Wendel said the village was a good day's walk, and said I should arrive just as the sun was touching the tops of the trees, which I found both poetic and helpful with the lack of time-telling devices. I wondered what I would face out here. Wendel had nodded seriously as I had described my encounter with the wolves, though he called them the Ruath. He hadn't known of the lanperanas, but he was well aware of the 'Plains of Desolation' to the west. It seemed he never left the little clearing where his cottage and garden sat.
I felt a bit better with the club. Only a bit. If I ran into something like the lanperanas, I should be fine, as long as it wasn't a gigantic swarm. The wolves or Ruath, however, would likely be unimpressed with my large stick.
For a while, the walk seemed pleasant. The forest smelled rich, comforting, like all the forests I had spent time in out in the real world. The breeze dried the sweat on my brow, and the sunshine buoyed my spirits.
As the miles passed however, I started to feel uneasy. The longer this pleasant walk went on, the more anxious I felt. The forest stayed almost offensively lovely. Every leaf glowed in the sun. The air smelled faintly of pine and something sweet, like a candle labelled Idyllic Woodland Getaway
Where were the monsters? The mobs? Wendel had said this road wasn't safe, which is why I was carrying this basket of maybe vegetables to his 'ol mum, instead of him. So, where were the things that scared a strong man like Wendel?
It was so tranquil that it made me itch. An animated animal could have hopped out wearing a waistcoat, and I wouldn't have been surprised.
I'd been chased, bitten, screamed at, and nearly eaten every ten minutes since I woke up in this nightmare. My skin prickled with the certainty that it was a setup. No game world stayed this nice without charging you interest later.
The longer this lasted, the more I wanted to scream just to shatter the stillness. It was to the point that it was almost a relief when a shadow shot out of the forest at me.
Oh, good, there it was. The threat, the next thing that was going to try to kill me.
Bounding out from the shadows came one of those rabbits. Not the cute, twitchy-nose kind. The horror variety, the kind that made you wonder if Mother Nature, or in this case, the game's art director, had been going through something when they signed off on the concept art.
It stopped a few paces away, rocking back on its haunches, and looked me in the eye.
My heart lodged in my throat.
Its eyes were on the same level as mine.
Four of its six eyes locked on me, glistening red marbles of hate. The other two kept swivelling around independently, scanning the trees for other threats. Multitasking. Great.
Its ears twitched straight up, thick veins visible where they snaked through the delicate pink skin. The nose sniffed at me, and its tongue darted, a disturbing gash of dark red against the soft cream fur of its muzzle. The rabbit lifted its lips, revealing a mouthful of mismatched fangs and massive flat incisors.
Then it hissed at me.
Rabbits don't hiss, do they? They're not supposed to hiss. But this one sounded like a leaking tire full of malice.
I set the basket down gently; I didn't want anything to happen to the quest item, and raised the club like a baseball bat. My palms were already slick with sweat.
The rabbit flattened its ears and launched.
I tried to dodge and swing at the same time. Naturally, I failed at both. Instead of knocking it in a decisive blow, I missed and it hit me with its chest. We both went down hard. The club flew from my hands like it was embarrassed to be part of this fight.
"Fucking useless weapon!" I shouted, wrestling fur, teeth, and panic.
The rabbit landed half on its side, scrabbling in the dirt of the road trying to get a better angle for my jugular. I grabbed one of its ridiculous ears and yanked with everything I had. The thing squealed straight into my ear, a dentist's drill whine with reverb.
I shrieked back. Reflex. Terror. Maybe spite.
The rabbit went berserk, thrashing with hind legs that hit like sledgehammers wrapped in velvet. Each blow rattled my ribs. My kicks landed too, but weakly, panicked. The damn bunny was winning.
Grappling wasn't working.
So I screamed again, this time on purpose, and yanked the ear harder. The rabbit jerked its head sideways, jaws open wide, trying to bite my arm. I felt this was preferable to it going for my throat. One of its fangs slit open the skin on my bicep. Pain like hot fire ran down my arm.
Reflex made me let go.
It bounded back a step, muzzle smeared with my blood, watching me now with something almost like respect. Or hunger. Maybe both.
Good. Fear me. The thought was sudden, vicious.
Wait, where did those thoughts come from?
I rolled, scrabbled, got hold of the club again, chest heaving. The rabbit crouched, ears flat, hissing. Its face actually looked annoyed, like I was supposed to have been a much easier target.
"Fine," I muttered. "Batter up."
It launched again. This time, I was ready.
I swung.
The impact was wet; the sound a sickening crack. I felt the resistance of its skull resist, then give. I felt sick.
The rabbit shrieked, a long, high-pitched scream that went on and on, even as it hit the ground twitching. Blood ran down the club in strings, something pale and gelatinous clinging to the wood. Oh god, was that… brains?
I stumbled back, bent over, and vomited into the grass.
The screaming didn't stop.
It thrashed, its too many eyes rolling wildly around in its broken skull. Oh fuck me, the rabbit wasn't dying on its own.
It kept shrieking. The sound was a siren in the forest. It wasn't real, but its screams felt real, its pain felt immediate and tangible. Fear rippled down my spine; noise like this could bring bigger things.
I forced myself forward, raised the club again. Closed my eyes. Brought it down hard. There was a crunch that I felt in my bones. But still it screamed, muffled now, blood forming bubbles in its mouth.
I took a deep breath and hit it again and again. On the fourth strike, the shrieking abruptly cut off.
The silence lasted a few seconds, then the bird song started back up, a few chirps and tweets at a time.
15XP! CONGRATULATIONS FIGHTER YOU HAVE LEVELLED UP! +3 to strength, +2 to constitution. You have one skill point to allocate. Would you like to allocate your skill point now? Yes/No
You have received 1 Beast haunch (food item)
You have received 1 Greater Rabbit ear (crafting material)
I still felt ill, the world was spinning. Now I had afterimages of the words in my vision to spin as well. I was a sitting duck if the Ruath showed up. Breathe in, hold, breathe out. Don't faint, don't faint. The world stabilized, and I started to feel better.
I thought back to the words. How did I say yes to a skill point? The words had vanished. Maybe that was the sort of thing I should have asked Wendel. And Greater Rabbit? If it were a rabbit, why weren't the wolves wolves?
I tried speaking 'yes' out loud to no avail. I tried saying HUD, Display, User manual and everything I could think of, but nothing happened.
I gave up after screaming "YES! Yes, I want to allocate points." Only to think of that would be a stupid way to call more monsters my way.
Eventually, I just continued walking down the path. I had tried my best to wipe the gore off my club in some tufts of grass, but it smelled foul and was attracting flies.
I regretted my class choice. A sword wouldn't have splattered brains on my new trousers.
Another, more well-worn road merged with this one. The trees were also further away from the edges, making the threat of the forest recede just a bit.
Wendel had mentioned the second road. I was confident I was headed towards the village, and this thought put a bit of a spring in my step.
The miles passed and the forest thinned out, and the grass grew lush and tall to the horizon as I walked up a tall, gentle slope.
As I crested the top, my heart filled with hope. Nestled in the dip of the valley, it looked like a painting- thatched roofs packed close together, little stone walls stitched between. Faint wisps of smoke curled up from the occasional chimney into the sky.
After miles of trees and monsters, the sight of homes made my throat tighten. Tiny figures bustled along the roads, carrying baskets, herding goats, living lives that looked gloriously ordinary. Ordinary for medieval peasants in a game.
I caught myself grinning. Civilization. Answers. People to talk with. Hopefully, other players.
And the big hope. Somewhere that would serve as a save point, somewhere I could reach the next stage in this nightmare.
The path didn't head straight there, though. Instead, it swung north, curving lazily around a broad field. A sagging fence ran along its perimeter, posts tilted and wire rusted, as if even the game designers had gotten bored with maintaining it. It looked like the kind of field you cut across as a shortcut, because who wouldn't?
Since this road wasn't protected, I decided there was no reason to stick to now that I knew where the village was. I stepped over the fence and started walking through the field towards the village. The pasture was quite pretty. There were pink and purple wildflowers all about, fat bees buzzing lazily between them. The tall, narrow, bright green grass rustled as I walked.
I wondered what the people would be like in the village. Would they be like Wendel, or would they all have the same personality. I hoped not.
What I wanted more than anything was answers. How did I contact the people in charge? Could I leave?
There was one thought I had been avoiding; what if I were dead in the real world? Though if I was I guess I shouldn't be too upset about getting another chance at life.
But maybe I could pick a new game? One with more technology would be nice. A car would be great right now, or a hoverbike. And a game with lower realism settings, I decided as I caught a whiff of the club. If this were the only game available, could it be possible to turn down the pain setting at least? And do something about the notifications…
Then I heard a 'moo' off in the distance. But like if a cow went moo after it swallowed a foghorn. Glancing behind me, I didn't see anything bovine-shaped. But the hair on the back of my neck rose. Perhaps I should get out of this field. I started jogging towards the fence.
A much louder, and angrier moo bellowed from behind. I could feel the ground shake through the soles of my feet as the beast thundered in my direction. I didn't look back; I just ran.
I bolted towards the edge of the field. Hoping I could make the fence before the creature. I did not. I felt more than heard a snort at the back of my neck and turned to find myself face to face with a large six eyed buffalo looking beast with huge horns extending beyond my field of vision.
It ran straight into me, and it felt like being hit by a transport truck.
I screamed, "Fuuuu-"