Unbound

Chapter Eight - 008

The night air stilled as everything dimmed, just slightly. Then they world...flexed, somehow.

Everything went dark.

You have gained a Memory from a Copse Grub! Would you like to review it now?

Yes/Yes

Everything was still dark. Dark, comforting and damp and safe. Life. Food.

Flexing and pulling...crawling, inching through dissolving food. Delicious.

Light. Sudden. Dangerous.

Pain. Food torn away.

A face. Wrong. Broken. Metal. Unmade.

Lost.

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A claw, sharp. Stabbing pain flooding body. Hurt.

Hurt.

Release the Burning, the Foodmaker. Over and over, until empty. Flee. Burrow down, down, deep as possible.

Into the dark.

Where it's safe.

"Urghlgh."

The sound of his own retching hit him before anything else. Felix groaned and rolled over, his body limp as a dead fish and somehow sore all over.

These Memories hit like a truck, Felix groaned, cradling his head. Feels like my brain is trying to escape with an ice pick.

Some time later, he managed to roll to his knees without vomiting again. The tree stopped spinning long enough to show him morning was well underway. He'd managed to lose the entire night.

Blacking out this much can't be healthy. He steadied his head, feeling like his eyeballs were pushing in the wrong directions. Yeah, no. Definitely not healthy.

He settled back against his branch and considered his hands. A short while ago they were just nubby feet meant to push him through the delicious white wood of his mother tree. The grub's mother tree, he corrected. It was hard to keep the grub-Felix and himself separate. The Memory was so seamless that it felt baked into his mind.

After a moment longer, he accessed his notifications.

Pain Resistance is level 13!

Lessons of the Past is level 3!

Lessons of the Past is level 4!

Congratulations! Lessons of the Past Has Garnered You Insight!

You Have Learned A New Skill!

Acid Stream (Rare), Level 1!

Manifest a stream of acid to launch at foes!

"Holy shit, it worked." Eyes wide, Felix considered the implications as he fought down the burning in his chest. His Gourmand title gave him some sort of percentage to learn his opponents' strengths by eating them. Apparently he didn't have to eat them whole, as proven by the Kingsap and now the Copse Grub's blood. The percentage is also very low, maybe less than 1% based on how often he had gotten grub blood in his mouth during the previous day.

Not only that, the first skill the title had acquired for him was Lessons of the Past, which also created some sort of chance to gain skills from experiencing the Memories contained in his foes' Mana. Metaphysical implications of memories stored in blood aside, the skill and title combination was amazing. While he obviously didn't gain a Memory from the Kingsap, he had still had a chance to learn Meditation due to the Mana that flowed through the magic tree. And though his Gourmand title didn't activate on the Copse Grub, he still was able to grab a Memory and learn from that.

"This is amazing," Felix laughed and was about to stand up when a blue box appeared in front of him.

Congratulations!

You Have Received Your First Spell!

You Have Received A Quest!

Advance Three Spells To Apprentice Level!

Reward: Title

"Oh man," he began. "Quests too? Fixed rewards? This is--"

ERROR...

Lost Race Detected...

Adjusting Quest...

Quest Received!

Advance Five Spells To Apprentice Level!

Reward: Variable, Title

"What."

The bottom dropped out of Felix's stomach. He had gotten a quest, but his race--his stupid, XP-penalty-having, not-his-choice race--altered it? Not only altered it, but made it harder, apparently!

He rubbed his temples. At least the rewards appeared to increase, though "variable" could mean almost anything.

And what did Apprentice level mean? It was higher than level 13, the level of his highest Skill. Pain Resistance didn't mention a word about Apprentice anything. Frowning, he pulled up his Status screen and consulted his Skills.

"Oh man, these are a mess." He'd been gaining Skills rapidly the past few days, and the result was a Skill column that was a mish-mash of types, rarities, and levels.

"Could I get these reorganized or--" Before he finished the thought, another blue box appeared.

Do You Wish To Reconfigure The Skills Section?

Yes/No

"Creepy," Felix grimaced. "But yes."

The reorganization was simple enough, basically drag and drop. But it took him close to an hour before he was satisfied with the layout.

"Ok. Accept."

Skills:

Resistances: Acid Resistance (C), Level 12; Pain Resistance (U), Level 12; Poison Resistance (U), Level 6

Utility: Analyze (C), Level 11; Improvisation (C), Level 4; Running (C), Level 6; Stealth (C), Level 3; Breath Control (U), Level 1; Free Climbing (U), Level 2; Herbalism (U), Level 5; Meditation (U), Level 9; Physical Conditioning (R), Level 5; Lessons of the Past (R), Level 4

Combat: Dodge (C), Level 6; Small Blade Mastery (C), Level 7; Staff Mastery (C), Level 1; Thrown Weapons Mastery (C), Level 8; Unarmed Mastery (C), Level 3; Acrobatics (U), Level 8;

Spells: Acid Stream (R), Level 1

Broad categories but effective. More importantly, it wouldn't make his eyes bleed every time he accessed his Status. That done with, Felix clapped his hands and quickly climbed down the Kingsap.

Free Climbing is level 3!

"Time to practice some magic!"

Felix was beyond excited. While he had many Skills at this point, this was his first truly magical Skill. Fixing his eyes on a rock about ten feet away, Felix activated Acid Stream. Quickly, maybe half a second or so later, a bubble of acid manifested a half inch from his palm. The bubble grew until it was about the size of a grapefruit, then suddenly burst outward in the direction his palm was facing. Bright green acid, looking very similar to the Copse Grub's attack, arced gracefully out toward his target. It missed by several feet, hitting around seven feet away and splashing into a small puddle.

Felix kept the stream up for a few seconds, watching his Mana tick downward steadily. Acid Stream took 5 mana per second and was a continual cast, lasting apparently as long as he had Mana to fuel it. With his current stats he could keep it up for 33 seconds.

"This is so cool," Felix grinned. He walked to the small green puddle and inspected it. The small grasses and thin weeds were sizzling away, burning down to nothing in the acid. However, the larger weeds and plants with thicker stalks and tougher flowers were just trampled down, like a garden hose being sprayed into a flowerbed. He channeled a quick stream against a nearby rock, letting it splash against it for a few seconds. The acid sizzled and bubbled, but the rock was unaffected.

"Dang. The grub definitely had more power than this," Felix bit his lip, thinking. "I wonder at what level the spell can melt rock?" And would leveling it improve the cost, speed of casting, or anything else? He hoped so.

Oh, how does Intelligence affect this?

In many RPGs Intelligence dictated the power of spells, while wisdom (or Willpower in this case) affected amount of Mana and regeneration. Does it work the same? My intelligence is pretty high.

"Welp, one way to find out."

An hour later, Felix realized he had hunted all of the local grubs. If he wanted to experiment he'd have to attack the level 18 Emberflies...but he wasn't ready for that kind of heat, not yet.

It seemed it was about time to leave his little glen and his magic tree. Despite the danger, Felix found he was a little excited at the thought of exploring beyond the Skink's territory.

But before anything else, he focused on his free stat points. He had fifteen of them to use, and had to consider this carefully. All of his stats were getting fairly high, with the exception of Strength at 12. While it was tempting to increase his Willpower and Intelligence and thus his Mana score, his race and Omen did a good job at keeping those high.

No, he had decided to follow his instincts and up his physical stats. This would keep his stats in balance, and while he may regret it later down the road, he didn't know all of the rules in this place and would rather play it safe. After all, in a world where his Strength and Vitality scores are actual representations of how likely he was to die? Yeah. He was fine with balanced.

He dumped 2 into AGL, 4 into PER, 1 into DEX, and a whopping 8 into STR.

Health:

100/100

Stamina:

126/130

Mana:

167/167

STR:

20

PER:

18

VIT:

20

END:

24

INT:

25

WIL:

31

AGL:

20

DEX:

17

Once he hit accept, Felix's body flooded with energy, causing his flesh to almost vibrate. Related to the burning in his chest, a weird, tingly sensation made his bones ache and his muscles to squirm. It faded quickly, much more quickly than before. Maybe he was getting used to it?

As the sensation faded, Felix regarded his bare chest and stomach. An amount of pudge still existed, but a good chunk of it had disappeared, replaced by barely visible muscle. He felt...strong. A lot stronger, if he was being honest, with more energy than he knew what to do with, like he could run forever.

"Now this I could get used to," Felix grinned as he flexed his hands and stretched his legs. Previously his 12 in Strength just barely allowed him to pierce the toughened flesh of the Copse Grubs, even with his makeshift knives. With a 20 in Strength he was nearly twice as strong, and should be able to deal with them much more easily.

Looking around his glen and surrounding areas, Felix was able to find another cache of dewcatchers and a small grouping of yarrow. They had been hidden by a type of hanging moss, right along the pathway he had been using for days now, and his eyes had been almost magnetically drawn to them as he passed. Increasing his Perception had definitely been worth it. If he hadn't caught a slight glance of them out of the corner of his eye, he would have missed them. And that would have been bad, since he was totally out of healing herbs and nearly out of his water supply.

It wasn't a lot, but it would have to be enough. With his supplies nearly gone, his food supply nonexistent, and his chances of survival nearing zero, Felix had little choice but to attempt to escape the Sharpwing Skinks' territory.

Taking a steadying breath, Felix hefted his wooden spear and headed due east. Into the woods.

It was easy going at first.

The difficult, forested terrain he had struggled through two days ago felt much less arduous. His Stamina was keeping pace with him, despite having to duck and hide at every loud noise. He evaded three different Skinks by hiding in the underbrush or under massive logs. While it was stressful and dangerous, it did wonders for his Stealth Skill.

Stealth is level 4!

Stealth is level 5!

Each level increase made him feel more at ease with hiding and moving quietly. He still forced himself to move as slowly as possible, or not at all during these moments, not trusting his low level Skill to make up for a lifetime of inexperience.

After two nerve-wracking hours, Felix began to hear a weird sound. He had traversed deeper into the forest than ever before, and the ground had been sloping upward for quite some time. With the huge trees and heavy foliage he couldn't be sure, but it felt like he was climbing a small mountain...or at least a big hill.

Turning a corner along an exposed rocky wall, the sound suddenly became twice as loud and Felix knew exactly what it was.

"Running water!" He whispered, excited. There must be a river nearby and, judging by the sound, it was quite big. This was perfect; he only had a few more dewcatchers left in his makeshift leaf-bag. He quickly ate an oblong fruit he had picked up a short while ago. It had pale lavender skin and tasted like a cross between a pear and an apple. It was good, soothing the ache that had been building in his stomach for the past few hours.

Just a little farther to go. Hopefully the river means an end to the lizard's territory. He had noticed the Skinks sliced up various trees with their wings throughout the forest and assumed it was their way of marking. Like a dog pissing on a fire hydrant. He just had to find an area without the markings and he was golden.

Felix took a few steps down a rocky incline, being careful of the loose rock all around. He was excited to get to the river, mostly to bathe. After several days in the forest he was getting awfully rank. And judging by the sound, it had to be only a short distance away. He could probably make it without--

*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*

Shit, no, not now. Felix had come to dread that sound. Especially now, with the river so close. There was little underbrush along the incline, and the tree line was about twelve feet away. He couldn't make it without causing a LOT of noise. And he couldn't hide in plain sight either.

Fuck. God damn it!

He started running.

Shale-like rock fell and clattered around his feet as he careened down the remaining twelve feet and stumbled into the tree line. As he hit the trees, he saw a teal Sharpwing Skink wheel into view and let out a warbling yarp!

Let's race, lizard. Felix took off, pushing himself as fast as hard as he could. He could hear the buzzing of the Skink's wings as it chased him, but it didn't close in. He was doing it! He was gonna win!

Then a second Skink zipped across his path, nearly cutting his head off. A quick duck and tumble saved his life, even as he hopped back onto his feet and kept running. Now the buzzing increased, rattling his teeth unpleasantly as the two Skinks amped up their pursuit.

Notifications started popping into his vision, but Felix waved his arms. "Not now! Minimize!" The blue boxes closed, just in time for Felix to see the ground drop out from beneath him.