Chapter Six: Qu’est-ce Que C’est

He heard the snapping sounds of wood burning. The first of his senses to come back to him was his hearing. He could hear a fire, all the snapping and crackling sounds. Then came the smell. He could smell the fire. Not the overpowering smell and smoke that comes when someone in the trailer park tries to burn their trash, but the comforting smell of a campfire like the ones they had at those Boy Scout camps he went on when he was a kid. The faint smell of grilling meat. As soon as he recognized those smells his other senses started to return. The smell made his stomach try to escape through his bowels, His skull was collapsing inward trying to squeeze his brain into mush. His entire body was wracked with excruciating pain, and he was so very thirsty.

He lay there in this agony for a few moments, unable to even groan. Cut off from all control over his body, he could only suffer the pain and pray for it to end. It felt like the torture continued for hours, maybe days, he had lost his sense of time. Wave after wave of agony continued until he lost all perspective. Then slowly, miraculously, he felt the acute pain slowly recede, replaced with a stinging numbness throughout his entire body. His head started clearing, but the sickening smell of burning flesh was again making him nauseous. His stomach flipped and he involuntarily curled his body inward. The movement reawakened the pain across his entire body and he let out a low, quiet groan.

Immediately he heard the sound of something moving nearby. Something large, like a large animal. He froze, the sound was close, maybe just a few feet away. Then he heard shuffling noises. He could sense something huge moving around, like a bear crawling around looking for food. Then a wonderful thing happened. He felt something wet on his lips. His tongue recognized the cool presence of a drop of water. Just a few drops, but it felt like a hotel swimming pool in summer. Water splashed on his mouth and he greedily licked his lips, sucking in to allow the heavenly relief of water to ease the burning on his tongue and down his throat. Then it was gone. He was confused. Where had the water gone? It was as though it had all been a dream, his lips, and throat just as parched as before. It was like pouring water out onto desert sand, the instant the flow stops, the surface regains its bone-dry appearance almost immediately.

“More…” He croaked, shocked by the sound of his emaciated voice.

“More. Please…” He said more forcefully. He tried to rise, to sit up. All he managed to do was tilt his head a couple of degrees. Pain again racked his body as his body protested from the movement.

“Sonil! Ahn dek paserich tonda.” A gruff, male voice ordered. A strong, but calm voice. “Tonsonil.”

A few more drops of water fell onto his lips and Marc greedily sucked them in, trying to use them to coat every part of his mouth and throat.

“More!” he croaked again.

“Tonsonil!” the voice intoned again. Marc heard the noise moving away.

“Please…please…” he begged, but he heard no more response or movement. Tears started falling down his face as the water he had managed to swallow now left his body down the side of his face. The numbness slowly returned to his body and as soon as he had calmed down, consciousness again left him.

He awoke with a start. He felt… Better. Not good, not by any stretch of the imagination. He felt worse than he had after that welcoming party for freshmen his first week in college. His mouth was parched and he could taste his vomit that seemed to cover his tongue like a winter coat. His entire body felt like a team of garage mechanics had tried to pound out all the dents with sledgehammers. But his mind was clear, the headaches gone.

Past events came back as he tried to remember how he got into this state. He was hit by a truck. No, that was before. He had gotten better after that. There was the crazy HR woman, no, she was a God. Then he was wandering around near a forest. None of this made any sense. He was attacked! Attacked by horned rabbits? That can’t be true. There was a bear? A bear gave him water? That settled it. He had taken some very bad drugs. He was coming off of a bad trip of some kind.

He tried to open his eyes but found them crusted shut. He tried to wipe them clear, and somehow managed to slowly order his arm to cross over his body to his face. He felt his face and indeed his eyes were cemented closed. Rubbing them gently, he managed to pry one, then the other open, doubtlessly ripping out countless lashes in the process. He blinked, ouch! even his cheeks hurt and tried to clean the gunk clouding his vision. It was then that he realized that a message box covered nearly all of his perspective. Not in the mood to read them now, he made them smaller and pushed them all to the side of his vision, allowing him to take in the scene before him.

He was in a tent, lying on the ground. Well, more like a lean-to than a proper camping tent. He could see daylight and some trees outside the cover. A small campfire was burning. He couldn’t see anyone nearby. He tried to sit up and was surprised that he could move freely, albeit with a lot of stiffness and soreness from every muscle in his body. He wondered what kind of shape he was in, then remembered the pop-ups. Willing them back, he slowly sorted through them.

TUTORIAL: COMBAT: DEFEAT VORPAL RABBIT 0/3

Yeah, he remembered seeing that one.

YOU HAVE FAILED THE COMBAT TUTORIAL. YOUR APTITUDE FOR COMBAT-RELATED SKILLS IS TOO LOW. UNTIL YOU ACQUIRE COMBAT TRAINING YOUR RELATED WEAPON AND MARTIAL ARTS SKILLS WILL BE LOCKED. FOR NOW, STICK TO PETTING ZOOS AND CHILDREN’S EASTER EGG HUNTS.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

He blinked. That last sentence seems to have a lot of unnecessary snark. That said, he just got destroyed by a trio of fuzzy wuzzy bunnies, so point taken.

【SKILL ACQUIRED: ENHANCED HEALING[1] HR +1%】

YOU HAVE SUFFERED CRITICAL DAMAGE HOWEVER YOUR RACIAL TRAITS ALLOW YOU TO REPAIR YOUR BODY AT AN ACCELERATED RATE. THIS ABILITY WILL INCREASE IN EFFICIENCY THROUGH USE.

【SKILL ACQUIRED: THICK SKIN [1], CON+2】

YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY SURVIVED A NEAR-DEATH ENCOUNTER [DAMAGE 80% > HEALTH]. YOU HAVE DEVELOPED INCREASED RESISTANCE TO PHYSICAL DAMAGE. THIS ABILITY WILL INCREASE IN EFFICIENCY THROUGH USE.

【SKILL ACQUIRED: PUNCHING BAG [1]】

POPULARITY IS NOT YOUR STRENGTH. INSTEAD, YOU SEEM TO INVITE OTHERS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR HIGHLY PUNCHABLE FACE. NEARBY ENEMIES WILL FOCUS ON ATTACKING YOU OVER MORE WORTHY TARGETS.

【SKILL ACQUIRED: WEAPON PROFICIENCY/CLUB [1] 】

YOU HAVE TAKEN YOUR FIRST STEP IN MASTERING THE CLUB. A SUITABLE WEAPON FOR YOU THAT REQUIRES LOW SKILL AND NO FITNESS. YOUR FAILURE TO DEFEAT YOUR OPPONENT SHOWS YOU HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO BEFORE YOU CAN PROPERLY WIELD YOUR BIG STICK. GET A TEACHER BEFORE YOU HURT YOURSELF. UNTIL YOU DO, THIS SKILL WILL REMAIN LOCKED.

【SKILL ACQUIRED: LEVEL HEADED [1] INT +1】

YOU HAVE SURVIVED A TRAUMATIC AND MENTALLY TAXING EXPERIENCE. YOUR ABILITY TO HANDLE THE PAIN IS AS IMPRESSIVE AS YOUR ABILITY TO ATTRACT A BEATING. SURELY NO ONE NOTICED YOU CRYING LIKE A BABY. THIS ABILITY WILL INCREASE IN EFFICIENCY THROUGH USE.

Marc was getting annoyed. The editorial nature of some of these messages seemed… disrespectful. Who was writing all this stuff? Mary had said that she wouldn’t be able to observe what was going on with him once he transferred to this world, but this interface thing seemed more intelligent than some pre-programmed instructions.

As annoying as the notifications were getting, Marc was more than happy to see he had received some very useful abilities. It looks like he had gotten stronger and would heal faster thanks to his experience.

YOU HAVE INTERACTED WITH A NEW LANGUAGE. THE INTERFACE CAN CURRENTLY SUPPORT ONE ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY. LEVEL UP YOUR INTERFACE TO ADD ADDITIONAL LANGUAGES.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY FOR TASHTILIK? YES/NO?

He had no idea what that was about, so he set that one aside for the moment.

Finally, the last text box proclaimed,

FIGHTING IS NOT YOUR THING IT SEEMS. WHY NOT TRY SOMETHING MORE YOUR SPEED? SOMETHING SAFER LIKE CRAFTING? MAYBE YOU CAN LEARN HOW TO KNIT A NICE SWEATER.

CONTINUE THE TUTORIAL FOCUSING ON CRAFTING PROFICIENCY SKILLS? YES/NO?

Marc wasn’t particularly interested in the tutorial right now, so he pushed that to the side. Instead, he pulled up his stats to check how bad the damage was.

NAME: MARC CHURCHILL

AGE 19 (EARTH RELATIVE TIME)

INTERFACE LEVEL: 20% TO NEXT LEVEL

RACE: DIMENSIONAL TRAVELER

AFFILIATIONS: NONE

STATUS: INJURED, RECOVERING

HEALTH: 75%/100

STAMINA: 50%/100

BASE LEVEL: 1

STRENGTH (STR) [4] +1

CONSTITUTION (CON) [4] +3

INTELLIGENCE (INT) [7] +2

AGILITY (AGI) [5] +1

DEXTERITY (DEX) [6] +1

LUCK (LUK) [0] +1

HEALTH RECOVERY (HR) [0.203%] +1 (HR)/MIN

STAMINA RECOVERY (SR) [0.523%] (SR)/MIN

PASSIVE SKILLS:

APPRAISAL

INVENTORY

CARTOGRAPHY*

ENHANCED HEALING [1] HR +1%

LEVEL HEADED [1] (INT +1)

THICK SKIN [1], (CON+2)

ACTIVE SKILLS:

WEAPON PROFICIENCY/CLUB [1]

PUNCHING BAG [1]

EQUIPMENT:

HOODIE (DUR 5/10) (CON +1)

JEANS (DUR 5/10) (AGI +1)

T-SHIRT(DUR 3/10) (STR +1)

UNDERPANTS (DUR 7/10) (LUK +1)

SOCKS (DUR 9/10) (INT +1)

SHOES (DUR 7/10) (DEX +1)

Marc blinked. The screen was constantly changing. Now had a whole new section for skills. He also noticed that his clothes seemed to be no worse for wear. The DUR, Durability he assumed, had dropped very low and when he looked down he noticed the gaping hole ripped in the lower side of his hoodie and T-shirt. There also appeared to be blood around the holes, but when he looked closer he couldn’t find a wound.

He was still trying to make sense of all this new information when he noticed the map was still open and a small blue dot was slowly moving toward his yellow arrow again. He heard the crunch of footsteps and saw two boots appear at the entrance to the makeshift shelter.

“Selbani Tah.” Marc recognized the gruff voice that rang out. He had heard that voice before, was it in his dream?

“Ah Selbani Tah.” Again the voice called out, and then a large, no, a very large and frowning man entered the tent.