Free World Seed: Game Start by Justin Miller Page A

time.
    Looking
outside, I saw that the sun was just starting to rise, so I decided
to head on out for training. They might plague my dreams, but I can
at least get revenge on them now that I’m awake! On my way, I
decided to go ahead and sell off the last of my potions to Lisara,
who bought them for five copper each. At the same time, I took note
of the exact shade her potions had. If nothing else, that would help
me make a better one in the future.
    With
my new 45 copper, I decided to buy a basic guide to the nearby herbs
from Lisara as well. While it didn’t tell me any recipes, it
did list all of the medicinal and poisonous plants in the area, and
roughly said what their use was. For instance, I found out that one
of the black mushrooms I saw on our hunts the day before was actually
a rare herb that could paralyze anyone that tried to eat it.
    Once
I was done with that, I checked my contacts list to see if I could
team up with Jacobs. Unfortunately he was still asleep, so that
wasn’t an option. He had apparently gained another two levels
after splitting up yesterday, so I needed to catch up. Next few
levels, need to work more on my mana… If I suck this bad at
fighting with weapons, then I need to make sure I won’t run out
of spells as easily.
    Outside
of town, I made my way back to the area where we had seen the fluffy
hordes. Specifically, I wanted to see if I could find that black
mushroom again. If I could copy that, then I’d have a good stun
spell for my arsenal. And similarly, I was collecting any plants
along the way that were listed in the book I bought, whether they
were for poisons or for medicine. I found that after reading through
the book and learning its contents, my Herbology skill jumped up from
Beginner Level 1 to Beginner Level 7 in one go.
    Anyways,
where was I? Oh yes, hunting the horned rabbits. It took me about
five minutes to find the first group of them, but what I found
surprised me. Rather than the groups of four or five I had seen
yesterday, this was a group of at least twenty! My need for revenge
wasn’t strong enough to commit suicide against that many
people, so I moved on to the next group…. Which was just as
large. All of the areas that we had hunted the small groups of
rabbits the day before now had much larger groups today.
    They
knew… I don’t know how, but they knew I was coming for
them! I groaned, shaking my head and resigning myself to return to
town. Logically speaking, there was no way that those rabbits should
suddenly have that many at all the spots we hunted before, so I could
only ask a guard.
    “ Hmm?
Oh, you tried to go out and hunt?” The guard showed me a
knowing smile, as if guessing what the issue was.
    “ Yeah…
but…”
    “ But
there were suddenly a lot more of them, right? That’s a pretty
common thing around here. It’s the reason we’re willing
to pay people every day to exterminate them. They reproduce so fast
that they can completely refill their population overnight. Most
likely you found them before later on, after their numbers were
thinned out for a bit. If we were to leave them alone for a full
week, they’d be everywhere.”
    So
that’s why…I guess that means morning hunts are the
worst. I sighed, shaking my head at the news. “Thanks. I take
it adventurer’s tend to team up to start taking them out every
day?”
    “ Hmm?
No, the wolves tend to bring down their population by about half.
That usually takes till around noon, and then the adventurer’s
go in and clear the rest. We just stay out of their way until the
wolves are done with their part.”
    “ Well…
there goes my idea to get revenge. Or does it…” I
suddenly had a thought occur to me, and a wicked grin spread across
my face, before I raced back to the edge of town, leaving a guard
standing there with a confused expression.
    Wolves,
I’ll be borrowing your experience for a bit! I thought to
myself with a sadistic grin. As soon as I was out of town, I sat down
and