A growl rumbled through the camp site and shocked Tripper awake. Jag was already poised to attack from his branch of the tree. Tripper’s eyes widened and he started to prepare a spell to cast, but Jag shook his head and motioned to the forest floor.

Jag fired a shot from his crossbow at the ground beneath his tree and it erupted into a type of flashbang. The hot white light from the explosive illuminated the area for a split second, revealing an enormous hair form. Blinded by the blast, the huge creature roared with rage and retreated a few steps back. Thick smoke rose from the ground to fill in the empty space the explosion caused, hiding the spot and restoring the misty effect shrouding the earth.

A pair of wicked red eyes gleam from the shadows, a hazy cloud hovering over where the beast had retreated to. In Tripper’s HUD, a small icon flashed on the corner of his vision. He looked at it, opening the status icon to read the effect.

[Status debuff: Umbral Mist; Adventurer is slowed 35%. Damage dealt by Adventurer is reduced by 10%].

Tripper watched as Jag tried to fire off a volley of crossbow bolts into the area the creature had retreated to but they all seemed to miss. A low laugh echoed through the fog below before heavy footsteps crunched across the ground and a hulking shape that blended with the darkness of the forest approached the tree the two players sat on.

“Trip,” Jag whispered, “Throw some fire down there, large AoE if you have one.”

Tripper nodded and prepared the spell, [Char], and launched it at the ground.

A sheet of fire erupted from the earth, slowly spreading out across the forest floor and cleared some of the smoke. The shadow of an enormous bear rose above the smoke and the fire. He roared and the smoke blew away, forced out from the foul wind that poured out of his mouth.

The hulking beast lumbered toward the tree and raised his paw. He swiped at the tree and a massive chunk of wood was ripped from the trunk and the tree swayed precariously. Tripper and Jag panicked and tried to jump to another tree but the bear’s aura weighed them down and they fell to the ground in a pile, with their breath knocked out of them.

As he loomed above them, his ID hovered over his head, [Ursinex]. Jag was up first, the dexterity stat bonus allowing him to recover from the fall more quickly. He fired off a round of shots into Ursinex and the creature’s health bar dropped a few points, with no other visual effect.

Ursinex swiped at the two players and Jag managed to pull Tripper out of the range of the attack and forced him to his feet. Tripper pulled a dagger out in his off hand and prepped a lightning spell in his right. He shot the spell off, the electricity left his hand and flowed over the bear. Ursinex’s fur stood on end from the electricity and he glared at the two players, then lowered himself to run at the players on all four legs.

Jag triggered one of his traps and a net fell on the bear and tangled itself over his face and front paws, but did not otherwise slow him down. Tripper leaped out of the charge and flung a [Pulse] spell at him. The spell picked up debris from the damaged tree, scrap from the traps and rocks on the ground and slammed into the monster, which knocked him over from the force of the impact.

A volley of crossbow bolts hit Ursinex from the other side, piercing his hide.

“Dude! What was that?” Tripper yelled while he ran around behind the bear to rejoin Jag.

“Impaling shots! Cost a lot of mana but can go through armor, leveled up and got it yesterday but didn’t need to use it on minor creeps,” Jag said as he launched another round of shots at the bear.

The health meter on Ursinex dropped down to a more orange-tinted shade of green/yellow and he entered a rage. Ursinex stood up again and hunched down, the impaling shots erupted from his body like quills and shot off in every direction. Tripper cast [Aegis] again over himself and Jag to block the projectiles.

“Is that normal? I don’t think that’s normal!” Jag laughed as he darted around the shield, fired off a volley of spiked bolts, the heads of the shots had larger points and were barbed.

Ursinex roared again and the wind that erupted from him knocked the two flat to the ground and wiped away Tripper’s [Aegis] spell.

Tripper and Jag’s health bars both dropped down to 50% and they were hit by another pressure, an effect of Ursinex’s aura. The two struggled to rise as Ursinex slowly walked towards them, oozing a feeling of death. Drool dripped out of his cavernous mouth and his large teeth gleamed in the dim light left from stars and the few smoldering remains of Tripper’s fire spell.

Jag and Tripper scooted back, they dragged themselves across the ground and Tripper gripped the dagger more tightly. Out of shots, Jag tried to reload but he fumbled, his hands shook with fear.

“Shit,” Jag cursed quietly.

As the two scoot back, they back themselves into a tree and cannot move any further. Ursinex closed the gap and growled over the two. Tripper’s pulse pounded in his ears as Ursinex’s foul breath washed over him. In his head, he knew that he would just respawn if he died, but he was still afraid.

Would dying in Experia be the same as dying in real life but he’d still come back to life? Or would it be like breathing in one spot and suddenly being in another? Tripper closed his eyes as the beast leaned toward him.

Ursinex slowly opened his jaws and lurched forward to attack but choked, a pained gagging noise came from the creature without warning. He opened his eyes at the noise, A glowing sword was jutting out of the bear’s throat, blue light washing over Tripper, Jag and Ursinex.

Holy magic flew over the two players and the bear’s form crumbled to dust, revealing a blood-soaked knight in armor.

“Recovery!” said a soft feminine voice. Tripper and Jag’s health bars were slowly refilled, shifting from red to orange to green from the healing spell.

“Are you two noobs alright?” asked a deep voice from the knight, distorted from the metal helm he wore.

“Noobs? Did you see the size of that thing?” asked Tripper.

“That little Teddy?” the knight laughs, “come on man, we’ve seen bigger beasts at Blaster’s on wing nights.”

“Z?” Tripper asked.

The knight pulled off his helm and Rae comes forward, sword in hand and a green healing spell in the other.

“You two almost got killed by a Teddy, yeah I’d call you noobs,” Z said. The knight helped the mage and archer up and made a show of dusting off their clothes.

“Are you two okay?” Rae asked.

“We’re fine,” Jag answered quickly.

“Though they’re apparently lost without us, sis,” Z cut in, and laughed again.

“How long have you guys been stuck in the woods?” Jag asked.

“Weren’t. Found a town a few miles away. Or I guess, kilometers? Klicks sounds cooler so we’ll go with that. European game anyway so it fits,” said Z.

“You found a town? We’ve been trying to find one for days while we looked for you guys! Where is it?” asked Tripper.

“Follow me if you want to live,” said Z in a fake macho voice, then he took off running while he swung his sword at nothing.

The party spent the next few hours chasing Z through the woods in a mock hunt. Tripper used the time to go through his menus more. Night fell again and the town of Flickerton was within sight. As the group approached the city gates, Tripper saw a skill in his menu that he had ignored before, a class passive skill called [Resonance].

Curious, he began to read the small blurb about it but was interrupted by a shove from Z and Jag toward the gateway.

Tripper closed his menu and shook his head, then lead his party into the NPC town.

They stopped at an inn called the Crusty Smith’s and paid to stay for a night. After the party paid the inn keeper, they settled at a table in the inn’s tavern and a server brought out some bread and a tankard of mead for each player.

Rae’s eyes grew big as she looked at the massive tank of mead in front of her.

“You sure you’re gonna be able to drink that without telling mom and dad later?” Z asked, teasing his sister.

Rae laughed and then glared at her brother. “Do you think I can’t handle it? Because I can so handle it,” then she downed the whole tankard, wiping a small amount of mead from her lip and laying back in her chair.

Z was silent for a moment before he burst out laughing and taking a sip from his own.

Jag waved down their server and she refilled the glass, then bowed and left.

“Hey guys,” Tripper said through a mouthful of bread, “can you open your menus up and see if you have any passive skills available?”

“Passive like from leveling? We should each have a few,” Z said.

“I’ve got one that didn’t pop up before,” Rae said as she flicked through her menu, “it’s called [Unstable Element]?”

“I’ve got one called Resonance,” Tripper said, “what’s yours do?”

“Uh…” Rae said with some trouble, “Oh! It makes some of my attacks bounce again to a new target. So like if I throw a fireball and it actually hits something — Shut up Z — then it has a chance to go from one,” Rae made a whooshing sound, “to another nearby enemy. What’s Resonance? Is that like, making a plastic thing?”

“No,” Tripper laughed, “it’s like having two things match frequency. You know how two singers can harmonize and sound really good together?”

“Uh huh,” Rae said, taking another sip from her new mead.

“So Resonance does that, but lets me put player power together to make bigger versions of spells. I kinda wanna try it out tomorrow to see how it works,” Tripper said.

“Oh oh oh,” Z shouted, “let me see what I’ve got,” then he pulled up his own menus. “I have something called [Steadfast], it makes incoming melee damage get reduced and can lower damage from critical hits I take. So basically, I’ll never die to a sword because Knights rule. Jag, how ‘bout you bud?”

“I’ve got [Eagle Eye], basically I can see everything always, even in bad light or no light. I also have extended vision distance compared to you scrubs, and if I get blinded with smoke screens or something, it takes less time for me to clear up. Sounds like I get to be Claritin clear,” Jag explained, laughing at the end.

“By ‘seeing everything,’ what does that mean? Like, can you see through walls and stuff? Or just better at night?” Tripper asked.

“Yeah, do you have like, x-ray vision or some shit?” Z said.

Jag looked directly at Rae, a slow grin spreading across his face. Rae turned red and he steadily moved to look at their server. Z started to crack up and Rae threw a piece of bread at Jag and he doubled over in mock pain as he giggled.

“I’m just kidding, no I can’t see through clothes, but I can see through walls. It’s not as good further away though,” Jag said, “or maybe I can, but you’ll never know.”

Rae threw another piece of bread at him but he caught it and popped a bite in his mouth.

A few of the other patrons at the tavern left. The only people left were players. All of them had weary expressions on their faces, many sat alone or with a single companion.

“Do you think they had as rough a time as we did?” Tripper asked.

“If they died a lot, maybe,” Z said, “You don’t get hit with perma-death in Experia and nobody can loot your corpse except for you, but depending on how far you were from a spawn location it could take a long time to get your stuff back.”

“The experience drops don’t help either,” Rae whispered.

“Did you die?” Jag laughed, “Z, did you let her die?”

“She died once right at the beginning, we got hit by a cave of goblins getting leashed by another party. It was too much for them to handle,” Z explained, “we tried to help out and both of us got caught and died. We were close to Tameron so it wasn’t too bad.”

“So, how much XP did you lose?” asked Jag.

“About half a level. I think it’s going to scale with how high we go though. Skills stayed at the same points, but we’re still leveled like noobs,” said Z.

Rae yawned quietly with a squeak, then giggled. “Hey guys,” she said, “I think I need to go to bed.”

“Yeah,” Jag said, “it’s been a long day. So, who am I shacking up with? Z? Rae? Anyone lonely?”

“Didn’t you rent your own room already?” Rae asked loudly.

“Yeah, but I need an emotional support player, I get scared in the dark,” Jag laughed, “Obviously I’m joking. I’m shacking with Tripper, right bro?”

“Uh…no,” Tripper said.

“Fine, fine, I’ll go to my own room,” Jag said, then left to go to his room.

The rest of the party left to go to their own rooms. Tripper walked up the stairs of the inn and up to the third floor. The door to his room opened as he approached, a blue ward lit the doorway to block other players entering without his permission.

Tripper stepped into his room and looked around. It was a modest room, furnished with a chest, a bed and a small wardrobe. As he placed his items in the chest it locked, becoming uniquely tied with his user account.

Then he sat on the bed and a menu opened allowing him to customize the room if he chose. Tripper ignored the options and slept, content with the safety of the room compared to the wild forest he’d stayed in the previous two nights.