Char and Lulu set off in the direction that the two less-infected Dire Opossums had come from. They didn’t have to walk very far before they found the creek. It was barely a trickle of water two feet across at its widest point, but there were ribbons of green pollution streaking through it. Char had to catch Lulu’s collar to prevent her from drinking the contaminated water.

  Whatever the chemical was, it had a sweet smell to it that made Char think of antifreeze. Despite the similarities in both color and scent, this stuff was thick, like heavy oil. It didn’t dissolve in the water, but was carried along in discrete rivulets within the flow. Anti-freeze was deadly to animals, but it didn’t cause sores and tumors and maddened aggression like this stuff. Char watched it flow past for a minute, crouching down for a better look. The neon streaks of green that fouled the creek seemed to twist and undulate within the water like living things.

  “I don’t know how much you understand, Lu, but I hope you can understand this: do not drink that. Please, sweet girl,” Char said as she ran her hand over Lulu’s silky fur, “This is bad water. No drinky.”

  Lulu huffed and drooled, but gave no indication of understanding. Char sighed. She’d just have to keep an eye on the dog. She stood from her crouch and turned upstream. The little creek wound among the trees, and they followed it. They killed two more Dire Opossums, and Char hit level 17, before they found the source of the contamination.

  The little creek ran past some sort of industrial nightmare of a building. It was a massive complex surrounded by tanks and tangles of pipes. It had started life as some sort of manufacturing facility, before it was unceremoniously dropped into the woods by asshole aliens. It sat at a slight angle, part of it sinking into the soft earth with no foundation to hold the weight.

  The main structure was red brick and gray-painted cinderblock. It reminded Char of some of the chemical plants she’d seen down around Galveston, but the sign over the door and the warning signs posted on the tanks were all in Chinese. Well, she thought they were Chinese, but she wasn’t familiar enough with Asian languages to be certain. Whatever language it was, she couldn’t read it, and it was pretty obvious that it hadn’t started out in Illinois.

  As she crouched next to a tree and examined the oddity, a new message appeared:

  Congratulations! You have discovered a new training dungeon!

  Toxic Rootworks

  Recommended party size: 1-5

  Recommended levels: 15-20

  You have completed stage 1 of a chain Quest:

  Something Toxic

  Discover the source of the contamination—Complete.

  Optional: Kill 30 contaminated creatures. 13 of 30 killed.

  Bonus objective not met.

  Would you like to complete this quest now? Y/N

  Char stared at the messages. She wasn’t sure what the best choice would be. Should she risk injury or death by hunting down another seventeen corrupted creatures, or take the reward that she’d already won? The reward for the main quest was a weapon, and having a real weapon would make future fights that much easier. If she went hunting to finish the bonus, she’d be doing it with her crowbar.

  She scrolled back to the original quest message to double-check the rewards. If she finished the bonus objective, she’d get an affinity stone that she had no idea what to do with, and a random potion. If it was a healing potion, that would be great, but what if it was something useless… like a hair growth tonic or something? No, she decided, it wasn’t likely to be useless. “The Aldevari want to train us as warriors, so it’ll probably be something that will help me. I bet the second part of the quest will be to enter the dungeon and do something there, so the potion will probably be something to help with that.”

  She sighed. “Ok. If I want to get strong, I need to fight. If I’m going to fight, I might as well earn loot for doing it. Seventeen possums ought to get me another level, at least. Speaking of… I’m an idiot, Lu. I’ve got stat points just sitting there. You gotta remind me about stuff like that.” She put out food and water bowls for Lulu and pulled a protein bar out of her inventory for herself. She munched on it while she went over her stats. She’d gained two levels and had 10 unassigned stat points. It didn’t take long to make her choice, placing 5 points in Strength and 5 in Speed. “There we go. Those ‘possums aren’t gonna know what hit ‘em.” She gritted her teeth as the change rippled through her, her muscles contracting and relaxing as they were enhanced. When it was done, she shuddered. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that.”

  She stood and stretched, feeling how her body moved with the increased stats. Then, she looked back down the path of the creek. That was where the corrupted animals would be, so she clicked her tongue to get Lulu’s attention and set off, retracing their earlier steps.

  Char was surprised to realize that, as she started looking for tracks in the soft banks of the creek, she was anticipating the fights to come. Just a little. Am I going a little crazy? she wondered, or am I just adapting? Maybe I’m a bit more of an adrenaline junkie than I ever wanted to admit. She turned the idea over, comparing her feelings now to her near breakdown earlier in the day. Those feelings were still there, but they weren’t as overpowering as they had been. That boil had been lanced. It was still a wound, but there was room for other emotions, now. Emotions like anticipation, the thrill of a challenge, the satisfaction of victory, and the hunger to grow and get stronger.

  She was pulled from her thoughts by a bark from Lulu. Her eyes jerked upward, looking for the threat. A searing pain shot through her left shoulder and down her back as a black and orange shape flashed by faster than she could register. She cried out. Another movement pulled her eyes to the right as another black and orange shape scurried up the trunk of a tree and out of sight. The scent of woodsmoke drifted to her. Another flash of movement, and Lulu yelped with pain. This time, Char got a good look at their attackers. It was a squirrel. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” she snarled.

  The squirrel leapt from Lulu to a nearby tree, leaving a patch of burned and missing fur on Lulu’s back. Char used her Assess Foe skill for the first time:

  Corrupted Cinder-Tail Squirrel

  Level 13

  That was it. No other information, no helpful hints, just a name and level.

  The squirrel had black fur over most of its body, but its tail and ears seemed to glow like the coals of a campfire. They were mostly orange, but mottled with the black of char and the gray of ash. Thin wisps of smoke rose from the creature.

  “Smokey the Bear would absolutely hate you. Come here, you little bastard. I’ve got to do my part to prevent forest fires.” She raised the crowbar to her shoulder like a baseball bat and tried to watch in every direction for the next attack. Lulu leapt, her jaws snapping on empty air as she barely missed a fast-moving squirrel. It hit the ground and jumped for a tree, but Char anticipated it and swung. The crowbar connected, sending the squirrel in a line drive right into the trunk of another tree. It hit with a crunch of breaking bone and dropped to the forest floor, its tail no longer glowing with heat.

  She kept her guard up. There had been at least two of them. She turned in a slow circle, then screamed as a burning weight hit her back. A line of fire burned down her spine as the squirrel’s sharp teeth cut into the back of her neck. She dropped to the ground and rolled, pinning the squirrel beneath her, trying not to scream again as its tail scorched her. She lifted up and slammed herself back, trying to squash it, but it was too fast. As soon as her weight was off of it, it jumped away.

  Lulu was right there to save the day. As the squirrel jumped, Lulu’s jaws closed on it. With a vicious shake of her head, its fire was extinguished, and Char got a second kill notification. They didn’t relax for long minutes afterward, not until Char was certain the smell of smoke was gone and there were no more of the flaming tree rats skulking around.

  The burns hurt. Pain resistance helped a little, but they were burns, and they were agonizing. Lulu was even worse off. In addition to the large burn on her back, her mouth was also red and starting to blister. She held it open and was panting, a soft whine escaping her. Char didn’t even think about it. Dropping the crowbar, she put her hands on Lulu’s head and gave her vitality to stop the dog’s pain.

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  Her mouth began to burn and sting, and the pain along her spine doubled in intensity. Lulu’s injuries healed fast enough that Char could see it happening: the red retreated, the blisters shrank and vanished, and the missing fur on Lulu’s back even re-grew. An angry red flashing in the corner of her vision drew Char’s attention, and she saw that her health was at 14%, but it was worth it. Lulu was no longer hurting.

  The bulldog whined again, but this time not in pain, but in concern. She licked Char’s chin and snuffled at her. Char was shivering. The pain was too much, it felt like it had taken over her whole world. She knew that she would heal. At a regeneration rate of around 2% a minute, she should be fine in under an hour, but it hurt. The pain was making her heart beat too fast, and her breath was coming in ragged, shallow gasps. She was going to hyperventilate if she couldn’t get it under control.

  “K… keep w… watch, Lu,” she managed to stammer out between gasps and shudders. She sat, getting as comfortable as her agony would let her, and tried something. Her father had taught her about meditation, and he’d told her stories about people who could supposedly turn so far inward during meditation that pain couldn’t touch them. She didn’t know if it would work, but she needed something to keep her mind off the agony she was feeling. So she closed her eyes and turned inward.

  First, she focused on slowing her breathing. Four beats in, hold for four beats, out for four beats. It wasn’t easy. The pain made her want to pant. She forced herself to focus only on her breaths, slow and even, in and out. Her attention was fully on the sound of the air as it moved in and out. As she brought her rapid breathing under control, her heartbeat followed, moving from a bodhran jig to a measured tympani.

  The blood rushing in her ears became the sound of surf washing over sand, her heartbeat the crashing of the waves. Her breath became the strong sea wind that made palm fronds flow like streamers. Dark storm clouds gathered on the horizon, lightning jumping from cloud to cloud, but the pain of her body was far away from this serene place, where earth and sea and sky met. This beach was her haven, a place she hadn’t visited in years.

  It felt more real, more vivid than it ever had in the past; not an image in her mind’s eye, but a real, physical place. It was an imaginary landscape inspired by a real beach that she’d visited on a family trip, and a real storm that she’d watched roll in over the Gulf of Mexico, but she’d made it hers. She’d taken away all the people, all the beach chairs and umbrellas, all the food trucks and the skyline of condos, and left only the long, empty strand, the clean white sand under her feet, and the majesty of the storm and roiling sea.

  It was a place that called to her. She loved the wide open prairie of Oklahoma, especially when there was a storm moving in and the wind was blowing strong, carrying dust and ozone and just a hint of a chill from the upper atmosphere. But this place, this conjunction of forces—it sang to her. She stayed there watching the storm, breathing in the lightning-touched salt air, as the aches and pains of her body faded away.

  When she finally opened her eyes, the pain was gone. A quick glance at her health bar showed that she was back to full health. A message appeared before her:

  Your skill [Meditation] has advanced from Novice to Apprentice.

  While meditating, your resource pools will fill 25% faster.

  Your skill [Pain Resistance] has advanced from Beginner to Novice.

  “Pain is only weakness leaving the body.”

  “Well, that’s handy,” she said with a smile. Lulu sat next to her, leaning against her for comfort. She licked Char’s face and pounded her back with her tail in joy. Char laughed. “OK, OK, I love you, too, Miss Drool Machine.”

  ***

  The afternoon dragged on in a blur of blood and barking. Three more Dire Opossums and a Juvenile Tree-Top Stalker had tried their luck, but Char and Lulu had taken them down as they came. Char had gained a lot of confidence in her ability to fight and survive, but she hadn’t gained another level yet. She had a feeling that spending the night out in the woods wouldn’t be a good idea. Tired and bloody, they retraced their path back to the warehouse and the truck.

  As they neared the place where they’d need to split away from the creek, Lulu tensed up, a low growl rumbling in her throat. She was locked onto a clump of brush. With the sun getting low and the shadows long, the area was drenched in darkness. Char couldn’t see what had Lulu on edge… until it moved.

  It was huge, the size of a bull elk, but its antlers were those of a common white-tailed deer. Its coat was a carpet of delicate moss, tiny wildflowers, and patches of bark, but what once might have been breathtakingly beautiful was now a monstrous patchwork of oozing sores and tumors. Char used Assess Foe:

  Corrupted Moss Stag

  Level 19

  This wasn’t going to be an easy fight. Char started edging to her right, her movement attracting the attention of the stag. She wanted some distance between her and Lulu. As with the first Treetop Stalker, Lulu would instinctively default to the pack hunting tactics of her lupine ancestors, but that would only work if they were far enough apart that the Stag could only focus on one of them at a time.

  The stag snorted and lowered its head, brandishing its impressive rack of antlers. It stomped a hoof and swung its head between Char and Lulu, trying to watch them both.

  Char took two more steps to the right, then her foot landed on a branch, breaking it with a gunshot snap, and the stag charged. She threw herself to the side, barely avoiding the spearing antlers and razor hooves. The stag pulled up short and turned, rearing up and kicking out with its front hooves, making Char roll away. Then Lulu was there, snapping at the stag’s hamstrings.

  Char rolled to her feet and backed away as the stag turned to face the dog. Lulu danced aside and barked, keeping the deer’s attention as Char rushed in to slam her crowbar against its flank. She wasn’t ready for the stag’s reflexive kick, and a sharp hoof caught her across her cheek hard enough to split her skin and crack the bone. A white-hot flash of pain lanced through her skull, and she fell backward with the force of the blow. The copper tang of blood filled her mouth.

  The stag turned back to her, again trying to stomp her. Her vision was blurry, and her thoughts fuzzy after the blow to her head, and she didn’t react in time, but Lulu leapt at the beast. The full weight of the dog slammed into the side of the stag, knocking it to the side. The stag’s hoof came down on Char’s thigh, slicing it open, but it missed caving in her chest. Char scrambled back.

  She needed something to give them an edge. The stag was just too fast, and too well armed with those spear-sharp antlers. Lulu avoided its next charge, dancing from side to side, keeping it focused on her and away from Char. She opened her inventory, scrambling for an idea. She started to reach for one of the road flares, but something else caught her eye. She pulled it out and stood, trying to keep her weight off her injured leg.

  She unrolled the blanket and held it out, then whistled and called out, “Hey, Bambi-zilla! Over here.” She flapped the blanket like a matador’s cloak. “Come on, ugly, charge me again!” This was risky, and she hoped she’d be fast enough.

  Catching the movement of the blanket, the stag turned again and rushed her. Char held her ground, waiting for the last possible moment. Then, she tossed the blanket over the lowered antlers of the stag and dodged away. Her injured leg gave out, and she hit the ground hard, rolling to get out of the path of the charging stag. It worked. The blanket draped over the beast’s head, blinding it. It came to a stop, shaking its head as it tried to dislodge the blanket. It snorted and grunted, kicking its hind legs in random directions.

  Lulu crouched and watched, and when she saw an opening, she rushed in, snapping her jaws closed on one of the stag’s hind legs. She shook her head viciously, and Char could hear the snap when the bone broke. The stag bellowed in pain. It swung its head to the side, trying to turn to pull away from the source of its agony, and left itself open to a swing from Char’s crowbar. The blow landed at the base of the stag’s ear, staggering and dazing it.

  Char felt sick to her stomach. She wasn’t sure if it was from a concussion or from her disgust at making the poor, sick creature suffer. She swung again, putting it out of its misery with one last crunching blow to its skull.

  You have killed

  Corrupted Moss Stag — Level 19

  Experience Earned

  _______

  Loot Corrupted Moss Stag? Y/N

  ——————

  You have gained:

  [Life Affinity Stone]

  [Hunter’s Jerkin]

  7 Silver Credits

  There was a tiny blood-drop icon next to her health bar, and her health was slowly ticking downward. She pulled the blanket away from the corpse as it dissolved into dust. Sitting down, she used her pocket knife to cut a strip from the blanket and tied it tightly around her thigh where it had been sliced open. As she worked, her hands started to shake a little from the excess adrenaline, but that was the worst of it. The day of fighting had gotten her accustomed to the feelings that came after a fight. She’d determined that she wasn’t going to break down again, and she was keeping that promise to herself.

  Once the wound was bandaged and she’d kept pressure on it for a minute, the blood drop icon vanished from her health bar. “Well, guessed right on that one. Bleeding debuff. Come here, Lulu, let me look you over.”

  Lulu hadn’t taken any blows in the fight, and her health bar was at full, but Char was still worried about the corruption and checked her over every chance she got. Petting her friend helped to calm her racing heart, and when the adrenaline shakes were gone and she was sure her leg had healed enough to take her weight, Char stood.

  Lulu followed, and they made their way back to the warehouse lot.