Changing World- The Beginning

by Sergei Katz

  A couple of times I even managed to evade getting bitten. As a result, I used “Slashing strikes” in my fight twice, and my “Sword Master” skill increased by 2 points (3). I still had 49 life points remaining. So far so good, but there was still room for improvement.

  I decided not to try the “Penetrating strike” just yet, unless it became absolutely necessary: I had too little mana left. Four “Slashing strikes”, in my opinion, were more effective than one “Penetrating strike” and two “Slashing strikes”. Although, the opportunity to damage its internal organs was very tempting, the chance of success was way too low. The bottom line was that I needed to see how effective the techniques were in open combat first, or it could be confusing how to use my weapons in the best way. I pondered all of this while finishing off the next monster, and replenishing my health with yellow fruits.

  I carefully moved through the cave: the passage was uneven, with a sharp turn about every 10-20 steps. The tension was palpable. The technique of chopping off the termites’ legs proved to be a great success: I only had to eat another fruit after the sixth battle. Gradually, I studied the basic combat techniques of the termites and my “Evasive movement” ability showed itself in all of its glory: here and there my body naturally shifted to one side, as I avoided an attack after attack.

  During the second battle, it seemed to me that the termite that attacked me was somewhat different from the first one, and the battles that followed confirmed this: every termite in this place was unique. The color of their chitin was different, and so was the way that their mandibles and legs behaved. The last termite I fought proved to be an experienced fighter: it even increased my “Sword Master” ability up to 7 points, and my “Agility” increased by 3 points, but that wasn’t enough to help me. Surprisingly enough, it was only then that I got my reward.

  My first reward in this part of the game turned out to be a piece of a plate of dark brown chitin, and the description said that it was the chitin of a Fire termite, but all the rest of the information was unavailable to me. The plate of chitin was quite elastic and looked strong. Rummaging in my bag, I found a couple of pieces of liana creeper: I had put the bits left over in my bag without thinking. I wrapped the plate on my left hand, leaving a five-centimeter gap to the wrist, and secured the whole thing with several knots. It didn’t look like much, but the system still appreciated my efforts:

  You have created an “Unsightly chitinous shield”: armor 10 points and a 5% chance to block a blow with the protected part of the arm.

  Your “Craftsman” ability has increased: +1 (3).

  You have improved your “Identification of objects” ability: +1 (2).

  Brilliant! At this moment, as I had hoped, I could use my left hand to block attacks. This, of course, was not a proper shield, and I didn’t really have a deft left hand, but in any case it was better than nothing. I still needed to develop the capabilities of my left hand, so it was better to start sooner rather than later. After allowing myself to take a break for a couple of minutes, I kept going through the anthill.

  It seemed that what worked in the forest worked here too: the further I went, the stronger the opponents became and the more I was afraid to die in the game, but I persevered. My intuition and curiosity were cooperating and driving me forward.

  My opponents changed. No, they were still termites. Only they became small and started shooting from the ceiling, very much like a cross between a termite and a dung beetle. They died immediately after one hit, only it was difficult to get them: the shooting termites were constantly on the move, even when they were firing a shot.

  I also came across strange red-blue termites. They stood behind their comrades and healed them with their touch. So, I had to block attacks with my left hand and constantly dodge them too, until I could kill the healers. Only after that I was able to kill the termite warriors.

  Finishing pretty much the last of my yellow fruit, I summed up my current status.

  Reflexes: + 6 (9). This ability started growing in leaps and bounds when I began to kill the first termite-healers. I constantly had to dodge the shooters and strikes of the warriors, but I only managed to block 30 percent of the strikes.

  Sword master: + 4 (11).

  Agility: +2 (13).

  Strength gained: + 1 (10).

  Also, due to the fact that the Moon Flower constantly used my mana, and I had started using it myself, my “Intellect” increased +1 (6).

  New messages jumped out at me:

  Your “Stamina” ability has increased: +1 (15), and moved to a new level, a bonus for every 1 stamina point:

  20 life points - 300 life points;

  0.5% resistance to poisons: 7.5%;

  0.1% avoiding organ damage: 1.5%.

  All this was good news, but, as usual, there was a bad one among them too. I only had one yellow fruit left. Well, no one promised that it would be an easy ride.

  Luckily, the caves were literally full of unusual flora. Although I suspected that if I had not had a high level of “Attentiveness” and my “Herbalist” ability, I would have found nothing and would have to fall back as soon as my provisions, with their healing abilities, ran out. Passing through the caves, I collected what I considered to be the most promising plants, although oddly enough, all of them were too complicated for my level of “Herbalist”. So, to find out what was edible, I adopted an old Neanderthal technique: basically, try everything. So that’s what I did.

  There were only four kinds that I considered to be candidates for food. I started with a dirty orange colored oblong fruit resembling a carrot crossbred with a cactus. It looked the most promising of the bunch, and the fruit had an acidic-salty taste. Having eaten this fruit, which I was unable to find any information about, I did not feel that it had any effect upon me, so I discarded it. Perhaps this was a terribly useful fruit that was used in incredibly complex medicines, but for the moment it hadn’t helped me in any way.

  Your “Intuition” ability has increased: +1% (8%).

  “What? I'm guessing that it is used for healing after all, or is it just useless for me in this cave? Better not throw it away then!”

  One by one I tried the remaining fruits; as a result, I found two poisonous ones. The first - similar to a cowberry, but dark green, possessed a weak poison within it: it demolished 0.1% of a life point per second for 10 seconds. The second one - similar to a celery root, demolished 10% of my remaining life points, leaving me with 203 points.

  However, the last one, slightly reminiscent of a black colored passion fruit, was edible, and it gave me 10-40 life points at a time. Out of six fruits one gave 40 points, and the remaining five gave no more than 15 life points. When I ate the sixth fruit, I was finally given its name:

  “Cave Haiku” is a type of edible moss. It grows exclusively in caves, and it can be used in cooking. Edible in its raw form, it provides a top up of 10-60 life points.

  Your “Herbalist” agility has increased: +1% (69%).

  “I won’t get very far at this rate if I eat nothing but haiku. I need to find something better ...”

  While I still had room in my bag, I saved all the edible plants I could find, thirty per each slot.

  My progress had slowed considerably, and I even had to go back in search of more haiku. I began to fight more cautiously, constantly luring the warriors out and fighting from a defensive position to avoid the arrows fired by the mutant shooters. I also worked out a whole new strategy for chopping their legs off. Thanks to all of this, I managed to reach the end of the cave, and that’s where I stumbled upon the Queen of the hive.

  In front of me was a huge hall, lined with lilac-black stalactites, and amidst this magnificence stood the fiery-amber colored Queen of the termites. It was four meters high. It had six long legs as wide as my torso, and the two front ones ended with what looked like claws, which the termite Queen used as hands. It used the other four to move around.

  “Wow! Apparently, this scenario was designed for more th
an one player!”

  The monster didn’t notice me, being too busy with its work. The Queen was burying an egg in the ground, which at first glance, looked to be as big as me. I sat down in the passageway and began to chew on the haiku, although I was already tired of this plant. Unlike the yellow fruit I did not particularly care for the taste, however since in this fight I was going to have to use everything that I had at my disposal, I needed to bring my life points to the maximum level. I didn’t have any plan yet, as I watched the Queen dig up and bury a couple more eggs. Her movements were slow and confident, and she did not do anything unusual. I had no idea how many life points she had, and I didn’t know what to expect from her in terms of her attacking capabilities.

  While I was eating, I was trying to think of a reason why I shouldn’t attack it, and I came up with several, but my curiosity accompanied by my intuition joined my desire for advancement and safely rejected them all. In fact, there were two more reasons to take this chance. The first was to prove to myself that I was not afraid, because if I proved to myself that I was weak, then I would always be afraid. The second reason was my patron: I knew for certain that he was watching me. I was desperate to establish good relations with him and make him respect me.

  “Alas, my termite Queen, you shall die today. Either that, or when your children hatch out they may have something to breakfast upon, but that’s down to luck...” — I grinned.

  I never liked to put things off, so I waited until the Queen turned her back on me, and, using the “Silent Step” and “Easy Step” abilities, I quickly headed towards her. First things first, I decided to slice one of its legs off: this had worked well on the termite warriors, which meant that it had to work on her too. Moreover, her weight was enormous, so such an action could seriously damage her mobility.

  Well, so far the luck was on my side! I struck a “Critical” blow with my very first strike. I understood that this was down to luck, coupled with a blow from behind on a creature that wasn’t expecting to be attacked.

  Your “Intuition” agility has increased: +1% (9%).

  “Damn it! Not now!” — I waved the message away and continued to strike at the termite’s leg.

  The Queen turned in my direction, but I had managed to stay out of her line of sight so far. At this point, all her strikes had missed me, and then, finally, it happened: a thick leg fell to the floor, and the Queen was screaming in pain. Her screams disorientated me for about four seconds. It seemed that the Queen had a particular technique of screaming, and that gave her enough time to turn around and face me.

  I blocked the first strike from one of her pincers with my hand, but I was thrown back a couple of meters. My hand went numb, and I knew that I had received a critical blow to my health; I only had 240 health points left. Overcoming the pain, I slipped between the blows and slid across the floor under the creature's belly. It was unlikely that I would last for long, so I decided to go all out, although this was not my first choice as a plan of action. Sliding under the Queen’s belly, I inflicted two “Penetrating strikes”, hoping that at least one of them would damage an important organ.

  I got incredibly lucky! I didn’t know what the “Penetrating Strike” damaged exactly, and I was not even sure which one of them did it. The Queen howled in pain, and I slipped out from under her. Her life points were shown by a green line on my display, and had reduced by somewhere around 15%. I was hoping for something more, but it was still a good result nonetheless. The pain and her slow reaction played a cruel joke on the Queen. She failed to realize that I was behind her, and continued to look for me in front. This gave me time to move away from the action. After that, I quickly got up, and started chopping off another leg. Naturally, on the same side as the first, so that the queen collapsed even more to one side and, perhaps, lost her maneuverability altogether. After all, she had only one leg left on that side.

  However, my immobilized hand prevented me from moving as I was used to, so it had taken me a further five minutes to dismember the Queen’s second leg. The advantage spun one way and then the other, but I stayed in control of the situation. I knew that if the Queen turned to face to me again, I would be a dead man. My highly developed “Agility” and “Reflexes” were exactly what saved me. After I had cut off the termite Queen’s two of the three limbs on the one side, the end of the fight was just a matter of time.

  At the last moment, right before her death, the Queen screamed some sort of command out loud. One of the eggs she had buried awakened, and a very strong warrior climbed out of it. I had 73 life points remaining. I had relaxed, thinking that victory was within reach, and didn’t expect such a turn of events. Having finished the Queen off with a final blow, I turned to face the warrior who was still peeling off the eggshell from its face. Suddenly, the warrior spat some green fluid in my direction. Just a millimeter separated my right wrist from the poison. I was saved by my “Reflexes” along with my “Evasive movement” ability. If the saliva had hit my wrist, then the fight would have ended in a matter of seconds.

  I concentrated as much as I could and, using the last of my strength with the remaining mana, I conducted a “Slicing strike” on the monster’s left attacking leg. Luck was on my side yet again, and I struck it with another “Critical blow”. The monster's leg almost fell away from its body and hung there immobile. However, the monster wasn’t giving up. It was much stronger than all the other termite warriors I had met in the cave. It could heal small wounds using its saliva, and managed to evade my attacks. It had different attacking techniques, so I had to dodge them, and not rely solely on my “Evasive movement” ability. I was suddenly on the edge of failure: I won the last attack between us only because I executed mine a fraction of a second earlier than it did.

  I was finally standing over the defeated super termite, and I was shaking. Then the body evaporated, and eight fire plates from its scales remained on the floor. Well, that was better than nothing, but to be honest, I was hoping for something more.

  At the end of the cave was a passage, and my intuition pushed me in that direction. I begged my intuition to give me more time, and the first thing that I did was destroy all the eggs buried in the ground. Then I ate my entire stock of haiku, raising my life points from 10 to 155. After that, without wasting a moment, I headed towards the last hall in the cave. I was walking carefully. I had few life points to spare, and I did not want to risk doing anything stupid.

  I had nothing to worry about: the last cave was safe. In addition, it looked phenomenal. The hall was similar in size to the one that I had defeated the Queen in and it was planted with dwarf trees, which looked like oak trees. On each oak there were lots of fruits, and all the fruits were different. Approaching the first tree, I began to look them all over. At one point I figured out that each fruit corresponded to a termite that I had killed. Realizing this, I began to search for the Queen’s royal fruit.

  It was no surprise that I eventually found it. I finally saw the Queen’s fruit, as it was hanging from the biggest tree in the middle of the hall, and of course it was the most difficult one to get. On the same tree were the fruits that corresponded to her defenders, or at least that was my conclusion, since their number corresponded to the number of eggs I had destroyed plus one dead warrior. Realizing that I couldn’t take away the Queen’s fruit, I decided to take the fruit of one of the warriors. I thought that I would end up with an excellent pet to share my difficult journey with.

  My hand was ready to tear the fruit of my future pet, and then it felt that I had been struck by lightning: my intuition totally disagreed with my decision. The strangest thing was that the Moon Flower, which had not taken an active part in my adventures until this moment, grabbed my sleeve with its roots and didn’t allow me to touch the fruit.

  I was furious: “I almost died here, and I deserve this pet as my reward!”

  I stretched out my hand again and felt even stronger resistance.

  “Okay, you do not want me to have this fruit
, so let's try another one ...” — I reached for the next fruit, but it still pulled me back.

  Then my curiosity was awakened yet again: I started trying to reach out to every fruit in this tree, but the Moon Flower wasn’t happy with any of them. I tried to do this on a couple of other trees with the same result.

  “Okay, since you so stubbornly believe that I need a different reward then I must at least find one ...”

  I began to go from tree to tree and look at the fruits. All were pretty much identical. Most of them I recognized and could even remember exactly how I fought them. With every passing minute, I became more convinced that I really shouldn’t be looking to take a pet from here. Too simple. Of course, my passage through the cave had been tough, and I had been extremely lucky to be able to master those caves, and the pets born from a creature that I had killed that were placed so conveniently? It seemed like I was being given a choice. However, it didn’t appear to follow the style of the game’s creators, although the reward, of course, could be potentially excellent and arguably worth the risk. Basically that’s what I was looking for, except that the analyst in me shouted that something was hiding from me and this was something potentially much better than all these pets:

  Your “Intuition” ability has increased: +1% (10%).

  That was the confirmation that I needed, and right after the message, my gaze fell on an unpretentious looking tree in the hall. It was full of fruits relating to the very first termites that I had come across. There was a faded red glow emanating from the foliage on the right-hand side of the tree, and I was drawn towards it. Approaching the tree, I opened the leaves and saw a small red fruit. I plucked it without hesitation. As soon as I did that all the other trees in the hall melted into thin air.

  “The Ruby Seed” is a unique legendary edible fruit.