Chapter 3

I lay there for a while in my pain looking up at the green, silent leaves. They make shuh shuh shuh sounds as the wind blows through them like they’re laughing at me. Dumb leaves, I’d like to see them be a level 2 Fighter but they’re too slow. “Hmph” I let out, sitting up and thinking Status.

Ding!

Status

Name: Opal

Age: 20

Class: (1)Fighter Level 2

Health:52/90 Mana:50/50 Stamina:09/70

Strength:9 Vitality:9 Endurance:7

Dexterity:7 Intelligence:5 Wisdom:5

Free Points: 8

My health and stamina aren’t maxed out anymore. I guess that makes sense. I got the bonus stats from another level in Fighter. I think Health gets raised with Vitality which means Stamina probably gets raised with Endurance. I don’t think it would make sense for it to be Strength and Dexterity instead… probably. Do I need to test it, and what raises mana? Not like I need it though, it’s still maxed after the fight.

I decide it’s worth knowing for sure about my health and stamina. I use 2 free points to raise both Vitality and Endurance by 1 and then look at my stats again.

Health:52/100 Mana:50/50 Stamina:10/80

That confirms it. Vitality increases max health by 10 per point and Endurance increases Stamina by the same amount. My stamina also regenerated a point, but I don’t think that’s from me putting a point in it since my health didn’t go up. Probably.

If I had a max of 70 health during the fight, then that means the wolves didn’t hurt me as much as I thought. It was still painful though. Thinking back on the fight it only hurt when their teeth punctured my skin, before that it was only a feeling of pressure where they bit me.

I sit up and look down at the missing part of my leg, ripped out by ankle spitter. Looking closer I see what looks like a piece was chipped off of a rock, crystal like structures seem to be growing around the edges to close it. Is that me healing? Probably. I don’t seem to be leaking any blood like the dead wolves around me. I don’t have any, I can’t remember why though. Strange.

I decide to lay back down and see how much Health and Stamina I can regenerate.

Since I have to wait anyways I open up my Skills menu. I don’t know why Power Attack stopped working after I punched the first wolf. I try to focus on it in the menu…

Ding!

Power Attack: (20 Stamina)

Increase the power of your next attack.

Aha! So I can see what my skills do. It seems like since I used Power Attack on the tree before the wolves attacked me I used a total of 40 stamina on it, including the attack on tackle mutt. Shouldn’t I have been able use it one more time, or did I use stamina just from struggling and normal punches? That’s probably it, maybe. I should see what those passive skills I have do.

Ding!

Universal Language:

You can speak, read, write and understand the language used by Players.

Identify:

You can see Levels and Titles of other Players and species of monsters.

Humanoid Body(3)

You have a humanoid body.

Firm

Your body is firm and difficult to damage. Effect Increases based on highest tier Class.

They all seem pretty simple and Firm is definitely why I didn’t take much damage from the wolves. How do I get a higher tier Class? No help from Flatbox when I try to think at it. Well I remember I can spend Free Points to get another Class. It was 100 right… seems like a lot. I’m not even close to that so I’ll figure it out later I guess.

As I’m waiting I keep an eye on my Health and Stamina.

My Stamina actually got filled back up pretty fast but my Health took about 4 times as long. If I think about how my Health was half but my Stamina was almost empty... Health really is slow to regenerate isn’t it. Not much I can do about it now.

Now that I’m all filled up I wanna do something. The dead wolf bodies here are getting boring so I should go somewhere else. I stand up and brush all the short dirt off my white skin.

Ding!

New Quest!

Goblins have made a den in your area. They are known to breed quickly and become a problem for Players around them. Exterminate the den for rewards.

Rewards: 1 Level, 100 Credits

Track? Y/N

Oh a Quest right when I needed something to do! I can get levels from it too it seems, not sure what Credits or goblins are though. What does it mean by Track… Yes I guess? I suddenly see an arrow on the right side of my vision, it moves with me as I look around and points forward when I look to my right. Does that mean the goblins are that way? Also I see a couple numbers under the arrow.

0/11 Goblins slain

It shows that I have 11 goblins to kill in that direction. So the Track option is really useful. I nod to myself, satisfied as I head in the direction the arrow is pointing. As I walk through the forest, dodging the trees that are too dumb to get out of my way, thoughts come to my head. Why am I in the forest if I don’t like trees with stupid leaves? If I’m 20 like my Status tells me then why can I only remember waking up in the forest not long ago?

The first blue box said I was alive, maybe I wasn’t alive before? If I wasn’t alive though, how can I be 20? I guess dirt gets to be old without being alive. Probably. So I can too. I wonder if walking like this generates questions in your head since I didn’t think of any of this while I was regenerating for so long. Is that why I got a Quest when I stood up? Maybe moving legs makes you smarter or something. Weird. “If I walk a lot will my Intelligence stat go up, or is moving legs a Wisdom thing.” I ask the forest around me but it just continues to be foresty and unresponsive. Typical.

“Gehehe” I hear the forest laugh at me. Strange. I turn to where the laugh comes from, ready to punch whichever tree decided to be uppity, but instead of a tree I see a couple short green… Goblins it says above their heads. Oh these are the things I need to kill for the quest! They have really big noses and long pointy ears. They are about half my height and really ugly, but I might just be biased because I’m beautiful.

“Why are you laughing at me?” I place a hand on my hip and point at them accusatory. “Ge ge hehe” one of them responds with an answer more annoying than the silence of the trees while leering at me. Leering is rude I decided and I don’t like it.

The two goblins, both level 3 seem to have an argument as they gesture at me while leering again. Rude. Well if they are going to be rude and not answer my question I’m going to kill them for the quest. So I start running at one of them, intent on kicking it in it’s stupid head. It’s eyes go wide and it gets an excited look on its face. Does it want to be kicked in the face? Strange.

I get close enough and plant my left foot before swinging out my right at him. He’s good at dodging, or I’m bad at kicking because my leg misses him. I feel something grab my butt and I assume it’s the second goblin since I’m staring at the other one after my failure of a kick. Why would it grab my butt? Maybe it was going for my leg and missed like my kick. Well anyways, I don’t want to get in a situation like the one with the wolves where I’m held down, so I spin bringing my fist to punch butt grabber in the face. I see a gross smile with his tongue hanging out right before my fist lands and he falls to the ground.

I go to stomp the downed goblin but the other one jumps up and grabs onto my back from behind. “Eeey” I let out a surprised yelp as I feel his gross skin smack against my back. He quickly wraps his legs around my waist and his hands grab one of my breasts each, holding him on tight. Eww, I don’t know why but I don’t like what he’s doing with my breasts more than I don’t like leering. I decide I still need to stomp butt grabber so they can’t both hold me at once and now’s a good time to get rid of him since he’s prone.

I step forward, the added goblin weight doesn’t seem to effect me at all. Must be because I’m heavy. So I bring my foot down on butt grabber’s head and my heel goes through it like when I Power Striked tackle mutt. I feel backpack has started kneading my breasts as he clings to me and he seems to be thrusting some sort of hard object into my back. I only feel the pressure so I guess it’s not sharp enough to penetrate my skin like the wolves teeth, but I need to get rid of him. I don’t like it.

Wait, that’s it! I’m heavy!

I fall backwards, trying to land on backpack. For some reason he doesn’t seem concerned. Strange. We fall and I land on him as planned, I hear and feel bones cracking and flesh being squished in a loud splat sound. His hands are no longer grabbing me and they fall to the side, so I stand up and look at him. I feel a warm wetness on my back. He’s definitely dead, and it looks gross, like his side exploded and guts and blood squirted out. His skull is deformed and I don’t see his eyes.

I hear a shlluk sound from my back, followed by the sound of something hitting the dirt. I turn around and see an eyeball laying there on the ground… wait, both of his eyes were missing. I panic and start brushing at my back with my arms until the second eye falls off. Now my arms and probably my back are red from his blood in addition to their normal whiteness. I don’t think I like the added color or wet feeling but brushing it off doesn’t help. Unfortunate.

Well since the goblins have the blood, surely they have a way to wash it off, so I look at the arrow and follow it. “To the Quest!” I yell into the woods as I march off. The trees don’t share my enthusiasm for cleanliness.