Currently, Elijah was sitting in a cave, licking his wounds as he watched the setting sun. His pants and shirt had multiple tears and holes. His body was exhausted, covered in wounds, and sent dull pain signals to his brain. Before Elijah decided on what he should do next, he looked at a portion of his stats.
Status:
Health: 43.5/100 Stamina: 26.1/100 Mental: 100/100
HR: 0.1/min SR: 1.0/min MR: 0.5/min
“I’ll stay till I recover then I should log out,” Elijah said to himself.
Night was approaching and traveling in the wilderness at night was something he was advised not to do by his future self. Plus, his real body could use some food and rest. He had been playing the game for more than ten hours, but less than six hours passed in the real world. Doubling the rate at which time flowed was but another one of the many amazing features of Fallen Heaven.
In addition to feeding his body in real life, Elijah had to feed his body in the game as well. Sadly, Elijah wasn’t able to kill anything or find any more food while he was running away. If he didn’t find food soon, he would be given a hunger debuff.
After taking a few minutes to rest and think about his next steps, Elijah left his cave in search of food. The first place he went to was a stream he passed on the way to the cave. After a day of running, he was very thirsty, but he didn’t feel thirst the same way he would in real life. He knew his body needed something to drink, but the feeling wasn’t as strong as it would have been in real life.
Elijah took his time walking to the stream he passed. His eyes were constantly scanning his surroundings for the next threat and any fruits he might have ignored while running. Once he arrived, Elijah did a final scan of his surroundings before kneeling down to drink.
Water filled Elijah’s palms and he brought his palms to his mouth to drink. Cool water flowed down his throat, refreshing his entire body. Even drinking water in Fallen Heaven was better than drinking water in the real world.
Suddenly, Elijah heard two screams while he was drinking. The voices were young, scared and close by. After hesitating for a few seconds, Elijah immediately took off in the direction of the two voices.
It was highly likely that the owners of those two voices would get him to the village he sought. Therefore, he had to reach them quickly. They were most likely in danger and Elijah didn’t want to lose his meal ticket.
Less than a minute later, Elijah arrived at a clearing containing two humans and a beast. The two humans were young boys wearing cotton shirts and pants covered in furs. Both of them had dark skin, dark hair and brown eyes. One of the boys was slightly taller than the other and wielded a sword while the other wielded an axe. Both of their bodies and weapons trembled as they pointed them at the beast in front of them
Human Lvl 2
Human Lvl 1
Black Bear Lvl 4
The boys and the black bear turned to look at Elijah when he entered the clearing. The bear bared its teeth at Elijah and growled in warning. The eyes of the boys lit up and they called out to Elijah.
“Greetings brother!” the boy with the axe said.
“Come fight with us! We can kill this beast together!” The boy with the sword added.
Keeping his eyes on the bear, Elijah slowly made his way to the two boys. The bear didn’t move to attack, but its hostility increased as Elijah moved closer to them. Elijah took a quick glance at the boys when he got close. Other than a few scratches they were mostly uninjured. At least, they had less injuries than him.
“Hey, my names Eli.” Elijah said.
“My name is Jacob,” the axe wielder said.
“I’m, James.”
“Brother Eli are-”
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“Eyes on the bear,” Elijah interrupted. He saw Jacob turn his head to talk to him out of the corner of his eyes. “Always keep your eye on the enemy. Now, what were you about to say?”
“I wanted to know if you’re able to fight with your injuries.”
“I’ll do fine, but I’m hoping we won’t have to fight it.”
“What do you mean?” James asked.
“Three against one. Even with its low intelligence, the bear should be able to tell that a fight with us isn’t worth it.”
“It would be great if we could end this without a fight.”
Out of the corner of his eye Elijah could see both boys relaxing. “This bear might be really stupid though, so we should prepare for a fight. I’ll distract it from the front and the both of you can attack it from the rear.”
“Shouldn’t one of us, do it?” James asked. “You don’t have a weapon.”
“Don’t worry I can protect myself.”
“I can let you borrow my axe.” Jacob offered.
“Didn’t your parents teach you not to lend your weapons to strangers. Part of the reason I’m distracting the bear is because I don’t have a weapon. Since the two of you have weapons, you will be responsible for injuring it. Once it’s injured, we can safely runaway.”
“Oh, that makes sense,” both boys said.
While Elijah was talking to the two boys the bear wasn’t silent. It continued to growl and clawed at the dirt with its paws. However, it still didn’t attack, and Elijah felt like its hostility had slightly decreased.
Elijah did his best to intimidate the bear without provoking it. He wanted to avoid an unnecessary fight that might endanger his two meal tickets. He had fought boss monsters in other virtual reality games, and he was confident he could beat the level four bear without any weapons. However, the battle would be risky, and the rewards wouldn’t be great.
After a few minutes passed, the bear let out a few more growls and snorts before turning away. Elijah heard the two boys let out of a sigh of relief. He smiled because the information given by his future self was correct.
Unlike other games he played, the beast in Fallen Heaven weren’t creatures of mindless destruction. There behaviors were similar to a lot of creatures in real life. Elijah was confident that as long as the two boys hadn’t made the bear too angry, they would be okay.”
“So, what are the two of you doing out here?” Elijah asked.
The two boys were brothers that were thirteen and twelve years old. They told Elijah that they left their village looking for wild herbs to boost their cultivation. The heard a few stories from an elder in their village about places that might be able to find them. Also, they proudly told Elijah that their cultivation level was very advance for their age. Basically, two overconfident children ran into the woods without their parents’ permission.
“How did you run into the bear?”
“We were picking some fruit from a bush, and we didn’t notice it was on the other side.” James said. “We panicked and ran here before it caught up to us.”
“Don’t feel bad about running.” Elijah decided to say a few words of encouragement when he saw the boys embarrassed looks. “You only came here to look for wild herbs not to fight beast. I’m sure you two would have been able to protect yourselves if I didn’t show up.”
“Right, we definitely could have taken that bear.” Jacob proudly stated.
“Of course, with big brother here we didn’t even need to fight. That bear ran away with its tail between it legs.” James added.
“All right, all right, that’s enough.” Elijah smiled at the boys’ enthusiasm. “It’s getting dark so we should get out of the forest. Do you know your way back to your village? How long will it take us to get there?”
“It’s not too far away. We should be able to get back before nighttime.”
“Great. Then let’s not waste any more time.”
Taking the lead, the two brothers began walking toward their village. They told Elijah that all of the children in their village were taken by adults to explore the surroundings when they were young. That way all of them would be able to find their way home if they were ever separated from an adult in the forest.
Elijah was interested in learning more about their village. However, it was getting dark, and he didn’t want to be walking through the forest at night. Therefore, he encouraged the two brothers to speed up. All three of them entered a jog and did their best to quickly make it back to the village.
After more than an hour of running the trio were about to reach the village. They reduced their pace to a slow walk as they recovered from their jog. As they moved closer to the village the trio heard people talking in the distance.
“Both of you know moving through the forest at night is a bad idea.”
“I know you two are worried but waiting till morning is the right decision to make.”
“Your children are smart. I’m sure they have already found a place to stay for the night. Maybe they’re heading back right now.”
“It’s easy for all of you to say that when it’s not your children.”
“Forgive her. She knows you all mean the best but were both very worried for our sons.”
“Mom! Dad!” The two brothers shouted simultaneously.
Elijah watched as the two boys took off in the direction of the multiple voices. Elijah took his time following behind them. He wanted to give the boys and their parents time to have a happy reunion.
When Elijah got closer, he could see a man and a woman fiercely hugging the two boys. Tears were streaming down the mother’s face and the man’s eyes were red. Elijah smiled as he watched the heartwarming scene.
“Are you two alright?” the woman asked. “Ah, you two are injured. Stand still and let me check your wounds.”
“Don’t worry mom were okay,” Jacob said.
“We only have a few scrapes, nothing serious,” James added.
“Good. Good.” The mother patted her two sons’ shoulder before gripping them tightly.
Suddenly, Elijah felt a shift in the air. The face of the kind mother no longer seemed like it was before. Her smile was still there, but it lacked the warmth from before. The same was true for her eyes that were now burning with rage. Elijah saw the bodies of the two boys shiver in fear, and he mimicked their reaction.
“Good, because I want to personally beat you two to death myself!”