Chapter Text
The creature was only about waist-height, and a row of sharp teeth stuck out of its wide mouth. Small, white eyes watched me and its three claw-like fingers twitched. We stared at each other, frozen, until the goblin let out a garbled yell and lunged towards me. I stumbled back clumsily, barely keeping hold of the sickles. The imp wasn’t particularly fast or agile, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. I had never been in a real fight before, and while I had spent ages training against a dummy, having a moving target that struck back was a much bigger challenge.
Scrambling to my feet, I brought my weapons up into a ready position. The empty eyes showed absolutely no emotion or intelligence, but the snarling mouth kept me from attacking too soon. It jumped towards me again, but this time I expected it. Bringing one blade up to block it, I used the other to slash at it. I underestimated its size, however, and it barely grazed the creature’s skin. I tried to retreat to a safer distance, but it chased me and went for my legs. Kicking out with one leg, I connected solidly with the imp’s face and it fell backward. Seizing the opportunity, I stabbed downwards with both sickles.
The imp looked surprised as it began to dissolve into black powder, and then it vanished altogether. I had never killed anything before, but something told me that normal creatures didn’t just disappear, leaving only a few strange objects behind. As if it were something from a video game, the imp had left a small pile of loot behind, but it was the least impressive loot I had ever seen. The objects on the ground looked like hexagonal fruit gushers, and I had absolutely no idea what they were supposed to do. They glowed faintly and hovered an inch above the ground, so I guessed they were special somehow despite looking like a snack. Reaching towards the nearer of the two, the blue one, I touched it. As soon as it connected with my fingers, it disappeared. The other one, purple this time, did exactly the same thing.
Wondering how this was useful at all, I noticed another object on the ground that I hadn’t seen before. This one looked much more normal, similar to a touch screen device. It had a switch on top that, once pressed, made the screen glow and come to life. The screen had several buttons along the top, but they were all grey with the exception of the first. This one had a picture of a blue shape just like the one I had seen before on it, and under the icon, there was a label marking it as the Grist Tab. “Grist?” I thought, confused. I had studied elements and compounds, but I had never heard of any grist. However, both of the hexagonal shapes I had picked up were on the screen, along with a counter and a name next to them. The blue one was called build grist, and the purple one was shale. According to the device, I had collected a grand total of two pieces, one of each. Since I had no idea what grist even did, much less how much one piece was worth, this was absolutely useless information.
There was a total of thirty six spaces on the page, but all except the first two had grey question marks on them. I guessed that meant that there were thirty six types of grist, and I had only discovered the first two. Did that mean that later I would meet other kinds of enemies? The first one looked pretty basic, and it didn’t have any special attacks or attributes. That was usually how the enemies appeared, with the later ones having more skills and more loot. Of course, that didn’t matter if the loot was absolutely useless. Maybe I would come across some kind of tool that allowed me to use grist…
Feeling more and more like I was part of a vast video game, I uneasily searched the perimeter of the clearing. Nothing else seemed amiss as far as I could see, but I still felt like I was being watched by someone, or something. I went back into the tent and tried my best to distract myself with normal tasks, but it wasn’t easy. The creature had bled red blood, but it didn’t leave a single drop on the ground or on my blade once it died. In fact, I wasn’t even sure if it had died. For all I knew, it could have just been sent back to the evil cavern it came from, or have been reincarnated somewhere else. I hoped it wouldn’t come back and repeatedly attack me, because if I was killed by someone, I would definitely hold a grudge against them.
Another strange thing about the creature was how blank it had seemed. Sure, it had attacked me, but I expected there to at least be some rage or anger in its expression. Other than the sharp teeth that it bared at me, it could have been picking daisies for all I saw in its face. When it touched me, it also seemed to have no texture at all. Its skin was neither smooth nor rough, neither warm nor cold. It had no facial features other than the teeth and the eyes, and its black body seemed somewhere between human and animal. It was almost like it hadn’t been given anything other than aggression.
I suddenly got the feeling that something else was about to happen. Quickly, I stood up and got my things together again, wanting to be prepared for anything. Exiting the tent, I packed it up in its cube and looked up at the sky. The sun was still relatively low over the horizon, and I judged that there was still about six or seven hours to go before it set. A few fluffy clouds were flying high in the sky and a nice breeze was blowing, but it was starting to get hot already. I moved into the shade of the trees and decided I should keep moving. Looking down at my compass and noting the way back, I looked over at the path I had entered through and saw that it was now overgrown with plants. In the short time I had rested and fought the imp, trees and vines had already blocked it. Well, it looked like whatever mess I had gotten myself into, there was no turning back. Feeling like I was quickly beginning the adventure of my life, I turned my back on the blocked passageway and began my way on the one that led to the volcano on my island.