Kiresula cursed as she realised what happened. There was a reason why the others stood back and let her, the mere [Ice Mage] take the lead: She had been led into a trap. As she entered the room of the dungeon, she didn’t see the fire elementals, that the group had supposedly not been able to defeat, she saw nothing for a moment, not even darkness. Then, there was a sudden feeling of something breaking inside of her, flickering lights that had colours but illuminated nothing at all, noises were audible that reminded her of metal crashing, of warbling, of rain falling persistently onto a thatched roof and of nothing that she had ever heard before. There was pain, but at that moment, she struggled to even identify which parts of her body felt it. Some of the parts that did, she was sure did not belong to her anatomy at all. She tried to jump back, but her feet refused to respond to her commands. She tried to use magic, but she could not. It was just like moving an arm that you lost or maybe never possessed at all. Then, she turned blissfully insensate.

When she woke up, she checked the [System] for her stats. As she slowly read it, she cursed:

Name: K%*x\|(

Class: &Z?!Q

Species: Glitchling

Level: 255

Strength: 255

Endurance: 255

Agility: 255

Charisma: 255

Aura: 255

Thought: 255

Skills: n/a

Irrelevant, empty or glitched sections excluded

Irrelevant, empty or glitched sections… she pondered. The last part normally never was part of a stat screen, but it made sense. She was a Glitchling now, someone who got overexposed to broken magic. Despite the stats, Glitchlings were extremely weak creatures without even the chance of progression.

She slowly, got up, tried to not immediately fall down again, realised how much she had to constantly control her stance in order to remain upright and tried to get out of the dungeon. Everything looked much taller than she remembered and every step exhausted her. She managed to get to the safe room at the beginning and then stumbled more so than walked out of the dungeon. Seeing the forest around her, she was confused. Yes, this was the wilderness around Memleket. But, no, it looked very different. The colours were all off. The textures looked wrong. Everything looked like a very blurry painting. All colours looked washed out, grey, muted. She assumed this related to either her stats being glitched out or to her new species as Glitchling. The distance to Memleket would normally be a short stroll. Now, with her complete lack of Endurance, stats be dammed, it seemed almost impossible to get there, but her mind, since the glitching, had the solitary purpose to get home and so she moved with whatever power she had. It took hours, all of which she spent cussing, cursing and swearing. Her new voice didn’t surprise her all that much. She had heard Glitchlings speak. They had quite dissonant, shrill voices, sure, but on the other hand, Glitchling voices carried like none other. When cursing, her voice didn’t seem too bad to her own ears, however she realised that Glitchling perception seemed to be quite different than that of humans and likely also different than that of dwarves.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As she was sitting down to catch her breath, she heard a male, human voice calling out to her: “Hey, Rainbowface!”

She looked up and noticed two teenagers in little more than rags appear from behind a large stone near the road. Both of them carrying quarterstaffs. She didn’t say anything back, instead just made a noise with rising inflection.

“Yeah, we’re talking to you, Glitchling!” the larger of them said with hostility.

She tilted her head as a silent question.

“You look like you tried to clear the dungeon and got glitched, right?” he asked.

She nodded.

“So, you certainly have gotten something out of it. Ya know, coins, loot… I would appreciate if you handed it over,” he said. The smaller one made himself look more dangerous by straightening his posture.

She realised what was up and felt just so done with the situation. “Really?! Is that how you make a living? Robbing the glitched of the last money they probably will ever earn?” She was tired, done and just wanted to get back into the town.

The smaller one had the decency to look a bit embarrassed. “Well, yeah. Ya know, everyone needs getting by.”

She shook her head, her expression channeling a disappointed school teacher: “You could do that legally, you know. You stumbled upon a niche: Glitchlings being stranded outside of town. If you offered them a ride on your shoulders back into town, I am sure, many would have given you the money, as it’s so much of a hassle, but you go here trying to rob people in the worst situation of their lives? Like seriously? That is what you do? I am not even mad, I am just fiercely disappointed in you and hope that you use the money that you get to donate to the temples to ask for forgiveness! Because otherwise, I do not want to know where your soul goes to.”

The bigger boy shook his head: “Nice talk, now give the money or I will beat you even more green and blue than you already are.”

She reached for her coin purse, emptied its contents on the floor in front of her. It was only few coins in it, and none would last them long. “The [System] tallies your deeds. That’s all I’m going to say.”

“Yeah, whatever!” the larger boy said and used a quick spell to let the coins float into his hand. He didn’t even cast it well.

“Let’s go!” said the smaller one.

“Sure, let’s just make sure that little shit ain’t gonna follow us!” he cast [Enfeeble] on her and then ran off. Once again, he cast it insanely badly. As a (probably now former) teacher, she noticed that and it offended her. She felt the spell hit against her and the [System] showed the message: “You are now [enfeebled]. Remaining duration: 4:31 minutes.” She didn’t feel the typical effects of the debuff, the weakness, the lack of coordination, and all that, instead, she felt actually better. As if she had taken long enough of a break and could now continue. Her experience warned her to wait the debuff out, but she felt okay enough to continue and started her trip again.

She noticed quickly that something was off. She felt like the distance had been shortened and she made strides much more unimpeded. She wondered how badly that ne’erdowell had to mess up the spell that it enfeebled by a negative amount, in addition to only having a duration of less than a seventh of what a proper cast would have. She actually ran to the town to reach it before the supposed debuff expired.