The first thing Pikawon noticed when he woke was the taste of blood in his mouth. He ran his tongue around his mouth and found several scales stuck in his teeth.
“Curse that shattered thing.”
The memory of the monster that had knocked him out with several doses of venom was fresh in his mind. He cracked his eyes open, grimacing at the corpse right in front of his face.
It filled so much of his field of vision that his interface identified it without input from him.
* False Hydra Corpse (Rare):
* Level: 3
* Condition: Acceptable
* Creature Type: Monster, Serpent
* Affinities: Hunger/Poison
* Description: Despite the name, this species has no relation to the traditional hydra. False Hydras are even more aggressive than the average monster, with an instinctive drive to kill and consume other members of their species, in order to increase their number of heads, levels, and attributes. Their primary forms of attack are sets of rotary teeth designed to rapidly consume prey and venom with anesthetic and sleep-inducing properties.
Along with the standard description, his interface informed him of the estimated amount of experience contained within the corpse.
He rolled his eyes as he willed the information aside and pulled his aching body to his feet. He saw the same girl that had saved him from the False Hydra leaning unconscious against the wall and was initially worried that she was dead, but he reached out with his mana senses and found her unveiled spirit, bursting with experience.
It seemed the monster’s death had done her good, even if the large amount of experience she absorbed had contributed to her exhaustion.
Pikawon couldn’t help being a little jealous of her ability to absorb experience directly, limited as he was to absorbing experience from consuming monster corpses. Speaking of corpses, he reluctantly put the False Hydra corpse in his backpack
It was in good condition besides the bite he’d taken out of it, and he couldn’t pass up the dense and potent experience from a higher level beast, even if it meant eating something from down here.
He started walking away, muttering a prayer to the second saint for swift movement and escape on behalf of his rescuer. He got as far as the intersection before he noticed the bites on his legs weren’t nearly as painful as he’d expected. He looked down and poked at them, rubbing at a powdery, blue residue.
When he pulled up his interface alert history, he found the source.
* False Hydra has afflicted you with ‘Sleeping Death Venom’.
* Sleeping Death Venom:
* Type: Affliction, Poison
* Effect: Induces local anesthetic effects and drains stamina over time, leading to unconsciousness.
* False Hydra has afflicted you with ‘Sleeping Death Venom’ (2).
* False Hydra has afflicted you with ‘Sleeping Death Venom’ (3).
* False Hydra has afflicted you with ‘Sleeping Death Venom’ (4).
* False Hydra has been slain.
* You have taken ‘General Cleansing Tonic’.
* 3 instances of ‘Sleeping Death Venom’ have been cleansed.
* Remaining instances: 1.
He glanced back at the girl, still sleeping without a care in the world. He groaned and turned back for her, then spun on his heels and walked away a few steps before turning back.
His pacing back and forth repeated as he came up with dozens of arguments against helping her. He didn’t know her. She wasn’t a fellow inspector. There were few enough of them that he’d certainly recognize her face, even if he didn’t remember her name.
Which begged the question, why was she down here? She could very well be searching for him.
But that wasn’t likely. The city lord, desperate and shameless as he was, had hosts of higher level, adult guards to hunt him down. This girl was level 1, even if the experience she’d recently absorbed was ready to push her into level 2.
She could be a criminal, hiding down here like him, but he could hardly throw stones on that account.
He could rationalize leaving her to fend for herself for the simple act of attacking the False Hydra to save him. After all, he’d done the same after she’d blasted it with that overcharged enchanted item. One could say he’d done more, since it had been his bite that had finally killed the monster.
Except… He looked back down at the potion residue on his leg. She’d used a cleansing potion on him, a valuable resource to someone as low level as she was, especially down here where poisonous and venomous monsters were so common, steeped as the sewers were with toxic, decaying mana.
What finally pushed him over the edge was an unsent message, waiting in his interface, with his current location marked. The emergency message would’ve been routed to city law enforcement, and led hundreds of guards to his unconscious, but hopefully still living, body.
Pikawon had thought he valued his freedom more than anything, even his life, but the moment death had become a real possibility, he’d cracked. If he hadn’t heard this girl creeping towards the fight, he would already be back in the city lord’s manor, in an iron cage instead of the golden one he’d resented before.
If helping this girl cost him his freedom, he wouldn’t be any worse off than he’d been before she’d appeared, and at least his conscience would be clean.
Despite his decision, Pikawon didn’t stop grumbling, as he slung the girl over his shoulder and navigated to his hideout. He was grateful that he’d chosen to increase his speed and strength attributes, as it made the weight manageable and shortened the trip.
His loot pendant and inspector token had noted the level 3 monster, which was a good enough excuse for failing to complete his assigned route. The death of the False Hydra was an even better excuse that would earn him some kind of commendation or praise, but he would rather finish on time without drawing the kind of attention that killing a higher level monster would bring.
He encountered no monsters that didn’t flee when he growled, which admittedly lightened his mood.
Pikawon reached his hideout, which appeared to be little more than an indent in the wall until he pushed past the illusion-displaying curtains into a much larger space.
* Dream Curtain:
* Level: 4
* Condition: Good
* Description: Fabric woven from Silvan wing fibers. Allows the display of complex, adaptive illusions of dream mana that incorporates both mental and visual aspects.
The curtains were one of the few things he’d managed to steal from the city manor upon his escape. In truth, he’d only taken them to wrap around the other things he’d stolen to conceal them from the manor’s security enchantment, but they’d quickly revealed themselves to be the most useful item, along with the anti-tracking talisman that prevented anyone from finding him with the blood and mana samples they’d taken from him.
He only wished they didn’t need to remain in place to function effectively, or he would’ve started using them as a cloak to avoid monster attention.
Behind the curtains Pikawon found his simple camp as he’d left it. He had a cot, thankfully raised above the ground, with a bedroll, a table and chair, a collection of non-perishable food, and an enchanted waterskin that gathered and purified moisture from the air.
In his opinion, the most important features of his camp were the runes, glowing faintly blue on every surface that could be engraved.
Pikawon didn’t consider himself an enchanter by any reasonable standard, but he did have a reasonable level of skill with the runes related to his family’s business.
After all, before his unexpected and unwelcome talent was awakened, he’d fully expected to be a plumber.
It was only his proficiency with runes to redirect smells, moisture, and filth that had given him the confidence to hide away in such an unpleasant location.
Those same runes began their work as he gently set the girl on his cot. Bits of grime floated off both their bodies and clothes and past the Dream curtain. Within a few minutes, they would be clean enough that Pikawon’s skin would stop crawling and he could relax.
Though he was tempted to wake her, Pikawon opted instead to wait. Even in his poisoned state, he’d recognized the ear-popping pressure of an overcharged enchantment. Combined with the sudden influx of experience that had pushed against her capacity, his rescuer was recovering from a variety of mental and spiritual strain.
While there were healers and potions that could treat that kind of damage, you wouldn’t find any down here.
Pikawon ambled over to a section of the room he’d inscribed with the most powerful cleansing runes he could manage to speed up the cleaning process. He gritted his teeth as the ripples of magic scraped against his skin like a phantasmal sandstorm, but it took less than a minute before the enchantments judged him to be properly clean and stopped their assault.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
He was just thinking about preparing himself a simple meal when the girl started shifting and groaning.
He crept over with all the silent grace of a predatory cat and positioned his face inches from hers.
“Finally awake, princess?” he whispered.
Her eyes flashed open and before Pikawon could enjoy her shock, she smashed her forehead against his nose.
“Yemar’s nuts!” he swore, staggering back and clutching his broken nose.
“Who are you?” the girl shouted, tumbling from his cot and looking around. She grabbed the nearest thing that could reasonably be a weapon, a medium sized rock and held it menacingly up in the air. “And where am I?”
Pikawon would normally be disdainful of a level 1 threatening him with such a crude weapon, but the blood dripping from his throbbing nose was a conspicuous reminder that this was no damsel in distress.
“You’re in my camp, you vicious, little-”
“I’d be careful of how you finish that sentence.”
Pikawon grumbled in response, but once he had his shock and pain under control, he couldn’t help but be impressed by her instant attack.
He sighed and retrieved a clean shirt to stop the flow of blood.
“As for who I am, I’m the idiot that rescued you after you decided to take a nap where any monster with half a nose could find you.”
The girl’s eyes darted around, replaying memories he couldn’t see.
“You’re the boy I rescued from the snake.”
“It was a False Hydra,” Pikawon snapped, unreasonably happy that he had information that he could hold over her. That lasted only a moment before the knowledge of where he’d gotten the interface that allowed him to identify the monster had come from.
“Whatever, the boy I rescued from a False Hydra.”
“I rescued you right back. Twice actually, if you count killing the beast and carrying you here.”
The girl nodded slowly and lowered her rock, but didn’t drop it quite yet.
“Why are you down here anyway?” Pikawon asked, genuinely curious. He was here to make a little money while hiding from the rest of the city, but there was little to entice anyone else.
“Same reason you are, I’m guessing,” she said, shrugging.
“Hiding from a complex political plot to exploit my unique powers to turn an evil tyrant into a god among men?” It was stupid to reveal his secrets, even obfuscated by exaggeration, but he really just wanted to get a rise out of her.
“Really?” the girl said, dropping the rock and giving him an excited smile.
That was…not the reaction he’d expected.
“You are a weird kid,” he said, taking a step back from her radioactive smile.
She raised her eyebrows and glared at him, smile vanishing.
“Kid? Exactly how old are you?”
He’d lost that battle before it started. People were only awakened after turning sixteen, which meant she was at least sixteen. And he was still half a year from his seventeenth birthday.
“Well what do you want me to call you?” he replied defensively.
“Dyani,” Dyani said, holding out a hand to shake. Pikawon tilted his head at her candor, but he accepted her hand.
“Just like that? One second you’re smashing my nose and threatening me with a rock, and now you trust me, just like that.”
Dyani pointed up at his bleeding nose.
“You did that to yourself by trying to scare me, weirdo.”
“Call me Pikawon. I like that more than weirdo.” There was no point hiding his name now. In for a chip, in for a note.
The two spent the next quarter hour poking fun at each other while probing for information. Well, Pikawon probed, Dyani asked and answered without a care in the world, the advantage of simpler life circumstances. Despite her straightforward nature, she didn’t ask him anything about the modifications to his body from his talent, bright yellow eyes, sharpened canines and claws, and slightly pointed ears, which was a relief.
Pikawon accepted her explanation of being down here to fight monsters to get experience and unlock her next talent. He was amused at her reaction when he revealed that he worked down here, getting all the same benefits and more.
“You get paid?!” She shouted, throwing her hands up.
“Not a lot,” he admitted, “Just four notes a day.”
“That’s a lot more than nothing. And you have showers? Heated showers?”
“I don’t use them much, since the water barely gets warm, and I’ve got my runes for cleaning here.” He’d explained the function of the omnipresent runes to her when she’d asked.
Pikawon had already come to the conclusion that Dyani was too kind hearted to be good at glaring, but that might change with all the practice he was giving her.
Any annoyance vanished when she remembered all the experience she’d gained.
“I’m level 2.” She shot to her feet. “I need to go to the temple to get my talent analyzed. What time is it?” She gave Pikawon a frantic look. That was a good question. He queried his interface. It was nearly six. When he told her, she jumped for the exit, but stopped and turned back to him before she could part the Dream Curtain that covered it.
“I have no idea how to get back to where I was.”
“And?” he asked with a sardonic smile. She huffed, composed herself, and gave him her version of an elegant bow. Compared to the courtesans Pikawon had been forced to interact with, who had the grace born of training and high speed attributes, it wasn’t much, but it returned his sarcasm back in kind.
“If your lordship would deign to escort a helpless young lady, I’d be ever so grateful.”
Pikawon was trying very hard not to like this girl. He wasn’t in a good position to make friends, not when all his time and attention was spent on stealth and eventual escape from the city.
Still, he couldn’t just leave her to wander alone. If nothing else, when she finally found an exit, she’d likely have built up enough resentment towards him that she’d make a complaint to his boss.
“Fine, but you’ll need to allocate that experience before you’ll actually be level 2. It’s too bad you don’t have an interface. Most of them can analyze your talent for you.” He pushed past her and the curtain.
“What if I did have an interface?”
He turned back to give her a curious look. His interface hadn’t registered hers, but she could have hers veiled or set to private. He was doing both, and had manually shut off any function that relied on outward communication. Maybe she was hiding from someone too.
“Haven’t you seen your level 1 talent on your status?”
“I haven’t absorbed my interface yet. I don’t know how.”
Pikawon considered the implications.
“If you bought some cobbled together bunch of monster souls in a back alley, you should either throw it out, or come back to me to absorb it.”
“Why? Do you have a healing skill?”
“I wish.” Pikawon doubted any healing skill he absorbed would stay useful after his talent warped it, especially one that could target others. Healing others didn’t sound like the kind of thing a ‘perfect predator’ was supposed to do.
“No, I just want to see what happens.”
Instead of getting irritated, Dyani laughed, once again endearing herself to his cold, wrinkled heart.
“It’s a real interface, but it is a little worse for wear. It was my dad’s.”
“An inherited interface?” She nodded. Those were rare. Interfaces connected directly to someone’s mind and spirit through their Mind attribute. When the spirit left and the mind broke down, the interface usually did the same.
Pikawon didn’t know if it was chance or the swift attention of a talented Logomancer that allowed some interfaces to survive their owner’s death. What he did know is that inherited interfaces could be a bit…odd. Any interface adapted to its user, and having them die surely caused a significant amount of damage, even if the construct survived. Binding to a new person and adapting again would alter it even more, most likely to the point of uselessness.
“You should totally absorb it. Inherited interfaces are always damaged and become different as they heal. I bet it’ll be really weird.”
“And you got mad at me for calling you a weird kid.”
“I’m not a weird kid,” Pikawon huffed. He straightened to his full, impressive height, “I’m a weird adult.”
“Somehow, that sounds worse. But you still haven’t told me how to absorb it.” She had a pensive look, as if considering whether or not binding her mind to a broken magical construct extracted from a corpse was a good idea.
Pikawon gestured to her chest, where her core thrummed with experience.
“You’ve got what you need right there. Binding soulbound items is easy most of the time. All you need to do is push that experience into the item, instead of your own body. It’ll return to you and automatically bind to whatever attribute it needs to make the connection. Interfaces bind to the Mind attribute.”
“That’s too bad. I was hoping for something more useful for fighting. You know, Speed to dance around enemy arrows or Strength to rip their heads from their shoulders.”
“That’s…an interesting image.”
“Thank you. But I guess I’ll have to settle for being smarter.”
“You could always bind that armor instead.” Pikawon had noticed and identified Dyani’s chest armor after setting her on his cot.
* Unknown Chest Armor (Unknown Rarity)
* Level: 1
* Condition: Exceptional
* Description: Unknown chest armor with nature affinity.
* Attributes:
* Soulbound (Unbound)
Neither he or his interface had the ability to analyze unknown items, beyond the most basic information. His interface’s ability to identify items relied on an uploaded database, which didn’t help with much of anything besides mass produced items or the most common natural treasures.
Dyani pressed a hand against her wooden breastplate, tilting her head back and forth as she considered.
“I’ll think about it. But, either way, it’ll be an attribute I haven’t advanced yet.”
Pikawon winced.
“First advancements are rough. Just make sure you’re not wearing anything you’re not willing to burn afterward.”
“I don’t suppose there’s some kind of miraculous, alchemical cleaner that can clean anything that I don’t know about?”
“Not that I know of,” he said, “If there is, the nobles aren’t sharing it with the rest of us.”
“I should probably just advance down here. It won’t smell much worse than everything else.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
Soon they were at the collapsed corridor where they’d killed the False Hydra. It still smelled of vinegar and filth.
“My spear!” Dyani grabbed her discarded weapon, “I thought I lost it.”
“I mean, you did lose it. You just found it again.”
Dyani gave him a dead-eyed stare.
“Thank. You.” She said, voice clipped.
“Anytime”
Pikawon shifted back and forth, looking back the way they came. He should really get back to the inspector office to clock out and collect the reward from killing a level 3 monster, but something was keeping him here.
“You should come by tomorrow.”
“Alright,” Dyani said, agreeing easily.
“Just to collect your half of the reward for the False Hydra. You can use the money to replace whatever you used to blow it up. After that, you’re on your own.”
“Sure. See you tomorrow morning.”
“Just tomorrow,” he insisted, “We’re not friends. I don’t need any distractions down here. You’ll have your new talent anyway, so you won’t need to hunt the monsters down here.”
“Just tomorrow,” she repeated back.