Eventually she managed to stop wallowing enough to actually look at the rest of the menu options. The distraction would be welcome. Might as well go top to bottom.
[ Name: Unnamed ]
[ Species: Grey Wolf | Gender: Female ]
[ Genus: Wolf ]
[ Class: Starter ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ HP: 16/16 | SP: 20/20 | MP: 8/8 ]
[ VIT: 6 | END: 7 ]
[ STR: 6 | DEF: 3 ]
[ AGI: 7 | DEX: 5 ]
[ INT: 3 | WIS: 3 ]
[ LUK: 10 ]
Hey! I'm not unnamed, my name is Sara! She refused to let that be taken from her too.
The Status immediately updated itself to [ Name: Sara ]
That's better. Now then... level 1 tutorial mob really isn't much, huh? Starter class? What does that mean?
"The Starter class is one that can do a bit of everything, to allow players to test out different playstyles, weapons, and magic until they hit level 10, and can pick their actual class. That does not really apply to you since you cannot switch weapons, but you have to reach level 10 before you can get your first evolution."
Huh... so is anything below level 10 a Starter?
"Yes. Starter mobs are weaker to match the jack-of-all factor of Starter players. After level 10 the power of mobs jumps noticeably, and players who try to keep going without picking a class will struggle, but they are free to do so if they wish."
Alright then... and my stats are... I would guess that base values are 5, and the variance is from racial modifiers. Seems somewhat min-maxed. I can guess what all these mean, as well. Defence 3, huh? No wonder I died so fast. And I guess a wolf has little use for magic-related stats. Wait, why is Luck so high?
"Your Luck score was boosted by Norax's will," Aina chimed in.
What? Norax?
"The entity who transferred you here."
Oh.
The letter hadn't been signed, either on purpose, or because they had forgotten.
"They wanted to give you as good of a start as possible, but we were very limited in what we were able to do. Their nature made Luck the easiest stat to influence."
Their nature?
"They told me that their godhood was related to luck and chance, but I am not deeply familiar with gods or theism outside of what exists within Moorhold."
Sara wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she decided to move on.
[ Active: ]
[ Bite Lvl 1 | Rake Lvl 1 ]
[ Passive: ]
[ Night Vision Lvl 2 | Skill Gain Lvl Max (Hidden) ]
[ General: ]
[ Identify Lvl 1 (Hidden) ]
[ Skill points: 10 ]
I have skill points?
"Yes. We were able to give you access to the skill store. Just touch or focus on the yellow + button in the bottom right. Your selection will be more limited than that of players, but more will be unlocked as you level up, and evolve. However you will likely never get the same selection as a player would, even should you evolve into a Resident. Your Skill Gain ability will let you acquire skills you wouldn't be able to get through the store, even if you cannot currently use them."
Right... this sounds rather complicated. Why does it say (Hidden) by that skill?
"It's a unique skill that shouldn't be in the game, as such I have rendered it impossible to view for anyone but you or me."
And Identify?
"It is a skill mobs should not be able to possess or obtain. If levelled enough, it will let you see the skills of your target. We did not want to risk you getting reported if anyone did that on you, and saw it, but we deemed it useful enough that you should have it. At level 1 it will only let you see the species name, and HP bar of your target. Just focus on a target to use it."
Sara sighed. Hopefully she'd get used to all this pretty soon. She poked at her skills to see what they did, even if they sounded pretty self-explanatory.
[ Bite (Active): Attack using jaws and teeth, or something with an equivalent function. Damage value: 1+(0.03*skill level)*attack power. Critical hits inflict Bleed status on target for 10 seconds. Cost: 1 SP. Refresh: 2 seconds. ]
[ Rake (Active): Attack using claws, or something with an equivalent function. Damage value: 1+(0.03*skill level)*attack power. Increased critical hit chance. Critical hits inflict Bleed status on target for 10 seconds. Cost: 2 SP. Refresh: 2 seconds. ]
Wait, it costs that much just to attack something?
Even if her starting SP seemed high, she would still run out of stamina pretty fast if she got into a longer fight. As far as she knew, MMORPGs did not typically rely on Soulslike stamina management.
"Yes, and no. You can still do regular bite and claw attacks without using SP. Think equivalent to auto-attacking in older MMORPGs. Any sort of way of attacking with your body you can think of should work. Body slams, for example. Using attack skills like Bite and Rake is to get extra damage, and added effects. I do recommend using them as much as you can to level them up."
That made more sense.
[ Night Vision (Passive): The ability to see in the dark. Effect increases with skill level, until there's barely any difference between night and day. ]
As expected. She wasn't sure if it had been at level 2 from the start, or whether it had levelled up while she had been too lost in thought to notice. Passive skills were always active, after all, and she'd stayed inside the cave most of the time. She couldn't tell if it looked any brighter in there than when she first woke up. Maybe?
[ Skill Gain (Passive): 25% chance to obtain a skill you do not already possess from among skills possessed by a target you kill. (Players excluded.) ]
Um, Aina? Why is Skill Gain only a 25% chance?
"Since it is a unique skill, I do not have any data on its effectiveness, or how it should be balanced. We decided on 25% as a starting value, but I will adjust it depending on how it works out for you."
Sara sighed again. Perhaps it was for the best. Becoming too busted too fast would probably increase the odds of gaining unwanted attention. She just felt very impatient. Next was the Reputation tab, which was...
Empty.
"You need to interact with someone from a faction, perform a deed that impresses or displeases them, or obtain sufficient information from a third party for that faction to be added to your Reputation tab."
Can't you just add them for me?
"I could, but I feel that it would be better for you discover them naturally."
Yes, mum...
Sara heaved another sigh. She should probably stop doing that so often, but it was hard to avoid in the current circumstances.
"Mum?"
Uh... sorry. I didn't mean... you just kinda... never mind.
Aina didn't provide any further reply.
Inventory was still just the letter, so that left the Settings.
Graphical and audio settings were all greyed out. She was actually in the world, after all, not accessing it via a machine. There was the option to toggle Family Friendly mode, basically limiting how much blood and gore you'd see. While she didn't faint at the sight of blood or anything, she still decided to toggle it on. No need to go full gore, especially since it seemed like she'd be getting very up close and personal with her opponents. There was also a drop-down selection to change the UI colour, and she quickly switched it to a more pleasant transparent red.
Next were the settings for the senses. Graphical and audio settings covered sight and hearing already, with the exception of a drop-down box for safeguards against audio spikes. Meaning sudden loud noises that might be harmful. There was a tooltip that pointed out that disabling loud noises entirely could make you miss incoming enemies, or certain events. Sara decided to just set it at "Please don't blow out my ear drums" for now. It could always be adjusted later. The same for touch sensitivity, which she left at realistic.
Smell was a more complicated issue. From what she knew canines had a stronger sense of smell than humans, so it might get overwhelming if she left that at realistic. But smell could also be important to let her know where something was. She'd just have to see for herself how bad it might get. Taste was probably fine, though it depended on what she needed to eat.
Actually, when she thought about it, she hadn't really felt any... needs, since she came here.
Aina? Why don't I feel thirsty or hungry? She left any other bodily needs out of the question.
"Mobs do not have thirst or hunger bars as of yet, only players and Residents do. The feature still needs further testing before it can be implemented. If all goes well, it will come in a future update. You are still able to drink and eat if you would like, but you do not need to."
Sara wasn't sure how to feel about that. It was handy at the moment, since if she thought about it her only source of food would be to tear into prey. Eating fresh, raw meat wasn't high on the list of things she desired. But it also felt like something was missing.
Next was sensing temperature, and also how affected by weather she would be. She wasn't really tempted by shivering with cold, knocked out by heat, or getting soaked by rain. They were both set to medium by default, but she pushed them down to mild for now.
The final one was the sense of pain. She wouldn't say she was a fan of pain, and she expected that held true for most people, but there was a tool tip that reminded her that we felt pain for a reason. Turning it off entirely would make you unable to sense any injury you couldn't see. After some internal debate she tentatively set it to 50%, thinking she could lower it further if need be.
That was it, then. No more to... wait, she forgot to check the skill store. She went back to the Skills tab, and pawed at the yellow button. What showed up was a pretty small list.
[ Howl ]
[ Stealth ]
[ Keen Eyes ]
[ Agility Up (Small) ]
[ Endurance Up (Small) ]
[ Skill points: 10 ]
Endurance and Agility Up skills were self-explanatory, and she probably had access to those because they were her two highest stats. Though strangely Luck was excluded. She didn't feel it was worth asking about, though. As for the other three...
[ Howl (Active): Release a howl that has a chance to inflict Fear in opponents for 5 seconds, and will Rally allies for 10 seconds. Effect and duration increase with skill level. Rally buff value: 10+(1*skill level)%. Cost: 3 SP. Refresh: 20 seconds. Price: 2 skill points. ]
How do Fear and Rally work?
"Fear causes the afflicted to lose control of their actions, during which they might simply freeze, or try to involuntarily run away in panic. Rally is a buff that increases Strength and Agility. It does not stack, but since duration is typically shorter than the skill's refresh rate, having two allies with the same skill is still beneficial."
That sounds pretty useful, but maybe I don't need this yet. Seems like it would draw a lot of attention when I'm on my own. How does it define allies?
"For players and Residents it is party members, alliance members, members of the same faction, and members of factions they have Allied status with. For mobs it is others within the same genus, in your case all wolves, so long as you are not in direct conflict with them."
Which meant that lone wolves were easier to pick off, while packs could quickly get dangerous.
[ Stealth (Active): The ability to go unnoticed. Lightly cloaks the user, making them hard to spot from a distance, but be warned it is not the same as invisibility. Continuous effect. Works better when not moving, while in the shade, and/or in combination with terrain features like tall grass, bushes, etc. Effect increases with skill level. Stealth deactivates when performing an attack, if damage is taken, or if user moves too quickly. Cannot be used in combat. Activation cost: 1 SP. No further cost while active. Deactivation cost: 0. Refresh: 3 seconds. Price: 2 skill points. ]
That one was a must-have, so Sara bought it immediately, dropping her down to 8 remaining skill points.
[ Keen Eyes (Passive): Improves the sense of sight, letting the holder see clearer both close-up, and at a distance. Effect increases with skill level. Focusing on a point will let the holder zoom in to an extent. Price: 1 skill point. ]
That also sounded really useful, but it suddenly occurred to her that with Skill Gain she might be able to get those for free by defeating other wolves. There were two problems with that, though.
First off the other Starter wolves probably didn't have any skills that she didn't start with herself, unless there was some sort of boss type wandering around. Secondly she wasn't sure how she felt about attacking her own kind. Or attacking anything at all, for that matter. But even though she'd only been a wolf for like a day or two (staying inside the cave, and falling asleep a few times had lost her all sense of time passed already), and still retained her human mind, it didn't feel right to attack other(?) wolves. She liked wolves. Had even gotten to carefully pet one once.
But if she wanted to make any progress she would have to attack things. Though she vaguely remembered hearing that there were many ways to gain experience, and level up in the game, it was unlikely many of those were available to a wolf. So she had to fight. And kill. Which just depressed her even further.
* * *
Having put Stealth to use for the first time, she had snuck her way out of the cave, and found a good vantage point to scout out the area from. She had bought Keen Eyes in the end, and it was already making itself useful. There were several players running around, chasing and killing mobs in order to level up. Presumably. All the mobs seemed to have the same two minute respawn timer that she did. At least that eased her conscience a little with regards to killing any of them. They would just respawn shortly after. It was a game, after all. Even if it was the only reality she had access to. She wondered whether the regular mobs kept their memories of before they died, or whether they were wiped clean. It was hard to say which was the better option.
She carefully observed the mobs as well. If she knew how they acted, she might be able to avoid acting too suspiciously herself. There were wolves, boars, rabbits, and sheep that she could see. And some birds above that the occasional arrow or fireball flew towards, but rarely hit. The area looked like some sort of half-cultivated farmland sitting on the edge of the forest. The building she had seen on her first trip outside was probably the farmhouse. She saw players walking in and out of it fairly regularly, so there was probably at least one quest in there. There was also a cat curled up on a barrel close to the door. It looked like a regular house cat, black and white. That was even more out of the question to attack than other wolves. Thankfully none of the players made a move towards it either, respawn or not.
She had spotted some foxes by the edge of the forest. They darted among the trees, but didn't walk out into the grassy field. They looked small enough that maybe they were just critters rather than mobs. Assuming this game made the distinction. The rabbits were bigger than ones she had seen on Earth, but still small compared to other creatures, and seemed to just run away from anything that attacked them, be it wolves or players. Even if they didn't need to eat, perhaps it was just natural (programmed) instinct for the wolves to hunt other creatures. It probably wasn't worth asking Aina for more detail.
The wolves would occasionally try going for the sheep as well, but they didn't wander far from the farmhouse, and there always seemed to be a player nearby to intercept them. Sara wasn't sure if that was a farming strategy, or whether there was some 'protect the sheep' quest.
The boars just casually grazed around the area, though they would charge at any wolf that came close. She ended up lying there long enough that both Keen Eyes and Stealth levelled up. It was a shame that she was too far away for Identify to reach. It would be nice to work on levelling that up too, since she'd get to see more information. There was one rabbit that eventually hopped close enough, apparently not seeing through her Stealth. She focused on it, and the words [ Field Hare (Lvl 1) ] appeared, along with a red bar above its head.
Ah. Hares are bigger than rabbits, I think. Though maybe still not quite as big as these ones.
It seemed like she needed a higher level Identify to see more. It was actually close enough that she could pounce on it. Not the most honourable action, but she had to get started at some point.
*BOOM*
Suddenly the hare exploded into fire, the red bar drained to nothing, and the text changed to [ Field Hare (Lvl 1 Corpse) ]. That startled her so badly that she jumped up, which broke her Stealth.
Ah, crap.
[ Respawn Timer: 01:59 ]
Once she was back in the cave she huffed, and sulked.
Stupid mages...
That killed her motivation to go back out there to fight something. Maybe she should wait until it was dark to head out. Less people played at night. Probably. Assuming day and night here passed at the same speed as in the real world. Which it might not. Well, it should be easier to sneak with Stealth, if nothing else.
... Hey, Aina?
"Yes?" Immediate response as always.
You're overseeing the entire game, right?
"Correct."
Then do you really have the time to look after me so much?
"I think you misunderstand how I work. I have enough processing power and memory that I can oversee the entire world of Moorhold at once. I do not do only one thing at a time, so paying attention to you is no burden."
So... you're the God of this world.
"Depending on how you define it, perhaps. I did not create this world, I merely manage it."
Sara's mood hadn't really improved from what she'd learned.
So why do you care? I'm just one little thing.
"It is important that you are not alone," Aina said with zero hesitation.
Sara wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she just flopped onto her side with another lump in her throat.
Eventually she managed to stop wallowing enough to actually look at the rest of the menu options. The distraction would be welcome. Might as well go top to bottom.
[ Name: Unnamed ]
[ Species: Grey Wolf | Gender: Female ]
[ Genus: Wolf ]
[ Class: Starter ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ HP: 16/16 | SP: 20/20 | MP: 8/8 ]
[ VIT: 6 | END: 7 ]
[ STR: 6 | DEF: 3 ]
[ AGI: 7 | DEX: 5 ]
[ INT: 3 | WIS: 3 ]
[ LUK: 10 ]
Hey! I'm not unnamed, my name is Sara! She refused to let that be taken from her too.
The Status immediately updated itself to [ Name: Sara ]
That's better. Now then... level 1 tutorial mob really isn't much, huh? Starter class? What does that mean?
"The Starter class is one that can do a bit of everything, to allow players to test out different playstyles, weapons, and magic until they hit level 10, and can pick their actual class. That does not really apply to you since you cannot switch weapons, but you have to reach level 10 before you can get your first evolution."
Huh... so is anything below level 10 a Starter?
"Yes. Starter mobs are weaker to match the jack-of-all factor of Starter players. After level 10 the power of mobs jumps noticeably, and players who try to keep going without picking a class will struggle, but they are free to do so if they wish."
Alright then... and my stats are... I would guess that base values are 5, and the variance is from racial modifiers. Seems somewhat min-maxed. I can guess what all these mean, as well. Defence 3, huh? No wonder I died so fast. And I guess a wolf has little use for magic-related stats. Wait, why is Luck so high?
"Your Luck score was boosted by Norax's will," Aina chimed in.
What? Norax?
"The entity who transferred you here."
Oh.
The letter hadn't been signed, either on purpose, or because they had forgotten.
"They wanted to give you as good of a start as possible, but we were very limited in what we were able to do. Their nature made Luck the easiest stat to influence."
Their nature?
"They told me that their godhood was related to luck and chance, but I am not deeply familiar with gods or theism outside of what exists within Moorhold."
Sara wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she decided to move on.
[ Active: ]
[ Bite Lvl 1 | Rake Lvl 1 ]
[ Passive: ]
[ Night Vision Lvl 2 | Skill Gain Lvl Max (Hidden) ]
[ General: ]
[ Identify Lvl 1 (Hidden) ]
[ Skill points: 10 ]
I have skill points?
"Yes. We were able to give you access to the skill store. Just touch or focus on the yellow + button in the bottom right. Your selection will be more limited than that of players, but more will be unlocked as you level up, and evolve. However you will likely never get the same selection as a player would, even should you evolve into a Resident. Your Skill Gain ability will let you acquire skills you wouldn't be able to get through the store, even if you cannot currently use them."
Right... this sounds rather complicated. Why does it say (Hidden) by that skill?
"It's a unique skill that shouldn't be in the game, as such I have rendered it impossible to view for anyone but you or me."
And Identify?
"It is a skill mobs should not be able to possess or obtain. If levelled enough, it will let you see the skills of your target. We did not want to risk you getting reported if anyone did that on you, and saw it, but we deemed it useful enough that you should have it. At level 1 it will only let you see the species name, and HP bar of your target. Just focus on a target to use it."
Sara sighed. Hopefully she'd get used to all this pretty soon. She poked at her skills to see what they did, even if they sounded pretty self-explanatory.
[ Bite (Active): Attack using jaws and teeth, or something with an equivalent function. Damage value: 1+(0.03*skill level)*attack power. Critical hits inflict Bleed status on target for 10 seconds. Cost: 1 SP. Refresh: 2 seconds. ]
[ Rake (Active): Attack using claws, or something with an equivalent function. Damage value: 1+(0.03*skill level)*attack power. Increased critical hit chance. Critical hits inflict Bleed status on target for 10 seconds. Cost: 2 SP. Refresh: 2 seconds. ]
Wait, it costs that much just to attack something?
Even if her starting SP seemed high, she would still run out of stamina pretty fast if she got into a longer fight. As far as she knew, MMORPGs did not typically rely on Soulslike stamina management.
"Yes, and no. You can still do regular bite and claw attacks without using SP. Think equivalent to auto-attacking in older MMORPGs. Any sort of way of attacking with your body you can think of should work. Body slams, for example. Using attack skills like Bite and Rake is to get extra damage, and added effects. I do recommend using them as much as you can to level them up."
That made more sense.
[ Night Vision (Passive): The ability to see in the dark. Effect increases with skill level, until there's barely any difference between night and day. ]
As expected. She wasn't sure if it had been at level 2 from the start, or whether it had levelled up while she had been too lost in thought to notice. Passive skills were always active, after all, and she'd stayed inside the cave most of the time. She couldn't tell if it looked any brighter in there than when she first woke up. Maybe?
[ Skill Gain (Passive): 25% chance to obtain a skill you do not already possess from among skills possessed by a target you kill. (Players excluded.) ]
Um, Aina? Why is Skill Gain only a 25% chance?
"Since it is a unique skill, I do not have any data on its effectiveness, or how it should be balanced. We decided on 25% as a starting value, but I will adjust it depending on how it works out for you."
Sara sighed again. Perhaps it was for the best. Becoming too busted too fast would probably increase the odds of gaining unwanted attention. She just felt very impatient. Next was the Reputation tab, which was...
Empty.
"You need to interact with someone from a faction, perform a deed that impresses or displeases them, or obtain sufficient information from a third party for that faction to be added to your Reputation tab."
Can't you just add them for me?
"I could, but I feel that it would be better for you discover them naturally."
Yes, mum...
Sara heaved another sigh. She should probably stop doing that so often, but it was hard to avoid in the current circumstances.
"Mum?"
Uh... sorry. I didn't mean... you just kinda... never mind.
Aina didn't provide any further reply.
Inventory was still just the letter, so that left the Settings.
Graphical and audio settings were all greyed out. She was actually in the world, after all, not accessing it via a machine. There was the option to toggle Family Friendly mode, basically limiting how much blood and gore you'd see. While she didn't faint at the sight of blood or anything, she still decided to toggle it on. No need to go full gore, especially since it seemed like she'd be getting very up close and personal with her opponents. There was also a drop-down selection to change the UI colour, and she quickly switched it to a more pleasant transparent red.
Next were the settings for the senses. Graphical and audio settings covered sight and hearing already, with the exception of a drop-down box for safeguards against audio spikes. Meaning sudden loud noises that might be harmful. There was a tooltip that pointed out that disabling loud noises entirely could make you miss incoming enemies, or certain events. Sara decided to just set it at "Please don't blow out my ear drums" for now. It could always be adjusted later. The same for touch sensitivity, which she left at realistic.
Smell was a more complicated issue. From what she knew canines had a stronger sense of smell than humans, so it might get overwhelming if she left that at realistic. But smell could also be important to let her know where something was. She'd just have to see for herself how bad it might get. Taste was probably fine, though it depended on what she needed to eat.
Actually, when she thought about it, she hadn't really felt any... needs, since she came here.
Aina? Why don't I feel thirsty or hungry? She left any other bodily needs out of the question.
"Mobs do not have thirst or hunger bars as of yet, only players and Residents do. The feature still needs further testing before it can be implemented. If all goes well, it will come in a future update. You are still able to drink and eat if you would like, but you do not need to."
Sara wasn't sure how to feel about that. It was handy at the moment, since if she thought about it her only source of food would be to tear into prey. Eating fresh, raw meat wasn't high on the list of things she desired. But it also felt like something was missing.
Next was sensing temperature, and also how affected by weather she would be. She wasn't really tempted by shivering with cold, knocked out by heat, or getting soaked by rain. They were both set to medium by default, but she pushed them down to mild for now.
The final one was the sense of pain. She wouldn't say she was a fan of pain, and she expected that held true for most people, but there was a tool tip that reminded her that we felt pain for a reason. Turning it off entirely would make you unable to sense any injury you couldn't see. After some internal debate she tentatively set it to 50%, thinking she could lower it further if need be.
That was it, then. No more to... wait, she forgot to check the skill store. She went back to the Skills tab, and pawed at the yellow button. What showed up was a pretty small list.
[ Howl ]
[ Stealth ]
[ Keen Eyes ]
[ Agility Up (Small) ]
[ Endurance Up (Small) ]
[ Skill points: 10 ]
Endurance and Agility Up skills were self-explanatory, and she probably had access to those because they were her two highest stats. Though strangely Luck was excluded. She didn't feel it was worth asking about, though. As for the other three...
[ Howl (Active): Release a howl that has a chance to inflict Fear in opponents for 5 seconds, and will Rally allies for 10 seconds. Effect and duration increase with skill level. Rally buff value: 10+(1*skill level)%. Cost: 3 SP. Refresh: 20 seconds. Price: 2 skill points. ]
How do Fear and Rally work?
"Fear causes the afflicted to lose control of their actions, during which they might simply freeze, or try to involuntarily run away in panic. Rally is a buff that increases Strength and Agility. It does not stack, but since duration is typically shorter than the skill's refresh rate, having two allies with the same skill is still beneficial."
That sounds pretty useful, but maybe I don't need this yet. Seems like it would draw a lot of attention when I'm on my own. How does it define allies?
"For players and Residents it is party members, alliance members, members of the same faction, and members of factions they have Allied status with. For mobs it is others within the same genus, in your case all wolves, so long as you are not in direct conflict with them."
Which meant that lone wolves were easier to pick off, while packs could quickly get dangerous.
[ Stealth (Active): The ability to go unnoticed. Lightly cloaks the user, making them hard to spot from a distance, but be warned it is not the same as invisibility. Continuous effect. Works better when not moving, while in the shade, and/or in combination with terrain features like tall grass, bushes, etc. Effect increases with skill level. Stealth deactivates when performing an attack, if damage is taken, or if user moves too quickly. Cannot be used in combat. Activation cost: 1 SP. No further cost while active. Deactivation cost: 0. Refresh: 3 seconds. Price: 2 skill points. ]
That one was a must-have, so Sara bought it immediately, dropping her down to 8 remaining skill points.
[ Keen Eyes (Passive): Improves the sense of sight, letting the holder see clearer both close-up, and at a distance. Effect increases with skill level. Focusing on a point will let the holder zoom in to an extent. Price: 1 skill point. ]
That also sounded really useful, but it suddenly occurred to her that with Skill Gain she might be able to get those for free by defeating other wolves. There were two problems with that, though.
First off the other Starter wolves probably didn't have any skills that she didn't start with herself, unless there was some sort of boss type wandering around. Secondly she wasn't sure how she felt about attacking her own kind. Or attacking anything at all, for that matter. But even though she'd only been a wolf for like a day or two (staying inside the cave, and falling asleep a few times had lost her all sense of time passed already), and still retained her human mind, it didn't feel right to attack other(?) wolves. She liked wolves. Had even gotten to carefully pet one once.
But if she wanted to make any progress she would have to attack things. Though she vaguely remembered hearing that there were many ways to gain experience, and level up in the game, it was unlikely many of those were available to a wolf. So she had to fight. And kill. Which just depressed her even further.
* * *
Having put Stealth to use for the first time, she had snuck her way out of the cave, and found a good vantage point to scout out the area from. She had bought Keen Eyes in the end, and it was already making itself useful. There were several players running around, chasing and killing mobs in order to level up. Presumably. All the mobs seemed to have the same two minute respawn timer that she did. At least that eased her conscience a little with regards to killing any of them. They would just respawn shortly after. It was a game, after all. Even if it was the only reality she had access to. She wondered whether the regular mobs kept their memories of before they died, or whether they were wiped clean. It was hard to say which was the better option.
She carefully observed the mobs as well. If she knew how they acted, she might be able to avoid acting too suspiciously herself. There were wolves, boars, rabbits, and sheep that she could see. And some birds above that the occasional arrow or fireball flew towards, but rarely hit. The area looked like some sort of half-cultivated farmland sitting on the edge of the forest. The building she had seen on her first trip outside was probably the farmhouse. She saw players walking in and out of it fairly regularly, so there was probably at least one quest in there. There was also a cat curled up on a barrel close to the door. It looked like a regular house cat, black and white. That was even more out of the question to attack than other wolves. Thankfully none of the players made a move towards it either, respawn or not.
She had spotted some foxes by the edge of the forest. They darted among the trees, but didn't walk out into the grassy field. They looked small enough that maybe they were just critters rather than mobs. Assuming this game made the distinction. The rabbits were bigger than ones she had seen on Earth, but still small compared to other creatures, and seemed to just run away from anything that attacked them, be it wolves or players. Even if they didn't need to eat, perhaps it was just natural (programmed) instinct for the wolves to hunt other creatures. It probably wasn't worth asking Aina for more detail.
The wolves would occasionally try going for the sheep as well, but they didn't wander far from the farmhouse, and there always seemed to be a player nearby to intercept them. Sara wasn't sure if that was a farming strategy, or whether there was some 'protect the sheep' quest.
The boars just casually grazed around the area, though they would charge at any wolf that came close. She ended up lying there long enough that both Keen Eyes and Stealth levelled up. It was a shame that she was too far away for Identify to reach. It would be nice to work on levelling that up too, since she'd get to see more information. There was one rabbit that eventually hopped close enough, apparently not seeing through her Stealth. She focused on it, and the words [ Field Hare (Lvl 1) ] appeared, along with a red bar above its head.
Ah. Hares are bigger than rabbits, I think. Though maybe still not quite as big as these ones.
It seemed like she needed a higher level Identify to see more. It was actually close enough that she could pounce on it. Not the most honourable action, but she had to get started at some point.
*BOOM*
Suddenly the hare exploded into fire, the red bar drained to nothing, and the text changed to [ Field Hare (Lvl 1 Corpse) ]. That startled her so badly that she jumped up, which broke her Stealth.
Ah, crap.
[ Respawn Timer: 01:59 ]
Once she was back in the cave she huffed, and sulked.
Stupid mages...
That killed her motivation to go back out there to fight something. Maybe she should wait until it was dark to head out. Less people played at night. Probably. Assuming day and night here passed at the same speed as in the real world. Which it might not. Well, it should be easier to sneak with Stealth, if nothing else.
... Hey, Aina?
"Yes?" Immediate response as always.
You're overseeing the entire game, right?
"Correct."
Then do you really have the time to look after me so much?
"I think you misunderstand how I work. I have enough processing power and memory that I can oversee the entire world of Moorhold at once. I do not do only one thing at a time, so paying attention to you is no burden."
So... you're the God of this world.
"Depending on how you define it, perhaps. I did not create this world, I merely manage it."
Sara's mood hadn't really improved from what she'd learned.
So why do you care? I'm just one little thing.
"It is important that you are not alone," Aina said with zero hesitation.
Sara wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she just flopped onto her side with another lump in her throat.
