When Steve said hideout, William thought of walls, of a warm place, a hidden place. William thought it was something that would aid him. He was completely wrong. The supposed hideout was mainly a moved bookshelf.
“Tada,” Steve had said as they arrived at the spot, and at first, William was confused about what he meant. In his hands were the two books he’d found, the black taboo one and the other that had spawned on his way back.
Since they’d been moving away from William’s torture place, a spot he never wanted to return to again, he had figured there wouldn’t be any harm in bringing the books. He thought there might be a way to use the system to gain the knowledge they held. He also brought his metal rod.
Steve hadn’t needed it. Apparently, he had a form of lesser night vision. It allowed him to see about fifteen meters in each direction. A useful skill here in the darkness.
“What am I looking at?” William said.
“The hideout dummy.”
“You can’t be serious. This is your hideout? All you’ve done is move a shelf to box in two other shelves. I’ll give you props that building this against the wall was smart. Only three directions you have to cover, but the protection doesn’t do anything.”
“It’s sufficient to hide us against the creatures of the first floor. Hence, the name hide out.”
Essentially, I’m back to square one.
“No,” William said. “If I’m to find a way out of this hellhole, I need a more stable base to recurate. It’s a good location, but we’re going to have to bolster up the defenses.”
“Bah,” Steve said. “You can do that. I’ve got business to attend to.”
Steve walked into the darkness, and eventually, William couldn’t hear his steps. He was alone, once more. But he wasn’t in the same spot he’d been at the start. The crystal healed his legs, and he was in supposed neutral ground.
There were also the windows hovering in front of William. He’d been too distracted conversing with Steve to pay them the attention they warranted. Now though, he could look into them.
[The skill Lesser Poison Resistance has been gained.]
[It is possible to merge certain skills.
Would you like to merge the skills below?
Lesser Disease Resistance
Lesser Hemorrhage Resistance
Lesser Poison Resistance
Yes/No
]
He’d never received a window like this, and he wasn’t sure if turning three skills into one would be worth it. If merging them turned out to be a bad decision, he didn’t care much about losing his disease resistance and poison resistance as they were low-level. The same couldn’t be said about his hemorrhage resistance which was level 9, just one level away from upgrading, and also a very useful skill.
On the other hand, each time his skills upgraded, they’d turned into a much stronger version. Perhaps these three skills would do the same. After all, they were similar to each other. It was a risk, but William bit his tongue, enjoying the calm of the pain, and pressed yes.
[The skill Potent Blood has been gained]
A flash of heat spread through his body as the window. He stood shocked for a moment, somehow feeling better. Full almost.
What’s that?
[Potent Blood - Blood with a stronger ability to heal wounds, stop bleeding, and combat disease and poison. Furthermore, the body requires less of this type of blood to function.]
Could I do that all the time? It seems like the skill’s kept all of the aspects of the original skills but also gained a few new abilities. Nice!
He turned his attention to the next window.
[You have reached level 3]
[Please select one of these three random stats to increase by 3.
Vitality
Strength
Dexterity
]
He hadn’t seen vitality and dexterity before, finding them more appealing. He had a method of increasing his strength after all.
At the moment he found himself beaten up much more than before. Increasing his defensive stats could be worth it, or he could increase his dexterity and deal more damage through better technique.
I’ve only got a rod. Can’t be much technique in that. I might as well increase my vitality.
Pressing vitality filled him with energy. His eyes widened, and he clenched his muscle. A similar feeling to a night’s good rest filled him. He was happy with the choice he’d made.
On the way here, Steve mentioned one of the differences between a neutral area and an area under a group was the quantity and quality of monsters. The only real creatures Steve would find below his torture cell would be the rats, whilst here, where it was neutral, there was a much more diversified amount of monsters. To him, that meant more danger, but at least he didn’t need to worry about an organised group.
Right, so I’ve got to get to constructing some walls. I’m going to need the material for that. Something hard and heavy, preferably. These shelves' weak, rotten wood just won’t do the trick. They won’t defend me against rats.
Walking through the area with Steve showed William how little he knew about the space. Even though Steve was capable of telling different directions apart, William felt they were all the same. Wandering around the area all willy-nilly would surely lead to him getting lost, and that was death. Moving in a straight line, following the bookshelves, would be the best method for him.
Before, he hadn’t appreciated how convenient walking was, especially compared to dragging himself against the floor. The dust wasn’t constantly getting into his face and lungs. The odd pebbles weren’t scraping against his torso. All in all, it was a much more pleasant experience.
Or at least, that was the case until a figure smashed into him from the side. He didn’t have much time to react. He hadn’t heard or smelled or felt anything. His short range of sight, provided by the weak light produced by the rod, only extended two meters in each direction. He’d noticed something bolting towards him, begun to turn his body, and then it slammed into him,
He flew and crashed through a bookshelf. As the dust settled, he realized that his shoulder had been dislocated. That was about it. His body had become much stronger than he remembered.
He snapped his shoulder back into place as the next attack came. More aware this time, he stuck out his rod full of electricity towards the creature’s direction. Its black fist struck the centre of his chest, breaking a few bones. Then, it spasmed.
His rod had connected against its chest. It was red, and naked, with no hair on it. The creature was about the size of three pigs and looked to weigh a lot. Its limbs, and head almost melded into the darkness around them.
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“Fucking bastard,” William said as he steadily charged his lightning through the creature. It went for nearly twenty seconds, faint steam coming from the creature somehow though it survived. He didn’t have any more electricity to give.
The creature raised its fist, preparing to smash into his chest once more and kill him. William swallowed, thinking things had gone better than they usually did this time. But then, before it could strike him, its leg's right leg spasmed, making it fall to the side.
Hah! Loser.
The creature growled, showing its lack of teeth. William cringed with disgust at the sight and quickly got up. He smashed his rod into the side of the creature’s head. The creature’s head jerked to the side, and his rod bent, looking more like a “j” now than a line.
As occasional spasm’s disturbed the creature’s movement, William raised and smashed the chair’s leg into its head. With each strike, he released a grunt. He felt his sweat build up around his body. The creature passed out.
William didn’t stop. He kept striking until he heard cracks, and felt his rod splash into the blood. The smell of the creature’s blood was a bitter thing, filled with a strong smell making William want to get away.
After a moment too long he realized that a window had popped up showing the creature’s death.
[You have gained 400xp]
[You have reached level 4]
[Please select one of these three random stats to increase by 3.
Intelligence
Vitality
Agility
]
He sighed. I might as well increase my intelligence. Hopefully smarter me will be able to avoid these stupid fights.
When he pressed intelligence, instead of feeling a new sensation in his brain, he felt it right below his heart. That was where his electricity rested when he wasn’t using it. Were intelligence and magic connected? He knew mages were smart, but he hadn’t thought being smart was magical.
Intellect has always seemed magical I guess.
As he sat with his back against the bookshelves, he heard something. A soft noise that grew louder. His eyes immediately jerked towards the spot, finding four eyes, two purple, and two red. They shone dully, and slowly approached him at the same speed.
He waved his rod around, which was quickly losing its colour as he had no electricity to surge through it. “Come on then, I’ll take you on.”
Can’t show weakness.
Any sign that said he was weak would bolster his attacker. Even though he knew he was doomed, it was nothing he could show to the world. Damn this place. Damn everything about it.
The creature continued to approach him. It got close enough for the weak light emitted by his rod to reach the tip of its face. First, he saw its black nose, and as his vision of the creature grew, he saw its jaw. A jagged thing, revealing two large teeth, big peeking out of its closed mouth. It was a wolf carrying two heads attached to the same body. The head inspected him closely as it continued to approach him.
Then it stopped in front of the corpse of the large creature that had attacked him. One head reached down and took a bit, ripping off the flesh and swallowing it. The other head kept its eyes on him.
“Help yourself I guess,” William said.
It ate for a couple of minutes, then rose and walked backwards until he couldn’t see it. Eventually, its eyes faded into the darkness. Relief filled him. It could have gone a lot worse than that. He was still expecting the two-headed wolf to rush out of the darkness and attack him, but nothing happened.
That went alright.
After he’d finished resting, and replenished about half of his electricity, he stood up. He found himself back to the original bookshelves he’d been following by going through the man-sized hole he’d created when he’d been smashed through the old bookshelves. He wondered what would happen to the books that used to appear here. Would they fall to the floor?
Even though he was primarily searching for resources, he never stopped looking for interesting books. Sure, he might not be able to read them. Well, that wasn’t something he was entirely sure about. He hadn’t opened the book he found on his way back, so maybe he could read it.
He made a note to spend some time with the books and see if the window could help him in any way. Maybe it could give him a language comprehension skill, and whilst he thought about it. Where were the limits on the skills he could gain from the window? Why hadn’t he gained a night-vision ability?
He thought about the question as he wandered the halls. Most of his skills he’d gained from the torture. Exposing himself to shock gained him a lesser shock skill. Exposing himself to pain gained him pain resistance. Perhaps to gain night vision, a form of resistance to the dark by the eyes, he simply needed to expose them to the darkness.
But there was plenty of darkness! It surrounded him in all directions. Clearly, the lack of exposure wasn’t the problem. Perhaps, there was another variable. Maybe the windows weren’t simply giving him skills. It was possible that it was simply aiding him in what he was already attempting, or doing.
He’d been resisting the pain to a certain degree when he gained the ability. The same could be said about shock, poison and disease. His body already naturally tried to resist it. By this logic, his body would already have naturally tried to acquire lightning manipulation when he got it. The window must have only helped or made it possible.
Maybe he was looking at night vision the wrong way. Maybe it wasn’t about trying to see through the darkness, but simply seeing better. If he focused on straining his eyes to see as much as possible for a long enough time, maybe the windows would come in and help him, or further what he could do.
He thought that it was a feasible theory, and decided to put it to the test. He strained his eyes to focus on the edge of the light, where it melded into the darkness. Trying to see just a little bit further.
No window popped up immediately, but he thought that he simply needed patience. Either that or there needed to be a stronger challenge. Perhaps he needed to strain his eyes even more than what he was already doing. But how could he do that?
He spotted an outline he hadn’t seen before at the edge of his sight. It looked like a clump of mossing higher up on the bookshelves. He approached and took in the details of the object. A moss, green and fresh grew in the shape of a book. William realized that fresh green moss had entirely surrounded one of the books. He wasn’t sure if he should take it, the moss looked distinctly venomous.
Then, it leapt towards him. The whole book somehow jumped towards his face at a fast speed, flying through the sky. As it flew, it opened, revealing its yellowish pages. William only had enough time to take a step back. It was enough time for the book to miss his face and instead land on his chest.
He immediately wanted it off him, feeling that it was like a parasite. He didn’t want the moss to grow all around him. Just the thought of that was disgusting enough for him to flinch. He got a grip of the moss and pulled but to no avail. The thing seemed stuck to him.
And the moss hurt, like spikes digging into his hand. Even though it looked wet and fresh, the thing was anything but. The tips of the moss were dry and pointy. Touching it made filled him with the feeling of cringe.
Getting both his hands involved, William pulled with all of the strength he could muster. What the hell is this thing and why is it sticking to me? He could feel a sensation coming from the area it stuck to him, a wet sensation.
[The skill Potent Blood has reached level 2]
Why is my blood levelling up from it? That skill came from a bunch of resistances so that must mean that it's resisting whatever the hell this thing’s pumping off me. Get the hell of me!
Deciding to get serious, he placed both of his hand's palms flat against the moss and streamed it full of electricity. It quickly heated up, steam oozing off it, but he didn’t care for that. He wanted to see if it could handle heat better than he could.
It squealed. The sound told him he was doing the right thing. He could feel more of that went sensation spreading through his body, and that made him increase the amount of electricity he shot through it.
[The skill Potent Blood has reached level 3]
It fell off him and stopped squealing. Grabbing his rod, which he’d let fall to the floor, he looked at it closely. There was clearly a book beneath the moss, but he wasn’t sure if it was worth it to take the book and the moss.
I never got a message. It’s not dead, just incapacitated.
Deciding not to take it, he grabbed it, keeping as far away from him as possible and placed it on one of the shelves, right against the wall of the shelf. He wasn’t going to bring it back with him to the base, but maybe in the future, he’d want to find it again.
He could still feel the wet sensation around his body. It was dissipating by the second, he assumed that it was his blood fighting against it. Maybe returning to the hideout and avoiding creatures like that was for the best. He sure as hell wanted to do that, but then what?
Then what? Annoying question.
He needed to become stronger. He couldn’t spend his entire life in that little spot. The fact that there wasn’t any water there made it physically impossible for him to live there. It would simply be a slow way to reach Demarcus. No, he needed to continue, build a base, and grow stronger.
He continued walking and straining his eyes. It only took a couple of minutes before the feeling of wetness dissipated entirely. Maybe his potent blood combatted poison much more effectively than poison resistance ability.
There was also another upside. When his potent blood became stronger from resisting poison, it would also become stronger at resisting diseases. Hopefully, it would reach a point where the rats wouldn’t kill him anymore.
Suddenly, his subconscious screamed something was wrong. He immediately looked around, trying to figure out what it was that was wrong, but he couldn’t spot it. He realized that was exactly the problem.
He couldn’t spot the floor ahead of him. The path simply ended, a large void appearing right there in front of him. Another step and he would have fallen right into it.