The forest was the same as it were a few hours a go with the exception that I could see a bit more players going in, probably to do the weapon request. We all looked the same however with only the minute few of them standing out as they went to buy a change of clothes. There were some players in groups taking on the wolves with some of them using kiting strategies to deal with the wolves that came in groups and others who were soloing were doing some risky moves to take them out quickly which earned them a few deaths here and there. I wasn't in the mood to hunt wolves or kill steal from one of the hunting groups so I continued deeper into the forest.

As the sky turned to evening, I made it towards the deep part of the forest which blocked out most of the sky with the colorful tree leaves. It was quiet and the wisping mists of mana I could see due to [Mana Sight] was not helping me in easing this building tension.

Thud for thud I heard something approaching my location. It's presence heavy as it was aided by the environment and its occasional grunts becoming louder. Finally, I could see the creature. The quadruped beast approached within 12 meters of me and then stood on it's hind legs. Despite it being a little shorter than I was, it made my heart skip a beat before the adrenaline kicked in making it bear faster. I that despite the dark brown fur coat there was a lighter colored 'V'-pattern on its chest area which could be seen only when it stood up. I thought I saw a light dot on that patterned area but it was probably my imagination.

Fragment Seed Bear

Level: 39 Type: Strong

The bear dropped down and rushed towards me with a speed that would be difficult to outrun but not so much to react to, which I did dodging the claw swipe it did with a grunt of emphasis. although I dodged it, I could still feel the wind brush upon my skin. Instinctively, I knew that if I got a direct hit by that, it wouldn't be good.

"Flame Sphere" I shouted rushing towards the bear, summoning a ball of fire that expanded the diameter of my palm and consumed 10 mana per second to maintain. The bear stood on it's hind legs to receive my charge and then made a downwards diagonal swipe which was predictable given how I saw it pull back its paw a little before attacking. After angling my charge a little, I shoved the fire sphere, after flaring it with a burst of 50 mana, into the bear's torso jolting the creature which made the thing do a pained cry, jumped back and then activated the energy sword on my bracer whilst strafing the bear that was shaking it's head. Only a quarter of the beast's HP bar had been shaved off whilst my mana was almost empty at about 30 points remaining.

The bear did some sort of challenging gesture I suppose by thrumping its fore feet, shaking its head and puffing up its fur coat. After that, it charged, predictably towards me again. It's pattern was easy to see through as it kept trying to charge and body slam or swipe at me. Learning from when I fought the wolf before, it wasn't a challenge to face the much slower bear capable of carving out tree trunk sections. Eventually, by stabbing and slashing, I was able to bring it down to a fifth of its HP which from there, a faint red aura could be seen surrounding the bear as it presented to me its clenched triangular teeth and and blood red eyes. It then charged towards me yet again with its attacks seemingly stronger but everything else was more or less the same as the bear fell to the floor heavily, 3 minutes since the whole thing started.

Touching the fading corpse, I collected the drop items and welcomed the notification screen that followed.

Combat ended. Successfully absorbed the fracture essence. Your status rises!

ID: A15479C Name: Jason HP: 100 HPR: 1/min MP: 3 MPR: 1/min KI: 30% STR: 8 (38/80) DEX: 8 (12/80) INT: 8 (5/80) PER: 10 (12/90)

Credits: 150

The status growth for hunting bears was huge compared to the lowly wolf. After this I continued hunting through the forest for two more bears, getting injured on the last one which made me had to rely on the call skill that put Novir out of commision for the rest of the day when they fell asleep after on top of my head.

Following an uncomfortable sleep on the hard floor of the shard space, I moved towards the item store the next day to sell off the monster drops and get at least a pillow. The city was more packed with players this time around. Although not as much as there were initially, its still a lot better having more people out and running. Some had quite the look of despair on their faces however.

Seeing that made me wonder just how many other players were stuck in this game. At the item store, I sold off the bear drops occupying 8/50 of my inventory space for 2344 Credits and headed towards tailor shop where I purchased a casual set of clothes; a white cotton undershirt, a blue jeans and a plain brown shirt for a cheap 350 Credits, bought a [Pillow] Code for 50 Credits, yes code as that has to be restructured in your shard. This game was starting to make my head hurt with so many mentions of code every where. Thankfully, Novir is able to deal with structures in my place so that's one less headache to deal with. The clothes though weren't suitable for combat situations and as such I needed to acquire an armor set if I wanted to completely get rid of the developer's joke of a newbie's wear.

Approaching the store kiosk, I say another familiar face with her hair in ponytail that reached her shoulders and equipped with a weapon bracer on her left arm yet still in that newbie wear which suited her in my opinion. Nicky was looking up the various shops inside the item store as I approached her.

"Hey Nicky"

"Oh, hello again..." she responded a bit despondent.

"You don't seem to be fully here right now."

"You try being happy when you can't see your family again."

"..." I couldn't relate to that so I didn't really know how to respond to that and probably noticing this, she gave me a small smile before returning to the kiosk.

After she found what she was looking for we added each other to our browsers and she headed towards the shop waving me good-bye as I turned towards the exit to head towards the armor store in the city. It was one of those buildings with one of those fancy hologram displays.