Ash lay in bed. The morning light filtered through the cracks in her entryway, but she didn’t feel like getting up. Her thoughts lingered on the morbid events and revelations of the previous day. That… that had been a lot.

  She sighed and brought up her status page, hoping to distract herself with her gains from the day before. Her withering still hadn’t improved, unfortunately. The reduction from a few nights before stubbornly refusing to continue. However, her skills had gone up. Her Ice Affinity, Ice Touch and Great-hammer skills had all increased by a point, her Arcane Conduit by two. With that total, she’d likely be doing more ice damage than physical with each empowered swing.

  Her level experience was now up to a whopping 193 overall, almost two fifths to her next level.

  She’s also unlocked a new skill ‘Assess Creature’, which was sat at level 1.

  That was some progress, at least. But it wasn’t enough. She needed to hit harder. Move faster. Her stats were holding her back to an extent, but so was her training. It was time to get serious. No more scrapes with death. No more casualties. She needed somewhere to train properly. Enemies to grind on and develop her skills. Without their venomous bite, the ants would be just perfect for that. She would ask Hestia about getting access to some antivenom, but first it was time for some physical training.

  When talking about Eric the day before, Hestia had mentioned fondly that he’d spent a good portion of his time training his body, commenting how proud he was of the gains to strength and endurance it had gotten him. Well, if Eric could manage it, so could she.

  She hefted her heavy club, straining to curl it up with her arms. 1 rep. Only 29 more to go.

  After doing a range of strength exercises until her muscles burned, it was time for a jog. She set off, aiming to jog all the way around the village and through to the end point at the waterfall. It was harder than she anticipated. She constantly felt out of breath, her legs straining with each push forward. She had to stop four times, struggling not to retch as she panted and sweated and waited for her stamina to refill. Finally, she reached her bathing spot, collapsing gratefully into the water and giving herself a good soak.

  After filling up her water and eating the last of her purple fruit, it was time to head for the village. She approached the wooden stake wall from the western side, noticing that the gate had already been fixed and the bodies cleared. Jori stood by the gate, clutching his spear nervously.

  “Hi.” She said, “Jori isn’t it?”

  “Ash.” The man grinned tiredly at her. “I wanted to say, thanks for stepping in yesterday. What Livey is saying… Well, it’s not right. You’ve done right by me and mine. I probably wouldn’t be alive here today if you hadn’t helped.”

  “Oh, well thanks.” Ash said, feeling a little embarrassed at the praise “Do you happen to know if Hestia is nearby?”

  “Oh sure, she’s probably in her hut. I’ll just go get her for you.” He hesitated “Do you mind watching the gate while I do?”

  Ash agreed and within a few minutes he was back, Hestia following after. The woman looked tired and she had clearly been crying. Still, she smiled when she saw Ash.

  “Hey” Hestia started “What do you need?”

  “I was actually going to ask you about the antivenom. How is it progressing?”

  “Oh that? The first batch is done! Here, let me grab you one.” Hestia reached into her satchel, selecting through a few vials of liquid. “There it is! One dose of antivenom. It should clean out the toxins within a minute and provide you with a resistance to them for about an hour besides.”

  “Thanks!” Ash smiled back. “This is just what I was looking for. The ants have been scouting out further and further and I didn’t want to be caught out by a simple bite like I was before.”

  “Of course.” Hestia considered for a moment, looking Ash over. “Have you thought about protective clothing?”

  Ash looked down at her ragged outfit. She was still wearing only wearing socks and her lower legs were completely exposed. “Actually, that would probably be a good idea.”

  They discussed her needs and Hestia quickly disappeared into the main hall, coming back shortly after with what looked to be an entire outfit.

  “I thought you could do with an alternative option for everything.” She grinned. “A girl should have at least a spare, you know!”

  “Are you sure? This seems like a lot.”

  “Oh, I’d say you’ve more than earned it. And… Well, the people who owned them aren’t in need of them anymore.”

  “Oh.” Ash looked down at the bundle of… well, dead people’s clothing. “And that isn’t going to be considered disrespectful?”

  Hestia laughed at that “Ash, this is a frontier settlement. People here are practical about these things. Everything is repurposed. If you didn’t take these, they’d be someone else’s spares by next week.”

  Most of the clothing was made from a rough fabric, a pair of trousers and a shirt. The most important addition were the pair of simple cloth shoes with what looked to be treated wood soles.

  Shoes! Finally! Has rejoiced internally. She had been getting used to the feel of the jungle beneath her feet, but her socks were constantly feeling wet, her foot slimy and gross whenever she removed them. Finally having shoes would be a godsend. There was a pair of thin woollen socks too, they looked to have had a few patched holes from wear already, but she wasn’t going to turn them down.

  The last item was a little more strange.

  “These are some wooden guards.” Hestia explained. “They should be able to protect you from some damage, especially slashing and piercing. Sasha…” Her breath caught, but after a moment she continued “She used to wear them on her wrists, but you could probably put them on your shins if you’re worried about ant bites. They’ll protect you better than the trousers.”

  The rectangular pieces were quite simple in design, a rectangle of cloth with what looked to be bamboo tied in rows across it. Each had a pair of cloth strips sown on to the back, used to tie them around a limb.

  “Thanks!” Ash said, accepting the items “I owe you for this”

  “No. You don’t. Seriously.” Hestia stared at her “By rights you should have had a share of the weapons and trinkets looted from the Lizardmen yesterday.” She sighed “I hope this will do in their stead.”

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  “Yes. Of course!” Ash replied, a little shocked by the woman’s intensity. “This is just perfect.”

  “Alright. I need to finish setting up my herb garden. I noticed you brought back some Amantia leaves yesterday with the balm plants? If you find any, I’d be interested in some of those to plant there too. I’m sure I could find some more clothing or something in return! And do feel free to stop by for dinner later. You keep yourself safe, okay?”

  Hestia finally stepped back, waving as she turned back to the village.

  “Yeah, don’t worry about me. I’ll just go see if I can find them again.” Ash didn’t like to lie to her friend, but she also didn’t want the woman to worry about her.

  Ash jogged in spurts back to her shelter, where she changed into the new trousers, socks and shoes, leaving the spare shirt, her old shorts and tattered compression socks inside. Then she strapped the guards to her legs. Her shins would now be protected from the front at least.

  With her legs and feet properly covered, Ash felt instantly more confident and protected. Having her legs completely exposed to every fern and leaf in the jungle had not been the most comfortable experience. Ash considered it fortunate that it seemed the devs hadn’t populated the space with many of the small dangers that would be present in a real life jungle, multitudes of small biting insects being dropped in favour of a few massive ants instead.

  Finally feeling properly prepared, Ash felt that it was finally time to go looking for trouble.

  Ash had splattered 3 forager ants before she encountered any real resistance. A pair of guardians, escorting a half dozen foragers, emerged from the jungle.

  She swung her club through a pair of foragers before the group could respond, already powering into the guardian with an ice empowered strike as the rest surged at her.

  Three pairs of forager ant jaws bit at her legs, two of them were stymied by her shin-guards but she winced as the last sank home. The second guardian swiped at her arm, scoring a fresh cut as the other reeled back from her blow. She finished off the first guardian with a quick un-charged swipe, then hopped back as the fourth forager tried to close in on her.

  The guardian ant scuttled forward, holding up its arms defensively as the rest pursued. Another bite sunk into the back of her leg before she splattered the offending ant, her sweep cracking open another and knocking the other two back as well.

  That gave the guardian time to close however, its large jaws sinking into her exposed hip. Ash screamed in pain and battered the creature away, her physical strike was blocked but the ice damage pierced straight through the ant’s guard. She watched as the chill caught hold, and the creature visibly slowed.

  The floundering guardian tried another swipe at her, but she avoided it and slammed her club straight down on its head, another crack of ice smashing it into thick shards.

  The final pair of foragers were still recovering from being knocked back earlier. She stepped forwards and finished them with a quick swipe.

  It was done.

  8 ants down in mere moments. Ash panted. Her stamina was completely drained and her will was down to 8, not even enough for another frost touch. Her health was sitting on 5/14 and it seemed she had resisted all three instances of delirium toxin, even though the dire ant guardian’s bite had been more powerful, hitting her for an additional damage compared to the 2 damage leg swipe or the smaller ant’s bites.

  Her endurance was looking to be even more of a limitation than her health. Each of her attacks cost her 2 stamina. It was the fastest to refill of her three bars, but if she didn’t take any breaks in the fight she’d bottom out. If there had been just one more ant to finish off in this, she wouldn’t have been able to swing properly. Like in many games, out of stamina attacks were slow, inaccurate and at least half as damaging. From her strength training, it did seem like her stamina recovered quickest if it wasn’t fully drained and she simply took a short breather in the midst of exertion. How she would manage that in the middle of a fight was trickier.

  So, sure, she had taken them all down quickly, but a pack of ants this size seemed to be her safe limit. Maybe it was even beyond safe, as she had relied heavily on catching the group off-guard and getting the first hits in. Her skill in Great-hammers seemed to be compensating for her lowered reflex, but she was pretty sure all the ants moved and struck faster than her. It was very difficult for her to spot, let alone avoid their attacks. She was still being too reckless. This wasn’t just a game to her now. This was her life. Her only life. There would be no respawning if she messed up.

  Ash sighed. Perhaps she still needed to wait until her constitution was higher, whether through endurance training or her withering receding. She only hoped at least one of those would come soon. She hated being so fragile, coming away from each fight only inches from disaster.

  She retreated back to a safer spot beneath the nearby Bondi tree to recover, assessing her gains for the fight. 16 exp and a level in Arcane Conduit wasn’t too bad. That brought her up to 19 exp for the day so far. Her multiplier was now up to 0.42x, meaning she was comfortably outputting 9 ice damage with each channelled strike. That seemed pretty good to her. Though, admittedly if she was a normal mage she’d be doing a better 11 ice damage with each frost touch. Or, even easier than that, blasting the ants with fire from range.

  That stupid curse! It was making things so much more difficult. Her withering wouldn’t be so much of a problem if she could stay out of range! Plus, she could have spent her level up point in constitution and have almost 3 times the health, plus stamina for easier movement to keep herself away.

  Ash sighed and pushed the thoughts aside. There was no point dwelling on things she couldn’t change.

  Her eyes drifted upwards, alighting on an orange shape dangling from the branches. Some more of the bondi fruits had ripened since she was here last. That seemed quick. Perhaps the growth rate for these things was faster in-game, or maybe that’s just how fast things grew in the jungle, she wasn’t actually sure. Regardless, there were three fresh fruits in range so she spent a few moments harvesting them.

  She was putting the last one in her basket when there was a rustle from the brush behind her. She wheeled about, scanning the jungle and gripping her weapon tight.

  What was that. Another ant? Ash thought, calculating her chances. She had not yet fully recovered, so if it was anything larger than the previous group of ants she was going to have to retreat, if that was even possible.

  A skitter from the side. She twisted, tracking it. Then it burst out of the foliage.

  A huge ant, at least as big as a guardian with longer forward arms that snaked down into vicious points. It rushed at her, as fast as a forager, hideous mandibles chittering.

  Ash swung as fast as she could, but it wasn’t enough. The ant leapt for her, both arm scythes slashing into her torso on after the other. She screamed as the pain tore into her, straining to maintain focus on her own attack.

  She finally connected, the head of her club slamming into the creature’s side with a dull thwack. Her channelling failed as the ant’s arms tore free from her, leaving bleeding rents in her flesh.

  She had been hit by two attacks in a single moment. Her mind briefly registered the damage. 8 points. A bleeding effect. She hadn’t even started the fight on full.

  Ash didn’t have time to calculate that she only had 3 points left, she just knew she wouldn’t survive another attack. Pure adrenaline, instinct and the 15 points in her weapon skill kept her going, stepping forward and already preparing a follow up swing.

  The creature’s jaws clacked, its arms lifting for another strike. This time, she was faster.

  Smash!

  The monster’s hideous face blasted apart, the frosted insides misting out, glittering almost beautifully in the dappled light of the sun through the jungle canopy.

  Ash gasped and clutched at her chest. Checking first for more dangers then focused on her wound. She needed to stop the bleeding. She ripped off her overshirt and tied it as well as she could around her chest, padding it as best she could with her torn undershirt. Good enough. The bleeding effect faded after only losing 1 more point of health. Back down to 2. Nearly dead yet again. What in the world was that thing? She checked her notifications for the answer.

  You have slain 1 Level 3 Dire Ant Infiltrator. You have received 25 Exp!

  A level 3. They had sent a level 3 for her now? Sure, it seemed the ants were weaker creature’s overall, giving about a quarter of the experience of a humanoid, but still. This was getting a little too dangerous. It seemed she was pissing the things off. Furthermore, they had proved that they could escalate far faster than she could level. Shit. It’s like they all kept saying. I really should be focusing on recovering, foraging and training first.

  Ash retreated, heading straight for her shelter and locking herself inside until she recovered.