25 Pursuit after pursuit

First thing I wanted to do after waking up and going to the bathroom was to find Hope and ask her how was her first day in the game. I found her in the living room watching TV with father waiting for mother to make breakfast. I sat together with them and asked her.

, So Hope what do you think, how was your first day?"

, It was awesome, everything feels so real and I already reached level 3." She said with excitement and little pride.

, What, how did you manage to reach level 3 in one day?"

, Haha, you will never guess."

, Of course, I won't, when that is impossible for you to do solo. Someone must have helped you. Did some boys offer you their help to raise your level to get close to you? Do you know that dad will kill me if I allow some boys to get near you? You don't like your brother very much I see. And I even bought you a helmet."

, Don't be a crybaby or I will tell you to your girlfriend. Let's see how will you explain that to her."

, What do you mean my girlfriend, we only went on two dates. I do consider her like that, but I am not sure if it is too soon to call as a couple."

, She doesn't think that it is too soon."

, How do you know that? Wait did she help you leveling? Don't tell me you started in her's village also."

, Yup, you finally guessed. She and sister Anna are helping me and Mia to catch up. I should catch up to them in two or three days."

, Unbelievable. I can not believe that you also ended up in that village. Is that village full or pretty girls or what. Why couldn't I get there?"

, You want to watch other girls?" said Hope, I will say that to big sis Maria."

, You will be the death of me and not some monster in the game one-day little sister. I just said that because I wanted to be together with Maria not to watch some other girls. There are no girls like her anyway, right?"

, Ha, you finally said something I can tell her for real."

, Anyway I will need to thank her and Anna for taking care of you today at school. You don't forget to thank them either. And if you need any help always tell me. What is your name in the game?"

, You should know that already, so I won't tell. But don't worry I will ask you if we need something and I already thanked them, Mia said that we are already a family anyways."

, You hear son?" butted in my dad, already a family, when will you bring that girl home so that we can see her."

Then I heard mom from the kitchen.

, Bring her as soon as you can son. And come on all of you, breakfast is ready."

Seeing their comments all I could say is, yes mom and yes dad.

During breakfast, I and Hope talked more about the game and I told her what happened to me last night. She listened with great care and at the end said.

, Hmm I could have taken care of them in one punch." And then she swang her fist in the air. Mom, dad and I could only laugh.

At school, I talked to Maria and Anna and thanked them for looking after Hope. They only smiled and said it was no big deal. Anna even repeated what Mia told Hope about us already being a family. Maria blushed and I just smiled. How could I tell her now that my parents want me to bring her over? I should do that on one of the next dates.

What surprised me the most was Anna. She usually doesn't comment like that. It seems that Hope's behavior brushed on her after one day. Well, Hope has that effect on people, especially innocent girls. Is Anna going to call Hope Big sister next time? I hope not.

After school, when we were parting at the metro station Maria and I agreed to have the next date on Friday. Since she had to babysit our sisters in the game, and for them to reach Maria's and Anna's level will need at least three days. Before she could turn around to go with Anna on the metro I gently kissed her cheek. I finally gathered enough courage to at least kiss her on the cheek. She was pleasantly surprised as I saw her blush and after a quick smile, I noticed on her face, she kissed me back and turned around with Anna. I could hear their giggling as they moved away and a happiness came all over me. Ha, having a girlfriend is really great.

When I arrived home we had lunch and Hope and I went to our rooms to play Age of Gods. Another hard day for me in the forest I presume.

I found myself in the same place I fell asleep yesterday. I got up and looked around. Seeing that everything was in order and that I was safe I sat down. This dense part of the forest was good for hiding but I can't stay here. I must move and keep walking until I reach town Little Fort. With all these troubles I wonder why I didn't reach level 10 in the village and waited for the carriage.

But what happened, happened. I must look forward to the future. I checked my things and when I counted everything I continued my journey through the forest. I started moving west so that I can reach the river which will show me the way. If I just go through the forest it will be easy to get lost. Half an hour later I found myself looking in the eyes of another boar. And very quickly after that one, another showed up. It would seem that in this part of the forest there are more of them. And judging by their level they are stronger. Both boars were level 8. They gave me a little trouble since they attacked one after another. My agility came to sight since I had to evade two attacks in a very short time. After killing them I gained 6000 EXP, but I didn't pass unscathed. On one occasion both of their attacks came at the exact same time, so I could only evade one of them. I tried to block the other with my staff but, the staff is not a shield and it can't cover a bigger surface.

Because of that attack, one boar hit my leg and almost flipped me upside down. Good thing is that my agility is high enough, so I landed on my feet but that landing aggravated my wound from boars tusk and it made me bleed more. After the fight, I put medicine on my wound and dressed it with bandages. If nothing else my Wound Dressing skill is raising steadily. Well, it will need more time for any of my skills to reach level 1.

This just shows how hard it is to raise anything in this game. Some skills only have levels like Wound Dressing or Bone Mending. Other have tiers like my Staff Mastery or Herb Appraising. I am a Beginner level in both of them, so there should be tiers like Intermediate, Advanced, Master and so on. What could be the highest tier I don't know.

When I finished dressing my wound I drank a little water and continued on my way. I needed one more hour to arrive at the river. I didn't go over there immediately. I first looked around to see if there are any beasts in sight and only when I was sure that I was alone I got close to the river. I filled one of my flasks of water and quickly went into the shadows of the trees. I didn't need to fill this flask since I had a little more water in it and the other was full, but I wanted to be prepared for anything if some problems arise.

I continued moving south following the river and a couple of hours after the sun was highest I stopped to rest and eat something. I finally found something else aside form boar jerky to eat for lunch. I still ate jerky but having different tastes from time to time is a good thing. A little further in the forest from the place at which I stopped to eat, I found apple trees. There were several of them and some still had fruit on them. I ate two apples after I ate jerky, and started picking them from the trees. I wanted to have at least one for every day on my journey.

After I picked the fifth apple from the tree and put it in my bag, I heard some sounds behind me. Turning around I saw a pack of wolves. They were slowly surrounding me. I saw four of them and judging by how they looked they were the same ones I saw at the river the other day. Two of them were on the side of the river one closing from the side and other from behind me. The other two were moving from the other side positioned parallel to their companions. It was like looking in a mirror. Behind them, there was one more wolf, almost all colored in black. That must be the pack leader I thought.

Seeing all of them lasted only a moment. I tried to move away slowly going backward, but they were still following me. I must have crossed into their territory. When they crossed the river I didn't see in which direction they went after entering the forest. It may be that forest on this side of the forest is their whole territory. And me being here makes me a trespasser. In Slavic mythology, wolves were mentioned in both good and bad context. They were sometimes protectors and sometimes they were mentioned as demons. Fall is the time of the wolves and it is a time when their names shouldn't be called.

Seeing as they were getting closer and closer I decided to risk it again. Two times in two days I was in mortal danger. How unlucky could I be, that on both sides of the river there are stronger beings than myself? On this side wolves and on the other Lesnik. Well, it's my fault. I wanted to go before reaching level 10 and not waiting for the carriage which will move players to the town. Even level 10 wouldn't help me in this situation.

I run into the unknown of the forest and didn't look back. Turning your back is a bad thing encountering a wild beast, but what could I do. I heard that black wolfs howl from behind me. The rest of the pack answered the call with their own howls and then silence.

Yes, they stopped following me. Of course not. Whoever thinks like that would be dead by now. They don't need sounds so that they can communicate between themselves. All of them know what to do and which role is which. Silence couldn't mean anything good. I didn't dare to look back because I knew that if I do, that will slow me down and I would be caught.

I looked in front of me and continued running. One tree, one more and another one. Every tree looked the same in this situation. I had a thought to find a tree climb it and wait for them to get bored watching over me and leave. But if that would work or not I have no idea, since there was no tree with branches low enough for me to climb. I put that idea in the back of my mind and continued running away.

I run deeper and deeper into the forest. At one moment I thought why haven't they caught me yet. There were more of them and they were faster for sure. They could have caught me already. Then it hit me. They were cautious. They maybe haven't seen a human yet or they were unsure what could I do if I was moved into a corner. They waited for me to tire out and then move for the kill. To be sure I turned my head around and found out that my guess was correct. The distance between us was always the same. It wasn't reducing or increasing. They were running at the same pace.

Since I had experience in running away from that undead boar I knew that I would tire out before wolves. I made my way even further east into the forest hoping that I will maybe reach its end. I was running like that for ten minutes. Thinking that I will gain some endurance if I eat jerky I took one slice of it from the bag and started eating while running. My limit is five more minutes of running like this so I wanted to try everything I could.

Seeing that forest is still not ending in a moment of inspiration a made a desperate move. I turned towards the wolves. The one closest to me was startled for a brief second which allowed me to get close to him. I swung my staff at him with all my strength in the direction of the other wolf. Either, gods looked upon me or some luck found me. I managed to hit that wolf and send it towards its companion. Even stun from my staff proked and I immediately run south thinking that this will slow them down a little.

I bought myself more than only two seconds which stun could do. Wolves must have been confused with my move. They certainly didn't expect me to turn around and attack one of them. My next thought was that since this forest was fairly big it couldn't be the territory of one wolf pack. Their territory must end somewhere. But whether next territory had another wolf pack, I didn't want to think about that.

I thought that they will now move even faster but nothing happened, Couple minutes later I heard a howl from the pack leader. I turned my head quickly and saw that they are slowing down. Yes, yes, I managed to escape. But where to, was another question. I did enter the part of the forest which wasn't under this wolf pack, but who it belonged to?

I continued walking south and half an hour later I came across the strangest sight I saw since I started playing Age of Gods. Here deep in the forest, I stumbled upon a tree house high in the crown of one big tree. Could it be that someone lives here?