The Empires Rise

It only takes a couple more minutes before I am finally "gently" deposited onto the land right in front of the house. A notification immediately takes my attention away from my surroundings, giving me a small message.

- Welcome to Corenthia. While we know there is a lot that you need to take in, we highly recommend that you look around your new home before proceeding inside. -

Immediately after that, one more screen pops up in my view.

- New Quest:

Welcome to Your New Home:

While this is new for you, to find yourself stranded and alone in a world with fog all around you, know that not all is lost yet.

Objective: Scout around your new home and note what might be helpful.

Tasks:

Walk to the four cardinal direction points near the edge of the territory (0/4)

Find potential food sources (0/?)

Enter the hut (0/1)

Rewards: ???

Special Note: There are always higher possibilities for rewards based on completing the quest. -

After receiving my first quest in what I feel is PUN-ishment and laughing at my terrible joke, I quickly look at my menus to see that there are now three tabs. The first is my status, the second is the materials tab, and finally, the third is the label "Quests."

I mentally clicked on that one and saw the same thing as the notification in front of me. Shrugging my shoulders, I close out of the menu and look around my surroundings. I must figure out which way to go first; I head towards the southern border.

Since I don't see anything in my immediate vicinity, My gaze wanders around, and I can see just above the water line is a thick fog that hinders any further sight lines. Then, looking up at the sky, I can see the sun, and it feels like the time is getting closer to about 10 a.m.

As I am walking, I smell something pleasant. Looking around myself, I spy a small bunch of flowers. Some of them are blue, red, yellow, and orange. As I get closer, I cast analyze on them.

- Small patch of flowers: Has an unknown effect when used with Enchanting. It can also be used in other professions. Edible -

Reaching down, I grab a couple of them as they have piqued my interest when I hear a "Ding" in my head. Curious, I look over my different menus to find my quest has updated one of my tasks.

- Task: Find potential food sources (1/?) -

Noting that down, I continue towards what appears to be a large body of water. I don't smell any salt in the air, meaning that it is either a fresh body of water or that something in this world could prevent it from spreading out to me as I am now only 200 meters away from the beach.

As I approach the beach, it becomes harder to walk as it becomes more sandy, making my footing a bit unstable. Once officially on the beach, I hear another "Ding" in my head. I quickly checked on it.

- Task: Walk to the four cardinal direction points near the edge of the territory (1/4) -

I pump my fist into the air as I know how far I have to go to have scouted a direction when suddenly I feel a sharp sting on my leg. Looking down in surprise, I notice a crab attached to my leg. I hear another "Ding," and a notification enters the side of my vision, stating that I have lost 1HP from the crab attack.

Scrambling to detach the crab from my leg so it won't be able to do more damage to me, I drop everything in my hands and quickly pry it off. I hurl it as far as I can when I remember that I can cast a spell.

With it landing about 4 meters away, I quickly cast an arcane shot. When I release the spell, it goes wide of the crab, landing in the sand, causing a small amount to burst into the air. Another notification on the side of my visions lets me know that I have used two mana points.

The crab gets its claws under it and starts to scuttle towards me. Noticing that I dropped my staff and thinking it will at least be a good cudgel if I run out of mana, I again use an arcane shot to shoot before it comes too close.

Not used to using magic, I miss the crab again and another two mana spent. Looking at the crab that is now able to snap at me with its pincers again, I try to avoid getting snipped and am barely able to step back from it due to my poor footing on the sand. Pointing again, I cast an arcane shot at it and hit it. With that hit, a notification on the side of my vision tells me I have dealt 5 points of damage.

Seeing that I did 5 points of damage, I looked down and saw that the crab is not moving. And another notification appears, this time right in front of me.

- Congratulations, you have killed a level 1 small sand crab. Reward: 1 Experience point -

After closing that one, there is one more that appears immediately after.

- Congratulations, you have killed your first monster. Reward: 1 Small Wooden Equipment Chest -

I click to close it out when suddenly a tiny box appears at my feet. Knowing it is my reward from the notification, I quickly open it to find a small set of spiked red boots. Quickly, I analyze them.

- Boots of the Small Sand Crab: Provides one defense against attacks at your feet and ankles. Adds one damage to kicks. -

Note: Boots made from the carapace of a small sand crab. It is a bit spikey. Try not to kick your shins. It will hurt. A lot."

Closing out the window, I decided to equip them since my current shoes aren't doing much. Once that is done, I analyze the crab.

- Small Sand Crab: Dead; Can be parted out for different professions. Edible -

With that, there is a "ding," I know my task for finding potential food has increased by one. I go and pick up the herbs I dropped and grab the crab. With the south side completed, I head back to the hut to drop things off outside.

Once I get back to the hut, I realize that I shouldn't leave things outside, so I walk around to see if there is an entrance, only to find that there isn't any currently. Finding that odd, I tap on the hut, which is solid all the way around. Giving up after a while, I decided it would be best to continue on my journey to get the other 3 points dealt with before it became night.

Following that thought, I head to the north, and not seeing anything on my way, I reach as far as I can go, and there is another beach and what appears to be a small dock to the west on the northern border. While I see it, it is hard to tell if it is in any working order or repairs are needed. Reaching the beach, though I get another "ding," means that I have reached the point in the north.

Instead of heading directly back to the hut, I explored more around this dock. Getting within 30 meters, I find it is in a state of disrepair. Having lightly investigated it, I do get a "ding" again. A little confused, I look at my log to see what has been updated.

- Task: Walk to the four cardinal direction points near the edge of the territory (2/4)

Find potential food sources (4/?) -

I am confused about why I would have gotten four on finding potential food sources. I think it over quickly before nodding my head in realization. It must be because the two bodies of water might not be connected and might have different types of fish or vegetation available to eat.

I continue my journey around the edge of the territory. Eventually, I build the courage to get closer to the fog wall, preventing me from seeing what is on the other side. Walking within 2 meters of the wall, nothing has happened to me, yet when I finally decide that I am going to touch the wall of fog. Upon reaching out, I am stopped by an invisible wall.

Confused, I try to push on the wall, and it won't budge. Seeing that I won't get anywhere with that route, I continue walking until I get too close to what feels like the middle of the west side of the territory. Getting the "ding," I know I have reached the point. Not having noticed anything of use to myself, I make my way back to the hut.

Seeing that nothing has come to take the crab I have brought back or the herbs I picked, I leave them there and continue heading towards the east. On approaching one of the hills, I stumble on a pile of bones, thinking not too much of it.

I continue up the hill. When I reach the top of the hill, I hear a rattling sound. Looking around, I find that the bones that I didn't think much of start to get up and are making their way up the hill. Since they are far enough away and moving slowly towards me, I quickly analyze them.

- Skeleton: Level 1; Health: ??;"

Seeing the unknown health, I quickly look at my stats to see where my health and mana are.

- Health: 5/5

Mana: 7/10 -

Doing the math, it has been about 5 hours since I had the battle with the crab, meaning that I have only recovered three mana points and one health point in that amount of time.

Realizing that my regeneration levels are atrocious makes me a bit concerned about whether I have to conserve my mana just in case of an emergency, but now isn't the time to think of that. I start casting my spell, and I miss it with my first shot as it goes wide and hits the ground at the bottom of the hill.

Looking at my hands and then seeing the staff, I facepalm myself, and I decided that the next one would be cast through the staff, and hopefully, it would be a more accurate shot. After sending the magic through my staff and pointing it at the skeleton, I strike it in the rib cage for two points of damage.

The skeleton staggers from the magical blow, and several ribs fly off. Knowing that I only have enough mana for one more shot, I send it through my staff, and in my panic, it just misses the skeleton.

Out of mana, the only thing I can do is swing my staff at it and hope it will do enough damage to kill it again. Going down the hill, I approach it and swing my staff at it just as it comes into range, and as I am swinging, I stumble as I take a step to finish the swing.

With that, the skeleton gets close enough to slash at me with his hand and with me already having stumbled with my swing. Taking one step back, I quickly swung at the skeleton again and hit it with a notification telling me it was for 4 points of damage. Looking at where I hit it, I saw that I smashed its skull, shattering it. Following the death of the skeleton, my battle is complete, with a delicious reward awaiting me.

- Congratulations, you have killed a level 1 Skeleton. Reward: 2 Experience points. -

I analyze the now re-dead skeleton.

- Skeleton: Dead; Can be used in multiple different professions. -

After closing out of this screen, I received another message.

- Congratulations, you have leveled up the Analyze skill to level 2. -

Thinking about it, I decide to leave the bones here for now and continue, but at a much slower pace, towards the edge of the territory.

It takes me another 40 minutes of climbing up several hills and going around some of the steeper sections to reach the point where I hear a "ding," that is also when I notice, at the edge of the fog wall, a cave in the cliff face.

Looking closely, I notice that there is enough space from the wall to go inside and make a quick turn to avoid going into the fog right away.

I look at my stats to see where my health and mana are at.

- Health: 5/5

Mana: 1/10 -

Seeing that I am still incredibly low on mana, I call it a day and return to my hut. On the way back, I found a large patch of bushes with berries. I then analyze them while noting that they are a deep red, like the color of blood.

- Manaberry: Can be used in multiple different professions. Edible-

Seeing the name manaberry and another "ding" gets my hopes up. Grabbing several, I pop them into my mouth and receive a status effect.

- Manaberry: Having consumed a manaberry has increased your mana regeneration to a rate of 1 per hour. This is retroactive for any points that are still regenerating.-

And with that buff, my mana has increased to 2/10. With that exciting news, I continued on my way back. While going past the skeleton, I grab some larger bones to bring back.