Adam opened his eyes and breathed in deeply. He coughed and rolled to his side on the damp mossy grass. The coughing fit continued and wracked his body, he spat blood. His ribs hurt from coughing, but nothing internal seemed to be off—except for coughing blood. That was unusual.
He breathed in through his nose and started coughing again. This time, when he hacked up bile from his throat, it wasn’t blood but phlegm. He spat it out onto the grass and was surprised it wasn’t clear like normally. Rather… it was blue.
He looked at it, puzzled over the strangeness. Phlegm might be green, clear, or red, but never blue. What had he eaten? He licked his lips and brought forward some saliva and spat it onto the ground. It was clear, then it flared blue and sparkled. Confused, he sat up and looked around, searching for something to help him work out the strange blue sparkle in his spit.
Behind Adam was a large moss-covered boulder. In the center of the rockface were eighteen green, glowing runes that looked like they were burned into the rock. A heavy wall of trees lay scattered around him, their dense, leafy foliage split the light from the sun above. The grass was soft and damp from the thick, heavy air. He took a deep breath, relieved to feel his lungs expand easily. Many of the trees looked familiar and tugged at a memory of something long forgotten.
Congratulations
You have adjusted to the air in Hedwillow.
He instantly felt his body grow accustomed to the strange texture in the air. The box congratulating Adam floated above his eyes. He could see through it and read it at the same time. He panicked. This was not something that normally happened, was it? Was he going crazy? How was he meant to get rid of it? The thought of getting rid of it seemed to work, as it simply faded out at the moment the thought appeared. Adam tried to understand what the message had meant, but nothing came to mind.
Welcome to Hedwillow.
Your mind has been integrated into Dhana. As you grow in strength and power, it will be reflected in your stats in the Menu. You are the first, and your experience will help others integrate easier into Hedwillow.
Thank you for playing and not dying.
The new message flashed for a moment and then faded before he could catch all of it. The implications of Hedwillow, where had he come from? Where had he been before now…
Pain lanced through his head. The more he thought about before now, the more his head hurt from trying. It was like the concept of before now was taboo and forbidden.
Adam shrugged off the strange problem. He couldn’t sit here all day; he would need to find shelter and food.
Quest
Find shelter and food.
Reward: food and shelter.
100 XP
Accept Y/N
That was convenient, if slightly redundant. He accepted the quest, and the message faded away with a slight green glow. He stood up and dusted the dirt off his naked bottom and felt an urge to move to his left. With no other idea where to go, he headed in that direction; something about following the quest felt right.
It felt both natural yet uncomfortable to be walking alone in the woods, a sense of warning of terror and death warred with the desire to go into the woods and find food. Why did he know the woods were dangerous? Why did he think that there was food in there. The woods seemed to hold both the promise of food and the specter of death. He skirted the boulder, following a clear path alongside the rock. When Adam came to a clearing in the forest, the soft grass grew much taller, coming to his waist. The gentle tug on Adam’s mind told him he needed to go into the clearing, but something in the back of his mind told him that long grass was a bad idea, especially while he was naked and barefoot. He considered that idea for a minute. Why was the tall grass a bad idea? He couldn’t think of an answer without pain piercing his mind, so he pressed on, confident that he would soon find out.
Adam pushed aside the long grass that tickled his feet and legs. He kept walking and soon he got used to the sensation. When he reached the other side of the clearing, he spotted a small bush covered in blackberries. He knew that blackberries were good to eat. How he knew that he didn’t know, the pain started to creep back into his skull as he thought about how he knew that the blackberries were good to eat. He plucked a handful and popped them straight into his mouth; they were certainly very tasty.
After eating his fill of the succulent berries, Adam still felt the pull on his mind and trudged on again, the way to finish the quest was that way, how he knew he couldn’t answer it seemed that thinking along those lines only led to pain and pain was to be avoided. He spotted a hefty stick on the path and picked it up. After giving it a few test swings against a large rock, the stick maintained its resilience, so he felt confident that he could use it both as a walking stick and to defend himself, from the danger that lurked in the woods to his right. Weapon in hand, Adam’s confidence rose, covering his uncertainty and slightly dispelling his fear of the woods. This was a strange area he knew nothing about his place except that he could breathe the air, find food, the woods were bad, and he was still naked.
Suddenly the sky darkened, and heavy rain came pouring down. Adam looked up in wonder a sudden laugh burst from his throat, and he drank from the sudden and unexpected bounty, he now knew another thing the water could be drunk. Then a cold began to settle, sinking into him. He shivered and looked around. Just up ahead, a small cave and the same mental urging that guided him when he first woke up also urged him to enter. The cave went into the side of the cliff face, and he hurried to get out of the rain.
Three large messages flashed in his vision the moment he entered the cave.
Dungeon
You have entered Cave Urtganag
Difficulty <1>
Quest
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Find shelter and food.
Completed
100 XP
You have gained a level in {Commoner}.
+1 BODY, +1 MIND +1SPIRIT, +5HP, +5MP, +5SP
Adam brushed off the water still clinging to his body and considered the messages. The first told him that he was in a dungeon but didn’t elaborate on what that meant. He assumed the ‘difficulty’ of ‘<1>’ meant that it would be easy unless it was an upside-down rating system. Adam quickly dismissed that idea out of hand as ludicrous with the urging of that mental guidance within.
The second and third messages had a lot of implications. Adam’s mind was searching for a memory of something, anything. He couldn’t think of anything specific, but he just knew that levelling-up was a good idea and that completing quests was also a good thing. Just why he felt these things eluded him.
He focused on the third message. He needed to know how to take advantage of levelling. It was a pity that there was no one around to help him out.
Regardless, Adam pushed on and though about his new level.
Adam (First man)
Level 1 (Commoner 1)
BODY
MIND
SPIRIT
4
4
4
HP 20/20
MP 20/20
SP 20/20
This display was not transparent it gave off a faint blue light, he had no idea what any of it meant. Adam focused on the word ‘body’, and another message appeared.
BODY
The measure of a person’s physical abilities, and control of their own body.
While helpful, it didn’t tell him what he could do with more points in BODY. He closed the information message and then focused on MIND.
MIND
The measure of a person’s mental abilities and control of their mind.
Adam didn’t know exactly what sort of information he was fishing for, but he kept going, methodically seeking particulars that might help him. He closed the message and tested his luck, focused on SPIRIT.
SPIRIT
The measure of a person’s connection with the divine. It also is a measure of a person’s ability to control the unknown and untamable.
Adam gritted his teeth and stamped his foot; the information was vague and frustratingly obtuse. He reached out and punched the cave wall when something strange caught his eye. On his left arm was a tattoo. He couldn’t remember receiving any mark on his body. Maybe it could give him a clue to who he was before his arrival on Hedwillow. Adam ignored the pain from the grazed skin on his knuckles.
You have suffered 1 point of slashing damage
Adam dismissed the annoying message and looked at the tattoo on his arm. It was a series of nine boxes. The first box had the word ‘BODY 4’ written on it, the second box had ‘MIND 3,’ and the third box had ‘SPIRIT 3’. The three boxes on the bottom were greyed out.
BODY 4
MIND 4
SPIRIT 4
19/20
20/20
20/20
It was the middle row of boxes that caught Adam’s attention. There were three bars with colored text: one red, one blue, and the last green. He noticed the blue text was the same blue that had sparkled in his phlegm. The red number was 19/20, the blue was 20/20, and the green number also read 20/20. It dawned on Adam that the one point of damage he had suffered from punching the cave wall showed a correlation with the red bar, as it was now a tiny bit shorter than the blue bar.
Adam concluded that the BODY stat affected his hit points—which must be HP—the concept floating naturally to his mind from where he didn’t know; and then following that logic one of the other stats affected his mana, or MP, again the word floating to his mind unbidden. The green number seemed strange, but if blue and red were hit points and mana, then he figured out the last was stamina, or SP. He considered the fact that punching the wall hadn’t hurt much, but the loss of one hit point made him painfully aware that he couldn’t get hit even by small things.
Adam returned his attention to his screen. If there was mana, then there was also magic. Adam knew that he would want to use magic.
Adam (First man)
Level 1 (Commoner 1)
BODY
MIND
SPIRIT
4
4
4
HP 20/20
MP 20/20
SP 20/20
He reread the contents of the blue box, the one with all the details about him again. He should give it a name… Character sheet! The name came to him. After his name was a phrase that read ‘First Man’. He was the first man, well that cleared out the idea if there was anyone else here. Below that was his level total, one, and then another phrase ‘Commoner 1’. Wait a moment… Was he a commoner? A bit strange how could he be the first man and be common? He doubted that it was right, he couldn’t be whatever common was because he was the first man. He had to be special because he was the first.
You have spotted a quirk in Dhana that no one else has noticed before.
Feat Granted Observant +1Intellect Commoner rank has evolved to Progenitor.
{Progenitor} A Hidden class for the first of a new species, and only given to people that are the first of their kind. Great for leading people and creating a group of loyal followers.
Adam read the screen and then dismissed it leaving his character sheet in place.
Adam (First Man)
Level 1 (Progenitor 1)
BODY
MIND
SPIRIT
4
5
4
HP 20/20
MP 25/25
SP 20/20
Feats
Observant +1 intellect
Adam reread his sheet again this time marveling at how his class had changed. He focused on feats.
Feats
A list of things that can affect your life. Some give you flat bonuses, other can be triggerable abilities.