-5 Health

My arm wrenches out of its socket. My body takes flight. The earth becomes my sky and I endeavored to reach the stars beneath its surface. Shield limply gripped in my left hand, my head lolls lifelessly toward it. A pair of hooved feet come to rest beside my head. A voice addresses me, but I don’t know what it is saying. My eyes follow the sound and I see a hulking monstrosity squatting beside me.

Bright red skin. Large curling ram horns. Yellow eyes with vertical slits sit above a sharp-toothed grin. The voice comes into focus. The toothy maw speaks to me.

“Come on bud, there is a time and a place to lay before a beautiful woman. Up and at her. Today is the end of the two weeks which means you get a special present!”

It is Mordai, the guy who heals me so Honey can beat me more. Nice guy. Apparently, he was chosen by some god to be their prophet. The fact that he hits on everything that moves and is a real sucker for dice, made that little tidbit quite interesting. To each their own I guess.

My shoulder clicks back into place and my wounds are mystically healed. He helps me up to my feet to face the ‘beautiful woman’ in question. Mordai told me that her beast half was something called a ‘honey-badger.’ I don’t know what that is, but in my mind, it is comparable to a dragon. For the last two weeks, she has beating the living shit out of me every day for several hours. She attacked me from all angles using close, mid, and long range attacks. She always looks like she is having fun, so I kind of think we’re bonding.

All this just to teach me how to use a shield. Seriously, they didn’t even give me a weapon. Just a shield. All ‘learn to survive and find an opportunity to counter attack.’

“Don’t forget, constantly channel Source into your body. It will help, I promise.” Mordai reminds me, before sending me off to face my doom with a pat on the shoulder.

Nodding my affirmation, I stride forward. Feeling the Source in my body, I direct the energy contained within to flow through my muscles. My fatigue fades and my step became quicker. My thoughts faster. My hands steadier.

Shield and left foot forward I approach my nemesis. Over the rim of my arrow-head shaped shield, I can see her fingers pointed at me in an L shape from 20 feet away. My heart flutters at the sight of her beautiful smile. The only time she truly seems happy is when she is beating me. It is bittersweet for me.

Balls of water rapidly condense out of the air in front of her. About a third of the size of the balls she had originally fired at me, these ones are much faster. Adding a spin to the balls she flings them at me as fast as she can form them.

The spinning spheres of water curve, coming at me from all different directions. Each of them try to slip behind my shield, but on quick feet I advance forward. Aiming to close the space, I dodge the first one, using my shield to deflect the second. Zig zagging forward I approach her, my arm on fire from the deflected shots.

A sphere comes hurtling in from my right. I lunge forward, barely dodging the one sneaking in unseen from above. Both spheres explode behind me. Only 15 more feet forward.

Honey pauses to gather a cluster of spheres in the palm of her hand. A maniacal grin dances on her face. It makes me wonder what I ever did to hurt her and how I can make it better. I just wanna be friends! The already spinning in place spheres, spin around each other creating the optical illusion of a solid ring. Turning her palm toward me she pushes.

“Shit,” I whisper.

Both feet launch off the ground propelling me to dive to the side. Carrying through with a roll, I come up to a crouch. My elbows tucked, my shield at an angle, and my weight pushing forward, I cower like a turtle behind my shield.

A glancing impact rocks my shield. My whole-body slides backward under the strain of holding the shield in place. My legs thrust off the ground, launching me forward into another roll from my crouching position. The other projectiles strike the ground in all other directions I could have dodged, behind and around me. On my feet, again I dodge left, strafe right. Always moving forward.

Gazing over my shield I can see Honey frowning from 6 feet away. Perhaps disappointed she hasn’t hit me? She takes aim at me and I shift my body as if to dodge left. Her aim adjusts to follow my projected trajectory. I lunge forward and to the right instead, using the main tool in my inventory. Rolling.

You gotta dodge when any one hit would metaphorically kill you. With my weak body, taking a direct hit with my shield isn’t an option either. It’s either dodge or deflect with ‘ole Snowflake.

Coming to my knees I dive forward, right arm outstretched. My fingers strain forward, doing their best to cross the distance. Flat on the ground I am stretched as far as I can go.

Felling a soft impact on the time of my fingers I look up. My fingers pressed against Honey’s firm but slender outer thigh. Her mouth says ‘Pass’ but her eyes promise more pain.

“You’ve done well these last few weeks,” she grunts uncommittedly. “And as promised you will be rewarded. Go wash up. Meet me at the Guild’s main entrance in twenty minutes.”

Mordai settles next to Honey, looping an arm across her shoulder. His towering frame made all the more intimating in comparison to her diminutive one. Sighing, he speaks.

“Are you sure you want to do this? Usually I’m all for gambling, but you may ruin the poor guy’s life.”

“Hands off,” she growls, glaring daggers at the impudent demon-spawn. “I’ve told you once and I’ll tell you again. It is his only chance at even beginning paying off his debt before they enslave him. Dumb little fucker signed a soul-contract.”

As if sensing his sorrowful gaze, she continues to stare in the direction Snowflake went, she endeavors to justify her logic.

“The Guildmaster already labeled him a failure. They won’t lend any extra money out to failures. This is his only chance,” she repeats herself. “Even the worst outcome will almost double his combat ability.”

“But still,” Mordai starts, just to be interrupted.

“Enough, Mordai. It has to be done. Goodbye,” she storms off long white hair waving in the wind, presumably to gather Snowflake for the upcoming event.

Sighing Mordai watched her go. To be exact, he watched her tight little ass sway away. His mouth practically drooled at the thought of grabbing her tail and giving that sweet ass a few smacks. He knew, however, that she’d rip him a new one if he did so.

Literally. He still gets phantom pains occasionally. Honey-badgers are not to be messed with. She also promised him similar treatment again if she ever heard any complaints about him. He had been a little offended by that. Normally everything was consensual. He just mistook the signals she was sending that time.

He tried to lose himself in his fantasy of wooing her, but his old nemesis began to rear its ugly head. Justice.

As an orphan on the streets he had been chosen by the gods of his old world to be a vessel of justice. An orphan who broke the law just to survive, to demand justice. An orphan who bore image of evil, to demand justice. A fitting irony indeed.

Unfortunately, Mordai never really knew what justice was. It is too abstract a concept. It could be argued many ways. From each person’s perspective, their actions are just. The Guildmaster isn’t breaking any laws and no one is forced to sign those contracts. Is what he is doing, just?

A better example would be Honey. She is forcing risk on to another to save herself, and maybe even him. Is it unjust to try to survive?

Maybe the kid would luck out. Hell, if his soul was strong enough he might even be able to make a low tier monster powerful. Soul-binding an egg as your familiar is risky business. For whatever reason, all monster eggs from the Dungeon look the same. An egg could just as well contain a rat as it could a dragon.

When binding a familiar, you meld souls with it to an extent. It is definitely not a process for everyone. Both parties take on aspects of each other. There is a renowned story of a Draconian who bonded an egg that turned out to be a goblin. It was terrifying.

A 7ft tall half-blooded humanoid dragon, creeping around in the night with a scaly, fire breathing goblin. People still talk about it.

Mulling these thoughts through his mind, Mordai decided. Tonight, he will go drinking and whoring. Shut that damn call for justice out of his mind and raise a toast to the goblin who came closest to becoming a dragon.

So, all the monsters in the Dungeon are born from eggs huh? A nifty little sign in the store window gave me all the information I wanted before I even asked. Apparently, there is some sort of monster that steals eggs and piles them into its own nest. Maybe it is trying to build a multiracial army? Nobody seems to know. However, that nest was more accessible than the other monster nests, despite being hidden. So, hunters steal the eggs and haul them back here. To the Monster Lottery.

Turning to Honey I ask, “Are you sure this is okay?”

“Binding a familiar will help you fight.” Honey nods her assurance and continues. “It will even grant both of you stat bonuses in certain areas. Say, for example, you bind a Great Bear. Not only will you get immediate bonuses to Health, Strength, and Stamina, those stats will have greater growths as you level. Plus, a pretty sweet mount when it grows up.”

Starry eyed I look back at the eggs. So much potential. Imagine getting a powerful beast that would normally be a floor boss? My spine tingles as I shiver in excitement. This could be great.

Picking an egg at random I did what I had been previously instructed to do. Similar to the contract I signed a few weeks ago, I bled on the egg, pressed my thumb against it, and cycled my energy through it. I felt an instant tugging inside of me. Pulling something intangible through me into it, and in return I gained something unfamiliar. I don’t know what it was, but it melted inside of me before I could examine it.

“Come on,” Honey urges me. “I know a great spot for the hatching of a new familiar. Just keep cycling your energy through the egg like you do through your body. Think of it as part of you.”

Following Honey out the door, I wave goodbye to the shopkeeper, the bill already on my Guild tab.

Honey lead me a few minutes away to a small clearing on a hill, overlooking the forests and lakes around the city. We sit in the shade of a tree, elegant towers all around us, but not obstructing our view. For a few minutes, we sit in silence, enjoying the view and waiting. I break the silence.

“Honey,” I ask. “Why don’t you have a familiar?”

Honey remains silent for a while, and I wisely choose not to rush her. Low wisdom stat and all, I knew that would be a bad idea.

Staring into the distance with her elbows on her knees, Honey replies.

“A familiar would be a liability for me. Something that I would have to protect. Not to mention the cost of feeding such a thing. The last thing I need is to be more in debt to the Guild.”

“Oh?” I exclaim. “You are in debt to the Guild too? I thought that was just for Awakened as weak as me?”

“The Guild owns everyone and everything around here. If you’re unlucky you can’t pay off your debt and you become a slave. If you’re lucky you pay it off and move to the next level. To move on to the next level you first must pay off your debt to the Guild. The Guild has a private army of debt collectors.” Despite being a powerful woman, Honey’s shoulders seemed burdened as she informed me of the harsh reality of this world.

“Oh,” I murmur. “I fell into a trap on the first day. How very much like me, the weakest Awakened. Too sheltered from my past life of being untouchable.”

In a symbolic gesture of comfort, Honey placed her hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t worry about the past,” she tells me. “Your debt shouldn’t be too high yet and you might just luck out with your familiar. Just focus on getting to the next level.”

Her eyes like diamonds, she tells me about the next level, her dream. The place you reach after climbing to the top of the tower. A vast place full of epic challenges and greater rewards. Hidden manuscripts detailing unheard of usages for Source abound. Legendary weapons are strewn about, just waiting for the right person.

Time went by as she talks. She talks more than I ever thought she could. Her passion was like a roaring fire. I continue to cycle my Source as the sun began to set. A crack forms in the egg that would decide my future.