Ballium Nightstalker Panther Level 9 (pregnant)
A deadly apex predator. Their use of Aether allows them the use of invisibility. They also possess some psionic ability. The hide is widely sought after – estimated local value 12,000 GC. These cats are superior pets. Estimated value of each cub 100,000 GC.
What cubs? This thing was pregnant? I put my hand on the dead creature’s belly and felt movement. The large cat had been bleeding for a while from its eye socket...and yes that flow of blood had stopped. I brought up the menu quickly and used my remaining experience to select skinning to rank 4 and got my knife out. Using my new knowledge I went to work. There were four cubs and two still lived but barely. Wait, how was I going to care for these things? I had been so excited about the possible credits… I put the two basketball sized cubs off to the side. They were slowly inhaling deeper and deeper. I returned and skinned their mother, why waste possible money since I had the knowledge? I put the hide in my dimensional storage with my backpack. I used my sleeping bag to make a sack for the cubs. Now I just needed to keep them alive and get somewhere where I could sell them.
My stat increases and fully healed body were phenomenal. I felt light and moved with excellent speed. It also helped that most of my gear was now in the dimensional storage device. The cats seemed content to sleep after their ordeal and I kept a hand in there petting the furry critters. Soon I noticed some smoke between two mountains. Either a wild fire or a settlement. A map overlay came up and highlighted the smoke. So was that how the map worked? I needed to focus on a topographical feature? I mentally selected highlighted area on the map where the smoke was.
Opheran Trading Post
Disposition: Neutral
Last Censused Population: 181
It was maybe 2 miles to the smoke. It seemed like a reasonable risk. I headed that way but was knocked over an hour later when an ostrich burst from a bush. Nope, it was an ostrich “like” creature and its sharp talons cut into my shoulder. I tossed the cubs away from the action and drew my pistol with my good arm. Using my bad arm I tried to keep the beast away by grabbing its neck. Damn it was strong. I started firing. The claws of the bird raked my legs over and over. After maybe 20 shots the bird stopped moving. My legs were a mess. I retrieved a nanite heal and downed it. The taste was horrible.
My wounds closed and I lay there breathing heavily. Something nipped my hand and I went for my pistol…the cubs had gotten out of the bag. They wobbled around and mewed pitifully. Probably hungry… One of the food bags I had taken had some powered milk. I mixed it up with the little bit of water I had and put it in my cooking pot. They both lapped it up and mewed for more. Not today. I scooped them back into the bag. Collected my gear and scanned my latest encounter.
Froen Carnivarous Strider, Level 4
The bird is an extremely fast pack hunter. They also guard their nests aggressively. Eggs are considered a nutritious delicacy.
A clue? I searched the bushes and yes there were six very large eggs. Now I know young animals needed milk but in this crazy world maybe these little cubs would eat the raw egg yolk? I cracked an egg into my pot, nearly overflowing the two quart pot, and put the cubs next to it. They dug in, lapping it up. After they finished I added another egg and was trying to figure out where all the food was going? I knew you could overfeed fish and kill them...maybe I should stop them? Thudding sounded nearby…running striders…shit, they were pack hunters. I pushed the cubs into the sack and moved away. I readied my rifle. Three big birds came into view. One had a large chunk of meat in its beak, with a deer leg attached to it bobbing up and down with each stride. They didn’t notice me yet. I lined up the biggest one with the meat and fired. Two shots and it fell. I moved onto the next one and put two shots into it, dropping it as well. The final one was almost on me. I dropped the rifle pulled and activated the long blade in on motion and cut through the birds neck in a single swing as it reached me.
I scanned and listened for more birds, yes a small one was hiding in the brush twenty yards away. I grabbed my rifle and dropped it with a single shot. I put four eggs in my dimensional space and let the cats lick the pot clean before packing it. Ok, how much experience? 270. Not bad. There was a skill called battle awareness. I spent 210 experience to raise it to level 6. The skill should help in avoiding being ambushed. Oh, course there were sub abilities as well…fleet space battle, space fighter dogfighting, vehicle combat, land campaigns, dueling and shipboard combat. Damn it…not the right combat awareness, nothing about avoiding surprise attacks. OK, 60 points left…I scanned for a skill I could get to help…maybe just awareness? I vested to level 1. No sub skills? Hmm, I pumped it to level 4 and closed the screen. Immediately I noticed a difference. Everything was crisper in my vision and all movement was magnified, not literally, I was just more aware of it. I cursed to myself for wasting 210 experience on the battle awareness skill. Next time I would read the description.
Making sure I had everything I continued on while munching on a granola bar. The two cats were sleeping with bloated bellies.
As I approached the smoke two massive scaled men stepped from behind some rocks. Each had a massive gun pointed at me. Well at least they didn’t fire right away. I put my hands up and said, “I am here to trade.” They lowered their guns and returned to their hidden position ignoring me. Ok, I guess I was free to pass. I scanned one guard as I walked by.
Opheran Heavy Infantry, Level 5
Opheran’s are suited to combat. These reptilian men are extremely strong and can easily adapt to most environments. They usually serve as low level guards or grunt infantry in galactic armies.
The trade post was a circular concreate structure with one large gate. The wall was 40 feet high and there looked to be large gun emplacements along the top of the wall with an Opheran standing nearby each emplacement scanning the surrounding woods.
I entered the gate. It was like the wild west met world war 2 met fantasy world. Most of the people were the lizard Orpherans, but there were some humans, a few rat like men, a few goblins, two minotaur like creatures, something that could be a lion man. Someone pushed me from behind. An Opheran walked past…I had been gawking in the center of the walk way. There were a half dozen 4 story buildings on the right and shop stalls on the left. A weapons booth…a tech booth…a local food/butcher…and a building that had a sign which I couldn’t read…then I could read…the sign was translated for me, “General Store, Operated by Demitry”. Ok this looked the best place to get answers and gear.
The store was more like a warehouse. A man stood behind a counter at the front. He was human and his eyebrow cocked in seeing me enter. I was the only one in the store so I walked to the counter. He was definitely checking me out and he spoke in a heavy Russian accent. “Who do you serve, comrade?”
It took me a second to get the words translated through the accent. “Myself.” Was my response. Simple and to the point. The shop keeper didn’t like my answer.
“No, who are you working for? Are you pre-expansion or a new recruit?” He said. He waited for my reply.
I was a little worried I would get myself in trouble but proceeded with questions, “Expansion? Recruit? I woke up. Got attacked by some crazy goblins and killed them. Then I walked here.” The Russian looked me over again.
“You are an independent? Damn boy! Oh you must be confused as hell!” He laughed to himself. “Let me give you the short of it. First the expansion. Earth was just incorporated officially into the game. This is not the real Earth, but the parallel Earth in the game. Usually when the game expands to incorporate a new star system it seeds it with 10% of the local inhabitants, animals, beasts and structures.” He was looking at his forearm computer. “That would…a little over 500 million humans.” He looked back at me. “Some humans were kidnapped in the past and were already here in this alternate reality, like me.” He spread his arms indicating his person.
“Being new territory there are dozens of clans looking to set up a power base. You must have killed a player from a clan to get your interface.” He pointed to my forearm computer. “Now this Earth is new territory. This means only level 1 outsiders can enter through the Elder’s Gate orbiting above.” He pointed up. “Now the Elders you ask? They invented this game. They might have even created this parallel existence. Why you ask? Well no one knows for sure but there are lots of guesses out there. A path the secrets to the universe, a way to evolve other species, force everyone to become more powerful to fight an unknown enemy in the future or my personal guess, they were bored.” He waited. Oh had he made a joke. A smiled acknowledging the jest and he approved and continued.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“So the Elder’s gates are quick transport from any other gate in the universe. This means no need to transverse subspace! The gates are manufactured at some hidden automated factory and get installed as new worlds are added to the game. The gates help seed the new worlds.” He opened a drink in a blue can with foreign writing and downed it in one go. The gate is controlled by the station orbiting with it. The station is manned by the Elder’s machines and constructs as no one has seen an Elder in…well…I don’t think anyone has ever seen an Elder. Maybe one of the first players but those players might as well be gods. The constructs are usually synthbots, made to imitate the indigenous life to the planet incorporated.”
He changed topics. “Now there are three paths to aid player development, nanite, aether and psionic. Psionic is very powerful but very costly in terms of experience and has to do with willpower and mind. Aether is magic per se as the physics here are a little skewed. Aether uses the accumulation of aether in the body to form spells. And finally nanites, which is what you have from your device, use tiny machines. You familiar with nanites?” I nodded. “So your nanites limit your growth based on how advanced they are. They can be upgraded of course but your acquired device must have given you an upper limit for each stat?” I nodded again. “Good, pretty average device you have there. Now onto skills, traits, abilities spells and all the other shit you can buy with experience. You must buy level 1 first then you can grow the skill yourself. Maybe you are a sniper in your previous life and get a sniper rifle. You need to unlock sniper first and then the skill gets upgraded quickly based on your knowledge. In my opinion there are the five important skills you should get as soon as possible, psionic defense, awareness, dodge, mercantile and nanite interface. Psionics are extremely powerful and can mess with your mind and body so get that defense one quick. Second, awareness is used in everyday life. It gives a small increase to just about every skill. Dodge, well I guess you only need it that one if you plan to fight just about anything. Mercantile will help you in dealing with people like me…buy cheaper, sell higher and all that. Finally nanite interface…your body has nanites and they help with skills but you need to ‘communicate’ with them…thereby the skill. It will give you passive regeneration which is super important, again if you plan to fight. It will also slow your aging the higher the skill. Once it hits level 23 you will age over 100 times slower! Once you unlock a skill it will level up naturally as it is used so unlock these skills as soon as possible.” He took a break to open another can and sipped this time. My cats choose this time to start mewing.
Dimitry’s eye brows shot up. “Whatcha got there comrade?” I saw no point in holding out and put the two kittens on the counter. His eyes lit up and he immediately started playing with the cats. After a minute he turned without a word and went into an office and soon returned with a large bowl of thick white liquid. He put it out for the cats and returned his focus to me.
“You are full of surprises! These are nightstalker cats! Not familiar with the subspecies though, Ballium?” He waited for me to say something but I just remained quiet. Soon he continued, “Well not sure where you got these little ones but you are one lucky bastard!”
I nodded and asked, “How much are they worth?”
Dimitry face scowled, “You want to sell them? Why? These cats are practically priceless.” Damn just my luck I got an animal lover trader. Dimitry sighed. “Well let me get my analyzer.” He left and returned with something that looked like a radar gun. He targeted both cats in turn while they continued lapping up the bowl. “Ok, lets see.” He was tapping on the screen on the device. “Good, healthy critters you have here. Both female. Latent Psionic 5 and 6. Current aether connectivity 11 and 17, excellent, fairly strong. Both are bonded!” He looked at me. “Well that is a problem. Remember I told you to get psionic defense? Well both these cats have psionic bonded to you I assume. You would have been able to resist this if you even had one rank in psionic defense. Well maybe not resist...but at least be aware. You see the latent psionic ability adds that amount of power to their psionic skills. I am guessing they both have psionic bond ability. You will need a strong psionic player to break the link before you sell them. Probably cost 15 to 20 thousand credits for each bond and there would be some mental backlash... But I think you should strongly consider keeping them as companions.”
“I am pretty new to all this,” I replied, “Explain this companion thing please.”
“Well these cats are highly intelligent. Probably smarter than most beings. Therefore they are considered companions and not pets. They can turn invisible, phase, and use some psionic and aether abilities. I even think they can even teach their bonded the skills and abilities…” He trailed off in thought. “Not 100% sure on that though." He returned his focus to me. "They make excellent guards, assassins, hunters and companions.” He went to a large computer and tapped away. “Base price for one of these cubs would be around 250 thousand credits off world.” I felt a pain of fear in my mind and noticed one of the cats looking directly at me.
“Maybe I will keep them.” I said and immediately felt pleasure come over me. Had I just been manipulated? Ok psionic defense was a priority.
“Excellent choice!” Dimitry nearly yelled stopping his work at the terminal. “Now I know you have lots of questions but you came here to buy gear?”
“Yes” I responded. I pulled out my spare plasma rifle, spare molecular sword, the player module I was not wearing, and the 4 eggs I harvested, 8 marbles and the nightstalker pelt. Dimitry looked at me hard once he saw the pelt.
“You killed the mother?” He intoned. “How? You are…” He looked at me “Level 3? I guess I didn’t think how you got these cubs. How did you?” I relayed my story to him of hiding in the crevice for the night. And the creature approaching and firing widely at the sound and getting it through the eye. “You are the luckiest bastard I have ever known! What level was the beast?”
I thought back and responded to him. “Eight or nine I think.” He nodded solemnly.
“A young seeded monster most likely. In another few weeks she would have been the strongest predator in this area. Normally nightstalkers are between level 50 to 200 but since this Earth was just added to the game the creatures seeded are generally low level. That is why there are thousands of level one players coming here. Easy experience. Quick leveling. The player you killed came here at level one and was probably running around trying to level as quickly as possible to stay above the CURVE.
Oh the CURVE. It stands for some acronym in some language,” He waved his hand dismissively, “but it basically means that after 23 days the level that can traverse the gate in orbit goes up 1 every two days. So in 23 days level 2 players will be able to come here. After 33 days, level 7 players can enter.” Well now I had a goal. Stay ahead of the curve and have a chance at survival.
I looked at the cats who were now spinning the eggs on the counter. One egg started to wobble and moved to the edge of the counter. The tiny stalker tried to stop it but just caused it to roll faster. The beast jumped on it to prevent it from falling but went over with the egg. The tiny panther was covered in egg but looked ok, and I could swear it looked at me like a guilty child caught in the cookie jar. It started to clean its black coat but licking the egg remains off itself.
“Well,” Dmitry said, “That is 50 less credits I can offer you for your lot.” A grin spread on his face. “Oh, wait a second…” Dmitry started tapping on his own forearm computer. “Ha, yes. Looks like there was a quest for a Nightstalker pelt. Here.” He activated a holo screen above his device and showed me.
ADULT NIGHTSTALKER PELT, 1000 EXPERIENCE , 2500 GC –initiated by Player Ji’Nass Mool-
“Your pelt should qualify. It is less credits than you can get just selling it but experience is generally valued at 25 to 1 and as a new player you need the experience more. Do you want to full fill this quest? I would have to add sector quests to your device. As the giver is three systems away. Fortunately he will pay for the transit it says here which would save you a few thousand credits. All other requests for nightstalker pelts are too far away” Dmitry finished.
“So quests?” I asked.
“Yes, quests are given by the system and by players. Players have to put up their own experience and funds to pay for rewards. But there is a skill that can reduce the cost if you decide to go that route. And the system determines the maximum allowed experience based on how difficult the quest is. The system generates quests based on need. Let me show you.” Dmitry showed me how to access the quest list on my comp. The quests viewable were just the surrounding area. All were in red lettering which Dmitry said means they easy according to my level. When I asked why red didn’t mean difficult like in most games he just smiled and went into an explanation.
“It’s the rainbow spectrum comrade. Hard currency follows it as well. From low to high value it is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. So red is the most common and easiest. Expand the zone of quests, wait let me link your you comp to the system net…ok now check.” I up clicked the local quest to regional and most were red with a handful of orange and yellow and a single green. There were dozens of quests though. I up clicked to planet and the list expanded to hundreds, maybe thousands. Sorting by difficulty there were now more green and a few blue. Up clicking again to solar system added too many to the list to count. I reset to local and glanced the quests. Lots of harvesting quests for resources. Many monster culling quests. Dozens of messenger and transport quests…there one quest had a name at the end, -initiated by Player Andre Chan-. That must be a player quest. It took me a little while to find the nightstalker pelt quest after that, it was in sector space. I accepted the quest, I had 100 hours to complete it, failure was 100 experience, 10% of the reward.
“Ok how do I turn in the pelt for the reward.” I asked.
“Across the street is a game terminal. It will be manned by a beautiful young women. But don’t be deceived she is a Synthbot. She was created by and works for the Elders. This outpost go lucky when the system shuttle dropped her off, benefits of getting to the party early! Not every outpost and settlement gets a system terminal! Well, she has a connection to the space station above and can get the pelt transferred to the quest giver. I will watch your cats while you turn it in.” I nodded and walked out with the pelt. The cats tried to follow me but the door was shut behind me. I could sense fear and abandonment. I sent back reassurance and thought ‘I WILL BE RIGHT BACK’. Soon the feelings I was getting died down.