I don't remember much from the next couple hours but from what Buddy said, I was in a bad way. Apparently, my infection had worsened while I was napping. This leads to a high fever, whole-body convulsions, and loss of consciousness. I remember bits and pieces, though it might have also been a fever dream. Looking back at my logs, my HP got down into the single digits. The only thing that kept me above water was the regen boost from my campfire.
Buddy went on to explain how I started to moan in my sleep, and when he tried to wake me up nothing happened. He understandably was very worried for me. Over the next few hours, I would randomly gain some form of coherence and ask for water or drugs, one time I even asked for my mother. At some point, Buddy had enough and decided to move to plan B. He started to lick my wound and I'm thankful he did. See, Buddy is a dog and dogs live off of instinct. He somehow knew if he licked my wound it would get better. What he didn't know was that he had a healing spell. I didn't even realize it until I looked back into my logs.
Your Guardian Buddy uses Cure Wounds on you.
Infection 3 healed to Infection 2
Your Guardian Buddy uses Cure Wounds on you
Open wound 2 healed to Open Wound 1
Your Guardian Buddy uses Cure Wounds on you.
Infection 2 healed to infection 1
Your Guardian Buddy uses Cure Wounds on you.
Infection 1 healed
Your Guardian Buddy uses Cure Wounds on you
Open wound 1 healed
After learning all that had happened with my fever dream and the subsequent healings I asked Buddy the next logical question. “What is a Guardian?”
“How would I know?”
“Well my logs say you're my Guardian, so I imagined you would know.”
“Nope, no idea” he retorted.
Realizing I had never actually Identified Buddy before I stared at him and thought Identify.
Name: Buddy
Level: 3
Race: Guardian
Title: Good Boy
Health: 120/120
Stamina: 150/150
Mana: 50/50
“That is way more information than I normally get! I wonder why? Maybe it's because you're my Guardian, whatever that means?”
“What does it say?” asked Buddy, so I read it out loud to him.
“That makes total sense!”
“What makes total sense?”
“That I am a good boy duhhh”
“I can't fault you on that logic, but when did you level up?” I responded.
“I think the first time I leveled up was when I killed the monster that attacked your leg? After that I felt much stronger, how do you think I pulled that pile of rocks?”
“Yeah that makes sense, but what about the second time?”
“After I licked your leg and you stopped moaning I felt a change.”
“I guess that makes sense? Why would you get level XP from a skill you used though, I never do?”
“Probably because I'm a good boy.” I simply laughed and scratched his head. I didn't have any answers yet but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, I'll take any advantage that I can get.
Pulling up the instructions for a Smoking Rack again I read them out loud to Buddy.
“We are going to need 2 Y-shaped sticks, one crossbar stick, and a Campfire. We already have the Campfire.” Bending over I riffled through the pile of firewood and found what I thought would be a good crossbar stick. “And we have a crossbar stick. We need to find two y-shaped sticks.”
“What is a Y-shaped stick?”
“Yeah that makes sense, you don't know the alphabet,” I said with a chuckle.
“Come over here.” I bent over and drew a Y into the dirt at my feet.
“Can you see this shape? This is the letter Y.”
“Uhh yes, I can. What is a letter?”
“A letter is a symbol that we humans use to write words.”
“I see, why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you need to write words when you can just say them?”
“Well, uh, some people can't talk, but also we want to be able to talk to people over a distance without having to go that far.” That was about the length of my knowledge, and at this point, I was just guessing, but he didn't know that.
“Humans are weird.”
“I agree”
Setting off in opposite directions Buddy and I searched for what we needed. It was surprisingly hard to find a y shaped branch. The way the branches grew here is more of a spiral than straight up and down like back on Earth. Eventually, though I found what I was looking for, unfortunately, it was on a living tree. I chopped the best I could with my pocket knife to no avail. I ended up bending it back and forth until the branch broke off the main tree, though the two branches that make up the Y part were still attached. Dropping my piece off at the campsite I yelled for Buddy. He barked off in the distance in the direction of the setting sun. Making my way to him, I paced three different Y branches. Wondering how he missed them, I continued towards the barking. Winding up, down, and around throne bushes. Under fallen trees and over large rocks. It felt like a different forest before the trees were somewhat spread apart and we had an area to walk, while here you couldn't take a full step or even stand up as if the foliage was a barrier trying to keep me out. The whole time Buddy was still barking away, which was weird, he could talk now so why would he bark?
Finally arriving in the clearing where Buddy was I was in shock. He found a Y-shaped branch, that's for sure. There was an absolutely massive tree in the center of the clearing. This thing had to be 1000 feet tall. With no exaggeration, this was as big as some skyscrapers. I don't know how I didn't see this tree before. The base of the tree had to be at least a hundred feet across. Around 100 feet up the trunk of the tree split into a Y. To add more mystery to the tree both sides were completely different. One side had dark bark with pulsing red lines running through it. The leaves were blood red with veins of black running through them. While the other side had smooth light bark that had an aura of soft light around it. The leaves were metallic gold, they moved as if a breeze was pushing them, even though the air was still.
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Moving further a few steps my breath caught in my throat, it felt as if I wasn't supposed to be there. However, that did not fully explain how I felt. It was as if I just walked into the control center in Houston moments before the moon landing and started yelling about the cost of parking. My small issues were nothing compared to the monumental importance of what lay before me. Finding my voice I whispered to Buddy "How did you find this place?"
"I followed the voice”
“That's not ominous,” I said with a shutter. “Was it the same voice from before?”
“Yes, he said that you needed to see this.”
“Okay I saw it, now let's go!”
“He says you haven't looked close enough yet.”
“Fine! I'll look closer, then can we go? '' I retorted. Shrugging Buddy lay down looking off in the distance at nothing in particular. I hated when dogs did that, that had always given me the creeps. Looking close I thought Identify but nothing happened. Weird. No prompt telling me I can't scan it or anything.
Moving my gaze back up to the tree I noticed something I didn't before. The darker side was bigger and more vibrant. While the other side was significantly dimmer and muted in comparison. Even more at the base of the lighter side, it seemed as if the dark bark was creeping over. The red pulsing veins had started to move their way up the branch, strangling the lower branches. Watching the red veins closer I noticed the pulsing was consistent, almost as if it was a heartbeat. The longer I watched the more entranced I became, I noticed my breathing synced with the pace of the pulsing. Everything around me started to disappear as I focused. I felt my body moving towards the tree, wanting to get closer to the source. Then my concentration was broken and I had control of my body once more.
“Ouch!” I yelped, Buddy had snipped the back of my leg. “What was that for?”
“You started to walk to the tree, I was calling your name and you didn't listen.”
“Alright then, that's enough, we're leaving now,” I said, too freaked out to argue.
“I agree, let's get out of here.”
Making our way out of the glade, I backtracked the best I could. Though when we got back into the forest proper I didn't know where we were. “Buddy, do you know how to get back to camp?”
Sniff, sniff, sniff, “it's that way,” he said while pointing to my left.
“Lead the way, we need to get home before it gets too dark.” By this time the sun was just a sliver over the horizon and the forest grew darker every moment. “What did the voice say to you exactly?”
“He said that you needed to see the tree to understand your nature.”
“That's it? What is my nature?”
“I'm not sure what he meant by nature, but that's all he wanted”
“Is this some yen and yang crap? Trying to bring balance?”
“You’re asking me?” replied Buddy
“I just don't understand why he talks to you and not me.”
“He said that he had tried and you don't listen.”
That took me by surprise, I can't remember a single time I heard some guy's voice in my head. That would be something I think I would remember. At that point, I was starting to get extremely frustrated. Not at Buddy in particular but at the situation. “Well tell him to try harder because it's getting really annoying playing the telephone game.” I snapped.
Buddy dropped his head low “Okay”
“Ah crap, Buddy I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. It's not your fault, I'm just getting very hungry. Why don't we get one of these Y-branches on the way to the camp and get some food for us?” That perked him right up. He started to run forward while doing his doggy trot. “Wait up!”
By the time we got back to the campsite, the sun had fully set. There was still a small amount of moonlight to work the fire with. Getting the fire started again from the embers was surprisingly easy. All I did was throw a few small sticks onto the fire while collecting larger pieces and it went up like I had poured gas on it. “What the heck” I said, questioning my knowledge of fire. Though thinking about it, this wasn't a normal campfire, it was a System campfire. Considering that since it’s a named construction, the system gave it some extra perks that I didn't see in its description. Making the drying rack was too easy. I just dug the two Y-sticks in the ground on either side of the fire pit and placed the crossbar on top.
You have made: Smoking Rack
* +50% smoking time
* -25% spoil rate
Gained 50 XP in Survival
70/200 XP to Survival level 3
Reading over my prompt I jumped in panic. “Ah crap, did the meat already spoil?”
Buddy raised his nose in the air, sniffed twice, and simply said “No”.
“We're going to circle back to that,” I said while picking up the first piece of meat I gazed at its description.
Name: Cave Rat Meat
Portions: 12
Quality: 1/5
“These puppies are about to spoil!”
“What puppies, Where?”
I started by laying the strips of meat over the crossbar “There aren't any puppies, sit back down. It's just human slang, "I said while continuing to work.
“It's a mean human saying, I got excited for other dogs.”
Placing the last strip in could fit on the smoker I looked at Buddy, “I can see how that would get your hopes up, I promise not to say it again. Okay?”
“Okay, but some meat would make me feel better!”
Looking at the strips of meat on the rack I noticed that each of the eight had a small timer above it, all around the 59-minute mark. I guessed that it would take one hour to complete the smoking process. I had four pieces left that couldn't fit on the rack. I picked up my trusty cooking stick and attempted to cook these like a hotdog.
You have made: Cooked Cave Rat
Gained 10 XP in Survival
You have made: Cooked Cave Rat
Gained 10 XP in Survival
You have made: Cooked Cave Rat
Gained 10 XP in Survival
100/200 XP to Survival level 3
Unfortunately, I had burnt one of my four remaining pieces though my ratio of burnt to not is getting better, I suppose it's because my survival skill has also increased. Throwing Buddy a cooked piece of meat, leaned back and enjoyed my cave rat.
“You gonna eat that?” Buddy asked while looking at the remaining cooked meat.
I hadn't taken two bites of my meat and he had inhaled his. “I suppose not, you did heal me today!” I said as I threw it to him.
Weirdly, this was more comfortable than back home. Just me and my dog, in the woods with a fire; no job, school, or girlfriends. I thought I would like it here on Bathos, as long as I don't die from something stupid that is.
Reflecting on my day, I couldn't stop thinking about what Buddy had said. That the voice had tried to talk to me and I didn't listen. The first time I remember hearing the voice was when I got sucked into that portal, or was it? Either way, the voice seems to have plans for me and I'm not sure how I feel about that. It had taken me from my home, dropped me into a forest with no explanation, and didn't do crap when I was dying from infection. On the other hand, though, it had given me Buddy as he is now. If I didn't have him I would have been dead multiple times over, from either monsters, infection, or my stupidity. Not wanting to continuously call the voice ‘the voice’ I asked Buddy if it had a name.
“First off the voice is a he, not an it. HE says HIS name here is ‘The Ancient One' ” he said with surprising force in his voice emphasizing each pronoun.
Taken aback by his tone I paused before saying “Oh, thank you. What does HE mean by that's his name here?”
“I don't know”
“Fair enough I guess. Can you ask him?”
“Next time I hear him, I will.”
“Awesome”
Trying to diffuse the tension that had built up I asked, “How do you like talking now?”
“It is weird, you humans think too much, dogs just do. It can be exhausting but I get more food now”
“You got plenty of food before,” I said in indignation
“There is no such thing as enough food, silly human”
“Listen, you are like 20 pounds overweight. You could survive a week without food”
“Are you calling me fat!” Buddy yelled.
Feeling fed up with his victim routine, I said “Yes!”
“Well then thank you, we dogs pride ourselves on our appearance”
“Uhhhhh, what? You weren't self-aware until like two days ago”
“That's what you think,” he said as he turned around, pointing his butt right at my face and laying down.
“You better not fart,” I told him.
He just chuckled and said “Oh, I would never do that”
I rolled over putting my back to the potential nuclear-level bomb he could drop if he so felt like it, and said “Goodnight Buddy”.
“Goodnight Abe.”