Chapter 4
Run Away Run Away!
The next thing Rance was aware of was sunlight on his face and the smell of a pine forest. He opened his eyes to find he was sitting against a pine tree with a pack lying beside him on the ground.
Rance looked down at himself and saw he was wearing a tan tunic made of some rough woven cloth, matching rough woven pants with a bit of rope around his waist to serve as a belt, and sandals on his feet. “Sandals?! Shit!” He had always hated sandals.
He picked up the pack and rummaged through it for a bit before he turned it over and dumped the contents on the ground beside him.
He examined the pack and the words “Noob Backpack” popped up “Description: a common small backpack. Consists of a main storage pouch, to small outer pouched and four inventory slots that will hold up to 100 items of the same type.
“That’s a half decent item.” He thought.
He picked up a small metal box the size of an Altoids tin and opened it. “Basic fire kit: Flint, steel and char cloth in a small tin.” He put that back in the pack Next, he picked up a small, sheathed knife. “Small belt knife, useful for everyday chores.” Rance fiddled with the rope around his waist and finally managed to thread the sheath onto it. He struggled to retie the knot…Rance could see in his mind what he wanted to do. He had tied knots all his life, but his fingers struggled to do his bidding.
He pulled out the blade and tested it with his thumb. It was small, hardly bigger than a kitchen paring knife, and none too sharp. “I’ll need to work on this edge when I find a good rock,” he thought.
There were two small flat folded pieces of what looked like cloth. He picked up the darker one. “Oilskin cloth: A 6’ x 8’ oiled cloth that will help keep you or something you care about dry.” He picked up the lighter colored cloth “Thin wool blanket: A 6’ x 8’ woolen blanket to help keep you warm.” He placed both of them back in the pack. There was a small metal cooking pot. “Metal Pot: One quart in size”.
Next there was a football sized pouch with a long leather strap on it. “Water pouch: It is always best to stay hydrated, and this will help.” Next there were five small blocks wrapped in oil cloth. “Rations: This package contains one day's food supply.” Then finally a small pouch with a cord tied around the top. “Purse: 5 coppers”.
“Sooooo” Rance said, drawing the word out “here we are. Now what?”
Rance stood up and walked around in circles, jogged in place, and did a few jumping jacks, just to get the feel of the world. He didn’t feel as comfortable in his new body as he thought he should, but he would worry about that later. It was time to figure out where he was and to start planning how to grow in this new world.
He could see that he was in a range of mountains. He could see several snow-capped peaks around in the distance.
“High peaks all around, that means I am well and truly up in the range.” He smiled as he thought about it. Rance had grown up hunting, fishing and fur trapping in the Rockies and was very comfortable in high mountain surroundings. He had run a trapline after school as a kid to get his spending money.
He had saved most of it and used it to buy his first pickup truck and then it was Katie bar the door. He and his partner had been mobile and expanded the trapline to over 50 miles. “Unfortunately,” He thought as he reflected. Social norms had driven fur out of style and the fur industry had tanked, so that by the time he was out of high school he knew his dream of being a professional trapper was never going to be. So he joined the army.
“Maybe I can sell furs here,” he thought. Shaking his head “Priorities Rance, priorities.” he said out loud.
“System?” he said into the mountain air.
“Yes?”
“Okay, you are here. That’s good. Can you tell me where I am, and what I am supposed to do?”
“You are standing on the edge of a small mountain meadow.” The system answered. “You may live your life as you please.”
“That isn’t very helpful” Rance said.
“I am not permitted to guide, rather I am here to provide information when needed.” System replied.
“FINE.” Rance said perturbed. “Where is the nearest town or village?”
“The Hamlet of Westerveldt is 1.86 miles downstream in the valley from where you are standing.”
“Thank you.”
“You are welcome.”
“You can go away now.” Rance said.
“I am always here. I do not “Go away” as you put it.”
“So, you are always here even when I am not interacting with you?” Rance asked.
“You are always interacting with me since I am the world system AI. I am generating all of this in your mind. However, you will find it a more enjoyable user experience if you do act as if I am not here unless you need the interaction for information.”
“Great.” Rance grumbled “All-knowing, all-seeing overlord. Kind of like the army.” he thought.
Rance looked around again taking in the scenery. “Beautiful place” he thought. He tried to use all his senses standing still for a few seconds.
There! He could hear water running nearby. From the sound of it, there was a stream just a few yards down the hill through the trees.
Rance picked up his pack, did a quick visual survey of the ground to make sure he hadn’t left anything lying about and headed toward the stream.
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He took in his surroundings as he went. Looking for animal sign, familiar plants, and particularly looking for a stick of just the right…
Rance espied a standing dead pine that was a little bigger around than his wrist just above the roots. It was leaning slightly suggesting the roots had most rotted leaving the trunk and branches dried out and weathered standing off the ground.
Rance walked up to it and pushed it over. The tree gave with a small amount of resistance and crackling from the rotten roots and fell over. Rance started stomping and breaking off the branches coming off the main trunk. Again, he had a difficult time, missing a branch here and there when he tried to step on them to break them off.
Eventually he ended up with the branches broken off and the pole about 15 feet long. He picked it up and carried it over to another tree that split into two trunks a couple feet off the ground. He stuck the small end of his pole in between the two trunks at a point just over 6 feet from the root ball and started pushing. The pole groaned and creaked and then cracked, finally breaking off so that he was left with a staff about six and a half feet tall, with a small knob where the root had been connected.
The size of his wrist there and about half that on the other end. He would need to be careful with his new staff since there were a whole lot of knots sticking out where he had broken off all the branches, but overall, he had himself a basic quarterstaff.
Rance had messed around with a quarterstaff quite a bit. Learning basic practice moves from youtube, just so he could be armed with a walking stick when you didn’t happen to have a firearm with him when he was out in the woods.
Rance lined up with a tree and swung… “One: to the right neck” … He missed the tree entirely…” What the heck!?” he said out loud. “How do I miss a fricken tree!”
“SYSTEM!” he yelled.
“Yes”
“Why can’t I hit a tree?”
“Your dexterity is very low. You need to raise it to become more proficient with bodily skills and movements.”
Rance thought a bit “Is that why I had such a hard time tying a knot in my belt?” he asked.
“Yes”
“But I know how to do this in real life.” he said.
“That has been taken into account.” the system replied. “You will level faster in skills you already possess. Even considering your 10% penalty… Frankly.” the system continued. “I am not sure why you were placed in this environment considering your real-life skill set. Prisoners are usually placed in environments that place them at a great disadvantage, and while this is just such an environment for every other prisoner I have in my records, your real-life skill set seems to impart a distinct advantage to you.”
“So how do I level up my stats if I can’t use my skills right now?” Rance asked.
“You must use them to increase them.” System answered.
“So, use them badly, like when I was first learning them?”
“Perhaps this will help explain.” the system replied, “You have the full knowledge of your skill to the level you possessed it in your world but currently do not have the physical skills to use that knowledge to its full advantage.”
“So, it is like when I was first learning them, but I will know when I am doing things wrong and just need to take the time to relearn it.” Rance said.
“That is a close approximation.” System said.
“Okay let me try this again then.” Rance squared up to his target tree. Feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, weight balanced and centered. He slowly moved the staff instead of swinging it.
“One: Right neck.” he said and touched the staff to the right side of the target tree at about neck height “Two: Left neck.” and he repeated the touch on the left side with the opposite end of the staff. “Three: Right ribs. Four: Left ribs. Five: Right knee. Six: Left knee. Seven: Right leg sweep. Eight: Left leg sweep. Nine: Uppercut groin. Ten: Overhead blow head.” Rance repeated the cadence slowly. He had done this many hundreds of times when he was learning to use a staff, and now it looked like he would need to do it all over again.
The rough knots sticking out of the staff made it even more difficult since his hands wouldn’t slide smoothly along the staff during his movements. “Definitely have to find a good rock to use as sandpaper to smooth this thing up when I get time,” he thought.
He spent a few minutes slowly attacking the tree, making sure to use proper form no matter how slowly he had to go in order to get it right. After a time, there was a quiet chime and blinking notification in his vision.
“Congratulations! You have increased your dexterity by 1. Unfortunately, you have a 10% penalty, so the net increase is 0.9, but hey, it’s better than nothing!”
Rance shook his head. He wasn’t sure he liked the tone of the system in his notifications. He turned back to his practice and went through a couple more cadences.
“Yep, a little faster and more accurate, but nothing to write home about,” he thought.
Rance decided he should probably move on toward Westerveldt.
He made his way down to the small creek and started to follow it. The creek was small enough that he could easily jump across it and he saw the dark shapes of fish darting into the shadows as he moved down the stream.
“Brook trout, I think. Good eating,” he said to himself. “If this place was real, I might like it here.”
After just a few minutes of following the stream, he saw a rather large rabbit sitting under a bush just off of the game trail that he had been using that followed the creek.
“Food so I don’t have to use my rations,” he thought.
Putting a tree between the rabbit and himself Rance moved close to the rabbit. He wished he had a rabbit stick, a good throwing stick that he could use for small game. He had not found a decent one yet while following the stream. He was going to have to use his staff.
“I hope they have tame rabbits here,” he joked to himself as he crept up on his quarry.
Rance was able to slowly creep up on the rabbit who sat nibbling on what looked like a dandelion to Rance. There was a small chime…” You have identified the plant dandelion; you may now use this plant.”
“Okay, that was good, I guess,” he thought as he got closer to the apparently oblivious rabbit. As he watched the rabbit intently the words “Veldt Hare” popped up in his vision.
Eventually Rance crouched behind a bush with the rabbit three feet away on the other side. The bush was small enough that Rance could reach over it, so he gripped his staff and swung it down at the rabbit.
Then all Hell broke loose…
He swung hard and the staff came down in an uncontrolled strike that totally missed the rabbit. Instead of running away the rabbit turned to look at Rance, let out screech and charged around a bush!
“Oh Shit!” Rance had time to say before the rabbit bit into the side of his foot. “What the hell!” he yelled. Kicking at the rabbit and missing.
“You have taken one hit point damage.” flashed at the bottom of his vision.
Rance swung his staff again with the blow going wide of the rabbit. The rabbit screeched another battle cry and sank its teeth into his other foot. Rance winced at the unexpected pain.
“You have taken one hit point damage, you are bleeding.”
Rance swung again and missed. Even having leveled up his dexterity, he just didn’t have the skill to use his staff effectively yet.
“This sucks!” Rance thought as the rabbit came in for another attack. He tried jumping away, tripped, fell over and the rabbit darted in taking a chunk out of his ear while he was trying to get back up off the ground.
“You have taken one hit point damage…You have taken one hit point bleeding damage.”
“Okay, this ain’t gonna work” he said out loud. He desperately started looking around for something… something…There!
A few yards away a large tree stood large branches close enough to the ground that he may be able to climb up.
“You have taken one hit point damage…You have taken one hit point bleeding damage.” Came the notification as the rabbit bit into his calf as he turned to run.
“Run Away, Run Away!” he yelled half laughing half crying…if it was someone else, he would be laughing his ass off.