Ahhh what where who what is that, what is happening. Ahh my barely conscious thoughts bounce around my mind. Then I feel something moving around my legs and I quickly wake up. At least I try to, I can’t seem to move crap oh crap, I don’t want to be eaten alive please just not that.
I open my eyes to darkness or did I open my eyes I can’t tell. I can barely feel anything, ok I can’t panic I’ve been paralysed by some bug living in a hole in the earth and it’s just crawling around my legs doing something. Why would I need to panic, actually what if it’s eating me, what if I’m not feeling it move around but it’s eating my flesh. Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Why the fuck did I think it was a good idea to crawl into a dark hole on some alien world. Actually I did see trees collapsing just before I was bitten and the ground was shaking something awful. I was probably screwed either way.
Why does that make me feel better? I was screwed no matter what, that should horrify me but it doesn’t. Ok ignoring that for now I need to think what do I have. I’m on an alien world where monsters are real and I’m stuck in a hole with some bug that wants to eat me. What did that voice say in the void, ‘the laws of physics can be altered and bent’? That has to mean magic right, I guess I can’t really move or do anything with my body so I might as well try to do some magic.
What do characters in the books always do, mediate right well I can’t really do that with the position I’m in not that I really know how to meditate. It’s not as easy as people think it is anyways. I guess I need to look inside myself, Ok concentrate, ignore that weird feeling in my legs. Clearing my head of thoughts of my inevitable doom, I shift my focus to my mind and feel nothing but blackness and that relaxing feeling just before you fall asleep. Wait no I can see? No feel? Something a light glow, I feel my mental focus float towards the light, until it’s everywhere and I see nothing else. It’s enormous there’s so much and it feels so nice, I could just float here forever. Wait no impending danger, I can’t lose focus. I grab a bit of the glowing stuff and bring myself back to the physical world. Keeping the glowing stuff, let’s call it mana it’s always called mana assuming this is magic and I’m not just hallucinating. I pull the mana slowly so it’s right in front of my face trying to be aware of what I’m doing while not losing my grip on the ball. Then think with all my might light, I force my mental desires on the mana and release to the physical world and …. Nothing.
I felt it move around in some weird seemingly random shapes before simply fading. Ok let’s try again, after a few minutes of concertation I’m able to grab another ball of mana a bigger one this time, almost a quarter of the stuff inside me. Again I move it so it’s just in front of my face and think LIGHT. There’s a flash of light and for a moment I can see around the cave. I also glimpse the creature that’s down by my legs. IT’S A GIANT OVERGROWN SPIDER-SCOPRION HYBRID. What the fuck, and it’s wrapping my legs with webbing. It seems to be struggling though I guess it’s not used to catching prey this big, I mean it’s enormous for a spider-scorpion thing, but that only makes it the size of a small Chihuahua. If I wasn’t paralysed I could crush the bastard easily.
After a few minutes of frantic panic I get myself under control enough to think. Just can’t think of that thing down by my legs. Clearing my head I pull out half my mana, it seems to all be back again I guess it regenerated while I was busy panicking, that’s good it’s not slow to recover. Again I try to create a light except this time I create two balls with my mana a smallish one and another containing the rest. I imagine a link forming between the two so the bigger one slowly feeds the smaller one, and then I force the small ball to form a light. A dim glow appears, about the power of a small led and the mana in the air rapidly shrinks. Wasting no time I cast my eyes around the space I find myself in, ignoring the monster below me. I can’t see much because I can’t move anything besides my eyes but I can see that I’ve fallen or been dragged deeper into the crevice about a meter in. Just off to my left I can see what looks like my hosts previous victim. Appears to be a ball of silk but it’s wriggling around, most likely it’s inhabitant trying to get free. It’s about twicethe size of my friendly host and there are what appear to be two puncture holes in the sac where the green skin of its inhabitant is just showing. So great this thing feeds just like a spider, no thanks I don't want to be digested slowly in a sac of silk. I know that myth about spiders drinking blood is false but i also know they digest their food externally.
The ball of light fades slowly and I’m cast back into a world of darkness, ok so I can create magic lights by thinking about light. So maybe I can heal myself by thinking about healing? Worth a shot, taking a quarter of my mana I spread it out thinly across my body and think with all my might heal and release it. Nothing happens. It just floats there and slowly starts to fade into the background. I quickly grab control of the mana before it can finish fading but only about half of its original volume is left. Ok healing is probably a lot harder than making a light. In fact now that I think about it, I’m not sure thinking about light did anything. It was probably the weird movement the mana was doing.
Using the remaining ball of mana I try to move the mana around in the strange shapes I saw it create earlier. It resists, like I’m trying to push it through a thick sludge but slowly and eventually I overcome the resistance and some of the mana starts fading away as I push. Light just like before appears before me but it’s not taking anywhere near as much mana. After about 20 seconds the ball of mana finally evaporates.
When I had used half my mana and tried to sustain the light it hadn’t lasted for even 10 seconds but using an 1/8th of my total mana supply I was able to create a light for 20 seconds by controlling the flow of mana myself. So control matters also probably means, creating that light earlier had nothing to do with me thinking about light and is simply what mana generates naturally when it’s released into the world. So crap I have magic but all I can do is make fancy lights. Might as well practice it maybe something will come to me.
I try to pull the remaining mana in my body out, about a 1/3 of my total mana capacity and if I wasn’t paralysed I would have screamed. Unbelievable pain wracks my body, it’s far worse than the pain I felt when I first arrived in this world. That was like a cheap Chinese fire cracker then and this right now felt like a small nuke had gone off. I can feel some strange heat that seems to be burning me radiating out from my centre where my mana came from. Trying to grab control of this strange heat just like I did with my mana earlier I try and will it to go back into my core. Slowly the heat seems to stop radiating but it still feels like I just got roasted alive.
Congratulations you are the first human from earth to refine excess hawking radiation into mana. 250 points awarded
For using the radiation to clear toxins from your body 50 point bonus.
What! Hawking radiation like from a black hole? What the hell does that mean? Is this core thing in me a black hole? That doesn’t make any sense. Wait cleared the toxins from my body. Fuck I can feel things now. Shit this is uncomfortable, so can I move then? Slowly I wiggle my fingers around, it worked oh my god this is amazing. Maybe I won’t die here after all. Calming myself, I keep myself still as I wait for my mana to recover, no point tipping my hand to that monster before I have to. Surprised it never noticed any of the light I made though, is it blind?
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My mana seems to be regenerating significantly faster, after what feels like 20 minutes my mana is fully restored; the spider is now up to my knees in its efforts to wrap me up in silk. Luckily it seems to be having trouble producing enough silk for the job and has to take constant breaks. Hopefully it will never get the chance to finish.
Forming two balls of mana again, carefully using two thirds of my mana, I push the mana so it’s just in front of the spider. Forming the connection between the bigger and smaller blobs of mana just like earlier, I release my control of the smaller ball and act. The moment I’m able to see I push up with my legs grinding the monsters body against the ceiling of the cave. The thing lets out an ear piercing screech that echoes throughout the small space and tries to bite down on my leg but now its effort to entangle me is working against it. The awkward angle prevents it from biting down through the silk into my leg. I grab a small rock by my head and start bashing the creature below its 6 ugly beady eyes. Hoping to smash its little arachnid brain in. It may not be able to bite me in its current position but it manages to scratch me several times with its legs in a frantic effort to escape my grasp.
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After a minute of frantic movement the bastard finally stops moving and I let it fall to the ground and quickly push it’s corpse off me. Damn that was intense. I’m bleeding from several cuts all over my arms where the creature scratched me with its legs. Hmm the first monster I’ve slayed in this new world, I should give it a proper name instead of just bastard. Little Fucker, yep I like that from now on you shall be known as Little Fucker you fucker. Try to eat me will you, I don’t think so.
For killing one Webbing Scorpion, five points.
With a tired sigh I just lie there for a few minutes before making my wiggle of triumph to the surface. There was only a single grunt of pain when I scrapped my thigh against a rock on my way out of the hole. Progress! Problem is I’m still tied up from my knees down. Actually taking a look around me, there is more than one problem here. It looks like a bulldozer came flying through the area. Trees are knocked over lying on their sides with the roots sticking up into the sky. Few trees still stand, it’s like someone waged a war on all tree kind.
Right I was running from another monster before, one a fair bit bigger than Mr Little Fucker. Actually I don’t remember it being this dark. Taking a quick look at the sky I realise there’s only a few hours of daylight left. Somewhere between 3-4 pm if I was to guess. Actually wait this is a new world are there 24 hours in a day? I guess I’ll have to work that one out later.
I’m no expert here but most predator animals come out at night time, I probably don’t want to be out in the open when night comes. I could crawl back into the little cave system below but that isn’t exactly an ideal location to sleep. In fact I haven’t being paying attention what with being about to be eaten and all but I’m starving. Maybe it’s time I become the predator else I suppose I could try eating Mr little, but somehow I don’t think he’s going to be very tasty. I should try and find the rest of the group, the muscle man can probably cook us up some food.
Before I head off I grab a stick to wedge between the spider silk and start untangling myself. It’s made a lot harder by the stickiness of the web. Keeps getting caught on my skin and pulling my hair out. Finally after almost half an hour of precious daylight I’m mostly free of the spider silk besides a few strands.
Picking the direction I think the golden boy was running to I head off. I hope he didn’t bite the bullet, he may be an asshole (even if he’s done nothing wrong since I got here, stupid pretty boy) but I doubt he deserves to be monster food.
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Yep he’s monster food. Along with at least 3 of the others, nothing but pools of blood and a few intestine tracts. I guess intestines don’t taste very nice? Strange I thought they were meant to be nutritious, seems odd for a monster to be picky.
Well I guess I’m sleeping in the cave if you can call it that. Crawling back down through the crevice until I reach the cave system Mr Little called home. I summon a light and take another quick look around. Mr Little’s cave is right ahead but there are several other branches none of them are big enough for me to fit in though so I guess he’s having company tonight.
Ahh right I wasn’t the only one on Mr Little’s menu. Summoning another light I study the wriggling silk bundle and wonder if maybe what’s inside might make a decent meal. Before I can make a decision I suddenly remember there’s a store of some sort right, surely I can buy food from our resident God.
Name: Tommie dolph Gore Points: 305
Welcome to the Xegliea store page. Your options are limited only by your limitation to view an option simply think of the corresponding category.
Wow ok, that’s useful. Rations I mentally project at the floating screen.
Ration category
Focus on an item to view a description
Item name
Cost
One days rations 20 Two days rations 39 Three days rations 55 One weeks rations 100 One month's rations 350
Wow based on the fact that killing that so called ‘Webbing Scorpion’ netted me five points, this stuff is crazy expensive. Also I guess this world is called Xegliea. Useful knowledge. Well ignoring that for now I continue on my way into the cave and pass Mr Little and his buddy. Secure in the knowledge I have a source of food that doesn’t involve spider meat.
Past where I was held I find myself in a little opening in the cave not big enough to stand up in, but I can sit down comfortably on my arse without hitting the roof. There are no other entrances besides the one I came from so I don’t have to worry about being surprised although it’s still pitch black down here and I can only maintain a light for a few seconds. Actually thinking about it, it’s a bit strange I haven’t seen any bugs in here, are all the bugs super-sized or was Mr Little killing them all. The ground is made of rock so I guess maybe it’s just not very hospitable for them if they can’t dig through the dirt.
Well time to try out these rations then. A few mental commands later and a box appears in front of me. I immediately realise the problem of actually trying to eat in this dark cave. I can only create a light for a few seconds and the more efficient way of producing light requires constant effort. No time like the present then to do a bit of practice.
Pulling out some mana I begin practicing manually generating the light rather than simply allowing the mana to form light as it evaporates. After about 5 cycles of this I’m finally able to do it without it requiring my entire focus. Splitting my attention carefully between the two tasks I open the crate and find nothing… What the hell is this? I paid a hundred points for an empty crate.
Wait let’s take a look at the description in the store.
One week's rations One crate containing 7 sets of meals. Each set consists of a dinner, breakfast and lunch. To retrieve your meals simply think of which meal you desire and then open the crate.
Ok then, closing the crate I think of dinner and open the crate again. The contents aren’t empty this time, I find a bottle of water, and a plate of roast pork, potatoes with gravy, corn, diced carrots and a slice of pumpkin. It looks like heaven. Five minutes later I’m stuffed and satisfied. Not only that I seem to have worked out how to split my focus evenly between my physical tasks and my magic. Hunger really does work wonders.
With a content sigh I lie down on my nice rocky bed and fall asleep in seconds.