Deep in the middle of the forest, two figures were dashing through the trees. One figure was like a flame that flickered every time it moved, while the other was like a dark dark shadow, moving to consume the flame into darkness. These figures of course, were Q and the wolf, continuing their run through the forest. The two sped through the trees, constantly ducking under branches and jumping over roots. Their wild and frantic chase almost seemed like a strange dance, the bright flame leading around the stifling darkness. “Just leave me alone already dammit!” yelled Q, and in response the wolf growled at her.
Q had been running for what felt like hours, but in reality was probably just minutes. The black wolf kept chasing her as if she had murdered its entire family or something, and it didn’t slow down at all! On the contrary, Q was the one who began slowing down as the prolonged chase quickly drained her stamina. What’s worse is that Q felt the wolf wasn’t running at full speed yet. It’s probably enjoying the thrill of the hunt… not that I’m enjoying it. I need to find a way out of this situation, quick! Q thought as she dived underneath a branch. The wolf seemed to sense her exhaustion and redoubled its speed, quickly gaining on her.
Q was about to run out of energy, when she suddenly noticed an old hollow tree trunk in a clearing in front of her. Without hesitation she leaped up and pulled herself into the trunk from the top, just barely managing to fit in due to her small stature. Not even seconds passed before she felt a large impact on the trunk. After a few more seconds another impact came, then another, and another. This continued for a while until it seemed that the wolf had stopped.
Cautiously peeking her head out the top of the trunk, Q took a quick look around her and instantly regretted doing so. She quickly ducked back into the trunk as the wolf lunged at her head, and almost got her too. It was close enough that she could feel wolf’s chin with the tips of her ears, so Q decided to stay in the trunk until the wolf left.
The two of them sat there for a while, each waiting for the other to make a move. The wolf wasn’t very good at waiting though, and let out a loud howl before it began ramming the trunk again. Q let out a small laugh as she wasn’t worried about the wolf breaking through. The wood was solid enough, and force of the wolf’s tackles wasn’t enough to break through. Just as she thought she would be fine, she heard a snapping sound and whipped her head to look at the base of the trunk. Unbelievably, it had begun to crack!
“Not again!” Q wailed, as the trunk slowly, but surely began to break apart. The wolf didn’t miss this either, as it began ramming the trunk with even more force than before. *CRACK!* Suddenly a large sound reverberated throughout the entire forest as the trunk fell over with Q still inside it. The wolf immediately began to run towards the open ends of the trunk, hoping to grab Q with a bite and drag her out.
Noticing this, Q tried to shrink herself by moving her limbs closer to the center of her body (or at least as much as she could move in this tight space). The wolf stuck in its head where Q’s head was, and the two stared at each other in a strange moment of silence. Looking a bit above the wolf’s head, Q saw that it had lost about one third of its health. Apparently it couldn’t keep ramming against a tree without any repercussions... Q was taken out of her thoughts quickly though as the wolf began snapping at her, trying as hard as it could to bite her, and much to Q’s dismay, its efforts were eventually rewarded. The wolf had managed to bite one of Q’s ears, dealing a substantial amount of damage, while also sending waves of pain throughout Q’s body.
“OWWWW!!! Reduced pain my ass, this freaking hurts!” Although the game made sure that players only felt 30% of the pain they were supposed to feel, Q still screamed out as she writhed in agony. Her struggle made the wolf rather excited though, as it had finally been able to catch the prey it had been chasing for a while. It tried to pull Q out of the tree by slowly walking backwards but Q pressed her hands and legs to the side of the tree, keeping her in place. Thankfully the wolf pulling her ear didn’t cause any extra damage, but it did manage to cause a lot of pain to Q.
“AAAAAAH! Stop pulling me!” Q cried out, but the wolf kept relentlessly pulling on her ear, determined to yank out its dinner. I’m starting to regret making my ears this long! thought Q as the prolonged pain kept her in a state of perpetual agony. Actually I'm not, but screw this wolf for ruining my precious ears!Q tried her best to endure this pain, but temporarily lost her grip on the trunk as the bark she was holding onto was peeled away.
“Uh-oh.” Q barely had time to utter those words as the wolf pulled incredibly hard and almost managed to pull Q out of the trunk. Luckily Q regained her focus on time and put her all into grabbing onto the insides of the trunk. Her nails were quite sharp (probably due to being a beastkin) and dug into the tree, keeping her in place. The wolf seemed enraged by being stopped again from pulling its prey out, and began to pull harder. “This… stupid… wolf!” Q yelled as she tried to scratch out its eyes. Much to her surprise, she was actually able to do so, as the wolf let out a yelp and jumped back.
Q let out a sigh of relief, as she was relieved that the wolf finally let go of her ears. She took a quick look at the wolf which was howling and stumbling around outside. Having lost its vision it was disoriented, and Q saw this as an opportunity to escape. She squirmed out of the trunk and began to run away, but unbelievably the wolf let out another growl as it chased her! “How do you even!?” Q yelled in surprise, and the wolf which was running in a direction slightly to the left of her location locked onto Q and began chasing her again.
Of course! It can still use sound and smell to find me. Q realized as she quickly shut her mouth and continued to run. While running away from the wolf (which was much easier this time) Q suddenly thought of something. Wait a minute… if it’s like this, then can’t I take down this wolf? Q glanced at the wolf and saw that it was in a poor condition due to the scratch she had inflicted on it. Should I risk it? Q thought. She weighed the pros and cons of the situation in her mind. On one hand she might be able to defeat the wolf and get a lot of experience. On the other hand she might die stupidly and fail the tutorial. After a few seconds of thought, she made her decision.
Q turned around and dived towards the wolf with her nails (claws?) outstretched. The wolf, not expecting its prey to suddenly turn on it, didn’t react in time and got slashed by Q’s nails. The wolf fell over from this sudden attack, and Q used this opportunity to land a few more hits as she mounted the wolf and began chipping away at its health.
“Take this! And that! And this!” Q shouted as she saw the wolf’s health bar slowly get chipped away. She was tempted to start screaming “ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!” but didn’t get a chance to as the wolf got up. The wolf wasn’t just going to take a one-sided beating after all, and it began to run around wildly, ramming into trees and diving into bushes in an attempt to shake off Q. In response to this Q dug her nails into the wolf’s ears and kept a tight grip. The wolf yelped and let out a pitiful sound as it underwent incredible pain.
“That’s right! That’s how it feels to get your ears pierced! Does it hurt? Of course it does! I’ll pay you back double for what you did to my precious fox-ears!” Q yelled out as she tightened her grip. This inflicted more pain on the wolf, and as a result it became even more disoriented and could no longer tell where it was going. All the wolf could do was continue to run forward recklessly, and Q used this to her advantage. She yanked the wolf’s head to the right, and it moved in that direction, crashing into a tree head on. Q jumped off just before the impact and as she landed she took a look at the wolf’s health bar. It was about half gone, and the wolf itself had collapsed from the blunt force.
The wolf lay weakly on the ground, suffering from its various wounds while letting out a quiet whine. Many people might have looked on it’s sad figure with pity, but Q looked on it coldly as it lay there. Not only did this wolf bring her near death, but it also caused her lots of grief and ruined her soft, precious ears. Above all else, it’s fur isn’t even that soft... Q thought. She had confirmed this while riding it, and taking all these facts into consideration, she had decided on the poor wolf’s fate.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Sorry wolfy, but you just weren’t soft enough…” Q said as she clenched her teeth and began to relentlessly stab it with her nails. The wolf was unable to do anything about this though as it was only able to let out pitiful whines. It might have also tried the legendary ‘puppy eyes’ attack, but it was blinded so that wasn’t an option. After a minute or so of Q’s brutal stabs, the wolf finally let out its final breath and disappeared into a bunch of shiny particles.
Q felt sort of sad, but also incredibly accomplished inside. She, a level one, had actually been able to take down a level 7 with literally no equipment and still got out alive. “YEAAAAH~!” Q let out a victorious yell, and as if this was a signal, windows began to appear in front of her like mad. Many of them were indications that she gained increases in her stats like strength or agility, and others were windows showing that she had obtained new skills.
[Stats Gained]
[Level Up!] x2
[New Skill] - Pain Resistance (Passive) Reduces the amount of pain felt.
[New Skill] - Unarmed Mastery (Passive) Increases damage and proficiency when not using a weapon.
[New Skill] - Claw Mastery (Passive) Increases damage and proficiency when using claw-type weapons.
[New Skill] - Riding (Passive) Increases speed and handling when riding a creature.
[New Skill] - Relentless Assault (Active, consumes 50 MP, 30 Minute cool-down) Allows you to continuously attack a target uninterrupted for 5 seconds, but you receive double damage while in this state.
[New Title] - (Heartless) Despite seeing a creature suffering in front of you, you still still decided to extend its pain by cruelly attacking it while it was down. Effects when equipped: 5% increased chance of causing fear with any fear related abilities. Skill - Cruel Aura (Conditional Active) Inflicts fear to those around you from your heartless actions. Chance of fear being inflicted depends on level difference.
She also saw a few windows saying that she obtained some items from the defeated wolf such as its pelt, fangs and claws. One of the drops was a small black ring, and after looking at it a window appeared in front of her.
[Black Ring (Ring, Unidentified, Rare)] - Effects unknown. Cannot be equipped until it is identified.
Q was a little disappointed that her first item that she got wasn’t equippable just yet. The upside though is that it was a rare item, which was incredibly good for early levels. To Q’s knowledge, the items ranked in T.W.O were ranked in this order:
Common, Uncommon, Rare, Magical, Legendary, Mythic, and Unique.
Q put away the ring for now as she looked at the last window which was flashing and said:
[Great Feat Accomplished!] You are the first player to defeat a monster whose level is 5 or more than yours. Would you like to let people know of your accomplishments? Selecting Yes will give you +50 Fame and extra experience. (YES/NO)
Q was incredibly happy about these rewards, but the [Heartless] title bothered her. Sure she may have killed the wolf, but for the system to go as far as say that she was heartless? She equipped the title anyway though, as the bonus to fear abilities and skill were too good to pass up. In the System of T.W.O, players were able to equip two titles at once, gaining both effects, although only one of them will be displayed. She decided to make the [Heartless] title not be displayed as it would probably turn people away from her once she started interacting with other players.
She then addressed the system message, as it continued to flash in front of her. After a moment of decision she pressed yes. After all, fame was good, and getting some extra experience while she was at it was also a good idea. More windows popped up in front of her, indicating that she leveled up yet again. “Woohoo!” Q let out a whoop as she began to organize her inventory and stat points. A message popped up in front of her at the same time and it read:
[Level Up!]
[System Announcement] - Player “Q” is the first player to defeat an enemy that is 5 levels over them.
It was a simple message in and of itself, but the amount of importance placed on it by the players, along with their response was very intense. Of course, Q had no idea about this and was too preoccupied by her rewards to realize that selecting yes had caused every player learn of her existence…
*At the same time, in various places in the game*
“What the hell!? How did this player do that? I’m still struggling with level 4 creatures!”
“Hmph. Not bad, but I’ll show off an even better achievement.”
“HAHAHA! I won’t lose! I’m going to take down an enemy 10 levels higher than me!” (According to his party members, this player died shortly after saying this)
“Seems a new rival for the great me has appeared…”
No matter who it was, or where they were, all other 999,999 players currently in the game now knew of the existence known as Q, and directed their jealousy, anger, admiration, and awe at the player who had achieved such an accomplishment so early in the game.
*Inside a certain T.W.O monitoring room*
A man was sitting at his desk and was currently cleaning it since he had just finished lunch. As he cleared space in front of him, one of the screens on his desk began flashing and the man sighed. He let the connection through, and before C.I.M could even begin talking he immediately shot out a sentence. “What is it this time C.I.M? It’s only been like, half an hour before you last contacted me.”
“Sir, this concerns one of the players on your interesting list, Q.”
The man sighed as he recognized the strange name from earlier. “What is this player up to now?” He asked.
“The player Q is the first player to complete a World Achievement by defeating an enemy whose level is at least 5 higher than hers.”
“WHAT!?” If the man was drinking something, he surely would have done another spit take at this point.
“To be more accurate her it was 6 levels above her, but she was able to do this immediately upon entering a forest. She had also done it without any weapons, I might add.”
“Really? That’s kind of unbelievable. Though you never know what to expect huh?” In truth, the man knew how hard it was to defeat enemies in the game. Being one of the beta testers himself, he knew that fighting monsters 1 or 2 levels above you was already quite hard. This was due to the way the A.I. of the monsters worked, as well as the difference in their stats and the players stats. Gone were the days of old turn-based combat, this time the monsters seriously went to kill players, and didn’t have any restrictions on them from doing so. To hear that a player was actually able to defeat a monster that was 6 levels higher than themselves, as well as the fact that they were only level one was enough to cause shock to those who had played the game in beta.
“Keep an eye on this player Cim. If they’ve done something this amazing within an hour of playing, they’ll probably do some amazing things in the future.”
“Yes sir.”
*Back in the game*
Q had just finished allocating her ability points and she looked proudly at her character screen. She distributed her points into a bit of agility, dexterity, strength and vitality, and kept some to spend for the future, as it seemed that gaining stats would become harder later on in the game.
She spent a few minutes lying down on the floor regenerating health. She noticed that health will almost always regenerate, but it does so faster if you weren’t moving and were in a comfortable position. Once she had fully rested herself, she decided to get moving and out of the forest. But where’s the way back? she wondered. I rolled down a hill, so I suppose I’m lower than where the ruins were before… So if I go up, I should be able to spot them! Alright then, to higher ground! Q thought as she left the forest and began searching for the ruins she spotted earlier.
----------------------------------------
A/N: Actually, I don't have much to say about this chapter. Just thought it'd be weird to not have an author's note at the end. Also, I don't intend on making tables for this, as I had written this all in google docs and it works fine for me (the formatting of the 'system messages' and whatnot). In the future I might come back and do so, but for now... eh.
Edit: Actually I do have something to say about this chapter: Wolfy, you will forever be in our hearts. XOXOX remember Wolfy 1 rating = 1 prayer. (Hahaha shameless promotion)
Fun-fact: The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.