Stonecold: Well uhhh, I'm back maybe that is if you even see this, I know that it has been a very long time since I last uploaded a chapter but hey here I am so I guess. Let's do this.

Player1: I'm back too! Been working on my own stuff slowly, took a long break, but I'm back into the writing game, and I'm gonna start by helping my buddy here with the chapter. Let's get started!

You know, just walking in a random direction until you find something is not as easy as one might think. You see, in a forest, you're going to eventually run into a tree, which you'll have to go around. You not only have to go around it but keep on the exact same trajectory you were on before, or else you'll end up off-target, and in a forest where everything in the distance was concealed by all these thick trees and dense foliage, that would get me REALLY lost. As it stood, without my mini-map I probably would have walked in a circle about twenty times, or just plain gotten completely lost.

One thing was for sure, and that was that the forest was chock full of surprises. Sometimes you get the unpleasant surprise I got before, with the fifteen Beowolves... but sometimes? Sometimes you get lucky and happen upon a wandering Lumberjack.

I noticed him before he noticed me, and called out to him, "Hey! Um, do you know where the nearest village is, by any chance? I'm a little lost." I asked him. He looked up from his work surprised and confused. I took a moment to really look at him as he was talking. He was a very well built man in a thick flannel shirt and tough blue jeans that looked well worn, like he had had them for a long time and refused to give them up because they still worked... or maybe he liked the look, I wasn't entirely sure. He also had a fairly large ax propped on his shoulder. All in all he looked like an average Lumberjack, but then again I knew that looks could be deceiving. He shifted his weight slightly as he thought, and for some reason, my dad's bare-bones lesson on posture whispered through my mind. I took in his stance, seeing that he was relaxed, and his grip on his ax looked far too loose for him to grab it and swing it at me before I could react. He either wasn't a warrior, wasn't a good warrior, or just didn't see the need for tension.

I zeroed back in on his face when he spoke, "Uh, no? Not really. There are no villages really near here... wait a second, how did you get here? If you were from a village then you should know its name." He asked, getting a little suspicious. He had a very valid question, one that I did not really have an answer too. However I was spared by the screen that popped up in front of me.

Congratulations! You have encountered one of your companions for your journey! He will now be inducted into the Game!

'Wait. What?' I thought as the man in front of me collapsed on the ground immediately, his axe falling from his shoulder. I just kinda stared at him in shock, not really sure how to feel about what just happened. I guess I should do something about that.

I slowly walked over to him and checked his pulse, breathing a sigh of relief as I found it still beating as strong as it should be.

"Well I guess I'll try and get you home." I said as I picked him up and threw him over my shoulder. My strength was useful for this too, thankfully. It only took a few paces before I saw a recognizable path through the dirt. It didn't look like the dirt roads back home, further cementing the idea that I had no clue where I was. I long look up and down the path while also looking at the mini-map to see if I could see any enemies or structures. Nothing within range, so I couldn't go for that. I sighed and picked a direction. Worst case scenario I'd picked the wrong one and would have to double back.

About thirty or so minutes of walking and slowly being gnawed on by a mix of worry and irritation, I came upon a small cottage sort of building that looked quite cozy, set at the back of a small clearing dotted with a couple of stumps. I couldn't help but let out a huge sigh of relief. Carrying this guy wasn't much of a strain at first, but thirty minutes was starting to pile up a bit. I approached the house with slight amount of caution, however. After all, I did not want to be Goldie-locks going into the bears' house.

I knocked on the door and waited a minute, then knocked again, this time more insistently. I repeated this a couple of times until I determined that there had been more than enough noise and time for someone to get woken up by the noise and come to the door. I decided to try and open the door and found it unlocked, so I opened it all the way and stepped inside.

It was a small home nothing to extravagant, but it was a sturdily built wood cabin with a rather large wood pile over in one corner of the main room and three doors leading away from it. I sat the man down on the couch to recover and decided to observe him.

Hei Xiong
Title: Woodsman
Level: 16

Health: 3,175/3,175
Aura: 350/350
Stamina: 1588/1588

Strength: 75
Dexterity: 23
Vitality: 49
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 26
Luck: 30

Well... that was something I was not expecting. This dude was ripped underneath his flannel shirt and was apparently very healthy and tough as well. But the thing that I don't understand is that the game said that he was going to be one of my party members. You see, I had already tried to form a party with my Dad while training, but nothing ever happened when we tried. I just figured that the game that was my life would only work for me, but now I'd say maybe not.

I decided to test it out, "Party." I said to no one but myself and an unconscious man, then like every other screen before, a party menu appeared where one had not existed before.

Party Menu

Current Party members:

Hei Xiong The Woodsman

XXX

XXX

Companion animal:

None

Huh, THAT is definitely new. I've never seen this anything like this before. This must be part of the update that happened after my death... huh that is weird to think about. I'd pushed the thought away with the beowolf fight, but now it was coming back up.

"Uuuugh~..." I heard from the couch, and I turned that way to see Hei getting up slowly. Good, another distraction. He stood up and looked around, then froze when he saw me. He made to speak, but was then distracted as a blue screen appeared in front of him.

"What is this?! What did you do to me?" He asked with a rather harsh tone, although I couldn't blame him too much. If I was in his position, I would probably be concerned as well.

Unfortunately, I did not really have a good answer for him, so I just told the truth, "Well, to be perfectly honest with you... I'm not too sure myself. What does that screen in front of you say?" I asked him, hoping that the window would give some insight into the situation.

Hei Xiong's POV

I dunno what this kid's game is, but what ever drugs he gave me must have been pretty powerful stuff. Then, the kid goes and asks what the screen says. Who does he take me for, eh? Wait... how could the kid see the screen if it was my hallucination? That doesn't make any sense at all! I decided to take a good look at the screen, reading each word curiously and cautiously.

Hello Hei Xiong and welcome to the game you have been introduced into the game with that comes certain perks that only you can receive now it is time to chose your class.

Tank

Rogue

Mage

Please choose one class to begin.

What the heck is this? I... I don't understand what this means. I look up at the kid, who seemed to be waiting patiently for an answer to his question while staring at the blue screen hallucination. It had to be a hallucination, right? But... if he could see it, then that would mean it is real. Only one real way to find out...

"Hey kid, come and read what's on this screen out loud. I want to be sure you're not screwing with me!" I said firmly, trying to gain control of the conversation. He then walked over slowly as to try and not startle me, but it is kind of hard not to be slightly intimidated by a six-foot muscle-bound teenager in armor with a warhammer on his back. Sure, I had a good few inches of height on him, but he looked like a trained warrior, and that was just his appearance. There was also the odd... weight of his presence. I had heard about some people having a heavy or loud or commanding presence, but I never understood it until now. He got a tad too close and I scooted away from him a bit. He then looked at the screen and read, word for word, what I was seeing on it.

That meant that this was real, and that this was really happening right now. I can't handle this! However, as soon as I started to feel panic begin to take over, I felt a wave of calm wash over me and I could feel my mind begin to clear as I thought about it more.

Perhaps I should go ahead and choose one of these class things? I mean, I remember playing games kinda like this as a kid myself, and I was always the best at taking hits like a tank, so maybe I can be that? I thought about it for a few more seconds, then pushed the button that said Tank. There was a blue flash of light and energy, and suddenly I felt... different. It felt hot, and good, all at the same, but not in an adult way! It felt more like relieving the sweaty gross feeling of a fever by taking a hot bath. Suddenly, my self-justifying thoughts were interrupted by the kid talking.

"Well I guess that you are now a part of my semblance. I guess I'm still not really too sure how it does... anything, actually. Honestly, I want to keep moving and try to forget about all of this, but after the day the both of us have had, I think we need a drink." he said, and I couldn't agree more. I had nearly hurt my leg by a swing gone bad, but thankfully didn't. I was a fair distance away from any villages, so help would be slow to acquire. I happened to have a bottle of cheap, but strong stuff sold by a near-ish farmer, and I poured us a couple of glasses with ice from the fridge. It wasn't an icebox like people in bigger towns could have had, those things ran off independent dust units, and I honestly hardly made enough from wood sales to keep dust in my electric generator.

I paused mid-pour and hummed, curious about my own sudden self-reflection, then pushed it away and made sure I didn't overfill the glasses and spill this stuff. I finishing the drinks, neat on the rocks I'd learned it was called. The glasses were way too big for whiskey, but we weren't paying for it, nor chugging it, so I honestly didn't care. We sat and drank and talked about ourselves. The kid was surprisingly easy to talk to, almost like one of those holy-men in the smaller villages. He just seemed so... trustworthy, and I found myself telling him about my dream to run my own bar in the city. Those holy-men got to travel around, see so many faces and hear so many stories and touch so many lives. I wanted some of that life, a life where I could just sit and listen to peoples' stories for hours. Unfortunately, I neither had much of a story myself, nor was I exactly religious material. I couldn't be a holy-man myself, but honestly I kinda didn't want to. I was more of a listener than a speaker, and that's exactly why I decided to go for a job where I could listen to a hundred, even a thousand stories and not be expected to give even a single word of reply.

The kid seemed moved by my words, and I noticed a window pop up out of nowhere telling me that contemplating my goals and sharing my story had increased my INT and CHA respectively. The kid sighed when he saw that, and I closed the window with a finger. It was clear that I didn't feel like saying anything else, so the kid opened up about his own story. He told me his name, Jaune Arc. Sounded Valean, so he was a long way from home. He told me about his family, and how he wanted to become a hero. I laughed at that a little.

"Why settle for a hero kid? I mean Heroes always get remembered, but Legends? They never die." I said as I finished off my glass. I had a pretty high tolerance, and this stuff wasn't the strongest ever, so even a sizable glass like mine didn't impair me much at all. By the time I'd get out to my spot again, I'd be sober once more. I stood and put it in my small sink, then grabbed my ax and made my way to the door. After all, I still had a job to do, even with blue windows and blonde heroes popping up in my life.

Jaune's POV

You know it was always the little things that people said that could have the biggest impacts. The very simple words from a simple man that changed the way that I thought about what it was that I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I slowly looked at my hand thinking about it.

"A legend huh that seems like something to strive for." I said to myself. Suddenly a window popped up in front of me.

Legendary quest received

Quest "The Legend That Never Ends" Was Added to Quest Log

Description: After realizing that being a hero might not be everything that you may have wanted you strive for new and even more amazing heights. You now are on the road to becoming a legend. This path will not be an easy one however it is a path available to you now.

Objective: Have 95% of the population know you and think well of you.

Reward: Level Increases by 200, all stats increase by 200, Become a legend.

Side objectives:

-The Man who Crushed A Mountain With His Hands: Crush A Mountain With Your Bare Hands. Strength increases by 100.

-Around The World In One Day: Run Around The World In One Day. Dexterity Increases by 100.

-Death Came And I Turned Him Away: Survive Taking 1,000,000 Damage From One Attack. Vitality Increases By 100.

-For Every Question There Is An Answer, And I Have Answers: Find the Answer to three Important Questions. Intelligence Increases by 100.

-You Got To Know When To Hold Them, When To Fold Them, When To Walk Away, and When To Run: Respond correctly many times when presented with a situations where you should either Persist through it, Give up, Not get involved in the first place, or Escape. Wisdom Increases By 100.

You Lucky Son Of A *****: Win The Lottery. Luck Increases By 100.

-Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak no evil: Commit No Evil Acts. Faith Increases by 100.

What. The. Heck. I... I never even thought that something like this could even exist I, Well I guess everyone needs goals. This seems like a good one for me I guess. Well I better get to it then.

I go out the door to find Hei and give him a hand with his work as well as hopefully get even more strength.

After all I had a mountain to crush.

Player1: Aaaaand that'll do it, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for reading! You're probably wondering about that Legend quest... honestly, we aren't sure if we'll have it be completed within the span of the story. Maybe one or two of the things will be accomplished. Who knows? The most likely ones to be accomplished would be the DEX and VIT ones, I'd personally say.

Stone: Well I must say I am rather pleased with how this turned out, I am excited to see if there is any interest left in this story after so long so I guess we'll find out together shall we? Also I totally think that the STR side quest is possible but hey we will see one day... Maybe.