. Instead of sympathy, I got...something else.

  “You weak little human!” screamed the badger. “I did not bring you this far just to let you die in these fecking woods. You have a perk! Take ‘Improved Companion Bond’ and move your ass, NOW.”

  I finally got a look at my character sheet. There was a Beast Master talent called Improved Companion Bond. I hovered over it for a second before selecting it. Instantly, I felt more calm and complete. I could sense Badgelor more directly than I had been able to, and I could sense his emotions.

  He was angry, not scared. He wanted to get out of there. I felt my emotional turmoil smash into his indomitable will and shatter. My broken psyche further cracked against his steadfast confidence.

  I broke out of menu time and got to my feet. I was balancing on a knife’s edge, but I could do it now. Shart flew back onto my shoulder, attaching himself in his special way. I grabbed my sword, which looked all but unusable, and tried to push forward.

  I bandaged my hand and went about skinning the pumas. It was mechanical by now. The pumas would always attack, but there was normally a short time between attacks. I had initially begun skinning them in the hope that smelling like bloody puma would throw them off my scent. It didn’t, but I continued doing it. Now, I was skinning them as a perverse collection of kills. Maybe they would be worth something in Narwal, assuming we made it to Narwal.

  I was nearly finished with the second puma when I smelled brimstone. I twisted and saw five pairs of eyes in the forest.

  “RUN,” I screamed frantically, as the next batch of fecking pumas emerged from the bushes.

  “Go, I’ll dig my way out,” cried Badgelor, as he charged into them. I continued running as fast as I still could from the horrible pack hunters of the Fecking Puma Forest. I had updated my map with this awful place’s new name yesterday, after Badgelor suggested it. Was it yesterday? I couldn’t be sure of the days involved, but I was reasonably certain it was sometime between the twelfth and twentieth attacks.

  “Are they still chasing us?” I called out to Shart. His own little body wasn’t looking too good. I’d used him as a shield… multiple times. Feeding Mana to Shart allowed him to heal quickly, so he was still alive. I was fairly certain he suspected that I’d only given him those few precious points of Mana so I could use him as a shield, again. He was right.

  “They are still behind us,” Shart cried, gripping my shoulder with his small claws. I could feel him tearing flesh as I leapt over a large log. I finally broke out of the fuster clucking woods and into a small clearing.

  After the first couple of attacks, we’d avoided the road. The road was death. The road was nothing but tall bushes on either side, where Fecking Pumas laid in wait for tasty morsels of Jim.

  I kept running, until I was sure I had managed to get past the horde of Fecking Pumas. They seemed to be everywhere in the forest, and I was sure they would haunt my dreams for years to come.

  It had been okay for the first several battles. I’d even leveled up my Duelist, Adventurer and Beast Master classes. By the middle of the first nigh
t, though, I was down half of my weapons and the pumas just kept coming. They came in endless terrible waves, convincing me that there was some kind of puma call that they were using. A call that told all cats in the entire forest that there was fresh meat to be had.

  I heard a noise behind me and twisted toward it, hoping that I wouldn’t get pounced on again. Their Stealth in the forest was greater than I could usually detect, until they decided to break camouflage and attack. I’d been knocked violently to the ground more than a hundred times since the first battle.

  My sword, the durable, supposedly unbreakable one, had dulled to near uselessness. My newly acquired Sword Master perk was all that separated it from being complete garbage. I’d come into this horror show with one longsword, two shortswords, three daggers, and a bow, as well as my armor and shield. The bow had been utterly useless as a weapon, and I’d burned it early on in an attempt to frighten away the pumas. The pumas were not frightened by the fire. My armor was also ruined. It had been completely torn off me, but it made no difference. It’s Durability had been reduced to nothing, anyway. The shield had vanished down a ravine somewhere, with a puma mocking me as it stole it away.

  I had managed to retain my backpack. Apparently, Hiking let me keep my backpack, even in ridiculous situations!

  A bush suddenly exploded into the air, and Badgelor, covered in blood, dirt and desperation, came out. “Run, they’re right behind me!”

  I looked around. “What? You were underground,” I said, confused.

  “They can tunnel!” screamed the badger.

  That couldn’t be true, could it? I returned to sprinting and tried desperately to get out of the range of the terrible horrible cats. Pumas aren’t supposed to be pack hunters, are they? I thought back to all my many zoo trips with my kids. I was sure they were solitary hunters on Earth.

  “You are supposed to be solitary!” I screamed at the pack of pumas. They had just emerged from the same tunnel as Badgelor.

  “Stop screaming and run, you idiot,” cried Shart, as we properly broke free of the woods. We were finally clear of all the boundless cover for the hell beasts to spring from. I’d leveled 5 times in that forest, twice in Duelist and Beast Master and once in Adventurer. It hadn’t been enough. With my equipment destroyed, being at a higher level meant less.

  Even with the experience, I was considerably less powerful than when I’d entered the Forest. The pumas knew that. They could smell fear. They could smell me.

  Should I have turned back? Of course, I should have turned back. I couldn’t turn back, though. The Fecking Pumas had formed an unbroken chain of death between me and the fortress. By the time I’d realized it, I couldn’t break through. We tried twice, before it became obvious that the only way to survive was to move forward faster than them, through the horrible forest.

  I looked up and saw a wall. A Wall? The pumas? I pivoted around so fast I was overcome by dizziness, as I frantically searched for the terrible beasts. Alas, there were no bushes for them to hide in, but I could see rustling at the edge of the woods. I pointed to the wall, two fingers on my right hand clearly missing. Missing fingers made pointing more challenging, but I pointed, anyway.

  A puma had found tasty morsels of Jim.

  Then I saw the road, the deadly road that all the pumas knew to track. They knew, and there was so much cover over there. Despite all the dense foliage surrounding the nearby road, there was no cover here. Someone had clipped the greenery, so, it was nice and flat. Or, was it a trick? Could I simply be hallucinating?

  “For the love of all that is holy, a gate!” cried Badgelor.

  We ran towards the gate. We had no other options. Shart stood on my shoulder, looking behind me. That was the only way we’d been able to avoid the constant attacks from behind. He had warned me whenever the more skilled Fecking Pumas were sneaking in for the kill.

  “Hold there,” called one of the guards, as we neared the gate.

  We halted, Shart still scanning the woods. It seemed to take an age for the guard to approach us. In actuality, he was only a few paces from the gate. Finally, he stood before us.

  “People don’t usually come from that forest, anymore,” remarked the guard, taking in my appearance first, and then Badgelor’s.

  “Pumas,” I said, fighting down the urge to look behind me. Shart would warn me if they were coming.

  “Yes, there are many pumas in the forests,” he replied, carefully. “So, why are you here?”

  I looked down at my person. I was in rags. Not even that, really, since a Fecking Puma had stolen one of my shoes, and the other shoe had been flung by an irate and desperate Badgelor. I was in rag. I’d tied it with some difficulty over my manly bits this morning. I still had the traveler’s pack, though. It was damaged, badly, but I’d patched it with puma skins. I was also, somehow, still in possession of the coins given to me by my townspeople. I’d hidden them in my pack. One would assume that with a big ‘ole pack, I’d have some extra clothes, but no. I had not had the foresight to pack in preparation for a zoo attack.

  “Trade,” I said.

  “Well, I’m to let traders in,” he stated skeptically, “but I must ask a question, first. Why didn’t you take the north road? It avoids the forest entirely and only adds a few hours to the trip.”

  It was only through the profound gratitude of not being killed by Fecking Pumas that I didn’t attack the man.

  Chapter 25: The City of Narwal

  The guards were somewhat concerned about a man trying to enter the city wearing nothing but a rag. Fortunately, they were also agreeable to bribery, of a sort.

  “Your clothes, sell them to me,” I stated, after I was refused entry into the city proper.

  “Just how do you intend on paying?” asked a much taller guard.

  “With puma skins,” I replied, feeling him out.

  He frowned in thought for a moment, before shaking his head. “No, I don’t think so. I don’t know how many skins my clothes would be worth.”

  “A gold coin?” I asked.

  He considered for a moment. “I don’t know how many skins it would take to get a gold coin.”

  “No,” I replied, gesturing at the guard. “I was offering a gold coin for the clothes.”

  Five minutes later, I was in town with my limping, homicidal badger. He was once again small and unassuming. It was nice to see that we were both in agreement about approaching unknown situations without scaring the ever loving crap out of people.

  The city of Narwal was a walled town that was on the edge of “Fecking Puma Forest”, according to my map. My Explorer perk caused a few more details to emerge, as I examined the town in more detail. It was much larger than my village, with a population of 1582. Narwal was noted as being on the northwestern edge of the territory of King TimSimons. It was usually a prosperous little town, where they used wooden shingles for the roofs.

  Glancing around, I realized that I recognized the roofs. They were just like some I’d seen in some weird historic village my wife once dragged me to. This was a bit different, however, as that town had been mobbed by tourists. This one was mobbed by refugees.

  The town itself was much more crowded than its population suggested. A large number of people were milling around in the small square right inside the gate. There were a few vendors selling string, meat pies, and other assorted goods. Most of the people were sitting up against buildings, looking miserable. Compared to them, I didn’t look quite so bad.

  Many people in the crowd looked up as I approached. For a moment, they seemed genuinely happy to see me. That feeling faded almost as quickly as it had come. I could understand. I was covered in puma skins, and I assumed everyone hated the wretched beasts as much as I did.

  We had made it to the town at midday and then spent fifteen minutes puttering about outside the gate where the pumas were. I shook that off; there were no pumas here. I still had plenty of daylight to find out where the royal representative was and set up a meeting.

>   However, as I walked, I noticed people avoiding me. I took stock. I was wearing dirty clothes. I was carrying a huge pack covered in puma skins. I was horribly scarred and the nubs of my missing fingers itched, terribly.

  I avoided looking at my hand.

  The edge of the fact that I was missing body parts hit me again, and I pushed it down hard. I didn’t have time to collapse at the terrible damage to my hand, or the scars that were all over my body. Iron Will kept the pain down, and I did my best to ignore it. I was both desperate for sleep and dreading what my mind would do when I was finally safe.

  However, looking as I did, they were not going to let me into the castle. I needed clean clothes to assist me in looking more presentable. With my last dagger gone, I couldn’t even shave. I looked like a stinky, shaggy hobo.

  “Thoughts?” I asked.

  “Well,” replied Badgelor, “We should find something to eat that’s not a cat.”

  “Yes,” I said, “But I was thinking more about selling these skins and buying some clothes.”

  Badgelor had already walked over to a street vendor and grabbed two meat pies. He was quickly wolfing down the hot meat when I noticed the vendor looking at me apprehensively. I wondered if you could report a badger for theft.

  “How much?” I asked, wondering how much a meat pie could cost. I had a few gold on me, so I suspected I could afford a few.

  The vendor looked me up and down, “Two silver, each.”

  “That seems a bit pricey,” I stated. A day laborer earned 10 silver per day and worked most of that. That meant that a meat pie cost them approximately 2 hours of labor, and I just couldn’t see someone staying in business with prices like those.