by Domino Finn
He was kind of right. 235 out of 1000 wasn't nonexistent, but 150 of that had come from my tutorial. We still had a ways to go.
"It was still a little close," I said.
0140 Monster Hunter
It was clear I needed to improve my combat prowess. I'd had that hog dead to rights, my spear tip lined up with its eyes. What could've been an easy kill turned into an emergency.
The whole point of a spear is to maintain superior distance and positioning against an enemy. The second an opponent gets past my kill zone, I become vulnerable. A sitting duck, almost. I needed some way to counter that.
That meant skills. The crossblock was helpful, but I could purchase more. I flicked open the menu. I had 2 points to spend.
"Hey, Kyle, how fast do we get new skill points?"
"You start with 4: your initial weapon competency and 3 spares. Every time you level you only get 2 more."
That was in line with my assumptions. Skills were grouped into trees, allowing new branches to be unlocked with purchases and upgrades. A player's initial batch of skills did a lot to define their play style. My next two choices would determine whether I made it to level 2 alive.
I searched the spear tree and was presented with familiar options. I'd already purchased the crossblock so I ignored the defensive discipline branch and checked the others.
VANGUARD
Hard-charging, tip-of-the-spear combat
Headline Skill - Power Slash
A vicious strike to your enemy, causing up to x2 damage at level 1.
Spirit Cost: 10
Cooldown: 20 seconds
DEADEYE
Calculated, precision combat
Headline Skill - Deadshot
A targeted strike to a specific body grouping.
Spirit Cost: 10
Cooldown: 20 seconds
JAVELINIST
Flexible, ranged combat
Headline Skill - Spear Throw
A distance attack with a melee weapon.
Spirit Cost: 7
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Once again the deadeye play style called to me. I recounted my clash with the wild hog and decided deadshot would've avoided my problem. No more having my spear batted away. I purchased it and moved on to the other skill categories: awareness, survival, traversal, and stealth.
It was time for something creative. Stealth would allow me to hide, but traversal would better utilize my agility in combat.
Vault
Maneuver over objects with assisted leaps.
Spirit Cost: 6
Cooldown: 5 seconds
Scale
Climb and hang on sheer surfaces.
Attributes: Strength, Agility
SpS: 0.5
Dash
Quickly slide along ground for very short distances.
Spirit Cost: 8
Cooldown: 20 seconds
I knew climbing and vaulting would eventually come in handy, but dash had the most obvious combat use. I selected it as my third skill and closed the menu.
"Might as well get back to work," I announced. "I'm not returning to Stronghold until we level."
Kyle seemed to like that idea. He strode ahead, sword in one hand and grenade in the other.
For the next thirty minutes, our grinding consisted of walking, killing a snake, walking, failing to catch a razor hawk, even more momentous walking, and finally an encounter with a [Swamp Toad], which looked easier than a wild hog.
Embarrassingly, the oversized frog got the jump on us and nailed me with poisonous toxin. He was a slow mob though and the DoT was low. We hacked at it. I lined up my spear and readied the deadshot skill. Right before I struck, a wooden arrow thunked between its eyes.
Critical Hit!
[Dune] dealt 27 damage to [Swamp Toad]
[Swamp Toad] is defeated
12 XP awarded
"Hey!" I yelled.
A dude in a green cloak emerged from the trees. [Dune] was a [Level 2 Explorer].
"That was our kill," said Kyle.
"That was my kill," he snapped. "I was in the middle of tracking it when you crossed its path."
"You can't be serious," I said.
He eyed me squarely. "That was a swamp toad. You see any swamps around here?"
I curled my lips.
"My party took on a pack of them and this one got away."
Party. That's why the XP division was so low. Kyle's party spread in action. I examined the carcass.
Loot:
[Swamp Toad Gland]
"I could use that gland," Dune said, swiping it.
"Bro, we were the ones that killed that thing," protested Kyle.
"I beg to differ. My arrow plugged it right between the eyes. Just be more considerate next time."
"Considerate?!?"
"Let it go," I said. "Take your damn gland and get out of here, Dune. Swamp toads don't really rate with us."
He sneered. His insistence on making a big deal out of the toad made him look desperate and he knew it. Instead of refuting the point, he brusquely spun away and headed back through the trees.
"This isn't working," I told Kyle. "I don't wanna compete for scraps all day."
I trudged deeper into the forest. This time Kyle followed me. "The farther we go, the more outmatched we'll be."
"Good. Maybe we'll run into fewer kill-stealing cocknuggets. That dude just snagged more XP for his entire party than we got from that thing. It's hopeless out here. Not only do they take our kills, but there aren't enough mobs to go around. It's the worst kind of grind."
"It's what everybody else does."
"Somehow I doubt Lash got that sweet armor by snuffing out swamp toads."
He chewed his lip, pondering my point. "So what's your idea?"
I scanned the ground as we walked. I didn't have a formalized plan but a set of tracks caught my eye. I paused. "That," I said.
"What?"
"Dune mentioned he'd tracked that toad from a swamp. If he'd been actively chasing it, we would've seen him earlier. But he wasn't chasing it, he was tracking it." I kneeled down beside the new footprints and traced a finger through them. "Tiny feet with a central dragging tail." I moved forward on my haunches. "Crawls under and past these roots." I turned to Kyle. "Has to be another pack rat."
He grinned. "More loot."
I didn't really know what I was doing but we followed the tracks. With any luck, these would lead right back to a new burrow. And if the pack rats were safely hidden at home, they wouldn't be aggroed on other kill-stealing players.
It was only a few minutes before we pushed through a spiny bramble and found a rocky glen. A small valley walled in by a circle of trees. I climbed down a boulder with fuzzy moss. The dirt on the bottom was rich and cool. At my foot was a small tunnel.
"We found it."
Proficiency gained: Fledgling Tracker
You are now familiar with the concept of tracking and will find mixed success attempting it.
I backed away from the hole and sat against a tree, opening my game guide.
"Hey," said Kyle, "there's another hole over here."
I looked. Beside Kyle's tree was another burrow. It must've been from the same tunnel. Kyle backed away to lie in wait, grenade in hand. As we essentially spawn camped, a tunnel exit to each of us, I returned to the game guide.
Proficiencies are minor skills that improve through practice and research. They do not cost spirit and aren't limited by timers. Some proficiencies are learnable by everyone, but most are core class abilities. In general, attempting certain activities enough will activate a proficiency, which the player can improve by repeating the activity. Certain research items can also gift proficiency advances.
Proficiencies have 3 levels of knowledge: Fledgling, Skilled, and Expert.
Pretty cool. Saint Peter had hinted at this. There were techniques in Haven that could be improved with practice, without spending skill points. Tracking was almost definitely an explorer profic
iency, which explained Dune's usage of it. I wondered if there was a proficiency list somewhere. Details weren't in the book. Maybe I could access a wiki in town to look up the possibilities.
"Wait a minute," said Kyle. "There's another hole over there."
I turned my head and squinted. Indeed, under a branch of thick leaves was a third tunnel. I rounded the tree to explore. That's when I noticed the passage under the roots two feet away from me.
Another hole, except this one was three times the size of the others. This wasn't just a burrow, it was a whole damned warren.
Padded feet kicked the earth below. I gripped my spear and whirled around, noticing several other tunnels. Kyle and I backed into each other in the center of the warren as yellow eyes peeked out from darkened passages all around us.
"Uh, Talon," he said. "I've got a really bad feeling about this."
0150 Rat Attack!
We circled carefully, finding burrow after burrow crowded with pack rats. Their eyes gleamed from the safety of shelter.
"There's gotta be ten or eleven of them," I murmured.
Kyle furrowed his brow. "Eleven eyes? You think one of them has an eye patch?"
"Ten or eleven rats, Kyle. I wasn't aware we were counting eyes."
"I'm just saying," he said under his breath. "All we can see are their eyes so there could be twice as many of them holding an eye closed to conceal their numbers."
I sighed. I was starting to get the sense Kyle wasn't an expert Haven player.
"Maybe it's like prison," I offered. "I should just walk up and stick the biggest one with my spear. Then the rest of them will back away."
My roommate nodded. "Sounds reasonable." Then, after a pause, "You ever been to prison?"
"No... You?"
"Uh-uh."
The flurry of activity slowed, skittering paws ready and waiting. We were surrounded, no two ways about it. Any retreat would likely be met with failure. And if we just kept waiting for the rats to come up with a plan, we'd be fighting a battle on their terms.
I had to strike first. Gain the initiative and keep them on their grubby heels.
Kyle and I rotated in place to maintain a view of every last rodent in the warren. As my spear passed over a burrow with a careless pack rat too near the entrance, I found my opening.
I wasn't taking any chances with this. I lined up the iron and used my deadshot skill. Without a warning to Kyle, I lunged ahead and drove the spear straight into the pack rat's brain.
Critical Hit!
You dealt 24 damage to [Pack Rat]
It collapsed immediately. Deadshot was impressive. I could only use it every 20 seconds but that wasn't a problem. I'd done so much extra damage that it seemed unnecessary. The poor rats only had 8 health total. The other mouse in the hole screeched and retreated deeper. I shook the lifeless body from my spear.
Kyle and I traded a cautious glance. Maybe this wouldn't be so difficult after all.
The ground beneath my feet rumbled. A mound of dirt struck upward. It surprised me but I'd been ready to dodge a counterattack. I canted to the side and activated dash.
Suddenly I was a parkour expert. My sandals skidded along the loose dirt. I was in control, perfectly balanced, shooting away from danger while surfing a shockwave.
Behind me, huge teeth burst through the ground and tracked me. Scraggly whiskers, damp with soil, brushed my back. A ragged rat several times the size of the others chomped empty air as I sped away. I only moved six feet in total, but it was enough to slip the attack. I took a defensive position as she sneered at me with a glowing red eye.
[Mother Pack Rat]
85 Health
"You see?" said Kyle. "She is missing an eye! Told you."
The mother rat had a scar running across her face, proof that she'd been in combat before, and proof that she was a survivor.
I braced my weapon and lined up a strike, eyes glued to the cooldown timer for my flagship skill. It hit 0 and I triggered deadshot. Unfortunately, nothing happened. The mother rat disappeared back into the newly formed hole before I could get a bead on her.
Too late I noticed I only had 2 spirit left, out of a maximum of 18. Deadshot required more than half my allotment. That meant I could only use it once before waiting for my spirit to recharge.
The entire pack chittered in unison, a chorus of furious rodents ready to defend their home. They rushed out into the open, attempting to overwhelm us.
"Watch out!" I yelled, sweeping my spear in a horizontal arc before me. The swipe created a buffer between me and the charging pack, giving me room to maneuver to safety. I'd been correct in my assessment of the spear.
Kyle had no such advantage.
He struck a rat with a decent sword swipe, shoving it to the side to lick its wounds. Unfortunately, two others slipped his defenses and took chomps out of him.
The pack rats were one of the weakest individual enemies we'd faced so far. Weaker than swamp toads. That meant Kyle wasn't about to die. However, the strength of the rats was right in their name: pack. Killing a few was cake. The rub was living to kill the rest.
I plucked a vicious rat off my roommate's leg with my spear and hurled it to the edge of the warren. Another sweep protected my back. When I turned to help Kyle again, he was finishing off the other mob and scrambling for the trees.
"Good going," I said. "Get some distance. I'll cover your back and group them up. Get that grenade out and I'll dash away. Got it?"
He nodded and leaped over a hedge. I chugged the spirit vial from my welcome kit. Potions in Haven didn't restore everything in one go, but at my noob level I just needed about 10 seconds to hit max spirit. I danced around the middle of the warren, keeping all eyes on me.
The ground rumbled again. I tumbled out of the way and triggered crossblock as the mother tore through roots and chomped at me. Her powerful teeth almost jarred the spear from my hands, but the block held. I landed on my side and rolled to my feet.
Instead of backing away from the lumbering den mother, I lined up the spear for an immediate counter. Before she could disappear back into the ground, I struck with deadshot.
The mother rat was no slouch. She twisted to avoid the blow. Instead of the iron finding her exposed neck, it bit deep into her shoulder.
Combo!
You dealt 27 damage to [Mother Pack Rat]
I couldn't believe the damage I'd inflicted on such a large enemy. I'd missed the crit but scored some kind of combo for the style move. A crossblock followed by a deadshot. Good to know.
The mother pack rat didn't appreciate the gaming mechanics like I did. She thrashed and dove underground, leaving a trail of blood.
I briefly considered following her down the large tunnel, but that would be a death sentence. Even the smaller rats would be much more dangerous within their warren, so I stayed on the surface.
The entire pack rushed forward to aid their wounded mother. I had eight of the fuckers on me at once. My spear was too slow to fend them all off. They took bites from my arm and leg. I battered the critters away with imperfect shots. Checked my spirit. Although I should've been nearly cashed out, I found that the delayed effect of the spirit vial was benefiting me. I was still within the 30 second restoration window. Although I'd hit max spirit and then spent most of it, more points had recharged. I had enough for a dash.
I searched the edge of the warren. "Uh," I said. "A little help?"
I didn't see Kyle. Another pack rat slipped under my weapon. This one chomped me hard in the stomach. I grimaced under the weight of my damage notifications. I was gonna need to dash out of here or wind up dead.
" 'Nade out!" came a battle cry from behind. Kyle strode into the clearing with his glasswork masterpiece in hand. He planted his foot on a large rock and nodded to me.
I nodded back. The rats were all clumped together. I was ready.
The ground shook. The rats scattered, running into burrows or to the tree line. The wounded mother burst through the ground, but
not from under me.
The rock Kyle leaned on lifted and tilted him off balance. Large teeth clamped his leg. With a stilted cry, he tumbled to his back. The grenade bounced from his grip and landed in the dirt. A needle-thin crack splintered the crystalline glass.
I needed that grenade, but Kyle was in serious danger. That bite had left him at half health. I was in the same boat but didn't have a giant monster chewing on my leg. She dipped her head below the surface, dragging him under.
"No!" I yelled.
I dashed to Kyle's position and clutched his wrists. The den mother's heft was powerful, but Kyle and I both had strength as our secondary attribute. Together we countered her pull. I kicked at another critter trying to take a piece of my toes as we fought her off.
With a triumphant heave, I dragged Kyle from the tunnel. The mother retreated deeper and most of the rats followed suit. Only a few remained topside. Kyle and I looked at each other and then looked at the partially cracked grenade.
On our hands and knees, we scrambled for the weapon. Clawing over dirt and tangled roots, I almost had my hands on it when a lone pack rat whizzed by and scooped it up in its jaws. It raced underground with something resembling a chittering mock.
"Asshole!" said Kyle.
We both sat on the ground, amazed at how badly everything had gone, when a loud explosion rang out from below. The ground bounced up slightly and settled back down. We ducked but it was already over. Black tendrils of smoke winded from each of the burrow openings.
54 damage to [Mother Pack Rat]
DoT: 5 dmg/5 secs
73 damage to [Pack Rat]
42 damage to [Pack Rat]
42 damage to [Pack Rat]
