Virgil just stared at the new popup, unable to think. His mind was in a craze trying to think of what this all could mean, but after a minute of reading and re-reading, he took a deep breath, and pondered his choices. His mind briefly thought back to his days on the road.
Virgil once met a man while wandering through a small forest. He came upon a river, and saw a scraggly, bearded man had set up a small camp next to the river.
He had a tarp tied up to some surrounding trees, acting as a makeshift tent, and the man stood in the water near the center of the river.
The man stood completely still, holding a makeshift spear with both hands and had it angled as if he were preparing to stab the river.
As Virgil got closer, the man thrust downwards at an angle with his weapon.
“Gotcha, ya little bastard, haha!” exclaimed the old man.
He lifted the sharp stick out of the water, and on the end of the stick was a large fish. He pulled the fish off the spear and threw it on a pile on the shore before he noticed Virgil.
“Hmm? What you doin’ all the way out here, kid?”
Virgil flinched back, and mumbled a quick “Sorry” before retreating back into the woods.
The man stumbled back towards the shore. “Hol’ up kid. You out here all by yourself? You want some fish?”
With a smile, he waved Virgil over, and Virgil hesitated, before he felt his stomach growl. For the next few hours, the two talked, and Virgil learned a bit about spearfishing.
“You gotta anticipate where the fish will be, not aim for where it is,” said the older man, as he watched Virgil try his hand at spearfishing.
“Move too quickly, and you spook the whole lot of ‘em”
Virgil nodded in response, and concentrated on staying completely still. His eyes locked on each of the fish as they swam by, and he stood with a spear in hand, imitating the old man’s stance.
It took Virgil about an hour of attempts & near misses before he had any success. He finally got it down and speared a fish, pulling out of the water & showing the old man with a smile.
The older man gave a small clap, and motioned for him to keep going. Virgil caught a couple more, and when the sun reached the middle of the sky, he chose to call it a day.
The pair spent some more time together as the man taught Virgil how to properly prepare & cook a fish.
They sat next to an open fire while descaling, deboning and cooking fish, until Virgil felt it was time to part ways.
He had no intention of spending the night with a stranger in the forest, regardless of how friendly he was. That just screamed ‘bad idea’.
The old man nodded and smiled as Virgil prepared to depart, wrapping his fish and putting it in his backpack.
“Stay safe out there, kiddo. This life ain't easy and it's not for everyone.”
Virgil’s mind snapped back to the present, and without a second thought, he selected ‘Spear’.
The window disappeared, and with a flash of light, a basic wooden spear with a metal tip fell onto the ground.
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“Huh. Well that’s strange, but also cool.”
Virgil picked up the spear with his uninjured hand, and weighed the weapon. It was perfect. The haft was smooth to the touch, and the tip of the head looked razor sharp.
Ignoring the discomfort in his right hand, he practiced using the spear. Gripping the center of the spear in his right hand, and his other hand wrapped around the lower half of the spear, he held it to one side of his body, and crouched slightly.
With one quick movement, he thrust forward, using his left hand to propel the spear.
It struck out swiftly, and Virgil smiled. He practiced for a while, getting used to the new weapon, and as he finished, another textbox popped up.
SPEAR PROFICIENCY
RANKS UP TO RANK 1: BRONZE STAR
“O-ookay, so the more I use it, the more I rank up in skill…kinda strange but I’m with it.”
The rustling of bushes behind him put Virgil on high alert, and he brought up his spear as he stepped back. The sound of rustling got louder and louder, and Virgil’s heart dropped.
Another bunny, identical to the one he had just killed, hopped out of the bushes and looked around. The rustling of bushes continued, and Virgil had a bad feeling.
Another bunny appeared moments after, and another one after that. Before he knew it, he was faced by around 12 mutant rabbits, all of them staring him down after they noticed the corpse of the dead rabbit.
“Oh shit.”
Virgil turned and ran, hearing the small swarm of rabbits giving chase behind him. Dodging trees, and leaping over bushes, Virgil sprinted, doing his best to stay ahead of the rodents while trying not to stab himself with his spear.
One of the rabbits caught up to Virgil, leaping through the air at impressive speeds and looking to chomp down on his upper arm.
On the edge of his peripherals, Virgil saw the airborne rodent just in time. He barely managed to dodge, ducking down and nearly losing his balance.
The small horde of rabbits continued giving chase, and he knew facing the group alone would probably get him killed.
For some reason, these mutated rabbits seemed much slower than the normal Earth mammals.
Appearance-wise, they looked just like normal rabbits, apart from the eyes and sharp teeth.
They hopped off the ground on their back feet, getting a bit of hangtime in the air before repeating the motion. Some of them even turned midair to hop off tree trunks as they moved forward.
Virgil barely managed to stay ahead of the group. He ducked low branches and dodged trees while doing his best to keep an eye on the beasts.
Ahead, he saw a sturdy looking branch, low enough for him to grab.
He pushed forward, nearly dropping his spear, and leapt for the branch. He barely managed to hang on long enough to get a better grip, and he pulled himself up into the tree.
A couple of the rabbits leapt into the air, attempting to chomp down on his leg as he scrambled up the branch. One of them barely missed, but the other one managed to bite down on Virgil’s calf.
With a yell and a curse, Virgil managed to bring himself to a sitting position on the branch, and with both arms, he stabbed down at the biting rabbit, spearing the creature through the skull.
The beast went limp as it died, stuck to the end of Virgil’s spear. He pulled it up and removed it from the tip with a squelch, placing it on a nearby branch. He looked back down at the rest of the swarm.
The rest of the vicious rabbits were crowded at the base of the tree. They didn’t attempt to climb or hop up to reach him. Some only stared up at him, while some kept their heads on a swivel, keeping an eye out for other dangers.
Virgil let out a mirthless laugh, leaning back against the trunk of the tree. “Carnivorous rabbits? Seriously?”
He reached into his backpack to pull out another white rag, and tied it tightly around the wound on his leg. His vision blurred slightly as he sat back, and as the adrenaline began to leave his body, Virgil found himself utterly exhausted.
“I wonder if anyone else is having this much trouble” he mumbled as his eyes began to droop.
The sun was high in the sky when Virgil awoke. The pain from his multiple wounds shot through his body as he tried to move. He began taking deep breaths, pushing the pain to the back of his mind.
It seemed to be past noon as he looked up at the position of the sun. He leaned over and looked down at the base of the tree.
The mutant rabbits from earlier seemed to move on, bored after seeing their prey was unreachable.
Virgil’s stomach began to groan with more fervor, and he laid eyes on the dead rabbit body that sat on a branch nearby.
“I could cook it, but who knows what else that’ll attract,” he thought. “I’d hate to see what the bears look like now…”
Virgil took a better look at his surroundings. The tree he sat in looked somewhat normal at first glance, but as he took a better look, he saw that the tree had many differences that stood out to him.
The numerous leaves were an unusual turquoise blue color that seemed to glitter in the light. Looking up, he saw that the trees in this area were much, much taller than any trees that had originally been near Stillport.
The thick branches that stretched between the trees would make getting around a bit safer. As he examined the trees for a possible way up, a glint of color in between the leaves caught his eye.
Beams of light shone through the canopy above, causing something higher up to give off a barely noticeable red sheen.
Virgil’s eyes shone with interest, and he slowly stood up on the branch he sat on. Pain shot through his leg and arm from his earlier wounds, but he was more than familiar with pain, so he took deep breaths and ignored it. He reached up to the next branch, and slowly lifted himself up.
He ascended through the branches for what seemed like hours. He moved slowly to avoid losing his grip or balance, which made the endeavor feel like it took forever.
He could feel pangs of hunger, and the pain from his wounds began to cause him to slow even more. As he clambered up to another branch, he got another look at the mysterious item in the branches.
It seemed to be a strange fruit of some kind, nearly identical to an apple, but with some major differences.
Virgil had a rush of energy as he got a good look at the hanging fruit. He was close to his goal, and the sight of something possibly edible made his mouth water.
He resumed his climb, and soon found himself within arm’s reach of the fruit. The apple-like fruit was the size of a watermelon, much larger than any apple Virgil had ever seen.
The surface of the apple was a red-orange color, which was also unusual, but the strangest thing was that the fruit seemed to have hundreds of small gleaming scales that reflected light.
Virgil looked up at the large fruit with wonder, and cradled both hands around the fruit as he went to pick the fruit. It was warm to the touch, and deceivingly light despite its size. The green stem of the fruit snapped as Virgil took the fruit carefully into his hands.
He was tempted to take a bite right then and there, but eating a strange, unidentifiable fruit didn’t strike him as a smart idea.
Instead, he carefully removed his backpack from around his shoulders, and placed the fruit inside. He returned his bag to its place on his back, and lowered himself down to sit on the branch he stood on.
