It was finally time to cross to the Other Side, as the quest called whatever happened to be on the actual other side of the portal that had appeared inside the Iperborea tree. Albert bid farewell to his mother, to his grandpa, and to a few elves who had come to see him depart. Elle was there too, as was Eurus and some others who were there to both see him and the tree for the first time.
Elle didn’t seem too happy that her favorite ugly guy was leaving, but she was trying her hardest to not show it on her face. It was when Albert went and hugged her that she finally broke down and cried, begging for him to stay.
“I will be back!” He said, and felt her hug tighten.
All this felt like some huge event, and perhaps it was. It didn’t feel like it to him, however, meaning that either he or everyone else had overestimated the hurdle. He doubted it was everyone else, therefore it must have been him. Perhaps he was too excited, and was not feeling the danger yet. Perhaps he was confident in the System, that it would protect and help him.
I mean, would I be wrong to think that? It’s never failed me, so far. There is no reason why it would want to do so now, of all times.
He decided that he would cross in Analysis Mode, so as to better be able to remember what happened inside the spacetime tunnel leading to the other side, hoping that the knowledge would one day be useful to develop a skill or refine some aspect of his magic.
It didn’t help much, not immediately, it turned out.
Taking a last quick glace at the evergreen glade behind him, Albert finally stepped into the portal.
There was an island, floating somewhere in the middle of a violent storm made of two similar, yet different flavors of magical energy. This island surrounded by storm was dark, its stone having never seen the light of day, and it was huge. Its mighty presence of stone and rock was filled with caverns and strange structures, inhabited by a single kind of denizens.
The energies in question around the island, and inside of it, were of psionic and of void. Dangerous, uncontrollable discharges blazed in the sky like lightning, illuminating the dark surface of the island and ionizing the air.
Yet, inside the caves that made up the vast majority of the volume of this hollow island, none of the cacophony of sounds, energies and noise of the outside managed to penetrate the thick rock.
It was right in the heart of the island that Albert appeared, after spending an unknown amount of time hanging between dimensions, unsure of where he was and how long it took him to get there. The experience had not been even close to how he had imagined it, and instead his vision had simply gone dark and all sorts of strange sensations hit his senses, his mind unable to make heads or tails of what signals were reaching its field of awareness.
The first thing Albert did was to scan his surroundings with all the tools he had at his disposal, both technological and his [Perception] skill. Then, and only then, could he formulate a plan.
He was finally in his element, and all the knowledge on how to survive in strange, fantasy worlds could finally be applied. For the first time since the system scenario became real, Albert was so excited he almost wanted to jump around.
(Albert could not recall, but there had been many other times he was this excited in the past. The novelty had always worn off quickly, however, immersed as he was in the same old world he had always lived in all his life. And then, it had been one emergency after the other, and then again, he had involved his family, giving what would have been a very special set of circumstances an air of familiarity that made it feel a bit more mundane than it had any right to be. Now, it was all gone. Albert was alone, in the dark, far away from home. And there was no emergency other than survival.)
“Psionic energy… and a lot of it. Some other kind of energy I have never seen before too.”
Taking stock of what he knew, Albert was in a large room, dark if not for some sort of glowing lichen that dotted its stone walls in random, uneven patches. It glowed a sick violet, mixed with brighter electric blue. Just like he imagined raw psionic energy would look like, for the blue part, while the violet plants gave him a feeling of vertigo and nausea as soon as he looked at them.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Better stay away from the walls, for now.”
He decided to explore. The room he appeared in was completely empty with no sign of the portal that transported him here, not even leftover energies, and there was a single tunnel leading out into the unknown. It was lit by the same strange lichen growths, and in the distance, Albert could see that the plants’ glow was not constant, but seemed to pulsate with some unknown rhythm.
It wasn’t long before he met the inhabitants of this strange place. The first sighting had been fleeting, like the sensation of something moving at the edge of awareness granted to him by his [Perception] skill passively giving him a sense of shape and distance even when he wasn’t looking. But as soon as he turned around, all he could see was a small crack in the stone, and a long, dark tunnel too small and honestly too scary to explore.
It was better to stick to big tunnels, where the floor was mostly even, compact dirt with the occasional big boulder covered in moss and glowing lichen.
Another thing about the cave system he was in: the silence. Albert had never been in a cave on Earth before, and was not prepared for the deafening sensation of silence of a cave deep underground. The only sounds were his steps, faintly echoing in the distance whenever he was in a large room or in a long tunnel. If he stood still, the only sound he could hear was the sound of his own blood rushing through the blood vessels close to his ears.
And a faint tinnitus. Something he had always had, but that now was like a constant scream, in the total silence of the cave.
It was in this condition of heightened sensibility to sounds that the second encounter happened. Albert turned around, almost jumping in reaction to a sudden noise.
“What the heck are you?” He asked, staring at a small creature hiding between the mossy growths.
The thing was barely one meter tall, with a small central body and two triangular ‘wings’ hovering above it. It had no face, and no color. Only the wings had some color: they were a deep, deep violet and emitted some faint light that was being drowned out by the glowing plants all around. The main body too had some light features, lines of even deeper purple running along its length.
The little creature shrunk as Albert approached it, like a scared cat. This gave him some confidence, perhaps misplaced.
“Appraisal.”
[Voidling.]
“…not very useful.” Albert said. Then, as if embarrassed that he was talking out loud, he added. “You don’t mind if I talk, right? This place is too silent, it gives me the creeps. You know, you could be my Wilson, if you want.”
It seemed like the voidling was not too keen to become Albert’s companion, however. The little creature jumped at him without warning, forcing him to activate the 100-fold version of Bullet Time to be able to escape its trajectory. And in the nick of time too, for a jet of acid flew right past Albert’s face, hitting the wall behind in a disturbing hiss.
The creature also had talons, or teeth, or something sharp in its body-face. And as it flew, the triangular wings lit up brighter than they were before, and allowed it to maneuver in mid-air and to adjust its course as to land on a wall. Then it jumped again.
This time, however, Albert had already taken out the Blade of the Late Eiiri, determined not to have to fight the thing after Bullet Time had gone into cooldown. The blade, appearing quickly but not instantly from its inventory slot, easily bisected the creature but there was no notification of a kill. Instead, the two halves twitched, and oriented themselves—
“Nope.” Albert said, readying a fireball. The sudden light was like a miniature sun in the darkness, and Albert winced as his sensitive eyes filled with tears. He threw the fireball in the middle and made it split in half before detonating, having already done all the math for the trajectory.
The sizzling sound of burning voidling flesh was not pleasant.
“Reminds me of my very first kill…” Albert muttered. “I’m still traumatized.”
[Mana]: 98FU + 45/hour -> 99FU + 45/hour
Albert walked up to the misshapen corpse. He might have still been traumatized, or so he claimed, but he didn’t show it. With a stoic, almost solemn face, he raised his hand towards the corpse.
“Usurp.”
[Usurp failed.]
“Damn.” He said, face scrunched up. “Too badly damaged, I think.”
He took a deep breath. The high of the kill had shaken Albert out of his former contemplative state, making him keenly aware of his current condition of not knowing what to do.
“Okay. What to do now? System, any help?”
New Quest: Daily Challenge – Single Skill Mastery.
· For each offensive skill you have, kill 10 voidlings using only that skill.
· Reward: 1000-FU Stable Mana Crystal.
“Thank you, system.”
The quest held no information on how to leave this place, of course. But it was a start. And all Albert wanted was something to do, some direction to be pointed at. Besides, the reward was quite interesting, hinting at a possible evolution of his own mana crystal skill.