“Looks like you ran afoul of some trouble,” the leatherworker finally said with the closest thing Atlas ever heard to mirth from the woman.
“You could say that. Was ambushed out in the forest. Now starting back over.”
“Ambushed? Bandits out in the forest again?” the leatherworker asked with concern.
“Of the Reborn variety. I doubt they’ll bother merchant operations. They just wanted my gear and coins.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate. What can I do for you?”
“Just need to buy some salt before I go out and hunt for more hides.”
Master Trailia merely nodded and waved her hand, causing the menu to appear in Atlas’ view. He spent all 60 copper to buy 30 pinches of salt. At first, he considered only buying a handful and then buying a cheap weapon, but he overruled that thought. Having to scrap an inferior weapon later was more hassle. Finding one piece of wood should be pretty easy. A small wand would work for him to start.
Tying the small bag of salt to his pants, he waved goodbye and left the shop. His minimap showed the explored area they quested in before they betrayed him, and Atlas decided he wanted to start in familiar territory. Hopefully, the two betrayers moved from the zone. Deciding to stay close to the town, he scoured the nearby forest in search of anything he could use.
With the surrounding area being predominantly forest, he figured finding wood to use would be a breeze. He quickly found out that wasn’t the case. Most of the trees he couldn’t do anything with. There was a small hatchet in his tool bag for woodworking, but when he tried to use it on the larger trees or their branches, it bounced off without a scratch and he received a message.
Unable to harvest wood from this source.
The lack of information was a little frustrating, so he continued his search. It took him a solid hour to find anything of use, but luckily he’d only run into non-aggressive animals such as squirrels and rabbits. They were perfectly content to let him leave without a fight.
The break he needed finally arrived when he stumbled upon an old, dead tree. The bark looked dull and gray, and the structure had fallen over and lay on the ground. A splintered stump showed the tree fell due to age, disease, or a storm since it wasn’t cleanly cut. When he walked up and swung the hatchet at the tree, it dug in deep with a resounding thud.
With hope finally blossoming in his soul, Atlas jubilantly swung away, chips of wood flying with each strike. The limb he targeted fell to the ground with one final chop and he picked it up. Not wasting time, he selected his Create Rough Wood Log ability and activated it. The hatchet disappeared into his tool bag as he drew out a large knife. The blade cleanly swept along the edges of the log in rapid movements as dead bark and the gray exterior sliced free, exposing the dried center of the wood.
With a Rough Log in hand, he contemplated his choice. At first he considered trying out a wand, but fell back on the staff. His skill with spells wasn’t that great, and he’d gotten better at hand to hand combat. He considered making both, but without armor and a belt he had nowhere to store the extra weapon yet.
Decision made, he selected Create Basic Wood Staff and the crafting process began. The finished product rested in his hands a minute later, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t realized it, but running through the forest without a weapon had his nerves on edge. The weight of the wood in his grip settled some of those nerves and a little of the tension fell away from his shoulders.
You received 5 experience in Woodworking for harvesting Raw Wood Log.
You received 15 experience in Woodworking for Create Rough Wood Log.
You received 35 experience in Woodworking for Create Basic Wood Staff.
Time to kill stuff!
The first few victims of his rampage faced a far different Atlas than before. His fight with the two player-killers showed him the true strength of playing a defender instead of aggressively attacking. At his low level, his Double Slash did minimal damage. With his basic tier weapon, it wasn’t much. The Counter combo with Blade Chase did far more, even with a subpar weapon.
Starting the fights with a Charge and a Double Slash was his go to combo, but after that he played the turns well. Patiently waiting on the attacks allowed him to anticipate them. To his surprise, he finally noticed patterns to the attacks from different creatures.
Squirrels, for instance, favored three different attacks. They rotated through these three in almost the same pattern in every fight. A low biting attack, a leaping attack, and one attack where they would try to confuse you with a side dash followed by a charge. It wasn’t long before Atlas could almost predict their attack before they moved. It made killing them simple.
As soon as he had the furs, the first item he created was a belt with the built in pouches. He’d needed to leave behind some meat he’d earned from the kills because he had nowhere to put it. Making a new set of pants or jerkin wasn’t as high of a priority since he was doing great at dodging attacks.
With pouches for storage, he fought his way back to the downed tree. Not wanting to waste the chance for experience and a small amount of money, he set to work. The hatchet cut wood far faster than it would’ve taken him to complete the task in the actual world, but the size of this tree slowed his work. In the end, after almost an hour of woodcutting, he had a neat stack of twenty Raw Wood Logs. Those logs quickly turned into Rough Wood
