Chapter 4 – Punch Drunk

"I don't understand how that massive thing could be a baby? It's literally called a Giant Drake!" Mason, not quite, shouted at the woman.

"Yeah, and that is a baby Giant Drake." She said, pointing at the lizard. "Come to think of it, you didn't see any others around, did you? If you struggled with that tiny one, you better hope you don't meet its parents. The bigger ones breathe fire."

Mason stared at her for a long moment, mouth open, trying to formulate words. "Struggled? That thing almost bit my damn arm off!"

Smiling at him, she replied, "Well, it looks pretty attached now. You're fine."

Mason scowled, "Who the heck are you anyway? What are you doing in the forest alone?"

"Well, I could very easily ask you the same, but my question would go a bit more, Who the heck are you? What are you doing here? Why are you only wearing pink underwear, and why are you elbow-deep in Drake guts? But, since you asked first, my name is Mayry."

"Err, well. My name is Mason. I haven't foggiest idea what I'm doing here, it's the only thing the stupid system gave me, and I thought it had my loot…." Mason managed to say all of this without taking a single breath. While this girl was very attractive, she was starting to get on his nerves, as she was coming across as quite patronising.

"I think we'll need to unpack that a bit later, but first, hi Mason, it's nice to meet you. As I have already said, I'm Mayry, Mayry Sparks."

"Er, nice to meet you too, I guess."

"I hate to presume, but unless this really was a sex thing, you look like you might need some help… would you like me to take you to the nearest town?"

Thrown off slightly by the offer of help, Mason, somewhat pathetically, blurted out, "where am I?"

Mayry gave him a suspicious look but answered, "You are in the Umlilo Forest. How did you manage to get here without knowing that?"

Not wanting to get into the whole, 'I think that I might come from a whole other world' spiel until he could get a better sense of the girl, he simply said, "To be quite honest, I don't really remember, but in my defence, I have been knocked out three times in the past few hours."

Nothing but silence came from Mayry for a few minutes while she looked him over. Mason was getting the feeling she was deciding whether or not to trust him, which was fair as he didnt exactly look very trustworthy at the minute.

"Okay, okay. I'll take you to my town, but you will tell me your story when we get there. Non-negotiable deal? "

"Yeah, fine, deal." Getting a thought and forgetting Mayry existed for a moment, Mason opened his menu and looked at his stats fully aware that to Mayry he would look like he was just taking a standing nap.

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Name: Mason Hughes

Level: 3

Current XP: 211/ 300

Race: Human

Class: N/A

Health Points (HP): 170

Mana Points (MP): 130

Stamina: (SP): 135

Stats:

Strength: 11 Agility: 7 Endurance: 6 Vitality: 9 Resilience: 5 (+1) Intelligence: 9 Perception: 7 Willpower 6

Free points: 6

Skills:

Identify (Basic), Magic Bolt (Basic)

Base Skills:

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Universal Translator, Inventory (Basic)

Current Quests:

* TIMBERRRRR

This particular tree has insulted your honour. Gain power, come back and teach it who is boss!

He had levelled up twice and was now at level 3. He seemed to gain 1 point in each stat with every level up and 3 free points. Sadly it didnt look like he had a new skill selection yet.

Having 6 free points to spend, Mason formulated a plan.

"Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason…" Mayry started chanting his name a minute ago but ignored her.

"Yes, Mayry?" Mason said as innocently as he could.

"Oh, great back, are we? What was that all about? You closed your eyes and froze for a good long while.

"It was nothing. I'm just tired, is all. Say, are you in a rush to get back to town or can we make a super quick stop first? There is a tiny errand I need to take care of real quick."

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A super quick stop, he had said, one tiny errand, he said. She was really starting to regret taking pity on the strange guy she had found almost completely naked trying to molest the corpse of a Drake.

She really did attract the weirdest men. First, it was that creepy Malika guy who kept saying he wanted her to be his 'first human girl', whatever the fuck that meant, and now this guy. When he said he needed to run an errand, she assumed he needed to take a piss or find his damn clothes, but nooo. After he had asked her if they could make a stop, he had walked around for half an hour stopping every couple of minutes and staring at trees.

When she asked what he was looking for, he just shushed her and said it was important. She was about to lose her patience with him and leave, when he threw up his arms in celebration. Hoping that this meant they could leave, she tried to talk to him, but he closed his eyes again before she could get a word in.

She was just about to back away and leave him to find the town on his own when something odd happened. She would have missed it if she wasn't already looking at him and if he wasn't semi-nude. It was subtle, but the muscles all over his body grew, the bit of pudge around his belly area shrank significantly, and he also grew an inch taller. She didn't currently think he was good-looking, but she reserved the right to change her mind later when she could see what he looked like when not covered in rapidly drying blood.

He opened his eyes, but before she could say anything, he spoke, "Okay, I'm ready!"

"Finally, you are such a weird guy. What the heck was that al…" she trailed off when she saw him walk over to a tree that looked like a few bits of its bark had been chipped away. He muttered something that sounded like, "I told you I'd get you next time, " and repeatedly punched the tree.

She stared at him in disbelief. It was weird he was punching the tree, yeah, but it was also really weird that he was doing so very little damage…

After a few more minutes of punching, he stopped. After all that, he had mostly just gotten his blood on the tree.

Walking up to him, she put her hand on his shoulder and said in a soothing tone, "I know I said I'd take you into town, but maybe we should go to the town's mind healer first? How does that sound."

She looked up at him and saw there were tears in his eyes. Mistaking them for tears of sorrow, she spoke up, "what's wrong? Are you okay?" She asked, feeling like an idiot. Of course, he wasn't okay. He had just tried and failed to beat up a tree, and now he was crying. She truly did feel for the guy, it seemed like he was going through a rough time.

"Why?" He said, fists clenched as if he planned to continue the useless pummelling.

"Why what?" she replied, confused.

"Why... won't it just die?" he said in the most defeated voice she had heard

"Oh, you just want to knock it down?" She flicked her wrist, and a fist-sized ball of fire flew from her hand and knocked the tree down in one hit. "See? All better now. No need to be upset." She smiled up at him.

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He'd had the perfect plan.

True, it had taken him a while to retrace his steps, but he hadn't exactly paid close attention to where he had been going while running for his life.

Eventually, he found the tree and was confident in his plan.

He'd gotten 2 extra points in all stats from levelling up twice. Along with this, he now had 6 free points to spend. With all this information, he had made the only rational decision he could make and had put all 6 points into strength which left him with a grand total of 19 points in the stat.

He knew he should be adding as many points as possible to Intelligence to increase the usability of his Magic Bolt, but he just really wanted to punch something.

Feeling his muscles grow, he had been almost certain it would be enough for him to vanquish his foe.

Oh, how wrong he had been. He had punched harder and harder until he was doing more damage to himself than he was to the tree, but it had just refused to die.

With each punch, more and more of the emotions and thoughts he had been pushing down deep inside were coming up for air.

PUNCH.

He had been taken from his home.

PUNCH.

He might never see his mum, sister or anyone from his world ever again.

PUNCH.

He had very nearly died, by being eaten no less!

PUNCH.

He had felt scared, alone and helpless from the moment he had arrived in his place.

PUNCH.

And this tree, that just. Wouldn't. Fucking. Die.

PUNCH.

PUNCH.

PUNCH.

Mason had been so worked up that when he had finally stopped punching, there were tears in his eyes. He had known that Mayry had been speaking, but he hadn't been paying attention. Feeling her hand touch his bare shoulder, he calmed slightly. He had heard her ask, "what's wrong? Are you okay?"

Before he could answer, he had seen his bloody hands then, and his attention was drawn back to the damn near undamaged tree that had been the catalyst for his meltdown. He hadn't been able to properly formulate words due to the many emotions he was brimming with. He had clenched his fists and managed to force out, "Why?" At her prompting, he managed, "Why won't it just die."

Mayry then asked if Mason wanted her to knock the tree down for him. Which he had found to be a ridiculous thought, but then with absolutely no effort, she lifted her hand and completely incinerated up the tree.

Mason looked from the ashes of the once tree to Mayry a couple times before he truly understood what she had done.

The shock and irritation at Mayry for what she had done, the anger at himself for not being stronger, and all the emotions already at the forefront of his mind were just too much for mason and…

Quest update – TIMBERRRRR – Quest Failed.

For the 4th time that day, Mason Passed out.