Chapter 9: Knives and Kills

The instant I feel the all to familiar blistering sensation (from the cut I got in first fight with a Poisonous High Jumper) on my neck my mind goes into overdrive, making complex decisions in microseconds. From what I have seen the only place that the poison drop could have originated from is the tusks. That means that if I try to stand up I’ll impale myself on one of them and the only other thing that I can think of that would get me out of harms way quickly enough is rolling. From my army crawling position I can’t roll backwards fast enough to avoid dying so no to that as well. If I roll go to either side I’ll still be like a foot from the tusks and will easily be dispatched. That only leaves doing a summersault under it. Is the Poisonous High Jumper’s belly far enough of the ground for me to even do that? Oh well, guess I’ll find out.

I tuck my chin into my chest and use my hands to propel myself forward while simultaneously bringing my knees into my chest. As I’m rolling my feet pass over my head and early scrape a slimy underbelly (keep in mind that I’m tucked into a tiny ball and I’m not exactly a huge girl so the belly isn’t that far off the ground). As my head leaves the ground I’m able to to catch a glimpse of a tusk piercing the ground maybe 2 inches away from my eyes. A second later I feel the air that it pushed away brush by my face. After what seems like an eternity, but has really been only a few seconds (cliché I know, but what can I do?) my feet touch the ground and I finish my roll. Unfortunately, while I have rolled out of the way, I have not rolled far enough to escape the High Jumper and I am still underneath it’s (unsurprisingly considering that it’s a giant toad) smelly mass.

Well this might not be ideal, but I might as well make the best of a bad situation. I take my knife out of my belt and in the same motion thrust it upward, piercing the High Jumper. It rears it’s head and in doing so actually makes the cut wider. I help it along the way by twisting the knife it a somewhat cruel manner. I really hope that that never happens to me. Looks very painful. Uh oh. The Poisonous High Jumper’s rearing may have shaved a few (maybe more than a few) points of it’s health, but coming down it might just end up being the death of me.

I don’t know what it is with me today, but rolling keeps going through my mind. I leap out from under the slimy creature and an oceans worth of thoughts rushes though me before I even leave the ground. Back in the city that I lived in there were some suicidal idiots who called themselves the Parkourists. I wasn’t stupid enough to do some of the crazy things that they did, but in my younger years I hung out with them. To rebellious little me, they seemed like a shining beacon of hope in a lifeless and grey world. It wasn’t so much the things they did that that attracted me to them either. It was the way that they rebelled against the UWG (United World Government) in their own way that drew me to them. Ahhh, but I’m getting off track. Anyway the movement I was currently going through was one of the simplest and safest that they did and one of the few that I learned. It was called a dive roll and it involved the following. First you leap off the ground with your arms outstretched in a dive like you might do in water. When your hands were just about to touch the ground you tuck into a ball and roll with your right shoulder going down first so you didn’t hurt your spine. Finally you stood up out of the the roll without your hands touching the ground.

After preforming this maneuver (rather impressively considering that I haven’t done it in years and I managed to keep my knife in a combat position throughout the process) I quickly turn and face the Poisonous High Jumper. It’s life seems to be down by twenty five percent. I suppose that I didn’t get as much damage this time because I didn’t get the bonus for a surprise attack. My health, on the other hand, has only gone down by 5 percent which may seem like quite a bit, but you have to remember I only have 20 health points all together which means that the poison drop only took off one. I must not have actually gotten poisoned from it either which is very good news. It will also probably help me in the future to remember that poison must actually enter the bloodstream to give a status effect.

I really should do some training or something to avoid getting side tracked though because while I was thinking this and not at my ultra high thinking speed the high Jumper backed up and it has now begun to charge at me. I immediately throw myself to the side as far as I can and I guess that those two points in strength and the 6 in agility must have helped me because I would have thought that the leap I performed was impossible (for me at least). My head landed nearly 10 feet from where I my feet left the ground. It wasn’t record breaking or anything but it was impressive. I can’t wait for the higher levels. It looks like I might become nothing short of superhuman.

The Poisonous High Jumper roars past me before coming to a stop. It turns and I can see a mad look in it’s eyes. It does it’s jumping move and I rush forward in my usual way to avoid such an attack. Oh I am having a sudden burst of inspiration. Were the rules of this world slightly different then one might see a lightbulb aper able my head. Just microsecond’s before the Poisonous High Jumper lands I use my skill Wing Push to throw myself backwards. I preform a midair twist, stopping myself when I get to halfway with my still outstretched pair of wings.

My dagger is outstretched and I slam it home with all my energy at the same moment I crash into the Poisonous High Jumper. Thudding to the ground after my improvised attack, I can see my knife still stuck in a heavily bleeding wound on the beasts side. It’s already critically small heath bar flickering lower every second. In one last attempt to remove me from the world the Poisonous High Jumper tries to fall over on me but in what is possibly the closest call I have ever had it disappears into mist only about a foot from my face. My bloody knife falls to the ground, sticking in blade first, having no more flesh to support itself.

Phew, that was way to close. If I had done one thing wrong that entire time then I would have been done for. Looking at my heath though I’m still at 27 points. That is worlds away from what I had last time where I good gust of wind could have done me in. Thinking back on the fight I think the only times I actually took damage was when the drop of poison fell on my neck and when I slammed myself against the flank of the Poisonous High Jumper. Not too shabby. Now on to the loot (insert *evil mental giggle* here).

I touch the mist that the Poisonous High Jumper dropped first. I got the same things as last time (a pelt, two pieces of High Jumper meat and a poison sack). Since I haven’t actually sold any of the items I got during my last kill, with the exception of the pelt, that adds up with them and the total condense of my inventory looks like this:

In the first slot I have 4 pieces of Poisonous High Jumper meat. In the second I have 2 poison sacks and finally in the third I have one piece of hide. This looks like a lot of money to me!

And now for the big stuff. Hesitantly, almost as if I’m afraid of what I might see, I reach over and touch the mist that I originally came over here for: Chainmail dude’s stuff. There appears to be both good and bad news. I’ll start with the bad. Unfortunately it would appear that players don’t drop all of the stuff that they had with them when they die, but (and now for the good news) they do drop some of it. My eyes probably twinkle with greed as I look down to find not only a full 3 silver and 7 copper but that beautiful green tinged knife that I was looking at earlier.

The grin on my face could have been used to power this entire world through pure happiness. I finally got my first upgrade! It probably isn’t much, but this represents and important step on my road to the top.

I glance back at Keith and give him a: well check it out I’m not a dead woman face (because everyone knows what that expression looks like). His eyes are like saucers, but the grin on his face is only surpassed by my own. He gives me a thumbs up.

I practically bounce over to Keith before giving a closer inspection to the knife that is now my pride and joy.

Poisoned Knife: this knife is of low quality, but won’t break if you breathe on it. In order to make up for the low damage that this knife would usually do the blade has been poisoned with Acid Root. This yellow root causes severe damage when eaten, often killing those who do so by burning them up from the inside. The juice put on this blade is less potent, but those who are on the receiving end of this knife probably won’t care.

Awesome! Perhaps I should start killing players along with monsters. It probably won’t be easy, but the rewards seem to be quite good. I’ll wait until I have more info on loot drops from players though. You never know, its possible that I could have just gotten lucky.

The chance to check might come faster than I thought though. In my excitement about everything that happened I forgot that the other dude who died (I believe I named him sword man) still has a loot mist behind me.

“That was awesome!” Keith shouts jolting me back into reality from whatever space that I go to think this.

I shrug, trying to seem nonchalant, but I think the huge smile on my face may be giving me away. “Do you think that will win me the bet I have with your boss?”

He nods energetically “I’ll vouch for you. I may not have seen much in my short time here, but I have seen some cool stuff and what I just saw there blows everything else away.”

He starts to turn back towards town while saying “come on, lets go get you your well deserved 2 silver.”

I clap my hand down on his shoulder and yank him back. “What” do you mean. We aren’t done here. Or did you forget about that other player that died just over yonder. There is no way that I’m letting a chance to get more loot like the kind I just got slip away from me.”

He looks incredulous but in an enthusiastic kind of way. He opens his mouth to say something but can’t seem to find any words and he merely closes it and nods.

Today is a good day!