By the time Fern had returned from handing in the Rabbit’s Feet to Catherine we had finished off we had defeated enough rabbits that both my Spellglove Core and my new Lightning Magic Core had Levelled Up, so we had decided to take a short break while I figured what options I was going to pick.

I decided to have a look at my Basic Spellglove Core first but when I brought it up, I was surprised by what I could see.

Congratulations your Basic Spellglove Core has reached Level 3!

Please pick an upgrade from the choices provided.

Increase Intelligence by 1.

Increase Spirit regen by 0.5 p/s.

Soul Points: 3/50

This time I had to pick between two Stat Bonuses instead of a new Skill. I could choose the same +1 to Intelligence that I could’ve picked last time, or I could increase Spirit regen by 0.5 per minute. After considering both options for a couple of seconds I decided to choose the boost to my Intelligence which would increase both the damage that I could do with new Jolt spell and the amount of damage my two defensive Skills could absorb before they broke.

Having finished that I brought up the information for my Basic Lightning Magic Core.

Congratulations your Basic Lightning Magic Core has reached Level 2!

Please pick an upgrade from the choices provided.

Static Armour: Creates a field of energy around you that returns a base of 5 damage + 10% to anything that attacks you. Cost 25 SP. Duration: 2 min. Cooldown: 1 min.

Increase Intelligence by 1.

Soul Points: 2/20

Now this was a bit more exciting than the last one and I easily picked the Static shield Skill that I was being offered which should provide a very nice addition to my build. I did seem to be getting an awful lot of defensive Skills which was useful considering our Party’s lack of a real tank, but I was really looking forward to Julian and Sarah joining us. Partly because Julian was a much better tank than I was and played as one nine times out of ten but also because it had been quite a long time since I had played with them and I was looking forward to it.

“Hey Katy, Static Armour still effects an enemy if I block the attack, right?” I asked. I wasn’t too worried if that wasn’t the case, the Skill was still useful, but it would be nice.

“Yeah,” Katy nodded. “That’s a really good spell for you to get.

“That’s what I thought,” I agreed giving Katy a grateful smile. It was really helpful having Katy here. Yes, she could’ve still given me the same information if she hadn’t joined us in game, but it felt more natural with her here. “By the way you must’ve Levelled Up your Knife and Bow Cores that last fight, right?”

Yeah that’s right I chose Multi-shot for my bow and Lacerate for my knife,” Katy replied making me nod. Fern already had the Lacerate Skill but that didn’t mean it was the wrong choice since it was actually a better idea for Katy to fight defensively if she was forced to fight in close combat and Lacerate would allow her to deal damage over time while focusing on dodging or blocking attacks and the name of the other Skill spoke for itself. It would probably allow her to rapidly fire several arrows in very quick succession which would increase her damage output considerably, especially if she could use it to attack multiple targets.

“Alright then” I said as I turned to Fern. “How did things go on your end?”

“The usual,” she replied with a shrug. “I handed over the Feet and received the Experience and money in return. Why?”

“Just making sure that you didn’t have any problems with other players trying to shake you down,” I replied. “You know after what happened yesterday. Especially since we’re sending Evie back to complete the Quest next.”

“Ah, I see,” Fern nodded as Evie gave me a grateful look, revealing that she too had been worried about something like that happening which didn’t really surprise me, Evie’s size made her look like a prime target to the sort of idiots who thought it was a good idea to try and shake people down. That was actually a stupid way of judging things since this was a game and for all they knew Evie could be a lot stronger than them (and probably was) but that wouldn’t stop people from acting like idiots and Evie didn’t really like fighting people that much. “No, I didn’t have any problems like that.”

“Great,” I replied. “Well then how my Rabbit’s Feet do we have now?”

“We have 4, other than the ones that we put aside for Drew, of course,” Evie replied making me blink in surprise as I remembered the arrogant tank that had gotten killed the first day that we had met.

“Huh, I actually forgot that we still had those,” I admitted, cringing when Evie glared at me. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Evie sighed shaking her head sadly deciding to let my forgetfulness go. “I guess that I can’t expect you to remember everything.”

“Alright then,” Katy said deciding to rescue me before I put my foot any further into my own mouth than I already had. “We should probably get back to hunting then.”

I quickly agreed and after I had gotten to my feet, we made our way further down the road towards a small stand of trees where we could see more rabbits waiting for us. To my surprise however, as we approached, I noticed a reddish-brown shape creeping up on the same group of rabbits that we were and cursed.

“Shit, there’s a fox.”

Sure enough a few seconds later the reddish-brown shape leapt at one of the rabbits which had been minding its own business. The fox’s jaws clamped down on the rabbit’s neck causing it’s scream of surprise to be cut short as the other rabbits leapt away from the encroaching predator in shock.

Checking the fox’s level only made me curse once more as the words Small Forest Fox Lvl 3 appeared above its head. This thing actually seemed tougher than its Level suggested which all but confirmed that there was something other than Levels that determined the strength of a mob and it was definitely stronger than the rabbits which explained why the rabbit’s neck made such a loud cracking sound a few seconds later when the fox vigorously shook its head like a terrier.

Meanwhile, the other rabbits had made a run for it disappearing into the bushes that grew on either side of the path and deeper into the trees beyond making everyone follow my example and curse loudly. Even Evie had taken part in the chorus of cursing when she had seen the rabbits fleeing into the woods which actually surprised me a little because it was so out of character for the petit blonde.

Hearing us the fox turned its bloody muzzle in our direction and dropped the lifeless body of the rabbit to the ground before snarling at us. Cursing for one final time I took my position in front of Evie and Fern as they fired their respective projectiles at the obviously aggressive beast in front of us.

“No one said anything about this,” Fern hissed from her position just behind me. I frowned at her words but chose not to say anything. While it was true that no one had mentioned that there were other things hunting the rabbits I had actually expected that was going to be the case since that was how things worked in the real world and this world sometimes felt even more real to me than the real world.

This was the formation that we had all decided was the best one to use right now. We still didn’t have a real tank to take the brunt of the damage for us so Fern and I were going to try and keep the fox busy as best we could while Katy bombarded it with a barrage of arrows and Evie did the same with the small blue bolts of energy that she could fire with her wand.

Thankfully, much like the rabbits that we had been fighting up until now the fox was basically an ordinary animal like one that could be found back in the real world so it couldn’t do anything that a normal fox couldn’t do. This meant that despite how fast it was its movements and methods of attacking were pretty easy to predict which was made clear when it leapt through the air, obviously intent on sinking its teeth into my neck much like it had with the rabbit that it had killed only to be met by the haft of my naginata as I activated my Sweep Skill eliciting a pained yelp from the beast.

I used this Skill because I needed a way to intercept the fox, but it had been so quick that I wasn’t confident that I would be able to hit it without using a Skill that increased my swing speed like Slash or Sweep until I managed to adjust. I ended up deciding on using Sweep because Slash just felt like the swing was going to be too compact to have a high chance to hit the fox. And as it turned out I was actually still too slow which was why I had hit the fox with the haft as opposed to the blade.

Still, since I was using a Skill the attack had more than enough force behind it to send the fox flying through the air to land on the ground with a thump. Seeing her chance Fern shot forwards as the rest of us followed up with our ranged attacks. Once I had fired my Jolt spell into the fox I too charged towards our downed opponent.

Fern leapt into the air as she got in range to attack before driving her two glowing daggers into the fox’s side alongside the multiple arrows sticking out of its hide. As I approached, I noticed that blood was flowing out of the wounds at a much faster pace than was normal which told me that she had used her Lacerate Skill with both of her knives which made a lot of sense considering that the fox was twice the Level of all of us, except for Katy who was still Level 1. Even if it was small it could still do a lot of damage to us if we let our guard down.

This was portrayed rather well when the fox leapt to its feet and slammed into Fern with all of the force that it could muster sending her flying backwards with a loud grunt. Now that it had knocked her off balance the fox leapt on top of Fern and sank its teeth into the arm that Fern immediately put up to defend herself.

“Shit!” I shouted as the fox started to shake its head viciously from side to side, tearing deeper into Fern’s arm. Not only was Fern in a bad position but neither Evie nor Katy were shooting now that they couldn’t be certain of hitting the fox without accidentally hitting Fern. I was now the only one who could do anything about this so I increased my pace as much as I possibly could and as soon as I got in range, I activated Slash.

Hearing me coming the fox leapt off of Fern to avoid the attack but I was expecting this, and I fired another Jolt into the fox while it was still in the air and unable to dodge the attack. The small lightning bolt shot from my hand and slammed into the fox causing its body to jerk as the current flowed through it before it fell to the ground. I watched the now smouldering body warily while Fern struggled to her feet as a wave of healing light washed over her.

I wasn’t convinced that had been enough to finish the fox off, so I waved my hand to catch Katy’s attention and she immediately complied with my unasked request firing a glowing arrow at the fox using her Power Shot Skill which was the basic attack Skill for her bow. As I expected the fox leapt to its feet just in time to avoid the arrow drawing a curse from Katy who had probably been hoping to at least hit her target.

The fox turned towards us with a snarl and leapt forwards just in time to slam into a hastily erected Barrier that I decided to use so that fern would have a couple more moments to recover from being savaged. I quick glance over my shoulder revealed that Fern was ready for whatever we were going to do next so I turned my attention back towards the fox which had managed to get around the Barrier while I was checking on my party member and was now hurtling towards my face.

Quickly I brought up my naginata just in time for the fox to instinctively close its jaws around the haft of my weapon. Seeing this I heaved upwards before slamming the fox back down onto the ground as hard as I could. A loud cracking sound followed by a quiet whimper let me know that despite my low Strength Stat I had managed to deal a fairly decent amount of damage to the fox with this impromptu attack. I was actually starting to feel a bit guilty right now but apparently Fern had no similar feelings.

Before I could even react Fern started stabbing the fallen fox over and over again with an enraged look on her face, which combined with the hair covering half of it gave her a very sinister look that almost made me step back in horror but I shook my head and slammed the blade of my naginata into the base of the fox’s skull finishing it off for good.

“What did you do that for?” Fern snarled as I ripped my weapon out of the mortal wound that I had created noting that we had all earned 2 Soul Points from this kill which told me that my Glaive Core had also Levelled Up.

“Because there was no need to prolong the fox’s suffering,” I replied as I met her gaze as calmly as I could. “Remember that fox was being controlled by an AI that will remember both what it did and what you did to it. It was only trying to fulfil the role that it had been assigned to.”

This way of thinking was naïve even by my standards. But I knew that if I give up on it then I wasn’t the person that the AI’s that controlled this world were looking for to help them keep the players from wreaking chaos everywhere they went. I also knew that I wouldn’t always be able to put the things that attacked us out of their misery like this every single time but that didn’t mean that I shouldn’t do it now.

“I-,” Fern began to spit angrily before noticing Katy watching her with a sad look on her face and sighing. “No, you’re right. There was no need for me to react the way that I did.”

It’s fine,” I told her. “The fox did hurt you pretty badly, even if you felt only half of the pain that you would in the real world.”

“Thanks,” Fern sighed shaking her head once more. “But I still shouldn’t have overreacted.”

“Maybe,” I replied patting her on the shoulder. “I’ve reacted badly in situations like this as well and I’d bet that the realism of this world had some effect as well.”

“Yeah,” Fern replied quietly. “That fox truly wanted to kill me. I could see it in its eyes.”

“Well than, that might explain it,” I told her before deciding to change the subject. I could tell that Fern already felt ashamed by her actions so continuing to talk about it would only serve to make her feel worse about herself. “Anyway, why don’t we loot the fox and the rabbit that it killed before moving on?”

“Okay,” Fern nodded as her body finally relaxed as she calmed down. “Do you think I should apologise to Katy though?”

“Maybe,” I shrugged as I reached out a hand towards the fox’s corpse. “I think that she was more worried about you than anything else. But if you want to talk to her or even your own AI companion you about it then you should do so.”

“Oh yeah!” She exclaimed before going quiet. I was guessing from the expressions that crossed her face in quick succession that she was talking with her own AI.

Shrugging once more I turned back to the fox and placed the loot which was a skin, a couple of fangs and a Core Shard. I decided that if I ended up creating a Soul Core from this shard then I would give it to Fern, after what the fox had done to her it only made sense. Besides, for some reason I got the feeling that whatever sort of Core I could make from it would suit her very well.

Having finished looting the fox and seeing that Evie was already looting the corpse of the rabbit that the fox had killed I brought up my Glaive Core’s upgrade screen and nodded as I read the contents which was similar to the Level 3 upgrades for my Spellglove in that the only upgrades I could get were a minor increase to a single Stat.

Congratulations your Basic Glaive Core has reached Level 3!

Please pick an upgrade from the choices provided.

Increase Dexterity by 1

Increase Constitution by 1.

Soul Points: 0/50

Naturally I picked Dexterity. I had more defensive Skills than I knew what to do with and my HP was higher than normal thanks to the Core that I had been given as a reward for killing the players that had tried to assault Tylie and obtaining my Ranger Initiate Title so I didn’t feel any real need to increase my Constitution.

Name: Zeke

Level: 3

Next Level: 4%

Health: 160/160

Combat Regen: 1 per sec

Spirit: 150/150

Combat Regen: 1.5 per sec

Strength: 1

Dexterity: 3

Agility: 2

Constitution: 2

Intelligence: 4

Charisma: 2

Physical Defence: 5

Magical Defence: 4

Physical Damage:

1 Handed 7-9

2 Handed 9-13

Magic Power: 4

Things were looking a bit better in the Stat department now and the lowest amount of damage that I could deal with my naginata had increased by 1 now that I had increased my Dexterity again which was definitely a good thing.

“Alright then,” I said. “Shall we head off?”

“Sounds good to me,” Katy nodded before glancing at Fern who was looking a bit happier than she had been before I reminded her that she could talk to her AI. “How about you Fern?”

“Huh?” Fern gasped as she realised that Katy was talking to her. “Uh, yeah sure let’s get moving I suppose.”

“Okay but where are we going?” Evie asked. “Back towards town and hope that more rabbits have appeared or deeper into the woods?”

“My vote is deeper into the woods,” I replied after thinking about our options for a couple of seconds. “I get the feeling this is where the rabbits are coming from anyway.”

I didn’t have any proof of this but my experience playing games told me that it was quite likely, so I was quite comfortable with making that assertion despite having no real evidence. And even if it wasn’t true, we had already seen several rabbits disappear into the undergrowth so hopefully we would still be able to find those ones.

“Okay if you say so,” Evie replied with a nod.

The others agreed with my suggestion as well, so we made our way into the cautiously treeline. Fern and Katy struck up a whispered conversation as we walked making me grit my teeth briefly before shrugging. Fern obviously felt that they needed to sort something out so even though I wished they would be silent so as not to alert any nearby mobs to our presence I decided to let it be and just keep a closer watch on our surroundings.

To my surprise however we weren’t attacked allowing Fern and Katy to finish their conversation to the satisfaction of both parties. In fact, this small stand of trees seemed to be deserted. No birds, no rabbits, nothing which made absolutely no sense to me and actually had my instincts screaming that something was wrong here. The only thing that kept me from suggesting that we turn back were the small piles of rabbit droppings that we kept coming across and even that started to wear thin after we had spent nearly quarter of an hour searching for any other signs of life.

In fact, it was only when I finally turned around to tell the others that this idea was a bust that I noticed a hollow in the base of one of the trees that we had just passed. It caught my eye because it was barely large enough for a human to slip through.

“Katy, what’s that?” I asked as I pointed at the hollow and the others all turned around to look.

“That looks like a Den,” Katy replied in a surprised tone of voice. “A Den is sort of like a really small Dungeon that basically functions as a nest for mobs. It may look small but there will be more than enough room to move around relatively easily inside.”

I grinned at her words. Even if this wasn’t where the rabbits were coming from it was still something that we should check out and I said so. There might even be some sort of reward for doing so as well.

“That’s a good idea,” Katy agreed. “But we should send someone in by themselves first just to make sure that the inhabitants aren’t too powerful for us to fight.”

“How likely is that?” I asked curiously.

“This close to town?” Katy asked placing a finger on her chin in thought. “Not very likely but not unheard of either. Actually, the most likely option is that is where the Voracious Rabbits are coming from like you said.”

“And if it’s not?” Fern asked as she warily eyed the small hole.

“Well I suppose it could be something that’s making it, so the rabbits are having to look elsewhere for food, and they’ve started attacking travellers because of that,” Kat replied thoughtfully. “But the more likely answer is just that the rabbits have been breeding too fast and couldn’t find enough of the things that they normally ate.”

“Alright then,” Evie said. “Who’s going in first?”

“Well it should probably be me or Fern,” I replied. “I have the most HP if something goes wrong, but Fern can fit through the opening better and escape easier.”

“Are you even sure this is a good idea?” Fern asked. “What if it’s too dark to see inside?”

“That’s… actually a really good point,” I sighed wishing that we had torches or something.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that too much,” Katy laughed. “There will be some form of light source down there. It won’t be much, but it should at least be enough for us to see by.”

“Alright then, I guess I’ll go,” Fern sighed. She still didn’t look entirely comfortable with the idea, but she still made her way over to the hollow and looked inside. “Ah, I see there’s some sort of glowing mushroom in there. How interesting.”

Having said this she sat down so that she could enter the opening feet first and slipped inside far easier than I would’ve been able to.

“Alright then,” I said staring at the dark hole that Fern had disappeared inside. “I guess now we wait.”