The woods looked to consist mainly of oaks and birch. I knew this, not because I was some survivalist outdoorsy type (not at all), but because when I inspected them a little status box appeared next to their trunks. Fantasyland had it's perks, after all. They, still, were beautiful and I found myself wondering offhandedly whether, if this is a hell dimension, what exactly would heaven be like?

Not that I would ever be given the opportunity to find out. That was the deal, after all, wasn't it? This was to be my new home from now until the eventual heat death of the multiverse. Or... you know... until my alarm went off. Whichever came first. I attempted to harvest any plants that I saw. I figured it would be good for my Scavenging skill level, though I didn't seem to be making much progress. So far everything that I had plucked had withered in my hand. Quickly crumbling into little more than ash, and leaving me with little but frustration to show for my efforts. I also kept an eye out for small, woodland creatures. I was no stranger to the whole 'level 1' experience and, in the absence of my starter town, or anything in the way of quests, it seemed like the wisest course of action would be to grind up on any local mobs... er, 'wildlife'... that I happened to come across. I did come across a few squirrels on my travels. But my attack and CC spells were... somewhat harder to target than I had anticipated. And, save for almost starting a forest fire or two, I really hadn't had much luck with them. I was used to your traditional starting areas - where the cute little animals just stood out there in the open, waiting for new adventurers to pop them like the furry little loot pinatas that they were. Still, you know, hell dimension. If it had been that easy here, I supposed, it would have defeated the point. I felt a little bit naked, considering my starting gear appeared to be little more than my nightie and a pair of crude sandals that I had, apparently, been wearing from the start. The starter gear in this game, notably, sucked. But, still, healing the little bruises and scratches that slowly started to haggar my legs with my healing spell was good fun. And, I hoped, I was gaining some experience in my Class Skill while I was at it. I took a few seconds to wonder, as I walked, what would have happened with my attire had I selected "Male" from the class options. It would have been somewhat hilarious to be trapped with a 'thing' waving about - cramming a pair of too broad shoulders into the silver nightshirt that I was still wearing from when I went to sleep. The thought was rather funny, if horrific. But it wasn't as horrific as the idea of an eternity trapped in a body with oily skin, and a thing that flapped everywhere every time I tried to take a step. So I quickly buried the thought. It was some hours later, I supposed, when I came across the sounds of other humans. Well, it could have been more like ten minutes I guess, considering my level of fitness at the time. Either way, my legs burned at the effort of walking through uneven terrain in shoddy sandals. and my mood had withered at my multiple failed attempts to hit anything with my 'great and powerful' magic. There was a sound. It was a whining, at first, like a painting. It could have sounded like a stray dog, lost and hungry, if not for the occasional mournful moan. It was a male voice, I noticed, as I moved closer - and while my very first instinct was to move away, to give any potential rapists and murderers a wide berth, I forced myself to trudge on ever closer. This was a fantasy land, after all. I was a fucking born witch. And if the man turned out to be an asshole then, at least, I would get a chance to try my spells against a much larger target than the squirls. The moaning got louder as I approached. Obviously. And, as the man heard the sound of scraping footsteps in the woods, he actually started crying out for help. Hello, quest notification. I hurried on, now that he knew I was there. There was no use, I figured, in letting him suffer needlessly once I had decided to help him. I pushed and shoved the branches out of the way, headless of the painful tearing against my skin. Such trivialities could be quickly restored, I had discovered. That was, after all, what magic was for. The man was laying on the ground, cowering over a bloody mess soon revealing itself to be his recently detached leg. He had a rope round tightly around his stump, and he was trying for all he was worth to keep himself from bleeding out. He barely glanced up when he saw me, his eyes filled with terror but yet also notably glazed over from, I expect, the great loss of his own blood. It was really a horrific sight. Fantasyland should be all hitpoints and gleaming armor, after all - not shards of bone peeking out from ragged flaps of skin, dangling from a horrific mess of a thigh. Still, I was quick to brush the sight aside. Like I said, this is exactly what magic was for - and I, above all, had a speciality in debilitating injuries. I didn't spare a word of hello. I didn't introduce myself or make nice, mindless introductions. I'm vein, but I'm not stupid - and time was something that was slowly dripping from the man's desperately grasping fingers, I could tell. I simply walked up to him and let my skills do the talking for me - "By the pact between thee and me, return to us Eternity, as your servants and your bonded, Belial, listen and remember," I solemnly intoned. Role playing, bitches. It really was quite miraculous. As was expected. He screamed out, eyes rolling into the back of his head, as the flaps of his skin and shards of bone... stretching... like playdough, quickly reforming the shape of his missing limb. Subtle details like the kneecap, the ankle, his little toes, took shape from that blob of flesh - and, settling into their, presumably, original forms, I could make out the newly formed features of a leg that did-not-exist moments before. I kind of wished the man would stop screaming like that, would let me appreciate the majesty of my newfound magics, but it was also quite enlightening to see how much something like that actually hurt. Eventually, the screaming stopped. And, I noticed, the world around me seemed to still be subtly spinning as well. Apparently, it wasn't a response to his vapid expressions of pain and, possibly, was due to the fact that I was rather unused to seeing people laying mutilated in pools of their own blood. I spared a random though to hope that, in the future, I would grow more used to such things. Getting lightheaded in the middle of a fight would be less likely to lead toward conquering Minotaur and creepy bald men named Frank (no, I'm not referencing anyone in particular. And I'm especially not talking about my third grade math teacher. I really don't know where you get off coming up with such things anyway), and more likely to lead me to finding out just exactly what it was like to experience death in this world. I scanned his status window, hovering subtly next to his face. I noticed that his name was 'Paul', a standard first level human. I wasn't sure if it was even worthwhile to make introductions at that point - how do you introduce yourself in a world where your name was written in the air for all to see? Still, I didn't know much about the customs in this world so I went ahead and went for it - "Hi there! My name is Moll... er... Mim, actually. It's lucky that I came upon you Mr... um... Paul. I know you looked to be in a bit of a pickle just now, so I understand that you haven't been very talkative. Even still, you may express your undying gratitude and devotion now. If you prefer." It would have been easier if there had been dialogue options, or even a little text box next to his name. I wasn't sure how to accept my quest reward, after all, if there was no 'complete' button underneath some block of text. Even still, it seemed like it would be easy enough. We just had to do it through actual, like, talking to one another. No sweat. Paul opened and closed his mouth, obviously at a loss for words. He was still looking quite pale, and I was a little worried that my little 2HP healing spell hadn't restored much at all of the internal damage. It, obviously, hadn't done much for his blood loss. I went ahead and chanted my spell out again, approximating the cooldown would be up, to give him back a little more liveliness. It, I thought, worked. The color started coming back into his face a little. Not much, but I wasn't about to nitpick myself at this point. I'd just restored his entire bloody limb, after all. But he at least was able to make sounds once again out his mouth. In retrospect, I believe, he had torn his vocal cords with his screaming while that first spell was taking effect. But it takes time to really learn the subtleties of these things, after all. He moaned, somewhat annoyingly, again and swallowed noticeably. "Mim... I don't know who... you have to help me. I don't want to die. Please, please, don't make me die," he stuttered. The computer had told me that my constitution was low, I remembered, but it struck me that this man was just downright pathetic. He was whole, healed, totally fine. Kind of. There was absolutely no reason for the sheer abject panic that he seemed to be experiencing. He begged and stuttered at me some more. Refusing, it seemed, to let the matter go. So I took the liberty of rummaging around through his pack while he pulled himself together. I was due some kind of reward, I figured, and he didn't seem like he was in any state to be handing out the sweet experience points. He twitched around as I pushed aside various knick knacks in his pack. It was distracting, but I wasn't going to wait around for him to figure out how to take the damned thing off for me. Most of his junk was useless, and I figured I wasn't due more than one item really. And it would be kind of cruel to take his pack and make him carry all this crap back to town in his arms, after all. Eventually I found a spare pair of trousers, and I slipped them on quietly. They were a bit large, but the drawstring belt seemed to do a good enough job of holding them around my hips - and anyway, it's not like I could waltz into town in my negligee and still expect not to raise a bit of a fuss. As I finished inspecting myself, I glanced up and noticed that Paul had managed to pull himself more together. Slightly. So I went ahead and risked a question, "So, how far is it to this town, do you suppose?" At first, it seemed like his answer would be lost amid more whines and begging. But I managed to make out enough words to put together that I was only a couple of miles away now. I set of, with a skip to my step and a song on my tongue. Stupid NPC was a bit boring, but I guess random sidequest guys couldn't be expected to be all that fleshed out in pretty much any world. Disappointing. I checked my ears absently as I walked, noticing that the sharp points had reasserted themselves. Oups. I guessed I was going to have to get better at this Masquerade thing if I wanted to avoid a hanging, here, when I got into town. But, it was my first day after all, and I quickly put it out of my mind as a learning experience. I just needed to focus a little bit harder. Like, at least now I knew.