A Wake-Up Call
Howard opened his eyes and found himself in a crowd of people. They were mostly women, but there were a few men here and there. The women were all beautiful, and the men weren’t bad either, he had to admit. They were are reaching out, trying to touch him. Some were giving him kisses on his cheeks, arms, and chest. They were tender, passionate kisses that made him feel loved and wanted. He stood there for a moment, taking in the admiration. As he did so, he slowly began to realize that the crowd made no noise. They were reaching for him, kissing him, and fighting each other to get closer to him, yet they made no sound. That’s when a little voice, barely audible, began telling him something was wrong. He felt like he should get out of the crowd, but he really liked being admired this way. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his right arm. “Ow”, he said, but the sound didn’t reach his ears. He looked at his arm and one of the women was no longer kissing his arm, but biting it. Blood oozed out of her mouth and ran down his arm. “What the…” but he wasn’t able to finish before there was another bite on his left arm, then one on his left cheek. The faces of the people began to change as well. They grew long fangs, and their eyes turned red.
He started to push his way through the crowd. The more he did so, the more bites he felt. This went on for what seemed like forever, before he was able to break through the crowd. As he did, he sat bolt upright on the dirt mound. The dream began to fade immediately, but the bites kept coming. Howard looked at his arms and jumped up in horror. He was covered in leeches. There must have been a dozen on each arm. He could feel them on his face and his chest. In a panic, he began to pull them off and throwing them on the ground. There were hundreds of them coming out of the water, making their way to him. He began to stomp on them as they crawled across the dirt. Blood flowed down his arms and mingled with the green blood of the dead leeches. He pulled and stomped, and pulled and stomped until the ground around him became a gooey mix of red and green. Somewhere in his panic he had removed his top, and pulled the leeches off his chest. Eventually, the leeches stopped coming.
Howard stood there breathing heavily, dripping sweat and blood. His arms were covered in red circular marks that puffed up and had a cut that looked like a stretched out Y in the center. As he looked over the carnage, he realized that he was getting very tired, and beginning to feel nauseous. He turned and moved away from the water and the dead leeches. Before he found a good spot to sit down and rest, his stomach turned on him. First it rolled over, then back. It then stood up and tried to punch its way out. When that didn’t work, it tried to jump out of Howard’s mouth, only to fall back down. It landed on its back, and, much like when a person lands on their back and looses all the air in their lungs, his stomach lost its contents. Water came spewing out of him like his mouth was a fire hydrant. Fluid flowed out of him for what seemed to Howard like minutes. More came out than had gone in, he was sure. Looking at the scene, he was confused at first. There were small black…things crawling around in the water he had just expelled. It took him a moment before he realized what they were. “I swallowed fucking leeches,” he said and threw up what little was left in his stomach.
WARNING! You have been poisoned. The message popped up and was flashing red. He couldn’t miss it.
WARNING! You are slowly losing health while affected by Leech Poison.
WARNING! You are slowly losing strength while affected by Leech Poison.
Great! He thought. What the fuck do I do now?
Would you like to take a diffusing potion? Yes/No
“What the hell is a diffusing potion?” He said out loud. The predictable, yet still somewhat startling window popped up.
Potion, Diffusing: A diffusing potion is used to; slow, stop, or reverse the effects of low grade poisons. The success of the potion is dependent on the quality of the potion and the strength of the poison. Think of it like trying to kill brain cells using water or whiskey. One is going to do a much better job.
WARNING! You have been poisoned.
WARNING! You are slowly losing health while affected by Leech Poison.
WARNING! You are slowly losing strength while affected by Leech Poison.
Would you like to take a diffusing potion? Yes/No
“Yes!” He shouted, maybe a bit louder than he intended.
You do not have a diffusing potion to consume. Would you like to concoct one?
“Wait…I can concoct potions?” He said, “Yes, I would like to concoct a diffusing potion.”
You do not have the required ingredients to concoct this type of potion.
Missing ingredients:
1. One to four live leeches, depending on size
2. The blood from two leeches that aren’t the same leeches from #1
3. Water from a marsh, swamp, or stagnant pond.
4. Two leaves from a Junebo bush.
5. Something to hold the liquid in. A potion vial is the best option, but if one needs to consume the potion right away, any vessel that can hold liquid will do.
He could feel himself losing energy. The message in front of him was going in and out of focus. He shook his head and squinted his eyes to try to make the words more clear. It didn’t work. As he stood there, his head started to droop. “I gotta sit down,” he said, and plopped himself down on the ground, not bothering to look for a more comfortable spot. He put his head in his hands and let out a sigh. Before he could even think of what to do next, he fell backwards onto the ground and was asleep…again.
Sometime later, he had no idea how long, Howard opened his eyes. His head was pounding like a bass drum, and his stomach felt like it was eating itself. He struggled to get into a sitting position. “At least I’m still alive,” he said. “At least I think I am.” Looking around, he decided he must have been asleep for a few hours. It was getting dark, and the temperature had dropped a few degrees. “I better find something to eat and some shelter, or I won’t make it through the night,” he said to no one. “I’m surprised something hasn’t come alone and eaten me already.” It was then that he noticed a light flashing in the corner of his right eye. He focused on it and the message window popped up.
WARNING! You have been poisoned.
WARNING! You are slowly losing health while affected by Leech Poison.
WARNING! You are slowly losing strength while affected by Leech Poison.
NOTICE: You are no longer being affected by Leech Poison.
NOTICE: You are no longer losing health.
NOTICE: You are no longer losing strength.
NOTICE: You are slowly regaining health.
NOTICE: You are slowly regaining strength.
“Well, that is convenient,” he said out loud. At the same time, he noticed another light flashing in the corner of his left eye. “What the fuck could this be?” As he focused on the light, a screen popped up, as anticipated. The title at the top of the screen read:
QUESTS
Quests are a good source of rewards and experience. The harder the quest, the more and better the rewards.
You have two active quests.
Fledgling Killer
Survive the Night
He looked at the screen for a minute, but nothing happened. Fledgling Killer, he thought. The screen instantly changed.
Noob Quest, Fledgling Killer: Kill your first creature and begin your journey to becoming the world’s greatest Slayer. After all, that’s what they were put here for, right? So you could achieve your goals and thin out their numbers? Go get ‘em, killer. REWARD: 1 tier one survival kit.
You have fulfilled all the requirements for this quest. Would you like to complete it now? Yes/No
“Yes,” Howard said, and the screen immediately changed.
Noob Quest, Fledgling Killer: Complete. Reward: 1 tier one survival kit produced.
Howard was startled by a noise that seemed to come from in front of him. It sounded as if something was being pulled out of Jello. SchhhhlooooP and a box appeared in front of him. He quickly opened the box. Inside were two vials. One held a red liquid, the other a green liquid. There were some things that looked liked bandages, a black rock, and a small jar that held some type of ointment. The box also contained something that looked like brass knuckles, but was flat where the knuckles should be. He had no idea what this might be sued for. There were three things in there that really grabbed his attention. A waterskin, some cracker things that reminded him of hardtack, and what he could only assume was some type of dried meat. He stared at these items thinking, Holy shit, I might survive after all. When he picked up the waterskin, he let out a huge sigh of relief. It was full. He uncorked the top and raised it to his lips, then stopped. Howard remembered what had happened after he drank the water from the marsh. He poured a little of the liquid into his hand and looked at it. It was clear and cold. It looked like normal water. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it. Still, he was cautious. He sniffed it and then sucked some into his mouth. It tasted fine.
He downed nearly half of the water in one long drink before forcing himself to stop. He wanted to save some in case he couldn’t find any clean water soon. Howard then turned his attention to the meat. He picked up a slice and examined it. It smelled like teriyaki jerky. He took a small bite. It tasted quite a bit like teriyaki, but a bit sweeter. He swallowed the first bite and his stomach screamed in delight. He shoved the rest of the slice into his mouth and grabbed another. While still chewing, he looked at the crackers. Picking one up, he could tell that it was too hard to eat. He decided to save these until he could make a stew or something to soak them in. As he finished the second slice of meat, he took one more out and closed the box. Holding it up, he wished it into the cornfield. That’s what he decided to call putting things in his inventory. He checked his inventory, and the box was right where he expected it to be.
A harsh howl broke him out of his thoughts and brought him back to his new reality. It sounded like a cross between a wolf and a lion. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to be here if it decided to come down for a drink. The howl came again, and this time was answered by a second howl. Then a third and a fourth. They were coming from his right and possibly slightly ahead of him. Howard decided he would have to examine the rest of the box and the quests later and moved into the forest to his left, hopefully away from whatever was making that noise.