World Seed: Game Start (10 page)

Thankfully,
I at least knew how to shift my aura this time, so it didn’t
take too long to match the aura to the herb. But like before, I kept
repeating the process until I was able to do so in a matter of
seconds. Of course, my mana supply wasn’t unlimited, so I had
to take a break for a half hour while I ate some more stale bread.
But after that was done, I got back to it, and finally managed to
replicate the aura.

The
next step was likely going to be the hardest. Three petals of
fireflower and two stalks of blood weed made twenty potions. So,
first I needed to test how much mana it took to replicate a single
blood weed or flower petal, then divide it by the appropriate amount.
For instance, I’d need only a tenth of a blood weed, and just
over a tenth of a petal.

This
process easily took me another hour before I got the individual
components correct, and by now I had earned a total of 8 wisdom
through all of this. But now I was finally able to produce the
feeling of blood weed in one hand, and fireflower petals in the
other, then mix them together. Once the two sensations mixed, I was
presented with a whole new healing, a warmer and gentler one. And now
that I knew how to do this, I’d be able to do so in the future
much more easily.

I
smiled as I saw that this spell registered as half a star higher than
my others, but afterwards I laid back on the giant leaf and let
myself fall asleep. It had been a long day, and the sky was already
dark after I finished practice.

Chapter 8:
Vengeance Rides Upon the Wind

A
few hours later, I awoke with a start, my body drenched in a cold
sweat. Fucking bunnies…

The
experience the day before had actually left me with a nightmare,
where I was being chased through the woods by a pack of horned
rabbits with blood red eyes. Of course, I was the one rabbit sized,
and they were giants. The dream ended with them picking me up and
slowly eating my body, one adorable nibble at a time.

Looking
outside, I saw that the sun was just starting to rise, so I decided
to head on out for training. They might plague my dreams, but I can
at least get revenge on them now that I’m awake! On my way, I
decided to go ahead and sell off the last of my potions to Lisara,
who bought them for five copper each. At the same time, I took note
of the exact shade her potions had. If nothing else, that would help
me make a better one in the future.

With
my new 45 copper, I decided to buy a basic guide to the nearby herbs
from Lisara as well. While it didn’t tell me any recipes, it
did list all of the medicinal and poisonous plants in the area, and
roughly said what their use was. For instance, I found out that one
of the black mushrooms I saw on our hunts the day before was actually
a rare herb that could paralyze anyone that tried to eat it.

Once
I was done with that, I checked my contacts list to see if I could
team up with Jacobs. Unfortunately he was still asleep, so that
wasn’t an option. He had apparently gained another two levels
after splitting up yesterday, so I needed to catch up. Next few
levels, need to work more on my mana… If I suck this bad at
fighting with weapons, then I need to make sure I won’t run out
of spells as easily.

Outside
of town, I made my way back to the area where we had seen the fluffy
hordes. Specifically, I wanted to see if I could find that black
mushroom again. If I could copy that, then I’d have a good stun
spell for my arsenal. And similarly, I was collecting any plants
along the way that were listed in the book I bought, whether they
were for poisons or for medicine. I found that after reading through
the book and learning its contents, my Herbology skill jumped up from
Beginner Level 1 to Beginner Level 7 in one go.

Anyways,
where was I? Oh yes, hunting the horned rabbits. It took me about
five minutes to find the first group of them, but what I found
surprised me. Rather than the groups of four or five I had seen
yesterday, this was a group of at least twenty! My need for revenge
wasn’t strong enough to commit suicide against that many
people, so I moved on to the next group…. Which was just as
large. All of the areas that we had hunted the small groups of
rabbits the day before now had much larger groups today.

They
knew… I don’t know how, but they knew I was coming for
them! I groaned, shaking my head and resigning myself to return to
town. Logically speaking, there was no way that those rabbits should
suddenly have that many at all the spots we hunted before, so I could
only ask a guard.

“
Hmm?
Oh, you tried to go out and hunt?” The guard showed me a
knowing smile, as if guessing what the issue was.

“
Yeah…
but…”

“
But
there were suddenly a lot more of them, right? That’s a pretty
common thing around here. It’s the reason we’re willing
to pay people every day to exterminate them. They reproduce so fast
that they can completely refill their population overnight. Most
likely you found them before later on, after their numbers were
thinned out for a bit. If we were to leave them alone for a full
week, they’d be everywhere.”

So
that’s why…I guess that means morning hunts are the
worst. I sighed, shaking my head at the news. “Thanks. I take
it adventurer’s tend to team up to start taking them out every
day?”

“
Hmm?
No, the wolves tend to bring down their population by about half.
That usually takes till around noon, and then the adventurer’s
go in and clear the rest. We just stay out of their way until the
wolves are done with their part.”

“
Well…
there goes my idea to get revenge. Or does it…” I
suddenly had a thought occur to me, and a wicked grin spread across
my face, before I raced back to the edge of town, leaving a guard
standing there with a confused expression.

Wolves,
I’ll be borrowing your experience for a bit! I thought to
myself with a sadistic grin. As soon as I was out of town, I sat down
and pulled a couple of plants out of my inventory. These were two
other poisonous plants I had found while walking, though neither were
as powerful as that black mushroom. One, an orange wead similar to
blood weed, included a weak paralytic, while the other, a green
flower with tiny yellow spots, caused slight internal injuries.

Using
the steps I had so diligently practiced the day before, I started
matching my mana to the two herbs. It was fairly easy to find out
which parts of the plant caused the negative reactions, thanks to the
aura itself. Basically, whenever I felt the aura for the poison, it
suddenly felt like my mana was moving through tar. This was far
different from the warm and gentle feeling I received from the two
healing herbs.

This
also made it harder to replicate the effects, making me feel like I
was starting from scratch. All in all, I had to wait for an hour and
a half before I had the two mana signatures copied to a sufficient
degree. Then, I spent about another ten minutes mixing them at
different ratios to determine the most volatile mix. What I came up
with was a 4:7 ratio, with the flower holding the majority.

I
felt that this alone would already be a fairly potent spell, but I
wasn’t done yet! No, no, far from done. The next step would be
what really made this dangerous. Now that I had the spell ready, I
set aside a bit of my mana surrounding it to attune to Wind Magic,
and then integrated the two together slowly. What I got as a result
made me giggle hysterically.

Yes,
yes… soon, they will pay. 25 mana is a small price. I kept my
evil grin up as I stored the two herbs and made my way back to the
area where I had seen the rabbits. Keeping low to the ground, I took
full advantage of my dexterity to try and make as little noise as
possible. Soon, I was back where I had found them, and the fight had
already begun. There were only four wolves, all of them looking
fairly young, fighting this horde of rabbits. Three of the fluffy
white menaces were already lying dead on the ground, and one of the
wolves was limping.

I
felt a brief moment of regret, since I was also catching the wolves
in my trap as well, before I cast the spell. Once it was gathered in
my hands, I simply blew it out towards the fighting groups, carefully
hiding in the bushes. Thankfully, they were too distracted with each
other at this time to notice me, or I would have been a dead man for
sure.

With
the barely perceptible spores gently gliding over the area, there was
an almost immediate effect. Both the wolves and the rabbits started
to gradually slow down, which made the job easier for the wolves that
no longer had to content with their super speed. I kept watch, not
sure how long the poison would last, and ready to recast it if I saw
them speeding up again.

About
five minutes later, and two of the wolves had fallen, through a mix
of the rabbits and my poison. Apparently this spell only lasted for
five minutes, as I had to recast it once I noticed the rabbits
starting to speed up. Once the spell was cast again, they looked even
worse than before. A few had thin lines of blood leaking from their
mouths, or gave cute little coughs after a deadly lunge. However,
there were only five rabbits left, so the two remaining wolves
gathered some of their prey and darted back while they still could.

I
waited for another minute before acting, making sure there was plenty
of time for the wolves to get away and the rabbits to take some more
damage, before I leapt out of the bush with my dagger in hand.
Thankfully, it seemed like my spell wasn’t affecting me if I
didn’t want it to, so I was able to quickly slaughter the
slowed, injured rabbits. And once the last one had fallen, I was
bombarded with a series of messages that had apparently been waiting
for combat to end.

Four
levels, plus possible future experience from the wolves eating the
poisoned rabbits… I think I just found my favorite hunting
method! I was laughing hysterically, and then gathered up all of the
remaining rabbits, as well as the two wolf bodies. I had to cut down
a few vines to tie them up, but afterwards I was happily dragging a
trail of bodies back to town, humming a tune as I did so.

Once
I arrived at town, the nearby guard was surprised by my catch, and
when he asked I answered honestly that I had used a spell to poison
them. Hearing that made him cringe a bit, and he was only able to
offer half the usual price for the bodies. I wasn’t surprised,
they wouldn’t really be paying for poisoned meat, after all,
just the other parts. Still, that was seventy copper in my inventory
again, which made me happy.

Another
thing that made me happy was what I got when I split my 20 free stat
points between wisdom and intelligence.