He awoke the next morning, the sunlight streaming through the window across his uncovered arm causing small needle stings as the light burnt his skin. Gordo stretched, then yawned before sitting up on his bed. Rubbing his back, he ruefully wished this was one point where the developers had chosen not to make everything so damn realistic, for he had been kept awake most of the night as the straw from the mattress he slept on kept poking through its linen cover and into his flesh. He could see the red welts that covered him as he inspected himself, and hoped that the straw wasn’t overrun with vermin as well. Just thinking of it made him feel itchy all over, but suppressed the sudden desire to scratch himself madly all over.

He decided that his sleep had been that disturbed that he shot a message off to the admin team straight away, expressing his annoyance in regard to this, and pointing out that he thought it was detrimental to a players interest if they couldn’t even get any undisturbed rest while in the game for an extended period. Message sent, he decided it was time to get up and try to get something productive done. It was now obvious that he would have to resort to a well known method, one that he had not had the need to perform for the last three years, he had to grind away at any, and all, useless tasks and jobs. Once that was done he would, hopefully, have gained enough money and experience to join one of the guilds to get a class allocated to his character.

Downstairs, in the taverns main area, he was not surprised to find it empty. This was something he expected, for any player worth their salt would have been out and about, gaining experience. Approaching the bar, he decided it was time he got a bit pushy to see if he could knock some kind of minor task free.

The barman looked up from where he was cleaning some mugs, using what looked like the same dirty rag he had the night before and spotting Gordo, nodded at him in greeting. Spitting in the leather tankard he was holding, he gave it a quick wipe and placed it on the bar next to the others he had already cleaned. “i have some stew left over from last night, if you’re hungry, you can have that with some stale bread for two coppers.” He picked up another tankard, preparing to clean it.

After the cost of his room last night Gordo knew he had only one silver and a handful of coppers left in his pouch. Knowing he would probably be earning more today, he took a gamble and tossed the required amount of coins onto the bars surface, then sat down on a tall stool to wait for it. It didn’t take long before a wooden bowl, filled with reheated stew was plonked down in front of him, along with a knob of slightly stale bread. Ripping off a chunk, Gordo dipped it into the stew and started to eat it. As he ate he watched the occasional player, and NPC, wander into the tavern for either a drink or to grab something to eat. The paucity of customers puzzled Gordo, considering the game now had in excess of ten million players in it, he had expected a greater number of them to be wandering about here. “Hey, where are all the customers ?” he asked the barman, “Even last night I didn’t see that many. I would have thought you would be swamped here, with the amount of people I know should be here.”

The barman paused in his cleaning. “You should have been here a week ago, then. I had more than I could serve at that time. Most of them probably have moved on to better hunting ground by now, there’s not that much around here to keep the adventurous happy. You can only kill so many rats and rabbits, I suppose, before you feel like facing something a little more worthwhile.” Another spit and polish finished off the tankard he was holding. He looked at Gordo. “If you’re looking for something to earn a little coin, I am looking for someone to shovel out the stables ?” One eyebrow quirked questioningly at him.

Task offered

Talaman the Barkeep is offering you a task Clean out the taverns stables. He will pay you twenty coppers, and a free nights lodging in reward for completion. Will you accept Talamans task ?

Reward 1 : 20 Copper Coins

Reward 2 : One free nights lodging at The Broken Sword Tavern

Time Requirement : 2 hours

Penalty for failure : None

Do you accept this Task ?

.Gordo hesitated, considering this task. Cleaning stables usually required the removal of horse dung, and he wasn’t sure he wanted another task that would result in him stinking of crap. The barman noticed his hesitation, and interpreted it correctly. “I will also throw in a free bath once you have finished, along with another meal on the house ?” he offered with another quirk on one eye.

“Sure.” Gordo accepted, seeing the task message change before him.

Task Accepted

You have accepted Talamans task to clean out his stable. Return to Talaman once you have completed this task to receive your rewards

Reward 1 : 20 Copper Coins

Reward 2 : One free nights lodging at The Broken Sword Tavern

Bonus Rewards : A free bath and meal

Time remaining on Task : 1 Hour 59 Minutes and 48 Seconds

Penalty for failure : None

“Head out the back, you will find a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Take all the droppings from the stables and dump them on the pile against the wall. After that take a bucket and wash the floors clean before you spread fresh hay on it. Come back to me when you have finished.” He gave an evil laugh. “I would be quick, if I was you, for no-one has cleaned them out for the past two months and the pile is quite high.”

Two hours later found Gordo floating in the promised bath, his clothes taken away by the barmans wife for a good wash. The job hadn’t taken him too long to finish, but had progressively become worst as he reached lower levels of the dung that filled the stables. He still couldn’t understand how three horses could produce that amount of shit in such a short time span, yet alone manage to remain within the stables without drowning themselves. He had been refused entry back into the tavern until he had removed all of his soiled clothes, and only then allowed to go directly to the room that held the steaming bath he was currently ensconced in, thankful he hadn’t needed to travel through the main tavern area to get there. He would never have lived down the remarks that the players would have made if they had seen him.

While soaking there, luxuriating in the warmth, he decided it was now time to distribute those two points he had unallocated. He knew his allocations would be strength, for that would affect a couple of things, but mainly because it would allow him access to a greater range of weapons. He would have preferred to put them towards supporting a mage type skill, but that would have to come later, he needed a combat skill first to advance fast at this point. He knew that whatever he allocated them to wouldn’t make much difference to him, at this point, as he had been denied the twenty free point most players got to allocate when creating their characters, but he had to start somewhere. It would be a while before he got those up to something resembling decency. He only hoped he could gain some magical stuff fairly quickly that boosted his attributes.

Strength increased his weapon choice, as each had a strength requirement, but it was a weapons skill level that assisted in damage, something he wouldn’t have until he earned the money to join a guild and purchase a skill. No matter how strong he became, it wouldn’t affect his damage, and similar restrictions affected his other attributes as well. It did affect other skill, non combat skills, such as jumping and lifting capacity, but just not combat.

The bath was cooling down by this point, and was looking positively dirty, so he decided it was time to get out, eat his free meal and get out of the city and earn some money. He pulled himself up, using the wooden sides of the bath for support and started to dry himself off.

After his meal It hadn’t taken him long to reach the gates to the city, probably a good twenty minutes walking following the directions that the barman had given him before he had left. A he approached them, he could see that they were guarded by about ten armored soldiers, and while they were not interfering with the traffic passing through the gate, they were attentive, and carefully watched everything. Their gaze fell upon him as he passed them, but they didn’t interfere or obstruct him, and he left the city and entered the wilds that lay beyond them. He had expected to see farms and cultivated land, like you would find outside any normal city, but that wasn’t the case here.

A grassed and cleared area stretched from the gates for about a mile, at a guess, until they met a densely wooded forest and a well beaten road stretched towards the trees from the city gates, finally disappearing beneath their branches. Wagons and riders on horses occupied much of the road, but a few walking figures could also be made out, probably players who did not yet have the financial capacity to afford alternate forms of transport, or poor NPC characters on their way to destinations unknown.

Gordo turned to one of the lounging soldiers that were positioned outside the gates. “Where are all the rabbits ?” he asked, puzzled by a complete absence of anything within sight that could be construed as being a combat opportunity.

The guard lazily glanced across at him, then looked at another guard leaning against the wall next to him before returning his gaze back. Spitting out a length of grass he was chewing on, he spoke “Rabbits ? What rabbits ?” These guards didn’t seem as enthusiastic about their job as those were on the inside of the gates, in fact they seemed to be a rather scruffy lot, with mismatched equipment. The one that he had spoken to pushed himself away from the wall and looked carefully about the treeless expanse that lay before them. “I don’t see any rabbits ?” he turned a baleful look back at Gordo. “It’s not nice to try to scare the city watch with claims like that. It is no joking matter claiming there are any rabbits within site of the city.” The look he gave Gordo was positively threatening.

Lifting his hands up , Gordo spoke apologetically. “Sorry, I only mentioned it because I was told there was rabbits out here that needed killing. If this isn’t correct, then I apologize.”

The guard looked at him for a second before his eyes opens in understanding. “Ah, I see. You are looking for the wild rabbits,” and laughed in relief, his fellow guard joining in behind him. “The apologies all mine, I thought you were saying there were rabbits coming towards us. The rabbits you are seeking are not around here, but can be found in the forest beyond the grass. Just follow the road to the trees and you will definitely find them there, the nasty little buggers. If you kill any of them, bring their ears back and you will gain a reward of one copper a pair. Just be careful, for on their own they are fairly easy to kill, but they travel in packs usually. If you are charged by a pack, just climb a tree, and no doubt another like you will be along soon to help get rid of them.” He leant back again against the city walls, returning to his lazy posture once more. He waved one hand at Gordo. “One your way, fellow, go.” and dropped his arms down, his attention leaving Gordo.

Shrugging to himself, Gordo started off down the road to the distant trees.

…..

Hot from the walk along the road, Gordo found the shade a delightful relief from the suns heat once he had passed into it, so he sat beneath a tree, his back to its trunk just watching the travelers on the road pass him by. Most ignored him, but occasionally someone would call out a greeting or wave a hand in his direction. He returned every one of them as he relaxed and thought about his next move. It was obvious that he wouldn’t find any wild rabbits near the road, for they would have either run away, or have been hunted down by the other players who had travelled through this section of the forest. He decided that he would travel further away from the path deeper into the forest.

Fifteen minutes’ walk took him further into the forest, the sounds from the road he had left behind him long lost , the silence occasionally broken by the sounds of birds calling out to each other. No grass grew in this area, not even with the thick layer of humus that had been deposited by the trees that grew in this area, and very little light managed to pierce the thick canopy above, leaving it a very dim place. Stopping, Gordo looked about, to see if he could make out anything between the tree trunks that surrounded him, anything other than trees, that was.

He suddenly heard a noise discordant to the previous forest noises he had been hearing brought his attention to an area to his left, and there, through the trees, he could see in the distance a brighter spot among the gloom. Walking carefully, and slowly he headed towards the lighted area, learning that is was a small clearing among the trees as he approached it.

He stopped at a point just before the shadow of the forest was replaced by the brilliant sunshine and examined the clearing as he peered out from the tree he was hiding behind. The clearing was a fair bit larger than he had expected, and from the blackened tree stumps that dotted it, he surmised that a fire caused this clearing some time ago, for the cleared space was filled with long grass and wildflowers. Towards the far end was a slight hill, surmounted by jumbled rocks, and a small pond half way across. One other thing he noticed, and he knew that the sounds that had alerted him to this location had come from these, were a pack of wild rabbits, four in total that he could see from his vantage point.

He drew his dagger, noticing the poor condition it was in, for its durability had fallen to two during his fight with the sewer rats, and hoped it would last through the battle to come., then lowered himself down onto his hands and knees and started to crawl through the long grass.

Getting as close to the rabbits as he could without gaining their attention, he carefully parted the grass in front of him and examined the closest one to him.

Rabbit, Wild.

Health: 4 / 4

Attack : Teeth, Claws

Damage : 1-4

Special :

50% chance of bleed effect if bitten. Bleed will last for five seconds, Causing 5 points damage per second. Power Kick – Rabbits possess a special attack that can be performed once each combat. Power Kick is a strike by the rabbits hind legs, causing double damage. 10% chance of stun effect per successful Power Kick. Stun effect will last for three seconds, leaving the recipient dazed. All future attacks against a stunned victim will be at 100% chance to success and 100% to damage. Power Kick is a cumulative attack, where successive attacks while victim is stunned will extend the stun length.

Oh my god, muttered Gordo, now realizing why the guards had feared an attack by these relatively weak creatures. If they got someone on their own, and attacked in a pack, a successful power kick would spell certain doom. As he was on his own here, he now realized he would have to change his plan of attack, he couldn’t risk taking on more than one at once. They didn’t have spheres of influence in this game, so how the hell was he going to attract the attention of only one without the others becoming interested as well.

He looked around for some way to accomplish this, but the only thing he could come up with was risky, but he knew that he needed to take risks to succeed, so he slowly took a wide arc around the rabbits and crawled to the hill. From the base, where he currently hid, it was about a fifty foot crawl to the top, so he worked out the path he would follow, making sure that none of the rabbits would spot him, and proceeded up the slope, stopping occasionally to check to see what the rabbits were doing. It wasn’t long before he finally arrived at the tumble of stones that crowned the peak.

Now he was closer he realized that the stones were not a natural feature, but was comprised of shaped stones, the chisel marks clear on the sides of them. With interest he looked about him, realizing this must have once been a structure of some type, and wondered what could have once been built here. The stones were large, and it would have taken a couple of men to move each one, so it would have been something substantial, a tower or guard hut probably.

His ruminations were interrupted by the sounds of the rabbits moving closer to his location, and he quickly examined the stone heap looking for the ideal place for his plan to work. He finally spotted it, and positioned himself carefully between two of the larger stones, protecting his flanks, and only allowing an approach from directly in font. Once ready, with his dagger prepared, he gave a whistle to gain the attention of the rabbits, which by this time had grazed themselves half way up the slope towards him.

The lead rabbit ears twitched, swiveling towards him and its head came up to look around, and spotted him. A shrill squeak filled the air, catching the attention of the other rabbits, and they all charged him. The first rabbit to reach him lunged forward, its razor sharp teeth flashing in the sunlight but Gordo swayed out of the path of them and slashed downwards with his blade. It hit, taking a flap of furry flesh from the side of the rabbits head, splashing blood across his shirt.

‘You have struck Wild Rabbit. Wild Rabbit suffers four damage, you have killed a Wild Rabbit. Experience gained 10 points’

He swept away the message with a quick flick of his left hand, surprised by the ease of this first kill. The body of the rabbit dropped down in a slump onto the ground in front of him, allowing his to see the next two rabbits leaping at him. As they flew towards him, their trajectories interfered with each other, and they smashed together, dropping short in their attacks. Gordo thrust out and scored another hit on one of them for two damage before they managed to disentangle themselves and resume their attacks.

With his attention on the two in front of him, he missed seeing the last one spin around and kick out at him with its rear legs, only realizing his mistake as they both struck him in the chest, stunning him and throwing him backwards through the air with its power.

You have been Power Kicked for 8 Points of Damage. You have 112 health points remaining. You have been stunned for three seconds and are unable to move.

Gordo flew backwards, his limbs flailing wildly about as the stun took away his bodies control, and bounced off the hard stones behind him, causing more damage reports to flash across his vision. His flight grew to an end as he slammed down hard onto a bare section of land, jarring the breath out of him and another five points stripped from his health. He only had time to utter “Oh, shit.” before the ground suddenly gave way beneath him unexpectedly, plunging him downwards into freefall, and into darkness. Another “Oh, shit.” Passed his lips before he struck the bottom of whatever he had fallen into and unconsciousness claimed him.

You have received 40 points damage. You are unconscious.