Name: Trevor Bluem

Job: None

HP: 20/20

MP: 5/5

Skills:

* Swordsmanship - Level 1 - Exp 1/100

* Digging - Level 3 - Exp 225/300

It. Freaking. Worked!

Suspended in the air about two feet in front of me was a neutral gray window, a foot square with white text showing my information. It was what I would call a "hologram", even though no such thing existed, at least in the real world. Maybe more like something in an AR headset. The window didn't actually cast any light onto anything around it, but I could see it clearly. Definitely more like AR, then.

I tried moving my head around, but the window didn't follow it or my eyes. I stood up, and it came with me, though, and traveled around as I rotated my torso. It seemed to be "anchored" somewhere within my chest, for all the good that knowledge did me.

Alright. So I really am in a game world. As if the gnoll wasn't enough evidence. Oh crap he's still not buried, and I don't need to be traipsing around an open hole in the dark. Oh man, I hope nothing comes after the body overnight. Should I maybe at least get him into the hole, to make it harder for scavengers? Yeah, let's do that while we wait to see whether the fire shows up on the horizon. But I want to play with this status window some more first. But scavengers...Okay, let's at least figure out how to dismiss the status window. The most obvious ideas are to say "Status" again, or "Dismiss". Let's give those a shot.

A feeling of foolishness persisted, even after my earlier success, to be saying it out loud, but I spoke the word "Status" again.

Nothing happened. Alright, let's try the other option.

"Dismiss." I said to no one, fighting a nervous grin.

The window disappeared, without even an afterimage in my retinas. Alright, that was simple enough. Now let's go deal with our deceased friend. I can come back to this later.

Back on hands and knees, I crawled toward the pile of earth, keeping an eye out for the depression in the grass signifying the location of the corpse. I hardly had to bother, since I smelled it before I could see it. At this point, I would either have to roll the body from a kneeling position, or stand up and try grabbing onto appendages.

Staying low is definitely the smarter track, so let's see about the rolling method first. Ugh, I'm gonna have to use some water to rinse my hands after this...

Wedging my fingers under the now stiff body, I used my own stiff muscles to roll the gnoll from its front to its back.

I hadn't really prepared myself for an unobstructed view of the creature's front. It wasn't pretty.

Every muscle in the body relaxes upon death, so the tongue had fallen out, and the eyes were still open. And then as muscles started to stiffen in rigor mortis, the tongue had stayed in place, to a macabre comical effect against the glassy eyes and dried blood. There were also flies in the dozens all over the place. My eyes were drawn to a lighter color than the gnoll's dark brown fur near its waist.

Are those...ears? Human ears? Oh god. Oh god that's so freaking gross! It's got human ears on a string like trophies! Ugh, that's so...monstrous. I guess I don't need to feel guilty about killing it anymore, though, right? It would definitely have killed me if I hadn't taken my chance first. Still, I can't just go swinging a machete at every unfamiliar thing that approaches me! I'm sure I'm gonna come into contact with peaceful non-human races, if this world sticks to the "game" aspects. I can't be so reactionary in the future, or I'll be in huge trouble.

But speaking of the machete, did this thing have a weapon? In all the moving around and digging, I haven't seen anything...

Throwing my eyes over the rest of the gnoll's body in the dying light, I only saw the handle of a knife in a leather pouch on the waistband of the loincloth, right next to the ear trophies. Looking more closely at the hands, the claws were indeed long and sharp enough to tear through unarmored skin.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

So it likely uses claws, and maybe its fangs, for weapons, and maybe the knife to cut off the ears? Probably. Should I take the knife? It would be good to have more than one actual weapon, especially one I can sort of conceal. A Swiss Army knife doesn't really count as a weapon, let's be real. Fine, so how do I get this holster off of the loincloth? I don't want to fuss around with trying to untie it, so I'll just cut it.

I retrieved the small knife from my pocket, flipped open the spring-loaded blade, and gingerly slipped it under the crude rope holding up the filthy cloth. It only took a second or two of work to slice through, then another second to slip the loop of leather off of the rope.

Will this fit on my belt? It looks like it should. But maybe I should rinse it off first, everything about this guy is filthy. I'll just tuck it into my back pocket for now.

My "looting" finished, I wedged my fingers under my victim's back and heaved it over one more time, straight into the open grave. A nervous giggle did escape me at the "whumpf" sound of the rigid form landing nearly six feet below. Obviously, I was still under some mental strain.

Alright, it's at least in the hole now, and scavengers will have a hard time deciding to jump down there without an easy way back out. Probably. Regardless, it's too dark to be handling a shovel right now. And I'm still starving, though I can't smell that grilling any more. Pretty soon it'll be dark enough to see a campfire in the distance, though. That is, if it's still burning. I'll have to decide how I want to approach that. If it's not still burning, I have no way of knowing which way to go, so the decision will have been made for me. Let's get back to shelter, at least.

I crawled back toward the shed, realizing as I did that the grass had been flattened sufficiently enough to make it obvious to any passerby that someone had been here. Well, aside from the shed and the pile of dirt beside an open grave with a body in it. Nothing I could do about any of it at that moment.

Reaching the inside of the shed, I parked myself on the bucket once more to think about my next move.

The first thing to decide is whether I believe anything other than a human would be able or inclined to light a fire and cook meat. Well, human or some other sentient race. So what do I believe about that? The gnoll hadn't had any obvious fire-making tools in its possession, but that didn't mean it couldn't bang two rocks together to make a spark, or spin a stick to generate friction. But based on the crud around its claws, I doubt it cooked its meat before eating. So that's one monster race knocked out of contention for the mystery griller. Beyond that, anything else would be conjecture. The only thing I can say for sure is that if there is any race that CAN and WILL start a fire to cook meat, it would be human.

With that in mind, I'll say that I'm 50/50 that whoever or whatever was grilling won't try to kill me as soon as it sees me. And it definitely will see me, a long way off, due to how flat this place is. Likely the only reason it hasn't seen me yet is because it's far enough away that the horizon has bent the shed behind the grass closer to them. It's literally like a beacon for anything close enough to see.

Assuming I'm able to find the direction of the fire, do I approach? I have to, right? I have no idea where I am, I have no food, and limited water. I won't last long on my own, so I'll just have to trust in human kindness. Or whatever race's kindness. Okay. Let's see if we can find that glow.

Looking out the door, there was no longer any light in the Eastern sky. Stepping out and around the shed, I could still see a line of faint orange outlining the mountains to the West, but that was it. I closed my eyes for a few seconds to adjust away from the relative brightness to the west, then began to peer in the other cardinal directions as I walked around the shed.

To the South, I saw a few bright stars, but no telltale orange glow from a fire. To the East, it was an even faster check, as the sky was that much darker. To the North, however, I detected a faint dome of orange cut by the soft line of the horizon.

That's gotta be it. I don't smell cooking anymore, but it's been at least an hour, so they've probably finished and eaten already. Okay, North it is. I should probably bring some things with me, not the least of which would be water and the machete. Oh, and I need to rinse off this gnoll knife. I'll go ahead and gear up with the rope and tool belt like I had intended to before I started digging.

Back inside the shed, I closed the door, then used some of my precious battery, now at 42 percent, to give enough light to pass the belt through the loop on the machete's cloth sleeve, then buckle on the belt and loop the rope over my shoulder. I picked up the mostly full third jug of water and grabbed the sleeping bag stored on a shelf against the back wall, and turned the light back off.

They might be friendly enough to let me share their camp, you never know. Wait, 42 percent? It shouldn't have died that much so quickly. Oh shit, searching for a signal will kill the battery faster than anything! Gotta put it on airplane mode.

I pulled the phone back out and swiped and tapped until all three radio antennas were disabled.

There! Now the battery might last through the night. Not much past that, though... Well, I'll deal with that when it comes. I honestly don't care about the phone itself, I just don't want to lose access to the pictures. Patricia...

A sigh slipped past my lips at the thought of never seeing even a facsimile of my wife's face again, before I dropped my phone into my pocket and took my first steps to the North.