With the slaying and absorption of the bear corpse accomplished, Nenn returned to his current objective. He was once again cruising through the forest. After his chat with the eldritch tree he found that his health, stamina, and mana reserves had been replenished. With that bit of knowledge secured, Nenn changed his tactic. He’d run until he hit 30% remaining stamina, then he would look for prey.
A couple of deer-like animals were quickly dispatched as Nenn pounced out of the bushes once more, killing them nearly instantly thanks to the power boost from [Ambush Predator]. The mana from the deers entered into Nenn, and he was quickly refueled and back on track.
I wonder how I can evolve [Ambush Predator] as a skill. I’ve made my [Entangling Roots] into weapons, and I have far greater control over them than when I started. [Nature’s Regrowth] has changed enough that the system has updated its description to match. Maybe I can increase the power boost by pushing more resources in. Or lengthen it by feeding it more over time, or drip feed it to start. Nenn continued his sprint as he continued to ruminate on his abilities.
On the next pitstop Nenn found another deer drinking by a small creek. He crept up on it, and canceled [Ambush Predator] by fueling it with the 10% of his reserves, but he stayed still as the power coursed through him. The deer jolted up, its head swiveling around as it looked for whatever spooked it. The deer bolted as deers tended to do. As Nenn’s boost was about to run out he fed another 10% of his resources into it. How, he wasn’t sure, but it felt correct, so he did it. The power boost continued past the two second mark.
Nenn burst from the bushes with speed he had never felt before. The world slowed down around him. He felt every sensation as his paws ripped into the ground, pushing against it with more power than it could withstand. Instincts guided his next move. Three strides and his body launched itself through the air towards the outpaced deer-like creature. The deer tumbled through the underbrush. It failed to recover its balance after Nenn’s attack now that it was missing a hind leg.
Nenn felt the power boost drain from his body, leaving him more fatigued. His body ached in the same way ones did after a tiring day at the gym. Sore, but in a good way. The deer trashed in the bush. Nenn, not wanting to move his limbs any more than he needed to in the moment, casted [Entangling Roots] willing the roots to be sharp, rigid, and pointed. The deer cried out in pain as a dozen pike-shaped roots shot out of the earth, hoisting it into the air. It struggled against its bonds, but the roots did not yield an inch. The animal stilled, and the all-too-familiar euphoric feeling entered filled Nenn, canceling out his body’s soreness.
Status updates, Nenn thought.
STATUS UPDATES
COMBAT LOG UPDATED
You have slain 4/4 enemy combatants, experience awarded
SKILL UPDATE:
[Entangling Roots](Active): The forest crawls with all sorts of hidden hazards. Summons roots to bind, squeeze, constrict, impale, or bury a target at the druid’s discretion. The strength and number of roots depends on the amount of mana infused into the skill and the environment summoned in. [Entangling Roots] is now affected by [Nature’s Weapons]. Be aware, Entangling Roots effectiveness will be severely limited against elemental, metal, and massive targets.
Oh fuck yeah, that’s awesome, Nenn thought. It is pretty clear to me that The System wants me to exhibit some kind of mastery of the skill before it awards a skill update.
Nenn felt the euphoric feeling dissipate, but was taken aback a bit. His reserves sat around 70%. The deer, by itself, had not supplied enough resources to satiate Nenn’s growing reserves. He was beginning to regret having fed [Ambush Predator] a whole 20% of his resources during the hunt.
But, there was no use crying over spilt milk, especially when everything recovered so quickly. Nenn resumed his run once more. In his [Shapeshift - Deathstalker] form he felt his stamina recover a lot quicker than his mana or health did. Putting in some rough math, he had calculated that his mana was recovering at about a percent every minute, so he was now ticking up at 5 mana a minute.
Stamina on the other hand was recovering at a rate of slightly more than 12 stamina per minute, which worked to something close to 2.5% per minute. It was a very nice addition that came with the deathstalker form, which primarily used stamina, at least so far. Being able to drip feed 12 point equivalents of stamina into his muscles every minute made traveling any distance a lot easier for Nenn, but it was still worth it to pump in the extra stamina to go faster.
Nenn had a lot of time on his paws while he was traveling so he tried to gauge just how much his speed changed based on his stamina investments. To start he recalled that it cost about a point of stamina per minute to walk around in his base form. That was maybe 5 kilometers an hour. With 3 stamina invested Nenn recalled moving twice as fast, so about 10 kph. Around 8 stamina per minute was three times as fast, or 15 kph. Sustaining 20 kph costs about 18 or so stamina per minute.
That math was thrown out of the window in his deathstalker form. His base speed at 1 stamina per minute could reach up to 20kph, matching what would have been a sustained sprint for Nenn before. At 3 stamina per minute, that doubled, at 10 it was triple, and at a whopping 30 stamina per minute it was four times as fast as his ‘walking’ speed.
At 100 stamina per minute, he could move at 100 kph, reaching major highway speeds back on Earth.Nenn could indeed spend that much, but it was an unsustainable pace for him to maintain. The fatigue to his muscles was immense at 100 stamina per minute.
I wonder what would happen if I was to properly spend the time and train myself like an athlete. Could I get better efficiency? Could I spend more and hurt less? If The System is set up to have open ended skills, then I would think I’d be able to master and condition my body in the same way, Nenn thought. He did that a lot.
At the end of his math session he came to the decision to run at a rate of 36 stamina per minute. That gave him about 15 minutes of run time, until he hit his 30% stamina cut off point. He would then go and kill something, and recharge his reserves and continue on, repeating to process.
As long as the absorption process finished within five minutes it was a gain over running at stamina spending neutrality. This way Nenn could rack up some of those tasty experience points, and continue to master his new form along the way. He would have needed to stop and ‘eat’ at some point anyways, so he was really getting two birds stoned at once. While stamina seemed to regenerate out of nowhere, it still had some kind of dependance on consumption.
***
Nenn was making good time. The sun had just passed its apex for the day and Nenn’s progress came to a halt. He had reached the river that Analice had pointed out. It was located approximately half of the way to the Denver Obelisk. The river was wide and the current was fast. White water sprayed and splashed as it hit a set rapids a little further down stream. The riverbank was a hub of activity. While there were no larger animals present, at the moment, there were lots of smaller creatures and birds. There were lots of birds.
Even the insect-like creatures, that up until this point had not paid Nenn any attention, were buzzing around his body. The bugs were harmless, they either could not or chose not to bite the eldritch-wooded, death-mana-aspected deathstalker. Either way, Nenn was happy to not need bug spray. The mosquitoes on Earth were definitely his least favorite part of the summer.
The river on the other hand, could be a hazard. Nenn was accustomed to swimming, but not for long distances, especially in strong currents.
Wood floats, right? I should have nothing to worry about. Plus with my new levels of strength and stamina I should be fine, Nenn thought. Just to be sure, Nenn let his resources fully recover before taking a running start at the water.
The river water was cool and refreshing, if not a little bit too cool for Nenn’s liking. Nenn bobbed in the water, relieved that his wooden body did, in fact, float. A little too well. He tried doggy-paddling towards the other side, but found his movements overpowered by the current. Nenn’s heart rate spiked, and he began to panic. It was one thing to be accustomed to swimming, it was a whole other ordeal to be at the mercy of the current.
Memories of a fateful summer day in Nenn’s youth filled his mind. When he was 12 years old or so, he had been invited up to Aiden’s cottage to spend one of the long weekends. Like any good Canadian cottage, it was located on the water, so naturally they went swimming. Everything had been going well until on the last day, when they swam out a little further than they should have. There was an island in the middle of the lake that had taken their attention so they set off to swim over.
They made their way over there, ran around a little bit, got bitten by a legion of blackflies, then started back towards the cottage. The current had picked up in the time between trips and now the journey was significantly harder. Nenn had to fight the current in order to make it back and there were several times where he thought he wasn’t going to make it. He was pulled under and tossed about, and nearly swallowed a lungful of lakewater. But he persevered, and managed to make it back to dry land, exhausted. The rest of his friends filed in one after another, and they had all managed to make it safely. But they all agreed it had been a stupid decision, and they were all lucky to be alive.
Since then, Nenn detested the idea of going out into a body of water past the point where he could no longer touch the bottom with his toes. With that painful, visceral memory flashing through his mind Nenn was not having a good time. He was stuck bobbing along like a cork in a powerful coursing river. He continued his paddling, but there was no notable progress to being made.
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The sound of rushing water crashing against the aforementioned rapids was getting closer. That’s my chance, Nenn thought. He did his best to aim straight for one of the rocky outcroppings and managed to scamper up it as he floated by.
With solid ground beneath him he could consider his next move. The next outcropping that could hold a Nenn-sized Nenn was just a little too far to jump.
What if I… Nenn thought as he activated [Ambush Predator], then canceled it by feeding it the required 10%. Nenn felt the power surge through him, and he pushed off from the rock and launched himself over to the next one, landing with the grace of a housecat. He repeated the process, jumping from rapid to rapid, until he reached a larger rock in the middle of the river. The rock may have as well have been an island in its own right. Nenn had already spent 80% of his resources trying to make his way over the river, so he took a break.
The rock was warm in the direct sunlight. It was almost peaceful, if one could block out the sound of water crashing against the small island. There wasn’t anything to do, so Nenn found a spot out of the spray of water and laid down.
I guess I don’t need sleep anymore? Nenn thought. He had been awake and moving since last night and he hardly felt tired at all. His muscles, or whatever he had associated his muscles being now that his form did not have soft tissues, felt fatigued at times. But as soon as his stamina recovered or he absorbed the unattached mana from a kill, he felt right as rain.
Even while he lay in a prime cat napping spot he did not feel drowsy. All he could do was wait and pass the time by worrying about his friends. Hopefully they’ll be alright, Nenn thought. And hopefully the Denver group will make it to the Obelisk in one piece. I didn’t even try to process that they might have issues making it back. If there are more of those zombies, or even a real night predator… I’m just hopeful they got some levels out of the last fight with them.
Half of an hour later, Nenn was back on his feet, recharged, and ready to go. The rocky outcroppings were just as far apart going towards his destination as they had been coming towards the middle island.
Nenn activated [Ambush Predator] once more, canceling it and then making the empowered jump across the rapids. Things were going well. Nenn had to pause for a couple of seconds between activating [Ambush Predator] to avoid his muscles cramping up. Nenn leapt across the second to last rapid when the water beneath him exploded upwards.
Nenn couldn’t see what was happening as time began to dilate around him. In the water he could just barely make out two walls with sharp points emerging below him. There was nothing he could do at that moment. He was in the middle of the air and there was nothing to push off against to change his trajectory.
Time dilation was neat, but all that it let Nenn do in the moment was appreciate the innumerable sharpened teeth that were about to tear him to shreds as a set of powerful jaws snapped at him. Nenn pulled his legs in tight, and curled into a ball. The walls of flesh crashed against him consuming him whole.
Nenn’s world burst into pain. His body cracked and popped all over, as the monster’s teeth began to nash against his body. His health points were dropping at an exponential rate. He had to do something otherwise he would be dead in a couple of seconds.
Nenn felt a surge of clarity in his mind as his pain, and all of the unnatural sounds of his wooden body breaking faded into silence. He was not powerless. Far from it.
Nenn casted [Rot], pouring his mana into it. He felt the hold of the jaws around his body lessen just a little bit, but it wasn’t enough.
Nenn followed up with [Entangling Roots]. In the moment it felt right. His own body had been covered in wooden branches and roots, so why couldn’t he order those ones around. His body responded and the roots sharpened and straightened, pushing against the mouth of the monster, pushing its teeth back away from Nenn.
It wasn’t quite enough as the roots began to break under the strain once the spell had ended. Nenn needed more time for his [Rot] to take hold. He was almost out of resources. He had been eager to reach the other side of the river, and had over extended himself. Nenn tried to claw at the tongue of the gigantic beast that held him, but the combination of having spread his own roots out and the battering his body had taken left him unable to even scratch the fresh beneath him.
Nenn couldn’t move. There was no escape. Reaching out with his mana sense was his last hope. There we go, Nenn thought and casted [Entangling Roots] once more. Nothing happened for a moment, but then, the monster's body shuddered as its mouth opened, expelling Nenn’s battered body.
Nenn sputtered as his body breached the surface and he bobbed up and down like a wooden sea urchin that had been thrown down several sets of concrete stairs. His limbs were shot, and there was nothing he could do, he was almost completely tapped out.
The current flipped Nenn over, and there he saw what had tried to eat him. The beast was a giant alligator-like creature with a comically sized jaw. The jaw itself made up almost a quarter of its total body length. The rest of the body was laden with heavy muscle designed to quickly move its deadly jaw into position. At the moment the monster had been pushed half out of the water by Nenn’s [Entangling Roots.] He had dumped nearly all of his remaining mana into commanding the roots of the river plants to extend upwards in a violent fashion, skewering his captor. The alligator struggled to break free, thrashing around, as black liquid poured out of its wounds.
Nenn stopped moving. His extended roots had been caught amongst a rocky outcropping, holding him in place. The water splashed against his battered corpse. The alligator was breaking free of its confinement, and Nenn knew his [Rot] cast had to be running out of steam by now.
In a moment, the alligator would be free, and Nenn would be dead meat. Or, well, dead wood. Like really-extra-actually-dead wood. Nenn had an epiphany just as the alligator was cutting through the last root that held it in place.
Nenn dug deep with his mana sense as he entered into [Nature’s Regrowth]. He felt out across the area between himself and the alligator and found what he needed. He pushed and pushed all of his mana and more into his next cast of [Entangling Roots], pushing his reserves past the limits, he just prayed that it was enough. He held the cast right at the brink of activating, it was like balancing a knife on its edge, but Nenn managed to hold onto the colossal expenditure.
The alligator broke free of its bonds and surged at Nenn, its powerful tail propelling it through the water like a motorboat. Its eyes glowed a tell-tale red, just like the bears had when it had enraged. Just as its jaws opened to snap up Nenn, he released the spell. The world burst into blinding pain as Nenn felt the worst migraine he could have ever imagined possible blossom through his skill.
There was nothing else in the world other than the pain in his skull. It blinded all of his senses so completely, that when the migraine finally passed, he found that he had managed to lodge himself in the riverbed. His body was mending itself through the shiponing of now unattached mana from the dead alligator, whose skeleton was being washed away as it became unassociated with its disappearing flesh. There was no euphoric feeling this time around for Nenn, which he wasn’t going to complain about. The feeling of being alive-ish, was much better than being traditionally dead.
[Entangling Roots]. Nenn reformed his body, finding that the roots that composed his eldritch-wooden body snapped back to their normal position with the barest of thoughts. Freed from his silt prison, Nenn’s body breached the surface once more as it bobbed down the stream. Nenn floated down towards the alligator's disappearing corpse, which was stuck on a rocky outcropping. Nenn climbed up the alligator’s scaly hide and jumped onto the small rock of safety. He looked at his kill and shuddered. That was too close, Nenn thought. Way too close. If I didn’t remember what Liz said about mana withdrawal, I would have been a goner for sure.
Nenn looked at the corpse before him. It flipped over in the current to reveal what had happened. Using the last of his mana Nenn reshaped what had remained of his body’s roots and turned his entire body into a wooden spike. He then used the river plant roots around him to grab ahold of his backside and thrust him through the alligator’s jaw, throwing him straight through the beast and into the riverbed like a javelin.
Without wasting another moment, Nenn made the jump across the rapid to the riverbank, this time without incident. His body was fine. It had healed in its entirety, and his resources, other than the 10% he just spent to make the final jump, were full once more. His mind on the other hand was in shambles. Nearly dying to an alligator definitely had left its mark on his mind. I doubt I could ever get back into moving water again after this, Nenn thought. Status update.
STATUS UPDATES
COMBAT LOG UPDATED
You have slain, 13/13 enemy combatants including 1/1 Natural Area Boss. One Tier 1 Token has been awarded. Bonus experience awarded for level difference and encounter difficulty. You have performed 1 Heroic Save, additional experience awarded.
COMBAT LEVEL: 25
COMBAT CLASS: Druid (Tier - Undefined)
SHIELD: 550/550
HEALTH: 550/550
STAMINA: 550/550
MANA: 495/550, 10% of total mana locked in reserve
NEW SKILL OBTAINED
[Osteomancer’s Control](Active): Bones, lots of bones. Bones, while not living, are part of the natural world and as such fall under the purview of druids. Allows the druid to tap into the remaining legacy of a fallen being and use their bones as the druid sees fit. While in [Shapeshift - Deathstalker] bones may be broken down and stored in mana form within the body of the Deathstalker. Bone energy can be used to repair the deathstalkers body or be reforged into bone as commanded. Bones must be cleaned before use.
SKILL UPDATE
[Shapeshifter’s Mastery](Passive): Continued usage of [Shapeshift] forms has granted the druid a basic level of mastery over the concept. Allows the druid to shift forms faster, more efficiently, and without resource penalty. Allows the druid the option to vocalize as it would in its base form. Druid may return to its base form by recasting the [Shapeshift] ability matching their current form.
TOKENS
Tier 1: 1 (1 Lifetime)
Relief flooded Nenn. With the update to [Shapeshifter’s Mastery] he could once again be human. But, that was for another time. Right now, his human form had no advantages over his deathstalker body. Sure, it could use weapons, wear clothing and has opposable thumbs, but it could not compete in speed. It was also a lot squishier, owing to it being slightly more than half flesh. Really, Nenn couldn’t see himself using his base form in combat, pretty much ever. At least not while in the forest.
[Osteomancer’s Control] was an interesting ability to say the least. Using bones seemed to fit well with the deathstalkers natural absorption ability, where it granted pre-cleaned bones ready for usage. I can’t even imagine getting this ability without having the deathstalker’s ability. I would be stuck at the river for hours and hours scrubbing bones until they were clean. That’s hardly useful in the middle of combat. Although with enough prep, if you had some giant bones, you could have a very impressive weapon… His thoughts trailed off as he came to the realization.
Nenn turned around to looked at the alligator’s corpse. There was nothing but rushing water in its place.
“Damn it.”
