Damn, that was terrifying.
I look down on the knocked-out leader of the human party, sweat dropping all the way down to my spine.
This guy spared nothing trying to get me, huh?
If he had a bit more, I actually might've been caught; I mean, the last trap I had set up was already gone by the time it was only them left, if an actual knight or the sorts was with them, they could've had a fighting chance against me.
Well, in the end, I was able to beat them.
Fortunately.
Oh, and, I forgot to mention—
-Quest Completed-
▣Defend your home!▣
Instructions: Thwart the plan of the invaders and defend your home.
Rewards: New Feature Unlocked
—Right after I started preparing and setting up traps against the humans, the system had suddenly awoken or something, because it gave me a quest out of nowhere, right in the middle of me making traps.
Since I was already planning to do that from the start, I accepted it and continued with setting up traps.
Now that I've completed the quest, let's see what kind of 'feature' this system has unlocked for me…
But before that, I need to gather up all the people I just knocked out.
Can't keep all of them in their traps; I already had to kill one giant bear that tried to make its way to one of the incapacitated people before dealing with the remaining victims—I mean intruders.
If I tally up all the traps I've made that they threw themselves into…it'd be around 46 people, plus 6, so I'd have to bring 52 people back with me to a safer place, all of whom are in traps placed in different locations from each other, and thus requires me to do a lot of walking…
*Haah*
If I knew the aftermath was going to be this troublesome, maybe I would've just retreated further into the forest.
Saying that, if I did actually retreat further in, I'd have to deal with stronger and fiercer animals than the ones I'm already facing…
Eh, thinking about it now, this isn't so bad after all.
And so, I went and retrieved everyone, knocking out those who either weren't unconscious or woke up again, and huddled them all together with interconnecting ropes.
Some of them needed more hits to be knocked out, I'm guessing those were the knights or hunters they hired…good thing the plant these traps are made out of are really sturdy.
By the time I finished, the sun had started to set.
Now, where do I place them?
Definitely not my cave; if I did, once I release them, they might plot to come back and kill me in my sleep, and I wouldn't even know it.
Or surround me, burn my cave down, starve me out, or poison my water supply, or a lot of other things humies do to their enemies.
I also can't just place them anywhere in the forest; too many opportunistic predators are on the loose at this time of day.
…Oh!
Right!
I forgot!
Why not just use their camp that they've oh-so cherished and turned into a private area for themselves?
Yeah, let's go there.
"Wouldn't you agree, humies?"
For some reason, every time I speak about humans, my voice automatically changes it to 'humies', and I'm already getting used to saying it.
It's because of that 'Orcish Blood' trait of mine; it's a worthy price to pay for being physically stronger and more durable.
Well, then, heave…ho!
"Ugh!"
"Ah…"
Dragging the groups of roped people, each consisting of ten people, with heavy gear and the likes, was not an easy task, even for me.
But it was something that I had to do, because nothing else came up in my mind on how to bring them all back to their camp.
And don't forget all the things these guys can be snagged on here in the forest.
It'll be fine, they can handle it; they're all strong guys, right?
If they had any complaints, they should voice them out now.
Oh, wait, they can't.
Because they're unconscious.
Too bad!
…
…
…
After the grueling repetition of dragging five groups of rope-bound unconscious people to the camp, I took a rest sitting near the campfire they made.
Luckily, no one else was here; either because this is their forward base, or because everyone else but them had left or something.
For some reason, all of them were still unconscious.
I checked their pulse before, and it was still beating.
It seems the only thing I can do for now is wait.
…And while I'm waiting, I'll check my status screen and that quest reward, too.
I lazily flicked my wrist, feeling the fire warm my body against the cold night breeze.
+====================================+
// ALERT! // → Some skills have been merged!
|- Field Dressing
|- Fire Starting
|- Foraging
|- Primitive Tool Crafting
|- Environmental Awareness
+====================================+
+====================================+
// ALERT! // → Some skills have been merged!
|- Sneak
|- Camouflage
|- Stalk
+====================================+
+====================================+
// STATUS SCREEN //
+====================================+
|NAME: Grul
|RACE: Orc
|CLASS: None
|LEVEL: 12
|XP: 18/250
+------------------------------------+
|HEALTH: [█████████] 100% |
|STAMINA: [████------] 40% |
|MANA: [----------] 0/0 |
+------------------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTES:
|STRENGTH: 30 (+8 Racial) |
|DEXTERITY: 19 |
|VITALITY: 28 (+9 Racial) |
|INTELLIGENCE: 12 |
|WISDOM: 12 |
+------------------------------------+
|SKILLS:
|- Unarmed Combat (C) (Passive)
| ↳"Everybody was kung-fu fighting!" - Carl Douglas … Increases effectivity of unarmed combat.
|- Sprinting (C)
| ↳ Drastically increases movement speed at the cost of stamina.
|- Regeneration (B+) (Passive)
| ↳ Increases speed at which wounds heal.
|- Orcish Blood (A) (Passive)
| ↳"Orkz is made for fightin' and winnin'!" - Ghazghkull Thraka … Bestows a formidable constitution and innate combat prowess. Provides a significant bonus to physical attributes and combat effectiveness. Also changes your diction when talking to others.
|- Throwing (C+) (Passive)
| ↳ Increases the accuracy and force of thrown objects.
|- Iron Stomach (C) (Passive)
| ↳ A growing tolerance for poorly prepared, rough, or unappetizing food. Reduces the negative effects of consuming spoiled or low-quality ingredients.
|- Endurance (B+) (Passive)
| ↳ The ability to sustain physical effort despite fatigue, hunger, or injury. Increases stamina regeneration.
|- Intimidating Aura (B+) (Passive)
| ↳ Beings feel a sense of pressure when they're around you. Makes people feel more inclined to agree with you or even submit.
|- Roar (C)
| ↳ "THIS IS MY SWAMP!" - Shrek … Potentially cause enemies to be terrified or confused. Probability proportionally increases with level difference.
|- Trap Making (B+)
| ↳ Allows the creation of exemplary traps using raw materials which could incapacitate, severely wound, or eliminate the one caught inside of one.
|- Axe Mastery (C) (New!)
| ↳ "Here's Johnny!" - Johnny Torrance … Increases efficiency of axes you are using.
|- Heavyweight (D) (Passive) (New!)
| ↳ "Move 'em on, head 'em up, head 'em up, move 'em on, move 'em on, head 'em up, Rawhide!" - Frankie Laine … Causes all things with a weight greater or equal to 10 lbs. to have their weight value reduced by 20% when you carry, hold, or drag them.
|- Survivalist's Instinct (A) (Passive) (New!)
| ↳ Provides a complete, intuitive mastery of fundamental survival techniques. Also grants a heightened awareness of the environment, allowing for the automatic detection of food, water, resources, and hidden dangers. Gives a moderate boost to stamina regeneration and overall perception.
|- Shadow Hunter (B) (Active/Passive) (New!)
| ↳ "The predator's silence is the prey's oblivion." ... Seamlessly blends movement with the environment to achieve near-total concealment. Drastically reduces visibility and sound while moving. The longer you maintain concealment and focus on a target, the more physical information you gather, or crit rate, should you choose to strike at the poor victim.
+====================================+
Very nice.
The two weeks of grinding I did were not wasted.
In just a few weeks of living here, I've already reached the 100 XP limit and some of my skills are getting merged.
What's the 100 XP limit, you may ask?
Starting at level 10, the requirement to level up increases by 50 XP per level up.
That's it, really.
Well, not really.
Depends on the difficulty you're playing at.
If you're on the easier mode, the XP requirement starts at level 15 and increases only by 25 per level up.
The normal difficulty, on the other hand, is this: Level 10 is the limit, and then 50 XP increase per level up.
And then you have the harder difficulties…
Yeah, I won't talk about those.
Those involve a lot of convoluted equations for some reason.
And don't get me started on the shenanigans you can do with the custom difficulty; some guys at the forums were able to input y = kx^2/^3√z or something along those lines into it and actually were able to play the game like that.
Crazy dudes.
Anyway, after feeling good about myself for a while, I finally decided to check what the new feature was about.
Beside my status screen, there was a small box with a question mark inside.
Clicking it, I was greeted with a 3d animation of the box opening itself, and revealing…
+====================================+
// OPTIONS //
+====================================+
[BGS Volume: [█████████] 100%]
[BGM Volume: [█████████] 100%]
[ME Volume: [█████████] 100%]
[SE Volume: [█████████] 100%]
[Remember Command: ON/(OFF)]
+====================================+
This…
This is…
An RPGMaker options menu?
…
…
…The hell am I going to do with this?!
Roleplay as a deaf person?!
Thanks, devs, very cool!
No, let's not get too heated about this…
Looking on the bright side, this might help me in situations involving sound.
Turning the BGS Volume down to 80%, I can clearly feel its effects.
The sound of the forest at night; owls hooting, cricketing, howling; they all seem a bit further away than before.
I turned the BGS back up to full and tried to fiddle with the BGM.
Of course, nothing changed, so it's a useless mechanic for now.
The ME volume, too, was pretty useless.
SE Volume was interesting; once it was lowered, I tried a few things, like slapping my knee, swinging my axe, and jumping, and they all sounded a bit quieter.
I wonder if this can affect other people, too.
If not, then eh, still seems pretty useful in certain situations.
Aside from that, this should make living inside of a forest a bit more bearable.
It'll have its use someday, I know.
Upon closing the options menu, the humies were slowly starting to wake up.
It appears to be about time I prepared myself.
Human interaction for the first time in like, what, 4? 5? 6 Weeks?
Yeah, I think I can handle this pretty well.