First monster. First problems. First trip.

I had been walking for about an hour, but I couldn’t find my way. The map refused to show me the entire area. This world’s size was amazing. If I wasn’t mistaken, Rainea couldn’t be smaller than the Earth. Many gamers believed that Rainea is larger than the Earth—if we take into account the Hellish Abyss, the Bright Skies, and other parts of the game’s universe.

However, Rainea was really huge even without these areas. Most of the country hadn’t been explored due to barely accessible regions, high-level monsters, and the remoteness of some locations from populated lands., amongst other things.

It was strange; as a rule, the players coming to this world found themselves in small towns or other settlements inhabited by many low-level mobs.

I was in a desert area, and I was glad of the fact because I didn’t want to communicate with the other players right now. My introversion was caused by some events in my life. People caused me a lot of pain and I didn’t want to deal with them, I didn’t even want to try to find good friends who could help me. I didn’t want to be hypocritical and pretend to enjoy being in contact with someone.

I’d rather talk to the NPCs. Despite the fact that they are controlled by artificial intelligence, they are almost indistinguishable from ordinary people, though they have one particular parameter, which lets them surpass the players.

Most natives express their emotions openly: their feelings are clearly visible on their faces or felt in their words and gestures.

Of course, I understand that the developers did that on purpose. However, it was a wise decision, which greatly pleased such misanthropes as me. Wow, here’s the first mob.

Forest hare. Level 1

Wow! Why is it growling at me? Screw it! Hares can’t growl. What a strange beast! Is it ill? I wish I could check it out. What has happened to the local fauna?

You’ve learned the skill ‘Observation’

Description: Exploring the world around, you began to notice a lot of unusual things that surprise you

Hidden treasures, secret paths, and forgotten dungeons are opened only to very attentive observers

Keep up the good work and you’ll be able to learn more about everything around you

Skill Class: normal

Skill level: 1

Hmm... That’s great! How should I beat this rabbit? Should I play peek-a-boo with it?

I ran up to this formidable creature, who dampened this beautiful forest with its presence and kicked it.

The hare hit a mighty oak tree growing ten feet behind.

Critical strike! Your enemy is damaged by hitting a tree!

50 HPs are obtained

Here is my first mob. I’d better see if there was a drop. I went to the small animal’s carcass and sighed sadly. Unfortunately, there was no drop. But I wasn't sad for a long time.

Thanks to the Observation skill, I noticed a strange moving blanket thirty-three feet away from me. My subconscious ordered, Get out of here, fool!

Having looked closely at this moving carpet, I immediately followed my own advice.

Flock of forest hares affected by the Hellish Abyss’s emanations

Level: 1-10

I couldn’t fight so many enemies, taking into account that some of them were level ten monsters.

They’ll eat me faster than a hungry cat eats a bucket of sour cream, then they’ll take the milk and bread from my bag. I wonder who came up with this battle between a crowd of level ten mobs and a first-level beginner. Is it payback for my achievements? Screw it!

The hares were real monsters! They kept following me, and my fatigue indicator rapidly began to turn yellow.

Oh, my god! If I’m eaten by a pack of hares, it’ll be so disgraceful. I’ll have to stop dreaming about goddesses!

When the fatigue indicator got painted in scarlet color and started to blink, it dawned on me. I rushed to the nearest tree and quickly climbed it. It was a very thick lime. They won’t eat me here! Several windows emerged as I breathed deeply.

Achievement unlocked: Sprinter I

Description: Grueling fast running strengthens a body, increasing Stamina and Strength

Reward:

+ 1% to running speed

+ 1% to Stamina and Strength

Achievement unlocked: Tree-Climber Ι

Description: Climbing trees (especially so quickly) might be rather funny and useful; it also improves your Strength, Stamina, and Dexterity

I could also unlock the achievement ‘Slow’—minus ten percent to the speed of thinking. I wish I’d thought of climbing a tree in the forest immediately.

Anyway, I don’t care. I’ve unlocked a couple of achievements which are useless now, but they’ll be very valuable when I reach higher levels. Now, I’d better think about getting out of this mess. I wonder if I get any achievement for that. Stop it! I seem to have a collector’s mentality. When I stop playing, I might go crazy. I’ll invent my own achievements constantly in reality. I must stop thinking about it!

The hares kept jumping on the smooth tree trunk but slipped and fell on the ground, growling like rottweilers.

I wonder how I managed to climb that tree. It has a very smooth trunk as if it were not wood, and the branches only start to grow at a height of about ten feet from the ground.

Stone Lime

Description: A rather rare tree in Rainea’s forests

The desert rocky plains of the Arag wasteland are the birthplace of these trees.

Nobody knows how they got into our world; a portal to their land was destroyed many thousands of years ago.

Space mages kept looking for a path into that world for a long time.

This tree has incredible density and hardness, and it can be cut down only by magic weapons

This was an advantage of my Observation skill. Are these wastelands a non-game location, or have the developers have come up with a global quest? Maybe it’s just a game legend?

Why did mages keep looking for a path to get there? I’d better find out. I’ll put it in the Stranger’s diary. Hmm… do pine-cones grow on lime trees?

This is a stupid question; of course, they don’t, but the developers didn’t seem to know about that. I can clearly see a whole pile of stones, the size of a fist, above me. They certainly look like pine-cones.

However, I could take advantage of the developers’ ignorance here. I picked a stone pine-cone and estimated its weight—about ten ounces. I wickedly grinned and threw the pine-cone at the furry carpet below, and…

Critical Strike!

New Level is obtained!

New Level is obtained!

I managed to kill a lot of hares with just one stone pine-cone.

It’s great! I’ve obtained two levels. Any demon would envy my smile. It was like an evil grin in anticipation of freebies. For the next half an hour, I was throwing pine-cones at the hares and managed to obtain another level.

Unfortunately, the greater the difference between the levels was, the less experience I got. However, there were a lot of animals remaining, and I still didn’t know what to do with them all.

A little while later, the hares began to behave suspiciously. They looked around and jumped nervously around the tree. I sighed, thinking of my own futility. Then one of the pine-cones suddenly lit up and exploded, and stone chips flew in all directions, wounding the animals standing nearby.

The next explosions killed another five mobs, and the rest ran away in all directions, freeing the way for me. It was strange that a lot of mobs died, but I still had a lack of experience in moving to the next level. Though, I didn’t care.

I managed to climb down and look around, not because I was very responsible, but because I was very greedy and afraid to miss any benefit.

Hmm? Why do I think of myself so critically? I’m not greedy. I’m just economical and reasonable.

The tree trunk was incredibly smooth, and I felt my hand slip; I scratched my forehead on the hard surface of the trunk and fell from a height of fifteen feet.

You’re damaged by 7 stat points

Health level 23/30

It hurts! My forehead and back were in pain as if I had fallen in reality. I didn’t remember the players complaining of severe pain on the forums. Oh, shit, I need to sit down for a while. I’m dizzy.

You’re injured! Brain concussion

Description: You hit your head, and now your Dexterity and Stamina parameters, as well as Perception, are lowered

Effect: -10% to Dexterity and Stamina points

Additional effect: blurred vision -20% to the level of Observation

Duration of effects: 1 hour

Damn it! What a stupid injury! I examined the hares’ carcasses and the surrounding area and soon cheered up. Now my inventory was replenished with ten skins, ten tails, five fangs, fragments of stone cones, one ancient coin found under a tree, and two dimly glowing seeds of the Stone Lime inside the pine-cones. I’ll deal with all this stuff later; I need to find a landmark now.

To look around I started climbing a tree. This time, I choose a normal tree, not the Stone Lime.

I should improve my tree-climbing.

I looked around the neighborhood from a safe position in the tree—the height of a four-story house. I chose a rather tall tree and only got to the middle of its trunk; it was dangerous for me to climb any higher. However, this height was enough to look around.

The forest was huge. It covered the ground like a green blanket to the horizon. As I scanned my surroundings, I saw gray smoke coming out from the ground to the north, around three miles away from me. Now I knew my destination.