Lots of things need to be recalibrated when shifting from one universe to another via means even more powerful than the divine. Expectations are completely in the wind, and you basically get what you get. My soul had grown from my time on Gaia, and feeling it shrink to fit within the container of a level one body was uncomfortable. An itch that wouldn’t go away until I reclaimed my previous level of power, as if I needed more encouragement.
My entry back to the world of the living was surprisingly gentle. One moment I was confirming the final array of my attributes and the next, I literally blinked into existence. Sun on my skin, air in my lungs and blood in my veins. My nose flared and took in the scent as I squinted against the harsh light.
Arriving in a desert was an… interesting development.
A completely new biome for myself, but one that my body instantly felt at home in. My eyes quickly adapted to the light. I looked at myself first and foremost, tutting at my nakedness. Still, decent form if I do say so myself, even if I didn’t have my wings yet. Soon, I soothed the black ball of rage and greed at the core of my soul. I had my claws, fangs and scales. That was enough for now.
“Level one…” I murmured to myself. My instincts weren’t necessary to tell me standing out in the open, baking sun wasn’t the safest, so I started moving. I almost snarled as I began to use my muscles for the first time. “Level one,” I repeated, with considerably more venom in the words.
So, this was Earth? Was it any different? It was impossible to know for now. As far as I could see were rolling dunes of golden sand, broken incredibly occasionally by a desiccated tree or aspirant pieces of weird chunky succulents. Despite my griping, I could still feel the magic of the System within my kobold form, so using the plants for sustenance probably wasn’t needed. Still, good to see.
After scuttling through the sand for an hour in a random direction, I was starting to get concerned I’d never find anything interesting. Hunger and thirst were one thing, but I was more likely to die of boredom before either of those other needs took my life. A shimmer in the distance caught my eye and I angled myself towards it. Keeping my attention in that direction, I saw flashes of light as I got closer to the source.
No heat mirage, my target was something else entirely. I crossed my arms as I came within twenty metres of the strange rift. Like someone had infected the world with all kinds of magic, a tear in space floated in and out of existence before me. It sparkled as light breached whatever was inside, but it was impossible to see what it was.
A nearby stone disappeared into the magical wound upon reality, then another. I nodded. The same process repeated with anything else I could find to throw inside. I walked around the thing twice, clockwise and then reversed, keeping my eyes on it. I nodded again. Kicking sand, I once again wobbled my head up and down as the particles fell into the phenomena, never to appear.
“What the fuck am I looking at?” I asked aloud hopefully. The part of my brain which demanded I press big red buttons was telling me to just jump right on into the magical black hole. The other, more sensible part of my brain reminded the thrillseeker portion that even its daredevil self was calling it a black hole. You’d think that the logical part of me would have won this argument about self-preservation, but you’d be wrong.
With all the abandon of a man twice killed, I leapt into the portal.
Perhaps I was feeling self-destructive. Maybe I was confident the System would give me a chance to not just die if I made a brutal mistake here. Either way, after a few seconds of discomfort and a popping of my ears, I found my feet on solid ground. Technically for the first time since arriving on Earth, as sand happens to be fairly unstable. Although my body was okay with the desert, my preferences lay elsewhere. I was almost upset when I managed to open my eyes. “Dang. This would have been way more my speed.”
Laid out before me was, impossibly, a city. The architecture was vaguely familiar, yet not actually possible to place to any geography I knew. Tall, thin buildings rose up like a bamboo forest made of cement. Every structure was choked by vines and the air itself smelled ancient. I had, of course, found a dungeon. Luckily for me, it was also untouched by others, a fact told to me by the System prompt I received when I entered. Oho, here we go, I mentally rubbed my hands together.
Quest Received - Dungeon of the Forgotten Legatus
Before you lies the ruins of a once proud, hopeful nation. Unlike your world, this city was built within the System, and it holds many secrets for developing knowledge of the Great Connection. However, while the natives are long, long gone, nature reclaims all eventually.
The city holds treasures and danger in equal measure. Delve into its depths and uncover the secrets of this bygone civilization. Defeat the guardians of the most valuable knowledge.
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Reward: Random Aspect based on performance
Random equipment based on performance
???
My world? I guessed it meant this one, as Gaia was fairly advanced from what I saw. At least, the world itself was built around the System, unlike Earth was and would be for a while. Fair enough, I begrudged. The rewards seemed interesting, at least. Question marks were always fun. A fire which had been slowly kindling since I was ripped from Gaia erupted into burning flames within my soul.
The dungeon is rating me? Then I’m getting the high score. I’ll smash those defenders to pieces and take the best reward possible.
Seeing no reason to stand around, I darted into the nearest building. After walking in the desert for a while, moving around on top of stone and mortar was like a dream, and the ire from my lost attributes began to fade slightly. Only slightly. I scoured the inside of the almost tubular building, scaling its seven floors and analysing everything I could. The quest description had said the place was ancient, and the completely rotted furniture and decoration proved it. All told, it took ten minutes to check the place entirely and find certainty that it was empty. Leaving, I looked at the hundreds of almost identical structures and sighed. I better find something in one of these…
I didn’t.
After searching for two hours, clearing around twenty of the buildings, I had pretty much decided they were useless. From what I could tell, these were actually homes. After climbing to the top of one and looking out, I saw much larger versions of the same building in the near distance. “Are these basically the slums?” I wondered aloud. Half-tempted to shout loudly and see if it spooked anything, I climbed down and started moving towards the bigger buildings.
I was alert for danger, so when it finally came I was more grateful than anything. The anticipation of what was to come was usually far more stressful than the actual fight would be. I sized up the charging enemy as it barreled down one of the streets towards me. Due to their shape and layout, one could see for miles between the tall, thin houses. You could also get quite the run up.
Monster - Bullet Boar (Level 03)
“Alright, let's see what we can do about my low level,” I grunted, preparing for the large pig to get close. Whether it was some kind of rabid, starving or something else, it was definitely desperate to kill me, so I didn’t have to waste any energy. Instead, I took in my immediate vicinity and mapped out a plan of attack. What a perfect first enemy, I thought gratefully. I couldn’t be more ready.
So, anyway, that’s obviously when I got hit from the side.
My vision swam and my legs buckled as my jaw swung hard to the side from the impact. Ouch. With immediacy, my eye locked on to the new enemy, ignoring the still approaching boar. I had long been used to the changes in my physiology, and the strength of a predator’s eyes shone clearly as I traced the movement of the nearly camouflaged creature.
Monster - Flingsitter Gibbon (Level 02)
Its grey fur and dark eyes blended in well with the old stone tower houses. A human probably wouldn’t have been able to keep up with its speed, and while it was faster than me, it was also weaker. If it had my strength, it would have taken my jaw off. It was time to move, so I picked up the solid brick which had struck me and launched myself away right as the boar rushed through my position.
Like a train made of pork, the boar screeched through the alley below, unable to easily turn once its boorish charge missed. It had been further away than I thought when I saw it, the sameness of the architecture making depth perception difficult. Now it was close, it really was like a train car. At least the size of a large wagon. The two enemies weren’t allied by anything other than convenience, but it was an awkward combo to face.
At least, for most.
Faster didn’t mean more agile, and it definitely didn’t account for intelligence. I aimed for the annoying lemur, which had tossed three more projectiles at me while I gave chase. Below us, the boar was doing its best to keep up. With a heave, I threw the stone I had carried with me in my chase. It was arguably aimed for the lemur, but hitting it wasn’t the point. Making it jump was.
With a pounce, I shot through the air like a bullet and grasped the rodent… marsupial… thing by the throat. The beast had no defences, at least not at this low level, and I threw its bloodied corpse at the eyes of the boar, still mid-jump. Seeing red in more ways than one, the creature ran itself right into one of the thin buildings, something it had managed to avoid to this point. With a resounding crash, the rubble landed on the boar and crippled it. I finished it with a few quick swipes of my claws before entering a nearby home and scouting.
The noise of the battle was the only thing which had broken the silence within the dungeon so far, so it was bound to draw attention. While a portion of my focus was on the two bodies below, most of my concentration was on the amorphous energy which had gathered around my spirit after the kills. In a game, this would be my experience points. I did nothing to control this energy, though not for lack of trying. While I could sense it, interacting was outside of my power. Instead, the energy was slowly absorbed into my core.
Around three quarters of the way to full, the energy dissipated. It felt wasteful, as I sensed most of the experience simply disappearing and I grit my teeth at the loss. It was as though only a certain quality of the stuff could be taken into my spirit. Maybe something to do with higher levels? Something in their make up which my level one spirit can’t handle? I had just about enough approximate knowledge to know I didn’t know a goddamned thing. The fading memories of Gaia were honestly a blessing. Better to start with a clean slate if everything was so different.
Nothing approached my fallen enemies in the fifteen minutes or so I took the initiative. The last ambush hadn’t gone so well, so I would just deal with another if it came. I was almost disappointed when it didn’t, but my mood improved when I reached the bodies again. Now that they were bereft of life, something else had happened. They had essentially, to all my senses, become magical items. I quickly pressed a hand to the boar’s cooling body.
Would you like to loot Bullet Boar (Level 03)?
I almost squealed with joy, but held it in. When I accepted the System prompt, I felt a weight appear within my soul. Nothing which would hinder me in any way, but more like a numb part of my mind had suddenly taken conscious control of something. The System’s intuitive connection to my soul meant I knew exactly what had happened, moving on to the lemur before getting some real movement going. There was nothing in the outskirts or these strange spire houses, but there would be more enemies deeper within the dungeon.
Or, as I was going to call them from now on, walking loot containers.