Owain made coffee for him and Lindy and served cordial for the kids as well. When he went to hand the cup to his wife her hand lingered on his... Well maybe paw is the right word? Let’s stick with hand. Her fingers pulled back slowly across his fur as she stared at the change.
“You’re a lot bigger now Dad. How tall are you?” asked Pete, apparently fascinated by the changes. Owain really felt that it would be best not to focus too much on his transformation until Lindy had had some time but kids and curiosity are a combination that cannot be denied.
“Not sure Pete, about seven feet tall I think? I haven’t even looked in a mirror since it happened so I don’t know what my face looks like. Is it horrible?”
“You look like a giant cat Dad. Flat face, broad snout, striped fur. Really big eyes! I bet you can see in the dark really well now! It looks pretty cool.”
“Um, thanks I think? Better or worse?”
The boy cocked his head to one side and gave him a long look. “Different,” he concluded solemnly.
“Ha well that makes me feel better!” he lied. “Lindy, I could really use a shower. Please could you fix some breakfast for the kids? I’m a bit messy.” he gestured at the pink blood stains down his front and the splashes of red on his left leg.
“Sure Owain, I’ll throw something together for them. Are you, um, hungry?”
“Ravenous!” Crap, should have phrased that differently, he thought as Lindy twitched. “Ah sorry, yes I am. My ability says I get stronger when I feed. Seeing as we’re due to be attacked in a while I think we need to come up with a plan and get stronger. I’ll grab a quick shower and then we can figure something out.”
He went upstairs to the ensuite in their bedroom and removed his improvised nappy before hopping in the shower. The water ran pink for a while and he ended up using half a bottle of shampoo. He was all hair and no skin now. Take that male pattern baldness! He wrapped a towel around himself and went to look in the mirror. He could understand Lindy’s reaction now he got a good look at himself. Pete had been right. Broad flat face, broad nose above a short snout. He had whiskers. Six inch whiskers sticking out of the side of his face. He grinned at himself and saw the gleaming rows of two inch fangs. Absolutely terrifying. He’d need to remember not to smile too much.
With his fur soaked down the new muscles his change had given him were clearly visible. Where before he had been slightly pudgy now he looked like a full time gym rat. He was just over seven feet tall as far as he could tell. He had to duck under every door in the house. The orange and black fur covered his entire body but became paler across his stomach and chest. The fur was currently slicked down by the water clinging to it. Hair dryer time.
After fifteen minutes Lindy came upstairs to find him still blow drying his left arm. She burst into laughter and went to get Claire’s hair dryer as well.
“Now you know how it feels for me to have to dry my hair!”
“You don’t have hair everywhere love! This is a nightmare. Now I know why cats hate swimming.”
Between them over the next half an hour they managed to get him mostly dry. And unfortunately he ended up extremely fluffy. Claire came up to investigate what was keeping them. After she was done making suitably excited noises at the ball of fur he had become she and Lindy set about him with combs and brushes, Claire giggling away as she worked. Claire offered to give him a bow to wear between his ears, insisting it would look so cute. His ears now stuck out a couple of inches above his head and swivelled independently. Owain politely declined her generous offer.
“I’m going to need something to wear. None of my clothes will fit now,” he pointed out.
After a brief discussion they opted to get him a fresh large towel and cinch it tight with a belt to give him an improvised kilt. Less than ideal but nothing else he owned was big enough to fit anything close to comfortably. He’d need to remember to sit carefully to avoid giving anyone an eyeful they didn’t want. They returned to the kitchen to find Pete and Sam deep in a heated debate.
“You don’t even have an ability! What do you know about it?” said Sam angrily.
“But you have a level! That means you can level up! It’s obvious Sam, c’mon I know you’re not that bright but surely you can see this?” exclaimed Pete leaning back in his chair and looking pleased with himself.
“Oy! I’m bright enough not to be a little nerd!”
“Hey boys, enough now. What’s the problem?” Owain's voice came out deeper and he noticed he was rolling his R’s more than he used to. Another thing to watch out for in addition to the purrs.
Lindy went and put a plate into the microwave to bring it back up to hot.
“He thinks because we have levels we should be able to get stronger. He doesn’t even have an Essence!” exclaimed Sam.
“Listen Meathead-”
“Pete! Apologise!” said Lindy.
“I’m sorry, I’m sure you’re not a meathead," Owain wasn't convinced Pete was being sincere. "Look, if you have levels there must be some way to level up!”
“Level up?” said Owain.
You need one Essence in order to level up.
“Oh, ok. Sam, Lindy, say level up.”
They did so. Lindy looked surprised and Sam scowled.
“That was just blind luck! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” he crossed his arms and slumped down in his chair. Claire came in with a small box and hopped up to sit on her dads knee. She opened the box and began taking out clips with different coloured bows attached and holding them up to his face, catching his whiskers.
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“Called it!” said Pete. “Smug mode engaged!”
“So we need more Essence. How do we get that Pete?”
“How should I know? I’m just a civilian,” he scowled at his brother. “Usually it’s called experience or XP in games. You get enough to level then you level up and get to improve your stats or unlock abilities. This is really basic stuff guys. It’s kind of embarrassing explaining it to you.”
“Well thanks for taking the time,” said Lindy dryly. “We’ve got… half an hour before whatever is coming gets here. What’s the plan you boys have come up with beyond what we talked about earlier?”
“We didn’t come up with much more. We know we need to reinforce the house. Block off the doors, put bars on the windows. We’ve got the gun, a massive tiger and I’m no slouch in a fight, ask Dad.” Sam said. He sounded a little smug himself on the last bit. Owain swatted at Claire's attempts to clip his whiskers back against his cheeks.
“Kiddo, please can you stop that? It’s really uncomfortable when you pull on the whiskers.”
“Sorry Dad.” She pushed the box away. “While we’re talking about plans we need to get the animals in. The goats are out and we should get them all back in the barn and seal it up. I don’t want them to get hurt.”
“That’s a good point darling. I’m afraid animals seem to be scared of me now. Could you and Sam go get them in the barn and lock it up please?”
Sam stood up and got the keys from the hook. “C’mon sis, lets go get them inside and give them a good feed.”
The kids left to lure the goats back in ahead of their usual schedule. Lindy smiled tentatively at Owain as she brought him over a plate of eggs and bacon, freshly rewarmed. He thanked her and started tucking in.
“So what else have you come up with Pete? You’re the closest we’ve got to an expert on this crazy stuff. We’re going to need you on the ball and working things out,” he said between mouthfuls. Pete was staring at him, fascinated by the fangs.
“Those are big teeth Dad, how can you still talk?”
“No idea son. I just can. Back on topic! Anything else you can think of that will help?”
“It’s not a video game. It just feels a bit like one," he shrugged. "Do you have an inventory?”
“Inventory. Nope I’m getting nothing.”
“Um, have you tried to form a group? Like a team? Lots of games with wave defence and dungeons use teams. Going solo is usually suicide.”
Owain looked at Lindy and said “Join group? Join team? Invite Lindy to team? Ooh!”
For discovering the Team function before the start of the first wave you are rewarded one Essence. Invite Belinda Jones to join Unnamed Team? Y/N
“Yes!”
Belinda Jones has joined Unnamed Team.
“I got an Essence for that! Pete, think as hard as you can son! Anything else we might be able to use? If we can get more Essence we can get stronger before this thing starts!”
“What’s a team chat?” asked Lindy, staring vacantly into the air and swiping at words only she could see.
“That is so unfair! Team chat will be like texting each other mum, but in your heads I suppose. A good fix for the phones not working. Do you get spells when you get your Essence?” he asked, his eyes flashing with curiosity about the way the system worked.
“Here’s what the system told me about mine.” Owain said excitedly and he read out his status page to his son. Lindy’s eyes fell as he covered the gentle soul part and what the system said about deliberately turning him into a monster. She looked at him, sadness and guilt clear in her eyes.
“Huh Bloodlust. That’s so cool, Dad. Despite the-” he waved his hand at Owain’s new body, “You got a really good power. So no spells? Just an ability with a couple of “guidelines”, interesting that they aren’t called limits or rules or something. Maybe you can break them?”
“How would we try to do that?” asked Lindy, coming over and sitting down next to Pete.
“I don’t know! I’m a civilian, as I keep having to remind everyone! Ok, let’s go with standard video game ideas. You’ve got a status screen and team interface. It’s all speech or thought activated…” Pete lapsed into deep thought.
The door swung open and Claire and Sam came back in. “They’re all away, we’ve locked up. It might be worth putting the car up against the doors so they are harder to get at?”
“Good idea Sam,” said Lindy, “I’ll go move it. Love, can you invite Sam to the team?” That was the first time she’d used a pet name for him since he changed. The fear that Lindy would remain distant and closed off from him began to fade, a little. But… Pet name. Damn, he needed to find a better phrase to describe it. However easy going he was, now he was part cat he could feel the fur on his back standing up at the thought of being called a pet.
He smiled at her, careful to keep the fangs hidden and said “Sure Lindy, do we have anything in there that we might need in the house?”
“Don’t think so but I’ll check in the boot before I come back. I’ll grab some tools as well, axes, picks, that kind of thing. I don’t think you need any weapons but me and Sam might get some use out of them.” She grabbed the car keys and hurried out the door.
Owain invited Sam to the team and he accepted.
“How did you figure this out?” He asked, pouring himself a drink.
“Pete figured it out.” said Owain. Pete preened with pride and shot a look at his older brother.
“And I think I might have something else! There’s always an examine type skill or spell. Sam, say “examine” for me!”
“Examine. No, nothing. Maybe you aren’t a genius?”
“Try other words that mean the same thing!”
“No.”
“Sam, please do what Pete is asking. I got an Essence for the team thing he suggested.”
“Analyse. Assess. Investigate. Um, Identify? Oh!”
“Did it work?” asked Pete excitedly.
“Yeah, it says you’re an NPC, Pete, but I got an Essence for it! Level up!”
“What does it say?” asked Pete, bouncing up and down in his chair and ignoring the dig from his brother.
“I can pick from Ability, Efficiency and Utility. Efficiency! Oh hey, I've got 300 reserves now! I got a three times multiplier!”
“Stop joking, what did you really get?” demanded Pete as Owain looked on bemused.
“I’m not kidding! I went from 100 to 300 reserves with that level. Level up! Ah says I need two Essence for the next level. That sucks.”
“You always need more XP for each level but that’s weird, one Essence for level two and two Essence for level three seems really low. No way it just multiplied a stat like that as well, it’s crazy!”
“Level up!” said Owain just as Lindy came in with a couple of lengths of rebar and a splitting axe held under one arm.
Would you like to use one Essence and advance to Level 2? Y/N
“Yes”
Please select from the following options
Ability
Efficiency
Utility
You have selected Ability.
New Status:
Level: 2
Name: Owain Jones
Ability: Weretiger (permanent)
Constitution: 100%
Reserves: 100
Ability: Weretiger
Weretiger:
Such a gentle soul. But within all gentle creatures lies the heart of a beast, it just takes the right encouragement to draw it out. You are now a weretiger, a ravenous monster from Earth legends. You will be permanently transformed by this ability. Feeding will make you stronger.
Guidelines:
Physical Enhancement: 400%
Bloodlust: Spend reserves to enhance your rage, making you more effective in combat and speeding up healing.
Modifications:
Level 2: Physical Enhancement X4