I walked silently throughout the rest of Lucard Pass, no longer fearing this place was cursed, as I had just killed the likely culprit of most rumors about the said curse.

My mind was reeling from the events that had just unfolded and the startling revelations that followed. It would be some time before I could truly sort through my thoughts and find peace within them.

Val, ever present in my mind, knew I needed time to process everything. Her betrayal severed any semblance of trust I had with her, and while I did now believe she would be honest with me and wouldn’t try to get me killed again, I knew there was more to her story. Someday, I’d find a way to pull the full truth out of her.

Every step I took away from that damned cave was a step further away from a sad and broken girl. My stupid conscience was screaming for me to go back. To take her with me. I shook the feeling off. Tara was dangerous. Not killing her was a mercy on my part, and I told myself that was enough. Plus, I had no experience helping someone detox from drugs. All I knew was that it would be unpleasant and take days I had no intention of wasting.

Her quest may have come to a shitty conclusion, but I fully intended to make my way to Danver. Technically, it was lizard territory, but most real fighting was west of the Divine Mountains, and Danver lay on the east side. Undoubtedly, I would cross paths with a few Players, but everything would be fine if I kept my head down and didn’t interact.

Hopefully.

I traveled through a long tunnel carved into the base of the lower mountains. Inside, the borehole was smooth, so much so that it almost felt polished. Without a light, I had to keep my hand on the tunnel and pray I didn’t trip over a stray rock or get attacked by some night beast.

When I finally left that darkness, I was surprised to see a much different path ahead. Now, it curved to the right, with part of the mountain carved out to make room for the twisting road; there would be no more tunnels from here on, which was fine with me.

I followed the path steadily for a solid hour before a crow tried to peck out my eyes.

The damned thing came from behind and hit me in the back of the head with enough force to make me take a step forward, lest I fall. I reached up to try to rip the bird off my head, but it dug its claws in deep, causing me to scream out in pain.

Then it moved, leaning past my forehead and hammering its beak at my face. Luckily, the first peck missed the eye but sliced open my eyebrow. My hands shot up to protect my face and thankfully saved my eyes from the flurry of relentless pecks.

I had one useful thought before panic fully set in. I activated a Devastating Strike and punched up at the bird, carefull not to hit myself. My fist crushed the bird with ease, shattering its bones and sending it flying from my head in a mess of gore.

A microsecond later, another scream of pain escaped my lips, and I reached up to my scalp to discover the crow's talons still embedded into my head. I guess I punched that bird so hard that I blasted the damned thing’s socks off.

I winced in pain as I freed my scalp of the leftover talons. Head wounds tended to bleed a lot, and I could already feel the sticky warmth dripping down my neck. I ripped off a small cloth from my travel blanket and wrapped it around my head, hoping to stem the flow of blood.

“What the hell was that?”

“Oh, are you talking to me?” Val replied.

“Who else would I be talking to?”

“I don’t know how you humans think. One second, you’re giving me the cold shoulder, and the next, you're asking questions about birds. Your tiny mind is truly a mystery to me.”

“Can you please just answer the question before I bleed to death?”

“Thank you for asking nicely, Ethan. I’d be happy to. You were just attacked by a crow.”

“I know that!” I said, throwing my hands up in frustration. “But why did it attack me?”

“Since crows do not typically attack people randomly, I can only assume you found some way to piss it off. That, or a warg is nearby, and it controlled the bird.”

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything to offend the bird, Val. What’s a warg?”

“A warg is an animalistic human who can see through the eyes of other animals. Some powerful wargs can even fully control their bonded pets.”

“Well, where’s this bastard at? I’m going to pay him a visit.”

“Hmm. One moment. There. I just scanned a mile radius around us, and you are the only NPC I detected.”

“Can’t you scan further?”

“Normally, but we are surrounded by millions of tons of stone. The warg may be over a mile away. Although, since you killed its bonded pet, I would imagine it is on its way here to kill you.”

“It’s going to try to kill me over a bird?”

“Were you not planning on killing the warg over a bird just a moment ago?”

“That bird attacked me. I didn’t do anything!”

“The bond they have with their pets can be quite profound,” Val said. “The warg will come for you. Let’s hope it was only bonded to one creature. Maybe then, you’ll have a chance.”

I picked up my pace, leaving the scene of the crime behind me. “So, these wargs can be strong?”

“Strength can vary, but yes, a warg can be a formidable opponent, especially to someone with your….limited talents.”

“Hey!”

“I only mean that your in-game skills are limited. Once you gain more levels, you’ll have far more options to bring to battle.”

“You’re not giving me much confidence, Val.”

“I apologize if the reality of the situation offends you. If you feel like you must hide, I understand.”

I reached up to my tender head. “Not a chance.” However, perhaps a little subterfuge could be useful. Maybe I could arrange an ambush of some kind. It was in my skillset, after all.

My pace increased, and I continued to make my way through the pass, expecting to reach the end soon. My eyes and ears were on sharp alert, and my body was tense, ready for action.

After some time, I began to think the warg decided I was more predator than prey and went their own way. That all changed when Val said, “The warg is around this next bend.”

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

‘What?’ I thought to her. “What happened to your mile range?’

“I’m not scanning all the time. It had been a few minutes since my last one. It is apparently very fast.”

In this part of the pass, the carved mountain walls weren’t as steep, allowing a wider view of the sky above. It was clear that I was nearing the end of this part of the journey, but of course, there had to be one more obstacle in my way. There was no way around it, and I saw no hiding places. I had to push forward.

Cautiously, I stalked forward, staying close to the inner wall. Once I passed the bend, I saw him. And he saw me. In the center of the road stood a little boy. It was hard to guess his age through the ragged clothes, dirt, and grime, but I would guess around eleven or twelve from his height.

‘Uh, Val,’ I thought. ‘It’s just a little kid.’

“Please tell me you don’t have some moral issue with killing a child. He’s practically a monster at this point anyway.”

He looked like a normal child to me. Well, a normal child that had been living in the woods alone for a few years.

‘I’m not going to kill a kid.’

“Fine. Try to reason with the feral boy. Don’t come crying to me when he bites your throat out.”

I raised a gentle hand. “Hello,” I said. “Do you need help?” Surely, he would trust a dirty, blood-soaked stranger who just killed his crow.

The boy just stared at me, eyes dark and full of anger.

“Was that your bird? I didn’t mean to hurt it, but it attacked me.”

He leaned forward and hissed at me. Maybe this kid was completely feral and couldn’t understand me.

“Okay,” I said. “So, I’m going to walk past you, alright?” I had both hands up in a sign of peace. “I’m sorry about your bird, but if you were in my place, you’d have done the same.”

I shuffled slowly toward him, hoping he would stay there and let me pass. I kept my eyes locked on his, waiting for any tell. And then it came. He glanced upwards briefly, a mistake. I looked up just in time to see a bird twice the size of the crow diving toward me at an outrageous speed.

Instead of running, I leaped at the kid, but he darted away. Unfortunately for him, he darted toward the hewn wall of the cliff. As fast as I could, I reached out and got a hand on his nasty shirt. I pulled him toward myself and wrapped my arms around him, turning him away from me like a hostage, a human shield.

I ignored his scratches and kicks and chanced a glance up. The bird, a falcon of some kind, had abandoned its divebomb and circled above us.

Now what?

“Okay, kid, if you can speak, now would be a great time. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Let me go!” the boy shouted as he tried to stomp on my foot, but I was wise to the trick and stepped away from the blow.

“Give me a reason to let you go!” I shouted back. “’Cause right now, I got plenty of reasons to keep you here.”

“You killed Isis,” he said. “You killed my friend.”

“Your friend tried to kill me first. Or, should I say you tried to kill me first? Why? I wasn’t doing anything.”

“You’re one of them,” he said, then spat on the ground. “I won’t let you kill me.” He tried to stomp my foot again, but I dodged it and held him tight. Just to be careful, I glanced up and saw the falcon was still circling. I knew the moment it saw an opening; it would attack.

“Whatever you think I am, you’re wrong,” I said. “I’m just a guy trying to get to Danver.”

“Liar! No one comes here except for them.”

“Who is them?” I said, struggling to hold on to this slippery kid.

“The Hunters.”

“Hunters? Look, kid, I’m not here to hunt any of your pets.”

“Not them. Me!”

“Perhaps I can shed some light on the situation,” Val said, deciding to be helpful. “The general population detests wargs, and many see them as an abomination. It is not an official guild, but they believe their righteous duty is to rid the world of unnatural things. Wargs, witches, werewolves, those sorts of things. Any human with an unnatural gift is seen as an abomination in their eyes and must be purged.”

‘Thanks, Val.’ That was surprisingly helpful.

“I’m not one of them. I’m not a part of their guild. I think what they do is evil.”

“Liar!”

“Look, kid,” I tightened my grip around him, squeezing air from his lungs. “I’m just a regular guy, I swear. I will not hurt you. I am going to let you go. Please, do not attack me or send that bird to do your dirty work. If you do, I will be forced to defend myself.”

I let some pressure from his chest and allowed him to catch his breath.

“I’m not a liar. I’m not a Hunter. I just want to get through this godforsaken mountain pass. Now it’s time for you to decide.”

I let him go, and he scrambled to the cliff wall. The falcon let out a shriek above me, but it wasn’t trying to kill me yet.

The kid stood there, back against the wall, eyes darting in every direction, looking for an escape.

I held up my hands. “See. I’m not attacking you. And hey, so far, you're not attacking me. That’s a great start.”

Slowly, I lowered my hands. “My name’s Ethan. I’m a farmer turned soldier turned freelancer and trying to get to Danver. You got a name?”

His squirrely eyes settled on me. He looked nervous and confused, likely still harboring false ideas about my intentions.

“I’m Kitz.”

Hey, we were making progress.

“Do you need anything, Kitz?”

He leaned against the rock, trying to sink deeper into it and escape this conversation. “Water,” he said quietly. “It’s been drier than usual lately.”

I smiled and pulled out my waterskin. There wasn’t much potable water left in it, but that wasn’t the point. I held it out for him to take.

He eyed it suspiciously, and like a flash, he snatched it out of my hand. One second later, he had it open and drank deeply until it was empty.

The dirty little warg looked at the waterskin and stuck his arm out for me to take it. He was staring very hard at his feet while he did this.

I took it gently, pulled out a piece of jerky, and held it out to him. He shook his head. “I don’t eat meat.”

“Do you like bread? I’ve got a little left, although it’s hard as a rock now.”

He nodded quickly, so I tossed a large piece to him. If I wanted to make it to Danver without nearly starving myself, I’d need to hunt. For animals, just to be clear.

It may have been dry as a brick, but Kitz scarfed it down in seconds.

“If people are hunting for you in this area, why do you stay?”

Kitz looked away from me. “It isn’t safe for me anywhere. But I know this place. And I know the animals here.”

I didn’t know why I was continuing this conversation. I should have taken my free pass and skedaddled. But the injustice of this kid’s role in this wretched game made me want to help, even if just a little. I might not have been strong enough for the real fight yet, but I’d fight back against the preprogrammed suffering of my people in whatever way I could, even if all I could do were offer a kid water and bread.

“Surely there are people who would take you in?”

He gave a sad shrug. “They do sometimes. For a while, but eventually, they will find out what I am. I’m….called to the animals. And sometimes, they are called to me.”

“I see. I’m afraid I can’t offer much help besides what I have already given you. Unless you can think of a way, I could aid you?”

“No. Not unless you can stop all the Hunters from coming after me.”

I almost laughed at what I presumed was a joke but stopped myself. It would have been belittling, and … could I stop the Hunters? Maybe I could tell them I killed Kitz? No. They’d probably require physical proof like an ear, hand, or worse. Could I get the guild shut down? Probably not, as I was a nobody in this world, and Val did say they weren’t an official guild, so I couldn’t play politics against them.

But I was a Player, and this world was designed for me to become a hero. I just had to start taking the game seriously. Val said part of this game was about gaining influence. I’d have to ask Val how that part of the game worked and if there even was a system for it. For all I knew, influence could be gained naturally, like in the real world.

Perhaps I could burn their guild to the ground. That would at least slow their operations for a while.

I looked at Kitz, and he briefly met my eye. In that moment, I saw a scared little boy. A boy without much hope in his life. Even if I couldn’t help him, I could at least give him some hope.

“I don’t know any magic, Kitz, but if I can find a way to stop them, I will.” I bent down to a knee to get on his level. “You deserve to live in peace. I will do my best to help you. It may take some time, but I will try.”

When his dark eyes met mine, I could see they were wet with tears—not tears of sadness, but tears born from hope.

“Thank you,” he said in a whisper. “Please try to come find me after you do.”

“I will. I promise.”

Kitz smiled and waved at me, then scampered away, toward the exit of the pass.

NEW QUEST INITIATED

I flinched from the AI’s voice. I didn’t even realize I was taking on a quest.

HUNT OR BE HUNTED

Save little Kitz by stopping the hunter’s guild from pursuing him. I don’t care how you do it; just do it. You will fail this quest if a hunter kills Kitz or if he dies of natural causes beyond your control. There is no time limit on this quest.

“I cannot believe you just did that,” Val said, popping into existence before me.

“I got a quest. Isn’t that a good thing?’

“This quest is way above your level. You should let me guide your quests so you get the best rewards without doing something that will get you killed.”

“Why didn’t you try to stop me then?”

“I cannot see dynamically generated quests like this, at least not when they are generated on the spot like that. Your conversations created the quest. I can see a percentage of dynamic quests as they come and go, but I can see all the premade quests, which are plentiful in Danver.”

I touched the tender wound on my scalp. It was still bleeding. “Let’s get the hell out of here."