This Blacknessberry is pretty wild. I wonder if it’s sweet or tart? It’s like a black cherry with yellow and purple swirls…
or like a fancy chocolate...
Edgar felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Watch your step. After all those fights, that’d be a pretty crappy way to go.”
He glanced down at his front foot—at the seemingly infinite hole beyond the edge of the narrow rock formation—and a healthy dose of panic set in. He carefully stepped back into the middle of the path, waving his hand to quickly close his inventory.
“There’s a time for status screens and items, but not while we’re walking along the edge of a cliff, yeah?”
Edgar nodded sheepishly.
Mirai huffed, continuing on ahead as Edgar collected himself. Her grumbling was plenty loud enough for him to hear.
“…it’s just common sense… sheesh… like he was born yesterday…”
Edgar trailed her up the path, ruffling his own hair.
“I mean, that’s not that far from the truth… I kinda was born yesterday…”
He kicked some dust, so it poofed into the air over the abyss, feeling foolish.
Mirai glanced back at him. “What about the training from your old world? Did those ‘games’ teach some of this common sense sort of stuff?”
“A bit, maybe? This is definitely more immersive than any game I’ve ever played.”
“Well, then learn it, for your own good. Only check your inventory—and statuses—between fights and in safe places!”
“Sorry, Mirai. I just have to keep adapting, I guess.”
They reached the end of the walkway and continued all the way back up the hallway to the central room of doors. As they entered, magic flowed through the veins in the marble door and it swung shut.
Cleared The Bone Arena:
Room 1 of 5
The hearth in the center of the room roared to life. Its warmth and glow felt like slipping into a warm bath. Edgar guessed there was some sort of healing magic weaved among the flames, the way its warmth soaked through him. Mirai collapsed next to it and he joined her. Together, they leaned back against the warm stone.
Mirai closed her eyes and Edgar opened his inventory and status screens.
Character: Edgar Voss
* Race: [Riftling]
* Health: 10/10
* Mana: 10/10
* Stamina: 10/10
Leveling
* Level: 1
* Essence to next level: 36%
Skills
1. [Tail Whip] (lvl 0)
2. [Parry] (lvl 0)
3. [Scratch] (lvl 0)
4. [Acrobatics] (lvl 0)
5. [Leap] (lvl 0)
6. [Overdrive] (lvl 0)
7. x
Abilities
1. [Inventory] (lvl 0)
2. [One with Darkness] (lvl 1)
3. [Tasty Snacks] (lvl 0)
4. [Curse of the Grand Imp’s Bloodline: Level Corruption] (lvl 0)
5. [Animalistic Awareness] (lvl 0)
6. x
7. x
System Abilities
* [Friend of Pharaoh] (lvl 0)
Family: Voss
* Members: 1
* Descendants: 0
He leafed through Animalistic Awareness, the skill he’d earned while fighting the Unstuck Wanderer.
Ability: [Animalistic Awareness]
* You gain the ability to sense imminent threats to your life.
* Side Effect: Character’s reaction speed is increased.
* Level: 0
* Experience to unlock leveling: 24%
It was an ability that would keep him alive. It helped fill in what he was coming to see as his greatest weakness, too—his complete lack of combat experience. After watching Mirai fight, he was starting to sense how much he stood to learn.
He glanced at her. She was still breathing heavily as she rested, meditating. The fight against the witch had been demanding. Now, she sat with her legs crossed and eyes closed, recovering slowly. He thanked his lucky stars that they had ended up together.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
He couldn’t help but feel like she was vastly ahead of him, but he would improve. He had to.
She cracked an eye open, glancing at him expectantly.
Edgar shuffled uncertainly. “Should I be meditating too?”
She nodded, “this is a good chance to stabilize your essence and reflect on your leveling.”
Edgar folded his legs underneath him to mimic her pose and closed his eyes, “alright. How do I do that?”
“It begins with breathing, slow and steady breaths to calm yourself. Focus inward, tapping into that part of us where our skills live. Then, push even further, past our skills and into the innermost core of our soul. You’ll be able to feel the essence we’ve absorbed, boiling within our core. It’s our job to bring it to rest so we can absorb it.”
She paused, focused on her own meditation. “Once it settles, it becomes almost placid and peaceful. Go ahead and try.”
Edgar closed his eyes and steadied his breath. He reached into that part of himself where his skills lay. Over the course of the last few days, and especially during their delve of this Ancient Tomb rift, he had become much more familiar with this part of himself. As his focus drifted over his skills, he could feel them awaken. They were happy to feel his attention breezing over them, and sent greetings.
He increased his focus and began to sense threads of energy leading deeper into himself. He followed these until he finally reached his core, a shimmering jewel of energy at the center of his being where a great deal of energy circled restlessly.
The energy felt wrong, angry and tainted. He reflexively focused his attention on it, grooming and refining it. It was surprisingly intuitive, almost as if he were brushing a grumpy animal until it collapsed in a puddle on his lap. He worked the energy for a long while until it finally released the last of its bad energy and became placid. At that point, he felt the energy slurp happily into his core.
“I see what you mean. It does feel right, afterwards. A big improvement.”
Mirai nodded, “it’s possible to level without refining it, but my master very specifically trained me to do it this way.”
Edgar nodded, shifting his focus to his skills. Many of them had acquired a significant amount of experience and wanted him to reflect.
The first skill he attended was [Tail Whip]. Grooming the skill led him to reflect on how well it paired with [Acrobatics] and [Leap]. He could feel the skills growing together, supporting each other within his core. He could feel them reached towards [Overdrive] as well, encouraging him to use them together for greater effects. He’d have to make a point of getting a feel for the new skill and using it with the others.
It was an odd, surreal feeling, attending his skills and reflecting on their growth. They weren’t exactly speaking to him, but he could sense their intent and a nascent sentience behind each one.
Suddenly, one of his abilities awoke, demanding his attention. [Curse of the Grand Imp’s Bloodline]. Its presence was larger than the others and he could even feel a bit of personality—petulant and imperious. It sneered at him, commanding him to attend it.
He brushed the curse aside, grooming the other skills and abilities… the ones that actually benefited him.
[One with Darkness] was another with a strong presence within his soul. As he processed and refined the skill’s experience, it brought him to reflect on the ability’s effects. The increased movement speed especially was now a core, foundational component of his fighting style. He was surprised to see how much he relied on it and just how much experience it had gained already—nearly half of what it needed. He could also feel a hunger from the ability, a feeling that crystallized with surprising clarity within his mind’s eye.
It wanted to eat the essence of darkness he had collected.
“Huh,” He blinked with surprise, rising out of his meditative state. Mirai glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.
“One of my skills wants to eat one of the essences I’ve collected? Is that normal?”
“That’s good, actually. That’s a part of the leveling ritual… I think… I mean, obviously I’ve never done it before, but I have a feeling we’ll be leveling soon…”
“Speaking of leveling, my skills are leveling faster than my character level. Is that normal?”
“Yeah, that’s normal. As far as I know, when we collect all the essence we need for level two, we can begin the ritual and when we do the ritual, whatever skills are at one-hundred percent will be able to participate. Getting enough essence is the hard part… especially for us with this damn curse slowing us down… ”
Edgar nodded. “Mine wants to level so badly! Weird, right?”
“It’s like a bratty child! I’ve never heard of anyone leveling a curse! Who in their right mind would? So stupid.”
“Sigh… The prince described it as an ‘improbable prize,’ too… Liar…”
Mirai flexed her fingers beside Edgar rising to her feet, her anger beginning to spill outward. “As if being cursed could be a good thing! Horrible, rotten luck! Cursed, before we even grew a single level!”
With a frustrated yell, she kicked at a stone and sent it skittering away across the floor. Then she began pacing across the room, fuming.
“I mean, at least it’s not a death sentence?” Edgar tried his best to be optimistic, but doubt managed to creep into his voice.
“Of course it’s a death sentence, we just don’t know how yet. How could it not be? My father, he—”
Her anger and sadness climaxed, tangling her words.
“He… He can’t… Damn Witch!”
She slumped as her anger collapsed, leaving only grief.
Edgar reached to comfort her, but restrained himself. They had only known each other for a small while. What did he really know about her situation? Clearly, something had happened. Something deeply personal that she was still processing. He retracted his hand and tried to give her some space instead, feeling a fresh pang of guilt that he hadn’t been able to protect her from getting cursed.
He sighed and his eyes wandered around the room, across the walls and doors. There were odd carvings everywhere, almost always depicting skeletons of various types in all sorts of poses. One carving that caught his eye was an especially large skeleton with a gemstone for an eye and a massive hammer slung across its back.
“I’m sorry, it’s still just a bit fresh.” She muttered.
“It’s ok. You don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to. I’m sorry about everything… I’m sorry I got you cursed.”
She was quiet for a long moment.
“It’s not your fault, Edgar. Sigh… It was either get cursed or die, right? I’d rather be alive than dead.”
He nodded.
“It’s just odd. I’ve never heard of a rift that curses you for clearing it. It’s complete nonsense.” She looked up at the ceiling. “Curses royally suck…”
She looked at Edgar out of the corner of her eye. “It’s a long story, but… my dad is cursed… ”
Edgar looked up at the ceiling too and they sat together in silence for a long moment. It almost felt like she would say more, so Edgar gave her the space she needed if she decided to.
Ultimately, she didn't. “Sigh… Why don’t we get some rest? I’ll take the first watch. You get some sleep and I’ll wake you when it’s time to switch.”
The confidence he had become so used to crept back into her voice as she fished in her pack, throwing a few blankets beside the hearth in the center of the room.
Edgar thanked her, curling up on one of them. All the aches and pains in his body slowly melted under the hearth’s nurturing warmth, sending him quickly to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
* Check out the Stats Page for this Chapter here