CHAPTER 20

Kopius rested on a low shelf of rocks, eating a carrot. He was bathing in the sunlight and listening to the gentle sounds of a flowing river. Roughly twenty feet down a grassy slope, spattered with knee-high boulders, a large river ran through the landscape. Judging by the shadows, Kopius guessed that he had passed midday a while back and that he had been headed west when leaving the valley.

Across the river, towering above the distant treetops, a great mountain range dominated the horizon. He could make out various white peaks, along with tree lines, but the mountain was a long, long distance away. North, Kopius decided. Its jagged peaks gave Kopius foreboding chills, as it looked like a place where winter never ended.

But I’m not headed that way, Kopius reminded himself with some relief. He was told to go down stream–east by his measure–which he was now thankful for.

Trees had become less numerous as he had gotten closer to the river. Dense forest and shrubbery led way to more open fields of grass and flowers. There were many large boulders that looked as though they had been pushed out of the earth; thousands of pimples on an otherwise beautiful face. The roots of trees often snaked their way across the rocks until entering the soil again.

He had not encountered any large animals and the ones he had spotted were too quick for him to get any kind of specific details. Kopius had expected to come across at least one monster, or beast he could kill. In his gaming experience, this part was supposed to have basic things to fight and gain experience points from. A few easy targets to level up a couple times. What he had gone through was nothing short of a nature walk–well, run, in this case.

As Kopius scanned the area across the river again, he noticed three mounds in the tall grass. What he had thought to be boulders, he could now make out to be animals of some kind, moving toward the water. Even from a distance of at least a hundred yards, they looked the size of small buffalos. Squinting, as if it would help zoom in on the creatures, he saw each of the three animals had two large circular disks where antlers would have been on a moose.

Kopius took some tentative steps back behind the closest boulder that would give him cover. He hoped the river was too far to cross, or that they would just stay on that side. They didn’t look dangerous from this distance, but Kopius would be happy with them not noticing him. He waited for a little over five minutes as the three animals meandered their way down to the water. The larger of the three approached the river and took a drink before the other two joined. Just needed a drink? Kopius thought to himself as he watched earnestly.

He scanned his own side of the river, anxious at the thought that he had missed other camouflaged creatures. He jerked his head back to the three animals when he heard the high-pitched sound of an animal in pain. He couldn’t make out what was happening at first, as large amounts of water splashed and sprayed. The animal on land, the biggest of the three, charged into the water, acting like it was going to ram something.

There was a loud crunching noise like a large tree branch snapping in half as Kopius’s view became clear. Something had come out of the water and grabbed one of the smaller land animals, trying to drag it to water. The charging animal had somehow stunned or killed the water creature with its circular antlers, dislodging the one captured.

The two buffalo-looking animals lurched and scrambled out of the water as fast as they could, before all three sprinted away once they reached land. Kopius, surprised by what he had just seen, now noticed something floating awkwardly downstream. It looked like a large misshapen, waterlogged piece of wood that twitched.

He continued to watch the object until it washed on his side of the riverbank a few hundred paces downstream. A long reptilian-like creature pulled itself up the shore using its two front appendages. Once it had fully emerged from the water, Kopius could make out that the creature's two back legs were being dragged along, unmoving. After making it a few steps out of the water, the beast collapsed to the ground. It lay there, motionless.

Kopius felt his heartbeat pick up, already knowing what he would do next. He looked around as though to find a clue, or some excuse to ‘not do it’.

“That thing is obviously injured,” Kopius whispered. “We can just go up and around, avoid it all together.”

He summoned a sword into his hand, and then grabbed the hilt.

We don’t need the weapon if we are going around, Kopius reminded himself.

Maybe we should go over there.

For what!?

If nothing else, we need the XP.

“Blah,” Kopius grumbled to himself.

“Fine,” he stated aloud, ending the internal debate before it could go any further. He needed the experience.

…and this thing might be dead before I even get over there.

Kopius paused when he was roughly twenty paces from the immobile creature. It was slightly obscured by the knee-high grass, but he could see it nonetheless. It had a long black torso with various, random spikes about its back. A short, stubby tail flopped slowly, the only sign the thing still had life. The head of the creature was diamond shaped. If the thing had been sand colored, Kopius would have guessed it was an extreme version of a bearded dragon.

“Still alive I see,” Kopius whispered. He summoned a baseball-sized rock from his inventory and held it firmly.

“Let’s see just how alive you are.” Kopius said, then hurled the rock. The rock missed its target and skipped into the river with a small splash. The animal showed no signs of noticing.

A bit rusty, Kopius thought. He twirled his arms a few times to give it a stretch. But that’s why we grabbed more than one.

He summoned a second rock to his hand and this time it hit the mark. He hit the thing center mass and it flopped wildly. Its tail flapped violently and in its struggles the animal flipped onto its back. Without a moment to consider his next move, Kopius grabbed his sword he had stuck in the ground and took off running. In five strides he was on the beast.

From what Kopius knew about lizards, their underbellies were the weak spots. Before the creature could bring itself upright, Kopius took his butterknife of a sword and skewered its underside. The beast squealed and bucked–its tail swiped but missed Kopius’s legs. He pushed harder using the pointy end to pierce and poke with the dull blade as best he could; eventually finding the beast equivalent of a heart.

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The thing bucked once more, whimpered, and then went limp. Unconvinced, Kopius stabbed it a few more times just to make sure. Blood streamed out of the large gash and pinholes Kopius had created in the beast, soaking the ground and surrounding area. He stuck his sword in the ground and hunched over triumphantly.

“Well,” Kopius said, catching his breath. ”That was exciting.”

He was about to examine his kill, but paused when a blinking indicator started flashing in his peripheral vision followed by that bell sound again.

Ding-dang

A brief sense of accomplishment passed through him as he opened his profile page. Next to his name was the number 3.

“Nice,” Kopius congratulated himself on the new level. All I have to do now is find other, immobile, half-dead monsters to kill and I’ll hit level 10 in no time. Kopius gave a brief laugh, knowing this was about as easy as it would get.

He returned his attention to his kill. The animal, if it could stand, would have been slightly taller than himself. Its black body was hard and scaly, much like aquatic lizards. Its face resembled a snake and judging by its long row of teeth, Kopius assumed the animal was able to open its jaw very wide. A chill ran through him as he wondered if this was adult size or not. Its dark complexion was perfect cover for stalking prey from beneath the water's surface.

Now that he was only a few short steps from the river in which the beast had emerged, he felt… unsafe. He wanted to put some distance between him and the water, but dragging the heavy creature would be a chore. There were no good handholds, and the slippery nature of its skin made gripping it near impossible. He tried to lift the creature, soaking his shirt in the process, but couldn’t get it off the ground. He considered grabbing the animal by its exposed rib cage, yet the angle was all wrong.

Kopius finally settled on taking his two swords, ramming them diagonally into the underside of the animal's head and creating two handholds. It took a good twenty minutes, but Kopius managed to drag the beast back to the rock shelf he had been sitting on.

He cleaned his swords in the tall grass before returning them to his inventory. After drinking from his waterskin, Kopius came to the conclusion that this dead animal would work well as a place marker. He reasoned that it was large enough to see, and that as long as something bigger didn’t come along to take it, it would be here on his return. Most likely, he would smell the rotting carcass before seeing it.

Kopius looked over his tattered, stained pants that now had several splatter marks of the beast's blood on them too. He looked longingly at the river below, but decided he would rather curl back his own nose hair with the stench than try to wash his meager clothing in those waters. He wasn’t keen on coming across a healthy version of this thing, nor did he want to wander the woods in soaked clothing. He would just have to continue down the river like a vagabond.

Dusk had just begun to settle in as Kopius emerged from the tree line that ran along the river. Cut grass and tilled land lay before him. In the distance was a small village, smoke rising from several of the structures. He found what looked to be a well-beaten path and followed it in the direction of the town. The closer he got to the settlement the more he wondered if the place had been abandoned.

Buildings, if you could call them such, that lined the outer boundary of the town were more like poorly made lean-tos than habitable structures. Many looked as though a stiff breeze would knock them over. Once past the clutter of crappy tee-pee’s, a wooden fence made a large semi-circle around what looked like an old western town not fully built and with no clear plans of improving anytime soon.

There were many structures beyond the wooden fence that were visible. The fence was a meager barrier that looked to be designed to keep animals in rather than a defensive structure to keep predators out. Kopius found that if he remained on the path he was on, it would take him through the official opening into town.

There were no guards he could see, nor could he make out any movement beyond the entrance until he was practically making his way through it. He paused just past the fence when he spotted the first forms of life walking about inside.

The small town had a straight path that led from the opening where he stood, to the river several hundred yards away. The buildings that lined the street were no more than two stories in height and in varying degrees of deprecation. Though the buildings were in vastly better shape than the lean-tos outside the fence, it was obvious that maintenance was only done out of necessity rather than preventative care.

A few torches lined the streets, in front of stores that still had open doors. People were milling about, many coming from the direction of the river before ducking down side streets or alleys–heading home, Kopius guessed. With the sunlight fading it was hard to make out specific features but Kopius could see a range of height differences easily enough.

Casually, Kopius continued the beaten path and started to make his way to what seemed to be the only intersection in town. The wide road allowed him to keep his distance from the buildings. He would glance at windows that held candles in them, but he couldn’t make out the interior of many of them.

A large man, standing in the doorway of some kind of shop, was watching Kopius as he passed by. Kopius gave him the universal head nod for ‘Whaddup’ but the man just spit on the ground, turned inside, and shut the door.

A few kids ran out of an alley not too far from Kopius, gave him a look of disgust, then proceeded down the street towards the river.

“Welcome sorts here, I see,” Kopius said under his breath.

Before reaching the well-lit intersection, he noticed an older lady sitting in a chair on an elevated porch, petting what looked like a large dog at her side. Kopius went to approach the lady, only to stop at some distance when the animal snarled in his direction.

“Sorry to bother you, ma’am,” Kopius started, his hands up to show the animal he meant no harm. “I’m looking for the tavern, the Ring Worm. Could you point me in that direction?”

The lady rocked in her chair, stroking the beast. She looked at Kopius for some time before replying.

“You smell like you’re new here, friend,” the lady said with a scruffy voice, emphasizing the word friend to imply anything but. ”It may be a shit of a town, but you don’t need to embrace it.” She chewed on her lip before continuing. “You should be looking for a place to bathe,” she said in all seriousness. “I can smell you from here, and you look like a trampled turd.”

Kopius knew he smelled bad. As for how he looked, he could only imagine the sight. He had piss and soot on his pants, animal innards on his shirt, and mud all about from trekking along the river for so long. His hair was plastered back, and grime had built up along his face where he had routinely wiped away sweat. He was tired, sore, and had considered on more than one occasion to try a stamina potion to give him some kind of energy boost. He had reasoned that the potion didn’t work that way, so he hadn’t experimented–yet.

Kopius shrugged.

“The tavern will do for now, thanks,” Kopius replied, mustering up some annoyance.

“Don’t let your trousers get bunched,” she replied with a raspy laugh. “Besides, the drinks in that place,” she said, pointing diagonally across the street, ”will burn your nose hairs, so most won’t notice.” Kopius looked over in the direction she had gestured and saw the tell-tale sign of swinging doors that made for most old-western bar entrances. Above the entrance was a large, off-center letter ‘O’, which Kopius was a bit confused by. As he looked he saw a few people were heading in while two came stumbling out.

“Thanks,” Kopius said over his shoulder, making his way to the tavern.

All four corners of the intersection had two-story buildings, and the structures looked to be the most well maintained of all that he had seen thus far. Opposite the tavern was a goods-and-supply store from what Kopius could make out through the windows.

Another corner looked like a jail or some sort of government building. Overweight men in shoddy chainmail armor sat in front. They looked uninterested, with one of the three men asleep–passed out in his chair.

The last building, opposite the jail-looking place, was possibly a place for lodging, but it wasn’t obvious. With the night sky quickly approaching, Kopius stepped up to the swinging doors of the tavern and looked at the sign once again. A closer inspection showed what looked more like a snake than a worm, eating its own tail.

The sounds of chatter and clinking glass carried out from the inside. Sour burps and bad breath also fought their way out too. Kopius could practically taste the disappointment spewing from inside; a taste he knew well enough.

He gathered up what energy he had left and–with a deep breath–stepped into the Ring Worm.