I was dead tired, but decided a little peek couldn’t hurt, so I called up the events page and looked at the active quests:
Events:
Active Quests:
Quest: Welcome to Limbo
Duration: 30 days (28 days, 13 hours 43 minutes 18 seconds)
Objective: Survive
Reward: Access to Limbo Gate / Class selection
Quest: A Bond Forged in Fire
Duration: 7 days (6 days, 23 hours 59 minutes 36 seconds)
Objective: Obtain the trust of Stalker
Reward: Companion unlocked: Stalker (Lesser Amberpelt Fox)
What a quest! The thought of Stalker becoming my companion - recognized by the system or not brought a smile to my face. Just having someone to talk to, look out for and, thinking back to how it had saved me from the Veinblossoms, someone to have my back? It would make this experience in Limbo, whatever it turned out to be, a lot more enjoyable.
I soon dozed off again and the night was spent dreaming of Stalker and me exploring the world together, having adventures and sharing dropbear meat.
I woke up to the sound of rain falling outside, and felt greater than I had in years. My hp and stamina had filled up over the night and I think I could feel the difference after the extra strength and vitality.
I wondered if and how much further stat points would affect me? I mean being stronger, faster, fitter would be really cool, and a secret boyhood dream come true, but what would it mean to get more perceptive, intelligent and strong willed? Would I just become more me, or would it change me?
If it did, would it be for better or worse? I had changed when the cancer had spread back in my prior life, obviously my physicality had changed for the worse, but I had also grown more bitter, my humor darker and there were days when I couldn’t recognize myself… I guess time would tell, I would just have to stay vigilant and hope for the best.
With the rain falling outside I decided to stay here in my cozy cave and try to see if I could use the scraps of cloth and leather for anything constructive. I wasn’t the best with my hands, but as a children’s librarian I had run a few arts and craft workshops in my time!
I ended up with a serviceable belt, some straps to carry my skulls and something that could hold my bone dagger and the gem of yesterday: A rusty knife! None of it was pretty and most of it was disgusting, but I was not preparing for a fashion show, I was preparing for survival.
While keeping my hands busy, I thought about Limbo and what I had learned so far. I had no idea how or why I got here, there was a gamified system in place (still freaking weird!), the place was named Limbo, and I had no idea if it was connected to Heaven and Hell or something entirely different? The Welcome quest mentioned a gate, so maybe I could escape? Transition? I stopped myself from going further down that rabbit hole… I needed more information!
My thoughts shifted to more tangible things: There were monsters, like the dropbears and Stalker, plant monsters and undead as well, but also humans or at least humanoids. The tools, weapons and armor indicated some level of civilization somewhere!
The stuff here indicated that they might not be more advanced than the Middle Ages, so maybe I as a human from the 21st century had something I could bring to this world or use? I knew about electricity, gunpowder, space travel and what not, the problem was that I didn’t know how anything worked, when it came down to it!
I was a librarian for fucks sake, I knew a lot of stories, I could organize information, recognize patterns and delve into the secrets of stuff via archives or search engines… I WAS FREAKING USELESS!
A flash in the corner of my eye told me that there was new stuff to look at. Turns out the system was listening to my thoughts…
Quest: Lorekeeper
Duration: 14 days (13 days 23 hours 59 minutes 55 seconds)
Objective: Delve into the lore and history of Limbo, unearth stories, artifacts and places of cultural import. Partial completion possible.
Reward: Skill selection, reward will depend on rate of completion
I stopped and blanked out for a second or minute… I’m honestly not sure, the system was listening to my thoughts. Come to think of it, had I ever said the name Stalker out loud or just thought it? This was INSANE! Forget about big brother watching you, this was a nightmare! STOP READING MY THOUGHTS!!!
My hands and feet started getting cold, and my breath became rapid and shallow, I frantically looked for a way out, a place to hide anywhere other than here! I ran out of the cave, the rain was ending, and I looked at the swollen pond and ran over to it and plunged my head into the cold water!
Trying to clear it, to drown out the system? It made no sense, but I was not thinking clearly, as I lifted my head out, gasping for air I froze looking, at my image reflected in the water, disturbed by the dripping from my wet hair, but still recognizable – It was me, I was younger then I had been, I looked like I was in my early twenties, my hair brown, my eyes a pale blue, my features a bit sharper then I remembered…
I don’t know how long I sat there hunched over looking at myself in the water, but a little whine brought me out of it. I looked around and saw that Stalker had approached me, tail between its legs and with a look in its amber eyes that I took as concern… I reached out to it and I could see the body quivering, I pulled back and said “Thank you Stalker”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
I took a deep breath and shook myself, Stalker hopped a few steps back and I chuckled “I needed that, I don’t know if you can understand me, but let’s go find something to eat”
As I gathered my stuff, Stalker waited outside the cave and followed me, when I went into the forest to hunt.
There is nothing like a brisk walk in a forest full of dangerous animal and plant life to refocus your mind! I mean the thought of being under surveillance of an all powerful mind reading system did not sit well with me at all – No let me rephrase that, it was so beyond fucked up that my mind almost shut down – But there is nothing I could do about it right now, so hunting it is!
I soon discovered that there were other animals than dropbears in the forest, but either I was too loud, and they ran away long before I got close to them or I was too slow and they almost ran circles around me. After the third time I had scared away potential prey, Stalker looked at me with disgust (at least that is the impression I got) and left me... I didn’t blame it.
Maybe I should try some traps and snares or something, I had no idea how that would work, especially without rope or string, but maybe I could make something out of bark? Some of the trees had this weirdly plastic looking smooth bark and as I cut little strips of it out of a tree, I found it surprisingly flexible and strong. This stuff was useful! I started gathering more and soon had collected enough for some experimentation and maybe even enough to make some nets for carrying stuff.
As I was finishing up my assault on the poor trees, I heard some high pitched screams and the Survival Instinct kicked in as I flung the bark I was holding towards something coming fast from above!
It looked like a flock of flying squirrels coming in for a diving attack! The bark diverted the main group around, but one of the critters flew by me and I felt a slight sting on my arm, a bright red line appearing where it had grazed me with its razor sharp wingtips. I quickly drew my femur and rusty dagger and put my back against the tree as the flock was now turning around for a full attack.
It was hard to tell how many squirrels there were, but enough that I easily hit one with the femur as they came at me, my dagger grazed another, but red lines were drawn all over my body and the damage was mounting, I took a second to stomp on the fallen squirrel to make sure it was dead as the flock was readying for another swoop attack.
You have slain a Winged Sincab (lvl 1)!
You have gained experience!
I crouched to present a smaller target and as the squirrels came in again, I managed to hit with both Femur and dagger and another two crashed into the ground next to me, in return I took more cuts to the arms.
You have slain a Winged Sincab (lvl 1)!
You have gained experience!
You have slain a Winged Wincab (lvl 2)!
You have gained experience!
With three squirrels down it looked like they thought better of it and they landed in a nearby tree and instead started cursing me with high squeaks and chittering! I quickly collected the dead, leaving most of the bark. I want to say I left with dignity and poise, but the truth is I fled to safety in some nearby bushes.
From the nearby safety I watched the flying menaces, and it turns out they lived in the trees I had been debarking, guess they were just trying to defend their home.
I checked my status:
Name: Mike Nielsen
Level: 1
Class: -
Profession: -
Race: HUMAN
HEALTH: 7/15
STAMINA: 11/15
MANA: 0
CONDITION:
Okay, might as well head home, there should be some trees I could get bark from on the way, I just had to be better at checking for death from above. As I returned from my hunting/harvesting trip to my cave, I saw Stalker was waiting for me and it made my day. I smiled and proudly held up the 3 dead sincabs towards it and it made a small hufhuf sound. I chose to interpret it as a sign of great respect for the successful hunter returned…
Stalker had not been idle either and as I entered the cave, I saw two oversized rabbit looking creatures lying next to the fireplace. I looked at it and asked, “for us?” Naturally it said nothing, but it didn’t react as I reached out to take one of the rabbits, so I guess it was indeed sharing its catch with me!
I got the fire going, started preparing the meat and soon the smell of grilled sincab and rabbit creatures filled the cave, Stalker was watching every move I was making while handling the meat. I kept a running commentary about what I was doing, about who I was and so on, mostly just because I finally could after years of near silence and also because I wanted Stalker to get used to my voice.
Soon we were eating, and it turns out sincab is worse than dropbear meat, while the rabbit creatures were delicious, still everything was better than eating through a tube! There was enough for tomorrow as well, so this was a win! Although at some point soon I would have to look into finding something green and healthy to eat.
Stalker disappeared after dinner, but I was sure it would turn up again before too long. I spend the rest of the afternoon trying to fashion a net out of the bark and deliberately not thinking about the system watching my thoughts. Luckily a distraction presented itself, as the sounds of waves breaking returned, this time with the distinct smell of saltwater and decaying seaweed filled the cave.
I spent 20 minutes going over the cave in minute detail, trying to see where it came from, when it suddenly disappeared again… Had the system engineered a distraction? That was a crazy thought, but then again if it read my mind, the limit on crazy kind of disappeared.
Deciding that I would go nuts if I thought too much about this, I went to bed satisfied with the gains of the day. It felt like I had made great progress with Stalker, I had secured some good material for crafting, had found enough food for another day and although I knew that I couldn’t stay here forever, maybe it would be long enough to get my bearings though.
During the night, something entered the cave and slowly and silently crept closer to the sleeping form of Mike, watching, waiting and eventually it lay down next to the human as a status screen flashed green.
