Spiteful Healer: Book One - A LitRPG Adventure, page 12
You take 82 crushing damage.
Copper Shield’s durability has dropped by 36.
Your use of the Shield Mastery skill has unlocked the Shield Mastery ability [Brace].
[Brace] – Shield Mastery
Press your shield forward into an attack at the moment of impact to double your Shield Mastery bonuses for that attack. Consumes 5 stamina per attempt at bracing. Stamina is consumed regardless of whether Brace is successful.
Shield Block Bonus: 18% (9% base from Shield Mastery level 8)
Pushback Reduction: 18% (9% base from Shield Mastery level 8)
Durability Lost: -14% (7% base from Shield Mastery level 8)
When he stood back up, he felt as though his legs couldn’t lift him. Overcoming this mental block took him a moment, but it was easier the second time.
“Minor Heal!” he shouted as the Boss Boar began charging again.
“Winter, are you okay? I finished with the small ones!” Silentwire called out.
“Never been better. Please kill this one,” he groaned weakly as the giant boar closed in, shaking the ground with each step.
This time, he kept his eyes open to track the boss’ tusks. He forced his shield arm forward as they were about to hit. His shield flashed with yellow light for a mere second as the tusks connected.
You take 65 crushing damage.
Copper Shield’s durability has reached 0 and is unusable until repaired.
The damage feedback was lessened, and he wasn’t knocked into the air. Instead, he skidded backward across the ground for a few feet until his back hit a tree. The Boss Boar breathed heavily from its large snout, preparing another charge while Winter healed himself again.
Silentwire rushed at the boss from behind and, once close enough, began stabbing it furiously in the back. Each stab dealt 60 to 70 points of piercing damage, causing the boar to squeal in pain and angrily turn around to face her. It did a quick side-swipe attack with its mouth.
Despite her higher level, she took more damage from the hit than Winter—104 crushing damage. Her health was much higher than his, so she wasn’t in immediate danger, but it had fallen almost by half from that single blow.
“Chase me, you big hairy pig!” she screamed at it before turning and dashing in the opposite direction.
Her taunt worked, and Winter had a moment to catch his breath and recover stamina and mana. He limped awkwardly forward and watched the large boar storm off after her, bulldozing through the surrounding forest.
“If you get its attention back by healing me, I can do more damage!” Silentwire shouted to him from a distance. Winter wiped the sweat from his forehead and pulled broken twigs and branches out of his armor. In those few moments of watching Silentwire flee, a light bulb suddenly flicked on in his head.
“How long can you keep running from it?” Winter yelled.
“Uhm, I guess maybe six minutes? But sprinting will use all the stamina I need for attacks,” she replied, shouting over the sound of the stomping beast. She turned back to see Winter with a giant smile on his face. He watched the giant boar as it recklessly rushed at her, knocking over the large trees of Orm Forest with ease and leaving destruction in its wake.
“Try to lead it to the pine trees!” he shouted, pulling out his woodcutting axe.
“Are you kidding me?!” she screamed back.
But Winter didn’t hear her; he only saw the goldmine before him as tree after tree fell. They took minutes to chop when standing, but when broken on the ground from boar strikes, mere seconds. He located the first pine, cut the stray branches off with a few swings, chopped it at the bottom and top to keep only the good parts, and put it in his inventory.
“And here I was worried about you…” Silentwire couldn’t believe what she saw, watching Winter run from pine to pine behind her.
“Hey, focus! There’s a bunch to the left!”
“You’re telling ME to focus?! A giant boar is trying to kill us, and you’re chopping wood!”
Despite her protests, though, she led the giant boar exactly where Winter suggested.
“This boar is awesome,” Winter cheered giddily. He was practically drooling, moving as fast as he could, draining stamina from sprinting between the logs.
“You’re unbelievable. Alright, five minutes, then we kill it, okay?” Silentwire relented. Winter heard her but didn’t respond, instead stuffing his face with food to keep his stamina up.
Five minutes later, Silentwire came rushing back toward Winter. “Okay, I’m done. You’d better heal me.”
Winter complied with a Minor Heal when she closed in and garnered the giant boar’s attention.
The moment it charged at Winter, Silentwire began assaulting the boar from behind. It couldn’t switch targets easily with its charge, so it continued toward Winter despite the massive damage Silentwire was able to deal.
Winter dug his feet in, a new shield equipped, and timed his Brace perfectly. He still slid back from the blow, but the damage feedback was easy to ignore with the thought of all the pine logs he’d be rolling in.
“Flurry!” Silentwire cast, her hands glowing yellow as her attacking speed rose significantly, stabbing multiple times a second, each strike forcing the creature to squeal. The Boss Boar huffed and prepared to turn and strike her again, and in the process, the creature began to give off a red glow.
“It’s enraging!” Winter warned her, preparing to cast a Minor Heal. The moment it turned to hit her, she flew off her feet into a nearby tree and took 220 points of damage—more than Winter’s entire health bar—leaving her at dangerously low levels. He healed less than half back, but that was enough to turn the enraged boar back on him. He used the last of his mana to heal himself.
“Hooo boy,” Winter gulped as the boar dug its hooves in. He focused intensely on the impending tusks soaring toward him through the air. It took every ounce of his willpower not to flinch; he needed to see the exact moment of impact to brace properly, or he’d be out.
CRASH!
You take 138 crushing damage.
Copper Shield’s durability has reached 0 and is unusable until repaired.
Level Up! Shield Mastery reached [Level 9]!
Attribute Up! You’ve gained +1 Strength.
As Winter slid along the dirt from the impact and crashed into a cluster of bushes, he got several more messages.
The Boar King [Boss] has been slain!
You gain 904 experience!
Congratulations, you have reached [Level 4]! 3 attribute points available, +26 health, +16 mana!
Skill Learned: Leather Armor Proficiency.
The Boar King collapsed to the ground, landing with a loud thud, Silentwire’s daggers in its back. Three orbs of varying sizes and colors rolled out of its mouth along the ground. Two were green, and one was gray. All three orbs cracked, crumbled, and opened with a marvelous flash of light, and three large objects appeared on the ground in their place.
“Is that…?” Winter asked as he climbed out of the bushes and eyed the items.
“Oh, right, you’ve only been fighting low-level monsters until now, so this is your first time seeing them? The item orbs?” Silentwire smiled as she walked over to him. “In that case, you should do the honors! Go see what he dropped.”
Winter walked toward them like a little boy on Christmas morning. When he got close enough, item cards began floating above them, detailing what they were, similar to the information he’d get from items in his inventory. The gray orb revealed a giant boar tusk. One of the green orbs contained a small dagger made from the same material, and the final orb held a pair of green-quality leather boots.
Name: Boartusk Dagger
Slot: Weapon (One Hand)
Type: Dagger
Damage: 17-21
Speed: Fast
Quality: 41%
Durability: 45/45
Requirements: Level 5
Effect: +5% damage dealt to beasts.
Description: A small dagger made from the tusks of the Boar King.
Name: Boar King’s Treads
Slot: Feet
Type: Leather Armor
Armor: 12
Quality: 40%
Durability: 50/50
Requirements: Level 5
Effect: -5% damage taken from beasts.
Description: Leather shoes made from the hide of the Boar King.
Name: Boar King’s Tusk
Type: Crafting Material
Effect: Increases damage dealt to beasts.
Quality: 36%
Winter was mainly interested in the tusk. Since he already had the recipes for most of the basic equipment, he pondered how he could incorporate the Boar King’s Tusk to imbue the craft with its properties.
“Probably not worth it to add to copper crafts… should wait until I can use iron,” he mumbled aloud as he fixated on it. Silentwire, however, was drooling over the dagger.
“D-do you mind if I take it? It’s better than mine.”
Winter looked it over for a moment—he considered how much gold he might get for it if he sold it but concluded it would help him level faster if he let her take it.
“Go for it.”
“Okay, thanks! You should take the leather boots!” She smiled as she grabbed and equipped the dagger. She picked up the boots and handed them to Winter as he stuffed the tusk into his inventory. He gladly took and equipped them, then remembered the notification about his new skill.
Leather Armor Proficiency – [Level 1](Beginner)
Improves the effectiveness of leather armor when only leather armor is worn, as well as movement speed. The bonus does not take effect when wearing any cloth, mail, or plate armor pieces.
Armor Bonus: 1%
Movement Bonus: 0.2%
Once he understood what the skill did, he moved on to assign his attribute points from leveling up, putting 2 in Spirit and 1 in Constitution.
“You killed that boss pretty fast, by the way. Are all bosses that easy?” Winter asked, pulling out his harvesting knife.
“I think it was level 5, so I did extra damage since I’m a higher level. Usually, bosses take full groups to take down, but I’m pretty sure the beginner bosses around this forest are made easier for new players.”
“It didn’t hit like it was made for new players… Listen, the hard part is up next. You see all that?” Winter pointed to the destroyed forest littered with broken trees and the giant pile of dead boars in front of the cave. “I have an important mission for you: don’t let anyone steal my stuff until I’ve gathered it all.”
His eyes beaming, Winter dug his blade into the Boar King and began harvesting it for anything useful.
“I got it… you want me to kill other players if they start trying?” she asked innocently. To Winter’s surprise, she looked perfectly okay with this.
“Ah, well, persuade them to go away. Tell them it’s all property of your party or something,” Winter replied, and she nodded.
It took Winter five minutes to finish with the Boar King, but it was beyond worth it. He was able to harvest a second tusk and three pieces of Boar King Hide, which had the property of reducing damage taken from beasts. Unfortunately, none of it was above 20% quality—his Creature Harvesting skill was still too low to get above 15%.
As the sun rose in The Shattered World and morning dew formed on the leaves and grass, the sound of his axe hitting the logs echoed through the surrounding forest. The tasks were menial, giving him a long time to think as he worked. Doing hands-on work like this in the wilderness wasn’t something he’d ever imagined doing. At the same time, he was enjoying it. It felt gratifying to watch his experience bars and inventory fill up.
He also pondered more about Silentwire. She’d been patrolling and watching him work for several hours without complaint. She deterred a few low-level players who wandered nearby, preventing them from touching the logs and boars, and none tried to press the issue.
She must be either incredibly patient or something else is going on.
After eight hours of diligent work and endless steak ingestion, Winter had finished. His skills had increased enough during the ordeal that he started gaining more than one log and leather per harvest. He ended up with close to 1,000 logs, 600 leather, and enough steak to feed a family of five for a year. His bags were nearing their limits, and his tools were about done for.
“What next?” Silentwire yawned and stretched when she noticed Winter wrapping things up.
“I can’t do much with this stuff without copper, but my bags are stuffed. Gotta head back to Orm and find a place to stash all of it,” Winter said as he got his bearings and headed eastward.
“Okay,” she said sleepily.
“The crafting and gathering’s pretty boring. You don’t have to follow me around, y’know.”
“I’m okay,” she replied, rubbing her eyes.
“You don’t want to go hunt something while I craft?” Winter raised an eyebrow.
“Nope.”
“What sort of equipment do thieves use? I could craft you something.”
“Daggers, throwing knives, leather armor… uh, a lockpicking set would be nice. And tripwires for traps and things.”
“I’ll try to make some while I’m crafting.”
Her face lit up. “Okay!”
It wasn’t long before the pair made it back to Orm. Although it was afternoon in-game, it was still early morning in the real world, so as expected, there was no sign of Keldan and the goons.
Silentwire led Winter to the storage building in Orm. Herilon was sitting on a bench outside, reading a book. Curious, Winter read the title: The Grand Abyssal Voyage. Herilon looked up when Winter passed, and they exchanged nods of recognition before Winter entered the storage hall, a large stone structure with several Kalmoore guards patrolling about.
When he entered, he was directed toward a large iron door off to the side. Upon touching the door, it opened for him, revealing a large, empty stone chamber. The logs took up a lot of space, but he made sure to organize them properly to maximize the area. When he was done, having kept the leather on him, he stepped outside.
“Oh, me too,” Silentwire said, stepping forward and touching the door.
When she opened it, a completely different chamber appeared, filled with all manner of items scattered sloppily around the floor. Winter peeked inside to see a large pile of torn and discarded cloth, rusty weapons, and broken arrows. Silentwire took the time to drop off a few more broken weapons from her inventory before rejoining Winter. “Okay, all set!”
Resisting the urge to ask her about her storage, Winter opened his inventory and saw the pickaxes he’d made, though he only had one copper shield remaining. He double-checked the mining quest he had, which required three copper ores of 50% quality.
“So… my goal is to get to iron to make money. I’m gonna be mining a lot. And gonna try to improve my bag size first. It’s going to be excruciatingly boring…”
“Okay,” Silentwire smiled. Winter subtly shook his head to himself.
He started by selling excess steak to players and NPCs and used that silver to buy cloth and sewing materials. He combined that with the leather he had gathered to expand his inventory significantly.
“How much copper ore can you carry?” he asked Silentwire as they left the Craftsman Guildhall.
“Uhm, about 2,000, I think?” She shrugged while munching on a piece of bread. “You’re going mining now? It’s pretty late.”
“I know, but…”
“You’re having fun, huh?” Silentwire smiled. “Me too, I’ll help with whatever!”
“There’s no way you’re gonna sit around watching me mine, is there?” Winter raised his eyebrow at her. She felt less like a potential threat and more like a lost puppy at this point. “If you’re gonna be the sword, you should use the time to get sharper or whatever,” he insisted.
“Oh, uhm… I guess there are some skill quests around the Thieves Guild, but it’s over in the neighboring city.”
“You should go and do them,” Winter suggested. “I’ll be mining for a while. We can meet up after.”
“Are you sure? What if Keldan and those guys come back?” she asked worriedly.
“Then I’ll have an excuse to sleep for a bit.” That got a light giggle out of her.
“Okay… can we add each other as friends?”
“Yeah, of course.” He sent her a request, and she accepted immediately—he now had three on his list.
“Got it!”
“Great. I’ll see you later. Thanks for helping.” Winter bowed politely to her.
“I had a lot of fun. I’ll go as fast as possible!” She smiled and waved before turning and running off in the opposite direction, though she remained in his party interface.
Winter moved forward with determination, hopefully for the last time, toward the copper hills. He arrived without any trouble and began mining right away. One hundred copper, two hundred copper, three hundred copper…
He ate spiced boar steaks to keep his stamina up, watching the quality of the ore as he gathered it. He got a level in Mining and saw a few 20% quality ores and one at 22%, but it was around that time that a message popped up on his screen.
WARNING: User has entered an unconscious state.
This sim-box does not support dreamstate simulation. Logging out…
Silentwire was about halfway to the capital city of Kalmoore, Kordas, following the main road when she got the notification that Winter had logged out.
“I guess he fell asleep,” she yawned to herself. “I hope I wasn’t acting too weird. I think I was being too weird. Ugh, I’m so stupid!” she shouted at the sky, garnering strange stares from a passing caravan.
She sighed and opened her interface, accessing the settings menu and seeing his name on her friends list alongside several unanswered messages. She opened her messages with a player named Jaese.
“I can’t believe you actually rerolled. The guild leader is pissed – we can’t even clear Marauders’ Keep anymore. We got killed by the twin-headed Voxen’s enrage without your damage.”
“Hey, you ignoring me now?”
