A New Life Begins
"Yes."
The flurry of windows had filled my view, but Warren shrunk it so it wouldn't block anything. A boy with back hair stood in front of him, black fox tails waving behind him, and fox ears peeking from his hair. It took a moment or two for Warren to realize it was him. The boy in front of him looked thin and sickly, with scars across his hands and chest. No wonder Layla had asked how he was selected, he looked like he could and would keel over and die any moment now. The accident must have taken more out of him than he'd thought and being in bed for months, even if it wasn't by choice, would probably never be good for his health.
"Add some weight and remove the scars."
The boy in front of him suddenly packed a few pounds, to the point where he no longer looked starving and his scars vanished as if wiped away with a cloth. Now he looked at least healthy and smooth skinned. With that done, he decided to get to work with the rest of his appearance. He kept his height the same, at 5'9", but made his eyes a brilliant green and turned his hair red. He had always like red hair and wished he was born with it and now the ears and tails looked like those of an actual fox.
"Select."
"Warren"
It wasn't like he could use his name in the real world anyways. Might as well use it here.
"Well, that's great."
There were pros and cons to this. He'd be loosing all the benefits of a city, with trainers and vendors and starter quests. One other hand, though, he probably would be the only player in the area. He'd be safe from PKers and no body could interrupt his hunting. And he planned to start hunting as soon as he spawned. He had no intention of staying weak for long.
Blinking at the beam of light that surrounded him, Warren looked around as it faded. He was on a beach, standing next to a forest. It was the same background as the one that appeared on his pedestal from earlier, though it was nearly morning. It looked astonishingly real, with crabs skittering along the sand, and seagulls soaring overhead. No wonder Shattered had such a hit with people, the graphics alone were to die for.
"Open Inventory"
All he had was 10 copper, basic pants, basic shirt, a rusty dagger, and 20 bread.
He had food for a while and a weapon, though it looked like it was a bit shoddy. He equipped it and gave it a few swings to get the feel of it as the sun began to rise. Then he examined his weapon.
With that done, Warren headed off towards the forest eager to start leveling. A hundred meters in, he saw his first monster.
It looked like a good monster to start on, by itself and merely one level stronger. He started moving forward, the hound a good fifty meters away.
Shocked, Warren reread the window, before realizing the hound was charging at him. He gripped the dagger tightly then swung it as the monster drew near, slashing its eye.
-ding-
His blow had forced the hound to instinctively turn away, before it charged back, and he repeated this several times, slashing at its face whenever it drew near. He missed several times, but the hound was forced to leap back to avoid them. Gradually, Warren became more and more confident.
"Hah! Not so tough are you, even with the debuff!"
As if his words were a cue, the hound drew back and howled. The noise was shockingly loud in the quiet morning and he flinched, allowing it to latch onto his leg, taking out 20% of his health. Even worse, a window appeared before him.
Warren could see several hounds charging towards him, some of them higher leveled than the one he was fighting. He turned to run, only to realize the situation had gotten even worse: the hound he was fighting was still latched onto him.
-ding-
He could swear the hound had a gleeful look on its face as the rest of the hounds arrived.
"Damn it!"
Warren reappeared at the beach, back where he had first appeared. He could even see his foot prints on the sand, leading towards the forest. Part of him wanted to run back there to finish that Wild Hound that had started that whole mess, but another part of him, the part of him who remained calm realized there would at least half a dozen hounds there by now and he wouldn't even get a chance to hit him like this. First, he needed another weapon.
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He had used one hand to use the Rusty Dagger, but that left his other hand doing nothing. He needed a second weapon to be able to deal damage consistently. Unfortunately, since he had started in the wild, he had no way to buy another weapon. So he had to make one himself. Unfortunately, that meant he was going back into the forest.
He snuck into the trees and searched among the trees for materials and found what he needed as the sun reach its zenith: a sturdy tree branch. He took it back to the beach and started using his rusty dagger to carve it.
-ding-
-ding-
Warren ate some bread to refill his satiety bar, then went to implement the next step of his plan: he hunted crabs. All he got were crab meat and broken crab shells, but they were good practice. He wandered up and down the beach, stabbing and crushing crabs. All they gave was a one exp, but he continued to kill them, as all they could do was run sideways and pinch him for one damage. As long as he didn't let them swarm him, he was safe from dying. After about a thousand or more of them died at his hands, he received a window.
-ding-
Due to your zealousness in hunting crabs, you've the skills of novice fisherman in crab killing.
+ 10% damage against crustaceans
+ 10% increase in critical hits when facing crustaceans
+10 Fame
+ 1 to all stats
Fishermen feel a slight sense of kinship with you
"Well OK, that was unexpected. I guess I'll keep it."
Slam!
Warren went flying and sprawled on the sand. Getting up, he saw an enormous crab standing where he had been. It was bigger than the Wild Hounds from earlier, as large as a desk.
-ding-
"Seriously!?"
The Crab King clacked its claws menacingly and and charged at him. Or rather, it ran sideways at him. Warren instinctively swung his club at the crab, but it bounced off its hard shell, while its claws snapped at him. Luckily, Warren had fought enough crabs that he knew when to step back, and he did so, prompting a flurry of hissing from the crab along with sea foam being spat at him. They went back and forth, his weapons unable to damage the crabs hard shell, and the crab unable to lay its claws on him. Finally, a blow went a stray, landing instead on the crab's legs, rather than its body.
Crunch
-ding-
The club smashed one of the legs, leaving it useless, and the crabs health finally dropped. The legs had less armor than the crabs body, so it could be killed that way!
Eight broken legs later, the Crab King sat helpless in the sand, unable to move it large body. Hissing and sputtering in crabby fury, it flailed its claws, forcing Warren to back away from its front. But its back was another story. Behind it was out of reach for the crab pincers, allowing him to rain blow upon blow freely, before finally smashing the shell and killing it, filling his view with a flurry of windows and dings.
-ding-
-ding-
-ding-
-ding-
Due to your deeds against crabs, you've the skills of experienced fisherman in crab killing.
+ 15% damage against crustaceans
+ 15% increase in critical hits when facing crustaceans
+20 Fame
+ 1 to all stats
Fishermen feel a sense of kinship with you
-ding-
-ding-
-ding-
