Unbound

Chapter Three – 003

Felix's head rocked back, his smile faltering. A Memory from that tentacle horror? He shuddered. And he also didn't have a choice? Taking a deep breath, he looked around the beach and didn't see anything nearby for at least a mile on the open sands. Before he could think too much about it, he mentally selected "Yes."

Everything went dark.

Slowly, the world lightened until Felix was surrounded by a green murkiness that reminded him uncomfortably of the Bitter Sea. Nearby a dim light played among the waters, shining from between blocky shadows. His body spun closer, moving in a way that Felix only offhandedly thought as strange; the rest of his attention was on the strange crimson light emanating from between several columns of hexagonal basalt. They rose up from the murky sea floor, rising up and around the bloody light like a cupped hand or a copse of creepy trees. Or a cage.

Felix tried to move closer, but quickly realized he wasn't in control of his body. It felt bloated and ungainly, too big and too...squishy, somehow. He blinked. And blinked. And kept on blinking, set after set of eyes that seemed to warp around his massive skull, eyes that were just now taking in the mottled color of fleshy tentacles coiling in the acidic water. A dark presence swam in the currents beneath him, just out of sight. Then with a sickening lurch, the presence oriented on him. Tentacles coiled and Felix felt the eyes of the creature focus inward as pressure gathered on his mind. With mounting horror, Felix realized he was embodied within the Dread itself.

And somehow, it had noticed him.

"GAH!"

Soaked with sweat and face first on the grey sand, Felix felt his heart thrum in his chest. His adrenaline was racing in his veins even as he leaped to his feet and took quick glances in all directions. He was still alone, the expanse of grey beach and dull green water quiet and still. Soft lapping of the foaming edge of the Bitter Sea washed a dozen feet away, and Felix shuddered.

He climbed back into his cocoon of rocks.

That wasawful. Felix shook his head as he sat down heavily. His adrenaline rush was wearing off and he felt shaky, his limbs all elbows and knees. If that was what happened every time he reviewed a Memory then he'd take a hard pass in the future.

As long as I can, he amended.

Lessons of the Past is level 2!

With a final steadying breath, Felix braced for more notifications but no more appeared.

"Took long enough," he muttered. "Now what?"

The beach was silent, the soft whoosh of water and bitter tang of vinegar permeating the air. He had been thrust into this strange place, dropped into deathly danger, and accosted with changes to everything about himself. Felix shook his head, trying to get a grip. The world was like a game, so did that mean he was a player? Were there others?

"First things first," he muttered. He needed more information.

"Menu," he tried. Nothing. "Status."

Nothing. Just a grey beach and green water.

Undeterred, Felix tried to visualize what he wanted. Quickly, a blue screen appeared before his eyes.

Name:

Felix Nevarre

Level:

2

Title(s):

Gourmand (+1 INT, WIL)

Survivor I (+1 END, VIT)

Race:

Nym (+1 to WIL, INT, DEX, END, +5 Bonus Stats per Level, -5% XP Gain)

Omen:

The Magician (+2 to WIL, +1 to INT, +1 to PER per Level)

Born Trait:

Keen Mind (+2 INT, 30 day perfect recall)

Health:

28/35

Stamina:

36/36

Mana:

51/51

STR:

2

PER:

5

VIT:

7

END:

7

INT:

13

WIL:

9

AGL:

3

DEX:

5

Skills:

Acid Resistance (C), Level 4

Analyze (C), Level 1

Lessons of the Past (R), Level 2

Unused Stat Points:

5

"Whoa, cool." Felix felt excitement stirring in his chest again. He had stats, and skills, and MANA. This was wild beyond belief.

Now if it weren't for all the life threatening danger. His leg and arm still twinged painfully in reminder, and Felix noticed that his Health was sitting at 28/35. It didn't seem to be getting worse, which was good, but he needed to find a way to heal up.

One thing at a time.

His stats appeared to govern his physical and mental abilities, and looked to have started...kinda low. Were these low? He had no idea what the average was.

His highest stat by far was Intelligence at 13, thanks to his Race, Omen, Born Trait, and Gourmand Title. He wasn't sure what Intelligence affected, but it was a safe bet that it had to do with magic. Did it also make him smarter? Felix couldn't tell.

Next up was Willpower, another mental stat that might have something to do with magic. The rest, aside from his Strength and Agility which were abysmal, were all middling.

He eyeballed his Unused Stat Points. His Race garnered him a huge amount of these, enough to up all of his stats by one per level if he wished (if he included the other stat bumps he also gained from leveling up). Felix had no idea if the Nym race was amazing or if this was a normal amount of bonus stats per level, but he was feeling that it was on the large side. In fact, the whole deal of his Race and Omen being pre-chosen seemed suspect and raised more questions than ever.

Felix frowned and perused his memories of the last half hour. His perfect recall showed its power here, bringing forth a seemingly flawless recreation of events. He had to put a great deal of focus on it, so much so that his head ached a bit, but it truly felt perfect. At least, up until the point where he selected Keen Mind as his Born Trait. Before that moment, Felix could only rely on his natural memory. Was his normal memory improved, as well? Was that an effect of a higher Intelligence?

He flinched as his improved memory touched the edges of the Dread's Memory again. The headache flared into full force, and Felix shut it down in a hurry. He shuddered and reoriented.

"Inventory. Map," he tried to visualize them coming up. "Settings." Nothing worked. He had a Status page and that was it.

Felix grumbled in frustration. The sun, now risen above the horizon, was beating down on him with increasing intensity. He stood from his tiny fortress and walked toward the shade of the treeline, carefully eyeing the shadows for anything that might try to kill him. The Dread taught him an important lesson, at least.

The vegetation was temperate, reminding him of the northeast coastline of America. The air had a mild heat to it, reminding Felix of early spring, or maybe early summer if this was further from the equator than Florida. Its own equator, of course. Felix shook his head. Another freaking world.

Scrub and thin trees dotted the sandy soil as it built toward heavier growth farther up a small incline. As he walked his eyes were gradually drawn to a small flowering plant near the trunk of a hearty looking shrub. It had pale blue flowers and bright red stamen. Without conscious thought, he felt his Analyze Skill activate.

Name: Blue Heribore

Lore: Praised for its beauty, the blossom of the Blue Heribore is a well known soporific.

Felix smiled, surprised.

"Cool."

The next hour found Felix trudging deeper into the woods, Analyzing everything he could see. More than anything, he needed information. Where was he? How did he get here? Was there anything close to civilization nearby?

After what had to be four miles of arduous forest walking, Felix didn't feel he was closer to any answers. His feet and calves were sore, his leg and arm still aching from The Dread, and his mouth dry. His Analyze Skill, however, was doing fine.

Name: Velbore Tree

Lore: A silver barked tree in the Hessidae Family, known to flower only when it rains.

Properties: Unknown

Alchemical Properities: Unknown

Analyze is level 7!

Felix rubbed his eyes, a slight headache simmering behind them. He had been Analyzing everything he could and the information displayed was getting more detailed. The Lore entry in particular had begun to drop large words in an unknown language, like this world's version of Latin. Hopefully by Level 10 he would start to see some of the Properties that were unknown, but that was just a guess. Anything beyond a dozen feet couldn't be targeted by the Skill, so Felix ended up meandering as he found various plants that seemed interesting. He had cataloged twenty-two different flowers, four types of moss, nine trees, and one slow moving slug the size of his forearm.

Name: Rock Slug (Common)

Type: Invertebrate

Level: 20

HP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Lore: A slug known for it's highly potent acid, used primarily to digest calcium deposits.

It was busy slowly eating through a rock. He made a wide berth around that one, just to be safe.

The wildest part? If he chose to, he could remember everything that had happened today as if he were reliving it. All of those flowers, mosses, and trees were as crystal clear in his mind as the dull green undergrowth beneath his feet.

For instance, during the second hour he had found a broken branch of a Lecuna tree, it's wrist-thick wood a pale brown swirled with deeper emerald tones. He knocked the small branches off as best he could and had made a passable walking stick. He had even earned a new skill for that one.

You Have Learned A Skill!

Improvisation (Common), Level 1

The ability to make what is available useful! Great for a poor crafter or a homeless vagrant.

Felix's eyebrow twitched at the memory. There was a certain level of snark in that skill description. It made him questions whether this "system" was being controlled, or if it was just omniscient with sass. He wasn't sure which unnerved him more.

He'd also found a very useful herb. Small and white, they grew in bundles in shadier nooks of the forest floor. They kinda reminded Felix of Queen Anne's Lace, but with bigger petals.

Name: Yarrow

Lore: Commonly used in poultices to engage healing and stop bleeding. Can be eaten raw for lesser effects.

Properties: +1 Health per second for 5 seconds, end Bleeding Status.

Alchemical Properties: Unknown

There were seven flowers in total, and he tried one of them.

You've ingested Yarrow!

+1 Health per second for 5 seconds!

In the next five seconds, Felix felt his leg and arm finally feel like new. He looked down at them in amazement.

Whoa.

He had wasted no time in taking the rest. Without another option, he put them in his jean's pockets and hoped they wouldn't be ruined if it turned out he needed them again.

Despite all that, he was still wandering around the woods with zero direction. He had been orienting himself by the rising sun, but the canopy had quickly grown too dense to see it much of the time. All he could manage was to head in the opposite direction of the weird Bitter Sea.

Then Felix began to hear something new. Birdsong. Chorusing insects. Even the small patter of tiny lizard feet on a branch above him. It wasn't until now that he could hear the sounds of life returning all around him, each step bringing more to his eyes and ears. Even the greenery was more vibrant, with deeper greens and more robust flowers.

The closer I am to the Bitter Sea, the less signs of life there are. Is that because of the Dread? That made sense. Maybe it was an apex predator or something and scared everything away.

The sway of a small branch nearby made him swivel toward a new arrival, a rodent the size of a house cat that fixed him with small beady eyes. It rotated a leafy root vegetable quickly in it's paws, gnawing it with startling speed.

Analyze...

Name: Tree Vole

Type: Beast

Level: 23

HP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Lore: Small mammal of the Phelandessiae family, noted for its sharp claws which channel Mana to pierce even the strongest bark.

Damn, he paused, pursing his lips. Even the rodents are higher level than I am. Despite its size Felix assumed those Mana claws would do a number on his weak frame. He wasn't even wearing armor, just his increasingly uncomfortable t-shirt and jeans. The squid had ripped up one of the legs, and the acidic seawater ate away at the rest of it. Now it was drying, and Felix was positive it was going to crust away into pieces at any moment. As he stepped back the vole scurried away, quick as a flash.

Holy dang, that thing was fast.

Felix kept going, at first attempting to skirt around any decently sized creatures in the fear that he would be attacked. Everything looked so different than he was used to; the animals were larger and had intimidating claws or teeth or scales. But when, after twenty minutes of zero attacks and even witnessing several smaller creatures fleeing at his approach, Felix started to feel a little comfortable.

Maybe this place isn't too bad. I mean, they can't ALL be like the Dread, right?

As he walked, he kept Analyzing anything new in sight, trying to raise the level of the only actionable Skill he had. He was pretty sure he learned Analyze by attempting to figure out The Dread, but no matter how many times he awkwardly attempted a high kick he never saw any notifications. No Super Kick Skill for him.

Was there a set Skill list? Did he just so happen to make the right eye movement to unlock Analyze? What about his Acid Resistance and Lessons of the Past? Both of those were definitively the result of his actions, idiotic as they were. He still couldn't believe he bit a giant squid monster.

Felix was chuckling to himself when a sudden humming sound approached him. Looking up he saw the strangest thing yet: a teal and yellow lizard hovered ten feet away from him, the blur of four dragonfly-like wings holding it aloft and producing the oddly pitched humming noise. Almost without thinking, Felix activated Analyze.

Name: Sharpwing Skink

Type: Reptile

Level: 23

HP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Lore: Highly territorial reptiles with four razor sharp wings.

A grotesque gurgle snapped his attention away from the notification window, just as a wad of greenish goo splattered against his chest and knocked Felix on his ass. The goo immediately began to sizzle, eating through his tattered shirt and straight into his skin.

Acid Resistance is Level 5!

Acid Resistance is Level 6!

Ow ow ow shit ow! Felix immediately made to roll into the loamy soil, hoping to scrape the acid from his chest. Doing so, he just barely managed to dodge the Sharpwing Skink as it (quite literally) buzzed him. The burn of the acid fell away once he'd scraped off enough of it, and Felix got to his feet in a crouch. He readied his walking stick like a baseball bat, not really sure what he could do to a monster that was over twenty levels higher than him. But he had no where to run, not really, and he was sick and tired of things attacking him and getting away with it.

The Skink buzzed at him again, it's mouth wide open and filled with dozens of tiny triangular teeth. It was so fast that Felix only had a bare instant to line up his shot, and he swung as hard as he could. The overgrown lizard bobbed nimbly out of the path of his clumsy stick, zipping up and around a nearby Velbore tree. Before Felix could even register that he'd missed, the Skink slammed into his back and put him back onto the ground.

You've taken a Critical Hit!

Your Health has dropped below 10%!

Back and shirt shredded, Felix shook his head, dismissing more blinking notifications. The pain was overwhelming him, first his chest and now his back was a sea of fire, scorching every nerve ending and fogging his mind. Barely able to think he quickly dumped all five Bonus Stat Points into WIL, doing nothing for the pain but immediately clearing his head. He pushed down the agony and got shakily to his feet.

Breathing carefully, Felix tried to listen for the dumb lizard. He could hear a distant humming from the trees to the northeast, and without wasting time on thinking, he dove forward in a roll. A sharp rising buzz zipped passed him, just barely missing his head.

Cursing, Felix did something he should have done in the first place.

He ran.

He scrambled behind a nearby tree just in time to hear the gurgle-hiss-splorch of another Acid Spit landing. Felix smelled acrid smoke but didn't look back. The humming grew in pitch and volume, and he put everything he had into running as fast as he could, zig-zagging through the trees to hopefully avoid any more acid.

He wasn't sure how long he ran. All he knew was that his lungs burned with each breath and his legs shrieked in pain as he pushed himself through the forest. By the end, his vision dimmed and black around the edges, he simply collapsed into a patch of weeds and wildflowers, folding his arms feebly over his head. After a few minutes of just breathing and no attack, he strained his senses. It was quiet. He let out a shaky breath. He'd lost it.

A small yellow icon flashed in his vision, and Felix remembered all the notifications he had ignored during his fight. He toggled them on.

WARNING! Your Stamina Has Been Depleted!

Current Stamina: 2/36

Wow. No wonder he had collapsed. It must have hit zero during his escape. He was lucky the Sharpwing Skink had given up, or else he'd be a bloody smear against some tree. What did the Lore say again? They were highly territorial, so once he had left it's claimed area it dropped the chase. Felix sat up, propping himself against a nearby stump, careful of his wounded back. He watched his Stamina tick down to 1/36 at this simple action, and a wave of weakness pass through his arms and legs.

He had to fix that. Somehow.

You Have Gained A Title!

Survivor II (Uncommon)!

Drop to less than 5% Health twice within 24 hours. +1 END, +2 VIT

Felix's eyes went wide and he quickly accessed his Health.

Warning! Your Health is Below 10%!

You Are Bleeding!

Health: 2/45

Felix could feel the blood pooling behind him, oozing out of his torn up back. That lizard had diced him up. He was amazed he hadn't fainted from the pain, and equally amazed that his desperate decision to dump all his free points into Willpower had paid off. He could feel the pain but it seemed more distant, now.

Straining his remaining Stamina, Felix fumbled into his pockets and grabbed the Yarrow flowers he'd stored there. They were crumpled and torn, but hopefully still good. He shoved flower after flower into his mouth. They tasted bitter, sharp and almost hot on his tongue. He chewed mechanically and swallowed, moving as fast as his 1 Stamina allowed. Then he got the blessed notification:

Bleeding Has Stopped!

You've ingested Yarrow (x6)!

+6 Health per second for 5 seconds!

You Have Learned a New Skill!

Herbalism (Common), Level 1

Increases knowledge accumulation and retention regarding roots, herbs, and natural remedies. Efficacy of gathered herbs, roots, and other natural growths increases with Skill Level.

A strange squirming sensation crawled along Felix's back, as if his skin was...rippling. It itched like hell, too. Felix toggled his Health to see the result.

Health: 31/45

Felix let his head drop into the dirt and took several big shuddering breaths.

He had almost died. Again.

He had more notifications, and wasn't doing anything except slowly recovering. He toggled them back on.

You have Learned New Skills!

Staff Mastery (Common), Level 1!

You've begun your path toward mastery of the staff! Proficiency increases with Skill level.

Dodge (Common), Level 1!

The best way to not get hurt is to not get hit. Efficacy from Agility increased slightly per Skill level.

Acrobatics (Uncommon), Level 1!

You've proven yourself capable of tumbling into and out of danger. Sense of balance increases slightly with Skill Level, flexibility increases moderately with Skill level.

Analyze is Level 10!

You Have Gained A Title!

Natural Scholar I (Uncommon)!

You have Analyzed over 500 different species! Move ever onward, scholar! +1 INT, +1 PER

Due to your efforts you have gained:

+1 STR

+1 AGL

+2 END

+1 PER

Felix blinked, surprised at the flood of screens. All this from a thirty second fight? That he lost?

What would have happened if he had won?

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