Tony walked confidently up hill. Hoping to find some bald spot in the forest or even better a cliff face to look off. Find a stream or maybe even a town. As the sun slowly warmed up the air he had been forced to slip his jacket off and now had it thrown over his shoulder holding it with one hand, his shoulder harness now perfectly on display. He figured if this was anything like a fantasy game then anyone or thing he came across would probably not recognize a gun, and if not it probably wouldn’t hurt.

He had to lean forward and place a single hand on the ground for a moment as the hill got steeper and harder to climb, pushing off the ground and then grasping a small tree and dragging himself forward.

“Damned forests. Why couldn’t I have come to a fantasy city. I’d already be running the joint.” He bitched as he finally made it to the top of the current steep patch. He let out a huff of air and froze. “Shit.”

Before him standing face to face with him was a bear. Even on four legs it’s head was level with him standing on two legs at 5’10”. It sniffed the air in his direction as if confused by whatever this new creature was. Tony noted the small spikes coming out of the fur at certain points, like the shoulders, a few along the side of the creatures face, and even one tiny horn like one at the center of the beasts forehead. He’d seen enough animal planet to know that this wasn’t a normal bear.

He slowly slipped his free hand down and grasped the grip of his glock and using his thumb carefully unclipped the snap holding it firmly in place. Click. They both froze. Eyes locked on to each other’s.

“Fuck my life.” Tony said in time with the loud roar screaming just a few feet in front of him. He stepped backwards while drawing forth his pistol…. And promptly recalled that he’d just walked up a steep hillside. He started to fall backwards, his instincts allowed him to lower his aim point and fire two rounds into the chest of the bear as he did, though he didn’t know what sort of damage it did. Then he faced the sky. Tucking into a ball as quickly as he could he allowed gravity to do it’s work and hopefully give him some distance between him and the creature he’d just shot twice. Even more hopefully he wouldn’t smash his skull in on a rock as he rolled.

The world tumbled and the sounds of thumping and the feelings of things bashing into him as he went. Even over that he could hear the bear. It roared again louder and he heard what he was sure was the sound of small trees being torn apart as the beast charged after him.

He stopped rolling and while bruised and a bit out of sorts he rolled to his knees and faced the sound of the charging bear. He locked eyes with it, maybe 20 feet away now and closing very fast. By the time the pistol was brought up the distance was down to 15 feet. He unloaded the magazine. Firing as quickly as he could pull the trigger. He registered a few hits that he could see. One to the leg causing the bear to slow slightly. Another grazing the face. Nothing that was a kill shot. Then just as the bear reached him Tony fired again, the slide locking back as he had emptied it. A bullet piercing the eye at near point blank range and mushing the brain.

Then Tony’s world went blank as the massive creature’s momentum slammed it into him and sent him flying. His head smashing into a tree a few feet behind him.

He woke up not long afterwards. Or at least he assumed it wasn’t long as the sun over head still seemed to be high in the sky even through the tree branches. He reached up and touched his head carefully, the top of his head throbbed and he grumbled as he looked at the blood on his hand. He shook his head and looked over towards the direction he assumed he had been thrown from. The bear lay crumpled on the ground. One eye blown back into it’s head.

He looked around until he found the spot the pistol had landed. Picking it up and trying to shake the dirt that clung to it off. “Damn.” He complained as he noticed that he’d gone through a full magazine on the massive creature. He slipped the mag out of the receiver and put his second clip into it before stowing it in his holster.

Congratulations! You’ve defeated your first monster ‘DireBear’ and are awarded XP!

Base: 100XP

Power difference: x2

Unharmed: X1.2

First Kill: x2

Total: 5.2 multiplier= 520XP

You’ve gained 5 levels and are at 110 of 320XP for next level

Tony smiled as he paused and expected a surge of power to flow through him. It didn’t happen and he let out a long sigh. “What the hell did I expect from a half a percent increase.” He complained to himself. Still levels were levels and that would eventually add up, hopefully he never encountered a level cap. He mentally dismissed the message but another one popped up right away.

Your Patron is pleased. Making your first kill a powerful creature has pleased your Patron and it has rewarded you with 1GP. You currently have 2GP. You can spend your GP at any time.

He quickly dismissed this second message, and smiled slightly to himself. At this speed he’d reach 10GP in no time and be able to find out what other amazing things it could do for him. Worst case scenario he spends the 10GP to boost a stat by 10%.

Shaking his head he stepped back and walked over to the dead bear to check it out. Touching it and trying to summon some loot menu caused no effect. He figured you probably had to take things off the bear manually. He sighed again wondering if that was becoming a habit and slipped out one of the knives he’d gotten with his gear and tried to carefully skin the bear. It did not turn out well.

At least it’s kind of a skin. He thought to himself as he looked at the mess he had made. He also noted that it still had blood on it and bits of meat. No. That wouldn’t do. It’d attract animals and bugs. Tossing the skin to the ground he started walking up the hill again. “Better not be another damn bear at the top.” He grumbled as he made it to the top. This time no angry black furred face met him.

As Tony managed to finally get to the top he noticed that the terrain flattened mostly ahead of him. He could also see the end of the forest, or at least an opening ahead. Walking quickly he made it to the end of the trees and looked out over the scene before him.

He now noticed the soft sound of a river flowing as he caught sight of it running through what could only be described as a plateau. High grasses with beautiful flowers mixed in spread across his view. He could see that the are was large. Though he was in at least a bowl of forest around it. He looked to where the river flowed and it seemed to drop of and disappear well early of the horizon and he could see more forest in the distance.

Making sure that he couldn’t see anything dangerous in the knee high grass he moved slowly towards where he thought the hill must duck under his sight while slowly moving closer to the river at the same time. His mouth drying and informing him that he was getting thirsty in the warm day. The sun appeared to be around mid afternoon so not to late, but about the hottest time of the day. Maybe three or four O'clock if he had to guess. He wiped his brow and kept strolling through the field.

It took only a few minutes to get to where the river disappeared. He had begun to suspect that it was more than the hill dipping as he approached and before he could see the sheer drop he knew that a waterfall was the source of the loud rumbling noise that seemed to echo up from someplace far below.

As he approached the edge he sat down and scooted to the edge to get a good look down. Not really a phobia but Tony wasn’t the greatest fan of heights as he leaned over and got a good look at the drop. He leaned right back and scooted slowly away from the edge. It was some drop, similar to drops he’s seen from the top of some of the taller buildings in Vegas.

Standing back up he surveyed his surroundings. A bowl of woods surrounding a waterfall, and a sheer cliff face on the side. He smiled and set the pack down and slowly pulled out the flag from before. Again it seemed to magically expand and a new message popped up and prompted him to use is.

Warning: You are about to use the Flag of Settling. If you do this here you will get the following settlement points to spend.

Base: 10

Near Forest: +2

Near Deep River: +5

Defensible Side (Cliff Face): +3

Actual: 20

Do you wish to settle here?

“Now that’s more like it.” He said out loud and started to accept but paused, and refused again. The flag shrunk down to its original size and slipped it back into the pack. He would settle here, for whatever that would provide, but he wanted to see if his ‘patron’ could be used to better the location first, he just needed to figure out how to get 8 more GP. Then ‘pray’ that his Patron would be useful after dragging him all the way out here.