Cedric slammed into the ground, barely registering as a thorn from a protruding root pierced through his left palm. Stone blades dug into his back, twisting rhythmically in sickening contractions as the creature forced them deeper. He rolled his body around, but when that failed to dislodge it he reached behind him and ripped it up and over his head in a dizzying arc blood.
Wooden spines snapped against the creatures back as it slammed into a tree root. Cedric recoiled as a horrifying lamprey mouth contracting rhythmically gaped up at him from the underside of the creature. He recoiled with a grimace and scrambled to his feet. The thing wriggled miserably like an overturned beetle, which gave Cedric enough time to land a crushing stomp with his boot right onto the creature’s mouth.
It gurgled, making the first sound since their meeting and snapped its legs closed around Cedric’s foot like a bear trap.
Health: 119/203 → 93/203
He yelped, staggering back, but barely felt the pain with the amount of adrenaline in his system.
Cedric stomped again, feeling as if he was crushing a rock, and for a moment it felt like the spider’s leg weakened. Then it flexed its powerful legs and tightened its grip on him.
Cedric ground his heel into its mouth, only just then realizing that he was screaming. The edges of his vision flickered like gossamer wings but the monster beneath his boot was in hyper focus. Logically, he knew that he was injured. Perhaps even lethally, but such thoughts were as far from the forefront of his mind as possible.
He reached down, touching the thing with the hard brilliant sapphire in the palm of his hand, and commanded the system to tame it. It had said that distance and injury were what would reduce the time, well he was literally touching the thing now.
Taming: Stone Shell Clinger...13m 51s
Cedric glared at the notification. He’d lose his leg if he waited that long. He would have to kill it.
Cedric raised his foot in preparation for another stomp, but the spider had other ideas. In a shocking display of agility, it released his calf, and flipped out from under his boot. It landed gracefully, shaking its small abdomen, before scuttling several steps back.
Cedric straightened, panting and clutching at a stitch in his side. The thing, likewise, lifted two of its legs and brought them under its carapace to feel at the damage done to its mouth.
“I’m too old for this,” Cedric whispered hoarsely to himself. The din of the storm stole his words, but he swore the spider paused, as if in tacit agreement. Or hungry glee.
“Alright,” Cedric slapped his thighs in an effort to increase circulation, and to hype himself up. “Get over here so I can squash you, you slimy git.”
Cedric picked up a suitable branch and hobbled after the creature. He lifted it over his head, ready on a hair-trigger for the moment the thing would pounce.
To his surprise, the thing didn’t meet his geriatric charge. Instead, it skittered back and around, strafing to the side as if stepping out of his way. Cedric, grit his teeth at that, but increased his pace. Unfortunately, his damaged leg slowed him. Enough, that the skittish spider kept out of the range of his weapon.
Cedric paused, tired, noting in frustration how the spider stopped retreating but continued strafing around him. It forced him to turn in place to keep the thing in front of him.
If only he knew what the damn thing was. If he had more information he could act more intelligently than just charging it and bashing it with a stick.
As soon as the thought entered his mind, a notification popped in his view.
Identifying creature...
Stone Shelled Clinger
Stats Invested: 40
Talents Invested: 10
Health[1]: 120
Regeneration[1]: 6/hr
Attack Damage[4]: 30
Backstab
25s
Your next melee strike from behind deals 225% attack damage
Advanced Camouflage
10m
Become stealthed for 3m or until your next hostile action
Tyrannical
-passive-
You become talented in attack damage
The Stone Shelled Clinger’s stats were generally lower than his, except for attack damage which was nearly four times higher. It also had several stats missing, presumably because they were zero.
Most importantly, it had access to three skills that Cedric had experienced first hand already. Critically, both active skills had exceptional limitations. Backstab only worked from behind — likely why the spider was strafing him — and Advanced Camouflage had a long cooldown with a relatively short duration.
Before Cedric could properly digest the information and form a plan of attack. The blue sapphire on his palm flashed. Ghostly cyan mist flooded out of the gemstone causing both human and monster to stop and assess. The mist coalesced into a questing tendril, seemingly unsure for a moment, then it lunged directly at the Stone Shelled Clinger.
Dodging was impossible. The mist washed over the Clinger like a malicious miasma. It shuddered, legs trembling as some unknown magic seeped into its flesh.
Cedric had no idea what was going on, but he didn’t ask too many questions. He raced to close the distance and bashed at it with his stick. Incapacitated as it was by the mist, the Stone Shelled Clinger was hit dead on.
The stick shattered, showering the area in splinters and leaving him with a jagged shard which he promptly jabbed up and into the Stone Shelled Clinger’s mouth.
That knocked it out of the funk induced by the mist. It chittered, chewing on splinters and retreating, as the last of the mist absorbed into the creature. With a flicker, the system table floating in Cedric’s vision updated.
Stone Shelled Clinger
Stats Invested: 120
Talents Invested: 45
Health[1]: 120
Regeneration[4]: 13.2/hr
Attack Damage[4]: 63
Lethality[3]: 9%
Ability Haste[2]: 4%
Breathing hard, Cedric straightened, blinking at the new table. Inexplicably, the Clinger’s stats had multiplied. It’s attack damage and regeneration had doubled, as well as various other less pressing changes.
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At 63 attack damage, the Stone Shell Clinger’s backstab skill would one shot him. Hell, two regular attacks might kill him. Fighting was looking less appealing by the second, but with his leg as it was running was just as iffy. He needed to end this.
At least it’s health hadn’t increased and was temporarily dazed. Before it could fully recuperate, Cedric dove back in with a terrified scream. He kicked it against a tree, flipping it over, then sending it flying again. The discrepancy in size between the combatants was immense. Though large for a spider, the Clinger barely had a tenth of Cedric’s generous paunch.
The feral thrashing of it’s legs ripped chunks out of the bottom of Cedric’s shoe. He barely noticed, continuing to beat on it while it was down.
Health: 93/203 → Health: 33/203
Cedric gasped, backpedaling as his health dropped. Exhaustion and pain dimmed his senses as he stared in disbelief at the tiny red cut above his ankle. It was ridiculous. It was barely a nick, and yet...
Health: 33/203
He ran.
It wasn’t complicated. Cedric was tired, in pain, and so far out of his comfort zone that it wasn’t even funny. Death loomed like an aberrant specter over his shoulder. Gleefully grinning down on him, eager for just one more tiny cut to whisk him away to the eternal rest. It was an unfamiliar and entirely unwelcome shadow. He had tried fighting, now it was time to see if he could escape.
His leg ached, but he managed a hobbling jog around the back of the outcrop. Behind him, the Clinger followed.
Cedric jogged a lap around the outcrop, ignoring the pain in his leg as he tried to get some distance. The forest loomed around him, and yet, he was fearful of setting out and sprinting away into the wild unknown. The outcrop was a beacon. A symbol of his only salvation from the cold. He had to stay to survive the storm, but he had to leave to survive the Clinger.
Potentially.
With each step. With each backwards glance, it became more and more clear to the middle aged white-collar worker that the spry spider had more endurance than him. It moved slowly, but more out of wariness than due to internal injuries. The sharp click of its steps possessed a menacing certainty that its prey would succumb in time.
And it was right.
Running was a slow death. Fighting, a fast one. The problem was he wasn’t using his biggest advantage over the stupid creature. Fight or flight? Ridiculous! Why was he stooping to it’s level, just so that it could beat him with experience? He could do better.
But he needed time. Didn’t it always come down to that? Time to think. Time to find a solution that bypassed it’s main strengths, while abusing its weaknesses. Time was in short supply, but he was good at making time.
Cedric detoured slightly deeper into the forest and found a suitable stick. It was long, thick enough to withstand beating and had a convenient prong at the end where the branch had bifurcated. He quickly hobbled back around the boulder, slipped under the dry overhang, and flopped down with a groan.
The Stone Shell Clinger clicked around the bend after him, but skittered back as Cedric thrust at it with the stick. It paced for a few moments before the entrance, then stilled, growing statue-like as it waited patiently for the blood loss or cold to pilfer Cedric’s wakefulness from him.
Cedric studied the creature as he shivered in the alcove.
This world ran on stats. He had no doubt that once his health hit zero he would die. It also explained why the Clinger had taken so little damage despite the pounding it had received. Hitting harder didn’t matter, because all his attacks would deal 8 damage regardless. Without the ability to hit more frequently, he didn’t deal enough damage to realistically threaten it.
Its size was a huge detriment, however. Stats didn’t overrule physics. Low mass meant he could throw it around. It’s skills also heavily encouraged stealth, patience, and attacking from behind. Properties that could be taken advantage of with enough planning.
Sleep hounded him as a plan slowly crystallized. His injuries began to heal. Far to fast to be normal, but not fast enough to matter in a fight. By the time he felt ready, several hours had passed.
Health: 61/203
With his health safely above the one shot threshold, Cedric rushed into the rain. A swing with the stick warded off the Clinger, and he saw it go invisible in the corner of his vision. He ignored the spike of fear, instead running around the outcrop to break line of sight as fast as possible.
As he went he ripped off his torn and bloodied labcoat and skidded to rest behind a nearby tree. With trembling fingers he mounted his torn coat on the pronged end of his stick and held it out as if he had collapsed to his knees and was resting against the tree.
He curled up under the tree with a madly pounding pulse. It was a terrible awful trap. Even with the crude bobbing to mimic breathing, it wasn’t even close to resembling a human.
But it was storming, and an unprotected back should be irresistible to the spider monster.
Suddenly, the Clinger’s lunged out of the gloom, dropping its invisibility and impaling the lab coat with three razor sharp blades.
Cedric hefted the stick, forcing the base of the prong around it’s abdomen. It latched onto the end of the stick, as was it’s name sake, rending the lab coat to ribbons in the process. Cedric grunted, heaving the creature up into the air, then slamming it into the ground and pinning it in place.
The Clinger bucked, causing the green wood of the branch to flex precariously. Cedric cursed, risking a kick to distract it, and managed to jam the end of the branch into the creature’s lamprey mouth.
It switched strategies, instantly. All five legs slammed closed around the end of the branch, sinking deep into the soft wood with wet crunching. One of the prongs snapped off, nearly causing Cedric to lose his balance.
With a cry, he kicked at one of the thing’s joints, forcing it to loosen its grip and simultaneously twisted the branch back over the creatures abdomen to maintain his advantage.
“Tame!” Cedric grunted, kicking at the creature, noting in the periphery how the modest kick had spread cracks over its carapace.
Taming: Stone Shell Clinger...7m 4s
“Tame!” Cedric hit it again.
Taming: Stone Shell Clinger...4m 52s
“Tame...” Cedric sobbed, reaching out and slapping the creature on one of it’s bladed limbs.
Taming: Stone Shell Clinger...4s...3s...2s...1s...
You have successfully tamed a Stone Shell Clinger!
Its mad thrashing vanished like a summer breeze. In an instant of interminable tension, the Clinger relaxed its vicious grinding of Cedric’s branch. All 5 limbs slipped bonelessly to the ground, an action so surprising that Cedric slipped, falling directly beside the hard ball of razors.
He caught himself, barely managing to roll to the side before slamming heavily to the soaked mud. To his side he felt more than saw the Clinger right itself. His chest tightened in fear and he scrambled onto his butt before pushing himself back and away from the terrifying creature from hell.
It turned on him, raising two forelimbs ominously before it skittered at him. He pushed himself back, flinching violently as his back hit the trunk of a tree. Time slowed as the two blades rushed right at his face and...
Stopped? Cedric hiccupped. Adrenaline, terror and shock all mixed in his gut to form a volatile mixture. He closed his eyes as the blades touched his cheek.
Not aggressively. Softly. Feather-light. As if exploring a strange, new object for the very first time.
It stepped back, lifting each leg sequentially in a terrifying ripple, before hopping swiftly over his legs and reaching out to explore the other side of his face with two gentle blades.
“Oh my god,” Cedric whispered struggling to get his breathing under control. He pulled up his interface and saw the Companion tab populated by one Stone Shelled Clinger. “It worked.”
The clinger bobbed up and down on its five legs in agreement, as if amused and ecstatic at the new arrangement. Cedric shot the thing a bemused look, hiccuping again which caused a burst of acid reflux to burn his throat.
Cedric frowned, hiccuping again and feeling a strong desire to vent his stomach. Video game logic dictated that the thing should now listen to him, and it seemed friendly enough. “Nothing for it, I guess. Go over there, you dumb murderous beast. Shoo.”
And it did, skittering in the pointed direction without hesitation.
Cedric stared after the creature that was literally vibrating in excitement with a conflicted expression. “It’s so going to eat me in my sleep.”
“Doesn’t matter, I guess,” Cedric shook his head with a sigh. The soaked forest loomed around him, and the incessant rain felt like it was falling just a little less heavily. The rain sucked, but it probably was the only reason he hadn’t died sooner. The forest was likely filled with hundreds if not thousands of aggressive species. Once the rain stopped, he would never survive alone. Even the Stone Shell Clinger might not be enough depending on what was out there.
Cedric moved out of the rain, and into the relative comfort of the outcrop. He stared into empty space for a few minutes, just relaxing and getting his old, abused body back under control.
He was interrupted by a blue flash of light from his palm. He flinched, but otherwise remained stationary — to tired to care — as another tendril of mist stabbed out at the Clinger.
When the convulsions had ceased a notification popped up.
Stone Shelled Clinger’s Backstab skill was augmented with Puncture [40]
The notification meant little to Cedric, and he spent the next couple minutes trying to figure it out. The obtuse, error-riddled interface fought him every step of the way, but eventually he found a list of Augments he had access to:
Second Wind
Augmented skill can store one additional charge.
Puncture
Augmented skill deals an additional 45% attack damage over 4 seconds
Well Rested
While augmented skill is active, recover an additional 10 health/hr
Apparently any augment could be attached to any skill, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out how to do it. It seemed automatic to him. Or random.
“Or maybe someone else is controlling the augments?” Cedric murmured to himself, glancing at the Clinger which had curled up next to his feet. Maybe it was responsible? Cedric shook his head, too tired and hurt to think much longer on the subject. Whatever it was, Cedric certainly hopped they knew what they were doing.
That was the last thought through his head before he fell into a restless slumber.