In my departing exchange with Xing and Felipe, I’d given a very rushed explanation of the town I left behind. I clumsily danced around why I couldn’t return with them. Part of the reason was my fury towards the god that had enamored Felipe, yes. But, I warned them not to tell anyone but Jenna that they’d met me or it would jeopardize their chances of being accepted by the community there.
In turn, Xing told me about where he and Felipe had started their day.
Xing described the treehouse where he’d been spawned into the game. Towards the mountains, a tall forest divided the valley from the ridgeline. They hadn’t found other people. Two wooden huts installed into the tall arms of the autumn-leaf trees. Xing had tried to explore the forest, but a monster had chased him into Felipe. The two hid and escaped towards the grasslands.
Xing described the monster they’d faced as a small, gray-black beast that commanded flames. Some of the forest had been lit ablaze when they ran. As we looked towards the distant forest, none of us could make out plumes of smoke. I wondered if something else had come along to control the fire. Other players? Monsters? Another god?
But once they’d left and I’d chewed out Tho Ki’ki’kenn, I needed to make some progress in the game. Gaining levels would be useful, but this wasn’t a game about power. Collecting the treasures would be a game of information gathering.
There were seven treasures. Igyllr’s only clue had been calling them “divine.” Did that mean they were guarded by certain gods? Were they represented by certain gods? I tried to think of any pantheon of myth that featured seven gods. I discarded that idea, not just because none came to mind. I didn’t recognize the two gods I’d met so far. They may be forced to act under fake names for the purpose of the game, or maybe no human beliefs accurately knew the gods.
Just thinking about the problem wasn’t getting me far, but I was searching for any distraction from the heat. My walk through the tall grass was peaceful, but warm. Back in Austin, it had been January and frigid. Here, the season and weather didn’t seem to be analogous to what it had been. My bucket carried monster teeth, two books and my filthy smock. It wasn’t heavy, but my grip suffered under the sweat beading in my palms.
“Why am I carrying this?”
I opened my menu.
Player: Levi Denton
Lv. 3
Jing: 13/13
Qi: 3/5
Shen: 1/1
Star Sign: Monoceros
Inbox
Skills - 1 SP Pending
Inventory
My Qi still hadn’t recovered. It hadn’t been an hour since that business with the god, but I expected some kind of recovery. It would be a major issue if I had to do something to get my full strength back.
I opened my inventory, but already knew it only contained my shares of crystals from the two monsters.
Materia (91)
In the same way I absorbed the Materia, I focused on the bucket in my hand with my Inventory opened. The items disappeared from my hand. I winced from the sudden nothing I was holding.
Materia (91)
Pajamas
ClayCopy Ooze (1)
Book
Book
Bucket
Bullet Pig Teeth (4)
I didn’t need to consider what a “ClayCopy” was. The scene of a man’s body becoming his corpse came quickly to mind. It was such a stupid, silly name. It was a name that would be in a video game, but the stakes were too real. To call that killer something so juvenile felt like a mockery of the man. I felt heavy again. The morning was not far from my thoughts, but it turned my stomach nauseous and my legs heavy, so I wanted badly to dismiss it.
I considered the idea that maybe he wasn’t really dead. This was supposed to be a video game, right? Maybe after he was horrendously stabbed, he respawned somewhere, or he could be brought back to life by some item in the game. Had I been wrong to blow up at the gods? Maybe this wasn’t such a vindictive game after all. I clung to those thoughts instead, however baseless they were.
The inventory was convenient. I didn’t feel any heavier and wondered where the objects were held. I went over the objects in my inventory, hoping some kind of description or option would become available.
Materia - The shards of divinity. Quantity: 91
Pajamas - A white smock that can be worn. Condition: Filthy
ClayCopy Ooze - The ClayCopy’s monstrous form adapts to its prey, letting it infiltrate packs of prey. Quantity: 1
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Book - A book of unknown contents. Condition: Used
Book - A book of unknown contents. Condition: Used
Bucket - Metal bucket. Condition: Good
Bullet Pig Teeth - A Bullet Pig’s most prominent features are its pronounced tusks, but its teeth have been observed to crush and chew bark and animal shells. Quantity: 4
Information on the monsters! I regretted not taking at least one bit of the other souvenirs from the Bullet Pig’s body. I wondered idly how much more I could’ve learned. The inventory could also be a bestiary, detailing the strengths and behaviors of monsters in the world.
Sweat fell into my eyes. I decided not to stay still as I read and explored the menu. Flattened grasslands stretched out before me, with no obvious obstacles. I walked and browsed through the menu, finding my skills again.
The hexagonal chart opened. Its central point was filled in white, as was its neighbor, the node for Minor Hill. The eleven other nodes that I’d been offered initially were still available. I quickly moved my eyes to those, but their price had increased. Everything but Erosion now cost ten of my white points, my SP. Only Erosion had five unfilled pips. The price of everything had been raised considerably. Unless level up requirements increased by each level, as was likely the case, I’d have to fight at least four more monsters to even get the other earth spell. I’d have to fight more than double that to branch out into something else.
My sudden trial in the tall grass had severely thrown off my game plan. Minor Hill spread out from the center of the chart like ivy, infesting the expansive chart. I tried counting the nodes to get an idea for how many skills existed on the branch, but lost count when I neared fifty. All of the grayed out nodes revealed no information about their corresponding skill.
The only new skills were immediate neighbors to Minor Hill.
Earth Cannon - Summon rock as powerful projectiles!
Hard Road - Conjure a temporary path of rocks!
Half-Dome - Raise a barrier of stone!
These options each seemed to cost only two SP. They weren’t immediately available, but I spent my walk deciding only Earth Cannon would be a viable option. I’d been more than lucky in my fights so far. Without a weapon or an offensive spell, I was way too vulnerable as a solo player. Of course, this created a difficult goal. How was I to level up without any reliable means of monster killing? Earth Cannon was still out of reach to me.
I had started to imagine the strengths of pushing monsters off of my raised hill when I first stepped foot into the orange forest. Xing had been wrong. Autumn implied the trees were dying, dropping their leaves to be reborn in two seasons, but the forest was alive. Leaves weren’t falling to the forest floor. Instead, green and red brush crowded the ground. I inspected the trees for Xing and Felipe’s huts, but was blinded by the sunlight pushing through breaks in between the canopy.
I walked in the shade, listening for the sounds of water. Hopefully the next source of a cold drink wouldn’t involve imbibing a god. A shallow rumbling in my stomach also told me I needed to eat, but I’d yet to run into a creature that didn’t explode when it was killed.
Tho Ki’ki’ken said that only the players from Earth had been brought to Arena. Livestock were on pause. Was I expected to forage through the plants? Had the game been set to endlessly vegetarian?
I heard a distant yelling and tried to follow it. I couldn’t tell what it was looking for, or if it was running from something. I walked towards the sound, drying my face of my endless sweat.
I couldn’t believe it, but soon couldn’t deny it, the sound I was hearing was a group cheering. I wondered if I was feverish, imagining a crowd yelling support like they were watching any number of sports I’d always managed to avoid back home. Had football followed me, even in this video game world?
Deeper into the orange forest, I finally found some of those huts stuck high in the arms of thick trees. Rope ladders dangled down from each little house, hovering a few feet off of the forest floor.
Why build their houses so high up? I idly thought. Was that another silly question I was supposed to just wave away?
“Come on!”
“Don’t stop!”
“There’s not much time!”
I caught sight of the people before I saw the game. I only chanced to watch them from behind a tree, peeking at bits and pieces of the crowd. It didn’t take long for my curiosity to win out over my caution. I found just over twenty people all watching something in the heights of the orange forest.
More pressing, at the front of their group, sat on a flat tree stump was a monster or a god. The crowd cheered again, but I couldn’t quite find what they were watching. I decided it was smarter to watch whatever decidedly not human thing held court over the cheering humans.
I wound my way around the crowd, watching my step to not alert them of my presence. Any sound I made was drowned out by the cheering, but I wanted to be careful anyways.
The monstrosity had a human silhouette, but was entirely construed of charred wood. It’s ashy, black appearance sharply contrasted the bright vibrancy of the forest. Orange embers carved out three lines on its “head,” like a simple face. Long arms stroked the greenery of the forest floor. Gnarled, burnt knots of wood had been bound together into something strong, and it didn’t look brittle or delicate. As I approached it from behind, I could feel a new heat coming from the thing.
It was far too big to be the monster that Xing had described, but its color seemed to match the description. Gently smoldering embers would also feed into Xing’s story of the forest almost being incinerated. Did this thing create the smaller monster?
The crowd and the monster (or god) were watching something to my left, but I kept my focus on the thing before me. Was it forcing humans to fight in bloodsport, or conducting an audience between them and its subordinate monsters? I didn’t look at the contest, but decided I would try to raise a hill under its tree trunk, surprise it and let it take a harsh tumble off of my construct. With its weight, perhaps the thing would be stunned enough for me to lead the people somewhere safe.
But, as I approached quietly, the crowd and burnt wood creature all turned their attention towards me. Some still cheered, but I realized others were yelling at me, telling me to get out of the way.
A red ring, large enough for me to walk through, appeared to my right. I looked through it, but it didn’t seem to be a portal or a door to somewhere, just a hole that had materialized from nothing.
“Get out of the way!”
That voice was much closer and getting closer every step. Somebody with their hands full of something barreled towards me. I wasn’t quick enough to move and we collided, both falling through the red ring.
The crowd fell silent and I was forcefully pushed off my assailant.
The burnt wood creature stood from its seed. The ember line making up something like a mouth spread into a wider fire. A small puff of smoke escaped its apparent mouth before it spoke in a voice far more light and playful than I’d expected from a ten-foot tall wood thing.
“Well, you lost.”