by Brian Simons
Daniel rolled on the ground toward Chauncey, ducking under another swinging branch. He brought his sword down on one of the roots holding Chauncey in place, freeing him from its grip. The guard jumped to his feet and charged at the plant. His sword jammed into the one human leg that kept the creature upright.
Red blood gushed from her limb as the monster’s HP meter plummeted.
>> Mangled Dryant takes 628 Damage.
Daniel tried to process what he just learned quickly. Hurting the woman also hurt the creature, so they were effectively the same target, but with two minds. Attack notifications from his hirelings appeared in his own notification log, even if damage notifications didn’t. The dryant was down to its last few HP. One more hit should knock it dead.
The ground started to rumble again. The dryant was gearing up for another strike. It waved its branches in an unpredictable whirl all around it, as Root of Evil appeared over its head. Daniel looked for an opening, any opportunity to inflict damage without being swatted away first and losing precious time. He couldn’t find it.
Thick brown vines climbed through the ground again. One shot up and wrapped around Daniel’s ankle. Then he saw a root burst through Chauncey’s chest. It had struck him so hard from behind that it demolished his armor and pierced a hole through his body. He started to convulse as he stood there, held upright by the uncanny strength of the dryant’s root attack.
Daniel dove toward the plant creature and extended his arm as far as he could, with his leg trapped against the dirt by a root tendril. His sword tip barely pierced the bark of the creature’s non-human leg as Daniel’s body slammed into the ground.
>> Mangled Dryant takes 18 Damage. Mangled Dryant dies. You receive 3,200 XP.
The dryant crashed to the ground, its bark falling open and releasing its hold on the woman trapped inside. The monster’s roots had all retracted into the ground again. The woman crawled out of the tree’s husk and toward Chauncey, whose inanimate body now had a hole through it.
The phrase Dryad’s Blessing appeared above her head, then faded away. “I am too late to save him,” she said.
“Lyla,” Daniel said, “can you heal her?”
Lyla pointed her scimitar at the woman.
“It’s no use,” the woman said. “I was bound to that tree. I cannot survive without it.”
“We’ll find you another tree then,” Daniel said, his eyes searching the landscape wildly for any plant that might keep the dryad from dying.
“No,” she said. “You cannot stop my death. Instead, honor my life. Purge the evil from the forest so that my sisters and brothers may live out their days.” She collapsed against the ground.
New Quest: Purge the Forest of Evil (1)
Diardenna is beset with a strange and malevolent force. Extinguish the evil that runs rampant in the forest and restore peace to the dryads who live there.
Reward: 24,000 XP
Daniel accepted the quest half-heartedly. It seemed like an impossibly large task for someone like him, someone who was failing at every turn.
“You should go,” he said to Lyla.
“No, you need help,” she said.
“Everyone I hire dies,” he said. He felt tears well up in his eyes and he did nothing to stop them. “I got Chauncey killed. Me. If I hadn’t tried to sneak up on that monster like an idiot, my Gallantry skill would still be in effect and we would have killed that thing before it had a chance to stab Chauncey in the heart.
“I can’t be responsible for this anymore. I can’t keep leading people to their death, acting like I know what I’m doing. I don’t! What is all this?” He spun around with his arms outstretched. “Mutant dryads and strange wyverns, a river that comes alive the second I set foot in the trench. I’m cursed! Get out of here before I take you down with me. You’re dismissed.”
He sat on the ground and swatted gnats away from his face.
Uuuuuuuuuuuuse meeeeeeeee. A voice said, from nowhere.
Why was this happening again? Daniel wondered. He had no idea where that voice was coming from. He started to question why he hadn’t gone crazier sooner.
He had a status notification he hadn’t checked.
>> Congratulations! You have reached Level 18. To apply your 6 skill points now, open your Skills and Attributes screen.
Ha! Like he deserved that. “And why did that dryant give me 3,200 XP? That’s wildly out of line with other Level 28s.”
“You didn’t just kill a treant, or a dryad, you also destroyed the dark magic that mangled them together,” Lyla said, sitting on the ground next to Daniel. “I’m sorry Chauncey died.”
She put a hand on his shoulder. “All three of us should have died,” she said. “That thing was a powerful force of evil. You should be proud that two of us survived.”
“You’re telling me that all of the deformed creatures coming from the forest are worth extra XP?”
“Yes, but—”
“Lyla,” he said, digging into his orange coin pouch, “you’ve just been rehired.”
Quest Update: Do or Diardenna
You defeated a Mangled Dryant and learned that the diseased magic of Diardenna has infused other mutated creatures with additional power, and additional XP.
Pending report to the Regent:
(1) Bridges and other infrastructure around Travail may be compromised.
(2) Blighted forest creatures with abnormal strength may plague the forest, mutated by Diardenna’s diseased magic.
Reward: Dependent upon quality of information provided.
13
Coral and Sybil walked with Sage Natan until he stopped. This spot was just as full of gnats dancing in the sunlight as the rest of the Dour Scrub. “Are you ready to start?” he asked.
“Yes.” She parted her lips as little as possible. She wanted to answer the Sage without letting any more insects into her mouth.
“Yes,” Sybil said.
“Good,” the Sage continued. “Our people have suffered for a long time awaiting the impossible, the return of a dead god and the resurrection of a crumbled civilization. We have been abandoned by the world. We have had to rely on our own ingenuity to survive, and only those with the patience and inventiveness to solve their own problems may unlock the skills unique to our people.
“Of the many plagues emanating from the forest, the foxcat is among the stealthiest. It burrows small holes to hide underground and maintains a warren of subterranean tunnels. Stalk this monster and rid our land of it.”
“C’mon,” Sybil said, setting off to the west with her spear in hand. Coral followed her until the Sage and the mud huts were lost in the distance.
“We’ll stand back to back until we spot this critter,” Sybil said, pressing her back up against Coral’s. Several minutes passed. The only movement was the constant flurry of gnats in front of their faces.
“Sybil,” Coral asked, “what do we do about Sal?”
“I don’t know,” Sybil said. “I’m really worried about him. It won’t be long now until he’s evicted.”
“Whatever that debuff is that he picked up in the desert, it’s affecting his mind,” Coral said. “His actual mind, even when he’s not in the game. We need to cure him of it.”
Sybil didn’t respond. Instead she sprinted, pumping her spear in one hand and dodging bushes as she went. Coral ran to catch up to her. Sybil stopped short and stabbed her spear into a hole in the ground like she was ice fishing. She came back up empty-handed.
“It was here,” she said.
“All I saw was a furball. That thing was fast,” Coral said.
“We wait here,” Sybil said, peering into the foxhole.
“It was like Vernagi put a curse on him,” Coral said, returning to the topic of Sal, “with that staff.”
“The one she gave to Marco,” Sybil said.
“Maybe we can ask Marco to undo it?” Coral asked.
“If you can find him,” Sybil said. “The second he got his hands on that staf
f he took off. I don’t think he cares whether Vernagi is brainwashing people into giving away their gold.”
A small furry shape the size of a kitten popped out of the ground not far away. Sybil ran again, and the animal ran from her. It was reddish brown, with tall pointy ears and a face resembling a cat’s. Its bushy tail was as long as the rest of its body. The baby animal had taken one slow step toward them, but it fled the second Sybil moved toward it.
Coral ran after Sybil again, brushing gnats off her face and spitting one out of her mouth that must have crawled in when she was speaking.
When Sybil got to another foxhole, she jammed her spear into it, but she didn’t strike anything.
“It’s just a baby,” Coral said.
“It’s a quest,” Sybil replied.
The two waited, back to back, watching the terrain. Then Coral saw something move. She readied her bow, hoping to shoot it in the leg so she could catch up to it. Surely there was no need to kill a foxkitten. Maybe the orcs could adopt and tame it.
She waited. The animal crept closer. When Coral could make out its facial features she shot her arrow. It sailed across the distance between them, but the animal was already off and running before the arrow landed.
>> You missed!
The distance had been too great. Again they waited. The animal crept closer, but it stopped at the edge of Coral’s range. She shot, but the animal got away. Even the smallest movement seemed to scare the foxcat away.
>> You missed!
Maybe she could scare the animal toward her. Coral sat with her bowstring taut, an arrow nocked in reserve. When she saw the foxcat, she shot at the trunk of a bush behind the critter hoping the noise would scare it forward. She struck the bushes each time, but so far had no luck coaxing the furball toward her.
>> Congratulations! You have improved your Ranged combat ability to 6. Total Dexterity bonuses: +12% at close range, +4% at medium range, +2% at long range.
They continued this chase for an hour, Sybil running off to stab at the ground or Coral shooting arrows into the bushes. The practice with her bow was welcome, their failure to lure the foxcat in was not.
The gnats were becoming more of a problem now. They clung to the sweat on their faces. Coral and Sybil had stopped speaking just to avoid allowing any more of the bugs into their mouths.
After chasing down the foxcat and failing to spear it for the nth time, Sybil let out a long grunt. “This is a waste of time,” she said. “I quit. Let me know when you’re ready to head to Diardenna so we can finally earn some scratch.”
Coral wasn’t ready to give up. If the game gave her this quest, there must be some way to complete it. The animal popped its head above ground and Coral shot at the distant russet blur. Her arrow struck another bush.
>> Congratulations! You have improved your Ranged combat ability to 7. Total Dexterity bonuses: +14% at close range, +6% at medium range, +4% at long range.
She couldn’t land an arrow on the fast little foxcat, and shooting the bushes didn’t seem to work either. There had to be a better way.
The foxcat emerged again from its hole and stared at her. Coral waited. It slowly crept closer, but stopped a safe distance away. Rather than lift her bow, Coral just stood there. The foxcat took another step closer. The sensation of tiny six-legged insects crawling across her cheek was too much to bear. She lifted a hand to brush gnats off her face, but the fox tore off again and dove into a hole in the ground.
Coral walked toward the hole and peered into it. It wasn’t deep. It turned sharply underground, obscuring the shape of the tunnel. There were no other holes nearby. Wherever that foxcat would pop up next, it wouldn’t be close to this hole.
Coral sat on the ground and waited. Eventually, the foxcat emerged again, a safe distance from her as always. She was surprised the little critter hadn’t been permanently frightened off. Coral sat still and watched.
Gnats continued to land on her face, but she resisted the urge to swat them aside. She felt them trace the outline of her mouth and tickle her eyelashes. Still, she ignored them. Any movement on her part would start the foxcat running again. The furry youngling took a delicate step forward, then stopped.
A gnat climbed up Coral’s nose, but all she did was squint her eyes and try to breathe forcefully enough to send the bug outward again. The foxcat took another step.
The sound of buzzing echoed in Coral’s head as an adventurous gnat spelunked her ear canal, but still Coral sat, unflinching, as the foxcat came closer.
This went on for almost another hour. As the animal got closer, Coral could see her own reflection in its large blue eyes. She watched the timorous animal watch her and take another small step forward.
The insects were intolerable. Coral felt like her whole face must be black with them. Perhaps the foxcat only came this close so it could see for itself how wretched this bug-infested human was. Still, Coral had come this far. No matter how many gnats crawled up her arms, her legs, her neck. She wouldn’t budge.
Finally, the foxcat placed a paw on Coral’s leg. It jumped up into her lap. It sat on her thigh and peered up at her.
She took a risk. She slowly raised her hand to pet the foxkitten. Its fur was soft and thick. The animal began to purr lightly. Coral pet with both hands now, and rubbed under its chin with the back of her pointer finger. She couldn’t believe she had shot arrows at this cute little thing. Instead of killing it, she had made it her new friend. The animal opened its mouth and nibbled playfully at Coral’s thumb.
Coral scooped the animal up in one hand and stood up with it, finally brushing the gnats away from her face. She walked it all the way back to Sage Natan.
“I have never,” the Sage said, “seen anyone lure a foxcat into her arms. Pass him to me.”
Coral carefully transferred the animal to the Sage. “He’s just a baby,” she said, “he’s not a danger to—”
The Sage snapped its neck and dropped its dead body onto the ground.
“Well done, Coral_Daring.”
“Why did you do that?” Coral was alarmed. That poor defenseless animal hadn’t hurt anyone.
“The foxcat carries a rare disease. Under the full moon, it grows to stand upright on two legs. Its fangs elongate, it sprouts massive claws from its hands, and it attacks at anything living. It terrorizes the night. Any person it bites with its cursed tooth is doomed to devolve into a raging creature as well. I have seen orcs grow fur and fang and howl to the moon after a single bite from the foxcat. If this one grew any older and stronger, it would have ruined more lives than you could know. You did us a great service by luring this evil animal to its demise. Now, your reward.”
Coral was still in shock at how quickly and effortlessly the Sage snapped the small animal’s neck. As patient and kind as the Sage seemed, he also had a ruthless side.
Quest Complete: Fur Coax
You lured the timid foxcat into your arms and rid the orcs of a fearsome creature of the night.
Reward: Option to change class to Garmenter.
“You are familiar with Skinweaving,” the Sage said. “If you accept the path of Garmenter, these are the other new skills you may unlock.”
Earthenwear. Encase yourself in a shell of mud, clay, or stone by sculpting wearable garments from the ground itself.
Vineyard Vinery. From sharp thorns to deadly flowers, mother nature plays dirty with her wardrobe. Now you can too. Craft living armor from plants to make their defenses your own.
Mind Over Material. Weave ethereal components into armored auras that replace mundane armor with tangible versions of incorporeal energies.
All this, in addition to the skill trees for Leathermaking and non-combat attire. How could she turn this down?
“Thank you, Sage Natan,” Coral said. “I accept my new class.”
The Sage closed his eyes and bowed his head for a moment. “It is done.”
Class Change: Garmenter
Congratulations! Your class has been changed to G
armenter. As a Garmenter you gain an extra +1 to Dexterity per level.
Coral opened her skill menu. She still had 12 skill points to allocate. It had only taken one point to unlock Basic Skinweaving last week, and one point to unlock each type of armor – boots, leggings, body armor, gauntlets, belts, and helmets. Standard Skinweaving, however, took two points to unlock. Coral unlocked the Standard tier, then found out it would cost two points per type of armor. It was disappointing that she couldn’t unlock everything at once, but she was eager to get started on crafting improved wyvern pants. She unlocked “leggings” and took out her remaining wyvern skins.
