How long has it been?
An hour?
Two hours?
Maybe 3?
Who knows but all I do know is we survived. The tsunami of golems did not stop us, in fact, the toughest part was the start and the finish. The middle? Well, that was…That was just a blur.
The front line's shields slowly broke after the repeated attacks and replacing them were the shields covering the top. Howard, David, and Kingston had to face off against the golems the best they could while the shield bearers swapped out but it ended up in our win.
Everyone was resting on the ground or leaning against the wall. Even the goblins stepped in with their knives when it got dicey. I picked up one of the spears and attacked as well blocking a golem fist from hitting David.
Throughout the whole battle, I was firing off commands and small details. Warning those that might not have noticed any small attack. Reducing the amount of damage everyone took by carefully blocking an attack or telling them to dodge out of the way in time.
In the end, we had just lost some HP, our shields, some of our armor, and some weapons. In return, we beat down an army of golems that would have destroyed us given enough space. Their numbers and strength greatly exceeded ours but I guess with just the terrain advantage and some quick thinking even we can win against them.
The ground was littered with white stones of varying sizes. With the stampede of the golems, a lot of it became a fine powder, and scattered in the remains were crushed golem cores. Shining a torch over the powder would produce a blue glittering effect, kind of like the ocean sparkling from the sunlight. However, picking up the powder did not produce a system message. I thought maybe it would say "Shattered Golem Core" or something.
I look at everyones' status and was surprised to see their new stats.
Name: Howard
Race: Human
Health Points (HP): 3/40
Mana Points (MP): 1/5
Strength: 15
Vitality: 20
Intelligence: 10
Dexterity: 5
Agility: 10
Luck: 1
Skill: Roar (active) - 2 MP
Name: David
Race: Human
Health Points (HP): 5/50
Mana Points (MP): 4/4
Strength: 19
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 8
Dexterity: 5
Agility: 7
Luck: 1
Name: Gibing
Race: Gobin
Health Points (HP): 7/30
Mana Points (MP): 0/0
Strength: 10
Vitality: 15
Intelligence: 5
Dexterity: 10
Agility: 15
Luck: 1
Name: Luna
Race: Beast (Wolf)
Health Points (HP): 10/70
Mana Points (MP): 10/10
Strength: 20
Vitality: 35
Intelligence: 15
Dexterity: 8
Agility: 30
Luck: 5
Skill: Moonlight Renewal (active) - 2 MP, Pounce (Active) - 1 MP
The most important ones were Howard and David since they were closer to me. I would love to see Kingston's stats but I'll have to just ask him later, for now, I'll let him rest. Gibing and the rest of the goblin's had similar stats which exceeded even Gobi's. Their impact in the fight was definitely smaller, however, their keen eyes have helped some of the other NPCs from getting hurt. At the same time, they were able to hold the shields up for a little bit of time while the others swapped out to a smaller shield. I was surprised by the versatility of the goblins and if it wasn't golems but other humanoids then the goblin's would have been like an assassin in the dark.
Luna also put in a lot of work. Her stats were the highest but the match-up was not in her favor. The hard bodies of the golem prevented her from using her jaw to deal damage and her claws once produced scratches on its body. She did take some hard hits for the team when someone couldn't dodge but with her high vitality she was able to survive a lot of the hits.
There were only 2 other people who could move effectively, one demi-human and other human NPC. Together with them, I moved everyone out of the cave and into some fresh air. The whole ordeal took longer than I thought since David and Howard were so heavy, but I could feel their hands and feet shake slightly as they took deep breathes to recover their energy. I propped their bodies against the wall and told them to rest and not worry about anything.
The sun was setting by the time I took everyone out and I instructed the wolf cubs to go back to HavenFall and bring back some food for everyone. I made a couple of small fires near everyone as well 1 at the cave entrance. The goblins were placed closer to the entrance in case another enemy appears.
Once the wolf cubs came back with small baskets of fruit and boiled vegetables I slowly fed them to everyone. Without food in their stomachs, the recovering process would take longer since their bodies needed energy.
Night had arrived and I could see a group coming from HavenFall. The torches they carried lit up their faces telling me it was Lucina, Noah, 2 other human NPCs and 4 goblins. They carried more food as well as some herbs with medicinal properties. Lucina prepared a stone pot over the fire and proceeded to create a soup with the ingredients she bought while the goblins and human NPCs took up night watch around the camp. Noah comes over to me in order to get an update on the situation.
"What happened leader?"
"We won. Though I don't know how much longer we would have lasted. Luckily for us, the golems are big monsters and the tunnel inside the cave was small enough to only fit 1 or 2 depending on their form."
"Their form?"
"Yes, Noah their form. While some golems resembled each other there were some that had completely different forms. The common ones we have faced were golems with wings and sharp claws. Some were bulky with large fists, while others were skinny with ball-like fists. They were too many different shapes and sizes of the golems which makes me believe that Kronos created them differently in order to find a shape that was the strongest."
"Hmm, that would make sense. By the way, I have something to report. Right before I left, there was an explosion of some sort and a large amount of white smoke could be seen far off in the distance. Somewhere on the other side of the forest, there is a big battle happening."
"Interesting, was any goblin scouts able to get close?"
"No. It looked like a day or two away maybe even more. We have such little information of the forest and have only just touched the perimeter."
"I know. I hope there is enough copper in this place in order to have enough for everyone. The increased defense and attack will help us in expanding our search."
"This copper thing you mentioned are you sure it is there?"
"I know it is there. I saw it, however, I am afraid that Kronos has taken it all. I can only hope that once everyone has recovered enough we go down and I still see the copper. How was the journey here from HavenFall?"
"It was fine for us and the goblins however, Lucina did have trouble. She wasn't used to the slippery surface since she has never gone this way and there was a lot of tripping causing our journey to slow. I suggest creating a pathway."
"Yes, I have plans for that. Once we confirm there is copper we would need to mine it and then move it back to HavenFall. The pathway home is too uneven. I am thinking we need to create bridges of the river at the places where there is less ground to walk in as well as replace the ground with bricks."
"I will have everyone producing more bricks for this project then."
"Focus on housing first. I know it is still somewhat cramped. Build enough houses for everyone first before focusing on the road."
"Okay leader!."
"Ian, Noah, can you two help me give this soup to Howard and the others."
"Sure."
"Of course."
I took a small bowl to everyone and carefully helped them drink it. Feeding it slowly bit by bit. Once I got to Kingston, who was sleeping, I shook him a little making him wake up. I sit down next to him and waited for him to finish the soup.
"Hey, Ian. This soup is amazing!"
"Tell that to Lucina, she was the chef."
"No, no, no. Like the taste is kind of okay but it's the effect of it. 50% HP recovered over 10 minutes. This is the first potion dude!"
"Wait, what?"
I grab the soup bowl out of Kingston's hands but he had already finished it. Bringing it over to Lucina to refill it I also checked her status.
Name: Lucina
Race: Human
Health Points (HP): 14/14
Mana Points (MP): 10/10
Strength: 5
Vitality: 7
Intelligence: 20
Dexterity: 15
Agility: 5
Luck: 1
Skill: Beginner Herbalism (Passive)
Beginner Herbalism (Passive) - This allows the user to create food or potions with medical properties effectively. Also gives a slight increase in the herb's effect.
"Lucina, where did you learn how to create this soup specifically?"
"Oh, umm, Lime bought me back some herbs some time ago and she had scraped her knee. I applied a herb that I knew could soothe the pain but also created a soup from it since I had extra. Lime told me that the soup helped her soothe the pain and she was up and about helping old man Hus in no time. Why do you ask?"
"I think, that this soup helps with healing, quite effectively. Is it possible to create a farm for the herb?'
"Umm, I would have to find more samples and then test it out. I'm not too sure sorry Ian."
"No, that's fine. When you get back ask Lime to show some of the goblins where she found the herb and only take a few. Then test how it grows before taking more. We don't want to accidentally cause the herb to go extinct."
"Okay, I will look into it."
After taking some of the soup and drinking it, I realized that the effect is only applied after consumption of all the soup in the bowl. Any less and the effect would not work and trying to take another bowl of soup also did not add to the effect, nor did it reset the healing. Since there was no system message I couldn't get a clear understanding of the properties of the soup and eventually returned to Kingston's side in order to discuss it.
"Ian, this is the first potion. Nowhere on the forum has said anything about something like this yet. Did you find out why and how?"
"Lucina made the soup to treat Lime. However, it was Lime that found the herb. She also has a skill that makes her effectively create healing food and potions as well as increase the effect. This means that if one of us were to make it the same way as Lucina then the effect of the food would either not exist or would be much worst. Forget 50% healing it might not even be 10%."
"Okay, wow this game has so much hidden stuff. I know games have medicinal herbs but usually, you can find it using the system. Everything around us could be used differently and if we walk past a random plant we could have accidentally walked past something of insane value."
"I know what you mean, Kingston. This game is amazing. Okay, in roughly 10 minutes I'll get everyone to move down into the cave. Rest up for now, maybe even get some shut-eye."
"Will do, leader."
Lucina and Noah eventually finish feeding everyone some healing soup and after a while even recovered. The soup also helps animals as Luna's HP was recovered as well. Letting Lucina, Noah, and the new group leave, we venture back into the cave. Luckily for us, we replaced our weapons with the weapons of the new group. With new spears, clubs, small shields, arrows, and armor we walk into the cave.
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