“No thanks.”

“I am sorry. I don’t think your build suits our party.”

“Are you serious?”

“Dude.. get real.”

“Get lost man! You are useless!”

“OMFG! This guy is just a leech!”

See a progression here? That was how Winter was treated when they found out about his unfortunate situation. Earlier groups accepted him into their party. Until they quickly found that he barely could cast any spell.

Well, he did not lie. He simply never told them the whole truth. Problem was, truth has a funny way of getting out eventually. It was especially glaring since Winter only cast one spell throughout the whole combat. Once, it could be excused as lazy, saving up mana. Five combats and one spell? That was tough to explain.

When he first told his tale, the lot were sympathetic. And they dumped him as soon as he was done.

Second party, they were a little more diplomatic in their answer, even interested to help out since they had never heard of any such queer quest or event. They did not last long. They had a hard time taking on a leech into their party.

Rumors of him eventually spread. Faster than Winter thought possible. Winter became a player nobody wanted to party with by the end of his first daytime jaunt outside the city.

“Excuse me…”

*Turns away*

“Excuse me..”

*Shuffles away*

Right at the entrance to the city, there were plenty of players seeking party members, and members congregating. But they avoid Winter as if he was diseased.

‘I am just cursed, dammit!’ He swore inside. Also attempted to swore outside.

“****, ****, ****!”

Censorship activated. Censorship activated. Censorship activated.

“Bloody hell!”

“Holy cow!”

‘Huh. That works. No beeping.’

“What am I doing!” He muttered to himself.

Winter was sure he was giving the players around him a show with his antics. Some guffawed. Most did a polite snicker.

Fuming, Winter left the newbie gathering ground for the market. Seemed like only the solo road was left for him at the moment. Therefore, he need a proper weapon.

“Iron sword, 30 silver! It has good attack power and durability!”

“Mage staff here! Cheap!”

“Armor! Armor! All kinds of armor for beginners here!”

“Potions!”

“I cook good food!”

Such calls were common in the market section of the central square, where NPC and players mixed in their mercantile interest. Winter was on a quest to find a non-iron sword. It was not difficult, in truth. If he had more money! 52 silver and change probably would net him a single, decent sword, at best. Made with Iron.

“Good eye there! This sword has bonus strength and agility. Only 80 silver!”

Winter ended up squatting in front of a merchant’s portable stall after looking around for a bit. This particular merchant had several swords that were non-iron. But the price obviously was beyond his ability to purchase.

“Can you not go any cheaper?”

He asked while holding the bronze sword. It had good weight and balance. Decent damage, too.

“Are you trying to kill me? My stall is the cheapest here! You can check around,” the merchant replied with an offended look.

As much as it pained Winter, it was true. He thought this sword was just right. But he still had to buy armor, too! No matter how he sliced it, there was not enough money to be had. He thanked the merchant and promised to be back when he had enough money for purchase. He resigned himself to using the wooden training sword that he was given, for a while.

The armor shopping was pretty bleak, too. Leather options were beyond his means. Cloth options netted him a total protection of 4 points in defense for both pants and shirt. It was a vicious haggling too. 28 silver spent.

Outside the city again after his shopping, Winter was fuming. He finally found a sword. How he obtained it though…..

Copper Sword (Durability: 15/15)

Damage: 3-4

Made by an apprentice blacksmith as a punishment, this sword is not easy to make, yet has little value for combat. Terrible balance and soft, its edges require constant sharpening to remain sharp. The seller holds neither guarantee nor responsibility if the sword breaks.

“You would be better off if you get a Meat Cleaver!” - Merchant

See why he was rather upset? The comment the merchant spoke to him somehow transferred to the sword description. It was like reminding Winter what a joke he thought he was. Even more grating to Winter’s nerves, the meat cleaver the merchant showed him indeed had better stats. Unhappily, Winter parted with 18 silver for it.

He had plenty of beeping sounds, denoting the curses he threw while slaying bunnies left and right. Foxes were not much improvement on EXP for him, despite the added difficulty.

“Reflex!”

*Slash**Slash**Stab**

Winter used the spell as much as possible, whenever he got the chance. It would be his most useful spell, until he managed to get rid of the cursed bracer. The rabbits turned gray. Winter managed to kill all three with fatal hits. It was easy to do it when the critters appeared almost stationary.

Looting the drops, Winter continued to rampage over the rabbit grounds. He had been doing this for two days in-game, day and night. It was enough to increase his level by two. By now, Winter had already invested all his unallocated stat points to strength and agility, mainly with priority given to Agility. He did not forget to invest some points to INT and WIS stat too, though they were not incredibly helpful at the moment.

XXX

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“Wonder what he is up to.”

Daniel Somner played with his moustache. A habit he carried from his real life, to in-game. He was resting on a plain with his guild members around him. It had been slightly more than three weeks in-game since Ronald could leave the city. Yet, he had not reached the city where he was.

He had expected that the very first thing the impatient man would do would be to run with all haste to the Golden Goose, then proceed to pester him to assist his leveling progress.

“He has been dodging my calls too, the past couple days,” thought Daniel.

When Daniel reached him, he gave vague answers for why he was not heading out to him. It was a typical act Ronald put on when he was in a bind. But, what could be so bad for him to be unable to tell even his best friend, Daniel could not fathom.

He felt a little hurt, too, since Ronald did not ask for his help. He knew he was prideful and stubborn. But they had known each other near forever. He still had plenty of unsettled debts to Ronald.

“Oy, Leader! We are ready to head out!”

“Okay. Let us go!”

Daniel –no- Summer, decided to forget Ronald for the moment. He had a quest to finish and the climax was nigh. Adjusting his weapon straps, he walked to the large cave near the plain.

XxX

“Dammit! That was unfair!”

Exiting the capsule, Winter paced around his bedroom. His eyes were probably bloodshot, and he was unkempt. He had also probably lost some weight from his recent irregular meal times since he started the game

He had just experienced his first death. How did it happen? The most unexpected way, of course. But Winter should have seen it coming. Misfortune seemed to trail him lately.

About two hour in-game time previously, Winter decided to visit a gorge dubbed by newbies as the “Bunny Ranch”. A lot of players who wanted to gather rabbit pelts did their hunting there. There were plenty for everyone anyway, so there was no problem.

Winter proceeded to whack one rabbit after another in glee. Most rabbits were frozen in fear due to his fighting spirit now. Free blows!

“No, no! Not that one!”

One player wearing a newbie outfit with Iron Sword in hand, shouted at him. Winter was going after a different-colored rabbit. Instead of the usual fluffy white, it was all covered in black fur. Since Winter believed it was probably some sort of special mob, he held back nothing. Using Reflex, he rained six blows upon the bunny, instantly killing it. He was basking in the glow of self-triumph, when the same player ran away real quick.

You killed the Black Rabbit. Have fun!

A message window popped up in front of Winter. While puzzling about what the message meant, he looted the corpse in an almost automatic reaction.

“Run! He killed THE bunny!”

The few seconds Winter was taking the scene of everyone quickly beginning to empty the gorge in panic, all the rabbit eyes around the now gray-black one, began to glow red. Winter immediately knew he had done something very wrong, when the red eyes seem to spread to all rabbits as far as he could see, around the gorge.

You are injured. HP -5

You are injured. HP -5

That was the first time a rabbit ever attacked Winter first, without provocation. Two had latched onto his calves. He quickly cut them down. But like a signal, Winter was immediately swarmed in red-eyed bunnies. He hacked left, right, up, down, at all of them trying to get at him. But they came at Winter like an unending wave of ants. Hundreds swarmed Winter, and everyone else that had not exited the gorge. He probably got the worst of it since he was smack in the center of the gorge, and thought he could finish the rampaging horde of bunnies, initially. The story of ants defeating an elephant now made a lot more sense to him, between the flicker of his blades and dying mobs of rabbits.

Winter flicked his eyes quickly to his health bar. About 20 percent was left. That was when he decided to leg it. He was too late! The rabbits had congregated around Winter. Those unable to reach him seemed to be patiently waiting in line until they had some space to bite him. That was how Winter died. Mobbed by bunnies! The outrage when he died was a sight to behold from those at the edge of the gorge. A shape covered by furry rabbits roared his heartfelt defiance and indignity at the method of his demise.

After Ronald calmed down, he saw the hilarity of it and had to laugh. Silver lining in everything. That was his philosophy in life. Ronald had been spending a lot of time playing Royal Road, for close to two weeks. He decided it was a good time to get a well-deserved snooze. He was not as young as he once was. Doing a final stretch, he proceeded to clean himself up a little and sleep.

He definitely had a lot of things to fix.

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Author's Note:

1. Credit to -The Slacker- for the diligent PR

2. Credit to several people that helped with bouncing ideas, being good listener, and random talk that leads to some creative process. No idea if they wanted to be credited for now. But I will leave it open.

3. Special Credit to Veresliosi, Vim1inc, Saxenas1 for bouncing stuff around

4. Do let me know of mistakes you find. Try as me and my PR to spot them, we might miss some.

5. Enjoy!