Chapter 2
Time: 3 hours later
Josh passed a bundle of crafting materials up to the treehouse via their basket elevator operated by Cleo. As she got it up, she emptied the basket and set it to be easily lowered back down, then climbed down herself saying to Josh as she reached the ground, "So what are we gathering now?"
Josh handed her backpack over to her and readied his spear, "This is a fantasy world with magic and monsters right? So there has to be some kind of special crafting materials that might be worth something to us somehow. We should make a habit of searching and gathering things and trying to keep crafting stuff since that works to let us gain skills more safely than fighting does." He stepped over towards the firepit and started trying to light a small stick on fire by laying it against a coal. As he waited he retrieved a joint he'd rolled in the treehouse after they finished building it.
Cleo laughs, "You don't need to use a stick, just go to take a hit and I'll light it."
Josh's eyebrow arches, "Why didn't you tell me you had a lighter? Here," he says as he brings the joint to his lips.
Cleo speaks a magical word as she moves her hand in a pattern and touches the end of the joint with her fingertip on her index finger as a small flame appears from it. The joint lights as Joshes eyes go wide, she shakes her fingertip and the flame winks out as she smiles at him, "Didn't say I had a lighter."
"YOU Have to teach me how you did that!" Josh says excitedly as he takes another hit of the joint and passes it to her.
"Deal, I know something else too. Got any of those seeds I mentioned?" Cleo asked.
Josh pulled his cigarette pack out and opened it, rotating it to roll seeds out onto his palm. "Only 5 so far, but they all look pretty healthy to me." He offered them as he said, "Here you go."
Cleo picked them up one at a time and smiled, "Thanks, now watch." She took one of the seeds and placed it into the dirt near the grassy plains edge. She pulled her canteen from her backpack, took a drink, and then spit it on the area she put the seed into. Then said another magical word and moved her hands in a strange pattern. Josh was startled since his Aether Sensitivity Perk was revealing the way that her spell was charging the ambient mana in the land around the area of the seed. He stared in wonder at the strange overlay of light patterns as he watched her focus her magic and work it into the seed for many minutes.
Cleo looked over at him as she finished, "Well, I thought the seed would grow really quickly. I guess I need to keep trying. But that's enough for right now I think. Don't want to get too low on Mana. I'll try again with these other seeds before we climb into the treehouse for the night I think."
"Cool, lets see if we can find something neat while Matt wraps up the traps around our treehouse. Looks like we have about an hour or so until sunset." Josh said reassuringly.
The duo wandered a little further along the tree-line the other direction from Josh's earlier adventure, trying to spy something interesting without getting lost traveling inside the trees. They walked for a half hour before finding something worth being out there to find. They saw a river far off in the distance, and found some flowers, berries, and mushrooms growing within visibility of the edge of the forest. They quickly collected as much as they could in a few minutes into Cleo's magic backpack. Then jogged back to make sure they didn't get stuck away from the treehouse after dark.
Matthias was hauling up branches into the treehouse as they made it back. The sunlight growing dimmer with each passing minute as they arrived. Matt looked over at them and said, "Glad you made it back. Find anything useful?"
"Maybe, not sure yet. Do we still need to collect all the meat racks upstairs?" Josh asked.
"No I did those first when I finished with the traps I had made," Matthias replied.
Cleo spoke up, "That's why you are awesome Matt!"
Josh chimed in, "Can Confirm This, you sir are Awesome."
Matt blushed and smiled, "Today has been super weird, we should get in the treehouse and get ready to make it through the night."
"Bet, and when we get up there, Cleo can tell us how magic works, since she can do magic now." Josh said as he climbed the rope up to the treehouse.
Matt sounded surprised as he said, "Wait, you can do magic now Cleo?"
"Yeah, it seems like Ari taught me magic. So now I can teach you guys." Cleo replied, sounding guilty as she looked at Matthias somewhat fearfully.
Matt smiled at her, "Oh, that's good. That will really help us Cleo. Good Job."
Donnie thought to Matthias, 'She's not going to eat me for my power is she? Will eat her first.'
Matt looked at him crossly, 'Leave her be, she feels bad enough already. She won't eat you buddy.'
Then he picked Donnie up and put him in the basket elevator, and Josh started lifting him up to the treehouse as Matthias followed Cleo up the rope ladder they had. He pulled it up behind him after reaching the top and they all stood on the deck to watch the sun set over the mountains to the west. They luckily had a small lantern in Cleo's Survivor's Backpack and enough oil in it to keep it going for half the night if they didn't keep it turned up too bright. When the sun went down, it got pretty dark pretty fast.
They ate more smoked meat for dinner and Cleo spent a while trying to explain magic as she understood it.
Neither of the guys picked it up that night.
They took turns sleeping through the night. Getting lucky nothing came searching for the smell of meat coming from what they hadn't eaten before going to sleep. Matthias had been sure he'd heard something sniffing around at one point last night, but it was too dark to tell at the time. He also noted both Cleo and Josh seemed to be having bad dreams throughout the night. Other than that, he noticed nothing odd, which he let each know as they woke in the morning.
They ate more smoked meat for breakfast as they waited for sunrise to clear the twilight shadows and fog. Matt asked, "Do you guys smell that skunky smell?"
"That's not Skunk, that's Weed I think," Josh said, sniffing the air and standing up to look outside. His voice rose, "OH Wow, Cleo you did it!"
She scrambled out to the deck to look where he was, only to find a massive flowering pot plant outside their treehouse, nearly 12 feet tall it had grown overnight and was now covered in fat buds all over it. Her excitement was completely unhidden in her tone, "Oh SNAP, gimme more seeds."
Josh chuckled, "I will, but first use the other four I gave you and I'll harvest this one when we get down there and we'll see if it's any good when it finishes curing."
She looked like she wanted to argue, "Well, that makes sense I guess."
Matt injects, "We should probably do more exploring today too, see if we can find more natural food sources and then you can try growing those too. I'm with Josh though, I definitely want to keep trying to learn how magic works. I got that Mana Bolt skill now, but haven't tried it yet. Saving it for a hunt or combat from range I think."
Cleo smiles, "Okay, gimme a few minutes to go behind a tree, and then go plant these other seeds."
The guys grumbled agreement about relieving themselves as well. Everyone climbed down the treehouse's rope ladder and slipped out of view to use the bathroom.
Within fifteen minutes, the guys were watching Cleo work as Josh finished hanging the harvested pot plant from the treehouse. Cleo planted the four seeds she'd gotten from Josh the night before near the tree. She looked at them as she stood up from pushing the last seed into the dirt and covering it. "Are you guys going to give this a try? I'll try to walk you through it. It's actually two different spells to make this work."
"Wow, that complex?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, one to find the seed, on my character sheet it calls the first one seek plant. Then the second one is called Plant Growth. Which does what you'd think it does. Just not instantly like I thought. Makes sense why there's a Fast Plant Growth spell too. I'll figure it out." Cleo rattled off in response, saying that last part more to herself than her friends.
The two guys stepped over to the area she planted the seeds in. Cleo blinked, looked at where they were standing and pointed to a spot for a single seed and assigned one to each of the guys. "That's yours, and that one is yours. You will focus there for this first spell, seeking the pot seed laying in the ground waiting to grow."
"Okay, I'm seeking the seed, seeking the seed, seeeeking the seed," Josh said in an affected tone with his finger pointing at his temple using one hand and the other pointing at the ground in a theatric pose.
Matt glanced at him and chuckled, copying his motions, "Me too, what's next?"
Cleo shook her head. "I don't think either of you understands the words as I mean them. Whatever, okay next we look within ourselves to our mana core, and draw a line of mana out and into the seed, feeding it mana as we say the phrase 'Auksa Creskia' with mana-filled intent. Do that and it should just work, as long as you can see or feel that mana link to the seed and channel mana into the spell invocation."
"Who the hell are you Cleo? Like since when do you talk like this or know all this?" Josh asked incredulously as he stared at his friend like she were a body-snatcher.
She frowned, her cheek quivering a moment like she were going to cry before she tightened her control, "Whatever happened with Ari, Matt's spirit companion from the System, seems to have left me with a bunch of memories, incomplete memories mostly, but a lot of them from Ari's life before being enslaved to the System and not even death allowing him out of his contract with it. The System is not our friend, it's not here to help us because it loves us and wants us to be stronger. It's a war machine, churning out ever escalating conflict in every world and dimension it invades." Her look was far away as she finished speaking.
There was a long silence as the three friends just looked at each other.
Then Josh broke the silence, "I heard we can get superpowers and help everyone we love if we work hard. Sounds good enough. Better than clocking in at some day job."
"Here here!" Matt said to that as he wrapped an arm around Cleo and gave her a side hug before releasing her.
"Thanks guys, these dreams I'm having are sometimes really cool. But a lot of Ari's life is kind of a nightmare. Well, was a nightmare. Now my nightmare." Cleo trailed off at the end.
Josh said, "Snap out of it you morose motherfucker! Being this emo is my job, or maybe Matt's depending on the week. You are a bright ball of bubbles and rainbows, no matter how bad things get. Remember?" He tapped her forehead with his finger, a touch of mana instinctively passing to her as he did.
Cleo blinked, pulled her head back and scrunched her face up at him, "Hey! Cut that out! Just because I'm short doesn't mean you can poke my forehead. I'll mess you up for that!"
Josh laughed, "Bring it small fries."
She smacked him in the balls so fast he didn't have time to blink, "OOOF," came from his lips before a retching sound followed it as his breakfast spewed onto the ground about the same time he did.
"Holy Shit Cleo!" Matt said. She glared his way, "Say something else about it."
Josh choked out from the ground, between spitting chunks out of his mouth, "No.. No.. It's my fault, clearly." He struggled to his feet as he said, "I totally asked for that, can't get mad for not being able to carry the load I requested."
"Okay, as long as we all remember we're friends," Matt said, looking a little worriedly between the other two.
"We're fine as long as he doesn't make any more short jokes. I'm not in the mood for it right now. Lets do this magic lesson and get out of here." Cleo said, as she went back to the seeds, and started narrating her actions as she did them. Neither of them got it at first. Josh finally got it right, but that was long after Cleo had done the first two, Matt gave up and let Cleo do his as well. And then Josh got his spells cast correctly and they started exploring the edge of the forest and grassy plains again.
A while later Josh and Cleo were looking at a set of bushes with berries in tiny clusters while Matt scouted around the area nearby. Cleo was showing Josh another spell, "Agnosce Naturam," she said and stared at the berries she was touching for a moment before continuing, "It's not safe to eat these berries. But the seed inside each one is edible and medicinal, if you get constipated. Their local name is Noxum Berries. The poison isn't effective unless ingested, and needs a decent amount to kill you. Less and you just get a bleeding gut and pass out for a while, wake up with a killer hangover."
"Wow, Cleo that spell told you all that information?" Josh asked her.
"No, it told me the name and that the berries are poisonous and seeds are potentially medicinal, the rest was Ari's memories filling in details. Super weird if I think about it too much though." Cleo told him.
"So I just say the magic password, after connecting my mana core to the plant and feeding it some mana to cast it?" Josh looked at her trying to read her reaction to his understanding of magic spells and how they work.
She smiled, "Basically yeah, at least for that spell. Then just be open to what it shows you. How long do you think it will take that new weed that grew to dry?"
"It's normally a couple days at least, I hope it works okay just hanging from the treehouse instead of inside somewhere. That's how the pot farms do it, they have indoor curing areas with humidity and temperature control," explained Josh.
Matt approached around this moment, "Hey, I found a river that direction a little ways. You guys want to check it out?"
Cleo looked at Josh, then back at Matt and shrugged, "Sure, these Noxum berries aren't edible anyways."
With that, Matt turned around and started leading the way. The other two had noticed already that he was moving a little faster than a comfortable walking speed for either one of them. He heard them both whisper curses for his long legs as they trekked back towards the river he'd spotted.
Josh finished emptying his pants pockets onto the bank of the river and kicked his shoes off. He turned and followed his friends into the river, having decided he wanted to get his clothes wet, to help cool him off when they got out of the water. They laughed and played a while in the river that morning. At least until near noon, when the sun was over head and there was no shade near the river left. That's the point they all decided that was enough fun in the sun and exited the water. Josh turned to the others, "We should carry our stuff over to the other side and explore over there for an hour or two before making our way back to camp."
"Sounds good to me, Cleo?" Matt looked her way.
"As good as anything else, at least we haven't been that direction yet," She mused.
Josh grabbed his stuff from the ground, lifted it all above his head, and ran back into the river and through it, calling out over his shoulder, "And they call me old while you two slow-pokes are still standing around. Lets Fucking GO kids!" He laughed as they called back their disagreements.
And in a couple minutes they were exploring the other side of the river. Daring to go deeper into the woods and somewhat loosely following the river as they explore the area. Josh called out excitedly as he ran towards a tree with a bright green colored large oblong fruit on it, "I found something I think." He came to a stop and reached for one of the fruits as he cast his awareness inside himself to feel for his mana core as Cleo called it, drawing a string of mana out of it and towards the fruit in his hand as he said the spell's words, "Agnosce Naturam." He waited as he felt the mana string vibrate and pull mana into the fruit, then gasped as the sensation of the information just appearing in his mind like he were remembering what it was.
Matt and Cleo stopped beside him, with Cleo speaking up first, "Is it edible?"
Josh smiled, "Says it's called a 'Yum Pum' and it's edible. Watch out for the big seed in the center" and tossed the one in his hand to Cleo as Matt reached out to the tree and picked one for himself. Josh grabbed one too as Matt cut into his and took a bite of the fruit inside. Josh asked, "What's it taste like?"
Matt grinned widely, "Oh man, it's wildāyou've got to try one. Itās likeā¦ if a banana and mango had a baby, but then that baby went and married a super juicy pear. The textureās creamy, almost custard-like, but the flavor hits you in waves. First it's sweet and tropicalālike pawpaw with hints of melonābut then there's this floral, crisp pear finish that cuts through it, super refreshing. Honestly, itās like nature made its own smoothie."
Cleo laughed, "Tell us how you really feel about it Matt."
Her and Josh took a bite of their own fruits now, and the three fell silent for a few minutes. Before Donnie whined beside Matthias and Matt grabbed him a fruit too, "Sorry buddy, I forgot all about that hole in your gut that keeps you hungry at all times."
Donnie looked at him, 'Hey! I'm smaller than you and move just as fast.'
Matt thought, 'That's fair, have another Yum Pum buddy,' and then started picking the rest of the ripe fruits from the tree and stashing them in Cleo's backpack.
Josh joined him with gathering the fruits after a moment and mentioned, "The seeds are edible too, fairly packed with nutrients. But it might not be good to eat a lot of them. Not sure exactly what all of the feedback information the spell gives means. Might be fine, might need to be cooked for all I know. I do know we can eat them raw without getting poisoned and dying. I just get a sense there's more information than what I'm understanding from the spell."
Cleo remarked, "Probably means you need to level up the spell more."
"Either way, good find Josh! These will be a good break from all smoked turkey meat meals," Matt said while he worked on gathering all the ripe fruits he could reach.
Cleo cast the spell again holding a fruit of her own and looked at it thoughtfully a moment before adding in, "The seeds need to be boiled until soft to be fully safe to eat. A few raw won't harm you, but will build up and begin to cause irritable bowel syndrome like effects in time, which incidentally leads to inefficiency in digesting complex carbohydrates."
"It's still going to take some time to get used to you talking like that," Josh said looking at Cleo.
She looks offended as she glances his way, "What? Like I'm not smart enough to know big words or something?"
"No, just that you don't usually use them in conversations," Josh smiled.
She threw a seed at Josh's face at that statement and the three laughed as they helped Matt finish picking the ripe fruits for the next few minutes. Just before finishing off all the ripe fruit in reach from the ground, a rustling in the branches behind them was their only warning to the onslaught of fur, claws, and fury that descended on them in the next moment.
Three bundles of fur and claws just slightly heavier than a common house cat leapt onto the trio, one on each, gripping deep with claws as they bit and moved around the torso of the screaming friends. Donnie screams into Matt's mind, 'STAY STILL' and without waiting, he launched himself horn first into the giant squirrel cutting up Matthias. It screeched in pain as the horn impacted it's chest, then the sound began to bubble as it lost volume. The creature's grip on Matt's torso fell away as it dropped to the ground, Donnie pulling his horn out of the creature with a shake on the way to the ground. Matt reached out to the one with claws ripping into Cleo's neck and snapped it with his increasing strength fueled by adrenaline and a healthy stamina expenditure. At which point he heard Donnie saying, 'More above us, watch out!' And he dodged to the right as soon as he heard that, quickly throwing a look around to count the beasts coming his way. Cleo yelling at him is the only thing that snapped his attention back to her, "Matt hold still, your hands are bleeding bad!"
"What?" Matt asked confused, looking down and seeing both hands had rivers of blood flowing from his palms.
Donnie was racing around the group, attacking any that approached as Cleo cast another new spell. Her hands started glowing blue and she touched Matt's hands with them, the blue light flowing out her fingertips and into Matt's still gushing hands, and the flow of blood immediately slowed then stopped. She blinked. "Did not know I could do that one," She said surprised.
Matt grabbed her with his newly healing hands, "Glad you can, this way now," and pulled her into a spin away from some more of the large squirrels that were attacking them, kicking out as one dropped where she had just been standing and sending it flying into a nearby tree trunk. "Take that you little shits!"
Josh had started swiping at the squirrel climbing around his midsection, stopping quickly after feeling it's razor quills on its back and tail slicing into his hand. With a curse he smashed a fruit from his other hand into the critter as he dropped his body on the little creature trying to crush it with his weight. He felt a sharp series of stings on his ribs, screaming his disapproval in the process, "Fuck that hurt!" He rolled off the little beast to see it was still twitching, but had clearly taken a broken bone or two from the fall as well. It looked his direction and snarled at him angrily. Josh rolled around looking for the knife he'd been using from where he dropped it when he first got attacked. His hands wrapped around the grip and he twisted towards the injured creature, sinking the blade into it's brain stem, severing it and ending the twitching of it's body as if a light switch were turned off.
Josh sat up just in time to spot another of the squirrels leaping from a nearby tree in his direction. He rolled quickly to the side and to his feet with a quick push of his palms on the ground. 'Whoa! I haven't been that strong since my early twenties, more than two decades ago at least. Not the right time for this train of thought, where'd that little fucker go?' He thought to himself as a slicing sensation seared pain across his inner thigh at that moment, he had found exactly where that little fucker had gone. Behind him then climbing up his legs and slapping his thighs with that razor quill covered tail.
His first instinct was to ask for help, but as he looked to his friends he saw they were being swarmed as well, "We need to run, we're outnumbered!" Josh called to Matt and Cleo. Then threw himself into a tree trunk right where he could feel the creature. It's quills stuck into the wood pretty deeply and he slipped it's clawed grip with a little more blood and skin sacrificed.
"Sounds like a plan," Matt said as he grabbed his spear and began sweeping the tip at more approaching squirrels.
Cleo swiped her backpack's strap and slung it onto her shoulders as she called out, "Let's fucking GO then!" Her feet already picking up pace back the way they had come from. Josh grabbed his spear and followed, with Matt positioning himself between the mass of squirrels and his retreating friends. Matt stared intently at the creatures, and got a new notification.
You have gained the Analyze skill Level 1.
Analyzed:
Species: Razor Squirrel
Level: 1
"Fitting name you nightmare fuel tree rats!" Matt said to the half dozen vicious predators still edging towards him and his friends. He heard Josh saying something to Cleo, "What are you doing Cleo?" then felt a heat pass by him and saw a glowing ball of orange and yellow light flying towards the squirrels. As it hit the ground in the center of their leading line, a small explosion was triggered from it, flashing outward a good twenty feet from the point of impact. The fire flashing out from the explosion stopping just short of reaching Matt's surprised face as he scrambled backwards away from it.
Cleo replied, "Fireball!" The swarm of squirrels shrieked as their fur caught fire, and the three friends turned and ran away.
They ran for at least 10 minutes, each of them gaining at least a level in a movement related skill as they did so. Cleo had been in the lead, and the other two let her keep guiding them and setting the pace, until she looked over her shoulder at them, "I have no idea where we are or how to find our way back to the treehouse, I hope one of you does."
Josh looked sheepish as he shrugged, "I'm just running, no clue where. We'll spot something we know eventually, I hope."
Matt shook his head as he took the lead. "Follow me, I can get us back from here, if you can keep up," he challenged, jogging ahead of them with a grin on his face.
Cleo scrambled to keep up as she yelled after him, "Friends don't leave short friends behind!"
Time: 10 minutes later
The trio came to a halt as they neared the river again, albeit further along it than they had been earlier when ambushed by the giant squirrels.
Cleo turned to Matt, "I thought you said you could get us back? I think we're still lost."
Matt threw his hands up quickly, palms out, his eyebrow arched as a grin spread across his face, "I still can, this is just on the way. I need to climb that tree to get my bearings right," he said gesturing to a tall oak like tree with lots of easy to climb branches that stretched well above the surrounding trees. "Why don't you two check for useful plants around here while I check our direction back?" Matt asked as he started climbing.
Josh looked at his friend already climbing out of sight into the branches above, and then over to Cleo, "Well, I guess we're on grub patrol."
Cleo looked puzzled, "What's that?"
"Just means looking for nuts and berries and other edibles nearby."
"Oh, okay. Are we far enough away we can stop and goof off?" Cleo asked, her tone a little concerned.
"All else fails we run and try to circle back to Matt if we have to." Josh said as he looked around cautiously.
In less than a minute Cleo called out, "Hey Josh, check this out."
He looked around for her, not seeing her in the direction he'd heard her calling his name from, "Where are you?"
"Just walk this way past those trees, you'll see me." Cleo called back, "I need help lifting this."
Josh jogged that direction, curious what she needed help lifting. He stopped in his tracks as he rounded the trees between them, revealing the river bank again, but this time it was filled with large crystals growing all around in different colors.
Cleo stood in front of a cluster of glowing blue crystals growing to nearly her own height. She looked over as he stopped, "I think it's too wide to fit into the backpack opening as it is. I need to break it into chunks maybe?"
"Umm, that's pretty cool. You sure it won't explode if we break it?" Josh asked as he stared at the crystals glowing around this area of the river bank.
"My Ari memories give me this instinct that they are safe to harvest, useful for Alchemy if my Analyze skill is to be believed," Cleo replied.
"Alchemy you say, I'm in. I like the sound of potions. Sure this won't be like drinking glass chips suspended in water though?" Josh questioned his friend.
"This witch says it will be fine," Cleo quirkily replied.
"You're drinking it first then, none of that but did you die joke for me," Josh said as he picked up a large rock from the river bank and walked back to the cluster Cleo stood before. "Watch out," as he rose the rock in his hand and threw it at the base of the cluster with all his strength.
The rock bounced off the cluster, doing minimal damage to it. Josh shrugged as he looked at it. Cleo shucked her backpack and pulled out the steel hatchet, "I was thinking the back side of this is a better idea."
"Yeah, sounds good, you want to give it a try? I think you're stronger than me now." Josh said matter of fact.
"Wait, really?" Cleo asked him.
"I mean, check your stats, what's your Strength Stat at right now?" Josh asked.
"Uh, hold on, Status. Um, it's an eight," Cleo told him.
"Yeah, I've got a five in strength currently, and that's after adding a point to it from a Path reward for the Newbie Path." Josh explained, "Totally unfair given our size difference, but I don't make the rules. You're like a tiny female Bruce Lee in muscle density or something though."
"Wow, I knew I felt a little different but I thought it was just panic from the last day since everything went to shit." Cleo said. She lifted the hatchet, holding it to use the back side like a hammer, reared her arm back and cracked into the base of a large spire of crystal and it cracked at the impact point cleanly with a loud snapping sound. She grinned and chose a new target, then began cracking new crystals. Josh began taking the liberated crystal shafts and sliding them into the backpacks extradimensional storage space while she worked.
Matt took another long look around the area, drawing the features in his mind as clearly as he can before starting his way down from the tree.
Matt heard and saw them on his way down the tree and joined them within about 10 minutes. He stepped around the trees between the one he'd climbed and the crystal grove on the river bank, "I'm assuming we are going to want to collect these for a bit?"
"Hey! Your back from the sky, How was it in the clouds?" Josh asked like a wise-ass.
"You can get us back to the treehouse then?" Cleo asked.
"Yeah, we just head that direction," Matt replied pointing away from the river and to the right a few degrees. "The mountains are that way, and the plains too, when we get to the plains we can follow the tree-line again back to the treehouse by the safe room."
"Cool, then yeah, we can grab a little more and head back, we can always come back for more. We know it's by the river." Cleo said.
"We can always leave trail markers to make it easier to find our way back too." Josh chimed in helpfully.
"We definitely should do that." Matt said.
And with that Matt pitched in helping break and collect the crystals.
Time: 30 minutes later
The trio had finished collecting crystals for now and headed off towards the tree-line when they encountered large earthen mounds hidden amongst the trees. The mounds had strange stacked stones arranged around them. Josh spoke up, "Um guys, I'm seeing a notification, one of my traits lets me detect leylines and energy vortexes. This place glows brighter than those crystals did."
"Is there something to collect here? Looks like a burial site maybe?" Matt put forward as he looked around the area.
Cleo shrugged, "I don't see anything, but maybe if people are buried here we shouldn't be here?"
"Maybe, maybe not. We're here either way, but really don't need anything. I'm assuming we don't need a marker here." Josh asked.
"I'll feel better adding one for orientation purposes though, gimme a minute," Matt said.
"Cool, I'll poke around while you do," Josh said, stepping away as he followed around one of the mounds nearby.
Cleo watched the two walk off and said, "I'll just take a look where we're going." She walked to the far side of the mounds, thinking to herself, 'Spooky graveyard for who knows what, I want nothing to do with it.'
Donnie watched the humans separate, and decided to follow the one with food in her backpack. With a quick hop he activated a skill and appeared on top of her backpack. She screamed, "Ahh! Damnit Donnie, you scared the crap out of me!"
Donnie wiggled his nose at her, thinking to Matt, 'Cleo got scared when I jumped on her backpack to ask for snacks.'
Josh and Matt came running up about that moment, Matt looked at Donnie, "Don't scare people just because you're never done searching for snacks."
'What am I supposed to do? You don't listen when I say I'm HUNGRY!' Donnie retorted.
"Everything's Okay?" Josh asked as he looked at Cleo and Matt.
"Yeah, Donnie just scared me by jumping on the backpack." Cleo answered.
"Cool, then come with me Cleo, I'm not tall enough but I can lift you up to grab something if you're okay with it." Josh said to her with a grin.
"What?" She asked, entirely confused but following Josh, with Matt following too. They went around a mound and found Josh pointing at the top of one of the stacks of stones towards a green rock that was kinda rounded. It was about 8 feet off the ground as he stood beside it, clearly being beyond any of their reach.
Josh said, "I want that green rock. I think it's going to be useful."
"Okay, lift me up," Cleo said after shucking the backpack and walking over towards him. She felt his shoulder press against her legs as he lifted and she shot up to be face to face with the top of the rock tower. Her hands reached out to the green rock that was about a foot wide and mostly round but a little flat on the bottom side. As her skin touched it, her senses flared with pain, her hands locked their grip on the stone, and the stone and her went flying away from the tower as Josh was dropped to the ground.
Matt exclaimed as he tried to cover his eyes from the flash of strangely colored lightning that hit the tower when Cleo touched the rock at the top. "What the, OH SHIT!" He cried as Cleo slammed into him and knocked him to the ground.
The three groaned from their places on the dirt, each dazed and injured at least a little. Cleo however had taken that stone dropping onto her arm as she hit the ground, breaking it along the forearm in 3 places. As she rolled over and sat up, her right arm hung limply at a sickening angle. Josh looked over at her and threw up.
Cleo looked down and feinted before the scream could leave her lips.
Matt sat up dazed as he looked around and took it all in. He hopped to his feet quickly and found a stick nearby he'd been planning to use as another trail marker, instead repurposing it with some cloth from his overshirt torn into strips to make a primitive arm brace and bind her arm while she was unconscious. Matt said, "Josh, are you okay," as he finally looked over towards him to see his friend laying flat on his back, his chest not moving. "Shit!" he said, scrambling over to Josh's side, placing a hand over his mouth to try to feel air flowing in or out, his other dropping to Josh's neck to feel for a pulse. Neither hand gave him any kind of reassuring sense, causing him to immediately move his hands to Josh's chest and begin rythmic compressions to attempt to force his lungs or heart to start working again. "Shit, am I even doing this right? This is what it looks like on TV right?"
Donnie replied, 'I'll have to take your word for it. I've not actually seen TV before, just your impression of it from memories.'
Matt snarked back, "Seriously not the time for that right now Donnie. Read the tone of the room buddy."
Perspective: Cleo
She stretched and rolled over in her bed, stealing the covers from her boyfriend as she grinned to herself hoping he'd wake up and pull her into a cuddle to get the covers back. She felt the warmth of that thought and the blanket roll she was in and drifted back to sleep a little.
An image of a crusty green stone erupting in lightning as her hands wrapped around it filled her mind as she drifted back to sleep. Her eyes flung open as she screamed from the pain, and felt it fade away almost instantly as she looked around her room. Her boyfriend wasn't in the bed though. She was sure he had been there a moment ago. "Maybe he went to the bathroom?" She thought, hopping out of bed and moving towards the hallway to check.
The house was eerily quiet she noticed as she reached the hallway. The bathroom light was on. No other lights in the house. She stepped to the bathroom door and opened it to show an empty bathroom.
The bathroom sink began to run, filling up and flowing over. The lights flickered revealing a strange symbol on the mirror.
The water began to run faster, spilling out of the bathroom and into the hallway as well, beginning to pool up past her ankles as the water sprayed faster and faster from the sink. She panicked. The water level reached a nearby wall outlet and she felt the electricity surging through her body, all her muscles clenching as hard as they can all at once. The pain filled her consciousness, she closed her eyes as the symbol and the pain filled her mind.
Perspective: Josh
You have died.
.hack.respawn.set(true)
const = respawn.resurrection.protocol(local)
"What?" Josh thought to himself, seeing nothing else in this space but the notification that appeared and then disappeared.
Respawning in 1 minute
Respawn Location not set
Josh worried a little at that notification. "Wait, how was I supposed to set that? And what do you mean I died? If I'm dead how am I thinking and talking?"
Nothing happened. Josh grew more concerned. He tried a deep breath, and realized he wasn't breathing. He couldn't feel his body.
Worry not Host. Your vessel is being repaired and will come online shortly.
"Whoa, you can talk to me? Why is that one a different color?" Josh rambled quickly in reply.
I am using your System Interface to message you, as you being in this pure consciousness state is easier to allow us to communicate. I am the Sede of Leng that you agreed to bind with, knowing you would not remember me afterwards due to other complications. Namely enemies of humanity who had captured you to use you to help them enslave humanity again. I was able to intercept their telepathic control and assist you in subverting their plans. I have been recovering from the attack they used to try to stop you from your efforts in captivity while they had you connected to the LOGOS.
"The actual fuck, are you kidding me? How do I even process all of what you just said? What am I supposed to do now that I know that."
Respawning in 3 ... 2 ... 1...
Respawning in place.
Initializing Resurrection
"Wait, no! Answer my questions!" He screamed in his mind as everything went fuzzy and a ringing loud noise filled his mind. He felt pain in his chest, hitting him over and over again.
Matt's frantic voice called to Josh as he kept trying to provide CPR to his fallen friend when all of a sudden Josh's body rolled away from Matt's hands as Josh said, "Holy shit that hurts, cut it out!"
"Holy Hell man am I glad to hear you talking!" Matt said excitedly, then glancing back over to Cleo who seemed to be struggling in her sleep now. His brow creased and he shifted back over to her side.
"I'm glad to be talking, guess I died. Gotta figure out how to set a Respawn Location I think. Fuck my body hurts. What exactly happened man?" Josh rambled as he rolled around on the ground.
Matt continued to check Cleo's heartrate and breathing and temperature as best as he could while replying, "I mean, your heart and breathing did stop a moment after that lightning strike hit the stone and you two. Cleo got her arm broken when she got thrown and is still unconscious. I made her a splint before I noticed you weren't breathing. Glad you didn't get brain damage or anything, I hope. Cleo is not gonna be happy when she wakes up with that arm like it was. I'm hoping she doesn't have internal bleeding but I don't know. Did you say Respawn Location?"
"Shit, really?" Josh said, rolling to his side and pushing himself up to his feet to step towards Cleo's unconscious form. "Shit dude, that arm does not look right. Good job on the splint though." He sat down next to her and pulled out his bag of weed and papers to roll a fat joint. As he licked it, he felt something like a static shock tickle his tongue, he nearly spilled it but curled his fingers and rolled on instinct, twisting it into a perfectly smokable joint. It was a little wet with spit, but still lit as he gently applied his last lighter to the end of it. He looked at his tiny friend crumpled on the ground, whimpering in pain as she slept and said, "Hey little homie, got a joint here if you want to join the circle." He took a hit after that and blew the smoke in her direction.
A grin crossed her face as her eyes cracked open, "Oh my god yes, my arm hurts so freaking bad!"
Josh and Matt both breathed a sigh of relief as she reached out and took the joint from Josh with her good arm.
She took a big hit, then pulled the joint away and looked at it like it bit her, "That was weird," she said and then coughed and took another hit the passed it to Matt.
He took it and handed it directly back to Josh as he said, "No I think I'm good for right now. I still need to guide us back to the treehouse. I think we've had enough adventure for today."
Josh frowned, "You're not wrong. I'm sorry I got you hurt Cleo, I just saw a lot of magic coming off this place and thought we might find something useful to power us up."
Cleo reached for the joint again as she said, "Don't worry about it. I got this nice wooden stick tied to my arm and we got a lightning rock."
Josh looked even paler at that comment as he looked at Matt, whose expression seemed equally as morose. Josh continued, "Clearly not a good trade. Finish that joint and we'll get heading back to camp."
"I don't know, maybe it will be. We don't know yet. I saw a new magic symbol while I was dreaming. Well, having a nightmare. But still. I think there's more to it. I don't know what yet though." Cleo said between tokes off the joint. She stood up and pointed at the errant large crusty looking green stone as she said, "Are you going to put that thing in my backpack? I think I'm ready to go, if you'll carry the backpack back."
Matt and Josh both responded at once, "Sure." And with that they packed it away and made their way onwards towards their treehouse campsite.
Location: Treehouse
Time: 3pm Dungeon time
Cleo held a glowing hand over her broken and splinted forearm as she channeled healing energy into it for the tenth time in the last hour.
Healing Palm Skill gained +1 Level
She smiled as the last of the bruising in her forearm faded away while the skill's effects ended. She reached her arm up from her lap and it immediately bent at each of the break sites and she grimaced in pain as she laid it back into the splint harness. She focused through the pain and activated her Healing Palm skill again. She looked over at Donnie munching on some scraps of the quick lunch they had eaten when they got back. "Will you ask Matt to come up here?" She asked the rabbit like she were talking to a normal person. The rabbit wiggled it's nose and took another bite of the end of a big bird legbone. Crunch
Cleo gagged a little at the sound, "Eww! How do you eat that?"
The rabbit continued to crunch, turning to face it's tail at her. A minute later Matt came through the door to their treehouse, "Donnie don't be rude. What's up Cleo?"
"It seems that my healing skill doesn't knit bones together. Can you tie my splint tight for me?" She asked him in a defeated tone.
"Aww, That sucks homie. But Yeah, I got you. Here," Matt said as he knelt next to her and retied the splint around her broken arm, "Let me know if it's too tight."
"No that's perfect," Cleo said looking him in the eyes, as hers held back a tear from the pain. "What is Josh doing?"
Matt finished tying the splints lacing off into a bow-tie and shook his head, "I'm not sure, he's in the safe room at the moment with the green rock. Maybe you should go in there to rest until sunset to help speed up healing of the breaks in the bone?"
"Probably a good idea honestly. Carry me down?" She asked him.
"Sure, lets go see what he's up to," Matt said and lifted Cleo up onto his shoulders, her good arm wrapped around his neck and holding her body to his back like a vice. Matt struggled a little with how strong she was, it was painful but the rope ladder they had leading down from the treehouse was only about twenty feet down to the ground, so it didn't take too long. They got to the ground and walked the fifty feet towards the safe room door and entered it.
Inside they found Josh polishing a large rounded piece of copper propped on the side of the fountain on the far wall. Cleo spoke up, "Where did you find that?"
Josh turned his head and smiled at her, "It's what was inside that green crusty substance on the rock. Its a copper ore nodule. With a bit of engraving faintly on the surface. I can't make out most of it, but this," he turned it to show the flattened bottom of it, where a symbol was etched largely across the bottom.
Cleo's eyes went wide, "No way."
"What?" Josh said confused at her reaction as Matt's face grew concerned.
"I saw that symbol while I was having a nightmare after I got knocked out earlier." Cleo told them. Then she explained the whole dream after the started asking questions about it.
"That's wild, doesn't tell us much about it except it's maybe dangerous," Matt said as Cleo finished recounting her dream.
"Nor does it further elucidate the weird respawning void lobby I was in or that Sede of Leng message I got while I was dead." Josh added.
"Wait what?" Cleo asked in a truly surprised tone.
"Yeah, Matt said my heart and breathing stopped after the lightning strike, I saw a black blank space, got a notification or two about respawning location not being set and respawn timer which counted down. But in between I got a weird other color notification, called a system message. That thing spoke to me directly, responded to me. But said a lot. Like a bunch of weird stuff that didn't make sense fully. Probably not a big deal. I hope." Josh explained as he set the copper nodule on the ground and pulled out a joint. "I don't think we can really make use of that today. But we have a bunch of other things we gathered. I am planning to work out some more before the sun sets. And tend to our garden. Can't believe those seeds already shot up while we were gone today. This magic is pretty cool."
Cleo smiled as she took the joint from him and lit it with a small fire cantrip, took a deep toke, and said as she exhaled, "Magic is pretty cool. Doesn't heal bones that are broken though. At least not my Healing Palm Skill."
"That's too bad, but you can still speed up plant growth. I want to plant those fruit seeds before sunset tonight, with your help if you're up for some more plant magic lessons." Josh asked Cleo.
Matt chimed in, "I could use more magic lessons. I'm still struggling with it."
Cleo laughed, "I can do that," she took another toke of the joint and passed it to Matt as she said, "Take a hit and lets carry that engraved copper back to the treehouse anyways. I want to look at it later. I'm heading to check the garden for now."
Matt nodded as he took a drag from the joint and passed it over to Josh before picking up the heavy copper nodule. "I'll go ahead and stash it up top, then meet you outside for some sparring practice and more wood gathering?" He said, the last he was looking at Josh as he spoke.
Josh nodded yes, "Sounds good, meet you over there in a minute." And with that he followed the other two outside, and headed to the garden with Cleo.
Cleo watched Josh walk off towards where Matt was waiting at the edge of the treeline, near their little sparring circle they had set up the day before.
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