ACCIDENTS HAPPEN
The worst pain one can feel is never the worst one would expect to feel. Getting kicked in the testicles is excruciating for men, but why would one think there would be the same feeling all over your body? Or for anyone? The pain, dull and deep was all that could be felt.
Flashes of memory are fading and passing as if the brain was pulled out, shoved into a meat grinder then put back into place. What pain can one call that? Where would one feel that kind of tearing, ripping, and dissolving of flesh and organs? Yet, this pain was here, and dull, but deep, everywhere.
A groan would escape the lips, but thoughts were not solid. Feeling cold, or hot, no wet? No…that isn’t right, what would one feel after being pulled apart and put back together? Exactly like this, right?
Finally being able to comprehend what is happening is not what occurs, instead, another painful groan escapes the lips as a finger moves and the feeling of pins and needles stretches at a speed not felt before. From the single movement of muscles in the pinky to the rest of the arm, and shoulder, spreading across the torso and to the legs and toes. Cramps and spasms occur and fad in the same instant.
Finally, thoughts are present.
Ouch! A deep breath comes next before eyelids snap open, blinding light, or darkest dark? No instead more pain as more muscles are used. Water? Am I wet? Yes, water, barely an inch deep can be felt against the skin as the body finally responds to the mental strain and commands to move. Vision returns, blurry then suddenly clear after a brief moment.
“Ooooohh….gggrrrrhhh, ouch!” The words slowly, escape the mouth as bracing upon the arms, with legs coming together in a sitting position as if sitting sideways on a horse. A horse! I remember what a horse is, but my name? I…. Thinking harder, nothing comes to mind.
Eventually sitting still, looking into the darkness with breath ragged but slowly calming. “Where am I?” the question was rhetorical but it was still serious. Nowhere in the memory would answer the question as to why someone would be sitting in water an inch deep, with smells of mold and darkness spread out from them everywhere. No visible light, yet enough light to prevent pure darkness as the eyes adjust.
“Sewer?” The question, again, not answered hangs in the air. Moving their feet, the individual finally, and slowly stands up, noticing themself as naked as the day they were born. “Where are my clothes?” Half sarcastic and half accepting that they are alone, in the dark, and naked. “I did not have that bad a night did I?”
The sound of water splashing as something falls into it. Immediately spinning around, intense pain striking the body, the individual falls, noticing again their nakedness as they scrape their knee against the stone under the water.
The smell of blood now joins the moldy stale water as they see a rat scurry away from the noise they made. John Doe! I am a John Doe! But how can I remember that but not my name? The thoughts ring through his head as he slowly brings more and more memories to the surface. “A man! Nice, I still have all my parts” he says as he looks down, noticing nothing missing.
Another scurrying in the distance as more and more noises get louder and closer. The rat brought back friends, and the current place was not safe. “Run” a whisper of a voice, but enough to demand action as he turns and begins running, making more noise than the rats.
The scurrying and chattering of their teeth and feet get closer and closer as the man runs. Following the curve of the stonework to the right feels the first rat brush his leg as he leaps with a squeal. They’re not running for him but past him, quickly, and many of them.
Stopping and turning around to find out why, he sees the reason. Water. WATER! And plenty of it as he sees the dark green glow of light in the water and bright blue piercing eyes looking back at him as a large, slightly glowing crocodile-looking creature is splashing through the water, snapping and biting at the rats, slowly catching one or two before swallowing it whole and chasing after the group.
Too close to the man, he turns and steps on a rat, falling into the mess feeling his teeth bit, and then leaves him as they all run past. A slow growl comes from behind as he pushes himself up off the stone and looks behind him. The creature is occupied with a collection of dead rats at the moment and hasn’t looked at him, but the fear of death and the smell of it brings to attention the importance of running, and not being eaten.
Standing up, quickly and running, the man follows the rats and glances back. Not paying attention, pain racks through the man’s chest and neck as he runs right into a metal ladder hanging in the middle of the sewer-like area. “Ouch, what, why?" he grabs the metal bars and jumps up, pulling and straining against his weight as his muscles fight the desire to be used as much as he tries to use them. Grabbing the next rung after rung his feet finally find the bottom rung that was hanging only chest high when he started. Hearing the groan and movement of the creature below him he looks down to watch it crawl past underneath him towards the direction of the rats.
Taking a deep breath and letting it out, with relief that he lives another minute, the man looks up to see the ladder end but only a few more feet into another sewer-like room above him. Moving his strained and complaining muscles he grabs onto the top of the ladder and pulls himself over the edge into another room. This time there is no water, but dry wood, slightly textured as if there is sand or small rocks were embedded into it to give additional traction. Sitting up and standing, slowly, the man looks around at a room barely more than 20 feet wide in a perfect circle a single stone glowing above him a weak blue hue of light. The stone being easily outside of his reach, the man decides to look at the room. There is nothing in the room but himself and the wooden floor and two doors. Both are wooden with metal straps and handlebars. Approaching one he grabs the handle and after a moment to question his sanity, he pulls. No movement but pain in his arms, as the dull pain is weaker but still there for doing anything. Turning to look at the other door he looks around them for hinges. Not seeing any, he pushes this time for the door to slowly move an inch or two before getting stuck on the floor as it dislodges from the framework and falls forward, completely blocking the entryway. “Ugh, of course, this would happen!”
Turning and reaching the other door, he pushes for it to open effortlessly. Immediately before the man is another ladder, but broken off and rusted beyond use. Above the ladder is a caved-in opening. “Great, my luck is just as bad as waking up!” he exclaims as he slams the door shut and goes back to the one that fell off the hinges, lodging itself in the entryway. Grabbing the door edge and handle he pulls it up and away from him as it slides then falls to the floor opening a hallway that leads to another open room. Taking the short few steps to get into the other much smaller room he sees pipes and round handles like valves all over the far wall. To the right is a desk with burnt papers and smeared ash all over it. With a set of keys and a single knife or dagger stabbed into the table. Grabbing the knife and the keys he turns to see a coat or rob of sorts on a chair that was toppled over. Picking it up he quickly thinks the air above him and puts on the coat. Noticing the light woolen feel he feels warm and happy as he finally has something…just needs some pants and shoes and he’ll be whole again…maybe?
Grabbing the knife, and the keys he turns and sees another door, with a large old lock on it. Grabbing the lock and looking it over he tries one of the 3 keys on the key ring. All looking like old skeleton keys that his grandparents had in their home…Wait, memories of his grandparents were surfacing and the smells of their Sunday dinners were wafting to the surface.
———
“Eric dear, please stop eating the cookies before dinner!” An older lady stated as she swatted Eric’s hand as he was trying to reach for his sixth cookie. “But granny!”
“No butts, unless you want me to bruise yours?” She stated as she turned around and opened the door to the oven, with the smell of freshly baked honey ham flooding into the kitchen Eric closed his eyes and enjoyed the smell, grabbing a cookie while she was distracted.
———
“My name is Eric, that’s right!” Eric finally remembered who he was and the old memory brought back his name. “Eric Liam Kelley, or as my gramps like to say ‘young master Elk!’” He laughed as his memories were finally flooding back. Taking a moment to remember he rubbed his face to wipe away the tears that came to remembering his grandparents and how much he missed them.
Grabbing a key and slipping it into the lock as if it was from a fantasy world or the Dark Ages, he applied pressure to turn and the lock snapped open. “That was easy!” was the wrong thing to say as the door immediately slammed into him with a thrashing of groans and the smell of death landing on his chest. “O my go…” As the wind was slammed out of his chest he looked upon a half-rotted corpse rolling off of him as he heard growling. Looking past his feet as he lay on his back, he saw another creature just like the one before in the lower part of the sewer. “No, my day..” was the only statement that came to life as the creature turned and jumped towards him. Scrambling for the keys and the knife, he cursed the same word over and over as the large glowing green body of a crocodile landed on him its mouth snapping shut just inches from his nose a it groaned and the darkness took hold.
———
The pain was a recurring memory to him as Eric thought death would be easier.
System Access Granted
You have slain a creature over 10 levels higher than you, you have been granted a title and a bonus.
Stolen story; please report.
What? Why can I see words in my vision? I died, it has to be a dream.
You have slain a creature over 20 levels higher than you, your granted title has evolved and so has your bonus.
Am I dead or am I just being punished?
You have survived your first deadly experience in the world, you have been granted access to the System.
You have reached level 1, congratulations, you are expected to do great things. Failure is death, and death is not always the end!
What..is all that?
System Access Granted, the first word that made Eric think he was going crazy but the image in his mind, or vision, he wasn’t sure was what made him think he was in a VR game.
Eric Liam Kelley
Human
Level 1
Titles:
Slayer of the Depths (Evolved from Lesser Slayer of the Depths)
Skills:
Unarmed Combat: 1
Small Blades: 1
Rewards for access to The System:
* Title Granted
* Title Evolution
* Bonus Granted
* Level Up (health, mana, and stamina restored)
Continue to level to gain access to more features of the system and to evolve yourself.
Congratulations you have received an evolved bonus for killing a creature of level 23 in the Ancient Depths of Sicionia.
Bonus:
You can choose to receive 1 of the following options
* Attribute Points +5
* Level 0 Spell
* Random Item
Your bonus was evolved due to slaying a creature 20 levels higher than you for the first time. You have additional items to choose from and you can select any 2.
Bonus +1:
You can choose to receive 2 of the following options (no option may be selected twice except for ‘Random Item’)
* Attribute Points +5
* Level 0 Spell
* Random Item
* Mana +10
* Health +10
* Stamina +10
More messages were waiting but the importance of selecting an option was impressed upon Eric as he thought about what was happening as he regained consciousness. The large creature was no longer glowing but he felt the knife at his chest as he somehow survived the large creature falling onto him, and the knife. Pushing with all his might he felt his muscles easily push and roll the crocodile off of him as he takes in the sight before him.
The crocodile has a knife dug into its torso, to his guess where the heart of the creature was. “I guess levels don’t matter if you stab it in the heart!”
The thought was rewarded instantly but with surprise
Intellect +1
Understanding is critical to knowledge, knowing something is not the same as knowing how to use it.
You have understood how you survived accessing The System, and you have been granted another bonus. Please make a selection before you can gain any new bonuses.
Video games were not new to Eric, he loved playing various RPG games on his game consoles and his computer. He even tried playing VR a few times and got the same experience in a VR game as he was getting here. But with less attention-grabbing than he was getting here. He didn’t want to make a mistake, if he was stuck in a game or worse a new world, he needed to make smart decisions. But he never did in his games, he rarely completed the games he played so he had no idea what to choose or how to use ‘The System’
Thinking back to the options, he concentrated on what he felt was his ‘Character Sheet’ but instead was granted the same small amount of information as before.
Eric Liam Kelley
Human
Level 1
Titles:
Slayer of the Depths (Evolved from Lesser Slayer of the Depths)
Skills:
Unarmed Combat: 1
Small Blades: 1
Thinking about what he saw earlier, he thought about his health and how he could view it. Suddenly his ‘character sheet’ changed to include what he was wondering about.
Eric Liam Kelley
Human
Level 1
Health: 110
Mana: 100
Stamina: 110
Intellect: 8
Strength: 9
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 9
Dexterity: 6
Constitution: 6
Luck: 8
Titles:
Slayer of the Depths (Evolved from Lesser Slayer of the Depths) + 10 Health, +10 Stamina, Strength +2, Luck +5
Skills:
Unarmed Combat: 1
Small Blades: 1
Ah, thinking about the items shows me more information…what about my choices? It also looks like I am about normal or equal across the board in attributes. Quickly he dismissed the thought of him and thought about the bonus options and what each meant.
Bonus +1:
You can choose to receive 2 of the following options (no option may be selected twice except for ‘Random Item’)
* Attribute Points +5
* Level 0 Spell (Selection of spells based on intellect)
* Random Item (The item granted will be of common quality, with a rare chance of an uncommon item)
* Mana +10
* Health +10
* Stamina +10
If anything about video games told Eric anything, it was he was terrible at making choices for the long term and he always thought about the immediate. And what he experienced today was he immediately needed to get somewhere safe, and stronger.
So the choice for him was simple.
You have selected ‘Attribute Points +5’ and ‘Random Item’
He immediately felt the pressure of something pending and in front of him, a small green ball of light appeared and grew to the size of a basketball before fading leaving a crystal, dark and glowing with white pure light inside it.
Reaching out and touching the crystal he felt a pain in his head and through the nerves of his arm as the crystal immediately dissolved into thousands of tiny lights and flowed up into his arm to his head, then into his chest, and he felt a warm and expansion of himself, as if he was opening for a moment. Then the pressure got stronger as a new message came to his vision.
You have granted Dimensional Storage (rare, growth)
You can store items in an inventory that exists in a personal dimension only accessible by you. Any items in your dimensional storage will persist even after death in the case of resurrection or for dimensional travel.
Resurrection!? Dimensional Travel!? What did I get into?
The growing pressure finally brought another message to his vision.
Please select which attributes you wish to increase.
Quickly and almost absent-minded, Eric selected Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity.
Strength +2
Constitution +2
Dexterity +1
Turning and facing the door he was attacked from was more sewers, but also more of the smell of feces. Eric slowly runs his hand over his face before grabbing the knife and yanking it out of the crocodile. Standing up, Eric takes a step forward.