His own inventory? Alex ran the words through his mind again. After analyzing V.V.s words, he decided it made sense from a gaming perspective. Why wouldn't he have an inventory if he had a System and a Map as well. The map was shit but his inventory was bound to be better off than a floating dot. He stopped himself from going to down a rabbit-hole of other questions he kept putting off over and over about the System and decided to try out his inventory.
"Inventory." Alex said, trying to keep excitement out of his voice in case the System decided to give him something useless again, like the Map.
User Inventory
A new window appeared that looked almost exactly like Alex imagined it would with the exception of practically no descriptions. It didn't tell him how much he could store, how large the stored items could be or could like items be stacked? He could see ten sections which he assumed meant ten items could be stored but that was about it. One thing was for certain though; Inventory was actually useful as instead of being useless like Map. Alex stared at his Inventory and smiled to himself. This was it; this was the surefire way of knowing he was in a game world. Every game that had you carry stuff always had a way to carry that stuff in a ridiculous, unbelievable way. A bag that can hold things far too large to fit inside, rings or amulets that stored items in another dimension or systems that stored your things for you. Whether he was in his own reality or not was still up in the air but he was definitely working with a game-like system that he was familiar with. He already knew before now but it wasn't until this moment that he was actually ready to accept it.
SIGH
"This is all so much... Too much to take in and yet... I'm still functioning. I'm still moving even though I should be curled up inside my truck, screaming my lungs out." Alex shook his head in a slow disbelieving way as he reached out and grabbed the bag of repairing powder. He turned it a few times in his hand and then shoved it towards his Inventory. To his mild surprise, the bag seemed to dissolve directly into the screen and disappear. Once the last bit of the bag had vanished, he saw a small image of the bag appear in the top leftmost Inventory box.
Alex slowly shook his head again, feeling that there were times when things that were happening just felt too normal to him. The world was literally breaking down and he was coping so much better than he ever thought possible; too well for any sane person as far as he was concerned and that was the problem. Nothing to it though, other than continuing on surviving one moment to the next. He sighed once more, stood up and walked a few feet away from the corpse and then walked back, testing his new footwear. He hopped up and down a few times and marveled at how comfortable his new boots really were. The description did mention that one of the effects was comfort but he didn’t really know what that meant until he was actually wearing them. If reality was broken now, then he was just going to have to accept that he was probably broken as well and get on with it.
“Wow, it’s like I’m walking on air!” Alex exclaimed as he continued to test his new boots, his mind turning away from darker thoughts and focusing on the shiny loot.
“It is good that you are able to move comfortably Alex but we should move to the next objective as soon as possible.” V.V. informed Alex in their usual monotonous tone.
Alex sighed and trudged back to the last of the rewards. He knelt and put his hand on the last thing stopping him from having to go kill more things. As he began to remove the latch on the box and reveal his final reward, he hesitated. If he didn’t open the box, he could stay here for a while longer and just try to take in the situation a bit more. If he could just stay still and think for a while longer, he was sure that things would not be as bad anymore. Unfortunately, by undoing the latch he triggered the box into action even though he hadn’t opened it yet.
Creeeeeeek
"Damnit." Alex breathed out in annoyance.
The box opened on its own without the aid of Alex, to his surprise. Even though Alex was hoping to prolong the break he had gotten, he was still curious to see inside the box. As it opened fully, Alex was able to see his final reward from pummeling a monster to death. Something inside him started to twist and bile started to rise as he viewed this ‘reward’.
Orbs of Leporids
Slot: Primary & Secondary Weapon (Other)
Attack Physical: 7
Attack Mental: 19
Durability: 100 x 2
Effect: Sight Beyond 1, Dark Vision 1
Ability: Gaze Upon Prey
Restrictions: User must possess 30 Willpower and Wisdom to wield the Orbs of Leporids without occupying Weapon slots. Useable in Primary & Secondary Weapon slots if requirements aren’t met.
WRETCH
Alex emptied what little he had left in his already near empty stomach onto the ground. V.V. floated over to view Alex’s reward and hovered down to get a better look.
“These are quite the find, Alex. You also possess the appropriate stats to make optimal use of them as well. Congratulations.”
Alex managed to drag his drooping head up enough to look at V.V.
“You’re out of your mind. I’m not touching those.. those things!” Alex half shouted at V.V. with just a bit of quiver to his voice.
“Unacceptable, Alex. Weapons of this caliber are hard to come by and are especially suited to you.” V.V. floated up from the box and dragged Alex’s new weapons into the air as well. Held steadily in the air beside V.V. with what could only be telekinesis of some sort, floated two eyes.
The eyes were more like smaller versions of V.V. than actual eyes but Alex could only see the eyes of the monster he had killed. And sure enough, when Alex glanced back to the dead rabbit, its face held two hollow, bloody holes where once eyes had been. It may have just been a coincidence since Alex had pummeled the rabbit so many times in the head that maybe he’d been the one to destroy the eyes that were no longer there. Probably, not. Alex thought to himself.
Alex moved away from the small puddle of bile and a bit closer to these so-called weapons. Upon taking a closer look, the orbs were glasslike in texture and smooth all the way around. No optic nerves or any other organic material seemed to remain at all in the finished product that were the Orbs of Leporids. The pupils were pure black, surrounded by an icy blue iris, which in turn was surrounded by paper white sclera marked with spiderwebbed red veins that continued all the way to the backside of the eyes.
SIGH
“Can’t I find a stick or something…?” Alex pleaded with V.V. one last time with very little fight in him.
“While finding a stick isn’t entirely a bad idea, you will be able to use whatever stick you happen to find in tandem with the orbs.”
“What am I even supposed to do with these? Throw them or something; maybe make a slingshot?” Alex said as he finally brought himself to reach out and poke one of the orbs.
“The orbs operate through will and wisdom. They will move at the will of the User they are paired with.”
“…So, they are like you then, somewhat?” Alex, meakly asked V.V.
“These things are nothing like me, Alex. I am a sentient being, born into the world while these items are manufactured. They contain no sentience of their own and never will. They will be used until they are no longer useful and then discarded.” V.V. said, and Alex felt he could hear something like annoyance coming through and felt he had once again said something idiotic.
“Sorry, V.V. They just looked a little similar to you and my mouth said the words before my brain could catch up.” Alex, held his head a little lower in shame and embarrassment.
“Understandable, Alex. I am in the form of an orb and these things are in the shape of an orb. While the difference is that of a grain of sand to the majesty of a star, it is understandable.” V.V. said, once again sounding as monotone as their feminine robotic voice would allow for. Alex also felt that his intelligence had just been insulted but he felt he deserved it and was also happy to see that V.V. wasn’t as emotionless as they let on.
Alex sighed again and focused his attention back on the orbs. He reached out and grabbed one and then the other with just one hand, as each orb were only about the size of a golf ball. Once he held both orbs in his hand, a new System prompt popped up.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
User has made contact with Orbs of Leporids.
Bind Orbs of Leporids to User?
Y/N
“Yes…” Alex said, the wariness and disgust, still present in his mind.
User has bound Orbs of Leporids.
Orbs of Leporids must be unbound before another User may equip them.
With that, Alex felt a click in his brain. It was like cracking a knuckle but in his head. For a moment, he felt like he must have just had an aneurysm and he’d never heard about a noise happening in your head because everyone that it happened to, died. Just as panic started to build up, he noticed the orbs were vibrating in his hand. Noticing the vibrations becoming more intense, Alex released the orbs; instead of falling to the ground like he thought they should, they began to float up to his eye level. The orbs stopped and floated lazily around one-another.
“What’s happening to them?” Alex asked V.V.
“They are awaiting commands, Alex.”
He heard V.V.’s words and started to ask something more but then it happened. A flood of information hit him all at once. Alex slapped his hands to the sides of his head in an effort to stop it from exploding but it was unnecessary. As soon as the intense pain from so much information flooding his mind came, it also left just as fast. If anything, the pain he was feeling now was caused by his own hands slapping against his head.
Ugg…
Alex groaned. “That sucked…” He said to no one in particular this time.
He focused his eyes back onto the orbs and they moved. Each orb shot off towards the overturned truck, flew around it once and then back to Alex. He watched the orbs in awe of what they were doing. They weren’t so much following his commands but instead, moving almost like extra arms. He stretched the orbs out like muscles and they responded no differently than if he were to pick something up with his hand. He wouldn’t tell his arm to bend and stretch out to then tell his hand to grasp onto something. The orbs were the same; they moved around as Alex wanted them to and he barely gave it any thought at all.
“This… is… incredible!” Alex yelled after first trying to find the right words for this new experience.
“It is good that you have accepted the orbs, Alex. Now we must continue to hunt down as many entities as possible to increase your titles effect.” V.V. congratulated Alex and went back to being pragmatic.
“I know, I know. But look at this V.V! This is not even possible and it’s still happening!” Alex was so enthralled by what he was able to do with the orbs that he wasn’t willing to stop playing with his new toys to go on a killing spree just yet.
V.V. floated next to Alex as he continued to have the orbs fly this way and that. Finally, Alex began to calm down and allowed the orbs to fly back to himself and float above his left shoulder. With V.V. floating to his right and his twin orbs floating above his left, he began to walk back to the truck. Once beside it, he knelt next to the passenger side rear window and tried to see if he could see inside the cab. The truck had been crushed in several places by the weight of the rabbit and Alex wasn’t able to crawl back inside again. Most of the contents of the truck were now engulfed in mud but he wanted to try and find his backpack if at all possible.
Alex reached his left arm into the broken rear window and started to fish around for anything that he could get his hands on. After several minutes of shoveling heaps of mud out, along with useless knickknacks, his hand suddenly touched something hard. Alex pushed his arm in deeper and was able to grab ahold of something that felt like a handle to him. He pulled and slowly something started to dislodge from the thick muck.
Squelch
His backpack made a sucking noise as it was freed from the muddy soup it had conformed to. Alex pulled the pack through the window and inspected it. Although absolutely covered in mud, the bag appeared to be intact. He didn’t bother opening it just yet as he didn’t want to get the contents filthy. He stood, swung the backpack over his shoulder and looked to V.V.
“So where should we head to in order to find the demon squirrels?” Alex said with as much confidence as he could muster.
“Heading in the direction the lizards ran is the direction I believe we should take at this time. The weaker monsters ran from the hare in this direction.” V.V. floated away from Alex for a moment towards the woods the lizards had ran into.
“Ok, then let’s start heading that way.” Alex started to march towards the woods and V.V. resumed their place above Alex’s shoulder.
Alex approached the densely packed forest of trees and looked for a place he could enter without getting stabbed by sharp twiggy bits from numerous angles. After walking the line between the open ground and the trees, Alex eventually found a path wide enough to start making his way inside. Some time later, after navigating his way through tightly packed foliage, Alex found himself in a much more open part of the forest.
“Oh, finally. If something had attacked me in there, I’d have been destroyed.” Alex said, exasperated.
“Considering anything large enough to cause serious bodily harm to you would have to crash through the dense woods, you would have been fine. Anything small enough to harm you would have been easily deterred by myself and your orbs.” V.V. said matter-of-factly.
“What if something spits poisonous darts or summons spikes from the ground?” Alex said, allowing his imagination to conjure one bad situation after.
“That would have been unfortunate.” V.V. said and then did not add anything more.
“Unfortunate? You make it sound like I would be shit out of luck if that happened.”
“While I would not use that exact verbiage to describe the situation we would be in; I agree that it would be troublesome.” V.V. once more proved to be able to make Alex feel anything but confident.
They continued to converse for a while as Alex meandered through the forested area that had luckily opened enough to move around easier. He was about to make a comment on how V.V. wasn’t very good at making him feel less terrified when he heard a twig snapping sound. Alex froze in place and V.V. floated forward a bit ahead of him. V.V. span slowly in a circle and their deep black eye settled on Alex.
“Prepare for combat, Alex.” V.V. said this and floated higher into the air. Just as Alex was about to ask what he was preparing for, he saw it. A giant lizards head poked out of the brush between two large trees to Alex’s right.
“Ok, I can do this. It’s just a single big ass monster lizard. Nothing to worry about. I killed that oversized bunny. I can do this. Yeah!” Alex rambled to himself, hoping to psyche himself up but then something he really, really didn’t want to happen, happened.
There was another rustling sound coming from ahead of Alex and then another sound to his left. He watched with bemused horror as two more lizards appeared. The same little monsters that he thought he was going to be fighting earlier were now right in front of him. Alex had hoped that they’d just kept on running but apparently, they’d decided to hang around not too deeply into the woods for some reason.
“No freaking way this is happening again…” Alex said, more depressed than scared, which surprised him.
“I will engage the reptile in the middle, Alex. You defeat the other two.” V.V. said and began floating towards the middle lizard.
Alex was constantly confused as to where the psychotic marble got its confidence from. V.V. had a good draining attack but it seemed to have a cooldown and Alex wasn’t entirely sure how much damage it actually did. Then there was the idea that V.V. believed he could just handle the other two lizards while his little cueball companion took on one by itself. Eventually, Alex was going to have to get time to figure some things out but now wasn’t the time.
Screeeeee!
The leftmost lizard made a shrill cry and darted towards Alex. A split-second later, the other two lizards made their moves as well. The middle lizard leaped towards V.V. only to get a face full of dark energy for its efforts. The lizard slapped into the ground and rolled around like it was on fire and hoping the stop-drop-roll method was going to save it. The right most lizard also decided to leap but towards Alex, he sent his orbs towards it and activated his first ability.
Gaze Upon Prey
Enemies with less willpower and wisdom than the caster will be frozen with fear for 1 second + 1 second for every 5 points of willpower and wisdom the caster has over the targeted enemy.
Alex could feel the effect take hold of the lizard and fully turned his attention to the left lizard. In the moment he took to focus on the right lizard, the left had nearly reached him. The attacking lizard was only feet away when it too, decided to leap at Alex. Remembering the all-to recent rabbit leaping at him, Alex tried to dodge this monster the same way. Unfortunately for Alex, this monster was slightly faster than the giant bunny he had faced earlier when in such close proximity. The lizards razor sharp teeth managed to gouge into Alex’s right shoulder as he made his move to twist into a dodging roll.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!” Alex screamed as he had taken his first real wound since the world had gone to shit.
Continuing his rolling dodge, which included landing onto his now bloody shoulder, Alex came back up into a squatting position. He managed to keep his eyes on the lizard even though all he wanted to do was look after his surely destroyed shoulder. Alex flexed his right hand and it miraculously still worked, so at least it hadn’t done so much that nerves were severed. The little monster began charging once more and Alex stayed in place. He watched the devil thing rush him and ran his good arm across the ground in search of something that could be used to fight off the creature.
Just as he was about to try and get back into a dodging position, his hand ran across something hard and smooth. The lizard was close enough again to leap at Alex and right after it decided to launch again.
SMACK!
The lizards head whipped back with such force that it came up onto its two back legs and staggered for a moment. That moment was all Alex needed to seize the opening the large rock he had found had given him. It had been far more effective than he’d thought it would be when he decided to throw the hard thing he’d found in the pine straw covered ground. It was Alex’s turn to rush the monster. Just as the lizard was starting to shake off the stun it had received, it felt another blow to its head. Another blow and then another was given to the terrifying creature. Alex entered into his tried-and-true method of beat it until it stops moving and then beat it a bit more.
Alex continued to hit the monster until something slammed into him. He fell back onto the ground and for the second time inside of a minute, he screamed.
“AAAaaaaaah! Fuck!” Alex screamed as he flailed his previously uninjured arm in an attempt to dislodge the monster that he’d started to refer to as the right lizard. The thing had a tight grip on his arm with its teeth dug deeply into Alex. He tried to use his left arm to hit the creature but it was damaged badly enough that there was little strength in his blows. The lizard was shaking its head back and forth in an attempt to remove either a portion of its prey or hopefully a full arm. Blood was gushing out of Alex by this point and he started to feel woozy. Alex’s fading mind noticed something in the air off to the side of him.
“The orbs are not sentient, Alex. You need to control them in order for them to do anything.” V.V. said, floating a few feet away from Alex. His head snapped to V.V. and he yelled.
“V.V! Help get this fucking thing off of me!” Alex screamed desperately.
“I am low on energy after defeating my enemy, Alex. Use your orbs to defeat this foe.” V.V. said again, with not a hint of urgency in their voice. Alex’s eyes turned to where his orbs still floated serenely in the same spot he had sent them earlier to use their ability. He pulled them back to him and they sped towards the monster that was surely about to remove Alex’s arm. He wanted to hit the thing as hard as he could. All he could think was that he wanted to smash the little monster. Crush it and kill it. Those were his last thoughts before he finally succame to his woozy world closing in and darkness finally taking him.