Let it be known, I did try to stop him, for the record.Dario. Dario, my man, my brother, you and me, between us two there's a hatchet and a prayer—"I have a *dagger*." He said like that mattered. "This is worse! "A dagger is worse!"
He was not listening. He was already low-crawling through the grass toward the tree line, the way you'd picture an assassin should move if assassins were also, apparently, incapable of basic risk assessment.
I looked down at my hatchet. 6 durability. I pulled up my stat sheet, a pure stalling instinct.
**Name:** kenistoocoolforu69
**Class:** Fighter
**Level:** 1
**STR:** 4 | **AGI:** 2 | **END:** 2 | **DEX:** 1 | **MP:** 1
**HP:** 55 **MP:** 15
55 Horsepower. I didn't know if that was good or not. I had a feeling it wasn't going to be good."System," I whispered, "What happens if a level 1 dies to a D rank.
**Death imposes a temporary cooldown on respawning (30 minutes), reduces durability of all equipped items by 10%, and drops 5% of your carried currency at the location of death.**
"Ten percent of 4200 was 420 coins gone, just like that, for the crime of being an idiot." Cool. Awesome. Love that for myself.
But the thing about being seventeen and just logged into your first VRMMO with your first ever in-game friend already committed to a fight is that you don't really get out. You just bitched the whole way there." Which is exactly what I did, hatchet in hand, jogging after a guy I'd known for eleven minutes.
---
But close up the Ashback Boar was bigger. Like, really, really close. Its tusks alone looked longer than my entire forearm. It had this low rumbling growl I could feel more than hear, some kind of audio design choice somebody definitely got a bonus for.
**[Ashback Boar – D Rank]**
**HP 320/320**
Three hundred twenty. My hatchet did 3-5 damage a swing.
I did the math out loud, not on purpose. "That is like... eighty hits.""We're not just doing it with hits," Dario said. "Look."
He went wide around low and I knew what he was doing. He wasn't trying to damage it, he was trying to its back. Assassins apparently got some kind of positional bonus, something about crit chance from behind. I didn't read that far into any guide. I had been too busy planning my genius wood cutting strategy that had become extremely irrelevant in the past three minutes.Ken! Aggro it!"Aggro it with *what*, my awesome personality?!"YES, YEAH, IN FACT, THROW SOMETHING, SCREAM, I DON'T CARE—
So I did the most stupid thing I ever did in my life, real or otherwise. I throw my hatchet at a 320 HP monster.
**[Hit! -4 HP]**
[Ashback Boar HP: 316/320]
It did, in the sense that the boar's head snapped toward me with an expression that I can only describe as personally offended. It worked in another sense, I was now unarmed, in an open field, and charged at by something the size of a small car.
I never ran faster in my life, virtual pain settings be damned. "DARIO THE PLAN—" "THE PLAN WORKS, THE RUNNING CONTINUES—"
The plan didn't seem to be coming together at all. It was like I was about to be a warning YouTube short "Warrior Dies Day One (Gone Wrong)".
But then I heard it, the sound of fabric tearing and then a notification I'll remember for the rest of my in-game life.
**[Dario dealt 210 damage! Critical Hit!]**
**[Ashback Boar HP : 106/320 HP]**
The boar tripped, let out a scream no real pig would ever let out, and then turned on Dario instead, which, honestly, fair. He'd just gotten two-thirds of its health in one hit from behind.Ken, the hatchet. FINISH IT WHILE IT'S ON ME, GET THE HATCHET—"
I didn't think. I just moved in. I grabbed the hatchet out of the grass where it had fallen, ran in as the boar was utterly occupied trying to gore my new best friend, and swung with all that my pathetic four strength points could muster.
[Critical Hit!]
**[Ashback Boar HP: 0/320]
**[Ashback Boar down!]**
The boar turned light, like everything else in this game, and left a small pile of loot on the grass, as if nothing had happened. As if I hadn't just about had a heart attack at 10% pain setting.
[Quest Completed:??? - Kill a Rare Monster]
**[+500 XP]**
**[Level Up! Lv.1 → Lv.4] **
**[Item Drop: Ashback Tusk x2, Boar Hide x1, 340 C]
**[Rare Drop: Hunter's Hatchet - D Rank]**
I stared at the notifications for a full ten seconds before I could even process them. Level 4 1 eliminate. technically off one accidental kill, my main contribution being "loud target" and "lucky final hit."
Dario fell onto the grass laughing so hard I thought his character model might glitch.You threw your weapon at it." He gasped. "You had ONE gun and you threw it away."It did the trick!"It should not have worked at all! That's not a plan. That's a cry for help!"
I bought the Hunter's Hatchet, a real D rank weapon, well above anything I could've bought for weeks, and turned it over in my hands. Damage stats alone would make my little 800 C purchase look like a joke."So," I said, still trying to get my breath back, though I hadn't been breathing anything real really. "As for that whole 'go slow, don't outlevel my friends' plan..."Yeah," Dario said with a grin. "That's dead. The minute the boar appeared, that was dead.
He was not wrong. I was level four with a rare weapon and a new friend and exactly zero of the ten trees still cut. Somewhere in the back of my mind I could already hear my friends, a month from now, asking how I'd gotten so far ahead without them.
I hadn't had a good answer for yet. I just knew it was going to be a real long summer.
*To be continued...