When Marco arrived into the town, I was at the end of my first day of observing the animal I decided to use as my first animal form. It was hard to make a choice. Most of the players who choose druid as their class would want to transform into a bear, a wolf, even a tiger or a lion if they can find one. Eagle or a hawk, or any other bird are also preferable choices. But, finding those creatures and observing them for a long time is what it makes it a hard task. My first choice was a bird. Any kind of a bird would be good. But since they spend most of the time in the air, I concluded that they are harder to observe then land animals.
So I found myself in a dilemma. To go deeper into the woods and try to find wolves, and risk getting attacked. Or do I observe some easy to see animals in the vicinity of Veran's territory? In the end, I decided that safe choice is the best choice for now. Now, I just need to decide what animal to observe. The reason for wanting a bird to be my first animal form is a fast traveling speed. I was already behind Marco and Wolf, and I didn't want to get behind other players.
At first, I thought that I should observe squirrels like Veran, but decided against it. I wanted a form with some fighting power and squirrels are for sure not the right choice for that. Not that sometime later I won't have a squirrel form. After some deliberation with myself, I made a decision and went to Veran to ask him.
, Veran are there any deer in this part of the forest?"
, So that is your choice for the first form. A good choice indeed. A lot of our brothers from all disciplines choose a stag as one of their animal forms. There are deer south from here. In fact, that territory belongs to them. One Great Stag leads a herd over a hundred deer. Not even feral animals dare enter that part of the forest. You must also be careful not to provoke them. But since you are also part of nature now, they shouldn't attack you for no reason."
After Veran's advice, I went south to try and find that big herd of deer. If nothing goes wrong I should be able to gain my first animal form very soon. I quickly passed the border of Veran's territory and entered the territory of the Great Stag, as Veran called him. I didn't want to wonder too much into it so I moved on the edge of it, hoping that I would find some of them. An hour later and no deer in sight, I remembered that small herd I encountered before and moved towards the river. At one point they would need to drink water and the closest source is this river. I should wait for them at the border, a hundred member herd should be easy to spot. And I was right. Not long after I found a good spot to sit down, I could hear a noise coming from the forest. It was getting louder and soon enough, the whole herd arrived at the river bank. With that, I started my observation.
I could see stags, does and fawns drinking water from the river, with no worries at all. This being their territory and all, it is quite normal, I thought. I was wondering which stag is the leader but none of them looked the part. They were all the same size and I thought that the leader should be bigger than others. I didn't get preoccupied with that because I was concentrating to observe them as much as possible. I watched as they drank water but I couldn't see that restlessness like from the ones I saw before. The stags were turning their head all around looking for danger. But this herd appeared like they didn't have a natural predator. Veran was right, this part of the forest is their territory.
When they finished with drinking water they moved back into the forest. I went after them. I was careful not to get noticed. It would be easy for them to misunderstand my intentions. I moved against the wind because I knew that the wind can move the smell with it, and animals all had a better sense of smell than humans.
They stopped from time to time, either to rest or to eat grass and leaves from small trees. I used every opportunity to observe them. I looked at every motion and action they did. When they stopped to eat I ate with them and when they walked I walked with them. I ate some sour fruits Veran gave me. That boar jerky is all gone by now. Since I had it, I shared it with Veran. I even tried to eat grass and leaves like deer, but after few tries, I gave up. I couldn't eat as many as one deer could. It looked like they ate a small amount of it but when you count how many times they ate, it appears a lot. I was watching them at night too. I only logged out to have breakfast and then got back into the game.
During the night time, they were sleeping so it was easier to observe them. But I still had to be careful so I didn't move too close to them. I was a hundred meters or so away from them. The only thing I heard was their breathing and wind moving the branches of the trees. There were still some stags that were keeping watch but they didn't move to away from the rest of the herd. Whole night passed like that. I only took some fruits to eat in the game and left for a half an hour to get a real lunch. With the sun coming out herd got up one after another. Frist stags, then does and fawns. I had one more day to observe them before my date with Maria so I wanted to use my time as much as I could. And this morning the Great Stag finally appeared.
Just describing him as great is an understatement. He was almost double the size of the other stags. His fur was colored red and then as he moved into the sunshine it changed to brown. It was almost blinding looking at his glossy fur. His horns were tree meters big. They were the biggest so far I could see from a deer. No wonder he was the leader of this big herd. I used my Appraisal on him but it didn't work. I used it yesterday to see what level are others. Young ones were Level 10 and does were between level 15 and 20. Other stags were between level 20 and 25 and couple of them were a few levels higher. At first, I was surprised that their levels were higher than the levels of the Rage Beasts and Rage Nightmare I encountered in the beginner village.
But since this herd didn't have any natural enemies and were growing without any interference I suppose that is normal. I was very curious what level is the leader so I tried a couple more times. Using Appraisal on the herd yesterday I managed to raise my skill more than 30%. Using it on the leader should give me at least 5%, I thought. But after one try Great Stag sensed me. He couldn's see me because I hid very carefully but he sensed that I was looking at him. I didn't want to enrage him so I stopped and moved away a little.
As I watched and observed them I tried to use Appraisal on the leader but it failed almost ten times. I even used it in a half an hour interval in fear of being found out. I head a feeling that as soon as I found out more about the leader, my understanding of deer will raise by a big margin or even reach 100%.
Until it was time for me to get ready for my date with Maria I was watching their every step and action. Even during our date, the only thing I did was looking at her. That made her feel a little uncomfortable so she asked me why am I looking at her like that.
, Do I have something on my face? You almost didn't say a thing tonight?"
I couldn't say that all that observing from the game rubbed into reality, could I? So I responded the best I could in that situation.
, You are too beautiful. I can't stop looking at you." I know it sounds corny but that is the best I could do at the moment and not to blab out that I got it from the game. To be fair I was looking at her every time we were together on dates. It just happens that tonight I didn't talk too much but concentrated on observing.
She smiled at me sweetly and her cheeks got a little red. Seeing her like that I had to say it again.
, How can I stop looking at you when you are beautiful at whatever you do."
, Huh, you wouldn't say that if you saw me in the morning with my hair all messed up."
, I would like to see you then, only to say that you are beautiful and prove you wrong."
It took me a moment to figure out what I said and a moment of silence followed. Then we looked at each other and our eyes met. I could see that her cheeks got even redder but she didn't move her eyes away from mine.
, You will have to wait for that a little." she said and looked at me with a mischievous smile. I was surprised when she said that and didn't know how to respond. I bet that I was redder than her at that moment from embarrassment. She noticed that and laughed again. I got myself together and asked for a bill. I paid and we left the restaurant. I walked her to her place and before she entered I said.
, I will wait, as long as you want." I don't know where that came from but I thought that I didn't give her an answer she wanted while we were at the restaurant. She turned around, surprise written all over her beautiful face. She hugged me and I could hear her faintly say, thank you. I took her hands and we looked each other in the eyes.
What happened then I will remember for the rest of my life. Our lips met and we kissed. I melted from that feeling. Our lips intervened. It felt like an eternity passed at that moment. We separated and looked at each other again. I then remembered and my eyes moved in the direction of the window above us with a little fear. Maria saw that and with a smile said.
, Don't worry. I said to dad not to look anymore outside."
, It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter." I said in a hurry trying to make myself look brave again. She smiled and gave me one more quick kiss and ran into her house. I thought I heard Mia behind the door but I was too preoccupied remembering the taste and the shape of Maria's lips to think about anything else. During the whole way back home I was thinking about that moment. When I got back home mom, dad and Hope were looking at me, all with big smiles on their faces. Mia already talked to Hope I see. And Hope already told our parents. After the grand inquisition that lasted almost a whole hour, I went back into the game.
I don't know if it is a coincidence but after every date with Maria, I had some kind of a breakthrough in the game. She truly is my lucky star. After long three days of observation and stalking of the deer, I managed to appraise the Great Stag. As soon as I did a notification appeared.
, Congratulations, you managed to observe the deer to 100% completion. Your reward is transformation skill Great Stag Form.
Congratulations, you are a first druid to learn a transformation skill in the world. You became the first real druid player. Rewards are as followed..."