An indignant yelp woke me up and I felt a burst of annoyance in my mind. Bewildered, I sat up and saw Stalker looking at me, the feeling of annoyance so clear in my mind that I knew something had happened. From the look of it, Stalker had been sleeping next to me, and I had turned over in my sleep and crushed it or something.

  I felt the annoyance fade to amusement, as Stalker watched me going through the mental gymnastics of figuring it out. I checked the status screen:

  Quest: A Bond Forged in Fire

  Duration: Completed

  Objective: Obtain the trust of Stalker

  Reward: Companion unlocked: Stalker (Lesser Amberpelt Fox)

  Trait attained Companion Bond, Stalker (Lesser Amberpelt Fox). Looking through the information, it looked like we would be able to share emotions and simple concepts through the bond!

  I began to tear up, just a little, touched, and relieved that Stalker had chosen to trust me. I was not alone anymore! I tried to hide my emotions by going about the business of lighting the fire, getting water, and making some breakfast out of the leftover meat.

  Stalker was not fooled, but sent a mix of annoyance, joy, and hunger to me. It was going to take some time to get used to this way of communicating, but I interpreted it to mean that I was emoting too loud, that yes, he was happy about our bond as well and that he was hungry!

  As we ate, we “talked” and played around with the bond. It turns out that Stalker is surprisingly intelligent, although to be fair I have no idea what to compare him to (yes, Stalker is a guy and was not amused, at my thinking of him as an it). I also hit a lot of limitations. The bond was great, but not a substitute for real conversation.

  After breakfast I asked Stalker if he wanted to go hunting and grinned at the anticipation he projected. I suited up, with my femur, my dagger (still rusty) and the net I had managed to make yesterday. It was a net made for carrying stuff and I hoped we would need it after this hunt.

  Stalker was leading the way, and we quickly ran into the same problem as yesterday. I was too loud and slow and had no ranged attack option. Stalker sends frustration and impatience at me, and I nodded as I said: “I know Stalker, sorry I’m holding you back” while sending acceptance and encouragement to him. He did a little dance, looked at me and took off. I sighed and went over to a tree to do a little bark harvesting.

  Suddenly I hear rustling in a nearby bush and out comes one of the rabbit looking creatures, Stalker hot on its tail, the rabbit creature running straight at me! but I’m so surprised that I just let it run by me and miss the opportunity to attack. Stalker stops up and looks at me like I’m a moron while growling a bit…

  After that initial fiasco, that is the way we hunt together. Stalker finds prey and drives it towards me, and things are going great! The net is filling up nicely and I am starting to think about spending some time searching for vegetables, berries, or something green and healthy, when Stalker comes running emoting Danger! Flee!

  I start running after him and hear something large following us. I didn’t hear anything just seconds ago, so it wants us to know it is coming!

  I take a second to look back (bad idea, I know! But I cannot help myself), it’s a green panther looking feline abomination the size of a donkey! It pounces towards me, and my Survival Instincts kick in.

  I manage to dodge enough that I don’t get the full panther in my face experience, but it swipes at me with claws easily the size of my hands and I feel the pain, as it marks my shoulders in three deep stripes, the blood is flowing freely, and my vision is tinted red – Fuck that hurt! Guess my Pain Resistance has limits.

  The panther growls as it lands 3 meters in front of me and licks its claws in an entirely unnecessary display of dominance. Stalker barks from my right and I feel how scared he is, but also a hint of hope?

  I start sprinting towards Stalker and see him disappearing into a mess of roots from a giant fallen tree. The panther is moving after me, just fast enough that I know that I can’t get away, it is toying with me! I run into the tangle of roots after Stalker and immediately the ground disappears beneath my feet, as I start sliding down a slope into a hole.

  As I slide down, I hear a roar from above! I see the panther looking at its prey disappearing into the ground, for some reason it is not following…

  I must have slid like 5 meters down, luckily, I come away from it without more damage. Checking my status, I can see that the green panther packed quite a punch!

  Name: Mike Nielsen

  Level: 1

  Class: -

  Profession: -

  Race: HUMAN

  HEALTH: 8/15

  STAMINA: 5/15

  MANA: 0

  CONDITION: Bleeding

  I will need to do something about that bleeding. But first I frantically look around for Stalker and to see where I am. It appears to be a room of some kind, ravaged by time and nature, roots and plant life fill up most of the space.

  There is some pale flickering light from above, creating a spooky atmosphere, where I can see enough to get around, but details are hard to make out. The air is heavy with a moist closed in smell. I sense relief coming from under the remains of a desk, Stalker!

  He does a little reunion dance, and I can’t help but smile. It appears that we are relatively safe for the moment, and I give myself permission to relax a little, as I bandage my arm as well as I can.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  I lost the knife in the chase but have my femur and I also still have my net with the fruits of today’s hunt. I look at stalker and say: “Damn that was a close one!” He makes a little hufhuf sound as he starts exploring the room. “Right you are, let’s see where we ended up” I say, as I start rummaging through the desk he was hiding under. The desk was once of good quality, but now broken, warped, and showing a lot of age, but I manage to find what looks like a book!

  With my heart in my throat, I carefully lift the leatherbound book and try to open it. This book is waterlogged, and the pages are molded together… I will get no useful information from this. Unless I can do something about it?

  I try to think about the class of Librarian knights from The Wandering Inn. A litrpg story I used to read and discuss with my coworker Michael. Stuff like what skills and spells they would have (yes, we were dorks and proud of it!) and we both agreed that Repair Book would be high on the list… I gave the system a minute to process my thoughts and opened my status screen to look for quests or abilities that could help…

  No help from the omnipresent and mindreading system! Fuck! I’m still not ok with it being in my head, but at least it could be a bit more helpful. I sigh and place the book in my net. I′m reluctant to toss away proof of civilization and also, I′m an old fashioned librarian! I like books.

  I hear a little excited bark from Stalker. He has found something in the mess of roots on the floor. A staircase down! He looks at his find and then at my useless, non edible clump of a book and radiates a sense of smugness. I laugh and say, “Thanks Stalker, what would I do without you?” “He hufs in amused agreement and we both start clearing a way down.

  After an hour of work we finally get through the mass of roots and loose soil and into the chamber below. Its bigger, and where upstairs might have been a study or bedroom, this place looks like an ancient, abandoned living room… “I’m seriously questioning the quality of dungeons in Limbo right now” I said to Stalker, as we moved into the room.

  Looking around, the only exit is a doorway filled with earth. My guess would be that the entire building somehow ended up 5 meters under the ground. However, it happened we are not getting out that way. I don’t care about that though, as my eyes have found something far more interesting!

  A bookcase at the wall opposite the door. It’s marked by time, but looks sturdy and the books might actually be dry and preserved enough to read!

  Not believing my luck and mentally apologizing to the system for doubting it. I slowly scan the rest of the room. It looks like there has been fighting here, scorch marks on the ceiling and walls, and pretty much everything except that bookcase (Lucky!) seems to have been destroyed.

  In the middle of the room, it looks like there is at least three skeletons of some race with a tail laying in a pile of destroyed furniture. Halfway between the door and the bookcase, next to a pile of metal another skeleton, this one smaller and with thicker bones… a dwarf?

  I move towards the bookcase, while Stalker gives the skeletons a weary sniff, emoting caution towards me. Remembering the cave zombie, I stop myself from going directly to the bookcase and pull out my femur and approach the tailed skeletons in the middle.

  As I poke them and nudge their bones, I whisper a little “sorry about this” to the departed and nothing happens.

  I sigh in relief and approach the lone dwarf looking skeleton. This one still has pieces of armor and clothing on and as I crouch down to see what else it hides… A sudden Hizzzzz from the pile of metal makes me scramble away on all fours.

  The metal is moving!

  Still scrambling on my hands and knees, I see that the pile is actually some kind of metal construct. It appears ancient and damaged, and it looks like some kind of medieval steampunk nightmare! Any hope (slim as it was) that this is just a friendly ancient robot butler or toy, disappears as it raises one arm and a long sharp blade extends from it, the other arm looks like something exploding in it.

  As it moves towards me, it becomes apparent that it has taken significant damage. The exploded arm and what looks like a savage cut to the front plate, and its legs are not the best either. I might be able to outrun this thing!

  Just as I think that I see sparks flying from the rift in its front and red light starts flickering as it gets a sudden boost of speed, almost flying towards me with the blade raised for a strike! Survival Instincts do not kick in, but I barely manage to dodge anyway, as one of the legs buckles slightly and messes up its aim. I swing my femur in retaliation and with a loud crack I hit it squarely on the head… to almost no effect!

  Fuck! I think, I’m still damaged from the panther and Stalker is useless against this metal construct. Almost as if Stalker had heard my thoughts, he tries to distract the heap of junk as it raises its arm for a second strike. “Stalker get back!” I scream, as I emote danger and flee to my companion. The blade falls and as Stalker tries to dodge - he is still nicked by the blade and with a yelp of pain he runs up the stairs. As long as I can keep this thing here, he should be safe.

  I use the distraction to get up and try and jam my femur into the hole in its front, hoping that the flickering light might be a power source. I succeed in jamming the femur in the hole, but don’t manage to destroy anything vital and now the femur is wedged there. The construct rotates its body and wrenches the femur out of my hand and I?

  I do what I have always done in times of crisis… I turn to the books! I run to the wall next to the bookcase, making sure it’s between us and wait for the construct to approach and as its nearing me I turn and grab the bookcase and try to topple it…

  Time seems to stand still, as I hold my breath and pull, the ancient bookcase wobbles at first and then picks up speed as it falls down on the approaching construct with a loud crash and an explosion of dust. I back off from the cloud of dust hanging in the air, coughing, and nearly choking, as suddenly another explosion rocks the bookcase and more or less pulverizes it…

  You have slain a Lesser Guardian Golem (lvl 4)!

  You have gained experience!

  The rush of endorphins battles the waves of despair, at seeing my hoard of books being destroyed!

  As the dust settles, I see that on the wall, hidden behind the bookcase, was a mural! Faded but still in decent condition. Depicting various races known and unknown exiting a gate on a hill.

  As a blue flash indicates an update, I realize I might just have found the first clue about Limbo...