Chapter 9: Fast Travel

Instead of wasting all of my gaming hours sitting in a carriage, once everybody was awake and my group at least had eaten breakfast the coach started rolling again and a message window appeared.

[When playing alone or in a party the Fast Travel option is available to you. Fast Travel can be interrupted by events and combat confrontations, you may suddenly find yourself in a fight. Enable Fast Travel?]

[YES/NO]

This time I simply thought my answer and suddenly the world brightened a little and became a little fuzzy. What felt like a few seconds later it returned to normal. There was no flashing combat alert in my vision and everyone else in the carriage looked okay so I did not freak out and draw my sword. Instead, I got up like Lana and the dog were before following everybody out of the carriage.

If not for how quiet it was I almost thought the trip was over but instead it turned out that the wagon had only stopped to rest the giant horses with the sun directly overhead in the sky. The first thing I did was find the assistant driver dressing the horses with muzzle bags of oats. I simply asked, "How long will we be stopped?"

"About two hours," the guy replies without even looking around. "Since it's you, I guess you want to go hunting? By all means, just make sure you're back before we leave you or you'll be left for dead."

"Rules are rules," I say by way of acknowledgment before abruptly turning and walking off. Seconds later, there were the sounds of multiple soft footfalls following me. "Do you have your weapons?" I ask patiently, knowing who was behind me without even looking.

Answering with some pride in her voice, Lana says, "Of course! Did you have any more you wanted to make me carry like a pack mule?"

On top of the walking stick that she still carried, Rocar had given her a long poniard dagger to protect herself with on the road and I even made her carry a chitin trench knife just in case. It was not like she was carrying loads of weapons and armor, but this region was no less than twice as dangerous as the tutorial. Mostly at night, but that was not the point.

If she had the proper Strength for one I would have gotten her a sword as well but she somehow had less than ten Strength. Starting with the basic weapons and armor Strength was probably a benefit reserved for players of the human race. However, she was a classless level eight who was not far from level nine.

I could easily get her to level ten by the time we reach the city.

Hunting and foraging with Lana was actually quite useful, not only did she know more about the local trees and plants than I did, explaining some of the ones I had been collecting were just cheap and basic goods used for things like making a simple insect repellent and were only of value in large quantities. That information, though, was added to their tags.

Because it was daytime I did not see anymore ferecats or dusk imps but instead a larger variety of common animals in different shapes and sizes as well as some monsters. Most of what we actually fought, though, were a pair of tree vermin, some goblins, and this one large lizard monster that was basically a monitor lizard crossed with an alligator.

The so-called Great Oak Monitor had a pretty high natural defense so it took a quite a few swings even from my sword to wear it down. However, even though it had long legs it had an even longer body that was slow except for its tail. With a second person and a dog helping to keep it busy, though, the tail was not much of a problem at all

After a combo count of eight chops, I received over thirty experience, a scaly hide, a meaty tail, a handful of teeth, and a trophy skull on top of some gold. In the process I even leveled my swordplay skill once just from fighting the oak monitor. By the time we returned to the carriage I had officially reached level ten and felt pretty good about myself.

When the world came out of Fast Travel once again it was once again late in the evening and the carriage had stopped for the night. Somehow, though, Lana and the dog were still awake so I was not sure how to go about sneaking out of the carriage. Finally, I had no choice but to just get up and go.

Lana, of course, wanted to join me but I had to tell her that it was too dangerous for her to come out at night. As much as I would not have minded having the dog with me, I had to say it was so dangerous I wanted to leave the dog here with her. This way she would not feel left out by my bringing the wolf hound hunting.

Tonight we were far enough north in general that we were reaching the edge of the forest and the trees were gradually thinner and thinner here so that it was easier to see at night. Only one moon was slightly fuller than the night before while the other showed even less moon, meaning the clarity in the night light came from the lessening number of trees in the area. This was probably the region surrounding the northern forest city where the forest was recovering from past logging.

Not even fifteen minutes after I started walking out into the forestry a ferecat appeared leaping out onto the forest trail in front of me. A quick sidestep and backhanded slash of my sword after it attacks took out half of its life in a single blow, sending it sprawling bloodily on the ground with a long tear along its left side. Then, as soon as it landed, I took my turn to pounce and drive my sword down into the ground through the ferecat's body.

[x4 critical: vital strikeS]

[+20XP*.5]

[Acquired Ferecat Eye]

[Acquired Gold x5]

Pretty much ignoring the notifications in my face as I sheathed my sword, I took out the tool I preferred to abuse and used the cast steel dagger as a climbing piton to help myself up the tree that the ferecat came down. By the time I was halfway up I could already see over roughly half of the other trees in the forest. From up here I could even see the city of our destination ten miles or so in the dark distance by the lights in its streets and buildings.

If I really wanted to I could have probably not only reached level ten by morning but I could also cut through the forest to reach the city in the same time. For a moment I actually considered going back to camp and telling the drivers to wake me up on the road outside the city when they get there. However, not only did the road twist and turn and wind around in some places so it would take forever but it might also upset Lana for me to be disappear like that.

Just as I was deciding the head back down and continue walking around until creatures attacked me as usual there came an odd darkness that swept over the world from overhead. Looking up it was almost impossible to miss the large body of an even larger winged bird silhouetted against one of the moons. It was circling overhead as if it had found something.

Knowing this was the kind of predator whose level was in the lower twenties for this region, I quickly started making my way back down the tree. As it turned out, the giant owl monster must have been targeting me because it continually spiraled lower and lower as I climbed down. Then, it finally broke into a dive.

Nearly as soon as the giant owl monster started diving my vision flashed with a very deep and dark red framing that helped spur my speed a bit. As the sound of air whipping and rustling feathers muffled whistling speed reached my ears I simply dropped to the ground below. I fell twelve feet and took eight damage from the fall but it was way better that staying in that tree.

The sound of sticks cracking and the flutter of leaves around me marked the landing of the owl monster above me, perching on the branch that I had dropped from just a moment before. The monster had a head bigger than my own maned by thick and dark speckled feathers with a pair of large gleaming eyes that looked like solid balls of light form my current angle. Its big round beak was almost a foot long and had a cruel curvature for gripping its prey.

Even as I scrambled to my feet the beast dropped down from the tree with a light spreading of its immense wings, landing heavily where I had just been lying with a jarring THUD that I felt even from twelve feet away. Drawing my sword as I spin around to face the monster, I just have time to see it flap once and reach over six feet in the air before angling into a shallow dive toward me. My first instinct was to just get out of the way and I did, diving and rolling to the side before ending the roll on my feet.

Running up from the ground toward a nearby tree as two heavy flaps disturb the air behind me, I jump up as high as I can to step onto the trunk before kicking off straight up into the air. The owl monster making its second dive from higher up landed on the trunk of the tree a split second after me, barely even gripping on before flapping up into the air passed me with a slight spin to face me.

As soon as the monster spread its wings for the following flap after landing on the side of the tree, I struck down blindly with my sword as its body passed up in front of me. I did not receive any notifications for a critical from the attack but the owl shrieked so loudly that my ears rang with a deafening silence afterward. One of its wings had been broken and twenty-percent of its health was gone when I looked over to see it land.

Even though the bird naturally had great Strength and Agility stats, its Endurance and overall toughness was low BECAUSE it was a bird and birds had hollow bones for weight reduction. Now that the beast was grounded its threat level had been cut in half and I had no problem calmly approaching it in a sideways shuffling stance.

The broken wing hung limply at its side while the other was partially open and at the ready as if the bird planned to slap me with it. For a wing that had the strength to keep a body that big in the air, I was actually a little worried. However, the owl was too scared to imbalance itself by closing the distance or making more so it could only stand there as I stepped up.

Feinting a quick lunge, I force the bird to move to defend itself by swiping its wing through the air as if swatting at my sword. However, I never moved from my spot until the bird's wing was already in front of its face. Then I truly lunged forward and thrust the sword out ahead of me through the feathers of its huge wing.

[x2 critical: vital strike]

Half of the remaining health in the bird's bar disappeared as I ran my sword through its neck and upper chest, deducting bleeding damage as the bird struggles to move its pinned wing while staggering away. I simply let the sword go so its weight would imbalance the bird even more. Then, I stepped forward and front kicked the sword up to the hilt in its body.

[+37XP]

[Acquired Nightwing Feather x8]

[Acquired Nightwing Talon x4]

[Acquired Nightwing Beak]

[Acquired Nightwing Eye]

[Acquired Nightwing Breast Meat x2]

[Acquired Gold x22]

I was actually breathing pretty heavily as I watched the giant bird's body particulate and fade, not from exhaustion but from fear and excitement. Compared to my natural kinetic vision and reflex, the ferecats were actual equal to me or only slightly better in terms of speed. However, that bird was right on my ass the entire time and I had started moving as soon as I knew it was there.

That bird's speed was terrifying and as I stood there I could not help but think of all the ways in which I could have screwed up. If I had started climbing down a second too late. If I had rolled or dove a split second too slow. If my shitty starter boots had trouble gaining traction on the tree.

There were numerous ways in which I could have been taken off the ground and never been able to up up a fight again and it scared me as much as it excited me. THAT was the kind of thing that I started playing this game for, the feeling that I was really fighting. The feeling that I might actually die if I take that hit.

Bygone Era was the first game to actually make my heart beat like this and I LOVED IT!