I pinched the bridge of my nose, letting out a long sigh. I knew when Vondal went to speak with the mayor, that this was a possibility. I was just irritated that I wasn’t able to go and argue on my own behalf. How much that would have helped me, I don’t know, but I didn’t have much faith that Vondal did much, if anything, to argue in my favor. If anything, he likely urged the mayor to bar me from the town just based on our race's natural distaste for one another. Knowing that my window to argue to remain in Jadestone had closed, I still had an opportunity to at least improve my circumstances out in the wild.

“So, how is the mayor going to go against an order from the gods?” I asked, trying to sound confident in my argument. “I get he has his own reasons for not wanting someone like me around, but I’m still an Outworlder. I assume the Pantheon wouldn’t look too kindly upon either of you ignoring their decree.”

Vondal nodded along with me as his cigarette dangled from his mouth. He patted the leather pack that sat next to his chair. “The Pantheon demands that we assist Outworlders on their arrival. That much we will do before sending you on your way. The bag contains some rations, tools, and other pieces of assorted gear. I even included some armor that should fit you. As far as the gods will be concerned, we will have followed their directive.” Vondal stated with certainty.

While it was better than nothing, it was far less than what I would have earned if I would be allowed to complete my tutorial quest. “Why don’t you just let me meet with my Counselor before you kick me out?” I asked, hoping beyond hope that there was an avenue that would allow me to at least complete my quest.

Vondal just shook his head. “Impossible. You would likely need to stay in town overnight and the mayor won’t even entertain you staying in town for longer than an hour or two.”

“Well, you can’t expect me to survive out in the wild without a weapon. I don’t know what kind of animals and monsters live out in the forest, but I can’t defend myself with just my fists.” I stated.

Vondal looked up at the ceiling in thought for a moment before responding. “I can give you a weapon once you pass through the gates, but not before. The mayor won’t allow you to walk through the town armed in front of the townsfolk.”

Knowing this would be my last chance to try and bargain for any other equipment or provisions, I quickly tried to think about what else I could get from Vondal. The problem was, since I was new to the game and still lacked basic knowledge about the game's mechanics, I didn’t know what to ask for. Quickly scanning around the room, I blurted out something that I didn’t need, but I knew I wanted.

“You think you could toss in some tobacco, you know since I’ve been so well behaved.”

A brief look of annoyance flashed across Vondal’s face which was quickly replaced with a sly grin. “You know what, why not. Whatever gets you out of town before the mayor changes his mind.” Vondal opened the top of the pack at his feet and dropped his leather pouch of tobacco inside. He picked up the pack from the ground and handed it over to me. “That's the last thing you're gonna get from me. It's time for you to leave.”

A couple of notifications popped up on the side of my screen as I accepted the bag. The backpack was large and made of dark brown leather. A large bedroll hung from the bottom of the pack via some leather straps. I went ahead and pulled up the pack's information.

Leather Travel Pack - Large (Average, Uncommon)

Condition: 20/20

Weight: Under Maximum

This nonmagical bag can hold up to 100 LBS of equipment and items that can physically fit into the space. If the bag exceeds its weight limit or if items are improperly stored, the bag will take condition damage of 1 per hour. While wearing this bag on your back, the effect of the bag's weight on your carrying capacity is reduced by 75%.

The pack was a major upgrade to the knapsack I had started with. Even though it wasn’t magical, it was able to carry almost six times as much weight as my first bag. I could also tell that the bag wasn’t even half full, so I felt confident in placing my old knapsack inside without emptying it out first. Standing, I slung the new bag up onto my back, waiting for Vondal to lead me from his office.

As we walked through the door, we were met by four town guards, all of whom were dwarves. The guards took escort positions to either side of me, while Vondal led the group from the front. As we approached the gate, I could see several townspeople waiting. The group was visibly angry and as we approached they began to push against the line of guards that had been posted to keep the way clear. They cried out, demanding vengeance for their lost loved ones. It quickly became apparent that these were the family and friends of the other miners who had been killed.

As the small mob tried to push through the sentries, I was quickly ushered through the gates, which closed behind me and my escort. We walked until we reached the edge of the tree line.

“We will leave you here. You’ll have the day to leave the valley through the eastern pass. If you're discovered in the valley again, a bounty will be issued and the guard will be sent out to hunt you. I expect to never see you again, orc.” Vondal stated as he pushed his spear into my hands. Motioning to his men, they quickly turned around and marched back to the town, leaving me to myself.

Watching Vondal and the guards walk back towards Jadestone, I took a moment to pull up my notifications.

Skill Level Up - Persuasion: Convince, Unranked, LVL 2

For every level you have in this skill, increase your chance to persuade NPC’s by .5%.

Quest Failed - Tutorial Quest

You have failed to appear for your tutorial quest. You have permanently lost access to the quest “Tutorial Quest”.

While the level up to one of my unranked persuasion skills was nice, it wasn’t all that great. Since I was untrained in persuasion, my unranked skills would max out at level 5. It also wouldn’t help me much now that I was stuck out in the wild. It was also overshadowed by the fact that I failed my tutorial quest, which meant that I lost out on my choice of starting weapons and armor.

Worse than that, I lost out on my two starting special attacks for taking Power Martial as my starting class. I was sure that I would be able to learn special attacks through study and training, but missing out on my starting attacks would put me well behind the curve compared to the other beta testers when they were eventually able to log in.

Not liking that I was out in the open in full view of the guards standing on the walls of Jadestone, I walked a few hundred feet east over the snow covered trail until I came to a soft bend that blocked the sight of the town. Finally being out of view of Jadestone, I pulled my new leather pack off my back and spent a few minutes going through its contents.

In the bag was another 100 ft of rope, a simple climbing kit, another waterskin, 10 more rations, and two tools. A simple hatchet and a simple hammer. While the supplies were fine, the real important items were my new armor and weapon.

Iron Spear (Average, Common)

Condition: 40/40

Weight: 4 LBS

Damage: 6 - 11 Piercing

Range: 20ft - 30ft

Spears are finesse weapons that will scale based on a character's strength or dexterity, whichever is higher. Spears can be used as a melee and thrown weapon.

Medium Hide Armor (Average, Common)

Condition: 35/40 (averaged between set pieces)

Weight: 10 LBS

Armor: 5-6

Current Set: 2 of 5 (Chest, Pants)

Hide armor is made from the pelts of animals. The armor offered depends on the thickness of the hide used. Hide armor is largely used by more primitive races or groups that do not have easy access to cured leather.

Neither item was impressive. Looking over the armor, I could see that it was damaged. There was a hole in the chest with traces of dried blood. Vondal had said that Orcs had attacked and killed some of the miners as they returned from their shift in one of the mines. Considering the size and condition of the armor pieces, I wondered if they had been worn by one of their attackers.

I also wasn’t thrilled with the damage offered by the spear, though I had to admit it wasn’t all bad. While I would have never picked the spear as a starting weapon, it was likely the best weapon to have based on the situation I was in. I couldn’t imagine that something like a great sword would work well in a wilderness survival situation, but having a long spear that doubled as a thrown weapon could help if I had to start hunting.

I took a couple of minutes to get into the armor while I stood in the middle of the trail. While I adjusted some of the straps on the chest piece to get a slightly tighter fit, I could feel a tingling in my mind as I looked off towards the western mountains. The sky over the mountains still looked the same as it did a few hours ago, slightly dark and ominous, but the sky over the valley was still largely clear with a scattering of white clouds. As I contemplated how bad a potential snowfall would be inside the valley, I finished equipping myself by slinging the extra waterskin over my shoulder and attaching my hatchet to my belt. Equipping my pack, I turned my back to Jadestone and started walking east.

While Vondal had told me I had to be out of the valley by the end of the day, I knew I wouldn’t actually leave the area until I got in contact with the rest of my group. The whole point of us spawning in Jadestone was to test the quality of the AI-storyteller crafted NPCs and to make sure that nothing the AI generated was buggy or game breaking. The team wouldn’t be able to immediately move to another area and if I didn’t find a way to gain legal access to the town, then I would likely be stuck having to create a brand new character.

As I walked down the road, I pulled up my bug reporting tab and started updating the ticket that I sent earlier. I figured letting the devs know exactly why my spawn was locked out would help them quickly identify a fix to make sure other beta testers didn’t end up in the same situation I was in. I walked for about half a mile as I mentally typed in my update until I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

Stopping, I moved the text window to the corner of my vision. Looking off into the trees on either end of the trail, I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I quickly typed in the remaining information and sent the report on its way. As I took a few cautious steps forward, I could hear rustling coming from some firs with low-hanging branches that brushed against the ground. I oriented my body towards the noise, spear held firm in both of my hands as I inched my way further up the road.

Suddenly, a loud squeal rang out directly behind me. Before I had a chance to turn my head, I felt something slam into the back of my right leg, forcing my knee to buckle under the sudden strike. White hot pain flashed through my calf as I tumbled to the ground. In the corner of my vision, red, green, and blue bars appeared next to the silhouette of a human body. The red bar dropped by about 10% and the right leg on the silhouette turned orange with a black teardrop symbol. In the back of my head, a robotic voice quietly read off the damage that I had suffered.

You take 19 piercing damage. You are bleeding (minor). You will lose 2 HP every 5 seconds for the next 30 seconds.

I quickly rolled onto my knees and turned to see what had run through my legs. On the other end of the trail was a boar, standing about two feet tall from its shoulders to the ground. Behind it, I could see two more of a similar size push their way out of the bottom of the nearby fir tree. The same internal voice that listed off the damage the first boar had done began to speak again.

Juvenile Boar - LVL 2

Juvenile boars are moderately aggressive creatures nearing their full size and strength of adulthood. These boars typically travel in small packs and will become aggressive if encroached upon or if nearby females are in heat.

This could be bad. All three had become aggressive when I walked in between the group and all of them were a level higher than I was myself. The single attack that I had suffered took away a decent chunk of my health and the bleeding effect would wipe away another 12 HP before it stopped. If all three charged me, they could probably tear through my health rather quickly. Luckily, only the one that had attacked me seemed interested in a fight, the other two were still standing back, poised to strike, but otherwise silent and still. If I was going to make it through this battle, I would have to try and kill the first boar before the other two entered the fight.

Without giving it too much thought, I started beating my chest with my left hand and I began to shout. “Come on you stupid pig. Come at me!” The boar let out another loud squeal, kicking up snow as it started to charge. A split second before the boar reached me, I lifted the end of my spear up while bracing the butt against the ground. The body of the boar crashed into the end of the spear, impaling itself. The momentum of its charge forced the butt end of the spear into the hard ground, causing the spear to work like a hinge as it lifted the body of the boar off the ground for half a second before it came crashing back down into the snow.

You have critically struck Juvenile Boar with ‘Braced Spear’ for maximum piercing damage (11) plus critical damage (25*). You have struck a vital organ. Juvenile Boar is bleeding (severe). Juvenile Boar will lose 10 HP per second for one minute.

The boar weakly struggled in the snow, trying to disengage itself from the end of the spear, but it was already too late. The damage had been done. Getting back to my feet, I braced my foot against the body of the boar, as I pulled the spear from just under its jowl. A quick river of blood rushed from the wound as the light left the creature's eyes. While the initial blow hadn’t been enough to kill the animal outright, the bleeding effect had quickly finished the job.

Before I could refocus myself, the other two boars let out ear splitting cries of anguish as they charged in my direction. With only a split second to spare, I dove over the creatures as they tried to barrel my legs out from under me. Rolling into a somersault, I quickly came back into another kneeling position, spear ready out in front of my body. The boars peeled off from each other as they circled around in an attempt to hit me on opposite sides.

Unwilling to be gored in the back while bracing for another hit, I quickly got to my feet as I charged towards the boar to my right. Waiting for the right moment, I jumped, allowing the boar to run underneath my feet as my momentum continued to carry me forward. Landing in a crouched position, I braced my spear against the ground hoping to impale the other boar as it chased me. Learning from its friend's mistake, the creature attempted to swerve out of the way of the spear’s head. Not wanting to lose the chance to injure the boar, I thrust the spear out towards the creature, managing to pierce its hide and cut a long gouge from shoulder to hip.

Unfortunately, the tip of the spear caught on some bone in the boar's leg, ripping the weapon from my hands, and flinging it several feet away from where I was crouched on the ground. Before I could get up and reclaim my weapon, the second boar began to charge me again. Uninjured and at full strength, it would be on me before I could rearm myself. Not knowing what else to do, I bellowed out a deep roar towards the rushing creature a split second before I swung out with my leg. Timing it just right, I managed to kick the boar in the side of its head. The boar's rush still carried it through my plant leg, causing me to fall onto my side, but my kick had managed to knock it down as well.

You successfully frightened the Juvenil Boar. Juvenile Boar will suffer from fear* (minor) for 15 seconds. You have critically hit the boar with ‘Powerful Kick’ for bludgeoning damage (5) plus critical damage (11). You inflict Juvenil Board with stun* (moderate) for 30 seconds.

* Fear debuff lowers dodge chance and lowers attack speed based on the severity of the debuff.

* Stun debuff lowers movement speed, balance, and attack accuracy based on the severity of the debuff.

While the attack's information was filtering into my mind, the remaining boar barrelled into me from the side. While it had been slowed by the wound my spear left in its flank, it still managed to throw me from my knees, back onto the ground, while leaving a fresh gash in my hip from its tusks. Before it could retreat and come back around for another attack, I grabbed it by its hind leg, using all my strength to hold it in place as I crawled on top of its body. Taking my hatchet from its holster, I brought the tool down on the boar's skull. It took three blows to the head before I got a worthwhile prompt.

You have critically struck Juvenil Boar with hatchet (tool) for slashing damage (4) plus critical damage (9). You have struck a vital area. Juvenile Boar has suffered brain damage* (severe/permanent). Juvenile Boar is paralyzed. Juvenile Boar is bleeding (moderate). They will lose 5 HP every 5 seconds for 5 minutes or until healed.

Quickly regaining my feet, I turned my attention back towards the boar I had kicked. I was surprised to see that the boar was struggling to get up off the ground. Still suffering from the stun debuff, it continued to lose its balance every time it tried to stand. Not wanting to waste my chance, I quickly went to my fallen spear. Walking over to the stunned boar, I drove the spearhead into the back of the creature's neck, earning more battle prompts showing that the boar was now paralyzed, similar to its sibling. With both boars incapacitated, I quickly went to each slashing their throats with my knife officially ending the fight.

Covered in blood with my wounds slowly starting to knit themselves closed, I felt the flow of adrenaline continue to pump through my veins. Unable to contain myself, I let out a cry of victory. My voice echoed through the quiet valley, bouncing off of rocks and trees and it went. As the euphoria of battle finally began to wane, a soft sound caught my attention, one that immediately put me back on edge. Behind me, off into the trees, I could hear the soft rhythmic sound of clapping.