Author's Note: Surprise! Part 2! Double post today!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This is ridiculous. Who would put such a thing in a game?”

Tannin stood in the middle of the river where it flowed slowly, spread over a wide area. He stood in only the basic pants-ripped-into-shorts. He scrubbed himself with sand from the river bottom roughly, like he was trying to ward off a scourge.

“If I find out the person that did this, I'll sue for mental anguish!”

He scrubbed harder, the stench rising to his nose for the hundredth time that same day. He grew frustrated and howled, “I hate goblins! Hate them! I'll kill them all!”

Goblins above level 5 have an ability called [Stink]. The further north he went, the more higher-leveled goblins there were. Worse, they traveled in small groups. When one sprayed, they all did! A deep-seated stench sprayed right from their arm hairs!

“The stinks not so bad as a skunks, but this is freaking horrible.” His eyes teared and his nose stung, going numb, but throbbing. “It stays for hours after getting sprayed. Bathing hardly makes it go away, and it's just as strong as when first sprayed.”

Regardless of the stink, he had managed to get very far in two days. Tomorrow he would head back down river. He didn't want to lose his only friend, Lucas. He hadn't had any sense of Lucas logging back in yet.

He was starting to get worried for his body. It must be expensive for Jennifer to take care of him while he was stuck from logging out. He had to repay her big time. Hopefully Lucas would have some answers for him soon. He could help Lucas level quick now in return.

With that in mind he made sure to hunt widely on his way back down south. He went a little further into the forest from the river due to over hunting. Animals and plants didn't respawn in a few minutes like normal games. He wasn't sure on the animals. At least with his [Wildcrafting] skill he could tell when the plants would replenish.

He reached camp, the hunting and grinding leveling him to eight. The camp was as he had left it, no obvious signs of that intruding saber cat returning. As he rested, he again began experimenting to get different skills. He spent a whole day doing this. In the process, he managed to learn two new skills; [Tanning], and [Leather-Working].

The tanning was good, letting him use the saber cat skins for something. Though the method to get the skins to tan was a little unorthodox. He used a questionable goblin drop called [Mixed Juices] to paint the skin as he stretched it, leaving it by the river side in the sun. After a day it would turn into leather.

After getting the leather he took vines and ripped them apart, re-weaving it into [Vine Thread]. He sewed a basic backpack for himself. This increased his portable storage space.

“A few more skins and I can make some clothes.” His ragged basic clothing was almost done-for.

He equipped the bag, transferring the more common and abundant items into the backpack. He left a few items in the bag, mainly things like healing items and food. Finished, he began cooking more meat, waiting for Lucas' return before making another move to explore.

#

Lucas sat up, his VLAM disconnected from the network. He reached for his special suitcase, opening the lock on it. He entered the lock's code sequence and pressed his thumb on the scanner. There was a 'pop', and it opened. He pulled out his private cell.

He held the phone for a minute, thinking on what to say. Decided, he dialed Jenifer's number. His phone, with priority-access through his provider, quickly went through. Jennifer picked up on the third ring. Her voice was soft. It very pleasantly teased his ears.

“Hello?”

“Hello, my name is Lucas. I'm a friend of Tannin. I was hoping I could speak with him?”

“Tannin? Who's that?”

“He's...”

Lucas frowned. He had never asked Tannin's real life name. What a blunder. It had been a while since he'd made a mistake this large.

“We play online together. I'm sorry, I only know his gamer name.”

“I see. You must be a friend of Aleric's. I'm sorry, but he's not here any more.” She whispered.

“Excuse me? Did he move or change numbers?”

“No. He-he passed away, recently.” Her voice broke, crackling with sadness.

“....”

Lucas' brain froze, all thoughts vanishing. Slowly, gears turned and cogs began to click into place as he saw the links gather. One-by-one he pieced them together. The possibilities of human error began to blare in his head. He instinctively took off the VLAM.

“Hello?” Jennifer's voice echoed out of his cell.

“I'm sorry to hear that. He was a very close friend of mine. I wish to attend the wake. Would it be alright if I came?”

“Oh! I'm sorry. There wasn't many relatives or friends to hold a wake. He's already b-buried. Um, I can give you the location.”

“Please. I would be deeply appreciative. Also, I'd like to get to know his family and the circumstances of his passing.”

“As a friend of Aleric's I'll tell you.”

“Alright. I have a free day soon. I'll contact you again when I have the details and visit him after.”

“Okay. You can call me again. Uh, my name's Jenifer.”

“I will call you soon.”

“Okay. Good-bye then.”

“Good-bye, Jenifer.”

Lucas ended the call, immediately dialing another number to free up a day. He had to move quickly, before others noticed the issue. He couldn't let anything happen to Aleric. It was partially his fault, after all. He owed the kid big time. Still, he couldn't quite believe Jenifer's words yet. It was almost too unbelievable.

#

Several days had passed for Tannin. Throughout the time he'd cooked all the saber cat meat into smoked meat. All the animal skins had turned into leather. All possible food items were created. Medical items too. All this he'd done in the days after coming back from exploring.

In all that time Lucas had yet to show. No one else had shown up either, player or NPC. It was getting lonely again. The only unchanging thing was the forest sounds and hunting. Without the ability to log out this was his world.

Who knew how long until Lucas showed up. He could always be tracked with a thought when logged in by Tannin anyway. There really was no need for him to sit and wait. It was a great opportunity to increase his crafting, but that was all done.

Tannin sighed and stood up from his latest meal, a large salad. He stretched, feeling his muscles and sinew happily engage. The last two days he'd hunted the south and north. The west was for today. He equipped his backpack and headed out.

In between hunting he plucked plants. After plucking several dozens of plants he heard a familiar sound.

Ding!

You have found Silver Grass for the first time!

Tannin looked at the plant in his hand. Mixed in with herbal leafs was a long, blue, thin grass with silver veins. “I don't get to name it? Someone else already did?”

He shrugged. No reason to think to hard on it. Now that he found silver grass, he should be able to harvest it at night thanks to [Mooncraft].

He moved on, hunting through the day and into the night. He hunted ravenously. His level through the days reached 10. His war fan also hit level 4. All the quick actions started to drain him.

Eventually his stamina dropped half way and he was getting hungry. Time to head back to camp. He had gone quite a ways that dawn arrived by the time he hit camp. He whipped out animal skins and meat, getting to work.

It was during the crafting process when he felt a presence behind him. He equipped his fan and swirled around. “Ugh! Don't do that!”

Lucas looked at him in surprise. “Don't do what?”

“Don't pop up like that. Do you want me to PK you?”

“No.”

Lucas looked at him strangely. “What?”

“I contacted the GM for you. I'm just waiting for a reply. It's a new game, so there's a response delay.”

“Oh.” That's it? “How's Jenifer?”

“She's doing fine. I visited your place. Your family is very kind.”

“They've always been like that.”

“You're very lucky to have them.”

“Mm-hmm.” Tannin agreed, thinking what it would be like to just wake up and greet them. He'd never been separated from them for so long without a text or call. It was out of place and he felt lacking contact. If it wasn't for Lucas, he'd be going insane.

Seeing his words having a negative effect, Lucas changed the topic.

“Tannin, let's level.”

“Sure!” Tannin jumped up, eager to play. “You do the party.”

Lucas waved his hand and invited Tannin. Tannin selected join. A small icon popped up to his bottom left. Waving over it, he could see the party information.

Lv4 LucasHP 100%MP 100%Lv10 TanninHP 100%MP 100%

Tannin waved the party information away. “Do you have some food?”

“No. I just sleep or rest when needed.”

Tannin shook his head. He retrieved some salads from his backpack and handed them over. “Here, these should last you a few days. You'll die repeatedly in this area the way you've been playing.”

“Thank you. Shall I eat one now?”

“Sure. Just to be safe. I ate already. When you're done we'll head out.”

Tannin loitered while Lucas ate. Now that he was in a party he had to change the way of the hunt. “Did you want to level against normal beasts, or do you want to try goblins?”

“There are goblins?”

“Yeah. They're only levels 5-6. Easy pickings.”

“Then let's go grind goblins. I think you should lead the way.”

“Sure. Just don't fall behind.”

Lucas grinned. “I won't. I'm not that old.”

Tannin walked in front, following the river north. He smirked, knowing that Lucas was going to regret his decision. He was right.

It was on the first level 6 goblin that Lucas got hit. Lucas was wiping his face, his nose and eyes streaming. He was gagging, his face scrunched up. Even so, he managed to land a hit with his staff on the goblin's noggin, stunning it.

Tannin went in for the kill, avoiding the [Stink] and blood. The goblin fell, arms wide open in a last attempt attack. Poor Lucas walked right into it, falling back. Lucas lay on the ground, his eyes unfocused. Tannin rushed over, checking the party stats. They were both at full health.

“Lucas? Are you okay?”

“....”

A few seconds later Lucas took a deep breath and started gagging. After some time to recover, he glared angrily at Tannin.

“Stunned.”

“What?”

“I was stunned!” Lucas gasped.

Tannin stared at him, then slowly grinned as it dawned on him. “Haha.”

Lucas pushed him and swung at him with his staff. “Why didn't you tell me they had such an awful attack?”

Tannin danced back out of reach, laughing hard. “I, ah, I can't. Hahaha. You got stunned from the smell. Ahahaha.”

“Damn you. Stop laughing so hard.” Lucas leaned heavily on his staff, trying to regain his strength. “The smell won't go away.” Lucas tried swatting the air around him.

Tannin fell to his knees, hugging his belly. “Hahahaha!”

Lucas stumbled towards him and tripped over himself, falling and landing on the deceased goblin. His face landed in the most appropriate place. He became stunned once again, the stink permeating the air.

Tannin crawled forward, starting to harvest the goblin. “Ahaha. Are you..hah... trying to kill me? Ahaha.”

The goblin remains vanished, fully harvested. Lucas rolled himself over and began coughing all over again. “No..cough...no more... of that. I will attack..cough...from afar. You attack up...cough..close!”

“Ah, okay. Haha.”

After they were able to regain control of themselves, Tannin ended up taking the lead. Goblins were killed so quickly that Lucas never had a chance to land a hit. In the end, the time was fruitful. Tannin reached level twelve with his war fan at 5. Lucas made it to 9 and his staff at 4.