As the odorless, tasteless liquid went down Wren’s throat he could immediately begin to feel the healing effects take place. Fatigue washed away like a bad dream and he even watched as the hole in his chest was patched up by fast-growing muscle and skin.
“Holy shit that’s amazing,” he whispered in awe as he touched the now healed wounds.
It was then that he noticed he was still wearing the clothes from the time he died, jeans and a t-shirt. Not the best gear to stop what he could only assume was a goblin.
Maybe the ring wasn’t such a bad idea, he thought.
“No point in complaining now, the water did save my life after all,” he surmised while picking up the falchion he had dropped. He looked at the item stats.
Common Falchion Stats:
PHY ATK:
4
MGC ATK:
0
Addition Effects:
N/A
Attribute Bonus:
STR (-), DEX (-), MGC (-), MIT (-)
Attribute Req.:
STR (1), DEX (1), MGC (0), MIT (0)
There were some things he didn’t quite grasp but he understood that the falchion wasn’t all that great. For starters, it had no magic attack, which was likely normal for a sword labeled normal but he still wished to complain a little.
As for the attributes he already had an idea of what those were all about.
“Attributes.”
He spoke to confirm his suspicions and he was rewarded by a new text box in front of his eyes.
[Attributes are the values that govern aspects of your strength.]
Vitality (VIT): This attribute greatly scales your HP and gives DEF a minor boost.
Strength (STR): This attribute scales the PHY ATK of weapons and greatly scales the PHY ATK of weapons that carry STR as an Attribute Bonus.
Dexterity (DEX): This attribute greatly scales the PHY ATK of weapons that carry DEX as an Attribute Bonus.
Endurance (END): This attribute scales the DEF personal stat.
Intelligence (INT): This attribute scales the MP Stat and scales the MGC Slot Stat.
Magic (MGC): This attribute greatly scales the MGC ATK Stat and gives a small boost to the MDEF Stat.
Miracles (MIR): This attribute greatly scales the MIR ATK Stat, scales the MIRP Stat, and scales the MIR Slot Stat.
Attributes:
LVL:
1
VIT:
10
STR:
4
DEX:
3
END:
3
INT:
4
MGC:
0
MIR:
1
AP:
0
[Do you wish to see Personal Stats?]
Wren sighed; he could already tell that the child inside him was getting excited at the thought of leveling up but the adult in him could only think about what that actually entailed.
Monsters.
Focusing back on the text he looked at his personal stats.
Stats:
Stolen story; please report.
HP:
100
MP:
0
MIRP:
10
MGC ATK:
0
MIR ATK:
50
DEF:
16
MDEF:
0
MGC Slots:
1/4
MIR Slots:
1/5
To say that Wren felt overwhelmed about the amount of information he was given would not do justice to how he felt, but despite this, he took time to understand what the screen was saying and the relationships attributes had with stats. This was after all a matter of life and death for him.
At the very least he understood that each attribute affected one or multiple stats and by increasing his attributes he would grow stronger, but there was a problem with this information. There was nothing he could do with it at the moment, he assumed that AP was point available and that was zero.
He needed to keep moving, as far as he knew his body would still grow hungry and thirsty, things that could kill him. Staying in his current position served no purpose.
Picking himself up he walked past the bloody goblin corpse and opted to not pick up the rusty dagger on the ground.
Sanitation could become an issue after all.
Wren continued to walk the way the goblin came from in hopes of finding a way out of the cave, he traveled by dragging his hand through the walls since his vision was pretty bad.
It was especially dangerous to walk fast anyway, goblins tended to be the weakest things in a game so the things he might encounter from now on would only get more dangerous. So, running around and making noise was likely a way to call attention to himself, he really hoped that there were only goblins around.
Finally, after minutes of walking through a cave that never seemed to change, he heard a crunch under his shoes. Picking up his feet in a panic to see what he stepped on, he discovered a small pile of dirty bones.
“Wait are these? They are… I knew it,” he had stepped on a pile of goblin bones. Or at least something that was similar to them.
The recently chewed on bones were still humid from saliva and blood. Wren clenched his weapon and grew even more cautious, unless the goblins were cannibals, there was something else here.
Taking extra quiet steps forward he cursed the fact that the wall crystals were becoming sparser and the cave was becoming even darker than before.
But after a few moments of stumbling through the dark a literally light at the end of the tunnel could be seen.
There was a large crystal on a far-off wall that seemed to be part of a large cavern, a change in scenery.
Maybe he was even getting close to leaving the cave, he thought.
And just for a moment, he lowered his guard in excitement.
A subconscious part of his brain that remained in survival mode nudged a thought into his mind.
Aren’t there some animals that catch prey in the dark by using light as bait?
Just as the thought processed Wren came to a complete halt, his eyes looked desperately into the dark before the light and saw luster.
A coiling length that circled the cave walls and floor, a reflective dark material stuck to the walls and waited motionlessly.
As his skin tensed up at the sight, he took in the finer details of the thing awaiting him. And the only thing that he managed to see at first were feet, countless feet.
Thick red antennas hung from its large head like vines, waiting to sense prey walking below them into the light ahead so the massive creature could feast.
It was a giant centipede.
Understanding that this was likely what had eaten the goblin he found the remains of just before, he decided to take extremely quiet steps backwards and away from the trap that promised certain death.
Wren did not like his chances against the insect, he could already imagine the monster wrapping around him and holding him down with countless legs as it injected venom into his body and was quickly reduced to bones.
He had to find another way, there was no other choice. Wren started to make his way back while making sure not to turn his back to the centipede until he was sure he was far enough.
Arriving at the spot where he had fought the goblin he was introduced to a touching scene. Another goblin, identical to the first one, dagger and all, was crouched over the dead one, seemingly mourning.
But as Wren stepped closer the goblin suddenly lifted his head to look at him in surprise.
It was then that Wren saw that the goblin was actually having itself a meal from its downed brethren.
The goblin screeched and picked up his own small dagger as it jumped at Wren, but having learned his lesson, the goblin was cut down by his falchion.
The green monster screamed in pain as it fell in front of Wren, but Wren did not relent and brought down his blade to cut the goblin's head off.
The lack of experience and the common blade did not make the cut pretty or easy, but surprisingly swords were actually good at killing things. Even in the hands of an amateur.
This time the goblin stopped to move and its breathing stopped, it was certainly dead.
Goblins were not that difficult to kill Wren began to think, they were pretty dumb and only seemed to focus on attacking a person head-on. It could be dangerous if he didn't take them seriously and they managed to bite into him, he had learned that the hard way.
He was just happy that he had only seen them alone so far. He would not have a good time if they suddenly appeared in a group.
Wren looked at the goblin he had killed earlier and saw that it was missing most of its meat.
He was too used to living in his past world where he lived displaced from the food chain, but he would get hungry and have to eat. And he didn't think he'd find a stray burger in a corner or something.
And if he risked not eating and holding out until he found a way out he might grow weaker and be killed by another monster. He had to gamble.
Hope he could escape quickly and eat something outside or eat the goblin and hope he didn't get sick.
His stomach turned on its head as the thought of eating the small human-like monster was seriously considered.
"Okay Wren, you aren't home anymore. You have to think like a survivor... Think like a survivor," he managed to gain the courage to do what he knew was necessary.
He quickly began to look for rocks that could spark with his sword. He knew that people could eat raw meat and some even turned it into a diet, but it wasn't exactly safe and frankly, he doubted he could stomach it.
The thought of a fire in an enclosed place was worrying but he had already found the cave to be much larger than he originally thought so the concern was not that great.
Ripping the rags that the goblins wore to be used for fuel, he took his blade and began to skin the arm of a goblin. His technique was nonexistent so plenty of meat went to waste but Wren kept on cutting into he had a sizeable chunk of meat to cook.
After a few attempts, he was able to spark the rock with his blade and managed to light the goblin clothes on fire. The light it created was certainly a sight for his eyes that had adjusted to the darkness and so he was forced to look away for a second.
Unfortunately, the rags were very dry and burned up fast, he doubted he would get to cook the meat all that much but he was mainly focused on burning the harmful bacteria inside.
Making sure to cover each side as he twisted the meat inside the flame, he hoped it would be enough.
After less than a few minutes the flames died down after there was nothing left to burn.
What Wren was left with was certainly not properly cook but at the very least it was likely safe to eat.
Taking a bite and chewing was not easy. The meat was tough and had the consistency of gum. So Wren did his best to swallow what he could and tried to hold it down. If he threw up his efforts would have been for nothing.
Proceeding to do the same with the rest of the meat, soon he had eaten the whole hunk that he had butchered. It wasn't tasty but it would have to do.
Water was his next concern.
"Food is not worth much if I die of thirst."
But that gave him an idea, if the centipede was there waiting for prey, then why not help out? If he could manage to distract the giant monster then he could likely get past it and find out what's on the other side.
He looked at the goblin remains and hoped it did not mind the prey was already dead.