[Solo?] Having a Snail of a Time

[Charity Falkenrath]

	＊ｃｈａｒｉｔｙ＊
	Squelch. Squelch. Squelch. With every step Charity took, her feet sank into the shallow and muddy water of the Northern Thames Marshland. As the sun beat down on her, reflecting off of the zweihander currently strapped to her back as she used her hands to try and hold the end of her robe out of the water, she searched. Searched for something to train on. According to some kind adventurer's she'd quizzed back in town, the marshland was comprised of a large number of low-level zones that would make it easy for a low-level adventurer, such as her, to train. She'd also heard about one of the mobs that heavily populated the area; Snails. Giant, slow, grimy snails. They tended to gather in large numbers, but their slow speed should make it easy for her to maneuver around them. They were essentially free target practice. And so, with water sloshing around her lower legs and with a quiet prayer that the mud would wash out, she searched for a group of Snails. Thankfully, it wasn't long before she found them. A slightly elevated piece of land among the marsh had formed a small island, and atop that island a tree had taken root. And on that tree was a group of about five snails. As she trudged her way out of the water and up the shore of the miniature island, she looked up to get a better look at the snails. Their levels ranged, from 1-3, and they currently seemed to be ignoring her. Which gave her a moment to draw her sword, and plan her strategy. As advised by the helpful adventurers, she opened up her skill list and peered at the wall of confusing text in front of her. Cooldowns, cast times, barriers... she'd never really taken the time to look at and try to understand any of these. What was it all for? How was she supposed to use it? Tentatively, she reached out and pressed a skill labelled "Exorcism of a Cursed Lotus". As she did, the Snails in front of her became highlighted in red. And as she glanced up in surprise, the first one she laid eyes on flashed for a moment before they all returned to their normal colours. In that moment, she felt a surge of energy through her arms. The sword in her hand felt... lighter. But not weaker. As if she could swing it with greater speed, but it's damage had not been sacrificed. A faint glow also seemed to surround her weapon, as well as the snail that she seemed to have targeted.  She glanced up. Just on the edge of her vision was a small icon, identical to the icon of the skill she had just used, and as she looked at it a small text box appeared. It was almost identical to the skill description, but with use and context the realisation dawned. "Attack Speed Increase vs Grimy Swamp Snail (Lv.1)" She nodded in understanding, as if the icon had been waiting for her acknowledgement, and turned back to face her target. Charity smiled, ever so slightly, before running at the snail with her sword raised above her head. "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" She cried, dashing across the muddy ground before bringing her sword crashing down on the snail once, twice, three times. Again and again, her sword swinging with an unearthly vigor, clashing onto the snail's shell again and again. A crack began to form, and she exploited it, focusing her attacks on the weakened fragment of shell. Eventually, one final swing brought her zweihander straight through the crack, through the snail's soft interior, and into the tree it was resting on. A moment later, the snail burst into a small cloud of bubbles and a few coins fell on the ground. As she stepped back, the other snails slowly turning to look at her, she smiled. It was just a snail, but it was a start. One down, five to go.
	665 words

[Charity Falkenrath]

	＊ｃｈａｒｉｔｙ＊
	Four more snails were latched to the tree, slowly turning their attention to Charity. She was lucky, really, that not only were the snails docile but they were also as slow as... well, a snail. She could quite easily have blundered into a group of aggressive enemies and met her death quite suddenly. Although the adventurers had told her of the snails, they had not warned her of other dangers lurking further into the marsh... However, she was unaware of that. Instead, she turned to face the remaining snails. Of the four left, one was level 1, two were level 2, and the final snail was level 3. Together they made a very unintimidating set of stepping stones for Charity to challenge herself with. Still panting and attempting to catch her breath from the series of blows it took to slay the last snail, the lone Shaman raised her sword in front of her once more and a ever so slightly confident smile grew on her face. The glow around her zweihander had dissipated, but the mild amount of adrenaline pumping through her system from the previous "fight" had not. As she glanced at her skill list, she saw the cooldown for her Exorcism of a Cursed Lotus finish and the skill return to being ready to cast. Before casting, however, she took an extra moment to look through the other skills she had available. Damage Interception seemed useful in many situations... except this one. The snails were slow, really slow, which meant that even with her very low amount of health the previous snail had hardly managed to get out enough attacks to really hurt her. The level 3 snail may pose a problem, but if she was quick and strong she could potentially defeat it before it slowly whittled down her health. As useful as the skill was, her eyes passed over it. Not a skill for right now. Divine Subjugation was the other of her main skills to catch her eye. The skill was simple, really, even for a complete MMO noob like herself. Cast spell and hit harder, easy as pie. What caught her attention most was the duration, cast time, and the values for Excorcism... she was no maths wizard, but she knew that 10-2=8. And that Exorcism lasted 10 seconds, casting Subjugation took 2, and that left them both lasting 8. With quick enough timing, she could cast the first and immediately cast the latter, giving her 8 seconds of both increased speed and damage. And that had to be good, right? She nodded to herself, looking back at the snails who had still not moved from their lonesome tree while she had stopped to think. She looked at the snails closest to her, levels 1 and 2. She breathed in, preparing herself for action, and then initiated her strategy. Exorcism of a Cursed Lotus, cast. 1 Mississipi. 2 Mississipi. Divine Subjugation, cast. She glanced at her status bar - two buffs, both with a duration of 8 seconds. Charity nodded, grinned, and dashed towards the snails. She brought her oversized sword crashing down on the first snail once, twice, thrice, demolishing the shell and destroying the creature before it had a chance to really react. She turned now to the level 2 snail, and with only a short amount of her buff remaining she ran as quickly as she could to that one too. Again, her sword fell and clashed with the rough shell of the beast. One. Two. Three. Again, again, again. On the cusp of the end of her buffs, the shell cracked. And as they expired, her sword swung through the crack and into the body of the snail, reducing it to a cloud of bubbles and leaving the Shaman panting from exertion. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. Maybe she was finally getting the hang of this. Her sword ready, she turned to the two remaining snails. Ready and poised, breath still short, heart still pumping, legs and arms shaking ever so slightly, she smiled and prepared to finish her self-set training excercise.
	682

[Charity Falkenrath]

	＊ｃｈａｒｉｔｙ＊
	Soon, it was over. The tree that had previously been home to several harmless snails was now empty, and Charity stood next to it with her sword in her hand attempting to catch her breath. Slowly, she lowered her raised arms and rested her sword on the ground as the exhilaration of battle slowly faded. She glanced over to her character page - she'd gained a good amount of experience, and some gold too. Smiling, and nodding, she closed the window in front of her and returned her zweihander to it's place upon her back. She'd come out and done what she'd set out to do - gain some battle experience, and better understand her skills. She turned to face the direction of Londinium, raised her robe again so as not to drag in the muddy water, and began walking. As she walked, she contemplated. Maybe life here wouldn't be so bad after all! If she could keep up training, she could potentially even be strong enough to help one of the larger guilds. Maybe then she could even start earning enough money to live comfortably, rather than barely scraping by at her measly low-level no-combat income. Wouldn't that be grand... --- As her mind wandered to dreams of grand and stable living, she didn't notice the ripples in the water. If she had been paying attention, she would have noticed the pattern might indicate that 3 small creatures were following her. And if she'd known anything about the swamp other than it had snails in it, she might have been able to guess that a certain race's scouts could be tracking a certain low-level adventurer. As it stood, she didn't notice as the three creatures stealthily surrounded her from beneath the water line. Her thoughts defocused and away in some dream, she didn't notice anything. Not until three Level 3 Weak Goblin Scouts jumped out of the water at her, teeth bared and small, rusty daggers poised. As she screamed, she dropped the hem of her robe into the water below and reached for her zweihander a moment too late. The first goblin struck, knocking her back. This, thankfully, caused the other two to miss, but still made a sizable dent in her HP. As she stepped back through the water, barely managing not to trip over herself, she struggled to gain her composure and draw her oversized sword in preparation for combat. Sword now in front of her, arms trembling, knees shaking, she faced three sneering and severely malnourished goblins very intent on killing her. Her first thought was panic. A bell ringing throughout her mind, drowning out reasonable thought and leaving a void. As one of the goblins started moving towards her, however, panic was overcome by simple human instinct; fight or flight. Fight three quite strong enemies, who were obviously aggressive and very intent on killing, or flee away from town and into the dangerous, dark, muddy marshlands. Fight, flight. Fight, flight. A goblin seemed to dance closer, taunting the obviously weak and easy prey. Fight, flight. Fight, flight. It sneered and laughed, turning back to it's fellow scouts as if telling a joke she couldn't understand. Fight, flight. She raised her sword, casting a spell. The goblins turned, and before they had a chance to react, she casted another. In a moment, she was ontop of the closer goblin, glowing with the two buffs she had placed on herself. In another moment, her sword fell from it's place above her head and down onto the head of the goblin. The force of the blow sent them sinking into the mud, and raised a spray of dirty water that momentarily blinded the other two goblins. By the time they cleared their vision, where once stood a goblin and a Shaman stood only one lone Shaman who suddenly seemed like much less easy prey. One goblin screamed, diving back under the water and fleeing. The other held strong, instead raising it's daggers to attack. For another moment, she panicked. With her HP as it was, if it attacked it was quite likely she wouldn't survive. Her main offensive skills were on cooldown, and the water around her feet would make it very hard to move and dodge. Her mind scanned for options, as quickly as it could, with the goblin fast approaching. And as it came charging at her, vengeance in it's eyes, she remembered another skill she had yet to test today. A moment before it struck her, a magical barrier appeared over her skin. Damage Interception, the signature skill of the Shaman. And as it struck, it's blade clattered off of her defensive wall and it fell back. The dagger flew out of it's hand, and as the goblin turned to watch it fly away it heard the sound of another spell being cast. As it turned back, the once again glowing Shaman smiled. --- As she walked back to Londinium, a little shaken and quite a bit lower on HP than she'd hoped to be, she smiled. Today could almost definitely have gone a lot worse - she'd come quite close to being slain. The thought of it sent a shiver down her spine- she'd definitely need to be more careful in future. Watch herself when in the wilds. But as it stood, she felt just a little bit better about herself and her own skills. Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be so hard to get by in this world.
	911 | Fin