We entered the forest, the silence pressing all around us. It didn’t take me long to find my traps, and I was slightly annoyed I forgot to set the meat one again. It would have been nice to have more chicken. On that note, I should have also made more traps to get more meat. That would be a good plan for tomorrow. I would need a lot of meat to stock up for the recipes I had unlocked.

I reset the meat trap but left the box trap alone. I wasn’t ready for another chicken yet until the storage unit was upgraded. Besides, if all went well, I’d be getting a cow soon. I didn’t feel too bad about not making different traps. The cleaning and the fences were both priorities for me.

The silence was absolute. Any moment now we could run into the wolf. Theo was studying the ground closely, leaning down to brush something off a rock. He then pointed toward a section of forest in a confident manner.

“Do you have a tracking skill?” I whispered.

Theo nodded. “It’s a jungle on my side.”

We said nothing more, too afraid to make noise. I would lean down and occasionally forage for things. It was all for information. I wanted to see if dying would make me lose anything in my inventory. I followed Theo’s footsteps until we got to an orchard, apples, pears, and peaches.

“Oh, sweet,” Theo whispered. “Fruit always gives a fair amount of health.”

I approached it, feeling like this place was pinned in my memory, just like the house and the traps. This orchard was a strange place, as it was lined and orderly like it was planted here for a reason, yet just outside there was still the forest. I glanced up, seeing a break in the trees. I saw the stars twinkling overhead. A part of me was awed by their beauty. It was just a small section of the sky, but in all my hurrying, I had always been too scared to look up. I kept my head down, swimming in my vast ocean, trying to piece clues together. Yet here, right now, when I was probably going to die, I spared a moment to look at the stars. To see such a strange sky, cloudless and without haze. I blinked, feeling strangely emotional. Despite the hauntings, the horrors, the cleaning, the monsters, this moment when I turned to look at a sky full of stars, I was struck by their beauty this place created.

Theo jumped down from one of the trees, an apple in his hand. “Health potions are always so hard to make. The ingredients are almost impossible,” Theo said before taking a bite out of the apple. “And fruit is so hard to come by.”

I frowned, my brows furrowing. “You don’t have a cooking fire for stamina?”

“Is that how it translates here? Stamina?” Theo asked, glancing at his bars. “Ah, man. Look at that. Oh well. Do you think I could take some of these things back to my side to see if it gives health?”

“It gives you more stamina if you crush it into applesauce. Maybe you get more health on your side if it’s applesauce,” I said.

Theo shrugged, taking another bite. “I mean, I guess, but I don’t know how to make it into applesauce.”

“I didn’t either until I got my chopping station. Though…” I trailed off, and Theo glanced at me.

“It’s in the house?”

I nodded. He didn’t seem disturbed by this, instead finished the apple in another bite before tossing the core. “Well, hey, maybe we can set up a barter system. I was kind of expecting an NPC or something to come by and start trading for some of my things. Maybe you’re the NPC.”

“Still totally a PC,” I said, two thumbs at my chest.

“Okay, but do you need any of my stuff on my side of the river? I kind of like the idea of getting bowls of applesauce if they help my health.”

I let out a sigh, walking toward one of the trees. “I don’t know. Food is kind of a precious commodity right now. And I really don’t know what you have that I’d like to trade for.”

Theo shrugged as he moved to another one. “Uh, not health potions. Those are pretty rare, and really hard to make. I don’t know if medical kits would help. I’ve got so many of those to help when things are bleeding when they shouldn’t.”

I blinked, trying to process this. “Yeah, I don’t need medical kids. I don’t get hunted. Just haunted.”

Theo shrugged. “Figured as much. I’m sure we’ll think of something. Do you need some precious metals for interior decorating?”

I snorted as I picked some peaches. “I mean, how gaudy do you want those walls to be now that the seventies board is gone.”

Theo placed his hands on his hips, surprised. “Oh, that’s gone?”

“A lot of things are gone. It’s a completely different house now,” I said.

“Huh.”

“Still not interested in seeing the inside?” I asked.

He let out his breath, glancing at the trees. “Nah. Not interested.”

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I didn’t push it. Instead I glanced at my wolf timer. Since we entered wolf territory, the timer did as it always did and turned into question marks. I knew we’d been out here a lot longer than half an hour, which is what the timer showed before we entered the wolf territory.

“Um, coal?” I asked after a bit of picking peaches and apples. Theo turned around, confused. “Do you have coal?”

“I do, actually. There’s a dungeon not far from my base where I kill monsters and mine for coal. And the precious metals as mentioned. Found out some of the powerful creatures outside the dungeon get really distracted when I bring out gemstones, and it makes it easier to kill them. I also mine for metal to help with upgrading weapons.”

I turned, staring at him. Metal? Like… scrap metal?”

“Yeah. Why? Do you need it?”

“I do, actually. Some of my traps need scrap metal.”

Theo smiled. “Cool. Well, if applesauce is as valuable as you say it is, we might have to set up a system.”

“I’m all for that. It’ll save me some dopamine points.”

“Some what now?” Theo asked.

“Dopamine points. It’s what I call them. The monetary system that I buy things with.”

Theo smiled, shaking his head as I filled the last slot of my inventory with apples. “This game is wild.”

“Yeah, well,” I said before dropping out of the tree. “Hopefully we get back to our lives.”

“Maybe. Once I defeat the corruption.”

We fell into silence again. I followed behind Theo as we made our way through this portion of the forest. We were definitely out long enough that the wolf was no doubt roaming around the house right now. That might be for the better. It was a chance to learn something here.

We kept walking, and I tried to notice anything different. The orchard was a great find, and I was happy that it was burned in my head. Theo kept crouching down every so often to check something before walking forward, weapon out.

There was no doubt about it now. The wolf was at the house, and we might have the entire territory to ourselves right now. What with my inventory completely full, I couldn’t pick anything else. We crept through the trees until I lifted a branch and saw it. Mostly because words tumbled into my vision.

Discovered

Wolf Lair

I raised an eyebrow, then shined my flashlight all over the place. It was small, and Theo was already picking through some things, no doubt looking for clues on how to defeat the monster. I still felt like the wolf wasn’t something to be defeated. Theo, if I remembered right, was only in the low twenties in leveling. There was no way he could conceivably kill something forty levels above him, no matter how much he studied the lair. Theo was far more relaxed with dying. I wondered, if I didn’t have a list I needed to complete every week, would I feel so loose with death?

I suppose I didn’t actually need to complete my list every time. My alien overlords did say everything on my to-do list was nothing more than strongly encouraged things to finish to not fall behind. And if I did fall behind? I’d probably die. Die a lot more. Have the alien overlords keep asking me whether I wanted to give up.

I brushed aside some rotten leaves to see a strange, round stump. Yet it didn’t feel like a log. I knelt to brush off more and saw it was more like a smooth concrete circle. This was odd. Why was this here? This seemed man-made.

Once I brushed off the last of the leaves, it started to glow.

“Whoa,” I said, getting up and backing away.

Theo glanced up, his flashlight darting around. “What?” he asked.

I pointed at the glowing cement circle. “You don’t see that?”

He pointed his flashlight at the cement, but the confusion on his face told me that he didn’t see it glowing. I let out a breath, then knelt back down, reaching out a hand. There was something about being okay with dying tonight that made me feel a bit reckless. I suppose my definition of recklessness was touching a glowing piece of cement.

As soon as my fingers brushed against the slab, it stopped glowing.

Offering unlocked

When venison is placed on the offering, the wolf will sense it and stay later in his lair, making him appear later at the house.

0/4 venison – half an hour later

0/8 venison – hour later

0/10 venison – two hours later

The words were there before fading away. I studied the cement again. “Well, that’s nice.”

“What? What is it?” Theo asked.

“Looks like I place a certain amount of deer meat here, and then it gives me more time outside at night, because the wolf will be distracted.” I sighed, hands on my hips. “Though I’m assuming I have to do that while the wolf is away. And there’s the risk of dying.”

“There’s always the risk of dying,” Theo said.

I gave a noncommittal shrug. This was a fascinating find that I certainly logged away. Possibly for a last ditch effort if I was really freaking out with how much I had to do on my list. “What about you? What did you find?”

Theo glanced at the bone he had in his hand. “Well, I think this is an apex predator.”

I waited, wondering if that was it. Theo dropped the bone, sighing. “I think there’s some things that I just need to level up to understand.”

“Well if that isn’t the philosophy of life,” I couldn’t help but say.

Theo gave me a dry look before standing up and brushing himself off. “Though I found this interesting.” He pointed at something on the ground I couldn’t see. He noticed my face, and shrugged. “Yeah, okay. There’s this pulsing blackness right here. I’ve seen this stuff before. It’s in the magic technology that I often see on my side. This is some sort of teleportation thing. It’s how I get around so quickly around the map on my side, since it’s so huge. I haven’t seen them by the monster’s lair, though. But if I press this, here-” Theo touched something on the ground that I couldn’t see. When he let go, something started to glow. Theo lifted a hand, smiling. “See? It unlocks the ability, marking it on my map here.” Theo tapped near his eye. “Though… it’s not marking it here.” Theo paused, staring at something I couldn’t see. There was a glowing form, at first indistinguishable. “Huh. Usually it makes it so I can teleport, but it seems like-”

The form glowed blue, then formed into the shape of a wolf. I backed away, my heart pounding in my chest.

“Seems like it’s teleporting the wolf itself,” I whispered.

Theo blinked. “Well, damn.”

The glow disappeared, and the wolf was here. There was that awful crunching noise, then the wolf lifted itself on its hind legs, claws out. Theo didn’t waste a moment. He pulled out a loaded crossbow and shot it right between the eyes. Instead of sinking through the skull, the bolt plinked off. Theo had enough time to grumble before the wolf slammed its paw into Theo’s face.

I screamed, the feeling instinctual at this point. Theo slammed into a tree like a rag doll before collapsing on the ground. His body disappeared in a golden afterglow.

My gaze shot up to this six-and-a-half-foot creature. The creature took two steps in my direction, the claws extended, the jaw full of teeth dropping open before it gave the loudest snarl I had ever heard.

My sanity dropped like a rock. I didn’t even know what it did to my stamina. All I knew was I dropped almost as fast as my sanity did, my vision black before I hit the ground.