I glance over at my other monitor and check the time.
'2:47 AM'
"Ugg… I really need to go to bed." I mumbled to myself.
I was pulling an all nighter… again, trying to get this third party software to work on my company's custom operating system. They told me in the meeting it should just work this time. Rubbing my eyes until I started to see the fuzzy color turn to almost static I took a look at my screen again, and noticed a new prompt with a green background accompanied by a chime.
Ding!
A great evil has set its root in the world. You are called upon to save it! Do you accept this quest?
Followed by two boxes, one saying I accept and the other saying I Reject.
I chuckled to myself and grabbed my phone to snap a picture. I sent the picture off to the rest of my engineering team with the following comment.
Lol found another leftover prompt… these guys really don't know what the heck they are doing.
Nicole
Mumbling to myself "Accept or Reject… which one is bound to open up more hidden layers…"
I moused over and pressed the I accept button, or tried to but nothing happened.
"Fuckers… did they really build this prompt to only work with a touchscreen? … I'm not even sure how they managed that…" I muttered with mild frustration.
I reached out with my right hand and really had to stretch to press the I accept button.
Ding!
The world thanks you for your sacrifice!
I fell backwards onto my ass, my chair apparently falling out from under me cellphone falling out of my lap and on the floor next to me.
I froze in stygian blackness with the sudden shock of the power going out unexpectedly, ice burning through my veins as my adrenaline spiked. The ground however didn't feel like my carpeted office, it felt like rough poured concrete or stone and cool to the touch. Feeling around I found my cell phone and turned the screen on. I could see for a moment that it looked like it had a wifi and cell signal only to show both symbols crossed out and my battery at 47%.
I quickly turned on the flashlight and started to look around frantically. I was in what appeared to be a dark stone corridor smelling of faint mildew and with no other sounds but my ragged breathing and scuffling attempts to stand.
"What the fuck… what the fuck… what the fuck…" I muttered to myself, my voice quivering with fear, heart racing.
I wanted to call out but at the same time I felt that might be a bad idea. Dark endless hallways, this felt like the Backrooms but only somehow real? Then immediately got rid of the idea because that kind of thinking would only induce more panic.
“Panic later Nicole… just pretend weird stuff happens all the time.”
I could just make out in the distance either branching hallways or what might be rooms going both in front of and behind me. I got the impression I was underground, and I could imagine thousands of tons of earth and stone above me.
I started to calm my panic down just a small fraction then I started walking my way forward. I stopped after only a few steps thinking about how much of a maze this might be. Looking around I managed to find a chunk of chipped stone that had fallen from the ceiling. I quietly walked back to about where I felt I landed. I carved an ‘X’ about where I fell then wrote on the wall.
NS Started Here
Then I drew an arrow in the direction I was heading with my Initials underneath. I felt that if I was here I might not be the only one and arrows on their own could get confusing if I found others.
I continued on the dark corridor for several tens of feet, I stumbled my way into a four way intersection. Using my phone I illuminated down each direction as much as possible but could only still see the same stygian darkness. I marked on the ground in the middle of the intersection to indicate my continued direction of travel. I continued this process finding more corridors and even doors on occasion. I shining my light into what appeared to be offices to verify no life, I continued to quietly mark my path and slowly move forward.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Ding!
For Completing a Special Action while Devoid of Classes, you have unlocked a new Class!
I jumped in fright as I heard the noise and saw the text in front of my vision. It had the same look as that original prompt but this time a blue background instead of a green background. I realized quite quickly too I could wave my hand through the prompt. This felt like some sort of augmented reality or a hologram. The prompt was quickly replaced by a new prompt.
Ding!
You are now a MacTinker!
Health + 10
Stamina + 5
Mana + 5
Resilience + 10
Flexibility + 5
Magic + 10
"What the fuck is a MacTinker?" I asked to the void, I got nothing in reply but that felt almost expected. I realized at the last second before the prompt completely faded away, the very last line.
"O shit… is magic a thing?" I said to myself quietly. Then I kind of wondered to myself how I could get more information. The act of thinking seemed to trigger something as a new prompt showed up.
Name: Nicole Silberschmidt
Race: Human (Riftwalker)
First Class: MacTinker
First Class Level: 0
Age: 34
Health: 110
Stamina: 105
Mana: 105
Resilients: 15
Flexibility: 10
Magic: 15
Skills. Rank
N/A
"Ok… either I am having a mental breakdown… any number of medical possibilities… or this is actually happening." I told myself out loud, pinching myself told me I was awake. Also what the hell was a Riftwalker, was that tied to how I arrived?
I then went back to my pictures on my phone and looked at what I had captured before being ‘transported’ here. The picture just showed my computer monitor without any weird green prompt. I then realized my phone battery was down nearly 5%.
"O fuck… the signal… need to kill drain." I said panicking to myself and I flipped through menus turned off all wireless crap and any and all apps I could quickly think of. Then for added measure I set the brightness as low as possible and turned on every battery saving option I could find. After a few minutes of frantic settings searching I then started to push forward once again.
I started to feel my exhaustion rear its ugly head again. It didn't help that the initial surge of adrenaline from my transport here was starting to wind down. I needed to either find a safer spot like a room, or something, or better yet a way out. I continued down the same direction of the corridor that I had initially been traveling. At the next door I decided to try my luck and take a peek inside. The door hinge was quite squeaky but I gritted my teeth and opened the door enough for me to enter.
The room was small and at first glance appeared to be an old office or cubicle area of sorts. Four desks faced each other back to back and built into the walls seemed to be heavy wooden shelves and drawers.
Examining the closest desk I noticed two things. First the desk was shorter than I would have expected. Second was that it was relatively organized. While the place was dusty and abandoned there was no real indication that the place evacuated in a rush. The desk sitting next to the first seemed to be of a similar childlike height but the other two appeared to more fit my size.
I started going through the first desk and there were several drawers. However… being the paranoid fuck I can be I took the time to check for any traps. I had played my fair share of tabletop RPGs and knew anything could be trapped… or a mimic…
With that last thought I eyed the chair suspiciously before gently kicking it with my slippered foot. Nothing happened.
Eventually after rummaging through the draws I found a small knife, some paper which felt almost like thick stiff fabric, a small bronze candle holder, several small candles, a small box with what I thought was flint and some fire starter, a bottle of ink and some quills. The last object which was already on top of the desk was a bit more confusing. It looked like a chunk of white foggy translucent crystal or gem polished to a small orb and set into a wire holder with a parabolic mirror. It reminded me of a desk light but I didn't see any way to turn it on.
It took several minutes to eventually light a candle with the fire starter kit I found. I was fortunate that I had used this technique when camping several times but it was still difficult and nerve racking. Once I had two candles lit I turned off my phone to conserve the battery. It was down to 39% and was to my knowledge the most valuable resource wherever I was.
I was a weird individual as a data hoarder I had all the text dumps of Wikipedia saved on my phone. Who knew how valuable that information could be.
I took several more minutes going through each of the desks to find similar supplies in each. Two of the desks had flasks hidden in them. One smelled of a sweet liquid with a hint of alcohol, the other was clearly something like vodka. Testing the latter with just a tiny drop on my pinkie finger then probing with my tongue indicated I was not far off.
I was also quite exhausted by this point, while it had only been maybe 30 minutes to an hour I was already running on fumes due to my late night. I felt like this room was as safe as I was going to find for the moment. I took a moment to barricade the door, it would not stop a determined individual but it could buy me precious seconds. I fell asleep under one of the larger desks curled in a smallish ball, cloth paper under me in an attempt to act as insolation.