Hello everyone! Mad Jester here, and here's a new chapter. I'd appreciate any comments or constructive criticisms. Thank you all.
The abysmal blackness gave way to the warm sunlight that streamed down upon Alistair’s face, greeting and welcoming him to Grimm’s World. Alistair stood up, fully expecting to be surrounded by an old medieval town. Instead, he was in a big field that was surrounded by forest as far as the eye could see.
Alistair just stood there and remembered something. The woman that had helped out with his character creation hadn’t offered him a starting place!
Meanwhile: The woman who had helped him was still in dreamland. She had gotten to meet a famous celebrity after all, and her secret crush. She smiled to herself as she emerged from her delusions.
‘
I hope he likes the special place… Maybe I should get an account’
What was up with this situation?! Everyone always started out at a novice town! As far as he knew, there were no recorded instances of starting out in the middle of nowhere!
Alistair surveyed his surroundings as these thoughts and worries raced through his head.
‘
Might as well make the best of it.’
*Ding*
New Skill Learned
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Sigh of AcceptanceBeginner10%Due to the mistakes of others, you were placed in an unfavorable situation. However, due to your mental fortitude, you have accepted your situation with determination to make the very best of your circumstances, thus generating this skill. Through this mental preparation, the following effects will apply.
5% increase in health
5% increase in stamina
10% increase in speed
30% additional resistance to harmful mental effects
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: 10 Mp
Cannot be stacked
Alistair was surprised at the skill he had just gained. He just laughed internally.
‘What an interesting world… there are skill even like this.’
“Sigh of Acceptance!”
He felt his mind calm and his limbs feel slightly lighter than before. The worries about his situation started to fade. He smiled and observed his surroundings. He noticed something very strange about this meadow. There was an abnormally large concentration of rabbits. In the meadow with a radius of a half a mile, there must have been hundreds of rabbits. Red bunnies, brown bunnies, red AND brown bunnies. Black bunnies, white bunnies, black AND white bunnies. You get the idea.
‘This is… odd… well… rabbits are the weakest in the game so this could be a lot of free experience!’
Alistair thought optimistically. He searched in his inventory. There was 10 loaves of bread, 10 liters of water… ah there was the sword He equipped his sword in his inventory. There was a glowing shaft of light that appeared in his hand. This solidified into an old rusted sword.
Old Sword Quality:PoorDurability:15 /20Damage:10-15This is a poor quality sword given to all visitors when they first arrive.
Alistair did a few test swings with the sword. It had utterly horrible balance. Most of the weight of the sword was in the very tip, which in real life could break one’s wrist if swung incorrectly Fortunately, Alistair had much experience with swords that had terrible balance. The prop swords were mostly made for aesthetic value, not for combat ability. Alistair grinned and approached a little brown rabbit slowly, gracefully, but silently walking up to a rabbit. He readied himself in a stance. He had a rudimentary understanding of sword fighting due to his role in the movie “Swords of Pinzance.” He bent his legs and sprung forward aggressively towards the rabbit. His sword pierced the rabbit with a sickening sound. The rabbit bled heavily from its side and made a pathetic attempt to hop away to save its life. Alistair watched it sadly and raised his sword. He brought it down mercifully quick, ending the rabbit’s life. Out of the rabbit’s body, glowing white spheres emerged. They floated in the air for a moment and then went straight into Alistair’s chest. The poorly balanced sword that had most of the weight in the tip hurt Alistair.
You have bruised your wrist from the previous swing, mobility will decrease due to swelling.
Alistair felt warm inside. A feeling that he had just drunk a cup of hot chocolate spread across his chest. This brought a smile to Alistair’s face.
‘If this is what it feels like to gain experience from a rabbit… I wonder how it would feel to kill something bigger like a wolf.’ He thought optimistically ‘This sword is a problem though
As he got down from his experience ecstasy, he noticed all the rabbits in the clearing were looking at him now. The sight
of their dead brethren laying at Alistair reflected off their red beady eyes.
In that moment, the bunnies' instinctual desire to survive united them under one single goal. Run away.
That moment was filled with chaos as the mass of rabbits darted in all different directions. Furry little balls of brown, red, and black darted to escape the impending doom that was Alistair. Alistair saw they were making to escape and ran after them quickly. He ran and ran trying to catch them, but they were extremely fast. He ran and ran until he reached the edge of the clearing where the rabbits had congregated. Taking up a stance, he prepared to kill as many of the fuzz balls as he could before they escaped. In desperation, a rabbit jumped at his face. Alistair stumbled back surprised. His rudimentary knowledge of sword play couldn’t prepare him for the rest of the rabbits following suit. He switched to a reverse grip and blocked as well as he could with his swollen wrist. Three collided with his blade with such force, that it caused critical hits. The unfortunate three couldn’t run away like the rest of their brethren and were swiftly ended.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Their little bodies lay bleeding on the ground. Their bodies relinquished their precious experience points and Alistair relished in the warmth.
Alistair sighed in frustration and chased after the rabbits again. The process repeated with him chasing then blocking with a reverse grip. Sometimes the rabbits got through and hit his body, causing on average, 12 damage. After repeating this process a couple of time, he had only killed 7 rabbits, when he got a notice.
Your health had reached a critical point, it is recommended that you rest
Your satiety meter has fallen below 20%. If it falls any further, your performance will experience detrimental effects and if it reaches 0%, you will die.
“That can’t be. Status Window.”
[/ tr][tr][td2]Mental Resilience
Status WindowName:AlistairAlignment:NeutralLevel:2Class:NoneRace:HumanGender:MaleTitlesNoneFame:NoneInfamy:None-Health:15 / 100Mana:96 / 100Stamina:20 / 100[/tds]+30%-Strength:10Agility:21Satiety20%Intelligence:10Wisdom:10Leadership:10Luck:4
“Wow… I didn’t even realize it. Well… I guess I need to rest. Wait, I gained all this agility from chasing after those rabbits? It has nearly doubled since I began... Makes sense though, they are too fast.”
Alistair began to gather all the rabbits he had killed. He was hungry so he sat under a tree and pulled out a piece of barley bread that all newbies started with. He sat and ate his barley bread in silence, not once thinking about eating the rabbits. One might wonder, why didn’t he eat the rabbits? They would be much more filling than barley bread so why wouldn’t he eat them? There are two simple reasons.
1) He had never gone hunting, so he had no idea how to skin an animal. His childhood consisted what are considered the refined arts such as acting lessons and piano. He was a terrible artist but that was beside the point.
2) Even if the animal was already skinned, he had no idea how to cook without modern cooking utensils. He considered himself a decent chef if he had a kitchen, but in this situation, there was no way.
So, he sat under the tree, unable to take advantage of the potentially delicious meat. He gazed enviously at the meat and sat and ate his barley bread in discontent. He chewed slowly watching the little rabbits hop about. After a long while of watching, he noticed there seemed to be a pattern to their movements. The red rabbits could move at extreme speeds forwards, however, they had to take the time to turn themselves. The brown rabbits could move diagonally, but no other direction. The black rabbits could jump from side to side, and backwards, but not forwards. The white rabbits had the best mobility. The rabbits that were a combination of colors had traits of both. For example, the Black and white rabbit could move forward, however the sideways and backwards mobility was reduced. Despite the amount of rabbits, there was one white rabbit that caught his eye. This particular rabbit only moved backwards. It was a humorous sight to watch it, but in never seemed to run into anything. It was also much faster than all the other rabbits.
Alistair picked himself up, but his body felt heavy. He pondered why this was and then realized it had already been two hours in game.
“Sigh of Acceptance.”
His body became lighter once again and his mind seemed to clear. He stood up, ready to go kill some rabbits.