Coming awake from what had been his most restful sleep since coming to this cave, Lor slowly stood up and stretched. Looking around the chamber, he pulled the crab legs from his Inventory and went to work eating them. He was pleasantly surprised to find that they were still perfectly warm, even after sitting all night. At least he decided to call it night.
‘Maybe Inventory has some sort of stasis function. That would be useful.’
After his breakfast of crab legs with a side of water, Lor examined the passages out of the chamber. Just as he had originally observed, there were three passages in addition to the one he had come in through. Two led deeper underground while one led upwards. Making the obvious decision, Lor began making his way up the sloping passage towards what he hoped was the surface.
By his best guess it was around ten minutes of walking before he encountered the next chamber. Carefully poking his head into the chamber, at first he didn’t quite realize what he was looking at. The chamber appeared to be a large room with an enormous pile of something in the middle. When Identify triggered he immediately backed away from the room as fast as he could while still being quiet.
Iron Bear (Tier 4)
‘Tier 4!? How can I fight a Tier 4? I know it is stronger than the snake, but how much? What kind of spawn point is this shit. Maybe Discharge and the knife will work but what if it doesn’t? Is there another way out? Will I be stuck here until I can kill it? Should I try to sneak past? I’ll try Discharge first, I can Blink away if I need to.’
His mind made up, Lor retreated down the passage a ways and began filling Absorb.
Absorb has reached Tier 0 Rank 6
With Absorb fully charged, he snuck back into the room, creeping around the edge until he could see the head of the bear. Creeping closer, he positioned the knife before thrusting downward and activating Discharge. Even with being at full power, the knife barely pierced the thick hide and the bear awoke with a roar. Lor turned and ran as fast as he could, Blinking when he sensed something swinging at him with immense force. Stumbling in the entrance, another blow caught him in the back, sending him sprawling into the passage, luckily just out of reach of the angry bear.
Discharge has reached Tier 0 Rank 6
Spacial Awareness has reached Tier 0 Rank 5
Dimensional Body has reached Tier 0 Rank 6
“Fuck that hits hard.” Lor swore, feeling blood begin to leak from his back. Climbing slowly to his feet, he began to limp back down the passage towards the crab room.
‘It must be that my Tier 3 weapon can damage it, but not very much. I should be able to beat it if I raise my Skills and Stats, but to raise my Stats I need monsters I can beat. I can just practice to raise my Skills. I need to find a reliable source of food though. I have water but the only things I have found to eat have been what dropped from the crab and snake. Right now though, I need to find a place to recover.’
Upon reaching the crab room, Lor froze. The crab was back. It appeared to be the exact same crab in the exact same position as before, almost hidden against the wall. Backing into the tunnel, Lor charged Absorb until it was full again. He knew the spot to hit the crab, and how to get out. Time Stop for the win.
Absorb has reached Tier 0 Rank 7
Discharge has reached Tier 0 Rank 7
Time Stop has reached Tier 0 Rank 3
Blink has reached Tier 0 Rank 5
Sorting his spoils, Lor found that this time he had gained a Tier 2 chest plate made of the crab’s armor, as well as a half dozen crab legs. Sitting down, Lor ate the legs and focused on increasing his Body Rank one more time.
Body: Dimension has reached Tier 1 Rank 0
Body: Dimension has increased in Tier. New Skill gained
Dimensional Shield (Active) (Tier 0 Rank 1): You conjure a shield of dimensional fabric. Capable of blocking most attacks. Area and durability increase with Rank. Cost: Minor energy
As the energy poured into the stat, Lor felt the wound on his back close, in addition to a sudden surge of vitality, much greater than when it had increased previously.
‘So I gain a new Skill at an increase in Tier. And they start at Tier 0 Rank 1. I wonder what stat I should focus on next. Probably Power since I have been using Discharge and Absorb a lot. That should be good.’
Power: Kinetic has reached Tier 0 Rank 2
Flexing his arm, Lor felt stronger than before and he could swear his muscles were more defined. The rush was different than Body, a more addictive feeling of being unstoppable that quickly passed.
‘I need to restock on water next, but if the crab is anything to go by, the snake will be back.’
Returning back through the tunnels, Lor cautiously approached the chamber with the water. Poking his head around the corner, he looked on with dismay as a swirl of dark mist floated in the middle of the room. As he watched, it slowly began to take on a snake shape, forming long twisting coils of vapor that grew more defined every second.
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Wasting no time, Lor sprinted across the room, shoved as much water as he could into his Inventory, then ran back out of the room towards the crab chamber. With water take care of and with no interest in facing the snake again any time soon, he decided that the best course of action would be to check one of the other passages from the crab chamber.
~~~~~
After exiting and packing up the tent, Almer and Elise checked their equipment and entered the cave. Conjuring a bright flame above her staff, Elise lit up the interior of the cave as they journeyed inside, Almer leading the way. The cave stayed as a singular path, winding through the rock before opening up into a large chamber. With a gesture of her staff, Elise sent the flame to float near the ceiling, where it expanded into a roaring blaze, lighting up the entire chamber.
The center of the chamber contained a large circular pool of thick dark liquid. As Almer entered the room, a tendril coated in the substance whipped out of the pool and lashed towards him. Reacting quickly, he raised his shield and braced for impact.
As the tendril slammed into his shield, pushing him back slightly, Almer adjusted and lashed out with his sword, the high Tier 3 blade biting into the coated tendril, splattering the substance all over and revealing a dark purple flesh beneath. Reacting quickly, Elise sent a bolt of lighting from her staff into the pool, the resulting explosion coating everything in thick, black goop. Gesturing again, she threw a ball of fire this time, causing the pool to catch fire. The blaze spread rapidly, the gunk apparently highly flammable.
Noticing that everything was catching on fire, and that they would catch on fire as well if they stayed put, both Elise and Almer turned and ran. Stumbling out of the chamber, both quickly retrieved thin crystalline bottles from their bags, upending the contents over their heads. A wave of light washed over them from head to toe, leaving them perfectly clean and slightly sparkling.
“Maybe I should try to remember what kind of monster I am attacking before I throw a fireball at it.” Elise quipped, smiling ruefully at Almer.
“You don’t say.” Almer replied, a wide grin on his face. “I’m pretty sure you killed it though, we should go check what it dropped. That should also tell us what Tier it was. I don’t need too much more to raise my Power and Body to three.”
Elise walked over to the burnt pit, finding it completely clear of the sludge it previously held. Activating Wind Walk, she stepped lightly to the bottom on the pit, finding a small pile of items. Carefully picking them up, she walked back through the air to where Almer leaned against the wall and flopped down next to him.
“We didn’t get too lucky. Only Tier 2. Something called an Oily Assassin Vine. Dropped some vials of the oil and permanently oily short sword. Might be worth something to someone. Want to spend the energy now or wait until we stop for the day?”
“Let’s keep going. I need to find something I can hit properly before I stop.”
“Sounds good to me.” Elise replied, standing up and stretching. Almer stood up as well and soon they both walked deeper into the cave.
~~~~~
Lor was decently pleased with the side tunnels. The first one contained a string of five chambers, each containing between one to three Tier 1 monsters. They were like the Blade Rat, in fact some of them were, none of them getting bigger than the average dog. With his new abilities, they didn’t stand a chance. They only dropped dried meat and tanned hide the first time he fought them, but the second time, one of them dropped a small glass vial containing a thick red liquid. Identification told him it was a Tier 1 Vial of Recovery, but other than that he had no idea how to use it. He assumed it was by drinking it, but it could just as easily be topical.
At the back of the last chamber, he found a large crack in the wall, that when he squeezed through it, opened up into a small room. Water flowed from the back of the chamber down a miniature waterfall and disappeared into a hole in the floor. The room also had the first light he had seen since he came down here, in the form of glowing moss around the waterfall.
Using the light of the moss and the reflection of his knife, Lor finally got to look at himself. His short brown hair was full of dirt and small rocks, forming a nest on top of his head. His right eye was almost normal, but looking closer he realized that the normal dark brown appeared to be slowly becoming purple, around half of the iris having changed. His left eye, however, was completely different. Gone was his normal eye and in its place was an eye that appeared to be made of incredibly intricate clockwork. The white of the eye was a silvery metal while the iris appeared to be pure gold.
‘So that is the Eye of the Traveler. At least it looks neat.’ Lor also noticed that the iris seemed slightly luminous.
After quickly deciding to make this chamber his new sleeping area, Lor returned to the crab's chamber to examine the other exit. The crab had not returned yet, so he guessed that the monsters would take longer to return based on their Tier. Wasting no time, he entered the far passage.
The first chamber contained a Quicksilver Slider (Tier 2), a dog sized lizard with scales that looked like liquid metal. Its fighting tactic revolved around incredibly fast attacks in rapid succession, followed by a short period of resting and more attacks. At the start of the fight Lor was forced to use Time Stop to avoid being hit, after which he was able to use Blink and Spacial Awareness to avoid the fast dashes. When it stopped its blitz, a single strike with the dagger was enough to kill it. Lucky for Lor, it dropped boxers made of a strange liquid silver cloth, fitting well and apparently increasing his speed slightly.
After catching his breath, Lor decided to at least take a look at the next chamber before returning to his new bedroom. Peaking into the chamber, at first he could see nothing aside from the stone room. Just as he was about to enter the room, he Identified the contents; Phase Spider (Tier 3). Quickly backing away, he decided to return to his room and rest until his energy had returned. He did not want to try and fight whatever a Phase Spider was without the energy for Time Stop and being unable to see it.
Quickly returning to his room, fighting the Tier 1 creatures that had returned, Lor practiced activating his skills until he was almost out of energy, saving just enough for a Blink and Discharge. Sitting down on the moss next to the river, he cupped his hands and scooped some up, drinking it greedily. It felt cold and crisp as it slid down his throat, but when it hit his stomach, he doubled over in pain. He could feel the wounds he had experienced fighting the slider and the small creatures heal, while at the same time he felt like his stomach was being melted by acid.
Collapsing on the ground, Lor writhed in pain as Dimensional Body began increasing in Rank at a rapid pace. Finally, the burning, melting feeling died down and Lor returned to a sitting up position. After checking himself as best he could, he began concentrating on spending the energy he had earned that day.
Power: Kinetic has reached Tier 1 Rank 0
Power: Kinetic has increased in Tier. New Skill gained
Telekinesis (Active) (Tier 0 Rank 1): Using your stored kinetic energy, you can move objects with your mind. Efficiency and range increase with Rank. Cost: Minor energy
After receiving the alert, Lor thought for a minute before deciding to start increasing his Mind next. The Skill it had granted, Blink, had been one of his most used so far and he was looking forward to what else he may acquire.
Relaxing after, Lor grinned as he examined his status. If he couldn't beat the bear as he was, he would farm the monsters he could until he was strong enough.
"Your days are numbered, you fat bastard" he called to the empty chamber before drifting off to sleep on his new bed of soft moss.
~~~~~
Name: Lor Telmrin
Tier: 0
Rank: 7
Stats:
Power: Kinetic (T1 R0)
Body: Dimension (T1 R0)
Mind: Space (T0 R2)
Energy: Time (T0 R1)
Skills:
Active
Discharge (P) (T0 R9)
Telekinesis(P) (T0 R1)
Inventory (B) (T0 R5)
Dimensional Shield (B) (T0 R3)
Blink (M) (T0 R8)
Time Stop (E) (T0 R4)
Passive
Absorb (P) (T0 R9)
Dimensional Body (B) (T0 R9)
Spacial Awareness (M) (T0 R7)
Looped Energy (E) (T0 R7)
Artifacts:
Eye of the Traveler (Bound)