Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Scouting The Woods

Summer showers rarely lasted long, but they were recurring, so by the time Sara woke up again a second shower had come and gone, and a third had started. The air inside the den honestly felt a bit muggy. It wasn't exactly well ventilated, especially when there wasn't a lot of wind outside. Maybe it was possible to create a hole out through the back to get a draft going, and freshen up the air that way, but that plan had some issues. For instance whether the draft would make the den too cold in winter.

And having a secret escape route would be cool, but it would also be a way for someone to sneak in. Well, since Aina could hide the place from outsiders that probably wasn't an actual concern.

The actual big problem was: How?

She tested the walls of the den, and they were solid rock. The floor was dirt, but not for very deep until it also hit rock. Whether this was authentic to real dens, or caves on Earth she wasn't sure. It wasn't like she had ever seen inside of a wolf den. Did real wolves even have dens? But in a game you expected a cave, even a shallow one, to be set in rock.

She had some ways to break through rock, but it depended on how thick it was, and she didn't exactly have a way to measure that. However in theory she should be able to pierce the rock with roots, and by using Burrow. Maybe using Rock Shot to try to crack it up a bit would help. But all of that depended on the rock wall being fairly thin. If it was more than 5-10 centimetres she would likely need some sort of drill, and that seemed a little too ambitious in her current state.

The roof might be a better option. There likely wasn't much rock until it reached the dirt on top, but did she really want a hole for the rain to come in through? If she could somehow make a little roof over the hole that might solve the issue, but she'd still have to dig a hole upwards large enough for her to fit through, and reinforce the dirt so it didn't collapse. Though that could also serve as a chimney in case she wanted to start a fire inside. Having another exit for the smoke wasn't a bad idea. Not that she had any need for it at the moment, but it was worthy of consideration for the future. Plus with her Spider Climb it could still serve as an escape route. The chimney roof could be set high enough for her to slip through.

The rain shower ended while she was thinking about all this, so she filed it in the back of her mind for the time being. She'd revisit the idea later.

She was curious if any people were around in the forest at the moment. The sun was still a couple of hours away from the horizon, so it might be too early for them. For the Residents, at least.

Maybe she should ask her wolves if there was anyone around. The activity report she'd gotten the day before made it sound like the visitor numbers had gone up again. While she was glad people were feeling safe enough to come, she hoped they weren't putting themselves in undue danger by thinking it was too safe. They still had cats and deer to look out for, and even bears if they ventured too far north. Though it sounded like the amount of Adventurers coming here to fight them was not increasing by much. It might even be decreasing considering how many had taken up the flower, but it was probably too early to make that call. If the trend kept up for another week or two they could make a more conclusive call.

There was no news of anyone wanting to use the road for travel yet, but since the elves hadn't even started making repairs, that was probably to be expected. She was curious when they would be starting, but there was no reason to bug them about it. Things had been set in motion, so it felt like for the time being the worst part was over with on her side. She just needed to watch how things developed.

As for the bandits she'd give them a three day gap rather than two this time. She wanted to keep things somewhat unpredictable, but she was sure that eventually they would start being more alert in general. Once the wolves lost the element of surprise it would become more of a contest of skill between the two sides, though she intended to keep involving the elves. Who might keep involving the Adventurers.

Honestly having the Adventurers along had been interesting. She hadn't seen a lot of how people actually played the game yet, and there were obvious differences in how well they could move their characters. Though in order to get past level 20 they needed at least some amount of skill, or just a lot of perseverance, and the world hadn't been going long enough for the latter to properly apply yet.

Though that made her curious what the highest level Wanderer was so far. Level 10 was probably achievable within the first week if they were able to log in a decent amount. Depending on how much experience they got from quests, maybe it only took a couple of days. Though if they had school, or work, or something they might not have a lot of login time.

In her own experience levelling certainly slowed down after 10, and she was someone who was 'logged in' all the time. Then again she had also been distracted a lot. If she had focused on nothing but levelling, maybe she would have hit her goal already, but she didn't really regret anything she had done. Well... not most of it, at least. Having no regrets was basically impossible.

Back on topic, she figured there might be Wanderers who were close to level 40 already. There might even be some who had gotten above, but it was hard to be sure how common that was. If they were at that level they didn't have any reason to come to Ildhena any longer, so it was unlikely she'd get to see them.

* * *

The first wolf pack she had met had filled her in that there were a few people in the woods already, but they were apparently just collecting stuff. The ravens had told her much the same. It was definitely too early yet, but with this amount of Wanderers there would always be some night owls, or people who played from different time zones.

The game had been aimed at a European release first and foremost, she remembered that much from the advertising she had seen, so people from that region got priority, but that didn't mean that no one from outside of that continent had gotten in. There were always ways, and maybe the developers had even reserved some slots for it.

As she wandered around, Sara picked up a familiar scent, and trotted over to say hi.

"Good morning, Kathleen," she said as she got close enough.

"Morning, boss." Kathleen was out strolling with her pack. Perhaps it was due to her new status, but her pack had increased to four other wolves. She was like a roaming boss encounter now. Maybe mini-boss was a more accurate term.

"How's it going?" Sara asked as she joined them.

"Okay, boss."

"Anything new to report?" Sara tried to keep it going nonetheless.

"I was attacked last night," Kathleen said very nonchalantly.

"Oh? Surely not by someone with the symbol?"

"No, boss." That was good, at least. "It was a group of five regular Adventurers. Maybe they thought they had a decent chance since it was a five on five, but they only managed to take down two of us before they got wiped out." Kathleen seemed to have gotten a little cleverer, and more talkative since her upgrade. She still wasn't a huge conversationalist, and would mostly respond if asked rather than taking the initiative, but she seemed to be improving.

Adventurers were generally stronger individuals than wolves if they were close to the same level, which was likely true for most non-elite mobs. However Kathleen had gotten significantly stronger after getting upgraded to a Named Mob, and had also gotten a buff like Sara's, though Kathleen's was 'only' a 10% increase to her stats.

"Yeah." Sara nodded. "They'll probably need a bigger party. And it's possible they underestimated how strong you'd be." A five or six person party with excellent coordination, skills, and gear might give Kathleen a tough time if she didn't summon help.

"Yes, boss. I went to sleep right afterwards, so I don't know if they returned." Kathleen shrugged.

That was the thing about the Adventurers, or anyone in Moorhold really. They could always come back, and try again after they revived.

"The forest seems really peaceful before dawn," Sara remarked.

"Yes, boss. The only people in here seem to be ones collecting plants that only sprout at night."

That would make sense. Elves had Night Vision by default, so it wasn't like they should have any problems seeing, and for Adventurers there were surely ways for races who didn't start with it to also get it if they didn't want to carry light sources.

Time of day based collectibles sounded a little annoying though. Perhaps having Wanderers from different time zones would help alleviate some of the supply issues there. Though the Residents could also take care of it themselves to an extent.

* * *

Sara separated from Kathleen's pack as sunrise drew near. She wanted to watch it from a good vantage point, and scaled up a tree. It still amused her how easy this was now compared to when she had first started.

The sky was mostly clear again, so it seemed like those three showers were all the rain they were getting for the time being. There might be more towards the evening again, but it seemed like the morning and afternoon would remain clear.

As the sun crested the horizon, it was as if the air got an instant refreshment from the warm rays.

She pondered if there was anything more on her skill list she wanted to focus on levelling. There were still ones like DFA, and Pursuit that wouldn't level through regular combat, but probably wouldn't take too long if she specifically set up for them. And there was still the plan to ask the ravens for help levelling her Dark Resistance.

But she didn't feel particularly stressed about any of it at the moment. Maybe if she got bored, but the days since she had arrived here in Nyolund had been quite hectic, and she had already powered up a lot, so she wouldn't mind taking it easy for a while if she could. Thing would certainly start happening again soon enough.

Maybe going to the ocean would be nice. It should be the next zone past Wutsch, if she had understood correctly.

Actually, it might be too early to start planning a vacation. And I wouldn't want to go alone, but I'm not sure how Gloria and Kathleen would feel about actually leaving the forest. And Mirielle has responsibilities. Let's leave that idea for later.

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After bathing in the morning sunlight for a little bit, she hopped back down from the tree.

* * *

More people started arriving in the woods after the sun was up, and Sara decided to do what she had thought about the other day. Just walk around, and look at what they were doing. It wasn't hard to find them, and she could either watch them from a distance, or show herself if she wanted to.

There were several people who looked like they were doing basically the same as her. Just looking around. They seemed to be Adventurers, and she wondered if they were looking for something, but as far as she could tell they weren't doing anything other than looking. It would be weird if there were quests related to that. At least the more normal looking people (probably Residents) were looking for something to gather, but these Adventurers were just looking around. They were wearing the flower symbols, so she wasn't going to do anything to them. It just struck her as slightly suspicious.

She showed herself to some of them to see how they would react. It was a group of four, and two of them visibly jumped at seeing her. She watched them as they stared back at her, obviously wary of whether she was going to do something.

"T-that's the boss."

"So it really does roam..."

She wasn't sure exactly what language they were speaking, but she could understand them. Then again, she had been able to understand Wanderers even before she got the Languages skill, and she very much suspected these four were not Residents.

One of them glared at the two who were speaking, and they promptly shut up. They had obviously used Identify on her, so she returned the favour.

[ Gnott - Human Surveyor (Ranger Lvl 25) HP: 126/126 ]
[ Tien Nom - Hobbit Acolyte (Priest Lvl 26) HP: 121/121 ]
[ Kattsabb - Catkin Shieldwarden (Fighter Lvl 28) HP: 159/159 ]
[ Gunn En Nug - Dwarf Tracker (Scout Lvl 25) HP: 119/119 ]

A surveyor and a tracker? Maybe they're mapping out the zone or something? I guess there are people who just like to explore.

They didn't have a Druid with them, so it wasn't like she could ask them what they were doing. Maybe if she shapeshifted... nah, it wasn't that important. The understanding she had with the elves was that they would ask if they wanted to speak with her, and these people hadn't asked. If she went around bothering random people in the forest it might destroy the mystery. Or something. She wasn't sure if that was the kind of reputation she wanted, so with slightly conflicted feelings she moved on.

She kept walking around, looking curiously at what people were collecting, and watching a team of elves in matching gear take down a deer. They had good coordination, and didn't struggle much. Shortly after she came across another deer hunting team who were dressed more... eccentrically, so they were probably Adventurers.

And she kept finding more Adventurer teams who were just exploring. She even came across a trio who were not wearing flowers. They stared at each other for a couple of seconds before she growled at them, and they promptly ran away. Maybe she should have attacked on sight, but she wasn't in a very aggressive mood. Besides, the way they ran away was funny,

* * *

"The Sara!"

When it got close to noon one of the ravens called out to her.

"Yes?"

"People are coming!" The raven sounded both urgent, and excited.

"Someone who wants to speak with me?" she asked.

"No! No no. Many people. Many! Not wearing the symbol! No allies! We think they come for battle!"

"Battle battle!" Another raven she hadn't immediately noticed chimed in.

Actually, several ravens were showing up.

"Battle? You mean a raid?" It was slowly getting through to Sara's brain.

"Yes! Raid battle! Battle!"

Sara sighed at their excitement. "Alright. How many?"

"22!"

"Hm..." She pondered it. It was something that had been bound to happen sooner or later, and something she had kinda looked forward to. Doing her own raids had been fun too, but there was something thrilling about the idea of playing raid boss.

I can just call everyone, and utterly crush them, but where's the fun in that? If I don't want to utterly demoralise them I'll have to make it a challenge, but not so hard that it seems insurmountable. If there are 22 of them, should I place 50 wolves in their way? Space them out like dungeon pulls? Or just have a grand battle on a single field? Well... 'field'. I could 'welcome' them all at the den, assuming they find their way there.

That would make the most out of her Leadership skill as well. Since it wasn't a dungeon, the Adventurers could basically bring as many people as they wanted. She could send a couple of waves of regular wolves at them while they were on their way, and then have a climactic battle at the end.

Yeah, I like that idea. One wave of twenty wolves as their first test. A second wave with thirty wolves led by Kathleen. And then the final test would be against me, and another forty wolves. Mix in a couple of Shade Wolves with each wave to try to pick off the back line. Oh right, and the ravens want to take part... uh... maybe I need to adjust the difficulty for that.

"Okay, I have a plan," she said as she looked up at seven ravens perched on branches above her. "Since we want this to be fun, we can't just overwhelm them. If they don't stand a chance, they'll just give up, so I intend to give them three trials. The first will be just regular wolves, so if four of you can join that wave, I think that should be appropriate.
The second is going to be Kathleen with a larger pack of wolves. Maybe six or seven of you can go with that one?
And then the third will be the showdown against me with even more wolves, and maybe ten of you?
You're all quite strong, so if too many of you join they won't stand a chance, and then they might not want to come back."

"Yes!"

"Come back!"

"More battle!"

The ravens caw-laughed merrily.

She needed to adjust the number of wolves down a bit per wave to compensate for the added ravens. This was going to be the first run, so they probably wouldn't nail the difficulty perfectly, but she hoped it was going to be fun for both sides.

She asked the nearest pack of wolves to help spread the word, and she'd talk to anyone she found along the way as she got into position. As she reached the den, a system announcement popped up.

[ Raid Mode Initiated. Checking Participants. Number Registered. Zone Boss HP increased by 100%. Sub Boss HP increased by 50%. Boss buffs increased to 30%, and 15% respectively. ]

Sara felt a sudden increase in power. It seemed like the system did some difficulty scaling of its own. She still intended to run with her current plan, and try to adjust things further after seeing how this attempt fared.

Should be fun, she thought to herself as her wolves started gathering. She'd give them an explanation of the plan as well, and send them out to ready positions. The ravens could monitor the progress of the Adventurers, and she'd send word for when to launch the waves.

Time to see how the challengers would fare.