1.04
Eric didn’t hesitate. He dived to the left. The knife in his right hand slashed the throat of the rat as he passed. Impacting the ground Eric swiftly spun round at the sound of a muffled impact from where he originated from. Standing on 8 legs. The impossibly large spider (and hairy) turned to face him. Eric gasped in fear. Standing up he positioned himself behind the overturned table. He focused on the spider, fearfully hoping that it was alone. He didn’t have a chance if there were more. Eric then realized he had lost the pan. Armed only with a knife he started thinking of ways he could avoid getting in close to the spider. The table! The spider was slowly circling him. Suddenly it rushed towards him. To be met by the thrown coffee table. It was a one-armed throw. The strength stats were coming in handy. The spider took the table directly in the face. Thankfully it stopped the spiders rush. It stepped back woozily and started to circle him once more. Perhaps a bit more slowly than before.
Realizing that the table had been useful Eric picked up the ruined flatscreen television. It swiftly became a hard to wield oversized hammer. Eric felt a bit more confident. He wasn’t sure whether he would throw the flatscreen or smack the hell out of the spider. After picking up the television he had placed the knife in a pocket of his puffa jacket. He held the television two handed, the spider looked a bit unnerved by his new weapon. Eric released an evil grin. He released a primal roar fueled by alcohol and sheer pent up frustration. “DIE!” The spider caught off guard tried to retreat from the wild accountant. The television came down. And down. It was perhaps a minute before Eric realized the spider was dead. The television was completely mangled so he dropped it on the spiders body. Slowly he walked away from it. Trying hard not to look at what remained of the spider. Picking up the table, Eric began to search the apartment for more spiders. (Hoping there were none) There was another rat caught in a web in the bedroom. A couple of repulsive stabs with his knife put it out of its misery. Other than that it was empty. Eric fled the apartment. While he wanted to go to his sofa and drink some more of the whiskey. Eric persevered and continued searching the apartment level. The next 2 apartments were empty, although one had a large supply of tinned foods in the storage room. He would collect it later.
The 7th room though, wasn’t. It was kind of embarrassing. Eric almost screamed when he first walked into the room. There were two gigantic insect (probably moths) flying into the window. You know how the small normal kind tend to fly towards the light. These massive ones were doing the exact same thing. Realizing this. Eric refused to lose the opportunity. They were both squashed by the table he had refused to let go of since he killed the spider. It was gross. A tad unfair. But again he persevered. He needed the experience after all. Things were going to be gross from now on. Best get used to it. Anyway he simply waited patiently for one of the moths to still then he crushed it against the window. Making an effort not to break said window. Then repeat with the second moth. This time he left the table behind. Disappointingly after the moths, both this apartment and the last one were empty.
Finished with the floor search. Eric quickly grabbed a black garbage bag. He then went through each apartment grabbing anything useful. From towels and clothes to food. It didn’t take long. He was soon back at his apartment.
Sitting on the sofa, sipping happily on a glass of whiskey.
Ding!
Victory!
You have slain: Overgrown Rat level 2
Experience Received: 30
Loot Received:
Overgrown Rat Corpse
Ding!
Victory!
You have slain: Overgrown Brown Spider (hunter) level 5
Experience Received: 80
Loot Received:
Overgrown Brown Spider Corpse (hunter)
Ding!
Victory!
You have slain: Overgrown Rat level 3
Experience Received: 40
Loot Received:
Overgrown Rat Corpse
Ding
Victory!
You have slain: (x2) Overgrown Moth level 0
Experience Received: (x2) 10
Loot Received:
Overgrown Moth Corpse (x2)
Eric sighed. Not enough for a level up. Guess I have to hunt more tomorrow. Later that night Eric was carefully watching his lovingly crafted fire cook a pot of baked beans. When…
Ding!
Victory!
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You have slain: Overgrown Rat level 2
Experience Received: 30
Loot Received:
Overgrown Rat Corpse
What the….
Ding!
Congratulations!
You have reached level 3!
You now have 5 unallocated status points available.
Hell yes! He quickly opened his status page. Hmmm 3 points into dexterity making it 10. 2 points into Vitality making it 10.
Name: Eric Scot
Age: 27
Race: Human
Class:
Level: 3
Faction: Unaffiliated
Distributable Status Points: 0
Hitpoints: 80/80
Stamina: 125/125
Health Regeneration: 1/s
Stamina Regeneration: 5/s
Vitality: 10
Mana: 100/100
Strength: 10
Mana Regeneration: 0.5/s
Agility: 10
Intelligence:10
Dexterity: 10
Wisdom: 8
Luck: 5
Charm: 3
Wow lifting vitality changed a lot. Seems it correlates with both stamina and health. 6.25/s stamina regeneration seems like a lot… Hmmm I guess it truly isn’t that much if it only regenerates when you’re resting. Which only ever seems to happen when I’m on the sofa apparently. It took him a while to remember the rat whom he had jabbed his spear into earlier in the day. I guess it must have died? Eric smirked. Happy that he had leveled. He couldn’t decide where he would allocate the next points.
The rooftop view was as amazing as Eric remembered. The problem was now it was also completely terrifying. The pavement below was covered in blood with disconcertingly few corpses. Some buildings which used to make up the city skyline were completely gone. The roof of the ‘Space Needle’ was similarly… gone. Cars covered the roads. Of course, they weren’t moving and most had smashed windscreens or torn off doors. It was horrific. Eric was the most worried by the lack of noise. Usually a city had a background noise, which while not loud seemed to buzz in the background. Now. There was silence. Occasionally there were roars or screeches from large creatures but… There was little to be seen from humans. Eric assumed (hoped) that there were plenty of survivors but like him they were keeping low profiles. Struggling to survive within this new world. In comparison, monsters were travelling on the road below. The smaller creatures travelled in packs, the larger in ones or twos. It was certainly a magnificent view. Eric sighed.
He was currently watching a squadron of goblins, around 50 or so. They were perhaps a block away up the road. He was curious to see how they hunted. He wanted to avoid them in the future. What the… Suddenly the goblins began to fall over. The ones at the back and the front were first. They collapsed, obviously struck by something. It was a slaughter. The goblins fell and fell. Those that reacted quickest and rushed the enemy were struck down before they took 5 steps. The last goblin fell. Eric was curious now. He assumed it was some kind of monster ambush. Perhaps orcs or some other pack creature. What approached the goblin corpses were knights… seriously knights? He could see the sun shining on their metal armor from here. Most carried a spear of some sort which they were using to stab the goblin bodies. Making sure none were playing dead. They were out in the open for less than 30 seconds before they retreated to cover. Eric could only wonder who the hell they were. From what he could see they were humanoid. They also looked kind of badass. Very professional. He nodded to himself. I need to get stronger.
Today he would be clearing out the 6th floor of the apartment block. The one below his own. (For those that weren’t keeping track) Annoyingly the fire exit door was shut. Therefore, locked. Armed with knife and spatula (once again) Eric stared in annoyance at the very sturdy fire exit door. The fire exit doors all have a small window. Unfortunately, said window only showed the wall opposite. Eric could safely say that there wasn’t something on the wall.
It took almost half an hour of kicking (with breaks) before he broke through but by that time he was hungry. And worried. He had been loud and he clearly remembered the small army of rats that had been on the stairwell the day before. He had yet to meet any today and he didn’t know if he was relieved or worried about it. After his lunch, Eric started to explore the apartment level. All the doors were shut. He started to wonder if this floor would be untouched. It was possible. If there was nobody to let the bad guys in, very few of the monsters were strong enough to break through the fire exit door. He certainly wouldn’t have been able to before increasing his stats. “I guess we’ll see”, he muttered.
The first few apartments were empty. The fourth door that he kicked down revealed a very memorable chest sitting in the corner of the lounge.. Eric smiled. He picked up a pan from the kitchen. It had worked last time. Spatula in one hand, pan in the other and a kitchen knife in his pocket. He confidently approached the chest. The Mimic sprung out like before. Eric dodged to the side and it went safely past. He turned a predatory smile on his face to be met by:
SPLAT!
SPLAT!
2 slimes dropped from the roof on either side of the Mimic. They were smaller in stature. While the mimic was dog sized and blue. The other slimes were cat sized and a bright green. While he was noting their differences, Eric made a disconcerting realization. He was cornered.
The slimes slowly approached. Their cores Eric noticed were on the opposite side of their bodies to him. They weren’t going to make it easy for him. Eric quickly realized that he had to attack if he wanted to survive. Sweat trickled down his brow. Panic tried to take over. Eric rushed the green slime to his right. Before reaching it he made an abrupt change in direction and attacked the slime on furthest to he left. Success! He caught it out of position. A smooth swing of the pan struck the core of the slime. Smoothly scooping it out and flinging it into the wall to go bouncing off and away. The slime deflated. Eric turned and smirked at the remaining slimes. Shit! They were closer than before. He stepped forward and swung at the mimic. The core was moved out of the way. The swing passed harmlessly through. Troubled Eric stepped back and attacked the smaller slime. This time the now corroded pan scooped out the green core. Another slime deflated. Eric turned once again to face the mimic. He was met by a tackle.
The mimic struck his chest and it instantly started to burn. In agony, Eric lost his balance and fell on his back. His weapons released and he could hear them clatter on the ground. Eric struggled in vain to shove the slime off him. It burned. Eric began to lose consciousness. He knew he would soon die. A small part of his mind wasn’t panicking. He then realized that he still had to knock the core out the body. Desperate. Eric reached into the slime. His arms also began to burn. It was nothing in comparison to his chest. His right arm missed the core as it was moved away from his grasping hand. The left hand though, caught it. In a Herculean effort, he pulled his arm free from the slimes body. And with an inaudible pop, the slime deflated. Panicking. The pain unbearable. Eric stood and swiped the acidic slime off his body. Eric took a few hobbling steps towards the door. He never made it. Eric lost consciousness.