After the sun had set, the star covered sky started to turn into a pitch black one as more and more black clouds gathered on top of the area. Soon after this, a heavy and cold rain started falling into the fields and forest, which prompted Anton to look for refuge inside the forest.

Due to the heavy clouds in the sky and the equally dense canopy of trees, almost no light reached the ground, and even if his eyes became used to the darkness he would probably have a hard time doing almost everything.

The rain had managed to find its way past his light clothing, soaking him completely and leaving him cold and shivering. He needed to find a place to escape from the rain and maybe even start a fire, but to do anything; he would need a source of light first.

He tried opening his menu to see if the light coming out of it would help him see better, but soon realized that the light from the menu only made it harder to see around.

He thought about just wondering into the forest until he felt things were drier and he would then try and use his electricity to create a fire, but the very idea of walking aimlessly into the darkness made his skin curl.

He took out his dagger and decided to give a try to an idea that could probably kill him. Electricity, or more specifically lightning, generated light, so maybe if he electro charged his dagger, it would give him some light to see his surroundings, but there was a catch, as wet as he was right now, there was the possibility of the electricity finding its way into his body and electrocuting him.

“I have three options,” He said. “I either spend my night in darkness and cold, I use my dagger as a makeshift lantern successfully which would help me through the night or to even create a fire or I kill myself… peachy…”

He looked at the silhouette of his dagger for a few seconds, considering just waiting the night out when a gust of wind came into the forest and reminded him of how cold he was.

“Fuck it, let’s see how this works out.” He said. He imagined the dagger covered in electricity and yelled. “Electro Charge!”

He felt a wave of energy move from somewhere on his spine down his right arm and into the dagger, where it gathered and condensed around the weapon. The whole process had been very similar to the one he had seen on the rabbit’s legs, but this time instead of exploding into the air, the energy formed a thick electric grid that released some light into the environment.

It was barely better than just using his eyes, but it at least gave him enough contrast to see what parts of the forest where drier or wetter than the others.

“At least now I know that either I’m immune to electricity or my own electricity doesn’t hurt me…” He said letting out a sigh of relief.

He looked around for a few minutes while the light coming from his dagger became dimmer and dimmer as more electricity was released into the air.

Just before his makeshift torch went out, he managed to find a big tree whose branches and leaves had managed to keep the ground dry with a rock next to its tree trunk that looked comfy to sit in. He had found his temporary refuge.

With the last sparks of his dagger, he grabbed a few twigs and bigger branches that looked relatively dry and brought them near to the rock, piling them into two piles, one of which he planned to turn into a small pyre.

When he had everything finished, he put his dagger away and thought of his next step. Electro Charge also let him electrify parts of his body, so maybe if he managed to charge his hand, he may be able to create a spark that would ignite the twigs and leaves he had obtained.

“Electro Charge…” He said, imagining his right hand covered in electricity and a formation similar to that of a mitten made out of pure lightening appeared over his hand. “Good, this should work just fine…”

He brought his index finger and thumb together and then separated them, creating a short but bright spark as a small electric arch formed in between them.

He tried again, this time he put his fingers next to the pile of dry things, protected the pile from the wind with his other hand and created the small spark but, even though he saw some kind of small ember forming in one of the leaves, it died to fast to foster it into something bigger.

He also noticed that the energy on his hand had dimmed a bit; probably some of the electricity had been transported to the ground because he was too close to it, and he reckoned he would have two or three more attempts before the power went out.

It was during the third attempt when his hand went dark, but on the pile a small flame rose from the leaves. Anton got in all fours and started to slowly blow on the fire, trying to expand it to other things.

It wasn’t long before he had a small pyre roaring in front of him, happily eating the branches away.

Anton started dancing around his fire, celebrating his big accomplishment. If in the real world he had found himself in this situation, he would have probably died of hypothermia before managing to create some fire, but here, with his magic and a small fire in front of him, he felt close to invincible.

“Yes!” He yelled. “Look what I have created!”

He only needed a volley ball and any kind of long beard and someone would have probably mistaken him for a movie protagonist.

The blue light that opened the menu turned yellow and a short jingle reminiscent to those victory songs in final fantasy chimed in his head.

He stopped dancing and sat on the rock. The mood changed immediately, He opened his menu expecting to find a message relating to his situation, but it wasn’t what he found.

As soon as he opened his menu, a message popped up in front of his ability screen.

Congratulations!

After meeting the necessary requirements, you have learned the electric ability ‘Spark’, a small electric ability that uses little energy and can be used to create fires.

After meeting the necessary requirements, you have understood the nature of the electric ability ‘Electro Charge’, increasing to level 2 and it has improving its duration slightly.

Administrator.

He felt disappointed and exited at the same time. Although he was expecting a way to get out of the game, receiving a new ability wasn’t half bad, and that had also answered another question he had in his mind.

“So that’s how you get new abilities… by using your previous abilities on a creative way… that’s… a pretty cool concept to be honest…”

He prepared to close the window in order to put some more branches to the fire, when he saw who had signed the message, ‘Administrator’.

He knew for a fact that he was totally cut out from the outside world, Alexis had said that the servers the games run on functioned as its own entity and this had been confirmed when his messages even stopped sending, but there was still someone managing the place, someone inside the game who could have the answers he needed if he wasn’t freed soon.

“Whatever,” he said. “I don’t get anything for thinking about that right now.”

He closed the window, partially undressed and put his clothes to dry next to him.

He hugged himself and got closer to the fire, it was going to be a long night.

—————————————-

To his surprise, it wasn’t.

After drying his clothes and putting them back on, he had felt so comfortable next to the fire, that this together with his tiredness from the day put him to sleep almost instantly.

He woke up with a sore neck and stiff legs, remnants of his night sitting on top of a rock and laying against a tree.

The small pre had long since died, but enough sun came through the canopy to illuminate his surroundings. He stood up, stretched a little to relax his tired back and walked out of the forest to find out that the clouds had gone away and the sky was now clean and clue.

Apparently weather changed a lot in that area.

Having survived the night, he now didn’t have anything else to do. When someone got lost on a normal rescue situation, it is a good idea to stay near to the place you where las seen so the rescuers had easier time finding you, but this wasn’t a normal rescue situation and he supposed his body was being taken care of in the real world.

“Should I just try to find a village or something where to stay in the meantime?”

He faced west and started walking, following the wind and the edge of the forest.

“If I keep on walking I’m bound to find somewhere to stay…” He said. “I hope this demo even has places where I can stay… I would love to know where I am though…”

A small window popped up in front of him.

“Oh… so this place is called The Emerald Fields… makes sense… Menu, wouldn’t you happen to have a map of the area or something?”

The menu said nothing.

“For fucks sake, I have a menu with a personality…”

—————————————-

After walking for what felt hours without much change in the scenery, Anton stopped to check his stats screen. The 10 MP he had used las night with the two ‘Electro Charges’ had recovered completely.

He was also starting to feel hungry, which surprised him, given the fact that this wasn0t actually his body, but he could tell that if he didn’t eat anything in a while, he would start to loose energy.

“I should probably try using ‘Lightning Strike’,” He said. “It could probably come in handy if I need to hunt something, I mean, it is my only ranged ability right now…”

He looked around until he found a suitable tree he could use as a target and counted nine steps away from it, closing in to the maximum range of the ability.

“Ok.” He said.

He stood on a position similar to that of a gunman, mimicking a gun with the fingers of his right hand and pointing towards the tree.

He concentrated the same way as the night before on his fingers and felt a warm sensation on his spine.

“That’s probably my magic.” He said softly, trying to concentrate.

He imagined a bolt of electricity flying towards the tree and said the name of the ability.

“Lightning Strike!” He yelled.

He felt the wave of energy rush into his finger and coil around of like an electrical serpent before shooting at an incredible speed towards the tree… and missing it completely disappearing into the forest.

“Shit!” He said. “Is my accuracy too low? I’ll need to… practice… more?”

His face started to get paler as a rumbling sound reached his ears, the low, vibrating roar of something very big and very angry.

He started hearing the sound of trees snapping and the ground start to shake under what seemed to be very heavy footsteps.

He didn’t need more information. Just when the hand of a giant apelike creature tore apart the tree he had been using as a target, he turned around and began running.

—————————————-

That morning had been a slow one.

He was on duty, which would mean he would barely have time for breakfast, but after waking up earlier than usual he had managed to exercise, clean and polish his equipment, have a decent breakfast and go visit his friend Raksasha at the stables.

“Hey Rak,” He said stroking the sleeping eagle’s head. “Did you have a good night of sleep?”

Raksasha was a Rokh, a giant eagle capable of flying for hours while carrying people on top of their backs and they worked together with a specialized group of guards to protect the city of Cliffend from the skies.

“Remember we are on duty today; let’s get you something to eat while I fix the saddle on your back, ok?”

The great bird gave a small, friendly nudge with his beak on the guard’s shoulder before standing up and going to the place of the stable where the food was served to the birds.

The stables were massive caves carved high into the cliff to give the Rokhs an easy way out and into the city, in here the birds could get food whenever they wanted and had nice nests where to sleep.

After a nice meaty breakfast, the guard fixed the saddle on Raksasha’s back and hung two bags of iron javelins to each side, preparing her for duty.

They walked to the bridge, an open window carved into the cliff from here the four men squads left or entered the stables.

“Morgan presenting for duty, Sir!” Said the guard to a person standing next to a specially big and colourful Rokh.

“Ah, Morgan, nice to see you up so early in the morning!” Answered the man. “Are you going out now?”

“Yes Captain Lear, Raksasha and I will go on planned flight around the Emerald Fields sir. My squad is joining us later, as I woke up earlier I wanted to catch some air before they arrived.

“Hahaha.” Laughed the man. “That’s the spirit boy! Off you go and enjoy your flight!”

The Captain Lear was huge, reaching at least two meters tall and his Rokh, Meteor, was also bigger than normal to compensate.

Raksasha lowered her head and Morgan put his fist against his heart as the other pair of Captain and Rokh walked past them and left the bridge.

“Ok Rak,” Said Morgan as soon as his captain had left the room. “Let’s go hunting.”

He jumped on top of Raksasha’s back and she began running towards the edge of the bridge, opening her wings and beating them in the process, making dust fly around the place.

She jumped over the ledge and beat her wings, stabilizing at around ten meters above the ground.

Even after years doing the same thing together, they still felt a jolt of excitement every time they left the bridge and went into the sky.

“Raksasha, today we are going east around three kilometres, so let’s get moving!” He said.

Even though the wind was beating against them and Raksasha shouldn’t have been able to hear him, she still started flying towards the direction he had told her.

An ancient and wild magic created a mental connection between the rider and the Rokh when they were flying. The wind worked as their connection, letting them both see what the other was seeing and hear what the other was saying.

After last night’s storm, the sky was now clear and not even one cloud was moving through the sky.

The wind beating against his face and making his hair raise, the feeling of his skin and the happiness he felt from his companion made this morning feel like freedom.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

A voice reached his ears. Someone was screaming obscenities and ruining his idyllic morning.

Morgan looked around and saw, in the ground, a man running at a speed Morgan had never seen while screaming obscenities.

Behind him, Morgan could see what he was running away from.

Similar to an orangutan with longer limbs and a green fur but with a deformed face with two big fangs sticking out of its mouth and four big red eyes, a three meters tall Troll was chasing the man.

“Shit!” Said Morgan. “Raksasha! Get closer! We need to help him!”

It was a weird sight to see a troll running around in the fields; they generally stayed inside the forest and barely ever interacted with humans.

Except, that is, if someone attacked it inside its territory with something like, I don’t know, a lightning bolt.

But now that this one was in this state, the only way to make it back down from what he considered his prey, would be killing it, which wasn’t easy at all considering that trolls had an incredible healing factor that could only be hindered by using fire.

But the guards had developed another simple strategy, making so much damage so fast that they would die before recovering.

Raksasha dived through the air as Morgan took out one of the javelins, completely made out of iron to provide more weight and ensure a larger amount of damage when thrown from the sky.

“Ready when I tell you…” He said. “Now!”

Just as he was throwing the javelin, Raksasha killed her momentum, adding her inertia to Morgan’s own throwing strength, which sent the javelin flying down at an incredible speed.

As the pair rose again to do the same manoeuvre for a second time, the javelin hit the troll right on his right arm, pinning it to the ground and making it topple to the grass.

The man that until a few seconds ago had been running, heard the sound of the troll crashing to the ground and stopped, turning around to see what had happened.

“Keep on running!” Yelled Morgan. “It’s not dead yet!

Sure enough, the beast rose and barely even looked at his broken arm as he reached with his left hand and grabbed the man without giving him time to escape.

His right arm was already recovering, its muscles expelling the javelin from inside its body as the tissues regenerated.

Another javelin flew downwards, penetrating the troll’s left arm and making it loose some of the grip it had on the man.

Morgan was preparing another javelin when he saw the man taking a small dagger and stabbing the troll’s hand. It wasn’t going to work, a cut like that wouldn’t do anything against the trill’s incredible health recovery, but he could understand that the man was desperate.

That is when the sound of the man’s voice arrived at his ears.

“Electro Charge!” He yelled.

The dagger his hand glowed with a yellow light as it penetrated the beast’s skin.

Up until this point not even the javelins had prompted the beast to scream, but this small attack made it scream in pain and open the hand that held the man captive.

The man fell to the ground and raised his hands, pointing his fingers not towards the troll itself, but to the javelin that was still lodged into the troll’s body, as if it had lost his ability to regenerate for a second.

The man’s finger glowed as a yellow spiral covered it.

“Lightning Strike!” He yelled.

A lightning bolt flew from the man’s finger and towards the javelin. At first it looked as if the aim had been slightly off, but as it got closer to the iron spear, it bent and clashed directly against it, spiralling down the javelin and into the troll’s body.

The troll’s screams reached Morgan’s ears a few milliseconds later as he saw the great beast convulse in the ground with white foam forming on its mouth.

After convulsing a few more times, it stopped moving and fell limp to the ground.

Morgan and Raksasha hovered on the sky without moving, amazed at what they had just seen. Morgan put his javelin back into the sack; he wasn’t going to need then anymore.

The troll was dead.

He and Raksasha flew down to the ground to greet the stranger that had killed a troll with only two attacks.