Sometimes you just have to appreciate the beauty in a moment; raw, unfiltered, and impossible to truly capture.

The sky is blue and the morning sun peeks through the boughs of the trees; all so high you have to crane your neck to see their tops.

A thin mist creeps over the ground and dew speckles the web of a spider built between two branches like gems on ropes of silver.

I duck beneath it, tucking my body and rolling as three goblins rush towards me and find themselves caught in the thick rope-like silk. Their screaming and thrashing draws the attention of the beast that made it, a spider larger than any I've seen and perhaps most I've imagined skitters down and seems to consider me for a moment before moving to tackle the easier meals.

I am... having a panic attack and I have only stopped screaming because it makes me run short of breath and I need to keep running.

Running and hiding.

Lots and lots of running interspersed with little bits of hiding to breathe when I can manage it.

Oh, that's nice... apparently you learn a lot under threat of death in this world.

You’d think that doesn’t leave a lot of room to think, but in all seriousness after the first half hour or so things just sort of go on automatic.

I don’t remember being able to run this fast or far in the past, but then again I don’t remember my birthday or what peaches taste like; ostensibly I’ve had one because I know what they are and remember them being fairly common so I can only guess at how useful that tidbit is.

Information regarding peaches and birthday’s aside, my situation is not… ideal; the sun has risen high enough to cast light through the tight overgrowth of the forest around me and I have no idea where the fuck I’m going other than ‘away’.

The clamor of footfalls through the brush behind me tells me that the goblins are still on my tail, the spider like all the other obstacles was not enough to stop their pursuit, but I’m taking a gamble, I think I’ve broken line of sight.

Seeing an opportunity I dive down through some brambles into a tight copse of trees to catch my breath and take stock, doing my best to ignore the scratches that cover my face.

My chest is burning and my body is chafed beneath this shitty hide armor. Oh, right, didn’t mention that before now, that ‘above average’ equipment was a suit of hide armor, a dagger, a length of rope, a handful of bottles with simple pictographic labels, and a leather pack full of about 25Kg or so of miscellaneous shit I haven’t had the time to look at.

Grabbing a flask with the 'stamina' label, I hold my nose and start chugging the fizzy green liquid, doing my best not to yark it up; the things taste like puke but they’ve kept me on my feet.

I figured out that the stamina symbol looks like a man running, the stylized heart symbol is probably health, and the one with the little swirl is probably mana. As for the others I can only guess, one of them looks like fire, another is this weird inverted triangle conjoined with an 'R'¹?, and another is a snowflake; the bottles are a bit different and I don't think they're potions... they have a long necked stem sealed at the top and big bulbous bases that look like they'll break if I'm not careful.

Based on what I’ve got on hand and the wording of “above average” I can only assume the average person out here is equipped with sticks and mud. Sure I have the bottles, but I don't know what half of these do and I could just as easily kill myself trying to use them.

“Okay Amber… they’re on your scent, they’re out for blood, and they’re not giving up. How do we deal with this…”

“The obvious answer is fight back but…”

Yeah, I don’t have a class and I apparently don’t have any skills or abilities active, whatever that means.

The furthest I’ve gotten is figuring out how to open this menu with mental commands. 

What does any of this mean?

Thinking that is apparently enough to summon another little blue window with a cheerful little chime that I hope only I can hear.

Keeping an ear out for the goblins I read through it.

“So then… lets look at what our tools are… A lot of these are pretty self explanatory… hey uh… window thing, can I get a readout on what my skills do? How about abilities?”

[Please Wait...]

Just like that I spend a few breathless minutes in my hide and hear the steps of goblins, through a thick layer of interlaced thorny branches I see them poke about the area, randomly swinging their machetes at thickets and brush.

The largest of them stands in the center of the clearing, I'm pretty sure he's the leader... his sword is bigger, the collection of hides strapped around him seem nicer and... he has some fresh burns on his face and a pretty nasty welt from where the pot made contact with his head when I kicked it.

"Oh come the fuck on and hurry up..."

In the interim I feel like I have to do something, so I draw my dagger and glance around looking for any obvious escape, there seems to be a creek bed just down an incline conveniently hidden behind the brush... but if I run through it I'm liable to leave footprints in the mud.

Before a more organized thought comes together, the menu presents some of the information I've been pestering it for.

"Okay... so some of these could be useful... not a lot of immediate combat optio-"

Before I can finish my thought I hear the sound of footsteps approaching and freeze in place, not even daring to breathe. They're not quick or particularly quiet, peering out of my hide I see one of them approaching with his blade drawn but eyes scanning higher than where I'm crouched.

“Shit…”

Fighting directly doesn’t seem to be the play, I could maybe take one of them before I get torn a new one in a frighteningly literal way. I’ve been running long enough that night has turned into day and even with these short little breaks they seem capable of tracking me and willing to keep the chase up.

I can’t take this much longer, that was my last stamina potion.

This needs to stop… what if I took them on one at a time?

With only a few seconds left before contact, I slot in a handful of skills and grip my dagger so tightly my knuckles go white, I have something resembling a plan and I hope it fucking works.

Roxyreads

Hey y'all, Rox here again (at last)

Just coming in after to say, thanks for your patience and also that I hope the chapter was worth the wait.

It's been a long, long, long wait I know and honestly I'm just happy so many of you are still around. I've had a particularly wild ride these past few months and it doesn't seem like it'll get any less bumpy moving forward, but I didn't want to leave y'all hanging any longer.

I'm gonna try and keep up with this better, but it'll be a bit sporadic until I get the rhythm of my life back in order, so stick around if you like what you see, but don't expect regularity.