Critters

The pain disappeared and he was now mentally free to analyze whatever he could understand from the dead beast. Of course, he was no scientist. His brain merely said "scorpion" and "tiger" and "haha" and that was it.

Kortock seemed to notice that Ian wasn't doing a whole lot of thinking.

"You want to know more, or should we actually talk business for a moment?" he asked with a knowing smirk. "I don't think you get a whole lot out of looking at that dead, dismembered body."

"Are there people who do get something out of it?" Ian asked.

He had not intended to sound so sarcastic, but now Kortock gave him a really sour look.

"You might have no appreciation for biology, but others do. There is a lot we can learn from the beasts."

Anxious to change the topic, Ian tried to say something intelligent.

"What is your system, Mister Kortock?"

Kortock chuckled. "I am glad you finally asked that. I talk about my system whenever I get the chance. It's the Probability Foresight System."

"A…what?" Ian was now interested. He had been into gambling for a short while, but he had not been able to slay his opponents in a game of poker, no matter how hard he had tried.

Kortock was now really beaming, smiling and revealing a weird side of himself. Perhaps he did indeed have a mental illness, something that helped him stay sane in such a strange environment.

Some of the most grounded people Ian knew were utterly insane.

"You heard me right, Ian," Kortock said and nodded smugly. "It's rather straightforward, really. I just upgrade into a better version of the same skill to get more insights."

"And you can see how likely a certain event is before it even happens?"

"Well, I started out with being able to analyze the past, but now? I can see so far in the future that I know it will rain tomorrow, and it will rain hard."

"It's just starting to dry up around here, though," Ian commented. He wasn't as much skeptical about this whole concept as he was doubtful about tomorrow's weather. "They said the clouds would move up north."

"So many years on Earth, and you still believe the weather forecast?" Kortock laughed. "All right. Do you have any general questions about what you need to do with your system?"

Ian thought about how to sound as intelligent as possible. "Do I get daily missions after leveling up?"

"You have to reach the tenth level. The missions are worth the wait, though."

"Did you foresee me killing that krobinnuti?" Ian asked.

Kortock shook his head. "No, no way I was even aware of your existence back then. I have to have something to work with, a starting point, but I only hope you can point me into the right direction now. What's your first mission?"

"To kill five filtigers."

Kortock dropped his mug and spilled coffee on his tie.

"What is it about me that makes people drop things…" Ian scratched his head.

"You will have all the assistance you need," Kortock said and walked with him into a very high-tech meeting room.

They sat around for a while, awkwardly swiping the walls with their gazes, as the reality of having to slay five terrifying beasts of the jungle settled in for Ian and he truly began to fear for his life.

"Look. I know I might seem like a difficult person," Kortock finally said.

"You are very self-aware, then." Ian turned away. "I am a bit scared of you."

"And you should be. That's your rational mind speaking. I'm glad that you have enough sense in you to get scared. I was worried when they dragged you into the hospital."

"What do you need me to do?" Ian asked. "I know I have to power up, but what can I do for you?"

"What if I became your mentor?" Kortock asked. "There is a krobinnuti general we need to eliminate. This beast is among the biggest and the most dangerous of them all. Big as an elephant. Hard to kill due to his minions. The sheer size of his personal guards…"

Ian smelled an opportunity for glory here.

"You want my help in killing that general?"

"You will be helped, of course. You will need to power up your skill many times to get where you need to be. Ian, this beast is dangerous."

"I understand," Ian said, swallowing a snarky comment. He had no reason to be so difficult. Kortock seemed to be a good guy, even if he was weird and frightening.

"And…we will need your help in constructing a portal to the krobinnuti dimension as well. We lack a component we need for that."

"So, get that component, level up and kill a krobinnuti general in a dimension of scorpion cats?"

"More or less. I will give you my contact number now."

[CONTACT ACQUIRED: ZAIN KORTOCK[

[PERSONAL NOTES: EMPTY]

[TO ADD PERSONAL NOTES USE COMMAND: ADD NOTE]

"Add note: kind but weird," Ian thought.

[PERSONAL NOTE SAVED]

They parted ways after a short ride to the hospital. Of course, the doctors were a bit grumpy since Ian's arm had been in danger, but they couldn't put up a fight against men in such nice suits.

When Ian returned to his room to sleep, he found Lilac there, waiting with two sandwiches in her hands.

"The other one is for me," the nurse explained. "There's no way I can bear to talk with this screamin' hunger."

They sat on his bed and ate, but fate intervened, in the form of a tropical spider.

Ian was a northern guy. Not literally, of course, but his genes were of the type that adapted to cold better. For his entire life he had been sweating, sometimes so much that it was awkward. Another thing about having lived nearly two decades in the tropic that he did not care for – all those damn critters.

This spider had a body that was as big as a golf ball. It was crawling on the floor towards the crumbs of the sandwiches. Its motions were so twitchy and disgusting that Ian was glad to hear Lilac scream.

Otherwise he would have screamed first.

"Dear sweet -!" he yelled.

Then he used all of his willpower to focus an attack of fire on the spider.

It was all reflex and no reason. He hated spiders.

The spider exploded with a sound that resembled a regular pistol with a silencer. It went up in flames, exploding in a ball of orange and yellow. The fire that reached the height of a big dog caused the automatic fire extinguisher to start spraying water onto it.