Chapter 2
Although I knew I was technically in a game, there was no immediate danger, it’s hard to shake the feeling of “This giant creature is charging at me,” and wanting to run away. It was definitely faster than me though, but I was able to dash around the large trees of this forest. It didn’t seem like it was the best at turning, which is the only reason it hasn’t caught me yet.
After about thirty seconds of running, it doesn’t seem to be losing interest. I finally come to my senses and start analyzing the situation. Clearly I can’t outrun it, so I’m going to have to fight it somehow. It’s big and fast, but it can only really run straight. Keeping this in mind, I continue dashing in between the trees, and manage to put a bit of distance between me and the creature.
Once the distance felt right, I lined up with the creature in a generally straight path. It eyed me slowly, probably wondering why I stopped running. It must have decided it didn’t care as it bent down on its forward legs, scraping the snowy field below with a hoof. Almost like an ox getting ready to charge.
I pull my sword out from its sheath at my side, the blade reaching about two and a half feet of sharp metal. It was a bronze-ish color, and the weight felt nice, or as nice as it could to one who had never actually held a sword before. With each of our minds made up, we sprung into action. The creature began to charge me and I responded, meeting only a few seconds later.
My plan was simple. Run straight at it, dive out of the way at the last moment and slice at its throat. Easy, right? Well, maybe not so easy. Luckily I managed to avoid the charge like I intended, but having never swung a sword, my aim was not particularly great. As we met in the clearing, I dashed to the left at the last second, ducking under its antlers and slashed up where I expected its neck to be. Unfortunately, I only managed to gash its shoulders.
The creature didn’t seem to like that at all though as it let out a bellowing roar, revealing a row of wicked sharp teeth. For all its resemblance to a moose, it seems to enjoy eating things of the meaty variety instead. While it is doing that, I try to put some distance between myself and the creature once more, betting on trying again.
While the gash seemed relatively deep, it didn’t appear to be impeding the creature's movement at all. Once it recovered, it was back to charging at me pretty fast. I tried the maneuver again, yet still missing the neck itself, this time a slash across the chest was all I managed. It charged again, and this time it seemed to have figured out my plan. As I went for a third slice, this one surely going to strike true, the creature moved its head in an unexpected way, slamming me with its horns and sending me flying off to the side.
It was at this point that I learned two things. The first being the pain reduction, while surely present, couldn’t really make getting run straight into by a giant animal feel anything less than that. I watched as my HP bar went from full to about thirty five percent in an instant. The second was that although I had been hit by the creature, I was still able to move just fine. Surely a blow like that in the real world would have broken many bones, but it seemed to not be the case in this world.
As the creature circled around to charge again, I quickly pulled out one of the healing potions I got from starter equipment. After drinking it as fast as I could, my HP went from thirty five percent to eighty five percent. Assuming that kind of attack does the same amount of damage each time, this would keep me alive at least for one more hit.
I couldn’t win a battle of attrition here, so I needed to strike a decisive blow to end the fight. While the creature managed to figure out my strategy, it only did so on the third go around. I doubt it would be able to quickly adjust to something it has never seen before. With that in mind I quickly looked around to see what I could use.
Ideally, I just need a few seconds of it not moving to land a killing blow on it. I find a large, jagged rock face that has a few vertical increases and begin sprinting for it. I hear the creature charging once again, and it’s gaining. At the speed we are going, I should just manage to beat the creature to the rock face in time. I want the creature to be going as fast as possible, so that it can’t completely stop before hitting the rock wall.
As I reach the rock face, I have a few seconds before it gets here. I scramble up as high as I can and then jump, trying to put as much distance between the creature's impact point and myself as possible. Right as I do, the creature realizes what’s happening a bit too late, as it tries to stop but ends up running head first into the rock wall. Its antlers cracking against the solid earth, it stumbles back, clearly stunned and dazed. As I land after my jump I quickly dive in under its head and stab upward, deepening my sword into its neck. It falls to the ground, and a few seconds later I get a series of notifications.
▸You have defeated an Elafos◂
▸You have gained the skill One Handed Swordsmanship◂
▸You have gained the skill Athletics◂
▸You gained 156 experience points◂
▸Your level has increased◂
After getting my bearings and sitting down for a minute, I finally opened my menu to see exactly what all this stuff means. First of all, it looks like that creature was called an Elafos. The menu doesn’t have any kind of bestiary section, or at least I don’t have access to that kind of thing yet, so I can’t learn more about it.
The next thing is that it looks like I needed one hundred experience to level up from level one to level two. I get the feeling that it probably should have taken longer, the Elafos didn’t seem like something that would be appropriate for a single level one player to take on. At the very least, it seems like Aevum is somewhat realistic in the sense that if you stab a creature in the neck, it’s pretty much done for.
For my trouble though, all of my stats went up by one, and I have three that I can freely allocate. If I’m going to be a one handed swordsman, I think it would be best to focus on a spread of constitution, strength, and dexterity. I confirm the allocation, and so my stats now look like this:
▸CON: 7
▸STR: 7
▸DEX: 7
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▸INT: 6
▸WIS: 6
▸CHA: 6
Now that I think about it, it’s a little weird having a charisma stat in a game where, in theory, it’s virtually simulating the NPCs and you can freely interact with them however you want. I’m not sure how it will work, but I guess I’ll find out eventually.
Now onto these skills. Opening the skill menu that was previously empty now displays two skills, one handed swordsmanship and athletics. They are both currently at level one, which makes sense I suppose as they were just unlocked. In the press releases for this game they didn’t really explain how skills would work, just that there would be a lot of them. It seems like if you perform a specific action that has an applicable skill, you get the skill. It doesn’t appear like there is any explanation for the skills either, not even any flavor text, so I’m not sure how increasing these skills will affect my performance or stats.
After contemplating the systems for a bit, I decided I shouldn’t let this creature go to waste. Using a small dagger from my starter equipment, I begin attempting to butcher the carcass to get some value from it. Unfortunately, I’ve never done anything like it in the real world, and there doesn’t seem to be any tutorial for it here. After about 10 minutes, I’ve only gotten a little bit of (what I think is) meat and a decently sized but terribly cut chunk of fur. Apparently the system didn’t think I did a good enough job either, since I didn’t get any skill for my attempt. I stuff my spoils in my inventory and find the path once more.
— — — —
Another thirty minutes pass, and the path I’m traveling finally meets up with a more established road. It looks like enough people have moved through this road that the snow is much more compacted and it makes for a better walking experience, as well as some sign and lamp posts every once in a while.
A little while longer, and I can finally see the walls of Brackenhold. It looks quite imposing from the outside, with walls standing about twenty feet tall made of dark gray stone. I would guess it was made from the stone from the mountains around here, as I can imagine it being pretty tough to transport enough materials up into the mountains. Occasionally there is a watch tower of sorts extending from the wall that reaches about thirty five feet tall.
As I reach the gates, a guard approaches me. “State your business, sir.” The guard doesn’t seem particularly interested in me, probably just trying to make it through the day and earn his coin. I notice the other guards as well, they all wear a similar dark gray metal armor adorned with some shiny green accents. They either have swords at their side or long polearms.
I’m a bit unsure as to what I should tell this guy, so I go with something simple. “I’m an adventurer, looking for a place to rest and quests to earn some coin.” It seemed like that answer was good enough, as the guard nodded and stepped aside, handing me a small token. Probably so that on a return from leaving the city they’ll know I’ve been here before.
Stepping into the town, it begins to feel a lot more inviting than the view from the outside. Houses and shops covered in snow, with warm lanterns or torch light keeping the cold at bay. The majority of the building had a similar dark gray stone base to the walls, but most of the construction was done with what I would guess is the trees from the surrounding forest, which made a nice dark brown lumber.
I’m not exactly sure of what I should be looking for here, but I have about ten silver from the starting equipment I was given, so I set out to find an inn or tavern that I could secure a room in. It’s still early afternoon, but better to do it now when there’s less competition I suppose. I continue walking throughout the town and ask a few people where I might find an inn. They give some varied answers, but the one they all suggested was the Snow Tide inn.
— — — —
The Snow Tide inn was located centrally in the town, but not on the main street where the most popular businesses were. It was off a few side streets in a much quieter part of town. The building itself stood at least a story above most of the surrounding homes or businesses, being what looked like three floors in total. It was built of the same dark brown wood that most of the town was constructed with, but it had been splattered with white paint, seemingly to give the impression of snow falling.
Above the door hung a sign with the name of the inn on it, also painted in white. As I entered the door I was immediately met with the smell of cooking, perhaps a stew. All I could really tell was it smelled savory and delicious. There was a woman behind a bar looking over some documents, and when she noticed me she smiled. “A new face? Well come on in! What can I do for ya?”
I approached the bar, returning the smile. “I was wondering if I could rent a room here for a while, what are your prices?” Now that I was closer, the woman’s features became clearer. She was about the same height as me, with frizzy brownish red hair. She wore glasses and looked to be in her forties.
“Well, if you wanted to rent per night, it would be 10 copper a day,” She said, pulling out a few papers, it looked like contracts of some sort, “If you wanted to stay for longer though, I would suggest renting for a week up front, as that will save you some coin. It would only cost fifty copper for the week, that includes one meal a day as well.”
“Great, let’s do the week-long stay,” I responded. “Do you also know of any quest boards or adventurers guilds around here? I’m looking for some simple tasks that a beginner adventurer would be able to handle.”
She paused for a moment, clearly in thought, and said “We don’t have an adventurers guild really, this town is quite far to the north of Findris so most of the monster problems are taken care of by the military,” she thought a bit more before adding, “But I do have a friend in the commercial district that might need some help. I can point you in that direction if you want?”
▸Would you like to accept this quest?◂
A bit surprised by the notification coming into view, I continued the conversation, “I would appreciate that, I promise I’ll do my best to help,” I was never really that good at the sales pitch type stuff, so I just tried to be more genuine than not. The woman smiled again, saying “Thanks! If you go down the main street in the town from the gate, look for the building with a sign that has berries on it. The owner is named Kyle Brightwood. Tell him Evelyn sent you.”
After exchanging the copper and getting the room key, I set out to find the place Evelyn mentioned. I got another notification telling me I had accepted the quest “Evelyn’s Friend”, so at least I feel like I’m doing something right. This is definitely not like MMOs that existed before, with a main story and then a bunch of side quests. It really feels like a fully simulated world.
— — — —
After wandering for a bit, I managed to find the building with the berry sign. It was a small building, with some plants growing out front. I have to imagine they must be either magical or evolved to be able to grow in this frigid climate. As I stepped inside the first thing I was met with was the smell. It was about as earthy and natural as it gets, which made sense given that the walls were covered with plants of all different kinds.
There didn’t seem to be anyone in this front room though, so after looking around at the plants for a bit I called out, “Hello? Anyone there?” Right after that there was a small thud and some movement from a doorway off to the side, and coming out was a younger man, maybe mid to late twenties, in a fuzzy robe. He had long dirty blonde hair, and kind of slumped forward as he walked. His nose appeared to be abnormally red.
He sniffled and said, “Hi, sorry, welcome to Berries and Bits Apothecary, what can I get you?” It sounded like he was sick, and he looked pretty miserable. I responded, “I’m looking for Kyle, Evelyn sent me. She mentioned he could use the help of an adventurer.” His face lit up a bit after that, which was nice to see.
The man was about to speak, but turned away to cough first, “Oh good, yeah as you can see I could really use some help. I seem to have caught some type of cold, one that isn’t getting better no matter what potions or herbs I try,” He turned away again to sneeze, before continuing, “It should go away on its own, but it’s become difficult to get outside to harvest some of the plants that I can’t grow here. Would you be able to go collect them for me?”
▸Quest updated◂
▸New Quest: Collect plants for Kyle◂
▸Would you like to accept this quest?◂
After agreeing to help Kyle, he gave me a description of the plants he needed to collect and where to find them. They were all relatively close to town, and he imagined it wouldn’t take me more than a few hours. He gave me a few small sacks and said he would pay me twenty copper for each full sack, which didn’t seem too bad given that a night in the inn was ten copper. I don’t know the general prices of goods yet though so I can’t say if this would be enough average income to sustain myself for a bit.
It felt pretty exciting though, I finally had my first proper quest. Collect quests were staples in MMOs, and to be able to do it in a fully virtual reality for the first time was a pretty cool feeling.
Before I set out to collect these plants, I walked down the main street a bit and found a clothier. I purchased a simple thick cloak to help shield myself from the cold, which was fifty copper. I figured it would be a good investment if I’m going to be spending a lot of time here. It didn’t give me any extra stats or protection though, which is probably why it was so cheap. With my gear ready, I set out into the wilderness.