Gales POV
I felt my entire body pushed back by the intense pressure of speed as I watched the ocean begin to speed past the screen and felt the pod start to break as I attempted to place my hands on the controls but was unable to. I soon saw land appear, and just as quickly, a large rock pillar we hit caused the pod to start falling and crash-land into a large pile of sand.
1/20 HP
I saw the screen pop up as we crashed, and we would have been thrown around if we didn't buckle in, but I could still feel most of the impact. I hit my head rather hard on the back of my seat, and once the pod stopped moving and settled into the sand, I felt a slightly warm feeling on the back of my head and touched it and felt the warm liquid of my blood on my hand as I looked at my hand. I then looked towards Ashes, who was knocked unconscious by the impact but was relatively fine, and as I looked at her, I felt myself slowly start to slip into unconsciousness and closed my eyes.
.....Beep
.....Beep
I don't know how long I was out for, but I eventually woke to a constant beeping. As I slowly opened my eyes, I was greeted by Ashes looking down at me with a concerned look on her face.
As soon as I saw her face, I shot up a little too quickly and was immediately greeted with a pounding headache, and I grabbed my head. It was then that I noticed my head was poorly wrapped in bandages and saw Ashes sitting near me with a roll of bandages in her hand.
"A-are you ok?" Asked Ashes as she placed a hand on my head.
I was a little taken off guard, but I gently moved her hand and replied, "I'm fine. Thanks for the bandages."
Her eyes lit up; she smiled at my reply and said, "Thank goodness, I was scared that you wouldn't wake up, and I wasn't sure if the bandages would help!"
I began to gather my thoughts and took a look around, and saw that a dim red light illuminated the inside of the pod, and the glass at the front of the pod was cracked and continued to display what looked to be a warning I couldn't read.
"It says that it's on its emergency power and that the life support will turn off in eight hours." Said Ashes.
I looked at Ashes, who looked down, then said, "I remember you saying you couldn't read, so I thought I could read it for you."
"Uh yeah. Thank you." I replied.
She smiled and then said, " What do we do now?"
I stood up, looked out the window, and saw it was night. I also noticed we were nearly buried in sand, and I tried to see if there was any chance of flying the pod again and attempted to fly it out. I could only hear the engine sparking as it attempted to start, but it eventually stopped completely, and I knew there was no way we were going to get it flying again.
"Do you have any idea where we landed?" I asked Ashes.
At this, Ashes walked to the console, pressed a small button, and a map of a region appeared on the cracked glass. She took a look, and after a minute she smiled and turned to me and said, "I know where we are! We've landed in the Ember Dunes!"
The Ember Dunes. I remember Lucas mentioning that he and his group came from a village in the Ember Dunes. I then asked Ashes, "Did you live in the same village as the others you were grouped with?"
She shook her head at my question and responded, " No, my people live in a different area that's a lot more secluded." She then pointed towards an area that looked to be covered in rocks. "We live in a village underground away from other civilizations and are protected from the sun and sand."
I saw where she was pointing and the small blip representing us, and how far we were from where Ashes pointed. I asked Ashes how far it was, and she looked at the screen and said it was at least 30 miles from our current position. I realized it would take a few days to get there. I wasn't entirely sure it was a good idea to walk there, but I didn't know of any place to go other than the village Lucas and the others told me about, and I had no idea where that was. It was also better than wandering around and dying of dehydration, being attacked by a monster, or being grabbed by a slaver again.
"...Alright, if we head towards your village, will you be able to lead us there?" I asked Ashes.
She paused for a moment and took another look at the screen and eventually said: "Ummmmm.... yeah, I think so."
It was better than nothing, I suppose. I then asked her where she got the bandages, and she pointed to a compartment in the pod. I opened it and found a large survival kit. I opened the kit and found four large bottles of water, three days' worth of canned food, a first-aid kit, a flashlight, a multipurpose tool, a can opener, two sleeping bags, two thick, large blankets, two thermal blankets, a paper map, and a compass.
I was pleasantly surprised by the fully stocked survival kit and grabbed the large blankets. Using the multipurpose tool's knife, I started to cut into the blanket.
"What are you doing?" Asked Ashes.
"I'm trying to make them into cloaks that we can wear as we travel through the desert."
It wasn't perfect, but it would be enough to protect us from the sun, intense heat, and sandstorms. It was slightly amateurish, but I managed to make the blankets into cloaks big enough but comfortable enough for us to walk in. I looked towards the glass, saw the night sky, calculated how much time we had left on the emergency power supply, and turned to Ashes.
"Let's rest here until it's brighter outside. We've been through a lot, and we can use a break so that we have enough energy to walk."
I then grabbed one of the cans of food, opened it, and was greeted by a strong fish smell. I turned away from the strong, fishy smell, took a few seconds, and tried a small scoop of fish. Thankfully, the taste reminded me of tuna, and I realized this was the first semi-decent food I'd eaten since coming to this world. After dwelling on this thought and realizing I was actually free, I saw Ashes staring at me, and I then offered her some of the fish. She had a hesitant look on her face as she took the can, and she eventually scooped a bit of the fish in her hand and ate it. It was clear that she didn't particularly enjoy the taste, but she continued to eat, probably out of hunger. I also opened one of the water bottles, took a sip, and felt revived by the taste of water going down my throat, then traded with Ashes and let her take a sip as I scooped some fish for myself.
After we finished our meal, I told Ashes that we should take the chance to sleep and leave when the power starts to go out, since the emergency power will help keep us somewhat protected from the elements. She nodded at this, and I grabbed the sleeping bags from the kit, gave one to Ashes, and tried to make myself comfortable as I slipped into the slightly oversized sleeping bag. As I began to lie down, Ashes moved toward me with her sleeping bag and asked: "Is it ok if I lay down next to you?"
I stared at her and said, "Alright," and she quickly laid her sleeping bag next to mine with a smile and a happy giggle as she lay down. She closed her eyes, and I soon heard slight snoring coming from her.
'No surprise there. She must have been exhausted after such a chaotic day. It's hard to believe it wasn't too long ago that we were enslaved and now we're free.' I thought to myself.
As I listened to Ashes' snores, I then turned away onto my side and attempted to sleep. It was difficult due to Wolfheart and my slight headache, but, most likely because of my own exhaustion and the damage done to my body, I soon drifted off to sleep.
Seven hours later
Warning: Emergency power will shut off in 30 minutes.
The pod's computer awakened me, and, while still groggy, I managed to wake up and saw Ashes slowly waking as well, rubbing her eyes. I suppose it was nice to have an alarm to wake us up, and when I woke fully, I looked through the glass panel and was greeted by the bright sun.
I urged Ashes to start getting ready for our journey, and we put on our makeshift cloaks. I grabbed the half-empty bottle of water, shared it with Ashes, and finished it to make sure we were properly hydrated for the trip. As I gave the last bit of water to Ashes, I took inventory, organized our stuff, and placed it in the large bag it came in.
"We unfortunately don't have a better way of carrying everything, so we'll have to take turns carrying it to give the other a break," I said as I finished packing the kit.
While I lamented that we didn't have a better way of carrying our stuff, a small window popped up in front of me.
Place in inventory?
I stopped for a moment, read the window again, and once I did, I replied with "Ummm... yes?"
As soon as the words left my mouth, the survival kit vanished in a blue glow in front of me, and the window displayed ' Large Survival Kit placed in inventory.'
As I processed what had just happened, I remembered that Ashes was behind me and turned back to her, who was staring at me as the kit disappeared in a blue light. I tried to explain what had happened quickly and was caught off guard by what she said next.
"You have a system?!"
I froze as she said this, as this was one of the last things I expected, and I was prepared to try and lie my way out of it. She had an astonished yet excited look on her face as she quickly asked, "Are you an otherworlder?!" and got slightly too close for comfort. She realized how close she was to my face, quickly backed up, kept looking at me, and waited for a response.
"...How do you know about the system?" I asked.
" I've heard and read stories about people that the gods grab from another world and send to our world and are all blessed with the system!" Responded Ashes enthusiastically.
"The people that come to our world all go on to do amazing things, and they become heroes!" She continued.
It was a bit of a shock hearing all this. I never imagined that people arriving here with a system was supposedly something common that the people of Eidocosm were already aware of. Is that the reason I was sent here? To become a hero? I could've at least been sent to a slightly better place than that hole. I then took a look at my body and thought about something that's been on my mind this whole time, but I could never get a straight answer, but might be able to now. I took a deep breath, looked at Ashes, and spoke.
"Ashes, you're right. I'm not from around here, and I do have a system. That's why I want to ask you something."
At this, Ashes listened intently to me, and I continued.
"Why is it that whenever someone sees my ears or tail, they get scared?"
Ashes stared at me for a moment with an almost dumbfounded expression on her face until she eventually said: "You really don't know?"
I shook my head, and as I did this, I saw what looked to be an almost hesitant expression on her face, and after a minute of silence, she eventually spoke.
"A long time ago there was a really, really bad wolf demihuman that .... killed a lot of people. He was so bad that a lot of heroes worked together to stop him, and they did."
"...But that was just one person, right? It was also a long time ago, so why would people get scared of one person that died years ago? I surely don't have any similar features other than my ears or tail, right?" I questioned.
She paused for a moment and continued, " The bad wolf demihuman created a curse when he died."
"A curse?"
She nodded and said, " The curse was that when he died, his power would go to a random wolf demihuman, and that person would continue to hurt people as well."
"...What?" I asked as my heart dropped.
She continued, " The heroes thought it wasn't real, but then a lady wolf demihuman started doing exactly what the bad one did, and when the heroes stopped her, then another one started to hurt others."
My mouth started to feel dry as I continued to listen.
"The heroes and the whole world didn't know how to break the curse, so they made a really bad plan."
I could see her struggle to tell me this next part, but eventually she spoke.
"They decided to get rid of every wolf demihuman in the world to make sure the bad wolf's power didn't come back."
I felt my body freeze as she told me this, and eventually I asked, "I'm ... supposed to be extinct?"
She solemnly nodded as I asked, and I realized I was basically a fairy-tale monster come to life. Most people probably only heard about wolf demihumans in stories. I took a minute to process it, and I eventually got the courage to ask Ashes my last question.
"What was the bad wolf's power?"
I could see she was scared to tell me this last part from her shivering; she might be afraid I would try to use it, but she eventually spoke.
"He had the power to absorb anything. Including the souls of people."
As soon as she said this, my mind went to one thing that's been in the back of my head but never paid much attention to. I nonverbally summoned the system and went to a window I rarely opened because it wasn't much use to me. I looked at my skills and saw a lot of new options, but I didn't look at them; instead, I went to the unknown skill that constantly gnawed at me.
As I looked at the skill, I could see it was no longer displayed as unknown, but it didn't provide anything other than its name.
Absorption