CWD: GA ~ Twelve

Nacho led his friends down the game path, crunching through the fallen leaves. The sun was warm, though the chill breeze told them that it wouldn’t be too long before the snow would begin. He could only hope they’d all be well on their way to being Tier One by then.

The cook spoke to Brie and Reuben over his shoulder. “Now, about the Store. You can buy anything. Whatever you buy appears in your Storage Slots, which you get five of. Then it’s just a matter of grabbing the items and placing them.”

“Hold up.” Brie stopped their march. Her face twisted in disbelief. “What do you mean by ‘placing’ them?”

Nacho pulled up the interface. “Wanna see my saucepan?”

Brie recoiled in disgust. “Is that some kind of euphemism?”

The cook rolled his eyes, went to his slots, and chose the stainless-steel saucepan. He then glanced at the ground, where he was shown a square box, a very game-like mechanic. With a thought, he placed it on the leaves, and there sat his saucepan. Reuben hooked his thumbs into the straps of his backpack. “Nice pot, man.”

“Saucepan,” Brie whispered softly as she eyed the metal object that had just appeared. “I figured out how to put things in. I have my wedding dress in one of my Storage Slots.”

Nacho put his saucepan back in his inventory and started walking. “Let’s keep going. I want to reach the dungeon entrance before nightfall; it’ll make for a good shelter. If I remember right, there’s an antechamber we can stay in. We can gather firewood on the way and alternate watches.”

Reuben belatedly nodded. “Watches, yeah, that’s a good idea.”

“Okay, this is real. We’re in a new world that acts like a video game.” Brie released a nervous breath. “We have skills, Storage Slots, and whatever else. Tell us more about the Store. Is it like… Am-Prime?”

Nacho nodded and turned, kicking through a pile of leaves. “It’s like Am-Prime if they sold basically anything in reality.”

“You could have just said yes, then,” Reuben quipped as his eyes flashed blue. The joking made Nacho feel better. As long as they kept their sense of humor, his friends probably wouldn’t crack completely.

Even so, he needed them to be aware of a few things. “No guns. No bombs. No handheld video games. Modern weapons and electronic devices are forbidden. However, you can buy a castle, or a castle wall, or even a portcullis.”

“Gesundheit,” Brie shot at him, cracking a smile.

“Thank you,” Nacho vollied back. “We can buy a meal, anything from fried chicken to blowfish sushi. There’s also a variety of beverages, including plain old water. The Tier zero food is dirt cheap, but that’s a trap that lulls you into a false sense of security. We’ll get to the, uh… food situation. Eventually.”

The sun was heading westward, and the air was cooling. As they strolled along, Nacho went over a list of tasks they would need to complete: he had made sure each pack contained a non-electric Grill Bears Fire Starter; he’d thrown matches and lighters in as well, but the fire starter was waterproof and worked very well.

“They have donuts in the Store.” Clearly growing comfortable with their new reality, Reuben was walking and checking out the Store at the same time. “It’s clearly part of a delicious, balanced breakfast for only three credits. This feels very science fiction-esque. Credits and such… are you sure we can’t buy a nuclear bomb?”

“Who needs bombs when you can literally buy a fire-breathing dragon?” Nacho paused to make sure he hadn’t lost track of the ramparts of the Armor Mountain. “However, the Store can be tricky, like everything else in the Juxtaposition. You can buy the dragon, sure, but you might need a dragon-training skill to keep it from killing you as soon as you place it. The Store won’t tell you that. Near the end, most of us only used the Store for Experience and Skill Points.”

“But dude, you can buy Excalibur, the ye olde magical sword of King Arthur.” Reuben gasped at the find. “A meal is three credits, but Excalibur is just over eleven hundred? It is like Am-Prime, down to the categories and being overpriced! But you’re right, the descriptions are short, cheery, and… kind of unhelpful.”

“I hated the cheeriness the most,” Brie announced behind Reuben. “In the Evaluation World, here I was, fighting for my life, and those abyss messages were all, ‘Great job! Be positive! You’re super lucky to be playing such a wonderful game!’ That pissed me off.”

Nacho suddenly felt much closer to his best lady friend as he waxed nostalgic about going through that same phase. “You’ll learn to ignore the tone. But, Reuben, check out the Character Upgrades category. That’s where you can buy Experience Points and Skill Points.”

“Yeah, I see it.” Reuben scoffed and read off what he found. “Two credits for one Experience Point? I see that you can buy Points to upgrade skills and level up, so obviously credits are the most important part of the game.”

Nacho smoothly ducked under a branch. “It’s all about the credits… once you have a full stomach.”

“But food is so cheap!” Reuben burst out, tripping as he ran into the branch Nacho had ducked under.

“That’s why you don’t access the menus when you aren’t in a safe place.” Nacho felt a chill in his belly as he realized what Reuben had just said. “Food is cheap, at first. Now take a look at the price of the Juxtaposition’s Guide to Saucy Satiation? It’s an info pack, and it’ll be near the bottom.”

Reuben whistled at the price tag on it. “Five thousand credits.”

“It’s priced not to sell.” Nacho walked slightly faster. “Specifically so that no one would buy it. By the time a player or a guild had enough money, they’d have figured out the food situation, so that info pack is worthless.”

His Healer friend started breathing harder as they increased their speed on the incline, but Brie’s Athletic Endurance had kicked in to keep her cool and poised, so she took over. “You keep saying it’s called the Juxtaposition. I know you mentioned this months ago, but what are we juxtaposed with?”

“Crazy-ville… *gasp*... and cuckoo banana-pants!” Reuben panted out loud. “I stand by my assertion!”

“Ignore the healer. Some people think it’s the juxtaposition of our former lives and our new lives, the real world and the gaming world, our old Earth and this new world.” Nacho hoped Brie didn’t ask for more. The truth was complicated, and he was suddenly reminded of Gary from the general store in the Evaluation Mall. Gary wore sunglasses, which were astoundingly cheap—two for a single credit. There was a reason for that.

His answer seemed to satisfy her for the moment, but he didn’t want to give her room to revisit the subject. Nacho hurried them along, anxious to get to the dungeon entrance as quickly as possible; but also to avoid more pointed questions. The shadows had lengthened behind them as they reached the base of Armor Mountain. He could smell the fires above—someone up there must’ve been a boy scout if they could start a fire without matches, a lighter, or flint.

They moved south along the limestone wall until Nacho found the dungeon. It was half-concealed behind the thick roots of some bizarre Starter World tree that was growing around a boulder. Its bark oozed a black substance, and pear-shaped, inky-black fruit hung from gnarled branches.

Nacho dropped his backpack into the leaves. “Time to get some hands-on experience. Keep in mind that monsters come in all shapes, sizes, and species. There are fields of monster corn and a wide-array of apple monsters that would just love to take a bite out of you.”

“Hey! Let me try accessing the System View.” Reuben winked his left eye three times, and they flashed blue. “This is an Oilbark Tree, Very Uncommon, but nothing much else.”

“You… you figured out the system view?” Nacho stared at his friend in shock, who had already started gathering firewood from beneath more normal trees.

“Ahh… yeah? What else would the triple wink thing have meant in the tutorial? That whole place was oozing with clues for gamers.” Ruben's casual answer left Nacho flabbergasted, so he sputtered and continued explaining what was different about this tree. He noticed Brie was starting to wink at the tree, her face slightly flushed. It was comforting to see that he hadn’t been the only one that hadn’t realized it the first time it had come up.

“You’ll find more Oilbarks around, but you can’t eat the fruit. If you do, it gives you the Runny Tummy Debuff, and you lose both Hunger and Thirst points for a long period of time, long enough to kill us in our current creditless states.”

“Good to know.” Brie helped her groom collect wood. and tried to act like she had known how to use the shortcut the whole time. “Why doesn’t the System View give you more information?”

Nacho snapped a stick in half to show his anger. “The Patrons want you to buy an Inspect skill from the Store. One of us might actually want to consider doing it. You can also buy an additional skill slot, so you have more room for skills, though that’s expensive.”

Reuben lugged a big tree branch over. “You can buy upgrades to skills? I saw that we could purchase new skills, and from what I understand, you can also pay to get out of skills? Like how you mentioned getting rid of my amazing Marketing skill?”

“All it means is that we need to get as many credits as possible.” Brie was getting into this, and her calculative mind was spinning at all of the new things she needed to learn. “Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but is that a watermelon?”

Nacho looked to where she was pointing, and found that there was indeed a sad little watermelon growing next to the Oilbark tree. The monstrous plant was taking all the nutrients out of the ground, and it looked like the watermelon was on the verge of death. “I think so, but… it has to be something else.”

He inspected it, reeling back in surprise at the information that popped up.

Final Watermelon (Tier 0). This is the last watermelon on the planet. Be the one to make it go extinct for a special reward!

“Good enough for me. I needed to figure out Ingredient Processing anyway. Who wants a slice?” Nacho walked over to the vine and plucked it, returning to his friends a moment later. Pulling out his knife, he sliced the melon in half, then stared at the result in annoyance. The rind went all the way to just before the center of the melon, where there was a walnut-sized section of pink fruit and a single black watermelon seed. “Nevermind.”

His friends chuckled at the worst melon they had ever seen as Nacho tried to activate Ingredient Processing on the leftover melon. He had the feeling that something went wrong when mana flew out of him and into the melon, dying the seed golden for a moment before sputtering out. “Well, this was a waste of time.”

Nacho scooped out the pink melon and seed, throwing it away from them in disgust. Then he booted the leftover rind away and flinched as he heard a huge *crack*. He whipped around, only to find that Reuben had slammed the Oilbark branch down hard enough to snap it. At first, Nacho thought he was upset about something, but upon closer inspection it appeared that the Healer was just trying something out. “It’s weird. All that walking, and I’m not hungry at all.”

Brie used her hatchet to chop through a branch. “From what Nacho said, it’s because we haven’t used our skills yet, and it hasn’t been twenty-four hours.”

“Woo, game logic.” Nacho wiped sweat from his forehead, then waved his hands jazz-style. They piled the wood at the foot of the strange tree, then added some dried grasses and leaves, and soon had a small fire going. “We should eventually buy a lantern, but for now, we need torches.”

He set some sticks from the Oilbark tree ablaze, and they each grabbed one. Anyone would think that something called ‘Oilbark’ would be great material for torches, but just like an eighty-year-old chain-smoker, they sputtered, smoked, and barely worked.

Nacho had road flares, but he wanted to save them. Brie lifted her burning brand high in her left hand and gripped her hatchet in her right. “I’ll go in first. I’m the warrior, after all.”

“My Berserker babe.” Reuben sent a smile at her that was practically glowing. “Warriors were cheap. Berserkers are rare. You’re one in a million, just like I’ve always said.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t too surprised either; she has a temper. Watch her prove me right.” Nacho agreed in a quiet voice, pitched just loud enough for his friends to hear him. One threatened him with her torch—making Nacho grin—while the other chuckled knowingly. “I’ll have my bow ready, so I won’t take a torch. Keep in mind, we’re all level zero everything. Forget winning every battle we have the option of fighting; we just want to survive Active Combat. You’ll see the System message, so just do the best you can.”

Reuben took a fresh grip on his club. “Level zero everything. That sucks.”

“You’re not wrong, but we’ll improve.” Nacho and Reuben followed Brie down the stair-like roots, descending a dozen feet into a central square chamber.

A System message flashed in their vision.

Greetings, Player!

Welcome to the Deep Buggy Darkness! This looks like your first dungeon! How exciting!

There are a variety of treasures and artifacts that can be found in the Deep Buggy Darkness. You’ll get bonuses for killing bosses, and others for wiping out every living creature! Be ruthless, Player, and fill these dark halls with the blood of your enemies!

Note: This place is deep. There is a high probability of bugs being present. There is definitely darkness. Have fun, and may your future be delicious!

“Hating the cheery messages.” Brie approached the archway, the official entrance, and peered down more root-stairs, which disappeared down into the depths of the world.

“I kinda like them! Dark. Deep. No bugs yet, but a good shot that they will appear. They really do tell us the truth.” Reuben glanced around at the big gray blocks that made up the walls and ceiling. “I’m feeling very Indiana Jones-y at this point. You know, if humans controlled this place, I bet this would have been a guard room.”

To the left was a cold fireplace with the remnants of blackened ashes inside. Nacho relaxed for the first time since appearing in this new world, setting down his bow and arrow and putting a hand inside. “I feel an air current, so this must have a chimney. We’ll bed down here for the night, and then tomorrow, we’ll start earning credits. This early in the game, we won’t earn any bonuses for running dungeons, but that changes once we need credits. Then there’ll be all sorts of incentives for bonuses.”

“From players?” Reuben asked as he unrolled their sleeping bags. “Or a system thing?”

“System thing. Stuff like running through a dungeon without armor, or completing a dungeon in a certain amount of time. I also knew a guy who got bonuses for beating a dungeon only using blunt weapons. There will be all kinds of exciting ways to die for a handful of bonuses if you want them.” Nacho helped Brie pile wood near the root stairs leading out, as well as the stone stairs leading down. The heaps of tree limbs might not completely stop anything or anyone, but it would slow them down.

Nacho had included a few luxury MREs he’d picked up at the army surplus store. “I think we deserve to celebrate surviving our first day. Salisbury steak for everyone!”

The processed food wasn’t terrible, but he could tell Reuben didn’t exactly enjoy the meal. They had water from water bottles, and… that was their dinner. Without anything else to do, they started getting ready for sleep.

“I’ll take the first watch.” The big guy twisted the water bottle cap on and stored it away with a simple thought. “Neat. I don't think we've actually said it yet, so… thanks, Nacho. For making sure we were prepared.”

Brie stretched and yawned. “Yeah, thanks. This is terrible, but it would be even more terrible if we’d had no idea what was going on. Tell me; if you’ve lived through all of this once, so did we, I would imagine. What happened to us?”

“You were at the church, getting ready for your wedding photos. I wasn’t with you.” Nacho had to force down the lump in his throat. “By this point on the first day… you were both already dead. Killed by a Dirt Devourer. Around this time, I’d killed my first monster by beating it with a tree branch.”

Reuben stumbled back, sliding down with his back against the wall facing the fireplace. He had his knife, but he’d also found a cudgel, a good-sized stick with a thick knot on one end. “Oh. Well, we’re not dead! That’s good. Brie won’t have to deal with her family, and that’s good.”

“Never again,” Brie agreed quietly. Using her backpack as a pillow, she turned away from them. “I won’t have to deal with their nonsense ever again. Free, but… sad. Relieved but hurt. On that note, good night, you two.”

Nacho wondered if she was crying. Brie was tough—hard where Reuben was soft—but he thought he saw her shake with a light sob. Then he too laid down on his side, warm in his sleeping bag, gazing at the fire as it crackled and popped. He surprised himself by falling asleep almost instantly, only waking once when Reuben threw another log on the fire. Brie took the next watch, and Nacho took the final stretch.

He kept an eye on the archway until the rising sun became a glow at the top of the staircase. Hope filled him, a warm feeling that he had tamped down for over half a year. Keeping that feeling alive, he turned and gazed at his friends, his eyes slightly watery. He cleared his throat, and gently nudged Brie, then kicked Reuben in the side. “Time to get up!”

They had a big day ahead of them.