New Quest: The Cave of Hunters
[Before you lie two paths. The first is the Path of the Archer and the second is the Path of the Tracker. Choose a path or exit now.]
This was the hardest choice so far. Without anyone else to compare notes with it was hard to say if the choice really made that much of a difference. However, since talking to Tamee Alan was getting the impression that while it may affect the type of challenge he faced, it may also have a deeper effect as well. In the end all he could do was make the choice that seemed to suit him most and hope for the best.
Alan had very little experience with a bow. He had a couple of archery lessons at a summer camp once, but that just meant he knew how to put the arrow on the string. Part of training in the army was how to track, but it was taught at a rudimentary level and was not his specialty. Working in a unit meant that he usually let the more skilled members do any tracking that was needed, but he had at least paid some attention to what they were doing. He had always liked learning stuff. With some trepidation he chose the path of the tracker.
Once again he found himself underground, this time in another small cavern with two tunnels on the far side. Unlike previous exits he could actually see a little ways down them. He hadn’t really thought of this before, but why was there light in these caves? Other than the sheep cave with the skylight and the one tunnel with lava, there had been no source of light in the others. Somehow though there was always enough to see by. He noticed a notification, but ignored it for the moment to ask Tamee about the light.
“Quick question, why is it that I can see in these dungeons? I’m underground and don’t have a torch, shouldn’t it be pitch black?”
“So far you have only experienced Network dungeons instead of natural dungeons. I will skip those for the moment. A Network dungeon does not have to obey any natural laws. Space is relative and the lighting is artificial, in the sense that it need not have an obvious source. Network dungeons can also mess with the concept of time, so it can cause you to reemerge moments after entering or years later. Do not worry though, these beginning dungeons have no time dilation.”
With that answered it was time to get to the notification.
Quest Update: The Path of the Tracker
[A small bandit group once used this cave as a hideout. They used to stash their loot down one of the many tunnels. Track them to where they had hidden the treasure and see if anything is left.]
It was a treasure hunt. That could be kind of cool. Not only would it result in another class stone, but maybe there would be some good loot at the end. This would also be a chance to learn another skill, tracking definitely had to be a skill. While a small walled off portion of his mind was still freaking out about this whole thing, Alan had to admit that he was loving the idea of growing and becoming more powerful. No, not just more powerful, more able. None of this would happen just standing here though.
There weren’t any obvious signs of the bandits in this space, at least that he could see, so he made his way closer to the tunnels at the back. There were two choices and both seemed to lead deeper into the mountain. The first thing to look for were footprints. It was so obvious when he started looking that he thought he was being punked, but then realized these are starter dungeons so maybe they make it easier. The right tunnel’s floor was pristine. Not to say it was clean, as a matter of fact there was a thick layer of dusty dirt at the bottom of both tunnels. However, it had clearly never been disturbed. The left tunnel, though, looked like an entire legion had walked through it. Was it really that simple or a trick? Trying not to overthink it he took the left tunnel.
After walking down it for a minute there was another open area. Here were the remains of several campfires and rotted tents. It looked like a campsite that had been abandoned at least twenty years ago. The coals and charred remnants of wood crumbled at the lightest touch and the tents were mere tatters. He approached them slowly, careful not to disturb any signs. He needn’t have bothered. There were plenty of tracks all through the camp but only one group that led away from it. In the back of the camp there were three more tunnels but the footprints clearly led to the middle one. In an effort to be thorough he checked the other two entrances quickly, but found nothing that would suggest either was ever used. The middle tunnel it was.
This continued for what must have been almost two hours. Each passage led to a cavern and each cavern had two or three tunnels leading out. Each time there was either a set of footprints, some litter, or sometimes a mark on the wall to identify the correct passage. Early on he had decided to intentionally go down the wrong passage to see what would happen. After a few steps into the tunnel he found himself standing back in the original room. This was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that he could be confident he was on the correct path as long as he didn’t end up back here, but it also meant he would have to restart which would suck if he was far into the challenge.
For the first half the signs were easy to find. Footprints, scrapes on the walls, or sometimes trash would show the way. After an hour and probably fifteen rooms, it was no longer so simple. Now some had lots of tunnels, others only two or three choices, but the signs were also much more difficult to detect. One of the more challenging ones was a choice between two equally traveled paths but by sniffing both tunnels he could tell one definitely led to the latrine. It was weird that the scent would linger after all this time. It was probably a feature of the dungeon.
The way this was set up was clearly a test by the Network and not based on a real bandit’s lair. Not only would it have taken them forever to get in and out of here, but what natural cave system would be full of so many branching tunnels and caverns. As he moved through the second half of the test it did become harder and harder to find the clues. The bright side was that at some point he gained the tracking skill. There was no sudden burst of knowledge or newfound skill but it did boost his confidence which in turn made it easier.
The challenge also grew as the trial progressed. In the next room there were some mushrooms growing on the floor. One of the mushrooms in front of a tunnel was growing crooked, suggesting it had been disturbed. Not only was this a very subtle clue, but this was also not a real sign left by some long dead group of bandits but instead a network created lead. The mushrooms would have been hundreds or thousands of generations removed from the ones growing here when the bandits last passed through. Still, he could appreciate the Network’s efforts to at least fake authenticity.
Alan also had to admit that it may have finally gotten him. The current room had three tunnels leading out of it. The problem wasn’t that there were no tracks. There were tracks all over the place. Each of the tunnels had plenty going in and out. He had spent the last several minutes trying to decide if any of them had slightly more, but if they did it wasn’t noticeable. If he had to he could always guess, but he didn’t want to spend another couple of hours getting back here if he was wrong. Returning to the entrance he sat on a mostly flat rock and pondered the room again.
There were several such rocks throughout the room which was more than twenty-five meters across. There were no obvious clues for what purpose the bandits used this room, no sign of habitation or design, just tracks. It was also one of the bigger rooms throughout the test. Spaced out around the room were the three tunnels to choose from. As he looked at them some more he noticed that the spacing was off. Usually the exit tunnels were symmetrically placed on the far side of whatever room he was in. However, here the left and middle tunnel were about five meters apart, but the right tunnel was significantly farther away from the others, maybe as far as ten meters apart.
Then he noticed that while most of the room had tracks running through it, the space between the middle and right tunnel was suspiciously devoid of tracks. Moving closer he noticed that it almost looked like this area had been brushed smooth. It wasn’t just that no one had walked through here, there were paths of footprints that simply stopped before resuming on the far side. One of the footprints was missing the front third. Something was rotten in Denmark!
Looking around again there was a gap behind two of the boulders by the wall. It was almost exactly in the middle of the two widely spaced doors. There was enough room, barely, for him to squeeze in. While huddled behind the two rocks he found a short tunnel that he could crawl through.
This passage was much shorter than previous ones and after about fifteen meters Alan found himself in a room that was just over three meters across. There were only a few small stones scattered about. In the middle of the room was a patch of rich loose soil. After the difficulties with the last room he was ok with this obvious sign. He was also thankful that the soil was so loose since he didn’t have a shovel to dig with. Using his hands he dug down in the thick loamy dirt about six inches and found a small beat up box.
Quest Completed: the Path of the Tracker
[You managed to follow the bandits' tracks all the way to their loot. Reward: One epic Hunter class stone]
No pouch appeared so he opened the dirty box. Inside was the smooth shiny stone. It had a humanoid holding a bow at full draw.
Item: Hunter Class Stone, rarity Epic. This stone can be used to gain the class Hunter, a perception based class that specializes in tracking, ranged attacks, animals, and scouting. Because of this stone’s rarity it can be used as long as you have no classes above quartz level. Can be used at any time.
He had been looking forward to increasing his perception. One of his favorite characters was always saying perception is the best stat and it is hard to disagree. While he hadn’t found anything in the wiki describing the effect of the different stats, and Tamee wouldn’t tell him either, he felt that they were mostly self explanatory. The ability to spot subtle signs and clues would probably be helpful when exploring dungeons, and seeing things from far away would let him both find and avoid trouble. Also, he was really hoping for darkvision at some point. Night vision goggles were probably not a thing in this medieval style land, but if his eyes could do it for him that would be awesome. He absorbed the stone and checked his stats after the painful burst of knowledge. This was the fourth time, five if you counted the healing spell, but the brain trauma wasn’t any less.
Alan Taylor
Race: Human [W]
Class:
Fighter (7%) Quartz
Healer (4%) Quartz
Hunter (0%) Quartz
Rogue (9%) Quartz
Health: 124 (12/hour)
Stamina: 104 (21/minute)
Mana: 86 (9/minute)
Stats:
Strength: 9
Dexterity: 9
Perception: 8
Focus: 6
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 10
Constitution: 7
Spirit: 3
Skills:
Daggers: 7
Dodging: 4
First Aid: 12
Harvesting: 3
Herbology: 5
Identify: 4
Running: 7
Sneak: 2
Tracking: 5
Unarmed Combat: 7
Titles: [Top Recruit]
Talents:
Fighter: Parry
Healer: Mend
Hunter: Charm Animal
Rogue: Quick Hands, Stealth
Spells: Minor Healing (common)
He tried to see if he could tell the difference in his new perception, but there wasn’t much to look at in here. The walls were relatively smooth and other than the pile of dirt and the exit at the back there was nothing to catch the eye. His previous classes were making good progress but they still had a long way to go for a level up. The new talent, charm animal, was intriguing. Would he be able to cast a spell and get them to fight for him? Could he sing a song and have them sew a dress for the ball? Then he remembered, this wasn’t an action he could somehow activate, he would just be extra talented at charming animals. This still had possibilities, but he would probably need to find someone to show him how to charm animals before it really became feasible. How did one charm an animal? Alan was fairly abysmal at charming people, so an animal that couldn’t even understand him would probably be worse. Although, if they didn’t know what he was saying he couldn’t put his foot in his mouth, as he so often did. The only thing he could think of that might work was feeding them. As a bonus to the new class he had also gained five levels in his new tracking skill.
On a whim he collected a large amount of the rich soil. Maybe he could grow something in it later, it seemed like really good dirt. He laid his pouch on the ground and scooped as much of the dirt in as he could. It didn’t seem to matter that the opening of the pouch was sagging and mostly closed, when it got near the pouch seemed to sense the purpose of his movements and the soil disappeared inside. He couldn’t ‘see’ inside the pouch, but he had a sense of the contents and there in a corner was a nice pile of dirt. There wasn’t anything else to do so he made his way to the exit in the back of the cave and found himself once again in the valley.
This dungeon had taken the longest of any of them so far. The sun said it was already early afternoon. He didn’t think he was in there quite that long, so he was guessing that the days had to be shorter than he was used to. This would be a good time to take a break, so he figured it was time to try and cook some of the goat meat he had harvested. One by one he took out stones from the campfires he had found in the bandit camp and arranged them in a circle. In his limited time traveling around so far he hadn’t seen any stones lying around outside so he had decided to use that storage space. Between the dirt, rocks, and the remnants of the tents in there it was not a very impressive collection, but when you are trapped in the wilderness you collect everything. Unfortunately the campfires hadn’t had a grill or anything, but it made him feel better to have a ring of stones. Only you can prevent forest fires! He set it up a little ways from the cave entrance on top of that perfectly manicured grass.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Now for fuel. There was no underbrush and no sticks lying on the ground. The trees, however, did have some smaller dead branches scattered throughout their canopies, as you would expect from a real tree. It occurred to him that he had never been able to identify the trees and that his herbology skill didn’t register them as anything either. That was weird. Climbing several of the trees he was easily able to break off whatever dead branches there were. Very quickly his magical pouch of rubbish also included a respectable pile of sticks. No logs, but there should still be some decent coals from the thicker branches.
Now for the fun part. In a happier part of his life Alan had briefly thought of going on one of those reality shows where you are stuck on an island and compete against the others in challenges. He even applied once. In preparation he had taught himself to start a fire. A flint would have been nice, but he had even learned how to start a fire with just two sticks. Survival training had also included how to start a fire, but his trainers had focused more on making sure you had matches and didn’t end up alone with nothing but the clothes on your back. Thank goodness for Jeff Probst.
He used the knife, wincing the entire time thinking of the use he was putting a combat weapon to, and shaved some kindling into the pit. It was also used to carve a small bowllike indent into one stick and then placing the tip of another into the bowl he proceeded to spin it. It took several tries but he finally managed to get a glowing coal and transfer it from the bowl to the kindling. The first time he got a coal he sat back with relief and then it died before he could move it over. Stupid.
Then, huffing and puffing, he blew a little flame to life. By adding larger and larger sticks he got the fire truly going. The pyromaniac in him rejoiced as he proceeded to burn almost the entire supply of sticks. A short time later there were finally enough coals to start cooking. Those who never spend time in the woods themselves think it’s the fire that cooks food, but it is actually the coals that supply the heat. The flames are only good for burning the food. One of the goat steaks was cut into little strips and holes were poked into those strips. With a little bit of work he managed to shove some sticks through them and cooked the meat over the fire like marshmallows. He had four sticks going at once, two in each hand. If his dexterity had actually improved it was hard to tell as he fumbled around trying to evenly cook his dinner.
“Tamee, is there a way to sharpen my knife?” he asked while cooking. Between using it to cut into wood and slicing up the animal carcasses he was afraid it would soon be dull.
“Network weapons are more durable than most of what you had on Earth and will hold an edge longer. That being said, they still have their limits. You could have it sharpened by a blacksmith or use a whetstone and do it yourself.” Neither of those options were available to him, so he hoped it would hold an edge long enough to figure something out. He thanked her for the information anyway.
It took about ten minutes before the bloody strips looked like they were cooked enough. He had only roasted four strips but was excited to try them. Something about doing all the work yourself increased the anticipation. That enthusiasm quickly faded with the first bite. The meat was tough and there was no flavor. There was no salt or other seasoning around so that shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. He also managed to get a splinter in his gums, so that was fun! However, it was protein and he even gained a new skill, cooking. Before he tried hosting a dinner party he should find someone to teach him how to cook properly, though.
“Tamee, any chance you know how to cook?”
“No, and you are never cooking for me, those looked terrible.” They were, but he wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction. He tried to fake enjoyment with the next bite but the excessive chewing necessary to choke it down wasn’t helping.
“While I’ve got you, do I actually need to eat or drink anymore? Yesterday I wasn’t really hungry until right before the feast. And this meal was more out of habit than a desire for food.”
“Your new body requires less sustenance than before. As you increase your stats you will find you need even less with your body finding other means of sustenance. However, there can be benefits to consuming food and your body is used to the process so you will find you feel better after eating. Well, as long as you are eating something better than those half raw half charcoal strips of yuck.”
Done with the midday meal it was time to pack up. The stones were too hot to handle so they were left in place. There were still plenty more in the bag if he wanted to make another campfire, or he could always try and return here if the need for cooking arose again. After finishing gathering up the rest of the stuff he noticed something furry peeking out from behind one of the trees. Using his newly improved perception, or maybe the old perception was simply good enough, he was able to make out what looked like a fox. It must have been drawn by the smell of the ‘cooking’ meat.
Beast: Red Fox (Uncommon) level 1, threat: low.
Interesting, his identify skill had gone up slightly so now there was also a threat assessment. It was hard to know how reliable it was yet, but he didn’t think the system had purposely misled him so far. The goat had only been common, so did this mean the fox was stronger or simply rarer? While this animal looked similar to foxes he had seen before, its fur looked different. It had the same color he was used to, but the hairs seemed thicker and more bristly than he remembered.
It didn’t have any obvious weapons like the goats’ horns, but a fox would have sharp teeth and claws no doubt. He was more concerned about the claws since they would be more effective against his recent more nimble combat style than a bite. In height the fox was comparable in size to the goat, maybe a couple of inches taller, but it was also almost half a foot longer.
As the fox and Alan continued to stare at each other it occurred to him that this might be a good time to try out the charm animal talent. The fox seemed like it was hungry and there just happened to be some food that wasn’t him. Taking out one of the strips of goat meat that hadn’t been cooked he tossed it over near the fox.
She, Alan decided that it was a she, cautiously made her way over and sniffed the offering. Apparently she found it acceptable and snarfed it down in one bite. That gave Alan an opportunity to see her teeth. They were sharp and slightly larger than he would have imagined from his experience with dogs. The fox looked up at him expectantly and he took out another strip of meat. This time he tossed it about half way between them.
As she made her way slowly to the latest treat, Alan opened up the party chat. “Are you seeing this Tamee?” he whispered. It probably didn’t matter since the fox was close enough to hear even if he whispered, but he figured a louder noise would be more likely to spook it.
“Yes I am, you know all I have to do around here is watch you, right?”
“Ok, that’s kinda creepy. Maybe read more? Do you know if I get credit for killing a beast if I tame it instead?” He asked hopefully.
“No, kill means kill, but a tamed creature would be useful.” As she was talking the fox ate the strip and took a hopeful step towards him.
This was working better than expected. Alan took another strip out and dangled it in front of the fox while holding it in his hand. “I’m going to name her Marian.”
“Is that a reference I should get? Also, I’m not sure you should be doing that.” Tamee’s warning came a touch too late. Alan apparently had not learned the difference between the look a fox gives when ‘I like you and we should be friends’ compared to ‘I like this food and I am gonna eat your face.’
Instead of taking the strip of meat she tried to take Alan’s entire hand. Her teeth were indeed sharp and like an idiot he had been using his dominant hand to feed it. It was now held firmly between Marian's jaws and the fox was shaking it back and forth like she was playing tug with her favorite toy. The pain was intense, but luckily pain is something he had trained for. He brought his left arm up and swung the elbow down hard on the fox’s head.
The blow staggered the beast but it didn’t let go. He hit her again with a similar result. The little status icon in his vision had a dark yellow hand, but the rest of his body was still the normal gray color. Apparently Alan’s hand was not doing great, but it wasn’t in imminent danger of being chewed off. He switched tactics and awkwardly drew his knife with his left hand. Not trusting his aim using his nondominant arm near his trapped hand, he avoided the neck and instead plunged the dagger into the fox’s side three times. There was more resistance than when he had stabbed the goats. It went in, but if he hadn’t been stabbing so hard it felt like it wouldn’t have penetrated.
This finally caused Marian to let go. It was probably time to stop thinking about her as Marian, though. It’s easier to kill when they don’t have a name. All the fight had gone out of it and the fox collapsed on the ground. A few moments later he got the notification.
Quest Update: Thin the Herd!
[beasts killed 3/5]
“Wow Tamee, thanks for the heads up, but next time can you lead with the warning instead of the snark?” He called up his status sheet to see how it was going.
Alan Taylor
Race: Human [W]
Class:
Fighter (9%) Quartz
Healer (4%) Quartz
Hunter (8%) Quartz
Rogue (14%) Quartz
Health: 100/124 (12/hour)
Stamina: 84/106 (21/minute)
Mana: 86 (9/minute)
Stats:
Strength: 9
Dexterity: 10
Perception: 8
Focus: 6
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 10
Constitution: 7
Spirit: 3
Skills:
Cooking: 1
Daggers: 8
Dodging: 4
First Aid: 12
Harvesting: 3
Herbology: 5
Identify: 4
Running: 7
Sneak: 2
Tracking: 5
Unarmed Combat: 8
Titles: [Top Recruit]
Talents:
Fighter: Parry
Healer: Mend
Hunter: Charm Animal
Rogue: Quick Hands, Stealth
Spells: Minor Healing (common)
“You are lucky I gave you that warning at all, I am not sure if I am actually supposed to do that. Hmmm…” Her voice trailed off as he cast minor healing on himself. He was surprised that it actually topped out his health. It should only restore twenty points, but instead added at least twenty-four. Maybe this is the effect of the mend talent? Also, some of the bones in his hand had been broken and he could now confirm that healing will repair broken bones. At least the little ones. It was a very weird process and he was honestly glad that the healing wasn't instantaneous. Feeling them rapidly shift around as they realigned was bad enough, but having them instantly snap into place would have probably been excruciating.
He had made some nice gains over the last two fights. In addition to improving the dagger and unarmed fighting skills he had improved in three classes. Well, probably four since he had just healed himself. Rechecking quickly, yup, healer had gone up to 7%. More surprising was that his dexterity had gone up by another point which led to a small increase in stamina. Maybe crossing 10% in his rogue class was the cause?
Alan squatted down to harvest the fox meat, variety is always good, but he noticed the knife was still having a hard time cutting through the skin. Touching its fur with his hand he noticed that it was very tough and abrasive. The skin also seemed to be a little denser than he would have expected. Maybe this was some kind of natural armor. He decided to try and preserve the hide as well as possible so that he could maybe make something out of it later. He checked his blade too, this was definitely doing a number on his knife. Luckily a stabbing weapon doesn’t have to be too sharp on the edge, but the professional in him disliked the lack of maintenance.
Checking the sun it seemed like the day was getting away from him. He gave up on completing another dungeon for now and decided to finish the quest instead, before the monsters got harder tomorrow. After finding four dungeons on this side of the valley, he figured the others would be on the far side. While he was this far north he might as well head toward the end of the pass while hunting. It would be interesting to see what awaited him there. As he started out he glanced down and noticed the sorry state of his clothes. Not only were they sweaty from two days of hard travel and deadly fights but they were bloody and torn. The left pant leg was all sliced up from the first fight and was barely holding together. The knees of both were shredded from his first dungeon experience. Durability aside, they were also filthy. After harvesting the goats and fox he had tried his best to rub the gore off onto the grass, but in order to keep his hands cleaner he had used the front of his shirt as a hand towel.
“Tamee, you should be glad you are only watching, if you were here the smell would probably kill you.”
“Ew, gross. You might want to see about taking a bath.”
“I don’t suppose you could point me in the direction of a nice hotel, or maybe just a body of water?”
“Sorry, I am unfortunately unable to give you that information.” Alan had already decided that Tamee was either a real person or an AI so sophisticated that it would pass the Turing test, so, still basically a person. He was also noticing that she seemed to be getting more friendly in her responses. He had been using her as an information source and a touchstone to keep from feeling lonely. Perhaps he should instead try and develop a true friendship. Being buddies with the LT was useful when it came time to hand out assignments.
He soon encountered another goat and tried out his higher level identify on it.
Beast: Goat (Common) level 1, threat: minimal.
He was happy to see the threat level because it confirmed it was a feature of identify now, at least against level one creatures anyway. Alan decided he was not going to try and charm the goat, and not just because last time was such a failure. He had actually achieved some nice growth in his hunter class from the embarrassing attempt. The problem was he didn’t have any greens to feed it and while the fox was an uncommon beast and perhaps stronger, the goat’s horns were more worrisome. That being said, he was going to try something crazy.
“I’m going to try and let the goat hurt me some.”
“Why would you do that?” She asked, sounding like she thought I was an idiot.
“Well, you’ve told me I want to level up my classes, and the only way to level my healer class seems to be by healing people. Since I am the only people here…” He trailed off as he began a serpentine walk toward the goat. The only thing he had seen a goat attack with was its horns, and he didn’t want it slicing up his legs again. However, if he took a slice or two on his left forearm he should be ok. The brachial artery is mostly on the inside of the arm, so he should be able to prevent a serious injury. Even if he screwed up, he would still be able to fight with his right arm.
He managed to close to about six feet before it leapt. He deflected that first powerful lunge with his dagger, but instead of pulling back he stayed in close and prepared to block with his arm. When the blow came he had to fight his instincts and keep his left arm held up to absorb the blow. He could feel bad things happening there as the razor sharp horn met supple flesh, but he focused on his job. Stabbing forward with his right hand he then twisted the dagger out of its throat as he backed away.
The goat quickly bled out and he checked on his injury. The arm was all bloody and it had sliced an actual strip of meat off his forearm. Alan wished he could say that he stoically observed the damage, but something about seeing a part of his own arm lying on the ground was too much for him. He threw up all over the goat. Guess he wasn’t going to harvest this one. The damage looked terrible, but he had only lost about 30% of his health. Only 30%? He suddenly wasn't sure if he was treating this too much like a game or if maybe he was in shock again. There also seemed to be a bleed effect as his health continued to drop as blood poured from the wound.
He cast minor healing and watched the health points. They went up 25 points. Five points was a nice boost from mend, but not a game changer. He checked on his arm and found that not only had the wound stopped bleeding but the spell had restored a good part of the missing flesh. This was a promising sign, maybe he would be able to regrow limbs. Still wasn’t going to test that if it could be helped.
“Alan, I would recommend not doing that again. Not only could you get hurt worse than you expect, but that was gross and you threw up. On the goat!” Tamee seemed genuinely upset which he took to be a positive sign for his new mission of friendship.
“I think I’ll take your advice about trying that with the goats again. Their horns are easy enough to avoid when you know what you’re doing, but if they do connect they can cause a lot of damage. Maybe if I find another one of those foxes I could try it again.”
Casting heal one more time he checked his progress. Both healer and fighter had reached 10% and sure enough strength and wisdom went up another point. He would have to wait to see if this happened every 10% or if there were certain thresholds for growth. If this keeps up he would soon become stronger and faster than any olympian. Enough daydreaming, back to the mission. One more beast and he would get the next quest reward.
It was only another twenty minutes of jogging before he found himself nearing the end of the pass. He had been keeping his head on a swivel, watching all around for any animals he could kill. Because of this he hadn’t really been paying attention to scenery and the looming cliff at the end of the valley. He could now tell that there was a large waterfall coming over the cliff. The trees had been thinning out even more, a sure sign in this artificial forest that he was nearing a clearing. He ended up facing a cliff that rose maybe two hundred and fifty meters into the air. Someone might have tried to climb it but the waterfall was making the rock wall slick. He wouldn’t want to try climbing it, especially since he didn’t know what was at the top.
The waterfall fell onto a mound of large rocks at the bottom, sending a spray of mist into the air, but then ran down them into a small lake. The lake was at least four hundred meters across and maybe two hundred from the near shore to the bottom of the falls. There seemed to be a lot of water coming down the cliff but there was no obvious outlet for it to flow away. There must be some Network fudging going on, otherwise the lake should be flooding its banks.
Here was the first sign of any vegetation other than the too perfect trees and the short soft grass in the valley. Growing all along the shore of the lake were bushes. Herbology came in handy as he identified several shrub bushes but also a blueberry bush. The greenish berries weren’t quite ripe yet, but they should be edible in the next couple of days. This was still a clearly artificial creation as there was no debris gathered around and among the bushes. Normally you would find dried leaves and old sticks scattered throughout but these just had the same green grass growing among them. Because of this there were no warning sounds as he was snuck up on.
