In between studying, sleeping, and classes, Jessica played Royal Road whenever she could. Occasionally she would drop by a capsule room in the university and rent a capsule. Renting a capsule was about five dollars an hour, but she had a yearly stipend from the scholarship.

When she was in the city she sprinted about running errands, or did odd jobs in many different places. Occasionally, she visited the training center and hit scarecrows for a bit to practice swordsmanship and adjust to the world. Practice would help her prepare. Through this she had managed to increase her stamina and agility. From working in restaurants she learned cooking skills, from the fishing guild she learned how to fish and from players she learned about the monsters outside the wall.

Four weeks passed and she had prepared some supplies for her first adventure outside of the walls. In the end, she spent the money she had earned on buying a fishing pole and bait, food, a pot, flint and steel, some ingredients, and with the remainder she was able to afford a knife. With all her running around she needed food to keep up her energy, the ingredients were for the food she fully intended to cook in the future, the flint and steel was to make fires to cook the food she would make herself, the fishing pole was there so she could catch food for herself, the pot was for her to cook food in, and the knife… was because she had been stupid and had forgotten to buy a weapon until the end of her preparations.

I only have a knife. I think the rabbits will probably kick me to death. I am so amazing. I will probably be the first newb to die by rabbits in this game.

She mocked herself. She probably would not be the first player to die by rabbit, and she probably wouldn’t be the last either. At least, that was her hope. The keyword here was “probably.” It would be just her luck to be the only person to be killed by a rabbit in the whole history of Royal Road. She was filled with both dread and anticipation because she would be going outside the walls soon. She was hoping the rabbits would be easier than she expected and dreaded the idea of chasing them around. As a person of high pride, she would feel extremely embarrassed if she messed up when hunting rabbits and if she looked silly.

At least there will probably be priests near. Maybe they’ll save me from the evil rabbits. Ah… I should have bought a weapon first…

***

The time had come for Fang to be kicked to death by rabbits. The four weeks were up and it was time for her to go out and face her first prey. Fang stepped outside the gates for the first time and saw brilliant sun on the beautiful grassy outdoors. The forest’s edge was visible from her vantage point by the gate. A gentle breeze was blowing; flowers were blooming, butterflies danced from flower to flower, and…

“Damn you rabbit, get back here!”

“Ow! Ow! Stop kicking me!”

“Aaaaaaaah! Why are these rabbits so vicious! Aren’t these beginner creatures!?!”

“It bit me! Blood!”

Before her eyes, Fang was watching beginners fight rabbits.

“…”

After a moment of silence, she looked at the knife in her hand. Fang opened up the stat window and stared at her stats. She was at level two now, and after a quick glance at her stats she came to a simple conclusion.

I’m going to die a horrible death aren’t I? Beaten to death by a rabbit in public, this will be the best day of my life. I can’t wait!

For some reason she felt like turning around and hiding in the city for the rest of her life.

***

You damned rabbits! One day when I am a higher level, I will come back and I will beat you all up!

Fang had spent the day chasing rabbits all around the city walls. They were quick to escape, but when cornered turned quite vicious. She had never realized how sharp a rabbit’s claws were. It was now that she remembered a piece of advice: “A cornered rat will bite a cat; one who is cornered will fight like a devil.” It was true. If they had a place to escape from, or an opening, they would run for it, but if there was no other option they would bite, kick, and scratch in a desperate attempt to escape.

At some point, she had found it easier to hide behind or within bushes, and catch rabbits that came too close. She would slit their throat deeply and quickly, and then let them go. They would get a short distance away before they could go no further. Desperately their legs would kick and twitch as they tried to find a way to escape this fate. It was less risky for her this way; she managed to avoid a lot more scratches if she let them go immediately. Supposedly, this was the way some predators hunted dangerous creatures. They would fatally wound them, then back off and follow them until they were too weak to resist, then they would finish them off.

Before this method, she had tried cutting down a thick branch and attaching her knife to it to make a spear. It worked some of the times. It gave her some range, and she could use this to pin the animal in place. Rabbits were already very agile creatures, but hunting rabbits with this makeshift spear was made worse by the fact that she was not very good with a spear and so she was not very accurate.

Later she had tried simply tackling rabbits to catch them, but unfortunately such large movement was anticipated and they would often escape. Tackling rabbits was painful; if she landed wrong she could injure herself. When she was trying to tackle rabbits, she would often have to brush rocks and pebbles off of her arms and sometimes the rocks broke the skin.

She had finally hit on this method. It took more time and patience, but it was less risky. She had caught many rabbits now. She had gotten crap loot off of them: a rabbit skin, three chunks of meat, and a few coppers. When she said a few coppers, she meant fifteen coppers. At least this amount made up for the bread she had eaten and would cover the costs of a couple more pieces of bread.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“…”

These damn rabbits! Cheapskates! Worthless creatures! If you’re going to give me so much trouble, you should at least give me more compensation for my troubles. I should sue the rabbits for intentional infliction of emotional distress. They should give me at least one rabbit skin for every three rabbits and at least a good chunk of meat per rabbit. Those damn rabbits should pay for the damages. You accursed rabbits! Give me more loot!

She would eat barley bread while waiting to ambush rabbits to keep her satiety while she hunted. When it started to get dark, Fang went closer to the city and found a nice place to start a fire. The grasses were cleared away, and there were signs that others had tried their hand at cooking and starting fires here. She gathered tinder and kindling, twigs, sticks, and some larger branches. She piled them up near the place where she would be starting her fire. She found some bark and leaves to shell her fire and tinder. She then gathered a good long straight branch and two sturdy Y-shaped branches.

She shredded up the dried grasses then nested them in the charred remains of past fires. In the center of the ball of tinder, she made an indent which would hopefully make it easier to catch the sparks. After that she tried using the flint and steel. It took many tries before she finally got the tinder to light. She carefully covered up the sparks and blew gently until she was certain it caught, and then she added small twigs. Over time she built up the fire. On two sides of the fire she planted the two Y-shaped sticks in the dirt before hanging the pot over the fire.

She filled the pot with water and added in the rabbit meat and herbs and seasonings to make a soup. She let it slowly boil while she went back to the forest’s edge and gathered some more wood. Some of the wood she chose was for the fire, and a couple of pieces were for another purpose. With her knife she started to carve, she didn’t have the sculpting skill, but in real life she had done a decent job when it came to whittling. She managed to carve herself a spoon, a ladle, and a bowl. When she was done, the soup had been boiling for a good long while. She rubbed her fingers along the wood searching for splinters and places where the wood might splinter off and become part of the soup. The rough spots she smoothed as best as she could.

She was no sculptor, she was no wood carver, and it couldn’t be helped. Perhaps if she had more money, she might purchase some decent utensils and a bowl. She ladled a little bit of soup into her bowl and set it aside to cool. After it had cooled sufficiently, she tasted it. It could be better. The flavor was a little bit too bland for her. Oh well, there wasn’t much she could or would do at this point. She fished out a piece of meat and tried it, it was fully cooked. After that she filled her bowl and set it aside to cool. At this point in time there wasn’t much for her to do, so she began to plan.

When she logged out she would study up on traps and rabbit recipes. She would see if she could catch a fox with a trap. She would also look for a body of water nearby where she could use her fishing rod and practice some. When she ran out of bait, perhaps she could use dropped meat would do as well to catch fish. She would have to look it up.

She took the pot off the fire and left it to cool a while. When she had done that, she picked up her bowl and began to eat the soup. When her satiety was at 100% she still had some soup left over. If only she had a way to store it, she didn’t want to pour it out. She looked around and spotted what was probably a player.

“Hey you! Yeah, you! What’s your name? I made some rabbit soup earlier, but I made too much, do you want some?”

The player she had called over cautiously approached. Fang didn’t blame them for that.

Strange person offering you free food… where’s the catch? Is the food poisoned? Is there something wrong with the food?

It made sense to her that a person would be very cautious about accepting an offer of free food from a stranger camping outside the walls. She washed her bowl and spoon as best as she could, then looked at it dubiously.

“You can use my bowl and spoon if you want. Or you can use the ladle to eat directly out of the pot if you want to finish it, or I can try carving another bowl and spoon if you don’t want to do either. Don’t worry, the food isn’t poisoned, so relax.”

The player she had called over still looked a little nervous. He took the bowl and spoon from her, than introduced himself as Kiron. Fang filled the bowl and introduced herself. He nodded, then took a cautious sip of the soup.

“Ah, nice to meet you, Fang… Oh, this soup isn’t too bad.”

The look of surprise on Kiron’s face made it hard for Fang not to smile. She was inordinately pleased that someone seemed to like her soup.

“Nice to meet you too, Kiron. I’m glad you like it.”

Kiron and Fang had an easy conversation while he ate soup, and when he was done, they friend-ed each other. Fang put out the fire, took the pot, and scraped the embers in it. This would burn off the remaining food in the bottom. She would wash the pot later. Then she dumped the embers back out, and packed the pot away. She bid Kiron good bye and then entered the city to sell the skins and meat she had collected. Today hadn't been too bad of a day at least.