The forest awaits

John walked into the forest while digging into his ham sandwich, chewing on it intently as he looked up at the sky. The sun was shining; it was a nice day, not too chilly but with a breeze that kept the heat from pressing down on him like a blanket. John took a look over his shoulder, seeing the bus disappear into the distance. He realized that he was all alone in the forest now, there was something quite freeing about that. John used to love being outside, camping trips with his father when he was little were a fond memory. Heck, they even had family holidays in the mountains when he was a kid. Sadly, all of that changed when his father had to go and travel more for his job; slowly but steadily, the trips decreased until at some point they just stopped all together. All of that had to have been about twelve years ago. Since then he had developed towards the guy he was now. John 'The Gamer' Newman. Well, that was the title bestowed upon him by, well, something at least.

John slowly but steadily walked into the forest, breathing in the fresh air, seeing the sun filter through the foliage. He made a note that he should visit the forest more often, get away from his games, then he chuckled. Not the first time he thought of that, yet every time he managed to forget it when a new game came out, or when he found a new secret in one of his old games.

As John walked deeper into the forest, he wiped the crumbs off his hands, walking along one of the less used paths, getting more lost with every step as he listened carefully, trying to find an animal he could draw for the assignment.

After roughly twenty minutes of walking, John decided to take a break, resting his ass on the foliage near a small stream. "Well, guess they were right when they put my endurance in the single digits," he cursed out loud. Taking deep breaths, he felt the sweat flow down his back. "I should fix that" John gasped while he rubbed his forehead. Suddenly, the world around him shifted. The lighting seemed to change, breaking in a different angle, the sounds of the forest went mute. It was like he got pulled into another dimension, or at least that was what it felt like. In front of his eyes, two pop-ups appeared, eliciting a groan from him already. "Okay, what now," he grumbled as his eyes scanned the content.

"Shit, there are even random encounters?" he asked no one in particular, looking around for the enemy he was supposed to defeat. While he feared the consequences of failing, he prayed to whoever was writing those messages that they followed at least basic game design rules, and those were to not let his first encounter be with a dragon or a yeti or something. John crouched, trying to be a smaller target while simultaneously trying to spot the enemy before whatever it was spotted him.

Crack

A branch snapped behind him, a rustling sound came closer at an alarming rate, whatever it was, it was approaching. John turned around as quickly as he could, only to see something come barreling through the bushes right towards him. John decided against taking the charge head on; instead, he threw himself out of the way, barely avoiding a tusk that would have gored him if he had been a moment slower.

Achievement unlocked: Brush with ****.

Dodge an attack that would have killed you.

Agility +1

John rolled on as he tried to regain his balance, scrambling to his feet as quickly as he could. Looking at the creature that attacked him, "Observe!" he cried out.

“The fuck, this is a lesser boar!?”

According to the achievement, that charge had enough power to kill him!

The enemy that had attacked him was indeed a boar, a small, fat boar; it would have been adorable if not for the fact that it had two very sharp tusks prodding from its maw, gleaming with drool as the boar slowly skidded to a halt. Its yellow eyes looked a bit dazed before it spotted John again. It let out an indignant oink, padding the ground with its hooves as he charged right at him again.

This time, John had more time to prepare though, jumping out of the way just in time to see it charge right past him again. The boar once more let out an angry oink as John realized something. ‘I need to kill it, just dodging will get me nowhere…’

John scrambled to look for a weapon, a stick, a rock, anything, but all he saw were branches too high to reach and a ground packed with leaves. He started to pat his pockets, looking for something to use as a weapon, as the boar yet again charged at him.

This time, John was too slow. He managed to get out of the way, but the boar managed to nick his ankle.

-6 hp

John cried out in pain, grabbing his ankle as the boar disappeared into the bushes behind him as it barrelled on.

‘What? No blood?’ he thought slightly confused as he looked at the rip in his pants, seeing the white skin of his ankle. Then he remembered his gamer’s body skill. ‘Right… but damn! Just being grazed by it causes me to lose this much health!’

John realized he had only one thing he could use as a weapon with him: his backpack.

With nothing left to lose, John heard the boar approaching him again, his backpack firmly in his hands. As he dodged to the right he swung the backpack to the left with all his might. Slamming it into the boar’s plump body as hard as he could.

10 dmg

“It’s a glass cannon, lucky me,” John sighed as he felt his shoulders ache, the swing having put quite the strain on his arms.

The boar looked at him from a distance, frothing at the mouth as it oinked at him with what could only be described as bloodlust. John gulped down a mouthful of saliva, the boar menacingly giving one more oink as it ran at John.

John braced himself, staring the boar down as he raised his backpack, swinging it right as the boar came within range. Knocking it in the head, making it veer off its course into a tree where it stopped, never to move again.

10 dmg

+50 exp

Quest cleared.

‘Call of the Hunt’ has been received.

300 exp has been received.

DING level up!