Chapter 1
Scar, who finished setting up his new store/restaurant Spotted Hound Provisions, was now on his way to explore the unknown zones to the south. He had received some advice from WildFairy and Shadow on where to start, they recommended going to the plateau directly to the south of the jungle.
They said that this would be the perfect start for Scar, because of this he was currently making his way to the jungle on the back of Charlotte.
Scar was currently wishing that Charlotte had gotten a saddle for this long travel, he had to hold tight to her fur for almost an entire day which left him exhausted.
He had never felt this way before but now that he had experience with Cyrus he didn’t know how he lived without it before.
Luckily, Avalon would spot any enemies and together with Cyrus they would kill everything they came across. Scar could easily level up in the basalt plane however he wanted to explore the unknown scenery and make some progress on the quest ‘Expedition into the Unknown’.
WildFairy and Shadow had both turned in a bunch of information related to the geography of the next 2 zones.
Scar had created a simple map by combining the information of these two and his master. He hoped to make a more detailed map and make some entries into his beast compendium.
This was what Brigita had specifically asked for him to do when they were idly chatting. Along his travels he saw many players hunting in the areas he passed by.
The players also noticed Scar and many offered for him to join their parties, Scar always politely refused these offers. When he reached the very south of the jungle Scar had to look around for a while to find the path that led up to the plateau.
They had found this path when exploring the jungle as a group of 3, he was now trying to locate it again.
While he was climbing up the path he saw a large flash in the distance. Upon closer look Scar panicked and quickly ordered everyone to hide.
In the direction he was looking in was a group of players that had curiously followed Scar, this itself wasn’t rare.
The terrifying thing was the absolutely massive vulture that was now circling the players, the vulture then swooped down and with one claw strike instantly killed the player.
Scar who was hiding behind a boulder was happy that he wasn’t the one to face that vulture. He had seen this bird once before, however it had immediately run away from Caratacus.
Now that he wasn’t being protected he was only prey to an epic creature like that vulture. It had only been a minute and almost 6 players had been killed by the bird.
The other 10 or so players were now running in every direction, with one loud caw the vulture seemed to call to its fellow birds in the area. Almost 100 birds suddenly flew down from the trees and swarmed the players.
The vulture grabbed the corpse of the 6 players it killed in its claws and then flew up to the treetops again. The other players ran in the opposite direction of Scar so he was now left alone again.
Once Avalon signaled everything was clear they hurried up the path to reach the plateau where they should be safe.
The rest of the trip was much calmer, they were attacked by several birds while traveling but they were easily killed after being webbed by Charlotte.
When they reached the top of the path Scar looked at the scene he hadn’t seen since he was exploring alongside WildFairy and Shadow. The path suddenly transformed from a dirt path to a wall of massive grass.
The grass must have been 10 feet tall which was really strange, it was as if he shrunk in size until he was only several inches tall.
Shadow had told him that this was a really good place to level up and so Scar would be here for quite some time. Scar got on the back of Cyrus now that they could be attacked at any time while walking.
Avalon was the first to enter the grass followed by Charlotte and then Cyrus. The only thing Scar could hear was Cyrus’s heavy breathing and the sound of grass being pushed to the sides, when he looked around all he could see was green.
After walking for almost 5 minutes he heard Avalon’s growl, this was the signal that something was in the area.
Cyrus wanted to enter a rage however Scar held him back, Cyrus couldn’t see any more than him so entering a rage would help them at all. Charlotte hurried behind Avalon to attack whatever the opponent was.
Cyrus, Scar, and Elvinia were therefore left behind. They heard fighting in the distance, Scar could hear both Avalon and Charlotte fighting however he heard something that he hadn’t heard before, it was a skittering different from spider legs.
After a minute Avalon came back to Scar while dragging something over. It was a massive green centipede, Elvinia shrieked when she saw it.
Even Scar felt himself pale when he saw the almost 7 foot long centipede. Scar wasn’t particularly bad with insects but this thing was eldritch in appearance.
Seeing the hundreds of legs twitching as Avalon dragged it over caused shivers to run down his spine.
Scar shook his head to come back to his senses, he complimented Avalon and Charlotte for doing such a good job.
Avalon seemed happy with the compliment but she seemed far more interested in the corpse of the centipede.
“You absolutely cannot eat it, it could be poisonous and I have no idea how to prepare it.”
Hearing this caused Avalon to visibly deflate.
“I’m sure we will find something that I can cook for you. Let’s keep hunting, Shadow told me about something that I’m sure you’ll love.”
Avalon seemed to revive upon hearing this, it was the truth that Shadow told him something that Scar really wanted to hunt in this grass. It was a very strange creature but Scar knew that it would be delicious.
The group continued to move, Scar was walking southwest to reach one of the edges of the plateau.
While walking every 5 to 10 minutes they would come across a creature. There were more centipedes, a green snake that stood on its tail to disguise as a stalk of grass, and even a stick bug that looked like grass.
Scar thought that everything would be like this, however he eventually came across a pitch black wolf that was eating a snake.
When they met the wolf it simply barked at the group and continued eating. Avalon then barked in response and led them in another direction.
It seemed like Avalon heard something from the wolf since she started leading the group in a different direction. Scar thought about asking her but decided to simply trust her.
The next creature they came across was another dinosaur which he wasn’t expecting to see in a place like this.
It was a smaller raptor-like creature, if he had to guess it was about 70% of the size of the raptors he previously fought.
As it would seem, not only the herbivores traveled south when they were driven out of the fairy village. This tiny raptor put up much more of a fight than the previous creatures.
This was the first time that Cyrus got the chance to join the fight and he took the opportunity to take out the frustration he had built up.
Scar spent some time preparing this creature to cook with later. It seemed like he might not find the creature he was looking for so he did this just in case.
For the next hour of traveling they kept encountering the same several creatures. Suddenly Avalon stopped walking and tilted her head.
Scar, who felt the group stop walking and carefully listened. However the only thing he heard was the sound of the wind.
Scar used his bond with Cyrus to silently give him a command.
Can you stand up on your back legs?
When Cyrus heard this he fully cooperated, this allowed Scar to get his head slightly above the grass.
At first all Scar saw was a field of green, however after some time he looked in the direction that the wind was coming from.
When he did he had to hold his breath, he saw the creature that Shadow told him about. To put it simply it was a goat running on top of the grass.
However upon a better view it wasn’t running but more like flying or something similar. The goat was flying around 10 or so meters away.
Elvinia who saw this and the look of desire on Scar’s face realized this was her time to act. She hadn’t done anything for the last several hours so she was feeling motivated.
She whispered a spell, when it finished casting the goat suddenly appeared in the middle of the group.
The moment this happened all three animals attacked at once. The goat however was as graceful as the wind and dodged the attacks which greatly surprised everyone. With one jump it flew to the top of the grass and started to run away.
Scar thought that Charlotte was fast, however in comparison to that goat she was very slow. In the blink of an eye it was several meters away.
“Chase it! That’s our dinner!”
Upon hearing this Avalon was extremely motivated and tried to chase it. However after a short chase it disappeared.
Elvinia muttered after this.
“What the, how is it so fast?”
Scar muttered in disappointment as well.
“That’s a shame, Shadow said it tasted extremely good.”
Upon hearing this everyone seemed disappointed. This was the creature that Shadow told him about, and it was the main reason Scar decided to start by coming to this plateau.
Apparently this goat not only tasted extremely good but also granted a lot of experience. Shadow had leveled up 3 times in this area and Scar only wanted to at least level up once while collecting some goat meat.
However as it would seem it wouldn’t be so easy. They would have to come up with a strategy if they wanted to successfully hunt these goats.
The group came up with 3 plans that were feasible. The first was their classic teleport the enemy straight into Charlotte’s web.
The second was to sneak up to it and have Elvinia cast a stun on it allowing the group to kill it in one burst.
The last option was for Avalon and Charlotte bait it to run straight into Cyrus and Elvinia who could probably kill the goat in a single good combo
The group would have to try each of these 3 strategies to see which one had the greatest chance of success.
The only problem was that it seemed these goats were extremely rare since they had only encountered one after hunting for around an hour and a half.
It was already around 4 o’clock so Scar decided to make a clearing that he could cook in. He didn’t dare to start a fire in this area without clearing the area first.
The grass was slightly damp so it probably wouldn’t all catch on fire but he didn’t want to risk it. Therefore he spent an hour making a clearing while Avalon and Cyrus hunted for more raptors that Scar could cook.
By the time he started a fire the 2 returned dragging along 3 small raptors. Scar thanked them as he prepared them to cook as well.
Scar decided to make a simple teriyaki sauce to glaze the raptor meat in. He took out the water, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic and ginger to make it.
He would have liked to use some honey in it but a certain fairy sneakily ate any sweets that Scar purchased.
In order to substitute the honey he added some extra sugar which Elvinia cheered about. She had high expectations for whatever this sauce was.
While the sauce was slightly cooking to incorporate the flavors, Scar took out a simple grill that he put over the open flame This was one of the many cooking tools that Colborn sold to Scar last time he was at The Packrats.
Once the metal had heated up Scar started to grill the cuts of raptor. Scar had cut the raptor into different sizes for everyone.
Scar, Elvinia, and Charlotte had cuts the size of a normal chicken breast. On the other hand Cyrus and Avalon’s cuts were the size of a large plate.
Scar loved cooking on a grill however it was hard to bring a full grill while adventuring. Therefore when he saw this folding grill that was simply put above a flame he was very excited.
Once the raptor had some nice grill marks and were almost fully cooked, Scar drizzled the teriyaki onto the meat. After letting it cook for another 10 or so seconds on both sides to allow the sauce to thicken up into a glaze on the meat.
Once this was done Scar placed the meat on plates for everyone. Once everyone got their plates they all happily ate.
***
The next day the group continued their travel south west. After traveling for another hour Avalon seemed to smell another flying goat so they started the first plan.
Charlotte made a web that should be enough to fully encompass the goat. Once this was done Elvinia poked her head above the grass.
With her small size she was able to steality cast a teleportation spell on the goat. When the goat found itself trapped in a web it took a second to look around before coming to a decision.
The goat emitted a green light and with the sound of whistling wind the web was cut to shreds. The goat then proceeded to jump up and ran away again.
Elvinia tried to stun it with her space magic however it seemed to sense it and dodged the spell. It was gone before they knew what happened.
Charlotte stared at her web that was torn to shreds by a single spell with a complicated look. Scar swore he saw a tear fall down from one of her 8 eyes but he was pretty sure that was impossible.
While he was thinking this he was tackled by Charlotte and had to comfort her. It seemed like he had to think of a way to enhance the strength of her webs.
This was the second time that her webs were easily destroyed, first was because of fire and now because of wind magic.
After comforting Charlotte the group started traveling again. Scar thought that they must be near the edge of the plateau so he asked Elvinia to fly up and scout the area.
When she returned she rushed them to travel west for around 10 minutes. Apparently they would reach the edge of the plateau.
When he heard this, Scar hopped onto the back of Cyrus and started traveling again. After traveling under the guidance of Elvinia they reached the western edge of the plateau.
His gaze opened up as soon as Cyrus made it out of the grass. Scar felt a strong wind brush against his face as he looked over the majestic scene in front of him.
Scar found himself looking out at the ocean in the distance and a forest just below him. That forest was the next place that Scar would be making his way to.
However Scar still hadn’t level up, he also didn’t manage to kill even a single of those Green Wind Goats.
Scar decided to travel along the edge of the plateau until he reached the southern edge. He wanted to get a look at the other zones from a higher point of view.
From what he could tell he would have to travel for another hour or 2 before reaching the south of the plateau.
While traveling they came across another green wind goat so they decided to attempt the second strategy, stealth.
Cyrus with his shining armor and jade flames was the opposite of stealth. This meant that he couldn’t participate in this strategy which frustrated him.
Scar rode on the back of Charlotte for this battle to slightly increase the chances of success. Charlotte’s bond percentage was closing in on 40% meaning she gained 40% of Scar’s strength, endurance, and agility.
Cyrus’s bond had also greatly increased and he was now at almost 35% which made him a real tyrant in battles.
While thinking about all of this the group had sneakily approached the goat, they were within 5 meters of the goat and they decided it was the time to attack.
Elvinia therefore stunned the goat allowing Avalon to pounce onto it pulling it down to the ground. After this both Avalon and Charlotte freely attacked the goat for several seconds.
When the goat looked like it was about to break free Scar gave an order.
“Avalon hold onto its leg!”
When she heard this Avalon bit down on the leg of the goat with all her strength thoroughly trapping it in this area.
The goat finally managed to break out of the space stun however it was now trapped in a much tougher place. Charlotte continued to freely attack the goat while dodging its occasional very obvious wind blades.
After Elvinia managed to stun it again they successfully finished off the goat. Scar looked at the large hunk of XP he got and felt extremely pleased.
It must have been around 3 or 4% of the XP he needed to level up. He already had 20% when he first entered this area, along with the other creatures he had killed he was now at 31%.
Scar estimated it would take hunting for around 5 days or more to reach level 16. However if he managed to kill enough goats this could be greatly reduced.
Scar immediately decided to stop for lunch where he could cook this goat. Hearing this Avalon and Cyrus ran off again to keep hunting while Scar started cooking while being defended by Charlotte and Elvinia.
Unlike yesterday they were attacked this time by a raptor, however when Elvinia stunned it Charlotte took the opportunity to wrap its legs in web.
She was then able to easily attack it from the back, Scar thought that Elvinia and Charlotte really were an incredible combo.
While he broke the goat down and started making a curry he also wrote an entry into his beast compendium to make hunting the goats easier in the future.
Beast Name: Green Wind Goat
Beast Type: Goat (Beast Kingdom)
Beast Location: Faeland Tall Grass Plateau
Beast Description: A goat found flying around the tall grass found on the plateau to the south of Bregenz in The Faelands. This goat is entirely green which allows it to camouflage in the grass where it is located. The strangest part of this beast is the fact that it seemingly flies while in the grass. I am not sure what allows for this however when breaking it down to cook I found out that it has very little fat and it was very light. Maybe this together with some form of wind magic allows it to move in this fashion.
Upon finishing this entry his curry was just about done so he waited for his other 2 pets to return for a quick lunch.
After waiting for a while, the 2 did return carrying something extremely unexpected. He wasn’t sure how but the 2 managed to hunt a goat all by themselves.
He looked at the 2 in surprise.
“Good job! How did you manage to kill them yourself?”
Both of them walked up to him and rubbed against him while speaking.
Companion. I. Sneak. Attacked.
Brother. I. Killed. It.
The 2 weren’t very clear however from what he could tell, Avalon sneak attacked it doing heavy damage before Cyrus did a killing strike.
All Scar could do was compliment them for a job well done. The best he could do in return was by serving them the dish he just finished.
Shadow wasn’t lying when he said this goat was absolutely delicious. Despite the fact it had very little fat in the meat, it was still extremely delicious.
The only problem was the meat was slightly tough, but this was easily handled by slicing it into small pieces or braising it for a long time.
They appreciated the deep flavor of the goat curry before they continued traveling south. When they did reach the south of the plateau the view was even better than the last one.
Scar made as clear of a map as he physically could of the next zones while he was here. Getting a look of the upcoming area from a higher point of view made it extremely easy for him to make a map.
After finishing his map Scar and his group went back to hunting in the tall grass. He spent the next 4 days hunting and managed to level up 1 and a half times.ere…
