Ch20: Wandering Around the Wilderness

To say that Krvavy had anything planned for the day isn’t quite true. She just wanted to wander around the rocky hills for hours on end. So that is exactly what she has been doing.

The scenery is quite beautiful, with all the trees, bushes, and even rocks adding to the experience of being outside surrounded by nature. Something that Leanna really isn’t used to. Beyond games like this, she has never really been out in ‘nature’ before. Suppose that helps in making what would otherwise be a rather uneventful hike feel less... boring.

But Krvavy hasn’t just been hiking around. She has been doing a little bit of hunting as well. Granted, all she caught in the entire day is a single grouse, but it is a pretty big one. It is even harder to hunt when she has to lug her large two-handed axe around with her. That inconvenience is more than worth it though. She doesn’t want to even risk getting into a fight without having her weapon on hand.

Not that she is expecting a fight.

Unlike last time when she went towards the plains to the north, Krvavy has decided to explore the hills to the south. The Orcs she fought up there were a fair bit higher level than she is. And while that encounter worked out well enough, she can’t always expect things to go her way. But just in case she does run into someone or something to fight... Well...

Hopefully anything in these hills will be a lower level. This is her starting area, after all. Nice and close to her cave too. At least compared to the plains.

She hasn’t seen anything beyond prey animals so far though.

But the sun is starting to set behind the hills, and Krvavy should probably start heading on back home now... She has been meandering around quite a bit throughout the day, so it should only take about an hour or two for her to get back to her cave.

Just as she is turning back a faint smoky scent hits her nose. Part of her is tempted to simply ignore it, as the last time this happened she came across those three Orcs. But on the other hand, Krvavy got some useful loot from that encounter, so maybe there is something good at the source of this smoke? Not that she has high hopes of that, or anything.

Ultimately, curiosity wins out. After all, there isn’t any harm in at least looking. Especially since this might be her only chance to see what it is. This could be a one-off encounter for all she knows.

Carefully creeping towards where the scent of smoke is strongest, which simply happens to be the direction that the wind is coming from, Krvavy hears some faint voices.

Due to your Not So Cunning Linguist trait you are [1%] of the way towards learning Common Trade Tongue (Northern Dialect).

As with the Orcs, Krvavy cannot understand a word of what is being said. Not that she was expecting to, of course. And not that she particularly cares either. She is just happy that this is a different language than before. And not because it means that she won’t have to fight Orcs again.

Krvavy would be willing to bet that whoever is speaking will be a whole lot weaker than those Orcs were. After all, Not So Cunning Linguist isn’t a trait she picked. It was a default starting one. And, considering that this is a game, it only makes sense for the player to be subtly directed towards a commonly used language – such as by being given weak enemies to fight – all so that they can better interact with the world. And if the Common Trade Tongue isn’t just that... Well, she’d genuinely be quite surprised.

With her mind made up, Krvavy makes her way towards the voices. She crouches down as they grow louder, creeping through the rocky terrain before ducking behind a large outcropping.

Just down the hill from her are two men who are sitting near the edge of a cliff. They both appear to be humans with lightly weathered skin and are both wearing a rough padded gambeson, which looks a lot like low-level gear to her.

While Krvavy has no idea what these two humans are saying, she is almost completely certain that they are at least a little bit drunk: they might be slurring their words, unless that language is supposed to sound like that. They are also a bit wobbly looking, though not too much that they are nearly falling over. But most importantly, they are both drinking from incredibly generic glass bottles that just have that classic ‘bottle of nondescript alcohol’ look to them.

These two men seem like they would be very easy to fight, even if they weren’t drunk. She definitely wasn’t supposed to have gone to the plains first. This is obviously more of an early game encounter.

But Krvavy isn’t going to just rush down there and attack them. She would like to get as much of the way towards learning the Common Trade Tongue before doing that. On top of that... these two drunks don’t have campfire. So the smoke isn’t coming from them.

Her eyes trail through the darkening sky, spotting a few thin columns of smoke off to the left of the men, rising up from behind a nearby hill. It would seem that there is a whole camp of these people out here. And if she had to guess, she’d say that it is a bandit camp.

Not only are bandits pretty basic and expected early game enemies, but these two drunks themselves are really giving off some bandity vibes. They aren’t particularly clean, their armour and weapons look pretty cheap and not very well maintained, and she thinks that one of them might be telling a story about killing people. Either that or he just happens to make exaggerated girly screams before every laugh. It is a bit cartoonish, really.

Krvavy is just going to go off the assumption that they are bandits. That gives her a moral reason to wipe them out, beyond just wanting the exp and loot. They probably are bandits anyway, as why else would they be out here in the middle of nowhere?

She supposes that she’ll be home a bit late tonight, as she might be here a while trying to learn their language. Hopefully her Orc isn’t too hungry by the time she gets back... At least she already caught something to eat...

Due to your Not So Cunning Linguist trait you are [73%] of the way towards learning Common Trade Tongue (Northern Dialect).

Sitting on hard, uncomfortable ground and listening to what is essentially complete gibberish is not an exciting way to pass the time. To Krvavy it feels like hours and hours have passed, but she doesn’t think much more than a single one has gone by, if even that.

The sun has set and it is starting to get dark out, but that hasn’t stopped the two bandits in front of her from drinking and cheerily telling what she can only assume are pretty grisly stories. All it did was make them light up a pretty rough looking lantern.

Honestly, can they not even be bothered to wipe down that things smudged and smoke stained glass...?

One of the men suddenly gets up onto his feet. It seems like his bottle of alcohol is finally empty, what with how he is shaking it to get the last drop out. How it even lasted him this long is a mystery... Giving up after a few seconds, he gestures roughly towards where Krvavy assumes their camp is and... grunts something to his companion. Even knowing the language wouldn’t help Krvavy figure out what he just said.

The other man nods and waves his hand as the first one turns and leaves. It seems like this is as much progress towards learning a the Common Trade Tongue that Krvavy will get for tonight. Bit of a shame, as she was getting pretty close. But at least she won’t accidentally fall asleep due to sheer boredom.

Almost as soon as the first bandit is out of sight, the second one puts his bottle down and stands up. Taking a step closer to the edge of the cliff, he begins to fiddle with something at the front of his waist completely out of Krvavy’s sight. If she had to guess, he is probably undoing his pants to take a piss.

Krvavy is quickly proven right, at least by the sound of it. While a bit of a dick move, this does seem like the perfect time to attack. Though rather than run down and chop him up with her axe, she decides to pick up and throw a rather large rock at him.

For whatever reason, the man suddenly jerks a tiny bit to the side just as the rock leaves her grip. She nearly misses her throw because of that, but not quite as she is still able to get a glancing hit on his head. A smaller rock would have just flown by him.

30 Damage dealt to [Drunk Bandit]

The bandit grunts in surprise and staggers forwards, right off the cliff. He must have been really drunk, as that grunt is the only noise he makes before crunching down onto the ground below a few seconds later.

[Drunk Bandit] has been slain!+150 Experience

That was a lot easier than Krvavy expected, even with her nearly missing the throw. She got a lot less experience from defeating him than she did with the Orcs though. Is that just because he was a lower level, or did the environmental kill take some away? She didn’t get a damage notification for him hitting the ground, so is that just the exp for an assist?

She is snapped from those thoughts two more voices approach from the left. It would seem like a couple more bandits are heading to this drinking spot, though it doesn’t look like the one who left is with them. So that means there are at least four bandits in this camp. Or were.

The approaching bandits aren’t drunk, or at least not to the point where they can’t help but stumble around, and they immediately notice that the bandit she just killed is missing. Drawing their weapons, a crude one-handed axe and a chipped sword, they cautiously approach the lit lantern.

Krvavy feels like she is hidden decently well in the dark, but they’ll probably be able to see her bright red hair if they glance up at her. Or her very pale skin. She is not well camouflaged. So she gets a good grip on her own axe and gets ready to charge.

Just as the axe wielding bandit begins turning his head towards her, the other one calls out from near the edge of the cliff.

It would seem that he found their drunk friend, though friend might be a bit of an optimistic word considering how they react to seeing him down there. The sword wielding bandit seems more annoyed than anything, while the guy with the axe laughs as soon as he looks over the edge.

Their uncaring reaction to the death of the drunk bandit cements them as just that in Krvavy’s eyes. If they weren’t stereotypical scum, then she’d expect there to be at least a little bit of camaraderie between them. Rather than head back to their camp the two bandits sheath their weapons and turn to the right before heading down the cliff on a rather narrow and precarious path. Are they going to collect the dead guy’s body? Or loot his corpse?

Regardless of their intentions, Krvavy is going to stealthily follow them as best she can. She wants to take out as many of these bandits as she can, and these two are isolating themselves from the rest of their camp, making themselves easy targets.

Following them is a little difficult due to the narrowness of the path and the fact that it switches back on itself. They will be able to see her if she isn’t careful. On top of that, how is she going to kill them? Throwing rocks is not going to work. Even if she can perfectly recreate what happened to the first, Krvavy doesn’t think that they’ll fall far enough to die from here.

But rushing at them with her axe is also not an option. It is just too dangerous for her. Not because of the men she’d be fighting, but because she could fall off the cliff herself. That probably wouldn’t kill her, but she doesn’t want to break a leg. Or any of her bones, for that matter.

Krvavy has to stop herself from groaning out loud, as she just remembered something: she has magic. She doesn’t even know how she forgot that... She, at least partially, wanted to play a mage in the first place! But it somehow slipped her mind, and now she feels a bit stupid.

Seismic Stomp: Through a mighty stomp Earthen magic is sent into the ground, sending forth a rolling wave of earth. Costs up to 40 Mana per use. Associated attributes = Might & Willpower.

She doesn’t know how much damage it’ll do, but at the very least this will be a damn good way to open the fight. Hopefully it will at least knock them off their feet.

And so, Krvavy creeps as close to the bandits as she can. Her large frame isn’t the best for stealth, and while she doesn’t know what exactly she did, something alerts the sword wielding bandit. Before he can fully turn around and spot her, Krvavy raises her right foot up and thinks about activating Seismic Stomp as she brings it down.

-40 Mana

Luckily, that seems to work as her foot crashes into the ground with a crack, sending a ripple of rock towards the bandits. Seeing the ground move up and down in a wave is a rather unnerving sight, something more suited to a tile-based game than anything as realistic or detailed than this.

36 Damage dealt to [Sword Bandit]

29 Damage dealt to [Axe Bandit]

The initial wave doesn’t do anywhere near as much damage as Krvavy hoped. But it is enough to knock them off their feet.

Both bandits shout out in surprise as they crash into the ground, and that shout quickly turns into a brief scream of terror. Not because Krvavy is charging at them, as she can’t be certain that they have even seen her yet. No, they are screaming out for a pretty understandable reason: part of the cliff is collapsing right towards them.

[Sword Bandit] has been slain!+200 Experience

[Axe Bandit] has been slain!+200 Experience

Krvavy has to scramble back a bit from the collapsing cliff to avoid being caught by its edges. That was both anticlimactic and more than she expected. It doesn’t look like she’ll be able to loot those bandits though, but that isn’t too bad. They didn’t look like they had much on them to begin with.

But now she should head over and wipe out the rest of the camp. They probably heard all that noise, but hopefully they don’t think much of it. Annoyingly, the rockslide cut off her path back up, so she’ll have to do some climbing...