Chapter 7

Several trips back to town for the quest, and many battles with rabbits, brought Gareth close to leveling up, and grew his proficiency enough he was confident in facing the rabbit burrow. On his last trip he sold all the extra pelts he had, and repaired his weapon, and bought a pair of gloves that raised his agility by one.

Returning to the burrow, Gareth saw that those beginner players were beginning to catch up, and enter the outskirts of the forest. Hurrying through the trees, Gareth arrived outside the clearing of rabbits. Following his old strategy, Gareth lured two rabbits out, and dealt with them quickly, before luring two more. Very quickly he could tell this was not going to work, the rabbits were respawning at a slower rate than he was killing them, but his stamina was also falling fast. Soon there were only 9 rabbits left of the twenty, but Gareth’s stamina was down to only a quarter, enough to fight for a few more minutes.

Unwilling to give up, but knowing he couldn’t take on the burrow in his current state, Gareth decided to finish these last rabbits and leave for now. He dealt the last blow to the level 4 rabbit and picked up the loot, as he turned to leave he saw the entrance to the burrow tremble a little, and crack. The dirt around the hole was disturbed and shunted aside, by the largest rabbit, Gareth had seen yet.

Gazing around it squeaked in anger at the loss of its kind. The smaller rabbits gathered around and nuzzled it's furriness, as if explaining what was happening. Then all the rabbits eyes turned red and they tumbled in a horde of rabbit away from the burrow toward where Gareth was watching. Immediately dropping his bread, Gareth turned and ran, not knowing why the rabbits were doing this, just knowing he did not want to be near them.

Sprinting past trees and occasionally getting whipped in the face by a branch, Gareth was barely able to stay ahead of the rabbits. Disoriented by the sudden attack, Gareth had begun running away from the town, as during his battles with the rabbits, he had been slowly circling the clearing. Aware of this after several minutes of running hadn’t left him back outside the walls, Gareth began to panic and veered left, hoping to circle back around to safety.

Unfortunately a particularly thick(thicc) group of trees and bushes forced him away from that path. The rabbits were quickly closing in though, and with less than full stamina the chase was quickly wearing Gareth out, even more so given the steepness of the hill he was on. Catching sight of a clearing cut through by shimmering water, slightly downhill, Gareth mustered his energy and put on a burst of speed.

The rabbits nipping at his heels fell back a few feet as this happened but quickly caught back up. Their small nimble bodies easily able to dodge branches and maneuver over rocky ground. Gareth burst into the clearing, chest heaving for breath, glancing behind him, Gareth saw a slightly larger horde of rabbits come tumbling out towards him. Sprinting to get to the others side of the water, which was now clearly a large stream, hoping to get to safety, Gareth didn’t notice a root protruding from the ground. Which, quite literally, was his downfall.

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Almost instantly a Rabbit clamped down on his shin, breaking skin and sending ice cold lancets of pain up his leg, soon joined by others. Gareth desperately crawled toward the water, hoping for salvation and escape from the pain, his health bar flashed and quickly decreased. Several seconds passed, Gareth’s blood ran into the wet grass staining it red. More Rabbits slowly piled on him, biting his legs and then moving up his body, until he was covered in squirming rabbits.

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*You have died. No Item penalty under level ten -100 XP. Respawning at last save point.

Gasping Gareth raised his head from a hard wooden surface to find himself in the bar of the Wild Wabbit, pale and shivering, Gareth glanced around. A waiter upon seeing his state, brought over a glass of a dark brown beverage.

“First death adventurer? We’ve been getting a lot like you lately, here, it seems to help, don’t worry this one is on me”

Trembling, and still sweating, Gareth slowly nodded his thanks as the waiter moved away, and slowly brought the glass to his lips. A frothy chocolate immersed his tongue in the wonderful taste of chocolate milk. Eyes widening, Gareth drained the drink, slowly calming down and reorienting himself.

Putting down the glass, and leaving his remaining few coppers, Gareth left the inn. Despite his loss against the rabbits - Gareth trembled as he remembered his death - He had hope, as before he had died, he’d seen something that might help him. So with new resolve Gareth once again headed into the forest, this time moving slowly and trying to map out a route to the clearing he had fled to.

Wind whistled through the treetops, several birds and squirrels passed by, insects crawled along the ground. And one adventurer crept through the forest with one hand on his sword and the other guiding a glowing sheet of paper. Slowly advancing with tightened nerves, aware of his surroundings, the adventurer continued on his journey intent to complete his goal, and reach his destination.

Gareth began to recognize his surroundings, and felt that he was approaching the clearing, luckily he had encountered few enemies on his way here, and was near full stamina. Peering through the last remaining leafy branches between him and the clearing, Gareth searched for what had brought him here, or rather who.

Across the stream sat a hunched over figure, with grey speckled hair, and a fishing pole, apparently taking a nap leaned up on a tree. Taking a closer look around the clearing now that he was able, Gareth’s eyes were drawn to a churned area of grass and dirt, with small splotches of red. It was where he had died, shaken, Gareth continued his observation. Noticing a small wood cottage the was blending into the forest behind the fisherman, and several racks, presumably for hanging game. Content that there was no danger, Gareth slowly entered the clearig and deactivated the Map, happy with the progress of that skill.

Glancing over at the man, seeing that he had not moved yet, Gareth sat down to recover the little bit of his stamina and mana, as well as check his status.