Poachers

John read the message again. This time, the “much stronger” was a good enough warning for him, and so he quickly hid by the bush that was behind him. Soon after two massive creatures appeared from the same direction as the coyotes. Looking at the physical form of their bodies, there was no mistaking that two ogres were now in the same clearing as him. Almost as quickly as he caught sight of them, John smelt the awful stench from their direction. From their appearance, it was clear that the smell was coming from them, and even though it was definitely not pleasant, he was glad to realize he was upwind of them.

John quickly cast camouflage and changed his clothes because he feared that the scent of the blood that tainted his previous ones would alert them of his presence. He was thankful once again for gamer’s body closing his wounds. He was not sure if they would get too close to him, so he used all forms of concealment available and then cast observe on both of them.

Camouflage skill leveled up.
Others close to you can also be camouflaged.

Oh shit! One of them is at level 11 and the other at 10. I wouldn’t survive an encounter against just one of them, let alone two. John began to worry about his current predicament. When they stopped a couple of meters away from him, John felt some relief. But that soon changed when Mimsy started searching around the bushes surrounding the clearing. The ogre moved from bush to bush, and during the whole process, John’s worry grew exponentially.

“Well, where did you leave it?” asked Bob who was losing his patience by the second.

“I don’t remember; everything here looks the same.” At a loss, Mimsy stopped looking around the bushes with only one other bush left between John’s current one and the ogre.

“I can’t believe you lost that wee creature, Mimsy.” The leading ogre’s patience had finally run out. He picked up a small stone and hurled it at his partner.

“Hey!!! It’s not all my fault, that blooming thing was as small as my fingers.” Mimsy extended one of his massive fingers trying to illustrate his point. It was easily twice as big as John’s.

“Do you know in how much trouble we’ll be with the boss? We were supposed to bring it as a gift for his daughter. We went through so much trouble.” The main ogre shivered as if he remembered a bad experience. “We barely escaped! I’ve never seen so many of them before in my life. They were supposed to be an endangered species, but there were hundreds of them.”

“They sure did gang up on us. One of them wanted to scratch my eyes out.”

“Serves you right. I told you we had to be more careful. I told you not to just go in there and grab the first one you saw from its nest. Those things might be small, but they can be vicious especially when they are in such a large group.” Bob hurled another, but this time a bit larger, stone at his partner. “Especially when you steal one of their young.”

“I am sorry, ok?! Anyway, I know it’s around here somewhere, it must be hiding. I just put it down for a wee bit to take care of my eye, it really hurts.” John’s worry skyrocketed as Mimsy returned to searching around and went to the last bush before his.

“There’s no use. We traveled for so long and so far for nothing. We’ll just have to face the boss empty handed. I just don’t want to stay around here anymore; we are too close to the Hunters’ Camp as it is.” Bob gave up and **** the other ogre to leave with him.

John couldn’t pay much attention to Bob’s last words; his mind was too busy racing trying to figure out what to do in order to escape the situation. Due to this, he never learned the reason why they turned away from him and was astonished when they started leaving.

Achievement Unlocked - Defend Defenseless and Harmless Creatures from Their Predators
What a hero you are.
Reward: +1 Charisma
$1000

What? Who did I defend that is defenseless? He obviously decided to wait for them to leave before trying to determine who or what he saved. When they left the clearing, he tried to look around to make sure that the ogres were really gone and that there wasn’t any other threat. He really wanted to leave this barrier as soon as possible, but he was also too curious. Having no control over his current situation was definitely not ideal for a newbie like him.

All major threats have left the illusion barrier. Although you are not alone, you may now leave.

With that he was finally able to calm down, but he still was asking himself who he defended from the ogres. Suddenly, he felt through his proximity sense a very faint movement right by his foot. The origin of that movement was coming from under a pile of leaves. Believing the creature to be quite small and non-lethal, John bent down to remove the leaves from over it. As he brushed away most of the leaves, he spotted a very small baby monkey.

“Hey little guy, what are you doing down there? Did you fall from a branch?” John tried to look all around to see from where the creature had fallen, but he couldn’t even spot any other of its kind around. John used observe on it.

John now realized that the baby tamarin he was holding was the one the ogres were looking for. “Oh, so you are the one those two were looking for. And those coyotes must have been here hunting you too.” John gently picked the little creature up. It was no bigger than the palm of his hand; it cowered there, not actually sure if the human was to be trusted. The gamer did his best to assure it that he was safe with him, he even gently patted its head with his little finger. That surprisingly did the job and it peeped quite happily.

“What do I do now? I know you are really hungry, but I don’t have anything with me to give you. I don’t even know what to feed you.” The little creature stared up at John patiently waiting for the Gamer to find a solution. John thought that the best thing he could do would be to hurry home and research how to take care of the small tamarin.

While he was trying to figure out what to do, John, for the second time, was surprised by another small creature. A foot from where he found the tamarin, a snake’s head popped out of another bush and looked intently towards him and his pet. The Gamer feared it was another predator intending to attack the small monkey. He suddenly got angry; he saw in the tamarin a likeness to himself and remembered all the bullying he had gone through for a long time. His anger made him want to strike the snake. But deciding that there had been too much **** already on this day, he hit it mostly to scare it off and not to kill it.

The problem was, that it was not a snake per se and it was not alone. It was accompanied by two other snakes - one of which was quite smaller than the other two - and the three seemed to be attached to a pale green girl’s head. The girl started crying and quickly ran away from her attacker.

John wanted to chase after the girl and apologize, but he lost track of where she went to. His instincts should have told him to leave that place at that very instant. He should have realized that wherever the girl went, she could have called someone to protect her. Instead, he got distracted by another achievement.

Achievement Unlocked - Defend a Defenseless Creature from a Harmless Creature
Well done! I’ve got nothing more to say, just take your reward.
Reward: 10 tiny baby bottles of milk of 2 ml capacity (They are not for you!)
+1 cm penis size (To lessen your size envy to the snakes)

Ignoring the snarky comments, John thanked Gaia for the very tiny bottles. He now had something to feed the tamarin. He immediately proceeded to give one of the bottles to the hungry baby. He held it in one hand and carefully put the bottle’s teat in its mouth. The tamarin eagerly accepted it and drank as much as it could stomach.

John put the remaining bottles in his inventory and thought, I guess I should come up with a name for it. He quickly looked at the stack number in his inventory and exclaimed “Hold on a sec, why do I only have eight bottles?” Looking at the baby, John saw it holding the missing bottle with its small paws. “How did you take that without me noticing? Don’t worry, all of the bottles are yours. If you want one, just ask, ok?” The tamarin squeaked acknowledging that it understood. John took the bottle back and put it in his inventory, stacking it with the others. “I guess that answers the question of what I should call you. I had this online gaming buddy, he always played as a thief style character, he had a knack for it. He used to steal some exp from me as well.” John smiled remembering his buddy’s mischiefs. “He was a lot of fun to be around with, so it made up for him farming from me. I’ll name you after him: Mico.”

Achievement Unlocked - Named Your First Pet
Well aren’t we the good new mommy? First you protected, then fed it, after that you taught it to ask for things instead of just taking them, and now you also gave it a name. Talk about parental instincts!
Reward - New skill: Bond

New Skill: Bond, 20mp
You can bond with a creature as long as it is willing.

You and Mico were automatically bonded.

John smiled at the achievement and skill he got. “So, I guess we’re…” John quickly shut his mouth; Mico was now sleeping on his hands. He regarded his new bonded pet and felt all the new responsibility he now had for it. I guess I have to take care of you and keep you safe. I hope Mom doesn’t mind me keeping you at home. As if to keep the tamarin warm, he gently cuddled it next to his chest while he was still lying down on his hand. He finally decided to go home, but for the third time he was stopped from doing so.

Someone much stronger than you has entered the illusion barrier and has taken control over it. You may only leave when you defeat all enemies.

John thought he heard someone or something running towards him. His instincts were finally kicking in; he now feared that the crying girl had gone to her family and told them he attacked her. He quickly tried to hide inside the same bush he had during the ogre encounter while still holding Mico closely to his chest. He waited for a while but heard nothing more. He didn’t know if there was anyone near him. So, his curiosity got the better of him and he decided to take a peek and look around his surroundings. Seeing nothing, John decided to leave his hiding place, but he still couldn’t leave the barrier. He was also aware that while he still held the tamarin his fighting abilities were compromised.

John had to think of how he could escape. Should I just get back to hiding and wait it out until whoever it is leaves the barrier? If so, how long do I have to wait?

He never got the chance to get back to hiding. Before he even took a step towards the hiding place, an arrow struck his right thigh, dealing him 10 HP damage, and he heard an angry female voice. “Poacher! How dare you attack Mimi? Have you no honor or shame in hurting a child?”

A girl appeared before him. She was dressed in normal clothes and was equipped with a bow and quiver of arrows. Fearing to piss her off any further, he decided not to ogle her.

“I am sorry, it was an accident,” John managed to pry the arrow from his thigh; not thinking much about it, he stored it in his inventory. He cast observe on the girl and accidentally called her name out loud. “Cynthia, look I was def…”

“How do you know my name?” Cynthia didn’t let him finish or answer her; she quickly pulled an arrow from her quiver and shot him. It hit him again on the thigh, but this time on the left and only dealing him 5 HP damage.

John stored the arrow the same way that he had the first one. He didn’t even realize that it was quite different than the other. He didn’t have much time to do anything else either, because moments later he fell to the ground.