The forest around the gate was much denser with trees and foliage than anywhere within the training grounds. Navigating through them was becoming painfully slow. Every now and then, we looked down at our map to see how far we had progressed. The giant circle that once represented the Training grounds had now become a mere dot. Several times throughout our journey, we wondered if we should turn back and check if the training ground had really disappeared, but it felt unnecessary as it had now become a place in memories for us.

We followed north as Faeren had instructed us. Having started on sunrise, by the time the sun began to set, we had progressed about thirty or so kilometers. Despite the forest looking the same as before, we could feel the change in the atmosphere. The lack of treants, the constant buzzing of bugs, and there was a feeling of eyes watching us all the time.

“I don’t think I can make it any further,” Urvi said. She dropped her Saber and bent over, grabbing her knees as she panted hard.

We had been hacking and slashing our way through the impenetrable foliage all day, exhaustion was bound to set in.

“Alright. Let’s try to make camp here,” I replied.

She straightened up and looked around with her hands on her hips. “Here?”

We were surrounded by, well… more trees and plants. I pulled out my claymore and hacked through the greenery, clearing the ground just enough for a small camp. Urvi got about stomping the ground, making it as flat as she could. By the time we set up the camp, we were ready to flop onto the ground and close for the day. The warmth of the fire felt good after a hard day's work.

I opened up the journal, taking a look at the inventory when Urvi bought up something very interesting. “Did you notice? We didn’t even run into one chest today.”

“Yes. It was something that was on my mind too,” I replied.

“Do you think they were only for training? Or will we find any more?”

“If this is like a video game, then there must be more scattered around. Maybe they are just harder to come by,” I said. I took a quick look at the rations, it will last us a few more days but I wasn’t sure if we would find more. “I think we should start hunting for food.”

“Huh? Why is that?”

“Judging by how much food we have been eating and how we haven’t run into a single chest in an entire day, chances are we might start running out of food soon,” I explained.

“Fine by me. This whole experience felt incomplete to me without any hunting. Don’t you agree?” She glanced at me with a cheeky grin.

“Always up for a challenge, huh?” I commented.

“Always.”

***

Beasts of all kinds roamed the forest, but which ones would you describe as edible? This thought ate away at my brain as we continued on our journey.

“You know, this whole new fantasy world thing has become a bit boring, don’t you agree?” Urvi asked.

We have been doing nothing but dredging through thick forest for one and a half days. “Well in games, they say one kilometer becomes ten meters. In the real world...”

“Places aren’t really that close to each other,” Urvi finished the statement, ending with a dull sigh.

I fell quiet once again, lost in my own thoughts when Urvi suddenly burst through my trance again. “You seem dull, is everything alright?”

“Huh? Yes. Just that I haven’t eaten meat before and...” I tried to explain.

“Oh yeah! Well, looks like it is just fruits and leaves for you,” Urvi said. Her sarcasm was accompanied by an evil grin that infuriated me.

“To be fair, I have no clue what we ate in those rations. I must also adapt. Back in our world, I had that luxury. But here... well I have to eat to survive.”

She scoffed softly, though I think I made more sense she would like to admit. “So, what do we hunt?”

“As far as I know,” I said as my eyes scanned the surroundings, “any herbivore would make a good meal.”

As we trudged through the forest, we finally came up on our first hunt. However, this all felt like deja vu. It was another fawn, small without any antlers, probably young. It was about fifty feet away from us and was chewing the leaves off a plant, blissfully unaware of us eyeing it for food.

“Please don’t tell me we are hunting that,” she whispered.

“It is our best option right now.”

She grunted. “So, how do we do this?”

“I got an idea.” I extended my arm with my palm facing the beast. I summoned the core and as the mana swelled, I shaped it into an image of thoughts and cast it towards the deer. Wisps of white mist flowed from the palm and struck the deer in a span of two seconds. Tranquilize.

The deer lifted its head into the air, its jaw dropped, and its gaze lost towards something distant.

“Now. Hit it!” I instructed Urvi,

Urvi pulled out her axe and lifted it up, ready to throw. But suddenly the deer broke away from my trance and leapt into the air. “Crap!” I exclaimed, but Urvi threw the axe with all her might.

The axe sliced through the air and any foliage that stood in the path. It narrowly missed the leg of the deer as it dashed into the air.

“After it!” she exclaimed.

We threw ourselves after it, but it was a losing battle. The deer was almost out of sight and there was no way we were catching up with it.

At that moment, I could only think of one other option. I stopped, dead in my tracks, while Urvi ran ahead. I once again pointed my hand in the direction of the deer before letting out a small ball of decimation spell in its direction. The energy ball ate through the forest before crashing into the deer, sending it flying and then crashing into the ground.

We quickly ran over to see the charred corpse of the deer fighting to stay alive. My stomach was in knots seeing the poor creature struggle. “What the hell...” I said.

“It’s okay,” Urvi said. She brought the axe down onto the beast’s head, ending its misery.

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***

Though the deer was scorched pretty badly, it provided enough meat for the next few days. Plus, we managed to secure some skin as well, which I was hoping to sell for some coin.

“Are you okay?” Urvi asked.

The path seemed to have cleared up. There was more space between the trees and the foliage had minimized enough for us to travel without hacking.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it.” I didn’t realize at that moment that it was the first living creature I had ever killed, except for bugs and pests, of course.

“Maybe we should try to get some other food items...” Urvi began.

“Relax...” I interrupted, “It is the way of life now. I will get used to it.” I turned to her with a sly grin and Urvi replied by shining her teeth.

It was still early day and we had covered quite a distance. Yet we hadn’t interacted with anything or anyone. This made us a bit concerned. Were we doing something wrong?

Turned out, it was all about time. The world is enormous after all. About half an hour later, we came up with our first interaction in the most video game way possible.

“Help!” a shrill voice echoed through the forest.

Urvi and I stopped dead in our tracks as we tried to figure out where the voice came from.

“Help! Please!” the voice called out again.

I scanned my surroundings, trying to find the source of the sound.

“Help!” they cried out again.

“That way!” Urvi said and dashed off to her left. I followed her without another thought. The cries for help continued and they only got louder. At a distance, we could see a figure wiggling on the forest floor. “There!” she said.

It was a man, who appeared to be pinned down by a fallen tree trunk. “Help!” he cried again. However, this time his voice wasn’t as loud.

“Don’t worry sir, we will get you out,” Urvi said as she squatted down and grabbed onto one end of the trunk. Without even asking for help, she raised the end with a loud grunt, flexing her thick arms and thighs. I was lost for a second admiring, and lusting a little, her looks. “Karna...” she whispered, snapping me out of my trance.

“Right!” I bowed down and dragged poor man from underneath the trunk before Urvi dropped it to the ground. A loud thud echoed through the forest, sending birds fleeing into the open sky above.

The man, a scrawny elder in nothing but a black loincloth, rolled over and tried to push himself off the ground, but his left leg was in no shape to move. It appeared squished, bent unnaturally. “That’s not good...” I said.

“No... it isn’t...” Urvi had a grim expression.

“It’s alright. Nothing new. But good folk, I need your help,” the old man said.

“Please tell us,” I said kindly.

“I was on my way to trade goods in the next town when I was attacked by an orc. The orc took my horse and cart while leaving me under the tree. Please... retrieve my horse and cart, so I can make my way back to safety,” he said.

A jolt of excitement surged through my body. We finally got our first quest and a familiar feeling swelled inside me. “Certainly. Can you tell us which way it went?” I asked.

He pointed straight towards a small opening between two trees. Looking closer, we could make out that there was a path carved in that direction. “It hasn’t been long. If you hurry now, you might find it.”

“We are on our way.” I turned to Urvi and asked, “Urvi, shall we?”

“Fuck yes!” she said, thrusting her fist into the air in excitement.

We dashed off in the said direction, running between the two trees that were unnaturally bent to resemble an arch. As we continued on the path, the canopy thickened, and it became darker and darker.

About half a kilometer in, we came upon a clearing. We stopped just before entering it, taking a few steps back. “You can feel it?” I asked panting.

“Yeah,” she replied, her chest rising up and down as she spoke.

It was an unnatural feeling, call it basic instinct, that told us something terrible was ahead of us. We tiptoed off the path and towards the clearing. Hiding behind the bushes, we peeped into the clearing and saw the monster.

He was huge, almost ten feet tall, and built like a tank. His skin was dark green and looked thick and impenetrable. His face was just a big rectangular block, bald on top, while housing sharp teeth, two of which protruded through his lower lip. He wore brown rugged pants and aged black leather boots while his torso was protected by an armored shoulder pad on his left shoulder, held in place by a big belt wrapping around his chest.

“That is one mean motherfucker!” I whispered.

“He is. How the fuck do we take him down?”

He turned around before lifting a broken tree stump off the ground and carrying it over to the other side of the clearing. There was the horse, lying on the ground, immobile, and to its left was the cart. Both appeared to look fine, and I hoped the horse was breathing fine too.

“He doesn’t know we are here, we can start with an ambush,” I said.

“And then?”

“We improvise.”

Urvi rolled her eyes. “Why are we going up against giant monsters on our first try?”

“Bad luck I guess.”

“Well. Say your prayers now.” Urvi stood up and tiptoed into the clearing. I followed her. The orc drove the stump into the ground, giving Urvi the window to sprint towards it.

However, the orc noticed immediately, turning around to see Urvi approaching. He let out a thundering roar, ready to face off. But I had other plans. I pointed my index finger in his direction and cast a decimation spell, sending an energy ball flying towards him.

He instinctively blocked the spell with his armored left arm, seemingly causing zero damage. But it created a window for Urvi, who jumped up into the air before bringing down the axe onto his left arm. The orc pushed back, using his right arm to grab hold of her. But Urvi used her body weight to swing away and pulled the axe out of the armor, ripping it off his arm.

Just as she landed on the ground, the orc jetted its right arm toward her. However, I sneaked in from behind her and quickly cast a protect in front of her. The shield shattered on impact with the orc’s arm, but the force pushed him back and off balance.

Urvi charged in, slashing his two legs with her Saber. The orc let out a loud cry as it fell to the floor. Urvi hopped onto its knees, which were folded like a mountain, before flying into the air. She held onto the Saber with both arms as she tried to bring it down onto the Orc. The Orc, however, proved to be faster than expected. It rolled away, in the nick of time, causing her to slam into the ground beneath. She cursed out loud.

The orc struggled to get back up on its feet. Red blood was oozing from both its legs. It stumbled for a moment as it backed away from Urvi. I used this opening to cast another decimation spell, this time packing some power to it. The spell smashed into the beast, tipping it off balance.

Urvi ran towards him screaming before logging the axe into his stomach. He cried out in pain but once again tried to grab hold of Urvi, but Urvi completed the job slicing the monster’s stomach open before his arms could reach her.

The orc fell to his knees before slamming into the ground with a dull thud.

“That was fucking awesome!” Urvi declared, jetting the axe into the air. “Must have been a good chunk of XP!”

We looked at our arm, only to see the band expand by ten percent. “What the fuck?” Urvi cursed.

I pulled out the journal and looked at the events page. “Dear, we just took down a level eleven Orc,” I said.

“Wait. That thing was barely a level more than us?” she said, looking at him. Suddenly a white orb floated up from his body. Urvi grabbed hold of it quickly, looking at it in awe. “Sweet! Reward!”

I looked behind to see something just as interesting hiding behind a makeshift bed. “Not just that. We got ourselves a chest too,” I said.

***

The horse was knocked out cold causing a bit of anxiety and nervousness within us. However, when he awoke, he was jumping and cantering about like nothing had happened. Urvi and I breathed a sigh of relief before returning to the quest giver.

“Thank you very much...” the old man said, clasping his hands together and bowing down.

“No. No. It was our pleasure,” Urvi replied with a smile.

“You are too kind. Here. For your troubles.” He held both his hands out and inside them was a pile of coins, specifically copper coins. Regardless, Urvi and I looked at it with wide eyes. Our first interaction with the currency of this world.

We helped the man get back on his cart and sent him on his way. We debated whether to go along with him, but learning that he was headed east, we decided to part ways with him.

By the end, we got 12 copper, a health potion, an antidote potion, and a rusty orc armor.

“What are we going to do with the orc armor? It is too damn big for either of us,” Urvi asked.

We slowly walked north without much of a plan. “I am guessing it is junk. Meant to be sold off to a merchant for copper.”

“Wait. Wasn’t he a merchant?” Urvi asked.

I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at her with a stupid expression. “Fuck!”

Just as I finished cursing, a shrill scream cut through the forest like a razor. The scream sent a chill running up my spine. I felt something dreadful was taking place.

“Seriously. Is every quest going to start with someone screaming?” Urvi said sarcastically.

“Urvi. This way,” I said and jetted off in the direction of the scream. My pace picked up, running unusually fast.

“Karna, what happened?” Urvi asked.

I didn’t answer. The screaming did not stop, getting louder and louder. I stopped a few steps from where I thought the scream came. Looking around, we saw a small shallow burrow and inside it, two men pinning a young girl down to the ground.

“Get the fuck off her you monsters!” Urvi screamed before charging towards them.