The Plan

Chapter-Five

The Plan

Emptying my pack onto the table, I organized what little I had left.

Medical kit. Flint and steel. Extra parachute line. My hood and the bag for it. The plastic bag from the jerky.

I put those in one pile, then stacked the primers in another. With the pack empty, I could use it for broken glass, loose metal, and anything else I could turn into a problem for the beast.

Then I stripped off the light clothing and put my hiking gear back on before heading to the broken floor.

I gathered the broken glass first, along with a few of the intact vials. After that, I brought everything down to the first floor, scattered the glass across the ground, and shattered the unbroken vials wherever the beast would have to step.

Then I went to the kitchen and grabbed the utensils.

Most of the tower was stone, which limited my options, but the bookshelves were wood. I broke down what I could, embedded the blades into the boards, and propped them against the walls.

It wasn’t pretty, but that didn’t matter.

After that, I dragged the counter toward the hole in the wall. I had to break more of the opening just to get it through, but eventually I managed to shove it far enough on to the ring.

Then I teleported myself and the counter down to the other room.

I assumed it would work because they had to have gotten it up here somehow.

After spending most of the day dragging benches and a table into place, I laid the table on its side and stepped back to study the room.

It looked terrible. Hopefully, that meant it would work.

The plan was simple. The beast would come through the door. I would keep one hand on it to stop it from closing, forcing the room to stay open. It would hit the glass first, and hopefully that would make it slip, stumble, or at least hesitate long enough for me to cast Push.

If I could hit it cleanly, I might be able to knock it into the wall of blades. After that, I would hit it with Ice Shard. If the shard slowed it down enough, I could finish it.

Hopefully.

That word was doing a lot of work.

The entire time I worked in the main room, making more noise than I wanted, I could hear the beast outside. It wasn’t attacking the tower like it had before, so I guessed it had decided it couldn’t get in.

Even so, I could feel it out there. Pacing. Waiting.

If it found a way inside, it wouldn’t hesitate.

With a sigh, I went to the broken wall and glanced outside. Looking down, I saw the beast pacing like it knew I was getting ready to fight it.

It paused and looked up at me, ears pinned back, tail flicking.

I left it there, staring at me, and made my way back to the main room.

When I reached the door, I stopped with my hand hovering near it.

Was I absolutely crazy?

I listened for a moment, but the beast wasn’t pacing anymore. It felt like it was waiting for me, and that almost made me stop. Instead, I moved beside the door and touched it before I could change my mind.

As soon as the door slid open, the beast bolted through it.

I stepped back just in time.

It was already looking at me.

A clawed paw swung for my face, close enough that I felt the air move. Then its paw hit the glass.

The shards scraped across the stone with a screech worse than chalk on a chalkboard, and the beast roared as its footing broke. It hit the ground, kicking wildly.

I started casting.

While it thrashed, I shifted sideways, lining it up between me and the board with the knives embedded in it.

That was when a helpful window popped into my awareness.

No, not a window exactly.

A name. A health bar. And it wasn’t full.

Shadow Stalker Panther

Health: 89%

Just as the spell released, the beast caught its footing and leaped toward the wall.

The spell missed and hit the board with the knives instead.

The board exploded, sending blades clattering across the room.

“Shit!” I yelled, keeping my eyes on the beast.

It bounced off the wall, but something was wrong. The area around it darkened, and the place where it had struck the wall stayed shadowed somehow.

I didn’t have time to think about that.

One of its tentacles whipped forward, and a barb shot straight for my chest. It wasn’t as fast as before, but it was still fast enough.

I dodged just barely.

The barb struck the wall beside me and exploded.

I moved toward the teleporting ring. I might have to try again later.

It seemed to know where I was going.

The beast jumped toward the ring, leaving shadows behind with every landing.

I raised my staff.

The impact spun me around. The next thing I knew, I was flying sideways, back the way I’d come. Pain exploded through my left shoulder as I hit the ground.

The beast must have clawed me.

Three clean slices ran across my shoulder, already bleeding through my shirt. My health dropped ten percent from that one hit.

I oriented myself and started casting Push again, trying to keep it away from me.

As I backed up, my shoulder hit the door, and it slid open behind me.

The beast wasn’t coming for me. Not directly.

It ran toward the wall instead, jumped at it, then seemed to pass through the shadow it had left behind. A heartbeat later, it came charging at me from another direction.

I spun and raised my staff.

The spell completed just as the creature hit me.

Force erupted between us. The beast launched straight into the air, and I went flying backward into the middle of the courtyard.

Realizing what the thing was doing, I scrambled to my feet and cast Illuminate Area above my head while the beast recovered from the blast.

Light spread across the courtyard.

I wasn’t about to let that thing pop up next to me.

Positioning my staff, I dropped into one of the defensive stances from the book and started casting Ice Shard.

The creature was only just getting up.

That was when I noticed its health. I had done a whole five percent damage.

Great. I was in trouble.

The creature began circling me as I cast. It was preparing for the spell.

Clearly, it was learning, and I had no idea what I was going to do.

I aimed ahead of it, then twitched the staff the other way at the last second.

The creature jumped back.

I had actually managed to feint it.

The spell hit the creature in its back leg. The impact was stronger than I expected. The shard buried deep, and I heard something snap.

The thing roared in pain. Its health dropped by another five percent before it slipped into a shadow.

I spun, searching for it.

Suddenly, something struck me from behind.

The thing had clawed me across the back, tearing through my jacket and into me.

I screamed.

Out of reflex, I rolled to the side and swung the staff as hard as I could.

It caught the beast under the jaw.

Something cracked loudly.

I saw its jaw shift out of place as one of its incisors snapped off. The beast jumped back, pawing at its face.

I jumped after it and swung again, aiming for the other side.

This time, its jaw snapped the other way and hung loose, taking the other incisor with it.

The beast stumbled back and slipped into the shadows.

I started casting Ice Shard again and spun around, searching for it.

Then I saw it.

The damn thing was running.

I had taken thirty percent of its health bar, and it was running toward the gate.

I launched the spell, using the staff to amplify the Ice Shard. The shard shot after it and struck its side, burying deep into its ribcage.

The beast dropped.

It thrashed on the ground, claws scraping against stone, blood spreading beneath it.

Then it went still.

For a moment, I just stared.

It lay in a widening pool of blood. More blood than I had ever seen before.

Then my legs gave out.

I hit the ground and cried.

And then I felt something flow into me.

I looked up and saw a golden trail of sparkling air rising from the beast. It drifted toward me, then sank into my chest.

A new bar appeared in my vision.

It filled, emptied, then filled again. It did that five times before settling just under halfway.

A window appeared.

You have gained 6,715 experience for defeating a Level 16 Shadow Stalker Panther.

You are now Level 5.

You have 15 points to distribute.

You have gained 50 additional Health Points.

You have gained 50 additional Mana.

Your skill Long Staff has gained 6 points.

Your skill Dodge has gained 3 points.

Your skill Mana Control has gained 2 points.

Push has increased to 56%.

Illuminate Area has increased to 7%.

Ice Shard has increased to 76%.

Your Wisdom has gained 2 points.

I wiped my face as I stared at the window.

I felt energized in a way I had never felt before. It was intoxicating, and I didn’t know how I felt about that.

It felt good, and that made me feel guilty. I had just killed something, and the System was making me feel good about it. Or maybe it wasn’t the System. Maybe it was me.

I rubbed my chest where the energy had entered me, then looked down at the beast. This wasn’t what I had expected when I killed it. I had thought I would feel free of the thing. Instead, I felt joy and guilt.

I put my hand down on the creature. It was still warm under my hand, and I wasn’t sure why, but an overwhelming sense of remorse settled over me.

I knew I had to kill it. I had entered its home. It was me or it, and I chose me. I would choose me every time. But it had been protecting what it thought was its own.

Then I used Identify on it.

Shadow Stalker Panther

These monsters are not native to Tafserin. They are highly aggressive and territorial. Known abilities include launching barbs from their articulating appendages and moving through conjured shadows.

Their meat is biologically compatible with your biology.

Usable materials: hide, teeth, barb venom, entrails, claws.

I stared at the window.

Biologically compatible.

Wait. Did that mean I could eat it?

My mind short-circuited for a moment. Then survival caught up with me.

Numb and shaking, I pulled out my knife and began skinning the monster. I didn’t do a great job, and by the time I finished, the sun had already peeked over the mountains in the distance.

After that, I gathered wood and stone and built a fire pit. Then I collected the remaining long staffs, laid them across the stones as a grill surface, and grabbed my flint and steel.

I built a fire and started cooking the meat. Everything awful, I carried into the tower and dropped into the sink on the first floor. I didn’t want rotting meat attracting anything else I didn’t want here. Later, I would bury it outside the gates somewhere.

After I cooked a good portion of it, I placed more meat across the makeshift grill and moved most of the heat to the outside. The idea was to cook and dry the meat so I could save it for later.

At least, I hoped that was how it worked.

Grabbing some of the meat, I brought it down to the main area of the living quarters and sat at the table. I was too hungry to hesitate, so I bit into it.

It wasn’t great, but it was meat. I couldn’t even explain the taste. Maybe deer meat with a pork-like flavor, smoky and tough enough to make my jaw ache after a while.

As I ate, I pulled up my stats.

It said I had 15 points to distribute, and I didn’t exactly know what each stat actually did. What I did know was that I was stronger and faster than I had been when I reached this tower. A hit like the one that beast had landed on me would have killed me before.

I was certain of that, and now I could get even stronger, or smarter, even.

Thinking about it, I made some logical assumptions. Strength was obvious. Dexterity was probably fine motor control, while Agility had to be speed and balance. Maybe reaction time too. Endurance was likely stamina, and Constitution was probably how tough I was. Or maybe it had something to do with resistance.

I didn’t know.

Wisdom was interesting, though. It had increased when I killed the beast, but why? Had part of it become part of me somehow? Would that always happen? If I killed a hundred beasts, would I end up with two hundred Wisdom?

A lot of questions there.

Intelligence was fuzzy too. Did it mean my pattern recognition was better? My memory? Were those connected somehow?

Again, I didn’t know.

And Willpower, I assumed, had something to do with pushing through pain. Or maybe resisting persuasion.

This was what I was sure of: I needed Intelligence for my class. That was a given. Whether it improved pattern recognition or memory didn’t really matter. Both were important. I also needed more toughness and agility, and I wouldn’t mind a little strength either. That would just make my life easier.

So how did I assign the points?

Also, I needed to think about the name thing. The System still seemed to think I should change my name, but why? Was it something about me?

That seemed likely.

I had always hated carrying my father’s name inside mine. I wanted nothing more than to scrub his memory from my mind. But that wasn’t how it worked.

I thought about assigning my stats, and a window appeared.

At first, I mentally placed one point into every stat. Surprisingly, it let me put one into Wisdom. That left me with eight points. After that, I put three into Intelligence, three into Constitution, and two more into Strength, hoping I wasn’t messing myself up somehow.

I thought about changing my name next. My mother had named me Adam after her father, but Daniel Kessler was my father, and I didn’t want that name. Any of it.

So what should I change it to?

Maybe my mother’s maiden name. Smith. No, that sounded too generic.

What about Wry?

I chuckled as the meaning settled in my mind. Twisted and bent, but not broken. That worked.

A window appeared after I settled on the new name.

Name change accepted.

Just like that, Daniel Kessler was gone.

After that, I went to check on the meat and found birds pecking at the carcass. “Crap. I have to bury that too.” So I started searching the other buildings for anything I could use as a shovel.

I began with the outer buildings. They felt more human than the tower. Simpler. More practical. Like something people had built because they needed shelter, tools, and food.

The blacksmith building made the most sense, so I started there.

I moved rubble and pieces of collapsed roof until I found a few ingots. The iron was rusted, but thick enough that a good bit of it could probably be salvaged.

Then there was the odd metal.

The smiths must have known how to work it, because I found tool heads in various stages of completion. Blades. Picks. Spearheads.

No shovel, of course. So I moved on to the bakery.

The roof had caved in, but the oven looked like it could probably be restored to working order. As I ducked inside, I noticed a shelf of jars pinned beneath part of the fallen roof.

There were six intact in total. Each jar had been glazed and banded with metal, probably to keep it sealed. The bands had rusted completely away, but the roof had pinned the lids shut, so the contents might have survived.

A few shattered jars rested nearby, but nothing around them hinted at what had been inside. I moved the fallen roof piece enough to free one of the jars, then pried it open. Inside was a hard white clump, so I pulled my knife and scraped at it before touching a bit to my tongue.

All six containers had salt inside, so I dragged them over to the grill and started stabbing the hardened clumps with my knife until they became something close to salt again. Then I sprinkled some over the cooking meat.

After that, I looked at the birds and decided to leave them alone for now.

I moved through a few of the other buildings, though I couldn’t really tell what most of them had been. Maybe an inn. Maybe a bar. A few were definitely homes, but I didn’t find anything useful, so I moved on to the inner buildings.

Those were more intact and matched the tower, complete with the same golden-hued doors. None of them opened, though. A few I could force out of the way with Push, but most of the time, I just made my way in through broken walls.

I found a few golden-hued metal bowls, plates, and utensils in the most intact buildings.

They all had the same basic layout. Living area. Bedroom. Kitchen. Pantry. Bathroom.

One of the buildings looked like a communal bathhouse.

I grabbed a bowl, deciding I could use it as a shovel at least, then headed into the woods.

It took about two hours to dig a hole big enough. After that, I dragged the corpse to it, went back for everything awful I had left in the sink, and buried all of it together.

After that, I stocked more wood into the fire and looked for a way to block the gate.

I took the loose wood pieces and started lining them up, but the gate itself seemed complete. The problem was that the pieces were not small, and picking one up would be impossible without rope and pulleys.

Then I noticed something I hadn’t before.

The wooden gate looked like an addition.

Behind it, set into the wall, was a metal door like the others. Two halves, one on each side. At first, I had thought they were just decoration.

I pulled on one, but it didn’t budge. Because of everything else in this place, I put my hand on the door and thought, shut.

Nothing happened, of course.

Looking around, I noticed an impression in the wall and put my hand on it.

Still nothing.

Then I pushed mana into it, and the doors creaked and shook before suddenly slamming closed.

I smiled as I looked at the gate, impressed that something this old and this large still worked.

The people here must not have known how to close it after the Eurathi left. Or maybe the gate had drained of mana, and they didn’t have a way to push mana into it.

Either way, I had a gate.

With that done, I finally felt comfortable taking a bath and going to bed.

I still had a lot to do if I wanted to keep surviving here, and I needed to see if I could find signs of my friends.

Tomorrow, I would go back to where the cave had been and look for tracks. Signs. Anything.

Before I went back into the tower, I checked the meat.

Then I picked up the meat I’d left inside and brought it to the fridge unit. Maybe the thing worked some other way.

After that, I peeled off my blood-soaked clothing and looked it over.

The claw marks through the back and shoulder had turned the jacket and shirt into rags, so I tossed them into the corner and filled the bath.

I looked at my shoulder.

The only evidence of the fight was an angry red scar.

I was sure my back looked the same.

This world, or maybe magic, had a habit of making wounds heal faster than the mind could process what caused them.

I hadn’t dreamed at all. Likely, I had been too exhausted.

When I woke, I felt good for a change. I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t afraid. Most importantly, I no longer felt trapped in this place.

I had time to rebuild this place, time to wait and see if my friends found their way here or not.

It had been about a week now, and I worried that if they weren’t here, they might be dead.

Or, hopefully, they had never found the cave at all.

With that thought, I opened the fridge and found the meat inside frozen.

The fridge itself was still cool, not cold. Most of the cold seemed to be radiating from the meat.

I shook my head, unable to guess how that worked.

When I checked the food outside, nothing had bothered it. Heat and smoke were usually pretty good at keeping animals away. The fire wasn’t hot anymore, but the coals still smoldered.

I added more wood, then gathered the dried meat.

Taking a bite, I realized I seemed to have hit the mark. It was very dry, almost like jerky, and the salt improved the flavor.

A shadow passed over me, and I looked up.

It was the dragon, or drake, likely hunting for a meal.

I watched as it flew over. It looked down at me, but didn’t bother coming closer.

Guess I wasn’t on its list of prey.

Either way, I was preparing to head back to the cave today.

I packed meat, the rope, parachute cord, because you never know, and my knife.

I didn’t have much of a choice about clothing now. My hiking gear was ruined, so I was just going to have to look the mage part.

White robes. Staff. The whole ridiculous thing.

I ventured into the woods and found the cave.

I picked more berries along the way, relieved that I didn’t find anything suggesting anyone else had come through here. It made me wonder if the cave had vanished on the other side too.

When I got back, I was actually surprised nothing had bothered me.

No predators. No drakes. No goblins.

I chuckled at that thought as the gate opened and I headed back to my home.

Then it struck me.

I was thinking of this ruined outpost as my home. This was my tower, claimed and fought for, and now it was mine.

Well, at least until someone told me it belonged to them. But I doubted anyone had been here for a very, very long time.

Today, I would just relax. Maybe clean the mess I had made of the first floor. Tomorrow, I could grab the books from the shelf I had found on the first day. Maybe they could teach me something useful.