“You Will Die! Yes, it was never supposed to be the official tag line for the game. It was simply an off handed comment I made during an interview that was picked up and repeated so many times that the marketing team simply chose to run with it!”

Kotaro Mizaguchi.

Despite having finished all my Soothing Syrup, I was feeling pretty good as Rey and I made our way through the old wood, treading carefully, doing our best not too make too much noise and attract any unwanted attention. We were still new to this world, and if we were going to get into a fight, we wanted it to be on our terms. Surprises at times like this were never good.

Through the trees, I spotted a cluster of torches and we were able to make out a group of three Corrupted Villagers, two of them Level 2 and the other Level 3.

“Do you want to try and take them?” Rey asked.

“You nuts?” I asked her. “One of those guys almost killed us. You wanna take three of them on?”

“We might be able to take them if you weren’t a Meat Sack!” she countered. “But let’s keep going.”

So we did. Here and there, slanted shafts of cold moonlight managed to cut its way to the forest floor. The wind was chill against my cheeks, and a faint smell of death hung in the air as though the very forest itself was cursed. I found myself checking behind every tree and rock we passed, just to make sure we weren’t ambushed.

“What the Hell is this?” Rey asked, sounding annoyed. “We run into one guy as soon as we get in here, and now we can’t find anyone?”

“Shhh!” I hissed, holding up a hand. Rey froze instantly. I cocked my ear to the side and listened. Somewhere close by, on the other side of a row of dark bushes, was a soft creaking sound. It repeated several times, stopped, then repeated again. I looked over at Rey who mouthed to me, “What is that?” I shook my head slowly, twisted my axe hilt in my hand and moved in the direction of the noise.

The creaking sound grew louder as we rounded the brush. I recognized it as the sound of old wood, like hardwood floorboards or an old chair. And when she came into view, I saw that it was indeed a chair.

A rocking chair, in which an old lady sat. She wore a plain brown dress with a simple cap atop her head, lined with lace that had probably once been white, but was now a stained yellow like the color of shower scum. As she swayed in the old wooden rocker, she sang to herself.

“Gone, gone, gone…” she crooned, rubbing her hands together. “…asleep little baby…gone, gone…”

I knew she was just an enemy mob, created by the game developers, but that still didn’t help my nerves. This lady was sketchy and unlike anything I’d encountered in any other game. I gazed at her to get a readout.

Midwife.

That’s all it said. No level listed. I turned to Rey who looked just as confused as I was. I glanced back at the old woman, sitting alone in her chair in the middle of the woods.

Maybe a quest starter? I thought. Or some other kind of NPC? Why else wouldn’t she have a level by her name? Still…something about it didn’t feel right.

Beside me, Rey dropped her arm and let her scalpel hang by her side. “Come on,” she whispered. “Let’s check this out.”

“Wait, Rey,” I tried to warn her, taking hold of her wrist. “Could be a trap.”

“I’m sure she’s just an NPC,” she replied. “She’s got no level! Let’s see what quests are like in this game!”

She tugged her arm away from me and walked forward towards the old woman. As she got closer, the woman seemed to notice her, and glanced up briefly before looking back down at the ground.

“Baby…gone…,” she kept on singing. “Gone, gone…”

“Hello,” Rey said softly as she reached the woman. My axe at the ready, I walked up behind Rey but kept my distance. “Are—are you all right? Have you lost someone?”

Finally, the woman looked up, and when she noticed us, stopped rocking. Without the rhythmic sound of creaking wood, the woods felt suddenly quiet and even more uncomfortable.

“Well, well, well!” she cackled. “What a couple of right cute Gigglemugs you two are! Come from Weeping Hills I presume?”

Rey glanced back at me and did one of those semi-excited shrugs before turning back to the woman. “Yes, we did! What are you doing here? Do you need help?”

“Ohhhh,” the woman groaned, putting both hands on her chair to brace herself as she got to her feet. Her whole body quivered as she got her legs under her, and instinctively, I reached out and took her arm to keep her from falling. “An old lady like me need help? No, no I don’t think so, young lady. You on the other hand…”

It happened so quickly I almost couldn’t process it. The old lady moved so fast she was nothing but a blur. Her right hand went into her sleeve and found a serrated knife, barely longer than my hand. I tried to turn to keep her from getting behind me, but she was just too quick. Then, I felt the blade against my neck.

Its cutting edge chattered across my throat, spilling my blood and tearing away every single last bit of my remaining health.

“Clay!” I heard Rey shout as my strength faded and my legs went out from under me. The last thing I saw before my vision faded to black was the old lady dashing towards her with unparalleled speed, and driving the pointed end of her blade into Rey’s chest.

The world went black, and all I could think was, nice one, Mizaguchi. Real nice.

DEATH TAKES YOU!

***

A pale silver light formed in front of me, grew and expanded until it was all I could see. A high pitched hum rose from somewhere and gradually the light faded and the world came into view. I looked around and found myself standing back at Weeping Hill, bathed in the glow of the lamppost at the center of the town square.

“Not as easy as other games, is it?” I recognized Jacob’s smug voice and turned around to find him standing wide-legged with his arms crossed over his chest, a Bone of the Great one in his hand.

He really was pissing me off—implying that I was some kind of newb who’d never played a Mizaguchi game before and didn’t know what I was doing. Player killing was allowed in Blood Seekers, and if I’d had a couple more levels on me, I would have taken great pleasure plunging my axe into his chest.

“The Midwife,” I replied. “She had no level listed on her—”

“You noticed that, huh? Yeah, that’s one of The Weeping Hills’ many traps. You’ll learn to watch your ass from now on.”

My hand tightened on the handle of my axe as he smirked at me, cocky with his one level lead he had on me.

Just wait until I grind a little, buddy, I thought, glaring back at him. Something flashed in the corner of my vision, and I looked down to see red square icon set with a yellow star. As I focused on it, it expanded into a text box.

You have been slain! Your Quintessence remains on your body waiting to be retrieved. In addition, a 5% penalty has been applied to all of your attributes. Earn more Quintessence to reduce this penalty.

I couldn’t help but smile. It was a brutal penalty for a brutal game, but instead of feeling angry or defeated, I felt inspired—ready to get back out there and take on the world. If Jacob thought for one second that this first death was going to hold me back in any way, he was wrong.

I heard something behind me, and turned around to see Rey appear at the lamppost behind me, her body materializing amidst a flurry of silver wisps that spun around her before drifting apart and vanishing into the air.

“That bitch!” Rey cursed, slamming an angry fist against her thigh. “What kind of shit was that!?”

Smirking, I stepped over to her. “Think that’s bad? Check out your death penalty.”

I watched her eyes as she found the icon and read the cruel words I’d just read. Her lips twisted like she’d just smelled something rank and awful. I nodded and chuckled.

“Yup. Nice, ain’t it?”

“Mizaguchi wasn’t lying was he?”

“Not by a long shot,” I said, twirling my axe in my hand. “Come on. Let’s go get rid of this.”

I knew he was going to do it. He just couldn’t resist. As we walked away, Jacob called out to us. “Sure you don’t want some help this time?”

“No, we’re good, Jacob,” I called back. “Thanks.”

“Suit yourself!”

“I will!” I muttered so only Rey could hear it.

“You still got a bug up your ass about him?” she asked me.

“Dude acts like he knows it all,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “Level 2 and he walks around like he’s max-level!”

A cluster of hard moss cracked beneath my sole as we passed the last building out of town and made our way towards the tree line. I redirected us toward the spot where we’d entered before.

“You sure you’re just not jealous?” Rey teased me as we approached the woods.

“Of a level 2? Don’t make me laugh.”

Using my axe, I slashed a dead limb off a tree in front of us, clearing a path into the trees. As I stepped through, I heard Rey mutter to herself behind me. “That’s not what I meant…”