Lydia- Awakening

by Grey Arney

  - Nightvision: can see in the dark.

  WARNING: Trait Limit Reached!

  You can only have four traits at one time. You have exceeded the limit, and you must sacrifice one. If you do not choose within five minutes, one will be chosen at random and deleted. Which trait would you like to delete?

  - Original

  - Wolf-Blooded

  - Blessing of the Vampire Queen

  - Druid

  - Wolf Soul

  The thought of losing his hard-earned bonuses from Lily or from the Druid class terrified him. Thankfully, it was an easy choice. The Wolf Soul trait included Nightvision, and his Druid class already allowed him to charm wolves. The only downside was that he’d lose 5 agility. So he quickly chose to delete Wolf-Blooded, replacing it with Wolf Soul.

  Arcturus, still in wolf form, checked his hit points and mana and noted that he had not lost any at all. He would be less vulnerable in this shape due to these bonuses. He was also astounded by his new senses of smell and hearing. It was like being born colorblind and suddenly seeing the bursts of a rainbow coming into view. He perked up his ears at the sound of leaves in the distance. A small animal. But what kind? He instructed one of the wolves in his pack to go investigate. It understood and darted off in the distance. In just a few minutes, the wolf came back to him and lay before him. An image popped into his head of a thin, black snake with a strident strip of yellow running from its head to its tail.

  Returning to his human shape, Arcturus decided to try another new ability.

  Before he could, Fish interrupted him.

  “Boss, you look a little different,” he said.

  Arcturus stared at the goblin in askance.

  “When you changed back into a man. You’re still part wolf. Your ears!”

  Arcturus reached a hand up to his head and was startled to find a mane of thick auburn hair, with two pert ears sticking out of the top. With some concentration, he was able to morph fully into human form.

  Now to find his prey. He first imagined the Golden Eagle, and tried to sense if any were nearby. He could feel one in the cliffs overhead. Then he tried calling to it. To his amazement, the screech of the Golden Eagle stole forth from his own lips, rupturing through the air and echoing off of the rocky crags above. It was coming.

  Arcturus held out his arm expectantly and, before long, one of the beautiful creatures splashed down from the cliffs up above and landed on him. Motioning to the direction of the snake, he gave his instructions.

  “Go get the snake. Grab it. Do not kill it. Bring it here to me. Do not drop it.”

  The bird fluttered off in search of its quarry. There was screeching and hissing and the sound of wings flapping as it seized its prey and returned to Arcturus, the snake wiggling its claws like an awful earthworm.

  This next part was going to be tricky, so he used Charm Animal on the snake before asking the Golden Eagle to drop it to the ground. Instructing the reptile to stay still, Arcturus then reached out and touched its tail just long enough to absorb the shape.

  Do you wish to learn the shape of the Fletcher Snake (Level 25)?

  You may learn unlimited shapes. The creature will not be harmed. (Yes/No)

  After learning the shape, he tried to find out if the snake was venomous. It was. He removed a phial from his pack and placed the snake’s fangs over the rim. As he squeezed the animal’s head, a nacreous, green liquid oozed into the phial. He squeezed all of it out, and then examined the phial.

  You have found: Fletcher Snake Venom

  A small amount of this potent snake venom is capable of killing many mammals. It can also cause paralysis in humanoids.

  It would be risky to transform into a snake, which undoubtedly would have very few hit points. But there might be a use for this shape later. While he had been harvesting snake venom, one of his airborne spies had returned and was patiently waiting to show him a dangerous beast nearby. In a puff, he turned back into a wolf, and the whole pack set out to follow the bird, with Fish trailing behind on foot.

  ***

  As the pack of wolves approached the target, they started to get anxious. Wolves are predators, but they hunt small animals and defenseless ungulates. In this forest, they had few enemies, but they were not the apex predator.

  No, this was the apex predator. Ahead of them, a silhouette formed from a towering, hunchbacked mass of matted fur, lumbering first on four legs, and then rising onto the rear legs, reaching its fiendish claws into the air, stretching itself in an apathetic, if not leisurely, pose. A bear.

  But this was not an ordinary bear. Its stature was terrifying. Arcturus examined it, and found that in wolf form, he could glean more information about the animal, perhaps due to his increased perception.

  Creature Display

  Type: Dire Bear

  Level: 43

  Hit Points: 1,450/1,450

  Mana: 45/45

  If it came to a fight, the odds didn’t look good. His whole pack of wolves didn’t have as many hit points as this one bear. He popped back into human form, and instructed his wolves to pull back. This called for something more subtle.

  The goblin eyed the monstrosity lurching in the distance. “I don’t think I can take that thing,” he said.

  “It has 1,450 hit points. How much damage can you do if you sneak up on it?”

  “I dunno, maybe a couple hundred, if I get a critical? But he’s big. I’m not sure how I can get at his arteries.”

  “We’ve got to plan our attack carefully. We have the advantage of numbers. But let’s go about this carefully,” he said to Fish.

  Arcturus formed a plan. The goblin would climb up a tree while Arcturus lay in wait with his bow and arrow. The wolves would skirt the edge of the area, preparing a flank attack. Then, one of his lucky creatures would have the job of luring the bear into the trap.

  It was a risk, but the prize of the bear’s shape was impossible to ignore. Arcturus opened the phial of Fletcher Snake Venom and carefully spread it along the tip of a crossbow bolt.

  Fish moved into position, shimmying up a tree and pulling out two sickly looking curved daggers. Arcturus prepared the venomous bolt, pulling it to maximum tension. He’d only get one shot. He sent the wolves around to the side.

  Steadily approaching the bear, Arcturus raised the crossbow, keeping the beast’s massive face lined up in the sights. As the bear spotted him, its face turned in his direction, staring him in the eye disdainfully. Arcturus attempted to use Charm Animal on the bear.

  You cannot charm animals that are higher than your own level.

  So much for doing this the easy way. For better or worse, he had to have that bear’s shape. His hand felt heavier than lead as his trembling finger moved towards the button to release the bolt. Trying to remind himself that this was just some sort of game, and that if he died, he’d come right back—according to rumors—he willed himself to fire the bolt.

  The shaft of the bolt flew straight towards the bear, who still hadn’t registered any kind of threat, and had been watching the human with scorn. It fired true, thrusting into the soft cartilage of its snout. He had injured the bear a little bit, but pissed it off a lot.

  Your bolt strikes the Dire Bear for 44 damage. The bear is poisoned!

  As the bolt landed in its target, Arcturus had seen the bear’s red hit point meter tick down by a measly 3%. And he now saw in those two menacing eyes a hatred he had never seen before. The bear was motionless for a moment, despite how much the bolt must have hurt, as if it was unable to accept that it had been injured by a weaker animal. After a long second, the mouth dropped open, and the bear bellowed in rage, dropped down to four paws, and started running straight for Arcturus. The bear was able to run much faster than the human expected.

  “Holy shit,” he yelled, recalling an expression from his youth.

  Arcturus fired off a Hex spell, slowing the bear and reducing the effectiveness of its attacks. Not wanting to be ripped into tiny meat morsels, he the
n turned around and ran. When he realized the bear would be upon him in seconds, he remembered he could turn into a wolf. Wolves run fast. In a snap, he was down on four legs in wolf form, struggling to match the pace of the pursuing bear. As they passed under the tree where Fish sat in concealment, the goblin dropped down with impressive timing, head first, with two daggers held out before him. The daggers sank into the bear’s neck, and slid down the animal’s back as they fought gravity to gain purchase in the flesh of the mighty predator.

  Fish is unseen! Critical hit! He strikes the Dire Bear for 354 damage.

  That did something! The bear’s hit point meter dropped much more, and he now had about two thirds left. Still, without a miracle, there was no way Arcturus and all of his friends were walking away from this battle in one piece. The bear screamed in rage tinged with a growing frustration, as he reached his claws behind him, grasping hold of a thin goblin leg with both paws, and brutally slamming Fish into a tree with the devastating force of a hurricane. The goblin twitched on the ground, motionless.

  Wasting no time, Arcturus called in his wolves to bring up the rear.

  With a series of cacophonous howls, the big dogs joined the hunt, leaping and bounding out from behind trees, nipping at the bear’s heels. And bringing up the rear was none other than Lyle, the only silver wolf among them.

  The wolf bites were sapping hit points from the bear, just three or four at a time. The poison from the arrow and the bites worked together to create a steady drain. But it wouldn’t be enough to bring the bear down before all of the wolves were killed. The bear kicked at the wolves angrily, picking one up with clumsy, thumbless paws and slamming it down again in a pile driver, and kicking another across the forest floor, where it lay still.

  Arcturus used the chance to maneuver to the rear of the bear and shifted into human form just long enough to complete his objective.

  Do you wish to learn the shape of the Dire Bear (Level 43)?

  You may learn unlimited shapes. The creature will not be harmed. As you do not meet all of the requirements, you will suffer penalties if you use this shape. (Yes/No)

  Without taking the time to read the prompt, Arcturus chose “Yes,” shifted back into wolf form, and dropped off to the side while the animal tore through his furry friends. Wasting no time, he began his transition. This shape took longer than any other he had attempted, and he spent 100 mana casting the spell. It was unbearable to watch the animal tearing through his wolf friends like a wrecking ball. When the transition was complete, he stood up and let out a bellowing roar. That got the bear’s attention, who promptly stopped kicking at the little wolves and lumbered towards the new adversary.

  Arcturus checked his stats and noticed that he had only 400 hit points. The penalty for transforming into a higher-level shape meant that he was still far outmatched. Analyzing the bear, he saw that it had 720 remaining. The wolves were mostly incapacitated and Fish was out of the fight. This was about to get ugly.

  Arcturus clapped his furry mitts together, challenging the bear to rumble. As the bear closed on him, he deflected a slashing blow from a clumsy paw, and drove his own massive claws into the bear’s stomach, which had little effect.

  You hit the Dire Bear for 19 damage.

  His Shapeshifting penalty also affected damage output. Arcturus dragged the bear down to the forest floor, and the two rolled in the leaves, inflicting relatively little damage on each other. He worked his way onto the top of the animal and almost had it pinned down, but then it worked its paw free and brought its claws up over Arcturus’ snout, slashing across and spraying warm blood down on itself.

  The Dire Bear strikes for 137 damage.

  This contest wasn’t going to last long. Pinning the bear down with one giant arm, he took his other and clumsily mashed at the arrow sticking from the bear’s nose. He smashed the bolt deeper and deeper into the bear, and every time he did, he pricked his own hand, but seemed to do more damage to the other bear as the embedded projectile approached the creature’s brain. The bear roared and dug its paws into the side of its adversary, squeezing with all of the force of a vise, and teasing more blood out as the claws dug into Arcturus’ ,leathery hide.

  Fish appeared from nowhere with a cruel grin, and a dagger went into the bear’s eye. When its movements didn’t cease, he inserted a second dagger into the other eye. It writhed and groaned and finally stopped struggling.

  Fish is unseen! Critical hit! He strikes the Dire Bear for 322 damage.

  Fish is unseen! Critical hit! He strikes the Dire Bear for 335 damage.

  The two criticals had finished him. Rolling off of the bear, Arcturus began to shift back into human form.

  The two sat there for a moment, man and goblin, as the surviving wolves cowered in the distance, staring hopefully at him.

  Gathering his senses, Arcturus picked himself up and took stock of the casualties. Many of the wolves were bloodied, and three of them lay motionless on the ground. He tended to these, moving to the closest. It wasn’t breathing. He went to the second, and the third, and the result was the same. They were gone. He felt an unexpected sense of grief at the loss. He had few friends in this world, and these three had died doing as he asked. A tear stung his eye when he realized that he hadn’t even given them names. He decided that from now on, he would make an effort to. They deserved no less.

  There was no time for guilt, though, because those still standing needed attention. Some of them had major injuries such as cracked ribs. One of them had a swollen, purple eye that was glued shut by congealed blood. When he was finished tending the wounded of the pack, he gathered the bodies of the three who had fallen, and laid them out in a row.

  Fish tried to offer some consolation. “We can bring them back. We can bury them,” he said.

  “No,” said Arcturus, who had already ruled out burial. There was another option.

  Though short of breath, and with eyelids glistening, he knelt before the first and rested a hand on its head.

  “Jackson,” he said, giving the creature a name, as he cast Simple Undead Servant. His Death Magic level was higher now, and the spell took effect immediately. The creature shivered, made a sound like a hacking cough, and kicked its legs, trying to stand up. As it stood, its fur was suddenly engulfed in a white translucent fire, and it shuddered and struggled. It looked as though this dark magic had produced an unpredictable result, and Arcturus watched in horror and dismay as the creature resisted while the fire raged over him. Its fur disappeared, and then its flesh, and finally the bones themselves. But what was left was a shimmering apparition with two bright eyes that pierced through the void like lasers.

  You have unlocked a new spell: Revive Bonded Soul.

  Ordinarily, Simple Undead Servant will produce a mindless servant. But by casting it on a creature that considered you a friend, you have accessed a new, secondary effect. This creature has been restored to the land of the living. If defeated, he will be banished to the void, but will return in one day.

  Arcturus broke free from his silence, seeing the look of recognition in the spectral wolf’s eyes. He had brought it back! He cast the spell twice more, on “Shirley” and “Jeffrey,” and they too were restored.

  The wolves grew agitated at first, sighting the spirits, but seemed to recognize their own. They bounded about in circles, and the spectral wolves howled, eliciting a response from their flesh-and-blood counterparts. Arcturus took the hide from the bear, as well as its teeth and claws and as much meat as he could carry. The rest he offered to the wolves. Together, the band returned to the campsite, where the three men from Aurora were working on erecting a building. He instructed Fish to begin making potions using nearby ingredients. He asked one of the three men to help him tan and cure the Dire Bear hide. When the wolves were dismissed, Arcturus noted that all of them, including the spectral wolves, entered the den together, just as they had before. The pack was whole again.

  CHAPTER 9

  Now that Arcturus had some of
fensive capabilities, it was time to give thought to the goblin threat. That evening, he sat at the rock alcove in a meditative posture, with Lyle next to him, pondering his next steps. He considered every angle. There were possible diplomatic solutions, which involved approaching and negotiating with all parties. There were economic solutions, such as helping the goblins to address their food shortage. And there were unspeakably violent solutions: up to and including extinguishing all goblins. He was turning these ideas in his head when he was startled by a woman laughing.

  “Wow. You really are taking this Druid stuff seriously, aren’t you?” said Lily, who had appeared before him as she was wont to do. “And what the hell has happened to you? Are you seriously just running around with dog ears on your head now?” she asked, eying his reddish-brown crown of hair and the two periscopic ears that emerged from it.

  Arcturus self-consciously combed a hand over his head. “I’ve found that I have better hearing this way,” he began, preferring to rationalize rather than to admit that it was taking more and more effort to remember his fully human shape. “It’s been awhile since you’ve come around, Lily,” he continued, with a hint of accusation.

  “I would have stopped by earlier, but there’s not much privacy in your campsite these days,” returned the vampire.

  So that was it. She wanted “alone” time. Still, Arcturus had to admit to himself that he had been anxiously awaiting her next visit.

  “I wish you would have come sooner. I need some advice from my enlightened elders. But first, let me do something about this,” he said, patting his ears.

  Lily ignored the jab. “Don’t waste your time being self-conscious around me. I’m a vampire. What did you want to ask?”

  Arcturus filled her in on the recent developments, including his new powers, the people in his camp, and his quest to end the goblin threat.

  “That’s a pretty serious quest for such a low level player. It would affect hundreds or maybe thousands of players. I can’t imagine why you’ve gotten it. Normally only very high-level players would get such a quest. It must have something to do with your status as a Druid or as an Original. Maybe both,” started Lily.