The Bear

"And of course…. Either these missions are the way Eden maintains order in the world, by making sure anything with too large a monopoly is brought down a peg or they're prewritten narratives. Either way a goddamn brown bear just rocking up as soon as I get a completion notification is just too on the nose"

As he watched the beast looked up at him and then back down at the feast at its feet. All he could do was continue to gather up his plate after pouring water over it and start the hard climb down.

After gathering the plate up he shimmied along the thin ledge and tried to make his descent as far from the grizzly as possible; he managed about 10 metres. Every now and then the bear would look up from the scraps it was licking and check on his progress. The bees seemed to be bothering it slightly but not enough to dissuade it from its feast, not many of them were around down there.

About 5 metres from the ground the bear trotted over to below him and roared casually. When he came no closer to it it roared louder and stood against the wall with its front paws. It seemed to expect him to just drop down and get eaten when threatened.

This seemed like a relatively normal brown bear, there was a light silver hue to the fur around the neck, it seemed to almost shift colour with the light but no threatening spikes appeared and there didn't seem to be any kind of magical mutation to the beast.

"I mean? Couldn't I just?"

Not wanting to sacrifice his iron spear which he was using to stay attached to the wall he withdrew his two stone spears and reared back his arm, before the bear could recognise what was about to happen he threw it with all his strength into the bear's face.

The roar that came out of its mouth as it staggered backwards and rolled on its side was the genuine article and shook Daniel from the inside, rebounding off the cliff and through the trees.

Launching his second stone spear he watched it pierce the bear's flank causing a further, much more clearly pained, cry. Willing his spear and pickaxe into his storage space he allowed himself to drop from the cliff and landed smoothly in spite of the distance.

As the bear rolled to try to right itself he sprinted forward bare handed and used Grim touch to finish the beast off.

[45 exp]

"Guess it wasn't the threat I thought, just a new bed cover delivering itself to me"

As he tried to absorb the Bear into his storage space nothing happened and he realised why.

"I don't want to spend these points if I can help it though"

Reluctantly and thinking about the future where he may be the only viable hunter he sighed and improved Storage space.

[Storage space – LVL 2]

"Two points aren't going to make too much difference in the long run and I can't leave a months' worth of meat just sitting here"

Absorbing the bear and collecting his spears he took the chance to have a drink and a snack. He was slightly irritated with himself for having to spend the points to upgrade such a purely utility based skill.

As he ate he heard a new sound over the now much more active drone of the bees, the familiar whistle he was constantly listening out for sounded much closer than before, and in response there was another from the south.

"Have they found me? No, it's because of the bear's cries isn't it? They'll be looking for the source, I can use this"

Moving into the forest he found a likely looking tree with thick branches and leaves, after spending some time climbing it and getting well-hidden towards the top he settled in to wait. From where he was he could see the whole relatively clear area beneath the cliff face and the bee hives themselves, he was blind to anything below him or deeper in the forest however.

"Now to wait, hopefully they don't notice me first"

The whistles continued intermittently and were clearly drawing nearer, he'd identified 4 distinct groups before he heard the nearest one very close by.

They were arriving by his blind side and the tension was making him rethink his current plan when the first finally came into view, it dashed forwards and was jabbering excitedly to its fellows who were still out of Daniel's eye line.

Pointing and yammering, the 4 goblins were clearly very excited about the hives above and had apparently forgotten the noises which drew them in this direction. One of them lifted a little reed whistle to its lips and gave 2 sharp blows followed by one long one.

""Found food, send a ladder" maybe?"

Daniel continued to observe the group, as the responses came in in quick succession, the southernmost group now sounding very close.

Of the 4 goblins 2 had what were definitely spears, one had a small curved sword and bark shield and the last had a crude bow which it was currently putting to use trying to hit the hive, presumably to knock a chunk down and enjoy before the others arrived, with its crude little bow and apparent lack of any skill none of the arrows even got close however.

"So weak, why bother even using one"

As he watched the southern group arrived and gave some yells of triumph and delight upon seeing the honey. This group consisted of a wolf, a shaman, a spearman, 2 swordsmen and another archer. The shaman was guiding the wolf and clearly the leader of the group, they were all distracted by the honey now except the wolf which seemed to be bothered by the bees.

As Daniel considered what to do next he heard the last two groups' whistles, they were still some distance away but getting closer, one of the goblins here gave the 2 whistle reply and encouraged the second archer to join in the shooting.

After demanding everyone's attention the shaman closed his eyes and stretched out his palm, a small rock formed in his hand, moss covered and growing as Daniel watched. It shot out at speed and whacked into a part of the hive.

A few chunks fell as the shaman held his staff for support and the buzzing of the bees intensified.

The goblins who rushed forward to retrieve the chunks getting stung enough to set them running back, the majority laughing and jeering the unlucky runners and a couple clearly encouraging the Shaman to try another shot.

"If I don't act soon either the wolf will find me or the others will arrive and I'll really have a headache, this many I can take"

The wolf had been sniffing around where the bear had died and was clearly trying to follow a scent between gnashing at bees, not that anyone was paying any attention to it at the moment.

As the shaman raised its hand and built up another shot all eyes were on it and there were shouts of encouragement or impatience from the crowd

Taking the opportunity Daniel dropped from the tree as the rock left the shaman's hand.