It was indeed a disheartening sight for Rick, who, just a couple of minutes ago, had woken up from his deep sleep only to wake up inside this nightmare. He had no idea why or how he had ended up in this precarious situation, also unknown to him was a solution to the problem at hand, that is, being chased by a strange creature he had never seen before.

Next to him was Benttotopotzki, a weak, yellow critter, a Pochi, the species of the creature, Rick had learned. Both of them were running, running scared for their lives.

“Why did you have to drag that beast all the way here!?” Rick asked his co-suffered, Benttotopotzki, who was also running as fast as he could, in fact, it looked like it was slowly gaining distance, “Ey, w-wait for me!!!”

“It wasn’t my intention to run into you, I just naturally tried to run away from that mauloo! It’s kinda what I do, I usually run away from my problems, and my problems are usually things that want to eat me!”

“Mauloo? So is that the name of that beast?” It was then that Rick thought of something, “If I was able to talk with you, maybe… Just maybe I’ll be able to speak to that beast, too!”

Still running with all his strength, Rick yelled at the best, “Ey! Maybe we can get to a mutual agreement or something!”

The thirsty hunter cared not for what had come out of Rick’s lips, it was more preoccupied with satiating his hunger.

“You tried to talk with that mauloo just like you did with me, kid?” Benttotopotzki asked, “You can forget about it, it won’t work, and even if you could communicate with it, what good would that do?”

“Maybe we could get along, kinda like you and I did, don’t you think?”

“Of course not! If I’m being honest, if I weren’t so weak I would have probably just eaten you before you woke up, kid… That’s the way it works around here…” Benttotopotzki said, trying to hold his breath, “For now, don’t talk anymore so you don’t waste energy, and just try to keep pace with me, ok? I have a hideout near here, and we can fit inside it, but it’s too big for that enormous thing! So just keep running!”

There was no end in sight to the endless field of pasture they were running in, so the plan didn’t sound to promising for Rick, [Even if we just need to keep running, I don’t think I’ll be able to continue for a long time], he wanted some reassurance in case of failure, a plan B of sorts. It was clear at this point that, if unable to continue running, he would have to face that beat, so he called Chumina with his summoning command to ask a few questions related to that.

[Yes, what is it now?] Chumina asked.

[I have two questions… First, I could understand, and talk with this guy who’s running next to me, so why couldn’t I communicate with that big Gorilla thing?]

[I won’t give you a straight answer, but just like you can’t see stats of high-level creatures unless they are extremely close to you, it’s the same for trying to communicate with them, you won’t be able to if they are too strong…] Chumina looked at the vicious eyes of the mauloo chasing them, [Frankly, I don’t think it matters whether you could talk to this beast or not, its aim is to eat both of you and no amount of verbs, adjectives or superlatives would convince it otherwise…]

[Yeah, I think so too… Now, about my second question, a lot of the things you have explained are kinda similar to those of an RPG, so I might as well ask, do I have any powers… Any special abilities or…?]

[Glad you finally asked! Yes, you most certainly have abilities! To see your stats just do the same thing you do to summon me, but the command is [Stats], go ahead try it!]

Rick had never said a word faster in his entire life, “[Stats]!” He yelled with all his might.

This yell surprised Benttotopotzki, “Geez… Dude, you really are crazy! That scared me!”

A transparent window, only visible to Rick, appeared in the air, and was moving alongside Rick, “Let’s see my abilities.”

[Stats:]

-Personal.

-Encounters.

[Your stats are listed under the “Personal” menu, so just think of clicking there and a window should op-] Rick had done just that before Chumina had finished that sentence.

RICK

HUMAN

LVL: 1

HP: 25

TOOL: NONE

EXP: 0/20

MOV: 3

STR: 3

MGC: 0

DEF: 3

SPD: 2

LCK: 9

DEX: 7

STA: 4

CHA: 5

[That’s it? This literally tells me nothing about me! It just looks like I am a weakling!] Rick said angrily.

[Well, duh!!! You are a level one, I don’t know what you were expecting! You could probably look at that Pochi’s stats for comparison, but I won’t tell you how!]

[I don’t need your help, it’s obvious I need to check in the “Encounters” section.]

As Rick thought of the word “Encounters” a new window popped up in front of him this time with different options.

[Encounters:]

Filter by:

-Recent.

-Relevance.

-Level.

Rick figured that looking through the “Recent” option would be the best way to find his partner in crime, Benttotopotzki’s stats, so that’s what he did, and a window with his stats appeared.

BENTTOTOPOTZKI

POCHI

LVL: 1

HP: 15

TOOL: NONE

EXP: 0/20

MOV: 4

STR: 1

MGC: 2

DEF: 3

SPD: 4

LCK: 5

DEX: 7

STA: 4

CHA: 1

Rick didn’t have much knowledge about how strong they were relative to their pursuer, so he tried the one thing he could do, take a look at it, that way he could see its stats, according to what Chumina had told him. At first, he was hesitant, and scared, who could blame him, a strong, enormous beast, similar to a gorilla was trying to eat them alive.

After a couple of seconds of uncertainty he just did it, Rick moved its head, ever so slightly, just enough to get a glance of the best, and with that maybe being able to see its stats, and it might have been a mere millisecond, but what a millisecond it was for Rick, it was the first time in his entire life he had seen a death threat so close to him, not that he could remember any of his past experiences.

Rick, after taking that quick glance, felt great desperation, his chest was palpitating stronger than ever before. But there was no time to lose, he promptly started the commands, [Encounters]>[Filter by]>[Recent], and what he saw only lead to more despair.

VARIVAAR

MAULOO

LVL: 14

HP: 55

TOOL: NONE

EXP: 123/300

MOV: 4

STR: 30

MGC: 7

DEF: 25

SPD: 25

LCK: 19

DEX: 6

STA: 18

CHA: 14

Just looking at the level difference, Rick had understood the predicament they were in, comparing their different stats just made it more and more obvious, even if Rick didn’t completely understand what every stat meant, he had grasped the situation. [No way… If this thing catches us, we are dead!] Rick reflected in what could very well be his last minutes alive had something not changed.