MoMony
MoMony took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. He gave himself a few moments to enjoy the fresh scent of the trees and the solitude. Maybe it was the solitude he enjoyed the most. But after a few more deep breaths he was ready to continue his treasure hunt. He was not clear as to where he was going, as long as it was away from town. Away from the crush of people, and away from the violence. The plan he concocted was to simply follow his nose.
He was about put the plan into effect when a dirty gnome, it’s pointy cap askew a big burn on one side. the gnome paused and looked MoMony up and down. Apparently finding him no threat, the gnome stuck his tongue out, and made a rude gesture with his hands. MoMony felt he should be more insulted, but confusion was his primary reaction. None the less he checked under the tree under which the gnome had disappeared. Finding that tree without anything of value. He then checked under the tree from which the gnome had emerged, just to be thorough. Unfortunately MoMony came away from this tree as empty handed as he had from the last. “You have only looked under three trees, you can not get discouraged.” He said out loud trying to energize himself. He stretched his back and took one more deep breath then walked to the next tree.
After three hours of trees MoMoney had only found two chest. Neither held much of value, some ore and a fur cap. Checking under each tree was far too slow. He was spacing out, thinking of ways to speed up the process, when a man and a woman stepped in front of him. Fortunately both were level one. They were both in generic guard armor, gray surcoats and pointy helmets each carried a sword. Their names were fittingly generic, Ken and Barbie. MoMony’s hope that he could leave without any violence quickly came to an end when Betty yelled and pointed her sword at him. At the sound MoMony’s heart started to pound and jumped into his throat.
Ken attacked first his sword in one hand in an overhead chop. MoMony panicked and forgot to draw his dagger. Frantically he grabbed Ken’s upraised sword arm with both hands. This stopped the chop, but Ken with a snarl started to use his superior height to force the sword towards MoMony’s neck. MoMony was at a loss, Ken was beating him and so far had only used one arm to do so. A gauntleted fist to the his ribs marked the end of that. The punch knocked MoMony off his feet. He managed to hang on to Ken’s arm, now using it to hold himself up. MoMony frantically tried to find his feet, and get his wind back when the fist struck again. Almost as if by reflex against the pain MoMony fired off his power, igniting two small fireballs in Ken’s sword arm. Ken screamed as his arm bent awkwardly, the bones and flesh being eaten away by fire.
MoMony had been barely maintaining his balance by holding onto Ken’s arm, this was no longer possible, as the arm was losing its structure. He flailed his arms as he started to fall backwards, somehow he managed to grab the handle of Ken’s sword. Even more surprising was that the sword came away from Ken’s now useless hand. MoMony stabbed the sword into the ground, using it to prevent falling on his bottom.
This was fortuitous for MoMony because it was then that Barbie, seeing that Ken was out of the fight, began her attack. She pointed her sword like a spear and charged. MoMony, balance recovered, was able to pull the sword from the path and sidestep Barbie’s charge. MoMony desperately wanted to defeat Barbie before she could turn to face him again. He knew that he didn't have the time or strength for a good swing at her neck, so he settled for hacking frantically at the backs of her legs. Her momentum carried her just a step or two before she collapsed into a pile.
With both of his attackers disabled, MoMony could breath again. He took a deep shuddering breath then turned his attention to Ken, who was on his knees cradling his wounded arm and sobbing. MoMony found the sight pitiful, and put an end to it with a single brutal thrust to the throat. 1 kill +1 xp. Turning towards Barbie he found that she had almost dragged herself to the tall grass on the side of the path. She must of sensed his attention because her movements became more frantic. The increased effort afforded her no extra time, by the time MoMony had knelled next to her she had only managed to grasp two fistfulls of grass from the edge of the path. MoMony looked at her for a moment, then pulled her helmet off. When her face and head were uncovered, she turned her head to MoMony and snarled at him. Ignoring her, he placed a hand on the back of her head above a sweaty ponytail and released a fireball. Barbie gasped and arched her back then exhaled smoke from her nose while her eyes went opaque. 1 kill +1 xp.
MoMony slowly straightened, his heart still pounded and adrenaline coursed through his body, now it was from excitement to have survived the battle. He was even more excited when he saw that the statue, which rose from where Barbie fell, held a scroll indicating that he had finally reached level two. He took his time in creating a new skill. At first he thought of offensive skills like magic arrows he could shoot from his hands. He then thought that he would be better off with a defensive skill, a force field of some sort. He was almost ready to lock in a shield like barrier which he would be able to summon. He paused for a moment, to make sure this was really the skill he wanted, as it was he already had one skill he wasn't thrilled about. Looking at the statue that rose where Ken’s body had fallen. This statue had captured the moment after he had cooked Ken’s forearm. With this evidence MoMony had to concede that the handheld fireball was more effective than he was giving it credit for. Shaking off this useless train of thought, he tried to figure out what skill would do him the most immediate good.
For inspiration he looked around him a saw; trees. At first this seemed entirely unhelpful; then the trees triggered a memory of how he had spent his hours leading up to his battle, namely bent over fruitlessly searching under trees for treasure chests. With that thought he knew what his new skill had to be. However when he went to pen to paper he realized that he only had a concept, not a skill. Erasing the scribbles that constituted his earlier work, MoMony started from scratch.
He knew that he wanted some way to help him locate the hidden chests, he just wasn't sure the most efficient way to do that. His first thought was simply an arrow which pointed him to the nearest chest. He started to sketch out the arrow, he wanted to added a color scheme to indicate how close he was to the chest, essentially a red to blue, hot to cold indicator. However small neat writing informed him that to add any enhancements would require higher levels. MoMony was feeling a little let down as he placed the skill scroll back in its place.
MoMony’s mood quickly improved as he activated his new skill and a gray arrow flashed into existence. The arrow was three dimensional, maybe two inches thick, and a half a foot long. It was currently pointing to MoMony’s right. There was a sudden tightness in his chest which he wrote off as excitement. With the beginnings of a whistle on his lips he turned towards the arrow. At least he tried to turn, something held him. The whistle died when MoMony looked down and saw a sword jutting from his chest. When did that happen, he thought as he fell to his knees.
“If it wasn't for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.” MoMony said out loud.
The forest floor reached up and cradled his view. The world went black.
