Steele Alchemist

by Deck Davis

  As much as he just wanted to enjoy it, he couldn’t. It wasn’t like he’d just taken a bus here, or something. He’d gotten here through the portal, and he needed to work out where ‘here’ was.

  He looked around. There wasn’t much to see on the grass plains, but fifty meters to his left there was a giant tree with bare branches. He walked over to it. When he was closer, he studied the trunk and the branches and evaluated how good it’d be for climbing. The trunk seemed pretty sturdy and had no sign of rot. The branches were thick and plentiful.

  He gripped a nobly part of the trunk and then found his first foothold, and started to climb. He made slow, sure progress. This wasn’t a race, and he needed to make sure there were no surprises. Nature could be a bitch, and he made sure to halt every few seconds and check the tree for angry critters or poison patches or anything that might ruin his day.

  When he finally reached the top, or as close to it as he dared go, he was dizzyingly high up. Now he could see beyond the plains and got a view of the landscape around him, and boy was it strange.

  To the east were gargantuan mountains that reached far across the horizon, effectively covering the whole of the east. The mountain range was so massive that it seemed to have two climates; one half was made of cold, black stone and was snowcapped, while the other half had sandy-colored rocks and flora.

  Behind him and rising up to the sky was a steep hill, on top of which was a wooden shack. To the west, a road wound snake-like toward the horizon. He couldn’t see anyone travelling it, nor could he see where it led.

  The strangest sight was saved for when he looked north.

  Miles away, the landscape was covered by a dark mass of trees. They were so tightly packed together that the whole place looked dark. Beyond the thickest part of woodland, the trees seemed to spread out a little, and Jake was sure they formed a kind of maze.

  There was something foreboding about it. Even so far away, a chill ran through him when he looked at it. It was as if something was there, some dark force that waited for unsuspecting people to travel there. He wouldn’t like to be stuck there, that was for sure.

  He didn’t recognize anything around him, but one thing was certain; he sure as hell wasn’t in the city.

  Maybe he’d gone completely insane. Or maybe not.

  Was lack of sleep the reason for this? Or was it the opposite? Maybe he was in a deep sleep, and this was the most realistic dream he’d ever had. As lucid dreams went, this one sucked. His brain could have at least conjured up a dream for him to spend some time with Louise, the girl who used to work in the Rum Drum Bar with him. That would have been much nicer.

  But no, as convenient as it would be, lack of sleep hadn’t conjured an entire hallucinatory world. When he’d run through the light portal it had obviously sent him somewhere else. Maybe it was some kind of fast travel worm hole, or something like that. Did those exist? If not, he’d claim the portal as his own invention and make a fortune.

  As he contemplated his new situation, something interrupted his thoughts. He saw movement in his peripheral vision. Someone was running toward him from his right. It was a girl, almost his own age by the looks of her. She had long, chestnut-brown hair and her dress was covered in dirt and rips.

  He climbed down from the tree and then waited for her to reach him. When she got to Jake, he was going to ask if she was okay, but she seemed set on running straight passed him. Then, she tripped and fell face first onto the grass. Jake helped her up. She shrugged him off, then started edging back, as if he was going to hurt him.

  “What happened to you?” he asked.

  The girl got to her feet. It was then that Jake saw she had a small knife in her hand.

  Jake held up his hands to show her he was weaponless. “Cool it a little, I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “You’re not one of his men?” asked the girl.

  “One of who’s men?”

  “The Watcher.”

  “I don’t know who he is, lady. And the Watcher is a name I’d remember.”

  The girl seemed to appraise him for a few seconds. Then, as if she’d judged him to be unthreatening, she lowered her knife.

  “I can’t stay. I need to keep running. If you ever see my brother Jendak, tell him that I made it.”

  “How will I know who your brother is?”

  “He’s my twin. He looks like me.”

  “No offense, but I’m gonna forget what you look like about an hour after you go.”

  “He’s got a burn on his left cheek. Just tell him that Esmelda made it. I got free.”

  And with that, Esmelda turned and ran away, going at such a panicked speed that she almost tripped again. Soon, she sprinted up a hill and then down the other side of it, disappearing from view.

  Yep, thought Jake. That’s pretty much the effect I usually have on girls.

  It was time to turn his attention back to figuring out what the hell was going on. Just as he put his hand on his chin in what he guessed was a pondering pose, he saw something.

  An image flashed inside his head. He saw lines of text that seemed as if they were right in front of him at first, but if he looked beyond them, they disappeared.

  When he willed them to reappear again, there they were.

  Name: Jake Steele

  Level: 1

  Exp: 0 / 0

  HP: 127 / 127

  Stamina: 159 / 159

  Mana: 0

  Class: Unassigned

  Base Skills:

  None

  Attributes:

  None

  “Attributes none?” he said. “That’s pretty rude.”

  He had only seconds to wonder what this all meant, before he heard something shriek. It was quickly followed by the sound of footsteps running in his direction.

  A banshee ran toward him through the dead grass. How did he know it was a banshee? Well, they’d studied Irish mythology in English class a few years ago, and he’d read about banshees in a folklore book. And this…this was almost definitely a God-damned banshee.

  She had her arms outstretched, and her eyes were wide and crazy and fixed on Jake. Her hair was curly and ran down to her waist, and the twigs and weeds entwined in it made it look like a bird’s nest. Though her hair looked long on her, that didn’t say much since this banshee woman was only three feet tall.

  The crazy woman kept running at him. He thought about running himself. He’d never been great at sports, but running was his thing. His track coach used to say that he had three sets of lungs, he could go so far without stopping. He wasn’t fast, but man, was distance his thing.

  Still, right now that wouldn’t help because the banshee had too much of a start on him. There was no time to run.

  When she was twenty feet away from him, she screamed.

  The sound of it jabbed at his eardrums like a screwdriver. He put his hand to his ears to take the edge off the sound, but he was too late.

  15HP lost! 112/127

  “Jesus Christ!” he said.

  She wasn’t here to welcome him to the world, that was for sure. He pulled his hands away from his ears and half expected to see blood on his fingertips, which would have worried him a little. He didn’t have a medical degree, but he was sure that bleeding from the ears was a sign that your day wasn’t going right. Luckily, his fingers were clean.

  The banshee still hadn’t stopped running, but her small legs meant she moved at a speed that gave him time to prepare. So…what to do about her? He guessed he could try screaming back in her face, but his singing voice wasn’t as shrill as hers.

  He reached to the ground picked up the potato. He felt the weight of it in his hand. He focused on the banshee, drew his arm back and then unleashed the vegetable…only for it to bounce off her skull.

  She was ten feet away now. She had her mouth open to show a set of yellowed teeth and a blood-red tongue. She was going to start screaming again.

  Screw that.

  He picked the stick and rope up of
f the ground. He went on the offensive, using his long strides to get close to the banshee before she did anything.

  “Let’s see how you like this.”

  Rather than use the stick, which was so thin it’d snap after one hit, to bludgeon her, he punched her in the face with his free hand. She backed away, stunned, but Jake wasn’t giving her a second to get herself together.

  He moved forward, wrapped the rope around her neck and tightened it.

  The banshee shook and flailed as the rope pressed against her skin. She tried to scream but all that came out were gurgles that didn’t damage him. She tried scratching, biting and hitting, but he kept out of reach, making sure to never let his grip slacken. The banshee’s face turned red, and then blue. Finally, she stopped struggling.

  Was she dead? Well, he wasn’t taking any chances. He kept the rope around her neck for a minute more to make sure she wasn’t tricking him.

  Just a few seconds later, a message gave him confirmation that he could rest.

  10% Experience Gained

  90% until Lvl 2

  Now was as good a time as any to take a second and think about what the hell was going on. As far as he could see it, there were four pertinent questions:

  Where had the portal taken him?

  Who had put it in the building in the first place?

  Where the hell was the portal now?

  Was this a game?

  It didn’t take him long to cycle through the answers to each one, since they were all ‘I don’t have a damn clue.’ All he knew was that when he looked around, there was no sign of a rectangle of pulsating blue light. Instead, there was a blood-stained rope, a scattering of muesli, and the potato that he’d flung at the banshee.

  The only question he could come close to answering was the fourth: Was this a game?

  He’d played plenty of games, so he kinda knew the score. Status notifications didn’t appear in real life. If they did, Jake would have been a level 50 bartender with a specialization in kicking drunk a-holes out of the bar. You didn’t earn experience points after getting into a fight in real life.

  His carefully considered diagnosis led him to conclude that he’d either lost his mind, or he was in a role-playing game. Either way, he needed a second opinion.

  The only place he could think to get one was just north of him beyond the horizon of dead grass, where the wooden hut was perched at the top of a hill. It was the only building he could see in the immediate area, and maybe there’d be someone there.

  He started to walk toward it, then caught himself.

  Hang on a goddamn minute.

  Before leaving, he checked on his deceased banshee friend. He searched all her clothing, but she didn’t have anything except a severe case of B.O. It was only when he braved removing her boots that he found a small dagger in her sock. He shrugged, then picked it up. Better than a kick in the balls.

  Dagger

  Att: 5

  Durability: 8/15

  After equipping the dagger, he started to walk. He hadn’t gone far when something stopped him. The hairs on his neck stood up as if someone had crept up close and stroked them. He had the strongest feeling that he was being watched. The sensation grew and grew until it felt like it was burning him.

  He gripped the dagger and spun around. Not far in front of him, was a glowing blood-red orb that floated in the air. It was spherical, and the edges seemed to buzz with energy. The surface resembled a balloon but harder, kind of like a giant marble that was still light enough to float.

  The strangest thing was when it rotated a little. As it did, Jake made out a face peering back at him from the orb. It was an older man with leathery skin, leering eyes, greased-down hair and mutton-chop sideburns. The effect of the man’s face inside the orb was unsettling, and he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he was a little worried. What the hell was this thing? And how long had it been watching him?

  The man gave a sneering smile. His face pressed against the shiny sides of the orb.

  Jake tightened his grip on his dagger. He wondered who should make the first move. Should he just charge at it?

  His question was answered when the orb rotated, hiding its face from view, and then suddenly shot up into the air like a newly-launched rocket. When it reached its zenith, it darted sideways and travelled across the landscape, following the direction toward the tangle of forests in the north.

  Jake shivered. He remembered the creepy maze and darkened woodland in the foreboding place. It didn’t surprise him that the orb had come from there. The question was, who the hell was the man? Was he trapped inside the orb? Why was he staring at Jake?

  Now, it suddenly seemed more pressing that he found someone, anyone, who could tell him where had was. The shack on the hill seemed to be his only option.

  When he crossed the fields and climbed the hill, his stamina had dropped to just a quarter. He didn’t expect a simple journey to have drained him so much, but he didn’t have any attribute points yet, and that meant his endurance was zero. In other words, a newly-born baby who’d just been slapped on the ass by the doctor had slightly more stamina than him.

  Hmm. Maybe my superhero lung capacity isn’t gonna help me much here, he thought.

  That meant that his talent at running, which used to be an advantage, was less so here in this new world. Maybe the portal was a leveler, in that respect. Anyone who came through started with a blank slate. That sucked.

  But then again…

  Maybe he could become good at something else. Something he’d never been could at back home. He could do anything.

  Actually, this could be pretty great!

  He’d need to find out how to get his attribute points. It must have had something to do with the fact that his class was currently unassigned. Get a class, get points.

  First, it was time to find out where the hell he was.

  Chapter Four

  When he reached the hut, he found that it was only slightly larger than a garden shed. The hut was made from sandy-colored wood, and it looked sturdy enough for how simple it was. The flesh of various critters was hung along a strip of rope on the wall facing him. This must have been a hunter’s cabin. A sheet of tarpaulin covered one outside area of it. A big black cauldron sat underneath.

  He heard a buzzing sound. He walked around the shack, only to see a beehive just beyond it. He’d never actually seen a beehive before, and the droning of the bees was much louder than he imagined. Just beyond the beehive, there was a circular stone well with a bucket resting next to it. Jake felt his chest for his camera, grabbed it, removed the lens cap and took a couple of photos of the shack and its surroundings.

  When he was done, he looked at his camera. He was saddened, but not surprised, to find that he felt nothing. He used to get a thrill every time he pressed the capture button, but it had been a while since he’d gotten that buzz. Urban exploring had come close, but nothing had ever quite matched what he used to feel with photography. He wondered if he’d ever get it back.

  Still, he’d keep taking photos. He didn’t know where the hell he was, but there was some strange stuff here. Maybe if he got the film rolls developed, he’d make a little cash.

  Thinking about this made him slap his own head. The orb, you dolt, he said to himself. Why didn’t you remember the camera when a damn floating orb was watching you?

  He replaced the lens cap and walked back around to the shack door. He decided against wielding his dagger in case he made an enemy of whichever S.O.B. owned the place, but he touched his belt to check the weapon was where he could reach it.

  He pushed open the door. A medley of aromas hit him in an assault on his nose, dozens and dozens of different odors attacking him from all angles. He smelled raw meat, lavender, ale, sulphur, blood. A wooden counter over by the wall was lined with vials containing different colored liquids.

  The most surprising thing was the size of the place. Jake had to close his eyes tight and then open them again, as if that would wake
him from a dream. From the outside, the shack had seemed no bigger than a garden shed. Inside, it was at least five times the size he’d expected.

  There was one main room rammed with a mish-mash of furniture that looked like it’d been collected from home clearances over the years. Various oddities were littered around, like a fish stuffed and nailed into a wall, a human skull with an apple in its mouth, and two massive tusks that looked like they’d come from the biggest walrus in the world. On one wall, there was a giant map that displayed a place that looked absolutely nothing like earth.

  There were two other rooms connected to the main one. One seemed to be a privy, though even at a quick glance Jake could tell this wasn’t a modern kind of toilet. The other room was a bedroom, judging by the glimpse he got of a mattress on the floor. It was misshapen, and must have been homemade and stuffed with feathers or hay or something.