Ch 7- Bad luck

"Wow! The game developers are so generous!". Glacé couldn't help but exclaim as he saw all the loot on the ground. Yuki who stood behind him showed a knowing smile and said nothing.

As Glace raised his hoofs as he swiped all the items he could into his inventory. Sadly as a newbie, his inventory only allotted him ten spots and there were more than fifteen items on the floor (not including the gold and silver).

Glacé glanced at his wares that were still sitting quietly on the floor and pursed his mouth. Which since he is currently in animal form made for a very ugly-looking facade.

"Yuki am I able to leave the items sitting here without having to worry about them vanishing?".

"Unfortunately not, you can click on the individual item and you will see the items' information screen appear. At the top left-hand corner of that screen, it will display a countdown timer of how long the item can stay on the ground before it vanishes".

Glacé clicked on a hat that was on the ground and sure enough, he saw the timer counting down. 'Only one day??' Glacé hurriedly had his hoofs hover over the other items, the times for each item were different; the shortest one expiring in a measly two hours!

'Fuck, this game is too cruel'. Glace felt the veins on his temple throbbing, 'how many times does this game want to screw me over in such a short time?'.

Glacé sighed and ruminated over his bad luck, but after a moment of sulking he cheered himself back up thinking he was still extremely lucky; he quickly went to inspect the loot in his inventory.

At first sight, he spotted a sword, a dagger, a set of normal clothes, a set of armor, and 2 eggs. 'Seems like a good spread' Glacé thought happily. He clicked on the item description one by one and the more he read the darker his face became.

'Dwarven heavy sword- +3 strength when equipped: -3 agility: deals 30 melee damage: 10% chance of stunning target: Class restriction- Holy Knight/ Swordsman'

"Well, I can't use that one" Glacé mumbled softly and proceeded to click on the dagger.

'Demon-Cursed Elvish Dagger +3 agility: +10 Sneak: -2 Mental fortitude: deals 18 melee damage: 70% chance of poisoning target'

As Glacé read the stats he started getting visibly excited 'this is the perfect item for a newbie mage who can't use magic yet'. His heart was burning with excitement until he finally read the last line in the item description.

'Damage dealt to Holy races- amplified affect- damage dealt +100: poisoning 95%'

'Item description: This valiant dagger was used to stab the Demon lord Beelzebub in the heart. Wielded by a holy knight who bravely sought to end his terror, unfortunately, the blade only crushed one of Beelzebub's three hearts before he turned to murder the holy knight. His crushed heart cast a horrid curse on the abandoned blade that made it particularly like to prey on holy and pure beings'.

Glacé turned to stone as he read that description and exhaled a heavy breath before slowly turning his head to Yuki.

"This…."

"It means this dagger is intended to target Holy beings like us, every time you attack with it you'd experience severe backlash as the dagger instinctively hates you".

Glacé felt like crying, he silently pulled the dagger out of his inventory and chucked it at the wall to vent. 'Wooo, it's okay Kelly. Calm down, there's still lots of good items to see'.

Kelly carefully checked each item one by one and found only three things that couldn't be called completely useless to him. The first and most useful was the little hat he initially checked.

"Bishops Mitre- +10 defense when equipped: +20 defense when the wearer is a holy being".

'Seems odd, why are unicorns considered holy creatures even though they rely on magic and not spiritual powers?' Glacé thought maybe he found a bug but decided not to bring it up since it was beneficial to him anyway.

The other "useful" things were the two Unhatched eggs which delightfully read:

"Mysterious egg- You have found a random egg, it could be a pet or a mount or maybe even dinner. Hatch to find out".

Glacé felt his eyelids twitching as he read the description for the second time, he didn't think much and directly hit the hatch button for the first egg.

An egg appeared on the ground before Glacé and it rocked side to side a few times before a crack appeared straight down the middle of the white shell. An itty bitty hand broke apart from the crack and drilled its way out.

'Huh, it's a baby pixie'. A small pixie tumbled to the ground and stared at Glacé with worshiping and loving eyes.

*Ding!* 'Congratulations player Glacé for completing the hidden mission "first companion" +50 EXP rewarded; please select a name for your first follower'.

'Companion? Does that mean it doesn't qualify as a pet or a mount?'.

Glacé stared at the struggling newborn pixie with a complex look, the little one stared back at him with misty, beady eyes. 'It's really cute'. Glacé silently mulled over the name and after a moment turned toward Yuki. "What is the difference between this pixie and a pet?".

"The difference is that this pixie can leave your side at any time and return swiftly when you summon it; as long as it's not dead. You can also send it out on tasks and pixies are especially useful for reconnaissance purposes".

'So amazing!' The eyes Glacé used to look at the pixie changed and become more thoughtful. "I'll name you Mole because I want you to be a hidden agent who has his ears open for me".

*Ding!* 'you have selected "Mole" as your companion's name, are you sure about your choice? It cannot be changed later'.

"I am"

'Companions name has been changed to "Mole", you can now speak and communicate directly with your companion'.

Glacé wanted to reach a hand out to hold the little guy but was currently unable to do so. Instead, he slowly kneeled his front legs and lowered his head to nuzzle against the small pixie as a greeting.

'Should I open the other egg now, Or later? Hmmm, well since it's taking up my inventory I guess it'd be best to open it now'.

So once again Glacé opened his inventory and hit the hatch button. The little pixie who was originally snuggling into his mane jumped up. Its beady eyes squinted as it saw a blue egg appear, it then proceeded to move its body toward to egg.

Glacé watched Moles' movements leisurely, thinking it was excited to see the other egg hatch. However, reality harshly hit him fast; Mole stood less than a foot away and suddenly started flapping his tiny wings fervently. He then kicked his foot off the ground and raised his fist toward the blue egg.

Glacé who saw his actions from start to finish was stupefied; he hurriedly stood up to try to stop Mole. But it was too late. Mole crashed into the egg with frighting speed and shattered it to pieces, leaving nothing but a pile of goo sitting in the broken shell. Mole slowly recovered from the hard impact, stood up, and lightly brushed himself off.

Glacé whipped his head around to Yuki "what about the other creature?? Can egg hatching be so crudely interrupted by AI's??".

"It can, it can be interrupted by many distractions and external factors; though not likely since the process is rather fast. But still, It's always best to hatch in an egg in a completely safe environment. Pixies are known for being jealous and capricious creatures so such an outcome isn't surprising".

Glacé clenched his teeth and stared at Yuki with red eyes "if that's the case why didn't you tell me!?". He sprayed snot out his nose as he lectured Yuki.

Yuki shrugged lightly "you didn't ask".

'Agh you can never trust even the most complex and lifelike AI's'. Glacé felt completely despaired. Out of all his special freebie items; which he basically traded his soul and freedom for only two items could be used.

'This game is scam! What kind of blessed RNG is this? If I ever see that main brain again I'll short-circuit him to death!'.

Casey padded and stomped the ground repetitively with his hooves. Yuki had been watching him this whole time and now had a hand covering his mouth as his shoulders shook. He desperately tried to hold back from laughing out loud, lest he angers the player more (who says AI's don't have emotions or a sense of humor?).

In his anger, Glacé threw every single item except his hat on the ground. Still huffing and puffing he slowly turned his head to the pixie who stared at him innocently in return.

"Mole go wander the village for a while, I'm afraid I may attack you if you stay right now". The pixie hesitated but it seemingly knew its master was upset and that it was its fault so Mole complied obediently and clumsily flew away.

Glacé took a deep breath "alright Yuki, please run me through the beginner tutorial".

"Understood, please follow my instructions".

One by one Yuki instructed and guided Glacé in learning all the need to know for the game. From the health/MP/ and food status bars to equipping items, to adding friends and even trading. In a two-hour span, Glacé had almost all the knowledge he needed to know to survive and interact well in the game. Each time he completed one of Yuki's instructions he would gain EXP and by the end of the full tutorial, his character was sitting on the edge between levels two and three.