Divine Bow Hunting

With my Intelligence stat, Cweeper certainly had a good head on her shoulders. While it was actually somewhat slow to gain levels even in the temporary event locations, not only did I gain two levels today but my overall efforts had awarded me with several hard earned points that helped level my higher stats with one another. With a level five Quick Step.

Even though my stats were so incredibly high I was still avoiding leveling somewhat. I and my team now probably made up most of the top ten positions and I was almost certainly at the front. Depending on how long I can maintain the position, of course.

However, it was bad enough that I had claimed the top spot in reputation and now had a lead of at least two or so hundred points even if any of the others collected titles as fast as I did. Of course, there were many titles of mine they did not have. Not just in Divine Designer and titles like it.

I had not seen anything on the forums at all about ascended or transcended races of any kind despite speculation about high elves and similar variations of the usual fantasy races allowed to players currently.

[Spirit Slash Leveled]

[+50XP]

When I first tried this outside of camp, I could chop down five or six frozen trees with a single mana pool of Spirit Slash uses. After a few levels in which the true damage value rose by five percent, I had just chopped down fifteen trees and gained level five a few hundred yards out from camp. In my player inventory was roughly two hundred broken dead trees taking up three slots between them.

By now, I had actually found the bottom of the immense Player Inventory that turned out to ONLY be worth five hundred slots.

The next twenty slots were worth one hundred gold but the value would certainly scale as more slots were unlocked. Since I had the money, I unlocked the next one hundred slots that went up one hundred gold every set until they magically became worth one thousand gold for twenty after six hundred.

At level five, Spirit Slash performed seventy-five percent of my true damage value and was capable of bringing down something the size of a thirty-year old oak down in three or four cuts. Against other players who may or may not have resistances or counters to true damage attacks, these were potentially not as strong as they could be against people with stats and parameters close to mine.

So, I just kept training this one skill as I made my way slowly back to camp while collecting firewood.

Despite my unique attributes and titles, I intentionally had a slow start to learn about some of the game's inner workings early on and it had been showing more and more that I was not always the first in the first-come-first-serve titles. Whether it was merchant skill, guardian spirit, or even the most recent Third Familiar Evolver, somebody else had already beaten me to them.

There were numerous other perks and titles and buffs that other people had acquired simply through advancement and accumulation. Only some of which were boasted and posted which could obviously lead one to 'discover' the others of similar categories. Such as my stat synergy perk for a passive self-enchantment.

When I got back to camp it was to find Oleander, Papi, Stonewall, and Hermes all drinking from jugs of brandy and bitters while the others cheered or quietly watched from the sides. Dew, who was usually hiding somewhere in the ground or on top of the wagons was currently praying over Papi as if blessing him for the competition.

Considering somebody the size of Stonewall was one of his opponents, I did not blame him even thought Stonewall was already done with his jug and wobbling in his seat. On the ground. He was not much of a drinker to begin with, which was one of the reasons why he chose the giant bodies giant halfling race.

The others gathered around were only mildly drunk or actually sober in the case of an almost annoyed looking Cweeper who found herself swarmed by the girls in the party behind Oleander. It was almost cute watching my familiars taking part in the party actions instead of lounging about the outskirts pretending to be on watch. It would also help them blend in when I take them places around cities, settlements, or groups of people in general.

Nobody but my familiars and the others who were spread out lounging about the camp were aware that I had arrived despite the noise I had made only a few dozen yard away before I ran out of mana. So, I simply watched and waited until Papi finally puked and crawled away half of the way through his jug to further empty his stomach and heal himself. Oleander was drinking it steadily and smoothly by filling and downing one row of shots after another.

This was actually a cheating method because the drunker one got the more they spilled so 'the dealer' would always empty their bottle, or jug, safely. Unless someone like Stonewall or Hermes, who had emptied his jug right before Papi hurled, was also taking part then the dealer would usually win.

However, this time, I could already imagine just from the people taking part that it was a personal challenge between Oleander and Papi concerning Hermes and drinking while being mediated by Stonewall. In reality, PapiChurro was something of a lightweight who could only just barely handle wine. 'The quantity of beer equals diabetes' and 'Liquor is too harsh on my throat and my voice is part of my job' were his usual excuses.

I had to agree, though, beer was basically diabetes.

Hoping there was no money involved in their betting, I decided to help everybody sober up by telling them to go fleeing while drunk to see if it would raise their impaired Agility. Of course, only a few people were willing or able to do so. In their cases I strictly enforced them to train their most basic physical combat skills and masteries by chopping trees and stockpiling firewood.

When questioned, I explained that this wood was mostly dry while everywhere else inside the forest was probably going to be more thoroughly frozen with ice and either harder to chop, find, or just plain use by default.

At least these trees were dead compared to the higher grade trees and plant life in the Winter Wood that actually survived in that climate. Even if somebody had to spend a bunch of magic getting a few logs going, this wood would thaw, dry, and burn naturally much faster than anything else in the Winter Wood. Unless this was another lacking 'realism'.

While the others practiced their primary weapon skills with 'merchandise' weapons, I used a cross gilded and galvanized two-layer Bokuto that had an outer blade encased in our ancient steel alloy and an inner blade gilded in ancient electrum. These were, of course, crafts Oleander had made to practice her skills ever since becoming a divine assistant.

The weapon had an epic purple name of 'Ancient Elder's Alchemy Swords' with sixth tier physical and attack ratings on the outside with half of the physical and twice the magical for the inner second blade. The knockback affect was one foot for every ten Strength, which meant I could send somebody with equal mass and stats flying whenever they blocked this sword.

Finally, after having only rarely been getting levels for it even in combat, I received a very satisfying notification after three trees.

[Swordplay has reached Level 50]

[+100]

[Craftiest Upgraded Swordplay: Dedicated Swordsmanship]

[+250XP]

[Dedicated Swordsmanship LV1: After tirelessly training and fighting with a variety of swords and sword skills, your lesser mastery skill becomes Swordsmanship. All sword attacks are now (10%) stronger and faster, exceeding the abilities of an amateur swordsman by far]

Just to see what the true damage affect of such a skill would be, I used Hauntings to cast a Spirit Slash against a dead tree and cut cleanly through its two-and-a-half feet wide trunk. After satisfying myself with the results, I decided to see what and how the scale of this dedicated mastery skill worked by once again using the alchemy swords to simply chop down trees. Even though it still took five or six swings to chop down a three-foot wide tree, the action and effects of this alone were enough to raise my Dedicated Swordsmanship up to level three with one tree.

Each level added point-three-percent to what was essentially my damage and attack speed buff. This alone was not much, but after ten trees I had reached level twelve in the dedicated mastery. This was thirteen-point-six-percent, which could drop a similar three-foot wide tree in roughly four normal swings.

One full-power swing could chop half of the way through a dead tree. At an angle. A single chop from the other side and that experiment tree was effortlessly kicked over on its side.

By the time the flees returned an hour later, I had already received a notification that only live action could continue raising my mastery skill and thus switched to practicing my magical swordsmanship. This mostly meant that I began chopping trees with traditional wind cutters and its elemental variations. After performing each variation only a couple of times, I had acquired the matching skill for each 'cutter' and then proceeded to raise it to level three.

At level three, my cutters were no longer leveled by cutting dummy targets and required live combat.

Then, everybody rested and relaxed for half an hour after reporting that, whether drunk or sober, they had all received stat points from every couple of evasions. At my level, I would probably have to flee twenty or more times to get an Agility or Endurance point. So, when I sent the others who had already trained their skills out to flee, I decided to take my father's advice.

Using the usually impractical Hardened Hickory to carve and then transmute a simple bow, I perform an 'expert' level pliability enchantment on the weapon that already did twenty damage and soon made a much higher third tier weapon. After making a second one, I transmuted a few dozen arrows and then divided the bows and arrows between Cweeper and Hermes. It was time for some abstract and adverse training.

With rare quality weapons.

At first, things were going alright. My character's kinetic vision and response times were all high enough that the first arrow was easily sidestepped. Then the second, third, fourth, and fifth. That was when Cweeper acquired her first skill that started at level one. Divine Bow Hunting.

Then, after Hermes' third arrow as well, he acquired the same divine bow mastery. Then, both of their next arrows they fired at the same time flew at twice the speed and even trailed a thin shimmer of light in their wake. Luckily, they had shot to either side of me with the intent that at least one would finally hit their target with their new skill.

Because I had seen the adjusted alignment of their arrows and grips, I simply stood still while these missiles zipped by almost invisibly except for their glimmer after images.

I immediately put a stop to their using the bows and pulled aside some of the other familiars to shoot at me instead. At first, I did not even have to dodge at all until their probably finally acquired a bow mastery. Then, the training really started and I spent half an hour with each one teaching them Bow Hunting and raising it to around level ten.

Even though I was dodging their shots, they were still on target for what WOULD have hit me so the system seemed to grant them some points for the effort. After several hours of this, in which the others had all returned and rested, I had manage to acquire the five Agility points I needed to balance it with Intelligence at two-eighty.

Now, after making everybody eat some dry foods and drink some strong medicinal teas, it was time to make the final Fast Travel into Winter Wood. After this, the road would simply disappear and we would have to rely on the dragons and ourselves to rough it through the sparse but enormous trees and dense frosted undergrowth.

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