The Pilgrim

Jade blinked as she found herself breathing in fresh mountain air. She caught herself as she stumbled upon stones embedded in the ground. Her head spun as she looked down and experienced sudden vertigo. She was looking down at hundreds of meters of open air behind her. Throwing herself backwards Jade screamed as her back hit solid stone. Breathing heavily she looked around and saw she was standing on the edge of a narrow path hugging a mountain side. The chat window in the corner of her vision exploded with exclamations about how lifelike these graphics were and more than a few people poking fun at Jade's reaction.

"Wow… seems this game is as real as it looks," Jade said, her heart was thumping in her chest still. "It feels like I am actually on the side of a mountain… the air is fresh, there's a slight chill to it, but it's… crisp and this rock… it feels solid." She tapped on it with her fingers. She also realised that she appeared to be dressed in some sort of fantasy traveling cloak, under which was a set of robes that left a very generous amount of thigh visible and had a sizable boob window. It was a step up from being naked but way more on the sexy cosplay end of the spectrum than actual practical clothes. Jade rolled her eyes. It was gimmicky but damn if it did not make her look good and warm despite the chilly conditions. She also noticed she was wearing high heeled black leather boots that were laced all the way up to her knees and white stockings that connected to a garter belt under her robes . As she was examining herself she noticed a menu pop up.

Character Name: Jade Sato
Race: Human
Class: Pilgrim (Level 0: Tutorial Class)
Job: None
Inventory: Priestess Robes (E), Dagger (E), Traveling Clothes (E), Pilgrimage Supplies (Backpack)

Shifting her shoulders, Jade hefted the backpack she had on. It felt like she had quite a load back there. If she was anywhere else than the edge of the mountain side, with only a couple feet between her and a peerless drop she would go through it. "Okay… but where do I go now?" Jade wondered aloud as she looked up and down the mountain path. There were two clear options, onwards up the mountain or back down the way she seemed to have come. As if summoned by her thoughts text popped up in bold letters at the top of her vision. 'Tutorial Quest: A Pilgrim's Decent' it read and Jade noticed a big friendly compass marker appear at the top of the mountain. "Up it is then." Jade pulled the straps on her pack tight and started to walk up the rocky path.

Despite how much this game felt like real life the one thing that did not carry over was Jade's fitness. She considered herself to be reasonably fit but not climb a mountain with ease fit. So it was with mild surprise ten minutes later that she found herself coming up front up the mountain path and to a sudden crest. The snowy ground here evened out, weaving between rocky formations and large pine trees. Jade had been carefully watching her viewer numbers go up throughout the whole climb. Plenty of people were still amazed at the game's graphics and fidelity. Others made comments about Jade herself, how they could not wait to see what happened to her in the game and how they wondered when she would get to the good stuff. Some of those comments made Jade blush as snowflakes landed on ehr warm skin.

Steeling herself Jade trudged forward down a snowy path that cut through the rocky, tree covered land in a way only paths designed in video games did. Her quest marker was not nearly as high anymore and it was steadily growing in size as she came closer and closer to it. She also noticed a blue bar appear at the top of her vision. A helpful tool tip informed her this was the exposure meter. The more it filled up the worse the effects of **** weather or hostile conditions would affect her. Appropriate clothing and magic could help prevent the bar from filling or slow it down but worse conditions would require shelter. Right now Jade noted the bar was barely filling at a very slow rate. She figured she could probably make it to her quest marker well before the bar got even a quarter filled at this rate.

Jade was so busy looking at the bar and her quest marker she almost missed the movement in the corner of her eye as she came around a rocky outcropping. "Shit…" Jade pushed herself against the rocks, hoping to remain hidden from whatever was out there. Peeking around the rocks she spotted a small form sitting on a rock not far from the path. They appeared to be sitting facing away from the mouth of a cave behind them that went into the mountain. Jade squinted her eyes and glared through the snow to make out the features of a pale-blue skinned, pointy eared feminine form with shock white hair that was only about three and a half feet tall. Not that that was much compared to Jade's meagre height, not even reaching five feet with these heeled boots she was in.

Jade was not sure but she thought this was a goblin. The first sign of life she had seen in this game. They were wrapped in heavy white furs, blending into the snow well but standing out against the grey stone. They appeared to be rocking from side to side, glancing up every so often to look either way down the path before looking back down into their rough fur cloak. Jade watched them for a while and noticed that they seemed to be murmuring something, or at least their plump lips were moving, and they kept looking back over their shoulder, down into the cave. Perhaps a sentry or lookout of some kind?

"Alright chat," Jade whispered as she moved back behind the rock. "Looks like we have our first encounter… what shall we do?" Jade watched as the chat exploded with suggestion after suggestion. Most of them boiled down to fight it and merely thinking about how she would do that caused Jade to reach down and unsheathe her dagger. Despite having no real world experience with knives, or any blade for that matter, Jade suddenly felt like she could wield this weapon with grace and precision. She could well approach the goblin with a violent solution. Following video game logic her first foe should be easy enough to take. An enemy within a tutorial quest should be no problem for even the most inexperienced player. But was combat really the best option and would it be that easy?

Jade had played her share of video games like this one but she had also played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons too. Hell she had run her own games in high school for the few nerdy friends she had. She knew better than anyone combat was only ever one of many options and also how deadly anything could be to a low level player. One good roll from the lowliest of enemies could be the end to a level one character and Jade was level zero. Biting her bottom lip, like she was one to do, Jade weighed up her options on what would be the best approach. She could try and sneak by the goblin, run by them maybe, outpacing such a short legged foe could work, maybe talking would work, a diplomatic solution usually worked best in DnD or of course she could just run out there and go for the kill. She went to peak out there once more...