Hunter's Choice

by C E Keene

  “Damn right you are.”

  Let him have his pride. Arheis might need something of his own soon, considering the choice he’d just made. It would all catch up with him at some point, and when it did, he needed to make sure he didn’t fall apart in front of the people who needed him.

  But there was one person he felt comfortable seeing him at his worst, and he sought her out last, heading past the gates. The Pruvari manning the wall kept a close eye on him, but the pond he headed for wasn’t far.

  Grass crunched under his boots, easily announcing his presence. Mira must have known it was him, because she didn’t even bother turning around.

  “I wish he could’ve been there,” she said, her arms folding around her form. “I wish he could’ve seen that thing finally go down.”

  Arheis walked up beside her, his fingers brushing over the bracer. “I think he was.”

  She looked up at him, searching his eyes. Whatever she found there must have offered some comfort, because her gaze swept over the bracer and then back to the pond.

  Silence fell, during which Arheis tried to think about how he’d phrase this so he didn’t sound absolutely crazy. How could he tell her that he hadn’t existed in this world until just a few months ago? That he’d lived a whole other life in a place she had no idea even existed?

  By the time he spoke, he wasn’t any closer to figuring it out, but it needed to be said one way or another.

  “Mira, I need to tell you something.” She turned to him immediately, a note of caution in her eyes, her brows drawn up in concern. “It’s probably going to sound impossible, but I need you to know it’s all the truth.”

  “I have no reason to doubt you, Arheis.”

  Her voice was gentle; warm and encouraging, prompting him to continue.

  “I’m… not from here,” he began. “I’m from… I guess Earth? I don’t know what you would call it and I guess it doesn’t matter, but it’s not Estalia. I didn’t come to Estalia until just a few months ago, when I spa—” Arheis moved to correct himself. Truth was one thing, game terminology was another. “When I appeared in the jungle outside of Lacerda. I didn’t have any weapons or armor. Didn’t know anything more than basic proficiency in combat. Treyous found me, or…”

  Arheis could have smacked himself. Treyous’ miraculous appearance wasn’t the work of some tutorial system. He’d been there because he’d brought Arheis over. He was waiting specifically to help him integrate into the world.

  “I guess he brought me over, but that’s getting a bit ahead of myself.”

  Mira already looked confused, a deep furrow settling into her brow. “So you just woke up there with no memory of what happened to you before?”

  “Not exactly.” Arheis took a deep breath and tried again. “I remember everything that happened before. I remember growing up in Orlando with my mom. Getting picked on because my name was Simon and I was a massive nerd. Going to college for computer science, because of course I did. Getting a bunch of dead-end entry-level jobs only to end up in another dead-end entry-level job. I remember…” He faltered for a moment before continuing. “I remember the doctor telling me my mom—my mom, the nurse, who never smoked, never drank, walked several marathons every day at work—died of a sudden blood clot. I remember trying to function after that, just going through the motions.”

  It was obvious Mira still didn’t understand. He could see her tripping up on some of the words he used. But when he mentioned his mother, she reached for him anyway, taking one of his hands in hers. Her thumb stroked his skin and he let out a shuddering breath before soldiering on.

  “The day I came to Estalia, I’d just quit my job. I went to pick up this fully immersive game called Apex, and when I turned it on, I thought I was just entering a virtual world, but instead I came here.”

  “I…” She stumbled over her words, shaking her head after a moment of grasping for something to say. “I can feel you’re being honest with me, but I have no idea what half of that means.”

  “I know,” he said softly, trying not to let his frustration edge into his words. Would she ever truly understand? Would Higrem be his only true confidant now? “I’m not sure how to explain it, but I…”

  “Hold on.” She held up a hand to stop him, her eyes closing. “I can follow the important parts. I think.” Blowing out a breath, she said, “You’re… from somewhere else. Orlando, in Earth. You had a different life before you came here, and you’re… telling me this because you want to go back.”

  He could see the moment Mira came to that realization. She seemed to deflate, her shoulders slumping, her eyes losing some of their warmth and luster.

  “No. Actually, I had a choice. To stay here… forever,” his voice broke on the word, “or go back to my world and forget everything that’s happened here. I chose to stay.”

  Her finger stilled on his hand and she took several long moments to process what he’d said. Part of him was waiting for her to pull back, call him crazy, and respond in a perfectly reasonable way to someone who’d just said he was some dimension-hopping wonder.

  But he could feel her emotions through their bond, and fear and disbelief wasn’t among them.

  “Why did you stay? If you had a life back there—people who cared about you, a purpose I assume was less dangerous than this—why do it?”

  Arheis was still parsing that out for himself, but when he opened his mouth, the answer came with ease.

  “Because I don’t belong there anymore. The only person who really cared about me died years ago and anything I could have accomplished… it just didn’t feel right. Not in the way this does. Meeting you and Zindar, saving Lacerda… it was the first time I felt like I truly had a purpose. Like I mattered.”

  “You do matter,” she said, her tone taking on a defensive edge. “I don’t know what kind of idiots you were spending your time with where you were from, but… What?”

  Arheis was grinning like an idiot. He couldn’t help it. He’d told her about an alternate dimension and the fact that he’d come here through a game and her biggest concern was that people weren’t especially nice to him back home.

  “Nothing, I just… you’re taking this better than I expected, I guess.”

  “Oh, I still have no idea what the fuck is going on.” He wasn’t sure if it was the first time he’d heard her curse, but it was novel enough that he had to bite back a smile. “It’s… a lot to process, and I may need you to explain things again. Actually, I can guarantee I will need that.”

  “Any time,” Arheis said, squeezing her hand.

  “But the important thing is that you’re here. For good, yes?”

  He nodded, and the weight of that truth settled over him. It wasn’t as crushing as he thought it might be, but it was there, bearing down on him.

  “Then we have time to figure out the rest of it,” she said, letting out a breath she’d been holding in. “There’s only one thing I really need to know right now.”

  “Anything.”

  “You said your name was… Simon? Would you rather I call you that? It will take some time. I know you as Arheis, and I like the name Arheis. But if you’d rather be called Simon—”

  “I like the name Arheis too,” he assured her. “Simon… he’s always going to be a part of me, but he’s not who I am anymore. I am Arheis.”

  Simon was the shy, antisocial man who spent his nights and weekends alone. The man who shouldered the burden of work and school projects on his own because he hadn’t been able to trust anyone else to do it right.

  Arheis was the man who trusted his friends. Who put his faith in them and depended on them just as they did with him. He was the man who, little by little, was making a difference in the world around him.

  “Arheis it is, then,” Mira said with a smile.

  A stillness settled over them again, but there was no urgency in it this time. They held hands at the water’s edge, looking down at the single flower that had somehow managed to cling to th
e surface.

  “I’m… glad you chose to stay here,” she finally said, her voice quiet. “I’m sure you had many people you were close to where you came from, but with Zindar gone, you’re… you’re all I’ve got, and I don’t know—”

  She sounded more and more distressed as the words kept coming, so Arheis turned to face her more fully and brought her hand up to cover his heart.

  “You two were the first in a really long time. You, especially. I wouldn’t have stayed if you weren’t here.”

  He didn’t realize he was going to say the words until he said them, but he felt no desire to take them back. Instead he lifted a hand to her cheek and leaned in to brush his lips over hers.

  “Then I hope it’s worth it,” she whispered.

  A smile made its way into Arheis’ features. The situation might have been perilous, and he wasn’t exactly confident about hurtling into the unknown. But in that moment, he felt complete peace with his decision and with the words he spoke next.

  “It already is.”

  And now that he was here for good, Arheis would do everything in his power to make sure every day was worth it.

  Thanks for Reading!

  Thank you so much for reading Hunter’s Choice. This series is my first foray into LitRPG, so if you enjoyed the book, would you please consider leaving a review? It’s a huge help to debut authors.

  Additionally, if you want to be kept up to date on Book 3, as well as special events and giveaways I’m hosting, you can sign up for my mailing list here:

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  Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

  - Courtney

  About the Author

  Courtney Keene has always had a deep and abiding love for video games and writing. From her first time picking up an NES controller, she was transfixed by the possibilities of video games, though it wasn’t until the Final Fantasy series that she became interested in the stories those games could tell.

  With previous experience as a narrative designer and an author, Courtney is now focused on merging those two passions to create compelling fantasy stories that take place within the confines of a game world.

  @courtneykeene

  cekeeneauthor

  cekeeneauthor@gmail.com