2 Chapter 2

The road down the hill and towards the village wasn't a long one but Theo took his time walking through it. Marveling at the realistic feelings being transmitted through his whole being. From the slightly chilly morning wind caressing his face, to the scents of nature floating in the air.

As he descended from the hill and reached the outskirts of the village, he couldn't help but be a bit curious. Looking around, he saw that most of the houses and sheds on the outskirts were made from wattle and daub. The dull colors of their mud brick walls might have once been contrasted by decorations or hanging spices and herbs. As it stood, they were barren, the villagers either too poor or simply too weary to make that effort.

Continuing forward, he finally reached the village proper. The village presented an image of faded pride. There was no indication of any great wealth ever existing but a quick glance at the construction showed how much care had been put into each building. That was gone now – that care. The buildings were wooden and larger than their counterparts on the outskirts.

As Theo pushed forward towards the central area of the village, he continued to look around curiously. The artisan's shops and houses were made of solid, well hewn stone, and there was a cobbled market square that now lay empty – devoid of any trade or raised voices. It was clear that there was nothing to be sold. The shops were quiet as were their shopkeepers. Looking back, he noticed that even the temple that stood upon the hill was in a state of disrepair.

The citizens were in that same kind of fallen state, listless and eyes devoid of hope. It was with these thoughts in his mind, that he made his way towards a smithy.

There was no shout of welcome as he opened the door to the smithy. The blacksmith behind the counter only gave him a somewhat curious glance before going back to writing something on a wooden sign.

The smithy was barren; there were no items on display on the counters that filled the interior expect the occasional sickle, scythe or shovel. Only the walls sported a few bows and leather armors. As Theo moved closer towards the counter, the blacksmith finally showed interest in him again.

Stowing away the wooden sign he had been writing on just a second ago, the blacksmith asked. "What can I do for you?"

"Could you tell me what's written on this piece of parchment?" Theo asked as he brought out the piece of parchment from his shirt.

The blacksmith looked at it curiously, and then picked it up and read it before saying. "I can tell you what it says, but it won't be for free."

"What do you need as payment? I don't know if you can see, but I don't have much." It was hardly anything surprising that he asked for payment. Reading had been a skill few had access to even in real life at one point, it made sense it was the same here.

The blacksmith looked Theo up and down, and then glanced back, towards a door at the back of the smithy. Turning his gaze back to Theo, he spoke. "Based on the information I read on that piece of parchment you have, hunting a few wild animals should pose you no problem, correct?"

"I guess?" Theo scratched his head, wondering what kind of information that piece of parchment held within itself.

The blacksmith's eyes seemed to regain a slight amount of hope at that answer. "Excellent, you can find wild animals just behind the temple hill."

After telling Theo that, he rummaged down behind the counter. When he came back up, he was holding a knife that looked to be a somewhat dull skinning knife, alongside its sheath.

"I don't have much in the way of weapons anymore, but this should be of some help." He handed the knife and the sheath to Theo, who attached it to his belt and made sure the blade was comfortably secured.

"Is there anything specific I should look for within the forest?" Theo fished for more details; it was the first quest he had so he had to be thorough.

"A rabbit will be enough to get the information from that piece of parchment." The blacksmith said, before adding with an almost pleading tone. "But if you bring back even more or bigger animals, I can buy it with tools."

[Quest received]

[A rabbit… or two?

A blacksmith has requested a rabbit as payment for reading and telling you the information contained in the piece of parchment the priest handed to you.

He has also promised extra rewards based on the amount of game you bring back]

"I'll see what I can do."

He stored the piece of parchment within his shirt and adjusted the knife on his waist before making his way towards the front door of the smithy. As he opened it and was about to make his way outside, he heard the blacksmith excitedly shout something to someone through the backdoor.

Theo heard some chattering behind him as he closed the front door. He had no idea what was happening back there, but he wasn't about to waste precious time he could be using to get ahead of the curve.

He had to hurry and gather some starting capital and resources. That was the only way to get ahead of the general player base. Theo had always been someone who wanted to be the best at whatever he was doing; that sentiment was only amplified in a game such as this one.

Looking in the direction of the temple, he could see the forest peeking out behind the temple hill. He hadn't paid any attention to what was behind the temple and had instead focused all his attention to the village in front of the temple.

The streets of the village were still empty as he made his way towards the forest. Barely a soul could be seen, and it really seemed like the town was abandoned.

He had no idea as to why it was as such and it didn't bother him that much. Empty streets meant no crowds, after all.

The time it took Theo to reach the forest was shorter than his walk to the village had been. Mostly because this time he hadn't taken his time walking and had instead ran there.

The forest in front of him didn't look magical or mystical at all, like one would expect a fantasy forest to look like. Instead, it looked like any normal forest would.

It had a mix of different species of trees, most of which he didn't recognize. Most of them seemed to be various different types of deciduous trees. They were vibrantly green, though. Weirdly so.

The forest seemed to be full of life so finding a few rabbits proved to be an easy task; catching one was not. They were far too agile in the root filled landscape and thus far better at running away than he was at chasing them.

Theo had to set up a trap to even hope to catch a rabbit. Luckily, he still remembered the correct way to set up a trap.

Now he was regretting the fact that he hadn't made any sort of preparation for his rabbit hunting trip, before he remembered that even if he had remembered it, he would not have had the money to buy the necessary tools.

"I guess I can make something serviceable with what's on hand in the forest." He muttered to himself.

The forest around him didn't lack in fallen branches and strange depressions, coupled with an abundance of tangled tree roots. It had everything he needed to set up a trap, except for a bait. That meant that he had to wait and hope that a rabbit was unlucky enough to walk into the trap with no incentive.

"Yeah, this won't take long at all." Theo muttered with all the optimism of a man told he had a few days to live.

Even with his pessimistic attitude, he still set out to prepare the trap. It took about ten minutes before he had a rudimentary trap in place, one big enough to trap a rabbit for a few minutes in which time he could kill it.

Looking over his trap, one could see that it was made by an utter amateur with no prior experience. The trap was not at all camouflaged to the surroundings and stood out like a sore thumb. It seemed like the decade of not making any traps had rusted his skills.

While wondering if there was an animal stupid enough to fall into it, a notification popped up in front of him.

[You have acquired a new skill: Trapping]

[Trapping – LVL 1

You have knowledge on how to prepare a rudimentary trap designed towards trapping animals.]

A new skill appeared in his status window, but no matter what he did, be it thinking about it or trying to hit it through the transparent screen, nothing happened.

How am I supposed to use this? While wondering how to use the skill, there was a sudden gust of wind that blew out most of the leaves covering the trap.

Sighing to himself, Theo started to gather the leaves back up and on top of the trap, after he was done and was looking at his handiwork.

The trap, if you could even call it one, looked slightly better than it had on his first try. The leaves covering the trap now hid the hole slightly better than they had before and were more tightly packed together.

It seemed that the skill was a passive one that took effect when he made a trap or was it just the fact that he had just done a better job this time.

He gave up on trying to figure it out and climbed up a nearby tree settling down on the base of a thick branch overlooking the trap. It would now be a matter of time and luck to see if he could catch anything.

The first rabbit he saw after about four minutes was quite far from the trap and wasn't even moving in the trap's direction. The second one appeared after six more minutes, around five meters from the trap, but ultimately circled around it.

After about ten minutes, a third rabbit appeared and this one came within two meters of the trap, before it was scared off by a howl in the distance.

This was not at all what I had in mind for my first quest. Why was it not another one of those five-minute starting zone quests? He was already bored out of his mind. Sitting on a tree for twenty minutes was not a very exciting adventure.

After five more minutes, a fourth rabbit appeared and this one looked like it was running from something. In contrast to the other rabbits who had wandered here by chance.

It did not notice the trap until it was too late, and it had already jumped into it. The rabbit tried to get out of the trap, but the trap was deep enough that he had time to jump out of the tree and snatch the rabbit by its neck out of the trap.

His left hand was holding the rabbit by its neck as his right hand unsheathed the skinning knife from his belt. Even if it was a knife meant for skinning, it was adequate for killing a rabbit.

The life slowly seeped out of the struggling rabbit as the knife was removed from its throat. After the life completely left the rabbit and the blood flow stemmed, Drake put the knife back into its sheath and attached the rabbit carcass to his belt.

Real immersive gameplay here, no inventory. Really annoying. He had tried to open an inventory the moment he had left the temple, but nothing had opened. Nothing even resembling an inventory existed on his interface.

When he had finally attached the rabbit to his belt, he heard rustling from behind him. Turning back to look towards the noise, the thing he saw was no rabbit, rather it was a lone wolf.

"Well, shit."