They had walked for about another half hour when they heard a howling sound in the distance behind them. Evelyn face went pale at the sound.

“What is that? Wolves?”

“Worse. Bloodhounds. I'm being tracked.”

“Is it the soldiers?”

“It could be, or it could be bounty hunters.” The bloodhounds howled again. “It sounds like they're still several miles away, but they're moving faster than we are. Richard...we're going to have to split up.”

His stomach fell at the thought of this, but he had a feeling this was coming.

“The dogs are almost certainly tracking my scent. It's me they're looking for.” Evelyn explained. “They don't care about you, they won't be following your path, and even if they find you, there's no bounty on you. If we separate, I can move a lot faster in the forest than you can, I have a lot more stamina and won't tire as quickly. We've both got a better chance of getting away.”

He paused for a beat. “I can help you fight them, if it comes to that.”

She shook her head. “No, you can't. Not yet. If you try to fight trained soldiers right now, you'll just get yourself killed.” She paused. “I need to go, now. You should turn and head south, as quickly as you can. Hopefully you can get out of their way before they come through this area. If you do run into any of them, tell them...well, tell them whatever, but just don't admit that you know me or have ever seen me, and you'll probably be ok. I'm going to try to make it to the town of Bromwich, which is northwest of here. I have friends there. Stay low for now, try to get there without being spotted by any soldiers, and if you can get there, try to meet me there. The innkeeper is a friend of mine; just ask her if he's seen “Red” around in town.”

Richard nods quickly.

“Goodbye, Richard. Like the quest says, try not to die.”

He smiled, “You too.”

Evelyn quickly started moving much more swiftly, taking long, loping steps across the forest floor that easily avoided any hazards while moving at a crouch that let her quickly pass under branches, and Richard realized just how much he'd been slowing her down. He hesitated for a moment longer, and then turned left and started moving as rapidly as he could towards what he thought was the south.

The sound of the dogs grew closer, and he tried to run, but almost immediately stepped on a loose stone that moved under his foot and he fell. This time he twisted his ankle a little, but with adrenalin pumping through him, he ignored the pain and moved as quickly as he could.

By this point, the late afternoon sun had moved farther to the west. He ran, ducking under branches and jumping across holes in the ground.

Skill earned, Pathfinder (forest) (1)

He wasn't sure what the skill did exactly, and didn't have time to check his status screen, but he suddenly had a noticeably easier time moving through the forest. He avoided roots, jumped over logs, and felt a much greater sense of ease at running through the forest. He watched the ground and had a good idea of where his feet should land with every step, even while running.

He was running out of breath and had a feeling that his SP was probably running out, but he could hear the sound of dogs howling farther behind him now, moving past him off to the west. He felt relief for a second, and then was filled with guilt; they weren't going after him because they were still hot on Evelyn's trail.

He stopped for a minute to catch his breath and leaned against a tree. I'd better check how much SP I have left.

“Status”

Name: Richard Fein

Race: Human (2)

Class: None

Age: 26

Strength: 3 (2.4)

Dexterity: 4

Constitution: 10

Endurance: 5

Intelligence: 24 (28.8)

Wisdom: 4 (3.6)

Perception: 7

Charisma: 11 (13.2)

HP: 62 (Max: 64)

SP: 4 (Max 22)

Divine Class: Champion of Ikar (1)

Humor: 12

Cunning: 0

High Stakes: 0

Glory: -918

Divine favors:

Gift of Tongues: May speak, understand, read, or write in any mortal language (may only speak languages you have heard and only write in languages you have seen).

Special traits:

Offworld Education (Legendary): +20% to effective intelligence, -10% to effective wisdom. Learns skills 50% more quickly than someone with an equivalent intelligence, gains experience 25% more quickly. More likely to learn unusual skills.

Pampered: Compared to most humans, this person has spent his whole life eating the best food, doing minimal physical labor, and generally living what most would call a life of luxury. -20% to strength, -20% to stamina points, +20% to hit points, +20% to charisma.

Without Glory: This person is extremely lacking in Glory, one of the 3 virtues of Toran, and as such may be instinctively distrusted or even hated by followers of Toran. -10 to reaction from followers of Toran.

Skills:

Pratfall (2): You have the ability to fall in a hilarious fashion. Likely to make people laugh if executed well. All falling damage reduced by 20%.

Mathematics (14): You are extremely skilled at mathematics. +140% to calculation speed and accuracy. +70% to learning speed of other skills with a mathematical component. Small bonus to math related skills and spells.

Pathfinder (forest) (1): You now have a basic level of skill at moving through a forest quickly. You have learned the basics of how to travel through a forest, can see where to step and where to avoid, and can identify good paths to take while traveling. +10% to movement speed through a forest. -10% to SP cost for moving through forest. Increased chance to see and avoid natural hazards.

Quest: Try Not To Die. To succeed at this quest, merely live through your first two weeks in the world without getting killed. Shouldn't be too hard...right?

Ok, he was back down to 4 SP. Nothing gained by pushing himself until he collapsed, and it sounded like the dogs weren't following him. He slowed to a walk.

He could see this was going to be a problem. He couldn't outrun *anything*, and even just walking from town to town seemed like it was going to be difficult. Maybe skills like that Pathfinder one he just got would help, but mostly he needed to get his SP up, which probably meant improving his endurance. I really must get myself in shape. I wish I'd been going to the gym or keeping up with my jogging more. No time for that now, but maybe it was something he could deal with in the future.

He continued to walk through the forest, and the sound of dogs fell farther and farther behind him. At one point he noticed a thin trail smoke rising up from a spot in the forest behind him. Are soldiers setting up a campfire for the night, or…is that Evelyn fighting them with her fire magic? Part of him wanted to run back and help her, but he was miles away from the fire, and even if that was Evelyn by the time he got there whatever was going on would be long over anyway, so he kept trudging the direction he had been going in.

He started to limp, as the pain in his ankle came back when the adrenalin passed.

By this time, the sun was setting. I need to find a place to rest for the night, hopefully somewhere I won't be found by anyone searching the forest.

He managed to walk for a few more miles before finding a thicker grove of trees on ground a little lower than the surroundings, surrounded by thick bush and undergrowth. He pushed his way through the bushes, scratching his arms a little, then swung down his backpack onto the ground and then laid down flat on his back. He was below ground level, which would make him harder to spot in the dark so long as he stayed low, and the grove was surrounded by bushes which also would make him harder to notice. It was probably about as good as he was going to find.

He pulled out a worn blanket that the soldier had had in the backpack and wrapped it around himself. He then pulled out some of the dried food and nibbled on it. It looked like he had taken enough food from the soldier to get by for a few days, at least. He wasn't sure what he was going to do after that.

Richard laid down, and then further camouflaged himself by scattering some of the fallen leaves over the blanket that he was wrapped in. There’s no way I’m going to be able to fall asleep after everything I’ve been through today. But he felt exhausted to the bone; he didn’t remember getting any real sleep since he had been on the plane a lifetime ago.

He fell asleep quickly.