I have chosen to avoid painful death by wolves, and return to the pleasant grass and nearby farms. With the Brambles Forrest behind me, I am looking south again with the grass between me and the farms. Further on south is that body of water that I have yet to identify. Doesnt matter right now, I have only a little time left to reach level 5 and get back to town for a class before my firends log in. It sure is nice to have the day off and get ahead.

With my vitality this high, I am not so worried about the snakes. I know how to avoid their ambush, and moving slowly on my way back towards town gives my health time to regenerate. I recover almost 3 hp per second so it will be roughly 20 seconds before I am back to full health. Since it will probably take me 15 minutes to pick my way back to town, that sounds great to me.

Heh. With all this thinking, I have used a few seconds already. Time to get snake bashing.

Slowly making my way through the tall grass, sweaping it aside with my sword to look for snakes while holding my new Kris ready, I head towards the farms. Find a snake. Parry the first attack. Pin the head. Stab stab. Repeat. This mantis knife is doing 13 damage to the snakes on each hit, so the battles dont last long. I make it halfway across this dangerous stretch of grass and find another turtle.

Ivory Spike Turtle - 2

The turtle pulls its head in and I see that same glow as before start around the shell. Maybe it is the same turtle; I dont know. My stamina is running low because of the constant vigillence, so I sit to take a break. I watch the turtle, who does nothing. I pull out the three snake eyes that I have in inventory and start comparing them. Slit pupil, amber iris, milky part. Turning them over and over, they look identical.

New Skill Learned! Inspect

See uses and metrics of some objects

Oh, right. I have to perform the action before I can get the spell, just like parry. Putting my new skill to use I see

Eye of snake

Potion ingredient

socketable

Half a minute later, with my numbers all full, the turtle stops glowing. It sticks its head out and hisses at me.

"If you are going to be rude about it, I am going to stop ignoring you."

I smack it with my wooden sword.

-3

Ah-ha! That glow must have been a defense buff. I stab it with my Kris.

-10

It really does not like that and bites me.

(4 dmg received)

It's weaker than the rats. I dont even stand up. Sitting there on the ground I trade attacks with the turtle, getting two stabs for each bite he makes. Even with my high damage knife, it still takes some time. 9 stabs and one wooden smack, that turtle took 93 damage.

50exp

And it was hardly worth it. The turtle disolves away into dust, leaving 20 coppers behind which I promptly put in my inventory. I have killed two snakes so far on my return journey, earning me two more skins and another eye. I am now 72% of the way to the next level. Another two snakes should push me over the edge, and I am close to town. I stand up and move into the grass. Within feet of the edge of the grass I find a third snake, or seventh depending on how you want to count it. Unfortunately, I find it the painful way.

Ambush!

54 damage received

Aaah! It still hurts, and the surprise means I cant brace for the pain. I turn around to face the coward that bit me in the back. It has already recoiled and is about to attack again. I parry the strike and bludgeon it with the wooden sword

-6

But it wriggles free before I can pin it down. I had moved in close while trying to pin it, so I stab and then drag the kris away in a slashing motion.

-13

-13

Ha! The system accepts that as two attacks. The snake is really hurting, with less than half its health left. I hop back and ready my skill. The snake creeps forward, murder in its eyes and vengence on its mind. It feints a strike, and I fall for it by trying to parry. The snake then attacks my right leg

(9 dmg received)

and I smash down with both weapons

-6

-13

It pulls itself back, nearly dead, and I jump on it with my wooden sword.

-6

85exp

Good riddence. I hope these snake skins sell for big money. I am now at 92% experience and the edge of the grass. I think I will top off this forey with a few rats, since I have to go by them anyway on my way back to town. I leave the grass. There are the same two fields of squash vines on the north side of the path to the gate. The south side of the path has what looks like a dwarf variety of corn, and a scarecrow out in the middle of the field. A large all-black bird is perched on the head of the scarecrow; something for me to look into after I get a class.

Walking along the edge of the farm field, I hear a familiar squeak. I put the wooden sword away and settle into a ready stance with the kris knife. The leaves rustle closer and closer, then it pauses. Then a rat leaps out from between the vines with teeth bared.

Rat - 1

Compared to the mantis, this rat is not even surprising. I slash at it in mid air with the knife, then stab it once it lands on the ground.

-14

-14

25exp

I pick up the coppers and move to the next field. Walking along the path edge brings me nothing, so I walk up the west edge of the field until I hear the squeak. These things even announce themselves. So easy. I feel a little embarassed that they actually gave me a fight a few hours ago. The rat scurries over to a clear patch on the field where I can see it. It crouches down, wiggles a little, and jumps at me. Once more I intercept it in mid air.

-14

As it is falling I hear another squeak from out in the field. I should have enough time to kill this one before that one jumps. I follow it to the ground with my knife, and get the satisfying details in my combat log. Just seeing some numeric shape appear in the corner of my vision is nice.

-14

And then the green letters that float up with the light motes, telling me of my reward.

25exp

Level up!

You have 2 unassigned points Congratulations! You have reached level 5 and are now able to equip a class.

I ignore all that and turn in time to see the next rat coming. I parry this one out of reflex, pushing it off to the side. This skill activation is smooth, though it looks like using only a dagger is not unlocking anything. I pull the wooden dagger back out of inventory so I now dual wield daggers. The rat turns to face me. I swing at it with both weapons

-14

-5

The rat staggers backward, and then does something I would never expect. It straightens up and bows to me.

Class Obtained!

Animalist

You spend all your time in the wilds with the animals, and civilization holds no interest for you. The animals are your companions, and you draw your strength from them.

Stat bonus per level: n/a

New Skill Learned! Class Skill Taming

Force a creature to accept defeat at your hands, and it will join you. Limit 2/lvl New Skill Learned! Class Skill Herd Enhancement

Receive a buff of 10% of a creature's top stat from all tamed creatures New Skill Learned! Class Skill Wild Intuition

Learn the skills native to your pack. Tame similar animals to learn their ability a Rat (lv 1) joins you +0.7 vitality

That was very unexpected. I have a class now? I remember unlocking this class by leaving town so quickly, but I never made a decision about my class. I am a little uncertain about it telling me I get no bonus stats for leveling while I am this class, but that Herd skill seems to cover that weakness? Well, having a rat in my pack increased my health by 10 points. This is one of those "hidden classes" that enable stronger characters? Some quick math follows. I am level 5, at two creatures per level, ten rats would be 7 vitality ... I could almost double my vitality. I can seriously tank with this! Dustin is going to be jealous.

Werlkhan: Stats Name Werlkhan Class Animalist Level 5 exp to level 610.7 Vitality 9.7 hp 186 Strength 7 mp 52.5 Dexterity 8 sp 101 Intelligence 4 h regen 1.56 (113s) Wisdom 5 m regen 1.56 (34s) Charisma 3 armor 0 carry 80 unspent 2 coins 0g 0s 54c