The Path Ahead

I had no strength left in my arms. I laid there, motionless. A smile appeared on my lips, then slowly turned into a grin. I chuckled, then started laughing.

I only stopped when I inhaled something between my laughing fits and started coughing. "I did it!" I whispered with a dry, cracked voice. I couldn't believe it!

I slowly rose to my feet and put my sword back into my inventory. The massive corpse lay motionless before me. Blood flowing from its wounds was slowly being absorbed by the dry earth. With uneven, tired steps I circled around the body.

I would have liked to take its fur with me, it was soft and would surely keep me warm over the coming winter. But the creature was so large that skinning it would take days and it would start decomposing by then, not to mention all the scavengers the smell would attract.

It was kind of disappointing, it almost felt as if I wasn't getting any reward out of killing this beast. At the very least, I wanted to get a handful of its mane as a memento. And as a reminder to myself. I took the sharp knife out of my inventory and approached the beast's head. Taking a handful of its mane in hand, I carefully cut it as closely to the skin as I could.

The result was a handful of over one meter long horned lion mane. I chuckled as I tied it together with a piece of cloth and placed it in my inventory, along with the knife. I had finally accomplished my goal. I was free to go east and find Erik and the others.

I took my first step towards the narrow mountain path before me and immediately stopped. Something was stuck in the beast's fur. Curious, I approached its back, where a metallic object was just barely visible.

I leaned forward and pushed the fur to the side. As I saw the object, I gasped. It was a scythe. Its shaft was made of a dark metal and the curved blade was made of a crystalline material. Hesitant, I grabbed the shaft and pulled the weapon out of the corpse.

It was a beautifully crafted weapon and a very unique one. It looked like the scythes the grim reaper would use. I hesitantly touched its blade. It was cold to the touch. I felt a shiver down my spine as I noticed how it wasn't reflecting the sunlight. I hesitated, was it ok if I took this with me? Something about it felt just… off. Wrong. Whatever it was, I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

After some thinking, I put it in my inventory. Worst case scenario, I wouldn't be able to find a place to sell it to and I'd just… throw it away, I guess. While the thought of walking around carrying an awesome scythe was fun, I had no idea on how to wield one.

With that decided, I once again looked at the mountain path. After a short moment, I walked up to the nearest tree, sat down on the ground, and leaned my back to it. Before I did anything else, I wanted to rest a little. My hands were still shaky from the sheer intensity of the fight.

I watched the mountain range stretching before me a while, then drew the symbol on the air to summon my status panel.

'Kai Friseal – Level 30 Soul Keeper | Exp: 100/11000 - - Souls 100/100 - - Mana: 480'

I stared at the numbers a moment. Killing just that massive creature had given me two whole levels. A smile flashed across my face. Maybe the reward for killing it wasn't too bad after all. A new text caught my attention.

'Required amount of Souls acquired.' Curious, I touched the text. I flinched as all other panels in my peripheral vision dimmed and a new, large panel appeared.

'Please choose a development path.'

Under the header, I saw three symbols. There was no explanation, no description and, worse of all, no way to back off. The interface refused to close.

One of the symbols reminded me of two fish, swimming around each other. Wasn't there an eastern myth about something like this?

The other looked like a path, leading up a mountain. It didn't really remind of anything.

The last one was that of a feather in a broken circle. I hesitated, how was I supposed to choose anything without knowing what they did? How was that fair? I felt my resentment towards Erik's dad grow. He may be a brilliant scientist and engineer, but he was certainly not a fair game designer.

This game, no – this world, was trapping me again. Forcing me into a choice I knew nothing of. I was sick of constantly being at the mercy of this system. Yet, it was what granted me power and it was the only thing that proved that this world wasn't real. Even with the interface, I sometimes had a hard time remembering that this world was fake. Virtual. Nothing more than a man-made program.

With a sigh, I relented and chose the feather symbol for no particular reason other than the fact that I liked how it looked. A notification popped up.

'Path Chosen. Please note that this process will take time. Do not attempt any strenuous activities until the process is completed.'

"What process?" I shouted, but the system didn't respond. Instead, the panel flickered as the text changed.

'In Progress' was all that was written on the large panel. I checked my status panel and my inventory, even my skills for an answer or clue as to what all this was about. Naturally, there were no answers or clues, because why would there be?

With a deep sigh and some internal swearing, I pushed myself on my feet and set out to the mountain path. The land seemed barren past this point. The mountain range that stretched on both sides of the pass were tall, they blocked all but the mid day sunlight. There was a harsh wind and I couldn't spot much in the name of water.

I thought of turning back, but if I did and some other massive creature came to take the horned lion's place, I didn't think I had the mental fortitude to take it on. Not after today's battle. With steady steps, I set off towards the other side of the mountain pass.

To where Erik and the others had gone. To where hopefully some answers lay. I could already picture the group losing their minds when they saw me. They surely thought of me as dead by now. I felt a little guilty – Vincent must have felt especially bad considering the conversation we had. And Erik was surely feeling somewhat responsible. At least I had kept my promise to Samantha. I'm sure she'd be happy to see me too.

As my steps carried me through the dry, cracked lands with the howling winds twisting and turning around me, I couldn't help but feel… something. This want to… shout at them. For leaving me behind to fend for myself. My steps came to a halt as I realised – I resented them for abandoning me.