Quest completion. Skull. Ancient coin.

“Just wait. I’d like to ask you something.” I stopped the silvan who was about to disappear. “I met a creature called a Bony Bear. Do you happen to know anything about it?”

The Forest Keeper and the fox looked at each other meaningfully, and I understood at once that they knew something. The developers are great guys, they are so skillfully portraying characters that their emotions seem real!

“Stranger, have you seen this monster yet?” The fox’s voice was surprised.

I nodded and she continued, “This is another unusual creature that dwells here, unlike other monsters, it was born in the Gardens of Death. Try to avoid such creatures by any means. You’ll never be able to defeat them.”

“Um... but I…” I couldn’t find the right words and took out the elk-tahr from my bag. “I’ve killed it recently.”

“How? How did you do that?” Reena exclaimed. “We have tried to kill them so many times, but they were always revived in just a few hours or days.”

“So, is it already reborn?”

“No, if you’ve got its elk-tahr, the monster has died finally.” Reena started walking from side to side. “You’re still small and weak. How did you manage to do it?”

She called my levels and parameters small and weak. Well, I just need to level up...but then I’ll show some super results.

“At first I fed the beast with this Fly Agaric.” I showed them the mushroom. “Then I hit the bear with a rotten stick, tore off its skull, and put it in a big box in my house. I put the rest of its bones in the other boxes.”

“I get it.” The Keeper nodded. “So, for the final killing of a Gardens of Death creature, it’s necessary to tear off their heads and separate the parts of their bodies for a while so that they can’t come back together.” The silvan stroked his beard. “That’s smart.”

“That’s amazing. It’s a real feat,” Reena said, supporting the silvan. “So, you are able to cope with it. But you’d better level up, anyway.”

“You praise me so much that I’m embarrassed. I was just lucky: the mushroom and the stick helped me in the beginning. I tore the monster apart because of my extraordinary greed, as I wanted to collect as much loot as possible.”

Quest ‘Training with Silvan I’ is completed

Received reward: + 500 to your Experience, + 100 to your Reputation with the Forest Keeper

I’ve completed my first quest. It’s great! Of course, the award is trivial, but I’m still happy. I need more gold and missions. So, more than twenty free stat points are available, but I had better save them.

“What about this man who died?” I wanted to figure it out to get another quest. “Is it possible to figure out how he happened to wander into this forest and to find his tracks?”

“I’ll do it while you and Reena do your job,” the silvan replied. “I’ll find out something else. I’m very interested in your method of destroying the Gardens of Death’s creatures.”

“Head to the village and grow a bit, otherwise it’ll be difficult for you to live in our world,” Reena added. “I need to get around the area.”

“Hold on…” I didn’t finish; they had disappeared.

***

I didn’t get a new quest.

I seem to be doing something wrong or trying to reveal the secret of these places. I’ll try to think logically. Why would the silvan and the fox hide information from me?

Let’s start with Reena. She clearly doesn’t behave like a standard game NPC, and I’m certain that she isn’t the silvan’s assistant. She is highly likely to be a forest spirit or a second Forest Keeper. I was sent to the village so I wouldn’t interfere or reveal the secret information.

Now about that dead man. According to the silvan, he escaped from the Gardens of Death, which is a terrible world of the dead—if you believe the game help—and the strangers have not been able to get there yet. That’s interesting.

If this place is difficult to get to, then getting out must be even harder or impossible. But if that man managed to do it, it turns out that he was a unique person. He probably stole some little thing, or an artifact, or a weapon, or an ingredient for some potions. He might not have stolen it. Perhaps he took it honestly. It doesn’t matter. He understood his goal and knew how to get back. Therefore, he had information from a book or from a sentient being.

I was getting more interested. Most likely, the deceased guy had a benefactor according to the standard of the genre. This guy wasn’t a powerful wizard because he died and did nothing. He probably moved here through some portal, ran a distance through the forest, and then died here. In what way, though?

The silvan said that the Death Tree’s sprout had devoured part of the guy, but it didn’t clarify anything. Though, he did mention the Hellish creatures living in this forest. The silvan also remembered that the guy was trying to say something before he died. He must have had some valuable information. I wish I knew how he came to this world.

Also, I wonder why they were discussing the growth of my level; I can’t see theirs. Their own levels seemed to be rather low. I’m deceiving myself. They are likely to have a hundredth or even two-hundredth level. I was tired of pondering and made up my mind to go to the village. I wonder where I’ll get the money to buy everything I need.

I took the old coin out of my pocket and looked at it carefully. It seemed to be made of gold and was probably worth a lot in this wilderness. Stop! Where did the gold coins come from in the middle of nowhere?

Surely this gold had belonged to the dead man. I leaned over to the skull of the man and showed the empty eye sockets the coin with its profile of some ruler and letters that were incomprehensible to me.

I am illiterate in this game, I can neither read nor write in the local language.

“Is this yours?” I asked, not waiting for an answer. However, the skull somehow nodded. I froze. It’s great. I’m so introverted in real life due to the lack of normal communication that now I’m talking to animals, silvans, Bony Bears and the dead. The most interesting thing is that they understand me and respond.

“Tell me about this coin,” I asked. Instead of an answer, the window with the object properties emerged.

Ancient gold coin

Description: M/#go l*! ]{ZD )(l% of % EC¬ this coin, WR%MENA /RA*len*| W%I^o!about A%ha#’ K)()(%Aras|{, che}{ Li|/ and from:already|/n and the%the program... \|/ate\|/Ko} !Hm?e{}and A><}[RA. G\|\RYA&, h\|\o only l\|\nil on one%y mo\|\t* m[]Ter *at&Lira a{}Uch%yn)( and{}arr}{ZIL m~STO, ~ka*a""e-I NR\|\ the limits of the Empire, and %an&EN does not belong to her. With**/ ]}measures}{I. Here only} d%Yoko, not all are able to& see&et re on them&the program.... One%/|/s great.

Is the coding broken? Most likely the skull had no vision because it had no eyes; it also likely had no memory as well because there was no brain and all the data was damaged. But most importantly, it dawned on me, the coin belonged to the deceased man and was a very unusual object. The silvan seemed to be a dangerous creature, and I had every reason not to trust him. I wish the NPC didn’t betray. But I can handle it.

“Well... do you want to come with me?” I asked the dead man. “I don’t think you’ve found peace.”

The skull just nodded. I’m willing to bet that if that skull had a face, I’d see a happy smile right now. I threw all the bones of the dead man into the bag and looked into the empty sockets again. I smiled, remembering Hamlet’s thoughts, and put the skull in my inventory. Now I have another interesting friend.

I’ll go to the cabin first. Maybe there’s some stuff there that I can sell or trade.