You thought about it and, while the other two choices were interesting, you know Power Strike is better suited for you.

  After clicking on the button the box goes away and you’re left standing at the entrance to the tunnel.

  You look behind you at Derrick who is lying unconscious on the ground. His injuries are still there and you wonder why he didn’t also experience the bright light for finishing the tutorial.

  However that’s not important right now. You need to figure things out.

  What was it the box said? Deliver a blow that does a hundred and fifty percent physical damage? You should probably figure out how that works.

  Walking next to a tree, you experimentally swing your knife. It hits the tree and digs into the bark easily but you’re pretty sure that’s just the knife’s natural sharpness. The box was also saying something about the ability costing mana, but you have no idea what that entails.

  Maybe you need to say the ability out loud like a superhero from a cartoon? You laugh at the thought and go back to trying to get it to work. All your efforts are in vain however as you’ve only left a similar score of markings across the tree’s surface.

  You look over surreptitiously at the unconscious form of Derrick before shrugging to yourself. Nobody’s here to see you, so why not?

  Despite that thought, you still mumble the words out of the corner of your mouth. “Power Strike.”

  As soon as you do, you feel a rush of energy surge from somewhere inside your chest and move into the hand holding the knife.

  You stare down at it for a moment before giving it an experimental swing and are surprised by the speed in which your arm moves. With a blur of motion you feel the blade penetrate the tree all the way up to the hilt.

  You pull the knife out of the tree with surprising ease and smile to yourself.

  “Power Strike!” You call out again, a little more confidently this time.

  You repeat the process several more times, excited by the speed in which you can move your hand before deciding to experiment with it a bit.

  You try several things to test the extent of your ability and come away with a few limitations.

  The first is that you can hold that rush of energy for a maximum of ten seconds, after which it disappears. Secondly, swinging the knife and not hitting anything wastes the charge. You’ll have to make each swing count. Third, you can’t stack the effects of ‘Power Strike’. If you use it two times in close succession, all you’ll do is refresh the amount of time the ability will last, it won’t hit harder.

  There were a few other things you wanted to test out, but on your eleventh attempt the ability doesn’t work.

  You panic for a moment, before you start kicking yourself as you realize that the energy that was being directed towards your hand came from inside of you and that it’s probably the mana that the box mentioned. You remember the big box saying you had one hundred mana, and the last box saying Power Strike cost ten mana, so with ten uses it makes sense that you've run out. You only hope that your mana refills somehow.

  As much as you want to ponder over the information the boxes gave you, you realize you have more pressing concerns to attend to.

  That bright light might have fixed up all of your wounds, but it did nothing for your thirst or hunger. Deciding that water should be your first priority, you listen for the sound of the brook in the distance before grabbing Derrick and heading off in that direction.

  You’re surprised as you begin to drag him. He seems lighter than you remember. So much so that you’re hesitant to just attribute it to your now healed injuries. Perhaps it was those numbers on the big box that said Status. Regardless of what it is, you’re thankful for it as it makes moving through the forest with a body in tow that much easier.

  As you go, you can’t help but think that the foliage that looked so beautiful from the tunnel entrance is anything but. Traveling through bushes thick with thorns is incredibly painful experience, and more than once you find yourself forced to backtrack and look for a way around a particularly dense cluster trees and thickets.

  Everything is made all the more aggravating as you try to navigate this with the unconscious Derrick.

  The babbling of running water grows louder as you get closer and finally, after a little over an hour of walking, the trees open up to the view of a small stream of clear water, no wider than a foot, running through the forest.

  Dropping Derrick unceremoniously, you rush to the edge of the stream and squat down before gulping up large handfuls of cold, fresh water. Halfway through you’re hit by the realization that drinking from a random source of water without boiling or testing it is probably a bad idea. It’s too late now though, so hopefully it’s safe to drink.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Several mouthfuls later you sit back at the edge of the brook, resting on your hands as you look up at the treetops. You stare at the beautiful leaves that are a bright green with spots of neon purple –

  You do a double take before jumping to your feet and staring intensely at the foliage above. What should have been a crisp, clear green screen of leaves above your head is broken by small spots of bright, neon purple. A neon purple that, despite the complete lack of wind, is moving.

  You blink your eyes as several of the spots move back and forth before your eyes are drawn to one particular spot that seem to be getting larger.

  You watch it for a moment longer only to begin to regret satiating your curiosity as it grows big enough for you to make out.

  That small, no longer insignificant dot in the trees is, in fact, a purple spider the size of your head.

  Shivers run down your spine as it descends straight towards you and you take a step backwards.

  You’re just in time as the spider suddenly picks up speed and drops to the ground, landing with a thud right where you stood only seconds before.

  Moments pass in slow motion as you stare down at it in shock. Its body seems to be made of some kind of thick glass-like shell covered in purple fur. It peers back up at you with vibrant green eyes, almost as if it’s asking what you’re doing here. Then it jumps at you, leaping straight towards your face, its mouth open and its fangs ready.

  You swing your knife, more out of reflex than from any rational thought to protect yourself, and hit the spider. A metallic clanging sound resounds and you feel a numbness in your hand from the shock. The spider bounces away, landing with a splash in the stream.

  It emerges from the water unharmed, giving you little time to gather your thoughts as it angrily leaps at you once more, faster than before.

  “Power Strike!” You yell, not sure if you can use it again but knowing that you need to do something. You swing your knife again, the increased speed from your ability allowing you to match its speed and you manage to hit the spider once more. This time your blow is much stronger and the spider is sent flying further away with a satisfying snapping noise as one of its legs breaks off from its body. However at the same time the extra strength put into the blow intensifies the jolt you receive as the numbness moves up your arm.

  The spider begins to move towards you again, its pace barely slowed by the loss of a limb.

  “Power Strike!” You move forward this time to engage it.

  It tries to leap at you, but you strike it first, sending it away again even as the numbness spreads.

  You rush at it, giving it no chance to recover.

  “Power Strike!” This time you swing with a vertical strike, smashing the spider into the ground. It’s like smashing metal.

  You hear another cracking noise and a blue box appears in front of you causing you to smile as you briefly read it in between swings.

Power Strike (Level 2, 0%):

Deliver a blow that deals 165% physical damage. Costs 10 Mana.

  “Power Strike!” Crack. You can see its shell cracking, but your grip on your knife is beginning to loosen. You force yourself to clench your fist tighter.

  “Power Strike!” Crack. The fractures on its body are growing bigger. The numbness has spread to your shoulder. It’s a race against who’ll last longer.

  “Power Strike!” Crack. The shell looks like it’s on the verge of breaking. You can no longer feel your arm but you swing the knife regardless.

  “Power Strike!” Crack. The carapace of the spider splits open in several spots and a yellow pus explodes forth.

  You aren’t ready for the sudden eruption of fluids and it lands on your face. You cry out in pain, dropping your knife as you stumble backwards, falling to the ground as you clutch your burning face.

  Tears come to your eyes and your vision blurs. The smell of your flesh burning fills your nose as the acid-like pus begins corroding your skin.

  You hear a skittering noise again, and blearily look around only to see the spider still alive and slowly moving towards you.

  You crawl backwards in panic, barely able to focus on it as the yellow acid seems to eat further into your face and now your hands.

  Somehow you manage to get to your feet as you continue stumbling backwards, trying not to take your eyes off the spider.

  You step in something wet and look down to see the stream beneath your feet. You quickly reach down and begin splashing water on your face. Your hands are burning, but you don’t care, you only know you need to get it off your face.

  The pain finally begins to lessen as you wash away the pus, but you’re still having trouble seeing out of your right eye. You can see your reflection in the water below you. A horrid, grotesque form looks back at you, the flesh half melted and pockmarked with acid burns.

  You have no more time to process your horrific figure as your attention is turned back to the approaching spider. As you look at the spider you spot your knife on the ground behind it.

  You slowly walk around the injured spider as it continues to crawl forward and make your way to the knife. However as you approach it you see a faint trail of acrid, yellow smoke rising from it and realize that the knife is covered in the yellow fluids and the metal is almost entirely corroded.

  You look back at the spider and notice that it’s decided to ignore you and cross the stream in the favor of the unconscious body on the other side. Derrick.

  However with your knife gone you have no weapon and a quick look around shows a lack of large rocks or other things to attack it with. You already know the yellow pus is corrosive, so touching it directly is a bad idea, however the spider is at this point covered in the yellow fluid.

  You’ve already used your ‘Power Strike’ seven times. Going from what you know, you’ll only have three more chances.

  It’s getting closer to Derrick and you know you need to do something quickly.

What do you do?

1) Rush forward and attack it without a weapon! You’ll smash it into the ground with your body!

2) Play it safe. Keep looking around for something to fight with.

3) Run away! There are more spiders above you and you don’t know when they’ll attack.