Chapter 15

Danny Moore

Awakening (11/17) Human Beastmaster

Bloodline: King of Beasts

Body: 7 (16)

Qi: 5 (11.5)

Soul: 9 (20.5)

System Functions:

Identify

Class Abilities:

King’s Tribute

Treasure Sense (Navigator Fox)

Skills (2 / 4):

Weeping Willow Dances on the Wind: Staff Technique

Qi Manipulation

I did it, Danny thought as he viewed his Status screen. Finally, he had gained another point in Body. He was now over three times as strong as he had been before the Integration. There has to be some kind of diminishing returns, right? If Danny was truly three times as strong as a normal person, then he could probably punch straight through one of these dead trees nearby. He walked over to one nearby and punched. Ow! Danny held his hand close to his chest. Definitely didn’t go straight through. As Danny nursed his bruised knuckles he saw a fist-shaped indent in the tree. The bark had splintered, exposing the woody flesh underneath. That’s still pretty sick.

Danny had been in his personalized Tutorial for two months now. Many sessions with Sassa had been needed to push his stats over the edge. He still felt bad about using the Pillar so much, but Aspen had refused to slow down. “If it breaks, it breaks.” He had said. That seemed callous to Danny, but Sassa had explained that if one of the other Multiverse factions got their hands on a functioning set of Pillars, one of the fairies’ greatest secrets would be revealed. That was another reason why outsiders didn’t use them. This raised the question of who would donate the Pillars if it was such a closely guarded secret. Sassa didn’t seem to know, although her information was a little outdated. When the real Sassa had allowed a copy of her consciousness to be turned into a Training Spirit it only took a snapshot of her current knowledge. Without any way to gather knowledge of current events, the Training Spirit was going off old news. Aspen wasn’t any help either. “Eyes on the step ahead, not the clouds.” The guide seemed to use that one a lot recently.

Aspen had been more forthcoming with information though. Not by much, but he explained a little about the finer points of the Pillars. They had some sort of time-slowing effect while inside. Danny had noticed that the sun was never quite as low as he would expect when he came out, so he wasn’t all that surprised. The dream world also boosted the gains of training which caused Danny to grow much faster than if he trained purely in the real world.

This was not that special. The guide had said that nearly everyone in the Multiverse will have trained their Stats as high as they could go before Level 100. For each individual that number was different, but it was usually somewhere between three to four points in each stat. If Danny was able to increase his Soul by four points, it would be truly monstrous. At least that was what Sassa had said. She had become Danny’s main source of information. Much less grumpy. Everything was not sunshine and rainbows though.

There had been something gnawing at Danny. In those moments when he was between training, when he had time to think, when the routine allowed his mind to wander, Danny thought of the bat. Not the big one that used some sort of sound attack, but the one that tried to run. It had been swiftly punished, but monsters weren’t supposed to run. But it had happened. A monster had been afraid of him. A monster. Afraid. That was not how things were supposed to work. What happened to the unfeeling, bloodthirsty to the point of self-destruction, nature of the Horrors. They had been so much easier to deal with. Maybe not physically, but they didn’t leave Danny with so many questions.

All of this was supposed to be settled. Monsters were evil. They would never stop until they died. So Danny had to kill them. Black and white. Simple. Now, Danny wondered if that was truly the case. He also wondered if it changed anything. If a monster ran from him but would attack someone weaker, did that make a difference? He didn’t feel that he could allow monsters to run free on good conscience. What about tigers or lions before? They hunt and kill people, should we have just exterminated them all? Those predators served a purpose. They kept the populations of other animals in check. These monsters killed without purpose, at least, that was what Aspen had said. Is he telling the truth? Disturbingly, Danny wasn’t sure. Aspen seemed to view himself as the arbiter of knowledge when it came to Danny. He frequently kept things hidden. Would it be so strange if he altered the truth here and there?

“Good, you’re finished.” Aspen practically popped into existence. Danny had been too lost in thought to notice his coming. “Anything?”

“Yes. I got another point in Body.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

The guide nodded. “We have enough daylight to go to the nest.”

Aspen had instructed Danny to pack light this time. Because they were just trying to scope the nest out, the guide had wanted him light on his feet. All Danny carried was a staff and a bag with enough food for a quick meal. They passed the dead trees and were surrounded by the familiar pines. Even after spending so long around them, Danny was relieved to get away from the somber air that the graveyard of trees created. After a short hike further, Aspen whispered for Danny to move quietly, yet another thing that had been drilled into him in the past months.

“Look. Through the trees.” The guide pointed. Danny could make out a black four-legged shape ahead, but not much else.

“I can’t see it,” Danny whispered back.

“Identify.”

[Level 25 Dreadwolf] He was a little surprised that it even worked, considering it was barely a smudge at this distance. Although, outside of the Level, the System didn’t provide much information. He didn’t know what abilities the Dreadwolves would have, or what their boss would be like. The piercing red eyes narrowed at them. All three of them stared at each other. Danny was very glad that they did not bring Indy along, that fox would have surely brought the entire pack bearing down on them by now. The wolf broke the staring contest off first. It turned away and sauntered away, unbothered.

“We should go,” Aspen said, “it will be bringing the rest soon.”

They took a circuitous route back. Danny covered their tracks as best he could, another thing that had been learned in the Tutorial. However, they had no way to mask their scent. There was no stream or river nearby, and that didn’t really work anyway. It was just a Hollywood myth. The reality was, when you were hunted by something with a great sense of smell, it was just a matter of time. Danny began to feel that it might have been better to take them on back there, rather than leading them back to base camp. Aspen seemed unbothered.

“Better to face them on our home turf,” he said, “where we can prepare.”

Danny spent the rest of the evening doing just that. They hung wire with little noisemakers in a perimeter around the camp. Sharpened sticks were turned into makeshift palisades. That was time-consuming, so they were intermittently spread out. The gaps between were easily big enough for several wolves to fit through, but at least it would limit the angles they could approach from. Even Indy seemed to be weighed down by the tense air. The normally rambunctious fox was subdued. He stayed in the center of the camp, far away from the trees.

That evening was a nerve-wrenching one. Danny was so amped up with anxiousness that he never managed to go to sleep. Every branch in the wind was an assault. The rustling leaves were an assassination. He jumped when a twig was snapped. Adding to the unease was a suspicious lack of any sound of life. No frogs croaking or insects buzzing. Silence. Constantly staying alert for such an extended period began to drain him. His eyelids began to grow heavy. Danny found himself nodding and willed himself to open his eyes wide, fighting off the exhaustion. Then, a light jingle was heard.

In other circumstances it would be a pleasant sound, but it brought a deep dread upon Danny. The perimeter, something is here. The weighty eyelids, tiredness, nodding head, all of it was replaced by an awareness that sent Danny into a constant checking of his peripherals. Out of the corner of his eye something lurked, but it always hid when he tried to get eyes on it. He sat like that for a long time. After an eternity of feeling like a lamb waiting for slaughter, a bird tweeted. Then another, and another. The dead trees of the forest were revived with the birdsong. Danny poked his head out of the tent and was surprised to see the sun rising in the distance.

Exiting the tent, Danny breathed out a sigh of relief. There had been no attack in the night. Either their twisting and turning way back had worked, or the wolves decided that they weren’t worth it. Without the adrenaline, the weariness hit Danny all at once. It wasn’t safe yet. Danny was certain that sleeping now wasn’t an option. But when would it be? Is this how the days would go until there was finally a confrontation? Danny wouldn’t last long like this, he knew.

Danny sought out his guide for advice. He found him waiting by the Pillars. As Danny approached it seemed that the guide mistook his intentions. “No training today.” He said. “I have no way to pull you out from the dream world from outside. I need you to be ready.”

“I didn’t sleep at all last night.”

The guide took an appraising look at Danny. The bags under his eyes and the slight hunch of his shoulders cut a pitiful figure. “Sleep now. It is unlikely they strike at dawn, when we are fresh. I will wake you if something happens.” Danny silently thanked the System, or God, or whoever was watching. He nearly closed his eyes and curled up on the spot. Instead, he stumped back into the tent for a dreamless sleep that left him groggy.

When Danny awoke, there was much to do. Defenses continued to be reinforced. Aspen insisted that Danny travel with his staff at all times. He didn’t argue the point. In lieu of training, he carved more pointed sticks from thick broken branches and set them in the dirt alongside the others. He wondered if this was what the other Tutorials were like. Sometimes he found himself feeling envious of the others. Being the only human on Earth was difficult. He wished that he could have someone to commiserate with. Sassa was much easier to get along with than the guide, although their relationship had improved recently, but she didn’t get it. She didn’t understand what it was like to have your entire life uprooted by an all-powerful System. Danny ruminated more as he checked the perimeter.

He could have sworn he heard one of the noisemakers go off in alarm last night. Danny diligently checked all of the tripwire he had put up last night. What am I going to do without Aspen to conjure all this stuff out of thin air? Danny thought. Then he found it. A small section of the line had been moved. Large paw prints were all around. It seemed that whatever had tripped it had not stayed around long, or gone very far toward the camp. Danny also noticed dried blood on the grass and surrounding plants. The prints had to be from one of the wolves, they were much larger than Indy’s. It was at this point that Danny realized he had not seen Indy all day. He hadn’t been in the camp or the nearby woods. His daze of drowsiness mixed with panic had made him overlook that one, small detail. The realization made him nauseous.

Danny followed the tracks as best he could, he had to know. He crept through the dry forest using the prints and blood as his compass. He didn’t have to go far. The blood became wet. Danny reached the terminus of the trail. It lead into a patch of overgrown bushes. He pulled away at the curtain to reveal the dreaded scene. Two red eyes looked back at him.