Vae victis an apocalypse.., p.17
Vae Victis: An Apocalypse LitRPG, page 17
Naga-shan? Dwarves? I guess that this truly was a different world. Not that a hundred other things hadn’t already convinced me.
“Your strength will help you survive in this place, but only if you are smart, and if you stay with me. Alone, you will die, despite your advantage.”
The way he said it in a tone that broached no disagreement stung a bit. But I understood what he was trying to illustrate for me. I knew nothing of this world. And I had a mission to accomplish. The revolting sense of despair that the vision instilled in me was still there. I had to survive, learn more, then make decisions to prevent what I saw from happening.
“I know that Investment means more power, but what is it really?”
“Investment is … a measure of one’s life you could say. People spend their entire lives improving their Masks and with them their lives. A Second Investment Farmer would be able to do more than one in their First Investment, and so they would be able to produce more, bring more income. Have a better life. It stays true for every type of Mask. Combat Masks enter into the service of nobles or rulers, merchants or mercenary bands. The higher their Investment, the more valuable they are. Higher Investment also means more capstone skills, which are defining skills per the Investment tier. Very powerful skills. But for most people reaching Third Investment is an achievement of a lifetime.”
“A lifetime …” I wondered how my life would look now. This Earth-shattering event had freed me, in a way. It saved my life and gave me an opportunity to do anything that I wanted. The cartel had attempted to execute me, would’ve succeeded if not for what happened. They had severed the bonds that tied us together, at least in my opinion. “I understand,” I said slowly. “I have only one skill,” I told him. “It is an active skill and not tied to any of my physical attributes.”
That much I felt I could reveal, for now at least.
Shimi glanced back, then nodded. “I hope that you will be willing to share at least what kind of Investment your Mask requires. It would help me know how to best help you.”
I was still not quite sure if that was information that I should share. I wondered if he was genuine, or if he was just prying. He hadn’t even offered to tell me what his was. “Why is it so important?”
He glanced over his shoulder at me, but then turned back and spoke. “As I said before, the type of Mask you have might mean the difference between a life of wealth or one of struggling. Some people do not share their Masks because if you know what someone’s Mask is, you might also know what skills they have. And what they need to do in order to advance. Masks have been around for forever—most of them have been cataloged and the best ways of progressing them discovered. People with the same Mask might have different skills, but they will all draw from the same pool—in most cases. There are exceptions to all rules. There are rules about revealing your Mask, but for most it is inevitable. Just by living their life, it will become known, though the exact name might not be revealed. A Mask evolves as it grows. A Mask of the Farmer might eventually become the Mask of Pestilence Immune Crop Farmer. You see, details matter—the name would tell someone what the Mask could do. You do not need to tell me the name of your Mask, but knowing how you gain Investment would help me a lot.”
Well, I was not a farmer material. “And you aren’t going to tell me what your Mask is?”
“I shall tell you how I gain Investment, though that alone puts me at risk. Our entire society revolves around our Masks. They are a sign of prestige. You may reveal your type, rather that is easily discovered just by seeing what someone’s Mask looks like. But the name? That is a different story; the exact name can tell someone a lot more than just knowing that you have a warrior-type Mask. To you, the name of my Mask would not mean a lot. You don’t have the knowledge for it to even make sense. But eventually, if you survive and leave this place, if you reach your lands and live until they are fully integrated. Then, you will meet people that come from various parts of Kirios. And the name of my Mask would mean a lot to them.”
“Why would I just reveal it? I’ve no reason to. I don’t even know who you are.”
“True, the risk is minuscule,” he told her, then glanced back over his shoulder. “But I did not get to be as old and as powerful as I am by taking risks that I did not need to.”
I tilted my head. “And how old are you exactly?”
“Old.” He chuckled.
He didn’t look it, nor did he really act it. There was a mischievous air about him, though yes, he did tend to speak a bit slower and more formal. But I didn’t know anything about him or his people, so I couldn’t tell what old meant in his context. Even on Earth, old was a matter of perspective. The Master of the cartel was hundreds of years old, an Elder Vampire, but there are those who are far older than him. There were only a very few Ancient Vampires left in the world, but they had seen empires rise and fall.
“What’re you actually? Your people, race, if you can tell me that much?”
He paused, and then started to talk. “To most of the world, I am a YoKai-ni, that is the name used to refer to the three races that arrived to Kirios together from the same world called Asha Kai-ni. Three races, though the YoKai-ni races are not closely related.”
That surprised me. “Really? Three completely separate intelligent races evolved on the same world?” Earth had the same, except that all three races were in fact related.
“Well, intelligent is still a matter of some debate.” He chuckled.
I frowned.
“Apologies, that was an … inside joke, in bad taste, and not a very good one at that.” He shook his head. “I have been away from people for too long. Regardless. Three races, the Oni-yi, the Kitsu-oi, and the Tengu-gi. Each different, and each with its own strengths and weaknesses. I am a child of a Kitsu-oi and a Tengu-gi, most people call those like me Tsu-gi, or if you wish to insult me, then Oiyi-gi.”
“Wait,” I started. “Didn’t you say that your races were completely different, how …”
“Kitsu-oi can have children with any race on Kirios. They are sexless, but most people refer to them as female as that is how they most often appear. They can … mold their body in between the two. They actually prefer to mate with other races, and not with their own kind, and only one in five children born are pure blood Kitsu-oi; the rest are hybrids such as me.”
“Are such hybrids common?” I asked, hoping that I wasn’t being too intrusive, but it was interesting.
“They are, mostly they live among their father races, since Kitsu-oi are solitary people. Though they are not always accepted, based on where they are.”
Suddenly, he paused, his ears swiveling.
“What is—” I froze, as I heard it too.
Before I could react, his arm came up and pushed me away with a strength that surprised me. I flew and hit the tree behind me, the impact making me lose my breath and sight for a moment. I fell to the ground and by the time I opened my eyes again, I saw a monster.
A massive beast had caught Shimi around the torso in its jaws. It looked like a blue alligator, or an ancestor of one, with bone spikes coming out of its back. It shook its head, as Shimi grunted. Something flashed in his hand, and then there was a burst of red light, and an exchange that was too fast for me to see.
[Mist Mirror; Quick Slash]
The beast was dead, its head cut from its shoulders.
I stood as Shimi untangled himself from its jaws, revealing massive puncture wounds all over his chest and stomach. His clothes were ruined.
“Blight take it!” He cursed, then turned to look at me, his expression pained. “I guess that I am going to be the one needing help.” His face changed as he spoke, and then he grinned at me. But in his eyes, I saw something that I hadn’t seen in him since the moment we met: fear.
The wounds on Shimi’s torso were deep. I saw his pink blood flowing slowly out of the puncture wounds. I ran over quickly and knelt down next to him. As I leaned closer, I could see something black and sickly all around the wounds. The scent of his blood hit me hard, I could feel the thirst rearing its head from deep within me. I pushed it away as my training took over and I reached for the water gourd at his waist.
“Blights,” Shimi whispered as I pulled his shirt up and poured water over the wounds, trying to clean the stuff out. He sucked in a breath and winced. “It caught me off guard.”
“Can you walk?” I asked. “I need to clean the wounds, bandage them. You must have medical supplies back at the camp?”
Shimi looked above my head. “I got reckless,” he said.
He wasn’t listening to me, and his eyes were losing focus. I cursed as I glanced back at his wounds, then turned back at the corpse of the monster. Was it poisonous? Was that what the black stuff was?
“A blighted Sixth Investment monster ambushed me … ashes under the Old Tree … I must be getting too old.”
“Hey.” I snapped my fingers in front of his eyes. He blinked, then looked up at me. “Focus, we need to get back to the camp.”
The power that I had just seen, that monster … I was convinced now of his words. I couldn’t survive in this place alone, not even at night. I was out of my depth, ignorant of the rules. I had to keep him alive. I wondered if I could go and search for medical supplies back at the camp, but … I didn’t want to risk another monster finding him like this. I reached down and put my arm beneath his armpit, then pulled him up.
“Hijueputa,” I bit out as he leaned his full weight on me. He wasn’t that heavy, but he was bigger than me.
I glanced at the corpse of the monster, the blue blood drawing my eyes. I felt a pang of the thirst, but I pushed it away again. Turning my head, I pointed us in the direction of the camp and started walking, focusing on keeping Shimi upright. His bleeding had slowed, which was the only reason I decided to risk having him walk. But I did not like the vacant look in his eyes.
“What was it doing here?” he whispered, almost slurring his words. “Reapers don’t come this far out of the inner ring.”
His words started to lose meaning, and I ignored his ramblings. I kept my eyes and mind focused on getting us to camp.
I didn’t know how long it took us to reach the camp, I just hoped that it wasn’t too late. By the time I put him down on a cot next to the fireplace and somehow managed to push his nine tails out of the way so that he could lie comfortably, he lost consciousness, and was burning up. I scrambled to the chest next to the tent, opening it up and looking through it. Most of the things inside were spare clothes, some water gourds, and things that I couldn’t identify. I left the chest and entered the tent. Inside was a small bed frame, missing the bedding— I assumed that he had moved the cot to the outside. There were two chests nestled in a corner, and a rack with weapons in another. I took note of the unfamiliar looking weapons but turned my attention to the two chests.
I opened the first one and found writing supplies and books. Without digging too deep I turned to the other one. This one had vials filled with liquids of different colors. That was a lot more promising, I pulled a few out and looked at the labels. Each was labeled with an image.
One was an open eye, which I dismissed immediately. It implied to me something that would keep the person who drank it awake. Another was a droplet, which I put aside since I didn’t know what exactly it could mean. The last was a curved line, thicker on one and narrow on the other. I squinted and decided that it did look a bit like a fang. Did that mean poison? Shimi didn’t seem like someone who would come to a place like this unprepared for it. Having an antidote readily available would make sense. I searched through the chest some more, making sure that there were no vials with any other type of symbols. I found a small box that had what I assumed was a weird sewing kit, and clean bandages.
I took the box and one of the vials then went back to Shimi. He was shaking, and sweating a vile black substance. I had no way of knowing if that was what his sweat normally looked like or if it was a side effect of the wound. I took one piece of a clean bandage, ripped a chunk of it, and then poured water over it. Then, I knelt down and cleaned his chest, then rolled him to his side and did the same for his back. I poured water and cleaned the wounds again, noting that the wounds had pulsing black vein-like webs around the edges. His blood was pink, so I assumed that was something that came from the monster. I opened the vial that had what looked like a fang on it and sniffed at the clear liquid. Its scent was alien to me, and I couldn’t tell if it was foul or not. I glanced back at Shimi and tried to decide what to do.
“Hey, Shimi?” I slapped his cheek gently, trying to have him wake up and ask him what to do. He only murmured something too softly for me to hear.
“Saia,” I whispered. “Could you help him somehow?”
“Feedback: Unlikely, unknown physiology.”
I looked at the pulsing wounds and made a decision.
I uncorked the vial and poured a little of it down his throat, then watched him for any kind of signs. After a while of nothing happening I gave him some more. He seemed like he had calmed down, and I used thread and a strange spiral needle to close his wounds before bandaging them. Once I was finished, I walked a few steps back and fell on my behind, feeling mentally exhausted. I sat and watched him through the night, praying that he survived.
We’re Fucked
Ikept watch all through the night, until the sun rose, then through the next day. I was worried there for a bit and had to feed him the potion two more times. But as the sun set again I was convinced that his state wasn’t deteriorating. I sucked in a breath as a shiver of the setting sun ran through me. My strength returned, my world sharpened, all was well again. I pushed myself out and got up from my place across from Shimi, walking over and kneeling next to him. He was still sweaty and shivering. I jumped into motion. I found a blanket in his tent, then I wiped the sweat off and covered him. I made him drink some water, and then I made a small fire. The night was colder than the day in this place. I didn’t know how smart it was to build a fire, but the campsite had a fireplace so I assumed that the magic around the camp would somehow make it less likely to be seen—or something.
After I was finished, I realized that the gourd was empty, and we had no water. I debated for a few moments, and then decided that we couldn’t go without it. I needed it to clean his wounds, and with how much he was sweating he could get dehydrated.
I grimaced, then gathered my weapons and prepared to head out. I rummaged through the chest outside until I found something resembling a backpack, and I filled it with water gourds. The gourds themselves were wood, I was pretty sure.
With one last glance at Shimi I left the safety of the camp. I ran through the forest, heading back to the river.
“Saia,” I started as I ran. “Back there, when that monster injured me. You did something, didn’t you?” I asked. I had been going over it for the last day while watching Shimi. It was daylight; I shouldn’t have been able to heal at all.
“Feedback: Affirmative, after the failure of the [Plasma Shot] engram, this Unit has expanded the engram categories with priority for reconstruction. With the failure of combat engram’s functionality they have been replaced in favor of support ones. Once injured, the [Repair] engram activated, sending pieces of the biostructural mass through the Host’s bloodstream in order to aid in the biosystem’s repair. The effectiveness was at sub 5%, the synchronization rate between this Unit and the Host is currently too low for the use of the engram at its full capacity.”
“Well, I think that it saved my life,” I told her. “It kept me alive for long enough to get blood, and kick-start the thirst’s regeneration. Thank you.”
“Feedback: Survival of the Host is required for the survival of this Unit.”
I chuckled. “What do you think about what Shimi told me, about Masks and everything else?”
“Feedback: The information matches what this Unit has observed. Source increases within Host detected with every kill and blood ingestion. This matches the information provided by the Shimi individual, and his explanations of Investment. The Grand Spell’s actions in salvaging other worlds and their populations likewise matches what the Host and this Unit have experienced.”
I nodded. Things were starting to make more sense. I was brought here ahead of my world, with Earth soon to follow, in a way that would change it forever. I didn’t know how much I trusted what Shimi said would happen, but I had to act as if it was the truth. My main goal was survival, and that had not changed, only now I knew that I had to survive for thirty days in order to get back on familiar ground. Less than that by now.
But while survival was the most important, I need to figure out the threat that I witnessed in the vision. I had to learn more about the blight that Shimi spoke about.
I continued walking, carefully watching the looming jungle above me. It unnerved me, the way that it looked like it was a jungle on the scale of giants. The trees reminded me a bit of giant redwoods, if they were three times as thick and half as much tall. The branches spread wider, intermingling with those of other trees to create a thick canopy that resembled a thick lightning spreading in all directions. There was a weight all around me that oppressed with the sheer size. The jungle was old, I knew now. It probably had something to do with that as well.
I looked up, wishing that I could see the two moons above. I had always liked gazing at the moon on Earth. With the sun denied to me, it was the closest thing I could get to it, seeing its reflected light. The two moons on this world were just as beautiful, I wished that I had the time to properly look at them.
