Damon heard a sickening crunch as the heavy axe penetrated through muscle and bone. Blood spurted upwards in a wet fountain of crimson colour. The struggling stopped below Damon and the whole world seemed frozen for a moment…

(Sneak Attack)

(Critical Hit)

You have dealt 67 physical damage to Alpha Forest Wolf.

Retching broke the stillness of the open ground as the figure below the deceased wolf started coughing and moving about, trying to push the creature off of himself. Blood had apparently sprayed into the mans mouth and Damon could smell the awful metallic tang on his breath as he rolled on the ground.

Damon used his good arm to help push the wolf over, it’s heavy form still warm. He helped the man into a sitting position before realising that his left leg had been completely chewed off. Unbeknownst to Damon’s poor vision, tears were rolling down the man’s face as he looked at his saviour.

“Th-thank you.” He sobbed, clutching Damon’s blood-soaked hand. “Thank you so much.”

Damon wasn’t sure how to respond. He glanced around to see the figures, that had been huddled around what Damon could only assume was a well, hesitantly creeped towards him. He could hear the low murmur of confused and frightened children asking small, curious questions of their parents.

One slightly braver figure walked closer and asked in a tentative, feminine voice. “Who are you?”

Damon just stood there, panting as the shock of everything that had just happened washed over him. If he’d hit the wrong figure in that last moment, things could have gone horribly wrong. He’d forgone his blurry eyesight and gone with instinct, sensing who'd have had the upper hand in the fight and differentiating between the distinct noises emitted by the two fighters.

Once again, Damon had to remind himself to focus on his breathing in an attempt to calm down as the adrenaline finally diffused into his bloodstream. Belatedly, he acknowledged the blinking icon in his vision.

Congratulations you have slain Forest Wolf (Level 4) +65 Exp New Skill!

Dagger Mastery (Beginner 1 - 25%)

Your constant attempts to stab furry killing machines has finally accomplished something.

15% Increase in physical damage while using a dagger or short blade

5% Increased attack speed while using a dagger or short blade

Skill Level Up!

Focus Breathing (Beginner 2 - 8%)

New bonus:

6% Bonus to mental resistance

26% Increase to stress relief when using this skill

Congratulations you have slain Alpha Forest Wolf (Level 7)

+142 Exp

+10 Fame

Level Up!

Congratulations, you have gained an additional level!

You are now level 3

Please allocate any free stat points.

Damon could barely take it all in. His breaths came out in long, heavy bursts. Each inhalation filled his body with the smell of death that was putrid in the air and Damon cringed slightly as it wafted into his nostrils.

The woman in front of him must have misunderstood his look of shock and his sudden silence, as she quickly said:

“If it’s not too much trouble to tell us, adventurer. If you hadn’t arrived when you did, we would have all been torn apart for sure.” She clearly sounded distressed, enough so that Damon snapped out of his revelry and blinked towards the woman before responding.

“My name is Damon. I was close by when I heard the screams and came to help.” He looked around once again and found the others had gained a little more confidence after hearing him speak and had drifted closer.

“Well you came in the nick of time.” Came a gruff voice from the ground next to Damon. The man he had saved seemed to have calmed down slightly and was seated fully upright.

“Oh Uncle!” The woman cried, finally seeing the man clearly. She rushed over to him and knelt, examining the mess where the man’s lower leg used to be.

“It’s OK Diana, I’ll survive and I’m sure the trader Mage will know some kind of magic to grow it back.” Assured the man, seeming remarkably calm for someone who’d just been inches from death. He looked back up towards Damon.

“Thank you again for saving myself and my village. Name’s Benjy, welcome to Farcross.”

Quest Complete!

Congratulations, you have saved the village of Farcross from complete destruction at the hands, or paws, of the attacking wolves.

Rewards:

+100 Exp

+136 Exp (Based on wolves killed)

+3000 Relationship points with Farcross Village

The village is now friendly towards you.

Damon dismissed the notification, making a note to check it properly later. “You're welcome.” He replied, “I must admit I’m a little new to this area, can you tell me exactly where we are?”

“North.” Benjy replied. “As far north as civilisation has ever reached. We’re the furthest village out by at least a day’s walk through this snow.” He looked around then, taking in the bodies strewn around the small village. Even to Benjy, the village was a small and ramshackled affair – the houses were more like huts, made from wooden logs. Their thatched roofs seemed to be falling apart under the weight of the snow. It was home to him though. He’d helped to build these very structures and was proud of it all in a way. The bodies now littering the ground, brought great pain to his heart as he remembered the names and deeds of all the fallen he could see. He looked back at Damon then, wondering why the blood-soaked adventurer wasn’t quite meeting his eyes.

Damon, for his part, had just remembered his tattered shoulder. He was trying his hardest to hide the flashes of pain he felt every time the wind blew across his torn skin. He could feel that it was already starting to knit itself back together, just at an agonisingly slow pace.

“Please feel free to stay as long as you wish adventurer. Damon, was it?" Announced Benjy, “If you like, you could help us clear this mess up and perhaps help us rebuild.” He suddenly sounded very tired and Damon got the distinct impression this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened here.

…

After everyone had calmed down somewhat, the villagers began to disperse. Benjy and Diana gave him food to help heal his shoulder and he rested for a short while as his HP gradually increased. With his newly healed shoulder, he was able to carry a lot, which was useful because there weren’t many men left in the village. It was basically just himself, Benjy – who turned out to be the village's blacksmith as well as their tanner; and two young teenagers, no older than thirteen or fourteen. That wasn’t to say the women weren’t strong, they had to be to survive so far north. It was simply that they had other tasks to attend to and children to distract as the devastation around them was cleared.

He actually gained some nice loot from the wolves he had slain and was looking forward to finding a way to make himself some warmer clothes out of the pelts he now had.

Do you wish to loot Forest Wolf (Level 4) x2

x1 Forest Wolf pelt (average)

x1 Forest Wolf pelt (poor)

x2 Forest wood meat (poor)

Do you wish to loot Alpha Forest Wolf (Level 7)

x1 Alpha Forest Wolf pelt (Good)

x1 Alpha Forest wolf meat (Average)

Damon made a note to ask someone what the (average, poor and good) meant.

The bodies of the villagers who’d fallen during the attack were placed on a large pyre that those with little else to do had erected just outside of the village, in a small clearing. The resulting fire and funerals helped warm everyone after a harsh day and gave them all a chance to remember those who were lost.

Damon was impressed by the resilience shown by these villagers. Life so far North in these cold lands must really take its toll, but the people faced it kept going despite it. He managed to learn a lot from Benjy. His reputation boost helped a lot to loosen the mood and allowed Damon to fire off questions and queries about the land he was in and the world in general.

The village he was in was one of four in the northern most part of the human kingdom. The four villages were arranged in a sort of diamond shape and split about a day’s walk from each other, with Farcross being the highest point. The four villages didn’t particularly get on well with each other. They were technically all governed by a single lord, who lived in the southern most village. However, he was rarely ever there, preferring the capital of the human kingdom, which was far warmer and accommodating to his tastes. Instead he left the ruling of the diamond villages to his son, an ugly weasel – according to Benjy. His son continually increased taxes and demanded labour for a very low wage, to the point where money was scarce for those who weren’t in the young lordling’s personal guard, or cronies as Benjy referred to them as.

Most villagers had to work more than one profession to scrape by, trading within themselves and with the occasional trader that would venture so far north to buy goods such as wolf pelts and other unique items only found in the north. The one most consistent trader was a mage who came in the summer, looking to buy rare herbs and such for his magical experiments and potion making.

If the slightly pitiful economy wasn’t enough for the villages of the North, wolf, and sometimes even bear, attacks weren’t all that uncommon. This meant that the villagers had to be on constant guard and such attacks had a serious effect on the ratio of men to women, meaning the population was always stagnant and unable to properly grow. This was made even more obvious as Damon listened to the conversations around him, noting there were very few masculine voices with only himself and Benjy sounding properly mature.

At the end of the night, when the pyre had died down to a mere ember and the chill night air began to properly bite through everyone’s clothes, the villagers began to drift back to their respective beds. Damon was shown to an empty hut that he was told had belonged to the man he’d unfortunately failed to save in the wolf attack.

Sighing and falling onto the hard, wooden bed that was sat in the corner of the hut, Damon called up his status page to decide what to do with his two free stat points.

After a long deliberation, in which Damon remembered the realism of the day he’d just had, he decided that staying alive was his top priority. He did not want to know what dying felt like in this game. So with that in mind, he dumped both points into endurance and watched as his health pool rose by 20 points. He noted that his regeneration also rose by 0.1/sec, which was an added bonus. He wasn’t yet sure what the added strength did for him yet, the same for intelligence. He guessed he’d find out soon enough, after a little experimentation and perhaps a chat with Billy.

Personal Details Attributes Other Information Name Damon Khaul Name Value Level 3 Race Human STR 12 Class N/A Sex Male END 12 Guild N/A Age 21 years AGI 10 Spawn Point N/A Health 120/120 (+0.2/sec) DEX 10 Resistances Expand Stamina 100/100 (+0.1/sec) INT 12 Skills Expand Mana Points N/A WIS 10 Spells N/A Fame 10 CHR 10 Relationships Expand Titles N/A LCK 10 Status Effects Expand

Damon dismissed his status page, staring up at the ceiling above him, vaguely trying to make out any details of the dark roof, before slowly drifting off into a deep sleep.