I headed in the opposite direction the two hikers had run by the footprints in the soft earth. That way their trail might draw off any possible pursuit. I made it made a mile before I knew this was not going to work. I was just too banged up and carrying way too much weight. I stopped and started to repack. I dropped my camp stove, fuel, and all the food that required cooking, but kept 13 mountain house meals. It was only about 10 lbs total, not enough. I drank both quarts of water…4 less pounds. I ate two Snickers bars and sat down to rest.
I pulled out the pistol and looked it over. It looked like a kids toy but made from a light exotic metal. I pointed it at a tree and pulled the trigger. A white discharge zipped toward the tree and where it impacted a hole was burned into the trunk. I went and inspected the burn. It was about three inches deep and half an inch wide. I tried the rifle next. The same white discharge hit the tree. The hole was wider and about 10 inches deep. I gingerly resaddled the pack on my back and got moving. Unfortunately the trail was up hill and it was slow going. I practiced pulling the pistol to confront imagined threats but didn’t encounter anything other than chipmunks.
I reached a small summit and looked around. The green canopy spread out below but was dotted with purple foliage clusters. That was definitely new. Then I noticed the sun. It was slightly red. Was I on another planet or perhaps I was thrust way into the future? There should have been a road below in the valley I was headed for, but there was no line in the canopy to indicate such. I was nervous. I pulled out my cell phone...turned it on…no signal. I usually got at least one bar even in the deep woods on a summit. I was not on Earth. I moved into cover and sat in the cover of some trees. Panic was building and I had to push it down.
I didn’t know how I felt. Did I feel sorrow for the dead hikers? No. Was I worried about the safety of the other two that ran away? No. My goal was self-preservation but where was I suppose to go? I ate numbly and my body’s fatigue caught up to me. I had been pushing too hard. I needed to camp and rest. I suddenly realized how stupid I had been. I had left a trail, first with the dropped gear and then the holes in the tree. Well it didn't matter anymore, I dumped my trash, rolling a rock on top. No point in packing it out now and it cut my pack weight by a pound. Then I squatted in the woods. At least I had plenty of TP.
This trail had lead somewhere but was it somewhere I wanted to go? I needed water as well. I decided to move to the valley below, refill my water and then move off the trail to camp in a defensible site. Hopefully all this world offered for enemies was the goblinoids.
Strange sounds came from the trees as I moved down the trail. I slowed and kept my eyes peeled and tried to move quietly. It took an hour to get to water but I got there safely and unmolested. It was a large narrow pond. Keeping the rifle close by I filled my water bottles and used the Sawyer to filter it. While I was filling my 3rd bottle I noticed a deer a few hundred yards away to my right coming to get a drink. The water surged in front of the doe and a crocodile-like creature grabbed the poor animal, dragging it into the water. My estimation of my possible survival in this world suddenly dropped…two and half water bottles was enough water anyway.
I dragged my gear from the water before packing everything and getting a move on. The trail ran along the water but I decided to stay at least 50 yards from the water. It was getting dark and I needed to find someplace safe. I left the trail and headed for some rocks. I found a crevice in the rocks about 20 feet deep and somewhat narrow. It had an overhang as well. It was very narrow at the far end and I would be trapped if something found me but at least I only needed to cover one direction. I decided to take the risk. I quickly cleared the debris set up some branches at the mouth of the crevice and set up my sleeping bag at the end. The branches wouldn't stop anything but the noise of anything trying to get past would wake me up…I hoped. My injured body needed calories and I tore into my rations consuming thousands of calories and two of my water bottles. I got comfortable and faced the opening with my rifle pointed in that direction with my knife and pistol easily accessible.
Of course ten minutes later I had to take a shit and piss. I relieved myself near the opening and used a lot of TP and a few wet wipes to make sure I was clean as the bowel movement had been a little soft. Darkness was coming quickly and strange lights were moving far out in the woods. Blue and red lights. I retreated back to my hidey hole. I used my sleeping bag as a blanket with my air pad behind me for comfort and tried to settle into sleep. After moving twice and having the air mattress squeak I decided to deflate it and use it as a pad. I woke every 30-40 minutes from a roar, yell or bang in the distance but it was pitch black and after a few minutes of keen listening drifted off again after checking my watch to see how much time had passed.
The snapping of a stick woke my again. It was close…at the mouth of the crevice I think. The entrance exploded in sound and I started firing the rifle blindly. The first shot hit the wall but the light of the slug let me see my doom. It was a panther the size of a horse. I fired again and hit the beast in its leg but it didn’t slow. I closed my eyes waiting for the end and pulled the trigger in what I believed was futility. A club hit my right leg and then a dagger pierced my left thigh. I screamed in pain, knowing the jaws of death would end me. And I waited…
Slowly I opened my eyes and using my light on my watch discovered what had happened. The panther’s head was on my right leg with a hole in its eye and a claw from its right leg had punched my sleeping bag and sliced my leg. I dug out my headlamp and put it on. As I pushed the heavy paw off my leg I found about a 3 inch deep gash in my quad. I also found the panther's foot had smeared my own shit on my sleeping bag. I laughed uncontrollably. What else could go wrong? Well the panther was still bleeding profusely from the head wound. It’s body hadn’t figured out it was dead yet. I scooted back as the panther, braindead and bleeding out soaked the earth. I dug out some disinfectant from my bag and smeared it in the wound after doing what I could to clean it ignoring the strong sting. It was not bleeding too badly now so I ripped off a sleeve and wrapped the wound. I tested my weight on the leg. Nope, I was definitely not going to get too far.
I sat down and went through my gear with the red head lamp set to low output hoping to come up with something that could increase my movement as I was not looking forward to hunkering down here with a soon to be rotting corpse. My attention kept coming back to the two dead forearm computer devices. It crossed my mind that perhaps they need to be worn to become active as they did not appear damaged. I took the one that had the least dried blood on it and put it on my right arm since I was left handed. The device clamped down on my arm then I felt needles stabbing into my arm. Maybe this was not as good an idea as I had thought. I passed out.
I slowly came back to my senses and my vision was black with a bunch of text. I read the text.
New player found…
Classification: Human…
Downloading human languages…
Scanning probable primary language of player from memory analysis…
Language determined to be English…translating interface…
Scanning player history to determine starting experience…
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Five kills located. Player Timoell: Natalian Goblin Ranger Scout Level 5, Nantalian Worg Level 3, Player Haquin: Nantalian Goblin Scout Level 7, Nantalian Worg Level 5, Ballium Nightstalker Panther Level 9…
Experience calculated.
Nanite injection activating with in player.
Determining beginning stats.
Stats determined. Determining maximum stats based on genetic profile. Complete.
Experience
690
STAT
CURRENT
MAX
Strength
11
82
Constitution
10
61
Stamina
9
62
Agility
5
69
Speed
6
34
Intellect
13
88
Aether
0
22
Channeling
0
77
Charisma
3
18
Luck
2
2
What? Was this a video game? I hadn’t played games for years but understood the concepts. I had been analyzed and whatever system this was based on I had received some base line stats. I guessed the Aether and Channeling had something to deal with magic? It looked like I had some possible capacity for it.
My eyes opened and I could still see the text. I thought it was difficult to see and the text disappeared. I wished it back and it reappeared. Ok good. What else could I do? I wished to see my character sheet. Just the stats filled my vision with a few more lines.
Class
None
Skills
None
Level
3
Ok I didn’t have a class, guess my 5 years of college didn’t qualify me for an architect class. I focused on class and an expanded menu opened allowing for me to select a class. Warrior, Psionic, Channeler, Ranger, Engineer, Rouge, Academic and Pilot. Huh, what kind of game… I thought warrior and a prompt appeared.
Do you wish to purchase the Warrior class for 100 experience?
Ok I needed to use the experience to buy my class. I checked and each class cost 100 experience except Psionic was 200. Did that make it better? I had 690 experience so could I purchase six classes? Warrior would make it the easiest to survive in this new world based on my gaming experience and the probable learning curve. The goblins I had killed were Rangers. Academic sounded boring. The prompt for pilot was still active so I decided pilot and warrior would be my two choices. I clicked yes and a new screen came up.
Sub-class for pilot. There were maybe a dozen selections, land craft, mechs, and spaceships... Cool. I backed out to the general menu and was distraught to see the cost to add warrior class was now 10,000 experience. Crap. Could I deselect pilot? I tried to do so but just brought up the class description:
Pilot – you are a master of all vehicles that require a pilot. All experience costs for piloting, navigation and gunner skills are decreased by 25%, engineering and mechanical skills decreased by 5%, experience cost for melee and hand ranged weapons increased by 25%, magic skills increased by 25%, psionic skills increased by 500%. +1 agility per level, +1 unassigned stat per level, +2 skill points per level (can only be allocated toward piloting, navigation and gunner skills), one navigation skill (choose from topical, star system, interstellar and subspace).
I went back to my stats and yes my agility was now 8 and…it looks like I had 3 unassigned stat points as well. That was good, I didn’t lose the stat points in agility since I became a pilot at level 3. I selected intelligence and increased to 14. That was easy. I used the other two points on stamina. I figured that would increase my survivability for now. A quick ‘brain freeze’ came over me and my lungs and muscles burned briefly. It was only a few seconds but I soon felt normal again, better than normal.
I went back to the sub class for pilot. The cheapest was 500 experience. Not a good time to use all my expereince. Skills would be more useful. I needed to get a skill for my rifle at least. There were numerous classes of rifle. Slug, plasma, laser, Aether, magnetic, void and beam. Ok what kind of rifle did I have? My forearm screen beeped. I looked at it and the screen on my forearm computer lit up with my data. Huh, I could use the computer for my character info as well rather than have it obscure my vision. The info for the rifle was there.
Dryden Industries Infantry Plasma Rifle, Model 3G4, Serial # DI5629548034C67
Weight 12.34 kg, Standard Beta Core Cell 25 shots (18 remaining), Extreme Effective Range 400 meters
Fantastic! Did my identify work on other things. I thought about my bracer computer.
Dryden Industries Player Module, Class C, Serial # DI 3929547667WC67
Weight 2.73 kg, Nanite Class C, Software: Scan 17, Mapping 15
Comm Range 25.6 km, Dimensional Storage 2.44 cubic meters
The dimensional storage was empty. It was accessible with thought, kind of a black box that appeared where you thought and you could reach into it. Hmmm, Mapping? I tried to bring up the map for a few minutes and nothing. I gave up on it for after a while. I scanned my other gear…
Dryden Plasma Pistol, Dryden Molecular Sword, Dryden Molecular Knife, Beta Cores, Dryden Burst Grenades, Nanite recovery vials, 1372 galactic credits. The other player module was similar but had just scan 8 and mapping 12 so it must not be as good.
The marbles were grenades. I would have to figure out how to use them. I took one of the nanite vials and poured it into my leg wound. The wound knit closed quickly and my rib, knee and all my other aches and pain vanished. Awesome! It was starting to get light above as well. There were numerous clouds but it didn't feel like rain. I scrapped the shit off my sleeping bag and packed everything into my dimensional storage and ate a meal. Before heading out I opened the skills tab and bought plasma rifle for 13 experience at level 1 and 25 experience to raise to level 2. I immediately had knowledge downloaded into me about plasma rifles. How to use them, clean them, and repair them. I took two levels in molecular sword as well for 38 more experience. I received knowledge on the blade care, charging and some basic defense and attacks. I scanned the other skills. Too many to count. Wait I could increase my stats with experience as well. For each skill it cost 10 for the first point, 20 for the second, 30 for the third, 40 for the fourth and so on. I spent 100 experience for 4 agility, then another 100 for 4 speed, and finally 100 for 4 strength. The rush of euphoria and pain didn't last long. Ok, 214 remaining experience. My muscles and nerves continued to burn for a few seconds while my body adjusted to the change.
What else could help me survive? I bought two levels in plasma pistol for 38. There were also sub skills under plasma rifle, plasma pistol and molecular sword. Light, medium and heavy under plasma rifle. I queried my rifle to remind me what it was, it was a light plasma rifle. I bought two ranks for 38 experience. It gave me an effective skill of 4 with the rifle. Of course another sub menu came up. Hundreds of specific light plasma rifles came up. I found my specific rifle, D.I. Model 3G4, and bought two ranks. Ok, I hoped 6 ranks was a good amount. And of course another menu came up…I could buy ranks in my specific rifle…matching up my exact serial number. Not now. I hoped 6 skill would be good enough.
I was ready to head out. I would save the rest of my experience for now. However as I was leaving I tried to scan the corpse on my way out.
Ballium Nightstalker Panther Level 9 (pregnant)