I woke up in a jolt - only to not even have the energy to sit up. Looking around, I saw the same shadowed tree-root-chair that I had been in supporting me still. Trellen looked at me, worried yet again. In his eyes I began to see doubt - rather than trying to analyze his possible fears, and worse yet, decide whether they were valid, I began to intentionally observe my surroundings more closely. My mind seemed focused, and lightened from a great weight; even to this day I remember what I saw in that moment. Trellen squatted two arm lengths away, a child with blond hair and silver eyes (and when I say silver eyes, I do not mean silverish, or grey; even in the bright white of his scleras, the shocking color of his irises fairly glinted with a metallic shine). When I describe him as elfish and with blond hair, please do not mistake me to say that he was in any way feminine. His hair was coarse and short, and his figure gaunt. His thin lips showed signs of pain lines around them, but also had a tendency to be turned up in wry humor, even as worried transversed his eyes. In my inspection, my eyes fixed on his ears. I had always felt up to this point (and still do) that ears are strange things at the best of times, and the longer we inspect them, the more alien they appear. Trellen's ears, however, shouted "alien!" to me at first glance. They were just like normal ears at the lobes and through their centers, but at the tips, they formed a perfectly vertical triangle of cartilage. I am not proud to say that I gaped at them - until Trellen uneasily shuffled his feet and attempted to cover his ears with the barbs of hair nearest to them. He failed, absymally, but it was enough to snap my gaze away from the child's head. He wore no shirt, and bruises overlay a surprisingly wiry frame. Sharp eyed readers are no doubt arguing that wiry and gaunt can hardly be brothers in a description of a torso, but in this child's they were. Never have I claimed any level of mastery over anatomy, and this was an anomaly wholly foreign to me, but the child's ribs were clearly visible, and so were muscles that were completely unable to hide, as there was no excess fat to be seen anywhere on his person. Clearly, this child had lived with enough to work, but not enough to enjoy, his entire life. He wore a type of pants, which were truly made of more patches than the original fabric, and were belted tight with a short length of worn rope. Just like his hands, his feet were uncovered, and while the base looked like my own feet, his toes stretched just further than they should. They had slipped past elegance, and had become, instead, just the slightest bit sinister.
I shook my head. What exactly my new friend was I could discover later - in the sunshine (when had that happened?) I looked around and saw the glint of the softly flowing brook not ten feet away. Around it moss disappeared into ferns that covered the dirt. Rocks were scarce, and the many roots of the large trees were dappled in shade from the arboreal covering. Trellen and I had remained still long enough that the trees were coming alive again. Slim squirrels in their grey jackets skittered over boughs, and where they ran, dark colored songbirds winged away. Every now and again I spotted a bright shell of the fruit that had sustained me thus far in the planet.
"Hello?"
No.
Stephanos seemed to understand. The voice inside my mind stayed silent this time. Perhaps I was weak, but I would not reflect any longer on the strangeness of my new self, and the holes in my mind, nor would I recollect the torture. For a moment, I allowed my mental self-image to lapse back to that of an awkward teenager, and decided I would explore this forest as that adolescent.
Hey! Trellen!
Don't be shy. It's alright. I'm startled, I won't lie. I've never seen someone like you. If I understood you right though, the others who look like me have always treated you pretty shittily. I'm not them. Can't say I'm not a bit of a jerk, but I'll never hit you.
He stayed silent.
Come on! You saw what I did to that bastard back there right? I did it because I could see his mind somehow, and he hated you. I was hated for being a weirdo back where I'm from, and I won't ever do that to anyone else if I can help it.
The child started to slowly relax it seemed. His shoulders opened a bit, and a rock I hadn't even noticed slowly dropped out of one palm. He started to look more like the little kid he was, and less like a hunted animal.
"Do you want some more feraloupe then?"
If it's food, then yes.
He handed me a bit more of the fruit. This time, the flesh hadn't been pulled away from the husk yet. While the husk felt fuzzy and hard, the inside was soft and seemed to get softer as it neared the center of the fruit. I ate with no manners whatsoever, with juice splashing all over me as I grunted and tore at the fruit. This seemed to cheer Trellen up, and he ate the other piece of fruit with similar abandon, spitting out seeds now and again.
"Are you eating the seeds?"
I tried to grunt yes, which Trellen seemed to grasp. He laughed and pointed at me.
"You can't do that, or these trees will start growing out of your ears!"
I couldn't respond, and I didn't want to stop eating, but I grinned back at him as I kept chomping and slurping. We finished or respective meals, and both dunked our faces in the chilly water.
Damn. It felt good to not have any voices inside my head. Trellen seemed to value silence, and rarely spoke without me saying something first. Still, some things couldn't be ignored. My self-image had slipped when I washed my face; it had taken extra work to get the sticky sweetness of juice out of my long beard hairs.
Just then, I saw Trellen twitch his head, and fear sprang up on his face. He got up, and started sprinting for the nearest tree, but tripped on his second step over a low lying root. I stood to help him, and then something I can only describe as lupine and evil in nature appeared, standing over the boy.
I'm not sure what triggered my next action. I don't think I was, or ever became, a hero, but this boy's life was precious to me. I had bought it, purchased it, it seemed to me, at a great cost, and it already had been a great reward to my soul.
So I did something without thinking - I sprinted for the wolf. As I ran I remembered all the stories I had read as a kid, about plucky boys who fought big dogs to save girls, and won by holding the dog's jaws open and kicking. I think I was trying to do this; instead, I had enough speed and mass to knock the wolf-thing off of Trellen, and then land beside it. Before I knew what was happening, my throat was screaming in pain, but soundlessly, as it was no longer attached to my neck, and my dimming eyes saw Trellen clambering back up a tree. I faded quickly.
---
I woke up with a jolt. Immediately I scrabbled ungracefully to my feet, and grasped my throat.
It was there.
Was it a dream?
My hands were still covered in blood though...
"Can I speak now, Theo?"
Yes! Of course you smug ass! What just happened!?
"I sensed you were in danger - in game terms I resurrected you here, a safe distance away from the wolf monster that ripped out your throat."
The pain lingered.
So, you weren't kidding? I can be resurrected... saved, if I'm in terrible danger?
"Yes! Of course I wasn't kidding! I'm a bit silly at times, but that will be good for you. You had a serious enough lifetime before now, you need a little silliness. But I am not a liar. Let's not argue this now though... What are you going to do about that child?"
When I looked up, I saw that this wolf monster, which seemed to be more agile as well as more strong then wolves I was aware of, had climbed up into the tree. Trellen, in his fear, had kept climbing higher, but now was caught on a high bough, just strong enough to hold him. The monster was pulling itself closer, and had cut off all escapes for the boy.
Do you have any suggestions??
"Well, as I was saying earlier, you now can adopt a class, or you can level up as part of the change that we have made to..."
I ignored the voice. He was babbling on again about classes and levels when a child was about to die. I saw a roughly pebble shaped rock near my hand - wait, there were a few of them! I grabbed them all, and still mentally doing my best to ignore the voice that was now chattering about strength and dexterity, I threw the first rock. It fell well short of the boy and the wolf, and neither spared me a glance. I chucked another one. This one was closer, but now I was down to my last rock. In desperation, and I think praying to someone, I hurled this last one. As the stone left my hand, I whispered internally, Let me protect this child.
A great number of fortunate occurrences coincided in just that moment. The monster had reached the weakest branches, and was having visible difficulties holding its weight steady. It had just pulled off of one paw to stretch towards Trellen, and the brave child was kicking at its head, trying to keep it away. In just that moment, the last rock bounced off of a branch above the wolf, and ricocheted down and struck the one front paw still on the branch. The monster grunted in surprise and snatched back the smarting paw - but this left it with only its rear paws holding it up, and it slipped and swung down until it was hanging upside down from the tree. Trellen, however, had fallen wholly from the tree in the moment of shock. I was just near enough to the child to catch him as he dropped, but his weight knocked me over, and a sickening crunch came from below my elbows as they struck with both my weight and Trellen's landing squarely on them. Even as Trellen rolled away from me, and I saw white shreds of bone jutting from my skin, the desperate wolf's claws lost their final grip, and it plummeted straight towards the ground. Unlike Trellen, the wolf had nothing to break its fall, and landed head first. An even deeper crack sounded, and the wolf gave a great shudder and rattle.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
As my mind tried to catch up, and put aside the red pulsing pain in my arms, a bright light swirled around Trellen and myself, and my arms twitched. They itched furiously, but I was terrified to look at them, much less scratch them. When I finally did, however, I saw nothing but unblemished skin. I, of course, swung them around gingerly, but now nothing remained except that infernal itch.
After scratching them vigorously, and ensuring Trellen was unharmed, I pressed my mind into Stephanos' bubble. It was clouded, and I felt distinct grumpiness from it as I pushed my mental connection into it.
What just happened?
"Well, if you had listened at all it wouldn't be so strange."
What was the light?
"You leveled up."
What the hell do you mean, 'leveled up'?
"How many times do I have to tell you... Oh, fine, just think 'Show Character Data'."
As I followed the strange command, a blue screen appeared, seemingly right before my eyes. In a flash though, several more opened on top of it. As they settled down, I read through them.
At the top read one that said:
NOTIFICATIONCongratulations! You have reached level 2!
NOTICE: All negative states have been removed. (Broken Limbs healed)
I swiped it away. Below it read:
NOTIFICATION+271 Experience points award for death of Level 3 Wolf-Monster
NOTICE: Experience for this monster has been split between two player characters that shared in its defeat.
Two player characters? I swiped this one away as well.
NOTIFICATIONUpon the meeting of your blood, and that of the Elven child, Trellen Leopoldus, and according to your previously stated wish and command, an elemental blood bond of fellowship has been offered to the aforementioned Trellen Leopoldus.
NOTICE: Acceptance of this bond will incorporate the aforementioned bonded fellow into your own character growth state.
NOTICE: The aforementioned Trellen Leopoldus has accepted an elemental blood bond with you, Theopholus World-Traveller.
I paused here and looked at Trellen. It was tricky, as there was still a notification in the center of my vision, but I found a way to look at the boy out of the side of my eye. He was grinning, and made a distinct swiping motion of his own. Well shit. I sighed and filed that away as another conversation to have with him later, and returned to my window. I swiped away the notification of blood bond, and read:
NOTIFICATIONYou have used 15 mana to create a spell. According to your wish and command, an attempt was made to create and use spell, Accurate Shot.
Spell creation failed due to lack of power.
Alternate attempt was made to create and use spell, Lucky Shot.
Spell was successfully created and used.
NOTICE: You have recreated the spell Lucky Shot.
This spell requires a minimum of 15 mana to use.
Activation requires aimed projectile attack.
Spell results in undetermined fortunate effect, based upon desired purpose of projectile attack.
Increased levels of power given to spell over time will allow for an increased degree of fortunate effect.
So, in summary, I had instinctively activated power when praying and vocalising my desire to save Trellen while throwing the final stone. This had triggered a spell creation, which caused the lucky bounce of the stone, which in turn had protected Trellen. After this, when Trellen had landed on my, some amount of our blood mixed, and that same verbalized desire initiated a blood bond with the child. He must have accepted, somehow. The wolf had then finally dropped, and died, and the experience from the 'kill' had leveled me up, and presumably leveled Trellen up as well. When we leveled up, both of us were instantly healed of our negative effects, and that brought us up to date.
Reeling slightly from the overload of information, I swiped away that last notification, and found my status window:
Character DataNameTheopholusTitle NameTitle StatusTitle EffectTraveller of WorldsActiveMay learn and utilize any ability from explored worlds.World Seed GuardianHiddenMay recreate any previously known skillDestroyer of WorldsHidden, LockedUnknownReturned from MadnessHiddenMay only recreate 2 skills per level
- 25 WisdomStatsStrengthDetermines striking force + carrying ability12AgilityDetermines striking speed + movement speed14DexterityDetermines striking accuracy8EnduranceDetermines health50ArmorDetermines mitigation of damage received0IntelligenceDetermines learning speed and capacity20WisdomDetermines decision making abilities
High levels allow for slowing of perceived time-3Soul CapacityDetermines amount of mana avaliable1Soul ResilienceDetermines mana regeneration rate1Current Health750+15 health/secondCurrent Mana15+1 power/hourSkillsNameBind by BloodTypeInherentRequirementsMingling of blood of contract sponsor with blood of contract recipient (in case of non-blooded entities, mingling of interior mana may replace recipient blood)EffectFormal relationship between sponsor and recipient, of many different typesBlood Bond Types KnownFull Bond: Theopholus - StephanosFriendship Bond: Theopholus - TrellenNameLucky ShotTypeRecreated (from Planet Seed Zeraxonos, Planet type Primitive Theocracy)RequirementsMinimum 15 mana to Activate, Activate with Projectile AttackEffectSpell results in undetermined fortunate effect, based upon desired purpose of projectile attack - increased levels of power given to spell over time will allow for an increased degree of fortunate effectNOTE: Due to level up, 10 stat points are available.
NOTE: Due to level up, 1 skill may be acquired without study.
Well. I was now, what was it Stephanos called it? A "video game character", in my own little, and apparently deadly, world.
Author Note:
Hello any and all! I have a chart now. Feel free to give me suggestions, but particularly on how to format a chart better. Making that was killer, and it still looks rather off.