n

n

nYou've gained Flutterpoison Crystal Wings from a monster!

nYou've gained one (1) serpens from a monster!

nKrow paused, fingers drumming on a leg, listening.

nNothing sounded.

nAssured, he stood and moved to the next collection of item drops.

nYou've gained two (2) pouches of Flutterpoison Dust from a monster!

nYou've gained one (1) serpens from a monster!

nYou've butchered a monster to acquire its Golden Silky Fur!

nYou've gained one (1) serpens from a monster!

nYou've gained one (1) serpens from a monster!

nIt was near one of the flameburst-shattered rock-crystals, so there were a few more drops.

nThe Golden Silky Fur was in good condition, which was lucky. The other rock-shatter sites had given him Tattered Golden Silky Fur – using bombs was not conducive to good hunting.

nGathering all the items he could, Krow stilled again to listen before moving. His eyes checked every crevice and every dark shadow.

nHe was almost done with gathering item drops from the mothmarmot monsters.

nAs for the ringbell flowers, he was conflicted.

nHis quest progress was just 7

/20.

nAnd he didn't have any way to protect himself other than the crude stone knives.

nWhen checking his supplies earlier, he found that he'd inadvertently used stun-rounds somewhere. His bullet count had been off.

nAs it stood, he only had one flameburst round and four stun-rounds remaining.

nHe'd used all 30 non-enchanted bullets, 9 flameburst bullets, 6 stun-rounds.

nAll that, and nearly half the item drops fallen to the gorge below. Then there was the fact that some of the pack of mothmarmots still lived.

nHe hoped the stunned ones were the ones that had fallen off the vines.

nIt was likely, actually.

nBut what if they didn't die in that great fall and climbed back up?

nHis HP was still ticking lower ever so slowly.

nKrow gave an exasperated sound as his thoughts spiraled.

"I'm scaring myself, at this point.

"

nBe cautious, be unnoticed, be patient.

nMove swiftly, strike unwaveringly, run away when needed.

nSix things a forester in the foothills of the Hallagon mountains must understand.

nListing them calmed Krow.

n

"This is a game,

" he muttered, a second later.

"You can buy yourself out of death.

"

nKrow flinched even as he said that.

nAha.

nThat…memory was, unsurprisingly, stronger under the skies dominated by Enilhadrad. He'd thought he'd moved on from it.

nApparently not.

nHe looked up, through the vines, to see the great gas giant, the sky-mother, the moon called Enilhadrad, implacably moving along her ancient heavenly path.

n

"I'd rather not die at all,

" he huffed, bending down to touch the items strewn on the rocks.

nYou've gained three (3) pouches of Flutterpoison Dust from a monster!

nYou've gained two (2) pouches of Flutterpoison Dust from a monster!

nYou've gained one (1) serpens from a monster!

nHe stood, sharp gaze studying the surroundings. Those looked like the last of the drops he could acquire. The rest were on crags he couldn't access without greater STR and DEX or were still covered in poison dust.

nHe took a glance at his Inventory, and his countenance lightened a bit.

nNot bad.

nEighteen items all told, excluding coin. Most of it was Flutterpoison Dust, but he already knew that was useful. Compared to what he gained on his first quest as a Swordsbearer….hah!

nAs for the coins, he'd made over twice the starting cash already.

nAfter the revolt in Zushkenar, with wright skills he had needed at least a week of hard work to make thirty silver serpens – that was enough for a month's food and rent in a decent inn.

nBut there were thirty-four serpens now in his inventory, with over twenty made before the morning was over.

nKrow shook his head.

nIn comparison, it was too easy to make money in Redlands.

nOf course, thirty serpens still wasn't nearly enough to buy a good weapon in the game, and when converted to Earth cash was barely enough to buy a candybar.

n

"Profligate revel-seeking wastrels,

" he declared with half-hearted mocking.

nBecause in any world, Earth, Redlands, or Zushkenar, the more money you had the more you spent. The more you knew how to spend money, the more you think you needed.

nKrow, at the moment, had nearly 400,000 golden drax in his game account.

nAnd he knew it wasn't enough.

nProfligate wastrel, indeed.

nHe stretched, relaxing.

nA month of continuous exercise allowed him to get used to feeling ache in his muscles.

nThe artificial sensation in this virtual world was truly incredible, but pain and discomfort at 60% realism were mere suggestions of the real thing.

nStill, even at 100% in the game, the pain of dying by being chewed by a dragon would probably be less debilitating than the fear of the experience.

nKrow looked down at the knife he held in his dominant hand.

nThe crude rock knife would be good for some time yet; its durability was low but not enough to be unusable. Krow had enough knapped and raw shards in his inventory to replace it several times over.

nJust thirteen flowers more.

nHe could do that in less than an hour.

nInstead of heading across the Vine Ladder Gardens to the village, he retread the rocky path upward, to the lip of the gorge.

nIn the upper reaches of the Gardens, there were fewer walkways and more flowers.

nKrow relaxed in the pleasantly scented air as he searched for the elusive ringbell flowers. But he didn't completely let down his vigilance.

nHe was certain he hadn't finished the hidden quest.

nThe forums said that the reward for completing the hidden quest was Reputation Points.

nWhere were his points?

nHe hadn't finished the hidden quest the first time around either. It was only given once, and the player had no second chance to take it again if they failed.

nSome starting villages had more than one hidden quest. Rumors said all starting villages did.

nThe point was, there was a ton of monsters around starting villages.

nA player could gain similar Rep by killing enough of those, probably.

nBut Krow was already on this quest.

nIf he couldn't finish it, how different was the him from Before to the him today?

nAnd that thought, he couldn't stand it.

nSo he tried to get into the relaxed readiness that he'd seen career hunters in Zushkenar wear like a cloak. In this new body, and with low stats, it wasn't that effective.

nFinally, he peered over the top of the gorge. Craggy rock formations, a few grassy patches, some trees that were more shrub than the stately timbers in the foothills.

nHis lips curved up.

nThe last of the ringbells he needed entwined with the branches of the trees he could see.

nA final wary glance around, he scrambled up, pulling himself upright on the edge of the gorge.

nLooking down at the massive green web of the Gardens, Krow marveled.

nHe hadn't seen it in its entirety, layers and layers suspended between two walls of the gorge, going on and on even as the yawing crack in the mountain turned sharply.

nThe approach from Gremut had necessitated coming from a lower walkway – it was only now that he grasped the massive scope of the web of walkways and vine ladders.

nThere was likely a whole shadowed vale under the Gardens.

nHe recalled the faint impression of boulders he could see from the long implacable drop.

nMaybe they were spiders, vine spiders, who wove together the Gardens, then went to sleep to incubate their large boulder-like eggs – each boulder containing thousands of possible spider-young. The Gardens were meant to entice prey to the sweet-smelling flowers for when the eggs hatched.

nKrow laughed at his suppositions.

nHe'd heard too many stories around a campfire. Now, looking at places like this, his brain went to possible legends.

nVine spiders? Impossible.

nIn the first place, the draculkar had planted the Gardens.

nBut there were creatures that thrived in shadow, so it was unlikely that the game-makers placed an empty valley under such a beautiful place.

nKrow wasn't curious enough to investigate, lest something jump out and try to eat his face.

nWith his low levels, he'd die without a face.

nRight now, he was more concerned with flowers than possible shadowy lurkers.

nIt was easier to harvest the ringbell flowers in the trees than the Gardens or the rocky mountainside. He could hack the stone knife against the rigid branches – something he didn't dare do in the vine-garden, and doing it against stone would break the knife.

nHe started working and only paused to listen to odd noises warily, until the notification sounded and a frame appeared.

nYou have acquired 20

/20 Ringbell Flowers! Find Velinel in Gremut Village to turn in the Quest.

nHe grinned as the flower dropped into his hand, the last fall of the knife parting it from its stem.

nFirst quest!

nHe stowed the last flower with a flourish, and prepared to make his way down the gorge walls.

nA glance at his status told him he was still bleeding HP.

nHP: (73%)

nMP: (94%)

nDebuffs: Minor Poison, Minor Exhaustion

nAll that remained of his bullets were already loaded.

nFive bullets more and his weapon would have all the effective battle-worthiness of a rock.

n

"Oh, for the times when all you needed was a sharpening stone,

" he muttered.

nHe shook out his hands.

nNo time to regret.

nHe up-ended a stone so its flatter side would face up, and took out the last two stone shards. He pulled some vines from the trees and stripped them of leaves.

nA minute's search, and Krow hefted a likely rock in his hand. He only needed to chip and grind away the sharp edges on the shards to make a tang, so the stone didn't have to be large or durable. It just needed to fit comfortably in his hand.

nHe shrugged, and returned to the make-shift stone table.

nHe'd done this before, of course.

nThe weapons and tools that Findrakon gave its workers were always poor quality.

nAn older local, a dwarvir, taught him-as-Scare how to do it by eyes and touch as he was apparently stone-deaf – which to the dwarvir meant he didn't have a natural feel for stone-working, he couldn't 'hear' what it wanted to be.

nHis draculkar fingers were longer than before, not as sensitive to changes in texture as human touch – but maybe that was the VR system.

nIt made things more difficult.

nBut this, doing things by hand, making things – it was calming.

nHe hadn't realized he'd be so rattled by being in Redlands, focusing only on the exhilaration of returning to a familiar place.

nZushkenar was, at this point, more 'home' than Earth. Earth was the hometown that had been ripped away, the land of his blood and heart, and he was so very very grateful to see it again.

nBut Zushkenar was where he learned who he was, where his soul was forged.

nThis virtual reality Redlands, this game…

nIt was confusing.

nSometimes too similar, sometimes too different.

nThe repetitive concentrated undertaking of chipping away at stone, trying not to crack the crystal, smoothing away too-rough edges, soothed in a way that Krow hadn't expected.

nIt gave him time to think.

nIn the end, he still added two more knives to his weapon loadout.

nGoing down the gorge was easier, the path delineated by disturbed plants, scored stone, oozing vines where mothmarmots claws or rock shards had scratched and torn.

nHe was halfway across the Gardens when he heard it.

nChk-skreee! Chk-skreee!

nHe stopped in his tracks, leaned over the vine balustrade, eyes searching for the origin of the sound.

nThere!

nOn a ladder one level down, a flash of gold too quick for him to Scout.

nKrow unholstered his gun and ran toward the ladder the mothmarmot was climbing.

nHe had the advantage of height, before the monster could use its poison dust.

nThis wasn't a fight he could avoid.

nNot if he wanted to win the hidden quest.

nHe leveled his revolver on the golden fur and dusty wings, still climbing, cylinder cycled to a stunround.

nMothmarmot Lvl 1

n

"Oh, now you appear?!

"

nGreat jumping clowns, why?

nThe revolver lowered.

nKrow couldn't help it.

nA level one ratbug who only appeared at the end of a fight after everyone else died, just didn't deserve the flipping last of his precious mage-bullets.

nHe looked around, holstering the revolver.

nThe mothmarmot nosed over the top of the ladder.

nKrow sliced a seedball from one of the orchid-looking plants and hurled it at the head of the mothmarmot.

nIt hit right between the eyes.

nSkr-cheee!

nThe monster puffed a ball of gold dust and fell antennae-over-claw backwards.

nSuccess.

nA small grin formed on Krow's face as he leaned down over a vine to see golden fur bristled in outrage, and a racket of furious chittering.

nHe threw another seedball. It thunked on the mothmarmot's nose, but no puff of golden dust appeared.

nCheee! Chk-skreee!

nThe mothmarmot charged the ladder.

nKrow backed up and waited, knife in hand, flipped the charging monster up with a toe, and stabbed it in the throat.

nYou've gained one (1) pouch of Flutterpoison Dust from a monster!

nNo coins?

nHmph.

nChk-keeee! came the call from nearer his destination.

nKrow frowned, then reached toward another plant to take its large seedpods.

nThe seedpod suddenly burst out with tiny spikes.

nHe withdrew his hand quickly, stared speechless at the bristling mass of needles he'd been about to grab, a chill at the narrow escape crawling up and down his spine.

nThe needles slowly retracted into the pod, having impaled nothing.

n

"…it's usually a good thing when random animals pluck the seeds of plants, you know, to spread your offspring to other places,

" he said earnestly.

"It lessens competition within a single geographical area and increases species survival.

"

nThe plant didn't acknowledge, so Krow only made note of its gently spotted appearance so he'd remember it was shy and needed great personal space.

nHe turned to a plant that looked very different, then reached out with the knife and tapped the seedballs cautiously. It didn't move.

nKrow stared at the seedball. It still didn't do anything.

nHe dropped his face into a hand.

"What am I doing? Fight imminent, idiot.

"

nHe started gathering projectiles: stones he found on the vine-plots, non-aggressive seedballs, root vegetables.

n

"Buy gloves, stat,

" he muttered, the third time he found himself looking suspiciously at a plant with promisingly large and firm pods.

nThe sound of chittering drawing close, Krow stuffed all he could into his pockets.

nA golden figure scuttled out onto the walkway, fangs bared and wings flared. Krow hurled a seedbulb at it.

nPuff! was the expected result.

nThen several others nosed around the first mothmarmot, heads peering out through the dustcloud.

nKrow spent one moment envying them the immunity.

nChk-kreeee!

nMothmarmot Lvl 1

nMothmarmot Lvl 1

nMothmarmot Lvl 1

n

"You're just…really coming out of the woodwork now, aren't you?

"

nHe smiled widely at the advancing monsters, suddenly more confident. He started playfully tossing some kind of atom-shaped potato in one hand.

n

"Do the souls of your brothers cry out in vengeance?

" He broke off a protruding bulbous growth from the atom-potato and started hurling pieces of the rootcrop at the advancing mothmarmots.

"Come and get me!

"

nPuffs of poison dust thickened the air.

nKrow stepped backward down the long walkway, measuring his steps.

nOnce the dust was no longer a concern, he waited and with efficient movements, met the attacks with a kick or a swipe of the cape.

nYou've gained one (1) pouch of Flutterpoison Dust from a monster!

nYou've gained one (1) pouch of Flutterpoison Dust from a monster!

nYou've gained one (1) pouch of Flutterpoison Dust from a monster!

nYou've gained one (1) pouch of Flutterpoison Dust from a monster!

nHe waved away the notifications, eyes alert.

nCheee-skreee!

nMothmarmot Lvl 1

n

"What in the world were you all doing before now?

" Krow flung a stone while retreating.

"Spa day? Scheduled world-domination meeting? Drinking at the level-one bar to complain about how you've not leveled up yet, unlike that hussy sister of your neighbour's cousin's lover's wife?

"

nYou've gained one (1) pouch of Flutterpoison Dust from a monster!

nKrow walked steadily toward Gremut, his eye on the Minor Exhaustion debuff.

nIf it ticked up to Major Exhaustion again, he wouldn't be able to fight back. The cuji pears he ate had lowered it to Minor, but he didn't have any more food.

nHe glanced at the potato-looking thing in his hand.

nNope.

nHe wasn't that hungry.

nAs long as he didn't have to perform more stunt gymnastics to get through the quest, he'd be fine.

nHe slid down a ladder.

nA flash of gold.

nMothmarmot Lvl 3

n

"Finally.

" He drew the revolver and dropped the mothmarmot with a well-aimed stun-round. He walked toward it.

"Are you the ringleader planning a revolt using a hundred level-one pawns?

"

nYou've gained two (2) pouches of Flutterpoison Dust from a monster!

nYou've gained one (1) serpens from a monster!

nThe rock-crystal knife broke as the monster dissolved into glowing blue motes. Krow quickly equipped another.

nSkreee! Chk-Chk-keeee!

nThree more level ones.

nHe was so close to the cliff now, he could toss a seedball gently and hit it.

nHe holstered his gun and started retreating. The same strategy of making them follow past the danger of the dust poison, then going for the throat.

nYou have killed 50 Mothmarmots and gained 250 Experience Points!

nYou have finished the Hidden Quest: Dusty Gold!

nYou have gained 25 Reputation Points in Gremut Village!

nYou have gained (1) level to achieve Lvl 3!

n

"At last.

"

nKrow huffed in relief, shoulders slumping, leaning against a wall of woven vine.

nThe debuffs were removed by the level-up and his HP and MP bars replenished to 100%.

nHe laughed, happy.

nIt had taken three days of grinding to get to Lvl 3 the last time.

nHe took a few minutes to rest, took the item drops, and stepped on the last walkway before solid ground.

nKreeeaar! Schkreeoaar!

nWhat?

nThe vine walkway swayed as foot stepped on.

nKrow stared silently for a long moment, turned his head to study the knife still in his hand, then looked forward again, dubious.

n

"Didn't you read the weight limit sign on this vine?

"

nBehind three level one mothmarmots and a single level-two, lumbered a rhino masquerading as a cute ratbug.

nAbove the monster, an info-frame hung that swallowed all the relief Krow had at finishing the hidden quest.

nArmored Mothmarmot Lvl 9

n