Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! One of the usual chapters again today! Yay! And sorry for the fans, but no Cyg this time… *Drops on the floor to apologize*

ANYWAY, yesterday was pretty awesome. I put up the races lists, with something around 37 races, and one hour later we already had brought it to 50! And I even was holding back on a good bunch of them! You guys are awesome! But if I did bad on the test today I put the blame on you for not letting me sleep with so many replys…

ALSO, starting from the next, I’ll post any updates on the list on the author’s corner.

ALSO(2), I will probably update an usual chapter and a SS tomorrow, so I can close the Ice Fox side story.

ALSO(3), Many thanks for all the characters recommendation, I’m saving all of them on a Word document, and I plan on using them on Extras, or even in the main story for the 4th or something arc, where I’ll need an unfortunate companion to follow Wargon as he fools around ^^ You guys can keep posting them for the next couple of chapter yet, ok?

Have a good read.

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It took me some good time for me to understand what the window meant, but by the time I understood, I started grinning like an idiot. Yuu noticed this and became a little surprised, looking slightly worried at me.

“What happened, Shishou?” She asked me who was unresponsive for some moment now.

I quickly shook my head to tell her that it was nothing, but I held myself back on saying anything because I knew that my voice would sound silly if I did it. Still, I closed the announcement window and opened my status.

NAME:

Wargon (Gondorrer Gravelheart)TITLE:

(none)Class tree:WandererClass:NoneRace:GolemGender:Neutral (male)Level:5Experience:07%

STATUS:

Remaining points (2)Health Points:220/220HP regen (out of combat):1.5/secEnergy:100/100Energy Regen:10/secSTR:13(11)TGH:13(11)AGI:11VIT:17INT:11MND:11ATTK:Phys 14-16Extra:(none)DEF48M. Res.:18Satiety:87/100 (Satisfied)

SKILLS:

Derivation points (1)One-handed Sword Mastery [lvl 6]

-Slash (Active)

-Stab (Active)

-Slice ‘n dice (Active)

Dual-wielding mastery [lvl 2]

-Whirlwind (Active)

Shield Mastery [lvl 4]

-Bashing

Scale-mail Mastery [lvl 4]

Chain-mail Mastery [lvl 4]

Skinning [lvl 6]

Taunt [lvl 3]

-Focused mockery

Racials [max]

-Nature’s bastion (Active)

-Rock Eater

-Sedimentary skin (Active)

-Nature attuned

…

Yup, two more points on vitality and then I get to 240 health! That much was obvious. I plan on doing that until I get 25 or something points of vitality… But that is besides the point.

Skill derivation… I need to see what I can get with this thing. From it’s description, it seems that I can either create another skill similar to one I already have, or modify one skill to increase it’s performance.

I think for a moment about where should I spend my point. I still don’t have many skills, so I can’t really expect too much about getting a very good skill, so for now, it should be safe for me to improve slash, since it’s the bread and butter of my combos. I choose it, and a window suddenly pops up:

Warning: You are about to derivate Slash, so please choose your derivation for this skill.

Sub-skill: Powerful Slash [lvl6] (modify Slash)

(levels increase with one handed sword mastery)Increases the power behind your usual slash, dealing more damage. 145% of weapon damageCost: 25 energy

Sub-skill: Cleave [lvl6] (New skill)

(levels increase with one handed sword mastery)A slash that covers a high area in exchange for power. Hits multiples enemies in a cone ahead of you.

120% DamageCost: 25 energy

Ooh… So I can derivate slash in two different skills? Isn’t this nice! Powerful slash sounds simply divine with that extra damage. Reave isn’t as appealing as it should be because I have whirlwind, but it does sounds like a good skill if someone isn’t dual wielding… Actually, whirlwind hits everything around me, maybe cleave covers a better frontal area?

It also seems that I can cancel this without expending my derivation points… I felt that it would be a shame if I didn’t do that, so cancelled it and went to check on other. Firstly, I checked the other subskills.

For stab there was one derivation that increased the damage and one that increased the armor piercing. Slice ‘n dice could be variated into Frenetic Slices, where it doubled both the energy spent and the amount of hits per second, basically shortening the entire duration of the skill by half but keeping the total damage... I found it very appealing.

Out of curiosity, I tried to derivate One-handed sword mastery, but the answer I got back was a bit surprising.

You cannot derivate this skill. Skill level/Other Requirements are not enough

So that means that there is a way for me to derivate it, I just did not have what was necessary? Interesting… Another one also caught my attention, and this one was the second Whirlwind derivation.

Sub-skill: Tornado rush [lvl2] (New skill)

(requires Slice ‘n Dice)

(levels increase with Dual wielding mastery)Spin around furiously, dealing 55% of weapon damage around you. You can move while casting this skill, but standing still increases it’s range.Cost: 10 energy/sec

Cool down: 75 seconds

For me to unlock this skill, I needed both whirlwind and Slice ‘n Dice, following this logic, there are probably other skills around that I can only unlock if I have a certain set of skills available.

This isn’t good… All the skills look amazing and I really want to choose all of them, but I have no idea which one is the best...

Correction, I may have an idea… The one that really made my eyes sparkle was the one I got when I reached Bash, the shield mastery subskill.

Sub-skill: Shield Slam [lvl4] (New skill)

(levels increase with Shield mastery)Slam your shield on the enemy, dealing 50% of the shield’s block value (Fixed damage. not affected by STR). This attack may send lighter foes flying. If used when receiving an attack that deals less damage than shield slam, you counter the attack increasing damage dealt by 15%.Cost: 25 energy

Cool down: 15 seconds

Who said that you can’t attack with a shield? Sword and board was the first dual wielding to ever exist! I didn’t really feel much remorse for choosing the skill, for the simple reason that, even if I use other monster hunter weapons, I will still tank, so a shield is something I’ll always have present with me. In fact, three of my favorite weapons in MH have a shield.

…

I’m going to need a huge shield for them…

Back to earth… I mean, Insania, I finally notice that a couple of minutes have passed while I was checking the skills, so I hurriedly look around in search for Yuu, but she was with her legs crossed beside me with her eyes closed and her tails laying atop of her legs, some thin mist forming around her and slowly circling her. From what I could say, she was meditating.

I felt slightly bad about having forgotten about her for a moment, and stand up from where I still was after having skinned the lynx. Although she didn’t make any sign of noticing me, she still stood up with me before finally opening her eyes.

“Are you done, Shishou?” She asked calmly. I nodded feeling a bit guilty, while she looked at me with some curiosity. “Would you mind if I asked what happened, Shishou? You suddenly went quiet back there…”

“Sorry about that… It’s just something that I had never seen on a game before, so I kind of became distracted…”

“Heh…” She looked at me with serious eyes, but it seemed that she was holding her curiosity back. The glinting eyes, wagging tail and droopy ears kind of gave away. I gave a small sigh.

“It seems that when you get at level five, you earn a point to improve one of your skills directly… But it also seems that previous skills can end up combining to create brand new skills… And I have this feeling that this may not be all… So I ended getting a bit too distracted…”

She had a look of both being impressed and confused at my words, but I thinking I wouldn’t be able to really explain it any better before understanding this system better myself, I simply smiled mysteriously.

Remember kids, smiling mysteriously is the best way to look intelligent to your friends!

Anyway, now that I got a brand new skill, I was very anxious to test it out in combat, so I took Yuu with me and quickly went looking for lynxes. Of course, we were also going in the direction of the cave, since my quest was there.

But there was only one problem.

There were already three minutes that I don’t see anything in here.

“Goddam lynxes! Where the hell are you!” I muttered to myself. In truth, I really wanted to shout, but I had a really bad experience with shouting insults at my enemies, so I managed to hold myself back.

But it seems that Yuu heard me.

“You can’t find them, Shishou?” She asked curious. I looked dejectedly at her, and slowly nodded. For a moment she looked confused, then pointed to a tree a few meters away from us. “There is one right there!”

I blinked in surprise at her words, then looked at where she was pointing, but there wasn’t anything there… Actually, now that I took a better look, isn’t there a some kind of shape in there? It kinds of look like…

A LYNX!

But how the hell did she see it? I mean, it’s like drawing with a pencil on a black paper! Even knowing that the bastard was there, I can barely make his shape! Is Yuu a genius or something? I look back at her wide-eyed, receiving a confused look from her. I sighed loudly before petting her head; after all, she did a very good job.

After that I went towards the tree leaving her to prepare her ice lances. Now I had to think of a way to bring the furry bastard to the ground. Just then I notice his tail swinging slowly while falling besides the branch he was lazing on.

I’m really, really not in the mood to be kind to animals, so I grab the cat’s tail and yank it down. For some reason I hear Yuu whimpering behind me, but I didn’t really pay much attention.

-3 -4 (393/400)

Huh? This one has less health than the last one? Why? For a moment I get distracted, and the cat take this chance to take some distance from me. Cygnas dammit! I lost my chance to deal my super-duper epic combo on the little freak!

The cat hiss at me before charging. As it was a simple charge, I simply blocked with my shield and gave a simple cut with my sword. For now it would be better if I hold my energy for my combo.

-13 (380/400)

The cat once again took some distance, and we both crossed our gazes. Remembering what Yuu had said about one of his attacks, I slowly start to move to a better position, and just in time, as the cat ran towards me once again, and just as it was about to hit my shield, he jumped to my left and to my back, landing on a tree.

I turned around just in time to see him pouncing at me, both claws aiming at my face.

Now is the time!

“TAKE THIS!” I shouted out of impulse, and turned around while swinging my shield in his direction, right when the shield was about to connect, I used Shield slam on him.

For the briefest of the moment, my shield arm stopped, before the attack finally came in. And by the gods, was it one hell of a attack.

Firstly, what seemed to be a white and slightly larger ethereal copy of my shield appeared around it, as if increasing it. Then my arm moved with unbelievable power, the image taking some time to follow. The wind around my shield chimed with the sudden change in the current, then came the loud roar of metal hitting something as the shield met with the feline’s head. Just as its body was finally caught with the shield’s inertia, the ethereal shield hit the lynx with full power, blowing him back towards the tree, which made a cracking noise as the wood slightly gave in.

For a brief moment I was too stunned to even move, but before I could lose my chance, I ran forward and activated Stab before the cat could reach the ground, followed by an upward slash, a downwards pummel to slam it in the ground and the good old slice ‘n dice before kicking the cat away.

-25 -3 -21 -6 -4 -7(x6) -3

Combo! (x1.3)

-135 (245/400)

From this point on of the fight, I can’t remember very clearly because I was too overexcited with my new attack, to pay enough attention. I know I already said this earlier, but let me reaffirm my statement. I love flashy attacks. I love cool looking attacks. Even if shield slam is fairly simple when it comes to animation, it still looks cool. Really cool.

And it’s strong! From what I saw, It does a constant 25 damage to the enemy! And I’m pretty sure it ignores armor, since the damage is based purely on the status of my shield. Going by the logic, does this means that my shield absorbs up to 50 damage points? It’s fairly high…

Wait, then that red-claw attack (provisory name) deals 61 damage? Yikes!

Anyway, in the end me and Yuu finished the Lynx, and I took around 63 damage. That teleport thing he does with his hiss is really annoying. If I mess the timing I end up taking a huge amount of damage.

As our agreement, I didn’t skin this one, as Yuu needed her equipment, so I let her reclaim this one and keep it’s drop.

Robe of the wise apprentice (Chest)

(Requires Level 3)Def7M. Res12Quality:GoodDurability:26/26Description

The lost robe of an apprentice mage. Excellent equipment for begginers.

INT +8; MND +6; M. regen +1/sec

…

..

.

I (bleeping) hate beginner’s luck. The third enemy she reclaims and it drops a good quality item for her.

Not only this alone doubles her defense, she even get +8 intellect and mana regen!!

I CALL HAX! YOU KNOW! HAX!

She gets the items and look at it on surprise. Even if she is a beginner in gaming, I think she can understand that an equipment that nearly doubles your stats are undoubtedly good for you.

Heh, but my beginners equipment is still better than hers! Mine are indestructible! I don’t have to pay for repairs! What? It’s not like I’m… Jealous *sniff* you know! I *sniff* not mad at her *sniff* luck… I’m *sob* happy for her! And I’m *sob* not crying… This is… *sob*… Just dust… *sob* in my eyes!

After a long sigh in defeat, I tell her.

“Go on, equip it…”

But for some reason she looks at me with some worry in her eyes.

“But… It doesn’t seems to be my size…”

Processing, please wait…

After some laughing, a sulky kitsune, some petting and wagging tails later…

I briefly explained her about equipment and how to put them on our avatar, then she went to equip the robe. Just to be safe, she hid herself behind a tree and shyly asked me to look away. I hid a small grin while I waited for her to finish.

It took exactly 5.41271 seconds for her to call me… Give or take a couple of seconds. Precise like a clock.

When I looked back, she was wearing a light blue robe, like one of those you see in fantasy. There was a belt tied around her waist which helped to make the robe a bit more form-fitting than the loose beginner’s robe. It matched well with her dark hair, making a nice contrast. I gave a silent thanks to the developers for giving me such a beautiful sight on this night.

After that, we went back on our ways to hunt the lynx, Yuu having a scary precision when it came to finding them in this dark night. In fact, she found one no more than ten paces from the last one.

We started to easily manage killing them from there, as we both got used to its movement. I also confirmed my suspicion that, the red-claw attack and the teleport-like jump are attacks they can only use when enraged, which always happens right after getting below 50% of their health.

I also found a really neat combo against the red-claw. One of the skills I had completely forgotten about, Nature’s bastion, when combed with Shield-slam made quick work of the lynxes whenever they started that annoying attack, although the timing was a bit tricky, so I failed around 50% of the times. Also, by my third skinned lynx I started to get common quality items, so I was happy.

Yuu also got a couple more items, one being a good leather gloves that had intellect and agility and a common staff with fire element. I told her to equip the staff and also learn how to use fire, but after learning fire mastery, she went back to the old ice staff, even if the fire had a better damage. I told her to keep going with the fire one, but…

Puppy eyes (critical), Droopy ears, droopy tail(x2).

COMBO! (x10)

Wargon is defeated!

…

So yeah, if anyone survives that, they have my deepest admiration.

I decided that as soon as we go back to town we are removing the elemental limitation on that staff

But what really marked the night for me, was when we got at a small clearing. We had each gotten a level by then, making me level 6 and Yuu level 4.

In this clearing, there wasn’t many things of notice, except for a medium sized rock outcropping right in its middle. At first glance, both of us found nothing strange about it, so we decided to ignore it. But when I got a bit close, I noticed something.

There were a few spots on the rock that were glowing slightly. I looked a bit longer at it, trying to understand what it was, but for some reason Yuu looked at me then at the rock in confusion. Only then that it hit me.

ORES!

AH FOUND MAH GOLD (not) MINE!

I happily ran towards the outcropping while picking the pickaxe from my inventory, which seemed to surprise Yuu.

As soon as I approached, I saw that there were some parts of the outcropping that had a slightly stronger glow. Fixing my grip on the pick, I lifted it up and brought it down on that place.

Or at least I tried, I missed by a few centimeters. The stronger glow went away, but I did see a few things popping from the vein and falling to the ground. I crouched and picked it up.

Iron ore (0.6 ingots)A piece of iron ore, mined by a beginner. The impurities on this reduces the amount of ingots you can smelt this into.

(crafting material)

Minor Fire crystal (x2)A small crystal with some fire mana within. Commonly found on simpler ore veins.

(crafting material, consumable)

Hmm, it seems that the piece of ore I got isn’t enough for me to make a full ingot… Will I need to smelt many ores at the same time for an ingot? And I got a couple of fire crystals on my first mine! Lucky me!

Yuu who was watching everything seemed to have understood what I was doing, so she didn’t say anything much and simply watched as I mined the rest of the veins in the cropping.

Well, much to my surprise, crystals are nowhere as rare as I had expected. They come around 50-40% of the times I successfully mine a piece of ore. But since there are 9 different crystals, it is a bit difficult to get the one you want. In the end I had somewhere around 32 iron ingots in ore, and 42 crystals of assorted elements.

By the way, there are nine different types of crystals, because there are one for each element, Fire, water, wind, earth, order (arcane), chaos, light and dark, and then there are mana crystals, that seems to be used on mana potions.

Also, seeing as I had a few ores with me now, and my satiety was fairly low, I took one piece of ore, and ate it. Yuu became pale when she saw me munching the ore like it was cake, and I jokingly offered her one, which she quickly refused.

And actually, iron ore has a texture very similar to these home-made cakes, and even had a slight hint of vanilla in the taste. But even better...

Tough as iron (60 minutes)For eating a fairly pure piece of iron ore, you have earned the iron buff.

+3 TGH, +3 MND

Yup! Food buffs! For free!

I FEEL INVICIBLE!

Now I kind of wonder how mithril and orichalum tastes and what kind of buff they give…

But that is still some time away from now, so no need to get hasty.

I also took my time to test what each kind of crystal does when you use them as consumables. Each gave some kind of magic attack of their respective elements, but they are mostly fairly weak, and don’t seem to have a very practical use. Oh well, I’ll on hold them for now, I still have some tests I have to run.

After that, we once again went back to our little hunt in the forest while hunting those unhappy lynxes. It took us another couple of hours to find the cave, since the map loses its precision after you get at a certain distance from it, and only point to a general area.

By then, each of us could easily take one lynx alone, but we still kept hunting together to go a bit faster. I also noticed that the reason some lynxes had more health, was because their levels actually fluctuated, going from 10 to 12.

We also found a couple of others outcroppings, and I mined at the happily, while Yuu patiently waited me. Since she had a lot of free time with me skinning and mining every time I had the chance, she started to meditate fairly often, and even earned a skill that increases her mana regen while meditating by 100%! But it doesn’t seem to be a unique skill.

When it had passed around 3 or 4 hours since we had met, I finally saw the cave, and even from far away I could see a slight red glow in it’s deepest part. But there was a small problem.

Slash (red-claw lynx) [lvl 11]

(Aggressive)HP: 500/500

-Fury claw

-Shadow step

Rip (red-claw lynx) [lvl 11]

(Aggressive)HP: 500/500

-Fury claw

-Shadow step

Maim (red-claw lynx) [lvl 11]

(Aggressive)HP: 500/500

-Fury claw

-Shadow step

There were three lynxes guarding the entrance. They were just like normal lynxes, except they had a single white stripe on their backs. I did not need to attack one of them to know that if one came, all three came. And worse, different from the usual lynxes that were passive, these guys were aggressive, so I couldn’t simply sneak behind them.

I was sure that they weren’t bosses, just a slightly stronger version of the Lynxes. But even that was enough to make me wary. I am confident on my and Yuu’s ability to take a couple of these cats at the same time, but three of them? And they being stronger than usual?

Things had, once more, gotten complicated.

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(dead) Author's corner:So, i comemorate my return to usual chapters with... LOTS OF TABLES!

...

I hate myself