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Chapter 3

  A new day broke through the trees, waking me by splattering sunlight over my face. It was mid morning.

  “I slept longer than I thought I would. I guess a full belly works wonders.” I sat up, my back aching. “Still need some bedding, though,” I commented, stretching the knots out of my muscles. Suddenly, something fluffy moved at the corner of the camp. My glance shot that way but with incredible speed the fluffy thing darted into the shrubs.

  “What was that?”

  An inspection of the area brought to my attention tiny paw tracks in the dirt but it was a mystery to me what animal they belonged to.

  “Huh,” I said absently as I bent and traced my fingers in the track prints. “Whatever it was is tiny. I bet with the hunter class I could tell what this is.” Thinking back to the night prior, there was a free class switch available, granted with my previous level up. It probably bypassed the cool down effect.

  “Hm. Let’s try it.” Pulling up the menu didn’t tell me much about how to change my class but a minute of trying different key phrases out loud brought success.

  “I want to change my class from warrior to hunter.” Messages pinged my vision.

  !Class changed

  From Warrior to Hunter

  Free class switch used

  !Achievement

  Second thoughts

  Change your class for the first time

  10 XP

  “Alright, nice. Now let’s see if this works.” I inspected the tracks again. It wasn’t a guarantee, but I was confident these tracks belonged to a… bunny.

  “Rabbit tracks? Oh, I hope that the one I tried to hunt yesterday isn’t coming back for revenge.” With how this new world worked, it wouldn’t surprise me to find the woods full of vengeful woodland creatures. “Glad this class switch worked though. I wonder if I get a free class switch with every level up or just because I’m new. I guess I’ll stay a hunter for a bit. I need some breakfast anyways.”

  With the hunter class, I found out, agility, which wasn’t on my attribute list, was bolstered by one point, as was stealth, and I was loving the newfound power. Hopping through the woods with efficient speed and the stealth of a wild predator, I felt amazing.

  I dashed over a rock here, and around a tree there. I swung from a low hanging branch like a wild monkey man before landing and rolling back to my feet. Over rock and shrub and bare root, my feet carried me with ease and relative quietness. Of course, I was still making a ton of noise, and tripping here and there, but damn it felt so different than before. I felt like I could move so well, already.

  “Ten agility must feel amazing.’

  I remembered the warrior gained two points in strength but only starting at level two. It must be the same effect for a hunter.

  “That’s why I must not have felt a difference before. If two strength feels as good as one agility, then I am going to feel invincible when I switch back.”

  I spent the rest of the morning playing with my new attribute points, sneaking up on butterflies and crickets, and practically jumping off as many things as I could to see if I could land on my feet. Most times, I didn’t, landing flat on my face, but the adeptness at which I got up again made up for it.

  At noon, I stumbled upon a wild boar in a clearing. It hadn’t noticed me as it was huffing and puffing in some kind of berry bush, eating fruit to its merry joy. I took the opportunity to test out my new stealth attribute.

  Like a shadow, I approached, avoiding noisy leaves and crunchy sticks with careful steps. The creature’s behind swung wildly in the air as it sniffed out berry after berry, gnawing on the bush and squealing with delight as it chomped into a sweet bit of fruit. I couldn’t have been very stealthy at my current level but the boar was so preoccupied with the berry bush, I could've yelled and danced around and it wouldn’t have noticed.

  Then, I was upon it. If I’d wanted to, I could’ve skewered the thing but that wasn’t my intention. Nightmares still plagued me from the night before over the possum fiasco. No, I just wanted to play around with my new skills. Instead of sticking the boar with my sword, I got as close as I felt was safe and then, with split second speed, I hopped up on its back.

  The creature squealed horribly as it danced below me. Throwing around its backside, the boar whipped around and squealed and thrashed, running off finally towards the brush. Meanwhile, I held on for dear life, realizing that what I had done was a very bad idea.

  “Woah! Slow down, buddy. This may have been a mistake!” The boar rambled off into the wilderness, taking me with it.

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  Seeing an opportunity, I grabbed onto a low hanging branch and let the boar stumble out into the woods on its own. I hung limp for a few seconds, my feet dangling in the air, making sure the angry beast wouldn’t come back to skewer me out of spite.

  “Whew. That was a little over ambitious, wasn’t it?” I was just about to drop down to the forest floor before I heard the loud squealing of the boar returning my way. It thundered through the underbrush furiously.

  “Oh, no. Wait, I didn’t mean it,” I cried, trying my best to scramble up the branch to safety. But, my arms weren’t strong enough. Struggling, I fell back to my original position.

  “Oh man. That’s bad.” I raised my legs as far up as I could, looking absolutely ridiculous in the process, just so the boar couldn’t stab at my feet. Eventually, it broke through the brush madder than a bull, passing me by in a fury. In the small of its back, a short spear bounced up and down, caught harmlessly in its thick hide.

  “That spear looks familiar,” I commented as the beast crashed through the forest. Then I remembered. “That belongs to a goblin.”

  Suddenly, I heard them… the hurried approach of footsteps scurrying in the forest foliage. “Oh, that’s really bad,” I said, trying even harder now to scramble up the branch. It was fruitless. Eventually my arms gave out and I fell to ground.

  Smacking my head against the tree trunk in the process, luckily, I landed in a thick bush that swallowed me whole. Just in time too, as three goblins came rushing after the boar.

  They passed right by me, feet stomping the dirt where I had been hanging a few seconds earlier. With eyes wide, body splayed out in the thicket, I stayed completely still with only a hope the creatures wouldn’t see me. They passed by without a second glance.

  I wasn’t sure whether my stealth attribute had anything to do with it or I had just been extremely lucky.

  !Achievement

  Sneaky snake

  Hide or sneak by your first opponents

  50XP

  “Well… that’s a relief,” I sighed.

  “So these woods must be full of goblins. I’ll have to be more careful.”

  The warrior class seemed to be the best option to handle goblins since they were not the friendliest bunch, it seemed, but I kept the hunter class long enough to go catch some lunch.

  At the stream, I speared a fish with relative ease.

  Fish slain!

  10XP

  !Achievement

  Record breaker

  Break your own personal record

  10XP

  “Huh?” The fish wiggled around on the tip of my sword spear as I puzzled over what the achievement meant. “Oh, the fish. It must be bigger than what I caught yesterday.” I stayed at the stream an hour longer just to see if I could catch anything bigger for more free XP. Unfortunately, I caught two more fish both smaller than the last.

  Fish slain!

  10XP

  (X2)

  Back at camp I descaled them and cooked them up with no problems at all. As I chomped down on the decently cooked fish, better cooked than the one from the night prior, I reflected on the hunter class.

  “This class comes in handy out here, that’s for sure. I’m gonna miss being able to cook decently.” There was no reason to stay a hunter if I wasn’t going to kill bigger animals. I could already fish decently and I might need to protect myself from a couple goblins. I looked over at my shield.

  “Plus I already wasted a wish on a stupid shield.”

  There was a rustle from the grass. My heart dropped as I glanced over, expecting to see goblins skulking out from the long grasses. Instead, out had hopped… a bunny. No. The bunny, the one from yesterday with the spot and pink nose. It stared at me cautiously from the grass.

  “Uh…” Why was it staring at me? “Hello,” I said awkwardly. I half expected that it would speak back. When it didn’t, I was flooded with both disappointment and embarrassment.

  Stare

  “What do you want?’

  Stare

  It was cute but the staring was creeping me out a bit.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked. I looked around camp for something to give it. Finding nothing, I ripped off a piece of warm fish and threw it at the rabbit. The rabbit scurried back into the grass, terrified. Then, after a second, it dipped its pink nose out again to stare at me. Another minute passed by before it crawled up to the fish, sniffed the piece of meant, and went back to staring.

  “Yeah, I would've been afraid if you’d eaten that anyways,” I said to myself thinking how horrifying a meat eating bunny would be. “Let’s see what else I can tempt you with.”

  For the rest of the afternoon I played with ways to tempt the rabbit to come out of the long grass. For a while, it would just scurry back to the deep shrubs whenever I stood up. I’d pile up some food near the grass, usually an assortment of greens I’d found around the woods, and then sit back to see if the rabbit would come back. It usually did, chomping on some greens, leaving others alone, but when it was done eating, the little weirdo would return to staring at me from the edge of the grass. Its gaze was deep as if peering into my soul.

  “You’re a strange little thing, you know that? Too curious for your own good. You know, I could probably catch you and eat you pretty easily.”

  Stare. Its pink nose twitched on and off every few seconds.

  “Yeah, I thought so.” Eventually, I remembered the berry bushes I found on the first day. After finding one, I picked some berries and placed them near the rabbit’s spot, it had disappeared again, and sat back to watch. Once more, the rabbit returned. This time, with curious delight, the little thing started nibbling on the berries. I sat back, unable to tear my eyes away. It was so cute.

  “You know what? You are too adorable to eat.”

  The evening passed by with my new companion half hidden in the grasses and me tending my little campfire. By the end of the night, the bunny had disappeared.

  “Probably back to its hiding hole. Speaking of which, I guess I’ll turn in too.” I groaned when I remembered that I had forgotten the bedding I needed. The next day would be terrible for my back. The rabbit had given me an idea, though. I’d picked so many different greens from the day the varieties were stuck in my brain.

  “Grasses, leaves, shrubbery and vines. I bet that would make good bedding,” I said, turning over in the growing darkness. I sighed. For the first time since I’d arrived the loneliness I’d been ignoring crept up on me. It’d been two days since I’d talked to another human being. I guess I was missing it.

  “Stupid rabbit,” I muttered, blaming it for my newfound loneliness.

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