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World: MSS - Loading...
"Speech"
"Thoughts"
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I only realized I had blacked out because I had to open my eyes.
“Right. I was fighting the Dokkaebi.”
The corpse was in front of me, just the way I had left it.
“And I won.”
The sense of survival was exhilarating, almost enough to make me forget the pain that my body was in. But not quite. I turned my head slowly, looking at the wound on my shoulder. The skin was all but gone, either torn off or eaten by the monster. If I had one thing to be thankful for, it was that the Dokkaebi's teeth had been razor sharp, each bite mark looked surgical compared to what I had done to his face. I tried to move my arm and had to fight through the pain, slowly testing it out.
“I’m lucky I had the shield. At least I still have the other arm left.”
There was a hissing sound in front of me and I saw that the Dokkaebi's body was dissolving. It broke apart into little bits of bluish-green light and floated upwards, disappearing when it touched the ceiling. Eventually the body was gone and in its place was a small dagger and 5 coins.
“Fuck.” I let out a little laugh.
“There’s no system window but there’s still loot.” I couldn’t make up my mind on whether this was a world similar to MSS or the actual videogame MSS.
In MSS, you had two options after slaying a monster. You could dissect the body yourself and break it down for monster parts. Or you could leave it as it was, the body yielding coins, equipment. The only exception to this rule was when the monster body turned into a Spirit Core, in which case either parts or equipment would drop randomly. I got to my feet, careful not to put any weight on my right arm while standing up. I tried to figure out my current situation.
“If the body dissolved then I probably was out for less than a minute. Any longer and I wouldn’t have been able to see it happen.”
I felt my lips press together into a grimace.
“Someone could definitely have heard what happened and come over to investigate. The last thing I need is someone seeing me in this state.”
Working quickly, I picked up the dagger, my fallen sword and the coins. I went over to the animal carcass but just like I had feared, it was beyond saving. Still, just in case I picked up a piece that looked like its ribs. The innards were still clinging to it but I was desperate and took it with me. Instead of moving away entirely, I rounded the corner and waited to see if anyone would show. I started counting, making the random decision that if no one showed up by 600, I would relax.
It wasn’t until I counted well past 1000 that I took a deep breath and sat on the ground.
“First things first.”
I looked at the rib meat, imagining that MSS had been friendly enough to give me an [Analyze], [Identify] or something similar that would summon a blue box with descriptions.
“Rabbit Rib Meat. Safe for consumption.” I said to myself, my voice cracked and hoarse.
Now that I thought about it, this was a different body. Would my voice be different now?
“Ah. Ah, ah ah.”
I couldn’t detect any changes and it wasn’t like I had anyone to ask. I turned my attention to the meat and brought it close to my nose, taking a whiff. Nothing really stood out to me but it did nothing for my natural aversion to consuming raw mystery meat. I closed my eyes, trying to convince myself.
“It’ll be fine. You made your characters eat raw things in dungeons all the time. The only thing that happened was that their morale went down. This is MSS. It’s the same thing, you’ll be fine.” Before I could change my mind I took a small bite off a hanging piece.
I gagged as a pungent metallic odor flooded my sinuses. The more I chewed, the tougher it got. I gave up on chewing it and just swallowed it. I repeated the process with a couple of more bites, chewing it just enough times for it to be mushy to not get caught in my throat. I didn’t realize I was cold but eating started to warm me up. The heat started from my stomach and spread throughout my body.
Warm and feeling full, my eyes felt the pull of sleep. It would be foolish to fall asleep here, especially because people could be coming over to investigate.
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“I’m so close to the entrance though. Maybe just a few minutes.”
When I woke up, the magic stones in the walls had dimmed.
“These magic stones must be linked to the sun somehow.” I had often seen dungeons in MSS that imitated the day and night cycle of the sun.
I moved my arm around, feeling much better than it did before I went to sleep. Moving quickly I got up. If these really were Day Stones, that meant it was night outside.
“So I spent a couple of hours sleeping. Not too bad.” I made sure everything I had was in order, tucking the dokkaebi dagger into my pants waistband. I retrieved my sword, staring at it.
“Next time, one strike. I won’t hesitate.” I sheathed the sword and continued down the tunnels.
That was day one.
On day two, I encountered another Lesser Dokkaebi.
This time I snuck up on it right after it finished sucking the blood off of its fingers and grabbed the furry animal. I didn’t hesitate this time and the battle was over quickly. However, one of the worst things about stabbing them in the neck was that it gave the creature some time to struggle. It also gave me a front row seat to see life drain out from its eyes. I tried not to think about it too much.
The raw meat went down easier than it had before.
On day three I didn’t encounter anything. I simply walked aimlessly through the tunnels. Since there were no more forks in the road, all I had to do was go straight. Unfortunately I didn’t see any Lesser Dokkaebi nor the small furry creatures they fed on. I began to doubt whether I was going the right way, or whether my sense of time was way off and that a week had already passed.
“No. Focus on what you can do for now and that’s going down this tunnel. It’s only day three. You can make it.”
Now it was finally day four and I felt the gnawing worry growing, feeding on my fears and uncertainties. Still, I had to press on. There was nothing else that I could do. The only other option was to just sit here and accept my fate.
“No. I’m going to live.” I picked up the pace.
Clang.
I stopped, thinking I heard something.
Clang. Clang clang.
The sound of metal hitting metal.
Something was up ahead.
I didn’t want to rush into the situation unprepared. I lowered my body and walked close to the walls. Luckily it was nighttime right now and the stones had dimmed considerably. I stuck to the shadow, making my way down. The sounds grew louder and I heard yells going up ahead. There was actually light blazing out from the end of the tunnel. If I approached too quickly, I could have been blinded, so I crept.
I saw that the entrance opened up into a large chamber and thankfully the opening was high up. That means I wouldn’t have to walk into the actual chamber to see what was going on, I already had a bird’s eye view from where I was.
“Taking the ladder was the right choice.” I felt a small sense of victory.
Still, I didn’t want to take any chances. I got down on my stomach and crawled to the opening, peeking out at what was happening below.
The chamber was large, reminding me of my middle school auditorium. There were two groups that were fighting. A group of Lesser Dokkaebis and a group of slaves, most of their faces familiar. I saw a sturdy dwarf swing his greataxe and cut into the torso of one of the monsters. But a second later, another Dokkaebi snuck up behind the dwarf and smashed him over the head with a wooden club. Already I saw corpses littering the floor of the chamber, belonging to both people and monsters.
Some of the Lesser Dokkaebis abandoned their crude wooden clubs, picking up the weapons of the fallen. The ones who picked up a spear or mace didn't fare well, their bodies were too unbalanced to use those effectively. Actually even the wooden club looked less effective than just using their claws and teeth. But some of the dokkaebis had managed to pick up daggers and shortswords, using them to devastating effect. As more and more bodies fell, the monsters were gaining an edge.
“GODDAMMIT! FALL BACK! FALL BACK!”
One of the larger prisoners, a bear beastman by the looks of it, waved the other slaves back. I saw the slaves beat a hasty retreat, a few more of them falling in the process. They all piled around one large entrance and ran into it.
“Gii! Ree! Ree!” The group of dokkaebi did not follow.
They threw their arms up in the air and started to celebrate, dancing and feasting on the corpses of both their own and the slaves. I saw one of the wretched little things claw apart the stomach of its own kind, picking up the intestine greedily, slurping it up.
I wanted to throw up.
I studied the chamber a bit more and realized there were numerous other openings all on the same side that I was on, albeit on ground level. Then on the opposite side was a single doorway.
“All the entrances lead to this one spot. Or maybe just a number of them lead here.” I finally understood what the orcs wanted.
The orcs only wanted slaves who were able to get through this tribe of Dokkaebi. I wouldn’t be too surprised if there were multiple monster nests in the tunnels, with different tunnels leading to them. Then each group would have to fight their way out, this would be the final test. However, from what I just saw, it seemed impossible. There were too many Dokkaebis down there. They had outnumbered the slaves at least 2-to-1.
“If one of the Slaves had a Spirit Core, maybe we’d stand a chance.” I shook my own head. “No. If they had a Core, they’d be an adventurer or a soldier. I doubt the orcs captured adventurers or soldiers as prisoners. Not like they’d be so easily captured anyways.”
I kept on studying the chamber. The monsters had settled down now and most of them were napping, the others grooming themselves by licking the blood off of themselves.
“Of course we’re outnumbered. Some of those slaves probably killed each other before realizing we’ll have to work together to get through this entrance.” I sighed as more of the puzzle pieces clicked into place. “They reduced the numbers through infighting then further again by the monsters. Those fuckings orcs. If they just told us or-”
I stopped my line of thinking right there.
It was pathetic.
There was no point in blaming the slaves or the orcs, nothing would change about my situation. The things I had to do, the things I could do, those were what I had to focus on.
“MSS never throws you into a situation that’s impossible. There's always a way out. Always a secret to be exploited.”
I crawled away from the tunnel entrance and spread my belongings on the ground. I had 12 copper coins, my sword, shield and the 2 daggers I got from the Dokkaebis.
“Think. What else is in this cave that I could use?”
I could go back and try the other routes that I did not take. They seemed to lead to the lower levels, perhaps I could luck out and come upon an easier monster nest or one that was already slaughtered. There was always the chance that I missed something on the way here, some kind of plant or tool.
“No. That’s going to take too long. Besides, I didn't see a single plant on the way here.”
There was nothing else in these tunnels. It was just me and these tools.
The magic stones dimmed, signaling that it was night time.
At the same time a lightbulb went off in my head.
I took the daggers from the Dokkaebis and started chipping away at the rock around the magic stone. I had tried when I first entered the tunnels but my tools had been too weak then. This wouldn’t be the first time you had to kill a monster and utilize its drop to gain an advantage in the dungeon. Most [Special Fields] required-
My thoughts stopped as the magic stone popped out of the wall and into my cupped hand.
I had a plan.