“nice! inventory! that means I can- wait, menu? the one I can’t access? that menu? god dammit! every single god damn time! you stupid god damn game!”

Quill started to stamp at the floor in anger before squatting down and covering his face with his hands

“why do this game? why?”

After staying in that pose for a good two seconds quill sat on the floor and tried to calm himself down the only way he knows how. The breath. He started to focus on his breath yet once again, closing his senses off to everything except his breath.

Once Quill exited the world of the breath found something familiar. A notification.

the skill breathing has leveled up x9

the skill breathing has ranked up

the skill breathing has leveled up x4

“holy… thats a lot”

’so breathing has ranked up again, no, wait, before that, it leveled up nine times before ranking up so the levels to rank up must be nine. Though that’s assuming every skill is the same with the number of levels to rank up and other skills even rank up. I should stop here and get back to training, it’s good breathing ranked up but it’s not very useful in combat’

Quill closes the notifications and goes to train but notices something odd. His shadow is quite elongated. Seeing this Quill looks up towards the sun to find out the sun is in a strange position. It hasn’t wasn’t in the center of the sky like he expected but looks like it hasn’t long rised.

’morning? no wonder breathing ranked up, I must have been calming down for a long time, but how much time has been lost? was it a day? or two days? I’m getting distracted again, i should train’

For the next week Quill did nothing but eat, sleep and train. of course, not including the moments when his mind would wander. His stab and bash skills has ranked up and his throwing skill managed to rank up twice. This helped him confirm that nine level ups per rank was universal to all skills. His throwing skill has really shocked him. Before the javelin would barely stick into the tree but now it takes quite a bit of strength to pull the thing out!

The injured rabbit leg healed halfway through the week but instead of instantly going off to climb the tree it spent a while watching quill before attempting to climb. This time the rabbit wasn’t risking everything to climb the tree and instead stopping when it was feeling tired before trying again. It was probably trying to copy quill’s training.

During the breaks between training Quill did find another branch so he could make a stone spear. He managed to come up with an idea of cutting into the branch so that the branch can clamp down on the sharp rock from both sides then using the rope to secure the sharp rock in the branch. Quill was ecstatic over his new weapon but couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed when his weapon appraisal only said it was a stone spear.

Currently Quill is at the river having a drink thinking about his skills, his improvements and where to improve. Though his skills were leveling up, his fighting style still really looked like a kid swinging a stick. While thinking a message popped up

the skill breathing has leveled up

’wow, that took a long time to level up, why did it slow down so much? maybe- no, i’m getting distracted again’

After finishing his inner monologue he picked up his spear and headed back towards the rabbit habitat. On the way back he felt like something wasn’t right. It was like he was being watched. He has been getting this feeling for a few days now but always turned out to be nothing. Quill stopped right in his tracks, takes out a javelin and scanned the area looking for any signs of movement.

To the right a bush shakes. As soon as the bush shakes Quill throws his javelin into the bush hoping to hit whatever is there.

yelp!

A short animal cry rings from the bush. The bush stops shaking and a window appears in front of Quill.

Notifications have been re-enabled as combat has ended

throwing has ranked up

“that ended quickly…”

Quill went into the bush to see what he killed. There was a dead wolf on the ground with a javelin through the eye.

“well, that was a good shot”

Quill could be helped but be impressed with himself as he pulled out the javelin and skinned the wolf. Taking the pelt with pride he headed towards the rabbit habitat. But then he had a thought

’why was that wolf watching me? was it watching me this whole time? last time they just show up and attack. Maybe after killing a few of them they got weary? wolves aren’t that smart so there’s no way they would set up smart tacti- no, I’m getting distracted again, gotta train

When Quill got to the rabbit habitat he realised something. There was a reason for the wolf to watch him. there was a reason why it didn’t attack.

Quill’s eyes widen as he collapses to his knees.

“red, everything’s red”

The entire habitat was red. Blood stained the grass and even the trunks of the trees yet there wasn’t a single corpse in sight. Not even a single bone in sight. The smell of iron flowing through the air attacked his nose.

’why? are all the rabbits dead? every one of them? even that small one? no, it can’t be. They are just hiding like they do at night right? they do that all the time, they’ll show up eventually. After all, I am their guardian

You have lost the ‘rabbit guardian’ title

“ah, I-aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

Quill screamed out, screamed out with all his might. Screaming towards the heavens. Even though he was only with the rabbits a short time, they fed him, healed him and cared for him. It may have not seemed like much but it was a lot for him. Even though the rabbit weren't real, only bits of data. For Quill who now lives here, they were very real, very alive. But now, now they gone, dead. Never again will Quill see them hopping around, never again will he see them climbing trees and never again will he eat a meal with them.

“ha, ha, why did this have to happen? to them of all people, who? That right, it’s them, they did this, the wolves. It’s their fault, it’s all their fault. I’ll kill them, i’ll kill them all! hahahahahahahaha”

Quill kept laughing as tears fell down his face. all the pain was converted fully to anger, to the wolves.

Quill stayed in that position for a while. His body started to feel heavy, like his whole body has been shackled as he started drowning in the anger, collecting it, refining it into a weapon. A weapon only for his one enemy, the wolves.

After two minutes of this a pressure suddenly hit Quill. It was a soft pressure located towards his lap. Quill looked down sharply at the thing causing this pressure.

“eh?”

It was a rabbit. A single small white furred rabbit with a hint of purple.

“you survived?”

Tears yet again started to flow. Only this time they were tears of happiness.

“thank god, thank god, you’re alive”

Quill hugged the rabbit as he cried. One only survived but just that was enough for Quill. His shoulder started to lighten if only a bit.