03 – Grinding

After a few moments spent in deep thought, Julian decided to choose the third option. He tapped the floating button with his finger, and the other two disappeared. His selected choice briefly glowed golden and then it too disappeared before his eyes. Opening his status Julian saw that he now only needed 171 runes to level up, rather than 180. Very good.

The night was still young, and Julian wasn’t sleepy. He had spent most of the day in the black nothingness of the respawn, waiting down a timer or some sort of limitation the system had imposed onto him when it realized that he could not die. He thought about what to do for a while. There was no point in waiting here for the day to come, he concluded, both because he would get bored to death and also because if there was a good time to get the feel for how this world worked, it was now. The second sounded more like an excuse, but he didn’t see any major argument against doing something even though it was so dark he could barely see. The worst thing he feared was the pain in case he died, and the wasted time before he would respawn. He was not looking forward to the next death, which he was sure will inevitably come.

With a small stick in hand, tip covered in cloth and resin and then set on fire as a makeshift torch, Julian began to walk. He decided to travel in a straight line, in hopes to find something interesting along the way. I want to reach the edge of the floor, see what’s there. Assuming I spawned at the center of the floor, the best direction would be East, considering I already went East to find my runes.

The forest was silent, bare for sparse night birds and creatures that made themselves known with their strange calls. Julian couldn’t tell if those were alien sounds he was hearing, missing the critical first-hand knowledge of how actual forests had been on earth before they got decimated by the aliens, but the noises were eerie and sent a chill down his spine.

He felt strangely watched, as if a presence was all around him following his every move. And yet, as the forest became denser and darker, he still heard nothing moving in the vicinity.

***

The air was humid and hot, and the oaks were tall and verdant, surrounded by a rich vegetation dripping with vines and moss. The ground was a carpet of wet decaying leaves that emanated a strong smell of petrichor. In the distance something howled, the sound coming muffled through the thick forest.

The oversized boar was sleeping in its cubbyhole, half hidden against a hollow tree. It awoke with a start when a shadow suddenly appeared, setting the forest alight with the orange hue of danger, hidden in the flickering light. It saw the sheen of the shadow’s metallic weapon, and caught a glimpse of a mad grin plastered on a sadistic, twisted face. That was the last thing it saw.

Julian descended from the sky and landed on the sleeping creature before it could even react, slicing its head clean off its body.

+150 runes.

“Whoo baby! Runes, let’s go!” Julian yelled. Then, realizing his mistake, he immediately covered his mouth and widened his eyes almost comically, all the while scanning his surroundings. The sensation of being watched only grew stronger.

He tiptoed back into the forest proper. Fetching the torch and placing it on the other side of the small clearing, he then hid in the shadows and waited. Nothing showed up, and he allowed himself a sigh of relief. Man, almost fucked up big time there.

He resumed walking towards the East. 283 runes… that’s a lot of runes. The first few levels are going to be crazy fast to grind. Everyone will be quite strong from the beginning after they leave the tutorial. Unless… his eyes flickered from side to side. Shit. Not only will they be strong from the tutorial, and all the bonuses… they will also deplete all the easy to farm monsters before the day even ends! I need to farm like hell before they all wake up.

***

A fake sun rose above the unknown forest. Julian emerged from the forest, panting and covered in blood. He had discovered that sometimes monsters did bleed, if he cut them enough times. None of the blood was his, however. Shaking the caking blood from his face, his eyes refocused from the trance state they were in, and his mind gained clarity.

I’ve been in a flow state all night, wow.

Suddenly the pain he ignored all night went from being barely a tingling, neglected at the edge of his mind, to being a terrible agony. Julian looked around, and then at his almost empty HP bar. The edge of the floor was near, he could see the pillars quite clearly now. From here, it looked like it was all plains and rolling hills covered in green until the edge. His eyes went to his runes. 4388.

“Dang.” He muttered, and without conscious thought his body immediately went into a state of half panic, danger sirens going off in Julian’s mind as self-preservation instincts kicked in. There was a single, lone thought in his mind. I can’t lose this many runes.

If he died, who knew how long he would have to wait to respawn. And then he would have to get all the way here again, with one less piece of equipment on his person. Nope. I need to make a fire, quick.

He scanned the forest, and went to work. The fire was built in record time, and by the time he felt the reassuring sensation of having his health and stamina replenished by the effects of the fire Julian was covered heat to toe in sweat, wood shavings and green stains. It didn’t matter. He smelled. It didn’t matter.

Watching the dancing flames, he collapsed backwards into the soft grass. He removed his helmet and looked up at the sky, smiling. This is nice. He stayed like that for a few minutes, and would have relaxed for longer if not for an intrusive thought that came to his mind and threatened to break the peace.

I need to check. He brandished his sword and stared at his bare hand. He gulped. Closing his eyes, he swung down.

He opened a single eye, shyly, but impatiently all the same. The time it took for his vision to focus and adjust to the light felt like an eternity. He was not in pain; he only needed one last confirmation that he was indeed… invulnerable! In-fucking-vulnerable when sitting at a fire! Let’s fucking go.

Now he could relax. However, despite how much he wanted, he couldn’t help but think about leveling up. Eventually he caved in, giving up all hopes of relaxing first and doing the deed with a clear mind.

He thought about it for a short while, then dumped the points.

Julian V. Terror.
Level: 1 -> 7
Class: null

VIGOR: 10 -> 15
MIND: 10
ENDURANCE: 10
STRENGTH: 10
DEXTERITY: 10
INTELLIGENCE: 10
FAITH: 10
ARCANE: 11 -> 12

Runes: 4388 -> 258
Runes needed: 2148

He took a mental note. The rune costs were 171, 266, 424, 670, 1049 and 1550.

Five levels in vigor and one in arcane. This should allow me to not get vigor checked, and push luck a little more to my side.

Then came the three-choice skill selection. He had six choices to make in a row, and tried to steady his breathing so that his excitement and the dopamine rush that came with the choice wouldn’t hamper his decision making. Already he knew that if a gamer, or anyone with a sane mind knew what he was going to choose – or had chosen already for that matter – they would question his sanity. However, he had gone through many possible scenarios in his research, and was confident he could choose well.

The first selection of three immediately shattered his hopes. These are… all garbage?

Julian stared. I don’t want to fucking hurt myself before a fight… what even is this?

Despite that, the first option was bullshit because his mana bar was almost invisible with how short it was, and the roar was just… cringe. Just cringe.

With a resigned sigh he chose Seppuku. The other choices, sadly, would have to wait. Something captured his attention, something that couldn’t wait. He dismissed the menu, checking that he could reopen it at the fire later before dismissing it again, and got up. He faced towards where he heard the sound coming from the forest. Seeing that the protective buff of the fire was no longer active, he tensed up and readied his shield.

A tall, bipedal creature walked out of the bushes with heavy steps. Each step carrying it twice the length of a normal human step, the creature was clad in robes and was holding a staff more than two meters long. It stopped to stare at Julian, leaning on the wooden stick. Julian’s eyes briefly went to the small gem at the top of the staff, then back at its strange face.

“Hello,” the creature spoke.