Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Climbing Adventures

It was about an hour past sunrise when she woke up. She had probably gotten everything useful out of the snakes, so she would prefer to never deal with them again. At least her excursion had gained her some skill level ups.

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Bite Lvl 7 | Rake Lvl 8 -> 9 | Body Slam Lvl 4 | Ambush Lvl 3 | Poison Strike (New) Lvl 1 | Howl Lvl 3 | Stealth Lvl 11 |
Sense Presence Lvl 4 -> 5 ]

[ Concealed Active: ]

[ Charge Lvl 1 | Throw Lvl 1 | Jump Lvl 5 -> 6 | Sprint Lvl 5 -> 6 | Thermal Vision Lvl 2 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Night Vision Lvl 10 -> 12 | Keen Eyes Lvl 12 -> 13 | Keen Ears Lvl 11 -> 12 | Keen Nose Lvl 6 -> 8 |
Agility Up (Small) Lvl 4 -> 5 ]

[ Concealed Passive: ]

[ Danger Sense Lvl 2 -> 3 | Camouflage Lvl 2 | Dig Lvl 3 | Climb Lvl 3 | Vitality Up (Small) Lvl 3 -> 4 |
Strength Up (Small) Lvl 3 -> 4 | Defence Up (Small) Lvl 1 -> 2 | Poison Resistance Lvl 1 -> 3 | Skill Gain Lvl Max (Hidden) ]

[ General: ]

[ Identify Lvl 4 -> 5 (Hidden) | Communicate: Family (Hidden) | Conceal Status (New) Lvl Max (Hidden) ]

[ Disabled (All Hidden): ]

[ Tough Scales (New) ]

[ Skill points: 8 -> 9 ]

The newly added Disabled section made her frown a little. What else would end up being kept from her?

Since it was day, it was time for Stealth mode. It was that, or ask to temporarily join a pack again.

Just need to find one squirrel, she told herself. And thankfully one presented itself pretty quickly.

[ Forest Squirrel (Ranger Lvl 12) HP 48/48 ]

Using Ambush completely shredded the poor thing. It didn't have anywhere near the same toughness as a deer, after all. And she felt slightly smug that she was proven correct.

[ Forest Squirrel (Ranger Lvl 12) Defeated. ]

[ Level Up: Level 15 Reached! ]

[ Skill Gained: Dexterity Up (Small). ]

And that was a nice bonus. She was getting close to the full set now. Just missing Endurance (which she could buy, but didn't want to), Intelligence, and Wisdom. She would probably have to attack something that used magic to have a hope for either of those two. Maybe when she went to get revenge on those goblins. Because she absolutely intended to.

There was no immediate rush, though. She felt the urge to practice her climbing for a bit again. If only she could figure it out, then those owls up there would have a rude awakening. She'd just gotten a small boost to her Dexterity without needing to spend any bonus points, so maybe that would give her the final push she needed. Though if she was completely honest, it was likely her lacking technique that was the main problem. She hadn't climbed much in her old life either, and even if she had it probably wouldn't have transferred over to this body. The anatomy was too different.

She went for the nearest tree. The basic idea was to put one hand above the other after you found some purchase. At least she thought so. But that wasn't how cats climbed, was it? Didn't they more sort of... grab on with both sets of claws, and rapidly pull themselves upwards? At least that was what it looked like in her memory, even if she couldn't vouch for its accuracy. Not that cats and wolves were the same, but they were both quadrupeds. Sara figured she had enough Strength to pull her own weight, literally speaking.

This plan was showing more promise, she just needed to refine the technique even further. She tried with a run-up, and she tried from a standstill. The sense of approaching some sort of breakthrough got her so absorbed in it that she didn't even notice when the [ Climb Skill Level Up! ] box popped up.

So if I do like this... or maybe try like this... yeah, this seems promising... I just have to...

Her internal commentary kept going. Eventually the bark on the tree was so mauled that she had to switch over to a different one. Hopefully it also had some sort of respawn or repair mechanic, but it didn't really matter to her at the moment. She was so close to getting it. Even though she'd been thinking that for over an hour.

She got a little bit up. Then a little further. And further still. Until finally she was desperately trying to not fall off of the branch she had reached.

[ Climb Skill Level Up! ]

Yes!

It was only the lowest branch, but on these trees even the lowest was several metres off the ground. She also noticed that about half of her SP was gone. It seemed like she hadn't given it much chance to regen, and since she was basically gripping on for dear life it wasn't recovering at the moment either.

With the basics accomplished, she set herself a new goal. Reach one of the owls before nightfall. There wasn't one in the tree she was sitting in, so she slid back down, and managed a mostly graceful landing.

Considering how numerous the owls were, she didn't have to go far to find a tree where one was actually perching. Quite far up. Probably twice the height of the branch she had reached earlier. Just barely within Identify range.

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

It was definitely not as beefy as the deer, but without her stat up skills they would have likely been pretty equal.

Is this really worth it? She thought partway up. I haven't climbed a tree since I was... maybe 10? And that was back when I had hands.

She kept going in spite of her grumbling, as she had already committed. After a lot of time, a lot of effort, and with most of her SP gone, she made it up to the branch where the owl was sleeping. Somehow the thing had not woken up from the ruckus she had made on her way up. She dismissed the notion that it was programmed to not wake up no matter what, considering her collision the other day. Her Camouflage had levelled up on the way, so maybe that had something to do with it. Or she just got lucky.

She took a moment to catch her breath, and consider what the next step was. She hadn't actually thought far enough ahead to make a plan of attack. All she had thought about was getting up there. The obvious answer was to use Ambush, but that had a couple of problems. The first being that balancing on this branch that narrowed the further out it got was going to be tricky. She was thankfully not afraid of heights, but her current position still felt a little precarious. It was a long way down. How much damage was she likely to take if she fell?

The second issue was that the attack animation itself would probably make her plunge off the branch anyway after it hit. And the owl would stay... up... there...

Maybe I'm thinking about this wrong. The easy answer is to bring the bird down with me.

Her Jump skill had gotten pretty decent, after all. And the owl looked bigger up close than it did from the ground, so it should be an easy target to hit. She braced herself against the trunk of the tree, and pounced on the unsuspecting owl. The hit did a little bit of damage, and the bird woke up with a startled squawk, but more importantly the both of them were now hurtling towards the ground at alarming speed.

The owl hit the ground hard, while Sara had most of the impact cushioned by the bird breaking her fall. She still took damage, but not a significant amount. Her cushion was a lot worse off. Between the fall itself, and a large wolf landing on top of it, it lost more than half its health, and was clearly too dazed to move.

She followed up with a quick couple of bites. One with Poison Strike, and one with regular Bite. Putting some damage over time effects on it might help her finish it off should it manage to shake her off, and take to the sky. However it turned out to not be necessary, as the owl wasn't able to recover before Sara could finish it off.

[ Forest Owl (Fighter Lvl 15) Defeated. ]

[ Bite Skill Level Up! ]

That was easy! Is what she wanted to say, but on reflection it had very much not been. The actual kill was easy, but getting to that point was so much effort. Even though Climb had levelled up once more, it would probably still take her quite some time to make it up to one of them. Considering the length of the shadows, she might only have time for one more before nightfall. It would probably be more efficient to join another pack for more deer hunting.

But what if the owls have rare skills that ground mobs don't?

With greed clouding her judgement, she quickly found another tree with an owl in it, and started climbing. It would be nice if she could do the same thing to the ravens, but while she had seen them perch on branches, they had always been awake, and usually moved on after a short while. They didn't seem to ever land on the ground. They would sometimes swoop at the mice, like the owls did, and they harassed the wolves without actually getting in range where they could be hit. Since they never did any damage, and were just being a nuisance, she could only conclude they were doing it for shits and giggles. Which honestly seemed like pretty appropriate corvid behaviour.

The only time to catch them would be when swooping at the mice, but she didn't think she had the reaction speed to pull that off. If only she could acquire some ranged attack. That wasn't Throw.

While she was thinking about all of this, she actually made decent progress up the tree. She couldn't say for sure, but she had probably beaten her record. Which didn't really mean much considering it was only her second attempt. There was another notification about Climb levelling up as well.

I guess that when I use it so actively, it has a higher level up rate than other passive skills.

Next came the easy part. Doing a leap of faith to take the bird down with her. Aside from a smidgen of fall damage, it was an extremely risk-free fight. It wasn't even a fight, it was just murder.

[ Forest Owl (Fighter Lvl 14) Defeated. ]

[ Jump Skill Level Up! ] [ Poison Strike Skill Level Up! ]

[ Skill Gained: Flight. ]

Oooh? With excitement she pawed at the button for the skill description.

[ Flight (Passive): Allows holder to fly using wings, or other flight capable body parts. Drains SP while flying. Effect increases, and SP drain decreases with skill level. Scales with Dexterity. (Ai-note: As you do not possess wings, or anything else that would let you fly or levitate, this skill will be disabled.) ]

Oh come on!!!

That would have made her life so much easier, but apparently fun wasn't allowed. She pondered what the odds were of a wolf evolution that let her grow wings might be, and unfortunately concluded that they would be close to zero. She had heard stories of mythical wolves with wings, and probably seen one in at least one videogame, so it wasn't completely zero, but... she didn't rate her chances very high.

And word of a flying wolf would definitely make pl- Wanderers- and maybe Resid- Adventurers come flocking over to hunt her.

Gah, this is hard to get used to.

She knew enough about the gamer mindset to feel 100% certain they would show up. So maybe it was for the best. At least she tried telling herself that, yet it did little to diminish her sulking.

With the sunlight streaming through the forest starting to get a tinge of orange, she decided to just Sprint back to the cave. She was not eager to hang around for the snakes to wake up.

[ Sprint Skill Level Up! ]

The popup made her grumble some rather rude thoughts about what was objectively a good thing.

* * *

After some stretches, and a bit of Jump training the next morning, she looked at her level up. She had been too grumpy the night before to really care.

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

[ Species: Grey Limber Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Rogue ]

[ Level: 14 -> 15 ]

[ HP: 79/79 -> 83/83 | SP: 81/81 -> 86/86 | MP: 25/25 -> 38/38 ]

[ VIT: 33 -> 34 | END: 32 -> 34 ]

[ STR: 37 -> 38 | DEF: 26 ]

[ AGI: 50 -> 52 | DEX: 22 -> 25 ]

[ INT: 8 -> 9 | WIS: 8 -> 21 ]

[ LUK: 56 -> 60 ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 0 -> 3 ]

No surprises there, so she headed back out. It wasn't hard to find the owls, after all, just hard to reach them.

Climbing did feel easier that day. Perhaps the skill levels were finally paying off in a noticeable way, or her technique was improving. It was apparently still "rewarding" enough that she got another [ Climb Skill Level Up! ] on the way up, and then it was time for the tried and tested method.

[ Forest Owl (Fighter Lvl 15) Defeated. ]

[ Bite Skill Level Up! ]

There was really no fight there. While the owls took slightly different amounts of damage from the drop, probably because the height of the tree branches differed between trees, they were still knocked out long enough for her finish them off without trouble. She still hadn't seen any of their attacks, so the only damage she took was from the fall. A good thing there was no bone breaking mechanic in the game. That she was aware of.

When she approached the next tree, she suddenly had a thought. Maybe she could shorten the climbing time further by using Jump to get as high up the trunk as possible before she grabbed on. So she gave it a shot. Jump! And then grab!

*Squawk!*

Uh-oh!

A glance upwards let her see that the owl had woken up. Apparently the impact had shaken the tree enough for it to notice. She very quickly activated Stealth as the owl started looking around. It then took flight, and started scanning the area around the tree to see what had woken it up. Maybe it was just her imagination, since she was hardly an expert on bird expressions, but the thing looked very annoyed.

Don't notice me. Just move along. Go back to sleep. Don't notice me.

[ Camouflage Skill Level Up! ]

That gave her the mental image of her fur coat taking on a bark pattern to blend in with the tree, as if she was some canine chameleon. Canineleon? No, that didn't work. Caineleon? Kinda worked, but probably wouldn't catch on.

After a couple of minutes (probably) the owl decided to move on to another nearby tree, and settle down there instead of going back to sleep in the same one. Once she was sure it was no longer looking in her direction, Sara dropped back down to the ground. So that plan was out, but at least she had learned that Stealth worked while climbing, meaning she could probably activate it no matter her position so long as she was not in combat.

She was tempted to go after the same owl, but just in case it hadn't fallen asleep yet, or it had become more alert now, she decided to find another one instead.

Another climb, another skill level up, and another owl to pounce on.

[ Forest Owl (Fighter Lvl 16) Defeated. ]

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[ Jump Skill Level Up! ] [ Poison Strike Skill Level Up! ]

[ Skill Gained: Death From Above. ]

Seemed like the Jump training that morning had paid off, and she got a new skill too. With a mix of trepidation and curiosity she looked at the skill description.

[ Death From Above (Active): Perform an attack from above, pouncing on a target for increased damage. Base value: 1.2+(0.05*skill level)*attack power. Damage further increases based on height, and user's mass. Increased critical hit chance if undetected. Effect increases with skill level. Cost: 3 SP. Refresh: 10 seconds. ]

No Ai-note! Woo! Uh... sorry, Aina. No offence intended.

"No offence taken, Sara."

The image of sitting up on a tree branch to pounce on unsuspecting victims made her feel more like an assassin, even if it seemed like it would be hard to set up considering how slowly she climbed. She had a feeling it would take a long time to become as quick as a cat, and it probably wasn't worth the effort to go for it. Though with the Jump strategy... she would ponder the topic more later.

First off she wanted to test out a different possibility. Up another tree she went!

Step 1: Jump. Step 2: Activate Death From Above once she was on top of the owl. Step 3: *Splat!*

Ew! Gross!

Since Jump wasn't technically an attack, her previous pounces probably hadn't factored in her attack power at all. With all the bonus factors offered by Death From Above it had insta-gibbed the poor bird.

[ Forest Owl (Fighter Level 15) Defeated. ]

[ Level Up: Level 16 Reached! ]

[ Skill Unlocked: Cat's Feet. Unlock requirement: Survive 5 critical falls with more than 50% HP remaining. 1 skill point gained. ]

[ Cat's Feet (Passive): Reduces fall damage. You're as nimble as a cat. Reduction: 5+(5*skill level)%. If fall damage is less than 10% of max HP it is negated. Price: 3 skill points. ]

She had lamented not being able to climb as well as a cat, but apparently she could fall like one. The skill sounded useful, so she bought it without a second thought.

She wiped her feet on the grass to try to get the owl mush off of them. If she hadn't turned on family friendly mode, how much more gross would it have looked? She didn't really want to imagine it, even though it was hard to not think about it when she was trying to not think about it. Brains were weird that way.

[ Identify Skill Level Up! ]

Thankfully there was a distraction. She had started to make it a habit to use Identify on all the different collectible items (mainly herbs and mushrooms) she came across in the forest. If she'd had some sort of gathering skill she might have considered grabbing a few things, but trying to dig them up with her paws would likely just destroy them. Regardless it had finally paid off. Level 6. This was the one she had a feeling she had been waiting for. She approached another owl tree, and had a look at the sleeping bird.

[ Forest Owl (Fighter Lvl 14) HP: 66/66 ]

There were now two options for additional information pages. The second being the [ Skill List ].

Yes! I finally got it!

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Peck Lvl 4 | Death From Above Lvl 4 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Night Vision Lvl 4 | Keen Vision Lvl 4 | Flight Lvl 4 | Dexterity Up (Small) Lvl 3 ]

The layout was the same as her own page, just much shorter. To think she had started out with one equally short. Well, sort of. The only thing she didn't already have was Peck, but she could inspect the skill descriptions just like on her own page.

[ Peck (Active): Attack with a beak, or something with an equivalent function. Damage value: 1.1+(0.03*skill level)*attack power. Defence piercing: 10+(1*skill level)%. Cost: 2 SP. Refresh: 2 seconds. (Ai-note: Since you do not possess anything equivalent to a beak, this skill will be disabled.) ]

At least the Ai-notes appeared on skills she hadn't gotten yet as well, so she knew there was no reason to try to get it. There was one thing that made her think twice about moving on, though. She hadn't done the best job of keeping count, so she decided to look at the skill list to check her hunch.

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Bite Lvl 7 -> 9 | Rake Lvl 9 | Body Slam Lvl 4 | Ambush Lvl 3 | Poison Strike Lvl 1 -> 3 | Death From Above (New) Lvl 1 |
Howl Lvl 3 | Stealth Lvl 11 | Sense Presence Lvl 5 -> 6 ]

[ Concealed Active: ]

[ Charge Lvl 1 | Throw Lvl 1 | Jump Lvl 6 -> 8 | Sprint Lvl 6 -> 7 | Thermal Vision Lvl 2 -> 3 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Night Vision Lvl 12 | Keen Eyes Lvl 13 -> 14 | Keen Ears Lvl 12 -> 13 | Keen Nose Lvl 8 -> 10 | Cat's Feet (New) Lvl 1 |
Agility Up (Small) Lvl 5 | Dexterity Up (Small) (New) Lvl 1 ]

[ Concealed Passive: ]

[ Danger Sense Lvl 3 | Camouflage Lvl 2 -> 4 | Dig Lvl 3 | Climb Lvl 3 -> 9 | Vitality Up (Small) Lvl 4 |
Strength Up (Small) Lvl 4 | Defence Up (Small) Lvl 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 (New) ]

[ Skill points: 9 ]

Climb had really shot up since she last checked, and it was at level 9 as her hunch had suspected. And her second hunch was that it was likely it would unlock something new at level 10. The Keen skills hadn't, so it wasn't guaranteed, but it was close enough that she could at least check. Bite and Rake were close too, but since these birds got one-shot now, she'd have to level that elsewhere. Sure, she could just not use Death From Above, but where was the fun in that?

When she was most of the way up the next tree, the little popup noise appeared, though she waited until she was at the top to actually look at it.

[ Climb Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skill Unlocked: Firm Grip. 2 skill points gained. ]

[ Firm Grip (Passive): Increases holder's ability to grab, and hold onto targets, objects, and surfaces. Decreases SP drain if applicable. Increased balance when holding onto something, or if all limbs are on the ground. Effect improves with skill level. Price: 2 skill points. ]

That seemed like a basic enough skill that it made her wonder whether it was possible to unlock the same skill in several ways. Maybe with the right class, or species, or... Aina had mentioned skill scrolls, if she remembered correctly.

She bought it, and then looked at what this 'max level' thing was all about.

[ Climb (Passive): Improves climbing prowess, and speed. Lets user find purchase more easily than before, even on surfaces previously considered impossible. Effect increases with skill level. Scales with Dexterity.
Max level bonus: Halves SP drain while climbing. ]

That was interesting. The SP drain seemed to have gone down as her skill increased anyway, but having it lowered even further sounded like a good thing. With all that out of the way, she pounced on the owl, and smashed the poor bird into the ground.

[ Forest Owl (Fighter Lvl 14) Defeated. ]

[ Death From Above Skill Level Up! ]

The climb had been a success, and she breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't get Peck. It would have just further bloated her skill list. Then several of her skills alerted her that they had sensed something very close by. She turned her head to the left, and saw four pl- Wand- Adventurers. The closest one had a bit of blood splatter on him, probably from the squashed owl.

Crap.

Neither side moved as they just stared dumbfounded at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Her eyes flitted between them.

[ Dwarf (Fighter Lvl 15) ], [ Human Guide (Ranger Lvl 16) ], [ Hobbit Tracker (Scout Lvl 15) ], and [ Elf (Priest Lvl 15) ].

Crap crap crap.

She regained her senses first, and in sheer panic used Howl, then Sprint, and then legged it directly away from the party. Either they failed to react in time, or her Howl had actually managed to Fear whomever of them were capable of stopping her. After weaving back and forth between the trees for a while, having no idea if they were actually following her, she changed direction to head right for her cave, and hid inside.

Crap. Now what?

They had seen her. But how much had they seen? Maybe she should have used Stealth on the final stretch to make sure they didn't find the cave, but realistically she should have lost them long before she turned in this direction. Unless that Scout had tracking skills of some sort. It had said Tracker, after all. Maybe if she was really lucky, her howl had attracted nearby wolf packs, who had kept the party occupied.

She had no intention to go right back out there to check. She was going to wait this one out. Surely they would leave by nightfall. Players didn't like this part of the forest at night. Aina had said so.

Aina? Can they find me?

"Not in here, no. Remember how no one came into your cave in the field? I made it impossible for Wanderers and Residents to see it, and I have done the same to this cave. You are safe."

That finally made Sara relax.

Thank you.

"You are welcome."

If they couldn't find her cave, then even if she got killed when she went outside it wouldn't be that bad. It would be really hard for them to spawn-camp her. She should use Stealth when going outside just in case, so even if they were able to track her, any trail back to her cave should be hidden.

Honestly she felt silly for panicking so hard. Death wasn't a big deal in this game. In this world. But she still found it unpleasant. And she didn't want to become someone else's experience points.

In an attempt to distract herself, she had a look at her level up.

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

[ Species: Grey Limber Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Rogue ]

[ Level: 15 -> 16 ]

[ HP: 83/83 -> 89/89 | SP: 86/86 -> 90/90 | MP: 38/38 -> 39/39 ]

[ VIT: 35 -> 37 | END: 34 -> 35 ]

[ STR: 38 -> 41 | DEF: 26 -> 29 ]

[ AGI: 52 -> 56 | DEX: 25 -> 28 ]

[ INT: 9 | WIS: 21 ]

[ LUK: 60 -> 64 ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 3 -> 6 ]

Her stat up skills looked to have levelled again, but there was otherwise nothing major. It felt nice to get a little bit closer to her goal. Then a sudden thought struck.

Wait, what if they used Identify on me?

Another wave of panic arose as she realised she had not used Conceal Status again since she first got it. She had completely forgotten. Every skill she had gotten since then was still openly listed. It was possible that none of them had Identify at level 6 or above, but she had managed it herself, so she couldn't rule it out.

Ugh... doesn't this skill have an option to make all newly acquired skills be automatically concealed?

She couldn't find anything in the interface.

"Interesting. I shall propose this as a hotfix to the developers."

Huh? What do you mean?

"One of my many tasks is to track the performance of skills, and offer suggestions on how to improve them in the interest of game balance. In the beta there was never a reported issue where Spies gained suspicious skills while working in a concealed state. And no Wanderers got to a high enough level to unlock the third class up, so we were not able to do a comprehensive test of every system. The game is still developing with the goal of making this world a more interesting and immersive place. And you are a unique existence who will encounter unique scenarios and circumstances in Moorhold."

So I'm also a QA tester now?

"People like to help out their friends and family, correct? Regardless this is an issue that could have come up in the future anyway, so it is best to fix it in advance. I am capable of fixing it myself, but I am technically not permitted to alter skill functions on my own. Creating new skills for you is what you would call a loophole. Changing an established skill affects everyone who has it, and news of that is likely to reach the development team."

So you're going to ask them to change it for you?

"I already did several minutes ago, back when I said I would. I am certain they will have it implemented by tomorrow morning at the latest."

Sara sighed, and stretched out on the ground. She felt tired, but unfortunately not the sleepy kind. Just deflated. She had gone through quite the emotional rollercoaster. She should update her Conceal Status, but if Aina was correct, she might as well wait until the hotfix was implemented. All she could think to do in the meantime was Jump training.

I desperately need some form of entertainment...

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