Chapter 6: Chapter 6: New Power

Sara slowly woke up. She felt groggy. She hadn't dreamed, at least not that she could remember. In fact, she couldn't remember dreaming at all since she was put into this world. As her vision became clearer, she saw a couple of windows hovering in front of her.

[ Evolution Complete! Character Status updated. ]

[ Skill Gained: Ambush. ] [ Skill Gained: Keen Nose. ] [ Skill Gained: Sense Presence. ]

She dismissed the skill window, since Aina had already explained them, and pushed the 'View Character Status' button instead.

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

[ Species: Grey Limber Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Rogue ]

[ Level: 10 ]

[ HP: 43/43 -> 61/61 | SP: 47/47 -> 67/67 | MP: 13/13 -> 22/22 ]

[ VIT: 15 -> 23 | END: 16 -> 26 ]

[ STR: 15 -> 23 | DEF: 6 -> 12 ]

[ AGI: 22 -> 36 | DEX: 9 -> 19 ]

[ INT: 4 -> 8 | WIS: 4 -> 8 ]

[ LUK: 28 -> 40 ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 18 ]

That was quite the boost. She had to wonder whether the players got this big of an upgrade when they chose their first class too. Seemed like Dexterity had been brought up to the same level as Strength and Vitality (minus a Dex Up Passive), and she had a lot more Agility now. Defence still lagged behind though, which bugged her. Before she could change her mind, she put 8 of her bonus points into it, raising it up to 20. She thought she could feel her skin getting tougher, but maybe that was just her imagination.

Intelligence and Wisdom had both doubled, but that still didn't amount to much. There didn't seem to be any reason to put bonus points into them, though. She still didn't have a single skill that cost MP, nor did she rely on Intelligence for anything. She tried to check if she felt any smarter at all, but there were no obvious signs of that. Maybe it really had no effect, or she needed a larger increase to notice.

What about the remaining 10 bonus points?

She didn't really have any particular use for more Dexterity right now. Improved accuracy was a good thing, but she didn't have anything like a ranged weapon that took proper advantage of it, and she had no ability to use tools. Other than that she wasn't sure if needed even more Agility, or whether it was better to evenly distribute it between Vitality, Endurance, and Strength. Or load it all into Strength for harder strikes. Or save them for later.

Do you have any suggestions, Aina?

"Based on your play style so far, I would recommend 6 points in Strength, 2 in Vitality, and 2 in Agility."

Even more Agility? And no Endurance?

"You do not need as much Endurance as players do, in part because raising your SP even further is less important. You have less attack skills than player classes do, and they're not very expensive. The other benefits of Endurance do not have a significant enough impact to spend bonus points on. More Agility means less chance to get hit, but if you do, then more Vitality helps. Lastly your reliance on sneak attacks so far will only grow stronger as a Limber Wolf, so making sure that the first hit does as much damage as possible will improve your survival rate considerably."

Sara didn't really have a counter-argument to that, so she followed Aina's recommendation.

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

[ Species: Grey Limber Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Rogue ]

[ Level: 10 ]

[ HP: 61/61 -> 63/63 | SP: 67/67 | MP: 22/22 ]

[ VIT: 23 -> 25 | END: 26 ]

[ STR: 23-> 29 | DEF: 12 -> 20 ]

[ AGI: 36 -> 38 | DEX: 19 ]

[ INT: 8 | WIS: 8 ]

[ LUK: 40 ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 0 ]

"Also I have prepared a present for you. Please break this box."

She had no idea what Aina was talking about until a box materialised in front of her. A very stereotypical square gift box in white, with red ribbon. The kind you saw birthday and christmas presents get wrapped in in movies. She tried to Identify, but all she got as a result was '???'. Whether that was intentionally because Aina wanted it to be a surprise, or just how the system handled unknown items she wasn't sure.

[ Identify Skill Level Up! ]

Amusingly it was what she needed to push Identify up to level 4, though the only additional thing it revealed was that the box had 1 HP. Regardless she figured she might as well open- no, wait. Aina had specifically said 'break'. So Sara lifted her paw, and smashed it right down on top of the gift box.

[ Skill Gained: Communicate: Family. ]

What? She blinked.

"I realised while you were in your evolution sleep that you lack something crucial other mobs have. The ability to communicate with your own kind. They do not really speak, as such, but they can convey messages and intent to each other. It's more like their respective AI scripts communicating than them having a conversation as a human would understand it. But since you are not an AI, you do not have that inherent capability. Hence I created another unique skill for you that will handle the translation. Do not expect many deep conversations, but you will be able to understand them, and them you. The more advanced their script is, the more sophisticated their communication abilities are, but among the wolves in this forest you will only be able to have very basic conversations."

Family, huh... thank you, Aina.

The last thing to do before she set out was to check the Skill Store.

[ Available Skills ]

[ Howl : 2 sp ]
[ Back Attack (New): 3 sp ]
[ Danger Sense (New): 5 sp ]
[ Endurance Up (Small): 1 sp ]

[ Skill points: 14 ]

It was probably time to finally buy Howl, so she went ahead and did so.

[ Skill Purchased: Howl. ]

Based on Aina's argument it sounded like there was no reason to buy the Endurance Up, maybe ever. Which left the two new skills.

[ Back Attack (Active): Deal increased damage when attacking a target's back. Increased critical hit chance. Effect increases with skill level. Damage value: 1.5+(0.05*skill level)*attack power. Critical hits inflict Bleed on target. Cost: 4 SP. Refresh: 5 seconds. Price: 3 skill points. ]

That sounded somewhat like the non-stealth version of Ambush, though it only worked on a target's back. Useless in solo fights, but useful in group fights if you had someone else draw the aggro. That reminded her that she hadn't actually seen how much more damage Ambush did, so she pulled it up for comparison.

[ Ambush (Active): Deal severe damage to a target. Can only be used while in Stealth. +50% critical hit chance when striking a target's flank. +100% critical hit change when striking a target's back. Damage value: 2+(0.1*skill level)*attack power. Critical hits inflict Bleed on target. Cost: 5 SP. Refresh: 2 seconds. ]

Wait, isn't that... kinda broken? Of course, only using it from Stealth is the balance factor, but it still seems like it could get out of hand really quickly once the skill levels start piling up.

[ Danger Sense (Passive): Detect hostile intent directed at you, attacks aimed at you, and dangerous entities in your vicinity. Effect increases with skill level. Even if you can sense it coming, whether you're able to react to it is entirely up to you. Price: 5 skills points. ]

5 skill points?! That's the most expensive one I've seen yet!

She still had 12 skill points left after Howl, but was hesitant to spend almost half of them on such a vague skill. With ominous flavour text. Considering the price it was probably really powerful. Well... she probably didn't need to take it right away. Right? Back Attack could also be put off until she got a better feeling of how useful it would be for her. Might be best to bank the skill points for now.

Maybe she would get lucky, and something in the forest already had the skill. Just hopefully not the wolves...

She let out a sigh. Well, she felt rather refreshed after evolving, so might as well head out, and test out her new body and skills.

* * *

It had become night time, which probably meant even less of a chance to encounter players. Navigating these woods in the dark was probably hell without some sort of light, or Night Vision. And a light would attract the wolves, and other dangers. Perhaps if it was a flaming torch, and the wolves were afraid of fire, it was a viable strategy. Come to think of it, she wasn't sure how easy it was for players to get Night Vision. Maybe some races got it by default, or for cheap. Though as far as she knew there was nothing around here that warranted such an expedition in the first place.

The first thing she noticed about her new self was that she didn't feel as fast as expected considering the large agility increase. She had thought she might move as fast as when sprinting in her old form, but perhaps it was balanced out by her being larger, and heavier now. Even though she had picked the more limber option, she was probably still close to twice as bulky as before. That reminded her that she wasn't completely sure what she looked like. She could guess based on what other wolves looked like, but she didn't have a character viewer on her Status page. Not that it was a huge deal.

Let the testing commence!

Digging was simple enough. She could have probably done it even without the skill, but she did notice that there was less resistance in the dirt than one would think. Maybe if she had tried digging in the ground without the skill, she would have eventually unlocked it like she did with Body Slam.

Climbing was... trickier. Climbing up on some inclined rocks wasn't so bad, but climbing the trees that stood straight up was even harder than she had imagined. She couldn't seem to get a proper grip, or find a good way to pull herself up much higher. Her SP started draining while she struggled to hold on as well. Considering it stood for Stamina Points, that made sense.

The skill did level up after struggling for... probably an hour? Something like that. Maybe less. But it didn't feel like it made it any easier. Perhaps the problem was as much with her technique as low skill level. The main driving factor was that if she got good at climbing, she could ambush the sleeping owls up in the trees during the day. And possibly reach the squirrels, though they would likely flee to a different tree as soon as they saw or heard her scrambling her way upwards. Perhaps it was possible to climb while stealthed, but at the very least that required learning how to climb properly in the first place.

The owls were currently active though. Some of them still sat in the trees, but she could tell by their moving heads, and shining eyes that they were awake. Others were flying about, and occasionally diving at any mice that dared show themselves. It was a fair guess that the owls had both Night Vision, and Keen Eyes. They weren't showing any interest in attacking Sara though, even when she walked around without Stealth.

The ravens were also still out and about. Some mobs probably didn't care much whether it was day or night. The wolves were the same. She didn't see any squirrels, which probably meant those traded places with the owls, so to speak. And there were certainly less mice, but there were still some scurrying about. The rest were probably in their burrows. It might be a good opportunity to train her digging if she could find them. She had seen the foxes do it, after all.

Sense Presence might help with that, if she got used to how it worked. It was a weird feeling. She could tell that there were things around her, but she had to actually look in that direction to get a more exact read. She saw them as pale red pulsing dots, as if she was seeing their heartbeats. That made her wonder if it still worked on things without heartbeats. Larger creatures were easier to see, like the wolves, deer, owls, and ravens. Small things like the mice she had to really focus to see, and she wasn't able to feel them trigger her 'sense' at all. That would probably change as she got more accustomed to it, and the skill level rose.

As she stood there pondering all this, and trying to get a feel for the skill, there was a hissing noise behind her. Before she could really wonder what it was, or turn around to look, there was a sudden pain in her leg. She had been bitten!

[ You Have Been Poisoned. ]

What? Poisoned? What?

There was an icon that looked like a green drop that had appeared towards the top left of her view, and her HP bar had turned green. It was like a burning sensation, and she could see her HP gradually tick down. As she spun around she saw something moving.

[ Night Viper (Rogue Lvl 11) HP: 49/49 ]

A snake!

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She wasn't a fan of snakes in general, but one of her friends had one, so she had gradually adopted a 'if they don't bother me, I won't bother them' attitude. This one had definitely bothered her, though. Weren't snakes supposed to avoid larger animals? The rules were probably a bit different in a game.

She hadn't been able to sense it coming at all. Maybe it was too small... actually, it was pretty big for a snake, even if it was smaller than her. Since it was also a rogue, it was quite possible it had the same Stealth skill as her. That would make them annoying to come across in the night. The skin looked entirely black, meaning it was really hard to see with the naked eye if you didn't have some sort of sight enhancing skill. Thankfully Sara had two.

She swiped out with Rake (she didn't want to try to Bite it), and caught it in the side of the head, scoring a critical hit that caused a gash, and afflicted Bleed.

There! Now we're even, you bastard!

The snake struck again, its head flying forward so fast she wasn't able to dodge it properly, and received another bite in one of her front legs. It didn't stack another poison counter, but it looked like it refreshed the duration timer.

This is so annoying!

With the size of it she couldn't really use Body Slam, or Charge, and she didn't want to Bite it. Which left her with just Rake, but that was also hard to hit with. The poison debuff wasn't helping her concentrate either. She didn't want to die to something like this, but they had traded pretty evenly on HP so far. It didn't seem to actually be faster than her, it was just that the smaller body made it easier to dodge, and for some reason the strikes were unnaturally fast. As if there was some sort speed boost attached to it. Then she remembered she did have one more skill that could be useful.

She got herself ready, and kept her eyes sharp for whenever the next attack animation would start. As soon as she saw it, she activated Jump, and landed right on top of the viper that was off balance from missing its attack. The landing actually did a noticeable amount of damage, perhaps because being heavier made her land harder. She slashed another Rake across the back of its neck, and then used manual claw attacks to help finish it off.

[ Night Viper (Rogue Lvl 11) Defeated. ]

[ Sense Presence Skill Level Up. ]

... is the system making fun of me now? What timing... wait, the system is Aina, isn't it? Does she even have a sense of humour? ... maybe.

She activated Stealth, and curled up in a bush to let the poison wear off. Even if she had received no more hits, waiting for the poison to expire during combat would have brought her down to around half of her HP. Maybe even less. One more successful bite could have led to her death. At least it didn't stop HP regen out of battle, or lasted for very long. By the time her HP bar turned red again she was mostly healed.

It annoyed her that this had been her toughest battle so far, even though the viper hadn't had that much HP. Plus she had gotten neither a level up, nor a skill for it. Levelling was probably going to get tougher from now on, so she'd have to put more effort in. She didn't known how many evolutions it would take to reach her goal, or how often she'd get them. Maybe every 10 levels? Or would it be bumped up to 20 levels? All she could do was forge ahead, and take things as they came.

She wasn't sure how to find the snakes if they also used Stealth. There hadn't been any that had shown up the night before, after all. Maybe they were slow, and she had outpaced them. But she needed to get more levels, and preferably fast. Perhaps the mice? That might be a decent way to level up her new skills, and herself as well. So she headed to one of the more open areas where she had seen the owls diving for mice. They probably had their burrows nearby.

It was hard to pinpoint the small blips that the mice gave off, especially when they were underground, but she eventually found one. With her Night Vision and Keen Eyes as high as they were, the small terrain feature was actually enough to stand out when she was looking closely. Knowing what to look for would hopefully speed things up. She started digging in.

[ Dig Skill Level Up! ]

That was fast. It might be because she had been training earlier. That slight distraction was enough for the mouse to bolt out of its hole, but thankfully her reaction speed was good enough to activate Sprint, and go after it.

[ Forest Mouse (Starter Lvl 8) HP: 22/22 ]

It did not have a lot of health. A single Rake was enough to finish it off. It was a little surprising that it was only level 8 this far into the woods where everything else was level 10 or above. Perhaps it was because they were just meant to be prey. A sad fate.

She dug up another one, and was more on guard this time so she could smack it down as soon as it made a move. And another.

[ Level Up: Level 11 Reached! ]

That was appreciated, if a bit slow. She had already killed two mobs that were 10+ after hitting level 10, and it took a whole three mice to finally get there. Or perhaps that was typical of the post-10 levelling experience. She dismissed the message, thinking she'd check things out when she was back in the cave. She wasn't getting any skills, though. She tried one more mouse, and a message popped up.

[ Dig Skill Level Up! ]

Well, that was nice, but she had hoped for a new skill. Perhaps she already had everything the mice had to offer, or she was simply getting exceedingly unlucky rolls.

Then she heard a hissing behind her. She automatically used Jump without thinking, and flew over the attack aimed at her leg. She managed to land on top of the snake that was recovering from its missed attack. The resulting scuffle went a little better than last time, but she still got bit once.

[ Night Viper (Rogue Lvl 12) Defeated.]

[ Rake Skill Level Up! ]

Now it was higher than Bite for the first time, but considering she didn't want to bite the snakes, and the mice were a bit too small and fast, it made sense.

[ Skill Gained: Poison Resistance. ]

Oh?

[ Poison Resistance (Passive): Reduces damage and duration of Poison. If holder is struck with an attack that has less than 100% Poison chance, chance is further reduced. ]

That unfortunately seemed like it would be useful. It didn't prevent attacks with guaranteed poison chance, which she presumed the snake bite was, but it still made her take less damage. She could guess what was needed to level the skill, and she immediately decided against intentionally poisoning herself to do it. While she had some mild completionist tendencies, she wasn't that much of a gamer.

She felt tired of digging up mice, and getting poisoned by these snakes, so she decided to head back to the cave for a break. This time walking with Stealth the whole time to avoid any further serpentine encounters. There wasn't really that much of interest during the night, it seemed. Maybe that would change when she was strong enough to hunt the deer, since those also seemed to walk around both day and night, but she hadn't seen any below level 14, and several above. Maybe if she joined one of the packs they could handle it. She had completely forgotten to approach any of them, even though she had walked past a few.

On the way back, two things of interest popped up.

[ Night Vision Level Up! Level 10 Reached, Skill Unlocked: Thermal Vision. 1 skill point granted. ] [ Stealth Level Up! Level 10 Reached, Skill Unlocked: Camouflage. 1 skill point granted. ]

Seemed like there was some benefit to unlocking skills rather than just gaining them. Sort of like a mini-achievement reward? It made her wonder if it was possible to get achievements with better rewards.

The first thing she did when she plopped down in the cave was to check her level up.

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

[ Species: Grey Limber Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Rogue ]

[ Level: 10 -> 11 ]

[ HP: 63/63 -> 67/67 | SP: 67/67 -> 72/72 | MP: 22/22 -> 23/23 ]

[ VIT: 25 -> 26 | END: 26 -> 28 ]

[ STR: 29 -> 30 | DEF: 20 ]

[ AGI: 38 -> 40 | DEX: 19 -> 20 ]

[ INT: 8 | WIS: 8 ]

[ LUK: 40 -> 44 ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 0 -> 3 ]

That looked pretty good. Didn't seem like any of her Stat Up skills had levelled. It wasn't always easy to keep track of, since it was easy to miss skill up notifications. Luck was still growing at a ridiculous rate. And she'd worry about the bonus points once she'd stacked up a decent amount again.

Next up were her two new available skills.

[ Thermal Vision (Active): Lets you see the heat signature of targets, as well as other significant heat sources. Continuous effect. Effect increases with skill level. Warning: makes it hard to see anything else, so try to not bump into anything, or fall off any cliffs. Activation Cost: 1 MP. No further cost while active. Deactivation Cost: 0. Refresh: 1 second. Price: 4 skill points. ]

Things were definitely getting pricier, though Danger Sense still took the cake. It seemed like it was quite useful if used in the right circumstances, and the price suggested as much as well, though it also had some serious downsides.

Aina? How do players afford all these skills? They have even more available than me, right?

"Players and Residents have access to quests that reward extra skill points, and can get skill scrolls that let them learn a skill for free. Part of the code for that was used to complete your Skill Gain skill."

How nice for them. Well, considering I also get free skills, maybe I don't have room to complain.

It wasn't like she could pick the skills herself, but most of them had been useful so far.

"I have a suggestion, Sara. If you want to become a Resident, it might be helpful to start practising calling the players Wanderers, even mentally. No Resident would call them players, and you might look suspicious if you do. Even if you are some ways off from that goal, I believe it would benefit you to establish that habit as soon as you can."

That was a good point. Part of her reason for wanting to become a Resident was to find a place to fit in this world. If she immediately gave herself away by using the term 'players', that would not help her cause.

I will try.

And the other skill was...

[ Camouflage (Passive): Makes the holder harder to notice as they blend into their surroundings. Effect increases with skill level. Stacks with Stealth. Price: 3 skill points. ]

Huh? Stacks with Stealth? Does that mean it works even when not stealthed?

"Correct. The effect is minor compared to Stealth, but it can still make a difference, and it makes Stealth more effective. I recommend you purchase this one."

Sara blinked. It was rare for Aina to make a recommendation like that. Might even be the first time she did so unprompted. No wait, she had stopped her from purchasing Keen Nose. Regardless she decided to follow her advice, putting her down to 10 skill points (since she got 1 from the level up). Which made it even less tempting to get Thermal Vision or Danger Sense. She'd think about those two a bit longer.

She decided to check her skill list to see if anything else was close to unlocking a new skill.

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Bite Lvl 6 | Rake Lvl 6 -> 7 | Charge Lvl 1 | Body Slam Lvl 2 | Ambush (New) Lvl 1 | Jump Lvl 4 -> 5 | Sprint Lvl 3 |
Stealth Lvl 9 -> 10| Sense Presence (New) Lvl 1 -> 2 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Night Vision Lvl 8 -> 10 | Keen Eyes Lvl 8 -> 10 | Keen Ears Lvl 5 -> 8 | Keen Nose (New) Lvl 1 -> 2 |
Camouflage (New) Lvl 1 | Dig Lvl 1 -> 3 | Climb Lvl 1 -> 2 | Agility Up (Small) Lvl 3 | Vitality Up (Small) Lvl 2 |
Strength Up (Small) Lvl 2 | Poison Resistance (New) Lvl 1 | Skill Gain Lvl Max (Hidden) ]

[ General: ]

[ Identify Lvl 3 -> 4 (Hidden) | Communicate: Family (New) (Hidden) ]

[ Skill points: 14 -> 10 ]

The list was already getting quite chunky, even though she was barely past level 10. She wondered what the max level was, but decided to not ask. It wouldn't help her to know. She noticed that Keen Eyes had also hit level 10, but she hadn't gotten any notification for unlocks. So it wasn't every skill, then. That was probably for the best.

It felt like the poison had drained her energy as much as it had her HP, so she decided to take a quick nap. Seemed like it would be more productive to continue her levelling during the day in the current circumstances, which was quite the reversal from how things had been back in the field. It might be worth it to suss out more of those vipers, since she kinda wanted their poison bite skill, but... not right now.

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