Swamy stared at himself in the mirror. He yawned. He was still sleepy.

The last night he had trouble sleeping. Side effects of being restless from a great fight or atleast that's what he assumed. His body felt excited, eager to move, like the fight had not been enough. He did not know how to classify it, whether it was excitement....or just a bad feeling in his stomach which might trouble him later on. In either case he did not sleep well.

He moved and stretched and felt his body was fine now. He did not feel uneasy or excited....just normal.

'I guess that's good!'

Swamy started his preparations to attend class.

Lunch time again, and he was sitting with Manish, Himali, Sneha and Rajan in the cafeteria. It was sort of strange that he brought his own lunch. Usually the food in the cafeteria wasn't bad, and people preferred eating there or eating out at places close by. Atleast that was true for the first years. By the second year and above, students realized the value of economy. Not that they did not spend, they had full blown parties but they worked and earned some of that money from doing odd jobs around campus or outside. Like Swamy was doing. In fact he knew a senior, a 3rd year named Christopher, who worked with him in the movers company. He had been working there for quite some time now, and had become one of the managers. Well in simplest terms, he got to assign people tasks and manage all the lifting. So much for a manager.

It was he who now approached his table.

"Hi Swamy!"

"Oh hey Christopher, what's up!"

"Yeah...sorry to trouble you while eating. But there's been a lot of bookings this weekend. We might have to work extra time. You okay with that? I need to find out how many people can manage so I can plan accordingly."

"Yeah I am good. I can work!"

"That's good. We were running short on the guys who can operate the heavy lifters. Two of them just took leave on account of the long holidays coming up. And its just our busiest time too. With the *Dusshera/Diwali break coming up people are leaving for their homes or the beaches (*Indian festivals, usually give long holidays when it occurs close together. It follows the Lunar calendar so it can happen once in a few years. Kinda like long holidays over Christmas and New Years!).

"Hmm...no I haven't got plans. My parents just visited and they plan to go attend a conference in the holidays so I am available."

"Fine see you later then..." he said as a ping came from his phone. Even Rajan suddenly looked unsettled as he stared at his phone.

"Holy ***" "Wow!" Both of them started speaking together. Realizing that, both of them looked up at each other.

"Do you by any chance play Long Island?" asked Rajan.

"Yes! You do too eh. Do all of you play?"

Everyone nodded.

"Hehehehe then you will want to hear this!" and Christopher and Rajan both looked at each other and smiled excitedly.

"Why don't you sit down though..." offered Himali and Christopher pulled up a chair.

"So why are you guys looking so excited?" asked Sneha.

"Well someone posted it just now. Its titled Blessings! Seems like npcs bless you in the game. According to the post it happens when you have a lot of familiarity with the npc. A lot of people are getting it once they reach the age to leave the village." Rajan added.

"Wow that's amazing! So we will be able to get those blessing as well. What kind of blessing do you get anyway? What do they do...?" Sneha asked.

"Hmm its kinda vague on that point..." Rajan looked at his cellphone moving his fingers.

"Actually, I can tell you about it. Blessings are different based on who you get blessed by. And it may or may not be related to actual fighting. So far there are blessings which help you in fighting like giving you buffs but then there are also ones which improve your luck in finding a certain fruit. The same npc can give different blessings to different people. So far we don't know what exactly triggers each blessing. Its kinda random as far as we can tell." Christopher said a lot about it.

Everyone stared at him. "Yeah...the guy who wrote this post is part of my guild. It seems its kinda become the most popular post in the forum." he added.

"So are you saying, you guys have already been out of the village already. Where did you start?" Rajan asked suddenly very interested.

"Well we started randomly. I started up in Dalmund village and a few of my guildmates started there as well."

"So why haven't you told the others about it? You know you could have helped a lot of us with the information you know!" Sneha quipped.

"Hey hey calm down. Everyone would want to have an advantage in the game right.." Manish added.

"Yes. And its not like we hide all the information. We just let it out after figuring out how it works...and after it has been vetted by the guild that it should be shared. We try to help each other in the guild which also means sharing information within the guild first. My friends are a good lot, so a lot of it gets out eventually."

"Yeah...and I am far more interested in what you can tell us anyway!!" Himali added.

"Well I can tell you about some of it...but please forgive me if I do not give some details!"

"Hmm...first of all, how do you create a guild in the game? I wanted to make one, but so far I couldn't find any information about it in the village. The system menu also doesn't have anything of that sort. The only thing we have been able to is register friends." Himali asked.

"Ah! You cannot do that in the starting villages. In the capital, there is a guild office where you need to apply to make your guild. The information about it is a little vague as of yet. But I can tell you this, the guild system is a little different. Usually when you make a guild, you just need a group of people together. But there is talk about a guild base. You would need a base, I am not sure... whether we have to purchase it or build it. As I said information about it is quite vague. It seems you need more familiarity with the npcs to get more information."

"Hmmm...so we need to get to the capital city first! But wait if you don't know, how did you guys make it then?"

"We didn't! Actually we are a group who always play together in other games so we made a guild in real life. You know keep in touch, regular meetings and discussions, etc. We do plan on making one in the game too though."

"Ah that's nice. So could you tell us more about the blessings and the age system and how to earn more money...and..."

"Woah...hold on! One question at a time!" Christopher interrupted Rajan.

"First of all, the information about individual blessings we got is kind of classified." Rajan made a face hearing that.

"But I can say that there are different levels of blessings. So far, we have come across common and rare. I think it depends on your relationship with the npc. It is also not guaranteed, you will be blessed once you get to the age of leaving the village. Also, you do not get blessed by all the npcs you know. There might be some other mechanics involved here."

Everyone listened attentively. Christopher laughed at seeing their serious faces and as they relaxed a little bit, he continued.

"The age system is still a mystery. Earning money is difficult. It seems beginner monsters don't drop anything. I don't know if it changes later...! The easiest way to earn money is to get a job. It is also the most earnings you get atleast at the start. You can also use your skills, you know cooking tailoring etc, to get meat or leather from the monsters and sell them. Ah....it seems the monsters don't disappear like in other games, so you can carry it with you. You can then sell them in the village."

"Oh that's strange! It will change the way economy is run in the game if it continues. Maybe that's to make players focus on some skills rather than simply gaining a whole lot of them" Himali said.

"Not sure! People can learn and build up on a lot of skills as well. As far as we have seen, a lot of skills are not simple. You start learning one skill, but when you finally learn it, you gain more skills automatically. Its like there are hidden attributes in all skills you learn. So you can never say that simply focusing on some of them would be better."

Everyone nodded understanding.

"Oh I just remembered we haven't been introduced yet." Sneha suddenly added.

Everyone looked at each other and then laughed.

"Yeah...well I am Christopher. I am a 3rd year in the virtual reality department. I know Swamy already!"

"Oh then you are our senior then..." as the rest introduced themselves.

"Alright then, I need to go. Oh hey, when we do make a guild, why don't you guys join us."

"Hmm....sorry but we already have friends we want to make a guild with. We usually make a guild with them!" Manish replied.

"Yeah. We already kinda wanted to join their guild, so sorry but we will have to pass as well!" replied Sneha.

"Hmm its ok. Swamy, see you later then. Will text you the details! Later guys!"

As Christopher left, the talk suddenly erupted about all the new things they had found. People were eagerly waiting to see what kind of blessings they would get. Just then Sneha exclaimed,

"AH! But what about Rajan! He already crossed one npc. You don't think like there are blessings, there are curses as well? Maybe he will be cursed!"

Hearing that, all of them started laughing. Even Swamy. Rajan grimaced.

It was much later that Swamy thought Sneha might have a point. If there are blessings when you have positive familiarity, what happens when you have negative familiarity. Also, he was too embarrassed to ask how the blessings were given to Christopher and the others.

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Raka opened his eyes to a strange sight. What he hoped to see was a lot of dead bodies of rabbits and wolves. What he saw, however, were lots of snails. These are called Acid-piss Snails if he remembered correctly. Size, think of something between a large dog and a bear. These were called acid-piss snails because they pissed acid, literally. And then,

Dying penalties are applied.

The message reminded him that he had died. Checking his stats quickly, he found that he had lost 1 point in each stat. And almost 10% in every skill. Dying was expensive.

It was a strange view, looking at lots of large snails moving really slowly across the battlefield of the days before. He observed a couple of them still finishing off the bodies of the animals around. Yep, they were eating the dead bodies.

'Maybe they eat dead things. But I have got bigger problems.' His problem was that he had logged in smack dab in the middle of them. Surrounded by the many snails, he did not want to start fighting the moment he logged in.

Fortunately for him, they did not seem interested in living things, like Raka. Slowly moving, they completely ignored Raka and only went for the few dead bodies which remained. Considering it would have been 3 days in the game, the snails had eaten every dead body around. 'Well if they are not interested in me, I am not interested in them.' Raka headed back towards the road.

But as he was in the middle of them, he had to walk avoiding these snails. Once, he approached just a little closer then he would have liked. The snail released a colored gas from somewhere. Raka quickly stepped back on reflex. However,

You have been affected by Paralysis posion. Movement speed reduced by 20%. Effect lasts 30 minutes.

The little bit he had inhaled had caused him to lose 20% speed. 'If I inhaled more...' he stopped thinking about it. He walked more carefully now, even waiting for them to make a gap in their number which kinda took a long time considering how slow they were. But Raka persisted. He remembered Neona explaining about all the animals found in this region. 'Acid-piss snails are one of the most passive animals around. They did not attack unless they feel any danger. As long as you stay away from them, they don't bother you.'

And so quite a while later, Raka reached the road. Just then,

Satiety reduced to 10%. You are very hungry.

Till Satiety is recovered movement speed reduces by 20%. If Satiety reduces further, more negative effects will be applied.

It looked like spawning afresh did not fill his satiety to full either. Raka quickly pulled out some of the pies, he had packed before hand for the journey and ate them. He did not have a lot, so sooner or later he will have to start hunting. Now if only he could figure out a way to hunt without invoking the bloodlust.

'The way I figure, its the blood which causes bloodlust. So if I can just knock them or somehow bring them on the road and then kill them....' and Raka started thinking about his next move.

A little while later, he stood and started preparing. First he decided that he needed some food to augment his supply. It wouldn't do, to be caught unprepared and hungry. Pies can be sliced and stored separately so it can be used as emergency rations, the slices quickly consumed. He should avoid eating those, which meant he needed to secure another food supply.

Making a plan in his head, he embedded his staff with wind magic.

"Skill description, Dance of the Fighter"

Skill Dance of the Fighter (Beginner lvl 2: 4%) : A type of dance which also hides a martial discipline. Allows increased damage, Life and Mana recovery when it is performed, to a limit. Can apply only in combat. Level increases effect to 2% increased damage, 2% Life recovery, 2% Mana recovery. Effects can be stacked to a total of 50%. The steps of this dance have not been learned completely.

'Hmm..so this thing is still incomplete. I guess Lady Verina would know the rest...its her moves I am copying after all! But atleast the effects are useful.'

He stepped back into the forest. Soon he found a horned rabbit. He quickly aimed before it could notice him and attacked. A wave of wind blew as he swung his staff down, headed straight for the rabbit. Raka turned around and ran towards the road, without looking behind.

Raka expected that the wind was not strong or sharp enough to cause blood to come out. But it would be perfect to unbalance it for a while and eventually attract its attention. Soon he heard the rustling of grasses and leaves as the rabbit used its incredible speed to chase after him. Raka speeded up. If you simply compared speed, he knew he would never reach the road in time. But, he had a plan. Over time he had improved his control just enough to allow him two uses of his wind slash.

Raka turned around and quickly swung his staff one more time. The rabbit was taken by the wind and thrown back. It landed on its feet, however, and began its chase again. On the other hand, Raka had started running the moment the wind blew.

Soon, he made the road. Raka smiled looking at the bounding rabbit chasing after him.

'Lunch!'

After quickly finishing off the rabbit, he waited to see if the bloodlust effect would take place. It didn't as he expected. He had figured that the animals try to avoid the road and stick to the forest.

Taking the rabbit apart, he quickly separated the skin and the meat from the bones. He washed the meat, skin and bones with water from his canteen. He stored the skin and bones, while he started a small fire with a little help from magic and started cooking the meat. 'Could make some money selling these.' As he got used to magic, it was becoming simpler to control it. It was just like knowing how much strength to apply to move a bike . Too much and it will bang ahead, too little and it won't move. Once you figure out the right amount, it became far simpler to handle it. His low mana was still a problem. Embedding could not be done in between a fight as he was still slow so running out of mana, though not much significant right now, could pose to be a far larger problem in the future.

And ofcourse, he had another problem of not being able to see the Life of the animals. In a one on one fight, he could handle them just fine. But he had realized that in a group fight, when he was fighting many to one, not knowing how much life they had left could be very troublesome. Managing his mana to fight becomes an issue. Ideally, he would start with a magically enhanced attack greatly reducing their life, and then switch to normal attacks to finish them off. If his life was in danger he would switch back to magical attacks to hit them harder. But being surrounded by many creatures, many of them injured and his life always in the red zone, he could not judge when he should use mana and when he could finish them off with just normal attacks. This was one of the reasons he had run out of mana the last time. Even after he got the dance of the fighter skill, he could not use his recovered mana.

Raka sighed. He had much to improve before he becomes any good at fighting. The meat roasted, he sat down to have his lunch.

Stamina and Endurance increase by 12 for 1 hour.

Satiety increases 50%. Satiety is now full.

Raka gulped down some water from his canteen. After he had his fill...he got up and stretched. It was time for the real fight to begin and he walked, again to the forest.

This time the fight went a little easier. Knowing what will happen, he preserved his life from the get go. His body remembered the movements of the animals and the dance of the fighter skill allowed him to restore his life and mana by dodging. In fact his life reached red only after the bloodlust reached 100% this time. The increased stats came to his help and increased his effectiveness even more.

"Hahaha...I have been taught by two monsters...You guys are just undisciplined brats in comparison!" he quipped as he smashed them all around.

The fight finished with him still retaining a bit of his life. He had gotten a couple of bleed effects, but as soon as he got out of combat status, his life and mana started getting restored. Bleed effects were temporary as he found out, but lasted a long time just like the paralysis poison. If the bleed had been more than his recovery skill however, it wouldn't have been cured like last time. His life and mana recovered, he started demolishing the animals around him. Skin, meat and even bones were neatly stacked in his bag. He could feel his bag becoming just a little heavier. 'About a kilo heavier than before', he estimated. Though it was not a cause for alarm as it was still quite light.

'I gained only 1 strength and agility point this time. Hmmm...also the blessing effect only gave me +2 to all stats. Maybe, because I have got used to them it has been reduced.' And so thinking about the complexity of the blessings system, Raka walked back to the road.

This became his routine, everytime he logged in. He walked for part of the day, and fought for the other part. He avoided the forest after dark though, for one thing, it was quite dark and he did not want to fight blind. The game did not improve night vision automatically. 'Maybe its another skill!' he thought as he walked towards the capital.

One time, after getting tired of the rabbits and wolves, he decided to venture further in. It was not easy. Like a real world forest, the deeper you went, the denser the forest became. Soon he was surrounded by tall grass and huge trees which almost blocked the light. Giving up, he turned around to head back when he met the armadillos, as he recalled Neona's words. Yep, they were simply named Armadillos and even looked like the ones in the real world but consider it being the size of an alligator. Covered with armor on its back, it was even larger than the komodo dragon. And they had this unique method of attacking. They would coil themselves up in a ball, in order to protect their soft parts and then roll like a wheel. Their armor allowed them to roll and bounce for some reason. They rolled and bounced, hitting the trees, gradually increasing their speed till they became very fast, just like pinball. That speed added with that thick armor caused immense damage. There was no point hitting them when they were in this state, their armor would absorb all the damage. Even if you push them away by force, they would simply hit another tree and bounce back faster. The forest was a very bad place to face them...they had an enormous advantage here.

The only thing which worked on these things was fire. Like any animal, they cannot take a lot of heat. Burn them and they will stop and uncoil, making it easier to kill them.

Raka avoided the attacks of the couple of armadillos he just encountered. The attacks itself were not too much. Once he saw them coming, he simply side stepped. It was only their speed which was slowly getting faster. 'If it continues longer, I am the one who's gonna get killed.' Making his resolution, he waited for an opening and quickly brought out a scroll from his bag. "Fire ball" he yelled as they moved in to attack. He directed the fire to their incoming forms. They squealed loudly after being bathed in the hot flames and stopped and uncoiled. Raka did not miss this chance, he swiftly attacked with more fire spell scrolls till they stopped moving. He put their bodies in his bag and walked back to the road, as fast as he could.

This was part of his preparations. To make spell scrolls. He had bought a bunch of papers before he had set off from the village. He continued his daily training of practicing combat forms, making spell scrolls, playing the flute, cooking etc as he headed towards the capital. Now he was learning how to use it.

Around five days in real life had passed while following this routine. Raka tried various things to see the extent of his skills during the journey. What works, how it works, limits, etc.

'Hmm so the blessing effect has gone now!' Raka observed. The blessing did not increase his stats now. Not that he needed it anymore. He could handle the rabbits and wolves without his Life getting to the red zone now. He had simply taken this attack to test what kind of buff the blessings would give. And as expected he received none.

Looking around he was satisfied with the results. He started the process of deboning and storing them. All the while thinking of some way to make his fights easier. He was still in the beginner's area after all. He would meet stronger foes soon enough and without a Life meter, it was going to be pretty hard to face them the first time.

Just to try out some things, he had started a habit of trying to calculate how much Life they might have had. Based on how much damage he could do, and also if he could remember, how many hits it took to kill them, if there had been any critical hits, so on and so forth. His accounting skill was being used to keep record of animals killed and the kind of damage done or received, which was certainly a different way to use it. Nevertheless it gave him skill experience. He had started experimenting with the rabbits and sometimes the few wolves he attracted back to the road.

'Okay this one died in 4 hits, but one was critical and I didn't use magical attacks. Based on my average damage plus the critical...I would have done this much damage.....' he muttered as he wrote down the details of his fight. 'Hmm the other one took 6 hits but there was no critical and I didn't use magic either.....' he tried to guess how much Life they would have had. Raka figured that, even if he couldn't see the Life bars, if he could estimate how much they would have had, it might make it easier to do the same for the other animals he may encounter. 'But first fights will always be hard I guess.'

Based on his figures, Raka had found that not all animals have the same amount of Life. Even rabbits did not have the same Life among them. It differed slightly, sometimes more sometimes less. The same thing he observed with the wolves. 'Could it be that there is some other attribute which defines how strong an animal is?' he wondered. Other virtual reality games had taken this process where monsters fight among themselves to level up. Maybe something similar was in play. But if that was the case, he should have met some mini bosses by now. They could be identified by the extra Life or the extra defense they might have, but looking at his records he could not see such variation.

After he finished his calculations, he tried identifying the dead bodies. This had become another practice but it had yet to reveal any results. Still he kept trying in the hopes that somethings would work eventually. The most he got now was...

[p=center]Horned Rabbit[/p]

Class: Animal

Horned Rabbit lives in the forests surrounding Gurrow Village. One of the most aggressive animals, it attacks on sight. It is extremely fast and agile and can jump very high. Its razor sharp teeth can chew the trunk from the trees. However not very intelligent. The horned rabbit mainly eats the vegetation but can also eat nuts, fruits, berries and small bugs.

[p=center]Two headed Wolf[/p]

Class: Animal

Having two heads gives these creatures a modicum of intelligence over the other creatures of the forest. It also gives it more hunger. One of the most aggressive animals, it is defined by its ability to hunt in packs and by its destructive nature. Eats meat generally and some bugs as well. Generally found hidden in the deep of the forest attacking unsuspecting intruders.

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'Tomorrow I might reach the capital' Raka calculated. He had been spending half his day doing various trainings to level up his skills. So it had taken him double the time to reach it. Thinking which, he prepared to go hunt again. He did not need food, seeing as his bag was full of meat, skin and bones but it helped in testing various things so he continued hunting just for its sake.

He went in and found a rabbit. He did a wind slash and ran away to draw it to the road. But this time, he saw that the horned rabbit was being followed by a small one. 'Maybe that is its young' he figured. The older rabbit attacked and quickly got killed. Raka moved to kill the young one. But he couldn't. Seeing it trembling as he approached, kind of took his fighting spirit away. He expected rabbits with large saw like teeth and amazing speed, but this one was small and trembling. Raka decided to let it go.

"Shoo shoo....off you go" Raka tried waving his staff to scare it away. The small rabbit quickly took off. Raka watched it go, slowly disappearing in the forest, when suddenly a two headed wolf jumped out and killed the rabbit. It lifted its lifeless body and bounded to the deep of the forest. 'Hmmm...jungle rules, the fittest survive' Raka had just learned this lesson.

He was still standing lost in thought about the nature and frailty of life when he had a brain flash. 'What if these variations in Life occur because of the animal's age. Well if you think about it, all living things have age in real life don't they. Ofcourse the longer you survive the stronger you would be.'

"So if the age is denoted by y, and we define more Life as older, the formula becomes like this. I don't know how many years they live but the ones I have seen don't have much variation. It could be that their ages are very close." Raka had just figured out another hidden aspect in calculating the Life of an animal. He moved on to calculate the estimated Life of the rabbit in front of him. "So based on this...the Life would be around 250 with some variation based on age" Just then,

Estimation skill has increased by 1%.

Additional information is now available.

Wisdom has increased by 1.

'Hmm something worked. Additional information...eh!' On a hunch he tried,

"Identify"

[p=center]Horned Rabbit[/p]

Class: Animal

Horned Rabbit lives in the forests surrounding Gurrow Village. One of the most aggressive animals, it attacks on sight. It is extremely fast and agile and can jump very high. Its razor sharp teeth can chew the trunk from the trees. However not very intelligent. The horned rabbit mainly eats the vegetation but can also eat nuts, fruits, berries and small bugs.

Additional information has been added:

Age: 8

Life: 0

Cooking it may increase stamina and endurance.

Tailor skills may change its skin to various things.

"Interesting!" Raka said involuntarily. Who knew that estimation could be used this way. It proved his suspicion that the skills had far more depth than simply doing things they were meant for. 'Hmm...maybe the automatic partial identification thing might work now...' He headed back to the forest to find some rabbits. And he was able to see the name and the Life meter on top of their heads.

'So all I have to do is estimate the Life of every animal I find! But it still means that I will have to gather data from fighting it first. Still I discovered a way. Maybe I will find another in the future.' Raka was delighted by this discovery.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hah...where is it...!!" Today should have been the day he reached the capital. But so far he was only finding more road. He was excited...it was a different place but also it would be first time he would see the sea in the game. Maybe his sea adventures would begin now. Thinking this and that, Raka had started his day with much anticipation. Now he was losing patience. It was almost afternoon. He had skipped all his training today to make it to the capital but he still couldn't see it.

Soon in the distance he saw some people with a horse cart. Knowing merchants used these, maybe they would tell him how far he had to go. 'Now that I think about it, its supposed to be a busy road, how come I am only finding this merchant now?' Putting his thoughts aside for now, he quickly ran towards the merchant cart.

As he approached he saw a few people standing by the cart with a lot of pointy things shooting out from the side. He came closer and saw that the pointy things were actually spear ends. Soon he was shocked.

There were way too many weapons lying around, shattered. Even the cart seemed to have been broken with holes here and there. The horse was dead on the ground. And people. Yes, dead bodies loitered here and there, some still bleeding with their owners eyes closed. Some having spear ends sticking out from them like they had been skewered. And then a few others who seemed have been clawed at by some beast, they had huge tears on their skin.

'What the hell was going on?' Raka was aghast at the scene. This was not done by any animals, nothing in the area should be strong enough for the people of the island.

He quickly embedded his staff with earth magic. Not that he could do anything to the things which could do this. The players were still far far weaker than any of the islanders who had grown hunting the things around here.

He quickly checked around. Nothing anywhere. He didn't even hear the sound of animals that he had gotten used to over the past few days. The forest was silent. He moved to check up on the dead people. 'Maybe someone's still alive' he thought. He couldn't do anything for them but atleast he could find out some information of what happened around here. After all having come here, even his life was on the line now. He kept looking around him apprehensively while he slowly checked the dead. He soon heard soft cries coming out...from inside the cart. He found the door and opened it. A very heavily bleeding man was inside ...and still alive. 'Shit I don't know healing'

Looking at the door open, the man was scared but finding Raka his eyes showed some life.

"Who.....are......you?" He spoke losing his breath.

"I am Raka. I came from Gurrow village and was heading towards the capital. What happened here?"

"You.....goddess chil..ren?" he asked with a wave of his head.

"Yes I am!"

The man smiled. Raka could only stand helplessly as he watched that.

"I am sorry I cannot heal you!"

"Its...fine.....I..do..not ...have..long to live....." The man wheezed and coughed out some blood from his mouth.

"Take.....message....to...guard....captain......at...capital....its...beast....beastmen!"

[p=center](Event Quest) Take message about intruders[/p]

Intruders have been spotted on Ilmentia Island. The intruders have been identified as Beastmen. Hurry and take the message to the guard captain of Thelmova. Be careful, the Beastmen are strong and vicious.

Difficulty level: C, quest fails if you die.

Reward: Acknowledged for meritorious service.

"I will!"

Quest has been accepted.

"Thank...you....hurry...run....they....are...coming..." The man said as he took his last breath. His head fell down lifeless.

Raka quickly looked around. He decided to start running when he heard some sounds in the forest clearing. He wasn't sure what he heard...soon he saw five animals walking out of the forest. No, not animals. These were walking on two feet. They approached a little closer too swiftly for a human though. And Raka saw them. The head was of a wolf and its very broad body covered in black wolf fur till the waist including the hands. The legs were crooked as though they were animal hind legs, though it could still walk with them. The hands had thick nails coming out of its fingers, like claws. One of them had the head of a cheetah though and straighter legs. All of them broad and tall...and full of deadly muscles.

And then they saw him.

Raka turned to run. But the cheetah looking guy, disappeared from his sight. And appeared right beside him. He felt a great pain from his back as it was suddenly slashed with a force which threw him far far forward.

Your Life has entered critical zone. Blessing effect active. You have encountered an immensely strong enemy. +40 Vitality, +20 Stamina, Movement speed 500%.

One hit and he found only 10 Life remaining. Even his blessing effect warranted it.

Raka quickly got off the ground and ran full speed ahead, his improved stats telling him to run away. The cheetah man chased after him. Soon the wolf men joined too. His improved stats made his running speed fast. Too fast. But still his improved vitality told him, that he could expect to get hit too. And so without looking back, he ran forward at the fastest speed he could manage. He even put his staff in his bag. It was no help here and he ran helter-skelter.

A couple of times he felt, not saw but felt that the cheetah guy came close enough but somehow could not attack him. Other times he felt that he had swung and missed by the slightest margin. He definitely got hit one more time as Raka felt himself fly forward some more. He grimaced as he tried to land and scurried on to his feet to run again. His endurance helped dull the pain a lot that he did not even feel the second hit, only felt himself flying. Only his suddenly reduced Life explained what had happened.

Raka heard voices or growling...but he could not understand. Maybe they were communicating in some language. He did not have time to care about it right now.

Raka ran full speed for a couple of hours. The increased speed was sapping his stamina fast. Even with his improved stamina and the increase from the blessing, he could feel that he wouldn't be able to run much more. If he didn't reach the capital soon, he was going to be caught and probably killed by them. He wished he could fight them, but they were fast. Atleast he couldn't even see the cheetah guy move the first time. The last time it had happened he was practicing with Lady Altia on top of the hill.

He felt wind blowing from the strong claws barely missing his back. And he knew that if he slowed down even for a second...his life would be over.

After a while, as he rounded a hill, he saw a huge gate in the distance. He could see tiny figures move around it but he was still too far away to shout for help! He felt the beastmen behind him increasing speed. Soon he felt claws slashing and missing him from the side. He could see the claws coming towards him from the corner of his eyes. He felt fear. So much for realism of the game. And probably that gave him the extra burst he needed to move just a little bit faster to keep dodging those vicious looking claws.

He thought he reached close enough...."HEYYYY!! HEEELPPP!! HELP HELP MEEEEE!!!!" Raka screamed with all his might hoping that the guards will hear him. Somehow he suddenly felt movement stop behind him. He still ran forward but he couldn't hear or feel the beastmen behind him. 'Could I look around now' he wondered but kept running all the way till he reached the gate.

The guards suddenly surrounded him with their weapons on the ready. Looking at Raka screaming and running full speed, they had gone on alert. But the spears were pointed at him. Raka whipped around and saw no sign of those beastmen. 'Did they hide?'

A guard who carried a sword approached,

"Halt stranger. You are one of the Goddess's children aren't you? State your name and then tell me why do you look so harried?"

"Huf.....huff.....I am Raka.....from...Gurrow village. Need to speak with guard captain.....its beastmen!!" panted Raka.

"Beastmen! What nonsense are you talking about? We saw no one! Are you sure you did not eat some kind of hallucinating herb by accident?"

Raka was pissed! Here he was running for his life, only to end up with someone who did not even believe him.

"Please let me speak to the guard captain. I assure you I am not lying. I think he will believe me, if you let me speak to him!" Raka controlled his anger and his breath.

The guard looked over at him like he was some sort of habitual liar.

"Hmm...I don't know. But atleast you are wearing the armor of Battle school, even though its filthy, so you are allowed to meet the guard captain. Alright come with me!"

'MY Battle school armor allowed me to meet the guard captain!!' was the only thought he could manage.

Raka was led inside the gate and around a curved road, and then he saw his first look of the city, Thelmova. The city was built on the side of a hill, all along its slopes and ended down with a large dockyard and the vast sea. Raka had imagined the sea to be blue and maybe sandy beaches. But this sea was almost white, what with the churning of the numerous tides. He could still see a bit of blue in the distance though. The shores were full of rocks, just the small patch of sand near the dockyard from which many piers extended out over the water. It was full of ships of all sizes and kinds. They all seemed to be ships with sails. The larger ones had a lot of them, the smaller ones just one or two.

They moved ahead while he saw more of the city. It was a lot bigger than Gurrow. Although being on a side of a really large hill, he could not see how big it stretched. There were houses everywhere. Lots of large buildings. Even some grand ones made of marble and what else. The docks seemed the most exciting though with a lot of large warehouses scattered close to it. The buildings seemed to grow richer as you went up the hill.

Now that he noticed there were walls surrounding one side, including the gate where he entered. Maybe there was a wall surrounding the other side as well, though he could not see it.

They moved to a small house just a little behind the gate. The guard knocked and mentioned Raka to go in first. It was a small two room house, with the front used as some sort of office. Raka assumed the back would be some kind of a resting area, as was in Gurrow village. There was a strongly built, though wiser looking middle aged man sitting behind a large desk. He was closely studying some papers, reports maybe.

He looked up as Raka entered, with the guard behind him. The guard entered and saluted.

"What is it Ronald?" the wise guy asked.

"Sir, this boy just arrived at the gate. He was running full speed and his clothes are looking messy as you can see. He is one of those Goddess' children and he should have come from Gurrow village. He claims he saw beastmen and wanted to see the guard captain. I did not believe him. But he is wearing the Battle school armor so I brought him to you to judge!"

"Hmm...thank you Ronald! What is your name boy?" the guard captain asked.

"Its Raka, sir" Raka responded politely.

"And what is it that you saw, in detail please. I will assume you are not hallucinating, your eyes do not show its effects!"

Raka breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sir, I came across a merchant cart which had been destroyed. The people had been killed. Some had been killed by spears and some had been slashed to death, their skin had marks like claws. I found one, sitting inside the cart, just alive and he told me to warn the guard captain that there were beastmen. Soon around five or six beastmen came out from the forest. They saw me and attacked me, but somehow I survived. I ran all the way here after that. I think they were chasing me till not long ago. But I think as I reached closer to the gate and started shouting for help they stopped chasing me. When I reached the gate and turned around they were not there." Raka explained in as much detail as he could.

"Hmm, and how did you realize they were beastmen? Have you seen them before?"

"Um...no. This was the first time. They looked like wolves, with wolf heads and crooked legs. Although one of them looked like a cheetah, all yellow and spotty with a different head but similar legs. And walking on two legs. They looked like beasts, and I found them near the cart, so I thought they were beastmen!"

"Hah...!" the guard captain sighed. He looked at Raka as though scrutinizing whether he was telling the truth.

"Ronald..."

"Yes sir!"

"Take a group of your best men and horses and find this merchant cart. If he is right you can expect beastmen so arm yourselves accordingly. If you find the cart or any evidence report to me immediately."

"Yes sir!" and Ronald headed out.

After handing out the instructions the guard captain turned towards Raka.

"I am Emilius, one of the guard captains at Thelmova." He introduced himself.

"You will have to stay here till we confirm your news, is that ok?"

Raka nodded.

"How far away was it, when you found the cart by the way?"

"Um...I think I ran for like 2 or 3 hours."

"Hmm... so it might take some time. You seem tired. Why don't you rest in the back! Do you require any healing?"

"No sir." Raka had lost a lot of Life from the hits he received. Even the ones that barely missed had shaved off his Life bit by bit. Thanks to the blessings effect he still had Life remaining at the end. There had been no everlasting injury though he could feel that his clothes on the back had gotten destroyed.

Raka went inside to find a small room with a few bunk beds and a small table and some chairs. He sat down on the chair to wait. Even with horses it should take them atleast an hour to get there. He closed his eyes and rested. After a while, he heard someone coming. The guard captain came inside and offered him something to drink. Raka thanked him and he left. Raka sipped his drink slowly giving himself something to do while the time passed.

A little less than an hour later, he heard loud boots. He had dozed off a little on the chair but sat straight up immediately. A different guard came inside and beckoned him. Raka came out to the office to find a few more guards wielding swords.

"Ah there you are. We have just confirmed the truth of your statements. The cart was not found but evidence remained of a fight being there. Our scouts even detected the presence of beastmen." Emilius said.

Raka simply nodded.

"You did us a great service and showed great courage and resilience in being able to survive against the beastmen. They are not to be taken lightly. Even our best warriors do not do that. But you, just out of the village, survived. I guess, as expected of the Goddess's children. You must have the Goddess's own luck supporting you."

Raka simply stayed silent not sure of what to say.

"Raka, for your service and courage, I am recommending you for a Queen's medal."

pa pap pah

Quest "Take message about intruders" complete. You will be rewarded for your meritorious service.

"Um sir, may I ask who or what are the beastmen?"

"Hmm, well you saw them so you should understand a bit. They are a race of beings who live in a land far away. They possess the strength of animals and the intelligence of humans, which makes them both vicious and dangerous. Beyond that even I don't know."

"So why are they here?"

"Now that is a very good question! But you need not concern yourself with that. You just arrived here in our city. I assume you will have your own stuff to do. So welcome to Thelmova. Go on then."

And Raka stepped out of the office into the starry night!