Welcome to Eden: A LitRPG/Fantasy Gamelit, page 3
“So that’s half human, half Elf?” He asked.
“Yes,” Cath replied curtly.
“And what does that mean?” He probed for her to give more information.
“It means that the result may have traits from either or both of the Humans and the Elves,” She replied almost sarcastically.
William sensed that he wouldn’t be getting anything more from the newly cagey ball of light. “OK, let’s do it then. Half human, half Elf it is!” He announced with celebration. His vision faded to black as his character creation came to an end.
Chapter 4
William opened his eyes – his physical eyes this time and was instantly awestruck with his surroundings. As his mind took stock of his new reality, his senses awoke with the sounds, sights and smells of nature. He was sat in a small clearing in a sort of woods. Trees towered above him in all directions, not so dense as to blot out the bright sunlight but enough to restrict his line of sight to just a few hundred yards.
He looked at his legs outstretched before him, his feet wrapped in cloth and the light fabric was also handily draped around his most embarrassing parts. He had awoken exactly as the visage of the character Cath had shown him previously. He gently fingered the tip of his ear, confirming that it was indeed slightly pointed. Standing up, he completely absorbed all of his surroundings at once – it was truly a wonder that this was a virtual world when he could have absolutely sworn that the grass beneath his feet had grown warm from his contact.
William took a mental stock of everything that surrounded him and what he should be doing in this precise location in Eden. There was nothing of particular note in his immediate vicinity, so he took the opportunity to start exploring his new reality.
Firstly, he drew a cross on the floor and marked each arm with a ‘N’, ‘S’, ‘W’ and ‘E’ to denote the points of a compass. It was always good to know which way was up. Walking in a straight line from each point he then took two hundred short paces forward. This would give him a roundabout circle of discovery with a diameter of four hundred paces – some quick mental arithmetic and rounding of pi led him to the conclusion that he had covered an area of about one hundred and twenty thousand square paces – which he mentally converted to square feet at a rate of one-to-one – which, if his memory served him was about the area of two football fields centred around his compass.
At each extremity of his straight lines, he made a demarcation of sorts with whatever he had to hand. At his North and South he had placed a circle and triangle of rocks respectively, at East he had dug a shallow hole in the soft ground with his hands and on his Western point he had arrived through a thick overgrowth to a river at two hundred and twenty paces. This had taken all in all about an hour but it had given William the chance to really get his bearings in the new and strange surroundings. As he had walked and worked, he had noticed the sun moving subtly farther from its apex – if he had been on earth he would have guessed it was the late afternoon and soon dusk would be rolling in.
During his narrow exploration, William had not found any sign of civilisation in any way. He did not know how far the forest reached or in what direction would be the quickest way out. It was for this reason that he had decided to stay exactly where he was until nightfall – then if any lights or fires shone from any direction he would know where to go. Until then he would have to stay put.
Ever prepared, William decided that he would need to make shelter if when night came there were dangers to face, or if there was no clear direction to go in and he had to stay put again. He began to collect fallen branches wherever he could find them and bring them back to his compass at the centre of his area of discovery.
Some of the branches had begun to be swallowed up by the vines along the woodland floor, as William collected them, he also pulled the vines back as far as he could before ripping them apart. By the time he had finished collecting, William had hundreds of branches piled up at his compass and many lengths of vines beside them.
Lashing the branches together with the vines, he began to build an apex frame from the ground, fashioning his very own wooden tent without any material other than what Eden had provided for him. As he finished lashing a makeshift door together, the sun had all but fallen and stars had become visible in the sky. It was all just so beautiful.
With nothing to do but wait, William admired his handiwork. He had found a large tree trunk that had also fallen some time ago and dragged it outside of his new home evidently to be used as a campfire bench – the last thing he needed to do now was build an actual campfire to fully justify all of those years his parents had forced him to attend the Scouts.
Without stone or bricks in the near vicinity, he decided the best way to contain a small fire and stop it spreading to the surrounding foliage, would be to dig a hole in the dirt. Without simple tools this proved to be an arduous and dirty task, but he accomplished it nonetheless – dirty nails and all. William had created his very own campsite and he was so proud of himself that he smiled.
With the sun completely gone at this point, William knew it would be an opportune time to search for signs of civilisation around the forest. With dense trees in all directions it would be impossible for him to see farther than the few hundred feet he had already explored, he had already come to the conclusion that he would have to climb a tree to see where he was and in what direction he should be travelling. He tentatively tested the lower branches of a nearby tree which seemed to be thicker at the base than its neighbours – indicating that it probably would be taller too - and worked his way slowly up to the groupings of thicker branches above.
Surprisingly, although William hadn’t climbed a tree since he was about seven years old, the process was definitely easier than he had imagined it would have been. His hands seemed to reach out naturally to the next branches and the next and he’d had no problems in pulling his own bodyweight up and around the thick trunk. When he had reached a small ‘T section’ of branches around ten feet from the top, he noticed that he could now see for miles in every direction over the top of the surrounding treelines. The darkness didn’t hinder his eyesight nearly as much as he assumed it might have done.
William could see that the forest that he had started within was perfectly round, but the thickness of the trees and their leaves made discerning any further detail impossible. It was miles across and gave no indication of life within from his new vantage point.
Willing his eyesight to let him see further, William squinted at the landscape in the distance. There were indeed fires far away, betrayed by their pinprick of distant glow. In all directions in fact there was something to be seen, somewhere to explore that had whispered its secret of life to William. Smiling to himself in triumph, he retraced his steps back down from his perch and stepped once again onto the soft earth with a quiet crunch of twigs underfoot.
Surrounding himself with his rustic tent, William lay on his back, planning which direction the first light would take him. Something bugged him as he closed and opened his eyes which would undoubtedly have prevented any feasible slumber - a small red light in the bottom right corner of his vision that wouldn’t go away, even with his eyes completely shut.
Focussing on the light, it grew and morphed until it changed into lines of text inside a transparent box with a red outline. The more he focussed on the text, the more it overlaid itself onto his vision and obscured the world in front of him. Experimenting a little, William realised that he could move the box around his field of vision just by willing it. He was even able to scroll through the text as it spilled over the constraints of the floating box, hidden by a ‘more’ arrow. William silently read through the text:
Welcome to Eden.
This notification system is only visible to you, it is being projected directly onto the rear of your retina.
Following the short welcome message, it appeared to William that his antics in this world so far had actually borne some fruit:
You have gained a skill point in Non-Combat Movement: Climbing
Current Level 1: Beginner
You have gained a skill point in Crafting: Woodwork
Current Level 1: Beginner
You have gained a skill point in Exploration: Mapping
Current Level 1: Beginner
‘So I can increase my skills without having to grind my ass off?’ William thought to himself as he read the prompts. He wondered what these skill points and skills actually meant, as the text didn’t really seem to give much away. It lacked descriptions, traditional XP bars and the level ‘Beginner’ seemed to mock him somehow.
William began to make a plan for the morning. Before he could do anything, he would need to find something to eat – he had already started to get hungry. He was pretty sure that he would be able to drink from the river, or at least boil the water if he needed to – it would basically be a limitless supply. Perhaps he would be able to do some fishing while he was there, ‘are there even fish in this world?’ he thought to himself. Questions about Eden and what the world may behold swirled in his mind as his fatigue pushed him over the edge into a quiet, dreamless slumber.
The next morning William was awoken by the brilliant warm sunlight filtering through the gaps in his little wooden tent. It caused him to blink a few times as he allowed his mind to piece together just where he was. His back and neck ached and one of his arms hadn’t woken up yet from where he had slept on it and he grunted as he rubbed at it to return to his control.
‘Why did I sleep in the game?’ he thought to himself as he internally questioned why he hadn’t just left Eden. The thought passed quickly into irrelevance though, as he remembered the pangs of hunger he had already begun to feel again.
William hadn’t really thought about how he was going to go about fishing, without any equipment or tools to make any. His initial thought had been to make a spear of sorts and try his luck at spear fishing, however he wouldn’t be able to craft a spear without something capable of sharpening wood. He remembered the walk home he used to take from school in his youth and that when he held a penny along the brick walls of the neighbourhood front gardens, he would often sharpen that into fun but sharp shapes as the edges wore down.
Picking up one of the straighter left-over branches that he had previously collected, William began to walk in the direction of the river keeping his eyes peeled for any rough rocks or something similar that he would be able to use to sharpen his stick. Luck, however, was not on his side as he reached the riverbank with nothing but his blunt stick in his hands. ‘Why must this be so difficult?’ he whined to himself as he sat hungrily down by the water’s edge peering into the clear water.
Noticing the red light flashing at the edge of his vision again, he focussed on his notification window. It expanded to fill his vision once again and he noticed two new icons at the top of the window.
Hungry
Thirsty
‘I could have told you that,’ William thought mockingly. ‘No more information than that then?’ It was strange to him that there wasn’t an explanation accompanying the prompts - as he was used to being told the reason behind nigh on everything in games, or at least the resulting reward or penalty. As it was, he certainly was hungry and thirsty and if he didn’t know any better, William could have sworn that his movements felt sluggish as he had made his way towards the river. He had also noticed that his throat was exceptionally dry, as though he had just woken up in the morning and the heating had been on all night.
Without a way to sharpen his spear, William decided to at least make sure that the river water would quench his thirst. Working on the assumption that in this virtual world, it would probably be ok to drink straight from the river as it would be free from the deadly microbes of the real world, he cupped his hands and lifted a mouthful of cool, clear water to his lips.
As soon as the water made contact with his throat he felt his hoarseness loosen, leaving him utterly refreshed. Eden had provided him with the perfect water source, not that he actually liked to drink water or anything, but this had been one exceptional mouthful.
He took his fill of water from the river and cursed the fact that he didn’t have any bottles or containers to save any for later.
As William knelt in the bank of the river, reaching for his fifth handful of water, he noticed in the reflection of the still surface a tree on the other side of the river, about fifty feet away. This tree seemed more vibrant and wider than its kin around it and if William wasn’t mistaken, was absolutely laden with shiny red apples. This could be the answer to his hunger problem and lack of adequate fishing equipment or skill. Without hesitation, William stood up and walked into the river. The water was cool but uncomfortable as it lapped at him lazily. When he reached the centre, the water was too deep for him to still make contact with the riverbed, although he could still see it beneath his rhythmic breaststroke, it was at least a few feet from his reach.
The wade-swim across had given William a kind of inner peace as he afforded more than a few moments to take in the absolute beauty of Eden and the beautiful silence of the absence of humankind.
His prize was indeed apples. In fact, what must have been hundreds of perfectly formed, shiny red apples hung from the branches of the tree and plenty more sat on the ground beneath, obviously undisturbed since they had fallen.
William picked up one of the grounded fruit, examined it and bit into it with little caution. The flavour was nothing but the perfect apple. Apple juice filled his mouth entirely, re-enforcing his sense of taste and smell. As he chewed on the apple’s delicious flesh he smiled to himself, unable to contain his delight at both actually finding food and the exquisite taste of it.
He collected two handfuls of apples and carried them back across the river and the short distance back to his campsite. He now had food (making sure to check that his hunger status had disappeared - it had), water and shelter. His clothes still wet from the journey across the river, he decided to finally make a fire.
You have gained a skill point in Non-Combat Movement: Swimming
Current Level 1: Beginner
You have gained a skill point in Hunter-Gathering: Foraging
Current Level 1: Beginner
You have gained a skill point in Crafting: Fire
Current Level 1: Beginner
The effort that he had put into creating his new fire was rewarded doubly, as his last notification told him he now had the ‘fire’ skill - whatever that would come to mean, of course teamed with the ability to dry his soaked attire.
There were a few things that William still wanted though. Lacking both a way to cross the river without having to get naked every time he returned was top of that list, followed shortly by a way to gather up and carry those apples.
Using his apparent skill with the branches and ivy, it didn’t take him long to make a raft, a long pole to pilot said raft and a basket that would probably be able to hold at least two dozen apples - give or take. In hindsight, after having dragged his new raft the short distance to the river he wished that he would have actually made it at the riverside to save his energy.
The next time he arrived at the apple tree, at least it would be a much easier task to cross and collect.
It was.
William smiled happily as he stepped off of the raft and onto dry land before the great apple tree. He bent down and picked up the closest apple to him, however when he arose with it in his hand he was greeted by what he could only describe as the mother of all spiders.
Character Sheet
Non-Combat Movement
Crafting
Climbing
Level 1 (+1)
Woodwork
Level 1 (+1)
Swimming
Level 1 (+1)
Fire
Level 1 (+1)
Exploration
Hunter-Gathering
Mapping
Level 1 (+1)
Foraging
Level 1 (+1)
Chapter 5
William took two shuffled steps back, almost immobile as he fully appreciated the horrific spider. It was at least three feet long and stood a proud two feet off of the ground to its full height, even if he hadn’t hated spiders with every inch of his being, this beast would have terrified him. Each of the eight legs resembled serrated blades with a needle point, as though the creature wouldn’t be deadly enough without them.
The spider parted its mandibles and let out an unholy shriek that reverberated off of the trees and the very forest behind William. Raising to its back legs, the spider began to make its opening move. Within milliseconds, the huge fangs affront the spider’s head were soaring through the air towards William without any fear of consequence. The apple the only thing in William’s hands to defend himself with, he leapt backwards out of reach of the spider’s deadly fangs and hurled the in offensive fruit with all his might. To his surprise, the apple burst on impact with one of the two larger of the spider’s eyes. The spider was visibly enraged but otherwise uninjured as may well have been predicted. The apple had not served any purpose other than to immensely piss off the deadly creature. Seeing his error, William promptly turned his back, and began to run as fast as his legs would carry him towards the riverbank.
As he willed his legs to shift his weight faster and faster, William could hear the multi-eyed, eight legged freak leap into action behind him. The water was so close, he knew if he could only make it he could get back across to the other side and the spider wouldn’t be able to keep up its pursuit unless it could swim. He stooped to pick up the long branch he had fashioned to power his raft as he passed it and thanked his lucky stars as it didn’t slip from his sweat-soaked hands, and leapt through the air onto the beached raft. The power of his landing coupled with his forward momentum pushed the raft fully into the water with ripples emanating from the rear as it began to float onto the river.
