Luminous eyes a ghostly shade of green floated above a grinning muzzle packed with countless 5 inch long fangs. Coarse brindle fur lined a dense, muscular frame perfectly balanced on 6 legs. The monstrosity stood nearly six feet tall at the shoulders. Shoulders which also happened to have meter long tentacles. Each one tipped with a mouth packed full of rotating teeth resembling buzz saws. It was by no means a peaceful looking creature.
Its two powerful rear legs were obviously capable of bursts of speed which would outpace animals much larger and faster than Alan was. Not to mention the animal's four smaller legs, two in front, and one on either side of its barrel-sized chest. Gazing curiously into Alan's terror-stricken eyes, it released a 'Chuff' sound, earthy breath masking something more sinister that permeated Alan's nostrils, causing him to get dizzy and nearly black out. He did however lose his footing in the process.
Splayed out at the space-panther's feet, he struggled futilely against the darkness that was attempting to lull his consciousness into a quiet oblivion. He was trapped within a horrid vision of 5 inch long fangs sliding smoothly into into his skull, abruptly ending his meager twenty years of life. Alan found he was unable, and even moreso, unwilling to even blink as the cat made its inevitable move.
Determined to at least meet the eyes of his killer, Alan raised his head. A quick flick of the giant cat's fore-paw knocked Alan's bucket over, spilling cool water along with the large fish carcass onto the rocky beach. Gently gripping the catfish in its toothy maw, The creature released a contented mewl, the sound somehow forcing a strange black crack to form in the air around its lustrous brindle fur.
Alan heard a slight tearing sound as the crack slowly opened up to reveal a cylindrical grey void, similar to an empty tunnel. Suddenly stepping backwards into the void tunnel, the terrifying fish thief was no longer within his sight. The eerie void shimmered briefly before popping like a soap bubble, leaving it no more than a bad memory. The promised oblivion arrived, no longer willing to wait. Alan's body hit the gravel, abruptly dropped into unconsciousness.
Sprawled out amongst the wreckage of the rooftop on which he witnessed the beginning of the Cyclops' end, the boy began to show signs of life. First, a slight twitching of dust-covered fingertips, soon followed by a half-hearted attempt to lift an injured arm. Striving to sit up, he made it halfway before a sharp spike of pain in his head quickly forced him to lie back down.
He had been battered and bruised by the furious blast of compressed air that shot him across the rooftop, dashing his small body against the cool, brick wall. A collision of skull and hard stone had swiftly knocked the boy out cold. Opening his eyes far too quickly, he had to clench them shut, as the light was still too much to handle. Rolling onto his side, a full-bodied wracking cough curled him up into a fetal position.
The searing agony in his side was followed closely by the realization his harsh cough had left him with a blood-filled mouth. Fearing he might be close to reaching the end of his all too short life, the boy pulled himself arm over arm toward the edge of the rooftop. Cold fury and adrenaline empowering his movements, he decided he simply MUST know the outcome of the strange, hooded man single-handedly stopping the Cyclops dead in its tracks.
The same Cyclops that ruthlessly bit his mother in half. That same savage monstrosity that had mercilessly stomped on Clarice again and again, bellowing obvious laughter as his sister was reduced to paste underfoot. The beast who destroyed everything he ever cared for. Lost in thought, he was oblivious to the hooded stranger standing at his side. Until he spoke, alerting the boy to his presence. "Stop moving around stupid boy, you've got internal injuries."
Jolted back to reality the boy quickly came face to face with the object of his current obsession, and was met with a familiar, sad smile.
Consciousness slowly returned. Alan began to glimpse flickers of light playing through the leaves of his treasured apple tree "Another stupid dream," he grumbled sleepily.
The sound of something hitting the gravel next to his head was enough to shock him into awareness. He feared the cat had come back to finish the job it started. Still half-asleep, the errant thought was enough to make him squeal like a terrified 8-year old. He pulled his dagger and haphazardly whipped it back and forth. A sudden burst of anxious laughter caused him to open his eyes.
"I think you killed it" Rexus choked out, still cackling wildly, his nerves obviously shot. Looking around, Alan noticed several not yet ripe apples in the gravel around him. Realizing Rexus must've been tossing apples at him while he was under the influence of the poison, or sleeping gas, or whatever it was that the cat had breathed all over him, Alan's fears quickly became frustration. "Is it gone?" Rexus jokingly asked, instantly turning Alan's frustration to anger.
"Is it gone?!? IS IT GONE!! Alan shouted, his face beginning to turn red. "I almost got eaten over your damned catfish! Oh! By the way, thank you for dashing so valiantly to my rescue SIR Rexus! Truly you are the most daring and capable amongst all of the king's men, as your bravery surely speaks for itself."
After throwing another apple at his brother, quite a bit harder this time, Rexus threw up his arms and started to walk away. Deciding he still had something to say, he turned back to face his brother, perspiration causing his lanky brown hair to stick to his face.
"You know what Alan?" Rexus said, obviously worked up. "You can suck my ass bro. That was a six foot tall alien monster-cat with six legs and some kind of space-eel parasite growing out of its neck. Oh! and apparently it also had sleeping gas breath judging by your reaction." He raised his bushy eyebrows before continuing. "That or you got scared and passed out. In which case I guess you were right about my bravery, because I sure as hell didn't take a nap at a monster cat's feet."
Taking a deep, calming breath while running his hands through his shaggy brown hair, Rexus continued to rant. "Look man, what could I have done? Feeding myself to that Hellcat to appease its wrath wasn't at the top of my list of things to do."
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Turning to the river, Alan splashed the cool water onto his face and slicked back his short blonde hair in an attempt to cool his rising temper. "You're right Rexus... you're right. There wasn't anything either of us could've done. He took a long, slow breath. "It's just frustrating to be so powerless. I hate it. When we finally get System access, things are going to have to change..."
I'm sick of being afraid... Alan thought sadly.
A look of determination crossed his features. "We can do it little bro, we can get strong enough to stop being afraid all the time, able to protect each other. Let's get Strong enough to make Hellcats faint at OUR feet. We'll go to the tutorial, get our shit together, and leave much more powerful than we came. Then with real Classes and magic, we can leave this dungeon and go see the world."
He peered off into the distance. "Alex says everything changed in the Mana-storms, so all the old maps are next to worthless. Becoming traveling adventurers in a strange new world sounds pretty decent to me!"
"I'm going to be a necromancer," Rexus responded firmly, crossing his arms as if expecting an argument. Rather than argue, Alan agreed with the idea.
"There's sure to be an awful lot of corpses around after the end of human civilization and all that. Plus an army of undead allies to use as cannon fodder could definitely come in handy."
Not to mention if Rexus could somehow create sentient undead, the benefits would surely increase rapidly. Still unsure what type of Class he wanted, let alone what would pair well with a necromancer, Alan not-so-subtly changed the subject.
"What do you say we catch a few more fish, and then head back. I know it's still pretty early, but I'd like to ask uncle Alex about that Hellcat, let him know he might have a very large new mouth to feed while we're in the Tutorial."
A grunt and a nod from Rexus indicated agreement, and the pair of brothers began setting up their fishing poles yet again. An hour later, with three large fish in the bucket, they were just about to leave when a high-pitched metallic screech filled the air. "We've got Saw-shells incoming Rexus" Alan warned.
Red-eared saw-shelled turtles, and their similar cousins the yellow-bellied saw-shelled turtles. Having evolved from the normal turtles in the southern Texas area, they were both common, and deadly. The outer edge of their shells were not only razor sharp , but several two inch long knife-like scales protrude from the edges of the shell. These knife-scales rotated around the turtle's shell fast enough to be near-invisible when out of the water.
Glancing at the surface of the river, Alan noticed the tell-tale churning of the water that always accompanied the keening of the saw shells. Having personally seen a small group of saw shells swiftly cut a goblin into mincemeat, Alan knew the danger was all too real "Time to go." Alan declared abruptly. Hastily packing up their gear, they retreated from the sounds of the rapidly approaching death turtles.
The walk home from the river was thankfully both peaceful, and quiet. A narrow stone trail cutting through the lush orange grass was proof in itself of how often Alan fished at 'the tree'. Leading from the rocky beach, passing over a nearby hill, and continuing roughly a mile north, the path reached all the way to their small dungeon village and beyond.
Each large stone was personally carried by Alan from the distant ore deposit located in the basement level of the dungeon, then painstakingly laid by hand. One after another, the task had been enough to keep his boredom at bay and provided a constant source of exercise for over a year.
Cresting the small hill, Alan was able to see the majority of the main floor of the dungeon. At almost 3 miles squared, the main floor was actually the smallest floor, with the basement being easily twice as big.
To his left, the vibrant field of orange grass stretched to the distant smooth stone wall, and the river that flowed rapidly along its base. The water's current slowly propelling the water-wheel that not only generated their tiny amount of electricity, but also powered the rundown forge.To the right, nestled against the base of the dungeon wall Alan could see the dilapidated remains of the old chicken coop, and rabbit pens. Now the home of Uncle Alex's 'botany experiments'.
In reality a sprawling weed farm, Uncle Alex seemed to be thoroughly convinced that given enough time for experimentation his System-enhanced reefer would be a game-changer in the world of alchemical concoctions and pills. Unfortunately, any testing of his theories had yet to actually begin, let alone hit a wall, as nobody currently residing in the dungeon possessed even the slightest knowledge about alchemy.
On the north side of the field was what uncle Alex called his 'experimentation station'. A small wooden shack, the only experimenting that he actually accomplished happened to be creating new and sometimes hilarious ways to consume his 'medicine'.
Just beyond the experimentation station the orange grass was rapidly overtaken by an unkempt forest of apple trees. Spanning over two miles long, and just over a mile wide, the forest continued until being forced to stop by the sheer dungeon wall.
Easily numbering in the thousands, the densely packed apple trees were the main hunting grounds for the various dungeon monsters that made their home on the main floor of the dungeon. The various Slimes, Goblins, and Flash-foot rabbits might've been the most numerous, but the true rulers of the forest were undoubtedly the Feathered Raptors. Luckily they tended to remain in the heart of the woods
Standing at over three feet tall, and covered head to toe in blue scales, they were very easy to spot. Vertically slitted reptilian eyes sat under thick bony ridges that extend the full length of their blocky, crocodilian heads.
Hinged jaws, reminiscent of a snake, were lined top and bottom with three rows of two inch long shark-like teeth, and had the ability to open far wider than one would expect. A plume of yellow feathers extended from the base of the skull, down the full length of the spine, finally fully concealing the scaling of their tails.
Bulging shoulders sat atop sleek arms equipped with three long hook-shaped clawed fingers capable of rapid disembowelment. Powerful legs ending in razor-sharp talons allowed the raptors to perform rapid bursts of speed, along with traveling long-distance while sprinting.
Worst of all they never traveled in packs numbering less than 4. Needless to say, Alan and Rexus gave the depths of the forest a wide berth, not having Classes, or even Levels, it was as good as a death sentence. Although Rexus did seem to be getting really good at controlling the dungeon monsters.
They wouldn't exactly listen to his words. As he once told Alan, it felt more like a kind of telepathy, a sending and receiving of jumbled imagery. With the rapid pace his ability seemed to be growing, perhaps one day soon Rexus could tame the raptors, and field an army of blue-scaled monstrosities.
As they neared the village wall, Alan noted the rotting timbers surrounding the settlement were beginning to bow outward, and in some places collapse entirely. Scattered piles of scrap were all that remain of the guard towers that once dominated the four corners of the enclosure.
As he stepped up to the small wooden gate, Alan grasped the handle and pulled, causing the rusted iron hinge to snap. Narrowly avoiding the falling pile of once-door, Alan silently added the carpentry Skill to his quickly growing pile of menial Skills that he desperately needed to learn in the tutorial. Thinking of the tutorial, Alan checked the countdown that was all he had access to on his minimised Personal System Access screen, or PSA.
TIME REMAINING UNTIL TUTORIAL: 20h 31m 45s