As Vin walked, he carefully took in the surrounding area, keeping an eye out for anything unusual as he’d been instructed. So far, everything seemed rather… normal. If he hadn’t witnessed the magic of teleportation first hand, he would have assumed he was just strolling through a meadow somewhere back on Earth. The grass was green. The sky was blue. Hell, there was thankfully still only a single sun in the sky that seemed to be moving as expected. It wasn’t until he’d walked for a few minutes that he finally encountered something definitely not from Earth.
While trekking across a grassy field fairly close to where they’d appeared, a small furry head popped out of the ground, turning to stare at him. Vin stared right back, examining the new animal. Its body was long and slender like a ferret, but its bushy tail and face reminded him more of a squirrel. The two of them stared at each other, waiting to see who would break first. Sadly, Vin lost this world’s first staring contest when a new message from the System popped up in the corner of his vision.
New species discovered! 100 exp gained.
“Oh nice,” he said, surprised at the unexpected experience. The sound of his voice proved to be too much for the unknown creature, causing it to bound away through the grass, leaping through it like a dolphin through water. “Just got to do that nine more times and I hit level 2!”
Continuing his trek, he encountered some more of the fast moving ferret-squirrels, but they continued to run away before he could get closer than a few dozen feet.
“Alice is going to have a ball with you!” He called out a warning before leaving the field behind him. A few minutes later he received another pleasant surprise.
New mile explored! 10 exp gained.
“Okay, a little bit of experience for just wandering somewhere new, and a decent chunk for discovering a new animal,” he talked to himself, enjoying the passing scenery as he kept his eyes peeled. “Gotta say, it’s nice racking up experience just enjoying nature.”
Thanks to his Mental Map he was easily able to track the distance he traveled, and he ended up encountering a couple other possible sources of food over the next few miles. He’d spotted a herd of some sort of wild boar off in the distance that looked like they each had a gnarly tusk growing out of their face like a small rhinoceros, a dark green bird that blended in shockingly well with the trees it lived in, and a rodent like creature with eerily human like hands that scurried off with some sort of flower between its teeth the moment it spotted him.
“Glad we have a good number of options for food at least.” Vin walked over to the flower patch that little rat like thing had run out of, plucking one of the flowers and examining it. He’d seen plenty of flowers back on Earth from all his different trips, but he was far from any sort of botanist. The flower petals formed something of a tiny cup, holding a few drops of liquid inside. It reminded him almost of a honeysuckle.
Remembering his training on edible plant identification, Vin went through the motions. The flower smelled sweet and sugary, which was definitely a good sign. If it smelled old and musky, or even remotely close to almonds, they’d been taught not to put it anywhere near their mouth. But because he’d seen another animal already in the process of eating it, and the fact that he didn’t want to have to say goodbye to enjoying a refreshing honeysuckle under the evening sky, he took the liquid from the flower and rubbed it along the inside of his elbow. If he remembered his lessons correctly, so long as his skin didn’t react in any way over the next eight hours, he’d be okay to risk eating it.
“Strange that new animals give experience but plants don’t,” he mused, twisting the flower stem in his fingers as he kept walking. “Maybe I’ll get something after determining if it’s poisonous or not and trying to eat it.”
Vin knew it would probably be more optimal for him to be exploring in ever expanding rings around their base camp, but he couldn’t help himself from just continuing in a straight line for a bit longer. Roaming laps around the base camp would mean he’d still be close enough to camp that he’d be running into people carrying out Spur’s orders, and after three days of living in a cramped underground bunker with so many people, he couldn’t help but satisfy his cravings to be alone out in the wilderness.
So he continued walking, slowly earning experience for every new mile he covered and mentally mapping the lay of the land. He nearly had a heart attack when a small blur darted out of some nearby grass toward him, but after it pounced and landed about a dozen feet to his left, he discovered it was just a wild cat nearly identical to cats back on Earth other than the extra set of ears located just behind the first one. The cat glanced at him for a moment, one set of ears flicking in his direction while the other turned to listen to its rear. Vin spotted one of the little rat-like creatures hanging from the cat’s mouth before it turned and darted away. Deciding that was as good a time for a break as any, Vin pulled up his System interface to check his experience while he waited for his heart rate to return to normal.
550/1000
“Not bad for an hour and a half of walking!” He’d discovered five new species and walked just over five miles. If he swung around and returned to camp from a different angle, maybe he could do it all again and hit level 2 before the end of the day! Grinning, he turned to start heading perpendicular to the direction he’d been walking, when a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.
Glancing to the side, Vin froze at the sight of a giant scorpion slowly approaching him through the grass. The creature had to be roughly the size of a German shepherd, and looked pretty close to scorpions from Earth besides the two additional stingers on either side of the largest one. It moved so silently that if it wasn’t for the monster’s jet-black chitin standing out in the green grass, Vin probably wouldn’t have even known it was creeping up on him.
New monster discovered! 200 exp gained.
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“Oh that’s not good,” Vin muttered, reflexively reading the new message and looking at the monster in a new light. “Sure do wonder what makes a monster different from-OH GOD IT’S FAST!”
While he was muttering to himself, the giant scorpion must have realized it had been spotted because it suddenly abandoned all forms of stealth, rushing toward him with a surprising burst of speed. Nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste, Vin barely managed to stay upright as he took off, not a thought in his mind other than putting distance between himself and the monster that looked like it really, really wanted to eat him.
While Vin had always been more of an endurance runner than a sprinter, he could certainly be quick when he wanted to be. After running in a dead sprint for about thirty seconds, he risked slowing down to look behind him, praying he’d left the monster in the dust.
The good news was that the scorpion was clearly not as fast as he was, as the monster had only traveled about half the distance in the same amount of time.
The bad news was that it was still coming directly at him.
“Oh, come on!” Vin shouted, trying not to look at how sharp its stingers were as he turned and continued running. For the next few minutes he did nothing but run, focusing on putting distance between himself and the angry monster. He had to keep stopping to catch his breath, but every time he did, he’d spot the scorpion a ways behind him, calmly but continuously closing the distance between them. That sight seemed to give him all the motivation he needed to keep going. After a few more minutes of this, Vin spotted something strange enough to distract him from the seemingly inevitable monster right on his heels.
About a half mile ahead of him the world seemed to be cut in two. It was as if someone had drawn a straight line across the ground, and decided to place an entirely different world across that line. While he was currently running through fields of grass and the occasional thin forest, beyond that line the ground seemed to transform into waves of rocky hills studded with short shrubs and arid bushes.
“What… is that…” he panted, trying to make sense of the weird sight he was running toward. He didn’t understand how he hadn’t seen the change in environment coming sooner, but he didn’t really have time to think about it. A quick glance behind him proved the scorpion hadn’t given up the hunt just yet, so Vin shook his head and continued running toward the edge of the world. Maybe if he was lucky the monster wouldn’t follow him out of their current area and he could buy himself some time to think.
It took a few minutes, but finally, Vin reached the strange merger of biomes. Running over the invisible line, he gasped as the temperature rose a few degrees and the air became just a tad more dry. He swore the sun felt stronger the moment he passed the line as well.
Then he gasped again at a series of unexpected messages from the System.
New fragment discovered! 500 exp gained.
Level up! Explorer Lvl 2.
+3 Attribute points to spend.
+1 Skill point to spend.
“What on Earth… is a fragment…” he panted, doubling over and sucking in as much air as he could while he read through his messages. “And more importantly…” Forcing himself back up, he shielded his eyes and looked back toward the grassy area he’d come from. He’d sprinted hard enough that the scorpion was still a few minutes behind him, but it proved to be a rather dedicated monster as it continued moving in a beeline directly toward him.
“For the love of…” Sighing, Vin pulled up his System interface and dumped his three attribute points into endurance without a second thought. That combined with his free point from his Explorer class bonus brought his endurance from 17 to 21, and he immediately felt lighter on his feet and less out of breath as he confirmed his selection.
“Woah, hell yeah!” He laughed, taking a few tentative hops side to side. It was as if he’d been carrying an invisible thirty-pound bag on his shoulders his entire life and the System had just grabbed it and hurled it into a nearby forest.
“I could get used to this,” he grinned, before remembering he was currently in something of a life or death situation.
“Maybe it won’t cross the line when it gets here,” he muttered. Not willing to risk his life on a maybe, Vin turned and began jogging across the new terrain. Running over the rocks and hills was tougher than through the grassy fields, but his new endurance helped keep his stamina up immensely. He made it to the top of the largest hill about a quarter mile away just in time to turn around and witness the scorpion cross over the fragment line without hesitation, continuing straight for him. The rocky terrain didn’t even seem to slow it down.
“You suck! You know that!” Vin touched the giant bowie knife strapped to his waist, briefly debating trying to fight the creature now that he had the high ground. But a single glance at those three stingers was all it took for him to trash that idea. No matter how he envisioned the fight going, he just didn’t see a way he could get close enough to stab the monster without at least one of those stingers impaling him. And even if they weren’t poisoned, which he’d bet his fancy new class they were because screw the System, the stingers were still the size of daggers.
“Yeah no thanks,” he grunted, turning and continuing to run.
Thanks to his increased endurance, he managed to stay just ahead of the scorpion as he ran despite the more difficult terrain that seemed to favor the monster. The bastard chased him for another few miles, and while Vin managed to spot four new species during the chase, he wasn’t really able to take the time and admire them.
Some sort of pack of armadillos that rolled down the hill to escape him when he crested a hill and surprised them during his run. A short and stocky bird with a beak that looked thicker than its own head he interrupted while it was cracking open some rocks. A six-legged gecko the size of his forearm that had been camouflage to perfectly blend in with the rocky landscape that he only found because he literally kicked it by accident. And an animal that looked completely identical to a wild goat from Earth staring at him with its beady eyes as it slowly licked a rock.
Vin wanted to take the time and admire the nice new scenery. Take in the exotic new animals and wonder about how they came to be.
But a certain scorpion had something to say about that.
“Why me?!” He shouted over his shoulder at the scorpion as it passed the goat without hesitation and continued chasing him. Even with his increased endurance, he didn’t have a ton of practice running for miles on end, and the distance between the monster and him had shrunk to only a few hundred feet as he began to slow down. “Go eat the goat you stinging bastard! It’s right there!”
Vin thought he saw the goat slowly turn its head and fix him with another beady stare, its eyes seeming to narrow slightly, its tongue pausing mid lick.
Note to self, stay away from that goat.
Panting, Vin tried to come up with a plan as he struggled to make it to the top of the newest hill. He wouldn’t be able to run much longer; he was just about at the end of his rope as it was. His attempts to hide from the scorpion by putting hills between himself and it to block its vision before darting off in a different direction had failed each time he’d tried. The monster seemed to have some method of tracking him.
He was going to have to fight it.
Gasping for air, Vin finally made it to the top of the latest hill, his fingers wrapping around the hilt of the bowie knife as he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do. But just before he pulled the knife free, he paused, staring wide eyed at the sight before him.
Thanks to the added height from the hill, he could make out his salvation at what he guessed was about a half mile off in the distance, practically glowing in the setting sun.
He had discovered a village.