Training - first steps

After casting observe on everybody in the bus, there’s not a whole lot I can do besides take some random paper from my bag and use the craft skill on it to see what happens. A paper plane is the result. I unfold the paper and cast the craft skill a couple more times to try get different paper things. A paper boat, a different paper plane and a paper fish later, I get a popup.

Craft lvl 2: Can create slightly higher quality items

Useful to have, although I can’t train it anymore right now, since I have to save mana for my training session.

The bus takes another half an hour to get to my stop. From there, it’s a short walk to the trail that I’ve picked out. I get to the start of the trail a little after 3. I walk along the trail, admiring nature for a few minutes, before stopping in a relatively secluded clearing. I look around and make sure nobody’s watching, store my bag in my inventory, then raise my hand and use create ID.

The world takes on a slightly different colour. The sky turns a little grey and I look around at the ever so slightly different clearing. It’s hard to place exactly why it looks different, but it’s easy to tell that it does. The colours are off compared to what they are normally, it almost looks like it could be out of a video game. I use escape ID after surveying my surroundings, deciding to get both skills to level 2 first. It takes a couple more uses of each, but I get the popup for both of them.

Escape ID lvl 2: Costs slightly less

Create ID lvl 2: Costs slightly less

Well the skill levels themselves aren’t much, but that’s part of the bonus objective cleared. Now I just have to kill at least one monster. I wait for my mana to regenerate fully, then go to use create ID again, but stop myself before I do. I don’t even have any attack skills yet, how am I supposed to kill anything? I facepalm for my stupidity. That could have gotten me killed.

How do I get an attack skill though? I haven’t thought about that part at all. Shrugging, I reason that whatever system this is seems to respond to my intent and actions. I focus my intent on releasing mana as an energy blast from my hand, hoping to get some kind of a skill. A few seconds later, a small beam of energy escapes from my hands and a popup appears.

New skill: Mana arrow lvl 1

Mana arrow: Fire small blasts of mana in the shape of an arrow. Travels slightly slower than normal arrows. Scales with INT. 5MP

I try the skill and exactly as the skill describes, an arrow made of mana is fired from my hand and thuds into the tree I was aiming at, before disappearing into purple sparks. Cool! Not a very powerful attack and I can’t use it much before my mana bar runs out, but it can be fired quickly.

Once again, I need to wait for my mana to regenerate so I’m in an optimal position to train. I pass the time by clicking around a little on my character sheet. I notice that I can pick a title to be displayed in the ‘title’ section of the sheet. There currently aren’t any other options besides ‘The Gamer’ though, so I click out of that part.

The large amount of time I’m waiting for mana to regenerate is really starting to annoy me. I need to get my wisdom levelled up a little. Wisdom and intellect are almost certainly going to be my primary stats, I’ve always favoured mage builds. I want to see if I can become a battle mage of sorts though. I like the idea of running around and smacking things just as much as I like the idea of casting really cool looking spells. That means I’ll need to level up my physical stats too. That’s a topic for when I level up though.

Finally, my mana hits the maximum and I stand up, this time somewhat prepared to fight. If having one attack spell, no healing items and no weapons can be considered prepared. I recognise what I’m about to do is stupid, but if I want to level up, I have to throw myself a little into danger, and hopefully not die in the process. I raise my hand and use create ID, intending for there to be low level monsters in my newly created barrier.

Immediately I hear a squawking. I look around for a second before my eyes settle on a chicken of all things. It rears its head up and squawks again, before charging at me. It’s back, head and beak seem to be covered in some leather armour.

Leather armoured chicken, lvl 3

These chickens wear leather armour so they’re more sturdy and can deal more damage than otherwise.

The sheer aggression of the thing catches me off guard, as does the peck it delivers to my shoe. It deals a couple of points of damage. I react before it can peck me again by first jumping backwards, then punting it away. The squawking and clucking continues until it smacks into a tree. “What the fuck.” I say to thin air, snorting at the ridiculousness.

10xp

Quest completed!

Test the ID skills

Reward: 50xp

Optional: 50xp

Well that’s a whole load of EXP. More squawking alerts me to the presence of more chickens and I ready myself for more kicking. 3 more chickens charge out from the bushes. I fire a mana arrow, clicking my tongue when it misses and firing another one.

10xp

I don’t want to waste all my mana. Given the relatively weak strength of the enemies, there’s sure to be a lot of them, especially if the trio of charging chickens is anything to go by. Therefore, I dispatch of the other two using kicks. Another peck to my shoe costs me a couple more HP, before I manage to kill one in one kick and knock the other back. A stomp finishes the job. Thankfully, it just disappears into purple sparks instead of splattering all over the ground. Although I do love horror movies, I’m not a huge fan of gore. Plus, it would have made me feel really bad about killing chickens.

10xp

10xp

I look around quickly for anything I can use as a weapon. If there’s more of them and I have to kill them using either spells or with my feet, it’s not going to end well for me. A long branch lies on the ground a few metres from me. I pick it up, giving it a few experimental swings. Not the best of weapons, but it’ll do.

Two more chickens charge at me from opposite directions, making the same noises as the others. Wanting to save mana, and test out my stick, I wait till they’re each almost in kicking distance, then strike one, whirl around and hit another. It knocks them both back, but kills neither of them. I hit one again and kick the other before it can get to me.

10xp

10xp

I start to feel like I know what I’m doing here. With a grin, I whirl my stick around, ready to face more of them. Of course, as soon as I start to feel confident, it has to happen. A large noise makes its way to my ears, and I turn around to find an entire horde of armoured chickens, squealing and clucking in what appears to be anger. They charge towards me. I fire off a couple of mana arrows behind me, before running for it.

10xp

10xp

10xp

Mana arrow lvl 2: now costs 4MP, deals slightly more damage

Well that’s handy. Even with the new reduced cost, I can’t fire off enough spells to kill them all. Still, better to use them to reduce the damage I’d take in a melee. I turn behind me and fire off one arrow at a time, making sure to keep a reasonable enough distance from the horde. I try to stay in open areas in case there are any hiding, waiting to ambush me. Eventually, I get a beautiful popup.

LEVEL UP!

FUCK YES! I notice my mana and health bars have refilled completely. Even better! I fire off a couple more spells, managing to kill two more chickens.

8xp

8xp

Damnit, they give less XP now. Makes sense though. Unfortunately, I still have a horde of about twenty more chickens to deal with. I don’t have enough mana to deal with them all using spells. I decide to try something. I turn around and run towards the horde of aggressively determined chickens. I jump up and land hard, hoping my landing will kill some. Unfortunately, it only kills one of them.

In the time it takes for me to jump out of the middle of the horde, I’ve received a few more pecks. I’m reminded by the loss of 10HP that if I’m not careful, it’s game over for me. I start running again, starting to slow down a little due to my low level of fitness. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Those damned chickens peck at my heels, reducing more HP. Desperately, I throw more spells behind me, killing four more. I’m nearly at half my mana and still have a ton of them left to kill.

I stop for an instant, turn around and sweep the ground in a low arc with my stick. At least they don’t seem to be very bright, each of them could have jumped to avoid it. Every chicken within range, about half of the remaining horde, gets knocked aside by the sweep. The series of impacts reduces the **** though, only knocking them back about a metre, and doesn’t kill a single one. Still, it’s enough to give me a little breathing room.

Turning around and running again, I rapidly try to pull together a plan. My eyes fall on a tree with a relatively low hanging branch. I run towards it quickly, the horde of armoured chickens behind me. I get to the branch and jump up to it, holding on and ready to land again in case it doesn’t support my weight. To my relief, the branch holds firm and I look down to see angry chickens jumping and flapping their wings, trying to reach me. I’m too high up though.

I take a moment to breathe and calm down a little. I pull myself up and sit on the thick branch, trying to think. Although I’m not very strong, I weigh next to nothing at a whopping 50 kilograms, so it’s surprisingly easy for me to do pull-ups. From my vantage point in the tree, I count the remaining chickens I have left to kill.

16 angry, squawking, leather armour wearing chickens jump up at me, trying to attack me. I only have enough mana to kill 9 of them, and that’s assuming every spell hits. I look at my character sheet to see if there’s anything I’m forgetting that I can use to help me.

Maybe I could take 7 of them in a melee without dying, but it would be a close run thing, and if there’s an easier way, why not take it? My eyes scan around my character sheet until they fall on the stat points listing. The number, which has previously only said 0, has gone up to 5. Of course, from my level up! I now have 5 stat points to spend however I want.

I think carefully about how I want to spend the points, trying to tune out the angry noises coming from below me. I know that I want a relatively balanced stat sheet with no weaknesses. That’s a very long term thing though. How I spend one levels worth of points doesn’t matter a whole lot, I can always make up a difference later. However equally, each stat point adds up to create a bigger picture, which means I can’t just hammer all my points into whatever I feel like in the moment and expect that it will work out.

My eyes fall on my physical stats. I’ve always been insecure about my lack of physical fitness. Now having a way to improve that without the usual headache of working out, it’s tempting to put the points into strength and endurance in order to close up some of my weaknesses. That wouldn’t much help me in the current situation though. Maybe endurance would, but I’d rather cast more spells from a safe distance right now than get up close.

I can whack things later, I’m physically weak right now and spells are the best option for me. With my mental stats being chosen, it’s either wisdom or intellect. I’ve played enough games to know that a bigger mana bar works perfectly, until it doesn’t. Once you come up against a threat that can stand against all the spells you have, without being able to regenerate quickly enough to throw out more, you lose. That means although I’d love to have a gigantic mana bar, I can’t afford to skip out on wisdom either.

That being said, I also need to think about what would help me most in this situation. 10 more max MP would help me more than a slightly increased regen rate, assuming it actually gives me the mana. I do the math in my head and the slight increase in regen rate isn’t enough to forgo a way to cull the 16 enemies to 5 instead of 7. Intellect it is then. Finally, the decision made, I put the points into intellect, and get a popup.

Intellect has been raised above 25.

Mana bar efficiency has been increased.

Holy fuck yes! A quick check to my character sheet reveals that my new max mana is 130, and even better, that the system has once again refilled my mana bar. I send a quick thank you to Gaia, wondering if it’s her that is designing my system. I spam mana arrow, my new maximum mana easily enough to take care of every single one of the chickens.

Oh hey, some of them dropped some stuff! I drop from the branch and quickly pick up the loot I can find without looking at it. I raise my hand and exit the barrier, sitting down on the grass and breathing a sigh of relief. It’s definitely been a productive afternoon, all things considered. I could have died to chickens. Fuck me, I can’t help but laugh a little at that, now that it’s over. It would've said on my tombstone ‘pecked to **** by angry chickens’. What is my life?

Achievement unlocked: Survival!

You survived your first encounter with monsters! Be thankful it was chickens and not an angry ogre or something.

Reward:

+1 Wisdom

+1 Endurance

I shudder at the thought of whether or not I would have survived an ogre. Although I only got down to 38HP today, those chickens were perfectly capable of killing me if I had been less careful. Even then, only a couple of lucky breaks saved me from taking a lot more damage and possibly dying. Still, I feel a rush like I’ve only felt a few times before. It’s adrenaline, it’s not something I’ve felt for ages. I relish it, knowing that eventually, I might become a little addicted to fighting like this. Come on though, what’s not to love! Magic spells, armoured chickens. Admittedly this was more funny than epic, but in time, when I get stronger…who knows?