Reternity Online : Rescue Quest : DIRECTOR'S CUT : a LitRPG Epic

by Baron Sord

  Whenever the trail was relatively smooth, I jogged. My stamina bar would drop in the corner of my vision if I pushed it, but if I kept a steady pace, it hovered around 70% or 80%. It was kind of like having my own built-in fitness tracker. If I went up a hill or hit a clearing that allowed for a sprint, it would drop toward 50%, sometimes lower. But, as soon as the ground leveled or I slowed to a walk, my stamina would climb back toward 80% or 90%. If I sat and rested, it would climb into the high 90s. I never rested for more than a minute or two, but my guess was it wouldn’t be back to 100% until I slept for a couple hours and ate some protein. On the other end of the scale, no matter how hard I pushed my pace, it never went below 30%. My guess was, I’d have to push myself for hours to go that low.

  Logan, you are thirsty. -10 Stamina until you replenish your fluids. Take a drink, lover.

  It was that disembodied voice that sounded like Layna but wasn’t.

  You’re hungry too. -5 Stamina until you eat. Don’t you want to stop for lunch?

  “I don’t have time,” I barked at no one.

  Why was I talking to a computer voice in my head?

  I rolled my eyes at myself. It didn’t matter. The voice was right. My throat was dry and my stomach rumbling. I found a shady spot under a palm tree in a small clearing and sat down. Time for lunch. I started with the dried nuts and some of the water.

  You ate dried nuts. Recover full stamina and +10 Stamina for 4 hours.

  You drank Fruit Flower Water. +1 Accuracy and Stamina recovers 5% faster for 2 hours.

  Now that I was sitting still, I noticed the jungle sounds again. Birds, random monkeys, who knew what else. Probably snakes out here somewhere, but I wasn’t worried. I couldn’t get over how relaxing and mellow this place was. It lacked the constant informational assault of the real world. No SuperUber avatars or the onslaught of hologram ads or anything like that. This place was serene. Nothing but nature. I could get used to this place.

  Something tickled my foot.

  A bristly tarantula bigger than my hand was crawling up my leg.

  “Shit!”

  I kicked it off and jumped up, dropping my dried nuts in the dirt. The tarantula landed 15 feet away on its back. It flipped over and raised its two front legs while it charged me. Yes, charged.

  Anything with half a brain didn’t attack something 100 times its size. Then again, chihuahuas. This tarantula was huge, but I could easily crush it under my boot heel. Too bad I was wearing these meager sandals. I bent and grabbed my spear from where I’d left it lying in the dirt next to my leather bag. Another tarantula was crawling up the shaft. I grabbed the spear near the blade and waved it around, trying to shake the tarantula off.

  It wasn’t letting go.

  The hairs on my legs were tingling because I knew the first one was still charging. My only option was to drag the shaft of the spear against the trunk of the palm tree. Luckily, that wiped the tarantula off. I was hoping it would scurry up the tree and out of harm’s way, leaving me with just one opponent, but no, it dropped on the ground opposite the other one.

  These spiders were flanking me.

  I backpedaled as fast as I could, trying to reposition myself. I didn’t want either of these guys biting my ankle from behind. Who knew how poisonous they might be. Sure, in nature, big spiders and big scorpions had weak stings, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

  The first waved its two front legs high, trying to distract me. So I stabbed the other one with my spear.

  SQUICH!

  Nailed it right in the abdomen. Juicy guts popped out and all eight legs shivered before curling up. One down, one to go.

  Bullseye, lover! You earned 5 XP (experience points).

  I ignored the voice and charged the first tarantula. He still had his legs up but he shot back before I could stab him. My legs were wide in a basic fighting stance as I made my way toward him. Every time I stabbed, he dodged. Guy was quick. Sadly, nothing Layna had showed me earlier applied to stabbing twitch-fast tarantulas on the ground. After a dozen attempts, I still couldn’t get him. Worse, my stamina was now down to 50%.

  I hung back, trying to catch my breath.

  My stamina bar crept up slowly while I kept an eye on Tarantula the Terrible. He still had all eight eyes on me.

  “Make your move, buddy.”

  Stamina was at 60%.

  I wasn’t quite ready for another stab fest, but I wasn’t gonna let him stare me down. So what if he didn’t have any eyelids? I was gonna win this staring contest.

  Stamina at 70%.

  I took a moment to examine him.

  Banana Tarantula

  Level: 1

  Health | Stamina: 5 | 60

  Mana | Mind: - | -

  Size: Very Small

  Armor: 10

  ===============

  Good | Evil: - | -

  Law | Chaos: - | 85

  ===============

  He charged me.

  Caught off guard, I backed up several steps.

  That’s when I heard a ticking sound like rain behind me.

  Only it wasn’t rain.

  I glanced back and saw dozens of spiders crawling on the ground from behind the tree where I’d been eating my lunch. Dozens more climbed down the trunk. Was this their nesting ground? That was when I noticed a bunch of banana trees a few meters behind the palm tree. What had Layna said about banana tree spiders? One bite would kill me. Were these the same ones? A hundred more poured into the clearing from every direction. I wasn’t waiting around to find out.

  Time to beat feet.

  I wanted to grab my leather satchel, but it was covered by a carpet of tarantulas. Great. I’d have to leave it.

  I turned and ran down the trail.

  SQUICH!

  Wet gooey guts splattered all over my skin.

  So ended Tarantula #1, the guy who’d started this whole ordeal. Now he was squished flat under my sandal. Take that, ass hat. With any luck, his guts weren’t poisonous or acidic.

  Payback’s a bitch. You earned 5 XP.

  The trail was downhill from here. Good thing, because unless I was sprinting full out, those tarantulas would’ve been all over me. They were that quick.

  My Stamina hovered around 50% as I ran for several minutes. When I was sure they weren’t on my heels, I slowed to a stop. I needed to go back and get my food and water and my lodestone. For all I knew, it was another 20 miles to that village Layna had mentioned. I should’ve asked how far it was. If it was only a mile, I wouldn’t worry about it. But I didn’t know. I could do 20 miles on an empty stomach, but in this heat with no water? It could be an ordeal. And I wanted that lodestone. If I got lost in this jungle, having a clear sense of direction would be critical. I couldn’t even say for sure which way the sun was pointing because of the fog. If night fell, I’d be completely lost.

  I needed to go back.

  Assuming I’d merely disturbed the tarantula nest, or nesting ground, or whatever it was, I could just wait until they dialed it back from DefCon Kill Logan to DefCon Leave Logan Be. Then I could shoot in, grab my satchel, and bail before they had time to react. I’d been sitting eating for at least five minutes before their leader crawled up my leg. Yeah, it was worth the risk to get my gear.

  “You! Hey, you!” Some guy shouted, hidden somewhere deep in the greenery.

  I spun, clutching my spear at the ready. What happened to this place being serene? Was I going to have to fight this guy too? I hoped he didn’t have a hundred friends like the tarantulas, all of them waiting to jump me from behind.

  A second later, a fricking tiger jumped out of the bushes and ran right at me.

  I almost shit my pants.

  I almost dropped my spear and ran.

  But I knew better. My only shot was to brace my spear against something solid and hope the tiger impaled himself on it when he launched himself at me.

  The tiger was almost on top of me, running full tilt.

  My guts were in the back of m
y throat as I grit my teeth and jammed the butt of my spear into the dirt and white-knuckled the shaft, hoping this wasn’t the moment of my demise. One faint thought buzzed in the bottom of my brain: why did the asshole hunting the tiger who shouted at me a second ago have to flush the tiger out into my face?

  Right before the tiger jumped on top of me, it stopped in its tracks and said, “I need your help, dawg!”

  “What the…” I mumbled. That’s when it hit me.

  Tiger stood upright like a man. Tiger wore a loincloth like mine. Tiger carried a spear on his back like mine. This was not making any sense. You couldn’t play tigers in D&D. Tigers were monsters that wanted to kill you. “My friend and I was attacked by Koboglins! Help me, dawg! They gonna cook her and eat her, yo!”

  I just stared at him, still shocked by the intense reality of a life-size talking tiger standing in front of me.

  “Please, dawg! They all savages! They small, but they real mean!” His tiger face was panicked, eyes wide with fear. With those teeth of his, he could bite his way through an army. I didn’t know why he needed my help. “I tried fighting ’em off, but they too many.” He wiped a tiger paw across his white belly and it came away red with blood. “Look what they done.”

  “Oh, man. That looks serious.”

  “I’m good for now, dawg. But I need your help. Please. I’m begging. For real.” His tail was up behind him, but the end was curled down and it swished uncertainly.

  He’s telling the truth, lover, the Layna voice said.

  Quest: A friend in need is a friend indeed. A fellow adventurer needs your help saving his partner from a greedy gang of dirty Koboglins.

  Difficulty: Medium.

  Reward: 500 XP, earn +5 Good points, and the satisfaction of a job well done. You might even make a loyal ally for your efforts.

  Do you accept? Y/N

  Tiger looked at me, his ears back, whiskers quivering.

  I felt terrible for this guy. His anguish and desperation were all over his tiger face. Although I didn’t know from FIVR, I was very familiar with the concept of leveling up. Levels were the crack rocks of every RPG. If this guy was a real person like me, and he was playing this game for fun, I wanted to tell him he could level up on his own time, without my help. But was he real? Or was this a setup from the game to give me some easy action? Either way, I didn’t have time for it.

  “She running out of time, dawg,” he begged.

  “Dude, I want to help you out, but I have something real important to take care of.”

  His disappointment was obvious.

  “HELP!” A feminine shriek ripped the silence wide open. Whoever she was, her distress sounded genuine.

  “Fuck,” I grunted. “Which way?”

  Tiger’s tail went up. “This way.”

  Quest accepted! Good luck, Logan!

  I followed Tiger into the jungle at a dead run. He bounded ahead on all fours. This better not be an ambush. If this guy was leading me into a trap, I was toast.

  —: o o o :—

  “There she is!” Tiger yelled from up ahead.

  I could barely keep up with him as we burst out of the jungle trees into an open dirt and rock area on the banks of a huge brown river.

  At least two dozen Koboglins were wrestling a white Siberian tiger into a canoe. Picture a cross between kobolds and goblins. Some were blue-green. Others were purple. All of them were 3-4 feet tall and carried primitive spears or bladed war clubs. The blades looked like obsidian or some other sharp rock, and were attached to the shafts with vine twine. They also wore bits and pieces of bamboo armor, and were painted all over with colorful war paint.

  The white tiger screamed, “Tiygar, help me!” She was busy swatting at the Koboglins with her tiger paws. One of them went flying and splashed into the river. But there were twenty more poking and swinging at her. Her white underbelly was red all over.

  Tiger, who was a regular orange Siberian and I guess was named Tiygar, threw his spear at the nearest Koboglin. It sunk into the creature’s chest well past the blade and the thing dropped to the pebbly river bank. Then he slashed at another with his huge paw and tore the creature’s throat wide open. It instantly fell, clutching its gushing neck. Tiger jumped into the main fray, swinging with both claws and biting with his huge fangs. He knocked one Koboglin’s spear out of its hands with a single swipe from his clawed paw, and in the process raked deep red lines across the thing’s chest. His jaws grabbed the little beast by the neck and he shook it violently. I heard a cracking noise and the little Koboglin’s body literally broke free from its head and landed on top of two other Koboglins, knocking them down.

  For a moment, I was paralyzed. I’d seen plenty of nasty bar fights in my time. But never in my life had I seen someone’s body torn off their head like that. Honestly, I was in so much shock, I would’ve stood there watching because I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing. Could you blame me? Two talking tigers were fighting these Koboglin things and it was brutal and gorey. And, I didn’t know this guy Tiygar. Did I want to get involved? Really? I was here for Emily.

  GASH!

  Something from behind crashed into the back of my leg. A blue-green Koboglin wielding a war club that bristled with sharp-edged rocks had just taken a hack at my hamstring. Blood ran down the back of my naked leg. My health dropped down to 70%.

  You’ve been injured!

  -1 to Speed until the damage is repaired!

  -1 Health per minute until the wound is sealed or healed!

  That woke me up.

  And now I knew whose side I was on. It wasn’t the damn Koboglins. I spun around with my spear at the ready. The Koboglin swung away with his war club. It was damn sharp. I narrowly avoided two swings that would’ve cut the top of my leg open or torn my bicep off if they’d connected.

  Bwah bwa-bwa-BWAH! You can’t touch dis! You have unlocked a new skill: Dodge. Level 1. You must first learn to float like a butterfly before you can sting like a bee! Increase your Speed to improve your chance of success.

  I ignored the Layna-voiced status message while I stabbed at the Koboglin with my spear, but this little guy was too quick to hit. If I didn’t kill him soon, his buddies would surround me and I’d be screwed. Right then, I started noticing the pain in my hamstring. I also realized whenever I moved, it didn’t work quite right. That status message hadn’t been exaggerating. No wonder I couldn’t hit the Koboglin. If I wasn’t careful, I might die right here and now.

  Now I was pissed.

  Who did this Koboglin think he was?

  I started stabbing again with my spear while advancing, forcing him to backpedal. Yelled in his face. Anything to throw him off his game.

  “You want some of this?! Huh?! You want a piece of me?!” I had the reach advantage. He couldn’t hack me with his war club without getting cut up by my pistoning spear.

  I cut him several times in the arms and legs, but he wasn’t giving up.

  He swung with his war club, missed. Too bad for him he tripped on a dead branch lying on the river bank and lost his footing, struggling to stay on his feet.

  I punched forward with my spear and felt the point sink deep into his stomach. It went in much easier than I was expecting. Then I sliced horizontally across the wall of his stomach, from hip bone to hip bone.

  Plop.

  It was one thing to kill a monster in D&D or watch someone’s steaming guts fall out in a VR movie. Neither came close to this. Neither had smell or taste or touch and you weren’t doing any actual killing. This was all those things. This was real killing.

  The blue-green Koboglin stared at me, eyes glassy. He dropped his war club and grabbed for his guts in a panic.

  New skill: POWER ATTACK: Deadly Disembowel. Level 1. Cost: 25 Stamina. Duration: 1 attack. Effect: Critical Hit. Only effective on opponents with 25 Armor or less and 100 Health or less. Cut their guts out and slice off 75% of their Health!

  My Koboglin wobbled to his knees as he tried to hold onto his g
uts.

  I grabbed his club and threw it into the nearest bushes, but I couldn’t watch him die. It was horribly depressing.

  Suddenly, he collapsed in front of me and stopped moving.

  I waited.

  Nothing.

  He was gone.

  I had done that.

  I had killed him.

  Or her.

  I couldn’t tell the difference.

  Wow, Logan! You killed a Koboglin warrior and earned 100 XP.

  Fuck XP. I just killed someone. Or something, at the very least.

  I took a moment to catch my breath.

  My stamina had taken a hit and was down to about 40%. It was also blinking yellow. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep fighting without a rest. My health also blinked and went down another notch, but I hadn’t taken another hit. Then I realized it was blinking red and a red blood drop icon to the left dripped and dripped and dripped. I was losing blood from my leg, that much was obvious.

  This was bad.

  Who knew spear fighting was so dangerous?

  Duh.

  I turned around to check on the tigers.

  Koboglins were hacking away at them as the tigers clawed and bit back savagely. It was horrifying. I tried to tell myself this was all fake, but the coppery smell of blood was too real to deny. The throbbing in my hamstring was further proof. This world might be virtual, but if it felt like real pain, was it still virtual? Pain was pain. Death was death.