Chapter Ten - 010The sword looked like it was made of bronze, and had a weird curved shape. It was straight near the hilt, then it bowed outward in a distinct curve. Like an axe, or something. The hilt was a simple cross guard, and the handle wrapped in dark wire and capped with an oblong pommel. The whole thing was in surprisingly good condition.
Name: Unknown Sword
Type: Slashing
Lore: Unknown
Interesting. No damage range or anything. This was the first time Felix had Analyzed a proper item. All of the improvised weapons and tools he had made offered nothing to the Skill. The details were both more than he expected and less than he wanted. Noticing there was no sheath or belt to put this sword in, he set it down at his feet and moved on.
The corpse was wearing the tattered and rusted remains of clothing and armor, but unlike the satchel, they were utterly ruined. Time and weather had rotted away the organics, and rust had done in the rest. This person had to have been lying here for months or years; honestly, Felix had no idea how fast metal armor rusted away like that.
Turning back to the satchel, Felix found several interesting items within it. A small, thin rope called a brightweave coil, made of a slick, silky material was of particular note.
Name: Brightweave Coil (50ft)
Type: Tool (Enchanted)
Lore: Brightweave is the process of weaving Mana into a material, typically silk or something of similar quality. This rope was woven with an enchantment for durability, and with a limited ability to obey commands. It can tie itself into a knot upon command, and release said knot as well.
"Wow," Felix was stunned. "A magic item." It was an extremely useful item, though he shook his head. Was it strange that his first thought was that his Free Climbing Skill wouldn't level if he used the rope?
Additionally, there was a hard leather case in the satchel. It had a simple catch, and was made of boiled leather plates. When he opened it, he found ten small loops filled with glass. Six of the ten loops held only shattered remnants, but four had intact vials capped with a blackened cork of some sort. Two vials were red, one was blue, and the last was a strange silver. He Analyzed them, and they were Health potions, a Mana potion, and the silver concoction came back with nothing.
Name: Unknown Potion
Type: Consumable
Lore: Unknown
The Health and Mana potions each cured 50 points per dose. A huge amount, especially in the middle of battle. Felix grinned and hugged the hard leather case to his chest, gently, careful not to smash the fragile vials. Excited, he reached back into the satchel and rooted around, looking for anything else.
His hand hit a hard, heavy object. Felix pulled it out and inspected it. It was a slightly blunt and very heavy iron spike. One end was a blunted tip and the other was flattened out, like a tent spike or something. A hole was formed into the flat end, as if it were meant to be threaded in some way. Felix looked around, expecting to see the rotted remains of a tent or something, when his eye snagged on a dark shape up on the cliff face. He stepped closer, walking to the base of the cliff and looking up. There, nearly ten feet up, a black iron spike had been hammered into the cliff face. Felix looked back at the corpse and the pile of rope at its feet.
"Why were you climbing this cliff?" Felix scratched his chin, his stubble irritating his usually clean shaven skin. His eyes roamed over the cliff face, trying to pick out any more black spikes in the harsh late afternoon light. One, two, three more pitons could be seen, all together making a meandering path toward the waterfall itself. Stepping closer to the waterfall and rocky bank, Felix peered upward through the haze of chill mist. After nearly a minute, he caught a glimpse of a darkness behind the waterfall.
"A cave!" He gasped, excitement and relief flooding him. A cave meant shelter, and the out of the way location meant he didn't have to worry about any beasts in the area attacking him. He grinned.
"Time to level up Free Climbing."
It took him a few minutes to gather up everything he would need. The satchel was a decent size and could hold plenty of herbs, roots, and Kelaar fruit. He packed it to the brim, just barely securing the clasp on the front. A few leather straps on the top of the satchel were convenient to tie down the strange hooked sword. Slipping the rope around his shoulder and the satchel around his chest, he began to climb.
His Stamina bottomed out shortly after he made it past the first iron piton. Dropping back down, Felix fell into a seated position and Meditated. As his Stamina ticked back up to full, Felix considered his options. His Free Climbing Skill was only level 3, and this cliff was obviously much more of a challenge than the Kingsap tree. But it stood to reason that if he just kept trying his Skill level would increase and his Stamina consumption would drop accordingly. Nodding to himself, he got back up.
After an hour, he had fallen six times, but Free Climbing had risen to level 6. He could now make it past the second piton, and the fall was beginning to pose a significant danger. The sandy embankment helped cushion his falls, but he was pushing past forty feet and it was extremely easy to break a bone if he landed wrong. Luckily, his Acrobatics Skill took this time to shine and a lucky tumble allowed him to reduce the damage a little. Acrobatics had risen from level 8 to level 10 quickly, and as before, Felix felt a portion of the Skill's power flow into him; he felt more graceful and flexible than ever before in his life.
After two hours, he made it up to the third piton. At this point he was being showered in a constant icy mist. Still without protective garments or even a shirt Felix had to keep activating Fire Within to force away the cold. The main problem was that he couldn't really move while he used the Skill, he had to hunker down and hold tight for several minutes each time. Luckily, the cliff was craggy and had plenty of handholds that he could rest at; not quite as luckily, the mist began to thicken into watery spray as he neared the final piton. He was forced to keep Fire Within activated constantly, pushing himself to keep climbing as he did so. His Mana continually dropped, the Skill taking approximately 3 Mana/second and reducing him to zero in a little over a minute, which meant a spiking headache that made him pause his climb.
Three hours later the sun had almost completely set over the treetops, and Felix pulled himself up onto the final ledge. He lay there, panting and heaving and letting the icy spray settle over him. He was so tired, so drained of Mana and Stamina that he didn't even activate any Skills. He just laid there, seeing the sunset through a curtain of water. He toggled his notifications.
Free Climbing is level 9!
Acrobatics is level 10!
Physical Conditioning is level 6!
Physical Conditioning is level 7!
Meditation is level 9!
Meditation is level 10!
Meditation is level 11!
Fire Within is level 2!
Fire Within is level 3!
...
Fire Within is level 9!
+4 STR
+1 END
+1 WIL
What a workout. With a groan, Felix rolled over and up onto his feet. He was exhausted from the river, the hypothermia, and the climb. If nothing else, he was excited to have a safe place to sleep again. As he stumbled forward, he saw the extent of the waterfall cave. It was perhaps fifteen feet deep by thirty feet wide, but that was it. Much of the area was wet and slick, but a sizable portion near the rear was quite dry.
"It'll do," he huffed.
You Have Learned A New Skill!
Exploration (Uncommon), Level 1!
Only by traveling into the unknown can your horizons expand. Skill gains related to exploration and information gathering are increased a small amount by Skill Level.
"That's...yeah, that's the weirdest one yet," Felix grunted as he sat in the back of the cave. The rock wasn't smooth but it wasn't uncomfortable either, not with him as tired as he was. He briefly considered Meditating before his eyes drooped closed and he fell asleep.
It was full dark when Felix woke back up. He knew that because he could see the stars.
Wait. He blinked and squinted. Were the stars moving?
With a grunt of effort, Felix stood up from his seated position against the cave wall. He could see a number of blue-white specks beyond the waterfall, even out of the opening to the side of the cave, where the water didn't distort everything. Feeling his sore body protest with every step, he hobbled closer to the edge. Had this been day, he would have been able to see all of the surrounding area, but it was night and has it had been the past few days, night meant utter darkness.
Except for the glowing specks of blue-white light.
They fluttered and flowed around the area, not so much illuminating as radiating. They moved like birds, flowing in and out of liquid seeming flocks of light. They were...beautiful.