Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Why Does It Have To Be Snakes

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

[ Species: Grey Limber Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Rogue ]

[ Level: 12 -> 13 ]

[ HP: 73/73 -> 77/77 | SP: 76/76 -> 81/81 | MP: 24/24 -> 25/25 ]

[ VIT: 29 -> 30 | END: 29 -> 31 ]

[ STR: 33 -> 34 | DEF: 21 -> 23 ]

[ AGI: 44 -> 46 | DEX: 20 -> 21 ]

[ INT: 8 | WIS: 8 ]

[ LUK: 48 -> 52 ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 6 -> 9 ]

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Bite Lvl 6 -> 7 | Rake Lvl 7 -> 8 | Charge Lvl 1 | Body Slam Lvl 2 -> 4 | Ambush Lvl 1 -> 3 | Throw (New) Lvl 1 | Jump Lvl 5 | Sprint Lvl 3 -> 5 | Howl (New) Lvl 1 -> 3 | Stealth Lvl 10 -> 11 | Sense Presence Lvl 2 -> 4 | Thermal Vision (New) Lvl 1 -> 2 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Night Vision Lvl 10 | Keen Eyes Lvl 10 -> 12 | Keen Ears Lvl 8 -> 11 | Keen Nose Lvl 2 -> 6 | Danger Sense (New) Lvl 1 -> 2 | Camouflage Lvl 1 -> 2 | Dig Lvl 3 | Climb Lvl 2 -> 3 | Agility Up (Small) Lvl 3 -> 4 | Vitality Up (Small) Lvl 2 -> 3 | Strength Up (Small) Lvl 2 -> 3 | Defence Up (Small) (New) Lvl 1 | Poison Resistance Lvl 1 | Skill Gain Lvl Max (Hidden) ]

[ General: ]

[ Identify Lvl 4 (Hidden) | Communicate: Family (Hidden) ]

[ Skill points: 10 -> 8 ]

Something Sara hadn't done in a while was check her inventory. Since she'd only gotten things that were of no use to her at the start, she had quickly lost interest in checking, but curiosity compelled her to finally have a look.

From the tutorial area she could see hare pelts and meat, and boar hides and meat. Moving over to the forest she'd picked up fox pelts, fox tails (no meat), squirrel fur, tree nuts (from the squirrels?), snake hides, viper meat, poison fangs, mouse meat, mouse tails (they were listed as a material, but she couldn't imagine for what), sharp antlers, deer hide (just the one), and venison.

It didn't look like gear dropped. You probably had to get it all crafted, or buy it from Resident vendors. Though there were some bits and bobs. Like the rabbit foot she had gotten early, a ring of strength, a tree branch with the weapon label, soil (listed as a material), and for some reason a monocle. It gave +5% Accuracy (a hidden stat? or just buried?), and had flavour text that said: 'For the stylish Adventurer'. So apparently equip-able items could be dropped, but were somewhat rare? Though she still couldn't actually equip anything at all.

And finally the apple she had found while checking if she could Identify anything other than mobs or players. Even though it had been several days, it didn't look like it had changed. Game rules, probably. She decided to take it out of her inventory, and have a bite. It was sweet and juicy, and she devoured the whole thing in the blink of an eye.

It hit her how much she missed food. She hadn't paid much attention to it since she hadn't felt hungry since she became a wolf, but in her old life she had quite enjoyed food. And cooking. She still wasn't tempted to eat any of her kills raw, but if she could cook them that would be a different story. Something else to look forward to when she became a Resident. At least she still had the option of berries, and fruits like that apple.

Wait, are apples bad for wolves?

"Do not worry, there are no food allergies or intolerances in the game. That might be a consideration for a future update, but Wanderers would probably not be happy about it. Tamed mobs do have food preferences, and things they refuse to eat, but that is a different system."

Tamed? She hadn't thought about that concept being in the game Uh... I'm not tameable, am I?

"That is a complicated question. Short answer, no. Long answer is that because you are not an AI, the script that governs taming would not know what do with you, since technically wolves should be possible to tame, but your mind would refuse it in some way. I would prefer if you could avoid having someone try it on you, since I cannot predict what it would do to the system, or in what ways it might break."

That could be easier said than done, but duly noted.

* * *

Darkness had blanketed the forest once more, and Sara set out to hunt more vipers. Both because she wanted their skills, and also because it could be good practice for getting used to Danger Sense. If she had understood it correctly, it would be able to sense hostile intent directed at her, even if the source was stealthed. Perhaps there was some counter-measure to it for Stealth users, making it a sort of arms race, but she was pretty certain that lookout mouse had noticed her because of it.

So in a sense it might be more correct to say that she would be letting the vipers hunt her, as she strolled around the forest at a relaxed pace. Perhaps she could try Identifying random things she saw to see if any of them were usable. She pretty quickly discovered some herbs. Then more herbs. Mushrooms. Some different herbs. It made sense that a forest would be a good gathering spot for such things. She didn't see any need to bring along any of it, assuming she was capable of collecting them in the first place, but it was nice getting closer to levelling up Identify some more. She wasn't sure at what level it would let her see a target's skills. The description only listed what she had unlocked so far.

Level 1 started with the HP bar, species, and level. Level 2 unlocked seeing the target's class. Level 3 was SP and MP bars. And Level 4 was actual number values added to the bars, though she only cared about HP. Aina had confirmed that it would eventually let her check a target's skills, even if she wouldn't reveal at what level. Then it made sense the other character pages would show up too, like stat values. It probably wouldn't show her entire Status page, at least she hoped not. She could imagine some issues if people found out she had a name.

Though they would probably already be scratching their heads at how many skills she had.

Aina? I know you've hidden Skill Gain, and Identify, but won't people still raise questions about many of the other skills I have?

"You raise a good point. I shall think of a solution."

Sara had thought maybe everything she wasn't supposed to have could just be hidden, but maybe it wasn't that easy. She felt a little bad about how much Aina had to modify the game for her sake.

Suddenly there was a faint sense of heat behind her, but she didn't immediately realise what that meant until she heard a familiar hissing noise. She activated Jump on instinct, and narrowly avoided the speedy lunge of the Night Viper. Unfortunately she jumped a little too high, so the snake was able to recover from its attack animation, and slither out of the way of her attempt to land on top of it. The fight was on.

[ Night Viper (Rogue Lvl 12) Defeated. ]

[ Level Up: Level 14 Reached! ]

[ Jump Skill Level Up! ] [ Night Vision Skill Level Up! ] [ Poison Resistance Skill Level Up! ] [ Identify Skill Level Up! ]

She winced at the burning sensation from the poison. It was hard to feel happy about levelling up her resistance, since she would have preferred not to need it.

How are their attacks so quick? Even my boosted Agility can't keep up.

At least her Identify romp through the woods had paid off. She was curious to find out what it had unlocked.

"I have a solution, Sara."

She nearly jumped at suddenly being spoken to.

"In general I have wanted to avoid simply giving you skills myself, especially strong ones, unless it was something you cannot otherwise get, like the communication skill I made. However in this case I was unable to come up with any other reasonable solution."

A gift box popped up in front of her once more.

[ ??? HP 1/1 ]

Taking the hint, Sara smashed it.

[ Skill Gained: Conceal Status. ]

"This is a skill that already exists in the game that allows the holder to edit their own status, though in a purely cosmetic sense. You can decide for yourself what your attribute scores, skill list, and so on will look like when someone uses Identify on you. It can even change what class you display as, and it automatically keeps itself hidden from view. It is invaluable for the Spy class."

Huh... but if it already exists, aren't there counter-measures against it?

"There are, but I negated most of them by setting the skill level to Max. Only a tiny handful of entities in Moorhold will be able to see through it. So it is not a perfect solution, but it is the easiest one. Anything else I could think of required too much maintenance, or had too much risk of breaking the game. I regret not being able to give you a 100% safe solution. I will keep working on it, so bear with it for now."

It's okay, Aina. I really appreciate all the effort you go through for me. Thank you.

"It is no problem. You are welcome. Also..."

Sara hadn't heard Aina trail off before.

Also?

"Never mind."

Now you've made me curious. You can't not tell me now.

"Is that how it works?"

Yes.

"Very well." It was impressive how much Aina could make it sound like she was sighing without actually sighing. "I know I am not human, but do you think it is still possible for you to consider me... family?"

Family? That was not something she had expected to hear.

"When you called me mum, I felt... I believe it is correct to say I felt happy. I would like it if you kept doing that."

Sara was shocked that a sarcastic quip would have such an impact. She wasn't sure what to say. It was true that Aina was the only person she'd had contact with for... probably over a week now. Even if she wasn't human, she was still clearly someone with her own thoughts, and feelings. A person. Her voice was flat and emotionless, but Sara had learned to tell that it wasn't expressionless. AIs were meant to learn, and grow, so it was possible she would develop an upgrade that let her expressions be more open. And it felt like she cared. Aina claimed it wasn't a big deal, but she was still going out of her way for Sara's sake.

I... I don't mind calling you family, but I already have a mother. Even though she would never see her again. I can't just... forget about her...

"Can you only have one?"

I... I'll think about it...

"I understand. I apologise for my selfishness."

Sara felt gloomy. It made her happy that Aina cared so much, that wasn't the problem, but she had been reminded of her family. At this point they had to have learned about her death, howsoever it had happened. That 'bit of a god' had taken that memory from her, so she didn't know. They were probably right that it was better she didn't remember the 'gory details', but she wished she had gotten to say goodbye, at least.

No, I refuse to think about this. She tried to shake away her tears. You'd better watch out, snakes, 'cause here I come.

She stomped off to set herself up for more ambushes.

[ Night Viper (Rogue Lvl 13) Defeated. ]

She had managed to stick the landing, and gotten the pin that time, so she'd gotten away with only being bitten once. There had also been something extra to the Identify result that time, but she hadn't had time to look closer at it during combat.

[ Rake Skill Level Up! ]

[ Skill Gained: Tough Scales. ]

Her continued refusal to bite the snakes back was giving Rake even more of a lead. She really didn't have a lot of attack skills that worked on a target that size. It was definitely large for a snake, but not so large that a Body Slam would work, and because they seemed to always be stealthed she couldn't turn the tables, and Ambush them first. Unless her detection skills were good enough at this point. She couldn't really smell anything, nor did she hear anything until the hiss before the first attack. It was curious that it always did that, by the way. Why would it give it itself away? Perhaps it was possible to find them with Thermal Vision, but it honestly felt more efficient to use herself as bait. If only she could learn to dodge all those bites.

Now what's this skill?

[ Tough Scales (Passive): The holder's scaly hide gives them improved Defence, and there's a chance for incoming attacks to get deflected, which turns it into a glancing blow that only does 20% damage. Effect increases with skill level. Less effective against piercing attacks. Defence increase: 10 + (1*skill level)%. Deflect chance: 20 + (1*skill level)%. ]

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A percentage based stat increase! And that deflect... she felt like that explained why the viper fights took longer than they should. However the skill came with an addendum:

(Ai-note: As your body does not have a scaly hide, this skill will be disabled.)

Ugh... I guess I can't have everything, but then why isn't Throw disabled? Do you really expect me to chuck things with my mouth?

"It is technically possible, so the skill remains enabled, but I would not recommend using it, since even at Max Level it will probably not be very good."

Sara sighed, and looked upwards. Those owls were probably within Identify range now that it levelled up once more. There was one perched in the tree above, perhaps scanning the ground for mice, so she decided to try.

[ Forest Owl (Fighter Lvl 15) HP: 70/70 ]

There was now a glowing icon attached to the Identify result, that she could further focus on, which brought up a familiar looking window.

[ Target Status ]

[ Species: Forest Owl | Gender: Male ]

[ Genus: Owl ]

[ Class: Fighter ]

[ Level: 15 ]

[ HP: 70/70 | SP: 52/52 | MP: 56/56 ]

[ VIT: 25 | END: 22 ]

[ STR: 32 | DEF: 32 ]

[ AGI: 30 | DEX: 42 ]

[ INT: 16 | WIS: 26 ]

[ LUK: 18 ]

It wasn't identical to her own Status window, but it was basically the same. What was with this weird build, though? Strength and Defence being high made sense for a Fighter, but why was Dexterity so high? Maybe it had to do with flight ability, or being able to aim at targets on the ground. Also Wisdom... was that just because it was an owl? Finally that Luck score really drove home how absurd her own was.

It didn't seem like terribly important information. Nothing that would make a huge impact on her tactics or anything. Checking other wolves to work out a baseline for how to set up her Conceal Status in as inconspicuous of a manner as possible would be handy, but otherwise she felt like there would probably be very few situations where she would need to check this information. On the upside that made it more likely that the Skill List was next.

That further fueled her resolve to Identifying everything she could, but while she was thinking about the topic, she realised she had forgotten to actually take the time to use Conceal Status. Aina's 'confession' had side-tracked her.

After sitting in a bush with Stealth on, and giving it a bit of thought, she decided to conceal all the skills she thought it didn't make sense for her to have. If only she had been able to use Identify on another Limber Wolf, but she hadn't seen any yet. Charge, Thermal Vision, and Throw were easy picks. Jump and Sprint were probably also not wolf skills. She'd gotten Ambush and Sense Presence from evolving, so those were probably meant to stay.

Among her passives she figured Danger Sense, Camouflage, Dig, and Climb were likely to make people scratch their heads. Agility was the only one of her stat up skills she had seen in the store, so she should probably hide everything else. Poison resistance too.

The skills that Aina had hidden Sara didn't have the option to reveal herself, which was honestly for the best. If she had accidentally toggled those on, then people might even file a report to the devs.

That seemed alright for the moment. She'd need to do a bit of research to learn what else to tweak, but that was for later. Right now it was time to go bait out some more vipers.

[ Night Viper (Rogue Lvl 14) Defeated. ] [ Night Viper (Rogue Lvl 11) Defeated. ]

[ Poison Resistance Skill Level Up! ]

Please stop biting me!

[ Skill Gained: Poison Strike. ]

[ Poison Strike (Active): Make a fast attack with fangs, claws, or a sharp weapon that poisons the target for 10 seconds. Normal physical damage inflicted. Poison damage: 3+(0.5*skill level) HP every 2 seconds. Cost: 2 MP. Refresh: 3 seconds. ]

Finally! You're not going to disable this because I don't have poison glands, are you?

"No. This skill will work for anyone with access to a sharp weapon or body part. The only difference is that if you have a poison gland it costs SP to use so long as it's not empty, and otherwise it costs MP."

She liked that, and that she didn't even necessarily need to bite to poison something, so it was fine to use it against the vipers themselves, give them a taste of their own... er, poison. She was tempted to call it a night there, but she was probably close to levelling, so maybe she could push for another snake to two to get there? It could be fun to try to Jump on one of the owls or ravens if they flew low enough, but that was probably too unreliable to hope for.

[ Night Viper (Rogue Lvl 12) Defeated. ]

The next fight went better. She was finally able to dodge all the attacks coming at her, and not get bit once. Perhaps that was the motivation factor at work. Still no level up, but she had to be on the brink, so she figured she'd stroll around for a little longer. Then something caught her eye. There were lights off in the distance. Curiosity compelled her to go see what they were.

Shortly afterwards she arrived at a large artificial clearing (the tree stumps gave it away), and in the middle sat... a settlement? It resembled a war camp actually, with heavy walls, and fortifications. Probably built from all the trees cut down around it. There were several people that looked to be patrolling the area, though it was hard to get a good read because the amount of torches actually made it harder for her Night Vision to see properly. It was probably easier to scout out during the day.

Suddenly someone yelled something that she couldn't make out. Her Keen Ears skill was fairly high, so maybe it was in a language she didn't understand. She didn't get more time to ponder that though, as suddenly she could feel spikes of heat aimed at her from almost every direction.

[ Danger Sense Skill Level Up! ]

She realised that she was way further out into the clearing than she should be. Had she kept unconsciously walking towards the lights like she was some sort of moth? She needed to get away, so she immediately wheeled around, and activated Sprint. Then she was struck in the side by something that made her feel terribly cold. And slow. She glanced in the direction it had come from.

[ Goblin Caster (Mage Lvl 15) HP: 56/56 ]

Goblin? She could see it was already about to throw a fireball at her as a follow-up, but even when slowed she managed to force herself to move enough to dodge it, though it passed close enough in front of her face that she felt her nose get singed. The chilled slow effect was about to wear off, and Sprint was still active, so she thought she had a chance to get away, until she got rooted. Literally. Thorny vines sprang up from the ground similar to what the deer had used, and ensnared her legs. Off to the side she saw a green glow that came from the tip of a staff held by the culprit.

[ Goblin Shaman (Druid Lvl 16) HP: 64/64 ]

One, then two arrows hit her in the flank, while more goblins with melee weapons were rushing her.

[ Respawn Timer: 02:59 ]

Crap. I had hoped to not see this window as much any longer.

That had been like poking a hornet's nest. So many goblins, with all sorts of classes. And all of them having some sort of title.

Caster, Shaman, Archer, Spearman, Logger... uh... I think that was it?

"Wanderers and Residents do not have species names in the same way mobs do, but they may have occupations, and your Identify has levelled enough for you to see them. Residents almost always have one, but Wanderers might not."

Huh... wait, those goblins were Residents?

"Indeed. Wanderers can choose goblin as their race when creating their characters, which means that there are goblin Residents too. They even have their own lands. It is not possible for Wanderers to select mob races, though I believe that is being considered for a future update. Check your Reputation tab."

She did so, and saw that it finally had one entry.

[ Merwyn Goblin Raiders: -200 (Hostile) ]

Goblin raiders?

"They are the biggest antagonist faction in Merwyn Forest. Adventurers frequently get quests involving them. Mostly about killing a certain number, or collecting a certain kind of drop. One of the possible special events that can be triggered is to raid the raiders, and crush their camp so utterly that the faction is forced out of the forest. However I doubt the requirements for that will be met for quite some time. If the Adventurers organise a regular raid without the event, everyone in the camp will just respawn as normal, though the boss has a longer respawn time than the others."

If they're a faction, does that mean you can join them?

"Yes, though there is very little benefit to doing so since they are basically just bandits. Goblin Wanderers will by default have some positive reputation with them, so long as they don't approach alongside someone of a race the raiders are hostile towards. Other so-called 'dark races' like orcs, trolls, etc. have a neutral reputation score by default."

Why were they so hostile towards me?

"They hunt the forest creatures for food, and materials. They rarely wander deep into the west side though, for the same reasons as Adventurers tend to stay away. The density of dangerous mobs is much higher, and because of their hunting most of them are immediately hostile."

Ah, so it goes both ways.

"Correct."

[ Respawn Timer: 00:00 ]

Sara stretched out on the floor. She was convinced she was a single kill away from level 15, but between all the poison, and those goblins, she needed a break before she went back out. She could at least check what she got from level 14.

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

[ Species: Grey Limber Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Rogue ]

[ Level: 13 -> 14 ]

[ HP: 73/73 -> 79/79 | SP: 76/76 -> 81/81 | MP: 24/24 -> 25/25 ]

[ VIT: 30 -> 33 | END: 31 -> 32 ]

[ STR: 34 -> 37 | DEF: 23 -> 26 ]

[ AGI: 46 -> 50 | DEX: 21 -> 22 ]

[ INT: 8 | WIS: 8 ]

[ LUK: 52 -> 56 ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 9 -> 12 ]

She was always happy to see the big numbers that told her the stat up skills had levelled again. It was a little scary how well Agility was almost keeping up with Luck. Though that was in large part thanks to the Agility Up skill, and some bonus points she had spent. Speaking of which she currently had 12 bonus points. Maybe it was time to use them again. She had started running into more magic using enemies, and her Wisdom was abysmal. Magic was clearly her biggest weakness.

Do you think it's worth it to boost my Wisdom, Aina? I seem to be facing more magic attacks now. Or should I keep playing to my strengths?

"I would recommend focusing on your strong attributes, but if you want to boost your magic defence that is is also valid. Just keep in mind that spreading yourself too thin could have adverse effects later."

She was aware of the saying 'the best defence is a good offence', and ideally her high Agility would let her avoid getting hit altogether. However in practice she had repeatedly proven that she did not have the sort of god-like reflexes required for that. Depending on the opponent it was hard to dodge all attacks in combat, and sneak attacks were worse. Sense Presence, the Keen skills, and Danger Sense gave her an edge in theory, but practice it was not so easy.

Ah, fuck it.

She dumped all 12 points into Wisdom, bringing it up to 20. Maybe it wouldn't make that much of a difference, and maybe she would regret it later, but that was another problem for Future Sara. They were just bonus points. She would get more soon enough.

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