Leaving the cave was far quicker than entering and they soon found themselves leaving the small alcove that hid the dungeon. Once they were back in the foothills, Joe commented, “I actually hope that we don’t run into anyone right now. I look like a murder hobo.” He looked at Bixby, “Actually you look like a murder hobo’s dog, so I guess we belong together. That and we smell to kingdom come.”

Joe stopped to get his bearings. He looked around and was glad that the landscape had not changed since they had entered the cave. It would absolutely suck donkey balls if we were stuck in a rotating landscape. Having found his North, he mentally plotted a course back to the keep. He was looking forward to washing off in the creek, although he was wondering what to do about his clothing.

Half an hour into their trek, Bixby stopped and went still. Joe, already primed to be paranoid, instantly crouched and tried to look in all directions at once. At first, he did not detect anything wrong, then he heard a noise coming from the direction they were heading, which grew louder. Bixby crouched and growled. He looked at Joe then back the way that had come from.

“We need to book it don’t we?”

Bixby turned and ran. Joe did not second guess his friend and turned on his heel and took off like a rocket. The two of them ran through the forest as fast as they could go. Bixby quickly outpaced Joe and had to slow down so as not to lose track of him. As they ran, Joe could hear something thundering through the woods behind them, but he was not inclined to stop and look. As they ran, jumping logs and dodging trees, Joe was vaguely aware that he was moving far faster than he had ever moved in his life. At some point I need to check my Status screen again. Within a few minutes, they had passed the area with the goblin cave and kept running. Whatever was chasing them, and there was no doubt that it was chasing them at this point, was not giving up easily.

As the crashing noises got louder, Joe risked a glance over his shoulder and immediately wished he hadn’t. Something huge, like, camper van huge, and black, was shoving trees aside as it raced after them. Joe got the impression of red eyes and teeth. Lots of teeth, and it was gaining on him. Joe watched Bixby blink step and gain ground. Good idea. Joe followed suit and jumped forward as far as he could. A few blinks and he knew they were beginning to outpace whatever this thing was.

The two ran for what seemed like an eternity, Joe’s breath began to come in ragged gasps and a stitch formed in his side, but this monster was absolutely not giving up. Shit, we may have to fight this thing. There is no way we are in any shape to battle something like that. Fear spurred Joe onward. He had long since lost all sense of direction and was running on what felt like fumes. Suddenly, up ahead, Joe saw a break in the trees, and he Blink stepped forward.

Joe appeared on the edge of a river which had carved its way through granite. In another instance of the weird landscape mishmash, the forest ended with an enormous river rushing along the base of a mountain. Joe skidded to a stop next to Bixby who looked at the raging river ten feet below them. It spanned at least a hundred feet or more and the duo had stopped at the midst of some wicked looking rapids. In either direction the river skirted the edge of the forest creating a natural, or rather unnatural boundary between the forest and the rocky slopes of the mountain.

The thundering beast of the woods was gaining on them and with no time to formulate a real plan, Joe said, “A couple of blinks and we can be across. Hopefully this thing can’t swim or at least can’t easily cross this river.”

Directly behind them the trees shattered, and Joe yelled, Go!” and he blink stepped and fell ten feet into the frigid, racing water. The cold took his breath away and he summoned another blink only to have razor blades fill his head. No! Out of Mana again! Stunned, Joe sputtered and was tossed by the river. His back impacted a rock knocking the wind out of him and the force of the water held him in place. It took a few moments to catch his breath and he took stock of his surroundings. He was not quite in the middle of the river, and he was about thirty feet downstream from where he and Bixby had been standing. Bixby was nowhere in sight but stalking along the short cliffside above him and roaring to match the river, was a colossal bear. Its fur was pitch black and it was easily the size of a large van. The thing was impossibly large. Stuck against the rock, Joe noticed that while the beast roared its fury at him, it made no attempt to enter the water.

Freezing cold, panting for breath, Joe found himself strangely calm. There it is again. By all rights, I should be freaking out right now, but I’m totally lucid. Scared out of my mind, but clear headed. Something fishy is going on. Joe scanned for a way out of his situation, but there was no way he could swim these rapids without drowning and his Mana needed time to regenerate before he could blink step again.

The giant bear continued to rage at him, and Joe found it kind of comical. Here I am probably about to drown, and I have no idea where Bixby is or if he’s safe but on the plus side, I’m safe from Winnie the Pooh’s coke raging older brother. The beast on the shore huffed and snorted and paced back and forth. Joe used his Inspect ability.

Greater Forest Guardian (??)

HP: ???

Status: Enraged

Question marks? What the hell do question marks mean? Not getting any answers out of the blue, Joe shivered and waited. It took about twenty minutes for Joe to recover enough mana to blink twice to get to the other shore. He miscalculated and appeared about five feet in the air above the rocks and crashed to his knees, shivering violently. The water had been horribly cold. Dripping wet, he painfully got to his feet and watched as the Guardian seemed to lose interest almost immediately and it pushed its way back into the forest. Within moments, it was gone.

Joe took a minute to look around to see if he could spot Bixby, but this side of the river was mostly rocks and scree leading up the side of the mountain to larger rocks and he could not see very far. “BIXBY!” Joe began yelling. He prowled along the edge of the river looking for any sign of his friend, but there was nothing but the roiling water.

Joe decided to follow the river down. If Bixby got caught in the current, then the odds were that he would have been swept downstream. He stumbled over the rocks and clambered around boulders. Every fifty feet he tried getting to the edge of the river to scan for Bixby. He shouted until his voice broke and traveled at least two miles from where he had originally entered the river. He finally stopped, not physically exhausted, but emotionally drained and cried.

This whole ordeal was a nightmare that he desperately wished he could wake up from. There was no real respite from the pain and running and fighting. While giving him some amazing abilities, Joe concluded that the System was cruel and uncaring. By the time he was done sulking and lamenting the loss of Bixby, it was getting on to late afternoon. Hours of searching brought him no closer to finding his companion and he was utterly lost. The area around him was rough with stubby trees and thorny bushes. He moved a few hundred yards uphill, away from the river and began collecting things he would need for the night to come.

Joe found a suitable rock outcropping that would shelter him from any possible rain and keep his back against something solid in case of trouble. He found plenty of dry scrub brush and a few dead trees and in short order had a makeshift camp established. He had left his backpack in the keep, and he keenly felt the loss of some of those items. All he had on him now were his paracord, a ferro rod, his knife, axe, and a single canteen which he had refilled at the river.

Using the thorny bushes, he created a barrier around his camp and the scrub trees provided enough leaves to make a layer that he could lay on. He managed a small fire, which quickly warmed up the small area of the rock outcropping he was in. He took off his wet clothing and laid everything as close to the fire as possible. He was down to his underwear and was shivering again as the day’s temperature dropped. Fortunately, he scavenged a thin, flat rock which he managed to use as a cooking surface for his worm steaks. As he ate and watched the day turn to evening, a notification flashed open.

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Congratulations! Your skill, Survival, has increased to Tier 2.

“Oh joy.” Joe said sarcastically. “I have a skill in survival, oh, who would have thought. Fucking System.” Joe angrily threw a small pebble and listened to it ricochet around the rocks. Lacking anything else to do, Joe opened his Status Screen to see what it looked like now.

Status Screen

Name: Joseph Sherman

Race: Human

Class: None

Titles: First Soulbound/Monster Hunter/Survivalist/Goblin Slayer

Achievements: First Soulbound/Pioneer/First Blood/Not Today Satan/Plunderer/Vengeance is Mine/One Day at a Time/Rampage/Can’t Touch This/Brawler/ Paid in Blood/ Delver/Dungeon Master

Level: 0 (316,000 EXP banked)

Gold: 67,270

Health: 760

Stamina: 700

Mana: 380

Status Effects: None

Statistics

Strength 26

Constitution 50

Agility 20

Perception 22

Intelligence 12

Willpower 26

Charisma 15

Luck 17

Skills: Medic Tier 1/Survival Tier 2/Spear Tier 1/ 1Handed Sword Tier 1/1 Handed Axe Tier 1

Abilities: Soulbound Companion/True Grit 31%/Tough as Nails 35%/Poison Resistance 23%/Hard to Kill/Identify Tier 1/Inspect Tier 1/Stealth Tier 1/ Bestial Fury

Spells: Blink Step/Mantle of the Mountain Guardian

Joe let out a low whistle. Damn! All of that in just two days? And the tutorial ends in like, twenty-eight or twenty-nine more days. I wonder how other people are faring in the tutorial? Joe rubbed his face in his hands. Aw man, Holly and Matty. I haven’t thought of them this entire time. Is that the System doing something to my brain or me just forgetting? Joe wondered if his sister and little nephew were safe. Do they have to go through this same kind of thing? Jesus, Matty’s only eight years old. How the hell are kids supposed to survive this? Joe sighed and lay down. All my friends, just anyone in general. No one deserves this kind of hell on Earth. Joe lay awake most of the night pondering the status of his loved ones and making plans for how to find Bixby in the morning. At some point in the night, he heard what he thought was a faraway singing in a low voice, but it very well could have been the wind playing tricks. Still shivering, he slept, but not much.

The next morning, Joe set out to continue searching for Bixby. The rough terrain made it slow going and he called out constantly and took long pauses to listen for any hint of a reply. Sadly, he heard nothing but the river and the occasional bird. That is until about noon, when he heard a woman singing, followed by another female voice. Joe thought he counted at least three distinctly different voices. Holy shit! People? Finally? He picked up his pace and when he figured that he was close enough, he called out, “Hello?!” The signing abruptly stopped. “Hey, I’m not dangerous. I need help. Hello?”

Just ahead of Joe, he saw a woman’s head peek over the edge of a nearby boulder. Wow, she is gorgeous, he thought. “Oh, hey.” Joe tried smiling but wondered if his disheveled appearance would make him look too scary. He was sure that his beard was wild and untamed, he had lost his hair tie and his shoulder length hair was oily and stringy without being washed or brushed in several days. His clothing was torn, and blood stained, but at least he had managed to wash off the goblin blood and offal for the most part. It was too bad that he still smelled to high heaven.

The woman cocked her head, much like Bixby, and raised an eyebrow. Joe held out his hands to show he was unarmed. Then the woman got a beautiful smile on her face, and she began to sing in a language he had never heard before. Joe was entranced. Her voice was angelic, and it spoke of comfort and ease and love. All of his worries vanished, and he let out a huge sigh of relief. He watched as she stood up, her unclothed torso coming into view, baring her breasts. The look on her face also changed to one of desire and her voice began speaking of other things. Carnal things. Joe realized that he must have this woman. He belonged with her. There were too many rocks in his way so he Blink stepped to her side. Instantly, his head cleared, and he was snapped out of his trance.

Congratulations! You have earned the ability, Mental Fortress. Mental Fortress gives you 10% resistance to mental attacks and influences. You will gain an Extra 5% for every five levels. Maximum resistance is 50%.

Joe was stunned to see that the ravishing beauty was only partially human. Her beautiful face, torso and arms were human, but the bottom half of her body was feathered with legs that reminded him too much of the gryphon. The resemblance to that monster also included large wings folded along her back and sides.

She let out a startled squeak as her song faltered and her visage went from amorous to incensed in a heartbeat. She reached for Joe, her wings expanding out as she leapt. After days of being attacked, and with his heightened reflexes, Joe instinctively lashed out with a punch to her head. The blow landed solidly, and she was stopped in her tracks, dazed. A trickle of blood ran from her nose as Joe edged backwards away from her.

Something prickled at the hairs on the back of Joe’s neck, and he launched himself sideways just as he heard the rush of wings and displaced air. A hot line of pain ran across his left shoulder as he slid in a small pile of fish carcasses. He hit one knee and rolled to his feet just as another flying bird woman came screeching down at him. Joe activated Mantle of the Mountain Guardian and a soft glow briefly surrounded him as he simultaneously brought his right hand up and fired a Void bolt directly in the woman things face. The Void bolt did ugly work. The thing’s face imploded, and her limp body tumbled past Joe to crash into the rocks and dirt behind him. The original one screamed at him, and her scream became a wail, became a deafening barrage of sound. Joe could feel his ears bleed and his eyes threatened to burst.

Congratulations! Your ability, True Grit, has increased to 35%.

Congratulations! Your ability, Tough as Nails, has increased to 40%.

Congratulations! Your ability, Mental Fortress, has increased to 13%.

Joe quickly swiped away the screens as the ear-splitting scream stopped and the woman threw herself at Joe, her fingers elongating into claws. Joe moved swiftly, but he was still stunned, and the she-beast managed to cut a furrow across Joe’s chest as a soft golden glow trailed her claws. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt, however he did not have the luxury of checking his wounds as she was swinging wildly and emitting a shrill scream. In the air behind her, he could see another one banking in the air to come around at him again.

Joe ripped his bowie knife out of its sheath and began blocking the incoming claws. Each of her strikes left a glowing trail as he traded cut for cut with the thing and soon it was only her blood spattering the rocks. She became a dervish and Joe grabbed one of her arms in a vise-like grip, blocked the other with his knife and then plunged the blade deep into her chest. She gave a cough as blood bubbled across her lips and she went limp. The knife blade was stuck and seeing the oncoming flying threat, Joe let go and in a smooth motion, he pulled his axe, hauled back his arm, and hurled it with all his might.

The axe flew true and struck the flying thing directly between the eyes. She let out a surprised shriek and plummeted to the ground. There were a few sickening snaps and cracks as she impacted the rocks and lay still. Breathing heavily and amped on adrenaline, Joe spun in place looking for any other threats, but found none. Satisfied that the coast was clear for the moment, he looked at the one at his feet. She was struggling to breath and Joe knew it was just a matter of time before she was dead. He stared at her with mixed feelings of elation, anger, and sadness.

Mountain Harpy (2)

HP: 10/375

Status: Bleeding

She bled out and died as he watched. The odd tingling in the back of his mind came and went like a whisper. For a while he stared impassively, then shook his head, leaned over, and vomited. It took him quite a while to work up to retrieving his knife from her chest and then searching for his axe. In the back of his mind, he knew they were actual monsters, but the fact that they also looked like women had his mind in turmoil. He puzzled over why he did not feel as remorseful as he should. This System has got to be doing something to me to keep me from dwelling on stuff like this. But why?