Novels2Search
Tales of an Exile
Chapter Five: Making a Killing

Chapter Five: Making a Killing

Whiff, thump, screech! The arrow pierced the scuttling Spitter crab, drawing a shriek of pain from the wounded beast. In retaliation, it raised its tubular scorpion-style tail and thwap, shot a clump of condensed sand at me. I yanked my head to the side, but the projectile still caught me in the arm, knocking me slightly back and making my whole left arm sting and go slightly numb. With a growl of pain, I circled the crab to escape its range. I didn’t bother trying to fire another arrow, because of my numb arm.

Because of the way its thin legs were arranged, the Spitter crab could only turn very slowly. It hissed crabbily in frustration as it lost sight of me, and I took the opportunity to spring forward and grab hold of the arrow that still stuck out of its carapace. I yanked the arrow out but instead of reusing it the traditional way, I just punched it straight back in. It hadn’t occurred to me until recently that my character’s Strength stat was only 5, but even that pathetic number was enough to impale the large crustacean. It spasmed only once more before its legs went limp, and I faintly heard something that sounded like water being poured from one container to another. I had been expecting it, because I figured out that it was the sound of my experience bar filling up. Even after five hours of hunting my way up this stormy beach, the “second container” didn’t sound even half full, making a mockery of the trail of zombie and Spitter corpses I left in my wake.

“At least I can hit the bastards now,” I shrugged while I recollected my arrow. Good, it hadn’t broken. I only had a grand total of six left because the heads kept snapping off on the Spitter’s hard natural armor, and I even managed to trample one all on my own much to my shame. Lately though, I had been improving my aim and was able to hit softer parts fairly reliably so my arrows would survive the encounter. None of the monsters so far had dropped any loot at all, so my only real gain from these battles was combat experience, but that was an area I was sorely lacking in so I jumped at the opportunity to improve.

It was irritating that I still hadn’t run into anything or anyone that wasn’t trying to kill me…I moodily adjusted the strap of my quiver where it was cutting into my shoulder, and tried not to feel lonely. “I would even appreciate a pet,” I complained. “Come on, game devs. Solo play right after the tutorial is just harsh.” Nothing happened, as expected. With a defeated sigh, I left the fresh carcass of the ugly Spitter crab behind and kept moving up the beach.

As I passed yet more waterlogged crates and ship pieces, I thought I heard something whistling, but over the noise of the unrelenting storm I couldn’t be sure. I was definitely sure when an arrow pierced my side. “Aguh!” I half-screamed, half-choked. Even at 30% of realism, a burning pain lanced through my whole torso! I managed to stay upright purely because a pile of crates was closeby to lean on, as my hidden attackers revealed themselves.

Humans. Was this a cruel joke, for wishing for companionship? They were all outfitted with mismatched leather armor and rusty shortswords, and approached as a group of about four. One of them had a crude bow just like mine, instead of a sword, so he was clearly the one responsible for the arrow in my gut.

I gripped the offending ammo with one hand, and tried not to flinch when even that small movement sent another wave of pain up my side. It was foolish, but I closed my eyes as though not seeing the wound would make it hurt less; and pulled!

“RrraaAAAGH!” I yelled in pain and anger, and opened my teary eyes as quickly as I could. The attackers had all stopped and looked surprised at my outburst, but they were rapidly recovering. “Fuck,” I gasped, trying to ignore the throb in my side. I struggled to raise my bow and draw back, using the bloody arrow still clutched in my other hand. Somehow, I aimed at the enemy archer and released his own arrow back at him, though the pain was making the world go fuzzy and monochrome. My returning shot nailed him in the neck out of sheer luck, and he dropped like a sack of bricks. With the ranged enemy out of the fight, I could afford to retreat a bit and try to recover even a little bit…though how I’d do that without bandages or something, I’d have to improvise.

For the moment, the most pressing issue was the hot blood I felt soaking into my dress-like rags. I hastily tore a seam up my hip and ripped off about half of the skirt. It now only covered the necessary parts with about three inches to spare, and I had long ago come to terms with the fact that it was all I had on, but right now the need to staunch this bleeding took precedence over my modesty.

The bandaging proceeded quickly once I had a length of material, punctuated by my sharp gasps of pain as I jostled and pressed the wound. “If I hadn’t shot him already, I’d kick that bastard in the crotch,” I swore, amidst a stream of much more *cough* creative language. The burning pulses had dulled to a steady throb, but it would lance with fire again if I twisted around too hard or raised my left arm too high.

Suddenly, there was a thunk on the other side of the crate I was crouching behind. I cautiously peeked over the box, and nearly got an arrow between my eyes for it. “Crap, he’s still alive?!” Yep, there he was, the bastard archer guy, standing only a few meters from where I shot him down and completely alive. Even the arrow had vanished from his throat, which was really irritating. There’s no way I’d be able to hit him there again if I tried! Don’t waste my good luck!

A bright glint distracted me, and I spotted one of his sword-toting buddies fumbling with a glass vial of some sort, trying to push it back into a little holster on his belt. I couldn’t see what was in it, but I’m no moron. I put two and two together, and deduced that archer-guy was revived by sword-guy A using that vial. Now I had even more reason to fight these punks; I wanted that vial!

All of them were still about ten meters away, in a sloppy half-circle facing inland. There was a pile of crates separating us, and tall jagged cliffs standing behind me. I gripped my bow, and pulled an arrow from my quiver. I had a pretty advantageous position here, so all I needed to do was capitalize.

As before, I targeted the archer first, since he was the greatest threat of the four. Luck was still on my side, since my arrow struck him in the forehead and he fell backward like the world’s ugliest unicorn. “Payback!” I cheered briefly, returning my attention to the sword-guys. One tried to pull something from his belt, I assume one of those vials, so I shot him in the chest. He took it with only a stagger backwards, then abandoned his buddy in favor of raising his sword. He was too far away to reach me, so I just shot him again and he went down without much fuss.

Now the problem was the other two. Both ignored their fallen comrades, and ran sluggishly over the wet sand. In the time it took me to fire three shots, they had reached the base of my impromptu fortress, forcing me to retreat and kite them in a circle. They followed stupidly, not even bothering to put space between themselves. It was way more difficult to try and shoot them while moving, especially with my wound complaining with every step, so I resorted to a sort of hit-and-run tactic. I would use my mildly superior speed to build up some distance, then stop and shoot at them and start running again before they could catch up. My aim was much less steady now, so each of them took three arrows to knock down, not counting the arrows that missed entirely that I had to circle around to pick back up. Finally, all four of them laid motionless in the sand.

…For about thirty seconds. One by one, they rose again as undead, but by now this was much more standard fare for me. I dispatched the zombies smoothly, sometimes having to resort to clubbing them due to lack of ammunition, but soon enough they were all laid waste. At last, I could get around to looting! One of the sword-guys and the archer both had little golden sparkly points on them at various points, indicating a looting point. I reached the sword-guy first, and a little panel popped up over his body. It was a grid like my inventory, but with only four squares. Occupying two squares each were two test-tube-like glass vial with a silver stopper, one filled with an opaque red liquid and the other with opaque blue. I touched the vials, and they popped into existence in my hand with a cheerful “Ding!”

You have found a Potion Vial.

Your belt is automatically fitted with five Vial Slots, where you can store various Vials for easy access during battle.

Vials come in several varieties, including Health, Mana, and Effect.

Health potions (red) boost your natural health regeneration speed, and may also immediately restore some health per dose.

Mana potions (blue) boost your natural mana regeneration speed, and may also immediately restore some mana per dose.

Effect potions (green) can have a variety of uses, including speed bonuses, haggling boosts, and defense buffs.

Vials come in several sizes, with a minimum of 3 doses per vial.

Vials in your belt will automatically refill as you kill enemies.

“Holy crap,” I muttered as I finished reading the pop-up. “This must be why it’s okay for the battle system to be so tough. That’s way too convenient…” I looked down, and sure enough I was fitted with a broad leather belt similar to the ones the sword-guys were wearing. On the right hip were five straps, obviously meant to hold vials. I slid the two vials I held into the straps at the front, and tried to remember if I was wearing a belt before. I was sure I wasn’t, but since it came with such a handy feature like vial slots, I wouldn’t complain about it.

Then, I heard the experience water-pouring, but this time it just flooded in! Before I knew it, I heard another cheery “Ding!” and another information panel appeared.

Excited, I read:

You have reached Level 2.

All stats increase by 5.

The option in your menu is now unlocked.

Be warned, opening the menu will not pause the game. Enemies and hazards are still active while the menu is open.

The can also be accessed quickly by extending two fingers of your dominant hand and slashing downwards. To quickly close the , extend two fingers of your dominant hand and slash upwards.

For a beat, I couldn’t even register the words. “You mean…it was all actually worth it?!” I cried, ecstatic. Skill Trees! Stat increases! It almost made me believe that things would get easier from here on. Eager to improve, I tried the quick access option, pointing with my left index and middle finger and pulling down. Sure enough, a complicated circular chart followed my fingers down. However, the thing was ENORMOUS! It had a diameter of a full two meters, standing taller than I did which was surprisingly annoying. It was covered with tiny dots and diamonds all linked with silver chains, and at the center was a coin-sized space with my stats listed, with three smaller dots of red, blue, and green surrounding it.

Suddenly paranoid, I slashed up with my left hand to close the Skill Tree and make sure no enemies were approaching, but the beach was empty. I reopened the Skill Tree and began examining the complex layout, prompting another series of panels to appear with explanations.

To paraphrase, the three colored dots were “Attribute Paths” I could choose to follow. With every level up, I would gain one Skill Point to spend on the Skill Tree, and there were multiple paths to follow throughout the whole thing. Obviously, you couldn’t purchase a slot that was unconnected to a slot you already had. Some things I could earn were actual abilities such as Stealth or Evasion, while others were plain stat increases. With my single level up just now, I had one Skill Point, and eventually decided to pick a point off the green path, which seemed to be Dexterity-related skills and bonuses. The first available slot was a simple +5 to my Dexterity stat, but it effectively doubled my gain from my level up and made me faster and more accurate, which I deemed the priority. I mean, magic sounded awesome and I even had a racial bonus to it, but I didn’t have any spells yet so it would have been a meaningless choice.

Skill Point spent, I closed the Skill Tree, satisfied. I couldn’t tell exactly what difference my new +10 Dexterity made just yet, but I figured the change would become evident with time. For now, I still had to loot some extra arrows off the dead archer-guy, and I’d really like to take a rest by these crates and recover a bit from my recent battles. My side still really hurt…

-

After another hour of wandering and killing Spitter crabs and the occasional group of zombies, something new appeared on the weather-beaten beach. It was hard to see because of the distance, but there were a few lanterns and campfires around it which helped visibility. From what I could tell, it was the ruins of a fort or something. Maybe in the past, this place was a defense point? It clearly wasn’t anymore. The tallest remaining walls were only a meter and a half tall, and the packed sand was littered with stone brick fragments. Thanks to the weak lights I was able to percieve some moving shadows, were they human-shaped? Even if they were, I don’t think this is the refuge Calvin told me to search for. The whole place just gave off an unfriendly feeling, and wasn’t even defended against the rain, let alone enemies.

Well, if this wasn’t the place I had to find, I might as well just pass through and keep looking, right? The flickering lights were making me nervous, though. I suppose that a stealthy approach never hurt…So, like a ninny, I darted from cover to cover, keeping my head as low as I could and using boulders, crates, and outlying walls to keep myself hidden. I felt ridiculous, but in a choice between my pride and an arrow through the side again, I would stealth-run all day, everyday. Getting shot freaking HURTS!

As I got closer to the ruins, I started hearing snippets of conversations. Most of the words were washed away by the storm, but I was able to pick up such phrases as “new blood today,” “hopefully a woman,” and “easy kill.” None of these phrases convinced me that these people were friendly. If I had to label them loosely as a group, I’d call them bandits. They sounded just like the stereotypical ruffians from manga, does anybody actually talk like that for real? Meh, pointless thought. If they attacked me, I’d just attack back.

Soon enough, I had stealth-run right behind a wall directly behind a bandit, facing a group of about three total. I did think that I could manage to take them all down, but I didn’t know how many bandits were camping in these ruins, so I wanted to avoid detection for as long as possible. Barely peering over the wall, I nocked one of my new arrows and drew it back. For the sake of staying low, I tried to hold the bow sideways like a crossbow, but the draw was seriously weakened by the awkward position. I didn’t right it though, since the target was only two meters away. I aimed as best I could, then fired! The arrow sprouted from a bandit’s collarbone, and he instantly collapsed. The other bandits panicked, one of them reaching for the vial on his belt, so I aimed at him next. The arrow whizzed past him, but it startled him enough that he was distracted from his fallen buddy and looked in my direction. Crap, so much for staying low.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The battle was over fairly quickly, since these bandits were much the same as the ambush group I dealt with, though they didn’t have an archer. Since they had so kindly left their tiny campfire unattended, I looted them quickly and poked one of my arrows into the fire and used it like a torch to burn their bodies before they could rise again. Cremation done, I stabbed the arrow into the beach to extinguish it, and returned the arrow to my quiver. This had been one of the easiest battles by far; was I improved in some way other than my stats? It was impossible to tell, and it wasn’t really worth expending time and thought on, so I just shrugged it off and was grateful for the boost.

I made my way through the rest of the ruins like this, approaching groups of bandits unnoticed, then finishing my little ambush off by looting and burning the bodies. I did feel a little queasy about my own actions; the game was so real, I felt like an actual murderer when they tried to help their friends I had killed. But they’re just lines of code, I reminded myself every time. They’re programs, they were created to be enemies, and enemies must be beaten. Literally, it was kill or be killed. This wasn’t such a nice game to offer a pacifist option, after all.

After only half an hour of bandit-hunting, I stopped seeing their shadows moving. Did I really clear them all out? Just as I was feeling slightly proud of myself, I heard, or rather felt, something’s footsteps. Something big.

Thud…thud…thud. The earth-shaking footsteps continued somewhere nearby, but didn’t seem to be getting closer. Recovering from my mild panic, I dared to sneak forward through the ruins, curious and fearful in equal measure. Honestly, with something hanging around whose footsteps could resonate through my bones, I’d rather find it before it found me.

And holy crap, find it I certainly did. Stomping around a little distance from the last ruined stone wall, a literal giant of a man dragged around a club more than double my size. He towered over me by at least two full meters, packed with grotesque muscle and matted with blood and sand. I was so focused on this person, it took me a moment to realize what was behind him.

Just past the giant guy was a shabby wooden palisade. Faint light glowed over the top and between the cracks, and this area also appeared to be the edge of the storm, so I could just barely hear muted chatter over the receding weather. That must be the survivor’s camp! I was thrilled, until I realized…that was the survivor’s camp, past the walking mountain. What’s more, this area of the coast was walled in on both sides by sheer cliffs and completely slick with rain. Swimming was out of the question, so the only path forward was through the giant. I stared at him, trying to gauge his capabilities, when I spotted something weird. Just above the giant’s tiny head, a small yellow name floated: or something. Was that his name? He was obviously out of the previous enemies’ league, so did having a name make him a boss? At least, I assumed he was an enemy. The ugly scowl on his equally ugly face was plenty unfriendly, and I could smell him from way back here.

Well, nothing for it but to go in bows blazing, I guess. With a deep breath to psyche myself up, I stood from behind my shelter and fired two arrows one after the other, aiming directly for his head. With one smooth motion, he deftly swung his enormous club and swiped both arrows right out of the air! The hell, aren’t big enemies supposed to be slow?! I had no time to gawp, he was already heading this way! I darted to the left when he started to raise his club, but he just adjusted his grip a little and the weapon -- I swear he must have just uprooted a whole tree -- caught me dead in the back.

The force of the blow sent me literally flying, careening through the air until I tumbled over and over myself on the sand. I couldn’t move for a whole two seconds, just laying there and suffering the pain. On sudden instinct, I summoned all my strength into my arms and pushed myself over onto my back, so I could see that horrible club whistling down to strike the sand where I had lain a moment ago. Fighting back the cold chills at my near-miss, I fumbled for the vial on my belt. I had to ignore the cloud of wet sand that settled on my face and hands, and the disgusting grin on Hillock’s mug.

Finally I worked the red vial free and brought it to my mouth. No other bandits had dropped their vials, so I only had the three doses in this one; I would have to make it last, somehow. I took a swig, automatically downing a third of the tiny vial, and returned it to my belt. The effects were immediate, a gentle warmth that spread from my core and soothed my wounds. I could feel the pain subsiding from my back, and regained control of my legs.

“Alright big guy,” I spat sand with my words, “You wanna play? Let’s play.” I really shouldn’t have felt so confident, but I was irritated that this jerk of a giant was treating my life-or-death battle like a game. I rose to my feet and darted away just as he swung again, dodging by a narrow margin. I continued running away all the way back to the crumbling walls of the ruins, and he followed with his slow thudding footsteps.

Alright, I thought, it’s only his attacks that are fast. New plan, don’t get attacked. I snorted at myself, but couldn’t think of any better ideas. I ducked behind the trusty walls and tried to be completely silent.

The lumbering giant stomped his way through the ruins, uncaring of the walls he crushed. I stayed in my hiding spot and observed his movements. Okay, good, he’s searching around! That means I lost him! Still being quiet, I raised my bow when he was turned away and shot one arrow directly at his back. I ducked back down immediately, but I could still hear a gravelly roar of pain. He stormed at the wall I was crouched behind, but I was already changing my cover to reposition.

For ten minutes, the pattern repeated; I would sneak behind him, fire one arrow, then change covers. I was rapidly running out of usable walls though, since Hillock destroyed all the ones I used. As the number of walls continued to dwindle, I noticed that his movements were getting more brutal and erratic, but his attacks were slower and easier to see. Is he entering some kind of berserk mode? Well, it doesn’t matter, so long as I can see his club so I can dodge it.

With another two rounds of sneaking, shooting, and running, I was out of walls. I had no choice now but to retreat back to the open area in front of the wooden palisade, since the advantage I’d had in the ruins had reversed. When he spotted me, Hillock straight-up roared, like an actual monster, and stomped after me. He wasn’t smiling anymore.

While he was approaching, I took a chance and fired an arrow at his face. It surprised me as much as it did him when it soundly struck one of his eyes, making him roar yet again. He was actually starting to look a bit pathetic, with arrows all over his back making him look like a porcupine and now another in his eye. I didn’t feel really sorry, though. I think getting hit with that huge club lost him all his brownie points.

Refocusing, I aimed at him again, but he moved before I did. He drew back his weapon arm as if he wanted to hit me, but he was too far away -- oh CRAP, he just threw his freaking club! It spun elegantly through the air, heading straight for my head. I tried to dodge to the side, but it clipped me anyway. “Aaagh, FUCK!” I shouted. I’d only been caught by the handle, but the force had crushed my hip. Not only did it hurt like a BITCH, now my right leg was useless.

I fumbled for the red vial again, but Hillock didn’t let me catch a break. He barreled forward like a truck, his remaining eye glinting red in the pale moonlight. With my leg unresponsive, I couldn’t even try to move out of the way, so his enormous palms hit me dead-on in the gut. “Gu-hagh!” I coughed, the wind knocked right out of me. I was blown away again, straight into one of the cliffs. I hit the rocks with a CRACK! and slumped onto the beach, unable to even moan in agony. Every part of me felt like it had been hit by a separate truck, and now my vision was spinning and going monochrome on top of that. I could do nothing but lay there in pain as I felt the thud, thud of Hillock’s steps approaching.

“Nngh…” I groaned. Like hell I was just going to lie here and take it! My muscles screamed in protest as I moved the red vial, still clutched in my hand, toward my face. I took both remaining doses at once, the soothing warmth in my belly churning into a scalding heat that rushed through my veins. “RrraaAAAGH! FUCK YOU, YOU GIANT BITCH!” I released my own roar as the potion seared through me, healing my leg and guts enough to stand and insult him. Hillock seemed surprised, and hesitated for long enough that I could aim and fire three arrows right into his ugly face.

He angrily growled as I stole his other eye and even landed an arrow in his misshapen mouth, and he leaned backward clutching his face. Be it fortune or physics, he actually fell over and landed hard on his back, driving all the arrows there even deeper in and making him roar again. I pulled my last arrow from my quiver, and rushed over to his head. He still had his hands over his useless eyes, but he must have been able to percieve me somehow because he snorted threateningly.

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” I snarled, holding the arrow like a knife and slashing it across his neck. His blood splattered everywhere, mostly on me, and he gurgled one last time before his arms relaxed and fell to the sides. I, too, collapsed onto my back, supremely exhausted and aching, but brimming with aggression and pride.

“YEEEAAAAHHHH!!!” I howled at the scattering clouds, the full moon beaming down like the light at the end of the tunnel. “HOW DO YOU FUCKING LIKE ME NOW?!”

With that defiant yell, I lay there panting for a full minute, trying to recover. The potion’s heat had faded back down to its usual soothing warmth, so all I had to do was lay still as it did its work. When the warmth faded entirely, I sat up, and with a jolt realized that I hadn’t burned Hillock’s corpse. Luckily, he was still just a corpse, and showed no signs at all of ever moving again. With another jolt, I realized that there was a panel blinking for attention in front of me.

You have defeated Area Boss !

You have reached level 3.

You have reached level 4.

All stats increase by 10.

Received 3 Received

are now unlocked. Speak to for details.

is now open.

Wow, that’s some reward! I must have been too out of it to hear the sound of my experience increasing, but that jerk was apparently worth an exorbitant amount, plus some loot I'd never seen before. With my two new levels, I gained two Skill Points as well, but I set them aside for the moment.

At last, the way forward was open! The glow from behind the palisade brightened invitingly, and the idea of a safe place to rest was enticing enough to ignore the rest of my injuries and haul myself upright. With wobbly steps, I passed a heavy door that creaked open without me touching it, and staggered into the Watch.

As far as refugee camps go, it wasn’t actually that shabby. The ground was paved with rough stones, and was relatively flat. Large furnaces stood sentry at either end of the rectangular area, with one of them surrounded by flimsy tents housing bandaged people laying on low cots.

More importantly than them, were the people milling around in mismatched armor, who all had white levels shining above their heads! A quick peek upward confirmed that I had the same, meaning that everyone with a white level indicator was a player! For contrast, the frail-looking woman puttering around the infirmary area and the grumpy man guarding the heavy door on the other wall both had nothing above their heads, indicating they were NPCs.

“I actually made it,” I mumbled in disbelief. A couple players nearby heard me and chuckled, then turned away again. I didn’t think I said anything funny, though? One person who laughed must have noticed my expression, because he approached with a friendly grin. He was pale and wiry, with hair and eyes so deeply black it felt unnatural. His face was gaunt with deep shadows under his eyes, but he seemed lively enough as he approached.

“Hiya, new kid,” he greeted casually. “You hear what just happened outside the camp?”

I blinked. “Did something happen?”

He laughed at my confusion. “Yeah, somebody downed that boss outside then screamed their freakin' head off! It was hilarious,” he shared. Ah, I didn’t know other people could hear me. “Wait,” he said, eyes widening, “don’t tell me that was you?”

I didn’t say anything, but I could feel my face heating up. “Ahahaha, that’s so great! You’re so small, how did you yell so loud?!” This dude was really chipper for looking like an insomniac vampire. I’ll have to think up an embarrassing nickname for him. He was still laughing when he said, “My name’s Drac, by the way. I play an Assassin.”

“I’m Artymia,” I grumbled back. Damn, his actual name was the nickname I was going to give him! Gotta think of a new one now. “I use a bow.”

“That’s rare,” he nodded, seeming mildly impressed, “you do archery in real life then? Most people pick a sword just ‘cause they think it looks cool.”

“Um, no,” I said hesitantly. “It took awhile to learn…”

His eyes widened all over again. “You…you taught yourself archery in-game? Why would you do that?”

I shrugged. “It was the first thing I grabbed, and I was panicking. At first I was just going to swing it like a club.” I didn’t feel like singing my own praises, so I condensed the events.

Drac shook his head with a frown. “It’s a good thing you didn’t. Weapons will break if you try to use them improperly.” Oops, looks like there was a rule about only using weapons one way. “What were you panicking about though?”

It was my turn to frown. “At the beginning, just after the tutorial…the Tutorial NPC died, you know? Right in front of me. Then he turned into a zombie…it was really scary, you know?”

He looked at me like I was off in the head. “So…you’re bad with zombies or something? I don’t see what’s so bad about it.” His hand drifted to the twin daggers on his belt. “I found these right away, and zombies are really slow so I could get around it for a backstab. You a role-player, then?”

“What? No! He was…” I started to protest, but stopped midway. “…I guess it doesn’t matter. I like the bow, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”

“Well, whatever floats your boat, I guess,” he chuckled. “Pun intended.”

“Okay, nice meeting you, I’m going to go this random direction now. Bye, Vamp.” I turned on my heel and walked away. I will not tolerate puns unless I’m the one making them.

“Bye, Archer Chick! Who’s Vamp?” he called at my back. Ha, Vamp is your nickname! That’s what you get for already having the first one!

Really though, he said he easily dispatched the monster that Calvin became. Did I just meet a real psychopath? Probably not, but what did that say about his casual murder? On that note, what did that say about me? I didn’t spare any of the bandits I killed a second thought, and they were humans too. Well, I had my doubts about Hillock, but the rest were normal bandit men.

I had to stop that train of thought in its tracks. If I started questioning the validity of life for every enemy I killed, I would be level 4 forever. I must be really exhausted if I’m feeling guilty for shooting the archers who all shot at me.

“Menu,” I tiredly said. It was high time for me to log off and get some real food, plus I think I forgot to feed Luna in my excitement to play earlier. The menu panel popped up in front of me, displaying “Friend List,” “Skill Tree,” and “Settings”…wait. Huh? Staring at the panel didn’t make a fourth option appear. Neither did closing and reopening.

“Where the fuck is the logout button?”