Dravincia Read online

  Firemaking: 1 (25/500)

  Skinning: 1 (100/500)

  It looked like curing the hide gave much more experience than just skinning it. Arthur would have to check with other skills as well to see if building on that particular skill awarded more experience per step. All in all, it was time to get to work. He rolled the cured skin up and placed it in his bag. He decided to pile a couple of more massive logs onto the fire to let them smolder and keep the coals burning.

  He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder while picking up his bow and took off toward the edge of the clearing. Walking through the trees, he kept on the lookout for absolutely anything. He wasn’t opposed to sitting in the forest and shooting birds if he thought it would help him level. He wouldn’t mind finding more animals with fur for the skinning experience as well as the money those hides were likely to bring.

  He walked around the trunk of an unusually large tree and froze in place. There was a boar that looked to weigh around seventy-five pounds grazing near some trees ahead of him. He knew they could be rather aggressive, and although he was small, the tusks he had on him could do some damage if he got too close. Not only that, but both their skulls and the hide near their front shoulders were extremely tough and durable. Placing an arrow just right to kill it might be a challenge.

  He wanted to test out his theory of looking at its stats though. With a bit of concentration, Arthur was able to get a status window to show up for the boar.

  Name: Boar

  Level: 3

  Type: Creature

  Rarity: Common

  HP: ???/???

  Stamina: ???/???

  Strength: ?

  Agility: ?

  Endurance: ?

  Experience: N/A

  Skills

  Combat Skills:

  Charge: ? (???/???)

  Gore: ? (???/???)

  He assumed having some information was better than none. It was good to know its level and he was somewhat surprised to see the skills it had listed. He had no way to know how developed the boar’s abilities were, but at least it let him get a glimpse of what to expect it to try if it attacked. Nothing out of the ordinary for a boar in all fairness. It was also only one level higher than him, so it should be reasonably straight forward to take down.

  He decided to go for the kill and slowly brought his bow up and placed the arrow on the string. He steadily pulled back the line. Looking down the shaft, he picked the point he wanted to hit. He had decided to aim for the heart, directly behind the front shoulder. This should prove the best chance of killing it without too much hassle. A head-shot wouldn’t work due to the thick bone unless he hit it directly in the eye and into the brain, and there was no way he was taking that chance with his archery skill level.

  He took a steadying breath and released the string. The arrow launched directly at the target, and to his dismay, it hit a little further back than he had intended. Instead of a shot right behind its front shoulder, it hit closer to the gut of the beast. The boar squealed and jumped forward for a moment with the arrow still sticking out of its side. It came to a stop again and looked around until it spotted Arthur. He could almost see the fury in its eyes when it spotted him. It turned in his direction and charged right at him.

  It was at that point he finally noticed he had been standing there like an idiot staring at the boar instead of getting another projectile ready. Leave it up to me to screw up something simple. He thought to himself. He tried to fumble through his bag and find another arrow quickly. After a bit of fighting trying to get an arrow free of the large sack, he realized it was now too late as the boar was almost right on top of him.

  Right before it reached him, he quickly jumped to his left to avoid its charge but much to his dismay it still clipped his right leg a bit with its substantial body and sent him sprawling to the ground. Most of his items even stayed in his bag, but a couple of arrows had fallen out. He scrambled quickly to get back to his feet as the boar slowed his charge and turned back toward him. He didn’t seem to have as much speed as he returned and wasn’t running with his head down this time. Instead, he was staring straight at him with his hateful glare.

  Instead of running into him, he stopped close to him and swung his head at him with his sharp tusks. He jumped backward, but the boar was so quick that one of his teeth caught the chin of Arthur’s left leg and caused a shallow cut. This was surely going to end badly if he didn’t try something else. Arthur could see it now. Sent here for a second chance and killed by a level 3 boar. How embarrassing would that be? With the beast already on top of him, there was no time to fit another arrow onto the bow. The idea of facing this massive beast with his small dagger was laughable.

  He did the only thing he could think of and took off running to his left. He could hear it running behind him, and he knew there was no way he could outrun this monster in a straight footrace. Especially if it decided to charge him again. Instead, he started weaving around the trees to keep it off balance and to make it lose some momentum-changing directions.

  Rounding one of the trees, Arthur caught his foot on a root and went sprawling into the dirt. He struggled to regain his feet while hearing the stomping of the boar closing in on him. Reaching his feet, he started off again, but before he made it three steps, the boar crashed into him and cause a significant cut on his right leg as he fell.

  The boar continued past and started to circle back toward him again. Arthur regained his feet while trying to ignore the pain of the new bleeding gash on his leg and took off again, weaving through the trees.

  After about a minute, he was starting to feel somewhat winded and drained. He also noticed he was slowing down a bit as well. He recalled a stamina stat on the character sheet and decided he must be running low. He thought about the stat, and the stat number appeared on the edge of his vision.

  Stamina: 15/120

  That confirmed his thoughts on the issue. He had to do something quickly, or he would run out of stamina and be screwed. He had a small cut and did get hit a bit by its charge, so Arthur also decided to pull up a partial stat window to check the vital stats.

  HP: 45/120

  Mana: 100/100

  Stamina 15/120

  It was apparent he had taken some damage for sure. The worst part was he knew that the hits he got on him were not very solid except the last one, so he guessed the damage was much lower than it could be. He started looking around, trying to see what else he could do. It was rather obvious, based on how long they had run so far, that this monster would not reset like a video game and just give up and walk back to where it was.

  He caught a glimpse of a slightly lower branch up ahead that looked low enough for him to reach and sufficiently sturdy for it to hold him. He only hoped and prayed this was going to work. He dropped the arrow he had been holding knowing he couldn’t get it nocked in time and slung the bow onto his shoulder. When he was close enough to the branch, he jumped with everything he had and grabbed the branch. He pulled and slowly lifted himself up and onto the branch. Luckily the boar wasn’t large enough to reach him even from this relatively low perch he had found.

  The boar stared at him from the ground, so he decided it was a good time to finish this. He steadied himself on the branch and pulled his bow off his shoulder. He grabbed an arrow from his bag and sighted it on the boar. When he let fly, it hit closer to the heart but higher along its spine this time. The boar squealed, even more, this time but wasn’t moving quite as fast. The thing was resilient, so Arthur fetched one more arrow, sighted on the boar, and shot. This time the boar went down from the shaft and lay there unmoving.

  He sat on the branch sucking air from the long run. He leaned back near the trunk of the tree to relax for a few minutes and let his heart slow down. The adrenaline of the situation started to wear off, and some exhaustion was creeping in. It was apparent now how badly that encounter could have gone even though it had appeared to be simple. Once his breathing had slowed, and he was a l
ittle more in control of his emotions, he lowered himself from the tree limb.

  He walked over to the boar and gave it a fearsome glare for a while until he was sure it wasn’t breathing anymore. He reflected on the encounter he just had with this wild beast and yearned to learn more about it. With that thought in his mind, he visualized a combat log for the encounter and luckily it responded to his wishes.

  You have dealt 14 HP damage to Boar (Level 3) with Simple Iron Arrow.

  Boar (Level 3) has dealt 15 HP damage to you with Charge (Glancing Blow).

  Boar (Level 3) has dealt 10 HP damage to you with Gore (Glancing Blow).

  Boar (Level 3) has dealt 40 HP damage to you with Charge.

  You have dealt 28 HP damage to Boar (Level 3) with Simple Iron Arrow (Critical).

  You have dealt 8 HP damage to Boar (Level 3) with Simple Iron Arrow.

  Boar (Level 3) has died.

  You have gained 100 experience for killing Boar (Level 3).

  You have gained 100 experience in Archery for killing Boar (Level 3).

  Arthur was rather thankful to see it on the ground and was elated at the kill itself. It was odd how the damage didn’t appear to line up with his weapons damage statistics though. There must be special modifiers he didn’t know about yet. He would discover that as time went on or he could ask someone when he thought he was high enough level to venture on.

  Arthur spent the next five days roaming the area around his camp by the stream. He never ventured farther than half a day away to ensure he could make it back to his camp by nightfall. This allowed him to rack up many more kills and more experience. Overall, he was able to get his level up to five and improve many of his skills.

  Name: Arthur

  Level: 5

  Age: 26

  Race: Human

  HP: 120/120

  MP: 100/100

  Stamina: 120/120

  Strength: 3

  Agility: 4

  Intellect: 2

  Wisdom: 1

  Endurance: 5

  Charisma: 3

  Luck: 4

  Experience: 350/1900 (15 stat points available)

  Skills (100% boost to any skill for level up)

  Combat Skills:

  Archery: 3 (700/1000)

  Small Blades: 2 (150/750)

  Professions:

  Cooking: 2 (400/750)

  Firemaking: 2 (700/750)

  Skinning: 3 (400/1000)

  Arthur hated nothing more than being so indecisive. He knew instinctively that sitting on all those stat points was a complete and utter waste, but it was hard to tell what would be the best use for them. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t want to focus on a pure archery class and would have preferred to be a caster of some kind. What person on Earth didn’t dream of being some all-powerful magician at one point in their lives? The problem was that it was hard to justify using those points for stats that he may not have a use for in the foreseeable future.

  It was also holding him back a little on progressing with faster kills he was sure. The plus side was that he was awarded five points per level to play with. This seemed a little steep compared to some other games he used to play, back on Earth, but who was he to judge this world? He also discovered some new attributes to his skills. The initial level when he learned them had given him a boost to experience, but so far, he had received no more as he leveled them up. What he did discover is that they had given him additional perks when he had leveled them. He went back over the notifications he had seen.

  Congratulations, you have progressed to Level 2 in Archery. You are granted a 2% bonus to accuracy. The arrow that flies is the best kind.

  Congratulations, you have progressed to Level 3 in Archery. You are granted a 4% bonus to accuracy. How did you miss? It was three feet in front of you!

  Congratulations, you have progressed to Level 2 in Small Blades. Your attack speed has increased by 2%. Watch what you poke in the back.

  Congratulations, you have progressed to Level 2 in Cooking. Dishes you cook gain a 3% bonus to effectiveness. Still not very edible but getting there.

  Congratulations, you have progressed to Level 2 in Firemaking. You have a 3% better chance of successfully lighting a fire. Well, we may make a caveman out of you yet.

  Congratulations, you have progressed to Level 2 in Skinning. You have a 4% chance for any furs you skin to be of a 1 level higher quality than your skill would typically allow. Just throw some salt on it I’m sure it will be fine.

  Congratulations, you have progressed to Level 3 in Skinning. You have an 8% chance for any furs you skin to be of a 1 level higher quality than your skill would normally allow. Clean the blood off first!

  After some trial and error, Arthur also found a way to streamline some of his notifications, so he only got the information he truly needed to see. While before he had to actively will any information, he needed to come up, Arthur was now able to customize what he saw and when. He had experimented with showing actual damage from the combat log while fighting a few of the animals he had hunted and quickly discovered that this method worked pretty well. The skill gains and other notifications felt natural to him as they flowed into him. It didn’t distract him during a fight, and it seemed that he just knew the information. It didn’t take up any of his vision or anything, so it never affected his combat.

  It was time for Arthur to make his way out of this forest and find some inhabitants of the world. With the amount of meat and skins, he had acquired it was time for him to find somewhere to offload the goods and stockpile some necessities. He should at least be high enough level to not look overly suspicious.

  He had also almost run out of arrows now. Many of them had broken during his hunting and while the iron heads were usually intact and it was rather simple to get replacement shafts the issue came when trying to find suitable fletching and an adhesive for it. Since he was down to only ten, he did not feel very comfortable staying in the forest for much longer. Add in the fact that he wasn’t sure how much travel it would require to leave the woods and find a town for supplies, he had made up his mind to finally go.

  Before he left, he wanted to get the stats out of the way though. After careful thinking, he had decided he was hampering himself pretty severely, and in all honesty, if he were able to get five points per level, it wouldn’t take him long to accrue some more points for further stats later. With fifteen points to play with, he decided to go with 5 points into Strength to bring it up to a respectable 8. It wasn’t overly critical now, but he was sure it would help him lug a bit more weight if nothing else. He had felt his muscles grow a bit stronger when he selected that option. When he looked at his stats after this, he noticed that both his Stamina and his HP had jumped up 20 points. Another mystery he couldn’t figure out right now but would have to look into.

  Next, he dropped 4 points into Agility, bringing him up to 8. Since he was currently focusing on Small Blades and Archery, that skill would greatly benefit them. He noticed that every point he invested from 5 and on in Agility made him feel a little faster. He couldn’t quite explain it, but he felt like he would be able to move and run quicker.

  He also put 3 more into Endurance to bring it to 8 as well. Having more health and Stamina was always a good thing. This added another 60 to each of those stats, so Arthur assumed he was getting 20 HP and 20 Stamina for every point of Endurance he invested in. He also dropped 2 points into Charisma to make it an excellent 5 since he was going to have to interact with other people before long and he even invested 1 into Luck to hit 5 with it as well. He gave his stats a once over one more time while standing in his small glade.

  Name: Arthur

  Level: 5

  Age: 26

  Race: Human

  HP: 230/230

  MP: 100/100

  Stamina: 230/230

  Strength: 8

  Agility: 8

  Intellect: 2

  Wisdom: 1

  Endurance: 8

  Charisma:
5

  Luck: 5

  Experience: 350/1900

  Skills (100% boost to any skill for level up)

  Combat Skills:

  Archery: 3 (700/1000)

  Small Blades: 2 (150/750)

  Professions:

  Cooking: 2 (400/750)

  Firemaking: 2 (700/750)

  Skinning: 3 (400/1000)

  The low numbers for Intellect and Wisdom did make him feel bad, but he could always make it up later if he ever found any skills needing those stats. He was rather happy with his current setup, though. He felt a little lighter on his feet and his bag, now loaded with all of his supplies and many numerous hides he had cured, felt much lighter than it had before. Also seeing the higher health and stamina made him feel a bit more secure.

  He made sure to top off his water skin and ensure everything was packed. He grabbed his bow that had been leaning on a nearby tree and bid farewell to the only home he had known thus far in this world. He was off to see the world.

  Chapter 5

  Alem’s Crossing

  Arthur worked his way through the forest in a northeastern direction, as far as he could tell. He kept walking through the day and would stop to camp at night. Carrying all of his belongings, Arthur hadn’t been able to travel without making a considerable amount of noise, so this hadn’t allowed any hunting. He had enough cured food in his bag to last him a long time on the road, so it was not necessary anyway. He occasionally passed by small creeks and streams and would refill his waterskin when necessary.

  Midmorning of the fourth day he finally broke through the tree line and looked out over an open field. The view before him was rather bleak. It was an area that should have been rather picturesque. Long, rolling hills that should have been covered in tall, swaying grass should be everywhere the eye could see. This landscape looked quite barren, to be honest. He could see something on the horizon along with a hard-packed dirt round that might be a town but was hard to tell.