Beastborne- Mark of the Founder

by James T Callum

  Hal pulled up the creature’s stats, curious how it compared to the Wortlings.

  [Treant (Awakened Tree)]

  Lv.22

  Resources

  HP: 885

  SP: 250

  MP: 300

  Resistances

  Fire: -30

  Water: 20

  Lightning: 10

  Earth: 50

  Wind: 0

  Ice: 0

  Piercing: 50

  Slashing:-20

  Blunt: 20

  Defensive Properties

  DEF: 255

  MDEF: 10

  Abilities

  Slam

  Treants are capable of dealing considerable blunt damage by crashing their limbs into the enemy.

  Hurl

  Throw a boulder or similar object with unerring accuracy up to a range of 180ft.

  Stomp

  Bear down with all of your weight, knocking most creatures off their feet and dealing significant crushing damage.

  Thrash

  Throw climbing creatures off your trunk or deal area damage with sweeping limbs.

  Spells

  Acorn Bomb

  Hurl an explosive acorn that detonates in a 10ft radius dealing piercing damage to those within range.

  Element: Earth.

  MP: 50

  Leaf Storm

  Summon a whirlwind of bladed leaves that effect a 10ft radius.

  Element: Wind.

  MP: 50

  Traits

  Siege Creature

  As a massive creature, Treants deal triple damage to structures or structure-like entities such as other Treants, Rock Golems, and other such constructs.

  False Form

  Remaining motionless, the Treant is utterly indistinguishable from any other tree.

  Thirsty Roots

  Creatures slain within a 30ft radius are absorbed into the Treant’s roots, nourishing it and providing it with HP up to half of the EXP the creature provided.

  Woodsense V

  Treants are naturally capable of detecting threats in a wide radius of up to 180ft, so long as both the creature and the Treant are in contact with vegetation.

  “No wonder these things were hard to take down,” Hal muttered.

  “How so?” Ashera asked.

  And so Hal explained everything that he could see from the creature. Its stats were significantly higher than the Wortlings. The Treant’s defensive prowess was no joke. Rend was practically required to reduce its DEF to a point they could actually deal damage.

  With Assimilation actively regenerating the creature, it was practically immortal. Hal and Ashera, perched atop its “shoulder” high up were impervious to practically all monsters that came at them.

  Their ranged spellwork laid low one monster after the other and what they couldn’t kill the Treant easily could.

  The Wortlings helped where they could, often luring or corralling monsters into the devastating path of the Treant. Out of the direct battle himself, Hal could efficiently direct them where they needed to go.

  They kept it up for a long while until both Hal and Ashera’s MP had long-since run dry and he used Assimilation to fill them back up by tapping some of the Treant’s substantial resources.

  In the end, they were limited not by their newfound power - which was great enough to topple even rival Treants who more often than not fled before them once a couple more were destroyed - but by a lack of monsters to fight.

  Ashera laughed and placed a hand to her middle, shaking her head. “Oh…” She placed a hand on Hal’s arm. “Thank you, Hal. I needed that. It was very… cathartic.”

  “It was, wasn’t it?” he said with a grin. “I’m going to let the Treant roam and destroy anything it sees. It’s too big to take it with us, unfortunately.” Hal placed a hand on the strong limb they were resting on. He let out a forlorn sigh. “At least I got some seeds and a cutting. Once we get a Sanctum that’ll be one of the first things I do.”

  “I can see our new home will not want for stout protectors then,” Ashera said.

  Instructing the Treant to let them down, Hal and Ashera stepped onto the churned earth from the latest battle. Ashera tapped Hal on the shoulder to get his attention and pointed. “You see those trees there?”

  “I do, what about them?”

  “The Witherroot is there,” she said, looking back at the Treant. “I know you did not require my help after all but if you would do me a favor?”

  “Anything.”

  “Keep the Treant nearby while you harvest. If you do that, I will feel comfortable heading back to the campsite and setting up for brewing some potions so we might make up for lost time.”

  Hal rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry about that. I got a little carried away.”

  The lamora placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I enjoyed it very much. Especially when that third Treant ate your chain. You really should have left well enough alone you know.”

  “I figured I could get some progress on my Improvised Weaponry Skill.”

  Ashera shook her head and gave a soft tinkling laugh once more. “Will you do that for me?”

  “Of course, Ashera.”

  56

  True to his word, Hal kept the Treant with him but he forced a concession onto Ashera. He would keep the Treant by his side if she agreed to let Stumpy escort her back to the campfire.

  He had set the other Wortlings back at camp to Root once he learned how useful the ability was. With their constant HP regeneration, he could draw on their HP to refuel his MP.

  And so for most of the battles, the Wortlings had stayed nearby, Rooted to provide Hal and Ashera with plenty of HP to convert into MP. He couldn’t keep pulling from the Treant, they used so much MP that the towering creature would have long-since died if he kept that up.

  With Ashera retreating into the distance, Hal looked over the notifications and prompts he had suppressed while they were on the warpath.

  You learn Drill Branch.

  Summon spiraling branches to pierce through the toughest hide and gore your opponents. By continuing to channel mana into the spell, you can continue the spell indefinitely. Partially ignores DEF.

  School: Beast Magic.

  Type: Physical (Piercing).

  Family: Treant (Plantoid).

  MP: 35

  BP: 3

  Strain: 2

  Damage: 10

  Your Bomb Toss has risen to Tier II.

  +10% Damage.

  +10% Burning duration.

  Bomb Toss II

  Throw a goblin-bomb at the enemy dealing Area of Effect (AOE) fire damage.

  School: Beast Magic.

  Type: Magical (Fire).

  Family: Goblin (Beastmen).

  MP: 40

  BP: 2

  Strain: 1

  Damage: 16 (AOE).

  Your Beast Magic has risen to Level 7.

  +3% Beast Magic potency (+21%).

  Your Assimilation has risen to Tier II.

  Increased conversion rate.

  Hal grinned at the two Wortlings beside him and the towering Treant. Apart from the skill increases, he made significant headway in repaying his debt for Dominating the Wortlings. Gained a handsome sum of sparks, and a fair amount of alchemical ingredients above and beyond what the Quest required.

  True, he did lose 3 Wortlings, but the rest were hale and healthy. Even Stumpy with his disfigurement. For some reason, he felt a strange attachment to Stumpy more than any of the others.

  His new Beast Magic spell looked awesome, and though he set it immediately, he wouldn’t be able to set any more spells unless he removed one or found a way to increase his Burden. He was now sitting at 10 out of 10.

  As much as he wanted to try it out, there really wasn’t anything around. With a shrug, Hal focused on the two Rooted Wortlings. His recent gains in Assimilation had him curious as to just how efficient it was.

  While he didn’t know the gains it ma
de, with a little work he figured he could work out an approximate conversion rate. And that alone would be useful to know.

  On a whim, Hal reached out to the distant half-dozen at camp. Unlike the two Wortlings nearby, he couldn’t feel their HP or SP.

  “Ah well,” he muttered, “It was worth a try.”

  A supply of resource batteries all Rooted in a safe – and distant - location while Hal ventured out, constantly tapping Assimilation to top himself off while he bottomed out his SP and MP was too good to be true.

  But the two nearby he could use. In five minutes they would recover a total of 100 HP between them. With more Wortlings at his command, he could speed that up even more by siphoning just a bit from each.

  On their own, they weren’t terribly strong.

  Hal, watching his SP and MP, focused on Assimilation and drew a few points of the Wortling’s HP.

  Assimilating their HP and SP, Hal fell within himself trying to keep all the numbers floating in his head.

  After nearly ten minutes of testing and working things out, Hal’s HP and MP were nearly filled and he felt confident in his conclusions. It seemed the conversion rate was determined by what he was trying to recover.

  Your Investigation has risen to Level 8.

  +1% Investigation speed (+8%).

  +2% Investigation success (+16%).

  I’ll have to keep that in mind. Getting Investigation up while examining and exploring mechanics was a useful way to double-dip. He could learn more about the world while also gaining valuable skill.

  HP was the costliest, obviously. For every point of HP he tried to restore, he’d only recover 0.55. Barely better than a 1 HP restored per 2 resources spent.

  Wortlings under the effect of Root recovered 10 HP per minute. Which meant that, per Wortling, (and provided he could keep them within range) Hal could recover roughly 5.5 HP per minute.

  With the two Wortlings at his side, he could recover 11 HP per minute if he constantly tapped them with Assimilation.

  While 10 HP a minute didn’t seem like much, compared to his own regeneration it was simply staggering. A single Wortling using Root had an effective hourly HP regeneration of 600.

  At his current tier of Assimilation, his effective hourly regeneration was over 700. And that was just for HP. The other resources weren’t quite as inefficient.

  SP recovery was a lot better at a rough 75% conversion rate. He could recover 15 SP a minute by tapping both Wortlings. MP, strangely, was by far the best rate at 80%.

  The testing confirmed his working theory that HP was in a league of its own. Every time he used Assimilation to recover his HP, it had cost an egregious amount of SP and MP.

  Though it was strangely in line with what Ashera had explained to him about healing magic. It was difficult and expensive to recover HP through magical means.

  If he had all his Wortlings with him – and at that moment he was hit by how profound a loss of three of them was – he’d be a veritable powerhouse. Practically unkillable even without a Treant mobile fortress by his side.

  He had to temper his excitement, however, because he knew he didn’t have all of his Wortlings with him. Even as he used Assimilation to draw on the healing Wortlings beside him, he had to remind himself how vulnerable they would be sitting motionless like they were.

  Any creature could come upon them and strike at them. Not that he expected it. They had cleared the area pretty handily up to the nearby river. But if there were monsters about, he doubted his ability to coordinate a guard, Root the rest, use Woodsense to scan for threats, respond appropriately, and use Assimilation all while fighting whatever was threatening him at the time.

  The idea was sound but its execution would be more complicated than he thought he could handle at the moment. But two Wortling batteries? That he could handle.

  Rather than waste anymore time, now that he had a good grasp on how Assimilation worked, Hal used the bulk of his regained EXP to hit Level 11 Beastborne.

  Golden wind swirled around him and he received a pleasantly familiar prompt.

  Beastborne reaches Level 11.

  You have 5 unspent Attribute Points awaiting distribution.

  Your HP, SP, and MP are fully restored.

  Hal immediately put the 5 points into INT and then took a look at his stats. Even after so much struggle and sorrow, there was something awe-inspiring about looking at his status sheet.

  Literally seeing the numerical representation of himself growing was an incredible feeling.

  [Status]

  Hal Williams

  Level: 21

  Discordant Stone: 2,306/55,000

  Strain: 6/25

  BP: 10/10

  Classes

  Beastborne: 11

  Novice: 10

  Resources

  HP: 362/362

  SP: 285/285

  MP: 340/340

  Attributes

  STR: 10 (+5)

  VIT: 20

  DEX: 10 (+1)

  AGI: 10 (+4)

  INT: 27 (+1)

  MND: 25

  CHR: 10 (+3)

  Regeneration

  HP/hr: 47.9

  SP/hr: 49.2

  MP/hr: 72.6

  He was actually starting to feel strong for once. There was enough EXP left over that he could use Dominate or Rend again if he needed to but it wasn’t enough that he was sitting on a potential Level Up.

  Going from Level 11 Beastborne to Level 12 would take 5,500 EXP.

  Hal let the Wortlings recover themselves back to full while those back at camp continued to bolster their HP beyond its maximum.

  He set off shortly after toward the nearby river. With the Treant at his back, he commanded the Wortlings to flank him thirty feet to either side while scanning the trees for the telltale red vines and ashen bark Ashera had mentioned.

  57

  Hal soon caught the sight of the creeping vines Ashera had mentioned. They crawled up the side of a nearby tree in a weblike net. As he closed in and examined them, Hal was taken aback by the striking similarity to Twizzlers. Or, he supposed, Red Vines depending on where you grew up.

  Delicately, he reached out and pried the thin creepers from the tree. Their twisted ridges were filled with a milky white substance. Ashera was right, whatever fluid they seeped did smell nice. It reminded him of cotton candy. The blue kind. Not pink.

  Hal would go to his deathbed insisting there was a flavor difference between them that went beyond food coloring.

  Some hills were worth dying on.

  You gather 2 [Witherroot].

  You gather 1 [Vial of Withersap].

  Hal stared at the prompt and watched as the clump of bizarre candy-like vines vanished into his inventory. Reaching inside, he picked out a simple glass vial no larger than his thumb. Inside was some of that milky substance.

  He knew, without needing to uncork the thing, that it would smell like blue cotton candy.

  He looked back at his latest Quest after gathering the Witherroot from a few more trees.

  One of them he had to throw out. It looked identical to the one he gathered, but a green oozing sap flowed out smelling pleasantly of green apple candy.

  Quest Update: Alchemical Ambitions.

  After laying waste to a fair portion of the region, you have managed to collect two of the items Ashera needs for her potions. Two more ingredients remain to be gathered. Rewards have been updated to reflect the subjugation of the surrounding area.

  Objectives

  Acquire the following items:

  5 [Witherroot] (Complete).

  5 [Waterwheels].

  5 [Vials of Tree Sap] (Complete).

  10 [Vials of Fresh Water].

  Rewards

  Unlock Alchemy Skill.

  Unlock Foraging Skill.

  700 Experience Points.

  100 Plantoid Essence.

  So wanton violence does solve everything!

  That the Quest saw fit to give him more for going on a killin
g spree was a little ridiculous but he wasn’t going to turn down more EXP or essence.

  The babble of the nearby river was soothing. Though Hal could just make out the sheen of the moving water at the edge of the light provided by the Guild’s badge, he didn’t move any closer.

  His Treant stomped after him and Hal had it stand as a sentry in case anything snuck up on him.

  He still had to get the [Waterwheels]. And he kept in mind Ashera’s warning.

  Considering the way water seemed to react with Woodsense, he didn’t think it was likely he would be able to use the Wortlings to find the [Waterwheels].

  But that didn’t stop him from using them as batteries. With a quick look around and a scan with Woodsense for any enemies, Hal set both Wortlings to Root.

  Staring at the glittering light thrown back on the moving water ahead, between the ashen trees covered in thick [Witherroot] vines, Hal wondered about what compelled him to go on such a violent spree.

  It was more than the need for more EXP or essence. While he gained a great deal of the former, he barely got any worthwhile essence which seemed odd.

  His recent rash of recklessness was weighing heavily on his mind. There was a part of himself, like a beast rattling around in a cage, that yearned to prove itself against every threat that crossed his path.

  How long had it been affecting him? He was usually far more careful than he’d been. Skirting death so carelessly was not like him at all. And yet, he didn’t want to be so cautious that he had to prepare every last little thing before he would even think of engaging in a fight.

  He had real power for once in his life. Something tangible and true. There was no denying the intoxicating effect of spellcasting or being superhuman. No matter how foolish he knew it to be, the thrill was addictive.