Chapter 23: Rambo

Alex threw the notebook onto a bedside table, he hated riddles, if they wanted him to do something, they could tell him exactly what to do, not give him cryptic hints.

Still, he may check it out later, so what if it was a possible pandoras box, curiosity may just get the best of him.

Alex flopped onto the bed and began to log out, it was early in the morning in the real world so he had to get at least something to eat.

The world distorted and reformed to show him is empty void of a home screen, he never saw the need to customise it as he would never hang around for long. With a few more short button presses, he returned to reality.

The small room he stored his pod in felt so bland in comparison to the world he had just experienced, even the view of the rolling fields did little to make him feel any less bored, maybe he was getting bored of the scenery.

With a sigh of boredom he moved out of the room and made his way to his kitchen, despite the earliness of the hour, the sun still shone down regardless, this was why Alex didn't like summer, it was too bright, his eyes had become so underdeveloped from the long hours he would spend in the pod that anything remotely bright would practically blind him.

Thankfully, his large mop of messy hair formed a natural shade for his eyes, one of the perks of long hair, also barbers where expensive.

His stomach grumbled in anticipation as he made his way downstairs.

Alex flung the fridge doors wide open as soon as he reached them, his mood immediately falling.

what greeted him was a depressing cabbage, its edges beginning to turn to mush, a jar of half finished pickle chutney he had been rationing himself over the course of a month, half finished carton of milk and nothing else.

Alex quickly grabbed the milk carton and slammed it down on the counter, and after finding a beaten box of cereal he that had remained hidden for god knows how long, he had a mediocre breakfast of the unidentified cereal.

As he ate his solitary meal, his mind wondered to something that he so often thought about, his house really was spacious, a few decades ago, a house like this would be almost impossible for someone like him, but now, housing wasn't a problem.

After Babylon, the afront to god, was built, housing became less and less of an issue, to the point where a rural house, miles away from the blasted tower, could be purchased for next to nothing.

Sometimes he wondered if he really needed all this space, but hey, it was cheap, why turn it down, only real problem was, he was miles from everything, speaking of which, he would have to get some more supplies soon.

He checked his bank account, still healthy, but it may not be for long, goods around his house where usually more expensive, and the extravagant treat he had afforded himself did not help in the slightest.

With a pained sigh, Alex made his way to a small cabinet and opened it with care, retrieving an empty wine bottle, he couldn't even drown his sorrows in booze.

While it may sound nice to have a monthly allowance from rich parents, his father wasn't as lenient to simply let his son mooch around the house all day, so he only gave him about half of what he needed to stay afloat.

As Alex stared longingly at the empty bottle, the sudden slam of his letter flap came from the hallway.

A small envelope lay on the carpet in an unintrusive way, as if telling Alex to continue what he was doing.

The thin envelope tore easily, and a small coloured card with bright balloons plastered to the front fell out, the glitter that covered almost every inch of it giving it a course and rough texture.

As Alex read, he moved back to the dining room.

"Dear Alex

How have you been, just writing to say, happy birthday, 21, what an age, at that age I was partying it up god knows where, but your doing well aren't you, your not doing anything stupid are you, I know you have been having a hard time with George, but it would be nice if you visited, we could throw a fun little party for you, anyway, I'm running out of space to write so I just want to say, happy birthday, and no matter what you do, we will love you.

from mum XXOO"

Alex carefully placed the letter down on the table, adjusting it slightly so it faced towards the door, a satisfied smile on his face.

He returned back home a few hours later with enough pot noodles to last him the month, and a few other groceries.

After unpacking them quickly, he rushed upstairs and logged into the game.

Alex shot up from the floor, an aching pain shooting all throughout his body, he looked around with confusion, he was sure he was on his bed.

As he got up, he noticed that Blanc had been tucked into his bed, sleeping soundly.

Nicolas must have broken into his room and thrown him out of his bed to make room for Blanc.

A sudden urge to flip the bed came over Alex, but he pulled it back in, moving begrudgingly downstairs to the bar.

"Well, well, well" a loud bark came the bar, "didn't know your kind was nocturnal, hah, just kidding what can I get you?"

"Something strong" Alex responded.

"Rough day laddie?"

"Not really, I just want some booze"

"Hahahah" The bartender let out a raucous laugh, "a man after my own heart, I'll get you something good"

As the bartender moved away, Alex began to fully take in the bartender, he was a short stocky man, probably some kind of dwarf, he had a flaming red beard that covered most of his body, and his head was completely bald, he wore a well kept white shirt and a black waist coat with matching black trousers, his hands where gloved, but they could not disguise just how thick his fingers where.

"Taking in the sights laddie?" The bartender asked with a cheeky grin, "don't worry, I'm here all night"

Alex gave a small chuckle, before the tinkling of a bell alerted both of them.

A small group of armoured men and woman came through the door, they all looked rather young and every single one of them where human.

"Oi" a blonde haired man yelled at the bar keep, his armour gleaming in the candle light "keep, four dragon ales, and make it fast"

The group made their way over to the bar, chatting merrily all the way about some hunt they had just completed.

"I didn't know you served beasts at this bar" the blond man said with a sneer, causing ripples of laughter from his compatriots, "I guess it is a bar run by a dwarf, guess you don't have the highest standards"

"Do you want your ales or not?" The bartender replied in a prickly tone"

"Fine, fine" the blonde man replied, "just make it quick"

Alex sat in silence waiting for his drink, ignoring the new arrivals.

"Those are some nice gauntlets beast" a brown haired man with a bigger build than the blond man sneered at Alex "shame their wasted on you, would be a much better fit on me"

Alex gave the man a stiff ignoring.

"You deaf or something" the brown haired man shouted.

Alex simply got off of his chair, his lanky build towering over the brown haired man, causing him to start in surprise.

"Think you can intimidate me?" the brown haired man shouted, a small waver in his voice, "guess you really are a beast"

"I'll be going now" Alex said to the bartender, "I don't need the drink anymore"

"Fine then" the brown haired man called at Alex as he began to leave, "run you coward, your gauntlets are probably shit anyway"

Just as he was about to leave the bar, a foot caught his leg, causing him to trip and smash a chair on his way down.

As he lay in the pile of of splinters and broken chair leg, he caught the bartender behind the bar, shaking his head, telling him not to engage, the raucous laughter from the group drowning out all other sounds.

Alex got up with gritted teeth and moved quickly towards the stairs, ignoring the jeering from the group.

When he got upstairs, he pulled out his key ring, fumbling with the heavy keys, turning one in the air and bursting through the door that appeared shortly after.

He closed the door quickly, and punched the nearest wall, ignoring the pain and continuing on.

"Didn't think you where the type to let that kind of thing get to you" Stephen commented nonchalantly.

Alex let out a long sigh, blood dripping from his hand, pulling out a summoning stone from his inventory, it was the same type as the one he had got at the start of the game, in-fact, all three stones where.

The stone melted in his hand, the last words he heard before he entered the void, was Stephen snappishly interjecting, "Just ignore me then" in a snide tone.

As the world dissolved around Alex, he took in a deep breath to calm the nerves, Stephen was right, he shouldn't have let it get to him, this was just a game after all.

The world was replaced by an emerald green desert, noxious gas erupting from geysers in the dunes, a large dust cloud rapidly approaching his position.

Alex threw up his hands, shielding his eyes as a wave of emerald sand crashed into him.

When the dust settled, Alex found himself face to face with a grotesque creature, an abnormally large camel, about twice the size of a regular camel stared Alex down, but it was unlike any camel he had ever seen.

Its fur was greasy, unkempt and an acrid shade of green, its legs seemed like twigs and shook with constant effort, giant bulges filled with diseased puss covered its entire body, green saliva oozed from its mouth constantly, gunge clung to its bulging eyes, and a green vapor clung to its form like a shroud.

[Congratulations for summoning the D Rank creature 'Diseased camel'

Please assign your new summon a name

would you like to begin the harvest phase harvest

Y/N]

Alex barely noticed the ping of the notification, as he was watching with morbid fascination as the camel threw up a large, fleshy, diseased, green sack of flesh, before proceeding to gargle it with a calm air, and swallowing the festering sack of flesh back down.

Alex stood in horror after the scene he had just witnessed, wondering why he now had a burning desire to poke the sack of flesh.

He was brought out of his revery as the camel began to chew on his skull.

"Harvest, harvest" Alex cried helplessly as the camel redoubled it chewing efforts, seemingly annoyed at the hardness of the skull.

[Beginning harvest phase

Skill level is not high enough, less materials will be collected

Wis is not high enough, less materials will be collected

Int is not high enough, less materials will be collected

3...

2...

1...]

The camel gave a small grunt of surprise as it body lit up like a lightbulb, but continued to chew away at Alex's skull, unperturbed by The changes happening to its body.

When the light dissipated, Alex felt a pressure lift from his skull, and breathed a sigh of relief, what lay in the camels place was a large pile of diseased body parts, and a small spirit of the camel, looking around in a bewildered manner.

The spirit of the camel got over its confusion pretty quickly after seeing Alex, and moved towards Alex rapidly as if god himself had given him the sole mission of biting through Alex's skull.

A look of bewilderment returned to the camels face when it saw how big Alex had become, and its expression became even more bewildered when its teeth closed on nothing.

As Alex stared at the camel try repeatedly to continue its previous activity, he remembered when he was younger, his family went for a trip to Cairo, and of course they stopped by the pyramids of Geezer, at which point his mother forced him onto a camel, despite his original protests, he ended up enjoy the experience, and still to this day, he remembered the name of the camel that acted as his stead.

"I'm going to call you Rambo" Alex said with a chuckle recalling the slightly dopy camel that carried him round the pyramids.

Ranbo paused his futile attempt to gnaw at Alex's skull, before returning to his task without the slightest change in demeanour.