Gill and I started walking through the forest, keeping an ear out for anything in the brush. The beetle had been a lucky find, and I wanted to find a few more creatures before I retired for the night.

After playing trading card games for quite a few years I had a general idea of what made a good deck, and some of the strategies for them. Other games that relied on mana of specific types usually forced you to choose one or two types to play since the more mana types you needed the harder it became to summon your creatures. In other games in which you had one source to summon from you had to find a balance between damage and healing that worked for you. Some went all in with damage, while others had slow burning decks that chipped away at their opponents while keeping their health up. I even used a deck solely comprised of creatures that summoned allies to overwhelm my opponent quickly. While each individual creature wasn’t very powerful the overwhelming amount of creatures was enough to make a lot of them succumb.

With single source decks you also had to prepare for anything. You didn’t know if your opponent would have a fire breathing drake, or a siren singing to ensnare you. Magic and items were also a consideration, and sometimes even harder to account for.

Vertigo had the single source draw like the later type, but since it was pulling directly from my HP it required a second layer of calculation. My health verses the summoned creatures, armor, and spells that I used. There was also the unknown element of what kind of creatures, spells, and gear were out there. I had only begun to scratch the surface.

The first step was obvious. I needed to expand my deck if I was going to even think about competing in a tournament, and with little time I wanted the creatures in it to be as practical as possible. Versatile creatures with abilities that made it easier to fight against overwhelming odds seemed to be my best bet.

At the moment I had a mongoose and a beetle. Neither of them could fly or swim which caused some limitations, and they didn’t appear to have a special attack of any kind. Water type creatures might not be as useful in a forest, at least not the kind I would be able to capture on the first floor. Once we leveled a bit, and had a few more companions, we would try for a sprite or spirit type creature with a water spell.

That left an air bound creature, like a bird or bat. Even if it wouldn’t be useful for fighting they could be used to scout the area, or watch for traps on a battlefield from above. Catching one wouldn’t be easy with two land bound creatures unless we found a bird nesting on the ground, or a low lying tree branch. Gill was three foot tall and not as stealthy as a real world mongoose as far as I could tell, and the beetle didn’t appear to be built for climbing trees.

We’d have to stick with land bound creatures until the right opportunity appeared. Maybe we could find an egg to hatch, though I didn’t know if hatching was possible in Vertigo. If not there was always trading, or the auction house, though I wasn’t keen on that idea for creatures yet.

I considered bringing the beetle out to walk with us but I wasn’t sure how quite a creature made of chitin could be. It would also consume more HP to keep a second active creature at all times. Besides, I was still getting used to the area, and one mongoose seemed like enough to keep track of. It wasn’t like I could have an entire menagerie walking with me the entire time.

I also needed to decide where to go. We had gotten off the main path, though I still had a general idea of where the portal was. I wasn’t too worried about getting lost because I could always port back to The Hub and walk back to the bar, but I didn’t want to do that unless I had to. Porting back would mean starting fresh from the first portal, and losing all progress. If Vertigo was a persistent world I wouldn’t find new creatures by going over the same area again and again. Yet another thing I would need to find out about.

What I really needed was some sort of landmark to travel by. A river, a path, or some sort of rock formation that would guide me in a specific direction. Bonus if I could get above the tree-line and see the area.

Thinking of getting above the tree-line, I glanced at the trees nearby, and up their length. The branches were evenly spaced, and about four inches in diameter. They should hold my weight, at least for part of the way up. If nothing else prove worth investigating soon I could attempt to scale a tree and see if there was anything out in the distance.

Gill came up and rubbed his head against my thigh as we walked. I scratched him behind the ear and he leaned in a little more.

“You know, this would be a lot easier if you could talk and tell me what you know about the area,” I said. Gill didn’t reply, only looking up at me with his big black eyes. It was a wild shot that I hadn’t expected to work. Apparently Vertigo was not the kind of simulation where animals could chat with you. Just as well, a talking three foot tall mongoose seemed more than a little strange.

“Well, Gill, do you smell something? Maybe that could lead us to something interesting.”

The mongoose lifted his nose up and started sniffing at the air, as if he were trying to help me. He had to understand me to take directions when battling, didn’t he? That, at least, made things easier.

He wandered a few steps in several directions before finally deciding on a way and moving closer to the edge of the clearing. He slowed when he got to the edge, coming up against the underbrush and sniffing around it again.

“You smell something out there?”

For answer Gill just sniffed the air again, then turned and ran a few feet into the forest thicket. He didn’t go far before turning to make sure I was following, then he was off and going again. Wondering if this was a bright idea, I followed. The worst thing that could happen was death, and that was temporary, so I didn’t have that much to worry about out in the forest.

Gill, on the other hand, was a little more vulnerable. He was only a summoned creature, but I wasn’t sure if I could re-summon him right away if he died. I would definitely be checking into death effects the next time I was at the Soul Deck.

Gill wiggled under some branches, and through to a new area. He paused long enough to be sure that I could squeeze through as well. I had to break a few of the smaller branches, but I made it. There would be no easy retreat from there, but I was hoping I wouldn’t need it.

Gill kept going and I started to see marks in the grass under the trees. He led me right up to the edge of a stream with two big footprints planted in the buddy bank. They were deformed because of the wet mud, but I didn’t have to look far for better preserved prints. Beside the stream, long scratches marred up the tree trunk, and there were piles of torn up dirt underneath the spreading limbs. I saw a few piles of excrement, and paw prints to go with it.

“Gill…” I whispered, my steps slowing to a crawl. “I don’t know if we should be here.”

Gill must have sensed my trepidation because he came over to me and tried to calm me by rubbing against my thigh again. I wove my fingers into his fur, and his warmth made me feel better, but no amount of cuddling a fluffy creature was going to make my nervousness go away. The footprints were large! I might not be able to be permanently killed but death was rarely comfortable in VR, and I didn’t want to see Gill hurt.

“We’ll just have to be careful, that’s all,” I said, scratching the back of his head.

We followed the stream, hopefully in the direction away from whatever had made the paw prints. We didn’t see any more prints, but it was impossible to know for sure.

Occasionally I saw fish and small creatures in the water, but they wouldn’t be useful for cards. Gill did take advantage of the stream a few times and caught some fish for himself. I even brought out the jeweled beetle to allow it to wander through the underbrush and eat a few of the smaller insects. It was an ideal location. Almost too ideal.

More than once I considered attacking one of the many birds in the area, but it wouldn’t have done us any good. Unless the bird was nesting for the night a mongoose attack wasn’t very useful.

I did take some time to check the wiki about Vertigo and answer a few of my questions. The first had been the day and night cycle. Other hub worlds had anywhere from four to eight hour day cycles with a night cycle that was half their day. A few had day cycles that shifted depending on seasons, just like back in the real world. Yevelia was like that, having longer days in summer and shorter in the winter. Vertigo had eight hours of day and night, every day.

There were a number of creatures in Vertigo that were only around during certain parts of the day. It made sense, especially in a world populated by fantasy creatures. Some of them, like vampires and certain kinds of fae, only came out in the dark, while the sprites and birds were active in the day. I had been in the game for five hours by then, and the internal clock showed sunset in almost two hours. That gave us a little more time to explore and find a few more things before night fell, then I would have to decide if I wanted to stay for the night cycle, or not.

We stumbled into a small clearing in the middle of the forest. The trees were thinner there, allowing us to move a little faster, but it wasn’t a large area. We skipped across to the far side, not watching as closely as we should have been. As we reached the far end of the clearing Gill stopping stock still. I skidded to a halt beside him and took a closer look at our surroundings.

The forest had grown quiet, the sound of insects and birds that we had been hearing all day suddenly evaporating. There was almost a feeling of waiting in the air.

I turned, slowly, to scan the edge of the clearing, trying to find the thing that scared away the smaller creatures. We heard the creature before we saw it. Whatever it was, it sounded big! I tensed as the snuffling and snorting drew closer. Something smacked wetly, and I could hear the sound of plants ripping. Then whatever it was started moving farther away again.

Was it eating the leaves? I wasn’t sure, but as long as it wasn’t eating me I was fine with it moving farther away.

I turned my back to the creature to move away, quietly, but I couldn’t help looking over my shoulder. Whatever it was, it was big, but that was all I knew. I stopped walking, considering what it could be. It could have been a pig, or an even bigger insect. Perhaps it would have been something worth adding to my deck.

I should have turned away, I reasoned. Instead of a pig it was just as easily some mythical beast that could eat Gill and kill me, but curiosity was getting a hold on me.

I crept up to the edge of the clearing with Gill close at my side. Slowly peaking around the side of a large tree, I caught a glimpse of a dark shape snuffling in the underbrush. A large paw ripped into the berry bush in front of it, pulling it free of the surrounding tangle so the creature could get at the sweet red orbs.

I knew those jaws all too well. As soon as I got a good glimpse of it the stats popped up.

Black Bear

Level 10

HP 70

AC 5

Bite 5

Claw 7 x2

The last time I had seen a bear it had been in Yevelia, diseased ridden and uncontrollable. I also had two daggers in my hands, and had been capable of fighting back. I felt naked depending on summoned creatures. Even with both of my cards, and the spell, I didn’t stand a chance against the bear. Damn, it would have been an amazing addition to my deck.

We slowly backed away, trying to be extra quiet with the bear only feet away from us. The soft chuffing and scraping of the berry bushes reassured me that it hadn’t taken notice to us. I still didn’t lower my guard, even after stepping foot back into the clearing.

We paused at the edge of the clearing, listening, but we didn’t hear anything else.

“Well, that wasn’t something I expected,” I whispered, glancing back the way we had come. “But I think we’re safe for the moment.”

Safe or not, I wasn’t ready to make too much noise yet. We needed to move away from the bear before it got wind of us. The stream seemed like the best option. There was bound to be away across it so that we could put some distance between ourselves. Ultimately we needed to find the portal to the second floor, and I had a feeling it was hidden behind a big walking fur coat. We were going to have to flesh out my deck before facing him down.

“We should get back to the stream,” I told Gill. “The noise will cover our tracks.” I didn’t think Gill understood everything I said, but it still made it easier to work through things by talking to him. “So far everything has been forest, except for the stream. I think it would be good to follow it and see what we can find. I’m betting the bear is blocking the next portal since he’s the highest level thing we’ve seen here, so we need to get strong enough to beat him to get through it.”

Gill rubbed up against me and I stroked his head, the silky soft fur making me smile. Even if he was virtual he was still adorable.

I was pretty sure I was right about the bear. In an open world it made sense to put the stronger creatures near the next zone as a bit of a buffer for newbies. They were less likely to run through the portal and get themselves killed.

On the other hand I had been doing well in the first level, captured my first creature, and I felt confident we would be able to capture a few more before attempting the bear.

I felt so confident, in fact, that I didn’t notice the chuffing and chewing had stopped behind us.

The loud roar sent an icy steel pick of fear through me. I was stunned, my feet refusing to move for a heartbeat as I looked back over my shoulder.

The black bear tore its way through the brush, running toward us.

My feet finally unglued themselves from the ground and I ran! I didn’t know where I was going, I just had to get away from the bear.

Gill hung back from me, on my heels but trying to keep his body between me and the bear. His fragile body wouldn’t do much to stop the giant bear. What we needed was time, or a distraction. I had to slow the bear down.

Grabbing my deck of cards, I pulled out the ensnare spell and turned to cast it on the creature. Vines and leaves sprung out of the earth wrapping themselves around the bears legs and pulling it to a stop.

Sucking in a deep breath, I started back away again. The ensnare spell wasn’t going to last long. The bear roared, lunging forward and snapping several of the vines in his attempt to get at me.

“We have to run!” I cried to Gill. The mongoose wasn’t going to disagree.

I grabbed my last card and summoned the beetle. The glowing light revealed the beetle at full health. A second later it was dive bombing the bear. The bear wasn’t going to sit back and taking it, though, as it smacked my beetle with a giant clawed paw. My beetles HP dropped by half in one hit, reeling backwards as the bear snapped more vines.

The beetle could dodge in and out to distract the bear, but the second the bear got it the beetle would fall. I hoped it was long enough for me to get away as I turned away from the battle. I kept running, not daring to look back again as I heard the whir of wings, and another growl from the bear.

I pushed through the underbrush and found what I had been looking for. The stream! It was so close. Even if it didn’t quite matter I had to try. The bear might be able to follow me across the stream, but I wanted to believe it wouldn’t, that the program made it stay on one side of the stream, even if there was no reason to believe anything like that. Either that, or I could get far enough away that it would lose interest in me.

A few more steps and I dove into the water. The cold rush sent shivers down my spine as I paddled and slogged through the chest deep stream.

I could hear the bear tearing itself free, and the squeal of my beetle as it succumbed to the blows. The green summoning light of my beetle shot back into my deck, but the card stayed grayed out. I wouldn’t be able to summon it again until we were out of battle, which wasn’t going to happen unless the bear gave up.

I kept moving, pushing as fast as I could as I listened to the bear sniffing around, and moving ever closer.

My hand smacked the far bank just as something else splashed into the water behind me. I turned and saw Gill, just a few strokes behind me as he turned to face the much larger bear that was now swimming toward us. It didn’t matter how large Gill was for a mongoose, he wasn’t big enough to fight a raging bear. I was done for.

“I’m so sorry Gill!” I cried.

I tabbed open the menu and hit the escape key.

The world rippled around me, then dimmed to black as I floated in the nothingness. Weight returned to my body laying motionless on my bed. First I felt the rough blankets, then the springs under me as I sunk back into the mattress I was back in reality.

Ripping off the TruShift, I lay on my bed panting. I left Gill there! I left him to be eaten by a bear, alone in a stream far from anything. All the games I played, every time I took a hit from another player, or an NPC, and this time I ran screaming.

I wanted to believe it was the lack of weaponry. I didn’t have a way of protecting myself, and it was a losing battle. I wanted to believe that if I had been able to defend myself I would have fought back…but I couldn’t quite believe it.

Ultimately it didn’t matter what the reason was, I left Gill behind, and there was no one else to blame but myself.