Chapter 8
“Oh. Is that a problem?” Danny was still unsure what had the fairy so bothered.
“Yes, native, it is a problem.” The fairy spat out the words. “A big one. The standard Integration is studied. Predictable. A Wildcard is…not. But the planets that become Wildcards all have one thing in common. A lot of exceptional natives.”
A part of Danny wondered if he would be counted among these “exceptional natives.”
“Wipe that look off your face, you may have made good progress so far, but you are from far enough to be considered a true elite.”
Danny was getting really sick of the attitude.
“Wildcard Integrations also have over triple the amount of casualties.”
“What makes them so dangerous?”
“The standard Integration is designed to maximize the amount of survivors while still challenging them. A Wildcard Integration isn’t concerned with casualty rates or fairness. A Wildcard Integration makes monsters. Not the kind with sharp teeth and fangs, but the person kind. That’s what’s so different. Bonding with that Earth creature is now the highest priority, you will need all the help you can get.”
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Danny walked towards the edge of the clearing holding a dead Horror that had been disguised as a small songbird. It was the one taken from this morning’s training session. The drills had been tense. Both the fairy and Danny had not spoken much. Just the sounds of a staff flying through the air and screeching Horrors filled the courtyard, It was haunting. Danny was glad to be near the pine-scented forest. The smell had become calming to him, much better than the smell of monster blood and sweat.
Familiar amber eyes shone from the underbrush. The fox bounded into the courtyard squawking and yipping. “Hey, little guy. You’re getting stronger…” The fox was now Identified as [Level 7 Navigator Fox]. Aspen had told Danny that beasts could gain levels by eating the meat of other creatures, they got bonus experience from monster carcasses. It was the System’s way of incentivizing nature to help control monster populations. Danny tossed the many-legged body, which the fox caught and began to shake like a chew toy. Not exactly the adorable dog I had dreamed of, but I guess cute things don’t last long around here. Danny had wanted a dog. Or a cat, anything, even a fish. Rob would promise Danny a pet if he could get his grades up. It was never enough. Nothing was ever enough.
Danny shook his head. He was at a loss for what was drudging all of these thoughts and memories up from the depths of his mind. You’ve got a job to do. Focus. This wasn’t a social call, Danny had to figure out how to use his Beastmaster Class Abilities to form a bond with the fox. It felt a little unfair to him, bending an animal like this to his will, but Danny resolved himself that, if what Aspen said was true, they would both need each other to survive. Danny opened up his beast-taming manual and skimmed through the pages. It was written in the flowery prose that these authors seemed to love. It used figurative language and metaphor in a way that made it hard to understand the actual meaning behind some of the phrases. “Form a Spirit Bridge to link the islands of the Soul” was pretty and all, but how was he supposed to do that?
The fox continued to prance around the courtyard as it threw the monster a few feet away and then retrieved it only to repeat the process, giving the thing a good shake in between. It brought a smile to Danny’s face. Maybe this whole Integration thing won’t be so bad after all. Danny stumbled across a page that looked promising.
“So, first I need to sense the connection.” Danny closed his eyes as the manual recommended. He tried to “feel” the fox, the same way he “felt” his Qi in his Core. His face scrunched with concentration. He opened his mind and allowed his awareness to spread throughout the area. He reached towards the fox who was playing with his food. And he felt it! Wait… that was just a breeze. Danny sighed as he opened his eyes. The fox tilted its head quizzically at him before it went back to its game. That’s a dead end.
The guide frowned as Danny relayed the results of his attempt at forming a Bond with the navigator fox. “We’ll put that on hold for now then.” He said, much calmer than he had been earlier in the morning. Danny still felt himself walking on eggshells after the morning’s training. “The timeline will need to be adjusted, but it shouldn’t matter too much.” The fairy’s eyes glowed blue and a small map-like image hovered in the top-right of his vision. “This is a mini-map.” He explained. “Marked by a red X is the nest of those Horrors. You are going to take it out. Then, we will move on. I have gathered everything of value from this place and it is time for us to go on to the next.”
Danny felt a little shell-shocked. He hadn’t realized that they would be moving on. In hindsight, Danny didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in an abandoned temple in the middle of nowhere, but it wasn’t like there were any people out there anyway. Everyone was still in the Tutorial. In reality, the place was kind of crappy. The rooms were tiny, like prison cells. The prayer hall was uninsulated and hard to concentrate in due to the temperature fluctuating with the weather. Then there was the constant assault of Vernian Horrors that made going into the woods a nightmarish, anxiety-inducing affair. But it was familiar, the place he had been dropped in at the start of the Integration. Danny was finding it hard to visualize spending his days anywhere else, as weird as it seemed.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
And then there was the matter of the monster nest. They had been drilling combat against small groups, but Danny was certain that a nest would be on another level. He wondered if this was retribution for earlier, but Aspen didn’t strike Danny as that petty, just…stressed. This Wildcard business had pushed his guide to ramp up the intensity. But Danny was the one being Integrated, the one who was in danger, he would have to take this seriously from here on out to not be overwhelmed by the new regiment. Looking at the sky, Danny determined that he should have more than enough daylight to clear out the monster nest today. It was worryingly close to the temple. No point in delaying the inevitable, Danny thought. “I’ll do it now,” Danny said. Aspen had his brow furrowed in thought. He gave a slight nod without looking in Danny’s direction. Danny took it as an acknowledgment and began his trek to the nest of Horrors, Staff of the Sleeping Giant in hand.
The branches rustled as Danny shoved his way through. Danny had been training his skill at fighting monsters, but fighting through this forest was another thing. The pack of supplies he was lugging around on his back did not make it easier. The lowest branches were at head level for Danny, so he had to duck under or push through them to make progress. Every snapped stick or shifting shrub sent a spike of panic through him. It was exhausting. A little rabbit would hop through the undergrowth and Danny would snap to the ready, expecting a fight, only for it to truly be an Earth rabbit, rather than a Horror in disguise. So it went, a slog through the sun-dappled greenery, jumping at every shadow and sound until the inevitable happened.
A vigorous rustling caused Danny to whirl around. From the leaves and grasses burst forth a streak of orange and white, squawking in alarm. On the fox’s tail were a trio of Vernian Horrors each with fuzzy ringed tails of a raccoon. Spider legs tore into the topsoil as they scurried towards Danny. With a Yip! the fox dove between Danny’s legs and hid behind him. The fox seemed to have a habit of bringing trouble to Danny’s doorstep. Danny could hardly blame the thing, the monsters were, well, horrific. Danny settled into his guard position with his staff at the ready, staring down the newcomers: [Level 4 Vernian Horror], [Level 7 Vernian Horror], [Level 5 Vernian Horror].
With a shriek, the highest level of the three leapt at Danny. Danny intercepted it mid-air with his staff. A crunching sound accompanied by a strangled screech marked the monster’s fall to the ground. Meanwhile, the other two began to circle Danny, surrounding him, and cutting off his escape. The injured Horror was now leaking a sickening black ichor, but still, it rose to its feet. Once again it threw itself at Danny, but this time not alone in its attack. Danny ducked under the aerial assault and turned his attention to the flankers. One of them charged straight into the swinging end of Danny’s weapon. The other found the flesh of Danny’s leg. The leech-like mouth latched on to him. He could feel the suction, like a vacuum cleaner, trying to turn his insides into outsides.
Danny flailed his leg and hammered the monster with his staff, but the creature’s grip on him held firm. He didn’t have any time to waste on his new passenger, either. The two wounded Horrors positioned themselves on either side of him, pincering him. They would hop forward menacingly, but they never committed to an attack. A good old-fashioned stick to the head must have them too scared to strike. Danny used the time their hesitation bought him to rest. It wasn’t until Danny began to feel light-headed that he figured out the true reason for their behavior. They’re waiting for it to bleed me dry. Danny realized.
Danny began to wildly swipe at the attached monster with renewed vigor. But each swing of the staff was weaker and weaker. He could feel the effects of the draining, like giving blood except, instead of the whole pint this thing wanted all Danny had to offer. Finally, a lucky strike landed on what must have been the blood-sucker's version of a temple because it separated from him and fell to the ground in a daze. Desperate due to their foiled plan, the other two monsters leapt at Danny simultaneously. Danny dove to the side, but the fatigue in his limbs caused his foot to catch on a tree root; he stumbled and fell flat on his face. He quickly rolled onto his back to keep his eyes on the danger, but it was too late. The two monsters, one was still trying to regain its senses, scuttled towards Danny. He raised his arms to cover his face and heard the terrible sound of…a squawk? Danny opened his eyes that he had clamped shut and saw a familiar furry orange form biting down on the Level 7 Horror’s leg. It was attempting to shake it around, as it had with the dead ones, but a living monster was a little bit harder to manhandle, as the fox was now finding out.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Danny clamored to a stand and landed a nasty overhead strike on the unhindered monster. Its body made a slick sucking sound as Danny ended its life. The Horror grappling with the fox slashed at its captor with its pointed spider legs and scored a long gash on the woodland creature. The fox let out a pained warble and released its hold. But its work was done. Danny swiftly shattered the monster's chitinous shell. The remaining Horror was skittering around haphazardly, as though drunk. Danny made short work of it.
Danny limped over to his injured savior and knelt. He inspected the thin slash that ran along the animal’s side. “You did great back there,” Danny said softly. “Saved my life.” He pet the fox’s head and it affectionately pushed into his hand in return. Danny realized that the fox was also the reason he had even been in danger in the first place… Uncaring and satisfied that the injury was skin-deep, Danny used his staff to help himself to his feet. He then pulled out his “goo-rag” and began to wipe the ichor from his staff. Danny pulled a robe that was too small for him from his pack of supplies. He bandaged his injury and used water to clean the fox’s. He quickly realized that the lightheadedness and fatigue had come from some sort of side-effect of the monster attaching itself to him. Possibly venom, but the fact that it stopped as soon as he put the creature down made him think that it was more like a video game status effect. “More where that came from,” Danny said, looking at his companion, “you up for it?” The fox responded with a high-pitched bark.