44 – Good One

Alexandra stood atop a low rolling hill as she watched the plains before her. Louis was beside her, reading Verdant Beast Of The Balerian Plains.

“Mimethyses tend to grow in a strip of land close to the coast,” he said. “Though not right on the cliff edges.”

She nodded. Her eyes were scanning the plains for the orange flowers characteristic of the beast. “I don’t see one.”

“Let’s walk.”

For today’s quest, she’d graduated from hunting goblin, and was now tasked with her first daily-sanctioned verdant beast kill. A Mimethys, something she’d already killed, albeit with difficulty. Still, this type of plant monster only hovered between unranked and the Iron rank, and she had gotten a lot stronger since then.

Quest Journal

Daily Reset: 06:00 | Streak: 12 Days | 1% All Stats

Next Milestone: 25 Days

Daily Quests

• Slay one Mimethys (0/1)

A Face Among Many 1 -> 2

The level to her concealment skill had come after yesterday’s chase. She sighed, closed her journal, and walked with Louis.

Her steps were heavier than usual, weighed down by the brand new axe she now carried at her waist, on the opposite side of the sickle she’d insisted on taking.

“You know, you could have told me about your secret passage in the walls before,” she grumbled. “It would have saved me a lot of trouble the night before.”

Louis looked back and smiled at her. “Sorry. I thought it was obvious. I literally live beneath the city walls. What more do you need?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Well, if you don’t show me where the trapdoor is, how am I supposed to find it from the outside?”

“Sorry.”

She tapped his back, and walked beside him.

The sun was still low when they spotted the Mimethys. Rather, when Louis spotted it. His perception was a lot better than Alexandra’s, though he refused to tell her his exact stats.

“Go for it,” Louis said, stopping far enough from the beast that he wouldn’t interfere. “Remember what we talked about.”

She nodded, and unstrapped her axe from her belt. It was heavy. A lot heavier than the sickle. But she was stronger than ever, and capable of swinging it with one arm if she so desired. Alexandra had trained a little before taking her new weapon into a real fight.

The Mimethys, like most verdant beasts, kept still. It was waiting for her to approach its flowers, drawn in by the sweet smell. But its nectar was far from irresistible, especially to someone who knew about it.

It was only when she stood above the orange flowers that the vines made their moves.

“Dodge. Don’t fight back,” Louis shouted from afar.

Alexandra knew what she needed to do. They’d discussed her approach to training at length since yesterday. She watched the vines close in on her and shifted on her feet. Her attributes were incomparable to her first fight against a Mimethys so she was able to follow their trajectory with ease. She stepped aside, dodging a vine, then another.

“Too much movement. You can do better.”

She tracked the vines swirling around her and moved. One small step to the right to prevent her left foot from being grappled, one foot raised to dodge a swipe, then she ducked under another.

It was going well, until she stepped on a rock and her ankle bent. She stumbled, a vine caught her leg.

“It’s fine. Start with the axe now.”

Alexandra swung the axe at the vine coiled around her leg. She missed. The blade bit into the dirt and the handle wrenched her wrist sideways.

“Again.”

She pulled the axe free and swung harder. This time the blade caught the vine and tore through half of it. The vine recoiled. She chopped again and severed it clean.

Two more came. She raised her foot and stamped one flat against the ground, then brought the axe down on it. The second coiled around her forearm before she could react.

She hacked at it with short strokes, no room for a proper swing. The edge scraped along the vine twice before cutting in. It split and fell.

Her shoulder was already burning.

“You’re stopping,” Louis said. “Keep your feet moving.”

She watched the next vine come. She stepped left, let it pass, and swung in the same motion. Clean cut. Another came from above. She ducked, axe already rising on the way up. It separated in two.

Alexandra moved through the rest of them, feet and blade working together. Step, cut. Duck, cut.

When the last vine dropped, the ground split open beneath the orange flowers. The thick body of the Mimethys pushed up through the soil.

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“Step back,” Louis said sharply.

She listened, and came to a stop next to him. They watched the Mimethys thrash around, wanting to fight them.

“You don’t think that’s enough?”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t know. Depends on how broken your class art is. That said, for a regular class, you’d need a lot more proficiency to unlock a skill quest. Your axe work is rough, relying more on the sharpness of your blade than skill. As for your movements, if your stats were any lower, it wouldn’t cut it. Hell, you got caught by an Iron beast.”

She winced. “There were a lot of vines.”

“Do you think the Yshant will be easier?”

She didn’t answer.

They left the Mimethys alive, and went looking for another one.

When looking for them, Mimethys turned out to be relatively common. The sun hadn’t moved more than a hand’s width before they located their next target. Alexandra was still fresh, so she immediately got back to training.

She dodged. She cut. She dodged and cut. But Louis still wasn’t impressed.

“Movement in a fight isn’t just about not getting hit. You must also position yourself for your next strike.”

That was the real struggle. Alexandra tried, but often leaned too much on the dodging side, missing openings. At other times, she overcorrected, and took hits she shouldn’t have.

The third Mimethys was more of the same. Then the fourth.

Alexandra was finding her footing.

On the fifth, the sun had reached its midway point, and she decided to finish her quest, and cut down the main body of the beast.

Slay one Mimethys (1/1) -> Quest Completed: +10 exp, +1 STR, Skill Quest Unlocked: Combat Sense.

Daily Quest Streak: 12 -> 13

She frowned as she read her journal.