Shadow of the Erdtree (On Hiatus)

Chapter V: Bloody Fingers

What sort of world was he living in? Trees, larger then he'd ever seen have sprouted across the globe. Beasts and husks of people alike have appeared from thin air and began to slaughter everything in their path. Structures had even materialized in a few places. In fact, a mile down the road from his house now lay a stone fortress teeming with armored knights.

If that wasn't crazy enough, according to the news all of this was strangely similar to some video game that had released a few years prior. The creator of the game, Taka- something- he didn't bother to remember his name- was even blamed for the sudden chaos. But he found it near impossible for even the largest governments in the world to pulled this off, let alone a single man.

"Fabio, how- doing- food and water?" A voice sputtered over his phone.

Since the chaos, wifi had went down throughout most of the area. Leaving Fabio with a single measly bar of service.

Fabio turned a head to his phone as he finished looking through his kitchen. "I'll need to get some more water. I doubt the pipes will last much longer."

"Don't- yourself killed," the voice stuttered over the phone. "Also stay- from- Ellum and Cedars. Heard giants- area."

Fabio mentally mapped out the route he would need to take into the city, now altering it due to the new information.

He soon hung up the phone and grabbed his handgun from his nightstand- double checking the magazine was full. He was about to leave when his pair of scimitars caught his eye.

He hadn't even thought about the equipment that had randomly appeared on him earlier that day after a golden screen had flashed in front of his face.

All of his stats still rested at 10, he hadn't so much as gotten a single 'rune'. Then again, he also had no interest in putting his life at risk to kill monsters.

Fabio struggled for several minutes to properly strap on the pair of scimitars to his waist before leaving the relative safety of his apartment.

Regardless of how many times Fabio looked at one of the impossibly large golden-leafed saplings he still couldn't believe something like that matching the height of many of the skyscrapers.

It didn't take very long to reach the local grocery store, though he did have to run from a handful of humanoid husks wielding medieval armor and rusty weapons.

After gathering all he'd needed he quickly began towards his apartment complex.

He was sure to avoid the route with the medieval husks, but he still felt his skin crawl now and again.

He kept finding himself glancing behind him and around corners.

He suddenly jumped when he turned to see a figure no more then 10 feet from him. He began to reach for his handgun at his side, before stopping.

They weren't a husk or demihuman  like he'd seen before. They were, simply put, human. They were dressed in very baggy and slightly tattered black and gold robes with bandage wraps around both their arms and feet. Around their neck was a tattered red scarf. Along its robes were small ruby gems imbedded into its design.

Through the hood they wore, Fabio could see vibrant skin and a normal looking face.

"O-oh, it's just one of you guys." Fabio stuttered, beginning to step around the person. "Those rune hunter, guys. I've seen you on social media a few times." Fabio still never understood what some people's obsession with making an entire community of progressing through this "game" humanity had found itself in. Then again, someone had to, but it wasn't going to be him. "Well, I'll let you get to the hunting. I've heard there's some giants or something near-"