NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17 - Seasonings
"Where can I find these holy herbs?" Naiad questioned the Carrion of Life.
"That I can't tell you." The bald vulture head swayed as he stood on top of the Nanabush, "For the places change with the tides and currents. You must look for a holy site."
I hated fetch quests like this. I dug for more information. "Are they called mint or oregano? What are the name of these plants?"
The vulture cawed at me, "These are not seasonings! Allowing a new life doesn't need flavor. They are Beverya and Terralight. Only one is required in plentiful amounts. But if you bring both, it will increase the protection of the young forest."
"What do the undead herbs look like? I don't want to mix them up for the holy ones." Naiad was covering all her options.
The smirk on the corner of her face showed how the undead option tempted her more.
The vulture's yellow eyes narrowed on her and noticed the obvious child's glee. It pecked at the Nanabush shell beneath its claws before answering. "You people have become very dim-witted if you can't tell the difference between life and death."
I joined in the conversation. "We're talking to a bird that is trying to rip open the Nanabush while chatting to us about life and starting over."
Naiad elbowed my side and took over. "We're confused. We don't know the results of either option. How is picking a holy plant going to prevent the undead from making their own um, unaliveness in the woods later?"
The vulture's sharped beak broke open the shell of the dead animal and found things that looked too much like noodles. It paused as it had a mouthful and looked at me to talk. "Warriors, you must go find culture and learn the truth of the cycle of the world. Life and death are the opposite of the same coin. I am on the side of life welcoming the new. Necromancers, like Nanabush, remain trapped in the past, but they would use unholy means to resurrect it. The Nanabush would try to strive to keep their current life alive. One must never resurrect the past. Leave as I eat in peace and prepare these woods for a new life to begin."
"One last question. How will we find you to give you the herbs?" Naiad inquired.
"This very spot." It replied with a mouth full of tortoise meat, but the screech of frustration hissed through its beak.
I put a hand on Naiad's shoulder, guiding her back toward the city Fanamel. With patience, I waited until we walked far away enough and the blue dot of the Carrion of Life was gone from my map to talk.
"It's been a long time since I've been to a church," I confessed.
"We could go to a graveyard instead. I'm certain we can find undead there." She grabbed my hand and plucked it off her shoulder.
"Are you trying to go down the necromancer path?"
"I don't know. It's fun to have more options than a generic class of rogue or archer. I just don't know how I could fight with plants and bones together."
"Not everything has to be about plants in this game." I laughed while tossing her own words back at her.
The joke didn't land with her. It bounced off, and I received an annoyed scowl. I cleared my throat, trying to recover from the conversation. "Well, it's your quest. What do you want to do with it? Invite the undead or bring some seasonings to the field?"
"The Carrion of Life would get salty with that." Her joke had better success with me.
I chuckled. "Should we ask CheezWiz for advice on this?"
She shook her head. "Did you get a buff quest for helping me with my class quest?"
"No, but what rank is your class quest?"
"It's an epic class quest!" she beamed.
"Make sense. I bet that required us burning the forest in order to get that triggered. What kind of fighter do you anticipate becoming with this quest?"
She shook her head and her braid landed on her shoulder. "Not sure. A fighter of some sort, probably range again."
"We'll learn more once we turn in your herb."
The cooldown was still going on our mounts. We were making good time on her class quest. I didn't want to waste time with a brisk walk in the dead woods. The quest she just received made it sound as if the old ways were gone completely and the Carrion of Life chose what would start next. But if the game did that, it would be hard for players in the town to use these woods to level up. They would have to go elsewhere to gather resources and experience.
The mountains had some monsters to hunt, and the other side of the city was an ocean, which had even fewer monsters. There had to be something here we could do to level up. We had to find more lizard-folk and other hidden places. The lizard-folk knew how to live during the fire, which meant there had to be other NPCs and monsters with a similar skill set.
I tossed out a suggestion. "We could use some more fighting practice. Want to look around for some beasts?"
"That was a fun fight!" She pulled out her bow with enthusiasm. "Though I could use some easier fights like the rats again."
"We're too high level for the rats. I'll stream our fights here and we can get feedback about some problems in our positioning."
"Fine. Don't drop your axes this time." Her eyes started darting around on the ground and looking at the tree trunks for tracks.
"I won't!"
"If you do, I'm taking a cookie from your stash." She taunted.
"I don't have a cookie stash," I lied. Those were my gingersnaps, my last safe refuge for sweets and comfort.
"If Mom had one, you have one, unless you ate it all." She deduced, acting like Beth more and more. "Oh! Tracks."
The ground near her showed deep claw marks and scrapes on a decaying, fire-scarred tree. With the tree dead and cooked, the marks sunk in deep, giving us an idea that this monster hunted with claws as long as my fingers. There was more than one set of claw marks too. This creature hunted in a pack and continued through the trees leading parallel to the city.
I whispered to her, "Weapons ready, let's go hunting for these carnivorous beasts."
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"How did you guess about the type of fighter it is?" She inquired with energy in her voice to learn more.
"Going off the triangle paw shape, the fact there seems to be only sets of two, not four. Plus, the claws in the ground and high on the tree. It seems to hop, but not sure how far. Paw size says it should be as tall as Triangle. Why don't you lead the way as I set up the stream?"
She had no hesitation as she pointed and called out various spots of the tracks. Based on the footprints, there were about four of the creatures. When Naiad got excited, she would start rambling and showing off her knowledge like a child.
That was the mindset I needed to correct. Since entering high school put that final wedge in my mind that she was no longer a child, but becoming a foolish, dodgy adolescent. The previous fight brought us closer together and this next would do it again. In each battle, she could rely on me more, talk to me more, and I could give her guidance.
Logging into my streaming account on Spazim via the Seconds-Over connection took me a bit. I couldn't remember my password and when I went to reset it, I got the warning that it couldn't be the same as the previous.
Naiad found fresh tracks based on how wet they were and pointed closer to the city walls. The prey was near, leaving me no time to spruce up my streaming set up. I turned the stream on in the background, then instantly received a set of notifications for my outdated stream.
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[Your stream is starting and your subscribers are being notified.
Per Seconds-Over Rules, you may not read your viewers' chat. This feature will turn back on once you've logged out of the game.
Warning! With your current settings, viewers can see your conversations. Would you like to change this feature now?]
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"Dad! There," Naiad half whispered through her excitement.
I moved the annoying notifications away, mentally noting to deal with it later.
A pack of four creatures stood on the ground, hopping on their back hind legs that had three claws on the front and back. Their front paws rubbed above the ground together as their long snouts sniffed around with a tongue sticking in and out from time to time. Gray fur covered their backs and a long scaly brown tail slid on the back behind them, like a whip.
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[Level 6 Creature: Pengaroo (common)
Description: A hunting pack creature that bounces on their enemies to death while using their cute front claws to reach up and grab higher prey in trees. Primarily insectivore that enjoy a swarm.]
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This fight was going to be hopping.
I pulled out my axes and stood up.
Naiad pointed at my weapons and whispered, "Do you need to tie a rope around the ends to find them later?"
"Hush." I pointed up ahead to see the monster. "Good work tracking. I'll sneak around to the right and then charge that way. I won't be too far away. Run to me if you need help. Shoot the closest one to me at the start."
"Duh. I know how to use this bow."
If she was an NPC, I would be losing rep with her because of how often I annoyed her.
As I snuck over to be in a three o'clock position from her, I learned the woods had a ridiculous number of sticks that were waiting to snap underfoot. I was spending too much time carefully avoiding noisy leaves and sticks. It leveled up my sneak, but I wasn't going for a stealth build. I was only at the two o'clock position by the time I called it good enough.
I ran forward without screaming.
Snap.
Crack.
"CREEEEEE!" cried a fifth pengaroo, hiding behind a tree right next to me.
It scared me, and I instantly reacted by throwing my axe at the monster. It landed in the tree. I held on to my second axe as the pengaroo slashed at me with its front claws. It was larger than before, standing closer to Naiad's heights. The monster was on its hind legs fully, like a kangaroo.
The short arms from before reached out for my throat with its claws. I backed up, the stick ridden ground threatened to trip me.
I focused on fighting, locking my feet in place as the creature hopped toward me. More pengaroos behind it joined in on the hunt, leaping toward me. They moved fast and were already at the tree with my axe in it. I slashed as another arm from the first pengaroo came out at me. Just as my hit landed, an arrow struck it in its eye for a critical, instant kill hit.
The body flopped down to the ground.
The herd behind it picked up to a vicious speed, tongues wagging out and using their tails to get higher and faster leaps. They hit the ground with a beat and were in unison as they came at me. The slowest one wasn't with the original small four in the glade.
A sixth small pengaroo entered the fight.
"I need to get my axe." I declared for my stream trying to hype up the show.
There were at least a few people watching according to the number on the stream. They had to be entertained and everyone loved action and fighters, not a coward behind a shield. They adored an idiot with one dinky axe against a herd of pengaroos.
"Yaaaa!" I screamed in excitement at the battle.
While running toward my second axe, I dodged out of the way of one monster, hitting it with my weapon in its side. With a yank, my only axe was free of the pengaroos, as I kicked it to knock the monster back. The act causing me to lose balance as a third pengaroo joined the attack. The other pengaroos were very much still alive, hungry, and angry. I only had four of the surrounding monsters, and my axe was too far away. One sliced at my legs while the one I cut earlier went to my back.
"I need help!" I cried.
At least the stream got to enjoy my stupidity.
I blocked off another attack with my axe, trying to push myself through like a running back to get to the field goal of my second axe. The cuts and tail whips were dropping my health faster than I wanted.
A rope tied to my axe would be really useful now. Or few arrows.
"Stop throwing your axes like they're daggers!" Naiad shouted as she finally shot at the group around me.
The arrow whooshed by my face and clipping the pengaroo attacking my back like a cheese grater.
"I said get the ones in the back!" I reminded her.
"I did!" She aimed another arrow.
The count of red dots on the map dropped to three as another arrow hit its mark. Naiad was getting a lot better with her bow and my back appreciated it.
The pengaroo furthest from me broke from the path and went hunting for Naiad instead.
"Watch it!"
"Focus on your axe!" she quipped.
Its handle was in my reach, but I couldn't grab it as a tail of the pengaroo tripped me and caused me to face-plant into the tree. I rolled away quickly as the two hopped up and down like I was a gopher in the arcade. One of them had wet claws, and I knew the source based on the pain on my back. One monster prepared to land on my legs, the other on my stomach.
I brought my legs in and kicked back. The feeling of their claws piercing into the bottom of my feet was nothing compared to a legos walk.
It hurt more.
"Argh!" I shouted.
The beast tumbled down, wagging its tail as it tried to correct itself. It crashed into its fallen ally next to it. They scratched and clawed at each other, blaming each other for interrupting the hunt.
The prey became the predator as I slashed down on the one on top, right by the base of its neck. Finishing it quickly. I yanked the axe free, while the other pengaroo made that creeing sound and tried to reach at me and break free from its dead friend.
While it was busy, I stood up and freed my other axe from the tree and studied the map. Two red dots, and one was near Naiad. I ran towards her and she got further away from me and the pengaroo chasing after her.
With a sigh, I did the stupid act again, costing myself cookies.
"Heeeey!" I screamed at the monster, getting its attention.
I threw my new axe again at the monster. The axe landing it on its back. It hopped and stumbled, trying to maintain balance and turn. It cried in pain as Naiad took the shot, hitting it in the throat to finish it.
"Nice shot!" I cheered her on.
A quick glance at my old streaming hobby showed a lot more viewers were joining in.
Naiad didn't celebrate as she drew another arrow and I heard the hopping of the last pengaroo behind me. The arrow flew past my head, missing its mark. I trailed after the pengaroo with my last axe.
As I killed the beast, I heard Naiad cheer, "Cookies!"
"We're an amazing team!" I told her as I came back, with both axes collected. "You did an excellent job keeping to cover, taking shots when you could, but you should've shot the one in the back…"
"Yeah, yeah. You owe me two cookies, one for each axe thrown." She informed me.
I laughed. I wanted to talk about the game more, but a promise had to be kept with a child if you wanted their trust. "Of course. You did great. We've time for one more hunt like that before hopping off. Let's talk about our quests for our fans before spending our new stat points."
We leveled up from the fights. I was 10 and I saved my stat points. Naiad was also level 10.
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Player Name: Boulder
Level: 10
Race: Human
Class: N/A
Affiliations: None
Status Buffs: None
Expanded Details: Skill stats (3 unspent):
Strength 5 | Dexterity 4 | Constitution 9
Fortitude: 1.25 | Reflex 1 | Will 1
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I wanted to hear what others thought, more experienced players, from those who had more time to look for better strategies than me. "They'll tell you what build to go."