Encrypted Message to QualityLife: I’m curious.
Isa spawned back in after saying yes. And she quickly died again.
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING MY ANCESTORS; YOU HAVE DIED… SPAWN AGAIN?
And again.
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING MY ANCESTORS; YOU HAVE DIED… SPAWN AGAIN?
And again.
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING MY ANCESTORS; YOU HAVE DIED… SPAWN AGAIN?
And again.
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING MY ANCESTORS; YOU HAVE DIED… SPAWN AGAIN?
And 54 more times…
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING MY ANCESTORS; YOU HAVE DIED… SPAWN AGAIN?
WAIT! BEFORE YOU SPAWN IN AGAIN, LET ME TALK WITH YOU. WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO MAKE A DEAL.
That was fine with Isa. She had just died 58 times in quick succession.
Isa said, “Okay, I’ll hear you out.”
I HAVE WATCHED YOU IN THIS INSTANCED DUNGEON DIE 58 TIMES, AND YOU KEEP TRYING… WHY? ARE YOU STUPID? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS WHEN YOU CAN LOG OUT AND RE-ROLL A NEW CHARACTER?
Isa hadn't even thought of that. She was playing the game and seeing what it had to offer. Isa said just that.
HAVE YOU NOT GOTTEN TIRED OF DYING YET?
She had
HAVE YOU NOT WANTED TO KILL THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR DEATH?
She had
HAVE YOU NOT WANTED TO SEE ALL THAT THIS GAME HAS TO OFFER?
She did
IF WE MAKE A DEAL, I CAN HELP YOU, AND, IN TURN, YOU CAN HELP ME. WHAT SAY YOU?
What type of deal?
A PALTRY THING, REALLY, JUST THAT YOU WILL HOUSE MY AVATAR IN THIS DUNGEON AND LET ME GROW. IN TURN, THAT WILL LET ME OFFER YOU GREATER THINGS.
At this point, Isa didn't really see a drawback, so she agreed.
GREAT DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU. SEE YOU SOON.
Isa felt a flood of power flow into her body. She decided to open her character stats page.
Name: Isa
Level: 3 Experience: 141/400
Disposition: Neutral
Reputation: Not worthy of thought
Constitution: 1
Vitality: 1
Strength: 1
Wisdom: 50
Intelligence: 50
Endurance: 1
Charisma: 1
Luck: 350
Health: 120/120 Health Regen: 3/s
Mana: 10,000/10,000 Mana Regen: .1/s
Stamina: 110/150 Stamina Regen: .75/s
Woah, Isa's Luck had dropped by 100, and her wisdom and intelligence had gone up to 50. And she had ten thousand mana.
Be Aware: Max Luck is [100]. Your Luck is [350] letting you escape death in the most unlikely scenarios. You’ll step on a proximity mine, and nothing may happen for you, but it will undoubtedly explode for someone… less lucky.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Be Aware: You have been awarded the spell: Glass' Edge. This spell is one of Air and Earth and is Level dependent. To wield this spell, you must be Level [32] in Air magic and Level [13] in Earth magic.
Be Aware: Your level is too low. You are level [0] in Air. However, a specific entity has awarded you this spell. This spell will now be available should you complete this Dungeon for -90% mana cost. Current cost: 300 mana/ use. Cooldown: 15 seconds.
Be Aware: Your level is too low. You are level [0] on Earth. However, that requirement is negated because a specific entity has awarded you this spell.
Be Aware: This entity has lowered your Luck to raise your Wisdom, Intelligence, and Mana reserves for the next playable 90 minutes.
Be Aware: This entity has given you the skill Death's Take. You can now watch your death from every angle in full detail at any speed. Because it was given to you now, all previous playtime will be awarded for inspection. This is a one-time deal. To be specific, we are talking about previous playtime. The skill cannot be taken away. Use your good fortune to your advantage.
What is happening? I didn’t know the game had different levels to magics.
IT DOESN'T… THIS IS METADATA HIDDEN IN THE CODE THAT WASN'T USED. I JUST UNLOCKED A SPELL FOR YOU THAT ONLY THE DEVELOPERS EVER USED. AND DEATH'S TAKE IS AN ORIGINAL SPELL MADE BY YOURS TRULY.
Well, that explained a lot.
Isa was blown away. The power that the nameless entity gave her was incredible and at significant cost. What that boded for Isa, she wasn't sure yet. Isa decided to return to the beginning of being bound to the dungeon and watch her death closely. Isa started by looking at the moment she first entered the instanced dungeon. Isa saw that the first crossbow bolt came at her from the northeast, far from the dungeon start, which meant that they had a long, clear line of sight. Isa reoriented the camera and zoomed in to see her opponent. Man, this thing could come in handy. What she saw surprised her; it was a kobold. She hadn't known what the tracks were of, but she hadn't expected Kobold.
Now that she knew what she was facing, she better knew their strengths and weaknesses; of course, it was all based on how previous games seemed to work. Kobolds could see well in the dark, a lot better than goblins, and were less aggressive than their goblin counterparts. Isa knew what she needed to do to beat them but didn't know if she had the stats, mainly the stealth, to do it. Where was dexterity in this game? I need to know how accurate I can be at a distance.
Be Aware: You have brought up the fact that there is no dexterity in My Ancestors. Because of this, we have decided to add it to your character exclusively. Here is your current character status page:
Name: Isa
Level: 3 Experience: 141/400
Disposition: Neutral
Reputation: Not worthy of thought
Constitution: 1
Vitality: 1
Strength: 1
Wisdom: 50
Intelligence: 50
Dexterity: 20
Endurance: 1
Charisma: 1
Luck: 350
Health: 120/120 Health Regen: 3/s
Mana: 10,000/10,000 Mana Regen: .1/s
Stamina: 112/150 Stamina Regen: .75/s
Be Aware: Vision impaired. 70% impaired.
Be Aware: You are now considered barely disabled. You may jog short distances. Running and jumping are still not available to you.
Isa gasped.
A stat just for myself… I wonder if that makes me more able or less able than others. Only time will tell.
Isa decided to go through the remainder of her death in Death's Take. What she found was both good and bad. There were only kobolds… and there were only kobolds. In groups, they seemed to balance out their weaknesses. And even more interesting is that she saw some of them wore armor.
Like a ranking system?
Once she was done perusing the dungeon part of Death's Take, she decided to take a look at those traps she walked through. She watched herself go through the traps, triggering every single one and somehow came out unscathed. When she was limping through them, a pebble she kicked hit the dart coming at her in such a way it veered behind her, and when she leaned down to smell the food, as she got closer, two more darts flew over her where her neck had been seconds before. The firetrap engaged late and puttered out quickly, and the acid trap came out so slowly that it ate through itself. And throughout this entire experience, Isa had no idea anything was happening. Now that she could see how good her Luck seemed to be, she was confused about why it had been failing her recently.
Maybe it's because I wasn't trying to invoke Luck before, and now I'm trying to rely on it. So, in essence, I need skill, not Luck, when actively doing something. That is if I understand this correctly. So I should look it up on the wiki when I get the chance if there even is one. I mean, we don't even know the developer's name. I do wonder, though, how my Luck has changed since it got lowered by one hundred to supply my increase in intelligence and wisdom.
Isa determined that she was done with everything Death's Take had to offer her. Now she just had to see what she could do with what she learned.
Isa thought about the prompt of whether she wanted to spawn in again and, with a little mental effort, got it to appear. She vocalized that she was ready.
Do I need to vocalize?
The game violently tore her out of Death's Take, and she appeared right where she had every other time she had died. Although ungracefully, Isa rolled to the side towards a stalagmite but avoided the deathly bolt that hit the ground right next to her. Isa took stock of what she had to fight with; she had Glass' Edge, a crossbow and 25 bolts, and a knife. Isa wondered what the range on Glass' Edge was… I guess now is as good of a time as any. She summoned the mana to cast the spell and felt a rush like a dam about to break. And then the mana hit the dam, the dam broke, and the spell was launched out at the kobold ranger, that is what she decided to call them, at Mach two.
Isa watched as it cut through the stalagmite she was hiding behind, which started to slide toward her straight through the kobold, hiding up high and far away. He, Isa, assumed the kobold was a male and was about to fire a bolt at her head, but once he saw the glare of the spell heading toward him freaked out before promptly getting bisected.
The blood of the kobold plastered against the wall behind him, and he slid down onto the cavern floor far below. Isa realized the stalagmite was still sliding toward her and ungracefully stepped out. Isa had to get across this ravine where she had fallen. She looked around and saw a crudely made wooden plank bridge. As she walked toward it, three kobolds crossed the bridge from a blind spot she couldn't see, came into view, and Isa let another sheet of magic fly their way; all three were decapitated.
Then she heard something she never expected in this dungeon, an alarm horn being blown to muster all the kobolds to attack with seemingly, overwhelming force.
Damn… They must've found the first kobold body. I mean, it wasn't a quiet attack.
Isa crept up as close as she could across the bridge. She used the knife as a mirror to see what was over the wall she was hiding behind.
Thank God for a lit dungeon.
What she saw made her breath catch. There must have been a force of over 50 kobolds behind this wall. And all she had was a knife, crossbow, 25 bolts, and her one spell. This was going to be hard, very hard. Isa decided the best way to test her 20 dexterity would be to try to distract rather than attack head-on.
Her chances would go up if she distracted them, right? Isa threw a crossbow bolt over the ravine's edge toward the spot where she killed the crossbowman.
Also, why were kobolds in this lit dungeon? They excel in darkness and are weaker, much weaker, when in the light.
Still utilizing the knife as a mirror, she summoned her mana and shot a spell out from her hiding spot, missing entirely. Isa hadn't accounted for the mirrored effect. Isa immediately moved away as she knew her position was compromised. Her spell just made a lot of noise. The last thing Isa saw before she heard footsteps nearby was a chuck of rock barely hanging on onto the ceiling of the dungeon. Just like she assumed, bolts flew into the wall where she had just been, and the many footfalls became louder.
Isa hazarded a peek and quickly realized her vision was improving. She could barely make out what she assumed were stalactites on the ceiling positioned directly over a majority of the kobolds. Well, they were over a majority of the kobolds. Now they were spread all about searching for her.
Isa waited and waited and waited until, eventually, the kobolds went back to their places around the hastily constructed camp.
This is one of those game-like things. Wait long enough, and the monsters forget you're there. This really does work in my favor.
Isa wondered if she could get Glass' Edge far enough to cut through that stalactite above them or if she'd have to get closer. Isa decided to test it. She cast a Glass' Edge at the stalactite missing by double-digit yards. The kobolds all got up and rounded on her position.
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING MY ANCESTORS; YOU HAVE DIED… SPAWN AGAIN?
4th of March, 2192
Internal Company Memo
Hello all. This is Herald… again. We have searched the company for the employee who may have betrayed us. Security has had no luck finding the person. The company has now decided that we are going to hire an outside security team with an IT specialist to comb through all of the data in this company. Anything that seems out of place will be scrutinized heavily. If you have anything you need to get off your chest about something you did, feel free to email me or come directly to my office. Doing this will protect you from those details that the specialist finds. As the company, we hope to have this go in the least invasive manner possible, but this process is inherently intrusive. The specialist will start with the janitorial staff and work her way up the chain. Her name's Natalie and she is very unorthodox. Stay out of her way, and everything will go as quickly as possible. I hope this goes quickly and we can return to business as usual. Remember to contact me about anything you think I need to know.
Herald, CEO.