Chapter 7 - A Mossy Awakening VII

“I’m never eating another bite of that stupid moss ever again.”

It took Claire roughly two hours of pain and suffering to escape the evil green substance’s dark influence, after which she was left even hungrier than before. And as eating more moss was entirely out of the question, it didn’t take long for her to resort to the only other option at her disposal.

“Activate Llystletein Authority.”

Llystletein Authority

Spawnable Drinks

- Cosmogoblitan (50MP)

- Mimicosa (50MP)

- Stale Water (25MP)

Spawnable Food

- *NEW* Grilled Veaber Tail (200MP)

- Hellhog Bolognese (500MP)

- Pulled Orc (150MP)

- Stale Bread (25MP)

“I almost forgot I unlocked a new food item.”

She pulled up her log again and started glancing through it to remind herself of its contents. Her most recent mossy experience had left her doubting her own memory. She couldn’t help but feel as if there was something else that she was missing, something somewhat important. Surely enough, her eyes soon found themselves locked onto the level up entry, namely the part of it that mentioned the cleansing of harmful status effects. A gulp of air made it down her throat as she felt a small spark of hope ignite within her. She wanted to believe it, but it was too difficult. The glimmering light was shrouded in a mist of doubt. She was nearly convinced, even without double checking, that it would be shut down. But even so, she reached forward and tried to grasp it. She dared to dream, to play the role of a starry eyed youth with a paradigm-shifting question.

“Does that mean I’m not cursed anymore?”

Claire put the theory to the test by calling some of the images that now flooded her memory to mind, after which she almost instantly began inadvertently admiring them. Their fluffy ears, adorable tiny fangs, and bushy tails perfectly accented their slender— ”Wait, what am I thinking!?”

Shaking her head clear of any indecent thoughts, Claire concluded that the answer was a resounding no. The curse remained. In fact, it seemed like it was even stronger than it was before. I really hope I’m just imagining things...

Though Claire knew—or at least thought—that the head librarian was unable to hear her, she spent a good few minutes creatively insulting him and angrily shouting suggestions of an autoerotic nature. Only once she was done venting did she direct her attention back towards Llystletein Authority’s interface.

Stale bread aside, the newest food item was the only one that even remotely interested her. And not because she thought it would enlighten her taste buds. Her interest was instead driven by genuine curiosity. She had no idea how she, or anyone for that matter, was supposed to go about consuming a caveveaber’s tail. She knew that there was flesh underneath the stony exterior, but it just didn’t seem like the most edible thing in the world. Maybe it’s like milk and it’s actually really good. How did we even start drinking milk anyway? What kind of idiot do you have to be to come up with an idea like drinking the white stuff out of a cow’s dangly thing?

“It’s only two hundred mana.” The serpent on her shoulder spoke to her, its imaginary body coiled around her left arm. She had no idea how it had climbed the limb, but it was staring at her, its neck poking out from underneath her shoulder. “You’ll get it all back in less than an hour.” Its temptation was all she needed to give in to the impulse. The halfbreed confirmed her selection before the shoulder snake’s counterpart could even begin to argue.

Glowing white mana gathered in the palm of her hand. What started as a ball of raw energy soon took on a series of shapes. Its bottom most layer became a sort of earthenware plate, a fancy ovular platter with a bright floral pattern engraved into its gilded rim. The rest turned to sustenance, with the main star of the show on the left and a free side on the right. Claire’s attention was first drawn to the meat. Shape aside, the rudder was almost exactly like a lobster’s. Cooking the appendage had changed its rock-like “shell” from grey to red, and the crack that ran down the covering’s center revealed a layer of near pure white flesh, glazed with a sauce based heavily in garlic and butter. The other half of the platter mainly featured greens, vegetables roasted and coated in the same sauce as the meaty feature.

The magical glow left once the dish was fully formed. And with it went the artificial lessening of its weight. An entirely unprepared Claire suddenly found the platter twenty pounds heavier, with most of the excess mass attributed to the shell used in the decorative presentation. Her arm gave out instantly. The plate she was holding crashed food-first into the floor before she could react.

“...”

The less-than-satiating outcome was so heartbreaking she nearly cried. In fact, she had almost immediately started sniffling. The only thing that stopped her from outright breaking into tears was the realization that she wasn’t actually out of food. Summoning more was always an option. She would have to wait another few minutes for it to fully materialize, but that wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t like she was going to starve any time soon.

Using her foot to not-so-subtly push her mistake out of sight, she recast Llystletein Authority and summoned another veaber tail. This time, she kept both hands ready and waiting atop a relatively flat rock.

Log Entry 504

Llystletein Authority has reached level 2.

The “Actions” submenu has been unlocked.

Actions? She allowed her curiosity to get the better of her and booted the skill’s menu as her dinner finished constructing itself.

Llystletein Authority

*NEW* Actions

- Establish Safe Zone (1 week cooldown)

Spawnable Drinks

- Cosmogoblitan (50MP)

- Mimicosa (50MP)

- Stale Water (25MP)

Spawnable Food

- Grilled Veaber Tail (200MP)

- Hellhog Bolognese (500MP)

- Pulled Orc (150MP)

- Stale Bread (25MP)

Claire hovered an imaginary finger over the skill’s newest feature, stopping only for a moment to consider setting up base elsewhere. The cooldown was an entire week and she knew very little about the dungeon’s layout. With that said, it wouldn’t be long before she needed to sleep, the safety of which would have been questionable without the skill’s supposed effect. Given her lack of energy, she decided that activating it immediately was most likely her best option. Worst thing that can happen is I end up stuck in the area for a week.

Log Entry 505

You have created a safe zone. Other entities cannot enter it without your permission while you are present. The safe zone will be deactivated if a hostile entity enters while you are away. It can be reactivated by defeating all nearby hostiles.

With any remaining safety-related concerns settled, she dug right into her meal, her sad, tasteless meal. While the beaver tail looked delicious, it wasn’t exactly what Claire thought of as palatable. She did think it was better than stale bread, given that it had a nice texture, but that meant nothing before its lackluster taste. It wasn’t even worth trying to compare it to anything that came from the manor’s kitchen. The biggest problem was that it was bland. The caveveaber’s flesh was insipid, dry, and almost too tough for her to chew. The greens were also rather awful. They tasted like they had been boiled until they lost all semblance of flavour. I won’t get all the vitamins I need if I don’t eat them. Wait, what are vitamins again? And why do I know about them?

It only took about a quarter of the platter for her to decide that she had had enough, so she set the rest aside and focused her efforts on creating a nice, soft, bed of moss. Once it was finally ready, she stretched, laid down, and popped open her status.

She had a grand total of 18 ability points to distribute, courtesy of all her recent level ups. In the past, she would have dumped them into spirit and wisdom without a second thought, the former for magic resistance, the latter to enhance her spells. But the past was long gone. She wasn’t a mage anymore.

Rogues relied on a completely different set of stats. Unlike their staff-wielding counterparts, they couldn’t just magic things to death. They had to rely on the clever manipulation of their bodies to survive.

Reflecting on her battles so far, Claire found her biggest problem to be a lack of force. She couldn’t easily finish her foes, even with well aimed strikes at their vitals. It had even taken her seven whole swings to end a caveveaber with a spear stuck in its brain, and frankly, that was unacceptable. Continuing to survive without any raw power would be miraculous at best.

Her second most notable problem was a lack of health. The measure of her total life force had dipped into the single digits twice in just one day. That too was inadmissible. She had no intention of continuing to court death with such vigour.

Speed was yet another issue. She had been fast enough to deal with the caveveabers, but a head-on confrontation with an uninjured hellhog was sure to spell her end. She had seen how fast they moved, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up just yet. The level-based agility scaling her class provided certainly would help to mitigate the problem, but she doubted that it would be enough on its own.

The final stat to consider, dexterity, was like wisdom and spirit in that it was a least concern. She didn’t feel like the deftness of her hands had posed her any significant problems. At least not yet. Most of her strikes had landed where she wanted them to.

With all six core attributes considered, Claire decided to address her problems in what seemed like the order of their importance. She pumped ten points into strength, five into vitality, and her remaining three into agility. Her business done, she closed her eyes, leaned into the moss, and drifted off to the land of dreams.

Or at least she tried.

The moment her eyelids shut was the moment she realized that she had misplaced her safe zone.

The glowing rocks that filled the illuminated cavern were far too bright. They were so obnoxiously shiny that, even with her cloak pulled over her head, she found it all but impossible to fall asleep.

Claire

Health: 130/130

Mana: 217/566

Health Regen: 22/hour

Mana Regen: 320/hour

Ability Scores - 0 Points Available

- Agility: 24

- Dexterity: 34

- Spirit: 57

- Strength: 22

- Vitality: 22

- Wisdom: 160

Racial Class: Halfbreed - Level 11.23

- No affiliated skills

Primary Class: Rogue - Level 7.65

- Cloak and Dagger - Level 1.97

- Double Stab - Level 3.02

Unclassed Skills

- Dagger Mastery - Level 2.31

- Dancing - Level 5.24

- English - Level 25

- Llystletein Authority - Level 2.20

- Makeshift Weapon Mastery - Level 2.89

- Marish - Level 18.97

- Sneaking - Level 3.41

- Spear Mastery - Level 1.57

- Tracking - Level 1.00