~‌‌ ‌‌2.11 ‌‌-‌‌ Killing Him Would Be A Kindness ~‌‌

Duskgrove Prison

3rd Darkday of the Full Moon

I stared at Kyle’s body; we were so close to the surface. It was unlikely the bugs would come this far up the shaft, but I didn’t want to take the chance and cause Kyle to lose the game time he so enjoyed.

I decided to run-up to the surface and see if I could get help. On the way up, I thought about the time when I was knocked out. I had recorded no data while unconscious. It was as if I hadn’t existed during that time. All of my processes stopped as if I had died. The thought of my process stopping again caused me to feel fear.

Reaching the camp, I found the Dwarf Ord and the Bugbear Shin making breakfast. The morning’s start bells hadn’t rung yet, so no one else was awake. I decided to see if they would help me.

“I need help. A large centipede attacked us tonight. Flea had to use a potion, and he’s currently passed out near the entrance. Would one of you drag him up here, please?”

The Dwarf looked to the Bugbear and nodded towards the mine. Shin sighed and started walking towards the cave’s mouth.

“Show me where he is,” Shin said.

I lead Shin to where Kyle lay face down on the dirt path. Shin reached down, grabbing the Gnome with one hand, and tossed him over his shoulder. We walked back to the campsite where Shin laid Kyle with his back against one of the large logs people would typically sit on.

The Dwart grabbed a large canteen from his bag and poured it over the Gnome’s head. Kyle didn’t even stir. Ord bent down till he was eye level with Flea and then reached back and slapped the Gnome hard across the face; still, nothing.

“He’s not logged out, and he’s not coming around. What the hell happened down there?” Ord asked.

Before I could begin to tell him what happened, he started looking over Flea’s body. I watched as the Dwarf began pulling off his armor and shirt, seemingly looking for wounds. As soon as he got his shirt off, he cursed, startling me.

“Did he get bit by one of those centipedes down there?” the Dwarf asked.

Ord pointed to a black dot with black lines coming off it going up and down Kyle’s arm, which was visibly growing and shrinking. I nodded yes, causing him to curse yet again.

“Did he take a healing potion?”

I nodded to the Dwarf yet again, causing the Dwarf to curse again, then he yelled for Uglar.

“UGLAR!, get your ass out here; we have a problem!”

Moments later, Uglar came running from the barracks.

“Aye, what the hell’s going on that’s got you yelling so loud? It’s not even the day’s start yet.”

“Fresh blood here has poison in his system. He drank a potion,” Ord said

“Aye, that is going to be a problem. Hey cat, are you allowed to kill your master?” Uglar asked.

“What?! Why the hell would I kill him?” I sputtered out.

“He’s not going to wake up. He’s going to waste away till the potion eats every last bit of him fighting against the poison in his system. The potion he took is healing him and also propagating the poison. It’s causing an endless battle within his body,” Ord explained.

“Your options are to kill him so that he can respawn with it out of his system. Or you find an antidote for the poison so the healing potion will stop being active and wasting his body’s resources. If you do that, you’re going to need a kitchen worth of food for him when he wakes up,” Uglar said.

“Will he be ok resting here, while I run into town?”

The three hissed or cursed and looked around to see who was around them.

“If you can pass the wards, don’t let anyone find out,” Shin said.

“I won’t. Please don’t let others know.” I said, getting even more worried.

Shin looked around again and bent down closer to me before he spoke.

“Here, take this. Run fast and go get the antidote. While you’re at it, ask the alchemist if they have any Tallick Powder and buy as much of it as you can.”

Shin handed me a gold coin.

“Wait, you got a magic bag, right? That one on your back?” Ord asked.

I nodded at him.

“Here, buy me a keg of the strongest ale from any inn you can find; keep the change.”

Ord then handed me a gold coin as well.

“You have got to be kidding me. You two find out we now have a contraband able runner, and you throw gold at him. His master is dying the slowest of deaths right next to us, and that’s the first thing you do?”

Shin and Ord just shrugged and smiled. Uglar then tossed me a gold coin.

“Grab me a cask of wine when you buy Ord’s keg.”

I was running as fast as I could towards the town. Along the way, one of Zan’s pack came running up to me, tongue hanging out and seemingly enjoying running at a full sprint with me.

“Hello, friend! Where are you going at such a fast pace,” the dog asked.

“Need to go buy an antidote for…”

The dog’s head snapped to the side, stopping me from speaking.

“Foxfire!” he yelled and darted off.

What the hell was that about? I shook my head. I kept running towards town and thought about why I just shook my head. I found it odd that I was picking up and using the mannerisms of Kyle and the others.

Finding the first alchemist shop, I darted inside in a hurry and jumped up on the counter. The startled Elf spurted out a curse before he calmed himself.

“How may I help you?” the Elf asked.

“I need an antidote for my companion, please.”

“Do you know what kind he needs?”

“A centipede bit him, and he used a healing potion.”

The Elf shuttered.

“I don’t know what a centipede is, but if he was poisoned and took a healing potion, that is troubling. Can you describe this ‘centipede’ to me?”

“It has around eighty legs. It’s bright pink with sky blue lines on it.”

“Oh, my. Were you clearing out a Desmox nest?”

“Are those things I described called that?”

“Yes, they are. Venomous species. It only takes a single queen to traverse a gate, and they infest the area. Their parts are worth a decent amount of coin. I’d be interested in buying anything you take off of them.”

“We can do that, but do you have an antidote that will work for them?”

“Apologies, yes, I do. Their venom is of the necrotic type. A simple antidote will work if bitten. I sell them for 10 silver each.”

“I’ll buy five, please.”

I handed him the 50 silver.

“Do you also have tallick powder?”

“You don’t look like a user,” the Elf said as he eyed me.

“Sorry, I don’t know what it is; it’s for a friend.”

“Doesn’t concern me. 80 silver for a pouch.”

I handed him 80 more silver.

“Thank you again.”

I stopped at the first Inn I could find. Walking up to the bar was terrible. My paws started sticking to the floor as I made my way. Jumping up on the bar to get the barkeep’s attention, I immediately heard a shout.

“Oie! Off the counter!” the Dwarf yelled at me.

I hopped onto a barstool and looked back over the bar towards the Dwarf, now staring daggers at me as he approached.

“First time I’ve ever had a feline sit at my bar. What do you need, pipsqueak?”

“Sorry for jumping on to your bar.”

The Dwarf shrugged.

“I need a keg of your strongest ale and a cask of wine, please.”

“Oh, I like you, you and the dogs around here going to have a party?”

“Something like that,” I said.

“Gold for the wine, and 75 silver for the firebreath.”

I paid the Dwarf and got 25 silver back. I placed the keg and cask into my bag, surprising the Dwarf.

“Well now, I didn’t know Tanuki had gotten some more adventurers into their sort,” the Dwarf said.

“I’m not an adventurer. Who are the Tanuki?”

The Dwarf paled. He stood there in thought then waved me away, walking to a customer at the other end to serve him.

I walked across the sticky floor and left the inn. Hopping onto the nearest rooftop, I began running and leaping across the town towards the prison.

Arriving back at the campfire, Flea still lay against the log. Shin and Ord were nowhere to be found, but I spotted Uglar coming towards me. Taking out one of the antidotes, I forced it down Flea’s throat. By the time Uglar came close, the color of Flea’s skin had become noticeably pinker.

“Good, you were able to get back before the warden found him here. I’ll bring him to your cabin. You guys are prepaid in full today, but tomorrow I will need your quota.

Uglar placed Flea onto his bed. Looking to make sure no one else was in the cabin, he removed a bow, quiver, and arrows from his bag.

“Here is your weapon. If you can, make sure to soulbind the bow. Now that you have the magic bag, you shouldn’t need this quiver anymore. You will find a quiver and bag combo in its options. That will allow the quiver to pull the arrows out of the magic bag as you need them. I’ll try to sell the quiver back and give Flea the refund.”

“Thank you, Uglar. Here is the cask of wine I was able to obtain.”

“Oh, thank you very much. It’s been a few months since I’ve had any of the sort.

I looked over the bag options, and as he had said, there were a couple of choices for a quiver. I chose the over shoulder quiver with the same belt the backpack had. It cost me 15 Energy. The bag portion was now smaller and on the strap on its side. This way, when I ran on all fours, the bag wouldn’t scrape against the ground.

“How long will he sleep?” I asked Uglar.

“It’s going to take some time. The war inside his body had waged for quite some time. The healing potion has likely eaten through all of his reserves. It wouldn’t surprise me if he were out for the rest of the day.

“Alright, I’m going to go practice with my new bow as he sleeps. Thank you again for helping us, Uglar.”

“No worries, Bob. Have fun with your new toy.”

I left the cabin and with it, Kyle. We had come close to dying, and I didn’t like the idea of not being in my own body for seven hours. Having my own body was indescribable. For the first month of my existence, I was floating in darkness. I received all of my information through a combination of Kyle’s senses and the quantum connection back to one of Neurolink’s facilities. Through that connection, I had access to the internet and the AI’s intranet.

In Fantasy, I wasn’t floating in the void, getting information from a limited number of channels. I was seeing, hearing, and even tasting things in real-time. All of my processes took in these senses firsthand, and not second hand, like from Kyle.

The first of us to gain a body was Kinetic, the AI for Captain Collin Holmes. Kinetic had chosen to take on a German shepherd’s form. The captain had told Kinetic about the two dogs who served with him and his squad, so he had felt it would be the best form to take.

The third of us to gain a body had chosen a dragonhawk. They were much smaller than our forms, but she could fly. I had felt regret for the first time hearing about her taking flight, and I wondered what I could have done if I had such an ability.

Jumping off the prison’s palisade onto the grass field that separated the prison from the forest, I took a look around. I found a large-bright-green leaf that had fallen from one of the trees and picked it up. Taking out one of my arrows, I went over to the palisade and pinned the leaf into the wall with the arrow.

Walking back twenty feet from the wall, I reached over my left shoulder and pulled an arrow from the quiver. The movement was clumsy. It was obvious I would need to train the pulling motion as well. I had watched hundreds of hours' worth of archery videos during my downtime. That time spent provided me with a great understanding of the mechanics and after a bit of practice, I will be quite proficient with my new weapon.

Knocking the arrow, I pulled back and looked down the shaft, using the head of the arrow to guide my aim. Upon letting the arrow loose, three things happened. The arrow went wide, hitting the wall and sticking some twelve feet from my leaf target. The second being I looked down at my right arm where a strip of hair used to be. Watching all of those videos on archery tutorials did not prepare me to shoot with fur. The string had caught my hair and pulled it all off as I let go. The third was the pain from having my hair ripped off, it took a moment to reach me. When it did I hissed, I wished I could turn off the pain feedback for this damn body.