Post by Athena on Mar 12, 2016 4:55:02 GMT
"Do you have a problem for me to solve?"
| Athena was tired of fighting boars in the plains. Their patterns were starting to become predictable for her, and she figured out where she needed to strike for the most damage. She wasn't the most skilled of all characters, but she could at least hold herself in a fight now that she had battled a small number of boars and such. She wanted to travel to the forest because she heard that there were different types of enemies, as well as stronger ones. If I could go travel to the Black Forest, then I'd be sure to find enemies that will give me some good experience as well as some good loot. If I can defeat a good number of those enemies, then I'd be set to get some good items for myself. And I can probably level up too! I really need to level up. Honestly, my attack is weak as hell, and I need to inflict damage. I can take a few hits because I put Endurance at my second best stat, but I really think that it'd be better if I didn't try my luck by taking hits. Suddenly, Athena got hit with a genius idea. Wait a minute! I'm going to a forest! Forests have lots of trees! I can't believe I didn't think to use my stealth mastery skill sooner! Seriously, if I can use that more than a few times in the forest, then I could get some good kills without having to give myself away! And... Even though I hate having to use my Sword Art, it'd be better to use it and level it than keep it weak by not using it. Plus, it's actually good when dealing with multiple enemies. So if I end up being unable to beat two enemies at the same time, then I can just use that and hide somewhere. Athena suddenly got struck with yet another completely random, genius thought. Pen and paper. Athena had the 'Mapping' skill, but she had never used it before because she never had anything to take notes with/practice her skill with. Athena traveled to a number of shops, looking for a vendor that sold pen and paper. She already knew that the general store didn't hold that because she went there every morning to check for sales, but the largest sale she ever saw was a sale on an apartment. But even then, she didn't have nearly enough Col to buy the apartment itself. She only had 50 Col, which by her standards, was a tiny amount. She couldn't believe that she had gotten so little Col by defeating a small number of boars. She shrugged at the fact anyway. She shouldn't complain about the money that she has because 50 Col was more than enough to get a journal and a pen. Right as she was looking at the amount of Col she had, out of the corner of her eye, she saw another small shop that almost looked to be a library. Athena opened the door to the shop, which had a little bell ring as she opened it. The musty smell of old books permeated the air, which made her smile. Athena loved the smell of old books. Curling up with an old classic 'Sherlock Holmes' book and drinking a cup of tea would beat any other event in her mind. She loved the silence that was in the shop and walked over to the counter, where a quaint old lady was sitting. 'Neurina The Librarian' was her name, and she was a cute, short old lady. They reminded her of the queen of England at the time, who was just a sweet, delicate old lady who always kept her manners. Athena smiled at the old lady and Neurina immediately asked if there was anything she could do for her. Neurina's voice was that of a grandmother soothing her grandchild during a thunderstorm, it made Athena comfortably calm. Athena whispered, keeping the rules of the library, "Yes. Do you happen to sell journals and pens here?" Neurina laughed quietly and disappeared for a second. When she returned, she had a brown leather journal, with a small black pen. "Were these what you were looking for," Neurina asked. Athena grabbed the journal and pen from the old woman's hands. "Yes. How much is it for these?" The old woman looked at Athena and told her it was worth 8 Col. In her eyes, that was cheap for a journal and a pen, but she gave the old woman what she had asked for. The old woman smiled at her, a few of her teeth missing, which made her that much sweeter. "Thank you," Athena whispered as she exited the quaint book shop. What a nice place. I really wish I could own a place like that when I'm older. And that old woman was so sweet. Athena's mind suddenly drifted to her grandmother, but she shook her head. No... I can't start thinking about my family. Otherwise, I'll get weak and die. Then, I'll definitely never get home or be the best in this game. Athena gathered herself outside the book shop, then headed towards the nearest part of the Black Forest she could find. Athena arrived at the edge of the Black Forest, which looked quite foreboding from where she was standing. Athena... You wanted to do this. In order to level up faster, you need to take on stronger enemies. In MMOs you'd play on the computer, you'd have to face enemies who are at least a level above you. This is basic game logic. Defeat enemies who are stronger than you, and after you defeat a few of them, you become just as strong as they are, until you work your way so high up the food chain that you become the strongest. Then you finish the game. And you get to go home and celebrate yourself. Athena took a deep breath before finally venturing into the Black Forest. Athena took out the journal and pen she had bought from Neurina and started to chart a map of where she was going. She drew each of the trees as tiny dots, and she could feel a slight decline in the floor of the forest. Before even walking in a straight direction for a minute, Athena spotted a new enemy. It looked to be a vicious plant, and from it's name, it didn't seem very harmful. But Athena knew better than to take enemies at face value. Its name 'Little Nepenthes' led Athena to wonder why the name Nepenthes was picked. The plant had an odd mouth on its body, while it had a body with a small amount of what seemed to be roots. Since it was in a forest, Athena wondered if the roots had healing capabilities for the Little Nepenthes. She wouldn't assume that because it was level 1 enemy, but she could never be too cautious about an enemy. Athena used her advantage of shadows created by the trees to position herself above the Little Nepenthes on one of the branches of the tree. She tried to be as quiet as she could while climbing up, and it seemed that she didn't draw the attention of the Little Nepenthes. Although Athena didn't have the acrobatics skill, if she sent her rapier straight through the center of the monster, she was certain it would do a good amount of damage. She took a deep breath and counted in her head to three. As she got to three, she jumped down from the tree in complete silence, watching as her rapier pierced through the top of the Little Nepenthe, sliding all the way through the base of the creature. A guttural scream from the enemy confirmed to Athena that she had got a good portion of its health gone. She watched the number that would appear above the head of the enemy. The number that appeared was a red 8. Athena scoffed at herself. That was a pathetic number to put towards attack. She really did need to increase her strength. It was unacceptable how low that was. She pulled her rapier out of the monster, took a quick slash at it, then took a quick step back. The quick slash made contact with one of the monster's roots and a red '5' appeared above the monster. Athena waited for the monster to make its attack. She focused intensely on the two vines that were probably going to shoot towards her. Before she knew it, one of the vines was whipping towards her. Athena quickly dodged out of the way of the first vine, but didn't see a second vine coming from her other side. The vine nearly took out her leg, but Athena allowed herself to fall onto her back, right onto the vine. Athena stood up, while keeping her foot on the vine she was laying on. Alright. So that's it's debilitating weakness. Once I get its vines, it can't attack me. Athena felt the vine shift under her foot, so she quickly cut it off. A red '2' appeared above the vine after she cut it from its source body. Athena watched the other vine like a hawk, not allowing it to attack her. She wasn't going to take any damage this battle. She was going to win. She was going to win with a crushing victory. Athena saw that the vine was whipping toward her, so she side-stepped it while moving toward the monster. If I attack its roots, maybe I can inflict more damage. When I made that quick slash, it did a good amount of damage. Athena decided to test her theory. She pulled her arm from her left side to her right, to create a slash going across its roots. As she made that slash, a red '6' appeared above the monster, and then the monster shattered into the small shards she had seen before when monsters died. Athena let herself calm down before she pulled out her journal. That enemy was shockingly strong. It's a lot different than the boar. The boar can essentially only charge, but that enemy can attack from two opposing directions. Athena thought about the battle she had just had. She drew out the enemy she had faced on one of the pages of the journal, and indicated where the best places to strike were. She wrote down that the roots were the key to that enemy, especially since that was its means of movement, as well as its resemblance to any plant. All plants weaknesses come at their roots. She wrote that last sentence down in bold. She thought that would be important in the future for some reason. After she finished writing these few thoughts, she continued through the forest. As Athena encountered more and more enemies, she took into account her own notes. The only enemies she ever came in contact with were level 1 Little Nepenthes. She did take damage from a couple of enemies, but not enough to make her feel weakened or disheartened. (4 encounters with Little Nepenthes, in between and after each, she would use her Mapping skill to either take more extensive notes on enemies or to make a map of where she was in the Black Forest. She also used her Stealth mastery every time she went to attack a monster.) Athena was proud of herself for the enemies she had defeated so far. Luckily, they had all been alone too. With Athena's luck, she ran into two level 1 Little Nepenthes. She figured that she would use their ranged attacks to her advantage, seeing if they would inflict damage on each other if she would dodge out of the way when she was attacking. She wanted to try this theory, so she positioned herself in a tree above the two enemies, but this time was different. She was going to try and position herself so that she would land behind one of the monsters. The other one would probably try to attack her at this point, but she would dodge. Hopefully, she could avoid taking damage while, at the same time, testing her theory regarding the 'friendly damage' among the enemies. Athena took a deep breath and counted to three, like she always did. Athena jumped down on three and silently fell next to the Little Nepenthes, making sure that her rapier would pierce through the enemy she was aiming for. Unfortunately, she miscalculated a little bit and missed the Little Nepenthes completely. She landed on her back and the rapier went flying behind her a couple feet. Athena had a hard time breathing, but all she could see was the enemy standing above her, getting its vines in the usual 'up' position before they would fling at her. As the vines came flying toward her, she was regaining her breath, but managed to roll quick enough to dodge them. Athena gained her breath back right after she rolled over. She quickly ran towards her rapier, but the other enemy was ready for her to head there. It flung both of its vines at her, hitting her back straight on. Each hit inflicted her 9 damage, bringing her total health to a total of 43. (Counting a couple of other points lost when she was battling a couple of other enemies) As she grabbed her rapier, she knew what she had to do. She stood towards both of the enemies and put her rapier in the middle of her 'magic circle' tattoo. Her rapier glowed a bright white, and as Athena slashed in an 'X' motion, the light grew so intense that the enemies in front of her were disoriented because they couldn't see. (Blinding Beam) As she went over to the monster that she was originally aiming for, she quickly slashed twice at its roots, making sure to cut them down to nothing. Each hit was a surprising 8 damage since the number that was usually displayed was 6. Then, since both were still disoriented, Athena slashed at the other's roots twice. 8 and 10. The first monster she attacked had stopped being blind and put up its vines. It appeared to be very angry, which Athena smirked at. Now was her chance to test her theory. Athena was essentially right behind the second Little Nepenthes, so the first Little Nepenthes expected to hit her, but as she dodged, the whip from the vines hit the second Little Nepenthes instead. Each of the hits were a stunning '10'; more than enough to kill the second monster. While that monster was reeling the vines in, Athena rushed toward it with a deep rage that influenced all of her senses. She was more acute in her sight, noticing where the vine would try to block her strike. For the unfortunate monster, Athena wasn't going to slash this time. She was going to stab the largest, bulbous part of the Little Nepenthes. And as she did, a short scream was heard from the monster, then it shattered into the tiny pieces she was used to. After she finished that battle, she put her face in her hands and sat against a tree. That was the most stressful battle she had ever been in. When Athena gained her calm again, she took out her journal and pen. She wrote down that she needed to use her sword art more. Even when she thought she had a battle in the bag. It wasn't a huge Sword Art, but it was useful because it had a decent chance to blind enemies. And if it leveled up, she wondered what the effects might change to. She wanted to see how powerful it could become later on, when she leveled up more. Athena sighed as she stood up, looking at the direction she came from. She almost started to move, when she suddenly saw a pair of eyes glowing behind a set of trees. Athena took deep breaths and looked to see what the enemy was. As it turned around the corner of the tree, she saw it was a level 2 Dire Wolf. Athena looked at the Dire Wolf with determined eyes. She didn't know what it's pattern of attack was, but she was sure that nothing could be as difficult as the battle she had just experienced. Athena spent a minute just staring at the Dire Wolf. It appeared that the Dire Wolf thrived on the impatience of its victims, but Athena wasn't so stupid. Dire Wolves were one of the most generic gaming enemies in the world, holding their spot behind slimes. Dire Wolves usually had high agility, a high attack, and a decently high defense in games. They had two means of attack, their jaws, and their claws. If they couldn't manage to swipe you with their front claws, they'd probably try to nip you between their jaws. Athena shifted her rapier in her hand, and that was luckily enough to get the Dire Wolf to pounce at her. Athena, luckily, was ready for the pounce. She quickly jumped underneath the Dire Wolf, trying to hit its back legs. Dire Wolves also always had one large weakness. Their back legs were never used as anything except for propulsion, so if Athena could take out just one of the Dire Wolf's back legs, she would be set to kill it. Athena sliced a large gash into the Dire Wolf's back-right leg. The gash wasn't large enough to keep the leg from working, but the red '5' that came out from the leg convinced her that she made it deep enough that it would've been painful for the Dire Wolf to exert too much pressure onto it. It probably wasn't going to do any more pouncing, but Athena wanted to be cautious. Athena was ready for just about anything at this point. Athena moved behind a tree, but remained visible to the Dire Wolf so that she could see it, and so that it could see her. Athena then tried to quickly climb up the tree. The Dire Wolf noticed what she was doing and scratched her leg as she climbed up. She saw a red '13' appear above her leg, and the health bar in the corner of her screen dropped quite a bit. She was now at 30 HP. That meant that she could only take about 2 more glancing hits from the Dire Wolf before she would die. Athena took a deep breath. She knew what she could do. She stood towards the Dire Wolf from inside the tree. The Dire Wolf was trying to knock down the tree, or try and damage Athena on top of it. Athena placed her rapier over her 'magic circle' tattoo and she whipped it in an 'X' motion. The blinding light came from it, and she could tell that the Dire Wolf became blind because it suddenly fell onto the ground, legs up and vital organs up. Athena didn't even pause to jump onto the Dire Wolf's stomach. When she landed, she sent her rapier straight through the area where she thought the heart was. It looked like she had missed by a little bit because the damage number wasn't as high as she was expecting, but she just continued to stab away at the Dire Wolf. The Dire Wolf seemed to regain sight after 3 hits, and it had tried to get up. Athena was almost flung off of it, but she clung to the back-right leg, and sent her rapier through the leg. She pulled it out at the Dire Wolf rolled over, but couldn't get up. Athena stood over the helpless Dire Wolf and looked at the animal angrily. "Die." She stabbed her rapier through one of the Dire Wolf's eyes. After she stabbed it through, she closed her eyes. She was sure that the Dire Wolf was dead. She opens her eyes a couple of seconds later, and there was now nothing where there had been a large battle between a level 2 Dire Wolf and level 1 Athena. She sat down and took a deep breath. She was angry, but she knew that she couldn't fight monsters in the Black Forest for the rest of today. She'd have to come back tomorrow. She couldn't stay here after this. She never expected to fight a level 2 Dire Wolf, but she guessed that she must have gone pretty far into the Black Forest. She pulled out her journal and drew out a picture of the Dire Wolf. She attacked the Dire Wolf a total of 6 times. If she averaged about 6 points of damage for each hit, then the Dire Wolf must only have something between 31 and 36 health. She wrote that information down. She wrote down that the Dire Wolf would probably be unable to fight after its back legs had been taken out. She also wrote that she shouldn't mess with Dire Wolves until after she became a level 2. Maybe she shouldn't even deal with them then. They were very powerful from her perspective. She received 13 damage from just a glancing blow. She couldn't imagine the damage she could've taken if she had been hit head-on. After Athena finished taking notes, she headed back into town. She tried to avoid having any battles, but she decided to fight two more Little Nepenthes to get some of her anger out. As she strolled back into town, she let herself sit on a bench for a long while. It had been a long day, and she never would've thought that she would go up against a Dire Wolf. The fact that she even beat it made her insanely proud of herself, but it also made her make sure that she would be more cautious of surrounding enemies when she fought in places where there seemed to be groups of enemies. There were plenty of lessons to be learned from this little expedition, and that was that Athena would need to level up very soon. Otherwise, she was going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble if she didn't level up fast. |
MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS
I hope you guys enjoyed this at least a little bit!
(-8 Col - Pen/Journal)