Numalba

- "The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness."

- John Muir

There is something to be said for routine, and that is that it is easy to fall into. One might even say that it is an integral part of human nature. We always say we want to escape the mundane drone that is our lives, but when change throws our lifestyle into chaos we cling to any kind of order we can create. Routine, if anything, is ordered and safe. The last two days had been exactly that, safe and ordered.

I entered random shops, either got a quest or some useful tidbit of information, and went out to complete the quest. The quests varied; most of the time I had to go out to the plains and get the required materials; other times I had to go from shop to shop as a messenger or glorified post-boy, and whilst not the most exciting or EXP-rewarding they fleshed out my knowledge of what was where.

On my third day here I'd been on one such quest, and was on my way back to the correct part of town when I passed the largest building I had so far come across.

It was situated on the north side the grand plaza we had all spawned on the first day. It was a large rectangular castle with rounded roofs, spires and even a small moat. The building was made of a glossy dark colored stone or metal which reflected the sunlight sharply. High walls, though still no comparison to the city walls, surrounded it. All together it made for an imposing sight that shouldn't be all that hard to miss and yet it was only on my third day here that I found it.

I knew what it was though, even before the blue sign popped up announcing what it was. See, by then I'd read the guide from cover to cover and only one such a building had been mentioned in it; The Black Iron Palace, which housed the Room of Resurrection.

I was curious if that grand room was still there now that re-spawning was no longer an option. I entered through the large doors and found myself in the entrance hall, which was huge and probably went on to the rest of the castle. Gothic style pillars held up the second floor, strong and made of the same material as the outside. I touched one and found that the texture, which was very smooth, reminded me marble.

Light streamed in in beams through small round windows. No benches occupied the hall and as such the beams all hit the floor, illuminating a painting of Aincrad itself in all its floating glory, which could also be found on the flat ceiling which doubled as the floor for the Resurrection room, if I was any guess. Truly the interior of the building reminded me more of church than of a castle, especially since it was occupied by a quiet that shouldn't be disturbed. The only sound inside were my footsteps and my breathing; there was no BGM here.

To my right, behind one of the large doors was a stair case. I climbed it and 70 steps later I stood in front of the Room of Resurrection. This room reminded me even more of a church, with colored mosaic in the round windows, creating a rainbow of light as it streamed down. The domed ceiling was covered with symbols and drawings whose meaning I could not even begin pin down, though they looked very religious to me. What completed the room was the large slab of stone that stood in the center of the room, which must have been new as the guide hadn't mentioned it.

It was obsidian in color, a darker shade than the marble of the castle itself, and about 4 meters long and 2 meters high. Once I got close enough I saw that it was filled with writing, carved out elegantly in white.

At first I had thought it be part of some quest, a riddle of sorts but as I got closer I saw that it was no such thing. It was a list, one with the names of every player that had logged in on November the 6th.

They stood there in alphabetical order, but some names were crossed out. Next to the ones that were crossed out stood how that player had died.

It was a memorial stone, but I looked at it as a mass headstone seeing as the names of the living were on it as well. Kayaba was making a statement with this, of that I was certain, and I took that statement to be that he was certain we were all going to die.

Above the list stood the words, Seimei no Ishibumi, or Monument of Life. I found that insulting, it was celebrating all of those who were still alive, and condemned those who had fallen by crossing them out.

Those crossed out names, which weren't even the people's real names, looked like items that were crossed out on a shopping list and that their way of death had been the price, so to speak.

It was sickening, and a profound sadness filled me as I looked at it. I must have at least stood there for an hour, going over each of the 214 names that were crossed out and committing them to memory. These were Kayaba's first victims, and keeping the level curve in mind, not the last.

These people, their unnecessary deaths, needed to be avenged. If I had been driven to get to the top before this steeled my resolve into an indomitable will. I hadn't known any of these people, but I – no, all of us – owed it to them to beat this game. That was a promise I'd keep till the moment I died.

I'd walked away, and when I stood once more at the entrance of the former Room of Resurrection I'd paid my respects once more and resolved to come back again; these people deserved that much respect.

I had no such regard for the life of the wolf in front of me, the last one of its pack of three. This pack had been the first mob of Wolves I'd dared to clash with after my fateful encounter with a loner that first night in Aincrad. So far it had gone off without so much as a hitch.

I was now a proud level 4 player and the level 2 creature didn't stand a chance. I'd come a long way from the angry and scared person I'd been that first night. I no longer just swung my sword around, hoping for a hit but was calm and calculated.

I parried when needed and that was the only time I used my blade outside of Sword Skills as I didn't want this sword to end up in the same banged up state as my first had. Still, I'd check out the durability of my new blade to be sure after this battle, because keeping it in prime shape was important.

I dodged as the beast lunged and whilst turning raised my dark grey weapon and with my favorite move cut it in the midriff, dealing it the final blow. The blue polygons fell down, but dissipated before touching the green grass that rolled over these hills.

Nothing was dropped and I sighed as this meant I had to go find another mob of the beasts. I needed slabs, ten of them to be exact, and fur, even if not the loot I needed, would have been welcome. I started to walk forward hoping to come across another pack, one bigger than just three.

The guide, in it its infinite wisdom, had told me that the wolves roamed the plains in groups of three to five confirming what Gulliver had said two days earlier, though there were always the odd ones out. In that sense I'd really had luck that first night.

In any case I was smart enough to know that more wolves meant a higher chance of drop. That was in essence the logic of grinding.

Hours upon hours wasted upon the purple brutes that were the Frenzy Boars had taught me that you had to more often than not massacre the lot in order to meet the requirement for when you had multiple orders. The boars avoided me like the plague now, seeing as I'd gained a status as butcher. Even at night when they were level three, and that was how the hunted became the hunter.

All of my skills had leveled up nicely: my Night Vision and Sprint were now at the lovely level of 10 whilst my One-handed Sword skill rested at level 13. Not to mention that I was now the proud owner of Boar hide boots, and a whole lot of tusks that I had no particular use for as of yet.

At the moment I only had one quest open, for the pretty lady of the Hog. That brought my thoughts back to the capabilities of the NPC's that I interacted with.

She never remembered me and neither did Gertha for that matter, no matter how many quests I did the spark of recognition that Gulliver and Trenan had never appeared in their eyes.

I reasoned that was because they were merchants and some of the other players had started to take their quests as well, though only a rare few dared venture outside the city wall like me, most going for the courier-type quest. Still that was going to change all too soon, I'd felt the unrest in the air. It was why I was going to go on to the next town today.

It was an easy decision to make too, seeing as the plains would filled with people and whilst the re-spawn rate for the boars and wolves was high, there were more than 9,000 people confined in those walls. I doubted that the boars and wolves re-spawned fast enough for even a third of that, and fights over the spawns were bound to happen.

Besides it wasn't as if there was anything in specific that I'd miss. Sure, Gulliver and Trenan were nice guys as far as NPC went, and were some of the smarter AI in the city as far as I knew, but even they had their limits.

They had three rehearsed stories and I'd heard them all multiple times, told almost in exactly the same way. The only time they deviated from that set script was when I brought up my own stories or opinions though sometimes that went over their heads. It was almost sad that that was the extent of my conversation these last few days.

It looked at my clock and found that it was 2 PM meaning that If I played this right I could get going around 3.

I hummed along with the BGM as I started a sprint to the four wolves a ways away, downwind as luck would have it. Seeing as I was made of code and didn't sweat I really had to wonder if they could even smell me, but by that point it was mainly arbitrary.

Still humming I carved up my first target, shattering it like glass with my raised STR stat. I Jumped over the one that lunged at me with my AGI stat, which was on par with the STR stat at 7. I blocked the thirds lunge, making it whine as my blade cut into the fur of its face doing some minimal damage. By that point the three second cool down for my moves had most certainly passed and the fourth one was downed like the first.

Both of them growled as I kept up the catchy tune, counted to three and attacked as neither of them would. I shot forward, my Horizontal cutting the one on the left and as the system let me go I didn't even have to turn around to activate Slant, this time cutting from the bottom up. See Slant was my favorite because you could cut both ways, whilst with Horizontal you didn't have that option.

The polygons hadn't even begun to dissipate yet when I struck the last wolf with a Horizontal, Critting it as I stabbed it in area around the heart.

It too turned into bleu particles and with a thump a patch of grey fur was left behind as the summary of the battle popped up. I looked at my EXP bar and found that I had 20% of the required amount. Steadily but surely I was making my way to level 5, which I was sure I'd reach by the end of the day.


It was 2:50 when I got the tenth slab, having just killed a loner. Those loners were the most vicious of the lot I'd found, but only a group of five gave me a challenge. One group had even managed to actually do me some damage, and I was really glad to have bought those arm braces because I was quite certain that I would have had another set of bite marks in my arm were it not for them.

I checked my sword and found that it's durability was at 87%, meaning that I still had 7% to go before repairing it was even necessary in my opinion. It would be cheaper to do it now though, that was true. Yes, with money gained from the quest I'd invest in bringing my blade back into its pristine state. I'd also check out if I had enough Wolf fur to get myself another sweet deal at one of the tailors in town.

I jogged back to the West gate, loving the Sprint skill to death. I waved to the two guards I considered good acquaintances, maybe even friends. I moved through the cobble stone streets with purpose, saved myself three minutes by going through the Teleport Gate Plaza, and made from the gate to Hog's in 15 minutes.

I entered the small shop, and waved nonchalantly to the pretty NPC manning the counter. Opened up the trade window, sent her the ten slabs of wolf meat and said, "Here you go."

Rose, as I had found out she was called, smiled and inclined her head, "Thanks." The quest completion notification popped up, and I grinned at the cash I received because whilst not a novel amount it was plenty enough to repair 13% of damage.

"Alright I'll be seeing you, Rose" and with that I left the shop, and went back the way I came. Finding a forgery wasn't all that hard, considering the noise and smell tipped you off. Besides, I knew where some of them were.

The forgery I entered was adjacent to the shop I'd bought my blade at, and it looked like the two places were family owned as this man was without a doubt related to the shop owner that had sold me my weapon. Not that the man'd remember me, but I didn't really need him to.

"How can I help you?" rumbled the heavily bearded man who had hair on his head as well, unlike the man that wouldn't remember me.

I offered him my sword , "If you could repair my sword that'd be great."

"Sure can," and he immediately went to work. Five hammer strikes later my blade flashed a dull red, and that was that. It was in no way as intense as forging would have been in real life, or as time consuming.

It was a reminder that whilst all very realistic, this was without a doubt a game. I paid the man his due, nodded to him, and walked out.

The time was 3:25 and I had one more thing to do before I hightailed it out of this city and the adjacent plains. The wolves and boars no longer yielded me an interesting amount of EXP, unless I'd start to hunt the wolves at night but I was reluctant to do so.

If the level three of the boars was any indication the wolves would gain two levels as well, making them come on par with me. That wasn't very worrying when it was a loner, but a pack of five level 4 monsters wasn't exactly in my comfort zone yet. I'd of course try it out if they were in the vicinity of my new destination but as soon as the battle went south I'd run back to said town; I had no intention of gaining any new scars.

But talking of destination, I had to decide where to go. I opened up my map and looked at it.

I had two options, one closer than the other. The closest village, Horunka, was to the west, near the border of the grand pine forest you could see from the plains. The other was to the east, next to the lake. This village was called Numalba, and it was surrounded by a sparse layer of forest, which was why you didn't see the aforementioned lake from the plains.

I entered a tailor shop as I was turning my options over in my head. Numalba might be farther away from Starting city, but it was a lot closer to one of the next towns, which were found in the mountains.

I decided that I'd rather travel a lot in the easy part of the terrain than a lot in the mountainous area, where the monsters were a significantly higher level. In the end that was the safer option, and I liked safe.

That decided I gave the NPC my time of day, and asked if he had any deals with Wolf skins. He did, as luck would have it. I had ten skins, which was exactly enough for the two shoulder pads. A quarter of an hour and 25 col later I exited the shop, the pads sitting comfortably on my shoulders.

Going out the east gate would have been the smarter thing to do, would conserve time, but I wanted to say goodbye to the two guards in the west. Besides cutting diagonally wouldn't add all that much time, certainly not if I sprinted. The extra EXP of the monsters I'd encounter was another reason it wasn't such a bad idea.

I jogged back to the West Gate and as I arrived I was surprised to hear Trenan say to Gulliver, "Pay up, told you he'd come back within the hour." That was most definitely new.

" Am I that predictable?" I asked.

The tall guard grinned as he replied, "Yes."

I raised an eyebrow, "You know what I'm going to do next then I take it?"

"Yes," he nodded confidently, " you'll go out onto the plains to get more meat for that girl at Hog's, who you totally dig by the way. So, when are you going to ask her out? "

The look that covered my face must have been a damn funny one, as I was completely floored by that comment. Not that it was true in any way, but more by the fact that a) he'd remembered that I'd mentioned her before and b) wondering if that was actually possible.

I doubted it, seeing as most NPC were fixed to a certain position, and moving them forcibly got you shocked; the harder you tried, the greater the shock if the guide book was to be believed. For all intents and purposes every player had a restraining order regarding NPC's, one that was forcibly executed no less.

"Never," I said regaining my equilibrium, " I'm being re-stationed to Numalba as of today. Will be the last time I'll see Starting City for a while. "

Gulliver nodded, not as surprised as Trenan, "Thought that might happen, the higher ups really want the pathways between the South and the North cleared up. No one has any real idea how bad it's up North by the Tempana Ridge, let alone past it. "

"Exactly, might call me a scout." I looked at the less serious of the two, "You getting all this?"

Trenan glared lightly at me, " I understand why you are being stationed at Numalba. The dream that is the Golden Age, and all that. No, what I don't get is why you're never going to go for that cute girl butcher's girl. At least give it a try, I mean girls dig recruits!"

It was really amazing that he was almost human when the topic was women, showing off that he had more than scripted replies.

Gulliver answered for me, "Because he didn't sign up to the recruits for the attention of the female eyes. Besides she doesn't even know his name, if you remember."

Blue eyes locked with my grey ones, "Then make sure she does."

"No can do, Trenan. Even I'd wanted to, " I raised my hand to stop him from interrupting, " which I don't, there's no time for it. Already stretching time as it is by being here at the west gate."

"Fair enough. I really can't persuade you otherwise?"

I shook my head.

He sighed and looked at me and Gulliver with a crooked smile, " I swear one of these days I'll make you two do more than just watching the female gender. " He raised a fist, "You'll see Ray, when you come back I'll have made a man out of this blonde here!"

I laughed, and the blonde on my right chuckled. "We'll hold you to that!"

Our laughter died and all jokes were gone, " Well, it's time I head out east."

They looked at each other and nodded. Trenan came forward and held out his hand. We shook and he said, "I'll miss you Ray, the days will be boring without you here. "

"I'll miss you too, Trenan."

Next me and Gulliver shook hands, and he smiled. I nodded in the direction of the taller guard and said, "Keep this idiot in line, will you?"

The blonde grinned, "Will do, and you keep yourself in line. Now go, can't be late on your new post the first day."

"Thanks, guys!" and with that I was off.

At first I was just jogging, but as soon as I passed my first hill, and saw a Frenzy Boar run away, I started to run. The sun was shining, the sky a vibrant blue and rolling hills for quite a while. The wind was blowing west, and I grinned as I felt it caress my cheeks.

I whooped as I sped across the grass. Whatever you wanted to say about Kayaba Akihiko, who surely had a psychotic urge buried beneath that cold and collected exterior, you could not deny that the man had an eye for aesthetics. I hated the him yes, and wanted to hate this world – his world - but after the goodbye's to the two guards and the beautiful view that surrounded me I couldn't say I did.

For a time I forgot that I was stuck in a death game, and I just enjoyed the world around me and the speed and power that the game mechanics gave me in battle. Right then I was a 17 year old enjoying the first real Virtual World ever, as should have been the case all along.


An hour had passed and I was no longer running, now strolling across the winding dirt road that went straight to Numelba. The scenery had changed slightly, the land had flattened out a bit and instead of grass there was a grain of some sort on either side of the road. Every so often a house would pop up, though I had as of yet to see people. The BGM had changed as well, though the tune was still medieval in nature.

It had been 20 minutes since I'd last seen a monster, and I was kind of glad for the reprieve. Suddenly a slight buzzing sound entered my ears, and purely out of habit my right hand went to my right pocket, where my phone would have been. It wasn't there of course and I ducked as the buzzing was right behind me, a lot louder than before. With big eyes I watched as two mandibles, each about the size my pinky, pass right where my neck would have been.

My eyes stayed wide and whispered, "You got to be fucking kidding me!" Right there, hovering in the air, was a huge wasp. As in it was almost as long as my legs.

It's red eyes didn't look happy in the least, and it's mandibles clicked angrily. Buzzing, in a different pattern entered my hearing from my left, I rolled away and I whimpered as I saw the large stinger being pulled back out of the ground. The hole in the road did nothing to alleviate my worries.

It joined its brother in hovering, and a third one came from behind them.

They were brown in color, not at all the yellow you'd expect, covered in sharp, angry green lines. Their stingers were huge bulbs twice the size of my head with the tips which were sharp as could be and about the size of ice picks. Two wings flapped angrily behind each of them, generating the buzzing that had allowed me to dodge the attacks.

The words 'Wind Wasp, level 3' floated above them, mocking me.

I suddenly went right back to hating the world I was stuck in, and I cursed Kayaba to the deepest depths of hell. Out of all the creatures that he had to enlarge, it had to be the one I was allergic to and thus had a phobia for! Jezus Christ, the small ones I could crush with my finger already made me run to safety so that I not bloat up. I'd had that happen to me once, it wasn't fun.

So far the game had been biologically accurate, almost insanely so and I prayed to all the gods out there that that little genetic defect I possessed had not entered the game.

With a shaky breath I stood up and looked at my enemies. I gulped, remembering again how aggressive these fuckers were when smaller than my finger. Now that they came up to my hip, they were a serious threat.

The two floating at the sides of the middle one shot forward, mandibles ready to bite whatever flesh was exposed.

Fast!

I stumbled back, fumbled with my sword failed to get it out of its scabbard with how hands were shaking and just rolled out of the way. The third one came at me with its stinger, aimed at my face and too close for comfort already. Eyes wide I did the first thing that occurred to me: I jumped. My left foot hit right in the face, doing it some damage and sending it tumbling to the ground.

I pulled out my sword and just managed to keep two mandibles at bay, scraping against the dark grey metal. Great red eyes looked into my grey ones, which were filled with honest to god fear. It's antennae brushed against my head and I couldn't suppress the shudder that wracked through my body. Had SAO had the option of peeing, I would have soiled myself right then and there.

With force I pushed it away, only for another one to immediately take it place. I was in the process of pushing this one back when my back erupted into pain. I screamed as the stinger entered and was then viciously pulled out.

I had completely forgotten about the third one, and it cost me. It cost me dearly as my body refused to move an inch. The little thunder mark that flashed next to my HP bar explained why; I was paralyzed.

The other two wasps shot forward and bit in my arms, making my HP drop a 10th, now standing at 265/350.

The third one shot towards me again, also striking to bite me. Luckily the symbol disappeared and my muscles responded to my brain's panicked urges. I whirled around to face it, stepped to the right whilst activating Slant, and cut it right beside the head. It was a critical hit, and relief flooded me as it burst into glowing particles. The hit to its head earlier had probably contributed as well.

Finally, one of these hellish creatures was down.

The very angry clicking behind me reminded me that there were still two that weren't beaten. They sounded mighty pissed off. I gulped. Even if I was panicking a lot less now that I'd downed one I was still a far cry away from the calm and collected guy that had taken down wolves without so much a worry.

The one on the left raised it stinger with apparent effort, looking almost like it were doing a sit up. The other shot forward, body straight and mandibles open. What happened next was really quite odd.

The one with the stinger extended should have been slower than the one whose body was flat and as such much more aerodynamic, not to mention that it had a head start, but it was instead the other way around. Green light followed the wasp who looked ready to skewer me, and I just accepted that the skill it was obviously using was responsible for breaking the laws of physics.

I stepped to the left of it and activated my Horizontal, and just like I had redirected the tusk of that level three Frenzy boar, so I did the stinger of this Wind Wasp.

The System calculated it as a perfect block on part of both sides and neither me nor the wasp gained any damage. Both of the wasps were now behind me, though the one that wanted to bite me was coming forward again, body straight.

That was ignorable though, and I counted whilst I kept my eye on the other wasp. It was just hovering in the air, and it was only when I reached five that the speed of its wings increased. That meant that that stinger skill had five second delay, one I would capitalize on the next it was used on me.

Meanwhile the biter, as I had dubbed it, found no purchase with its mouth I jogged to the right of it and executed a slant form the top up that threw it down on the ground with thump. My left foot pinned it down, and a second later I executed it with the same move that had thrown it onto the road.

Angry clicking was coming closer, but I was ready and hit it right in the face with only my blade, no skill activated whatsoever. It veered off course, a small amount of damage done to it, but its new position was exactly where I needed it to be. Swiftly I activated Horizontal, ready to skewer it in turn.

The Wind Wasp dodged, which was a calculated risk, and it bit me in the shoulder as the system had yet to let me go and that was what it was the closest too. The damage was entirely ignorable, though the feeling was uncomfortable.

The System let me go and I unleashed slant from the bottom up as it veered to the right, it clipped it's wings. The HP that drained from the creature was minimal but seeing it sag to the left, that wing not working properly anymore, gave me a very satisfied feeling. It no longer had the mobility to dodge my Horizontal and with an eerie shriek it burst into green polygons.

The conclusion of the battle popped up and I sighed, my shoulders sagging in relief. I looked what that short but crazily scary fight had given me. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it each wasp gave me twice as much EXP as a wolf.

I'd face them again if I had to, the EXP certainly worth it, but if I didn't I have to…well, I wouldn't mind that in the least. Mostly I was just glad I wasn't allergic to these Wind Wasps. Another thing that gladdened me was that I hadn't gained any new scars, seeing as the feeling of salt and alcohol being poured over the wounds had not plagued me. Odd, really…maybe it only happened when my health reached the halfway point?

I shook my head, pushing away those speculations for a later date. The answer, I was sure, would come to me eventually; I wasn't so naïve as to believe that my HP would never sink so low.

Over the next hour I fought more than my fair share of bugs, each of which was larger than it had any right to be, interspersed with a few wolves every now and then. The scariest and meanest were still the Wind Wasps, though the Bumbling Beetles took the longest to take down seeing as they had the most HP, the best defense and were level 4 creatures.

Half an hour in, after a particularly vicious fight where'd I'd completely spazzed out when two groups of wasps (they usually traveled in groups of three) had ambushed me I reached level 5. I got five points this time around, and I happily gave each stat one point.

I was already a quarter of on the way to level 6, and if I kept this up I'd be half way by the time I reached Nulmalba.

I wasn't currently fighting though, having just downed a Bumbling Beetle a few minutes earlier, but I kept my eyes and ears peeled, ready for the another one since they seemed to live in these parts of the plains.

This part wasn't only different in that it housed different monsters either. It had taken me a while to notice but slowly but steadily the road was declining. Apparently the Lake was situated in a basin of sorts.

Another change was that the landscape that existed beside the road had once again become just grass, seeing as the closer I got to the forest the less inhabited it was.

I completely understood it too, because those bugs were creepy as hell. The creepiest of all being the level two Wrestling Worm seeing as it was two meters long and just popped up from the ground whenever it wished, scaring the crap out of you.

Seriously, I'd rather face something had some kind of expression rather than just a blank wall of skin. Reminded me rather of Slender Man, and I'd decided immediately that I wouldn't go out here at night.

That beetle had apparently been the last effort of the plains to bar me from reaching Numalba, seeing as I reached the edge of the forest without further incident. The pine trees towered over me, casting the deep shadows in which I now stood.

As I entered the forest the BGM changed, becoming slower and quieter and if you listened real well you'd hear that it was in tandem with some of the birdsong. Or the birdsong was part of the BGM, but whatever the case it was very calming.

Bushes popped up every now and then, some had berries and some didn't. Interested I pulled one of the red things off and read it's description in order to see if they were edible.

Cub Berry

"A berry that Bear Cubs in particular seem to like. It is sweet in taste, and is therefore often used as sweetener."

I plopped it in my mouth and the sweet taste, reminiscent of honey, that filled my mouth as the bleu-berry sized fruit burst made me smile. It was all too clear why the Bear Cubs liked them so much. I grabbed a few more and continued walking, eating one every so often. I kept my eyes peeled for the so called Bear Cubs, glad to at least have an idea of what was in this forest.

I was under no illusion that if there were cubs, there would full grown mothers and fathers as well. A daunting prospect, seeing as bears in the real world were already dangerous enough. The point had to be made, though, that in this world I was assisted by the game's mechanics, giving me much more of a fighting chance.

My first ten minutes were peaceful, the animals that inhabited this expanse of forest showed no interest in me. On a few occasions I thought I'd spotted a few creatures scurrying up in the canopy. Some kind of squirrel if I was any guess.

It was as I followed another bend in the road that I saw my first opponent, and damn if it didn't creep the fuck out of me. It stood at a meter and a half, was a pale green color, and had a red grin that looked deranged. Roots wriggled below its elongated body, and two vines each ending in a vibrantly green leaf hung languidly next to it, swishing this way and that way. On top of its head (although there was no real distinction between head and body) rested a green sprouting. All in all it was a plant, one that strongly reminded me of a creepier version of Weepingbell. The guttural chattering didn't do it any favors in my books.

The cursor that floated above the plantly protrusion, however, did. It was a lighter red, not a pure pink as the Frenzy Boars back near Starting city, but it still indicated that the creature was weaker than me. To make things even better, it didn't seem to be all that fast on those twisting roots.

With that I walked on closer, intent on earning myself some EXP and reaching Numalba before it got dark. I was finally truly and well around the bend when it finally noticed me. It chattering turned into a kind, "yayaya", which I took to mean he liked the fact that he'd found 'prey'. It moved towards me and finally a name screen appeared above it; "Little Nepent".

Ah, so these creepy fucks were Nepents, that put a picture to a name I'd read in the guide. With a flick of the eyes I checked to make sure it didn't have a fruit dangling off its head. It, as noted before, didn't and I felt another bout of relief flow through me; traps were to be avoided at all costs.

With that I had no hesitation whatsoever in facing it and not ten seconds later the road was, once again, mine and mine alone. Although, not two minutes later I would meet another. I almost smirked when the thought, "Your Repel has worn off', flashed through my mind.

The Little Nepents, as it turned out didn't have a lot of maneuverability as far as their body go, but it's appendages were an entirely different matter. Those arms were fast, and the leaves sharp. It was easy to deal with when it was one, but in numbers it would be a slaughter. Suddenly the Guides warning of not engaging an "Eve" had gained actual meaning.

There were also what were called "Sakura", Little Nepents with red flowers on their head. They, apparently, were an exceedingly rare specimen that had nice drops. What these drops were wasn't specified in the guide meaning that either the author wasn't keen on sharing or simply didn't know. I bet on the latter.

Half an hour in the path became a trail; small and annoyingly harder to follow. It also meant that I had to get in the thick of things. I can tell you that bramble bushes were just as much a pest here as back in the real world. I was half way through a big one when I immediately turned around and waded my way back as fast as I could. There had been a clearing behind it, but it looked to be occupied as the meeting spot for little Nepents; there had to be at least twenty!

I scowled as that was the way the trail (what was left of it) went. I opened up my map and scowled even deeper when it was mostly black except for the white dot that represented Numalba. It seemed whilst I had the grand picture, landscape had to be explored. Numalba was certainly a bit up North, but so were the freaky plants. Looked like I had to take a detour to the east and hope the place wasn't surrounded by Nepent spawn sports. If that was the case I'd have to chance it and just run like hell and hope for the best. Here was hoping we'd never have to get to that.

It didn't, although I did see a deer run around – a deer with four antlers. It ran like the wind once it saw me, so I never got close enough to find out what Kayaba had named it. Probably had good tasting meat and it's antlers were probably useful too – probably medicinal, like in the real world.

The landscape kept sloping downwards and the trees were lessening. Light, what little was left of it, streamed through the canopy, lighting up the forest floor. Was appealing and at some point I decided to follow the light instead of any 'path' that I could 'discern'. Turned out to be the best thing I did, because I found Numalba.

It was a sight to see and enjoy; wooden buildings – cabins, really – at a corner of a huge lake which sparkled in the evening sun. The sun itself sinking behind the mountains in the distance, and some leaves being tossed around in the last breeze of day. A peaceful and cozy image; a prime vacation destination, from the looks of it.

As I'd find out, looks can be deceiving.