Well, he wasn’t going to waste this chance. Dante had spent long enough taking stock, it was time to get moving. He rose from his seated position and began scanning his surroundings.
Now that he had a chance to look more closely at it, this trench was much more well appointed then he had originally thought. It was formed of an oddly smooth stone colored the same mud brown that everything was here was. There were crenelations at the top, a ridge along the outward facing wall where one could step up to be head level with ground, and a channel at the bottom where the constant rain collected in a fast flowing trickle. It was marred only by infrequent cracks that increased towards the rightmost section, which twisted out of sight. After glancing around the corner, Dante realized that the entire trench wounded back and forth like a snake.
He walked over to the outward facing wall, stepped up, and peaked over. Facing him was where the barrage of that magic had come from and behind him was the barrier shield. The trench appeared to run a straight line between the two sides, though he was substantially closer to the shield.
Which likely meant that this entire trench system was made by the barrier side.
Maybe there would be some other side-passages that would lead towards that barrier? If Dante had to choose one of the two sides it would be the one that hadn’t tried to kill him yet, however accidental. One thing was certain, he was going to stay inside of the limited protection of these trenches as long as he could.
But before that, his attention drifted down to the corner of his vision where he had just noticed a blinking mail icon. It was nearly straight out of an MMORPG interface. Whatever made all of this has to have taken inspiration from Earth. It’s just too much of a coincidence.
With a thought, it expanded and text appeared in front of his vision.
[Enhanced Senses] has advanced to Level 2.
[Split Second Reactions] has advanced to Level 2.
[Warding Flesh] has advanced to Level 2.
[Warding Flesh] has advanced to Level 3.
Well, that was an unexpected although welcome surprise. Given what Dante had just experienced, he was going to need every advantage just to survive. He honestly had not noticed when these abilities helped him. Although, there was that one moment when he had first spotted the spell that had seemed to last abnormally long … And he had spotted the spell before it hit him too … Perhaps they were passively helping him?
Dante opened his character sheet and frowned as immediately noticed a few differences.
Name: Dante Embry
Race: Human
Class: Unclassed
Level: 1
Attributes
Alacrity 9 Endurance 14 (17)
Charisma 6 Fortitude 15 Cognition 13 Perception 9 Constitution 15 Strength 7 Dexterity 12 Willpower 14
Skills
Brawl (Common)
2 Deception (Common)
1 Lock Picking (Uncommon)
4 Logic (Rare)
4 Menial Labor (Common)
3 Sleight of Hand (Uncommon)
1 Stealth (Uncommon)
2
Abilities
Chameleon (Rare)
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
1 Sharpen Senses (Uncommon)
2 Split Second Reaction (Rare)
2 Warding Flesh (Unique)
3
Traits
Fickle Fate (Unique)
MAX Human Tenacity (Racial)
4
He had rarities now? That would have been much more useful back when he was picking abilities … though the current ones did just keep him alive he couldn’t be too unhappy. Dante even had two Uniques, which he supposed meant that he was the only one who had them? Usually rarer was better so that was something. Dante frowned as a thought struck him
Then why had [Warding Flesh] been so cheap?
That wasn’t even the only mystery, his endurance had a 17 next to it. Was he getting boosted by something? Also, that same mysterious number had apparently followed him to this new life. Dante was all out of guess for what that could be. Just what did it mean that it was redacted?
There was a muffled BOOM, much closer than he would have liked, and a few of the cracks in the stone of the trench yawed a little wider and water began leaking from them. Dante sheepishly closed his status. That was getting to be a bad habit. He promised himself not to check it again until he was safe.
Dante began to shuffle down the trench, cradling his limp arm, and peaked cautiously around that first corner. Two empty sockets peaked out of a ghastly visage just inches away from his face and he yelped. Instinctively, he punched the grinning skull with his good hand.
The jaw bone came loose and bounced across the ground with a rattling sound and Dante realized that he was facing a weather worn skeleton. The corpse swayed and he realized that the skeleton had been pinned to the wall via the broken shaft of a spear that had been driven through its chest. Aside from that, there was no further movement. It was just a corpse.
Dante sagged against the wall and took a few deep breaths to try and calm his racing heart. After everything he had been through in these few short minutes, for some reason this had unnerved him the most. Perhaps the situation was catching up to him or maybe it was because it was a stark reminder of what awaited him if he messed up. Hell, he had probably left a corpse just like that not too long … which is something that he definitely should not be thinking about right now.
He studied the corpse, hoping that he could glean something from it that could distract him from such musings.
Well, Dante supposed it was confirmation enough that there were humans in this world. At least it looked pretty human to him. Which meant that the barrier people likely had humans amongst their ranks, so he wouldn’t stand out so much. It was pretty likely that this was a soldier given its rusted chest piece, ripped quilted jacket, and stained baggy pants. It had the look of a uniform, though certainly not anything he recognized. It kind of reminded him of the Swiss guard, though with muted colors.
Dante looked at his shivering and naked body, then at the corpse. He noted that the clothes appeared waterproof, mostly whole, and only a little soaked in … juices. Dante tried not to think about that while removing the soldier’s boots.
It’s either this or freezing to death. Whoever this was certainly wasn’t using it anymore.
Dante was able to get the boots and pants off easily enough and gave them a quick rinse in the channel in the bottom of the trench. Pulling them on, Dante found that they were large on him but was able to repurpose the shoelaces as a belt. The main trouble came when he attempted to get the shirt and coat off, as they were pretty firmly kept in place by the spear. Dante attempted to pull the spear out of the stone but it didn’t even move. Eventually, he just pulled the skeleton itself off the spear and found It was much lighter than expected. As he was setting the body down onto the ground, he noted that the spear head was fully submerged in the stone along with an indeterminate amount of shaft.
Whoever had done this, they were far stronger than anything mortal.
Dante cleaned the coat and undershirt the best he could before suppressing a wretch putting them on. It had not been enough, these clothes absolutely reeked and he did his best to not breath through his nose. While not exactly warm at the moment, he was at least protected from the wind. He was honestly surprised that he was not worse off, usually this level of exposure would have crippled him by this point. Perhaps this was his new constitution and fortitude score at work?
He inclined his head towards the nameless soldier as walked past and muttered a quick, “Thanks,” before he was on his way. Then he was off down those coiling halls, keeping an eye out for any turns that would lead closer to the barrier. Which he did find almost immediately. Almost entirely too many in fact.
They came quite regularly in pairs and were slanted with respect to the primary trench. Without exception they were all very short, only a few dozen feet. Dante imagined that it made the trench system look like a zipper from above.
He could not fathom why these trenches had been built this way, but it was very frustrating for him. Anyone's spirits would drop the hundredth they looked down an intersection only to find yet another dead end. Which is not to say that Dante had not found other things between the intersections, but they were equally useless.
Nearly all of the exceptions turned out to be underground rooms, only one of which was not entirely collapsed. It was also empty aside from a few empty and cobwebbed crates. The floor was also submerged in a few inches of water. There were no other passages from the room, so he continued on.
The only other notable thing that he found was the entrance way to what he was pretty sure was an underground tunnel of some sorts. It was hard to tell, as it was nearly entirely collapsed save for a small hole at the top that he could hardly fit the flat of his hand through. Looking through it revealed nothing but darkness and loose stones, so that way was likely a no go.
It was hard to keep track of time in the constant downpour that showed no sign of stopping, but Dante was sure that it had been a few hours since he first came here. Aside from that first body that he had come across, he found no other corpses. In fact, it was quite eerie just how little was in these trenches.
No tools, no other furniture, not even trash. It was utterly cleaned out, giving the entire space a near liminal feel. It was grating on Dante’s nerves.
He continued on through trenches that were quickly all starting to look the same aside from one key difference. It seemed like they were becoming more and more ruined as he traveled on. Some sections had partially collapsed, leading to a flood of soil that he had been forced to scramble over. Which led him to this moment, where he was now facing an utterly blocked section in front of him. Before, there had always been at least a little space or the collapsed portion wasn’t quite flush with ground level.
Neither case was true here, it was a dead end.