Tilly was suddenly deeply aware of how close he was standing to the Samurai with a death grip on his sword. The warrior's proximity was beyond intimidating, but the memory of the man-sized fleshy pods had been burned into his psyche. However dangerous Lord Hiro was, it was nothing compared to the room full of nightmare fuel at the top of that mountain. He pushed through his warring fears and the pressure of Hiro’s presence to carefully answer the question.
“Look, from what I saw, the thing causing this Corruption is some sort of demonic, subterranean tree. Around its base, there are these pod-like things with shapes inside them. I think it has been capturing things for a long time and sets them up as some sort of energy source to maintain its growth. The pods nearest to the entrance looked like the newest growths and had some figures in them that were already husks, but one particular pod near the altar at the center of the room seemed to still have an intact figure within. It might have something to do with how time works in the chamber. Whatever is in that pod, there is only a small chance it could still be alive. It's suspended in liquid and I have no idea how it could still be breathing, but yes, it did not have the sucked-dry look the other bodies had.”
Tilly tore his mind away from the memory to find a new, wild hope burning in the Samurai’s eyes. He looked like a man on death row given a fresh appeal. Tilly was suddenly concerned that he was giving the wrong impression.
“Look I'm saying I don't know… and even if that someone is still alive, there is no way they are not totally infected with Corruption.”
Lord Hiro’s eyes had already lost focus in thought, and Tilly could tell he had lost the man to whatever machinations his news had aroused. Finally, Hiro looked back at Tilly, his eyes focused with determination.
“It will have to be enough. They have abandoned us here to die a slow death... Well if death comes, let it be by our own choosing.”
Then as if his decision came with a jolt of electricity, he jerked his head to the side and called down to Tilly’s escort.
“Take him to Shuji. Make sure he has whatever he needs that we can spare, and bring me Kuro and Nyuk. They will leave with him at dusk.” He said, his authority ringing out across the wall and into the village. Its effect was impossible to miss, as people stopped what they were doing and looked up at their leader, hope dawning on their faces. One of the guards rushed off, while the other waited at the bottom of the ladder.
“Um... Am I leading you guys up there or something?” Tilly asked lamely, hoping against hope that he misunderstood the events unfolding before him.
“No, your words have spurred me to one final gamble. The walls are as good as they can be for now, I will send my logging team scouts with you and you will do whatever you can to free anyone alive in that place and end this threat.”
His words landed on Tilly like an avalanche, crushing him with their implications. The fear and panic that he had barely been holding in check slipped from his control,
“You have got to be kidding me, man… That tree is guarded by all kinds of monsters, and a level 38 Ancient Cave Bear! I don't know if you noticed, but I’m only level 5! You're level 52, it's gotta be you!”
At his words, the Samurai Lord slowly turned his head away from the conversation and back towards the forest boundary, flat dismissal showing in his posture.
“You know nothing of the obligations I am under. I would like nothing more than to go off on this quest, but to leave my people is to condemn them to certain death. This I can not do as their lord. I will risk some of my few remaining men, and I will spend precious resources on you, Human. That is all.
"There is a chance that some God looks down on you with favor, I see a divine mark on you. There is little possibility that you will succeed, but I have precious few options left to me. It will be you, and if you fail, we are doomed to continue our slow march to oblivion.”
Tilly stood floored, his mouth opening then closing as he failed to come up with a response. He didn't want to die if he could help it, and he was sure these people felt the same way… But the panic that his traumatic experiences had seared into him raged against the thought of doing anything but running away. As if sensing this, Lord Hiro added,
“If you do not go, I will kill you myself,” Hiro stated simply before turning completely away from Tilly and putting the final nail in the coffin of his dismissal.
Here he was again… Getting shit on by life, with no way out. His feelings roiled and churned within him and threatened to overwhelm him. Then he thought of the person who was trapped in that pod one more time. Maybe he felt trapped, but anything still alive in the clutches of that tree had to be living in hell...The heat started to bloom behind his navel once again, as his world expanded beyond his own fears.
How many times had he run into burning buildings when others were running out? This was no different. It was who he was. Idiotic or not, he got people out. It was what he had built the best parts of his old life around. If he ran now, he would always be running. Either he manned up and figured out how to fight back against this fantasy-horror bullshit or he might as well let Hiro kill him.
He wasn't perfect, but he knew enough about himself to know that if he didn't tighten up now, the rest of his short life here would be on the back foot, always reacting, never taking any initiative. Wasting his second chance at life...
Something in him settled, then firmed, and Tilly realized it was resolve. Resolve to draw the line here, and either fight back or die trying. His conflicted expression relaxed and a small self-deprecating smirk formed at the corner of his mouth.
'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.'
Without wasting any time in further pointless conversation with the desperate leader, Tilly turned and climbed down the ladder. The remaining guard stared at him, seeming to be just as amazed by his leader's decision as Tilly was. Under his scrutiny, Tilly awkwardly put his hands on his weapons, attempting to appear far more confident than he was.
"Nothing to it but to do it... Let's get going." He said, lifting one of his hands from his stance and waving vaguely back down the street. The motion seemed to wake the guard from his stupor and he nodded quickly before turning around and jogging off, not saying a word.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Tilly blinked in surprise before lurching to follow.
“Um, do you have a name?” Tilly called to the guard's back.
No answer.
'Hopefully, Shuji is a little more talkative than the rest of these guys.'
…
Shuji, as it turned out, was part logistics officer, part general store manager, and part crazy Librarian. He presided over the only completely stone building in the village. As they approached the squat structure, the door banged open and by far the largest rabbit-man Tilly had seen thrust himself out of the entryway, followed belatedly by the other guard.
Tilly immediately pulled his notification log, wanting to find out as much about his lifeline as possible.
Level 39 Librarian
“So this is the Human I have heard so much about! I, of course, have never seen one of your kind in person but I can't help but confess a burning curiosity.” The rotund rabbit man boomed as he approached with a strange sort of jiggly grace.
He was wearing a robe slightly more ornate than the others and besides his girth, his features were set apart by an impressive Fu-man-chu mustache and a pair of spectacles sitting on top of his flat rough nose. Before Tilly fully understood what was happening, Shuji slid into his personal space and began manipulating his extremities and tutting to himself.
“Hmmm yes, similar to most nonbeastial bipeds…”
Tilly coughed and stepped back trying to find a way to gain back the space he had lost along with any possible initiative in the conversation.
“Um, I just got here… the world I mean, not the village. Although that too… Lord Hiro sent me to you for supplies.” Tilly said, stumbling over his words as he was completely thrown off by the out-of-place gregarious mannerisms Shuji displayed, along with his complete lack of social awareness.
“Oh yes, of course! You showing up now can only mean one thing.” Shuji said, nodding to himself, while once again stepping into Tilly’s space and reaching to feel the sleeve of his jacket making interested humming sounds.
Tilly gently pulled his arm away and tried to keep the conversation going.
“Would you mind explaining what that means? Hiro said something similar and I would really like to know what being human implies in this place.”
"Ah! Yes." Shuji clucked.
“Your coming signifies that things are about to change! If we were happy, and we lived in a stable society, a human showing up could mean calamity. But lucky for us, we seemed to be doomed, so change is most welcome!” He replied enthusiastically.
“Well that's good, I guess… Look man, I have been here for barely three days. I don't even know what you are. I'm willing to try and help, but I am going to need some sort of baseline of information.”
“Why yes! Of course, where are my manners? Come in, come in.” He said, his wide cheerful face not at all dimmed by the grim context of his existence.
He moved adroitly through the doorway into a large well-lit room covered with trinkets, candles, and scrolls. At the back of the room was a large iron banded door, guarded by a counter that gave this place the barest appearance of a shop. It reminded Tilly of a disorganized fantasy Goodwill.
“Please sit, sit!” Shuji said, gesturing at a bench adjoining the cluttered table. It was of course also covered in stuff and Tilly hesitantly stacked as many things as he could to one side, making enough space for him to set himself down without knocking anything over.
Meanwhile, Shuji had seemed to pick two cups from the mess at random and produced a steaming teapot from God knows where. He poured both of them a cup and handed one to Tilly.
“Tea?”
“Thanks..." Tully said, accepting the steaming cup.
"First off, please tell me, what do I call your people? I mean, you know I am a human, but I have no clue what you are.”
“We are called Lapins.” He said with an indulgent smile and in a tone that would have been at home in a kindergarten classroom. Then he took a loud sip of his tea and gestured for the human to continue.
Tilly felt torn between the tension of being somewhat safe for the first time in a few days and the grim reality of having to go back up the mountain in a few hours. He had so many questions, but he had no clue where to begin. Any line of information could be superfluous or it could save his life…
Noting the conflict on the human’s face, Shuji interrupted his conflicted stare.
“Look, I can understand you are in an impossible situation, it seems we share that fate. But seldom does one of your kind show up with no way forward. Many of you die of course, but the ones who live almost always end up as the monarchs and emperors of this world. In fact, I believe it was a human thousands of generations back that had a hand in the beginning of our race… although it is that belief that got me sent here in the first place.”
Something in that statement poked out at Tilly, not the puzzle of how to make a human/rabbit hybrid. Something else.
“Lord Hiro said something about being abandoned. Why is no one coming to help?”
“I am afraid that is perhaps a longer story than you have time for on the eve of your departure… Rather I think we should focus on what abilities and talents you have, and how I can supplement them with our meager supplies to give you the best chance at success.”
Tilly got back on track focusing on the immediate future. The problem was he literally didn't know anything and the questions that had come up over the last couple of days about stat distribution and class progression probably wouldn't make a single difference in his coming fight with the ancient cave bear. So he started by sharing everything he knew could bring to the fight. Except for his strange [Title], something about its language hinted that it was best to keep it close to the chest until he knew more about what was going on.
“Well, As you can probably see, I'm level 5 and I have zero abilities. The only thing I have going for me is that when I throw these I can make them appear back in my hand.”
To emphasize his point, Tilly caused one of his hatchets to appear from his belt loop into his waiting palm. He decided to also keep the fact that they were legendary to himself until he knew more about what that meant too. All in all, he has zero idea of the role his class was meant to fill and no hints at what Abilities if any would appear as he grew stronger.
“Yes, yes. I see… very rare not to have a single Ability at your level, but not unheard of. And a soul-bound set of equipment is nothing to sniff at either… but it won't help you much at this stage.”
Tilly's poker face broke as he realized if he could identify his gear as Legendary, then of course someone in this village would have been able to! Shuji missed none of this and waved Tilly down as if it wasn't a big deal.
“Do not worry Human, you are right to keep such things hidden from strangers, part of the nature of soul-bound equipment is it is very difficult to detect much about it unless you are the owner. We would not have known except that every time we confiscated your gear while you were unconscious, it kept appearing next to you neatly folded. We are not in the habit of letting armed strangers walk through our Village, especially not one of your kind.”
“Huh, that makes sense...Well now that you know what I am working with, any ideas? Because I am pretty sure I could hit that bear a thousand times, and it could still rip me in half.”
“Yes, that does pose a significant problem. The two Lord Hiro has ordered to accompany you are talented Loggers, but they will not be much help against such an enemy. There must be something. Some strange outworld knowledge or magic that can even the odds in your favor. If there was not, I doubt you would have been thrust into such a precarious situation. The Gods can be mysterious and inscrutable, but they are hardly ever frivolous when it comes to expending their power.”
Tilly raked his mind, reviewing all the information he had on the terrain he was returning to. Dead plant life everywhere, a cave with only one entrance, and an enemy that was far beyond his ability to fight…
“Shuji, how much do you know about what Corruption does to these creatures? Do they become some sort of undead... Wait even more importantly, do they still breathe?”