What the hell was up with that abrupt transition. One second he is talking to Alvin and the next he is back to standing on the top floor of the library. Luckily, Carter was leaning on a table when he was initially transported, so when he was brought back he had something to help him balance. Wait, was I transported? Alvin said that all of that was in my head, so did my body actually go there or was it more like a dream? What was it that Alvin said right before I was sent back oh so unceremoniously? Carter's head was abuzz with whats, hows, and whys. Pulling out a chair from the table he was leaning on, Carter plopped his ass in it and tried to get his head on straight.
'Dungeons..?' Carter could not help but puzzle over Alvin's final comment. It felt like Alvin was about to tell him something really important but then BANG he is back here. Pushing it to the back of his mind, Carter had more important things to do. The world was currently going through an apocalyptic event and his wife was a few miles away alone in the house. Getting himself together he glanced down at his watch. His digital watch that Catherine had gotten him for his birthday was completely shot, pulling out his phone he found it to be completely dead. 'Fuck give a guy a break man, whats going on with everything...' The best thing he could come up with was when The Conglomerate activated it's system it fried his devices.
Glancing out the windows he could not tell much difference outside so he figured that not too much time had passed outside and he still had time to get to his house before shit hit the fan. Getting to his feet he made his way back to the stairwell. Putting his hand out to trun the handle to the door... bang... he walked straigt into the door. It wouldn't budge and inch no matter how hard he pushed or pulled.
Notice!!! Dungeon floor must be cleared before you can move to the next floor. Number of Mobs Remaining: 1
The amount of thoughts going through Carter's head was crippling. 'What does it mean dungeon... no... this is the library...' Carter was suddenly very aware of how alone he was and how much noise he had just made trying to get through the door. Feeling his adrenaline kicking in, Carter's whole body felt like it had been dropped into a tub of ice water as he crouched down and rushed to the nearest table. 'Think man, think, what do you know about dungeons...' It seemed to Carter that he sat behind the table for hours thinking up all of the information that he knew about the dungeons he had played in. Unfortunately for him, he had play so many games with such a variety of themes and designs that he could not be sure that what he was thinking of was applicable to this situation. 'Ok lets go over what we know, library has seven floors including the main floor. The dungeon has mobs of some kind in it, seeing as this floor has at least one on it. The one mob is more than likely the boss or stronger than the rest of the mobs due to being on the top floor and alone.' Everything Carter had been able to put together led him to one possible answer. 'I'm so fucked!' He thought to himself as he got to his feet. During all the information crunching that he just did there was only a single thought that he had was beneficial.
Despite being unarmed security, one of the veteran guards he had trained with had given him a piece of advice that he had hung onto to this very day. 'While yes we are technically unarmed security, never leave yourself open to be taken advantage of. People know that we are supposed to be unarmed so they don't take us as seriously, which is all the more dangerous for us and them.' The old man had pulled an item out of his pocket and handed it to Carter. 'People take their safety for granted these days, take this and keep it on you at all times. You never know when it will save your life.'
Looking at the pocket knife that the veteran had handed him, Carter felt that his comment resonated with him on a deep meaningful level. Carter felt a sense of security with the small two-inch blade in his hands. Keeping his back to the outer wall the entire time, he tried to step with as little noise as possible. A notification popped up almost right when he reached the elevators of the building.
Skill Learned Stealth 1 Reduces the amount of noise made by the user by 0.5%
Nerves on edge from the constant creeping and potential life threathening creature around him, Carter couldn't help but jump at the pop up. It was a miracle that he was able to keep himself from shouting, what came out was more of a hiss-like intake of breath. By the time Carter made it all the way to the other side of the floor and the other stairwell, he had been able to calm his nerves and get ahold of the adrenaline racing through his body. Half the floor down and all the info he had been able to gather was what may have been a few instances of heavy breathing. Whatever was on this floor was not making itself obvious.
After Carter had finished circling the floor and made it back to his original stairwell with nothing to show for it but a few wasted minutes. He made the decision that he was going to have to go find the boss on his own. If he was being honest with himself, he had hoped to stumble onto whatever the creature was on the outside because he felt a sense of safety with the wall behind him. Walking into dark stacks of books was not something that gave him a sense of confidence, he had tried the light switch a few minutes ago after returning to his original stairwell. He prepared for the mob to charge out at him once the lights came on, but it seems the power to the building was cut when it was transformed into a dungeon.
Walking as silently as possible through the floor, Carter caught sight of a faint glow up ahead. It wasn't just the glow that gave away the location either, he had been hearing distinct breathing noises now that he was closer to the source of the whatever was making the sound. Slowing to a crawl, he tried to get a better look through the book stacks. Noticing a break in the books a couple steps away, Carter delicately moved into the best possible postion. What he saw was beyond disturbing.
A creature about the size of your average sixteen year old, but probably double in width, was lounging in what appeared to be a pile of books. It was hard to tell with just the subtle glow to illuminate it, but it seemed to have greenish grey skin with pockmarks all over its face. It had its nose in a book that Carter was not able to read the title of, this is what Carter attributed his ability to sneak up on the creature to. That and the amount of wheezing and grunting it made by simply breathing. The two stacks to either side of it had been pushed over, and now leaned on respectively adjacent stacks forming a "v" like entrance to the isle. Carter being several rows up from the creature could not see down the isle to what was creating the glow. Giving an idea a try, Carter used mana manipulation and channeled it into his eyes.
Ability Learned Inspect 1 Use mana to read the information on your targets. Improves with use and knowledge
Hobgoblin Shaman LVL 4
Creeping back from the whole in the books, Carter struggled to keep his breathing under control. It was one thing to see screens in front of your face, then yeah sure he went off and had a fun time learning about new things with that guy Alvin, but this... this was real. This was the first time in Carter's life that he had to face the reality that he was no longer safe just because of where he was born. It was one thing to go over it in your mind, making plans for what if this or that happened, training and learning the best things to do in certain situation. It was an entirely different thing to go through it, no one ever tells you about how your body reacts and the almost palpable tension in the air. Sure people mention how they had nerves and felt sick, but do you actually consider what that would physically feel like? Carter was on the verge of a nervous break down but there was one thought that got his head back on track. 'If that shit is in here, then what is out there. Was Catherine able to go through the tutorial? Does she even know what is happening right now?' Thoughts and images of his wife and what may or may not be happening to her right now raced through his head. Clenching his fist, Carter made the decision to push through his own issues so that he could get to Catherine as fast as possible. 'Game on bitches.'
It was almost eerie how fast Carter was able to go from a bundle of nerves to an almost serene level of calm. Thinking back to the first time he had done this Carter couldn't help but smirk. He had never been one to question his decisions, once a decision was made there was no use thinking about the other option. In fact, this unquestioning decision making is what led him to being able to learn his second ability during the tutorial. He didn't like the feel of mana bolt so he decided to change it into something he was more comfortable with. With a new resolve, Carter quickly switched from searching for the creature into stalking the creature.
Looking at his position and what he had at his disposal, Carter quickly came up with a game plan to take it out as quickly and safely as possible. The plan came down to really two simple strategies, hit it from afar and blitz it. Backing up several stacks he quickly tried out his mana manipulation to ensure that he would be able to form his mana bolt. Carter made an interesting discovery, the mana in the room seemed to be thicker around the glow. Either way Carter intended on taking out the creature so he would find out the glowing situation after. Seeing that he could form his mana bolt with little issues he slowly made his way back to his previous position.
The spot he had viewed the creature at was one column over and five rows up from it. Once he creeped up to the edge of his row it put him just below fifteen feet away. He was not exactly comfortable with his accuracy from this distance but he did not want to risk getting closer and losing the element of surprise. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Carter begin to absorb the mana into his body through mana reinforcement. He was not entirely sure how much stats it gave but he was going to take all he could get. Once he had filled out mana enforcement to the brim he then siphoned off a bit of mana to form a ball in his hand. He had discovered during the few minutes of testing his plan that he was not quite ready to apply both mana reinforcement and mana bolt at the same time respectively. Once he locked down his mana reinforcement, he could no longer siphon the mana from the environment for his bolt and vice versa.
The bolt formed over his hand was substantially larger than the one he had previously formed during the tutorial. Closer to the size of a softball, it had increased in size by almost half. Taking aim quickly, Carter fired as soon as he felt he was on target, and before the bolt had even landed he was up and running. Knife in hand, Carter made it over half way before he stumbled over himself due to not being used to moving with his reinforced stats. Turning the last couple of feet into more of a controled fall than a blitz.
To his credit the mana bolt was in line to hit the goblin center mass, unfortunately it clipped the book as it was coming in, leading it to take out the creatures right hand. The noise it made was partway between a beast and a childs. The creature roled out of the pile of books away from Carter's impromptu lunge.
'Fuckin' hell...' Carter thought. The creatures roll had taken all the impact out of his jump. He might as well have been playing piggy back with the thing. The duo went down in a tumbling pile of limbs and grunts. Carter quickly assesed the situation after they had come to a stop. He found out that even with his mana reinforced body that he was slightly weaker than the creature. Luckily for him he had managed to get its back, and the hand that had been hit with the mana bolt seemed to have mostly broken fingers. One of the major issues being that he was underneath the creature while being on it's back. 'Would it kill this thing to take a fucking bath?' Carter thought as they struggled for dominance. He quickly wrapped his legs around the creatures wastes and threaded them through its crotch. He had shown this to his wrestlers at the middle school so many times that it was almost second nature. This allowed him to anchor his position on it's back with some more security. With his left arm he hooked it through the creature's good arm.
The hobgoblin's girth was making Carter's attempts at control much more difficult and uncomfortable. The whole time Carter was on it's back it had been wriggling attempting to free itself of the urchin on its back. As far as Carter could tell it could not form words. All he had been able to hear was a gutttural throaty grunting, like it had some phlegm stuck in its throat. Carter had just been getting into his groove grappling when he felt like his left leg had been set on a stove top. The monster had stopped trying to get away from Carter's hold and had used its left hand that he had pinned to its side to gouge Carter's leg just above the knee.
Due to the dimness of the glow that Carter was working with he had failed to notice that the creature seemed to have more claws for digits that fingers. Gritting his teeth through the pain, Carter quickly shifted his arm from over his opponent's arm to under its arm pit, putting his hand on the back of its head. The creature's girth seemed to not be apart of initial anatomy because it's arms when put in this position couldn't really do much in the way of damage. Unhooking his right leg from the monster's crotch, Carter used it to pivot and roll the creature over to the left so it was now on it's stomach. During the roll Carter had freed his other leg and now was positioned with both knees on either side of the monster's hips, preventing it from getting its legs beneath itself.
Carter took a second to catch his breath before he finally brought his right hand into play. Flicking his wrist, Carter unsheathed to pocket knife he had prepared before the tackle. He had been holding in his right hand the whole time, but with the struggling of the creature he had been nervous about cutting himself by accident. 'Time to even the score asshole...' Carter thought to himself as he plunged the two inch blade into the monster's right side.
Unfortunately, Carter had not accounted for the desperate burst of strength from the hobgoblin beneath him. As soon as the blade entered its side, it redoubled its efforts to get out of Carter's hold through thrashing and bucking. Luckily, depite being slightly weaker than it, Carter had the leverage to keep it pinned. What really surprised Carter was how tough the thing's skin was. It had take everything he had to get the knife in, and even then it only went in about three quarters of the blade. Pulling the blade out with a grunt, Carter swung back down with all the strength he could manage from his current position. This time the blade entered much more easily, Carter attributed the first strikes toughness to hitting a bone of some sort. He repeated the process several more times, the hobgoblin at this point had started putting up less and less of a struggle. Carter attributed it to his fourth stab puncturing something important. The hobgoblin up to that point had been screeching and thrashing, but when Carter's knife was driven in this time, its screeches turned more wheezy and it had noticably less energy in its thrashing. Looking at the sad monster now, it had ceased moving and was struggling to get a breath. Carter finally decided it was safe to end it's suffering. He removed his left hand from the monsters head allowing its pinned arm free, and moving his hand to the back of its shouder blade keeping pressure on it. Raising the knife one last time, Carter looking at the monster's face. Deciding that he wasn't sure whether his knife could puncture the skull or not, he aimed for the soft jugular. With a slash the monster's suffering ended a few seconds later. It had lost a significant amount of blood from it's side, but no where near the amount that pumped out of its throat.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Rolling off the now dead hobgoblin, Carter shuffled his body over to lean on one of the knocked over stacks. He had just made it to the stack when he felt a cool sensation begin to invade his body.
Level Up +1
Level Up +1
Stealth +2
Mana Manipulation +1
Mana Reinforcement +1
Unarmed Combat +1
Skill Learned: Small Blades
Carter William Hudson Level 3 Points Available: 10 Next LVL 52/400 Strength 8 Affiliation N/A Agility 7 Endurance 5 Merit Balance 400 MB Intelligence 5 Wisdom 8 Influence - Skills: Abilities: Unarmed Combat
2
Mana Bolt 1 Mana Manipulation 3 Mana Reinforcement 2 Stealth 3 Inspect 1 Small Blades 1