Gii was currently walking down the road leading to the western exit of the city. As he was walking, he was examining the freshly made iron dagger in his hands.

It cost me Ð1000 to buy this which is most of the money I have from questing.

The currency on the continent of Listonia was Damas which the game always displayed with a “Д symbol. Fortunately there were no smaller coins or denominations, so it made keeping track of currency easy.

Gii had only made roughly Ð1500 from his questing and he had already spent it all on the dagger in his hand and 50 pieces of bread. Although there was no satiety to keep track of in Listonia, bread was actually a cheaper healing alternative. Each piece of bread heals 20hp, so assuming he didn't run into any super strong enemies, 1-2 pieces would be more than enough to heal most of his HP currently.

Gii headed out of the city right around noon. The trip to Amaknanta would probably take him 3 in-game days if he headed straight there. Time passed faster while in Listonia with 3 real world hours being equal to an in-game day. In order to complete his round trip collecting the gates, Gii was expecting to spend a few real world days traveling around the continent.

After leaving the city, Gii headed due west to his first location, the scarleaf hills. This was an area of sparsely wooded hills that was the territory of a tier 1 creature known as a scara. It was a large beetle-like insect the size of a horse that usually had an affinity for a certain element. They were mostly between level 20-30 so they were definitely more than he could handle currently.

As Gii was just about to reach the area transition to the scarleaf hills, he noticed that his good luck until that point had run out. A small 2-3ft tall bird with yellow feathers and an orange beak had spotted him running across the plains. The bird was running across the ground extremely quickly and heading in his direction. Gii looked at the information displayed above it’s head.

[Tafu: Level 3]

I guess it wouldn’t be a proper start without killing at least a couple of you guys…

Keeping his cool, Gii continued to run away as he readied his dagger. Despite Gii running as fast as he could, the Tafu quickly closed the distance. Gii kept running away from the Tafu even as the small bird chased him down.

Eventually it was only about 10ft away from him when it suddenly lunged at him with it’s sharp beak. Expecting this, Gii skillfully lowered his hips and dodged the incoming attack. At the same time he stabbed upward at the stomach of the Tafu that was now in front of him.

“Squak~!”

The Tafu screeched as the blade slashed across it and a damage number appeared above its head.

[-10]

The Tafu recovered quickly and landed on the ground to launch another attack. Gii wanted to block it but his body seemed sluggish in it’s response and he was unable to completely dodge, a damage number appeared above him.

[-15]

After landing a blow on Gii, the Tafu quickly scampered out of his range and moved farther away from him.

Annoying bastard!

Immediately, Gii turned around and began running away again. This infuriated the Tafu as it once again sprinted towards him intending to launch another offensive. The gap closed between them quickly and this time when the Tafu lunged at Gii, he was unable to dodge the initial attack and another number appeared above his head.

[-17]

The beak dug into Gii’s shoulder as the damage it dealt was displayed

I got you now you bastard!

He immediately slashed across the Tafu’s belly leaving a nasty gash.This time, before it could jump away, he was able to stab downwards towards its head and land a decisive strike.

[-10]

[-12]

Damage numbers flew up before the Tafu let out a dying cry and disappeared into light particles. Gii’s was immediately met with notifications after killing the Tafu.

[Level up!]

Tafu Defeated!

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

You have acquired:

1x Tafu Feather

1x Sunflower Seed

Gii wiped his brow and sat down to recover by eating some bread.

“Phew~”

It’s been a long time since i’ve had such a tough fight with a Tafu, they’re just as annoying as I remember…

Gii’s experience allowed him to take down the Tafu without much issue even though there was a fairly large difference in their stats. 2 hits from the Tafu was able to wipe out more than half of his health and a third hit might have even killed him!

The key to fighting the Tafus was to not charge after them and instead bait them into their lunging attack and try to time a counter attack. The other veteran trick was to make sure you had a higher attack speed, so you could get more hits in. They were still low level creatures and most only had around 20-30hp, which could easily be taken out in 2-3 hits. This was the reason Gii had selected a dagger to start, since it had a slightly higher attack speed than a sword.

Gii was then able to continue on his travel while only encountering a couple other Tafu, which he defeated in the same way. Eventually he was able to make his way to the Scarleaf hills.

Fortunately the Scara were basically like large cows grazing and were harmless unless you attacked them first. This allowed Gii to traverse the area without hindrance. He started to veer his course and head a little more north, using the map he was given as a reference.

Unlike what you might expect, the Gates were generally pretty safe places and there were usually not any monsters in the area directly around them. The lore explained it saying that they gave off an unpleasant magical aura that would repel the vast majority of creatures.

Gii knew he was getting to his first destination when the crowds of Scaras in the area became thinner and thinner until eventually there were barely any around. Eventually Gii spotted an overgrown archway in the distance. It was easily spotted because of the large clearing around it. Gii ran up to the Gate and touched one of the runes with his hand. He was enveloped in a blue light and a notification popped up in front of him.

You have registered a new Gate location, would you like transport to a registered location?

<>     <>

Gii tapped “No” and quickly started making his way north. Although there were no monsters around Gate locations, that didn’t mean they were completely safe. In his past life, places like this were always hotbeds for PVP and player ambushes. Probably because it was still early in the game, this time Gii didn't run into any other players.

Eventually the daylight was beginning to fade as Gii continued traveling and he began to see some Scara’s again as he was further away from the Gate. At some point the Sun completely set and as it did, the terrain had become different in the area around where Gii was.

Although it was marked as a dangerous location to be avoided on the map he was given, Gii was now in a location known as the Evil forest. The trees surrounding him were dead and grey and a haunting mist seemed to crawl out from the undergrowth of the forest. The most unsettling part was that he could not hear any of the insects or wildlife one would normally expect from a forest, it was almost deathly silent except for the wind.

Gii slowed his pace and began to be more cautious and stealthy as the evil forest was a level 30-40 location. Anything in this area would be able to easily one shot him and some of the creatures were particularly aggressive. As Gii weaved himself through the undergrowth and the trees he eventually spotted one of the more common enemies of this forest, a fantasy staple, Skeletons.

Right now there were about 3-4 of them meandering amongst the tree trunks. They were wielding rusty and worn axes and swords with one of them even sporting a shield. As an experienced player Gii knew what their aggro range was and took a wide loop to get around them without running the risk of getting attacked. His progress slowed down significantly as he began to cautiously make his way through the forest, being careful to avoid the dangerous enemies that he encountered.

Finally, after what seemed like an excruciatingly long time, Gii could see a faint orange light in the fog. As he approached the light in the distance, a small stone hut entered into his view. This hut had a small stone wall surrounding it and although there seemed to be a courtyard, as he got closer he could see it was actually a small graveyard. At the other end of the graveyard was a slightly larger building that looked like a simple church

This was Gii’s next destination, it was one of the few safe haven’s inside the Evil forest.

“Excuse me, I need some help!”

Gii yelled out his prepared line while he entered the premises.

“Who’s there!?”

As Gii stopped walking, the door to the house opened and he was greeted by a tall blonde woman wearing extravagant looking silver plate armor. Gii looked at the green name above her head

[Holy Paladin of Crassius Mina: Level 140]

She looked around and spotted Gii but didn’t let her guard down.

“How did you get here?”

She pointed the large two handed blade she had pulled off of her back at him. Gii put on his best act and began to plead with her.

“I’m a pilgrim of Crassius! I was traveling with a group to visit his shrines. This time I heard there was a chapel to Crassius in this forest, so we wanted to visit. We were overconfident! We thought we would run into some minor undead at worst...but...kuh”

Gii tried to turn on the waterworks and play it up some more.

“I couldn’t do anything, Lawrence...he..he told me to run but….you have to help him!”

Although the woman still seemed skeptical she could tell that there is no way anyone with Gii’s strength would be able to make it this far into the forest without some sort of escort. She asked him cautiously

“You must have known the risks to come here, while I admire your devotion, I can only say your actions are foolish. Tell me, what did you run into that an entire party would be wiped?”

“I’m not sure what it was, but it floated off of the ground and wore long robes. It’s face was but a singular eye and it used some sort of horrific dark magic!”

The face of the Paladin changed drastically

“An Oni!? How could I not have sensed it?”

She turned and headed back into the house and grabbed a majestic looking helmet with wings. Then she barked more orders as Gii heard another voice from behind her.

“Marion, hide in the Chapel with our new guest, I have to check if they are telling the truth. If an Oni really appeared under my watch, I'll have to send it back to the nether kingdom before it causes anymore damage!”

“Yes Lady Mina”

An old wizened voice came from the house and an old man who looked to be in his 60’s exited the stone hut. He quickly led Gii toward the chapel as the Paladin rushed off into the forest.

Gii followed the old man into the chapel and looked around to see there was a single row of pews for people to sit and pray in. The old man walked past them and toward an altar at the back of the Chapel. On the large wall behind the altar was an image of a righteous looking man wearing golden armor. In his hand was a divine warhammer that was radiating light that illuminated the building. Gii knew this to be a depiction of the God of Tempest and Divine Punishment, Crassius.

The old man took out a glass flask from behind the altar and poured its contents into a fine golden chalice that was sitting upon the altar. He spoke as he held out the chalice for Gii to drink from.

“Come pilgrim, tell me your name. You will be safe here under the divine protection of Lord Crassius.”

Gii looked at the warm smile on the old man’s face and took the chalice with his left hand.

“I’m sorry Marion.”

Marion looked at Gii in confusion before a slash of a dagger ripped across his throat and scattered blood across the altar.

[Critical hit!]