Managing to roll the bodies off me with a little struggle I pulled myself to my feet, the various stab wounds had closed themselves when I leveled but I was still soaked in frog blood and my own. Walking over to the door of the barracks building I hauled my maul out of the door frame with a grunt, letting it drag a trail in the grass as I walked towards the river. Fan followed me, I could see her from the corner of my vision short sword shining in the moonlight still drawn and resting at her side. Paying her no mind for a moment a I lowered myself down the river bank, kneeling on the stony shore to start washing the blood from clothes. A process that was becoming far too common sense my entry into Tenacity.

“Aren’t you worried about more monsters coming out of the river as you sit exposed?” Fan mused from up the edge of the river bank

“Well I figure if anything big and nasty comes for me, I’ve got the great Fan the Fang here to protect me now don’t I?” I snapped without meaning too, the pre-dawn wake up of nearly dying souring my mood some.

“I’m not a huge fan of that nickname.” She paused for a moment as I continued to splash. “So what’re you doing out here?”

“I was about to ask you the same fucking thing, last I figured you, Quick, and Magda were setting off into the woods to find the source of the attacks. And I was heading back up the mountain, one of us is generally where we said we were going to be. So let’s start the conversation from your end.” I grumbled as I stood up wiping the water from my face.

“We set into the forest, seems it didn’t agree to that. Every time we got any distance in we’d get turned around and end up walking right back out. Despite what we tried we couldn’t seem to get anywhere so we called it a day and Magda asked me to come check on you. And here I am.” She responded flatly

“Asked you to come check on me, or told you to come keep an eye on me?” I asked as I grabbed my maul walking past her to climb up the river bank.

“Does it matter?”

“Probably doesn’t, I’m just here because I wanted to make my own way up to the mountain. Get some leveling done, figured it was good enough place to stop for the night.” I lied as I stalked back towards the barracks, stopping to check the bodies of the frogmen on the way.

Aside from their weapons they wore rough spun loin clothes and each carried small pouch, up ending them into my palm I found a mix of rough silver pieces and some strips of kelp that I assumed were a handy snack or something. Tossing the soggy kelp to the side I dropped the handful of silver into my pack pulling up my inventory just to watch it get instantly sorted with my other coins. Suppressing a smile I made my way back to the pot belly stove confident Fan would probably be following me every step of the way. Stoking the fire up again from the embers I picked through my inventory, aside from the blanket Ard had been good enough to pick me up a few supplies, including more food, a tin cup and small copper pot. Thinking of the cup and one of the pouches amongst me consumables I dug them out of the pack, starting the process of boiling some water from my bota bag to make some morning tea.

“You know you’re a horrible fucking liar, right? I just want to make sure that you don’t think you’re pulling anything over on me. You and Magda are playing the same damn game, looking for ways to grab power here. Only difference is she’s good at it.” Fan stated as she dug out her own cup and set it besides mine.

“Well if you’ve got me pegged so well, why exactly am I here?”

“Far as I figure you’re looking at setting up shop, laying claim. Maybe make a deal with the elves. With how hard up the town is for lumber it wouldn’t be the worst move.”

“If that’s the case, why haven’t you already put me down or at least knocked me out or something. We both know you could take me easily enough in a fight.” I questioned her, holding my cold wet hands towards the fire to warm them.

“Well that’s the thing isn’t, what’s the rush. So tell me what your plan is exactly and maybe you’ll win me over. Though if you’re planning on going against Magda and the town you’ll probably end up fighting the legion as well. I doubt you could defeat them even with the elves on your side.” She said with a lazy indifferent attitude, though it was more like talking with a tiger basking in the sun than some apathetic house cat.

I ran through all the ways I could get out of this, I could try and cheap shot her but unless I succeeded on the first try she’d tear me apart. I considered making a break for it, but I was sure she was faster than me over short distance which lead me right back to the first point of being torn apart. I could lie, maybe try and get the place burning before she could stop me, who cared if I respawned then. But I couldn’t find the backbone to willingly submit myself to death. So I went with the stupidest option I had, I told her the truth.

“I’m gonna burn this place down, then fortify a hollow I have up in the mountains. Build a village and clear cut the place. If the Legion gets to me first I’m gonna offer them the lumber they need to build their boats. Let them get out of the picture then use the rest as leverage see if I can get the slaves on my side and make a mutually beneficial deal moving forward with Magda and Silk Bay.” I blurted it all out, reaching over and adding tea leaves to my steaming cup trying to seem casual.

She laughed at me, a loud heartfelt laugh that I didn’t think could possibly come out of her. “You’re insane you know that, you’ve got way more chance of that plan crashing down around you than you do succeeding in all that. You’re going to have everyone at your doorstep ready to cut you down and most likely spend the rest of your year in game as a hunted man.”

I reached for the haft of my maul slowly, as it seemed honest wasn’t in fact the best policy. If I could get one good swing in before she got those short swords free maybe I could cripple her enough I could overpower her or get away. As she tossed her head back in laughter I steeled myself and made my move, the head of the maul scraped over the wood floor boards as I swung it up to deliver my cheap shot. I wasn’t even half way to the peak of my arc before she had the tip of her short sword to my throat. I jerked myself to a stop muscles tensing all over my body as I tried to avoid slitting my own throat in the process. Dropping the maul I held up my hands in surrender as I felt a trickle of blood running down my neck as the tip of her blade pierced my skin.

“I’m in.” she said, her fingers running through her hair to tuck it behind her ear casually like she hadn’t been just about to gut me.

“Excuse me?” I bumbled.

“I’m in, the only reason I’m in this game is for the challenge. I was raised at the pinnacle of my sport, I want an achievement I really have to work for and you’re cranking it up to hard mode right away. Besides I want Thomas to be free, that’s why I won him from his former master. Doesn’t sit well with me, others being forced to do things against their will. I lived that life for twenty years.” Dropping her sword from my throat she sheathed it in a smooth motion, picking up our cups and handing mine to me. “Well should we get this journey started?”

“Uuuh, yeah. Let me just recover from my whiplash here and we can get moving.” Taking my cup from her I took a small sip, staring at the short deadly woman who’d just become the newest recruit to the cause.

After we got things settled I got to work as Fan headed to collect Thomas, hauling the bodies to the barracks was the easy part. I gathered the five spears together and bound them with a thong of leather I cut from my ruined tunic. They weren’t the best quality, but I figured if we were going to make a go of this more weapons never hurt. Sadly I couldn’t fit them into my bag so I was going to be left carrying them. Once everything was cleared I took the back of my maul to the chair I’d slept in the night before, making a few rough torches. I tried to set the buildings to light with the torches finding little purchase. Giving up on my first act of arson I resorted to building campfires in the corner of each building, stoking them slowly till the buildings caught. As I finished the last structure I stepped out to make sure the job was well and done. As I waited for each building to be engulfed I pulled up my character sheet to start figuring out my new level.

Gideon / Ulcragg Barbian

Level 4 (2360/4000) Status: Healthy

Strength: 14

Health 720/720

Agility: 6

Mana 600/600

Endurance: 18

Stamina: 85%

Willpower: 15

-Indomitable Will

Lowlight Vision: lvl 50 - 100%

Intelligence: 10

Climbing: lvl 1 – 28%

Charisma: 8

Improvised Weapons: lvl 4– 08%

Axes: level 3 - 89%

Unarmed: lvl 5 – 27%

- Iron Body + Natural Armor

- Mettle +Magic Resistance

Magic (Primal Runic): lvl 1 – 0%

Perception: lvl 2 – 79%

Small Blades: lvl 2 – 34%

I immediately dumped my new found attribute point into agility, I considered trying to min max but the temptation to suddenly be less clumsy and faster with just a thought was too much. I figured I could probably bring it up close to normal levels and then focus on whatever build I ended up focusing on. The game had labeled me from a brawler to a barbarian, I had no idea what it meant but honestly it seemed about right with the way I’d been going about everything. Big hulking man swinging a two handed weapon with little skill and lots of emotion. Next I dug through my skill specializations, all the ones I’d passed up before there but now I had two new tabs to check out and a new Unarmed skill to check out.

Sunder – You’re the kid no one else wanted to play with, triple damage made to inanimate objects with a two handed weapon.

Cleave – It’s all about the follow through, increases your weapons penetration allowing powerful strikes to carry through towards a second attack.

Woodcutter – Timberrrr!! Focusing your full power on a single blow with a two handed axe will stagger your opponent even if the blow is blocked.

Weapon of the People – You’re not the dullest blade in the shed, your weapons will not suffer durability loss when used out of combat.

An attack boosting specialization sounded like something I could really use right now, but I didn’t know how long I’d be using the maul for. It was just a tool from the shed after all, sooner or later I’d have to commit to a real weapon. I’d already written off daggers and anything smaller than a long sword. I just didn’t have the speed to make use of them and with my massive reach and strength it seemed best to stick with weapons that let me make use of that. I clicked on unarmed combat next to see what my new skill offering was there.

Jawbreaker – Sometimes the best way to stop avoid spell craft is to make it impossible. Allows you to empower a blow to interrupt spell casting. Cost: 40 Mana Cooldown: 45 seconds

Finally I pulled up my new magic trait, I knew I wasn’t really trending towards a caster and the thought of collecting tomes made from humanoid skin wasn’t one that really appealed to me but I couldn’t help but look. Casting real magic was always one of the most enjoyable experiences of FIVR. Even if I had to settle for the back water version of magic to do it.

Ritualist – Oh you’re going to be creepy aren’t you? Empowering your spells with blood increases their effectiveness and reduces mana cost.

Scartist – Runes are truly and art form for you and scars are your chosen medium. Allows you to modify personal runic spells.

Runic Inspiration – All traditions start from somewhere, allows for the discovery and exploration new runes without a spell book or scroll.

Flesh Shaper – For those with a weak stomach. Allows you to apply runes and brands without the use of physical implements.

I found myself salivating over the options, the ability to shut down casters was something I really wanted, but the only caster I knew of right now was Magda, and I was hoping not to fight her outright. Cleave, and Sunder seemed like good choices as they didn’t revolve around axes specifically. Then there was the magic specializations, the ability to learn new spells without having to track down spellbooks and tomes would be huge out in the wilderness and I happen to know of a place where there were literally hundreds of runes just waiting to be studied. Of course it involved facing down a pack of chitterers, but the temptation was strong. My greed won out over practicality as I selected Runic Inspiration, more excited than ever to make my way back up the mountain to the hollow. Grabbing the bundle of spears I left the burning camp behind me as I set off with new found excitement pushing me forward.