23 – Time To Run

The pastel hue of the plains filled Alexandra’s eyes as she stared at the hole in the ground. She’d spotted it from a hundred paces away, a goblin burrow much like the one she’d found on her second day on Laika.

Her eyes peered through the blur of color, noticing the earthen mound behind the wall of flowers and grass that covered the plains.

She flipped the pages of her journal.

Quest Journal

Daily Reset: 06:00 | Streak: 5 Days | 0% All Stats

Next Milestone: 10 Days

Daily Quests:

• Slay two goblins (0/2)

She’d asked Lara; goblins were typically between level one and five. At least in this area. It wasn’t much, and individually, they posed little threat to the villagers. But the plains were vast, and their breeding speed high, so wiping them out wasn’t an option.

Not that there was much drive to do so. Low level monsters were the perfect training partners for teenagers.

Or Alexandra.

She ran her gloved hand over her scars. This time she wasn’t going to let them hurt her.

Alexandra moved closer to the burrow, careful not to make noise. She crouched beside the entrance and waited.

The first goblin came out alone, blinking in the light. She cast Inflict Weakness before it could react. Its legs went soft, its body tilting forward. She was already moving, stepping inside its fall, hooking its wrist at the extension of her arm and pulling it past her hip. It hit the ground face first. She brought the blade down once and stepped back to her position.

She wiped the blade on the grass. Listened.

Movement below. More than one set of feet.

She shifted left, putting the mound at her back, out of the sightline of anything coming up through the entrance. She gripped the sickle loosely, blade down, and waited.

Two came out together, shoulders bumping in the narrow opening. The first cleared the entrance and turned right. The second followed, turned the same way. Neither of them looked left.

She stepped out of her hiding spot and cast Inflict Weakness on one. It staggered. She left it and moved to the second before it had registered her, hooking its leading arm at the elbow, pulling it off its feet. It went down into the flowers. She put a knee on it, finished it, came back upright.

The weakened one had turned. It was listing to one side, its right arm hanging. When it saw her, it chirped.

It’s calling for reinforcements.

She smiled.

Good.

She took the outside, let it swing wide, stepped in behind the motion and hooked the back of its knee. It folded. Two hits on the ground.

She returned to the mound. Three down. Her quest was already complete, but she needed to push herself.

Silence from the burrow.

She gave it a full minute. The bell flowers moved in the wind to her left. A pink-legged bird picked through the grass thirty meters off, indifferent. Nothing came up from the entrance.

Then a head appeared, then shoulders, then the whole goblin pulling itself up with both hands on the lip of the entrance.

She waited until it was fully clear.

It straightened up. She let it. Taking the first three goblins by surprise had worked well. Too well. She wanted a challenge.

Hook to the collar, pull forward, step through. It went past her and into the grass. She finished it before it rolled over.

She straightened up and looked at the entrance. The grass around her was still. A splinter of morning light caught the blade of her sickle. She cleaned it properly this time, drawing the blade slowly through the grass twice on each side.

She stood up, checked her footing, and looked out across the plains.

Goblins wouldn’t give her what she was looking for.

She summoned her journal.

Slay two goblins (2/2) -> Quest Completed: +10 exp, +1 STR

Daily Quest Streak: 5 -> 6

Not even a skill level.

Unwilling to spend more time dealing with pests, she stepped back from the burrow. Journal still open, she flipped the pages to her skill quest list.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It was still early morning, she had a whole day ahead of her.

The first item on her agenda was to run. Her reasoning was simple. Running might not be the most impressive skill, but it was always going to be useful. Furthermore, it would apply directly in combat.

That said, her quest was asking for 100 kilometers in a day. She wasn’t ready.

She dispelled her journal, and started with a light jog. Even on earth, she hadn’t been a runner. However, she remembered the tortuous physical education classes of her teenage self. Going too fast meant risking burning out early. So she went slow.

The ground was uneven, filled with flowers, tall grass, and rocks. The plains were relatively flat, though it didn’t feel that way when she was going up an incline.

She was breathing. In, and out. Controlled.

Alexandra ran until her lungs started burning.

She slowed to a walk, hands on her knees, breathing through her mouth. It had felt long. Longer than it probably was. The sun hadn’t moved much.

She straightened up and summoned her journal.

Running: Run 100 kilometers without stopping. (3/100)

She stared at her progress as it erased itself.

Running: Run 100 kilometers without stopping. (0/100)

Three kilometers. Out of a hundred.

She flipped to her status. Constitution nine. She wasn’t unfit. She’d walked fifty kilometers two days ago and survived, albeit barely. But…

Yeah, she was unfit. A few points in constitution wasn’t going to be enough to change that.

She looked back at the plains ahead of her.

She started again.