Dragging the deer back to her shelter was no small task. With Elyndris’s permission, it was her kill, after all, Anath wanted to harvest what she could from it. She learned how to scrape hide when she took the survival skill, but she had never broken down a full-sized animal before. Only squirrels, rodents, and the like.
Luckily, Elyndris assured Anath that she knew how to handle a deer properly. Anath doubted that, but the worm knew information it reasonably shouldn’t.
After a few rough patches, Anath finally made it back to her shelter. She was proud of it. A large root ball of a fallen tree, one of the huge trees with black fungus growing on its bark, served as a wall. She convinced the spider to jab and poke at it until all of the loose dirt, rocks, and small roots were knocked away. What was left was a surprisingly dry, sturdy, insulated wall. Then she dug a shallow pit at the base and smoothed the dirt. Finally, she layered branches and sticks to form the rest of the shelter. Where she could clog up the holes with mud, she did. Stones were used to weigh the bottom of the branches to hold them in place. She let a fire burn inside her shelter for a while, to dry any mud and scare any critters she may have dug up.
With her fire near the mouth of her little cave of sticks, it was surprisingly warm. Most of the knowledge on how to craft such a shelter came from her skill, but only the basics. Anath’s ingenuity and instincts filled in the holes. It seemed that boosting a skill with a skill point gave her knowledge, but not necessarily the skill to use it.
Making the shelter was easy. And, she knew that she shouldn’t rupture the digestive organs of an animal, she knew one could brew pain relieving medicine from some tree barks, and how to make basic traps. But actually DOING those still seemed beyond her. She could try, at least.
Anath collapsed when she finally made it back to the shelter. The deer was heavy. The spider tried to help pull it, but it was suited to speed, not strength. So it was up to Anath to drag it the whole way.
“Wow, nice place. You do this all yourself?” The worm, Elly, rode the deer on the way back.
“Yes…” She sat up after she caught her breath. The spider’s legs drooped limply at her sides. “Pretty neat, huh?”
“Suitable for a starter lair, indeed.” The worm slithered around her new home, inspecting the shelter, the fire pit, and her log. Anath liked her log, it was the perfect height for sitting. “But, there is nowhere to store a hoard.”
“I don’t have a hoard, Elly.” Anath giggled. “So… what’s the first step?” The deer was a clean kill. Elyndris had literately chewed a hole into its brain. That meant that all of its organs were intact and, in theory, should be easy enough to remove. This much meat could feed her for weeks if she dried it out correctly.
“It’s Elyndris, you foolish girl! First, take your claw and cut up from the rear-”
“Uh… claw?”
“Right, you don’t have one. That knife might work. Now, when you cut, cut towards you, not into the kill. Otherwise, you might make a mess.” Elyndris talked Anath through gutting a deer. It was slow work, and messy. A few weeks ago she doubted she could have handled something like this. But, once you literally drink a rat, there isn’t much left to make you squeamish.
“Elly, how do you know how to do this? You don’t even have hands.” Anath was struggling to cut through the last of the outer hide.
“I told you. I do not know. You should listen to me, I hold within me the wisdom of the ancients. I just… don’t know why I do.”
“Are you like me?”
“Skinny? Unwashed? A bit slow?” Anath flicked a stray bit of gore to the worm.
“No, silly. A… variant. Born different.” The worm looked at her with a thoughtful expression. Anath didn’t know how she looked at her, the worm didn’t have eyes.
“You are through, good. Now grab that part… yes, and pull. You need to crack it open. You are a variant?”
“Where do you… think… these monster… parts came from.” She was struggling with opening the ribs.
“I thought you were a lycan of some sort.”
“No! I am a… a… HUMAN!” She put her all into her task, and the rib cracked open. Then she fell back panting.
“Oh. That’s rough. Sorry to hear that.” Anath gave her a dubious look.
“So, are you?”
“No. I am sure I am not a variant. I think there was an error with my reincarnation. Maybe the angels didn’t do it right.”
“The angels do everything right. They are ANGELS. What’s next?” Elyndris crawled inside of the deer and pointed with her face.
“See this part, here and here. Tear- uh, cut it out carefully. That will disconnect the innards from the meaty bits.” Anath dived in with the knife. “Just so you know, the angels make mistakes all the time. They are far from perfect.”
“Don’t talk like that! It’s… blasphemy.” She whispered the last word.
“Bah. They have not earned your devotion. An angel gave you those spider legs, don’t forget. You humans have made a holiday out of them fixing their stupid system.”
“The system makes us stronger! Better to fight monsters. That’s what my mom told me.” If her mother told her, it had to be true.
“You can’t be serious. Monsters use the same system. Just a different… side of it.”
“That’s because of Sahrzuel’s influence.”
“Who is ALSO an angel. But, that’s not the bad part. You know what they’ve done to you. Done to US?” Anath felt her heart flutter. This kind of talk isn’t allowed. The one time her father had ever hit her was when she cursed the angels for her monstrous body.
“I don’t want to.” The worm kept talking regardless.
“They limit us! We can train to perfect ourselves. Master skills, tame the wilderness, and forge metal with our BARE HANDS. But, they won’t allow it. There is a mental block on us keeping mortals and monsters from learning too much. We are leashed and the only way to do anything about it is to suckle at their teats for every scrap of power that SHOULD ALREADY BE OURS.” The worm was too worked up to be stopped. Anath tried to focus on the deer, but couldn’t help but listen. She wasn’t very educated in the system, but… she did know you had to spend a skill point to learn more tricks and techniques. Wasn’t that just the way of the world?
“I get it, I get it. Calm down. What’s next?”
“Oh! Look, you're practically done. Let me just…” She crawled out of the deer’s chest cavity. “Now all you need to do is gently pull them all out. You are really good at this. A natural born survivor.”
“Thank you.” The innards slid out almost easily. She smiled down at the emptied deer carcass, satisfaction washing away her fatigue.
“It’s a good quality to have in a minion.” Anath rolled her eyes.
Over the next few hours, she cut the usable meat into strips, pinched them between sticks, and placed them above a fire she started.
“Tomorrow, we hunt!” Elyndris’s declaration was more of a royal decree.
“I’m going to scrape the hide tomorrow. Besides, this deer will feed us for a while.”
“I do not mean hunt animals, foolish girl. I mean we hunt REAL prey.”
“What do you mean?”
“Monsters. Foolish mortals. The living dead. Whatever can give us experience to grow.”
“Well, you can go looking to get yourself killed. I’m staying right here. Besides, you were just talking about how bad the system is!” Stupid, wishy-washy worm. Anath was fine without her, so she would be fine if she left. She felt a pang of panic at that thought. Like a starving man thinking of throwing out his food.
“If you are going to steal power from someone, you should do it to your enemies. Do you not want to gain power? Strength?”
“No! I am fine as I am.”
“Then you are no human. You are a SHEEP. How will you protect your nest here if you are not strong? Do you think the world will just let you live in peace?”
“I can run. I’ve run before.”
“Those who run leave a trail. You need the strength to raze the very earth and leave nothing behind to follow you. It is the only way to be truly safe.”
“That doesn’t sound safe.”
“It is the ONLY way! Who dares harm the strongest?” Anath giggled. “What?”
“Nothing… it’s just. I’m being lectured on strength by a WORM.” Elyndris turned a shade redder.
“I will be a dragon one day! Don’t test me, girl.”
“You would make fine bait.” Anath put a finger to her chin as though she was thinking it through. “Bet I could get a nice fish.”
“If you throw me into the river, I will EAT the fish that swallows me from the inside out! Then I will DEVOUR ITS FAMILY! ” The worm's tyrannical screams reminded Anath of a boiling teapot, not a fearsome dragon. She laughed harder.
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“You are so full of… everything! Have you ever relaxed?”
“I’ve yet to have the chance.” She paused. “Every moment since I hatched has been… dangerous. I’ve nearly died more times than I can count, and I am not even a month old.”
“You are safe now.” The worm didn’t move, but Anath had the feeling she was being measured.
“Yes. I suppose I am. We’ve both had a long day. Let us rest, then we will talk about gaining more power in the morning.”
“Ok. Sweet dreams. Tomorrow we get to see the sun.” She leaned over and kissed the worm on the top of the head.
“Gah!” The worm shivered. “Warn me when you do that. I thought you were trying to eat me!” Anath blushed. She used to have a stuffed doll before the spider tore it up. Every night she said that exact phrase to the doll, including the peck on the top of the head.
“Sorry… Sleep well.” Then she curled up in her shelter. The residual heat from the flame was trapped within. Thinking of the doll made her conscious of the spider. Its legs curled in on themselves. One leg twitched slightly.
“Power is good. Yes, yes. It is. I can help you.” Anath tuned out the spider and drifted off to sleep.
“Begone, beast! Our spoils are not for the likes of you! Take one more step, and it will be your last!” Elyndris’s shrieking woke Anath. Blearily, she crawled out of the shelter to see what was going on. Elyndris was sitting on Anath’s log, challenging a bear.
A bear?!
The beast had black fur and a cut on its lip that revealed a sharp canine. Its nose twitched, and then it lumbered forward.
“I warned you,” Elyndris said softly. There was a hint of finality to her tone. She flicked the log so hard, it rolled over. The worm smacked into the bear's jaw and it looked as though someone had punched it. It roared, then shook his head. Elyndris held on firmly with her teeth.
Then she lost her grip. “Elly!” Anath squeaked and put her hands over her mouth in shock. The worm was lost in the underbrush. The bear faced Anath next. It huffed air from its nose.
She felt the spider move. Not to attack, but it stretched its arms out wide. She followed suit, figuring a monster would know how to deal with a monster. The effect made her seem larger than she really was.
The bear grunted half heartedly and lumbered away. As it fled, its head dipped down, and grabbed something from the ground. Elly!?
No, it was not the worm. She watched the bear walk away, dragging behind it a mass of organs. Anath hissed inwardly. She forgot to move the organs away from the camp. Oops.
“Elly?” She called as she scrambled through the snow to look for the worm. A second later, it was flying through the air again and landed near the fire pit. A foot or two to the side and she would have landed in warm coals. “Elly! You’ve got to be careful.”
“Well done. You have defeated the beast.”
“No, it just ran away.”
“Sending your foes running with their tails between their legs is a VICTORY! Don’t dismiss it. You did well to defend your hoard.” She gestured to the remains of the deer. Anath scratched behind an ear in embarrassment. Her finger got caught in a tangle of hair and she pulled away a twig. Ugh, she needed a bath and a brush.
Anath shivered and rubbed her arms. It was dawn, but the wind still threatened to freeze her.
“You shiver like a wet cat. Hurry girl, start the fire again. I would not have my steed freeze to death.”
“I’m not a horse!” She threw small sticks into the fire. It was still warm, and easy to relight.
“I said steed! Steeds are dignified. You should be honored to be my steed.” She slithered atop one of the stones Anath used to fry squirrels. “Now, while you warm yourself, tell me; What is your level?”
“Three.”
“You lie!”
“Did not!”
“A level three human is half your size. You should be level four, at least.” Seriously, how DID this worm know so much?
“If you MUST know. The spider is level three as well.”
“The… spider?”
“The monster!” Smoke began to rise and Anath added more sticks.
“Ah, I see. Level three mortal. Level three monster. So, the trickster gave you a monster soul. That is good.” Anath was having trouble getting the sticks to light. Suddenly she threw one.
“You don’t know anything. You act like you do, but you’re just a worm!” She blushed and hid her face. She shouldn’t be yelling like that, she knew.
“I have offended you. But I am confident what I said was true.”
“Sorry… it’s just. I’m out here because of this stupid spider.” She gestured to the spider's legs.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not important.”
The worm slithered towards her, then climbed on her knee.
“Listen to me, Anath. The system, levels, a monster soul, or a mortal soul. Those are all just tools. Weapons to help you grow. What is important is YOU grow. You are the one that must push beyond your boundaries, so it is YOU that is important. Don’t get bogged down by a tool or your circumstance.”
A tool? The spider was more than that. It had a voice. It moved of its own will.
“It’s part of me. Not just a tool. I can always drop a shovel.”
“Then if that is true, why do you hate it so?” Anath hesitated. She felt a pressure in her heart. A resistance that told her if she pushed at these thoughts, it might unleash something. A dam holding back something terrible.
“I just do! One day, I will figure out how to get rid of it. That is all there is to it.” Elyndris thought for a moment. Anath had noticed these moments. When Elyndris was still. When she thought deeply. It was almost as though she could feel great mountains of thought and will moving within the worm's mind. A silly thought, she was still just a worm.
“Very well. We can find a way to do that.” Anath blinked, then picked up the worm.
“Really?”
“Yes. Most things are possible if you have the will. But we can’t do it here.” Anath twirled around, holding the worm out and giggling. “Stop, STOP. I’m getting dizzy.”
“Where do we go, then?”
“We both need to be stronger. A lot stronger. And we can’t stay out here where only desperate animals wander. We need a proper lair. Somewhere to build our hoard. Then we must gather strength.”
“For what?” The worm sighed.
“You remember what I said about stealing from your enemies? The only way I know to remove a variance is to earn a wish.” Anath’s eyes sparkled.
“A wish…” She had read about wishes. Brave heroes and powerful knights sought great labors from the angels. In return, they were given a single wish. “They are real?”
“Very. But, it takes a lot of work to earn one. Are you willing to do that?”
“Yes! I’ll do anything to kill the spider.” Elyndris nodded.
“Then we have our quest. Steal a wish from the divine.”
“What will you wish for?” She was already dreaming of the day she would lose the spider. She could go shopping, and make friends. She could even find a charming prince to fall for like in her stories.
“You are not the only one cursed. Whatever I did in my past life… it was bad enough to anger them. I cannot grow past this state. I will demand it to be undone.”
“I think you are cute like this.”
“Dragons are not cute!” The worm wriggled out of her hand and plopped to the snow. “Have you said the prayers?”
Anath shook her head. “I wasn’t allowed in church, so I couldn’t say them.”
“You do not need a church. You just simply acknowledge them and the ego of the angels will take care of the rest. Really, the angels make it too easy to abuse their system. Now, repeat after me…”
After the prayers were spoken, Anath had gained, a point in intelligence, a biotrait, two skill points, and one growth point. She earned a mortal level, giving her another growth point, one to each stat, and another skill point.
The angels really did make it easy to gain power.
“Don’t rely on feats too much. There are handy ones, but they take a lot of work. These happen to be stupidly easy to exploit.”
“Any idea what I should spend them on? I have sooooo many points now.” Three skill points, two growth points, and two biotraits. A wealth of system growth. Anath wished she was allowed to go to weekend school. That was when the children were taught all about the system. But, she had Elly. Elly was worth a million weekend schools.
“Best practice is to save them until you have a clear goal. You are blessed, it isn’t easy to get both a mortal and a monster soul. You have both biotraits and skills. They work together to make combinations greater than the sum of their parts.” Anath still was hesitant about using biotraits. They changed her body… which felt wrong. But she dutifully listened to the worm ramble on. “We need to find you a path book or something… or get you a system assistant.”
“Oh, I have that!” She could almost feel the spider shift in her status void.
“Those are deceptively powerful. They tend to be quirky, but they will help narrow down your best options. Especially after you level it up a few times.” Anath cringed at the idea of leveling up the spider.
“Do you have a goal? Or a path?”
“Of course. I am going to be a dragon.”
“Oh. But, isn’t that… just another type of monster? Doesn’t sound like a proper goal.”
“Dragons are not one monster or genbloom. When a monster builds its form into its apex, generally somewhere past level 50, they are considered a dragon. A TRUE dragon has eliminated their weaknesses. These tend to look similar. Armored scales for defense without sacrificing flexibility. Large size. Wings for flight. Great strength. Some ranged attacks, usually a breath attack since they are easiest to get. The list goes on. You could be a dragon, one day.”
“I bet you will be the scariest, most adorable dragon.” She patted the worm on the head.
“That doesn’t- ugh… let’s move on.” The worm shifted her body, as though searching for something. “We can’t stay here forever. It is a good shelter. But it is not a lair.”
“You’re right... But I spent a lot of time making it!” She sighed. “I guess I can make another.” Some instinct she had urged her to build a home. One with lots of traps in it.
“Climb one of the titan trees. See if you can spot anything.”
It took them a half hour to travel to the nearest one, one that towered over its lesser cousins. As she climbed higher and higher, it became colder. She glanced down after a while and her stomach dropped. She had never been so high before. She wasn’t afraid of heights, but… there was a limit.
“This is high enough!” She could have gone higher, but… this was high enough. She shifted her weight slowly to look all around. “All I see is mist and snow!”
“This may call for adaption. Can you enhance your eyes?”
In her status void, the spider was already rooting around in the menu.
“Found it, yes. I did, I did. Magnified vision. Will work, yes.” Not wanting to stay in the tree much longer, she selected it.
Immediately her vision swam. The way she saw things was weird, normally. Her human eyes worked as well as any others. But the six other eyes on her head gave her a blurry sense of the world around her. It was fantastic for catching movement, which was one of the reasons she was able to hunt vermin so easily.
Now, it was as though the world around her had become deeper. The range of her motion-sensing eyes was suddenly wider, and she found she could focus her vision in, zooming like a hawk.
Her sight cut through the fog and the trees. It was slow, scanning the environment. Too slow. She could see the ocean to the west as glints of light. Then she saw Fountwhich, her hometown. It was nestled up to the water, as though trying to flee the oppressive woods. Finally, she saw something promising once she crawled around to the other side of the tree.
To the east was a clearing where there should have been more of the massive trees. In it were the remains of what appeared to be a large house. A manor. It was clearly abandoned, even though she didn’t get much detail. A tree was growing out of the center of the manor. Already she had ideas to plug those holes.
“There! I see something. An abandoned manor.”
“Good, now let’s get back to earth. I do not have wings yet.” Anath noticed one last thing before she began to climb back down. Thick, dark grey clouds that seemed to stretch to the ground. A storm. A very bad one, from the looks of it.
Anath
True Name: Anathema
Soul: Monster/Mortal
Genseed: Human
Monster Level: 3
[Class] Level: 4
Attributes [2]:
Strength: 9
Dexterity: 8
Constitution: 8
Intelligence: 11
Will: 9
Charm: 8
Feats:
Encounter: True Angel
Knowledge: System Knowledge
Act: Vile Concoction
Act: Devotion [layered feats]
Skills[3]:
System Aptitude: 1
System Assistant: 1
Survival (Boosted): 1
Biotraits [1]:
Disease Resistance
Extra Limb (Arachnid), x4
Venomous Mandibles
Multi-eye (Magnified)
Hardened Chitin
Other:
Variant: Arachnid Traits
Elyndris
True Name: Elyndris
Soul: Monster
Genseed: Larva
Monster Level: 4
Attributes [0]:
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 5
Constitution: 5
Intelligence: 4
Will: 4
Charm: 4
Feats:
Encounter: True Angel
Knowledge: System Knowledge
Act: Devotion [layered feats]
Act: Blasphemy
Skills [0]:
Burst of Strength
Pounce
Biotraits [0]:
Base size: Miniscule
Jaws
Tremor Sense
Complex organs