"Haa, haa, haa." Atlas breathed out heavily as he sat under a tree. 'I think I escaped.' He thought to himself as he looked behind the tree. When he had made his dash towards the forest, the Ogres had completely ignored him. Not only that but he made sure to enter relatively deeply and go in a zig zag pattern.
'They're not very light footed so I should hear them first if they approach me.....I forget are Ogres known for their sense of smell? I should cover my scent....' Atlas thought to himself trying his hardest to increase his odds of survival.
Immediately he grabbed some dirt and smeared it on himself. He then found some fallen leaves and rubbed them on his body as well. 'I am not exactly a survivalist so I hope that's enough.' The young man then tried to catch his breathe.
"Status."
>>----------------------<<
System Version: Tutorial
Name: Atlas Ironwar
Mission: Survive in the tutorial plane for 22 hours, it is recommended the user hides.
Additional Notes: System usage limited due to current version, please complete the tutorial to upgrade the system.
>>----------------------<<
'Its only been 2 hours? What the fuck am I going to do? I don't even have any food or water.' He began to panic, his stomach grumbling in hunger. Simultaneously his legs were aching after that intense period of running. 'I need to get up and search for shelter at least. Hopefully there aren't any other monsters in here.'
He then shakily got up and began searching the area. His steps were light, as he tried to make as little sound as possible, while his eyes darted everywhere to ensure he wouldn't get ambushed. After about 20 minutes he stumbled upon a small cave.
'Finally some good luck.' Atlas then entered the cave. It was a bit damp, but at least it seemed uninhabited. The end of the cave narrowed, seemingly leading to something. At first he was apprehensive to delve deeper, but after a moments hesitation he resolved himself.
'I am going to be staying here anyway, I might as well check incase there's an escape route or something.' He then ventured further and further. Initially he thought it'd be an extra 10 or 20 meters, but after walking for what felt like a minute he still hadn't reached the end. Additionally there was no light this deep into cave causing him to think about heading back.
"Dink."
Just as he was about to turn away, he heard a strange sound. Almost like a treasure appearing in a video game, and then out of the corner of his eye he saw a faint glow. 'What is that?'
Walking towards the glow his eyes began to focus on the object. It was, a chest of sorts, a wooden one layered with what seemed to be a type of sparkly dust. The dust reminded Atlas of glitter.
As he approached the wooden chest seemed to shake more and more. Rather than excite Atlas this caused him to slow his steps. 'This isn't a mimic or something right?' Getting ready to run away at any moment, the young man reached his hand towards the chest.
Then it opened.
[Weightless Steel Sword FF-Grade]
Seeing the interface pop up and then looking at the plain steel sword Atlas' mind raced. He then reached his hand over and picked it up. As its name suggested it truly felt weightless, its blade was a little over 70 centimeters long and its hilt a plain leather wrap.
Looking over the sword, his mind began to connect the dots. 'The first prompt indicated to find shelter and a weapon, its likely it was a hint. It could've possibly even been how we were meant to defeat the Ogres...' With that thought Atlas waved around the sword a bit.
In truth he doubted arming their group of 100 would've made a difference, but then again numbers were numbers. And despite having no experience handling a sword before, this one's lack of weight made even an inexperienced person like him handle it with ease.
'Well it doesn't matter now....I hope some of the others survived. I am sure Bud might've figured something out.' He thought before shaking his head. There was no use thinking about that now.
'Too bad it didn't come with a sheathe.' Turning to look back at the chest Atlas realised it had disappeared without him noticing. On top of that he had reached the end of the cave.
Making his way back to the entrance Atlas looked out at the forest beyond. 'If I am to assume there should be at least 1 chest for every participant then that means if I explore further there may be more things. that can keep me alive.'
It was a risky idea to say the least. Walking around meant a higher chance of encountering a dangerous creature, it would also waste more of his stamina. Did that mean that waiting for death was a better strategy?
Atlas was a coward for sure. Running from the Ogres at first sight wasn't exactly an act of bravery, but staying in place wasn't safer it was merely a gamble. Rather than taking his destiny into his own hands he'd be handing it over to luck which he wasn't very fond of.
Due to this the young man came to his decision and left the cave