A few minutes after Adam and Paul disappeared beyond the horizon on their way to the forest, three new players stepped onto the field path, their nicknames glowing bright green above their avatars.
"Right then, let's go!" Leno shouted, spreading his arms wide and drawing a deep breath.
His avatar was tall, with dark, tousled hair that looked permanently windblown. Enthusiasm gleamed in his green eyes typical for him.
"Mate, do you feel that? It's like we're really on some summer field!" said a player called KryzysPL: short but stocky, with cropped silver hair and a heavy-looking sword slung over his shoulder.
Mira smiled broadly, squinting into the sun. She wore her long brown hair in a loose braid; her girlish face was cheerful, but her eyes held that spark of curiosity the one that usually ended in trouble.
"It's… beautiful. Look at those flowers they look alive!"
Before them spread a golden meadow, flooded with light. The chrysanthemums swayed gently, and the sun caught on every petal so that the whole field seemed to burn with a pure glow.
[Player has left the Safe Zone]
[New Area: Wild Meadow]
[PvP Mode: Active]
[Monster Activity: Moderate]
"Hey, this looks completely safe," KryzysPL said, adjusting the sword in his right hand as he took in the gorgeous vista.
"I don't see any mobs, no red dots… come on, let's run straight across the meadow to the forest and find something to kill."
Mira didn't wait for permission; she was already moving, first to rush toward the trees.
The grass and golden flowers came up to her knees, and each step left a glittering trail of light behind.
"Wow, this is ama "
[-1 HP]
"Ow!" she hissed, glancing down at her leg as a light burn stung her skin.
Another step.
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
"Hey… something burned me!" Mira cried, jumping back.
Leno looked down, his eyes widening.
"Wait… the flowers… they're hitting us?!"
KryzysPL tried to push through as well, but his health bar began to tick down too.
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
"Damn it, the field's burning us! To the path! Back to the path!" Leno shouted, grabbing Mira's hand and hauling her along.
The three of them sprinted for the narrow dirt track that cut across the meadow.
The moment they hit packed earth, their HP bars stopped dropping.
"All right… note to self: don't step into pretty things," KryzysPL muttered, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow as he cast one more look at the lovely golden sea of flowers.
"Thanks, game. Truly. Perfect welcome," Mira said dryly, pulling her hand free of Leno's.
He only smiled, as if used to that reaction. "Since we can't walk through the meadow, let's follow the path and see where it leads."
The other two nodded, and they went on along the track as it wound between the flowers.
After a few hundred metres, KryzysPL stopped abruptly and narrowed his eyes.
"Hey, do you see that?"
He pointed ahead to the middle of the path, where a honeycomb square glinted in the sun, with dozens of gorgeous butterflies hovering over it.
"Ooh… how pretty," Leno whispered, awestruck.
"A honeycomb in the middle of the road? That has to be some event! Or a quest item! I'm telling you!" Mira cried, excitement surging as she hurried toward the butterflies.
KryzysPL raised both hands. "Oi, don't go near those flowers almost killed us a second ago!"
"Relax, they're just butterflies. They look perfectly harmless."
Mira took a few more steps.
Then one butterfly broke from the swarm and drifted to her, wings flickering in the sunlight.
"Come on, little one…" she whispered, holding out her right hand.
The butterfly settled on her index finger.
For a second, nothing happened.
And then...
[-1 HP]
[Effect: Poison (1 HP/minute)]
"What the...?!"
Before she could jump back, hundreds of butterflies surged up, swirling into a funnel that wrapped around her. The swarm spun violently, as if enraged. Within three seconds, Mira vanished inside a flash of glassy, iridescent wings.
Her scream sliced across the meadow, echoing, as the coloured bodies plastered over her like a living flame - hundreds of tiny forms clinging to her skin, every movement only making it worse. Black veins pulsed across her face where dozens had latched on, poison threading beneath the surface.
"Mira!" Leno shouted, lunging forward but too late.
Her body broke into thousands of blue motes, as if the game had dissolved her into light.
The butterflies didn't stop. They seethed like an angry hive and turned on the remaining two.
"No! Leno, run…!" KryzysPL yelled as the swarm arrowed toward them.
He didn't even manage to grab him. In an instant they were ringed by a tornado of wings, the air filled with the flutter of thousands of tiny beats. For a heartbeat it looked like a beautiful, shining dream until their screams tore through it.
Just like Mira, they burst into a spray of fine fragments.
Moments later, in the midst of the golden flowers, only a heavy-looking sword remained, and silence while the butterflies drifted down and resumed their calm dance above the honey, as if nothing had happened.
***
Meanwhile, at the edge of a dense forest filled with giant, thick-trunked trees, Paul watched Adam, who was digging a small hole about ten centimetres deep with his hands.
"Er… are you trying to hunt some rare worm or something?" Paul joked.
"No. I don't know anything about underground bugs at least, I've never managed to find any," Adam answered quite seriously, as if digging a pit to catch a worm were perfectly normal to him.
Suddenly, as if struck by inspiration, Adam paused, opened his inventory, and tapped the waterskin slot. He tossed it to Paul.
"Take that waterskin and punch holes through it with your arrows so the water leaks like a sieve."
Paul darted forward, caught the flying skin with both hands, and looked back at Adam, who was again kneeling and focused on the hole.
He turned the waterskin over in his hands. At first glance it looked unremarkable dark, rough, its seams cracked, smelling faintly of smoke and fat.
The leather was supple, but far from new like someone had cut it from an old animal strap and tied the ends with thong.
"Ugh, is this really leather?" he muttered, rolling it in his palms.
A soft slosh came from inside, and a few drops seeped out through a hairline split at the neck.
Paul frowned and shook it; the weight told him it was only half full.
"Brilliant. Just like real life you buy a big bag of crisps and it's half air," he grumbled, opening his inventory and tapping the slot for Common Arrows.
The air in front of his hand shimmered slightly, like heat over asphalt.
With a small crackle, a thin arrow formed perfectly straight, graphite shaft, a dull-metal head that caught the light.
"All right, time to make a sieve," he murmured, holding the skin in his left hand and lining up the shot with his right.
He eased the arrow in delicately, as if only brushing the surface.
A soft pop
The tip slipped through without resistance, and a bead of water welled from the tiny puncture, ran down his hand, and dropped to the ground.
He raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"One hole down… nine to go."
Another arrow blinked into his grip faster now, smoother. With each motion he felt himself summoning items from his inventory a little quicker.
The arrows sank into the leather one after another.
pop, pop, pop
and from each hole a thin thread of water began to weep.
Soon the skin darkened with moisture and felt heavier; the smell of wet leather mixed with earth and smoke.
After a few minutes, Paul stepped back, holding up the slightly dripping waterskin, now bristling with arrows like a hedgehog except its spines were fletching.
Water pattered from a dozen pinpricks, falling slowly like rain after a storm. Each droplet gleamed in the sun, landing with a rhythm that was almost hypnotic.
"Done, or rather, stylishly ruined," he said, satisfied, keeping the arrows from slipping out.
Adam glanced over his shoulder and nodded.
"Perfect. I've finished my part, too."
Paul lifted his gaze from the porcupined skin to Adam, who stood with four green apples laid out in a square. One sat in the hole he'd dug half-buried, half exposed. Another lay on the grass, its fresh green skin shining under the sun. The last two rested in the shade beneath the trees, a few metres apart.
Adam regarded the apples in silence for a few seconds, then looked at Paul.
"Stand here," he said calmly, pointing to the middle of the square. "In the sun, right in the centre."
Paul frowned, but stepped into place without comment.
The sunlight warmed the back of his neck, reflecting from the grass at his feet.
Carefully, Adam took the waterskin and walked to the tree whose long shadow covered one of the apples by the trunk.
He hung the skin from a low branch, just above the shaded fruit.
Slowly, with care, he drew each arrow out in turn. With every arrow removed, water began to trickle from a new hole.
Fine rivulets slid down the leather and dripped onto the green apple, which seemed to gleam as if it were happily drinking each drop.
The sound of dripping filled the air...
plip… plip… plip…
Paul watched in silence, still unsure what the point was. Adam, however, looked as if it all made perfect sense.
He jogged back to Paul and stood beside him, lifting his eyes to the sky.
Sunlight caught in his green irises; his face showed something between curiosity and excitement.
"Now we wait," he said, not taking his eyes off the apples.
Paul looked around. Nothing happened.
For a time there was only birdsong, wind in the leaves, and the monotone drip of water.
A few seconds passed… five, then ten. Paul was just opening his mouth when the air around them gave a faint shiver.
The trees' shadows shifted as if the wind had turned; for a heartbeat the sunlight pooled warmer, brighter.
A subtle greenish sheen came over the apples, and the water falling from the skin began to glow softly.
Paul and Adam felt a gentle warmth flow through them, not burning, but soft and soothing, as if they'd become part of the living world around them.
Then a prompt flashed before them:
[Analyzing environment…]
[Equilibrium detected: Light / Shadow / Water / Earth]
[New passive skill unlocked!]
[Balance of Nature - Level 1]