“Wait wait wait,” Matt said, gesturing me to pause, “so were you or were you not scammed?”

“I have no clue,” I honestly replied. “Their behaviour was really suspicious, however, I can’t prove a reason for it.”

“It might be that they’re actually suffering due to player grinding, so they decided turning us on each other was the best bet,” I continued, “if that’s the case then the spell stones they’re giving out as quest rewards must not be very valuable, at least in their eyes.”

Matt raised an eyebrow.

“If they were that hard-pressed for survival then they would’ve used the spell stones for themselves,” I elaborated, “either these things are as common as rocks or they can’t use them. I feel like it’s the latter, which reminds me,” I tossed the crystal to Matt, which he smoothly caught. “what do you feel from it?”

“Like a voice in my head is saying ‘Bark Skin’,” he muttered as he examined the crystal.

So Bards were considered mages of some sort as well. “The PUG group I was in had a warrior and ranger, who both said they felt nothing from it, there’s probably a class requirement to using it.”

“Makes sense. Any idea how to use it?”

“I was hoping to figure that out when I got here,” I answered, ‘Character Sheet’ I thought and the thing appeared, “pass?” I asked, and Matt handed the crystal back.

Under ‘Equipment’ it appeared, a picture of the crystal labelled: ‘Spell Stone (Bark Skin)’. I tapped the picture, “Description.”

Spell Stone (Bark Skin)

A crystal containing a spell formula. A Traveler may automatically learn the spell inscribed within if they hold the Spell Stone and say ‘Learn’.

Spell: Bark Skin

Tier 2 Transmutation Spell

Casting Time: 10 seconds

Components: Verbal, Somatic and Focus (A handful of wood bark. Any variety.)

Duration: Until cancelled or destroyed

Mana Cost: Minor Initial Mana Cost. Major Mana Reserved

Description: You cast upon yourself. Until the spell ends, an extra layer of durable bark is formed over your skin. Increasing your defence and giving you a bark-like appearance.

At your current level, you require passive concentration to maintain Bark Skin.

That was easy.

“What does it say?” Matt asked.

I read out the description to him. “Sounds useful, learn it,” he casually replied as he strolled around the arcade.

Indeed, a defensive spell would round out my spell list pretty well. The mana reserved was a bit pricey but acceptable. I need to figure out what passive concentration is later in terms of which stats it may concern, and how spell slots are distributed. I had an open Tier 2 and 0 spell slot, probably from my level up in the tutorial however I have no idea what the pattern for gaining new spell slots are -at least until my next level up.

“Learn,” I said and the crystal crumbled to dust. I flicked my hand, getting rid of the fine dust.

Hmm… now where to get bark… Would my staff work actually? It looks like it’s made of wood, though it looks pretty smoothed and polished- oh well, only one way to test it.

“Bark Skin,” I said and I felt mana flow. Like a warm stream coursing under my skin, spreading fine tendrils throughout my body, like it was looking for something. It reached my hand, touched the wooden staff I was holding. The mana grasped it as if confused, before leaving to continue searching. It did this for a few more seconds, before fading.

“Need bark,” I frankly said.

Matt’s head popped up from behind the top of an arcade machine, “Finally done?”

“We need to go hunt trees,” I replied. Hmm actually would Peps work? What would happen if he cast Bark Skin on himself? Does he become barkier?

“Sweet,” Matt simply replied, jumping down from the top of the arcade machine, “You said there were trees outside?”

I nodded.

“Leggo then,” he replied, already leaving the arcade.

“Coming,” I replied, following behind him.

When we got out of the mall. I made it about halfway through the car park before I collapsed.

“It’s fucking morning…” I muttered as Matt dragged me by the foot.

“Why the fuck did you pick such a bad drawback?” he asked, only sounding slightly irritated.

“The fuck was I supposed to take? Human warrior?” I sarcastically retorted.

“At least they’re not useless for half the day,” he retorted.

I tried bonking the back of his head with my staff, however, he smoothly tilted his head out of the way, easily avoiding the staff.

“You’re a lot lighter than I thought you would be,” he commented.

Yeah... It was odd that the lizard dude could throw me around so easily. Unless he heavily min/maxed strength this early on. Which was a really poor strategy, normally you wanted to round out all your stats first. Unless in special cases like me where I need to max CON until I can stay in sunlight for a reasonable amount of time.

“... How much do you think I weigh?” I tiredly rasped out. Damnit, even if I’m not doing anything I’m still feeling increasingly tired. Though at a slower rate than when I was actively moving.

“About twenty to thirty kilograms, though you’re also wearing your bag,” he answered, “we’re here,” he added as he grabbed my foot with both hands and swung me into the trees.

I felt the moment when the shade enveloped me and I was no longer under dawn’s glare. My body stopped becoming more tired and was just tired.

I propped myself up with my staff. The shade was helping A LOT. I was no longer losing stamina just by existing, a win in my book.

“What sorta bark do you need?” Matt asked, already surveying the surrounding area.

“Any should be fine,” I returned, leaning on a nearby tree. I had a dagger, didn’t I? Yep, I almost forgot I had that. I pulled it out and began carving out a piece.

“Hey remember that time we-”

There was the sound of a bow string’s twang. Matt jumped to the side, something barely missing him and hitting a tree.

“Attack!” Matt yelled as he jumped behind a tree.

“Yeah, I got that,” I retorted as I took cover as well, I glanced at the tree that was struck, an arrow, came from the direction of the car park, “ranged attacker, archer. Line of sight?”

“A glimpse,” he replied, “green hood, pretty tall as well.”

“Ditch your bag,” I told him, already slinging off my backpack. They’ll only hinder us, and from what happened with my previous encounter, they will go with us if we die.

“Magic Missiles,” I heard from in front of me.

Two balls of blue mana hit me, throwing me into the tree.

“Another one!” I yelled, Matt grabbed the tip of my cap, dragging me to the ground as a third missile narrowly missed me.

“Location?” Matt asked, halberd already out.

“Didn’t see, but from that way,” I gestured deeper into the forest, “probably a mage. They’re trying to pincer us.”

“Plan?”

“Probably repositioning around our cover,” I replied.

“Ours?” he asked, eyes flickering back and forth from the car park and the small forest.

I pursed my lips, “repositioning is our best bet as well,” getting to a position where we force an opening or only have one of them able to attack, “however there’s a chance we’re being surrounded, not pincered,” it made more sense. An encirclement would be much more effective. We needed more information to figure out if we were only getting attacked by two people or more.

An arrow struck the tree in front of us.

No. The opponent already stole the initiative from us, attacking from cover while we haven’t caught sight of them. Unlikely to have melees as well, otherwise they would’ve already sent them in. A character with limited range was better at denying a small amount of area. If it’s an encirclement then staying still will only give them more time to close in.

“Rush?” Matt asked,

“Rush,” I agreed.

He looked back and forth between the two spots where we caught sight of them, “Which one?”

Going by the conventional mage and archer builds, the mage would be squishier, easier to kill, unlikely to have high physical stats. Easier to overwhelm at close range, but has high utility and more variety than archers. I have no idea what sorta spells they might have. Archers probably have some amount of dexterity and agility, harder to catch but less damage and utility than the mage. Though we won’t be able to finish him off as quickly as the mage, he might be easier to escape than the mage, since there’s a chance the mage might have some array of CC spells- No.

“We can’t escape,” I muttered aloud.

Matt looked at me oddly for a moment, then realisation dawned on him, “Fuck. The sun.”

Once we break out of the tree’s shade I’ll be disabled, Matt might be able to escape if he abandoned me but I was screwed.

“Is this a Knife then?” he asked me.

“Does this look like a Knife situation to you?” I retorted. Knife might work but if the mage had a defensive spell then we were both screwed.

Matt sighed, “I guess not."

I quickly created two sporages, “Go for the mage. This will probably be like Paintball, so take these,” I told him as handed him the sporages.

Then, I slowly stood up, touching the tree next to us, I began casting, “Grow Sporage-”

A figure stepped out from behind a car, smoothly drawing a bow. “-Sneezing Spores,” I finished. The arrow flew, striking me in the shoulder, “GO!” I yelled, Matt dashed off in the opposite direction of the arrow, halberd in hand.

The archer was about ten meters from me. Damnit.

“Poison Spores!” I cast, a cloud of green blowing out of my hand towards him.

He took a step to the right, easily avoiding the cloud. I pointed to a spot a bit further to the right, “Sneezing Spores!”

He abruptly stopped. Realising that to his left was a cloud of yellow, and to his right was a cloud of green.

I pulled off the Sporage I just created, wincing at the dull pain in my shoulder and throwing the shroom towards the middle of the two clouds. He jumped back, drawing another arrow. “Sneezing Spores!” I yelled as I dodged down.

The arrow flew overhead, and the shroom exploded in mid-air.

Name: Dustin

Classes: Fungalmancer Level 2

Body

Strength: 8 (Enough to throw a rotten tomato)

Agility: 7 (Enough to dodge a rotten tomato thrown by a parapalegic gorilla)

Dexterity: 6 (Low enough that any tomatoes he chops will make professional chef and angry person Rordan Gamsey throw him into a soup)

Constitution: 18

Stamina: 10

Vitality: 12

Mind

Intelligence: 13 (Enough to know that tomato is a fruit)

Wisdom: 17 (Enough to know that tomato doesn't belong in a fruit salad)

Charisma: 6 (Not enough to sell a tomato based fruit salad)

Soul

Will: 10

Aura: 10

Perception: 10

Racials:

Superior Darkvision, Fungal Body, Sun Sickness, Mana Dependency, Pacifying Spores, Innate Magic

Class Skills:

Fungalmancer: Grow Sporage

Spells:

T0: Balm Spores, Spore Lights, Sneezing Spores, Acid Spit

T1: Mushroom Meal, Poison Spores

T2: Bark Skin

Equipment:

Leather Armour - One HP Potion - One MP Potion - Basic Wooden Staff - Two Basic Daggers - Herbalism Kit

Backpack - Tinder Box - Mess Kit - 50 days worth of rations

8 Gold Coins

Quests:

Murder the Murderhobos! (Complete)

Fleeing Morals (Active)

Impact Points: 5