I awoke to a world of darkness. The stink of blood filled the air. My eyelids were sealed shut and literally every muscle in my body felt torn in two. I groaned, and gagged as the scent of blood was joined by the taste. My mouth half filled and I spluttered, trying to sit up while spitting out the rank taste.
It was impossible to move. I had taken some hits in a short period but whatever happened while I was blacked out had been more than I could handle. My back spasmed painfully and I groaned again. Left with nothing but my pain and the unceasing darkness behind my eyelids, I was forced to confront what had happened.
The spasm became a shudder as I remembered the feeling of my mind ceding control of my body to an outside force, twice. Each time, I had been forced to kill. I managed to turn my head to the side as I evacuated the mostly empty contents of my stomach. Bile, thick with unconsciously swallowed blood, spewed forth violently. The pain forced me into a seated position and I slumped forward. I painfully brought my knees to my chest and hung my head between them.
“I killed them,” I wheezed. “I’m so sorry. Sandra… helpful guy…” Without knowing their names, apologising over the bloodbath felt disingenuous. Almost cruel. More bile rose but this time was forced down. With no little effort, I forced my eyes open. I was surprised to see the afternoon sun outside. The shadows of nearby trees cast the café in darkness.
The scene was as awful as my imagination and memory expected, which put it within reason. My eyes also caught a still figure. Somewhere to direct my anger.I struggled, trying to remember the final moments before I passed out. This wasn’t my fault, was it?
No, I thought. Horror and fear could only exist in the psyche for so long before the mind’s defences kick in. Disgust and terror quickly gave way to anger. “This was your fault, crazy hag!” I petulantly kicked Mrs Naebol’s lifeless body. My agonised muscles didn’t thank me for it, but it still made me feel better overall. Anger was an easier feeling to embrace than guilt, after all.
To my amazement, a sign started to float out of her dead body. Clear, legible writing was written large in white text on the black box. It completely obscured the world behind it, but even as I panicked and thought so, the box became transparent. With another thought, it was opaque again. Weird. The text was no less strange. Two words, only one of them I recognised.
Naeboaroseax - Dead
“Naeboar… oaze- ee-ax?”I sounded the word out. “Haven’t I heard that before? Something to do with looting?” The words on the textbox shifted in response to my second question.
Would you like to loot Naeboaroseax?
Context said that ridiculous string of letters was actually a name. Mrs Naebol- oh, that’s just dumb.Despite feeling like it was becoming a catchphrase, I still couldn’t stop myself from asking. “What the fuck is going on?” What kind of name was that? How had she taken control of me, as I was sure she had?
“Calm down, try to think.” What did I know? It was May 23rd and I was supposed to get my degree today. Instead, I ended up in the small café in the park while an ominous voice counted down to the end. Not the end, I reminded myself, the end of the beginning. Mrs Naebol had been acting strange, until her eyes changed and everything was thankfully missing for a time. With time to think, I allowed myself to wonder at what it all meant.
She had forced me to kill everyone in the room, and then kill her. Why? She had seemed genuinely upset, apologising and cursing the unfairness of things. There was a tiredness buried in that sadness. Had she simply not wanted to deal with whatever the ominous voice implied. If the beginning was ending, then what was starting?
I looked back at the floating box and closed my eyes. There had been other announcements. Lots. So many my head had started to cook and it knocked me out. Something about levels?
My thoughts triggered a surge of information, along with the appearance of new text boxes everywhere. They all read the same thing. I counted seventeen in total, before a mental command discarded all but one.
Level up!
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Like accessing a memory which had always been there, I knew that if I inspected the window with more intent, I would receive more information. The macabre massacre around me never once left my mind as I quickly tried to get all the information I could. I’d had low hopes for the end times once I realised I was living them. There was still a chance that things weren’t as dire outside. Until I went out, I couldn’t know.
Instead of facing a potentially devastated world, I decided to delve into the wellspring of information I found myself faced with. I focused on the floating text box. After a moment, the words started to continue.
Level up! +4 attribute points
It wasn’t much, but it led to a new question. Attributes? Just like when I thought of the level up messages, thinking about attributes brought up a new page. One I gawked at.
Name - Grant Kaeron Race - Human (Grade 0) Level - 18
Title - Dragon Slayer
Fortitude - 5 Speed - 6 Mental - 8 Will - 8
Free attribute points: 68
I was still sore, and staring wasn’t going to explain anything for me. I mentally assigned five free points to fortitude. There was a moment where I confirmed the placement, which felt like letting go of a weight I didn’t realise I was carrying on my soul.
A burst of vitality seared through my body. It burned and itched and I was immediately certain that my various aches, bruises and wounds were being healed by the strange power. After the initial bout of discomfort, I felt like I was riding on a marshmallow roller coaster made of pure comfort. I waited, letting the euphoria wash through me.
“Holy fuck.” If everyone in the world can feel like this, everything is going to change. I looked around at the gore. The messages and level up hadn’t appeared once the countdown finished, but when I killed Mrs Naebol. It’s like a goddamn video game. Things were going to get really, really messy.
Instead of splashing through all of my free points at once, I examined how I felt currently. I stretched one arm, then another. It took a moment before I realised there was absolutely no pain from the dislocation I had suffered earlier. I would have jumped for joy… if my feet weren’t sticking to the floor.
“Got to get out of here,” I told myself. “It can’t be worse out there.” Even taking a deep breath to calm myself was a bad idea, the foetid stick of the room reaching new heights of disgusting with each passing minute. “But before I go…”
I was familiar with video games, to a point. They weren’t my particular hobby, but I had friends who loved them. I quickly shoved down any nostalgia, not wanting to think about anyone I cared about. Luckily, I had a pretty good distraction. Focusing not on my attribute page, I looked back at the first window I had seen.
Naeboaroseax - Dead
Would you like to loot?
The two messages had joined into one, but I wanted a more specific detail. With my focus aimed, the information I was looking for appeared. Even though I was half-expecting what I saw, I still couldn’t help exclaiming. “You’ve got to be absolutely taking the piss…”
Naeboaroseax - Dead Race - Dragon Level - 89
Yup. I looked at the dead body, then back to the text box, then at the dead body again. You’ve definitely lost your mind. Fine then, let’s exist in this new reality where I can change my physicality with a thought and Mrs Naebol is a dragon. Was a dragon. She was until I killed her. I laughed out loud. “Sure,” I shrugged, “nothing else makes any more sense anyway.”
The alluring word floated on the text box - Mrs Naebol had said something about the System? Right there on the System message the word “loot” tantalised me. How could I not? “Yes,” I said aloud, and with my mind, pushing my intent out to the System’s question.
The text box closed and there was a rumble. The sound was far off, like impossibly distant thunder, but even the tiniest hint filled me with primal fear. I ducked under a table until the sound stopped, not caring about the blood I shared the space with. Eventually, the celestial growl stopped and I felt able to move again.
“I really, really hope that wasn’t connected to me…” Nothing I could do about it now. With greedy eyes, I looked for the message which would tell me what I received, but there was nothing. Had it not worked? Was there some kind of hidden inv- Even before I finished thinking the word, the answer appeared.
Inventory
Aspect of the Dragon (Legendary)
Guidance Stone of Mastery
Gold Coins (Xaverion Minted) - 2758
Gold Coins (Standard Mint) - 8543
I blinked a few times at the screen. “Surely not…” I said, tamping down my expectations. With a slight tug of my thoughts, I removed thirty standard gold coins from my invisible inventory. I gasped and had to catch them as the sizable coins started to fall from my hand. With both together, I could hold them all. If this was even partially real gold, I had just become very wealthy.
Exciting, but an excitement that was eclipsed by everything else that was going on. I didn’t want to spend any more time in this awful place, so I moved for the front door. I gave it a gentle, wary push and was surprised at how easily it opened. The pressure from before was gone, but my own strength was a shock, too. Just how much have I changed already?
I left the café, the goal of getting home my only one. My mistake was thinking I could just do things. The world wasn’t so simple any more. As I stepped outside, the voice returned along with a large textbox. The voice was reading the words before me, giving them a level of pomp and import the other prompts had not received. Maybe because it was two prompts stuck together.
Dungeon entered! As the first cultivator to challenge the dungeon, the surrounding area has been balanced to your current level. Others must be at least level 17 to enter the dungeon.
Dungeon Quest received! - Main Event
As the initial challenger to this dungeon, you (and your party) must defeat the dungeon bosses to leave.
Bosses defeated 0/3.
Reward: Claim on local area, creation of valuable (Grade 2) resource.
Well, that’s what I get for having a plan.