Chapter 13 March of the Marrow

I stalked the wolves. There was a pack of two, isolated from the others. One was lapping water from a nearby pool, whilst the other pricked his ears up, almost detecting my approach.

Almost.

I threw the spear, watched as it soared through the air, impaling the wolf against the jungle floor. The other wolf tried to flee, but I’d already nocked an arrow, firing it, my aim true. Within moments, both were dead. I didn’t immediately go for them. Instead, I waited. The jungle wasn’t safe, and there were avatars patrolling, hunting me.

I remained where I was, blended with the environment, passively levelling my stealth proficiency

[Stealth – Rank 5 – You have learned to blend with the world around you, hidden from sight. 20% to remaining unseen, decreased to 10% if standing. Gets a bonus from dexterity.]

[Achievement unlocked: Wolfsbane] Hunt and kill twenty wolves. Unlocks the Wolf’s Howls perk – increases movement speed by 5% which is also applied to others in your pack (party).

Three days had passed since Adrian’s announcement of my death. The coward himself had not come to hunt me, leaving it to the avatars under his command. I had used that time to watch their clumsy patrols, trying to work out their timings and movements, but I really needn’t have bothered. These weren’t crack commandos, these weren’t even people who played video games. Mostly the avatars would just wander the jungle, talking amongst themselves, announcing their position even if I didn’t have heightened hunter’s perception,

It was clear they didn’t care, that they only “hunted” me because they’d been ordered to. They would run away from even single mobs like the wolves. They were clearly afraid of Adrian, but they were also afraid of me.

Finally, my patience was rewarded as two avatars appeared, examining the dead wolves, and I stepped out of the underbrush, announcing myself. I could’ve killed them both, applying critical modifiers to arrows from stealth. But that would have defeated the purpose of this fight. Spear in hand, I walked calmly towards them.

‘Arms up,’ I said, my king’s mantle flowing behind me. The avatars looked fearful, one of them gripping his own spear, the other a club.

‘You!’ said one of them. I could see their minds whirring, wondering how they could talk their way out of this, but I was done talking to Adrian, and the cowards that would follow him.

I attacked the one with the club first, allowing him to take clumsy swings at me. He wasn’t too bad actually, but I blocked his strikes, taking only minimal damage. The one with the spear launched at me too, and now I was having to defend against both. Still, I didn’t strike back, letting them attack. Now my health was down by thirty percent.

That’s when I launched my counterattack, spearing the barbarian-class avatar, and felling him in two quick thrusts. He screamed as he died, blood spurting, as I turned to the other. He was already tired, and I pressed him, intentionally slowed, allowing him to block my thrusts. I focused on my footwork, slowing my attack movements, ensuring my form was correct until even my slow thrust penetrated his defence, felling him.

I stowed my spear and checked the corpses of the two avatars. Both of them were level one, and had nothing but basic loot on them. I took it anyway, the poultices would be useful, and I could break down their gear for materials. I gathered the wolves, slinging them across my shoulder, and headed deeper into the jungle.

It would have been nice to make a proper base in the jungle. Set down a tent, a campfire, but that was too dangerous. Instead, I’d been sleeping high up in the trees, weaving plant fibres into sturdy cord like ropes to secure myself and ensure I didn’t fall in the middle of the night.

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Instead, I made a new campfire each day, always in a different place. Adrian’s patrols may have been completely clumsy, but I wasn’t taking any risks. Not now.

I opened the technology tree. I had acquired enough points to unlock the bone class now. I set about carving through the wolves. Just as I had been when crafting, I found that I had muscle memory from experiences I’d never had. I separated the wolf pelts from the meat, and set them on a drying rack I had also unlocked from the tech tree. Wasn’t strictly necessary, but it would give the crafted gear a 10% boost to durability.

I had hunted enough wolves to craft what I needed. I had plenty of meat, grilled on the campfire. I was glad to see that when held in my inventory it wouldn’t go bad. The only limiting factor was my inventory. I could see that there was a way to increase it, but it needed something called a primal point, and I had no idea what that was.

My strength was a core determinant as well, and directly influenced my carry weight.