Quill slowly awoke, much to his annoyance, feeling like he was just hit by a bus as a bunch of screens flashing in front of his face.
Ailment- Fatigue (medium)
Ailment- Bloodloss (weak)
Dodge has leveled up to lvl 3
Dodge has leveled up to lvl 4
Pseudo energy manifestation has leveled up to lvl 2
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill “Survival instincts” (Uncommon)
Sometimes to survive a situation one needs to let go and go of their ego and act on instinct.
Quill groaned and tried to sit up to take stock of his situation. He couldn’t quite remember how he got to the break room but he was here now which obviously meant he managed to survive. Real freaking lucky this station even had a break room too. He was kind of kicking himself for not properly thinking his excursion through the tunnels properly.
“Heyyy~ Glad to see you are up and awake now. How are you feeling” Her voice sounded in his head, being the usual happy chipper self but with a slight tinge of worry he noted.
“Oh course I was worried you numb nut! Do you realize how close you were to dying there! I mean, obviously I knew you would survive but that didn’t mean I wasn’t getting anxious. Plus I hate seeing my personal cutie being in so much stress and pain. Or at least with so much stress and pain that I don’t have direct control over.”
He only managed to let out a grunt as he felt like talking would take too much of his precious energy, plus she could just read his thoughts if she wanted to.
“Sure I can read your thoughts but it's more personal if you talk out loud to me. Makes me feel special.”
Quill sent a mental acknowledgement back to her which elicited a small grumble on her part before he painfully shuffled his way towards the bathroom. After relieving himself he made his way to the sink and finally got a look at his appearance.
He was covered in dried out blood. Since he still had his enhanced eyesight on he could see several fading scars all over his skin where wounds had likely been which made him concur that all the dry blood covering him was indeed his.
“You might want to wash this stuff off. While nothing happened, there was quite a bit sniffing at the door while you were passed out. The rats likely know something is in here that they can eat. It will be only a matter of time before they try to break in. Best to remove any incentive for them to come in earlier rather than later.” she responded to his observation.
Quill nodded and began to slowly wash himself off using the bathroom sink “I take it this is what happens when you overuse that energy manifestation thing? I know what you said before but actually experiencing it is very uncomfortable to put it mildly.” he decided to speak since she preferred it, though his voice came off gravelly, like he had just spent the past 4 hours talking non stop.
Her voice became more chipper at hearing him speak out loud to her. “Seeing is believing right? Honestly you pushed yourself beyond what I thought was possible. Hehehe. I knew you were special but you really know how to surprise a gal in the best way possible.”
He couldn't help but let out a small laugh that turned into a small cough. He wasn’t sure his exes would agree with such a statement.
“Who The Fuck Are Your Exes?!”
“Huh?” Quill was snapped out of his musing and stopped washing himself at the sudden harsh tone that came from her
Her throat suddenly cleared “Sorry, can get a little territorial. You know how I can be sometimes. Just ignore that part”
Did he know how she could be? “But-”
“Shhh. Cutie, just ignore that. It doesn’t matter anyways. You need to keep cleaning yourself anyway, unless you want this somewhat safe room to turn into a battle zone.”
He shook his head trying to clear some of the fatigue that was clouding his mind. She was right as per usual. He had far more pressing concerns and should focus on the task at hand.
It took maybe a couple hours to clean all the blood off of him. Or at least most of it off his body. His clothes were totally ruined and the leather armor he had put on was pretty badly stained with his blood no matter how much he tried to wash it.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Well, on the bright side I feel more clean. Though I should probably stay as far as I can from the doors.”
He finally exited the bathroom and made his way towards the vending machine. He noted how it seemed to have the exact same food stuff as the other one. In fact the whole room seemed to be a carbon copy of the one he had back in the previous station.
“I wonder if all the stations will look the same. I noticed that there was another platform in this station meaning it has two like mine. Do you know?”
“No idea.”
“I thought you said you knew a lot about the system?” he countered, the fatigue he was feeling adding some slight annoyance that he felt bad for instantly.
“I know some, but more just how the system thinks. Not really all the nitty gritty stuff. Besides, it's unimportant anyways. You should eat, rest, and just focus on recovery. I am sure that monster killed a bunch of the rats in this station but there will certainly be more to kill. We need to get you another level or two with a strong focus on maybe getting that pseudo energy manifestation to level up. We do not want another repeat with the tunnels and the faster you can move down them the better.”
“Agreed” He took out the daggers from their sheaths and stabbed the glass of the vending machines. He then liberated some of his more favorite snacks and sat in the bathroom and ate. It wasn’t comfortable but it was probably the furthest away from the door to the station as he could make it.
“So I am curious. Kinda obvious that things will have changed quite considerably once you get out of this tutorial dungeon. What do you plan to do when you get out?”
“I haven’t really given it much thought. Most of our energy has been spent on trying not to die, you know?” Quill responded. Confused as to the sudden inquiry.
She let out a giggle at the word “our” that somehow felt more menacing then cute, before responding “Yeah yeah. Well you are plenty good at not dying already. Pretty sure most would have died if they were in your position, and that's not counting you failing to kill yourself with the trains. So what do you want to do when you leave?”
“Again, Haven’t given it much thought.” he responded, rubbing his head.
“So don’t think dumb dumb. First thing that pops into your head. Go!”
He paused ever so slightly and spoke with some hesitance. “I guess it would be nice to see Aurora Borealis. It's been a dream of mine since I was a kid.”
“Really? Don’t get me wrong. Nice goal to work towards. Just never would have pegged you for such a simple goal.”
There was a longer pause at that comment with a small frown forming on his face. He then spoke, choosing his words carefully. “I like nature stuff, what can I say? And if I can see something cool or pretty in nature then why wouldn’t I go and see it? I’ve grown up in a city my whole life and to be quite frank. Fucking hated it. If I had to choose between staring at a tree or staring at a skyscraper all day. I’d chosen a tree. Plus, if I am going to be stuck in a bunch of tunnels for 120 days, then I am going to be really craving to see some open sky.”
“Hehe~. No need to get so defensive. I like it. Alright then, when we get out of here. Let’s go and find ourselves an Aurora Borealis!”
Quill smiled a little at that. Perhaps it was a good idea to have a goal to look forward to when he got out of here. It kinda did help his mentality a bit. Plus there was another cause for celebration. He had hurt that horror thing by chopping off one of its hands. It wasn’t much but damn did it feel good to hurt something that was trying to kill you and was beyond your capabilities.
He spent the next few hours eating, sleeping, and trying to circulate the energy he had through his body to hopefully get better at it. He had noticed that it did take time to conjure his energy up into reality. The larger and more complex the stuff he manifested were, the longer it would take to make. The hope was that if he got better at moving his energy around his body he would then get better at manifesting it out in the real world.
Thankfully this energy circulation stuff wasn’t overly difficult with giving him a pleasant feeling. However it seemed that just manifesting outside of him was going to cause negative effects as he briefly tried having a small wisp of it come out of his fingertips only to instantly feel nauseous with another headache brought on.
“Yeah, I’d hold off on doing that manifestation stuff for a little bit if I were you unless it is an emergency. At least wait till you recover fully. But you can absolutely keep playing around with it while it's inside your body. Nothing bad should happen there.”
“Nothing bad huh. Is there any real point in playing around with the energy inside my body then or is it just more for shits and giggles” he asked
“Shits and giggles. It will definitely help with improvements but it will be pretty slow going. Plus I like it when you play around with it~”
There was a long pause given the tone she used with that last sentence “Why do you like it?” he asked, almost afraid of the answer.
“Awwww. It’s so cute when you act stupid. You already know the answer~”
“The energy is you, isn’t”
“Well part me, part you. Kinda complicated that I will not bore you with the explanation for now. All you really need to know is.” Her voice suddenly changed to a much more sexual tone “Please keep playing with me~ Oh! I love it so much!”
Quill instantly stopped what he was doing in shock and if he could outwardly glare at her he would, which earned an immense amount of laughter from her that probably went on for several minutes.
“Oh come on! That was funny! The look on your face as it became as red as a tomato was absolutely priceless!”
“Please don’t do that again.”
“I make no promises~.”
He stopped playing around with the energy inside his body as the mood was kind of ruined but he put some thought into what she said.
It was then heard the faintest of sniffing and some minor scratches against metal, his enhanced hearing picking up the sound coming from the break room and he could only guess that it was a rat checking out the room.
He certainly wasn’t feeling well enough to use his energy manipulation but he did have two daggers he could try to work with. Though if he was being totally honest he wished he had something with longer reach.
He also knew he needed to level up. And level up plenty. So long as it wasn’t an adult sized rat. He should be able to handle it without too much issue. And hey, maybe some exercise will do his body some good.