Chapter 111: Ironwood

“When it comes to basic crafting materials,” Aegis explained as he worked on creature harvesting the lynx, “Leather quality is based on the level of the beast it's harvested from, with some bonuses for certain types. Right?” Aegis confirmed with Rakkan and Lina as they worked on setting up a campfire.

“For ore, tier 1 is copper, tier 2 is iron, and tier 3 is mithral.” Aegis continued.

“Yes.” Lina nodded.

“For cloth, we’ve got cotton and wool at tier 1, then Shadowsilk at tier 2, so what’s tier 3?” Aegis asked.

“Not sure.” Lina shrugged.

“Me either, don’t know if it’s been discovered yet. Game is still pretty young.” Rakkan added.

“Ok, and wood has a lot of types for each tier, right?” Aegis said to them as he acquired some lynx leather and meat.

“Yup. Wildwood is the only tier 3 wood that people know about though. It has bonuses for magic crafting, like staves and wands.” Lina replied.

“I’m happy to hear that there’s still so much to discover in this game. I was worried it’d all be figured out since we’re starting so late.” Pyri smiled as she pulled a book out to start reading, whilst Aegis got to work on cooking the lynx meat.

“What about the rest of the limren wood, you gonna chop that up too?” Darkshot asked as he watched him start cooking.

“Yeah, well… maybe. I haven’t learned how to chop it properly yet, there’s probably a quest involved. If I cut it now as I am without the proficiency, it’s all going to come out really low quality. Seems like a waste.” Aegis shrugged.

“We could carry the other trees along for now if you make ‘em a bit smaller, but it’d take up a lot of inventory space.” Rakkan suggested.

“Okay. Here’s what we should do.” Aegis said as he directed them to gather around the fire. “The forest should be a good place to gain experience for our level, like that Keeper and the lynx. Lynx’s will be good for restocking on stamina food, so let’s hunt them and other similar beasts first.” Aegis explained. “Can you handle tracking and finding beast spawn locations?” Aegis turned to Darkshot, and he nodded.

“I’ll do a quick scout of the area and see what I can find.” He replied.

“Ok, and keep an eye out for gryphons. Oh, and iron ore. I brought some materials with me from Rene for repairing our equipment, but it won’t last forever.” Aegis added. “For us, let’s set up a small basecamp here. If the ruins further south are higher level, we’ll want to make sure we get as much experience and resources in this forest before we move on.” Aegis said to them, and they nodded. Lina, Rakkan, and Pyri started on taking out tents and bedrolls out of their inventory, whilst Darkshot headed off into the surrounding forest southward.

Aegis used the spices he brought with him from Kordas to make several high quality lynx steaks, then cut the branches off of the limren trees to make them weigh as less as possible before asking Rakkan, Pyri and Lina to split them up into their inventories. Unchopped trees took up a lot of inventory space, barely leaving room in their bags for anything else, so Aegis could only hope they’d find someone who knew how to cut the Ironwood soon. He was pinning his hopes on something being written about it in the ancient ruins, but when Darkshot returned he came back with news of something even better.

“Alright…” Darkshot said as he arrived several hours later that afternoon, clearly out of breath as he approached the campsite in a jog. “This forest is insane.” He said panting, stopping by the campfire to put his hands on his knees whilst the others, who had been sitting around it waiting for him, all stood up and watched him approach.

“What’d you find?” Aegis asked him.

“There’s a lynx den that way, it’s almost like a dungeon.” He pointed south west. “I found another limren grove that way, but no others. I think they’re rare.” He pointed south. “There’s a small wooden fort even further south, filled with level 50 NPCs. They aren’t a part of the Kordas Kingdom though, because when I approached, they started shooting arrows at me.” Darkshot explained, causing the others to glance at each other to express their curiosity.

“And lastly, to the east, there’s a small cabin. I couldn’t get close because it was surrounded by thorny plants that started attacking me. But…” Darkshot smiled at Aegis. “The cabin looked like it was made out of a certain type of wood.” He pointed to the hole in the ground where the keeper had been. The body had disintegrated from the gameworld after Aegis had chopped the last of the tree tendrils off of the main body.

“You think maybe whoever is in that cabin knows how to cut Ironwood?” Rakkan asked Aegis, reading his face to see that was exactly what he was thinking.

“Worth a shot finding out, right?” Aegis smiled back at him. “What about gryphons, did you see any?”

“Nope.” Darkshot shook his head.

“Ok, let’s check out the cabin first.” Aegis said as he stretched his arms up towards the afternoon sun.

“I’ll leave Melon here with the camp, it might be a bit too dangerous. Here you go lil Melon, lesser invisibility.” Pyri said while rubbing the snout of the horse, and as she did, Melon disappeared from their sight.

“You can make stuff invisible now?” Aegis asked, surprised.

“Yup, but just the lesser version. If he makes any attacks or moves too much, it’ll cancel the spell.” She shrugged. “I’m still reading the spellbooks to learn the intermediate spells for my class.” She added as she motioned to the book in her hand titled ‘Multitasking and Multicasting’.

“Good to know.” Aegis nodded as he snuffed out the campfire. “Lead the way,” he motioned to Darkshot, and Darkshot did exactly that. The five of them walked forward excitedly, a skip in their step as they travelled into the wilderness of the Kolz forest. The trees in this part of the gameworld looked ancient, their gnarled roots curling up out of the ground making loops and mounds in the dirt that they traversed over.

The ground was covered with moss, leaves, and broken twigs with the occasional patches of grass growing wherever sunlight breached the thick canopy above. The ambience of chirping birds, creaking wooden trees and whistling wind remained prevalent alongside the sound of their feet crunching the dry leaves and twigs beneath their leather shoes.The smell of fresh air and natural vegetation filled their noses, making them all feel completely immersed in the forest environment.

As usual, Aegis kept his eyes peeled for any herbs and plants and managed to gather a few strange mushrooms he’d not yet seen before, gaining experience in his herbalism skill. They’d also encountered a few more wild lynx’s in the level 40 range that they took out using bless and standard tactics.

In a one on one fight, the lynx was a lot easier to manage, and Aegis found it was possible to block their attacks and keep them stationary long enough for his party to burn through their HP without much trouble, though fighting more than one in quick succession was too much for his resource pool at the moment.

Congratulations, you have reached level 32!: 5 attribute points available, +231 health, +93 mana!

Level Up!: Leather Armor Proficiency reached Level 32!

Level Up!: Aura of Beauty reached Level 5!

Level Up!: Challenging Roar reached Level 3!

Level Up!: Avatar of Eirene reached Level 3!

Level Up!: Bless reached Level 32!

Level Up!: Heal reached Level 31!

Level Up!: Healing Wind reached Level 32!

Level Up!: Creature Harvesting reached Level 32!

Level Up!: Herbalism reached Level 31!

By the time they’d reached the spot where they could see the cabin that Darkshot spoke of, these were the notifications that Aegis had received. He made sure to put his points into spirit to keep beefing up his mana regeneration as much as possible, hoping to eventually be able to heal through attacks indefinitely.

“There, it’s beyond those plants, but be careful, if you get too close, they try to grab you.” Darkshot pointed ahead in the forest where a thick patch of bushes could be seen crowding the forest floor. Beyond the bushes was a clearing, and beyond that a small dark wooden log cabin was visible with a lush green circle of grass surrounding it. The cabin had a chimney where a stream of light gray smoke was puffing out of it into the evening sky.

“How do we want to approach this?” Aegis asked as they stopped a few dozen meters from the bushes, huddling around.

“I vote we just burn through the bushes with Pyri’s cinderbolt.” Darkshot suggested.

“But what if the person living there is friendly? We’d be destroying their home’s protection. I think we should just try calling out.” Rakkan suggested.

“I can sneak over the bushes and check.” Lina suggested.

“Hm.” Aegis put his hand on his chin. “Forcefully, diplomatically, or stealthily.” He said as he pointed to each of them respectfully. “What do you think, mom?” He turned to Pyri, putting her on the spot. Pyri looked up from her book which she’d been reading. “Uhm, hm… Sneaking and looking first is probably best.” She shrugged after looking at all of their hopeful faces.

“Okay. Lina, you’re up.” Aegis said, and Lina nodded back with determination before moving forward towards the cabin, whilst everyone else took cover behind the nearby trees. Once Lina had gotten close enough to the bushes, she shadowstepped over them into the shade of a tree that towered over the clearing, then shadowstepped into the shadow of the cabin’s walls. Aegis watched anxiously from a distance as she put her back up against the outside wall of the cabin and maneuvered towards one of the windows.

She slowly and cautiously raised her head up so that her eyeline matched the window, allowing her to peek inside. After looking for a second, she lowered her head back down and sent a message through the party interface.

“It’s a level 50 NPC. Not elite, he’s making tea. It looks like a druid, he has a crown of tree branches on his head, and he’s wearing leaf covered robes.” Lina said to them in a whisper.

“Is he friendly?” Aegis asked.

“The other guys I met weren’t.” Darkshot commented.

“I don’t know, we can’t tell unless we try talking to him.” Lina replied. Aegis paused as he looked to the others for suggestions.

“Try knocking?” Rakkan suggested with a shrug.

“Okay, good idea, but everyone get ready incase he tries to attack her.” Aegis said and everyone nodded. Pyri took out her staff, Darkshot took out his longbow, and Rakkan readied his crossbow, while Aegis got as close as he could to the bushes without aggravating them so that he’d be able to heal and guard Lina if needed.

Lina walked around the outside of the cabin, crouching under the windows, until she reached the front door. She took a deep breath, then knocked lightly on the wood. A few seconds later, the door opened and the NPC, a tall elven gentlemen with long green hair and a wooden crown on his head, answered.

He looked startled to see Lina. The first thing he did was look over her shoulder at the bushes growing around his land to check on their wellbeing.

“Hello.” Lina waved as politely as she could.

“How did you get through my Spikeshrubs?” The NPC asked her.

“I just jumped.” Lina lied with a shrug.

“Hm… well… hello. What do you need?” He asked her cautiously.

“My friends and I noticed that your cabin is made out of Ironwood…” Lina began explaining, but he interrupted her after she’d said this.

“Friends? Where are they? How many?” He looked around nervously, on high alert.

“Uh, there’s just five of us. They're still in the forest.” Lina explained.

“You’re not with those poachers, are you?” He asked her as he pulled his staff off his back suddenly, startling Lina into backing up and putting her hands on her dagger hilts.

“No, no!” Lina replied flustered. “We don’t know any poachers. We just wanted to know how to cut ironwood.” She replied defensively, and the two stared each other down for a moment.

“Should I shoot?” Darkshot asked anxiously as he watched the scene unfold from behind a tree.

“Not yet, hold…” Aegis replied cautiously.

“Hm, I suppose the poachers wouldn’t be smart enough to get over my bushes.” He said before hesitantly lowering his staff, causing Lina to relax and let go of her daggers. “You wish to know how to properly chop and treat Ironwood? That means you’ve defeated one of the Limren Keepers. You must be strong, you and your friends.” the NPC, who Aegis could now make out was named [Ulmat - Level 50], said.

“Yes, we defeated one.” Lina replied.

“But, you do not appear to be the one who wishes to learn to properly chop Ironwood. I sense no woodcutting skills from you. Return to me once you’ve become an intermediate woodcutter, and perhaps we could discuss this further.” He said dismissively, rather like an NPC, as he prepared to close the door.

“Wait, not me, but my party member. He can’t come here though, because of the bushes. Could you somehow let him pass the bushes?” Lina stopped him from closing the door, then turned and motioned behind her across the clearing, where Aegis poked his head out from behind a tree beyond the thorny bushes.

“Ah, yes, I suppose.” He said as he raised his staff again and it began to glow green. A moment later, the thorny branches and bushes began to coil back away from Aegis, forming a small walkway that would allow him to approach the house. “Have all of your friends come through.” He said to Lina.

“C’mon guys.” Aegis motioned them out from hiding, and they all stepped forward beyond the thorny bushes through the path that’d been opened, entering the clearing around Ulmat’s house.

“Yes, I sense you are ready to learn to chop Ironwood, but I’m afraid I will need to ask you a favor first.” Ulmat said to Aegis.

“What’s the favor?” Aegis asked him.

“Recently a group of poachers have taken up residence in the Kolz forest. They’ve been rounding up all of the gryphons in the forest in order to harvest their eggs for various means. Hunting beasts is a part of the natural flow, but they are overdoing it and abusing them. If they are not stopped, I’m afraid that gryphons will cease to exist at all within this forest.” Ulmat explained, and the more he spoke, the more eager Aegis became to take the quest.

“Gryphons are majestic, prideful creatures, but they keep to themselves and cause no harm. To see them caged and treated like nothing more than common farm animals hurts me so, but there are too many of those poachers, and I am too weak to stop them myself. If you shut down the operations of the poachers and free all of the animals they’ve captured, I will gladly teach you to harvest ironwood properly.” Ulmat finished.

Quest: Stop the poachers operating within the Kolz forest permanently, and free any and all beasts that they have captured.

Objective: 0/1 Poachers Stopped

Quest Giver: Ulmat, Kolz Forest

Reward: 3,000,000 Experience, [Woodcutting Proficiency: Ironwood]

Difficulty: Hard

Restrictions: At least 10 gryphons must survive.

Aegis looked to his friends and saw that it wasn’t just him- all of them had gotten the quest and he watched as they all pressed the accept button by pointing their index finger out in front of their faces.

“You guys can complete it, even though you aren’t intermediate woodcutters?” Aegis asked, surprised as he hit accept himself.

“Guess so.” Pyri shrugged.

“Most of the quests are like that, as long as one person in the group is qualified.” Lina explained.

“Ok. Ulmat, don’t worry, we’ll take out those poachers and save the gryphons.” Aegis replied with enthusiasm.

“Wonderful, I hope to hear back from you soon.” He bowed politely. “Please leave quickly, though, before the bushes close again.” He motioned to where the opening in the shrubs had formed, and they were slowly creeping back over the opening.

“Right, c’mon!” The five of them hastily rushed back out of the clearing as Ulmat went back in his house and shut the door. Once they were safely out of the clearing and away from the thorny plants, they huddled once more.

“How many enemies did you see in that fort to the south?” Aegis asked Darkshot.

“A lot. Like, a lot a lot. They had an alarm bell tower and everything, surrounded by palisades.” Darkshot explained.

“Hm. Okay. We’re definitely doing that quest. But we oughta level up a bit first.”

“Lynx den?” Rakkan asked.

“Lynx den.” Aegis confirmed with a nod.

“Ooh, I always love a nice grinding session.” Pyri said excitedly

“There’s something wrong with you two.” Darkshot groaned as he reluctantly led the way for the group towards where he’d found the lynx den.

“Huh? There’s nothing wrong with us.” Aegis replied as, in unison, both Pyri and Aegis began doing their punch-kick-pose walking behind Darkshot, and Lina had to put her hand on her mouth to stop herself from laughing at how confidently they did it despite it looking ridiculous.

“Do you think we’re ready for the next pose yet?” Aegis asked after doing a few.

“No.” Darkshot grumbled back in annoyance.