Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! And today, we have my first fight! At least one where the main isn’t being one-sidedly slaughtered by a monster… Also, TABLES!

ANYWAY! 26 FOLLOWERS!! Does this mean I can somehow start a cult for Cygnas? Hmm.

Also, I may have gone a bit over my head back in the other chapter… I’m probably going to need some recommendations for races and their skills… Should I create another page only for this? Or go through the comments of the usual posts… Hmm decisions, decisions…

ANYWAY! Have a good read!

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For a brief moment I had thought that I had somehow disconnected from Insania Online to find myself in an isolated place far from the city. I could feel the wind gently blowing against my skin, the smell of grass beneath my feets, the reflexes of the sun on the remaining droplets of dew that clung to the plants. A few meters away from me were some animals, squirrels and rabbits, and even without getting close I could see their chests expanding and contracting with their breathing. After a few seconds, I saw a small squirrel nimbly climb a three and cut a fruit from the branches before jumping down and preparing to eat the said fruit, but stopped when he looked at me and ran away with his newfound treasure.

I had trouble truly believing this was a game, and when I looked besides me, I noticed I wasn’t the only one who thought that. There were already twenty or so other persons here, and every single one of them was staring agape at the scene, and from time to time, a pillar of light would surge and another player would appear, only to stop and look in disbelief like all others.

“SO FREAKING COOL!” Our stupor was broken when somebody suddenly shouted that before charging head on towards a rabbit.

I held myself back the most I could when I saw the one who did that. The player’s avatar was a fairy, being half my height but with two butterfly wings on his back wearing full plate armor wielding a massive two handed sword. By massive, I mean the size of my one handed sword.

Actually, half the players here burst into laughter before starting to move themselves. Some of them simply charged behind the guy, others started to shout in look for a party. Others simply started to explore the menus.

Looking at the forming groups I formed a smile and did what I always do in cases like these. Turned my back to the field and ran towards the village behind us. Can you imagine the embarrassment of being called to a group by an unknown player? I would die of awkwardness!

Making sure that there wasn’t any players around me, I finally calmed myself. I don’t know if I said this, but unless it’s in an impulse, I’m really bad at somehow meeting other people. Looking around one last time, I decided that it was time to check what I had, so I focused on the menu and brought up my status screen.

NAME:

Wargon (Gondorrer Gravelheart)TITLE:

(none)Class tree:WandererClass:NoneRace:GolemGender:Neutral (male)Level:1Experience:0%

STATUS:

Remaining points (0)Health Points:110/110HP regen (out of combat):1/secEnergy:100/100Energy Regen:10/secSTR:10TGH:10AGI:10VIT:10INT:10MND:10ATTK:Phys: 9-10Extra:(none)DEF42M. Res.:17Satiety:100/100 (well fed)

SKILLS:One-handed Sword Mastery [lvl 1]

-Slash (Active)-

Shield Mastery [lvl 1]

Scale-mail Mastery [lvl 1]

Racials [max]

-Nature’s bastion(Active)-

-Rock Eater-

-Sedimentary skin (Active)-

-Nature attuned-

Hmm… that’s quite a lot of things. At the start the ‘Gender: (neutral) male’ bothered me a bit. Why would I be gender neutral? But then it hit me, golems are technically made of rock, so they don’t have genders per-se.

Also, for some reason I already have three skills besides my racial. They are probably given based on our starting equipment to help us in the starting levels, but why would I have Scale-mail mastery instead of chain-mail if only had my chest from that type? Maybe because the chest is where most of the attacks tend to land on a fight, so it’s considered the main piece of armor?

I didn’t really bother much with it, I would probably earn chain-mail mastery sooner or later.

From the looks of it, the skills that had a small hyphen were the subskills from the upper skill. Why I knew that? For some reason they didn’t have levels, so I simply assumed that. Sword, shield and Scale-mail mastery probably had a very simple effect, like increasing damage dealt or armor received from these equipment, so I skipped analyzing them for now, the same for Nature’s bastion and Rock eater since Cygnas already explained them for me, so I checked Slash, Sedimentary skin and nature attuned.

Sub-skill: Slash [lvl1]

(levels increase with one handed sword mastery)Gives a mighty slash with your weapon, dealing 130% damageCost: 25 energy

Sub-skill: Sedimentary skin

Racial cosmetic skillThe golem’s unique nature allows them to change their bodies’ stones with one eaten with Rock Eater. (this change is purely cosmetic)Cost: none

Sub-skill: Nature Attuned

Racial cosmetic skillThe golem’s natural and soothing aura draws non-aggressive animals towards them when weapons are unequipped.Passive

Hmmm. The slash skills seems to be my basic attack aside from wildly swinging my sword for now, and these cosmetic skill are actually really interesting. I wonder if I can become a crystal golem… Anyway, after closing these windows I opened my inventory to check what I had for now.

The inventory had fifty slots, with one of them occupied by ten pieces of dried meat, but it seemed that the inventory is upgradable. For money, I had a one silver coin, when focusing on the money counter, I could see that there were copper, silver, gold, platinum and ancient coins, each one being equivalent to one hundred from the previous, pretty much the basics of this kind of game.

Now that I knew what I had, it was time to see what I had to do. I could simply go out there and hunt mindlessly, but that’s not exactly the kind of thing I’m good at doing, so I tried to focus myself on a few objectives and from them define what I was going to do. Thinking about it, by now I had three main objectives to aim for.

First was: Monster Hunting. For that I had a few things to prepare, first is equipment, so for that I had to learn how to craft armor, weapons and probably some potions, and for that I had to learn how to gather my own material, so I had to learn how to gather leather from monsters, and mining. Buying from players is almost never a cheap venture. Secondly, I had to somehow get myself the Roll skill. Why? Because rolling is the basic of dodging on Monster Hunter, and I refuse to play this game without learning this skill. From there, I would probably go boss hunting, but that would be the final objective, so no need to worry about that now.

Second was to prepare myself to tank on Collection style, so I needed to get a very good gear, which coincided with one of the previous objectives. I will also need to earn a few important tanking skill, the main one being taunt, since it’s hard to tank when the enemies won’t focus on you, and then some defensive skills. Luckily, I already had scale-mail mastery and shield mastery for starters. Later on I will pick the plate mastery.

Third was getting myself a pet. Both Cygnas and Red are counting on me with this one, but this will probably take the most time of all.

Remembering my talk with Cygnas, I knew there were gathering trainers in the beginning villages, so firstly I would find them and discover what’s needed to learn these skill.

Looking around, I see two middle aged women talking to each other in front of a small house, both were simple linen dresses and were carrying baskets full of clothes, making them look a typical middle age home wife. Thinking that this was as good of a chance to find my way around as any other, I approached them and tried my best to somehow greet them without being awkward.

“Excuse-me, Madam…”

“WHA?” ABORT PLAN! ABORT PLAN! THE WOMEN SOMEHOW BECAME SHOCKED WHEN I SPOKE TO THEM!

As both of them somehow were too surprised to say anything, I could only stand there at loss on what happened. After some time, the two of them finally calmed themselves and looked at me surprised.

“So… Sorry about that! I didn’t hear you approaching!” Said one of them apologetically.

“Geez young man! Don’t give us a scare like that!” The other one complained angrily.

“Sorry… Sorry about that… I… I didn’t have the intention” It’s kind of difficult to apologize to something you aren’t sure how you did. I mean, I’m wearing Scale-mail, shouldn’t the scales clink when I make a sound?

Actually, isn’t this feeling kind of familiar?

Anyway, the one who was calmer readily accepted my apology, while the other one still looked a bit angry with me.

“And for what reason do you go around scaring women like that?” She said with clear annoyance in her voice.

“I… Err… Well…” Pressured by her, the words somehow refused to come out. If I had chosen another race, my face would probably be completely red by now. Luckily rescue came on time.

“Giselde, let him be… It seems he really had no ill intention.” Said the other one while putting a hand on her shoulder. Is she an angel in disguise? Actually… Wasn’t there a celestial or something race to choose? She does look like one of them…

Giselde, the angry one, looked at her friend for a moment and then sighed before looking at me a little less annoyed. Now that I looked at her better, she was short and had a stout body with long thick hair tied in braids. A dwarf?

“Sorry about that… It wasn’t my intention to scare you two.” I apologized once more just to be sure. It never hurt to be polite with strangers. “My name is Gondorrer, wanderer, and I just wanted some directions.”

The celestial looked at her friend and gave a smile.

“See? He’s actually very polite!” Giselde grunted in accordance. “I’m Milenda, and this is Giselde, so how can I help you, young golem?”

“Well… I actually wanted to know if there is someone in this village who can teach me how to take leather from the animals, also if there is someone who can teach me how to mine.”

“You are still a brat and already want to learn skinning and mining? Aren’t you a bit too eager?” Giselde questioned me a bit curious.

For a moment I thought about how to answer her, but decided to go with the truth.

“Actually, I also want to learn how to craft my own weapons and armor, so I tought that it would be a good idea to gather my materials since earlier.”

The dwarf looked at me for some time, as if seeking my true reason, but in the end she looked satisfied, as she grunted and put on a proud smile.

“My husband can teach you how to mine, but he is out of the village right now, should be back by the end of the afternoon.” Then she pointed me towards a small road on the village. “If you take that path, the last house on the left. There is a grumpy old man. He may be a pain, but is by far the best of his craft around here. He can teach you how to gather your leathers.”

What? So she wasn’t as mean as she looked? Geez, now I feel like an idiot for thinking badly about her! Anyway, I thanked the two of them and went my way towards the appointed place, since I was in no need to hurry, I strolled there while looking at the scenery.

The small town looked surprisingly lively, with the habitants entering and leaving their houses, talking to each other, trading things and Etc. This didn’t look at all like the villages from other games, where everything felt static.

I also took my time to think. Why were these two so surprised? I mean, I can’t be that silent, can I?

Now that I think about it… I don’t think I’m hearing my armor clink… I stop for a moment and look down, sure enough I have my Scale-mail equipped. I quickly shake around a few times and hear a few clinking sounds, but when I start walking again the sound is gone.

Must be a bug, I’ll tell Cygnas when I leave later.

Meanwhile I had reached the appointed house. It was fairly small, being no bigger than my apartment in real life, probably. But there was a large studio annexed to it’s side, with many strange apparel I had never seen before. In front of one of the few I had some idea what was, the tanning rack, sat an old man.

He had his back to me so he didn’t notice my approach. He was using a sharp looking knife to scratch the surface of a small piece of animal hide on the rack to remove the remaining fur. Since he looked occupied I decided that It would be better to wait.

Since I still had nothing to do I decided to look around for a moment, trying to understand what these apparels were, but I had no luck at all besides the point that they were all somehow related to leatherworking.

After a few minutes, the old man sighed loudly and cleared the sweat on his forehead, then he took some time to look at his work and seemed pleased with himself. Freeing the piece of leather from the rack, he stood up and turned around.

From his looks, I would say he Is a human… At least he looked like a human for me. He was fairly buff for his age, but was still very thin. His short hair had no remaining piece of color, but at least he wasn’t balding. There were a few wrinkles and spots on his face, but it still held a fierce look.

His eyes met with mine and he took a step back while raising his eyebrow, then he looked at the tanning rack then back to me before sighing loudly.

“God dammit! Ah must be losing mah touch to not notice a brat like you!” He complained loudly, then he proceeded to take the piece of leather, roll it and put in a box with other pieces, then he sat on a bench and looked back to me with a clear frown on his face. “Spill it out! What do you want? Ah don’t have all day!”

I was surprised with the clear hostility, at least Giselde had some reason to be angry with me, but I did nothing to him at all!

Must be the age.

“Sorry for intruding. I’ll try to be brief.” Somehow I felt that trying to be overly polite with this old man would lead to nothing, so I decided to tone it down a bit. “I want to know what I need to do to learn skinning.”

The old man widened his eyes in surprise and sized me up for a few seconds, then he stared me in the eyes and asked.

“What level are you, brat?”

I was stunned for a moment with such a blatant question about my level, but managed to recover myself in time before he complained.

“Level one.”

“And could Cygnas tell me why do you want to learn skinning if you are barely capable of fending off by yourself?” He said with a clear annoyed tone.

Hmm… I have the feeling that this isn’t going anywhere if I don’t do anything drastic…

“Then, if I manage to prove myself, will you teach me for free?” I tried to sound challenging. I think that it somehow worked, because he looked surprised for a moment, then a small glint passed through his eyes.

“Aren’t you pretty bold for a brat?” He lifted himself from his bench and walked up to the entrance, where he leaned against the wall and pointed towards the field with his head. “Back there are some wild dogs. Show me you can beat one of them alone and Ah’ll teach you.” I nodded and prepared myself to go, but he suddenly cleared his throat getting my attention, when I looked back at him he was holding a smoking pipe in his hand. “You have until Ah stop my little break here to defeat one of them, what do you say?”

QUEST:

Proving your worthThe old man from the leatherworks has challenged you to a little test. Defeat a wild dog before his break ends and he will teach you skinning.

Fail and you will have to try again later.Rewards:

Gathering skill: Skinning [lvl1]

Old man’s acknowledgment

“You’re on old man!”

QUEST ACCEPTED

Barely had I said that, the old man snapped his fingers and a small flame appeared, which he used to light the pipe. I took no time to wait and dashed off to the field. I could feel that I was able to run a little bit faster, but my armor was holding me back, must be the price of better armor.

I didn’t need to run much before I arrived art the first wild dog, and when I focused my sight on him, a window appeared above his head.

Wild dog [lvl 5]

(passive)HP: 190/190

My original plan was to charge head on and simply slash the heck out of him, but when I saw it’s level I changed my mind. His level was much higher than mine, and he had a lot of HP. Even if he wasn’t a boss mob, I still had only my beginning equipment, so taking him head-on is suicide.

I stole a glance back to the old man and could see him looking teasingly at me with a smirk. I decided that it would feel really good to rip that smirk right out of his face.

I calmed myself and analyzed my situation. Even if it was a level much higher than mine, it was still a beginner’s mob, so its attack were probably very basic. If I had to give a guess, it would be tackles, clawing and bites. All this time the dog was staring at me with curiosity, since it was a passive mob, it would not attack unless I attacked it first, so I had no worry about him interrupting my planning.

Now that I took a better look at him, he sure reminded me of a real dog. Actually, he was somewhere between a dog and a wolf, so he still had a slightly menacing appearance. He was also the size of a medium dog. The level of realism started to give me shivers.

Steeling myself, I unsheathed my sword and took a stance with the shield in front of me and the sword behind. Seeing this, the dog also reacted, lowering his front and slightly growling with his teeth showing.

I moved first, charging at him with my shield in front, startling him. But before he could dodge, I flicked my arm and swung the shield upwards, slamming it on his lower jaw lifting his head. A small red number appeared above his head.

-2 (188/190)

So shield-bashing also deals damage? Good to know. I took the moment and slashed upwards, hitting his exposed belly with my sword, this attack lifted him from the ground and threw him backwards for half a meter.

-7 -1 (179/190)

The first damage was probably from my strike, so the second was from hitting the ground? Anyway, my damage was still too low, it would take some time before I would be able to kill him.

I planned on charging at him before he lifted himself from the ground, but he was much faster than what I expected, because he lifted himself and lunged at me. I managed to block him with my shield, and as soon as the impact left my arm, I swung down my sword while thinking the word ‘slash’.

For a brief moment, I felt as if something had taken control of my body, as the sword came at a much faster speed than before and left a small silver trail behind.

The attack landed on the beast’s flank and it winced in pain.

-10 (169/190)

I saw the yellow bar beneath my HP drop by a quarter and for a second it stayed there, before quickly filling once again. It seems that there is a half second cool down after using energy before it starts regenerating.

Distracted, I didn’t notice the dog approaching once again, so I failed to put my shield in time, and it slid beneath my guard and bit my ankle.

-13 (97/110)

IT HURTS!

I punted the dog with my free leg so he would let it go.

-2 (167/190)

It winced once again and took some distance.

What the hell is that damage? His basic attack deals as much damage as my skill! Isn’t he a lot stronger than me? I started to get nervous, I may have bitten a bit more than what I can chew here.

I mean, it’s clear who has the upper hand in this fight, he has the double of my health but deals the same damage as me! Actually, I’m pretty sure his armor reduces in two my damage! God dammit! What hope do I have against this guy?

I was starting to get a bit anxious during the fight, I was a little too overconfident, but now that I was seeing the numbers before me, all that pride had been simply washed away. I should never have challenged a monster stronger than me.

Just as I was thinking that, the dog once again charged, this time he ran to my right before jumping right at me, although I managed to move myself out of the bite, he still hit my flank with his head, dealing damage.

-8 (89/110)

I fell on my back from his tackle, but since he also lost his initial target, he fell a bit besides me. I rolled on the ground away from him before lifting myself up. He also had lifted himself and was staring at me.

I started to become even more nervous, this was clearly a bad spot for me. Before I could try and think what to do next, the dog once again charged at me and jumped at my neck, I managed to put my shield in front of me right on time to block. But the little bastard still had a surprise left for me.

I felt his claws scratching the surface of my shield, and one of them grabbed it’s upper border, which he used to launch himself behind me. Before I could react, he landed behind me and bit at my leg from behind.

-15 (74/110)

The pain ran through my leg. Thank god the game had set a fairly low pain transmission. I swung my leg forward and the dog flew with it, but the bugger managed to land on his feet annulling any possible damage.

This is bad. I was at a much too clear disadvantage here. I was fighting a much stronger monster that was easily capable of defeating me with but a fraction of the attacks I needed to defeat him. It was a hopeless situation, like that of a militia fighting an army, like an amateur team going against professionals, like a man fighting a…

Monster.

I felt like a bucket of cold water fell upon me.

Wasn’t this situation… Exactly what I wanted? Isn’t this what I always do when playing Monster Hunter? Isn’t this the exact same scenario?

No… There was a small difference.

I am being too aggressive. It is a mistake I always make when fighting new monsters. I end up being too aggressive, not waiting for openings to appear before attacking.

As I looked into the dog’s eyes, I started to think on what to do. What had I gathered in this little fight that I could use to take him down?

Right as he charged at me, an idea surged in my mind.

The dog came at me like the start, coming low and aiming at my ankles, so I crouched down and put my shield in front of me. Right when he was in front of me, I bashed him sideways, dealing a little damage and putting a good distance amongst us.

-3 (164/190)

The dog looked back at me and I gave him a wicked smile. He once again came charging at me.

Yes, all his attacks involved charging. But there was a small difference between them. Right when he was at a certain distance between us, he crouched down slightly and slightly showed it’s teeth.

It’s coming.

He jumped at me, mouth wide open aiming for my throat, just like a real dog.

And as I was waiting for this moment, I took a step back and put my shield in front of me.

But I didn’t block.

I put it with its face up and its border aligned with the dogs mouth. And he bit it.

The dog had bit the shield, just like I wanted. It took him a moment to understand what had happened, and a moment was all I needed. I gripped the sword and swung it upwards, activating slash. The dog’s face contorted in pain, making him bite the shield even harder, but my attack hadn’t ended. Not yet.

I brought the sword down and pummeled him right in the head, making him wince in pain and let go of the shield, but following the pummel, I activated slash once again, slicing him downward with all my strength, making him slam the ground.

-10 -5 -9 -2

Combo! (x1.2)

-31 (133/190)

That was a massive amount of damage! So if I combo a lot of attacks I can deal even more damage? That is very good to know.

But I still hadn’t finished with the dog yet. Before he lifted himself from the ground, I kneeled besides him and slammed my shield in his face.

-3 (130/190)

I pressed my shield with all my body, keeping the dog there. He started to struggle, trying to free himself from beneath me, but my weight, plus my equipment was a bit too much for him to bear, so he was unable to free himself. And while I kept him in place with my left hand, I reversed my grip on the sword and started to stab him repeatedly. Every attack dealing 7-8 damage.

It had become an unsightly fight near the end, but I couldn’t care less. In this character, I wasn’t a hero who fought with honor, I was a hunter. I would hunt stronger enemies with whatever strategy I could come up with, using my cunning and skills to beat their strength. So what if my fight looks ugly? I came here to hunt, not fight!

And that dog, was but my first prey.