Demonic Magician

As things stood, my first brush with death was not the sobering event it should have been. Certainly, I had come closer to ceasing to exist many times in my travels, but the dire boar had a special place in my heart. Not one I enjoyed reliving of course, but there was something about the ferocity and feral nature of writhing for my life in the dirt against a terrible beast. It played up to that part of me that desired to mete out violence and eagerly held hands with the other part of me that wanted to put on a good show.

Ren continued to glare at me. “Why not open it already?”

I imagined that her scowl would be a permanent companion for as long as we traveled together, and after staring at death in the slobbering maw a few hours earlier, her temperament no longer bothered me.

“Suspense is an important part of the show,” I murmured, eyes slightly glazed over as I looked at the path ahead.

“This isn’t a show. This is real.” There was an element of actual annoyance in her statement this time.

“Shows are real, too.” I raised my eyebrow at her as my eyes focused. “I’ll open it when we hand the Quest in, I promise.”

The elf sighed. “Fine. I just… sorry, I have no patience for unopened things.”

On the other hand, I was not a fan of the Chance Boxes or any sort of randomly assigned loot. Give me a solid outcome, some known factors that I could work with and plan accordingly. “This one won’t have cakes in, right?”

“No.”

If I could trade it, I would probably give it to Ren. There was a chance it would be something I couldn't or didn’t want to use, anyway. Like a two-handed axe, or plate armor. The System had already given me a Unique weapon to match my Class, so that may be something I needn’t worry about for the near future.

The boars had been a bit more skittish after I had felled the dire one, as if word had gotten around that I was a dire portent of pork-ending malignancy. It hadn’t stopped me from farming up enough of the required meat to be able to turn the Quest in. Apparently, this would be where I’d meet my first NPC - a non-player character that was wholly System-created. Like some kind of puppet, come to life.

I was partially hesitant to start seeing more of the System laid bare. So far, everything had wanted to kill me. Especially things that I wasn’t trying to kill. Any poeticism or further reflection was lost, as my brain had become too tired. It had been an eventful day for a man who had only just spawned in this world.

“The dire boar won’t have caused me to jump up enough experience to level sooner, will he?”

“Probably not. Experience is geared towards Quests, mostly. You really have to grind Monsters to put a dent in it.” She idly tapped at her belt. “I’m not sure how that translates past the island.”

The whole world, beyond the island. It was hard to imagine, and I was thankful for the introductory space despite how bloody it had been. Not that it was any less of a shock compared to my existence previously, but at least they kept the wild differences to a minimum. I was walking alongside an elf. I could summon demons. I still couldn’t get the taste of boar blood from my tongue.

“I’ll be honest with you, Ren. I am certainly missing the taste of those cakes.”

“They must put something addictive in them.” She shook her head.

“I bet you there’s a shop that sells them all the time on the mainland.” I smiled at her and she rolled her eyes, her scowl briefly softening.

“Well, I try not to dream too big, trickster. But if there is, then you owe me the first handful.”

“A dozen, at least.” I narrowed my eyes out to the woods. The trees were starting to thin again, which usually meant some kind of hub or landmark was nearby. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of opportunity to save my life before then.”

“Hopefully you’ll start pulling more of your own weight.”

“Ah,” I turned back to her with a smile. “And you just said you try not to dream big.”

I almost got a brief smile out of her - perhaps my most hard fought and glorious victory so far. Although she had been pretty against the idea of our partnership, part of me suspected she was warming to the idea that not everyone was bad news. I would press her on what happened with the twelve goons at some point, but for now, the boat didn’t need to be rocked.

Whatever brief moment of camaraderie soon faded as she looked away. “You saw how quickly I dropped those two. You need to be more decisive and ruthless when it comes to fighting Players.”

In my mind, I remember having killed one of them, but I understood her point. An actual person wouldn’t be so simple or easy to wrestle with as a boar. Not with abilities. If we had to fight through another eight… well, I hoped now that we could single them out. The actual weight of the matter hadn’t truly sunk it yet. I had agreed to murder, but had just as easily signed myself up to be erased.

Soon the treeline rescinded to open up to a small field. To our right was a log cabin of dark wood, a simple fence surrounding it. Out on the front porch, a man was sitting. Long gray beard, checkered shirt, and worn slacks. Bare feet, which I found both intriguing as I did impractical. I raised my eyebrow at the elf.

“Quest NPC,” she nodded. “Go hand your meat to him - boar meat - and he’ll give you the next part. Completion will level you up.”

I nodded and prepared myself for the potentially awkward conversation with the not-real person. Although, I wasn’t sure where that line could be drawn. Rather than have an existential breakdown, my mouth curled up into a smile and I approached the… person.

“Greetings!” I announced, stepping through the gate and onto his property. Normally not something I’d be so forward with, but after meeting my death a few times, my personal boundaries had been shaken a bit loose.

“Evening, friend. Looks like you have been out fighting boar.” The old man gave me a wink from his chair, but didn’t stand. “I don’t suppose you have five [Boar Meat] you could trade me?”

“Trade, huh?” I rubbed at my chin. “What do you have to give me?”

He leaned forward in his chair, not really getting that much closer as I had opted for a safe dozen feet away. Just in case he suddenly developed large tusks and wanted to tussle.

“I have the know-how to reach some hidden treasure,” he winked. “Share half of whatever you find and we have a deal.”

I clucked my tongue and shot a glance back to Ren, back at the road. She had her arms crossed and an impatient scowl across her face. Not really a useful read. In turning back to the man, it appeared as though he was waiting for my response.

“There must be enough danger that you cannot retrieve it yourself, yet you trust me enough to return and not keep it fully for myself?”

“Part of the treasure is a family heirloom that belonged to my late wife.” A sadness came over his wrinkled face.

Given that he wasn’t… real, it wouldn’t surprise me than many Players found no issue with running away with whatever they found - although, now that I considered it, if they couldn’t complete the Quest without returning it then that was an artificial reason to stick to the narrative.

“Consider it a done deal, my friend.” I gave him a short bow and then retrieved the five meats from my Inventory. “For you.”

“Thank you, kind adventurer. Here, let me mark the place on your map.” He shuffled towards me and made the motion in the air, but missed the mark by eleven feet still.

[Map Updated]

[New Quest: Retrieve Family Heirloom.]

[0/1 Heirloom]

“Consider it done,” I beamed at him.

“You don’t have the required item,” he replied, a glum expression on his face.

I turned a quick one-eighty immediately, before the uncanny valley could crack at my psyche. The fact that Ren hadn’t changed position or expression this whole time wasn’t helping, but I was at least sure she was a real person… I thought. Asking her might be a bad idea. No, not might. It would certainly earn me an arrow for my troubles.

“How was it?” She asked, as I made my way back to the road.

“My sanity was already wearing pretty thin, so I think I can move past it for now and scream into the void at a later date.”

She nodded slowly, unsure how seriously to take me. “This next part might crack at your little skull too - you alright with spoilers?”

I worked my jaw. There was part of me that wanted to experience the vibrancy and authenticity of the world one step at a time, as the System intended. That small part of me had been squished into a box at the back of my mind with the lid nailed shut. Show me behind the curtain so that I may learn every trick and know the outcome of certain events. Familiarity bred competence.

“Go for it.” I gestured with my hand for the beans to be spilled.

“The treasure is being guarded by bandits - actual humans like that guy, but also System-created.” She jabbed an accusatory finger at the old man, who was now staring off into nothing.

This all made my brain itch, and I rubbed my head. “So… wild assumption here, but they come back to life - they respawn after some time? But we as Players do not?”

Ren nodded. “Huh, some smarts survived the dire boar then, trickster.”

“I’m… halfway decent at working out the background of how things work.” Somewhat true, it was part of being a magician, of course.

“That how you got Mana Manipulation to work so well already?” She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes as if I was hiding something more untoward in my backstory.

I shrugged. “It kind of hurts to use it. Perhaps I’m overextending what I should be capable of.”

She stared at me for a couple more seconds, before relenting and gesturing to the road ahead. “Sounds like the kind of bullshit a Unique Class would do. We have a bit of time before night. I suggest we rest before the Quest.”

“I submit to your more qualified knowledge.” I looked off into the woods to avoid whatever glare she was giving me. It wouldn’t do well to get caught out in the forest at dark. Already the late evening sun had started to depart, and the last thing I wanted was for one of the thugs to give me a quick death in my sleep.

She led on in silence, giving up on brow-beating me for a while. The silence was somewhat nice - having someone almost at the edge of friendship was something new to me. As fun as it was to have someone to talk to, someone you didn’t need to talk to was almost as good. There was no awkwardness to it, but perhaps my social walls had all been eroded by the trauma of the day.

Either way, I persisted, and a smile lay across my face, just as I practised for so many years.

“Here,” Ren eventually gestured into the side of the woods.

I followed her through and perhaps a hundred feet in. She stopped and pointed with her hand at a bush. My brows furrowed before realizing it was a camouflaged entrance. If she hadn’t been pointing it out so sternly, I would have walked straight past. The sun had fallen behind the trees now, and only dim light graced our position - adding to the hidden den.

At her behest, I crouched down and wormed my way inside. A small alcove had been dug into the ground - and I did mean small. Briefly I panicked that this was all a ruse, and I had just literally crawled into my own grave. Then what scant light could filter in was blocked as the elf followed.

“Move over, asshole. This was meant to be a one person thing, so I suggest you keep your ego facing the other wall. I have two hidden knives in here.”

I shuffled over and laid on my side facing the left dirt wall. Ren did the same facing the right. The dirt beneath me was rather cold, and her stern words did little to comfort me into easy sleep.

Still, after a few tense minutes expecting a knife in my back, I eventually relaxed my muscles. No sooner had I done so, my exhausted mind drew me straight into the darkness.