I sat there in silence, my heart pounding with the adrenaline still coursing through my body, the dagger in my hand still covered in blood. It was surreal, we had survived an encounter with something that strong without losing any health. I looked through my stats to see how a level up affected me.

Alyx

Wrorine (Level 2)

57/200 Experience

40/40 Health ----

60/60 Stamina ------

20/20 Mana --

30/30 Spirit ---

‘10’ Stat Points Available

Racial Ability - Locked

Skills: (Rapid Experience) (Dagger G) (Botany G) (Healing G) (Activation Detect)

My available stat points had increased by ten. Each of my stats had a plus next to its total. I tried focusing on the plus next to health and all of a sudden it increased by ten! Shoot, I hadn’t decided that I wanted to put all ten points in health. Oh well, it couldn’t be helped now. Looking over my abilities I saw that I’d acquired one without realizing it; ‘Activation Detect’. ‘Passive: Alerts the user of low level skill activation within a small radius. My mind flashed back to the feeling I’d gotten right before the beginning of the fight. The tardog must’ve activated some sort of skill prior to springing its ambush. I was lucky I had gone with my instinct as there’s no doubt that its initial attack would’ve taken my head off.

My eyes drifted over the carnage in front of me, this fight should have gone a lot differently. My stamina was at 15/60 and Orion looked just as tired. His body was covered in blood and his eyes were still casting quick glances at the tardog. He was probably worried that it was still alive, it had been impaled by a spear and had taken multiple stabs to the neck and kept fighting. There was no doubt in either of our minds that we should have died to it.

“That… that wasn’t a normal tardog was it?” he said, his voice shaking as he tried to keep his breathing under control.

“No, it wasn’t” I replied quietly, “I fought a tardog before finding you. It was the whole reason why I went out looking for healing materials in the first place and its how I stumbled on the moss. The tardog I fought was nowhere near as strong or as fast as this one.”

He sat there gazing at me for a few moments before pushing himself to a standing position. He started walking over to me, his spear still lodged in the tardog’s throat. When he made it over to me he stuck his hand out, gesturing to help me up, “Come on, get up. We have to get back to the village.” I grabbed his hand and he helped pull my heavy body upright. “I’m not sure why you didn’t tell me about seeing a tardog but right now we have bigger things to worry about. If there are high level monsters roaming around this forest we’re in grave danger sitting in a place like this. We need to move because we can’t expect to get lucky again.

I peered over his shoulder at the monster impaled behind him and nodded. He was right we needed to move. Had I known more about this world and its monsters I might have told him about my encounter but that would have also brought up the question about what I was doing in the middle of the woods, something much harder to explain without giving away information that I wasn’t sure if anyone else should know. I still didn’t know if I could trust Orion with that kind of knowledge despite being able to trust him in a fight.

We set off in the direction of the river except this time we went at a pace that allowed my stamina to regenerate slowly. Upon reaching the river we turned upstream, following its twists and turns slowly while maintaining a watchful eye on the bordering forest. While walking, Orion had used my dagger to craft another crude wooden spear which he now walked with. His new spear was of a much worse quality than his previous one, likely due to the speed at which he had to find a suitable piece of wood from which to form it. The tip was also much less refined looking as he had replaced the carefully sharpened head with a rough point.

Thankfully, we had no need to test his new weapon out. As his village came into view he started jogging and I tried to follow close behind him. As we approached several small figures could be seen exiting through the wooden gate guarding the gap in the villages wooden palisade. Orion slowed to a stop as the four figures approached us. The four Ferrin clad in what looked like a hodgepodge of copper and bronze armor, held spears tipped with bronze heads. Their gazes shifted to me as they addressed Orion, “Orion, who is this that you bring to our village and where have you been? Do you realize that tardogs have been spotted in the vicinity? The village is on lockdown.” The only one with a helmet had addressed Orion in a deep powerful voice.

“This is Alyx, he is a Ferrin with an unusual growth defect. He managed to save my life after I’d washed up downriver.” He paused briefly before continuing, “We are aware of the tardogs as we fought a strong one on our way back here.”

The Ferrin looked me up and down, his eye gazing through the holes in his helmet finally settling on the dagger I had at my hip, “I’ve never encountered a Ferrin that large in all my time traveling with the militia. I bet you can do some damage with the iron dagger can’t you?”

“I don’t often have to use it but when I do yes, I can do quite a bit of damage.” I had to be careful with my wording. It was obvious that this guard didn’t trust me, “If possible I would like to keep it at my side, that way if we have to fight anymore monsters I might be able to be of assistance.”

The guard’s eyes shifted back to Orion who gave a small nod. At this the guard relaxed and shook my hand, “Well if you’re as good a fighter as Orion says you are then we might need your help here. Name’s Rust, Capitan Rust, and I’m defacto commander of the Fenroot Guards. As you’ve experienced, outside of the wall isn’t the safest place to be having a chit-chat. Please join us inside where we can discuss your tardog encounter.”

After following him through the gates and into the village Capitan Rust lead us to a small building just inside the palisade. The village wasn’t anything special, containing mostly one story buildings and wooden stalls. I was surprised to see a small barn containing what looked like actual horses with small rugs draped over their backs. Good to know that there were some familiar species living in this world. The main path through the gate seemed to lead into an open area containing small buildings with signage out front and a few horse drawn carriages with numerous Ferrin trying to peddle their wares. I concluded that the area must be the central marketplace for the village, a good spot to visit after our meeting was through.

Capitan Rust sat us down at a table containing small pieces of bread. The rough wooden stool given to me was both a blessing and a curse as it took my weight off of my tired legs and transferred it in a way that made my back start to ache. The Capitan sat himself down opposite from us and the other three guards left to resume their duties, “Let me first express to you the direness of the situation we find ourselves in.” He started without pause, “We are woefully unprepared for defending against monsters here. One of our guards was ambushed and killed before we even knew about the tardogs. Since then another has been killed in a direct confrontation with one and three more have been seriously wounded. I sent one runner off to the nearest city to plead for reinforcements but it's unlikely he’ll make it through. It’s obvious that everyone here is a low level because, other than myself, no one has seen real combat. That leaves the defense of the village to me and only 6 other guards.” At this he paused, surveying our reactions before going on, “So would you mind letting me know what the hell you mean when you say you fought a tardog that was stronger than the others!?”

I thought this might be a good time for me to offer some information, “I fought a tardog the other day in the forest before I found Orion. It almost cost me my life but I managed to kill it. Recently, on our way to the village, we were ambushed by a much larger, much faster tardog. Had we not been lucky with our movements and it’s mistakes, it would have killed both of us.”

He seemed to consider my words for a moment and turned to Orion to ask if it was true. After Orion nodded in affirmation the Capitan rested his muzzle on his hand, “I’ve only ever seen what you’re talking about once. When the regional militia got levied to serve in the lord’s campaign, we camped in a forest known for its high level monsters. It was supposed to be a natural barrier against invasion and as such it was lightly defended. We lost many men to a beast like the one you described. It was Incredibly fast and difficult to take down. If that is what we are up against then we don’t stand much of a chance.”

We sat in silence for a while, Rust contemplating what to do. He dismissed us after asking a few more questions about the monster to confirm its existence. As we walked out of the building I heard a loud crash followed by the shattering of plates, no doubt the result of a frustratingly impossible situation.

We headed to the center of the village where the merchants were peddling their wares. Finding a nearby merchant we began to negotiate the price of the healing moss we had collected. Sure enough Orion was able to barter better prices on the moss as recent attacks had driven the demand for it up slightly. In total he received 16 gold and had talked the merchant into parting with a copper speartip. I received 21 gold for my troubles and was allowed to exchange the three I was planning to keep for their finished bandages. I suppose Orion was used to bartering if his profession was to catch and sell fish. After pocketing my bandages, now four in total, we drifted over to the local blacksmith. As Orion was enquiring about mounting his new spearhead onto a shaft I began to browse the equipment.

The smithed pieces were all quite small. Copper helmets, greaves, and armguards seemed to be favored over most other pieces while some bronze equipment was scattered about. The Blacksmith had snuck up behind me as soon as he’d finished with Orion’s new spear, “You lookin’ for some bigger stuff? I’ve got some stuff in the back you’d might like if ya want to follow me.”

Nodding to him I followed. You could tell he was a gruff man, used to the constant striking against metal his muscles bulged under his thin cloth clothing. He led me to a back room filled to the brim with iron armor, all in sizes too large for a normal Ferrin, “Human sizes for you. Not many Ferrin that can afford iron so I don’t make iron armor in that size unless it’s been requested and paid for upfront. Have a look around, yer friend told me you’ve got the gold for it.”

In front of me was a huge selection of armor and weapons and I didnt even know where to start. Browsing the different styles nothing really stuck out to me until my eyes fell on a familiar looking chest piece. As a former history buff I had loved early Roman history. I had watched many educational videos and had even attended lectures on the subject. It had all seemed to be useless information up to this point because in front of me sat early Roman style segmented armor, greaves, and arm guards. Picking up the chestplate I discovered that it was relatively light as compared to some of the other options, coming in at around 30-35lbs for the whole set. It was slightly different from the armor I had learned about, leather taking the place of steel in some places to give the user more flexibility and to cut down on weight but it was unmistakably a copy of Roman design.

“Ah, you’re looking at the Ramulan Armor.” The Blacksmith behind me piped up, “That’s an ancient design you know, there’s not many people who can make that. I myself picked it up in Valenta years ago from an old human blacksmith. I wanted to study it and learn how to make it myself but life got in the way. If you’d like to buy it I’d be willing to sell it, I’ve gotten too old to learn any new techniques anyway. I’d sell the set to ya for ten gold.”

As I turned to look at the smith I noticed out of the corner of my eye Orion nearly tipping over at the sound of the price, “Nine, and you’ll throw in an iron short sword for free. You know you’re still getting a good price at that.” I replied casually, hoping my bluff would pay off, “How many people my size come through this village looking for armor again?”

The Blacksmith started laughing before shaking my hand, “Boy, you got a deal. Ya make a good point but ya should know I spent more than ten gold to buy that 20 years ago.”

I had picked out a small straight iron short sword, nothing too special and had paid an extra 50 silver for a small wooden buckler and some leather boots. When all was said and done I had donned my new armor, the parts made of cloth even dyed Roman red and the sword hilt wrapped with red dyed leather. Orion had purchased some cheaper leather armor and affixed his copper speartip to a professional looking wooden shaft, a stark contrast from the hastily constructed spear he had carried back to Fenroot. He’d only spent about two gold on his equipment. He was pretty shrewd.

The future was starting to look bright. My thoughts of how I was going to change the world only interrupted by the sound of someone ringing a bell in the town center…

… and a snarl as I rounded a corner to come face to face with a tardog, teeth already clamped around the neck of a dying Ferrin.

Orion

Ferrin (Level 3)

98/300 Experience

30/30 Health ----

70/70 Stamina ------

30/30 Mana --

20/20 Spirit ---

‘0’ Stat Points Available

Racial Ability - (Impossible Evade)

Skills: (Fishing G) (Spear G) (Botany G) (Barter G)