James pulled out his crossbow and found that it had fully repaired itself now. Lining up a few shots, he found his aim had improved again and could now hit a tree trunk while he walked.
He applied the repair card to his spare clothes to repair where they’d been punctured. The process was as simple as opening his inventory and “playing” the card on clothes.
Play Card – Steady Repair (Utility: Clothes)
He was a little surprised that repair targeted all his clothes in that slot. Still he didn’t complain if the system wanted to help.
Edward decided to take the lead and they let him. Squire glided among the trees but always within eyeshot. Charlie stayed close, ears perked, alert.
The path showed signs of wheeled tracks and many foot prints. There were even some signs of hoof prints.
It was a bit nerve-racking, but nothing attacked them while they stayed on the path. Edward was tempted to go look for trouble, but James and Ken both convinced him that the guild quest came first. They did not take any breaks. Squire and Charlie didn’t seem to need any either. They stopped a few times as small streams or springs appeared at the path’s edge. Despite this the path was almost straight, as if it was built first and the forest sprang up around it.
Squire was patrolling as normal when she let out a rather un-squirrel-like roar. James would have laughed if he’d heard it back on Earth. It was truly like a dragon that had breathed in hydrogen. Now, it worried him.
They all immediately ran towards the sound. It wasn’t long before additional roars, followed by the screech of claws on metal came through. They were getting close when there was a massive thump and one of the trees came crashing down towards them. James dove to the side but an unfortunate branch pierced his stomach through his leather armour. He couldn’t breathe and this time there was no defeating and then binding the creature to get it off.
James was losing a ton of blood but knew healing with the branch still in him would be pointless and maybe worse.
There were sounds of combat going on nearby and someone was calling out his name. He couldn’t shout back.
He was careful to open his inventory where he would only have to move slightly to put it in a slot. He did so. It hurt like hell.
Inventory action failedDo you wish to merge slots and eject other inventory items?
The tree vanished and every item from the merged slots spilled out onto the ground.
James’s consciousness fully returned when the hole in his stomach closed up. Ken must have used one of his big heals once the branch was gone.
He looked over and saw that there were still large chunks of the tree all over the place, including the stump.
James got to his feet seeing all his inventory around him. Charlie was guarding him but not engaging. Squire was harassing what looked like a large ball of iron with legs and tusks. She had it frustrated, but was far too fast to let herself be hit.
Edward had his spear out and was trying to stab it. Though he hit, the strikes didn’t penetrate the armour.
James picked up the bone shield, ignoring the rest.
He wasn’t a fighter… It was his job to think, strategise, and enhance. He needed to play cards.
Stolen story; please report.
“Quick buffs incoming on Edward and Ken!” He shouted.
Play Card – Quick Might
Target: Effect: +5 Might for 1 minute.
Play Card – Quick Mind
Target: KenEffect: +5 Mind for 1 minute.
James briefly considered dropping the tree he had in his inventory on the iron-hide boar but knowing his luck it would get stuck or worse, skewer him or a friend.
The effect of his buff was immediate.
Suddenly Edwards spear pierced the iron-hide boar's side. It thrashed in order to get it out but Edward was now strong enough to hold, and even push it further in. Beyond the iron shell though, the insides were flesh and vulnerable.
Edwards had greatly wounded it but it wasn’t dead. It managed to angle its tusk under the spear head and Edward pulled out in case the spear would be damaged.
A bolt of blue force punched in from Ken’s staff the moment Edward pulled back.
It was knocked off its feet.
Edward called out “Do you need to damage it to card it?”
“No idea!”
“Not the time to find out. Damage it!” Edward shouted.
Play Card – Summon Item
Target:
The Crossbow was suddenly in his hands.
He pulled a bolt out of the quiver which was still attached to him.
He shot and missed.
The iron-hide boar was stumbling now.
Edward shouted “Quickly now!”
Play Card – Perception
Target: James
Effect: +5 Perception for 1 minute.
Play Card – Agility
Target: James
Effect: +5 Agility for 1 minute.
James aimed and shot it in the hole left by Edward. It was nearly a perfect shot. The iron-hide boar collapsed immediately afterwards.
The fury seemed to leave Squire as soon as the creature collapsed.
A yellow glow appeared.
They were all breathing hard.
James was a little annoyed that he had burnt through a lot of Instant cards so quickly. He probably could have just taken a few more shots.
Squire didn’t look remorseful at all as she arrogantly and slowly laid a scaled paw on the corpse.
System Notice – Essence Stabilized.
Additional information unlocked:
Iron-Hide Boar:
- Category:
- Rarity:
- Aspects:
- Slots Required:
- Abilities:
- Traits:
- Crafter:
- Size:
- Weight:
- Level Requirement:
- Rarity:
James was surprised that so much information was now unlocked. He wondered what he had to unlock to get information on loot and harvesting.
Card Added to Deck.
The new card joined his deck with a pulse of light.
Ken came over first and in an uncharacteristic use of words said. “What happened to the tree?”
“It’s taking up all my inventory slots. I had no idea I could combine them like that - but apparently I can. Can you guys guard me for a few minutes while I deal with it?”
He turned to Edward. “Do you have an axe I can borrow?”
A duffle bag full of weapons and tools appeared out of nowhere in front of Edward. He was clearly taking advantage of his new inventory slots.
Edward sifted through for a moment before drawing out a standard woodsman axe.
James took it and lay down.
“Can you protect me for a bit while I deal with this? It will look like I’m… actually I haven’t seen anyone else do this. Perhaps you can describe what I look like afterwards.”
They nodded.
James gave the sign to Charlie to guard and Squire seemed to pick it up too. They would likely be talking to him soon depending on how the Mind stat actually worked.
James dropped into his Commander’s Space, at normal time, along with the welcoming white noise.
Could he unlock a music player… Question for Bob when he saw him again. He tried to just will it to happen but it didn’t work. Drat.
James moved over to his crafters hall and then into the walk in inventory.
Expectantly, there were no slots there any longer. There was the tree, one branch of which was covered in his blood. He got to work.
The plan was to chop off all the branches and then let the main trunk out in a semi safe way.
However as soon as he swung the axe into the first branch a system prompt appeared.
Crafters Bench option:
James agreed and the axe disappeared from his hand. Simultaneously a red line stretched from the tree through the door. He followed it through the crafters table and found a new resource card outline in red on the resources board.
- Resource Card – Pine Wood Essence (Basic)Time remaining: 4 hours 30 mins.
Tool in use: Woodsman’s Axe
Well… that took care of that!
He dropped out of the Commander’s Space with a huge smile on his face. It quickly disappeared when Edward leaned over him menacingly.
“Where’s my axe?”