Chapter Four: Three

“Hold still, Shadow,” I complained as I used my handkerchief to clean the cat’s wound while holding her leg underwater.

“I don’t like it!” she yowled.

“We’ll be finished soon. Be patient. You want to be healed, don’t you?”

After I got the med patch attached (which adhered to her skin and then changed color to match her fur) Shadow lay down on a rock by the pool and sulked. I could tell she was sulking because I could feel it through our bond.

“So,” I said to Lartha. “Have any way of carrying this water?”

“No. You?”

“Nope. I guess we’ll make this our base for a little while. You wouldn’t happen to have any way to purify the water, would you?”

“No.”

“I guess we’ll just have to risk it, then.”

The underbrush on the far side of the pool rustled. Lartha and I looked at it, preparing for a fight.

…And out stepped a tiger. A tiger upon which my sister was riding.

I let out a huge sigh.

“Renee!” I called out.

“Oh! Hey, Yuan!” Her face lit up. “I’ve been looking everywhere! I’m so glad I found you. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Relieved to see you unharmed; I’ve been really worried about you guys. Especially Mom and Todd.”

She pouted. “Not me?”

“You have a tiger to protect you,” I pointed out.

“Fair. This place is amazing! All the different animals and plants…”

“…That are trying to kill you. Seriously, only you could be excited about being lost in the jungle.”

“I haven’t had anything try to kill me.”

“That’s because you have a freaking tiger!”

Renee finally noticed Lartha.

“Oh? Who is she? Another Champion?”

“Yeah, from a sci-fi world. This is Lartha. Lartha, this is my sister Renee.”

“Greetings, Renee,” Lartha said politely. “Is that beast your pet?”

“She’s my animal companion – a part of my primary class.” Renee petted the tiger. “She’s so soft and sweet.”

“They’re normally a dangerous species,” I said to Lartha. “They’re deadly predators.”

“Ah. Hence your comments about her safety in its company. If it won’t attack her, it will deter other creatures from doing so.”

“Right. Hey, Sis, what did you name her?”

“Sheena. Don’t you remember?”

“No,” I answered honestly. “Come join us over here. You can purify water, right?”

“Sure can! It’s one of my zeroth circle spells. Want me to purify some water for you? I’ve got an empty water bottle.”

“I thought Mom had our water bottles?”

“I kept one in my fanny pack,” she said, patting the belt-attached pack in question. “I can also just straight-up create water.”

“…Is that why your hair is wet?”

“Yeah.”

The tiger padded over to our side of the pool, and Renee dismounted and set her spear down. She opened her pack, took out a miniature water bottle, and scooped water out of the pool.

“Purify,” she cast, then handed it over.

I drank the whole thing. It was quite refreshing. It had some interesting undertones, probably from minerals in the water. I handed it back, and she did the same for Lartha.

“So, did you do anything to get experience on the way here?” I asked.

“Sheena killed a few spiders. I reached level two.”

“What’d you do with the points?”

“Nothing. I couldn’t figure out how.”

“The keywords are ‘self-analysis’ for your status screen and ‘advancement’ to get your upgrade screen.”

“Thanks.”

They all sat in silence for several minutes.

“Okay, I’m done.”

“What’d you upgrade?”

“Gave Sheena Avoidance and an intelligence boost, and upgraded my musical competence.” She patted the lute on her back. “I want to actually be good with the instrument I play.”

“So what next? Hunting for food?” Lartha asked.

“Well, it does seem to be early afternoon. I think maybe we should try looking for others first. This spot is the first place I’ve seen with an actual opening in the canopy; maybe I can send Rusty up top and see whether there’s anything notable above the treetops.”

I stood up. As I did so, something slammed into my backplate hard enough to shatter it, causing the rest of the spell to immediately fail. I stumbled, then turned around to see an arrow with a broken arrowhead on the ground. As my companions reacted, my head whipped up and scanned the trees, even as I started recasting the spell.

[Your Mana is nearly depleted. The spell “Force Armor” will only last for a maximum of thirty minutes.]

Thanks, disembodied voice of the system. I really needed that kind of reassurance.

There! There was something high in the trees!

The lizardman pulled back his bow, aiming at me.

I threw myself to the side, ramming into Sheena. The arrow whistled past, striking the water with a splash.

I pulled my bow off my back and grabbed an arrow, not bothering to fool with my glove, which I had taken off when cleaning Shadow’s wound. I set it to the string, drew it back, and loosed it.

Thwip!

The arrow missed, sailing a few feet below the humanoid reptile. He was too high up and far away for me to get a good bead on him with my current skills.

“Renee! Get Sheena to climb the tree and attack! Rusty!”

“Skree!”

“Attack!” I said, pointing.

The lizardman pulled back another arrow.

This time I lunged left, away from the tiger, and the arrow clipped a plate on my upper arm, spinning me slightly but not breaking the magic.

“Sheena! Attack!” my sister cried, her arm outstretched.

“ROAR!”

Sheena bounded forward, even as Rusty spiraled up. For a moment, the lizardman hesitated, unsure which target to aim at, before he decided on the hawk. He fired, his arrow sailing straight through Rusty’s right wing. With a cry, the bird’s upward spiral turned into a downward one as he desperately tried to slow his descent.

“Bastard!” I swore, aiming another arrow. This time I purposely aimed it what felt like too high, hoping that I was judging the distance right.

Thwip!

The arrow barely missed, going right over his shoulder. He started, clearly not expecting me to be that accurate. He ignored the climbing feline to aim at me again. I dodged.

He delayed his shot until I was moving, and the impact shattered my breastplate, cancelling the spell. It also sent me back a couple steps, right to the water’s edge.

Lartha grabbed me and steadied me before I fell in.

“Can’t do much with it up there,” she said. “My weapons don’t have that kind of reach.”

I grabbed another arrow.

Our enemy’s attention was no longer on me. He aimed straight down at the approaching tiger. I adjusted my aim carefully.

“Gotcha,” I said.

Thwip!

We released our arrows at the same time. His buried itself in Sheena’s shoulder, causing the big cat to yowl in pain, though she didn’t let go of the trunk. Mine hit him right in the torso. It didn’t bury very far – only the arrowhead went through his scales – but the unexpected impact while he was already slightly unbalanced was enough to knock him off the branch. He let out what sounded like a scream as he fell, hitting the ground with a crunch.

Sheena let go and landed heavily beside him.

It didn’t take a genius to guess what she was going to do next.

[You have killed a Level 4 Champion Contestant with assistance. You have killed a Level 4 Champion Contestant without sustaining damage. You have won your first battle against another Champion Contestant. For this achievement, Experience Earned has been doubled.]

[Congratulations: you have leveled up.]

My eyes went wide at the revelation.

“That was a person!”

“Uh… obviously?” Lartha said. “It was using a bow.”

“Skree…”

“Oh, right! Rusty!” I put my bow on my back and rushed over to the wounded bird. He had a big hole in his wing, and it was bleeding pretty badly.

“Sheena! Come!”

I heard the tiger approach, then hiss in pain as Renee yanked out the arrow, something I really didn’t think she had the strength to do. Those arrows had been shot pretty hard; I was willing to bet that bow had a much heavier draw than mine. Also, weren’t you not supposed to rip out arrows like that?

“Lesser Healing,” Renee cast.

Oh. Right.

“There now, isn’t that better?” my sister cooed to her tiger. It purred at her.

“Renee, a little help?” I said, picked up and cradling the giant hawk. I was pretty sure that there were no hawks this big on Earth, but he was definitely a hawk, not an eagle. My sister rushed over and placed her hands over the hole.

“Lesser Healing.”

Before my eyes, the flesh grew back over the wound – as did feathers. Within seconds, it looked like the bird had never been injured. He flapped his wing experimentally, then got out of my arms double-quick. I didn’t think he liked being held that way.

“That’s healing magic?” Lartha said interestedly. “That’s even faster than a med laser.”

“Just be glad it didn’t damage bone or internal organs,” Renee said. “Lesser Healing can’t help with those.”

“But didn’t Sheena get shot in the shoulder?”

Renee shook her head. “It buried in the muscle.”

“So, did you two level up?”

“Yeah, but… we just killed somebody.”

“Again… yes?”

“I don’t know about your planet or whatever,” Renee said seriously, “but where we come from, killing is not something normal people do. Murder is illegal, and regular people don’t go around killing people.” She grimaced. “Is it bad that I find this easier because he was a lizard-person?”

“I don’t see what you’re so worked up over. It was self-defense.”

“Have you ever killed someone?” I asked.

Lartha nodded. “Yes. I’ve survived multiple assassination and kidnapping attempts. Sometimes I had to kill the attackers in self-defense.”

“Well, neither of us has had to deal with that kind of situation. This is a first.”

Lartha shrugged. “I’m just disappointed that I didn’t get in on it. I presume it was worth more experience than killing beasts.”

“How can you be so callous?” Renee demanded.

“This is obviously a death game,” Lartha reasoned callously. “To win, we have to survive, even if that means killing the other contestants. For all we know, we might have to whittle down the competition in order to pass the Trial.”

“I really hope this Trial isn’t that cruel,” I said.

“Well, it might be,” she said with a shrug. “Anyone want to see if the scaled person is edible?”

Both my sister and I flinched. Lartha rolled her eyes.

“It’s not cannibalism if it isn’t your own species. What’s the problem?”

“You can’t just eat people!” I exclaimed.

“…It’s not alive, and it’s not like we killed it in order to eat it. What’s the point of just leaving the body out if it is edible?”

“Are you saying you’d eat either of us if we died?” my sister said, drawing back a little and huddling against Sheena.

“Well, no. You’re too similar to my own species in appearance. It would feel weird.”

“Do your people regularly eat other people in your Empire?” I asked. Part of me was disgusted and creeped out, and part of me was genuinely curious. It just felt so wrong.

“Depends on what you mean by regularly. Selling the recently dead to people of other species isn’t exactly uncommon in the Empire; that way you make money off of dead relatives rather than spending money on preserving the body or something. Also, certain species find other species to taste good if the body isn’t extremely old or disease-ridden. Of course, this does result in illegal trades revolving around kidnapping and murder, but the Empire really cracks down on those.”

“Remind me to never go to your universe,” I said with a shudder.

“Somehow I doubt that was ever a possibility,” she replied. “At any rate, I’ll take that as a ‘no’ to my initial question. If you’re not willing to help me prepare it, then I’m not going to bother. Let it be food for your beasts.”

“That’s not a terrible idea,” my sister said thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t let Sheena eat a human, but I don’t think she’s going to get a taste for human flesh by eating a lizardman.”

“The question then is what to do for our own food,” I said. “Hm… you leveled up too, right, Sis?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Can you see if there’s a first circle spell revolving around berries in your options?”

“Um… okay. I guess this is something from the game?”

“Yeah.”

“There is! ‘Sustaining Berries.’”

“Perfect. Make that your advancement.”

“Why? What does it do?”

“You can turn a small handful of freshly picked berries into magical meals. One berry equals one entire meal. With that, even if we have trouble finding other fruit or killing edible animals and preparing them, we’ll have food and water through your spells.”

“That does sound useful! Especially since we have no idea how long the Trial will last. It could be hours. It could be days. It could be weeks! It could be months!”

I interrupted her. “If you say ‘it could be years’ I’m going to hit you.”

“Aw…”

A few seconds later, she brightened. “All right! I’ve selected it. I’m not upgrading Bard for now; I think I’ll save the points until better options unlock. Welp, guess I’d better go berry-hunting.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“I’m certainly not staying behind by myself,” Lartha said.

“More the merrier!”

And so we searched for non-poisonous berries, with Renee’s “Detect Poison” spell – a zeroth circle spell that used barely any mana – identifying which ones were poisonous, which turned out to be most of them. Eventually we found some purple berries roughly the size of blueberries, and Renee picked six of them, casting Sustaining Berries on the handful. Each of us Contestants ate one, our hunger completely sated, and m sister put the rest in her pocket for the future.

After that, we returned to the pool, letting our animal friends feast on the lizardman.

It was starting to get a bit darker. I didn’t think that it was evening yet; I surmised that the canopy simply blocked a lot of the light when the sun wasn’t directly overhead. It was certainly brighter in the clearing then elsewhere. I was starting to wonder whether we should just pick a direction and walk or whether we should try setting up camp here.

First, though, I should probably make my advancement choices.

Yuan Rivers (Sorcerer/Ranger Level 4)

Sorcerer Class Points: 6

Energy: Below Moderate

Condition: Healthy

Ranger Class Points: 3

Mana: Depleted

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

It would take four CP to get my next Sorcerer advancement and three CP for my next Ranger advancement. So one of each. Last time, I had upgraded my animals. This time, I was going to focus on myself. I chose to increase weapon competency (which thankfully helped with both of my weapons, not forcing me to choose – I was kind of worried about that) and upgrade Magic Missile again, this time choosing to add another missile rather than reducing by twenty-five percent again – I suspected it was a multiplicative reduction, not a subtractive one, meaning that it wouldn’t reduce it down to one second.

After some discussion, we decided to send Rusty scouting above the canopy. For the next several hours, I watched through the hawk’s eyes and he spiraled further and further out from our current location. Eventually the sun started to set, but just as I was getting ready to pull back into myself and trust that the birdy would come on back, I spotted something.

There was an opening in the jungle in the distance, some sort of structure jutting out, illuminated in red by the sun. Rusty noticed it too, and immediately changed direction. After about five minutes of travel, my senses cut out and I was thrust back into my own body.

Rusty had exited my range.

Now we just had to wait for him to return and watch which direction he came from. If I remembered my horizon math right, the structure was probably a little over six miles away, based on how long it took him to escape my range once he spotted it. Given how much of a slog it was to travel in the jungle, it would take significantly longer than the couple hours it would have been on a flat plain. In fact, it might take most of the next day, since we obviously weren’t going to travel at night.

Slightly less than half an hour later – when it was well and truly dark where we were, and probably pitch black under the canopy – Rusty returned, swooping down to join us. I marked the direction with a few pebbles so that I wouldn’t forget.

We ate our second helping of berry shortly after.

Just as we were getting ready to settle in to sleep, Sheena raised her head and looked around, bringing the rust of us to full alertness. Lartha used her bracelet as a flashlight, and I pulled out my phone to do the same. I had a zeroth circle spell that could generate light, but unfortunately my mana remained stubbornly depleted. Renee cast her zeroth circle lighting spell, Dancing Lights, which conjured four multicolored light in a ring around her, spaced about ten feet away in every direction.

Eyes flashed in the dark.

And then the creatures emerged from the darkness, into the shadows.

Lartha and I shined our lights on them.

The creatures were strange. Two of them resembled an odd cross between elk and giraffe, standing ten feet tall with two pairs of antlers and four forward-facing eyes. Between the two was a twelve-foot giant that was mostly composed of leg, its furry black oval-shaped body/head not starting until eight feet off the ground. Long, spindly arms hung to the ground, ending in claw-like hands. Then, on either size of the elk-giraffes, there were six-legged vulpine creatures with two fluffy tails and overly-large fangs, standing at least as tall as wolves.

The moment of confusion passed, replaced with gut-wrenching terror. This was like something out of a creepy illustrated horror story.

We remained completely still as the creatures stopped, watching us in turn.

Seconds ticked by.

The creatures moved. They advanced toward us… then parted around us, stopping at the water to drink. The giant stepped right over me and into the water, lowering itself until its body was partially submerged.

Ding!

[You have encountered the optional Sub-Trial: Creatures of the Night.]

Sub-trial? Were we supposed to fight those things?! That was madness! Our level two, three, and four selves had no way of taking those things on, especially with me all out of magic.

…Wait. It called it a sub-trial, but it didn’t say we were supposed to fight. The creatures weren’t being aggressive, either. Maybe we just had to… let them be?

After the more animal-like creatures had slaked their thirst, they settled down as though to sleep. I shut my phone light off. A moment later, my sister’s lights winked out. Finally, Lartha turned off the light on her bracelet. I snuggled up close to Sheena, Shadow on my lap and my sister beside me. Rusty nestled on top of the tiger, while Lartha curled up against a rock a few feet away – or so I assumed, since I could no longer see her clearly, the light of the stars doing little to illuminate the night.

Gradually, the breathing of my companions and the creatures of the night began to level off, and then at last, I slipped away to dreamland.