Hunting a Monster

After a while the glow started to dim and Chris began to explore his new options.

'Seems like the passive skill adds fifty percent to the base energy. Lucky me, I might not need to spend too much points on energy and can focus on intelligence. Oh it looks like I can choose a main tree out of the four spell-types dark, arcane, fire or poison and one sub tree. With only one skill point, a main tree is enough for now, later on I may have a better understanding of what I need. First I should check every tree to decide which decision would benefit me most.'

Starting with the first skill tree, Chris began to check all currently available skills. It was by no means easy for him, with over a hundred unlocked abilities in each tree, divided into active and passive abilities and some even with synergies, made the choice way harder than he first expected.

After much thought, he came to the conclusion that all the trees had something positive. For example, the fire skill tree was designed for burst damage and it could also cause damage over time if an enemy was set alight. Although it would be great to deal a lot of damage and burn enemies, this variant seemed to attract far too much attention. Alone the idea to make a fire in the middle of a forest and seemed foolish.

Even the most foolish person would have realized that starting a fire at night is like saying hey I'm here come and get me and not fighting in the middle of the night is not an option when attacked by monsters. Just the thought of hundreds of monsters storming directly to the fireplace made Chris abandon this tree.

Although the dark and arcane tree looked great, each of them made a better choice for a subtree than for a main tree.

'The poison tree looks pretty good, even though I still need to be in range for the spells, I can distance myself later on and let the poison do it's magic. So poison it is. Choose poison skill tree.'

The familiar glowing light started to shot out of his eyes again, forming a rune resembling a bright green skull, from whose mouth a dripping, evaporating liquid fell. The glow intensified again and the pattern flew directly back into his eyes.

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Main Tree unlocked: Poison

Poison Resistance increased by 30

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'Oh sweet poison resistance on top. The first skill I'll choose is really a basic skill, a simple poison ball. It seems like even in another world a ball is the standard skill in every tree. Put one point in poison ball. Show poison ball.'

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Skill: Poison ball

Level: 1

Damage: 1-5 + (0.1 * INT)

Effect: Causes 20 + (0.1 * INT) damage over 20 seconds (Can't Stack).

Mana cost: 10

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Being curious about the skills, Chris pointed his right hand towards a rock and thought about the poison ball. A light green liquid formed in front of his right hand, it floated slowly and seemed to be embedded in a magical bubble. At least the liquid did not drip out of the sphere.

With another thought about wanting to shoot the ball as fast as possible to the rock, the ball shot like a cannonball from his hand and splashed all over the stone. Since the liquid had no corrosive effect, the stone remained intact and the liquid evaporated slowly on the stone.

'Awesome and it seems like I don't even need to hit the target, the vapor could deal the damage over time effect, as long as the monster breathes the poison in. At the moment I can shoot eleven poison balls, taking into account the mana regeneration of 0.9, even twelve can be shot one after the other if I take some breaks in between. I can't wait to try it on a monster, so I guess I have to make a trip to the creatures in the grasslands.'

Chris began to move towards the location in the grasslands where he had seen the creatures jumping around. After a while the hard stony ground ceased and Chris stepped onto the soft grass of the grassland. Unkempt as the grass was, much moss grew in between, which made the feeling on stepping on it even more enjoyable. Since Chris was barefoot, he was way more motivated now and he even started to hum a little melody while being on his way.

After walking for about twenty minutes Chris could see two monsters at about a hundred meters away. Carefully he started to approach and about fifty meters away Chris stopped.

The monsters looked like a bigger version of a rabbit with a big horn on its head. With a completely white fur and a shiny silvery horn on its head even Chris trough that they looked quite cute. From the distance the monsters looked as if they could barely reach his knees which was quite a size for a rabbit.

'Although they look kind of cute, I don't want to be stabbed by one of these horns. I'm curious if I have something like an inspection function to look at their stats. Inspect.'

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Type: Horned Rabbit

Level: 1

Health: 50

Attacks: ??? (Unknown)

Description: Horned Rabbits are herbivores that feed by grazing on grass and leafy weeds. They live in groups underground in self-built caves. Although they have a nice appearance, they are very aggressive and prefer to attack with their horns. Side remark, they breed like crazy.

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'Oh wow fifty health points is a lot. These two are way too close together and I need to take on both at the same time. Let me try to shoot from here.'

Chris summoned a poison ball right in front of his hand and shot it towards one of the horned rabbits. The poison ball flew about thirty meters and dropped slowly down about eleven meters away from a rabbit. The rabbit was startled and looked in the direction of Chris. Both rabbits looked at each other and started hopping fast in Chris direction.

'Damn it, the ball didn't flew far enough. I should have tested it beforehand, I'm an idiot.'

Chris got ready to shot another poison ball at the incoming rabbits. Once the rabbits crossed the shooting line, Chris shot the poison ball directly at one of the rabbits, the ball landed straight on the rabbit and soaked it in a sticky light green liquid. The rabbit was even thrown back by the force of the ball. It flew slightly through the air and then hit hard on the ground.

'Oh four damage nice. A green number was even displayed to show the damage it received.'

Chris got another poison ball ready and shot it at the other rabbit to apply the damage over time effect as well. This time the rabbit only received three damage. This rabbit flew through the air as well and hit the ground hard. In the meantime the other horned rabbit shook his head, got up again and looked agitated at his enemy. It flexed his legs and madly dashed it the direction of Chris crossing meter by meter.

Seeing the rabbit closing up on him, Chris tumbled back. He summoned a new poison ball and shot it at the rabbit that was barely five meters away from him. This time the rabbit saw the ball coming and skipped to the right. Evading the ball by a hair, the rabbit got ready to dash at Chris again.

'Oh God damn it!'

The other rabbit got up as well and started to make a dash in Chris direction. Panic started to come over Chris, he conjured a new poison ball and started to shoot it on the horned rabbit right in front of him. This time the ball hit its target, but seemingly having expected the ball the horned rabbit hit it with its horn negating the impact, still dealing four damage. Stopping its momentum gave Chris a little room to breathe. He stepped back and shot another ball at the rabbit, bringing its health down to thirty-five points and stunning it slightly.

Due to having neglected the other rabbit, it already approached up to three meters on one of his sides. Strongly flexing its legs, the rabbit builds up his momentum and shoots like a bullet straight for Chris stomach. Seeing the rabbit shooting at him, Chris evades to his right while summoning another poison ball. He shoots the ball at the still flying rabbit and hits it right on its butt, sending it flying about three meters away.

Another damage of three was displayed directly above of the head of the rabbit and lowered the health of the rabbit down to forty-one points. Meaning while the other rabbit got out of his daze and started to attack Chris again. The whole exchange took two seconds leaving this rabbit with thirty-three health points. Having shoot seven balls already dropped his mana down to fifty-two points leaving him with five more spells until his mana runs out.

Getting ready for the attacking rabbit, Chris summons a new poison ball. The rabbit seemingly learned from his mistakes and starts to jump in a zig-zag movement in Chris direction. Chris aims and shoots the poison ball, grazing the rabbit slightly and taking four health points out of it. The rabbit remained unfazed, flexed his legs and shoots at Chris body. Dropping to the side Chris tries to evade the horn of the rabbit. Failing to dodge completely, he received a slight wound at his side taking six damage.

'Ouch that hurt, this damn rabbit!'

Grimacing in pain Chris summons a new poison ball, shooting it at the still turning rabbit and dealing five damage to it. Due to the turning movement, the rabbit could not hold itself to the ground and is thrown back one meter. Suddenly Chris got pushed down to the ground, feeling a burning sensation on its back and losing six health points. Chris started to swear.

'Damn that shitty rabbit, I totally forgot about it.'

Jumping back on his feet he noticed a blur on his right side, jumping to his left he barely avoided a horn that passed by him. With no time to think he dashed to his right evading the other rabbit that tried to hit him with its horn. Summoning a poison ball as fast as he could he throws it right on the closest rabbit dealing three damage to it, dropping its health down to eighteen points.