Once the team exited the stairs in the ruins, Jonas allowed himself to breathe more freely. The risk of outdoor attacks by multiple veterans was lower, and besides, the last snow leopards they’d seen on the way to this lair were in the 40s. A pale shade of the horror of the mole creatures.

“I’d say we avoid underground lairs, guys,” Alton said.

“That mole hit like a carriage out of control,” Ira said.

“Those things were… much higher level than we are. And veterans.”

“Maybe, but even with more levels and health, Guss isn’t going to keep me up fast enough. Let alone Jonathan at the same time. And that’s only two veterans in the first room,” Ira insisted.

Jonas exhaled slowly, then proposed his new strategy: “We need higher gear.”

“Uh?”

He turned to answer Laura’s interrogative grunt.

“I mean, Ira said it himself. His leggings are worse than even that basic equipment we just found with nothing on it. All of us are still sporting some starter equipment or stuff we found on our first days. Guss needs a higher Wisdom score to heal more. Ira and Jonathan need a lot more defence to reduce that damage. I need more Intellect, you need more Strength, Alton needs more Dexterity and so on. We’re going to get the first Milestone reasonably fast, but it’s going to slow down again soon after. Even if we improve some skill ranks…”

“By the way, got two new skills during the fight,” Jonathan said.

“Oh?”

“That Brace skill Ira has gotten, but something different as well,” he offered.

Skill unlocked: Cross (unranked)

Cross

Physical/Defence

Rank 0: Position your weapons to stop an attack. 10% of your weapons’ total damage is removed from the next non-basic attack. Requires two similar one-handed weapons. Cost: 0.5 endurance × weapon damage.

“Interesting,” Ira said.

“How?” Alton asked, his curiosity aroused.

“It sounds like a different style. I have a skill to help non-basic attacks with a two-handed sword that triggers at times, Jonathan now got some skill with two individual swords that he needs to use. It looks like you can defend yourself in many different ways. And the skills fit the man.”

“Anyone else got something?” Jonas asked.

After checking, it turned out that Laura had also obtained a new Smasher skill, Impact, for which she hadn’t noticed the descriptor during the scramble for their lives. Another skill she did not need to actively use.

Impact

Physical/Offense

Rank 0: Increase the effect of STR on your next attack or skill use by 20%. Triggers at random intervals. Cost: 0.1 endurance × STR.

“You need more Strength. Like I said,” Jonas noted.

“I know,” she replied.

“So what’s the plan now?” Jonathan asked, having regained some composure as his health finished regenerating.

“We can’t count on getting too many items outdoors. Even if we find elites, they don’t have stuff most of the time. That means we need to do lairs.”

“I hate to mention it, but the lairs around here are horribly difficult,” Guss said.

“We’ve got two that shouldn’t be that hard. The frog lake is around 35-ish, and the wolf cave seems to be 40-ish. With some levels, we should be trying them, even if we can’t make it to the end guardian. Any box we can get to is going to help us.”

“So we level first?”

“I’m going to suggest that we go back to Ovildian, and hit the lairs there. At least once. They’re almost all easy, the highest we’ve seen was the wolf cave and that was 25-ish.”

“We still struggled against that badger boss.”

“That was almost 10 levels ago. And besides, we’re not trying to complete lairs. Even quality equipment from the other chests will help.”

Jonathan was starting to object again, but Jonas anticipated him.

“We need those items. Besides, we know Ovildian well enough now. So the way I see it, we Recall, we do the badgers, we check if we can complete the wolf cave, we head to the lake, then we go to the muddy-thing hole, and go back to here. We’ll be spending something like four days in Ovildian maximum. We’ll get some XP fast, we’ll have over a dozen or more items to improve ourselves, and then we can start seeing about the ice frogs.”

“But if anyone comes…”

Jonas sighed internally, then put on a conciliating face.

“We head back to the Plaza. Anyone who comes and sees the signs at the Gates will probably go there. We’ll put a sign saying we’re in Ovildian for a few days. Once we’re done, we’ll come straight back to see. Sounds good?”

Jonathan hesitated, before realizing that the proposition was eminently reasonable. Outside of his own fears of being lost forever, there was nothing wrong with what Jonas had planned. After all, they were always ranging out from the Plaza. This was simply… a longer trip.

They stood up, adjusted their bag straps, and started retracing their steps.

The team gathered around the last stair of the cellar. They’d descended on the first two floors, slaying the badger groups quickly on both and opening the various boxes at the end of each corridor. As usual, the first floor was generous with Laura, adding yet another piece of bi-coloured badger gear to her growing ensemble, a coif this time.

The second floor yielded a pair of cloth sandals with aether and a piece of basic armour without the slightest effect. Jonas had been mildly disappointed by the sandals. Both he and Guss already had similar sandals with a 12 aether bonus, so the new sandals with a +13 were barely better. The basic quality, no-bonus chainmail leggings were also a minor upgrade to Ira’s equally basic ones, so he handed them to Jonathan to at least improve his defence.

“The final badgers should be fine. Their mind-affecting… breath was dangerous at the time, but we’ve got lots more mind this time,” the main Layman said.

Badgers × 5 : 2368XP/6 contributors = 395XP

“You know, I’d like to get some of what those badgers drink before we come around,” Alton joked, looking at the smashed glass and barrel bits.

Laura looked at the final box, finding once again two items in it. A disappointing large bag, more spacious than the basic pouches they carried but not directly helpful. And yet another common piece of equipment providing a small upgrade to Alton’s knives.

Serrated Knife

One-Handed

Common equipment

Requires: Level 9

Provides: 8 pierce base damage (+20% DEX), +12 end

“We didn’t get that much equipment,” Jonathan noted.

“Each piece was an upgrade, though,” Jonas countered. “Guss, Laura, Alton, Ira, you. I’m the only one without anything new here, actually.”

“Yes, but given the small upgrades that those were… do we really waste time with the lake? It’s not going to be better. In fact, wasn’t it one level lower?”

“And it takes time to make sure the roaming dogs don’t surprise us,” Laura added.

Jonas looked almost betrayed at the remark. Then he decided not to stress the issue. The truth was, they could get upgrades to their starter or basic gear, but they had already more than half of their equipment at a comparable level or better quality. So it was a game of chance.

“Fine. Let’s just check the wolves and worms.”

Nocturnal Wolf

Level 24 veteran

Health: 468

Mind: 193

Endurance: 352

Aether: 0

“The same wolf as before,” Jonas indicated.

They dispatched that wolf quickly and moved into the cave’s entrance. The tunnel was lighted by the entrance at the beginning, then they found shafts letting rays of sunlight in, allowing one to see the walls of the cave. Jonas looked upward in the ceiling holes, trying to guess how the whole structure would look later in the day.

The cave quickly expanded, with a group of no less than six veterans wolves, all clumped around a box indicating a real encounter.

Nocturnal Pack Wolf × 6

Level 22 veteran

Health: 441

Mind: 184

Endurance: 325

Aether: 0

The wolves turned toward the intruders, red eyes slightly glowing in the darkness. Then they rushed the team. This time, Ira took on two wolves, Jonathan managed to intercept a single one, and they scrambled to deal with the rest. Jonas found himself facing a single wolf as Laura and Alton had scored hits, distracting the final pack members. Both melee fighters carefully moved, avoiding giving the wolves their backs while they were trading blows.

Thankfully, Jonathan retreated slowly up to Jonas’ wolf level, before switching his target to that biting wolf, making it turn away. With Laura and Jonathan already in place, the wolf dropped in health fast, dying before Jonas’ had lost more than half his own levels. Then they focused on Laura’s enemy before finally attacking the wolf tearing at Alton.

Then, it was only a matter of dealing with the last wolves.

Nocturnal Pack Wolf × 6: 3362XP/6 contributors = 560XP. Level up.

“Fun combat. And 35,” Laura commented.

“You say that because you’ve got 50 more health than me. And thicker clothes,” Jonas said, injecting some levity.

Sturdy Chainmail Sollerets

Feet

Common equipment

Requires: Level 18

Provides: +6 defence, +18 health

Ira made a face. Alton, who had opened the box, raised his eyebrows at him in surprise.

“It’s a higher level, but lower quality. It’s got health, sure, but I prefer the +1 rank skill I have for now.”

The remark bothered Jonas. Then he realized what had happened before.

“Guss? A question, with your staff?”

“Uh?”

“When you put it aside to sleep, what happens to the skill.”

“What do you mean? It goes down to rank 0, of course.”

“Yes, but you don’t lose it, right. Once you got it at rank 1 with the staff, you keep it.”

“Sure, but why the question?”

“If you can force the unlock of the skill by wearing it…”

Ira suddenly realized what argument Jonas was making. The Layman bent and started immediately to remove his sollerets. Jonathan looked surprised.

“You haven’t gotten Dodge, right?”

“No, but… okay, let’s try.”

Jonathan removed his basic footgear and picked the sollerets. He slipped his feet into the chainmail and made a face.

“They fit?”

“Yes, but… nothing.”

“You didn’t pick the Dodge skill?”

“Apparently not. It doesn’t seem to work. I have the Stamina increase, but not the skill. At all.”

Jonas sighed in defeat, “It was worth trying.”

Ira added, “it’s probably because it’s listed as a Personal/Defence skill, but Layman is a Physical/Defence Profession.”

“Oh,” Jonas and Jonathan both exclaimed at the same time.

“That probably means you cannot learn Dodge at all, even in combat. We both only learned Physical/Defence skills since we switched. Don’t worry. You still get some sollerets to use anyway,” Ira said.

“That’s too bad. If we’d found a Heal item, we’d all have learned it to help Guss…” Laura noted.

They fought single wolves in the corridor before ending in another cave. The light was dimming from above, and Jonas worried about the coming evening.

“We need to hurry a bit. It’s going to be dark soon in here.”

Nocturnal Wolf Male

Level 25 elite

Health: 808

Mind: 335

Endurance: 610

Aether: 0

“You know, those wolves are easy. No special attacks, no nothing. I guess it might even have been easier than the badgers,” Ira said.

“You’re forgetting our levels. We did the drunk badgers nearly fifteen levels ago. Just the length of the fight would have exhausted Guss by then,” Jonas countered.

Simple Burlap Runed Trousers

Legs

Common equipment

Requires: Level 19

Provides: +2 defence, +1 INT

“Something for you Jonas,” Laura said with a happy note.

“Some stuff, yes,” he acknowledged.

Unexpectedly, the next cave was a dead end. And the wolf a bit higher than they’d met so far… albeit not nearly as high as some of the elite wolves in Othary.

Nocturnal Wolf Patriarch

Level 25 elder

Health: 1348

Mind: 558

Endurance: 605

Aether: 192

“Whoops, this one has aether. Expect some kind of special attack this time,” Jonas warned.

Nocturnal Wolf Patriarch howls. -75 mind, -3 FOC.

“Ouch. That’s a big howl,” Jonathan said.

“Beware, it has enough aether to do another howl soon,” Jonas warned.

“I’m good for… three of those total. But not much more…” Jonathan said.

“Same here,” Alton added.

Meanwhile, the wolf had sprung from its nesting place, intercepted by Ira.

Nocturnal Wolf Patriarch throws hot spit. -1 health/sec, -1 end/sec.

Ira made a grimace, then kicked the wolf back.

“Bite!” Jonathan warned.

“Thanks,” Ira replied, avoiding nearly another slightly debilitating attack.

The rest of the team spread out carefully, unsure of the other attacks the wolf might have. Then they started whaling on the target.

Nocturnal Wolf Patriarch howls. -75 mind, -3 FOR.

Jonas noted the fact that the wolf’s aether had started climbing again slowly. It stopped after the howl but started crawling a few seconds later, showing that the critter obeyed the same rules as the Professionals for his vitals. The team had a few more seconds before the wolf would be able to howl again at any time. He breathed more freely because they could afford that howl. He also realized that, without the additional levels and tier 2 progression, they would have been unable to last that long. Thankfully, they had not stayed in the zone and taken the risk to explore the lair before.

But that promised dangers for the higher lairs in Othary. Even lairs under their level might turn out to be truly dangerous. You didn’t need the massive damage that creatures like the mole-things did, there was always another tricky special attack to deal with.

Nocturnal Wolf Patriarch howls. -75 mind, -3 WIS.

Nocturnal Wolf Patriarch: 1792XP/6 contributors = 298XP

“This was fine,” Ira said.

“Because we didn’t have to deal with any other wolves,” Jonas countered.

Jonathan thought a moment, then acknowledged what Jonas had meant.

“If we had to kill another wolf, even a normal, the patriarch might have survived long enough to howl again.”

“But we did not have to,” Ira shrugged.

Laura shrugged, then moved to open the final treasure box.

Wolf-tipped Night Gloves

Hands

Exceptional equipment

Requires: Level 18

Provides: +3 defence, +1 WIS, +18 mind, +1 Minor Heal Wounds rank

“Well, there goes my dreams of smashing, then healing.”

Smasher

(tier 2)

Required: 25 STR

Provides:

+5 health/+8 endurance/+3 mind/+2 aether per level

+1 Milestone per 14 levels

Smasher Milestone: +5 STR, +3 CON, +2 FOR, +1 STA, +1 DEX, 5% blunt damage

Skillset: Physical / Offense