A notification rings out in my head.
‘Okay, simple enough I suppose. The only problem now is where the hell am I supposed to go to find these guys?’ I wonder to myself.
After not finding a solution, I decide to instead just pick a direction and walk.
As I begin my walk through the jungle, I’m cautious around every corner, making sure to watch my back in the event of an ambush. Each noise puts me further and further on edge, with loud roars bellowing out from the distance, various menacing squaws and chirps from above, and the low hum of insects droning around me.
Eventually I come across my first animal, or I should say animals. I watch from some nearby bushes as a pack of some sort of green dogs or wolves circle around a gnarling, ferocious looking bear with sharp, protruding horns coming from its head, fight in the open clearing.
The bear, though sporting a few small wounds here and there, seems to be a good spot in the fight overall, as I catch notice five or six wolves lying dead around it, blood still leaking from its maw.
Wanting to save my strength, I retreat slowly in the other direction, not wanting to get caught up in the fight.
‘I’ve got better things to do than to worry about some damn beasts.’ I think to myself.
Eventually I make it back to where I began, and this time, I walk in the opposite direction of before, hoping to steer clear of both the bear and the wolves.
So after walking aimlessly once again, this time uninterrupted, I find myself a small stream.
‘One thing I know about civilization, is where there’s water, there’s people. Only problem now being whether to walk upstream or downstream…’
After thinking about it for a few minutes, I give up and just pick choose downstream for no other reason than I had to choose ONE of them to follow.
‘Man, I really need some sort of navigation trait or something. If things continue like this, I’ll be lost ten times over!’
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Like that, my walking continues.
‘Really I thought this place would be more difficult, but besides the scary looking wildlife, this place so far seems to be a cakewalk! The only problem now is how long it’ll take me to find these so called ‘Order’s allies’ or whatever.’ I say to myself, unknown to the jynx I had just placed upon myself.
Almost immediately after thinking that, a crossbow bolt flies towards me and imbeds itself into my thigh, marking the second time I’ve been pierced in the leg this week!
The next second I spring into action, looking towards where the both came from. Instead, all I see is dense jungle, with no indication on who it may have came from.
As soon as I turn around, another bolt whizzes towards me from across the stream, landing square into my shoulder blade, sending a wave of pain pulsing through my body. This immediately sends me into panic mode, as I realize the gravity of the situation.
An unknown attacker, or attackers, with unknown abilities attacking from a range at a now crippled close range combatant. If I was watching this from a distance, I’d say my chances are slim to none, but luckily for me, I have one thing that most don’t.
‘Uh… I’m not exactly sure what that is, but hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out, and quick!’
As I think that, Another bolt flies towards me, this time from the front. Ready for the attack this time, I manage to dodge the attack, looking towards where it came from hoping to at least catch a glimpse of what I’m up against.
Unfortunately for me, I once again come up short, unable to spot even a hair of the person that attacked me.
‘Goddamnit! This asshole won’t quit!’ I think as yet another bolt races at me, this time from behind. I clumsily throw my sword up in defense, but I’m unable to fully deflect the attack, causing a deep gash to form on my shoulder.
As I once again look to where my attacker is, this time I manage to catch a brief glimpse of a person in a black robe dash behind a tree.
I feel my endurance more than quadruple, indicating the situation ‘extreme’ enough to activate my limitless trait.
Another bolt comes, this time from above and to my right, meaning this person has some degree of vertical mobility too.
I watch carefully where the bolt came from, and this time I catch sight of the full person. Standing slightly shorter than me, he has crimson red skin, red eyes, and a black cloak. Instead of dashing to his next location, seeing that I managed to spot him, he slowly descends into the ground, disappearing from my view.
‘Oh great, that wasn’t menacing at all.’ I say sarcastically to myself.
Another bolt comes in my direction. I roll painfully out of the way and look hurriedly towards where it came from. I catch sight of the man once more, but instead of disappearing into the ground, he dashes behind a tree, once again avoiding my sight.
‘Okay, so this guy has high stealth capabilities, as well as a medium ranged teleport. If I’m not mistaken, his teleport ability should be either on a cooldown, or use up finite resources such as mana or spiritual energy, seeing as how he’s not teleporting after everyshot. Option A would be worse but still doable, option B on the other hand is what I’m really hoping for, because that means that eventually he’ll either lose that ability completely, or, even better, lose more of his capabilities than I think.’
Another bolt comes towards me, this time from a lower angle, catching me off guard. Thankfully my increased endurance prevents the bolt from piercing deeper than an inch, but I still can’t take too many of those.
I continue my train of thought as I see him once again dash out of my sight, ‘Either way, I’ll need to find a way to get on the offensive, and quick, or I’ll be a pincushion of a corpse in no time!’