RIP RPG

Chapter 4

I have to be careful now. The last thing I need to do is to get myself killed and end back at that soulstone once more. Thankfully, as this is a starter area, the only 'monsters' seem to be passive, even though it is night, with bats and rabbits the only things on my scanner. I half want to stop and try to kill one, but I really can't afford to stop this close to where the convicts are holed up. There are only thirty of them, so they can't cover too much area, and hopefully, they think their trap at the soulstone is inescapable, and the rest of them will be doing whatever they do to enjoy this world.

As I get further from the soulstone, the level of the rabbits starts to go up, and I have no doubt that if I was to attack one of these ones, they would give me a swift trip back to the soulstone, but the more I think about it, the less I am worried. They still look to all be passive, and even if I do die, I got away once, so I should be able to do it again. As long as the convicts don't know that I have escaped, then they won't be doing anything to increase their security.

Really though, the best thing to do would be to find an out of the way soulstone, that seems to be away from any monster spawns. I call up my map, and am disappointed to find that it only shows where I have already been, and a small area around me. Suddenly, I start to feel winded, and have to stop jogging and just walk. Maybe I should have spent some xp on endurance and constitution. Too late to worry about that though, and it seems like I am not being chased, so I should be okay. I try standing still, and then sitting, and my endurance starts to fill back up faster, but it seemed to be filling up at a reasonable pace while walking, so I decide to continue to head away from the soulstone.

After about five minutes, my endurance is back to the max, but I continue to walk, keeping a close eye on my scanner, when I spot my first red dot. I focus on it, and I can identify it as a level five giant centipede. My first creature that will agro. And I assume, will kill me without breaking a sweat, or whatever centipedes do.

I decide to look around and gather some firewood, and start a fire, hopeful that it will keep the creatures at bay, and not draw them towards me. It doesn't take long before I have a small fire going, and I sit down, and take out some of my rabbit jerky. I don't think that food, or even sleep are required in this virtual world, but if there are any stat boosts for rest then I will be happy to have them, and the feeling of having some food helps me feel a little more normal. My HP goes up from 50 to 55, and I sit with my back against a tree, and look through my stats again, trying to get myself acquainted with the vast array that is there.

I was hoping to find something for dark vision, but that seems to be the only thing missing from the comprehensive list of things I can add experience too. I can add to hearing and sight, and even smell, but there is nothing to help me see in the dark. On checking psionics, there is a clairvoyance skill, that seems quite powerful, including infravision, so I might put that quite high on my list, but that is for another time. There are all sorts of crafting options, and under alchemy, there is an infravision potion, but alchemy is grayed out, so presumably I need to get an item, or do a quest to open that skill. Not all of the crafting is grayed out though. I can apparently do cooking at level one, and few other skills like leatherworking and tailoring. When I open the interface for cooking, it seems like I already have a frying pan, so the items needed for that are not part of the normal inventory. I guess that is really useful for people with a limit on inventory space, unlike me. I move on, looking back at my stats again, wondering what will be the most useful place to put the nearly four thousand xp I have, that hadn't been enough for the next level of dex or run.

I could put it in 'climb', as I might need to climb a tree, to get away from a beastie, but I suspect that a giant centipede can climb a tree better than me anyway. I could add it to constitution, which would up both HP and endurance, but really, ten extra HP is probably only going to be of any use against a low level bunny. If I get caught by anything that argos, then I am going to die. With that in mind, since sight isn't much use in the dark, I decide to add it to hearing. Maybe, with hearing going from 100 to 110, I will hear something early enough to be able to avoid it. All I need to do is avoid dying long enough to find a safe soulstone, then I can go back to a level one area and try killing things, safe in the knowledge that I will not end up back in that trap if I die.

"Mother fucker!"

No sooner than I have added my extra xp to hearing, I hear a seriously pissed off girl shouting. I start heading in that direction, keeping one eye on my scanner, and before I get very far, I can see a soulstone, with a white dot next to it, and a red dot moving fast in that direction. I keep heading that way, and the trees thin out until I enter a large clearing. With the moonlight coming through I can see much better, and at the far side of the clearing, I can see a beautiful young girl, in the basic white underwear, just in time for a large white rabbit to pounce on her, and kill her with one savage blow. The rabbit starts walking away as soon as she is dead, but a few seconds later, she respawns, and the rabbit turns and pounces again, killing her in an endless cycle.

Shit, this is worse than the trap set up at the starting soulstone.

The soulstone is at the entrance to a cave, but the rabbit is fast, and even though the girl tries to get to the cave, she never even makes it halfway. I check out its stats, and there is no level, just a name, "The Beast", and the word unique next to it. I love unique monsters in MMOs because they always have unique treasure, but it will be a long time before I can even consider killing this one.

"Hey."

The girl is startled by my shout, and I cringe as the murderous bunny cuts her down even quicker than last time.

"Run." she screams, as soon as she respawns, "He's far too quick, and far too powerful."

She just stands there, looking over at me, ignoring the rabbit, as she is killed yet again, and I know I have to try and do something to help her.

"I'll try and distract it, so you can get away." I say, as I watch her murder play out once more.

"No! He'll kill you for sure."

She looks almost panicked, but I can't let this keep going on, so I look around and pick up a small rock, and walk around to where the rabbit heads off to, every time he finishes killing her.

"It's okay," I say, without giving her time to argue, "if I die, I'll be back here as soon as I can. Tomorrow night, at the latest."

She dies again, and as "The Beast" heads in my direction, I throw the rock as hard as I can at him.

1hp damage to "The Beast"

+1 Throwing

"You're a mad man." The girl shouts over at me, as I turn and start running as fast as my 128 running skill will take me. Which is not nearly fast enough.

"See ya." I call back, just before...

You have died.

A/N: This is all I am uploading here. I am currently uploading more chapters on AO3, with images.