The fire had gone out by the time the sun had risen, filling the area with warm light. All the cookware had been put away, the clearing clean of any loose items. Everyone was asleep in their bedrolls, all except for Cookie. She sat up as the sun kissed the horizon. Morning sunlight touched her face, arms raising into the air to stretch. When she saw that the rest of the group was still asleep, she kept quiet. Her bedroll was rolled up and held beside the bag that appeared too short for the item to fit. When it was dropped into the bag, the bedroll disappeared from sight, and a quick peek inside showed an empty vessel.

"I'll never get used to that." Cookie whispered. She slipped her backpack on and gave one more glance around to the others before slipping out of the clearing.

"Bleh... Morning already?" Tony yawned loudly, sitting up in his bedroll. The rays of sunlight could be ignored no longer. The sun had fully risen over the horizon. "Are you two sleeping?"

"I'm trying to." Lucas grumbled, turning over so his back was to the kobold. “Ugh, stupid tail.” He shifted around, getting his tail out from under himself.

"Be quiet." Raven joined in, pulling the bedroll to cover her face.

"Pft." Tony waved them off, then rolled out of his portable bed and stood up. "Wait." He looked around the clearing. "Where is Cookie? Did she ditch us?"

"What?!" Raven sprung up and quickly scanned the area with half-lidded eyes. "Cookie? But, she wouldn't."

"Huh?" Lucas sat up, also looking around. "When did she leave?"

Tony meandered around their campsite. "Beats me, but she took her things with her."

"That's not like her." Raven slowly stood up, still glancing around for any sign of her friend. "We've been together since the beginning of the game."

"Maybe she went on a walk or something." Lucas reasoned, flumping down into his bedroll.

"I... Guess she might have." Raven sat down after giving one last look around the area.

"I don't think I would go for a walk in woods that have unknown animals and monsters in it." Tony reasoned, slowly pacing around the edges of the clearing.

"Oh no. You don't think she got in trouble, do you?" Raven asked, looking at the kobold and the prone Draconian.

"We didn't run into anything last night." Lucas turned over with a groan. "Guess I'm getting up." He sat up with a yawn. "Anyone else feel hungry already?"

"Yep, and thirsty." Tony said as he moved back over to his bedroll where his backpack was sitting. "I'm going to need to refill my waterskin, it's nearly-”

"Aaah!" A shriek came from outside the clearing. It caused everyone to jump and look off into the trees.

"What was-" Tony said.

"Gross gross gross! Get away!" The voice cried out again, now louder than before. The group remained silent, able to hear footsteps before long. "Kill it, kill it!" It was Cookie. She came running into the clearing, a giant spider nearly as big as the rat's from the night before following in after her. Everyone sprung to their feet and eyed the huge monster.

The green and brown spider stopped when it came face to face with the entire group. Tony was the closest to it, with Lucas close behind, then Cookie behind Raven. After looking the group over for a few seconds, it decided, jumping at the kobold.

"Oh, hell no!" Tony raised an arm to shield himself, catching the spider's attack with it. The spider went in to take a bite, but was hit with the kobold's flute, sending it onto its back on the ground. His attention was drawn to one of his wristbands. The health gauge was orange. "That thing hurts!"

"Mend!" Raven called out, pointing her wand at Tony. A spark of green magic shot out from the end of the wand, flying over to hit the kobold. It rained down in green sparkling lights that faded away before touching the ground.

"Thanks!" Tony saw his health gauge change from orange to a bright green. "I think you're up, Art!" The spider turned over onto its many legs, its eyes looking at the kobold once more.

Lucas brandished his wand, aiming right for the spider. " Ember!" The tip of the wand burst into flame, spewing out embers and tiny flames at the spider. The arachnid's front legs flailed as it caught fire, getting distracted for the moment. After a few seconds, it jumped, hurling its flaming body at the kobold once more.

"Oh, come on!" Tony blocked the attack with his left arm once more, smacking it with his flute to get the spider to detach. "Hit it again!"

"Ember!" Lucas exclaimed as he took aim, except nothing happened. "Uh... It didn't work."

Tony looked at the recovering spider, then at Lucas. "What do you mean it- Oh." He realized what the problem was. "Cooldowns."

"Screw this!" Raven charged forward, kicking the spider and sending it flying into the trees and bushes. "That should buy us a little time." She turned to look at Tony, pointing her wand at him. "Mend!" She waited for the spell to activate, but nothing happened. "You should probably get back."

Tony looked at his wristband, his health now a deep orange. "Your turn to tank!" He stepped back behind Lucas to stand with Raven, with Cookie still hiding behind the healer.

"Great." Lucas watched the tree line, the flaming spider jumping out of the brush to land in the clearing. He waited a moment before calling out his spell once more. Enough time must have passed, his wand lighting up to shoot bits of fire at the spider. The dying flames amongst the spider continued to grow more dim, though it flailed from the attack. "Uh, I think the fire is about to go out." The spider calmed down, despite the quiet flames sizzling away on its body, and looked at the Draconian. He took a tentative step back, mentally preparing for it to leap at him.

The spider crouched down and jumped, moving through the air at Lucas. It landed with a soft thud at his feet; the body fading away. He had flinched back, arms slowly lowering when nothing hit him. "Huh?" He watched the spider disappear, leaving behind a silver piece, a few copper pieces, and a set of fangs. "It died mid attack?"

Tony stepped forward, getting a closer look at where the spider once was. "It must have died from burning damage from being set on fire." He crouched down and scooped up the money and fangs. "How nice of it to die before latching onto you." He grumbled. "Hey, can you-"

"Mend." Raven aimed her wand at the Kobold, showering him in sparkly green magic.

"Thanks." Tony turned his attention to Cookie. "Not to be an ass, but why was the tank hiding in the back? One attack from that spider sent me to half health."

"Um..." Cookie kept behind Raven, her gaze on the ground.

"She's not used to being the tank." Raven placed her hand on the other's shoulder. "It's why our first party ditched us."

"They kicked you out of the party?" Lucas asked, putting his wand back on his hip. "That's messed up."

"Yeah, for real. I can understand kicking people from a party if you're mid to late game bossing, but we are literally still at the first town." Tony sighed. "Everyone here is new to this."

Raven shrugged. "They were friendly until we had to fight those enormous rats, then they realized we didn't know what we were doing and kicked us."

"I'm sorry, everyone. It's just… Those things are so scary. I didn't know what I was getting into when I agreed to play this game." Cookie stepped out from behind Raven. "I wanted to try it out and have some fun, but..."

"We got stuck here." Tony shook his head. "Sorry for getting upset, but having a flaming spider jump onto me was not fun."

"Cookie, where did you even go? We were worried about you." Raven asked.

"Oh, that's right!" Cookie sat down, then pulled her pack into her lap. "Let's see, tap and swipe." She messed around with her pack, getting the menu screen up and looking through her inventory. "I was out looking for food, then that horrible spider chased me." She made a few selections from the menu. "It's not much, sadly." She reached into her bag and pulled out a handful of wild berries, varying in color from shades of blue and purple. "The backpack says they're good to eat." She emptied the berries out onto the grass, another handful being brought out from her bag to join the pile.

"Wow, that's awesome." Tony crouched down, plucking one berry from the pile and giving it a closer look.

"That was sweet of you. Thanks, Cookie." Raven grabbed a handful of the berries. "We were talking about how we were hungry."

"Yeah, too bad I can't make anything out of this." Lucas grabbed a small amount. "That and we're all low on water."

Tony dropped his berry into his bag, then pulled up the menu. "Hmm. It says here the berry gives one hunger and one fourth thirst." He tapped the berry icon and pulled it back out of his bag, popping it into his mouth. "Not filling, but tasty."

"It's better than nothing." Raven ate one berry. "Mm. These are tasty. Thanks Cookie."

Lucas nodded in agreement as he ate a few. "Mhm, thanks. This can hold us over until we go buy something in town."

Tony took a fair share of berries into his hand, snacking away at them. "Thanks for the breakfast. Sorry, again. We can work on fighting monsters later on."

Cookie smiled warmly at the group, taking some berries for herself. "You're all very welcome. I'm sorry for bringing that thing here for you all to deal with."

"Don't worry about it, Cookie. We took care of it." Raven reassured her friend.

The clearing grew quiet as the group quietly snacked away. "Oh." Lucas broke the silence after a few minutes. "We should add each other and party up." He pulled his journal from his pocket. "If you two want to join me and Tony, that is."

Raven looked to Cookie, who nodded. "Sure, we'd like that."

"Cool. Are we a full party now?" Tony asked, looking over at the Draconian.

"Looks like a party is five people, so we have room for one more." Lucas flipped through his journal to the party page, the names of the others appearing above them. "CookieBaker53 and WhiteRaven, huh?" He read out the two usernames before sending them a party invite, a soft ding coming from their pockets. "I sent you both invites."

They pulled their journals out, Raven flipping through the pages and accepting the invite. "Got it."

"Um." Cookie was slowly turning the pages, a confused expression on her face. "Raven, sweetie. How do you accept invites again?”

The party, now consisting of four, entered town. As they walked the streets, they saw countless people sleeping on the sides of the road, sitting against buildings, laying inside of alleyways or underneath store fronts and shop stalls. There were at least a handful of players on every street. The worst area of all was the town plaza. It was nearly as full as when the game had started, except now everyone was laying about, using bedrolls or backpacks as pillows.

"I take back what I said last night. Sleeping outside the town was the right call. This is just-" Tony said as he followed the group.

"Sad" Cookie interrupted.

"Depressing." Raven added.

"Why do you interrupt me all the time?" Tony gave them an unamused look. "But yes, this is sad to see."

"I guess no one wanted to risk going outside of town last night." Lucas commented, leading the group away from the plaza and down a street. "You think everyone is moping around cause we're still stuck in here?"

The party had not seen many players walking around; the majority were sleeping or sitting around the streets.

"That, and it is still early." Tony pulled out his pocket watch to check the time. "Damn, it's only 9AM? No-"

"Language!" Cookie interrupted. "There's no need for cursing."

Lucas and Tony both looked at the woman with a look of confusion.

"Try not to curse around her." Raven explained, unfazed.

"But 'damn’ isn't even-" Tony tried to explain himself.

"No buts!" Cookie wagged her finger at the Kobold. "There's no need to dirty one's mouth with such foul language."

"Uh..." Tony looked at Lucas, who shrugged his shoulders. He sighed. "So, where are we going again? Buying food, right?"

Lucas slowed to a stop at an intersection, looking left, then right. "Yes, but we need to get water too." He turned and went left. "I remember seeing a well over here somewhere. It was near that one quest with the old man."

"Why don't we just get water from the fountains? It looks clean enough." Tony offered, following along with the group.

"I'm not drinking fountain water." Raven said.

"Honey, no." Cookie shook her head. "Fountain water is dirty. They don't get cleaned often and think of all the bugs and animals that bathe in it."

"I mean, yeah... But it's a game. The water is probably fine." Tony countered.

"Don't forget about realism." Lucas came to a stop in a small intersection, a well with a pulley system in one corner. "Why risk it, when we can use this." He moved over to the well, slapping a clawed-hand onto the roof of it. "Plenty of clean-"

"Hello?!" a woman's voice echoed. "Is anyone there?!"

The party turned their attention to the well, where they heard the voice echo out from.

"Is someone in the well?" Tony asked, peering over the edge and into the darkness. "Hello?" He called down.

"Hello? Please help me. Please raise the bucket. I'm trapped!" The panicked voice echoed.

"Oh, you poor thing! Hang on, we'll get you out of there!" Cookie moved to the winch handle, straining to turn it. "I need help turning it, someone give me a hand."

"I got you." Lucas stepped over and took hold of the winch as well, their combined strength turned the winch handle. "There is definitely someone in the bucket."

Tony kept looking down into the well as they slowly reeled the rope in. "I see someone, I think."

"How did someone get stuck in there?" Raven asked, looking into the well.

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that they need help." Cookie said with a grunt as she kept working the winch.

"Well..." Lucas groaned as he helped raise the winch. "It’s kind of scary to think someone got stuck in a safe zone."

They reeled the rope in, and after a bit more time, a figure appeared from the darkness of the well. "Oh, man. Thanks so much!" A red kobold exclaimed once she could see out of the well. She quickly leapt out of the bucket, landed onto her front on the road. "Sweet, dry ground! I missed you so." Her clothes were soaked through, and looked to be the starting set.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Cookie crouched down beside the wet kobold.

"Oh, yeah!" She turned over onto her back and looked up at her saviors. "Thanks a bunch. I slipped and fell in there over an hour ago trying to get some water."

"You fell in there over an hour ago?" Raven asked as she moved over to stand beside the red kobold.

"Is your character not strong enough to climb the rope?" Tony asked, leaning back against the well.

"It was slippery." The red kobold replied. "Oh, snap!" She jumped up onto her feet and looked around. "My group is probably worried about me. Sorry, but I've got to go!" The kobold turned and ran off, raising a hand to wave as she went. "Thanks again!"

"She seems to be alright." Cookie stood up, watching the red kobold disappear down the street. "How awful to be trapped in a deep dark well."

"She was fine." Tony waved it off. "Standing in some water for a while isn't a big deal."

"You're assuming the water was low enough to the bottom to stand on. She might have needed to swim to stay above water for over an hour." Raven rolled her eyes.

"Tony, you should probably stay away from the well." Lucas released the winch, the spool of rope unwinding and sending the bucket to splash into the water below.

"Pft. I'm not dumb enough to fall into a well." Tony objected, crossing his arms. "Wait, why only me? Shouldn't we all be careful? Just because I'm small doesn't mean-"

"No, you're right. We need to all be careful or go with a buddy when getting water. The wells aren't safe." Cookie agreed, giving a cautious look to the well with its short wall.

"We should go to a different clean water source that hasn't had someone in it." Raven proposed, and everyone agreed.

It had taken the party some time to find another well, and thankfully this one did not come with a person stuck inside of it. They took turns raising the bucket, an action that was not nearly as difficult this time around. One person would crank the winch, and another would refill their waterskin, take a drink, then top it off. Once everyone had gotten their waterskins filled, they were onto their next task for the morning; finding food.

The party went to the nearest lodestone and teleported together into the shopping district. It was much more lively here. NPCs and players alike filled up the streets. They looked at every store and stall, following the flow of traffic until they came across a stall with a sign of baked goods. Of course, there was a line, though it moved fast. The reason for this became apparent once it was their turn.

"We want to buy some bread." Tony proclaimed to the portly baker man.

"Sorry, I'm already sold out. It's been a busy day!" The man said with a chortle. "Come back tomorrow, I'll have plenty of baked goods fresh out of the oven!"

"What?! How are you sold out? That's not-" Tony let out an enormous sigh, the baker repeating his response all over again. "I have a bad feeling again." He left the line, the rest of the party following him.

"How can a business sell out right in the morning? Aren't they supposed to make bread and pastries all day?" Cookie asked, glancing back to the baker who was giving the next person in line the same speech.

"Let's go somewhere else." Raven said.

"Yeah, there should be plenty of stores around. The town is pretty big." Lucas surveyed the area, looking for a shop that sold food. "Tony?" He hurried to catch up with the kobold.

"Come on, I'm hungry!" Tony declared, storming off into the crowd.

The party followed Tony's lead, going from one food stall to another, going into food stores, and any location if it might have sold food or ingredients. At every location, they waited in line only to find that the shop or store was sold out. With every new location they tried, the lines got longer and longer. Before they knew it, over an hour had gone by.

"Sorry, I'm already sold out. It's been a busy day!" The woman behind the butcher shop said. "Come back tomorrow, I'll have plenty of fresh meat cut up and ready for sale!"

"B-Bu-But there is food hanging right there behind you!" Tony pointed to a rack of meat hanging from a hook on the wall behind the counter. "I can literally see meat right there!"

The woman smiled, unfazed by the kobolds words as she repeated what she had just said.

"AH!" Tony cried out, leaning against the empty glass display, face pressing into the glass. "How is everyone sold out?!"

"Ugh, you're so dramatic." Raven commented. She had been working away inside her book whenever they were in line, and this time was no different.

Lucas saw the kobold turn around with an angry expression. "Uh, come on. There are other districts we can-"

"I'm not being dramatic!" Tony stomped over to Raven. "What are you even doing with that book, anyway? Writing in your diary or something?" He snatched it from her hands.

"Hey, that's mine, you little shit!" Raven tried to grab it back, but the kobold dashed out of the store.

"Language!" Cookie piped in, seeing Raven chase after the other. "It's like I'm watching over little kids." She shook her head with a sigh, following them.

Lucas glanced around the store, the NPC oblivious, but the players waiting in line were giving him glares. "Eh heh..." He quickly exited the store, finding the rest of his party outside in the nearby alley.

"What even is this?" Tony held the book open, flipping it upside down.

"It's you!" Raven exclaimed, ripping the book out of the kobold's clawed hands. "Don't take my things ever again!"

"That was me? But that was a pile of bones!" Tony glared at her, crossing his arms.

"Uh, yeah. It's you after you die of starvation, just a pile of lizard bones." Raven clutched the book to her chest.

"I'm not a lizard." Tony huffed. "It's not a bad drawing though."

"Can I see, sweetie?" Cookie asked, stepping over to Raven's side.

Raven nodded, lowering the book for Cookie. "Yes, you may Cookie, because you asked nicely." She glared at the kobold as she spoke.

"Oh. That's a bit gruesome." Cookie commented, taking a moment to look over the drawing. "I liked those other drawings you did more, but this is very... Detailed." She motioned for Lucas to get closer. "Art, come here and look."

Lucas stepped over after getting a nod of approval from the elf. "That is detailed." He peered down at the page that depicted a pile of relatively clean kobold bones with a black bird pecking at a bit of flesh that was still attached. "This is what you were doing while we were in the lines?"

Raven nodded, turning the page to a previous drawing. It was a sketch of a Draconian kneeling, stirring a pot of food that was cooking over a campfire. "I did this one last night."

"Wow, that's me!" Lucas smiled, surprised at how much it looked like him, even for a simple sketch.

"Aw, that one is good! I hadn't seen that one yet." Cookie beamed and patted Raven's shoulder. "Isn't she so talented?"

Tony rolled his eyes as he watched Lucas nod in agreement, turning his gaze to his watch he had pulled out. "Can we continue our search for food? At this rate, we won't have any chance at buying some before it's all gone."

The three turned away from a drawing of another person, one Lucas did not recognize.

"We could try a different district. The other ones have stores too, but not as many as here." Lucas stepped back, scratching at the back of his neck with a clawed finger while looking out at the street. "Everyone else might have the same idea though."

"Ugh. Is it just me, or is the hunger more..." Tony sighed, realizing what he was about to say. "Real?"

Everyone shared a glance with one another.

"Now that you mention it..." Cookie looked to the ground.

"Yesterday, we didn't get hungry till late at night." Raven looked up in thought.

"I feel like I haven't hardly eaten, even after that snack of berries." Tony shook his head. "I didn't even think of hunger yesterday till we ran into you two."

"Maybe it's another bug or something, or eating food turned on the hunger system?" Lucas shrugged.

"Could be that our minds weren’t used to virtual hunger." Tony theorized. "Anyway, can we go? We can check some more stores in another district before giving up completely."

The rest of the group agreed, and they were on their way, leaving the alley and moving through the crowds. Lucas led the party with the help of his map to the nearest lodestone and to a district on the opposite side of town. There were a lot fewer shops over here, most buildings were NPC housing. Occasionally they came across a store that sold food, but each one was sold out. They even checked non-food shops to be safe, and most of those were sold out of product as well.

Tony let out an exasperated sigh. He plopped down onto an empty bench outside the latest store that had been a bust. "You were right, Art. All the stores have been hit. This was a waste of time."

"I wouldn't say that. I was able to get some wooden plates." Lucas pulled out his map.

"Great! Plates for all the food we don't have." Tony grumbled, leaning his head back to stare at the blue sky.

"It's not a big deal. It's not like we can starve to death." Raven commented, giving an annoyed look to the kobold. The group got quiet for a few moments.

"Wait, let me check something." Tony pulled out his journal.

"That's not a good way to look at it. Even if we're okay, we'll be feeling crummy." Cookie sat down beside the kobold. "What are you looking for, sweetie?"

Tony shook his head. "This." He held his journal up so Cookie could see. "It says here, I have the status effect 'hunger'. Deal 10% reduce damage, will progress to starvation if not treated."

"Reduced damage?" Cookie repeated, reading it quietly to herself as the rest remained silent. "Wait, what does that mean?"

"It means hunger influences us, and we can't simply try to ignore it." Lucas pulled out his own journal to see for himself. He also had the hunger status effect.

"And it can change to starvation?" Raven looked between Tony and Lucas. "Which means we could starve to death?"

"Oh, dear." Cookie shook her head.

"And you all called me dramatic!" Tony hopped off the bench. "Now we find out we can starve to death, and we have no idea what dying does here."

"Well, dying twice in the same day, anyway." Lucas closed his book. "We might be missing something, though"

"What could we be missing? Starving to death is bad." Raven turned to the Draconian. "We don't know how long that takes. We could get into town earlier tomorrow to buy food."

"I don't want us to go hungry for an entire day. That sounds downright miserable." Cookie said.

"I-I don't know what we could be missing. Maybe, like... Dying resets hunger, so if we died, we'd have to not die for a day to not... actually die." Lucas sighed. "Or it could do the opposite and make it worse, or the status effects continue through death. The fact of the matter is, we know nothing about this game, except the fact that if you die twice within 24 hours you..."

"Explode in a glitchy, horrific way?" Raven finished. "You guys saw that too?"

The two scaled men nodded their heads.

"I can't believe that man jumped." Cookie said with a concerned expression.

"Yeah... Anyway, we need to play things safe until we get out of the game. I don't know what we're supposed to do now." Lucas pulled out his map, looking it over in case he had missed something. "Maybe the Culinary Hall has some food or ingredients for sale."

"Time for me to save the day." Tony pulled his bag off his back and set it on the ground. "There is only one problem." He reached in and pulled out a wooden fishing pole that was longer than the container it came out of. "I have no idea where I can use this."

"I thought you were going to go with artificer?" Lucas asked, looking at the fishing pole that was taller than the kobold that held it.

Tony shrugged. "I changed my mind at the last minute. I thought this would be more fun."

"You could have been catching food this whole time instead of complaining?" Raven narrowed her eyes at the kobold.

"I just said, I don't know where I can even fish." Tony lifted the flap of his backpack and dropped the fishing pole in the bag, gobbling it up.

Cookie hummed. "I think I heard running water this morning when I was looking around for food. I'm not sure I could find it again. That nasty spider gave me a fright! I barely found my way back to our camp. I was such a mess."

"That's fine, we can go look together." Lucas offered. "I just want to check the culinary hall before we go."