Of Names, Traps, and Safety

John woke up to something pecking his face, and opened his eyes to see the hawk, now a fledgeling, standing over him. It cocked its head and gently pecked his forehead once more, not hard enough to draw blood. It chirped happily when it noticed his open eyes. That’s surely not the chick from before John thought as he used Spy on it.

Greater Intelligence, Void Unnamed Red-Tailed Hawk Fledgeling, Level 2
A male red-tailed unnamed hawk fledgling belonging to The Gamer. He was born with two magical aspects: Greater Intelligence, Void. He received an influx of experience directly after his birth, and as a result developed nearly instantly from a baby to an adolescent bird. As such, he doesn’t yet have good control of its fine motor skills. Imprinted on The Gamer, and would protect him with his life. Skills: 4
Affection: +100
Obedience: -20

So that’s the hawk that just hatched. Well, that’s totally awesome! I should- His thoughts were interrupted as his companion next to him finished picking bone fragments out of her skin, and reached shoulder deep in her bag, feeling around.

“That sucked, did you at least get anything good from it?” Jenny asked, before seeing the bird in front of them. “Is that what you got!? It’s so cute!” She took her arm out of the bag and leapt at the bird, who chirped, startled, and flapped onto John’s shoulder, causing Jenny to trip face first into John’s lap. “Oh, before I forget, you should take one of these.” Jenny said, holding up the hand that had been searching through the bag, which displayed two vials. John used Spy on it before gulping it down, noticing she had already drank hers.

Homemade Health Potion
This health potion was made in an alchemy lab instead of a factory, and as such lacks the distinctive, plastic factory taste health potions usually have. Instead, this potion tastes faintly of strawberries. Heals 52 HP.

“Well, I actually got him from my first barrier. He was an egg, which hatched when I accidentally selected it,” John replied after he had finished the potion. He looked at the hawk on his shoulder, which was trying its best not to dig its talons into his skin and rubbing against his cheek. He decided to see what the tooltip for both of its aspects said.

Greater Intelligence, Magical Aspect
Any creature born with this aspect will eventually attain near-human intelligence, given enough time, and will understand human language. In general, this greatly increases the capacity of animals to follow commands.

Void, Elemental Variant
Void creatures, a subvariant of shadow creatures (and not true void beings, such as Outsiders). Void creatures command the emptiness of the shadows, removing themselves from their target’s senses by nullifying any output they might have; be it sight, sound, smell, taste, and in **** cases, even touch. The most powerful of void elementals have been known to be able to shift between the planes of reality.

“Well what did you get from the big guy? And what does it say about this little guy?” Jenny asked, interrupting him before he could check its skill list and sneaking her hand around to gently pet the fidgety hawk. At first it relaxed to her touch, thinking it to be John, but upon realizing it was her, squawked in indignation. In response, she gave it puppy eyes John was glad he didn’t have to resist, and it calmed right back down. That was all well and good… until it disappeared. “John! It’s gone!”

“Actually, I think it’s just invisible,” John replied, and proved himself correct when he reached to where the bird was moments ago and pet it gently. “It says here that it has two attributes, Greater Intelligence and Void.” The hawk reappeared under its master’s touch, seemingly unaware that it had disappeared at all. Jenny recoiled back when he mentioned the word “void.”

“That’s a void creature?” Jenny asked, suddenly mortified, her hair standing on end as she looked as though she couldn’t decide whether to run away or attack it. “Those things are stupid dangerous! That means that thing shouldn’t exist! Just being near one can kill you!”

“I don’t think it’s that kind of void creature. According to my popups, he’s a shadow elemental. It’s just named Void. It’s not actually a creature from the void.” John explained, and Jenny visibly relaxed, her muscles releasing their untensing as she sat back down next to him.

“Well… I guess it’s okay then.” She replied, tentatively going back to pet the bird, which had started enjoying the attention. “Before you ask me what the other void is,” she shuddered as she said it, and a small ball of ice grew in his stomach at what could be so terrible that even thinking about it caused such a reaction, “tell me what you got from the big guy. I did most of the damage. It’s only fair I get some of the reward.”

“Riiiight,” John replied, deciding to save the other ‘void’ talk for later and pulling up the popups he had disregarded in favor of her and the bird, which had relaxed into Jenny’s touch, and was currently resting on his shoulder as she absently, gently pet it. “Well, I got a Skeleton Key, Calcified Armguards, Liquid Bone, and-” he started, but was cut off by her reply.

“I need the Liquid Bone. I’ll take that!” She responded, which elicited a squawk from the hawk as she had stopped petting it when she heard the last option. “So you want to be pet by me now?” She asked, turning toward it, practically forgetting what she had been talking about with John. The hawk looked at her for a moment before nodding in affirmation, and Jenny turned back to John, “anyways, yeah. Liquid Bone me.” She held out her hand expectantly, and John plucked the pristine vial from his inventory and dropped it in her hand. “Yes! Now Keith will make me more health potions! Thank you Johnny…” As her way of thanks, she gently pressed her lips against his before getting up. “Say, don’t you have to name the little guy?” Jenny asked, with a glance at the hawk on his shoulder, still trying its best not to dig its talons into John.

“That’s right…” John said, looking at the bird which had been fading in and out of vision on his shoulder. “Well, it saved us from that Goliath... so I’ll name it David!” John thought aloud, and the name David emerged above the fledgling's head. While Jenny rearranged stuff in her bag, John used Spy on his other two new items.

Skeleton Key
Epic item. Can open any mundane lock that has a keyhole, with some locks taking longer than others depending on the complexity and weight of the lock.

That was pretty damn useful. Though he hadn’t encountered any locked doors yet, and he could probably bust them down or shoot the lock if he really needed to, it was nice to have. It would definitely come in handy in the future. Next he used Spy on the Calcified Armguards, which he didn’t have the highest of hopes for, but any new equipment was good equipment.

Calcified Armguards
Rare item. Armguards made of bleached, sturdy bones which have been enchanted to magically fit the wearer and to resist decay. By bashing them together, the wearer can **** the armguards to become sub-dermal, conferring their benefits without significantly bulking his arms. Caution: calcified armguards will fuse permanently with the wearer's bones If worn sub-dermally for too long.

That’s better than I hoped for! Though I guess I should expect as much from a level twenty boss… John slipped the armguards on and hit them together with a loud clack. They immediately sunk into his skin on all sides, which was an interesting feeling, but not at all unpleasant. A hot sensation passed over his arms as the guards ever so slightly bulged out his skin, though not enough to become uncomfortable, as though they had thinned and condensed under the surface of his skin.

“That was weird. Anyways, we have to get out of here. And I have to find out how those things were able to get in here.” Jenny said, turning toward John, “oh right, the bird! Can you put it in your inventory?” She asked, and it was a valid question, but David screeched back indignantly.

“I guess he doesn’t want me to,” John said, holding out his hand for the hawk to perch on to, which it did tentatively. “I don’t really know how to… Maybe its skill list has something!” He said, and used Spy on David again, this time tapping the word “skills” at the very end.

Skill List of David the Void Hawk (Owned by The Gamer)
Passives:
Fortified Mind: David will learn and its brain will develop faster and decay slower than normal animals.
Uncontrolled Sense Dampening: David does not yet have control of his Void powers, and may fade in and out of detectability.
Actives:
Flight, Level 1: By flapping his wings, David can take flight and glide. As David is an adolescent, he cannot yet fly for long periods of time.
Summon/Dismiss Elemental Pet: If The Gamer exerts his will upon David, David can retreat into The Gamer’s mind, watching The Gamer’s actions, and able to return at will in an intangible, incorporeal form. In this form, David will not tire physically, and will not be visible to any other than The Gamer or those in his party. If David’s level grows to higher than The Gamer’s, he may leave this dimension at will. The Gamer may capture or release David from this dimension at any time.

“Well that’s useful! David, go home!” John said, and the hawk chirped excitedly before a halo of energy circled him, splitting and enveloping him horizontally. When it was over, David was gone, but quickly reappeared as an apparition on John’s shoulder, his colors no less brilliant, but his outline slightly faded.

“It didn’t work!” Jenny said, reaching over to the bird’s position and going to pet it, but her hand sunk right through it. “Oooor it did work,” Jenny continued, sticking her hand in and out of the space which David’s untouchable form occupied. “This is so cool! He’s like a bonafide elemental!” With that, she and John exited the trap barrier, and she took one last look around the storage room before leaving it as well, saying on the way out, “Well, Dad never uses this stuff anyway…” Jenny said, before taking a box off one of the shelves. It was right next to the box she had drawn the Abyss Auction ticket from, and she stuffed it into the void of her bag. “Anyways, let’s go meet up with Keith! He’ll know what to do.”

It took them less than ten minutes to get to a large apartment building near the metropolitan area of town using a few more of the fast travel barriers that Jenny said she wasn’t going to show him, but had apparently changed her mind. Any time they entered a barrier, John let David out for a few minutes, which let him get used to his body more, and let him warm up to Jenny. By the end of the last barrier, he had warmed up to her enough to the point that he was resting on her shoulder and chirping for attention, which she happily gave in the form of scratches, pets, and a cap of water from a water bottle in her bag.

“This is it! By the way, be cool! Keith already sorta likes you, but he can be moody.” Jenny said, pulling him into a barrier he hadn’t detected before.

You have entered the residence of Keith Rutherford, Alchemist Extraordinaire! If you’re not Jenny, Kimberly, or a customer, go away!

“Guess who’s here!” Jenny said as she kicked in the door, and John immediately noticed a barrage of smells hit him. A mix of incense, mint, some sort of earthy leaves, cooking meat, fire, and medicine mixed together in a smell that would be surprisingly pleasant if not for the smell of **** that cut through it. Other than that, it seemed to be pretty neat in the living area, with the dozens of alchemy stations lining the walls containing most of the mess, glowing splatters and burn marks along segments of the wall. Different equipment he usually associated with chemistry was stacked along different points, tubes, distillers, and bunsen burners, the latter obviously the most used, as a garbage can was filled with several discarded burners.

“Guess who’s drunk!” Keith replied, on the process of collapsing onto his couch when they walked in. He had a glowing vial in one hand and a fancy brown bottle in the other.

“I guess Keith!” Jenny replied, walking inside and pulling John along with her. He decided to leave David in his mind for now. She walked over to Keith and pulled him off the couch into a standing position, though he was laughing so gutterally and with such intensity that if he would remain standing was yet to be seen.

“You guess right! As a reward, you can ‘ave some!” He replied, dropping the glowing vial and thrusting the bottle at her, which she deflected with a well placed hand and a well placed smile. “Oh! Yer that kid! How wazzat dragon potion?”

Before he could stop himself, John responded, “I haven’t taken it yet,” to which Keith looked surprisingly happy, gesturing for John to follow, which John did, taking the potion out of his inventory simultaneously. He lumbered to one of many alchemy tables in the room, and rummaged through something on one of the shelves above the circular station.

“Add this!” He said, snatching the potion from John and shoving a white branch into it, which instantly dissolved. He held the potion back out to John, and waited expectantly for John to drink it. John used Spy on it again, but it had the same description as before.

Draconic Enhancement Potion
Epic Item. A concoction made of powdered Lesser Dragon scales and crushed Gryphon beak. Will provide a substantial boosts to physical stats, and will temporarily provide a boost to reflexes. Tastes terrible. Seriously, good luck keeping this down.

Well, down the hatch John thought as he tried to slam it back, but gagged immediately. The temporary boost in reflexes made the terrible, metallic, spicy taste seem to last an eternity, and he wretched most of it out. Despite that, he received a minor boost to his physical stats.

You have consumed a Draconic Enhancement Potion! Your reflexes will be boosted for thirty seconds, and you permanently gain +3 to Strength, +2 to Endurance, and +1 to Agility.

Keith started laughing again at John’s reaction, and Jenny hopped over the couch and grabbed his face, forcing him to face her. “Keith, focus! We were attacked at my place by a necromancer! I need advice!”
Keith, hardly cognizant, turned to her and mumbled, “wouldn’t attack a mundie’s place. Go to the lad’s place.” Jenny sighed, but figured Keith was right. She thanked Keith before taking John toward the fire escape.

“We gotta leave through there, can’t exit the same way we entered,” she explained, pulling John along with her. “I’ll give him the Liquid Bone later, he wouldn’t even remember it right now.” She whispered as she exited. Just before John could follow, he heard a sweet, seductive voice call out…