Before
Having accepted the level-up, I’m presented with the same screen I’ve seen twice before now.
To level up, please choose the stats you would like to increase. You have 6 points available. Warning: if you do not assign all points now, you will be unable to use them later. You can choose to delay your level-up, but you will not store any further Energy until you do. Do you wish to continue to level up?
Y/N?
I almost accept automatically, but suddenly the thought of what happens after levelling up stays my hand. I eye my clothes including my rudimentary armour. I don’t want to walk around with clothes stinking of the stuff that comes out of me during the process, and I’m sure as hell not taking off my clothes during and then putting them back on after to just get messy again. No, I need to get to the river again before actually triggering the process.
I reluctantly think ‘later’ at the System and the box disappears from my vision. Bastet looks at me expectantly.
“We need to get to the river,” I tell her grumpily. It’s taken so long to get here, I was really looking forward to seeing – and feeling – my stats jump. Still, I suppose it gives me a bit of extra time to think through where I want to assign them. And if anything attacks us on the way to the river, at least I’ll still be able to put some Energy towards my debt.
Suddenly worried that I might have not directed the Energy correctly, in the middle of the fight as it was when I tried to focus on the thought, I quickly open my status page. The number three sitting in the Energy debt box reassures me. Not wanting to leave the corpses behind, I pull my bow out of my Inventory to free up that slot and pile the monkile corpses in. Fortunately, like all the corpses of the same species so far, they all stack, even the leader despite it being a bit bigger. I do retrieve my arrows first, though.
Setting off towards where the river should be, I send a wave of gratitude to Bastet. She replies with a confused feeling. I don’t know how to explain it, so I just reply with a sense of ‘just accept it’. There are a few moments of silence from her side of the Bond before I get a response. It’s a odd mixture of emotions, almost feeling like a hug from a friend accompanied by a ‘you’re weird’ accusation. Ah well, I’ll live with my raptorcat companion thinking I’m a bit strange.
I’m just happy to have her here. I don’t know where I’d be without her, at this point. Both on an emotional and a developmental front. I wouldn’t have made it this far in the forest without her firepower by my side, or her acting as a shield to distract the enemies. I’m just...grateful. Once more I renew my vow to myself that I will never start treating her as some disposable tool. Not that I think I could, now – it would be like treating a friend as just something to get what you want.
Fortunately, or not depending on your point of view, our walk slash jog to the riverside is fairly quiet with only one attack. I barely even fight: Bastet manages to almost completely deal with it before I get a chance to step in. For once, it’s not another strange reptilian cross-breed – this one just looks like a very big monitor lizard. Very big in the sense that it’s actually slightly bigger than Bastet who stands as high as mid-thigh on me. Still, it doesn’t have her speed or long, sharp teeth. Failing to set its own teeth into her, it signs its own death-sentence. I only speed up the process by cracking its skull open with my mace.
Eyeing its corpse, I eventually sigh and just move on. Something else will have a feast tonight. Big and heavy as it is, it’s not as much meat as the monkile corpses I dumped in there earlier and it doesn’t seem to have any other features which might make keeping it useful. No, better to just keep going. Once I’ve got ten more Inventory slots, I’ll have a bit more leeway. Hopefully I’ll have a bit of time to deal with what’s in my Inventory before the next crisis.
The cubs have been running with us as much as possible, their muscles clearly growing quickly. Before, they were only able to keep up when we walked slowly. Now they’ve started being able to walk reasonably fast with us. I reckon that in a day or two they should be able to keep up with us at a slow run, at least for a bit. Hopefully we’ll have found Lathani by that point, though. Still, I don’t regret taking a little bit of time to level up: not only is the river actually on our route anyway, but me becoming stronger gives us a better chance of survival.
We reach the river just as the sun touches the horizon. As much as I want to level up immediately, I know I need to build a shelter for us all before darkness properly falls. Deciding to recreate my dead leaf shelter, only a bit bigger, I search for an appropriate tree and branch. Spotting both at a small distance from each other, I set to.
As I prepare the shelter, I’m amused to see the cubs trying to help. Storm’s the first one to get stuck in with Ninja following shortly after. I guess that Storm watched me for a bit first to work out what I was doing, but as I push dead leaves together to make a cosy mattress, I’m surprised when I start seeing her do the same thing. Or at least try. It seems like raptorcats aren’t really adapted to pushing dead leaves around as she’s struggling to find a method that works.
In the end, it’s actually Ninja who works out the most efficient way – she turns around and starts digging like a dog, kicking the leaves behind her with her front paws. When we’ve got enough of a mattress, I tell them to stop.
“I think we’ve got enough, girls, thanks.” Then I hesitate. “We need sticks now – do you want to help?” They look at me with heads cocked in confusion. Stupid – it’s not like they understand words well enough to pick up something so abstract. Since I don’t have the kind of Bond with them that I have with Bastet, they can’t pick up my meaning mentally either. Plus, I’m not telepathic so no chance of me just projecting my thoughts to them.
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Instead, I just show them what to do, collecting sticks and putting them in a pile. The two cubs soon get into the groove, finding sticks and bringing them back with enthusiasm. It’s just too cute to see them come running back with a stick in their mouths, their tails sticking up straight in the air in excitement. Or, perhaps even cuter, when they try to bring back a stick multiple times their own length, resorting to dragging it backwards when it becomes too unwieldy to carry in their mouths.
I refuse to let myself become too distracted, though – I need to finish this shelter and I want to be able to level up before it becomes too dark and dangerous to do so. It’s a struggle, though, especially when I see cubs tripping over their own feet, falling over each other’s sticks, and generally being far too adorable for their own good.
Trouble doesn’t really get into the whole shelter-building thing. In fact, living up to his name, he decides that shelter-destroying is more his jazz. Bastet eventually has to herd him away with nudges and nips, preventing him from making this take at least twice the time it should.
Eventually, I’m done. It’s a bit darker than I’d prefer, and I bite my lip as I have to make a decision. Probably the sensible thing would be to wait for tomorrow...but I want to get an early start tomorrow: I’m hoping to get to the lizard-folk area before dark falls again to scout it out.
In the end, I decide that it’s worth the risk. I light a torch – the fire should scare away some creatures, and give me enough light to deal with any animals that are drawn to it. I tuck the cubs into the shelter and Bastet warns them to stay put. At least, that’s the impression I get from the small wave that ripples my way. And, wait, when did I start being able to interpret what she’s telling them?
Putting the question to one side, we go to the river bank. Fortunately, the shelter is actually still within sight so Bastet will keep an eye on that at the same time as watching for danger approaching me while I’m vulnerable. I restring my bow and put it on the river bank just in case of something attacking. I'd take it in with me but water and sinew don't really mix well. Eyeing the river suspiciously, I throw a rock at a number of spots which I’m not completely sure are just the river bed rather than some camouflaged crocodile. Finally satisfied that there aren’t any creatures waiting for me to venture close enough before ambushing me, I take the next step. Once more removing all my clothes, I step into the river, going in to ankle level. I’ll go in deeper to wash off, but I’d rather not risk the current – or something else – taking me away while I’m unable to move in the levelling-up process.
Not needing to open my status screen again, I just think ‘level up’ and the System does the rest. As before, when I accepted the level up, I’m sent directly to my status screen with the pluses next to each of the stats. I’ve had plenty of time to decide how to spend my six points, so I quickly assign them, refusing to second-guess myself at the last minute.
Then, as I add the final point, the status screen disappears and I have to make my choices for the stat which has two sub-categories.
You have chosen to increase your Wisdom Would you like to increase your Breadth or your Depth?
Breadth / Depth
You have chosen to increase your Wisdom Would you like to increase your Breadth or your Depth?
Breadth / Depth
Deciding to hedge my bets, I choose Breadth for the first point and Depth for the second.
As before, after choosing my points, pain descends. After the pain is the feeling of bliss, and then, like every time so far, I soon double over, all the impurities in my system working their way out of me. I’m thankful to see that the trend seems to be holding true – this time is actually noticeably less awful than the last time, let alone the first time. I vomit, but it doesn’t feel like I’m puking my guts up along with the contents. And I get a sheen of sweat all over me, but I can actually still see my skin through it, something that wasn’t true the first time.
Still, I’m grateful to be in the river and quickly take a couple of steps further in to wash up, glad to leave the spot filled with my vomit. It’s already starting to drift downstream – I don’t envy the fish it might come into contact with. Bastet lets out a low growl, a sense of impatience coming across the Bond.
“I’m almost done,” I tell her quietly, scrubbing myself. I curse myself for forgetting my soap again! Then again, I suppose it would have taken another slot in my Inventory. Bastet lets out another growl, this one more urgent. I open my eyes quickly, only to yelp and half-jump, half-fall to the side as a creature flies at my face.
Fortunately for me, the creature both completely misses, and the sudden dousing in the water washes off the rest of the nasty mess on me. Less fortunate for me is the fact that I’m completely naked. I half jump, half fall towards the riverbank, snatching my waiting bow. Withdrawing arrows from my Inventory is my next move; at least I can still access the extra-dimensional space even when I’m not wearing a stitch. Aiming, I get to see my recently gained point in Agility in action. I’ve discovered that while Flexibility helps me with the small movements, Agility helps me in my larger motions. Together, they help me to correctly line up my shot and I manage to get the flying creature with my second shot.
It tumbles to the ground and I dart out of the water, grabbing my torch and approaching quickly. As the light falls upon my attacker, I see that Bastet has already preempted me and is pinning the creature. Strangely, she’s not going for its throat.
I send a questioning feeling at her and she sends back a sense-memory which is tinged with the slightest amount of reluctance. I’m surprised to recognise the memory, only it’s from the other side of the battlefield. She’s sent me the memory of that separate space in which we had the Battle of Wills.
“You’re suggesting I Dominate this creature?” I ask her uncertainly.
She sends back another flurry of emotions accompanied by images, hard to parse. Eventually, I think I’ve managed to work them out. I think what she’s saying is this: I miss my pack, but I have made a new pack with you. I miss the bond of my sisters, but our Bond makes up for it, at least in part. I wish to protect my pack and we do not have enough members. I cannot fly, and will probably never be able to, but I remember the value of a view from the air. If you are strong, you must take what you need to protect us.
There’s a lot in what she sends me, and there are several questions they raise, not least the memory she sends me which is of another raptorcat sometime flying. Nevertheless, I don’t have the time for that now: it’s clear that she’s deferring the decision to me as the pack ‘leader’ – actually, I think that the closest translation would be ‘matriarch’, but that doesn’t quite fit – so I need to make one.
Which leaves the main question: is this the right kind of situation in which to use Dominate or not?