Since it was Saturday I entered the game as soon as the sun started to rise over the village. I knew I had to gain an early start and to start leveling for real now. I went to the smithy as fast as I could. Even if it was very early in the morning Donar was already there. He saw me waiting outside the smithy and smiled. He rose from his spot and took a metal staff from behind him and tossed it to me.
I cached the staff and looked at it. It felt good in my hands like it was supposed to be wielded by them. There weren't any carvings on the staff but it looked sturdy and strong. It was almost one and a half meters long. As I used Appraisal I could only bow to Donar. He made me one hell of a staff.
Donar's bronze long staff
Rare
Blunt weapon
Attack 27-37
Strength +10
10% chance to inflict 2-second stun
Weight 5,6 kg
Master blacksmith Donar rarely makes staffs, but he made an exception and made one for a young traveler
Restrictions: Bound to player Wise Raven, cannot be dropped, cannot be sold, can be gifted once, since it was made for a specific player no level restriction, if gifted required level 5
I don't know if this attack is high or low, but it will for sure be of use to me until I leave the village. It even has +10 strength and a chance to stun. One amazing thing is that it can't be dropped, not that I want to die, but still. If by some chance I die the staff will be glued to my hand. It cannot be sold but I can gift it once. I thought about Hope but then remembered that I will use this staff for a long time. In any case, this staff will be of great help to me.
I thanked Donar and went to his house to get my meal for today. If I want to hunt outside the village I will need strength. Donar's wife gave me the same meal as yesterday and I lost the last five coppers in my pouch. But by some fortune, I gained a quest.
, Herb gathering
Master Donar's wife is asking you the gather some healing herbs in the forest and mountains because the village is having a shortage of them
Difficulty: Normal
Reward 1000 EXP points for every 20 herbs gathered and one big leather bag"
She gave me one big leather bag to put herbs in them and sent me on my way. I guess that this bag should be a reward for a successful quest, if not then I would need to return it. But how hard would it be to gather 20 herbs? And it even isn't of one kind but any herb can do. I went to a well to fill my water flask and started walking towards the north gate. I said hi to the guards and exited the village.
I decided to walk along the edge of the forest and then start climbing to the mountain when I arrive in that region.
As I was walking through the forest I was looking very carefully around in search of the herbs. Everything I saw I used Appraisal on it. Most of the times it was just regular grass or some kind of wild weed, but from time to time I did find some kind of a healing herb. Until I arrived at the hill area I found two kind of herbs, one of them was yellow colored herb named Herb of the wounded, and the other was Hero's herb which was white in color. I had five of each and if I wasn't mistaken these herbs are used for wounds. Ten more and I should clear the quest.
Even if this seemed like an easy job I had to be careful not to break or crush the herbs, and to bring the whole batch back to Donar's wife. I was slowly going up through the forest and into the mountain, but I didn't want to go too far. As I was going up I found one more kind of herb. This was Svetovid's herb, herb with white flowers, which got its name from Svetovid the All-seeing God with four heads. His four heads were looking at the for sides of the Earth and he could also see past and the future.
It didn't take long to find 20 herbs, apparently, herbs are more frequent than ores, which is logical, so it was easy to find them quickly.
At one point as I was picking a Hero's herb I heard some kind of strange growling behind me. I turned around to look but there was nothing there. I left the herb for later and I opened my eyes wide and I pricked up my ears to try to find out what was that sound. It didn't take long to hear it again. It was closing on me and I could see it's shadow from behind the tree and bushes. I could have sworn that it was a wild boar, but then it made a strange growl which made me think otherwise.
It charged at me and then I saw it. It did have a shape of the wild boar but its tusks were a lot bigger than usual and its hair was darker almost black. It was a meter and a half tall, it's length was two and a half meters. When I heard again it's strange wild roar I had a sudden premonition that I heard it before. I didn't have the time to think, as I was in grave danger. I tried to use the Appraisal but it didn't work. This monster was probably a higher level than me. Because I saw it coming I dodged its first charge. The second appraisal was also unsuccessful but my first strike did manage to hit it.
I could see red notification above it and in my head that showed number 45. That wasn't a bad number but I could see that it made little damage to the monster. While it was turning around for another charge a tried using Appraisal third time. This time it was a success and I could see what was before me.
Rage Beast (Wild Boar)
Level 5
HP 3000
I could see wild boar being level 5 monster, but 3000 HP points were certainly too much. 1000 HP would be enough for a wild boar, even if put all my points to endurance I would have a little over 300 HP points. This being a Rage Beast should have to do something about its big health bar.
In Slavic mythology Rage Beasts were evil spirits which would enter an animal or a human and make them go wild. The only thing I could do was to try to avoid it as much as possible and to hit it whenever I got a chance. If my average damage is 60 points per hit a would need 50 hits to kill it. I didn't raise any stats because I wanted to get used to my staff and if it hit me I would probably be a goner anyway.
I was running all around the trees and bushes trying to avoid its charges. Good thing was that those charges were it's the only method of an attack at the moment, and I could see them very clearly. I also knew that Rage Beast won't leave me alone, because it had me in its sight from the begging of our fight and their nature doesn't allow them to leave their pray. With that in mind, I didn't hurry killing it, and I also didn't want to make a mistake which would spell an early arrival at the village for me.
I landed stun 5 times and those 10 seconds were very useful. That was 5 hits with no need of thinking where to strike. I just hit it over its head and moved back as soon as stun expired.
There were some close encounters nonetheless. One when the Rage Beast crushed into a tree which almost hit me in the head, and one when I missed the timing of its charge and it grazed me with its tusk over my left side. That wound only took me 20 HP but because it continued to bleed I had to finish this fight as soon as possible. Luckily at that point, the Rage Beast was left with only 500 HP left.
After ten minutes of the hard and exhausting fight, I managed to land one critical hit with almost 100 damage over its head which ended its life. As soon as its body dropped down I found some shelter to sit down and look over my wound. It wasn't that bad, but if left untreated it could probably lead to infection and death. I took some herbs from the leather bag, crushed them into a fine paste with my staff and I applied them over my wound. I put some leaves over it and I heard a notification in my ears.
, You have learned skill Wound dressing"
Wound dressing
Level 0 0,7%
Wounds are healing 0,5% faster
Not bad I thought. This skill will always be useful. As I was very tired after the fight I didn't notice that I raised in level, after killing the Rage Beast. I actually gained 2000 EXP from it. It seems that Rage Beasts are good for experience farming, but I am uncertain if there are a lot of them here. Maybe this was the only one.
I almost forgot to check on the Rage Beast, to see if it dropped something, but I didn't have my hopes up. As I surmised there was nothing. The developers said that the game was supposed to be realistic in every sense. This made sense, there were no animals that dropped equipment or coins when killed. The only change was its color it turned from black into its natural brown color. But it's size stayed the same. If I had a knife and a skill to dismantle it, I could maybe gain something.
Still, I couldn't just leave it here. If I bring it back to the village, I could maybe trade it for some useful things.
But first, to eat and sate my hunger, this fight made me very tired. I ate everything a brought with me and drank an almost full flask of water. Now I need to think about how to take the boar back to the village.
I couldn't carry it back I don't have enough strength. If I go back for help when I return other animals may already find it. As I was turning around looking for some clues on what to do, my eyes fell upon the remains of the tree which was crushed in our fight. There was one big piece of it on which I could put the boar on. The only thing left is to find something to make it hold steady and to pull it back to the village.
If I had some kind of a rope with me it would be easy. Well, next time when I go hunting I will make sure to bring some. After some looking around I found some liana on the forest floor and up some trees which I used to bind the boar to a piece of wood I prepared earlier. I tied it around my torso and stared going downhill. It wasn't that hard, uphill would probably be a real struggle.
From time to time I made short breaks when I saw herbs here and there. That way I could rest a little and also try to gain more experience from my quest. I needed several more herbs to gather another batch of it. That way I will be closer to level 4. Before I climbed down the hill I managed to gather enough herbs for another batch. Everything more and I could use my self or sell somewhere.
I did saw some other beings walking back to the village, besides the villagers and players, if I don't count the Rage Beast. There were some wild rabbits and small birds here and there, but as they didn't take initiative to attack me I didn't try to catch them either. Well, they probably wouldn't even attack me anyways and I had my hands full with the boar.
Even going downhill I needed over two hours to return to the village. An hour or two and sun would settle and it would be hard going through the dark forest. Village guards noticed me when I was close to the village and they saw I was pulling something behind me. When I passed the gates and sat beside the boar to rest, the only thing I could see from the guard's expression was disbelief, awe and of course desire for a juicy piece of boar meat.
Thankfully one of them snap out of it and asked me
, Traveler are you willing to sell this boar to the village?"
, Of course" I answered with a big smile on my face, who knows how much this big of a boar is worth. It could bring me a big profit.
, Perfect" he said , let's wait for the chief to return from the fields, it won't be much longer"
, Very well" I said , but let's remove it from the gates first".
As I was moving the boar I little away, with the help of the guards I couldn't help but wonder what kind of benefits will my first pray bring me.