JohnWillStab explained the mechanics of this world to Jordan, who still refused to believe this is truly another world.

They decided to pick out a low-reward quest and tear it in half, maybe it would split up like the coins, they discovered that the paper will re-form to its normal size, the XP and money reward was halved, but everyone received a copy of the reward items.

They then decided to pick out a more difficult quest, 'Boar Hunt'

"Quest difficulty: C"

"Quest level range: 4 - 10"

"Task: Defeat 10 corrupted boars."

"Reward: 250XP, 10 gold, [Random Ring]

"I wonder what that 'Random Ring' thing is about..." JohnWillStab asked looking over to Jordan.

"Maybe it's like a gacha game, you never know what kind of ring you get..." Jordan suggested.

"Anyway - this has a C-class difficulty rating, so we should be careful."

"Maybe we should go for an easier one, first?"

"Nah, we should be fine since there's two of us," JohnWillStab replied.

"Besides, we need to pick up the pace," JohnWillStab admitted.

"I guess... the faster we can leave, the better..."

"You."

"What?"

"The faster you can leave, the better."

JohnWillStab moved towards the door.

"Wait, JaneWillStab-" JohnWillStab cut him off.

"Ah, yeah - I should clarify, I'm a man."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"WHAT?!"

Sometime later, at the boar hill.

JohnWillStab fell from above, the corrupted-looking boar didn't stand a chance.

Its hide red and its tusks black.

JohnWillStab sunk his blade into its neck causing the monster to go limp instantly.

The sound of footsteps from behind surprised JohnWillStab, he turned around to see a boar charging at him, but just as it about to trample him the boar was hit with a ball of flames causing it to fall to the ground and start trying to put the flames out by rolling around.

"Thanks!" JohnWillStab called out with a thumbs up.

"..." Jordan didn't reply.

JohnWillStab didn't finish the boar off and instead watched it burn.

"Kill it," Jordan commanded.

"Then you won't get any of the XP for the kill," John replied.

"I don't need XP, just kill it already!"

JohnWillStab sighed and slit the boar's throat, putting an end to its agony.

JohnWillStab wiped the blood off his forehead with his sleeve.

"Good teamwork there, buddy!"

"..."

"Are you still mad I lied about being a girl?"

"YOU MADE ME FEEL LIKE A TERRIBLE PERSON FOR SPYING ON YOU!"

"I mean... you were spying on someone you thought was a chick so..."

"That's different!"

They remained quiet for a bit before John changed the topic.

"In any case, that's ten boars killed," he exclaimed.

He reached into his pocket.

JohnWillStab had five "1" coins, he then looked to his hand and saw that he was now level three, meaning he now had a total of eleven coins.

He also pulled out a ring, it had a small boar engraved on the front of it.

JohnWillStab equipped the ring.

Dexterity: 5 + 2(Gloves)

Perception: 4

Stamina: 1 + 4(Boots)

Athletics: 3

Strength: 1 + 1(Gloves)

Weapon skill: 3

Magic: 1

Intelligence: 1

Luck: 1 + 1(Ring)

Charisma: 0 + 2(Tits)

"Looks like all my stats went up from the level-up." John pointed out.

"So did mine..." Jordan scratched at the tattoos on his hand to no avail.

JohnWillStab glanced down to his charisma stat and didn't even comment anymore.

Suddenly a boar charged into JohnWillStab from behind, a loud crack coming from his spine as he was flung into a tree before him, leaving a stain on the tree bark.

"JANEWILLSTAB!" Jordan called out shooting a ball of flames at the boar causing it to ignite and run off in the opposite direction before dropping dead seconds later.

"I'm fine... barely..." he replied falling from the three onto the soft grass.

"My god! Your face!"

"That was uncalled for..."

JohnWillStab sat up with a loud crack.

He gyrated his head a few times before it popped into place, he did the same thing with his shoulder.

"There, all good!" JohnWillStab announced standing up.

"I was sure we killed all the boars already!" Jordan exclaimed.

"Maybe one or two hid somewhere?"

JohnWillStab caught something with the corner of his eye, a boar spontaneously popping into existence with a literal puff of smoke.

"THEY'RE RE-SPAWNING!" JohnWillStab called out as he started running away from the hell-swine.

"You're in no shape to run!" Jordan called out Grabbing JohnWillStab under his arm and making his way away from boar-hill, behind him an army of swine closed in.

"Did you notice it?" Asked JohnWillStab

"Notice what?"

"There were thirteen of them at the boar-hill."

"So?"

"When we came here, there were only twelve."

"...and?"

"Either someone killed some before us, and they respawned now or they're multiplying."

"Is that bad?"

"A run-in with another player might be risky... but an ever-spreading boar army might be worse..."

"I'm sure you just counted them wrong!"

"...yeah... you're probably right..." JohnWillStab relented, though he was still having a bad feeling about this.

You may be wondering, "Why would JohnWillStab count all the boars?" well that's quite simple - JohnWillStab is trying to level his perception stat, and decided that being perceptive is the best way to do it.

As soon as they lost the boars, Jordan dropped JohnWillStab off onto the ground.

"We made it!"

"Somehow!"

Jordan sat with his back against a tree breathing heavily.

"That was a lot of running..."

"I guess your stamina stat is pretty low, you should leave the running to me,"

"I saw your legs were injured! I couldn't leave you there!"

"Aww, that's sweet of you, but more importantly, I heal quickly." JohnWillStab explained.

"Yeah... I noticed..." Jordan was looking at JohnWillStab's face which resembled a face once more.

"How'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Heal so quickly."

"...vitamins..."

"..."

Jordan gave him a wry look.

"Look, it's magic."

"Magic?"

"Yeah!"

"Than teach me the skill."

"...but you're not a dagger-class."

"A what?"

JohnWillStab pinched the roof of his nose.

"Jordan... you don't... how did you even get here if you don't play the game?!"

"My brother was obsessed with a game similar to this... he really wanted me to try it - but I'm not much of a gamer... so I just pretended to like it and... y'know..."

"That makes more sense..."

"So, I guess you took your brother's place in this world?" JohnWillStab laughed.

"I guess..." his face turned grim.

"Guess he doesn't like talking about him being stuck here..."

"Any way! Why don't I make us something to eat."

"We have the flatbread from the inn."

JohnWillStab reached into his sack and pulled out the pan, meat and salt.

"You carry meat in your bag?"

"It was a reward for the werebull you helped me kill when we first met."

JohnWillStab sliced the steak in half such that they now had two slabs of meat.

He placed one on the pan, sliced a bit off the other and put it on the pan too.

Jordan watched him curiously.

JohnWillStab held the bit of meat out in front of his sleeve.

"What are you-"

Arachnophobia's head popped out grabbing the meat and jumping out from his sleeve.

"A cat?"

"Yeah, I got her as a pet back when this was a game." JohnWillStab shrugged.

The cat started eating the meat.

JohnWillStab salted both of the steaks on both sides before grabbing the straw from his sack and placing it under the pan.

"Could you set this on fire for me?" JohnWillStab asked gesturing to the pile of straw with the pot.

"Sure, but the straw will burn away in no time, we need some wood too." Jordan explained.

"Alright... JohnWillStab stood up and sliced some bits of wood from the tree nearby."

"Will this do?" he asked smugly.

"No... we need dry wood." Jordan replied.

"Tch!" JohnWillStab pouted.

"You tried to look cool, right?"

"No!"

"We get it, you can stab stuff..."

"I wasn't trying to show off!"

A few minutes later Jordan returned with a few dry sticks and a rotting log.

"That wood doesn't look all that dry..." JohnWillStab replied saltily. (It's a real word, look it up.)

"You're right, this whole forest is damp..." he sighed.

He tossed them onto the straw and shot his ball of fire at it.

The sticks and log ignited instantly.

"Guess we didn't have to worry about it being wet," Jordan noted.

Once Arachnophobia finished her bit of the meat she hopped back onto JohnWillStab's lap and meowed loudly.

JohnWillStab reached for his half of the steak and picked it up with his knife.

"What are you doing?"

"She's demanding additional steak," JohnWillStab explained cutting another bit off and giving it to the cat, like before she ran off and sat down while she ate it.

JohnWillStab placed the meat back on the pan.

"You sure like animals," Jordan noted.

"Yeah, who doesn't? Isn't that like.. bad guy trait number one?"

"I see..."

"Did you have any pets at home?" Jordan asked

"No, a few rats and a mutant hamster but they weren't mine," he explained.

"I see..."

"Yeah, I'm not a fan of taking on unnecessary responsibility."

"Is that how you look at it?"

"Well, I know I wouldn't want to go for walks if I got a dog, so either the dog or I would have to be unhappy." he shrugged.

"I wouldn't want my cat walking over my keyboard."

"I wouldn't want my parrot shitting everywhere and repeating what I say in an inconvenient but inherently comedic manner."

"Fish are like the cam-girls of the animal world, you feed them and clean their tanks and in return, they'll look nice."

"Monkeys throw shit all over the place."

"Lions will eat you and your family."

"Wait, who the hell keeps a pet lion?!" Jordan demanded

"I had this one neighbour..."

"I SMELL FOOD!" called out a voice from the bushes.

"What was that?!" JohnWillStab readied his blades as Jordan pointed his staff at the rustling bush.

"FOOD!" the feral beast flew out from the bush, a blue greatcoat with white fur lining.

The coat was open and revealed a grey shirt below.

On his back two scabbards.

On their head was a pair of cat-ears and glasses.

JohnWillStab punched the man mid-air (it was a gut-punch, though JohnWillStab didn't know if it really worked like it did in-game)

"Ugh!" the man flew past the pan and over the fire landing on the ground opposite them.

"What is that?!"

JohnWillStab had a closer look at the man which unbeknownst to him increased his perception level.

"Wait a minute, I know that stupid haircut!" JohnWillStab exclaimed.

"Game hijacker!" he called out.

The man froze as he looked up to johnWillStab.

"Wait... do I know you?"

"Those edgy clothes look familiar..." Alex said squinting.

"I'm the guy who wrecked your game." JohnWillStab replied.

Alex's eyes widened, "[email protected](…---…)?!" a long string of letters numbers and other characters came from his mouth like: "J zero h n underscore v v exclamation mark l l underscore dollar sign t at b open bracket dot dot dot minus minus minus dot dot dot close bracket?!"

"Ermm... maybe?"

"The dagger person," Alex asked.

"Yeah, that's me!" he exclaimed.

"Wait... wasn't [email protected](…---…) a dude?"

JohnWillStab let out a sigh.

"It's a long story..."

"JaneWillStab, do you know this man?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah, he hacked the game to make his own crappy game over it."

"Yeah, sorry about that, tee-hee." he knocked himself on the head with his knuckles.

"That aside, why the hell are you here?! And starving?!"

"Some Lorb guy summoned me in some magic room."

"Right..."

"The same thing happened to me... though I thought I imagined it..." Jordan thought.

"And he was really salty about me messing with his game..."

"Right..."

"So he sent me into the desert a week ago."

"A WEEK AGO!?"

"I've been looking for food for days... I tried to eat a cactus but I still have spike coming out from where the sun doesn't shine..."

Both Jordan and JohnWillStab shuddered.

JohnWillStab sighed.

"Damn, looks like you've been through some stuff."

"Yeah!" Alex agreed.

"You can have my half of the steak then." JohnWillStab shrugged.

"Really?! You mean it!?"

"Yeah, it's not like I'm hungry."

JohnWillStab saw an item fly past him, he caught it in mid-air and noticed it was a loaf of flat bread.

"I can't have you starving to death." he half-laughed.

"I'm good, man, you should keep the bread for yourself." he tossed the bread back.

"No, I insist, you should keep it, you need to keep your strength up!" he tossed the bread back at him.

"No, I insist!" JohnWillStab caught the bread and tossed it to him.

"Nonsense, we didn't eat anything all day!" he exclaimed tossing the bread faster.

"IT'S BECAUSE I'M ON A DIET!" He tossed the bread back.

"A LACK OF CALORIES WILL STOP YOU FROM LOSING WEIGHT!" Jordan tossed the bread aiming for JohnWillStab's mouth.

Meanwhile, Alex watched the bread fly from person to person as his mouth began to water.

JohnWillStab snatched the bread up in mid-air and tossed it at Jordan through the fireplace such that it caught on fire.

"NO THANK YOU!"

Jordan caught the flaming bread, the flames died down moments later.

JohnWillStab and Jordan had a literal stand-off.

Jordan tossed the bread once more as JohnWillStab moved his head away such that the bread flew past him.

"Aha, I wi-" he was cut off by a piece of bread flying into his mouth.

"The other piece was a diversion!" JohnWillStab realised.

Alex leapt from where he sat catching the bread thrown by Jordan in mid-flight before falling to the ground on his back to shelter the bread.

JohnWillStab bit down on the bread and started chewing on it.

"You win this round, Jordan..."