Tied on impossibly resistant vines, Aylen was lying on the floor of a lightless darkwood hut made by his captors: a bunch of rottenlings who inhabited his starting area. He tried biting the moorings which restricted his shoulders, making everything harder, but was terribly unsuccessful. The fire outside the hut started to became brighter and a song about supper was sang on the creatures’ terrible voice. A chill went through Aylen’s spine as the word “food” was screamed several times in unison. Remembering the strength he had when knocking down the jaguar, he started to slowly force his tied hands and, in a sudden burst, tried breaking the vines in a single move.

It worked partially – even though the moorings were damaged, he was still contained. Another burst of strength would be enough to rip them apart, he felt. After regaining his breath, Aylen once again tried breaking the vines, this time with glaring success.

With his hands untied, it would be easier to free the rest of his body. He got a grip of the constraints that held the upper parts of his arms and pulled then with all of his remaining force, loosening it enough to free himself through some moves he had seen a magician do once. His legs seemed to have the tightest vines, but they were considerably easier to free with both hands fully available. Silently, all of the vines were gently put on the floor to not alert the rottenling standing at the entrance, even though he was distracted with the dances and songs of his people.

Looking around, Aylen didn’t find an exit nor anything useful to escape – it was an empty room with empty boxes which smelled awfully, like everything related to those little creatures. The small statue luckily remained in his pocket, still dirty from the jaguar’s blood, but it wouldn’t be very useful against the unbelievable amount of rottenlings that inhabited the small village he was in. Maybe he could set up some sneaky kills, it’d be useful, but that didn’t seem very possible, the only one really vulnerable to that kind of attack was the one guarding his escape.

“Shit… I guess I must at least do something about him, there’s no way I can get out of here with him still alive.”

Walking on his knees, the player approached the guard, carefully observing anyone could see him. As the village’s population was too focused on their party and food preparations, he was free to take down the lone rottenling – but he had to do it quickly and effective if he wanted to make it silent. A good blow with his statue on the back of the monster’s head would probably be enough, he only needed a good angle and a clean movement with his arm. Taking his time to aim perfectly, it took a few seconds for the deathblow and it was a perfectly executed one seeing that the rottenling’s body instantly relaxed and fell to the ground.

Aylen received the falling corpse with his open arms and gently laid it on a dark part of the room. After a surprising spasm on the creature’s face, a soothing sound echoed inside Aylen’s mind.

“Class Rank 1 achieved! Learned Weapon Morph!”

For a moment, he had forgotten about being in a game and the message really frightened him, calming after realizing how everything around him wasn’t really happening. Unfortunately, although the announcement referred to a Class Rank being raised, it didn’t specify which class exactly, leaving him in a not much better situation as he also had no idea what Weapon Morph meant. The quick relief that going a rank up had brought rapidly vanished as the realizations were made.

“I only have two options right now. Sneaking back to the forest while praying for them to not detect me or face them directly. Neither option seems to have a good chance of working, but I should go with the safest one: sneaking around.”

After making his decision, he remembered to check the rottenling’s corpse for anything useful. He dragged it back by its leg and fiddled around with its pocket and clothes. Differently from the wild beasts he had fought before, this one carried a dagger, good enough to kill one of its own race and the material of which his clothes were made of didn’t appear to bad, but Aylen had no way to carry it around.

With a dagger now on hands, Aylen slowly stepped away from the dark place and started revealing himself to the deadly fire made just for him. The remaining rottenlings were too drunk with festivity to even have noticed the missing guard, raising Aylen’s optimism towards his little stealth operation. If he was able to just go around the hut he came from, the night sky wouldn’t be able to reveal him and the fire’s light didn’t reach far enough. There was the worry of creatures lurking on the trees like before, but the rottenling village probably kept them away – even if they didn’t, Aylen had no other furtive option as going to the entrance he had came from would easily expose him to the villagers.

His mind traveled around the possibilities of failure, examining each remotely possible bad outcome. Someone noticing him right at the first step was almost a certainty now, but he had no way to go back. Thinking about how the game wasn’t actually real helped his legs to move some feet forward, almost reaching the hut’s shadow.

“Rargh! Ta froud isescaping!”

A violent voice ripped apart the sounds of party and enjoyment. Every last rottenling became completely silent and started looking around for Aylen, finding him on a very compromising position right outside his supposed prison. Thoughts of death rushed through his head, making a very uncomfortable noise echoes in his ears. The rottenlings’ shock was quickly replaced by an urge to kill and devour the raw meat of the strange looking man, wearing dark clothes at night. The one dressed in shaman-like robes screamed something unintelligible before all of them raised their fists and ran towards Aylen.

“Oh, shit. I guess this confirms that Stealth isn’t one of my skills.”

The snarky inside remark was interrupted by the surprise attack from a creature coming from the woods, probably a tribal that went out hunting. Aylen’s reflexes were good enough to let him dodge to the side, making the rottenling crash onto the hut’s wall and pass out from the collision.

The others were not happy with one of their friends already being knocked out from the fight. One of the rottelings from the front drew a short sword from his back and ran forward with an insane fury. Aylen tried holding his attack with a counter-attack stance, however, the returning blow failed as he lightly slipped, dropping the dagger he had obtained just a few moments before.

All of Aylen’s plans had failed before he could define his next action. He was too weak and had no actual notions of battle nor of his skills, leaving him with very thin paths to move forward. His situation had rapidly escalated and basically the entire tribe was now surrounding him, lusting for human blood. While they usually spoke a very rough World Language, their brains seemed to be affect by their thirst, making them communicate in strange roars and macabre sounding words. They didn’t stop to talk for long: as soon as the oldest one closed his mouth, the entire group jumped on the defenseless Aylen, keeping a firm grasp on his Grim Reaper statue.

Suddenly, it starts vibrating. Not the mechanized vibration of a remote controller or an electronic masseur – it was an unnatural force, acting on the inside of the rather solid figure. It started making crackling sounds when the closest rottenling raised his improvised axe, forcing its way out of Aylen’s pocket. It was a sudden push, coming extremely unexpected; his hand was propelled while still firmly holding the Grim Reaper, which had begun to show cracks, not stopping to expand when the statue reached out for air. Something that could only be described as a sixth sense ringed inside Aylen, making him dash backwards. His move called the creature’s attention and one of them once again desperately attacked. Aylen’s arm automatically moved in an arc, cutting the rottenling in half. For the surprise of everyone involved, a bright new scythe had came from nowhere to Aylen’s hands, dirty with the blood of a now dead rottenling. Both the miniature’s function and the nature of the Weapon Morph skill were now clear – his starting weapon was a scythe, only usable when reaching Rank 1 of his still mysterious class.

“I guess I don’t need to be afraid now.”

He smiled. The game didn’t look so bad now. At first, his enemies backstepped, nervous with the vision of a very uncommon weapon around those areas. It was made of shining steel and it could probably cut a tree in a single swing, making their rusty axes and short swords appear like toys. However, giving up was not a natural instinct of the grotesque little demons, once again gritting their teeth and salivating when the imagery of human flesh strolled around their minds. This time, Aylen was far from defenseless and like he hadn’t done before, he rushed forward, holding his weapon with a single hand.

“Daaargh!! You’le die!”

Most of the screams were silenced instantly. Aylen stopped running right when the first rottenlings made their move, becoming easy targets for the culling. Blood splashed and seemed to be attracted to the young man, adhering to his black clothing. A new energy surge burned in his chest, prompting him forward when more enemies approached.

Aylen killed them in groups of at least three due to the great size of the scythe’s blade. All of the surrounding creatures were barely able to hurt him as the weapon’s handle served a great defensive purpose, blocking a lot of assaults and weapon swings. He was afraid that a blow with a very heavy looking hammer would threaten to break the handle, but it merely made his poise fail for a moment. Right after, Aylen recovered his equilibrium and killed the ax-wielder with a precise move, ripping through his head with the whole sharp section.

The whole thing barely lasted five minutes, proving how those rottenlings were mere low-level enemies, not worth a lot of experience. The few hidden ones seemed to desperately run away when Aylen relaxed, inciting the idea of possible reinforcements - it didn’t worry the player, more rottenlings would only be more practice. Although the fight was easy, Aylen started feeling quite tired after some time standing among the corpses. Maybe he had spent Stamina or some other stat when fighting, he thought, or the Weapon Morph was toggle skill that drained his energy while in use. Trying a few interactions with the scythe, a simple mental command proved itself to be enough, turning the weapon back to its original state as a Grim Reaper figure.

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Looking around after a moderate rest, Aylen couldn’t find good enough loot to justify picking them up, only a few rusty weapons, rotten food and their small-sized dirty clothes. There was a not very spacious bag inside one of the huts, probably the one belonging to their leader as it was somewhat luxurious compared to the other ones. A need for water also called his attention, making him unsafely drink water from a very improvised well which made the liquid quite muddy – he hoped that the diseases of that world didn’t impair the character too much.

Finally, tired of the shabby-looking residences’ appearance, Aylen made an improvised torch with some piece of wood, rottenling cloth and the fire made for cooking his meat. The red burning light cast unto the shadows probably made a few animals run away – and also made some hide for an ambush – but also revealed a path Aylen hadn’t saw before, timidly hidden between twisted trees. The path he had came from only proved that it was filled with beasts and God knows what, making following the new one much easier. A bird’s screech scared him as he moved away tree branches blocking his way, maybe alerting him of something.

During the sunset, the forest seemed eldritch enough – and the night only made it worse, transforming the distant sounds into much more terrifying affirmations of the grotesque creatures that inhabited it. From time to time, Aylen swung the torch around him, always feeling like he had fended away something at the last second. A more bestial and smaller version of the jaguar he had fought with before crossed his path and quickly ran away when the fire approached him. The burning flame proved itself to be an extremely useful tool against the wandering horrors, waiting for their chance to ambush and kill the unwanted visitor, lost inside their lair.

The walk started to last way longer than expected. Aylen started thinking that the area was rather badly designed for such a high-class game and, although the horror elements were interesting and realistic, it felt too dragged on and without options as that path never bifurcated or at least widened up a bit. He had spent around 20 minutes walking when the silence was starting to noticeably become more prominent, the creatures slowly turned quieter and the moves between the trees also ceased. Those were either very good or very bad omens – could be an exit or something that even the monsters are afraid of. The torch wasn’t able to reveal a lot in front of him, so keep moving was the best action.

A cold wind blew through the path that, in the specific section the player was in, felt almost like a tunnel. Aylen felt a chill not only due to the breeze – something was off but he couldn’t tell what he was. He stopped on his tracks, looking around and seeing nothing but pitch-black darkness and huddles of long-deceased vegetation.

“What are you doing?”

Suddenly, a hand grabbed his right arm and pulled him. The only thing he could perceive was that it was coming from inside the deepness of the trees. There was no reaction as the pull was so surprising it took his guard off completely and he could only start thinking again when the ground made a loud thump sound, matching his fall. Before the torch went out, Aylen was able to see a pale woman’s face with a finger on her mouth and instantly covering his anyway.

If she was to kill him, she certainly wouldn’t be doing something like that. Thinking about it, Aylen relaxed and let her maintain her hand tightly sealing his mouth. When both went into complete silence, sounds different from any of the monster ones echoed louder and louder, signaling its approach. What once was a cold breeze now dominated the environment and the mysterious girl’s breath became visible, but not for those around it as darkness was the only thing they could see.

Time passed as the sounds became clearer. Instead of unrecognizable noise, it could now be identified as the sound of steps, not very human but still identifiable. The girl broke her own silence rule, gulping when they both realized the noise wasn’t a good thing to wait for. Even thought the atmosphere turned into a quite cold one, sweat dripped from both foreheads due to the nervousness of anticipation – only a few seconds left for whatever it was appear in front of them.

An offensive plan started to be weaved inside Aylen’s mind – maybe he could ambush the strange presence and eliminate it with a single scythe slash. As he inserted his hand inside his pocket and grabbed the unmorphed weapon, the girl sensed his intentions and pushed away his hand, silently passing the message that there was nothing they could do, only lay down quiet.

Mere two seconds passed and the pair felt a presence exactly in the place the girl had pulled Aylen. Only the thing’s steps could be heard as he apparently had no breathing. Aylen did his best to try to get something out of the dark, but his efforts were useless – it was like an aura of even purer darkness covered the passerby, hiding him from the curious eye – not for his protection, but for the observer’s.

As distance raised linearly, finger tips started to warm up and the cold breeze halted, leaving only a freezing still air. After the intense moment, Aylen finally realized how the woman’s hand had been trembling since the beginning, probably out of raw fear. He empathized with her and maintained his quietude, waiting for her to judge when it was fine to make any form of noise. The sound of steps started to turn back to an unrecognizable noise and air was definitely lighter. The tension from the hand covering Aylen’s mouth succumbed as the girl let out a slight sigh of relief. Reflecting over the what she was doing there led the young man to a question he hadn’t asked himself yet: was she a player or a NPC? Would it be a strange question to start a conversation? Before any word came out of his mouth, she announced:

“It’s fine now, he’s far away.”

She adjusted her position, letting Aylen free of her grip and able to get up. Observing the uncomfortable darkness, she clicked her fingers, making a soft flame come out of her thumb – just enough to illuminate their closest surroundings.

“What the hell were you thinking? Just walking around the woods at the most stupid time possible? You’re probably the dumbest new player I’ve ever seen and I walk around starting areas quite a lot.”

Her rant answered Aylen’s questionings and honestly made him rather relieved to find an actual person around that dire place. He still had more questions and began formulating them, until he realized that she was actually waiting for an answer to hers.

“Uhm… I was pretty lost… This game’s lack of interface really bothers me, I don’t know why I’m still playing it, to be honest.”

Her angry face quickly twisted to a confused expression.

“Huh? What are you talking about? There is an UI… are you crazy?”

“There is one? Well, it probably started deactivated for me as there’s no trace of one in my vision. And I tried a lot of stuff to make it appear.”

“Strange, I’ve never seen someone start without the interface visible. If they did, they probably found a way to activate it very quickly.”

“Maybe it’s a bug, I don’t know.”

“If it’s a bug, you can try something.”

“Really? What?”

“Just say ‘syscommand, debug routine, fix routine’ and everything should be checked and, if the system finds anything wrong, fixed.”

“I guess I should’ve read the manual… Ok, I’ll try it right now.”

syscommand, debug routine, fix routine

Without warning, a huge loading bar popped on Aylen’s view. It started progressing as file names quickly appeared above it, probably being checked one by one. He couldn’t see the girl’s face behind the bar, feeling unsure of what were her intentions.

It took around 6 minutes but every system was checked and they appeared in front of him in an accessible scheme. There were a few blinking dots around the same area and, after a few seconds of final analysis, the same voice from the Class Circle once again talked.

“Fixing User Interface Systems, General Interface Systems...”

The fixing part ended up being much quicker and once again he was facing the serious-looking pale girl, with her green eyes concentrated on him. But now there was something different: three different bars – one blue, one red and one green – appeared at the top-left corner and quickly faded away, together with a scythe icon at the right corner and a long yellow bar covering the bottom. A quick glance on the girl only showed question marks on the side of her head, probably representing a lack of proper introductions. Aylen didn’t remain astonished for long, as he had already played other VR games with an interface. The girl saw the opportunity to move on with her questioning.

“Well, it seems that your interface started working. Good, but even if you didn’t have an active UI, it’s still no reason to act dumb to the point of wandering around such a terrible place alone and at night. It’s better that you learn how to survive here right from the beginning or you’re not going to like the results.”

“Thanks for the warnings, then… I’ll try to be smarter when walking around for sure. Oh, before I forget, my name is Aylen.”

“Uhh, my name is Wantria.”

“Nice to meet you, even if it’s under such circumstances.”

Wantria started moving. For a moment, it seemed that she was just going to leave Aylen there and keep following her own path. It was indeed her initial idea, but she pitied such a stupid newbie. She got up with her backpack and looked down to the young man, asking him:

“Do you want to come with me? I’m going to a nearby town that’s pretty good for newcomers. You’d probably die if you spent a night here.”

Light went through Aylen’s face.

“Sure! Err, I mean… Ok. I think you’re right about my chance of survival if I stay alone.”

Not checking if he needed any sort of help, Wantria crossed through the harsh trees, always too twisted to make smooth passage. Aylen held no actual weight but it was hard to get up from the position he was on, giving Wantria a few steps of distance from him. Afraid of being left in the darkness, he rapidly went back to the path, following the faint flame still on the girl’s thumb.