Alert
Congratulations: You have gained a level in The Skill Heightened Vision(Tier 1)
Heightened Vision(Tier 1) Level 2: 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 and five 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 and five percent. You gain a limited ability to pierce magical stealth effects. This effect scales with the level of the Skill.
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Heightened Vision(Tier 1) Level 3: 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 and ten 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 and ten percent. You gain a limited ability to pierce magical stealth effects. This effect scales with the level of the Skill.
Nathan opened his eyes wearily.
Damn, Nathan though as he pushed himself up off of the flat-ish stone that he had been sleeping on. I must have fallen asleep while walking. Nice to see I got a level up though.
Nathan stood up and looked around, reminding himself of his location. He was in the middle of an unremarkable tunnel. The spot that he had collapsed was, thankfully, a patch of the tunnel that didn't have stalagmites.
I guess I pushed myself too hard. Nathan rubbed his eyes. How long did I go without sleeping? Probably at least a day and a half. Nathan had decided that it was a better use of his time to continue searching for something that might tell him what the objective was for the third level of the Gauntlet.
The decision was also fueled in no small part by the fear of being caught by whatever had made the gash in the tunnel wall. Or whatever it was fighting. Wouldn't want to run into whatever it judged to be a threat either. I don’t think I could beat that, even with my old spikes.
Nathan's eyes widened. Oh shit! Where’s my spike? Nathan swept his gaze around the area that he had been sleeping in. The spike that he had crafted from the tip of a stalagmite was nowhere to be found.
Nathan dropped down on his knees and began feeling around in the nooks and crannies that were formed by the stalagmites. Maybe I missed it in the gloom. My skill doesn't give me enough of an increase for me to be able to see color yet.
To Nathan's distress he couldn't find the spike anywhere. Maybe I dropped it right before I collapsed?
Nathan began backtracking, tracing his steps as precisely as he could. Unfortunately, the reason that Nathan had lost his spike was that he had collapsed out of exhaustion. Nathan's memories of where he had walked over the past thirty some hours was shaky at best.
After about twenty minutes of not having found his spike, Nathan came to a fork in the tunnel. The tunnel continued straight, but was intersected by another tunnel on the right. This created an intersection in the shape of a t.
Did I even go there before? I don't recall any forks that didn't lead to dead ends. Nathan could easily imagine himself, delirious from exhaustion, just continuing along the tunnel, not noticing the split.
I should still go down the fork. Nathan reasoned. It probably just dead ends anyway, and if it doesn't then I will have discovered something new.
Nodding to himself, Nathan turned down the spit and continued walking, alert for any sign of his spike.
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Nathan had been walking along the fork tunnel for at least an hour, and it still hadn’t ended. Sure, there had been a few twists and turns, but it had stayed going mostly in the same direction.
Nathan had pretty much given up finding his spike by now. If I was gonna find it, I would've found it a while ago.
What Nathan had not given up on was seeing where the tunnel led to. If he reached the end and there was nothing, then he would head back up the tunnel. If there was something, then there was a pretty good chance that it was related to the objective of this level of the Gauntlet.
While Nathan was thinking, he had nearly completely lost track of his surroundings. As a result, when the tunnel dead ended into a pile of boulders, Nathan walked straight into it.
Whoops. Nathan thought sheepishly, rubbing his shoulder where it had been slammed into an annoyingly sharp boulder. I really need to be more alert and aware of my surroundings. If it was one of the things that had made the gash in the wall, I would have been dead before I could even attempt to reach for my missing spikes.
“Ah well.” Nathan muttered to himself as he turned around, having chalked his mission to find a hint as to what the objective of the third level was to be a failure. I guess I'm gonna go back to the main tunnel and keep retracing my steps. Nathan paused and reconsidered the train of thought.
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Actually, I probably shouldn’t. It would be better to continue in the direction that I was heading before. I’m probably more likely to find a hint as to what the objective-
“BOOM!” The floor under Nathan’s feet exploded, preparing him with tiny pieces of stone as he fell into the hole that the spontaneous explosion had created.
The drop was only about fifteen feet so Nathan managed to land on his feet. Nathan stood in a tunnel that looked like it was what the tunnels that he had been walking through would have been if they were a couple centuries younger. The newness of the tunnels fascinated Nathan, but the scene in front of him was what really caught his attention.
Nathan had dropped in inbetween two humanoid figures. One was what looked like a normal man that was about six feet tall and had dark purple skin. The man had long flowing gray hair and a long flowing gray beard. He was wearing equally long and flowing, if quite battered and worn black robes. The man was gesturing with his arms in a way that almost looked like he was pulling on some kind of invisible strings.
The humanoid figure across from the man with purple skin was wearing some kind stone plate armor. Its armor was covered in sigils that were glowing extremely brightly to Nathan's darkness accustomed eyes. The figure was at least eight feet tall. It was currently withdrawing its fist from where it had punched the ceiling of the tunnel, and presumably created the hole that Nathan had fallen through.
As Nathan watched from where he crouched at the edge of the tunnel, the purple skinned man pulled his arms to the left. The armored figure pulled back its fist and delivered a wild haymaker to the tunnel wall in a spot that was right around where the purple skinned man had gestured towards. Its fist left a crater in the wall of the tunnel.
The purple skinned man glazed around, seeing Nathan for the first time.
“You there!” He shouted in a thick accent. “You are not a cultist?” The man swept his left arm backwards.
“Huh-what-” Nathan was interrupted by the noise of the armored figure spamming its fist into the ground where the purple skinned man had gestured.
“Good!” The purple skinned man seemed to take Nathan's confused stuttering as a confirmation of his statement. “Attack the sentinel! Quickly!”
“Why would I-” Nathan was cut off again by the noise of the armored figure punching the wall of the tunnel.
“Go now! Attack!” The purple skinned man shouted again. Seeing that Nathan had not moved from the edge of the tunnel, the purple skinned man sighed exasperatedly. “Why do you not- Ah shicreverten!” The purple skinned man cut himself off.
He stabbed his left hand aggressively towards the armored figure. The purple skinned man then swung the hand from the armored figure to Nathan.
The armored figure immediately stopped punching the wall and began charging at Nathan.
In the second or two before it would have reached him with its lumbering strides, Nathan assumed one of his spike forms. His right foot was extended in front of him, and his left foot extended behind him. His hands were clutching air spikes in front of his chest and face respectively.
Nathan jumped forwards and kicked the charging armored figure in the head. The blow both left a crater in the side of the figure’s head, and fractured some of the bones in Nathan's left foot. The armored figure staggered under the force of Nathan's kick.
Nathan, just before his torso would have impacted the armored figure, used his right foot to push off of the figure's shoulder. Nathan skimmed the ceiling before dropping into a roll of dubious quality, having kicked off too hard in the heat of the moment.
Nathan landed about three feet behind the purple skinned man. The man turned his head towards Nathan, and Nathan got his first good look at the man’s face. The man had a hooked nose and a well defined jaw that was a little of the small side. The most defining feature of the man's face was the long scar that ran from the center of his forehead to the side of his jaw, passing over his eyepatch-covered left eye.
“Thank you, friend!’ The purple skinned man shouted. He proceeded to reach into his robes and drew out a daggers that was about six inches long.
He thrust the dagger at Nathan, handle first. The blade was straight and double edged, with a guard that was about two an inch either side of the inch thick blade.
“You can use this, yes?” The purple skinned man drilled Nathan.
“I can probably-” Nathan began.
“Good!’ The purple skinned man shoved the handle into Nathan's hand. The man spun around with surprising agility for a man that seemed to be in his seventies.
He swung his arm to the side again and the armored figure stopped its charge across the fifteen feet that separated them, instead opting to punch the wall again.
“Quickly!” The purple skinned man shouted, gesturing for Nathan to get up. “Attack it while it's distracted!”
Nathan, at this point thoroughly confused as to what the heck was going on, decided that it was probably better to attack the thing that had attacked him instead of just sitting there. He sprung upwards as fast as he could with his fractured foot.
Nathan charged, having waited until the armored figure punched the wall again. When he was about five feet away from the armored figures back, he pushed himself upwards. He only made it about four feet up because of his fractured left foot, but luckily that was enough.
Nathan felt the dagger crumple as it was forced through the armored figure's stone helmet. The glowing markings on the figure armor suddenly stopped glowing, and the figure collapsed limply into the tunnel wall.
Alert
Congratulations: You have gained a level in The Skill Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Strikes (Tier 2)
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Strikes (Tier 2) Level 6: You have practiced the Holbrich Spike Style striking forms for years and are very proficient with them. All strikes that use the holbrich fighting style operate as if your Reflex, Endurance, and Strength were ten percent higher than they actually are. Each rank in an attribute increases the related capabilities by fifty percent. Each level in this Skill causes the power increase to go up by two percent. The current power increase from this Skill is twenty percent.
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Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Strikes (Tier 2) Level 7: You have practiced the Holbrich Spike Style striking forms for years and are very proficient with them. All strikes that use the holbrich fighting style operate as if your Reflex, Endurance, and Strength were ten percent higher than they actually are. Each rank in an attribute increases the related capabilities by fifty percent. Each level in this Skill causes the power increase to go up by two percent. The current power increase from this Skill is twenty two percent.
“Hello, friend!” The purple skinned man announced loudly, snapping Nathan's gaze away from his Interface.
“Ah, hello?’ Nathan answered, unsure of himself.
“Good to meet another anti-cultist eh? Those Knowledge worshiping dvelxeres deserve death in the Trials!” The purple man spat the words ‘Knowledge’ and ‘cultist’ out like they were flies that had found their way into his mouth.
“Huh?”