A/N Word count: 8,140.
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-I-I-I-I-
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This monster thrived from being in the desert. It was a B-rank worm-like creature, capable of digging into the sand and lunging constant surprise attacks at its target. Whenever it was buried in sand, its speed would increase tenfold.
Around 15 or so foot soldiers were on stand by at the entrance of a nearby Oasis Town. Usually, it would be their job to confront the creature before it reached the town but to their relief, that responsibility fell into the hands of only two people. B-rank may not seem that intimidating to the average citizen but anyone who has had a taste of the combat world will know that these creatures can be devastating if they aren't taken care of. With that said, the soldiers watching didn't seem that worried this time.
The two people were a woman and a man. It was hard to believe they were ready to fight considering one of them wore a neat tunic while the other wore a dress. The woman didn't seem to mind her clothes getting dirty as it dragged across the sand. One of them was humming a tune while the other was thinking about how much money he could've earned from this.
"You sure you don't want to try take care of it yourself?" The woman asked.
"I don't recall hearing the mayor talk about any payments." Said the man.
"I can't tell whether you're just pretending not to care or if you're actually just stingy."
"Staying professional often prevents people from trying to exploit you. You could learn a thing or two from that."
"You're never going to let that one incident go, are you?"
"There were multiple incidents." He pointed out.
"I didn't know someone was counting."
"Well holding people accountable just so happens to be a hobby of mine."
"And I'm sure that makes you a very fun person to talk to."
The pair briefly ceased their conversation. A pitch black crow appeared on the woman's shoulder before it cawed loudly, sending some sort of dark sound wave into the ground. A large amount of sand burst out like a fountain revealing the huge worm like creature they were targeting. Not only was it quick, it's massive size could overtake the combined volume of multiple buildings. The creature lunged towards the original hero and the professor.
With her fan covering half her face, the original Elizabeth pointed at the ground, "Kneel."
Her tone was soft but stern. There was a deep subtle echo to it as if her voice vibrated throughout the entire monster's body.
A dark aura surrounded the incoming creature. The monster didn't have any visible limbs and yet its head fell to the ground like a peasant bowing before their mistress. The monster writhed around, trying it's best to raise its head or dig underground. But its strength and energy had been drained so rapidly that it could barely move.
"Would you like to do the honours?"
"I appreciate the sentiment but no thank you." Said professor Linden.
"Very well then."
Elizabeth shut her fan and gently waved it to the side. Seconds later, large bulges appeared all over on its skin before blood started gushing out of the creature. Even though the hero didn't make any physical contact, the creature was now dead.
Linden chuckled at the result. "The time it took to walk here was longer than that."
His remark was met with no response. Usually, Elizabeth would playfully return the banter, but this time, she was oddly silent.
"My lady?"
Elizabeth had spotted something on the creature. Following her gaze, Linden quickly noticed what she was looking at, and he too fell silent. Instead of disappearing into particles, the creature's corpse remained, allowing the pair to stare at what they had noticed for as long as they wished. The one to finally break the silence was Elizabeth:
"Hey Linden, would you still love me if I was a worm?"
"No." The Professor said bluntly.
A smile crept onto Elizabeth's face as she chuckled at his immediate response.
"If you're planning on asking that question to the others, Noche and Keith would probably say the same." Linden added.
"Are you implying that Cecil would say yes?"
Linden didn't answer, causing the woman to chuckle again. But after that light string of banter, they fell silent again.
The two of them inspected the monster Elizabeth had just slain. Normally, the body of a dead monster would dissolve into white particles before dropping a random item—a clear sign that it was spawned into this world as a monster. However, the carcass of this worm-like creature remained intact, awaiting time to decay its body. From past experience, this indicated one thing: the creature had not always been a monster. The pair of humans stayed silent, their eyes fixed on something that had been ingrained on the monster's body.
"Do you believe Skill Tress are sentient?" Elizabeth asked out of nowhere.
"There's no solid evidence to prove it so no. No I do not." Linden turned to observe Elizabeth's expression, "Do you?"
"Yes... I never did tell you that, did I?"
The professor was silent but he did not appear dismissive. Rather, a look of curiosity took form on his expression, "And what exactly led you to that conclusion, if I may ask?"
It was then Linden remembered one of Elizabeth's many eccentric traits. At one point in her life, she started talking to herself and he never really bothered to ask her why. However, this conversation had revealed that she was most likely trying to communicate with her skill tree. She would ask it questions that it would never answer or commentate over her life choices. Some nasty rumours about her have surfaced because of that, but then again, when have they ever cared about idle gossip?
The original hero continued staring at the monster's corpse as past memories flowed into her, "It happened a long time ago, way before I met you or any of the other guys. When I was at my lowest point and alone, my skill tree "villainess" asked me if I wanted to randomly change skill trees."
It seemed there was much more to that story that Elizabeth had left out; however, Linden didn't press further and quietly listened.
"I ended up saying yes."
That was unexpected. After all, Elizabeth's current skill tree right now is still the same. This peaked Linden's curiosity even further.
"But then right after that, it asked me a second question. To this day, I still remember the exact wording of it: even if it turns you into a monster?"
The tone that skill trees use has always been strictly straightforward yet vague while being devoid of any emotion. Skill trees have been known to ask for confirmations before activating certain skills but never with that kind of tone. In Elizabeth's case, the system would normally convey something like that via a simple warning like "warning: the following choice may result in a monster skill tree" or something along those lines. So the phrasing of that question certainly did seem incredibly unusual. Then again, there were many unusual things about Elizabeth's skill tree. To begin with, you don't usually get a skill tree that's named after a character archetype: villainess.
"Even though I heard no voice, it felt as if the system had whispered that right into my ear."
Even now, the memory was enough to make Elizabeth hold her breath. It was definitely an unsettling idea. Perhaps the main reason most people refuse to believe that skill trees are sentient is because it would imply someone who is alway watching you 24/7.
Elizabeth then concluded her story, "I ended up backtracking on my initial decision but ever since then, I alway wonder what would've happened if I had said yes a second time."
"You may have been hallucinating." Linden argued.
"Perhaps."
Many people have had cases like that in the past so it was a very logical theory. Skill trees aren't physically real, they can only manifest within a person's vision, making it very easy for hallucinations to appear more believable. It was such a common occurrence that the humans even gave it an official diagnosis: "System Hallucination" where the patient will hear notifications or see messages that look or sound identical to the ones you usually get even if it's not actually real. The most famous example of this was a story about an adventurer who once got stranded in a desert, similar to this one. On the brink of dehydration, the adventurer hallucinated a rapid skill awakening which unlocked 50 new skills, however, he couldn't actually use any of them. When the adventurer was saved and brought back home, he found out all the skills he had supposedly unlocked were all gone.
Elizabeth's case may have seemed similar to that, however, with the recent discovery of this defeated worm monster, he was beginning to question his own logical theory. But, like every other discussion attempting to explain how the 'system' works, it was like wading through endless speculation with no clear answer in sight
What would've happened if I had said yes twice? It was another curious question the original Elizabeth will never be able to fully answer. But today, the thing on the monster's dead body that Linden and her were looking at may have finally fulfilled her curiosity.
Once they were done reminiscing on the past, they started heading back. The sand was already beginning to reclaim the monster's body. As for what Linden and Elizabeth had been staring at during their whole conversation. It was hard to spot at first but if you looked closer, you would barely be able to see the outline of faded numbers that had been printed across the head of the B-rank creature. '8458'.
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-I-I-I-I-
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The Harmless Forest
The first thing Elizabeth0466 did was examine her new body.
The surface of her skin was so sturdy that knocking on it was like knocking on a table. Moving her hands felt more mechanical as smooth, round balls now connected each joint of her fingers.
She placed her hands on her face, but instead of the usual pliable softness that human cheeks have, she felt a completely solid surface. When her fingers accidentally crossed her eyes, she did not flinch or even blink. The surface of her eyeballs were no longer soft and would make a slight tapping noise whenever she poked them.
Her skin was spotless, devoid of any blemishes or scars that would signify any human qualities. Her hair, although clean and straight, felt more dense and had a more coarse feel to it.
Her mouth also felt weird. Usually you can stretch your mouth in different directions but Elizabeth could strictly only move her mouth up and down. Each time it closed against the top of her jaw, it emitted a loud "Klack!" noise.
The only thing that remained the same about her body was the faded numbers "0466" that were printed across the palm of her hand, right where it had always been.
She was also wearing a new dress. A brand new one from the looks of it. It was adorn with a mixture of red and black. She slowly spun around so she could watch the skirt fly around in the air.
She had never worn a dress before. The clothing that Elizabeth fakes come into existence with was more akin to the casual clothes that the original always liked to wear. This was good for Elizabeth fakes as it made travelling for them much easier. But that didn't change the fact that almost every Elizabeth fake would always dream about wearing a dress like the one Elizabeth0466 was wearing right now.
If any of her past friends were wearing this, they would've been elated beyond belief.
She tried summoning the wooden fan that all Elizabeth fakes can summon but was unable to which is what you would expect from a change of skill trees. The real unusual thing was the fact that she didn't seem to even have a starter wooden weapon like most other skill trees.
When it came to the house itself, it was certainly huge compared to her standards, although, the only comparison Elizabeth had at the time was the tents that she used to sleep in with her friends.
She seemed to be in a living room, at least she assumed it was a living room. She had never actually seen one before.
She felt the dark red carpet, the empty glass cabinets and couches. Even touching things didn't feel normal anymore. No matter what her fingers made contact with, it all felt the same. In other words, if you block her vision, she wouldn't be able to distinguish a rock from a table. But she could feel how firm things were, like the squishy couch which allowed her fingers to sink into it.
The house had two floors. The stairs were the first thing that piqued her interest. She stood at the bottom of the stairs, silently staring at it for a few solid minutes. She slowly raised her foot and placed it on the first step. She paused. Then she raised her other foot until she was fully standing on the first step. She paused again and looked around. After another minute of standing still, she gradually went onto the second step. She slowly repeated this process before finally reaching the top. From there, she took a moment to stare down at the first floor.
On the second floor were four bedrooms and a ladder that went up to an empty attic. She examined each room which were all mostly empty aside from a bedside table, a window, an empty wardrobe and a single bed that laid in the corner. She approached one of the beds and slowly extended her arm towards it. The palm of her hand gently pressed against the soft material, causing the bedsheets to sink more as she pressed down.
She took a seat. For the next few minutes, she simply sat on the bed there while staring straight at the wooden wall. She then got up and walked out the room. The attic was also empty but from there, she could see a view of the forest that surrounded this house.
After exploring the second floor, she slowly descended the stairs, step by step.
The first floor had two living rooms, a dinning room and a kitchen which had a lot more stuff than the second floor. It had more furniture like tables, chairs and cabinets.
She approached a drawer in the kitchen and stared at it for a moment while titling her head slightly to the left. She raised her arm and wrapped her fingers around the handle. She paused again. After a few moments, she pushed it but nothing happen. She titled her head slightly to the right. She pushed it again. Nothing. Then she pulled the handle and something did happen. The drawer opened up, revealing a completely empty space.
All the handles on the other drawers and cabinets looked similar so she walked around, opening every drawer and cabinet that she discovered. They were all empty. All empty except for this one drawer in the kitchen. This one drawer contained a tea set.
Elizabeth silently stared down at the tea set. With slow moving arms, she reached for it and wrapped her fingers around it. Upon making contact, it made a light clinking noise which instantly startled her so she backed away with a sudden jolt.
After a few moments of nothing happening, she approached the tea set again and poked it. She then tapped it which made a small 'clink' noice. After tapping it a few more times, she lifted it up from the drawer and slowly walked to the dining table to get a better look at it. The tea set was smooth and had a pure white colour to it with nothing to decorate its walls.
She dragged the chair across the floor, which produced a loud, grating screech that echoed through the silent house. Once she was seated, her eyes remained glues to the tea set. She had her hands wrapped around it with her fingers tracing the outline of the fragile object. Eventually she found the lid of the tea pot and lifted it up. The pot was completely empty and dry with not a single drop of liquid in sight.
Her attention drifted towards the tea cups itself. She picked up a cup in each hand and brought them together to replicate the 'clinking' sound she heard earlier. She looked at the cup in her left hand and then looked at the cup in her right hand for several brief moments before clinking them together once more. She did this several times.
After that, she left the tea set on the dining table as she stood up to leave.
With that, she had explored every room in this house. The last thing to check was the front door that lead to the outside world. The door itself was as wooden as the house itself and wasn't see through, although, she had already caught glimpses of the outside though the open windows. Her eyes scanned the door from bottom to top before eventually, she found the handle.
The door showed no resistance when she attempted to open it. She found herself on the verandah which only consisted of a rocking chair and a small set of two steps that lead into the grassy area of the forest. The surrounding area only displayed a deep forest of tall trees, grass and nothing else.
She went down the steps but before her foot could even reach the grass, her body collided with something invisible. Startled, she stumbled backwards and fell down on the wooden floor of the verandah. At the same time, a notification sound rang through the inside of her mind before a box of text appeared within her vision.
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Warning:
You are not permitted to leave the designated area.
...
The box of text appeared for a few moments before vanishing.
Elizabeth laid there on the ground, staring aimlessly at the ceiling of the verandah. She got up and faced the invisible wall that blocked her way. She then pressed the palm of her hand against it and upon doing so, the same notification sound rang through the inside of her head again before the same box of text appeared within her vision.
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Warning:
You are not permitted to leave the designated area.
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It made her flinch but her hand remained flat on the wall.
After the text disappeared, nothing happened.
She tried pushing against the invisible wall but it didn't even budge. It was like trying to push against a solid wall of iron.
Elizabeth released her hand from the wall. She aimed her index finger and gently poked it.
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Warning:
You are not permitted to leave the designated area.
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At that moment she heard a soft creaking sound coming from her right side which immediately took all her attention.
It was the wooden rocking chair. Despite not having any contact with it, the chair was gently rocking back and forth as if someone had just pushed it.
Elizabeth approached it before looking around the premises. All she saw was the house, endless lines of trees and grass. By the time her attention was back on the mysterious wooden chair, it had already stopped rocking. She grabbed the arm rest and slowly pushed it, causing the chair to continue rocking again, just like how it was designed to do. Before she knew it, she was already sitting on it, rocking back and forth while her unblinking eyes stalked the trees of the forest.
It was then she remembered the back door. She hurriedly got up, went back into the house and walked over to the opposite side of building. The backdoor did have a see through panel on it and from the looks of it, there was no verandah in the back so going through the backdoor meant going straight into the grass.
She placed her hand on the door knob. She paused for a brief moment before proceeding. Both the handle and the backdoor showed zero resistance when she opened it.
There it was. The seemingly fresh grass was only a few centimetres away from the tip of her foot. All she had to do take a single step and she was would be outs-
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Warning:
You are not permitted to leave the designated area.
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She stood there, motionless as she stared at the box of text and the invisible wall that stood between her and the outside world.
After that, she tried the jumping over the wooden railings of the verandah.
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Warning:
You are not permitted to leave the designated area.
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She tried the windows.
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Warning:
You are not permitted to leave the designated area.
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She tried going through the open hole in the attic.
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Warning:
You are not permitted to leave the designated area.
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She tried going through the front a second time.
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Warning:
You are not permitted to leave the designated area.
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She was back on the rocking chair on the verandah. Back and forth, back and forth, it went. With each motion of the chair, the wooden surface of the verandah would make a slight creaking noise on. The surrounding grass waved with the wind as if they were taunting her.
Klack! Klack! Klack! She said. Although, she couldn't actually speak so it would be more accurate to say that she was just making noises with her mouth.
She kept rocking on that chair. Minutes went by. However, nothing happened. She sat there on the verandah, staring aimlessly at whatever was in front of her. Few more moments of nothing went by before she finally stood up and went back inside. She returned to the couch in the living room and sat down. Once again, minutes went by. Nothing.
She went to the dining table to seat on one of the other non-rocking chairs.
But no matter what room she was in, no matter how long she waited, no matter how many different chairs she sat on, one thing always remained the same: it was quiet. So quiet that the wind was probably the most audible sound at that moment.
She began exploring every part of the house again. The empty cupboards, the empty cabinets, the empty drawers. She would study every minute detail that her eyes could pick up like tiny dents on the walls or even the very grain of the wooden material. She would look under the tables, check the small gaps between cabinets, and lift up every small object to see if anything was underneath it. But it was empty. All this funiture and space, yet it all contained nothing aside from that tea set that she found in the kitchen.
The four bedrooms, the attic, the stairs, the living rooms, the kitchen, the dining room. By now, she had done another full loop around the entire house. She sat in the second living room that was adjacent to the first. This time, she sat on the floor even though there was a couch present right in front of her.
Although her eyes were staring forward at the empty cabinet by the wall, she wasn't really focusing on it. She then laid down on her back so now her eyes were pointed up at the ceiling. It was a flat ceiling with no noticeable details so it looked quite similar to the ground.
Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack...
It was the only word she could say. The only noise she could make with her mouth. Each klack would fill the silence for only a brief moment.
From the attic, she could see one more thing besides the trees and the grass. She could see the sun and exactly how high it was in the sky. Usually, it hurts when you stare directly at the sun. However, for Elizabeth, she felt absolutely nothing. The sun did not appear to have any impact on her eyes. So she kept staring at it. She watched as the sun languidly crawled across the sky, centimetre by centimetre.
After a few more loops of the house, she was standing in the kitchen again. Through the window, she could now see the sun from the first floor, indicating that it was on its way down. She went to the living room to sit there for a few moments before moving to the dinning room to sit there for another few moments.
Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack...
She returned to the attic when the sun was nearing the horizon. Despite everything, one thing that hadn't changed was the view of the sun set. With every sinking movement of the bright star, an extra coating of darkness would seep into the house.
She waited until the very last ray of light was buried under the horizon before finally heading into one of the four bedrooms.
It was night time, which for her, meant it was time to go to sleep.
Her house had no light so it was completely dark at this point. It would've been completely pitch black if not for the windows. Elizabeth made sure to climb down the attic ladder slower this time. Once her feet were planted on the floor, she took gradual steps. But it seemed like she didn't need to take it slowly because despite not being able to see at all, she managed to find the door to one of the bedrooms quite easily. In fact, she somehow still knew exactly where it was.
The door creaked as it opened the way to the room.
After entering, she didn't lay down straight away. Instead, she took a moment to simply let her eyes gaze at the bed that stood in front of her. It was plain in colour. It had a brown wooden frame with a grey blanket and pillow. She caressed the surface of the pillow while she ran her other hand across the bedsheets. It was a humble bed in size, with just enough space to fit one person. The sight of all this is usually a comfort for many, but for Elizabeth, it was a trigger for past memories. She remembered resting on muddy grass, sand or even stone concrete. She also remembered taking turns with the tent since it could barely fit two Elizabeth fakes.
Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack...
Through the window, she could see the stars. Those tiny dots of light, pasted all over the night sky, also hadn't changed since she last saw them. With that in mind, she gently lifted the blanket and climbed on. The bed creaked as she got on.
The sensation of her body meeting the surface of the bed felt... indifferent. It gave her the same experience as when she was siting on a chair or a couch, only this time she was laying down. She pulled the blanket over herself to see if it would make a difference but it still felt the same. As someone who used to sleep outside a lot in the past, nights were often freezing for her. But this time, she wasn't cold at all, but she couldn't feel the warmth of the blanket either. In fact, her body seemed incapable of feeling temperatures in general.
Regardless, she kept the blanket over her body. She tried shifting and snuggling into the bed but it always felt the same for her.
After taking a few more glances at the ceiling and window, she slowly closed her eyelids.
With her eyes closed, all of her focus was directed towards the surrounding sound, or to be more accurate, the lack of sound.
The wind was calm on this night which meant she couldn't even hear the subtle rustling of the trees outside. In the past, she would often hear the distant sound of animals or birds resting in the trees, but here, she heard nothing of the sort. No chirping of crickets, no flapping of wings, or even the occasional snap of a twig. It was as if there was no sign of life anywhere outside of this house. At this point, a human would usually start to hear the rate of their own breath. But she couldn't hear that either. In fact, she wasn't breathing to begin with as it didn't seem like a necessity for her new body. A thing she often liked to do in the past whenever she went to sleep was to press her fingers against her neck to feel the speed of her heartbeat. But when she tried doing that now, her fingers just met a solid wall.
She opened her eyes, her line of sight once again meeting the ceiling.
She turned her head and looked around the room. It looked the same as always. The stars in the night sky also seemed the same. With nothing else to look at it, she closed her eyes again. Moments passed of her simply laying there on the bed. A few more moments passed. Then another few moments passed again.
She opened her eyes. The ceiling was there for her to see when she did.
She closed her eyes again, only to open them a few moments later.
She gave it one more attempt. This time she waited longer. But after feeling nothing, she opened her eyes again.
It was becoming very apparent that she didn't feel sleepy at the moment so she sat up. The wall was still there for her to see. She slowly dragged her feet off the bed and got up to approach the window. From there, she could now see the moon, the main source of light for her house during this night.
The moon was quite similar to the sun in the sense that if you stared at it for long enough, you'll begin to notice it slowly drifting through the sky. Although less noticeable, the stars would also gradually move, accompanying the moon on its journey through the clouds.
The trees were completely motionless. Frozen as if they were all statues. Not even their leaves were waving. There were no birds resting on their branches. No wildlife sleeping within the soft grass. In fact, there seemed to be such a severe lack of life outside that not even insects were present.
Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack...
Elizabeth exited the room. It was still dark. But no matter how little her vision could see, she found that she could perfectly navigate through the house without colliding into anything. She didn't even trip a single time.
Once she was in the kitchen, she spotted the moon again through the window. She waited in that spot until she finally started noticing the moon moving before heading to the dining room.
She pulled back one of the chairs which, as expected, made a loud scrapping noise as the legs were dragged across the wooden floor. She stopped for a moment before pushing the chair back under the table to repeat that loud scraping noise. She pulled the chair again and then pushed it back in. She repeated this action a few times before sitting down and resting her elbows on the table.
From there, she also watched the moon as it took its time to drift through the sky, micrometer by micrometer. She tapped her finger on the table, shifted her body around on the chair and constantly looked around the dark room.
She eventually moved to the living room. Instead of sitting, she stood in the middle of the rug that laid right in the centre of the floor. She spun around in place which once again allowed the frills of her dress to fly around in a perfect circle. She kept spinning and spinning, but no matter how long she did that, she never felt dizzy.
No matter how long she lingered around her house, she never felt sleepy.
No matter how long she waited, nothing happened.
Every noise she made was only followed by more and more silence.
Every step she took was into a room she had already visited over ten times.
She returned to verandah, the only place where she was permitted to be outside. The wooden rocking chair was still there, as if waiting for her.
Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack...
And so there she was, watching the moon while repeatedly shifting to several different room in her house, before the sun finally came back up again.
...
So after all that...
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One day..
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Had finally passed...
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The second day passed just like the first.
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...
...
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By the fifth day, she gave up on trying to escape.
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...
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By the end of the week, she lost track of how many days had gone by.
She never ate any food, yet she never felt hungry.
She never drank any water, yet she never felt thirsty.
Days passed of her never sleeping, yet she never felt sleepy.
The moon and sun both stood in the sky for a equal amount of time, yet the nights always somehow felt longer for her.
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...
...
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She spent the majority of her time sitting around in random places in her house while occasionally 'discovering' new things about both herself and her surrounding environment.
For example, despite being able to see and hear, two of her other senses were completely gone. She bit some of the chairs but tasted nothing. She pressed her face against one of the couches but smelt nothing from it.
Her sense of touch on the other hand was confusing, it wasn't downright gone but it seemed like it had been downgraded in a way. She could still feel the sensation of physical things, however, many objects gave off the same feeling, for example, the invisible wall that blocked her from leaving and the table in the dining room both felt the same whenever she made physical contact with them.
Although, her dull sense of touch seemed to have been replaced with something else. Her sense for the house. It was as if she was connected to it. If a leaf fell on the roof, she would instantly sense the precise moment it touched down and exactly where it landed. If anything were to move in her house, she would know.
Which brings us to one of her other 'discoveries'. One day, while she was staring aimlessly at a kitchen drawer, she suddenly sensed something vanish from the verandah and reappear in the third bedroom on the second floor at the exact same moment. She hurriedly went up the stairs to confront it.
But when she opened the door to that bedroom, all she saw was the bed, the bedside table, the closet... and the wooden rocking chair. On the first day, that wooden rocking chair was found on the outside verandah and it had always stayed there... until now.
The rocking chair was completely motionless, acting like it hadn't just teleported from the first floor to the second within a single instance.
Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack...
Elizabeth spent the next entire hour simply staring at the rocking chair. But no matter how long she stared, the chair never moved from its spot nor did it make a single motion. She slowly approached the chair before slightly pushing it. As expected, the chair gently started rocking back and forth, just as it was designed to do. Elizabeth's eyes followed every motion of the chair. It eventually stopped after losing all of its momentum.
Elizabeth scanned the whole room before finally leaving.
Instead of going back downstairs, she decided to climb up the ladder and into the attic again. The view of the forest that the empty attic provided hadn't changed since the first day. The large circular hole in the wall that framed this view had no glass or wood to prevent her from jumping out. Despite that, she had already attempted to escape through it before, but it was to no avail.
She placed her hand on the invisible wall which once again triggered the warning.
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Warning:
You are not permitted to leave the designated area.
...
And so, she simply took a seat on the flat wooden floor and observed the outside forest. The forest she could always see but never touch. A view she could always enjoy but never reach. Occasionally, clouds in the sky would take random shapes which she would spend a lot of time looking at. The clouds moved a lot faster compared to the sun and moon so each unique-shaped cloud was often shorted lived.
As she watched the sky, she sensed something move in the house again.
It was silent. Dead silent. Not a single audible sound was heard from inside the house and yet, even before she turned around, she knew what it was.
The wooden rocking chair. It was now in the attic, standing directly behind her. Once again, it was completely motionless as if it had always been there. She took a moment to observe this mysterious teleporting chair before giving it a slight push to make it rock a few times. Once the chair lost all of its given momentum, she gently took a seat on it and faced the view. With that, both her and the chair enjoyed the view of the sunset.
Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack...
After that day, the chair quickly became a part of her daily routine. It didn't take long for her to realise that the chair would only teleport whenever she wasn't looking at it. With that in mind, one activity she would do is take the chair 'for a walk' around the house. She did this by walking around the entire first floor in circles while occasionally looking back to see the chair following her.
Another 'activity' she would do is seat in front of the chair rather than on it, and then she would gently push it so she could spend several hours watching the chair rock. There were days where she would spend more time doing this than actually using the chair for its intended purpose.
Another discovery she made was the outside trees. After spending so much time looking outside, she began to realise that, just like the rocking chair, the shadowless trees could move whenever she wasn't looking at them. Strangely, the trees formed a circular perimeter around her house, never daring to get any closer as if they had all agreed on an invisible line that they should never cross. Regardless, it gave her a new 'activity' where she would look out the window, close her eyes and then challenge herself to 'spot the difference'.
Although, there was one tree that did dare to come closer. Occasionally, this one single tree would suddenly appear right next to one of the window. Whenever it did, Elizabeth would give it an unusually long wave. She often wished she could reach out the window and touch the tree but the invisible barrier prevented her from doing so.
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Warning:
You are not permitted to leave the designated area.
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Speaking of which, she discovered that these warning notifications could actually stack. Typically, after touching the invisible barrier once, a single message would appear right in the centre of her line of sight before disappearing after a few seconds. But if she taps the barrier a second time before the first message disappeared, an identical warning message would appear randomly in her line of sight and so she found out that if she tapped the invisible barrier fast enough, she could fill her entire line of vision with just the warning message. Effectively making her completely blind as long as she kept quickly tapping the invisible wall. She made it a 'challenge' for herself to do this at least once a day.
Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack...
This was often how it went. No matter how small, pointless or minuscule it may have seemed, she would turn any possible action into one of her daily activities. This included: alternating between every single existing chair in the house, opening every drawer and cabinet just so she could close them again, taking her rocking chair on walks, watching the trees, going up and down the stairs, playing with the empty tea set, checking her skill tree, seating outside on the verandah, observing the clouds, stalking the sun and moon, and basically whatever allowed her to make noise such repeatedly opening and closing doors. She would do all of these things over and over and over and over and over again.
This was what her day to day life looked like. A constant receptive cycle of mundane 'task' that she invented for herself to do.
Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack...
No matter how many nights went by, the trees and her rocking chair was always there for her. The natural deafening silence never changed. Every object in the house was always where she left it and every 'task' or challenge she gave herself always ended the same way.
Eventually, as if to serve as some sort of reward, the system gave her a new skill. It was a new experience for her. Unlike the warning alert sound that played in her head every time she tapped on the invisible barrier, the sound of her gaining a new skill was a lot more soothing but incredibly brief. So brief that she could barely remember what it sounded like.
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New skill unlocked: Movable House
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Despite what the name might suggest, it allowed her to move anything inside the house—except for the house itself.
She could now open and close any door or drawer, move the furniture, and even alter the placement of the walls—all without lifting a finger. She didn't even need to be present in the room for the skill to work; in other words, she could manipulate things on the first floor even if she was on the second. However, the house itself remained firmly planted on the ground, seemingly unmovable.
Regardless, she treated this new skill as a gift. Her previous 'task' of manually opening and closing every single drawer in the house was made redundant by this skill but in return, she now had the ability to change the very layout of the house. For example, she once made it so that the entire inside of the house was just one giant room filled with random furniture. It turns out she wasn't really good at designing things so most of the time, she often created a mess. After playing with it for days upon days, she found that she always preferred the original layout. Fortunately, all she had to do to revert it back into the original layout was close her eyes and think about it, meaning she never had to memorise it, although at that point, she already had a good idea of where most things went.
After receiving this new addition to her skill tree, she looked forward to unlocking more new skills in the distant future.
However, after gaining this new gift, the System never gave her another skill...
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Not until that one day...
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Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack... Klack...
She was in one of the bedrooms, sitting on her wooden rocking chair with her hands on her face.
The softness of her original cheeks were still gone. Knocking on her face sounded like knocking on a table. This was another activity she did quite often, but it was never done with the intention to pass the time. She tried to pinching and pressing her finger against her cheeks, the same way a human is able to do to their own face due to the pliable nature of human skin. But instead of that, she was always met with a hardened surface.
Regardless, it was something she found herself always attempting every single passing day, as if her face would magically become soft again if she tried 1000 more time. But each and every attempt was just as pointless and futile as the previous try. Her body was one of the many things that never change no matter how much time had passed.
She rocked back and forth on her wooden rocking chair, already thinking about what to do next when she suddenly felt something.
She instantly stood up from her chair and froze at the sensation.
The verandah.
Something had just touched the steps of the verandah.
Whatever it was, it was moving towards the door.
"H-hello?" A familiar voice called out.
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Klack.
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It started with a single 'klack'.
Then multiple 'klacks' followed.
Then more. Until a rapid flow of klacking was heard throughout the whole house.
All the bedroom doors swung open by themselves.
With shaky limbs, Elizabeth0466 bolted out of the room.
The walls of the house shook as she dashed through the hallway.
Instead of going down the stairs, she leaped from the second floor and landed on the first.
She swiftly got up, sprinted, and ended up bursting through the front door.
Outside, standing on the verandah, was a woman. The woman was previously backing away slowly but before she could even react to the door opening, Elizabeth0466 tackled her to the floor.
The woman let out a soft panicked yelp before shutting her eyes and bracing herself.
Now on top of her, Elizabeth's eyes began scanning every single detail of this visitor.
This girl has the same coloured hair, the same coloured eyes and almost the same face. She had the number 6616 was printed on her skin, near her left shoulder.
This girl looked and sounded familiar, not because she knew her, but because this person was an Elizabeth fake just like her.
"Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack!"
Now that this visitor was within her grasp, the first thing the Puppet did to her was to... pinch her cheeks. That was it. With gentle but shaky fingers, Elizabeth started pinching, stretching and poking the cheeks of this poor visitor.
Eventually, the Elizabeth fake laying on the floor finally opened her eyes and it was at that moment, the two individuals made eye contact.
A strange mixture of bewilderment and fear instantly took over the expression of this Elizabeth fake.
Expressions: Something the Puppet's face lacked entirely.
The Elizabeth fake was slightly shaking and seemingly frozen in place, not daring to make any sudden movements while the Puppet continued to play with her soft pliable face.
The next few moments were spent in silence between the two. The only audible noise was the sound of the Puppet klacking her mouth.
Once the Puppet had enough of feeling the visitor's face, she retreated her hands. When she did, the visitor saw something that slightly calmed her down. Her eyes instantly spotted the Puppet's number: '0466'. It was located directly on the Puppet's left palm. Upon seeing this, all the fear in her expression was replaced with an additional amount of confusion along with a slight hint of curiosity.
To her relief, the Puppet slowly got off her and sat on her knees besides her. The Puppet's wide unblinking eyes never looked away for even a moment. The Elizabeth visitor expected the Puppet to do something else, but instead, the Puppet just knelt there, staring back at her, seemingly like a statue.
The Elizabeth fake slowly stood back up, being incredibly careful not to make any sudden movements that might trigger something. The Puppet stood up at the same time she did.
Once they were both standing up, they spent the next moments silently staring at each other as if they were each expecting the other to say something. But then finally, the visitor decided to take the initiative.
"Are you..." The visitor's eyes went up and down the Puppet's entire body. Every detail she noticed only seemed to make her even more confused, "Y-you're... an Elizabeth fake... right?"
The Puppet nodded her head. The visitor was taken aback by this as it seemed like she didn't actually expect the Puppet to respond to her question.
"Oh... wow, okay..." She kept staring at the Puppet with a baffled expression while blinking an unusual amount of times as if to check whether she was hallucinating or not, "...wait, but then, how... h-how are you..."
She didn't finish that question, probably due to how scrambled her brain was after all these sudden events occurring all at once. She had to take a moment to gradually regain her composer. Her mind was still trying to process the overwhelming amount of confusing information that had quite literally just tackled her a few moments ago.
During all of this, the Puppet barely moved. Her unblinking eyes remained completely still as they never looked away from the person who was standing right in front of her.
Once the visitor had fully calm down, she decided to slow down and take things one at a time.
"Okay, well firstly, I guess I should probably introduce myself then," Elizabeth6616 cleared her throat for a proper greeting before she extended her arm for a handshake, "Hi! Nice to meet you, Elizabeth. I'm a florist."
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The Basement is now accessible.
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To be continued.
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A/N:
I'M NOT DEAD! Sorry it took so long to release this chapter. I had a few rough life stuff happen that got in the way but fortunately, it all got resolved recently so yeee :D. On top of that, this chapter in particular gave me so many writers blocks, and you probably can see why lol. But honestly, I was quite proud with how this chapter turned out so I'm excited to see what you guys think.
If you're reading this, thank you so much for reading and I'm surprised you haven't forgotten about this story XD.
Just a reminder that updates are still going to be quite slow since I'm still in the middle of studying but if you want to check on the progress of future chapters or ask me any questions, you can join my discord server, the link to that should be on my profile. Let me know if the link isn't working.
To be clear, unless I say so, I won't be abandoning this story. Long updates usually just means I'm busy or procrastinating XD.
I'm also still trying to go back and go over previous past chapters since there's a lot of mistakes to fix and things I might want to change. Keyword: 'trying', so far I've only revised chapters 1-4 which isn't as much as I originally planned, but yea, I'll let you guys know about any important changes I make to previous chapters.
Once again, thank you all so much for reading this far, thank you especially to those who leave comments and I hope you enjoy the rest of what I have planned for this character. I'll hopefully see you all in the next one, bye.
This chapter was finished on the 7/09/2024.