Max didn’t know how long he’d been lost in darkness. It might have been a minute, it might have been a day. For all he knew, it had been centuries. He realized it must have been at least ten or twelve hours because the sun was shining brightly, and the last he could remember, it had been the dead of night. He propped himself up on his elbows and found that he was completely naked.
The thief was suddenly wide awake, up on his feet, and scrambling to hide his nakedness. He could feel a cold breeze chilling his skin from head to toe and realized he wasn’t in the lab anymore. Max looked up into a deep blue sky with light wispy clouds high above then at the tall yellow stalks of wheat that surrounded him. Lastly, he peered down at the dark, rich earth beneath his bare feet.
He definitely wasn’t in the city anymore.
Max looked all around him for his stuff. His clothes. His multi-tool. His climbing shoes. His bag of black diamonds. They were all gone.
“Not the diamonds,” the thief moaned. He looked around, scrabbling through the dirt and the tall stalks of wheat.
They have to be here somewhere!
Max stood up and looked out over the sea of golden wheat. The tall strands came up to his shoulders, but still he covered his privates with his hands, feeling more uncomfortable than he had in a long time. He was, after all, standing out in the open in a vast sea of wheat, completely naked. The thief turned this way and that, looking for anything that might help him, and then spotted a scarecrow a few hundred yards away.
A scarecrow?!
“Where the hell am I?” Max screamed at the sky then turned his attention back to his surroundings. He could have been anywhere on Earth.
“How did I get here?” the thief muttered, shaking his head. It had to be related to that transport experiment the lab technician had been talking about. It must have sent him clear across the country.
Or had he fallen? He couldn’t remember leaving the lab, but maybe he had gotten out, then slipped and fallen, hitting his head. Maybe he was lying in a hospital bed, concussed and high on pain meds, just believing he was in some vast farm in the middle of nowhere.
Yeah, that makes more sense. Max chuckled at the thought.
With nothing else to do, he shrugged and started walking toward the scarecrow.
The straw man was a simple affair. One long pole stuck into the ground. Tied crossways at Max’s head height was another stick forming a cross. There was a burlap sack hanging on the cross stick, while a strange purple, pumpkin-like fruit sat on top with a scary face carved into it like a jack-o’-lantern. A tattered straw hat sat on top to complete the scruffy scarecrow.
Max kicked the scarecrow down and removed the burlap sack. He pulled his new shirt over his head, and it hung down to his knees, kinda like a scratchy, crotchless romper. As irritating and itchy as the burlap sack was, it was better than standing there totally naked.
Now, he needed to find something to put on his feet. The ground was soft but was littered with sharp stones, so he had to watch his step. Max reached down and grabbed the long stick that was the scarecrow’s body and knocked off the jack-o’-lantern head. He figured he could use it as a walking staff to take the pressure from the stones off his feet.
Standing in the middle of the field looking this way and that, wondering which way to go, Max scratched his head. He could see nothing from one horizon to the next other than a sea of yellow wheat. As he gazed at the endless golden stalks, the ones nearest to him started to twist and turn, then letters and numbers seemed to form among the wheat stalks.
Max closed his eyes and rubbed them hard. Was he starting to hallucinate? He opened his eyes again, but now he could clearly see words the stalks of wheat.
>
>
> Name: Max Freeman
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> Class: None
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> Level: 0
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> Health: Full
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> Strength: 9
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> Stamina: 16
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> Agility: 18
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> Intelligence: 17
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> Wisdom: 12
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> Charisma: 16
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>
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> Abilities:
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> • Climb
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> • Pick pocket
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> • Sneak
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>
And underneath his stats he saw a list of his inventory.
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> Inventory:
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> • Burlap sack
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> • Staff
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>
What the hell is this? he wondered, but then rationalized seeing his personal stats listed out like that wasn’t any weirder than everything else going on.
Max looked at his health bar. It was completely full and colored green, apparently indicating he had full health. He thought about that and had to agree. He actually felt fine—apart from the itchy burlap sack tickling his butt and shoulders. The thief looked away from the stats table as a sound caught his attention. His eyes straying, he glimpsed out of the corner of his eye that the strands of wheat untangled, and the stats table disappeared as the wheat reverted to its natural form.
The sound that drew his attention turned out to be a flock of birds circling overhead, six dark shapes in the clear and cold blue sky. As they beat their wings, the air seemed to twist and turn, and Max saw more words appear next to one of the birds.
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> Name: Death Crow
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> Status: Hostile
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> Attack: Beak and claws
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> Threat level: Moderate
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>
At that moment, one of the Death Crows turned and swooped down toward Max. It went after him with its claws extended and attacked him on his shoulder then pecked him hard with its beak before it swooped back into the sky to circle above with the others.
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> Death Crow attacks Max causing minor damage.
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>
“Why, you nasty little . . .” Max grabbed his shoulder which burned with an intense pain where the Death Crow had pecked him. He could feel warm, sticky blood leaking from the wound.
And then a second Death Crow came sweeping in and pecked him hard on the other shoulder.
>
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> Death Crow attacks Max causing minor damage.
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>
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> Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
All at once, Max was feeling very weak. The third crow came sweeping in, and Max crouched down on the ground amongst the wheat. The Death Crow swept in and scratched the top of his head with its claws.
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> Death Crow attacks Max causing minor damage.
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Max stayed down as low as he could, staring at the dirt between the rows of wheat in the process. He thought he could see more words forming in the dirt. He blinked a few times, and another image came into focus. It was a health report, and it wasn’t good.
His health bar was red and almost empty. Even though he’d only taken three hits of minor damage, it had drained his health almost completely, and he had gone from full health to low health in seconds.
He knew he couldn’t take many more attacks from these aptly named Death Crows. They were only dealing minor damage, but that was enough to cause him serious problems.
“What the hell is going on?!” Max yelled as he looked up at the Death Crows circling nearby.
That was a mistake.
More Death Crows dove into the wheat, the tall dry strands rustling as the crows ripped through the crop. They couldn’t see him, but the thief knew they would eventually find him. Out of nowhere, one came flying straight toward him between two rows of wheat, sending him rolling out of the way as he tried to evade the attack.
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> Death Crow attacks Max.
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> Attack dodged; no damage done.
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>
“You’re not going to peck me to death, you nasty little beasts,” Max roared, standing up with his wooden staff in hand. He gripped it as if it were a sword and waited for the next crow to attack. He didn’t have to wait long as another Death Crow dove down at him almost immediately. The thief channeled all the martial arts skills he had learned playing VR video games and swung at the nasty creature.
>
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> Max attacks Death Crow.
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> Attack dodged; no damage done.
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>
The crow easily evaded the staff, veering away sharply. A second crow swooped down behind Max where he couldn’t see and pecked him hard on the back of his right shoulder.
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> Death Crow attacks Max causing minor damage.
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>
Max felt dizzy and weak. He knew he couldn’t take much more of this and looked to the ground again, trying to check his health, but there was nothing there. He looked around frantically, searching for both enemies and his stats. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a stats table forming in the strands of wheat.
He only had time to see that his health bar was almost gone—only a thin red line remained—before another crow swooped down at him. Max grabbed the middle of the staff to get more precise control and let the crow move in. At the last moment, he turned the staff sharply and knocked the crow out of the air.
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> Max attacks Death Crow causing critical damage.
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>
Max saw another crow sweeping in toward him. He swung the staff again and knocked the second crow out of the air.
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> Max attacks Death Crow causing critical damage.
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Two crows were now flapping helplessly on the ground, struggling to get away, but Max didn’t have time to worry about them as he ducked to avoid another crow flying toward his head.
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> Death Crow attacks Max.
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> Attack dodged; no damage done.
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>
Given a brief respite, Max jabbed at the two Death Crows flopping around on the ground, putting an end to both of them.
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> Max attacks Death Crow causing mortal damage.
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> Death Crow has been defeated.
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>
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> Max attacks Death Crow causing mortal damage.
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> Death Crow has been defeated.
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>
Enraged at the death of their comrades—or just generally enraged—two more Death Crows came in for a double attack, one on either side, and Max jabbed at one and then the other. He missed the first as it broke off its attack but struck the second on the beak, causing a small amount of damage. More importantly, he avoided taking more damage himself.
Another set of crows swept in right after the others, but this time, Max was ready for them and wheeled the staff around, swiping first to his right then jabbing back to his left. He delivered hard blows to both Death Crows in a skillful one-two move like he’d seen in old kung fu movies.
>
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> Max attacks Death Crow causing mortal damage.
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> Death Crow has been defeated.
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>
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> Max attacks Death Crow causing mortal damage.
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> Death Crow has been defeated.
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>
The two remaining Death Crows dove toward Max, and he could see their health bars in the swirling white curls of wind streaming off their wings. The lead crow had already taken minor damage, and its health bar was about two-thirds full. The thief once again took hold of the staff like a sword, two hands at the base of the stick. He wheeled it around above his head, struck as if swinging at a baseball, and caught the first Death Crow hard on its side.
>
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> Max attacks Death Crow causing mortal damage.
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> Death Crow has been defeated.
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>
The first crow fell to the ground, but Max didn’t lose his focus. He continued swinging around to his right, pivoting comfortably, his balance perfect. He swung the staff one-handed and struck the final Death Crow a hard blow with the end.
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> Max attacks Death Crow causing mortal damage.
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> Death Crow has been defeated.
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>
Max turned around and looked for more Death Crows, but none remained. A moment later, a new message appeared among the stalks of wheat.
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> Max gains experience points.
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>
An XP Meter appeared below the message, and the experience points flowed into it, causing the bar to fill slightly.
The thief shook his head. The strangeness of finding himself in a field fighting crows and receiving experience points already starting to feel normal somehow.
“So, what’s my health?” Max wondered aloud, looking around for his health bar. There was nothing amongst the wheat, but then he noticed the clouds swirling and a window with his statistics appeared. It showed him exactly what his health was. His health meter was almost completely empty and flashing red. He knew that he had nearly been killed by the Death Crow attacks, and it had only taken a few hits of minor damage before his health was critically low. He felt sure that if he had taken one more hit, he would have been finished.
If he was going to have any chance of survival, he needed to get stronger. First, though, he needed to find out where exactly he was. This was like no farm he’d ever heard of, with Death Crows attacking and stats appearing in the clouds and stalks of wheat.
Max thought back to the last moments he could remember before awakening in the field of wheat. The last thing he had been aware of was getting zapped by that strange machine then being lost in the dark. And then he was in a wheat field fighting Death Crows.
How? he wondered, feeling a profound sense of loneliness and despair threaten to overtake him. If he couldn’t find help soon, he very well might die out here—wherever “here” was—and that thought was more than a little concerning. A part of him did find it darkly humorous to imagine someone finding his body in the middle of a wheat field wearing nothing but a sack.
I’m not dead yet though!
One direction was as good as any other, so Max picked one and started walking. He knew he had to move if he was going to survive, and he just hoped for a little good luck to get him out of this situation alive.
The thief walked for several minutes, using the staff to help him pick his way through the surprisingly large number of sharp stones in the soft earth. Something caught his attention far away to his right. He turned and thought he could see a red sheet fluttering over the surface of the wheat. It didn’t look like a Death Crow, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t something worse. Something large and red.
I hope it’s not a dragon!
He laughed to himself, thinking his imagination was getting away from him. Max didn’t want to tempt fate though, so he walked in the opposite direction from the red thing. A moment later, something else in the distance caught his eye. Something coming through the wheat, heading straight toward him.
The approaching shape turned out to be a farmer with some sort of farming implement in his hand, one that he waved wildly as he ran toward the thief.
Max held his staff high in the air in a manner that he hoped didn’t look threatening in any way. “Hey, over here!” He moved toward the farmer but soon saw that the man was not as happy to see Max as Max was to see him.
“What’s this guy’s problem?” Max muttered to himself. “Has he got any stats I can check?”
As soon as Max asked the question, he saw a window of stats form in the dust that rose up from the wheat field as the farmer ran toward him.
>
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> Name: Common farmer
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> Status: Angry
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>
“What’s he angry about?” Max wondered, starting to feel a bit uncertain about interacting with the man.
The farmer was wearing an old-fashioned shirt with a few holes at the neck and a lace string tying up the shirt. Puffy sleeves of white cotton flapped around as the farmer ran forward, carrying what Max could now see was a wooden rake.
Although it was made of wood, it looked like it could do at least moderate damage should the angry farmer decide to attack Max with it. His health was so low, there was no way he could withstand any damage from the angry farmer. However, Max was confident in his conflict resolution skills. After all, it wasn’t the first time he had been caught somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be.
The thief twirled the staff around in his hands and had to admit he was getting used to wielding his new weapon. It was thick enough and heavy enough to cause significant damage but still light and thin enough for him to wield it with ease. He swung it in front of himself like it was a longsword and then spun it like the staff it was. He didn’t want to get into a fight with an angry farmer, but he was going to be ready if it came to blows.
The farmer drew closer, and Max could hear him shouting between deep gasping breaths. He could see the man was tired, and he felt relatively fresh himself, even though he knew his health was low. The thief felt a confidence the situation likely didn’t warrant, but you couldn’t survive in his line of work without being a little overconfident from time to time.
“Hey, you! I see you. What are you doing in my crops?” The farmer waved his rake menacingly but also well out of range of Max’s staff. “I’m fed up with you young men from town coming out here and doing whatever it is that you do in my crops. Ruining my scarecrow.” He pointed the rake at Max, who was indeed wearing the remnants of the scarecrow.
“I’m going to give you a beating you won’t soon forget. You won’t be in a hurry to come back to my field when I’m finished with you!”
Max backed away slowly. As foolish as the farmer looked in his puffy white shirt and his straw farmer’s hat, that wooden rake looked dangerous, and the farmer sounded extremely angry.
The situation was quickly getting out of hand, and Max had a choice to make. Was he going to stand his ground, or was he going to flee? If he chose to run, where would he go? If he decided to stay, would he have to fight? Could he talk to the farmer, apologize, and assure him that he wasn’t here to steal his crops and explain that he had only broken down the scarecrow because he’d arrived in the field completely naked.
Max only had a moment to ponder his decision as the farmer stormed toward him.