---James---
James finally reached the badlands once more and trekked past his previous point. He had felt strangely full of energy the whole trip – it was like the bird he had eaten was laced with caffeine or adrenaline or something.
It made him want to move.
It was for that reason that he found it hard to want to sneak through the badlands. He felt alive, he almost wanted to dance through the monster infested wilderness.
Almost.
Even without anyone watching, dancing was a bit much for James. He glanced around for a second to make sure nothing dangerous was in sight, then held his hands over his mouth and shouted loud and long.
⚖️ Achievement get: Tempting fate (uncommon).
Description: Purposefully make yourself known in an area dangerous to you. Bravery or stupidity? Whose to say.
----------------------------------------
Stat: +2 fear defense.
Stat: +1 lung power.
It just felt so exhilarating to exist – as James had grown older, the world had seemed to get duller. Flat somehow. It was hard to explain, but now looking back… the last few years of his life felt ‘flat’, stuffy and fake – like he had been taken over by a robot going through the motions. Eat. Sleep. Work. Repeat.
Nothing he had done had felt like it mattered.
It had taken him ages to get a job after graduating with a computer science degree. He had finally found something as a Jr developer…but then three whole years had passed without a single raise. Sure he hadn’t ‘asked for one’ but he kind of expected they would give them out based on his performance.
It turns out it didn’t matter how good of a programmer you were – it didn’t matter how good at your job you were, what mattered in the adult world was social skills. Networking and being assertive and saying the exact right thing to the right person…that was how one advanced.
If you were introverted? Extroverted but not socially intelligent? Well that was a good sign you would never progress in the world.
Now everything felt ‘more’. More exciting. More fulfilling. He had worked out till his muscles had screamed and now he was stronger for it. Permanently. That was the big exciting seller he kept coming back to again and again. It meant the workout mattered. It meant his effort actually ‘meant something’. It reminded him how much he had enjoyed working out.
Right now James knew what he wanted. It was a simple want for a simple man. He wanted to find something stronger than him and fight it. He wanted to push himself and be rewarded when he succeeded.
A faint crashing noise came from the distance and James found himself looking around his surroundings despite himself.
He was in what he would call a ‘sandy grasslands biome’ standing beside what he could only call a ‘densely packed swamp-tree’ biome. The trees grew into a wet peat-like soil and had roots poking up high into the sky.
James found himself stepping into the shade of the trees and dropping down beside one. He held his breath and pushed deep into the wet soil despite his plans. James was curled into a crevasse of roots his shirt and pants slowly soaking as the sunk into the soft ground – just a meter or two away the sand jumped up and down with the rhythmic thumps that came towards him.
Smaller than a skyscraper but only by a small amount, the long neck, of a creature shifted into view. It looked almost like a giraffe – if a giraffe’s head had been crossed with a snake and decorated by an art major. The long neck swayed back and forth or – occasionally – darted forward then back with a speed James could barely follow.
That was too high of a target. He had to set his sights lower. Something he could stare into the eyes of.
Cresting a hill the creature passed across the sandy planes nearby – its body was the size of a transport truck held up by eight thick and slightly stubby legs. Its giraffe/snake neck rose up to roughly a hundred meters in height and moved in a way no creature that big should be able to move.
Sometimes the bigger they were the larger they fell and sometimes the bigger they were the flatter you would become when they crushed you.
James wanted to push himself not speed run his death and so he crawled deeper into his hiding spot and waited till the thundering steps vanished once more.
Finally the long neck was no longer within sight and the sand had stopped dancing with thuds, so James found it safe to extract himself from the tree.
He knew what he wanted to fight. He wanted to hunt the creatures that killed him – he wanted revenge. They had stolen his hard-earned kill. He wanted to redeem himself – prove he was stronger somehow…but also he hated how helpless he had felt facing them and wanted to break that weak feeling.
What James knew and what he felt blended together. Facts and opinions meshed into a franken-web of ideas. They had shown up after he had left a kill sitting around for over an hour – maybe more, he was bad at keeping track at time.
That made them seem like scavengers – the hyenas or vultures of the monster world.
They were invisible to his sight and had actively attacked his other senses with some unknown skill. He had gained nose and ear fire defense since then but wasn’t sure if it was enough.
Something that was invisible and broke his other senses made him think they were alpha predators... but going after his kill instead of finding their own made them seem weaker.
The fact that they hid instead of just attacking head-on…that also made them seem weaker.
Sure, one had lifted him into the air and ripped him apart... but James was confident the creature was actually weak somehow. It was the only thing that made sense based on the rest of their existence. If they weren’t weaker in power then maybe they sucked in defense and speed. It just makes sense. All I have to do is land a hit or two on them. Figure out where they are and beat the invisible buggers to death.
How would you hunt an invisible enemy? I feel like the movies always have you throwing sand or something in the air to show where they are. Maybe fighting them in a muddy or sandy area like I’m by?
So I can see their footprints and attack that…
…but the fact that they knock out your smell and hearing seems like a bigger clue. I just have to survive that and I’ll probably be able to hear where they are right?
…I got fire defense in my ears so its…somehow burning my ear drums. How do I defend against that?
James leaned back against the tree behind him trying to plan a way to attack. He imagined there was some aloe-vera like cream he could put in his ears to soothe them… but where he would find or how he would make such a convenient salve was beyond him.
He could try stockpiling a pile of stones and then start throwing them in every direction? Indiscriminate attacks seemed like a good idea – he would have to find a better biome to plan his trap than here.
A chittering noise filled his ear and suddenly James found himself attacked by a small rodent like creature that had crawled down out of the tree.
It had approached nearly silently and jumped down onto his head scratching and biting aggressively while James had been thinking. – turns out the badlands weren’t a good place to brainstorm.
Growling slightly as he flailed about and grabbed the tree rodent – James turned and smashed it into the tree.
A single punch was all it took – the rodent James wanted to say looked passably like a squirrel seemed to crumple into the bark like a deflating balloon. Passably because it had six legs tipped by sharp clawed feet and crumpled because its innards seemed to shift and push into both sides of the body.
…James stared at the flattened corpse for a moment trying to see if it would bring him any inspiration.
…kind of reminds me of earmuffs if I’m being honest.
The two edges bulged into round furry balls while the center was flattened like a bridge.
The dead animal did not look at all like earmuffs – but they had given James an idea.
Probably a dumb idea – most likely a dumb idea – but one he felt like doing anyways.
Stepping a bit deeper into the biome James reached out and collected some young vines – ripping them down from the branches above.
He then knelt in the wet peat and ripped up two large chunks of wet moss.
Trying to balance the moss in his elbow and wrap with the other arm, James spent an embarrassingly long amount of time securing the moss to both of his ears.
He stood up. Sound was mostly muffled but the headpiece was so shoddy he could still hear the surroundings.
If this worked he would be happy.
Next leaving the swampy area James traveled over a hill and down a long stretch of blue sand towards a ‘stone filled biome’
This would be his battleground…eventually. First he had to find some bait.
Looking around James found there was an annoying lack of anything bait like. There were tons of birds high above and small critters galore but nothing that looked easy to catch – let alone big enough to be worth it.
Sighing James mentally tried to memorize as many landmarks as he could then went on a walk.
I’m bound to find something nearby.
…
He was right, just over thirty minutes into his search James found a large canine whose defining trait seemed to be two large antlers. Like a wolf-elk or some dog-moose James once again found it hard to either classify the creature or care. It was perfect. Slightly dangerous looking but with huge ‘prey animal’ vibes.
Casting his eyes around James found a thick looking stick and began stalking his bait.
Less than two meters away the creature seemed to finally notice him. A deep growl rang out as it turned and made to headbutt the man but he was waiting for that.
Haste.
Diving diagonally forwards, James felt more than heard the rush of wind pass above his shoulder.
Swinging his makeshift weapon behind him James felt the impact ring up through his arms.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
With a crack his stick broke on the antlers – but his attack did smash the beast's head downwards into the ground. A startled yip rang out even as James spun his body in a half turn.
Acting more on instinct than conscious thought, James pulled the now sharp end of his stick up and plunged it down towards the beast's neck – still sped up, the world around him a blur due to his only skill.
Thrashing about, the welk twisted its head around and the sharp point of an antler dug deep into James’s side.
It stung – and the attack had been too close to his cores for comfort – but James found himself laughing instead.
He held the antler in his right hand then dug the stick in with his left and twisted. Extracting it then stabbing it into the same hole with adrenalin-filled jabs. Several chunks of stick broke off.
The beast shook. Its struggles became weaker and more erratic…and then it fell – its last few spasms and twitches sprayed its legs out wide and twisted the corpse onto its side.
🥢 Achievement get: Killed a creature with nothing more than a stick. (uncommon)
Description: Your weapon of choice was improvised but you still managed to turn it to lethal end.
----------------------------------------
Stat: +3 arm power.
James had won – taken more damage than he was expecting but had come out victorious.
It felt great. Winning felt great.
Slowly extracting the antler from his side – it had dug in deep James winced as he felt the gore.
It was wet – it looked bad – but he felt…strangely fine. He was bleeding less than he should and as he pressed a hand against the holes it felt like little more than a scrape. Taking his shirt off – carefully pulling it around his swamp muffs – he ripped the tattered fabric then re applied it on himself.
James felt the incredibly makeshift bandage in satisfaction then turned to his kill.
“Now how do I get this back to my planned ambush area?”
…
It took over half an hour of awkward back pedalling to reach the rocky biome again. Awkward backpedaling with James dragging the corpse between his legs – both hands on the antlers yanking it cm by cm.
James collapsed into a heap on the ground as soon as he could. He spent a moment to rest and regain his breath and just breathed. Behind him a faint streak of blood smeared a splotchy trail leading towards his location and around him stones lay scattered about – an endless supply of ammunition.
James lay staring up at the sky, all of his senses strained to catch the hint of trouble and he just took a moment to relax. He was incredibly surprised he hadn’t been harassed once bringing his kill back – it felt almost disappointing. He had spent so much effort keeping track of his surroundings without getting jumped. Almost a waste of his attention.
I wonder how long I have to wait? What are the chances something else attacks me instead? Pretty high right?
Shh. Positive thoughts.
The sun beat down from above, steadily making itself more and more known. James needed a drink again and took a small break from guarding his corpse to find a source of water. Less than a hundred meters away there was a small pond he could drink from – it felt almost picturesque nestled away in the badlands. Several small birds flitting about above and a small lizard scuttled away when James got close – he felt like an animal approaching an oasis on the savanna.
Cupping his hands together and taking several small sips James felt immediately better – the water had a slightly scummy taste but was cold and refreshing. Suddenly afraid that something had reached his bait in the few minutes he was away James ran back as fast as he could skidding to a stop in front of the still set creature.
It's fine. I didn’t miss anything.
…
James slowly grew bored as he waited. Part of him wanted to work out to exhaustion – see if he could manage a stat or two now that he was in a more dangerous area…but it would be dumb to be exhausted for when the monster did show up.
Picking a less intensive task for the waiting game, he returned to trying to make fire. Humans hadn’t always had matches or lighters – this was something that was definitely possible. A good skill for him to figure out how to do.
After several unsuccessful attempts he finally had a setup he thought looked likely to work.
A log with a dug out section, some mostly dry looking ball of fluff and a stick. Rolling the stick back and forth between his hands James activated haste – his spinning speeding up. A small ploom of smoke rose up into the air and he started rolling it as fast as he could.
Skill break: Would you like to break your skill?
Yes No
“Ahhhhhh!” For the briefest of glorious moments, James saw fire – even as haste deactivate and it went out. “Don’t break from just this.” He snapped, declining the prompt, as an incredibly faint whine filled the air.
James paused.
They are coming.
Standing up quickly James bent and collected several stones in one arm a particularly nice one held at the ready.
Slowly the whine built – muffled by the earmuffs and as it grew closer, an almost haunting song built and grew. His ears felt hot – his earmuffs had dried out quite a bit since he had made them – but either it, or his defensive stats prevented his hearing from going out like last time.
A dense smell filled his nose his sense of smell being wiped out but that was fine. He didn’t need that.
Less than a minute after they started, a sharp increase in the music indicated the creatures had arrived.
His ears started to feel itchy – like someone had converted the taste of a spoonful of cinnamon into a noise then shoved it into his ears.
James couldn’t pinpoint where the creatures were exactly as they circled around him – but he could tell their general direction.
Winding his stone back like a pitcher James aimed roughly towards one of the sources of the song and threw – a sharp screech ringing out as he did.
Surprisingly there wasn’t a visual indication he had done anything – James had half expected the creature to flash into view as it was hit but somehow it almost crafted an illusion of the rock flying through safely.
There was zero indication of the hit – If not for the cry of pain now ringing out he would have thought he missed.
An angry shout and rapidly increasing noise from his left caused James to jump backwards bending slightly at the waist and throwing a second rock towards where he just was.
This one missed – but the attacker did as well, its wailing cry rushing past.
James shifted in the air, activating haste for the briefest of moments to twist himself into a better position and dash forward – deactivating it and bringing a rock around without letting go.
It seemed to hit something soft and pass through – a faint brush of a hit that felt like it hit a curtain.
James jumped even further after the retreating spectre and bashed the stone straight through its ethereal body.
A shimmer passed through the air like a heat wave as the monster fell.
Beside him the third and final monster came barreling forward its song increasing in strength like a train coming down a tunnel toward him.
Throwing his last rock wildly, James lunged to the side bending to pick up more projectiles. He was beginning to feel boxed in as the first injured creature attempted to attack him as well. Barely thinking he threw several rocks wide to scare it away and lunged for more.
One at a time.
James couldn’t tell whether he was supposed to go after the weaker one first or not, so he simply picked the closest and swung.
A sharp invisible claw aimed towards him and scraped along his forearm ripping a huge gash into his arm even as he punched in and through the creature's soft body.
A second shimmer as the creature fell – its invisibility fading in death.
The third monster seemed to be retreating, the sound beginning to fade and James turned – activating haste now that it was off cooldown.
“Get back here” He shouted as he dashed towards the sound and lunged, arms wrapping around the figure and bringing it to the ground.
A screech rang out as he scraped his good hand through the soft body ripping out chunks of flesh – the final attacker fell more violently than its brethren.
James’s arm hurt – on closer inspection the claw had sliced through nearly halfway all the way from his wrist to his elbow.
His side was still not healed – the tightly wrapped and bloodstained shirt stemming the blood but not doing much else.
Despite the massive wounds and several scrapes and bruises he had somehow gained and ignored James felt amazing.
He had done it.
🟦 Achievement get: Firestalker revenge. (Unique)
Description: Killed three firestalkers with minimum preparation and minimum tools. Drawn to sources of fire and exposed kills, firestalkers are a bane upon civilized existence. Invisible monsters that aim to cripple and then kill their prey, these creatures frequent high level areas and attack those who aim to set up camp.
You’ve used this to your advantage, luring a pack of the creatures to a battlefield of your choosing. You then slaughtered them nearly bare handed in an anger born of vengeance – your weapons nothing more than your fists and some stones.
----------------------------------------
Stat: +3 hearing fire defense.
Stat: +3 smell fire defense.
Stat: +3 leg speed.
Stat: +3 arm power.
Stat: +3 fist skin defense.
Active skill: Retaliatory shot.
After taking a hit, a portion of the movement and energy is stored. The stronger and more numerous the hits, the larger a 'retaliation' may be collected. That energy may then be returned with vengeance – added to a physical attack, increasing its power.
Knowledge of how to use this new skill has been gained.
Immediately the slightly warm feeling in his ears faded, the wash of fire defense soothing his skin.
His nose was still disabled – the infusion of new stats soothing the sting but not healing the burnt buds.
The rest of his stats were less noticeable – drowned out by the rush of knowledge and twist of his new skill being made.
He could feel it, could feel how it worked, knew how it could be used inside and out.
And James couldn’t help himself. For the umpteenth time today he laughed out loud a happy cry of satisfaction. A wordless cry that claimed he had done it. He had survived and come out on top.
…
James’s arm was doing badly. It really was a massive gash – one that might even be fatal due to blood loss before the system. Before his enhanced body that cared less about wounds outside of his cores.
Despite being non-fatal, it wasn’t suddenly healed – the gash wasn’t closing despite leaking less blood than it should.
Ripping off a section of his pant leg James wore the cloth like a sleeve then wrapped the twine from his swamp muffs around it.
The high of battle had begun to fade and James was coherent enough to see all three of his kills.
The firestalkers were by far the creepiest looking monsters James had faced up till now – they looked like skeletons wrapped in wispy flesh that was half jello half cloth. That flesh was transparent and tinged slightly yellow now that it wasn’t actively bending light or however it had worked – and the bones were dark black. Bipedal, but not anything James would consider ‘humanoid’. Its black bones twisted up into a sharp and pointed scull – or out into the sharp claws bursting out of the skin of both hands.
James dragged all three of his kills over to rest next to the moose-dog and stared at them in silence.
An idle thought filled his head as he gazed at them. A dumb decision that suddenly appeared and wouldn’t fade.
I want to eat one. I want to stuff this creature that was about to eat me down my throat. That’s the best form of vengeance. The proof I won. The victor's spoils.
James slowly, ever so slowly reached an arm out. His rational brain screamed at him not to – it didn’t look appetizing let alone edible.
…but he was getting pretty good at ignoring his rational brain these past few days. He was ignoring it and feeling happier than he had since he was a child.
Scooping scraps of yellow jello up into his mouth, James slurped the substance down raw.
It had an awful texture – slimy but lumpy and full of strands. It almost felt like someone had liquified meat but left the tendons and veins alone.
It had a sharp bitter taste – James had been expecting something spicy but instead it came off almost tart. A hint of sourness. The barest sliver. There was a sort of tingle with the after taste like James was licking a battery or something – a tingle that continued on down to his stomach and continued to jolt about inside of him.
He took another bite.
Firestalker flesh was not something James would call good tasting…but he had earned this. If he compared it to his last meal – the badly cooked murder bird – he would even call it charming. It tasted like something that was an acquired taste – not a taste that he had acquired but one that someone else might like and rave about.
James ate quite a bit of the monster's side before taking a large bite of a sack that tasted like vomit and nearly hurling the rest of the meal.
🟦 Achievement get: Raw monster meat muncher. (rare)
Description: Ignoring rhyme or reason – without checking for toxicity or roasting your meal you have braved a meal some would consider disgusting.
----------------------------------------
Stat: +5 stomach poison defense.
Passive skill: Monster eater.
Knowledge of monster meat categories and cooking methods has been gained.
For the second time in so many minutes, a rush of knowledge was implanted in James’s mind. Memories of time spent researching monster meat and its effects.
James now knew the tingling feeling in his stomach was a temporary boost to something. A temporary stat increase or defense or even esoteric effect. The energy boost from this morning had been as well.
He didn’t have knowledge of firestalker flesh and its effects, but he did know a tingling was usually an increase in something active. He also knew he could probably make a better tasting version of the flesh by liquifying it, straining all the gross internal organs, and then resolidifying the gel…on top of that knowledge, he knew because the creature had fire aspected abilities, it would be hard to melt the flesh using heat alone and he would need some other method.
He knew based on the colour of the blood coming out of the elk-wolf it was safe to eat.
He knew so many random tibits he hadn’t known before.
This was the most actual information James had received so far. This ‘passive skill’ felt entirely different from the previous gifts the system had given – those were like a muscle memory he forgot he had gained. This knowledge…well. It was straight up information. It was stuff he now ‘knew’.
…it was disorienting.
It was disorienting and tiring and James realized he wanted to sleep despite it still being the afternoon. He needed to sleep or else he would pass out in the middle of nowhere. Looking about he spotted the tops of trees in the distance and started hiking – giving a single wistful glance back at his kills as he did so.
It felt like such a waste to leave them but there was nothing he could do with his current abilities in the current area.
Reaching a tree he climbed up as far as he could and fell asleep within minutes – a faint buzzing continuing to fill and spark in his stomach carrying him off to contented dreams. Dreams of flying through the air and throwing lightning bolts like some greek god. Below him fire stalkers ran as he rained death down upon them.
Happy dreams.