Lucas fumbled out the pamphlet from his pocket and glanced at the front page. Big bold letters ‘Oveipa Coalition Pamphlet - OC’ were stamped on the front with the Yin Yang symbol below. Inside was a large map on the left, to the right was list of all the affiliates in the coalition with their coats of arms by their names. Under the affiliates was a small list of basic rules that applied for each affiliate and rules that applied for all of the coalition, basic stuff like don’t steal, rape or kill the indigents of the world or other sleep walkers. But each affiliate had odd rules such as one called the Lions Teeth that didn’t allow any ‘location fraternization’ which Lucas could only laugh at. He skimmed over them making sure to know the basics, it seems that each region of them territory owned by the coalition had different tax rates. Something to keep in mind while he hunted monsters and fulfilled his ‘dreams’.

Looking over to the map portion he could see that it was one super continent that they were on. The continent was called ‘Ori’ something he oddly already knew and chalked it up to past memories of his/kings. He was located square in the middle in a Public hunting ground, it seemed that every public Walker nest has a hunting ground surround it with the nest somewhere in the middle. The hunting ground he was at was simply marked ‘beginner hunting ground’ with the are around the Walker nest marked as ‘beginner town’. Not much thought given to the name of the place he thought, but hey it seemed that the place was only used so often so that made some sense.

Moving outwards from the beginner grounds was a patch work of affiliation territory’s and native kingdoms interwoven with public hunting grounds and Walker nests. It seemed very few natives actually allowed affiliates inside their territories so they usually stayed separate, which made sense they were aliens after all. The most immediate territories beside the beginner grounds was the Kingdom Of Ram and the Ra Affiliates that were on the south and north of the beginner grounds respectively. The roads following them were named after the kingdoms or affiliates controlling the roads which seemed pretty easy to remember.

To the east and west were public nests and grounds marked Dagon and Roho. No towns surrounding the Walker nests of either like here just simple nests marked off. What did catch his eye were towers that were labeled ‘Dungeon’, no name but he figured the name of the public region was attributed to the dungeon it was inside. Oddly enough none of the kingdoms or affiliate territories had any marked dungeons, Lucas didn’t know if that was because the didn’t have any or weren’t sharing or what. Another question to ask when he went back into the beginner town, if he could find someone to answer without charging him.

Their was places labeled as midway towns on the border of public hunting grounds that seemed to be trade hubs between natives and sleep walkers. Places to trade etherial cores like that guy handing out pamphlets some with colorful names or some simply labeled ‘halfway town’ which was about as well thought out as beginner grounds. Looking over the map the super continent didn’t seem to have an end in sight. It seems the further from the center of the super continent you went the more petered and spread out territories became. Till eventually they stopped all together and it was simply marked the ‘Wild lands’ with a short description of it being unclaimed due to the difficulty of the creatures and fauna located there.

Looking over the map it seemed like the name of the game was trying to reach out to the wild lands and claim more territory. No other continent was marked on the pamphlet so Lucas assumed this was the only one anyone had ventured onto, likely due to the wild lands blocking adventurers from going to far. Both native and affiliates had marked locations dotting the edges of the wild lands and it didn’t seem like a lack of trying was the reason anyone didn’t get out to sea.. Lucas had other ideas in mind though and could care less to explore out into the wild lands, he wanted his old memories back and he felt scouring the inner parts of the continent was the best way to make that happen.

[Organic Dream(Long Term) : Remember | 100,000T]

Woah so that’s how the ‘organic deams’ work, Lucas couldn’t help but think that was a lot of tokens. Just who the hell was he? Why was it such a hard dream(quest) just to remember what king/he did. Lucas could only guess he was really someone important back in the day although he didnt have an inkling of why. He sighed swiping away the box, the mystery’s kept piling up. Lucas decided now was as good as time as any to check out the RPG system. He called out status and up came the golden box in front of him slightly see through with his new name on the front.

[NN: Prince {+} | Dreams : 1 {+} | Tokens : 100 {+}]

Well prince it was, he clicked on the plus by his name. It was odd poking air but it gave a small tingling feed back into his finger to let him know he hit the button. The panel blurred and changed the text;

[NN\ Stats {+} | Art : N/A | Affiliation : N/A {+}]

Lucas supposed the art panel was probably the shifting or channel thing pan mentioned. The affiliation panel was self explanatory and he didn’t have any affiliation yet so it was useless to him. Moving on he clicked on the stats panel. The text blurred and shifted again;

[NN\Stats\ Physical : 0.5/1 {+} | Mental : 0.5/1 {+} | Etherial : 0.5/1 {+}| Walker : 1/1 {+}]

Oh how interesting he thought while tapping his chin roaming over the text. Why were the stats only half way filled out? Maybe you had to work at them to get them up or something? Kind of odd to have to manually work at the stat to make it go up. Less RPG and more real world then he liked but he shrugged it off. Lucas clicked on the plus for physical to see how upgrading stats worked and the words wiggled into a new formation once again;

[NN\Stats\Physical\ +1 : 1000 Tokens {+}]

So it cost tokens, that makes sense now to have to work for it and bring them up. If anyone could just make people work for them to get tokens bosses at the top would be super powerful without doing an ounce of work. Although it was stingy in a way to make someone work for it twice, get the tokens and then manually raise the stat up. Stingy but fair enough he supposed, not like he could run and demand changes anyways. No matter how close he was to pan, In fact being so close he felt strongly shouldn’t tolerate him whining to her about unfairness. Like a mother to her child he had a feeling she would smack down his request and make him work harder for even asking. A chilling thought for sure, so he figured best not to press his favorite status les he be smited. Backing out he went to the tokens panel in his status and the letters wiggle around before taking shape again.

[Tokens\ 100T | Bank {+} | Return (1% | 1000T : 1G) 0G {+}]

Huh, so that was the way to return with gold. Lucas felt that it might come in handy if his brother decided to back out for whatever reason. The man was never really a man of his word for all the shade he loved to cast on Lucas. Hitting the bank button a box popped up in front of him that was golden the top was missing and inside he could see one hundred little tokens that were white laced in gold. He could simply pick them out to withdraw an amount or place them back for a deposit. The panel above it stayed and clicking on the bank button again folded then box into golden digital pixels that flowed back into the panel. He clicked on return and it came out to a box just like the other but instead of an open top it had a counter on the front for how many gold coins he had inside like the panel showed in text and a slotted hole in the top to keep him from retrieving any dropped in coins. Done exploring the RPG system he swiped away the panel and glanced back to the passing clouds.

Where should he go first? What should he do first? Probably try some of that shifting stuff King did seeing as he’s weaponless like the guard said. If he couldn’t use any of the arrays that he had somewhat blearily bound in his head he would have to go back as soon as possible. He was going to have to anyways, he needed more information and his hazy memories weren’t cutting it. He didn’t want to die as soon as he got here and he doubted his broke 100 worth of tokens bank would get him a decent weapon or magic if it got him any at all, past memories be damned he might just have to join affiliation…’No!’ There it was again the moment he thought about jointing a affiliate group the warning bells went off in his head. Why he had no clue but his mind and past memories were adamant on doing it without an affiliation. He just hoped he wasn’t getting himself killed over a delusional idealism his past self held. He hopped up and glanced to the guards who didn’t care to pay him any mind besides a passing glance every now and again, were far enough away and if he kept his back to them he should be fine.

“Okay king, me, you don’t want me joining an affiliate and I’m dead broke so give me something. Anything or else I’m joining an affiliation.” Lucas mumbled closing his eyes, a golden disc formed in his mind with five simple runes spinning around the outer edges.

Throwing open his eyes he watched with baited breath as a small golden spark came from his hand. He followed what felt right circling his hand around as it left behind a trail in the air. When he came full circle he watched the runes fly from his hand landing inside the golden circle. He let his muscle memory take over and the circle condensed as he closed his hand. The runes locking together formed a tight circle and the center sprouted out golden sparks like a fountain. From the fountain of gold came a small blade of wind that shot out cutting the grass in front of him as the circle fizzled out of existence. Lucas felt exhausted after like he ran a marathon but giddy at the same time. He just did magic, or shifting or whatever the hell it’s called! Thats epic as shit! He glanced around to make sure no one saw him, sure enough the guards were busy picking their noses laughing at each other.

Well this was suppose to be a public hunting ground that was labeled beginner for whatever that’s worth, their could be bandits like they said but Lucas figured he might as well roll those dice. He needed to train his shifting technique and he doubted it was normal for some random organic sleep Walker to just start shooting out etherial wind blades as soon as they arrived. He imagined it took a little more learning then just a wish and hope.

They likely sold books back at the beginner town but he didn’t buy one and they could find that out pretty easily. He needed a place to practice off the beat and path. Glancing around he saw the roads split off into three prongs heading west, east and north from the gate he left and one road circled back around the camp heading south. He made an effort to get off the trials and head into an area that looked pretty empty north west between the roads and I got the hunting grounds. Coming upon the forest the first that hit him was the thick black bark of the trees had a pine tree mixed with oak type of bark he found fascinating. The red leaves were felt like and soft to the touch, bushes surround it had a blue hue like the grass with green berries on them giving off an exotic feeling. He picked a tree and a spot close enough to the edge of the forest to run back to the beginner town should be stumble into some trouble.

Time to experiment! He threw up his hand and remembered the feeling from before drawing out the golden circle in the air. When the runes came he tried making one rune larger, when he collapsed the run instead of the fountain producing the wind blade it fizzled out into nothing sending a shock up his arm. He yelped jumping around shaking his hand, that fucking hurt! It wasn’t a killer pain but it sure as hell wasn’t pleasurable, he walked around shaking his arm off. Alright, that wasn’t a pleasurable experience but he was still determined to figure out how that etherial shifting thing worked.

He came to a stop again and let out a deep breath, baby steps. He drew the circle again this time and made all the runes larger, oddly enough he felt a strain at this like each time he thought of a rune being larger something in his chest was.. worked. Like an extra diaphragm he never knew he had, the runes all enlarged he struggled to collapse the circle down. It felt like a resistance was pushing against him, from his chest to his hand a cord pulled on his entire body stopping his hand from closing. With all the might he could muster he snapped his hand shut and the sparkles shot out into a blob. The blob turned into a clear air blade ten times larger then the one form before and shot out slapping Into the tree.

He was expecting a small gash in the tree but the crack of wood and shifting of leaves above his head scared the shit out of him. Jumping back barely in time the tree came crashing down beside him. Lucas stunned walked over to the stump, the air blade went half way through and the force of the blast must of rocked it back and forth enough to collapse the rest of its support. Before he had time to marvel at his work his vision began to turn Into a tunnel and he stumbled to his knees. Leaning against the stump he stared out at the prairie as his vision closed by the second like when he had a heatstroke back in high school. His breath grew ragged and he barely kept himself upright and awake. It did pass and his vision opened up leaving behind an aching feeling in his chest and headache so severe he almost wished he did pass out.

Time to go back and get some rest in town, that was plenty enough experimenting for the moment. Plus he needed more information then that pamphlet was going to give him. He hated to admit it but the guard was right. If he wasn’t going to join an affiliation then he was going to need all the information and gear he could get with his measly 100 tokens. If not then he’d have to find a way to earn some more tokens in town, he was sure there was something he could do. Didn’t make sense to have starters dropped off into the wild with no protection or way to earn protection. He wished pan would of gave a better explanation, she basically just left them to fend for themselves. Slumping on back over the hills and onto the roads heading back to the camp he could see the guards with a group of people around them all riled up. The one gruff man called Henry threw his hands up seeing him and came rushing over.

“We we’re looking all over for ya man. Thought you got snagged by some bandits was fixing to mount a search.” Henry said with a deep frown etched on his face thumbing to the group behind him.

“Oh. OH! Sorry I just went to the woods, the trees were cool looking and. Sorry.” Lucas said rubbing the back of his neck, Henry just huffed shaking his head.

“Well don’t ever say the coalition didn’t help the little guys.” Henry said slapping me on the back with a slight chuckle.

“Thanks. I’m coming back in for the day, figured I’d look around the town some more.” Lucas said following him back to the group.

“Good idea.” Henry said. They all glanced over at him with and raised brow and to me while Henry just chuckled breaking the ice.

“He just wandered off to the woods. Fascinated by the fauna. False alarm guys.” Henry said and they grumbled giving Lucas angry glares throwing their hands at him making their way back through the gates.

“Let us know if you wonder off again kid. Don’t wanna band a search party for no reason, people don’t kindly to false drills.” Henry said and I nodded.

“I can see that. Thanks Henry and..” Lucas shifted to the other clean shaved guard, Lucas stuck his hand out.

“Mack.” The clean shaved man less enthusiastic about meeting him on such terms but shook his hand none the less.

“Lucas. Thanks guys I’ll be sure to let you know next time I wander off.” Lucas said, Mack just grunted and Henry gave a chuckle waving him in.

Lucas fumbled back through the gates into town, with a clearer head and objective in mind he walked down the strip looking over the stalls for some cheap gear. Affiliate groups were a no go as all their gear was free but you had to sign up to get it, the stalls were just as bad with gear priced far outside his price range. He could see a few books labeled ‘shifting arts’ and he wanted one but those were absurdly expensive, it seems shifting was one of the higher expense arts. He couldn’t help but wonder why in the hell they would have such high prices in the beginner locations. Better to ask then wonder so he waltzed up to the one of the stalls selling gear knocking to get the mans attention. A gruff old man with a grey beard and oddly young looking body was smoking out of a pipe looked up from whatever he was reading. He gave Lucas a sideways glance throwing an book on a crate and drug his chair over to the counter plopping back down looking him over.

“Look kid I don’t see any affiliate banners on your beginner suit and I know you can’t afford anything without a contract so scram. Rogue organics are always trouble.” The old man said, Lucas frowned at the tone.

“Yeah about that how am I suppose to get gear without a contract? I mean I only got one hundred tokens, there isn’t anything I can do in town to earn tokens for some gear? I have to join an affiliation seems kind of silly.” Lucas asked in a tone that was trying to be patient with the rude old man.

“Silly huh, be careful taking like that the coalition doesn’t like anyone running rogue. Hence why all the prices are so high, they make it damn near impossible now a days to run solo and my sales are shit now a days..” The old man said and i deflated at that news, that’s why it was all priced so high. It wasn’t a choice they were driving organics into signing up if they wanted to or not on pretense of caring. The old man let out a sigh and tapped his wooden pipe to get my attention.

“Screw it…if you want to continue solo regardless of the obvious hostility you will face. Then go back to the Walker nest. You will have some gear and a random weapon waiting in your inventory, they say pan drops gear that’s the most compatible with you and your innate art but honestly that’s horse shite. It’s either just random cheap crap or some godly good items that someone would mawl you for the second you step out that nest.” The old man whispered like it was a crime to say.

“Why doesn’t pan tell everyone about that then?” I whispered back and he chucked.

“Don’t be fooled by her beauty son, she ain’t no charity case. She’s a sink or swim type of gal, why her intro is so half assed before throwing y’all to the wolves. Hell she goes out of her way to tell everyone that she ain’t fair in the introduction if you read between the lines. She is the goddess of wild places after all. Wild don’t mean good or bad, just wild.” The old man said with a sigh, she didn’t seem wild to Lucas though. Just..mischievous? But he didn’t know much outside the strong feelings he had toward her and even that was vague.

“Now, the coalition might not outright say it but they really, really hate rogue organics. They go out of their way to rush everyone to sign on with them without letting them dick around and figure it out themselves. Hence the marketing boys following you around or the stalls with crazy prices. Now I’d suggest getting out of town once you get your weapon and gear out the inventory. Once they see that gear and no banner it’s pretty easy to know it came from the inventory, they will know you made your choice to go rogue and harass you till you leave.” The old man finished whispering leaning back into his chair motioning for me to carry on.

“Thank you sir.“ Lucas said with a bow and the old man scoffed with a slight grin.

“You best go on to be decent. I don’t want the creation of a bad rogue on my hands, maybe stop by one day at Lews Shop and spend some money you become a big time. Ah you didn’t hear any of this from me you hear.” The old man said giving Lucas a stern look with his pipe as he let out some smoke.

“Loud and clear sir. Thank you!” Lucas said with a smile giving the counter a light tap and making his way down the road back to the Walker Nest.

He looked over the rest of the stalls making sure their wasn’t nothing he could buy but sure enough like the old man said they were all overpriced. Lucas couldn’t help but question whether those guys put out a search party for him because they were genuinely worried or just didn’t want to loose our on a potential worker for their little coalition. Something to mull over while he went trained in the woods, he walked back up the white steps and into the Walker nest. The opulent golden and white walls were a treat for the eyes as always, he came over to the statue and found a plaque at the front with a simple hand print on it. He supposed that was how he worked the thing? Placing his hand on it the golden box normally display his status popped up with an unfamiliar set of commands.

[Location already marked!]

…

[Locker(100 T) {+} | Fast Travel {+}]

Interesting, it seemed he marked the location by placing his hand on any nest he arrived at..Lucas scoffed at the price for the locker. He only had one hundred tokens, it cost his entire savings just to access the locker. Lucas hoped that old man was right or he would go ape shit. He clicked on locker watching golden particles come out his crest and enter the statue, the golden box transformed into a small closet the size of his high school locker plopping down next to him. With anticipation he slung open the locker, inside was an black trench coat that buckled around the waist. Beside it was a set of gloves with some type of crystals embedded into the backs of the hand. Some black bottom boots with golden wings on the side were in the bottom to replace his white topped slide on shoes. He ripped the trench coat out and a small note fell to the floor from it, while the trench coat on he reached down picking it up. He unfolded it and golden text shot up from the page as it turned into dust forming a box like his status with a message inside.

‘Dear king, one more surprise from me. This is a slightly altered set of the gear you got way back. I changed the color and moved some patterns and scribes around so no one would put two and two together. I swear I spoil you too much, this is all your getting out of me so make it worth it.

From the best goddess you ever worshiped,

<3 Pan’

He laughed, if she was not trying to show favorites she sure sucked at it but hell he’d throw a prayer her way of thanks before he left. He threw off his white slippers and put on the black boots placing the slippers back in the locker. He grabbed the gloves off the shelf and as soon as he put them on a memory passed by like lighting in a bottle. He remembered this was where it all started long ago, he met Oscar, Shaw and Ria here. They were trying to form a party and had crap equipment from the luck of the draw. He was the only one who took in the rag tag band of adventurers and made them his team. Closing the locker Lucas drew a bitter sweat smile, at least he knew it was possible to get his memory’s back now. He would just have to take it die by die, he bowed his head in thanks to Pan as the locker faded away into golden dust.

‘Thanks pan. I owe you a great deal.’ Lucas said and he could swear the statue winked at him when he came back up.

Taking a deep breath Lucas tightened the gloves up, his headache was gone and he felt reinvigorated. He peered out Walker nest to the dirt strip. Very few organic walkers were left undecided and everyone else was back at their affiliate huts cleaning up the streets, none of the organics even knew their was another option. He knew his past self hated the affiliates but this left an even worse impression on him. They basically pressured everyone into contracts by slimy practices. Then again he did the bare minimum asking around and figured out how to get some basic gear..

In a way he seen them as lazy and safe way out by signing up and he wasn’t to sure he could feel all that bad for them. He still didn’t like the coalition or affiliates but he didn’t like the laziness that reminded him of his worst side if he was being honest. He shook it off and pulled his trench coat tight. Lucas didn’t have time to worry about others, he had memories to catch. Walking out the nest he had a new sense of purpose and a determined mine set. He made his way down the steps glancing up to see the sun half way up. Lucas had some hunting to do and some stats to raise, he made his way down the strip as casually as possible.

Immediately he noticed some glares shot his way, more then one of the stalls with the coalition and affiliate banners gave him dirty looks. The old man was spot on they sure don’t like rogues, that was for damn sure. He made his way across the strip only pausing for a second when the old man gave him a wink as he passed by. Lews Shop, he would have to remember that and pay him a visit when he got the chance. He noticed a few people trailing behind him, they never got to close but kept a good distance behind the now sparsely populated streets. They fell out of his sight as soon as he hit the gates, Mack turned to see who was coming and he looked Lucas up and down with a scoff.

“A rogue huh. We try and save your ass and you go rogue. How considerate.” Mack said and Lucas just gave a strained smile, he didn’t want to cause any problems.

“Yeah..I’m just not into affiliates..” Lucas said rubbing his neck as he made his way through the gate.

“Not into affiliates he says…Watch your back out there man. We don’t protect non coalition members. Especially ungratef-” Mack was cut off by Henry.

“Shut up Mack. Go on Lucas. Be careful, theirs unsavory people in this wolf like old Mach here.” Henry said with a stern face as Mack scoffed, Lucas just nodded moving along as quick as possible not to draw any more attention then he had.

He could hear the two arguing as he left and he was worried those people following him would try to attack. But no one came and he made his way down the road. Now he had gear but he had not a clue what it did or how to work it but he did know he needed to hunt monsters for tokens. What better place to do that then the hunting grounds for beginners. He didn’t get much more info but he had a good enough understanding of what was going on now to get around. Best thing he could do now was go hunting with his little wind cutter shift and rack up some points to level up a stat or two before his Walker journey ends. Who knows maybe he will get another dream or two? A spring in his step he peeled off the road at the fork like last time heading north west into the thicket of the forest this time instead of the edge of the forest. Passing the tree he cut down he couldn’t help but smirk, shifting was so cool.

Keeping his eyes peeled and hands out like a blind man stumbling for his cane he crept through the forest as silent a possible. Every little sway of wind set Lucas off swirling around like a drug addict looking for the next fix. With a sigh he dropped his hands as he was now ten minutes into the forest and their wasn’t a monster in sight. The occasional bird would swoop overhead or snake slither away but he doubted killing those would give him much tokens if any. Maybe he would of had better luck on the roads? But that didn’t make much sense, unless the monsters preferred high traffic locations. Well some could like the trolls in his past memory when they went into the mountain? Right as Lucas was busy debating his nonsensical ideas of monster spawns the bushes in front of him ruffled. He came to a dead stop and threw up his hands drawing out a golden circle pulling from that’s new region in his chest. The runes were thrown in hastily as the creature was getting neared and he held it back from collapsing waiting for the beast to come forward.

Out came a…bunny. A horned bunny with a large tuft of white fur sticking from its otherwise grey cloak of fur. Lucas let out a small giggle at the bunny and how serious he was just a second ago. Such a small creature and here he was getting all worked up? What an idiot, he shook his head dropping his rune. Monster or not he couldn’t kill the little guy, the bunny gave a small squeak towards Lucas and he felt his heart melt as the big eyes stared him down with an unwavering cuteness. He couldn’t help but want to pet it, slowly getting closer he got down onto his knees and reached out. Right as he was fixing to he heard his a voice scream at him; ‘Dodge!’ The voice shouted in the same manner as when he thought about joining the affiliation. He jumped to the left and right as he did felt a searing pain from his left shoulder and the smell of burnt flesh rolled into his nostril. Lucas rolled across the ground coming to his feet and spinning around searching the first floor for the critter. The bunny landed back onto the ground it’s horn glowing a thick red from heat Lucas could feel a couple feet away.

That was when Lucas noticed the bunnies eyes held deep swirls, something told him not to look into them. Keeping his eyes on the bunnies feet he threw up his hands backing up as the golden circle slowly filled in the runes for the wind cutter shift. Right as the bunny was fixing to jump again he quickly constricted his hand and felt the energy drain from his chest once again. Shutting his eyes in a panic he accidentally put far too much power into the runes enlarging them as much as he could while collapsing the shift circle. The golden bubble shot forth a mighty wind slash as the air around him roared and he felt something wet splatter across his face. Almost weary to do so he peeled one eye open at a time, Lucas almost wished he hadn’t done so immediately throwing up. The cute bunny from before was cleaned into two with its legs at his feet and the body a couple feet in front of him, the tree in the distance along with the bushes were cut into two as well. He only stoped his dry vomiting when he noticed the golden mist pop out the corpse of the creature and rush into him. A message popped up in front of him and Lucas plopped down on his rear staring at it.

[‘Horned Trancer’ killed! | + 50 T]

Lucas didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so he did a little of both. His excitement at the world slowly faded at the reality of this not being a game. Killing things for tokens was just…barbaric anyway you split it. The old man’s words came back about not being fooled by pan, she was nice to Lucas for sure. But this world she put them in? It wasn’t a nice coddled world like the one he left where even the weakest person could ink out a life, it was survival of the fittest and where the weak were crushed into a bloody pulp under a steel boot called reality.

Once the headache passed and he felt his strength return he got up taking some leaves off a nearby bush and wiped himself off, the blood on his face was…something he could still feel even after it came off. How did his past self, how did king kill things so easily? Was it just the fact he was put in at such a young age and was accustomed to it? Or did he never get use to it? Lucas really wished he could ask him sometimes, his past self..king. What was so enticing to him about this world that he cried as soon as he was placed back in it? Even now he felt more relaxed then he had on Earth even with the panicked realization of having to massacre other beings to live.

Lucas shook it off glancing up to the sun passing by overhead, the day was halfway over and he barely got any tokens. Like it or not he needed to hunt more bunnies so he could get a stat upgraded. Plus this would be good practice for later when he comes across tougher and more human..like monsters. Like a bolt a thought he never considered sent a shiver up his spine, did he ever kill a.. human? He slapped his cheeks trying to come back to reality but the thought haunted him as he pushed through the bushes into the thicket of the forest. His thoughts came to an abrupt end as he pushed out some bushes and across another bunny, quickly averting his eyes he bags drawing his shift circle filling it with the runes. Snapping his hand closed and keeping his hand on the target he properly controlled how much power he put into his wind cutter shift. The gust came out much weaker then before but plenty strong enough to kill the creature cutting its head clean off. Lucas felt his stomach churn as he tried not to look at the creature waiting or the golden mist to hit his body, the message popped up in front of him once again;

[‘Horned Trancer’ killed! | + 50 T]

Well he was at least back to where he started when he got here, one hundred tokens wasn’t a lot but for an hours worth of work it wasn’t bad. Side stepping around the bunnies corpse he pushed on through the forest in search of more tokens. Lucas figured hunting twenty bunny’s would net him a thousand tokens, just what he needed to level up a stat. Right as he thought that he should be able to get that done before night fall a notification popped up surprising him.

[Organic Dream(Short Term) : Hunting Time | 500 T]

Huh, so that’s how the quest/dream system worked. He had to set a goal and really internalize it and believe in that goal for it to create a ‘dream’. Kind of weird but he could work with that. As he thought about the dream he could feel the specifics of it come into his mind. He had to hunt twenty bunny’s before the night fell and he would achieve his ‘dream’ so to speak. What an interesting and dynamic way to handle the quest system he thought. No way to cheat your own internal goals he supposed well, not that he could think of at the moment. As he pushed through some more bushes he stumbled onto more bunnies, this time a set of two where eating some grass together. They both glanced back at him and before he could put up his hands one of them heated up their horns and launched towards him with an ungodly speed. Had Lucas not been next to a tree to step behind he would of been skewered and fried, the tree sizzled as the beast stuck it slowly pulling out its horn and plopping to the ground. The circle was barley formed when he heard bushes rattle behind him and a third bunny stepped out.

“Shit.” Lucas mumbled, he didn’t know they traveled in packs sometimes.

Quickly drawing out the runes he cut the third bunny behind him in half as the first and second bunny worked around the tree launching at him in a pincer attack. With no where to go Lucas began panicking as time seemed to slow down. By the luck of the goddess who brought him here he stumbled across a root and fell on his ass end. The two bunnies skewered each other and he quickly cast a spell with the little concentration he had left cleaving the two bodies in half. Golden mist traveled into him from the three dead mosnters and a single message popped up;

[‘Horned Trancer’ killed! X3 | + 150 T]

The forest went silent as he huffed and puffed staring at the message as the headache and tight feeling in his chest returning from using too much..magic? Ether? Whatever it was called, he used to much of it and he knew that. That.. and he just got lucky, had he not been so lucky he would be the dead one one the ground the bunnies munched on. Maybe traveling around aimlessly in the forest wasn’t the best decision he had ever made? He felt like an idiot even having to think that, no shit it wasn’t a good idea. He knew next to jack about this world and his other self just encouraged him to get out there and do it like there wasn’t a lick of danger. Just how care free was his past self! Jesus Christ it was infecting him too, he would of never been so careless before he came here. He was suicidal sure but only after he lost his job and his life went down the tubes to an abysmal state, this was just plain stupidity that was going to get him killed..

With a renewed mind set he glanced around the small clearing, he hadn’t even noticed the berry bushes all over the forest floor. It was likely this was some type of feeding spot for the bunnies he stumbled into, he should be smart about it and let them come to him. He looked at a tree next to him with a perfect fork in the top that he could perch on. A makeshift stand was a much better option then aimlessly wandering about and getting himself killed. He picked up the corpses and kicked some dirt over the blood hoping they wouldn’t be to picky about the smell. Taking the corpses with him out the small clearing he dropped them down in a while he dug up with his hands a good ways away. Throwing corpses in the whole and the dirt over the small corpses he gave the pile a good pat and swung back to the prairie. Coming to the base of the tree he looked up with a slight smile to the perch.

Smarter not harder Lucas he repeated to himself as he began his climb up the tree. The bark scuffed up his arms and legs but it was far better then getting skewered by a damn bunny. Out of breath when he reached the top he leaned back on the perch taking a good rest. The headache and tightness in his chest was still there but was getting better with each passing minute. He noticed the feeling was a lot less..intrusive then it was the first time he used to much ether or whatever on the tree. Now it was a dull thud in his head and tightness in his chest instead of the thumping migraine and feeling of having someone light his diaphragm on fire.

He let out a sigh leaning back and relaxing, he might not complete his dream this way but hey what did all that matter if he ended up kicking the bucket the first day he got here? Something that made him panicked, he loved this place as barbaric as it was. The gentle sway of the red leaves of the trees and the birds chirping in the distance was so soothing he almost felt like falling asleep. If not for all the things that could probably kill him he would, maybe one day he will be powerful enough to to not worry about any of that. Speaking of which he wondered if he filled out any of his stats any further? Pulling up his status he went over to his stats and couldn’t help but smile. He was right they do fill out with work;

[NN\Stats\ Physical : 0.6/1 {+} | Mental : 0.5/1 {+} | Etherial : 0.8/1 {+}| Walker : 1/1 {+}]

So it seems it wasn’t super hard at the beginning at least to fill them out. He just walked around and used some wind cutter shifts a couple times and moved the needle. Although the mental stat hasn’t changed much, he wondered what it was used for and how it worked. His thoughts were interrupted and he swiped away the message box as he heard ruffling in the bushes. Another bunny came out the clearing, this one confirming his suspicions as it went straight to the bushes to start munching down. Should he wait or should he just go straight for the kill? More might come but he also might loose his chance if he gets done feeding before another comes along. His theory about them traveling in packs seemed to be wrong as well, they were just ganged up on the eating area.

His lucky streak didn’t seem to run out just yet as his internal was raging he hadn’t noticed three more bunnies wondered out into the field. The only problem he had now was they were all scattered about, three where on one bush to his far right and one was on a bush to the far left. Lucas let out a tsk, he should of cut down all the other bushes leaving them with one option…well he was learning he supposed. Maybe he could do two shifts at once? He hadn’t ever tried to before but heck that hadn’t stopped him before. Drawing a circle with his left and right hand he slowly felt the golden mist pour out his palms forming runes lining around the inner ring on each side.

It was far harder then he thought as the left one was flickering in and out as his concentration wasn’t quite there. He prioritized the right bush as it had more bunnies and consequently his right hands cast. Closing both of his fists he felt the circles condescending and the runes connect drawing more of the ether from inside him. Bubbling springs came out both hands and a wind cutter flew from both hands. He was watching the right cutter intensely and it slapped into all three bunnies cutting them down, he was fixing to cheer a job well done when he glanced left to see an empty field with a cut down bush. He missed, well…that wasn’t all that surprising he wasn’t really paying attention to the left side that much. The golden mist rose from the corpses in the distance slapping into him and the familiar message popped up.

[‘Horned Trancer’ killed! X3 | + 150 T]

Well at the very least he killed eight bunnies so far! He glanced up at the sun to see it was staring to fall, he might make just make it if he can find another clearing. He doubted anymore bunnies would be coming to this clearing, glancing around he could see the bushes all cut down and guts painted everywhere. A dry heave or two later and scurried down the tree, this time as he traveled through the forest he kept his hands up with shifts ready and eyes peeled. He could be surrounded in an instant like last time should he stumbled into another clearing, god knows that’s not what he wanted to do. Time passed as he was caught in his thoughts about what to do once he got a decent amount of tokens gathered. He stopped in his tracks as he remembered something, he hadn’t collected any of the etherial cores! He slapped his forehead and felt like such an idiot! All them free tokens he could of got at half way towns or gold he could of earned to take back!

Lucas really did do everything ass backwards! Grumbling and wanting to slap himself he peered through the bushes ahead and into another clearing. Bingo! He could spot some bunnies all gathered around some more of the bushes with the berries they loved. This time it looked like almost twenty of them in one clearing! He hit the jackpot and was keen to capture the moment. Slowly coming up to the clearing with his hands raised he casted a dual shift again, this time taking the slow methodic time needed to get both of them right. He picked the two densest packs on the left and right and got ready, he slowly condensed each shift and felt a large drain from his chest area as he put more ether into these shifts. He felt the headache come but he ignored it pushing on, then a slight lightheaded feeling coming but he was almost there. Collapsing each hand into a fist he felt the shift complete and two mighty roars came from each hand shooting out towards the gaggle of bunnies.

Carnage ensured as the pack on the right was tore through like a shredder. The wind cutter much less reformed but far more powerful didn’t make clean slices like before but ripped them to pieces. The one of the left was much less powerful making cleaner slices but much wider then anything he had done before cleaning whole parts of their bodies out of existence. Lucas dry heaved for a second as the carnage turned the field into a bloody pulp of guts and organs. But as the large amounts of golden mist slapped into him and an alert sounded odd he couldn’t help but smile;

[‘Horned Trancer’ killed! X13 | + 650 T]

Right after that notification another popped up that made dance in the field like a moron jumping around like a teenage kid. He finished his dream! His first one too! He glanced over it with hungry eyes, he finally had plenty of tokens to upgrade a stat;

[Organic Dream(Short Term) : Hunting Time | + 500 T | Complete]

Lucas was on a streak, he was fixing to go grab the bunnies corpses when he felt a sinking feeling. His entire body felt like weights had been slapped on them and the headache turned into a migraine and then into a splitting feeling as if his head was being cracked open with a vice. His chest felt like it had been hit with a hammer and his vision began to narrow, he panicked as he had no clue what was going on. His body trembled with each step he took and only three steps in he felt the work tilt and slap into his face. The narrowed vision turned into darkness and the noises around him into a silent hum.

..

…

…..

Lucas woke up abruptly to the feeling of something slapping into the back of his skull. He cried out grabbing his head, or trying to as he found his arms and legs bound. A sound of something being drug and the world being upside down came rushing into his ears long before his sight returned. The pale moonlight above his head came beaming down and he could see he was being drug by some..person. They were facing away from him so he couldn’t get a good look at first. Lucas began to struggle and move around as his mind began racing with thoughts of his captors. He called out to them hoping to find common ground to get him released as he struggled in his captors steel like grip that was dragging him by his hind legs.

“Hey I don’t know what I did but we can talk about this okay!” Lucas said trying not to panic or show it in his voice.

“Hey man I can give you tokens if you let me free!” Lucas said and the captor still silently drug him onwards and panic began to set in.

“Hey are you even listening!” Lucas now screamed as full blown panic attack was setting in.

The captor turned around making a hideous screeching noise and Lucas felt his stomach drop as the moonlight fell on the horrid monster. It was no human at all, the sharp pointy nose and bulbous eyes with a large forehead made that clear. It let out a loud screech lifting its right hand with a club in it and Lucas barely had time to scream as the club came down on his head. Once again the gentle embrace of the inky dark unconscious land greeted him.