-Chapter 4

*Leaving safe zone, entering combat zone*

A short distance away from the city walls, the notification rang out from inside my head.

This voice would take some getting used to.

I was surrounded by a grassy plain, scattered around me I could see….deer and dogs, the dogs would periodically attack the deer. Each dog was unique, some were bigger, some smaller. Different colors of fur wrapped around each different animal.

Even the deer were distinguishable. They mostly stayed in packs and from what I could see only a few deer strayed away from a pack. Those few deer would usually get picked off by a dog.

How odd. It all felt so strange, the dogs would chase the deer but immediately back away if they couldn’t wound or kill them before they managed to flee to pack of deer.

Although each dog seemed more formidable than the deer, I felt as if attacking a deer would be more troublesome. A feeling in my gut told me that the deer would group up and attack me if they saw me hurting a fellow deer.

Otherwise why would a dog back away once its prey ran close enough to a pack of deer?

Pack of deer? Aren’t dogs supposed to work in packs too? This is all so strange.

Well better to not question it, I’m sure the game developers had some sort of idea when they made these creatures…..

I approached a brown-furred dog carefully, armed with both my weapons I proceeded to engage it in combat.

As soon as the dog saw me, it snarled ferociously, turned its body towards me and swiftly pounced at me.

It was fast!

In the blink of an eye it was within striking range, somewhat flustered I dodged backwards.

Following my movement, the dog continued its charge and lunged for my throat.

“ARG!”

I managed to get my hand up and protect my neck, but it bit into my arm and blood splattered onto the dogs teeth.

Re-focusing, I stabbed downward with the dagger in my other hand and plunged it into the dog’s neck.

Killed instantly, the dead dog still had its teeth still embedded within my arm.

Wheezing with pain, I pried its mouth open with my other hands and threw the corpse on the ground.

I looked at the numbers on the back of my left hand and noticed that my blood-health had dropped from 100% to 92%.

The number then dropped to 91%.

Looks like I needed to stop the bleeding or I could lose all my health.

I didn’t understand all the intricate details of combat as not much had been mentioned in the guidebook.

I would have to fight blindly till I made enough money to buy an information bracelet.

Speaking of which! I should have gained some money for killing that dog!

Wait, how to I check how much money I have?

I looked down at my right hand and pressed the inventory icon with my finger

This time instead of a voice saying “inventory empty” glowing text appeared on my right palm.

{1 copper --- 0/20 slots in use}

1 copper? Does that mean I need to kill…..a hundred dogs before I can buy an information bracelet?

That’s a little stupid.

Wait how do I check my experience? I looked at both my hands and noticed a small black colored percentage on the back of my left hand, under my blood-health that showed 1%

That must be my experience?

All this information on my hands was getting confusing.

Okay so left hand back, blood-health and experience.

Left hand palm, stats and level.

Right hand back shows nothing unless I look at an item or get hit by status-effects. Whatever that means. Also, I could apparently target things too? Target information was also supposed to show up on the back of my right hand.

Right hand palm has three icons, inventory, friends-list and logout. Also, if I pressed the inventory icon, the other icons would fade and my inventory would pop-up.

That’s pretty neat, it’s easy to use and once I get the hang of it, I don’t see how it would hinder me in battle.

I could see my health, status-effects and target information just from the backs of my hands. Which meant if I was wielding a weapon, I wouldn’t have to drop it to see those things. Honestly they were the only things that seemed important for combat anyways.

Maybe I would need to open my inventory in combat?

Well I don’t think it would be much of an issue.

I glanced down at my blood-health and noticed it dropped down to 90%.

Shit! I was so busy thinking about everything I forgot I needed to stop the bleeding.

Umm, let’s see. How do I stop the bleeding again?

Maybe I should head back to the city?

Blood-health 91%

Wait what, it just went down to 90% and now it’s showing 91%? How did that happen?

What the fuck? How does this shit work?

I seriously need to get that information bracelet.

Well apparently even though I was clearly still bleeding I wasn’t going to eventually die at least.

A short while later my blood-health jumped back up to 92%. Maybe if I’m out of combat or something my HP regenerates? That could be a possibility.

Also the bleeding had eventually slowed down. Despite it being a deep wound it didn’t see like I was in any danger of dying from it, despite what I had originally thought.

Well, time to continue killing dogs I guess!

Ignoring the throbbing pain in my left arm, I adopted a serious attitude and began making plans of action.

The dogs were fast, much faster than I had thought. I had also noticed that the deer prancing around were actually even faster than the dogs, I doubt I would be able to catch one.

I kept getting the feelings that the deer were basically just bait. They ran around like idiots, then would find someone gullible enough to chase them. From there they would run to the pack so they could gang-bang whoever was stupid enough to chase a deer.

Also I had yet to see a dog over-chase a deer, they always backed off before a certain point.

A growling sound came from behind me.

I quickly turned around and saw a dog, crouching low within the grass stalking me. It noticed that I had become alerted to its presence and jumped out of the grass and rushed at me.

Oh no, not going to catch me off guard this time. I bent my knees and adopted and aggressive stance, ready to counter-attack.

As it lunged at me I spun my body and dodged the flying canine. It flew past me, seeing an opportunity I took the chance to raise my arm and run it through with my dagger.

A wet sound sprung out as I tore fur and flesh apart with my blade.

Dead in one hit again. The dogs were similar to large Doberman, a dangerous breed fully capable of killing a grown man.

If it managed to bite into my vitals I would die.

Thankfully I had higher than normal agility, being fast was always my greatest advantage.

I remembered those days on the streets. Often times….it was only thanks to being fast that I still lived to this day….

I shook my head, chasing away my old demons.

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- 2 hours later

Breathing heavily I looked at my inventory, finally. 99 copper gained, that meant the next dog that I killed would bring me up to 1 silver.

Enough money to buy an information bracelet.

Also I was at 99% experience. Next kill I would finally be level 2.

This was really fucking hard. My blood health was now at 47%, constant scratches and bruises covered my body.

Also I had noticed that the more tired I got, the more a glowing blue percentage rose on my right hand.

“Status effect…”

I didn’t know what this blue number meant but I wasn’t ready to find out what happened when it hit 100%, it was currently at 56%.

It seemed to rise the more I fight. If I took a break it would slowly go down.

Which meant that after every 2 or 3 kills I would need to take a rest to let my blood-health go up a little and my blue number go down.

Just getting to level 2 was a nightmare. The dogs would often outmaneuver me and attack me with suicidal charges, biting into my body.

Although I would be able to kill them at that moment, it was often a bad trade.

Killing them was taxing, it all came down to….how I wasn’t fast enough.

I felt like I was significantly slower than the dogs.

I approached a black-fur dog. We both glared at each other, then as always, the dog decided to be the first to move.

It circled around me and drew closer and closer.

Anytime now it would charge at me.

It shifted from idle to top speed instantly, leaping at me, going in for the kill.

The moment before it reached me I moved.

Without any wasted movements, I dodged with the tiniest of margins.

I was so focused.

Now.

I jerked my hands upwards, gutting the dog from below.

Fresh blood sprayed onto me, mixing with the dried blood. Painting my clothes and arms with red and copper hues.

I tossed the carcass to the side. Somewhat disgusted with the act of killing. Even though this was a game, the blood….The life…..It was all so real.

It left a bitter taste in my mouth.

To be fair I wasn’t fighting monsters yet, at best these were just animals.

Exhausted, I limped back to the city.

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