She was pressed against the bottom of the blanket, an invisible source pushing her feline form down so far that it had to be crunching bone. In the back of my mind I hoped this didn’t really count as animal cruelty. Chrissie would never forgive me.
“You used Load to catch her?” I asked in surprise.
“I might not be the brightest crayon in the bowl, but I can be quick. As soon as I woke up and saw her fleeing the scene, you with all your blood, I knew I had to do something. I don’t even know how many times I used Load on her, to be completely honest. I just knew I needed to stop her. So, yeah.”
“Impressive reflexes, honestly,” I commented.
“I know, right?”
The cat’s eyes were on me, glued to me. I could feel the animosity oozing out of her. If she had just asked nicely, I probably would’ve given her the jerky. I said as much to the animal before me. She hissed back. I heard static and her form crumpled forward more. I was surprised she was even alive.
Axel said, “We should kill her while we can. We got 50 XP from winning that battle. Imagine how much we’d get from killing an opponent.”
I shifted my attention to him. “Actually, I don’t think that’s how it works.”
Jye’s head tilted. “We got 50 XP?”
Ignoring them, I continued, “If my idea is correct, I believe experience is rewarded based on performance. Consider how awfully we did against her originally. The bad teamwork. The way we were in each other’s way. But this time, we all worked together. I distracted her, Axel attacked, Wren healed me, and Jye caught her. Like a functional party.”
Axel scoffed. “I think you’re making a mountain out of an ant hill.”
“No, I think he’s got a point. Just think about what you originally said about UX design. The system preferred response is to accept a party invite. It fits the same theory,” Jye said in one of their rare moments of crystalline insight.
The cat hissed again and I noticed her lungs seemed to be struggling to inflate under the pressure of Jye’s Load. I glanced over to them, and wordlessly Jye rolled their eyes and I heard static. Her lungs looked to breathe almost comfortably again, but it was clear she still couldn’t move. We could just leave her like that…
“You nearly killed me for food,” I said.
“Exactly why I think we should just let Jye crush her to a pulp,” Axel said, grinding his teeth together.
“I’m not against the idea,” Jye commented.
I scowled, and shook my head. “No. Don’t you get it? She nearly killed me.”
Understanding hit Axel and he threw his hands into the air. “Absolutely not. No way. We have no idea what she could do.”
“Could either one of you fill me in on your inside conversation?” Jye said.
“This lunatic wants to invite her to join our party.”
“I’m no genius, but that doesn’t sound great,” they replied.
“Hear me out. I nearly died. Our party balance is ridiculously bad. Our only frontline is Axel and if he goes down, our entire team is out. We need someone else who can do damage. And she does a lot of damage.”
Axel rubbed at his temple. “You’re insane. What’s to say she doesn’t kill us the minute we accept her into the party?”
It was a good question. Especially since she had already betrayed what trust I had built up with her after feeding her. It didn’t make any sense, now that I thought about it. I had promised to feed her. I would’ve easily given her jerky every night. She had to have known I would have, since I had attacked my own party to help her, at least in her cat form. Why had she done that?
Suddenly the puzzle pieces fell into place.
Oh. Of course.
Letting out a long sigh, I said, “You’re right. We might have to kill her. There’s no way for us to stop her from hurting us. It’d be better for us to get her out of the way.”
The cat’s green eyes widened at my sudden heel turn. I watched as she struggled to move one paw in front of the other, inching ever so slightly across the blanket away from us. It was a pathetic sight, and honestly made me feel a little ill.
“Finally, he speaks sense!” Axel yelled.
Swallowing back my nausea, I jutted my jaw at the lumberjack. “Jye, if you’ll do the honours.”
They threaded their fingers together, and cracked them, a stoic expression on their face. “If that’s how it’s gotta be.”
Slowly they approached the crumpled form of the cat. I could see the human dread begin to fill her eyes. I heard one static buzz, and her lungs stuttered to inflate. My heart began to beat wildly in my chest. I didn’t know if I could let them go through with it. But this was the only way…
Another bzzt and she was barely moving, barely a shape at all. Were we going to kill her? Could I make Jye do that? Fuck, I hope I was right.
Jye’s brow furrowed, their loyalty unwavering. I don't know what I'd done to earn it. I only hoped I was worth whatever guilt would sow its seed in them when we were done.
One more Load and she'd fold into nothing.
Their gaze met mine.
Please let me be right.
I nodded.
Jye took a breath and the thought was clear on their face and–
The dull ring of an off-white request notification pinged our status menus up.
Invite Tam to Just Friends party. Reward: Collar of Control, 195 XP. Accept | Reject
Jye winced from the notification.
Thank fuck. And that there was no failure clause meant the deal was even better than I was hoping. Jye swore under their breath from the notification. I was elated I’d been right, the zing of endorphins flooding my brain. I don’t think I could’ve let Jye literally crush a helpless animal, despite the fact it was not actually really a cat. Immediately, I selected Accept.
“Stop and undo two Loads.”
Confused, Jye followed my instructions, and I could see the minor relief in the loosening of their shoulders. Mentally, I projected a party invite to the cat. The request had called her Tam. I watched as she struggled to accept it.
Tam has joined your party.
Tam at critical health.
Axel let out a long and anguished sigh. “Did that near death experience damage your brain?”
Request complete. Reward available.
Unlike the gift, the reward simply appeared in a glimmer of sparkles with none of the anticipation. The [Collar of Control] was a neat red leather collar suited for a small animal. Beneath it, its description read: The owner of this collar may issue one command at a time for the wearer to follow until the command is rescinded. It may only be placed and removed by the owner. I clicked my tongue. That was less than I wanted, but more than I was hoping for.
Next to the [Collar of Control] was the listed XP. I selected the XP and watched it count down as my XP bar loaded up. My bar filled up completely, pushing me directly to Level 2. I wished I could further check out what that meant, but there was no time to contemplate that. I shoved my hand into the menu and pulled out of the [Collar of Control], surprised by the resistance formed as my skin made contact with it.
Wasting no time, I slipped the collar over Tam’s neck, and said, “You must never harm anyone in our party, help us when necessary, and never leave our party.”
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The buckle flew out of my hand and did itself up with a click. I guess my command had been accepted. Tam’s cat eyes glared at me in clear distaste. I shrugged at her. What are you gonna do about it?
“You didn’t say anything about her following our instructions,” Axel commented dully.
“Can someone please explain what just happened?” Jye said.
“Well, I figured out why she attacked me. It was a request. Just like the one we got and rejected. Undo your Loads, all of them.”
With a sigh, Jye did just that, and it was like a balloon inflating watching Tam gain full height and width again. She hissed at us, and made a move to leave, but found her paws would take her no further. Irritated, she turned to face away from us. Well, at least it looked like the collar worked.
“She kept saying what ‘Mumma wants.’ I thought she was just talking about herself in third person, but that’s when it hit me. She used ‘I’ when she was talking about herself. Mumma was someone, something else. Mumma wanted her to steal the food.”
Axel frowned, “But she failed, and there was no failure condition.”
“No, there wasn’t. Because she’s been officially sponsored.”
Jye nodded in understanding and then said, “What the fuck do you mean?”
“Mumma is her sponsor. Mumma wanted to support Tam. Stealing the jerky was probably a way for Tam to get XP. Think about it. If I’m right and XP is rewarded based on performance, then her sneaking into our midst and taking food at knifepoint has to be an amazing feat.”
“Why didn’t Mumma just gift her XP instead then? You said the reward for our rejected request was 1,000 XP,” Jye queried.
“That… I don’t know. I think there must be something regulating requests. We’d have to see more of the system, more of the way everything works before I can answer that for sure.”
I allowed myself to breathe in and out deeply.
No one would have to die today, our party had increased by one and would actually be more balanced now, and I was Level 2. My health blipped up to 6. Ooof. Now it was time to rest.
We settled on shifts, with someone’s eye always on Tam, at least until she became human again and she could corroborate my hypothesis and make her own assurances to the team. When Wren woke up, she’d have a hell of a story to hear from us. As I slipped under the blanket of my bed roll, I allowed myself one moment to reflect on things, though my thoughts ended on Axel’s face as I had thought myself dying. What a weird thing to think about.
The second my head hit the pillow I was unconscious.
A sharp nudge to my abdomen snatched my mind from its slumber.
“Rise and shine, honey. Your shift’s up.”
My eyes flew up and I sat up to come face to face with the unimpressed human face of Tam. She shot a toothy grin my way. “You know you share secrets when you sleep?”
The tips of my ears felt hot. “What? What did I say?”
She looked conspiratorially to the left and right, then leaned in towards me, and said, “Well, that’s for me to know and you to never find out, sunshine.”
A bark of laughter erupted from her, as she pulled the blanket from my body, beginning to nudge me from my bed roll. “Now, let me sleep. Your thembo did me some mighty damage. Toddle off.”
I stood and went to complain, but found her already snug and fast asleep in my bedroll.
Axel met my gaze. “This was your decision.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Fuck me. Oh, well. At the very least, things would only improve with the inclusion of a party member who was officially sponsored. It’d mean that we’d be one step closer to answering some very important questions, the least of which was exactly who Mumma was.
Wren and Axel were on watch together, which felt like a recipe for disaster, but they seemed to both be sitting in companionable silence. Axel never got along with kids. As an only child, he didn't really know how to interact with them. He’d technically been friends with Chrissie, but as far as I remembered he was her friend in the same way you were friends with cousins who lived in another country. You acknowledged them when you saw them, played with them when your parents asked, but otherwise didn’t really spare them another thought. But there was one time I realised that wasn't quite true, at least in regards to Chrissie.
It was at her funeral.
“Jeeze, you could hear a pin fall,” I said, taking a seat near them.
Axel rolled his eyes and Wren waved with a single small hand. “You’re looking better.”
“I’m feeling a lot better. Thanks for the clutch heal. Again.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome. I’m glad to have helped.”
“Oh, I never asked what your other [Synergist] abilities are.”
“I just have one other ability. [Whetstone]. It increases the critical damage chance of the target I apply it to.”
I considered the ability for a moment. Increased crit chance was a decent buff. But depending on the mana cost, it probably wouldn’t be worth it to apply it to all of us. Just the people who were doing damage that could take advantage of it. So not me, Wren, or Axel.
“You’re going to be using that one a fair bit with Tam, and Jye,” I said, rubbing at my chin in consideration.
Axel didn’t say anything. He appeared lost in thought. I guess we really hadn’t said anything to each other since I nearly died. It’d been weird when he’d nearly died, so I maybe he felt the same way I had. In the silence I remembered that technically I’d levelled up. I guess the whole team had, maybe excluding Tam. I brought up the party menu.
Just Friends Party | LVL 8
* Lee | LVL 2 | All-Rounder (Party Leader)
* Axel | LVL 2 | Combatant
* J̵̡̢̠͙͉̠͐̄̎̇͛͠4̵̱̳͎̦̳̖͂̀̐͛̑͗1̷͍̮͓͍̹̹̃̓̊̊͐͝ | LVL 1 | |̵̮̲̪͒̽͝|̷̡̩͚̏̊͑\̶̹̙̖̈́̀̊\̵͈̺͋̒͗͜\̶̡̡̘̌̇̍|̵̤̜̟̽̏̂|̶̛̝̝̻͗̕4̷͍̗̭͛͘̕4̶̺̰̟͗͐͒|̵̺̘̀̒͗͜|̷͔̣̠͆̑̌2̵̹͇̜̇͒̔/̶̧͓͎͑́́|̴̢͍̭̊́͒\̴̙̮̜͋͊̂(̷̧͍̺̂̍͝\̸̨̬̥̀̊̄5̵̟͓̮͐̀͛|̵̛̬͇̼͊̀
* Wren | LVL 1 | Synergist
* Tam | LVL 2 | Cutthroat
Repressing a sigh, it didn’t escape my attention that Wren and Jye hadn’t levelled up. For Wren, it was obvious, since she had split her XP between classes, though she had to be fairly close on her [Synergist] class, maybe around 50 points or so. That was if everyone had the same requisite XP levels as each other. For Jye, though… it had to be the glitch. I hoped this was a one off for them, because otherwise it’d be impossible for them to progress. What did a person do when their levels wouldn’t go up?
Tam’s class was [Cutthroat], which honestly seemed more like a description of her as a person. Still, it reinforced my assumption she could deal damage. Though, it was a little concerning that our entire team was basically physical damage based. Since it was more than apparent that magic existed, didn’t that mean there were ranged magical attacks? I guess technically as long as Axel drew their fire and could dodge them, that’d deal with that. That’s assuming there weren’t homing spells or attacks.
I thought about the level up and the menu changed. Of course. Now I could see my detailed stats. Well, at least some of them. Given the history of the system, it was likely still hiding more that we’d unlock in the future. I hoped sooner or later we’d reach the end of that.
The more I read the more I despaired at my character sheet. Was I just… designed to be weak? I really hadn’t been wrong when I’d seen my stats at the beginning. I really would’ve just rage quit the game if I rolled this poorly. Even with no one to compare with, I knew instinctively this was not good.
4 STR
4 CON
4 DEX
4 END
4 WIL
4 INT
Tam snored loudly as she slept. Ignoring her, I waited for any more information regarding the attributes to load, but nothing was forthcoming. They didn’t even bother to provide the whole words for each attribute. At least they were all relatively standard. Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Endurance, Will or Willpower, and Intelligence.
Jye stirred, and groggily turned to Tam’s noisy form. They kicked her, which stopped her sounds momentarily. With a satisfied sigh, Jye rolled back over and snuggled back into their bedroll.
If we followed general game attributes, Strength was damage, though that sometimes depended on your class. Constitution almost always directly correlated to health. Dexterity was a little bit of a wildcard. Sometimes it was a damage modifier, sometimes it was more similar to speed and reflexes. Endurance was less standard in games and was usually more or less synonymous with Constitution which meant here it had to mean something else. Perhaps more like how much a person could endure?
Pain tolerance? That seemed a little niche and also a little twisted. Maybe it was more like… damage one could take. So passive defence? Maybe like DnD AC then. Then we had Will or Willpower. That was on the flipside of physical defence, so mental or magical defence. Intelligence was a no-brainer. In systems with magic it usually directly affected mana. I never thought I’d be thankful for having played so many different types of RPGs.
Either way, looking at my stats, it wasn’t surprising that I only had 20 [MANA], [HP], and [STAMINA]. God, I could imagine Axel’s sheet right now. Probably 10s across the board. Lucky bastard. I wondered what Tam’s, Wren’s and Jye’s looked like. Well, Jye’s was probably unreadable.
Which reminded me… Jye had said they had two abilities. As far as I knew, making the weight of something lighter or heavier was one ability. That meant they had another one which was still unknown to us. Could we just get them to think about using it and it’d proc? We’d have to get to the bottom of that sooner or later.
Staring at my stats a little longer, I noticed in the corner of the screen was a new option.
Upgrade
I mentally selected the upgrade option and was taken to a new screen that very judgmentally called me broke.
No credit available
Beneath, it showed my stats and abilities greyed out behind a lock. Okay, well, that was more questions answered. So we needed credit to upgrade things, but we needed to level up to be able to unlock the upgrades. Other than staggering our upgradability, what was the purpose of levels if they ultimately meant nothing but empty numbers? Did it have some other sort of justification?
It all seemed a little bit convoluted, but what did I know about game dev? If I was to hazard a guess, I’d probably say that the marketplace where we could sell things would pay us in credits. Which meant clearing a Dungeon wasn’t only about defeating a boss or a set of challenges. It was about collecting items to sell.
As if reading my mind, the status screen changed to another new window.
Go to marketplace? Confirm | Reject
Technically Wren and Axel were on watch, so I could probably fiddle about with this for a little while longer. I selected the Confirm button and immediately regretted it. I hadn’t for a second considered why it said “go to.” Well, the entire thing was a learning experience. I tried to think lightly of it as I lost control over my body, the muscles going limp one after the other. As I sunk to the floor, I saw Wren’s and Axel’s horrified expressions.
Before my vision went black, I felt the contact of my head thudding against the ground.