A-Zone, Written by AzPhoenix

  Chapter 02

  The Start of Exploration

  "Hello, my name is Trace. It has been... a lot of days? from killing the big black wolf and now I have a big problem... well, let me elaborate about my situation a bit."

  He opened his canteen and drank some water, then began to speak.

  "The day after the big wolf fell, I passed out for an unknown amount of time but upon waking up I had noticed that something had changed in me but I couldn't figure out what did it mean at first. After looking at my status I finally understood something, I had evolved? leveled up? changed? a bit, something like that. The Aspect Azurefeather had this (Active) after it and I also had a new Awakening, Purity.

  "The Awakening? I got, Purity, That thing only worked on water... as I could clean my urine... to make it sparkle like some pure spring water... It did not work on anything else I tried, be it wolf meat or just plain dirt on clothes. I can purify water, yay? I guess"

  "*ahem* Now let's continue. Most of my inventory is gone, all of my dried meat has been eaten, The first aid kit is almost empty too and I have around 300 bullets remaining. Most of these bullets were used up with the fight against the wolves, whose meat has lost its taste, somehow only the first steak was extremely delicious but every single one of them eaten afterwards was getting worse and worse the more I ate it, even using the same meat as the first one tasted bad... at least it is edible... I think..."

  "After few days I had noticed that the wolf population was dwindling and I had to go deeper every time I hunted. I have right now explored almost everything only a single path remains, I haven't explored it because it is clearly a dangerous path as it is totally covered in this thick fog. I once went in and died just after spotting two red glowing orbs coming towards me. The other paths, the furthest I have went ended when I found a strange pedestal with symbols carved on it at the very end. I messed around with the pedestal for a while but nothing happened."

  "Even though I have been hunting the wolves I have been doing other stuff also, for example practising instant reloading of LiLy by taking bullets straight out of the inventory and putting them inside her. It took me couple of days to be able to do it consistently. Also LiLy is the name of the X-Blaze fusion rifle. Without her and the two others I would have gone crazy after few days I reckon. Sometimes we chat but mostly it is me who is doing the talking. But look at me now, hahaha... still talking to myself... man what would I do to have some company to talk with"

  "Also I have upgraded my combat gear and the camp quite a lot I truly look like a cave man, but LiLy haven't complained about my looks, which is nice. About the bullets I am using with LiLy, those bullets are a bit special, they are made by putting two solid X bullets inside the magazines of Lion and Lynx and waiting a bit no less than three seconds. This process fuses the two bullets together making it impossible to manually remove it without firing. This is where my inventory comes in, I use the inventory to take out the ready bullet and reload it manually again, the inventory can take out a fused bullet that can later be instantly loaded from the inventory. At this point I have 201 solid X bullets and 113 fused bullets that are ready to be used."

  "The name LiLy came from the first 2 letters of the nicknames I had given Mr. X and Ms. X. former was named Lion and latter Lynx. As calling them by their real names would be a pain as the names didn't have any ring to them and also it is easier to talk to them when they have names... I'm not lonely! Right LiLy? See she said I am not alone." Trace convinced himself by nodding repeatedly.

  "Now that I have been in this world for quite some time, there are somethings that I am starting to miss back at home, things that you usually take for granted when living in the modern world that most people overlook. The most missed things on my list are toilet paper and music, man this silence is bad for my mind, well... it is not entirely quiet but I have gotten used for the sloshing of that pressure waterfall that circulates the water around her. So I kind of filter it out automatically."

  "As I said before, I have a problem. Which is that I must invade the foggy area to be able to continue onwards, hopefully it leads to the exit. Okay enough about talking, need to prepare... Really, we will go when I'm ready, oh right I was supposed to stop talking."

  "Thanks LiLy" He said to his long rifle like weapon resting on a nearby rock and moved towards it.

  As Trace had finished talking to himself he started preparing. First he dismantled LiLy to the original two weapons Mr. X known as Lion and Ms. X known as Lynx. Trace then put these two weapons into a makeshift holders that were made from the materials taken from the wolves. He also took his MiraTech knife from his inventory and put it on a separate holder on his left leg. He also put two spare magazines per weapon to his belt, near the guns so that it would be easy and fast to reload them again if the need arises. He still hasn't figured out how to deal with the fog of the last pathway, he didn't even know if it was still in the corridor or if it was another large room like space inside.

  After a while of preparing Trace ate some wolf steak with wallshrooms and sighted.

  "This food tastes like cardboard right now. It is way too plain... even the mushroom are getting tasteless" At first when Trace's jerky had been all eaten, he started to look for alternative food sources but the only thing he found was these dangerously colored glowing mushrooms that were found all around. He knew that they had to be bad for his health but he still decided to try them... as a matter of fact he did die... but as the taste was a bit better than the wolf meat he had been eating, he decided it was worth to at least look for different methods for cooking them, as on earth there were many different mushrooms, some of them were edible if cooked correctly. So the first time he ate it, it was raw and uncooked. The second try was grilling the mushrooms, the taste got better but it still killed him in the end. Next he tried boiling the mushrooms. This made them taste bland and still killed him. After days of testing he had finally found the correct way to cook them, this method included first boiling the mushrooms then grilling them right afterwards, then again boiling them and it was finally in a state that wouldn't kill him. He was of course extremely joyed after he had eaten the mushroom and waiting for his umpteenth death by mushrooms that never came.

  This became his staple meal for the days when he hunted the wolves.

  Trace ate and left with all of his equipment with him. His camp still had a big pile of furs, leathers and meat in it. His rucksack was in his inventory filled only with the mysterious glowing stones inside it.

  After walking cautiously for an hour or so Trace finally arrived at the fogged pathway, There weren't even a single wolf on his way there. Inside the fog, something was moving as Trace noticed that the fog had started swirling as if it was a living being.

  Trace took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. Afterwards he calmly entered the fog with Lion and Lynx in his hands ready to be fired at the smallest disturbances.

  As he walked deeper inside the fog he caught a glimpse of a red orb moving in front of him with fast speed, but as he had recently been fighting very agile wolves his eyes had been able to track this wild beasts movements inside the fog.

  There was a low growl heard behind him, Trace reflexively turned one hundred eighty degrees and shot twice with Lion. He couldn't hear the usual yelp of hitting a wolf so he assumed he had missed and focused his attention around him. He could hear a low mocking growl that sound like laughter all around him, it seemed like the beast in the fog had been toying with him. This of course pissed Trace off and he had lost his concentration he hastily turned around and around trying to determine the original location of the beast in the fog. After alertly looking around for a while he had noticed that there were no longer any sound coming anywhere. He continuously looked at his surrounding. Suddenly he shouted "There!" as he pointed at a hole he had seen.

  This was a small hole in the fog that showed a similar pathway that he had been in before. He was overjoyed and ran into the hole just as he was about to exit the fog he felt something hit his back, the wolf armor he was wearing didn't stop the impact but protected his back from the claws of the beast, Trace was launched out of the fog and he hit the nearby wall. At least he had made it through.

  Trace quickly stood up and secured his surroundings. He was relieved that the armor had managed to protect his back that happened due to his carelessness. Trace looked around near the fog and started warily exploring the area. He soon found himself dumbfounded near the all too familiar pond with the pressure waterfall and his camp... He had been had again. The Beast in the fog had confused Trace's sense of direction with different type of cunning tactics the only good thing about this was that Trace did not die to the surprise attack of the beast this time. He then decided to rest for the day and try again when he wakes up.

  Many hours later rolling around in his makeshift bed Trace had invented multiple different plans to get rid of the beast in the fog.

  The next time he woke up he was going to slay that wicked beast inside the fog that had humiliated him. The only saving grace was that there was no one to see his improper attitude of maniacal cackling and scribling/planning on the walls with blood.

  The next morning he quickly wolfed down his meal and hurriedly ran to the fog wall with a sack made of wolf pelt full of different items he had collected and dismantled, the careful attitude was nowhere to be seen. At the entrance to the fog he opened the sack and took out a smaller bag and poured its contents into a pile, this pile was made of detached wolf fur he then took his torch out of his inventory and pointed it towards the pile of fur and activated it. The small flame was lit on the torch but after a while nothing still happened...

  "Oh right, I forgot, this thing doesn't burn... There goes plan A" He said surprised that he had already forgotten such a simple thing...

  But this didn't stop Trace

  "Then how about this!"

  he took out a large fan made from bones and leather. He though to blow away the fog by pushing it with wind. He started vigorously fanning but soon fell to his knees from exhaustion, then fan was reeeally heavy...

  "You win this round" said Trace

  "I need to rethink my plans"

  *Pling* a sharp ringing sound was heard. Near Trace a coin made out of gold had fallen which was the origin of this sound.

  He also could hear the laughing like growl coming from the fog. Trace looked at the coin dumbfounded, he was so out of it that he couldn't even hear the mocking laughter of the beast. The beast had paid him for fanning his domain or maybe it was from the entertainment the beast had had, no one will know the truth. Trace slumped and slowly walked towards his camp in defeat.

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  Trace then invaded the fog multiple times during the following days without giving up. After few days of trying Trace had finally gotten used to traversing inside the foggy area he had also mentally mapped most of the foggy area as he had few times almost reached the end but only to be blown away by a surprise attack of the beast. But to Trace he had found a fatal weakness in the beast, that was it's strength or attack power wasn't high enough to penetrate the armor he had on or at least so it seemed as every now and then Trace would find a cut or so in his armors that needed to be fixed before trying again.

  With the newfound confidence Trace merrily retreated back to his camp. The next day Trace only had mushrooms to eat as all of the meat had gone bad and started smelling weird, it smelled bad before but now it was more like the smell of death itself or that is how Trace would describe it. Truly a smell that ruins your appetite.

  Eating was done swiftly and Trace readied to fight, he checked his ammunition amount and was relieved that there still were over a hundred bullets, 135 left exactly. He then put Lion, Lynx, The torch and the knife all into his makeshift belt, to be ready whenever they were needed.

  After properly checking his equipment he headed towards the entrance to the foggy area. As he arrived he loudly proclaimed "This time it is my win!" while standing with confidence.

  This man clothed like a wild caveman entered the fog with long strides without any hesitation showing on him. He ignored the beasts harassment and confidently advanced inside the fog closing in on the exit.

  After walking an hour or so inside the fog Trace noticed that the harassment from the beast had stopped. He wondered if the beast had let him pass but the fact that he had walked inside the fog for so long already without ever reaching the exit. A creeping though had crossed his mind, he might have already fallen into one of the beast's traps.

  The beast knew it didn't have any chances against that person who was wearing the furs of the black wolves. It knew that it was not strong or fast like the wolves were but the beast still had almost killed every wolf that had entered its foggy domain. The only exceptions were the bigger wolves that had way too durable fur and better senses than the normal wolves.

  This foggy area wasn't like Trace had imagined it to be. Taking all of the fog away and looking from above one could see that the whole area that was covered in the fog had more of a smooth maze like structure instead of the uneven cavern style from before. There were lots of splits and different paths to take, these things didn't cause Trace to lose his way in the fog, the beast was surprised at Trace as he effortlessly continued onward with confidence.

  The beast studied Trace's methods of travel, it could see inside the fog without any disturbances on it's vision. The only thing that caught the beasts eyes were that, every now and then Trace would suddenly kneel down before continuing his journey. The beast followed its prey with complete silence as it seemed that Trace would slow down every time it was completely silent thus the beast would only stealthily approach Trace.

  At some point when the beast noticed that Trace went to a wrong direction, the beast had sprung into action. The beast dashed towards a direction and grabbed a golden plate from a corpse nearby and then dashed back to Trace while carrying the golden plate. The beast then started to drop and throw the golden plate around in the fog and looked at Trace for a reaction to its luck Trace did get startled by the sudden noise made by the plate.

  Trace still did not take the bait but instead went to his knees and touched the ground, after rising up Trace just as he was going to continue his wandering he turned around and began retracing his steps but this time he kneeled a lot more often, at one point he kneeled and noticed that he was again on the right track.

  The beast was totally surprised and started to panic a bit, his prey was getting away. The beast though that now is the time for lethal actions and decided to pounce at Trace relentlessly to wear his armor down. After multiple successful attempts the armor finally broke one of its straps and made a small unprotected weak point on Trace's shoulder.

  Trace did not take the breaking of his armor calmly as he had all this time tried to locate and track the beast in the fog, he even had fired couple of his bullets at the beast, but unsurprisingly they all missed their mark.

  As Trace was protecting his exposed shoulder from the beasts next attack, he was taken by surprise as the beast had not attacked the shoulder but instead had slashed at Trace's face and managed to gouge his left eye out.

  Trace screamed and fell into a pain induced panic one hand holding his left eye and the other still gripping Lion. The beasts laughter echoed around the foggy maze in joy, to this Trace grinned and focused his mind to increase his reaction and detection.

  He then took a deep breath and pointed Lion at the fog. He then shot three times in quick succession, between each shot he changed the direction where he was aiming by 30 or so degrees. Soon afterwards the fog was starting to disappear and a single monkey like existence with three holes in its body that were leaking 'fog' was found barely alive, the monster weakly looked at Trace, stupendous expression showing on its face, as if wanting to know how Trace had done it.

  "Don't you think you were the only one successful with your schemes." Said [Trace] while finishing the monkey with one last shot through its head.

  As soon as the beast had died,Trace fell to the ground in exhaustion and passed out.

  Soon(?) afterwards Trace woke up wondering what had happened. at first he noticed that his left eye does not function as it should. Trace could open and close his left eye but every time his left eye was opened he could only see some countless blue spots in midst of black/darkness.

  Trace though that it would finally be a good time to retreat back to his base camp and started walking towards the way he came from but after walking around for couple of hours he found out that he was in the middle of the large maze and he had no way of knowing which way is the way back. The only reason why he could move forward inside the fog was because there are streams of water moving on the corners of the corridors. This water flows forward but it is very hard to find your way back when the flow of the water splits and Trace did not know which is the correct way. So he decided to move forward as it seems to be the only option. Even Trace's initial choice to follow the streams was extremely risky as there was no proof that the streams even led to anywhere.

  "For now, I should treat my wounds" he said to himself as he was vigilantly looking around for enemies. Trace bit into a piece of fur when applying disinfectant to his wounds especially to the now missing eye, needless to say it hurt like hell. After finishing his treating his most of his wounds he noticed that he had run out of almost everything from his first aid kit only a small patch of bandages was left. He then used the last of the bandages to make a makeshift eye patch to cover his left eye with. When that was done the first aid kit shined and disappeared into small particles of light.

  After traveling for a while Trace was starting to get used to only seeing with his right eye. At first it was very hard to measure distances inside the dark maze but after stumbling around for the umpteenth time he overcame his first challenge and was finally able to run confidently by only using the vision of his right eye.

  He had also made a weird discovery about his left eye. The blue he could see with his left eye open are bodies of water or moisture. All the streams around him are seen in various blue lines(?) even on the other side of the walls he could clearly see the water flowing.

  Eventually He had reached the end of the maze and arrived into another cave like area this time he could see awfully familiar blue figures that were shaped like big wolves. 3 of them to be exact.

  "I don't think I have enough bullets for these things" Trace sighted while counting his remaining bullets. There were 67 left. "Normally these things take around 3 to 6 bullets each... I should rely more on LiLy if I want to save bullets and besides these things seem to be bigger than the average" he mumbled to himself while taking out the extra part (the X Loader) from his inventory before attaching it to Lion and Lynx to make his strongest weapon, The X-Blaze nicknamed LiLy. This bit over one meter long rifle boasted the highest destructive firepower of all weapons Trace has ever used and a design that could also be even called a piece of art.

  The downside of this weapon is that there is no automatic reload on it, there are two holes where one must put a single bullet inside each and then wait around 3 seconds for the bullets to make a special bullet known as FUSION X, This bullet can only be ejected by firing, the reason why this kind of mechanism was inside a rifle was because with a combination of different bullets causes different reactions that might become useful for different situations. For example the only bullet Trace has is SOLID X and with two of them the bullet fired will become a Double Solid bullet or SOLID TWO that doubles the firing range to around 1km and increases the bullets flying speed and piercing power.

  Another reason for this kind of design was that one wouldn't need to carry dozens of different bullets during combat to fight efficiently of course the downside was the slow firing and fusion speed. But as it was mentioned before the X Series was quickly overtaken by the more efficient MX Series due to its many experimental flaws.

  Trace Loaded 2 Solid X bullets into LiLy and waited around for the big wolves to pass the corner. The wolves soon passed the corner and Trace calmly waited for the wolves to position themselves so that Trace could get a better shot, As it would take at least 3 seconds until he could fire again.

  He saw the first wolf taking a turn towards Trace, There was cold sweat flowing on Trace's forehead. His reflexes were shouting to him to take action but Trace remained calm as he was thinking 'Not yet, just a bit more'.

  It felt like that time almost had stop, what felt like minutes were in fact just seconds passing by. As soon as Trace saw the second wolf's head behind the first wolf, turning its head towards the passage. Trace took his shot *Pa!--Dishhhh* the bang resounded with a sound of whooshing afterwards. The bullet cleanly went through the first wolf splitting through its skull and continuing to penetrate the insides of the first wolf, as the bullet exited the first wolf as fast as it entered its body it reached towards the second wolf's neck and hit its neck.

  The first wolf died almost instantly but the second wolf who that had its neck targeted did not receive a fatal wound as the bullet only grazed it.

  "Tch! I shot too high" Trace clicked his tongue while quickly reloading LiLy and rising up from his lying position. The wolves were startled by the sudden death of their comrade but almost immediately after dashed towards Trace.

  Small humming could be heard from inside LiLy and Trace took distance as much a he could to allow LiLy to fuse the bullet.

  The distance between the wolves and Trace was around 50 meters LiLy stopped humming and there was a satisfying barely audible click meaning that the bullet was ready to be fired.

  Trace jumped almost right after the click and twisted his body in midair and aimed LiLy at the two approaching wolves and shot *Pa!--DISHHH* The bullet went through the second wolf who already had taken some damage from the first bullet. But the wolves weren't running in straight line, there was no way to hit both of the wolves with a single bullet so the last wolf had already managed to catch the fleeing Trace.

  Immediately after LiLy was shot, Trace took out Lion from LiLy and stored the rest inside the inventory. He knew that Lynx didn't have enough firepower to effectively deal with the last wolf, which was why he did not take it along with Lion.

  *Pan!* *Pan!* * Pan!* Three loud shots resounded around the corridor where Trace was fighting the last wolf. A lough laugh resounded. "Ha-Ha-ha-haa, This stupid wolf. It is completely unfair, for bullets to not even go through the fur. How is this anything like a good game! Good thing that it isn't my first rodeo against these monsters."

  Trace entered into a heated close quarter combat with the last wolf. After a while Trace]was just about to kill the wolf by shooting through its brain from point blank, but due to him missing an eye he had made many mistakes due to the difference in perception his physique was already on its limit and he collapsed from exhaustion and damage.

  The wolf snickered and chomped on Trace head.

  [YOU HAVE DIED, INITIATING RESPAWN, LOCATION...UNKNOWN, INITIATING DRAMATIC ENTRANCE. THE REAL BATTLE BEGINS!]

  The wolf was swallowing Trace's body. The body suddenly burst into a huge smoke cloud, enveloping the vicinity with a pure white smoke. The wolf yelped in surprise as his stomach suddenly burst with smoke the wolf then coughed while trying to get rid of the extra smoke inside its body.

  After the smoke had dissipated the figure of respawned Trace was finally seen. 'it is nice to have these kind of effects but not allowed to do anything during the effect is kind of a let down.' he thought while smiling wryly "Well at least I could reload LiLy in peace" he said while a devilish grin was revealed. "Now DIE for me!" *PA--DISHHH* Trace shouted before firing LiLy for the third time.

  "No matter who stands in my way! Be it monster, human or even a God!, I WILL RETURN HOME!" Trace shouted out his conviction with a resolution in showing in his eyes and turned his back towards the way he came.

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