A second javelin fell from the sky and found its way deep into the monster’s muscles. Blood started to flow out of the wound, but the flesh was already beginning to regenerate.

“Electro Charge!” Yelled Anton.

His dagger lit up, surrounded by electricity, as it penetrated the monster’s hand, the same one that seconds before had lifted him a few feet off the ground.

The beast screamed in pane as the electrical impulses burned its way through the beast’s nerves, searing its body with the heat of lightening.

The impulses made the monster body twitch and open its closed hand, dropping Anton to the ground, where he fell on his butt.

The monster stopped moving, stunned by Anton’s attack, and he understood that he only had three more seconds before it moved again. His brain plotted a possible solution.

He raised both of his hands and pointed them as if he was holding a gun.

2 seconds.

He felt the energy fill his back and move down his right arm.

1 second.

‘Let’s hope this works’ He thought.

The beast roared and began to prepare an attack, both javelins were still lodged into both of its arms, but no blood flowed down from its right arm, which he raised into the sky wanting to pummel the man who had made it scream.

Anton’s fingers lit up as a spiralling yellow energy surround them.

“Lightining Strike!” He yelled.

The yellow flash zipped through the air and curved, flowing directly into the javelin stuck into the monster’s left arm.

It spiralled into the monster’s body, burning skin, nerves and flesh it found on its way.

A bloodcurdling scream filled the air as the electricity made the beast’s whole twitch and convulse, its internal organs malfunctioning and burning.

Critical Damage!

Critical Damage!

Critical Damage!

Three messages popped up consecutively on Anton’s view as more damage was ealt into the monster’s body but he barely noticed.

The beast lumbered down into the ground, its body twitching and white foam forming on its mouth, deformed by pain, its eyes where still and empty, the beast was dead.

Anton’s heart was racing faster than ever, his body ached and he could tell he had been close to dying, and a quick check to his menu corroborated that idea.

He had only 3 HP left, the next hit from the beast wouldn’t have only killed him, it would have destroyed him.

He knew it was only a simulation and that there was the possibility that dying wasn’t permanent, but the fear and the pain he felt had felt so real. He decided that he wasn’t going to be testing his own hypothesis; he decided he wasn’t going to die.

He lay down on the ground, tired and breathing heavy. A shadow flew past him, covering the sun, it was the bird he had seen flying before, and the place where the javelins came from.

The huge bird flew towards the ground and landed a few meters away from him, sending waves of cold, nice air towards Anton, from the bird’s back, descended a tall man wearing a complex looking leather armour and a pair of goggles, his long grey hair fluttering in the breeze. On his right hand he carried a javelin.

“Are you all right?” He heard the man call.

He could have answered, but he was too tired to do so, so he raised his right hand a little bit and made a thumbs up, hoping he would understand.

The man run up to him and kneeled next to Anton. He took a pack he had on his belt and opened it; Anton could see it was some kind of first aid kit.

“That’s… That’s all right…” Said Anton. “I… I don’t think I’m hurt, I’m just… tired… I’ve run a lot today…”

“Ah, ok.” Said the man. “Can you stand? Even if you are feeling ok, we should take you to the city for a check-up, my name is Morgan by the way.”

“A… Anton.” He said and then asked. “Is there… a city nearby?”

“What? Yes, the walled city of Cliffend. Didn’t you know? I mean, you were going directly in that direction…”

After seeing how lifelike the rabbit had been and how everything seemed to follow the same rules that the real world followed, Anton had thought it was possible he would meet NPC’s like this man, NPC’s that acted just like people, and had thought it wouldn’t be appropriate to tell them that he was trapped inside a game, so the night before he had concocted a little story to explain his situation.

“No…” He said, his voice still ragged. “I… I woke up here yesterday… I’m not sure where… where I am to be honest… last thing I remember was being with some friends and then… I woke up here…”

The man looked down on him with an incredulous look on his face, which was to be expected, it wasn’t easy to believe that someone could just suddenly be transported to a different place.

“What city do you come from?” He asked. “Andria? Greencove? Lueless?”

“I… I don’t think I’m on my own world anymore…” Said Anton. “I mean… we don’t have… whatever that thing is back home…”

The man’s eyes opened his eyes in surprise.

“A traveller?” Morgan said, almost to himself.

‘So in the game’s lore I’m a traveller… nice name…’ He thought.

At this point, you may be asking yourself why Anton didn’t just tell the NPC that he was trapped in a game, well, let’s think about it, if someone came and told you that you were living on a simulation, would you believe him or would you think he was just crazy? That’s why Anton had decided to tell any NPC this story because, in a world with magic, there was a bigger possibility of then actually believing his story.

“But… Why was the troll chasing you?” Asked Morgan, still doubtful. “They usually keep to themselves.”

Feeling a little less tired, Anton sit up and looked at the dead beast.

“So that’s a troll? Eh, well, I’m not sure either.” He said. “Yesterday I discovered I could use some magic, so I just tried using the spells that were listed on my menu to try and hunt something… but I missed and the Lighting Strike bolted into the forest and the next thing I knew was that that… thing was chasing me…”

“What’s a meniu?” asked the man. “Some kind of scroll?”

‘Shit, so they don’t know about the menu system?’ Thought Anton.

“Eh… yes, that’s right, a scroll…” He said. “It had some information written and some names that when I said them out loud, magic came out of my hands, but I dropped it when the troll started to chase me…”

“Oh, so you woke up and you had a magic scroll with some spells that you could use… Talking about that, what element were those? I had never seen a troll die with just one hit.”

“What element it was? I believe it was lightning…” He said.

“Lightning!?” Said Morgan.

“Yes, it’s that weird?” He was starting to get anxious, it was never good to have an ability that was considered weird, especially if said ability was able to kill a troll in one hit, something that wasn’t apparently possible.

The sound of wings flapping brought the man’s attention back to the big bird, which was still standing where he had left him, but was looking to the west, towards the city. It then looked back at Morgan and stomped on the ground with its claws.

“Fuck…” Said Morgan. “Something happened on the city…”

Morgan stood up and ran up to the troll, where he proceeded to cut a piece of its ear and put it in one of his many pockets.

“Racksasha!” He said. “Clean up! We need to go back to the city… fast!”

He went back to where Anton was sitting and stretched his arm to help him get up.

“We will continue this conversation back at the city,” He said. “I would like to confirm that you pose no danger to the city before taking you there, but you don’t look like a bad guy and we are in a hurry.”

“How do you know you have to go back? I didn’t hear anything…”

“Is Raksasha, their species have very good sight, so she probably saw a signal coming from the city.”

“And how are we going back? Walking?”

“Are you daft?” Said Morgan. “That would take hours, we are flying there.”

Anton looked at Raksasha, the big eagle, who was carrying the two javelins he had picked from the trolls body. She didn’t look scary, but if there was a thing Anton didn’t like, was flying.

“I mean, the signal was for you...” He said. “There’s no need to fly there, I could just walk, just show me the way…”

“Not possible.” Said Morgan. “You are my responsibility until my boss tells me otherwise, so we are going together.”

“But I really don’t like flying…” Whispered Anton.

“What?” Said Morgan.

“Nothing!” He said, he didn’t want to lose face with Morgan after apparently having managed to impress him with the troll thing.

Raksasha kneeled on the ground and Morgan helped Anton get onto the saddle. He was shaking slightly.

“Don’t worry,” Said Morgan getting onto the saddle himself. “Raksasha is very good at flying; you won’t even notice you are on the air.”

Morgan grabbed the saddle and patted Raksasha lightly on the neck.

“Come on Rak, back to the city.” He said.

The big bird flapped its huge wings and started running, preparing to jump into the air.

“Volare!” Yelled Morgan and a strong wind came from the back as Raksasha jumped, raising them into the air.

It was the first time he had seen anybody else use magic, but Anton was too focused on not letting go of the saddle to even notice.

Morgan had lied; he absolutely could tell he was on the air.

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

When they got close to the city, they didn’t stop at the bridge Raksasha and Morgan had departed from, they continued flying high in the sky and went past the cliff where the stables were, over a big palace built on top of the cliff and landed on the roof of a smaller building close to the castle.

This was the place where every guard arrived to after going on patrol if they needed to get into the city or to get information, the relay station.

Morgan got down of Raksasha and helped Anton do the same, which was harder than expects, because Anton was shaking so much he wasn’t able to put much force on his legs.

After he half fell, half flopped his way down the bird, a short, bald man came out of a door and talked.

“Ah, it was you Morgan.” He said, his voice was surprisingly high pitched. “You were on patrol?”

“Hello chief Dinny. Yes, we went out a little early today, which ended up being good, because we managed to help this person with his troll problem.” He said and pointed at Anton, who was lying on the floor, shaking.

The man looked down at Anton for the first time.

“Oh, my, did it shake him that much? Was it a big one?”

“Yeah,” Said Morgan. “Really big, but it wasn’t the troll that left him like that, I think that he just really dislikes flying.”

Anton’s face went from white to green and he run, or crawled, to the border of the roof. He leaned over and puked.

Morgan and Raksasha looked at him with what appeared to be pity.

“So, what was the emergency?” Asked Morgan. “Raksasha saw a signal so we came back.”

“Ah, yes.” Said Dinny. “The King called to hold position inside the city for a while and keep an eye for strange things outside the walls, so the patrols were called back.”

“And why is that?” Asked Morgan.

“Apparently the royal counsellor felt a surge in the world’s magic yesterday that left her unavailable until today morning when she finally woke up and was able to tell the King.”

“A surge in the world’s magic?” Said Morgan and looked back at Anton, who was now sitting with his back against the rock wall, resting. “Yesterday?”

“Yes, yesterday.”

“I may need to have a conference with the King’s Counsellor.”

“Why?”

“Because he may be the reason for the surge…” He said, pointing at the half unconscious person behind him.

“What? What do you mean?” Said Dinny, looking at the green faced Anton.

“He told me he’s a traveller, that he woke up in the Emerald Fields yesterday, probably around the same time of the surge…”

“A traveller!!” Said the man, immediately turning around and walking towards the door. “Don’t worry Morgan, I’ll get you that conference, the King needs to know about this!”

“Thanks chief!” Said Morgan.

He turned to Anton.

“Hey, friend.” He said. “Do you think you are in well enough to walk?”

“I just wanna sleep for a while…” Said Anton, who appeared to not have heard any part of the conversation.

“Sorry, but we need to move.”

“Please don’t make me fly again, I hate flying…” He was speaking in a daze, the world still making circles around him.

Raksasha stomped on the floor, apparently disapproving of that statement.

“Don’t worry, we are going on foot now, the Castle is close by.”

“The castle?” Said Anton, finally picking up on what had been happening around him as Morgan helped him to his feet.

“That’s right, you are getting a conference with the King’s Counsellor.”

“But-But why!” He asked, nervous.

“Well, because you are a traveller, of course…”

Anton began chanting in a low voice.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…”