I managed to outrun the ones coming from my sides, but the players in front I'd have to do something about real soon. A spear user missed my head and I managed to run past, but the swordsman that came after swung for my center of mass, from the left, which was the only direction I could go. A burst of speed minimized the impact, and a clothesline maximized the stun.

I took a bit of damage, but I got lucky. I feel that's going to run out soon, though. I recognize the next one, that's the green haired prick from earlier, and he's got friends this time, a big guy with a shield and a female mage with a large set of... Staves. Yes, staves. Why does she have two? She crossed them and shouted "Aqua Impact!" A ball of water burst out at high speed and whiffed way off to the side. Seems she's got aiming issues.

I found a weak spot, it seems. I need to beat the Dex build, though. If I don't get rid of him, he'll be able to follow me way too well. This will be an issue. How do you beat a rapier swordsman while running? I'm going to go around in a large circle. If he comes to me alone, I'll deck him quickly then keep going.

He didn't follow me, but I heard him start berating the girl the instant I got past. Thanks to my detour, some more people got a chance to stop me, so he might as well have attacked me himself. A guy with gloves and shoes was the only problem. Seems I've met someone who knows what they're doing, with my own weapon: my body. He got low and I think he meant to sweep my legs out from under me, but instead got a Gel in the face for his troubles. I take those.

It bounced off the dude's skull at an angle and landed masterfully back in my hands. What a feat of acrobatics, a perfect ten. I now had a mostly-clear path to the lone tree, behind which was the forest. It seemed pretty dark from here, considering I was running in the direction of the sun. Does it still set in the east in this game?

It doesn't matter, because I can't focus on anything right now other than the fact that this all seemed too easy, like I should've been killed by the axe guy instead of making it this far. I was getting low on Stamina now, at 23/68. The wolves, which I didn't doubt for a second were in that forest, would absolutely slaughter me. I accelerated even more, pushing my body to its current limits, putting not only all my speed but also all my strength into my mad sprint. That turned out to be a good idea.

You have gained the Sprint skill!

It felt far better to go this fast, now, like I should've been doing this the whole time, like instead of a tense series of kicks, I was actually jumping forward, which all things considered is exactly what sprinting is supposed to be. I was draining my Stamina by doing this, though, and would need to use my Rest skill real soon.

I blasted past the tree, where I first met Biiro, and almost made it to the forest when I felt my legs start to fail me. My stamina was at 4... 3... 2... 1... 0. I collapsed while sprinting and managed to roll in this state. Quickly rolling over to look behind me, I saw my pursuers were having trouble catching up, and weren't as numerous as before, maybe only five or six were left, the others having been beaten away by Biiro or run out of Stamina, or simply having decided that killing a level 1 PK wasn't worth it.

This meant the ones that were left were either on their last points of Stamina or very skilled compared to the average player, which spelled bad news for me. I took a fifteen-second break before rising up off the floor, having recovered 23 points of Stamina due to Rest, and running off into the woods, slower than the sprint but faster than a jog.

After a little bit, I found a tree that looked rather easy to climb and went up it a bit, struggling with some of the smaller branches. Hopefully my colorful hairdo wouldn't give me away. The Gel was suspending itself from a branch not too far from me, seeming very at ease in this wooded environment. I found a comfortable position and got to resting, managing to recover most of my Stamina before seeing someone, one of my pursuers no doubt.

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know, I think we lost him."

"Are there any footprints?"

"No, there's just tossed up dust everywhere, nothing that indicates a step."

"Damn. That guy's too good for us, what kinda skills does he have?"

"It's the Strength-dump guy, his stats were all 1 except for Strength. I think what he did is he paid a visit to the Training Center in town and got buff, thus removing most of the side-effects of dumping Strength while keeping the huge muscles."

"Oh, so he got his Constitution and Dexterity up through training, huh. I completely forgot that was a thing."

"We didn't stand a chance, he's got a Field Boss on his side for fuck's sake. Where's that damn bird anyway?"

"I don't know, let's go back before it finds us first."

Then they walked away, until the leaves blocked my sight of them. Good lord, that was risky. If they'd looked up at all, I would've been found. I waited a little more, as my Stamina went all the way back to full.

You have successfully escaped from battle!

You get: 325 XP

Level up! You are now level 2!

Level up! You are now level 3!

1x Beginner Axe

100 Gold

Looks like players give XP. Checking my inventory, I saw I now had the axe as a permanent item and 200 Gold. I also have 6 attribute points to spend. Of course, I'm putting it all into Strength. Now it's 22. Nice.

I get down from the tree. Now that I'm sure they're all gone, I can relax. First, though, I need to get stronger. How much time has passed since I first started the game? The menu says it's midnight fifty-four, so almost three hours IRL. That's fifteen hours in-game. It's closer to fourteen right now, though.

I have twenty-two hours in-game before I have to wake up. So much happened, it's like I went on a journey already. There's a problem, though: I really want to be able to go into town. How am I supposed to do that if I can't even get past the players that swarm the place every second of every day? Maybe if I do it at night... I don't doubt that special stuff happens at night. I could sneak into town then, and maybe figure out how to get rid of the PK status.

Or maybe I don't have to go into town for that. Is there a forum or sommething I can use while I'm in-game? Something appears in front of me while I ponder that. An in-game guide! There's a search function as well! I type PK into the search bar. It says here that the PK state turns back into a neutral state once you wait it out, if you get killed by a player, or if you pay off the authorities in town. I don't want to do either of those, so waiting is the only option. Let's see, it says 5 hours in-game per kill as a PK. That means I've got 20 hours to go before I can go back to normal.

How long is a day in here? According to the guide, it says 10 hours day and 10 hours night, no matter the season. Alright. That means I have to wait until dusk, tomorrow, to get back into town. The players on a slaughterfest will undoubtedly start to feel like they can get into the forest by then. I have to get deeper in and get used to the place, during the night of all times.

This is going to suuuuuck. I don't have a choice though. Alright, let's go find out who's smarter: me, or a pack of hungry wolves. "Piii!" "Oh right, the treat. Here you go, bud."

I venture off into the forest, carefully, so as not to trip on something. Let's see if there's anything I should be scared of. Maybe night strolls are fun here, who knows... Ha, ha. Oh no, I'm scared. A howl in the distance, without a response. Sounds like a lone wolf.

There's nothing here yet, no bugs, no birds, nothing. Not even noise. This is one silent forest. I don't like that. Everything here is eerie as can be. After a few minutes, I hear a familiar screech to my right. Biiro? I head towards it. If Biiro is in the forest, then the meadow is without a field boss, right?

Eventually, I find him. Biiro is still in his full form, standing in the grass on the edge of the meadow. When he sees me, he tries to cross but is stopped by something. Probably the game stopping him from leaving his field. I quickly cross the line and he jumps into my arms, clearly happy to see me.

"Sorry for leaving you behind, Biiro. I didn't have a choice. But see, they're gone and I'm back now, alright? If you want to stay with me so much, you need to stop being a field boss though, right? I'm guessing the field boss is the strongest monster in the area, right? If that's the case and you want to follow me, we need to make another field boss. That's just how it is." *squawk*

Biiro looks sad. He knows this too. If he wants to leave, he needs the basic, fodder-type creatures to get buff. That sounds nearly impossible. He's doomed to stay here forever, everyone he tries to make friends with leaving him behind or trying to slay him, over and over, because it's not possible to tame a boss.

"Tell you what, I'll help you make that happen. Take me to the second strongest monster in the area. We'll get them real strong."

We walked around the edge of the meadow, all the way around the city, to another section. There was a huge, thick slime there, bouncing around with tremendous force. I'm guessing that's the one he meant.

"Is that the King Slime? The second strongest in this area?" *squawk* *nod*

"I see. That's a hard one. Maybe if we get it to fuse with a few more slimes or make itself into a Gel..."

It was just sitting there, shuffling slightly now and then, I couldn't see its eyes. Absolutely lazy, lazier than my attempt at a "build". I wouldn't have that. I needed to motivate it, even if it meant throwing its smaller, cuter brethren at it. I walked up to it and shouted, "Hey! Excuse me, King Slime?"

It turned around, its eyes coming into view slowly. When it was done turning around, it opened its gaping maw, inflated dangerously, and blew a horn into my face. Is that what the King sounds like? Wow, this is bad. He sounds really confident.

"So, I heard you're the second strongest entity in this area. How 'bout becoming the first?"

It bounced in place, causing a minor quake. I had its attention, mostly because #1 was standing on my arm.

"This guy here wants to leave, so he needs you to get buff. We're gonna need you to beat some adventurers, fuse with your brethren, compress yourself, whatever you can, okay? Become the Field Boss we need you to be."

It distorted itself, looking very angry. Its face puffed up and it turned slightly red. Seems like my attempt at motivation only angered it. Its mouth opened and it blasted me with a massive gust of wind and a ball of goo the size of my head. I put my arms up but it didn't do much, it blew the air out of my lungs and blew 42 HP off me. Almost halved it in a single blow? What the hell! I needed it to move though, so I kept harassing it and kiting it around.

It followed me, like a tidal wave of goo, fully intending on finishing me off itself. I ran towards the other slimes in the area and it took the bait, swallowing up its brethren like drops of water from a glass. It was working, but it was just getting bigger. It's hard to run, this thing cracks the ground as it moves. Gradually, its red tint faded back into blue, and it was calming down.

Then it suddenly stopped. Did I do it? Was it transforming? It rumbled, rippled like water. Its color started changing as it shrank. Yes! I pushed it to evolve! After a little bit, its shift became clear. It was going from a translucent blue to a translucent green. Its size reduced, and reduced, and reduced... Then it was as tall as a man, and stopped shrinking. It had evolved from a blue king to a green king.

"Is this strong enough for you now, Biiro?"

The Great Meadow Field Boss was surpassed! Biiro the Swift cedes their place to the Great Slime King!

*squawk!*

Biiro tried to drag me away. Was the transformation really that radical that it now fears for its and my life? I'm going to trust it.

"I'm coming, Biiro! Let's go!"

Behind us, a warhorn sounded. What the hell, was this thing calling an army on us?