I would wake up hours later, laid down on the ground with the dark sky far above me and decorated with twinkling lights.
...Looking back, that was probably one of the most vulnerable moments in my life. Not just emotionally, but physically too. I mean, I was knocked out for hours bare on the ground. If something attacked me right there and then, I would have been finished.
Between the dirt and grass, the blood of boars and the jelly of slimes, and the numerous cuts and bruises all overy my body, me my and my brown wool dress was certainly worse for wear. But I couldn't stay on the ground forever. With the last of my strength, I forced myself up a tree and tried to get some rest.
..."Trying" being the keyword here. My body hurt all over. I was afraid that the branch I was sitting on would collapse at any moment. And of course, I couldn't stop thinking.
I'm never going to see Robert again. I'll never see my parents, my siblings, my friends... I'm literal worlds apart. Fate should have at least allowed me a merciful death after all of that pain, but instead saw fit to put me into more.
Just thinking about it made me clench my teeth and fists in anger. I had to force myself to stop that once it gave me headaches and my nails were drawing blood.
Before I knew it, the sky was turning orange.
With a sigh, I dropped myself back onto the forest floor. Only for my legs to buckle underneath my own weight, making me collapse to the ground.
So tired... so hungry...
Am I just going to die like this?
.
.
.
No. No, no, no! I can't die. I won't die.
It's confusing. It's irrational, and I hate it. Just a day ago I had accepted a peaceful death. Just now I cursed at having that robbed from me. But now I can't bear the thought of dying a second time.
I can't die. I won't die. I have to survive.
There was at least one thing I could do to survive, as much as I loathed it. I stretched out my hand as if trying to reach for something.
"...Menu... Open." I whispered out.
As expected, what appeared before me was a screen consisting of various buttons, just floating in the air. [Status], [Magic], [Skills], [Inventory], and more. Just like the average RPG. Hovering above the buttons were two bars, one red and the other blue. Although, the red one was significantly shorter than the blue one.
Apparently I was on 5/120 HP. How... terrifying. I knew I was close to death, but having it put in numbers made it all the clearer and scarier. I needed to fix this right away. My hand shakily made its way to the [Magic] button.
Schools of Magic Light Magic (Lv 1) Dark Magic (Lv 1) Fire Magic (Lv 1) Earth Magic (Lv 1) Water Magic (Lv 1) Wind Magic (Lv 1) Ether Magic (Lv 1) 1: Create Light 1: Darken 1: Create Fire 1: Raise Earth 1: Conjure Water 1: Blow Wind 1: Heal
...What the hell? Why did I start with so many spells already? No, no. This wasn't the time for that. I needed to stop myself from dying. And for that, I had exactly what I hoped I had.
I closed my eyes, pressing my hand against my chest. "...Heal." I whispered to myself.
I couldn't help but gasp when I started to feel soothing warmth spreading across my body. I couldn't feel bruises fade or cuts closing, but I could feel the pain fading away. I opened my eyes, and looked at the bars above the screen.
65/120 HP, and 30/50 MP. That did more than I expected, but also costed more at the same time. Inspecting my body, I could see that many of my bruises and cuts were gone, though not all.
I took a deep breath. "Heal." This time with my eyes open, I could see green light spontaneously form and surround me, that soothing warmth from before returning and following the path of the light. I sighed in relief when the last of my (physical) pains and their associated wounds faded away, and the red bar filled up to full while the blue bar depleted to only a fifth of its size.
...Well, the threat of imminent death was over for now. But I was still damn hungry.
Huffing, I forced myself back to my feet. Though famished, I still felt a lot better than before, and could at least muster the energy to start walking.
Well, I could go ahead and find another boar to kill and hopefully cook that. Or maybe forage for some fruits? But really, I had nearly no survival skills. I can climb a tree, sure, but skinning boars or identifying poisonous berries? Would be difficult to pull off. Hmmn... wait. There's one more thing I could try.
Not too far away from the tree that I spent my first night on was the site of my crazed rampage yesterday. Really, I don't remember a thing from that moment, but the impact was certainly visible. Just lying across the ground are the carcasses of over a dozen boars, sitting atop puddles of blue jelly. Disgusting, and smelly too. Already the boar carcasses were rotting and being attacked by flies. Certainly not safe to eat. Unless...
I walked up to one of the boar carcasses, holding my nose to bear the stench. The sight was disgusting, but I needed to deal with it to survive. Staring at the still corpse, before whispering... "[Loot]"
Ah. There it was.
In front of me now was a new screen consisting of many blank boxes... except for the upper right corner, which had a few boxes flled with images that are correspondingly labeled as [Common Boar Fur], [Common Boar Tusk], and... [Common Boar Meat]! Exactly what I was looking for!
There was no indication that it was rotting, even if the carcass itself was. It didn't make much sense logically, but most game mechanics don't. And I was more than happy to exploit that. I eagerly tapped the [Take All] button, and proceeded to repeat this [Loot] and [Take All] loop on all the nearby remains.
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Slimes, by the way, drop something called [Blue Jelly]. I have no idea what it does, but I took them anyways just in case.
Finally done with that, I took one last look around the clearing. Other than the many carcasses on the forest floor, there were (of course) trees, a couple of bushes... Wait, does that bush have berries?
Making my way to that bush, I came to realize that there were indeed little dark blue fruits on this bush that I had completely failed to spot in yesterday's rampage. In my famished state, they sure did look tempting... but I had no way of knowing if they were safe to eat. Well, I had one other trick up my sleeve.
I gave the berries a stare. "[Analyze]". Just as I hoped, a screen popped up in front of me as soon as I said it.
Aovia Forest Blueberry A common fruit found in the forests of Aovia and enjoyed by local animals and folk alike.
That has to mean it's non-poisonous, right?!
I breathed a sigh of relief as I started to pick the berries. [Loot] and [Analyze] are common staples with every RPG. Rather than skills, they're more core mechanics, a given. In any RPG, you can expect to be able to loot defeated enemies, and gain information about items when you hover your mouse over them. It was good that that's true here too.
...Still, I hate it. I don't want to be here, but I have to use this world's strange rules to survive. I don't have much of a choice about it, so all I can do is grumble and move on.
Sighing, I did all I could before getting away from that corpse-ridden ground, moving to a clearing nearby the tree I spent the night on. Having fresh meat was all fine and dandy, but I can't eat it raw. I started to gather nearby sticks into a small pile, but I knew trying to start a fire by hand would be a waste of time. I'm no TV survivalist who can rub sticks together into a flame in under a minute.
Instead, I extended my hand towards the pile. "[Create Fire]." I whispered, and as I imagined, a flame burst to life out of nowhere from the tips of my fingers and towards the wood. I shuddered from the sudden influx of heat, but it was enough to create a campfire.
The heat was certainly welcome after such a cold night. I huddled closer to the fire, while opening my inventory. After tapping on the icon for the [Boar Meat], I literally had to pull a slab of raw meat from thin air before placing it atop the fire... A weird experience for sure, but it's far from the oddest thing I experienced thus far.
I started to eat the berries as I waited for the meat to cook. To pass the time, I decided to finally take a look at my [Status].
Name Maya Level 5 Class None HP 120/120 MP 15/50 Stats
Str
25
Agi
25
End
26
Mag
20 Skills & Magic
[Ateriu's Blessing] [Light Magic Lv.1] [Dark Magic Lv.1]
[Water Magic Lv.1] [Earth Magic Lv.1] [Fire Magic Lv.1]
[Wind Magic Lv.1] [Ether Magic Lv.1] [Mace Proficiency Lv.1]
Huh. What's with that stat distribution? Strength, Agility and Endurance are all fairly high compared to Magic. Well. I only started using magic now, while I spent much of yesterday fighting it out hand-to-hand. Do stats increase from performing actions, then? [Mace Proficiency]... Did it count the stick I as a mace?
Far more worrying is that [Ateriu's Blessing] skill, though. Sure stuck out like a sore thumb out of all those skills. Nervously, I tapped on the name of the skill, prompting another screen with its description.
Ateriu's Blessing
A blessing given by the World Administrator. This passive skill cannot be turned off but can be hidden. Covers a wide range of bonuses including: Access to [Hero's Aura]. Access to [Dimensional Inventory] and [Automated Looting]. Free access to all base [Elemental Magic] skills. 25% increase in EXP for character levels and skill levels. 100% Damage against [Demon King] enemies. Full understanding of all languages and scripts on the world.
...Is this what's called a "Cheat skill"? Honestly, it's pretty tame compared to some others I've read. Wait, does this mean both my [Inventory] and [Loot] mechanics are tied to "God's" blessing? Damn... At least it explains why I already have all those spells unlocked. But then, what the hell is [Hero's Aura]?--
My internal ramblings were cut short when I began to hear something in the distance. Voices. Human voices. Now, I could've decided to stand and fight, or at the least try to make contact with these strangers. But instead, I chose to quickly put out my campfire before leaping into one of the bushes, not too far away.
I heard footsteps and voices getting louder with every moment. "[Darken]." I whispered, and all around me the shadows within the bush darkened further. Hopefully this was enough to keep me hidden.
Eventually the... entourage came close enough for me to see from through the gaps between the bushes. The group consisted of six people. Four were positioned in a diamond formation around the two huddled on the inside. I could tell from a glance that the outer four were people to be avoided. Each was dressed in a mix of leather armour and wool clothing, each covered the lower half of their faces with rags, and most importantly each of the four had weapons. Two maces, one short sword, one spear. In contrast, the man and woman the four were surrounding as they travelled were wearing simple clothes like the dress I was wearing, and both looked utterly miserable. Though their legs were free, their hands were restrained with chains while ropes wrapped around their jaws as to muffle their voices.
As the four... kidnappers?... approached ever closer, I forced the palm of my hand against my mouth to stop myself from making any noises.
One of the armed men inspected the remains of my campfire, moving it about with his boot. "Embers still fresh. Even left some boar meat cookin'. Someone was just here."
"Should we try and catch 'em?" One of his companions asked, gruff.
No, please don't.
My eyes were drawn to the two persons kept captive. One was a a middle-aged man, the other a young woman near my own age. They were definitely pitiable. It was clear that neither wanted to be there, but they had already given up hope in escaping.
"Nah, we won't be able to catch up with these two 'round." Another of the men interjected, tugging at the chains that kept their two captives restrained. Making them, and me, wince.
...Should I help them? I have full HP, and I do have some spells... No, no. I have too little MP to use any offensive spell more than once. There's no way I'd be able to take on four guys at once in a melee either. I don't even have a weapon.
"Eh, we'll just ask boss to send a patrol here. Damn hunters. Let's go, boys!"
With that, the four kidnappers started to move, dragging along their captives with them. I held my breath and remained still as they walked right past me. Just as I thought that I had completely gotten away with it, the captive woman turned her head slightly...
And she gave me a silent, pleading look.
I felt a shudder run down my back. Yet, I simply closed my eyes and turned away as the group kept marching away.
I can't die. I won't die. I have to survive.