Chapter 10: Departure

Chapter 10: Departure

On the third day of hiding in the Nymph’s territory, my Health was finally done regenerating. Well, really, it was done about halfway through day two, but I wanted to wait a bit longer just to get some rest and wait until the morning, when I’d have a full day’s worth of sunlight to spend traveling. I decided that I was going to make a serious attempt to find civilization now, so I wanted to make sure I was totally ready for it.

I didn’t do much over the few days I spent hiding out, getting water from the river and making small expeditions outside of the Nymph’s influence to hunt small game to eat, which earned me a little bit of XP. I’d gotten a bit used to eating raw meat – at the very least, I could get it all the way down without gagging now. Some of the larger monsters like Wood Wraiths and Dire Bears came and drank near my little shelter, but – like I’d guessed – they didn’t attack, paying me no mind other than a bit of caution. But other than that, I spent most of my time relaxing. Well, I did one other thing.

Threshold reached. Noxious Grasp XP has reached 14.

Noxious Grasp Rank has increased to 3.

Due to Noxious Grasp Rank reaching 3, it has undergone the following changes:

Mana Cost: From 3.16 to 3.24

Health Drain: From 11 to 11.6

Stamina Drain: From 5.51 to 5.79

Threshold reached. Noxious Grasp XP has reached 20.

Noxious Grasp Rank has increased to 4.

Due to Noxious Grasp Rank reaching 4, it has undergone the following changes:

Mana Cost: From 3.24 to 3.32

Health Drain: From 11.6 to 12.2

Stamina Drain: From 5.79 to 6.08

I’d ranked up Noxious Grasp two whole times! It’d gotten pretty difficult to Rank by now – I was currently at 16/30 Spell XP to the next – so I imagined it would take a bit longer to Rank up from now on, at least until I started Leveling up again and got some more Mana/Minute. Of course, ideally, I wouldn’t need to focus so hard on gathering more power – I hoped I’d be out of this forest soon – but what was the point of getting a Class if not to try and become as powerful as possible?

I’d also finally taken the time to figure out the math behind the way the Noxious Grasp Rank-ups were working. It’d been in the back of my mind for a while, wanting to try and figure that out, but I had been so busy with trying not to die and all that I hadn’t been able to until now.Witness the debut of this chapter, unveiled through Ñôv€l--B1n.

So I quickly backed away with the kicking and fighting Boar, slowly feeling its vigor vanish as Noxious Grasp drained away its Stamina. After a bit of time, it stopped moving, and I got my notification.

You have struck Level 2 Boar for 71 damage and drained 35 Stamina over the course of 5.8 seconds using Noxious Grasp.

19.3 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 141.

You have slain Level 2 Boar.

You have earned 6 XP. Your XP is 39.

Once it was dead, I let go and readjusted my grip, picking the Boar's body fully up and hoisting it over my shoulder to make it easier to carry. Then, I headed back to my home by the river. I needed to wash off the meat in the running water of the river, and wanted to get one last refill of my waterskin before heading out for good, too. Besides, getting one last look at the place that'd kept me safe for so long would be cathartic.

I'd done some tests with Noxious Grasp over the days, and found that it didn't actually do much to the meat of the monsters I used it on. It mainly seemed to strain and sink the non-edible parts of the body, as well as a small amount of the fat stores. As for everything else, it more or less left the monsters untouched. No negative effects for eating something that'd been killed by it, or anything.

And so I enjoyed my pleasant walk back to my makeshift shelter, fresh kill on my back. The forest was bright, this morning, the sun glancing from the dew on the leaves. Over my days here, I'd gotten much more used to the previously unknown wilderness. I'd never been outside my village walls before, despite aspiring to work a job that'd have me out here constantly. But by now, the incredible greenery felt natural, and I'd even picked up on some of the local landmarks. There was a tree whose trunk looked like the face of one of the librarians back in my village, there was a massive hill that I could see from off in the distance, a pile of rocks that looked manmade. I'd gotten quite a bit familiar with the place.

Ah, passed tree-face. That meant I'd just take a turn here, and I'd get to my home!

Once I got to my hut, though, I froze.

I had an intruder.

The Nymph. The same one that'd killed me in a split-second. It was there, bent over and examining my lean-to with narrowed eyes. I took a soft step back, the rushing river masking the sound of my steps, as I watched. It sniffed at one of the sticks making the hut and scrunched its nose in disgust. Then it stood back up, bared its long, needle-sharp claws, and swiped at the pile of sticks. In a single motion, it cut right through my hut, splitting it in half and causing it to crumble to the ground.

The Nymph turned around and examined the rest of my campsite. I'd taken the emptied-out corpses of the animals I'd killed away from the camp and over to a hole I'd dug, but apparently the Nymph could still detect them. Gingerly, she bent over, dug them out of the hole, picked up the corpses, and looked at each of them with its pure-white eyes. I wasn't the best at reading the facial expressions of monsters, but I was pretty certain this Nymph was a mixture of sad and pissed off. I didn't have to wonder what was causing its anger – and who it might be directed toward, if the Nymph found me.

Yeah. I needed to fucking run. I couldn't do that with the heavy corpse over my shoulders, so I carefully placed the Boar on the ground, and backed away from my shelter – well, not that the shelter was still standing, anymore. I may have missed my little campsite and wanted to get one last look at it, but I definitely missed civilization much more. And I wasn't very interested in getting impaled by the Nymph again.

I quietly took my leave, constantly glancing around for any sign of me being followed. After some time, when it seemed obvious that I was clear of the danger posed by the Nymph, I finally let my guard down a bit. And my fear was replaced by excitement. I was going to find civilization. I would do it today. I would walk, and walk, and walk, until I got out of this gods-forsaken forest, and found a real, actual Human that I could talk to.

I just hoped I wouldn't have any more run-ins with dangerous monsters on my way.