His status sheet was getting long now, Gar just skipped to the end focusing on the new stuff. He read through the description for his first spell and it was fairly simple, the spell let him make skeletal puppets, the boosted part was probably in reference to what his achievement did, he didn’t understand the reserved willpower bit, he reread the description again slowly then looked over the rest of his status sheet. Which is when he noticed it, his willpower was 11(10) that was it one point of his willpower was used to maintain the spell it made sense as there had to be some sort of cost to keeping the skeleton about. It wasn’t ideal as it meant he would be severely limited on skeleton puppets if each one needed a point of his willpower and while he wasn’t exactly sure what willpower did he was sure he didn’t want to take it too low by using it all to raise puppets. Particularly as he had no idea how to end the spell and get his willpower back, although as he thought this there was knowledge in the back of his mind that he hadn’t known before. He knew he only had to mentally squeeze the connection between himself and the puppet and it would break returning his willpower and ending the puppet, he also knew that doing so would make the skeleton unusable to him as a puppet. He was unsure where this knowledge had come from but figured it was most likely gained when he got the spell or from his death magic skill.
Like with everything in this world it seemed he answered one question only to end up with a dozen more. At some point he was going to have to examine this more, but at that moment he wanted to find out more about what his new companion could do. Looking at it he decided he needed to give it a name it was going to be his companion for a while as Gar had no intention of getting rid of it, a bit of support was just what he needed. He toyed with just calling it badger, then several other equally simple names, in the end though he had known what he was going to call it the moment he decided to name it. So it was christened Bodger, to Gars delight the words floating over the puppets head changed too.
“Bodger”
It only took a thought to add back the previous.
“Bodger, skeletal puppet (badger) level N/A”
And another thought returned it to just Bodger, Gar smiled to himself as he started putting Bodger through his paces. Control was easy enough it only required a thought directed Bodger’s way. To start with Gar tested speed, he paced out twenty steps from Bodger then had Bodger run towards him as fast as it could, it wasn’t the smartest idea, as it turns out Bodger can pick up quite a bit of speed over that distance but isn’t the best at stopping. He crashed into Gar at almost full speed knocking him over and he was certain he was going to have bruised legs the next day, it had hit hard enough to take off a small bit of health. Gar also learnt that Bodger made a lot of noise when he ran the bones clattered and knocked together, he would have to be careful with him not to attract the wrong kind of attention. While he was thinking about noise he had Bodger move away from himself as quietly and as stealthily as it could it wasn’t too bad a result as long as the speed was kept down Bodger could move quietly and when still was absolutely silent. Gar spent a few hours finding out what Bodger could do; it could run, jump, dig although the dirt on the plateau was a bit shallow to really test that and it couldn’t go through stone, it could climb trees but required much hands on instructions on how to do each movement. It couldn’t bark or growl but could make a rather loud and threatening noise by snapping its jaws together, it could count basics like number of steps but seemed to have no concept of time, instructed to wait ten seconds then run got no result, attempts to teach time did nothing. It could stand on its back legs, not for long but it did seem to be improving so may it have been able to get better with practice the ability to learn would require further testing.
Gar learnt a lot and couldn’t keep the smile off his face, he hadn’t realised how happy this would make him. He had been holding it together to keep going, he had been scared for so long. In front of him Bodger changed it all, it was a sign of Gars own magic a thing that fascinated and excited him and not only that his magic was exactly what he needed, it let him have someone to go in front, someone to stand between himself and the monsters, someone he could follow when he had to go into the places that scared him and that was a gift he hadn’t even realised he needed but now he had it, it lifted his spirits immensely. One of the best parts was he could make more and even knew where to find more badgers. He had visions of armies of skeletal badgers surrounding and protecting him maybe even bigger creatures like those bears. As soon as the idea of the bear skeletons come to mind he shook a little and pushed it away he was not going to be trying to take on those bears again, bringing himself back to reality Gar sat by his fire pit and started to plan because the next day he was going hunting.
Gar woke early and was moving quickly a cold breakfast and a drink of water where all he did before grabbing his stuff and moving to the ladder Bodger following behind. Stood at the top of the ladder he put his backpack on the ground and had Bodger climb inside, before putting it back on and climbing down only to let Bodger out again on the ground. They travelled round following the cliff wall, Bodger lead with Gar a few paces behind. Gar ordered Bodger to be on high alert and to notify if he sensed anything, Gar having no idea if Bodger was smart enough to understand this command gave it anyway figuring it couldn’t hurt and it made him feel better to think his companion was as alert as he was. They followed the cliff for a while before cutting into the forest; it took some walking back and forth and an abysmal attempt at tracking on Gars part, before finding it due to Bodger’s efforts. Gar had gotten frustrated and given the command to find them, not expecting anything; Bodger had immediately put its non-existent nose to the ground and headed off. They were standing a way off from the badger sett keeping it under observation, the sun had risen several hours ago and Gar had made a mistake in his hurry to get there. Badgers are nocturnal; he had planned to catch a badger or two when they were away from their den and between himself and Bodger take them down.
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He sat and watched the sett for nearly an hour. In that time he came up with three options; one he could come back at night, two he could send Bodger into the sett, three he could trap the area. Option one was dismissed, everything from fantasy to reality said the dangerous stuff came out at night he was not going to risk himself. Option two possible, although he did not know how the badgers would react, if they ran that was good he could hunt some down, if they fought all together Bodger would lose, this was a big sett there could be over twenty badgers in there. Option three should be relatively safe for himself and Bodger but with lots of entrances and lots of routes the badgers could take and that would be ignoring the fact they could just dig new ones, it would require some luck. Option three was the obvious choice, sure it could fail but there was no risk to him if it did and he could always try other options later.
A little disappointed he would have to wait longer to get more puppets, Gar started scouting the area searching for every entrance to the sett. While he was reluctant to do it he left Bodger further back as he got closer, he would have preferred the extra protection but Bodger made too much noise and Gar didn’t want the badgers disturbed before he was ready. The sett was much larger than Gar had originally imagined, with his limited amount of wire and the relatively large size of a badger for a snare trap, Gar focussed his trapping on the side of the sett facing towards the river. First setting up snares on the obvious routes to the river then as he got used to being around the badger home he moved closer to the entrances carefully setting snares outside a number of them, it was cautious and careful work with his last few snares he set them on the other side of the sett and made sure to spend some more time around that area as well to ensure his scent and tracks where everywhere and not just in the direction he wanted the badgers to go as he suspected that might backfire on him. Finishing a lot sooner than he had planned and with nothing to show for it Gar was unsure what to do with him-self once he got back to base, having anticipated action then finding none Gar was restless.
He only stayed at base long enough to grab a bite to eat before he was off again. Only this time he was heading down river, he had briefly crossed through this area when he originally found his base it was time to explore it a bit more thoroughly. The area was much smaller than the forest and Gar was sure he could explore it in an afternoon then add it to his map. Gar was strolling along with Bodger at his heels the area around him less dense with trees the further he went, the trees also seemed slimmer with clusters of roots sticking out above ground. Gar did a few passes back and forth through the trees with nothing of note until he was nearing the end of the cenote and its wall, there was a sound, movement through the leaf litter. Gar stopped moving listening hard to pinpoint a direction, the sound was behind him and moving, trying to work out which direction it was going Gar looked for a place to hide. Before he could do anything he saw it and it was an ant, a giant ant. Flicking on observe it was identified as a.
“Mega-ra ant worker level 2”
The thing was a similar size to Bodger, the same height but longer body Grey carapace big black eyes and six spindly legs sticking out to the side. As it ran straight at Gar he did the only thing that came to mind, he sent Bodger to intercept. Bodger launched at the incoming ant, swiping and biting, receiving a snap to its ribs from the ant’s mandibles, not breaking the bone but Gar distinctly saw chips of bone fall off. Not wanting to loose Bodger so soon Gar had him back off but keep the ants attention, the ant would keep lunging at Bodger and snapping while the skeleton would jump back and swipe a claw at the ant in return, Bodger was ceding ground fast and not returning much damage, Gar was reluctant but needed to get involved.
Spear held at the ready Gar moved round to the side of the pair, the ant focussed on Bodger ignoring Gar completely. Moving in just close enough for his spear to reach Gar brought it down on the ant’s head, at the last moment the ant shifted its head the spear careened off barley leaving a crack in the carapace. The attack was enough to get the ants attention as it turned Bodger came in and swiped at an eye scoring a good hit, the attack also succeeded in bringing the ants attention back onto Bodger. Gar backed up a little and watched the two go at it looking for an opportunity, even with a wounded eye Bodger was losing ground, the ant was just more manoeuvrable than Bodger was, Gar resolved to fix that he moved in again, bringing his spear in a sweeping arch across, severing two legs on one side, before the ant could orientate itself another quick swing and the final leg on that side was severed the stumps leaking green viscus fluid. The ant was still alive shuffling slowly in the dirt, Gar had Bodger back off, still keeping the attention by snapping its jaws together threateningly. Moving round behind Bodger and to the other side of the ant he removed those legs as well, unable to move the ant posed minimal threat so Gar moved in placed a foot on its back then drove the spear straight down at the base of its head finally killing it
“You have killed level 2 Mega-ra ant worker 5 experience awarded”
With the ant dead Gar was torn between taking the body and leaving it, in the end he left it and started retreating to base because if there was one ant there was more, lots more Gar did not want them following the scent of their dead friend back to his base. Not willing to take the risk and unsure which direction other ants would come from Gar didn’t head straight to base instead heading to the river following it up stream then looping back round to his base hoping not to have left a trail the ants would follow.
