Windrunner [Worm/Litrpg]

-Taylor-​

I tiredly blinked as I stared at the gray floating menu in front of my half blind eyes. Being snuggled up in my cozy warm bed almost made me want to ignore the freak incident and chalk it up to a weird dream. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shut my eyes.

Groaning and rubbing my eyes to get the sleepiness out, I reached for the glasses on my nightstand and sloppily put them on. A videogame-like menu consisting of a blackish gray panel framed by two parallel lines of muted white filled my vision.

Taylor Hebert
Level 1 Human Hunter - 0/400 xp
200 HP - 360 MP​

What the fuck.

So, there was a floating video game panel with my name on it. That was… that was normal, right?

I nodded to myself, purposefully ignoring a creeping wave of hysteria at the edges of my mind. Nothing to be concerned about here. No reason to panic.

I took a deep breath and calmed down before actually looking at the panel, immediately wondering why I was apparently a hunter. Me, a city girl, a hunter. The only time I ever picked up a bow - or well, any weapon for that matter - was… during the summer camp.

Ok, it was making more sense now that I thought about it.

My eyes wandered down to the several menu options with all of them having a slightly yellow glowing outline. I had a brief internal struggle between a part of my mind that warned me not to engage with the hallucination and the human compulsion to touch the weird shiny thing. In the end, curiosity won out.


I tapped on the abilities tab and a “spell book” opened up. According to the currently filled icons, I only had access to Auto Shot, Auto Attack, Raptor Strike, Track Beasts and Will to Survive with several passive abilities like Diplomacy and Perception.

Tapping on Will to Survive, a drop down menu opened.

Will to Survive - Removes all stun effects. This effect shares a 90 sec cooldown with other similar effects.​

How… how did that work? How could you use an ability to remove a “stun” when you were stunned? I wasn’t going to test it, of course. Only an idiot would concuss themselves on the off-chance that a hallucinatory video game menu would heal them. I felt a headache coming on just thinking about it, so I pressed on and continued exploring the various menus.

I tapped on the skill tab, causing a menu of a lot of bars to pop up. They were in various stages of progression with most of them only being at one skill point with three hundred being the max. The majority of the empty ones were weapon skills in their own section, separate from the language and profession sections. Taking a look back at the weapon skills, only the bow skill was at ten points. The rest sat at one point each with the only exception being Thrown at three points. Only other meaningful things to mention were that my cooking skill was a quarter way towards the maximum and that my “Common” language skill was capped out. I didn’t speak any languages other than English, so I had to assume that’s what Common referred to.

My browsing was interrupted by a quest pop up right in my face, scaring the living hell out of me.

Heroine in the Making!​

You’ve always wanted to be a hero and now it’s finally your time to shine. Find a bow and a quiver with arrows somewhere around your house. - 0/2​

Rewards - 2725 xp + Worn Composite Bow, Small Quiver and Worn Leather Bracers.​

Accept/Decline​

I read the entire thing over again in disbelief. Why me? Why now? I had wanted to be a hero when I was a kid, true, but a contrary urge flared up in me from being pressured into it by… whatever the hell this was. I sighed out in annoyance and tapped on accept nonetheless, watching the quest pop up disappear and reappear as a new tab titled quest log on the main menu.

So, uh, how do you close this thing again? The moment I finished that line of thought, the menu disappeared with a crumpling sound.

Huffing, I lifted the soft and puffy blanket off of me and shivered once the cold air hit my legs. It was six in the morning during holidays, what the hell was I even doing? Settling my feet down on the floor, I slipped them into my fuzzy slippers and yawned.

Now, where could I find a bow, of all things?

Maybe the basement? Mom had her stuff stored there so we didn’t go there very often but it was the only idea I had. With my mind set, I stood up and stretched my back out before quickly slipping on some warm pants and a hoodie over my night wear and leaving down into the basement.

Opening the door, I walked down the stairs and turned the light bulb on, revealing the dusty, barely used room and started rummaging through the mountains of boxes. There were a lot of miscellaneous college papers and textbooks left over from mom along with some of her favorite books that I didn’t yet get to read, mostly because they were of the “adult” variety. Grabbing one of the books for later, I was surprised when it suddenly poofed away in my hand.

I willed the menu to appear and noticed a slight change of an equipment panel being added. My hoodie, pants and slippers were showing as equipped and currently providing a whole three points of armor on the side panel which I haven’t even taken a look at until now.

It showed stats such as agility, intellect… spirit? Stamina, strength and the aforementioned armor with most of my stats being in the twenties. The exception was agility and intellect which were the highest in mid twenties. I wasn’t sure why I had so much agility but maybe it had something to do with me being a hunter? What confused me the most was the spirit stat, what the hell was spirit supposed to do?

Another quest popped up in front of me, causing me to recoil in shock. I swore that the interface was trying to give me a heart attack.

Dressed for the occasion!​

Every hero has to have a super suit to hide their real identity. Create an alter ego for yourself and make your own suit. - 0/1​

Rewards - 5450 xp + Heirloom Armor​

Accept/Decline​

My eye twitched as I tapped on accept. Why was my power so insistent on making me a hero? I didn’t know how people got powers in the first place but this seemed a bit mundane for a hero origin story.

Taylor, the girl that woke up with powers.

I suppose I should have been a bit more excited but this was… a bit weird and I still didn’t know how to really process it. Putting the questions aside, I tried willing the inventory menu to open which it immediately did. There was only one item in there and that was the book I accidentally magicked away. Tapping on it, I read the description and blushed.

Annette’s Fanfiction of Carmilla​

During her early days, Annette was disappointed in the lack of steamy lesbian novels and thus decided to write one herself.​

Tap again to read.​

My curiosity got the better of me and I tapped on the read button, watching as the menu started spewing out curved lines of letters and symbols straight into my head. After the quite frankly weird experience that was having an entire novel suddenly shoved into my head, I blushed even harder remembering perfectly word by word what I actually just “read”.

It was very hard to imagine mom writing that. I buried my face in my palms, contemplating my life when another text box popped up. Looking up at it, I felt like I could die of embarrassment once again.

Congratulations! You’ve learned the trait of Seduction (gay)!​

You always preferred the fairer gender after all.​

It being stated as a matter of fact made me want to disappear.

Composing myself and calming my blush, I closed down all the menus and continued searching for the bow much to no avail. It was at that moment my power finally decided to stop making fun of me and straight up made the chest I needed to find glow through the other boxes laid on top of it.

I rolled my eyes and started dragging the boxes away, finally coming upon the case mom’s old bow was stored in which I opened. The bow itself looked pretty great actually, it was a bit dusty, yes, but that could just be wiped off. It was a traditional composite bow, the same one we used at the summer camp actually which required an arm guard. Thankfully for me though, mom stored hers along with a quiver and a few arrows right next to it.

Lifting the bow up, I examined it when a quest completion tab popped up in front of my face again, making me jolt and stomp angrily. Why was my power such an asshole?

Heroine in the Making! completed!​

Rewards - 2725 xp + Worn Composite Bow, Small Quiver and Worn Leather Bracers.​

Turn in/Decline​

I tapped on the turn in button and was immediately assaulted by three more text pop ups and a quest completion sound.

Congratulations! You’ve reached level 4!​

All your stats have increased by 1!​

You’ve learned new abilities - Aspect of the Monkey, Serpent Sting​

Blinking, I exited out of all the menus and flexed my arm. It felt… weird, the weight of the bow almost entirely disappeared and I felt great, way better than I did seconds ago at least. Vanishing the bow, quiver and arm guard into my inventory, I opened up my character sheet.

Taylor Hebert the Seductress
Level 4 Human Hunter - 25/2100 xp
230 HP - 405 MP​

I groaned. Why the hell did I have Seductress after my name? One of the grayed out buttons simply called Titles on the menu came to life and started glowing. I tapped on it and a drop down menu appeared with only two options, no title and the Seductress. After a bit of thinking, I bit my lip in embarrassment and closed the title options, leaving it as is.

Navigating back to the main menu, I opened up my spell book and looked at the three new icons that popped up. Ignoring the Seduction trait, I turned my attention to the other two. For some reason, one of them was a monkey’s hand holding a banana while the other one was just a normal iron tipped arrow. I was very curious what aspects were and thus tapped on the monkey icon, leaving the combat oriented abilities for later when I had something to maybe practice them on.

Aspect of the Monkey - The hunter takes on the Aspect of a monkey, increasing the chance to dodge by 18%. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.​

That was, uhm, interesting and confusing at the same time. How could you increase the chance of a dodge happening? It was like that other ability I had, something that didn’t really make sense in actual real life context but then again, powers were weird I supposed.

My stomach growled and I yawned, it was still too early. Deciding to put my sudden and unexpected power testing on hold, I closed all of the open menus and turned the light bulb off after cleaning the mess I made. Walking up the stairs again and opening the door, I almost slammed it into the wall with how light it felt.

I shook my head, was I really that weak before?

Arriving in the kitchen, I cracked my knuckles and shook them a bit. I went straight to the sink and quickly washed my hands and went over to the fridge to look for things to eat. It was fairly empty since I still had yet to go for a shopping run but there were a few eggs and some bacon left over, plenty enough to make breakfast out of and go to the store today to get lunch ready.

That’s when another quest popped up, though, instead of the usual one this one seemed to be classified as a daily quest.

Daily Quest - Sunny side up​

Cook breakfast for yourself and your father.​

Rewards: 1250 xp, Eggs and Bacon breakfast, +2 Cooking Skill.​

Accept/Decline​

I raised my eyebrow and tapped on accept. I wouldn’t refuse xp from stuff I would do anyway.

Grabbing some orange juice to go along with it, I vanished the entire carton along with the eggs and bacon. With everything I needed in my inventory, I closed the fridge and instead went over to the counter where I opened the pantry and pulled out some white bread.

Settling it on a cutting board I took out from behind the knife rack, I ducked and pulled out our toaster from one of the drawers and plugged it in. While that was heating up, I pulled out one of our pans and set it on the cooker which I turned on immediately and added a glug of olive oil to the pan.

Opening my inventory, I summoned the eggs and strips of bacon into my hands and set them down on the cutting board. Now with everything heating up, I peeled off the bacon slices off of each other and slowly laid them one by one on the pan. Getting my tongs out for later, I put the slices of bread into the toaster and waited for them to get nice and golden.

Your skill in cooking has been increased to 76.​

I blinked at the flying blue text. Just out of curiosity, I opened up the main menu and went into the skill tab. My cooking skill increased by a single point from the last time I looked at it which made me curious about how skills were actually trained. Could I really become a master chef just by making toast and bacon?

Why was I trying to abuse my power to become a master chef again?

I was startled out of my stupor when the bacon started sputtering out and the toast jumped up from the toaster. I quickly took a hold of the pan and shuffled the bacon around before taking the toast out and putting it on a cutting board.

Grabbing my tongs, I flipped the bacon over and took in the sight of its so far perfectly cooked side. With the bacon flipped, I headed over to the fridge again and looked for some more stuff to put on top. Reaching for the last two tomatoes, I took them to the cutting board and took out one of the knives from the rack. Giving them a quick rinse under water, I got to actually cutting them into even slices.

Your skill in daggers has increased to 2.​

The moment I finished the first tomato, I noticed my dagger skill increase by a point, announced by the same blue text as last time I leveled up a skill. Could I seriously grind weapon skills by just making food? It might not be the fastest way ever but I wouldn’t say no to getting skill points for what were basically chores.

Finishing the tomatoes with one more point to my dagger skill and a hum, I pulled out two plates and set them down on the counter. Quickly returning to the fridge to get the butter out, I wiped the kitchen knife clean and spread a layer of butter on the toast.

Pulling the now done bacon out and letting the slices rest on the cutting board, I cracked open two eggs into the pan with the leftover bacon fat. I put a bit of salt and pepper on top and waited for them to get nice and golden on the bottom.

While that was happening, I summoned the carton of orange juice from my inventory and brought two glasses out which I quickly filled up and discarded the empty juice box. Pulling the eggs out after, I shimmied them off the pan on each of the toasts which I then served up on mine and dad’s plate.

Grabbing the bacon with my tongs, I put three slices of bacon on each of the plates and added the tomato slices before turning the burner off and carrying the plates with the juice on the table.

Your skill in cooking has increased to 77.​

The quest completion menu popped up and I smiled, this was starting to be pretty fun.

Sunny Side Up completed!​

Rewards: 1250 xp, Eggs and Bacon Breakfast, +2 cooking skill.​

Turn in/Decline​

Tapping on the turn in button, I got a boost of serotonin once I heard the quest completion sound.

Your skill in cooking has increased to 79.​

I giddily sat down on my chair and dug in, I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday lunch and I was hungry. Though, eating breakfast alone kind of sucked but it was pretty early. Dad would probably wake up soon, hopefully. At least the bacon was the best I ever made, by a very wide margin at that.

Opening the main menu again, I tapped on the spell book button. I still had yet to even look at any of my offensive abilities and this seemed like a good time to do that. I was getting a little too curious to wait until after I finished my shopping trip.

I tapped on Raptor Strike and took a bite out of the toast and egg, getting the runny yolk all over my lips which I quickly cleaned up..

Raptor Strike (Rank 1) - A strong attack that increases melee damage by 5.
Cost - 4% of base MP (16 MP)
Cooldown - 6 seconds.​

That didn’t seem very strong if I was being honest, also, wasn’t I supposed to be a hunter? Weren’t hunters supposed to use ranged attacks? My best guess was that it was most likely intended as a last resort of sorts when someone got too close.

I tapped on Serpent Sting next. I had a good idea of what “Auto Shot” and “Auto Attack” did, well, I hoped I did since my power ran on video game logic and I wasn’t the most familiar with video games.

Serpent Sting (Rank 1) - Stings the target, causing 26 nature damage over 15 sec. Only one sting per hunter can be active on any one target.
Cost - 9% of base MP (37 MP)​

Now that looked way more useful. Poisoned arrows were cool and the poison on that arrow should dissipate in only fifteen seconds, thus, I wouldn’t be running the risk of killing someone if I decided to use it.

That was when I heard the creaking of the floor boards. I hurriedly turned off the menu and continued eating quietly and conspicuously. I wasn’t sure if telling dad about… whatever all this was was really the best idea.

I would tell him, just… not now.

Spoiler: Attributes

Taylor Hebert the Seductress
Level 4 Human Hunter - 1250/2100 xp
230 HP - 405 MP

Stats:
Agility - 28
Inellect - 27
Spirit - 24
Stamina - 23
Strength - 18

Abilities:
Auto Shot, Auto Attack, Raptor Strike, Track Beasts, Aspect of the monkey, Serpent Sting.

Talents:
N/A

Traits:
Seduction (gay)

Weapon Skills:
Bows - 10/300
Daggers - 3/300
Thrown - 3/300

Professions:
Cooking - 79/300

Languages:
Common - 300/300