The world around me slowly began to come into view as I would slowly open my eyes and begin to push my head off of the grass covered forest floor. Wiping the dirt and tiny stones off of the side of my face, I would look around at my surroundings, trying to get a bearing on where exactly I was. Any idea of who I was and or why I am here evaded me and instead all I could think of was my name, Erus. I would feel my body, a white t-shirt sat atop my cheat, a pair of black pants covered my lower half and a pair of white sneakers sat atop my feet, my hair was short and out of my face comfortably and even without a reflection, I could tell I had a good face. Once personally inspection was done, I stumbled around the forest for a few moments, trying to decide on a means of survival. Looking around the area I had awoken, I was able to find a rusted copper pickaxe, a broken copper shortsword and a shoddy copper axe all laying about in the grass. Near the area of said items, laying up against one of the trees, was the body of the original owner of these tools.
The body had a broken miner's helmet on top of its head and was wearing a set of overalls and a brown long-sleeve shirt. As for pants, the skeleton was wearing jeans and had his black leather books still on. To his side was an empty backpack in which I decided to claim for myself seeing as I needed it more than he needed it. Looking up at the canopy of trees, I would notice that the white sun was currently directly over my head meaning it was around mid-day, I needed to find a shelter. Puting the pickaxe and the axe in my bag, I would carry my shortsword on my side.
I had no idea of balance or a method of use with this blade and thus holding it felt awkward. I spun it around a few times in my hands and tried to do an overhead swing with the blade, only to feel even more awkward. Instead I decided to do a piercing strike as in a stabbing motion, this way of striking felt much more natural than an overhead attack and thus it would be my attack method of choice.
Continuing to make my way through the forest, I would stop at a nearby lake to try and get a bearings of where I was. Looking in the bag once more, I would notice a map in one of the pockets I had not looked in. Opening the map, it revealed itself to be a magic item. At the top of the map it said "place finger here to imprint" and thus I did as it said. Soon the map had a new marker on it and a head appeared on the map, right next to the head was a body of water and a set of trees and that was it, the rest of the map was blank. Quickly realizing that this map was showing my current location and surroundings, I would put it away and hope that it would fill up as I traveled.
Getting up to the bank of the river, I would cup my hands and take a handful of water and drink it. I needed to stay hydrated in order to survive. With my drink of water out of the way, I would continue to explore around and not before long did I come up upon something amazing, before me sat a huge mountain, one that I could not hope to scale as of right now. Looking up at the summit, I would have to shield my eyes from the harsh sun that still sat right above my head. With this shade, I was able to see a cave entrance not too far up the mountain. Thinking that it might be a good place to hide out for the right, I made the small hike up the mountain and to the cave.
Once at the face entrance, I could see a large multitude of grass and dirt covering the walls with vines raining down from the roof of the cave and about 10 or so feet into the cave it became pitchblack. Gulping a bit, I would tighten my backpack and my grip on my sword and began to make my way into the cave. Cutting down vines as we went, I finally began to make my way into the pitch black before I tripped over something causing it to crack. Rushing over to it, I would find a set of 22 torches on the ground and some ceramic pieces. What I had just tripped over was a pot and out of it came some brand new torches. Quickly lighting one and placing the rest in my bag, I would stick it into the wall and light another to show the way deeper into the cave. As this happened, I saw many more pots, all of which I broke and was able to find some good items such as arrows, rope, and even more torches. By the time I got to the first drop, I had 99 feet of rope, 87 torches, 22 arrows, and a lot of pocket change, 16 silver and 75 copper to be exact, all of which sat in his backpack.
Deciding going down deeper into the cave was a deadly idea, I placed a torch on the wall, and began to lay some rope down for eventual return to this area. Making my way back to the front of the cave, I would be met with a small gelatinous creature that was hoping towards me. It had a green complexion and seemed to be rather slimey. Having curiosity get the best of me, I would get too close for its apparent comfort and it would launch itself straight at me. Parrying it away with my arm, I would feel a slight burning sensation in the area of contact. Though there is no time to worry of my personal injuries at the moment, what before me was the first foe I would have to face here. There was something that resonated in my head as I looked at the enemy, having been struck I had shrugged it off as a desire for revenge, but it was something far greater than that. It was as though my whole being wanted to kill this thing before me, as if my own programming was forcing me to remove this thing from my sight.
Rushing over to the blob, I would attempt to stab at it with my copper short sword, only to have it bounce off and for the blob to be slightly pushed away. Amazed by how my desires clashed with my ability, I was attacked while my guard was lowered and the gelatinous being pried itself onto my head completely covering it. As I fought hard to get it off of my head, I could feel its contents slowly making its way into my body through my ears, my eye sockets, my nose and my mouth. It started to choke me and I could feel as it made its way to my brain. Soon a crushing feeling came upon the sides of my skull and I would try to let out a shriek of discomfort as my head was being crushed by my first foe. Then a second later there was nothing, only the blackness that had been there before I had first awoken. It felt like an eternity before I was able to open my eyes once more, this time in the exact same location as when I had first awoken. Sitting up and finding a tree to lean on, I would feel my head. The slime was no longer there, but the sensation of it being there, constricting upon my head and choking me were all still there. I was breathing heavily in a labored tone, my eyes were wide open and I was holding my head in between my legs.
The trauma I had just faced seemed too much to bear and I made my way to the same lake that i had drunk from what had seemed like minutes ago. I looked down at the reflective water and saw my own tired face. I stuck my head in and just...did not take it out, I did not want to do this anymore, I did not want to have to face the pain that I had just felt every again and instead I tried to take the cowards way out. After a bit of holding my head under the water, I then flung my whole self into the water. Soon everything around me went dark once again, I could feel my lungs slowly fill with the water around me and I was finally at peace, but then I tried to breathe and I could feel the water slosh around in my lungs, I opened my eyes and struggled to try and get out of the water in time, but I couldn't. I had died for a second time.
I awoke once more, on the ground in the middle of the forest. Time had seemed as though it was at a standstill in the darkness that came from death, I opened my eyes and the feeling of breathing was something I played with first. This was the second time that before death I could not breathe. My labored breathing was still here and another traumatic event was now added to the list of things that had happened to me. I walked over to the tree I had just been sat near and threw up nothing. The sensation of throwing up and the horrid taste that came from it was there, but nothing came up, but I still felt sick to my stomach. I slowly slid down the tree and begun to cry with my head once again between my legs. This whole fiasco was far too much for me to handle, and even my attempts to get out of this had failed, I was stuck in and endless form of torture and the exit button was not where to be found.
I cried for what seemed like hours, and when I was finally finished, I looked up at the sky through the tree caps and saw that I was the evening. I jumped up hastily, if during the day something akin to that gelatinous creature roamed around, what kind of horrors could come attack me in the night. I gulped down the welt that had appeared in my throat and quickly threw the back on my back down onto the ground. I quickly removed a torch from my bag, lit it and stabbed it into the ground. The next thing I did was grab my short sword and put it through a belt loop on my pants. If I ran quick I knew it would fall out, but it was better to have quick access as opposed to rotting away in my bag even further. I then grabbed another torch and lit it, night had fallen.