Notes

" designates Speech

' designates Thoughts

Visit yougots.wordpress.com for a Map of Vilenna. After a few chapters I will post a Character List and Stat Sheets to the website as well. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy.

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“Looks like I am lost”, mumbled Otis.

[Title Granted: Lost Child]

Otis still had no idea why he was receiving these messages but as far as he was concerned those messages are far down his list of priorities. Still looking out over the terrain in front of him.

“That looks like some smoke out there.” He stated while staring out into the distance. His eyes had followed the river down toward the horizon.

“Well there is smoke so there should be people, hopefully a town is nearby.”

Being on the side of the mountain he couldn’t tell really how far away that smoke was but he knew it was far. That was the only sign of life he could see from where he is at so he decided to make that smoke his goal.

“First, let's get away from this cave. Then find some place to rest for a bit.” Otis took his first steps down the mountain. His thoughts being brought back to reality noticed just how cold it was here. He knew from hiking with his parents in the past that the higher up you go on a mountain that colder it is. He wondered just how high up he was as the wind howled and whipped around him.

He shuddered as he descended the mountain realizing he was only in wearing pants and shoes he decided to pick up his pace.

“Better watch where I step don’t want to fall down again. I am just happy to finally be out of that cave. That place was crazy I didn’t know spiders like that even existed.” He pulled out the remaining spider thread to wipe the drying blood and dirt from his body.

He looked up at those bars in the upper left, the red one began to slowly recover and was now at about 18 percent he felt that it must represent his health. As it recovered he noticed that his wounds began to scab over and heal. While he still had a while to fully recover that red health bar he was healing at a much higher rate than he ever had before. He remember one time he fell while riding his bike the cuts on his elbows took days to heal but now the same degree of injury on his chest only took about an hour to heal to the same point.

Otis still did not know what the green and blue bar represent. The blue bar has not dropped one bit since it showed up and the green bar had not recovered any at all. The green bar still only had a sliver remaining in fact it has been slowly trickling down since he began walking. After about an hour of walking steadily down the mountain he came to comfortable looking rock to sit and take a break on. Since he started his decent he thankfully hadn’t seen any other wildlife.

As Otis sat there resting wishing he had some of that lunch his mother had been making when he started his journey. He saw that the Health and green bar grew much more rapidly compared to when he had been walking. After the green bar hit about 20% the muscles in his arms tinged with pain and stiffness. That feeling spread from his arms to his back and down to his legs. It wasn’t a bad kind of pain like from his cuts but the good kind of pain that he would feel a day or two after baseball practice. The green bar recovered more quickly than the health bar and at about 60 percent the pain subsided, at about 80 percent the green stopped recovering completely. Glancing down at his watch, all in all it took it about 30 minutes to reach that point. At the same time the Health bar was still recovering but it had only reached about 50 percent.

The weather was a bit more hospitable at this point on the mountainside. While the sun hadn’t fully risen over the mountain the air was warmer and there was less wind so Otis decided it was a good place to have a nap before continuing on.

...

Otis stirred from his rest and stretched his body. “Man that was some good sleep.” He glanced down at his watch it had only been about two hours but he felt like he had a full night's sleep. Glancing up at the three bars all three had been fully recovered. He looked over his body all his wounds from the cliff side and cave have fully healed over with new pinkish skin. Astonished at this discovery his mouth gaped open, “dude…”

He grabbed all the blood soaked spider webbing and put it in his pockets and began his decent again down the mountain side. The sun was now up at its highest point in the sky.

“Well if the sun came up from behind me I must be heading west. So then I will get to the bottom of the mountain then find the river. Once I reach the river I will just follow it till I make it to the smoke. So from now on follow the sun until I reach the river,” he planned as he continued walking down the mountain another message popped up in his view.

[Passive Skill: Walking Enabled]

After that text his pace had increased even though he was exerting the same effort as before. Also the green bar in the upper left pretty much had stopped decreasing as he walked. After another hour of his descent the terrain changed from mostly rocks to grass. Following the sun he moved further down the mountain.

“What is that?” leaping behind a rock he had been vigilant ever since the cave. As soon as heard the rocks shift ahead he moved for cover. Otis looked out over the side of the rock to see.

Liquid splatter across the rock right where his head was looking out. The source of the liquid was an insect ahead.

Steam hissed as it was released from the liquid that clung to the rock. The rock had slightly melted from the liquid.

He took another peak at the insect. Its body was the shape of an ant but it had a cannon like snout on the front of its face. The snout itself drip a green liquid that would sizzle when the liquid would hit the ground.

“Those are some dangerous snot rockets.” Otis glanced at the name hovering over the insect's head.

[Toxic Terror Termite level 2]

The sound of another snot rocket came from the other side of his cover. Otis took this moment to reach out and try to grab some rocks on the ground. Immediately as his right hand left the cover two more snot rockets were launched at Otis. Otis pulled his arm back to cover unable to grab any rocks.

“Tsk”

“Snuck Snuck Snuck” resounded from the termite.

Another round of snot rockets bombarded Otis’s covered. After firing three the termite paused. Otis took this moment to attempt to gather rocks again but as soon as his hand left the cover two more snot rockets were fired. Withdrawing his hand before it was hit he heard the termite snort again.

“Snuck Snuck Snuck”

“Gross that sound must be when it's gathering more snot.”

This time Otis stuck his leg out from the rock. As soon as the termite saw this it unloaded five consecutive snot rockets. Pulling his right leg back Otis waited for the snot rockets to pass and gathered a few rocks.

“Snuck Snuck Snuck”

Otis baited the termite by showing his right arm. The termite shot once as Otis pulled it back in. He then put one leg out and again the termite only shot one snot rocket. Otis tried his right arm again but this time the termite waited instead of shooting. Otis added his right leg into the mix but still the termite waited.

“It's not falling for it this time.”

Otis had two rocks he wanted to make them count. Otis made his move and stepped out from the left side of the rock launching his first rock with his left hand. It sailed over termite after all it only stands six inches from the ground. The termite had expected him to appear from the right side of the rock so it took a moment to adjust its aim. Frantic Otis threw his second rock and sprinted in the direction of the termite. The throw was short, the rock hit the ground a foot in front of the termite bouncing before slamming into the termite’s snout. The termites shot was interrupted and the snot flew off course over Otis’s right shoulder.

‘Didn’t expect that to work. I only play first base so I have never been good at throwing.’ Otis thought as he continued to run towards the dazed termite. Otis pulled the fang from his pocket carrying it point down he moved closer to the termite. The termite adjusted itself and shot to snot rockets quickly out of fear. The first hit Otis’s right leg causing him to stumble but not fall. His pants above his right knee sizzled and melted away. The other shot hit Otis in his left shoulder as he was hunched over. The skin on his shoulder bubbled and melted away. It was not a deep injury but it was a painful one and his health bar dropped by 20%.

Otis ran through the pain and continued toward the bug.

“Snuck” Otis reached the bug awkwardly bringing down the fang. Unexpectedly the slick fang slipped from his hand as it made contact with the bugs back and bounced away into the grass.

“Snuck”

Without missing a beat Otis stood upright and brought his foot down forcefully smashing the termite. The insect started to snort again, he brought his foot down a second time cutting it short.

“Snuu...” Otis slammed his foot down one last time obliterating the insect as its health reached zero.

"An appropriate death for a bug." Otis stated through his heavy panting.

[Passive Skill: Tactics Enabled]

Otis walked over to the grass to pick up his fang and sat down. This short fight took a lot out of him. His green bar is at 40% and his health bar was half empty. The raw skin on his shoulder is probably why his health kept decreasing. Otis ripped off the remaining bottom of his right pant leg. He used it to clean the wound on his shoulder.

"This fang is useless. I don't know why I even grabbed it." Otis had a thought he took the spider thread from his pocket and wrapped it around the bottom of the fang. Over the next hour Otis ground the outer curve of the fang against a rock sharpening it.

[Crude Knife Created]

Once the message popped Otis figured this would do for now. His health bar had recovered to 90 percent and that green bar stopped at 80 percent.

"I should get moving don't want another one of those snot bugs showing up."

He had come up to those tall columns that he saw from the exit of the cave. Looking a bit more closely at those columns they were not rocks like he earlier thought but instead they look like pressed dirt. There were also holes scattered throughout the columns.

Moving in and out of the shadows cast by columns made it difficult to tell the position of the sun. He assumed he was moving in the correct direction but he also thought he might be lost in this pillar labyrinth.

Otis moved closer to the one of the pillars ahead of him. “Is that humming sound coming from these dirt columns?” He put his hand on it. ‘It was not vibrating the sound must be coming from within’ he thought. He brought his right ear to the column just as he did the sound stopped. It hadn’t just stopped from this column it stopped from all the columns. Silence. Hearing only himself breathe and the crunch under his step he cautiously moved forward always keeping the sun ahead of him. Otis wondered why the sound had stopped but he also hoped he would never find out so he continued.

As Otis passed a few more pillars he heard a muffled squeak coming from in front of him.

“That noise is coming from the direction I am heading.” Otis said while readying his fang dagger.

“I don’t want to stay in this place any longer then I have to so I will just continue on instead of going around.” Otis hurriedly moved behind a column and now dashed from column to column instead of walking out in the open. He was doing his best super spy impersonation. He had just seen the latest James Bond trailer before his family left for their camping trip. His dad had promised to take him when it came out it was going to be his first PG-13 movie so he was pretty excited about it. He fell into his own little world as he moved forward.

He hummed spy music, a stupid grin was plastered on his face while deep in his own imagination. Otis hadn’t realized just how close he had gotten to the source of the sound until it got too loud to ignore.

“SQUAWK”, the giant bird ahead shout stirring Otis’s mind from his imagination.

“You dummy that was dangerous.” Otis focused on the bird and chastised himself for being so dumb to forget the situation he was in even if it was just for a little bit.

[Greater Ravenous Razor Red Hawk (Fledgling) level. 12]

Observing the bird it was caught in spider webbing. The bird was practically covered in webbing the only free part of its body was is head probably due to its sharp beak. The panicked bird hadn’t noticed Otis just yet the bird was still tossing and turning its body only causing it to become even restricted in the webbing.

Otis hadn’t made his move yet. He was deciding whether to save it or not. He knew that in any other situation that bird would have ripped his face off but currently that bird just looked pathetic. Otis also knew that the bird was caught in a spider trap just like he was earlier. Otis’s spider experience gave him a new fear and hatred of spiders. Seeing the bird caught in the same trap as he was his memories of this morning’s events washed over him. His right hand turned red as his grip on the fang dagger tightened.

‘If I was in the same position that bird would leave me to die or more likely he would swoop down to snatch me for himself.’ Otis thought to himself as he turned to take a detour around the bird.

Hearing Otis’s movements the hawk stopped its thrashing and looked over to him. Otis looked back making eye contact the hawk was truly in a sad state. Its ruby red eyes pleaded to Otis his guilt welled up inside of him. He knew he had the power to save it he just refused to do so out of inconvenience.

Otis sighed and turned back to the hawk. He brought his fang dagger up as he moved towards the bird. Fear spread across the bird's face as Otis approached but it did not move it just continued to keep eye contact. Standing in front of the hawk they stared at each other for a moment before the hawk nodded at Otis. The hawk was suspended at Otis’s chest height so he began to cut at the webbing starting from its chest working his way down.

The surroundings roared to life as he sliced the threads. Shocked Otis looked up and peering down from the holes in the columns were termites. Hundreds of them! Otis dove under the Hawk using it as a shield as shot rocket fell from the sky. Otis continued to cut at the webbing but now from the birds back side. The webbing was also being melted by the rain of snot acid. The bird’s tethers were loosening in the chaos it was screaming out for freedom.

Otis saw that his health was at 85 percent and the green bar was at 70 percent with hundreds of termites surrounding them he would need a miracle. The hawk’s right wing was now free due to the snot acid melting the webbing. Otis cut the last few strands on the bird's left wing.

“CAW!” the hawk bellowed as it took flight. The sudden sound drew the termites’ attention. They adjusted their aim towards the free hawk to prevent its escape. Otis did not wait for the bird to escape he had immediately ran in the direction he believed was west. In a matter of seconds he reached the perimeter of termites he leaped into the air drawing both feet forward like a long jumper slamming down on an unfortunate termite in the third row, “Splat” killing it instantly. ‘These things are at least 10 rows deep’ he thought as each step he took came down on a different termite.

Now that the hawk escaped to the skies the termites drew their attention back to the fleeing human.

“Should have known that bird was going to leave me. Everything I have seen so far wants me for dinner. Next time I see that bird I am making fried chicken out of it!” Otis yelled to himself as he ran along crushing bugs under his feet.

[Passive Skill: Running Enabled]

Pain splashed across Otis’s back as he was struck by snot rockets. His health dropped down to 60 percent and was slowing ticking down. “I can’t take many more of those.” Once he past the last row of bugs he looked down at his pants but he was no longer wearing pants but something closer to short shorts. He ran toward a pillar that was off to the left. He knew that running in a straight line was faster but also made him an easy target. He rounded that pillar and turned to a pillar little further ahead and to the right. He sprinted towards it while snot rockets rained down from above and behind him. Sprinting from pillar to pillar he became difficult for the termites to hit but they were catching up.

Little did Otis know the termites were coordinated. They were making effort to not only catch up to him but also to get ahead of him. They wanted to surround him and drag him underground into their nest. They were not concerned with hitting him with snot rockets at the moment they just wanted to wear him out and slow him down.

Otis breathing hard looked at his green bar it was at 30 percent. “I can’t carry on much longer” he panted to himself. He legs were shaking as he ran towards the next pillar. He had been zig zagging through the pillars for what felt like an eternity to him but it reality it was only about 30 minutes.

A snot rocket landed just ahead of Otis. He looked up from his run and saw termites to his left and right. The gap ahead of him was slowly being closed by the termites. “I am not going to make it” Otis stumbled on some loose rocks and fell forward. Struggling to stand the termites solidified their formation around Otis and approached him. They did not fire any more snot rockets they knew their prey had given up, they just closed in on it.

“CAW!” the hawk bellowed.

BOOM! several pillars from Otis’s left side exploded and fell forward. The startled bugs scattered breaking their formation. Otis ran forward through the ranks of bugs’, pillars slamming down to the left of him killing 10s of bugs. Looking up Otis saw the hawk diving towards the ground as it would draw upwards it would bring its powerful wings together shooting out powerful expanding blades of wind. The wind would slam into the pillars “Boom” causing them to explode outward and fall over. If the wind was unobstructed it would hit the ground slicing through any bugs in its way. The hawk killed hundreds of termites in a matter of seconds.

Dirt filled the air Otis was not out of it just yet there were still 100s of termites left and falling debris from the pillars. Otis continue to sprint weaving his way through the falling or fallen towers. The hawk satisfied with this amount of destruction flew off into the sky. Otis sees the forest straight ahead begins to run fast hoping to find salvation there. Acid strikes his leg making him wince in pain his health bar is at 5 percent he drags along the ground as he reaches the forest exhausting his remaining green bar. Crossing the border of the forest Otis reaching the end of his stamina fell forward on to his stomach.

[Passive Skill: Acid Resistance Enabled]

After a few moments, exhausted he turns to survey the termites. Shocked he sees 100s of them staring at him not even twenty feet away on the border of the two territories. A majority of dirt pillars are laying on the ground the and the dirt in the air was starting to settle it certainly looked like a war zone in there.

“SCREECH!” “SCREECH!” the termites’ screamed turning around heading back to their lair.

“Good they won’t come into the forest.” Otis said relieved he was grabbing wads of grass wiping the snot from his body trying to stop his falling health bar. Otis wanted to move but his body refused so he sat and rested for an hour.

The sky was dyed a deep orange as the sun was beginning to set before he could move again. Otis’s health bar was currently at 70 percent and was not increasing any further and the green bar was stuck at 50 percent.

“I better find that river before the sun completely sets. It should be close by if I remember correctly.” As he stood up there was some movements in the trees. He reached for his fang dagger only to find his pocket empty he lost that long ago in the pillar labyrinth. Staring into the forest he a familiar shape became clear it was the hawk. “Is he here to finish the job? It is dinner time after all.” The hawks ruby red eyes pierced into Otis making him feel very uncomfortable like he was being judged.

[Animal Bond Initiated: Greater Ravenous Razor Red Hawk]

The hawk took to the sky flying off into the distance. “Guess I am too thin to eat after all” Otis sighed in relief that he didn’t have to fight that bird.

Otis walked towards the setting sun. So far since he entered the forest he only saw bunnies and some deer. No these bunnies didn’t have any fangs they also didn’t have any titles displayed above them like everything else he has encountered so far.

Every time he did see a rabbit however his stomach would roar upset that he missed yesterday’s lunch. He couldn’t believe that all this has happened to him in a span of a day will he ever make it back he pondered.

The sun had completely eclipsed the trees but he could now hear the river it was very close. After a few minutes of walking he exited the trees into a clearing that ran along the river for a ways. He fell to his knees he was so happy. He crawled towards the water he needed a drink he was so thirsty he had gone a whole day without a drop. “I know Dad said that river water needs to be boiled first but I need water now I feel like I am about to die.”

He reached the river and looked at his reflection. He had red spots on his face and shoulders either from the sun or from the acid. He also was missing patches of hair he looked like a homeless clown. Running his hand through what was left of his hair “when did that snot land on my head it's a miracle that it didn’t get in my eyes.”

He reached down into the water and scooped it into his mouth. Its coolness running down his throat was like heaven he scooped some more into his mouth. He began to wash his hands and face he was covered from head to in sweat, dirt and dried snot. He stood up and removed his pants that are now shorts and stepped into the river.

[Status Effect: Sickness (Diarrhea) 30 Minutes]