The walk to the village was a bit further than expected, he had been walking for over an hour and only now he was nearing the end of the forest. Wondering how far the other players had gotten, he continued his walk to the village. There were a few lower level monsters that he saw, like an overly large rabbit called Ravenous Rabbit. Although he was curious about the combat mechanics, they didn't give new players any starting gear. You would have to find an odd job or two in the village to earn money for some basic equipment so you could start hunting monsters. Or you could steal some I guess, illegal activities were not prohibited in the game. Which made sense because otherwise the Assassin or thief classes could not fully utilize their skill sets.

The village had no houses near the side of the forest and it was still about a miles walk from where he was. He had expected to see some lumber shacks atleast before he reached the village. He walked up to the village with his hair revolving around his ankles. He saw his first villager who immediately paled and ran back into her house.

Guess this village has had some back experiences with adventurers. Ziro thought.

He walked into the village square and as soon as other people saw him they ran inside. Windows were slammed closed and doors were locked.

Even if they had bad experiences this is a bit to much.

Guards came storming around the corner standing around him in a half circle, hands on their weapons and eyes glaring. Two of the guards even knocked an arrow and had them ready for the draw. Strangely enough he could see a status bar above their heads in the glowing red that marked them as an enemy. The average level of the guards was 60, with the highest being the guard in the middle at 64. There were five guards that had surrounded him. The middle guard took a step closer and addressed him.

“We do not want your kind here, leave.”

Ziro stared at him confused. They don't want my kind here? Players? Or maybe it has something to do with the Shadowspawn race?

“I'm not sure what you mean.”

“I will not repeat myself, leave.”

You did just repeat yourself though, better not say that, he looks like he'd smack me.

“I'm just here so I can get some equipment, I'd be willing to work a job to pay for it.”

The guards eyes narrowed and from the corner of his eyes he saw the archers draw back their bowstring some more. He was pretty sure the local temperature had dropped a degrees or two. Taking a deep breath he decided to still give it one more shot, if he was unable to get into villages and cities it would make it a lot harder on him.

Its worth another shot right? Worst scenario I get killed and re-spawn in the forest. Would save me an hours walk at the least.

“Would you atleast explain to me why my kind is not allowed into the village?”

“Into the village? Your kind is not even allowed in the country, a bounty will be posted on you today regardless. Thinking about it it would just be easier for us to collect on that bounty immediately. There is always good money in dead shadowspawn!”

The guard reached for his sword, before waiting to see if the threat was real Ziro turned around and dashed back to the forest. Hearing the telltale sound of an unsheathing sword he sprinted towards the forest as hard as he could. With a whistle an arrow flew past his head, flinching Ziro made a rightstep, getting the other arrow in his shoulder. He tumbled to the ground, rolling t his feet to continue his sprint.

AAAUUUW What the fuck! It hurts a lot! WHY?

Sprinting to the forest he tried to ignore the arrow in his shoulder, but it just hurt so damn much. He heard the shouting of the guards behind him. They sounded further away now, with a look back he saw that they hadn't left the village and just watched him run away.

Ziro slowed his pace as he looked at the arrow in his shoulder, The thing had done more damage to his hp than expected. 75% was gone, it was to be expected he guessed. Him being level one when the guards where over sixty levels higher. He walked to the nearest tree and sat down looking at the arrow in his shoulder. He pulled it out in one short move and got another six damage from it to his hp.

WHAT THE FUCK. Whatthefackwhatthefackwhatthefack! What is this shit, I can't enter villages or cities? Already there is going to be a bounty on me head? WHAT THE FUCK! Where is my relaxing disney princess atmosphere?!

“ZOLTAN! COME HERE!” Ziro shouted furiously.

With a poof, the bubblewrap AI appeared before him. Looking decidedly uninterested as ussual.

“How may I be of assistance?”

“Why the hell cant I enter villages?!”

“It seems to be a result of the shadow-spawn race which the staff was unprepared for. They are working on removing the race from the players choice menu, within 4 hours the players that have chosen the race will have the option to change into another race.”

Ziro narrowed his eyes. “Why can't you just change it so that shadowspawn are allowed in the villages and cities?”

“We made a base program then accelerated it 10000 years, that way the game would build up its own lore and would expand in a way that made it seem more natural. If it were to be changed the result would make it seem less realistic. The administrators have decided against that course of action.”

“Okay... Thanks for the info.”

With another poof Zoltan disappeared. Ziro sat with his back against a tree and looked at the canopy of leaves above him. So in four hours he could change his race, Four hours in game or in real life? He noticed he hadn't even asked that, with a sigh he watched as his hp bar regenerated.

Well he wasn't just going to stop being a shadowspawn. The race looked way to cool not to use, but going without villages would be hard. Not being able to buy basic or advanced equipment meant that he would either have to craft his own equipment or get it from drops. He wasn't much of a crafter so that meant going ham on mobs. He nodded as he was thinking to himself, looking around he looked for a longer branch. Finding one that fit his needs, he started looking for a sharp-ish rock. Finding a sharp rock was surprisingly hard when in the forest. Eventually he found one though.

He sat down and began trying to sharpen the branch, a process more difficult than he had expected. The people in the movies made it look so easy, it was anything but. Maybe if he had a knife or something, sighing he kept working on the branch. After about fifteen minutes he had something resembling a weapon.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

You have crafted : Crude Wooden Spear

Attack : 6-8 Durability : 30/30

He was a bit surprised at the pop-up of the window, he had not expected the system to recognize it as a weapon. He gave it a few twirls, reminding him of some martial arts training he had undergone when he was a kid. He had always favored the quarterstaff as a weapon, it had a lot of potential as a weapon, easily usable in a lot of different situations. A spear however had a sharp end, but could also still be usable as a staff. He figured he would need a sharp end to hunt the Ravenous Rabbits but thinking about it he could have just used the branch on itself.

Fantasizing about future weapons and gear he might be able to get he headed to a nearby clearing where the rabbits where located. Luckily the creatures were passive, and would only attack in self defense. He had quickly used the search to check if other rabbits would be aggro'd if he attacked one. It seemed this was not the case so he should be fine.

Spotting a Ravenous Rabbit a bit further away, he grabbed his spear in his right hand and sneaked closer. It was perhaps a meter long, about the size of a german shepard. Honestly it looked pretty cute, he started feeling bad about killing the Rabbit. Reminding himself he was just playing a game he shook those feelings off and snuck closer. Taking a deep breath he lunged towards the rabbit once it was in range and stabbed it in its back.

The rabbit turned around lighting fast and bit of the edge of the spear with a mean glare in its eyes. That was when Ziro noticed a small bit of information he had missed. The Rabbit outleveld him, it was level twelve. More to the point it had razor sharp teeth, it had a snout resembling a wolves with that sharp set of canines. And it was very very angry.

I done fucked up

Just as he was thinking that the rabbit pounced, Ziro stumbled back, teeth barely missing his throat. The Rabbit pounced again, with a smack from the remains of his spear he hit the bunny out of the air. Scrambling to get back on his feet he faced the creature. Walking around it with his weapon in both hands. After a glance at Its hp bar he saw that it still had about 95% left, with a grimace he focused on the fight. Even if he was outleveled and possibly outmatched he wasn't just going to give up.

Letting out a deep breath he readied himself, lowering his center of gravity and spreading his feet. The Rabbit pounced at him again, Ziro sidestepped and swung the spear as a baseball-bat hitting the creature heavily in its side. Its hp dropped by about 10%, dealing a surprising amount of damage.

Alright! I can do this!

Feeling his heart pounding away in his chest his hands started shaking, a corner of his mouth rising as he stood there preparing for the next attack. This time the bunny hopped to his side, before coiling its legs and unleashing all the power of its back legs into a headbutt maneuver. Ziro managed to dodge the thing near Matrix-style, except he fell on his back. Using that to his advantage he kicked the rabbit in the stomach sending it crashing into a tree behind him. Scrambling back on his feet he jumped towards the stunned rabbit, landing a series of fast jabs.

He jumped back blood dripping from his spear this time, the Rabbits hp had dropped to around 70%. Twirling the weapon in one hand then passing it over to the other, he strafed around the rabbit. Alert for its next move, the bunny hopped up and then used its powerful hind legs to spring from a tree coming at him from above. Ziro grabbed his spear and tried to swing for another homerun. The rabbit however had different plans. It somersaulted mid-air and used those powerful legs it had to kick him in the face, sending him sprawling. Ziro rolled back on his feet wanting to give the creature no opening, that single kick had done more than 20% damage to his health bar.

Ziro could feel the blood running down his face, his nose sending pulses of pain into his brain. He lifted a hand to his nose and gently touched it, he flinched.

I think the bloody bunny broke my nose!

Ziro growled at the rabbit, baring his teeth at the furry monstrosity. He charged, stepping forward into a lunge, the creature expected the stab and hopped to the side. Before it landed however Ziro changed the lunge into a back-heel kick and smacked the creature in its jaw sending it sprawling over the grass. Not wasting time he charged at it again, sending swift jabs its way. The rabbit hopped and hopped dodging his strikes. It pounced again this time with its jaws wide open, teeth shimmering in the sunlight.

Ziro twisted his body and lined up for the homerun, He smacked the creature right in its mouth with the improvised bat and sent it flying a good dozen feet back into the air. Its teeth and his weapon shattering at the impact. The creature squealed as it hit the ground bouncing back up on its feet, having lost a good deal of health after this exchange it now had less than 20% hp.

Not giving the creature time to recuperate, Ziro rushed at it only having a baton sized bit left from his spear. The creature tried to pounce at it again but Ziro knocked it out of the air, as soon as it hit the ground Ziro started going to work on the creature. Hitting it with the stick as fast and hard as he could. After five of those strike the creature suddenly burst apart before his eyes. Leaving a few coins and some meat in its place.

Ziro looked at the loot and gathered it, had gotten seventeen copper coins, and Ravenous Rabbit Meat, a class E cooking ingredient. As soon as he touched the coins they disappeared into his inventory. Same thing with the meat, he had also gained a level. He got 3 stat points from the level up and put two of them in agility and the other in strength. He had also gotten the skill Pole-arm mastery. It was at level one with about 6% in experience.

After a quick search on the available websites, he read that the skill mastery was about the same as he was used to. From novice, to initiate, to adept, to intermediate, to veteran, to expert finally ending in the Master rank. The difference was mainly that it had a few extra ranks, it would probably take a long time of specializing in a particular weapon to reach master level. During the fight Ziro had somewhat decided on the type of character he wanted to make. Strength and agility being his primary attributes, he planned to go for a mobile DPS. He also wanted to keep using polearms, their range and adaptability fit him.

Grinning, he grabbed another branch. Sharpening it to create another spear. Twirling it around a bit to get the feel for the weapon he headed out to the next rabbit. Determined to hit level ten before the day ended.