From the soft, dim glow of the morning sun beaming through his window, Kael woke to find he had thrown off his blanket in his sleep, the roughly hewn cloth spread in a heap on the planked flooring of his small room. Rubbing the sleep and morning gunk from his eyes, he slid off the bed and began to get into his gear, the lightweight equipment given by his elven friends back in the village easy to equip via the system. His dagger snugly sheathed on his hip for easy access, he drew in a deep breath of the cold morning air and took his first step outside as an adventurer!
THUD. In his excitement, he accidentally bumped right into the petite guildmaster, who apparently was just about to come wake him up! "Ah! Oh my, I'm sorry Mr. Stephens, I had something I needed to give you!" She didn't seem shocked by the bump; in fact, she hadn't even moved from it? Continuing to brush it off, she handed him a small, card like crystal and watched as it flashed seemingly random colors. "That's an affinity plate. Seeing as your main skill, or the "Unique" one is displayed on your card, I figured you could use something to check what magic affinities you gained along the way." Her smile was contagious, as he was given little time to thank her before she dragged him over to a sturdy wooden board set up on the wall next to a counter, a different, adult looking attendant looking at him with the guildmaster from over a small pair of glasses. "Miss Marley. Don't you have paperwork to be doing? I hardly believe you finished, much less had enough time to escort a newbie adventurer." She said slowly, her voice reminiscent of secretaries in games Kael had played before.
To this, she urged him to go to the board. "Go on! Pick out your very first quest please~" Despite her employee's nagging, it seemed she had explained the situation and continued to escort him around the massive, poster and parchment riddled board. The mountain of papers and posted notices hid a small, somewhat discolored parchment at the bottom corner, seeing as how most of these jobs were menial tasks the village thought adventurers would actually do. Like, really? "Find my lost wedding band?" What is this, Xenob**de? The discolored parchment described the guard barracks next to a stretch of forest known as the "Shaded Greenhost", known for a myriad of nature attuned monsters with low INT. Their problem however, seemed more and more like a high INT monster had found it's way into the area and settled down.
"Hey, Lea? So, what exactly lives around the Shaded Greenhost..?" Kael turned to her only to find she had left, giving him no other option, aside from a brutish looking fellow in the corner, but to talk with the attendant and take the quest. "Excuse me, miss..?" He began, but she swiftly stopped him and started to speak. "Good morning, I am Anna and I'll be your attendant today. I see you selected the post made by the guards? Supposedly it's a lesser dragon, if you believe those drunks. Dragons are more common this time of year true, but a lesser is nowhere near as smart as they claim the monster is. They might be dealing with a drakeling, a form of shapeshifting wyrm. They can go from dog sized to horse sized using magic." This flood of information caught him off guard, and he just blankly handed her the sheet.
"Good luck, adventurer. Return safely, and I'll have the reward waiting upon completion." She said briskly, as he was given a map to his destination. Walking slowly from the guild hall, he came into the bright morning sun of a new day. The village was quite silent, a few people doing their morning errands or setting up shop, weapons and armor scattered through various stalls closer to the guild, while food and other supplies were farther away. Pridefully considering himself self-sufficient, Kael meandered through the quiet square towards the east exit, heading down the roughly carved road snaking through a flat, rocky plains. Before he could get very far though, he noticed what looked like a deer laying near a small copse of trees, a clear, small stream the source of the plant growth. At first glance, it was like any deer he'd seen back on Earth, small, with thin legs and thick haunches of venison waiting to be cooked. But after, he noticed the serpent tail on the end, slithering slowly as if it had a mind of it's own. Using his newly maxed Analyze, he discovered the creature was named after a greek monster, a Ceryntian. From what he could remember, the myth was supposed to have a mane of serpents, lions feet, and a viper as a tail. This one only had a snake for a tail. The status menu it had showed rather weak stats, and the [Lesser, Juvenile] tags behind its nameplate.
Hunching down and getting into a crouch, he tried to make use of [Stealth]. His steps muffled, he crept slowly behind a nearby tree, wondering if he needed to be wary of its tail as he planned his attack. Judging by the distance, and how its other head was trying to explore the surroundings, he couldn't just jump in and stab away. The snake head was rounded, so by his worlds logic it was not venomous. Though this world was magical and strange, no telling what venoms or toxins something had. Valhalla itself never had a Ceryntian as a common enemy, that he knew of. Making the choice to risk it all to gain strength for whatever was coming, he slowly pulled himself up into the thicker branches of the tree, clambering occasionally as one creaked and couldn't hold his weight. Though the Ceryntian noticed the creaks, it didn't manage to catch a glimpse of him just yet.
Riskily, Kael made a short hop into another tree, using his dagger to softly "thunk" and get another hold. The creak from his landing drew more attention to his location, but the young monster had a low INT and just brushed it off as a bird. Though it became more wary, pacing near the stream slowly. Seeing his chance, it paced just under the clearest portion of branches in the tree. He was a decent ten feet in the tree, if he didn't land on it and get a solid hit, he'd hurt after for sure. Checking his Status, he almost slapped himself for his stupidity! His HP recovered after he slept, and was now back to full. A little less worried, he braced... and leapt from the branch like the main character from Assassin's Cr*ed, feeling quite cool in his head as the distance swiftly closed. Dagger in hand, he went straight for the neck, sinking the blade in with a loud "Shlick", a blood curdling scream coming from the slowly blood filling throat of the Ceryntian, the monster thrashing wildly as he was flung from its back hard. Landing thankfully without any damage, he rolled onto his feet to find it in a rage, kicking and bucking at everything nearby, the serpent on the tail's eyes burning a hole into him. After it calmed slightly, it slowly trembled and began to collapse, its HP dropping by 3 every second due to the intense bleeding. The serpent however, only got more violent; lashing as best it could in his direction.
Snapping his wrist out just enough, he aimed to let the jawlike portion of his blade sever the threatening tail cleanly, but only nicked it with a glancing slice, infuriating it enough to where it lashed out so violently that the dying body whined in protest, moving closer to him as the teeth managed to scratch his hand on return. [Player has taken -2 HP from a glancing blow. Venom detected, did not enter bloodstream.] At this message, he knew he had to back off and let it die slowly, stalking the shadows nearby as he took a moment to retreat. After maybe a solid three more minutes, the creature finally bled out, tail lashing with death throes. He was shocked it had so much HP, then realized something. It had been healing itself! It only took about 1 damage per second instead of the 3 the notification had told him, still with a whopping HP pool as it were. Coming up to collect his spoils, he began the messy process of bleeding, gutting, and scaling the body, the serpent scales covering half the haunch while the thick, tough pelt covered most of the body. Storing the parts in his inventory, he carefully tried to get the antlers off cleanly, only getting a few fractures at the base with his first attempt. "Not too bad for a beginner of a butcher's work.. I think?"