It took over an hour for Dave to become somewhat proficient at walking with the dubious visual acuity of Fear. The problems were two-fold. First, the rat had poor long-distance vision. Anything further than five feet away became progressively more blurry, and as someone who was almost six feet tall, this was an issue for Dave. The second problem was that the rat had no depth perception. Dave managed to sprain his ankle three times during his mobility training, and only the game mechanics saved him from long-term injury. As it turned out, his HP resource acted like a kind of healing factor. So long as he possessed HP, injuries would repair themselves within seconds. The conversion rate was surprisingly generous as well; each sprained ankle only deducted two points of HP. Unfortunately, his regeneration rate was less generous. At a single point per hour, Dave only hoped he was never forced into a battle of attrition. Dave had also taken the time to configure a simple hud display, which showed the classic three RPG resource bars in the corner of his nonexistent vision. He had also established similar displays for his summons, listed vertically, in a familiar RPG layout. His HP was sitting at a worrying three points, but his hunger and thirst outweighed his desire to sit in his de-facto spawn point for the next five hours. Unfortunately the small settlement of rustic, rural houses that he was currently inhabiting had no such supplies that he could find. The best loot he had managed to acquire was a chair leg pried from a piece of furniture to act as a crude weapon.
“Where should I look for food and water?” He prayed to his divine benefactor.
“West one mile.” Came the brain-crushing voice. Dave felt a new sensation as the response exceeded the first word. Instead of simply feeling an ice-pick through his skull, this time parts of his intangible self so intrinsic to his being that he had never noticed their existence felt as if they were fracturing from the strain of some immense weight.
“Ok, let’s take a break from asking for help.” Dave muttered as he recovered. After having waited long enough that his HP ticked up to four, Dave lifted Fear up to find the position of the sun, and after spending several minutes deliberating on whether it was morning or afternoon, Dave shrugged, decided it was afternoon, and began walking.
“Other direction.” The goddess beamed into his mind unsolicited. Dave swore as he collapsed; the soul fractures he had felt earlier noticeably expanding to his inexpert senses. Blinking sightlessly as his almost incoherent mind began picking up on the sense of anxiety exuded by his summoned companions, Dave forced himself into a wobbly standing position.
“I appreciate the guidance, but I think I’m at my limit for today.” Dave prayed as diplomatically as he could; clenching his hands together pleadingly as he suppressed the urge to verbally tear into Sonarei for the pain she had inflicted upon him. There was no response, so he turned a full one hundred eighty degrees; and began walking as quickly as he dared across what looked to his borrowed eyesight to be a completely flat plain.
Due to his slow walking speed, the sun crossed the mid-point, and edged slightly toward actual afternoon before Dave arrived at his destination. At first, due to Fear’s poor eyesight, it was merely a large brown and green blur in the distance, but as he drew closer, the blur resolved into the recognizable shape of trees. Nodding happily, Dave turned to look at Hush, who had been padding along contendly beside him, occasionally stopping to sniff at unfamiliar scents.
“Go hunt. If you find water, come tell me. If you find food, bring it to me. If you find danger, run away and come tell me.” He ordered the cat both verbally and mentally through the link. She stared at him balefully for a moment, then stalked off with an emotion of begrudging acknowledgement sent through the link.
“Cats.” Dave snorted, setting out in a different direction into the forest. Unfortunately, he quickly encountered a new problem.
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Warning!
Your summon, Hush, has reached the maximum range of its soul tether. If you do not return to the tether range within 1 minute, your creature will begin suffering from stat penalties based on distance, eventually resulting in dissolution of the creature if any stat should fall below zero. Current maximum tether range is 50 feet.
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Sighing, Dave turned around. Before he could do much else though, Hush sent a spike of terror towards him through their link. The cat quickly reentered the tether’s range; he could feel her moving toward him at what had to be the maximum possible speed she was capable of. Before he could do more than anxiously look around via awkwardly gyrating his shoulders to give Fear a good view of their surroundings, Hush had already returned to him. A second later, he spotted movement. At first, he thought it was another person, and in a sense it was; but living humans usually didn’t have mottled green skin covered in disgusting boils and pustules.
As Dave stared at Fear’s visual feed in shock, The creature lifted its head in a soundless roar that shook its whole body. That threat shook Dave from his frozen state, and he readied his table leg for combat. One end terminated in a jagged point where he had forcefully bashed the leg into another piece of furniture in order to extract it. Dave pointed that sharp end towards the creature; who finished its battle cry, and leapt into action.
While it wasn’t blindingly fast, the diseased humanoid certainly outpaced the average video game zombie, and Dave immediately recognized it outclassed him in terms of speed and strength, even if he had been able to see properly. With the charging creature seeming to move in slow motion due to surging adrenaline, Dave’s mind worked frantically before he remembered a key detail. He wasn’t a warrior. He was a summoner.
“Attack its legs!” He yelled at Hush. The orange house cat leapt into action with feline fury; impacting the diseased creature’s lower third in a hail of claws and teeth. Naturally, the actual damage was minimal, even before one accounted for the gouged flesh being restored by HP. The attack served a greater purpose though. Barreling toward Dave at maximum running speed, the creature was ill-prepared for the sudden assault, and lost its footing. No longer having proper control of its motion, momentum carried the humanoid forward, and through the point where Dave had been standing a moment earlier; before he had hastily ducked to the side.
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Through the rear-view vision of one of Fear’s eyes, Dave watched the creature impact the tree that had been two feet behind him with a wet smack. Naturally, he couldn’t hear the sound, but a pussy green substance exploded from the impact point of the monster’s head as it landed. Refusing to give the creature any time to recover, Dave turned, and drove his spiked table leg through the monster’s back; where the heart would have been on a normal human. It struggled against him as he held the weapon in place. It thrashed violently for several long seconds until finally its movements slowed, weakened, and eventually came to a stop; his vanquished foe hanging limp in a disturbing puddle of unknown liquid that still pooled against the tree trunk. As Dave withdrew his weapon, panting from the effort of countering the creature’s superior strength, a notification appeared.
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Congratulations!
You have defeated: [Soul-Putrefied Villager] level 4.
XP awarded: 400
Due to XP share settings, Hush receives 100 XP
You receive 300 XP
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Smiling, Dave pumped his fist once to celebrate his victory before indistinct motion caught his eye on the visual feed. Gulping, he watched a clump of blurred figures resolve themselves into half a dozen of the blistered green-skinned villagers. Unlike the first, these seemed to be wandering aimlessly; moving more like shuffling zombies than the aggressive lunatic charge of his first foe. Frowning, he edged around the tree slightly, and placed his back against it; using it as cover to reduce the possible angles of attack, or inconvenience any chargers. The charge never came though, as the diseased corpses continued shuffling in his direction.
“This is almost a let-down.” Dave jinxed himself into the void of his absent senses; patiently waiting for his foes to close. Before they had made it halfway though, a seventh zombie which had been hidden by the thick tree trunk, suddenly appeared within arm’s reach; moving somewhat faster than the others, though not as fast as his first attacker.
Catching him off guard, the zombie was able to clip the back of Dave’s head with a clawing motion; jagged fingernails digging into him with excruciating pain as the zombie exerted its full strength against his flesh.
“Gahhh!” Dave screamed incoherently, spinning, and slamming his weapon against the zombie’s hand like a bludgeon. The zombies arm shattered; the hand going limp as it’s diseased nerves ceased to function. Still driven by mindless panic, Dave slammed the his wooden weapon into the zombie’s head over and over until his frantic motions dislodged Fear from his shoulder. The sudden change in perspective woke him from his panicked stupor, and he stared down at the pulpy green mass that had once been a zombie. A prompt appeared, and just as quickly auto-minimized before he could read it.
“Ugh.” Dave said disgustedly at the pussy corpse, as he stood; taking stock of his surroundings. His weapon was visibly damage now, with cracks running along the entire length. Worse, large, painful splinters had come loose, several of which were digging painfully into his palm. Blood slowly oozed from where one such splinter had pierced the skin. Frowning at the length of wood, Dave shook his head and dropped it. The embedded splinter went with it, and Dave was confused when it didn’t immediately heal. At least until he shifted his focus to his resource bars, and realized the zombies attack had drained his entire HP pool.
Placing his hand on the portion of his head that had been attacked, even that light touch forced a silent scream of agony from his lips as a sensation of liquid fire erupted from the contact. Even his brief interactions with Sonarei had been like a gentle caress in comparison.
“Fuck fuck fuck.” Dave panted as he fought against encroaching blackness. Though he wasn’t sure how blackness could encroach on his already pitch black sight, it was a metaphor that he clung to as he scooped up Fear, and forced himself to stand. The visual display’s new vantage point sent another pang of fear through his already frayed mind. The gang of shuffling zombies were already nearly upon him.
“Fight or flight?” He whispered to himself, hesitating indecisively for a fraction of a second until a simple truth ended the debate. He was slow, blind, and wounded. His current top speed was barely faster than the shambling zombies, and sometime soon, he would need to stop and recover from the encroaching blood loss. Luckily his meager health pool had reduced the damage but he could feel the blood running down his back. It wasn’t conducive to a long chase, and he didn’t know how long he would last. Frowning, he shifted his attention to Hush.
“Distract them for me as best you can. Just go in, claw them a couple times, and get out. Don’t let them catch you.” He told her.
That was all he had time for before the first shambler was on him. It moaned silently at him as it grasped toward him; clawing at his face the same way the previous zombie had clawed the opposite side of his head. Dave was better prepared this time though, and backstepped quickly. Rather than staying on the defensive, he swung his fist at its face.
Naturally, this is where his second-hand vision, and lack of depth perception reared its ugly head as he struggled to coordinate the attack. It went wide, sailing past the zombie’s head entirely. Worse, he had over-committed, the motion causing him to stumble directly into the zombie. The creature wasted no time leaning in to bite his face. Dave screamed in agony again as a small chunk of flesh was ripped from his cheek, but the zombie made good leverage for catching his balance.
As blood gushed from his new wound, Dave latched onto his foe, and desperately headbutted the creature with all of his strength. The attack proved surprisingly effective, the zombie’s head caving in with barely more resistance than if he had hit cardboard. It stopped moving instantly, and he shoved it away. He didn’t have time to celebrate his victory though, as two more zombies replaced the dead one. Dave didn’t even attempt to fight them this time, instead back-pedaling to grab his damaged chair leg. Silence echoed as he screamed obscenities; bashing awkwardly at the green-skinned terrors. Luckily, these were as flimsy as their compatriot. An errant swing caved in a shoulder; another snapped a knee. A handful of seconds stretched into eternity as he struggled mindlessly. Before Dave’s mind could catch up with the brutality he was inflicting, one zombie had been reduced to a deformed green mass, and the other was crawling toward him with it’s hands; one of its legs a pulped mass.
Naturally, the remaining three arrived before he could reflect further. For what felt like the first time in his life, Dave’s soul went quiet as he fell into the ensuing rhythm of combat. As if a switch had been flipped, his emotions turning off entirely, and his usually constant barrage of background thought simply faded away. It wasn’t until the final zombie fell with a splintered chunk of wood lodged in its eye. As he sat staring at the visual feed, panting from exertion, the switch flipped back in the other direction.
Collapsing, Dave curled into himself and shook silently. This time the silence wasn’t only his broken ears, it was because he didn’t have the words. People had sometimes told him that he was bad at expressing his emotions, that he should use his words more, or to be more understanding. He had always blown those people off, told them to get bent, or rolled his eyes. But in that moment he understood. As that desperate minute’s worth of shock, trauma, terror, and pain paralyzed him, he knew. The tears flowed without consent or mercy, holding him captive in his own body.
After several minutes, Hush padded up to rub against his leg, and this finally broke the spell; his tears slowly drying as the small ball of fur stepped regally into his lap. For the next hour, Dave’s world narrowed to a small vibrating fuzz ball, and the rhythmic motion of his hand as it ran back and forth across her body.