Chapter 24 The Disputed Lands

[Achievement unlocked: Savage Mercy – Spare the life of a vandal defeated in combat. +10% healing from poultice. +25% faction reputation with Yukon tribe. Unlocks one vandal loot box.]

[Achievement unlocked: The Waves That Crash – Survive a wave encounter whilst defending the objective. Complete one more to unlock a defence loot box.]

[Achievement unlocked: ???? – Unlocks second class: Beastmaster.]

[Achievement: Mastery – Unlocks 2 primitive loot boxes.]

Back on home turf at the cave, I sorted through my achievements. I had about a dozen or so of them, but these three were the ones that had me most intrigued. I was surprised to see that there was an achievement for sparing a vandal. Then again, the system seemed almost omniscient. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was conjuring achievements in real time, watching avatars. The 10% healing buff was nice. It stated poultices, which hopefully meant it would affect and scale to higher tier poultices too.

The factional reputation increase to the Yukon tribe was interesting. I hadn’t even known there were faction reputations, but when I opened up my character screen, under traits, there it was. Factions. The Yukon was the only one listed. I figured it only applied to NPC factions rather than ones composed of avatars, and that was why neither Raymond nor Adrian’s war bands had ever appeared there. Not that there was anyone left from those factions, far as I was aware.

The wave achievement suggested that there would be more wave encounters. I didn’t relish the thought, but hopefully it wouldn’t be for a while.

But it was the final achievement that was most interesting. There was no doubt in my mind that this was linked to Larry and whatever had happened to him in that cocoon. Now that daylight had broken I saw just what the metamorphosis had done to him.

He seemed a little bigger. Not by much, but enough to be noticeable. What was more noticeable was that all of his criss-crossed scars, the dent in his head from his fall, all of it was gone. He looked brand new and totally healed up. I examined him.

[Sabretooth King – Also known as “Larry.” Once the king of the jungle, he now fights at the side of Reaver.]

[Hit points – 1,000] [Stamina – 300]

He had impressive stats, but I noticed no mana. Not that I’d ever seen Larry cast a spell. Having read the description, there was no doubt in my mind. The system was reacting in real time. That was both cool and, well, deeply unsettling.

Miggy stirred, tiredly wiping his eyes as I entered the level up screen. It looked the same as before, except this time where I normally just had my Hunter class, there was my second class: [Beastmaster – Level 1]

[Beastmaster – The first protectors of these lands, the shamans who learned to attune to the beasts of the savage lands. Over time, the Beastmasters’ minds came as one with them. Now they fight to preserve the natural order, even if it means fighting their former shaman brethren.]

[Beast Bonding – You have bonded with a beast. Gain a mental link, able to sense the thoughts of your beast at up to fifty meters. May issue commands, though your beast may choose to ignore these.]

[Beast Fury – Once per day both you and your beast are driven into a primal fury. You gain advantage on all attacks, ensuring critical strikes for twenty seconds, however all attacks against you are also critical strikes. You and your beast gain one hundred temporary hit points which dissipate once Beast Fury is over. Health cannot be reduced to less than zero.]

[STR – +3] [Endurance – +3]

Amazingly, this seemed to be additive to my Hunter class, which remained at level five. This was an enormous upgrade, even better I felt than the ten thousand experience points that had pushed me to level six. I saw that I could now either upgrade Hunter or Beastmaster. I thought back to our last encounter. Could Larry be our tank now? Could Miggy and I remain as Hunters?

It would probably have been optimal to remain in the Hunter class. I knew it; it had served me well. You couldn’t mess up a build with mono-classing but Beastmaster. It just felt too fucking cool. A wild power fantasy. I clicked the level up, taking my final class to Hunter level five and Beastmaster level two.

I came back to the world and saw that Miggy now had a glazed look on his face. He was clearly levelling himself. The quest log was glowing. A notification. The garbled quest that we had completed for Larry was done, and once again I couldn’t understand what it was saying. What I could understand was that my King’s Mantle had now been upgraded to Sovereign Mantle.

[Sovereign Mantle – The Sovereign Mantle is granted willingly by the King of the Jungle to signify the bond of beast and man.]

[STR – +7] [WIS – +4]

[Sovereign Presence – 1/Day. Boost a single Persuasion attempt with a +5 modifier.]

I felt the familiar ache from levelling, but I was used to it by now. I’d come to relish the feeling, like a post-workout muscle fatigue. Well, as I imagined it. My only workouts in my previous life had been running down my apartment steps to get my takeout. I waited for Miggy to return a few minutes later, as together we planned our next move.

It was hard to remember a life before the savage lands. A life in that cramped London apartment, whiling my days away playing video games. Aimless, each day blurring into the next.

Miggy had once asked me why I’d stayed here. Why I would risk life and limb when I had the chance to go home. The truth was no matter how violent this place was, no matter how dangerous, it made sense. It was transparent. There were numbers. Those numbers meant something. Strength went up, you hit harder. Quests completed, you got experience.

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It made sense.