Prospector's Rest, Goldmoss, Ujax Forest
"Welcome back," I greet the returning Jupiter, a little more haggard than before he left, "I assume you were successful?"
Blinking, he shakes off whatever is on his mind, "Of course, don't you know who you're talking to? Jupiter Trail Master Wizard, Lord of the Arcane and The Bane of Normality!"
"So, you're a Wizard now, then?" Windy asks, cutting to the point.
Seeing our continued apathy to his grandstanding, he deflates considerably and comes back down to the ground with the rest of us, "Yeah. My trial was to be some old woman's Apprentice then research and collect some monster Carcasses for her."
"Good," I approve, "Congratulations on graduating from the worst part of the game for spellcasters. The possibilities you have available to you now are far greater now."
Wizards are the quintessential magical damage dealers. Their Spells have a chance to critically hit, they can enhance their potency and their MP management receives a qualitative boost in options, although they still chug mana potions like a college freshman going through cheap shots of vodka for quite some time yet. More powerful Spells, inevitably, cost greater amounts of MP, so even the most extravagant mana pools will eventually dry up during combat without support.
The main issue being the acquisition of Spells in the first place, as Spell Tomes are legendarily annoying to come by reliably outside of NPCs selling or rewarding them thanks to the many different magic types, though not as bad as Trap Designs or the better crafting Schematics. Skill Gems are also a pain to get hold of, but since there are on average more martial Class holders than magical ones on Merrow, finding the more ordinary ones for martial Classes is less painful. There are Skill Gems for magic classes too, but outside of a couple of extremely basic ones, they're amongst the rarest.
Spellcasters are eminently flexible and powerful, certainly, but finding all the necessary building blocks is just as much of a pain in the ass as playing a Trapper. Not to say us martials have it easy, since we have to directly focus on bringing out the most of our own personal skill instead, which can impose harder limits.
We all have our own obstacles to overcome on our Paths, is the point I'm trying to make here.
"What sort of abilities have you gotten?" Mr Fathom asks curiously.
"My spells can get fat crits and I no longer have to drink an ocean's worth of bleach whenever I'm running low on MP," Jupiter reveals smugly.
"...Manafication is on a 90 minute cooldown at base," I burst his bubble immediately, "And liable to kill you if you're not careful with it."
His mouth draws a thin line, "Come on, man, let me have this moment."
"You've still a ways to go yet, same as the rest of us," I smile, "It's called 'The First Step' for a reason, after all."
"I suppose. Still, cool to have more options for fighting besides sucking on bottle after bottle of mana potion," Jupiter shrugs, "Just being able to crit occasionally with Spells will bump my damage potential up significantly, and Amplify is just good for burst."
"Don't mistake me, I'm not trying to downplay what you have now, just pointing out that you've only scratched the surface," I soothe him.
"Sure. So, what'd I miss?"
"Nothing," Jade yawns, "Been waiting up for you before we go after the other two packs of mobs."
"Let's go introduce them to my newfound power," Jupiter chuckles darkly with a glint in his eye.
"AHAHAHAHA! BURRRRN, FOOLISH MONSTERS! GET CRIT ON!" the newly-minted Wizard cackles manically after getting a critical hit on his first cast of Minor Conflagration and blasting the other half of the Mossdeep Deer not killed by me or Jade before Windy can even get a single hit in.
It's honestly overkill, but so long as he's happy I suppose. Leaving Wolf Hunt to gather up the corpses, I train my gaze on what Miss Coates affectionately refers to as 'Big Bert' one of the largest trees in the valley, stood proud on the southwest end of Prospector's Rest. Supposedly that's where the final herd is grazing.
Odds are high that we'll finally run into a pack of Dire Wolves though since that general area is their hunting ground.
"Ok, for this next herd, make sure you're on the lookout for roaming wolves," I announce to the hunting party as we start to move on, "If we aggro one while busy with our target, don't panic, do not attack them. Mr Fathom, Jupiter, it's on you to delay them if needed."
"Understood," Mr Fathom doesn't raise any objections.
Jade rubs her wrist, "Gooot it."
"Hey, Silver," Windy leads in, "What kinda woodcutting level do you need to take down one of those trees?"
"Why, thinking of becoming a lumberjack?" I laugh, "I honestly have no idea. I doubt they have any nodes on them."
"Call it idle curiosity," she shrugs, "There doesn't look to be much else around this valley other than them, so I thought there might be something to them."
"As far as I know, the only woodcutting nodes in Ujax Forest are in The Periphery and Central Clearing," I recall, "But they're the same types as the ones at Killigan's Copse, just with more logs per node. Not really worth the risk if you ask me, but the Copse is normally pretty busy lately, so people'll try it anyway out of desperation and greed. Then get eaten by Dire Wolves, probably."
I note a few of the Wolf Hunt members in earshot wince involuntarily. Ah, victims of the same, looks like.
"Maybe. Wonder how much you could sell all the lumber on one of those things for..." Windy muses.
"Now you sound like Jade," I snort, "If I had to guess, hundreds of Stone Gold, but not as much as you might think. It's still just ordinary wood after all, even if it's freakishly large."
"You think?" Miss Leovoldt joins us up front, "If you could uproot the whole tree, I bet you could sell it for a stupid amount to some nobleman NPC somewhere."
"Even if that were feasible or possible for us at the moment, where would you find someone willing to buy a 400ft tall, 100ft wide tree?" I scoff, "You try taking that to an Auction House and they'll tell you in the politest way possible to fuck off."
"It'd be a great conversation piece though! 'Come over to my manor, Lady Whateverton, I have simply the largest, girthiest tree, and that isn't even an innuendo unless you want it to be...'" Windy grins, and the both of them start arguing for the virtues of gigantic topiary at my expense.
'Big Bert' is, unsurprisingly, big. Close as we are, it's basically impossible to see past it even at this distance. I can't help but wonder what could be responsible for the explosive growth of these trees in particular. I sincerely doubt that it's a coincidence and that they naturally grew like this, as I can clearly tell that they're the same kind of Sad Oak tree as can be found throughout Ujax Forest and Goldmoss, just scaled up tremendously.
Which of course leaves the question of whether the thing responsible being a one-off from centuries past, or something that's still undiscovered. If it's the latter, it definitely warrants further investigation, as any item or power that can produce these kinds of result could be wildly beneficial if put to better use. The cave entrance on the west side would likely be a good place to start.
Point of fact, once WLR is dealt with, a thorough combing of Ujax Forest with Wolf Hunt's help might yield unexpected benefits. Ideas for later.
The final herd is minding it's own business ahead of us, so after reiterating the action plan, Jade starts the pull. The very moment I activate Bull Rush however, I hear the panicked cry of Miss Coates, "INCOMING WOLVES!"
Sure enough, the howling of canines follows her scream, but I'm already committed to my charge. The best I can do to help right now is to kill as many Goldmoss Deer as I can quickly then deal with the new threat after. I'm not too bothered if one of them escape.
Executing the same crescent sweep as the previous times, but eschewing Brutal Strike, I kill the three in front of me, then leap with the remaining momentum forward into a second whirlwind slash, leveraging the strengths of the Terrorsteel Horrorblade as a cleaver meant for continuous attacks and killing a further four deer. I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this Reaver business, even if it's not to my taste.
Seeing that I have the situation well in hand, Windy waves to me with her shield arm then activates Interceptor to quickly reposition to the fleeing Miss Coates. A rather more appropriate use of the ability compared to piggybacking my Bull Rush.
Killing one more deer before the remainder flee, I take stock of the approaching pack of Dire Wolves, 5ft tall, 6 foot long monstrous grey-furred canids. From a rough estimate, I'd say there are almost two and a half dozen of them, between Level 9-12. Mercifully, it doesn't look like there are any Betas leading them, which would make this almost impossible to deal with if I insist upon preventing casualties. The tactical ability of the Dire Wolves outside of the Ancient Battlefield is sharply lowered without an Elite to lead them, making them little different from any other mindless beast.
When the pack approaches within approximately 20ft of Wolf Hunt, a keening screech forces me to cover one ear as I run, leaving the other one ringing. The Dire Wolves, conversely, howl and whimper, rolling on the ground in pain. Minor Sonic Mines, courtesy of Mr Fathom - they emit a high pitched screech that can stun creatures with hearing, and anything with sensitive ears like a wolf will find it exceptionally unpleasant. For better or worse, my Perception is starting to fall behind my Level's attribute weighting - stats exhibit power proportional to a nebulous average expected value for one's Level, such that a Level 10 with 100 Strength might be equivalent to a Level 20 with 10 Strength as an inaccurate example, I'm not clear on the math involved - so I'm not all that affected at this range, but a glance at Jade is all I need to sympathise, the fox demihuman clutching her hands to her ears in agony.
Following this up is a Minor Mespem Sheen from Jupiter, brandishing his staff dramatically, catching a good dozen of the wolves closest to the front and coating the blast radius with a layer of ice, demonstrating good awareness of what and when to attack by crippling the potential advance of the closest threat as the effects of the stun begin to wear off.
With that in mind, I focus upon those not damaged by the Spell first, as they have the greatest potential to cause a ruckus. With a little extra oomph from Momentum, I slam down through the neck of a mostly recovered Dire Wolf on the left flank, decapitating it cleanly. With a half step, I bring the cleaver up and do the same to a wolf on my right, then twist and hack away at a third's skull with a last-second Brutal Strike, bashing it aside in a squall of blood.
Windy changes from those affected by Mespem Sheen and performs a coup de grace upon the monsters that are still prone on the right flank, understanding what my aim is - a wave of electric magic from Jupiter's follow-up cast of Minor Hoshum's Thunderclap sweeping down the dead centre, finishing off several more, arrows taking the more stubborn of them down. Jade evidently recovering enough to resume shooting.
Unfortunately, this also means that the last dozen or so Dire Wolves have also recovered, and as one, they pounce at me head-on heedless of any danger to their lives. Happy to oblige their deathwish, I hop back to avoid being quite literally dogpiled - heh - countering with yet another wide sweep of my horrorblade, but missing completely, the wolves flattening themselves to the ground as they land to avoid my strike. With a curse, I hurriedly bring my blade in front for defence, and just barely block a lunging tackle, but am unable to mitigate the second, fourth and fifth attacks, losing over 300 health in recompense for my mistake, even after activating my one and only defensive cooldown, Reaver's Tenacity.
An explosion of fire to my right distracts me, but the Dire Wolf that tries to capitalise gets slammed with a pair of glowing arrows in the throat, then a third regular arrow, killing it immediately, followed by a soothing light enveloping my body restoring a third of my lost health. Teammates are a wonderful thing.
With support from our ranged members, cleaning up the remnants is, admittedly, still stressful. Ujax Forest's Dire Wolves are infamous for a good reason after all, and even with their intellects significantly hampered, they still prove to be more agile and conscientious than any enemy I've had to contend with in a head on conflict since being sent back to 2108. If I had to say, though, the one who struggled the most has to be Windy, as group fights are definitely not something she can handle well when there's a blast-happy Wizard spamming Minor Conflagration. More than once she has to disengage from her current target to swipe at a Dire Wolf breaking away to hunt down the spellslinging madman.
Eventually, and inevitably, the last Dire Wolf, one of the larger Level 12s, falls dead with an arrow through it's midsection.
Your party has slain a Dire Wolf!
Awarding 3420 experience.
The members of Wolf Hunt let out a collective cheer and applaud our valiant efforts, impressed and feeling some of their resentment against them melting away from satisfaction in second-hand vengeance against their tormentors.
A pity that I'll need to kill many, many more to make a dent into my experience pool, considering the cap doubles each time. Completing Quests is generally more efficient from this point, but until Meteo City's Siege is dealt with and the Pioneers Alliance freed of Geronil's influence, that's not really an option.
Honestly though, I think we've already outstayed our welcome in Ujax Forest. I don't know what time it is exactly, but we must be nearing sunset, and we do not want to still be here when that happens, or else we'll be taking the 'quick' way back to Meteo City.
