Magnus sat in his damp crevice after waking up from his slumber in a pool of his blood and feeling like a wet stray dog. The venom mostly subsided but he could still feel a slight burn in his veins.

While still recovering from the venom he pulled his Status from the recesses of his mind. Like earlier it responded instantly. With it floating in his conscious mind he tried spinning it, twisting it, and pulling it apart but nothing seemed to work. He figured it was not made by his mind but by an outside entity. Probably the same one that spoke to him when he gained his [Survivor] Title. It sounded robotic and cold like a system.

“I’ll just call it The System then,” Magnus whispered silently so as not to alert any spiders possibly lurking outside. He would usually be dead silent but talking to himself helped him in stressful situations.

He breathed out as he wondered if he was in this mysterious cave alone or if other people also appeared here.

“No sense in speculating about anything right now. I don’t have the luxury for it,” Magnus figured and started formulating. Just when the pain in his veins completely faded away a beep interrupted his train of thought.

[Quest Offer Received]

Fighting the Corruption I

Goal: Gain the Common Skill [Poison Resistance]

Reward: Common Skill [Identify]

[Do you Accept?]

Magnus’ mind scrambled as he realized it. This cave, this System it wasn’t the afterlife. The last few years of his life after his parent died in the car crash, he was merely surviving. All the happiness, all the drive drained from him. Taken by the cruel arms of fate. He just shuffled about. Moving from place to place. But now with the arrival of the System, he found it. A goal. Even if the Quest seemed simple right now, he figured if there was one there must be more. This cave wasn’t his grave, it was his cradle. A fresh start.

Magnus started laughing heedless of the spiders outside and said,” Yes, I accept.”

Another message rushing into his mind was his answer.

[Quest Accepted. Good luck Awakened.]

He stopped laughing, looked up, and asked,” Wait how do I gain Poison Resistance?”

He hoped it wasn’t gained the way he thought it was, but he figured it was worth a try. Before he could even start to think about killing himself again his stomach grumbled as he realized he hadn’t eaten anything for like 3 days. Living on the streets isn’t a very comfortable occupation after all.

Picking up the knife from where it fell when he passed out, Magnus thought he was lucky he didn’t impale himself on it again. He set out after checking for threats outside his hiding place.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Following the trail of blood, he made when stumbling over to his crevice a few hours earlier. He decided to not return to his shelter later with literal footsteps leading to it for anyone to see.

After a few minutes of sneaking as carefully as he could manage, he found the familiar place of the first fight of his new life. It was here. The disgusting puddle of his and the spider’s blood. The place where he hit his forehead. Everything was here, except the spider.

“Fuck,” Magnus cursed as he urgently started looking around the ceiling while getting into a fighting stance. Although he had the [Danger Sense] Skill it was better to be safe than sorry. Roughly a minute later when no new visible threats showed up, he breathed out a loud breath. His [Danger Sense] screamed that a threat was above him.

Stepping left, he turned right and spotted it. Another spider, but bigger and meaner looking with white stripes running along its body. He smiled knowing he had now that it was grounded and lunged. This spider was not so easily dealt with as the last one. It dodged and Magnus barely managed to follow it with his eyes. The white stripes pulsed iridescently and the spider disappeared. He grimaced

Dropping on his back because his [Danger Sense] was screaming that an attack was coming, he stabbed upwards. He heard a hiss as a spray of blue blood gushed out of the spider’s abdomen, right into his eyes. Blinded, he started getting up only for his [Danger Sense] to scream again. Magnus froze.

The spider tackled him onto the ground and tried to bite into his neck. Throwing out a left hook with his empty hand he deflected the spider’s bite and it instead bit into his left side. While the spider was biting him, he caught its head in place and stabbed it with the knife in his right hand. The spider budged and escaped from his grip at the last second and the knife instead hit its right leg.

Crying out in pain the spider retreated and Magnus managed to finally stand up. He looked into its eight beady eyes and felt nothing but a cold indifference from them. It didn’t care if it died today. Something was weird. Usually, even the simplest lifeforms had a form of self-preservation. A pulsing from the spider brought him back from his thinking.

Not knowing of a better way, he spat the glob of blood pooling in his mouth right as the spider turned invisible again. He hit the dead center of its face, its cold eyes staring at him even through the invisibility.

A burning pain started spreading from his left side as he clutched it with his left hand, his eyes never leaving the floating bloodstain. It rapidly approached from his hurt left side. More used to its speed now he managed to get out of the way. The spider not expecting the dodge stumbled due to its hurt leg and Magnus ferociously threw himself at it. Stabbing and slashing he stopped only after feeling the resistance die out.

Sitting down and ripping up his already ruined jacket he created a shoddy bandage and weaved it around his stomach to slow the bleeding of his left side. The burning pain and telltale tingle of his [Danger Sense] told him that the venom was still in his body. Unluckily the venom felt stronger than last time.

He knew it. If he wouldn’t eat right now the venom wouldn’t be cleansed. After a string of curses, he flipped the dead spider on its back. With his knife, which was looking more and more battered after the 2 fights, he cut a piece of the dead spider’s pink flesh. Seeping out blue blood it didn’t look particularly taste. Well, it wasn't like he had anything better to eat. He bit into the strip of flesh.

Tasting as unappetizing as it looked, he nearly spat it out. He remembered eating rotten food while living on the streets and realized this wasn’t that bad in comparison to that. He swallowed.

Feeling the soft flesh settling down in his stomach, he dropped the rest of the spider flesh out of his hands and started convulsing. Miserable, he figured this wasn’t such a good idea.