Yippee! You have leveled up!

Matthew stared at the message, confused. "Yippee? Who says Yippee nowadays?" but a few moments later, the message was replaced with a new one.

Guhder defeated

2 Milestones gained

You are now level 2

3 more levels are needed till Awakening.

Matthew waved the message out of the way and looked around the campsite for the beast that had apparently been defeated.

He looked around, not seeing the beast or anything else around the campsite. Then, out of the corner of his eye, something caught his attention. He could see the moon's reflection off what looked like a small pond.

"Was I gone so long it rained?" Matthew questioned.

After not seeing the beast for another few moments, he slowly reached out, touching the slightly cold surface of the bubble. After the bubble disappeared, he sat quietly on his bed for a moment, waiting for something terrible to happen. When nothing happened, he slowly pushed himself off the side and started walking toward the new pond.

"Beautiful" was the first thing that came to mind. Matthew was walking toward the pond and could see what looked like a full moon in its rippling reflection. One thing that struck him as odd was the presence of what looked like a large rock in the middle of the pond.

Matthew kept getting closer and realized what he was looking at was no rock; there lay the Guhder's lifeless-cold body, and surrounding it was no pond but more of a pool of red blood. Recoiling at the realization, he quickly looked away, feeling his stomach immediately turn sour.

"What did that message say? I defeated the Guhder?" Matthew leaned over, slightly lightheaded at the thought, and felt a shiver run down his spine. "I know it would have killed me, but this doesn't feel right."

He looked back at the Guhder, feeling his face flush, and then he noticed the shiny hilt stuck into the monster's eye. This elicited an odd feeling of accomplishment, guilt, disgust, and relief.

After a few moments, Matthew tore his eyes from his first kill in this world, no, his first murder in any world. Feeling a sharp pain in his chest, he touched where the branch had skewered him and said.

"It had to be done; I had to do it." The words sounded hollow, and the guilt gnawed at him as he tried to reason with it. "You made me do it? Why didn't you stop attacking me?" He felt a growing pit of shame in his stomach, so he shook his head, trying to clear it before saying with a trembling voice.

"I should leave." He turned to leave in the opposite direction of the Guhder, but after a few steps, he heard a howl, making him freeze.

The howl came from far away, but it still sent him into a frenzy of looking around him for enemies or even something to defend himself with. Spinning around, his eye caught the slight glimmer of the hilt, and he frowned.

"I guess it's better than dying again." So he walked closer to the Guhder. As he got within a few steps, he prepared himself for the smell but was taken aback by a sweet aroma coming from the dead beast.

The sweet smell helped him disconnect from the situation, and so, with a shaky hand, he reached out to the hilt. The hilt was still cold, and his hand seemed to fit into the grip perfectly. Swallowing, he pulled the sword out in one smooth motion, eliciting a slimy sound as it left the monster's eye socket.

Matthew saw something on the weapon, and without looking at what it was, he tried to flick it off with a slash of the sword, but doing so must have been harder than it looked in movies since he felt a squishy, slick thing fly off the sword and hit his leg.

He felt bile enter his throat and only had enough time to turn away before throwing up what mainly was just acidic liquid.

Matthew eventually regained his composure, and after wiping off the remnants of the Guhder's eye, he looked at his sword. The sword had seen better days, that's for sure. The hilt was about the size of his hand, and the blade was only a few inches larger than that. He looked at the sorry blade and contemplated leaving it, but with another look into the dark woods, he made his decision.

"This will work better than nothing." Matthew then turned and walked away from the campsite into the dark forest.

The forest, which he was so worried about, seemed to keep playing tricks on him as he walked. Every few steps, he would see a shadow flick by, causing him to spin and point his small weapon at it. But as scared as he was, Matthew eventually made it to where the tree line was.

"What is going on here?" Matthew kept looking back and forth as he muttered, "Don't trees usually slowly stop appearing towards the edge of a forest? This looks like a line that they don't want to cross." He didn't like this feeling he was getting while standing there.

The forest's darkness clung to him as he crossed the line of trees. But beyond it? Open, rolling fields stretched out in eerie uniformity. The grass was unnaturally perfect; each blade was cut to the exact same height. There were no trees, no rocks, just emptiness.

Matthew looked back at the dark forest, shook his head, walked up to the top of the hill, and lay down.

The sun was touching the top of this hill, so he closed his eyes, enjoying the light breeze. Even though it looked like morning, it still felt like 70 degrees, and that breeze made it feel like the perfect day. Turning his focus to what he could hear, he listened to the wind blowing and the.

No, just the wind blowing. His eyes burst open." Where are the birds?" Matthew looked up to see a beautiful blue sky with no clouds in sight but no birds either. It wasn't the lack of birds that unnerved him. It was the silence itself — a suffocating, unnatural void.

Wanting something to distract himself, he opened his stat sheet.

Name Matthew Miller

Level 2

Health 100/100

Ability Memento

Ability level 0

"Yup, level two. What do levels do?" he waited a few moments for a response. "I don't know what I expected. Wait, what is that?" Down in the inventory part of his menu was what looked like a rock. This rock had the word "Mile" carved on it, with a small 2 in the top right corner.

Matthew looked at this odd stone for a moment, which somehow caused an information box to appear floating in front of it.

Item

Mile Stone

Information

Milestones are drops from enemies that are stronger than you. If you fight something that is your level and win, you get 1 Milestone. If the enemy is stronger than you, you will be awarded two; however, if the enemy is weaker, you will not normally be awarded anything.

"It's a "Mile" Stone?" Matthew clicked the Mile Stone, and the whole box became gray. "Why is it grayed out?" a box immediately appeared.

You must wait to hit level five and get your Awakening to lose or trade these.

Then, a thought crossed his mind, and he held his hand up with his sword. As soon as he did s, a pop-up appeared in front of it.

Would you like to store "Broken Blade" in inventory?

He mentally selected YES. Matthew's weapon slowly turned into greenish-neon sand and slipped through his fingers. He watched the green sand disappear before touching the ground, and then a new icon appeared in his inventory. He focused on it, and a description popped up.

Adventure's sword:

This weapon is given to each new Adventurer when their journey begins. It is said to bring luck to the user in their first few years.

Matthew looked at the weapon, which once belonged to someone who probably died by the Guhder. "Thank you for leaving this for me; I promise to use it well."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He looked up, dismissing the screens, and thought, "This game-like world reminds me of playing with my siblings. I wonder how they are doing? Do they know what has happened to me? Do I know what's happening to me?"

Sighing, he stood up and stretched, "Well, I can't just wait around here forever." He then started walking in the opposite direction from the forest.

Matthew had been walking over hill after hill for a while now when he heard sounds other than just the light breeze. There was the sound of chalk being used on concrete—not a bad sound, but a dry, higher-pitched sound.

The sound originated past the next hill, so out of curiosity, he walked over the hill to see two small creatures wearing green capes that covered all but their wrinkly faces. Based on the small pauses in their speech and how the sound came from one to the other, the odd grinding sounds seemed to be them speaking to each other.

The small creatures seemed to be playing a game with sticks. One would point to a hand holding a few, and the other would hand a few over before pointing to one of the other's hands.

Matthew wasn't sure what compelled him to stand up—the lack of human interaction, having someone to talk to, or not having to speak with Karen anymore—but he did, and either they didn't like tall things, or the creatures didn't like him. As soon as he stood up, one made a rock on concrete sound, and then the other joined in.

Caught off guard, he looked around, seeing only hills. His heart started to race, his breaths became jagged, and his mind went blank.

Shaking off the start of a panic attack, he remembered his weapon, quickly thought of his inventory, and mentally clicked on the icon. His weapon appeared in his hand, and he turned his attention back to the odd creatures.

With a weapon in hand and his whole focus on the creatures, he felt an odd tingle in his mind. Distracted, he focused on the tingle, and a small tag appeared above the creatures' heads.

Dwarf

A small creature that primarily lives off anger and spite, probably for being called short so many times.

Just like the description said, these Dwarfs stood about three feet high and looked fueled by rage. Matthew watched them as they pulled clubs seemingly out of thin air before making a high-pitched scratching sound.

Deciding to try peace as slim an option as it could be, Matthew yelled over the scream, "I don't want to fight you. Can you understand me?" To try and emphasize what he was saying, he raised his hands in the air in a forestalling way.

This seemed to be the wrong move, however. The Dwarf's eyes seemingly glowed with anger, and they started charging up the hill toward him.

Matthew swallowed hard as he watched them slowly charge up the hill. It seemed that with how short they were, he could easily outrun them, so making a snap decision, he turned and ran.

He decided to run in a different direction than he had come in, not wanting to backtrack. Matthew could hear the odd screams of the little creatures growing steadily fainter until they were gone completely.

Stopping, he looked back, setting his hands on his knees. He was drenched in sweat, and the light breeze felt like heaven on his skin.

He slumped to the ground, staring upwards, exhausted. It seemed to be midday now, and he was starting to feel thirsty. A pang from his stomach also told him he was getting hungry, so after quickly catching his breath, he forced himself back up and looked around again.

Everything looked the same, rolling hills to his left and right, rolling hills behind him. "Wait, what's that." Far in the distance, a steady stream of steam or smoke seemed to rise upwards.

Matthew felt as if he had a second wind and shot to his feet, starting to walk towards the rising cloud.

It took him singing California Girls to himself 15 times before he could determine what was causing the smoke.

After climbing a slightly larger hill than usual, he got a better view, exposing the town where the smoke originated. The smoke looked like it was rising right from the center of the town, but it didn't look like a fire.

The town was large but not huge. It was split up by three main roads stretching off from its entrance. On the outskirts of the town lay a cobblestone wall with only one opening where the fork in the road started.

Matthew could see movement and hoped they were human, but he held his breath as he cautiously climbed closer.

As he got closer, he could make out the people. These people had a head, two arms, and two legs. They passed his rigorous human check. Sighing with relief, he walked up to the entrance of the town.

There were two guards on either side of a large stone gate, one on the right and one on the left. These guards wore what looked like overlapping scales for armor and a hood attached to protect them from the sun. As he came closer, the one on the left called out.

"I don't think I have seen you around before. Are you new here?"

Matthew was still worried these people would be unfriendly but gave a nod to the guard.

The guard reached up and lowered their hood, revealing messy black hair, dark brown eyes, and some stubble below his chin; he looked to be in his early thirties and sported a wide-friendly smile on his face. "My name is James, and" gesturing to his left, "this is Nola."

The other guard, Nola, also lowered her hood. She was pretty; her hair didn't get messy even as she lowered her hood. Nola's hair was light brown, and her eyes were bright blue. She looked to be in her early twenties.

They were both looking at him, so he cleared his voice before speaking. "Hi, my name is Matthew. I haven't been here before, and it's nice to meet you." he saw Nola steal a glance at his hand and looked down. He finally remembered his weapon and dismissed it to his inventory, letting it turn into neon sand.

Nola nodded and turned to continue her post. On the other hand, James held out his arm in what looked like a handshake, and Matthew shook the man's hand.

James tousled his hair, then paused—no, it couldn't get messier. He smoothed it down, attempting to bring some semblance of order, and said, "Would you mind allowing me to show you around? This will also allow us to register you as a visitor."

Matthew felt like he could finally breathe and physically released a sigh of relief before responding, "Thanks, James. I would love that."

James smiled almost mischievously and waved at Nola. "Hey, Nola, I've got to show a newcomer around. Have a good rest of your shift." He then led them into the town.

Up close, the town looked even larger than before. The fork led off slowly from the main road, causing you to choose a route right as you entered. Thankfully, James started explaining. "The town's name is Phinard. It’s split into three main parts. The farthest left road primarily consists of people's houses and farms.

The middle road has the marketplace, the Adventurer's guild, and other kinds of business. Lastly, the right is for those with the most money; their homes are large and spread apart.

Matthew looked at each of the roads. The difference between even the road on the left and right was night and day. The left road had what looked like a gravel road, but the right and middle roads were made of cobblestone. The cobblestone road was oddly flat as if someone had compressed it.

James indicated to follow him, and they started walking again. He led them down the center road and past two large buildings. Matthew noted that a lot of people seemed to hang out at or near that building.

As they continued down the market road, James turned to him and asked, "I'm getting hungry. How about you? My treat."

This made Matthew smile, saying. "That would be great."

James almost scared him as he exclaimed loudly. "I KNEW IT." He then quieted down as people turned to stare." I knew you would have a great smile."

Matthew didn't like the attention, but he appreciated the man who was making him feel at ease. James pointed to a table towards the center of the market, and Matthew sat down.

James returned with two plates of what looked like breakfast burritos. These burritos were huge. Matthew thanked him again and dug in. The burritos took two hands to hold and were perfect. The fluffy eggs had sausage, bacon, and cheese scattered all around like little treasures to be found. The tortilla tasted warm and fresh, as if cooked this morning. It was heaven.

His enjoyment must have shown on his face because James laughed a little, saying, "Glad you like it," before digging into his own.

After they had finished, James led them to the building he had seen before, the one with many people around it. James pointed at it and said, "This is the Adventure's guild. Do you have your guild card with you?"

Looking at the building, he was amazed at how large it was. It was two levels and sprawled what looked like two or three buildings' length in each direction. Remembering the question, Matthew almost started checking his pockets but paused. "What is a guild card?"

James smiled again and said, "I see, so you are new new. Then, I will start at the beginning. Everyone needs to register for the Adventurer's Guild. It allows all the towns to handle the government side of things with ordinary citizens and also will enable them to handle quests for Adventurers.

In other larger towns, there are two buildings, one for each division, but our town isn't large enough yet. This is where you will register as a visitor." James then led them inside.

The inside smelled of old wood and pine. The room they entered was the size of a large conference room with vaulted ceilings. There were some benches around the room and some in the center. Four large pillars broke up the room.

James meandered toward the left side of the room, and Matthew could see what he meant by being split up. On the right side of the room, people were wearing regular clothes. They were in a long line for a receptionist. Where they were heading was another receptionist, but all the people there had some armor on.

As they walked up, the receptionist smiled at James, not the (This is my job kind of smile but of someone who genuinely enjoyed their company.)

As they approached, the receptionist said, "Good afternoon, James. I thought you were on duty today."

James nodded but gestured toward Matthew like he was offering a great price. "I was, but I found this! A Matthew, straight out of the wild," James said with a grin.

Matthew was too surprised and confused to respond, but Angie looked unimpressed and glared at James. "Is that any way to introduce someone? Hi Matthew, my name is Angela, but most people call me Angie. You can ignore this man's antics; it is nice to meet you."

Matthew saw her reach out and also reached out, shaking her hand. "It's nice to meet you too; thanks, Angie."

James seemed to deflate somewhat but started explaining. "He is new, new, I've been showing him around."

Angie gave him another flat look. "I thought I told you we don't call them new new, we call them unregistered."

James shrugged, "Same dif. Could you make him a visitor card?"

Angie looked around them both at the line on the other side of the building. "Just for today, don't forget this is supposed to be on the government side."

"Thanks, Angie," James said.

She then looked at Matthew and asked. "Just to confirm, you appeared more recently?"

Matthew nodded, confused. He couldn't help but ask, "Did you guys appear to?"

James looked confused, then relaxed. "I guess you are new, so it makes sense, but everyone just appears."

Matthew's eyebrows shot up with that, and he tried to ask, "So everyone can respawn?" but even as he tried to say that, something felt off. Matthew could feel a shiver run down his spine, and he started sweating; words entered his mind, words and an almost robotic voice that said.

Restricted conversation found, shutting down.

All that came out of his mouth was "Su…" before the ground came rushing forward.