Stevo woke up on Saturday morning feeling surprisingly full of energy. He'd had a good solid eight hours of rest, before being woken up by bright sunshine streaming through a small gap in his curtains.

Stevo had big plans for this weekend.

First he was going to the gym for a workout, as they were only open until 2pm on Saturdays. After that Stevo wanted to hit the large superstore on the edge of town. One of the survival forums he'd been visiting had a good discussion about stocking up for an emergency. It was suggested that if you just added a couple of tins to your shopping, you could soon build up an emergency food supply without having to spend a lot of money in one go. It certainly seemed like good advice, so he was going to do his usual weekend “big shop”, but add a few cans to it. Before he went to bed the previous evening, Stevo had cleared out one of his kitchen cupboards ready to store supplies.

Once all that was achieved, if he had the energy, he wanted to try to do a mission and level up. Stevo only needed five XP, so even a relatively safe, easy, mission would be enough.

When he arrived at the gym, it was almost deserted. There was a middle-aged guy sat on an exercise bike, trying to peddle away about twenty years of bad choices, and one quite muscular looking young woman lifting an intimidating amount of weight in the far corner of the gym. Stevo warmed up as Kahlil had shown him, then started off with some Deadlifts, trying to perform them how he'd been shown. Although he was only using a moderate amount of weight, the exercise was satisfying, and Stevo was enjoying the feeling of exertion. Between sets, his eyes wandered to the young woman, who was now doing some sort of arm exercise using a thick rubber band. Although not what you would call classically beautiful, her muscles gave her body a pleasing shape. There was also just something about her that kept grabbing his attention. He did a quick set of pulldowns, and finished just in time to see her wave to Kahlil at the reception desk and leave. At least he would be able to concentrate on the rest of his session. The balding guy on the exercise bike was nowhere near as interesting!

Kahlil technically didn't work at the gym, but he spent so much time there that the owner had given him a key. From time to time he'd open or close up, or even watch the place for a few hours if the owner was busy. In return Kahlil hadn't paid for his membership in a couple of years.

Although he was well liked by most of the members, few of them knew much about him. He was “Big K” or just Kahlil. Nobody knew where he lived or worked. Kahlil had many secrets. The first of which was his age. Most people thought he was in his late twenties, but in actual fact he would be fifty on his next birthday! His parents had passed away several years ago. Not long after that, he'd heard the call of “The Voice”, and moved to Eltown. He'd worked hard on his missions, and was now approaching level 30. By putting points into Strength and Stamina, he'd actually started looking younger as a result of having a large health pool. His good diet and exercise also helped keep him in peak physical condition.

A couple of months previously, he'd had another dream. The Voice had told him of a new mission. He was to guide others who had recently been “awakened” and help them reach their potential. Seeing two of these recruits in the gym at the same time excited him greatly, but it wasn't the time to bring them together yet. Kahlil sensed Stevo wasn't quite ready.

Soon.

By the time Stevo had finished his workout it was almost lunchtime. He'd already discovered that training boosted his metabolism, his body was crying out for food. Although he had been making an effort to be more healthy, on this occasion his junk food cravings won out. Stevo's Mini pulled into the McBurger car park, and he was soon munching on a double cheeseburger with a side of onion rings. Obviously, as a concession to his healthy diet, Stevo had ordered a Coke Zero.

With a large helping of protein and fat inside him, his cravings were satisfied and he drove to the superstore a few minutes away, on the edge of town. As usual for a Saturday afternoon, it was quite busy. Stevo had to park at the far end of the car park, away from the store's entrance. After paying a pound to unlock a trolley, he embarked on his “Big Shop”. Previously he would stock up on ready meals and snacks to get him through the week, but the new healthier Stevo was picking up fresh fruit, vegetables, and a big bag of frozen chicken breasts. He stopped at the Butcher's counter and bought a nice rib-eye steak to eat for his Sunday dinner. He deserved it, he told himself. Even with the rib-eye, Stevo realised he's spent a little less than usual, so he decided to stock up on tins more than he had planned. He grabbed a few 200g tins of ham and corned beef, six cans of baked beans, and an assortment of tinned soups. (mostly tomato and cream of chicken.) He picked up a large tin of hot dog sausages, before remembering he hated cheap hot dogs and put them back. After a short wait at the checkout, he put his shopping bags on the back seat of his Mini, and climbed in to drive home.

Stevo's phone beeped, he had an SMS, probably his mother, apart from her sending the occasional message he only got spam. He'd check it when he got home.

As Stevo was pulling out of the car park, he noticed the girl from the gym waiting at the bus stop. She had a large reusable shopping bag in front of her that looked heavy. Stevo chuckled to himself, heavy for most people, not for her! He idly wondered if she lived nearby?

After unpacking his shopping Stevo remembered to check his messages, and it was indeed from his mother, inviting him over for lunch tomorrow. Never one to refuse one of his mother's Sunday lunches, he accepted. He'd eat the rib-eye tonight instead.

Finally it was time to sit down and think about doing a mission. He pulled up his status screen and looked to see what the options were:

Option 1. Strange sounds have been heard at night, coming from the woods near Drebun. Join a search party and investigate. Danger: Slight. Reward: 20xp, 1 Silver.

Option 2. Strange sounds have been heard at night, coming from around the hamlet of West Otten, investigate. Danger: Moderate to high. Reward 40xp, 3 Silver.

At first Stevo thought the two missions were the same, and wondered why the second one was more dangerous. Then he realised, the first mission, he would be part of a group, but he'd be on his own if he chose the second option. He'd been to Drebun before, his first mission was there. Drebun was a small village, surrounded by grassland, with a few areas of woodland. He'd seen wild boar there, and also a terrifying beast that resembled an oversized Mantis. West Otten was more of a mystery however, he'd not been there before. It was a hamlet, which Stevo knew generally meant smaller than a village, so there probably wouldn't be much area to cover. Should he play it safe? Probably. He only needed 5 points to level up after all. He still had those two potions he bought, so the first option should be easy. He mentally clicked on it, and was falling...

Stevo found himself in a small group with half a dozen others at the entrance to Drebun, they were being addressed by the guard that had saved his ass from dying on his first mission. He felt better knowing this guy would be part of things. The rest of the group were clearly villagers. Mostly they were armed with clubs, like Stevo, but there was a pitchfork and an unusual looking silver sword amongst the weapons.

“Whatever we are looking for, it's in those woods to the east. We shouldn't have to worry about the Insects, they are mostly dormant after dark. Does everyone have a Glow Ring?”

Stevo shook his head, and the guard handed him small silver ring, it looked pretty nondescript. After slipping it on his finger his opinion soon changed, as he was surrounded by a warm glow, like from a small camp fire.

“Thanks, this is great!” Stevo responded, nodding at the guard.

“OK everyone. Spread out so there's about ten metres between us, and we'll walk into the woods. Don't worry about trying to be quiet, we want to flush out whatever's in there, so a little noise is a good thing. If you see anything, yell and we'll all come to your position. Any questions?”

Everyone shook their head, so the guard nodded and off they went. Stevo found himself on the left end of the line, and was a little worried that there was nobody on his outside. He kept glancing nervously in that direction as they moved deeper into the trees. Five minutes passed, still they moved steadily forward. A few times Stevo thought he heard twigs breaking off to his left, but he kept to his position, a soft glow to his right from his neighbour's Glow Ring a reassuring presence.

“Over here!”

The call sounded quite distant, it was probably from the far side of their line, everyone turned and hurried towards the voice. As he got closer, the sound of fighting became more apparent. Finally Stevo could see three of the men from the far side of the line fighting... What are those things? Standing about five feet tall, they appeared to be skeletons, but the bones were somehow mismatched. It was as if the bones had been thrown in a pile, and when they came to life the limbs had randomly attached to different bodies. They staggered as they walked on uneven legs, if it were not such a terrifying sight, it would be comical. They were armed with an assortment of old and rusting weapons, although at that moment the guard fell to the ground having been stabbed in the thigh with an unpleasant looking spear. The skeleton struggled to pull his weapon free of the guard, allowing Stevo the time to bring his heavy club down onto its skull. A sickening shattering sound accompanied the skeleton collapsing in a bony heap. Stevo spun around, parrying an attempted sword thrust from another Skeleton, before a gleaming sword wielded by a villager cleaved it's head in half.

The rest of the group seemed to have the remaining skeletons under control, so Stevo turned to the wounded guard. Even in the warm light of the glow ring, the guard's complexion looked very pale. Quickly Stevo pulled off his shirt and used it to apply pressure to the wound. There was no spurting blood, so hopefully that meant no artery was damaged? The other villagers came over, the last skeletons having been defeated.

“Take over here, put pressure on the wound.”

The villager with the impressive sword took over, whilst Stevo thrust his bloody hand into his backpack and pulled out one of his healing potions.

“Drink this, quickly, it will help.”

He pulled the stopper from the stubby glass bottle and put it to the guards pale lips. As the guard drank the liquid, Stevo could see the colour return to his pale, clammy skin.

“The bleeding has stopped!” exclaimed the villager attending to the wound.

“I don't believe it, the wound is closing!” He added, “What was the potion you gave him?”

“A Minor Potion of Healing” replied Stevo.

“Help me up, I think I can stand” The guard was looking much better as he was helped to his feet.

“Get me back to the village so I can pay you all!” he added with a chuckle.

By the time they reached the village, the guard was walking unaided, he approached Stevo.

“Thanks for what you did back there lad, I guess that makes us even. I'm supposed to take back the Glow Ring at the end of the patrol, but I guess yours was lost in the fighting.” He winked at Stevo, turned and headed off towards the rest of the group.

Mission Complete! Reward 20xp, 1 Silver.

Level Up!

Features Unlocked!

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