Legeron was still badly injured from the previous fight. The wounds were slightly different then if he had experienced it in the real world. Once the damage had been dealt the wound immediately stopped bleeding.
His village shirt had also been damaged causing durability to drop to zero. 'Useless piece of garbage' Legeron cursed in this head.
"You look like you got in a nasty fight boy. I would get some healing drafts or food if I were you." Madam Muya said giving him a once over.
Legeron shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I don't really have the money for that right now."
"Well if that's the case go see Glinar. He's the local craftsman around town and always has work that needs to be done." She turned her back to Legeron as she prepared the bucket to descend into the darkness below.
He responded by saying thank you and began walking. Looking at the flask in his hand he pulled up the Personal Menu. On the front was a tracker of his vitals. Currently he had 35 HP remaining and there was also a bar for food and water consumption. Obviously the developers want to make this game as real as possible.
It was a small village so it shouldn't be too hard to find a workshop around here. After a few minutes of leisurely walking eventually he found a sign for a workshop with sound of work being conducted inside.
The sign read "Dawrven Engineering" being tall Legeron had to duck under the door frame to enter the establishment. Inside was an assortment of different workstations from a forge to a carpenters bench. Inside were three figures. Two were younger human boys probably around the ages of 12 to 14.
The other was ripped dwarf. He stood no more then 4 feet tall with a long black beard that traveled half down his body. He currently wore black goggles that rested directly on top of his bulbous nose. His biceps were same size as his thighs. His frame stood over and anvil masterfully crafting a few horse shoes that were way to large for a horse.
The boys quickly ran around completing tasks around the shop as well as handing things to the dwarf as he requested them.
"I'm look for master Glinar." Legeron spoke as his words faded behind the distant sound of metal hitting metal.
A loud voice responded over the rhythmic pulse of sounds. "Well, yer in luck." The hammer stopped and the dwarf turned toward Legeron. "I don't know about master but I'm Glinar. What might I be doing for ya laddie."
"I'm currently looking for work. I was wondering if you had any?"
Glinar gave Legeron a good look until he finally spoke up, "Ye look like a strong young lad. How bout yu grab that axe right there and fell me a tree. Been needin the wood for a project of mine and the boys ain't strong enough to be handling that without my aid. I'll pay ya 10 copper a tree ya fell. Wha ye say laddie?"
A prompt appeared in front of Legeron.
Tree Fellin
Description: cut down 5 trees and drag them back to Dwarven Engineering.
Reward: 50 cp, 20 XP
Do you accept?
'Yes' or 'no'
Legeron responded, "yes. I definitely could use the money right now."
"Fantastic. Go ahead and grab that equipment right there." As Glinar pointed his finger towards the wall where a skinned leather sack lay with an axe hanging off its side.
Legeron went ahead and grabbed the equipment and left the building. The sound of rhythmic hammering continued. Luckily the tree line wasn't too far away from Glinar's shop, approximately 200 feet. Still this was going to be a boost to his strength score.
After a minute of walking Legeron arrived at the first tree. It's had to be at least two feet in diameter and taking a look at the other trees they were all pretty much the same. In his old life he remembered having to cut down a number of trees for Christmas. But he had a chainsaw back then.
Looking at the 30 feet tall tree he had his work cut out for him. He first grabbed the rope and began climbing.
Having to stop every few branches to catch his breath he became slightly frustrated. He understood that all skills had to start from the bottom but this was ridiculous. A thought crossed his mind. He remembered that he couldn't have climbed a tree in real life without the air of a ladder. Thinking back now he hadn't climbed a tree since this way since he was a little boy.
Finally reaching the midpoint of the tree he tied the rope around and fastened it. Climbing back down was almost just a laborious as climbing up. With only a few more feet to go he jumped landing on his feet. Immediately his legs buckled slamming his knee into the ground.
Pain shot through his body as 5 points disappeared from this HP. He stayed in that position for a few minutes feeling the pain slowly subsided. With out the adrenaline of battle, or the sensation of adrenaline, dealing with the pain was much worse. However, he did notice that another substat had appeared, acrobatics.
Legeron returned to a standing position grabbing the dangling rope. He pulled the rope towards the angle he wanted and tighten. Taking a stake he hammered the rope into the ground.
Now for the hard part. Walking over to the equipment he grabbed the axe. It was sharp. The edges looked smooth and shinny. Glinar must have recently taken the metal to a grinding stone and finished off by polishing it.
Swinging the axe the steady rhythmic crack of wood breaking under each strike filled the air. The process was tiring and he had to stop every few minutes and wait for his stamina to regain. Around halfway through the first tree a his stamina regeneration dropped significantly followed by the feeling of cotton mouth.
Pulling up the personal menu Legeron noticed that his water levels had dropped to 1/4 there total giving him the condition dehydrated. This game even simulated dehydration. It was almost as if Thomas had been takin from Earth then put straight back in it.
Difficulty, pain, hardship wasn't what he signed up for. This isn't what eternity should feel like. Or should it? If everything was just given to him would he even want to live forever. Plus in this game he could level up his skills allowing him to do far more then he could have ever done in the real world.
Pulling out the flask he took a long drink. The water was actually refreshing and cooled his body. How did they manage to program all of this. Was this a program or had he died and gone to heaven...or hell? Did he actually die?
A familiar orb appeared next to Legeron. "Is everything alright?" The cybernetic voice asked, "your data is showing unusual patterning."
"What do you mean by unusual?"
"I am not sure. My programming has yet to run into this abnormality."
"I was just contemplating if this was actually reality. Or if I had actually died at all."
"I can assure you that you actually died. If you need physical proof I can show you."
"No, no, no. I promise you that isn't necessary."
"Are you sure? You seem to be in a philosophical loop that I could easily end."
"Trust me it's over."
"Understood. However, I would advice that you don't think of such things in the future."
"Why?"
"Your processor is struggling to handle these concepts. If I had to guess you are almost experiencing the equivalent to a headache but into a digital sense. I'm not sure what the ramifications of this would be."
"Right, I'll try my best Oracle."
"Please do." The ethereal orb disappeared once more.
With his water levels replenished Legeron returned to the task at hand. After another thirty minute passed the axe embedded itself into the tree and a creaking sound resounded. Legeron quickly pulled the axe back out and moved away. The tree remained standing.
Walking over to the rope which still held taut. He proceeded to rip the stake out of the ground and pulled with all his might. The creaking resumed and a sound tearing boomed as the remainder of the tree's base finally gave way.
The tall tree immediately began falling in Legeron's direction. Reacting quickly he dove to the side, proceed to role and come back onto his feet in one fluid motion. He heard the a sound come from behind him.
Legeron turned around to see a human woman dressed in simple leather armor slowly clapping. "Impressive job noob." The stranger giggled.