Music has a way of drawing out emotions; the music from the instruments playing themselves in the middle of this gothic-themed pavillion sure made Colt feel many ways. First, there was a sense of dread. When one entered a wide room inside a dungeon and music started to play, the first thought was ‘boss.’ But that wouldn’t have been unexpected.
The pop-up informing him this was a quest with a rank of F+—that made him pause. He tried to step back to gather himself and found the wall of fog behind him was just as real as any wall. It didn’t matter. It was made of mist; when his back hit it, the thing felt like bricks. He was powerless to go through it.
With the dread of being trapped came caution.
Wailing notes from a violin only made the anxiety worse; a song slowly built around the dissonant noise. He was locked in here.
Colt acknowledged his emotions and then stepped forward.
I’m here to get stronger. This is how.
This quest had a reward. It was an opportunity. This dungeon—this new life—that’s the way it worked, didn’t it? Work hard and push yourself, and be rewarded. You could earn what you wanted. A lucky break dictated nothing. No, there was no need for fear. Colt didn’t smile, but he felt himself shake yet another remnant of his previous life behind.
The blade in his left hand spun quicker as he walked in. He headed right towards the pavilion.
The music picked up pace. The grand opening to this concert responded to his movements, to his liveliness to join this party. As he approached the stage, he saw that the instruments weren’t holding themselves up. Faint shimmering hands played them; they glowed a very light white and transparent to the point that they almost didn’t exist at all.
Phantom Orchestra.
Colt fired off a quick inspect on one of the instruments.
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Name: Blackwood Double Bass
Description: Otherwise known as an upright bass or acoustic bass. This is a musical instrument and a standard member of any stringed section in an orchestra. In particular, this Bass is composed of Blackwood, a material renowned for its ethereal and spiritual roots. Some say that Blackwood gives instruments a ghostly resonance.
———
Colt rolled his eyes and tried to focus specifically on the hands playing the instrument, but no message popped up.
“Nice. Thanks, System,” he complained and turned.
The quest mentioned a crowd—and—ah.
Kobolds were gathering on the roofs of the buildings near him. Their mangy fur and snouts sniffed as they climbed. More kobolds than ever before, their heads bobbing as they moved. And they were starting to climb down. A couple failed to scale their way down the sides of the Victorian octagon, falling, slamming heads, and breaking bones as they hit the cobble.
More kept appearing on the roofs.
Colt’s eyes grew wide, and he sprang into action, darting towards the ones that had fallen and broken bones—he slid in and slipped a knife into them, doing his best to kill as quickly as possible—the band picked up their pace, the music intense and looming in the background.
How many were there?
Thirty?
Fifty?
Seventy?
Colt took his easy kills, clearing off about five of the failures, trying to soak up whatever experience he could manage.
———
You have leveled up!
You have 2 Stat points to spend!
Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Basic) has gained a level!
———
The message appeared, though not the notifications for the kills as if the system could sense what he needed to know and provided very little else. The moment he saw the additional level, the points were spent. Both went to dexterity.
Some of them scrambled down gutters—the first to reach the ground without falling. These ones darted towards Colt, their eyes wide and with grins on their faces.
Colt met them head-on—sword slashing where it could before they got too close, taking out tendons in the arm or leg to weaken them and make them susceptible to a quick dart and stab to the jugular or guts. A wound that would end these things.
As more came down, he pulled backward, retreating into the confines of the dance floor where the ghostly instruments played.
It made sense. He entered the pavilion and took in the dark steel surrounding him. There was only one entrance into this place. A funnel point for the kobolds—was this a natural choke point by design?
As the kobold numbers began to mount, this was the only place to take his stand.
His body moved smoothly, his reflexes sharp. Every command he wanted to give, his body reacted. A shove to a Kobold sent it flying. They came in, one by one, his dance partner for a brief seconds before he left them bloody and dead as he slid away.
More kobolds poured down the sides. More of them joined him on the dance floor by the second. His focus sharpened, honing to the fine point of his blades.
He slit another kobold’s throat, spinning it around and shoving it into the arms of the next approaching kobold, then skewered both with his sword. A kick sent them flying further against the side of the pavilion—killing both.
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———
You have leveled up!
You have 2 Stat points to spend!
Swords Proficiency (Basic) has gained a level!
———
Endurance. Strength. Away went the new stats, emboldening him and drawing out his potential further.
Each point was paying off. The power of the right stroke of his sword cleaved through a kobold-like butter—the ability to dart in and stab the next one in line after it was blinded by the geyser of neck blood from its ally. Every attack worked like different parts of a puzzle. All Colt had to do was put it together.
More kobolds joined. Too many to hold off in the entry doorway. Even with a blade in each hand, there were simply too many cuts to make. He could see the lines connecting his weapons to their weak points, and he could execute the perfect slash to slit a throat, or the perfect stab to needle a heart. But after ending one kobold, two more appeared.
Colt petered back further, now in the center of the dance floor.
Kobolds came at every angle; the dance floor filled—it stretched his body to the limit to avoid the bites and claws of these things as they snapped at him. At the same time, he took whatever kills he could get, whatever slashes brought their number down by one.
His focus honed further. The edges of his weapons were sharper. Every kill was another stroke against a whetstone, sharpening the blade that he was.
———
You have leveled up!
You have 2 Stat points to spend!
You have gained 1 point of Dexterity!
Swords Proficiency (Basic) has gained a level!
———
Endurance. Dexterity.
Pain. One of the kobolds bit him, a quick knee to its head as it tried to tear his abdomen open-ended the threat, turning its jaw to mush. A backhand from his sword pummel cracked its neck and sent it sprawling to the floor, dead.
Another kobold died, and he got another wound—their thick fur coated the cobblestone floor, painting the dark grey stones with red. It was everything he could do to avoid, attack, and also now be aware of the slipperiness beneath. A misstep was death.
Sharpen.
Life became the edge of his weapon. A wrong cut, a failure to cut, and instead of these creatures being dead, it would be him on the ground, dead.
The music shrieked in the background; Colt fell into a trance, the rhythm of his knife and sword yet another instrument. This band was made of ghosts, yet he was the specter of death, bringing their last audience to the afterlife to join them.
More wounds. More blood. His focus drifted, the pain growing. His breath was heavy as he came to the limits of what his body could do. Even while juiced up on all of these levels.
———
You have leveled up!
You have 2 Stat points to spend!
You have gained 1 point of Endurance!
Swords Proficiency (Basic) has gained a level!
Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Basic) has gained a level!
———
Endurance. Endurance. Colt filtered the points away. Each point was now like a little more gasoline. His body moved with precision and all the power he needed, yet he was running out of juice. The pain’s edge was reduced as more was filtered.
He was getting sloppy. Taking more blows.
The floor was littered with kobold corpses, yet there was still enough to end him.
Sharper.
The music took over and brought him out of his body. His connection to his weapons, to this world, all were strings. Just like the Bass, they played their notes; they tied to one another to come and form all sorts of melodies in life.
Pluck it.
Colt felt at the string, the feel of his weapon. His understanding of the way it cut.
That is what he needed. More cuts. Better cuts.
All of these kobolds—Colt felt his senses sharpen; the edge of the knife and sword in his hand were connected. He was used to cutting. Most of his job in the kitchen was cutting. Cleaving things up, chopping them into little pieces, splitting things that were whole. To cut was to divide.
It clicked.
Colt cut.
———
Edict Gained: Cut (Minor)
You’ve achieved a minor understanding of this fundamental principle of reality. The first step on a path of weaving and working with Edict. This is a law and thread that weaves into the rich tapestry of reality. You’ve been touched by this understanding and can now access this law. Congratulations!
———
His knife flowed out, the edge extending in an invisible line from the blade—slipping through the air like a wave. The blade cut through the throat of a kobold. Yet, he felt the ripple it caused, a strain on his soul, as he plucked the string that connected him to his knife, imparting the understanding of what cutting was.
The invisible ripple continued from the point of impact, detaching the kobold’s head from its body.
Then, it split open the head of the next kobold as it flared outward in a line, extending from his cut; brain splattered as that kobold died too.
An arc of kobolds in front of him died—the head-level wave chopping their skulls and throats open. None of them were wise enough to see what happened as the Edict infused his attack and spilled outward; Colt could feel it. His connection to the attack as it floated through them and the invisible line that divided them split them into two.
———
You have leveled up!
You have 2 Stat points to spend!
You have gained 3 points of Soul!
———
Colt's head swam, the music continued, and Kobold bit him, drawing him out of the state of understanding. Colt cut again, twanging that same fundamental Edict as he sliced into a kobold—this time at a diagonal. It spread out, another invisible wave. The other wave, he felt dimly, sputtered out. Only one invisible blade at a time, then.
This one cleaved through the kobold in front of him, spreading in an arc from the impact—five died at once, and three were heavily wounded.
As it grew, he winced, a deep pain in his his chest—right next to his heart.
He withdrew the attack, feeling the wave vanish.
It had a toll, then. Not an unlimited weapon. The further outward it got, the more it cost to maintain.
One more left.
Colt ran from the crowd of Kobolds—throwing himself over the bodies from the previous cut, then spun on his heel. He hit the ground with a knee and faced the rest of the surging wave of kobolds—at least thirty. All of them were in front of him, rushing in their blood frenzy.
With a manic grin, the music swelled.
Colt slashed his sword in front of him, horizontally, right at mid-level. And he cut.
The wave rippled outward; kobolds bodies split in half—their torsos falling over as they split right in the middle, an invisible edge spreading outward in a wave cutting them right in half. Guts spilled, shrieks of alarm. The kobolds at the back tried to retreat, but there was no escape inside the dome. As it strained Colt’s soul, it finished off the rest of the audience.
None of them escaped the invisible death.
———
You have leveled up!
You have 2 Stat points to spend!
You have gained 1 point of Soul!
Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Basic) has gained a level!
Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Basic) has reached level 10! This skill has advanced to Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Intermediate)! As this is now at the (Intermediate) level, damage done with this weapon type is increased by 10%
———
Colt collapsed to the ground, eyes bleary as he looked at the bodies; the soft sound of the music continued in the background; by now, it must be close to the end of the set.
There were no more kobolds scrabbling down the side of the buildings.
Colt laughed; everything hurt. But he laughed.
He’d made it.