Jake had been following the trail for about half an hour when he heard the sounds of a scuffle. He was surrounded by trees now, the path lined by thick walls of brush that grew in the shade of the old oak trees. He heard someone cry out in pain from around the corner ahead, and decided to prepare himself before running into what could be an ambush. His club had been latched to the rope belt around his waist by a small metal hook driven into the handle. He unlatched it, taking the weapon in his right hand. The shield was already strapped to his left arm, but he adjusted it slightly, making sure that it was held tight enough to keep it in place if it were struck.

Satisfied that he was physically prepared for a confrontation, Jake approached the corner at a quick jog. Snarls and growls were greeting his ears now, but Jake decided he couldn’t stop. The person who’d cried in pain earlier was whimpering now.

Jake rounded the corner to see a wolf leap toward a young man on the ground. The man was clad in furs, a short-sword just out of his reach on the ground beside him. He was on his knees, looking like he’d just struggled up off the ground. The wolf hit him centre mass, tackling him to the ground. The beasts jaws snapped as the man fought against the animals weight, barely keeping it’s fangs away from his throat.

Jake charged the creature from behind, lashing out in a wide arc with all his strength. His club struck the wolf and knocked it aside with a heavy thump. The animal whimpered, turning around and retreating away from the new threat.

“Thanks” the man breathed as he scrambled for his sword.

Jake didn’t dare take his eyes off his foe. The wolf was circling around, trying to position itself to attack the man again. It’s hackles were up and it’s teeth were bared, painting a terrifying picture. He could see that the man had managed to slash it a few times before being disarmed - a deep cut ran across the beasts ribs, vibrant blood matting it’s grey fur.

The beast lunged, charging for Jake. Instead of retreating, Jake rushed to meet it’s assault. He held his shield arm in front of him, keeping the club held up ready to swing. The wolf pounced at the last instant, it’s bulk smashing against the shield. Jake managed to get in a swing with his club as his momentum halted, crushing it down onto the animals skull. The wolf let out a high pitched whine, and then fell silent.

The swordsman appeared beside Jake, and thrust his blade into the limp animal with a cheer.

“You really saved my ass there, thanks.” He smiled, offering his hand.

Jake hooked the club onto his belt, and shook the mans hand.

“You’re welcome. We need to look after each other out here.”

A prompt suddenly filtered into Jakes view.

Combat log:

You hit the wolf for 12 damage (Critical hit!)

Your shield blocked 2 damage

You hit the wolf for 5 damage

The wolf is dead

10 XP awarded.

It seemed Jake had got the hang of combat pretty quickly. He smiled at the success, confused by the 10 XP reward. He’d heard of people grinding out kills to level up, but the rewards for combat seemed pretty terrible. He’d have to work his way through quests if he wanted to level up any time soon.

“Anyway, thanks again. I’ll catch you around”

Jake realised his companion had been standing there, awkwardly watching as Jake had read through his combat log. The man turned away from Jake, heading along the path toward Greenest.

“Yeah, no problem”

Jake turned his back on the stranger and the dead wolf, and continued east.

The druid enclave was a small settlement, able to house perhaps a dozen men. However it wasn’t it’s size that drew Jakes attention - the buildings of the settlement were built from the trees themselves. Great old oaks grew together in clumps, their branches intertwining with one another to form a roof over which someone had stacked fern leaves to keep out the rain.

A few people milled around a large empty fire pit, talking quietly to one another. Jake saw that some were dressed similarly to him (he noted that none of them wearing shoes and couldn’t help but smile to himself) huddled outside one of the buildings.

Figuring they would have grouped around something important Jake approached them, joining the back of their semi-circle. The group were arrayed before an elderly man dressed in animal furs. A thick silver beard reached halfway down his chest, and his long hair fell onto his shoulders. He leaned on a quarterstaff that was just slightly taller than him, gripping the wood with strong looking hands. Though he was using the staff for support, he didn’t look to lack in strength. Jake was just close enough to hear his soft voice, projected just loud enough to reach everyone in the crowd.

“The power of the druid comes not from within, but from nature itself. You’d do well to remember that.” He seemed to have just finished his speech. The students soon dispersed, leaving just Jake behind. After a moment he approached the old druid.

“Excuse me sir, Annie sent me to learn from you.”

“Ah yes, I can see you have the gift of nature. Come, walk with me.” Without waiting for a reply, the man began to walk toward the edge of the enclave. Jake fell into step beside him.

“We druids are the guardians of nature. We care for the earth, and it in turn grants us the powers that we might need. We can be utterly destructive if called upon, though most who walk the druid path turn their skills toward healing and preservation of the natural order.”

The druid had led Jake to a small stream running past the enclave. A young man was just a little downstream from them, washing his clothes in the swift flowing water.

“Druids are the ambassadors for all of humanity. Do you hear the voice of nature?”

Jake’s first impulse was to laugh at the question, but the old mans face was serious. Instead of responding out of turn, Jake took the time to calm his mind and focus solely on what he could hear. The stream gurgled as it passed, and the young mans breathing mixed with the sloshing sounds of his washing coming from further downstream. Birds sang from the trees around the enclave. Across the stream however, the trees were quiet. Jake tried to tune out the other sounds so that he could focus on the far side of the stream, but still he couldn’t hear anything.

“I can’t hear anything from the forest” Jake pointed at the trees as he responded.

“Ah, so you can hear the earth mother. She is ill, something dark stalks the woods, poisoning her children. As a druid, it will be your job to seek out such places and cleanse them of whatever ills have befallen them. Do you accept this calling?”

A prompt appeared before Jake

You are being offered a chance to activate your Druid class.

Once active, you will be able to use Druid abilities, and your experience will count toward improving your Druid level.

You can only have a single class active at a time.

Do you accept?

Smiling, Jake punched the accept button. Druid abilities? How could he say no!

The old druid smiled at Jake, bowing his head ever so slightly.

“Welcome to the order lad. The forest needs cleansing, but before you can take on such a challenge you must tame an animal companion. In the forest between here and Greenest there are many wolves. Perhaps you could tame one of them.”

Quest accepted: Taming an animal

To complete this quest you need to tame an animal, making it your companion.

Rewards: Animal companion, 100 XP

Skill unlocked: Animal handling

This skill increases your interaction options with wild animals.

Non-hostile animals can be tamed with a Will check.

Hostile animals can be calmed with a Will check.

Spell unlocked: Entangle

Thick vines sprout from the ground near your target, rooting them in place.

Jake was too busy reading the prompts to hear the druids parting words. The old man made his way back to his post in the enclave. Jake was grinning from ear to ear. He had access to his first spell now, and a chance to get a companion, how cool was that?

Even better, he’d completed all the objectives for his adventurers guild quest. All he had to do was hand it in, and he’d get enough experience points to level up.

Almost skipping with joy, Jake cut through the enclave and started on the path back to greenest. If he saw a wolf along the way he’d try out his new abilities, otherwise he’d turn in the adventurers guild quest, then double back to scour the woods. Presumably, after getting a companion his task would be in the woods beyond the druid enclave, so it only made sense to hand in the quest at Greenest first - he might not return to the settlement for a long time.

Traversing back to Greenest was an uneventful experience. At one point, Jake had heard the scuffles of combat somewhere in the distance, followed shortly by a cheer from what sounded like several people. No violence erupted anywhere near him as he walked though - Jake didn’t even so much as see a wild animal.

What he did see however, were plants. On the walk out to the enclave, Jake had seen little but the undergrowth and the trees - all of which had merged into one in his eyes. Jake had never learnt more than the most common names for plants. His mother had been an avid gardener but he’d not been lucky enough to inherit her green thumbs. He was fairly certain the trees were oaks, but that was the extent of his botanical classification skills. As he now wandered back toward Greenest individual flowers further off the path caught his eye. Plants that he hadn’t noticed while walking to the druid enclave, but which must have been there. It was almost as if they were calling to him now. He didn’t want to stray too far from the path - the underbrush was difficult to see through, and the old druid’s words that “many” wolves lived out here concerned Jake a little - but he finally came upon a small bush covered in berries that he felt comfortable approaching.

Each of the berries had a slight glow to them, as if he were seeing their auras. Curious, Jake picked several. They stained his fingers a deep purple as he plucked them from their branches, but didn’t seem dangerous. Shrugging to himself, Jake chewed on a couple of them.

They were tangy and sour, cool as the morning dew had been. He fought off the twitch near his eyes that always struck him while eating sour things, and waited for something to happen. It took a moment before a prompt appeared, which he focused on immediately.

You’ve consumed blueberries.

Mana restoration rate increased.

Well, there you have it. Jake had no idea what his mana restoration rate had been, or even what it was now, but an increase was obviously a good thing. Come to think of it, Jake didn’t really know much about what went into his character. He’d unlocked a spell (that he had no idea how to cast), and knew he’d have health and mana scores somewhere, but he’d yet to see any of it.

Jake distracted himself from the rest of the walk by trying to call up the various prompts he was interested in, starting with the spell. He found the prompt easily enough - he only had to think about the spells he could perform, and it appeared before him. This one was a little different to most. Where the informational prompts were a mostly-translucent sheet covered in text, the spell prompt appeared as an ancient book hovering before him. It was open in the middle, showing a surprising number of pages either side of the point that it had opened at. Entangle showed as a small icon of a vine, with the name in handwritten text next to it. Surprised by the prompts appearance, Jake reached out and grabbed this one. The book became real in his hands, and he almost dropped it at it’s sudden weight. It’s appearance hadn’t changed, but Jake had a sneaking suspicion that other players would be able to see it in it’s present state. Perhaps this was how mages shared their spells with one another?

As soon as he willed it away, the physical book vanished. He thought it back into existence, leaving it as a prompt this time, and selected the Entangle spell. His right hand began to tingle, and when he looked down he could see a ghostly vine tracing circles around his palm. It glowed a faint green against his skin.

Jake pointed his hand at a patch of grass off the side of the path ahead of him, and willed the spell forward. It streaked like an arrow toward the ground, leaving the ghostly green trail behind it. A moment after it hit the ground, several vines grew up out of nowhere, reaching to the sky like the tentacles of a kraken. They swayed in place for a while, their swaying motions like a snake tasting the air, and then receded back into the earth. Apparently the spell dispersed quickly enough if it didn’t find anything to latch onto.

Now, the second order of business was to figure out just how much mana he had. Again, it only took him a moment to summon the right prompt with his mind. The numbers glowed an ethereal blue at the edge of his vision, just far enough aside that it wasn’t distracting, but he could still examine it at a glance.

20/25

His health he found similarly. It displayed on the opposite side of his vision, with a soft red glow

20/20

Jake had no idea how his mana and health were determined, but assumed it must be based on his class. Druids seem to have a spell-casting focus, it stood to reason that they’d have a higher mana value. Relating his health back to his weapons however, worried Jake somewhat. If his maximum health was only 20, and his starting weapon could deal 3-6 damage per hit, it wouldn’t take much to take him out. He’d have to keep an eye on that, and figure out just how much of a threat animals like the wolves might be - judging by the wounded player he’d found on the way to the enclave, they probably dealt damage as quickly as he could.

Jake still hadn’t had a chance to look at it’s list of abilities, but he had reached the edge of Greenest again. His abilities could wait - he had a quest to turn in!