5 The Center of the Forest:

I grabbed my shears and made sure the rest of the necessary equipment was there. With everything ready I slowly walked forward towards the depths of the forest.

The forest was sparse with a tree every 6 or so blocks. It was truly beautiful. Even with the blockyness of this world, leaves would stick out of the block boundaries and break the somewhat dull uniformity. This gave the forest and the pink trees more charm. The grass on the grass bocks was also very detailed and soft to touch. I always liked laying on the grass and the apparent lack of insects just made the experience more enjoyable.

"Sigh… the things I find amusing…"

Thinking about it, I should probably go towards the sheep. The wool will be very useful.

I slowly made my way towards the place where I last saw the sheep. I went towards the edge of the forest and then followed the river. I checked the map for a moment and continued forward.

The sound of the river calmed my nerves. Suddenly I thought I saw something, it was the sheep.

They looked like… normal sheep… with some straight lines to them… surprisingly they looked quite cute even with the straight lines.

As I came closer to them they ignored me and went on their merry way. I tried touching them.

"Soft… so soft… wow… and surprisingly clean and combed."

Truly the magic of a game like world, I thought. I tried using the shears on them. I first poked them with the shears and surprisingly it didn't work.

"Well no shit Sherlock."

I tried actually shearing the wool with the shears and as soon as I cut the first strands of fur, the entire sheep suddenly turned bare and there were 2 blocks of white wool laying on the ground trapped within their bubbles..

"Well that was surprisingly simple…" I dreaded the idea of having to shear the entire thing.

It would have been disastrous with the sheep moving around wherever it wanted. It would take hours, I thought.

I quickly went towards the rest of the sheep and sheared them. Netting me a total of 5 white wool and 1 pink wool.

Well now I ought to make a bed when I get home… from what I could feel petting the sheep… it will be heaven. I have to come back through here to see if the sheep will grow wool by the time I come back.

If it follows Minecraft rules… it just has to eat some grass. I cannot go just by that though… sadly. I have to make sure. If they do regrow wool fast enough… I might have 2 beds and not just one.

I grinned at the thought.

"Comfy sleep here I come!" I shouted like a weirdo… well at least no one is around to hear or see me.

I slowly moved through the forest admiring the scenery as I went. The scent of the forest was all around me filling my lungs with fresh air.

"Ahh, this is life."

I stretched out my arms and my stiff back. "Magical, just magical."

Making my way, I kept filing the blank spots in the map that the system was building for me. I went in a zig zag pattern and then I thought that maybe I should take a look at the map settings a bit more carefully. Hoping for something like a Mob radar, which would prove very useful in the current situation. Sadly I got nothing of the sorts, what I found was a way to change the color of things and move stuff around but that was it.

Though... I did find out that I could set waypoints so that was definitely useful. I tried scrolling through the settings and surprisingly it worked! What I found surprised me though. There was a button… *Upgrade*. I clicked on it and it lead me to a new screen. A popup appeared in front of me with some instructions. Apparently, I had to invest XP and an item if I want to gain upgrades such as a mob radar. The item the XP will get consumed to unlock certain features. There were a few items which were listed that could work.

For a mob radar, I needed at least 45 XP points and a Radar upgrade, a Soul sensor, a Blood tracker or a Map Upgrade.

(A/N: Completely made up items :D)

Turing to JEI for help I found out that the Radar upgrade was locked behind some Gregtech and Thermal Dynamics items together with an Ender IO Ender crystal, soul sensor was locked behind some Mystcraft and Botania items, while the blood tracker was made with Blood Magic and Witchery. The Map Upgrade had a very rare chance of spawning in dungeon chests.

"Well, now we know that dungeons exist."

Slowly stumbling and thinking if the dungeons will follow the typical fantasy trope or will there be battle towers I noticed something in the forest. Something that I didn't expect to find in a forest at all... a shrine. A Japanese Shinto shrine with very simple red arches around it.

The scenery around was pretty. Right next to the shrine was a small pond and a few little flower bushes around the pond. I slowly trekked my way towards the shrine as I pulled out my sword. The place looked like anything but malice. Still, just in case, better safe than sorry.

Moving along the little dirt path that lead from the cherry forest towards the stairs to the shrine.

I checked the map and the shrine was dead center in the forest. I set a waypoint for good measure and continued walking towards the shrine.

I stepped on the stairs and as I tried knocking on the closed doors I heard a gentle, mature female voice.

"Hello there traveler, what are you doing so far from civilization?"

"Hello, I don't know myself, traveling?" I chuckled.

"May I enter?" I gently asked, masking the cautiousness I had.

"Please, feel free, take off the shoes though."

I opened up the door and what greeted me was a 5 tailed white fox with pink and light blue accents on her fur sitting on a big red pillow.

(A/N: Bit like spirit blossom Ahri from the trailer)

"Huh, a talking fox?" I blurted out, not surprising from a fantasy world that Minecraft should be, but still surprising nonetheless as you definitely don't see it every day.

"Yes, traveler I indeed can communicate, If I may inquire, what are you doing in this forest. It is surrounded by a barrier that I personally set up and no human or monster should be able to find it?."

I unequipped my shoes and said "I don't know if you would believe me but I will be honest with you, I appeared here, you could say, teleported here, I myself don't know where I am or why and how I got here."

"Hmm… I don't sense any malice from you, though it would help if you could put away your weapon. I won't harm you, I don't have very high fighting capabilities anyway but don't think you will come unscathed if you do decide to attack me."

"Don't worry I won't" I said as I put away the weapon that was in my hands. Still I was able to pull it out at a moment's notice."

"Ok, I would like it if you could stay here for a few days, I rarely have visitors." The fox smiled at me… or I think it did.

"Just give me a second; I will accommodate you shortly." As she said that, she pulled out a big pillow, out of her inventory I could presume, it landed on her paw and she threw it at me.

"Here, sit down as I get some tea."

I considered implications of a fox having an inventory but I still don't know how this world functions completely so I didn't want to generalize, this fox is definitely special.

It will also get us some tea… wait… wut?

"Here"

I turned to the voice only to see a beautiful woman with in a short pink kimono and light blue hair.

I was truly mesmerized by her beauty but I shortly pulled myself out of it, took the tea and responded.

"Thank you for the tea; may I know how a fox can turn into a human?"

"Oh, it is simple, I'm a Kitsune. My magic lets me turn into a fox." She then uncovered her foxy features like her 5 tails and cute ears.

"Oh so you were pulling my leg when you confirmed you are a talking fox?" I raised my eyebrow at her.

"Well… I cannot confirm or deny that." She smiled semi mysteriously with a bit of charm as she sat down herself holding her cup of tea. The smug in her voice was obvious.

Well she is quite cute. Therefore, this young master will let it pass. I chuckled in my mind at my satirical inner monologue.

She pulled out a table that she placed in-between us and placed the tea on it.

"That is better… so let's continue our little chat, what do you remember before you appeared in my sanctuary?"

"Well I don't remember much… my name is one of the few things I do remeber. I appeared on near the bank of the river I checked the map, south of here."

"Hmm, well I can't help you much, I'm guessing that you suffered from a teleportation accident, it happens very rarely. Still, that does not explain the memory loss. I can't remember if you asked but you are definitely wondering. We are currently at a sanctuary location; this is a safe space I set up in the Dark Forest. I don't like to brag but I'm one of the best barrier makers in the first tier worlds. My magic level is at 40." The fox raised her head proudly.

She honestly looked like she had no one to talk to for years. In a desperate need for social interaction she is shooting out important information like a machine gun. Not that I am complaining.

However, this information might not be as secretive as I am assuming... eh... you never know.

"Ohh, so you are somewhat of a bigshot then?"

"Well kinda, I would have progressed to a higher realm years ago if the Beastmen civilization was any more advance."

"Beastmen? Civilisation?"

"Oh, so you really don't remember anything, do you?" She eyed me with a bit of pity in her eyes.

"No… I don't remember anything even the screens that pop out in front of me look a bit foreign, though I did manage to get my head around it."

"Hmm, well it took the sentient races years to warp their head around all the abilities on the screens. You definitely had some knowledge that is subconsciously helping you. Your memory loss might be only temporary. It has been thousands of years since the first appearance of sentient races and by now we still don't have all the features figured out since most of them are hidden or locked behind a level requirement, as you have probably come to find." She smiled and seemed happy that my mind seems to be recovering.

"Now back to your Civilization question."

"I'm listening."

"The most advanced beastmen kingdom got attacked by a few races on the continent due to them being close to ascension."

"Ascension?"

"I will get to it, every kingdom has a certain level of progress they can make before they ascend into a higher tier area. The people of the kingdom move with it, though one can always break off and make a kingdom of their own, by claiming an area as theirs. I'm not sure about everything that needs to be done to ascend but I know that a certain population, resource production, technology or magic level is necessary."

"What happens when they ascend?"

"Well the entire claimed area of the kingdom gets teleported to an area somewhere in the inner circles of the world. The world is huge and if anyone ever tries traveling to a high tier area on their own they will definitely not succeed as the distances are apparently enormous. Plus, a speed potion and a boat or ship can only get you so far.

"What about teleportation that you mentioned."

"Well for that you need either a teleportation magic circle. Still, that can only get you to it's magic circle counterpart. That is the only teleportation capability that I know of, though all countries vehemently hide the recipes they have uncovered so there might be other ways that I don't know of. I have heard stories of books which grant access to other dimensions…but that seems too absurd to be true." She rolled her eyes.

"Ender pearls are also a way to teleport but they are very expensive and are sparingly used for actual teleporting. There are a few reasons for that. First… Endermen are very strong especially with their teleportation capabilities."

"Ohh really? I have never seen one."

"Well that is not surprising in the slightest… Endermen are a very rare kill because stronger people hunt them down for their hearts. They will try to kill them as soon as they encounter them so Endermen usually try to avoid civilization. They also dislike trading their precious resources such as Ender Lilies to their murderers."

"Oh… they sound pretty smart? Why do people hunt them then?"

"Well… they are treated as monsters due to uncontrollable rage they exhibit when any non-monster glances at their eyes. I know that they have their own civilization but no one has uncovered it as of yet. Still, even if someone did uncover it, they wouldn't live to tell their tale."

"Funny thing is that they can be killed only because of their anger management issues. When they are not angry they are pretty devious and will immediately escape if they spot someone strong."

"Wow… that was pretty cool… but how do you know all this?"

"Well you see I was the high priestess of the fallen Beastmen civilization."

"Fallen?"

"Yeah… my home was destroyed and the royal family killed… it was a long time ago."

"Oh, I see… did humans attack your home?"

"Yes they did."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It is fine… don't be sorry. There are lots of human countries and it is not like just they attacked us. There were others, such as demons, other beastmen, elves and so on. Besides, considering your clothes you are not from around these parts."

"Oh, I see. I'm sorry for bringing up sad memories."

"It is fine, it has been centuries since then and decades since I had good company." She said that as she took a sip of the tea. Still her ears drooped a bit indicating she was not really "over it" as she claims.

"From what I can see, since you have a full set of iron armor you must have been pretty decently situated wherever you were. Peasants usually can't buy armor or have all their levels invested into farming so they can't craft it. Some countries force peasants to put every other level into farming so they wouldn't be able to grow stronger and usurp the status quo."

"Wtf? Seriously?"

"Yes, but don't worry much… those are usually the countries who are the most backwards and are very small and weak, maybe a few rare exceptions because there are exceptions to everything. Besides, people can always sneak out of a country/kingdom they don't like, everyone has a certain amount of talent for some Jobs, depending on that talent they might get a lot of XP for their job or they might not get anything. Still most talents are hereditary it rarely happens that the child of a farmer is not able to be a farmer themselves."

"Only the king can upgrade and use any job and if any talent is lower than the king or queens leadership talent then it gets elevated by a level. Still, most kings that have inherited the post from their parents don't upgrade menial jobs such as farmer or blacksmith due to their ego. However, that depends on the society. Dwarfs for example highly value high level blacksmiths and engineers with engineers being extremely rare in these parts." She concluded her story and looked at me expecting me to say something.

"Well, you did say you were there centuries ago… so could the things have changed?" I looked at her hoping she won't mind me bringing up her age… women tend to mind. lol

She smirked and said "Well, the situation was like that when I was around, and I bet it is like that even now considering that no one shares their advancements with others. This causes society as a whole to stagnate and then everything gets lost when a kingdom gets destroyed or ascends. I myself know many recipes, but I would rather die then give them to that scum that destroyed my country and many people who hold important knowledge share my thoughts. All of them besides living for a long time due to their levels also usually have seen the kingdom grow from its inception. Seeing all that get destroyed brings pain to all of our hearts." Her face looked unfazed but I could see that her ears and tail have stooped a bit low. The past definitely affected her more then she lets on.

"I understand, but back to the topic of my armor that you mentioned. I actually made this armor, I had the recollection of a few recipes after all."

"Oh, really… hmm well I'm not sure, that does change things but still your situation is quite weird young man." She chuckled a bit.

"Tell me about it…" I laughed along.

"I'm sorry for your situation but we are digressing, currently I have not ascended yet because as I mentioned already I need a civilization to ascend but I need to join a civilization to do that, and that would mean me sharing my knowledge with the ruler of that civilization. And I haven't had any company in years so I'm a bit starved for interaction. I was never this talkative with a complete stranger." She looked at me with some hope in her eyes, probably wishing me to stay.

"Well, I don't know what to make of that. You did mention that you would like me to stay here for a few days and I would gladly take that offer. Currently I just have a little hole in the ground."

"Great! Let's go and take your stuff. Where are you situated, let's go together!" She said with glee in her voice.

"Ok, let's go."

I waited for her to take something and when she came back she gave me a glass bottle.

"Here, a potion of speed, they are useful and I have lots of materials that I looted from back when my country was falling apart the king was a great friend but his ego grew when he became king, the only thing I loved was the people and our country." She made a deep sigh.

I patted her back lightly trying to get her mind of the past. "Let's go." I checked out the potion.

It confirmed what the foxy lady said. A speed potion that will increase my walking speed and make me less tired while running… you could say it worked more like a stamina potion than a speed potion. I snapped back to out of my thoughts as the lady put on her beautiful looking long pink boots with gems inlayed in them. She equipped them as I did mine.

We got out of the shrine.

"So, where to?" She asked.

"Let's go by the river, don't use the potion, the scenery is nice." I gave her back the potion.

"Well, whatever you like." She said that, reached out, and took the potion that I handed back to her.

Let's go, I went that way and then we follow the river until you chance upon a little dirt pillar I made.

"Ok"

We walked for a few minutes and chanced upon the sheep, it has been some time now since I sheared them and one already had it's wool back.

"Wait just a second, I want to grab the wool on this sheep."

"Oh, but it will take a while to shear the sheep. Don't worry, I have plenty of wool in my storage room and I have a big bed for you too."

Hmm, what is she talking about… it only took one snip for all the wool to be cut. I do have maxed out jobs and skills. Might be due to that.

"Ok, let's do that. Thank you for having me then."

"No problem, I haven't had se… a guest for a while."

A se… what? Hmm… how sus can you be woman?

We walked towards my house and got there relatively quickly. I grabbed my things, she was pretty interested in my mining operation though.

"Wow, you must be a high level miner… Gold, Redstone… you need at least level 30 to mine those and you get that through a decade of constant grind. Not to mention all the tools necessary."

"Yeah I'm right around that level."

"I see… I recommend not sharing your levels with others… it is not a big deal but having a high level is like being rich. Leeches will always try to leech off of you."

"Oh… ok then. Thanks for the tip!"

"My pleasure!" She smiled radiantly then grabbed my hand and started pulling me back towards the house.

Author Thoughts: (I know no one reads the actual Author's Toughts XD)

~3615 Words

I wrote this up just now so it might be a jumbled mess.

Idk, I just kinda wrote things as they came. I too find the fox girl trope a bit cringe but it is what it is. I don't want to introduce a burly dude or an old man... and I need someone who can function as a world building device. XD

Tbh Don't expect me to continue this story. I kinda lost any drive to write this a while ago and writing this kinda affirmed my thoughts. It is just too much work and I need to keep track of too many things. I am lazy but I hate doing things in a shitty way so I usually end up not doing anything at all. :D

If anyone ever finds this story and has a bit more talent in writing stories feel free to hit me up and I will send you all the ideas I had. XD