“That's the basic gist of… it,” Bill hissed and bit his tongue, wincing as Nero prodded at his infected hip, eliciting pained snarls that quickly devolved into obnoxious threats from Wild Bill that echoed within the confines of their collective mind. Ungrateful… bastard! Is he tryina' kill me!? Why're you lettin' him do that? He ain't no doctor! You tell that… stable-dwellin' horse fucker to get them filthy fingers of his outta my unmentionables! Jus' cause you set him free don't mean I won't shoot him dead right where he stands!
Bill knew the former slave was only trying to help, but he couldn't deny that Wild Bill made a valid point. Nero's fingers were absolutely disgusting. Between the random jolts of pain, and intermittent death threats, his patience was wearing thin. A sudden tearing sensation in his groin drove a spike of agony into the base of his brain. “OWW!! OH MY FUCKING GOD DUDE!!!” Bill tried to take a step back but his leg buckled under his weight. He knew he wasn't pissing, but something hot and wet was trailing down the front of his trousers. The stench of rotting meat hit him in the face like a physical blow. What're you waitin' fer? Shoot that sumbitch 'fore he does it again!
Splayed out on the ground doing his best not to puke, crabgrass digging into his palms, Bill flopped down on his back and peered up at the darkening sky. “Full moon out tonight…” he pointed out to nobody in particular, “go figure.” It might've been the time of year, or maybe the heightened levels of pain were distorting his perception, but the moon looked way too big. And abnormally cloudy. Wait. Clouds? Does the moon have an atmosphere now?! It was meant rhetorically, but Wild Bill grumbled his two cents anyways. Well hell, Bill, I don't know. Get yer head outta the clouds. Focus on somethin' productive why don'cha. You said them stat points might help fix my leg up nice'n proper right? Hop to it then!
“Can't exactly do that without access to our System profile now can I? Why don't you go chew on a fat…” Gritting his teeth in a last-ditch effort to remain calm, Bill turned his head back towards town and felt his venomous retort get caught in his throat. What he saw was like something out of a fairy tale. Streamers of vibrant greens and oranges arched over the fort like a rainbow of never-before-seen proportions, a vast neon river snaking off into the distance. It was as if someone had leashed the aurora borealis, cranked the contrast up to 100 and set it to endlessly flowing.
And the stars! Never before had he seen so many on display all at once. It beggared anything ever captured by the Hubble telescope. Having never bought into the whole astrology thing, he didn't know jack shit about constellations—neither did he understand how one was supposed to identify clusters of far away lights—but surely there weren't supposed to be this many right?
They were packed together like celestial sardines in a galaxy-sized can full of dark purple ink. There was hardly any room left for the sky. When he focused on the miniscule spaces between the stars, he was met with the pale light shed by yet another, even heavier layering of stars. The dazzling tapestry unfurled above him left no room for doubts in his mind. Earth, or New Earth in his case, had really been relocated. If that in itself wasn't proof that magic was real, then nothing was going to get the point across.
This was undoubtedly a sight not of his world. He felt lucky to be able to behold such an otherworldly scene. It stole the breath from his lungs. A head-shaped shadow blocked out his view, Nero's nervous grimace came into focus, totally ruining the mood.
“I.. Mr. Bill, I…” he stammered, obviously distraught. “I did'n know what else to do. You got the gangrene. I had to let the poison out.” He looked down at something and shook his head. Unable to stop himself, Bill pushed himself up to a seated position and nearly fainted when he saw the moonlight illuminating a festering lump of discolored flesh clenched in Nero's fist. It seemed to twitch and writhe, as if trying to escape from his clutches. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was actually infested with a colony of maggots.
He wanted nothing more than to stomp on it repeatedly and then set it on fire. “That did not come off of me." He stated firmly, refusing to believe that his body was being used to incubate and feed a host of baby flies. “Get rid of that nasty thing!” he snarled and immediately felt like a dick when Nero tossed it aside and hung his head. “I'm sorry man… that's just… it's a lot to take in. It's horrifying. I don't even know how I'm still moving around…”
Give it to me straight, hoss, Wild Bill demanded, fed up with with all the false hopes. Them fancy stat points ain't gonna cut the cheese this time 'round are they?
“Honestly, I don't know.” He admitted, bracing his hands on his knees and forcing himself to his feet despite it feeling like a jackhammer was drilling into his hip bone in search of the marrow. His left palm came away from his pants slathered in wretched smelling ooze. Before he thought it through, he was already wiping the pus and blood off on his shirt. “That's just lovely.”
“Outside of modern medicine, which,” Bill looked around the barren field and glared at the Buffalos, “probably doesn't exist in this world. If we want to keep this leg, I think we're going to have to hope this System has other, more immediate means to fix this mess. Preferably of the magic variety.” he hesitated.
If Bill wasn't mistaken, that buffalo herd was already inching closer. Where minutes before the only noise he could hear was the chirping of insects and muffled voices carried out of town of the breeze, all of a sudden the occasional grunts and frustrated bellows were now reaching his ears. His eyes settled on the sparsely populated town. The residents' many oil lamps were valiantly fighting back against the encroaching darkness, but the effect was limited to small spheres of illumination hovering amidst the heavy shadows. “These idiots haven't even bothered to set up any defenses…” he groaned. It was going to be a long night.
“We got 150 System Credits for killing the sheriff, and the same for deputy Collins, so there's got to be a System store somewhere around here right? How else would we spend them?” he whispered more to himself than anything. Don't know much about that, but Ol' man Schaffner ain't 'bout to take no kinda credit. That geezer's so damn greedy he'd steal a fly off a a blind spider's web if he thought he could make a profit off it.
Before Bill could share his thoughts on digital currencies, of which he fully expected System Credits to be a form of, Nero leaned forward and lifted his hand awkwardly, as if asking for permission to speak. “What's on your mind bud?” Bill asked.
With a look on his face that said he wanted nothing more than to disappear, Nero opened and closed his mouth like a dying fish before letting out a long sigh.
“Them buffalos seem awful agitated Mr. Bill… now, I know it ain't proper for a slave like me to tell no white man what to do, but…” his carefully cultivated persona crumbled before the onslaught of his sheer panic. His expression grew deathly serious. “We need to get behind them walls.” He motioned at Jupiter's corpse. “And we need more of them rifles, and folks to shoot em. I seen enough stampedes to know what's about to happen. I don't wanna be out here when they start a runnin'. Them walls won't be enough to stop em' if we don't thin out the herd.”
“I agree with everything except for the slave part.” Bill looked Nero in the eyes, “you aren't a slave anymore. Might as well accept it. But other than that, I can't argue with the logic." he pointed out towards the grazing beasts. "Right now, our top priority is to gather up supplies and kill that herd of buffalo out there to collect as many experience points as possible before these so-called beast waves start showing up. We need to gain as many levels as we can and start increasing our physical stats like yesterday.”
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Bill gave Nero an apologetic smile and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, doing his best to pretend he didn't notice the way Nero instinctively flinched away from the unexpected contact. “Look man, I know this is all really sudden, but we're going to pull through one way or another.” He offered his hand and wiggled his eyebrows when Nero gripped it and gave a firm squeeze.
“Do you know if Slavin' Dave left any more weapons tucked away in that carriage?” Bill asked while returning the handshake.
***
Nero's mind struggled to process just what was going on with whoever this person was supposed to be. His years of servitude had conditioned him to expect nothing but cruelty and disdain. Yet here stood a man, an admittedly strange one, who saw him not as a slave, but as just another man. Mr. Bill was willing to hear him out, even extending a hand in friendship. As a strange warmth radiated through his chest, Nero couldn't keep himself from smiling. His only regret was that his first meaningful handshake was tainted with Jupiter's innards.
Unwilling to speak for fear of choking up, Nero wiped his eyes with the crook of his arm and gestured for Mr. Bill to follow. He turned towards the carriage but was interrupted when a large blue screen materialized in-between himself and his destination.
(C) [Basic Language Comprehension] Lvl 1- This Passive Skill provides insight into the myriad tongues of humanity, allowing the user to gradually decipher any spoken or written language.> Name: Nero Race: (G) [Human] Level: 1 Class: [Locked] Affinity: ??? Loyalty: ['Two-faced' William Wolfe] Faction: N/A Rank: N/A Fame: N/A Infamy: N/A Titles: System Credits: 1150 Contribution Points: 0 Racial Statistics Strength: 7 Perception: 6 Vitality: 6 Endurance: 9 Agility: 7 Dexterity: 8 Intelligence: 4 Wisdom: 6 Luck: 3 Unallocated Status Points: 0 Skills (C) [Basic Language Comprehension] Lvl 1 At first, the notice appeared to be a chaotic mess of random lines and squiggles all piled atop a blue background, but as he stared at it, those undecipherable markings began to rearrange themselves into a recognizable pattern. By the time another notification appeared, he was able to read it without even trying. The words somehow spoke to him, as if he had always known what they meant. *** As Nero tried to make sense of his System Profile, The Bills' were perusing the contents of their own profile. Unsurprisingly, just as they shared a single body, they had but a single profile between them. (C) [Basic Language Comprehension] Lvl 1- This Passive Skill provides insight into the myriad tongues of humanity, allowing the user to gradually decipher any spoken or written language.> (R) [Temporal Step] Lvl 1- This Skill creates a temporal bubble around the user. In this altered time flow, the user gains unprecedented agility, and immunity to most forms of physical damage. (Note: [Temporal Step] does not provide protection against non-physical damage.) Duration increases with Skill level. * Cost: High Mana and Stamina. * Duration: 5 seconds. * Cooldown: 24 hours.> (R) [Soulsurge] Lvl 1- This Skill synchronizes the user's souls, merging them into a unified whole. In this state of equilibrium, the user's stats are temporarily doubled, maximizing their potential. Creates a dense aura around the user that reflects their current mental state. Effects vary depending upon dominant emotions. Cooldown times are drastically reduced on all Class and Non-Class Skills and abilities. (Note: Prolonged use of this Skill may cause strain on the user's psyche, requiring periods of rest and recovery.) Duration, aura coverage and Risk of negative side effects Increase with Skill level. • Duration: 5 minutes. • Cost: High Mana and Stamina. • Cooldown: 24 hours.> First Blood- +1 All stats. Damage dealt against Humans increased by 10%. Damage received from Humans reduced by 10%.> STATISTICS Name: 'Two-faced' William Wolfe Race: (G) [Human] Level: 2 Class: [Locked] Affinity: ??? Sigils: Riftwarden, Dual-souled, Titles: First Blood, Loyalty: [Self] Faction: N/A Rank: N/A Fame: N/A Infamy: N/A System Credits: 1300 Contribution Points: 0 Racial Statistics Strength: 13 Perception: 9 Vitality: 15 (-10) Endurance: 20 (-10) Agility: 7 Dexterity: 8 Intelligence: 11 Wisdom: 11 Luck: 8 Unallocated Status Points: 3 Skills (R) [Temporal step] Lvl 1 (U) [Soulsurge] Lvl 1 (C) [Basic Language Comprehension] Lvl 1 “What the fuck man! You have three STDs?!“