Meeting Another?

"Carnivorous Plant VANQUISHED. GAINED - 6 Gold - 8 Meat - 60 exp. You have [LEVELED UP]. You are now [Level 2]. New skill unlocked. 5 stat points given. Please assign your stat points".

"Level up? 8 wha-"

As he slowly absorbed the reality of what had just happened, he stood up and took in his surroundings.

"HEY NEWBIE! WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE YOU THINKING?"

A female voice rang out. It was sharp and commanding, bordering on the edge of apprehensive. Whoever owned it was MAD.

"THAT WAS MY KILL YOU LEECHING PEST!"

A slim figure popped out from the depths of the forest. Zipping towards him, Shui tried focusing in on it's movements, when two big round eyes on a fair skinned face popped up in front of him. Already freaked out, he focused in on the eyes. One brown. One amber.

"Well? I don't have all day. I may not get the exp but please do hand over the items."

Shui kept staring. As he took in the figure, he noticed that it had two ears to go with it's two eyes; plump, red lips; a sharp jawline; and shoulder-length hair outlining it's petite face. Hers.

"Mute as well huh? I guess I've struck the motherload this time." She said as she rolled her eyes.

"Who are you? How did you know what to do in my scenario? How do I access my skills? Where am I exactly? What item-"

"Okay, shut up. Now. First off, I'm just a level 8 player who arrived here not long ago, so while I do have the answers to your questions, I don't know everything. For help with your inventory, skills, commands that you want to use to fully access all the facilities you possess as a [Player], say [OPEN HELP MENU]. Read the guide carefully. Right now, you are at the initial map, the very first, [Lagafell Forest]. As mentioned before, when you level up, you will eventually cross certain thresholds that will take you to new and more difficult maps. Sort of like zones. The first threshold is level 10. Happy now?" She explained.

"I see. Thank you so much for your help."

Shui turned around as he prepared to run away.

"Hey... Wait a minute. Give. Me. My. Items."

"Damn it". He thought.

Shui turned around as the girl smirked at him. He twisted his mouth into a half-smile as he opened up his inventory and fetched half of his resources.

"Sigh... Here you go".

Tossing his resources to her, she picked them up and stored them in her inventory as she smiled back at him and said, "Nice try pest. I'm sure I'll see you again sometime soon. Just in case though, it's Inea", winking at him, before turning around to take off.

"One more thing. You smell", she said over her shoulder, right before darting back into the depths of the forest.

"Pretty", he thought after getting mugged. "Hottest shakedown I'm probably ever going to have".

How wrong he would be about that.

"Well, she did say I'd have to read through the instruction manual. What was it again? Ah yeah... [OPEN HELP MENU]".

A huge holographic screen popped out in front of Shui as he stood there amidst the collapsed vines. It had been divided into several categories including the inventory, gold and fishing categories to name a few. When opening up each category, he would see descriptive explanations and command words and/or phrases that would carry out different functions.

"Well, better read up fast. A monster corpse is really not a thing I'd like to spend my night near", he said as he opened up the first category and began to read.

Meanwhile, a few kilometers away, something had just caught the scent of a [Player]. Not just any. A new, fresh, and inexperienced one. Easy prey. It bolted towards the direction of the scent, drawing closer and closer to a splendid odor. The scent of it's food-to-be.