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Tenebris: A Survival Fantasy LitRPG
Chapter 9 – Day 2 – Another day to survive

Chapter 9 – Day 2 – Another day to survive

Jack Nolan woke up. At first, he couldn’t understand where he was. Then it all came back to him. He was still in the cave where he’d fought and defeated the strange overgrown rat. When he lifted his head to look forward, he saw that the body of the dead creature still lay in the middle of the cavern.

Dammit, he thought. It wasn’t a dream after all.

When he was about to get up, a text message appeared before his eyes.

You have survived a day! You have received 100 Essence points and 1,000 gold.

The message made Jack pause. With a thought, he pulled up his character sheet and took a look at the first section.

Level 0 Current Essence 110 Essence to Next Level 100 (Level up: Y/N) Available Skill Points 0 Gold 1,000 Survived 1 day

Sure enough, he had one thousand gold in his virtual account and one hundred and ten XP, which was called Essence points in this game world—or whatever the hell it was. He also noticed that the level of his character didn’t go up automatically like it usually did in video games. He wondered why. Maybe this Essence could be used for something else besides leveling up?

He gave it some thought and decided there was no reason for him not to level up, so he thought Yes. Immediately, a notification popped up before his eyes.

You have spent 100 Essence points.

You have leveled up! You have received 1 skill point.

After leveling up, his current Essence count decreased to ten points again and the amount needed for another level-up was two hundred and fifty Essence points now.

He then studied the rest of his character sheet. He had six attributes: strength, constitution, agility, perception, intelligence, and magic. All of them were zero at the moment. He could put his newly-received skill point in one of them. But which one to choose? The attributes had no descriptions, but it probably wasn’t necessary. After all, the names of the attributes were pretty much self-explanatory. He guessed that strength made you stronger, constitution more robust, agility quicker, perception more, well, perceptive, and intelligence smarter. As for Magic, it most likely helped you cast more powerful spells. There might have been more to the attributes than that, though. If this was the case, then he would most likely learn about other properties of the attributes later on.

Maybe he could use skill points to upgrade spells or abilities as well. Right now, he didn’t have any skills, abilities, or spells to upgrade, though. He didn’t even know how to acquire them. He couldn’t just purchase them for skill points or gold. When he checked the Store the last time, there weren’t any spells or skills for sale. At least, he hadn’t spotted one. But he hadn’t examined the Store too thoroughly, because he had been looking mostly for medical stuff to heal himself after the battle with the croc-rat. So he decided to examine the merchandise sold in the Store more carefully later on.

Jack gave the matter some more thought but still wasn’t able to make up his mind as to what attribute to upgrade. He didn’t know any spells yet, so there was no reason to put his skill point into Magic yet. As for the other attributes, all of them seemed to be useful. In the end, he decided to put off the decision for now.

He checked the dressings on his injured legs. The one wrapped around his ankle where the croc-rat had bitten him was too bloody for his taste. It was probably a good idea to change the dressings. He decided to do it right away.

He pulled up the main menu to buy new bandages from the Store.

Character Store (available for 9 days only) Bounties/Quests/Challenges Map

He immediately noticed that there were nine days left before the Store would apparently disappear. And what then? How would he be able to get stuff after the Store was gone? He had to figure it out fast, otherwise he would get in a fix. Then another question popped into his head. How long had he been asleep? He looked at his watch only to realize it no longer worked. The glass face had shattered and the hands were gone now. His watch must have broken during his fight with the croc-rat, most likely when he’d fallen. He then reached into his jacket pocket and took out his cell phone. Its display was shattered and dented too. He tried to turn on his phone, but nothing happened. Both his watch and cell were totally useless now.

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“Goddammit,” he muttered to himself.

He took off his broken watch and pocketed it. He put his cell phone into another jacket pocket. Shaking his head in frustration, he switched to the Store. The list of various goods appeared before his eyes. He bought two gauze bandage rolls for 100 gold each. After removing the old dressings, he wrapped the new bandages around his injured legs. He had eight hundred gold left now.

Jack got to his feet. He turned his head to look at the wooden chest hidden in the small compartment on the other side of the cavern. It was time to see what was inside. As he crossed the cavern, he looked around. The glowing mushrooms were still the only source of light there. Nothing seemed to have changed in the cave while he was asleep. Jack realized how dangerous it’d been for him to fall asleep. Anything might have happened while he was unconscious. Fortunately, nothing happened to him, but he should be more careful from now on.

He sat on his haunches before the chest and lifted the lid. Inside lay a sheathed sword and two small vials with wooden corks. The vials contained red liquid. Jack reached inside and took the two vials out of the chest.

What are these? he thought, examining the two small vessels in his hands. They sure look like potions from fantasy video games.

As he looked more intently at one of the vessels, a piece of info appeared before his eyes.

Item Weak Health Potion Type Consumable Description Heals minor injuries when consumed.

“They are actually health potions,” Jack muttered. He considered drinking them to heal his injured legs, but he decided against it. When he removed the old dressings, he saw that the wounds were healing nicely. So he decided to save the potions for later. He had a bad feeling that the croc-rat he’d defeated earlier wasn’t the last monster that he was going to encounter.

After pocketing the two potions, he took the sheathed sword out of the chest.

Item One-handed weapon Rarity Common Description Simple shortsword. Nothing special about it. Primary effects None Temporary effects None Enchantments None

It kind of looked like the Roman Gladius. He pulled the sword out of its sheath and stood up. He turned around and took a couple of steps from the chest.

“Let’s give it a try then,” he muttered.

He swung the sword a few times. He had no idea if he was doing it correctly or not. Even though he had no memories about himself, he was pretty much sure that he had never wielded a sword before. He didn’t live during the Middle Ages after all. He knew that the Earth he’d come from was way more technologically advanced than that.

“I’m getting the hang of it I think,” he said to himself after he swung and thrust the sword at an imaginary enemy a few more times.

He then sheathed the sword and returned to the chest to make sure there wasn’t anything else. As it turned out, there was one more item inside that he hadn’t noticed before. It was a book in leather binding. He took it out of the chest. On the front cover was an image of a sword not dissimilar to the one he’d just practiced with.

“What do we have here?” he muttered.

Item Talent book Type Consumable Description Teaches you the One-handed talent.

“So that’s how you get new skills and spells, huh?”

He wondered what he needed to do to learn the talent. No prompt appeared before his eyes. Maybe just try to read the book? He decided to give it a try. He undid the leather flap and opened the book at a random page. He immediately noticed that the book was written in a strange foreign language. However, he understood it perfectly as if it’d always been his native language. He began to read. After reading a few words, the book in his hands flashed brightly, forcing him to close his eyes. When he opened them again, he saw that the book was gone.

A new notification popped before his eyes.

You have learned a new talent: One-handed.

Jack wondered if it meant that he could use the sword more skillfully now. He decided to test it out. Before getting to his feet, he looked in the chest one last time. There was nothing else in there. He had taken all the rewards. Unsheathing his sword again, he got up and turned away from the chest. He was about to swing the weapon at an imaginary enemy when he spotted a movement out of the corner of his eye. Immediately alert, he spun to face that direction. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. At least, not at first. Then something to the side attracted his attention and he turned his head to look that way.

He saw the body of the dead croc-rat. It still lay in the middle of the cavern, but something strange was happening to it now.