Chapter 6 : The Quest Begins

A freshly fallen dusting of snow covered her as she opened an eye. Instead of the endless cave-like dungeon, with rocky walls full of ores and ice...she was staring up at a clear blue sky. She was alive? The steady hammering of a woodpecker woke her from her concussed rest.

In the edges of her vision she saw the branches of snow covered pine trees. Oz was under a tree, the familiar scent of pine needles and the chirping of birds almost lured her back to sleep. It took sheer determination to stay upright.

The cold set in at once but she wasn't wet. Her body trembling to keep any sort of warmth in. Oz sat up slowly, unable to pull open her frozen over eye. Carefully she touched the eye, feeling the slight twinge of pain. Swollen and raw, but faintly she could still see light faintly when she forcefully peeled open the lid. Maybe the eye wasn't ruined.

"Wh...e...re?" She barely could speak, it felt as if she spent hours screaming until her voice went hoarse. By her legs was the heavy backpack. Somehow she survived.

Did she...fall out of the dungeon? But where was she now? Wherever it was, it was frigid cold. Her breath fogged in heavy clouds around her, the sheen of frost crumpled off her clothes with each movement.

'Focus...' She told herself, hands shaking as she untied the crumbled hoodie from her waist. The area was clear enough, but she would freeze to death out here. She had to survive and get home.

'Think, think.' Oz thought, her hands shook uncontrollably even as she tucked them into her armpits. She took a few survival classes on the Guild's coin just in case of anything and tried to wrack her foggy brain to remember.

Rule of threes. Three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, three weeks without food. She could breathe.

That meant shelter and warmth was the most important.

It took precious seconds to pull the hoodie over her head. From her bag, under the ores and materials she pulled out one of the tiny plastic bottles. Half frozen from the cold, she ripped the cork out with her teeth and knocked it all back with a handful of snow. A bitter green apple taste flooded her mouth, mellowing as it ran over her tongue to her stomach.

[Healing Potion : Low Quality: 25% health recovered]

She blinked her good eye, a...blue box floated before her. Her hand shook as she tried to touch it, but went right through it. Like a hologram floating there. She tried again to tap it, but the light shimmered through her touch.

The potion gave her a small boost in health, the snow though hydrating just made her more cold. She would survive. Somehow.

With her back to the pine tree she used her feet to dig through the snow, pushing the thick snow away. Then she used the fallen branches just outside her little perimeter to make a cushion between her and the wet ground. Shoveling and scooting the snow pile up until she made a reverse igloo, snow acting as an insulator to keep what little body heat she had. The branches above allowed airflow and enough cover.

'Until it snows again.' She thought miserably. 

Oz munched away on the dry jerky, allowing it to soften in her mouth as she sorted through her supplies. She needed calories to survive the cold, but more than that she needed protection.

The dialog box was back and floating before her. What was going on? Was she going insane?

[Ozel Kasper : Inventory]

20 Diamond Ores : Rare

10 Slime Cores : Common

10 Bone chips: Common

6 Lizard Claws : Common

2 Bags of Jerky : Common

4 Pouches of Tuna : Common

1 Jar Peanut Butter: Common

Fire Mana Ring : Uncommon

Crafting Knife : Common

All in One tool: Common

Blunt Short Sword: Common

6 Healing Potions : Common

5 Stamina Potions : Uncommon

Lock pick kit : Rare

Fire starting kit : Rare

Magical Core : Super Rare

½ Pack of Lucky Red Cigarettes

Tracksuit Combo: Common

Wrist Bracers: Common

Knee Pads: Common

Quilted Waist trainer : Unique

2 pairs all weather socks : Common

The list went on and on, neatly displaying each scrap and bit in her bag. She blinked at the words, super rare? What magical core? She dug and dumped the bag on her lap, feeling through it all but no core was there.

Only then did her fingers fly to her necklace, the gift left by her grandfather. Pulling it from her shirt, she eyed the simple thumb ring. It was far too large for her feminine hands, a class ring her grandfather always wore. In the center was a sparkling garnet that reminded her of his bright red eyes.

[Magical Core : Super Rare]

[Inspect?]

The dialog box flashed again before her as she touched the ring.

"What do you mean inspect?" Her teeth chattered as she glared at it but gave a weak nod.

"Inspect." She said, sneezing into her elbow. Another dialog box flew open, nearly blinding her as she read the sparkling text.

[Magical Wind Core : Super Rare : A compressed physical tear of the Wind God Boreas. Used to infuse weapons or armor with wind elemental powers. Consume to unlock Sky Jump]

"Consume? Like eat?" She stared stupidly at the words, the jumbled words made her head hurt. Oz waved the box away as she stared at the ring.

"Grandpa you blustering bastard, you couldn't tell me this could help?" She gritted her teeth. If she had something like this...

Oz groaned, "No point bitching now. He's long dead."

She took the necklace off and wrapped it around her wrist, slipping the oversized ring onto her middle finger. It slipped around her finger, but perhaps the chain would brace it down. Maybe in case she could use it? She wasn't sure but she didn't have many options.

[Compress inventory into Storage?]

"Will you get lost...Wait compress?" Oz eyed the heavy supplies around her, she wasn't looking forward to repacking. The weight was easily 100 pounds. At her strongest it meant little, her stamina could take the weight. She was a pack mule after all.

Right now, she was winded. But she would be damned if she didn't keep what she took. The materials would be useful. Second rule of Hunters: Finders Keepers.

She eyed the box again before clearing her throat. Was this like a video game? The dialog box had the same look to those from the old roleplay ame she loved as a kid. She pulled her hoodie closer, feeling the cold seep in.

"Explain?" She felt stupid now talking to the floating box. There had to be a help menu of sorts.

[Help: Compressing into Storage : Adding items into storage will open up inventory space. Items may be recalled at any safe spot. Limits are currently alive items, human beings and cursed objects.]

Oz eyed the heavy ores and gross monster parts, she tucked and moved things in separate piles. Into her bag she replaced her lockpick kit and food but left the materials in a pile.

"Compress this pile into storage." She asked the voice, "Please."

There was a soft ding, sounding like the door chime that led into her mother's cafe. A soft wonderful sound that always made her wish for the comforts of home, before everything went horrible. She groaned and rubbed her eyes, she couldn't get lost in the past right now.

Then the pile shimmered and disappeared from her sight. She tapped the area...it was gone! When she looked back to the box, there in the game like inventory box were the materials. Pixelated pictures with little numbers marking the amount within.

It WAS like a video game. Or she was going insane. She thought back to the unnatural feeling of falling through that locked door.

People didn't just fall through solid matter. Even the dungeons had rules of physics to follow. Even hunters couldn't fly or pass through solid matter. Over ten years of research proved that. The strongest spell barely lasted seconds, and that only allowed inches of hovering in the upper world. In dungeons? Research was rarely shared between Guilds.

It was like she...glitched.

Her head throbbed too much to think about it. She breathed the cold air deep into her aching lungs, her ribs ached despite the health potions. Next was warmth. No point making a fire. She needed something to keep herself warm first. The quilted waist trainer was doing the best it could to keep her core warm.

A shuffling caught her attention, she fell against the tree trunk. Peering out above the pushed out wall of snow, a large furry beast was lumbering out in the snow. A bear, rabbit-like creature sniffing in search of food.

The only weapon she had currently was her all in one tool and her small crafting knife, the dull sword was worthless. She eyed the dull blade, barely longer than her forearm it was too dull to cut even a tomato. She brought it just in case one of the crafting hunters stopped by, able to sharpen the steel back to a usable point.

The all in one was a tactical shovel, pickaxe, hammer. She had wedged the body onto a long piece of steel-reed, a bamboo like plant that grew everywhere in jungle dungeons. It wasn't very powerful but it was what she had.

She hated killing. But she hated the idea of her Aunt winning more.

The most basic of traps was the hole. Run prey towards a hidden hole dug at least six feet down and let gravity do the dirty work. Recovering the body might take extra effort and the returns could be risky. A fall from too short a height would cripple and not kill the prey, leaving a pained crazed beast on the hunter's hands. A fall too high, and any materials could be ruined in the resulting duel with gravity. A pitfall trap lined with sharpened sticks had a high success rate but left holes in needed pelts. A sinkhole would kill but suck away materials. The pelt needed to be harvested with as little damage as possible for the max bonus. As well the materials of such a large beast could be useful.

Without a proper ranged weapon she couldn't snipe the beast between the eyes, nor did she have the skill to do a merciful instant kill. She didn't have the strength just to charge in and bring the blunt pickaxe down the beast's skull. Moreover, she didn't have the dexterity to try a sneak attack as the beast scratched bark off the trees and chewed at roots.

Instead, she had to rely on the oldest hunting trick, endurance.

Oz followed the lumbering beast from the safety of the trees. Thankfully she was down wind, her scent carried away from the searching beast.With two of her stamina potions consumed she felt stronger, the much lighter backpack kept her from sinking into the snow. With the crafting knife, she cut two large branches from the pine trees to act as a primitive snow cover. To keep her hands from freezing, she tucked the extra socks over them as mittens, her protective cowl and hood kept the snow out of her face. The black of her tracksuit blended into the shadows of the trees. She just had to wait for her chance.

Still over an hour, following the lumbering rabbit-bear she didn't want to kill it. It was cute in an old grumpy house cat sort of way. It didn't mean she wasn't freezing her ass off, but it seemed the monster was leading her somewhere. The thinned trees didn't feel natural, like she was following a bush trail. She tucked handfuls of berries into her pockets, unable to stop her foraging habit.

[Forage Skill Leveled Up : Level 3 : You can now locate harvestable goods from a distance]

'Great.' Oz thought, at least the dialog box was silent. Then all at once, she felt a dull ache in her eye. When she could open it again, the berries and twigs had a faint outline. Drawing her attention to them.

[Winterberry: Cold Resistance]

She threw back a few more berries, the tart taste sharp on her tongue. But it did make her feel somewhat warmer. Loading up her pockets with berries, she lingered behind the lumbering beast. In the quiet, her mind wandered.

'Where am I? This place doesn't feel anywhere on earth. For starters my phone doesn't have a signal whatsoever.' Oz thought with a miserable shiver. Even her watch was disconnected from the Guild network. She only had a few days to get back before she was listed as deceased.

'Not only that, but ...the air feels different here.'

The air was frigid but fresh, natural in a way she wasn't used to. In some cities, purifying crystals were used to cleanse polluted air from warehouses. But this was far too clean. Her lungs ached with each cold breath. Holding back coughs were getting harder and harder, her chest felt heavy with congestion. Each movement felt stiff, slush in her veins. How long has she been following the beast?

Another crack and she stumbled back into a tree, the creature stopped a short way ahead. Sniffing and rubbing its fuzzy head against something. Oz nearly dropped her snow cover in surprise.

There was a person.

The person was tall and thin, a white cloak lined with plush fur kept the whistling winds from leeching off all their heat. Oz stared enviously, the wind cut right through her. The person reached out to pat the rabbit-bear's head, hands in thick mittens. The pommel of a sword sat comfortably against their hip, their arm resting atop it as the rabbit-bear rooted around for food. As well a side quiver attached to their thigh, a hunter? She peered close, a pile of small rabbits and prey animals thrown over their shoulder.

'Lucky bastard.' She thought. Oz might not want to kill an animal but ...a person might be easier? Or perhaps run them off to get their kills. Her chilled fingers felt useless as she reached for the crafting knife within her pocket. Her stomach flipped at the idea. She wasn't a pacifist but she didn't really want to hurt anyone.

But as soon as the person appeared they were gone. Oz stepped out from the branches, unable to stop the chattering of her teeth. Everything was dark and fuzzy around the edges. Did it suddenly get colder? Her eyes drifted to the sky, when was it so dark? Her hands flew to shoulders, it hurt to breathe. Her fingers didn't want to move right.

In a fit of terror she started coughing, trying to work the chilled mucus up and out of her lungs. She stumbled and wheezed, trying to stay upright. She slammed her own chest, something was stuck in her throat. 'Cough damnit cough!' Oz thought miserably, not caring if she was caught.

Before she realized it, the coughing fit brought her to her knees. She must have dropped the berries because little drops of red were bright on the snow in front of her.

'No, not berries...blood.' She thought, a shaky hand touching the sticky hot blood dripping down her lips. She cursed her stupidity! Why didn't she check to see if something was poisoned first!

A soft crunch barely caught her attention. Her vision shook as she looked up, a pair of long legs before her. Her good eye trailed halfway up their legs before a wave of coughing took all her strength. She tumbled face first into the frigid snow.

Then everything went black.