Chapter 4: Rabbit of Deforestation

Asher awoke to sunlight breaking through his eyelids, his body sore and hurting everywhere. He hoped that everything that had happened was just a bad dream but the leafy pillow that scratched his face all night wouldn't let him live in that delusion. After wrestling with his inner hatred of the universe Asher managed to find the will to get up and start his day. He started out by throwing his pillow into the pile of ashes that remained from his fire and lit them with the flint and steel the bear had given him. Then within twenty minutes, he was eating a flame-cooked mute cube breakfast.

After he finished eating Asher looked up and saw the bear corpse. He hadn't bothered with butchering the damn thing as he assumed the meat would be stringy and hard to eat. With a sigh, he stood up and started butchering the corpse. He had fought a life-and-death battle with the damn thing the least he could do was eat it. After about an hour Asher had managed to remove the skin, the meat on the other hand was becoming more and more of a pain in the ass.

It took over two hours of continuous cutting before all the meat had been safely put away in his inventory, the only thing left was the unusable parts. Asher threw them bit by bit into the fire until everything had been destroyed. He didn't want to leave a body in a place that could potentially be his home for the night if he failed to kill that monstrous rabbit, who knew what animals or monsters would be attracted by it. With a grunt Asher pushed himself into a standing position and left the cave, leaving behind the still lingering fire. It was about noon when Asher walked out of the cave, he could only assume that the giant rabbit would be in the same place he had left it.

Asher quickly found his way back to the giant lake he had found after waking up in this strange place, then with little work he was able to retrace his steps, finding his way back to the location where the Rabbit of Deforestation had been. But instead of finding the rabbit, all he found was a destroyed field. Holes littered the once thick forest, the holes still had roots sticking out from them showcasing trees had at one point or another grown to great heights here. Asher sighed and began reading over the quest once again, trying to find something that would help him track the damn beast.

[Quest: Kill the Rabbit of Deforestation]

[Reward: +2 Levels, Title: Rabbit Slayer]

With another sigh Asher closed the menu and began following the trail of destruction, hoping that if he went far enough, he would catch up to the rabbit and be able to take it by surprise. His plan of attack was simple, he planned on sneaking up on the beast and jumping it, hopefully stabbing the beast in the head. After traveling for about an hour Asher finally thought of something that he figured was well within the realm of possibility.

"Map," Asher said aloud, a grin spreading across his face. The system had given him an inventory after all, it might not have let him just loot monsters with no effort but he could understand how that could be considered overpowered. A map that showcased where he had been and what he hadn't seen yet seemed perfectly reasonable to Asher. But his smile quickly faded after a couple of seconds, it seemed the system did not agree with him.

"Fucking system," Asher said shaking his head, with clear displeasure all over his face he began running following the destruction like a hound until he caught a glimpse of something white standing on top of a wooded hill. On top of the wooded hill was a massive rabbit, it was about two sizes bigger than the rabbit he had seen the day before, Asher could only assume that this thing grew as its appetite did, all Asher could do was stare in shock, unable to believe how much the thing had grown overnight.

Without delay Asher crouched and began sneaking up to the massive beast, if he was going to successfully kill this thing it had to be now, if he left this beast to its own devices, he wouldn't have any chance at winning, the beast would grow so massive that he would need a rocket launcher or something of that caliber to handle it. During his contemplation, Asher heard an annoyingly familiar sound enter his mind.

[Quest Updated: Kill the Rabbit of Deforestation]

[Reward: +2 Levels, Title: Rabbit Slayer]

[Extra Qest: Kill the Rabbit of Deforestation]

[Time Limit: 00:01:00:00]

[Extra Reward: Full Armor Set]

Asher's eyes went wide as he read this, the system seemed to have the power to do whatever it wanted, why it changed the quest now made no sense to Asher, but he guessed that it didn't really matter. His eyes were locked onto the extra reward, his sense of greed finally coming to fruition. "I can finally have pants," Asher screamed in his mind, practically wanting to leap at the rabbit, the only reason he didn't was the fear that if he did the thing would wake up, he wanted to make sure he had everything planned out before attempting this. Asher still didn't know what would happen if he failed a quest, and he didn't want this to be the way he found out.

Within fifteen minutes or so Asher had what he deemed a somewhat decent plan, he would sneak up behind the beast then with how high he thought he could jump now he would stab the beast in the head, killing it in one strike, if everything went to plan he wouldn't be in any danger. With one last grunt he looked around to make sure there was nothing else he needed to be aware of, but as far as Asher could tell the only things around him were trees and the massive trail of destruction the beast had left in its wake.

Finally, with a sigh Asher began his approach, silently he closed the distance between himself and his foe, putting his heel down first and moving to the ball of his foot, he had seen this exact method on a History Channel documentary, an American Army Ranger had demonstrated how it would let one walk through the woods in silence, as long as one didn't step on a branch or twig by mistake. For the most part, the method worked fine, Asher couldn't tell if it was the technique or if the forest was just an easy place to walk silently through, whatever the truth was he didn't care.

Finally, Asher was upon his prey, and after squatting down he used all the strength he could muster and leaped through the air, Asher soared high enough to almost smash his head on the branches of the nearby tree, but luckily for him, his forward momentum was enough to let him pass without passing through them. After a few seconds Asher began his descent, wasting no time he gripped his knife with both hands and raised it above his head. As soon as his feet made contact with the base of the rabbit's spine, he slammed his knife down, smashing into the rabbit's head.

The beast instantly convoluted, its hind legs shooting out, sending both the rabbit and Asher out forward, like a rocket they passed tree after tree. Finally, Asher's luck ran out and the beast landed face-first into a thick oak tree. Asher was thrown off, his knife still firmly planted in the base of the rabbit's skull. Asher landed on the somewhat soft floor of the forest before skidding along the ground like a motorcyclist right after a crash, his shirt doing little as it tore apart from the impact. After a few seconds of sliding Asher came to a stop, his head was pounding but it didn't feel like he had any broken bones, in fact, he felt way better than he should considering he was essentially in a high-speed car crash. But after looking himself over thoroughly he concluded that all he had was some minor cuts and bruises, nothing that wouldn't work itself out after a few days. After taking a few seconds to walk back over to the rabbit, Asher found his knife and yanked it out of the beast's skull, as he did, he heard the noise he was waiting for.

[Killed: Rabbit of Deforestation]

[Completed Quest: Kill the Rabbit of Deforestation]

[Reward: +2 Levels, Title: Rabbit Slayer]

[Extra Quest Completed: Kill the Rabbit of Deforestation]

[Time Limit: 00:00:29:25]

[Reward: Full Armor Set]

[Completed Quest: Welcome to the Multiverse]

[Reward: 10 Gold, Title: Beginner, Teleportation to Ragatha]

[Say Teleport to accept teleportation]

[Time Limit: 00:01:00:00]

Asher instantly understood what the system meant, he had an hour to accept the teleportation or get stuck in the safe zone forever, he figured that was just enough time to look over all of the rewards and maybe scan through his stats before he had to go. But before any of that, he opened up his inventory and took out the massive brown box he expected to contain the full set of armor he had been given as a reward. Quickly Asher threw the box on the ground and opened it, inside was what he would have called leather armor, he somewhat expected this as his style of fighting had been focusing on stealth, at least with the last fight. But what Asher hadn't expected was a leather-looking skirt, he assumed that it went on before the pants or perhaps after the pants. That was until he looked back in the box, his heart sank as he realized there was nothing else inside.

"Fucking System!" Asher screamed, unable to control his rage, his scream could be heard echoing all across the island, his new lung capacity showing its worth, and rabbits and other small creatures scampered into hiding all around him.