Dialysis Book: Chapter 3 - The Criminal Mastermind

"What are you? Public enemy number one?" I yelled as we started running through the caves.  I had no idea where we were going but the tunnel I was sure led back to earth no longer existed.

"I'm not number one, don't be ridiculous.  I'm more like number five," replied Spivy.  "Possibly four, they have been getting pretty aggressive lately."

"I think you should be running faster, they seem angry," said Shadow, already well ahead of us.  Spivy could fly, but she could also hover and that compromise in aerodynamics meant that she didn't fly all that fast.  I could out run her easily, and Shadow was much faster than I was and also a bit of a coward.

“You are a terrible guard dog,” I yelled.

“You need to run faster,” replied Shadow.

I grabbed the fairy and shoved her into my shirt pocket.  She protested initially, but stopped when she was safely ensconced in her cotton conveyance.  It was more comfortable than holding onto me.

As we turned a corner I spotted a lone goblin who apparently was working on an ambush.  I grabbed my improvised spear and thrust it into his side as I ran past.  The snarling creature collapsed even as I was aware that I’d attacked wrong.

A second goblin leapt in from the side, brandishing another dagger.  Something felt strange and my new core all but forced my arms into the correct position.  I lined up my spear and rapidly realized that my size combined with the length of the weapon was a superior combination.  Despite this, I still wasn’t quite able to get everything to work correctly.

I thrust, carving a chunk out of the goblin's chest as he nearly dodged the strike.  He collapsed, but the attack left me exposed.  Another goblin appeared from my blind spot, only to have Shadow materialize behind him and bite down on the goblin.

It did not survive.

The instant after Shadow attacked, he got fuzzy again.

"Why doesn't he stay hidden all the time," I asked as we continued running.

"He only has enough essense to hide or attack, not both," replied Spivy.  "You keep having the same problem, you aren’t focusing on your core enough."

"Is that the strange feeling," I said as we continued running.  Well, I continued running.  Spivy was a passenger.

"That feeling is your essence," declared Spivy as I parkored over a rock.  I heard something behind me scream and then Shadow was panting next to me.

"She does not explain it well," said Shadow.  "It is a warm, happy feeling like getting your tummy scratched.  You just need to push the happiness into your teeth and you can bite better, or into your fur and you are harder to see."

"Yeah, that, but not translated to stupid," said Spivy.  “You have been doing it most of the time when you attack, but you aren’t putting your all into it.  You need to focus!”

I concentrated as we ran, trying to feel for something different and surprisingly it was there.  A kind of energy that I could manipulate within myself.  I could sense both of my cores as well as an energy field that spilled out of them.

There wasn't much there, but I tried to push it into the spear.  That proved to be a challenge as the energy didn't want to go into a spear but once I got it in there the energy seemed to complain less.

"Why are there two cores," I asked, remembering that Spivy only gave me one but she mentioned another.

"Good question, but also did you see that goblin," said Spivy as another goblin rushed towards me.  Now that my flow of essence was constant, the spear was much less clumsy in my hands now and I was easily able to drive it into the goblin's chest.  He died instantly, and I glanced back to see what Shadow was up to.

Spivy was not kidding in that they needed to bring a lot of goblins, I was just catching the strays.  Shadow was standing in a mass of torn apart goblins.  As I watched another launched itself at the dog only to have him somehow avoid the strike before biting the offending creature.

If goblins were more sturdily built, Shadow would have been in trouble, but the little creatures were fragile and that made his teeth extremely effective in ending them.  It was terrifying in a way, I'd lived with Shadow my whole life and you never considered him to be vicious like that.

“Die large green squirrels!” yelled the dog happily.

That was the same dog who liked to plop down next to me on the couch for belly rubs.  You could never forget that even a lovable mutt could turn into a killing machine with the right provocation.  The provocation was a cave full of goblins intent on eating him.

Or at least his two best friends, and I wasn’t talking about me and Spivy.

“Good dog,” I yelled, best to keep on his good side.

"I am a good boi, I will protect you," yelled Shadow who vanished when a loud noise like a bell filled the area.

“My defender,” I grumbled.  I continued running.  No sense giving the goblins a chance to catch up to me and they were not going to catch Shadow unless he let them.

The tunnels were all nondescript past a certain point.  Sure they were full of rocks, not quite tall enough to let me easily move and full of angry goblins trying to kill me, but after a few tunnels like that everything kind of blurred together.

"Where are we going," I asked as we ran into another chamber.

"I thought you knew," replied Spivy.

"You are the system fairy," I said, "is there a map?"

Spivy considered that for a moment, "Shadow did you find a map?"

I jerked as the dog materialized next to me, "I think so, yes.  I found a map on one of the goblins, but it is paper and that stuff is only good for peeing on."

"Can I have it?" I asked.

Shadow considered for a moment, "But I have to use the bathroom."

“Shadow,” I growled.  The map appeared in his mouth and he unhappily gave it over.

The map appeared in my hand and Spivy said, "Now put it into your inventory."

I didn't bother asking how, I just moved a bit of my essense into it and the map vanished.  Moving essence around was really very intuitive and as the map vanished from my hand it appeared in the corner of my vision.  I was aware that a small amount of essence was required to keep the map visible.

It turned out that I could push essence between the two relatively quickly, but not instantaneously.  If I put most of my essence into the map it got more detailed, and showed additional information like where it projected enemies were.  I ultimately split my essence between the two, I was supposed to be the brains so having detailed information seemed more useful than being a backup fighter to Shadow.

At the essence level I established, there were several points that were marked as out nearby, unfortunately I didn't know where we were in the map so that was of dubious assistance.

“Here, let me help,” said Spivy pulled out a chunk of crystal about as large as she was from her ass.  She pressed it to my skin and I saw a tooltip appear.

• You have been exposed to a skill shard.  Would you like to activate the mapping skill?

I selected yes and the crystal vanished.  The tiny, mostly useless mini map suddenly got fuzzy for a moment as we continued down another nondescript hallway.

“Why is my map fuzzy,” I asked.

“So Shadow gave you a map item, that will give you a minimap but it doesn’t do anything useful like tell you where you are,” said Spivy.  “The mapping skill also projects a map with enemies and other points of interest.  It will also keep track of your position if it knows where you are.  ”

“And it doesn’t,” I said.

“No, but since you put an item map into your inventory it will synergize with the skill shard,” said Spivy.  “The map will be updated, and the minimap will use it as a basis to figure out where you are.”

“When will it know that,” I said as we continued down another curvy tunnel.  The goblin numbers had thinned out and we seemed to be in the clear.

“You need a bigger sample size, just keep pushing essence into the minimap until it finds some points of interest to lock onto,” said Spivy.

“Everything looks the same,” I growled.

“Fine, look at your companion core and try to push your mapping essence into it,” said Spivy.  “That will expand the search range to include Shadow’s immediate area.”

Sadly, that made sense even if it was harder to accomplish than how she said it.  First I had to run my essence into the mapping skill, which was easy, then I had to find the companion core and push it through there.  I ended up being somewhat successful.

Shadow was in a larger chamber nearby, destroying the lives and livelyhoods of multiple goblins.  The minimap started shifting in my vision and using all the data collected so far, it finally snapped into focus.

"The reason we are skipping past most of the goblins is that we are running further into the mountain," I groaned.

"Oh yes, I could tell that but I figured you had a plan," said Shadow.

"Why would you think that,” I groaned.

“Because you are the smart one,” said Shadow.  “Besides, I know how to get out.”

“How did you know that," I asked.

"I can smell outside," said Shadow simply.

"Can you smell outside away from the goblins," I asked.

“I didn’t think about that,” said Shadow looking at me thoughtfully, “You are the smart one.”

Shadow sniffed several times, then ran off down a tunnel that did appear to go to the outside if one was generous.  I quickly followed and we snuck through what appeared to be the back hallways of the goblin warren.

We didn’t get spotted, but that didn’t mean Shadow avoided all the goblins.  Simply put, if there was only one or two goblins in a room, Shadow just dealt with them ninja style.  That combined with my ability to use the minimap skill to feed him the size of the room as well as possible targets made the whole process much safer.

Within a few minutes, we got to a chamber that the map showed as what I assumed was the back exit.  "Good dog."

"Thank you," said Shadow, who was still partially invisible.  "This is the way with the fewest goblins."

"Okay, then if we can get by these little  murder assholes, we are in the clear," I said, spotting the half dozen goblins in the room.  That number was a guess but they appeared fuzzily on my map.

That was a problem, if the goblins were hiding the minimap didn’t typically reveal them fully.  I knew there were goblins in the room, but I had no idea how many.  Then again, this was the only way out.  I considered that for a moment and realized my options were limited.

This was dangerous, but staying was worse.  I could taste the fear running through my body, and the adrenaline.  I was making life or death choices.  I wasn’t some office drone who’s entire body of work vanished into the morass of company life.  I existed and I mattered, right here, right now.

I was alive for the first time since she left me.

"Shadow, go get'em," I said and Shadow's nearly invisible form rushed into the room.  He suddenly appeared next to one of the goblins and bit down on the back of the creature's neck.  Within moments, he'd dropped three more of the creatures and I stepped out to assist shoving most of my essence into my spear skill.

The goblin closest to me was in shock about the sudden carnage when I shoved my crappy spear into his side and twisted.  The goblin was dead before he had a chance to react and as I turned to find the next target suddenly I felt a fiery pain down my arm.

I looked at my arm and didn't spot any damage, but I heard the yelp.  Shadow leapt back from a goblin who was holding a bloody dagger.  The goblin was larger than any of the other goblins' we'd yet seen but was still bordering on tiny.

“You can feel each other’s pain when you are using the companion orb,” said Spivy and I pulled the mapping essence out.  My pain stopped, but my fury expanded.  That asshole goblin hurt my dog.

He looked at Shadow and sneered before screeching at him.

"Is it trying to talk," I asked.

"Trying, I called that fool dog stupid!" replied the goblin, the sneer even more evident.  He had an accent that I couldn't place, more in the sharpness  of his words than anything.  Worse, his lips didn’t match the sounds of the words leaving his mouth.

"How did you even see him," I asked.

The goblin laughed, "You are mortal tier adventurers, I am a hero.  My cores are much more developed, seeing you is childsplay."

"That's not good," I said , gripping my spear.

"So where is she," asked the goblin.  "If  you say, I might let one of you live."

"Who do you mean," I asked, trying to get the goblin between me and shadow.  The goblin wasn't cooperating, and I was forced to give ground.  It is pathetic getting intimidated by someone who was only three feet tall, but when he prowled towards me I couldn't help it.

"Spivy, the fairy, is marked for death," said the goblin.  "So you can hand her over and I’ll just eat your dog.  If you don’t, I'll kill you hard."

I swallowed, "Hard?"

"Painful, very painfully," said the goblin.

"I don't know where she is," I said uncomfortably.  I didn't want to give up Spivy, and since I could tell he was just going to kill me anyway I didn't really have a strong motivation to do so.

"She is in your pocket," said Shadow, helpfully.

The goblin laughed, "Well, that makes it easier.  Give me the fairy."

"No, and besides even if I did you'd just kill me anyway," I said.

"Quite true.  Let's talk after I gouge out your eyes, those testicles aren't going to eat themselves," said the goblin and he darted towards me at superhuman speed with his dagger aimed towards my eye.

When there was a sudden clang as Spivy blocked it with her own weapon, a tiny raper barely the size of a cocktail skewer.

“Inquisitor Gok,” she glared at the goblin before shoving the goblin away with a degree of strength that her little body shouldn’t have been able to manifest, "Your lord is slipping."

"My lord anticipated your every move until now," replied the goblin.  I paused, the imagery of the whole thing was just wrong.  Spivy was about four inches tall, and the goblin was about three feet tall.  It would have been like me blocking the attack of a literal giant yet she didn't seem at all phased by it.  “I’m curious how you manage to evade me, I had to leave my entourage behind to reach you before you left the warren.”

"I have new allies," she replied, slowly circling the goblin on the ground  "I finally found the Chosen One, capable of bringing down the wretched rule of the system lords once and for all."

"Him or the dog," asked the goblin looking over and instantly dismissing the both of us.

"Obviously the human, he is a champion of his people, the greatest warrior from his world," Spivy replied, leaping down onto the floor.

"Well then, I can end your rebellion here,' said the goblin, ignoring Spivy and launching himself straight at me.  I attempted to spear him on the way in but the goblin easily dodged the strike and I only barely managed to get my haft into position to block.  For an instant I could keep up with him, then suddenly my arms seemed to slow.  His dagger struck so quickly that he easily slipped around my spear and drove the point of the weapon into my forearm.

I landed on my ass in a fountain of blood.

The goblins' look of triumph changed to one of horror.  He turned his head to see the small fairy who was holding onto his back as his dagger fell to the ground, "What?  You didn’t defend him.”

“He's not the Chosen One,” replied Spivy.

The goblin stumbled forward, then dropped to his knees as Spivy hopped down from his back, the goblin whispered hoarsly, “If he’s not the chosen one, how did you escape?”

"He’s just a normal human.  He chose a different route to escape than I would, and I spread my bond using a companion core so the inquisitor cannot track me as easily,” said Spivy.

“The system lords will prevail,” said the goblin as he expired.

“Of course they will, they always do,” said Spivy gravely.  She flicked her little sword before sheathing it, her grim attitude vanishing as she looked up at me.

“Chosen one?” I asked.

“No such thing,” said Spivy apologetically.  “You and Shadow were just going to be victims of a goblin slaving plot.  I rescued you from that so you owed me, now we are even, but I’ll still travel with you if you want.”

“So I’m not special,” I asked.

“Not any more than anyone else,” said Spivy with a shrug.  “Trust me, I’ve helped hundreds of adventurers in my time.  What is one person supposed to do to change the world?"

She had a point.  I didn’t even think about saving the world in the past.  I didn’t need to start here.  I was just going to go on an adventure, a man and his dog.

And one annoying fairy, at least temporarily.

Shadow handed me another red bark, and I used it to heal while I figured out what just happened.

I glared at Spivy, "I’m still upset that you used me as a distraction."

"Sorry about that, but in my defense did you see how fast he was?  He'd have killed all three of us otherwise," said the fairy.

"I could not have fought him," said Shadow as he lifted his leg and peed on the now dead goblin.  I at least understood that sentiment even if I didn’t have the time.

"We need to get out of here," I decided.

Shadow looked over at Spivy, his ears going flat, then nodded, "Yes.  We should go.  I’m not so sure about her."

“Hey, now that I’m not being actively chased by a goblin inquisitor, you will find me a much more useful system fairy,” said Spivy.

Shadow looked unsure, “You don’t seem bad, so I will trust you.”

My dog could always figure out if a person was worth knowing almost instantly.  He’s the one who led me to my ex.  He was also the one who distanced himself from her first.  Right now I’d accept his impressions of the fairy.  After all, we could just leave her later.

"We are leaving," I said, getting to my feet as I heard even more goblins chasing after us.