Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 018 - Part 2

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First Blood

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TheirWorld

“You did it Guin!” TIk-Tak shouted as he hopped over. “You got the rabbit! ...Guin?” His little black nose went into her face, but she could only stare, wide eyed and shivering.

But it’s not real, she reminded herself. It wasn’t real, and generated monsters did not have the same kind of AIs that NPCs did. Still, her heart filled with dread, and tears fell from her eyes.

Soft, echoing laughter filled the air, and Guin snapped around. There was nothing.

“In this world, its kill or be killed…” an amused voice came into her ear, smooth as honey. Guin looked around her her, but all she saw was Tik-Tak’s concerned face.

“T-Tik-Tak, did you hear that?” she asked him, but he just tilted his head. Lifting herself off the ground, she spun herself in all directions. There was nothing. From somewhere, nowhere, the laughter came again, drawing out into a soft chuckle, and then, the sound grew. It grew and it grew until it sounded as if the whole forest had joined it, laughing at her, cursing her.

The world began to spin and bend, and suddenly, there were swirling beasts in the shadows with glowing eyes of red and gold and teeth. Laughing, laughing! They took each other by the hands and danced, forming a ring around her that began to enclose around her. Each time they danced closer to her they doubled in size - their voice growing with them, from soft to booming - and then the shadows creeped, touching her, sliding over her clothes and body leaving a cold, wet trail as it there were a hundred tongues licking her, tugging at her, pulling her into some vast, freezing ocean.

Guin opened her mouth, but no voice came out. No voice could come out. There was only fear. Warm wet tears were falling down her face, and she fell down to the ground in a silent scream, hugging her knees.

“Guin?” Tik-Tak licked her hand. Guin lifted her head.

The forest was quiet. The beatles and the rabbit creatures scurried around calmly as if nothing had happened. The world was as it was. Peaceful. Serene. Fuck this game, fuck this game...

After taking the next few minutes to calm herself down, Guin remembered something very important: her traits weren’t active in the tutorial zone - except in combat zones. She pulled up her notification window.

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“Ah-” Guin muttered out loud, suddenly feeling disgusted. She had forgotten. Now she would really get to experience what it meant to have the negative traits that she did. Still she didn’t think that they would manage to turn the game into even more of a horror movie than it already was. Feeling rather ashamed that she had let the game get to her, she stood up and brushed herself off. Thats right, she thought to herself. Its just a game. Nothing can hurt you here... There was nothing more to this than strings of numbers.

Swallowing hard and putting her fear aside, she looked through the notification list again, this time with a warmer feeling creeping in. From what she could tell, she was getting a point of endurance for every point of [Body], and a point of [Spirit] for every point of [Intellect]. She pulled up her [Character Screen].

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< Body - 10 >

< Endurance - 9 >

< Resilience - 3 >

< Reflexes - 10 >

< Intellect - 11 >

< Spirit - 18 >

< Presence - 3 >

< Resolve - 7 >

< Perception - 5 >

< Fate - 18 >

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Being in combat seemed to be the only way to increase her lowly [Resilience] stat, and so far the only way she saw to increase her [Reflexes]. She was slightly surprised that her [Spirit] was still going up so fast. Raising her [Resolve], [Perception], and [Fate] without the aid of a quest was also a mystery she might have to look up later. For now though, she exited the screen with an aggravated sigh, and looked to the next of her prey.

Guin walked over to the chest and went through it. There was only a single tutorial token and a handful of coins, so she took those and brushed herself off. She let the [Horror] debuff - which hurt her stats considerably as well as the attempt that it made to her mental state - fade before moving on.

Now she was simply feeling vengeful.

Steeling herself for what came next, she cast her [Fox Form] and went after another Moarbit. This time she remembered to shift back into her regular form, and with the dagger in hand, plunged it into it’s back and dragged it across it’s small body right into the ground, breaking it’s spinal cord. Though it was bloody, it was an instant kill. Though she felt only slightly better after that second one, killing them became considerably easier after the third. After spending a good hour going after the Moatbits, a bell sounded and a screen popped up:

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“Tsk,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. On one hand, she was happy - it was a much needed offensive skill for her. On the other hand, she wasn’t terribly fond of the fact that she had been gaining more and more rogue oriented abilities. she decided that it was a good time to move on to the beatles. Looking at them, it seemed like they would be at least a little more difficult to kill. Guin activated her [Spirit Armor], shifted into [Fox Form], and began stalking her prey.