*Ping* Tin Jobs Available:
- Minor Elemental Spotted on the Border of the Deadwoods
- Cursed Wolves Encroaching on the Farmlands (0/25)
- Building Materials Needed! (0/30 Ironwood Logs, 0/30 Everstone, 0/30 Binding Ivy)
“Interesting choices this time, I think I’ll go with the wolves. I could maybe harvest something edible from them.” Marco thinks to himself while mentally picking the third option, he pulls his monster compendium from his [Inventory] tattoo and reads what the book had to say about Cursed Wolves.
Cursed Wolves: A normal wolf tainted by Cursed energies, making them stronger, faster and more intelligent than normal wolves. More resilient to energy magics than other creatures and can cast simple Curse magics; bleeds, diseases, and fear spells.
Marco snaps the compendium closed and returns it to his [Inventory] before exiting the Guildhall and toward the Farmlands past the Wind Gate. “Wolves in the Farmlands would be a disaster for Woodholme and the greater Kingdom of Eldermyst.” Marco thinks to himself, passing guard barracks and smithies that are throwing smoke into the air, quickly being filtered by Inscriptions lining the street.
He exits the Wind Gate, gazing around at the sweeping plains in front of him, to his right the occasional tree in the direction of the Deadwood and the living forest that holds it back. He throttles his physical buffs reaching speeds that causes his body to blur to the other people on the road.
He runs deeper into the Farmland, feeling stray bits of energy with his Mana senses and knowing the feeling of Cursed energy from his brief time in the Deadwoods. He follows the trail leading toward the fields of barley and wheat, quickly covering ground and leaving most of the growing produce plants behind.
The trail quickly comes to an end, disappearing into the mass of [Earth] and [Water] Mana that the fields of barley and wheat produce. He keeps all of his buffs running at a high level, preparing for an ambush from the small pack, turning slowly to keep an eye on the field of golden grain for any signs of movement.
“There!” Marco snaps his [Salt Skin] into place, slightly green glowing claws skating off of the surface. He retaliates with a [Salt Bolt] to the wolf’s soft underbelly, a bark of pain and a System notification telling him all he needs to know about that wolf.
*Ping* Cursed Wolves Slain (1/25)
Marco begins summoning [Salt Bolts] in preparation, expecting more sneak attacks and ambushes from the wolves. Pushes the spell, forcing the bolts to rotate around his body, like an active shield.
A snarl of pain from behind him that he spins to face, a wolf with a bolt in the neck is flopping around in pain and trying to remove the salt spike. Marco stomps on the head of the wolf on the ground, quickly spinning as he hears the barley rustle behind him. A [Salt Bolt] taking the wolf in the head, “I need to be able to see more of the battlefield.”
*Ping* Cursed Wolves Slain (3/25)
Marco tries to pull on the rings that his [Salt Skin] summoned around his lower thighs, trying to levitate his body like he held the grass aloft. Marco’s feet leave the ground in a shaky and horrible approximation of flight, before quickly landing back on the ground with a small grunt, his body too heavy to lift with just the two rings of salt.
He shifts a bit of his [Salt Skin] down his forearms and onto his new gloves, forming small but very sharp spikes. Two wolves rush at his sides, hoping to prevent his ability to attack both of them, a [Salt Bolt] takes both of them in the forehead, resulting in two System notifications.
*Ping* Cursed Wolves Slain (5/25)
Marco ramps his physical buffs to their maximum level, jumping as high as he can, a full fifteen feet. As he reaches the apex of his jump Marco launches all of his stored [Salt Bolts], five projectiles connecting with wolves on the ground.
*Ping* Cursed Wolves Slain (10/25)
As Marco begins to fall back to earth, black cloth and leather clothing fluttering around him, he summons more [Salt Bolts], another five spring in to being and circle around him like before. He charges the nearest wolf, elbow strike to the top of the wolfs head, its crumples and is still. Marco spins and fires three of his bolts into the fray, charging after them toward the remaining wolves.
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One of the living and unharmed wolves charges at him managing to leave a small gash in his armor, he manages to launch a projectile into the spine of the wolf that attacked him, crippling it. He turns his attention to the remaining wolves; they begin to show their intelligence more as they use tactics and strategic fighting. The remaining ten healthy wolves howl and Marco’s heart speeds up and sweat breaks out all over his body.
*Ping* [Fear] Partially Resisted due to Salt Affinity
Marco hesitates due to [Fear] allowing the monsters to surround him, “Shit this is bad, there is still so many of them left.” Marco summons more [Salt Bolts] allow them to flow around him again, protecting his flanks and back from attack.
He moves cautiously forward keeping his buffs at near maximum, he moves toward one of the wolves, dark gray fur streaked with green so dark it is near black, the other similar looking wolves move in, the circle closing in.
Marco tries something different, maintaining his circle of bolts, he casts [Flash Cure] on the wolf in front of him, a squeak of pain follows his casting along with a wheeze as the wolf staggers. “I didn’t think it would be that effective? Maybe its because [Salt] is [Curse]’s opposite element?” He thinks to himself preparing to cast the spell a couple more times.
*Ping* Cursed Wolves Slain (18/25)
The wolves start to approach with more confidence, almost into biting range of Marco. He casts [Flash Cure] as fast as he can, eliminating three more wolves and launches his five held [Salt Bolts] into the wolves at close range, annihilating skulls and chests as the salt projectiles pierce through fur and skin.
*Ping* Cursed Wolves Slain (23/25)
Marco grins to himself, “Only two monsters left.” A howl from further away shatters his calm and sets his heart to racing again.
*Ping* [Fear] Partially Resisted due to Salt Affinity
Marco charges the two remaining Cursed Wolves, hoping to take them out before whatever howled shows up. Pulling his cast iron pan from his [Inventory] he swings at the head of the first wolf, braining it with eight pounds of solid metal, it stumbles but remains on its feet. He stabs his kitchen knife into its eye, having equipped it when he pulled out his pan.
“One left and then whatever just howled.” Marco says, spinning and slamming his pan into the wolves snout, a pained yowl escaping before a [Salt Bolt] takes it in the eye. Marco heaves in deep breaths, resummoning his [Salt Skin] to repair the gash and starting to summon as many [Salt Bolts] as he can before the next monster arrives, hoping to repeat the barrage that he cast during his Adventurer test.
A dozen bolts float around Marco, six of them forming the shield of projectiles that he has been using throughout this fight. A thud shakes the ground slightly as a huge wolf finally comes into view.
*Ping* Alpha Wolf, Cursed
“Damn that is a big monster.” Marco says, shivering in fear at the ten-foot-tall black wolf with huge glowing green eyes. “Well, this wasn’t in the job request.”
The wolf starts to charge at him, Marco flinches and begins to launch projectiles as fast as he can. Little pffs of displaced air sound in quick succession as a dozen and then two [Salt Bolts] fly off toward the monstrous wolf.
Yelps of pain and roars of anger mix with the sound of [Salt] projectiles hitting flesh and rending it apart. A small cloud of [Salt] dust springs up around the monster, Marco focuses as intently as he can attempting to form new projectiles out of the billowing cloud of salt, he succeeds and a couple of more [Salt Bolts] form and shoot into the wolf.
The onslaught manages to halt the wolf’s charge and push it back several feet; the cloud disperses into Mana and the rest blows away on the wind and Marco’s jaw drops at the wolf. The black fur is mostly gone, replaced with bloody strips of hide, bone peeking through in some places and one of the glowing green eyes has been reduced to pulp.
The wolf roars again with half the flesh of its jaw missing, massive finger length teeth visible through the blood. The bloody monster steps toward and Marco readies his Mana once again, [Flash Cure] pulses out of his body, drying the monster and causing it to stiffen and slow slightly.
Marco pushes himself forward, scared shitless but going to try his best to take out the truck sized monster. He charges, sliding under snapping jaws and bringing his cast iron pan down on the left leg, breaking bones and knocking shredded flesh off.
The wolf howls in agony, snapping at and trying to step on Marco, he evades, taking glancing blows on his armor to avoid the stomps and snapping jaws. Marco tries to break another leg but is sent flying a dozen feet by a kick, gasping and pushing himself to his feet he casts more [Salt Bolts] quickly draining all his available Mana that he isn’t pumping into his buffs.
The new bolts take out the second eye and manage to detach the left leg just below the knee where broke it a moment ago. He approaches the monster again, trying to be as quietly as possible, not wanting to alert the blinded monster. He stores his knife in his [Inventory] grabbing one of the [Salt Bolts] that make up his shield, a few having crumbled to deflect damage from the earlier kick.
Armed with a heavy pan in his right hand and a spike of [Salt] in his left, he charges the monster from a few feet away. Jumping, Marco plants the former [Salt Bolt] into the monster and pulls himself up, straddling its neck and beginning to bring the pan down over and over again on its skull.
The wolf tries to shake him off and almost succeeds before Marco reshapes the [Salt] bands into sharp hooks that dig into the monster. The skull fractures and cracks allowing Marco to plant his last hovering [Salt Bolt] into the monster's brain at short range, covering his body and face in gray matter.