Crazy or not, Theo’s heart pounded until he could feel it in his ears, the spider not stopping as it moved towards him. There was no shown fear of him, those weird bits at the front of its main body seeming to move around. Were those fangs? It looked like fangs. Theo didn’t want to be near them. Seeing a rock on the ground, he just picked it up and threw it at the spider out of instinct.
It missed by a long shot.
“Damn all of this!” Theo shouted in muted anger, not understanding why this was happening to him of all possible people. He picked up another pebble, throwing it again. He didn’t know if it was the anger that helped, or if there was something else assisting him at that moment, but it landed on the spider cleanly.
New [Skill] learned!
[Throw] has been added to your [Skill-Collection]
“What does that mean?” Theo questioned, not getting an answer back from the blue box that was filling up his view. Waving at it did nothing, his hand just going through it. The spider, on the other hand, was more than happy to react to his actions.
Theo learned at that moment that spiders could both screech and jump. A god-awful noise came out of it as the only warning before it jumped towards him. It was a miracle that Theo fell to his knees in fear, crawling away as it flew over his head. Adrenaline was increasing to the max, and his heart beat faster than what was safe for the human body.
[Skill] gain detected
Wrongful classification of [Entity] determined. Reclassification from [Entity] to [Rune-Crafter] is imminent. Please find a safe spot to sit. Reclassification protocols may cause: Blackouts, Mental Anguish, Death, etc.
“Excuse me, what?”
The answer to his sputtering was granted in the form of pain, more pain, and just a sprinkling of pain on top to make sure he was three seconds away from just shitting his pants. Theo didn’t scream. He couldn’t make his jaw work enough for that to happen. Instead, he was given the sight of a small spider slowly crawling towards his exposed leg, the thing looking happy as its fangs moved around. It was cleaning the fangs in preparation to eat him. That had to be it.
His mind refused to consider it to be anything other than his imminent death, his mind unable to really focus on anything else. His nose was bleeding and his ears were likely being filled with the same liquid but he couldn’t care. Even as drops of blood fell from his eyes and stained his shirt, his mind wasn’t able to process it.
Just get away from me!
Congratulations!
Reclassification has been determined to be a Success. You are now treated as a [Rune-Crafter].
Theo didn’t spend time thinking about what that meant, instead using his newfound mobility to its full level. The spider tried to leap at him again but he swatted it away with his hand. The feeling of the hairs on its body hitting his palm made every inch of his skin crawl. This was worse than anything he’d tried before in his life.
As a [Rune-Crafter], the energy from the [Personality-Changing Matrix] will be switched to the [Tool-Creation Matrix].
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Please state what tool you wish for. Restrictions on requests: [null]
The man didn’t have time to read the message, the spider trying its hardest to get in his face. Another leap towards his chest made him outright grab at its front legs. Holding it for more than a second was a mistake, the fangs able to get at his fingers instantly.
Throwing it to the floor as blood dripped from his left hand, Theo did nothing but curse his inability to protect himself. Tears were forming from the pain, and internal curses were coming forth. He just wanted to shield himself.
Request located and accepted!
Creation of [Shield] commencing. Estimated time until completing: 00:00:02
“What?” Theo said, glancing at the two new messages. They couldn’t be serious. “Wait, no! I don’t mean that. Give me a gun or something! And bullets!”
The blue boxes refused to listen and he didn’t have time to give it more thought. Standing above the glowing lines again, he was able to see a long piece of metal take form. A blue outline could be seen at first until the inside was formed. It was slightly curved as well, with two holds on the inside to make it able to be put on the arm without issue. Theo would've cried then and there if not for the fact it saved his life.
“Oh, you bitch,” Theo was halfway to screaming as he grabbed at the shield, using it to deflect the small spider’s attempt to get onto his face. It tried to stick to the metal but his shaking threw it off. “Come here, you little shit.”
New [Skill] learned!
[Shield-Bash] has been added to your [Skill-Collection]
Just like before, there was no attempt at reading the message. Theo just looked through the blue outline as he smashed the sharper end of the shield into the spider again and again. The legs on it twitch around with every hit, blue blood spurting out and reaching his already dirty pants.
The eight-legged monster might’ve been dead from the first three hits but Theo made sure to hit it those extra ten times. His mind didn’t believe in overkill. He believed in enoughkill, no matter what others would think about it. He wanted to live and that meant making sure that Australian wildlife was good and dead.
…
“This isn’t Australia,” Theo said, falling back onto the floor as he laughed a little, the departure of adrenaline making his body both sag and grow illogical. There was a chance he was having a mental breakdown. “Australia doesn’t have glowing spiders, glowing… lines, and glowing boxes floating around. Where the fuck am I?”
It looked like ruins. Very well-maintained ruins but ruins nonetheless. That lamp on the room’s ceiling was weird, it being nothing like what Theo had seen before. And, even then, he was ignoring the bones in the corner. They looked human, wiped clean of any flesh and just left there.
I’m not going close to that.
There was a rusted set of iron doors leading out to a hallway, though only one was opened to reveal it. Webs of all sorts of sizes could be seen out there, the lamps working just slightly further out. Taking a peek, he could see the flickering lamps in both directions. There were spiders everywhere.
When a very large leg was seen in the distance, Theo made a very clear choice to close the rusted door. It grinded slightly against the floor, the hinges growing crooked through the ages. For how long had this place been abandoned? And why couldn’t he spot any windows?
“If this is psychosis, I suddenly understand their point of view,” Theo commented. The wound on his left hand had stopped bleeding but still, it still stung painfully. Even if that spider had cleaned its fangs, sanitation was clearly not too high a priority. “I need that to be cleaned up or I’m gonna lose the finger.”
Talking to himself out loud was somewhat comforting, Theo almost able to trick himself into thinking it was another person. For all intents and purposes, he looked to be alone here. That was too scary a thought to consider. He was not a social person but he still liked the idea of having people around. There was nobody here, was there?
His fingers shook but he forced himself not to go down that line of thoughts. Instead, his attention was drawn away as a few of those blue boxes appeared again.
[Shield] has fully assimilated with your [Soul Matrix]!
[Transform Shield] and [Regenerate Shield] have been added to your [Skill-Collection].