Once upon a time there was a man with a dream. His dream was to run among the tree branches like people did in his favorite childhood anime. Then he heard a rumor. The rumor stated that it was possible to similar actions in a game called "Obsidian", which he immediately bought. After creating his character, he entered the game but he was hit with the cold and hard truth that no such technique existed. But he did not despair, for he knew if such technique did not exist, all he had to do was create it and "Obsidian" was famous for the its constantly increasing, player made skills. And so, he started a long and hard training for he knew that weaklings would never accomplish such task. On one hand he would meditate the magical energies of Obsidian and on the other he would research nonstop on the great library of the Internet in search of a way to attain his goal, but time kept flowing and no answer he found prevailed. That is until one day, Lady Luck looked at him and gave him hope, [Feather fall] was its name, a buff type of spell that made the body lighter to decrease the drop speed from falls. He knew that spell was the key to his success and he barely had the requirements to use it, but to make easier to use he decided to take a gamble and infuse his soul energy pool into air energy pool.

Infusion was a technique that made the natural soul energy pool go through specific pathways so that it would twist itself naturally into a specific element and that would allow him to cast that specific element without consciously twisting it, thus making it faster. As payment, the process is irreversible and makes the use of other elements less viable and more costly.

His dream was all he wanted to achieve in Obsidian, he cared not about anything else, therefore, he infused his soul energy to decrease the requirements required as he needed the spare energy for the next step and that was gluing himself to the tree and he had an idea out to achieve it. In the old anime he saw the characters using their magical energy to trees, so he tried and as a result he was able to achieve it by using his soul energy to hold onto the tree after a few tries which he named [Soul hold]. For a while he was ecstatic. All steps done, now all he to do was using them at the same time and that's when he found his second roadblock: The tree branches, unlike in the old anime were not conveniently horizontal and had plenty of obstructions in between.

This problem stumped him for a while. How does one jump from tree to tree if the branches shapes don't allow him? Through trial and error, he found the solution, he used [Soul hold] to its fullest and instead of just using soul energy to hold is sole against the tree, he covered his feet to the brim with energy and a paradox happened: The tree wasn't holding his weight, rather the most reasonable explanation was that the tree's soul energy was holding his own; soul energy is said to come from the soul and by following this reasoning, it means that the tree's soul was holding his soul and souls are weightless. A problem that would make most researchers crazy to find the answer, but he did not care about that. No, the unexpected solution to his problem opened a new path to his dream, he could not only use the strong lower branches of the trees, but he could use every branch, the weak ones included without fear from breaking under his weight.

He did all the preparations he could and then it was time to witness the fruits of his labor and the result was: Despair. The technique worked but not how he wanted to. The soul energy regeneration consumption from [Feather fall] was enormous even with the air infusion and [Soul hold] required a lot of energy too to use it, not to mention the level of concentration needed. That did not mean he did not succeed, because he was able to jump from a tree top to another, just once, before falling.

With his dream broken, he left the game and buried the dream, his memories and sorrows in a dark place whose name shudders all, it's where the inhabitants are wandering souls with nothing else to do: The Reddit.

'And I, one of those wondering souls, thank you with all my heart for all your hard work, N*ru*o fanboy or girl, who knows, as it made my life so much easier' I thought while jumping from tree to tree. Having infinite regeneration lets me keep both [Feather fall] and [Soul connection] easily and more. Approaching my target, I twisted my soul energy and threw the [Water ball] right at the face of my target. My target was jolted awake from his sweet dreams and looked around but I was no longer there as I had many more targets to strike 'Nothing better than a little water to wake a passed out drunk'

A few moments later, another was hit "Really, why did I not think about this before? Is it because I was spoiled by teleportation? Hm, that seems plausible." I said to myself while using air discharge to slightly change my jump trajectory. The wind pressure didn't bother me since I had my shield on.

Now that I was alone, I could not stop my head from wondering: 'I recognize them, not all of them, but most, they were the ones celebrating the festival in Green Wood. But, why are they so far away from each other when they were all together in the town center celebrating? I also was quite far away from Trevor, when I should have been around 2 meters from the festival, not counting the altitude from the veranda I was residing. If people who were so close during the festival are this far away from each other, how far are we from the other towns, the other continents? If that's the case, how big is this world?'

'Oh, these two men are pretty close to each other. Does that mean they were pretty close in the festival too? Is it bromance or romance? Ah, the possibilities.' That thought broke my contemplation for a moment. 'With them, I have woken up around 75% of the people on my side. Trevor and Garamis have around 40% and going up' Unlike me they are slow, therefore after they wake up a person, they will tell that person to wake up another and so on 'I assume, based on the readings', not all of them though some remain with them. Whereas mine are woken up in a more abrupt way, then they notice the pulses radiating the area and use their own when they realize the seriousness of the situation and then they meet up with the largest group, the one with Trevor and Garamis.

'And with you, I am done' I thought after hitting the player with [Water ball]. "Nothing beats a good old break after doing some honest work" I said with a fulfilled smile while ignoring the shouts of indignation of an abruptly woken up person. 'Trevor's group is getting bigger, I guess I should meet up with them to and start talking about our next step.'

Done with my break on top of a tree while using [Soul connection], 'That fanboy left such a good technique, although it was incomplete.' I started heading to the group. [Soul connection] holds souls together, souls have no weight and they are static unless its vessel is broken. They are shaped like thin roots and they dictate the shape of everything 'although this is only my personal theory, since Creo never stated anything about the lore for the sake of mystery'. Therefore, if one can create a thread that hold souls together, the entirety of the tree will hold me instead of the branch I'm specifically on, I think 'more like, I do not understand much but it works so, who cares?'.

’I did not have another battle encounter since the birds, were they the only aggressive animals here? Also, I haven't seen any civilization yet.' I kept jumping and 10 minutes later I descended to a place close to the group and started walking in their direction.

When I saw the group, I understood why some of the readings stayed with them instead of going to wake up other people: Families. Luckily, Trevor's side ended up being made up of Crafters and Locals mostly so they did not suffer from being awakened abruptly and left stranded alone like my side that was mostly made of Vanguards. 'I'm guessing they kept the children with the group to keep them safe and they're parents aren't willing to leave them without their supervision' The crowd didn't look sad, only confused by the events and worried 'they appear to have not been told my theory yet'.

I scanned the crowd, looking for the "leaders" of the group and found Garamis with a group of people talking, I didn't find Trevor though 'he should be out there'. I approached them and they seemed to have noticed as they stopped talking and looked at me.

"I'm done with my side. They should find their way here shortly."

"Nice work. We are not done here yet, but it should not take long. Also, because of the increasing size of this group and the number of children we've decided to stop here." It was the captain of the Green Wood guards who responded to me, don’t know his name though, kind of awkward to ask now 'They decided to give the leadership to more competent people, a wise decision'.

"About the children. How long have they been awake? I did not feel anyone moving from the readings my pulse gave me?"

"Children are taught from little that if they are lost to not move, so most of them were just waiting for us and they have food on their inventories"

"Most of them?"

"Sigh. A minority was able to sneak some kegs out of the festival or were able to convince their fathers." 'So that's why some children are holding their heads while being applied [Healing hands] and some men are being scolded by what appears to be their wives'

"Anyway, did you see any villages or towns while you were moving?"

"No, rather, I haven't seen any sign of civilization, not even a far silhouette in a distance. I believe it would be wise to start preparations for a long-term camp while we have sunlight."

"Figures, the animals around here appeared to never have seen hominum before." Commented the man who looked like a hunter next to the captain 'He looks familiar… Oh I remember him but-'

"Are you not the hunter who always walked around with a wolf? Where is it?"

He looked a bit dejected "Oh, that old wolf has passed away, you see 'right into a landmine, just great'. Old age. Right before the festival too. But I know that now he's somewhere out there chewing all the meat he wants without someone complaining of his weight." And he sighed at the last bit

*Cough* The captain cleared his throat to bring the conversation into the more important topic "I asked those who came back to describe me the location where they woke up. The information I received is mostly the same, in conclusion a lot of trees. No clearing, river or anything that would be useful… How about your side?" 'So, he was looking for a place already, as expected from a competent person'

"I am guessing the reports from some of my side were mixed into that result, but I had more luck. There is river on the opposite side of a mountain that way" I said while pointing in the direction of the mountain

"North by northwest." Added the hunter while looking at his compass

"How much time will it take to reach it?" asked the captain

"Around 10 hours trek for a Vanguard, not counting the breaks, if he runs, he'll be able to shorten it to 8 hours. I've never had experience traveling with a group so I do not know how long it will take."

"If we count the rough terrain, the children and the breaks, somewhere around 2-3 days." A person calculated

"We only have the food on our inventory and it won't last long. Even if we reach the location, we would need food almost immediately" Said another 'there are a lot of people I don't know here'

"Our best option is to send a fast-moving forward party to prepare the place for us" said Krislaw, the mayor of Green Wood, rather former mayor 'There's one I know'. Receding greying hair and beard, both well-trimmed, bronze skin and a sharpness in his eyes that come with the experience of the job.

"Excuse me." Garamis interrupted "I believe it might take more time than we think."

"What do you mean?"

"According to the information Craven gave us 'she didn't used Lady, Trevor you are doing some good work', the nearest source of water, not including the possibility of underwater lakes, is the river a couple kilometers from here and by looking at how green the leaves are here, means that we are on the rainy season. That is if this place follows the same rules as ours."

"That means 2-3 days if we are lucky or 5 or more if we aren't…"

"Can we hunt along the way?"

"With a hundred people group, the animals would like to stay far away from us and the hunters would need to be following us close. Furthermore, we don't know if they are safe for consumption."

"I have an animal I killed earlier in my inventory. I can give its corpse to you, if you want?" I interjected

"Give it to Arnold 'who?' so he can analyze it" the captain turned to a dark skinned man with bright tattoos and sported a scholar look "Arnold 'oh, him', take what you need and if it's safe to eat give it to a chef so that he can skin it and treat the meat."

"I will do that, but I might need to ask for some tools from the others and that may take some time, since I don't know who might have them, if at all."

"Take your time, but remember, this is a priority."

"I know."

He approached me and said "Can you take it out here or do we need to go to a more open space?"

"No, it's fine here." I took the head first "Here's the head." And he stores it, then the body "And here's the rest of him."

"It's quite big." He said, probably contemplating how to start the analysis

"Craven." Called the captain while having a calculating look 'I have a bad feeling'

"Yes?" I asked, feigning a calm façade

"How big is your inventory?"

"Pretty big 'infinite'."

"And you are really fast too even in this forest, aren't you?"

"Yes." 'I guess I'm committed to do what he asks'

The captain turned to the others and said "And there we have it, Ladies and Gentlemen, our solution. As you've seen, Craven possesses a big inventory and she's fast enough to do a 10 hours trip in just two 'I can do it in less, but he doesn't need to know that'.

"Basically, you're saying that Craven will do the hunting for us by herself. Although, if she will take care of our food, who will guide the forward party?"

"They will have to do it by themselves, but to make it easier we will send a few water-infused people since they are more sensible to water energy. The river is not exactly hidden, is it?"

I answered "No, but it is surrounded by trees, so you may see it from far away if you can scale them but not from the ground."

"I feel like this is a gamble."

"It is a gamble and our best gamble at that." Interjected the captain "If anyone can think of a better solution I'm all ears, because we need that water. Any objections?"

Nobody answered.

"Good, now we have to decide the people for the forward party."

"Before that, we need to decide the objectives of the forward party first." Said Krislaw "We already know that they need to find the river first and then prepare the place for us, but how exactly?"

The one who answered was a Vanguard "They need to cut down the trees, clear the stumps and vegetation and even the ground a safe away from the river, around 2 kilometers from the river should suffice. I also advise that it would be better to do it at the base of the mountain so if it rains, the water would not stay in our camping site. I volunteer me and my party to help with the clearing and security of the forward party, since we have experience in the creation frontier towns." 'oh, a player from the base game. It seems there's also players here in command. Hard to tell who's a player and who's not these days'

"We'll keep that in mind, Victor. Anything else?"

"I say it would be better to, instead of dividing our group into two, we should divide it into: a Vanguard group with water-infused users to look for the river, they would start the clearing of the campsite, the preparation of the building tools and the gathering of food; a Crafter group who will utilize those tools to start the construction of buildings and plantations in the preparation of the last group, we should have some seeds; the last group will contain the rest of us." Explained the mayor

"I can see that, but there's a problem: the allocation of food and fighting force. Even with Craven helping us, she would have to deliver food to all three groups if needed, not to mention the food for those who still haven't returned"

"I can do that." I said

"You sure?"

"Yes, as you've said I'm pretty fast and I have confidence in my stamina."

"That's good!" exclaimed the captain relieved

"We can also have people gathering wild fruits and fungi while we move, since we already found some of them are edible." Someone added

"Now we need to know what to build and the quantity." Said a Crafter

"If we don't count the Vanguards who should all possess camping gear, we need sufficient buildings that can house around 100 people minimum. Just make something that can protect them from the elements, don't bother with luxuries like beds or anything like that. As for the plantations, use the seeds for plants for the rainy season and do [Life blessings] whenever possible. For the quantity, just do your best but don't use all the seeds, keep some of them if the farming fails for some reason."

Plants grown artificially by Life energy will not keep their existence for long, but it's possible to feed them Life energy to accelerate their growth.

"Ok."

"I'm assuming that you'll go with the Crafter group?"

"Of course. We need all the Crafters we can to help the construction, myself included."

"We've got a plan. Now what else do we need to do?" asked the captain

"The allocation of food and manpower. Victor, you said that you and your party had experience in the construction of frontier towns?"

"Yes."

"Does anyone on your party are water-infused users?"

"We have fire and earth-infused users, not water."

"That's good. We can have the earth-infused user to check on the stability of the ground for possible locations to start building." Added the crafter

The captain nodded and said "Victor, we'll leave the leadership to you and your party for the Vanguard group. You'll also gather food along the way. We'll start choosing who will go in this group, get ready to leave in an hour"

"Yes, sir."

"The second group should travel in a different path and will also gather food along the way. Bernie, you know the Crafters better than me, so you'll have the chose them. You'll have the first group for manpower too"

"Hang on." Krislaw interrupted "You're saying that the groups will take different paths, but why exactly?"

"The first and second will take more roundabout paths while the third will take a more direct path. We'll do this way so that the groups will be able to gather food while going to our destination without overlapping."

"I see."

"Any questions?"

I raised my hand.

"Yes?"

"When I hunt an animal, which group should I go for the processing?"

"The first one. The Vanguards should be done by tomorrow with their main objective, if all goes well. Go to them for the processing of your kills and when they are done cooking it, you'll deliver it to the different groups. That reminds me, do you have an empty keg?"

"No."

"Then we'll give you two, you'll feel them with water from the river."

"Shouldn't we test the water first?" someone asked

"You're right… Then we'll have to send an alchemist with the first group to test the water and the surrounding area for edible food. Arnold can you go?"

"I can. I'm done testing the animal too 'When did he!?', it is safe for consumption."

"Thank you. Once Arnold tests the water and finds no abnormalities you come find the kegs" said the captain to me

"You haven't said what the third group will do yet?" Krislaw commented

"The third group only objective is to arrive with everyone alive. We'll leave a small party here so that the others who haven't returned yet can rendezvous and replenish their necessities. That's all."

"Then I will take care with allocation of the people. I might not have the files with me but I still remember who'll be the best for the positions. Captain Neos, can you take care of the allocation of the food?"

"Yes, sir." He responded and then he cleared his throat "Listen up people, you have your jobs, if you want this to work then get your asses moving."

With the impromptu meeting done, everyone scattered, myself included.

'I should start hunting' with that thought I got away from the group, deactivated [Soul pulse] and activated [Silent cover] 'they should not worry, even if I disappear from their radar'.

[Silent cover] is like a normal shield, except it has no defense at all and can be broken easily. It was developed for hiding against the pulses from Life energy and Soul energy, it is like being transparent with sunlight except with pulses. When the pulses touch the user, the [Silent cover] will make the pulses evade the user without appearing on the radar. Although it is not almighty, since it still causes an abnormality on the pulse, but only those focusing in a single area can hope to find a [Silent cover] user.

I jumped to the top of a tree and stayed there for a moment looking in the direction of the group. It was a mix of different races, some with animal ears or antlers, some with sharp ears, some with odd color skins.

Obsidian is a fantasy game and because it is a fantasy game it is imperative to have fantasy races. Although to players… they were only skins, they offer nothing that any other race does not, since it would be against its motto of "you can be anything you want": an elf-like pugilist? Sure; a demon-like assassin? Done; etc.; etc. 'They don't have the same name like their classic fantasy counterpart, for the sake of being original and all that'. After character creation, it is possible to make some minor changes to your character, such as: through physical exercise you can make your character more buffed; by infusion to an element your body may, at a random body part, have markings of said element; if you eat too much you'll get fat and if you don't eat at all for a time you'll get more skinny.

'How odd… It seems that there is no longer a distinction between NPC and Players. They think and they feel. The players, though… They are not panicking or anything like that… Do they think that we are still in-game…? Let's not think about questions that cannot be answered, I have a job to do'

I turned around and decided to head in a random direction. Once I felt I was far away from the group I activated the [Soul pulse], but instead of radiating pulses, I released a single powerful pulse. This particular use of [Soul pulse] is like echolocation, it will allow me to know the surrounding area while leaving my position in that particular moment, but I would no longer be there.

As I felt the surrounding area and watched the darkening sky I said "Tonight, Craven joins the hunt" I chuckled to myself before becoming sad, since I would no longer to see that particular scene anymore, being in another world and all…