Friends in Strange Places

  Santo gathered his pack around him as they waited for the countdown to finish. The great god promised rewards from this tutorial. He looked around at the prey forming into groups. Previously, the god had forbidden his pack from hunting those that he called enlightened. Now they were fair game.

  Feeling a heavy presence in the middle of the room, he looked and saw a human and an enlightened armadillo. The armored rodent looking enlightened had a heavy presence that he noticed earlier, but the human far surpassed anything he had felt from any of his planet's natives.

  The great god had explained what he was feeling as an inheritance of records. Santo had an inheritance that forced the other lycanthropes to serve him. He came from a long line of pack leaders and some of the records they had earned passed on to the next generation.

  He had no idea what would be the source of the human’s records. He didn’t really care. The human’s presence would just increase his gains from this tutorial. Killing one with such a heavy inheritance would have to give quality gains to his own records.

  The countdown ended and the pack was transported to the tutorial. Santo took a deep breath. He felt the thick essence that gave life. Feeling the life growing in his cells, he howled and the pack answered. The hunt had begun.

  *****

  As the countdown ended, Rolly and Jack appeared in front of an enormous wall that rose hundreds of feet into the air. Rolly tapped Jack in the arm. When Jack looked at him, he flexed his arm muscle and pointed at it before pumping his fist twice in the air.

  “We need to hurry up and get strong?” Jack asked. Rolly nodded and stepped into the plains heading for the forest in the distance. Jack followed. Rolly was sniffing as he walked. Jack thought he heard a howl in the distance, but it wasn’t anywhere close. Rolly’s ears perked up at the sound also.

  Rolly began jogging and then dove to the side. There was a loud squeal and Rolly rose with a cute furry little rodent grasped in one of his clawed hands. He quickly dispatched it and tossed it to the side. When this happened for a third time, Jack sensed Rolly was stronger. He’s farming experience to level.

  Jack was getting a little frustrated as Rolly levelled a second time before Jack even took his first shot. He scanned to the sides as they ran, but he never spotted anything. As they approached a small hill, Jack saw Rolly duck down and hold up a hand for Jack to stop. When Jack complied, Rolly motioned for Jack to follow as he crawled forward.

  Jack got down and crawled through the high grass slowly being careful not to flag his position by shaking the grass. When Rolly reached the crest of the hill, he motioned Jack forward. Rolly carefully removed some of the grass immediately in front of him, snipping a single stalk at a time and slowly pulling it down. He placed the stalks to the side. When he had a decent stack he pulled a roll of utility cord out of his storage and snipped off a section.

  Rolly then pulled the thinner strands from the inside of the cord and wrapped a piece around a bundle of grass stalks. As he was doing this, Jack noticed movement down hill in front of them. He started to move forward, but Rolly stopped him.

  A few seconds later, Rolly held the bundle out to Jack and pointed at his own head. Jack took the bundle and looked at it for a second before he realized what the little guy had made. It was a hat. He spread the bottom of the stalks and Rolly tied it to his head using the outer sheath of the cord. He then snipped off the stalks that were in front of Jack’s eyes and pulled on the tops of some of the stalks to make Jack’s new hat more natural looking.

  Rolly then held up 1 finger and moved a few feet in front of Jack carefully removing stalks. When he cleared a spot wide enough for both of them, Jack low crawled forward slowly. Looking forward through the small opening Rolly had cut for him, Jack saw a large herd of mammals 100 - 300 meters away. They were about the size of large pigs, but seemed to be some kind of cross between a deer and a cow. Heavy bodied and short legged.

  Rolly pantomimed shooting to the left then the right and Jack nodded. Heck yes. Time to level. Jack looked down his rifle to the left edge of the herd then adjusted his position to aim at the right edge. After moving back and forth a couple times, he looked at Rolly and received a thumbs up.

  Jack took careful aim through the iron sights of his weapon at the head of one of the animals on the left and slowly squeezed the trigger with the tip of his finger. The grass to the sides of the opening shook and there was a hissing sound as the round exited. The target fell and the beasts close to it let out a loud bleating sound and the herd began running away.

  Jack quickly adjusted his position as a 3 second countdown appeared. When the countdown ended, he fired at the target he had picked out on the right side. The beasts nearby bleated again and the herd changed direction running back to the left. Jack shifted and fired again, turning the herd once more. Back and forth he went choosing closer or farther targets when the herd attempted to escape at an angle taking them too close or too far away. It reminded Jack of an old school shooting gallery with targets moving back and forth.

  Jack saw notifications flashing to the lower left of his vision, but ignored them. There would be enough time to check them later. This continued for a while until the herd charged straight at them. Jack’s eyes went wide and he turned to Rolly who was smiling at him as he pulled something out of his storage. Jack felt some sort of energy move from Rolly into the item before Rolly threw it out in front of him.

  Rolly motioned for Jack to get back to shooting. As he was firing he felt Rolly throw a couple more items. When the herd started closing in front of them, massive explosions rang out. Rolly leveled up again and smiled at Jack.

  Shaking his head, Jack continued taking down as many as he could while they ran away. As the last of the herd disappeared over the next rise, Rolly slapped him on the back and took off running towards the forest. Jack got up and took off after him.

  After a few minutes, Jack heard a howl. Looking off in the distance he thought he saw dark shapes heading in their direction a few kilometers away. Rolly picked up the pace and they raced towards the woodline.

  When they reached the woodline, Rolly slowed and waited for Jack. When Jack caught up to him he pantomimed scanning his sector as he walked, moving the weapon left, right, up, and down and emphasized up again. He then pointed to Jack and wiggled his fingers for walking and then made a zig zag motion.

  “You want me to go downwind cutting back and forth?” Jack asked. Rolly nodded. Jack shrugged and continued. A few minutes later he saw a large snake hanging from the branches of a nearby tree. Better take it out…Just to be safe…Jack lifted his rifle and followed the body to the head of the snake. A little disturbed by the fact that the snake was staring straight at him, Jack took aim and fired. The snake jerked a little right after the round fired, but not far enough to avoid having the left side of its head ripped apart by the round.

  Jack heard a rustling of leaves off to his left and saw Rolly place something on the ground and move towards him as Jack felt him putting energy into something in his hands. Rolly motioned for him to continue.

  As they continued moving, Jack heard an explosion behind them. A loud howl rang out. He’s been drop kicking claymores. Pretty smart little fucker. Jack picked up the pace and changed direction again. A few minutes later, Rolly shuffled up beside him. There had been three more explosions followed by howls.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  Rolly motioned for Jack to follow him as he took point. They moved into some rougher terrain. Jack shot anything that seemed to take interest in them. He could hear they were approaching water. Up ahead it looked like there was a large opening.

  Suddenly one of those ugly werewolves stepped out from behind a tree in front of Rolly. He jumped and curled up into a ball that charged forward flattening the wolfman. Jack gave him a scattershot to the chest and face as he ran past splattering himself blood and pieces of flesh.

  He followed Rolly off a cliff and…Holy shit!!! … 15 meters down to a fast running river. Jack held his weapon over his head and crossed his feet. I hope this mother fucker is waterproof. He thought as he struck the water.

  As he surfaced, he slung the rifle over his back and looked around for Rolly. Seeing him a short distance down stream he began swimming towards him. When he reached him, he asked, “What’s the plan now?”

  “Damn if I know, J-man. Never made it this far on my first two attempts.” the armadillo man smiled at him. Jack froze and slipped underneath the water. He came sputtering up a second later.

  “Bo?”

  Rolly smiled and said, “I knew you’d show up sooner or later. I was going to see how long it took you to figure out it was me.”

  “You knew that both of us would make it to the hospital too close to death to survive and get our brains frozen?” Jack asked dubiously.

  “I just knew you wouldn’t miss out on this much fun.” Bo said with a smile.

  “So you did this before, but didn’t survive?” Jack asked as he started looking around worried about what type of monsters might live in this river.

  “Twice. Good news is we get more credits based on how we do. Bad news is, those wolf bastards are in every one. They are fast and seem to clear the lower level areas before its safe to move inward.”

  They continued side stroking toward the shore. “Why did you choose that race?” Jack asked.

  “Top tier survivability and good stealth. Everything else was okay. Figured I’d give it a try.” When they reached the shoreline they heard a large splash and scampered up the bank and back into the woodline.

  “Downriver?” Jack asked and they began moving at about a forty five degree angle away from the river. The air made Jack’s skin tingle and each breath seemed to feel him with life. “Does this area feel different?”

  “Yeah, we need to be careful. I think we might be in a higher level area. The essence is definitely higher here.”

  “Essence?” Jack asked.

  “Magic voodoo dust. Powers your skills and spells. Makes you stronger if you absorb enough. Seems to be the source of all life and energy. I had downtime between iterations and read up on it a little. It comes in all kinds of flavors too. If your affinity matches the flavor, the easier you will find to use it.”

  Bo saw Jack’s blank face. “I’ll bring you up to speed later. We need to figure out how to escape those furry jerk’s first.”

  Hours later the pair kneeled and examined the area in front of them where there was the remains of a stone wall. “Not so sure about this. I suspect unique areas will have unique beasts. I’m not sure if we’re ready for a boss battle.” Bo said.

  Jack raised an eyebrow not sure if they should rely on video game logic to determine their course of action. Oh wait… “Fuck it. Let’s find out.”

  When they stepped into the ruins all sound stopped. Bo looked at Jack with wide eyes. Jack shrugged. Following along a pile of rubble, they came to the corner. Bo squatted down and peaked around the corner. Jack was facing the opposite direction.

  Bo reached back and tapped Jack’s leg once, then twice. They both walked quickly across the opening to the next pile of rubble. Bo looking to the right and Jack watching to the left. Halfway down the next pile of rubble, Bo stopped again and tapped Jack three times. Jack stepped out and pointed his weapon towards a burrow dug under the rubble. It wasn’t large enough to go down, but big enough for something scary to come out.

  Bo moved back behind Jack and crossed to the other side of the path. Jack followed, keeping his weapon pointed at the burrow. They continued along that side of the path, working their way towards the center of the ruins.

  As they approached the raised mound in the center of the ruins, they saw more of the small burrows. The hair on the back of their neck also began to rise. Something big and bad was around.

  The minimal vegetation inside the ruins didn’t help to make them feel any better about their situation. They could see the large mound, but there was nothing moving there. They backed off and approached from a different angle. Still nothing. Except they could now see the mound was at one end of a large rectangular open area that reached to the edge of the wood line. Not liking their situation, they backtracked out of the ruins.

  They made their way around the forest to a rise at the opposite end of the ruins from the central mound. Bo made quick work snipping out their position with his claws and the two tied the vegetation to their head and body to help camouflage themselves and settled in to overwatch the ruins.

  As they waited Jack noticed Bo checking something in his interface. Oh yeah. Updates. When Bo had finished and took over the watch, Jack opened his notifications. He saw a series of kill notifications followed by leveling notifications. Rifleman had made it to level 8 and upgraded to Marksman. He had also gained the camouflage skill and a steady aim passive that increased his damage with ranged weapons based on his perception and dexterity. It had leveled a couple times.

  He gained a quick shot skill that increased his damage to targets within 25 meters based on his awareness stat. His final new skill was a target identification skill that increased his chances of spotting a hidden enemy by 10% with his current awareness and perception.

  “Hey, Bo. What’s the difference between awareness and perception?”

  “From what I read, awareness increases your ability to know what is going on around you. Perception increases your ability to see something you are specifically looking for or see more details about something you are focused on. Awareness will help with your danger sense. Perception will help you spot weaknesses in your targets.”

  “What class are you?”

  “I took a support class this time. I’ve got a grenadier subclass from my second run and some shielding skills from my race.”

  “Why the hell would you take a support class running solo?” Jack asked. He was truly perplexed by his spotters choices.

  “I knew you’d show up sooner or later. Did you get any good loot?”

  Jack looked at his storage. He had several pieces of gear, but a new weapon caught his eye. He selected it and he looked down at what looked like an old Vietnam era grenade launcher. He tapped Bo’s shoulder and said, “Can you use this?”

  Bo reached back and grabbed it and gave him a thumbs up as he continued scanning the ruins. Jack discovered he could swap his gear from the storage and switched out his boots for some that increased his movement speed and his shirt and pants with some that gave him an increase to his agility.

  Bo tapped him and he looked where the grenade launcher was pointing. After a couple seconds, he picked out dark fur and a pair of yellow eyes where they had first entered the ruins. A werewolf cautiously stepped along the path they had taken. As the werewolf became less cautious, he stepped too close to one of the burrows and a large spider came flying out and attacked his legs. The wolfman quickly dispatched it with his claws, but spiders started coming out of all the holes around it.

  He howled and four more wolfmen came running into the ruins triggering more spiders to appear. As Jack and Bo watched the pack formed up to fight off the spiders that occasionally shot out bits of web to tangle them. Slowly the pack was being driven closer to the large mound.

  The pack moved into the open area in front of the large mound and the spiders surrounded them. Rubble slid on the mound and a large section lifted and an enormous spider flew out. One werewolf was speared with a leg and another was grabbed by the monster's fangs.

  Two werewolves grabbed a pair of legs each and the final one jumped in the air an enormous hammer appeared in its hands. He slammed it down on the shiny bulbous abdomen of the spider. All eight legs spasmed, but the two werewolves hung on.

  “Engaging.” Bo said and Jack felt a small blast of air. Jack decided to go for the eyes of the spider and began firing himself. Jack saw an eye explode and then saw an explosion of fire on the back of the spider.

  Jack shifted to another eye and fired again. Bo landed a shot on the far side of the spider damaging its legs and setting the werewolf on fire. Jack’s third shot went into the werewolf rolling to put out its burning fur.

  The spider speared the distracted wolf on its far side as the one swinging the hammer broke through the carapace and gore splattered out. The wolf screamed as steam began rising off of him.

  Bo landed another shot on the spider's abdomen and the green goo coated the remaining wolves. Jack used his sniper skill and focused on the first eye he had shot out. The spider curled up in a ball and Bo continued reigning shots down on the spiders that swarmed to attempt to drag the queen back into her burrow.

  Jack put a round into each of the wolves, but none of them reacted, so he continued trying to put rounds into the queen but hit the smaller spiders more often than her. Bo pulled out a blue flask and drank it then continued dropping rounds onto the spiders.

  When everything stopped moving, Jack checked his notifications and confirmed that the spider queen was dead. “Think there is something important in that burrow?” Jack asked.

  “Do you think you can get cocaine at a strip club in Colon?” Bo replied.

  Cautiously they moved back around and entered the ruins from the same spot they had entered the first time. When they reached the center mound, they pushed spider corpses out of the way and looked down into the burrow.

  Bo placed Jack’s hand on his shoulder and said, “Night vision.” Jack stowed his rifle and pulled out a knife. Bo led the way down into the burrow. Its walls were lined with webs. As the daylight from the opening faded, they saw a glow up ahead.

  As they approached it, the burrow changed into a smooth walled tunnel that continued down deeper. A few minutes later, they reached a door. Bo touched it and smiled and motioned for Jack to do the same. Jack received a notification of a challenge dungeon.

  “What’s the worst that can happen?” Bo shrugged. “Maybe we have to eat a bunch of mushrooms, learn how to do alchemy, and then become friends with an evil snake god?”

  Jack’s eyebrows furrowed, having no idea what Bo was talking about.