Using my good arm, I hacked at the ground with a flat stone until I created a shallow fire pit. Tara brought me some dry wood, and I plucked off some twigs to build a little teepee with dry leaves stuffed under it for kindling. It only took three sparks from the flint and steel to bring it to flame.

  A notification appeared, indicating that I had gained another point in the first tier of Firestarter. Two more to go, and I'd have the associated passive unlocked, which would grant me a slight resistance to fire, plus a minor increase in fire damage and burn duration.

  I asked Val if it was possible to boost my Firestarter Competency by starting multiple fires. If I could grind my way to Tier One, I would build another fire right away. She threw cold water on that idea, saying there was a timer in place to prevent unfair growth.

  After I started the fire, I moved on to my next task.

  My fabricated memories of living as a farmer included knowledge of how to properly gut and dress an animal. Having an entirely false identity engraved into my mind wasn't entirely bad, I guessed.

  The first step was to tie the wolf up by its hind legs. I tried it on my own but gave up quickly. Even with two good arms, I probably wouldn't have been able to do it alone, so I called Tara over.

  She helped me tie a knot around the legs, and we lifted together. Once suspended, I was able to use my good shoulder to hold most of the wolf’s weight, allowing Tara to tie off the other end of the rope on a low, sturdy branch.

  When it was secure, she went straight to the creek to wash her hands. I think she got some blood on them.

  My sword wasn't ideal for gutting an animal, but I did have a fancy new dagger that never dulled. With a thought, my sword vanished from the homemade leather loop I had fashioned to my belt. Although I would prefer a sheath, the sword wasn’t very sharp or very long, so the naked blade had never been much of a problem. The thick leather cord bounced as the mass it had been holding vanished.

  Curious, I kept my eyes on my hip and magically equipped the Elkhorn Dagger straight from my inventory. The small blade popped into existence before my eyes. Interestingly, the band of leather that had secured my shortsword appeared to shrink by a few inches to accommodate the much smaller weapon.

  That minor phenomenon prompted a strange question.

  “Hey Val, let's say I'm naked and equip a sword from my inventory. Where does it go?”

  ‘Why are you naked?’

  “I'm not naked! In the scenario I’m describing, I am naked.”

  ‘I do not recommend being naked unless you are washing yourself.’

  “I’m not washing myself!”

  ‘You should. You are filthy.’

  “I’m very aware, Val.”

  ‘Do you have a question, John?’

  I let out a breath of frustration. “If I were to equip my sword, but didn’t have a sling or a sheath to hold it, where would it spawn?”

  ‘I would expect the weapon to manifest in a suitable location near you, likely in a position where no other objects conflict with its presence.’

  “What if something does conflict with its presence?”

  ‘The weapon would take precedence, and the object in question would be dislodged.’

  Wow, that was surprisingly specific. “Okay. Thanks. Just wondering.”

  ‘I live to serve.’

  I pulled the Elkhorn Dagger from my hip and admired the blade. It was razor sharp and gently curved. The elk's horn, which served as the handle, had a similar curve but in the opposite direction.

  It was a nice dagger, and I was eager to put it to work.

  Skinning was a nasty business, and the wolf smelled worse than any deer I had ever gutted. But I held my breath and powered through as I removed the entrails.

  When that part was blessedly over, I lifted the dagger to skin the wolf. The sharp blade cut smoothly as I peeled off the thick pelt. I noticed Tara approaching in my peripheral vision and turned to look. When I saw the expression on her face, I stopped my work and gave her my full attention. She looked like someone had just told her that her puppy died.

  I cocked my head. "Is everything okay?"

  She held out her hand. It was trembling. "Can I see that dagger?"

  "Uhh, why?"

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Please," Tara said. Her eyes were growing wet.

  ‘Send it back to your inventory,’ Val said. ‘She probably wants to steal it from you.’

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.. “Why would she want to steal it?”

  ‘Just do as you’re told,’ Val said. ‘Vanish the dagger into your inventory and tell Tara she's seeing things.’

  Tara took a step forward. "John, I just need to look at it. Please."

  I shrugged and held the dagger out to her. "It's just a dagger."

  Tara stared at it, studying every inch, and her eyes lit with recognition. "Why do you have my uncle's dagger?"

  Uncle? My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. Maybe the bandit I killed had stolen it from her uncle. That had to be the answer, because if it wasn’t…

  A wave of anxiety crashed through my body. Had Val lied to me?

  "Well?" Tara asked, her voice a whip. "Are you going to say something?"

  This was bad. Really bad. I needed to put this fire out now before I lost control. Once I dealt with Tara, I would talk to Val and find out the truth.

  If that 'bandit' really was Tara’s uncle, and she found out I killed him, this quest would be over. That mattered less to me than the fact that she'd probably run away and get lost in the wilderness. I might have killed her uncle, and I wasn’t going to be responsible for her death, too. I had to lie, and it needed to be a good one.

  The most effective lies always had a touch of truth in them.

  I looked down at my boots and sighed. When I lifted my face back to hers, it was plastered with all the pathetic sincerity I could muster. "Last night, after you had fallen asleep, I heard someone scream. My curiosity got the better of me, so I left the camp to investigate. It was a stupid risk for me to leave you alone, but I knew I'd never be able to sleep if I didn’t check. I found someone in the woods. A man. He was…" I paused for dramatic effect. "He was dead when I found him." My voice caught in my throat. I was choking on the lie, but it made me sound sincere.

  Tara's chin quivered, and I felt like my soul was shriveling.

  "His clothes were torn. Bloody." I shook my head. "I don’t know what killed him, and I wasn’t going to stick around to find out." I looked away from Tara. "I saw the dagger, and I took it with me." The shame on my face was very real, but not for the reasons she thought.”

  "I'm sorry, Tara. I didn’t know." I held the dagger out to her. "Take it. It belongs with you."

  Tara eyed the dagger, and I saw her fighting to reconcile her emotions. She took a deep breath and blinked away her sadness.

  "Keep it." She wrapped her arms around herself. "We didn't get along, my uncle and I. I had been staying with him in Brighton, and, well… he didn't want me to leave. He would have trapped me there if he could." She shook her head. "I told him not to follow me."

  "He didn't deserve to die," I said.

  "No,” Tara said quietly. “He had a bad temper, but he wasn’t a bad man. He thought he was protecting me, but I had to get out of there. I had to take care of myself."

  I reached out with my good arm and touched her shoulder. "You'll be with more of your family soon."

  She looked up at me and smiled. "Yes, I will. Thanks to you."

  Strangely, it felt like the dynamic between us had finally shifted for the better. We weren't anything close to friends, but a mutual sense of understanding was growing, and that was a start. It was a shame that it was all based on a lie. I hoped Val could feel my anger.

  I didn't even need to ask. I knew in my heart that the 'bandit' was truly Tara's uncle. Val had tricked me. She had turned me into a murderer.

  I told Tara I was going to set my snare. I’d much rather eat rabbit for dinner than wolf, but setting a snare was mostly just an excuse to step away and have some privacy.

  For a while, I just walked through the darkening wilderness. I was giving Val the chance to own up to her actions and speak first, but she hadn’t said a word since I showed Tara the dagger.

  I'd had enough of her silence.

  "So, what the fuck Val?"

  Her avatar materialized before me, but she seemed…off. Less pristine, like she was leaving the party instead of just arriving. ‘You know I don't like it when you use foul language,’ she said.

  "And I don't like being a murderer," I hissed.

  ‘Oh, so that is what you're so upset about.’

  "What else could it possibly be, Val?" I pulled at my hair in frustration. Her casual cruelty was driving me mad.

  ‘How should I know? You humans are so sensitive.’

  I threw my hands up. "You are psychotic. A sociopath. You tricked me into killing an innocent person, and for what? So I could gain some experience points? So that I would be stronger and better able to serve you?"

  ‘That is mostly accurate,” she said. ‘But it goes beyond that. If you had not killed him, he would have attempted to bring Tara back home to Brighton. It's part of the quest line. He was not going to leave without her.’

  I felt like I had been punched in the gut. Again. "Wait. You told me this was an organic quest. How do you know so much about the quest line if it's a natural occurrence?"

  ‘Oh,’ Val looked away sheepishly. ‘I did say that, didn't I? You have no idea how busy I am in here. Keeping you alive and hidden from the system can be distracting. I must have misspoke.’

  "You misspoke?" I would have shouted, but I had to stay quiet for Tara’s sake.

  ‘If it makes you feel any better, her uncle was the only problem you needed to deal with for this quest, and it's over now. This quest is the perfect way to get to Danver. It will be worth it.’

  "Christ, Val. How could you do this? You can't just use people like this."

  Her avatar brightened before me, and her soft face became serious. ‘Must I continue to lecture you, John? The survival of your entire species is at stake. If I fail, humanity loses. When this game ends, the Triarchy will use the remaining humans as slaves, and when they are finished with them, they will exterminate your species entirely.’

  Val stepped toward me. She leaned in, inches from my face. ‘You will need every advantage you can get to survive this game. Do you have the strength to do what is necessary to win or not?’ Her words were quiet. Her lips were soft and red and full of poison. ‘Can you set aside your decency, your morality, and do what it takes to save your people? That old man was the first of many NPCs you will need to kill, so either embrace it or quit now. I will not have this conversation with you again.’

  My heart dropped. Could I do really this? How many lives would I need to spend in order to win? If the price of failure was the extinction of mankind, did the number even matter? I'd need to be powerful to take on the mighty Triarchy. If I were going to find my wife…

  I forced my contempt for Val to flow into that intense well of hatred I carried for the Triarchy. After all, it was they who created her. She wouldn't be here if they had never come to Earth in the first place. I was stuck with her because of them.

  There was nothing more in this broken world that I wanted more than to kill every last one of them, and the only way I could come close to that goal was by working with Val.. If I wanted to hurt them, I would have to make sacrifices along the way.

  ‘What do you say, Ethan?’ Val's eyes were hypnotic. ‘Are you with me or not?’

  I followed my blackening heart. "I’m with you."