Will kept on running and running nonstop for days. He cannot remember the last time he ran at all. But the fear and adrenaline coursing through his body made him unable to stop running. Everywhere he went there was always something out to kill him, whether it be crocodiles, swamp monsters, ogres, snakes, poisonous frogs and so on.
{HP 1/50}
{status: Mining fatigue, poison, bleeding, weakness, blurred vision}
After receiving the poison debuff from something, his HP started to dwindle a lot faster than before. Maybe even a slap would be enough to kill him. The weakness and blurred was from his thirst and hunger bar effect. He hasn't eaten or drank anything in days.
Both his thirst and hunger were dangerously low. He could feel his stomach trying to eat him, and his throat was dry. It only got worse by the second. There was no hunger or thirst bar like in Minecraft or Rlcraft. It is like real life when a person feels hunger or thirst.
Something inside told him he wanted to die rather than to continue suffering like this, but at the same time he didn't want to die again.
The fact that his HP did not reach 0 despite still being poisoned and bleeding told him that the guy who created this system is a sadistic bastard.
His body reached a point where he could no longer go on.
Tired, thirsty. weak and hungry, he fell on his stomach, covering his entire front body in wet mud. He had no idea where he was right now.
The swamp was devoid of any life, except for some small insects, and some small animals like poisonous frogs and such. The swamp was large and spread out for miles.
In any fantasy swamp there lived crocodiles, alligators, snakes, ogres, and so on. But in this particular area, no such monster could be seen.
Will felt his eyes were closing by himself. He fell unconscious, barely alive with only 1 HP left.
Had he known, he would have rather killed himself right now than to continue suffering. He hoped that someone or something would put him out of his misery, so he can respawn and start all over. He didn't even have the strength to kill himself.
And there he was, all alone.
*Whistle*
A beautiful whistling noise could be heard echoing across the swamp. Followed by the noises of a horse trotting, a guitar being played rhythmically along with the whistling, and a carriage being pulled.
It was a middle aged man, with a long, black beard, with his hair also long, dark and braided. He sat comfortably on his carriage, which was being pulled by a dark horse. He played his red guitar as he sat on the top of his carriage.
The horse was all black, except it's hooves which were white. But from stepping on the mud, his white hooves were covered in mud.
The carriage seemed very luxurious and expensive. It was made out of mahogany. It was covered in expensive jewelry. With a delicate handwriting that was made out of gold and silver. It was not in english or in any other known language on Earth.
It seemed luxurious and expensive, but if one looked closely, it had been damaged by weapons recently, scratched by monster claws, slashed by swords, and pierced by arrows.
And since it was a carriage and they were going through a swamp, the carriage hit some obstacles which only further damaged it.
The middle aged man stopped playing his guitar, sat up, stretched out his arms and legs. He observed the area around him.
"Don't you just love this, Esmeralda? The swamps are beautiful, the sounds of poisonous frogs echoing, and not a monster in sight, and a dead body of a young man is lying there…"
The middle aged man continued to observe Will's body just lying there on the ground. He scratched his beard.
"Hold it."
The horse stopped and so did the carriage.
The middle aged man took out a modified handgun from his hip, which had an unusually long barrel. He aimed it around him. After confirming no one was there, only did he jump down his carriage,
He kept his guard up. While pointing the gun at Will's head, he walked slowly towards him and kicked him softly a couple of times.
"Are you dead, son?" His voice was low and gave anyone the impression that he was a powerful, domineering man.
The man then kicked Will's body again which made Will fall on his back.
The man searched Will's body for anything dangerous, or anything at all. Noticing that he was losing blood, and also several traces of poison bites on his legs and arms, it was a miracle that the young man before him was alive.
"You're alive, but barely… god. How are you still alive?"
He looked at his carriage. Should he or should he not put him inside the carriage? It was not that he didn't trust Will, it was merely for other reasons that he did not want Will to see what was inside the carriage.
Not wanting to let someone die or taking any chances that Will is possibly a trap set up by his enemies, he grabbed Will with both his arms, and dragged him all the way to his horse, and put him on top of Esmeralda.
"You okay, Girl?"
"Neigh."
"Thatta girl. Come on, keep walking. Before anybody sees us, especially 'them.' And we better get out of this swamp before this kid gets a disease or something. After all, he could be useful." He smirked as an idea popped on his head.
Were it not because he found a shortcut, he would have not taken the risk of travelling through this swamp.
Just like that, they carried Will with them.
Will did manage to open his eyes just a little. The only thing he saw was the ground moving. After that, he fell unconscious once more.
…
*Splash*
Will was woken up when water splashed down on his face.
"Cough, cough, cough."
Some of the water entered his nose and it choked him.
"Good, you're awake."
It was the middle aged man. He purposefully grabbed a bottle made out of leather, and splashed some water on Will's face. It was the only thing he could think of that could wake him up, kicking and screaming did not seem to work.
"What, cough, the hell?, cough. Where am, cough, I?"
Will did not know what to expect again. What cruel things were to befall on him this time? He just hoped that it wasn't another sea monster or dragon.
"Before you say anything, look at your body." The middle aged man said as he took sips from the leather bottled water.
Will instinctively looked down, and he couldn't see anything due to how blurry his vision was. Rubbing his eyes did nothing. It was as if he was legally blind.
"Water, so *cough* thirsty!" Will's throat felt like dry cement.
"Here, take whatever's left." The man offered Will the same leather bottled water he used to wake Will up.
Will could barely see his blurry figure, left without much of a choice, Will yanked the bottle from his hand and drank it all. Only a little bit more than half of water remained, but it was enough. Will gulped down the water while some of it spilled off his lips.
Will got his vision back the moment he finished drinking. This is what happens in RL Craft as well. When a player doesn't drink enough water their vision gets blurry. It didn't make much sense but that's how it is.
Looking down his body was covered in bandages.
He looked up and saw his HP bar.
{HP 50/50}
{status: Weakness}
Even his hand, that was chewed by a crocodile, was back to normal.
"Eat and drink. This should help you."
The middle aged man gave Will some cooked meat, and another drink.
Once the scent of the delicious meat entered through his nostrils, Will became like a hungry beast and almost ate the entire piece of meat in a few bites. He was just so damn hungry and he almost chewed off his own arm.
*Gulp*
The piece of meat was lodged on his throat. Will took the drink from the old man's hand and drank it all down.
"Sigh… oh thank you so much."
{status: None}
As soon as he finished eating, his 'weakness' debuff was gone.
Will looked around. He was in the middle of nowhere. Only a plain field of grass could be seen, and also a dirt road that led to god knows where.
"Your old clothes, I threw them away. They were torn and covered in blood."
The middle aged man grabbed a pair of clothes and threw it at Will. Will caught it. The clothes were blue, looked very fancy and expensive, but also very weird looking.
Without thinking too much about it, Will put on the clothes. They were tight for him.
But that didn't bother him. Compared to the other crap he had to put up with, this was heaven.
"Thank yo-"
"If you want to thank me," The middle aged man interrupted Will, "then tell me what the hell you were doing in the middle of Lea's Swamp"
"Lea's Swamp?"
"That's the name of the swamp where I found you. Are you going to tell me?"
The middle aged man sat down with his legs crossed. He started playing on his guitar.
"I was… I was dropped off in that place."
"... what?"
"A freaking bird snatched me and I managed to escape. That is how I got here."
"Ah bird? Oh, was it an Eagle? Yeah those ones are annoying. Especially the females, they always want to feed their babies using live prey."
"..." Will had no idea how to respond to that.
"What's your name?" Asked the middle aged man.
"Will."
"Will what?"
"Will Connor!"
"Well, Mr. Connor, you have 2 choices, 1 I leave you here stranded in the middle of nowhere, and hope to god that you don't get picked up by another eagle or something worse… or you can tell me the truth and live!"
The middle aged man got his gun and pointed it at Will's head.
"Woah. wait, what, stop!" Will was frightened. One second the man helped him, the next second he's aiming a gun to his head.
"Connor, that's the name of a 'Hero' and your old clothes are not of this world either. Tell me, which kingdom summoned you?"
The middle aged man put the gun close to Will's head.
"Kingdom? What? I don't know what you're saying?" Will was only a normal man in his life, so it is not weird that he is scared when someone is pointing a gun to his head. Were it not because he already experienced multiple deaths and saw a terrifying dragon, he would have already pissed his pants and would not be able to speak at all.
The middle aged man pulled the hammer of his gun as he pushed his gun further on Will's head.
"Who summoned you? Was it the Phobia King? The Fat Empress? The Great Sage?"
"Wait, wait, wait, I don't know what you're saying."
"Wrong answer."
*Boom*
The middle-aged man pulled the trigger and the gun went off. Will's body went limp on the ground in an 'X' position.
The man then placed his gun on a holster and continued playing his guitar as if nothing happened.
"GASP!"
Will woke up still in shock. He was sure he was dead, unless he reincarnated again for the 20th time.
"Oh, good, you're alive." He chuckled as he continued to play his guitar.
"What? I'm alive… again."
Will touched his forehead where he was shot at, but there was nothing there, only a small bruise that he couldn't see.
"The fact that you're still alive means that you didn't lie to me."
"The, what, huh?" Will was just plain confused.
"My gun has the ability to kill anyone who lies to me."
"..." Will thought how useless that gun is. If it only kills people who lie to him, then it won't be able to kill many people. An ordinary gun would work better.
"My name's Clement. How did you get to this world?"
"I… I don't know either."
"Hm..." Clement kept playing the guitar as he went into deep thought.
It was an awkward silence between them. Should Will thank him or not? Is what he thought. He did save his life, but at the same time he did try to kill him now.
"Anyways… can you point me to the nearest safe place?" Will just wanted to get away from it all, he had suffered enough pain and just wanted to feel safe.
Seeing that there was nothing useful that Will knew, Clement decided to let Will go.
"Follow this dirt path. By foot you should be able to get to a small village in 2 days."
"Two days? I won't make it in the first hour without being attacked!"
"Then you better run. It's best you get there before the sun sets. Or else powerful beasts will eat you whole."
Seeing as how Clement wasn't going to even offer him a weapon or a ride, Will got up and started walking the dirt path.
Clement saw Will walking away. Shaking his head he put his guitar down.
"By god I hope he doesn't die soon. But now I have more important things to attend to. Isn't that right?"
He banged the chariot twice in a fit of anger.
*rumble*
The ground beneath him started shaking. By the second it started to get louder and stronger.
"They found us faster than I expected… Esmeralda! Go!" Clement places the guitar on his back, gets on top of his horse and starts running hastily on the dirt path.
"Goddammit. I took that shortcut for nothing. How did they find us already?"
Will started to run. He took Clement's advice and started to jog. As someone who has never done exercise, he started to get tired pretty fast.
"Note to self: do some damn cardio." Will was never going to get far when his stamina is on par with a fat kid with asthma.
"Kid!"
A familiar voice rang behind Will's voice.
Will looked to see Clement riding on his horse while dragging a damaged chariot.
Without even asking a question, Clement took Will's arm and pulled him up while still driving a horse.
"What the hell?!" Will did not expect this.
"Do you know how to shoot a gun?" Clement asked in an exasperated manner.
"Uh… only in games."
"Good enough. Hold this. If you drop it, I will kill you. Shoot anyone or anything standing in our way!" Clement handed Will one of his handguns. He is very serious about killing Will should he ever drop his gun.
Will has never held a gun before. It felt lighter than expected. But, how was he going to aim a gun while he's on top of a horse, moving at a great speed, with no prior training at all?
Clement climbed on top of the carriage with ease. Despite still moving, his feet were firm on the carriage as if they were nailed.
Clement saw from far away 30 men on horses coming closely behind them, an ordinary person would not be able to see them because they were too far.
He did not use any kind of spell, it was just that he had very good eyesight.
Out of all the 30 men riding on horses one stood out in particular. A handsome, blonde man led the other 29 soldiers directly towards Clement. His body build was very fit, with a square jaw, short nose, and short hair. There was also a black tattoo on his forehead, that looked like the face of an owl. He also wore shiny armor with weird symbols on it.
"Clement!" The young man yelled in great anger as he saw someone standing on top of the carriage. He could see him because of a special spell he was using.
"Shaun Quincy." Clement recognized one of them.
Clement knew that Shaun and his men were going to catch up to him. He grabbed his second gun and shot at Clement.
Before the bullet could reach Shaun, it was blocked by an invisible force field that protected them.
"Tch! Cheap trick."
Clement turned the cylinder of his gun two times, then shot the dirt path in front of Shaun.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Each time that Clement shot the ground it exploded, it was obvious he was using explosive rounds instead. It covered the area behind the carriage in dirt. The reason he did not shoot them with the explosion rounds instead, it was because he knew that it would also have no effects at all. Shooting the forcefield would only be a waste of bullets.
*Clank*
*Clink*
Two giant metal arrows, that looked like harpoons, impaled the backside of the carriage. One of the giant arrows penetrated the door, while the other one was so close to taking out the wheel.
Out of the smoke appeared Shaun and his men totally unfazed and closer than before. There were only 4 horsemen missing. Some of them tripped when Clement created those giant holes in the ground, while the others accidentally hit a tree because of the smokescreen,
"Clement! I will liberate your head from the rest of your body!" Shaun aimed a gun directly at Clement and shot, but Clement tilted his head slightly and dodged the bullet.
Clement merely smiled. He then ran back to where Will was.
"..." Shaun. He expected a response of some sort, but Clement just ran back.
"Kid, when I say 'shoot the carriage' I want you to shoot the carriage." Clement said to Will.
Will is literally lost. All this time he is just wondering what was going on. He hears some talking, then explosions, gunshots, and now this.
Clement kicked the front side of the carriage which created a hole big enough for him to fit. Clement entered the carriage to get something.
"Sir, your orders?!" One of the horsemen following Shaun said loudly.
"Pull the door!" Shaun commanded.
One of the men dropped the giant gun on the ground which was connected to the backdoor of the carriage. It tore off the backdoor forcefully, as if the weapon that was dropped weighed a ton when it looked so light.
The pieces of the door flew at the horsemen, but were repelled with the forcefield.
There they saw inside the carriage was Clement, and on his shoulder, was a young girl with blindfolded eyes, bound with chain and rope, she has long pink straight hair, and wore clothing that looked similar to Shaun's, it even had the same symbols engraved on their clothings.
"Clement! You hand back the Princess!" Shaun roared with anger. The thought of shooting him crossed his mind, but there was a slight chance that he could shoot the woman instead. It was a risk he wasn't willing to take.
Clement tipped his hat to Shaun and jumped towards his horse.
"Shoot the carriage!" Clement said as he somehow landed behind Will.
Will stretched his arm back and aimed carefully, so he would not miss the carriage or hit Clement. There was no way he could miss with such a large and close target, that is what was going through his mind.
And sure enough, he squeezed the trigger and missed. He missed the entire carriage.
"... you suck, kid." Clement said. How could anyone miss such an easy target?
*Boom*
As if lady luck was by his side, instead of hitting the carriage, he hit a large tree. There was a giant hole on the bottom, it's weight tipped over and blocked the path of the horsemen.
But Shaun reacted quickly by grabbing a small spear that was on his horse, it grew in size, and shot a blue laser from its tip right at the tree, which destroyed most of it, but not entirely.
A huge chunk of the tree managed to hit one of his horsemen and tripped him, along with some of his other men like dominoes. The forcefield could stop small objects from going through, but not huge chunks. It is mostly used to stop projectile weapons from hurting them.
And what started with 30 men, 20 were left.
"That damn Clement! First you kidnap the Princess, and now you dare injure my men!" Shaun was furious, as he was about to reach for his pocket, there was another explosion.
*Boom*
That explosion blew up the carriage, which turned into millions of pieces.
Shaun and the rest saw in fear as what was before their eyes. They saw Clement sitting on his horse, facing at them, with his guitar on his shoulder as if he were holding a rocket.
"You recognize this, right?" Clement asked as if Shaun could hear him.
"SPREAD OUT!!!" Shaun loudly commanded his voice contained fear in it. It was clear that he knew that they were in trouble.
But Clement pressed the body of the guitar, there was a secret button that was well hidden.
*BOOM*
The explosion connected with the 20 horsemen and broke the forcefield like a fragile piece of glass.
All the horsemen were gone. No one was chasing after Clement anymore.
"Hmhmhm." Clement chuckled as he patted gently on his guitar.
"You couldn't have just shot them with that from the beginning?" Asked Will.
"I could, but I wouldn't have been able to kill them all at once."
"Who is this?" Will pointed to the girl he was carrying. It is not the first time he has ever held a girl, but it was weird because she was bound with rope, and she was a stranger.
Before Clement blew up the horsemen, he handed the girl over to Will without explaining at all.
"She's a daughter of a King who I have some troubles with."
'A Princess?' Will thought.
"If we keep going at this rate, we should be able to arrive at the village in a few hours. I'll give you a ride for now."
And just like that they just kept going. Will had many questions to ask, like who were those men chasing them, and who was the Princess. But Clement stopped answering his questions and only focused on tuning his guitar.
Shaun, who was gravely injured, stood up. He saw that 17 of his men were dead, and the rest were injured.
The injuries on his face healed at an abnormal rate. A minute later he stopped bleeding and got up.
"Dammit! I should have used 'it' when I had the fucking chance. If only I had reacted sooner, if only I had better men, if only Clement didn't kidnap the Princess!"
Shaun looked at his dead men. Whether he wants to admit it or not, not taking actions quickly enough put his men in danger and it cost their lives. Everything will be blamed on him because he is the leader of the group.
"Don't stop, girl, unless I say so." Clement patted the back of his horse.
Will realized that he still had the gun with him. Instead of giving it back to Clement, he slowly hid it under his clothes.
After hours of riding, Will felt his ass become numb. This is the first time he had ever rode on a horse, it wasn't as hard as he thought, but it was very uncomfortable to sit on.
"Here we are."
They finally stopped right near a small village. It was small that there were less than 10 buildings, but there were many people living in it.
Clement pushed Will off the horse, which made Will fall on his face.
"So long." Clement placed the Princess on the horse and they sped off, leaving Will behind.
"..." Will.
At first Will thought that he should have returned the gun back to him, but now he is glad he stole his gun.
"I just want a hot bath, food, and sleep. Huh, that's weird. Why am I sleepy? Is my insomnia gone? Is it because this is a new body, or because I spend the last few days in hell. Either way, I'm sleeping good tonight… and I'm talking to myself. Great, just great."
So much has happened that he did not have the time to think things over. Heck, he didn't even have time to check out what his system could actually do.
Will made his way to the village. Not long did he hear a loud rumbling noise. Looking behind him, several horsemen, about hundreds of them, ran right to where Clement was headed. They all had the same armor and symbols as the horsemen from before.
Out of instinct, Will took cover behind one of the trees before the horsemen saw him. The other men who Clement injured and killed might not have seen his face, but they could very well recognize the clothing he wore, which also had symbols as the ones that the Princess wore.
Shaun was also there among the 100 horsemen. Will didn't recognize him because he never saw his face before.
Will heaved a sigh of relief. After making sure there were no more horsemen within his sights, he went into the village.
Clement ran at full speed thanks to his horse, Esmeralda.
"Go, girl, we're almost home." Clement reached for his holster to reload his gun, only to find that it wasn't there.
"Stop!"
At his command, Esmeralda stopped.
Clement searched his whole body and even Esmeralda. He had the Princess, his guitar, his gun, but he did not have his other favorite gun.
"Where did, how did? The Kid! He took my favorite gun!" As he was about to make his way back to where Will was, he saw hundreds of horsemen gaining on him.
"Goddammit! How are they this quick?! They're never this good." He had no choice but to leave Will for the time being and proceeded to run away.
Clement's plan was to use Will as a simple decoy to give him some more time. He purposefully gave Will the clothes that had the symbols of the kingdom that was sent to rescue the Princess.
If the horsemen noticed Will, they could have questioned him, waste their time on him, as he made his quick get-away. Not only did they not notice Will, but he had also lost his favorite gun.
He finally noticed something on the Princess's wrist, it was a crystal bracelet. It was glowing a very dim colour that was hard to see.
Clement took the bracelet from her wrist and threw it away. It was a tracking device. That is how they kept finding him so quickly.
He had the perfect plan to get away, but it was ruined because of a simple miscalculation on his part.
"I'll be back, Kid! And get my gun back!" He swore to himself as he kept running away with the Princess in tow.