Because he was keyed-up so high, he was able to react pretty violently as soon as the creature leapt at him, and instead of clamping its grasping jaws around his throat, it swallowed his arm to the shoulder. Kraant released Pebl and issued a mental command, and he felt the Void. It was not the seething darkness that he’d sort of expected, despite working with the monks for the last couple of days. No, this was… emptiness. Like reaching one hand into deep space, trying to grasp at a far-off star. It was, he realized, as though he held a moon in his hands. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, except for Pebl. Which was, perhaps, a bit overdramatic for a spell called “Dampen”.

He released his hold on Pebl, and gave it a vague order to “damage the enemy”, then pulled his arm out of the beast’s mouth. Stepping back while the thing reeled in disorientation, he pulled up a combat HUD. He didn’t plan to use them too often, but his first fight against a living enemy seemed like a good time to see the exact effects, beneficial and detrimental, that were in play.

Twin-Tailed Fox: Wood

HP: 20/20

MP: 20/25

Level: 4

Dioriented, Blinded, Choking

So! It was wood aspected. That was good to know.

“Pebl! Use Spark!” Kraant shouted and dodged back from the thrashing fox. It wasn’t much smaller than him, but it was a sort of mottled brown that was difficult to see in the forest under good circumstances, and with the added benefit of the overcast sky and the thick canopy cutting the light down, it would have been almost invisible even without its wood affinity. Unfortunately for it, Kraant had Sense Living! And a minor ability to see in the dark, but that was… unreliable. It was more of an acquired skill after living in mines for so long than an actual spell or racial bonus. Also unfortunately for it, Peblus Magnificus was putting all of its effort into venting Fire mana directly into the fox’s throat and lungs. Fire devours Wood, as everyone knows, so it was doing a fairly good job. Kraant, however, wanted to do at least something. So he cast Siphon Life.

The effect was dramatic. A cascade of invisible, yet still definitely somehow very green, flecks flew from the eyes and, mostly, throat of the Fox directly into Kraant’s chest. He suspected that the color was related to the Wood affinity, but he didn’t have enough time to really think about it before they swept his awareness aside and showed him the world as it truly was. Everything, absolutely everything, was full of the twin essences of Wood and Life. The Fox wasn’t an enemy, it was a guardian! It defended itself and its territory from all comers, and he was an interloper. Lodged in its throat was Peblus Magnificus, a nascent God of tempestuous affinities, all warring within a half-formed soul. He knew with absolute certainty that he had, at most, a few days to get as many affinities into Pebl as he could. Once the soul formed fully, he couldn’t add these affinities all willy-nilly any more. He knew this, through his connection to the Life mana he’d spent on contracting Pebl.

The sense was fleeting, but he still felt a little bit stronger than he had before. He lashed out with claw and fang in a Raging Flurry, no longer even slightly afraid of it. This Twin-Tailed Fox would eventually evolve into a truly dangerous foe, but for now it was simply a child that lashed out in fear. He felt almost bad as he killed it, driving his claws deep into its eyes. He immediately began to butcher the thing, hoping to keep as much of the meat and pelt as fresh as possible. He realized now what Sculpt: Flesh meant in his Arts tab. He could picture in his mind the way he wanted a cut to divide the meat, and it would work almost perfectly, almost every time. He wondered how it would work out at higher levels, but for now it was extremely useful. He only punctured the pelt a few times while flaying the carcass, and none of them ruined anything terrifically important. The last thing he did was dislodge Pebl from the beast’s throat. It wasn’t because he wanted to leave his familiar in there, so much as that Pebl and the charred flesh surrounding it were extremely hot to the touch. So, he let them take in some of the rain and just steam, all dramatic and cool-like.

When he finally retrieved Pebl, he was somewhere between furious and sick with envy.

Name

Peblus Magnificus, of the Order of Kue

Power

2

Load Cap.

0

Race

Hot Wet Rooted Anti-Rock

Control

2

Stamina

2

Age

2 days

Charisma

7

Spells

4

Size

Tiny

Morality

0

Spell: Spark

1, 8%

Class

Familiar

Knowledge

3

Spell: Dampen

1, 5%

HP

2/2

Sense

5

Spell: Splash

1, 0%

MP

4/4

Luck

2

Spell: Summon Bees

1, 0%

Authority

0

-

-

Just by being out in the rain, it absorbed Water affinity?! Just by being inside a wood-affinity fox it got Wood affinity? And what was this stat growth?! A rock shouldn’t have the same Power rating as him! And, no matter what its Charisma says, there’s no way a rock is prettier than him… no matter how its fiery glow lights up the evening, not how it charmingly scuttles along behind him… wait! No! Dammit!

Nathaniel was not nearly as enamored with Pebl as Kraant was, thank God. Thank the one, singular God that Nathaniel was… fairly… sure existed. Not eight, no, that’s silly. Right.

Anyway, Nathaniel made some ramen and edited the last few days into viewable video, although he wasn’t really proud of it. He put most of the work on Clara, the one truly good thing he’d ever made. Clara was an AI, specifically one designed to determine what was “interesting”. He’d sold her, along with the patents and copyrights of the company he’d built up to make her, to a major Special Effects Production and Editing firm, but he’d also kept a copy for personal use. It wasn’t technically illegal! He had the documents to prove it. Honest. They were, uh, just over there in his car… yeah…

Nathaniel was pretty excited as he uploaded his video. Yeah, this would work. This was gonna get views, and popularity, and income…. Maybe he should go back and check in on Kraant, hmm?

Kraant woke up in a forest. At first, this wasn’t a problem- he’d taken a nap in a forest, right? However, on second thought and every thought for the next several hours, he was complaining about the aches, chills, and general discomfort of being dripped on while also being cold-blooded. It didn’t even make sense! It had stopped raining hours ago, why was it still dripping?!

Peblus Magnificus, of course, seemed to delight in the bounty of elementally-charged esssences throughout the woods. Because anything that Kraant hated, Peblus would love. That’s right! Peblus, not Pebl! You lost the right to a cute nickname when you surpassed your master, jerk!

I mean. Not surpassed. Just… overshadowed. Dammit! Kraant couldn’t get his head around this… well, to put it simply, Charisma seemed to make impressions more volatile, not necessarily more sane. That is, a high Charisma would make a powerful enemy seem terrifying, but a powerful ally seem like a rallying cry incarnate. A weak Charisma would make a powerful enemy seem like a simple hurdle to overcome, or a powerful ally seem like a strong weapon- useful, but not part of the team. He could see benefits for both paths, and he had a flash of insight. Even during the Beta and Alpha tests… ow, that hurt. Time to log out.

Nathaniel continued his train of thought. Players had noticed a trend for more “extreme” playstyles to benefit more strongly from their choices. For example, if the average player carefully calculated their stat allocations and quest rewards, then a particularly “random” player would fairly easily match their power. Playing along was fine, but if you found a unique path you would get unique rewards! Yet another reason that Nathaniel wanted to continue a strong-immersion playthrough of a random-chance character. He would, probably, get lucky more often than not. If… if that’s how luck works. It might not be.

Either way, he was playing a strong-immersion playthrough, and had modified his cocoon for that purpose. Since he was already voiding the warranty, technically, by setting up the recording software in the way he had, he’d figured he’d modify a few other things too. He tweaked settings, removed filters, and generally made it so that when he was in-game, he was Kraant. Which is why he was able to think about things like logging out or checking the forums, which were safety measures to keep him from forgetting all about Nathaniel, but thinking about meta-gaming made his head hurt. It was a deterrent. Stay in Character, that was his motto!