The first thing Ren learned about horned rabbits was that nobody had lied about the horns. One shot past him the moment he cleared Aldern’s western gate.
A player screamed, another screamed louder, and the rabbit disappeared between two rows of wheat with three people chasing it.
"I TAGGED THAT!"
"You missed!"
"SPIRITUALLY, I TAGGED IT!"
Ren stopped beside the road.
The land outside Aldern stretched around the village in fields, orchards and irrigation channels broken up by low stone walls. What should have been peaceful farmland had become a beginner war zone.
Players ran everywhere. Some moved in organized groups, spreading out to surround rabbits before closing in.
One Australian party had six people surrounding a single rabbit with the seriousness of a border inspection. The rabbit appeared to have entered the field illegally. Others charged alone with starter swords, bows and staffs.
Half the fights ended with the rabbit dying. The other half seemed to end with someone discovering that small did not mean harmless.
A horned rabbit launched itself into a swordsman’s stomach.
The player folded around it.
"WHY DOES IT HAVE KNOCKBACK?"
His friend was laughing too hard to help.
Ren looked at the spear in his hands. Then at the fields. Inside Aldern, being Classless had been inconvenient. Out here, it was becoming a personal problem.
He stepped off the busy road and followed an irrigation ditch toward the edge of the nearest field.
The farther he moved from the gate, the fewer players he had to compete with. There were still plenty, but at least nobody was standing shoulder-to-shoulder waiting for a rabbit to respawn in front of them.
Ren found his first one beside a low stone wall.
It was larger than the rabbits he knew from Earth, nearly reaching his knee when it sat upright. Brown fur covered most of its body except for a pale patch beneath its jaw, and two short horns curved forward from its forehead.
A thin red bar appeared when Ren focused on it.
Horned Rabbit
Level 1
HP: 42/42
Ren adjusted his grip on the spear. He had carried boxes, furniture and appliances for money. None of those had ever tried to bite him.
Probably transferable skills.
He stepped forward and thrust.
The spearhead passed six inches beside the rabbit. It moved much faster than it had any right to.
Ren barely had time to turn before it slammed into his shin.
Pain flashed up his leg.
Not full pain. Pantheon muted it, but not enough to make the experience pleasant.
-6 HP
HP: 94/100
"Right."
The rabbit turned.
Ren stabbed again.
Too late.
It darted sideways; his spear scraped stone, and the impact jarred both hands.
He had expected full-dive combat to help somehow. Correct bad angles. Smooth out clumsy movements. Something. Instead, it felt exactly like controlling his own body.
That was the problem.
Pantheon had not quietly installed spear fighting into his brain. His hands and feet moved when he told them to. He simply had no idea what he was doing with either.
The rabbit charged again.
Ren tried to sidestep.
One horn clipped his calf.
-5 HP
HP: 89/100
"Glad one of us knows what he’s doing."
The rabbit didn’t answer.
Ren backed toward the stone wall.
His first instinct had been to chase it with the spear.
That clearly wasn’t working. So he stopped chasing.
The rabbit came at him again.
Ren waited until it committed, then stepped aside and shoved the spear shaft across its path instead of trying to stab.
The rabbit hit the wood and its body twisted.
Ren dropped his weight onto the shaft and pinned it against the ground.
That part worked.
The rabbit immediately bit his hand.
"Fuck."
-4 HP
HP: 85/100
Ren jerked his hand away from the rabbit’s teeth. Keeping the spear pressed across its body, he planted one boot on its back to hold it down.
The rabbit kicked beneath him as he pulled the spear free, raised the point, and drove it through the rabbit’s left eye.
Critical Hit
-31 HP
Horned Rabbit: 11/42 HP
An eye stab counted as a critical hit. So Pantheon cared where he hit, not just how hard.
The rabbit screamed. Ren had not expected rabbits in a game to scream like that.
Then it bucked hard enough to knock his boot aside, tearing itself free before he could finish the second thrust. Blood darkened the fur down one side of its face.
The rabbit limped three steps. Then turned around and charged him again.
"Seriously?" He braced the spear with both hands.
The rabbit ran straight onto the point.
-14 HP
Horned Rabbit: 0/42 HP
The body hit the ground at his feet.
Ren stayed where he was for a second.
His hands hurt. His shin hurt. His calf hurt.
He had gotten mauled by something Belgium had once looked at and decided needed to be bigger. Pantheon had just added the horns.
A system window appeared.
Horned Rabbit slain.
XP gained: 8
Ren looked down at the corpse.
"Dominant performance."
A player running past heard him and laughed.
The rabbit had not disappeared. A small loot window hovered above it.
Direct Drops: None
So killing something did not guarantee loot.
The corpse itself was another matter. When Ren crouched and touched it, several faint outlines appeared across the body.
Harvestable Materials Detected
Horned Rabbit Hide
Horned Rabbit Meat
Horned Rabbit Horns
Horned Rabbit Ears
Proper harvesting tools may improve material quality and yield.
That made more sense.
Ren had no skinning knife, butcher’s blade or anything remotely designed for the job. He did have a spear.
He pressed one ear flat against the ground and used the edge of the spearhead to cut through the base.
It worked badly, but the second ear went faster.
Once both were free, a faint light passed over them and they vanished into his inventory.
Horned Rabbit Ear Pair x1
Rabbit Cull: 1/10