That Which Devours

Then I remembered Greg. This time I stumbled twice on my way back to the cargo hold. He was still under the cargo box that had come free. He was facing down, so I couldn’t see if his eyes were open. I tried to feel for a pulse and got nothing.

“Fuck, Greg. I’m sorry.” I moved the box off him and placed it to one side. It still looked pristine. That was when I realized I didn’t know what to do with the body, and I really didn’t want to search him for whatever he was carrying.

I went to work after spotting a clean up label on one of the panels. It had towels, bags, and some sort of cleaning solution. The fluid made my skin tingle when I touched it. Once the puddle was gone and my hands cleaned, I turned toward the hole in the window. I stuffed one of the last clean cloths in the hole, plugging it up as best I could. Then I headed back to the hole in the cargo bay. It was small, the size of a golf ball, but it came in at a weird angle then left through the ground. Both holes got cloth stuffed in them, too. That’s when I noticed the crystal on that side of the shuttle. A large crack ran through the middle of the formerly glowing crystal. It looked wrong, and it felt wrong. Cold.

I couldn’t do anything about it right now, though, and turned back to the front, allowing myself to crash on the floor next to my brother.

“Holy fuck, we’re still alive.” I let out a deep sigh as my stomach rumbled. Somehow I needed to eat. I ignored it, and opened my stat sheet. It was time to figure out what damage I had done while trying to save John.

The first things to pop up were the notifications that I had paused.

[You have selected the class: Devourer. One of the oldest classes, and one of the most feared. You are what you devour. Besides earning experience for your kills, when you devour part of a kill, you might gain stats, skills and insights into the creature. Let’s see what you become. +1 to all Stats and +3 Free Stat Points per Level]

What the ever-living fuck did I do?

I paused on the first notification, trying to figure out what class I had selected. It was a legendary class, of course I’d gone with it. Yet, it had been a shot in the dark. My stomach rumbled again, and I ignored it again. I had to eat the things I killed to earn extra bonuses? I mean, it made sense, since I was hungry all the time, but that last sentence worried me. Let’s see what I would become? Still, I continued. It wasn’t like I had a choice.

[You have earned a title: Jack-of-all-Trades. Earned from learning at least 10 skill categories before class selection. Knowledge is power. +1 to all Stats per level.]

[You have earned an Achievement: Lucky Stars. You have survived two crashes that most would not walk away from, both without any lasting damage. Luck must be on your side. +3 Free Stat Points per level.]

A title and an achievement were unbelievable. I didn’t know anyone with an achievement, though I felt I hadn’t actively earned that one. Both were amazing, though, and would help me level my stats faster. That would be important.

[Skill Unlocked: Iron Stomach. Your stomach is rock solid. Eat what you will, your stomach can handle it. Devour.]

[Skill Unlocked: Heightened Senses. Find your prey. Hunt.]

[Skill Unlocked: Stealth. Remain hidden from those who would eat you. Grow.]

[Skill Unlocked: Blades and Polearms. Use the claws you make. Kill.]

[Skill Unlocked: Insight. You can study different creatures, learning basic information.]

[Skill Unlocked: Crystal Attunement. You resonate with power crystals. You have the ability to superheat a crystal point to cut through almost anything.]

I paused, reading over the six skills, my concern increasing with the increased commentary that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Insight I knew most people received. The last one I already knew about, and had used before. Five skills and only one fighting skill, one that I’d been training with my dad to earn.

[Your banked experience has been applied. You have gained 4 levels.]

I finally opened the rest of my stat sheet.

[Your Stats have been updated for your class.]

Name: Alex

Level: 4

Race: Human

Traits: Survivability, Adaptation, Hangry

Class: Devourer

Stats:

STR: 5(13)

QUICK: 6(14)

FLEX:6(14)

TOUGH: 6(14)

INT: 5(13)

FORT:5(13)

WILL:5(13)

CHA: 5(13)

FREE:24

Monstrosity: 0

Titles & Achievements:

Jack-of-all-Trades

Lucky Stars

Skills:

Crystal Attunement

Iron Stomach

Heightened Senses

Stealth

Blades and Polearms

Skill Categories:

Self-Defense

Knife Skills

Spear Skills

Crystal-working Skills

Farming Skills

Stealth Skills

Climbing Skills

Fishing Skills

Hunting Skills

Cooking Skills

Survival Skills

Piloting Skills

I didn’t understand. My stats had changed. Dexterity was now Quickness and Flexibility, while Wisdom was Fortitude and Willpower. Constitution had become Toughness. I didn’t know stats could change. No one did, as far as I knew. It made the free stat points that much more important, though. I had 8 stats to level now, instead of the 6 everyone else had. Speaking of, I had 24 free points to allocate, but my head was pounding and I needed to take a break.

Just before I closed my stat sheet I realized something worse. My traits were wrong. Humans had two positive traits and one negative. They were Survivability and Adaptability, while the negative was person specific. Hangry made sense, what made little sense was Adaptation.

How was that possible? It was close to Adaptability, but not the same. As far as we knew, though, the positive traits were fixed to our humanity.

No one else had a unique trait in the colony. Everyone spoke about them, and how humans must have the same advantages as each other. Yet, I had something different. What did that say about me?

I snapped the stat sheet closed and took a deep breath. My stomach growled again, and I patted my pockets, finding some of the jerky left. The taste was worse than normal, and I had to force myself to swallow. Bite after bite I kept at it until what I had was gone. I knew the cargo hold had supplies, but I couldn’t bring myself to go through them. Not until John was awake.

I nodded off with my head leaned back, but eventually woke up again as time passed. Sweat dripped down my forehead and my back as the shuttle heated up as the day moved on. Sunlight streamed in from the window, but I couldn’t get myself to stand up and look out at our surroundings.

Eventually, John stirred. His fingers twitched, and I held my breath, then let it out slowly. “John, are you back with us?” I asked.

His fingers moved again, and then his eyes slowly opened. His face twisted in pain, but then he saw me. “You’re alive…” It came out as a whisper. “I thought…”

“I’m fine.” I motioned to his injuries. “I’m more worried about you.”

“It hurts, but,” his voice shook. “Still alive.” He didn’t move from his spot on the floor. “How bad is it?”

“I cauterized a wound on your leg. You have minor cuts and one larger one across your side – those I closed with glue. Greg didn’t make it, he’s in the back.” I kept my voice level for the last statement.

“Damn.” John closed his eyes for a moment, then they snapped open. “The ship?”

“No clue, but one crystal is cracked. And there is a small hole through the cargo hold.”

John let out a sigh. “The crystals, that’s why we lost power.”

“Please say you have a healing skill and you will be up in no time…?”

“No, I don’t. It will take a few days for me to heal completely.” He added nothing else after that, just stared at the ceiling, thinking.

“Well, we have time.”

“Just give me a couple moments, then I’ll look at the ship.” His voice sounded defeated as he closed his eyes.

“Hey, I got my class…”

“What?” His eyes opened wide, and he almost smiled.

I nodded. “Yep, it’s a good one. Got a stealth skill and some fighting abilities. Plus an achievement from not dying again while crashing to the ground.” I didn’t know why I didn’t tell him about my class. Something had stopped me, warning me to keep silent.

“That’s awesome. We have a chance…” He smiled, closing his eyes for several seconds. Then he opened them again. “I got a weird achievement about Nine Lives and cats. But it will help us.” He put his hands on the floor and sat up.

I quickly helped him.

His head turned slowly, surveying the ship before landing on the cracked window and then turning toward the back. “I need to see the crystal.”

“Let me help you get up,” I said, moving to my feet. While I thought he should take some more time to recover, we were in a rough spot. I looped my arm under his shoulder and helped him stand. He kept the weight off his injured leg and leaned on me.

We slowly made our way toward the cargo hold. It wasn’t far.

“Shit, the crystal is out. That crack means I can’t even fix it.” Outrage filled his voice like he hadn’t believed the damage had been that bad. “I was hoping it’d only chipped. Sometimes I can glue them back together.” He paused, looking at the small holes in the ceiling and floor I’d stuffed with cloth. “It must have cracked when we were hit by the bigger rock on the other side.” He pointed at the holes. “These are only cosmetic. Nothing was hit. That’s good news.”

“But the crystal…”

He ignored me and instead turned toward Greg’s body with a sigh. “We need to see if he has anything on him. Then bury him away from the ship.” Another lesson learned after the crash: burn bodies as soon as possible, though in this case we’d need to bury him. Burning him would only spread the smell of death further, faster.

“John, what’s the plan here?” I finally asked, using my serious voice. The ship was down and it wouldn’t fly, that much was clear with the broken crystal. He needed to use words I understood to explain what we needed to do at this point. As things were, I was barely keeping the panic at bay.

John let out a sigh and turned to face me. He ran a hand through his short hair, sweat keeping it back. “The compound isn’t far, maybe a day's travel on foot. They have crystals large enough to power the shuttle. I can get the ship back into running shape, but I can’t make the trek through the jungle.” He paused and stared at me. “But you unlocked a class, and you have skills. You can get there. It’s our only chance.”