Having disposed of the bear's head a few days ago due to the increasingly unpleasant smell I had been lacking in conversation but had made do. I peed on the bear pelt in its hole and poked it with the end of my digging stick. I had no idea if it was working or not. The skin was soggy and pliant but I wasn’t sure how long it needed treating for, assuming this treatment would even be effective. I was beginning to suspect I’d simply ruined the pelt and made an inefficient toilet.
I’d carved a short, thick, digging stick into a wedge at one end and hardened it in embers. I dug myself a more sensible latrine and completed my business. A small pile of the broad waxy leaves weighed down by a rock substituted for shit tickets. I filled in the hole and strolled contentedly back to the cave. I got some water in the pot and set it to boil then prepared a rabbit kebab on a thin stick of green wood.
One hundred and eighty three souls. It was wealth beyond imagination. I could jump to tier two in one go and get access to the next level in the shop. I was naively optimistic that it would yield some much more useful, and reasonably priced, options. I had started dreaming about steel knives and spear heads and each morning I awoke with a lingering regret that surged whenever I looked at my flint knife.
With a broad smile on my face I spent sixty Souls to jump to level ten.
Level 10
Primary Stats: Body: E Mind: F+ Soul: E
Available Souls: 123
Secondary Stats
Physical strength: 12 Reflexes: 13 Health: 120
Magic strength: 8 Focus: 8 Mana: 100
Affinity: Fire
Summon fire: Range- Touch, Intensity- +4%,
Fire Resistance- +2%
Projectile: Speed- +3%, Detonation- 1 metre cubed +0%.
Fire Wall: Area- 1 metre squared.
Imbue unlocked.
New Affinity unlocked.
Level ten upgrades to Affinities are now available. Tier two upgrades to Affinites are unlocked. Tier two is available in the Soul Shop.
I had put two of my points into mana, two into health, one into focus, two into magical strength, three into reflexes and two into physical strength. My mind stat had bumped up to F+ for some reason, possibly because mana had reached the peak human level? Body was now E grade and all three stats were beyond peak human so I was starting to suspect that the more secondary stats crossed a decimal threshold; the higher the primary stat rating.
My new spells looked interesting but I was only really excited about the projectile. I moved away from the cave and pointed a finger at a nearby tree. A blast of fire scorched the tip of my finger and flew away at the speed of a thrown stone. It was the size my fist but when it struck the trunk it exploded with a boom and a ball of fire engulfed the nearby area. The flames didn’t stick and quickly died down leaving a scorched section of trunk but not achieving anything particularly spectacular. I had hoped for more.
Having to summon the damn thing on my fingers was a painful irritant and I checked my options on summon range. Each level would cost ten souls but the first would allow me to summon the flame an additional metre from my body. Then each level gave an extra three metres range. I bought three levels in range and three in intensity, just to see what it did.
Affinity: Fire
Summon fire: Range- 5 metres, Intensity- +16%,
Fire Resistance- +2%
Projectile: Speed- +3%, Detonation- 1 metre cubed
Fire Wall: Area- 1 metre squared.
I cast another fireball, summoning it at a comfortable metre in front of my outstretched hand and it flew gracefully into the next tree along from my first victim. It erupted like last time but on this occasion it burned noticeably brighter and hotter, leaving a darker char on the bark. Neat. It was incremental but the improvement was apparent. I got giddy and began lobbing fireballs at the nearby trees until I ran out of mana. Wasteful but it was satisfying to vent my frustration and loneliness on something.
Down to sixty three Souls and each cast of fireball cost me twenty mana. This halved my number of shots versus simply summoning a blob of fire. More mana would be needed in the near future. I finally gave into the temptation and pulled up the Shop in my mind.
“Fuck you Shop!” my voice echoed back at me from the cave. Sure the stuff was all bronze and copper now, a marked improvement over stone but the price had skyrocketed. The most basic copper knife cost thirty Souls. I knew damn well copper was shit for fighting. It could be honed razor sharp, much more easily than tougher metals but it could lose the edge after just a few cuts.
The forge equipment was also far too expensive. The option to buy a primitive smelter and blacksmith set up was tempting but it would cost at least seven hundred Souls to get the basic equipment I would need. I thought longingly of the workshop in my garage with its tiny gas fueled forge and all the wonderful machines that made shaping wood and metal so simple.
I had options for bronze armour and weapons as well but again they were prohibitively expensive. I wished I still had the bear head so I could kick it into the forest in a fit of rage. There were new options for everything but it was all too…
Something in the crafting section that was new caught my eye. Health potions, mana potions, all sorts of potions and poisons. I had no idea how much health or mana I would recover but at a hundred souls I hoped it would be fairly significant. Couldn’t afford them at the moment but the prospect of a quick and easy way to recover health and mana lifted me out of my funk at the extortionate prices for everything else. I decided to hang onto my Souls for now. I’d aim to keep a hundred Souls in reserve from now on, just so I could buy a potion in a moment of desperation if I needed one.
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Imbue was interesting. I could impart my fire summoning ability to an object for double the usual mana cost. I couldn’t put the item down or the charge would dissipate in a couple of minutes. I frowned suspiciously at how helpful this particular entry had been. Maybe the god-voice was warming up to me and throwing me some extra info.
I’d put a lot of thought into what my second Affinity should be. Ever since I’d passed sixty Souls and realised I had enough to jump to level ten and unlock it the dilemma had weighed on my mind whenever I had a quiet moment. I’d reduced it to three options and now that I was faced with finally making the decision I was frozen.
I had days worth of probably-preserved food but smoking and salting wasn’t perfect and it would still rot eventually. I’d had to dispose of the last of the bear meat, I wasn’t particularly upset to see that foul meat leave my diet. However, the wastage had bothered me on some level.
It was inefficient and amateurish to waste food simply because I couldn’t keep it fresh for long enough to eat. Ice would make some kind of primitive freezer viable. I had envisioned a low container with thick mud walls filled with ice that could freeze my food and make it last weeks or months. Occasionally when I daydreamed about this idea a bottle of chilled beer would somehow appear in my imaginary freezer.
Light was tempting as well. I could move about in the night without the constant risk of breaking my ankle and the illusion power seemed tempting. I wasn’t sure how it would work and I didn’t expect to get any kind of hints from the bloody system so while it was tempting I was uncertain about making it part of my repertoire.
Finally I had considered Life. Healing would be a huge boost. Mana regenerated ten times faster than health and a mechanism to convert it into health was very tempting. The aches and pains the bear had left me as mementos of our brief relationship had faded surprisingly quickly. I suspected the system gave me some kind of regenerative boost based on my stats but it had still taken days before I felt like myself again. On Earth without medical assistance it would have taken weeks, I was quite sure. Speeding up recovery in the future could be decisive.
Ideally one should take an opponent by surprise and hit them first, thus reducing the risk of taking any injury yourself but I wasn’t hunting in the concrete jungle anymore and it seemed likely I would take damage on occasion. Rapid growth didn’t really interest me. I assumed it would let me grow plants faster which could be great if I wanted to plant a farm but I had no plans to set down roots. I would have to go to my enemies and that would preclude spending the time to raise crops.
Enhancement was a nice bonus. I expected the boost to be minor to begin with but if it scaled as I increased my physical statistics it could make me extremely dangerous. Finally there was the distant goal of minor shapeshifting. Simple tricks like dying my hair or changing the colour of my eyes with contact lenses had long since been part of my skill set at home.
Vital parts of my skill set, if I was honest. While I was largely unknown to my victims beforehand and afterwards their knowledge was buried with them; bystanders and witnesses always had to be taken into account. Changing my appearance before and after a job had always been simple common sense.
With a grimace I selected Life. I expected I’d regret it later but right now it seemed like the most valuable. Ice would be helpful in some ways and Light in others but overall Life offered the best boost to my chances of getting home again.
Affinity: Life
Heal (self): 5HP and 4% increased recovery rate for one hour. Seals light wounds.
Enhancement (self): 2%, lasts 5 seconds
Resistance (all): 1%
Projectile: Speed- +3%, (heal other)
Rapid Growth: Area- 1 metre squared.
Interesting. Life had a weaker but broader resistance. I assumed the two first tier spells would require ten mana per cast. Two percent enhancement for five seconds seemed pretty useless but it would get to eighteen percent at level nine, a significant albeit short-lived boost to my strength.
I was reasonably happy with my choice and set off to go and gather the night's catches with a spring in my step. I took my dagger and a length of cordage to tie the rabbit bodies to. I had my empty waterskins hanging from my shoulders and a tuneless whistle echoed out as I set off along the now well trodden path down to the river.
I picked up the bodies and reset my traps as I passed them, a process that had become thoughtless and routine over the last few days. I got to a trap about halfway down the hill, six bunnies swinging from the string in my left hand. I grimaced as I rounded the first corner of this little animal trail to find the rabbit had been chewed apart.
Barely any of the little guy was left, a gory head and shoulder lying with the noose biting into its throat. The rest of it was missing, presumably taken by a fox or something. I hadn’t seen any large predators since the bear and I figured the presence of an apex predator like that creature had kept the rest of the locale clear of more dangerous beasts.
I put down my brace of rabbits and worked the noose free, throwing the remnants downhill into the bushes. I’d gotten the Souls for the kill so it wasn’t a total waste. I reset the trap, snapping a new twig to hold the noose in place across the mouth of the run.
As I rose to collect my prizes a blur slammed into me and sharp teeth snapped closed on my shoulder. I was thrown to the side and slammed into a tree but even while I was still in the air I reacted in the best way I knew: channeled violence. My right hand had snatched the dagger from where it lay sheathed on my chest and swept round to plunge it into the throat of whatever had attacked me.
The tree trunk knocked the air out of my lungs and I gasped as I collapsed to the mud and leaves littering the ground. My head was foggy but I knew I’d lost my grip on the blade as the thing had recoiled at my strike. I rose with a muddled mind and put my back against the tree. A large grey wolf, far bigger than any wolf from home, looked at me slightly cross eyed. A quizzical expression passed across his eyes as his rump fell to the ground. He whined piteously and pink bubbles spread out from the handle of my knife sticking from the beast's neck.
Health: 82/120
Mana: 19/100
“Fuck you bloke,” I muttered as my back fell back against the tree. I looked down at my shredded shoulder and winced. My cloak was painted red around the new rips in the material. “That was expensive.”
I cast heal and watched as the blood flow slowed. It didn’t stop completely though and the pain began to radiate out from the wound making my eyes water. I blinked them clear and looked back up at the mortally injured wolf.
“Good job it was only one on one-” a growl cut off my asinine comment. A growl that came from the bushes to the right of my first victim. I drew myself away from the tree and crouched slightly, ignoring the tugging feeling on my left side as the wounds stretched and fresh blood started leaking out. A more normal looking wolf stepped out and growled at me again.
Vilis Lupus slain.
7 Souls harvested.
“That’s not very sporting. Mind you fighting fair is for fools. Come on then puppy, let’s get this done,” I babbled. The blood loss was making me dizzy. When I said puppy the growl dropped half an octave and the wolf sprang forwards. It soared through the air but it seemed to be moving through water. Whether it was desperation, fear, adrenaline or the impact of my boosted reflex statistic I watched it fly towards me almost as though in slow motion.
My right fist arced round like lightning and slammed into the beast's ribs at the same time I slipped aside and dodged the jaws. There was a satisfying crack as the wolf changed direction and went tumbling through the scrub and out of sight with a pained yelp.
I snorted and groaned, rubbing at my face with my right hand to try and clear my head. Wolves were pack animals. Two meant there were probably more. Leaving the rabbits behind I limped as quickly as I could back towards my cave and the spear I knew was waiting there for me. I’d never leave home without it again. Every twig that snapped and every rustle of the leaves in the wind had me spinning nervously to check for more of the beasts. I could burn Souls for a weapon if I had to but they were precious and I refused to compound foolishness with wastefulness unless I had no other choice.