The sound of water dripping could be heard constantly falling into a large lake. Each time it fell, a ripple would spread out. Floating in the pool of water, several bodies could be seen, bobbing up and down in the water. Some on their fronts with their head stuck in the water, some on their back. One of these bodies… was Quinn, lying on his back. His body continued drifting away, unaware of what was happening.
Then suddenly, a large object came crashing down from above in the pool of water, causing waves that pushed Quinn’s body off to the side until it had eventually caught on a piece of the cave flooring. His body pressed downward on the floor, with his cheek on the hard and cold surface.
Slowly, his eyes started to open, unable to see the sight around him clearly, yet he could still feel the cold water on his legs as his bottom half was still submerged.
‘I’m… I’m.. alive?’ Quinn thought, but the thoughts came slowly as if he couldn’t quite piece things together.
However, what little he could see was blocked by a notification screen and he managed to make out a few of the messages he had received.
[You have received critical damage]
[Your health is falling]
[9/95 HP]
[8/95 HP]
…
Clearing the messages away, Quinn was trying to see what was around him, but his body felt like it had been completely shattered. There was no telling how high the fall was from, and perhaps if he hadn’t landed in a pool of water he would have no longer been alive to tell the tale.
Still, even if he couldn’t move, he tried to look around. All he could see near him were a few of the Wendigo’s bodies who had also wound up on this part of the cave flooring. Some of them had missed the pool of water and were no longer moving, while another that wasn’t too far away from Quinn, was starting to crawl his way to him.
It’s leg’s had been smashed, but they were regenerating, and with its long skinny arms, it pulled itself across the floor inching its way closer.
“ArgH!!!!” It screamed, and then it started to pick up speed.
“I will not… die… here!” Quinn shouted, but he was far too weak to move. Then the Wendigo’s body stopped moving. With his vision still blurry, it was hard to make out what had happened, but it looked like something had stabbed it through its head. And a few seconds later its head had fallen to the floor.
Seeing this, at this moment, Quinn’s eyes went to black again.
[5/95 HP]
[Auto activating blood bank]
[100 millilitres of blood has been consumed]
[Regenerating]
A certain amount of time had passed, but it was hard to tell how long. This time as Quinn regained consciousness, he could see a lot better. He shook his head and slowly lifted himself out of the water as he tried to remember what happened. When he was hurt, he wasn’t able to think straight; it had not only affected his vision, but his mind as well. The blood bank had luckily healed him up using it automatically.
[55/95 HP]
There was still a 100 millilitres of blood left to be used, just in case of emergencies, and Quinn would keep that for now. He wasn’t hungry for blood, and he should have healed enough for it to start eating naturally on its own over time.
He started looking around him, and he could see that the twenty or so wendigos that had fallen with him were now dead. However, he started to notice something strange. Although some of them had died from falling, not all of them did.
The memory of one coming after him was appearing in his head. As he walked around and took a look, Quinn could see that a lot of the Wendigos’ heads had been sliced off.
‘What happened to them?’
The large cut made it look like whatever was able to kill them was able to do so with ease. It was also a clean strike. Quinn started to twist his head around in different directions as if he was looking for something, but he couldn’t see it anywhere. When they were on that bridge, there was a large new creature they hadn’t seen before, called the Boneclaw.
Quinn was sure it had fallen down with him, but looking around, he couldn’t find traces of it anywhere. ‘Did it sink into the water, or maybe it left me alone because it thought I was dead?’ Quinn thought.
When on that Bridge Quinn knew what he was doing, he wasn’t just being reckless. As he attacked the Wendigos on the bridge and they fell into the pit, around half of them he gained exp from. Meaning they had fallen and died. As for the others that fell, he gained nothing.
There was a good chance that Quinn would survive and knowing his body was several times stronger than the wendigos, it was the only thing he could think of at the time, hopefully also dealing with the big Boneclaw as well.
Still, the mystery of the disappearing Boneclaw and the cut up wendigos wasn’t of his concern.. What was more important to him right now, was finding a way out. Standing by the pool of water, Quinn looked up to see if he could possibly see the bridge from up high, but there was nothing.
He needed to find another way out. Looking around, there were a few tunnels that looked like they led somewhere, but unlike the ones above which had blue lights leading the way. These had none, suggesting they were not man-made paths. However, there were some blue crystals stuck into the wall on the other side of the pool of water, which lit up the place quite nicely.
Before going, Quinn went to brush some water over his face. He was just about to until he saw all the dead wendigo’s in the water.
‘Maybe that’s not a good idea.’
As he looked down into the water though, he spotted his own reflection coming off it. A panic set in seeing this, when looking at his own face, he could see something over his shoulder too.
Quickly, he twisted his body, turning around, while throwing out his fist, hoping to hit the creature. But his fist carried on going forward as it hit nothing but air, and his whole body spun around.
A fighting stance had been taken and his eyes started to dart around the room, yet there was nothing, apart from him and the dead wendigo’s body.
‘But I saw it, the Boneclaw was right there in the reflection.’
Sure that he wasn’t going crazy. He started to look around the area again, seeing if he could see it anywhere but still nothing. Returning to the pool of water, Quinn gulped before looking down again. And there it was, staring right back at him at his own face, but by his side the Boneclaw as well.
Turning his head again, there was nothing there, turning back to look at the reflection: the Boneclaw was there again.
Still afraid that it might all be a trick, Quinn punched the reflection in the water, causing large waves to crash, as the water slowly filled back up and started to settle, he could see the reflection once again and it was still there over his shoulder.
‘Seriously, am I going crazy!’
Trying to look out of the corner of his eye, he went to see if it was there, but still nothing. It was clear that the Boneclaw only could be seen when looking in the reflection.
A thought came into his head, about the optional quest that had come at the time. Also, the notifications that appeared that he got rid of. Maybe the answers were in there.
[Status]
[32890/51200 exp]
Killing around twenty or so of the wendigos had given him a nice amount of exp, but that wasn’t what he was trying to find right now.
However, if the Boneclaw had died in the fall, then surely he would have at least levelled up from it.
That’s when he spotted something strange by his name, something he never thought he would see.
[Familiar: Boneclaw]
“Bring up past notifications,” Quinn ordered.
He could see the Blood bank being activated, and him losing health, but before that he could see it. Next to it was a congratulations message.
[Quest failed]
[Defeat the bone claw]
[Congratulations]
[Optional quest has been completed:]
[Become the Boneclaw’s new master]
[Quest reward]
[You have obtained Boneclaw as your familiar]
******
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