Eight Era, cycle 1721 – cycle of the squatting dog, season of Unkh, day 213
Amaka awoke in pain, shivering with cold, and in darkness. The total absence of light confused Amaka; at first, she touched her face to check she was awake and actually had her eyes open. After a moment of scrabbling around, getting increasingly frantic, she remembered enough to use her all-seeing-eye skill, and the world morphed slowly into something akin to a graphic novel.
You have been afflicted: exhaustion
You have not rested properly in days; you are mentally and physically exhausted.
Spirit attributes decreased by 3%
Spirit attributes decreased by 3%
Amaka lay back down, and curled up into a ball against the chill and damp of the cave; she was exhausted, and she couldn’t have been asleep for long. She felt on edge, stressed and cold to the bone, and her thoughts came in confused bursts of memories. She was lost and alone. She rubbed her legs, blew on her hands and rubbed her legs again. She didn’t know what to do. Continue into the cave? Turn back and try to climb the hill again? Stay curled up in a ball and surrender? What she wouldn’t give for company or the sun!
An icon was pulsing in the corner of her eye, so she concentrated on it.
Skill increased: sneak level 7
Milestone unlocked! Level 5; 500 experience points (2,331 experience points to the next level)
It was a shame that sleeping didn’t count as sneaking, or she could have maxed out by now, and then she might be able to sneak out. Resting her back against the stalagmite, Amaka closed her eyes and began to meditate. Her thoughts and memories flashed into her mind, and she let them pass calmly; it wasn’t about having an empty mind as much as it was about not dwelling on the random thoughts that fought for her attention.
New skill: meditation
Rest is not just good for the body it is also good for the mind. Meditation is a skill from the consciousness tree and will increase your level in the magical skill of consciousness.
Meditation can help remove status effects such as confusion, fear and anger. Practised properly, meditation can help increase your mental resistance to magical influence and can even bestow a random short-term perk such as an increase experience points gained.
This skill does no damage to creatures or objects, has a 3-minute activation, and to gain benefits from its use, it should be used for at least 30 minutes. It will cost nothing to use, and has a cool-down of 12 hours.
You have been cured of affliction: stress
Amaka opened her eyes and padded over to the exit of her little hidey-hole. After a few moments of watching, she spotted a flickering light growing closer. She scurried out and hid the corpses silently in her nook, and a group of caroks soon strode past, talking derogatorily to each other and bickering. At a certain point, they seemed to break stride, and one pushed another, who vaulted the air and turned to berate the pusher.
Once they had gone, Amaka rose to her feet and investigated the point where the caroks had broken stride. They weren’t the most militaristic of creatures, and they didn’t walk in perfect step, but they had all changed their step subtly when passing the same jutting rock face. There was nothing special about the rock that Amaka could see, so she ran her hand over it, but shrugged when it was just a rock. Yet something made the pushed carok angry, and why did it do a funny jump?
Next, she turned her attention to the ground, and she pulled up the description of the caroks again.
Caroks were created by the wizard Malward to guard his tunnels. They are simple creatures with few desires or needs. They have an intense dislike of the light, and are naturally suspicious and distrustful; they guard their homes jealously, setting both traps and patrols continuously to stop anyone approaching their queen. They are limited in growth, and are loyal to their queen unto death. When a second queen is hatched, half the caroks will leave to start again. They have shown no desire to trade with others and are considered little above pests. Increase your lore to learn more.
“Setting traps continuously”, and, so far, she hadn’t run into one. Well, she had: she’d fallen into this bloody warren of depravity because of a trap.
Carefully, Amaka brushed at the dirt, looking for a cord or a pit hole; she couldn’t find anything, so she squatted on her haunches, thinking. Slowly, a sliver of silver light caught her attention; at first, she thought it might be a reflection of moonlight faithfully slipping through a crack in the celling, but it was too fine and continuous for that. She bent down and looked closer; a silver thread crossed the passageway.
It was extra odd as her heightened vision had remained in greys, so the invasion of a new colour into her world made her take note. The strand was attached to a device that, when she noticed it let, out a soft, red glow.
You have found: hidden trap
Amaka then traced the cable back to a pin set into the ground; some gentle brushing of the soil revealed a simple spring-powered trap. She had a small – a very small – amount of experience with traps from her life on Earth: her father had taught her, and she’d then worked at a reservation, protecting against poachers, so she was most used to bear traps. Luckily, this trap wasn’t magical or complex; it was clear that a large, sprung trap would clamp around the legs or leg of the unwary, and potentially break them/it or at least pin them in place. It was like a large bear trap, and just her speciality.
Amaka disarmed the trap carefully; all she needed to do was cut the wire, and the pin would then stay lodged in place and would keep the trap poised to spring. In doing so, she learned a little about how to construct a trap; the knowledge was filed away in an intuitive way that would have been impossible back on Earth.
Skill increased: traps level 8
Amaka looked around at the trap, trying to gauge the type of trap and its trigger. It was a simple weighted trap: break the wire and the weight drops, some object falls or something stabs you. Amaka couldn’t see what the outcome was. Perhaps a magicka rune was set off or something. If there wasn’t any more to it than she was detecting, then it would be easy enough to disarm by cutting the weight free.
However, would that alert the caroks that someone else was in their tunnels? Wouldn’t it be better to alter the trap subtly so the caroks set it off?
Amaka hunted around and found that the wire was tied to a nail embedded in the wall; with her knife, she was able to lever the nail out. Unfortunately, she hadn’t thought any further ahead and was then holding a heavy weight by a slim nail. She moved cautiously away and used the flat end of the knife to whack the point of the nail into the wall. she’d only moved it a short way – not much, only a few inches – but, hopefully, enough for a carok to set the trap off, but not so much that they’d notice the tampering.
*
They days passed, and Amaka had no reference for the passage of time; she slept when she found cover, ate and drank when she found something on a carok, or when she was really thirsty, from a damp rock.
The cave system was massive, and filled with stalactites, stalagmites and columns where the two met; this gave her cover and access to water when she was desperate.
She spotted more skeet mounds and traps, hid from patrols when she could, and killed when she had to. It usually went down the same way; she would watch for the trailing carok, the one the others wouldn’t notice drop, and use her precision-hit skill to take out the carok with one hit. Although her bow skill was low, it wasn’t a true reflection of her ability; she was a better aim than it took into consideration, because of her years of using a bow on Earth. In this world, the low level made her shots harder, and she suffered from a damage debuff, but it was not impossible for her, especially as a carok’s anatomy was close enough to a humans that she knew where to hit to get a vital-damage multiplier.
When she took out the first carok from a group, she aimed for the straggler; there was always a straggler. The caroks had good eyesight, but couldn’t see the flash of the arrow, and, usually, the carok would die without making a sound. She always checked their health levels to make sure the kill was possible, and most of them had low health regardless of their levels. They must be spending their points on something else, and the amount of traps probably meant they were spending their attribute points on insightfulness and cunning.
And there were a lot of traps; she avoided some, repurposed others, and sprang a couple by mistake from either not noticing the trap or attempting to interact with it. She’d broken her first bow when she’d stepped in a trap like a bear trap, and was now walking with a limp because of it.
When the caroks noticed one of their group dead, she would sneak up, stab one and teleport away. Whilst they were searching around looking for her, she would sneak up, kill and teleport away, until she was noticed. She’d got used to the feel of her knife splitting the skin of her victim, the feel of hot blood on her cold hands, the sound of panic as the carok struggled for life and the look of life leaving their eyes. She had learned to move quickly yet silently as she chased her victims, and her all-seeing-eye skill highlighted their throats and hearts as weak vital-point strikes, except on the rare occasion one was wearing armour – which didn’t fit her. When she was noticed, she would try to lure them back to one of their own traps; she’d even managed to get the skeets to ambush the caroks on a few occasions.
New badge awarded: the enemy of my enemy is also my enemy 1
↑ cunning, 10 successful foe-on-foe ambushes, current total 12.
But, when all else failed, she would use her bow as rapidly as possibly, her accuracy unheeded; and, when they were too close, she’d use her sword. She wasn’t skilled, and she relied on surprise and adrenaline more than was good for her. Her high luck level was paying itself back as her greatest attribute.
Amaka only killed on principle; the principle being that she was alone, hungry and thirsty, cold and damp, afraid, and pissed off.
The loneliness was the worst part. Whenever fatigue took over and she curled up to sleep, she expected to wake up to a carok spear pointed at her, or to not wake up at all. There was no one to keep watch; whenever the torch light of a carok appeared, she knew she was going to be outnumbered and outarmed. Being alone meant she was always on edge; her only advantage was the dark.
Or maybe the hunger and thirst were the worst part? The hunger pains had turned to cramp, her breath smelled of pear drops as her body ate away at her fat reserves, every action was a great effort due to her low stamina and her stamina bar was crippled due to her hunger, and her lips were cracked and bleeding due to her dehydration.
No, the cold and damp, that was the worst. Caves had their own temperature-control system; all year round, a cave would stay at a constant temperature. It could be the hottest month outside, but inside the cave Amaka was shivering; her skin felt like a cold, metal suit; her hands were cracked and peeling; and the damp made it feel like fungus was growing in all the folds of her skin, from her armpits to between her toes.
But then there was the fear, that really had to be the worst part, what with her jumping at every noise and her heart beating in her throat; the palpitations of her heart threw off her aim, and she was on edge constantly. Her nerves felt frayed, and only the mediation had helped her to keep her sanity.
Stolen story; please report.
As for the anger, well, that was actually helping her: steeling her for what needed to be done, and driving her on when her stamina nearly drained away, when her damp clothing chaffed and she found herself surrounded by caroks.
Skill increased: sneak level 16
Milestone unlocked! Level 10, 1,000 experience points (1,331 experience points to the next level)
Skill increased: traps level 13
Milestone unlocked! Level 10, 1,000 experience points (331 experience points to the next level)
Skill increased: foraging level 11
Milestone unlocked! Level 10, 1,000 experience points (5,221 experience points to the next level)
Level up! Level 6
Skill increased: standard bow level 15
Milestone unlocked! Level 10, 1,000 experience points (4,221 experience points to the next level)
Skill increased: tracking level 9
Skill increased: navigation level 4
You have been afflicted: exhaustion 2
You have not rested properly in days; you are mentally and physically exhausted.
Spirit attributes decreased by 5%
Spirit attributes decreased by 5%
You have been afflicted: stress level 2
Your max health has dropped by 7%, your stamina has dropped by 7% and your magicka has dropped by 10%. You are also more prone to irritation and may lash out unexpectedly.
You have been afflicted: hunger level 5
Your max health has dropped by 25%, your stamina has dropped by 60%, and your health will no longer regenerate outside of combat.
You have been afflicted: dehydration level 3
Spirit attributes decrease by 12%; 20% chance of muscles cramping – whilst in combat, this means an attack or dodge will fail; fatigue level increased by 1
You have been afflicted: exhaustion 2
You have not rested properly in days; you are mentally and physically exhausted.
Spirit attributes decreased by 7%
Spirit attributes decreased by 7%
Amaka had overheard a patrol mention the deaths and the “wraith in the dark”; she didn’t know if she should be thrilled or shocked by the revelation.
She’d also discovered lots of badges.
New badges awarded:
Knife in the dark 1, ↑ stealth, 10 successful sneak kills, current total 18
Outnumbered 1, ↑ all known weapons, you have engaged in battles against superior numbers and won 10 times, current total 12 times
Untouchable 1, ↑ speed, ↑ agility, 5 kills against higher-level opponents without receiving damage
Untouchable 2, ↑ dexterity, ↑ determination, 10 kills against higher-level opponents without receiving damage
Untouchable 3, ↑ cunning, ↑ agility, 15 kills against higher-level opponents without receiving damage
Untouchable 4, ↑ insightfulness, ↑ luck, 20 kills against higher-level opponents without receiving damage, current kills without damage 24
Light sleeper 1, ↑ insightfulness, 3 times waking near enemies without alerting them
Light sleeper 2, ↑ perception, 6 times waking near enemies without alerting them
Light sleeper 3, ↑ luck, 9 times waking near enemies without alerting them
Light sleeper 4, ↑ perception, 12 times waking near enemies without alerting them, current total 13
Always alert 1, ↑ willpower, ↑ insightfulness, be within 5 yards of enemies or traps for 12 hours
Always alert 2–20, ↑ willpower, ↑ insightfulness, ↑ determination, ↑ stamina, ↑ mental resistance, ↑ composure, ↑ intelligence, be within 5 yards of enemies or traps for 12 hours, current time 245 hours
Killer 1, ↑ composure, you have killed 10 times with a single hit to a critical spot, current total 13 kills
Your chance of a critical hit relies on your perception, balance, luck, composure and other things; your critical damage is dependent on strength, weapons skill level, speed and others.
These were immensely promising; it meant that she could become extremely powerful, but it also meant that there could be others out there with impossible levels. Ophelia was right when she said there was more than one path to power. Also, the badges didn’t always give the same attributes an increase. With her always-alert badge, her insightfulness had increased more than once; however, there was no guarantee what attribute would be raised – except it would be an attribute relating to the badge.
Just then, Amaka was lying on her belly in a pool of icy water, her hands and face pressed into the mud. Her eyes tracked a patrol passing closer than 5 feet from where she lay prone; there’d been no irregularly shaped stalagmite to hind behind (a lot of them looked like mushrooms growing on top of other mushrooms), and so she instead found the widest part of the tunnel and hoped that her dishevelled clothes could be mistaken for the sandy floor. This was why she’d pushed her exposed skin into the silt to help with the camouflage, but the patrols had become more frequent and more on edge as Amaka grew more confident in her ambush skills.
The patrols now all huddled around lone torchbearers; Amaka had been taking the torches from her kills, and this group only had the one torch.
The caves were irregularly shaped, and Amaka was lying at the top of a steep hill; her bow was half-obscured in the sandy mud, like a stingray settled and ready. Her bow had deteriorated; the string was starting to lose tension, and, combined with the effects of her status, it meant she needed the caroks to be close if she wanted a kill shot.
They peered into the dark, into the overhangs of the stalagmites and along the sweeping walls. Amaka’s stats were enough for her to see their dilated pupils as they looked right past her, but none of them checked the ground. They were calling her “the Wraith”, and were looking for a floating, spectral force, not for a human crawling in the dirt.
Amaka had learned how to keep still, having been spotted more than once when attempting this exact disguise.
‘I saw something!’ one of them chittered excitedly.
‘You saw nothing, Ofal, ‘cos I saw nothing, and we’re looking in the same place,’ scoffed another.
‘I’m telling you that I saw something move! Over there!’
‘I’m telling you that you didn’t!’
‘I did!’ Ofal said stamping a foot.
‘Fine, Ofal; Timeer go look,’ another voice interjected.
Grumbling, Timeer followed Ofal as they moved closer. Amaka lowered her head slowly so she faced the floor completely.
They stank of damp, filth and of something similar to vinegar. They must have been on top of her for the smell to be so intense.
She stopped breathing, a foot brushed against her hand, and she willed herself invisible.
‘Well, what do you see?’ Timeer sneered.
‘Give me a second, brother; a second. I see a footprint,’ replied Ofal.
Her footprints! It would lead them right to her; they couldn’t help but see her, as they were so close!
‘It’s your own footprint, you fool,’ countered Timeer.
‘No, see, it’s too large,’ stated Ofal.
They shuffled around, and one of them trod on Amaka’s hand. The pain was sharp, and she bit into the dirt to hold back the cry of pain.
‘It’s hard to see in the gloom,’ Ofal grumbled.
‘It’s just where two of your own footprints overlap.’ Timeer said, stalking off.
But Ofal would not be dissuaded. His weight shifted, his foot ground into Amaka’s knuckles, and she bit into the ground involuntarily; it seeped between her teeth and filled her mouth with a bitter taste, but she didn’t move otherwise.
‘There’s a footprint; a clean one with nothing crossing it,’ Ofal said, but in a low voice, so he must have been talking to himself. ‘There is someone; something moved around here.’
‘The Wraith doesn’t leave a footprint, fool!’ the third voice called after Timeer relayed the news.
Slowly, slow enough to make the growth of mountains look rapid, Amaka edged her hand down to her waist, where her knife was tucked into her belt. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do other than stab this accursed, curious carok in the throat! After that, she’d have to use its dead weight as a shield to help her take down the others.
‘It moved off that way!’ Ofal called and sprinted off.
When his foot left Amaka’s hand, the release of the pressure somehow hurt more.
‘Come back, you fool; we’ve got the light!’ they called after him.
Amaka lifted her head a fraction to watch the other caroks. They cursed and chased quickly after Ofal. Amaka rose to her knees, sucking on her injured hand and spitting out mouthfuls of mud, and – in that moment – she lost all sympathy for the caroks she’d kill up to that point.
A lone carok made a scrawl on a stalagmite. Amaka had seen it before; it was the sign they used for the Wraith. Amaka moved cautiously up to the carok; it was muttering and looking around furtively over its shoulder. Amaka’s foot caught something, and a stone bounced a few yards away. Amaka froze, the carok whipped around towards the sound, and Amaka used the opportunity to drop onto her belly, clasping the knife.
The carok peered around, holding its sword like it didn’t truly believe in it. It moved close to Amaka, scanning the walls and ground, and edging closer to her.
Amaka’s heart was beating so hard she felt her teeth were rattling; she swallowed, even though her mouth was bone dry, as the carok looked down at a footprint. Amaka brought her hands round and adjusted her knees, the carok moved towards where the others had run off to, then stopped and looked again at the footprint.
Slowly, inexorably, it turned and looked right at Amaka; its mouth opened, and it started a cry of surprise and fear. Amaka launched herself to her feet and was on top of the carok in two strides, driving her knife into its jaw and up into its brain.
It staggered back, with its cry cut short, and blood flowing down its neck and chest. There were cries not far off as the caroks came back for their colleague, and the flicker of light appeared from a corner, drawing close.
Without pausing to pull her knife from the carok’s jaw Amaka turned and ran. She used her stealth to run as quietly as possible, but the sounds of her feet slapping on damp stone and silt were loud in her ears. The cries seemed to come from further back, but Amaka didn’t pause to gauge the distance.
She felt a breeze tickle her hair.
Her whole world seemed to stop. It was the first breeze she’d felt since falling into the cave, and the first hint of the outside.
Time returned, her feet became confused, she kicked her ankle and fell hard. She almost bounced back to her feet in eagerness, and sprinted towards the wind and, hopefully, towards freedom. There was a flash of light, and the sounds of water – lots of it. There was a storm, and each flash of lightning brought a cry of laughter to Amaka’s lips. You didn’t get storms underground, and Amaka put in a fresh sprint.
Something snagged her foot, she fell headlong and crashed through a pile of twigs camouflaging the trap, and then went down and down and down, into the dark once more.