Liam laid on the ground, panting with the biggest smile he had ever given.
After a brief moment he lifted his aching and sore arm up into the air and shouted, “Fuck yeah!”
He let out a laugh that made even him think he had lost it.
A coughing fit came about as he laughed, causing him to feel his body hurt from soreness as the coughing ricochet the achiness all over his body.
After his coughing fit subsided and his breathing calmed down some, Liam stated with a small chuckle, “Next time I have a live action plants versus zombies game, I’m going to make sure Ariyana is there so she can use her plant magic.”
As Liam laughed at the idea, several chime sounds echoed in his mind.
“Oooo, goodies,” Liam said with a wide grin as he pulled up his notifications.
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“Congratulations! Body Stat Dexterity Sub-stat Agility has reached level 18! Progression to level 19: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Body Stat Dexterity Sub-stat Fine Motor has reached level 17! Progression to level 18: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Body Stat Dexterity Sub-stat Fine Motor has reached level 18! Progression to level 19: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Body Stat Endurance Sub-stat Stamina Endurance has reached level 17! Progression to level 18: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Body Stat Endurance Sub-stat Stamina Endurance has reached level 18! Progression to level 19: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Body Stat Strength Sub-stat Power has reached level 13! Progression to level 14: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Body Stat Strength Sub-stat Power has reached level 14! Progression to level 15: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Body Stat Strength Sub-stat Power has reached level 15! Progression to level 16: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Mind Stat Intelligence Sub-stat Perception has reached level 19! Progression to level 20: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Luck Sub-stat Lucky Break has reached level 16! Progression to level 17: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Will Sub-stat Will Power has reached level 18! Progression to level 19: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Will Sub-stat Zen has reached level 19! Progression to level 20: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Weapon Skills – Throwing Daggers has reached level 10! Your -15% to successful hits has dropped to -5% to successful hits when throwing weapons. Can now throw two small weapons on one hand at a time instead of one. Progression to level 11: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Weapon Skills – Throwing Daggers has reached level 11! Progression to level 12: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Weapon Skills – Throwing Daggers has reached level 12! Progression to level 13: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Weapon Skills – Throwing Daggers has reached level 13! Progression to level 14: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Weapon Skills – Throwing Daggers has reached level 14! Progression to level 15: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Weapon Skills – Throwing Daggers has reached level 15! Progression to level 16: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Your personal level has reached level 5!”
“You have 16 unused points available in Body, Mind, and Spirit!”
“Congratulations! You have unlocked the Wardrobe feature!”
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“Jesus,” Liam whispered in astonishment. “Not only did I almost reach level twenty in a couple of my sub-stats, my throwing weapons grew exponentially. That explains why it felt easier to throw and land the hits.”
Even though the difficulty during these pass challenges were hard, Liam was happy to see his sub-stats grow. He felt with each level he got in them, the easier it was to use them. It felt like his body was adjusting with each level up. He wasn’t going to complain at all.
Another thing that intrigued Liam was this new Wardrobe Feature the notification said.
He pulled up his menu but didn’t see anything.
Liam frowned.
Why say something has unlocked but not show where it was at? Liam thought. He gave it some thought and came up with a theory. Since clothing items were items, maybe it was in his inventory?
He opened his inventory and saw a new tab appear on the side with a symbol of a shirt.
He clicked it and saw a silhouette of a mannequin standing in the middle. It was bare, with nothing on it.
To the right was a tab and a plus sign under it.
He clicked the tab and a notification appeared.
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“Name of equipment set?”
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“Hm,” Liam muttered to himself. “I wonder what I should call this.”
He thought of many possibilities. After a moment he decided to call it Pjs.
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“Name set of equipment: Pjs? Confirm? Yes No?”
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Liam clicked yes.
Shortly after that a new box appeared showing all the clothing items he had in his inventory. He clicked on the shorts and T-shirt he bought for night time wear.
After he finished he clicked finished.
The empty mannequin reappeared with the t-shirt and shorts.
After he did this he clicked on the plus sign.
Another notification box appeared.
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“Name of new set of equipment?”
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“So, I can do this with my other clothes? Interesting,” Liam muttered.
Liam played a bit with this new feature. He made a set for training, casual, and his current armor.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
As he made these sets, he noticed a button say: Wear equipment?
After he was done he went to his Training set and clicked yes.
His armor suddenly puffed into smoke and was replaced with his training shorts, shirt, and running shoes.
“Whoa!” Liam exclaimed with shock.
This could have gone many ways. He expected the set of clothing to appear at once in front of him so he could change into them. However, the reality was much easier and sweeter to him. It was an automatic change!
“That’s pretty badass and convenient,” Liam said with satisfaction as he changed back to his current armor set.
After he changed back, he noticed something else. He had more room in his inventory suddenly.
“Is the Wardrobe a separate inventory area for clothing sets?” Liam questioned. “I’ll have to ask Mercer more about this feature later.”
Liam stretched his arms as he tried shaking away the rest of the soreness he had felt from earlier.
As he stretched, he noticed he had missed something.
It was a notification.
“Did I miss this due to my excitement over the Wardrobe feature?” Liam asked himself as he pulled it up.
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“Congratulations on completing the 4th challenge trial. Due to pushing yourself to new heights as well as taking it on a much harder difficulty, you have been rewarded.”
“Reward: Atlas Chest Bones. Item Rarity – Rare. Item Quality – Common. Description – Sturdy bones. Can be used for Bone Crafting or other possible usages.”
“Reward: Orb of the Grave Keeper – filled. Item Rarity – Rare. Item Quality – Average. Description – An orb filled with the soul of Atlas the Grave Keeper. Usage: Currently Unknown.”
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Liam stared at the description of the last item. Something about it was nagging at him.
“Why does this sound familiar?” Liam whispered as he tried to think about it.
After a minute of scouring his brain he remembered.
Liam clicked his fingers as he said, “That’s right! It was that damn Withered Treant. An orb dropped of it when I harvested it.”
A frown on Liam’s face formed as he remembered a crucial detail.
“That orb was unfilled though.” Liam looked back at the description. “This one is filled, but the Usage is unknown. How come?”
Liam couldn’t think of any reasons as to why it would say that.
As he closed his notifications he said while the items went to his inventory, “I’ll have to check it out later. For now…”
Liam looked at the now open door at the other end of the room.
“I have another challenge to take on.”
Liam slowly made his way to the door. Unsure if he was ready for another round of running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
“Let’s hope I don’t need to run anymore,” Liam commented. “I’m all out of Stamina Potions.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Liam slowly approached the opened doorway to the next room.
He wasn’t sure what to expect. These challenges seemed like they challenged certain sub-stats of a person, but the methods were…chaotic to him.
The first challenged the different aspects of his Mana Control. From Channeling to Manipulation, he was able to learn more on how he could use them. It was shocking when he found out he could move mana touched liquids.
Since discovering that he wanted to try out new ways to use it. Especially with his new bottle of Liquid Fire he received from the first challenge.
The second one really pushed and challenged his dexterity. Having to dodge, dip, dive, duck and dodge the traps and the stone statues really helped him understand what his body was currently able to handle. Not to mention fully receiving that Danger Sense ability was a boon in disguise.
As Liam thought about the second challenge his mind drifted to the other thing that happened.
His body decided to move on its own. At first Liam was skeptical about letting it happen, but his curiosity won out. He was happy to see how it ended but he wasn’t sure what it was. It felt like he was in a Zen-like trance when he moved about, but he wasn’t sure since he had no knowledge on it.
The third was his least favorite. It challenged his Perception, Mental Absorption, and his damn Common Sense. It was akin to a musical Simon Says that ended up Rick Rolling him at the end.
“I need to punch whoever created that challenge. I don’t care if it’s a person or a god. I’m still salty about it,” Liam grumbled.
The last challenge was hard towards the end, but fun to him. It pushed his Fine Motor, Throwing Weapons, and got a couple of his sub-stats to level nineteen. He couldn’t complain about it, especially since it was made from an old popular game he used to play as a kid.
Liam stopped before he entered the doorframe.
“Now that I think of it,” Liam muttered to himself. “Those last two challenges had aspects from Earth. Why would a dungeon have that?”
The thoughts nagged at him as he tried to wrap his head around it. However, no matter how hard he tried nothing to mind answering it.
“I’m going to have to compare my challenges with the others and see if they were made with the intentions of having familiarities to the person taking them on,” Liam decided while staring at the next room.
The room was dark. No matter how hard he tried to peer into it nothing could be seen.
“Here goes nothing,” Liam muttered as he entered the next room.
As he stepped into the room, nothing happened.
Darkness was all around him.
Liam pulled his goggles off his eyes and onto his forehead hoping that he would be able to see something.
Nothing changed.
He looked to his left then to his right.
The room was so dark he wasn’t able to tell how big the room was or if the ground opened up at all.
This made him feel uneasy as he took another step inside, hoping something would happen.
He took a third then a fourth.
After his fifth step a stone slab slid down swiftly, blocking the doorway he had walked in and completely blanketed him in darkness.
The sudden darkness made Liam reactive pull his daggers out and made him get into a defensive stance.
Panic slowly entered Liam’s mind as he swirled his head around.
No matter which way he looked, he couldn’t see anything.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Liam cursed over and over in his mind as he felt his heart beat start to quicken. What the hell is going on? What am I supposed to do?
As more thoughts began to jumble around in his brain, he suddenly heard a water drop.
This water drop wasn’t heard around, but rather inside. This made him stop looking around and close his eyes.
A second water drop echoed in his mind. This one rippled through his body, calming him down.
Once when he felt like he had calmed down enough, he opened his eyes.
When he did so he saw two icy-blue orbs glowing a bit in the distance.
Liam squinted to see if he could tell what they were.
As he stared at them another set of icy blue two orbs appeared near the first set.
Furrowing his brows, Liam took a step forward to get a better look at them. However, when he did so the orbs…blinked.
Liam froze as his Danger sense ricocheted all over his body.
Those aren’t orbs…they’re eyes. Liam thought as he kept his sight on them.
A dim light slowly hummed to life around the second pair of eyes as three spots around the first pair of eyes did the same.
The light grew brighter revealing that it wasn’t from a Yooperlite stone or fire, but from their bodies, specifically... their fur.
Both creatures sat in a cat-like position staring at him with their tails swishing back and forth slowly. Each of them were size of a small car.
The creature on the right had pure white mid length fur that gave off a light that reminded him of the moon. It gave the feline creature a smooth majestic and beautiful look to its furry body. On its body were small patches that were void of any light.
The dark patches matches the color of the feline sitting to the left. This creature had smooth pitch black fur that reminded Liam of the darkest night. However, on its body had three areas where the same luminescence glow from the other creature.
Liam assessed each creature. He started with the Pitch black coated feline.
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“Shadow Moon Cat. ?????/????? HP. ?????/????? MP.”
“Moon Shadow Cat. ?????/????? HP. ?????/????? MP.”
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Liam’s eyes widened. I can’t see their health or mana pools? How powerful are these things? Liam thought as he realized why his Danger Sense had exploded all around his body.
They are too powerful for me to handle. Liam realized. I’m fucked.
The two creatures stood on all fours and began to slowly walk towards him.
Liam, rooted to the ground, remained where he was as the panic he had dispelled earlier, returned.
What am I going to do? Liam began to think. I could try to fight them, but I’ll lose in the end.
The giant cats slowly made their way to him.
I still don’t know if I’ll truly die in here and I don’t want to test the theory.
They got a bit closer.
What the hell am I supposed to do? Liam screamed in his mind as he stared at them.
As they slowly walked, Liam stared at their fur.
He stared at their bodies trying to see if he could find some sort of weakness.
He could not find any trace of weakness anywhere. Instead he noticed how silky and smooth their fur were. The color, along with the light or lack of, added to the majestic look they had.
Yeah, majestic creatures that could rip me to shreds with a single attack probably. Liam chided himself.
Liam thought himself a dog person, but he did like cats.
Liam let out a breath of air. This relaxed his body a bit as he resigned himself to his fate while the cats were almost within arm’s length.
He slowly put his daggers away as he muttered to himself, “I wonder if they’ll let me touch their fur at least once before I die.”
He then slowly reached both hands out in a non-threating way.
The two cats paused, unsure what he was doing.
Liam stared at them with conviction. I will touch their fur and I will die with some sort of accomplishment, even if its an insignificant one.
Liam saw the cats look at each other before looking back at him.
Their heads got closer to his hand.
When their noses were inches away, they sniffed his hands.
They brought their heads back a bit.
“What’s the matter?” Liam asked. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to get a pet in before you kill me.”
The cats tilted their heads as they stared at him.
“Yeah, yeah,” Liam started. “I know. Dumb human thinks he can pet something so majestic so easily? I know it’s stupid, but even I know I’m no match for you guys.”
The cats didn’t hesitate as they took another couple steps towards him, bypassing his hands.
Ouch, ignoring my dying request? That’s a bit harsh. Liam thought as he tensed up once more readying himself for the attack coming.
The two cats leaned back, looking like they were ready to strike. They both then pounced on him.
Liam gritted his teeth, but then relaxed as he felt a tongue lick his cheek.
“Huh?” Liam questioned as he looked at the other cat confused.
The Moon Shadow Cat was rubbing his head against his rib cage and occasionally licked his right hand while the Shadow Moon Cat licked his cheek and rubbed his head against the cheek.
Liam heard a noise he wasn’t expecting either.
They were. Purring.
Before Liam could say anything, a young playful feminine voice called out, “Well that was an interesting development.”