Bright lights pierced a man's eyes, searing through his lashes and jarring him from the depths of unconsciousness. He lay sprawled on a bed of loam and leaves, gasping for air as if he had just emerged from the depths of a murky abyss. A sudden, anguished cry burst from his throat, slicing through the tranquil hum of the forest. For a heartbeat, the usual symphony of nature—birds calling, crickets chirping, leaves whispering—fell silent, as if the world itself paused, holding its breath in anticipation of his next move.
As he struggled to focus, a dull ringing filled his ears, a woman's voice echoing through his disoriented mind, calling out, “Rune!” The ringing waned, but the name “Rune” continued to reverberate, a haunting echo in his thoughts.
“Rune,” he murmured, trying to piece together the significance of the woman's cry. Without warning, a line of text materialized before his eyes.
Input detected. Initializing…
“What…?” he yelped, recoiling from the intrusive text. He tumbled painfully onto a gnarled root, groaning as he covered his face with his hands. Despite his efforts, the text remained stubbornly in his vision, shifting and changing, a cryptic puzzle he could not decipher.
Name has been chosen.
Welcome to Redemption. In your past life, you followed a path of sin. You are broken, your memories shattered, your body reborn. Your future will be shaped by your decisions. Whether you remain a shadow of your past or rise to greatness is up to you. All actions have consequences, Rune.
Status
Name: Rune
Level: 1 (0/500)
Health: 100/100
Affinities: None
Status Effects:
Free Attribute Points: 0
Attributes
Strength: 3
Mental: 7
Dexterity: 4
Endurance: 2
Skills
N/A
Titles
N/A
The man sat beneath the towering trees, their colossal branches casting dappled sunlight on his face. His expression, illuminated by the light, was one of sheer bewilderment. The text had confirmed his name as Rune, likely because he had spoken it aloud. As he tried to piece together his fragmented memories, the woman’s wailing and the persistent ringing in his head left him with a blank slate. Time, he hoped, would bring clarity, but the more he strained to remember, the louder the ringing grew. It was as though the entity behind the text was deliberately obscuring his path to understanding.
Grappling with an unsettling void where his memories should have been, he struggled to fathom concepts of sin and virtue. It felt like a cruel game, where he was merely a pawn. Redemption seemed a distant dream, yet the path to it remained shrouded in mystery. How could one atone for sins when the very nature of those sins remained unknown? Failure could lead to growth through learning, but without knowledge of one's errors, how could one learn?
“How the hell am I supposed to do better if I don’t even know what I did?” he shouted, his gaze fixed angrily on the unmoving canopy. His previous life seemed reduced to mere numbers on a screen. Judging by the low figures, it didn’t seem like he had lived a particularly remarkable life. He wondered if he had been one of those weasels they called paparazzi.
“Wait a minute, what’s a paparazzi?” he exclaimed. The only response was the rustling of the trees around him. Rune groaned, covering his face with his hands, a laugh of disbelief escaping him. As the absurdity of it all overwhelmed him, his laughter echoed through the forest until a sudden thump marked his collapse into unconsciousness.
~
I woke to the peculiar feeling of numerous legs crawling up the side of my jaw, seemingly contorting with my jawline. I jolted upright, swatting at the grotesque creature, catching a glimpse of it as it fell to the ground beside me. The creature was about the size of my foot, with razor-sharp mandibles glistening with a purplish fluid. Its brown, chitinous legs and body were revolting as it began to scuttle toward me, rising on its many legs.
I recoiled in sheer terror, but my reflexes weren’t quick enough. The creature leaped at my leg, and I felt a sharp, immediate pain in my right calf as its mandibles pincered me. The intense pain made it impossible for my leg to support my weight, causing me to collapse onto the rotting leaves and debris scattered on the ground. My eyes raced around in panic as I frantically searched for something to defend myself. As I scrambled backward, my hand grasped a solid object, which I seized without a second thought, swinging it at the creature with all the force I could muster. My vision started to narrow as the sharp cracks of my blows merged with the forest's cacophony.
Tears of pain and fury slipped down my face as I kept swinging, only stopping when a viscous blue liquid squirted into my mouth. The bitter, acrid taste made me gag, and I immediately vomited, emptying my stomach onto the ground. For a moment, I sat there, dazed and indifferent to everything around me.
“What the hell,” I moaned, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and taking a look at my mangled leg and the pulped mass of broken chitin lying beside it. A bone of some sort was held in my right hand, but before I could question its origin, I noticed a soft blinking light emitting from the edges of my vision. As I focused on it, a flood of text overwhelmed my senses, obscuring everything else around me.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
You have killed a level 3 Baby Venomous Centipede. You gain 750 experience.
Congratulations, you have reached level 2 and have been awarded 10 attribute points!
You have been envenomed!
“Gods' damnit,” I screamed, focusing on the last line of text which had popped up in my vision. I could almost feel the venom numbing my leg, but as I focused on it, a memory flashed through my mind.
A man with a strange accent and a somewhat familiar white-khaki outfit yelled at me through a grainy glass box, “If you ever get bitten by a venomous animal, take deep, slow breaths, move as little as bloody possible, and wash the wound with water. Otherwise, you’ll die faster than you can get help.”
I had no idea who the man was but maybe his advice was worth heeding? I closed my eyes and started focusing on my breathing, slowing it as much as I could, releasing the bone I had been clenching in a death grip. I considered my next steps while I sat there, just breathing in and out. I opened my eyes and they fixated on those otherworldly words again. Maybe there was a solution in the text?
Apparently, I had gained something called experience which caused me to reach level 2. I remembered seeing levels on my status page so maybe that would have further clues? As soon as I thought about my status, it popped into my vision. The text had changed somewhat from the last time I had seen them, with new fields clearly visible and skills added to the bottom.
Status
Name: Rune
Level: 2 (250/1000)
Health: 20/100
Affinities: None
Status Effects: Bleeding (-.40 H/M), Envenomed (-.39 H/M)
Free Attribute Points: 10
Attributes
Strength: 3
Mental: 7
Dexterity: 4
Endurance: 2
Skills
Blunt Weapons: 1, Venom Resistance: 1, Falling: 2, Meditation: 1
Titles
N/A
“Hmmm,” I muttered, “maybe I can somehow use these points to increase my attributes?”
As I considered my options and each attribute's function, a vague understanding seemed to seep into my mind. Strength seemed straightforward, determining the level of force I could exert with my muscles. Mental quantified my cognitive abilities. Dexterity affected my reflexes and fine-motor skills. Endurance was crucial for withstanding damage and enhancing stamina. Though I didn’t fully grasp all aspects, Endurance seemed vital in my current predicament.
With my health declining at a rapid rate, I had roughly 25 minutes before reaching 0, a fate I was desperate to avoid. In a bold move, I allocated all my attribute points to Endurance. The moment the thought crossed my mind, I saw Endurance surge from 2 to 12. Before I could react, intense pain surged through me—my skin felt as though it were engulfed in fire, muscles stretching to their limits. Tears poured down my face, my back arching in agony. As the pain overwhelmed me, I collapsed to the ground once more, unconscious and senseless.
I woke up some time later, somehow still alive. I didn’t know what had just happened, but it had to be one of the worst experiences of my life, not that I remembered that life. For a while I just lay there, hoping that this world I had woken up in was just a nightmare. I didn’t know where I had come from but surely it couldn’t have been as bad as my newfound reality. All of that pain just from changing a number on a screen seemed ludicrous. If that had been the only punishment for my past life’s sins, I would have thought it enough. At this rate, I had no idea how I was going to even survive the day, not to mention redeeming myself for my past deeds
“I guess it’s time to look at my status again,” I moaned, feeling sorry for myself. My status appeared the moment I thought of opening it. At least I was getting the hang of that, I thought as I looked it over.
Status
Name: Rune
Level: 2 (250/1000)
Health: 422/600
Affinities: None
Status Effects: Bleeding (-.40 H/M), Envenomed (-.36 H/M)
Free Attribute Points: 0
Attributes
Strength: 3
Mental: 7
Dexterity: 4
Endurance: 12
Skills
Blunt Weapons: 1, Venom Resistance: 4, Falling: 3, Meditation: 1, Pain Resistance: 2
Titles
N/A
My health had improved drastically, and if my math was right, each point of endurance gave me 50 health. It seemed like a big jump from the 100 health I had before, but in this world, it probably wasn’t that significant. I was likely one of the weakest around if a foot-sized arthropod could almost kill me. At my current rate of health loss, I had a little over 9 hours left before I died. The boost to my endurance bought me time, but I was by no means out of the woods yet.
Before doing anything else I glanced at the skills section of the text. Immediately, new text explaining each skill replaced my status view.
Blunt Weapons: Dum Dum hit things hard. Things go splat. Good job! Increases damage dealt with blunt weapons by 1% per level.
Venom Resistance: Did your mama ever tell you not to take candy from strangers? In this case centipedes should be considered strangers. Reduces venom damage by 1% per level.
Falling: If you drop an egg it breaks. The same goes for your body! Reduces fall damage by 1 meter per level.
Meditation: Meditation is a lot like pimping... You got to get your thoughts under control. When actively meditating, increases health regeneration by 1% per level. Further benefits are restricted by skill level and a lack of Qi.
Pain Resistance: Maybe try not getting hurt in the first place? Just a thought! Decreases the effect of pain on your psyche and creates a buffer of 1 minute per level that pain can be held at bay.
Wow, the entity behind these words was a snarky bastard. With a newfound grasp on what these skills entailed, I was finally able to turn my attention to my surroundings. I dismissed the text with a mental flick, and it evaporated from view with surprising swiftness, leaving me momentarily disoriented by its sudden disappearance.
Since my awakening, I had been caught in a relentless series of crises, never pausing to absorb the strangeness of my environment. Now, as I took in my surroundings, the world seemed like a vivid painting from a fantastical realm. Purple ferns, shimmering with the luster of amethyst, sprouted from a carpet of chestnut-brown, decaying leaves. Towering trees of an impossible blue stretched skyward, their emerald foliage streaked with veins of turquoise and ruby that pulsed with an otherworldly glow. The air was alive with the symphony of countless birds, their chirps and whistles blending into a melodious cacophony of natural splendor. Insects droned in the undergrowth, and the trees whispered secrets to the breeze. This forest was not merely alive—it pulsed with an almost sentient vitality.
As I scanned the scene, a harsh realization struck me: the scent of blood pooling beneath my leg was likely to attract more predators. I shuddered at the thought of encountering a creature larger and more dangerous than the Baby Venomous Centipede I had just battled. The idea of facing its monstrous kin made my blood run cold.
I glanced down at my leg, noting with some relief that the bleeding had lessened. Perhaps survival was still within reach, but not in this place. I reached for the nearby bone, yellowed with age but still sturdy and surprisingly robust. I used it to push myself up, the ancient relic creaking slightly under my weight. In addition, I examined the mangled remains of the centipede. It might serve as a potential meal if I could find a safe place to rest. For now, the bone would double as both a weapon and a makeshift cane.
With the dead centipede clutched in one hand and the bone as my staff, I set off through the forest, determined to find shelter and water.