Kichiro hummed merrily from atop his mare as she trotted through the swaying sea of grass that covered the steppes of Red Earth Country. In all directions, rolling green hills stretched as far as the eye could see. It was now high noon and Kichiro had ridden for seven hours. Basking in the warm sunshine, he was in a great mood. He was on his first Quest as Steppe Rider of the Teal Banner, and all he had been asked to do was slay a giant marmot!

A giant marmot, thought Kichiro to himself, smiling, How ridiculous!

Many Quests, once given to a person, would grant that person an inner compass to aid them in locating the area where the Quest was to be completed by way of instinct. Jirgalang’s Quest to kill the giant marmot was one such Quest. Kichiro, having arrived in an utterly nondescript part of the vast grassland, suddenly sensed that the giant marmot was somewhere close. He steered his mare up a nearby hillock and surveyed the surrounding lands. Below him, to the North, a small river snaked through the steppe, perhaps one of the tributaries of the Mother River where Nurhaci found him, high on hallucinogenic berries. Behind the river grew a copse of birches.

Kichiro felt utterly convinced that the giant marmot must be somewhere by that river; it was as if the Quest was banging a gong in his head to announce that it was in the area. Suddenly, his eyes locked in on something moving in the grass not far from the riverbed.

That must be the giant marmot!

Heart pounding with excitement, he unslung his bow and kicked his horse to ride down the hillock. Unsteadily, he let go of the reins and retrieved an arrow from his belt quiver. Approaching the river, he suddenly realised that the thing he had seen moving was in fact a marmot’s head, popping out from its burrow to watch the newcomer.

But that’s just a regular marmot!

Suddenly, the marmot let out a high-pitched scream and disappeared back into the burrow. Kichiro reined in, unsure of what to do. He could hardly wriggle into the tiny hole and chase the marmot.

Then the very Earth begun to shake.

Earthquake?

Kichiro turned his head left and right, confused as to what was happening.

Before he could react, the ground beneath Kichiro’s horse erupted. Loose earth, rocks and clumps of grass were flung into the heavens. Kichiro’s mare struggled to get its hind legs out of the gaping hole that opened and bolted. Kichiro’s eyes went wide as the sun was blocked by an enormous shadow. A giant ball of fur had rocketed out of the surface of the Earth and was now flying through the air in his direction.

When it collided with the ground, the shockwave sent Kichiro tumbling off his horse.

You lose 7 HP in fall damage!

Kichiro lay in the dust, head spinning, and watched as a marmot as big as a family’s yurt galloped violently towards his poor horse. The mare attempted to escape, but her neck injury prevented her from fleeing fast enough, and in moments the giant marmot was upon her. Kichiro watched in terror as the monstrous beast pinned his beloved mare down, sunk its door-sized front teeth into her soft flesh, and then ripped her throat out, leaving the hapless animal to bleed out in the cruel steppe.

Everything made sense now. Marmots were social animals that lived together in burrows. The regular marmot from earlier had alerted the giant marmot to Kichiro’s presence, and the giant marmot had come to deal with the situation. It was probably the regular marmot’s cousin.

The giant marmot now turned its attention to the terror-stricken Kichiro. Its great buck teeth were red with blood and gore. Kichiro saw that this was a Level 16 giant marmot. He knew it was think fast or die. Leaping onto his feet, he grabbed his katana and raced towards the river. Never had he ran this fast before, not even when the guardsmen of the Morning Capital chased him after he had nicked a purse.

You gain +1 Agility!

He heard of the giant marmot’s pursuit, growing louder and louder. He felt gusts of hot air tickle his back as the giant marmot closed in; the monster’s breath. After what seemed like an eternity, Kichiro dived into the icy water of the river. It was so cold he could hardly breathe, and he swallowed about a bucket’s worth of river, but he swam and swam, because his life depended on it. Water splashed on him as the giant marmot leapt into the pool. Kichiro’s heart sunk. It’s going to chase me across the river?

Kichiro scrambled out of the water on the opposite riverbank and sprinted towards the copse of birches. To his intensified horror, he looked behind him as he ran to see the giant marmot dig claws longer than sabres into the wet mud and drag itself violently out of the river. Reaching the woods, Kichiro pressed his back a tree trunk, clutched his sword with both hands and trembled with fear. He had nowhere to run. He would have to fight and kill the giant marmot. Among the trees he would stand a better chance than out in the open.

He stole a look around the tree trunk. The giant marmot was nowhere to be soon.

Where under the Blue Heavens is it?

Then Kichiro saw a pile of freshly dug-up earth. His heart sunk. The earth shook. A birch or two were uprooted as the giant marmot erupted out of the earth once more, this time inches in front of Kichiro’s feet. Without thinking, Kichiro plunged his katana straight into the giant marmot’s neck.

You inflict 74 HP in damage to the Level 16 giant marmot!

The monster shrieked with pain as it pulled the rest of its fat body out of the hole. It whirled to face Kichiro, splattering the white birches with blood. Kichiro ducked as claws ripped through the air a hair’s width over his head, cutting a tree trunk in half and causing a birch to crash to the ground with a loud thud. Kichiro pushed as much as he could out of his high Agility to dash to the marmot’s left, flanking it. Again, he plunged his katana into its monstrous body, this time into its side.

You inflict 56 HP in damage to the Level 16 giant marmot!

Caught in a panic, the marmot leapt up onto its hind legs and thrashed wildly about with its claws. Several birches were felled and birds fled the copse in a great haste. Kichiro hacked at its feet with the katana, finding every opportunity he could to inflict injury to his gargantuan adversary.

You inflict 22 HP in damage to the Level 16 giant marmot!

This caused a lot less damage in HP than his other attacks, but the giant marmot now found it agonising to stand. It flopped onto its back to take weight off its injured foot, exposing its soft underbelly to Kichiro. Triumphantly, Kichiro leapt onto the marmot’s fluffy underside and sliced open its abdomen. A torrent of hot marmot blood painted him red.

You inflict 141 HP in damage to the Level 16 giant marmot!

The giant marmot screamed so loudly, Kichiro’s ears felt like they were about to pop. Mustering the remnants of its rapidly diminishing strength, the struggling monster swiped its assailant with its right claw, slashing Kichiro’s left shoulder and sending him flying. He crashed into a tree trunk and slid down into a pile of brown leaves. This time it was his turn to scream.

The Level 16 giant marmot inflicts 22 HP in damage to you! You lose 8 HP in fall damage!

When is this stupid thing going to die already?

The giant marmot was fed up of fighting. It struggled back onto its four feet and tried to crawl back into the hole it had burst out of, but its insides were falling out of its stomach, landing on the ground with wet, sickening thumps.

The Level 16 giant marmot loses 235 HP to bleeding!

The monster managed to drag about half of its body into the hole, leaving a trail of blood and gore in its wake, before Kichiro stabbed his father’s katana into its backside with his right hand. His other arm was barely functional.

You inflict 2 HP in damage to the Level 16 giant marmot! The Level 16 giant marmot dies!

Kichiro roared in victory and slumped down to the ground, his strength spent. His heart thumped furiously against his chest and he panted like a dog. Never before had he come so close to death. Suddenly, his vision went white and tremors ran through his head.

You gain the Hunter Job!

You’re now a Level 2 Hunter! You’re now a Level 3 Hunter! You’re now a Level 4 Hunter! You’re now a Level 5 Hunter! You’re now a Level 6 Hunter! You’re now a Level 7 Hunter! You’re now a Level 8 Hunter!

Kichiro’s head spun under the weight of all these notifications.

Just how high-Level is killing a giant marmot for it to give me a new Job and eight Level-ups at once?

Kichiro realised he had no idea what he had signed up for when he took that Quest from Jirgalang, but at this point, he was only glad that he was still breathing. After a few minutes of sitting on the ground in a daze, leaning against the dead body of the giant marmot, he wondered for how long he would still be alive, however. Here he was, half a day’s horse ride from the main camp of the Teal Banner, without a horse. He reckoned that it would take him a full day to walk back, but it was already noon, and at night the steppe was a perilous place. As if that was not enough, his left shoulder was gravely injured and he could hardly move his left arm.

What am I to do now?