Esia Forest

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She's preparing herself mentally for the inevitable even if she is still running, almost as if she was desperate to fight (actually it's more like running away) her own in game death. There comes another deep growl and another deep inhale, the telltale sound of the khilua preparing for its next blow, but the expected fireball doesn't come. Soojung keeps running though, too scared to look back, despite the flora and fauna slowly giving way to a new kind of environment.

It's only when her motions slow down that she finally realizes that the khilua is not after her anymore. She has left Esia Forest, home to the tokkis and khiluas by now, and instead of the deep green and brown tones of a thick forest, she sees sandy yellowish tones instead. She has reached an area that is much like the African velds she has seen on TV, indicating that she's no longer on Zapadian ground but Iparian instead, and not a second after she realizes, she is greeted with the location's name in her vision - KINGDOM OF IPAR.

[ >> Shen River, Ipar
+ lucky number 13/13 xD ]

By now she is sure that the burn on her skin is pretty severe. Her health points are steadily decreasing as well, proof at how much damage the khilua can do. She's only been hit by one of its fires so far, but that had been enough to wipe out three quarters of her HP. One more hit and she's gonna die. She'll be sent back to Pilseta city to be reborn, but that also meant that she would have to start the same journey again, a thing she wanted to avoid at all cost. Who could guarantee that she wouldn't die in the same painful way as now?

Being stingy or not, that was the question now, though Soojung wasn't too sure if she would be quick enough to consume one of the potions to fill up her HP bar to hopefully survive another attack. She doesn't think she will make it though, not even with drinking the potion as it would most likely restore only a minimal amount of her health. The situation was hopeless.

[12/?]

The sounds the monster is making are terrifying. She doesn't need to turn around because the deep growls are proof of fury and aggression. Soojung hasn't harmed it in any way though, so it feels unfair that its running after her in an attempt to murder her. Really, she's regretting having agreed to join Jongin's team now as it brings nothing but stress. Her friend should better prepare mentally for he will get his kicked by Soojung and it won't be a nice thing to witness.

She can literally feel the khilua at her heels, its hot breath looming above her as the monster is taller in height than she is. That is a good thing about Zapadian she guesses. A tall monster spitting fire would need to aim downwards to actually harm a dwarf like her. She's still not pleased with the slowness of her movements though, and when she feels the burn of hot air against her skin, she wonders if this is how she's gonna die the first time in this game. She's pretty sure there will be many more deaths on her journey.

[11/?]

There aren't even many other players around that she could ask for help and even less stronger and higher ranked ones. All people she sees there are other brave Zapadians who are exploring their kingdom, but go retreat once they see the B ranked apes. Soojung is pretty sure that she is the only one who is set to cross the forest still, reluctantly though, because facing the clearly stronger monster she feels like the best thing to do now was flight.

But instead of running back to the tokkis' territory, she decides to run ahead, still keeping her course towards the North. The creature seems stunned at her action for a few moments, enough for the scared girl to run past it - that is, if you could really call it running. Soojung is pretty sure that compared to other races, as Zapadian she must look as if she's running in slow motion. The monster is trailing behind her and it probably won't be too long until it gets a hold of her.

[ 10/? - i name this "the adventures of Jung Soojung in Esia Forest" ]

If she thought that she was safe from stronger monsters, Soojung couldn't be any more wrong. As she is trying to traverse the forest, she is met with a terrifying scream first before she sees an ape-like creature falling from the tree. It's almost comical, considering that there was a Korean proverb saying that even a monkey could fall from a tree. She supposes it's true, even if the evidence is presented in a virtual world, but there must be some truth about it, right?

Her laughter dies soon though when she notices that one, the ape doesn't find the situation funny at all, and two, the title above its head states clearly that this is a B rank monster called khilua. There is not much time to ponder over where exactly the creators took inspiration for this name because right then the monster pats its own chest, very much like a gorilla, before it opens its mouth to spit fire. Soojung is doomed.

[9/?]

Besides that, fighting N rank monsters doesn't seem all that hard now. They aren't that close to killing her actually, if it is only one monster attacking her at a time with the first strike being made when her HP bar was still full. It is more of a problem when two try to take her down at the same time. It has occurred once, but luckily, the second aggressive bunny only attacked her when its friend - she assumes so, because the second one stood close by and she hasn't seen a second aggressive one around when the first one striked - was almost down to zero health. Soojung, too, had gotten quite some damage, but with about half of her HP left, she has managed to kill the tokki before it killed her, though only barely making it. Of course she could have used a potion, but she was far too stingy to use it, instead taking a risk. It's not like she's got much to lose if she died.

[8/?]

[post deleted by owner]

As much as she tries to avoid them though, it seems impossible. On her journey towards Ipar it seems that she has to cross the territory of the tokkis. Rounding it might take up too much time and who knows, there might be stronger monsters ambushing her if she tries a different route. And so while she travels through Esia forest, there are a few more tokkis on the way that she has to take down, not that she really wants to, but if they attack her first it is only plausible to kill them. Besides, the extra gold is welcome, too. She's got a handful of coins by now and if it goes on like that, she might have accumulated enough money to buy her first weapon, a thought that excites her.

[7/?]

When she's all set to go, that is when Soojung notices the amount of tokkis in front of her. They seem to be everywhere, little balls of fluff that were actually pretty to look at as they were different in colors unimaginable in real life's nature. In the game verse though, everything seemed possible. Despite how cute they looked - and Soojung, just as any other girl wasn't immune to cute, little animals - she knows how annoying and infuriating it is to deal with an aggressive tokki though, so while she walks, she tries to maneuver away as much as possible from them, especially the monsters with their names written in red instead of the regular white font hovering above their heads. She's learned her lesson now and that is to not try fight aggressive fur balls. She leaves that for the other poor Zapadian souls to do who seem too afraid of wandering too far away from the city.

[6/?]

Picking up the coin, she pockets it into her backpack. Briefly, she wonders how everything will fit in there when the inventory window pops up, telling her there is space for 30 different items. As if so many would be able to fit in there! It makes her laugh. Though maybe this is some kind of magic rucksack with endless storing space, no different from the bags the wizards in Harry Potter carried around. She would need those kinds of bags in real life as well. They would come in handy, more so if their weight remained the same.

She closes the window, satisfied with her gold count increasing, even though it is only counting one right now. It's still better than nothing, though she would need a few dozens more of them to buy her first weapon, some cheap looking staff that might break easily if she wasn't paying attention. It seemed like within the game they had paid attention to small details like that, too. Hopefully, her first staff would last long enough until she could go buy a new one of higher quality.

[5/?]

In lieu of the monster she finds a gold coin instead, apparently the loot she is getting from killing one N ranked monster. Or a tokki. Maybe other N ranked monsters might bring her more gold. Despite being happy with earning her first gold coin in the game, she decides not to fight any more of these tokkis. They are simply too fast for her Zapadian reflexes, so she misses more than she actually hits them. It's better not to bother and try to kill other monsters on the way. Though maybe she shouldn't even be trying to collect gold on her own like this; she would level up faster if she was with Jongin and his friend. They could kill more monsters within the time she needs to handle one. [4/?]

Rather than fury that she feels now - though she does feel angry, but that anger and frustration is more channeled towards Jongin who has talked her into playing this game - it's annoyance that dominates all of her feelings. The little furry thing is quick on its feet and Soojung regrets having chosen the race of Zapad as it makes her a slow dwarf. Her frame is not as swift and agile as her real life body is, and accommodating to this new body is kind of hard. In the end, it's probably her fury that drives her to kill the not so innocent Tokki that has been bugging her.

She often misses when she tries to kick it and it's probably just a lucky coincidence when she falls on top of that creature after it has headbutted the back of her knees while she was standing on one feet, the other having just missed her target. It's not so nice to fall on her , but she's managed to render the tokki motionless by that and after a moment, she feels the furry thing disappearing, not squished between her back and the hard ground anymore.

[3/?]

This is not the right time to ponder over that, Soojung tells herself. In real life she might have screamed at the little furry thing jumping at her but here she just stared at the thing and - ouch, did that pink ball of fluff just scratch and bite at her leg? This wasn't fun anymore. She's debating on logging off and never play this game again because no one has ever told her that those monsters would actually hurt her making her feel the pain for real. Despite putting up a tough front, Soojung was rather sensitive and her pain tolerance wasn't that high. But if she gave up now, just because of this stupid Tokki, she would never be able to face Jongin again who would laugh at her for being such a 'princess', a term that she hated with all her might as she felt like being belittled whenever a male called her that. She didn't want nor need to be pampered, rather she needed someone who matched her in intellect and personality, someone who would respect her.

[2/?]

It's only when she's already stepped fully into Esia Forest that Soojung belatedly realizes that she hasn't send Jongin a reply back. Before she can do that though, there is quick movement in front of her and she comes face to a cute looking rabbit, but the appearance doesn't fool her. The name blinking in red above its head is a sure sign that this Tokki was not up for anything good, that much Soojung remembers from the guide. The little bunny-like creature would most likely attack her in a few seconds and yes, before she's been able to count down from three, the small thing is already charging at her in a speed she's never seen a living thing being able to manage.

[1/?]