Chapter IV

Cash's eyes flashed open as a wonderfully warm feeling filled his chest. It was like he had just drank a hot coffee on a freezing cold day. The warmth radiated out from his chest and travelled to the ends of his arms and legs. He sucked in a breath of fresh air and shot forward, watching as the awful wound in his leg healed before his eyes. Cash turned to the side and watched as the bone in Opie's leg was also being sucked back under the skin even as the open wound started to shut. Opie's breathing evened out and he let out a bark as he must've felt the same way Cash was feeling. Both of their hideous and mortal wounds were healed within a matter of seconds. In fact, Cash felt better than ever. He had, had numerous injuries throughout his life and it felt like whatever just happened to him had fixed everything. Even the shoulder injury that he got in the military was fixed. He hadn't felt this good in, well, ever.

Overjoyed in their miraculous situation, Cash leaned over and hugged Opie, laughing as Opie licked his face and yipped at him. Together, they enjoyed the second chance they'd seemingly been given until Cash thought of the last notification he'd received before blacking out. It said he had leveled up. That had to have been the reason they were healed.

"In some games I've played, the character returns to full health once they level up. That must be what saved us. A level up also always means you get a skill point or attributes or something. Wait, how do I use whatever I get? There's gotta be a sort of menu or something." Cash thought.

Cash began to try every sort of common name he'd seen used in video games in an attempt to get his status screen to show up. Finally, he tried...

"Status."

NAME: CASSIUS ANDROMEDUS (LVL. 1)

RACE: HUMAN

BLOODLINE: ???

CLASS: SWORDSMAN (COMMON)

SOUL COMPANION: OPIE (LVL. 1)

ATTRIBUTES:

STRENGTH: 9

ENDURANCE: 8

AGILITY: 5

DEXTERITY: 10

CHARISMA: 3

WILLPOWER: 6

INTELLIGENCE: 5

WISDOM: 3

LUCK: 3  

POINTS AVAILABLE: 4  

TITLES:

FORERUNNER

FIRST TO KILL

SECOND CHANCE

SOUL-BOND  

SKILLS:

BLUNT ONE-HANDED WEAPONS (BASIC LVL. 1)

BLADED ONE-HANDED WEAPONS (COMMON LVL. 1)

BLADED TWO-HANDED WEAPONS (COMMON LVL. 1)

"Yes! I told you it would work Opie!"

Opie harumphed in response to Cash's statement. Cash could feel Opie laughing at him as he tried everything to open the menu and looked like an idiot shouting random things in the cavern. Which he quickly realized was a mistake. There could be more monsters nearby.

"I need to figure this shit out quickly before we need to move on buddy."

Cash placed his newly earned attribute points, following along the same lines of thought from his previous selection, raising his strength to 10, endurance to 10, and luck to 4 rather than touching his dexterity this time. He had a feeling that luck might be more beneficial to their survival than it seemed.

His new attribute list started to look a lot better than the first time he saw it.

ATTRIBUTES:

STRENGTH: 10

ENDURANCE: 10

AGILITY: 5

DEXTERITY: 10

CHARISMA: 3

WILLPOWER: 6

INTELLIGENCE: 5

WISDOM: 3

LUCK: 4

As he selected accept to his selection, he felt his body tighten a little while also feeling heavier. He looked down at his body and raised his shirt. His jaw dropped. 

"Holy shit! When did I get a six-pack! I haven't looked this good since I graduated basic training!"

Cash realized as he upgraded his strength and endurance his body was changing drastically. He'd only put a few points in but already he was seeing huge changes. His biceps were causing the arms of his t-shirt to get stuck; his shoulders were starting to fill out, and his jeans were tight around his legs. He started to wonder what he would look like with fifty points in strength, no, a hundred?

Cash shook his head to clear his thoughts and continued to look at his character sheet. His eyes focused on the bloodline part for a moment before looking lower again and seeing the soul companion line. He turned to look at his best bud who was also looking at him with his head tilted to the side and his dog ears pointing straight up. 

"Opie, we're soul companions? What does that mean?"

Opie sat on his haunches then and bobbed his head up and down once as if answering Cash's question. Cash was stunned. He and Opie had always seemed to be able to communicate to one another but never did Opie respond to him like this.

"You can understand me?"

Opie barked at him in return before padding over and sitting at Cash's feet. Cash seemed to instinctively understand what Opie wanted and crouched down to be eye-level with Opie. Cash leaned forward and touched his forehead to Opie's. As soon as the connection was physically made Cash heard a deep baritone voice in his head.

"I require sustenance."

"AHHHH! What the fuck! Who said that!" Cash screamed.

Cash feel onto his back as he frantically looked around looking for the owner of the voice he had heard. There was no one around except for he and Opie. The voice sounded like it belonged to a giant of a man. Cash continued to look around with a tight grip on his club before his eyes settled again on Opie who hadn't moved. Opie was giving him that tilted head look again.

"Wait. Was that you Opie?"

Cash settled in front of Opie again before touching his forehead against his own once more.

"Opie?"

"Cassius." The deep voice rumbled.

Cash couldn't process anything for a moment as he realized the voice belonged to Opie. They were able to talk to each other. He could hear him in his head. Cash was still struggling to process Opie's sentience when Opie spoke again to him.

"I really want beer and pizza, Cassius." Opie stated.

"We can talk to each other now?"

"Yes man, come on, catch up already I'm starving over here." Opie said.

Cash slowly looked around at the carnage around them and said, "Uhhhh, me too buddy. How about some ant leftovers huh?"

"Dude, that's so gross. " Opie responded.

"Right. Gross. Yeah. I don't know about beer and pizza, but I can get you that ant antennae you ripped out to chew on like a bone while we move?"

"That's fine I guess." Opie sighed.