A/N: Yup, I'm still alive.
This is just some side stories, the events here have no relevance with the main plot.
Sorry for the delay, I am currently suffering from a major lefter's white(writer's block) ever since some time. Everything I wrote felt awkward to me or I simply didn't have any idea on what to write. It was a miracle I even finished writing this.
Still isn't proofread, but I think it should be readable...
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Story #1 - Exchange :
(The events here occurred on the way to Spooky Graveyard Dungeon)
My mind felt oddly serene, it feels blank and untroubled. This strange perception is accompanied with a weird floating sensation. My body doesn't feel anything, as if I was sinking deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean.
Where am I? I don't know... But somehow, this is a familiar situation. Faint images flashed in my mind, like a shadow looming in the corners of my subconsciousness.
Who am I? Twisted Fate. At least, that's what I believe... The first name that comes to my mind after searching my memories.
Why am I here? Really... Why...?
As I tried probing deeper into this question, a jolt of pain took over my mind. I tried clutching my head in pain, but I was unable to.
Somehow, I have neither a head nor an arm. I have no limbs... Or my body for that matter.
Emptiness... Devoid of any appearance. An intangible body, as if my thoughts gained a physical form.
Terror took ahold of me. The experience of losing your body is terrifying to say the least. Various thoughts that made me question my very existence plunged my mind deeper into chaos, like that of a quicksand consuming everything it makes contact with.
Before I could fully understand the situation, my flickering consciousness became fainter by the second, slowly fading into nothingness.
O.O.O.O.O
Darkness.
An absolute darkness surrounded me.
A restricting feeling came over my body. I couldn't even stretch my arms halfway. It was as if I was stuck in a crevice, unable to move. The surrounding walls felt soft and elastic, like those of skin, though there are some sides that wouldn't budge an inch.
*No way... Am I inside something's body? But if so, it should be wet, not as dry as this.* I analyzed my current predicament again, but I could make anything out of it with the lack of information. *A spider egg sack, perhaps?* I thought to myself. Thinking about being covered in baby arachnids sent chills to my spine.
It's not like I am claustrophobic, but being in a tight closed space felt very suffocating. Coupled with the pitch black darkness surrounding me, caused my pulse to rise.
Looking for a way out, I tried crawling to the most open part of the place.
I tried standing up from the unstable platform, which was unusually soft. I could feel the thin ledge of the walls after standing up. I gripped it and tried climbing the wall-like object. It was somehow flexible as it bended downwards after I pulled it down to raise my body.
After raising my upper body, I used my feet and tried climbing it. I placed my left leg on the other side of the wall and steadied my position. After resting for a bit I continued moving and went to the other side.
I fell down and began sliding over the rough surface of the slanted floor.
By sliding, I finally reached the great outdoors. I dropped from the place which was about three times my height. And when I opened my eyes, I finally saw light.
I looked around the place and noticed that I am in a familiar location, though I'm pretty sure I've never went in this place. A feeling of deja vu struck me.
I walked around for a few meters, admiring the scenery.
Towering trees, humongous boulders, enormous monsters and other gigantic objects can be found in the environment.
*A dungeon?* I thought to myself. As I was transported unto this fantasy like location, it was the only thought that came into mind. But how on earth have I reached this place?
Thinking so, I looked back from where I came from, the place that restricted my movements like that of a cage. And when turned around, I saw 'that', my mind completely froze up, struggling to decipher what just entered my vision.
Impossible.
How come... How is it possible for me to see that... To see 'him'...
Yes, the thing that I saw... was a person, a giant-like person.
A person, sleeping soundly. Clothed with black and red all over, with a familiar hat covering his napping face. Soft snoring voice reached my ears coming from that man.
Yes... But how could I see him? It's impossible, it should be... for that person...
Is me.
That's right, the huge man in front of me, is no other than myself.
I started doubting my sanity as different ideas floated in my mind. To tell the truth, looking at your own appearance from another perspective is a mysterious and fearful experience, a gut wrenching feeling.
Seeing your own self somehow makes you question your own existence as if instinctively. Perhaps, seeing your doppelgänger gives the same impression. Something just completely feels 'off'...
Suppressing my dizziness, I inched closer to the giant 'me'.
The closer I got, the louder I hear of the man's soft snoring. As if following in order, my heart also pulsed faster with each step. With the gigantic surrounding, I walked for about three meters from my perspective.
After reaching an arms length away from him, I touched 'my'... I mean, 'his' leather pants and started climbing it. It felt hard yet oddly smooth even though the clothes seems rather tattered and old in age.
Well, it was something like a uniform to me so I didn't bother changing the design. As a side note, I have a hundred pairs of my clothes, from the jacket to the cape to the boots and pants. Though, my hat is just one and only. Something I received from my benefactor, but that's a story for another time.
I continued climbing until I stood in his chest. I stared straight into his face... The face I previously had.
Gazing intently, I was overcome by a mysterious feeling. Fear, anger, anxiety, worry, doubt, pride, joy, admiration, and another feeling I can't describe. All of this was mixed together, so perfectly that it was as if it was supposed to be connected in the first place, and created a new type of emotion I never felt before.
To define it in a word, it would be 'overwhelming'.
After calming down, an idea struck my mind like lightning. An evil grin was formed on my face.
'Haaa!' I inhaled a sharp breath, completely filling my lungs. I paused for a few second and released the accumulated voice. I shouted my lung out.
Still, as your voice differs from how you hear it and how others do, I couldn't guess where I've heard this voice. All I know is sounded more feminine than normal, albeit sounding a little monotonous.
"Gaaa!" 'Me', or rather, the person with my appearance woke up in a flash and shouted in a half-asleep state using my voice. He barely evaded hitting the tree bark he was sleeping on due to his sudden movements.
He looked around in puzzlement and seem to be more and more confused by the second. He surveyed the surroundings cautiously, and when his eyes reached me, his body jerked visibly and he stood there wearing the face of befuddlement. As if his brain froze over, unable to process what he just saw.
He stared at me in a daze. I could hear a loud gulping noise coming from his throat. Sweat formed in his forehead en masse, trickling down his cheeks.
After finally gaining a little composure, he pointed at me with his still shaking arm. I never expected this kind of reaction...
With his fingers pointed at me, he started speaking in a hoarse voice, a voice I was very much familiar with, ---my own.
"M, me...?"
A single word.
It was just a single word, yet it raised countless questions in my mind.
But with it, I understood one thing.
By connecting his words to my current situation, and what occurred ever since I wake up, I found out what on earth is happening.
When I first looked around, the surroundings were bigger than what I remember, or rather, I became small.
I woke up at a cramped space, and when I looked back where I came from, I found 'myself'...
My voice was that of a certain fairy of my memory, a traveling companion of mine.
By putting two and two together, I finally arrived at the answer.
---Somehow, me and Vers have switched bodies.
"..."
Haaa... This will be a long day...
O.O.O.O.O
"So, what are we going to do?" Vers, who is inside my body, asked. Ugh, this is really eerie.
I asked in an annoyed tone. I can never get used to this voice...
"Haa... I guess we don't have anything else to do except continue on on our journey, looking for clues on the way." Vers let out a tired sigh. Well, it's true that to make the most of our time, it's better to continue onwards in our journey.
Flying has their own perks. Well, my attempt to fly ended up in a failure anyways.
"Kusu..." A soft chuckle entered my ears. I turned around to give the source of the voice the most intimidating glare I could muster. Well, with my current appearance, I guess it would look nowhere near menacing...
Vers smiled at me and walked closer, when he reached an arms length away, he, or I guess, she, knelt down and picked me up.
"Flying isn't that difficult. It can work instinctively and you don't have to consciously think about controlling your wings. Just try imagining how you would like to move and it should work properly." Vers gave me some advice, though, her smirking face really destroys the sincerity.
I glared at her yet again. Anyways, her advice worked wonders as it didn't take a while for me to master flying. I guess she isn't all talk.
Anyways, we continued normally afterwards. Some time later, Vers had her own set of troubles with my skills and living as a man. Of course, I never forget her smug appearance when she taught me flying, so I made her experience my humiliation a hundredfold. Well, that's a story for another time.
O.O.O.O.O
Me and Vers are currently in the territory of such creatures. Mushrooms of various colors wearing comical faces. Though they seem harmless at first glance, or even cute perhaps, these little fungi are quite dangerous. They emit spores that could cause various effects ranging from poison, confusion, sleep and more.
Well, our tactic was quite effective which consist of staying away from the spore's range, then bombarding them with ranged attacks. It became a hitch ever since we acted on such strategy, though, it was still hazardous when we are faced with an ambush.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
After finishing up the rest of the mushrooms, we took a break for a bit. What we ate were simply the fruits found from the trees in the surrounding.
Why, you ask? Well, first of all, the chef, me, is currently in a body which is about the same height as a kitchen knife. How on earth am I supposed to cook?
Secondly, the substitute cook's, Vers' creations were... To put it nicely, they were strange. To put it bluntly, those 'food'(as she calls them) were the most vilest poisons I ever saw. Those were, in no way, edible. I could only wonder how such a concoction was made with those ingredients.
We tried feeding it in the surrounding monsters, and it ended up in a horrifying situation. The pitiful creature vomited blood as it charged aimlessly everywhere. When it was too exhausted to move, it gouged out its own eyes, as if begging for its death.
Since then, we had a silent understanding to never let Vers touch any cooking utensil again. Ever.
Other than that, our adventure continued normally until we reached a place where heavy fog clouded the surroundings.
It was a scary atmosphere where we continued on while I sat on Vers' shoulder. If we didn't do so, we could perhaps get separated with how thick the fog was.
Once in a while, ghastly shrieks echoed, which caused Vers to stop in her tracks with cold sweat forming in her forehead.
I tried using wind magic to clear the path but it didn't work at all.
Urging Vers to move on, we walked continuously for some time, our pace in walking hastened gradually until Vers was already running, with me tightly grasping on her clothes.
All of a sudden, her movements stopped for an instant.
Then, we fell.
"Gyaaaaaaaa!" A girlish scream echoed next to my ear. Hearing it with my own voice is really embarrassing.
Anyways, we quickly dropped in altitude, as if we fell down a hole.
No wait, we really did fell down a hole! I looked above only to see a single crevice where light entered. Damn Vers and her carelessness!
The pressure from the drop squeezed me, almost crushing my body. The air became thinner, causing me to feel suffocated. The fall made me dizzy, making my head spin. My eyes blurred slightly, almost reaching unconsciousness.
Ever since some time ago, the loud voice next to me disappeared without my notice. Without anything to grab on, I was free-falling with intense velocity.
Due to my panic, I completely forgot that I was in Vers body, and was able to fly...
Well, I guess this is it. The place where it ends, eh?
My vision turned black as I looked back on my life, with my heart filled with regret.
Moments later, my body experienced pain, as if electricity ran in my body. My whole body was covered by an intense heat accompanied by a painful sensation.
*I guess... This is it for me...* I mournfully thought to myself. I don't know what happened afterwards anymore as everything faded into the deep darkness.
O.O.O.O.O
<...te... ou... me?> A voice... is whispering to me? What is it saying? I, just want to sleep... To be devoured by this silence, by this darkness.
I roughly looked around with my clouded vision. Slowly, as my vision regained its usual functionality, I observed the surrounding, albeit barely due to the blurriness.
I saw a person's silhouette, though a lot smaller than usual. And with that as the source, a flashing light zoomed through the air towards my location.
Various thoughts filled my heads as questions popped up one after another.
Just what on earth us going on?
Most of my queries were answered after my body made contact with the bright, moving light.
'Zzzzaap!'
A nostalgic pain travelled through my body, starting from my chest, spreading into the my limbs and the rest. A slight burning sensation started from my stomach, but was overshadowed by the sheer amount of pain I received.
I was vigorously made awake by the unpleasant sensation. My usual thinking capabilities apparently returned along with my full consciousness. But still, a tingling feeling still lingered on my body, my muscles were also stiffened, causing me to have difficulty with movement.
With my remaining ounce of strength, I glared at my companion. The source of this mess.
"Really... Did'ja hafta wake me up like that?" I said with a grunt. My facial muscles were rather slackened with my semi-paralysis.
The person, or rather, fairy, who just woke me up with three consecutive lightning spells spoke up in an unapologetic tone.
The awkward silence continued on for a while. In the mean time, I made full use of this instance, to recall the situation.
I understood that the thing from before was simply a dream, but as to when the dream started... I have no idea.
Another thing, why on earth would I dream of, of something like that anyways?
My thoughts were cut off by my companion's voice. Apparently, she became uncomfortable by the atmosphere so she was the first to break the ice.
"What...?" Words escaped my mouth subconsciously. I dumbly answered back as I was too out of it.
It took a bit for me to decipher the meaning of her words.
A second later, fuzzy memories entered my mind as I was reminded with the events that transpired.
Me and Vers were traveling westwards, searching for the 'Spooky Graveyard' dungeon. Along the way, we were fighting countless monsters and becoming stronger bit by bit each day.
Just yesterday, after reaching the 'Silent Swamps' dungeon on the way to our destination, we were massacring the inhabitants.
The monsters of this dungeon were mostly slimes and mushrooms. Both had a rather comical appearance with big round eyes covering most of their faces. But unlike what their cute appearance suggests, this little creatures were quite difficult to subdue.
Slimes, like what their names suggests, were slimy. My cards were quite incompatible with them as their membranes stops my attacks before reaching the nucleus, which was their only vital organ. I had no choice but to wastefully use my mana with my abilities to penetrate their thick consistency.
Not only that, this little critters also have the ability to reproduce at an astronomical rate, being capable of separating in seven seconds flat.
On the other hand, though Mushrooms were more vulnerable towards physical attacks, this doesn't mean they were easier to manage. Debuffs of varying effects bombarded me. Poison, slow, paralysis, weakening... Almost all status ailments haunted my body. Good thing they weren't able to make full use of the wind with due to the humid and remote location.
As we continued with our journey, we had an encounter with a rare mob. The King Mushroom. Unlike the regular Mushroom, the King Mushrooms were rather small in stature. Another point is that these type of Mushroom are golden in color, perhaps blindingly so.
Another constitution of this fungi is it's potent spores. The effects vary like other Mushrooms, but the effects were far stronger than normal. They excrete these spores like how skunks releases their gas. Anyhow, they were continuously sought after by Alchemists for their spores and by Chefs for their carcasses, this caused the population of this creature to diminish.
Luckily, or perhaps, unluckily... I made contact with a creature with low probabilities of an encounter. Far lower even when compared with the other rare mob of the dungeon known as King Slime. Anyways, my encounter with the King Mushroom, as expected, didn't end up too well.
I was caught off guard and accidentally inhaled it's spores. It was apparently packed with a potent hallucinogens, illusions so real that it was difficult to distinguish what was real.
"Haa..." I could only sigh at the situation.
Vers glanced at me with a quizzical look so I deliberated for a while before telling her what happened, and apparently, it wasn't my wisest decision as I became her laughingstock for the next few days.
On a side note, every time Vers intended to try cooking, I shot down her request, trying to find any and all excuses I could think of. She would start sulking for some time, but I think it would be for the best. For her, the people surrounding us, and most especially... my stomach. But well, that's a story for another time.
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Author's Note(Grumblings):
Hello.(This is spoken deep and solemn voice)
First off, I truly apologize for the delay. With my writer's block accompanied by a couple of incidents, this release took quite some time.
Anyways, I planned for two side stories for this one, but this story became too long. Just wait for the next volume to finish for another...
As I wouldn't be able to post the second side story here, I'll summarize my idea. Well, if you guys really want to, I guess I could write it after this... But, meh...
The second side story I had in mind was an introduction to a 'Character of the Day', a still unnamed college student focusing on journalism that was assigned to create an article about any topic from inside Royal Road. The college student didn't want any cookie cutter theme so he went around to gather information about some juicy topics. Of course, by a stroke of luck, he started at Fortunas City, and he heard about a man nicknamed 'Monster Gambler'. As an information specialist, he knew about the underground gambling den, and how the people of Fortunas were known for being capable gamblers. According to the rumors, a freedman had swept all the surrounding gambling dens leaving his opponents penniless. And so, the curious student sought after the notorious man. The student stalked him without knowing how much of a 'monster' he actually was. The more the student probed deeper into his mystery, the more of an enigma the gambler appears. Sometimes a hunter, other times a mage, also a warrior or maybe a berserker. A treasure hunter, an adventurer, a summoner, an illusionist... A man of many faces.
Well, in the first place, the second side story was just something intended as a little recap of the previous events, anyhow...
Haa... Any, err... whack? Damn, I can't think of anything else to add after the term 'Any'... Anyways, that's it for now... Like always, please leave a comment on what you think about my work. A review is also great and dandy. Feeding me cookies also help me, but as much as possible, I would love to have milk to couple it with.
That's all for now, BBeLiN signing off.
Toodles!