Chương 21: A Pride of Wolves

El is also tired of practicing. She's been flipping over a statue that she broke, a huge slab of granite, and she's tired of doing that. I don't blame her. I kind of want to get a go at it, but I'm honestly not sure I'd be able to move it. It looks like it weighs several hundred pounds, and while my strength is at twenty thanks to my gloves, I honestly don't know if that's enough. But with the sky going grey and her strength up to whatever score it just reached, she's game to go out and hunt something else down.

"I wonder when the night time monsters switch for the daytime ones," she says as we leave the sculpture garden.

"And where do they go when it's not their time to be around? Like, did you come across any lynxiths sleeping when you went to that other park yesterday?" I shake my head.

"No. Nor have I found any sleeping giants during the day. I have no idea where they go. Maybe they despawn."

"That would be weird."

"If they don't, we can go looking for giants during the day. Maybe we can get one that's already asleep and kill it before it really even knows we're there."

"That sounds so cruel," El says.

"But they're monsters, right? I mean, the system identifies them that way. It doesn't identify us as monsters. It just identifies you as a pathfinder of indeterminate health and level." I look at her. El. Level 12 berserker. HP: 480/480.

"It tells me your level and hit points," I say.

"But I'm level thirteen. I guess you can't see what people are if they're a higher level."

"That kind of sucks," she says.

"But I guess I get it. I can't tell if you're one level higher than me or a hundred levels higher. So you can bluff me all you want."

"Yeah, but it would be a bluff," I say.

"You have more hit points than I do."

"How does that work? My vigor is only twenty."

"I think it's that talent you took. I hope I get another one of those soon. I might want to take that toughness one, if only for the extra hit points."

"I regenerate in combat, too," she says.

"Not very fast. One point every six seconds. But every bit helps, right?"

"That's much faster than me," I say.

"I mean, I don't regenerate during combat at all, and even out of combat you're a hundred times faster than I am." She shrugs.

"Well, I'm a tank. That's what I do." She adjusts the hold on one of her javelins, three more strapped to her back.

"What do you think we're going to find?" I don't tell her that we won't find anything if we keep talking. There's always a chance that something will find us. But we're moving into Loring Park, so I assume we're going to find "Shadow wolves," I say.

"That's my guess, anyway. There are sometimes giants in the parks, but it seems like the wolves prefer the parks to the roadways."

"Maybe the asphalt hurts their paws," she says, scanning the horizon for movement. I look where she's looking. I'm confident that I can see better than she can, so if one of us is going to notice the wolves, it's probably going to be me. Sure enough, after we set foot into Loring, I spot them. There are eight of them. Shadow Wolf. Basic rare monster, level 8. HP 400/400. I point them out to El, and she judges the distance. I wonder if she can throw a javelin that far. How far is far to throw a spear?

I mean, the wolves are probably a hundred yards away from us. Can she hit that distance? I can with the bow, but it's a hard shot with a lot of arching. I can pull of a Sniper Shot, but probably only because it's an ability. I don't know if I can hit that far with a normal shot.

"They're too far," she whispers.

"Let's sneak a bit closer." She isn't bad with sneaking. I use the camouflage spell, which makes me able to get much closer than she can without them noticing me I get within fifty yards, then within forty before I decide to take my Sniper Shot. The shot lands on one of the wolves, doing 204 damage. The wolves immediately turn towards me, snarling but not charging yet. I don't know if I have a full fifty five seconds to wait for Sniper Shot to come off cooldown. Maybe I'll just shoot a couple of other arrows.

One more into the wolf that I hit will guarantee its death, but I think the bleed might take it out, too. 102 damage, then 51, then 25, then 12, then 6, then 3, then 1. What does that equal? 404. So yeah, that wolf is going to bleed to death no matter what I do. So I can turn a shot to another wolf. I only do 58 damage to that one, but I manage to hit it a second time before they all start charging at us. I take a few steps back, firing a third shot into the same wolf, slowing it down and hopefully killing it.

El's javelin punctures the wolf I'd been shooting at as it lingers behind the rest of the pack. I'm pretty sure that will kill it, leaving only six more still coming at us. I'm moving back at about half the rate they're moving towards me. That means I'll get one more Sniper Shot before they're too close for the bow. I take it, knowing that means only five more of the wolves are going to be combatants, then I draw my sword, dropping my bow to the ground. I'll pick it up later.

I throw a knife at one of the wolves as it closes the distance, dealing 32 damage to it but not causing bleed. When it gets close, I slash at it my sword for 60 damage, then shove my bracer into its mouth for another 4. It tries to bite down on my arm, only ravaging itself further on my bracer and giving me a chance to stab it, twisting the blade inside it until I find the wolf's heart and cleave it in two. Another wolf bites at my leg, chomping down and trying to worry it, but unable to get a good grip on me.

It does 6 damage, which Shell easily absorbs, and I dodge a third wolf as it tries to slash at me with its front claws. The one that tried to bite me on the leg pounces on me, trying to throw me down with its weight and trying to get its fangs into my throat. But I'm able to catch it with the same arm that used to be down another wolf's throat, ripping up this new wolf's maw with my lynxith clawed bracer.

The damage is minimal, but I'm once again able to stab at it, even as it uses its claws to rake against my flesh, all four paws trying to cut me to shreds. It's an effective attack, dealing 22 damage before I manage to kill the wolf, and the other one jumps up on me and tries to bite the back of my head, dealing another 19 damage as I stagger between the two wolves. Then the one scratching my front goes slack from the stabbing, and I'm able to twirl and push the other one off me.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. My Shell is down to 150 or so points of defense, so I'm not really worried when I turn to face the remaining wolf. I get even less worried when El steps forward and flanks it, chopping at its hind leg while I slash at its muzzle. It doesn't take long for us to take the final wolf down, and I'm soon smiling at the result of our fight. You have defeated Shadow Wolf x8. You gain (3200/2) 1600 experience.

It's enough for El to get to level thirteen, and enough for me to be halfway to level fourteen. It's also enough for my sword skill to increase to nine. And, once we skin the wolves and take their claws and fangs with it, it's enough for my animal harvesting to increase to 6. I really should do something with all these hides. If I can't turn them into leather, I should at least make sure they're clean and dried so I can use them to make bags or whatever. Maybe I'll make one of them into a pillow.

I've got the leather cord to do that sewing, and I know how to make a pillow from my high school days in home economics. It's not like it's particularly hard. I'll make myself a pillow, and stuff it with wolf fur, scraping another of the hides clean. I wonder what skills I'll get for doing that. Right now, though, we want to keep searching Loring Park. I've been here before a bunch of times; this is where they usually hold the Pride event. It's a big park, and there's a lake right in the middle of it.

We could go swimming, but I'm afraid there will be monsters in the water, and I don't know how to fight in the water yet. Still, it wouldn't suck to get clean again. No, we can do that in the sculpture garden. There's a little man made lake at the giant spoon that we can clean off in. We're in Loring Park. We need to find monsters to fight. And if we're not quick about it, we'll be back to fighting the daytime monsters in another hour or so.

"You good to keep going?" I ask. She has a few scratches down her bare arms, but they don't look all that bad. And she has the bracers on both arms, higher quality than the one that I made myself. She should be fine.

"Yeah, I'm good," she says.

"I don't need to wait." I don't think I need to recast Shell. It's down from the wolf attacks, but not that far. I know I still have about a hundred and fifty points left, so there's no point in wasting the spell and having to wait for the cooldown. We don't know how long it's going to be before more wolves come at us. In fact, there's a group of them getting close. I only notice out of the corner of my eye, but I spot one of them moving stealthily across the park towards us.

Once I see the one, I spot the other nine pretty easily. My bow is between us and them. I could make a break for it, but they'll probably start charging if I do, and then I won't have time to shoot them anyway. Your Alertness has increased to 6. That must be how I spotted them. I point them out to El, and she draws another of her javelins. I summon a ball of flame and shoot it towards the pack of wolves coming our way. My flame hits the one in the lead for 42 damage, and the javelin hits is just a second later.

She clearly aimed for my ball of flame. It's not enough damage to kill the wolf, but it is enough to get them to charge at us. I throw a knife for 32 damage, then another ball of flame for 42. El throws another javelin and then a small axe. We take out the wolf in the lead, but the other nine of them are soon threatening to overwhelm us. I don't want them to surround me, so I start dancing back, throwing balls of flame at them as I go. I keep a careful eye on my MP.

I don't want to run out and be unable to cast Shell again when I will probably need it the most. I don't try to do much attacking, swinging at wolves as they get close but generally just trying to stay away from them. They snap at me when they can, but generally are just trying to surround me, trying to get it so that they can attack me from behind one at a time, and make me twirl to face one of them while a new one attacks me. They're trying to flank and harry me, I know. But if I let them do that, I'm dead.

Even with Shell to protect me, I can't let them get to the point where they can all attack me, and I can't let them try to pile on me. If I they do that, I won't be able to move my sword arm. It might take a while for them to tear me to pieces, but if I can't fight back, they'll have all the time in the world. Fighting against superior numbers is always difficult.

I have to accept the occasional slash from my sword landing, and have to accept getting hit a lot more than I would normally like to avoid them surrounding me. I'm grateful for all the levels of dodge that I have, and I know that I'm going to be increasing that even more as this battle drags on. I charge forward through the wolves, slashing at them as I go by and taking a bite on the leg as payment for my escape from their trap.

They keep trying to move to surround me, and it's only their insistence on doing this that stops me from going down fast. I think if they all charged me at once, I wouldn't stand a chance. But that way means certain death for at least one of them, because he'll have to impale himself on my sword to immobilize it and allow the others to dog pile on top of me and rip me to shreds. And apparently, the wolves aren't willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

I think that means that they aren't all that intelligent, which I am more than grateful for. With them unwilling to sacrifice one of their number, I'm able to whittle down all five of them, slowly reducing their health from 400 to 300 and then down to 200. I may not kill a single wolf before El finishes with her batch, but when does come to help, they'll be pretty low in health and go down easily to the two of us. Another slash, and my Shell all but flickers out of existence.

It still has a little bit of room left, but another hit may carry over to my normal health, so I just cast Shell again, reupping it to 195 health. If this goes away, then next will be my normal health. But I think I can get through the wolves without that happening. I do manage to kill one of them before El comes to help me, but it's a near thing. I slash its throat open maybe five seconds before an axe splits the skull of another wolf.

The other three wolves turn back and forth between us, unsure who the bigger threat is. That allows us each to kill one of the wolves. The last remaining wolf runs away. I should really let it go, but I don't. I throw a knife into its back leg, then shoot it with a ball of fire. El, clearly feeling the same way about letting it go, throws an axe into it, and the wolf falls, leaving us unquestioningly victorious. You have defeated Shadow Wolf x10. You gain (4000/2) 2000 experience. And that is enough for level 14.

I decide this time to put two points each into Strength, Agility, and Presence. I need more MP, and now I have 238 of it. It also gets me closer to qualifying for the healer class, and does qualify me for the barbarian class. I don't know if I'll put more points into strength any time soon, but my agility is now at 30, and my defense is up to 65. Moreover, my sword skill has increased to 10, and so has my dodge. I qualify for Barbarian, and I'm only two levels of shield away from qualifying for footman. Berserker.

Progress: Strength 20/25, Dodge 10/10, Sword 10/10, Throwing 10/10. Duelist. Progress: Agility 20/20, Alertness 6/8, Dodge 10/10, Sword 10/8, Bow 13/8. I think Gigi is a duelist. This tells me a fair bit about what my friends have as far as skills. Maybe I should go to Gigi for more Alertness. There's no reason we can't help one another. I don't know if we should stay in Loring Park much longer. One more fight would be good, might be enough to level up El again, though I doubt it'll be enough to level me up.

I still need almost five thousand experience points to get to level fifteen. I hope that it's worth it, in that I get something special for reaching that level. Maybe a special pathfinder ability. Or maybe I'll get my tracking up to 10 before then.