Dive into the Greatwood Act I

[Fletcher]

It had been months since the catastrophe that had afflicted all the current players of Elder Tale had occurred. Angus, or Fletcher as he was now referred, had spent the first week or so experimenting with his new environment before the novelty had worn off. For someone that was facing a very rapidly counting timer to his own death due to a slew of medical problems both mental and physical, the relief of not having such a burden on his shoulders gave way to other problems instead.

His views on the matter had become less clear as time went on, and soon enough daily routine became second nature as people around him progressed in the world and grew stronger, raising to the challenge that being in a video game faced. With how real things were though, how much of it could really be a game? While confirmed reports of respawning back at the cathedral stopped any imminent fear of death, the idea of facing such a fate kept people from being careless. Was there more to this life than to whittle the time away making mundane items to sell to People of the Land to make ends meet? Carbuncle seemed to be in agreeance to whatever Fletcher suggested, leaving most conversations one-sided.

He needed a reason to break the habit and get out into the world, but therein lay the issue. Having been sequestered for so long, very few if any people were still around at his level. People were established, had joined guilds, raiding parties, and ventured far beyond the initial spawn point o Londinium. It wasn’t a bad place to stay, but the scenery did get old and with people settling in at much higher levels than him, he admitted it was a little bit intimidating. The fact that his main means of combat took the form of a fairly unintimidating bright blue vulpine didn’t exactly help much either. In terms of weapons at his disposal, he had a book and a whip while his armour was comprised of just a linen robe.

Fletcher stood at the border between Londinium’s limits and the wilderness where monsters roamed free. His brow was furrowed in thought, staring out down the road leading out of town. He wasn’t sure what awaited for him outside; how could he? As someone who had never stepped foot outside the city in the months he’d been here, it was sinking in just how inexperienced he was at this game if it could still be called as such. He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose before looking out into the wilderness again and taking his first step out.

Before him lay the Windsor Greatwood, reports saying that it was fit for new players in most areas bar a few exceptions. Large trees blanketed the area, leaving small groves as hunting grounds for players to fight monsters. This specific area was referred to Savill Flower Grove, most likely intended to be the area for the combat tutorial or to ween newer players into learning to fight solo. Granted, in Fletcher’s or any summoner’s case, they never fought alone when they had their summoned companions to bring into battle for them. It’d never be as good nor was a replacement for a normal party, but it definitely a good edge to have in theory. Stepping out and into the treeline, Fletcher listened out for the sounds of the wood. Rustles of things moving, the faint sounds of sounds of boars snuffling around in the shrubbery, nothing out of the ordinary like a roar to signal a more difficult foe.

It was if he was conducting business, or at least he kept telling himself that. It made the prospect of actually fighting something less daunting given he’d never done anything of the sort in his life. Sure, there were scuffles and the occasionally roughhousing that happened at high school and to a lesser extent college, but he was rarely involved. The grip on his whip tightened as he pressed on, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of creatures wandering around. Surely he’d have free reign of this place given the distinct level disadvantage he was at from people that had been likely doing this for months, but the prospect of having absolutely no backup at all didn’t sit quite well when it came to feeling confident about how this’d go. The only solace he took from his choice in class was that he did have natural healing talents to offset his lack of pharmaceutical support. As his first foot stepped into the grove ahead he heard movement.

He pulled the whip from the hook on his belt and unravelled it with a flick of his wrist. With how the trees were laid out, the sound seemed to echo around him meaning that he was either surrounded or that the acoustics in the forest led to even the tiniest sounds echo endlessly. Fletcher didn’t have to wait long; from the dense overgrowth leapt a Young Pittered Boar registering at level two. The boar snuffled around before eyeing off Fletcher and stomping defiantly. Fletcher responded in kind by trying to make himself look bigger, brandishing his whip, and using his free hand to access his menu. He was lucky that the boar decided to not attack straight away, as looking tough and stumbling through one’s menu was difficult for someone who wasn’t used to doing it. With a cry, Carbuncle leapt forth from the magic circle that opened up nearby and stood by its master’s side.

”Carbuncle, we’re taking down the boar!” Carbuncle’s demeanour shifted from airy and docile to focused and aggressive, lowering the front of its body before making a dive at the boar. The target dove out of the way, getting clipped as Carbuncle went flying past into the bushes. With Carbuncle out of the way and the boar recovering from evading, Fletcher cracked his whip, slapping the boar between the eyes and sending it reeling. Its HP was steadily declining, but the battle was far from over. The sounds from earlier were no mere echoes of the first boar as a second jumped out from its hiding place, flanking Fletcher and striking him in the side. Carbuncle headbutted the first boar out of the way and cried out, running back to its master who was rubbing his side from the impact he’d just endured.

Forming a physical shield between the boar and Fletcher, Carbuncle stood guard with approximately two thirds of its health intact. Fletcher was looking slightly better at about 80% of his health remaining and currently looking through his menu to find his healing spell. Carbuncle eyed off the two boars, awaiting orders watching them close in. With two taps, Fletcher used his Heal skill, targeting Carbuncle and Carbuncle’s eyes widened as its command was to use Phantasmal Heal on its master to restore MP instead of HP. He complied and a ruby light pulsed from the gem on the fox’s forehead, washing over Fletcher and restoring his MP. As for the fox, its visible HP recovered itself back up to full.

The boars were still injured and made a joint attack on Carbuncle out of desperation with the blue fox sustaining the full brunt of the attack having just finished using Phantasmal Heal. Fletcher got back up, throwing his whip out at the weaker of the two boars and finishing it off, using their attack on Carbuncle as a moment of opportunity to strike. As for the second boar, Carbuncle threw it off and pounced, using it as a springboard to pincer it between summoner and companion. Carbuncle and Fletcher locked eyes for a second before Fletcher opened his menu and pointed a finger at the boar, whip clutched in his remaining fingers. ”Elemental Bolt!” With a flash and a streak of blue light, a bolt of energy erupted from Fletcher’s finger and impacted on the boar finishing it off as well.

Fletcher fell back onto his rump and exhaled in exhaustion. Apparently fighting was very physically tiring as logical as it may seem in theory. Perhaps it was because he was more tailored to commanding beasts to do most of the work for him, if one were to believe that the avatar one had chosen were to make these tasks easier. He rolled his whip up and hooked it back onto his belt and dismissed Carbuncle for the time being so he could recover his MP before continue on. A couple of boars weren’t going to cut it in order to really get some levels under his belt. He thought about it in terms of accessibility for his Alchemy; the more levels in his Summoner class meant he had more tools to make things, had more freedom to explore for more materials, and generally be more self-sufficient if he could rake in some rare loot in order to on sell to the People of the Land.

The grove now empty of monsters seemed much more peaceful and enjoyable a place. So much so that the lone dwarf sitting in the middle took out a sandwich and decided to have a brief stop for lunch before hunting more things for experience. He didn’t particularly care for loot that dropped from these things if they were to drop anything due to the chore of having to liquidate everything when he got back to down in order to not be carrying everything. While when stored in his inventory he didn’t have to worry about the weight aspect of things, having a ludicrous amount of items was a hassle to sift through when they were basic things he could pick up at any time in order to find the few diamonds in the rough he may stumble across.

Word Count: 1633

[Fletcher]

The sandwich was delicious, and likely sourced from someone with a high Chef level. The first few days in the game people found that food had no taste, barely any differing texture between foods and it was driving people insane. He wasn’t the cook at home for a long time, so his meals after his wife had passed had been mostly microwave friendly or things that you can make by combining literally some things together the same way you’d make a salad. He felt a pang of sadness and began to reflect upon just how long he’d been here. It was hard to say, but he was almost certain that his body would have given out on him if he were still in the real world. He closed his eyes as he thought, mulling over the phrase ‘real world’ and its implication. As people had experienced thus far, the world was very real, and killing People of the Land was the same as killing any other human being back home; they didn’t magically respawn.

While there were no strict laws on stopping people from doing such acts, it was generally frowned upon. Killing other players was only marginally more acceptable it was also one of those taboos that one was not willing to openly admit they indulged in unless backed by the sheer force of a guild of many numbers. It troubled Fletcher to no end that such organisations still hadn’t been stomped out, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Those that still believed this was a game treated it as such, but as days went by it was clear that this was not ‘just a game’ anymore. Fletcher sighed and opened his eyes, running one of his big dwarven hands through his beard, up his face, and then through his hair before standing up.

For some reason his reflecting had brought about a lack of desire to continue fighting for now. He’d come back to it later, that’s for sure, but for the moment he wanted to do something less physical and more mentally taxing to get his mind off of things. While the possibility of taking up alcoholism was always on the table, his wallet and his self-respect kept the bottle comfortably out of each. Backtracking through the brush he came out from the wood and back onto the path leading to town, dirt road becoming cobblestone as he crossed the threshold into the city area. As expected, there were many people around, ranging from adventurers to People of the Land with no specific majority obvious amongst the demographic displayed before him.

But what to do? He could always go back to tinkering with his Alchemy recipes, although he lacked access to the reagents both in hunting capacity and funds to continue on anything worthwhile on experience. He’d just come back from training and it would be a waste to go back after making the conscious decision to do something non-physical for a while. While his mind wandered for an activity to do, he took a scenic route through Londinium he hadn’t before; various shops that had cropped up and the town as a whole seemed to be livelier than he was used to. Perhaps it was his long history of being withdrawn in a room that had make him mistake just how fast the world was moving.

He turned a corner and almost bumped into someone walking the other way. “Hey! Watch it!” Fletcher was taken aback but apologised quietly, mumbling the apology as he continued on without making eye contact. He felt a little embarrassed about losing himself in his thoughts and almost colliding with someone as he was just walking around town. He took a detour off the main road and into the park, taking a seat on one of the benches just to take in the sights ad shuffle through his menus. He’d collected a few things over the time he’d spent in Londinium, some of which were useful and some not as much. He had some ideas for some things to make later, but nothing solid enough as a concept to pull something experimental off. As he was flicking through his menu he overheard a couple of people talking about getting lost in the Greatwood, causing Fletcher to pause.

“I don’t know where she went. One minute we had her safe from the monsters and when they were all gone, she was as well.” The girl that said this seemed to be a Samurai, at least based on appearances. Her companion was armoured, so possibly the tank of their group?

“Well no-one else in our party saw her die, so the quest should still be good to finish if we find her, right? We’d have to get everyone back from getting supplies but we combed that place for any sign of her and found nothing.” The armoured individual spoke in a frustrated tone, grumbling further about it being just a hassle with no leads to go off of. They spoke about it more for another couple of minutes before they parted ways to go do some shopping with the plan to reconvene later to have another search for the missing girl. What Fletcher did get however was that they were, between the two of them, averaging around level eleven. His curiosity was piqued; while he could handle monsters with breaks, this task that the other party was undertaking seemed to be an investigation as well as an escort mission. Fletcher stretched, picking himself up off the bench and double checking that his whip was still on his hip.

Perhaps his decision to steal a potential quest out from underneath another part wasn’t exactly the most fair or in good spirit of the work the other team had already put in, but the other side of the argument said that if they failed then there was no reason for him not to give it a shot and try something different. Backtracking through the city, he found himself on the border of the Windsor Greatwood. Heading back through the bush, he found the spot that he was previously and continued on, eyes peeled for anyone else out here with him. It was odd that he hadn’t seen the other party out here before, although there was no telling when they were actually out here; for all he knew it could’ve been yesterday or even the day before. If they were out here before, he would’ve at least heard sounds of combat with how the sound seemed to echo around the woods in the Savill Flower Grove area as he’d already experienced.

Fletcher reached the spot that the other party had described in their conversation and had a listen. It was quiet and oddly so for how things were just before. There were no ambient sound of anything from wind to animals even moving. Everything was still and it made Fletcher feel on edge just standing in the middle of the grove. He felt his heart beat in his chest and the only thing he could hear was his breath as he inhaled and exhaled.

Word Count: 1193
Total Word Count: 2826

[Fletcher]

Time seemed to slow to a halt around Fletcher. Due to the weird nature of sound around him, he hadn’t noticed the presence of enemies around him until they were crashing into his side. One, and then two boards crashed into him from two sides sending him to the ground. Picking himself up and grunting with the pain that now coursed through his system, his head spun around to see what had hit him, seeing the boars readying a second attack. They’d come up fast, or was it just simply he hadn’t heard them? Something was going on here and it was probably to do with the girl disappearing, at he assumed at least connected in some way. Taking his whip off his belt and lashing it out at the closer of the two boars, the one that didn’t receive a flaying charged in for another attack.

Again, the sensation that time was slowing down for Fletcher. Perhaps it was one of those moments where the mind processes things slower upon inevitable pain. As the boar came closer, Fletcher’s other hand rose presenting his palm to the boar; the area pulsed and Fletcher found the words coming out of his mouth as if practised many times over. ”Carbuncle, defend!” On command, Carbuncle arose from the ether mid-air, diving towards the boar and tackling it to intercept the attack on the summoner. Disbelief washed over Fletcher and he had to pull himself back together to continue fighting. He’d willed Carbuncle to assist him and the blue fox responded in kind, no menu needed. Maybe that worked for other spells as well, but that would have to wait. This whole time he’d still been using his menu for everything, but if he didn’t need it, it’d be worth checking out options for things later.

He brought his hand back, whip clutched tight and let it crack down on the boar he was attacking. This attack glanced off one of the tusks and the boar kept charging, tossing aside the attack from the whip and tackling Fletcher in the stomach. The pained cry from its summoner caused Carbuncle to cease attacking the boar and bound over to distract the boar from continuing its assault on the prone dwarf. The Dwarf pointed at the boar that knocked him down and snarled, ”Elemental Bolt!” A burst of light erupted from his hand and pummelled the boar, finishing it off. Carbuncle took another hit protecting Fletcher as he got up and dusted himself off, brandishing his whip to strike at the boar when Carbuncle was clear. The whip wrapped itself around one of the tusks of the boar, letting Fletcher pull forward to put it off balance. Carbuncle stayed motionless for a few seconds while this happened before firing a beam of magical energy from the ruby on its forehead, finishing off the second boar.

With no enemies in the immediate vicinity, Fletcher took vitals to see if they were good to stay on course. His MP was running low, so he looked to Carbuncle. ”I’m running low on MP, can you assist?” Performing a small, contemplative nod before bowing, Carbuncle initiated Phantasmal Heal to bring Fletcher’s MP back up to usable levels. The added benefit of this was the ability to stay by his Summoner’s side for longer. Fletcher looked around; it was quiet just like it was before the monsters attacked, with nothing else seemingly out of the ordinary. He’d been turned around, and all around him seemed to be an endless ocean of plant life leading off for an unknown distance in every direction. Carbuncle sniffed the air and wandered over to one bush in particular, staring at it intently until Fletcher questioned why.

The Dwarf was a bit slow on the take and wandered over to where Carbuncle was. ”Did you find anything?” For a moment the pair stood in silence, Fletcher with his hands on his knees and bent over to be closer to Carbuncle, and the blue fox staring at the bush.

”Maybe?” Fletcher’s mouth was agape, eyes wide and staring even more intently on his Follower. This was the first time Carbuncle had spoken in months, the first time since the first time that he was summoned. Carbuncle scratched itself the same way a dog would and continued, ”There’s something over this way, so we should go check it out.” Without waiting for Fletcher, Carbuncle leapt into the bush. The Dwarf left in the clearing stared at the bush speechless, before a blue head popped out and looked up at him. ”Are you coming or not, master?” Carbuncle disappeared back into the bush not waiting for Fletcher’s reply.

The Dwarf looked around the clearing one last time before following Carbuncle into the bush. It was bigger and denser that he had originally thought. He hurried along, chasing after Carbuncle through the growth until he emerged on the other side. What spread before him was a tranquil grove, remnants of a temple overgrown and eroded away built a natural waterfall of the clearest of water one could possibly imagine. Carbuncle was sitting down a little further in, taking in the landscape until Fletcher caught up. ”So… could you always talk?” Fletcher took in the view as well as he stood next to Carbuncle, gathering his thoughts. ”I mean, it might’ve been nice to know not to just bark commands at you like some kind of animal if you could converse. Hell, it’d have been nice to have someone to talk to up until now.”

Fletcher was slightly annoyed, but let Carbuncle explain. The fox took its time but spoke in a calm manner, tail gently swaying as it sat there. ”Maybe?” Carbuncle looked up at Fletcher. ”Maybe it’s something that happened recently, maybe not. Something here just feels different from before.” Fletcher could feel it too. There was this oppressive yet reassuring blanket put over the air of this place. The soft trickling of the waterfall and stream were the only sounds he could make out as everything else seemed to be completely still. Carbuncle snapped to look over to the entrance of the temple and saw a woman, snow white hair being delicately removed from her face with long slender fingers. She wore a gown of white with red and gold adornments fastening it in place on her body, she looked unarmed, although appearances could be deceiving.

Fletcher followed Carbuncle’s gaze and saw the woman, wondering if she was the one that the party had lost. ”H-Hello?” She spoke quietly, barely louder than a whisper; if the clearing wasn’t already deathly silent bar the water no one could’ve heard her. Fletcher took a step forward and she recoiled, taking a step back. Fletcher looked back at Carbuncle who only looked back up to his master, equally unsure as to what to do. She gasped again and retreated back inside the temple suddenly, alarming both Follower and Summoner to the presence of danger. Spinning around, they were ambushed by three more boars, but something about them was unnatural, spurred by a bloodlust caused by something malicious.

”Carbuncle!” Fletched readied his whip, sizing up what they were up against as his Follower readied Phantasmal Heal to bring his MP back up. It seemed like there wasn’t going to be enough time to rest up before engaging. The first boar charged and Carbuncle readied a beam of energy at it. Taking aim, the fox shot a bolt of light energy in unison with Fletcher’s whip crack, both attacks landing within a second of each other. As for the second and third boars charged together, taking up one target each. The first impact was a boar goring Carbuncle with its tusks and throwing it into the stream; the second met with a whip to the face but continued with a headbutt on the Summoner. Fletcher’s HP took a solid hit he knew that he couldn’t take much more from these things before he’d be in some serious trouble.

Carbuncle emerged from the water, bumping the first boar into the water and shooting another ray of energy but directed at the boar that threw him into the river. Fletcher cracked his whip twice in succession on the boar that had struck him, bringing its HP down to critical levels. He brought his hand up, frowning at the boar, ”Elemental Bolt!” The monster was swallowed by a flash of light and it was gone, leaving only two more to deal with. One was engaging with Carbuncle and the other was pulling itself out of the water, flanking the Follower. ”Carbuncle!” Fletcher brought his first to his chest and then threw his open hand at Carbuncle, healing magic washing over the summoned beast to ease its suffering from the wounds compiling on it from the continuous battering it was getting.

What Fletcher didn’t realise however was that the constant upkeep of keeping Carbuncle out and using his skills had dropped his MP into dangerously low levels. Carbuncle had seemed to notice this, but his master didn’t seem to know what had happened. With one last defiant tackle, Carbuncle took out one of the boars with it as the fox disappeared due to not MP left to maintain its existence on this plane. When Carbuncle vanished, it clicked as to why immediately and Fletcher cursed himself for not noticing. He wasn’t a high level, so taxing his MP so heavily meant that he couldn’t do it for too long without this happening. The downside however is that with Carbuncle gone, it was just him and one mostly healthy boar; but no healing support for when he got hit. He gulped; he hadn’t been to the cathedral yet from suffering a death and he wasn’t exactly looking forward to the experience. To be frank, he wants to turn and run now but with his shorter legs he doubted that he could get away.

The boar came for him, and Fletcher dove to the side, narrowly avoiding getting gored by the tusks the same way Carbuncle did. He cracked his whip before hearing the heavy drop of hooves behind him. The boar before him stopped and stared at the newcomer to the battle before getting ready to initiate another attack. Fletcher looked over his shoulder to see a much bigger boar, grizzled features and iron-capped tusks registering a level much higher than his own. It bellowed and it charged, Fletcher looked back at the other smaller boar and saw it charge as well. This was where he died, he knew it. His eyes closed and he readied himself for the impact as best he could but it never came. He waited a few moments more and still nothing. He opened one eye and saw the two boars looking up at the temple, or specifically the top of the waterfall.

Fletcher’s eyes widened as he also saw what they were looking at. A large fox, cloaked in the most pristine white fur one could imagine, accented by highlights of bright reds and yellows. It stared down at the three beings near the stream and Fletcher could feel that pressure effecting him again; this thing was the source and it was not pleased as to what was going on. It was checking as a monster, but its level was ludicrously high. It howled and another strong pulse of whatever pressure this thing was placing on this area surged forth. The upside to this was that the boars left, the downside was that Fletcher remembered nothing else but black.

He awoke sometime later, the woman from before kneeling beside him. His wounds had been bandaged although he wasn’t completely healed. ”Ow…” Fletcher grunted, pushing himself up onto his arms and looking at the woman beside him. She wore a gentle expression but said nothing. The Summoner’s eyes wandered to the top of the waterfall but the two metre high fox was gone. It wasn’t a fever dream, he’d definitely seen it; only question is what it was and why. The woman looked uneasy and stood, turning away from the Dwarf. ”What was that thing? Did you help me?”

Again, the woman spoke in a tone barely above a whisper, lowering her gaze even when facing away from Fletcher. ”You should leave. I’m very sorry, but you should go.” She started to walk to the entrance of the temple before pausing and looking back. ”But thank you for coming… When you’ve met more, maybe you’ll meet Amaterasu again…” No matter what Fletcher said, she wouldn’t say another word nor stop her retreat back to the temple. Stone doors slid into place behind her as she stepped beyond the threshold, forcibly stopping the conversation. Even if Fletcher wanted to pursue, he was too injured to even stand, let alone give chase to someone. He grunted as he rolled over to his side and opened his menu. He needed to get out of here.

He pressed the button for Call of Home, and his body was whisked away back to Londinium. As he found himself in his usual spot in the park, he found his MP regenerating at an accelerated rate. He called out Carbuncle who looked at him curiously, not saying a word. ”Carbuncle? Phantasmal Heal… Please.” Carbuncle said nothing more and did as it was told but spoke not a word. The pair exchanged looks, peering deep into each other’s eyes before the moment was conceded. Where ever they had been, whatever had happened had caused Carbuncle to speak; but that moment was gone, hopefully one day to return.

Word Count: 2266
Total Word Count: 5092