The Curse of Hurlig Ridge_World Tree Online_1st Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  Of course, I already knew this but let her continue knowing eventually she’d get to the point.

  “When Wisdom becomes Spirit, Intellect only increases your mana pool, no more spell crit or spell power. Instead, we get Spirit which increases totem critical strike chance, totem damage and of course mana regeneration,” she continued.

  Ah, now we were getting somewhere. “Okay, I think I understand. But I have to ask again, why do you need a totem for mana regeneration?”

  “Two reasons, first it doesn’t just regenerate my mana, but those I consider allies within a certain range. Second, it will help me make more totems faster,” Micaela finished.

  See, now that was a perfectly reasoned explanation, and after hearing such, it was a task I was more than willing to assist with. “Now I understand. Okay, I think I can help you. However, we need to go see Sergeant Butters first. You still need to learn how to Dual Wield Axes and I need to get in my ‘Acrobatics’ training. Then we can go see about getting you your next totem before we go see Trini. Deal?” I offered.

  “Deal,” said Micaela, grinning happily.

  After a quick walk to meet up with the sergeant, training began.

  “On the trampoline, you go,” order Sergeant Butters.

  I was hoping to do something else today but complaining would be pointless. Besides, I was sure Sergeant Butters wouldn’t send me to work on the trampoline unless he thought it was necessary.

  “Remember, flip, no bouncing or pre-jumping,” Sergeant Butters ordered. “I will be back in a little while. I need to get Micaela started swinging around those stone monstrosities.”

  He may have sounded harsh, but I could tell he was actually excited to work with her and her totems.

  That left me standing in the center of the trampoline. I didn’t want to repeat what I was doing yesterday. Three hours on the trampoline only yield 6/100 on the progress toward learning Acrobatics. I needed to be smarter about this.

  I had to think it through. My instruction was to complete a front flip, but there had to be more to it. The way the sergeant emphasized not bouncing or pre-jumping, I assumed goal was then to flip without bouncing, using as much of my own power and control as I could. I was trying for a perfect flip, just one perfect flip. The only thing I could do was to test my theory. I bent at the knees slowly, so as to not bounce, then I pushed off hard as I could, rotating forward as soon as my feet left the springy canvas. I landed perfectly on my feet with hardly a shake or bounce of the canvas. Out of curiosity, I checked my quest to see if I was working in the right direction.

  Class Quest Alert: Training with Sergeant Butters 3

  Having put your trust in Trinico and David Butters, they have offered you training to develop your stats as quickly and efficiently as possible.

  Reward: Acrobatics 7/100

  It changed by one. The perfect flip increased the bar. Now I had to do it again to see if it would work again.

  I calmed myself, bent at the knees, and pushed off, flipping around again and landing on my feet, trying my best to stay under control.

  Reward: Acrobatics 8/100

  “Yes!” I cheered. Progress. It wasn’t about chaining together a bunch of flips. It was about getting it done right.

  I flipped again, 9/100. And again, 10/100. And again 10/100. I flipped again, thinking maybe that one was off, but it still came back 10/100. I flipped ten more times and still 10/100.

  “Alright, you have got the front flip figured out,” said Sergeant Butters, drawing my attention. I didn’t hear or see him arrive but when I looked at him he was just nodding in approval. “Now do a backflip.”

  So that was it. There would be a series of exercises I would need to complete, each providing a certain amount of progress.

  It took a few tries to get the hang of the backflip but now that I had a better idea of the goal I knocked out 10 more points of progress rather quickly.

  “That was quick, not bad,” complimented Sergeant Butters.

  “What’s next?” I asked eagerly.

  “The mats,” the sergeant said, motioning toward, and then walking to a large square area covered by some kind of padded surface. “Now then, you have gained some semblance of balance and some control over your body, we need to take that to the next level.”

  “Right, what do I do?” I asked, eager to begin.

  Sergeant Butters actually groaned in annoyance, or was it reluctance. “Watch carefully, I will show you once, then it is up to you.” The man stepped on to the mat, not bothering to remove his sabatons. He bent forward placing his hands flat on the mat, then lifted his legs straight into the air. Then he walked forward about ten steps on his hands, then his arms bent as he rolled forward in a summersault. Using the forward momentum, he sprung up and forward onto his feet and let the momentum carrying him into the air, where he flipped forward landing perfectly on his feet. Next, he cartwheeled backward three times, the last one turning into a backflip. It was all very impressive, leaving me with the impression I was about to hurt myself even trying this.

  “There you go,” Sergeant Butters said before walking away.

  “So unfair,” I complained, dreading this. The routine he showed me was simple, just four moves, but they were all difficult to pull off without significant training. Rather than get too bent out of shape over it, I paused, trying to think it through, it was four moves or rather series of moves. It occurred to me, I would have to learn each series of movements one at a time. Handstand, summersault, I already knew how to flip, but combining it with the summersault would be difficult, and finally the backward cartwheel and backflip.

  The handstand, it turned out, wasn’t as difficult as I feared. My strength in the game made it more than manageable, the only difficulty I had with it was the balancing. Once I got the hang of balancing, I spent a good chunk of time just walking around on my hands.

  The summersault was also easy, though to be honest, I did not picture the summersault as being too difficult. I was quickly able to grasp the concept of using the momentum from it to help spring me from the ground, adding more height than my normal jump probably could have managed alone. I would wait on adding the flip as that was the part most likely to end in injury.

  Finally came the backward cartwheels. My first few attempts would have been hilarious to watch if not for the pain I felt. The first time I arched backward my head slammed into the square and even with its little bit of padding still hurt more than I would have preferred. The second, third and fourth weren’t much better.

  It was while lying on the ground after the fourth attempt, I came to the decision that this step would need to be broken down even further. Starting with a simple reverse push up and arching back and pelvis skyward was fairly easy, easier than a handstand anyway. I felt the difference in my body position immediately, starting with the bend in my knees and the placement of my hands.

  I moved from this position into a handstand and back to my feet. “Much better,” I complimented myself. I did this several more times before I tried again, from a standing start. And when I made that fifth attempt it was much better, still almost knocked my head into the ground. The fact I didn’t, suggested I was getting better. Once more I moved into a handstand and back to my feet but much faster than before.

  Soon enough I was doing backward cartwheels, eventually chaining them together in groups of three, then picking up speed.

  Satisfied with my progress, I went back to the summersault, this time determined to add the flip to the end of it. I was shocked when my first attempt at the flip was a success. Less shocked that I lost my balance right afterward. More practice and more successes and the occasional faceplant ensued.

  Eventually, I combined the handstand walk into the summersault and flip. Once again, I practiced the motion repeatedly until I was comfortable enough to add in the backward cartwheels. More practice, more repetition until finally, I started trying to add in the backflip. The backflip was much different from the front flip, I kep
t overcorrecting causing me to land either on my behind or back, the one time I landed on my head was one time too many.

  Practice paid off though because eventually, I got the hang of it and before I knew it.

  Reward: Acrobatics 30/100

  “Not bad,” said Sergeant Butters, drawing my attention. I hadn’t realized it, but apparently, I’d drawn a crowd. The guards had gathered to wait for their own training. I guess they chose to watch me while they waited.

  “Way to go, Bye-bye,” cheered Micaela.

  “So, what’s next?” I asked.

  “That is it for today, come back tomorrow and we will start you on the next part,” Sergeant Butters answered. “I have got soldiers to train, you know.”

  Class Quest Alert: Training with Sergeant Butters 3 - Completed

  Having put your trust in Trinico and David Butters, they have offered you training to develop your stats as quickly and efficiently as possible.

  Reward: +100 Experience, Acrobatics 30/100

  “See you tomorrow then,” I replied, accepting the completion and the next quest in the chain. Then looking to Micaela, I asked, “Are you ready to go?”

  “You bet your holy behind I’m ready to go,” she replied.

  “On second thought,” I paused, an idea coming to me. “Hey Sergeant Butters, one more question before I go. Where do owls nest around here?”

  “Owls, not sure about owls but if its birds you’re looking for I’d start by checking out by the wild blackberry bushes to the northeast. Plenty of mice and such for birds to prey on,” the sergeant answered.

  “Thanks,” I replied.

  “Thank you, David!” shouted Micaela, not caring the man was on duty. And yet, I saw the man smile and give her a friendly wave. If it had been me, I’m sure I would have gotten a boot the face, and this while having considerably more Charisma than she did.

  I ended up grumbling about ‘double-standards’ and ‘dirty old men’ the entire walk out of the of the village, while Micaela was humming a happy little tune. It wasn’t until we were a good mile from the village that I let it go, the wolf that attacked us wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  It was nice to be outside of the village again. The walk was nice as was the weather. We did run across a few more wolves on the way, but they were no trouble for the two of us, sadly they barely gave any experience anymore, only +5-Experience for each of us per wolf. We took turns collecting the paws. I tried to get Micaela to use her scavenging skill on the rest of the wolves, but she refused, stating it was bad enough to have killed a wolf, then she started petting her axes and whispering sweet nothings to them. I let it go at that.

  “Okay, welcome to the Blackberry bushes,” I said, making a grand gesture to the bushes all around us.

  “Ooh, I have a quest to gather these for Rita too,” said Micaela excitedly.

  “How about I work on that for you while you look for a bird around here?” I offered.

  “Thank you,” she said, then wandered off.

  After I filled two bushels and she still hadn’t returned, I was tempted to go check up on her, but as we were partied up, and her health and mana bars displayed in my UI never fluttered, it was a safe assumption she was perfectly okay. That left me to find something to keep myself occupied.

  I ended up walking around the area and doing a little of exploring. At first, I walked along the river following it east then northeast when it turned. At the end of it, I found a beautiful waterfall and the start of the northern ridgeline on the other side of the river. If I had to guess, I was at the northeastern most point of this province.

  I found a large rock to sit down on, pulled out my large sketch pad and started creating my first map. Starting from this spot and mapping all the way back to the village. I made sure to include the Johnson Farm, the road where I fought the trolls, the blackberry bushes, as much of the surrounding forests and I could. Finally adding Hurligville, drawing in the buildings then labeling them and the points of interest that I knew of.

  “Bye-bye,” called a searching voice, I recognized as Micaela’s. She sounded pretty far away. Looking down at my own map, it appeared I had wandered pretty far from the Blackberry Bushes.

  “Over here, I’m on my way back,” I called back, standing from my rock seat and beginning to walk back in her direction.

  “What were you up to?” she asked.

  “Working on my first map,” I answered, showing her the fruits of my labor.

  “Hey, this is pretty good. Much better than the maps sold in town,” Micaela complimented. “Are you planning to sell that in town?”

  “I have to go to Root City first and register with the Cartographer’s Guild. Then I can register my map and if it’s the best quality map for the area it will be sold in the village,” I explained to her.

  “Nice, I bet you could make some good money from that.”

  “That is the idea,” I replied. “Anyway, you get your totem sorted?”

  “You bet I did,” she exclaimed, pulling a large stone gourd about the size of my torso from her belt. It was smooth and perfectly shaped and even had a perfect fit stone stopper. “Cool isn’t it? I can fill her with water, and Barista will turn it into mana enriched water after 30 minutes. In addition to that, she boosts mana regen to me and my party by 10 per 10 seconds. All that and she’s only level one. Once she levels up, she’ll make the water faster and stronger and even be able to carry more of it.”

  “That is seriously overpowered and more so, just clever thinking. I would never have thought to make a totem into a gourd,” I complimented her.

  Micaela was the surprising one in my opinion. Sometimes, she seemed so flighty, and other times she seemed far too wise, It was an interesting dichotomy. If nothing else, it was entertaining.

  “For totems, size matters, so I had to have something large enough for the Barista to grow into but also compact enough to carry. Thankfully, I’ve got more strength than most, so I can carry more. Right now, she can hold 50-drinks.”

  I really wanted one of those so badly just then. I would never realistically be able to carry it. I still wanted one. My canteens only carried 5-drinks a piece.

  “So, did you get a bird spirit?” I asked lest I get lost in daydreams of walking around with a giant stone gourd strapped to my back.

  “I found a raven,” she answered proudly. “The boys like her too.”

  “That’s a good thing. I’m sure it’s good that your totems get along so well,” I replied. So weird. I don’t know how I’d feel about having to keep so many NPC’s on me at all times, worse if I was the only one that could hear them speaking. It also made it so shamans were going to be very taxing on the game's resources if every totem had its own AI. To have so many AI’s at once would probably end up being unsustainable. Then again, I had never talked to one of her totems, so I had no idea how complex the AI’s were. Still, it seemed excessive.

  “You betcha!” she cheered in her pixyish way. “So, back to see Trini for more training?”

  “You betcha!” I mimicked her, causing her smile to widen even further.

  The walk back to town was filled with Micaela’s constant chatter and relaying the comments of her totems. We killed a few more wolves along the way, but nothing out of the ordinary.

  “You are late, Bye-bye, I expected you hours ago,” said Trinico as we entered the temple.

  “I was helping Micaela get her new totem,” I replied smoothly. I didn’t appreciate the accusation in her voice but complaining about it would do no good. I swear this woman was bi-polar with the way she constantly switched her moods.

  “So be it. Micaela, I suggest you spend time in the spirit world. Your totems will help you train. Bye-bye, you must be close to your stat caps. Why not head into the puzzle room to finish up?” Trinico ordered.

  I could only shrug and agree with her. I took a moment on my walk to the Puzzle Room to check my stats and gear. I was pleasantly surprised to see my Boar charm had gained som
e progress.

  Boar Charge Charm (Unique) - +10 Stamina, +10 Endurance – Equipping will teach skill ‘Boar Charge’ 30/100

  I just wasn’t sure what I could have done to gain 5 points of progress until I looked in my bag again, there were 5 wolf paws out of the 10 we’d killed today. Could that be it? Could it be the bounty? The boar I protected that earned me the charm was being attacked by wolves, so it would make sense. I would definitely be going back out to hunt some wolves after I finish training with Trinico today.

  It took about thirty minutes to grind out the last +2-Intellect and +18-Charisma. The Charisma gain surprised me or sort of surprised me.

  The Puzzle Box I created was pretty straightforward, providing a mix of puzzles and mental challenges, getting progressively harder as you advance. There was no set pattern as to whether they would be social or mechanical in nature. The Puzzle Room seemed to be more advanced than that. It seemed to give me challenges based on what I needed to work on or what I was able to improve upon. So, after 14-puzzles solved I’d hit my cap and departed the room.

  I found Trinico watching over Micaela who appeared to be in some kind of trance.

  “She is walking with the spirits. How did your training go?” the priestess asked.

  “Fourteen puzzles solved and my stats all capped,” I replied.

  “Well done. I would suggest you try to level up before spending more time in the Puzzle Room,” Trinico recommended.

  Class Quest Alert: Training with Priestess Trinico 3 - Completed

  Having put your trust in Trinico and David Butters, they have offered you training to develop your stats as quickly and efficiently as possible.

  Reward: +100 Experience, 60/100 Meditation

  “I will,” I replied, accepting the completed quest and the next in the chain. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to you again after you left me to pray the other night.”

  “Did you find the answers you were looking for?”