As I was eating the last of my sandwich, a decently-sized scab fell from my face into my plate. I almost threw up right then and there. I quickly closed my eyes and sat back on the couch. It took a few minutes until I was able to open my eyes and not freak out.
Sometimes just pretending that something didn’t happen does wonders for your psyche.
In the bathroom mirror, I saw that most of the scabs were gone from my face, and were probably littered across the cabin floor. In their stead, there were faint scars. Pulling up my character sheet, I saw that I had one more HP to go until I was fully recovered from the Crowling attack. I hoped that the scars would go away with that last point.
“Vain until the end, I see,“ I told my reflection. My smile quickly turned into a grimace.
“You’re doing okay. You have to stick to the plan, Dee,“ I said to the woman in the mirror.
The clock on the cabin wall showed half past 10, about an hour and a half since I tried to escape from this damned place. If my math was correct, I was healing 1 HP every 10 minutes or so. It wasn’t much, but it was a vast improvement over what would have been days of recovery with medical intervention.
I was grateful for that small mercy that this System had given me, even if it was the cause of these wounds in the first place.
However, I truly hoped that my Constitution stat helped fight against germs because I was pretty sure I wasn’t vaccinated against a monster variant of rabies.
Mom’s sweater wasn’t as lucky as my face though. I had previously changed out of it but forgot to immediately soak it in cold water so that the blood wouldn’t stick. All things considered, my carelessness was understandable, but I couldn’t help but beat myself over it.
“Stuff is just stuff, Dee. We can always get more stuff,“ I could almost hear Mom say. She wasn’t one to be sentimental over something as silly as a sweater.
Still, I went over to the bathroom to fill up a bucket with cold water, hoping to salvage it. The System had once again decided to show me the middle finger, as nothing came out of the tap.
“Fuck,” I completely forgot about the pump.
The cabin had a small generator out back that powered all electric appliances including - you guessed it - the pump that pulled up the water from the well to the kitchen sink and bathroom. And since my power went out once this nightmare started, there was no running water.
“Okay. So what are my options?”
Discarding the sweater, I went to the window that faced the back of the cabin. I could see the generator in the back, but I couldn’t diagnose any problems from where I was standing. I probably wouldn’t be able to tell what was wrong with it. I was an accountant for fuck’s sake! I never messed around with this stuff.
“Now you’re just being negative, Dee.”
Various things might be wrong with the damned thing. It could be out of petrol, for once. Somehow I knew that wasn’t the issue. I tried to think of anything else that could be wrong, but I came up short.
Whatever made my car go kaput, was probably also wrong with the generator. The power went out the second the Integration was initiated, and it stayed out. Perhaps there was a strong electromagnetic pulse coming from somewhere that made the technology act out.
My phone was also affected and had gone dead around the same time. It’s not like we had much reception up here anyway.
We still had an old-timey well on the property, with the hand crank and everything. It was not ideal, but it would have to do because it seemed like I was stuck in the cabin for the foreseeable future.
The Plan just got a bit more complicated.
Went to the other window that looked out to the stream and the well. Two very sickly-looking bushes, just like the ones in front of the house were guarding the path to the well. The distance was less than 20 meters or so. Before yesterday, I didn’t need a game plan to cross that distance, but the sudden appearance of the plant made me pause.
I tried focusing on it, hoping that a box would pop up with its name and level as it did for the Grizmorph and the Crowling, but nothing happened.
“I guess I would have to get out there.”
That thought made me shiver. The cabin was safe, as far as I knew. I was safe inside. But I knew I couldn’t stay inside forever. I would run out of food eventually. I had enough bottled water to last me a few days. But then what? I couldn’t just walk to a supermarket to stock up. Walking back to the city was out of the question.
The image of the monstrosity that was Grizmorph hammered that idea down. I didn’t want to find out what the next worst thing was out there.
I would have to make do.
And making do meant that I had to do some landscaping.
“I need weapons. ”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
A quick rummage through the kitchen later, I had two chef knives, one steak knife, a handful of butter knives, and an ice pick. I set aside the two chef knives and discarded the others. I doubted that I would be able to deal much damage to anything. I still had the hatchet too, and I had been keeping it within arm’s reach at all times.
Something that must be common to all residences that have been passed down through generations is the amount of random junk that almost magically appears inside it. I was able to find a wooden broom handle, sans broom. Many layers of duck tape later, I had a very, very bad spear.
Chime. The unmistakable sound of a System notification went off.
Skill unlocked: Makeshift Weapon Making, level 1
I considered the notification for a second. “I’ll take it. “
I focused my attention back on the spear I made and was surprised to see a description box appear.
Makeshift spear (Trash)
Made from random stuff lying around, this spear was created by someone who only dreamed about a spear once and promptly forgot about it. Deals 2-3 points of damage.
“How the hell did the System create a description for this thing so quickly?”
Rage suddenly burned inside of me, the kind I rarely felt. I felt like my every move was being monitored and evaluated, and I didn’t like it. What was this System Integration anyway? I had no way of answering that question, and it made me even more angry.
I had worked hard to have a decent, quiet life. I had plans of travelling around and eating at good restaurants. I had just gotten a job that paid okay and made those plans possible.
I felt robbed of those dreams.
“I could die here,“ I heard myself say.
My anger deflated as quickly as it came. There was no point in going down that path too much.
I had some bushes to take care of.
----------------------------------------
Just like that morning, I cracked open the front door and stuck my head outside. There was no sign of Crowlings, but I wasn’t going to bet my life that there weren’t going to be any out there. I had to keep vigilant.
I gathered all of my courage and stepped outside for the second time today. The deja vu was strong, and the fear inside me threatened to paralyze me, but I ignored it. I told myself I was more ready for monsters now than I ever was.
As quietly as I could, I inched towards the bushes. My palms were slick with sweat, and I had to keep a death grip on my weapons. Finally, I was close enough to one of the damned things to trigger the description box.
Vineslasher, level 1
While pretty weak on the multiverse hierarchy, this plant can still deal some vicious damage. Just don’t let it hug you!
Taking the System’s advice to heart, I quickly retreated to the cabin with my back against its wooden wall, hoping I’d be out of range of Vineslasher’s creepy tentacles.
From my vantage point, I could see five plants: three in the clearing in front of the cabin and two to the western side, next to the well. There were a few of them behind the cabin for sure, given my shit luck in all of this.
I was surrounded. I was royally fucked.
This thought definitely did not make me freeze in panic. However, a now familiar sharp pain shot up my leg and stopped the freakout train in its tracks. Instinctively, I swung my hatchet down and chopped off the vine that had sneaked up on me.
The severed plant limb trashed about a bit, like a fish out of water, and then stopped entirely. What was left of the tentacle quickly retreated to its bush, leaving behind a trail of yellowish slime. The sight made my stomach churn.
I spared a second to inspect my leg. Just like this morning, it hurt a little where the thorns pierced my skin, but I was confident that it would be back to normal.
I tightened the grip on my weapons. It was go time. I charged at the closest Vineslasher, swinging my hatchet like a mad woman.
The plant was truly disgusting up close. It wasn’t much taller than my knees. The main branches oozed the same sickly yellow slime as the wounded vine. A faint light glowed from the centre, and I could have sworn that there was a half-digested corpse of a rabbit stuck in there. I didn’t have time to inspect it closely, as my hatchet slipped from my hand and flew a few meters away from me.
I reacted in pure instinct, gripping my shitty spear with both of my hands and aiming it at the plant’s glowing centre. I hoped that it would be a weak point.
Thankfully, my hunch seemed to pay off, as the plant shook and shrieked in pain somehow when I stabbed it. The two unharmed vines tried to wrestle the spear out of my grip, but the wound I had inflicted on its main body seemed to have significantly weakened it. I easily plucked the spear out of their hold and stabbed the bush a few more times.
The Vineslasher let out another scream that made my ears ring. I gathered all of my strength and stabbed once more at the dying light. The damned plant finally stopped squirming and died.
You defeated a Vineslasher, level 1. 10 exp gained
Loot? Yes/No
I mentally accepted the prompt and felt something appear in my inventory. The feeling was unnerving, but I ignored it like so many things today.
I pulled the spear out of the now-dead and crumbling plant. Unfortunately for my sensitive stomach, I could now see that I was correct about the dead rabbit.
I didn’t have the privilege of mulling over this disgusting discovery because there were other bushes just waiting to digest me like an overgrown fly in a Venus fly trap. I shifted my focus to the spear in my hands.
Unfortunately, the knife I used as a spearhead had come loose from the electrical tape that was supposed to keep it in place. In a split second, I decided that retreat was the smart thing to do. I quickly sprinted back to the cabin before the other Vineslashers decided to seek revenge for their fallen comrade. I only paused to pick up the dropped hatchet before rushing back inside.
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Name: Diana Mond
Age: 25
Class: N/A
Level: N/A, 15/100 exp. (+10 exp)
Strength: 3
Constitution: 3
Intelligence: 4
Wisdom: 3
HP:26/30
Points to distribute: 0