Chapter 14: The Brick road
[You have learned the skill] [Whittling (common)]
It looks like learning how to make a proper blade from qi would be harder than that. Still now he knows how to use qi to help his whittling. That was a step in the right direction and he had a nice walking stick to show for it. As he finished cleaning up the stick, Sam had realized how much time he had been spending in complete isolation. He wasn’t sure how long he was stuck in the darkness of the cavern but that alone was quite a bit of time, from his perspective at least. That probably wasn’t healthy.
Now he was caught by the trap of indecision. He could either try to take the brick road he’d run into next to the boulder field when he was on his way to the grove of Radiant Soul cherries or he could back track his way to the beginning of the tutorial and try to look for other people from there. He had been testing his luck considering the amount of time he spent alone so far and there was a reason safety in numbers was a concept in the first place. While it may have taken him a long time to reach the mountains, he had an inkling that it wouldn’t take him nearly as long this time around given his walking skill. Then again who’s to say that the brick road won’t lead to other people. The call of adventure that the road represented had quite the pull on Sam. Unsure of what to do and not wanting to waste anymore time, he found a flat looking rock that could substitute for a coin and after marking one side he flipped the rock. The marked side would mean the brick road and the unmarked side back to the clearing where he was initially summoned. *CLACK* It bounced off a larger rock on the ground and finally landed still. The brick road it would be.
Before leaving the grove Sam went through the effort of reaching out to his Archivist trait in order to record the Ancient Spiritual Narra tree. He knew he already had a version of it in his archive but that was simply as a part in recording the experience with the Radiant Soul Cherries.
[Ancient Spiritual Narra tree recorded in your Archive of Creation]
Quickly checking his soulspace, Sam nodded in satisfaction at the sight of the imposing tree next to the smaller non-ancient variant. With nothing else keeping him in the grove, he started retracing the steps he took to get to the grove while freely activating his skill; something he wasn’t able to do much of recently because of the fear of running into a wall in the space behind the pink door. He still couldn’t get used to the sensation of using his skill, or rather lack thereof. He knew that his rate of traversal was incredibly quick but from his perspective he was just walking at a relaxed pace. He was giddy just imagining all the possibilities that existed now. Without much fanfare, he soon made it back to the start of the brick road, where an unpaved mountain path turned into the only sign of civilization.
He hadn’t stepped foot at all on the bricks last time he was here. Wary for the chance that the bricks themselves had some sort of trap, Sam extended his senses to feel for any qi or mana from the bricks. When he couldn't find anything he focused his soulsight to give him more detail and the souls of the bricks seemed standard for a brick, not that he had any frame of reference for what the souls of bricks were supposed to look like. Satisfied with his caution, he wasted no more time and went on his merry way down the brick road.
Eventually Sam came to a pause as he smacked himself on the forehead. He had forgotten that the road also led, in part, to the grove. He didn’t need to backtrack at all to where the road began next to the boulder field.
“Well what’s done is done I guess, no real point in complaining about it now.” Sam said to himself as he continued walking at his leisure. He took one last look at the grove that made him cry and waved goodbye.
The road was fairly wide, about eight meters by his estimation. It made him wonder if the tutorial was a real place or something made by the system specifically for initiation. There were so many questions he had, he just needed someone he could ask in the first place. Contemplating as he moved forward, he ran into trouble for the first time in quite a while. There were goblins afoot, he could see further down the road. He took his spear out of his inventory as he approached. As the distance between him and the group of six goblins shrank, Sam focused his soulsight to give him more detail. This would be his first time looking at the soul of something alive that wasn’t a plant. He slowed down and stopped using his skill to augment his speed. What he saw intrigued him. He could see the parts that he had in common with the goblins but noticeable there were some soul components they didn’t have that he did. Even though he could see souls and distinguish between their internal elements, he didn’t know what each part did.
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He was now within throwing distance of the goblins. Unlike his other encounters with the little green gremlins, he tried to see if diplomacy was possible. He called out to them while taking what he could manage as a stance that attempted to convey peace. There was no real desire for him to kill if he didn’t have to and he was scared of how he felt whenever he fought. It always felt to him like he enjoyed the process of receiving and inflicting pain much more than anyone should. He gave up any sense of hesitation when he fought, which is why he avoided it so much. Honestly Sam always felt guilt from his willingness to hurt others once he was fighting. A small part of him still looked forward to the idea that the goblins would attack, and still another part of him was disgusted with himself for feeling that way. Sadly the part of him that wanted to indulge in combat would not be disappointed. The goblins showed no response indicating the possibility of peace. After hearing him call out, they started running at him, weapons at the ready.
Four of the goblins were at the front and two lagged behind. The two lagging behind were variants he hadn’t seen before. One wielded a bow and the other some sort of staff adorned with bones. The moment the first goblin was within reach of his spear, one swinging a wooden club, he thrust forward maintaining a balanced stance. He skewered that first goblin center mass. Three more were just behind that first one, while in the process of retracting his spear he landed a sidekick at the next goblin and the height difference made the blow land square on its head. Two remained in melee, the sight of the first goblin’s body briefly giving them pause. As he was about to turn his attention to the last two wielding rusty shortswords, he saw a ball of flame coming his way like a well pitched baseball. He leaned away from its trajecting while stepping back just to make sure he wasn’t hit and swung his spear in a wide arc simultaneously. He nicked one of the sword wielding goblins on the shoulder with the tip of his spear and the other goblin got smacked by the haft of the polearm. Seeing the danger of the magic, he activated his skill and strode to where the goblin with a staff stood. It clearly did not expect him to close the distance so suddenly; he took advantage of that brief moment throwing a mean right hook at its temple. In the heat of the moment, he had gone a little too far with his skill and ended up too close to thrust with the spear. As his fist landed he felt a crunch and the goblin was tossed in the direction of his punch. It did not get back up. He then felt an arrow bury its way partly into his side. Evidently the one with a bow wasn’t as surprised as its companion. It was quickly dispatched by a clean thrust of his spear. The two remaining goblins were charging at him once more. Two more thrusts from his spear and the goblins were no more.
Sam’s face was flushed from the adrenaline of getting into a fight and he breathed heavily even though he wasn’t actually tired from the interaction. Looking down he saw the arrow sticking out of him and the pain came as he calmed down. Luckily the arrowhead wasn’t fully buried so he ripped it out of himself. Blood started gushing from the wound and he finally got to use one of his class skills. [Heal (Basic)] The bleeding quickly stopped and his health points were back up to full as though nothing happened at all. It wouldn’t even be visible if it weren't for the blood staining his shirt.
Going over the interaction, Sam thought about his mistakes and where he could improve. He had a buffing skill from his class that he had just fully neglected to use. He would make sure to give himself as many advantages as possible the next time he ran into some trouble. Really he shouldn’t have been hurt at all if he had been more vigilant. [Improvement (Common)] Would definitely be active the next time he fought. Also he shouldn’t let fear from something tunnel vision him into losing track of other threats. He had been so occupied by smacking the shamanic looking goblin that he forgot about the archer for a second. He chided himself because who knew what was out there, that arrow could have been poisoned had his luck been different. And in the wider world, there were definitely innumerable threats that could end his life just by getting one hit off on him. Still he took some pride in his ability to deal with things as an individual. He remembered his mistakes but he wouldn’t overlook the successful outcome. Ultimately he made it out in one piece and that was what mattered the most.
