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When Amberlin died, she found herself in a world that she was already familiar with thanks to her brother. He'd been working on a game in his spare time, and she'd been helping him playtest it. It was meant to be the answer to all their financial problems, and now it had become something so much more.

Just like in the game, she spawned outside a small village called Restford, where a kind young lady named Liana kindly opened her home to a mysterious stranger and patiently answered questions about the world that even a child should know. At the time of Amberlin's death, the game was far from finished. It still had all hand-drawn placeholder art and no voice-acting. But she still became very fond of Liana, who was the first character the player ever met and was the subject of the first quest.

Getting to meet Liana in real life, her personality was just as Amberlin remembered.

"Are you going out hunting again?" Liana asked one afternoon.

"You want to come watch?" She adjusted the bow slung across her back.

"My fireball is getting pretty good. I've been practicing." While Amberlin had the same body as she did in her old world, she'd gained the ability to learn magic and all sorts of other fun skills. Every day she delighted in training and made herself useful by clearing monsters from the vicinity of the village. It was a safe place that only spawned weak critters like rodents and slimes. She contributed the materials the monsters dropped to the village stockpile, which was taken monthly to a nearby city for trade.

"That does sound exciting," Liana said.

"I've got to finish brewing up these arthritis potions for Mrs Whittaker. After that I'll come find you."

"I'll be out north of the cabbage field," she said before running off. True to her word, Liana later came out and found her, bringing a basket of Mrs Whittaker's fresh-baked cookies for the two of them to share. Liana clapped and cried out in joy every time Amberlin made a slime go pop in a small explosion. Magical ability wasn't all that common in Kalimor, and Restford was a tiny village tucked out of the way. It never saw any visitors, so Amberlin's spells were Liana's first real exposure to magic.

So she understood that whenever Liana praised her, her friend had nothing to compare her against. But the words were genuine and warmed her heart all the same. Kalimor was the name Amberlin's brother gave to this world. She'd thought it was a bit too self-gratifying, since it was an obvious derivation from their last name, Kalimori. Luckily Liana only asked for her first name and she didn't have to consider lying to her friend to stave off the embarrassment from her brother's bad choices.

Not only did this world have magic in it, it even had concepts like levels and stats. It turned out that everyone here had a convenient interface—everyone but her because, she supposed, her soul wasn't originally from here. But she found that she was still able to grow stronger. For Amberlin this world was no longer a game. It was real life. Liana was a real person, and Restford a real place. She didn't know which came first—the game or the world—but it didn't matter anymore.

Amberlin was here now, and there was no going back. When the sun started to set and the cookies were long depleted, Amberlin had completed a lap of the town's vegetable farms and a good stretch of the creek. Liana suggested they head back so that they wouldn't have to walk home in the dark. That wasn't a problem for Amberlin, who had access to a light spell, but she was getting hungry anyway.

There weren't any inns in Restford, so Liana had made space for Amberlin in the home that she shared with her brother, Herb, who must have been another addition to the game world after she died, as the Liana she remembered had lived alone. The three of them broke bread together every night, and on the week of the full moon, Liana would make her way into the forest to forage for moonflowers. And Amberlin would sneak after her.

This had to do with the first quest in the game, which saw Liana get attacked in the woods. Moonflowers were very picky about the type of soil they grew in. They only grew in forests because they needed cover from the sun, and the forest couldn't be too thick because they also needed light from the moon. This made them rare and valuable and a major source of income for the village. Amberlin only knew all this because Liana freely shared everything she knew.

There was no way to avoid these late-night foraging sessions. Liana had explained how the only way to harvest petals from a moonflower without killing the plant was to wait until it bloomed. And it only bloomed under bright moonlight. It was because of Liana that Amberlin had been training. She couldn't bear to let someone die who had been so kind to her. But every day Liana returned without incident. The area around Restford was safe. Strong monsters didn't spawn here outside of that special quest.

This was why Liana and Herb waved off her concerns. Plenty of villagers went into the forest after dark, and no harm ever came to them. As the months passed, Amberlin began to relax. It stood to reason that the real world didn't have to follow the game. Or maybe her brother had removed the quest after she died, since he knew of her fondness for Liana. But her concerns didn't go away completely.

This was why every month, when a group of villagers made a trip to the city of Lorelark and invited her to join, she turned them down. As sweet as the cakes were that they brought back, and as much as they sang praises about the bakery that made them—so much so that Amberlin wanted to visit it for herself—the journey there and back took several days, and it always overlapped with the week that Liana went into the forest. A year went by, and she was ready to move on.

She wanted to see the world her brother had made, as it was the only way she had left to remember him. She wanted to taste the cakes of Lorelark fresh from the oven and not after a day to stale in a wagon. Everything she had fit into a small backpack, save for her bow that slung over the back. The next trip to Lorelark was set to leave tomorrow, a day before the full moon. That night she had her final dinner with Liana and Herb. And that was the night it happened. Amberlin was shaken awake by Herb.

She had long stopped bothering to wait up for Liana's return. Restford was safe after all—and she fully believed that now. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. But Herb's voice was shaky when he told her that his sister had been gone too long. He was going to search for her and asked if she minded coming along. Amberlin only took time out to pull on her boots and grab her cloak and bow before they were out the door.

Herb was a forester, so he knew the area well and quickly found a fresh trail that had to be Liana's. The forest seemed quieter than usual as Amberlin followed closely behind. He was a capable man and could easily handle any monsters that typically spawned around here. For him to want Amberlin as backup, her past warnings must have been bubbling in his mind. She'd never shared the truth of how she ended up at Restford, and the siblings never pried.

They were good people, and she hoped that in her complacency, she hadn't let them down. Herb must have sensed something up ahead because he slowed down and motioned for Amberlin not to make a sound. Together they crept forward until a large creature came into view. It looked like someone had shaved a chimpanzee, bred it with a polar bear, and soaked it in barnacles. A rock troll.

It seemed to be wandering around aimlessly, and every couple of steps it would give the nearest tree a great, big smack with its oversized palms. The tree would shake, a couple of insects would drop out, and the troll would look up into the branches before moving on. The two of them pulled back until they were out of earshot and then Amberlin asked, "What's a thing like that doing here?" Any sort of troll would have been out of place in such a low-level area, but it wasn't even a forest troll.

The creature that attacked Liana in the game had been nowhere near this dangerous. Herb simply shook his head. There was clearly a different question on his mind, and it was one that she was avoiding.

"Liana is still out there," she said, as much for herself as for him.

"We just have to keep following her trail." They couldn't move as fast as she'd have liked, as they had to avoid drawing the troll's attention. It looked like the troll had been wandering the area for quite some time, as large segments of Liana's trail had been trampled out. But Herb had grown up in this forest, and he astutely spotted all the little signs that remained. Thankfully the trail began to lead away from the troll, and they followed it eagerly until—abruptly—it ended.

Herb looked around in confusion and then, as the seconds passed, frustration.

"It couldn't have caught her," Amberlin whispered. That was when an acorn bounced off her head and she looked up to find Liana with a finger on her lips. She motioned for her friend to come down, but Liana furiously shook her head and pointed to her ankle, which had twisted at an unnatural angle. Herb wasted no time in climbing up to meet his sister, and up in the branches the two had a hushed conversation while Amberlin kept a nervous look-out for the troll. There was a distant thwack as it slapped another tree.

Thankfully it was quite far away. Herb dropped back down and explained the situation. Liana couldn't walk because of her injury. They could carry her, but it was a long way back to town and there would be no escaping if the troll found them. Liana wanted to wait and hope the troll gave up, or they could hire some adventurers from Lorelark. But that would take days. Amberlin worried that they didn't have days.

While the troll's search wasn't particularly efficient, it wouldn't take all that long to get to Liana's tree. They could get lucky, but she already felt like she'd let Liana down by allowing it get to this point. There was no way she was going to bet her friend's life on a lucky break. That's why she offered up her own plan.

"Can you carry Liana out on your own?" she asked Herb. He looked at her like she was crazy.

"You aren't seriously going to take that thing on by yourself?"

"Not in a fight. But I can lead it away from town. Buy you a couple of hours." Amberlin had always been a good runner, and ever since she'd been reborn, she had yet to find the point at which she ran out of stamina. It was like her body was made for adventuring. A couple of hours was well within her limit. Herb looked like he was about to protest, so she cut him off.

"Remember how I beat everyone in the summer marathon? I'll be fine. Get Liana home safe for me, okay?" He nodded and made his way back up the tree to help his sister down while Amberlin moved in the direction of the tree-smacking. As fast as Amberlin was, she had the sense to appreciate the value of a nice head start. This was why she got as far ahead of the troll as she could before trying to get its attention. And if a head start was nice to have, an opponent with a crippled knee was even better.

That was why she tried to get the troll's attention by shooting it with an arrow. The arrow bounced harmlessly off a barnacle and the troll didn't even notice. That was okay because Amberlin had a secret weapon. She pointed a finger at the troll and shouted, "Fireball!" The troll turned in time to get a hot blast of plasma to the face. It roared and the ground thundered as it bounded after her. Amberlin was already on the move, and she could hear it gaining ground. The creature was faster than she thought.

Trolls were supposed to be slow, but slow was relative, and it occurred to her too late that a high-level monster would have high-level stats. She pumped her legs harder. The grunts and growls sounded closer. A branch cracked just above her. And then something struck her in the back. She was propelled forward. Her mind briefly flashed back to the memory of the truck that killed her. She was on a collision course with a tree. She braced for impact, for whatever good that would do. The impact never came.

There was a moment of disorientation and she found herself standing a short distance away. From nearby there came an almighty boom as the troll's fist—the fist that had been propelling her—smashed into the tree that should have killed her. The trunk cracked and then, slowly at first and with gathering speed, the tall oak tilted and fell. The troll looked at its fist in confusion and then searched around for the missing human before its eyes landed on her and once more it bellowed out an angry roar.

But this time Amberlin wasn't running. She didn't know if it was some sort of glitch. Maybe it was because she didn't have an interface, and with nothing tracking her hit points, she couldn't die. Even the spot where the fist had struck her on the back didn't hurt. Her bow hadn't been so lucky though, and she tossed away the broken pieces before preparing her fists for the beat-down. The troll ran at her at full speed, and she met its punch with her own.

The battle lasted two days and three nights and spanned the width of the Restwood forest. Every time their fists connected, Amberlin was sent flying back. But a little less each time. Because in real life, you didn't have to wait until your enemy was defeated to grow stronger. It was into the beginning of the third day that the troll reached its limit. The battle had taken them to the foot of a mountain, and that was when the troll decided it was time to flee into the comfort of its natural habitat.

But Amberlin didn't want to risk it returning to Restford, and she chased after it. Unlike her, its stamina was depleted, and even in its home turf, it couldn't shake her off. It was under the evening sun that the troll's legs gave way and Amberlin's fists, hardened through three days of intense combat, found satisfaction at last in its thick hide. The barnacle-like growths turned out to be hardened skin and tough as the creature's fingernails, but they cracked all the same under her vigorous punches.

As long as the battle had lasted, the ending was swift. In only a couple of minutes the troll fell completely still. Once it was all over, Amberlin stood up and bathed in the brisk mountain air. Her body was buzzing with energy, her fists itching for another fight. This was what she was meant to do. Battle powerful monsters and make the world a safer place. She looked around and took in her surroundings. She was standing atop a cliff of white snow. Far below was the green Restwood stretching out into the distance.

She couldn't see the village of Restford from here. In the game, she never got far enough to explore these mountains. The usual route took a new player to Lorelark and some beginner zones. It never occurred to her that the starter town could be so close to such a dangerous habitat. Maybe it worked in a game, but clearly had some unintended consequences in a real world. She decided that while she was in the area, she was going to hunt down and clear out any other rock trolls that made their home in these mountains.

She didn't want something like this to happen to Liana again.