The sentries moved off towards the forest entrance and I checked over the bodies, looting as I went. I left Malkar until last, but this time my flail stayed limp as I held it towards the creature’s head.

“Weird.” I’d need to do some research into why it had collected the other but left Malkar’s.

Corpse – Malkar the Frenzy (Level 5)

I looked at the marker and groaned at my stupidity. My own character tab had been flashing for some time and to no one’s surprise I was already well past the stage of levelling up. I’d just got so caught up in the unfolding events that it had completely slipped my mind. Chalk that up to another Mark balls up. I took the goods from the party leader and trudged back to the glow of firelight in the town. The villagers had left the corpses where they lay and I repeated my looting spree. The stable was my final destination and I didn’t have to move the straw to pull the valuables from the hidden corpse. I turned to leave and the horse whose foal I’d resurrected whinnied at me. Unable to resist the doleful eyes, I approached her stall.

“Hey, girl. How’s little’un feeling?”

I rubbed her neck and she pressed her head into my chest. Within the pen, the foal was resting in the hay. She looked up at me, snorted, then lay back down.

“Bit tired, eh? She’ll be ok.”

I gave her a final, sturdy scratch on the withers and bade her farewell. Romund was in the square, guiding the yoked oxen towards the grain store.

“Would you mind if I took a few minutes to check some things over? Then I’ll help you load.”

“Use my house!” he called. “Take all the time you need!”

I wasn’t about to let the poor farmers do all the heavy lifting after the ordeal they had endured. All I needed was a bit of privacy and quiet to check through the long list of flashing updates on my HUD. I noticed that the survivors still regarded me with wary contemplation. In a world of suffering and drudgery, my abilities must have seemed otherworldly. I smiled as politely as I could while still honouring their fallen. None of the men and women returned my gesture.

The fire within Romund’s home was dying out, so I fed a few thin, dry logs onto it and pulled up a chair. It wasn’t cold, but I was soothed by the radiating heat and soft crackle. I activated my Quests first to clear them out.

Quest Completed – Save the Villagers (Part 2)

Reward – 50 Silver Coins

+ 10 reputation with Dawnstar Alliance

Quest Completed – Hold Back the Tide

Reward - 100 Silver Coins

+ 10 Realm Points

+ 20 reputation with Dawnstar Alliance

“Let’s see what goodies we have, eh?”

Item – Malkar’s Teeth (Uncommon)

Type – Craftable

Description – The decaying fangs of the orc, Malkar. As rotten and stinking as his black heart.

Requirements – Int 6 (Crafting 5)

Effect – ???

Misc - ???

“That’s disgusting.” I did wonder what kind of effect the black-pitted fangs would have, though. That nauseating revelation would have to wait until my skills grew. The mention of the word crafting reminded me of my bronze loot box. I cracked it open and a massive table appeared on my screen, slowly rotating before zipping towards the previously greyed out crafting tab which was now alive with colour. I’d not missed the mortar and pestle, a sewing type area, plus all manner of bottles and tubes that reminded me of my friend’s homebrew still. I promised myself that I would have a play with all the materials once I was in a safer area without the orcs breathing down my neck.

Item – Orc Raider Chestplate (common)

Type – Armour

Description – Heavy armour favoured by the orcs due to its thick, interlocking plates. Adorned with warpaint to terrify the enemy.

Requirements – Str 6

Effect – Increases damage resistance to chest and back

Leadership of enemy combatants lowered

Misc – Heavy armour types reduce stealth abilities

Item – Orc Milk (common)

Type – Consumable

Description – The black milk of… we have no idea. Whatever mammaries spawned this thick muck belong to something that you should pray you never meet. Keep well away from tea and coffee.

Requirements – Str 3 Dex 3

Effect – ???

Misc - ???

Item – Orc Skin (common)

Type – Craftable

Description – The thick, hide-like skin of the orc warrior. Bred for war, the orcish bodies are designed to withstand greater punishment than other species.

Requirements – Int 6 (Crafting 5)

Effect – ???

Misc - ???

There were other basic weapons and junk that I skipped over. Their icons were grey so I assumed it was trash and fit only to sell for coin. My armour set was starting to build in both directions, which would lead me to a future conundrum. Was I going to be the frontline meat-shield, or the swift-footed support? My natural inclination was to favour an in-your-face approach, but my efforts so far left a lot to be desired. I’d been far more successful with spell and stealth. It was time to start making some choices.

“I guess I’d better dive in.”

I opened my character tab and found I’d reached level four. Six stat points waited for my allocation, and I looked over that list a dozen times before closing it down. I really needed some advice from Bart. The oblong section of fogless minimap around me revealed no safe area to summon him, so I decided to leave the points building up unless I ran into desperate need to bulk something fast. It was the opposite of what I’d set out to achieve and far too closely resembled some of my gaming foibles. Too many options and my brain went into unresponsive task before crashing with a blue-screen-of-death. I wondered in the back of my mind if I would face Boglug as a level one noob with eighty-six stat points gathering dust in my tab.

“No. You’re going to use them even if you have to get Bart to allocate them randomly.”

My class tab was still greyed and I thanked god I didn’t have that to contend with just yet. The skills bar was glowing and I balked at the list. There was just too much to go through without a wall around me. If Romund was correct, the garrison was two days’ ride and the main force of Boglug was weeks away. My entire world for the past few days had been battle after battle. I hadn’t realised how much I needed a bit of time to destress. There was a new achievement waiting, so I opened it up.

Achievement Unlocked – Party Pooper

Description – You interrupted the celebrations of the orc raiding parties by killing them all. Dick.

Reward – Ability – Quest Tracker

It activated immediately, providing a golden arrow on the edge of my minimap.

“That’s handy,” I said, appreciatively.

A gentle shuffling noise at the door drew my attention. Astrid was peeking around the frame, watching me.

“Hi! You can come in. I was just having a few minutes to myself. It’s been a wild night.”

She summoned her courage and entered with my black shirt in her hands. Her frail body was now covered in a beige dress that looked like it was made from sackcloth. In fact, it probably was sackcloth.

“I just wanted to return this,” she said meekly.

I took it from her and smiled as I slipped it back on. “Thank you very much. Where’s your mummy?”

“She’s helping to load the grain. She said it was polite to return the shirt and say thank you.” Her expressive green eyes met mine. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m just glad I could help you.”

She looked at her feet and began to shuffle awkwardly. “Mark?”

“Yeah?”

“Did I die?”

Oh shit! What was I supposed to say to that? What burden would that knowledge impart on the girl? I wrestled with my conscience for a moment before deciding I owed her the truth. “I’m afraid so.”

“I thought I did. Something really weird happened, but I thought it was a dream…”

I stayed silent as she worked through her thoughts.

She let that stone fall back, unwilling or unable to turn it fully over yet. “You brought me back?”

“I did.”

“How?”

“Magic, I guess.”

Her next question was so obvious I kicked myself for even leaving the door open to it.

“Can’t you help the others?” she held out her hand to me and I opened my own. Three copper coins fell into my palm. “Father gave them to me before the fever took him. You can have them if you help.”

My heart broke for her. I gently turned her hand over and returned the money. “I wish I could, sweetie, but I could only use it once. I’m very sorry.”

“Ok,” she sighed. “I should be getting back.” And with that she turned and ran from the home.

My only thought was of the foal and the life I’d stolen. Feeling like shit, I climbed to my feet and slipped my shirt back on. Cary Elwes, I wasn’t. He’d have swashbuckled his way to saving everyone.

“Better get used to it, cupcake,” I warned myself. There was a whole lot more death waiting on the long road ahead. I wondered again what would be left of me by the time I reached the final destination.

The ability tab on my character avatar caught my eye and I opened it up. True to Bart’s word, my exploits had been gradually pushing the various skills up. I had points to spend across the first tiers of multiple trees. The first that took my fancy was the generic Combat tree. I had two available points to allocate as I read through the descriptions.

Combat

Evasion (Level 1)

Damage Absorption (Level 1)

Frenzy (Level 1)

Evasion accentuates your dexterity points, increasing your dodge reflexes in combat

Damage Absorption reduces incoming damage from all sources including spells, status effects and physical injury

Frenzy increases your attack speed with all types of physical weapon (does not work on casting speed)

My eyes strayed towards the reduced damage, but in all seriousness it was far better to avoid the attacks altogether. I didn’t give myself a chance to hesitate and gave one point each to evasion and frenzy. Both skills jumped to level 2 and I could see no way of undoing the choices on the screen which I was grateful for. There was a single point in the Ranged tree but I left that alone and moved on to Stealth.

Stealth

Assassin (Level 1)

Stealth (Level 1)

Distraction (Level 1)

Assassin provides a damage multiplier to all stealth attacks

Stealth determines your ability to move unseen and successfully carry out covert acts (Including pickpocket and assassinations)

Distraction allows you to use objects to throw your enemies off the scent. Higher levels allow the creation of intricate deceptions and traps

I repeated my hasty picks and added a point each to assassin and stealth before I could talk my self out of it. Unsurprisingly, the more in-depth information warned about the impact of wearing heavier armour to the stealth skill, but left some hope that at stupidly high levels I could pretty much dance in full plate next to an enemy and they would be none the wiser. The Melee tree options were heavily reliant on my chosen class which would come later so I ignored the three available points. Casting had nothing for me to apply and I skimmed through it quickly before shutting down the whole interface.

For the first time in my life I’d taken the bull by the horns and not fretted about the minutiae of a given choice. My points had deftly gone into areas I’d already found useful, and that was good enough. I knew the class would be a far more difficult proposition for my overanalysing mind, but that was an issue for another day. Climbing from the chair, I prepared to join the villagers on the next part of their journey.