Chapter 7
It’s the Smoke Stupid
Rance was scuba diving off St. Croix. “This is the most beautiful water I have ever seen.” he thought as he descended to the wooden ship wreck below.
The shipwreck was amazing. A wooden sailing ship from who knew how many centuries past. Complete with masts and spars, lines and rigging still hung from them under the crystal sea. This was something Rance had always dreamed of exploring.
He kicked his oversize fins dropping down to explore the open hatch he had seen. A dark square hole in the deck allowed him easy access to the interior of the ship. He swam along exploring the insides of the ship, amazed at the level of preservation.
He felt the approaching ship with his subconscious before he physically picked up the subtle vibration of the water. It sounded huge and it was closing in on his position! The interior of the ship was growing murky as the vibration from the gigantic props sent their vibrations through the water.
Rance needed to get out. The ship was closing fast and he retraced his course through the ship to the open hold hatch. As he exited debris was raining down from the rigging onto the deck.
“How had this wreck lasted for centuries only to be destroyed now by a passing ship?” He thought as he raced out of the hold. Only to be slammed into the deck by a falling timber. He was knocked over onto his back with the timber across his neck…He felt a heavy weight on his chest and couldn’t breathe! He thrashed about against the water…
Rance thrashed about… He couldn’t breathe! When Rance came awake he immediately realized two things. The first was relatively simple, he had been dreaming, but the second was a problem. He had a great weight on his chest, something pressed against his neck and he couldn’t breathe!
There was a ringing in his ears and Rance knew he was seconds from losing consciousness and most likely dying. He thrashed again and flailed about with his arms and he struck something soft, and there was a grunt.
The fire had gone out but he could now see a silhouette against the stars of a man sitting astride his chest pressing a branch against his neck. He was getting scrolling notifications at the bottom of his vision but ignored them as his mind raced. He struggled more but knew he was at a complete disadvantage…His knife!
Rance wiggled some more groping for the knife at his belt. His vision was starting to close in and the ringing grew more intense. He knew the end was close, his hand found the knife and he tore it from the sheath. He stabbed wildly at the form on top of him.
The first stab elicited another grunt, and he kept pumping the knife into the body of the person who was strangling him. He could see notifications scroll even faster along the bottom of his vision, when all of a sudden the weight lifted from his chest and he heard the sounds of crashing through the brush running away from his camp.
Rance sucked in the cool night air in great gulps as he sat up and added kindling to the coals of his fire. He gripped his knife tightly staring into the darkness around his little camp until the fire flared up and he added more wood.
In the light of the fire he examined himself for wounds. There was blood dripping from his right hand where the blade of his knife had laid open his fingers. The knife was not a fighting knife and had no guard so his hand had slipped onto the blade with every thrust he had plunged into his attacker.
He stood and braced himself against the tree he was sleeping under when a wave of dizziness hit him. He was thankful that there was old man’s beard all over the place as he tore several pieces off the limbs of the tree and pressed them against the cuts on his fingers.
Rance checked his Hit Points “SHIT!” he said when he saw he was down to three. He had regenerated the few he had lost fighting the veldt Hare the day before but 22 of them might take some time.
Rance received a flashing red notification. “You have defeated William Russell and received 45 experience points. Would you like to loot the body?”
“System?” Rance said.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Yes?”
“Was WIlliam Russell who attacked me just now?”
“Yes”
“And he died? I mean I killed him?” Rance asked.
“Yes, you inflicted a large amount of bleeding damage that he was unable to repair in time to prevent termination.” The system said.
“How did I kill him if I am such a weak low level player?”
“William Russell was also a low level player who first entered this world 18 minutes ago.”
“18 minutes and he tried to kill me right away!?”
“That is correct.” The system stated
“Is he going to respawn soon?” Rance asked
“Yes, however respawns in Otherlife take place at a minimum of 20 miles from the place of death to prevent spawn point camping. This is to ensure a more even playing field among players.”
“Okay, so I don’t have to worry about him for now. What about this looting?”
“You may loot the body just like the veldt hare. You may specify if you would like certain parts saved as you requested.”
“Oh no!” Rance exclaimed “I don’t foresee ever looting human bodies, only possessions.”
“Noted” the system replied. “There is loot where the body fell.”
“Can I wait until morning to recover it?” Rance asked.
“Yes, dropped loot will stay active for the person making a kill for 24 hours. If it is not recovered during that time it will stay an additional 24 hours so that it may be recovered by anyone who discovers it. After that time it will be removed from game play.”
“That sounds logical,” Rance said “Is there a way for me to recover HP faster?” He asked.
“Yes,” the system replied. “Your knowledge of healing herbs has allowed you to recover quicker than those without that knowledge.”
“What do you mean by that?” Rance asked, puzzled.
“When you placed old man’s beard on your wounds yesterday, and then again just a few minutes ago, your healing speed was increased.”
Rance flexed the fingers on his right hand. They certainly felt like they were still injured. He pulled the wad of lichen away and saw to his amazement that the cuts had started to close already. They were still there but the raw red bleeding look had taken on the pinkish tinge of a cut a couple days old.
“Back to the HP, you didn’t answer that.” he said
Rance could hear the mental sigh of the system when it spoke. “Due to your inherent knowledge, you may ingest healing herbs as a food, tea, elixir, powder, pill, or they may be applied topically as you did with the lichen to increase healing speed. Healing herbs are general healers in Otherworld, as there is no disease per se, any of them act as a general healer with greater and lesser degrees of effectiveness.”
“So if I understand you correctly,” Rance said “I can brew up a tea from this plantain that is growing right here in my camp and I can even find it in the firelight, and it will help me heal faster.”
“That is correct.”
“Wonderful.” Rance said as he started picking both narrow leaf and wide leaf plantain from around his campsite. “It seems to be commonplace around here, is there a market for it?”
“There currently is a very good market for all of the healing herbs.” the system replied.
“Why is that?” Rance asked, “The stuff grows pretty much everywhere.”
“There are few who are knowledgeable about things such as herbalism. Otherlife is geared towards fighting and magic, but there are niches which may be exploited by those who are skilled in those areas.” The system said.
Rance set his pot on the fire and filled it halfway with water from his waterskin. He added the plantain, and chopped up a few green pine needles and put them in as well, to add some vitamin C to the tea.
He kept scanning the edges of the light his small fire cast on the undergrowth encircling his small camp. “I wonder how old Bill found me.” he mused to himself “I made sure I couldn’t see the spawn point from my camp.”
Rance could see the sky in the East getting light by the time his tea had come to a boil. He took it off the fire and set it aside to cool. He sat a few more minutes and then got up in the gathering light and walked over to the stream and washed his face. He snapped a green twig off of a nearby bush and chewed on the end until it was pulpy and then proceeded to “brush” his teeth with the chewed end.
His tea was cool enough to drink when he made it back to the fire and sat down. He tentatively took a sip. “Not horrible.” He said aloud. The tea warmed his belly, and he shivered. “I didn’t even realize I was cold.” He thought.
After he finished his tea it was light enough to go look for the loot that was supposed to be somewhere close by. He picked up his staff and carefully started looking for blood in the direction his attacker had fled. The blood trail was easy to find, and just as easy to follow. The trail ended less than 50 yards from his camp in a large pool of blood.
Sitting beside the blood was a small pack that looked identical to the one he had been given when he first appeared yesterday. He looked all around him, and then at the pack. He nudged it with his stick. When nothing happened he bent and picked it up, and returned to his small camp.
Rance sat again by his fire and opened the pack to look inside. The contents looked exactly how he remembered his pack looking before he rearranged everything. It looked as though Bill hadn’t even opened his pack before attacking him in his sleep.
Rance coughed as the wind shifted and blew smoke right in his face. “Okay, I’m a friggin’ idiot.” he said out loud. “Smoke!”