Chapter 6

I took aim and fired off the arrow at the first target releasing the string.

*pew*

The arrow flew towards its target only to drop down due to gravity, hitting the ground only 5 meters from him.

'You missed' said the Tamarin as he reappeared;

'Your arrow did not get shot high enough or your strength stat is not high enough.'

Tamarin disappeared again.

'That is one advanced machine, I wonder how it works.'

My true character surfaced once again; namely my curiosity and a need to tinker. I turned to the screen on the wall behind him and walked towards it.

As I did the bow in my hand disappeared and reappeared in the spot where it had originally appeared.

As I reached the screen I just pressed a random button. Yes there was a button that actually said 'random'.

'To understand this machine I must first find out what each button does' I mumbled to myself.

The forest disappeared,

'you have chosen random';

'Training that has been randomly chosen is...'

The room turned back into the forest before with only one difference; the bow and the Tamarin were on the other side of the room.

'Dodge training! Stand in the yellow spot and say 'ready' when you are ready' a cymbal sounding voice said.

'I wonder...' I said standing still pondering for a moment; then I walked towards the yellow spot which was at the same spot as the bow had previously been at.

'READY!' I said loudly.

In the distance Tamarin picked up his arrow and readied to shoot it when I started standing on the yellow plate and released the arrow the moment I said 'ready'.

The arrow was released with great force and hit Frank right in the face before he could react.

Then a deep cymbal like voice ominously said 'Damage registered; you lost 30 hp'.

'What is hp?' I asked but I was then hit by another arrow.

'Damage registered; you lost 30 hp'.

I then walked off of the yellow plate so as to not be hit again but Tamarin was too quick and had already released another arrow that went straight for the screen at the back; as it was hit the cymbal like voice said:

'Difficulty level increased to 100'. followed by evil laughter that made me feel a chill go up my spine.

Then as I turned around I was met by a flurry of arrows shot towards me as I was being hit by every single arrow as there were now 100 Tamarins shooting arrows at me at an even greater speed than the previous Tamarin had. The yellow spot had also become much larger to where I stood almost at the center of it. Compared to previously having moved off of the spot.

*aaaah!* I yelled as I felt the pain of being shot a hundred times by what turned out to be mana arrows as the pain level had also gone up on each of them.

The pain I felt can be described as being deep paper cuts down to the bone at every point where he was shot which was basically everywhere.

As I then dropped to the ground due to the pain; the shooting stopped and the same voice said

'Damage registered you lost 3000 hp, hp now at -2560; punishment, Grub for 6 days'

'WHAT! Being shot by 100 of those mana arrows isn't enough punishment? What is grub anyways?' I yelled.

I then quickly stumbled back to the screen as the forest dissipated once again and lowered the level to 1 again and after a moment of hesitation I pressed the random button again but nothing happened instead the screen displayed;

'Hp too low'

Wondering what this meant I looked and found the help button

After pressing it, it revealed a long list of frequently asked questions appearing divided up in categories. 'hp' I said contemplatively as my eyes scanned through the list. Thanks to voice activation the 'hp' category was lit up so I quickly found it and pressed on the screen where it had appeared. Revealing the following information:

'HP is short for health points.

HP gets lowered when you are hit, when you are hit for more damage than your base hp then it will go in minus and will take even longer to regenerate.

HP is recovered by your base value when you sleep once a day and by eating.

*When your hp goes below 0 in a level 50+ area you will receive the penalty of eating only grub.*

You can increase your hp by increasing its level with stat points.'

Seeing as there was nothing else to do anymore Frank went up the stairs as he calculated what was meant by base hp and how much he had. -2560 + 3060dmg = 500 base hp.

As I was walking towards the kitchen I thought:

'Strange... I wonder what that grub is, it says here that its food but also a penalty. But if my hp is -2560 right now that means it'll take at least 6 days to recover enough hp to participate in another training. But then it also says that I get hp by eating, I guess I'll have to eat that grub thing if I want to hurry.'

Having reached the kitchen I walked towards the counter and pressed the button for food on the table and up came a glass filled with some kind of green substance. It did not look appetizing like the 'meal' that he had before. But at least that one tasted quite alright. This one is seen as a punishment which would make one wonder what it would taste like.

As I picked up the grub I quickly closed my nose moving the glass far away from myself as I had noticed how absolutely horrible it smelled.

Just the smell alone was more than sufficient to be counted as punishment.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

'I have to do this.... FOR FATHER!' I shouted as I quickly downed the glass gulping it down in one go; but soon I noticed how bad of an idea that was.

I immediately started convulsing as my body started rejecting the grub. So I quickly ran towards the adjoining bathroom and threw up in the toilet.

The same ominous cymbal voice resounded once more:

'You are now under the effect 'sickness', you take 30 hp damage. punishment increased to 7 days. Wisdom stat lowered.'

As I finished throwing up he slowly slid against the wall and sat on the floor feeling absolutely horrible. The toilet then automatically flushed but the vomit had clogged the toilet causing it to overflow spreading its gross contents. Noticing this I quickly jumped up and ran out of the bathroom and closed the door.

I quickly ran to the kitchen and got a couple towels; as I ran back to the bathroom door but it could already be seen that water was coming up from underneath the door. I then tried to quickly seal that off with the towels.

'I am going to need help cleaning up this mess....' Frank said as he once again closed his nose as the smell started to permeate through the wall.

Checking one last time if I had properly sealed off the bathroom I walked out the kitchen and through the hall to the elevator. There was only one button with an upwards arrow on it so Frank pressed it;

A female cymbal voice then announced:

'Access denied for people below level 50'

'WHAT!, Mys Tara never said anything about this. What is my current level anyways?'

Checking the device on my arm I gathered some mana to power it up as I had done in the transformation room. A holographic screen appeared like a gauntlet and it said 'download complete'.

-

level 0

hp -2590hp

strength: 10

endurance: 12

Agility: 10

Accuracy: 10

Intelligence: 100

Wisdom: -1

-

'Why is wisdom at -1? I don't get it...'

Then I recalled their being a communication room; so I then turned around and with big strides I slumped towards the communication room.

Feeling the urge to press every single button out of frustration I raised my arm but after a moment of reconsideration decided not to do that and instead search for the help button as I said to myself:

'I better not do that or else my wisdom points will drop again...'

Then a message showed up on Franks gauntlet:

'Wisdom went up by 1 due to self-control'.

After some searching I found:

'To make a call press 'link', to send a distress signal press

'DANGER!', to learn more about your race press 'info'.'

I pressed 'back' and then 'link' in the bottom-right corner.

'Attempting link......'

'Found link....'

'Linked'

Then I saw Mys Tara sit at the dining table; 'That was quick, tired already?' Mys Tara asked.

'Hmmm, well where to start...' Frank mumbled.

'Speak up a bit I can't hear you' Mys Tara said.

'First off, why is the elevator locked?'

'Well that is because you are currently in a restricted area, if anyone of my kind finds you there they will execute you. You're really not supposed to be here but we need you to take my place.'

'Why didn't you tell me about it being locked?' I asked.

'Well that's because you'd make a fuss about it; ad that would be annoying?'

'Yea, can you come help? The bathroom is flooded. The kitchen is only giving me grub and my hp is down by 2590 hp so I can't even train.' Frank said with a big frown on my face

Mys Tara had an incredulous look on her before bursting out laughing her head off; she actually fell of the chair and rolled around for a bit thus furthering the frown on Franks face.

After a solid 5 minutes Mys Tara regained some of her bearings and said:

'Yea I'll send Boren to help you out' she said as she reappeared above the table. Her hand went to the camera as she turned off the screen.

'And now we wait..'

The communication screen signaled

'Incoming link; accept?'

After pressing accept Boren appeared with the elevator in the background.

'Hi Frank, I heard about your trouble. To regain your hp you should just head to the training room and press the reset button under settings. I'm on my way to fix the problem in the bathroom so see ya in a bit. ' then he hung up.

I looked at the screen, wide-eyed and a gaping mouth for a moment before I raced towards the training room.

Immediately turning to the screen in the training room I pressed the now very apparent 'reset' button which was right next to the 'help' button he had previously used.

After resetting I checked his status again on his gauntlet:

-

level 0

hp 500

strength 10

endurance 10

agility 10

accuracy 10

intelligence 100

wisdom 10

-

'Hmm, interesting how intelligence is still so high. I guess its because I tinker a lot.'

I then again started browsing through the list of training-modules seeing that some were still unavailable and that there was also some kind of natural theme in the ones that were available seemingly set specifically for my current race.

Then the elevator arrives sounding a light but resounding sound.