Chapter 12

Darren Slattery

I began to meditate after the bleeding stopped. Sitting is my usually my go to position, but with chunks missing out of my body lying flat was far easier. Like some mystic guru on a mountain precipice, I was contemplating and attempting to understand the world by understanding myself. Failing to plan was planning to fail. I was still not taking the game serious enough and my old complacent lifestyle was still affecting my actions. Drifting through life without putting much effort into anything was ok if you did not have to fight for survival every single day. In this new world, my own paradigm would have to completely change. I needed to be better. If I was going to become strong enough to destroy these monsters that were taking over my world, I would have to put forth the effort.

Changing focus back to the present, I began visualizing different plans. My only advantage right now was time and there was no need to rush the confrontation with the boss rat. With my absurdly fast regeneration, time was also healing my wounds. I felt for my center and found my energy tank about three quarters full. Instead of circulating, I pushed the energy towards my wounds. It moved easily as it seemed to be naturally attracted to damaged areas. It formed small pools around the injuries and seemed to feed whatever force fueled my regeneration.

My body mended slowly. New skin formed and the muscles slowly grew back from the inside out. The sky outside became dark as the cycle of day and night finally returned. The periwinkle was fading and my skin was no longer tinged pink under its poisonous touch. Due to the nature of my nightvision, I was unable to tell if the purple was completely gone yet. When light was absent and my special sight activated, colors became muted and I saw tones similar to a black and white movie. If there was any left in the air, it was a much smaller amount.

I peeled the soggy bandages off after I ran out of Ki. The wounds looked weeks old after only a couple of hours of meditation. They were far from completely healed though. The flesh had not filled back in and the muscles were weak because of it. The wounds ached like old injuries now, but the pain was no longer sharp enough to disable me. I took a couple of test swings with the hammer and found my grip to be weak, but manageable. It would not hold up if the hammer struck something at full power but at least it worked again. I wiggled my fingers and was glad for magical healing. Who knows if I would have ever regained use of them otherwise?

I took a powernap and awoke refreshed. It was still dark outside and I was starting to become quite thirsty. Too much of my body’s water had been expended during the fight and my cottonmouth was back. Soon it would no longer be to an advantage to wait. My health would only deteriorate with no water available. I looked over the edge and tallied up the dead rats. Three corpses were visible below, with a blood trail leading off from the fourth. The trail was wide enough to lead me to believe that the fourth one was no longer much of a threat, but I would still be cautions because sometimes wounded animals are the most dangerous.

The big rat was still out there and was probably smart enough to set up an ambush, but staying focused while waiting on your prey to appear was draining. Hopefully it was growing tired of waiting while I napped. I recovered and cleaned up my knives before I slunk back out of sight of the ledge. Moving with as much stealth as possible, I manage moved to the far edge of the loft without seeming to notify the monsters. My plan was to grab the pitchfork and fight the last two rats on the ground. Not only was it a far better weapon in this fight then a hammer, but with two hands on the shaft I could compensate for my weakened grip. I strapped my pack on and shoved the hammer back into my belt. Low crawling to the edge I hung over and let my feet dangle before dropping. A few quick steps and a snatch and grab later the weapon was in my hands. I put my back to the nearest wall and waited for the attack that never came.

It was a lot darker in the barn than earlier and full night had fully fallen. There was no way I would have been able to see anything if not for my nightvision. Maybe I could use that. How smart exactly was this big rat? Testing a theory, I decided to try and sucker it in. Moving erratically, hands forward to feel my way, I fumbled around in the darkness. With a hand on the wall, I took hesitant, shuffling steps and pretended to use it as a guide. After every few steps, I paused to listen intently. All a humans normal weaknesses were played up as part of my act as I tried to draw the rat in. After faking a stubbed toe, the rats finally crept slowly into sight. The smaller rat was heavily damaged and its pain evident in every limping step. Giving no indication to being aware of their presence, I continued stumbling forward.

The bloody rat crept forward alone while the big one stayed back like usual. I could easily kill it now, but I did not want to play cat and mouse with the boss rat if it decided to retreat. Hell, it would most likely be the cat in that scenario anyways. I needed to end this fight so I quickly made adjusted to draw in the smart rat. It was a bit of gamble and would require some more blood and sacrifice from my abused body, but hopefully this would be over soon.

When the small one leapt for my poor left leg again, I let it latch on. It bit my leg from the front this time, its huge mouth griping over my shinbone. Fuck that hurt, it seemed worse since it was intentional. I kept my head and played it up, screaming and flailing away in the darkness. A couple of pokes with my pitchfork going intentionally wide solidified the act. For around a minute we stumbled around bumping into wall and several machines. Just as I was getting ready to give in and stab the damn thing, the big rat made its move. It scurried towards me and looked prepared to make the rodent’s standard attack. It leapt for my throat, but the tines of the pitchfork were planted in its path and it impaled itself. The weight of the impact, combined with the fifty pound beast on my leg, knocked me to the ground. I shoved the pitchfork and pushed the big rat back before letting go of it. I pulled my holdout knife again and went to stab-town on the stupid rat that just would not let go of my leg. After killing it I heard the wooden pitchfork dragging as the smart rat tried to flee with a foot of metal stuck in its lungs. Since the tines were curved slightly down, I stepped on the shaft with my foot and pressed it into place. The rat was still struggling itself away when hammer hit its head. After a few glancing blows with my left hand, I was able to strike its skull clearly. The cracking noise was followed by a collapsing rat, but I still gave it a few more whacks for being such pain in the ass.

Even after winning I was very weak and had another major injury, my third of the day. If there had been another rat my strategy would have gotten me killed. It was a good plan for the situation, but I was still getting lucky. I couldn’t even bandage my leg because I was out of shirt to make them. Breathing deeply I sat down and rested my tired back against the cool corrugated steel. That was when I heard it again.

“You are now level 3,” The Voice announced. “You may choose to advance one of the following attributes: Mind, Body, Soul, Magic or Ki. Choose with care”

Fuck me sideways. A ding and I was too tired to woot woot! Closing my eyes for a moment as my head rested against the wall I thought about the options. I had been leading towards taking another point in Body, but now I wasn’t so sure. It was too dangerous to get distracted about it right now though.

“Get up Slate, get to safety” I told myself. “You don’t want to be caught bleeding when the next mob paths through.”

I needed to perform some basic first aid and give my leg a chance to clot. I pulled off my boots, unbuckled my pants and sat there in my blood stained boxers. The tattered remains of my jeans were cut into denim band-aids and I did my best to wrap my abused leg. I put the hammer into my backpack and pulled the pitchfork out of the big rat. Leaning on it, I used it like a walking stick.

It sucked that these mobs don’t drop any loot. I could use me a magic sword or some armor. This smart rat fit the role of a named or maybe an elite mob, that shit should drop something right? Taking a minute to examine the corpse did not enlighten me of anything other than it was a dead big ass rat. It was disgusting like they tend to be, and it smelled of old carrion. In a RPG my toon would be skinning this sucker and taking the tail and teeth to sell to the nearest merchant. Real me looked at the disgusting carcass and decided to leave its skin alone, because fuck that nasty shit. There was no practical use I could think of for its body parts and its corpse was left undefiled. Just before standing up I thought about some rat steaks, but that just made me start dry heaving.

I stumbled back over to where my bow was still sitting on the shelf and picked it up. With no way to secure it, I carried one weapon in each hand and limped to the front of the barn. I was headed home in my underwear after an ass kicking when I noticed the empty 5 gallon bucket. It was the same type of 5 gallon bucket I had half a dozen of sitting at my house. It was a cartoon like moment where the enormous light bulb appears over someone’s head. I started talking to myself again, which seemed to happening often enough to be called a habit.

“You big dumb son of a bitch, you have a well, a bucket, and a bunch of rope at the house.”

The trek back home was a special kind of misery. Each step was full of torment and self-loathing, every movement agony to body and mind. The pain was something that I deserved, and wished there was more of it. It is the body’s way of telling us to not do something, and I wanted to remember to think before acting. I needed to get smarter about how I played this game.

I spoke to the heavens, “I choose Mind.”

“You have chosen Mind, Your current attributes are as follows:

Mind - 1

Body – 2

Ki – 2”