UPDATE 3: Survive

I stood up and ran back into the woods.

Although I was trying to assess my current situation, to be playing this game and the thrill of being here has never changed ever since the moment I first logged on four years ago. Whenever I was here I would feel more alive than I ever was in the real world, and to me this world was the only world I lived in, to me this is no more than an average day, just that I'm starting from the bottom.

I began searching for anything that looks edible. Fortunately, I did.

After some time after running through the forest I heard a certain sound.

"Oink...Oink."

What's that sound? It sounds like, a pig?

I followed the sound until I found sight of my target. I immediately hid in the bushes trying to avoid making any noise. A window appeared

Name Boar
Classification Animal
Type Mammal
A boar. Wait, I can't see it HP Gauge along with the level... that's weird, right not everything can be measured I guess what I can see is only what I know. Now, if everything is still the same as the game, the thing I need to be careful is its charge attack and tusk strikes if I ever get into combat.

I tried to make it appear, but no matter how much I squinted it's HP bar never appeared. Same as the level I can't see it, yet that is. Putting that aside...

Looks like I'm having bacon for breakfast then, I have to sneak up on it quietly...

I slowly walked around, circling around it slowly getting closer and closer. However I made one misstep

*Crack**Snap*

Crap!

I stepped on a twig, causing the boar to be alerted and face me. Steam blew out from its nostrils as it bellowed and dug the dirt behind its foot preparing its charge attack.

Oh no. It seems battle is unavoidable this time around. I prepared my stance with my knife held close to my face, the sharp end of the knife facing opposite my face. I narrowed down my sights on the boar for its attack.

The boar then charged at me at full speed, cutting the distance shortly after. I immediately sidestepped, once the pig was just beside me I stabbed it with my flint knife on its back. I can't see its HP Gauge to judge, but I'm sure the damage wasn't enough since the boar's spine got in the way of the attack.

The boar squealed and turned back to attack and began swinging its head in a way to use its tusks as weapons. I was able to dodge most of them, but one slip past me and scraped through my flesh on the lower side of my torso.

"Ow!"

It then attempted to ram me, however I was able leap back and make some distance. I placed my hand over it to feel a bit of pain over a slightly wet texture, I took my hand of to see what it was. It was the color red, my eyes slowly widened as I saw my reflection on its surface. I knew what it was, but I just couldn't believe that I'm actually seeing it here.

Is this blood...? I never thought that I'd see this here, but this world is real after all, so there shouldn't be any surprise. Looks like a light wound, I should be fine.

I looked back at my HP Gauge to check the damage, 5HP was gone, it must have been this way since I took the full hit. My SP Gauge was also brought down as well, I had 56SP left, thats 9SP lost. I have been dodging quite frequently so that might be the reason. I turned back to the boar.

The boar's nostrils flared up and released another steamy blow. I already knew what this meant.

It's about to issue its charge attack. If it's going to be like this then this should be its... no I have to be certain.

It charged at me again, I was expecting the same attack sequence, but it wasn't. When it charged at me somewhere at the middle of it, it slowed down. I only realized when it was right in front of me attempting to do a tusk strike with its front legs slightly of the ground. This time I was able to dodge it and sustain less damage, but it didn't chase me. It was paused for a few seconds before making distance between us by taking a few steps back, it looks like it doesn't have a proper reaction time.

That now was a different pattern? Shouldn't these things only have one pattern of attack?

So patterns aren't absolute anymore. In some games most especially in RPG's an enemy's system AI of attack would work in a series of patterns, this is a very crucial piece of information to players as to how to adapt their play style to that specific enemy and is very important during large scale battles such as raids.

Once VR came that observation technique was taken to the next level, not only are we able to observe the pattern of a certain enemy, we can go into a much more specific details of habits and traits a certain enemy can do in battle.

Examples are the average time interval of certain attacks or if an enemy would make a certain attack if a certain action is taken. During battle the enemy AI could come with a multitude of different patterns that could change through the course of the battle, these patterns can change most notably when the HP is too low or if certain actions are taken, therefore it is important for the player to be aware of everything its opponent/s are doing during the course of battle to be able to adapt and think of a decent strategy.

Most people would often just look out for the pattern and in that pattern find certain areas he or she could attack, I on the other hand try to measure everything, from the maximum time it takes for an attack to be made to the way it was formed during the attack. This technique has saved me from death so many times during the course of my gaming history, however even if I measure certain things if my stats don't par with how strong my enemy is, then it would be pointless making them in the first place. So in the end one's stats must be in balance for the sort of strategy one is planning. In this case though, it's just too easy. I guess it makes it more challenging since I can't see their HP Gauge, but I should be fine for now.

Alright since there isn't really an absolute pattern, it's both good and bad. Good because if an attack is challenging a player wouldn't need to deal with the same attacks over and over again, bad because of unpredictability of the attack.

So what I have to keep a look out for aren't attack patterns it's more of habits. Not that its something new to me, I've been doing this long enough that is become automatic for me to do this during a battle.

I continued to fight with the boar for a few more minutes trying to analyze its moves and occasional habits as well as doing my best to sustain as minimal damage as possible.

We were apart again, both of us locked in a deadly staring contest waiting for one of us to make a move.

Ok, I've got it figured out...

If it makes the first move it will start with a charge, then once that's finish it will do a series of four to seven tusk strikes if it is able to stop close enough to me, and finally finish it of with a ram style kind of headbutt. If it does'nt stop it will turn around and charge at me again and would occasionally do a feint and follow it up with a fast tusk strike or some sort of attack using its hoofed feet. Other times it would do regular attacks trying to overcome with force and speed, but I've always managed to slip away.

By my estimate it would cut the distance between us in a matter of 10 to 15 seconds and would most of the time go past me if I dodge on time, it would then take about 5 to 7 seconds for it to to stop, turn towards me and start its tusk strike attack, each of those tusks strikes take 3 seconds to perform and have an average time interval between attacks of 4 to 8 seconds and it would take 4 seconds to issue its ram attack which is performed in 2 to 4 seconds. Its regular attacks using its tusks and feet have at least a 5 second interval forming a 45 degree to a 70 degree angle using its tusks going upward.

So how should I go about my attack...

Hm, I guess I'll try that out... I mean it might not work, but in my state I should still be able to fight it properly.

I ran to a nearby tree and stood a few feet in front of it and dragged my feet on the ground backwards. The boar's eyes widened and seemed to form a more serious expression, its nostrils flared up, its eyes glared at me and as it prepared for its charge its feet dragged the ground much harder to the point that there's was a small mound of soil behind its foot.

Aggro, it's an abbreviation of Aggravate. Aggro is mostly used by tanks in RPG's to keep the enemies on them rather than other players acting as supports or with low HP and Defense. Too much Aggro on one person can prove to be fatal especially on multiple enemies and strong opponents.

Looks like it worked, I increased its aggro by doing that. Since this is also real life, certain actions can trigger certain things. Though now that I think about it, I don't think it's all just aggro, it's more like its really angry at me. I guess I'll explore onto that thought later on.

It bellowed at me and charged at me once again, this time with much more intent. A few seconds before its tusks came into contact with my body I leapt out of its way and made some distance just in case there was a slight change. As I said before this boar does overestimate its use for strength and doesn't have a good reaction time to the time when I dodge, so in the end it rammed its head to the tree behind me. It was stunned and seemed to be in a disoriented state, just like how I predicted it.

Now it's my turn!

I ran up to it and issued four shallow slashes into pigs abdomen, it's health continue to diminish slowly with every slash, however the boar regained itself from its disoriented state much faster than I thought it would and got me by surprise. I was hit by the impact on my stomach, I tried to plant my feet on the ground to try and stop it, but the force of the boar's attack pushed me to the ground. I fell on my back and the boar continued to press on its attack on me.

"Ah! Oh no!"

"Oooiiinnk!"

The boar came on top of me and was about to thrust it's tusks downward at me. I caught the boar's tusk just in time before it reached my body. The boar continued to place more and more force on me. I didn't notice that I dropped my flint knife when I was hit and was locked in much more serious situation.

Tsk! I need to do something! Where's my knife!?

I began looking for my knife frantically while at the same time trying to resist the boar's attack from coming through, I can feel my arms slowly losing their strength, if this keeps up his attack will connect.

I found it just a foot from my grasp, I reached for it, once I had it in my hand and began to stab the boar's neck repeatedly.

The boar's red blood gushed out from the opening with every stab I made and spilled all over my right side and coated my knife red. The boar squealed louder and louder with every stab, it tried to pull back with all of its leftover strength. Through the blood it loosened my grip giving the boar an opportunity to escape my grasp.

The boar ran for its life into the vegetation.

Ouch, that was fun. I slowly stood back up.

Ah, I never really thought that I would feel pain in this world, though I guess it's no different from being bullied during highschool and what they did to me way worse than this. A window popped up.

+1 DEX

Tch. It got away... whatever...

I thought I could get a skill from fighting, it seems Active skill creation is a bit more complicated than I thought.

Though, I got a lot of stats from that, so I do have to train my body to increase those Attributes.

Well let's check the damage report.

I began to examine my body for my injuries. I lost 9HP from the boar's attacks, which I think is fine since I have only 45HP right now, but that is only what the system showed me, now on to the physical report. I got grazed at the side of my torso, a couple of small bruises on some parts of my body and some scratches on my arms. I don't see my HP regenerating though, oh wait real life, so the only way for these to heal is if I get some stuff to treat this, else this may take a longer time that it probably should in a game. I'll deal with that later though.

My stomach began to start churning. I placed my hand over my growling stomach.

Right food... and my breakfast just ran off. What should I do?

I then looked below me on the bloodstained grass to see a trail of thick blood heading into the forest vegetation.

Ah! It's bleeding? I did do quite the damage to it, if that's the case then I shouldn't lose chase!

I ran after the pig's blood trail further into the forest, as I followed the blood the amount of it was slowly thickening.

By the amount of blood the boar should be weakening right?

Since they took away crit hit chance, heads, limbs and vital parts should be considered as critical hit points, before it ran of I stabbed it in the neck quite a few times, its HP would have probably have been already below 20% if I could see it's Gauge, and with the the amount of blood it's bleeding it's slowly dying, would that mean my other theory is correct too?

I continued to follow after it, after a few more minutes I began to hear the sound of wheezing, the sound continued to grow louder as I followed it. I reached a small clearing and found my target struggling to continue, below it was a small pool of blood from the wound I gave.

Ah, so my theory was correct. Since this is real life, pain has influences to the current combat system as well as the will power of the player, so that would mean no matter how high one's defense is if the player gives into pain then it might decide the outcome of the battle with the players opponent in favor. If I could feel pain from my new wounds then animals and mobs shouldn't be an exception to this rule.

Hm... now that has me thinking... If they can feel pain and is not limited to one consistent and identical attack patterns then they must have some sort of intelligence right? Maybe it's too low to be compared to humans, but I'll test out that theory if I find any mobs.

The boar finally fell to the ground, from pain and blood loss. If it had an HP Gauge then then it would probably still be lessening from the bleeding. It continued to squeal from the pain of its slow demise.

I sighed at its pitiful state. It's better if I finish it already, but I can't be too cautious.

I slowly walked up to the bleeding pig, the boar's eyes noticed me, but it was too exhausted to even move. I walked close enough for it to be beneath my feet, I kneeled down, after took my flint knife out and positioned it on to the boar's head. I took one last look at the boar, the boar's sorry eyes met mine, I averted my sights and placed them on knife.

I'm sorry, but this is just how the world works.

Delivering a swift death was all I could do for the boar. I plunged my knife deep within its skull, it's body halted its struggle immediately signalling the boar's death. I took out my knife from the boar's head and wiped of the blood on the boar's skin.

+ 20 EXP

Oh, now I see EXP! I said in sarcasm.

I know I've said it before, but this new system has so many contradicting features.

Now that's done let's start harvesting.

When you harvest animals, plants or mobs a player able to take body parts and rare materials that can be used for crafting later on. If a player doesn't harvest things like this boar it will just dissipate to dust with only dropping common things not even at a good quantity or quality, well I don't think that's the case anymore, but the point is that it will be a waste. Even if your just going to take common things the quantity along with the quality is much higher than letting it dissipate, but the rarer the beast and the rarer the material needed to be harvested a more skilled harvester with the necessary tools are needed in order to be able to harvest it.

I took the boar's body away from the small pool of blood under it to a less bloody spot. However there is just one problem...

How the hell am I supposed to do this?

When this was still a game the system would assist us by lending us dotted lines on the surface we can follow during the process, but now... I'm not seeing it anywhere. Don't tell me I have to do this, not to mention what I may see now that this is real...

I swallowed my fear, took my knife out and started harvesting.

I began using my flint knife to start skinning the boar, I slowly began cutting away at the boar's skin unsurprisingly enough the red grids that were supposedly to mask wounds were replaced with actual gore, I felt like puking when I saw the pig's guts under the skin. I continued to cut disregarding the sight and smell and was finally able to take of the boar's hide after a few minutes. A window appeared.

New skill: Harvesting obtained!
Harvesting will be added to Support skills

New sub skill: Skinning obtained
Skinning will be added to Harvesting Support skills

I raised it up to check how I did, to be frank it sucked. There were holes of different sizes, though not too big they were all over the hide, it wasn't all in one piece, it was in several pieces and the cuts weren't even consistent, I blame my knife for that though, I don't have the proper tool for this after all as well as the skill. Now that I think about it... When this was a game, activities would give a certain requirement for a player to do else they can't do it, but in this world they don't give a requirement, they just let you do it, the consequence however... Is a bad final product.

I sighed at myself. I have to stop realizing these things so late, its a game, but this is all real.

After I took of the boar's hide what was left of the boar was a red skinless body composed of bloody gore. I began cutting of the tusks and a leg for my meal.

Now that's done, let's get a fire going. I might as well drain the blood, I may attract predators to me if I don't do this quickly! Plus if the body isn't dissipating into dust then the body will remain and begin to decompose and soon rot, a fresh corpse will always be on the list for predators. I need to find a new spot before setting up.

After another 30 minutes I found a new spot away from my kill and finished the job there. I got [Campfire] as a crafting recipe, and [Blood Extraction] as a sub skill of [Harvesting].

Now that I have a fire going I can roast this boar's leg. I placed the boar's leg onto the [Camp Fire] and let its red meat roast on the burning flames. Windows appeared.

New skill: Cooking obtained!
Cooking will be added to Support skills

New skill: Roasting obtained
Roasting will be added to Cooking Support skills

New Cooking Recipe: Roasted meat was obtained
Roasted pork will be added to list of Cooking recipe's
Well I don't use this skill, but its a good skill anyway since I'm going to be here a while I guess having it will come in handy.

I began eating the brown roasted meat after a good time of roasting on the fire. The taste was alright, it had a somewhat crunchy texture with a satisfying after taste, however despite that it was a bit burnt on a few sides.

I gave of a downcast expression as I gulped down the meat.

If this is the quality of food I'm going to eat for the rest of my stay in this world, then there's no way I'm eating this, I'll have to set some time to level that.

I looked back at hud, my HP and SP are slowly rising back up. How did I lose SP though. I guess its used up when I move or attack extensively, this is real life after all.

I continued to eat my meal and inspect my windows. I went back to my skills menu to check what I've gained so far.

Active

None

Passive
Hand to Hand Combat Mastery LVL: 3

One-Handed Dagger Mastery LVL: 1

Support
Language Comprehension

-English LVL: MAX

Mathematics

-Simple Math LVL: MAX

Crafting

Recipes: 3

-Flintknapping LVL: 1

-Tool making LVL: 1

Cooking

Recipes: 1

-Roasting LVL: 1

Harvesting

-Skinning LVL: 1

-Blood Extraction LVL:1

Special
Awakened LVL MAX

Magic Perception LVL 1

Ah, so the one that improve isn't crafting itself its the more specific skills associated to it. The labels like crafting only serve as a category for the actual skills that improve. I should really learn more of the crafting skills.

I think there will be certain items that require specific sub skills to be leveled to make them properly, but I'll worry about that later.

For Passive skills I have Hand to Hand Combat Mastery and One-Handed Dagger Mastery. Its probably in passive and not in active because it measures just how well I can attack using or not using the techniques I've learned.

Now to Special skills.

Magic Perception
LVL: 1

The ability to sense Magic

I don't exactly understand how Magic Perception works. What it means is for me feel magic, but as of now I'm not feeling anything strange. I'll probably find out in the future.

I went on to [Awakened]

Awakened
With the power of One of the the most powerful Gods in Infinitus. This trait Awakens your growth with unlimited potential.
So...I think it helps me grow faster in terms of stats and EXP, though I don't understand how. Also, who's Eve? There has always been a mention of God's in the game's lore, but I have no recollection of the a goddess named Eve.

Maybe it's apart of my race, just like the symbol on my hand, that I have this trait, this makes me relieved that I got a good race. I don't know what all this means or is, but I think my time here is going to be even more fun and interesting.

My face lit up with a smile as I thought about it even more.

I looked back at my equipment, then looked back at the boar's hide.

I should make some leather armor with this, but I don't know how yet... I guess I can just sell it for now once I find a village.

Oh, right I should be looking for one of those, yeah its probably about time that I should go.

I took the boar's hide and abandoned the boar carcass and put out campfire to search for a road that could lead to a nearby village.

After about who knows how long I found my way, and someone on it.

END OF UPDATE