“Hehe, pig in a blanket,” I chuckled at my own joke.
I was forced to try to use my spearhead to cut the animal free. Hopefully, the boar wouldn’t kill me once I did get him free. “Okay, Boris, let’s get you out of this mess. I would appreciate it if you didn’t kill me once I do set you free.”
I cut the cloth around the boar’s legs first for which, the little pig thanked me by running his suspended legs as fast as he could, kicking me several times for my troubles. “Boris, relax, you’re almost free.” Next, I started to cut away the cloth under him starting from his chest and trying to work back in a single cutting motion. As the last of the cloth cut free, the boar bolted and charged through the rest of bramble unhindered, disappearing from view quickly.
“You’re welcome,” I called after him. I picked up the scraps of cloth to return them to Mrs. Johnson and stuffed them in my bag.
I really wished I hadn’t turned around just then. I was met by yet another boar, this one staring intently at me. I should also mention, this was far and away the biggest pig I’d ever seen, it was easily 10’-feet tall at the top of its shoulders or maybe taller. It had dark grey bristles covering its body and the snout was just inches away from my face was covered in scars. Don’t even get me started on the tusks.
“Um, hi?” I said, my voice quavering slightly.
The boar snorted, seeming amused by my intelligent greeting. MY THANKS! SON SAVED! GIFT!
It wasn’t speaking but I felt the words were spoken into my mind or something. I unconsciously put my hand forward, open and palm up. The boar’s snout covered my palm which was followed by a flash of light between my hand and boar’s snout, blinding me for a moment. When my eyes cleared the boar was gone and in my hand was a little blue boar made of glass or maybe a gemstone on a short metal chain was also blue in color.
Quest Alert: Piggy in Peril - Completed
You’ve found the thief, a portly piggy that has gotten himself into quite the predicament.
Reward: +500 Experience, Boar Charge Charm
Huh, how about that. I turned it over and there were symbols carved into the back of the charm, but I couldn’t make out what they were. Thinking back to my earlier conversation with the Mayor, I figured they must have been runes.
Boar Charge Charm (Unique) - +10 Stamina, +10 Endurance – Equipping will teach skill ‘Boar Charge’ 0/100
I whistled in appreciation. I didn’t hesitate for a second to equip it to my charm slot. The stats alone made it worth it, add in the skill it will eventually teach me and this was a fantastic piece of gear.
With the boar gone and my new charm equipped, I took notice of the exclamation points lining the bottom of my view.
“Ugh! Again?” I exclaimed again, why the wall of text? I could only sigh in exasperation. Despite the wall of text, there were some excellent skill development, +7-levels to ‘Phalanx Shield’, +6-levels to ‘One-Handed Polearms’ and +1-level to ‘Lesser Heal’, and big stat gains, +7-Stamina, +7-Strength, +7-Dexterity, and +11-Endurance.
Since I had a minute to rest while I waited for my health, mana, and stamina to recover, I decided to review my current stats. In looking at my stats now, I found I had neglected my Intellect, Wisdom, and Charisma. I made a vow to work on those if I made it through the day.
Level:
3
Experience:
0.50%
Class:
Novice Warrior Priest of Issara
HP (Health Points):
176/420
MP (Mana Points):
201/110
SP (Stamina Points):
54/360
Strength:
26
- Melee Damage Modifier
+26
Dexterity:
26
- Melee Critical Strike Chance
2.30%
- Hit Chance
61.15%
Endurance:
42
Stamina:
36
Intellect:
11
- Spell Critical Strike Chance
1.10%
Wisdom:
7
Charisma:
10
Health Regeneration per minute:
21
Mana Regeneration per minute:
4
Stamina Regeneration per minute:
18
Holy Spell Damage Bonus:
10.20
Holy Spell Healing Bonus:
7.50
Carrying Capacity in Lbs.:
130
I still need to take the scraps of the sheet back to the farm. Thankfully, it was on my way back to town, after dealing with the berries, of course. I started walking toward the river, I could hear it nearby. Following the river was supposed to lead me to the blackberry bushes, provided I followed it further east toward the waterfall. That also meant trying to find a way to punish my killer, which I still hadn’t figured out how to do yet.
It was about an hour of walking to find the blackberry bushes and the place of my death.
Right away I found one of the empty bushels and started collecting the blackberries. This was considerably more difficult than the corn, the berries were smaller and hard not to crush on accident, the bushes had thorns too, cutting up my fingers and forearms, and the berries were smaller, meaning I had to gather many more of them to fill the bushel basket.
I was about halfway through filling my first bushel of the two I intended to fill when the world took on a red tinge.
Enemy of Issara’s justice is nearby and must be punished!
I looked around wildly at first, spinning in place when suddenly I could see an outline of a person surrounded by a red glow or aura. I couldn’t tell you what I thought I was going to accomplish against a level 37, but I felt compelled to confront him directly.
You’ve unlocked the holy spell ‘Justice Bringer’
Justice Bringer
Level: ∞
Experience: ∞
Spell Duration: 1 hour
Spell Cast Speed: Instant
Spell Mana Cost: 1
Cool Down: 24 hours
Spell Effect (Active): All Adventurers and Citizens within 100 yards have their effective level lowered or raised to match your own. Does not work on enemy Citizens, Beasts or Monsters.
Now I understood. It wasn’t a god mode spell, but it made things fair. Gave me a chance to fight on equal footing. It was lucky too, I saw him before he saw me. It was then I also saw a debuff symbol next to his name. It was a red icon shaped in a mirror image of the symbol of Issara and had a counter of 139 under it.
I tried to look closer to understand when I got a system message explaining it.
Divine Judgement of the Goddess Issara – Earned by dishonorably killing the Citizens of the World Tree and its adventurers 20 or more levels below their own.
Only visible to the servant of Issara. The afflicted player takes +20% damage from the servant of Issara. Afflicted player deals -10% damage to the servant of Issara. Upon death all judgments are removed at the cost of 100,000 Experience per Judgement, will reduce levels until all experience penalties are removed.
And there it was, the answer to all my prayers. I knew there was still a chance I could lose but I felt emboldened.
“Pwn Star69, the goddess Issara has judged you guilty of 139 counts of murder against the citizens of the World Tree and Adventurers more than 20 levels below your own,” I stated loudly and clearly.
“Eh? What are you blabbing about noob?” he asked rather crudely, finally taking note of my presence. The man stood, not bothered about me in the slightest. He had to have about 5 years on me based on his looks and as he looked at me snorted in laughter. I studied him trying to guess who he was, what class and such. The mages robes and a cloth headband he wore suggested he was a caster of some kind, but nothing screamed, mage, priest or warlock or any of the dozen other caster offshoots. Based on his skin tone and exaggeratedly
pointy ears I guessed he was a dark elf which did suggest darker magics.
It seemed he grew tired of waiting for me to answer, he drew back his arm with a lazy kind of deliberateness, it irked me. Before he could throw I cast my newly unlocked spell ‘Justice Bringer’, which erupted in a wall of light all around, passing through everything harmlessly.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but to hear Pwn laughing at me was not it. For a moment I feared the spell had failed, or maybe my cast had missed. So, I was fully expecting to die, just as I did the first time. When the small pebble was released and traveling on a straight line directly for my forehead, I fully expected instant death.
I only took -1-HP of damage. Both Pwn and I were dumbfounded. Then I saw the new debuff next to the ‘Divine Judgement’ stack, this one had the appearance of a small balance scale and was described as ‘Scaled Justice’. Now I understood, he couldn’t see it and apparently didn’t notice the reduction of his level.
Another pebble hit me then hit the ground doing only -1-HP damage again.
“What the hell kind of messed up hax is this?” Pwn demanded. He started chanting and this time a fireball flew from him hitting me in the face and doing -33 HP damage. Suddenly I was all too aware, a few more hits and I would be dead again anyway.
It was no longer time to talk, I needed to act. I opened up with casting Holy Smite, which hit him for a whopping -22-HP, but not as much as I would have hoped. I had to assume he had more HP than I did, and at level 3 he probably had the maximum HP without any gear buffs, which was 600.
“How the hax is a level 3 doing three hundred points of damage?” complained the mage, his face reddening in anger.
I had to move fast now because I couldn’t see him letting me get any more, free shots. I charged ahead as he began to cast again. I interrupted him with a ‘Shield Slam’, just in time to stop the spell and doing 8-damage, but more importantly, it also knocked him off balance. I follow up with a ‘Jab’, knocking off another chunk of his health, even though I only saw a mark of -26-HP. It was hardly any damage. I needed to do more. I used ‘Jab’ twice more doing -24-HP and -41-HP, the second hit a critical.
Pwn was back on the attack, this time swinging a previously hidden staff at me. I missed my timing on interrupting the swing with my ‘Shield Slam’ and took 35-HP, but still dealt 6-damage to him. His health was now down by a third, but I had to keep pressing the attack.
I attacked again with my spear doing -22-HP, but this time I received a nasty shock, literally. It was some kind of electric shield skill, zapping me for as much damage as I dealt. It must have been an instant cast spell, I never saw him cast it.
The shock left me slightly stunned giving Pwn time to start casting another spell, one I couldn’t interrupt in time as the stun only faded just before he finished his cast, hitting me for 33-damage. He must have thought he’d have more time because he started casting again but this time I was able to hit him with a ‘Shield Slam’ dealing 8-damage to him and myself, but no stun effect this time. As the reflect damage seemed to be equal to the damage I dealt, I smacked him again with my ‘Shield Slam’, but this time there was no shock. It opened him up to three rapid ‘Jab’ attacks for -22-HP, -26-HP and -21-HP.
Pwn grit his teeth, anger clearly building, he swung his staff again but this time I had the timing of the attack and shifted in close hammering him with ‘Shield Slam’ for 20-damage, another critical and this time leaving him with a stun effect. I laid into him with as many ‘Jab’ attacks as I could muster before the stun wore off, dealing enough damage to send him to barely a flicker of health left when the stun faded.
Something changed in Pwn. I saw something new in his eyes. I now saw fear in his eyes. I almost pitied him . . . almost.
“You have dishonorably murdered 139 citizens of the World Tree and Adventurers more than 20 levels below your own. Issara, the Goddess of Justice and Retribution, has judged you guilty. I ‘Holy Smite’ thee per the judgment of my goddess!” I exclaimed loudly, enjoying see the man hit by the flash of holy light.
Pwn Star69 has been killed with 48- damage from ‘Holy Smite’. Pwn Star69’s level has been reduced Level 1 as divine punishment and has been banished from this province.
“Holy!” I exclaimed in shock. “I love my goddess!” It wasn’t an easy fight by any stretch of the imagination, but to be able to deliver divine punishment to PK’ers was a dream come true for me, one who so hated them. It wasn’t insta-jibbing, but it was a way to make things fairer. And there was nothing PK’ers hated more than fair play. Of course, I was still curious about the judgments and how they worked, but I could honestly say I was just happy I could now do something about them and do something I would. PK’ers everywhere would pay and pay severely.
I suddenly felt as if I’d been doused in freezing cold water, shocking me, waking me up maybe. Where my previous thoughts were of revenge, feeling suddenly doused in cold water made me realize, if I did seek revenge, I would become just like them. It also made me think about what it meant to become a warrior for a goddess of justice. It made me take a step back and truly thinking about the situation I was now in.
Over the next few minutes of self-reflection, I came to realize a few things. It seemed to me this wasn’t just about stopping Player Killers or just getting revenge on them. It was about getting justice. It was also about citizen killers as well as the unfair player killing. Players who kill the NPC’s and other weak players were the targets of divine punishment. The game wants to encourage PvP, but if I had to guess the developers, or Devs for short, got tired of people complaining and created warriors of the goddess to combat this menace to encourage fair gameplay. I would guess too, the Devs got tired of having to reprogram the murdered AI’s that make up the citizens in the game.
I was worried too as the gravity of my class hit me. My class is unique, meaning only one in the entire game. How could I be expected to carry out justice all on my own? Something bound to become increasingly more difficult over the course of the next year or two. Projections already had the game set to grow from the half million players, currently enjoying all the World Tree had to offer, to millions of players, overwhelming this world as more and more Seedpods get shipped out. There had to be more to it. It was then the quest completion notice popped up, distracting me from further reflection.
Class Quest Update: Novice Warrior Priest of Issara – Your Goddess’ Path Lies Ahead - Completed
You have been charged by the Goddess you now serve to mete out punishment on the murderer you vowed to bring to justice.
Reward:
Collect your reward from the Temple of Issara in Root City. You may also find the answers to your questions.
Okay, so, some of my concerns were answered or promised to be answered. I supposed I would just have to wait until I got to Root City to learn more, but it was still frustrating.
Mission accomplished, what’s next? It was only then I realized, I had to . . . do nothing. I no longer had any pressing or immediate concerns. I was now free to explore everything this game had to offer. No pressing time limits to complete quests. Nothing standing in the way of me learning anything and everything there was to learn, in the village from Sergeant Butters, or from the books in the townhall. I could take my time. Spend a few weeks or even a month exploring the province and building up my skills. Finally, I could game the way I wanted to game.
I felt as if there was this giant pressing burden taken off my shoulders. I actually laughed. If anyone had seen me just then, I’m sure they would have thought I was off my rocker, but I didn’t honestly care.
Eventually, I stopped my laughter. I was pretty much standing right where I had died on my first day, my first minute in the game. I couldn’t help but close my eyes and breath in deeply and just appreciate this world. The fresh pine trees, sweetness from the berry bushes all around me. The sound of the river nearby filled my ears as did the bushes rustling leaves, and the birds chirping in the sky.
“Okay, let’s finish collecting the berries and get the bushels back to Dogson’s,” I said, more to myself than anything.
****
Bye-bye Jacko Lvl 3 does 592-damage to you with ‘Holy Smite’.
Bye-bye Jacko Lvl 3 has delivered divine judgment upon you at the behest of the goddess Issara. Your level has been reduced Level 1 as divine punishment and you have been banished from Hurlig Ridge.
You have been placed in Ash Hills – Level 1-5 province
“That’s impossible,” Pwn Star69 whispered, as the world came into focus around him. The ground was covered in grey ash and the few visible trees were burning. There was no sign of any wildlife and the air was rife with smoke. He was in the graveyard, apparently sent there by a complete noob. Worse, a quick check of his character menu showed his level had indeed been reduced to a lowly 1. “This is impossible!” he screamed as loud as he could.
Pown Powny Lvl 44 does 687-damage to you with a throwing needle.
Pown Powny Lvl 44 has murdered you. You will be automatically transported and revived at the nearest graveyard.
Chapter 6
There was a skip in my step as I made the return trip to the village. I stopped at the Johnson farm and talked to Mrs. Johnson about her bedsheet. She asked me to buy a set of new bedsheets in town for her and to drop them off the next day.
I was attacked by 4 sets of 3 Pack Wolves at different times, which eventually I realized must have belonged to the other Alpha Wolves I killed earlier while protecting the boar. It reminded me of something I once read, it said wolves are one of the only creatures known to seek revenge for members of its pack. It was unpleasant dealing with so many at once. But after the earlier experience, I had a better handle on the process, and more strength and stamina to deal with them requiring fewer ‘Shield Slam’ and ‘Jab’ combos. Still, free stat points and a couple more skill levels to ‘Phalanx Shield’, ‘One-Handed Polearm’, and ‘Lesser Heal’ were appreciated.
The Curse of Hurlig Ridge_World Tree Online_1st Dive Page 10
