I arch my back and stretch with ALLLL the morning goodness, feeling my muscles pull in a delicious way. Opening my eyes I see… nothing but darkness. What the fraggin noodles!

I blink. Oh… right… I spread my awareness out beyond myself and am finally greeted by some sunlight and birdsong above. The sun is bright, the sky is blue, and what is up with all that dusty air off in the distance? I perch my ghostly butt at the top of my hobbit hill trying to see more above the treetops that are beyond my Terravision range. It seems my mana has restored itself during my slumber and I fiddle with the grasses around me as I stand on my ethereal tip toes. My mana slowly leaks out from my ghostly fingers causing some of the grasses to grow tall and sprout some chunky golden kernels at their tips. Ah well… nothing for it then, I can’t see what’s going on over there.

So what’s around here then. I walk down to the edge of my Terravision range to poke around. Perhaps I can force it to expand again. It would be lovely to get closer to that river after all. I do what I did before and try to force myself past the barrier, willing my ghostly self forward and straining with the mental effort. I can see and hear the river from this point but I am unable to get closer. Ooof, I feel like I’ve been running. I bend over and heave air into my lungs. Why oh why do I feel like my lungs are burning when I’m a frigging spooky two shoes ghost! I thought this was mental effort! Okay, now that I’ve caught my breath I start to push forward again. I don’t strain as hard and fast as I did at the start and I attempt to pace myself. Slow & steady wins the race!

*DING! Endurance: Level 3*

‘Stamina: +5’

*PING! Terravision: level 2 obtained!*

[Pop!] The barrier burst and reestablished itself further away from me. I fell forward with a huff, doubled over again to catch my breath. Catching my breath I get up and hurry over to my new limit. Doodlenoodles! I STILL haven’t reached the river! I don’t think I can push it anymore today. That effort seems to have been draining my stamina. Miffed at my predicament and inability to progress further immediately, I take look at my status sheet. Might as well see what I am working with here.

Status Page:

Name: Tera

Race: ????

Primary Stats:

Health: 110 / 110

Mana: 110 / 110

Stamina: 15 / 115

Secondary Stats:

Durability: 2 (+10 health restoration) per level

Intelligence: 1 (+10 mana restoration) per level

Endurance: 3 (+10 stamina restoration) per level

Wisdom: 1 (+10 ambient mana absorbtion) per level

Primary Class: Terrakinetic Mage [Level: 1]

Class Skills: Terravision (2) Terrakinesis (1)

Secondary Class:

General Skills:

Okay, so I restore 10 stamina per Endurance level, which is now at level 3. So that’s 30 stamina restoration in… how long? It doesn’t say… Well, now what… Actually! Yesterday, I was at 80 health after the dwarfs first strike while my base was 100 health, meaning his hits were maybe 20 health per strike. He might’ve taken me down to 60 health after the 2nd hit. I am now full health again. So, I’ve restored the 40 damage taken and the 10 new health added to my health pool. At 20 health restoration since my durability is level 2, the restoration time can’t be per day since I would not be fully healed again yet if it was per day. That is also assuming I did sleep longer than an entire day cycle. I guess I will just have to test and see my limits. How am I going to test myself? It’s not like the dwarf is still around. I cringe, frankly, I don’t want him around giving me migraines anyways! I’ll just have to keep checking my status page and see if I catch any regeneration going on. Perhaps I should expend some mana. Who knows if the restoration rates are the same across the board anyways! And I’m bored just standing here and staring at the tantalizing and sparkling water that is out of my reach.

I huff and head back in to my tunnel beneath my hobbit hill. Yesterday, when I was moving earth it had required mana. I twiddle my fingers towards the right side wall at the end of the tunnel… I intend to tunnel down in a spiral for now.

[ooooOoOOOooOOOooo]

The tunnel does not seem impressed or even nervous at my ethereal zombie hands. I sigh at the earthen wall in front of me.

[You’re no fun]

Bracing myself, I once again start mentally straining, willing the earth to do as I bid! I shall pass! Finally, the earth begins to crumble and compress into the dirt behind it. Slowly a passage beings to form at a downward angle. Once I expend 20 mana, I figure I’ve gone far enough to do my 1st left turn in the spiral, I’ve also been draining mana to compress the earth above so the tunnel doesn’t collapse. I am about 80 mana into my new endeavor and had just started my 4th left turn completing my first circle in the spiral when the passage reveals a cavern. Holy! It’s dark! I can’t see much in there at all! I squint in and try to get a better look. A faint shimmer in the darkness and I realize why I can’t see the cavern’s terrain… I’ve been foiled! My terravision range apparently extends below ground as well… Q.Q

How am I supposed to explore being held back like this? I take a few steps into the cavern I had discovered. Might as well look around where I could. I was swiftly rewarded with cobwebs to the face! [Aiyeeeeee!] I begin squealing in horror, frantically swiping my face with my hands, jumping up and down, patting my… thin frikkin air! The cobwebs remain undisturbed and I obviously don’t have spiders crawling all over me… Ooof, how embarrassing. Good thing no-one was around to witness that! I’ve had enough for the day and turn back towards my tunnel. Another scream escapes me as I see a massive spider poking its head into my tunnel in front of me… I screech away from it and slam into my barrier, pushing my back into my barrier as I alternate between squeals and whimpers. Frantically slapping my hands against its form behind me as I will the thing to get out of my way! The barrier is as unimpressed at my behaviour as an inanimate object would be. Considering I am not currently being eaten alive by the spider as big as a bear, I eventually start to force myself to calm down. The spider seems to be tip toeing itself into my tunnel all while being absolutely unaware of my presence. I’m crouched down on the ground as I reign in my hyperventilating lungs, while staring at the monster. What am I going to do? I am NOT living with a spider!

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

After a little bit, it has dawned on me that there are no other options to getting back to my tunnel other than going through the monster. I am incorporeal, right? Okay, here goes! I slap my non existent hands over my non-existent eyes and RUN in the general direction of my tunnel, hoping I ‘phase’ through the spider without seeing it! I still see it… Because why wouldn’t I still it; being that my body has zero line of sight interrupting factors to it! I emit a small squeal as I whisk through it and up into my spiral tunnel. I fly up the tunnel, leaving the spider behind. I pause at the top of my downward spiral which is branched off to the right at the end of the surface tunnel. Which is where my gem is hidden.

Panic starts to set in. I mean… would the spider even try to dig it out? Actually, I do NOT want that spider in my domain. Let’s burn the house down! Eh, hmm. I can hear the spider coming up the spiral I had so carefully formed by compressing the earth back into itself. A spider leg reaches the top of the spiral, followed by more legs, spider fangs and spider eyeballs… UNCOMPRESS! UNCOMPRESS!

The earth of the spiral quickly crumbles from the walls and collapses from the ceiling.

*You killed a young Kodiak Recluse Spider, you gain experience!*

*Congratulations, you have reached [Level 2]*

*PING! Earth Eruption: level 1 obtained!*

My awareness quickly fades as I try to grasp at my status sheet to check my stamina and mana levels. annnd… I’m out! zzZ

I’m groggy when I finally wake up. I was too late to check my stat levels before I was knocked out. I guess my gem is still safely buried in the wall of my tunnel as I am surrounded by darkness again. Now that I am awake, I take a moment to check my status, it seems my stats have recovered and my new skill has been added to the sheet along with my new level.

I push my awareness or ghostly self out into my terravision range. Looking at the collapsed earth at what used to be a spiral tunnel I see something glinting. Is that… loot? Did the spider drop this upon it’s death? I see a spider leg sticking out from underneath some rubble. Eeesh, that’s creepy. I get down to closer inspect the loot. It looks like a figurine of the spider, carved from some sort of gem. The gem figurine is a deep red that is so dark, it is almost black. I don’t know what to make of it, nor can I interact with it physically. What does this mean about my gem? What about the gems the dwarf was mining and smashing? What were those wisps he was capturing in yet another gem? I guess none of the gems he was mining or my own were in the shape of a figurine of some sort… Is this garnet spider supposed to be a trophy? Sighing and not really capable of doing anything with it right now, I decide to bury it near myself. Out of sight, out of mind! Bye bye, Mr.Creepy Spider!

With my levels recovered, I can get some more work done! I drift to the surface level of my terravision range to consider my options. Standing in the door of the hobbit shack, I see the dust cloud has gotten much larger, so large in fact I can see people! In fact is that a dwarf!? Ohhhh, mother of nuggets!

[Earth Eruption!] I yelp!

I do not want to be subjected to more brain rattles, thank you very much! I collapse the tunnel that leads to my gem. I’m incorporeal, so I should and hope that I will be able to move through the earth to and from my gem… fingers crossed!

The sun is quite low in the sky now, It won’t be long before it’s too dark to travel. Probably. The cloud of dust and trail of people responsible for kicking it up are almost on my doorstep. There seem to be multiple dwarves in the crowd, humans, and are those pointy ears? Even Elves!? I squeal in excitement! Hold up, why am I excited? First of all, the elves are accompanied by noodle headed dwarves who want to turn my brain into noodles by sending tremors through my gem! Secondly, how do I know what elves are and why do I feel like jumping up and down hoping to meet one? A momentary vision of long blond hair flipping out of a smooth pretty face with a cocky grin flits through my mind. Legowho? And memory gone... As I thought might happen considering it is getting dark, the train of people have headed towards my hobbit hill.

A big burly man clumps up my ramp and into my shack by walking right through me. How rude! He takes a quick look around and grunts in statisfaction. He grabs the meager contents up and throws them all out the door. All except for the small cast iron cook stove. It might be too heavy for him or on second thought it could probably be useful if he wants to prepare a meal. Maybe noodles?

[Mama!] He hollers from the top of the ramp.

[I’ll set you and some of the others up in here!]

He takes a pack off his back and drops it off to the side of the ramp, on the porch. Bringing out a couple of blankets, he spreads one on the shack floor and leaves the other folded on top of it. He walks out into the gathering crowd and ushers forward an exhausted elderly lady along with a couple ladies who look heavily pregnant and a young woman with a newborn. He helps them up the ramp and into the shack. As they settle down, the older lady takes the folded blanket and shakes it out over their laps. A few more blankets appear from various packs to soften the hard floor with as the women bed down with moans and groans of relief.

[Oh, that trek seemed like it would never end] the young woman with the baby groaned.

Various sounds of affirmation and agreement was all that the others seem to be willing to offer in response. Mr. Burly man seems to have walked off towards the river while I was watching these women settle in; and he was clumping his way back now. He brought in a pail of water with a ladle and started passing it to the women one at a time.

The group outside appear to be setting up a camp. One young man is industriously trying to start a campfire but most of the crowd look too utterly exhausted to do more than setup for the night before they collapse into their sleeping rolls.

[Thankyou, Adrian] came from behind me from the older lady as she passed the ladle back to Mr. Burly.

[You’re welcome, Mama. Get some rest now. I’m gonna go talk to some of the others about tomorrow.]

Adrian stands and sets the pail of water down near the blanket and within reach of his mana. Probably in case it was needed, and then he clumps out the door. I stand in my ethereal silence, not sure in knowing what to do or even what to think. Adrian was walking further into the crowd and I decide to follow him before he gets too far from me. No one can see me after all. I willed my awareness after his moving feet and soon caught up to him. Groups of people are clustered here and there, all around my hobbit hill shack. An older man yanks his head up as we walk past him. He looks at Adrian before his gaze drifts over towards me. Did I really jinx myself? He squints his eyes before shaking his head in dismissal, looking back down as he is shoving some items back into his pack.

[SMACK] ouch! It appears while I was distracted by the possibility of being seen, I walk right into my terravision barrier. Adrian keeps going. Yo, I want to know what’s going on! Get back here! I push into my barrier, trying to follow Mr. Burly Adrian. Everyone else around the shack is quickly bedding down for the night and I struggle harder as my chance to find out more is getting further and further away.

[SNAP!] The barrier gives and I fall forward…

*DING! Endurance: Level 4*

‘Stamina: +5’

*PING! Terravision: level 3 obtained!*

Not now! I wave the text out of my face, rushing to catch back up to Adrian. Oof, I’m getting tired… Pushing through that last barrier really drained me. Who knows how long I can keep projecting my awareness out this far… Adrian has come to a stop near the river and I come up behind him. Oh, I’ve reached the river! Yay! Do a little dance! Oh, right. There’s a group of people circled around a small fire and Adrian has joined them. The conversation flows quickly…

[Are we safe yet?]

[Perhaps, we have traveled quite a good distance]

[We haven't seen any signs of pursuit as of yet.]

[It’s nice here. We have water from this river which can also provide fish and some of our farmers noticed some wild grains growing among the grasses.]

Adrian speaks up; [Should we not continue and put more distance between us and …]

Zzzz…..