[Quick author's note: I will be removing the health stat and replacing it with defense. I feel that it ruins the storytelling a little to always be talking about health values, and just having a character be harder to damage feels like it has more potential for "coolness" if ya know what I mean :)]
Ellie ran through the tunnel at a full sprint, checking every few seconds to see if the leader was still chasing her. The red reflection bouncing off the cave walls told her that the Gnawling was still chasing after her, and still very much on fire. She didn't know where she was going anymore, as she had run off the edges of the map 5 minutes ago. at this point, she hoped she wouldn't run into a dead end. The gnawling had attacked her as soon as it was woken up, burning through her fire-resistant scales, and leaving painful char marks all over her left side.
'All of my stat points, and I'm still no match for a baby fire gnawling? What's even the point of leveling up if that's the case!'
Ellie pulled one of the blank crystals she had harvested out of her inventory and started to munch on it as she ran, ducking under a plume of fire that the rat had launched in desperation. The gentle energy from the unattuned crystal reinvigorated the muscle around her wounds and stopped them from hurting as much.
{Neutral Mana Ingested: Stat Point Created}
As soon as Ellie saw the window pop up, she began to hurriedly eat the 28 other neutral crystals she had stored in her backpack.
{28 Stat Points Created}
As she finished the last crystal, the cave opened up into a cavern with a rapid river angling deep into the darkness. Ellie began to leap from one small foothold to the next at a speed faster than should be possible.
'This accurate perception perk is so useful' Ellie thought to herself, assured that the rat wouldn't follow her into the river.
As she was gloating quietly to herself, the angry fire gnawing finally caught up and saw the indignant little lizard thing that had stolen its precious pillow. Filled with rage, and a little bit of frustration from not being able to enter the water, it used up the last of its energy in one gigantic burst of fire. The firebeam it created blasted past Ellie's side and knocked her into the rapids, sending her flying off into the distance along with the flow of the river. Ellie looked downstream, moving side to side avoiding spiky rocks, and tried desperately to avoid knocking herself out. After a few minutes of trying to swim side to side to repeatedly avoid obstacles, Ellie's muscles gave out in exhaustion and she was sent directly towards a large underground boulder. She looked tiredly at the rock as she drew closer, and just closed her eyes and hoped it wouldn't hurt too much. As she was about to hit the rock, the current that was running around the rock suddenly pulled on her and she flowed smoothly around the rock with the water's guidance. Ellie sighed in relief and focused on taking breaths every once in a while when the current brought her near the surface. She was delighted to find out that as a type of lizard, she could hold her breath for nearly 6 minutes at a time until she felt like she needed to breathe. She smoothly flowed down the stream and just looked at all the trinkets and spoils of her battle. The book she had found was tucked safely into her inventory slot so that it wouldn't get any more damp than it already was. She had found a few trinkets, and one had been dropped on accident as she was running, but she ended up with 3 more trinkets that each added 1 attack power. Happily, she hummed to herself and continues her relaxed journey downstream, waiting for something interesting to happen.
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two elven scouts jumped through the canopy forest while carrying several bags of fireberries in their arms. Stopping temporarily at a stream, one of the elves pulled out a textured rock with magical engravings on it and chanted a few words. The rock shattered, and a green light began to emanate from her. The elf quickly found a fish and blurbled out a series of noises. The fish, seemingly understanding what she was saying, pointed with its fin in a direction, and the elves dashed away in the direction the fish had guided. The elves stopped every few minutes to ask a woodland critter a question, and eventually, they made their way to a large boulder that was sitting in the middle of a gentle river. One of the elves jumped up to the top of the boulder with the bags of fireberries and placed them strategically and carefully inside the cracks and divots of the rock. Stepping back, the elf admired his work for a few seconds, before placing a woven grass cord next to one of the fireberries in a central position. He lit the cord with a piece of flint and jumped away quickly. He hid behind a distant tree with the other elf, who had run away and hid as soon as she saw he was placing the cord. They waited anxiously as the cord burned toward the fireberries, and then the first fireberry caught on fire and swelled up a little before exploding, sending seeds into the atmosphere, and setting off a chain reaction of explosions until the rock crumbled from the pressure. A gigantic spout of water erupted from below where the boulder had been, instantly launching rocks away from the stream, and smashing down a couple of trees. The elves cheered in excitement, as the stream widened and settled into a healthy flow.
"The village will be able to irrigate twice as many crops this year!" the male elf who had placed the berries said excitedly
"We can finally spare enough water to grow an orchard!" said the glowing elf, as she picked up her bag and started to walk to the stream.
"Careful Scyllia! You don't know what could come out of that underground waterway. It's safer to sit back here and watch it for a while longer to make sure no monster comes out." the male elf reached out to warn her.
"Don't worry about it Andurril, I just recently learned a speed spell, so if anything comes out of there I can retreat twice as fast as you ever could." Scyllia laughed and walked closer to the stream.
As she stood at the edge and observed, some bubbles rose up from the hole that led to the underground water vein, and a haphazard lizardfolk with a torn and soaked tunic floated up to the top of the water, carrying in its arms a crudely made bag with a few pieces of metal poking out of the sides. Seeing as her translation spell was still active, she spoke up to get its attention.
"Are you a water lizardfolk?"
The lizardfolk looked over surprised and replied "Nope, I just wasn't looking where I was going and ended up in a river. I kinda lost track of time down there, but I feel like it's been at least a few hours." the lizardfolk swam to the shore, and Scyllia reached down and helped pull it out of the water.
"What's your name?" She asked while helping the lizard dry off with a wind spell.
"Ellie" the lizardfolk replied.