In the opposite direction from where Girisia had a meeting with death, Spoon with the smelly robe donated by Girisia on his body, led the band of other eight victims of Giriisa's quest experiment on a hunting quest to gain experience and learn more about this world.
Among the group, only three of them had a makeshift spear in their hand that was fashioned using a long bamboo and a knife that Spoon purchased by pooling in the money he earned during his farm work. While the remaining players held support tools like ropes and some bags with camping equipment.
The place they planned to explore was the mountain on the back side of the village which was a famous hunting spot frequented by the villagers. It was information found by a player from the villagers with some help from his approachable personality.
Climbing the mountain on a slope was seemingly harder than expected.The only respite for this inexperienced group was the existence of the hangers, which they can use to hook themselves on to prevent any fall.
But nature is always unpredictable and the stones will crumble under their feet from time to time causing the players to slip. For this reason, Spoon with another spear wielding female player called Amira33 took the lead.
They used the butt of the spear to check the path ahead for any loose ground and this method of their work.
Spoon just felt glad that nothing bad happened before they adapted to this situation.
"I fear someone is going to die if we keep going this way… are you sure that there are animals living above?" Asked the female player names KungFuCheater to the man walking in front of her.
"Why worry, have I ever been wrong?..." The male player named CoffeeHater assured. "You never saw those hunters earning loads for animal leather. If you had, you wouldn't be questioning me." He boasted.
"Don't start any drama here, I thought you guys were over it." Amira who was the one leading this group, reprimanded.
"Fu, Spoon has already confirmed the validity of this information. And if we don't take the initiative now, those tutorial players will soon leave us free ones in the dirt." She reminded her fellow teammate with a general sigh. There was some regret in her, if they had not left with Spoon, they would have also been raking in experience like the player in tutorial areas.
On hearing the hidden frustration in Amira's voice, Spoon, who scaled the mountain alongside Amira, justified his choice in a calm voice. "Well let them enjoy the early benefits for now, eventually they will be forced to join those camps and hence will be limited in missions they can do and where they can move. A weakness we won't share with them." With a look of confidence, he looked at Amira.
Leading the player these days has generated some leadership qualities in him and Coffee Hater was not alone in collecting the information. He too has learned some details from the miser farm owner where he worked before.
"Joining the mercenary union is better than joining the military of any of the two camps, our freedom will be respected and our jobs diverse." He assured his team members.
From his days of experience in this game world, Spoon understood that everything in this game world had open ended structure and there was never a right way to play the game.
A player in this world is only limited by his or her imagination. And Spoon has learned about this the day he approached Girisia and saw how insidious the NPCs of this world can be.
He even wanted to thank that mysterious NPC for that experience, and the only way he knew how to thank someone with that smug expression was to stab him to death with his spear.
But killing that NPC hat brought them together will come later, he had read in the forums how famous he is at the moment, so he is not as stupid to follow through on his party's goal so early.
First he wanted to earn money, a resource more important than experience for the free player. As while tutorial players were getting free food and lodgings, the free players were like nomads. And the fee to join the mercenary union was also astronomical to him and his party.
And he was not alone who thought of this. This was the common belief among all the players and due to him purposefully spreading Mercenary's goal information on the free-player forums, most of them after finding the goal, also walked on the same path.
Due to these events, spoon has also started to become a small celebrity among the free players.
"The life of a mercenary huh?... Going where the money leads you and becoming a gun for hire, Man would that be fun." A player cheered at these prospects, a dream that was shared by the majority of Spoon's party members.
"Hah! Well that's still far off for now, let's focus on our current mission." Spoon said. The free player didn't have the luxury of tutorial players, they needed to learn how to survive in this harsh world on their own.
"Let's reach level five at the very least before beta ends."
"Well, I hate to say this, but you are right on that Spoon." Amira relented to Spoon's reasoning. And their journey upwards continued.
The time it took to reach the midpoint was not long and they stopped for a short rest after finding the rest spot built by the hunters who frequented this path a lot.
Spoon's group slowly entered the area one by one, all sighing in relief together. But this moment of respite was short lived.
"Watch out." Yelled, Amira after her eyes caught a white figure flashing in the corner of her vision, but it was too late already.
This white figure was the native beast that lived on the steep mountains, called Garut. This was a beast that has cultivated a habit that it found a lot of fun, which was ramming the humans with its horns and throwing them off the mountain to their death.
And a player who was the last to enter the rest area, named DingusBerry became the victim of their playful gesture. No, it would be better to say, he tried to reach the area, before he was thrown off the mountain and toward his death.
"HELLLLP… MEEEEEEEE'' His death cry echoed.
"Wha... That cursed sheep killed Berry."
The confusion was short lived, As the unarmed players moved to the back of the armed ones and took out some small stones from their bag to be used as throwables.
Player dying was nothing new in their community, but for Spoons group, this was a rare occurrence. For now, they need to face a threat, which would become their first fight as a team.
"Everyone, take your positions, let's check if our tactics work… And remember to not fall off the cliff." Spoon ordered, as he along with other spear users cornered the sheep. They didn't plan to let their first hunt leave so early.
"Just wish, this doesn't become a team kill." Kungfu commented in an inauspicious tone.
*****
From success to failures, from expectations to disappointments, from thirst for love to hating everyone and from his desire for a peaceful life to a pathetic end. Girisia has gone through everything, but never willfully.
But this time was different, it was his choice to go on the reconnaissance mission after he feared getting suspicions fall on him due to his own hubris.
As for the dangers these missions posed to him, Girisia, though worried, still had something as his support.
His two passive skills, one which warned him of danger while the other made him more durable.
And his belief in these two skills caused him to get arrogant. And this arrogance nearly killed him.
"Well, I have stabilized him for now, but if nothing is done soon, his situation may deteriorate." The field doctor told Tarkov after he took off his coat with hands that were covered in blood.
"Of course he will live, he's a Karabit, any of our blood bags will work on him." Tarkov pointed out.
Girisia has suffered grievous damage in his run for life, with the more severe damage done to both of his hands that were nothing more than small stumps wrapped in bandages.
But as if fate didn't completely hate him, most of Girisia's organs didn't suffer much damage ever after the trauma he experienced and this became the reason why he was alive for now.
"Don't talk like an idiot, captain, the blood loss was so bad, the lack of oxygen circulation did a number on his body. I still don't know why he didn't face organ failure." The doctor said with some confusion on his face.
"I am sure of one thing, this man has never walked on the transcended path, even his first limit remains sealed. For someone of his stature to survive, they would need a transcended level of vitality, which is impossible." The doctor explained his reasoning., which surprised Tarkov.
Too many odd things have happened to him during these few days, the immortal beings that were the anoman's were just the first of them and knowing from his experience, someone that can live among these anomans will probably not be normal.
The man in front of him was old, at least compared to him. With his thin stature and low hunched back, Tarkov would never consider Girisia to be a threat. But he also knew how wrong his assumption would be.
Never judge a person from the way they look, he had learned this the hard way as a kid. So even if Girisia looked harmless, Tarkov would never put his guard down around him. At least not after what he saw happen in the video feed and how Girisia killed a mature Siren using only a scrap weapon called boomstick.
'Crazy snake.' This was the title Tarkov came up with after he saw the scene recorded by drone multiple times.
He was sure about one thing, Girisia was not a greenhorn in the field, though a coward, but he knew how to fight.
"Gnusotnqu#*vun@nva" A garbled voice of a woman came from Tarkov's side, attracting his attention.
And there she was, Tara, unharmed and undamaged, even her clothes seemed cleaner than before, while there was still the wrist bracelet that Girisia told her to hold on to.
"Captain, we lost the other signal." Shouted a logistics officer from the main tent.
"Don't worry, we already know the location where they are, we just need to move out and clean them up. " Tarkov shouted in frustration.
These anomans were giving him creeps, bizarre abilities such as item retention after death felt unnatural to him. He wondered, how could the mayor conscript these bizarre beings in his army.
But knowing the increasing gore nest so close to Riber city, he understood it somewhat.
"As for the other bracelet, stop the tracking on it, we already have it back." Till now the logistics have been tracking Tara's bracelet from the stomach of the smaller siren that ate her left hand.
"Oh.. Ok captain." The officer said after giving a side glance to Tara who was alive and well standing in front of Tarkov, but most of her attention focused on Girisia.
"You… what are you doing here, leave this place at once, the patient needs some rest." The doctor warned Tara as he removed her from this place.
And she didn't stop the doctor, her face was fluctuating between different emotions, from anger, to frustration, to relief and to fear, such a wide variety of expressions as for why those conflicting emotions were forming in her heart. Even though she didn't know how to feel at the moment.
At the very least, she didn't fail her quest, even if she was stabbed in the back by an NPC she called Uncle once.