Richard trudged along the dry ground, kicking up clods of sand and dirt as he tried to stay standing. He was tired, thirsty, and hungry. Above him, the sun was already nearing the horizon, meaning sunset was maybe a few hours away. Truthfully, he should have felt hopeless, but the fact that he was almost to the rock formation and the fact that no monster was trying to eat him amazingly kept him going. Well…that plus his hopes of eating that the devil rabbit that he had stuck in his inventory.

It had been a surprise when he actually done it after he got tired of dragging the carcass around. All it took was for him to shove the dead creature into the item screen, and with a bright flash, the dead rabbit had disappeared from his hands and appeared in the item screen as a rabbit symbol occupying two boxes. As amazing as that was, Richard had learned that he was limited to about 48 boxes. He had experimented by sticking a few rocks into the inventory screen just to see what would happen. Like his watch, a rock only required one box, but disappointingly, all six rocks had required their own boxes.

Also, he was starting to gain a better opinion concerning his solitary skill and special item. The skill was at Level 1, which meant it could be leveled up somehow, hopefully improving its abilities and maybe making it easier to copy some monster’s skill. More importantly, when he pulled up his skills screen, he found a long unfilled bar right next to ‘Mimic Skill’ with a 0% listed next to it. Richard hoped that was some kind of experience bar or something, like from video games. As for his item, he saw how useful it could be in the future for finding things that were hidden. The misty trail that the compass produced was even more helpful since it seemed to shorten in length the closer he got to what he thought was his destination.

Of course, none of that optimism really improved his current situation. He was in the middle of some kind of desert, even if there weren’t sand dunes, and from what he could tell, the only living things around were dangerous monsters. Even the damn rabbits seemed to be screwy. Sighing, he muttered, “Uhhhh… Just my luck.” Then again, he didn’t think he should be complaining since he had somehow survived instead of falling to his death or ending up as a huge turtle’s lunch.

Lost in his thoughts, he was a bit amazed when he finally found himself near the base of the large rock formation. The huge thing extended a hundred or more meters up into the sky and thousands of meters to the sides. It seemed like a natural formation and not some monster’s shell at least.

Richard stared at the jagged sides of the large formation, wondering where the water was. He looked back at the blue trail, which swerved off to the left. Scratching his head in question, he finally gave in and approached the rock formation. Initially, he couldn’t see anything, but a few minutes later, he found himself near a passageway that seemed to have been cut into the rock face. Entering it, he could see that the passage way was actually a gorge that led deep into the rock formation.

At first, Richard felt nervous, having to walk through such a dangerous place, since things could technically start falling on him from either side and he wouldn’t be able to run away easily. However, after a minute or so of safely walking through the gorge, he calmed down a bit. It seemed like the gorge was well worn down over time, with little or no dangerous looking formations hanging from the steep sides. He didn’t know how long he spent walking through the narrow passageway, but when he finally saw water, relief flooded him.

Richard rushed to the small, stone basin jutting out of the wall ahead of him, where a thin stream of water was shooting out of a small opening in the wall. The stone basin was about the size of a kitchen sink and seemed to have an opening at its base that allowed the water to drain out.

Richard leaned over the basin and stuck his head right under the hole in the wall, gulping down water as fast as he could. He drank and drank and drank until he felt his stomach gurgling in pain. Then, he stuck his head under the water to cool himself. It was probably the most relaxing thing he had ever felt in his life, and he had choke back his sobs as he felt himself tearing up. “Uwahhh…!”

“If you’re done, do you mind if I fill up my canteen?”

“Frig!” The deep voice, rumbling from behind, shocked the living daylights out of Richard, and he yelled and fell to the side as he pushed away from the basin while trying to twist around. Falling on his rear end, he banged his head up against the nearby wall and closed his eyes in pain. “Owwww… Damn!”

Forcing them open took a few seconds, but when he did, he was amazed to see another person standing in front of him. The man was armored in what looked like full plate armor that included everything from greaves to a wicked looking pair of gauntlets, and his cuirass had an elegant engraving of what looked a red dragon, rearing up on its hind legs and spreading its wings wide open. As intimidating as his armor was, the man even more so, being at least six feet in height and as big as wrestler. Most of the man’s face was hidden by a metal helmet that seemed to cover everything but the man’s eyes and nose. However, the man’s green irises bored into Richard without any wavering.

Richard stuttered, “Umm… who…. what… I’m…. ah…”

The stranger tilted his head in question and then removed his helmet, revealing curly blonde hair, a chiseled, pale face, a broad nose, and full lips. He looked like some kind of medieval warrior out of a movie or book. Clearing his throat, the warrior said, “Sorry to scare you like that. I hoped you were done with the water?”

Richard stared at the man, dumfounded before finally whispering, “Go right ahead…”

The warrior smiled broadly, giving his serious looking face a bit of a relief. “Thank you, friend.” Then, the man did something that caught Richard’s attention: he made some kind of flask appear out thin air. Richard stared in shock as the huge warrior began to fill up the flask while nonchalantly whistling.

Working up his courage, Richard asked, “How… was that… Did you pull that… that form your inventory?”

The warrior paused his whistling and looked down at Richard in curiosity. “Hah! I thought so. You’re an adventurer as well, huh? But… well… to answer your question, yes I did. Don’t you have one a canteen?”

Richard eyed the leather flask and looked back at the warrior before coming to a decision. Throwing himself at the warrior’s feet, Richard hugged the man’s leg and yelled, “Thank God! Take me with youuu! Oh, for the love of God, take meeeee!”

“What! What’re ya doing?... No!… I don’t swing that way…. Hey!” The warrior, who was too surprised to dodge Richard, instead tried backing away while trying to shake Richard off. Of course, Richard, who was blubbering for all he was worth, hung on to the warrior’s leg like it was his favorite teddy bear.

It took a while to things to settle down, but eventually Richard found himself sitting in seiza in front of the large warrior, who was seated on a small boulder. They were a few meters away from the water fountain and surrounded by some kind of ruins. Richard hadn’t paid any attention to his surroundings when he first rushed the water fountain, but now that he was a bit more awake, he realized the fountain was just a small part of whatever had occupied the large space around him. There were collapsed, stone columns and things that looked like ruined statues. At another time, he might have been intrigued by it all, but currently, he was busy rubbing at the small bump rising on his head and looking resentfully at the large warrior.

The warrior was busy muttering to himself with his arms crossed against his armored chest. “Amazing… This is the first time a man’s hugged me while crying ‘Take me.’ Usually, it’s the ladies, but… a man. If this ever gets out, Wilford will never let me live it down.”

Richard cleared his throat and said, “Ahh… I’m sorry about that. It’s just… it’s just you’re the first person that I’ve seen since coming here. A bunch of monsters tried to eat me… and… and…” He tried manfully not to cry, but he could feel his eyes tearing up.

The man looked up in irritation. “Alright, alright. I understand. Don’t cry… Seriously… don’t cry. I don’t plan on lending you my shoulders, okay.”

Richard wiped away his snot and nodded while choking back a sob. The warrior sighed and asked with a serious face, “So… why don’t you start from the beginning. Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

The story didn’t take long to tell, and Richard mainly stuck to the details: his sudden death, the shitty office worker, the sudden flying lesson, the huge turtle, running for his life, and his fight with the rabbit. He left out details about his skill and the compass, wanting to avoid uncomfortable questions, but otherwise, he was upfront with the warrior.

When Richard was done speaking, the warrior said, “Wow… you got screwed big time, huh?”