“So, we need wood?”

I was standing with several others in an empty scratch of land on the Malicious Intent estate facing toward the surrounding valley and wilderness. The early morning light was hardly noticeable through the dim and grey cloud coverage. I shivered a little in the chill and tightened the thin cloak I’d borrowed from Tang closer around me. The old Treasurer had gleefully informed me that I’d be helping some contractors with manual labor before disappearing back into Horn Keep.

The five of us were gathered in a tight circle around a very abused contraption. I had been told it was a sled, but it was crafted out of a wooden pallet and a length of wet rope that had been affixed to one side.

“Wood, yuss,” said Hephraim, a Human builder of few words who had made the trip to the Guildhall from Gruoch. The mustachioed man tugged on the corner of his slouched cap, biting his lip as he stared at the vessel in front of us.

I peered at the other faces in the circle.

Two more Humans, a man and a woman who had arrived with Hephraim. The woman was middle-aged and had a handkerchief wrapped over tangle of red curls tucked back in a ponytail. Her name was Moira, a fact that I had learned from her overhead display, and she had a round, friendly face decorated with a myriad of freckles. She had a stout, hardy frame, and it was no surprise to find out she was a builder.

The other man was called Sage. He seemed young, maybe twenty at most, and had an untidy plume of ash-brown hair going in all directions except down. His face was plain, though it was cut down the middle by a nasty scar that seemed recent. He was dressed simply, in a thick, grey woolen shirt and dark brown canvas pants that fit slightly baggy. A hatched was tucked into his belt on one side, and a satchel adorned the other. Sage hadn’t spoken the entire time, but seemed keen to listen, his bright, green eyes darting around a lot as Hephraim and Moira spoke. He was an apprentice, and Hephraim had indicated he’d be going with us to gather supplies.

I looked over at the remaining member of the building party.

Shizu seemed to be asleep where he stood, his eyelids almost completely closed as the rest of us had discussed our project. I could just see a sliver of purple peeking out beneath the lids, the only indication that he was aware at all. He wasn’t wearing his helmet today, and I could see the volume of light green hair that spilled down, almost touching his shoulders. He was still wearing the worn-out armor that threatened to squeeze his massive frame out. The Fomorian was also assigned to help with this project, though I suspected it was some form of punishment in his case. No one else from Malicious Intent had made an appearance. After thirty minutes of listening to Hephraim explain our duties, I had to assume that we were it.

“Shizu,” I said, checking to see if he’d been listening, “do you want to pull the sled?”

The big Fomorian opened his eyes only slightly wider and turned to me, nodding.

“Sure thing,” he said in his sleepy voice, shrugging his shoulders.

That will have to do, I suppose.

I turned back to Hephraim and Moira, who were now squatting on the ground drawing out measurements with a long stick.

“How many pieces of wood do we need?”

Hephraim didn’t look up, only grunted, shaking his head, and suddenly a golden Questmark appeared above his head.

“Oh!”

It surprised me, but not wanting to appear inexperienced, I raised my hand and selected the Menu icon that had appeared in the air.

New Crafting Quest! [Gather Wood]

Gather 240 pieces of wood for Hephraim.

Accept?

Yes/No

This is really cool. I feel like I will never get used to this.

I accepted, and a little bar appeared in the lower left of my vision.

Wood Gathered

0/240

“We should probably join a party.”

I turned to look at Shizu as he nodded toward the two builders.

“It’ll make it easier that way since we will be able to share the Quest,” he said.

“Oh, uh, alright,” I said, looking around, “how do I do that?”

Shizu smiled. He didn’t seem annoyed by my questions like the other Guildmembers did. He stepped closer to me and swiped through the air. I watched as his Menu sprang up, his eyes moving back and forth from the contents to me.

“Open your Menu and then set your sights on me, an option will appear to invite me to a party.”

I swiped my Menu open and stared at Shizu before looking back to the Menu. A new option faded into existence.

Invite Shizukana [Malicious Intent] to join Party?

Yes/No

I sent the invite. I watched from the other side of the transparent Menu as a secondary window appeared. Shizu clicked one of the buttons, and the Menu disappeared. The black nameplate text above his head changed to green, and a little green indicator materialized as well.

“Now, as long as we are in a party, I’ll appear on your Map. Also, stay right there.”

Shizu took a few steps to my right until he was out of view. As he did, I felt my awareness shift. I could feel his presence still there. It was not a normal sensation and felt almost like when someone stands too closely behind you, but less invasive.

“That’s super fucking cool,” I said.

“Yes,” Shizu agreed, stepping back into view, “you eventually get used to the feeling. It’s a good indicator of knowing a rough whereabouts of your Party Members as long as you’re not too far away.”

He pointed at Hephraim and Moira again.

“Now, go into your Journal and select this Quest and then share it with me.”

I did as he asked.

Share [Gather Wood] with Party?

Yes/No

After accepting, Shizu’s name appeared next to the Quest.

“Perfect,” Shizu said, still smiling, “but we might want to invite the Human as well.”

Sage was standing quietly, watching our interaction, still wholly silent.

“Sage,” I said, motioning at us, “do you want to join our party?”

Sage didn’t speak and simply nodded.

So I ran through the process again with Sage.

Once he was a Party Member, I noticed that the sled had a handful of wood sitting on it. My Quest task flashed a change.

Wood Gathered

5 / 240

“Woah, Sage, you were holding out on us, dude!”

I slapped him on the back.

“Alright, now we just need...two hundred and thirty-five pieces of wood left,” I sighed.

“That’s about seventy-eight pieces per person,” Shizu said and squinted at the sled.

“This thing can only hold a max of sixty pieces. So, we will have to do a little back-and-forth. That’s kind of a hassle, but we should only need four trips total to finish,” Shizu explained. He looked up at the sun and looked to the trees beyond the estate.

“We should get moving then,” he said, turning towards the sled and snatching up the rope. It moved in his grasp as if it were made of feathers and followed obediently behind him as he made his long strides toward the forest. He passed a cluster of tools lying on Hephraim’s builder’s tarp and deftly swept his hand down and grabbed an ax, and tossed it into the sled.

“Vale, would you mind bringing some water?” Shizu asked, still walking away.

I looked at Sage, and he nodded in return and hurried to follow the Fomorian. I found the waterskins next to the builder’s tarp and grabbed three, slipping the straps over my shoulder and then ran to keep up with the others.

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

Chopping wood was hard, I soon discovered.

I could not control the ax at first, and as I laid into the first tree trunk, my swings were wild and ineffectual.

Sage had pointed out some downed trees a little way into the forest, which was a lot less daunting than chopping down healthy ones, and so that was where I was cutting my teeth.

Sage used his hatchet alarmingly well, his precise strikes cutting through his section of trunk in no time at all. Before long, he had a nice pile of freshly chopped wood next to him and slid to a seated position to rest for a moment, his breath labored.

I looked down at the shallow cleave I had managed to produce so far and sighed. I was already sweating. My arms and back hurt from the effort of my terrible chops, and I needed to rest for a moment. I glanced at my Stamina bar and found that I was low, so I plopped down in the dirt and exhaled.

Sage looked over at me and smirked.

Keep your comments to yourself, kid.

I pulled the waterskin up and drank from it while lying on my back. The coolness of it burned my throat pleasantly, and I gulped it down quickly, forcing myself to stop as I reached the halfway point.

Can’t drink it all in one go, or I’ll dehydrate out here.

I let it sag back to the ground next to me and sat up.

Shizu was off in the distance, picking up fallen branches, searching for sizeable pieces and throwing them into the sled. I watched as the wood counter reached twelve.

Combining that with the ten pieces that Sage had procured, and the zero that I’d managed to wrangle, we weren’t even ten percent of the way to our goal.

We will be out here until night at this rate!

I rubbed my aching arms and heard the gurgle of hunger escape from my stomach. I had left out so soon that morning that I had not been able to eat any breakfast. However, I had breezed by the kitchens early enough that I was able to grab a few pieces of dried bacon and a hardened loaf of bread from last night’s dinner.

I opened my Inventory and quickly selected the bacon. Hunger made my hand tremble, and I found it difficult to access it at first. The three thick strips appeared in my lap, wrapped in a sheaf of baking paper. My mouth was watering as I tore into the tough texture of the meat. The salt stung the inside of my dry mouth. I wolfed down the chunks, and a wave of comfort swept over me. I began to feel better immediately. My Stamina began to climb as I ate, and I recalled that the restoration of each piece of bacon was twenty points.

After the bacon, I selected the bread loaf and made short work of that too. It had a Stamina Restoration of twenty-five, and soon I was sitting at eighty-five out of one twenty.

Enough to get back to work.

I glanced down at the wood counter and saw that Shizu had managed to gather six more pieces of wood, bringing us to twenty-eight.

Almost halfway done with the first load.

Sage had begun working again, and I watched as he hacked at another section of the trunk. His movements were smooth and fluid, not jerky and stiff like mine. He held his hands separate, one higher than the other on the handle, but just before the edge of the hatchet struck the wood, I saw him shift his right hand down to meet with his left, and cut a clean piece from the trunk. I hadn’t realized before, but Sage was whittling away sections of the trunk rather than cutting through the whole thing itself. He’d realign himself after every strike, turning so that he could get a better angle.

The trunk was massive, and so the pieces that he was able to chip off were sizeable. I looked down again at my own task. I’d been trying to cut clean through the trunk, and I saw now that it was a fool’s errand. I set the ax down for a moment and examined the tree. Sections of it had begun to rot and weaken, but the spot I had been striking was sturdy and healthy still. I picked the ax back up and moved to the other side, closer to the rotting portion. Rather than aim straight down, I directed my efforts toward the flank of the trunk, like Sage had done. Then I lifted the ax and shifted my grip to copy what I’d seen Sage just do. I tried to relax my body and swung the tool downward, and right before impact, I slid my right hand down to meet with my left.

CRACK!

A large section of wood broke free from the trunk and fell down into the dirt.

“Yes! Suck it, you dumb tree!” I yelled and raised the ax in the air triumphantly.

Sage paused mid-swing, and his eyes bounced back and forth between the piece and my ax. Then they found my face, and he smirked again and nodded.

Skill Level Increase! [Survival - Level 2]!

Subskill learned! [Woodchopping - Level 1]!

Welcome to the refined art of chopping wood. You’re probably mighty sore from all that hacking and grunting, give yourself a rest, you’ve earned it!

I felt more capable, and used the momentum to begin chopping anew. Before long, I, too, had a small pile of serviceable wood beneath me. Sage and I took a short water break and then went back at it, the sound of our crashing axheads ringing out into the forest beyond.

Soon, Shizu had returned with the sled, and we began to pile our wood onto the pallet. When we still had about ten pieces left on the ground, Shizu let out a low whistle.

“Look at that, we’ve already gotten to sixty, and we still have some left over. You guys are really coming along nicely.”

I nodded. Shizu carried on with his relaxed pace, his eyes drooping lazily.

“I’d have been screwed if I hadn’t watched Sage more closely. I figured out how stupidly I was doing it, before I had a chance to break my own arms from swinging like a moron.”

Shizu gave me a strange look, and then looked at Sage, but didn’t say anything.

“Well, let’s get this first sledful back to the builders, then maybe we can get some lunch. I’m starving.”

I looked at my Stamina, and noticed it too was getting low again. With a sigh, I suddenly remembered that I was out of the food I’d swiped from the kitchens. Lunch sounded like a fantastic idea.

“Here, here,” I agreed and hefted the ax over one shoulder.

We only made it a few feet before Shizu held up his large arm, stopping us in our tracks.

“Hold,” he said, though his relaxed expression never changed. He seemed to be scanning the forest around us, looking for some threat.

“What is it?” I asked, my voice hardly louder than a whisper.

“I have a Combat Skill called Danger Sense,” Shizu explained, “it’s telling me there’s an enemy nearby.”

Enemy?

My anxiety began to take hold, and I nervously clutched the handle of the ax, lifting it from my shoulder at the ready. I knew I’d be useless in a fight, having barely survived the few encounters with other Players. I held my breath and then let it out slowly, trying to take control of my panic.

Run! Run! Run!

My body wanted me to tear off into the trees, but I somehow found the strength to plant myself where I was, my body quivering.

Suddenly, fifty feet ahead of us, the ground erupted in a shower of dirt and rock. A large, slimy form broke free from the earth, and landed with a sickening wet plop. It began to slide forward on a serpent-like stomach.

It had slick, black and brown skin, and a ten-foot-long, legless body. Its head was pointed, and several shiny black eyes adorned it. In the front of it’s--I suppose you could call it a face--was a proboscis-like feature that opened wide suddenly, revealing a cluster of jagged yellow teeth. It roared, and the sound reminded me of a lion. It slithered toward us.

I was frozen.

“W-w-what is that thing?” I stuttered, begging my legs to move now. It was the opposite of what I’d wanted moments ago.

Why can’t you ever do what you’re told, body?

Shizu pushed himself forward, and opened his Menu. Two massive, steel tower shields appeared, one on each arm. He hunkered low, bringing the guards out in front of him.

“Get behind me,” he said calmly, but there was a new edge to his voice. Shizu finally sounded awake for the first time.

I was able to break free of the fear for long enough to stand directly behind our Fomorian protector, and glanced over at Sage. The young Human had drawn his hatchet, and was crowding behind Shizu’s right side, still within the protection of the guard he’d thrown up.

Even the woodcutter is braver than I am!

“Shizu!” I demanded, my voice trembling, “please tell me what that thing is!”

As the creature sped toward us, Shizu cleared his throat.

“That’s a stoor worm. It’s one of the most dangerous creatures in this forest. It won’t kill you until after it paralyzes you, and eats you from the inside out. You’ll feel everything, and it will take hours to die. Avoid its mouth at all costs. Even if you kill it, it can still hit you with a final attack, so watch out.”

I gulped. The stoor worm was now within ten feet of us, and I watched as a cloud of green gas spilled out of its jaws. Where the mist touched the ground, the grass wilted and died.

“Shiii--” I cried, as the stoor worm crashed into the shields.