Frankly, if he had a choice he would have simply walked the way to the city, come out and continued on with life, but life had a way of playing with him, in this case a game. Jake had spawned right on a road leading to a huge city. Practically, this was where he was meant to go, get quests and achieve enormous fame, that was if he was a normal player.
Under the cool weather, walking the distance did not take long, even when he had stopped to admire the realism of the world he was in. He had reached the city gates and had been asked to pay the gate fee which took the whole amount that had on him. He had passed the first gate and arrived at the second gate, when he was required to state his class and reasons for visiting 'Albone City', not that .
Perhaps it was his class that made him end up in this lazy excuse for a prison, a dried up well, which was dark and hot, though he had to admit was a brilliant idea. The well was a deep one, he could barely see the light coming from the top. Knowing that trying to find a way out was a pointless endeavor, he decided to go to the real world to rest, then come back to check whether he had been set free.
"Exit"
No response, though he had expected it. He now he had to now abandon his plans and wait out his prison period. He was about to sleep when a rope was thrown too him. Questioning the sudden turn of events, he grabbed the rope and struggled to hold on as he was dragged up the approximately 50 feet distance.
The first thing he saw was a player, players unlike NPC's had a symbol on their forehead which only other players could see, he considered making a run for it until he saw the armed man giving him the dare-you look.
"Player too, right?", this was him lame attempt to get the other guy to talk, he would anything to get out of that hot place.
"You're freaking me out, man!"
"Yes, why are you asking?", he was finally talking.
"Please, can you let things slide and let me out of here?", Jake said putting out his hands in a peaceful gesture.
"No", he said, keeping his entitled princely pose, Jake had already taken begging to be a lost cause.
"Just let me go, I just spawned here, I would never come back again, I promise!", he practically felt like crying, not even up to one hour in the game and he was already begging someone for his life.
"No"
"I would do anything for you, anything! Just let me go!", this was Jake's last resort, but he had to watch as he walked way while guards grabbed him and dumped him into the well. He was shocked barely recovering in time to squeeze his legs to absorb the impact as they were taught in school.
Staying would not do him any good, and though he was not an avid gamer, he would be losing valuable levels, skills and experience and since, it was worse for him due to his lateness. He tried to logout again, the same result.
It was now that the sounds of fighting started, and his worry increased, if those who started the fight were invaders, that meant they had enough confidence to win. Though the chance of them looking into wells was slim, he did not be a sitting duck when that happened.
Climbing the wall of the well was nothing short of suicide, plus his nails would be cracked which would impede his escape. He could also wait out and see how things played out. There was no reasoning when faced with two options like this. Though waiting was not his thing, he had to adapt to it which meant he had to plan for the most possible scenarios with death bring on the high end.
There were rocks in the well, and though he had been exceedingly lucky that he had not bashed his head when he had been thrown down, he was not sure for those who might come after him. Making preparations without resources was basically his secret power, since he assumed that most of the invaders would be wearing armor and would come using ropes, with sharp objects failing horribly against metal, blunt rocks would be the weapon of choice, in the constricted space their damage would limited if used in melee, serving no other use than to be thrown, .
It was at this point that the fighting seemed to have stopped, as he hurried to finish his preparations, without it, his chances for survival were laughable. He made palm sized holes in the dry soil and hid in what seemed like a blind spot, if he could avoid a fight, he would.
He had thought that since he had luck up till this point that the voices of men arguing above the well would pass, and then he would continue with his life. The arguing slowly reduced and then the sound of metal clanking as they went. Slowly coming out from his hiding spot, he then saw a man coming down the well, he quickly went back and reduced his breathing. Apparently, one of the men had decided to check the place out for any treasures.
Wishing his hands would stop shaking as he realized he was in a kill-or-be-killed situation was not helping him. He knew his best chance was now when the man was still coming down, if he did not throw now the simple outcome would be him dying. Trying to steady his hands as he fumbled with a stone in his hand and losing it, he took another stone with his sweaty palms and threw it, hearing as it shattered as it hit the wall. He held his breath, as the man looked around in, and continued coming down,.
He felt like an assassin as he held another smooth stone in his hand, if this one did not connect, he would be gone, and of all things, he did not want to die early. He imagined himself in slow motion as his drew his hand back and launched the stone. He could har the stone whistling and then connecting with bone with a snap. The man screamed as he quickly abandoned all sense of safety and jumped down the remaining distance.
The sound of metal hitting the ground was a way better result than what he expected. He had expected for the man to continue his descent with only a wound on his leg, after which he would have difficulty moving over the holes, after which he would finish him off. From what he could gather, the stone had hit the ankle of the man. The only thing separating them was the hot air, and with the heavy breathing from both of them, the whole place was filled with tension.
The man tried to stand up, but his heavy armor weighed him down. Jake sat down as he listened to the struggles, he felt weak, the whole action had sucked away all his energy. He glanced at the rope which the man had used to climb down and then looked at the man.
He felt sick, if he killed this man, he may have killed somebody's father, brother or even husband and though he had to admit that the man was greedy, if he had the chance of getting rich by just simply looking into a dried up well, he would had done the same just to escape from poverty. He then remembered, he was in a game, the realism had made him forget. The whole reason for him buying the game was for money, so he grabbed the rope and began climbing.
Fifteen minutes later, with no water and food for almost half a day, plus almost killing a man and after climbing a rope that had seemed to have no end, he felt like dying. He stopped to rest for a few more minutes, he did not care about someone from the battle coming over to see him, for all he knew he looked dead. His arm muscles were trembling, he could not even move his hand if he wanted to, both of his palm's skin had been peeled. His body reeked of sweat, he could not even believe he was able to breathe the air around himself when he was in the well, slowly his body slid into hibernate mode.
The sound of metal clanking woke him up from his sleep, he could remember that sound anywhere, the sound of the soldiers who had captured him. It seemed that the princely player had hid and survived. Without wasting any time, he got to his feet and ran. He did not care about the parts of his body that were sleeping, all he needed were his legs. He ran past carts, and houses. He even tripped on a dead body, but continued running, anything to not go back to that well.
The amount of arrows shot at him surprised him, some even landed near him. He threw away the stones in his pockets, any weight apart from his own was a burden. He did not know how he did it, or perhaps the well was near, he had reached the city gate. This time, without anybody around. His breath was getting shorter, he had never felt so tired, his lungs were even paining him, he just felt like giving up and the ground had never looked so comfortable.
The arrows had already stopped when he rushed past the second gate and into the road, then into the forest by the side. He would rather take his chances with the forest than to be captured again.