You Died. Resurrect?_World of Fantasy

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The wolf saw Quill and lunged up at him, snarling and angry.

Quill brought the branch down and desperately tried to fight the animal off. But the aggressive wolf got its jaws around Quill’s free arm and bit down into flesh, causing Quill to howl in pain.

Jane had completely screwed up her role as a tank. Cursing herself for her stupid mistake, she raced forward with the knife held high. She brought it down on the wolf with all her might.

And carved away a fraction of the animal’s HP.

She looked at it in surprise. Oh crap. She was weaker than she’d thought.

Quill, tears forming in his eyes, pulled the canine to the side with his trapped arm and bashed it over and over in the head with the club. Or he tried to. With his pathetic Dexterity, he missed more often than not, even at point-blank range. And while his own HP was falling rapidly, his efforts did next to nothing to the wolf. “Come on!” he growled. He swung again. And missed.

Jane snapped back to herself and chopped the wolf in the spine, right in the neck. This took down a much bigger chunk of HP. But nowhere near enough.

The wolf, fixated on Quill, growled at him and violently whipped its head back and forth, shredding the arm in its mouth. Its jaws slipped off the bloody bones and snapped shut.

Quill lost his balance and fell back with a cry.

The wolf dove back in, jaws closing around Quill’s neck and drawing a lot of blood.

Jane shouted in frustration, hacking away. But she did so little damage! She, too, missed often. And after only a few swings, she grew tired. It became hard to wield the knife at all. Cursed low Stamina!

Quill died and went limp.

[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/5b0c9847-92dd-4728-954f-93579b7ef57b/dfp3oti-33bd1668-85fd-4eb6-9506-09d97c076990.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzViMGM5ODQ3LTkyZGQtNDcyOC05NTRmLTkzNTc5YjdlZjU3YlwvZGZwM290aS0zM2JkMTY2OC04NWZkLTRlYjYtOTUwNi0wOWQ5N2MwNzY5OTAuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.1L0-XW0GRRc48G6KA4BVhzbJ_C12QD25BgXmfE75gRc]

The wolf released the corpse and oriented on Jane.

She tried to fend it off, but it was all claws and teeth in her face, and then she, too, was torn apart into bloody ribbons. She ran out of energy. Her arm dropped to her side. She watched in dismay as her HP fell to zero. Her ‘soul’ left her body, and she came to stand in ghostly form over her corpse.

Quill was already doing the same, visible to her now that they were both dead.

The wolf stopped savaging their bodies. It glared back and forth between the two. Then it went over to the male one and lifted a leg.

Quill’s eyes widened. “No! Don’t you dare. Don’t you—“

A stream of yellow urine splashed over the corpse’s chest.

Quill stomped in frustration, though his ghostly feet didn’t even leave an impression in the grass. “You didn’t! You bugger! Gah! I’m going to take your hide. Literally!”

Jane barked a soft laugh. It was hard to do more. She felt drained. Not so much physically, but emotionally. She couldn’t believe how much that experience had actually hurt. She looked down at her arms and chest. They were no longer torn, but phantom pain haunted her. “It felt so real,” she muttered, still trembling from the adrenalin and fear. No other full-dive game had been like that.

Quill looked over at her. His gaze fell. “Yeah. They weren’t kidding about making the pain real, huh?”

She stared at their bodies, voice hollow. “This is going to be…challenging.” Ha. That was the understatement of the century. It was hard to imagine what the future would be like. They would have to kill thousands of creatures in order to clear the game, in thousands of fights, just like this. Who knew how many times they would die? Who knew—

Quill seemed to understand how her mind was spiralling into darkness. “Hey.”

She blinked and looked up at him. She realized she was shaking.

He smiled. “We can do this.”

She shook her head. “We—“

“—can do this,” he insisted.

She took a deep breath, then she nodded. “Right. You’re right.” They had to keep their spirits up.

“Respawn?” he asked, bringing up his menu.

“Yeah.”

They reappeared in Stormstadt’s Grove of Life, back in corporeal form. A notice appeared in front of each of them, announcing a loss of XP as a consequence of dying.

Quill shrugged, though he had to really be bothered by the fact that he’d lost most of the XP they’d acquired before today. All those fetch quests wasted in a single death. But he put on a brave face. “Could be worse.”

“That’s a big XP loss.” She bit her lower lip. “This could seriously hamper our progress. Especially for…” She apologetically gestured at him.

He shrugged as if it didn’t matter. Though there was a bit of tightness in his eyes, he wouldn’t look directly at her. “Then let’s find a way to do it without dying, shall we?” He set off.

She followed close behind. As they walked back towards the city gate, she watched Quill’s back. Despite their ordeal, he moved with sure purpose.

Jane was glad for him. She felt like she was walking through sand, her footsteps uncertain. The horrible trap set by the game developers, the attempted assault only minutes later, and the creepiness of the city at night. And now, the horrible realness of the pain that they could experience here. If she’d been alone at this point, she wasn’t entirely sure how she’d be handling it all. Probably with a lot more tears. Maybe curling into a ball at night and crying herself to sleep alone.

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But he was strong. He cheered her up. He seemed to believe in her. He was a rock she could lean on.

Jane was grateful for that friendship. And she resolved to be strong, too, because they were a team.

Back in Green Hills, they faced off against the wolf once more. Quill took the lead this time. He came in first, holding his branch horizontally with both hands. The wolf latched onto it, and the pair wrestled. Quill fell to his knees, but he wasn’t losing any HP. Jane then came up from the side and hacked away at the beast’s neck. Unfortunately, her stamina was low, and after a few swings, she needed a break to recover her energy.

During that time, the wolf climbed up onto Quill and clawed him to death.

Jane, however, managed to ram her knife into its mouth and slay it without dying herself. She felt a jolt of triumph at her first kill.

When Quill returned from the dead, even with no XP left anymore, it was with a grin on his face. “See? We did it!”

She couldn’t help but smile back; it was infectious. “Well, we halfway did it. Think you can try to stay alive next time?” she teased, feeling bold again.

“I’ll do my best.”

They gathered up two of the herbs they needed and the pelt. Then it was on to the next wolf.

This time, Quill had a new plan. And from the daring way he executed it, it seemed like he was gaining confidence. He got the beast to bite down on the branch again. But this time, Quill held onto the branch with one hand and swung himself up onto the wolf’s back before re-grabbing the branch. His weight pushed the animal down low while he forced its head back like a horse with a bit in its mouth.

This left Jane ample opportunity to stab the wolf in the neck and even to rest as she did it, for the creature couldn’t easily get out from under Quill. Together, they managed to kill it.

Then two more wolves that they hadn’t noticed walking around drew close enough to aggro and jumped them from behind, wiping their party.

And yet, as they respawned, it was with good cheer. They high-fived. They’d killed two wolves. They were learning. They were fighting, and even if they were losing, they were also winning — because they were adapting.

And then, standing around the beautiful, flower and fruit-filled Grove after coming back to life, full of self-congratulations, they remembered that monsters eventually respawned, too. They panicked.

Racing back to the quest zone before the wolves could reappear, they collected two more herbs and the second pelt. Using Quill’s new technique, they finally killed the third and last wolf they needed. This time, they both stayed alive.

The wolf dropped an item: a plain dagger. It was cheap, made of dull metal and pine wood.

Quill picked it up and examined it. “Not terribly impressive, but the stats are a hair better than the club.” He seemed pleased.

A thought occurred to her. “Wait, we’re both in a party, but I technically killed it. So how come you can pick the dagger up? Shouldn’t the person who defeated the monster get first access to loot?”

“You want the dagger?” He held it out.

“No!” She hastily waved him off. Her mind was whirling. “It’s not that. It’s just… How does the system work? What if we kill something, and it drops something really nice? Who gets it? Does it just lay there for anyone to take? I mean, if that’s how the game works, imagine how that would tear parties apart when great gear drops. What if random people can come along and just take loot while we’re fighting?”

He cocked his head, uncertain. “I was probably able to pick it up because we’re in a party together. And in the overworld. I’m sure it would be different in dungeons and boss fights.”

“Maybe,” she said doubtfully. She didn’t trust this game. “Doesn’t change the fact that party members are going to fight each other.”

He frowned and toyed with the dagger. “If the gear is worth it, they’re going to backstab others in their own party. And if non-party players are able to take stuff, then people might stand by, watching fights, then jump in and steal dropped items before the party doing the fighting can get to them. Could get nasty.”

She growled. “I hate this game. It’s just one heartbreaking thing after another.”

“Yeah.” He looked at her, calm and assured. “But we can’t let it get us down. That’s what they’re trying to do: take away our hope. Turn us against each other. They want us to fail. We have to be better than they are.”

“Agreed,” she replied, taking heart. She looked at the dagger, then the wolf carcass. “We should probably agree on a drop policy as well for the future. Especially for when we end up working with others.”

Quill looked thoughtful for a long minute, then finally spoke. “I think, as long as we’re a party, that any items we get should be used communally, if possible, like material drops and such, stuff that doesn’t bind. Items that bind to one player, the really good, magical gear, that should go to whoever will benefit the party as a whole the most while using it. So if raising up the lowest member helps the most, we do that. If making the top player even stronger helps most, we do that.”

Jane liked that. It was fair, and it made the most sense if you thought as a group instead of an individual. And that seemed like the best way to play. “Ok. But that obviously applies to the two of us and anyone else we permanently hook up with. I totally agree that we should play as a team. But if we’re partnering up with some stranger for one fight or one dungeon, then we flip a coin or roll dice or something and live with the results with no resentment. And hope they go along with it.”

“Fair enough.” He kneeled down and looted the wolf they’d just killed, taking the pelt. Thankfully, you didn’t have to actually skin the animal. Touching the corpse caused it to fade and leave the pelt behind.

Jane reluctantly felt her doubts rise up again. Could she really trust Quill if some piece of really legendary gear dropped? A shot of guilt followed for thinking poorly of Quill. It was just… She really hoped they never fought over anything. Maybe things would turn out to be fine. But you don’t really know someone until the choice comes up, whatever they say and however they seem beforehand. You can’t tell if a person is good until they prove it, until they choose you over themselves. Sometimes more than once. That’s why they say that trust has to be earned.

And they were in a game where their lives were at risk. There would be a lot of pressure to be selfish in certain situations.

Which begged the question: when it came down to it, what kind of person would she be?

Male

QUILL KRAU

Class NONE, Level 1

STR

STATUS

DEX

Currently trying not to die. And failing.

HEA

SKILLS

INT

WIS

ITEMS

STA

club, dagger

CHA

Female

JANE EULA

Class NONE, Level 1

STR

STATUS

DEX

Currently wondering if she can trust this guy.

HEA

SKILLS

INT

WIS

ITEMS

STA

knife

CHA

You Died. Resurrect?

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