120 AC
Somewhere deep in the Westerlands.
Alex smashed the wooden door in front of him. Alex hated this, ever since he was born. He hated everything about this world: the heat, the stink, the lack of toilets. Alex didn't think he loved toilets, no, not since he was born to this world, he practically cherished his every memory of the sweet, sweet droopy poops he had on a modern toilet.
For now, Alex was squatting, squeezing every ounce of his constipated poop into a half-dug hole in a worn-down shack in the middle of nowhere.
Alex thought what he had done to deserve this, a backward world, a backward shack. 'My god,' he thought, 'my constipation is still the same from Earth,' he solemnly told himself. Earth was a bittersweet memory to him. Alex was average, supremely average, not edgelord average where he hated everything and himself, more like Alex was content, worked a menial job, played sports on the side, earned a decent wage as a middle manager of a sales company. Life was solid, just solid. And that was bitter, but sweet. And that mystified him. Wasn't he supposed to rage against his fate back on Earth and not live an average life? He didn't mind it. Alex just accepted that he didn't have any outstanding qualities for him to break out the mold, and he didn't rage against it. He was just content.
That changed now, though. Alex now looked up at his stats in front of him, illuminated and hovering,
Strength: 25
Agility: 24
Speed: 23
Endurance: 25
Alex was sure there were missing stats to this. 'I mean, who gives me physical stats but no mental stats?' Alex let his mind wander. Alex was from a world of playing video games endlessly. There had to be mental stats; Alex was sure of this. Alex wanted to curse at this system, but Alex couldn't do anything about it, though. He kind of just accepted it. This system had been with him since he came into this accursed world. Alex's accepting personality still lingered when it came to other stuff. But not with 'other' stuff. Alex shuddered when he thought back to his first encounter with Ironborn scum.
Alex brought himself back to the present. He got a tree branch with clean leaves and wiped himself clean. Alex stepped out the shack, and what awaited him was hills, hills and endless fucking hills. Alex loved nature where he was from, and Alex made it a point to always try to get into nature as soon as work allowed him to. Now Alex was kinda unfazed by it. Sure, it was jaw-droppingly beautiful, but it was everywhereeee.
Alex wasn't here taking a dump for no reason. No, Alex was on a mission. He had a lion to catch.
'A sneaky one too,' Alex thought as he looked down on the paw prints in front of him, ones which were constantly leading him to dead ends. Alex could now see the godforsaken shack behind him getting smaller in the distance as he sprinted full tilt into the valley ahead.
Alex was covered, head to toe, in an oddity of sorts. He had loose-fitting trousers that didn't match his towering height and lion pelts fitted into a cloak of some sort. He had bare skin exposing his chest and abs, while everything else was covered. His only shoes were made from hardened elk hide.
Alex was pushing himself and his body to the absolute limit. The speed he got from the system currently was at super soldier levels. Alex liked to remark to himself sometimes that he could demolish Captain America in a 100m sprint. Alex would bet on himself all day, every day.
Alex was now seeing the paw prints coming to a little ditch in the valley. He could pick out things from very far and see really well. Alex was super sure these were from his 'hidden' mental stats. Alex was nearly 200m away from his target when he saw the sneaky lion drinking to its heart's delight in a remarkably well-hidden oasis, unaware of its impending doom.
Alex had a devilish grin as he now came to a creaking stop. No, he wanted to savour this. Alex had been chasing this particular lion for a while. The little bastard was a smart and cunning foe. It would sometimes bait Alex into a cave where he would slip foolishly about on its absurdly slippery piss, while the lion would bolt into the hills. Sometimes Alex swore he heard gruffs of laughter from the dark-maned lion.
'Making me slip, yes, good fucking move, but doing it like that and doing it twice? Yeah... it's my turn,' Alex mused to himself as he silently approached his unsuspecting prey.
Alex was near touching distance when he leapt into the action and grabbed the fucker. The lion screamed out in fright, twisting its head and snarling. "My turn to tickle ya," Alex grunted out. The lion was held like a screaming child, snarling and trying to claw its way out. Alex was a tall, absurdly tall man, 7 foot 5, and the lion was trying to claw his attacker's chest.
Alex simply was not there. Or his chest was. Alex was behind the animal. "Stupid, I thought you were a smart one," Alex chuckled.
Alex holding the lion like it was a simple toddler was oddly gratifying to him. Weirder still, he felt like patting the lion like a pet. Alex stifled these thoughts as he now had the fucker in his grasp. Justice was coming to the screaming lion.
See, Alex was a hunter. A bloody good one, and this lion was the worst of them. Man-eater. It killed hundreds of local villagers, escaping into the vast hills of the Westerlands as easily as clouds parting. Many soldiers, or 'men-at-arms' as the locals called them, were killed trying to hunt this lion down.
Alex remembered one dark memory, where he saw a butchered head of a teenage girl and a body ravaged with bowels splurging onto the dirty roadside as her parents wailed beside the body.
Alex gave what little golden dragons he had to the parents and went on his way, not caring if they accepted or not.The parents had tried to call him out. They didn't know his name, but he heard multiple shouts of 'come back.' Alex couldn't. He couldn't stop back then. His quest timer at the time tore at him to walk away, lest he lose the lucrative prize of more stat points.
Alex always walked a tightrope between caring for the smallfolk and not offending the rulers of this place. Alex saw the rife injustice that permeated every facet of this society. He pushed himself to always take quests from the locals in comparison to the lords. Villagers always gave him bread, no matter who he was. That hospitality is what pushed this quest to the top. And it was a rare, rare quest.
Run Lion Run
Kill the 'maneater'
Quest fulfillment:
Give the lion's full body to the villagers who have suffered under its terror
Reward:
Unlocks the magic stat and boosts every other stat by 10
Alex wouldn't let this quest go, and the sweet fucking justice was a juicy bonus. With a quick twist of his forearms, he snapped the lion's neck. The lion went limp. 'Now, where was that damn village?' Alex wondered.
Alex took off, lion strapped to his back. Its limp body firmly held as he sped across a vast, uninhabited, rugged expanse.