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Eric found himself in the forest, killing monster animals that crossed his path with no feeling as to why. He had survived for three months in the forest before, so he knew at least the bare necessities which he needed to live.He had killed enough monsters that he leveled up twice, but he didn't know what that meant beyond his chain getting a little stronger. He himself had also gotten stronger, he had gained some stat points, but that meant nothing to Eric. He was working off the frustration of being betrayed again so he would let those sit and gather dust until he was ready to make sense of them.

On the third day of traveling through the forest path, he came upon a small village that had wooden hut houses and a single well in the middle. It was dirty and cheap, not the kind of place where Eric wanted to train, so he had half a mind to pass it by. As he was walking through the town, he was suddenly approached by an old man with more wrinkles than a tree has leaves. The man blurted out that the village needed help from someone strong enough to take care of a monster. Once he said that, a little message popped up and displayed the following message:

'Quest: Save the small village from the jackal infestation by killing all of the jackals. Exp:100 $78'

Underneath the description was a simple 'yes-or-no' choice. Eric chose to take the quest, and then he was told the direction of the jackal hideout. Eric started hiking towards the jackals, until he discovered a dark cave with a broken sign at the front with a warning to stay out. Eric summoned his chains, which had grown by twenty links, and started smashing them around outside the cave while shouting at the top of his lungs. Just like his expectation, the jackals confronted him at the front of the cave.

They were odd creatures that walked on four legs the way bats crawl around, but they had no wings or fur. They had long heads that reminded Eric of a pterodactyl's elongated face, and the three fingers on each hand had claws. Eric started by folding his chains over in his hand so they had a loop, then he swung it at the first jackal he could see. The fight went over for a while until an exceptionally large jackal came out, almost twice the size of the others and half the size of Eric. The jackal lunged at Eric, who dodged by jumping to the side. Unfortunately, the chains he was holding caught the arm of the jackal chief, and Eric's arm was suddenly lurched back.

Eric shouted in pain as he felt his arm pop out of it's socket, but he popped it back with a hard punch from his other arm. As he turned to face the chief jackal, a message popped up obscuring his sight. Eric quickly closed it and continued the fight, finally catching the jackal's neck in his chains so that he could give it a quick snap. Once he was done, Eric stopped to take a breather, then a little message popped up telling Eric he had completed the quest. 'That means they're all dead,' thought Eric with a smile, then he felt a slight warmth in his hands.

Eric looked down to see that the dead body of the large jackal was turning to dust and flowing into the chains that he held. Another message appeared over the quest completion notice, and it said that his chains have gained a new ability. Pressing the screen, Eric was suddenly assaulted by an entire paragraph of text that he read through. It informed him that his divine weapon[chains] had absorbed the essence of the jackal chief, raising it's durability and control, as well as adding a few links. Eric closed the message and the quest completion notice, then he thought about what might be in the cave.

With a few cuts and bruises, Eric ventured into the dark cave, feeling safe now that the jackals had been taken care of. When he got deep enough, he resorted to repeatedly summoning his chains just so the brief flash would illuminate his next step. Finally, Eric came to a larger cavern that reeked with a horrible wafting stench in the stiff breeze. The only thing Eric found that might have been of use were a few plants and what looked like a few eggs. After travelling back to the small village, he was rewarded with the experience and the money, then the villagers told him the eggs were good to eat with the flower as seasoning.

While eating, Eric opened his inventory and went to [stats] to see something unusual. There was a skills section that had previously been empty, but now there was a skill there. Eric tapped it and read about it: 'Bind[Lv1]: Sends out several chains to constrict the opponent.' He read it through, wondering if it was as useful as it sounded. After the delicious meal, Eric thanked the people and left on the road with the money in his inventory and a new skill. While he was walking, he did some embarrassing experiments to learn how the bind skill worked.

If he made a direction with his hand, then called out "Bind", chains would shoot out and constrict whatever his palm was aiming at. This didn't affect his regular chain whip, but it caused him to think about what exactly divine weapons could do. Going directly to the 'help' tab, Eric found a section all about divine weapons, which he read while he walked.

Divine weapons are holy creations that grow with their hero. Each weapon has it's own special attributes to aid the hero in battle against the demons. Eric skipped down until it talked about skills, then he read that skills are special movements for each divine weapon. Skills can be created by thinking of special movements or situations in which a skill could be used. Skills can be altered and tweaked to suit a certain style of battle, but skills can not be erased or destroyed. Skills can also be leveled through repeated use, growing more powerful as it is trained.

Eric thought back to his fight when the message popped up that he needed to get rid of quickly. It was just when he caught the chains on the chief jackal that the skill must have been created. It was such a brief moment, but for a skill to be created by such a small movement meant that more would certainly come. As he walked and practiced his Bind skill, another message appeared saying that his bind skill had reached level two. The new higher skill increased the size of the object that could be bound, the length of which a monster would be bound, and even the number of binds that shoot out.

'Well that was easy,' thought Eric with an evil smile. Now, while Eric walked, he bound every tree he passed to quickly level up the bind skill, experimenting with different variations until he got a few that he liked. By the time Eric got to the next city, he had created 'Bind Mine' and 'Area Constriction'. He was feeling good until he passed a building with a lot of posters and signs nailed to the side. There were a few wanted posters, one of which was a picture of him. Eric pulled it angrily off of the wall to see that it wasn't a bounty, but an official warning.

'The Hero of the Chain, Eric Bane, has committed the grievous sin of raping the princess. His is to be avoided at all costs.'

Eric put the picture in his inventory, then he walked through the city with his head down. He found a small restaurant that seemed decent enough, so he went in and took a seat. One of the waitresses approached him with a menu, but he just said, "Give me the cheapest meal you have." As he sat there, waiting for his food, a guy stood up and approached him with a glass of water. Without a word of warning, he poured the drink over Eric's head. Eric stood up, confronting the man by standing a foot taller than him, but the man didn't back down.

"Get out of our city, rapist," said the guy boldly. Eric paused, then without a word he sat back down. The guy stayed standing there as Eric expertly ignored him, then his food was put in front of him. It was a biscuit with a brown slice of meat and a mashed white substance. Eric was about to eat when he felt pressure on the back of his head that slammed his face into the table. It was painful, but when the hand left his head, Eric's face stayed in the food. When he finally returned, the waitress was there with a handkerchief to wipe his face off. Eric shooed her away, then he picked the food from his face and ate it silently.

"Didn't you hear what I said," the guy shouted, raising his fist. "Get out of our city!" The fist came down and punched Eric in the back of the head, but it wasn't hard enough to cause any real damage. Eric ate his food in silence, and when he was finished, he told the waitress how much it cost. She told him and he opened his inventory to take out the money. He put it down, then the man smacked the coins off the table. The waitress and everybody sucked in breath as Eric stood up, but then he silently went to pick up the coins. He handed them to the waitress, then he went to the guy who had hit them and he looked him in the eyes.

"You've got the right idea," said Eric sadly, "if there was a rapist or murderer in here, I'd want somebody to stand up to them. Keep doing what you'redoing." With those words, Eric left the restraunt and kept walking along, thinking about who was truly at fault for the pain in his head and heart. He knew that people would find out, but he also understood that it was a natural reaction that he be attacked. As Eric left the city, he felt his eyes were getting dry, so he decided a good cry would soak them back up.