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by R K Billiau

  I waved at the cave ahead of us, and the Hunters stationed outside, noticing Cora as we got closer. My Stamina had just about drained to empty when I came up, heaving. Kai came in right after me, none the worse for wear. His hair was perfect. As soon as he arrived, he slapped a rabbit down to the ground, and stood in place, allowing the Hunters to charge in for the kill. They wasted no time and attacked. I was able to Sucker Punch four, killing them. My Lucky Find only went off once though, netting me an item, but not a core.

  Lucky Rabbits Foot!

  Charm Slot - Durability 5

  Activate; Once per day gain the maximum from a resource Gathering skill.

  That was nifty, but I felt like the tribe could use it more, especially since I didn’t have any resource gathering skills I wanted to pursue. I scavenged the fallen bunnies, crying out when I came across the thing we had wanted most: A wild rabbit core with an Earth attunement. “Yes! Perfect!” I shouted.

  “What?” Kai asked. “Did your skills get you another core?”

  “Yeah, but that’s not the awesome part. The awesome part is that it wasn’t my class skills, it was my carryover skill; Scavenging. That’s what lets me loot corpses a second time to get an item off the creature’s standard loot table!”

  “But why is that so awesome?” Kai asked.

  “Because it means the cores are standard loot!”

  “You mean we just hadn’t found any yet?” Cora asked. “That seems suspicious, I know as a tribe we’ve killed a bunch of rabbits. Why wouldn’t we have found one yet?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Well, if we figure this was what, 40 or so loot drops to go through and we got one, that means it’s rare. Or maybe some did find it but didn’t pick it up because of the weird skill requirement to use the activate-able ability. Who knows?! But now we know that if we can keep feeding hordes of rabbits and other creatures to the tribe we should have no problem getting everyone attuned!”

  “There is one person who might have had one,” Kai said. “Someone who we have never seen be attacked before.”

  “Tim,” Cora spat. “I wouldn’t put it past that ass-hat to have figured it out and not told anyone.”

  “What about Tim?” We turned to see Chief Arnold catching up to us. “I heard the commotion, looks like you guys didn’t waste any time pulling to the group.”

  “We got another core, and learned they come from the standard loot table, no special skills necessary,” I told the Chief. Cora touched the Chief’s shoulder. She must be a touchy-feely kind of girl.

  “I want this core, I want to go help find Austin,” Cora said, her face a mask of concern.

  The Chief looked at her, weighing his options. “Cora, I know it concerns you, but he must have just gotten sent to spawn trying to get here. I would like it if you stayed, to help get a few more of you Hunters up and running, able to hunt more cores for the tribe so we can lift this damned KOS curse.”

  “I know, I understand all of that, but it’s been almost a whole day, it should not take that long. I think something is going on.”

  “Can you wait until we get another couple Hunters attuned?”

  “Arnold, we have been hunkering down in this cave for weeks now, sending out the smallest parties to get just enough food to prevent us from dying, we have food now, we have a lead on how to get out of our situation. What is a little longer? What if something happened to him, like, he is trapped in a ravine or something just waiting to starve to death? Would you kindly let me go?”

  Congratulations! You have increased your Emotion attribute!

  Chief Arnold sighed and nodded. “You’re right, we have bought time, and finally have hope. Take the core, find Austin.”

  “Thank you, Arnold,” Cora said, and took the core, affixing it in her charm slot.

  You have completed a quest!

  Quest: Obtain attunement for a tribe member. Reward 10 XP.

  Cora stood up, a look of determination on her face. “Kai, Hudson, will you help me look for Austin?”

  Kai nodded. “It was already part of the plan.”

  “Yeah, we’ll go looking for him,” I said, “but first, let us pull a bison over for the tribe. It shouldn’t take long and will give them something to focus on while we’re gone.” Cora chewed her lower lip, reluctant to agree. “Cora, this world is our life now, we live here, and we can’t- or at least I don’t think we can- die, here. Let us help the tribe, another hour won’t hurt Austin.”

  Cora released her breath in a puff of air, blowing out her cheeks. “I suppose that’s a good idea. We could use more of that bedding for sure. But I’m coming with you. I have been cooped up here for too long, no way am I missing a chance to be out there,” she gestured towards the rolling plains, “without being attacked by everything.”

  “That’s great!” I said. “The more the merrier. It might make pulling a bison even easier. I know I’d be happy to let someone else take a few hits.”

  Chapter 12

  We ran across the plains towards the herd of bison, making good time. The tall grass blowing in unison filled the air with pleasing rustling sounds. The sky was massive; a solid blue dotted with puffy clouds that expanded across the whole horizon. The herds stretched in scattered lumps as far as the eye could see. I knew this was all virtual, but it was also my reality. The view utterly amazed me, and I wondered if this is what it had been like on Earth before they went extinct. We spent time looking for any stragglers or sickly-looking bison near the edges we could target but as soon as we got close, the herds would run off.

  It was taking longer than the last time to find a straggler, but we came up with a plan. We had Kai and Cora charge at a herd from behind, scaring it away. As the herd ran off, I looked for a slow-moving straggler. After trying this a few times, we got our break. They scared the herd, and a single bison that had been drinking from a large puddle, oblivious, was left behind. I knew I didn’t have long, so I threw my rock at it.

  Sucker Punch! Your attack catches the opponent off guard!

  You have damaged a bison!

  Then I ran. I followed the chevron on my mini-map that lead towards the cave, running as fast as I could. It wasn’t fast enough, and the bull slammed into me, throwing me across the plain.

  Critical hit! You have taken 56 bludgeoning damage from the bison’s ram!

  Ouch. This thing hit HARD. I tried to roll out of the way, but this bull was faster than the last one I tangled with and I was trampled. My health dropped by almost as much as the critical hit as the beast’s hooves gouged into me.

  You have sustained an injury! Broken Rib - Agility reduced by 10%

  You have sustained an injury! Broken Nose - Physique reduced by 10%

  Congratulations! You have increased your Toughness skill!

  This sucked. I staggered back to my feet, blood pouring out of my face, clutching my abdomen. The Pain debuff had appeared skipping green and jumping right into orange. Luckily, my part was done. Kai and Cora had made it back and were running in front of the bull. Cora threw her spear at it, sticking it deep in the bull’s flank, slowing it down. I mean, sure it was slower, but it was still faster than me. The bull pivoted to run her down and just as it was getting closer, Kai came shooting out, flying foot first. His foot collided with the bison’s huge head and it turned, missing Cora.

  My two tribe members took off towards the cave at full speed. The bull must have had Kai high on its aggro list because he ignored Cora in his attempt to run the Martial Artist over. Kai dodged elegantly, and Cora shot past the bull slapping it on the rump just as it was attempting to stop and turn around. This pissed it off again, and it ran after her, slamming its head into her and sending her flying. I had no idea how much health she had, but I knew it wasn’t as much as Kai or me, so I ran after her shouting obscenities at the walking burger.

  We continued like this, taking turns getting hit, run over, or escaping damage, over and over until we got back to the camp where a group of Hunters were waiting,
spears ready. One Hunter had planted his spear in the ground and stood steadfast as the bison charged him. The stupid creature either didn’t know what the spear was, or couldn’t correct its course fast enough, and I watched in fascination as it impaled itself on the spear, almost the whole length of it, its sheer weight and momentum crashing it into the Hunter who had placed it, crushing him. The bison tried to get up and turn around, giving the other Hunters plenty of time to stab it with their spears. The great beast bellowed as the lodged spear hit something important and it fell over, dead.

  We all cheered. Then I fell over. “Ow,” I said, holding on to my ribs. Kai helped me up into a sitting position as the other Hunters helped the poor sod who had been trampled.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah, that thing was tougher than the last one I pulled. I hope it’s got good stuff. I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to do that without both of you there to help me.”

  “Oh, I know you wouldn’t, I counted four successful Instinctive Dodges. I even leveled it up!” Kai said.

  “Well that’s just great. Maybe you should be the puller now,” I grumbled at him, my pain making me cranky. “Let’s see what this guy has.” I opened the loot window and there before me was a shiny core.

  “A core! That’s the second one on a bison! Two of two! I wonder if these always drop cores?” I opened Scavenging and found another core! There was no Lucky Find on this one, but it was a great haul.

  “If that’s the case, we could live a ‘normal’ life sooner rather than later,” Cora said. “I’m glad we did this first, but now I want to go find Austin. Did any of you see him come back?” she asked the small group of Hunters to no avail.

  Chief Arnold came out as we were resting to recover our Stamina. “What’s the news?” he asked. We told him of our run with the bison, and the two cores in the loot. “Two cores? That’s fantastic! If these always have at least one core, we will be able get everyone up to speed soon!”

  I agreed with him, despite my pain, while I activated the window on the Scavenging loot drop, opening it up for any to take. “I’ve released the Scavenging box. Now that we’ve got a couple more Hunters attuned, I think we should go check out the spawn points to find Austin.”

  “That’s fine, we can process this in the meantime, and now with two attuned Hunters available, we may even get more.”

  “Just be careful,” Kai said, “these things hit hard and run fast!”

  “Would you kindly lead the way?” Cora asked me with a wink.

  I shrugged, trying to hold back the visceral reaction of a pretty woman winking at me, and gestured out towards the plains. “I only vaguely know the direction of one spawn point, so why don’t you guys lead.”

  Congratulations! You have increased your Emotion attribute!

  Kai started off with Cora and I following. As we ran, I kept an eye on my mini-map for any rogue creatures to avoid. We slowed to a walk after a while to let our Stamina recharge. “Tell me Cora, if you don’t mind me asking, what was your carryover skill? I was a scavenger back on Earth, so I got the Scavenging skill which lets me loot things twice.”

  “Eh, I didn’t get anything as interesting or useful as that. On Earth I was an Accountant for a regional division of SavORama. My carryover skill is... Accounting. I don’t see much use for it. I wish we could have picked our carryover skills from a list or something. Getting something useless like this is so frustrating. As if this place isn’t bad enough.”

  “Oh, I don’t know, it might not be useful right now, but skills like that seem to imply that at some point they will be useful. Kai and I have a little theory about classes and how we may be able to upgrade them, or get entirely new ones somehow.”

  “I sure freaking hope so,” Cora said. “I don’t want to be a Primitive class for my entire life, however long it will be.”

  “We’re getting close,” Kai said, interrupting us. I looked at my mini-map.

  “Uh-oh,” I said, instinctively lowering my voice. “I’ve got movement up ahead, lots of it. Looks like a whole crapload of zombies.” I noticed that we were on the outskirts of the copse of trees I had spawned in. I put a map marker on titled, ‘Spawn Point’. “I count 10 of them, but there may be more if they are all bunched up real tight.”

  “How the hell do you know that?” Cora asked.

  “Oh, right, I have a mini-map,” I said, sheepish. “I forgot to mention it.”

  “You can see what’s around us? How do I get one of those?”

  “Guys, can we focus here?” Kai shout-whispered. We were probably still out of earshot, but it just seems wrong to talk normally so close to so many enemies. “We need to check out what’s going on. Do we try to Stealth in?” Kai waved his hands towards the grove, it was hard to see much through all the trees, but I could pick out movements.

  “I don’t know, can that fool the undead?” I asked.

  “I don’t know either, we haven’t tried it yet,” Kai said.

  “What’s your Stealth anyway Kai?” Cora asked. “My Hunting skill gives me a Stealth bonus, but it’s only level 6. I have Camouflage also, but it’s only level 1 and I don’t know how to use it.”

  Kai paused a second, looking at his skills. “My Stealth is 9, almost to a milestone I hope.”

  “You guys are still better than me, I have Stealth at level 1. How come you don’t know how to use your Camouflage skill?” I asked Cora, raising one eyebrow.

  “Every time I tried to use it, it said it required Attune... HOLY CRAP!” Cora paused, eyes going vacant, then before my eyes her entire body color changed to an earthy brown, with various splotches all over. She held up her arm, turning it over. “This is so cool! I leveled up my skill just by activating it!”

  Kai and I both did a double take as we scanned her up and down. “Is it like a magic or something?” I asked.

  “It’s tied to my Self and Aura attributes. It’s draining my spirit pool fast, looks like I can’t keep it up for too long, my spirit is low,” she responded.

  “Well let’s get to scouting then!” Kai said. They both crouched into the typical Stealth crouch I’d seen in countless games and made their way towards the trees. I could still see Kai, but Cora was much harder to see. If I didn’t know to look for her clothing, which hadn’t changed with her skill activation, I might not be able to find her. I made a mental note that if we were ever desperate, going clothes free would be almost as good as invisible. The thought of an army of naked crouching people made me chuckle.

  I waited for what seemed like hours, but was only a few minutes, before I saw the two of them returning. Cora’s Camouflage had worn off, and she looked like her normal self again. The look on their faces was grim. “What did you find out?” I asked.

  Kai spoke first. “There are twelve zombies in there, just milling around. Looks like they didn’t have any abilities to see through our Stealth. What the hell are they doing there though?”

  “It has to be Tim,” Cora said. “It’s like a sick trap to kill anyone that spawns here. Two of those zombies had Austin’s body!”

  “But why? That’s so screwed up, what benefit would it give him? Is he just griefing?” I asked.

  “More zombies,” Kai said. “Whenever we die, our corpse turns into a zombie... He must want more of them? It’s like he’s making... his own little army.”

  “But what good would that do him?”

  “Who knows! That sick bastard is just trying to screw us over,” Cora complained. The anger was emanating off her, and her whole body was shaking. “We need to find Austin now. Tim is just killing him for his own sick game!”

  “Did you recognize anyone else in there?” I asked.

  Cora and Kai both paused and thought. “No.... but that would mean...”

  “That he has people fresh from the tutorial zone trapped in these places,” Kai finished her thought.

  “When was the last time anyone died from the tribe?” I asked. “I spawned here just the other d
ay, these zombies were not here then. He must have just started doing this.”

  Kai made an angry noise. “Nobody from the tribe but Austin has died in the last week since I have been out of the tutorial zone, and you’re the only one we’ve run into new tutorial since me. Who knows how many people he could have trapped with this!”

  “What do we do about all these zombies? What if someone is spawning here soon, we can’t just let them be spawn-killed like this.” Kai was now just as angry as Cora.

  “I don’t think we can do anything about it, we can’t take on that many zombies, the only one I ever fought, I had lured into a rabbit nest and attacked it while the rabbits were distracting it. I am not the most combat capable.”

  “I have good spear skills for combat,” Cora said, “but they are so low level I don’t know how useful they would be. We really needed to be leveling up our skills!”

  I raised an eyebrow at Cora. “Now you want to worry about your skills?”

  Kai looked back the way we had come, towards the tribe. “What if we got enough people attuned, we could make a small force to fight these things?”

  “No!” Cora shouted. I turned my head towards the zombies, hoping they hadn’t overheard. They were just milling around still. “We need to find Austin first! We can’t let him be killed repeatedly!”

  “Okay, OKAY,” I said. “Let’s keep it down, the last thing we need is to attract the zombies and all get killed out here. That would just be three more zombies we would have to fight later. Plus, dying really sucks.”