First Quest

Following the river downstream, Michael looked around his surroundings in awe. It was an idyllic, beautiful place, and surprisingly peaceful. The soothing cries of critters helped drain all the stress he was feeling from suddenly dropped into a fantasy world. It felt nice, simply strolling along a stream.

But the peaceful walk could not last long, as Michael needed to ensure his survival. The stream served its purpose as a water source, but he didn't have any food, which in retrospect, should have been the first thing he looked for. If not for his stomach rumbling with hunger, Michael would have continued walking without a care in the world.

Once he was aware of his hunger, Michael began looking for a fruit tree or some berry bushes. Trying to go for meat or fish would have been a mistake, considering he'd have to first hunt and then cook them, and he was not equipped to cook. So foraging was the way to go.

Actively looking at the information provided by Observe allowed Michael to quickly find a tree bearing an apple-like fruit. An Analyze later, he knew its name, what is its native ecology and what season it grows in.

Michael didn't really care for its rarity, instead he quickly plucked all the apples that he could reach. Luckily, the tree was short but stout, with its branches spread wide. A little jumping around allowed him to reach several of them. He managed to collect about 12 apples. Immediately, Michael gobbled down 4 of them, storing the rest of them in his inventory.

With his hunger stated, Michael continued on his journey again, this time making sure to forage for food on the way. He hoped that they wouldn't spoil in his inventory, or else he was going to have to find some other way to store food. Still, Michael managed to collect quite a large bounty by the time the sun shone overhead.

Walking for hours had taken its toll on Michael, but not as much as he would have thought. A quick look at his status showed that Michael had depleted his stamina and had no way of restoring it. He thought it might be possible to do so through eating, but it was not to be. 'I guess normally eating should only provide energy and had nothing to do with fatigue.' thought Michael. So instead, he sat down on top of a rock, took off his boots and dangled his feet in the flowing stream. The cool water washed away the tension from Michael's body starting with his feet, and his whole body relaxed.

For the next hour, Michael just sat there and enjoyed the scenery. The spring sun beating down on me was just warm enough for energizing him, while the cool breeze helped decompress after his impromptu workout. Frankly, Michael was surprised to have walked all morning. Under normal circumstances, he would have been exhausted long before, not be ready to go again in an hour.

But Michael was not on his own time, at least not completely. Goddess Xena was annoyed by the entirely uneventfully way Michael was going about with his journey and decided to interfere. So when Michael restarted his journey, the peace was shattered by a Divine Message.

'Bloody hell! I was just beginning to enjoy this new world I had been thrown into. Now I need to look for these rabbits with no tracking skills to speak of. How was I supposed to find them? And I really did not want to think about what I was to do about that threat of punishment. I guess I should be more proactive, but I had a little more time before I had to do that.' Michael grumbled.

As if the Fates were mocking him, a Red Rabbit burst through the foliage onto the river bank and look at Michael curiously.

The rabbit had red fur, as its name suggested. And it was super cute to boot. Michael just wanted to snuggle it. It looked like it would make for a good cuddle toy. 'I was supposed to hunt them? I don't think if I could.' worried Michael. The rabbit looked far too cute for him to think about harming it.

Taking advantage of his indecision, the rabbit suddenly burst into motion and ran towards him. Before Michael could even react, it had jumped up and bashed its skull into his stomach, knocking the air right out of him. It then pranced out of range of any retaliation from Michael, and waited to see what he did.

The headbutt hurt a lot more than Michael thought. It had a tough skull. The cute bundle of fur did not invoke any fear in him, but it probably should have. It was, after all, two levels higher than Michael, and he did not know what level difference meant. He had lost 40 HP just from that one hit alone.

When the rabbit charged at Michael again, he was ready, having grabbed the short sword in one hand and the sheath in another. When it jumped at him, Michael drew his sword and hit it in one swift swing. The sword simply cleaved through the rabbit, showing its lack of defence. While its attack had surprised him, the fact that it died in one hit was shocking. When it died, its bisected corpse landed in front of me, and a glut of messages appeared.

Michael was angry at the Red Rabbit for hurting him so much, but he was mostly angry at himself for underestimating it.The newly gained four skills distracted him well enough to dissipate his anger. The skills weren't much, but they were something new to ponder about. He now knew it was possible to create skills from action alone. This was an incredible find, and something Michael needed to explore in his free time. It did make him wonder about the three skills he started with, though.

But right now, he needed to focus on his rabbit hunt. Michael couldn't just wait for the rabbits to come to him. If he did that, Michael doubted if he could complete the required goal for the reward. Which meant that he needed to track down the rabbits with his super awesome non-existent tracking skills. Michael wondered if he could actually find any rabbits at all.

Following rabbit tracks was difficult in the well used trail. Furthermore, the trail splits up not too far from the stream, meaning Michael had to guess which one was the right track. He went for the one that looked like small animals passing through them. Michael realized he was successful when he came across a small clearing soon with three rabbits cavorting amongst themselves.

With the racket Michael made while walking meant the Red Rabbits knew of his arrival well before he entered the clearing. The moment they saw him, the rabbits turned aggressive and made their move. But Michael was prepared this time. He had entered the clearing with his hand already on his sword, so when the first rabbit jumped towards him, He immediately used [Quick Draw] to slash at it. Like the first rabbit, it was cleaved directly in half.

The second rabbit had also made its move, and used Michael's outswing to headbutt him in the stomach. Apparently that was a standard move for the rabbits, which probably explained why their skull was so tough. Still, Michael was ready for its charge this time, and managed to jump out of the way. He couldn't dodge the third rabbit charge though. But he had finished the motion of the previous swing, so Michael brought the sword right back around, once again cutting it half in one strike.

Turning to the remaining rabbit he found that it had slammed into a tree as it had continued its charge, and was now moving around groggily, making it easy to simply kill it. As Michael finished with the rabbits, once again several windows appeared to signify the end of combat and all the things he had earned from it.

Getting 2 new skills out of this outing was the highlight, because Michael didn't know anything about what the rabbit corpse could be used for. Two active skills were amazing, especially considering they would be very useful to him right now. The problem was that apparently combat skills used stamina, and Michael only had 100, and his regeneration rate was only 1 stamina per minute. He was, however, very close to a level up. He hoped to increase his stamina through that.

Now though, Michael needed to find more of these rabbits if he wanted to stay in the good graces of the whimsical goddess that decided to give him a second chance at life. He would also find some shelter, which was important in the short term. With any luck, he'd be able to use that shelter as a base of operations for his next steps. Just from the interactions Michael had with Goddess Xena, he knew that there was no way he was going to have a peaceful life. That is not even taking into account the chaos that followed him as a Champion of Xena. He probably would have to fight a lot, so he needed to get used to that now than later.

'Guess I should start looking for more rabbits.'