Congratulations! By using two skills in tandem, you have gained additional boost bonuses to your skills.
Skill increased: Creature Identification (Lv 4)
You can now view the HP of your opponents with a simple cast of this skill. Watch their health decrease in the form of a progress bar as you hack and slash your way to victory.
Bonuses: +6 intelligence
(NOTE: Increases in skill override any previous bonuses gained from the skill).
Skill increased: Dark Vision (Lv 4)
The night is fast becoming your mistress. Dark shapes become more refined, night terrors lose their fuzz, and oh, the pranks you can play as you dissolve into the darkness and lead your friends astray.
Bonuses: +5 intelligence, +8 etheric potential
(NOTE: Increases in skill override any previous bonuses gained from the skill).
Great! Always handy to have a boost just before a battle.
Chloe took a calming breath and closed her eyes. She focused her will and summoned Purple Haze, and a fireball appeared in her hands. She grinned, glad to finally have the chance to practice again with this spell, considering that she had been unable to in the dry woods around the village.
“Eat fire!” Chloe shouted, chucking the purple ball at the encroaching crocs. The ball headed straight for the big guy in the middle, who ducked under the water at the last moment. The ball of fire sizzled and steamed as the water extinguished it.
“Aw, nuts.”
The lower-level croc to her left came onto land, snapping its jaws hungrily, a low growl emanating from its stomach. Chloe drew her sword and struck at the beast, the blade catching the end of the croc’s snout.
It reared back in pain. Chloe watched with a satisfying smirk as its health bar dropped, losing around 10%.
“Aha,” she said triumphantly, missing the croc that had crept up beside her on the other side and now snapped at her ankles.
Chloe jumped just in time, landing on the croc’s snout with a sickening crunch. She stabbed her blade through the side of the croc’s face.
The reptile thrashed beneath her, sending her toppling backward. She landed in wet mud and struggled to stand. She heard the first croc coming at her from the other side and quickly took a few steps back.
She looked around briefly for the third croc—the one the identification had labeled as mutant—but he was nowhere to be found.
Chloe spotted the second croc and raised her sword to attack, but she was knocked off her feet as the first croc charged her from behind.
On the ground now, she struggled to see what was going on. She raised an arm and felt as a croc attempted a bite, catching its teeth on her bracers. There was a sickening ringing noise as the croc roared and several teeth came out.
“Damn, girl. You’re tougher than I thought,” Chloe muttered.
KieraFreya replied. “No comment.”
Taking a deep breath, Chloe rolled backward and put some distance between her and the crocs. She glared at them, tucked her sword back into its sheath, and began making movements with her hands.
Words came without understanding to her lips. She poured her willpower into the spell, electricity pooling around her hands. With a cry of triumph, she slammed her hands into the wet forest floor, sending the bolts out in all directions as the water conducted the electrical charge.
She watched the health bar of the croc she had stabbed fall to zero before she fell to the ground, the wet patch that she was standing in receiving a fair amount of voltage. Even KieraFreya screamed.
Chloe cut off the electricity, twitching for a couple of seconds in the same way she had seen Gideon do with the wolves. She hadn’t really expected the spell to work, given that she had only seen the mage perform it once, and although it now hurt like hell and her health bar had lowered by a good...40%, she was quietly impressed by the damage it had caused.
Craning her head off the mud, she saw the second of the lower-level crocs coming for her. Behind him, dark bubbles pierced the surface of the water and the mutant croc re-emerged, anger in its eyes as it stood up on its hind legs.
Chloe quickly drew her sword. With the croc right on her, she didn’t have time to get the blade into position, so she smacked its cranium with the hilt, watching the final portion of the health bar drop to 0.
“Boop,” Chloe mumbled posthumously.
Now Chloe turned her attention to the standing croc. It was a disturbing image, really. She’d seen crocs walk on two legs in cartoons as a child, but she had never imagined how disturbing it would look in real life.
Not real life, dummy. This is a game, remember?
The croc leered darkly over its snout, keeping its distance and remaining in the water. Its body was malformed, with strange lumps all over it. Incredibly long claws glinted on its front paws, and the spikes on its back were much longer than they should have been.
One pleasant surprise was that the brute had lost almost 30% of its health already, though. That was nice.
“Come at me, bro,” Chloe urged.
“Why do we assume it’s a boy?” KieraFreya sassed. “It has no genitals. It could be a girl. Sexist cow.”
A coy smile played on Chloe’s lips as she advanced on the croc, her mind flashing back to the first time she had flown solo in battle with the goblins and how much had changed for her now. She felt confident. Strong. Able to take on whatever faced her.
Chloe brought her sword back for the swipe and—
The croc slipped back into the water. Chloe was now waist-high in the muck.
“He tricked us,” she said, suddenly turning to return to the closest piece of land.
“No, he tricked you,” KieraFreya said as the sound of splashing came from behind. The next thing Chloe knew, there were powerful teeth in her leg.
Chloe cried out in pain and kicked back with her other leg. Although she was sure crocodiles couldn’t smile, she was certain she would see a small grin on his snout.
The croc retreated as Chloe got her leg free and slipped back into the water.
“What do I do?” Chloe asked, wracking her brain to work out if it was better to run or continue the fight. If she ran, she’d lose out on valuable experience. Plus, given that crocs were sort of built for this type of land, she wasn’t quite sure she’d escape.
A cursory glance of her stats showed that she had 132/220HP left, with 78/150MP left after casting her fireball and electricity—wow, that took a fair chunk of power from the etheric—and 111/300 stamina. She’d have to pull herself together if she was going to make it out of this one.
Chloe scanned down her list of skills and an idea struck her. She reached into her satchel and pulled out the Fisherman’s Rod from its depths, marveling at how such a large item could be stored in such a small bag.
Working as fast as she could, she pulled out some basic bait that the tribespeople had given her on her day of foraging and cast the rod into the water. Waiting in tense silence, it was only a few seconds before the line went tight and she felt the pull of something in the water.
“Got you now.” Chloe chuckled, winding in the line, confused when a gleam of silver emerged from the water and the shape of a large, flat mudfish flew toward her.
“Ummm…” was all that she managed to say before the much larger shape of the croc appeared, leaping into the air with incredible agility. The large moon behind him silhouetted his graceful figure. His jaws clamped shut on the mudfish. Chloe felt her line grow even tighter as the hook caught on the croc’s mouth. She gave the rod a hard tug, throwing the croc off-balance and sending it splashing upside-down into the water just a few feet in front of her.
Chloe triumphantly pumped her fist as she watched the croc’s health drop another 10%. A small red droplet appearing by the health bar, which Chloe assumed meant that she had inflicted some kind of bleeding debuff.
She took one step toward the croc, rod forgotten, sword once again drawn, ready to go for the heart on the exposed belly…
<
br /> But the croc was too fast. Again it came for her, teeth finding their mark around the armor on her waist. Chloe felt the teeth sink into the leather, the pressure of the jaw closing taking her breath away. She saw the start of white flowers bloom in her vision as the fishy stench of the croc’s breath filled her nostrils.
Chloe cried out, struggling to raise her sword. In a desperate flash of inspiration, she muttered her incantation, performing the movements with one hand, and when small bolts of lightning appeared in her hand, she gently slapped the blade of her sword, focusing her willpower on making the bolts travel through it.
The sword exploded in a thousand bolts, the electricity contained within the length of the blade. Chloe’s face smiled darkly in the glowing blue light as the croc’s eyes widened, his teeth lost some of their pressure, and the sword found its way into the back of the croc’s throat.
The beast’s body went rigid as it throbbed with electricity. Chloe squeezed her eyes shut, prepared for the electricity to take the rest of her health as it traveled back up her body. To her surprise, the voltage stayed mostly within the blade.
Chloe was released, her body collapsing to the mud. She landed on her damaged leg and slumped backward, lying in the wet mud as she heard the dying gurgles of the croc.
She stayed there for a while, wanting to loot the crocs’ bodies but not ready to make a move until some of her stamina had recovered. She watched the night sky as stars wheeled overhead and meteors flew across it. Eventually, she blinked her notifications up and smiled when she saw the current ones.
New spell acquired: Volt Shock (Lv 1)
Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening! You can now summon the power of electricity to inflict damage upon your enemies. Find creative, unique ways of using this skill as you develop and grow.
Requirements: n x 30MP (where n is equal to the number of seconds taken to cast the spell)
Monster defeated: Bogland Crocodile (Lv 6)
+150 exp
Monster defeated: Bogland Crocodile (Lv 7)
+150 exp
You’ve unlocked a new skill: Dual wielding (Lv 2)
Many don’t understand the diversity of battle styles that dual wielding has to offer. Some stumble across this by chance. Like you. You’re a chancer, right? Now you can combine magic and the physical in battle. Boop!
Bonuses: +2 dexterity
You’ve unlocked a new (unique) skill: Experimental (Lv 1)
Your mind works in mysterious ways. In the heat of the moment, you choose to take the path less...well, never traveled. Continue working on this skill and your experiments will become more and more successful and less likely to backfire with each level gained.
Bonuses: +1 intelligence, +1 dexterity, +1 endurance, +1 etheric potential
Monster defeated: Mutant Bogland Crocodile (Lv 9)
+500 exp
Level increased! You are now level 9
Congratulations! Through fire and water, earth and air, you have gained enough experience to ascend to the next level.
+4 attribute points
(Attribute points must be assigned within 24 hours of gameplay. If unassigned after 24 hours, any remaining points will be randomly assigned.)
Chloe felt her body lift, hovering an inch or two off the floor. She felt warm, she glowed, and the pain in her leg and chest subsided almost instantly.
She smiled smugly, watching the stars and listening to the sounds of the forest creatures for just a moment longer.
Chapter Twenty-One
Despite the ongoing struggle against the sticky mud of the bog, Chloe’s smile stretched from ear to ear.
With her level 4 Dark vision, she was able to navigate a lot more smoothly than she could have imagined. Even in near darkness, she could see through the trees ahead, keeping an eye out for danger. The wisp floated in front, conveniently reappearing not long after the crocs had been taken care of.
Chloe had given the wisp a sharp talking to, but she wasn’t sure that the floating orb understood her words. She had looted the crocs, inheriting 2x croc claws, 2x croc meat, and 1x mutant croc meat. That last item had come with a warning beside it, detailing that consumption of the item was at the player’s own risk.
Chloe decided to pocket the item anyway and checked her available slots, pleasantly surprised to see that the items that came in multiples automatically stacked in one place.
Leather Satchel
Carry slots remaining: 10/16
Available Items
2x croc claws
1x fisherman’s rod
2x croc meat
1x mutant croc meat.
1x rusty dagger
1x tiny stick
She had then closed the Inventory and glossed over her character sheet, nodding appreciatively at the collection of skills she had attained, and the increases that came with level 9 status. She remembered that her attributes had been locked until level 5 and wondered if there might be some kind of upgrade around level 10 that would make her life easier. KieraFreya, unsurprisingly, offered no additional help on the matter.
Bio
Character name: Chloe (click to select a new character name)
Level: 9
Class: Null
Race: Human
Stats
HP: 250/250
MP: 180/180
Stamina: 330/330
Active effects: Null
Attributes
Strength: 22 (+16)
Intelligence: 6 (+13)
Dexterity: 20 (+15)
Endurance: 25 (+16)
Etheric Potential: 9 (+14)
Skills
Languages: Human
Acrobatics: Lv 3
Armed Combat: Lv 1
Cooking: Lv 1
Crafting: Lv 1
Creature Identification: Lv 4
Dark Vision: Lv 4
Dual Wielding: Lv 2
Experimental: Lv 1
Fishing: Lv 1
Herb Identification: Lv 1
Sneak: Lv 3
Swimming: Lv 1
Reckless: Lv 3
Available Points: 4
Musing over the available options, Chloe dumped 2 of her available points into intelligence, and the remaining 2 into etheric potential, anxious to make a quick decision before she once again got swept up in the game and forgot to assign them. There was still a long way to go to even out the imbalances from the system’s stupid auto-assignment choices, but at least she was making some progress toward balancing her attributes.
Still, with a strength of 38 and an endurance of 41, she supposed there were worse problems she could have. At least she wasn’t the same weakling who had managed to get herself killed by low-level goblins.
As the night wore on and the dark of the night began to lighten, the footing shifted from damp, squooshy bogland to firmer ground. After a while, Chloe noticed that the ground began to slope up and, looking back the way she had come, she realized that the slope’s gradient was increasing.
The wisp led the way with not a single word. Even KieraFreya remained oddly silent on the journey. After another stretch of forest, Chloe began to feel light-headed. Her calves started to burn from the constant climbing. Rocks and boulders appeared around her, breaking up the dense foliage.
“Are we...nearly...there yet?” Chloe was panting, sweat trickling down her brow. She could feel the moisture beneath her armor and felt a little sorry for KieraFreya. The goddess could not feel pain, but could she feel and smell the sweat that was peppering Chloe’s body?
Eventually, the trees gave way to a small clearing with an outcrop of rock that jutted out like a great shelf against the incline. Chloe climbed her way up and took a seat on the rock’s edge, from there able to scan the vast forest and see how far she had come. A thin layer of morning haze hung lazily over the canopy, dappling the light from the pink and orange sunrise into a thousand magical shards.
Birds flew low over the canopy, occasionally disappearing into th
e leaves. Chloe listened to the caws and cries of the morning animals, her breath taken away by the view.
Things sure hadn’t been like this at home. All her life, Chloe had been a city-dweller, born and raised with the weight of her parents’ legacy on her. She had lived in several houses and moved to several luxury condos, and had always thought that she had loved city living. The bustling streets, the neon signs, the nightlife, people-watching from skyscrapers and several-dozen-story restaurants.
But now…
Now Chloe took a deep breath through her nose. The oxygen filled her lungs and gave her an energy she wasn’t sure she had ever felt before. All of this in front of her—it was alive. It was magical. It was all natural. If she could take a snapshot in her head of what happiness was, she was sure this would be it.
After a quick bite of some cooked croc meat (courtesy of her Purple Blaze spell), Chloe picked the stray bits from her teeth and continued following the wisp up the rock face.
There were several ledges similar to the one she had sat on and enjoyed the view. Now the journey began to feel more perilous, with the gradient ever-increasing. A couple of times, as the wisp floated lazily up, Chloe was forced to use both her hands and feet to climb. Rocks came loose as she fought for purchase, and before she knew it, continuing to climb began to seem like an incredibly dangerous option to take.
The air was thinner up here, too. Chloe squinted after the wisp who, by now, was getting harder and harder to see. When she looked up, she saw the burning purples of the sky beginning to turn to blues.
“Where the hell is he taking us?” she mumbled to KieraFreya as she shinnied across a rather precarious ledge and found a safe spot to stand.
KieraFreya was slow to answer. “Why do you presume that it’s a ‘he?’”
“Oh, no. Not this again.”
“I’m just saying, it shows your inherent sexism when you assign gender to non-gender-specific entities.”
“Force of habit, okay?” Chloe retorted. “Where I come from, that’s how people have spoken for years. Cars and boats are ‘she,’ guides and waiters are generally ‘he’ unless otherwise specified. That’s just how it is.”
Collecting The Goddess (Chronicles Of KieraFreya Book 1) Page 15
