Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Forum Climbing

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^[ Monster Information ]

^^[ Climbing Wolf In The Forest ]

[ Thread Creator: Nyonjor ]

We were in a party for the mushroom gathering quest in merwyn forest west, and partway in the scout told us to look up. There was a wolf climbing up a tree. All of us stopped to watch. When it got to the top it pounced on an owl that was sitting on a branch up there, and dropped down to the ground on top of it. Owl went splat. I got some blood on me. Then it ran away. - 14/11/2041

[ Mu Brans ]

What? No way. We have to worry about wolves jumping on us from the trees now? - 14/11/2041

[ Gurdani ]

Yes way. I was the Scout who first noticed it. Extremely bizarre sight. After it dropped down and saw us, we just stared at each other for a while. It looked as shocked as us. Then it howled, and ran away at high speed. The Priest and I got Feared, and then a wolf pack attacked us while we recovered. I have the Tracker occupation, but by the time we were able to follow it the trail had gone cold. I managed to use Identify before it ran away though. I have it at level 7. Got some weird results. I missed my chance to grab a screenshot before it ran out of range, but I remember the stats were well above average for a wolf in that area. Not as crazy as the Forest Deer, but those things are evil. And it had some weird skills too. Death From Above is a skill only bird type mobs have, right? And does anyone know what Cat's Feet does? I think there was more, but I don't quite remember. - 14/11/2041

[ Ketsacutel ]

air-dropping wolves sounds more like something from a bonkers survival game - 14/11/2041

[ Lun Parkal ]

>Death From Above is a skill only bird type mobs have, right?

Mostly, yeah. There are some feline mobs in the tropical region that hang around in trees, and drop down onto people, but otherwise not enough people have levelled Identify enough to check every mob in the game yet. How did you get it so high in just two weeks?

>does anyone know what Cat's Feet does?

It's a skill that reduces fall damage. Catkin have automatic access to it, and Thieves can unlock it. That much was discovered in the beta. I'm sure there are merchants with skill scrolls, and items that do the same function too. There are rumours that it can be unlocked via an achievement as well, but no one has shared that information publicly. No idea why a wolf would have it.

Was it a named mob, or some unknown type? - 14/11/2041

[ Gurdani ]

>How did you get it so high in just two weeks?

Tracker gets improved exp gain to related skills, and you can use Identify on more than you might think, so it's not that hard.

>Was it a named mob, or some unknown type?

It just showed up as a Grey Limber Wolf. They're rarer than Timber Wolves, but I've seen them before. Just not one like this. Maybe I need an even higher Identify level to find out. The Resident Guide we partied with had never seen nor heard of anything like this before either. - 14/11/2041

[ teh tonkmeister ]

u sure it wasn't a lumber wolf lol - 14/11/2041

[ Ugg Yugg ]

what's it like partying with the npcs btw? - 14/11/2041

[ Thread Creator: Nyonjor ]

You should call them residents. They're just like people. Her name is Berlina, and she tells bad jokes. - 14/11/2041

[ Leaf Fit ]

Nyon's right. She didn't really feel any different from a player, except less memes. Plenty of bad jokes to make up for it, but she also saved my pretty elf a** from getting bitten off by a large wolf, so I'd call it even. Aside from the low level mobs, I've been impressed by the AI in the game so far. - 14/11/2041

[ Leaf Fit ]

Wait, they censored a**? What about asset? - 14/11/2041

[ Lun Parkal ]

Stop derailing the topic. Was there anything that stood out about this wolf besides its actions? - 14/11/2041

[ Gurdani ]

>Was there anything that stood out about this wolf besides its actions?

Hm... well, it had a brown pattern on its back that stood out from the grey fur. - 14/11/2041

[ Mu Brans ]

I thought I'd heard about a wolf with a brown pattern before, so I did a search. There was a report about a possible rare spawn in the tutorial field like a week ago, but it hasn't been seen since. The west forest is just next to the field, so... - 14/11/2041

[ Lun Parkal ]

I missed that thread, but I checked it out now. As far as we know the mobs don't move between areas, but it does sound like a weird coincidence. What was the level on that Limber Wolf? - 14/11/2041

[ Gurdani ]

>What was the level on that Limber Wolf?

It was level 16, but since the wolves are level 12-16 in that area I didn't think of that part as unusual. Do we have any record of mobs being able to level up? - 14/11/2041

[ Ketsacutel ]

freaky - 14/11/2041

[ Lun Parkal ]

>Do we have any record of mobs being able to level up?

None. There weren't even rumours back in beta. But what if the devs secretly put in some special mobs that can grow after the public release? Maybe to test out the AI or something? - 14/11/2041

[ Mu Brans ]

Now I kinda wanna go see if I can find it myself, but the west forest is so gross... so many wolves, and those demonic deer. At night it's even worse! I did a couple of the quests in that direction, but I'd prefer not visiting the place again without a flamethrower. At least the owls and ravens don't auto-aggro. - 14/11/2041

[ Hap scap ]

>At least the owls and ravens don't auto-aggro.

unles u're a goblin. - 14/11/2041

[ Thread Creator: Nyonjor ]

>unles u're a goblin.

Yeah. Goblin players have given up on merwyn forest, I think. - 14/11/2041

[ Gurdani ]

That sounds like a perfect place for a smart monster to hide out, actually. Players don't want to go there, there are plenty of other wolves, the deer are high exp, and if it can climb even the birds aren't safe, as we were personal witnesses to. I genuinely don't remember seeing the Climb skill on its list, but maybe I missed it because I was distracted. If it can climb like that without it, I'm very impressed. - 14/11/2041

[ Gurdani ]

Oh wait, I remembered something! It had an attack with 'poison' in the name... and there was Firm Grip. There's a shop in town that sells skill scrolls of it, but I heard I'll unlock it at Scout lvl 20, so I didn't want to waste money. - 15/11/2041

[ Lun Parkal ]

>It had an attack with 'poison' in the name...

Poison Strike maybe? That's the most basic one, but not something I've seen any wolf use. Very curious.

I wouldn't mind organising some search parties, but it's a big area, and Limber Wolves can use Stealth. Not gonna get my hopes up. Might be better to just wait and see if it moves on to somewhere else, though we should probably alert the rare mob hunters. - 15/11/2041

[ Mu Brans ]

>we should probably alert the rare mob hunters.

Sure. At the very least it would be funny if they kept getting stomped in there. - 15/11/2041

* * *

After a bit of Jump training, Sara had taken a nap before going out with Stealth during the night to try to level that, and her Night Vision a bit more. At sunrise she went back into the cave, and checked Conceal Status. As Aina had predicted there was now a toggle for 'Automatically Conceal Any New Skills Acquired'. She could choose to reveal them if she felt the situation called for it later, but for now it just gave her a sense of relief.

She toggled the option on, and started updating her skill list to conceal all the suspicious ones again. It might be prudent to adjust what levels her skills would appear as, but she didn't know what the norm was. Based on her very small sample size, it looked like mobs tended to have their attack skills on equal levels... she should investigate it more later, and just make it look not too ridiculous for now.

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Bite Lvl 9 (5) | Rake Lvl 9 (5) | Body Slam Lvl 4 (5) | Ambush Lvl 3 (5) | Howl Lvl 3 (5) | Stealth Lvl 11 -> 12 (5) |
Sense Presence Lvl 6 -> 7 (5) ]

[ Concealed Active: ]

[ Charge Lvl 1 | Throw Lvl 1 | Poison Strike Lvl 3 | Death From Above Lvl 1 -> 2 | Jump Lvl 8 -> 9 | Sprint Lvl 7 -> 8 |
Thermal Vision Lvl 3 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Night Vision Lvl 12 -> 13 (8) | Keen Eyes Lvl 14 -> 15 (8) | Keen Ears Lvl 13 -> 14 (8) | Keen Nose Lvl 10 -> 11 (8) |
Agility Up (Small) Lvl 5 -> 6 (3) ]

[ Concealed Passive: ]

You are reading story Thrown Into A Wolf at novel35.com

[ Danger Sense Lvl 3 | Camouflage Lvl 4 -> 5 | Cat's Feet Lvl 1 | Firm Grip (New) Lvl 1 | Dig Lvl 3 | Climb Lvl 9 -> Max |
Vitality Up (Small) Lvl 4 -> 5 | Strength Up (Small) Lvl 4 -> 5 | Defence Up (Small) Lvl 2 -> 3 |
Dexterity Up (Small) Lvl 1 -> 2 | Poison Resistance Lvl 3 | Skill Gain Lvl Max (Hidden) ]

[ General: ]

[ Identify Lvl 5 -> 6 (Hidden) | Communicate: Family (Hidden) | Conceal Status Lvl Max (Hidden) ]

[ Disabled (All Hidden): ]

[ Tough Scales | Flight ]

[ Skill points: 10 ]

Her revealed active and passive sections should be the only things anyone would be able to see if they used Identify on her. Of course that didn't help if that party from yesterday had already used it. Her guesses at what the skills levels 'should' be for a mob of her level were probably not correct. And it felt a little sad that her deciding to just set all Active skills at the same level meant some of them were higher than her real skill levels. If only that actually made them stronger, and it wasn't just cosmetic.

As for the Passive section she had just tried to logic it out by how long she would have had the skills. But she didn't have any actual information to go by, so maybe she should go get some. Aina had only said that Limber Wolves were a rarer variant, not that she was the only one. So she intended to go look around for wolf packs until she found one that had another Grey Limber Wolf.

* * *

She kept Stealth on until she was far enough away from the cave to feel reasonably certain there was no trail leading back to it. Not far out she noticed one of the ravens was taking a break up on a nearby branch. They usually flew around most of the time, but they would sit down every once in a while. Probably to recharge their SP, was her guess after reading the Flight skill description. Since it was just sitting there, and the range of her Identify had increased, she wanted to check it out.

[ Dusk Raven (Mage Lvl 16) HP: 105/105 ]

Huh?

That HP value was higher than expected. And it was a Mage? Curiosity made her look at its stats.

[ Target Status ]

[ Species: Dusk Raven | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Corvid ]

[ Class: Mage ]

[ Level: 15 ]

[ HP: 105/105 | SP: 59/83 | MP: 120/120 ]

[ VIT: 43 | END: 38 ]

[ STR: 41 | DEF: 36 ]

[ AGI: 40 | DEX: 51 ]

[ INT: 60 | WIS: 48 ]

[ LUK: 33 ]

What's with these absurd stats?

Its defence was low compared to its other stats, but it was still higher than Sara's. Even though she'd put a lot of bonus points into improving it, and gotten a passive buff. It had to be another elite like those deer. She still wasn't sure how it was a mage, so she had to check the skills too.

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Peck Lvl 5 | Death From Above Lvl 5 | Shadow Bolt Lvl 6 | Dark Enchant Lvl 6 | Dark Barrier Lvl 6 | Gust Lvl 5 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Night Vision Lvl 7 | Keen Vision Lvl 7 | Flight Lvl 7 | Dark Element Up Lvl 8 | Intelligence Up (Small) Lvl 5 ]

She just stared at it for a minute, feeling glad that she hadn't actually attempted to attack one of them in the same way she had pounced on the owls. If she hadn't been able to instantly trash it, it would have just flown out of range, and annihilated her. She wasn't sure what all of these skills actually did, though.

[ Shadow Bolt (Active): Fires a magic bolt with dark element property. Damage value: 1.1+(0.03*skill level)*magic power. Splash radius: 1 metre. (Reminder: Only direct hits have a chance to inflict critical damage.) Inflicts Heavy status on target for 5 seconds. Effect increases with skill level. Cost: 3 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 2 seconds. (Ai-note: Your current form is unable to use magic, so this skill will be disabled.) ]

[ Dark Enchant (Active): Enhances target's physical attacks with dark element property for 10 seconds. Duration increases with skill level. Scales with Intelligence. Base damage increase: 10+(3*skill level)%. Cost: 5 MP. Refresh: 30 seconds. (Ai-note: Your current form is unable to use magic, so this skill will be disabled.) ]

[ Dark Barrier (Active): Conjures a magical barrier around user with dark element property that absorbs incoming attacks. Duration: 1 minute, or until broken. Barrier strength: 1+(0.1*skill level)*magic power. Scales with Wisdom. Cost: 10 MP. Refresh: 1 minute. (Ai-note: Your current form is unable to use magic, so this skill will be disabled.) ]

[ Gust (Active): Create a cone-shaped burst of wind that pushes any targets in front of user away. Does no damage. Range: 3 metres. Cone width: up to 2 metres. Push force increases with skill level. Scales with Strength and Dexterity. Cost: 5 MP. Refresh: 10 seconds. ]

That was pretty much as expected. The 'current form' clause intrigued her, since it implied that she might be able to evolve into a species that could use magic.

And since only some of them had a cast time listed, that probably meant that anything that didn't have that was an instant cast. It made her curious what sorts of physical skills might have cast times.

Wait... Aina? Why isn't Gust listed as disabled?

"It is not technically a magic skill. For someone with wings like the Dusk Raven is costs SP to use, but for someone like you without anything equivalent it costs MP to conjure the wind. But it works on the same principle as Poison Strike, so the system does not technically count it as magic."

I see... and what does Heavy do?

"Very simply it makes you feel heavy. Your movement and reaction speed is reduced, and it reduces the physical attack power of skills. It is similar to Slow, except it does not affect your casting time, while Slow does not impact the physical attack power of skills."

That just left the passive skill she hadn't seen before, even though she could guess what it did from the name.

[ Dark Element Up (Passive): Increases the effect, power of dark element skills. Increase: 10+(1*skill level)%. ]

With a newfound respect for, and fear of the big black birds Sara decided to move on. She had wolves to look for.

The first pack she spotted was only three wolves, and all of them were the Timber variant. The second was four, but still only Timber.

Aina? How do the elements work here in Moorhold? She decided to ask while looking around.

"Pretty much as you would expect from fantasy games. If we look at Dark, it is very weak against Light, but it has an edge against the regular elements. While Light is less effective against the regular elements. But Dark's effect against the regular elements is less than their internal weaknesses. Dark will do slightly increased damage against Fire, but not as much as Water would, for instance. The regular elements have a lot of interplay. It is not as simple as just one thing being stronger against another. Like Water is weak to Nature, but also to Lightning. Yet Lightning is also weak against Water depending on how it is used. We have attempted to make it as intuitive and logical as possible."

Sounds like something I'd need a chart to keep track of.

"I do not believe it should be that complicated, but the Wanderers have made a guide on the community forums to make things easier on the newcomers. Perhaps we have miscalculated the degree of difficulty. It would be hard to reduce the complexity of the system at this point, so hopefully they will get accustomed to it."

Sara shook her head. She didn't consider herself stupid, but she was aware that she wasn't exactly a genius either. She was above average. How far above varied depending on on the day, and mood. At least she was somewhat lucky, which was proven when the third wolf pack she found had three Timber Wolves, and one Limber Wolf. It was the first time she saw another one like herself, so she felt a little excited as she approached them.

"Hello," she called out.

"Hello," one of them replied as the pack stopped to wait for her. "Oh, it's the climbing one."

"Wha... the climbing one?"

"You have been seen," the male wolf said with a nod. "Word has spread."

"Word has... wait... so, do all the wolves in the forest know about me?" she asked while she was still trying to process this.

"Probably," was the answer she got.

That made her again wonder whether mobs retained their memories after death. Wanderers did, and Residents did. So it would make sense that the same applied to mobs. That also implied that they would learn from their mistakes, which could make things a lot harder for new players in the future. Of course there was likely some limit to how clever mobs could get, but they had already proven they had some understanding of tactics.

"W-well, may I join you for a while?"

"Yes." While the pack gave each other a quick glance before answering, he hadn't sounded reluctant or hesitant.

They started walking again, and Sara followed after them. She wasn't quite sure how to behave, so she ended up walking a step behind the rest of them. If she wanted to look at it positively, she could think of herself as the rearguard. They had an important job too, after all. And now that she finally had the chance, she used Identify on the Limber Wolf.

[ Target Status ]

[ Species: Grey Limber Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Rogue ]

[ Level: 15 ]

[ HP: 71/71 | SP: 82/82 | MP: 18/18 ]

[ VIT: 23 | END: 33 ]

[ STR: 24 | DEF: 12 ]

[ AGI: 46 | DEX: 20 ]

[ INT: 9 | WIS: 9 ]

[ LUK: 21 ]

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Bite Lvl 8 | Rake Lvl 8 | Ambush Lvl 5 | Sprint Lvl 5 | Howl Lvl 5 | Stealth Lvl 10 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Night Vision Lvl 9 | Keen Eyes Lvl 9 | Keen Ears Lvl 9 | Keen Nose Lvl 9 | Sense Presence Lvl 5 | Camouflage Lvl 2 |
Agility Up (Small) Lvl 4 ]

She was a level lower than Sara, and the stats surprised her for a moment. All of her stat up passives, and bonus points had made a bigger difference than she had expected. The difference in Luck was no surprise though, thanks to that 'a bit of a god'.

The skills surprised her even more. Body Slam wasn't there. She checked one of the Timber Wolves to compare, and it had Body Slam. She suddenly remembered that Aina had told her that evolving into a Timber Wolf would have taught her Body Slam if she didn't already have it, yet that did not apply to Limber. Also Sprint was there. And so was Camouflage. She had been fairly close to the mark on the skill levels, though. Mostly. At least the passives. She quickly adjusted her Conceal Status to better reflect the other wolf before they could encounter anything. She felt safer, and more cheerful already.

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