Kopius rested on a low shelf of rocks eating a carrot, bathing in the sunlight and listening to the gentle sounds of a flowing river. Roughly twenty feet down a grassy slope, spattered with knee-high boulders, a large river ran through the landscape.

Judging by the shadows, Kopius guessed that he had passed midday a while back and that he had been headed west when leaving the valley.

Across the river, towering above the distant treetops, a great mountain range dominated the horizon. He could make out various white peaks, along with tree lines, but the mountain was a long, long distance away.

North, Kopius decided. Its jagged peaks gave Kopius foreboding chills, as it looked like a place where winter never ended.

But I'm not headed that way, Kopius reminded himself with some relief. He was told to go down stream–east by his measure–which he was now thankful for.

Trees had become less numerous as he had gotten closer to the river. Dense forest and shrubbery led way to more open fields of grass and flowers. There were many large boulders that looked as though they had been pushed out of the earth; thousands of pimples on an otherwise beautiful face. The roots of trees often snaked their way across the rocks until entering the soil again.

Kopius had expected to come across at least one monster, or beast he would need to kill. He hadn't encountered any animal larger than a deer and the ones he had spotted were too quick for him to get any kind of specific details.

In his gaming experience, this part was supposed to have basic things to fight and gain experience points from. A few easy targets to level up a couple times. What he had gone through was nothing short of a nature walk–well, run, in this case.

As Kopius scanned the area across the river again, he noticed three mounds in the tall grass. What he had thought to be boulders, he could now make out to be animals of some kind, moving toward the water. Even from a distance of at least a hundred yards, they looked the size of small buffalos. Squinting, as if it would help zoom in on the creatures, he saw each of the three animals had two large circular disks where antlers would have been on a moose.

They didn't look dangerous from this distance, but Kopius would be happy with them not noticing him. To be sure, he took some tentative steps back behind the closest boulder that would give him cover hoping the river was too far to cross, or that they would just stay on that side.

He waited for a little over five minutes as the three animals meandered their way down to the water. The larger of the three approached the river and took a drink before the other two joined.

Just needed a drink? Kopius thought to himself as he watched earnestly.

He scanned his own side of the river, anxious at the thought that he had missed other camouflaged creatures; nothing stood out. He jerked his head back to the trio when he heard the high-pitched sound of an animal in pain.

At first he couldn't make out what was happening as large amounts of water splashed and sprayed. The animal on land, the biggest of the three, charged into the water, acting like it was going to ram something. There was a loud crunching noise like a large tree branch snapping in half as Kopius's view became clear.

Something had come out of the water and grabbed one of the smaller land animals, trying to drag it to water. The charging animal had somehow stunned or killed the water creature with its circular antlers, dislodging the one captured.

The two buffalo-looking animals lurched and scrambled out of the water as fast as they could, before all three sprinted away once they reached land. Kopius, surprised by what he had just seen, now noticed something floating awkwardly downstream. It looked like a large misshapen, waterlogged piece of wood that would spasm randomly.

He continued to watch the object until it washed on his side of the riverbank a few hundred paces downstream. A long reptilian-like creature pulled itself up the shore using its two front appendages. Once it had fully emerged from the water, Kopius could make out that the creature's two back legs were being dragged along, unmoving. After making it a few steps out of the water, the beast collapsed to the ground. It lay there motionless.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Kopius felt his heartbeat pick up, already knowing what he would do next. He looked around as though to find a clue, or some excuse to 'not do it'.

"That thing is obviously injured," Kopius whispered. "We can just go up and around, avoid it all together."

He summoned a sword into his hand, and then grabbed the hilt.

We don't need the weapon if we are going around, Kopius reminded himself.

Maybe we should go over there.

For what!?

If nothing else, we need the XP.

"Blah," Kopius grumbled to himself.

"Fine," he stated aloud, ending the internal debate before it could go any further. He needed the experience.

…and this thing might be dead before I even get over there.

Kopius paused when he was roughly twenty paces from the immobile creature. It was slightly obscured by the knee-high grass, but he could see it nonetheless. It had a long black torso with various, random spikes about its back. A short, stubby tail flopped slowly, the only sign the thing still had life. The head of the creature was diamond shaped. If the thing had been sand colored, Kopius would have guessed it was an extreme version of a bearded dragon.

"Still alive I see," Kopius whispered. He summoned a baseball-sized rock from his inventory and held it firmly. "Let's see just how alive you are."

He hurled the rock. It missed via overthrow and skipped into the river with a small splash. The animal showed no signs of noticing.

A bit rusty, Kopius thought. He twirled his arms a few times to give it a stretch. But that's why we grabbed more than one.

He summoned a second rock to his hand and this time it hit the mark. Hitting the thing center mass, the creature flopped wildly. Its tail flapped violently and in its struggles the animal flipped onto its back. Without a moment to consider his next move, Kopius grabbed his sword he had stuck in the ground and took off running. In five strides he was on the beast.

From what Kopius knew about lizards, their underbellies were the weak spots; the soft spots at a minimum. Before the creature could bring itself upright, Kopius took his butterknife of a sword and skewered its underside.

The beast squealed and bucked–its tail swiped but missed Kopius's legs who danced around the assault. He pushed his weapon harder using the pointy end to pierce and poke with the dull blade as best he could. The monster bucked and whipped with each stab until the sword found the heart and pierced it.

The thing shuddered, whimpered, and then went limp. Unconvinced, Kopius stabbed it a few more times just to make sure. Blood streamed out of the large gash and pinholes spraying Kopius in the process while soaking the ground and surrounding area. Satisfied, he stuck his sword in the ground and hunched over triumphantly.

"Well," Kopius said, catching his breath. "That was exciting."

He was about to examine his kill, but paused when a blinking indicator started flashing in his peripheral vision followed by that bell sound again.

Ding-dang

A brief sense of accomplishment passed through him as he opened his profile page. Next to his name was the number 3.

"Nice," Kopius congratulated himself on the new level.

All I have to do now is find other, immobile, half-dead monsters to kill and I'll hit level 10 in no time. Kopius gave a brief laugh, knowing this was about as easy as it would get.

He returned his attention to his kill. The animal, if it could stand, would have been slightly taller than himself. Its black body was hard and scaly, much like aquatic lizards. Its face resembled a snake and judging by its long row of teeth, Kopius assumed the animal was able to open its jaw very wide. A chill ran through him as he wondered if this was adult size or not. Its dark complexion was perfect cover for stalking prey from beneath the water's surface.

Now that he was only a few short steps from the river in which the beast had emerged, he felt… unsafe. He wanted to put some distance between himself and the water, but dragging the heavy creature would be a chore.

There were no good handholds, and the slippery nature of its skin made gripping it near impossible. He tried to lift the creature, soaking his shirt in the process, but couldn't get it off the ground. He considered grabbing the animal by its exposed rib cage, yet the angle was all wrong.

Kopius finally settled on taking his two swords, ramming them diagonally into the underside of the animal's head and creating two handholds. It took a good twenty minutes, but Kopius managed to drag the beast back to the rock shelf he had been sitting on.

He cleaned his swords in the tall grass before returning them to his inventory. After drinking from his waterskin, Kopius came to the conclusion that this dead animal would work well as a place marker. He reasoned that it was large enough to see, and that as long as something bigger didn't come along to take it, it would be here on his return. Most likely, he would smell the rotting carcass before seeing it.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.