Now, any man probably would have had a completely different reaction next. But the first thing that came into Kek's mind was how incredibly hungry he was. As he looked down at the collapsed corpse of the mantis before him, blood still fresh in the immediate area and on his hands—he wanted to eat. And he knew that mantis flesh was considered a staple in some parts of the world, even a delicacy by the select few. So, he made himself a fire in a nearby clearing and severed one of the rear mantis legs using the same rock he'd killed it with. He roasted it on the fire, and the taste was even better than the smell.
It was the first time he’d had to catch his own food. He wasn't game to try the tentacles, although it was said they were quite succulent and had delicious layers of fat in them. Once his belly was sated and his nerves calmed, Kek started thinking about his master. He didn't even know if Hendrik was still alive.
Sure, when he had left, the old man was still breathing, and the mercenaries would have certainly thought he had been attacked by his own kobold servant. That means they would have offered Hendrik careful medical attention and looked after him properly instead of treating him as a criminal like Prate had. Dead Prate.
He started feeling guilty about Prate, and the guilt began to build up, making his stomach feel overly heavy instead of pleasantly satisfied. After ten or twenty minutes thinking about it, that sensation turned into nausea. Perhaps the meat was having a bad reaction with his stomach, but it was more likely that he just felt guilty for abandoning his one and only friend, the only family he had ever known. But what else was he to do? Kek wanted to hide himself away from the world, so he put his hands over his face and crouched down over his knees in the sitting position he was in. Humans cried, and right then, he wished that kobolds were capable of shedding tears too. It seemed like being a human would have made his life so much easier in every single way, and he would never be able to live up to those standards. No matter what he did, he’d always be a filthy, spineless kobold.
But if he found a way to take back what he'd done, maybe he would be able to get rid of this horrible shame. He knew that his master would not just abandon him. And so, Kek resolved to use his power to sneak back into the camp and rescue Hendrik. At the very least, he would know for certain if the old man was still alive. If not, he could continue to Hendrik’s village and tell his family what happened.
It wasn't difficult to find his way back to camp with his supreme sense of smell coupled with his new powers. The plants and trees were clearly labeled for him, as though he were looking through some kind of biological textbook. It made him feel less lonely, even though this was the most isolated he had ever been.
It was even easier to notice the terrible smell of the death weed plant as smoke seeped out from the area surrounding the mercenary camp. He walked through the camp as silently as he could, taking time to avoid stepping on crispy leaves or breaking twigs underfoot. It was mid-morning now, and that meant to majority of the men were out gathering wood and water or hunting. Those who weren't busy would be napping or drunk by now.
Kek went toward his master’s tent but remembered it had been set on fire. The next most obvious place for an injured old man to be was the hospital tent. These were a savage bunch of men, but they took injuries seriously and didn’t like losing their members to curable ailments.
As he went along, Kek was still taken with all the strange data around him. It was nothing special for a lot of things. For example, the tents had their own HP, which ranged from 100 to 200. The more solid buildings made of wood had higher HPs. Kek found it amusing to think of structures having health boxes like a person, which was strange enough in itself.
He spotted a guard walking by and froze, crouching in tall grass. He slinked toward the shadow of a tent. He hadn’t seen the man’s numbers floating around before he appeared from the side of the tent. Perhaps it was because his mind was still hazy after having just taken the potion. This mercenary had higher STR, INT, and WIS than the mantis, but everything else was lower. Perhaps INT meant intelligence then, because that freaky bug couldn’t have been too smart to have walked into such a poorly laid ambush.
He arrived at the hospital tent and found no guard outside. Taking a leap of faith—and stupidity—Kek walked through the tent flaps. The anxiety was too much and his heart fluttered to find out if Hendrik was alive or dead.
“What the…” said the old man inside. It was Hendrik, and he was the only person inside. There were only a handful of beds anyway, and they were never occupied for long. Rufus did not look favorably upon those who took too long to convalesce, unless they were gravely wounded. That meant Hendrik must have been in bad shape.
“I’ve come back to save you,” explained Kek with his chest puffed out proudly, as he walked into the tent.
“I am touched by the sentiment, my young friend. And glad that you’re in one piece. I—wait. You’ve … have you taken the potion? How?”
With even greater pride, Kek told his master of what he’d been doing in the jungle. The druid was impressed, but he seemed just as worried.
“You’ve proven yourself quite the little hero. Hmm.” Hendrik looked at the air around Kek and smiled. “You’ve gained some experience in the jungle. That’s good, because I have some things to say that will put a lot of weight on your shoulders. Kek … I don’t expect my injuries to heal. Yes, I should live awhile longer yet, don’t worry. But once you get to my age, it becomes increasingly difficult to bounce back from harm. I have internal injuries, as far as the so-called doctor can tell. I can feel the trauma within carving me up. My candle won’t burn for long now.”
“We can take you to a better doctor, back to your home. I can come with you like we planned.” Kek sat on the edge of the hospital bed, and it creaked gently beneath the added weight,
“I wouldn’t make it far, and it’s so very far to home, even to any other settlements. It was such an arduous journey when we came out to the jungle. I held back tears the whole way, over weeks and weeks of riding. Now all their horses have died or have been eaten. Walking all that way isn’t even an option for an old man in good health. But don’t be upset.”
“How can you say that? What am I to do?”
“You must remember you have a power now that makes you better than others. Precious few know the secret of the potion, and you must promise to keep that secret safe and use it only for good. I know you want to help me, but I am in no peril. The mercenaries assume you attacked me and Prate. They have also all but given up finding you. You are finally free, provided you don’t get caught now.”
“Free, or just all alone in the Deathbloom jungle with nowhere to go?”
“But you do have people out there. You were taken from the upper levels of a dungeon during a raid the mercenaries carried when they first fled the king. They went deep as the king’s knights chased them, but they soon returned to the edge of the jungle after losing many of their men to the unspeakable dangers there. It still gives me nightmares.”
“You want me to go there?” It was madness. Maybe the poor old man was delirious.
“Please listen to me. You were just a pup when I found you. I insisted on keeping you to raise as my helper. Truthfully, I took pity on you, as your family was slain in the mercenary’s raid. They didn’t go deep, but there were many other kobolds there. They are dungeon denizens—minions of the dungeon lord who controls the place underground.”
“I can’t help them. I can’t even help you.”
“Kek, there are many injustices in this world, but sometimes we are given the opportunity to fix them, and even less often we are also gifted the power to accomplish it. I believe will all my heart that you can free your people. They are who you belong with. And they need a hero to lead then away from their endless darkness. Will you be that hero?”
It didn’t seem like there were any other options, which made it easier to imagine himself taking the plunge and doing something so incredibly foolhardy and hopeless. “Master, is this truly
what you want me to do?”
Hendrik nodded and smiled, taking the kobold’s hand in his own. “You are like a son to me. I would make it my dying wish that you accept this quest. Will you?”
The emotions flowing through Kek were hard to process, but he was certain of his response: “Yes, I will.”
“Good lad! Now, I have some things to teach you about your new power. Hide beside my bed in case someone comes in, and let’s get to it.”
And Hendrik proceeded to lay down all the basics about this power of seeing the mechanics behind the universe.
10
It was all so much to take in at once, that Kek felt like he wouldn't be able to retain even a small percentage of the information. But when he displayed his doubts, his master simply told him something like "I have faith in you," or "all of the information you I've been exposed to is retained somewhere in that very blue head of yours. Just believe that you will remember the right thing when you need it. Part of the power of knowing is being able to remember that knowledge when you need it."
First, he explained to him but all those abbreviations meant:
STR meant strength, so Kek had been right about that.
DEX stood for dexterity, how quickly a person or creature could move and physically react to things, as well is the agility.
CON meant Constitution, which as a word Kek had encountered in books but wasn't completely certain about as far as the meaning went. That was basically somebody's hardiness.
INT did indeed meant intelligence and that was fairly straightforward.
WIS stood for wisdom, which Kek felt like he didn't have much of. He would later be surprised about just how much he did have.
CHA stood for charisma, which was a combination of how physically attractive someone was, how charming they were, and how positively others reacted to them during social interactions. Again, Hendrik with surprise Kek by revealing his score to him. And finally,
LCK stood for luck which was also fairly straightforward.
HP stood for health points and once they were all gone, your number was up unless somebody could somehow managed to revive you.
MP meant Magic Points, and how many spells one could cast before needing to regenerate. Kek didn’t have any MP yet.
He could now see his own numbers in his vision after being told how to focus his mind properly to look for them. This allowed him to look at his own “Character Sheet.”
“What does this have to do with sheets?” asked Kek when Hendrik mentioned the term.
“I’m afraid many things are unclear even to this old druid,” Hendrik answered. “Information about this power is nearly as rare as the power itself. Now, focus your mind and prove that you have understood what I’ve told you.”
“I’ll try,” answered Kek. He tried to look inside himself and focus his mind to make more information appear before him. “It’s working!” she whisper-shouted, nearly forgetting he was in the middle of a camp of men who no doubt wanted him dead.
Name: Kek
Race: Kobold
Level: 1
HP: 10; MP: 0
Attributes: STR: 12; DEX: 18; CON: 13; INT: 15; WIS: 10; CHA: 10; LCK: 5
Coin: 0
Inventory: tattered shirt, tattered pants
"Don’t feel bad about being level one,” said Hendrik. “You’ll notice something about me if you look carefully …”
“You’re level one too?” explained Kek. “But how? You’re so much wiser and more capable.”
With a nod of his head and an appreciative grin, Hendrik replied, “That is the level of our ‘gaming’ power. Only those with the ability to ‘game’ reality have a level at all, which I’m sure you will notice now that you know what to look for with others. Now, you will find there are often set-in-stone rules for this all. But, the rules are not clear to mortals like you or I. We are only given a small glimpse into how things work, and we can never assume to approach the kind of knowledge that true deities and divine beings have.”
Once Hendrik had explained as much as he knew, it was well past time for Kek to get out of there. He certainly didn’t want to, but the old man insisted. “You need to get out of here before somebody comes in and spots you. They'll do much worse than just kill you. I don't say this to scare you but so that you will be extra careful. Just trust that I see more then you know, and the fate of your people has been resting on you your entire life.”
Kek didn’t like the idea of saying goodbye. Still, it felt very much like it was the last time they would see each other. “I will miss you,” he said.
“And I will miss you too, but we will see each other again,” said Hendrik flatly. “For now, goodbye by dear kobold friend.”
Kek slipped out of the tent without further ceremony. Now that Hendrik had given him a quest, a little beacon lit up in his field of vision. A read arrow at the top of his eyesight. It was like something on a map of compass and supposedly pointed in the direction of the dungeon he'd first lived in. That made finding the dungeon simple, but the arrow pointed directly toward the heart of the jungle.
Knowing that there were things in there that had given Hendrik nightmares and made the mercenaries flee, Kek was afraid, but he kept telling himself that if Hendrik had faith in him, he needed to have faith in himself. Even if he didn't really believe in himself at all, he believed in anything the druid believed in. So, by proxy, he believed in himself, as difficult as it was the consciously admit that for the first time ever.
Then he realized he was heading into such a horrible place with absolutely nothing in the way of equipment. He doubled back to the very edge of the camp where he knew there was a timber shed that had some tools in it. Inside he found a leather satchel with two straps that could be worn on his back and wasn't too large for his smaller-than-human frame. He also found a knife with a worn blade that looked like it had been sharpened thousands of times and was a lot shorter than it had been when it was new. It wouldn't do him much good in any sort of combat, but heading out to the jungle without a knife was foolish. He had hoped there would be a hatchet he could get his hands on, but his luck was kind of low. Literally, it was his lowest attribute.
He next decided to take some of the fully dried kindling and fire-starting straw from the shed. He couldn't find any food, but having a fire was equally important. Kek headed out into the jungle and soon started to feel good about saying goodbye to the mercenary camp. Hendrik was the only thing about that camp he had ever liked, and the dogs, of course, but they didn't seem have much to say to him, and they weren't exactly a substitute for friends.
He traveled for a full day with little incident. He could see dangers coming if there wasn’t too much jungle growth. Apparently, he couldn't see the statistics of any creature if it was hidden behind a dense enough wall of matter. That's why he had not been able to see the mercenary coming toward him back in the camp, but he’d known the giant mantis was behind some trees.
As he went toward the interior of the jungle, there was a large wall of trees that was somehow even thicker and what he was used to. He walked toward it and practically had to break into the next area, pushing his way through and holding the knife out before him. He’d sharpened the knife on a stone after getting away from the camp, and while it wasn't a particularly large or well-balanced blade, at least it held a sharp edge nicely.
He tried to focus on walking forward and avoiding any dangers, but it was difficult to do when all of those mechanics were right in front of him.
He continued for days, and surprised himself with his ability to find food for himself. The deeper he went, the less he had to hunt. Animals even had fallen out of trees right onto him! Or, he had walked directly into their path. The first thing was a big, but not particularly dexterous, snake that had been hanging down from a tree branch. Kek had walked directly into it, and the thing had wrapped around his face, causing the shocked kobold to let out a shrieking yelp.
That's where his high dexterity attribute came in hand
y. He reached up without thinking and grabbed the snake by the spot behind its head with one clawed hand and grabbed it by the body area with the other. He wrenched the snake and snapped its neck and the thing went limp instantly. That had fried up very nicely and sated his hunger for most of the rest of the day.
Eating so much wasn’t something Kek wasn't used to. He found it funny that he could live so well in the jungle instead of being “taken care of” by humans in much more relative safety.
He’d caught other animals with relative ease. A relative of a hedgehog that slithered like a snail. It wasn’t aggressive at all, but Kek had stepped on the thing, and the spikes had gone into his foot. Stuck to his foot, it tried to bite him with its numerous teeth and a jaw that opened much wider than its little head. He stabbed it in the throat, releasing a fountain of frothing, oozing blood. He didn't feel good about killing it, but he had no idea if it was venomous, and there was no way he was getting the spikes out of his foot while the thing was still attached and trying to bite him. He knew what it was like to be small and scared, trying to stand up for yourself.
After several days, Kek knew that he was more capable than he had ever believed. Hendrik might have been right to have put faith in him. Maybe that's why the old man had always been so kind to him, even when Kek messed up.
There was still a nagging blackness in the pit of his stomach that made him think this was all a delusion, that letting himself be confident in his skills would only lead to his downfall. But at the same time, he still felt this growing confidence inside of him that said he had a chance of pulling this off, especially since he didn’t need to go down into the depths of the dungeon. His people dwelled on the top level, where the jungle met with the upper caverns. It wasn't even technically part of the actual dungeon, or so Hendrik had told him.
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