NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2: Progress
A sense of outrage, desperation, and pure fury hit Dominic. It was a wild beast’s pure insanity at being caged, proof that the lion wasn’t gone. The emotions were so powerful that Dominic feared being swept up in their undertow. Fortunately for him, that’s not what happened.
For all that the emotions appeared like a tsunami to Dominic’s senses, when they actually hit him, they were more like a rather strong wave. Something was there which muted them, prevented them from washing his personality away. And in the wave’s weaker ebb, confusion and fear revealed themselves.
Clearly, whatever the System had done to identify the ‘primary’ body and mind was robust enough that even the lion’s desperation wasn’t enough to unseat the human mind from its control. Thankfully for Dominic.
Perhaps he should have felt more sympathy for the trapped animal which had found its body usurped. It could have been him, after all, riding as a back-seat passenger to a dumb beast in its own body, or worse, his. But he didn’t. Not much, anyway. The lion had been ripping into his guts not long before, after all.
Without the System’s intervention, Dominic would have been dead. Choked to death by the very jaws which he could now control. That it hadn’t happened was pure luck – his good luck; the lion’s bad. Maybe all the bad luck he’d had with waking up late, his car breaking down, and his phone running out of battery, had stored up some good luck to kick in at just the right moment?
Whatever the reason, or maybe there was none, the fact was that he now appeared to be a lion, in a new world. A reconstituted world, anyway. One where he could apparently see his status with a single thought.
Status of User2546312547895632 / User2546312547895633
Well that’s the first thing that needs to change, Dominic thought, unsatisfied. No way he was putting up with that string of numbers every time he looked at his status page unless he absolutely had to.
Change name, he thought at the prompt hanging in the air in front of him. Nothing happened. Change Username. Still nothing. Change user name? He tried leaving a little space between the words in his mind and, wonder of wonders, it worked this time.
<Due to recent integration of the System, new users have a grace period to change the user name assigned to them. This period will expire in 2d 23h 55m. After this period expires, adjustments to user names will have to be earned through completing System tasks.>
Aren’t I glad I thought of it, then? Dominic said to himself, relieved. He wondered how many other people wouldn’t think of it and be lumbered with an awkward ‘name’ like he had. A moment later, the message was wiped away and replaced by another.
<User2546312547895632 new name?>
Dominic Martin Cole, he thought after a moment of weighing up whether or not to put his full name or if he wanted to change it to something edgy. Finally, he decided that he actually wanted to keep a bit of his past, considering he was currently in such an unfamiliar body.
Besides, he was familiar with the fact that something ‘edgy’ and ‘cool’ in the moment generally ended up embarrassing later. Thinking back to some of his teenage gaming handles still made him colour a little. Well, it would have if this body could blush. XXXDARKNIGHTWOLFASSASSINXXX was probably the worst of them, though he had only been thirteen at the time.
<New name of User: Dominic Martin Cole. Confirm?>
Confirm, he thought back at it. Next came another prompt which surprised him, though it probably shouldn’t have.
<User2546312547895633 new name?>
Well, I suppose it makes sense that I’d be able to change both at once, he thought to himself. His first instinct was to just put ‘lion’, but he decided that he wasn’t walking around with such a bland name on his status screen forever. Equally, he was tempted to put something cutsey like ‘Mr Cuddles’ or ‘Hug Muffin’ as a way of giving the finger to the creature which tried to kill him.
He checked the impulse after a moment, though – ultimately, the lion wouldn’t get the insult, and Dominic would be the one having to live through seeing it every time he checked his status. In the end, he went for something utterly generic, but just very slightly less boring than ‘lion’. Only slightly, though.
<New name of User: Leo. Confirm?>
Confirm. On the upside, it matches my star-sign, Dominic thought with a little amusement. He hadn’t realise that the zodiac was quite that literal, though. ‘Your horoscope today: watch out for other leos, and prepare to get to know them in an amazingly intimate way.’
That done, he actually proceeded to look at the details of his status.
Species: Lion (body) / human (mind), Two-Souled
Progress to Evolution: 0/100 PP
Hunger level: 93%
Thirst level: 51%
Defensive abilities:
- Fur level 1 (1-2 slicing/piercing damage reduction, 2-3 crushing damage reduction)
Offensive abilities:
- Claws level 1 (5-10 slicing damage, 4-7 tearing damage, 1-2 piercing damage)
- Bite level 1 (32-50 crushing damage, 27-50 tearing damage, 25-35 piercing damage)
General abilities:
- Muscular Body level 1 (max sprint speed 20mps; max sprint duration 10s) (45 SP)
- Carnivore Constitution level 1 (300 HP)
It was a bit of a mixed bag, Dominic thought as he perused the screen. Clearly, his bite was the most powerful weapon in his toolkit, but that was kind of expected. How little endurance he had was not. Plus, when he did a few mental calculations with the top sprint speed, it wasn’t particularly impressive: around 75kph or approximately 46mph.
Well, not impressive relatively speaking: if compared to a human, not even Usain Bolt could achieve anything close to such a pace. But considering cheetahs could reach speeds well above 100kph, a mere 75kph was a poor comparison. Then again, from his little knowledge about lions, they tended to stalk their prey more than chase it down.
At least his health points were a good bit better – it would actually take five or more of his bites to kill himself. If damage worked like that, anyway. I wonder what impact those damage types have. If his sole defensive ability was any indication, it was that different damage types could have different effects. Well, I guess I’ll find out sooner rather than later, he thought as he closed the status screen.
Not only did he need to start making progress towards evolving, but he could see that he was pretty hungry. It wasn’t really surprising that the lion had attacked him given how hungry it clearly was at the time. That didn’t mean he was going to give it control of its body, though. If he even could.
Right. Time to go get me a gazelle or something, Dominic said to himself with determination. He took a confident step forwards...and fell right on his face.
Growling in disgust, he rubbed his face with one of his arms...forelegs. What just happened? Moving slowly, he tried to take another step. Immediately it became clear what the problem was. He’d over-extended, putting too much weight forwards and over-balancing. Right.
Moving only one foot at a time, he carefully started stepping forwards, monitoring the shifting of his weight and balance. This is so weird, he thought to himself. It was like he was walking on the his toes and his fingers, though his fingers were significantly shorter. Then there was the tail.
Wretched thing, he thought angrily at the snake-like appendage as it once more set him off balance. While he’d been moving one foot at a time, it hadn’t caused too many issues, but as soon as he’d tried to speed up a little, the blasted limb started swinging of its own accord. How am I going to catch a gazelle – or anything – when I can’t even run, he thought dolefully to himself. The sense of scorn in the back of his mind from the lion wasn’t helping either. Can I even use my claws? Was the next thought. It wasn’t like he was used to extending his fingernails after all.
Pushing himself carefully back into a seated position, he lifted one paw into the air and tried to will his claws to unsheathe themselves. To no avail. Sighing, he placed his paw back down to the ground and painstakingly levered himself back into standing on all fours. This isn’t anything like I imagined it to be when I used to play at being Simba, he thought grumpily to himself as he once more practised walking. Slowly.
Ten year old him would probably have been ecstatic to find himself in a lion’s body. Twenty-four year old him was simply glad to still be alive. Though that wasn’t a state likely to continue if he didn’t manage to get his body parts under control.
Grrr.
The sound came from nearby, making him freeze. He turned his head quickly, trying to hear where it came from, or, better yet, see what made it.
Grrrr.
This time, he managed to narrow it down to a bush. Dominic growled himself, the sound easy to make given the number of times he’d produced it so far today. The growls from the bush picked up in volume and, to his dismay, quantity. When he realised that there were at least four opponents, he seriously thought about being the cowardly lion and running away.
Then he considered how poorly that attempt would go based on his recent difficulties in moving, and he dismissed the idea. Maybe I can scare them away? It was probably the best option available to him at the time. He put some more effort into the growls, feeling his lips lift away from his teeth and his ears flatten automatically against his head.
The growls from the creatures in the bush also ramped up. Apparently they weren’t scared enough just yet. Deciding to go all in, Dominic took in a big breath and roared. The sound was everything he’d wanted it to be, putting his ten year old self to shame – the last time he’d tried. It felt like his whole body went into producing the loud warning sound.
Silence reigned for a moment after his utterance. For a few seconds Dominic hoped that it was sufficient, that the creatures would recognise the true king of the savannah by his roar. Then their growls erupted with renewed zeal and Dominic knew it was a failure. Worse, it seemed like the roar had been accepted as a challenge as the creatures actually went on the attack.
Piling out of the bush, Dominic finally got to see what had been threatening him. They were relatively small, not much bigger than a small dog and not something he recognised. But it seemed that, just like small dogs, their size was inversely related to the amount of aggression they brought to bear.
And with their sharp teeth obvious, along with the fact that there were already five circling him, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be an easy – or painless – fight.