Momentarily frozen, Hunter watched in horror as the fluffy Cowird waddled around the pillar. Every time its small flipper hit the ground, it made a slight chirping sound, and then, again, it spotted him.
Sweat started pouring as feeling his back flare with forgotten pain. Hunter quickly looked down at his hand. "It's still there," he thought as his hand gripped the barbed bone tighter.
Again, Hunter found himself backing up to the invisible wall, but this time with the start of a plan. Hunter watched it screech loudly as its eyes glowed a burning red.
The Cowird jumped.
Hunter was ready and immediately side-hopped out of the way to his right.
Like last time, the penguin ran face-first into the wall, letting out a grunt of pain. Hunter felt a grin inch across his face, giving him a twinge of schadenfreude.
However, this feeling of glee was short-lived as he realized with his new power, he had dodged much farther than he had wanted. Initially trying to dodge just out of the way so he could slash after the Cowird's attack, he found himself another foot farther, making him about half a foot too far.
The Cowird, having regained itself, turned, chirruping loudly.
It jumped. This time, Hunter tried to force his muscles to jump only slightly. The fear in his brain warred with his muscles as they both wanted different things.
The Cowird was aiming for his face.
Hunter ducked, simultaneously bringing his weapon up and trying to slash the bird.
His aim was true, tearing its skin as a hole appeared in the Cowird's belly.
He tried to lunge forward towards the middle but caught a face full of dark smoke pouring out of the Cowird's wound.
He tried fanning it away, but the haze clung to his face, and then it hit him.
The smell was horrible; the smoke smelled of death and rancid blood.
Heaving, he stumbled around the pillar, giving him a moment's reprieve.
He coughed, expelling his flowery meal onto the clean-looking marble floor.
Then he heard the flipper sounds again. "Here it comes."
The haze had dissipated; Hunter breathed deeply, resetting himself.
He backed up from the pillar until he felt the far wall behind him.
The bird rounded the corner,
It's eyes weren't red anymore,
His mind raced to understand why that had changed, but before he could delve too far, the creature spotted him and screeched, its eyes returning to their blood color.
Then the Cowird's eyes flickered, slowly returning to normal.
It looked enraged; the smoke still poured from its chest.
It jumped!
The jump was slower than expected.
Hunter dodged too early.
The Cowird, seeing it would miss, reoriented itself, leaping off the wall.
Hunter slashed, but the bird was gone, having jumped back to the pillar in the middle.
Hunter skirted along the wall as he watched the bird orient its flippers again to hit the pillar. Then it did something new,
The Cowird used the pillar to orient and jump at him.
Not having to gain height as it flew, it regained its speed.
Hunter waited as the bird flew closer, "Just like dodging in souls games." He thought.
"Dodge, what feels like late."
His heart raced as he watched its sharp beak race toward him, and then, at the last moment, he moved quickly out of the way.
His hair wooshed around him as the Cowird flew past him and into the wall.
It hit hard, making a hollow crunching sound as its beak caved in on itself.
Hunter grinned, stabbing at the momentarily stunned bird.
He aimed at its head.
The knife plunged in slowly as if stabbing into hard plastic.
With his momentum, the blade continued, hitting its brain or whatever drove this monster.
Again, as he pulled his weapon back, the inky fog flowed through this hole, starting the bird's dissolving process.
Relief burst through him as he slumped against the wall, taking in deep goblets of breath.
"I feel like I just leveled up in real life. Agility is where it's at." He muttered, "If a few skill points did this, I want to feel what's it like to be at twenty."
Almost as if called upon, notifications appeared.
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You have killed Cowird-minion of Vegesteria. 11 xp earned
Level up, now level 5
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Again, he wondered about the minion of Vegesteria part. "This person, Vegesteria, they must have known that I went down the stairs; why didn't they just send the birds after me?"
He pondered that until he realized something: "I didn't get any loot." Frowning, he looked around the room as if he might have dropped it.
Not finding anything, he turned his mind back to the level he gained and looked at his stats.
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Stats:
Strength:
5+1=(Hard-worker)
Durability:
7+1=(Hard-worker)
Agility:
10+0=(-1 Sloth +1 Hard-worker)
Intelligence:
8+4=(+1 Hard-worker +1 Good Liar +1 Daydreamer +1 Prey)
Wisdom:
7+3=(+1 Hard-worker +1 Daydreamer +1 Prey)
Allocatable points 5
Level 5
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
XP 51
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"Yup, five more points," he thought. I could put more into agility; I want to get everything above ten points eventually." Pondering his options, he decided to try to get most of his stats close to ten, so he put 4 points into strength, bringing it to a total of ten, and one more into durability, bringing it to 9.
This time, when he confirmed the additions, Hunter felt his muscles vibrate. He looked down concerned and instead found himself slack-jawed. "Are they growing?"
The feeling eventually subsided, and he flexed his biceps. "They definitely grew!" He still looked stringy, but at least it was the start of something.
Standing up, he reveled that even that felt easier, so he tried doing some test stabs in the air. His muscles responded, and he felt more power in the strikes.
Hunter looked toward the stairs up. He desperately wanted to know what was higher. Was it another room like the healing room? Maybe it was another monster.
He stopped at the threshold before walking out of the room. "The Cowird will probably appear again if I leave this room." Looking down at his undamaged skin, more confidence was building. "If I don't like what I see up there, I can always return."
Walking up the stairs, he was first caught off guard by the green glow that almost seemed to flow from the next floor.
The room emanated a dark green hue, which felt suffocating. As he got closer, he felt a warmness in the air, as if it were muggy.
Taking the last few steps, he examined the room. "Grass, so much grass." The floor, the walls, and, lastly, the ceiling were grass. It all was 4-5 inches long as if it was trimmed regularly. All the grass grew toward the center as if the sun was there.
In the middle of the room, what looked like roots lay piled on each other like someone was pulling out a tree. Hunter looked for anything else in the room, but it was empty.
The roots twitched, making a crinkling, snapping sound. Hunter watched them closely, noticing them lifting and falling as if whatever was in there was trying to get out.
He considered his options: 1. He could walk in, and whatever was in the roots would come out to fight him; 2. He could return and fight the penguin again, a monster he already knew how to fight.
Wanting to get stronger before taking on a new threat, he walked back down the stairs. Before taking the last step, he saw the penguin-looking monster sleeping in the middle of the room.
The Cowird lay there sleeping, remembering the first time he had fought it. He wondered if the noise or his stepping into the room had woken it up.
"How do I take advantage of this?" trying to devise a clever solution.
Shrugging, he thought. "Sometimes the best method is the most straightforward." Coming to a decision, he padded up to the marble floor's edge and knelt before sprinting in.
Immediately, the bird's head perked up, but he was already halfway there.
It spotted him and finally rose, raising its beak towards the ceiling.
It started to screech but was cut off by a kick in the ribs.
It flew, striking the back wall.
Hunter started placing down his foot, only then noticing the cuts up and down it.
"In that small amount of time?" he asked himself, watching his health bar lose a tenth.
Refocusing himself, he ran towards the recuperating animal. "I can't let it screech," he thought.
The monster again tried to lift its head upwards, letting out its battle cry.
Hunter rushed, slashing across its midsection, releasing the dark fog.
It's eyes glowed.
It jumped at him moments after he swung, aiming for his face.
Realizing this too late, he tried to dodge; all of his muscles screamed as he told them to do the impossible; even so, he was able to inch enough out of the way to not get his face completely slashed. Instead, three minor cuts dug into his scalp.
His health bar lowered to half.
Hunter spun, blood flowing down his face, panicking him.
"I need to finish this."
He locked eyes with the Cowird, stumbling more than running toward it.
Jumping again at his face, he lunged below it, slashing a giant gouge opening from its stomach.
He immediately rolled to his right and out of the way of the smoke.
The bird oriented itself and hit the wall feet first; it tried to jump off but only made it halfway to the pillar.
It flopped onto its side, making a sad chirping sound.
The sound clawed at his chest almost more than the pain; his mind again warred with having to kill these creatures.
With one thought at the invisible barrier, Hunter pushed down his guilt, sputtering blood that had flowed into his mouth as he tried to speak.
"Sorry, it's you or me, and I will live."
The blood from his head continued to flow down his brows, and no matter how often he wiped at it, the blood kept getting in his eyes, making his vision obscured and his eyes scratchy.
"I'll finish it quick." He told the bird, walking over to it slowly.
Once above it, he reached up, aiming for its head with his barbed bone.
It struck at him, clawing a line in his chest.
Hunter let out a pained cry as he drove the weapon down and through its skull.
He didn't waste any time. Getting up, he glanced at his health. "Down to a fourth?!" he said, walking as fast as he could on his damaged leg to the stairs.
With each step, blood flowed from his leg, head, and chest. He had his arms pressed against his chest and head, but the blood loss kept lowering his health further; now, enough blood had gotten in his eyes that he had a hard time seeing anything but red.
Hunter stumbled at the last step, not knowing he had reached the bottom, and walked forward.
It was easier than he thought to get to the healing fog.
Stumbling in, the weight of the liquid rolled off him as it dissolved in the fog, making him feel physically lighter. He reveled in the itchiness returning, which now felt calming.
He started feeling warmer as he stayed there, almost like a hot shower in his veins. Idly wondering if the healing fog would replace all the blood he had lost.
Hunter, feeling better every moment, looked behind him at the trail of blood he had left.
As he watched, his blood was evaporating into the floor. "So much. So much blood." Hunter felt his heart race, sweat beading his brow. "I'm going to die here. I would have already died if it wasn't for this healing fog." His chest started to burn.
Then, the large pools of blood started evaporating right before him, leaving a gray vapor to rise into the air before disappearing. This broke him from the start of a panic attack and left him frozen.
He blinked at the sight, "Just like the monster."
A pain in his head told him he could no longer ignore it, and he listened to it, the notifications appearing.
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You have killed Cowird-minion of Vegesteria. 11 xp earned
Level up, now level 6
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Hunter felt a burn in his neck reappear, a wave of anxiousness rolling over him. "How long am I going to run? Am I running?" He thought himself spiraling, so he did the one thing he could.
"I need to make a plan." He sat down, fiddling through his inventory and stats as he focused, speaking out loud to himself. "I always have a few options; I can always go back to the river; I don't know if anything will try and kill me down there. If I stay here, there are things that I know want to kill me, but they seem to only fight me when I enter their territory.
I have safety in this room for now, but if I follow the river, I can probably get a few levels from eating all the flowers in here."
He continued like that for a while, messing around with his menus and knife, until he finally stopped and looked down at the weapon.
"Three things, I need three things: to get stronger and to find armor or some way to defend myself better. I would love answers, but that will have to wait."
After a long time, he finally decided on his course of action: He would stay and fight, at least until the flowers were all eaten. This area guaranteed his strength, and the enemies didn't seem to switch up their tactics, so in theory, he would get better at fighting them the longer he fought them.
Finally, Hunter decided to close all the screens he had been fidgeting with when he saw the screen he was on and felt dumb. In front of him was a 3D replica of where he had explored, from the cave he had started to the long river with the village.
"The map." He said, "Why did I forget the map?" Hunter tried to pinch or move the 3D rendition, but it stayed focused on him. He then put down his arm and focused on moving it with his mind.
On the edges of the map, he could spot the cave where he had awoken, the long river with the town and himself, and a glowing red dot in the center.
He looked at the center of the map, trying to zoom in, and eventually, he found the right muscle in his brain and eye-twitch combo. The map slowly increased in size, but something was off. Hunter could see the start of the stairs and the room he was in, but the map didn't show the rest of the stairs leading up or the two rooms above.
Focusing on the area above him, he felt a tingle and shiver combo in his head. The map zoomed out on its own until an outline of a large area appeared with a few words in the middle that sent a chill down his spine.
The outline area had the words.
Vegesteria
Smack dab in the middle, "So I'm in the territory of Vegesteria." He wondered. "That explains why they are called minions of Vegesteria. Am I allowed to be here then?"
Hoping that the kingdom or town of Vegesteria wouldn't get mad, he decided to stay here for now. "If someone really wanted him to leave, they should tell him."
With a plan and newfound confidence, he allocated his skill points.
Hunter felt agility had made the most significant change and was the one skill that saved him the most, so he decided to roll the die and put them all into agility, reaching 15.
This time, his muscles burned with energy after he applied the change. It felt as if someone was pulling and compressing each bone and ligament, but he felt great afterward. The change didn't feel as large as the last time he added 4 points, but it was still very noticeable.
Getting up, he jumped side to side a few times, testing his new agility. Smiling, he looked upwards. "Time to grow stronger."