CHAPTER 25

“So you have mana now?” Cici asked excitedly. He was rummaging through some large sacks, producing different pieces of clothing until he found some that fit Kopius.

“That’s what the bars mean, right? Don’t yours look the same?” Kopius asked while trying on different types of what looked to be basic clothes.

“Of course, when I was a lad. But now I have it higher up, so the bars go this way,” Cici finished, making a side-to-side gesture, indicating they were horizontal.

“Wait, you can customize your profile?”

“Oh yes! It is quite useful and easy to use.”

“Sounds… awesome,” Kopius said with no humor.

“But you have mana now!” Cici repeated cheerily, not giving Kopius a chance to brood.

“Yeah, but I don’t know how to use it…and I don’t have any spells.”

“You will learn! How do those new clothes fit? They were the biggest I could find.”

“A bit on the smaller size, but far better than the rags I was wearing before. Do I want to know why you have all these different sizes of clothing handy?”

“Have you ever left a place in a hurry?” Cici said with a slight grin. “Sometimes you have to put on the first thing you can grab.”

Kopius looked at the several full bags of clothing they had been rooting through.

“Looks like leaving in a hurry is standard procedure,” Kopius said with a snort.

“Sometimes it feels that way,” Cici replied with a laugh.

Kopius was dressed, though he felt like he was wearing clothes from the junior section. The shirt's long sleeves only came to his elbows and the pants were highwater length at best. The crotch was a bit tight, but all-in-all, his new outfit was a step up from the potato sack he had first received in the cave.

“This will have to work. Thanks, man,” Kopius said.

“Don’t mention it,” Cici replied, waving his hands. “I need to get rid of this stuff anyways.”

The big man went about putting all the clothing back in their respective bags. Cici had a rather organized system. One bag for tops, another one for bottoms, and then a third, much larger bag that housed miscellaneous items–things like bedsheets, towels, and underwear. There were also two tablecloths, three flags, and a horse blanket.

Another item, a banner, had captured Kopius’s attention. Its color was a deep blackish-purple, with illusions of dark green and blue streaks; depending how you looked at it. The material was thick and malleable but still soft to the touch. He had mistaken it for a cloak and was disappointed that it wasn’t a wearable object.

“So,” Cici said, breaking the brief silence, ”back there in the water, is your mind better?”

Kopius was silent at first, content to nod his head slowly. He took a deep breath and let it out.

“There is a very real possibility that you are… well, in fact…real,” Kopius finally said.

“I am relieved to hear,” Cici replied playfully.

“At least one of us is.”

“It's not everyday someone validates my existence,” Cici joked.

“In a realm of possibilities, that one is starting to take the cake.”

“Cake?”

“Hey, that shit I just took blew my mind. Just give me a second to get my metaphors straight.”

“Well now, a metaphor would be more like, you have shit for brains.”

“That’s an analogy.”

“No, no,” Cici insisted, ”an analogy is more elaborate. Something like, you are so full of shit I can smell it on your breath.”

“I am just saying that I am still processing it. It was… deep. It was deep shit.”

“Sounded more like a tough shit the way you were wailing.”

“I just need to get my shit together,” Kopius lamented.

After some awkward stretching to loosen up his new garments, Kopius went on to explain to Cici most, if not all, of what Oh-jin had explained to him. He covered the books, the boots, the quests and Quinn. Kopius explained his numbers, his need to level up, and his storage ring.

By the time he was finished, the two men had completed eating lunch. Cici laid in his cot, processing the new information. Kopius stood at the cave entrance while he stared off into the wilderness. Though he didn’t knowingly have any expectations around the big man, he was flooded with a sense of relief when Cici finally said he would be able to help.

“Leveling you up will be the easy part, ” Cici said. ”Provided you don’t die on me, eh,” he finished with a laugh.

“Oh!,” Cici exclaimed, ”It’s perfect. I know a weaver in Cawbachu. It's about a fourteen-day journey on foot, but we can take Escher Pass. We can make the trek in four, maybe five, days; level ya all the while. Sure, there are skinwalkers and some moonshots but two big lads like us, it will be harmless. And while we are there, we can gather some rare ingredients I have been in need of!”

“What's a moonshot?” Kopius tried to interject.

“Besides,” Cici continued, oblivious to his question, ”it will give me the chance to turn in these bags of clothes for coins. Now that I have got someone to carry it!” He let out a good hearty laugh–Kopius wasn’t sure if he should be amused or concerned.

“Skinwalker?” Kopius eventually asked.

“If those boots do as you say they do, skinwalkers are no problem.”

“And the moonshot’s?” Kopius asked. Cici smirked.

“They require, how should I say it, more: creativity. But that is with only one person attacking. With two, well, we will get the better of them.” There was a smile and confidence in all of his words, yet Kopius still felt a constant nagging that Cici was overselling the safety and ease of their journey.

“Will there be any loot?” Kopius asked.

“Loot?”

“Yeah, loot! Buried treasure, secret rooms, zombie hoards protecting valuable artifacts. Stuff like that.”

“First of all, a zombie horde should be dealt with on sight. Secondly, yes, there are riches to be found all over, but they don’t always reside in a locked box or on an altar.”

“Fair enough,” Kopius said dismissively. “When do we leave?”

“We head out after you can set things on fire with your boots.”

“Fine, don’t get comfortable. This shit can’t be that hard.”

Kopius summoned the four books and the pugil staff from his inventory, then laid them on the cot he was using to sleep. He picked up the staff; the wooden-metallic surface was cold and slick in his hand. He flipped it a few times before placing it back on the cot. Finding the book titled Manabolism he flipped through the many, many pages before the feeling of exhaustion started to creep in even before the reading had begun.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Fuck, man,” Kopius complained. ”I wish I could just, I don’t know, montage through this shit.”

Four days later.

Kopius vigorously stomped on a large tree branch, trying to set it on fire. Though the sun was high in the sky he needed the flame and he needed it quickly. Kopius was staring at a charging skinwalker–at least, that was the name Cici had bellowed when it first came into view. This particular creature reminded Kopius of any random roadkill Cory might have seen on the street. One where the ants and maggots were helping the animal decompose and half the skeleton was visible. If that decaying carcass grew to the size of a large wolf and was charging in to eat your face, that was roughly what Kopius was experiencing at the moment.

Cici had mentioned that there were many dangers cutting through the pass, and that most travelers took the fourteen-day journey around Escher Pass to get to Cawbachu. They would need to remain vigilant, he had said.

Many creatures, like the one charging at Kopius now, could be turned into a skinwalker. The monsters were dead, but their skin kept them ‘alive’ and moving.

“Basically, a dead creature in Escher Pass with at least half its skin, can come back to life. Not life-life… uh, dead-life,” Cici had said while they were still back in the cave.

“What exactly is ‘dead-life’?” Kopius had asked.

“I don’t know, it’s the best way to explain them to you,” the big man had said defensively. “Dead on the inside; alive on the outside.”

“Reminds me of a few ex-girlfriends,” Kopius had quipped under his breath.

“They are fast, yet lack agility,” Cici had continued, ”but fortunately for us, fire can kill them very quickly. So keep up the practice with your boots and we will leave when you can light a flame with ease.”

They had not started their journey to the weaver until Kopius had successfully lit ten pieces of wood in Cici’s cave. After his tenth success, Kopius had received an empty notification window which he had guessed was him either learning the spell or a ‘light a fire ten times’ challenge being completed. If Metem was going to function like a video game, Kopius was going to treat it as such. Better be some XP with that, Kopius had thought. His level had remained the exact same.

Now, with death racing toward him, Kopius could not get the piece of wood to ignite. At first he stomped and thought of the magic word he had assigned to the spell in his head: Sparta. He quickly began to shout the word while he stomped as the beast closed the distance much faster than expected.

His heart had gone from a soft nervous pounding to thumping jackhammer in his chest in the matter of a few seconds. With no options left, Kopius dove to the side as the Skinwalker lunged with outstretched claws, missing him by inches.

Kopius rolled to his feet and found his bearings. The Skinwalker wolf barreled through some bushes, having to make a wide berth in order to circle back. On instinct, Kopius summoned a sword from his inventory and faced the charging beast.

“That sword won’t do!” Cici yelled as he scaled a large tree with ease. “Start the fire!”

“It’s not working!” Kopius yelled back, not willing to return the sword to inventory. “How am I–”

Kopius was cut short as he was lifted off his feet and sent hurtling through the air. His sword went flying in one direction and his body flew in another. Kopius hit the ground with a loud thud, knocking some air from his lungs. He rolled with the fall and got back to his feet quickly while he sucked in the air he had lost. His vision came to focus with just enough time for him to raise his arm in defense, and the skinwalker chomped down on his forearm instead of his throat.

The beast was upon Kopius and the two fell to the ground, both fighting for top position. Kopius yelled in pain as the monster bit harder into his forearm, piercing the meager clothing and breakin through his skin. The deadish animal's hollowed eye sockets mere inches from his own but still managed to look deep within his being.

The beast twisted and jerked, trying to gain leverage. If the animal had still been whole, guts and all, it would have easily outweighed Kopius and thrown him about like a ragdoll. Yet with all its muscle, fat, and innards long gone, Kopius just had to endure the pain. The teeth clamped into his skin and muscles, like a serrated knife strapped to a hydraulic press. He quickly feared the monster would sever the arm completely. The two wrestled on the ground, and it was the saving grace that the animal had not found any good footing to put some leverage into his bite.

Kopius flailed his feet about, not giving the animal a chance to get any one foot down for too long. His legs swept back and forth, all the while trying not to focus on the tremendous amount of pain streaming from his forearm.

In the briefest moment of clarity, Kopius thought of his healing ring, and in the same instant a cool relief rushed through his body–the pain in his arm subdued even with the beast still latched and lashing.

He used all his weight and momentum to roll the beast over and stand in the process. The skinwalker had released its grip, allowing Kopius to gain a few feet of space. He immediately started kicking at the beast like he was breaking down the door of an unfaithful lover, all the while yelling “SPARTA!” on repeat.

His hand was mangled and the fingers unresponsive, his ring giving him only the briefest of respites–the pain came back twice as strong. The beast had cut him deep enough to sever the tendons and ligaments. The only thing keeping agony from taking over his every thought was a combination of fear, shock, and anger.

WHOOSH!

A flash of fire and a large plume of smoke exploded at the end of his outstretched foot. What had been a half-skin, half-bone skinwalker wolf-thing was now a gently smoldering pile of ash. It was like the thing had been a birthday party magician who had thrown a smoke bomb and disappeared.

Pain enveloped Kopius as he sensed the danger had passed. His mutilated arm looked like spaghetti noodles and minced meat. He was momentarily nauseous when he first looked at it. Collapsing to the ground, he quickly tried his healing ring again. Nothing happened.

A brief panic set upon Kopius. His arm began to throb at an incredible rate, a cold sweat forming on his brow. Kopius began to wonder in growing terror that he would lose his arm. His heart rate began to keep pace with the throbbing and whatever maintenance he had held over his self-control broke.

“I need a doctor!” Kopius bellowed in a panic.

He stood while cradling the injured arm, trying his best not to falter from the sharp pain. He stumbled over to his dropped sword and while reaching to place it in his inventory a light bulb went off in his head.

He froze, unwilling to give himself that kind of hope. Kopuis sat down slowly and with the greatest of care summoned a healing potion to his uninjured hand. He removed the stopper with his teeth, threw his head back, and drank half. He then poured the remainder of the potion across his injury.

A few seconds later Kopius could sense the easing of pain as it pulled back from the wound. A few more moments and the wound was closed. When he tried to move his fingers, they were still unresponsive. Much the same with his wrist. The entirety of his arm below the injury had the icy-needle sensation that he would get when his leg would fall asleep from sitting in the wrong position for too long; except this was much, much more intense.

Kopius, holding his injured arm close, laid on his back, and closed his eyes. As he was getting his breathing to a more normal cadence, he heard Cici’s lumbering footsteps approaching. The pinky on his injured hand twitched and Kopius felt another wave of relief. He hadn’t been sure that the healing potion would repair such extensive damage. The tingling he had first felt gave him the idea that it was working, but that was just a hopeful guess on his part. By the time Cici had reached him, all of his fingers had twitched at least once but he still had no control over them.

“Maybe you should have used a different word?” Cici eventually said as he sifted through the ashes of the skinwalker. “What is a sparta anyways? I have been meaning to ask.”

With the pain mostly gone and his worry over losing a limb pacified, annoyance, on the border of anger, bubbled within Kopius.

“What the hell, man! Climbing a tree, for real?!” Kopius said, not quite shouting but headed there.

“It’s safe in the tree,” Cici replied innocently. “We discussed this.”

“No, you said the other things couldn’t climb! The moon-thingy!”

“They cannot climb–they float around, more or less. They do like to throw their acid though, so large rocks would be of great value.” Kopius raised his injured arm so that Cici could get a good look at it.

“Do you see this?” Kopius said, hostility in his voice. “This could have been my face!”

“But you managed to keep that handsome mug out of harm's way, didn’t you?” Cici replied.

“That's not the point!”

“What is your point?” Cici asked, as he continued to sift the ashes of the fallen skinwalker.

“My point is, I thought you had my back.”

“I was behind you.”

“Behind me and up a tree! I mean, I thought we would fight together, you know, as a team.”

“Yes, a team, otherwise why the journey?” Cici replied with a laugh. “I just thought you would light the flame and be done with it. Get all the experience.”

Kopius cringed internally. The big man was not only looking out for him, he had been a few steps ahead in his thinking. His fingers began to move so he stood up flexing his hand. The joints were stiff, his muscles sore, like he had gone through a rigorous workout. Cici had returned to sifting through the large pile of ash as Kopius approached.

“What happened back there, my boy?” Cici asked without looking. “It looked so easy for you before we left.”

“I uh–” Kopius said, pausing to swallow some pride. ”It’s a bit different with death breathing down your neck.” He finished with an uncomfortable laugh.

“Plans can get tossed aside when the swords are drawn,” Cici recited. “Something an old teacher would yell in my ear. What she meant by it was, you must adapt quickly when your method is broken.”

“That… makes sense,” Kopius replied after a few moments of thought.

“Your plan did not work, so you adapted quickly.”

“That was more instinct than anything else.”

“You continue to go with your instinct, and next time I will stay out of the tree,” Cici said with a laugh.

“Yeah, that was crazy how fast you got up there.”

“I have long invested in my climbing skill.”

“For this specific purpose?”

“It wasn’t the original reason I invested in it, but it has been rather useful.”

“Do I want to know the original reason?”

“Have you ever left a place in a hurry?” Cici said with a slight grin. “Sometimes you leave out the first exit you have.”