Toby tried to calm his nerves while he waited in a small clearing while the others were out there trying to herd some animals in his direction.

He had a sinking feeling in his gut about the whole idea, but it seemed the only way to catch anything since none of them had the tracking skill.

Whenever they saw tracks, none of them had even a single idea about what it could be, or even if it was dangerous or not.

A sudden scream some distance away into the dense forest indicated a success of sorts. The only issue was that the sound had more semblance to someone getting murdered in some horrifying manner, rather than someone chasing prey in his direction.

The only good news was that it was coming closer to the small clearing he was waiting in. the bad news was that whatever they were luring towards him, had silenced at least one of his screaming friends already.

Toby suddenly felt really stupid, why hadn't he climbed up a tree first? It was far too late now, as another horrible scream was cut short, leaving only a single panicked voice approaching rapidly.

Suddenly Ortho burst into the clearing with 3 huge wild boars with large tusks snapping at his heels.

Toby wasted no time casting his first spells in the manner they had planned beforehand.

The plan had been to first blind the enemy with dust and wind, then follow it up with pelting it from afar with everything they had.

Before the dust cloud could even reach all the way to the boars though, they got hold of the last member of his friends.

Toby got a clear and very traumatizing view of one of the boar's skewering Ortho through the thigh, before the second one bit into his calf and tore his lower leg off with a violent jerk with its head.

Time seemed to slow for Toby as he watched the blood spurt into the air from the torn off limb as Ortho went down with a blood-curdling scream. The third boar was about to jump onto him too when the dust cloud reached it's destination, doing little more than grab the attention of the huge wild pig.

Toby stared at the beast with his heart thumping and the clammy cold feeling of panic rising up through his chest.

This was far too much to handle in his present state.

Trying hard to ignore the horrible sounds of the body of his companion being mangled and pulled apart by the 2 other boars, he tried desperately to ready himself for the monster boars inevitable charge.

The boar had apparently no intentions of letting Toby get the chance gather himself up, and charged immediately straight at him with a loud squeal and snort.

The sight of the charging animal snapped Toby out of his paralyzed state of mind and into action.

Fervently hoping that the boar would be afraid of fire, he tried to use a combination of wind and fire for his next spell.

The resulting disappointing weak squirt of fire, quite unlike the flamethrower of awesome he had secretly prayed for seemed far too weak in the face of a charging monster pig.

It did make the boar veer off to the side rather than running him down directly though, causing a big opportunity to present itself for Toby to exploit.

Using that opening, Toby immediately started to pelt the beast with as many pebble spells as he could fire off in succession before the beast could turn around.

It wasn't entirely without effect, as several small wounds started to appear on the big boar, but it was no more than scratches and light bruises. At this rate, he would run out of MP long before the boar was even half dead.

The boar, not one for wasting time on a weak opponent went directly for round 2. Only stopping for a moment to stare Toby directly in the eye.

A terrible chill passed trough Toby as he saw his own death reflected in the hateful beady eyes of the huge beast.

He desperately prepared another weak fire spurt in the hope that it would make the beast turn away at the last moment once again.

He needed to at least buy some time, so he could get more pebble shots in. He might get lucky and hit it in the eye or something after all. Anything that would cause it to leave him alone long enough for him to climb a tree or something would be fine.

Toby's luck had run out though. The boar charged straight through the fire instead of turning away from it and knocked him backward with great force.

Toby's rearward flight ended with a searing head bursting pain, as he impacted something hard.

Trying to clear his vision, Pain coursed through him in nearly unbearable waves, while the gigantic boar sauntered towards him with its tail held high.

Toby struck out in pure desperation, flailing his hands at the eyes and snout of the beast as it went in for the kill.

It deftly dodged his feeble attempts to keep it at bay and grabbed on to Toby's right hand and arm. His arm was practically all the way inside its mouth when it bit down on it, causing another rush of mind breaking pain.

This time the pain overwhelmed Toby. His panicked mind snapped into a desperate rage as he lost all hope to get out of it alive. Toby put everything he had into channeling burning hand with the hand still lodged deep in the mouth of the beast.

The boar's eyes instantly went wide, before it tried to pull back with an ear-deafening squeal filled with desperate pain and fear, egging on the raging anger in Toby's heart.

Toby grabbed onto the boar's ears with his left arm, and let himself be pulled along with the desperately backpedaling and tossing animal. He held onto the animal with desperate strength while it tried to dislodge him, growing ever wilder and more desperate as Toby repeated the spell again and again.

After a little while, the creature slowed down and stopped. Its eyes had turned white, and a delicious smell of bacon wafted into Toby's nose from the smoke coming out of its ears and mouth.

Toby had an oddly satisfied feeling at the smell of sizzling bacon as the darkness of death took hold.

Player: Achievement get: Choke on this: killing an enemy by having it literally choke to death upon trying to eat you.

Toby blinked rapidly, He was back in the portal room again, with the others standing around him with mirthful faces. Had they seen the fight through the portal? It was still open, showing a small clearing with 2 big boars fighting over their roasted companions corpse.

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“I'd have to say that most critters should know better than to try to dine on you from now on Toby.” Urist guffawed. The laughter quickly spreading around to everyone present.

“This was a horrible idea.” Toby croaked as a rather weak response to the joke. “Worst time ever.”

“So do we have to go back and die a few more times then?” Ortho questioned. Disgust at the thought evident on his face. Toby wasn't the only one that didn't feel like going back in this state.

“We need to take a step back and look at our options again,” Alice replied. “We need a proper plan before making another attempt at this.”

“We'll take an hour break to ponder our options, and then have a meeting to discuss our findings,” Toby interjected. “I for one, need a strong drink, and some time to gather my wits about me before even considering going back into that place.”

----------------------------------------

Toby finally felt decent again as he entered the boardroom for their rather impromptu strategy meeting. A strong glass of rotgut and some snacks had taken some of the terror out of the memory of his rather gruesome death, and now he felt refreshed enough to do some reflection on what went so horribly wrong.

“Hi everyone.” He greeted the rest of the group. They were already present and waiting for him when he came in. They seemed to have taken their deaths a lot better than he had, causing him to reflect on the fact that they had probably experienced such horrors many times already.

“Anyone come up with any good ideas while we rested up?” Toby asked, not quite willing to waste more time than needed before they got back to business again.

“Operation 'die a lot' is still valid.” Urist started.

“We would need to gain 3 or 4 levels each to get strong enough to actually have a fighting chance though.”

“That is such an unlikely to achieve goal, that I'm in favor of immediately summoning the embarkment tribe instead.” Ortho opined. “We don't need all of them to survive to get the quest done after all. Just enough to get started to settle the world until we get more people spawned in.”

“Making new more rounded characters is always an option as well.” Alice shrugged.

“I did some thinking along the same lines.” Toby nodded his head towards Alice.

“But I think we actually have to completely rethink our purpose for being in that world in the first place.”

“You had one of your harebrained ideas again haven't you?” Alice asked eyes narrowed in speculation while looking into Toby's eyes.

“Maybe.” He replied with some heat rising in his cheeks. She knew him too well at this point. “It depends on what you guys think our goals actually are.”

The crew mulled the question over in their minds while Toby waited patiently. It would be easier if they came to the same conclusion he had.

Ortho went first once again. “We are to guide our peoples development into strong healthy civilizations.”

“True enough.” Toby replied. “But we aren't required to be part of those civilizations right?”

“Not really.” Ortho nodded, “I think I know what you are getting at.”

“playing as God's have some merit.” Alice continued the line of thought.

“But it also comes with some serious limitations.”

“What are those?.” Urist asked, eyes wide with excitement at the prospect. “I've never played a God before.”

“You can't directly interact with the world like a player or reincarnate can, except through miracles and blessings,” Alice answered before taking a breath.

“I guess those are fueled by prayer power right?” Toby hurried to ask before Alice could go into full teacher mode like she often did given the opportunity. She wasn't the only one who had gotten better acquainted with the other these past few days.

“Yes.” She confirmed, giving Toby a pouting smile. She appeared rather disappointed that she didn't get to do one of her lectures this time.

“This is going to be expensive isn't it?” Ortho replied with a dubious expression. “How do we pay for it?”.

“We currently have 1k in the guild coffers,” Alice replied. “But we need to pay wages soon if we want to keep our employees happy.”

“The Draconian's recommended we add Band of Uncles, and the Anima Alliance if we needed more credits.”

Toby sighed. “I can maybe have a chat with them and see what they are willing to offer for early access."

“Can't we borrow some more money instead?” Urist asked. Apparently not very comfortable with adding more factions to the world this early in it's history.

“We already owe 9k credits to the Draconian's” Toby answered.

“We have to start paying back soon as well.”

“I think I might know who I can ask.” Alice seemed to hesitate. “The price might not be worth it though.”

“I trust fully in your judgment on this kind of matters Alice,” Toby replied. making a note of her hesitation.

“I will do what it takes as long as it's within my power.”

“I will see to the arrangements then,” Alice replied giving Toby an appraising look while standing up. “I'll have an answer tomorrow morning.”

“We will meet up again tomorrow then,” Toby replied. “I guess there is nothing more we can do today unless anyone fancies dying some more?”

“Nope.” “Don't fancy that.” Urist and Ortho answered simultaneously while shaking their heads violently.

“We'll go get some rest and relaxation instead.” Urist continued rushing for the door before Toby or Alice could change their minds.

“Dying violently really do suck no matter how many times you've done it before,” Ortho added while chasing after Urist. The both of them disappearing as fast as ghosts in daylight.

“Amen,” Toby whispered to himself as he saw his friends make their hasty escape.

“Go on and blow some steam off too Toby.” Alice offered.

“I'll make contact with the relevant people and see if it's possible to arrange something.”

“Are you sure about me just going off to play while you do the work?” Toby replied.

He felt a rather strong sting of guilt at the thought.

“It's fine.” She replied with one of her sharp toothed predatory smiles while leaning in close. “I'll have you pay me back for it later.” She whispered into his ear in a seductive tone, causing a slight shiver down his spine as her warm breath tingled his neck. He could feel the light touch of a tentacle curl around his waist and give him a playful squeeze before letting go again.

“Now go play with Ortho and Urist dear. I bet they are waiting at the bar for you to come join them.”

She said as her parting words before she disappeared through the door, leaving Toby to ponder his possible futures with Alice. They were definitely moving into a more permanent partnership, one that weren't just predicated on loneliness and shaky trust, but one he felt could be based on mutual feelings of attraction and shared goals.

It felt strange to feel this way for a person that was so clearly not a human.

It even felt taboo, if he was honest with himself. But this was the Nexus, and what was a taboo on earth, probably didn't count here.

Maybe he should talk about what was and wasn't taboo in the Nexus with his drinking buddies tonight. Get a feel for what was considered right and wrong in this alien landscape.