The next morning found Jarrod alone in the house when he woke up. Searching through both of his parents were missing, a little unusually so was all his father’s equipment, not just what he usually took on his standard guardsman patrol. The fact they were both gone however gave Jarrod a golden opportunity, not one he was likely to spurn. Finding a large sack, he packed it full of a few empty waterskins, a couple of loaves of stale travel bread, hard tack, dried meat and a few apples as well as one sad looking peach he found at the back of the pantry. Not taking so much that he left nothing for his parents to eat, taking only what he felt was his fair share he checked to make sure all was in order and strode away from home without a second thought, nary a look back.

A couple of hours later found him outside of the village, heading Westwards, equipment fully strapped to him or being worn after being collected from outside of Woodend. He soon felt the itch on the back of his neck, hairs on his arms being raised. He swore he was being watched but just couldn’t see anything anywhere. Nothing was rustling the grass beyond the wind, the noises of small animals surrounded him. The animals hadn’t been frightened away, nothing could be seen stalking him whether he moved or stood stock still and waited.

Shaking his head, deciding it was just nerves – striking out on his own, with no one even rooting for him or supporting him Jarrod simultaneously had never felt more nerves nor freer in his life. Every step he took, he felt a lightening from his shoulders and his chest felt looser. It was a tough feeling to describe, he hadn’t noticed or even felt the tightness banding his chest or the worries and stresses that had settled on his shoulders. Soon he was humming to himself, keeping one eye on the path and another on the grass all around. The terrain was just so different, barely a tree in sight. The largest pieces of foliage were large, scattered bushes, grass that was about knee high and patches of giant wildflowers scattered everywhere.

He managed to get himself lost in the vista all around even forgetting about the itch in between his shoulder blades which is why the fact he found himself sprawled on the floor caught him completely unawares. As did the system messages which flashed up across his field of view.

-5 HP

You have failed to resist twisting your ankle. You have been inflicted with a light sprain. -5% movement speed, a chance of exacerbating if you walk large distances before it has healed. Strenuous activity and combat may also exacerbate this injury.

“OUCH! Oh, shit shit shit shit. That’s not ideal. Maybe if I move slowly with lots of breaks it won’t count as large distances.”

With this Jarrod pushed on till the sun reached its zenith, finding a handy rock overlooking the river he plopped down with a sigh as the weight came off his ankle. Slowly massaging his ankle with one hand, he alternated between water and some jerky with his other making sure to get plenty of both down his neck. It wouldn’t be doing to fail just after setting off because he got sunstroke or something else equally stupid.

Taking his boot off after he finished eating, he could already see where his ankle was starting to swell. A small robins-egg sized lump had formed on the outside edge of his ankle that was sore to the touch. Application of pressure didn’t help in the slightest at the moment. Placing his boot back on was quite a bit tougher than getting it off had been, once it slid past his ankle it went much more smoothly, but it was still quite sore.

The hours passed with nothing of note. The uneasy feeling of being followed or watched remained with him for the rest of the day. As evening approached and darkness was starting to encroach upon the world, Jarrod stopped walking and looked for somewhere handy to stay. There was no useful stand of trees, there was no natural windbreaks that he could find at all. Struggling his way under one of the bushes he saw was his only remaining option, pricking his arms and hands on the sharp thorns as he did, eating a depressing supper of cold bread and meat with yet more water. Wrapping himself in his ice-blue cloak he settled down and tried to get comfortable.

Spending a miserable uncomfortable night found Jarrod waking up and pulling himself free before dawn had even broken. The only thing that could be said, was his cloak had kept him warm, it just did nothing for the rocks in his back, the spines of the bush in his face or the spiders and bugs that now lived in his hair. Fighting his way free and brushing the cobwebs from his face, found Jarrod looking at a road that was wreathed in an early morning pre-dawn mist. For the first time since yesterday evening though, he no longer felt like he was being watched or followed. Taking a moment to assess his condition, all in all he couldn’t really complain. He had wanted to strike out on his own to find adventure, who could ask for more – he had already spent a full night away from home! Intentionally and not at an Awakening Shrine or because time flows whacky in dungeons.

As he was making sure his food sack was still properly sealed, after taking an apple for breakfast he noticed that there was a small golden fruit on the bush. What was odd, is that it was the only one. The bush had no other fruit on it anywhere nor on the floor. It also had no flowers that would turn into fruit, or even any green new growth. Looking more closely, he couldn’t see any thorns around the fruit, it really did just look like a very plump, very ripe raspberry. Just golden instead of red. Throwing caution to the wind, figuring he would try and figure out what it was first he plucked the berry from the bush.

That turned out to be a huge mistake, the bush immediately started to flake away whilst simultaneously melting in on itself. Slowly it started to reform, taking the form of a thorny humanoid made of heavy bark, spikes and vicious sharp looking branches. Trying to figure out just what was happening Jarrod quickly tried to identify the ‘thing’ whatever it was.

[Guardian of the Golden Berry] [Level ???]

The figure said nothing, Jarrod wasn’t even sure it had a mouth to say anything. It simply pointed at the berry, then at Jarrod, then held out a palm made of interwoven branches with wickedly sharp spikes surrounding it.

Jarrod wasn’t sure it would understand words, still he was without even a smidgen of an inkling of what the Berry was now. It was however clearly either valuable or powerful, something an adventurer who was trying to set himself up on his own could use to its full potential.

Taking a step backwards, Jarrod intended to draw his sword and take a few moments to assess what this guardian would be able to do. The guardian however didn’t give him a chance, with a flurry of spikes flying from its other hand directly at Jarrod’s chest. Most of them were caught by the thick leather covering his chest, a few however did scrape along his arms, with one barb landing deep in his neck.

-1 HP

-3 HP

-2 HP

-1 HP

-1 HP

-7 HP

Damage has been halved.

You have been poisoned.

Well as far as opening salvo’s go, which appeared to be a very weak effort as far as Jarrod was concerned. Taking a firm dual handed grip on his sword, he stepped forward and launched a heavy diagonal slash against his opponent. The slash landed but got tangled in the bush made entities body. He clearly could hit it easily; it was just actually doing some damage seemed to be the tricky part.

In response the bush-thing decided it was bored of playing games and launched a fist almost quicker than Jarrod could follow, giving him no time to dodge, or even dissipate the blow and he took it square to the side of his head.

-106 HP

Part of the damage has been halved.

Jarrod flinched, his vision starting to darken around the edges. A blow like that didn’t need to kill him, but he could already feel his brain starting to rattle around inside his skull, if he let it, he would be able to fall asleep now without any problem. That however may be a problem. He had to go for it, rather than aiming for any weak spot that he would find on a human, Jarrod tried to let his LUCK guide him. It currently was really his only play in a fight, especially in a fight where he was so heavily outmatched in all the physical stats. Whether it was LUCK, whether it was The Other, or whether it was chance, Jarrod’s sword landed in the bush-thing’s body but never where he would’ve expected. It landed directly in the top of where the things left foot would be if it was a human.

Critical Hit! Weak Point Strike! You have dealt 216 damage to Guardian of the Golden Berry. Guardian of the Golden Berry has been destroyed.

Top of its left foot? What a ridiculous placement for anyone or anything’s weakest point.

Picking the berry back up Jarrod took a moment to look it over, unfortunately the system wasn’t exactly forthcoming in what it was or what it did.

Golden Berry [Epic] [Natural Treasure]

A golden berry plucked at the height of its power.

Its guardian has been defeated or outwitted, it will recognise whoever consumes it as its rightful owner.

It is pulsating with arcane energy

To Jarrod it sounded like something which a mage, or some other form of magic user would pay him good money for. The only thing throwing him was “natural treasure” he had never really heard of them before, only having caught the term in passing.

Whilst he was tempted to eat it so it would recognise him as its rightful owner, he didn’t want to discount the possibility of being able to trade it for either a large stack of coins or some other item that he would be able to use more feely.

Based on the fact his HP was down to single digits and knowing that without the ring he had found in the very first dungeon he did he would be dead now Jarrod felt very shaky. The adrenaline was starting to leave his body, blood now pooling beneath him. He was no fool, he needed to heal up some before continuing further on his journey. Sitting down to take the weight off his bad foot, he ate most of the remaining jerky and washed it down with two-thirds of his water. Water was not a big issue, he would simply fill it up here before moving on, the meat however hurt. He was down to a few apples, a loaf and a half of travel bread and whatever he would be able to hunt. Jarrod knew the likelihood was slim, he had always been a crap hunter.

The sound of the river, the lack of an unsettling feeling coupled with the adrenaline draining away suddenly left Jarrod feeling exhausted. He fought to stay awake, jerking awake three separate times after his chin hit his chest. On the third one he jerked awake having slumped down to the floor entirely. There was no jerking awake a fourth time, soon the sound of soft snores filled the air of the local area. He was lucky there was no one there to hear the noises to come investigating.