Sunday, December 21, 2019 2:45 PM
Harry thought there was nothing that could bring him down.
After six weeks in the game, he'd surpassed his Beta Stats by leaps and bounds because he'd learned from the mistakes that he'd made in the beta version and the fact that he'd not needed to leave the game for any reason.
One more kill or a measly seventy-five Experience Points would see him reaching level thirty (he'd only reached level twenty-three in the Beta Test). He'd also mastered four Skills within the last week (Tracking, Trapping, Camping, and Escape) and was well on his way to mastering another five (Night Vision, Sprint, Searching, Fishing, and Scouting). On top of that, the rest of his Skills were all in the high six hundreds or low seven hundreds after he'd spent a considerable amount of time earning Skill Points in order to improve his effectiveness while in the Dungeons hunting for specific Monsters, Items, or Treasures.
His reputation as an honest guide and skilled tracker had grown considerably as well (also surpassing the reputation that he'd earned in the Beta Test), all thanks to Agil. The friendly merchant had taken Harry under his wing after their first trade and helped him out; sending clients his way when Agil didn't have what they needed. The man had also followed through on his promise to see to it that Harry learned enough Japanese to communicate with most of the Players as long as they didn't talk too fast (most of those lessons taking place through the in-game messenger system while the man tested him each time they met up in person once a week).
In return, Harry kept the man supplied with uncommon and rare Items for very reasonable rates and often hunted down difficult to find Items whenever the man found a lead on something new. When he wasn't hunting down Items for Agil, Harry was off in the various Dungeons within the first three floors of Aincrad leveling up and hunting out the harder to kill Monsters in order to learn more about them or guiding another Player that had hired his services (most of his clients coming from contacts that Agil knew).
He was on just one such job at the moment; playing guide and tracker for a small Guild that wished to obtain a hard to find plant that was one of the main ingredients required to create a more powerful Healing Potion.
The plant was known to be guarded by packs of nasty little Monsters called Fanged Furgrin; they were a cross between a squirrel and a troll with huge razor sharp canines that reminded Harry of a saber-toothed tiger. They stood at about three feet tall, had mossy brown and green fur that blended into the bark of the surrounding trees, and glowing red eyes that creeped Harry out for some odd reason that escaped him. During the winter months their fur developed patches of white to better blend in with the ice and snow that clung to the trees.
The nine year old had already killed three of the menaces with his snares and his clients had killed another four. There were only six more left and one of them was the boss; Foulnor Furgrin the Fanged. After the initial scuffle, Harry had left the Boss Monster for the Guild he was escorting to deal with while he led the five underlings towards his last trap since Harry's traps were far less effective against the Boss Monsters due to the rules of the game. Harry whooped and hollered with abandon as the five creatures tore after him through the underbrush that filled the forest; his entire being filled with excitement and anticipation.
Ten more steps and Harry activated Sprint to jump over the hidden spiked pit trap he'd set up earlier. Behind him, the five Furgrin ran right onto the flimsy cover of snow, twigs, and leaves and crashed beneath the surface a heartbeat later and Harry whooped again as he watched five Experience Point Windows open as all five Furgrin were confirmed dead and his Player Level rose to thirty. Laughing over the perfectly executed lure and trap, Harry checked to make certain there were no other Monsters in the area before he set about disabling the trap.
It was at that moment that everything went wrong.
The first sign Harry had that something wasn't right was a spike of blinding pain stabbing into his skull approximately where his lightning bolt scar sat on his real body. Harry paused and rubbed at his head before he shook off the pain and returned to filling in the trap. Just a few seconds later, the pain returned sharper than before to pierce him behind his scar again and at the base of his skull (where he had placed the extra NERDLES device several months earlier) at the same time and he staggered drunkenly as the shock of it took his breath away.
Icy cold tendrils of fear filled Harry; he had never before felt true pain within the game. Just as quickly as the pain came, it vanished and left Harry panting as he supported himself up against a nearby tree. The next two minutes passed by with agonizing slowness as he slowly tried to convince himself that the pain had just been his imagination. He had just about succeeded in writing off the entire thing as a daydream when a warning message appeared above his head and began flashing as it declared him an unstable element.
.
.
.
.
.
👀The novel is available in PDF, visit my Patreon store👀
🚬Patreon.com/BlackGoku222🚬