《Virilia: The Untold Tales》 Chapter One: The New VRMMORPG Chapter One: The New VRMMORPG Turning up the volume to his music, Kaze continued typing away on his computer. The task he was doing involved him debugging and programming certain software that his company would use. It was boring work, but listening to music helped the time pass by quickly. Plus he had something to look forward to on his way home. Shaking his head, Kaze got rid of those thoughts. He didn¡¯t want to get too excited yet, seeing as how he still had a lot of time before he was able to head home. After working for several more hours, Kaze stretched and prepared to head home. Waving goodbye to his coworkers, he got into his car and drove home. Kaze lived alone in a medium size apartment with his pet cat. It wasn¡¯t the best apartment, but it did its job. As he drove home, he thought about the new VRMMORPG that was supposed to release tonight. Virilia was the name of this new game. Supposedly it was better than all of the other VRMMORPGS that had come out before it. The game designers boasted of realism and the vast amount of choices you would be able to have in the game. Were you tired of being restricted by being a certain class? Well you didn¡¯t have to worry, you could be whatever you wanted. Be it a mage, a knight, or a mixture of both. All of this was possible thanks to the high tech AI that helped run the game. Kaze had looked up the trailer a couple months ago and he had to admit that it did look pretty good. And since he had spare money lying around, he decided to buy it. He had been wanted a new game to play after all. The motto of this new game was ¡°Different Choices, Different Paths, Different Possibilities.¡± The reason he was excited for this game was mostly because of all the choices his character would get to make. If he was being honest, he didn¡¯t really like games that followed a singular path. In his opinion, the more options a game gave him, the better it was. Pulling into his parking spot, Kaze exited his car and headed inside his home. As soon as he walked in the door, he was greeted by Nova, his pet cat. Patting her on the head, he headed into the kitchen and slung his bag on the table. Opening his refrigerator, he grabbed some burritos and began heating them in the microwave. As he waited for his food to warm up, he thought more about the upcoming game. There were a lot of things that made Virilia different from the rest. One of the more notable ones was that there was quite a bit of races you could choose from. There were rumors of the game having 50 races at the least. And they weren¡¯t all the usual ones either, like humans or elves. There were golems, centaurs, walking sharks, humanoid mantises, and much more. There were also never before seen races hidden in this bunch. The players would get to see what they were once the game came out. Kaze was definitely excited for this game, to say the least. Another thing was that time went by four times faster in the game than in real life. This meant that four days in game would be one day in real life. Other VRMMORPGS had tried doing this, but the highest speed they managed was three times faster. Therefore a lot of game companies were jealous of Virilia. Once the burritos were done heating up, Kaze took them out of the microwave and let them cool off. As he ate the cooled burritos, he glanced up at the time. Right now it was 4:45 PM. The game was supposed to release at 6:00 PM so he still had a little bit of time before he had to get on. After washing his dishes and placing them in his dishwasher, he cleaned up the rest of the kitchen before heading to his room. Grabbing some pajamas from his closet, he headed into his bathroom and proceeded to take a relaxing shower. After washing himself, he stepped out of the shower and glanced at his reflection in the mirror. A young man in his early twenties is what stared back at him. Kaze had tan skin, brown eyes, and black hair. He also had a little bit of a beard growing in. There wasn¡¯t anything about him that stuck out, but he was fine with that. Life was better this way. Once his pajamas were on, Kaze headed towards his room and turned on his laptop. He wanted to read a little bit more about Virilia before the game released. As he browsed through the forums, he could tell just how excited a lot of people were for the game. He had even taken the next few days off from work just so he could play Virilia. He would soon find out if he made the right decision. As he scrolled through the site, Kaze looked for any posts that stuck out to him. Seeing one with a good amount of views, he clicked on it. ~ Hey guys, DaemonSlayer608 here with a couple of new facts about Virilia. One of my buddies that helped work on this game was able to tell me some new information because of how close the game is to release. And since what I heard was so interesting, I decided to share it with all of you. First things first, pain in this game is reduced. Naturally. If you get your arm chopped off, it won¡¯t feel like your arm actually got chopped off. It will still be quite painful, but it wouldn¡¯t be as painful as it would be in real life. The only thing you would need to worry about was the bleeding debuff you would receive thanks to the injury. Second thing is that crafting in this game is a lot harder than other games. No merging two herbs and getting a potion with a click of a button. Instead you actually have to work for it. To get a potion in Virilia, you have to grind the herbs in a mortar and pestle, pour it in a bottle, shake, etc. This could be good and bad news depending on whom you are. The third thing is about combat¡­¡­ ~ There were many more articles like this one that provided Kaze with useful information. By reading all of them, he would be prepared for when he actually played the game. As he read all of these posts, time passed by quickly. Soon the time for the release of Virilia was just around the corner. After making sure his cat was fed and everything was situated in his house, Kaze headed towards his gaming room. Turning on his capsule, he waited for it to boot up before getting inside. Once he was inside, he moved around until he got into a comfortable position before closing his eyes. His eyes were only closed for a few seconds before he awoke in a pale blue room. Walking over to the game section, he tapped the Virilia icon with his right hand. The moment he did this, he dissolved into a mass of particles before reappearing in an empty white room. As he looked around the room, a blue box appeared in front of him.
No character profile detected, would you like to start a new game? [Y/N]
Kaze imagined yes in his head and watched as the message box disappeared. As it did, a smile began to grow on his face. The time was finally here! As he thought about all the things he would do in the game, races began to appear in front of him in a line. As they appeared one after another, a blue box appeared in front of him.
Please choose from one of these races.
After closing the message box, Kaze looked at all of the races in front of him. He was forced to mentally take a step back just from the sheer amount of them. Humans, beasts, golems, there were so many options! Whoever said there were 50 races at the least had been correct. He was definitely staring at more than fifty of them. The first few races that Kaze took out were humans, elves, and dwarves. He didn¡¯t want to play as a common race, and these races were as common as you could get. It was after removing these races from his view that a blue box popped up, notifying them that he could sort by rarity. For a brief moment he wondered how the game got these results. Did they ask random people which race they would most likely choose or did the AI make an educated guess? Who knew? It didn¡¯t really matter though since he was here to play the game, not analyze it. The next few minutes involved him scrolling through all sorts of creatures. One would assume rarer creatures would be better, but Kaze soon found out that was not the case. The creature that was the rarest, or least chosen was a mixture between a hog and a frog. It was something that he would never choose to be in a million years. Just looking at it gave him shivers. However not all the rarer races were bad. They mostly included lesser known creatures such as a Mulonka, which was essentially an owl with four eyes and blades for feathers. It was after a few minutes of debating that he finally narrowed down his many choices to one. The race that Kaze chose was one that seemed to be closely related to spiders. This race possessed four sharp blades for legs and an abdomen that could shoot out webs. The upper half of this creature¡¯s body was humanoid, with a torso, two arms, and a head. At the end of the two arms lay thin sharp claws instead of thick fingers like its human counterpart. The dark blue body of this creature was covered in chitinous scales and various spikes jutted from its back. Its eyes were a sinister orange that left shivers in your body when you saw them. All in all, a good creature to start off with. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Once Kaze selected this creature, he was able to customize it to his liking. Due to the creature he chose, he wasn¡¯t able to customize it as much as someone would be able to do with a human. This was fine with him though since the creature already looked marvelous in his opinion. After tweaking the creature¡¯s appearance a tiny bit, he moved on.
Please select a gender.
¡°Male.¡±
Please select a name.
¡°Kaze.¡± In every game that he had ever played Kaze used his real name. He saw no point in using a fake one since his real one would work just as well. Once his name was chosen, a map of Virilia appeared before him. As he looked at the map with interest, a blue box appeared.
Please choose your starting location.
Rubbing his chin absentmindedly, Kaze looked through the locations he could choose. These choosable locations were symbolized by blue dots. Above these blue dots were the names of the places and their population size. The last time he had played a VRMMORPG, he had started in a pretty populated city. This time around he wanted to do the opposite. He had the densely populated locations disappear from his map and looked at the ones with the least amount people in it. Once was by a mountain range, another by an ocean, while a third one was by a forest. He also noticed that if he looked closely, he could see how many players were in the specific town. After looking around for a bit, Kaze finally chose a town. The town he chose was located near a forest with a range of mountains in the distance. Kaze had chosen this location due to it having the least amount of players in it. The number would probably change since more people were getting on by the minute, but for now it was fine. Once he clicked the town he wanted to be in, the map disappeared and a blue box appeared in front of him.
You have chosen the small village Melisa.
The moment he finished reading, his body slowly began dissolving into particles. As he disappeared, another blue box appeared in front of him.
Welcome to Virilia!
Once he finished disintegrating, Kaze felt his new body reform someplace else. His vision blurred for a few seconds before refocusing. As he looked around his new location, his mouth fell open in disbelief. He had heard the game designers speak about their game focusing on realism, but he hadn¡¯t expected it to be this good. Hell, it he wasn¡¯t careful, he could mistake this for real life. If he ignored the fantasy elements at least. The village he was in was filled with wooden houses, probably thanks to the vast amount of wood that was nearby. He also noticed that some of the wooden house were bigger than the others and had signs perched above them. Those must be stores that he could go buy different supplies from. He would need to make sure he took a glance inside all of them before leaving. As he looked around, a gentle breeze ran over his body and the smell of the nearby forest filled his nose. Wow, this might this might be one of the best games he played yet. Taking a step forward, Kaze promptly fell flat on his face. The hell? Pushing himself off of the ground, Kaze began to try to stand on his bladed legs. He had forgotten that he now possessed four legs instead of two. He could already tell that this was going to be a hassle getting used to. Oh well, he would have to get used to it. This was the character he chose and he was stuck with it. All in all, it wasn¡¯t that hard getting used to his new limbs. He didn¡¯t know if it was because of him or if it was because of the game. He had a feeling it was the latter since he wasn¡¯t the only race with different limbs from humans. A lot of people would complain if they spent too much of their time trying to figure out how to walk when they could be conquering dungeons and the like. Once Kaze was used to his new body, he walked over to where a NPC was. He needed to know some information about this town before he headed off into the wild. He knew most people would just run off and fight their first monster, but Kaze wasn¡¯t most people. He didn¡¯t like going into things unprepared because he usually ended up regretting it. Therefore he was going to make sure he fully explored this town before going off into the unknown wild. ¡°Excuse me, might I borrow you for a minute of your time?¡± Kaze went for the polite approach because people had a tendency to respond kindly to those who did. He didn¡¯t want to come off as rude because then his questions would never get answered. ¡°Huh, oh yes, I¡¯m not doing anything important at this moment.¡± The NPC that he had called out to was a humanoid cheetah who seemed to be in her early thirties. As she turned to look at him, she took a relaxing pose and allowed the arm that was carrying a herb filled basket to relax. Kaze took a few seconds to gather his thoughts before speaking. ¡°I was wondering if you would be willing to show me around the town and explain to me where everything is.¡± The spotted beastwoman looked at him with interest before speaking. ¡°So you¡¯re new here huh.¡± After saying this, she took a few seconds to examine him with her eyes before speaking once again. ¡°Don¡¯t usually see a lot of travelers way out here. Still, that¡¯s neither here nor there. Tell you what. I¡¯ll do this for you, but you have to do something for me in exchange.¡± Kaze didn¡¯t even have to think about his answer before agreeing. He needed some information and this woman was willing to give it to him, albeit with a price. But nothing in this world was free, so he as fine with it. ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡± Shaking her outstretched hand, Kaze waited for her to tell him what task she needed done. Hopefully it wouldn¡¯t be anything too hard. ¡°The thing I need you to do is to gather some specific herbs that lay a little ways outside the village. I could do it myself, but you need help getting around the village and I don¡¯t really feel like trekking around in the forest. It¡¯s a win-win situation.¡± After saying this, Tharja, the name of the beastwoman, explained to me where exactly the herbs were located. Supposedly they were about a ten minute walk away from the village and located by a tree with a slash on it. There were quite a few of these plants so even if he didn¡¯t arrive at the exact location he would still find the plants he needed. She would have to show him what the plants looked like back at her shop since she wasn¡¯t carrying them on her. After she finished speaking, a blue box appeared in front of Kaze, notifying him of an accepted quest.
[Quest Accepted!]
Gathering Herbs (Quest)
Description: Tharja the alchemist has assigned you to gather ten Rialo and ten Metriun in return for information about the town.
Rewards: Information about the town and a lesson in alchemy.
Failure: Decrease Intimacy with Tharja and no information about the town
After reading the notification, Kaze closed it and followed Tharja to her shop. He had only just begun the game and he was already on a quest! Although he knew he probably wasn¡¯t special, he was still excited. His new adventure had just begun! ~ AN: Thank you for reading! This is my second story here on royalroad. Sadly I didn''t finish my first one, but I plan on finishing this one....hopefully. Tell me what you think, and if you have any tips for the story, put them in the comments. For those of you wondering, this is what Kaze''s avatar looks like. Chapter Two: Gathering Herbs Chapter Two: Gathering Herbs Once Kaze arrived at the shop with Tharja, he waited for her to unlock it before heading inside. After he was inside, he took a few seconds to look around while Tharja got the herbs he needed to retrieve. On the shelves were different potions and mixtures of varying colors. The vials that contain these things came in different shapes and sizes. If he was being honest, he was surprised at the sheer amount of concoctions that were in this store. He had assumed that there would just be health and mana potions for sell. How wrong he was. There were also bookshelves that were filled to the brim with thick tomes. These thick tomes seemed to have a layer of dust on them so he doubted that they saw much use. As he observed his surroundings, Kaze noticed a curious scent in the air. It smelled like a mixture of different plants, probably thanks to the alchemy Tharja did, but it also smelled sweet. He wondered why that was so. Still, he was forced to get rid of his train of thought when Tharja came out of the back with two plants in her hand. Walking over to the counter she was at, Kaze listened quietly as she explained the characteristics of the two plants she wanted him to retrieve. The Rialo herb was prickly and long plant that didn¡¯t grow that far off the ground. The Metriun herb was a short and thick plant that could be found near the roots of certain trees. She let him hold onto the examples of the herbs she had brought out so that he didn¡¯t get the wrong ones. Thanking her once again, Kaze headed outside of the village. He had wanted to explore the village a little more before going into the wilds, but it seemed he no longer had a choice. He didn¡¯t mind though since he had a quest to accomplish. He was pretty sure that he would gain experience by completing it and maybe even level up. Now that he thought about it, what did his status look like?
Character Status
Name: Kaze Gender: Male
Level: 1 Race: Araneae
Health: 110/110 Mana: 80/80
Stamina: 120/120 Stat Points: 0
Strength: 10 Dexterity: 11
Vitality: 11 Endurance: 12
Intelligence: 8 Willpower: 8
All he had to do was think of his status, and this blue screen would pop up. It was while he was looking at his stats that he noticed a question mark by it. Once he clicked it, a screen appeared telling him what each stat did. This is basically what it said. Strength ¨C increases physical damage and strength. Affects how much weight you can carry. Dexterity ¨C increases speed and accuracy. Affects your hand eye coordination and perception. Vitality - increases health and health regeneration. Affects how resistant you are to physical attacks. Endurance ¨C increases stamina and stamina regeneration. Affects how long you can carry a certain amount weight. Intelligence - increases your spells damage and effects. Affects how easy it is to learn new spells. Willpower ¨C increases mana and mana regeneration. Affects how resistant you are to magic based attacks. It was a little bit different from most games but thanks to the explanation Kaze understood most of it. The next thing he looked at was his inventory. Supposedly the game was supposed to start you off with a few items, and he wanted to see if it was true. Clicking the inventory button, he watched as a box appeared with a small dagger, ten copper coins, and five loaves ofbread inside of it. Taking out his dagger, Kaze examined it.
Old Iron Dagger
Description: A slightly rusted iron dagger that has seen quite a bit of use.
Damage: 1-3 Effect: None
Durability: 18/20 Requirements: None
The dagger wasn¡¯t that good, but it was better than nothing. Plus he had gotten it for free, so he was glad with what he got. Once Kaze was outside of the village, he practiced swing his dagger around a few times. He was pretty clumsy with it, but that was to be expected. He had never used a dagger in his life after all. It was also hard to hold thanks to the layout of his hand, but after a little bit of time, he was able to find a comfortable position. After swinging the dagger around for about a minute, he headed westward into the forest supposedly that was where the herbs were supposed to be. As he walked, Kaze kept a lookout for any potential enemies. He was only level one so he was sure he could be killed quite easily. He wouldn¡¯t lose any experience if he died seeing as how he didn¡¯t have any, but he might lose some of the few copper coins that he had. Plus it would damage his pride if he died to a random enemy. After walking for a few minutes, Kaze began examining the ground as he walked. He didn¡¯t need to be exactly where she told him, so there was a chance that he could find what he was looking for here. It only took him a few seconds of looking before he found a curious looking plant. Digging it out of the ground with his right hand, he brought it closer to his face and examined it.
Weed
Description: Just a plain old weed you could find anywhere
Effect: Alchemy Ingredient
Tch, it was just a plain old weed. He was about to toss it out when he noticed the effect. Huh, weeds could be used as alchemy ingredients? He didn¡¯t know a lot about alchemy but he had assumed he needed better plants in order craft stuff. Sticking the weed into his inventory, Kaze once again resumed his search. It only took him another minute of searching to find one of the plants he was looking for. Judging from the looks of it, it was most likely a Rialo. He didn¡¯t know for sure, but he would soon find out. Digging it out of the ground carefully, he examined the freshly uprooted plant for more information.
Rialo
Description: A long prickly herb that is usually used in alchemy to craft potions.
Effect: Alchemy Ingredient
Yes, this was what he was looking for. Placing the herb inside his inventory, Kaze began looking for more. Digging them out proved to be an easy task thanks to the claws on his hands. If he started out as a human, he would probably need a shovel to get the whole plant out. Around two minutes later he found the second plant that he needed.
Metriun
Description: A short and thick herb that is usually used in alchemy to craft potions.
Effect: Alchemy Ingredient
He found this one near the roots of a couple of trees. It seemed that Tharja did know her stuff. Not that he ever doubted her. Once he stuck the thick herb in his inventory, he proceeded to gather more of them. Some people might be irritated that they had to do this, but Kaze wasn¡¯t. In real life he spent most of his time in front of a computer typing away so it was a nice refresher to be in a forest digging away for some plants. Due to some mistakes on his part, Kaze ended up gathering different herbs from the ones he needed. He ended up storing them in his inventory anyway since they were also alchemy ingredients. He didn¡¯t know what potions he would be able to make with them, but hopefully Tharja would show him. After ten minutes of digging around for more herbs that a blue box appeared in his vision.
Skill Gained!
Herbalism
Description: Allows the user to notice special plants in their surroundings easier. 1% chance of finding a herb in the same location as another one.
Skill Type: Passive Skill Level: 1 (0%)
As Kaze read the description, he allowed a small grin to appear on his face. He had gotten his first ever skill! If he concentrated on his surroundings, he could now see a dim glow surrounding the herbs that he could gather. This skill would help him find rarer herbs that were hidden so he was glad he had gotten it. He also had a 1% chance of finding an herb in the same location as another. The chance of the skill activating was low, but he had a feeling it would increase once his herbalism skill was higher. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Now that he had this new skill, Kaze¡¯s plant gathering went by way faster than it did before. Most of the time he spent was looking for herbs and now that he had this skill, the time was cut down quite a bit. A few minutes later, he had all of the herbs he needed to complete the quest. However rather than return immediately, he decided to gather ten of the other herbs he had already gathered. He might not be back here in a while after all.
Ylose
Description: A fragile yellow herb that is usually used in alchemy.
Effect: Alchemy Ingredient
Thistleclaw
Description: A prickly stemmed herb whose leaves resemble the shape of claws. It is usually used in alchemy.
Effect: Alchemy Ingredient
Feroku
Description: A purple mushroom that releases poisonous spores when squeezed. It is usually used in alchemy to craft poisons.
Effect: Alchemy Ingredient
These were the three other herbs he gathered then of. Ylose was a yellow herb that would crumble if you held it too tightly. Kaze had accidently crushed a few of them himself and therefore had to gather more of these than he did any others. The only thing really notable about the Thistleclaw herb was its leaves. They actually did look like claws. Feroku, the last plant he gathered, was the hardest one to get. He had to remove it from the ground carefully in order to not get poisoned. Thankfully no spores came out of the mushroom when he dug it up, so he didn¡¯t have to worry about being poisoned. Digging all of these herbs up had allowed him to level up his herbalism skill by one level.
Herbalism
Description: Allows the user to notice special plants in their surroundings easier. 3% chance of finding a herb in the same location as another one.
Skill Type: Passive Skill Level: 2 (61%)
Oh, that was neat. One thing he noticed as he looked at his herbalism skill was that he now had a 3% chance of finding an herb. He had assumed the percent would go up one every level but it seemed that wasn¡¯t the case. Instead it went up by 2% every level, or so he though. He would have to get the skill to level three in order to be sure. Another thing that Kaze though was neat was that he gained a little bit of experience for gathering plants. This was great because it meant that fighting monsters wasn¡¯t the only way to level up. It made sense because some people might not like fighting but still wanted to level up so that they could increase their stats. With a dagger in hand, Kaze headed back to the village. He was a little disappointed he hadn¡¯t seen any monsters yet since he wanted to try his hand at fighting one. It would be dangerous, but he felt that the reward was worth the risk. He would have to focus on dodging though seeing as how he didn¡¯t start with any clothes to protect himself. This was probably due to the race he chose since normal pants wouldn¡¯t even fit on him. Could he even wear normal armor? This was something he would need to ask once he got back to the village. As he walked back to the village, Kaze kept an eye out for any enemies. He hadn¡¯t been out here that long, so he still had some time to spend. He didn¡¯t have enough time to be killing a bunch of enemies, but he had enough time to fight one. Still in order to fight a monster, he had to find one first. Thankfully he managed to see one after a few minutes of walking.
Frogera: lvl 2
Holding his dagger out in front of him, Kaze watched the monster carefully. He had almost run into the monster seeing as how it¡¯s green skin blended in well with the forest. Frogera, the monster, looked like a mixture between a frog and a human child. It had on brown clothes and held a spear menacingly in its hands. A frown appeared on Kaze¡¯s face as he stared at the weapon his enemy was holding. This might be a problem. Thanks to the spear it had, the Frogera would be able to attack him from a distance. Unless he wanted to get hit, Kaze wouldn¡¯t be able to get in close. The only weapon he had was his dagger and his clawed legs. Both of these were close range weapons however so in order to use them he needed to get in close. The question was how. As the two opponents circled around each other, an idea sprang into Kaze¡¯s head. Grabbing a handful of dirt with his left hand, he waited for the Frogera to lunge at him before action. Jumping to the side, Kaze managed to dodge the quick thrust that was sent his way. -0 HP! Attack Missed! As the monster tried to pull its spear back, he lunged forward and tossed a clump of dirt into its eye. The moment the monster began scratching at its eyes in pain, he attacked. Target is Blinded! -9 HP! -10 HP! Kaze only managed to hit the monster twice with his dagger before having to retreat. Although the monster was blinded, it was still deadly with its spear. All it was doing was swinging it around in front of itself blindly, but the tip of the stone spear looked awfully sharp. He would need to play this carefully if he wanted to leave this battle unscathed. It only took the monster a few seconds until it was able to see again. And judging from the way it was watching him, Kaze wouldn¡¯t be able to use the cheap dirt trick again. They circled each other for a few more seconds before he decided to take the initiative. Lunging forward as fast as he could, he raised his dagger high into the air and swung it down with all his strength. Let¡¯s see the monster take this attack. -0 HP! Attack missed! Huh? Kaze watched in confusion as the monster rolled on the ground and dodged his attack. Turning around to face the Frogera, his face collided with a clump of dirt. Instinctively bringing his hands to his face, he tried to clear the dirt away from his eyes. It was as he did this that he felt a sharp pain in his front leg. -10 HP! Grunting in pain, Kaze forcibly opened one of his eyes so he could see. The moment he did this, he noticed another spear thrust heading his way. Gripping his dagger tightly in his hand, he waited until the last moment to dodge to the left. -0 HP! Attack Missed! By slamming his arm into the outstretched spear, Kaze was able to make his opponent stumble. As his opponent fell forward, he ran behind him and kicked him down with his two front legs. As the Frogera fell to the ground, Kaze jumped up into the air and slammed his four bladed legs into the monster¡¯s back. -5 HP! -5 HP! -5 HP! -5 HP! Digging his feet into the Frogera¡¯s back, Kaze plunged his dagger multiple times into the defenseless monster. Whenever the monster tried to get up, it was forced back down by his body weight. After thirty seconds of stabbing, the monster was dead. Removing his legs from the Frogera¡¯s back with a sickening squelch, Kaze took a deep breath. Man, he had not expected the fight to be this hard. The monster was only one level higher than him after all. Guess that showed him not to underestimate any of his opponents. Wiping his legs off on the monster¡¯s clothes, Kaze looked around for his loot. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t see any. Did the monster just not drop any? It was while he was looking closely at the Frogera¡¯s corpse that he noticed something. There was a small chest icon lying above its body. Clicking it with his hand, Kaze watched as the Frogera¡¯s corpse disappeared in a mass of particles. In its place stood one copper coin. Grabbing the coin and putting it into his inventory, Kaze headed back towards the town. He would need a better weapon if he wanted to defeat higher level monsters. As he walked silently back, Kaze replayed the battle over and over in his head. Was there anything he could¡¯ve done differently to get better results? He probably could¡¯ve used his bladed legs more, but he hadn¡¯t realized their potential until the latter half of the battle. They also didn¡¯t do that much damage. Still, they helped him trap the Frogera long enough to kill him. After a few minutes of walking, Kaze reached the village with no more monster encounters. He wondered if the Frogeras were located in a different part of the forest that he was in. Maybe he had just found a straggler. If that was so then he was lucky. He knew how to fight them, and the next time he met a Frogera he would be prepared. Stretching his neck, Kaze close his eyes and basked in the warm sunlight. He did this for a few more seconds before looking for Tharja¡¯s shop. It took him a small amount of time to find it, but he located it in the end. Walking inside the store, he took a deep breath. It was time to complete his first quest. Chapter Three: Alchemy Chapter 3: Alchemy Noticing a customer already at the counter, Kaze stood to the side and waited for his turn. Once the customer started walking out the store, he approached Tharja and began to speak. ¡°I gathered the herbs you told me to.¡± After saying his piece, he reached into his inventory and brought out ten Rialo and ten Metriun. Tharja grabbed the plants from the counter and examined them before speaking. ¡°Hmm, yes, this is what I need. Good job.¡± The moment she said this, a blue box appeared, notifying me of my success.
Quest Complete!
¡°I guess I need to show you around town now.¡± Tharja took a few seconds to store the herbs he gave her before heading out of her store when him in tow. As they walked out the doorway, the spotted beastwoman closed the store¡¯s door and flipped the sign from open to close. Once this was done, she walked by Kaze¡¯s side pointing out different things. ¡°Most of these houses are where people live, so they¡¯re not that important. The important ones are a little ways down the street.¡± They walked for about thirty more seconds before arriving in front of a store with a bag sign above it. ¡°This is the general store run by a man called Chris. He sells miscellaneous items such as tents, bags, food, etcetera. You can also sell the loot you get from monsters to him. Other stores will only take a specific kind of monster¡¯s loot.¡± Kaze would probably go here often so that he could sell some of his stuff. The monster he had fought in the forest had only dropped a copper coin and nothing else. He had only fought one though, so it made sense that he wouldn¡¯t have a lot of loot. The next store they went to was right across from the general store. This one had a hammer and an anvil on top of it. Due to this, he could assume that this was the blacksmith. ¡°This is the weapons and armor store run by a blacksmith called Eryia. The stuff she makes is pretty good, so you should check it out if you¡¯re interested.¡± Once she was done speaking, Tharja turned around and headed back to her shop. The moment the two of reached the front of her store, she began to speak again. ¡°Last but not least, this is an Alchemist¡¯s store where you can buy potions, poisons, and much more. The shop is run by me as I¡¯m sure you already know by now. And with that, you have all the information you need to know about this town. Sadly it¡¯s not as big as other towns so we don¡¯t have things like tailors and cooks. Still, it¡¯s a decent place to live if you ever think about settling down.¡± As Kaze stood there quietly, he nodded his head periodically to show that he was listening. The town only had three shops but that was to be expected. He had picked a small town to begin in after all. If he started in a place like the capital, there would probably be taverns, guilds, restaurants, etc. Although having these would be nice, players came with the bargain. The bigger the town was, the more players there would be. He had only seen one or two players in this town, and he was glad. If there were only this few people here then he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about all the monsters getting killed off while he did other things. If he started off in a big city, that would be his number one concern. The two of them headed inside the shop before coming to a stop. As Kaze walked in the doorway, he was forced to keep his legs close together in order to get through the doorway. Although the doorway seems wider than normal, it was still a tight fit. But after a few seconds of twisting and turning, he was inside. Hopefully other places would have wider doors. There were other races much bigger than him, and he wondered how they fared. Turning her head around, Tharja stared at him for a couple of seconds before speaking. ¡°Hey, do you want me to teach you a little about alchemy?¡± The spotted beastwoman watched him intuitively as he thought about his answer. There was no reason to say no, and knowing alchemy would be a boon to him in the future. He would save quite a bit of money since he would be able to make his own potions rather than buy them. He would also be able to make poisons that would help him in battle. So the answer to this question was a no brainer. ¡°Yes, please.¡± ¡°Good, not a lot of people interested in alchemy pass by and I¡¯ve always wanted to teach someone.¡± Kaze followed Tharja into the back of the store as she put a bell on the counter. The bell was so if a customer came in, all they would have to do was ring it, and she would be there to help them. As they reached a room filled with various pieces of equipment, the strong scent of plants and herbs increased. The smell wasn¡¯t unpleasant, but it was strong. Wrinkling his nose, he watched as Tharja pointed to a piece of equipment that looked like a bowl and began to speak. ¡°This is a mortar and a pestle, you will need it in order to grind up the ingredients you use.¡± Stretching his neck, Kaze got a good look at what the mortar and pestle looked like. Committing it to memory, he listened to what Tharja had to say next. ¡°These vials are used to hold water and the ingredients that you grounded up. You can use different sizes but I usually prefer the ones that are about four to five inches tall. I usually use sturdy ones for potions and fragile one for poisons.¡± Taking one of the vials Tharja held up, he examined it from all angles. The vial looked like one you might see in a science lab. Once he was finished looking at it, he gave it back and waited for more instructions. ¡°The final thing we have is a burner that will allow us to heat up the mixtures we are creating. Some ingredients need to be at a certain heat in order to dissolve so this piece of equipment is quite important.¡± With an interested look on his face, Kaze listened closely to what Tharja was saying. The task for creating a potion seemed to be quite complicated and some people would be discouraged away from trying out alchemy. He wasn¡¯t discouraged though, quite the opposite. All these steps intrigued him and he wondered what type of concoctions he would be able to come up with. ¡°Any questions?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m pretty sure I understand everything.¡± All she was doing was explaining, so it wasn¡¯t that hard to understand. Still, he was about to get to the hard part. ¡°Good, now that I showed you what equipment alchemists¡¯ use, I¡¯m going to show you how to use it. Do you have any extra herbs on you.¡± Nodding his head, Kaze pulled out all of the herbs he had gathered. On a nearby counter he placed ten Ylose, ten Thistleclaw, ten Feroku, four Rialo, and four Metriun. The reason he still had some Rialo and Metriun left was because he had found some more on his way back to the town after defeating the Frogera. Tharja glanced at the array of ingredients before picking up two Rialo and one Metriun. With Kaze watching, she placed the herbs in the mortar and pestle and began grounding them up. As she did this, she explained to him how to grind up the herbs. It turned out you couldn¡¯t just mash up the pestle against the ingredients and hope for the best. Instead you needed to move it around in a circular motion and make sure everything was grounded up to the same size. It only took her about fifteen seconds to do this, but Kaze was sure it would take him way longer. Once the ingredients were grounded, Tharja grabbed a funnel and poured the grounded up ingredients into a nearby flask. She told him that the funnel wasn''t needed, but it helped pour the ingredients into the flask without spilling it everywhere. After tapping the bottom of the mortar a couple of times, Tharja placed the mortar and the pestle to the side. Twisting a knob on a nearby burner, she waited for a flame to appear before placing the flask on top. Kaze looked at the burner curiously as it heated up the flask. How exactly did it run? Moving his head so he was looking at Tharja, he began to speak. ¡°How exactly does that burner run?¡± He didn¡¯t think it was electricity because he doubted that this small town had it. That was if electricity was even in the game. ¡°This one uses a small mana stone as fuel. This specific type is pretty expensive but I got tired of refueling my old one with wood and bought this after I saved up enough money.¡± Nodding his head, Kaze turned his attention back to the flask that was heating up. As he watched the ingredients dissolve, Tharja resumed her teaching. ¡°Usually you would have to find the right temperature the ingredients need in order to dissolve. But since I used these two herbs before, I know exactly how much of each to use and how hot the water needs to be in order for them to dissolve.¡± Once she finished speaking, she showed Kaze just how hot the water needed to be on the burner. He made sure to commit it to memory since he would definitely need it in the near future. The next two minutes or so went by quickly with Tharja telling him little tips and tricks that were bound to be useful in his alchemy endeavors. Taking the vial of the heat, Tharja gave it a little swirl as she turned the switch on the burner. Kaze watched in fascination as the mixture began to take on a reddish hue until the whole thing was crimson in color. Tharja looked at the vial for a few seconds before handing it to him with a nod. Grabbing it gently, he gave it a good look. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
Potion of Health Restoration
Description: A health potion made by a skilled alchemist. It restores a moderate amount of health.
Effect: Restores 60 HP
Would he be able to make potions like this? Because if he was, that would be amazing. Whenever he was close to death, he could just drink this potion and more than half of his health would be restored. He tried handing her the potion back when he was done looking at it, but Tharja refused. ¡°It was your materials I used, so you should keep the potion. Plus I have plenty more. This is an alchemy shop after all. Try making a health potion for yourself. Use the one I just made as a guideline for what yours should look like.¡± Nodding his head in agreement, Kaze placed the potion on the counter before turning to Tharja. He had something to ask and he wanted to ask before he forgot. ¡°Do you have a pencil and journal I can have so I can remember all of the stuff you just taught me?¡± Although Kaze had good memory, his memory wasn¡¯t good enough to memorize every little step and trick Tharja had taught him. If he had a journal, he wouldn¡¯t need to remember this stuff because he could just look inside his journal whenever he was confused. ¡°Hmm, I think I do. Wait here.¡± Kaze watched as Tharja left and returned a few seconds later with a journal and pen in hand. ¡°I¡¯ll give you this alchemy journal and pen for one copper. This journal is different from other ones because it gives you a margin for recipes and has a lot more pages in it. This pen is just a regular old pen.¡± In the end, Kaze agreed to the deal. He didn¡¯t know if the journal and pen was worth a copper, but he doubted that Tharja would try to screw him over. Plus he had gotten a copper coin from the Frogera so he wouldn¡¯t really be losing money. Reaching into his inventory, he grabbed out one copper coin and handed it to Tharja. Once she gave him the journal and pen, he began filling it up with all the information she had told him. It took him a few minutes to write all the stuff down, but it was time well spent. He would be using the journal pretty often in the future. Placing the pen and journal on a nearby counter, Kaze grabbed two Rialo herbs and one Metriun herb. With Tharja observing, he placed the herbs in the mortar and began grinding them with the pestle. He made sure to grind the herbs in a circular motion. Whenever he did the wrong motion, Tharja would guide his hands until he was able to do it right. Once the herbs were grounded, Kaze moved on to the next step. Using a nearby funnel, he poured the grounded mixture into a vial. Once all of it was in, he placed the vial on the burner and turned up the heat to the correct temperature. Now all he had to do was wait. Two minutes later, and his mixture was finally done. He gave the vial a little shake before examining it.
Potion of Health Restoration
Description: A health potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It restores a tiny amount of health.
Effect: Restores 20 HP
Sadly his potion didn¡¯t heal as much health as Tharja¡¯s did. When he asked her why, she told him that it was probably his alchemy level. Her alchemy level was pretty high since she had been doing alchemy for a while and his was pretty low since he had just started. The more alchemy he did, the better his potions would be. Before the two of them could do anything else, a bell rang, signaling that a customer was here. Turning towards him, Tharja began to speak. ¡°Since you seem to have the hang of things, I will let you experiment with the remaining herbs that you have. Only use the equipment that I have showed you. You¡¯re not experienced enough to use anything else. And if you break something you have to pay for it.¡± Once she said this, Tharja headed upstairs into the shop. Placing his potion in his inventory, Kaze walked towards where his herbs were. The only potion he knew the recipe for was the health potion he had just created. Sadly he had used up all of the Rialo he had, so he would just have to experiment until he found another recipe. Still, he had a feeling that this was going to be fun. Just imagine the type of potions he could create! The first combination he tried was one Ylose and one Metriun. Sadly this combination didn¡¯t work and he was left with a failed potion. Looking around for a place to empty out the vial, Kaze noticed a sink with a biohazard sign on it. Pouring the mixture down the sink, he returned to his previous spot. The second combination he tried was two Ylose and one Metriun. In order to make a health potion, he had to use two Rialo instead of one, so maybe that was the case with the Ylose.
Potion of Stamina Restoration
Description: A stamina potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It restores a tiny amount of stamina.
Effect: Restores 20 SP
It seemed that his guess had been correct. Judging from past experiments, Kaze could assume he would need two of any herb and one Metriun in order to make a successful potion. This was only one method though, and he was sure to find more in his experiments. The moment he finished creating the stamina potion, this blue box appeared in front of him.
Skill Gained!
Alchemy
Description: Allows the user to combine different ingredients together to make something new. 1% chance of created substance having better effects that normal.
Skill Type: Passive Skill Level: 1 (0%)
Closing the two blue boxes, Kaze began experimenting with all of the herbs. It took him about an hour before he had used up all of his ingredients that would combine together. These were the results of his endeavors:
Potion of Paralysis
Description: A paralysis potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It causes paralysis to whoever it hits for a few seconds.
Effect: Paralyzes opponent for 3 seconds [Effect varies depending on level of opponent]
Potion of Prickly Poison
Description: A poisonous potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It poisons whoever it hits for a few seconds. The person hit by this potion will feel a painful prickly sensation across their body.
Effect: Poisons opponent for 5 damage over a period 5 seconds
He was only able to create two more new potions because Ylose and Feroku combined would only make a failed potion. Ylose and Thistleclaw however would make a paralysis potion while Thistleclaw and Feroku would make a potion of prickly poison. In the end he ended up having two health potions, one stamina potion, four paralysis potions and three poisonous potions. The only plants that were left with were Ylose and Feroku. One thing of note that had happened was him getting poisoned when he was experiment. When he was grounding up the Feroku, a poisonous cloud had risen above the mixture and had taken a few health points away from him. It wasn¡¯t that bad since it only did one damage over a couple of seconds, still it was unpleasant. There was nothing Kaze could do besides push through it, and push through it he did. He didn¡¯t gain poison resistance or anything like that which was a bummer. When he showed Tharja the potions he had made, she congratulated him with a slap to the back. It seemed that she was happy that her teachings payed off. She also agreed to let him use her workshop to create potions as long as he gave her a few when he was done. He didn¡¯t have to give her any this time, seeing as how this was his first time creating potions. In the end he agreed. The only way he would be able to craft potions was by using Tharja¡¯s workshop. He had asked Tharja how much the alchemy equipment was and it was way too expensive for him to buy. He would need to figure out a way to make money if he ever hoped of having alchemy equipment of his own. Thankfully Tharja would buy his potions but it would take too long this way for him to save up enough money. This was because Kaze wanted to keep some of the potions he had created. He was creating them for a reason after all. The only other thing he could think of was killing nearby monsters and selling their loot. While he was out there hunting, he could gathering plants for alchemy. The once he came back to sell his loot, he could craft potions before going out again. Yes, this would be his plan. Plus he was itching for another fight. AN: Thanks for reading! Tell me what you think about alchemy in the comments. Is there too much information about creating potions, not enough, or is it just right? Chapter Four: Hunting Monsters Chapter 4: Hunting Monsters Pulling out his dagger, Kaze watched as part of his hand disappeared into empty space and then reappeared a moment later. Based on what he had seen, the inventory in this game worked like a spatial ring. Basically this meant that all of his items could be stored in his personal dimension, and only he could see and retrieve them. There also didn¡¯t seem to be an item limit, so he could assume that he had unlimited storage. Walking out of the village, Kaze took a moment to glance at the entrance of the forest before heading inside. The last time he had come out here, his goal had been to gather herbs. This time it was to kill monsters and loot them so he could make some money. The experience was just a bonus. While he was out here, he would also keep an eye out for any plants he might see. By doing this, he would be getting two birds with one stone. As he walked, Kaze practiced swinging and slashing with his knife. If he was being honest, he probably needed to train with it more before hunting monsters. That would take too long though, so he decided to forgo the training. He would get the training he needed while he was fighting monsters. Plus he had some potions he could use, so the upcoming fights would prove easier than most. Kaze only managed to gather a few plants before running into another enemy.
Frogera: lvl 2
Similar to the last time he had fought an enemy, this one was only one level higher than him. Plus it was of the same species as the last one. Luckily it hadn¡¯t seen him yet, so he would be able to get a few attacks off before he was noticed. Crouching down, Kaze began to slowly walk towards the monster. It seemed to be picking at some plants in the ground, so it shouldn¡¯t be able to notice him until it was too late. The moment he got close enough, he lunged. -30 HP! [Sneak Attack] -10 HP! Before the Frogera could retaliate, Kaze was able to hit him with two slashes of his dagger. He noticed that his sneak attack did three times the damage he would normally do. This was pretty good, but he would only be able to use it once per skirmish, seeing as how a monster would notice him the moment it was struck. Although Kaze could¡¯ve probably gotten one more attack in, he didn¡¯t want to take the risk. He wanted to be able to kill this monster without losing a single health point. Angry that it had been taken by surprise, the Frogera charged at him with a furious croak. The moment its spear was thrusted towards him, he dodged to the side and immediately rushed towards the Frogera. Gripping his dagger with both his hands, Kaze plunged it into the Frogera¡¯s neck with all his might. With little resistance, the dagger sunk into the monster¡¯s neck, all the way up to the hilt. -28 HP! [Critical Hit] Removing the dagger with a sickening squelch, Kaze kicked the wounded monster away from him. Target is Bleeding! -3 HP! Thanks to the wound he had made in the Frogera¡¯s neck, it was now constantly taking bleeding damage. As he waited for it to attack, he watched as the monster tried stopping it¡¯s wound from bleeding by holding one of its hands to its neck. Sadly, that didn¡¯t help much, and blood still continued to gush from its wounded neck. A few moments later and it was dead. Killed by the bleeding damage. Walking over to where the monster had fallen, Kaze gave its corpse a kick to make sure it was dead. Once he was satisfied, he examined the spear that it was using. Maybe it was a better weapon than the one he had equipped.
Chipped Wooden Spear
Description: A chipped wooden spear with a stone tip.
Damage: 2-4 Effect: None
Durability: 13/20 Requirements: None
It seemed that his guess had been correct. Although the wooden spear had a lower durability than his dagger, it did more damage and had a longer reach. The only problem with using this spear was that he would have to spend a little time getting used to it. With his dagger, he could rush in and stab his opponent once he was close. But if he used a spear, he wouldn¡¯t be able to do that because of its length. Still, there were other strategies for him to use. He just needed to make them. Placing his dagger into his inventory, Kaze grabbed the wooden spear that was on the ground. Once he had a good grip on it, he knelt down and looted the Frogera¡¯s corpse. The monster disappeared into particles and in its place was a giant frog leg. Not believing his eyes, he examined it for further information.
Frogera Leg
Description: A leg of a Frogera that tastes similar to chicken.
Effect: Cooking Ingredient
Sure enough, the loot was exactly was he had assumed it to be. A frog leg, or in this case a Frogera leg. This Frogera leg was almost exactly the same as a frog leg except for the size. Whoever cooked up this leg and ate it, wouldn¡¯t have to worry about being hungry for a good bit of time. As Kaze placed the leg in his inventory, he wondered how much it was worth. Even if it wasn¡¯t worth any money, he could always cook it and keep it for himself. Pushing himself off the ground, Kaze continued his trek through the forest. It only took him a minute of walking and picking up herbs before he found another Frogera. He was able to defeat it once again without losing any health. This battle was actually quite easier compared to the last one because all he had to do was dodge the Frogera¡¯s attack, and then retaliate with his own. His new wooden spear made this tactic doable thanks to its length. He also didn¡¯t have to use any of the potions he had concocted. Although he wanted to see how exactly they worked on enemies, he didn¡¯t want to waste them on level two monsters. The monster needed to be a way higher level, or he had to be fighting more than one at once, before he wasted his valuable potion on them. Plus, there was no point in using his potions if he could easily defeat his opponent without one. He would only use them when necessary. The loot this monster gave him was a copper coin and the spear it was wielding. The spear was exactly the same as the one Kaze was using, so he just stuck it in his inventory. He could sell it back at the town for some more copper coins. As he placed the spear in his inventory, he wondered why he didn¡¯t get a spear from the first Frogera. Did he just accidently leave it? If he did, he couldn¡¯t be blamed. The wood on the spear blended in quite well with the surroundings. It was after killing two more level two Frogeras, that something unexpected happened. While Kaze was bending down to pick up a Metriun herb, he felt a sharp pain in his back. -30 HP! [Sneak Attack] Recoiling in pain, Kaze turned around and swung his spear at whatever hit him. Sadly, his attack was dodged when the monster jumped back. Picking himself up, he looked at his new enemies warily.
Frogera: lvl 2
Frogera: lvl 4
In front of him were two Frogeras holding out their spears menacingly. The one on his right was actually three levels higher than him, and from the way it held its spear, Kaze could tell it knew how to use it. He could already tell that this would be a challenging battle. Not only was one of his opponents three levels higher than him, but he also had to fight two enemies at once. Luckily he had his potions, so if he used them wisely, he should be able to get out of this battle alive. Jabbing his spear towards both the monsters, he waited for one to make a move. He would have to stay mostly on the defensive this battle and wait for his enemies to make a mistake. This was because the moment he tried to attack one of the Frogeras, the other one would attack him. He was hoping that one of the monsters would come up to attack while the other one just watched. This way he would be able to fight one on one. Sadly, that was not what happened. The two Frogeras slowly approached him and began jabbing at him with their spears. Due to the fact that they were doing this together, Kaze was being slowly pushed back. He wouldn¡¯t be able to throw dirt in their faces either since they were too far away. Tch, it seemed that he would have to use a potion. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Reaching into his inventory with his left hand, Kaze grabbed a paralysis potion and lobbed it towards the highest leveled Frogera. After he did this, he rushed at the level two Frogera and began attacking with a furious intensity. He needed to deal as much damage as he could to it before the paralysis wore off. -11 HP! -10 HP! -10 HP! -11 HP! Although he was forced to suffer an injury, Kaze managed to do a decent amount of damage to his foe. As he backed up cautiously, he took a swig of his health potion. + 20 HP! His health was going down far too quickly for his liking, and he would hate to die here. Three seconds has also gone by, so the other Frogera was joining the battle. When Kaze had hit it with his potion, the monster had immediately frozen up, giving him time to damage the other Frogera. The only thing he really had to be on the lookout for was the monster dodging his thrown vial. The Frogeras didn¡¯t seem to be that fast, so he shouldn¡¯t have to worry about that happening. Although if he kept throwing his potions, the monsters would soon learn to dodge them through repetition. Reaching into his inventory, Kaze grabbed a vial of poison. With the level two Frogera watching him, he threw it directly at its chest. Although the monster was able to block the vial with its spear, the vial still exploded, splashing it with poison. As the monster croaked in pain, he lunged with his spear and began stabbing at it while it was distracted. It seemed the poison was quite painful because the Frogera didn¡¯t stand a chance against his onslaught and quickly died. Now he only had one opponent left. -14 HP! But even though he managed to defeat the level two Frogera, the other enemy was able to land a blow on him. Wincing in pain, he quickly turned around to face his final opponent. The two enemies circled around each other, each looking for an opening. Taking another spear out of his inventory, Kaze threw it at the Frogera¡¯s feet. The moment it jumped back to dodge it, he ran up with his spear and began jabbing at it. -10 HP! -0 HP! [Attack Blocked!] He managed to get a shallow cut in before the monster began blocking with its spear. Rather than let up, Kaze kept up his onslaught so that the Frogera wouldn¡¯t be able to attack. Due to the way it was holding the spear, all it could do was block. Until he retreated, there was no way for it to attack. Pulling his spear back, Kaze lunged forward with one of his legs and swiped at his opponent. Even though this maneuver was unexpected, the Frogera was able to block it just in time. With one of his legs against the Frogera¡¯s spear, Kaze grabbed his spear with both hands and plunged it into the monster¡¯s neck. -33 HP! [Critical Hit!] Since his leg was against its spear, the Frogera was unable to block his deadly attack. This maneuver was only possible thanks to the specific race he had chosen. If he had been a human, he would¡¯ve needed to be extremely flexible in order to do this. Not only that, but his leg was bladed. No one wanted to take a sharp object to the chest, so the Frogera really didn¡¯t have a choice but to block his attack. Ripping his spear out of the monster¡¯s flesh, Kaze proceeded to continuously stab the monster in its neck. Target is Bleeding! -4 HP! -11 HP! -13 HP! -4 HP! After two more jabs, Kaze¡¯s leg was pushed back with a powerful shove. Thankfully, he was able to balance himself by quickly shuffling backwards with his other three legs. That was another thing nice about having four legs. More legs meant more balance. Once his balance was regained, he watched as the level four Frogera quickly bled out. The wound he had made on its neck was essentially a giant, gaping hole. There was absolutely no way it was going to survive this battle. A few seconds later and it was dead. Before he could look at the loot, a series of blue boxes appeared in front of him.
+1 Endurance
Level Up!
Thanks to all of the dodging and attacking he did, Kaze had gained one point of endurance. He wasn¡¯t aware he could gain stats this way, so this was a pleasant surprise. The reason the notification appeared so late was because he was in the middle of a battle. He might accidently die if he was surprised by a blue box randomly appearing. Thanks to his level up, Kaze now had ten stat points that he could allocate. By placing these in a stat, he would become stronger in that specific stat. For example, if he place a point in strength, he would be able to deal more damage. And if he placed multiple points into one stat, then that stat would get considerably stronger. He took a few minutes to think of what he wanted to do before allocating his points.
Character Status
Name: Kaze Gender: Male
Level: 2 Race: Araneae
Health: 106/120 Mana: 80/80
Stamina: 130/130 Stat Points: 0
Strength: 15 Dexterity: 15
Vitality: 12 Endurance: 13
Intelligence: 8 Willpower: 8
For every point he put into vitality, Kaze would gain ten health. This was the same with endurance for stamina, and willpower for mana. Because of this, he put one point into vitality for a little bit of extra health, and then placed his remaining points into strength and dexterity. He wanted to be a stronger, but he also wanted to be fast enough to dodge most of the attacks that came his way. Since he didn¡¯t have any armor, he would be better off dodging attacks, rather than blocking them. Once he was done looking at his status screen, Kaze closed it and approached the corpses of the Frogeras. Picking up both their weapons and the one he had thrown, he decided to loot the level two one first. Crouching down next to it, he watched as it dissolved into particles. In its place stood a single copper coin. Placing it into his inventory, he walked towards the remaining corpse. Money was nice and all, but he wasn¡¯t going to get rich quick, if all he got was one copper coin. It took one hundred of these just to make as silver coin. And if he wanted one gold coin, he would need a hundred silver coins. Just the thought of how poor he was soured his mood, so Kaze cleared his mind and focused on the remaining corpse. Tapping the chest icon, he waited for the loot to spawn. He clutched the spear in his right hand tightly as he waited to see what he would get. The monster he killed hadn¡¯t been a special one, even though the fight had been challenging. So he shouldn¡¯t be surprised if he didn¡¯t get any good loot. Still, he could hope.
Leather Gloves
Description: A pair of lightweight leather gloves that provides the user with a small amount of defense and dexterity.
Defense: 2 Effect: +1 Dexterity
Durability: 20/20 Requirements: None
Letting out a scream of happiness, Kaze grabbed the gloves quickly and held them in his hand. Not only did it provide him defense, but it also gave him one point in dexterity. Although there was probably better equipment out there, he didn¡¯t care. This was his first piece of armor and just by equipping it, he would already be stronger. Sticking his hands into the gloves, Kaze moved his fingers around quickly. They were quite snug if he was being honest. He didn¡¯t know if that was a good or bad thing. Stretching his arms out in front of him, he gave them another look over before moving on. He had to double check to make sure he had them on right. It would be embarrassing if he didn¡¯t. Taking a seat on the ground, Kaze rested until his health was full before heading deeper into the forest. He still needed more loot if he ever wanted to buy the supplies he needed. AN: Thanks for reading! Chapter Five: Becoming Stronger Chapter Five: Becoming Stronger Removing his spear from the corpse of a Frogera, Kaze let out a sigh of relief. He had been hunting these monsters down for the past few hours, and it had been hard work. It had been worth it though. A lot of new knowledge had been gained, and he had gotten more powerful. He had also seen other players like him, hunting these monsters too, but he would get to that later. Thanks to how many times he had fought a Frogera, Kaze knew quite a bit about their attack patterns. Whenever they were going for a powerful strike, they would let out a furious croak. If you were able to dodge the attack they would soon unleash, the Frogera would be left defenseless for a few seconds. And a lot of damage could be dealt in that short amount of time. Another thing he had learned was that their favorite weapon seemed to be a spear. He had fought quite a bit of them, and he had not seen any of them use anything other than a spear as their weapon. They also had remarkable teamwork. Kaze had the unfortunate pleasure to fight three of them at once, and he had almost died. The only reason he had survived was because of his potions. He was forced to use all of the ones left in his inventory just to win the battle. It was then, that he decided to leave groups of three or more Frogeras alone until he was stronger. One on one battles with a Frogera is where he exceled. Thanks to his increased stats, not only did he deal more damage, but he was also faster. This meant that he could attack more and dodge attacks easier. He hadn¡¯t realized how much stats could improve him until he had defeated multiple Frogeras without taking any damage. In order to make battles easier for him, Kaze had devised a few strategies. Most of them involved using his bladed legs as weapons. He might as well use them, seeing as how they were a unique trait his race had. He would use any advantage he had in order to get stronger. Thanks to how much he had been fighting, Kaze had gained a couple of combat skills. These were the ones he had gained:
Debilitating Blow
Description: Allows the user to release a blow with immense power by sacrificing stamina. + 6% chance of staggering opponent.
Skill Type: ActiveSkill Level: 2 (54%)
Spear Mastery
Description: Allows the user to wield spears better. + 6% damage when wielding a spear + 3% attack speed when wielding a spear
Skill Type: PassiveSkill Level: 3 (10%)
These two skills proved very useful in the battles he had fought. He had gained debilitating blow after shoving his spear into what he thought was his 19th enemy. This skill allowed him to strike an opponent with a powerful blow that had a low chance of stagger. The only downside of this ability was that it consumed a good chunk of stamina. Normally the skill would have been at a higher level, but he just didn¡¯t have enough stamina to use it as often as he would¡¯ve liked. It was situations like these that reminded him of just how powerful alchemy was. If he made a good bit of stamina potions, then he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about using debilitating blow. This was because whenever his stamina got too low, all he had to do was drink a potion, and a chunk of stamina would be restored. He had only created one before he went hunting, so he would have to wait until he got back to town before he could create more. Another thing that he liked about debilitating blow was that he didn¡¯t need a spear to use it. Imagine his surprise, when he learned that he could use it with his bladed legs. This revelation made him twice as dangerous in battle. His enemies would have to worry about more than his spear if they wanted to stay alive. A bladed leg to the chest would hurt just as much as a spear would. The second skill he gained was spear mastery. This was because he used a spear in every battle he had fought. He had tried using a spear and a dagger at the same time, but this method proved too unwieldy. Due to their differing lengths, he could only attack with one or the other. He had tried using two spears, and although he dealt more damage, he was twice as slow. This led him to taking more damage than he would¡¯ve liked. So in the end he chose to use one spear and his four legs as his go to weapons. It was after killing a few Frogeras that Kaze had wandered into another player. Nothing exciting happened like the male beastman attacking him or anything. All he did was nod toward Kaze before disappearing deeper into the forest. Kaze was glad he was friendly, seeing as how he had run out of potions quite a while ago. Plus fighting an actual player would be considerably harder than fighting a monster. Because although some monsters were pretty smart, they would never be as intelligent and cunning as a human. Thanks to all of the monsters he had killed, Kaze was now level five. Once he hit the level five mark, it began to get harder to gain experience from lower leveled monsters. That wasn¡¯t the only problem though. It also turned out that level five Frogeras and above never traveled alone. They always had at least two or three lower leveled Frogeras with them. Until he went back to the village and made some more potions, he wasn¡¯t confident enough to try and attack them. Kaze took a few moments to make sure he was alone before opening up his status screen. A Frogera had tried sneaking up on him before while he was doing this, and he wanted to make sure that situation never happened again. Once he was sure no monsters would sneak up on him, he looked at his stats.
Character Status
Name:KazeGender:Male
Level:5Race:Araneae
Health:130/150Mana:100/100
Stamina:160/200Stat Points:0
Strength:24Dexterity:25[+6]
Vitality:15Endurance:20
Intelligence:10Willpower:10
Kaze put most of the stat points he got into strength and dexterity. When he got debilitating blow, he began putting points into endurance so he could use the skill more often. He also put two points into intelligence and wisdom each, so he could bring them both up to ten. But even though he had one hundred mana, he still didn¡¯t have a skill that used it. Based on the other games he had played, he could assume that he needed mana in order to cast spells. Seeing as how he didn¡¯t have any spells, the mana he had would just have to go unused. He had tried creating his own spell and yelling out fireball, but nothing had happened. If he wanted to learn a spell he would either need to be taught one, read a book about one, or learn one from a skill book. Sadly none of these options were available right now, so he would just have to wait. He would have to ask Tharja about it whenever he got a chance. Now that he thought about it, Kaze remembered reading something about magic. The only thing that people knew about it, was that it was extremely hard to learn. You couldn¡¯t just yell out the name of a spell like he did and expect to create one. There were a bunch of things involved in a spell that you needed to do correctly or else nothing would happen. And that was the best case scenario. Dying from a faulty spell was a common occurrence. Moving his train of thought back to his status screen, Kaze looked at his stats once more. Even though he had been fighting for quite a while, he had only gained one point in strength and two points into dexterity. Although he had only gain three points into his stats overall, he was happy. A point gained in a stat meant a point he had saved from spending. He had a feeling that the reason he had gained more points in dexterity than strength, was because he had been dodging more than anything else. Every point he put into dexterity made him faster. And since he was fighting enemies with the same stats, he could dodge their attacks easier. Attacks that would¡¯ve did quite a bit of damage previously, no longer seemed all that dangerous to him anymore. But even though he said this, that was only true in one on one fights. He lost his advantage in speed when he fought more than one opponent. Sure he could dodge one blow coming towards him easily. But two or three, not so much. The reason he had a six next to his dexterity was because of the equipment he was wearing. One dexterity came from his gloves, while the other five came from the Frogera necklace. The necklace seemed to be a rare drop since it was quite a bit better than the gloves he had on. Still, the level requirement that was on it stopped him from being able to use it until recently.
Necklace of the Frogera
Description: A necklace made by a Frogera shaman that is imbued with power.
Defense: 1Effect: +5 Dexterity
Durability: 25/25Requirements: Level 5
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. When he had first received the necklace, Kaze had immediately put it on. Although the game said he needed to be level five, he still wanted to see if he would be able to equip it. Surprisingly he was. However, he did not gain the five points of dexterity, or the defense the necklace was supposed to give him. In the end, he decided to keep it in his inventory until he was level five since he didn¡¯t want the durability to go down with him having it on. That would just be a waste. Closing out the blue boxes in front of him, Kaze moved on to his skill screen.
Skills
Herbalism Lvl 4 (12%)
Alchemy Lvl 1 (70%)
Debilitating Blow Lvl 2 (54%)
Spear Mastery Lvl 3 (10%)
His herbalism had grown to level four, thanks to all of the plants he had gathered. It was actually quite easy to gather plants while hunting, since they were usually close to where Frogeras were. The only thing he had to be on the lookout for was surprise attacks. For example, whenever he dug out Feroku, he would have to be extremely careful in order to not get poisoned. If an enemy attacked him while he was doing this, he would either have to take the hit, or get poisoned. And neither of these two options was good. His alchemy remained his lowest skill at level one, but it would not remain that way for long. Once he got back to the village, he would be able to craft multiple potions from his many herbs. Then his skill would advance by leaps and bounds. Closing out his skill screen, Kaze glanced into his inventory to remind himself what he had. Because of the amount of Frogeras he had killed, he had gained quite a bit of loot. He wouldn¡¯t know if any of it was good until he got to the village. The first two things he had in his inventory were a small dagger and twenty five wooden spears. The dagger was what he started with and the spears were from the Frogeras. Normally he would¡¯ve had more, but he had broken a few with his debilitating blow. It was a shame, but it was a sacrifice that had to be made. The next two items were his four loaves of bread and his twelve Frogera legs. Thanks to how long he had spent out here, Kaze was forced to eat his bread just to continue on. It turned out that hunger was a very real thing in this game. At first he tried to just fast, but as more time went on, the weaker he became. He had a feeling that if he continued any longer than he had, his health would¡¯ve started to drop. Because of this, he was still hesitant on selling the Frogera legs. These were the only other food he had, so if he cooked them, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about going hungry. Still, he might make a few coins off of selling them. It was something to think about. Last but not least, Kaze had twenty five copper coins and his herbs. He noticed that higher leveled Frogeras were more likely to drop loot than lower leveled ones. This was mostly the reason he didn¡¯t have any more copper coins than he did. He had a decent number of herbs, but Kaze planned on getting a lot more. He wanted to make a ton of potions so he could use some and sell the rest. His previous battles had showed him that potions were dire when he was fighting multiple opponents. Without them, he would be in for a tough time. After reviewing everything, Kaze took the next hour to gather herbs. If any Frogeras stood in his way, he would kill them. But he wouldn¡¯t go actively searching for them since his main goal right now was gathering. Once the hour was spent, he headed back to town. It was time to make some money. Walking into the village of Melisa, Kaze noticed more players running around. Even though he said more players, there were only two newcomers rather than the ten or twenty that would spawn in the capital. Once again he was glad he had chosen this small, out of the way village. He didn¡¯t hate other players, but he had seen plenty of videos where people killed each other just for some loot. To make sure that didn¡¯t happen to him, he was always on the lookout for potential enemies. As he walked towards the general store, he watched quietly as one of the newcomers bolted off into the forest while the other one started wandering around. From the looks of it, she didn¡¯t know where to go and she soon began looking around in confusion. The moment she caught sight of him, her eyes lit up and she began to quickly approach him. After a quick glance around, Kaze confirmed that the newcomer was in fact coming towards him. Letting out a small sigh, he turned towards her and prepared to listen to what she had to say. As the newcomer came closer and closer, he took a couple of seconds to examine her. It seemed that she had chosen a nature based race. He knew this because instead of having skin on her body, she had wood. This wood formed the shape of a humanoid body with several key differences. One was that she possessed claws rather than the fingers of her human counterpart. Another difference was that she had wooden limbs jutting from her head like antlers. If he had to guess, he would say she chose a spriggan to start off as. He could be wrong, but he doubted it. ¡°Um, excuse me. Do you know where I could find the blacksmith?¡± It seemed that he had been correct in guessing that she was lost. He couldn¡¯t blame her for asking him for directions, seeing as how he had done basically the same thing when he started. He briefly wondered if he should ask her to pay up if she wanted the information, but decided against it. She probably didn¡¯t have that much money seeing as how she had just started. Plus he would feel like a dick for asking. ¡°Yeah, follow me and I¡¯ll show you where it is.¡± With a spriggan in tow, Kaze began walking towards the location the blacksmith was at. He also showed her where the alchemist store and where the general store were. He didn¡¯t have too, since she only asked where the blacksmith was, but he might as well. She would need to know where these places were sooner or later, and it would save him from being asked about it later. Judging from the look of appreciation on her face, he could assume she knew that he was doing her a favor. After a few minutes of exploring the town, Kaze and the spriggan stopped in front of the blacksmith store. Turning towards the spriggan, he began to speak. ¡°This is the weapons and armor store run by a blacksmith called Eryia.¡± Just a few hours ago, he had been told the same information by Tharja. Due to this, the information she had told him was still fresh on his mind. ¡°If you wanted to be a blacksmith or want a quest from her, all you have to do is ask. That¡¯s what I did for the alchemist.¡± Some people might¡¯ve withheld this information because of greed, but Kaze didn¡¯t see the point. He wasn¡¯t going to become a blacksmith, and he had a sneaking suspicion that the spriggan in front of him wanted to. Why else would she want to go to the blacksmith first? To buy a weapon? Hah! The idea was laughable¡­.or maybe it wasn¡¯t. Either way, he said what he needed to say. Bending down into a bow, the female spriggan began to thank him. ¡°Thank you for showing me where everything is. I will remember what you have done for me in the future.¡± After she said this, she started to head into the store. But before her body was halfway into the store, she stopped and turned to look at Kaze. The spriggan looked at him for a couple of seconds before typing away at the air. A few seconds later, a blue box appeared in front of him.
The Player Hana has sent you a friend request. Accept? [Y/N]
Clicking the yes button, Kaze watched as Hana¡¯s face lit up. She looked at him one more time before waving goodbye and heading into the store. As she disappeared, he thought about what he did. There was really no reason for him to refuse the friend request. He was surprised he had even gotten one. It was nice though, since he was more of the loner type. Plus the spriggan looked pretty nice, and that was a bonus in his book. Turning around, Kaze resumed his trek towards the general store. He had meant to sell some things when he had entered the village, but he had been distracted. Only time would tell if this distraction turned out to be good. With a deep breath, he entered the general store. He had some loot to sell, and he wanted to know how much money he would get for it. AN: Thank you for reading and thanks for the positive comments! They really do mean a lot. Chapter Six: Gathering Information Chapter Six: Gathering Information Walking into the general store, Kaze looked around. There were various items on display such as tents, dried food, silverware, and much more. Basically the store was selling any item that was essential to normal, everyday life. He took the next minute to fully look around before heading to the front of the store. As he walked there, he noticed a bearded man waiting at the counter. This must be the Chris that Tharja told him about. Before he could say anything, the man in front of began to speak. ¡°Hey, what can I do for you?¡± Kaze took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking. ¡°I was wondering if I could sell a few things here.¡± Tharja had told him he could, but he felt that is was better to ask first. Just to make sure. ¡°Yeah, you can. Let me take a look at what you got.¡± Reaching into his inventory, Kaze pulled out a wooden spear and placed it on the counter. He watched quietly as Chris moved the spear around in his hands and looked at it from various angles. After about a minute of this, Chris placed the spear down and looked at him. ¡°I¡¯m going to be honest; this spear is pretty low quality. Although I¡¯m pretty sure I could sell it, I wouldn¡¯t be able to sell it for much. Still, it¡¯s not that bad of a weapon.¡± Chris rubbed his chin absentmindedly before continuing. ¡°I¡¯m willing to offer you five copper coins for that spear.¡± Kaze immediately agreed to the offer. He had no idea if his spear was worth that much, but as long as he could get money from selling it, he was fine. ¡°I also have more spears like the one you just bought. I would like to sell those too.¡± After saying this, Kaze began handing Chris the spears from his inventory. Each one he gave him was carefully examined before being placed to the side. In the end, he sold twenty two of his twenty five spears. The reason he didn¡¯t sell all of them was because he still needed a weapon to fight with. Plus he wanted to have at least two extra in case something happened to the spear he was using. The spears left in his inventory were also the ones with the highest durability. The total money that he received for selling these spears was one hundred copper coins. The reason he got this much was because he was given less money for the spears with extremely low durability. That was fine with him since he didn¡¯t want them anyway. After putting the coins in his inventory, Kaze moved on to the next thing he wanted to sell. Reaching into his inventory, Kaze pulled out the small dagger he started with and one Frogera leg. The dagger was no longer necessary since he had a spear, and he wanted to see how much the Frogera leg was worth. Once he found out its price, then he would decide if he was actually going to sell it rather than eat it. Kaze waited patiently as Chris examined the two items before speaking. ¡°I can give you two copper coins for the dagger and three coins for the Frogera leg.¡± The price was acceptable for the dagger, but he didn¡¯t know how he felt about the price for the Frogera leg. Not only was it not that common of a drop, but it was the only other food he had. In the end, Kaze sold the dagger and kept the Frogera leg. Keeping the Frogera legs would save him money in the end, since he could just eat that instead of buying food. Once he finished putting all of his money into his inventory, Kaze left the shop. Although some of the items on sale looked useful, he didn¡¯t buy any of it. Even though he had gotten quite a bit of money from selling his loot, he would need that money for buying alchemy tools. He wouldn¡¯t be staying in this village forever, so he needed a way to make potions while he was traveling. Thanks to Tharja, he had a place to buy it. Now all he needed was the money. As Kaze walked out of the general store, he glanced up at the sky. The sun was starting to set and in a couple of hours it would be dark. He had read somewhere online that some monsters would only come out in the dark. He wanted to see this for himself so he made a mental reminder to go into the forest after dark. Although it would be more dangerous, he felt that the reward was worth the risk. The only monsters he had seen were Frogeras, and he was interested to see what other monsters were like. Another thing he had to be careful of was exhaustion. Similar to how he needed to eat, Kaze also needed sleep. He could go without sleep for a few days, but doing that would soon take a toll on him. The longer he didn¡¯t sleep, the more tired he would become. This effect would keep on stacking up until he would randomly fall asleep whenever he was awake. And if you were in the middle of a battle when this happened, the results would be disastrous. One thing that was nice was that you didn¡¯t actually have to really sleep if you didn¡¯t want to. You could just lie down in a bed, close your eyes, and then log out. Depending on how much time you were logged out for, your character should be well rested by the time you got back on. You were only recommended to do this if you slept in an inn though. Monsters could still kill you when you were inactive, and it would suck if you logged back in, only to realize that you were killed while you were gone. Different races also required different amounts of sleep, so it would be interesting to see how much sleep his race needed. Stepping inside the alchemy store, Kaze took a moment to wave hello to Tharja before heading downstairs. It seemed he would be on his own once again, seeing as how his alchemy teacher had customers to attend to. He didn¡¯t mind though, since you could only go so far with someone teaching you. In order to fully learn something, you needed to experiment on your own and learn from your mistakes. And that was something he planned on doing. Once he was in the alchemy lab, Kaze walked over to the workstation he was at last. As he walked there, he took a brief glance around the room. Like the last time he had been down here, there were various objects and tools situated around the room. Some of the shapes were quite bizarre and he wondered what they were for. He had a feeling that they were for alchemy, seeing as how they were in an alchemy lab. But what could be created with these tools was still a mystery to him. Only when he had mastered making potions, would Tharja allow him to move on to the next phase of being an alchemist. Reaching into his inventory, Kaze placed the herbs he had on the counter. Sadly the only herbs he had were the same ones last time. He hadn¡¯t found any new ones. He didn¡¯t know if that was because of the location he was in, or if he just wasn¡¯t looking in the right places. Still, it was hard to search far and low for herbs when a monster could be just around the corner. Although Kaze could make all of the potions he knew with the herbs he had, his main focus would be on creating health and paralysis potions. The health potions would be useful when he was low on health, and the paralysis would help against higher leveled enemies. The stamina potions and the poison potions were nice, but the other two were more important. He would still make all of the potions, but he would focus more on the health and paralysis potions rather than the stamina and poison ones. Grabbing two Rialo and one Metriun, Kaze placed them in a mortar and began grounding them. Once they were sufficiently grounded, he poured the mixture into a nearby vial. After doing this, he placed it on a burner and set it to the specified heat. After waiting two minutes, he removed the vial from the heat, gave it a little swirl, and put a stopper in it. He then repeated this process multiple times until he had a total of twenty health potions. This was what his best health potion looked like when he was finished:
Potion of Health Restoration
Description: A health potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It restores a tiny amount of health.
Effect: Restores 30 HP
It only healed thirty health points, but that would have to do. Until he raised his alchemy level higher or got better ingredients, he didn¡¯t think his potion effects would get that much better. Kaze placed three of these potions on a nearby counter before putting the rest in his inventory. These three potions would be for Tharja in return for allowing him to use her lab. It was a pretty good deal, now that he thought about it. Grabbing one Ylose and one Thistleclaw, Kaze began the process of crafting a paralysis potion. The process was basically the same as the one he used when making health potions, but with a few differences. One of the differences was how he grounded the materials, and the other was how hot the burner was. If he messed up either of these, then the potion would be a failure. A little while later, Kaze had finally finished crafting twenty paralysis potions. He was quite glad that he had gathered as many herbs as he did. He was fine with gathering them in the forest, but the trip to the forest and back to the town was quite time consuming. If he didn¡¯t want to waste all of his time traveling, then he needed to gather the herbs in bulk. It might seem tedious then, but it would be worth it later.
Potion of Paralysis
Description: A paralysis potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It caused paralysis to whoever it hits for a few seconds.
Effect: Paralyzes opponent for 5 seconds [Effect varies depending on level of opponent]
This was what his best paralysis potion looked like. Most of the other ones only paralyzed his opponent for four seconds, but once his alchemy skill leveled up, the effect of his created paralysis potions increased. Sadly, he was only able to create one more like this before he had to stop. He had to save some of the remaining herbs for the other potions after all. Like last time, Kaze placed three of the paralysis potions on the counter before putting the rest into the inventory. Once this was done, he began crafting stamina potions. Sadly he was only able to create ten of these, due to not having enough Ylose to use. He would need to remember to gather more of the herbs that were in more than one potion.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Potion of Stamina Restoration
Description: A stamina potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It restores a tiny amount of stamina.
Effect: Restores 30 SP
Similar to his health potion, his stamina potion restored thirty stamina points. Due to how little he had, Kaze only place two on the counter before putting the rest in his inventory. After doing this, he started creating his poison potions. A few minutes later, he had a total of twenty four poison potions. He would¡¯ve had more, but sadly some of the mixing failed and he lost the ingredients he had put into that particular potion. Holding one of the poisons in his hand, he took a good look at its effect.
Potion of Prickly Poison
Description: A poisonous potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It poisons whoever it hits for a few seconds. The person hit by this potion will feel a painful prickly sensation across their body.
Effect: Poisons opponent for 7 damage over a period 5 seconds
Thanks to his increased alchemy level, Kaze¡¯s poison potion now did seven damage instead of the five it used to do. Now that might not seem like a lot, but this was damage over time. So before, he only did a total of twenty five damage, but now he did a total of thirty five damage. The ten more damage that he gained would be very useful, seeing as how higher leveled enemies that he was bound to fight, had more health than lower leveled ones. Since he had quite a few of the poison potions, Kaze placed four on the counter instead of the usual three. By doing this, he would make up for only placing two stamina potions on the counter. Once the potions were placed neatly on the counter, he stuck the rest of them into his inventory. The only plants that he had left were Feroku and Metriun. Sadly these two couldn¡¯t be combined so he would just have to wait until he gathered more herbs before he would be able to use them. Thanks to all of the potion making he had done, his alchemy had gained a few levels.
Alchemy
Description: Allows the user to combine different ingredients together to make something new. 5% chance of created substance having better effects that normal.
Skill Type: Passive Skill Level: 3 (72%)
After looking at his skill, Kaze closed the blue box and grabbed a couple of nearby vials. Once they were in his hand, he walked over to the sink and began filling them with water. Once they were filled, he placed a stopper on top of the vial, and placed it in his inventory. He repeated this process a few more times until he had a decent bit of water filled vials in his inventory. The reason he did all of this was so he could save money. If he had these vials in his inventory, he wouldn¡¯t need to buy any water. Straightening up the workplace, Kaze headed upstairs. Taking a quick look around to make sure there weren¡¯t any customers, he began to speak. ¡°I put some of the potions I made on the counter downstairs for you. I also made some money from selling monster loot, and I was wondering if it would be enough to buy some alchemy tools.¡± He hadn¡¯t had enough money to buy anything last time, but he had quite a bit of money now. Using Tharja¡¯s tools was nice and all, but he wanted alchemy tools of his own. ¡°Thanks for the potions. I¡¯ll go down and look at them later. How much money do you have?¡± Kaze took a brief glance at his inventory before responding. ¡°One hundred and twenty seven copper coins.¡± Tharja nodded her head and slowly got up from her seat. Stretching out her limbs, she went into a nearby room for a few minutes before coming out with a big box. Placing the box on the counter, she looked at Kaze before speaking. ¡°This right here is a beginner¡¯s alchemy set. The reason I didn¡¯t have it in the front is because not a lot of alchemists come to the shop. The people that do come only want potions and the like. They like what they do, but they don¡¯t want to waste their time making their own. I¡¯m not complaining though, more money for me.¡± Tharja popped her neck before continuing her speech. ¡°This set cost a total of one silver. Inside it is a mortar and pestle, a funnel, a portable burner, thirty durable flasks, thirty fragile flasks, and thirty normal flasks. The stoppers for these flasks are also in the box. So, do you still want to buy it? I know it¡¯s a bit expensive, but trust me, it¡¯s worth it.¡± Nodding his head, Kaze converted one hundred copper coins into a single silver coin and handed it in to Tharja. He had figured out how to do this a few seconds ago when he noticed a strange icon by his copper coins. When he had clicked it, he had lost one hundred copper coins and gained one silver coin. This was nice since he doubted Tharja would enjoy him handing her a hundred coins. Grabbing the box and shoving it into his inventory, Kaze turned back towards Tharja. He had a couple of question he needed answered, and who better to ask than his alchemy instructor? ¡°Do you know where I could find a place to sleep? I don¡¯t believe you mention this village having an inn when you showed me around.¡± ¡°Yeah, since our village is not that big, we don¡¯t have an inn. Yet. The other villagers were talking about making one, but we would have to wait and see how many more newcomers we get. Recently we¡¯ve been getting a good bit of travelers coming through, but not enough to make an inn.¡± Tharja slowly nodded to herself before continuing. ¡°If you really need a place to sleep, you can just ask a villager and I¡¯m pretty sure they will let you spend the night at their house. We¡¯re all pretty friendly, so it shouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem to find somewhere to go. Hell, if you really need it, you can spend the night at my place. This is a special deal only for you, seeing as how you¡¯re my apprentice. Other people will just have to find a different place to stay at.¡± A small grin appeared on Tharja¡¯s face at his surprised look. Could you blame him for being shocked? In real life this would never happen. People would toss you out onto the streets before letting you inside their home. No one just did good deeds where he was from. There was always an ulterior motive. Even though he was shocked, it was kind of nice to see a village this nice. It was different and refreshing, to say the least. ¡°I might take you up on that offer. I plan on staying up late hunting though, so I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s going to be a problem.¡± ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be since I stay up pretty late myself.¡± ¡°Okay, thanks. Where do you live again?¡± Tharja looked at him in confusion before responding. ¡°The shop? Did you not realize I lived here? Someone has to watch over the store at night, and living here solves that problem quite well.¡± Nodding his head, Kaze thought about what he had learned. It did make sense that someone would need to watch over the store at night. Thieves might come and rob the place if no one was there. He just assumed his alchemy teacher lived elsewhere. Huh, that would teach him to make assumptions. ¡°If you¡¯re not here before I go to bed, I¡¯ll leave the door unlocked. Then when you come, all you have to do is walk inside and lock the door behind you. Also before I forget, let me show you the room you can sleep in.¡± Walking into the back with Kaze in tow, Tharja began pointing out the different rooms. There were a couple of rooms in the back of the shop such as a storage room, bathroom, and a couple of bedrooms. Most of the bedrooms were filled with various items and clutter, but there were two that seemed relatively clean. Tharja pointed to one of them and told him that this was his room. Taking a step back, Kaze took a brief glance around to memorize where his room was. It wasn¡¯t that hard, seeing as how the alchemy shop wasn¡¯t that big. Tharja¡¯s room was only a few steps away from his. She told them that if he ever needed anything, just knock. If she didn¡¯t answer, just open the door and see was she was doing. This was because whenever she started reading, she had a habit of zoning out and focusing entirely on the book that was in her hand. Because of this, she usually didn¡¯t notice if someone knocked on the door. Once she finished showing him around, Tharja and Kaze walked back to the front of the shop. Sitting in her seat behind the counter, Tharja waited for Kaze to speak. ¡°Are there any tasks or quests that need to be done in the village?¡± The last quest he had done had been completed a while ago, and he wanted to know if there were any more. Although the herb gathering quest was fine, he was hoping for one that was a little more exciting. Tharja took a few seconds to think before responding. ¡°You would have to ask around. I know bigger villages have boards where the put up tasks that they want to be accomplished, but since our village is still so small, we don¡¯t have one yet. We have plenty of monsters around though. So if you were bored just kill a few of them to pass the time.¡± Nodding his head, Kaze let out a small sigh. It seemed that there weren¡¯t that many quests in a village as small as this one. Even though that was so, he didn¡¯t regret starting here. Everything happens for a reason. ¡°Do you know about any nearby dungeons or places with treasure?¡± Since he probably wasn¡¯t going to get any quests, Kaze needed something that was bound to be exciting. Alchemy was nice and all, but sometimes he wanted to do something different. ¡°I don¡¯t know any places with treasure but I do know of a dungeon. However I would recommend that you get stronger first before going into it. Actually, as a matter of fact, until you get stronger, I¡¯m not telling you about the dungeon. I don¡¯t want you getting accidently killed after all. ¡± Kaze understood where Tharja was coming from, but he still wished that she would¡¯ve told him where the dungeon was. He would¡¯ve only taken a quick peak at it. At the first sign of danger he would¡¯ve ran¡­probably. ¡°Do you have any tips for getting stronger?¡± ¡°I actually do. Deep in the forest is a giant Frogera that rules over all of the other Frogeras. If you manage to defeat it, you will definitely be stronger. Tell you what, if you defeat it, I¡¯ll give you the location for the dungeon and I¡¯ll give you a recipe for a new potion I created.¡± Kaze immediately agreed to the proposal. He would have to be a fool not to. Once he did, a blue box appeared.
[Quest Accepted!]
Defeat the giant Frogera! (Quest)
Description: Tharja the alchemist has assigned you to kill a giant Frogera in return for information about a dungeon and a recipe for a potion.
Rewards: Information about a dungeon and a potion recipe.
Failure: No information about the dungeon.
¡°I would also recommend getting someone to help you fight the boss. Normally I would think you would do just fine, thanks to all your potions, but the giant Frogera has a lot of minions. Even though they are weak, they still might be able to take you down with their numbers. Still, it¡¯s your decision. Just don¡¯t die. You¡¯re my first apprentice after all and I would hate to lose you so soon.¡± After talking with Tharja for a while, Kaze headed out. Thanks to the talk they had, he had managed to get himself a quest. His only concern was with how he was going to go about it. Tharja had said that he would probably need help, but he didn¡¯t know if that was true. He would need to at least get a look at the boss to see how strong it was. If he could take it on by himself, there would be no need to ask someone for help. Once Kaze was outside, he headed towards the forest. It seemed that he had spent quite a while talking to Tharja, seeing as how it was getting dark. The town had light posts in various locations, so he was able to see where he was going. The forest didn¡¯t however. If he wanted to fight the monsters that only came out at night, he would have to venture in the darkness. Was it going to be dangerous? Probably. Still, Kaze wouldn¡¯t let that stop him. He had monsters to kill. AN: Thanks for reading! If you have any skills you would like Kaze to have, post in the comments and I''ll look at them. There''s no guarantee that I''ll use them, but there is always a chance I might. Chapter Seven: Webs Chapter 7: Webs Stopping outside of the forest, Kaze looked around. The only things he could see were trees and darkness. It would be quite easy for an enemy to sneak up on him, so he needed to be on guard. Taking off his gloves, he stretched his long dagger like fingers. Now that he thought about it, he could probably use them as weapons. But although his fingertips were pretty sharp, they wouldn¡¯t do as much damage as a wooden spear would. Once he finished stretching his fingers, Kaze put them back into his gloves. The gloves were a little bit tight, but he had to make do. The glove¡¯s blunt finger tips made it easier to hold his spear. He could hold it without them, but it would be uncomfortable. Also the gloves gave him defense and dexterity, so he was glad to have them on. After this, he began stretching his arms. The reason he was even doing this was because he wanted to be limber when he went into the forest. Thanks to the darkness, an attack could come from anywhere. And when it did, Kaze wanted to be able to dodge it quickly and fluidly. If he pulled a muscle while he was dodging and got killed, he would never forgive himself. Dying like that was unacceptable. As he stretched various body parts, Kaze realized a few things. One was that he was extremely flexible. And when he said extremely flexible, he meant it. It was quite unnerving when he realized just how far he could turn around without moving the lower half of his body. Just to see if he could, he began performing front flips, cartwheels, and handstands. To his amazement, he was able to do all of these with ease. Sadly he wouldn¡¯t be able to use this to his advantage in the forest, thanks to how little space there was to maneuver around. If he tried doing a backflip in the forest, he would probably slam his head into the trunk of a tree. That was something he would prefer to never happen. Jumping side to side with his legs, Kaze tried to see how fast he could go. If he was being honest, it was pretty fast. This was either because of his dexterity stat or because of his four legs. When he jumped to the side, he only needed two of his legs to touch the ground before being able to push off and leap towards the other side. Although this was bound to be useful, he once again wouldn¡¯t be able to use this maneuver in the forest. If he ever fought a lot of enemies, he would need to find a large clearing in order to use himself to his fullest capabilities. Crouching low to the forest floor, Kaze dug his legs slightly into the ground. Then, in the blink of an eye, he jumped up as far as he could. Imagine his surprise when he leapt several feet off the ground. Landing on the forest floor with a small thud, a pondering look crossed his face. Was he able to do this because of his race, or because of his stats? It was hard to tell. Still this might be useful in a fight, so he made sure to keep his high jumping ability in mind. He could already imagine his enemies surprise when he attacked them from above. They wouldn¡¯t expect him. After all, no one ever looks up. Once he was done messing with his legs, Kaze moved on to his head. He had something like pincers in front of his mouth, but he didn¡¯t think he would ever be able use them in battle. Number one, he shouldn¡¯t ever be that close to an enemy. Number two, he didn¡¯t think his pincers would do that much damage. Although they were quite sharp, they weren¡¯t that big, which made their damage potential limited. Still, if push came to shove, he would use them. The last thing that Kaze looked at was the spikes that jutted out from his body. There had to be a purpose for them, and he wanted to know what for. They couldn¡¯t be used in battle, seeing as how most of them had a dull tip. The tips were also orange and glowed slightly in the darkness. Thankfully they weren¡¯t that bright, so they shouldn¡¯t reveal his location whenever he was hiding. Touching the tips revealed nothing so he was left in the dark about their usefulness. In the end, he decided to move on and think about it later. Maybe in the future he would figure out their use. After fiddling around with the spikes on his back, Kaze reached into his inventory. Pulling out a vial of water and another loaf of bread, he began eating. He was getting pretty hungry and he wanted to have a full stomach before venturing out into the forest. The vial of water was extremely helpful since it helped wash down the dry crumbs that remained in his mouth after eating the bread. He was glad he brought some since eating dry bread by itself wasn¡¯t that pleasant. He had experience that sensation before and he regretted it ever since. That was part of the reason he started bring vials of water with him on his adventure. Wiping his mouth, Kaze licked off any remaining crumbs from his pointed teeth. Although the bread satisfied his hunger, he longed for something filled with blood. With a surprised look upon his face, Kaze tried to think of where that thought came from. It had to have been influenced by his race. Sure he ate meat in real life, but not that much. He had never craved for something filled with blood as he was doing now. He might have to cook up the Frogera legs he had sooner than he thought if his craving didn¡¯t go away. With a tight grip on his spear, Kaze headed into the forest. He had only walked a few feet in when he decided to stop. Before he moved any further, he wanted his eyes to get adjusted to the dark. Right now he could barely see anything. Even though he put his hand directly in front of his face, he could only see a tiny bit of it. His skin was also quite dark, so that didn¡¯t help. It would help him stay hidden in this darkness though, so it wasn¡¯t all bad. Unless the enemies that came out at night had night vision. Then things would start turning problematic. It only took him a few minutes of waiting before he was able to vaguely see his surroundings. He was pretty sure his eyes adjusted to the darkness faster than is should¡¯ve, but he didn¡¯t know for sure. Kaze proceeded to take another step before stopping once again. Even in the day, when there was light, Frogeras had managed to surprise and ambush him. Now that it was night, with barely any light, he could only imagine how easy it would be for enemies to sneak up on him. He needed some type of plan, or he might die to an enemy he would probably never get the chance to see. It only took Kaze a few minutes of thinking before he came up with a plan. Turning to his left, he glanced at a nearby tree. The trees in this forest were quite large, and he was pretty sure he could climb them if he wanted to. It was time to put that theory to the test. Crouching down as low as he could, he pushed all his energy into his legs and leapt towards the tree. Once he was close enough to the trunk, he dug his bladed legs into the bark. Sticking his left hand out, Kaze grabbed a piece of the tree to balance himself. His right hand remained unused since it was holding his spear. Removing one of his legs from the bark, Kaze slowly moved it a couple inches forward before once again sticking it into the trunk of the tree. He repeated this process several more times until he got to the first branch. Jumping onto to it, Kaze looked down. It was hard to see the ground, but after looking down for a few seconds, he was able to see it. If he had to guess, he would save that he was at least ten feet off the ground. He knew that the trees in this forest were large, but he hadn¡¯t really expected them to be this big.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Holding out his arms a little ways away from his body, Kaze tried to find a comfortable position to stand in. Although the branches were thick, they weren¡¯t thick enough for him to be able to casually stand on them. Due to this, his legs were forced to be a little close together. This of course affected his balance, so he had to be careful he didn¡¯t fall off. Noticing that the branches above him were thicker, he leapt up and grabbed the branch above him with both hands. Straining his muscles, Kaze managed to pull himself up and onto the branch. Taking a few deep breaths, he allowed himself to rest for a few seconds. Moving his legs closer together, Kaze practiced walking on the branch. Although it was proving quite challenging to do, he kept at it. This wouldn¡¯t be the hardest thing he had to do after all. His bladed legs helped out quite a bit, but his many legs evened out the task. Still, if he kept on trying, he was positive he would be an adept tree climber. Once he found an enemy, he would just leap off and attack it from above. Not only would he get a sneak attack, but he should also be able to knock his enemy down. If he was fast enough, he would be able to kill it before it even got up. But in order to do that, he needed to make sure he could walk across the branches quietly. Placing his legs gently on the branch, Kaze moved towards the end of it. Since the trees in this forest were pretty close together, he didn¡¯t need to jump that far to get to the next one. Now that he thought about it, he probably could just walk from branch to branch instead of jumping. His only concern was that the branch would break. This was because while the branches were thick by the tree, they thinned out the further they got away from the trunk. He should be fine as long as he didn¡¯t place all of his weight on a specific part of the branch. But there was always that little chance so he was little bit worried. Moving a couple of steps back on the branch he was on, Kaze prepared to jump. Running at a moderate pace, he leapt toward the branch of a nearby tree. It only took a few seconds of being in the air, before he landed on the branch¡­¡­with only one leg. Widening his eyes, he watched in horror as he slipped from the branch and began to fall to the ground. Thankfully his descent was stopped by a sturdy branch that his stomach slammed into. Gasping for air, he felt something liquid and sticky leak from his bottom. ¡­..Shit¡­¡­ Pushing himself off the branch and onto the forest floor, Kaze fearfully looked below him. Something had leaked from his body when he had hit the branch, and he didn¡¯t know if he wanted to find out what. Normally he would ignore the fact that something as embarrassing as this happened, but whatever came out of his abdomen was still connected to it. Reaching his hand down, he touched whatever came out of his abdomen with a disgruntled look on his face. Quickly pulling out the long thin substance, Kaze tried to throw it away. Sadly this strange substance seemed to be stuck to his hand. Bringing it closer to his face, he tried to see what exactly came out of him. A translucent string like substance is what met his eyes. Based on what he was, the only thing this substance could possibly be was web. With a confused look on his face, Kaze began fiddling with the web. The more he messed with it, the more he was sure that it was web. Huh, that was interesting. He didn¡¯t know that his race could create web. The only thing he knew was that it was related to spiders, but he still never expected something like this. Now that he knew he could create web, endless possibilities awaited him. There were so many things he would be able to do with it. If he fought multiple opponents, he could just trap them with his web and attack them while they were defenseless. For a brief moment he wondered what other skills his race had. Since it was related to spiders, he probably had more spiderlike abilities. Still, he couldn¡¯t really think of any other abilities except web making. Maybe he would realize what the rest were when he had another unfortunate event happen to him. He didn¡¯t know if that was a good or bad thing. After examining his web, Kaze took a moment to look around. His little fall wasn¡¯t that loud, but it still made some noise. And something could sneak up on him quite easily in this darkness. He could see a good bit, but not as much as he wanted. Once he made sure the coast was clear, he focused his attention back on his web. The next few minutes were filled with awkwardness as Kaze tried to figure out how to shoot web from his abdomen. The feeling he got when he created web wasn¡¯t painful, but it was odd to say the least. After all, humans normally couldn¡¯t shoot webs from their bodies, at least unless they were a certain superhero. It was after doing this for a few minutes, that a blue box appeared in front of him.
Skill Gained!
Web Creation
Description: Allows the user to create web from various parts of their body.
Skill Type: Active Skill Level: 1 (0%)
It seemed that Kaze could shoot web from more places than his abdomen. At least that was what his skill said. Glancing around his body, his eyes stopped once they reached his hands. Could he shoot webs from his hands? The skill said various body parts, but it didn¡¯t specify. Well, there was only one way to find out. Holding his hand out in front of him, Kaze began to try shooting web from his fingertips. The first few tries nothing happened. He had no idea what to do, so he had no idea what he was doing wrong. After a few more tries of nothing happening, he took a moment to think. Just imagining webs coming from his fingertips wasn¡¯t doing anything, so what would make this work? After thinking about this for a few minutes, Kaze came up with an idea. Focusing on his abdomen, he began shooting web onto the ground. As he did this, he focused on how exactly he was creating the web. Keeping that process in mind, he tried doing the same thing with his fingers. It was after attempting this that he felt small holes begin to open up in his fingertips. Once the holes were opened wide enough, web began to shoot out. Smiling in satisfaction, Kaze looked down at his hand. ¡­.Fuck¡­. It seemed that he had forgotten that gloves were on his hands. Pulling his hand out of the glove, Kaze watched as pieces of web came off his hand. Hopefully his web would come out of his glove. If it didn¡¯t, he was going to be pissed. After a few minutes of working, he finally managed to clear all of the web off his gloves. Thankfully his web wasn¡¯t that sticky, so it wasn¡¯t that hard to get out. Now that his gloves were clean, Kaze could focus on his current problem. Even though shooting webs from his hands would¡¯ve been useful, he would have to remove the gloves he had on in order to do that. In his opinion, the defense and dexterity the gloves gave him were more important than the weak web he was able to emit from his hands. So in the end, Kaze decided to only shoot webs from his abdomen. He could probably cut holes in his gloves, but he didn¡¯t want to damage them. Not until he had another pair to use in case something bad happened. Aiming at a nearby tree, Kaze leaned back and shot his web toward it. Sadly, his web never reached the tree. Instead it fell to the ground pitifully a few feet away. Tch, he would definitely have to work on his web making skills before he was able to use it in battle. Although he wanted to see what type of monsters came out at night, he would have to put that on hold. This skill would probably be his strongest one, and he needed to make sure he gained a few levels in it before fighting. With an intense look of concentration on his face, Kaze began training. He didn¡¯t have that much time, and he wanted to make the most of what he had left. AN: Thanks for reading! Chapter Eight: Nurkos Chapter 8: Nurkos Twenty minutes. That was how long it took Kaze to shoot his web farther than a few feet. He would¡¯ve preferred if the range was longer, but he didn¡¯t have all day to train. So this would have to do for now. Climbing up a nearby tree, he made sure he was quiet and careful. He did not want to fall again. Once he climbed up to the second branch of the tree he was on, he made his way deeper into the forest. He had some monsters to kill. In order to avoid falling, Kaze would drop web on the branch below him every couple of feet. This way, if he were to accidently fall, his web should save him. It wasn¡¯t strong enough to hold his weight, but it should be able to slow him down. As more time passed, he became better and better at traversing odd terrain. Sure he made more noise than he would¡¯ve liked, but that was a sacrifice he had to make. If he had to sacrifice noise for balance, then so be it. It only took him a few more minutes of traveling before he heard movement in the dark. Stopping quietly on the branch he was on, Kaze turned his head and listened. He could hear footsteps destroying undergrowth as the source of the noise approached him. Tightening his grip on his spear, he waited a few stressful seconds until a wolf like creature emerged from a nearby bush. As he examined the mysterious creature, a frown appeared on his face.
Nurko: lvl 5
This Nurko was a black, wolf-like creature, with armored plates covering its body. The first problem Kaze noticed was its color. If this monster decided to run away while he was fighting it, there would be nothing he could do about it. It he lost sight of it for a moment, then it would be gone, hidden in the vast expanse of darkness. In order to combat this, he needed to make sure to always keep an eye on this monster when he was fighting it. But even this would prove to be hard thanks to its natural camouflage. Still, until he fought the monster, he wouldn¡¯t know how hard it would be. The second problem he would need to deal with was the various armored plates that surrounded the Nurko¡¯s body. From what he could see, a good majority of its body was covered with the plates. The wooden spear he had might be able to damage them, but not by much. Maybe if he had a better weapon than the poorly crafted spear he was using. But he didn¡¯t. So he needed to figure out what to do. Debilitating blow would be very useful in this situation. He was pretty sure he could get pass the armored plates with this skill. The only problem was the amount of stamina that would be used. It had taken him quite a while to take down a Frogera, and this Nurko was bound to be way stronger. Not only that, but if he was forced to fight two at once, his stamina would surely take a beating. Thankfully he had a couple stamina potions. Not a lot, but enough that he should be able to killed a few Nurkos before having to head back to the village. The third problem was the creature itself. It seemed to be closely related to a wolf, and he was pretty sure most wolves ran in packs. He didn¡¯t want to be fighting it only to have it howl for reinforcements. One was already enough trouble in this darkness. Three or four would be a disaster. He needed to figure out a way to keep it quiet while he was attacking it. Watching the Nurko walk slowly beneath him, Kaze came up with a plan. Raising his two front legs slightly, he shot a glob of web at the Nurko. Because he was hidden, Kaze¡¯s web was able to beautifully splatter across the monster¡¯s head, trapping it against the ground temporarily. Leaping off his branch, he began charging his spear with energy. Landing on the Nurko¡¯s back, Kaze lifted up his spear and slammed it into its neck. Thanks to the amount of power put into the blow, his spear was able to bypass the armored plate and sink into the soft flesh beneath it. -60 HP! [Sneak Attack] Lifting up his spear with both his hands, Kaze proceeded to jab it against the Nurko¡¯s defenseless body again and again. As he did this, he dug his sharp legs deeper into its back and pressed all of his body weight against it. It was far too late for the monster to escape now. -28 HP! Target is Bleeding! -5 HP! -22 HP! It only took Kaze a couple more stabs before the Nurko was dead. But although he defeated the wolf-like monster quite easily, he didn¡¯t let it go to his head. There were several factors involved that allowed him to win as easily as he did. First was the sneak attack. Thanks to it, he was able to deal a considerable amount of damage. Without it, it would have taken him a few more hits before he would¡¯ve been able to take down the Nurko. The second was that it was alone. He was able to focus entirely on the Nurko since he already knew it was by itself. If there was more than one, then Kaze would have had to suffer some wounds in return for the Nurko¡¯s death. The third factor was his plan. The Nurko mostly likely attacked with the fangs in its mouth, and seeing as how Kaze had wrapped it up in web, it had no way to attack. It might have been able to attack him with its claws, but due to the way he landed on its body, attacking that way was impossible. If any of these factors had been different, then the battle could have gone easily in a different direction. Still, it seemed that his web would prove to be useful in the future. Taking a glance at his stamina bar, Kaze frowned. He had spent too much on one enemy in his opinion. The only excuse he could think of for using as much as he had was that he wanted to kill the monster as fast as possible. If he used one or two debilitating blows in the same spot, the armored plates in that area would be destroyed. He was able to do this easily on this Nurko, seeing as how it hadn¡¯t moved that much when he attacked. Whenever he fought multiple moving opponents, it would be quite difficult to land two debilitating blows on the same spot. Crouching down beside the Nurko, Kaze touched the loot icon and watched the creature disappear in a mass of particles. Less than a second later, he received his loot.
Nurko Pelt
Description: Armor plated fur of a Nurko.
Effect: Crafting Ingredient
Similar to a Frogera leg, Kaze had gotten an ingredient from the Nurko. But unlike the Frogera leg, it couldn¡¯t be eaten. However, this pelt could be used to craft something. More than likely armor, seeing as how the armored plates in the fur would provide decent defense against attacks. He wouldn¡¯t be able to craft it himself though, seeing as how he had no training in armor making. When he got back to the village, he would need to remember to ask the blacksmith if he could make something from this pelt. If he was being honest, Kaze preferred something like this as loot rather than gold. The reason was because although gold was nice, he really needed some armor. He could probably buy some gloves and a chest plate, but that would be it. Due to his unique body shape, he would need to buy unique armor. Nothing else would fit him. He had no idea if the small village he was in had armor for his race, but it was doubtful. Most of the people in the village were humanoid, so it made since for most of the armor being created to only fit that specific body type.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Placing the fur in his inventory, Kaze began climbing up a nearby tree. He didn¡¯t know how long he would be able to use this method of attack, but he would use it as long as he could. The amount of damage he could utilize by using this method was too great to ignore. His only complaint was not realizing it sooner. If he had, the Frogeras wouldn¡¯t have been that much of a problem. They were weaker than the Nurkos after all. Kaze was able to use this method of attack to kill two more Nurkos until he finally ran into a problem.
Nurko: lvl 5
Nurko: lvl 6
Below the branch he was on were two Nurkos. Sure it was only one more than he usually fought, but he usually killed that one using stealth and surprise attacks. One of the Nurkos was also a higher level than him. Still, Kaze thought he could handle them as long as he was careful. So after a few seconds of watching, he struck. Raising up his front two legs slightly, Kaze shot a glob of web towards the Nurko that was farthest away. As the web flew through the air, he quickly turned and shot another one towards the other Nurko. Due to him being hidden, his two webs were able to successfully stick towards their targets. They wouldn¡¯t last forever, so he would need to act soon. Leaping down from the tree he was in, Kaze stabbed the closest Nurko with a debilitating blow. Sadly he didn¡¯t get the stealth attack since he was revealed when he shot his web a second time. Pushing all of his weight onto the wolf-like creature, he began to stab it with his spear as many times as he could. He was unable to kill it however, due to the other Nurko running towards him. -0 HP! Attack Missed! By leaping back quickly, Kaze was able to dodge the ferocious bite that came his way. Holding his spear tightly in his hand, he watched as the trapped Nurko slowly tore free from his webs. Its health was already pretty low, and it would only take a couple more hits to kill it. He wouldn¡¯t be able to kill it easily however, due to the uninjured Nurko that was guarding it. With a frown on his face, he began to come up with a plan. Shooting a web towards the uninjured Nurko, Kaze watched as it was easily dodged. Tch, it seemed that his stealth had helped him out more than he though. He was pretty sure the injured Nurko wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge his web, but the uninjured one would be a problem. Jabbing his spear towards the uninjured Nurko, Kaze tried to think of a plan. The one he had injured was currently limping, so he should be able to dodge its attacks with ease. It was the uninjured one he needed to worry about. He would¡¯ve thought more about this Nurko, but his train of thought was interrupted. It seemed that the uninjured level six Nurko now had a small green glow surrounding it. What the hell? Kaze watched in confusion as the green glow began to cover the uninjured Nurko. Noticing the injured one trying to sneak up on him, he quickly turned and shot a glob of web at it. The moment he did this, the uninjured Nurko disappeared. -40 HP! Grasping his side in pain, Kaze noticed a series of bloody lines across his skin. If he had to guess, he would say he had been scratched by the uninjured Nurko. The question was how. He had only seen green glow in his vision, and the next thing he knew he was injured. This attack had to be some type of skill. It was probably similar to his debilitating blow except the Nurko¡¯s speed was increased instead of its strength. Or its strength was increased as well. He didn¡¯t know for certain. Turning around to face his opponent, Kaze watched as the green glow disappeared from the uninjured Nurko. Could it only use that skill once? Either way, he wasn¡¯t going to let this opening pass him by. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out a poison potion and lobbed it towards the injured Nurko. Since it was still trapped in his webs, the only thing it could do was watch as the vial crashed into its body. A few seconds later, it was yelping in pain as the poison did its work. Holding a paralysis potion in his left hand, he waited for the uninjured Nurko to make its move. Once he hit it with the potion, he could just keep on shooting his webs at it until it was trapped. After that, he would be able to kill it quite easily. The only thing he had to be careful about was the Nurko dodging the vial in his hand. It had dodged the web he had shot at it, and he threw potions a lot slower than he shot web. After a couple moments of dodging attacks and thrusting his spear, Kaze realized a something. It seemed that the Nurko was smarter than he thought it was. He had assumed that it would just keep on attacking him with no plan, and he would just need to wait for an opening. However, this was not the case. Whenever it attacked him, the Nurko always made sure that it was able to quickly retreat. This not only made it hard to hit it with his potion, but it also made it hard to hit. He would have to trick it or wait for it to make a mistake if he wanted to win this battle. It was a few moments after this that the injured Nurko died. It seemed that it couldn¡¯t handle the bleeding and the poison damage it took, and succumbed to its wounds. This was good since Kaze would now be able to focus entirely on the opponent in front of him. He would need to too, seeing as how this was one of the hardest enemies he fought. Shooting his web towards the Nurko, Kaze watched as the monster dodged his attack. He shot off a few more in hopes of hitting it, but all of his attacks were dodged. After dodging his latest attack, the level six Nurko turned towards him with a snarl and began to glow. Holding the paralysis potion in his hand, Kaze waiting for it to make its move. The moment it hit him, he would try to hit it with his potion. If he was successful, he should be able to wrap this battle up. With his eyes focused on the Nurko, he watched as it quickly began to approach him. Try as he might, Kaze was too slow to dodge the oncoming attack. Gritting his teeth in pain, he noticed a big gaping cut appear on one of his legs. -40 HP! If it kept on landing attacks like this, he would soon be no more. Still, after using this skill, the Nurko would be forced to stay still for a few seconds. The first time this happened, he had thought it was a fluke. But after a second time, he knew this was no coincidence. Ignoring the pain in his body, Kaze lobbed the paralysis potion towards the Nurko¡¯s still body. Once it hit, he began shooting as much web as he could towards it. The moment it was completed covered in his webs, Kaze approached and began stabbing it with his spear. He was forced to use his debilitating blow for the first couple of hits, due to the fact that his normal spear attacks would just be deflected. Thanks to the Nurko being trapped, Kaze was able to kill it quite easily. As he drank a few health potions to regain his lost health, another Nurko quickly appeared. Shit, did it come because of the noise? As the Nurko charged towards him, Kaze grabbed another paralysis potion from his inventory. He usually didn¡¯t like using this many potions in one battle, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Jumping to the left, he managed to dodge the oncoming attack and throw the potion in his hand at the moving body. Once the potion hit, the battle was over. He only needed a few seconds to completely trap his opponent in webs. Downing a stamina potion, Kaze waited to see if any other Nurkos were coming. Once he realized they weren¡¯t, he began to loot the monsters. The first one he killed gave him a couple of copper coins which he put into his inventory. Although he would¡¯ve preferred a pelt, money was still better than nothing. Saving the level six Nurko for last, he approached the Nurko that he had just killed. Clicking the chest icon, he watched as the body disappeared and a pelt take its place. Nodding his head in satisfaction, he placed it in his inventory and approached the last corpse. Clicking the chest icon, Kaze watched the corpse disappear. He hoped the loot from this monster would be good, seeing as how it was a higher level than the rest. It also took a lot of work to kill, and if he only got a couple of coins for the trouble he went through, he wasn¡¯t going to be happy. It turned out that the loot from the level six Nurko was just another pelt. He couldn¡¯t really complain seeing as how he didn¡¯t get copper coins as he feared. Still, Kaze wished he could get more loot like the necklace or gloves that he had on. He would definitely get this type of loot from a boss, but he didn¡¯t know if he was ready to fight one. Only time would tell. Wiping off the blood from his spear, Kaze stretched the muscles in his body. He had some more Nurkos to kill. AN: Thanks for reading!