Occasionally I saw a player or two running around, fighting mobs and gathering ingredients. I saw some of them die to trying their luck with more animals than they could handle, but one thing was the same within all of us: we couldn't get enough of this world. This was a one of a kind experience for all of us, and we could barely believe our eyes, ears and noses.
The combat was fluid and easy to getting used to, although I definitely felt that my experience from the outside world greatly helped in this. I kept hunting wild dogs, boars, slimes and other low level monsters with each granting 20-30 experience, and a little while after I reached level 2. However, during all this time, none of the monsters dropped anything else, so I figured that the Dog Tag I found earlier must be pretty rare.
Level up!
Attribute points +5
Health: +10
Mana: +5
Exp: 0/1200
When I leveled up I instantly recovered all of my missing health and mana. Knowing this could definitely come in handy in the future. I spent all attribute points on Dexterity, so now I had 31 attack speed. I wanted to get close to what I'm capable of in real life before spending points on other stats.
I still had 27 minutes of the luck buff so I decided to keep going deeper in the forest. Without a map getting lost was a possibility, but I felt like I could handle stronger mobs and with the luck increase I might actually get something valuable.
As I was not following a beaten path anymore, I tried to keep track of my surroundings, but the constant fighting with the wildlife made it kind of hard to stay oriented.
After about 10 minutes of hunting animals, I saw my first goblin. It was small and humanoid, with greenish skin, holding a crude dagger. It was gathering small branches, probably to make a fire, which made me think that there were more of them nearby.
Goblin Gatherer
Level 2
It was only level 2, and a gatherer nonetheless, so I knew it would be no match for me. However the fact that it being a "Gatherer" was mentioned probably meant that there were other classes as well in their hierarchy. What will I do if I get surrounded by a group of "Goblin Warriors" or something similar? I didn't gain a new skill by leveling up, so I could only rely on Piercing Shot and my basic attacks. I was kind of regreting putting my stats on dexterity instead of strength now. Sure, attacking faster will be great in the long run, but right now, while getting adjusted to the system, increasing my attack power would have been the smart move.
There's no changing that now, I thought. I was about halfway through level 2, so the next attribute points weren't too far off.
I readied my bow and when the goblin reached for another branch, I quickly sent an arrow through his head. I didn't stop there, though. With my now increased attack speed I was trying to maximize my damage output, so I kept shooting. The monster only found me after getting headshotted the second time, and it started charging, but by the time he got to me, I hit him the fourth time and he collapsed to the ground.
It gave 40 experience, which was more than the wild dogs and the boars with 20 and 30 respectively, and it also dropped the knife he was holding.
[Crude Goblin Dagger]
Attack power: 7
Restrictions: none
Can be used as a Skinning tool
It was not a bow, but since it had no restrictions, all classes could use it. It did have more power than my bow, but I couldn't use Piercing Shot with it, and I would also lose my ranged advantage so it had little use to me in combat, however the fact that I could use it to skin my prey was a welcome sight.
I was about to leave to look for other goblins when I noticed a piece of paper that I thought was a fallen leaf at first. I took it and a joyful squeak left my mouth immediately.
[Map of Carpa Precincts]
A detailed map about Carpa and it's surrounding territories. It had been tempered with in a crude fashion, but it is still usable.
I wasn't sure why the goblin had a map, or if they could read it at all, but a map was something I desperately needed. I quickly checked where Carpa village was located. From the looks of it I was in the Fang Forest, just north of the village. The hills surrounding the forest were called the Sharp Highlands, and there were three caves located inside the forest. There was an X mark next to one of them that wasn't part of the original map. That was what the description meant by "being tempered with", I guessed.
If the goblin had this map, the X could have marked where their camp was located, if they had a camp at all. I still had no idea where I was relative to the landmarks, as all I could see right now were just trees.
The moment I went through this line of thought I realized I have been hearing a monotone sound in the background. A river, most likely.
I rechecked the map and saw that a river did in fact flow through Fang Forest, all the way through Carpa and down into the sea far away. I adjusted the map, checked the path I took from Carpa to the forest and started thinking.
I haven't crossed the river, so if I kept going north, it should be on my right. I quickly turned around to see where I came from, and true enough, it felt like I was facing the same direction –north- the whole time. I turned to my right and started going. I still had about 15 minutes of my luck buff and I really wanted to use it on something worthwile, although I wasn't sure I could take on a whole group of goblins.
After a while I did in fact reach the river. There was no way for me to cross it, and the cave with the X mark was on the other side, just north east of where I most likely was.
The river wasn't too wide; about 6 meters at the narrowest point, and I could see the bottom even at the middle, so it probably wasn't very deep either. It looked completely safe to cross, but this was not real life so I couldn't be sure there weren't any dangers lurking around.
Let's see how swimming in the game is, I guess, I thought. I unequipped my bow, and I decided to also unequip my clothes. There I was standing in a simple flannel underwear, about to submerge into unknown waters, quite literally. In real life I would probably be more careful, but there's no point in not exploring this world as soon as possible, unexpected dangers included.
As I stepped into the river, the fresh flowing water felt like a bunch of cold needles piercing my skin, like acupuncture. In fact, the water was colder than I expected, but spring has just arrived and although the cold winter winds have already turned into pleasant spring breezes, the rivers didn't have enough time to warm up just yet.
With that thought on my mind I lunged forward. Once I got fully submerged, the cold has turned bearable and I started swimming, while still looking around for potential threats. The current wasn't too strong, and a couple seconds later I reached the other shore. I climbed out of the river bed quickly and without any problems. It was chilly outside, but I guessed it would have been much worse in the outside world; either my character was more durable and resistant than a normal person, or the game was set to be much more bearable than the real world, but I didn't have much trouble shaking the feeling off.
I looked down at my health bar and worriedly noticed that two small icons have appeared next to my Luck buff that still had a couple minutes left.
Soaked
You are completely soaked. Agility –20%
Cold
You are unprotected from cold weather. All stats –10%
Well, I shoud have thought of that. I didn't want to waste time looking for a path through the river because I still wanted to make use of my Luck increase, but it's obvious that a game like this would punish you for environmental hazards.
As I was about to equip my clothes, a worrying thought crossed my mind. What happens if I get dressed while still wet? Clothes didn't seem to have any durability stat, but what happens if my shirt and throusers get soaked as well? Will it be harder for me to dry up?
Still, I equipped them all, just for the sake of removing the "Cold" debuff. Much to my delight, both icons have disappeared shortly after getting dressed. It felt like even my underwear has dried up somehow, and although it wasn't making much sense, I was incredibly grateful for the system to work this way.
I headed north and kept killing the hogs and slimes that came in my way. My luck buff eventually ran out after about 12 minutes since I crossed the river.
Level up!
Attribute points +5
Health: +10
Mana: +5
Exp: 0/1600
It took about 30 minutes to gain a level. I could have likely leveled up faster if I solely focused on that, but I had to keep stopping to admire the details of this world. Every tree, every boulder felt like it was carefully placed to form a unified world, and I felt like I had to take it all in.
Learning from my mistake, I put the attribute points to Strength this time. With 10 strength and 15 dexterity under my belt, I had an attack power of 26 with an attack speed of 31.5, and it sure made a huge difference. I tried attacking a group of Wild Hogs, and they fell much quicker than before. I was also making steady progress with my quests.
Pest control
Kill dangerous wildlife (small): 83/100
Herbs of the Spring Festival
Butterfly mushrooms 33/50
Blue wildflowers 17/50
Flamewing tulips 0/50
Walnuts 52/100
It turned out that walnuts were plentyful where Wild Hogs liked to linger. However I still haven't found a single Flamewing tulips, which made me think they were mostly located in different biomes.
I also looted the wild dogs and boars for their remains using my newly found knife. The process was smooth and most likely much easier than in real life. It was also easier to stomach it, as processing these animals were much less gruesome than in the outside world.
Skinning them didn't always succeed since I wasn't proficient enough. The first time it did, however, I unlocked the passive skill "Skinning&Processing". The higher stat I had in this skill, the easier it became to succesfully extract the spoils. Currently I had 2 points in it, after trying it on all 22 wild animals I've hunted. They were mostly Wild Hogs, or Large Wild Dogs, which were the level 2 variants of the Wild Dogs from earlier. I opened my inventory to check what I had been able to gather.
Rough Boar Hide x4
Boar Hide x2
Exquisite Boar Hide x1
Rough Wild Dog Hide x3
Boar Fangs x2
It wasn't much, but they could probably be used to craft something later on, or sold to a player or an NPC. Out of all of them, the Exquisite Boar Hide looked like the best quality loot I managed to get.
Hide of a Wild Boar. It was extracted exceptionally well.
So it matters how well you skin the animals, too?, I thought. I wasn't sure if my Luck buff helped me get this, but overall, I couldn't complain. Although I didn't get any other loot during the Luck increase, I still had this and the Dog Tag from earlier.