After successfully calming down his new travel companion to prevent any other predators from being able to locate them.
*You have points to spend, would you like to check the shop?*
Before he rage closes another text box, Reginald reads it fully this time. Seeing that there could be a shop like there would be in a MMORPG, Reginald’s heart skips a beat.
“If there is any sort of food or water, that would be a godsend right now.”
Hopefully he doesn’t have to go get it and whatever mystical power is creating these text boxes can also simply deliver whatever is bought directly to the customer.
Reginald clicks the *Yes* button and he sees a huge text box crowd his vision.
*Emergency Mode is still active and only items deemed essential have information revealed.*
10 items have actual names and descriptions and hundreds of others simply appear as ???.
The ten items go as follows.
Food Supplies - 50 Points
Water Supplies - 30 Points
Shelter Supplies - 150 Points
Camping Supplies - 100 Points
Simple Weapon - Open for All Options
Simple Clothes - Open for All Options
Simple Backpack - 80 Points
Potion of Healing - 250 Points
Potion of Endurance - 125 Points
Classes - Open for All Options
Without even thinking about it, Reginald clicks on water supplies and presses the *Purchase* box.
A soft thud echoes out as a case of water bottles plops onto the ground in front of Reginald.
Though this new world is weird, being able to purchase things through a little menu and it appearing in front of you is extremely handy.
Reginald also quickly buys some Food Supplies, 3 Potions of Healing, Camping Supplies, and Shelter Supplies.
In the end he ends up with some simple dried foods in bags, some pots and pans you would take camping, a stand to put over a fire for the pots, a lantern, a couple simple chairs, a sleeping bag, and a large tent.
Looking around, Reginald wonders what he should do. He had bought all this stuff without considering how he would move it all. He isn’t very keen on moving around in the desert with a small infant to begin with, but having a giant cooked worm that could attract more potential predators is a problem.
“At least if I set up camp here, I could potentially use the remaining part of the black sphere as a means to protect us.” Reginald says while rocking the small child. They simply stare up at him with their alien-like eyes.
“Better yet, you don’t even have a name yet. In fact, I don’t even know your gender.”
Reginald begins to unwrap his new little friend, when as he opens up the front part of the blanket, a necklace can be seen shining around the baby's neck.
At the front of the necklace is a plate of metal, its dark blue metallic sheen is extremely eye-catching. Several scratch marks are spread across the plate. Thinking that it was simply scratched up during whatever killed their last guardian, Reginald pays the scratch marks no heed at first, until they begin to shift on the plate.
One word simply appears on the metallic plate.
Arahiri.
“Arahiri huh? Is this like a nameplate?”
When Reginald says the word Arahiri, the baby demon’s eyes glisten with excitement and they reach out for him.
“I’ll take that as a yes, but that still doesn’t answer the gender question.”
After unwrapping Arahiri from the bundle and inspecting them, Reginald discovers that his little travel companion is a girl. He quickly wrapped the baby back up as they started fussing, but Reginald doesn’t blame her as he doesn’t enjoy being in this wicked feeling sunlight either.
“Well, now that this is taken care of, let’s think about where to spend the next couple of nights.”
Reginald looks around at the black sphere and sees that it currently blocks two directions fully, while the worm is lodged in the other direction, with the top of it and the only side left being melted open.
The sphere even blocked a lot of the wind trying to whip up sand everywhere.
“I don’t think we should just travel around aimlessly, let’s set up a little camp here. How about it Arahiri?”
Reginald didn’t expect a response, but being able to talk to anyone helped take a massive weight off his mind and made him feel like he wasn’t alone in this extenuating circumstance.
Arahiri simply tilted her head to the side, not understanding what Reginald was talking about but he didn’t mind, he simply got to work.
First, Reginald moved the bodies outside of the sphere into a pile, deciding to deal with them later. What was more important now was getting the tent up so Arahiri could stay out of the sun and heat.
After getting his little companion out of the heat, Reginald continued to set up camp. He bought another set of shelter supplies and used the next tent to create a makeshift tarp door to the open side of the sphere, hoping to keep any creatures out.
He managed to get the zipper in the middle, so he could open and close it from either side whenever Reginald wanted.
Though he had no way of obtaining fire at the moment, Reginald did not lose hope as he could keep buying dried food.
As the day came closer to night, Reginald even set back out to the desert and managed to find his ax that had been tossed away by the worm.
“It might not kill that worm, but surely there is something out here that isn’t just an evolved killing machine.”
As the eclipsed sun set over the horizon and night befell onto the desert, Reginald headed into the tent for what felt like the first time today. In there he found Arahiri asleep and a smile spread across his face.
He quickly found his stash of dried food and ripped a bag open as he was simply starving.
As the bag ripped open, Reginald can feel a penetrating gaze land on his back. Slowly turning around, Reginald finds Arahiri’s eyes wide open and staring at him with a hungry intent.
‘Shit, I forgot that Arahiri probably needs to eat too! What could I even feed her!’
Reginald looks down at his chest. No milk is going to be coming from there. He looks down at his food supplies but unfortunately baby formula seems to have been missing from the package.
Looking back at Arahiri once more, Reginald sees the baby’s eyes begin to fill with tears once again and her face begins to scrunch up.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
‘Fuck fuck fuck fuck…’
Reginald repeatedly curses as he rushes over to Arahiri and picks her up in an attempt to coddle her. However, her voracious appetite forces her stomach to let out a loud growl.
The growl is the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Arahiri’s screams once again echo throughout the crimson desert.
Reginald tries to feed her some dried cut up banana, but when the baby sees the small yellow disc coming towards her mouth, she shuts it and cries silently until Reginald puts it away.
‘Her teeth are that of a carnivore, but none of the options in the shops come with any meat. It’s not like there’s just a huge pile of meat just sitting around in the desert either…’
Reginald stops and immediately an image of the worm pops into his head.
Reginald sets down Arahiri and sprints outside of the tent. Being let down only causes Arahiri to cry even more violently, and with each second, Reginald can feel his heart squeeze tightly.
He hasn’t even been a father for more than 12 hours and his child is already starving to death.
On top of that, the cry of a baby will attract predators, putting Arahiri in even more danger.
Wielding his ax, Reginald sizes up the worm who was trying to devour him no less than 6 hours ago.
He knows that this simple little ax is not even close to being sharp enough to be able to penetrate the metallic body of the worm, yet that won’t stop him from trying.
*CLANG*
The first strike doesn’t even scratch the armor of the worm.
*CLANG*
The second strike does even less and even seems to dull the ax.
*CLANG*
*CLANG*
*CLANG*
With each smash of the ax, Reginald can feel his arms vibrant violently and the webbing of his hands begin to bleed, yet Arahiri’s cries continue to get louder and louder in his mind.
*CLANG*
Even though he knows it’s fruitless, Reginald knows he has to try something or his poor little friend will starve on the first night.
‘How could I be so foolish.’
*CLANG*
‘I thought the system would provide everything and bought myself food.’
*CLANG*
‘Yet I completely forgot about Arahiri!’
*CLANG*
‘That poor innocent soul has done nothing wrong and has put her faith in me and yet!’
*CLANG*
‘I have done nothing but let her down and will already break my promise!’
*CLANG*
Tears fill up Reginald’s eyes now as he continues to smash at the armor of the worm. At this point, the wooden shaft of the ax is beginning to creak and crack with stress fractures.
Reginald keeps hitting harder and harder, yet the body of the worm does not yield.
*CLANG* *SNAP*
The ax breaks in the hands of Reginald, the head of it flying in the air once again.
Reginald falls to the ground in defeat, his heart beating so fast it feels like it is going to burst out of his chest. His analytical mind tries to think of any way to break into this tough shell, but one disturbing thought crosses his conscious.
The image of the pile of bodies outside flashes into the darkest parts of Reginald’s mind as he considers feeding Arahiri her own kind, but he quickly removes any consideration of doing such a thing.
‘I’d rather feed her my own flesh and use a potion on myself before I force the poor girl to resort to cannibalism.’
To get his mind off of such disturbing and depressing thoughts, Reginald opens the shop one last time by saying ‘Shop’ out loud.
Food Supplies - 50 Points
Water Supplies - 30 Points
Shelter Supplies - 150 Points
Camping Supplies - 100 Points
Simple Weapon - Open for All Options
Simple Clothes - Open for All Options
Simple Backpack - 80 Points
Potion of Healing - 250 Points
Potion of Endurance - 125 Points
Classes - Open for All Options
'No, no, no… Wait.’
Reginald’s eyes land on the classes tab. Clicking it, he rapidly reads the description of the tab.
*Classes have been deemed an emergency option yet not enough power is being allocated to say what the class you buy is, choose wisely! Classes are preset magical powers that one can buy to try and boost their innate power! The amount of classes you can have is innate, but can be changed as you become more powerful or consume certain items! Be careful about what classes you buy as you can never get rid of them!*
A long list of over 1000 options appears before Reginald. A lot of the prices range, but one thing stays consistent. All of the class names and descriptions are simply question marks. This would originally be off putting for Reginald in terms of possibly buying one, but right now feels like a life or death situation for him.
‘Even if I feed Arihiri these corpses and sacrifice some of my own health, that won’t feed her forever. I need a consistent way of obtaining food. A class will be my best option.’
In terms of price, some of the classes are 100 points while the most expensive one is 30,000 points.
Looking up at the corner of the menu, Reginald sees that he has 3,770 points left.
‘Maybe if I buy something expensive, I can break through this worm’s shell. Hopefully more expensive means more power.’
Reginald finds a list of 40 classes that cost 2,500 points. The next highest tier of classes is 5,000 points, so this is the highest he can go.
Hearing Arahiri’s still crying voice, Reginald doesn’t think about which question mark to pick for too long and chooses the middle most option.
After confirming his purchase and seeing 2,500 points disappear like it is nothing, Reginald feels something within himself change.
The air around him feels different, and Reginald feels like he can sense every part of his body many magnitudes more than before.
Hoping this is a good sign and that he has become much more powerful than before, Reginald quickly pulls his hand back and punches at the worm.
*THUD*
“AHHHH FUCK.”
Reginald’s hand shoots up with pain as he punches the armored worm. The pain feels five times more powerful than what he has ever felt, but the cries from Arahiri keep Reginald from passing out from the pain.
Thinking that this class was a bust, Reginald without thinking opens the *Classes* option of the shop again and quickly buys a class for 1,250 points, leaving Reginald with only 20 more.
As Reginald purchases the class, another crazy sensation flows through Reginald’s mind. It feels like he can sense tiny specs in the desert around him, and on top of that, the worm is also felt by this same sense.
Reginald is confused by what is going exactly but doesn’t question and he quickly puts his hand onto the metal body of the worm.
The sense of the worm feels even more vivid, and soon the entire shape of the worm fills Reginald’s mind.
Not knowing what to do with this new information, Reginald simply gives one simple command.
“Open.”
Reginald in his mind strips the worm from its protective fortress, revealing a juicy meat beneath. The real world follows the same sequence as what happens in Reginald’s imagination.
Reginald watches in awe as the metal armor of the worm is ripped open by absolutely nothing, like a pair of invisible hands are ripping open a tube of freshly ground sausage.
Worst thing is, this isn’t the craziest thing to happen to Reginald today, but now is not the time to ask questions.
Arahiri is quickly swooped up and presented to the inner meat of the worm. Since it was shocked by some sort of lightning from the black sphere, the inside is surprisingly well cooked.
Arahiri’s nose sniffs the air, inspecting the meat of the worm.
Finding the smell of the worm’s cooked meat savory, Arahiri’s mouth finally stops with crying and is filled with drool.
Seeing this, Reginald finally feels his body release its tension and he holds the baby while he tears away flesh from the worm with his bare hands.
Slowly and bit by bit, Reginald feeds Arahiri the worm meat until she has had her fill.
It must taste good as with each mouthful, Arahiri’s face is filled with pleasure and satisfaction from finally eating after who knows how long.
After giving Arahiri her fill, Reginald watches as the baby seems to have the miraculous power of simply being able to instantly fall asleep whenever she wants.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Reginald takes Arahiri into the tent and sets her down, not before giving her head one last stroke.
What catches him off guard is that a drop of red liquid drips onto the head of Arahiri. Confused by this sight, Reginald touches his own face and his hand is covered in fresh blood.
“Oh shit.”
This is Reginald’s last words for the day as his mind begins to fade and he falls to the ground unconscious.