The Last Experience Point

Chapter 13: Frog Snax

As the early-morning sunrise caused a small sliver of light to appear on one of the old wooden floorboards in his bedroom, Zach sat up with a yawn, then stretched, rolled out of bed, and stumbled his way groggily into his kitchen. Opening the fridge, he grabbed a bottle of water and then made his way back to his room to get dressed. He was careful not to step on the shards of glass near the corner of his living room from the remnants of a window Fluffles had broken; he hadn’t bothered to clean up any of it since he was never coming back to this place anyway.

There are so many broken windows on the 8th floor now, he thought. He recalled that Varsh had broken one on his way out as well.

Having been so sleep deprived, Zach had spent almost all of yesterday in bed. At first, he doubted it would even be possible to fall asleep with everything that had happened to him so fresh in his mind. Yet, it seemed that, even during times of emotional turmoil, there was just a certain point where sleep had to happen; in Zach’s case, he must have greatly exceeded it. It wasn’t just his lack of sleep the night before, either, but also an entire day spent grinding in a dark cavern followed by a battle in Kalana’s apartment and ending with an “exertion debt.” It was no wonder he was so tired.

To his own surprise, he not only slept most of the day, but he slept the entire night, too. Other than a quick trip to buy a new phone, a chew toy for Fluffles, and a bicycle, which was now chained up outside of his apartment building, the only times he’d gotten out of bed had been to feed the cat and to use the bathroom.

“Where is he, anyway?” Zach asked aloud, scanning his eyes around the apartment. “He knows to be back by now. Uh, Fluffles? Hello?”

Initially, Zach had been very concerned about the cat. It had been their first day together, and Zach didn’t want him to be bored or depressed or feel lonely, but he’d been just so damn tired he couldn’t possibly stay awake and entertain his new buddy. This turned out not to be a problem—like, at all. After Zach had fallen asleep, he briefly awoke to the sound of a crash in his apartment living room. Despite being so many stories up, Fluffles had simply leapt right out of the damn window. As if it were a sign of how acclimated Zach was becoming to this new, crazy reality he’d found himself in, he simply rolled back over and went to sleep, assuming the cat knew what it was doing and would be fine, not even caring about the broken window.

About two or three hours into his first nap, he’d woken in a bit of a panic as he suddenly realized the cat had no way to get back in. He’d flipped over to his opposite side, prepared to jump out of bed—and that was when he saw Fluffles, purring and sleeping in a ball on the pillow next to his. Confused, Zach considered waking him up, but he looked so peaceful and happy that he thought the better of it. With a shrug, he’d gone back to sleep, only to awaken an hour later at the sound of footsteps.

“It okay,” Fluffles had whispered. Zach had only seen him through half-open eyes standing in the frame of his bedroom door.

“Fluffles?” he’d half-whispered, half-moaned.

“Zach, you sleep. I go play outside again.”

“How do you keep getting back in?”

“Huh? I climb building. Zach not smart?”

“Wait, so you just…you just run up the damn building? Like, the wall?”

Fluffles hadn’t even answered him. He’d simply disappeared into the living room and hopped out of the window again. Was he falling straight down and landing on his feet, or could the little guy sprout wings and fly? Who the hell knew? Then again, he was a high-level cat, which was apparently a thing somehow, so maybe that was why he could do something so insane. Whatever. It didn’t matter.

At any rate, this had turned out to be something of a “pattern” all throughout the day and even the night. Fluffles would go outside, come back and sleep for a bit, then rinse and repeat. Every time Zach turned over in bed or got up to use the bathroom, he had never been able to predict whether or not Fluffles would be asleep on the pillow next to him or doing whatever it was he did outside. Now, however, as sunrise had finally come on the first day of his new life, he scratched his chin as he wondered where the cat had run off to.

Slipping into a pair of black shorts and a white t-shirt, Zach became progressively less groggy with each second that passed. More so, he was actually feeling excited. It wasn’t something he expected to feel. In fact, nothing seemed to turn out as he expected anymore. The moment he’d stormed out of Kalana’s apartment yesterday, he’d really believed he was in for a long, depressing day of crying and loneliness. But no. For whatever reason, it just didn’t happen. Instead, he’d slept Gods knew how many hours and the only emotion that popped into his head was the one he felt right now: raw, utter excitement.

I can’t believe it, he thought. I guess Mr. Oren really does know better than me.

To his shame, he finally had to admit that maybe, just maybe, Mr. Oren was right and he was wrong. And maybe, just maybe, he owed the man an apology. The idea of setting off on a real, actual adventure stirred him in a way he’d never felt before. It gave him a sense of purpose he didn’t know he was capable of. Somehow, that man had known his heart better than he himself did. All at once, Zach realized that he not only had to do this, but that he wanted to do this, too. And to think: he’d been so damn angry yesterday. He never imagined that this sudden shift in perspective would happen so quickly and with such intensity.

This is really happening. I’m really going to do this.

Having lost his nice, new backpack in the underground cavern, he was going to have to take his beaten-up old grey one that had scuffs in the fabric and a loose strap. Even still, it would have to do. He would have to be very careful about what he packed since he didn’t have a whole lot of room. Spare clothing for sure, soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and…and what else? Food he could buy on the road, and he wouldn’t be able to fit sheets or blankets into such a small pack. He supposed if he took that expensive submersible one he’d bought there’d be more room, but since he was traveling via bicycle, it would be extremely difficult to take with him.

“We’re so close to summer, so I guess I’ll take mostly shorts and a few pairs of jeans. I don’t think I’ll need any—”

“Don’t forget my chew toy,” Fluffles said, startling him. Well, it looked like he was finally back. The cat jumped up onto the bed, then immediately jumped off, making Zach wonder why he’d bothered to hop on it in the first place if he had no intention of staying there. He doubted that was even a “Fluffles” thing. It was probably more of a cat thing. It caused Zach to laugh.

“Why does Zach laugh?” Fluffles asked.

“I just think cats are funny.”

He hissed. “Now I am mad at Zach.”

“Sorry, sorry. I just thought it was funny because…ah, never mind.”

“No! Now you have to say to Fluffles why. Why funny?”

Uh oh. This was not a conversation that seemed to be moving in a positive direction. Fluffles was staring at him with his amber eyes. As a cat, he lacked the ability to frown, but Zach noticed the way his bushy tail was now thwacking against the old squeaky floorboards.

“I just thought it was funny…you know, the way you jump on things.”

Fluffles actually seemed offended, which was both alarming and kind of shocking. “Zach think cats so funny? Humans funny. Humans stupid! I show you. I show Zach. This is what human do.”

Zach opened his mouth, and the sound “wh” had just been about to escape his lips when Fluffles did something so unexpected it made his attempted word cut off in a gasp. Without any warning, the cat let out a painful-sounding meow, hastily spun around three times in a full circle, and then began to blow up like a balloon. His body puffed up and expanded before Zach’s very eyes. What had been a little ball of fur now grew to the point that Zach had to take two step backs, as his body covered the entire area rug. His paws and head had all vanished, too, so that now he really was just a gigantic orb of nothing but fur.

“Fluffles, what the hell is going on?” Zach shouted. “Are you okay?”

Fluffles did not reply. He just continued to grow and grow until finally, as this massive ball of fur sitting in the middle of Zach’s bedroom, his body again began to shift. Two extremely awkwardly shaped limbs popped out of his sides, and another two emerged from below. Then something else began to grow where his head should have been. Wait, was he…was he trying to make himself look like a human?

Oh, wow, he is.

The giveaway was the head—or at least something that almost looked like a head. Fluffles head was now a circle: not circular, mind you, but an actual perfect circle. His eyes were also perfectly round, and his lips consisted of a straight line as though it had been drawn with the aid of a ruler. His arms ended in something that “kind of” looked like hands but with the wrong number of fingers. Hell, one hand even had more fingers than the other, too. His legs were also stubby, and his toes were triangle shaped. He also seemed to have some kind of beard-thing, but it was just a patch of fuzzy whiskers. Honestly, Zach felt like he was staring at a three-year-old’s drawing of a human, only it was here in real life standing across from him. Oh, and it spoke, too.

“Durr, look at me!” he shouted, loudly. His voice still sounded like Fluffles, only now it also reminded Zach of someone with a profound cognitive impairment. “I am human, durr! I do taxes and send things in the mail! Does anyone have a fork?”

In an instant, Fluffles shrank, and before Zach’s very eyes, he simply collapsed in on himself until the only thing that remained was the same old black-and-white cat that he’d always been. “That,” he said, with another meow, “is what human sound like.”

Zach stared open-mouthed at the cat, then held out his hands with his palms open in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful about what I say in the future when it comes to cats. Also, I didn’t know you could...uh…do whatever that was.”

So he’s not just a talking cat but a shape-shifter, Zach thought, bewildered. Well that was scary as hell to see.

Quickly packing whatever would fit in his backpack, Zach took one last look around his apartment and then realized it was time to go. Now that the moment had come, he did feel a rush of sadness, but it wasn’t as bad as he’d feared it might be. It was more of a hesitance—a pang of doubt in the back of his mind that told him he wasn’t good enough to be attempting what he was about to do.

I have to be, he thought. Or Kalana…I’ll never see her again.

Fluffles followed him out of the apartment, and Zach could swear he had a knowing look on his face. Did he understand how sad Zach was to be leaving this behind forever? Or was Zach just imagining his compassion? Either way, the two of them walked down the hallway side by side; each step became easier for Zach the further away he got.

Reaching the elevator at the end of the hall, Zach pressed the call button. Now, a whole different excitement bubbled up within him, but this one was much more of a nervous, uneasy type of anticipation, as the time had finally come to test his idea. It was finally time to see if his brain had actually come up with something that would work.

As the elevator doors opened and the two of them stepped inside, Zach did not thumb the button for the lobby. Instead, he pressed the topmost button labeled “M” which led to the roof. The moment the elevator began to lurch upwards, Fluffles meowed at him and said, “Why we go up? Is chicken up?”

He smiled at Fluffles. “Nope. I’ll give you chicken later though, buddy.”

“Why we go up?”

“I want to test something. I’ve been thinking about how to find someplace to level up. Mr. Oren thinks it’s easy to do, but I sure as hell don’t know where to begin looking. Am I just supposed to go meandering through forests and swamps?”

“But…Zach think mobs on roof?”

He laughed. “No, Fluffles. I just think the roof is a good place to try something I’ve been wondering about for a while now, actually.”

“Tell!”

“I will. Just give me a second.”

The elevator doors reopened, and the two of them stepped out. Zach felt his chest flutter as he prayed to the Gods above that this little experiment of his would actually work. It was something he’d been thinking about in the back of his head during his lengthy “debate” with Mr. Oren. Even while shouting at his boss-slaying science teacher, he had known on some level he’d end up in this is situation, and his mind had scrambled for some of idea of what he’d do if he really did wind up all on his own.

There’s no way this is actually going to work, he thought. But I still have to try.

“It stink!” Fluffles said. “I do not like it here. I want no more smell.”

“Then let’s walk a bit faster.”

The two of them navigated their way through a dark, narrow passage with dirty mops and trash bags everywhere, as well as a leaky ceiling, and a pair of gloves that looked to be covered in rat feces. At the end of this short passage were four damp steps leading to a rusted, blue, metallic-looking door. Zach tried to push it open, and to his dismay, it wouldn’t budge.

“Damn!” he grumbled. “It won’t budge.”

“Fluffles can destroy if Zach want.”

He looked at the cat and raised his eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yes. Fluffles break?”

Zach thought about it a moment. Then he realized he himself had 3 points into strength. Sure, that might be nothing compared to what Mr. Oren had—Gods only knew how high his was with the lab coat and everything back on—but for normal, everyday objects like a locked door? Surely it would be enough.

Zach took several steps back, then immediately bolted forward, slamming his entire body into the blue door. With a scratching-squeak, the thing flew right off its hinges and landed with a somewhat muted crack onto a gravel surface under the early-morning sun.

Eager to be gone from the foul-smelling passageway, Zach stepped out and onto the roof, where he could now see the entire city of Whispery Woods in a way he’d never been able to before. If they had only maintained it properly, it really could have been something special. When viewed in its entirety without focusing in on any single detail, Zach could almost see the wonder it must have been a hundred years ago when it’d been built. There was a symmetry to the way the taller buildings flanked the shorter buildings that made the city look like a rising staircase.

“Okay, let’s be careful up here.”

“Why?”

“So I don’t die.”

Unlike Fluffles and Mr. Oren and Varsh and probably even Kalana, Zach was still the type of person who would die if he fell off the roof of a high-riser. Therefore, he walked no further out than the middle of the roof before stopping. There were barely any safety rails up here. The thought of falling off made his stomach queasy.

“Zach, you are doing something now?” Fluffles asked. “Why come here? You promise to tell!”

“Sure thing. Just let me get something.”

Zach removed his backpack and unzipped the larger of the two pouches. He reached inside, and he pulled out a sealed package of a snack food that he was positive could not be found in the local supermarket. It had been the only drop he’d ever gotten from a mob: Frog Snax.

“Ohh!” Fluffles chirped excitedly, meowing several times. “You take us here to enjoy snack!”

“Nope.”

“You…you take us to…to give Fluffles snack?”

Zach wiggled his finger. “No again. I told you. I’m here to try something out. Let me explain, okay?”

“Yes. Explain!”

He took a breath, organized his thoughts, and then literally began to explain his plans to an actual talking cat, something that was definitely going to take some getting used. “When I was leveling with Kalana,” he began, “I got this item from one of those frog things. I forgot what they were called. They’re like these big”—he gestured with his hands—“frogs the size of a dog with a red stripe on their face.”

“Toadfeet,” Fluffles said.

“Ah, right. Toadfeet. Wow, I can’t believe you know that.”

“I am very smart. I am a good cat. I should be rewarded with chicken.”

“I’ll give you chicken later, buddy. But do you want to know my plan or not?”

“I sorry. Zach keep explaining.”

Zach nodded. “So anyway, I got this snack from them. Here, let me…let me show you the description so it’ll make more sense.” He lifted his hand to tap his right shoulder four times, then quickly displayed his inventory to Fluffles. He only had one item, and it was the one he was holding.

Frog Snax: picked up by Zachys Calador

Summons a wisp of light that causes the nearest non-boss, non-enraged aquatic-type enemy to become distracted for 45 seconds, forgetting its target.

500 range. Only 1 wisp may be active at a time. Not usable by Goblins, Dwarves, or Shadowfangs.

“Do you like Frog Snax, Zach?” Fluffles asked.

“I have no idea, never tried them. But that’s…that’s not the point.” Zach tapped his finger on the box. “The point is that this thing says if I eat one, it’ll summon a wisp to distract the nearest aquatic-type mob within 500 range for 45 seconds.”

“Okay. That’s nice. I know that though because you show.”

Only then did it dawn on Zach just how crazy it was that Fluffles could actually read. It was such a strange thing to consider: a cat having the ability to read. It wasn’t something he ever thought he’d encounter. “So, you understand, right? This thing distracts aquatic-type mobs. I think it’s so that if you get attacked by one, you can run away.”

He waited to see if Fluffles had anything to say in reply. The cat said nothing, so he merely continued, “So anyway, the thing is that there are no aquatic monsters here. Or if there are, I have no idea where to find them. So when I got this item, it seemed really useless to me, and I completely forgot about it. I planned to sell it, actually. But then, I got this.”

Now, Zach brought out his list of abilities, of which there were only two. It was the second of these that he showed his cat.

(Inner Ability) Boundless (UNIQUE)

The next non-damaging, non-repeating spell, ability, equipment ability, or item ability can be used regardless of range unless a target is required, in which case the user must be within seeing distance. Cannot be used with abilities that aid in charming or card-capture. Cannot be used to target or affect card-based summons. Exertion Level: Very Low.

Pointing at the words in the air before him, he said, “This was another thing I thought was useless at the time. But somehow, when Mr. Oren was breaking the news to me that I’d have to level up alone and with no hint of even where to look, I started to get this idea that—”

Fluffles made a bizarre-sounding hiss, then focused his amber-colored eyes intensely on Zach. “What is it?” Zach asked him. “What’s wrong?”

“You…you do trick?”

“Huh?”

The cat began to walk back and forth as if agitated. “That ability not real.”

“What do you mean?”

“Impossible ability. No one can have.”

“Why?”

Fluffles abruptly stopped moving and again hissed. “No one have infinite range. Impossible. Zach playing trick. Now I get to have two cans of tuna because Zach did trick.”

Zach moaned, becoming agitated. “It’s not a trick.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Okay. I believe.”

“It’s why we’re up here. This ability might not be useless after all.” Once again, he tapped his finger on the sealed, cardboard box that’d dropped from the Toadfeet. “If I use Boundless, and then eat one of these…what will happen? It’ll make a wisp, and then that wisp will go to the nearest aquatic-type enemy. Wherever on this planet that is. Right?”

Fluffles meowed. “Zach smart.”

“So you understand what I’m going for, then?” The cat’s only response was to come closer and brush up against him. Zach laughed. “I have no idea if this will even work. If not, I will open this thing and ruin its value for no reason. But if it does work, then…well, let’s just see.”

Having waited long enough, Zach activated Boundless for the very first time. Immediately, several beads of sweat began to drip down the sides of his face, and his breathing became heavy. Despite being a “very low” level of exertion, he felt like he’d just run up and down a flight of stairs fifty times in a row. He even had to fan himself with the box of Frog Snax as the top of his shirt dampened.

“Whew, that was a workout,” he said with a laugh. “So I guess…I guess that means I did it.”

Zach turned the box of Frog Snax over a few times in his hand, then felt around with his index finger for a way of opening the package without destroying the box. He hoped they didn’t taste awful. Despite the apartment building being a disgusting mess, he still didn’t want to litter, so he placed the box down after unwrapping it, then turned around and stuffed the plastic wrapper in his backpack. That way he didn’t have to throw it on the ground.

“Okay, let’s see what this—” his eyes widened—“Fluffles! Are you kidding me?” he shouted.

The cat had torn open the cardboard with his claw, then looked at Zach with innocent eyes. In his mouth were two of the only ten Frog Snax that even came with the damn thing. They were small, orange in colored, and looked flaky on the outside like a breaded chip.

“D-drop it!” Zach said to him. “Fluffles, no! Bad!” Fluffles turned around, facing away from Zach. “I said drop it!”

When he began to walk away, Zach moved towards him, and then he began to run, so Zach began to run too, chasing after him. Fluffles didn’t seem to care and only moved faster, requiring Zach to in turn increase his own pace. Before long, he found himself sprinting in circles on the rooftop after the damn cat, gravel crunching beneath his feet as he stormed after his misbehaving friend. But Fluffles was way faster than him, and Zach never even managed to get close. Eventually, after running about six laps around the inner portion of the roof, he waved his hand, muttered, “Fine, to hell with it!” and then returned to where he’d dropped his backpack and the eight remaining Frog Snax that were still inside the box.

To his misery, he could hear the sounds of happy crunching from somewhere off in the distance. It was almost like Fluffles was eating them as slow as possible just to gloat about his great victory over Zach. It had to be the case, because Zach had seen him gobbling down tuna and chicken, and he knew the cat didn’t eat this damn slow. Fluffles was also clearly making a louder crunching sound than he had to, as well. But what was interesting and did have at least some value in noticing was that no wisp of light popped out of the cat. This meant there was in fact no aquatic-type mobs within range, and thus the light would likely only appear if there was something for it to pursue.

So then, if I get the wisp to appear, it’s got to mean it’s found an aquatic-type to distract.

“Are you done yet?” he called to Fluffles, whose munching had finally come to a stop.

The cat came running back over. He began acting way too sweet, brushing up against Zach and licking his hand with his sandpaper-like tongue. “I love Zach,” Fluffles said. “He is best friend.”

“Yeah, nice try.”

As if dropping the act, Fluffles hissed. “I did nothing wrong! You have to share with me. We each get five.”

“Fluffles, I don’t think you understand what these are even for!”

The cat meowed. “Finding aquatic-type spawn using Zach cheating power that give infinite range?”

“Wait, so you do understand what I was saying.”

Fluffles purred. “I am a good cat and a smart cat.”

“So then…so you still want half of them even knowing how important they are?”

“Yes.”

“Are they even good?”

“They are good. I love Frog Snax. We have thousands in guild boxes for junk loot. I like Frog Snax because it taste yummy.”

Of course they have thousands of these. Why aren’t I surprised?

With another bout of nerves pinching his insides, Zach reached inside the box and removed another of the orange-colored snacks that were about a fourth the size of his hand. He sniffed it. It did smell kind of good, and it didn’t actually appear to be made of frog. It was just a sort of cracker from the looks of it.

“I have no idea if this is going to work, but here goes nothing.”

He put the orange-colored treat in his mouth and chewed. To his surprise, it was actually delicious. It tasted like a combination of buttered bread and grilled cheese. In fact, it tasted so good that he almost ate another one by mistake. He’d even reached down for it, momentarily forgetting himself.

“These are good, Fluffles. Uh, Fluffles?”

For some reason, the cat was looking at something above Zach. He lifted his head to see what had taken the cat’s attention, and then let out a cheer of giddy elation as he spotted the white ball of energy that was steadily rising up into the air above him. It looked kind of like the top of a daisy, with a very bright center surrounded by more dimly lit, oblong-shaped petals. It also made a slight noise that was a mix between a buzz and a hum.

“I can’t believe this actually worked,” Zach said.

Fluffles meowed. “I want to catch ball!”

Higher and higher into the sky it rose. Zach watched, refusing to even blink, as it almost seemed to reach the clouds. Yet even amid the daytime sun and even as it continued to gain distance, it never lost any brightness or became any harder to see. On and on, the wisp of light rose, until finally, it simply stopped, and for almost ten seconds, it hovered unmoving. It simply lingered in place, doing nothing.

“Maybe it didn’t work after all,” Zach grumbled. “Maybe it—”

And then the wisp took off like a rocket, moving with such unimaginable speed that it left behind a trail made of pure white light like a meteor off in the direction of the Leviathan River and over the Bridge of Torment. It moved so fast that if Zach had not been looking at it when it’d taken off, he wouldn’t have been able to track it with his eyes.

The wisp continued to streak across the sky, moving well beyond the bridge and over the highway, where a massive cluster of DEHVs were already stuck in traffic as part of the early-morning commute to work. Cupping his hands over his forehead so that he could see just a little bit farther, Zach lost sight of the wisp after it vanished somewhere along the Blood Rain expressway.

“So,” Zach began, nodding, “now we know that there is a spawn-point in that direction.” He pointed.

Fluffles brushed against him. “I want more snack. Give more Frog Snax.”

Before the cat could get any crazy ideas, Zach snatched the package up and stuffed it into his backpack. “No. I’ll get you any other food. But you can’t have that one.”

“But now that is only food I ever want!”

“Why?”

“Because Fluffles not supposed to have it!”

Zach sighed. Was this how all cats behaved? “Come on, let’s get to my bike,” he said. “Let’s just start going in a straight line in that direction.”

As Zach led the two of them back through the stinky hallway and to the elevator doors, he realized he was going to have to be very tactful in how he used the Frog Snax. He had seven left, and he had no idea how far away the nearest spawn actually was. It could be a hundred miles for all he knew. If he ran out of snacks trying to find it, he would screw himself. Therefore, he would have to risk passing the spawn and backtracking. It would be better to overshoot the mark and then find it via narrowing things down than continuing to eat them every few miles and never even knowing if he’d gotten close.

He sighed. This was going to be tougher than he thought.