Chapter 3

  The quest seemed relatively simple. Just collect some plants to help Kyle while he was under the weather, and get some coin and hopefully some experience as well. Looking in my quest menu though, it really didn’t have anything I didn’t already know. No flavor text, no clear cut rewards, just the information that Kyle gave me about the plants. It seemed like through this simulated world, even the quests were generated naturally rather than predetermined.

  As I’m walking throughout the woods surrounding Brackenhold, I go over the descriptions of the plants Kyle gave me again. One of the plants is frostweed. Apparently it’s a bit of a nuisance of a plant because it becomes even colder than the surrounding area as it grows, causing other plants near it to freeze. It’s useful in potions though, so Kyle needs some.

  The second plant is called nixnium. This one is used in topical remedies and sometimes as a spice for food. Kyle said it is a popular additive in Brackenhold, but it’s kind of a regional thing as people from other areas of the continent might fight the taste a bit extreme.

  Kyle gave me a small list of other plants that I could pick up if I came across, but frostweed and nixnium were the main two that he needed. Frostweed is a bit more common, and I was already finding some as I walked on the path he suggested. About an hour into the walk and a few sacks full of mostly frostweed, I got a notification.

  ?You have gained the skill Herbology?

  ?You gained 20 experience points?

  It didn’t feel very earned, as I would have had no idea that these plants were even useful if Kyle didn’t tell me, but I was happy to get another skill nonetheless. It was the same as with the other skills though, no flavor text, no clue as to what the skill does, nothing. Not even an experience bar to show how much further I needed to go for the next level.

  I did notice this time around that getting the skill gave me some experience points. When I gained one handed swordsmanship and athletics earlier today, I guess it must have conflated the experience points from defeating the Elafos and gaining the skills into a single notification. I do like being able to gain experience through non combat activities, and it gives a path for players who maybe just want to be a blacksmith or a researcher to progress in the game.

  After resting for a bit while I looked over the skill, I continued on my quest of collecting plants. I felt like I was getting pretty competent at identifying the plants that Kyle wanted, and being able to spot them from a distance too. I kept an eye on the sky though, and while it was still cloudy, I could tell that the sun was getting a bit lower in the sky. While I could probably be safe enough if I stuck to the main path, I really wanted to get more familiar with the area and maybe level up more before I was caught out of town in the darkness of night.

  I continued on, finding more frostweed and filling a few sacks of nixnium as well. After reaching down to pick a final frostweed, I felt like I had done enough. I had seven sacks of frostweed, three sacks of nixnium, and two sacks of assorted other plants. I had gone about as far away from the town as when I started when I was first dropped in the wilderness here, but it was on the main paths and roads laid out so it was much easier going.

  Still, it would be a good two hours to get back to town, but I felt confident that I timed it right and that I should be back in Brackenhold before it gets dark. I put the final sacks in my inventory, and I begin to walk back to town. But before I get very far, I hear something. It’s faint, in the distance, but it was unmistakable. A scream. Someone’s in danger.

  — — — —

  Not only was the direction of the scream leading me off the path, but also away from the town. I thought for a second that maybe I should ignore it, why should I endanger myself for seemingly no reason? Especially when I still don’t know what the penalty for death is in this game. But in the end I decided I had to at least see what was going on. Both because I’m a good person, and also because this could very easily lead to a unique quest with incredible rewards.

  I took off running in the direction of the scream, the trees far enough apart where I didn’t have to worry about branches getting in my way. I did have to worry about tripping on the snow, as it’s pretty difficult to run in. I eventually am faced with a sharp decline, and I hesitate for a moment before I hear a quieter yelp from below. I slide down, but as I reach the flatter section I see that the forest is much denser here.

  Finally though, I see movement through the trees. About a hundred and fifty feet away, I see what appear to be shadows dashing through the trees, about mid waist height. There’s another figure, taller, that seems to be moving slower as well. Occasionally there is a clash between a smaller figure and the larger one, usually accompanied by another echoing grunt of pain.

  After running closer, it becomes clearer that the larger figure looks to be a human, a woman probably around my age, with a cloak and light armor wielding a staff. The smaller figures appear to be some sort of canine, with pointed ears, sharp teeth, and gray fur. They look almost like hyenas, and there are five of them.

  Partially obscured by the thicker forestry here, I dash up to the woman and right as another one of these creatures is about to strike, I draw my blade and slash down at its back. Caught unaware, the weapon slices deep into the creature, but not deep enough to immobilize or kill it. It leaps back and regroups with the rest of its ilk, slowly circling and taking in the new, unexpected threat.

  “Are you alright?” I ask the woman, stepping forward to put myself between her and the creatures. From what I could tell, there seemed to be blood splattered throughout this area, as it seems like these things take a more “death of a thousand cuts” approach.

  The woman, seemingly through gritted teeth, responds “Better now that you’re here, can you keep them off me for a bit?”

  “I can try,” I say, a bit unsure if I’ll actually be capable of that. Unfortunately I was about to be forced to learn the answer, as one of the healthy creatures decided to dive straight for me. It had a much more explosive burst of speed than the Elafos did, and while I was able to dodge out of the way, the swing of my sword was too late to make contact with it.

  After seeing that exchange, the other creatures seemed to have gotten a confidence boost, as they began to dive one after the other. I managed to get a few glancing cuts on them, but nothing that really impeded them. They were a bit more accurate though, dealing a decent amount of damage to my legs. After about thirty seconds, I was down to about seventy percent HP remaining.

  Another round of blows passes, and this time one of the creatures runs directly into my leg, causing me to lose my balance and fall to a knee. I try to swing out for it but it jumps away, and in the process I leave my right side completely open. I see in my peripheral vision one of the creatures coming straight at me from that side, jaw opened aimed right at my neck. As it jumps towards me, the hair on my neck stands up as I hear a slight whirring from behind me.

  In an instant, the whirring crescendos into a loud crack of energy, as the creature gets struck by something. It hits it directly in its side, blasting it back at least ten feet, where it remains motionless on the ground. I glance over my shoulder and see the woman holding her staff horizontally in her left hand, her right hand with an open palm facing out, and beads of sweat dripping down her face.

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  After getting over my own surprise, I realized the creatures were hesitating to continue their assault. In this moment of stillness, I dashed forward and brought my sword down in a heavy overhand strike on one of them. With a yelp, the creature fell to the ground.

  Seeing two of their brethren fall in succession, the remaining few decided to cut their losses and run. It didn’t seem worth trying to chase them, and I doubted I would have been able to catch them. It seemed like they were adapted to be able to move very quickly in deep snow, whereas I was not.

  Watching the creatures flee, the woman collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. I ran over to her and quickly pulled out a potion from my bag, giving it to her to drink. While it didn’t completely heal her, it did take her out of any immediate danger from her injuries.

  “Thank you so much,” she spoke after regaining her composure, sitting against a tree. “I was definitely done for if you didn’t show up when you did.”

  I’m not sure how to broach the subject, but I suspect that this woman is actually a player and not an entity of this world. While I don’t think the developers said anything about not talking about the real world while in the game, it seemed a bit awkward to just ask if she was a player. There was no indication built into the game that would show who was a player or not.

  I decided to just ask her though and get it over with, better to learn how it works early. “Are you a player?”

  She looked at me for a moment, and responded with some confusion, “Yeah, how’d you know?”

  “Just a hunch, I feel like we experienced similar beginnings. Did you get dumped here after choosing Brackenhold too?”

  “Yeah! After picking it, everything kinda went white and then I got dropped face first into a snowbank!”

  She seemed to be annoyed with that experience, but I can’t blame her. At least I landed on my back. “Sorry about that. My name is Arty, what’s yours?”

  “S’alright, I’m Lyla. Nice to meet ya.” Lyla stood up and offered a hand, which I took. Now that everything calmed down, I was able to really see what she looked like. She was about an inch shorter than me, and wearing what appeared to be some light armor and a cloak. Unfortunately it appeared to have been ripped pretty extensively in the attack. Her olive skin complimented her soft brown eyes, and she had fairly long black hair that slightly curled in places, although after the battle it was kind of all over the place.

  I was about to say something but she began doing some hand movements, which I realized was going into the menu. A moment later, I got a notification.

  ?Lyla has sent you a friend request.?

  ?Accept??

  I accepted it and a few things changed. The first and most notable was that I could now see a little marker floating next to her head, signifying that she was a player and a friend. The second was that under the social menu I now had one friend, Lyla, and I could see her name and level, as well as a few standard options that I recognized from other games.

  “There, now it’s official,” Lyla said while giving a big smile. She seemed like the type to enjoy the social aspects a bit more than other parts of games. Aevum is going to bring in all different types of people, but I was a bit surprised someone like her wanted to get in during the first wave of players.

  “What was that attack you did back there? It looked like magic,” I asked. I knew magic was a thing in this game, but none of the weapon options at the start explicitly stated that they allowed you to use magic.

  “That was so cool, right?! I picked a staff thinking it would let me cast spells, but it didn’t seem to help at all. So after the equipment being dropped and being transported here, I got a sense of what the magical energy in the air was. I’ve just been hanging out here focusing on that feeling, and I was able to manifest it into a blast of some kind. I even got a skill from it!”

  I don’t have anything to compare it against, but I feel like going from feeling magical energy for the first time to casting a spell of some sort should take longer than a few hours. Maybe Lyla has a bit of talent for the arcane… Either way, she went looking for the skill she got and I figured I would check my notifications as well.

  ?You have defeated a Proteli?

  ?You gained 33 experience points?

  ?Athletics has increased to level 2?

  The biggest thing here was that my athletics skill increased. I did a lot of running to get here, and some quick movement in the fight, so I’m glad it all counted towards the skill. Opening the skill menu though, I was greeted by an interesting surprise. Now that athletics is level 2, it seems as though more information has been revealed about it.

  ?Athletics Level 2?

  ?A person who has done some exercise?

  To say I was disappointed would be an understatement, but I suppose if it changed at level 2, I’m sure it will change again at some point. I did wonder how the skills were going to meaningfully affect my performance outside of statistical increases. I didn’t really feel much more nimble, and going from level 1 to level 2 didn’t seem to do much, but maybe it’s just too small of an increase to tell.

  After a few minutes of standing in silence looking at our individual menus, curiosity got the better of me.

  “So what skill did you get?”

  “Oh! It’s called Mana Control,” Lyla responded, “Isn’t that neat?”

  “Interesting…” I half expected it to be some kind of Mana Blast or Arcane Bolt, like an active skill, but it is a passive one like mine. “Do you think you could try to manifest some mana, not to shoot at anything but just so it’s visible?”

  Lyla thought for a moment before responding, “I guess I could try. I do feel much better after the potion and some rest,” After finishing she held out her hand, palm facing upward. She closed her eyes and I could see the intensity of her focus. After a few seconds, a light turquoise light began to materialize, floating a few inches above her palm. As she concentrated more, the light solidified, until it was almost like looking into a bright light bulb.

  Lyla opened her eyes, and as she saw the light in her palm it diminished slightly as her focus wavered, but it still mostly remained. A big smile spread across her face, “Wow! This is awesome!” After a few more seconds she let the mana disperse and the light faded away.

  I couldn’t help but smile too. As much as I love stories of swords and duels, magic is pretty great too. “That was incredible, you seem to have talent in magic.”

  “Thanks, but I wouldn’t call myself talented yet…” She shied away from the compliment a bit, but one thing is closer to being confirmed for me. It doesn’t seem like there are active skills in this game. While the attack she casted during the fight and the summoning of this little light ball seemed like they had fundamentally similar beginnings, they had very different endings. But both stemmed from the same passive skill, mana control.

  It stands to reason that any “active” skill will not be something that is given by the system, and that you click a button and it happens. The actual attacks and spells of this game will be practiced, trained, and perfected actions that are potentially boosted by their base skill. Something else this means is that, while level differences can create a gap, it seems like a bigger skill difference will be caused by people that actually practice and those that just grind levels.

  While I’m sure there’s some overlap for similar skills from the real world, it would make sense to me that the best way to improve in your skill would be to find a mentor and learn from them inside the game, as they will have the knowledge of everything related to their skill in this world. When I get back to Brackenhold I should ask Evelyn if she knows anyone that would be willing to teach sword arts.

  “Hey…” Lyla said, “You wouldn’t happen to know how to get to Brackenhold, would you?”