Chapter 15 Gremlins in the Forest

It took us most of the day to get closer to the area Zalia was desperate to go. While I was just sooo glad I got Xianmou, my sweet sword, back I was still feeling trepidation over what lay in front. Whatever this was, quest or request from the heart, there was still no way I was even near the level spectrum required for basically anything in this entire zone.

But… I had no choice really. I needed to get out of here, and get to a city. Remembering my mission just made me even more nervous. The other two groups that were so vital for getting to the Heart of the World, were not close to cities when we set off. But, I had been stuck here for days! Every day that went by now, meant a day the others could manage to reach a city and start wondering where I am. This all hinged on the success of three people on completely different places in the world succeeding. Each with something vital to the mission.

I slapped my forehead, in the moment of things I didn’t think to demand more people to be sent in, but now I felt there was way too much riding on too few in here.

“May I ask why you slapped your own forehead?” Zalia asked from right next to me, her head tilted.

I jumped and coughed,

“Uughem! I … um, just ignore me.”

“Wil, that is such a strange thing to do. Is it a custom of the Norskai?”

My eyes widened at her question, and the weirdest thing was, I didn’t remotely have an answer to her inquiry of my face-palm. So, I shook my head wildly.

She frowned slightly before continue walking.

“You are an odd man, Wil Stormchild. Come, we are not far now.”

That made me chuckle. One could actually say that. I stayed silent as I followed her.

And I was sure taking notes the whole time. Zalia was adept at dodging more dangerous areas. She read the lands like I could only dream of. It was to such a point, that I hurried towards her and asked,

“Hey, Zalia?”

“Yes?”

“I was thinking, you know, you seem so at home in this place. Could you perhaps teach me the basics for looking for the signs of how to stay away from the predators? It seems incredibly useful.”

The woman stopped and then dropped her fur hood onto her shoulders, a deep frown of what looked like confusion on her face.

“You truly wish to learn this?”

It was a strange question, that caught me slightly by surprise.

“Um, yes. Why? Is it strange to request.”

Her frown disappeared only to reappear and disappear yet again.

“Yes…No. I don’t know.”

Clearly, something dwelled beneath the surface causing this conflict in her, so I just lifted my hands to disarm her,

“My bad, no need then. I just thought it would be useful.”

Her eyes flashed back to mine and her hands shot towards me as she blurted,

“NO! I mean, I will teach you!”

When I didn’t respond, her hand went to the middle of her chest like she was relieved about something. This confused me.

“Okay…so why the hesitation?”

Her countenance dropped slightly as she looked out over the snow covered trees.

“My people keep telling me that choosing to come out here is too dangerous, that I need to stick to learning skills that is useful for the town. In other words, skills suited inside the town. You are to first to ever ask me to learn such a skill. One my people have looked down on.”

Her eyes glistened. This was a sensitive subject for her. Strangest thing was, I could relate. The game engineers frowned upon my skill set constantly. I still feel they believe I didn’t belong close to their department. Yet, my boss Nate never even started giving me a hard time. He saw something in me…

I looked to Zalia’s soft face looking sad.

“You are not alone in that. But, you know? You are out here looking for a way to change the fate of your people being stuck in this place. So, don’t let anyone look down on you. You are doing something to better the lives of others. That is a very noble thing.”

She looked to me and like a sun cresting at dawn, her smile washed over her face.

We both were smiling. My cheeks actually hurt. Then the absurdity of the mechanic the other developers put into the game hit me, and I huffed.

“Thank you,” She said finally, “It means more to me than you could know.”

With that, she tipped her head, and headed into the trees close by. As she went, she instructed me what she was looking out for, all in a relatively low voice for obvious reasons. This place was crazy dangerous!!!

She would point to scratch marks in the bark, to a print obscured by fresh snow. Most of those things, I only saw the moment she pointed it out to me. I shook my head. It was enlightening and very humbling that I was close to blind as a bat to my surroundings.

Oddly enough, it made me think of Eri, she would slap me against the head when I was losing focus sometimes. The memory warmed me up in this frozen wasteland.

It made me focus as hard as I could in drinking in every little detail. Who knows how long I would have her as a guide. I gulped. My salsa with that Sabre Tooth tiger just reinforced the notion that I was ill suited for this zone. I definitely had a long way to go towards that goal.

Then a hand slapped to my chest.

Ack!

I had lost focus so soon! Eri would definitely engrave the palm of her hand to my scalp for that one.

I looked to Zalia. She had a finger to her lips, shushing me. Though, her eyes were following something.

Glancing around, I could not see anything. I frowned, almost speaking. But she kept me silent.

Shrugging, I thought better of trying to just use my eyes and attempted using my Gale Sense. It was as if the forest in front suddenly got busy with movement. I concentrated harder and opened my eyes. It took a few moments before I could see what was up ahead.

There, not more than forty metres ahead, was a group of menacing looking creatures. The trees obscured too much of them for me to see what kind they were except for their grey skin.

So, I mouthed as silently as I could.

“Identify”

Zalia looked at me incredulity. But, I waved her down as I kept my eyes trained forward. I hoped my skill was high enough to give me some details.

Then,

Ping!

Ice Embraced Gremlin

[Monster]

Level 41

These strange Gremlins are not common and even more dangerous than their normal brethren. It is said they have been altered by an ancient ice consumed evil that lurks below the frozen lakes. Only rumours exist of what that encounter did to them. But, one thing is clear. They mention their master, and they do its bidding coming to search the topside lands for some mysterious reason.

[Extra info] Their bite can cause tissue to freeze over. If not warmed by fire or a suitable heating source, it will spread.

[Extra info] They are known to jump several metres to catch their prey off guard

[??]

[Dangerous][Avoid taking on more than one.]

Man! There looked to be five at least. A single level 41 was more than dangerous to me at level 17.

I leaned in close to Zalia and whispered in her ear.

“They are about twice my current strength. What do you think we should we do?”

She looked nervous, and turned towards my ear and whispered,

“I don’t know. They are expert trackers. I barely got away from them a few days ago.”

Uh-oh. That spelled trouble.

I sat back and tapped my bottom lip in thought. Zalia had a leg up on me movement, so if she barely got away then chances are that with my current mobility that I didn’t stand much of a chance of not getting overtaken. There was however, the option of just trying to sneak by, but looking at the Gremlins just made it clear, they were searching for something. If they find any of our tracks... That option seemed like a trap waiting to be sprung.

I turned to Zalia and said,

“You are faster than me and that limits my options here. Chances are we can’t sneak by without them finding our tracks not long after. It is a bit risky for my liking. So, I’m considering laying an ambush for them. Your thoughts on the matter?”

She looked past me over the crest of the hill, clearly thinking things through. Yet, I couldn’t imagine what was going on in her mind.

“It is a difficult situation, I agree. On my own, I would sneak away and lay false trails, and as best I could make it as difficult for them to track me until I reached the rock of the mountain.”

I suddenly wondered why more players didn’t pick a stealth base subclass at the very least. It seemed so incredibly useful. But... Then again, I was in a situation far beyond the natural progress of things in the game. Stealth wasn’t as appealing when you can get super damage dealing classes, or any number of classes useful in the more urban areas. Still, my situation alongside my mission kind of changed my way of thinking how to, one, survive and then hopefully barge into deeper areas to get closer to the heart of the world.

Either way, I was somehow glad I got a relatively clean slate. Although, my previous build would have been extremely helpful in this zone!

Snap!

My head jerked up. Zalia was leaning in with her hand finger snapping position. Whoops, I had gotten sidetracked again.

“Did you hear what I said.”

I totally did not!

“Um...I...”

She sighed,

“I was thinking about how we could use the trees to make an attack on them from two sides, and confuse them in the process. If they are spread out to attack on multiple fronts, it would give us options. Though, if you can also make traps it would help. Our attacks can then point them in the direction of our traps. With you being slow, we can’t risk them being in control in a fight.”

I ignored her calling me slow. She had a point. For the time being my attributes pointed more in an attack build rather than a movement build. Yet, I seriously considered getting that more balanced as soon as I could.

“I agree. I got some ideas for traps. We best hurry, no way of knowing how long they will stay oblivious to our presence.”

I was surprised as she pulled out the two big fangs, Sabre-Tooth fangs, from her back pack. I gestured somewhat bewildered at them and she shrugged.

“You didn’t take them, so I thought it useful to acquire.”

I wanted to facepalm myself. Those types of things were excellent materials to craft stuff. Though, at least one of us had the bright idea to get them from the carcass.

Then, I lifted my shoulders and went about making some rope from the left over inner bark I had left.

Ten minutes later, I slowly and as quietly as I could climbed into a tree on the general route the Gremlins were going. It hadn’t taken me long to see my instincts were spot on. They were already moving towards the area that we had been discussing our plans. Their chattering also seemed to have increased, and my guesses were firmly on them having realised there had been movement through the snow.

I hefted one of my two newly crafted spears.

This was an incredibly important part of the plan. If I could take my time and make sure of doing damage to one of them, then the fight would be slightly more manageable. Still, if four or all five of them choose to pursue me even with Zalia attacking from the other side, then that would be bad through and through.

So, I hoped for only two or three as I chucked that spear with all my might at the strongest looking Gremlin of the troop.

It flew through the air and as I held my breath, it struck true into the upper thigh of the Ice Embraced Gremlin I was aiming for.

An almost ear-splitting squeal erupted from the creature. Immediately all of the Gremlins drew their weapons and stared in my general direction. Though, just as they all started forward, I saw a spear with a Sabre-Tooth fang flying from the other side and hitting a second one in the back.

Anxiously I waited for what would happen next.

Then, with great relief for me, two Gremlins turned and moved towards the new direction of attack.

It worked.

The one I struck, barked something and then followed the two remaining of his brethren towards my location.

One thing was for certain, this was not going to be an easy fight. Three over forty levelled creatures against a level 17, yeah, not easy at all.

I hefted my last spear and threw it at the closest Gremlin. The fact that I was still hidden helped in scoring me a second hit. It sliced through the side of the creature, only dealing a flesh wound, but it was damage.

From here on out it was traps and my blades. I just hoped Zalia could hold out long enough as I fought my own battle.

I withdrew Xianmou and waited for the first trap to trigger.