Grunting, he began a mental checklist of his condition and gave himself the full once-over.
Left-hand ring finger was probably broken. Right thumb jammed. Left wrist felt like it had a hairline fracture, but it could be the bindings. Bruised ribs on the front of his torso. Probably from being dumped on a horse, if he had to guess.
There was no need to urinate or empty his bowels.
His clothes were different, and his possessions were long gone.
I’ve been kidnapped, haven’t I?
A sharp chime sounded from nowhere and everywhere.
The box in the bottom left, which he normally avoided as much as possible, flashed twice.
Before he could even think of reading the log to try and get some answers, it flashed a third time and went black.
Right in the middle of his view was an icon. An hourglass, and it was turning itself end over end as it filled and emptied.
Then it vanished, and a flash of light blinded him.
When it cleared, he was fairly surprised.
In the top left, he could see what looked like three different colored bars and a portrait of himself. A younger, ganglier, and not as tall yet, version of his older self.
The alignment bar, predominantly blue, remained in the same place it had always been.
The bottom left box, which had served to help him eavesdrop and gave him subtitles to the world at large, returned.
There were new messages in it now. Unfortunately, everything previously there had been removed. There was no record for him to read about what had happened to him while he’d been unconscious.
Grimacing, Rene read the new messages.
Failsafe conditions- met
Contract- activated
Effect- immediate
Duration- unlimited
System activated.
Reloading…
System reloaded.
Ready.
A message box popped up directly in front of him once he got to the last message. Below it, there was a green “Yes” and a red “No”. He had the distinct impression he’d need to select one or the other.
Would you like to view your character sheet before you begin?
Yes/No
Rene opened his mouth and then closed it. Then he let out a slow breath.
“Yes?” he said, not entirely sure if he wanted to or not.
Level:
01
Race:
Human
Experience:
00%
Alignment:
Good
Reputation:
0
Bounty:
0
Fame:
0
Attributes-
Agility:
18
Charisma:
4
Endurance:
12
Intelligence:
29
Luck:
11
Perception:
17
Strength:
12
-
-
Status: Lightly wounded, thirsty, hungry.
What a chance meeting! Seasons it’s been, and you thought me fin. I return anew, a yearn to burn, and much bone to hew. Blood to drink, and bodies to… eh, fuck it. Let’s kill some shit.
“Be quiet, I’m busy,” Rene muttered, trying to mask the shock he felt.
He hadn’t heard that voice in his mind since the moment he’d arrived on this world. The rasping, muttering, hissing, screaming voice that’d dominated his previous life. Something he’d considered gone and had done his best to forget it ever existed.
And it was back.
Don’t be so rude at our reuniting, I find it immeasurably joyous and whole-heartedly exciting.
Rene let out a shuddering breath and shook his head.
Not happening, not happening. Not happening. He said he fixed me. Fixed it.
Fixed you.
He did! He did, alas he did. But hence I’ve come, despite being unbid.
Taking a deep breath, Rene pushed hard at the voice. Pushed and shoved and heaved at it. Slowly, it gave way. Its muttering and rambling grew softer by the second as Rene exerted his control over the Monster.
When it was finally silent, he closed his eyes, and lay there against the cold stones. Trying not to lose his control. To not let himself slip back into the madness.
Opening his eyes, he looked at the log.
Unfortunately, he found exactly what he didn’t want there.
Even the voice in his head was subtitled and listed out for everything it said. Except it didn’t say Monster or anything like that.
The name next to it was his own.
I really am the Monster, and the Monster is me.
Blanking his thoughts, Rene tried to re-set his mind. He needed to be in control of it to figure out what he could do.
And to know what he could do, he needed to re-evaluate his situation.
Slowly, he started working his mind through the problem.
His bindings were tight, the room sealed, and he felt tired. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything he could do to change any of it at the moment.
At the back of his mind during all of this, it felt like hundreds of thousands of doors were opening. One after the other, all the things he’d learned in his life of murder and death.
It all came back. As if none of it had ever left. As if every lesson were seconds fresh and new.
Every single training he’d ever had. From hand-to-hand combat, knife fighting, shooting, sniping, poisons, and assassinations, to building a working insurgency cell to overthrow a foreign government.
He lost track of time, staring at the door in front of him as his mind sorted through itself. Reliving things he’d long since forgotten and trying to figure out what would help him.
It wasn’t until the door of his cell slammed open that he was shaken from his thoughts. His mind tumbling away rapidly from the heights where it had been.
Chapter 3
“Ah, the little brat’s awake,” a shadowed man said from the doorway.
Another silhouette passed in front of the first one to come over to Rene.
He couldn’t quite make out details as the light from the hallway was doing a fair job of blinding him. He’d been in the dark too long for any type of light to do him much good.
“Behave. Don’t do anything stupid,” hissed the man. Reaching behind Rene, the man cut his bonds and then turned and walked back out without another word for Rene. “Feed him, give him water, and a pot to shit in.”
The first grumbled and did as instructed, setting down a plank in front of Rene. A loaf of bread and a canteen of water were dropped unceremoniously on the wood.
Rene said nothing, acting the part of a fear-stricken young man and waited for the man to leave.
The man threw a metal pot that clanged and bounced across the stones to settle in the corner before exiting the room.
Standing smoothly, Rene immediately went to the door as stealthily as he could and checked the handle, the lock, and the hinges. He needed to know what he was working with.
Each was rusty and seemed brittle to Rene. Not old, just not cared for. The hardware had fallen victim to the moisture and inattention that seemed to plague wherever he was.
This wasn’t made to be a cell. It was converted. Look there, the hinges are simple pins. We could have them out in under ten minutes with that canteen. Well, if we flatten it and turn it into a pry bar.
“Well aren’t you accommodating today?” Rene fingered the hinges and found them to be exactly as the voice had said.
Course. We’re without the need to feed, to slake our thirst of blood, the ache to taste the red flood.
“Still crazy, though,” Rene muttered, pressing an eye to the keyhole. It was a silly thing to do, but he might see something.
Says the guy talking to himself. Didn’t you hear the god? I am you, you are me. We are we.
“Then stop rhyming. I
t’s annoying,” Rene sighed and crept back to the loaf of bread. He hadn’t seen anything other than a hallway, but he didn’t want to give the impression to his keepers that he was mobile.
Your skill in Sneaking has increased (2)
Rene stopped moving and stared at the message that had popped up in the corner of his screen.
Video game indeed.
“Right?” Rene whispered. Moving again, he began walking in circles around the room.
Your skill in Sneaking has increased (3)
Your skill in Sneaking has increased (4)
Your skill in Sneaking has increased (5)
Pausing again, Rene mentally focused on the word “sneaking.” A window popped up in front of him, reminding him of his previous life when the Internet first came about. When pop-ups would flood your screen without warning.
Sneak: The ability to escape detection.
“Huh. Do I have a skill list?” Rene asked aloud.
No sooner than he finished asking, a single line window popped up.
Sneak: 5
“So, I guess this is what he meant.”
Apparently.
Rene sat down in front of the board and picked up the loaf of bread. Pulling off a chunk, he focused on the colored bars in the top left of his vision.
Health: 100/100
Energy: 100/100
Stamina: 100/100
Frowning, he looked at the three icons below that as he chewed up the mouthful of bread.
Lightly Wounded
Hungry
Thirsty
Swallowing, he lifted the canteen and washed the bread down. Both the Hungry and Thirsty icons fell off. Focusing on the Lightly Wounded icon by itself, he concentrated on it.
After a second, a window popped up.
Lightly Wounded: Currently suffering from minor injuries. This condition will clear in 2 hours and 37 minutes.
Spiffy.
Yes.
Handy and dandy and ever splendid, it seems we’ll be quite easily mended.
A strange and odd change, to be sure. From human to video game, a fantasy pure.
Rene glared at the ground in angry contemplation. He hated hearing the Monster, but it wasn’t wrong.
He’d played video games in his youth. They’d help curb his mind at times. From what he could tell, this seemed like it was lining up more with one of the old style RPG’s than anything else.
Like something out of a bad TV show.
“Inventory?” Rene asked aloud.
An inventory screen opened in front of him. Next to that, was an avatar of himself.
Young, handsome, straight brown hair that nearly reached his shoulders and sea-green eyes.
Every small box of his inventory was empty and the clothes on the avatar were listed as “rags.”
Picking up the bread, he pushed it into one of the boxes. It vanished from his hand and appeared in the window instead.
Picking up the water, he did the same thing and got the same result. Both the bread and water were now in the inventory pane.
Rene highlighted them with a thought.
Bread: Consume to restore Health, Energy, Mana, and Stamina. Four more uses.
Water: Consume to restore Health, Energy, Mana, and Stamina. Four more uses.
Rene briefly considered taking the piss pot and adding it to his inventory but decided against it.
Going through his options, he was left with few that offered him much of anything worthwhile. His best bet was to work on the door.
He walked over to the chamber-pot, picked it up and flipped it over. Wrinkling his nose, he inspected it as carefully as he could, while touching it as little as possible.
Chamber Pot: Use to provide status boost: Relieved.
Rene put it on the ground and pressed on it with his unshod feet. The metal creaked and buckled, folding in on itself.
Rene grimaced at the noise, but figured it was worth it. Picking up the crumpled metal, he started to work it into a flat piece of steel, no wider than two of his fingers and as long as his forearm. Bending, folding, and snapping pieces off as he went.
When he reached the size he wanted, he began to work the front end of the ugly chunk of metal back and forth across the bricks.
Ten minutes later, he held up the nasty-looking thing with a sigh.
“Only as good as your tools…”
Your skill in Crafting(General) has increased (1)
Your skill in Crafting(General) has increased (2)
Your skill in Crafting(General) has increased (3)
Your skill in Analyze has increased (1)
You’ve created a Long-Handled Shiv.
Item Name: Long-Handled Shiv
Description: Forged from a chamber pot, this crude weapon could kill. Especially if you used it to cut your food with.
Damage: 3-10
Functions-
None.
Attributes-
None.
Pushing the disgusting thing into a slot between the bricks in the floor, he leaned on it heavily one way and then pulled it back the other. Stressing the metal.
With a pop, the back two thirds of the shiv broke off.
Your skill in Crafting(General) has increased (4)
You’ve created a Shiv.
Picking up the other piece, he folded it over once and then flattened it against the bricks.
He’d use this for his pry bar to slide the pins loose from the hinges and prepare his trap.
Moving to the door, he pressed the rear of the shiv into the bottom of the pin, and then slipped the pry bar into the top.
With a single shove, the pin came out cleanly. Catching it before it could hit the floor, Rene flicked it into his inventory screen.
Moving down along the door, Rene popped the other two pins free without an issue and flicked them into his window as well.
The torch. Put out the light, so we might put out their sight. In the dark we thrive, our shiv into the mark’s eye.
“Do you have to rhyme?” Rene asked, as he pulled the long, odd-looking torch from the wall. He considered snuffing it against the ground before simply shoving it into his inventory.
We enjoy the sound of a rhyme, for it was once a game. We played it to pass the time, when we were punished by the Dame.
Rene froze in place at the thought that dredged up. Locked in a cupboard for hours with nothing but his thoughts. So quiet, alone in the dark.
Shaking himself free of the quagmire of those long-dead memories, he moved to the door.
He pressed his back to the stones and felt his mind slither into a corner. It coiled itself up and prepared his body for the inevitable strike.
It’d be swift and sure.
Soon we’ll dirty our hands once more. To stain our clean soul forevermore. What of the god? That nasty man. Would he condone this, such a bloody plan?
Rene pressed his lips into a grim line and ignored the voice. Mostly because it was right. His plan was straight forward. Murder whoever came to check on him and get out.
Was killing a kidnapper good or evil?
Letting his mind turn that thought over and over, he retreated into his head. His thoughts slowly turned inward as he remained poised to strike.
Your skill in Meditation has increased (1)
Your skill in Meditation has increased (2)
Your skill in Meditation has increased (3)
Your skill in Meditation has increased (4)
Snapping out of his reverie, he could hear someone on the other side of the door.
For all intents and purposes, the door would appear as if nothing was wrong. Until you pushed on it to open it. At which point, Rene hoped it would fall inward, into the cell.
All he needed was a second.
The door creaked and the handle turned. The interlocking brackets of the hinge kept the door in place for a second before the whole thing tumbled forward away from Rene’s guest.
Following the door in, having been leaning against it t
o push it open, was a man in dark clothing.
Tumbling to his knees, the man dropped a platter that clattered to one side.
Rene leapt forward toward the man’s back. He slammed his knee into the base of the man’s skull and lifted his chin up with a jerk. Rene felt no resistance, his knee having rung the man’s bell quite firmly.
With his right hand, he drove the shiv home into the man’s throat and ripped it to the side, leaving a jagged fleshy mess of his neck that was anything but clean.
Your skill in Daggers has increased (1)
Your skill in Hand-to-Hand has increased (1)
You’ve developed the Throat Slash ability.
Your skill in Throat Slash has increased (1)
His Glauca wouldn’t have been this messy.
The body dropped to the ground and a torrential red flood spread out quickly.
No appetite to whet, no driving need. I’ll take the regret, you handle the deed.
That is my job as it ever was, my duty and desire to support the cause.
Escape. Retreat. Plan.
Rene couldn’t disagree or hesitate now. He needed to be done with this place. He needed to break contact, regroup, and redeploy.
Exactly like the Monster said.
Looking down at the man becoming a corpse, Rene considered checking his pockets for the keys.
A small glowing window popped up before Rene, startling him.
Inside of that window looked like a small inventory square. And in it was everything the man had on him.
Including his clothes.
Not really sure about that. Would we just steal his clothes without undressing him?
Rene tapped the “loot all” button in the corner and then opened his inventory. Everything had been transferred into it.
Monster's Mercy Page 3
