It did take a little time to read through all that. I wasn’t liking the sound of ‘recalibration’, but I’d gone through something like that before, hadn’t I? Wait, I think I passed out when that started the first time… Oh, that might explain things. Must be extremely painful. I was glad I was missing that.
As I got to the end, and saw the last message, I was blinded by a bright flash of light. It was like getting hit with the flash of an old camera, just not painful. Small miracles.
When I could see again, I was laying on the ground of the cave again. Naked. Again. “Really, I can’t keep clothes to save my life. Are you really going to send me… Oh. Okay…”
I stood up while talking, and spun in a slow circle talking to the air. I didn’t know how people of this world talked to whoever, or whatever, was on the other side of the blue boxes. Well, whichever of the three that I’d interacted with so far. While turning though, I saw a large chest about where the corpse of Tyraticous Rex should have been.
I was leery of chests. My memories of my old world were fuzzy, lots of things missing and some just missing detail or context. Two things stood out though. Table top games I’d played when I’d been younger, and the monsters that could look like chests… and a cartoon one of my grand nephews watched, where an elven mage kept getting eaten by the beasts.
“Well… At least I know I had family,” I said as I moved slowly to the chest. Better to not take chances.
Reaching out, I tapped at the lid a few times before opening it wide and peeking inside. Ready to jump back and run, to be honest. Just in case.
Inside were two pieces of heavy looking hide, my boots and two large coins.
< Identify Level 1- This rare skill provides information on items, locations and at higher levels, people. The amount of information is dependant on the level of the skill.>> Well, that was convenient. I was wondering if someone was forgetting little bits and pieces of knowledge. Or maybe making it all up as they went along? With a shrug, I pulled out the two pieces of hide and examined them. < Starter Gear Set: You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. * Jerkin and Tunic: Increase resistance to non-magical damage * Boots: Can apply a slight movement increase for walking, jogging or running * Ring of Minor Storage: Stores items in a 10 foot cube of space, non-living items only!! * Necklace of Minor Healing: Holds three charges of Word of Healing. Charges are regained at a rate of 1 per week. Tutorial Token (2) - Two tokens that can be traded for items at the new Dungeon Shop belonging to the reconstructed Dungeon of Scale.>> Well, that was new, a name for the dungeon that I’d been tromping around the past couple of days. And it looked like I wasn’t the only one going through growth spurts. The dungeon I was in had also been remade. Or rebuilt. Or… whatever dungeons did. I was going to have to live up to my class, and definitely find that out. I put the ring on, then donned the armor pieces, sitting down to put the boots on. As I finished, two things happened. The first was expected, but in a surprising way. The chest vanished in a glittering light show. I couldn’t help but stop and watch that. It was cool, don’t judge. The second, was less expected and even more surprising. A tall figure in gleaming silvery armor just… walked into existence. I mean, the person was see through, then as they got closer to me, became more solid. Until they stopped just in front of me, holding a hand out. Blinking and still trying to process what I’d just seen, I mean that was cool too, I reached my hand out and took theirs. They pulled me up with a deep throated chuckle. “Congratulations, blessed of the Moon. You are the first to complete this new part of my dungeon.” Oh. Oh that was… Crap. I was talking to the owner of the dungeon. Eyes wide, I quickly stepped back. Had to take a few deep breaths to try and keep the fight or flight down. If this person was in charge of the dungeon, then they could probably end me just by sneezing in my direction. “Oh, no need to worry, little moon. You’ve done me, and Ytregassa a great service,” they said as they pulled the helm off their head. Long flowing locks of golden blonde hair fell to their shoulders, pointy tipped ears just poking out. Yeah, I was blinking and gaping again. “Your old world has a saying, about open mouths and flies, yes?” the person said, smiling and sounding very amused. My mouth closed with an audible noise. Almost bit my tongue. “Sorry about that. New world, new… races of people?” The elf, and that was what I was going to call them until I was told otherwise, laughed and gave a slight shrug. Walking a little towards the cave that the giant rat king had come out of, they continued to speak. “Nothing to worry about. I’m sure you’re going to be doing that a lot soon. Try not to get too lost in the details.” They suddenly stopped, turned a little and pointed at a bare wall. “There are a lot of people waiting out there. But you have those tokens to trade in. Get that done, take a few of them with you. Let them see what new things are coming to the world… and don’t let them think of you as a herald of anything. Nalura doesn’t expect you to go out and save the realm or anything.” The sound of stone grating on stone had me looking to where they’d been pointing. A door was opening, slowly and allowing the air from outside to waft into the cave. I took a calming breath, turned my head to say something to them, only to find them gone. “Well, that seems to be the story of my new life.”