From Moving Crates to Killing Gods-Chapter 94: Existential Crisis

The hot water was the best thing that had happened to me in months. I stood there longer than necessary and didn’t feel guilty about it. Not even a little. The wasteland left a kind of grime that refused to leave, a combination of dust and sweat.

Wip had spent that time exploring the room. I could hear the small sounds of her paws moving across different surfaces, tapping objects as if she were classifying them into categories.

Bed, acceptable. Wall, not a rock. Table, promising but flat. She was conducting a thorough inspection, probably taking mental notes for her review later. Three stars, there’s no rocks.

I sat down on my bed, and pulled up my stats.

Strength: 13

Agility: 14

Constitution: 13

Intelligence: 16

Wisdom: 5

Luck: 8

Sixteen in intelligence, my highest stat. That tracked with how often I’d used Sense in the wasteland.

Agility at fourteen. That one refused to budge. I hadn’t even done much running this time, but a secret breakthrough would have been nice.

Strength and constitution at thirteen tracked with carrying the heavy bags and walking for weeks with them on my back.

But luck at eight.

It had started at five. Three points had appeared somewhere along the way without me noticing. Damian had said luck increased when the system felt like it, which was about as satisfying as explaining weather by saying rain happened when it rained.

Then I noticed the small tab beside my stats.

It simply said Wip.

Apparently I could check her stats, which felt useful and slightly invasive. Like reading someone’s diary... except the diary was a mysterious creature that ate rocks recreationally and had opinions about furniture.

I left it there for now and stood up.

Food first, priorities. My body needed fuel. Wip probably also wanted to eat something, she was small but she packed some hunger inside that pale fur.

I then opened the door of the fridge.

As soon as I did that, Wip appeared from wherever she had been exploring with impressive speed. One moment she was investigating a corner, the next she was at my feet like she’d teleported. Her little paws slipped slightly on the smooth floor.

It seemed like she had an excellent sense of smell.

Wip leaned forward immediately, one paw lifting slightly off the ground, ears straight up, eyes locked onto the contents of the fridge with the focused intensity of a hunter who had just spotted prey. She made a small sound that wasn’t quite a wip, it was something lower and urgent.

"I know." I told her calmly. "The first time I saw a real fridge after the wasteland I had the same reaction... different reaction when I was a kid though, back then fridges were filled mostly with nutritional paste."

I pulled out a portion of meat and cut pieces for both of us. Wip ate with the efficiency of something that had survived on canned rations for months and intended to correct that mistake immediately. She finished before I got through half my plate. Her plate was clean, spotless. It looked like it had been washed, except it hadn’t been washed.

"Wip wip wip." she said while looking at the counter expectantly. Her tail moved in a hopeful arc. Her eyes were very large. Very round. Very difficult to refuse.

"You just ate." I replied. "That was a lot of meat for you, that was like eating your own body weight."

"Wip wip wip." she insisted more firmly, the tone shifting from request to demand. Who would have thought that when I first found you, you were terrified of me. Now you were comfortable enough to start making demands.

I gave her another piece, which she accepted without any visible shame. No acknowledgment that she had just eaten a meal large enough to sustain a creature twice her size.

While she worked on her second portion I was already planning a training calendar for the next three months in my head.

Agility was closest to breaking through. If I focused properly I might crack strength and constitution before December as well, which would put me in a great position when fighting against Corruptors.

December also meant clearing the path. If I cleared the first zone from any Corruptors before they arrived, the initial section of the wasteland would be much less deadly.

I needed to be ready for that. Three months to get stronger and clear a path for them.

And now I had one less thing to worry about with the vow. If it triggered and dropped me somewhere in the wasteland, there were outposts with massive vines that could guide me. There was a route back to Argent.

Wip finished the second portion and looked at me, her tail moving in a slow satisfied arc. Her eyes were slightly glazed with the contentment of a full stomach. She looked like she might fall asleep at any moment. She looked like the happiest creature in Argent... probably because every other mob in Argent eventually became food.

"Right." I said while opening the stats window again. "Let’s see what you’ve got. Let’s find out what kind of mysterious rock obsessed flying creature I accidentally bonded my soul to."

I pressed the Wip tab.

The window appeared.

I looked at it.

Then I frowned.

That wasn’t what I expected. That was not even close to what I expected. That was the kind of information that raised many new questions while answering exactly none.

I leaned forward slightly, reading it again to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood something. The words didn’t change, the numbers didn’t shift. The information remained the same. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Behind me, Wip hopped onto the bed and curled up like the matter had nothing to do with her. She tucked her nose under her tail and closed her eyes, completely unconcerned with the existential crisis she was causing.

I kept staring at the window.

"...That can’t be right." I said quietly.

Wip didn’t respond.

She was already asleep.