Chapter Twenty-Two

  Alex took the next two days off from hunting. She debated logging out to get away from the game, but decided she could do the same thing by staying in her cave, buried in her comfortable furs. It wasn't that she was giving up, but that she needed to plan. There was no task more important than hunting down and eradicating that cobrawasp.

  Axo was waiting for her on its favorite log when she emerged from the cave, her neck stiff from sleeping.

  "No insects, sorry Axo," she told the shrew. After a moment of staring at her, it disappeared into the grasses.

  While she limbered up with stretches, Axo returned carrying a grasshopper in its mouth. The little shrew dropped the green insect at her right foot, then stared up at her with adoring eyes.

  "Oh, thank you, Axo, but I really shouldn't, I'm full up on grasshoppers."

  When Axo didn’t move, Alex realized she was going to hurt the shrew’s feelings if she didn’t eat the grasshopper.

  "You know, the green ones aren't ripe yet. We should wait until it's a nice warm red," said Alex.

  She sighed and snatch up the dead insect when Axo didn't move.

  "I'm only doing this because you're my only friend in this place...which is probably a sign that I'm losing it out here, since I'm about to eat a grasshopper because a shrew asked me to." Alex lifted the grasshopper to her mouth. "Bon appetit!"

  The grasshopper went into her mouth, legs and feet scraping against her lips. She almost spit it out, but decided "why not, it's just a game, and people eat these all the time in other countries" and crunched down on the insect, releasing juices to squirt against the inside of her mouth. Before she could change her mind, Alex swallowed the grasshopper, feeling the antennae tickle the back of her throat all the way down.

  "Oh, that was not good," said Alex with her eyes closed, shaking her head. "Deep breaths, no puking, and one and two and three."

  She gave Axo a thumbs-up while her stomach roiled. When the shrew disappeared, she thought she had appeased it until Axo returned with a second grasshopper, twice the size of the first.

  "No thanks, Axo. I'm full now." She rubbed her stomach. "All full. You can have it. I'm good now."

  Axo crunched down on the grasshopper, reminding her of the fluids squirting into her mouth. Thankfully, the shrew wanted to eat in privacy and took the insect into the high grasses.

  After Axo left, she looked at the four "nests." Her three remaining minions were out hunting, but would be back soon. She'd hoped she could revive Blinky somehow, but it appeared her minions had one life and one life only.

  But her minion's death made her realize she needed to upgrade them. It appeared they received experience for helping her, but they were only effective as scouts and bait carriers. She needed them to do more, and leveling didn't seem to be imbuing them with any abilities.

  When her minions returned and settled onto their nests, fat from feeding on the Plains, Alex produced a hyenature tooth she'd received from her last battle.

  "Okay, which one of you will be my first test subject?" she said with a fake soothing grin.

  The three bloats looked up at her with wide eyes that could have been on a puppy.

  "You first, Clyde," she said.

  Before she cast the Transference spell, Alex reviewed the spell gestures, confirming she could perform it perfectly before attempting it on the hyenature tooth.

  When she felt she was ready, Alex cast the spell, focusing on both the tooth and Clyde. When the nodes appeared, she was dismayed. There were only four nodes on the tooth, but nine on Clyde. Clearly the spell was more difficult to cast on living creatures. She'd entertained the idea of upgrading herself if this worked, but she had a feeling the difficulty would be extreme.

  After studying it for a full minute, Alex drew the lines on the pattern, knowing it wasn't going to work, but the pressure of faez behind her forehead had grown too much to delay any longer.

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  You have gained a skill point: +1 Transference

  The hyenature tooth disappeared in the casting, but Clyde looked at her with its small brown head tilted as if it were trying to decide if what was happening was bad or not.

  "You're fine, little buddy," said Alex, reaching out to stroke the bloat's head.

  When she was finished, she held her hand against her chest in realization of what she'd been doing.

  "If I start cuddling with you three in the cave, then it's time for me to quit this game," she said.

  While the spell had failed, the experiment had not. The spell had fizzled rather than giving her an "invalid target," and that meant it was possible, even if her skill level wasn't high enough.

  At the current moment her Transference spell was at 6. She was lucky it was governed by the Cunning stat, which was her main ability. If she had more items, she could max it out at 13. She didn't know if higher skill would make the spell easier, but in theory it should.

  Without another item to use, Alex knew she had to return to the forest to hunt for more, but she was going to use her pit trap since the cobrawasp seemed to attack her when she was further in.

  The next day, she used her minions to lure a hydrapig into the pit, dropping logs over it to keep it from escaping. The three pig heads made it more difficult for her minions to drain it, but once they'd gotten it low, Alex moved to the edge of the pit.

  "Come here, Clyde," she said, motioning for him to land on the log above the trapped hydrapig. The heads had given up and were back in the pit, resting as the body heaved with exhaustion.

  When she started the Transference spell, she feared that the number of nodes would be so great that the chance of it working would be impossible, but the hydrapig only had seven nodes, two less than Clyde.

  The pattern was still difficult, and Alex knew she'd failed even before the spell was complete.

  You have gained a skill point: +1 Transference

  You have killed a Juicy Hydrapig!

  You have gained experience: 1,800 XP

  The kill was a surprise, but she guessed it shouldn't have been, since her items disappeared at the conclusion of the spell, success or failure. It would keep her from trying it on the same creature over and over, and it wouldn't work as an offensive spell since it took so long to cast and complete.

  More importantly, it proved that she could use the creatures as a method of leveling up and practicing connecting the spell nodes.

  She wished she had a notebook so she could start making notes, possibly figuring out the fundamentals of how Transference worked so she could improve on her rare successes.

  "The next time I get a hide, I'm making parchment," she said.

  The next two weeks the pit trap got a workout. Alex gained four more points in the Transference spell. She got the tenth point on a Murderous Bladeboar.

  You have gained a skill point: +1 Transference (Tier Two)

  You have killed a Murderous Bladeboar!

  You have gained experience: 2,000 XP

  Clyde has gained the Assassination skill!

  Quest Completed: Earn an ability for a minion

  You have gained experience: 2,000 XP

  "What the?"

  Alex almost slipped off the log when the spell worked, transferring the Assassination skill into her minion.

  Clyde, Minion, level 2

  Ability: Assassination (Dmg: 50-100 on successful surprise hit; if more than 50% hps then insta-kill)

  "Now we're talking," said Alex with her whip hanging over her shoulder.

  When she brought up the Transference spell, she was greeted with the reason it'd finally been successful.

  Spell: Transference – Tier Two

  Faez: Varies ? Duration: Permanent

  Effect: Transfer magic from one item or creature to another.

  Before the spell had only said "item," but now it gave the option for both item and creature. Looting the bladeboar gave her two hides, which she turned into parchment that night. After a few hours of copying, she had a stack of coarse parchment.

  Next, she converted the Shiny Black Feather that she'd found after her first visit with Ethel into a quill with the Minor Creation spell. Experimenting with the various berries in the area gave her a rudimentary ink until she could find something more suitable.

  That night, she took notes on intricacies of the Transference spell, indicating the nodes and lines that she could remember. Having a permanent record to study convinced her that the underpinnings of the spell were based on a mathematical matrice, but not enough that she could figure out shortcuts to improve her success rate.

  But that didn't stop her from having her second successful Transference casting the next day when she trapped a Tough Wolfelk in the pit. The creature's thick hide had made it nearly impossible for the bloats to drain it until Alex managed to suffocate it with a Dewdrop Orb, distracting the creature with asphyxiation until her minions could do their business.

  Pinky, Minion, Level 2

  Ability: Reactionary Armor (Temporary invulnerability upon first hit of battle)

  Seeing what the spell had gained her minion explained a lot about why they couldn't breach its armor in the early part of the battle. Having upgraded two of her minions with new abilities, Alex decided to leave Inky until she found the right critter.

  She was starting to feel ready to take on the Ghostly Cobrawasp, especially after she spent a few days making new traps and gear.

  Alex had every intention of making her antagonist the next target when she noticed how much time had passed since she'd been outside the game last. She'd been keeping track with a crude calendar etched into her cave wall.

  When she realized what day it was, Alex gave her minions instructions to feed each day, but to stay out of the forest. Not knowing how long she'd be out of the game, she put away her gear and tidied up. The XP loss was unfortunate, but Alex logged out as soon as she was finished.