Hunting? I guess you could call it that. That is if hunting is described as wandering through a virtual forest, waiting for creatures to spawn, then engaging them in a battle to the death, that the only tools you had were a hand held weapon and a little bit of armour, all in the hopes of acquiring some form of loot and points that determined how skilled you were and how much damage you could absorb. Then hunting would define what I was doing.
A battle to the death is not quite accurate. It's not as if the creatures really could die, they would simply shatter. And after a while they would eventually re-spawn, without memory a battle that had killed them before. But it wasn't devoid of death, as there was one life I did have to worry about. Mine.
Though I was in a virtual world, I couldn't get out. The game creator removed the normal way of leaving the game. All the players that had logged in on the day of the launch could no longer go back to the real world. The only way to leave was to complete the game. And to make matters worse, you only got 1 shot. If you died in here, you died in the real world too. It was the ultimate "Game Over".
So I would put myself at risk every day I felt up for it. I had to. Just to exist in this world I had to acquire a minimum of wealth just to pay for the necesities. The game was so realistic that I had to eat and sleep, equipment would wear out and had to be repaired or replaced, potions to maintain my health in battle had to be purchased. I found that the best way to acquire money in this game was to get it from what the monsters droped. And I got that by hunting and killing them.
To get a handle on the creatures and maintain the upper hand in fights required that I chose my battles wisely; balancing my skill versus what the creatures could dish out. I had to choose where I would fight so that I could be stronger and have a good chance of surviving the creatures that attacked me. And whenever I was confronted with a creature that was too powerful, I usually just ran.
Not everyone had the same strategy.
"Yah!" I heard the sounds of fighting nearby.
"Looks like I'm not the only one hunting today," I said to myself.
"Ow!"
-Yup, getting hit hurts.
"Help! I don't wanna die!" yelled the player. Then I heard a hich pitched scream of horror.
"Wait! That's not right," I said aloud.
The next thing I knew I was sprinting in the direction the screams were coming from. I took my short sword out as I ran, trying to ready myself for what I was about to confront. It probably wasn't a good idea to just rush in, but something about that scream tugged at my very core :"No one should have to die out here."
I got to the spot where the screams were coming from, adrenaline at it's maximum and my heart pumping like crazy. A girl stuck in a bunch of white strands, was unable to break free. A dagger, which I assume she had dropped, was out of her reach, and a large spider was about to finish her off. With no time to set the girl free, I quickly charged the spider and managed to get one hit in before it jumped back.
That wasn't enough to stop the spider. It was a little tougher than what I would usually hunt. And by the looks of the predicament the girl was in, I'd have to contend with a web attack that could prevent me from defending myself. Luckily its health was down to half. The girl must have managed a couple of hits before it overwhelmed her.
House spiders are one thing, they never bothered me in the least, but this thing was the size of a dog, I had to come up with a way to deal with it quickly. The spider attention turned to me. But it wasn't moving it just looked at me, as if it was sizing me up. I watched as its hind section slowly curled under its abdomen.
"Jump!" the girl screamed.
A stream of filaments shot out from the spider and hit the spot where I was standing, just as I jumped out of the way. If the girl hadn't screamed I would have been covered in sticky strands and the spider would probably have had a duo for lunch. I quickly got to my feet and with my sword skill now ready, I lunged for the spider's left side, slicing one set of legs clear off. It struggled to regain control but was hopelessly off balance and couldn't use its filament attack.
"You're mine," I whispered and a few seconds later it was all over.
I cut the girl out of her web prison and asked her if she was ok. She stared at me sshowing no expression and i misread her body language. I lost all composure and for no reason started to rail on her.
"What the hell are you doing out here," I scolded. "You could have been killed. If you can't handle the monsters just stay in the towns till they clear this thing. There may be no one to help you next time. What the hell were you thinking?"
Her expression changed radically, I saw her face turn from shock to despair and her eyes fill with tears. She took one breath, buried her face in her hands and ran back to town. I watched her go and in my mind, I continued to curse her carelessness. It took me a few minutes to calm down, after which I was no longer in the mood to do some more hunting.
"That's enough stress for one day. Time to head back," I thought to myself.
I checked the drops I got from the battle before leaving. The XP and Col were good enough, at least the day wasn't a waste. I didn't know what I was going to do with spider silk thread though. I hoped one of the shops would want it.
The girl had abandoned her dagger in all the confusion. I picked it up and put it in my inventory there was no reason to leave it out here. If she claimed it, I would at least be able to return it to her. I was still a little ticked off and felt that she shouldn't go hunting if she wasn't up for it, but on the other hand no one should be weaponless either.
"Who was that girl?" I wondered.
