Chapter Two – Lands Unknown

The sky was black...

Ted lay motionless staring blankly into the darkness. It was hard to tell how much time had passed since he had left the real world behind. After roughly a minute of idle conversation with Tsubaki, a pair of technicians had entered the room, helped him up into the VR pod and then given him some king of sedative. He could have sworn he’d woken up several times between then and now but all he could remember was a gaping white void and the murmur of voices far faraway. Now he was staring up at a sky of endless black without so much as a single speck of starlight to light the way, the touch of cold stone seeping up his back alongside the gentle dripping of water. He blinked curling his hands up into balls and taking in a deep breath. His body felt unusual, light, free. All of the aches and pains he’d been living with for the past sixty years had faded and fled like mist before the morning sun.

The sky... no it wasn’t the sky. The ceiling loomed above him a great curving roof of stone the black now becoming grey as his eyes grew accustomed to the light. Ted rose slowly coming to his feet; his body was new and shaky it would probably take him a while to get used to it, but it felt strong, it was an unfamiliar sensation. He let out a low laugh lurching upwards onto unsteady feet in his shoulders remaining hunched out of instinct, before he stumbled reaching out to catch himself upon a stone wall and slipping back down to the floor.

The air felt cool and damp and somehow practically thrumming with life although it might have just been an after effect of the sudden realisation he was no longer a two-hundred-and-twenty year old man. “You’ll want to take it slowly.” Tsubaki’s voice rang out inside his head, Ted turning around as far as his position backed against the wall could let him looking for the AI. “I’m using telepathy to talk to you right now, it’s time for you to complete the tutorial !”

“Telepathy?” Ted questioned his voice escaping him strangely high pitched, almost musical.

“Well not telepathy but I am literally sending my voice into your brain. Now, there are several things you need to know before venturing out into your brave new world.” Ted pulled himself up into a more comfortable position leaning back against the cold stone wall, his gaze drawn upwards to where a small pale blue light had suddenly burst into being providing true light in the darkness. “You have just spawned in a cave roughly three-thousand feet above sea level in the Gunmar mountain range at the southern edge of the continent of Salba in the country of Talix. The climate is hot and the land heavily forested in its more remote regions though open plains make up the majority of the country and are far cooler. The first thing you will need to do in the game is learn how to access your menu to do this simply raise your dominant hand with all of your fingers pressed together as firmly as possible and push forwards.”

Ted followed Tsubaki’s instructions raising his arm and pushing forwards a pure white window with several buttons, marked in a flowing black text displayed on it suddenly popping into view in front of him. “From here you can access, your character sheet, the games setting, staff support which means me and the exit button. If you would click your character sheet next.” He complied another window opening up before him

NAME/Torr Eward PROFESSION/Farmer AGE/21 STRENGTH/12 ENDURANCE/11 SPEED/10 INTELLIGENCE/10 WILL/17 SKILLS/ GREEN THUMB LV1

“These are your stats, ten points being equal to the level of an average adult in this world. Strength determines how hard you hit, endurance, how long you can keep hitting something, speed how quickly you can get away from being hit, pretty simple. Intelligence determines how quickly you are able to attain new skills and the amount of experience required to reach new levels while Will relates to your ability to resist various mind altering effects and exceed your body’s normal limitations it’s sort of like the chance that you’ll deal a critical hit. Your intelligence and will are averaged in order to determine the strength of any type of magic you cast. Each level you gain in game will give you an additional three points to spend as you wish, if you want more information on a stat or skill all you need to do is click on it, but you can do that later, for now dismiss the window by swiping to the right.” Once again Ted looked up, and proceeded to follow the tutorial as Tsubaki guided him through opening windows to identify items, identifying enemies, how the combat system, the crafting system and the resurrection system worked. It seemed like the rest he’d have to learn on his own.

“Well I think that’s everything, I’ll jus... There.” Tsubaki muttered the sentence punctuated with a dull thud a few feet in front of him what looked like a massive leather rucksack toppling over onto the floor. “In there you’ll find your starting equipment, a mythical ranked weapon and the basic equipment for your profession, along with a couple of sets of clothes, some rations, and some survival stuff. There are also a couple of unique items in there as well I haven’t had a proper look yet you are very welcome Mr Premium Player I hope you enjoy. Good luck Torr.” Tsubaki vanished the light she had summoned disappearing with her. Ted paused, Torr? Wait a minute, the young man opened up his character sheet again paying special attention to the name listed at the top; Torr Eward. Torr... He supposed his name was Torr now, a little shiver ran its way down his spine. That still didn’t feel quite right.

Well it seemed like he was just going to have to get used to it.

Torr sighed reaching forwards to grab the large leather pack resting in front of him and pulling the lid open, a small white window suddenly popping up in front of him listing the different type of items the bag could store. The list seemed to have been constructed from a collection of dropdown menus all of which were currently closed. Torr reached forward selecting the miscellaneous list, a second window appearing, each item printed with a name, some kind of classification and a ranking

MISCELLANEOUS

ITEM CLASS RANK Love's Blessing Accessory; Necklace Ledgendary Farsol's Bestiary Book; Bestiary Epic Torr's Journal Book Common Sticker of Tsubaki's support Sticker Rare

An item could carry one of five different rankings; common, rare, epic, mythical and legendary, and as the ranking increased so did the objects value, rarity and power. Torr pressed his finger against the first item, the necklace; he assumed it was one of the extra items he’d been given. A moment later a description opened up beneath Torr removing his hand.

Brya's Heart Class: Acessory; Necklace

Rank: Ledgendary

Description:Awarded to premium players upon login, this item is blessed and cannot be lost, damaged or stolen. A simple chain necklace decorated with a statuette of Brya Goddess of love. Raises the likely hood of a monster falling in love with the wearer and can create an immediate and temporary sensation of love at first sight capable of stunning some monsters . (This may enrage certain species of monster girl)

Well he wasn’t going to be needing that. Torr huffed closing the window and clicking on the one below it.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Farsol's Bestiary Class: Book; Bestiary

Rank: Epic

Description:Awarded to premium players upon login, this item is blessed and cannot be lost damaged or stolen. A complete compendium of all monsters in Farsol both natural wild monsters and monster girls. This book will automatically update whenever a new species is added. It currently contains; 2680 species of monster

That was more like it, Torr clicked the item a book suddenly expelling itself from the insides of the bag. He reached forward attempting to catch it, but only succeeding in fumbling it down into the dirt.

He clicked his tongue picking the book up and brushing off its cover. The book had been bound in thick red leather, its name printed on the spine in flowing gold lettering, while the games logo, an elf girl was embossed upon the front, Torr flipping through the pages one by one finding detailed descriptions and illustrations of thousands of different species of monsters. The book had been divided neatly into two sections, one containing monster girls, the other listing their more ‘normal’ counterparts each page containing a brief description along with a rating of the monsters danger, how easy it is to ‘tame’ and where it could be found. Torr grinned, he would have to read through the book at some point although now was not that time. He reached forwards dropping the book back into the bag, the item vanishing without a sound as it entered the dark depths beneath. Okay now what was he supposed to do...

Well this was a first, most games usually dumped you with a ton of quests in order to raise your level and give you some half decent supplies, it didn’t seem like Horns and Tails was like that although he supposed that was mostly due to the game being ‘a true open world experience’. Well at the very least he had a goal he wanted to work towards that wasn’t quite as obscure as ‘levelling up’ he was going to start a farm, that was his quest and to do that first he’d need to know exactly where in his new world he’d arrived.

Torr opened up the weapons subsection inside of his bag finding only one item present under the class of swords; Reapers Lightning. Well it was good to know this world wasn’t all hugs and cuddles. He was betting there would be ample opportunity to use the weapon, although he did feel kind of uneasy about chopping up humanoid monsters run by AI’s who could actually feel pain... Ah he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. Torr clicked on the weapon, the hilt of a sword suddenly popping up out of the bag, the young man rising to his feet to remove the blade, having to take several steps back in order to free the whole thing from the bag. The weapon, stood nearly as tall as Torr himself, a long katana the hilt black as midnight criss-crossed with sashes of royal blue and pristine white. The sheath had been marked by a series of pale scratches running along its length ending in a faded golden cap a metal loop resting at the top of the scabbard just below the guard. He reached forwards unsheathing the blade a fraction of an inch a wave of static electricity arcing from the steel, a pale blue light infusing the cave, Torr taking in a sharp breath before slamming it closed, a wide smile pulling at the corners of his lips.

Of course there were several problems with the weapon as there were with any piece of pay to win merchandise, firstly the blade was too long it was light as a feather but it felt unwieldy and cumbersome, secondly the blade was too long, he couldn’t pull it out of its sheath properly his arms being too short, thirdly the blade was too long so he had no where he could wear it properly without looking like an absolute knob. Torr grumbled dropping the swords sheath down into his bag resting the naked blade against the cave wall where it would spark sending arcs of lightning to anything within reach, as he pulled the pack up onto his back before hefting the sword onto his shoulder. There was a brand new world out there just waiting for him and he wanted to see it all.

Torr started to walk towards the entrance to the cave, where the faintest glimmer of light could be seen falling through the rock, the meagre pinprick of daylight waiting for him growing with every new step. Soon he was running, his body swaying dipping left and right as he struggled for control over his untested limbs, a warm breezing rising up to caress his cheeks as at last he took one final leaping bound out into the light and it hit him all at once.

The world fell away before him, vast uneven grassy slopes, sprouting from the harsh granite stones of the mountain on which he stood, reaching down towards dense s dense jungle overflowing with life. Flowers bloomed on every surface and in all shades imaginable shades of vermillion pink, royal blue and sun-kissed orange, clear blue skies wheeling above the dark specks of birds twisting in the distance riding on the thermals, as the sun beat down an unrelenting march an oppressive heat hitting him with the force of a truck. Torr laughed raising his arms above his head; this was amazing, brilliant, wonderful!

He was standing on another world and he could scarcely believe it was a virtual one.

This would be perfect, okay maybe the climate was a little warm and farming on a mountain wouldn’t exactly be ideal, but he could even out the slopes here and there, build some retaining walls and some earth banks, he could do it he could start a farm. Of course before he worried about that he was going to have to figure out how to survive first... He’d seen plenty of survival shows in his time and all of them seemed to agree on one point, the first thing he was going to need to do was find a source of water. Apparently he had rations inside of his pack so he supposed they would last him for a day or two so finding food could wait, but if he was going to stay out in the mountains then he was going to need a water source preferable one nearby, watering plants would be a pain without it although he doubted he’d be able to find his way back to the cave if he just wandered off into the jungle... He needed a land mark, maybe there was something in his bag?

Torr retreated momentarily into the shade of the cave before dropping his bag down onto the ground, checking the list of different types of items he had; weapons, tools, armour, clothing, perishables, resources, miscellaneous and currency. He clicked resources a large bloody red N/A popping up in front of him, okay then clothing. This time several options appeared in front of him; three sets of tunics and trousers, one green, one blue and the other red. Torr looked down at his own shirt assuming that he was wearing the white version; he clicked the red tunic, a set of clothes spewing up from out of his pack. Okay he could use this, now he needed some tools. He opened the appropriate window and selected both a length of rope and a hand axe from the extensive list, now all he needed was some wood.

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It might have taken him the better portion of the last three hours in order to complete it but he was proud all the same. He had trekked his way down to the bottom of the mountain in order to cut down one of the trees from the edge of the jungle, then he’d climbed back upon realising you really couldn’t cut down a tree with just an axe and came back down with a saw. Then he’d used the rope to haul the wood back up to the cave, had cut away its branches with the axe, tied the red shirt to the top and hammered it in the ground as far as it would go. It really wasn’t bad work at all, he’d stuck a flag out in front of his cave and now he had a landmark to help him find his way home.

So now he needed to begin his hunt for water, it would probably be easier if he just climbed higher, then he could look out over the entire forest to see if there was some kind of river or something. Torr nodded to himself pulling his backpack back up carrying his sword in one hand and making slow progress up the slopes.

The heat alone had already seen too soak Torr’s back in sweat and the climb wasn’t helping. Luckily enough his cave wasn’t too far from the mountains top, and the mountain wasn’t too far from the edge of the woods, of course of all of the mountains in the surrounding area it seemed his was one of the smallest. The entire range of mountains arched away from him forming a great crescent ring about the jungle, growing progressively larger as they moved away from Torr’s mountain, of course he was still a good distance above the trees the forest canopy stretching endlessly in the distance before him, an impenetrable sea of green that swayed and murmured in the breeze but he was in luck. He could see series of wide rivers splitting the land at the far end of the jungle into vast islands of green, each coursing river pooling together at the very bottom of what he now realised was a great basin stone basin, a self enclosed ecosystem; his new home.

Of course there was always had to be a downside. As far as he could see almost all of the rivers were flowing from the other end of the rings of mountains, in other words none of them were anywhere in his reach, and while he might have been able to find a smaller water source nearby, he’d never be able to support an entire farm on that alone, he was going to have to find a new home