Elder Oak Passage
Sir Beryl once again filled the air with the sound of his booming laughter and says, "Assuredly not, young man, for that would be a much easier problem to solve than this! You see, this tree is home to an underground city of goblins. One great big colony of the ugly bastards in all their different forms and it's so deep and populated we simply can't do anything about it. The tree itself is a guardian spirit of the forestry, so we cannot simply collapse it or risk the ire of nature itself."
"There's one of you?" I ask curiously, looking around the area. "Why do I feel like you're pulling my leg, sir?"
Looking over his shoulder in the direction of the giant tunnel, the man calls out, "Aye, it's just me. Usually there's a company of thirty or fifty recruits stationed here for training, but we're between recruit companies so they asked me to camp here for a while. Believe me, there's nobody but me who could do this job alone and the goblins all know my scent well enough by now to stay underground."
"So… if I go down there, can I hunt goblins?" I ask curiously, realizing I had probably stumbled upon some form of goblin dungeon.
"Go DOWN there?" Sir Beryl echoes with emphasis before laughing even more richly than before. "You're either very brave or very foolish, not even I would go down there with the rest of the elite knights of our region. Tell you what, though, if you do me a favor I'll do you one and show you why. Some goblins managed to sneak out while I was napping before the night shift, if you can find them for me then I'll let you see a world wonder that'll leave you shaking in your boots. I think there were maybe five of them from the tracks they left."
"I found 'em already!" I say happily, opening my player inventory to retrieve the most recent five goblin ears I had gathered before pointing back the way I came. "If you don't believe me, you can go back that way a few hundred yards, their campfire is probably still smoldering and the blood is probably still wet."
"If the blood on the ears is wet, I'll believe you," he says to compromise while waving me forward with one hand. "The fact you have five of them means you won't die right from the start. Come on, then, we haven't got all night!"
Hurrying forward happily, I hand the bat wing looking ears over to the man who nods his approval and says, "Aye, they're bloody, not even an hour old."
Now that I was up close I could see that the heavily armor knight who stood at least six-and-a-half feet tall was actually in his older years with a peppery brown beard that was more gray than brown and similar short hair but he still carried himself with the straightness and strength of someone less than half his age. He was probably every bit as strong, too, if he was still using such a behemoth sword.
The blade had to be five feet long with twelve inches of wide base and a slow taper that winds down to six inches broad before becoming a starkly needling point at least nine inches in length. It was this nine inches that were buried in the ground and supported the rest of the weapon that probably weighed around forty pounds in reality. Even its hilt was a foot-and-a-half long for shifting grips in different kinds of swings.
Giving me the ears, the man says, "Go ahead and stand by the fire, I'll walk out to the edge of the grass. Whenever you're ready to give up, just scream help. They'll only come up a few at a time as my scent fades away, but eventually… you'll see!" Then, clapping me happily on the shoulder the aging knight cheerfully whistles a marching tune while walking off.
From the current situation I could already guess what kind of event I had discovered but I could not yet tell if it would be a one-time deal or something I could do again. However, this small uncertainty was not nearly enough to stop me from hurrying over to the fire. One of my favorite kinds of combat settings is surviving wave after wave of enemies.
Sir Beryl did not even get halfway to the grass before I received a combat alert, followed by the sounds of small running feet impressing soft soil. Luckily, I had already taken out most of my weapons while waiting. Wielding only my walking stick for the first goblin, I let it close the distance before savagely whipping either end forward and back in alternating swings.
The goblin who wielded only a gnarled length of root like a club was completely overwhelmed with numerous blunt blows landing about its arms and head and chest and ribs. Finally, though, I received a notification.
[Acquired Skill: Staving]
[+10xp]
Once I acquired a skill for using a staff I dropped the weapon to the ground and grabbed a Bokuto nearby before chopping it down on the goblin's head. The goblin was already down to the last few percent of its head with bloody bruises all over, so this one swing was more than enough to finish it.
[x2 critical: vital strike]
[+20XP]
[Acquired Skill: Stick Fighting]
[+10XP]
[Fusing Skills: Staving+Stick Fighting]
[Acquired Skill: Staff Arts]
[+50XP]
[Staff Arts Leveled]
[+15XP]
"Holy shit," I breathe in awe, having never even heard of fusing skills but suddenly having a full-fledged combat skill comparable to Swordsmanship and Archery. "Nope, this one is staying a secret for now. I'll just try to collect a few fusion stories so when somebody else breaks the news I can be one of the guys who calls them a noob for their first one- and for spilling the beans!"
Sharing discoveries would make one temporarily popular, but unless they kept making breakthroughs they would never keep the short attention spans of other players and potential gaming sponsors. However, somebody who had secrets would keep their attentions for as long as they had secrets. If I ever wanted to make side money from selling my face or brokering information, I had to keep my goods to myself.
Not long after I returned to my spot, despite not receiving any loot I received another visual alert and suddenly there were the sounds of two goblin footsteps. Knowing my opportunities for training certain skills were going to be steadily fewer and further between, I wielded a Bokuto in either hand and started forward to meet the goblins.
An attack of seven plus ten from my Strength plus maybe two from Craftier was actually quite a lot when striking these level ten goblins. Three blunt strikes to one goblin's body were enough to drop its health below ten percent. It was finished with a crude kick to the side of its head while it staggered.
[x2 critical: vital strike]
[+20XP]
[Staff Arts Leveled]
[+15XP]
The other goblin I left alone for the first part, using it to train my ability to divide my attention while evading its root club and focusing on the other goblin with my swords. Once the first goblin in the pair was dead, though, the other goblin seemed to lose its shit and go crazy flailing at me again and again even when I struck it once in the head. Half of its health was gone in an instant so I just practiced leaning out of the way of a few more swings before hopping around the goblin.
Spinning around after evading the jumping hammer blow of the goblin's club, I catch it across the back of its head with the blades of either Bokuto.
[x4 critical: vital strikeS]
[+20XP]
[Swordplay Leveled]
[+12XP]
[Staff Arts Leveled]
[+15XP]
Retreating back to the campfire after confirming that I could not change the experience gain with critical hits in this event, I roll my shoulders to stay loose while wondering how long I should keep using these weaker weapons. Against three goblins I would probably take one or two hits with no time to heal with anything but First-Aid, it was simply too early to start eating heals. Afterward, I would gradually start taking more and more overlapping damage.
As a classless human, I started with one hundred of either HP or MP plus twice their Endurance or Intelligence stats for their base values. While this might sound like a lot compared to the five mana used by First-Aid, most attack magic started with double-digit prices. Plus, with an Intelligence of only twenty my mana replenished at a rate of two mana per minute when not resting.
The most basic magic class of Mage granted ten points to Intelligence and Willpower while granting five points to all other stats. After mage one could combine with swordsman or something to make spellsword or some other magic warrior that will evenly grant ten to all stats but most heavy magic characters would go through their elemental phases first for more stat boots of two tens and fives for every element and THEN combo-class.
In the same fashion, a swordsman gains more proficiency in their class for using different swords and styles from two-handed to dual to sword-and-shield and so on. Rangers, though, gain the most proficiency in their skills and classes from combining stealth and critical hits- including sneaking up close and stabbing in the back like a rogue. They event got skills specially for them.
[Acquired Skill: Crouching Figure]
"Can you read my mind?" I ask as my vision flashes while I had yet to even return to the fire. Apparently, I only had a few seconds between fights.
[Yes]
"Can you tell me what the skill does so I don't have to take time looking it up?" I ask hurriedly in something of a whisper, wondering if that was even allowed while rushing forward to meet the goblins.
[Crouching Figure: Reduces detection by 10% and increases the effectiveness of stealth attacks by 10%. Activated by sneaking/crouching]
This time around I went on the full offensive, reserving my left sword for one goblin and the right sword for another while keeping them between me and the third. In this fashion, as crudely armed as they were, the first goblin fell in less than five seconds with three solid smacks to the head. Because I had been alternating smacks, the second goblin died on the sixth second after I sidestepped its dazed rush.
[x2 critical: vital strike]
[x2 critical: vital strike]
[+20XP]
[+20XP]
[Staff Arts Leveled]
[+15XP]
[Swordplay Leveled]
[+12XP]
Left alone with only the third goblin, I practiced at parrying with the solo mob by letting it attack and then blocking at an angle with one sword. Their simplified low-level AI did not know much about compensating for balance or how to measure their attacks, meaning every attempt to hit me was every bit of power they had. When the club hit my sword and slid down the angle, the goblin would drop into a kneel and get smacked roughly in the back of the head by the flat of my sword.
After two more of these testing attacks the goblin was no more.
[x2 critical: vital strike]
[+20XP]
[Staff Arts Leveled]
[+18XP]
Getting back to the fire as quickly as possible, I drop the Bokuto with the most durability remaining before picking up my fuller sword in my freed left hand. Then I quickly switch the heavier weapon to my more comfortable right arm. No sooner had I turned around to face the tunnel under the tree before I received the next combat alert for a group of five.
*