As the warm sun came in through the window, landing on my face. I abruptly woke up, sitting up at the same time. I was in a cold sweat, even with the cold breeze coming in through the open window. It is winter time outside.
‘Was that a dream?’ I quickly touched my left shoulder. Not feeling any pain, but it was sore.
‘Yes, it was a dream. Ugh, that is good. I felt like I was going to die.’ Laying back down, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Oliver, come out for breakfast!” Suddenly, I heard my mother yell my name.
‘Ugh, I guess I will not be able to sleep longer.’ I got up and started getting dressed into my clothes for the day. I opened my bedroom door and responded to my mothers call. “ I am coming mom!” Then headed to the table for breakfast.
When I arrived at the table. My mother was already eating. I squeezed into my normal spot against the wall. Starting to eat until my mother asked “Oliver, do you have finals today and what time are they?”
“How did you know I have finals today?” I said a little panicked.
“I looked at the universities calendar. So?” My mother replied bluntly.
“One is at 10 am and the other is at 2 pm” I swiftly replied, for fear she would scold me if I tried to lie to get just an hour more sleep.
“ Well then, you should head to school right after you eat and study for an hour in the library.” She suggested.
I responded with just one word “Okay” Then proceeded to scarf my food down, almost choking in the process.
After breakfast, I got in my car and headed to school. Upon arriving to school I seen my friend Mike getting out of his car. So I parked next to him.
Getting out of the car, I yelled “Hey Mike.”
“Oh, hey Oliver.” Mike replied.
“Are you ready for finals?” I asked.
“Yes, but I will go and find a spot to study more. I really need to pass this the finals today. I will most likely fail my chemistry class and have to retake next semester.” Mike sheepishly said.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I had chemistry last semester and barely passed.” I stated.
“I am heading to the library to study for about and hour if you would like to join me?” I asked with baited breath.
“Might as well. We have the same final first, just different teachers.” Mike agreed and added.
We started towards the library. However we had a long way to go, as the building was all the way across the campus. While walking on the side walk, we passed trees with no leaves in them. There is no snow at this time, unfortunately. We arrived at the building, only a few minutes after we left our cars.
“Hey, Oliver I will head to the second floor and grab a table for us. Here is my student ID to register that we are here.” Mike stated firmly.
“Alright” I bemoaned.
I watched Mike start to head up the stairs. Then turned to head to the libraries main desk. ‘There are 5 people in line waiting to get checked in for the library. This will take a while, the librarian is always slow.’
After about 15 minutes of waiting in line and talking to the librarian, we where finally registered at the library. I started my way to the stairs. While walking I noticed there was not alot of people on the first floor of the library, where most of the individual study areas are. They are most likely on the second floor.
I suddenly stopped walking and grabbed my head. It was pounding. ‘What is up with this sudden headache. My head is spinning.”
Suddenly my vision started going hazy and I could see blue and purple specs of light. Then my vision went dark.
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Mike heard a loud sound. Realizing the sound came from the first floor of the library, he jumped up from his seat and ran over to the railing that overlooked the second floor. He looked down at the first floor and was shocked.
‘Why is Oliver laying on the ground and what happened? I need to get down there.’ Right when Mike thought that, there was a shimmer of bright light around Oliver. Symbols rapidly appeared on the ground around Oliver. Then suddenly with a loud whoosh and a flash of light… When I opened my eyes to look at him again. There was only a pile of ash in the middle of the circle of symbols. I could hears screams coming from all around and murmurs of someone burning to ash instantly. I was shaking and was scared of what I just seen. I could see others running and exiting the building. It was utter chaos.
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“Ugh, what was that? Another dream?” I mumbled.
Then opened my eyes a little to see a big black lump of fur. ‘Oh, fuck.’ I shot up and immediately groaned. I grabbed my left shoulder. ‘I do not feel any wounds on my shoulder, but it still hurts a lot. So this is not a dream, but real. So what the hell is going on and I hope there are not more of those creatures. Well, whatever. I will just have to keep figuring this all out.’ I looked around the cave and could tell nothing changed. It was still light in the cave. ‘I do not think I was unconscious for very long. However, after that wolf I will need to leave here. With how it just walked in and how I do not know what is out there in the rest of the cave, I could be dangerous here.’
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‘First things first, I need to check those notifications while I was out cold. Need to make sure I did not miss anything, even though the room looks the same as before.’ Thinking of the notifications again, but this time only the ones that happened recently. This caused only the notifications that happened since I was out to come up.
**Ding: Class skill Arcane Heal increased to level 3
**Ding: Class skill Arcane Heal increased to level 2
**Ding: Class skill Arcane infusion increased to level 2
**Ding: Class Arcane Mage increased to level 3
**Ding: Class Arcane Mage increased to level 2
**Ding: Killed ‘Young Shadow Wolf - Level 11’
**Ding: General skill Identify leveled up
‘Okay, so these are interesting. Identify went up, that must have happened when the name of beast appeared above its head. The next notification was the wolf dying it looks like, it was a shadow wolf… Wait wait wait. A young shadow wold. Oh, hell no. That is a young one, I do not want to find the mom or dad of that thing. It looks like the rest of the notifications seem to be my class and skills leveling up. I will have to check my status next to see what changed.’ Thinking next of my status.
Name: Oliver Smith
Age: 19
Race: Human (???)
Title: None
Strength: 9
Health: 98/110
Dexterity: 10
Stamina: 72/100
Constitution: 11
Mana: 2/90
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 9
Regenerations
Health: 2.2/Min
Unused: 6
Stamina: 2/Min
Mana: 1.9/Min
Class: Arcane Mage
Level 3
Active Skills:
Arcane Infusion
Level 2
Arcane Heal
Level 3
Passive Skills:
Mana Eyes
Level 1
Arcane Aura
Level 1
Profession: None
General Skills:
Common Language
Level 2
Identify
Level 2
Achievements:
Traveler:
???
‘Hmmmm, the major changes are what was already in the notifications. The other differences are the numbers and I still have no idea what they actually mean or what they do. At least the pools went up with those numbers, but mana is low and the others are not full either. It seems like arcane heal was activated while unconscious and drained the mana, but it most likely saved my life. The unused have gone up to six, I think I can put them into the other stats to increase them. However, with not knowing what the other stats do I will keep them as is for now. Alright, I think its time to check out this wolf.’ Having not looked at the wolf yet, as it was better to check myself first.
Walking over to the wolf, the realization that the wolf is the same size as me and is a young wolf. ‘Wow, looking at this beast up close when I am not fighting it is crazy. That thing is the same size as me and I am just under two meters tall. I am surprised I did not die. I think these skills are the only thing that made that miracle happen. That aside I should search this wolf to see if there is anything worth anything.’ Starting to pat the wolf down like I am frisking a criminal. Searching most of the wolds body, moving to its head. While passing the neck. ‘I must have hit a major artery, as this things fir is think and its skin feels weird as well. Almost likes it is a flexible metal.’ While passing the neck, I pulled the dagger out of the neck wound. Looking at the dagger for a moment. ‘Well it definitely has thick skin, the dagger is bent at the tip.’ Tossing the dagger back towards the bag. Continuing to the head. ‘Nothing on the head either. I should have figured there would be nothing here for me to take or at least nothing of value from what I can tell. Welp, done with the wolf. Time to collect the bag and anything needed before I leave here.’
After walking over to the bag. I picked up the sheath and the dagger putting them back together. Though with some difficulty as the tip of the dagger is bent some. Packing everything else up into the back pack, then carrying the bag.
Next turning to the corpse near the wall and going over to it. The shirt I am wearing is completely shredded. ‘I really do not want to take the clothes off a dead body. I just may not have a choice here.’ I set the bag down and kneeled to the body. Looking over the body. ‘This looks like a leather armor and there a belts and buckles holding it on. The pants look just like what I have on, so I wont take those. I will just take the leather armor top.’ I unbuckled the armor and loosened the strap. Having to remove the armor by lifting it over the head… As I was doing this, I heard the sound “Glug!” I gaged a little at the sound. As I knew it was the armor seperating from the body. The blood was sticking them together some and was wet still. “Fuck, that is disgusting. I will need to wash this off. I will have other use that pond again to wash this off. I really wish that pond was clean water, as I am getting kinda thirsty.’ Heading over to the pond and dipping the armor in to rinse. ‘I will have to dip and swirl the armor around a bunch in the water a bit. In order to get as much of the blood off as I can. There are some scratches on the armor that I can see now that it is coming clean some. I wonder how those happened and what the dead person has been through and how they ended up like this. I will never know though. Time to put this on.’ I put the armor on over my head and the torn shirt. Looking at the buckles, I began to fasten them. ‘Now with the armor on, time to grab the bag and do a final check of all the stuff to see if I missed anything.’
Going back over to the back pack and shouldering it. I looked around and there was only the corpses of the person and the wolf. There was nothing else to be grabbed and everything is placed in the bag. ‘Okay, here we go.’
Heading to the entrance to the cave and walking though. It was quite a walk, almost ten minutes I would say. After a few minutes I came to an opening, that had extraordinarily bright light coming in it. I crossed into the light…
“Holy shit.” I practically yelled. Then came a few notifications.
**Ding**
**Ding**
**Ding**
‘I am not sure what the dings are about right now, but wow is that huge.’ I thought.
What was in front was a huge room and a gigantic crystal in the center that was giving off huge amounts of light. The room that was just left was only a small shoot off of this room. Looking around there are several other hallways in and out of this room. There does not seem to be any beasts in this room at quick glance.