I wake up in absolute darkness. I check my hitpoints and find that I am at 20/70 so the fall really did some damage. I take stock and don’t really feel anything wrong with me, so I cast heal on myself which is not a direct heal like the light based ones are. The nature heal is called rejuvenation and increases my health in pulses for 45 seconds. Once that fades, I am at 50/70, so I cast it one more time. I then go through my inventory trying to find my torch since I have never had to use it yet. Now I have to wonder how long it will last.
About this time I realize that I had party members, I mentally check around and find that Alex and Marla are heading back towards town. They left me to die. I know they think they are better than me, but still, just the idea to leave your teammate behind. Then again according to the clock, it's almost dark out, we have no idea if more bandits are due back here. Maybe it makes sense to head back and get help.
I guess in the meantime I will see if I can find my own way out of here. I light up my torch and examine the room I am in. There are loose dirt and rock all around me, the walls though are manmade. That gives me hope to find a way out. All I have to do is follow the passages, and I am sure to find some way out of here. I am not sure which way to go, so I flip a coin and decide to keep heading the way I was walking in the first place. It seems like I walk for a while following the passageways until they open up into a room with greenish glowing crystals on the walls. I enter the room grateful for the light and extinguish my torch. Then I hear growling. I quickly light my torch again so I can try to find the source of the growling. I step towards the noise and eventually see a black cat in a crevasse on one wall near some sort of altar. It looks like this is an underground temple of some sort. The altar has images carved in it of a great cat, but honestly, I do not take much notice of that as the real cat is much more important right now. I slowly back away and the cat goes to move to follow me and then mewls in pain. I then notice that arrows are protruding from its side. I make a quick decision and pull out some of my warg meat and throw it to the cat. The cat looks suspiciously at me like only a cat can. I step further away and kneel down now that I know it can’t move quickly. The cat and I have a stare off for a few minutes before it reluctantly moves towards the meat. I had thrown three pieces, and it makes quick work of them before lying back down. I inch my way forward until it growls again where I stop and offer additional meat. I would almost swear the cat is trying to tell me something with the way it is looking at me, but again it takes the meat but leaves a single piece on the ground. It goes back over by the altar and lays down. I decide to take a chance and cast my Rejuvenation spell on the cat, and I see it take effect, the cat sits up quickly and yowls loudly from whatever that caused the arrows to do to it. I move forward again and lean against a pillar. I am sure now that the cat will not die in the time being. I will relax here and rest and see if the cat will come to trust me. I think to myself I can’t keep calling you cat if I want to tame you, I wonder if you are a boy or a girl cat. I can’t explain it, but right now I feel safe. Like I am being watched over, and nothing bad will happen. Against my better judgment, I fall asleep.
I awaken in the morning. I now notice light coming in the room from openings along the walls near the ceiling. I am still leaning against the pillar but notice now a warmth by my side. I glance over and see the cat from last night. I jump at first then decide if the cat wanted to kill me, it could have done so while I was sleeping. I take a chance and reach over and pet the cat’s fur, it’s so soft and silky feeling, and I can’t believe I am petting a 9-foot long black panther. The arrows are still sticking out of its side, so I take a moment and pray that the cat doesn’t kill me and yank one of the arrows out while casting my heal spell. The cat yowls and its claws embed in my legs, but it doesn’t make any other move. It actually relaxes after a minute, so I wait for my heal to fade and I grab the other arrow, the cat tenses, and I pull again and cast my heal again. The cat starts panting and having spasms, I stand up and move away before I get hurt. I cast heal again when it fades a few more times until it is laying there calm again. I put a few more of the meat in front of the panther, but it makes no move to take them right now, so I decided to look around the chamber. Honestly, other than the altar there is nothing to really see in here, so I approach the altar and examine the pictures. It appears that this temple is dedicated to a cat god and her followers. I am not sure what all the glyphs mean, but cats are very apparent. I decide to rub off some of the dust on the top of the altar, and as soon as I touch it, I feel like my hand has been glued to it by electricity. My entire body arches from the feeling, and I pass out.
When I wake again, I immediately see a pop-up screen that says
You have bonded with the companion Mafdet, she will protect you from now on.
I dismiss this screen and see that I am no longer alone. A woman is standing in the room, with the panther sitting beside her. When she notices I am awake, she turns towards me and offers greetings. I also notice that I no longer sense Alex and Marla’s location in my mind and wonder what happened to them.
“I am Baast goddess of cats and family, and I thank you for saving this one of my servants. She did not have long left before you wandered in and your caring for her has made an impression upon me. I wish to give you a gift in thanks for saving the last of my servants in this world. From now on you will be able to speak and understand each other until she gifts you fully.”
I do not understand so I have to ask, “What does gift me fully mean? I had wanted to tame an animal to be my companion and aid surely gift enough would be her company and the ability you spoke of. It would be nice to be able to speak to each other.”
She responds, “You either will or will not find out from Mafdet if she deems you worthy. I will give you a warning though. Mafdet is a jealous cat, she has chosen you as you have chosen her. If you try to gain more animals, it will go badly for you.”
Mafdet chose that moment to show some her claws that I already had a healthy respect for, I made the determination then that she would be the only pet I needed.
Baast went on, “I have to inform you of something else too. Your memories are not true. You are no orphan, you are no elf, and you do not come from where they say that you do. I cannot give you more information than this, it will be up to you to find out the truth concerning yourself. It will take time and be dangerous but you need to follow through, or the people on your actual world could be in danger. Keep this knowledge secret or your life may be forfeit too.”
The truth shall set you free.
Baast has told you that your memories are false and that your homeworld is in danger due to this. Find out the truth and take whatever steps necessary to rectify the situation.
Reward 1,000,000 experience, true memories, save your people.
With that, she disappeared by fading away, and the altar broke. Mafdet looked toward me, and I heard clearly in my mind “I’m hungry” I say yes Mafdet and pull out more meat for her and she starts to purr. When she finishes, I ask her about a way out of here to get back above ground. She responds that it isn’t far and asks me to follow her. As I follow I ask how she goes injured and she tells me, “I was hunting the ruins above looking for game, and I heard the voices of men where men are never at before. Everyone knows these ruins are sacred, so they never trespassed before that time. They caught me by surprise and managed to wound me. We will need to be careful if they are still here.”
I told her that my party had killed them all and that they were bandits that had killed many people and animals which is why we were sent to hunt them. I told her what I knew about myself though I had to wonder now how much of my memories were untrue. We headed back towards town and made camp about ¾ of the way back since it was early when we started. Mafdet made a great sentry as her sense of smell and ability to see in the dark was second to none. She could also hear better than I could so she told me to just sleep, and she would wake me if needed. I decided to trust her and fell asleep almost immediately while she slept in a tree. The next day we made it back to town, and I went to see the mage guild trainer with Mafdet in tow. When I finally got to see her she asked me my side of the story, I filled her in on everything that had transpired except about my memory and was informed that Alex and Marla had told everyone that I had died during the raid on the bandit camp. I wondered what happened when they had disappeared, but it looks like they had disbanded me from the party. They had already been rewarded for the successful completion, and as such, they were now being summoned back for a court appearance, without them knowing I made it back in. I was kept in the back and only brought in after they had given testimony. When I walked in you could hear Marla gasp because they had just made the statement that they had buried me on the field of battle. I told my version of the story, and the judge gave them an opportunity, to tell the truth.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Now that the truth had come out they decided to tell the truth which matched what I had said, and as a result of leaving a team member for dead they were fined all quest rewards to the offended party, as well as turning over to their faction head for disciplining. They both belonged to Immortalis which is wholly against wronging others and being wronged, so they were kicked out of the faction and removed to their homeworlds.
The judge then turned to me and awarded me 24,000 experience for the quest, plus a sword that had been granted to Alex
Fey Iron Sword of Shocking
Rare
Damage (shock damage) Upon hit casts shock on target, even if physical damage is resisted, shock damage still applied.
15-20 (5-10)
Durability
95%
He also gave me a ring that had been given to Marla
Solandite Ring of Shielding
Rare
Upon activation casts mana shield on wearer
Shield absorbs 100 damage for 10 seconds, 15-minute reuse
Durability
100%
These items were great, an on command oh crap item and a sword that can shock, and the shock will go through armor, even plate armor.
Finally, the mage trainer presented me with my reward for the quest.
Reinforced Jalo Bone Bow of Freezing
Rare
Damage (Freezing damage) Upon hit imbues the target with freezing damage which reduces run speed.
20-25 (1-5)
Durability
100%
I was shocked at this, a bow that reduced the run speed of my target, plus now I had a friend who would always be partied with me! I felt bad about what happened to Alex and Marla, but they had brought it on themselves. When I was dismissed, I decided it was time to stop training and time to start moving forward with my goals. I needed to get my memory back. I needed to know who took it. Was it Vortex or was it someone else. I just had no way to know. I went to the OAC building and left a message for Ranger Saila letting him know I wanted to meet with him. I also asked about what I needed to do for Mafdet to make sure that there would be no trouble for her coming around with me. They suggested I store her but when I told them about the ability to speak with her, and her view on being stored they agreed that wasn’t such a good idea. Instead, the devised a collar to show that she was not wild that she would have to wear. While not ideal, it did allow her to stay near me, so she put up with it.
I went back to the inn to wait to see if Saila showed up tonight and check out what I needed to do next I also asked about recovering memories. I explained to anyone curious as to why that I was an orphan and wanted to see if I could recall anything about my parents to try to find them. An innocuous reason enough so it should suffice at least here and not on a vortex world. They told me of an item that alchemist could make that would recover any memories that were lost or stolen, but it was very expensive and required items from level 50 monsters on several planets. If I wanted to make it myself, I would have to get alchemy up to 40% and gain those items. If I bought the elixir, it would cost me over 2000 gold instead. A cheap spaceship only cost 500 gold, and a decent spaceship that would fit four people was about 1500 gold, so this elixir wasn’t cheap, but I had been told that many lives were on the line, so I had to do this.
Eventually, Saila joined me that evening. I told him that training was never going to be done, but it was time for me to move forward. I introduced him to Mafdet and told him about everything that had happened, I also told him about my search for the truth about my parents to give me an excuse to make the elixir. He informed me that this planet would stop being beneficial about level 15, at that point experience would come in too slow. However, I would need to save up for the purchase of a ticket to get off the planet, for both me and Mafdet. He said the next planet I should visit that would help me build up my alchemy skill, and level would be Eonia. He told me to go there would cost 1 gold for both of our tickets, at this time I only have about 55 silver, so I need to do more hunting though I do have the items I looted from the bandits to sell from my storage space. I decide to take on some higher level requests at OAC tomorrow and just keep making potions and give up on tailoring for the moment. Saila said after this it would be up to me to research where I needed to go to continue to train both alchemy and find the herbs for the elixir but he wished me luck. I head up to the bedroom and look at my stats because the rewards from the quest and the trial, plus the bandits had to have leveled me up.
Spoiler: Spoiler
Personal Information
Name
Age
Class
Level
Faction
Alain
18
Beast Master
9
Vortex
Health
EXP /next level
Mana
91/91
28,275/51,200
98/98
Statistics
Strength
Stamina
Dexterity
Intelligence
Wisdom
13
13
18
14
14
Magic Affinity
Nature
Cold
Fire
Water
Light and Dark
19%
12%
1%
13%
3%
Combat Proficiencies
Stealth 28%
Dagger 22%
Archery 31%
Throwing 4%
Pugilist 2%
Acrobatics 16%
Sword 8%
Greatsword 6%
Defense Proficiencies
Dodge 20%
Parry 115%
Block 1%
Skills
Beast Taming
50% *warning further use of this skill may cause death*
Stat points remaining
40
Trade skills
Herbalist
20%
Alchemy
19%
Tailoring
16%
Cooking
21%
To say I am shocked by what I see is an understatement, first off I got a class, I have no idea when that happened, maybe one of those periods when I was unconscious, or when Mafdet chose me. Second I am over half way to level 10, third I have more mana than hit points now, and finally the warning about my beast taming skill. When I ask Mafdet about it, she just purrs at me which offers no comfort at all.
I lay down, and Mafdet jumps onto the bed with me which means that I have zero room to sleep, I get as close to the wall as I can and Mafdet occupies the rest of the space as we fall asleep.