Off to the woods

John started searching in the garage for anything useful he could use. Is there anything here that can be a viable weapon for me? I’ve got a good amount of agility in me but not much strength or endurance, so anything too heavy is not a very good option at the moment.

At a corner of the garage, he found a baseball bat that had been long forgotten and was stored among other knickknacks. It was a smaller sized wooden bat. His father had bought it for him so that the two could have some father-and-son time. Unfortunately for John, it didn’t see much use; a couple of weeks later his father had started travelling a lot more for work, thus lessening that sort of father-and-son bonding time.

The bat wasn’t too big, but it still was a bit heavy. He picked it up and took a few practice swings with it. Due to its weight, he handled it quite clumsily and felt he would get tired more quickly than he would like with it. It still could be a backup weapon, he thought while putting it in his inventory.

John continued to look around the garage. He started to worry he wouldn’t get much better options, but then he saw two old early 1900s policeman wooden batons that were hanging on the wall by their safety straps. His grandfather gave them to his father as a birthday present long ago. Thinking about her son and being a bit of an overprotective mother, Brenda objected to having them in the house. So, they were left there hanging on the garage wall next to his father’s tools.

Taking one from the wall, John cast observe on it. And then proceeded to take a few swings with it.

It still was not perfect, but it felt much better to swing it since it was lighter in weight. He noticed he could easily handle it with just one hand, so he took the other one from the wall and wondered if he could dual wield them. He tested handling them both at the same time and was satisfied with the result he got.

Well, this is interesting, wielding two batons seems to me like a better option so far. Fighting with this style, I can better benefit from my higher agility. I’ll probably need to find better weapons later on, but these batons will do for now. John stored them in his inventory. Since Dad is not here, he won’t miss them.

With his weapons picked, John felt ready for his first training. He thought it better to hunt low level monsters at the beginning and progress according to how well he could fight them. Being curious about his current options, he cast Create Instant Dungeon.

He studied intently the option window. Scenario seemed to be locked into the Urban setting, casting observe on it told him that the feature was currently set to only create dungeons in the scenario currently present and other options would be unlocked at higher levels. Level meant the level of the dungeon to be created; by default it was set to his current level. And Monster was the dungeon’s inhabitants; at his current level, John had a choice of empty or rats.

Closing the window, John decided to head for the forest and hoped the change in scenario gave him other options than rats. Not that he feared them, he just didn’t want to hunt only rats for the rest of his afternoon.

On his arrival, he proceeded to walk around the woods in search for the perfect secluded spot, when suddenly his surroundings changed. Oh no, not again! Although it was only the second time that this had happened to him, John knew what this meant even before he got the message.

You have entered an illusion barrier.
Defeat all enemies to be able to exit.

Why the hell is there a barrier here? On reading the word enemies, he quickly equipped the batons. He looked around to get his bearings. He realized he was in a small clearing, and whatever or whoever was with him in this barrier, he did not see or hear them yet. John positioned himself in front of a big bush; he trusted on his proximity sense to warn him if anything was in it and thus nothing would be able to attack him from behind too quickly.

John stayed still; he did not think to hide in the bush behind him just yet. The opportunity to do so was quickly denied to him when he heard something growling in front of him. At the edge of the clearing in front of him, four coyotes appeared; their stances and the noises coming from them told him they were not one bit friendly towards him. He decided to cast observe on one of them.

Level four? That’s not good. He cast observe on the other three. That makes it three of them at level four and the other at level five. At least their HP are not too high, the highest leveled one has twenty.

The level five coyote seemed to be the leader of the pack; after some more growling, he barked. Two coyotes started moving obeying what seemed to be an order from their leader; one advanced towards his front and the other towards his left side.

The one in front of him attacked first. John sensed its intent to bite his right leg. Before it landed its strike, John hit it with his right baton dealing 6 damage. Being distracted by his first attacker, John felt the incoming attack from the one to his left too late, and it bit his left leg.

-4 HP

Stunned, John saw that it latched itself on his leg and gnawed at it as if it was trying to remove a piece of him, taking away a total of two more HP from him. John struck it with his left baton, dealing three damage to it, but it still didn’t let go.

-2 HP

Quite annoyed, the gamer struck it twice. Being weakened, it finally let go and leaped away. Quickly after, the first attacker landed a strike at his other leg. After losing another three HP, John hit it twice before he took more damage.

6 damage
3 damage
20 exp

Achievement Unlocked: First Kill
Slay your first creature, although a coyote is not much of a challenge.
+150 exp

With one coyote down and another probably too weak to be a threat, John turned his attention to the remaining two coyotes. The leader once again barked and they slowly advanced on him, this time the leader to his left and the other to his right. The level 5 coyote seemed to want to take advantage and attack the side of his more hurt leg. John inspected the leg and was surprised that it didn’t hurt much though there was quite a bit of blood on his pants; he felt the same with the other leg. He was still down eleven HP, but his injuries seemed to have healed and for that he was very thankful.

Once again, John felt the incoming attack and quickly struck the lower leveled coyote with his left baton; the pain made it cower away. On the other side, the leader swiped his leg and also withdrew, not giving John a chance to counter. They fell back, changed sides of approach and advanced on him again. This time the leader attacked him first. The Gamer had to again strike in order to defend himself, and while his attention was on one coyote, the other swiped him. And once more, they retreated.

Very smart, they are using a very effective hit and run tactic. While one gets my attention, the other attacks. John noticed that even though he just killed one of them and injured another, the remaining two were still eager to attack him. But this time they chose to do it smartly.

Again, they advanced on him, but this time they crossed paths in front of him, effectively confusing him, and due to this, he received two swipes from his attackers. This time John wasn’t able to land a hit. They quickly fell back for the third time.

Damn it, choose a bloody target, John! Or else these two will slowly kill you. He started to feel frustrated with the situation, their tactic was too effective for his liking. He chose to ignore the leader and focused on the other attacker.

This time, while they advanced, John kept his eye on his chosen target. He freely received the attack from the leader and struck the other as hard as he could with his right baton.

-3 HP

Critical Hit
12 damage
20 exp

Ding, level up!

Cool, it worked! I mean, I got lucky with the critical, but it worked, nonetheless. Two down, two to go. The gamer cheered. He was even happier when he noticed his HP and MP had been restored to full.

When the leader fell back and looked towards John, it saw its downed partner. It angrily barked at him, rage seeming to take over, and advanced directly towards its opponent.

John steeled himself for the next attack, as the last real threat to him approached. To his surprise the coyote leaped from just beyond his proximity sense range. It was not heavy enough to knock him off his feet, but it did manage to bite the Gamer’s left arm and its paws tried to scratch him. It was still latched onto his arm when he finally had enough of his opponent and struck it. It let go and landed beside him. Before it could leave, the Gamer turned towards it and did a double strike attack.

6 damage
3 damage
25 exp

Finally killing the leader, John looked around and saw no sign of the injured coyote. These guys were harder to kill than I thought. Even though they were a level or two higher than me, I never thought that they would be this smart and be able to tactically attack me.

All of the sudden, a barrage of windows appeared in front of John.

You are now able to exit the barrier.

Achievement Unlocked - Against the Odds
You have defeated a pack of creatures for the first time. Surprising feat for a first-time hunter.
Reward:
+200 exp

Achievement Unlocked - They Die Hard
Realizing creatures aren’t dumb minded beings that attack without much thought.
Reward:
+1 Wis
+1 level to Knowledge of the Beast Skill

New Skill - Dual Wielding Lvl 1 (Passive)
You have learned the fighting style of dual weapon wielding
At current level your offhand receives a damage penalty of 50%

New Skill - Double Strike Lvl1 (Active), 10mp
While dual wielding, strike an opponent with both weapons at the same time.
20% boost to the damage dealt by both weapons
10% chance of critical strike with both weapons

After reading the notifications, John looked at the three coyote corpses next to him. He noticed some glinting objects around and partially under them. Holy shit, is that loot? Before he picked them up, he proceeded to inspect the bodies. As soon as he touched one body, it disappeared. He did the same to the other three and all that was left were the objects. He bundled them together and saw that he got 3 coyote hides, 6 coyote canine teeth, 20 copper coins and 2 silver coins. He was quite giddy with what he got.

So, I’ve got a loot system too... That’s awesome! He put the items in his inventory, leaving the coins for last. I wonder if I can sell these coins for real money. When he put them away, he noticed that, instead of being stored as items, they were added directly to his wallet system giving him a little bellow $67. That brought another smile to his face.

Finally, having enough time, John inspected his injuries again. After leveling up he only sustained an eight HP loss. His arm and legs seemed to have healed, as there were no signs of any scratches or bites on them. John then remembered Gamer’s Body. After observing this skill he found out that it was responsible for closing his wounds so fast and for the pain not having lasted longer during the fight. The only evidence that he saw to his previous injuries were his tattered and blood-stained clothes. They were ruined, and it seemed that the blood was not only his, he had blood on places where he hadn’t bled from.

Going back to his character screen, John wanted to get more details on his new skills, but before he could get to them, he saw that he also got 5 stat points to use. I must have gotten them when I leveled. He decided to not use them now as he had a lot to think about in where to put them.

Something much stronger than you has entered this barrier and has taken control over it.
You may only leave when you defeat all enemies.