Nathan jumped backwards, his newly healed injuries giving of a tingling sensation. Nathan was attempting to dodge the attack from the gigantic ‘bouncers’, not realizing that they weren't there anymore.
His left foot snagged on the edge of what was probably a stalagmite, and he crashed to the uneven rocky ground.
“Uuugh.”Nathan groaned, attempting to get a good look at his surroundings. Even with his ascended tier perception stat, the only thing that Nathan could see was an extremely faint light that seemed to be coming from what he assumed were stalactites on the ceiling.
A smile spread across Nathan’s face as he realized what his surroundings meant. Woho! I haven't been sliced to pieces yet, so I assume that this is the third level of the Gauntlet! Let's go!
Nathan grabbed his wrists, and then, feeling nothing, began searching the flood around him. Thirty seconds after his search had begun, Nathan stopped abruptly and face palmed.
“Shit! My spikes are still in the corpse of the Matriarch!” When Nathan had been teleported away from the second level of the Gauntlet, he hadn’t had time to retrieve his spikes from the Matriarch’s head. As a result, he was now stuck on the third level of the Gauntlet without his weapons.
Nathan began strategizing. What is my overall goal? To complete the objective of this level of the Gauntlet. To do that I need to know what the objective is for this level of the gauntlet.
Problem one: I can't see anything except the vague silhouette of the water that drips down the stalactites.
Problem two: I don't have my spikes, so if this level has combat objectives, I’m limited to my kicking attacks.
Problem one might be remedied by gaining some sort of Skill for sight that works in a similar way to my heightened hearing Skill. Problem two would be solved only by getting another pair of spikes, but there's not much I can do about that right now. Problem one is much more actionable.
Nathan assumed a cross legged position, and began straining his eyes, and general awareness of the things around him against the near complete darkness.
///
Alert
Congratulations: You have fulfilled the requirements for the Skill Heightened Vision(Tier 1)!
The Skill Heightened Vision (Tier 1) has been automatically entered into your Skill reserve.
Skill reserve:
Basic Improvised Crafting(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Running(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Animal Harvesting(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Land Animal Tracking(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Stealth(Tier 1) Level 1
Heightened Vision(Tier 1) Level 1
Nathan paused and shook his head regretfully. It's a shame I’m gonna have to switch my paralysis resistance with heightened hearing. Paralysis resistance is good, but it’s only useful in a situation where I could get paralyzed.
Alert
Your Skill Basic Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1) has been removed from your active Skills. Basic Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1) has lost one level .
Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1) Level 2 >> Paralysis Resistance (Tier 1) Level 1
Congratulations: The Skill (Tier 1) has been placed in one of your Active Skill slots. You have no Active Skill slots remaining.
Heightened Vision(Tier 1) Level 1: Your passive low light vision is increased by one hundred percent. This percentage goes up by five each level in the Skill. The current low light vision bonus from this Skill is one hundred percent. Your passive long distance vision is increased by one hundred percent without decreasing your short distance vision. This percentage goes up by five each level in the Skill. The current low long distance vision bonus from this Skill is one hundred percent. You gain a limited ability to pierce magical stealth effects. This effect scales with the level of the Skill.
Skills:
Active Skills (Maximum five):
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Strikes (Tier 2) Level 8
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Spike Throwing(Tier 2) Level 4
Basic Stealth(Tier 1) Level 12
Heightened Hearing(Tier 1) Level 12
Heightened Vision(Tier 1) Level 1
Skill reserve:
Basic Improvised Crafting(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Running(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Animal Harvesting(Tier 1) Level 1
Paralisis Resistance(Tier 1)
Using his new Skill, Nathan could see the faint, collorses outline of his surroundings.
He was standing in the middle of a tunnel. It was in the shape of a square, with a side length of about ten feet. The tunnel extended fifty feet straight forwards and then took a sharp, near right angle turn. The tunnel had collapsed about ten feet behind him. It may have continued for quite a while, but now there was nothing but a wall of gravel and boulders.
The strangest part of the whole thing was that the ground and ceiling were carpeted with stalagmites and stalactites. The tunnel had too many right angles to be natural, but the stalactites and stalagmites told a different story.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
How long has this place been abandoned for? Nathan wondered as he walked over to a particularly tall and skinny stalagmite. Nathan leaned on the stalactite, but withdrew his hand quickly.
That's pretty sharp! Not enough to cut through cloth, or even animal hide on its own, but if somebody got dropped on this it would probably spear straight through them.
“Almost like my spikes!” Nathan grabbed the tip of the stalactite and attempted to snap it off. It took some effort, but with his supernatural strength he managed to separate a seven or eight inch long portion of the stalactite. The base of the spike was a bit thick, nearly too big for him to get his hand around.
Over the course of twenty or thirty minutes, Nathan chipped the base of the stalagmite shard into something that he could actually hold in combat.
It's a bit slippery, but it’ll do.
Nathan searched around, attempting to find another stalagmite that he could use to make another spike. While he didn’t find any, Nathan figured that one spike was better than none.
////
Nathan walked down yet another tunnel.
It had been hours since he had arrived in the third level of the Gauntlet. In that span of time there had only been one sine that there was anything in the tunnels aside from Nathan.
He had been wanlking along in the dark, when he noticed that the faintly glowing water was pooling strangely on one of the walls. Looking closer, Nathan saw that the water had pooled in a large gash in the wall.
The only way that Nathan could think of that happening was quite disturbing. Something had swung a claw at an enemy, and it had missed, grazing the tunnel wall. Grazing it.
Nathan did not want to meet a creature that could carve six inches into a stone wall on an accidental graze.
Nathan shivered and checked his Interface, reassuring himself by looking at how powerful he had become. I've faced the implausible before. I can do it again.
Interface
Personal:
Name: Nathan Holbrich
Age: Nineteen years, six months
Height: 5’10
Species: Sapiens
Genus: Homo
Physical State:
Strength: Mediocre
Endurance: Mediocre
Perception: Mediocre
Reflex: Good
Willpower: Great
Condition(s): N/A
Existential Tier:
Ascendant: You have awakened and have gained an Ability. You have gained one rank in all attributes. You have ascended and gained a Path. You have gained a second additional rank in each attribute. Your attributes have been adjusted to your existential tier.
Ability:
Prodigy: If you activate this Ability during an action, you experience yourself doing the action twice. This allows you to grasp the principles behind actions much faster. If you activate this Ability while doing an action that gathers knowledge, you experience two fold time dilation. This allows you to comprehend knowledge twice as quickly as you would have otherwise. This Ability can not be activated during combat.
Type: Master
Secondary Types: Knowledge, Mind, Time
Path of the Grandmaster: Through extreme soul control and willpower you keep your soul core from aspecting to any type other than master. If you do an action that you have a minimum level of Skill in, part of your soul core will temporarily aspect to it. These will be quantified as Skills. Some Skills can allow you to ignore your attribute limit. The power of these Skills will be quantified as levels.
Type: Master
Secondary type: N/A
Skills :
Active Skills (Maximum five):
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Strikes (Tier 2) Level 8
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Spike Throwing(Tier 2) Level 4
Basic Stealth (Tier 1) Level 12
Heightened Hearing(Tier 1) Level 12
Heightened Vision(Tier 1) Level 1
Skill reserve:
Basic Improvised Crafting(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Running(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Animal Harvesting(Tier 1) Level 1
Paralysis Resistance(Tier 1)
Nathan raised an eyebrow, seeing that his reflex and perception had gone up a rank.
Perception probably happened while I was getting my hearing or vision Skills, but when did I rank up reflex? Nathan shrugged.
I probably got it while I was fighting the spider colony. I Might have ignored the Interface because I was locked too deeply in combat.I Might also have gradually just gotten better at moving myself.
Either way it’s a win for me.
Nathan continued walking, and soon a new topic sprang into his mind.
When I read the scroll from Knowledge, fuck you Knowledge, it implied that there were other people in this insane experiment. I wonder if i’m ever going to meet them.
It could be that there are different iterations of the Gauntlet, one for each person. That would mean that I’m not going to meet other people until I either die, or beat the supposedly unbeatable Gauntlet. I sure hope that's not true
It could also be that there are other people in all of the levels of the Gauntlet, I just haven’t met them yet. That seems unlikely because if that was the case, how would Knowledge manage the level reset lineup.
Nathan had figured out that when he died the manticore level had been reset when he had inspected the animal trails. The trails were exactly the same a s he had remembered them the first time. The trails should have faded away in the four years that had passed, so Nathan had decided that upon his death the manticore level had been reset.
The unlikeliness of the exact same tracks being traced by the exact same animals that disappeared the exact same amount of time before Nathan had gotten back to the second level ruled out the second option.
So that means that there are many, many different iterations of the Gauntlet. Damn. I guess I’m not gonna be talking to anyone anytime soon.
Nathan’s eyes widened as he realized that there was a third possibility. It could also be that there will be other people, just only on later levels of the Gauntlet. That would mean that I still might see other people!
Nathan sped up to the point that he was just short of running, his pace increased by renewed vigor.
If I make it far enough into the Gauntlet, there’s a chance that I’ll find other people! At this point Nathan had been isolated for so long that he would be happy for anyone except himself to talk to.
Doesn't matter if they’re a noble, or a highborn, or even a god damned talking frog. I’d like to talk to something that isn’t inanimate or hell bent on killing me. Nathan paused and considered his statement.
Unless it's Knowledge.
Nathan paused his walking. “Fuck you Knowledge.” Nathan softly added out loud. “Fuck you.”
When Nathan continued walking, it was not at the blazing pace that he had set before. As he continued to walk nearly aimlessly, a hard expression built up on Nathan’s face. Nathan clenched his fist and recited his oath.
I swear that there will come a day when all your power, your people, your knowledge is torn away from you.
That may not bring Mom and Dad and the billions of others that you have slaughtered back to life, but it will avenge them
I will avenge them.