Elsewhere

Duke awoke to a burst of adrenaline, gasping in alarm. He had fallen asleep among the dead creatures in their camp. In a brilliant display of calmness and self-discipline, he shot to his feet with his head on a swivel. The sword that had been in his hand when he fell asleep was flung halfway across the camp, splashing in a pool of mostly-congealed blood. He was greeted with the sight of his handiwork in the flickering flames of the campfire.

Seeing the fire still going, he relaxed slightly. Campfire still going strong. I can’t have slept for long, but what woke me up?

***CONGRATULATIONS!

Having survived your first conflict in this world and taken time to rest and consolidate your gains, you have had the following changes to absorb:

You are a monster-killer for sure.

For defeating 8 goblins between level 1 and 2, you receive 311 experience points. Sure, more than half of them killed each other but you did set them up for it so good for you. Enjoy the experience points!

Your Abilities have seen excellent use.

You have made extensive use of your TELEPORTATION Ability and have gained 4 levels, bringing you up to Novice 5. Well done!

You have unwittingly made extensive use of your REGENERATIONAbility and have gained one level, bringing you up to Initiate 14. No Pain, no gain!

You have utilized a number of Skills since your last rest and have made some gains.

Sometimes we learn more from failure than from success. +1 Level in your Stealth Skill. You now have Stealth at Novice level 38.

Batter, Batter, Batter, Swing! And a miss! You have fumbled around with Blades enough to have revealed this Skill to be at Untrained Level 4.

Kick 'em in the ding dings! Success! You have shown some aptitude with the Brawling Skill. You gain it at Novice Level 2.

You travelled several kilometers without twisting an ankle or stumbling into a monster's lair. You gain the Skill Overland Travel at Untrained Level 2.

Continue to grow and prosper. You have been fun to watch so far. Don’t let us down.

By the way, if you don’t eat something soon, you are going to have some serious hunger pangs. You might want to get on that. ***

Duke rubbed at his forehead trying to take in all this new information and what it really meant for him. His world had been turned on its head. So far, he had just rolled with it like an insane lucid dream. But after clearing his head with some rest, the questions started to come fast. The answers, however, did not.

As Duke contemplated everything, he walked around the camp, scavenging what he could find on the bodies of what he now knew to be goblins. They were dirty, smelly creatures and nothing they were wearing would really fit him. He rummaged through their belongings and came away with a few items including a backpack that was a bit tight around his shoulders even with the straps loosened to the maximum. He dumped the few useful items he found in and moved to where he had piled the weapons he had stolen.

The weapons were of decidedly poor quality, most rusted and pitted. It turned out that the sword he had been using was the best of the bunch and actually still had something of an edge to it. He shrugged and dumped all the weapons he could fit into the backpack along with the few cooking utensils and the single small iron cookpot. All told, the backpack now weighed in at about 15 kilos. It was manageable but far from comfortable.

Between the coins Elgin had handed him and what he scrounged from the goblins, he now had 21 copper, 5 silver, and 3 gold coins secreted in his pockets. He had no idea if that was a significant amount, but it was more than nothing. With that in mind, he left the camp figuring the smell would attract some predator or another before too long.

He continued in what he hoped was the same direction he had started off in to get to the goblin camp. He was just thankful that it seemed to be a very bright full moon this night so he could still see where he was going. He kept the moon on his left, hoping that would keep him moving in generally the same direction.

To amuse himself as he journeyed, he used his TELEPORTATION frequently. It did not take long for him to come to the conclusion that the additional 4 levels in the Ability had increased his range by about four meters. Not bad. Not great, since my maximum range seems to be limited by my mana – about 120 meters before I tap out of mana. If I can keep pushing this Ability, maybe I can get that to a distance that will be really significant. I wonder what will happen when I rank it up. Or get more mana, for that matter since that seems to be my limiting factor.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of growling, roaring, and crashing in the distance. He spent a good thirty seconds pouring over his options before deciding that it was better to know what it was than to have whatever it was sneak up on him later. He engaged his Stealth Skill and moved in the direction of the commotion.

It took him ten minutes of sneaking to get close enough to see what was going on. What he saw almost made him turn and leave immediately. In a clearing ahead, there was a bear surrounded by a pack of wolves. The bear was bleeding from a number of wounds and there were at least four wolves either dead or incapacitated lying around the clearing.

As he watched, a wolf would dart in from the side, causing the bear to swing in its direction which would open it up to a bite from a wolf on the opposite side. The pack was wearing the bear down, but clearly it was not without cost.

Quickly assessing the odds, Duke counted five wolves harassing the bear. The odds were not in the bear’s favor. Duke could even things up but that would only put him in danger for little gain. He decided to watch for a moment or two longer before letting nature take its course.

Another wolf darted in and back, using its distraction tactic. The bear did not turn in its direction, instead turning in the opposite direction and catching the opposite wolf in mid lunge. The bear’s claws dug through the wolf’s skin and fur with enough force to nearly decapitate it.

The remaining four wolves howled with rage and stepped back, reassessing the situation. The bear, sniffed the air, catching its breath in the lull. And then it turned its head in Duke’s direction. Its eyes were far too human and intelligent. It locked eyes with him and he could just feel the intent. The bear was begging for aid.

Duke froze as he processed the sight. He was absolutely sure the bear had asked for help, but he was not sure how he knew. Then it hit him. The gift of XENOGLOSSIA allowed him to understand all languages. Apparently, that extended to bear body language. He could not ignore such a plea. It was time to act.

He pulled the half-decent sword out of the backpack which turned out to be a much more difficult task than he had initially anticipated. It was the only weapon in the backpack that wasn’t wrapped in cloth to muffle its sound but even still, it was annoying to get out of the undersized pack.

He had just managed to get the sword ready when the wolves pounced again. This time, two wolves feinted from different angles towards the bear’s front and the two at its rear followed up. The bear growled in pain at it was bitten yet again.

Duke saw his opening as the feints started again. He TELEPORTED behind one of the wolves that was tensing to attack and swung downward for all he was worth. He was in luck. The wolf had not noticed him appear so when it surged forward, stretching its neck out to bite the bear, the sword connected between two stretched out vertebrae. The wolf went down with a final exhalation of its lungs.

Meanwhile, the bear had surged forward to chase the retreating decoy wolves. They scrambled out of the way, but the tide had shifted. Unfortunately for Duke, the wolf next to him that had lunged at the surging bear noticed him and spun in his direction growling. So much for the continued element of surprise. Come on, puppy. I’ve got a Blades skill now!

The wolf charged him as the bear and the remaining two wolves clashed. Duke swung the sword at the charging wolf at an awkward angle. The wolf did not seem impressed at Duke’s efforts as it ducked under his swing and bit into his right shin. Duke could feel the wolf’s fangs scraping against his shin bone and howled in pain.

Instinctively, he swung the sword at the wolf to try and scrape it off him. Once again, the wolf outwitted him and let go in time for the sword to miss. Instead, the sword slammed into the ground and the poorly-made blade snapped off at the hilt. The wolf smiled at him. Smiled? Right, XENOGLOSSIA.

The wolf lunged at Duke again, aiming for his left leg this time. Duke managed to twist out of the way, his injured right leg screaming at him even though his regeneration had kicked in to start healing the wound. Without a viable weapon, Duke pounced on the wolf, pounding it with the pommel of his sword. Two blows later, the wolf slumped to the ground.

Duke turned to see the bear growling at the final wolf as it ran away. And then it turned in his direction. He could read caution in its stance combined with barely held back aggression. Duke dropped the hilt of the broken sword, not that it would have done him much good if the bear decided to attack. The bear, for its part, nodded it head upwards and then proceeded to lick its wounds.

Duke took the moment to check his injured leg only to find it was nearly healed. His Regeneration Ability was working quickly to get him back up to snuff. His pantleg, on the other hand, was much the worse for wear. It was so torn that it offered no real protection from anything. He looked back over to the bear wondering what to do next. The bear had asked for help, and he had helped but the thing outweighed him by at least 150 kilos, probably more. It likely could eat him without him being able to put up much resistance.

His thoughts were interrupted as a man burst through the trees on the opposite side of the clearing, sliding to a stop with a stripped tree branch raised in the air with both hands as if ready to attack. Duke tensed himself for action, ready to TELEPORT to a more advantageous position if needed. The man paused looking between the bear and Duke as if trying to figure out what happened. He then seemed to notice the wolves’ corpses and relaxed slightly, releasing one hand on the branch and bringing it down to chest level. He made an uninterpretable gesture with his other hand.

“I am guessing from the dead wolves at your feet that you are friend, not foe. Yes?” The man spoke with an odd accent and cadence, almost as if he were using translation software to speak with. His eyes still shone with intensity causing Duke to remain tense and ready to fight.

Duke hesitated for a brief moment before responding, “Friend seems like a much better idea to me. Let’s go with that. Is that your bear?”

The intense stare broke as the man grinned widely. Duke could see the smile touch his eyes and felt himself releasing tension that he hadn’t even realized he was holding onto.

“You could say that.” The man chuckled with a wry grin as he approached the bear and laid a hand on its shoulder. Immediately, there was a deep green glow and the bear’s wounds began to rapidly heal. He kept the hand there glowing as he nodded back to Duke.

“I think you can relax a bit, friend. You may call me Grat, all of my friends do. And this is my wife, Elaine.” As he spoke, the last of the bear’s wounds healed. Duke’s mouth dropped open as the bear rapidly transformed into a woman.