Orrin stared at the spot where his best friend had stood seconds ago. Blood dripped down from the tree above. Too much blood.

New Mandatory Quest

Save the Hero

Reward: 100 XP and [Identify] ability

Failure: Death of Hero. Likely annihilation of the world.

What the fuck? Orrin realized he had no offensive spell. The only reason he hadn’t been scooped up as well was [Camouflage]. He had been concentrating on his new spells and activated [Camouflage] in terror as he saw the vine like appendage grab Daniel.

He looked up the tree. He could see a form through the branches struggling, but it appeared to be moving slower and slower. Orrin searched the ground for anything to throw...he was definitely not climbing an 80-foot tree. A few of Daniel’s daggers had slipped out, or more likely Daniel had reacted and tried to stab the vine. Orrin found two and picked them up.

And what good is throwing a knife into the air going to do anyone? Orrin peered through the leaves and watched a second vine ensnare his friend. Even with a double increase in strength, two vines seemed to be more than enough to hold him tight.

Strength! That’s it. Orrin locked his eyes on Daniel and started pushing mana into his buff spells.

[Increase Strength]

[Increase Strength]

[Increase Strength]

[Increase Strength]

[Increase Dexterity]

[Increase Dexterity]

[Heal Small Wounds]

[Heal Small Wounds]

[Heal Small Wounds]

[Heal Small Wounds]

Orrin lost 50 MP in the span of seconds. He didn’t know how hurt Daniel was. He didn’t know how much extra strength he’d need. Hell, he didn’t know if the spells were touch only or ranged.

A third vine was snaking its way across the branches.

Orrin started casting again.

[Increase Strength]

[Increase Strength]

[Increase Strength]

[Increase Strength]

[Increase Strength]

[Increase Dexterity]

[Increase Dexterity]

[Increase Dexterity]

[Increase Dexterity]

[Increase Dexterity]

His MP bottomed out. He felt dizzy for a second and tried to push more mana into a healing spell but nothing happened.

0/120 MP

Orrin tried to throw a dagger at the third vine but it went wide... like 10 yards wide. He clutched the last dagger and drew back his arm to throw again.

“SCREW THIS!” Daniel yell from above. His friend finally had gotten a hand free and pulled his sword off his back. He swung drunkenly, with no balance. Luckily, one wild slash ‘thunk’-ed right into the third vine as it neared his neck.

Orrin heard a scream from behind the trees. An unearthly, low, rock on rock scream. Daniel was swinging at the other two vines, his arm a blur as he chipped strips of plant-life off each.

He quietly stepped around the large trunk and squatted low, imitating every stealthy video game character he had ever played. Orrin realized his [Camouflage] was still active. A few yards away was a monster. It looked like a ball of vines, constantly wiggling around. Three appendages had reached up the side of a nearby tree, traversing branches to sit over where they had been chatting minutes before.

It’s an ambush creature, Orrin did not know where the thought came from but he trusted it. He’d always been good at figuring out strategies in games. More than once, he’d pissed Daniel off by easing by a difficult part of some video game by doing something unexpected like running at the creature instead of rolling to the side or throwing a torch to distract an enemy. If I attack it now, it might just run away.”

Yeah. All 130 pounds of me running at that thing with a kitchen knife is totally the way to survive. Guess this world is doomed. Sorry Daniel. Even as his mind was second-guessing, Orrin was moving. He held the knifepoint up in his fist. He would stab it and then run. He was only about five feet behind it now. Sounds of Daniel’s sword hitting the vines and the occasional thunk of wood as he missed and hit trees still echoed.

Almost there. CRACK.

Orrin looked down. So engrossed in his upcoming role as Jack the Ripper, he had stopped watching where he stepped and broken a long stick cleanly in two.

He felt the vine monster’s attention turn to him. [Camouflage] obviously stopped working if he made too much noise. Shit. Well. Good to know, I guess.

Orrin lunged forward the few remaining feet, the knife hilt gripped in both hands as he pushed it forward at the monster. He saw the third vine arm swinging down towards him. It would be close.

The knife hit something rough and hard. The tip snapped and turned the entire blade to the side. Then it stuck fast, and the monster howled again. The vine arm smacked Orrin in the side, and he was thrown ten feet, rolling and coming to a stop only when his left hip hit a tree. An explosion of pain blossomed from his rib and hip. The vine slithered along the leafy forest floor and gripped his foot, pulling him back towards the waiting monster.

The sounds of swordplay in the trees had stopped.

This is bullshit. I’m going to get eaten by Tangela. But the uglier, wooden vine version.

The vine had grabbed his left leg, so every pull jostled his hip and set a fire throughout his body. Something definitely was broken. It hurt to breath too. Probably a broken rib. His mom's constant chattering about her job had stuck a few bits of medical knowledge in his head. He hadn’t even thought of her since he’d landed here. Did she know he was dead? Would his body have been brought to her hospital? She’d be fine, right? They hadn’t had a dinner together in two years so her life wouldn’t change that much.

The vine monster lifted him in the air by one foot. Orrin heard a thump, as Daniel’s body still wrapped in vines hit the ground nearby. He wasn’t moving.

Orrin hung upside down, waiting to die. As the vine lowered him down, the wiggling mass slowed and a hole appeared in the middle. A mouth filled with rocklike teeth, maggots, half of a rotting animal, and bad breath so pungent he gagged.

And there just to the side of the ‘lip’ was the knife.

The vine let go and Orrin fell into the gaping mouth.

When Orrin was nine, his dad had signed him up for soccer. Orrin had already proven at this point that anything involving moving objects and him were a recipe for disaster; however, his father was adamant.

So, Orrin laced up his new shoes and set up behind their house to kick a ball with his dad. Orrin faced away from the house, so anything he kicked would only get lost in the small wooded area behind the yard.

“Look son, you don’t have to be good at this. But you do have to try. Life is trying," he paused, looking for a laugh to his dad joke. "Now set your feet and just kick when I roll it to you.” His dad never pressured him to succeed at anything, just to try everything to find his ‘passion’ as he called it.

The ball rolled slowly and stopped a few feet behind Orrin. He picked up the ball and rolled it back to his dad. He hadn’t even tried to kick it the first time.

His dad let out a sigh and nodded. Readying himself, he tossed it again. This time, Orrin had the speed down and when his raised foot came down to kick the ball...he missed completely and was looking at the sky.

His dad laughed as he bent over to help his son up off the ground “Really whiffed it there, huh? Don’t worry, you’ll get it.”

They spent an hour trying before Orrin connected with the ball with any meaning. He fell more times than he could remember, missed nearly every easy roll, and when he finally kicked the ball...

The light in his dad’s eyes had stopped shining as brightly, but his dad never gave up. That was one thing he always remembered. His dad never gave up. Until he left.

“Ok, you’ll get it this time.”

Why his dad thought the 100th time would be any different was beyond Orrin, but as his foot moved something clicked. He launched the ball. All his strength was in that foot. The soccer ball blasted off his leg and WHACK! it hit his dad right in the face, ricocheting over Orrin’s head right through the dining room window.

Orrin had never played soccer again.

As he fell, Orrin remembered his dad and that soccer ball. The handle of the knife was so much smaller but with nothing to lose, he turned his body as he fell and punted the knife as hard as he could.

Of course, he missed. He kicked the side of the monster instead. But his right shin connected with the knife, driving it through the meaty part of the monster’s mouth. It must have been a poor-quality knife too, because it shattered even more, shards of metal penetrating deep into the open maw of the monster. It shook its head in pain, which meant Orrin landed only half in the mouth. The pain in his left hip reached new heights as his left leg crumbled in the meaty mess of rotting flesh and blood.

He tried to lift himself out gingerly, but the monster finally had enough. It shook his head and launched Orrin into the air. He landed near the still body of Daniel.

The monster retracted his vines and rolled off into the forest, keening as it went.

Quest Complete

Save the Hero

Reward: 100 XP and [Identify] ability

Level 2 Obtained!

+10 AP

+ [Identify]- You can See

Orrin looked at Daniel. He was breathing, but those breaths were ragged. His right arm was snapped in two places with bone sticking out and blood running. The entire side of his face was bruised where a vine had slapped him.

0/120 MP

This is too much. Why?!? He’s the hero! He’s my friend! Orrin felt tears sting the cuts on his face.

He opened the Store. “Listen here, asshole. You do not get to die. We are going to solve all the Quests and get back home. You are going to go on your date with Cara. I’m going to make my mom stop working so much. Can you hear me?”

Orrin kept rattling off whatever popped into his mind. He went through spells, skills, and abilities. He almost bought a [First Aid Kit], but he wasn’t his mom. He didn’t know how to set fracture arm or what to do about internal bleeding.

I need more mana, he thought.

His blue box gave him the options.

[Meditate]- regenerate mana at 1 MP per minute (5 AP) [Mana Pool]- increase MP by 100 MP (one time purchase) (10 AP) [Blood Mana]- exchange HP for MP (1 to 1) (5 AP)

Orrin took a breath and thought. [Mana Pool] sounded like the best idea, but he didn’t know if it would actually give him MP now or just increase him to 0/220 MP. Plus, with that cost, he’d have no other options if it didn’t give him 100MP to use.

He purchased [Meditate] and after a moment went ahead and got [Blood Mana] too.

HP 35/80 MP 1/120

This is taking too long. Orrin hesitated for a long second... and dropped 24 health for mana.

HP 11/80 MP 25/120

Orrin Cast [Heal Small Wounds] on Daniel four times in rapid succession. Then on a whim, Orrin used his last spell on himself. He pulled up his Status and [Heal Small Wounds]

HP 23/80 MP 0/120 [Heal Small Wounds] 45/1,000

So [Heal Small Wounds] heals 12 HP but only costs 5? That seems broken with [Blood Mana]. Did I really find a loophole here?

He pushed 15 health into his mana and then healed himself three times.

HP 59/80

All the while, his MP ticked up one every minute. Ok. Let's figure this out then. 5 MP for 12 HP. Turn the HP into 10 MP and heal two times more, upping my health by 24. Rinse and repeat. I should keep my health above 10 if I can. This is totally broken!

Orrin got to work. He dumped 45 points of health back into mana and then used [Heal Small Wounds] nine times in row on his friend. That should be 108 HP, in addition to the 48 from before.

Daniel coughed and then breathed easier. His eyes flickered open.

“...did we die again?”

Orrin laughed.

Orrin kept the healing up, cycling. He told Daniel what had happened, his ill-fated attempt to be a soccer player again, and the glitch he had found.

“So, you get to heal as much as you want....and regain your own mana from your health....at a rate of one to two?”

“Actually, I’m healing more than I should be. I think Will is more than just my MP times ten. I haven’t figured out the equation yet but I’m going to. It definitely boosts the damage or in this case the healing of my magic. It’s like Will also makes spells hit harder.”

Orrin realized he was waving his hands as he walked in circles in front of his friend. His friend who was still cradling his broken arm. He started healing again. “Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about. You saved us.” Daniel watched in fascination as the bone of his arm pulled back in and reset. “Yeah, I’m glad I haven’t eaten anything, that was disgusting.”

He cast his spell until Daniel told him his HP was topped off, then got his own HP back to full. He almost stopped but realized he could gain more XP by pushing his MP to full too. He started [Blood Mana] cycling again. When he felt no more returns were really possible, he tried to pull up a smaller Status.

Level 2 (0/200) HP 74/80 MP 120/120 [Heal Small Wounds] 315/1,000

“Damn. I forgot [Identify].” He tried to use the skill.

Daniel Hero Level 1 HP 300/300 MP 25/80 Strength 14 Constitution 15 Dexterity 13 Will 8 Intelligence 10

Abilities:

[Summoned Hero] Gives x2 to all physical stats.

[Hero Kit]

Sword Proficiency Level 1

Dagger Proficiency Level 1

Mace Proficiency Level 1

Axe Proficiency Level 1

Hammer Proficiency Level 1

Spear Proficiency Level 1

Bow Proficiency Level 1

Quarterstaff Proficiency Level 1

Unarmed Proficiency Level 1

[Hide Status]

[Map]- See the world around you

[Stone Skin]- Increase your vitality! Physical damage is halved for 5 minutes

[Identify]- Attempt to peer into other’s Status

[Power Strike]- Deal 2x damage on your next hit

[Eagle Eyes]- See up to twice as far

[Edge of Death]- You can fight on! When your HP is reduced to 0, find the burning life within

“Daaamnnnn Daniel. Your Abilities are no joke!” Orrin tried [Identify] on the trees, grass, and even the knife he had thrown and found again. Nothing appeared. “I guess it just works on people?”

“How....How can you see my Abilities?” Daniel was looking down the length of his reclaimed sword. “I can only get your Status to say your name and HP.”

Orrin shrugged. They were going to have to ask a lot of questions when they got to the nearby town. They should really discuss their cover story. Too many stupid adventurers in stories ended up getting duped because they just loudly proclaimed ‘I’m the hero!’ without doing the smallest bit of reconnaissance first. “What did you say the nearest town was again? Day?”

“Yeah. Dey. D-E-Y.” Daniel slid his sword back into the sheath holes near his shoulder. Orrin hadn’t noticed it in detail before, but it was a big thing. A two-handed weapon for him for sure. Hadn’t Daniel been swinging it with one hand in the air with ease?

“Right. Like the Quest one.” Orrin pulled it up.

5. Reach the Wall of Dey [22 hours 5 minutes, 10 seconds]

“We should probably head out. You said it would take half a day to get there? I should probably get [Map] too. I used all my points from leveling to heal your sorry ass,” Orrin bumped his shoulder into his taller friends side. Daniel didn’t budge.

“You leveled? How? We didn’t even kill the thing. I got no XP for all the damage I did.”

“Oh I got a Quest reward of 100 XP for saving the [Hero],” Orrin drew the last word out sarcastically, wagging his eyebrows up and down.

Daniel shrugged again. “Well, savior of the [Hero], try to keep up. We’re going to need to jog a bit, it looked like the sun was in the middle of the sky when that thing tossed me over the tree line. We should probably not try running in the pitch dark of night.”

Orrin hated running.

The first ten minutes were bad. The following two hours were brutal. He could tell Daniel was trying to go slow for him. He even knew Daniel was stopping too frequently for rest breaks. But none of that mattered.

Because Orrin hated running.

“Wait...stop a minute,” Orrin pushed himself off another tree and sank to his knees in the leaves again.

“Orrin. We just stopped 20 minutes ago. At this rate, we won’t make it in time for the Quest. We’ve barely moved on the map.”

Orrin didn’t care. Logically, he knew the Quest rewards were worth the pain now. More health, more mana, more everything for running a few miles in the forest? He’d been all for that...before the running.

“Unless you plan on carrying me all the way there, we need to set a better pace D. I just can’t run like you can.”

Orrin breathed hard, trying to remember if it was “in through the nose, out through the mouth” or the other way round.

“...carry you...” Orrin heard Daniel muttering.

“Orrin. How much does your spells increase my strength and dexterity?”

Orrin pulled up his spells, “Plus one for five minutes every cast.”

Daniel grinned, “Does that stack?”

As it turned out, the spells stacked five times each. With Daniel’s [Summoned Hero] perk, that gave him a plus 10 strength and dexterity. More than enough to let Orrin ride piggy-back as Daniel dashed through the trees at a rate that left Orrin feeling a little nauseous.

They made great time. Daniel said they’d made almost the entire trek but when the sun went down, the rustling they had heard as they traversed the forest turned into full on growls. Branches swayed above them and neither felt comfortable being a moving target. They discussed climbing a tree to sleep in the branches until a large cat the size of a small car walked by above them. It ignored them completely but the timing and the wicked intelligence in its eyes made Daniel pick up his jog for twenty minutes.

Then Orrin spotted a tree with a crack in the side.

“There.”

The tree was dead. Hit by lightning in the past but still not fallen to time. A large crack stretched up 15 feet and a fire had obviously burnt out most of the inside. The darkness was heavy now, as the sun had fully set.

“There’s probably only five feet of space inside Orrin,” Daniel said hesitantly.

“Good thing you have axe proficiency then. Get chopping Paul Bunyan”

Daniel set Orrin down and sighed. He poked around on his screens and a set of axes appeared in his hands.

“That cost two points...” He handed one to Orrin. “Watch my back.”

“Of course” Orrin took the axe and turned towards the encroaching darkness. He pulled up his status as his friend used Power Strike after Power Strike on the dead wood inside the hole.

Three hours of running hadn’t done much for Daniel, but Orrin had been soaking in the XP. He used [Increase Strength] and [Increase Dexterity] five times each, every five minutes. He’d also put [Camouflage] up just in case it helped. Then he’d done his [Heal Small Wounds] [Blood Mana] cycle to get his MP back to full before starting over....and over.

He had a blinking ! next to one of his Abilities.

[Heal Small Wounds] (1,000/1,000) ! Upgrade available. 4 AP (Insufficient AP) [Increase Strength] (970/1,000) [Increase Dexterity] (960/1,000) [Camouflage] (380/10,000)

As they’d been running, he’d watched as he neared the 1,000 mark and was surprised when he realized he needed to buy the next level. No other Heal spell had been available in the Store but he’d figured it would level. He just hadn’t thought that it might cost points AFTER he had worked so hard to use 1,000 mana worth of heal.

I need to level again and get that...and strength and dexterity are so close too...

The chopping behind him stopped.

“Here’s our home for the night,” Daniel pointed his axe at the tree. He had hollowed out enough for them to sit comfortably on the floor. No standing room.

They pulled some brush up against the edge and sat down in the dark.

“I’ll take first watch?” Orrin asked. Daniel had almost died earlier. And carried him. And just chopped down half a sequoia from the inside.

“Fine by me. Holler if something tries to eat me,” Daniel pulled out his bedroll and covered himself, turning to the side.

“...D. I’m glad it’s you I’m here with. Thanks man.”

Daniel sat up and smirked at his friend. “Same buddy. I know I said it earlier but thanks for saving my life. Now don’t let that tiger leopard thing eat my face. I’ll carry you into town tomorrow and we’ll find the local king or president and get set up for success.”

Daniel was hard blinking as he talked. The day had taken more out of him than he was letting on. Orrin smiled softly at his friend. “Yeah. We’ll kick ass and find a way home.” He’d remember to get a good plan ready in the morning because no way were they going to go straight to whoever was in charge.

Daniel nodded and fell asleep as Orrin held a sword way too big for him pointed towards the night.