I had foretold the future! There was a lot of screaming, a lot crying… a lot of blood. The passage I’d been following had led to a larger, much larger, cavern. Huge pillars of stalagmites and stalactites were everywhere. The lighting had dimmed, I couldn’t see the ceiling of the cavern. Or the ceiling was just that far above me.
I know there are people that go into panic attacks at the thought of being underground like this. I was so glad that I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t have a choice about being here, so no way for me to leave, except to escape, as the quest had said to do.
Ah, those had been good times, when I was first seeing what I had to deal with. Now? Yeah, now was absolutely terrible. Horrible, even.
I was running. I was screaming. I was bloodied, cut and scraped and bitten and clawed. There had been a bit of gnawing in there too, like I expected. Nothing like the world meeting your expectations, am I right?
Ahead of me, I saw what I hoped would work for my current dilemma. A set of stalagnates, where a bunch of stalactites and stalagmites had grown together. With a hole big enough I thought I could jump through.
I scrambled through it, and what I had hoped would happen, did. Partially. The giant bat, and I do mean giant, couldn’t fit. But it had been flying after me at a pace fast enough to keep up, so it had no chance to stop or turn. Most bats are sized in inches. This one, and others I’d been fighting? Easily two feet or more, with wingspans as wide as I was tall, or wider.
This one went through the hole I’d barely been able to get through before it did, going at speed, with a loud smacking of wings on stone. There might have been some crunching. It dropped to the floor of the cave noisily, screeching in pain and probably anger.
At some point during the past few hours, stalagmites had been broken off. I’d been able to find one that was easy to lift, easy to swing and didn’t break at the first impact. It’d been doing me well, for the time that I was out of mana. Which had been often, and I’d been saving mostly to be able to cast Word of Healing.
At the moment, I had 3 mana, and less health than I wanted to have. I mean, who doesn’t want to be fully healthy? I wasn’t exactly thinking straight either. I’d been chased by giant bats and giant rats. The rats? Yeah, big as a bulldog and not as cuddly.
I had been ready for the bat to come through the hole, and swung my makeshift stone club at it. I wasn’t much for aim, but at the moment, anywhere I hit was going to hurt it. Hitting the ground caused small chips of stone to go flying, those were probably more annoying than anything. But hitting it? I did that. Multiple times. While screaming. Until it was a bloody, mangled mess.
Finally I calmed down enough to be able to look around, see where I was and if there were more coming at me. Thankfully, that last was a no.
The hole I’d crawled through was kind of just a hole. The stalagnates surrounded me, enough places where the stalactites and stalagmites hadn’t connected that I could see out. I was safe, for the moment.
As I slumped down to the ground, heaving for breath and glaring at the remains of the giant bat. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been down here, but almost from the moment I’d entered the cavern, I’d been getting attacked by these things.
I opened my status sheet and checked numbers, health at 4 and mana at 3. Taking a deep, hopefully calming breath, I spoke the word needed to cast Word of Healing. I still wasn’t entirely sure what the word meant, but I knew saying it with my mind focused on the spell healed me.
It was enough to get me back to full health. Which still left cuts, bruises and scrapes. I guess those were incidental injuries that weren’t enough to count for a health point.
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The status sheet was still up, and my eyes went to the newest addition to all the information. Experience. It wasn’t showing in a flat number, but a percentage. Currently, it read 84%. I don’t know how many hours I’d been in the cavern, or how many rats and bats I’d killed, but it all amounted to only 84%.
I sighed, looking at the rest of the sheet.
< Status sheet updated: Name: Ian [Redacted] Class: Sage Level: 0 Experience: 84% Health: 8 Action: 6 Mana: 10 Strength: 3 Perception: 4 Fortitude: 4 Reflex: 3 Willpower: 5 Skills and Abilities Arcana (Level 1: 37%) Runic Magic (Level 0: 79%) Ritual Magic (Level 0: 0%) Healing Magic (Level 1: 92%) Spells: Arcane Shot (Level 1: 53%) Word of Healing (Level 1: 78%) Rune of Alarm (Level 0: 0%) Rune of Warding (Level 0: 73%) Achievements and Titles: Blessing of the Moon: The Goddess of the Moon, Nalura, has sponsored you to the world of Ytregasa. [Locked until completion of tutorial] ]] Giant Rat Hide: 10/10 Giant Rat Tooth: 5/5 Giant Bat Wing: 4/4 Giant Bat Claw: 7/8>> “Okay, maybe I did know roughly how many of these things I’ve killed.” At least 18 rats and bats. There were probably more, not all the items I’d been trying to gather were of an acceptable standard for whoever was giving the quest. Looking at the remains of the bat, all smashed and broken and… a mess, I sighed. Dismissing the sheet, I edged over and poked at the body with my stalagmite club. Yup, it’s dead. Moving closer, and using the club as best I could to nudge and push the body around, I searched for the remaining claw I would need. Jackpot. I grabbed the foot of the bat, and yanked on a toe. Yeah, I had no knife of anything to cut with, so this took some time. Had to bash the foot a time or two as carefully as I could. Finally did rip the toe out, I’ll skip describing that sound. Just say that things that could make me nauseous or gag were slowly diminishing. < A single strap pack dropped from the air in front of where I was sitting. With raised brows, I mean this was new and it had appeared out of nowhere. I was still trying to figure out where the items I’d gathered for the quest had disappeared to. Scrambling over, I opened the pack and smiled. Dropping back onto my butt, the smile became a laugh, which quickly started getting worrisome. But inside the pack, was a leather apron and a pair of boots. I had clothes, kind of. Finally,