It had been a bad shock.  The anticipation, the rush of a few victories that first beautiful day, and then that bloody fragger and his god complex had to go and ruin it all.  Still, even with that and how everybody went nuts, Tailpin didn't feel much worse than before.  This was still the only place where he would ever walk again.  This was the only world where he could run.  And, he had run indeed.  He'd managed to run almost half of the distance to the next town and back.  But, he hadn't spent much time fighting monsters.  He was going to kick himself for that later.  He looked around and saw all the people with level 2 or 3 gear already and here he was with the only interesting thing on him being the short bow in his hand.

Well, it could always be worse.  He could have actually lost that first fight and died.  Instead of being reduced to seven hit points by a level one monster.  He really did stink at swordplay.  This bow was his saving grace.  He hadn't missed once and had even killed a couple monsters on his own before they could close the distance.  Tailpin was almost sure that he'd learn a bow skill soon.  Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to attract anyone to party with him.  Without an actual skill he wouldn't be able to really get anywhere.

So here he sat on a hill between spawn points waiting for either a good idea or a pretty girl or perhaps a party with an opening to notice him.  At his age he really didn't expect any pretty girls in his range but there was still a chance of the other two possibilities.  It was in the middle of these thoughts that his idle eyes fell on a girl stretching by a group of other players.  They seemed engrossed in conversation.  After all, they hadn't noticed the slow and meandering approach of a level one monster through the tall grass.  Well, if he jogged he could get in range quickly enough.  He was bored and listless anyway.

So he jogged.  He didn't look like he was in a particular hurry as he loped along.  He didn't look threatening either, all alone as he was.  Then he slid to a stop, held his bow at an angle across his body, took aim, drew back an arrow to his ear and tried something new.  He twisted the string and it happened at last.  The arrow lit up and Tailpin released it.  It flew in a swooping arc instead of a straight line and hit the boar type monster in the eye.  A critical hit registered and the monster dissolved into sparks.  The thirty year old man lowered his bow and breathed a sigh of satisfaction before raising his hand to wave at the party.