Cycle of Ruin - Book One
They say Arrivals choose to come here, but Leo has no recollection of ever choosing such a fate. Thrust into the harsh wilds of a world where one's strength is measured and recorded, a single mistake here can cost him his li...
The sounds of thunder faded away as he pressed deeper into the forest, clutching his still-healing left arm close to his chest. Despite the horrible pain from the burns, he still retained enough sense of mind to keep a watchful eye on his surroundings, looking for any hint of further danger.
As hemade his way across the forest floor, he came upon a strange flower with blood-redpetals and a slim, thorny spine. Not wanting to take any chances that even thistiny innocuous plant might try to kill him, he cast Observation.
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Leo knelt next to the plant after reading its description. It appeared to be safe, but he was still hesitant to trust an ability he hadn't come to fully understand yet. Could the information on his skill display ever be wrong?
After a moment's consideration, he decided now was as good a time as any to start learning the workings of the world. Motivated by the throbbing pain in his left arm, he reached over and plucked a bright red petal before slowly placing it in his mouth.
The saliva on his tongue quickly dissolved its surprisingly dry and brittle structure, releasing an overpowering bitter flavor that spread down his throat. He shivered as the unpleasant taste transformed into a gentle, cooling sensation that spread throughout his body. The pain in his arm was still horrible but he noticed a visible increase in the speed at which the remaining burns were normalizing.
Bloody Widow grants +10% health regeneration. Duration: 2 minutes.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill Herbalism! Rarity: Common, Skill level: Novice level 1. Destroying nature one plant at a time. 1% higher chance to successfully pick an ingredient of Rare class and below.
Needing a place to store the ingredient, he took off his shirt and tied the ends of both his sleeves and the opening at the base to create a sort of rudimentary knapsack. Then, very gingerly, he pulled the entire flower out of the ground and stowed it away, ensuring to avoid the thorns on its stem as he did so.
It was a few more minutes of aimless wandering before he spied the same type of ingredient. As he went to harvest this one, the stem snapped in his hands. Immediately, the petals wilted while the rest of the plant shriveled up and turned black as if it had been drained of all its moisture. Apparently, there was a trick to this.
For the next one he came across, he tried digging around its roots, getting them to relinquish their hold on the earth before pulling up the entire plant. Much to his satisfaction, nothing broke and the flower didn't degrade.
Skill level-up! Herbalism: Level 2! (1% -> 2%) higher chance to successfully pick an ingredient of Rare class and below.
Leo continued onwards, stopping occasionally to try to harvest any useful sounding ingredients he came across. He quickly found that each type had to be harvested in its own unique way or else it would decay much like his first failure had.
