GEOVRU

Chapter 3

            I breathed hard as the beast fell to the ground, its existence faded away into the server's mainframe, to respawn in a few minutes. "Dang! I forgot how hard fighting was when you were such a low level." I sheathed the sword and looted the few barrels and chests that were scattered around. I had raided about three different caves in the past thirty minutes since the servers started back up, one of them was already looted clean, and the silence of the windy cave only sent chills up my virtual spine. The weapon I was using was inferior to what I would prefer, but it was the only thing I could find that wasn't an axe, which I despised so much. The damage was only 5+ which was less than the average arrow. I sighed. I really gotta start working. I had only leveled up twice, and I spent the leveling token on my maximum health and my one handed sword skill. I had remembered nearly every token I spent on the level 50 Caedes and I was trying my best to start like that, but I had already noticed that the leveling system was far more complex than I remembered and it had tons of more skills too, including the dual wielding skill, which required about ten tokens just to unlock, which I believed I was dumb to buy since I never seemed to use it. Not to mention you'd have to save up your leveling tokens to buy, and considering any token in your possession when you die is given to the player that killed you, it was a bad idea. I walked out of the cave and felt the fresh air blow through my hair. "I may never get used to that virtual air." I told myself. I viewed the in-game map and marked the closest city. 'Gidius' I couldn't teleport there until I had actually traveled there myself, it made sense, and it really forced you to enjoy the scenery of the game more. I stretched my arms. "Better start walking I guess."

I listened to the surprisingly soothing sound of my boots through the gravel path. Every step I took was like the feel of relieving a headache. A few people passed me every now and then, not recognizing me since I looked like myself. I ran whenever I could in order to get my stamina skill up, and from the looks of it, everyone else thought the same way. After all it was one of the easiest skills to master, and it was quite useful in battle. I checked my inventory once my stamina bar depleted. I checked my krex count and it read 5,987. I smiled. "I could buy a pretty good sword with that, but I'd blow it all." I thought. "I don't know, could I make enough after that to buy some armor?" I exited my menu and noticed my stamina bar had regenerated. I sprinted to a nearby cave that I thought I could plunder.

I looked around as I entered the cave. I could already hear the sound of metal clashing. I immediately ducked down and entered sneak mode, I hugged the wall and looked around a corner to see two players fighting an armored skeleton. I thought about helping them out for a few seconds, but then realized as one of them hit the other, that this wasn't a 2 on 1 match, it was a free for all. I bided my time against the wall for another minute, waiting for the two players to first kill the skeleton monster; instead I heard a giant explosion and the players screamed. I peered around the corner to see the skeleton roar and clash it's sword with its shield a few times.

"Holy crap..." I mumbled. "This thing must be strong!" I kept in sneak mode and inched around the corner. It turned around to face a large chest, almost as if it was guarding it. I drew my sword and started sneaking over to it. I watched it squat down and draw in the dirt next to a few lit torches, most likely what it was doing before the two players had disturbed it.

I got about four feet from it and took another step, staying in crouch I swung my sword with a power hit combination, doing triple the normal damage. As the sword collided with the bone I received a large notification across the top of my vision. 'Sneak Skill Increased to Level 2' I then jumped back as it instinctively swung its sword back at me. I replied to its attack with a quick dash forward and swung my sword twice more, then sweeping my feet and tripping it to the ground. I stepped on its head before it could get up and cut off its head off, killing it instantly. I sheathed my sword and read all the items on the drop list. I looked at the two glowing lights of the players souls floated there where their bodies once lied. I smiled, knowing that they could still hear me through these souls. "Sorry guys, I'd give all this stuff back to you if I knew what your usernames were." I took everything out of the list and put them in my inventory. "I will leave you your swords though, there the same as mine so I won't need them." I dropped the swords out of my inventory and left them there as I searched the chest.