CHAPTER 13: BEACH BULLIES

  WC: 1445

  After I was all re-equipped it was hard not to notice that instead of a broken buckler and sword, I was instead wearing a long wooden staff on my back.

  Well, that was interesting. Time to try it out. I drew the staff and attacked. A weird yellow-pink glow surrounded the top end of the staff and music chimed as the light swirled down the staff and around me.

  Huh.

  I went back to my menu and looked closer at the weapon I’d slotted.

  SEA’S BENEVOLENCE

  HEALING STAFF LEVEL 2

  DAMAGE 180

  ABSORB MAGIC ENCHANTMENT

  DEALS 80 MAGIC DAMAGE AND RESTORES 12 MAGIC

  ADDED TRAIT

  INCREASES WEAPON ENCHANTMENT EFFECT BY 15% AND REDUCES ENCHANTMENT RECHARGE RATE BY 50%

  THIS DRIFTWOOD STAFF EMITS A PEACEFUL SONG WHEN HELD

  Healing staff? That didn’t sound like something I wanted. It did more damage than my banged up sword, though. How did it do damage if it was a healing staff? When I tried it, it just glowed and sang. What a piece of crap.

  Maybe it worked differently than the other weapons? I looked around me and the beach was empty. No more murder parrots. So, I played with my controls, squeezing hands and doing things with my feet, trying to see what the staff did or how it worked exactly.

  I didn’t immediately notice anything different than the thing it had done before. As I ran up and down the beach (staying in the area I was in, of course. No sense looking for trouble while I was trying something new), a glowing, chiming sparkle staff raised above my head, I felt rather idiotic. The staff didn’t do any sort of swing that indicated an attack. It didn’t matter whether I squeezed once to light attack or held my fist closed for a heavy attack, the staff just jingled and created pink and yellow sparkles. I tried jumping, blocking, bashing, rolling. A block just held the staff above my head, and a bash bumped the block forward just a little. Dumb. And I don’t know how I rolled. I couldn’t see it, but it seemed the staff disappeared of something. Or, maybe my arm held it and physics ceased to exist and I actually rolled on the ground while holding a six-foot stick. I’d have to find out later how that was possible.

  As I got back to my feet I tried aiming at myself. Maybe I was supposed to use it on myself to heal me?

  I turned around, trying to step into the sparkle range because I couldn’t point the staff effect at myself for some reason. When I turned toward a pile of rubbish on the beach the staff’s glow thing arced away from me and for a brief moment it stretched all the way to the rubble.

  Holy crap! What was that?

  I ran over to the rubble to see what had happened.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  A small glowing yellow blob lay on the ground. When I got closer I noticed it was a little crab. I crouched to loot it.

  1G

  How did a crab have gold on it?

  Neat! I figured out how the staff worked, though.

  I went around the pile of rubble with the staff jingling and glowing, just seeing what else it did. Nothing happened so I ran for the next rubble pile. I was staying close to the water to avoid murder birds on my quest for tiny crabs. I got three more scuttling across the sand before my staff arced into the water. Weird. I kept running, but when it did the same thing a second time I stopped to see what was going on.

  When I turned, two crabs were following me. And they were big!

  Like, three feet tall, and as big around as the papasan in Jessica’s room.

  My staff hit the one closest to me, and it didn’t look to slow the angry giant crab down. Oh God, its claws were big enough to grab me by the waist. Ugh, and my raggedy clothing and trash armor wasn’t going to help. I wished I had just stuck with my sword and maybe just hoped to pick up a better shield. Oh crap, time to run. But wait, the crabs had come out of the water. So, I couldn’t run into the water to avoid them, right? Maybe they couldn’t swim? What if I couldn’t swim?

  It wasn’t the time to find out, so I ran across the sand, luckily a bit faster than the giant crabs skittering after me with hate in their like, twelve eyes. Up the hill, into the scrubby grass and bushes that led to the beach.

  My quest marker (because I could still see it in my periphery while I fled my pursuers) jumped wildly left to right as I zig-zagged to avoid pincers. Up ahead, a rocky outcropping and behind that, a cave came into view. If the marker wasn’t pointing me at the rocks, it was pointing at the cave. Maybe if I completed the quest the things behind me would disappear.

  I was sprinting and my stamina bar was below half. Run, run, come on! But unlike the real world, I couldn’t increase my speed. There was nothing more to give. I had some kind of governor on my movement speed and adrenaline didn’t work the same way.

  One last refugee to find, so I trucked it up the hill. I was about ten paces from the rocks.

  Six paces. Whew, at least I didn’t get out of breath, either.

  Four paces. Haha, the crabs were well behind me. I didn’t know if they got tired, but even if I just normal ran I’d make the cave before they caught up.

  Two paces to the huge rocky mound separating the beach and the cave area. It was like a chunk of cliff that fell off and got stuck in the sand. Or, maybe it was what remained of another cliff that was completely eroded and only a sliver remained.

  I made it to the rocky outcropping just as my stamina bar ran out completely. But I was there and my quest marker definitely wanted me to go into the cave. I took a few normal steps forward (because that’s all I could do with no stamina left).

  Two murder birds jumped out from behind the stones and bushes.

  Red flashed in my periphery, telling me I was being hit.

  My health bar slid down. Once, twice, and two more times.

  I held out my healing staff and it glowed at the nearest bird, but the other clawed at me with both feet. Clicks and clacks sounded behind me and I turned to see my two crabby friends had joined the party.

  I tried to walk backwards but my low stamina wouldn’t let me roll away. I put my staff up to block the bird’s incoming kick and my stamina went back to zero. I staggered backward, stunned and disoriented.

  BLOCK INCREASED TO 2

  Crabs and birds surrounded me, blocking my view of the beach. All I saw was claws and feathers, pincers and eye stalks. It was an overwhelming moment, especially after my field of vision went red…then gray.

  Then black.

  When the light came back I stood next to a well made of sandstone. It was carved with intricate symbols I didn’t recognize. Maybe like hieroglyphics or something.

  My quest marker was in a different position, so I took a quick 360-degree turn and surveyed where I was. I was on a bit of a hill. Grass and flowers spread out and on my left were a thick forest and a road. Hm…roads were pretty safe, right? Maybe I’d stick to the road for now.

  Wait. First things first, I opened my menu and switched back to my junk sword and broken shield. I headed off in the direction of my quest marker, still scared of the beach bird bullies, but readier than I’d felt while holding the singing stick. That was being sold at the first merchant I met.

  I had to deviate from the road ahead, where it curved toward the forest and my quest marker wanted me to go back toward the beach and the cave.

  OMG, my first quest and I was already traumatized. I briefly considered just turning around and walking another direction, but I had a suspicion the crabs and birds were beginner enemies and I just had to do the baptism by fire and build up my skills before this stuff all became easy.

  “Catch me if you can!” I yelled as I ran down the hill toward the cave.