She was in the dark.
Not just any kind of dark.
This was the truest form of darkness.
The kind of dark that makes you see things, where your hands are invisible and you can almost feel the the dark staring back. It was cold, in that deep darkness. freezing, soul shattering frigid cold. So cold, that she couldn't move.
She was not often easy to scare.
But right now she was mortified.
It didn't matter how much she attempted to force herself to move, the cold weighed down on her body like a numbing agent coursing in her veins.
The black horizon was suffocating, all consuming and empty.
There was no sound in this terrible place as she tried to scream.
There was no air.
She tried to gulp down oxygen but only to be met with nothing.
She still couldn't move.
Until she realized there was nothing to move.
This time, a scream finally pierced the darkness as the realization brough sound into fruition.
-
Keith's feet trodden over the forest floor, the weight of several hundred pounds worth of Aether items only providing extra weight to his steps. The group of warriors he was trailing behind kept at a brisk pace, obviously trying to get back to the city to sell their most recent Delving rewards, the massive fuck all weight on his back.
Being a [Looter] was relative easy work, as long as he didn't go with a group doom to die in some hellhole dungeon, then it wasnt so bad. [Looter] was a subsection of [Thief] making it ideal for ruffians like himself to get it for the sake of finding more legal work.
Need someone to carry your stuff 20 miles but you don't want to pay for the upkeep of a wagon and its animals?
just rent out the work of a [Looter] for a couple days and you'll get your moneys worth within the first few hours.
For the first time in the last 17 miles, sweat dribbled off his brow.
Mother always says that a good days work entailed a bit of sweat.
Keith's overstuffed bag carried items worth, at minimum, 20 Kelcots, and since he was given a percent share instead of a standard rate, he was coming back with a haul big enough to leave at least a few of the kids in the orphanage well off when they got older.
Man, delvers are fucking awesome.
No wonder why most of them are richer then half the nobles in the empire.
[Fire Born Warrior - Level 41]
"Hey loot bug, you haven't dropped anything have you?"
The pyro-warrior called back from the lead. It was of course a light jab at him, calling him a 'Loot bug' but he had to get used to that kind of thing when he was literally carrying a fortune on his back.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
So he just smiled and gave the best "I would like your boots if you told me to" impression.
"Of course not Sire"
[Blood Craven Berserker - Level 35]
The bulkiest man of the trio spoke.
"See man, i told you a [Looter] was a good idea"
"Yeah, yeah, i get it,"
Keith smiled inwardly at the compliment.
He was already dividing his share into different things in his head.
That 10 percent rate was absolute killer with long expeditions like this.
Keith almost laughed at the absurd luck of finding a competent group AND a longer dungeon delve.
He was going to have showers everyday for the next year, and so would his 16 siblings. He could eat almost anything he could want for a year, and so could the others. He could even buy some starter gear and maybe a spell matrix or two for little Jacky, the bugger wanted to become a [Spell Blade] and with Keith's current share and haul, he could make it happen.
He had to forcefully place his poker face back on to avoid the curling of his lips.
The leader of the trio stopped.
[Way of the Silent (Assassin) - Level 45]
The smallest of them, coming in at only 5'5, was statistly, and identifiable the most scary of the three. WIth her violet eyes capable of piercing any darkness and ears that could sense even the most minor of changes in the environment, she had always lead the trio to success with her battlefield detection skills and abilities.
The trio held their breath as Keith, knowing damn well how the group works by now, stepped back around 10 to 15 feet away.
They all held their breath as the Leaders eyes glared at the sky, above the canopy of trees.
Unlike the normal sky, the one thats blue and covered in white clouds, with the sun beaming to great them, this sky had a swirling mass of darkness above their heads.
The space around the swirling mass distorted and shifted.
The steadfast trio shattered, the space in which they had resided, not half a second ago, warped and erupted, a black mark n the ground where they had originally had been.
Keith didn't freeze.
He had seen enough magic to know when it was time to FUCKING LEAVE.
He ran, and he ran hard, the sound of the shattered hole where the delvers had been still in his ears.
The weight o the bag was weightless as his {Avoidance} and {Break away} skills boosted is agility, letting his class do the work, he pounded the dirt with his soles, the old instincts kicked in as he remember the days when he would run away from stealing bread.
The world was out to get him at this point.
And the world would win.
His boosted agility gave him only milliseconds to react to the same 'Shattering' affect that surrounded him.
At level 31, the [Looter] could acquire the skill {Ongoing march} that allowed for lethal or unknown magic sources to not damage or harm you once per day.
Keith was level 30.
'I wonder how the kids are doing'
Reality distortion left a black crater where the humble [Looter] had once been.
From the Swirling mass only a echoing scream could be heard for miles.
..
She could breathe again.
Air entered her lungs again.
She could breathe.
She sighed in relief.
Her mouth opened and responded to her brains command.
"Fuck you sleep paralysis demon."
Alyssas mouth felt funny, but she was willing to ignore it as she steadied her breathing. No wonder why people write about sleep paralysis online.
A suffocating dream sounded horrible, but a suffocating dream without sound, feeling or even the feeling off being alive.
She from this moment onward refused to to eat suspicious brownies from a friend ever again.
"Fucking josh, I'm gonna fucking murder you."
With a bit more force then normal, she opened her eyes.
And she was most definitely not in her living room, with a tray of half eaten brownies and a T.V. running reruns of dragonball.
The throne room was lit by torches that lined the marble pillars, showing a room that hadn't seen any real usage in decades. The stone floors were cracked, with weeds, grass, moss, and flowers taking root in every space they could, creating a certain decrepit vibe to it.
it reminded her of rundown castles in a post apocalypse series she had read.
The rugs and leftover furnishing had been broken down by time and strewn about by the elements. Multiple holes in the roof let sunlight and wind enter the castle, streaming in light like it was a video game cinematic inside some ruins.
'Ah, I'm still dreaming'
'Looks pretty cool'
Where her thoughts as she finally inspected the last part of the not-so-empty room.
Eight men wearing black and red robes that early resembled the KKK's pointy hats knelt in front of her.
'Y'know, a dream about being a queen isn't all that bad, but why do my subjects look like cultist, i'm an atheist.'
She was greeted by the darkness once more, but now there was something to focus on.
"Welcome to Aneryix, Dungeon Master Alyssa Kerigrov, The Tutorial will now Start"
'Man, I even game in my dreams, I should probably find another hobby'