If your hearing is to be trusted, the howls seem to be coming from the upper path. You go through the bottom path... But you are quickly met with a DEAD END. Something shimmers in the distance... Nino: Plunder that sweet loot. Oh boy, is this more treasure? God you hope it is something cool. Nino: Look at the shimmering things, are those flowers? What the... It's just some yellow flowers. You got excited all over nothing?? Wow, this adventure is off to a GREAT start!!! Oh boy!!!! You really want to kick something now!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!! Wait, hold that thought. The flowers are weirdly resonating with your presence...

You make it your new personal quest to make this "K" person pay. Who do they think they're calling a "Kleptomaniac"??? What an asshole!!! You kick the crate in frustration. It gains you +1 STUPIDITY point. Five is intrigued by your behavior. +1 CURIOSITY point. Nino: It's clearly some sort of trick. Turn the note around. You turn it over... Nope. No tricks here. This time it's more like an APOLOGY NOTE, and not quite as UNPLEASANT as before. The tone and writing style seem radically different, and less douchey-sounding. Ok, you're done here. This is STUPID. You think you've done everything you could here. Since there is no way other than the one you came from, you decide to return back to where you started. You stash the UNPLEASANT/APOLOGETIC…

You find a small isolated area. It's kind of foggy in here. Nino: Inspect footprints. Footprints. They are not a human's or a monster's, as far as you know. They seem more... beastly. Perhaps they belong to a creature of the forest. Many creatures and wild animals roam this DARK forest. This is the only place they can live in, seeing as they can't handle any LIGHT. Nino: What's that box over there? Can you open it? You remove the wood paneling from the top with ease. Nino: Look inside. As you prepare to peer into the box, you wonder what sort of insane loot is stashed in here? Usually in adventures, heroes find cool treasure chests! This box probably holds a GREAT TREASURE! Well, okay, a wooden box is…

You give her a smile, and let her know that everything will be alright. You also let her hold your hand instead of clinging to your clothes. She obliges happily, and doesn't look afraid at all now! Wow, is holding your hand really that reassuring? Only she knows the answer. Nino: Can you check Five's status? You click around the menu looking for a STATUS CHECK option and WHOA what's this? Party members? What? There's three empty slots...? It doesn't look like Five is an acceptable PARTY MEMBER. Rather, she is just a COMPANION of yours. You can only check the STATUS of your PARTY MEMBERS, and you currently have none. Oh wow, the pressure's on now. Do you really have to find three more MEMBERS? Jeez. What's the PARTY's…

Yeah, you don't know how a LANTERN could be harmful, but you suppose you should be absolutely sure it's safe before taking it along with you and Five. And as it turns out, it's very safe! Just a good old fashioned LANTERN. You wonder who it belongs to? Oh well, doesn't matter. It's yours now. The LANTERN is lit by a small firefly. The firefly will die after 2 days, and if that happens you will have to find another fueling substitute. Nino: Take that bad boy of a lantern. It's always better to see in the dark. The LANTERN is now in your LEFT HAND. Your HEAL is set back to your inventory. Five would probably feel safer with a light source around her now. You proceed through the…

Nino: Ask her how she feels. Nino: Hi! Nino: So how do you feel? ????: ... Nino: Ask her name. ????: F...feeling... ????: ...Alive... Nino: That's great! Nino: I'm Nino. What's your name? ????: ... ????: ...Um... ????: Name... ????: Name is... 5. Five: 5... is assigned number. Nino: It's great to meet you, Five. Nino: So are you lost here, like me? Five: ...Lost... Five: ...Five thinks... Yes. Nino: Do you know where your home is? Five: Home... Five: ... Home.... Five: ...Home? She's quite young, and appears to have trouble communicating her thoughts and understanding you. She seems like she's faced a lot of hardships. Well, even if she might not fully understand, you will try your best to explain the concept. Perhaps a drawing could help. Nino:…

You choose to keep TALKING. No longer feeling any fear, you settle down next to the BANISHED MONSTER. You tell it everything will be ok, and then ask it why it's crying. It starts carving something on the ground with one of its claws. It's a portrait of a person you don't recognize. Nino: Ask what you can do for it. It doesn't answer. It just stares at you. Nino: See if you can heal it with your ability. You don't care how dangerous it may be for HUMANS to help a MONSTER. This poor thing doesn't deserve to suffer any longer. You tell it again that everything will be alright. Nino: Use HEALING HANDS type: REMEDY on the monster. You never lied when you said you wanted to be…

You decide to be DIPLOMATIC. You TALK with the BANISHED MONSTER, asking it what's wrong. It stops scratching and stares at you. It seems... hopeful. Nino: Looks like they could really use a friend. See if you can converse with them! You keep following the choice of DIPLOMACY. You ask if it wants to be your friend. It shakes for a moment. Then it starts... crying? Will you keep following DIPLOMACY, or will you try another option? STEALTH has two sub-choices: FLEE and END FIGHT. COMBAT has two sub-choices: ATTACK and DEFEND. DIPLOMACY has only one option: TALK. What will you do?

The monster doesn't seem to hear you. It looks gravely injured. It's just scratching at itself. It starts scratching its face, neck, skin. Scratching and scratching. Like it wants to peel its skin off. It's slowly losing what was once a humanoid form. This is the fate of weak monsters. They are banished from their homes, and forced to transform into terrible beasts. It doesn't even look like it wants to fight. Nino: Nowhere to go but forward. Prepare for battle! You ENGAGE the monster in battle. The battle screen provides you with 3 starting options: COMBAT, DIPLOMACY, and STEALTH. What will you do?

You don't hear anything. It is so unsettlingly quiet; even the scratching was better than this. You think you can see a pair of RED EYES. That means... That... means... Oh god. There's a monster. Nino: Follow the path. You do so reluctantly. VERY reluctantly. You don't want to fight... whatever... "thing"... that monster is. To be honest, you've never seen a monster before, but what everybody says about them is scary enough as it is. You stop in your tracks for a minute. The fear is paralyzing. Will you really proceed?

Alright. But this is not an orb. This is your SPECIAL ABILITY, which you have creatively dubbed the HEALING HANDS. Every person has one ABILITY tied to their very existence, and yours is the ABILITY TO HEAL WOUNDS. As handy as it is, you'd rather have something else. Something cooler. Like fire-breathing. Or maybe laser-eyes! Wow that would be so cool. But nobody gets to choose their ABILITY, sadly, so you're stuck with this lame thing. Nino: Check that sword out. And this is your good ol' weapon of choice. You're pretty good at sword fighting! Swords are the best. There are the different kinds of attacks that you are able to use, ranging from the least to the most lethal. As you progress, you will unlock better and stronger…

You do so. In your current location, there is nothing around you other than dead trees. The only path you could go down is directly in front of you. The path is very dark, but you think you can see an exit. You can hear that godawful SCRATCHING NOISE you mentioned earlier coming from there. There is also a small faint light on the ground up ahead. Nino: Open inventory. You open up your inventory. You have little to nothing in there! As the options below state, you can view an item's description, or equip/use the item. You can have up to 2 items readily available at once, one in your RIGHT HAND and the other set to your LEFT. You'd better prepare yourself well for any RANDOM ENCOUNTERS in…

Why would you have an admittedly really cool name like LINK? And anyway, you're sure this name sounds more like a MONSTER'S name than a HUMAN'S. In case it wasn't obvious, you're a HUMAN. You don't have HORNS or RED EYES like MONSTERS do. You must've hit your head real hard if you forgot what SPECIES you are. Let's try this name thing again. All the wrong names. You are suddenly assaulted by all of the wrong names. ALL OF THEM AT ONCE. Dear god. No. HELL NO. The naming prompt simply cannot handle this much wrongness. Ok, that one's right, you think. That is your name... probably. You're not sure, but you will accept it. It sounds right. You take a much-needed moment to recover from all that previous…

You wake up in an unfamiliar place. It seems you lost your way in this dead forest. You also think you hit your head pretty hard. You can't seem to remember anything about yourself, not even your name! You're pretty sure you have a name, but it's slipping from your mind. Are you going insane? Probably. But nonetheless, you figure you will try to retain some of your lost sanity and remember at least a few details about yourself. What was your name again?