6. First Blood

Bao felt how his guts were pressed up when the floor suddenly disappeared under his feet and the white surroundings slowly faded into a light blue. A white trail showed the place from which he was falling, proving his initial thoughts of being a room, wrong, instead, a huge cluster of clouds would have proven to be the correct guess. With a loud noise, the air was rushing by his ears at a high speed, reminding him of the situation he was in. Neither arms nor legs were under his control as they were dragged along by the strong winds, he could however turn around and look at what unfolded beneath him.

Small and large islands with all kinds of landscapes were sparsed throughout the whole sky; some had wide grasslands, while others had large dunes with oases, no limit was set to the variety of these lands. Despite the serious situation, a bright smile showed on his face as his cheeks were pressed up by the air but that was not the only reason, floating islands were the setting he loved the most since childhood. Only now did he notice that he could see through all of his limbs and that it was still his own body. The thought that he might have died when trying to connect to Nelenia crossed his mind, maybe he was going to be reincarnated permanently just like in those novels he read.

But his hopes were soon crushed when he spotted David, his avatar, leaned on a tree on the fast-approaching landmass. Without being able to stop or slow down the fall, Bao literally crashed right into his character's body, which apparently was currently sleeping.

"That was insane!"

With his eyes spread wide open, he sat there against the tree, now in the form of David, it felt like he just put on some new clothes, even though in this case they would be labelled as poor quality. Every joint cracked when he stood up to test the abilities and possibilities of his new body.

"Tutorial sequence started. Status board can be opened by saying or thinking the word 'Status'. Skills can be initiated by saying or thinking the skills name. Titles have no special effect except for roleplay and social interactions with NPCs and/or other players. Stat allocation could cause severe level up sickness since the body will adjust itself depending on the change in numbers. Inventory is inexistent everything needs to be carried on the body with backpacks or other transportation methods. Have fun in the world of Nelenia. Tutorial sequence ended." Bao froze in the middle of swinging around his arms when the robotic voice rang in his head and disappeared as quick as it came.

"I have a question is the tutorial still available?" He spoke into the darkness in front of him.

"Hello? Tuto..."

A crackling sound of someone stepping on a branch echoed through the night, it seemed to come from the undergrowth about twenty feet away from his position. Out of instinct, he threw himself on the ground and tightened the grip around his wooden staff. There would be no hope if it was something stronger than a slime or a bunny therefore his best possibility was by staying low and try to attract as little attention as possible. The rustling sound of feet being dragged through the fallen leaves came right in his direction and when a ray of moonlight shone through the thick clouds he could recognize the monster. Its green skin, covered in blisters and his small pointy ears made it clear for Bao it was a goblin. In other games, these were one of the weaker types but he still faltered with stats looking as weak as his'. With a last step, it stopped right in front of him and started grunting and squeaking, Bao fearing the worst-case jumped up and immediately swung his staff around right on its head. Surprised by the sudden appearance and confused by the hit to the head, it stumbled back two steps before striking down from above with its rusty sword. Bao didn't make it in time to avoid the full blow that left behind a thin red line on his chest. Both faced now each other without moving an inch, each one bleeding from wounds on the head and chest. A grin showed on Bao's face, this is the reason why he never could stop VR, this sensation... With a jump forward the goblin tried to take the initiative but was held at distance by the range of his staff. There was no way he could kill this monster with a simple, blunt stick, what he needed now was a sharp weapon. He took the risk and approached the goblin who immediately took the chance to let his sword hiss but this time Bao blocked it with his staff and tackled him down with his full body. He had one hand on the monsters sword arm and with the other, he tried to reach the knife it had on its waist. The goblin wriggled and fought for its life under his grip but Bao put an end to its demise when he finally reached the dagger and slit its throat.

Exhausted, with his hands soaked in blood and the HPs reduced to 2, he laid down on the floor, never did he have such a high heart frequency, it felt like a racing car went at its maximum velocity in his chest.

*ding* "You have now reached level one, please allocate your stats."