As I awoke for the second time, another prompt was in my sight, though my eyes were still closed. That had more implications than I wanted to consider at that moment.
You have received 2 damage.
Promptly after reading the line of text, the window disappeared and a small red bar at the bottom of my vision appeared, showing part of the total amount had been lost. My head pounding something fierce, I kind of just laid there until Buddy spoke again. “Hey, uhh, you got any food?” Just like that, I was snapped out of my haze and started to laugh because my ego wouldn’t let me cry.
“I'm sorry boy, I don't have anything on me at the moment”
“I'm going to DIE if I don't get food soon!” said the dog in a serious voice.
“You ate right before our walk” I emphasized with the bit of empathy I could muster.
“I know, that was like 10 years ago”
“Try 45 minutes”
I stood up and looked around, soaking in my surroundings. At first glance, it looked like any other North American forest, but when I started to look closer, things weren't quite the same. The bark on the trees didn't grow up, instead, it grew in layered rings stacked on top of each other. The leaves and underbrush weren't like back home, everything seemed to grow in more of a spiral. The colors of the leaves were off too, not a green, closer to a blue-green. Kind of like a teal or maybe aqua-green. What I noticed last, and what unsettled me the most, was the complete lack of noise. If you exclude the disgusting sound of Buddy licking his… bits.
“Will you knock that off? It's not helping anything. I have no idea where we are or how we got here. I have video game prompts popping up in my vision and the last thing I want to hear is you slurping away!”
“Geeze, SoRrY. I guess I can't be worried too. Do you think I'm not scared? Just a year ago, I was eating and walking and having fun. Then BOOM, the man started talking to me in my head!”
I curled an eyebrow at him saying “Wow, there is a lot to unpack in that. First, you lick your um bits when you're nervous?”
“Duh”
“So you're telling me when I had that girl over at the house, and you just sat there right in front of us and licked your balls for a freaking hour straight while we watched a movie! You were just nervous!!” I partly screeched.
“Are you talking about the girl that smelled dangerous?”
“Wait? What does that even mean?”
“I didn't like how she smelled, but you yelled at me. What else do you expect a good boy to do?”
“I guess you can't fault that logic. Anyway, it turns out she just wanted me to do her physics project.” I acquiesced.
“See, the nose knows best!” said the dog with a snide grin on his face. I didn't even know a dog's face could do that.
“Please explain what you meant by the man's voice in your head?”
“I don't know, we were walking and then all the sudden I heard a loud voice in my head say”
“Ready yourself little one, he will need you.”
“Wait, was that when you sat down and screamed, those people were five seconds away from calling animal protective services on me!”
Buddy said with a whimper in his voice “Yes, the voice scared me so bad, I didn't know where to run”
“That's funny? I heard a voice too but it was later. Let me know if you hear any other voices!” I said as I bent over to give him a huge hug. After some time of belly rubs and assurances that I wasn't mad, I said “We need to get somewhere safe before it gets dark.”
Doing a quick pocket check I inventoried everything I had on me still. Wallet, keys, phone, pocket knife. As someone with a curious mind, I had journeyed down many rabbit holes, one of the longest-lasting holes I'd been down was Scouts. Dad put me into Boy Scouts as a kid and I followed that to Eagle Scouts. "Be Prepared" is their motto, and prepared I will be. I carried a bit more equipment than your average computer science major. My wallet contained a few extra items of interest, mainly a credit card-sized magnifier, 2 3-foot lengths of metal wire, and a beer opener; you never know when you need to crack a cold one with the boys.
I began walking, not in any particular direction because well I didn't know where I was. About an hour into our hike, I saw a small creek running down a slope. “This is as good of a spot as any for camp, at least we will have water”.
We began collecting fallen sticks and branches to make an impromptu shelter for the evening. I couldn't see any clouds in the sky, that never stopped me from getting soaked in the middle of a camping trip before. While dragging what would become my main support log for my lean-to, Buddy ran by with a few sticks in his mouth. “At least that hasn't changed,” I said under my breath. I chose a clearing between two large trees roughly 75 yards from the creek. I remember my Dad saying, "Where there is water, there is wildlife." Even though I hadn't seen any critters, it doesn't mean they don't exist.
Picking out a stick around 2 feet long I dug a small hole in the ground for my firepit. Arranging the sticks we collected I pulled out the magnifier and went to work starting a small fire.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Congratulations you have gained the talent - Fire making - "With this, you can light a candle or set the world ablaze."
"Heck yeah! I got a freaking talent! Whatever that means " I said excitedly to nobody in particular. Marveling at my awesomeness for some time while staring into the medieval TV. IE the fire, I started to get thirsty. The sensation was odd though, back home it came on gradually but here it was like a flick of a switch. As if by magic a new prompt appeared.
You gain the status effect - Thirsty: -10% SP regeneration
The moment the prompt appeared, my body felt like someone had rung me out like a dishrag. All my movements took more energy, my mouth felt like sandpaper, and worst of all my eyes started to dry out. In a mild panic, I ran to the stream, Buddy right behind me. Praying the water wouldn't kill me I scooped some up in my hands and began to drink. It was the most delicious water I had ever had! Mouth full after mouth full I drank, until.
You lose status effect - Thirsty
You gain status effect - Hydrated - you gain +1 to SP regeneration
"Another one of those prompts popped up, this time it said I have gained +1 to SP regeneration," I said to the dog.
Buddy said, "Sure if you say so!" While doing a doggy tip-toe dance. He lowered his head to the stream and began to drink. A few slurps later he jumped in surprise as well and began what I can only call the Super Zoomies. This crazed pup ran like I had never seen him run before, it was entertaining until he tried to climb a tree and got stuck in a forked branch. After removing him I asked, “What just happened, I haven't seen you run like that since, well ever?”
“I don't know, I just felt the need for speed.”
“Did you get a notification like I did? A window that opened in your vision?”
“I can't read, what good would that do?’
Thinking to myself “That's interesting, applying video game logic I bet that Buddy registers as an animal instead of a player. This means he wouldn't have any prompts like I do, and I bet he has different stats than I do too! Speaking of stats, how in the world do I see mine?”
"Show me my stats," I said out loud. Nothing happened. What if I think 'character profile'? Still nothing. While trying to come up with a way to make something work, I thought back to my tabletop days and thought "Character sheet!”
Name: Abner Hanover
Level: 0
Race: Human
Title: Catalyst
Health: 100/100
Stamina: 90/90
Mana:70/70
XP: 0/50
Strength: 8
Constitution: 10
Dexterity: 11
Endurance: 9
Intelligence: 12
Mana: 7
Talents:
All-speak - "As a Catalyst you are given this rare gift, use it wisely."
Firemaking - "With this skill, you can light a candle or set the world ablaze."
Skills: N/A
Profession: None
Class: N/a
Status effect:
Hydrated - +1 to SP Regen
Time remaining: 58 minutes
Regeneration rate
Health: +1 HP/minute
Stamina: +1.9 SP/minute ( Base 0.9 + 1 )
Mana: +0.7 MP/minute
Resistance: None
“That's a surreal experience,” I thought to myself. Who I am, my entire being, summarized in a few short lines. Was this the matrix? Feeling the existential crisis coming on, I chose to focus on my sheet instead. “My specs seem to not fit video game logic if that can be applied here. In most games, a base 10 for all stats is expected. I'm all over the place. What does this mean? Earth doesn't have any stats. Like is this what I was back home? Are these good, or bad? Reading down the list I stopped at talents. I focused on the talent All-speak.
All-speak: "As a Catalyst you are given this rare gift, use it wisely."
This talent grants the ability to speak, read, and understand any language you hear for 1 minute.
"Now that will be useful when I meet someone." For all I knew at that moment the inhabitants of this place were small green men with big heads.
Then there was the section that said skills. I never understood the difference between the two and there is no distinction on my sheet either. Maybe one is for combat and the other is just normal life stuff? The profession is self-explanatory, it could be a nurse, blacksmith, or cobbler. My HP, SP, and MP levels seemed directly connected with my Constitution, Endurance, and Mana stats. Each point in those individual stats raised my respective total pool of 10 Points. Additionally, my regen rates seemed to be 1 percent of my total pool per minute. This begs the question, is that any good?
“Hey Buddy, do you have any colored bars on the bottom of your vision? I have a green bar, red bar, and blue bar”
“First off, what is a bar and second my vision looks the same as it did back home.”
“Hmmm, I wonder if you’re like my Pet or something?”
Buddy started to whimper, “Of course I am and you are my person”
“I know Buddy, I meant Pet with a capital P. In games sometimes people can have a Pet, and since the person is bonded to them, they can see its stats.” I pulled my character sheet back up and looked closely to see any indication that Buddy was my Pet, but sadly no dice.
Looking at the waning sunlight I said “We should get this shelter done before it gets too dark Buddy.”
Starting with the main support log laid horizontally to the ground, between the forks of two trees. Next, lay sticks against the main horizontal log until it covers one entire side of the lean-to. Then Buddy and I began putting leaves on top of the completed wall. "A leaf wall will help cut any wind tonight and help reflect the fire onto us as we sleep," I said to the dog while. Placing the final few leaves on the shelter I received a talent.
Congratulations you have gained the talent - Shelter - "Warm, dry, and safe is the recipe for a good night's sleep"
"That's a total of three talents now!" I said exuberantly. Buddy's response was just a tail wag and a harrumph.
As the day started to turn into night my stomach started talking to me. If we tried to forage for food we may eat a yummy berry or a magic mushroom and I'm not doing that again. Remembering I had that little bit of wire in my wallet. We set out to place two snare traps. I figured that with any luck we might catch something in the middle of the night.
After finding what looked like a small game trail we followed it until we found the perfect tree to tie off to. Making a small loop on one of the ends I ran the length of the wire into that hole. Pulling the wire through until I had a 6-inch circle. Then I tied the remainder of the wire off to a branch running across the path, leaving the noose hanging a few inches off the ground. It was a simple slip snare sometimes called a squirrel noose for the initiated.
Congratulations you have learned the skill - Trap-making
Trap-making is now level 1
0/100 to next level
"That's why it was so hard to make this trap! I didn't have the skill for it yet." Even though I knew in my head how to do it, my fingers wouldn't comply. This also explained the distinction between talents and skills. Talents are something you just know, whereas a skill is something you can get better at!
Moving further down the trail I felt inspired by my newfound skill and attempted to make a spring snare trap but every time I tried to set the hook I got a message saying.
Requires level 5 to make this trap
Resigned to a simple squirrel noose, I placed the trap.
Gained 25 XP in Trap Making
25/100 to next level
Making our way back to camp I noticed something odd. “Buddy, do you hear animals now?”
“Umm, yes why?”
“Before I didn't hear anything, now it seems like the forest is alive”
“Grrrrrrrr”
“I know, this is weird, why was it quiet before?” Feeling like a spider was crawling up my neck we traveled back with much more caution and haste than before.
After arriving back at camp, finding everything as it was, I laid in our impromptu shelter. Fire cracking beside us and stars above. Buddy put his head on my stomach and said "How are we going to get back home?"
"I don't know Buddy, I don't even know how we got here. I think someone brought us here on purpose though, so maybe after that."
"Okay, as long as there is food and scratches it will b
e nice." He said as he began to drift off to sleep.
Looking up into the stars I said in a whispered voice “I don't know who you are, but thank you for taking me away from there.”