When facing a manticore it is prudent to note that the beast has little to no blind spots. The scaly hide is dense and thick and will repel most non-magical weapons, though across the belly one’s weapon may find purchase. One must also observe that despite being a beast it has some capability with the arcane, with an ability to cast elemental magics from the fire and ice domains. I would recommend a party of at least five highly skilled adventurers to best one of these fearsome creatures.

- Monsters of the Mortal Realms by K. D. Fidditch

Groggily I woke to the night. Above, stars shone in the sky like a sparkling beautiful tapestry gilt with shining pearls. My eyes wandered to the heavens and I saw a single oversized blue moon through the boughs of the tree. Squinting, I fancied I could perceive great craters on the large moon’s surface. Its light bathed the world with a soft ethereal glow in blues and silver, and the grass rustled to the chilly night breeze.

I pulled my thoughts from the stunning beauty that surrounded me. Slowly I hugged my knees to my chest, trying to draw some warmth from the bitter cold. Shivering, I forced myself to look across my notifications, confirming the changes to my character. I noticed that despite gaining one Wisdom my maximum Mana had not changed yet. Still, I was standing now at the full six points of Mana. Perhaps the Wisdom attribute affected Mana regeneration?  More importantly, I breathed a sigh of relief as I noticed my Health had climbed to an eight after my indeterminable rest and the painful healing spell. I had also gained a mystery skill ‘Endure’ in my sleep which was at level one.

I was hesitant to try ‘Heal’ once again. In some games, the system punished you if you ever reached zero in a statistic. A lack of Stamina would mean you lost the ability to move, depleted Mana stymied your ability to cast spells, and having zero Health meant, most obviously, that you died. I didn’t want to die and I was willing to brave the pain again. I tried to think of it as having a very painful injection shot. I hoped the pain from the previous time was a side effect of bottoming out my Mana.

Wincing at the expected suffering to come I gingerly said “Heal,” and willed the spell to restore me. Once again I felt a shift of some sort of energy and an uncomfortable pulling sensation. Expecting daggers to assault my mind, I scrunched up my eyes and closed my fists tight. A comforting warmth filled me, but there was no pain. Looking down at my status I saw that my Health had risen a further two points to a much safer ten. I breathed deeply as tension fled my body. My Mana had fallen to one; I felt a little woozy but there was no hateful pain.

Fighting a wave of mental fatigue I tightened my robe and rose to my feet. No doubt that if this was a game world, then this robe represented my pathetic starting gear. The mystery skill was to be investigated later. A growling in my stomach and dryness in my throat reminded me of my immediate and more pressing needs.

Searching around the stone shrine I was prompted with another Quest;

"No," I thought to myself, dismissing the notification from my inner eye. I owed nothing to the ‘goddess’ who tore me from my comfortable life and thrust me into a world filled with pain and suffering. I needed to find food, water, and some form of protection. I shivered as I remembered my encounter with Avaria in another life. The cold realization that she had all but stripped me of my will with feelings of forced adulation; deigning to mold me as a mere instrument of her awful indomitable will.

With the moon high in the sky, there was more than enough light to see. Searching around the altar I found a broken spear. It was split and broken about halfway up the haft. The spear point seemed to be made of sharp stone bound to the half by sinew. I had one of man’s oldest and most trusted tools as a weapon. Buoyed by my discovery I searched more of the area, revealing a rolled-up piece of leather parchment tied with what looked like rawhide string.

Untying the cord I noticed that there were further knots on the string at varying points down its length. I slowly unraveled the cloth under the moonlit sky, wondering if there was enough light to see by. I was not to be disappointed.

Written across animal hide, esoteric symbols glowed a dull red. Fractals and other mind-boggling geometric shapes writhed and changed across the surface. I traced my fingers across the shapes awed by what I saw, feeling an electric sensation playing across their tips. A smile unbidden rose to my face as a voice whispered and a notification flashed across my inner eye;

“Yes!” I shouted with joy, the inner child and gamer within me feeling a rush of accomplishment.

Another presence made itself felt with images of moldy tomes in a forgotten library, an explorer holding a torch searching the dark ruins of a long-lost civilization, and a wise sage pouring over a mountain of scrolls.

“I am ‘Identify’. Call and the mysteries of this world you will know,” whispered an echo of a scholarly voice fading into nothing in the recesses of my mind.

The esoteric symbols stopped moving, their glow fading as the scroll began to crumble to dust.

Finally a success in this inscrutable new world. I dared not cast this new spell, memories of my previous agony still haunting me. I decided to wait until I had achieved full Mana once again.

Giving myself a mental pat on the back, I began humming the victory tune from my favorite game. Though I knew my night was far from over. I needed to explore my surroundings more.

Walking behind the altar I saw a sight that brought relief to my weary soul. At the foot of the hill, I saw a small pond glistening silver. "Water," I thought as I licked dry and parched lips, before noticing small shapes moving around the shore and moonlit waters.

I clutched both halves of the broken spear to my chest as I cautiously moved down the hill at a half-crouch. My heart beating in my chest, I stopped perhaps forty paces before the pond. There I saw dark fish-like shapes about half a meter high and two meters long with high crested dorsal fins. On the far side, some were swimming lazily in the pond, while others basked in the moonlit glow making odd yet undeniably musical gurgling mating calls. The creatures reminded me of mudskippers that I once saw in a nature documentary.

So alien was the scene in front of me that I took pause. As quietly and as silently as I could, I lowered myself to the ground. Crawling along the soft moist grass I edged ever closer to the pond. Thirst drove my actions as I finally reached its edge. From earth and grass, my hands quested forwards and found fine-grained sand before the water.

Resisting the all-conquering thirst for a moment, I peered at my reflection in the water, hazy in the moonlight. Wild frazzled short hair framed a gaunt clean-shaven face. It was hard to see, yet everything felt even more real than my old world. It was as if everything was set to a higher resolution. Gingerly I touched my face before a small wave disturbed my crystalline reflection.

Snapping out from my reverie, hands cupped I drank from the silvery water. Slurping quickly, uncaring of the world, sweet blessed relief as I slaked my thirst. I continued to drink heavily as another small wave lapped against the shore of the pond, this time one not of my own making.

A few paces away from me two googly eyes on miniature stalks rose up from the water. Bubbles formed where its mouth would be before a ball of water shot with great speed toward me. I flinched and ducked down to the ground, making myself as small as possible as the solid ball of liquid passed over me. A moment later I heard its splash as it landed somewhere behind me. Adrenaline flooded my system, my fingers gripping my scavenged weapons.

This close to the creature I felt an equal mixture of sudden surprise, wonder, and fear, which was soon overridden by another scathing hot emotion. Perhaps it was the constant agony that I had been suffering, or possibly the frustration against an uncaring universe, but at that moment I felt a rage I had never felt before. Hot anger boiled within me screaming for an outlet as I scrambled to my feet, launching myself at the oversized fish. My eyes rapidly scanned over the piscine form, the size of a large wolfdog, looking for places to attack. I loudly splashed into the waters, breaking the serene tranquillity of the night as I struck, stabbing with the half-spear in my left and swinging the broken haft like a club with my right. As I engaged the strange creatures I noticed new bubbles had formed again just below the surface.

A part of me registered the surprise drawn infinitesimally slowly on the fish’s face as my twin blows hit it with a force filled with all of my desperation. The fish creature made a gurgling scream as it reactively launched another ball at my midsection. At this range, the creature could not miss and it felt like a cricket ball had impacted my chest. The pain only spurred my frenzy to greater heights as I repeatedly stabbed and clobbered the creature with both halves of my scavenged spear. A dark purplish film stained the roiling waters as the creature turned tail to flee as I gave a last savage twist with the spearhead.

Panting heavily I noticed more of the foul creatures making their way toward me, entering the pond and swimming with considerable speed. I ran with desperation from the water, drawing rapid panicked breaths. My robes were cold, sodden and heavy. I heard splashes on the ground to my left and right, before one of the water balls clipped me on the left shoulder, almost making me drop the half-spear. I doubled my pace as I struggled up the hill, sparing a glance at my status within my inner eye. My Stamina was around half and my Health stood at just under two-thirds. A final dash led me to hide behind the tree as I peered down at the ugly fish creatures below.

I gave silent thanks that they moved slowly on land. They seemed to have stopped near the bottom of the hill, a scant few meters from the shore. Panting I continued to look at them, willing them to withdraw. After what seemed like an eternity, but what could have been mere minutes, they turned back as one towards the pond, slipping once again into its silvery waters.

I cried, breathing a long sigh of relief before new notifications flashed before me, bringing a sly grimace to my lips;

It seemed that today I did get the one that got away.