Whether it is called Hit Points (HP), Health, or something else, many a gamer has wondered, “How could that work?” If you’ve lived your whole life in the world of my birth, it seems totally unrealistic. Let’s say your system gives you 10 HP per level. How does a sword strike that would do 10 HP of damage and kill a level 1 character not kill a level 2 character? With the same equipment, how does an arrow fired with the same speed and aim into the heart kill the lower level character but not the higher level one? I didn’t know it, but I was about to get a first lesson in how that works, or at least how it works in one world.
Walking towards Enatus through the forest, I can’t decide what I’m happiest about. There’s the mere fact that I’m walking. Most people take that for granted. I don’t. Then there’s that it’s a nice day and I’m outside. Then there’s that I’ve got real leather armor just like my character’s gear. Then …
But I haven’t eaten in a while. I can’t order food. And I don’t have any money to buy food even if I could.
“So I guess it’s time to hunt?”
As expected, nobody answered since there’s nobody else here. Just me and the trees and that squirrel up there. And it just ran away when it saw I was looking at it. So just me. I take out my bow and look around for something to hunt and then realize the only animal I’ve seen is a squirrel and I’m not hungry enough to try squirrel just yet.
“{[search]}”
Nothing happens. Didn’t even use Mana. Did I guess the magic word wrong? Or maybe it needs a target?
“{[search]}” “rabbit”
An status indicator that looks just like selecting a creature in the game appears sort of towards the trees. It says “Rabbit” and has what I assume is a Health bar.
“This is so cool!”
The “Rabbit” indicator starts moving quickly.
“Oh crap.”
The rabbit is dashing away. Unlike the game, a rabbit will run away when it hears somebody shouting in excitement. Because of course. But the “Rabbit” indicator isn’t disappearing, so I try to sneak after it. It takes a while, but eventually it stops moving again. I keep sneaking. Guess where a scared rabbit goes? Underground. I’m not sure where the rabbit hole is, but I come to a place in the woods where the “Rabbit” indicator is below me. I still haven’t seen this rabbit. But apparently I’ve found one. I just can’t reach it.
As I stand there looking down at the ground trying to figure out how the heck to get a rabbit – like the newbie that I apparently am in this world – something heavy hits my back.
Then I feel searing pain while getting knocked to the ground. Like pain I didn’t know could be this painful sort of pain. A Health bar has appeared in my “Interface”, not that I have much time to think about that. As I’m pinned to the ground trying to look behind me, I see black fur and at the edge of my vision a new indicator. It says, “Stalker”. If it’s like the game, that would be a big cat. Sort of panther-like. And level 3. Too much for a level 1 character to safely solo with any expectation of survival. But at first I can’t quite think about that, because …
“Aaaaaaaaaagh!”
It hurts. A lot. I have no idea how long it took for me to finish screaming in pain and start thinking about my situation. I’m pinned face down on the forest floor with a big cat chewing on my back. I put my shield in inventory to better handle my bow which I guess got knocked out of my hands. I can’t reach my sword. I can hardly move. My Health bar hasn’t changed much but the number is gradually getting smaller as the stalker chews on me. Down to 9,952. If I had the 20 Health points typical of a level 1 in the game, I’d be dead. God it hurts! Are revival shrines a thing? Did I come here just to slowly die really, really painfully?
“Get off me cat!”
The stalker continues chewing, entirely unphased by my garbled shout.
“Bad kitty!”
Of course that didn’t work either.
“{[flame]}”
Nothing. Is the magic word entirely wrong or was it because I can barely speak what with being held down and in pain?
“{[flame]}”
Mana bar popped up. Apparently I cast it. But there’s no change to the stalker’s bar. Hard to target like this, eh?
For whatever reason, the stalker has stopped chewing on me. It feels like it is looking at me. My back still hurts a lot, but it’s better than when it was actively biting.
I mumble, “Please don’t chew on me anymore kitty.”
It responds by swiping my head with its claw. Which also hurts. Health 9906. And then it bites me again.
“Gahh!”, I scream. And then I really try my best wanna-pet-the-stray-cat voice, because why not: “Come on kitty, kitty. Wouldn’t you rather have some petting? Please let’s be friends.”
I can’t even believe myself. That I’m saying this to a big cat that has its teeth in my back. But what else am I going to do?
The stalker pulls back its teeth. Looking at me again? And then it gets off. I’m no longer pinned. But I don’t move. Maybe it got bored and will move off if I don’t move? But the “Stalker” indicator is not moving. Still not moving. Oh, and apparently I’m bleeding. My health just dropped a point again and there’s a little blood drop shape next to the Health bar. Must be a bleeding status indicator.
I try rolling over slowly and finally get a good look at the stalker. Aside from that I’m sure that’s my blood dripping from its muzzle, it’s really beautiful. Sleek black fur. Powerful muscles. And it’s sitting like a dignified house cat, calmly looking at me. What the hell?
“{[cure wounds]}”
That’s a start.
“{[cure wounds]}”
“{[cure wounds]}”
“{[cure wounds]}”
“{[cure wounds]}”
“{[cure wounds]}”
“{[cure wounds]}”
“{[cure wounds]}”
…
16 times. If I counted that right, it took 16 castings. But at least it doesn’t hurt anymore and I’m back to full Health.
“{[repair]}”
Hmm. No change to the armor. Maybe I have to take it off to be able to work on it?
And the stalker is still sitting there looking at me.
“Maybe? Did you understand me? Can I really pet you like a kitty?”
The stalker just looks at me. Its expression barely changed. I can’t tell if it understood me or not. In the game, they’re not an NPC that can understand players. But in the game they also don’t stop attacking until they’re killed.
I slowly get up, trying not to make any sudden moves or look threatening. I carefully edge over to the stalker. And because somehow it seems like a better idea than trying to run away from a big cat that’s faster than I am, I try petting the kitty.
It nudges me like a friendly kitty.
“It might be cliché, but let’s call you, ‘Midnight’”
The status indicator for the stalker changed to “Midnight (Maeve’s pet)”
“OMG!”
A text message showed up in the lower left of my field of view, “Level earned.”
So I get experience for what? Being attacked? Taming a pet? The game had druids and rangers, but no pet taming system. And XP was only awarded for killing things. So I have no idea.
But I feel like I can trust Midnight now. Almost like she’s an old friend. Maybe this pet situation might be a magic effect of some kind even though it didn’t use Mana? Or maybe I’m irrationally calm after trauma? A kind of Stockholm syndrome? I just don’t know. But I’m sitting here calmly petting a big cat who is occasionally tapping me with her tail. That’s seriously cool!
Am I really now friends with a big cat who was trying to eat me a few minutes ago?
What I do know is that I was being mauled by a big cat whose teeth by all Earth logic probably should have pierced vital organs, ripped out muscle, and probably caused massive blood loss. But there’s not all that much blood that I can see. There were no other obvious effects aside from a whole lot of pain. And now that I’m thinking about it, I get the sense Midnight was expecting to get meat out but got confused that she was getting nowhere with all her chewing and pulling. Does that mean what happened isn’t normal even here? Are other creatures easier to damage? Or people? Anyway, having 10,000 Health seems to mean that while I can be hurt it is really hard to get to my vitals or detach anything. I guess.
Apparently I’m very chewy.
So about this “level earned” I saw earlier.
“Hmm. Attributes.”
There’s now an experience number. Pretty sure that wasn’t there before. But level shows as 1 still. Do I have to do something to activate the level?
“Level up.”
No effect. Seems that’s not it.
“Skills”
No change. Hmm. Mimicry?
I take out my bow, close the Interface window, and nock an arrow. Let’s try to make a call of some sort of large bird.
“Twee-chirp-rrraaaa”
So far I’ve managed to get Midnight to sit up and look at me quizzically. It did sound like some kind of bird though. I’ll try again.
“Twee-chirp-rrraaaa rraaaa”
There’s a rustling of leaves and a fluttering before a large, brown bird flies in between the trees towards me. It’s about 10 ft off the ground and the size of a big chicken. Just as I’m pulling back my bow string and trying to get a good aim on it, Midnight moves in a streak of black and snatches the bird out of the air and pins it on the ground. As I focus on it, an indicator appears showing “bird” and a now empty health bar. Bye bye birdie. Looks like Midnight is a skilled hunter. Of course. She is a full-grown big cat.
“Can I get some of that bird, Midnight? Um. Step back. Release!”
I’m not sure if she understood me exactly, but she seems to have gotten the gist. She sits back and casually looks between me and the bird. Now I just need her to wait while I figure out how to build a fire and rig a spit roast or something. It’s a good thing I’ve got flame magic, since I’m not really sure how scouts use just sticks to start a fire.
Even with magic, it took a while. Maybe I should have joined scouts after all. Not like I’d have really believed it back then if somebody said, “Hey, someday you might be alone in a forest with no other way to get something to eat.” Even without the “in another world” part. OK, alone except with a big cat. But between the Flame spell and some trial and error, I did finally get a nice toasty fire crackling so that I could split a fresh roasted bird with Midnight. Most of it wasn’t even badly burnt. Not bad for a first time, right?
By the time Midnight and I finished splitting the bird, it was dusk. Looking around, I noticed two moons above us. I’ve seen this in game; the three moons aren’t always together in the sky. But even if it isn’t all three, it’s really wild to see more than one moon overhead for the first time. Really overhead. Not in an artist’s rendition. Midnight stretched, sniffed, looked around, and curled up for a nap. I meant to make it to town by dark. Doesn’t look like that’s happening. So I try curling up with kitty, cautiously in case she’s touchy about it. Gazing at two moons. Big kitty! Warm kitty! As long as she doesn’t decide to use me as a chew toy again, this is great.
I woke in the dark to an uncomfortable lack of kitty-pillow and the sound of growling. So I tried to get alert ASAP, but I’m not used to waking up quick. The first thing I really managed to focus on was probably the movement of the arrow that whizzed into Mightnight’s flank. She roared in I suppose surprise, pain, and anger. Then she pounced into the bushes between trees. Something in there let out a “Gaahh!” noise and made a thump. I don’t really know what’s going on, but I stumble after my cat friend because … well, I mean, she’s my pet now, right? On the other side of some shrubbery I see three creatures that even in the starlight through the trees I recognize from the game as goblins. They’re 3 to 4 ft tall, greyish-green skinned, red-eyed, and have sharp teeth. Kinda’ wimpy individually, but they can be dangerous for low levels especially if you’re outnumbered. One of them is on the ground being chewed. A bit like I was yesterday. But the other two are attacking Midnight with hatchets.
“{[flame]}”
“Wooohooo!”, I shout.
Sure, it may have been a bit premature because the flames that sprang out from my hand and scorched the goblin’s arm didn’t exactly drop it. But can you blame me for being excited? It may have been the 4th or 5th time I’d used the Flame spell, but it was the first time I hit a target that wasn’t a stick.
The goblins booked it in the opposite direction. Thinking about it as I watched them go, I’m pretty sure it was actually the excited shout that made the two standing goblins run off. Whatever works, right?
Midnight for her part looked up briefly to see the others go and then went about eating the downed goblin. Gross! But it kept her distracted enough to only growl a bit when I pulled the arrow out and healed her up. Then she alternated between eating and looking up at me like it was my turn or something. Eating a humanoid? I don’t think so. I was tempted to try to get her to stop too but … well, she did take an arrow for it, so can I really tell her no? Once she was done, I coaxed her into walking further towards Enatus a while in the hopes of getting off goblin routes before we went back to sleep again.
Comments (0)
See all