When I fell asleep, it was a testament to how stressful and draining the day had been. I still had semi-magical hides that I needed to find a use for. And another concern had popped up into my head. I hadn’t seen any faction loss notifications when our raid killed all the humans. But I was still waiting for something bad to come of that. Still, in the end, sleep won out.

  I must have slept longer than I expected because there were already other ogres up and moving about. The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, so the forest still had that magical quality that you find at sunrise and sunset. I saw trios of ogres heading out into the woods and realized what was going on. Shemi was up and pushing the groups to get back out and level.

  That was it. A few groups would mean that any nearby monsters would be claimed quickly. I didn’t want to wait for any warriors to be sent with me and I didn’t want any of the other outcasts to beat me to level 10, so I made a beeline for the forest. Fortune favored me this time, and no one saw me leave. I assumed Tulbat and the chief were still sleeping while Shemi was occupied.

  I pushed past the areas closest to her hut. Even then I saw rage badgers engaged with two different parties. It was a bit reckless to move so quickly, as I couldn’t pay very close attention to any threats around me. But a part of me was beating myself up. I had been tired last night and, for that reason, hunting probably hadn’t been a good idea. I would have been more prone to mistakes. Oversleeping, though, was inexcusable.

  I headed in the opposite direction of the bounding bucks. I might have been able to deal with one of them even at level nine because of my superior stats, but since they moved in herds, that wouldn’t work. Something that fought on its own or in pairs like the rage badgers would work much better for me. As I moved, I cast my buffs, Inner Power and Scale Skin on myself.

  Of course, you can’t always get what you want. So, when I hit a clearing in the forest, I almost didn’t notice the shadows moving on the ground until it was too late. Undoubtedly, if I had been a normal AI run ogre, I would have been too slow to respond, thinking the shadows represented an attack from the ground. But I looked up in the nick of time and was able to thrust my spear up to prevent a hawk the size of a Shetland pony from sinking its talons into me.

  My spear missed just like its talons did, but the attack was interrupted. The massive bird screeched in outrage that its supposed prey had fought back, but tough. I wasn’t gonna roll over. As the hawk wheeled over, my eyes tracked it. I expected it to fly off since the element of surprise was gone, but no such luck.

  This time, I wasn’t quick enough to react as a second hawk dove at me. Those talons were every bit as painful as I had imagined they would be. With the momentum behind its dive, the only reason it didn’t yank away chunks of my flesh was my scale skin buff.

  I managed to roll away on the ground, but the two hawks became three and they were each swooping down on me in rapid succession. For a while, I was able to hold them at bay with my spear, but I never managed to make it up to my feet. I got the chance to Assess them, which was interesting.

  Fire Falcon Level: 9

  HP: 185

  Still not much information, but they were all four levels higher than me. Part of me wondered what the difference between a hawk and a falcon was, but it didn’t really matter if they killed me.

  Their HPs were low compared to mine, but I assumed that was because they had powerful attacks. That guess was further cemented when, on the next diving attack instead of extended talons, I was hit with a tongue of fire that blasted forth from the bird’s open beak.

  It caused (78) damage, which with the early claw attack dropped me down to 450 HP even with the 90 bonus HP provided by Inner Power. The Scale Skin buff also hadn’t seemed to do anything to protect me from the fire.

  Casting while on my back wasn’t difficult, but casting while keeping up spear thrusts was a bit harder. Fortunately, spells only took a single second to cast, at least the ones that I possessed did. I began with Endure Elements. Just in time too, as each of the other falcons dive bombed me with their fire attacks. But now they combined for less than (100) more damage.

  Still, I couldn’t take a beating like that many more times and I didn’t know what the recharge on their attack was. I reached out and cast Frost Rift rather than my signature spell. Frost Burn felt more natural for me to cast, but I didn’t know how it would interact with the elemental nature of these birds.

  It turned out to be an excellent choice. The first caught the full effect of the spell. Not only did it take double damage, which would’ve been enough to kill it all on its own, but it also froze solid and crashed into the ground, shattering into hundreds of pieces. The effect was beyond anything I had expected from the spell, but maybe it was so extreme because the spell had already killed the creature.

  That threw off the other birds’ timing enough that I was able to get to my feet. I blasted off another Frost Rift. This one didn’t hit my target squarely, but it was still enough to destroy a wing and bring the bird in for a crash landing. The impact caused enough damage to finish the job off.

  The final falcon had gotten wise to my attack and was circling much higher overhead. I hadn’t received any experience yet, so clearly the system AI didn’t consider the encounter to be over. Since the range was only 100’, it wasn’t difficult for the bird to stay out of range.

  I was going to have to be crafty. So, I sat back down to portray more vulnerability, and I set my spear on the ground. As the bird tested me slowly coming lower and lower, I didn’t try to blast it the first second it was within range. Instead, I waited until it had committed and then fired off the spell.

  The agile falcon still managed to dodge the spell. I had never been so glad that most of the spells in Legend of Selmia had no cool down. With my mana, I could fire it off once a second at least ten times in a row, more if you counted my mana regeneration.

  The third blast caught its tail feathers. Unlike a wing that wasn’t enough to take it out, but it was enough to force it to the ground. From there, a couple of spear thrusts finished the job, and I basked in the warm glow of XP. The gain was significant since they out-leveled and outnumbered me. It added up to 183 more XP.

  Without waiting, I accepted the XP and enough of my stored XP to reach level 10. I felt the familiar rush go through my body as my automatic stat points were added to Strength, Constitution, and Will. It brought a grin to my face. Nothing like what the next notification did.

  Completed Quest- Where Do I Fit? 1.2

  You have beaten all the AI run shamans in reaching level 10. Woot, but don’t take too much pride in it. They are required to act with a stupid setting. They can turn it off anytime the system allows them too, but you were born that way.

  Rewards: 900 XP, you get to remain on as Shemi’s apprentice. You gain 3 new spells (to follow). You also have the chance to obtain 2 different shaman affinities. (that comes next)

  Affinity is a refinement of your abilities as a shaman. This is only the beginning, not the end. The affinity you choose may affect your stats and resistances. It may also provide you with different options for skills in the future. It will absolutely limit your choices when you move forward to specialize at higher levels. It will affect your spells in various ways.

  Options:

  Frostwalker: Cold Resistance +65%, Mind +10%, Cold based spells are increased as follows- Damage +25%, Range, AoE, Duration +50%, Mana Cost: -25%. Fire Vulnerability -30

  Bone Mender: Constitution +10%, Healing Spells effect increased by 50%, Mana Cost: -25%. Caster automatically receives 10% of the healing that they cast. Radiant Resistance +50 Necrotic Vulnerability -20.

  Plague Bringer: Agility +10%, Poison and Disease spells increased by 50% in duration, AoE, and virility. Mana Cost: -25%. Poison and Disease Resistance +50. Radiant Vulnerability: -30.

  Hex Warden: Strength +10%, Buffs and Debuffs- Duration increased by 50%, Mana Cost reduced by 50%. Electricity Resistance: +50, Fire Vulnerability: -20

  Pack Caller: Will + 10%. Spirit based spells +25% duration. Caster level is treated as 25% higher for the purpose of learning and casting spirit spells, Mana Cost of Spirit spell -25%. Fire Resistance: +50, Electricity Vulnerability: -20.

  I had pretty much already decided on Hex Warden. Those buffs and debuffs could make me a much better fit for many parties as other than a healer that was likely the hardest role to fill. Scouts, rogues, tanks, and dps players were all far more common.

  Bone Mender had some great perks, but I still didn’t want to end up as a dedicated healer. So rather than second guessing myself, I planned to move forward with the original plan. The only lingering doubt that I had was the wording of the quest reward. It said I had a chance to obtain two affinities, it didn’t guarantee I could.

  Oh well, nothing for it but to choose. As I triggered the choice of Hex Warden, I felt my body grow stronger. That bonus would only increase with time since it was percentage based.

  I began to smile a moment later as I realized that the selection menu was still open. It looked like I was gonna get another affinity. The only difference was that Frostwalker was no longer an option. It appeared grayed out.

  Obviously, I had given some thought to what the second affinity should be, but since it had never been certain, I had not thought it out as much as I might have otherwise. And worse, when I had thought about it, I had leaned towards Frostwalker. My direct damage spells were effective even if not overwhelming, but apparently that path was closed to me now.

  I still didn’t want to be a primary healer and even worse would have been seen as a heal/buff bot. So, Bone Mender was still out. That left Plague Bringer and Pack Caller. I had never played a pet class, but Shemi’s pet was certainly impressive and the perk of being treated as a higher caster level was nothing to sneeze at.

  Ultimately, though, what made up my mind was the fact; I didn’t want to be known as a Plague Bringer. Certainly not when it was already going to be hard enough to get players to accept me in this form. So, I triggered the second decision. The 10% bonus was even more significant this time since Will was by far my highest stat. Yet, as always, when it increased, I didn’t really feel any boost.

  As I thought about it, I realized this was quite a perk of being a monster. Players didn’t get to specialize till level 20. That and percentage-based bonuses were always significant in the long term. I still needed to assign my free stat points since I was at another threshold.

  I had already planned that part out too, but the dual bonuses to Strength and Will changed my mind. I had ten points to work with. I popped two of them into Mind. I didn’t know for sure what it did for me, but I didn’t want any single stat to be too far behind. Min-maxing was fine for a game, but not so much for my life. Perhaps the only obvious benefit was I seemed to scratch my backside less with the extra points in Mind. Maybe that was my imagination though.

  I then added ten points to Agility. I knew that was gonna make me much faster and more dexterous than a normal ogre, but I liked the way adding Agility made my walk a little less bow-legged. The final eight points I put into Constitution.

  After that, I pulled up my character sheet to look at the changes.

  NPC- HI 3a5.x290

  Integration: 26.9%

  AI Usage: 11%

  Call Name: Frank

  Monster Race: Ogre

  Ht: 9’2” Weight: 848 lbs

  Class: Shaman- Hex Warden, Pack Caller

  Level: 10th

  XP to Level 1: 0/1000

  Available XP: 1002

  Strength: 55 (61)

  Agility: 31

  Constitution: 63

  Mind: 22

  Will: 86 (95)

  Unassigned Free Stat Points: 10

  HP: 630/630

  HP Regen: 1.26/second

  Mana: 950/950

  Mana Regen: 1.90/second

  Armor Rating: 11

  Physical Resistance-

  Slash: 3

  Blunt: 6

  Pierce: 2

  Fire Resistance: 35

  Cold Resistance: 30

  Electric Resistance: 30

  Acid Resistance: 0

  Necrotic Resistance: 0

  Radiant Resistance: 0

  Poison Resistance: 31%

  Disease Resistance: 31%

  Skills: (relevant)

  Blunt Weapons: Basic 20

  Piercing Weapons: Basic 20

  Skinning/Butchering: Basic 20

  Cooking: Basic 20

  Mana Channeling: Basic 20

  Rapid Meditation: Basic 20

  Dodge: Basic 10

  Spell Forging: Basic 10

  Spells: Flameburst (B-20), Regeneration (B-20), Flash of Light (B-20), Inner Power (B-20), Home (B-5), Frost Rift (B-20), Endure Elements (B-20), Scale Skin (B-20)

  Signature Spells: Frostburn (B-20)

  Racial Abilities:

  Starting Stats: STR: +25, CON: +20, AGI: -5, MIND: -5*, WILL: 0*

  Iron Gut: Poison and Damage Resistance equals level +30%

  Rage: 1/hour

  Frostburn Durability: increased physical, cold, and fire resistances

  Stun Immunity

  Class Abilities:

  Spell casting

  Faction:

  Players (General): Tolerated (-1000)

  Beasts: Hated (-3000)

  Ogres: Tolerated (-950)

  Ghazban Village: Tolerated (+75)

  Monster Races (General): Feared (-2000)

  Chapter 21- Retaliation

  Looking at my stats was a bit eye opening. The average player began with stats around 10, although depending on their class, their stats might be anywhere between 8 and 18. The better boosts they got to one stat, the less they got to others. The net result was that most classes had an average of about 60-65 stat points.

  Then after that they would gain three points per level. Usually, two of them would be locked by their class and the third point would be a free point. So, by level 10, an average player would have 90-95 stat points, not counting their gear. None of those stats could be over 48 either.

  Yet here I was with triple those total stats and three stats over 60. It made me pause. I wanted to be with other people who could string together sentences and didn’t scratch their backsides every other minute, but was this opportunity too good to pass up?

  It was a hard question that I needed to answer, but I couldn’t think about it right now. I still had a notification to gain three new spells. Then I heard the sounds of fighting which carried through the woods for a great distance. My first instinct was to cast the Home spell. It would take me right back to the ogre respawn spot. But a second thought went through my head.

  What if this was players attacking the village? If I got stuck in a situation where I had to harm a player, my faction would almost certainly go down. This was what I wanted to avoid more than anything, but sticking my head in the sand wouldn’t help. If worse came to worst, I could just let myself die.

  With that grim thought, I triggered the Home spell. I figured the new spells I gained wouldn’t make enough difference to delay. The spell felt odd because I had this momentary sense of a blank white loading screen and then I was at the respawn site.

  I got an immediate notification:

  Ghazban village is under attack by the forces of Belchor.

  Respawn is locked until the battle is over.

  New Quest: Repel those humans.

  Goals:

  1) Successfully defend Ghazban Village

  2) Save as many ogres as possible: 186/232 remaining

  3) Save as many buildings as possible, 7/7 remaining

  4) Kill as many knights of Belchor as possible: 96/100 remaining

  5) Kill as many archers of Belchor as possible: 60/60 remaining

  6) Kill as many high mages of Belchor as possible 6/6 remaining

  Rewards: Variable

  Since there was no mention of any PC’s I accepted the quest. This must be the interactions that the AI was playing behind the scenes all the time. I didn’t know how killing NPC soldiers did anything to improve the game experience for players. But I was equally certain that the AI had some angle in this.

  The knights were already in the village. It had no defensive structures, so it wasn’t hard to imagine why. These knights were much better organized and seemed to fare better against the ogre warriors than those in the ambush. I quickly activated Assess multiple times since I was still shielded in the trees around the respawn spot.

  Knight of Belchor Level: 14

  HP: 300

  Most of the knights were level fourteen, give or take a level. The knight captain and knight lieutenant I saw were both at least level twenty-one because I couldn’t Assess them. But it didn’t look like I would have to worry about them. Kerkek and Tulbat were squaring off against them.