Dear Journal,

I still hate you. I don’t even know why I’m still writing in this dingy little notebook. But I’m gonna keep doing it, if only to remind you that there’s someone out there in the vast Empty, as you called it, who hates your guts. I’m currently cursing at you. I’m cursing so hard that the book is strobing red. I hate you. I hate Boba. And I hate it here, wherever the hell I am.

I hate you,

Sepeti

“Hey!” Boba’s voice resounded in Sepeti’s head as he closed the notebook. “I read that!”

“Aren’t you a god? Don’t you have more important things to do than hang around me?” Sepeti rolled out of the little bed he’d completely made his own since his recent arrival. He stretched and yawned, the two most satisfying parts of having woken up after a very good night’s rest. Everything else about being awake was a complete downer.

“It’s called multi-tasking. And it’s ‘God.’ Get it right. Don’t make me penalize you again.”

“I’m so scared!” Sepeti acted like he was trying to hide, giggling as he flung the slat windows of the small shed open. “What else you gonna do? Make me blind? I’m already basically blind in this shitty body.”

Boba didn’t answer so Sepeti took that as confirmation that the unimaginative God had actually been planning on cursing him with blindness. What a waste of overwhelming power.

“Stop thinking about me behind my back! That’s rude and unethical and makes you really, really dumb!”

“Sure it does.” Sepeti hobbled over to the rickety little chair that had been provided for him. He was used to bare amenities from his previous life, if it could be called that. But there was something exceedingly threadbare about this place. Everything felt aged and barren.

“Boba, tell me again what I’m supposed to be doing here. This place feels so dead, I thought you’d at least plop me down somewhere with some nice eye candy and whatnot.”

“Really, can you not speak to me so casually? Just because we’re contracted and you have an open line of communication with me doesn’t mean you can just talk to me any old way. I am a God! How many times do I have to remind you?”

“Once is enough,” Sepeti answered dryly as he rolled a large coin along the back of his knuckles.

He studied the coin as its rough edges pushed against his skin. One side had the impression of a hideous tentacle-faced monster, maw agape and roaring. The other was the illustration of a wave breaking against a shore. Overly fancy for currency but he had yet to explore and meet any of the inhabitants of this world. Maybe they were just as flamboyant as their currency.

“So, great God Boba, Bringer of Magicks and stuff, care to share my purpose again? For the benefit of anyone who might be listening. Let’s just chalk it up to this body’s deficiencies. I’m gonna need to do some serious leveling and enhancing before I do anything even remotely close to a grand quest.”

Boba sighed and Sepeti could feel it rumbling throughout his flimsy new body. He would have felt much more frustrated with the situation had he not already been used to strange scenarios. This wasn’t his first go-round, not by a long shot.

“Your ultimate goal is to figure out a way to ‘rehire’ Journal. We are here on this backwater of a planet because Journal had some leads as to how we can get that done. Integrate yourself into the local populace and keep an eye out for clues.”

“Why are you suddenly so good at sounding smart? Did the rest of the Council get on you for taking on a contract?”

An uncomfortable static filled his head, causing him to jerk and slam his noggin against the wall of the shack.

“Ow, fine. I need to take a walk anyway.”

Character Sheet

Name:

[Sepeti]

Level:

5

Class:

-

*General learning speed x100

Title:

Dual Contractee, Unhomed

With a flick of his wrist, Sepeti dismissed the useless status screen. It had little to no information for him to glean from it. The learning speed was interesting but he had yet to put it to the test.

Despite the limitations that his current body imposed, he was still able to remember exacting details from his previous go ‘round. He could remember all the training he’d undergone. The long hours of rigorous exertion he’d put up with. All with a single goal in mind, to finally reach the Endless Sleep he’d been promised.

Yet here he was, shambling along an overgrown trail in a densely thicketed forest on some backwater planet. His lame leg dragged ever so slightly, pain shooting up his lower back and down the nearly useless appendage. If any of his old teammates could see him now, they wouldn’t believe their eyes.

Not that he particularly cared for their opinions. He didn’t then and he damned sure wouldn’t now.

A rock rolled into his path. Instinctively, he knew something was wrong. This body may not be much in comparison to what he’d had before but his instincts were still top-notch.

Too bad his detriments far outweighed his vast experience. Sepeti commanded his body to halt its shambling walk but it reacted much too late. The disconnect between how fast his mind worked and how painfully slow his untrained vessel reacted was excruciating.

He stepped on the rock with his bad leg and it was all downhill from there. Pain shot up his limb, buckling his knees as he began to descend toward the muddy ground.

“Roll, dammit!” he hissed at himself as he awkwardly fell. Tucking his opposite shoulder, he was able to do a blundering imitation of a roll. Pain rippled through his body as mud soaked through his thin clothes. He ended up on his butt, shivering as he painfully scrambled to get back on his feet.

Childish giggling erupted from behind the trees as the sound of little feet pitter-pattering away reached his dulled ears.

Sepeti growled as he struggled back onto his feet. He grabbed a handful of mud and hurled it at the closest tree. This body was frustrating.

New Skill Acquired!

|Combat Roll|

He swatted at the unnecessarily chipper screen as if he could affect it.

“Get outta my face!” he grumbled as he lurched towards the nearest tree for support. His unsteady leg trembled as he braced himself against the muddied tree. He huffed and puffed from the short spurt of exertion. It was tiring inhabiting a disabled vessel. “Stupid Boba. Coulda at least gave me something easier to work with.”

Sweat dripped down his face as steam rose off him. Anger coiled in his stomach as he focused on activating his core, his whatever the hell it was called in this backyard dimension. Adrenaline started pumping through his body, stabilizing his aching joints and strengthening his weak limbs.

New Skill Acquired!

|Adrenal Rush|

“Stop turning everything into a damned skill!” Stupid backwater system, looking for any old excuse to give him a skill.

“Be glad you get any kind of boon,” Boba boomed in his head as Sepeti straightened himself out. “If it was up to me, I’d make you a quadriplegic.”

“Yeah,” Sepeti grunted as he tugged at a loose branch. It came loose and he quickly began working on it. A walking stick was very much needed. “Then it would take even longer for us to get out of this mess. Why’d you even put me in this feeble body?”

New Skills Acquired!

|Woodworking| |Foraging|

Boba groaned as the skill announcement screen disappeared.

“I didn’t mean to, ok? It’s hard to aim at minuscule dots from so far away. How was I supposed to know that the current heroic mortal of this plane was on the other side of the planet?”

“You’re a God, aren’t you supposed to just know stuff? I swear, how’d I get stuck with the stupidest out of the bunch?”

An electric current sped through his already addled body, nearly bringing him to his knees. He grunted as he leaned heavily onto his new walking stick.

Skill Lost…

|Combat Roll|

Boba snickered. “Keep it up. I’ll take all of your measly little skills away from you.”

“You’ve been real ornery ever since you dumped me here. The rest of the Council been getting on you?” Sepeti didn’t care whether Boba would answer. A static pop signaled all the answers he would be getting from the grouchy little God.

Sepeti grumbled as he continued his walk. Mud clung to the bottom of his beat-up boots, growing with each shambling step he took. He stopped to scrape some of the accumulated dirt off, leaning against a tree as he balanced precariously on one foot. A shrill scream shook the dense forest as he scrambled to cover his ears.

For the first time in a very long time, fear bloomed in his gut. It was… refreshing. He’d taken for granted the wide range of emotions available to the weakest of any given race. For the second time today, adrenaline began pumping through his body.

Without a second thought, he started limping towards the scream. An insatiable curiosity pulled him towards whatever it was that had let out such a ferocious yell. He crashed through the thick brush, ignoring the prickles and scrapes. He could deal with those later.

A guttural roar shook the already unstable ground as the sounds of a ferocious fight reached Sepeti’s ears. Trees fell, crashing and thundering as he barely made out the silhouettes of two large figures thrashing about.

One was lithe and long, jumping back and forth as it whipped its tail at its adversary. It would let out occasional blasts of air as it screamed. It was beautiful, the way it moved through the air, constantly dodging its opponent’s attacks.

The other was blocky and brutish, constantly stalking its foe. It walked through all the attacks, taking them without flinching. Every time it roared the ground shook, throwing its opponent’s footing off ever so slightly.

The pair danced, snarling at each other as neither was able to gain the upper hand. Sepeti watched in awe. It had been so long since he last felt like an enamored spectator. He crouched next to a tree, bracing himself so he could watch the spectacle. Pure giddy snaked through his body as he found himself unable to take his eyes away from the dangerous duos ballet.

The blocky creature let out a roar, causing Sepeti to cover his ears. His eyes watered but he refused to look away. His gut told him that this was a fight that would benefit him. Call it a premonition or whatever, but he just had a feeling that something good would come out of being an impartial viewer.

The lithe one, scales glinting as if it were made of pure metal, snaked towards its foe, gliding over the toppled trees and broken ground. Its long tail whipped out and gouged a chunk out of the side of the blocky one. Dirt caked with fizzling black blood flew through the air and landed near Sepeti’s hiding spot. A rancid odor filled his nostrils, causing his eyes to tear up even more.

The blocky creature lashed out, much faster than it looked, and gouged the neck of the lithe one. The lithe one was sent sprawling away, crashing into what few trees were still standing in the clearing. It bounced back onto its feet, claws digging into the ground and halting it from skidding further.

The pair let out roars at the same time as they circled one another, keeping a wary distance.

New Skill Acquired!

|Speaks with Monsters|

“You stupid child!” A gravelly voice replaced the snarling from the lithe one. “Think of who you endanger! This is selfish!”

“I endanger no one but myself!” A youthful voice answered, coming from the blocky creature. “You’re all set in your ways. We cannot continue to isolate ourselves.”

Sepeti watched as the pair continued to pace around in a circle. He would have questioned how odd the disparity was between the appearances of the monsters and their voices, but he saw no point in doing so. He had to deal with a God who wasn’t even sure of their own voice, this was nothing.

“The humans will entrap you and force you to reveal where we are!” The lithe one roared as it pounced on the blocky one, closing the distance in an instant. Its sharp claws dug into the dirt-caked carapace of the blocky one, sending them both tumbling into nearby bushes.

The pair scuffled, writhing about as they jostled for dominant positions. Limbs flailed about as they alternated slapping at one another.

Sepeti crept closer, holding his breath as he ignored the pain shooting up his lame leg. The need to know was driving him crazy. What were these things? Why were they fighting? It had been such a long time since he’d taken a vested interest in anything going on around him.

The blocky creature let out a pained roar. Sepeti activated |Adrenal Rush| and hurried forward. He needed to see what was going on.

The lithe one flew overhead, shiny scales twinkling under the noon sunlight as it rolled into the clearing the pair had made. He dropped to his stomach, suppressing a grunt of pain as his skill wore off. His vision began to tunnel as the adrenaline sapped his energy at an alarming rate.

The blocky one jumped out into the clearing, back leg mere inches away from Sepeti’s face. It roared as it scooped up a large chunk of earth and hurled it at the lithe one.

“Enough!” the lithe one growled as it cut through the chunk of earth with its dangerously sharp tail. “Stand down and come back with me. Fighting out here will get us nowhere. All we’ll do is attract the humans.”

“I refuse!” the blocky one’s youthful voice came out of its maw in a low murmur. “I don’t care if they find us. I can beat them. Even without your help. You’re all old and weak. You fear the lesser beings. But I don’t!”

The blocky one let loose a thunderous roar, shaking everything around it. Sepeti covered his ears again, digging his face into the mud in an effort to dampen any damage the roar might cause to his weak body.

You have been {Stunned}

Tension spread throughout Sepeti’s body as the status effect gripped him. The roar died down but the effect continued to hold him in place. Everything felt tight, his head felt swimmy. He felt like he was spinning despite knowing that he was lying still. The slightly refreshing coolness of the mud was barely enough to keep him grounded. His thoughts grew fuzzy as the world crumbled around him.

How long had it been since he last cowered in fear like this? It was so… rejuvenating to enjoy the highs and lows of abject fear. To actually fear for your life was something that he had missed dearly in his previous world. Or maybe he was just waxing poetic because his thoughts were still jumbled from the status ailment?

There was a high probability this was the case.

After what felt like hours, Sepeti was finally able to pull himself out of the mire. Good thing he’d tucked his chin into his chest before getting {Stunned} or he would have died with his airways clogged full of mud. As he looked around, he found himself alone at the edge of the decimated clearing.

The two monsters had moved on, their trail of destruction leading off and away from where he lay.

Before he could pull himself together to muster the strength to get up, a new shaking attracted his attention. Rumbling approached. Not like the quakes caused by the two giant creatures. This sounded like horses. And horses usually meant humans, the most annoying beings in existence.

“Shit,” Sepeti muttered as he started scraping mud onto his back and pushing himself deeper into the muck. He hunched closer to the wet ground, trying to minimize himself as much as possible. Maybe if he prayed to Boba he wouldn’t have to interact with whoever was picking their way through a dense forest on horseback. Idiots.

Before long he could hear the animals snorting as they approached the devastated clearing. Thankfully, whatever idiots were riding them weren’t stupid enough to go riding around in full war gear. He could just make them out as they broached the clearing. They looked like a scouting party adorned in leather armor.

One of them began speaking in a deep, guttural language. They pointed at the edge of the clearing closest to where Sepeti was hiding. The group fanned out, dismounting and hooking their horses to the nearest trees before picking their way across the clearing.

Sepeti willed himself to sink further into the mud. Interacting with any of the locals wasn’t part of the plan. Not this early. He needed to prepare himself. Social interaction was tiring. He closed his eyes and sent a little prayer to any of the cruel Gods that might be listening. Not that he expected any to be paying attention other than Boba.

“Please,” he whispered. “I’ll do anything as long as I don’t have to interact with any of these backwater bumpkins. It’s too early. I haven’t spent enough time in seclusion.”

Someone giggled in his ear before an electric current zipped through him. Even with his eyes closed, the damnable screen was able to fill his field of view.

New Skill Acquired!

|Language: Huhune|

“Got someone here!” a voice yelled as a hand roughly grabbed his arm and tugged.