Chapter Two: Jungle

  Jungle.

  No family.

  Panic.

  Oh no, oh no. The teleportation circle separated us! I thought we’d all end up together – we all thought that – but it sent us to different places. This was not good. This was very, very bad. My mother and brother didn’t have any combat abilities. My sister… well, I guess she had a tiger to protect her. My father had a freaking angel. And I?

  I had weapons I didn’t know how to use, access to two combat spells (one offensive and one defensive), a cat, and a hawk. So… I was sort of in the middle, there. Not helpless, but not really capable of defending myself, either. I knew how to cast the spells – the knowledge had been shoved into my mind – but I had no experience with them, because hey, magic didn’t exist back on Earth. And while having a hawk companion was kind of badass, a hawk was no tiger. And I really didn’t expect my cat to be of any help.

  So. To take stock, I had a recurve bow on my back, some arrows in a quiver, a sword belted to my waist, a wooden wand with weird carvings on the side also slipped through my belt, and two animals. I was in the middle of some sort of jungle, complete with cacophony of animal and bug noises. I had no idea what I was going to face here, so my first order of business was to get my racing fear under control. If I was panicking, I couldn’t handle anything.

  “Fly,” I told Rusty, flicking my hand. The bird leapt off and winged his way through the trees. Shaking out my arm, I drew my sword with my right hand.

  I stopped.

  Drawing the sword felt way more comfortable than it should have. Familiar, as though I were used to doing it. Had gaining the class implanted some sort of muscle memory in me with regards to the use of my weapons? I carefully swung the sword, causing Shadow to jump off my shoulder with an irritated hiss. And I could feel her irritation. I think the game called it an “empathic link.” It wasn’t enough for real conversation, but urges and emotions could be transmitted from one of us to the other.

  That could be useful, if the cat was capable of contributing in any way, which I doubted.

  First things first, though: if this really was another world, which appeared to follow LitRPG rules, then did we have stats and such?

  “Status. Menu. Character,” I muttered. “Information. Stats. Abilities. Oh, for goodness sake. Self-analysis?”

Yuan Rivers (Sorcerer/Ranger Level 1)

Sorcerer Class Points: 0

Energy: Full

Condition: Healthy

Ranger Class Points: 0

Mana: Full

Sorcerer Features: Spirit Animal (Avoidance, Empathic Bond)

Ranger Features: Animal Companion (Lesser Avoidance, Master Bond)

Miscellaneous Features: None

Sorcerer Spells: Magic Sight, Lux, Minor Telekinesis, Force Armor, Magic Missile

Ranger Spells: Animal Stealth

Proficiencies: Sword, Bow, Spells

  “Ah, there we go. Hm.” Having something so blatantly game-like was helping me calm down and focus. My heartbeat was already slowing. “Looks like HP and numerical stats aren’t a thing. Most of what it shows me I already knew, though the Proficiencies probably explain the apparent muscle memory with regards to my sword. Apparently I do know how to use my weapons. Somehow.”

  I slipped my sword back into my belt – very carefully, as it had no sheath – and put on my archery glove, which had been in my pocket. I might need to use the bow. I had no idea how closely the Classes cleaved to the game on which they seemed to be based, but my suspicion was that there would be plenty of points of divergence. I had “mana” rather than “spell slots,” for one thing, and there was no numerical value listed for it either.

  There was also the issue of some of the spells being renamed. The knowledge of how to cast the spells was imprinted in my mind, but not the knowledge of what exactly they did, meaning I would have to experiment. Likely in combat. That sounded super safe.

  That was sarcasm.

  “Skree!”

  Rusty reappeared, pumping his wings for extra speed, then circled around my head before landing on my left shoulder – which had some sort of leather guard on top. When had that gotten there? Shadow darted between my legs, and I felt her nervousness and fear. A pair of mottled green felines that resembled panthers stalked into view, spreading out and moving to circle me, their yellow eyes fixed on me unblinkingly.

  A stab of fear.

  I only had seconds to decide on a course of action.

  “Animal Stealth,” I said, drawing on something deep inside my core and weaving it into a strange lattice with my mind. The entire process took about three seconds, and when the lattice was complete, I felt something snap into place. The world took on a grayish tint, and the great cats stopped, looking around in confusion.

  Ding!

  [You have cast the first circle spell “Animal Stealth” for the first time. This spell affects you and any bonded creatures, such as Animal Companions or Spirit Animals. It has two effects: it makes those affected undetectable by nonmagical animals and increases the difficulty of detecting those affected for all other creatures. The duration of this spell is indefinite; it constantly drains a small amount of mana while in effect. Attacking or casting offensive spells automatically dismisses the spell.]

  “Undetectable? So they can’t hear me if I talk?”

  The green panthers didn’t react to my speech at all, but they started moving closer, sniffing. They were still looking for me. I needed to move.

  I walked right between them, tensing as I did. They continued their fruitless search, completely unnoticing of my passing. I kept walking forward, only adjusting my direction to avoid step around underbrush and avoid walking into trees. Only once I had put a several minutes of distance between me and the big cats did I finally heave a sigh of relief.

  I didn’t cancel the spell, though. There were a lot of other animals around, including bugs the size of my thumb or even bigger and snakes that could easily swallow my cat whole. This place was clearly dangerous, and without this spell I wasn’t sure I could defend myself properly.

  Some time later – according to my cell phone, about ten minutes – I heard a frightened cry. It sounded like a multisyllabic word, but definitely not an English one. I hesitated. The Trial never said that my family were the only ones, did it? It had sounded like a girl, not some sort of animal or monster, so maybe she was another prospective Champion?

  “Skree!”

  Rusty lifted off my shoulder, accidentally whacking me in the head with his wing as he took off. I followed him as quickly as I could, abandoning all pretense at stealth just to try to keep up. Annoyingly, Shadow had an easier time than I did, as she didn’t seem to be inhibited by the foliage nearly as much.

  Eventually we came to the edge of something that could very generously be called a clearing. Somewhere close to the center, her back pressed up against a large tree with lots of thick vines hanging from its branches, was a girl who appeared to be somewhere between my age and my sister’s age. Her wavy hair, which fell to the middle of her shoulder blades, rippled with all the colors of the rainbow. Her ears were pointy, and long enough that they poked through her hair. Her violet eyes didn’t seem to have any whites, and her skin was almost as pale as my pasty indoor self. The clothes she wore seemed vaguely sci-fi, with what looked like metal stripes creating circuits on her green bodysuit. A bracelet that was clearly some sort of computer was on her right wrist, and her shoes looked like liquid silver.

  Oh, and she was surrounded by creatures that absolutely looked like brown wolves with green pointy horns jutting out from above their eyes. There were four of them, and I could literally see the saliva dripping from their open mouths.

  “Skree!”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Rusty was circling above the wolves, waiting for a command.

  The girl shouted something that sounded aggressive at the wolves, bringing her fists up defensively in front of her face like a boxer. If she had noticed Rusty, she gave no indication, and she definitely didn’t seem to have seen me yet.

  I pulled my bow off my back (how was it stuck there, anyway? Questions for later) and drew an arrow from my quiver.

  Wait. I should armor up first.

  “Force Armor.”

  The lattice, different from Animal Stealth, took roughly the same length of time to form. It snapped into place, and I briefly saw purple plates of armor form around my arms, on my legs, and protecting my torso (both front and back) before they disappeared from view.

  Ding!

  [You have cast the first circle spell “Force Armor” for the first time. This spell affects you. It creates thin plates of protective force to guard your arms, legs, and torso from physical damage. The duration of this spell is indefinite; it constantly drains a small amount of mana while in effect. The plates sustaining a certain amount of damage will shatter and dismiss the spell.]

  Now I could fight.

  I nocked an arrow. Pulling back the bow was harder than I had expected it to be. It was probably because I was so weak. Still, I could probably manage a few shots. I aimed at the back of the head of one of the wolves, then let fly.

  Twhip! Crack!

  The sensation of Animal Stealth, which I had started to get used to, instantly disappeared, and my vision returned to normal. The wolf I shot collapsed with the arrow embedded in its skull. The other three reacted instantly. Two of them whirled around with a speed and grace that a quadruped really shouldn’t be capable of, their amber eyes locating me in a fraction of a second.

  The third lunged for the girl. Her computer-bracelet sparked as she swung, discharging what looked like a massive jolt of electricity into its head when her fist connected with the side of its snout. It crashed into the ground beside her, twitching.

  “Rusty! Attack!”

  The two wolves charged toward me. I cast aside my bow and drew my sword, but I wasn’t fast enough. One of them jumped at me, teeth clamping down on the plates protecting my sword arm with a scraping sound. I stumbled back from the impact.

  The other jumped at me, too, but it was knocked off course by a rust-colored feathery comet impacting with its head. Still, it hit my legs and nearly knocked me over, unbalanced as I was.

  The wolf holding onto my arm shook its head vigorously, and I completely lost my footing. I was jerked forward and to the right; I crashed to the ground.

  Fear rose up and threatened to break my focus as the wolf let go of my arm and prepared to finish me off.

  I felt a flash of fury through my empathic bond.

  Shadow leapt from the ground directly into the wolf’s face, clawing at its eyes. It yowled in pain and anger, whipping its head back and forth until the cat was thrown off.

  But the spirit animal had bought me some time. I lurched up and slashed, my sword cutting across the wolf’s left front leg and into its neck and underside of its jaw. The pained cry was accompanied by a retreat the distance of several feet, allowing me to get up into a crouch. It eyed me warily, now seeing me as a threat rather than easy prey.

  Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Rusty was distracting the other wolf, winging back up out of reach before divebombing and tearing with his talons. Good for him; I’d be dead otherwise.

  My foe and I locked eyes.

  A beat.

  Lunge.

  Counter stab.

  My sword buried in the throat of the wolf, its teeth snapping less than a foot from my face. Blood washed over my hand, and I reflexively dropped my sword, springing up and stumbling back.

  “Skree!”

  Rusty hurtled through the air before smacking into a tree, tossed by the final wolf. I was jolted out of my stunned stupor. The wolf prowled toward the flailing bird.

  I had to protect Rusty, but I didn’t have a weapon!

  I extended my bloody hand toward the wolf.

  “Magic Missile!”

  This time the spell’s lattice seemed almost to complete itself, flowing to completion much more quickly: it took perhaps two seconds rather than three before the marble-sized shining blue star winked into existence and streaked between my palm and the wolf, exploding on impact with its side and hurling the wolf several feet away, flipping it sideways.

  Ding!

  [You have cast the first circle spell “Magic Missile” for the first time. This spell creates one or more magical projectiles which home in on their targets and explode. This is an upgradeable spell.]

  The wolf struggled to get to its feet. I couldn’t allow that.

  “Magic Missile!”

  The shining blue star attacked in a curved arc, and this time the wolf didn’t move after the explosion.

  Ding!

  [You have killed three horned wolves without assistance. You have killed three horned wolves without sustaining any damage. You have won your first battle. For these achievements, Experience Earned has been tripled.]

  [Congratulations: you have leveled up. Each time you increase your level, you will gain CP (half as much in your Secondary Class as your Primary Class), as well as slightly increase your physical, mental, or magical characteristics in accordance with the strengths of your classes. Class Points may be spent on earning new features or spells, or upgrading current features or spells.]

  That was all well and good – and kind of exciting – but there were a two much more important issues to take care of first.

  “Rusty!” I said in concern, going over to the hawk’s side. He was back on his feet, which was a good sign. “Are you okay?” One of his legs was injured, presumably from the wolf grabbing and tossing him, but he seemed to stand on it just fine. I checked his wings; he keened in (presumably) irritation, but I was able to confirm that he hadn’t broken anything, at least. Unfortunately that got some blood on him, though. Not a big priority, but I’d have to take care of that at some point.

  I stood up. “Shadow?”

  The black cat darted up to me and meowed. I felt concern through our link.

  “I’m all right, Shadow. Are you okay?”

  Shadow rubbed up against my leg, and I felt her satisfaction.

  “Good.” Now for the second issue. I turned toward the pointy-eared girl.

  She pointed at me and said something in her unfamiliar language. I wasn’t quite sure whether it was a statement or a question.

  “I have no idea what you just said.”

  She blinked, then frowned. She tapped her computer-bracelet and said something. There was a pause, and then a mechanical voice emanated from it, speaking in the same language. She growled in frustration.

  “So, uh, I’m guessing you’re here for the Trial of Champions, too?” I said taking a step toward her. She immediately raised her fists, shouting out something that I assumed was a warning. I held up my hands, palms toward her, and her eyes flicked to my blood-covered right hand. Er. That might be an issue.

  Maybe if I learned a spell to clean things? The Sorcerer class should be capable of that.

  “Upgrades,” I said quietly. “Level up. Class Points. Advancement.”

Yuan Rivers (Sorcerer/Ranger Level 2)

Sorcerer Class Points: 4

Energy: High

Condition: Healthy

Ranger Class Points: 2

Mana: Moderate

Sorcerer Advancement Options

Enhance Spirit Animal, New 0th Circle Spell, New 1st Circle Spell, Upgrade Magic Missile

Ranger Advancement Options

Enhance Animal Companion, New 1st Circle Spell, New Weapon Art, Increase Weapon Competency

Miscellaneous Advancement Options

None

  “New zeroth circle spell options,” I muttered.

  A list appeared in my mind. It had about two dozen options in it, and I quickly picked out the one called “Cleanse.” My Sorcerer Class Points ticked down by one. I raised my eyebrows. If that was all it took…

  “Upgrade Magic Missile.”

  Two options came this time: “25% reduction in casting time” and “one additional missile.” That… was actually a harder decision than I expected it would be. Cutting off a half-second from the casting time was a huge difference in the heat of battle, but it was less than the doubling of the DPS (or damage per second) that adding an additional missile was. After some brief indecision, I settled on reducing the casting time. One missile in one point five seconds was probably a better deal than two missiles in two seconds.

  This time it used two CP, and my advancement options for Sorcerer disappeared entirely. Would each choice I made cost more CP?

  Well, assuming the same pattern held true for my secondary class, I could pick one upgrade for Ranger. I assumed that “Increase Weapon Competency” would make me more skilled at hitting my opponents, but given that the basic competency it gave me allowed me to hit the back of a wolf’s head from around thirty feet away while it was stationary, I could save that for later. Rusty didn’t need boosting any more than Shadow at the moment – he had survived a toss with little injury, after all – so that wasn’t necessary either. So really, it was between learning a new spell and learning a new “weapon art,” whatever that was.

  “New weapon art options.”

  The list was fairly long, but the “arts” were grouped together under various headings, and as my mental vision hovered over each group, the others faded away. I had a feeling they were mutually exclusive. I didn’t spend a whole lot of  time lingering; the girl had narrowed her eyes at me and was starting to inch away. Instead, I picked one of the options under “Archery:” “Swift Shot.”

  [You have learned the Archery Art: Swift Shot. You can now shoot arrows twice as quickly. As your skill improves the speed with which you can shoot, the effect of this Art continues to proportionately enhance your speed. Note: by choosing an Archery Art, you may no longer choose Arts from other combat disciplines.]

  My Ranger CP dropped by one, and my upgrade options vanished.

  “Cleanse,” I cast. The zeroth circle spell completed its lattice far, far faster than any of the first circle spells, finishing in a mere half-second. It snapped into place, and I focused the magical energy – a much smaller amount of energy than a first circle spell – on myself. In an instant, blood, dirt, and grime disappeared from my skin, hair, and clothes.

  “There,” I said aloud. “Not bloody anymore!”

  [You have cast the zeroth circle spell “Cleanse” for the first time. This spell affects you or any creature or object within twenty feet of you. The affected target and its equipment is cleansed of anything that soils it, be it solid or liquid. This does not eliminate food or water contamination.]

  I was pretty sure the last thing – the thing that it didn’t do – was covered by my sister’s Purify spell.

  But back to my present surroundings. The girl had stopped inching away and was now frowning at me. I smiled in a manner that I hoped was disarming.

  “Uh, hi? Let’s try this again. My name’s Yuan, and I just helped you fight these wolves.” I tapped my chest. “Yuan,” I repeated.

  She pointed to me. “Yuan?” she asked.

  I nodded. She hesitated, then pointed to herself. “Lartha,” she said.

  “Lartha,” I repeated, pointing to her and getting a nod in return. Movement attracted my attention and I noticed that Rusty was circling me. I held out my arm and he landed. He didn’t feel quite as heavy as before. With another nod at Lartha, I went to collect by weapons (and clean off the sword. With them safely back on my person (and I still didn’t know how the bow was staying on my back), I turned back to her to find her staring at me curiously.

  “Hey, Shadow? Go charm her, will you?”

  Shadow looked up at me with great amusement and padded over to Lartha, meowing. Lartha glanced between the two of us before crouching down and stroking Shadow, causing the feline to purr. The girl smiled, and didn’t react with fear or hostility when I walked up to her.

  “So,” I said. “Shall we team up?”

You have extended a temporary party link request.

Should this be accepted, both individuals will be capable of understanding one another’s language.

…

Lartha has accepted your invitation.

  Lartha looked up at me.

  “Now,” she said, “who the heck are you, Yuan?”