This time Joseph was prepared for the onslaught of Pheasants. Throwing a knife to slow one of the front ones coming at him down, the group of birds tripped over their own kind, slowing the ones behind them in turn. Remembering his preformed strategy, he yelled, "Poison Edge!" Diving into the wave of feathered fiends. By the time he got out of the flock, his HP was worn down to half, and the pheasants, if they were lucky, about ten percent of their original health. If they weren't lucky, they were dead. Ignoring the notification about his recently picked up drops and XP, he threw another knife or two at some of the pheasants, finishing them off with his dagger as needed. [20 XP, 6 Talon, {21 Gold+10%}=23 Gold] He headed back towards the city. "You have collected all of them? Let me see. Ah, thank you very much here is your reward," Aven said, a notification appearing. [100 gold, 30 XP, Resonant Blade {Unique}] He looked at the dagger he just received, a stat screen up instantly. [Resonant Blade- [i]A faint hum comes from it, reverberating the last noise that came in contact with it.[/i] {+10% Crit. Chance}] Sweet. "Now that you have a weapon that can pack a punch, I need to ask one more favor from you, There has been word that tunnel snakes east of the village have been eating hikers and journey men, please would you kill about 20 of them, just to send a warning to the other tunnel snakes? Be careful, they are fairly large - may even be the size of you, and they come out of the ground!" Their description unsettled him a little, but hey: A quest is a quest, right?
Walking over to a nearby shopkeeper, he interrupted the man's bored gaze with a knock on his table. "Hm? Oh, one of you guys. You're ev'rywhere around here. Whaddaya want?" The shopkeeper said, looking annoyed. "I'd like to sell a dagger. Nothing special, I just got a new one." Joseph said, tentatively. "I'll give ya three gold, no more," the man said, examining it.
"Fine by me," Joseph replied.
"Here. Now get outta here. I don't like strangers."
Joseph did so, heading where the woman said. "Snakes..." He muttered, "Underground. Great. Just great." Or, he would've if one hadn't just latched onto his leg. Instead it was more like: "Snakes... Unde-WOOAAH! P-POISON EDGE!" He slashed at the snake with a throwing knife, the first thing available. It let go, recoiling. On his guard, Joseph sipped from a health potion as quickly as he could while still with his eyes locked on the squirming mass in front of him. He drew his new dagger, hand tightening on the grip appreciatively. Suddenly, the snake lunged, but not so fast that he couldn't bring his dagger to block its strike, taking the damage to the creature instead of himself. Now he took his turn, planting the seeds of death in the snakes face, in the form of a well sharpened blade. The snake died, and now that his adrenaline was no longer in charge, he could hear some other players having their own fun with the creatures. He still needed to kill more, though, and was that a level up notification? Yes it was. He was level three now, somehow unknowingly he'd leveled [i]twice[/i] without knowing. Shrugging, he started to walk around, hoping that more would come soon. The ground beneath him rumbled, and his dagger, as its name suggested, rang along with it, making a beautiful harmony, which was warning enough, he sidestepped just as one of them would've chomped his leg, that one followed by a small horde more. This would be fun.