Pheasants would be a waste of time. Braden went straight past the farming fields while other players stopped there, running to reach the forest beyond them where stronger monsters would be waiting. He drew his sword once again once he'd reached the treeline. Braden didn't wander off the path, not before he could find out what monsters were in the area. As long as he didn't step into the woods he couldn't be ambushed by mobs.

Conventional wisdom doesn't hold in a game as advanced as Haven. An enormous snake shot out of the ground, bulling into Braden's chest and driving him to the ground before vanishing into the ground once again. Braden's mind was screaming in pain. Only the terror that that thing might be coming back drove him up to his knees. Once he'd made it that far, though, he realized his body didn't hurt. His mind was still in shock from the blow, but it was slowly calming down now that it realized he wasn't close to death.

It hit him from the back the second time, sending him face-first into the dirt. His mind jumped right back into shock, but now it was coupled with adrenaline. Braden jumped to his feet and brandished his sword in both hands. Nothing moved around him. He needed to know where that thing was coming from next. With a brain high on terror and adrenaline, he connected the pattern as fast as he could. First jump there, landed there. Second jump from behind, so some distance to the right, then it burrowed there. Next would be-!

Braden turned and swung just as the snake leaped from the road. His sword caught the monster on the side of its head, deflecting its attack and stalling its movement so it couldn't burrow again. Braden pursued it, feeling the rush of victory. He slashed at the head again and again, well after the beast was dead, until finally the body vanished. He stumbled back a few steps, taking deep breaths to try to calm his racing heart.

"Ha. Haha. Hahahaha! Take that! This guy is worth a dozen of your stupid pheasants!" he called out to the empty woods. With that confidence boost, he turned to continue down the road.

Two snakes hit him at the same time.

As Braden felt the impact, he raised his arms in a futile attempt at self-defense. To his surprise, they rose all the way to his face. They also felt strangely light. He wasn't holding his sword anymore, that was it. Looking down to see where he'd dropped it, Braden saw himself dead on the ground.

Initially, Braden was shocked. He just stared at himself for a few long moments. Finally he managed to pull himself back to his senses. He knelt down beside the body, looking at the wounds it had. There was some blood flowing from places where the skin had broken, but there weren't any pierce marks. The snakes relied on bludgeoning him to death, not biting him. He'd have to remember that. For when he finished fighting pheasants.

"Revive."

When Braden reappeared in Birth Village, he was happy to see that he wasn't the only person at the spawn point. The other poor fools had all died facing pheasants, though; he had died at the hands of a giant snake. A death is a death, a small part of his mind reminded him, but he frowned it away and entered the central plaza. If he was going to kill pheasants, he'd better be doing it for something worthwhile. He searched around for an obvious NPC. One that had a crowd gathered around him stood out right away. Braden glared, but pushed ahead anyway. He needed whatever that quest was.