Chapter 5

The plan

I stared at the Map and Quest screen window.

“Survive the first room.”

Those words lingered in my mind, overshadowing my memories that were foggy.

Their faces flashing before me, and with them, their power as well.

I glanced over the little skull icon that was flashing on top of one of the square boxes on the map.

If I somehow survive this room, I still had two other rooms to go through. Which meant more quest were sure to come.

“Screen close,” I said, my words closing the window screen in front of me.

I looked at the new skeletons that were walking mindlessly around the room, though not mindlessly, for they were walking around the chest, no doubt tasked with protecting the treasure chest that stood in the middle of the room.

With everything that had happened, I didn’t get the chance to even try to open it and see what was inside. But what I found odd was that in the quest box there was no quest telling me to protect the treasure chest, not even in the other options.

The treasure chest had nothing to do with me, it seemed. But nevertheless, my mission was clear, I was to survive the first room. But how, I was still too weak and despite leveling up, my stats were awful.

“Character screen open,” I said, opening my character screen. They were pitiful, these stats wouldn’t be able to do their job and help me survive this room considering just what I was up against.

Even though this was a beginners room, like that handsome adventurer had said, which meant only beginners would come, or so I would think, but that wasn’t the case. For the first adventurers I had the pleasure of greeting in this game were not low level adventurers at all.

So that meant this room was accessible to anyone. I put my bony hand on my jaw, and looked through my screen at each skeleton. I could try to take on these skeletons, since it was obvious I could hurt them despite being on the same side, I think, not that I was sure we were on the same team. But even if I attacked them, I would probably fail, despite their low levels, they were more of them than me, so that wasn’t an option.

“Character screen close,” I said, my words making the screen window close.

I got up from the corner I was sitting and walked to one of the walls were the door had appeared, but there was no sign of any door. There was nothing but rows of stones on the wall, a closed room with four walls and nothing but skeletons and a mysterious treasure chest inside.

Maybe I could try to make the door appear, I mean, the game clearly responded to my voice commands, somehow.

“Door open,” I said, touching the wall, and to my surprise, we'll not really, but it did surprise me that something happened.

“Error, does not meet requirements for that action,” a text box appeared in front of me telling me that if there was a door , or gate here, I couldn’t open it quite yet.

“Text box close,” I said, making the text window close. If this was a game, could I try logging off? I told myself, half-jokingly.

“Log off,” I said,

“Error, action can't be process.” A window appeared in front of me.

I stood back, startled, this was really a game, and somehow, I was stuck inside of it. But how? And why? A million questions ran through my head. If I was in a game, how did I end up here? And, what did it mean? My memories were so foggy like a mist looming over them, distorting everything.

I couldn’t remember anything, except for one thing, I was sure I had played this game already, there was a certain familiarity about this scenario, If only I could remember.

I sat down on the floor, and glanced at the treasure chest in front of me, and the skeletons that were walking around it. There was no point in cracking my skull trying to remember something I couldn’t. Besides, now was not the time for that, right now the most important mission that I needed to worry about was surviving this room and not dying.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Not that I was scared of dying, for clearly I was inside a game, but that didn’t mean I wanted to experience that feeling again.

That cold, icy wave of fear, like a hand chocking me and making my life leak out of me as if I was being squeeze like a sponge.

Just thinking about it made my bones crawl with anxiety. This might have been a game , but that feeling wasn’t.

That feeling was as real as this world I found myself in.

And if I was to returned back , I had to survive this room and whatever else might come my way.

I might not know how I got here, but I still needed to survive to get home, even if there was nothing waiting for me… No, I can’t think about that right now, I need all my brain power to come up with a plan to survive this room.

I got up from the floor, shaking off any doubt and fear like a dog with a bad case of pesky fleas.

“Character screen open,” I said.

My voice had a certain determination that wasn’t there before.

The key to surviving this room was through leveling up, and the only way to do that was to kill another skeleton or perhaps four. Yet, even If I wanted to kill them all, I couldn’t take all four of them at once if they all decided to attack.

I went back to my character window and reread each stat again, not sure of what I was looking for, but something in me was telling me to look.

“Strength is a measure of how physically strong a character is, it determines the amount of damage attacks do .” I went over the strength stat as well as the other stats I had: Vitality, Endurance, Agility, and Intelligence.

I stopped at the Intelligence stat, despite the extra experience increased that came with the intelligence stat were nulled, it still was my best stat.

But the question was; how can I use it.

I wasn't quite sure, so I skipped over it for now.

“Presence, a measure of a characters social skills, influence and presence,” I read. Clearly these stat had to do with charisma, and as someone who was not very charismatic, this stat felt foreign to me.

But yet, somehow, something was brewing in my head. Must be that good old intelligence stat working, I joked, and continued to reread my stats again.

“Wisdom controls a characters ability to cast spell,” well that’s useless since I have no spells,

“As well as allows communication with mystical entities or discern a characters motive and feelings.”

The gears, or should I say bones , in my head began to spin.

“Stat window close,” I said.

I walked toward one of the skeletons and stood in front of him, not really sure why, but I just did it anyway. He didn’t seem to mind, for he stopped on his tracks, his dark features staring mindlessly into the abyss that was the darkness in this room, overlooking the fact that I was blocking his path.

“Character info open,” I said, and a character window appeared in front of the skeleton, and along with it, a bell sound came.

“ New window screen has been unlocked : NPC monster info screen.”

“Lvl 5 Skeleton, HP 17 MP 0

Str 5

Vit 3

End 1

Agi 1

Int 0

Pre 0

Wis 0” it read, his stats were worse than mine, despite being a higher level than me, he was worse in all of his stats except in strength. He also had no ego or luck stat , which I found odd.

But the stat that really caught my hollow eyes was the intelligent stat, It was at zero. There was also a box of text to the right of him,

“A mindless undead, susceptible to mind effects and immune to curses. “ it read. The words susceptible to mind effects began to flash in my mind, as if a big neon sign was trying to catch my attention. They were , as the description said, mindless drones.. can I…

I checked every skeleton , creating character windows to appear in front of them, and each of them had zero in their intelligence, wisdom and presence stats.

“A mindless undead, susceptible to mind effects and immune to curses.”

Those words: “susceptible to mind effects”. We're flashing in my mind like a big neon sign, luring me to it like moths to a flame.

They're faces all looked hollow, and empty, and it wasn’t just the fact that they were skeletons. It was as if the description of mindless drones really fitted them.

“Character window open,” I said, creating my window to open, my eyes running to the wisdom stat,

“Ability to cast spells, communicate to mystical entities and..” I stopped, going over the other stat that was going to make this plan work,

“Presence measures a character’s social skills and influence.”

Yes, that could work.

I had my plan now I….

Damn it! I shouted, I had already spend my tree extra points, Shit! How did I forget such a glaring problem.

I was so caught up in the process of trying to make a plan that I forgot about that huge problem.

Shit!

I wanted to scream and destroy everything in sight for some reason.

I didn’t know why but a feeling of anger took over me, scaring me.

The only way I could get more stat points was through leveling.

I wanted to grab my sword and shield and attack the other skeletons and get it over with.

My plan had collapse before it had a chance. I should not have been so quick to spec into strength, vitality and endurance.

This scenario needed brains not brawns.

I walked to one of the dark corners of the room and sat down like a sulking child.

Which was nothing like me. I would never do that, yet….

Now what.. is not like I could just respect my stat points.

"No, don’t give up," I tried to tell myself, trying to cheer myself up.

There had to be a way, I just needed to figure it out. If I could figure out how to close these damn pop-up windows, I could figure out this slight set back.

“Gear screen open,” I looked at my stats, there were plus and minus signs next to some of the stats, I reached and press the minus button. But nothing happened, which I kind of expect it, for that would have been too easy.

There must be a way, and is not like me just saying the word re-spec is going too..

“Re-spec,” I said sarcastically, a text box appeared before my hollow eyes.

“Would you like to respec your skills ? YES/ NO.”

It had worked, somehow. I wanted to run up to one of the skeletons and wrapped my bony arms around him to celebrate luck being on my side.

But now was not the time for that, especially considering what I was thinking of doing with them.

I looked to my sides and thankfully, there was no door magically appearing just yet, I had time for my plan, and the last thing I needed was pesky adventurers getting in my way.

This plan was the key to completing my first mission, but it could also cost me my life.

If me getting lucky by killing that skeleton and not getting caught by those adventurers had created a lucky event that had allow me to level up, I could also create an unlucky scenario and…. I didn’t want to think about it.

“ Can be increase and decrees through actions. “

Those words ran through my head.

Luck had gotten me another level, and luck would get me another one as well , and another one, and another one, as many as I needed.