"Oh god. Oh god no..." I whisper, my character sheet mocking me as I see the Luck Stat dancing just outside my conscious mind. I press both hands – large, hairy, stubby hands – against my mouth to suppress a building scream as the underbelly of a giant hairy monster crawls outside my chamber, which is covered in bones and cobwebs. My imagination refuses to give context to what I'm seeing as it drags its bloated, heavy form over the only obvious route to escape.
Hello, my name is Mike Sammons, I used to be a human male, six feet, two inches tall, slightly overweight, and now I'm Peter Dinklage! I was sitting in a room surrounded by crumbled Red Bull cans and cool ranch Doritos, and now I'm staring at... what has to be a giant spider in all its furry, disgusting, pulsating glory. This can't be real. I am not here! But it'd be stupid to think that! I'm me, in this place, in this dark room with only the moonlight pouring in from the west to tell me how fucked I am. That doesn't make sense. Even with my best eyeglasses, I would be blind without some type of overhead light, but I seem to see just fine.
I swallow something in my throat, staring at the creature as I back away slowly. I become increasingly conscious of brittle bones and loose bricks as I move. It should know something is here with it, the floor is covered in dried webbing that is still sticky to the touch, and only sheer willpower stops me from panicking as more web clings to me. Looking closely at the web, for no good reason, I might add, I see dried black blotches with bits of shattered bone entangled inside, reinforcing the rising tide of fear and nausea bubbling inside my gut.
When I touch the far wall, I finally exhale and try to think of any other way out of here. Desperately I feel the wall and look around what can only be explained as an abandoned cell in a dungeon as I try to figure out if it's possible to climb out the window. Oh, there is a window, but it's barred, and I'm too short to reach it even if I jump. Fuck. Ok, a cell has chairs or a bed, but as I look around, all those things are smashed to bits, probably by the poor fucker who tried to escape this nightmare last. Fuck.
Then I notice why they are smashed; the dried husks of spider-like creatures the size of German shepherds and just as hairy are scattered around the cell. Some died by obvious blunt force trauma, while others still have bits of snapped furniture sticking out of them. But most importantly, the bodies of the men who died fighting are nowhere to be found, only a few scattered bones, some of which are cracked open.
Fuck. Me.
Can't jump, can't escape, and as racist as this might sound, I'm pretty sure I can't dig my way out of this. So what's left?
The Character sheet bounces into view before shifting into the Class sheet.
Class : Wizard
Level : 1
Spells Book : Tome of Mike
Known Spells : 1
Cold Extremities_Lv1:: Active Spell_ Cost 10 Mana_ 0 Second Cooldown_ You remove the warmth from things you touch. Deal 10 Cold Damage per second. Lose 2 health per second the longer this ability is active. You can activate this ability on each extremity. Scales with Intelligence and Constitution.
Wait, how much health do I have?
Character Status
Health : 56
Stamina : 34
Mana : 75
Conditions : None.
You gotta be kidding me. I have a spell that costs health and mana? What the actual fuck. I'm a fucking Wizard. What happened to Fireball? Ice storm? Lighting strike? Are they still basing this off my 'life experience'?
In my exasperation, I look up and see what happened to the cell's previous occupants. The webbing that litters the floor now makes sense as I see the cocoons, four in all, hanging from the ceiling. The cocoons used to be tightly bound, but as the occupants were drained of their internal juices, no doubt liquified by spiders venom, the cocoons lost their shape, and whatever is left hangs by a thread. Mostly dried skin and necrosed bones, tangled in a heap and waiting for decomposition.
I stifle a scream, or an attempt to throw up, or anything that would alert whatever monster blocking the way out that I am here and ready to be tied up and dragged into the ceiling to be eaten at her leisure. But in my panic and horror, I almost don't notice, past the cocoons, in the darkness that is the ceiling, the suspiciously dark ceiling while everything else, despite the low lighting, seems crystal clear... oh.
The shadows move. The shadows have many, many legs. And quite a bit of long fuzzy hair. And are much bigger than German shepherds.
Ok, if I wasn't panicking before, I am now! I have to know more than one spell! I have to have some hidden talent or special ability! There has to be some way to get help! Oh fucking god, I'm going to die. I'm going to die, I'm going to die, and for fuck's sake, I have to know something better than Cold Extremities!
You Don't.
"The Void?!"
The Void? That is what you call me. Interesting!
The shock of the Void returning is like cold water being dumped on you while you're trying not to drown. Despair and anger mix in my gut as I respond, "What the fuck is your name then!"
My name is beyond your mortal tongue.
Taking its condescension aside, the more pressing question rises to the surface, "Why didn't you talk to me sooner!"
Thousands of your species survived the Transference, an impressive feat, yet taxed my awareness in doing so. There is a delay because I cannot speak to all of you at once. However, since many of you have already met fates equal or worse than death, my ability to respond to you has increased in proportion.
With the giant spiders slowly making their way down the ceiling, I can't stop to consider all the implications of what the Void just said. I should be happy that I'm not here by myself, but I also realize that most of those people are either dead or about to die. Like myself.
"Why do I only know one spell?"
For a second, I can almost feel it smile, which raises every single hair on my back which is surprisingly many...
You choose Wizard, a path that earns power through a lifetime of study. Unlocking spells requires a hunger for knowledge and experience, and your lifetime of experience only amounts to... Cold Extremities. A fair exchange.
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"So I'm fucked."
If you had listened to your intuition and picked Cleric-
"I know."
The smile comes again, invisible and infinitely creepy,
You have a habit of not listening to your intuition. Intuition is an extension of Perception, and Perception is like Luck, a Bonus Stat, and one only unlocked through proper training and use.
I'm about to die, and the voice in my head is practically quoting Star Wars. Fuck this shit. So I can't learn new spells because I'm about to die, and I'm about to die because I picked the wrong fucking Class. No! I can live. I can goddamn live. Trying to be careful, I walk toward the nearest spider corpse and dislodge a make-shift spear. The last users only had time to break a table leg and sharpen the edge poorly before the spiders broke in. I'm pretty sure I want range on these fuckers, considering I have two legs and two arms, and they have eight interchangeable limbs. And probably outweigh me.
The next thing to consider is that I wasn't even given any armor or much in the way of clothing. If there was a stock adventure gear complete with a really basic tan shirt and brown pants made of a material that feels somewhere between cotton and bedsheets... well, I'm wearing it. Considering the fangs on those spiders can crack bones, I'm only a slight step away from being naked, and I don't even have shoes! My only consolation is that for some reason, I'm not cold...
Which brings me to the elephant in the room. What the fuck is a Dwarf?
Race : Dwarf : A hardy race often hailing from planets known for their frigid temperatures and dangerous untamed wildlife. They are ingenuitive enough to carve into mountains with stone tools but also diverse enough to flourish in any climate and Temperate Zone.
Racial Bonus Stat : Luck
All dwarves are born with an innate ability to Level UP the Bonus Stat Luck.
Racial Passives
Dark Vision : Can see perfectly fine in the dark. Though some users can suffer nearsightedness during the day.
Hard Body : Rarely notices extreme cold or heat. Status effects and Damage related to Fire and Cold Damage are reduced by 20% and have 30% reduced duration.
Origin Bonus
Hill Dwarf : Having grown up in the rolling hills and not the deep mountains, the Hill Dwarfs gain +1 Luck every 2 Levels. Good luck.
If I don't get eaten first, that's not too bad. Knowing none of this helps me right now, though, because what was a slow-moving shadow is now clearly defined against the slivers of moonlight and night stars. Eight pairs of red hungry eyes burrow holes through my flesh, its fangs salivating acid-like venom and saliva, its brown fur rustling softly as its movements remain deceptively slow. The door is still blocked off by the underbelly of these things' mom. And I'm starting to figure out why...
This is a nursery, and I'm food for its young. Only luck and being four feet tall kept me from being eaten in my sleep, and from what I can tell, this thing is rapidly outgrowing the confines of this prison cell. Also, its brothers and sisters are creeping up behind me, so I have maybe three seconds before all three or four of them decide how they like their dwarf.
So I decide for them. I drop the spear and whisper the words "Cold Extremities." I don't know what to expect. I never spent Mana before or believed in psychic abilities. But it almost feels natural, as if I spent my entire life casting this one spell over and over again. But the feeling of awe can wait. My hands glow softly with power, and the feeling of an otherworldly chill bites at my nerves and touches the bones in my hand. I don't have time, so with the spell activated in both hands, I clasp them together and sit down.
I've never lost HP, but the pain is persistent, real, and not all like watching a number go down in a video game. This fucking hurts! The entropy from the loss of heat spreads inside me, and only desperation prevents me from canceling the spell.
Interesting, you choose death on your own terms?
My Character Status blares into view, showing my health tick down each second.
8 Cold Damage + 1
8 Cold Damage + 1
8 Cold Damage + 1
8 Cold Damage + 1
The spiders are closing in. Either whatever intelligence they have is telling them to be cautious, or they're just being lazy. The one in front of me hisses at the others, no doubt telling them that "the kill is mine" or something along those lines. It straddles up to me, raises its fangs, and then—
"GOTCHA BITCH!"
I reach out both hands and grab its face. The thing screams in agony before curling up inside itself.
You did 167 Damage.
I roll to the left, avoiding the next spider's deadly fangs, and touch its flank as it whirls around to meet me. The thing absolutely loses it from the pain as it scrambles away before collapsing in a heap of legs and sobs.
You did 155 Damage and applied Frostbite. Frostbite deals 7 damage per second.
The third spider, the last spider, is scrambling up the walls into the ceiling, diving up a hole they've made that leads to another cell.
You have Learned Cause Fear.
You have Learned Frost Armor
You have Leveled UP Cold Extremities
You have Leveled UP Cold Extremities
You have Leveled UP Cold Extremities
You have gained 200 Experience from killing Juvenile Male Fiend-Spider
You have gained 300 Experience from killing Juvenile Female Fiend-Spider
You have Leveled UP
You have Leveled UP
There is an audible pause.
You are exceptionally lucky.
It's my turn to smile, "I read Cold Extremities carefully. 'You remove the warmth from things you touch' has to be more than just flavor text. I was hoping it described how the ability works. If the damage done represents the rate that I'm "removing warmth," the damage I do to myself as the cost represents how much to maintain that rate if only my hands were that cold. If I intentionally lower the rest of my body's temperature, I figured the damage would go up."
And if you were wrong, you would have died quite miserably. A good show.
I feel weak, unnaturally cold, and significantly drained but still alive... somehow... and unfortunately still stuck in this cell. And why is a giant red eye looking at me?
Oh.
Fuck.
**Special Note! Each Chapter from here on out will end with a character sheet**
Character Sheet
Name: Mike Sammons
Race: Dwarf
Origin : Hills
Stats : Level 3
Strength : 7
Dexterity : 5
Intelligence : 5
Wisdom : 10
Constitution : 6
Charisma: 1
Bonus Stat Luck: 2 (This Stat increases the probability of the unlikely happening in your favor.)
UnAllocated Points : 10
UnAllocated Class Points : 2
Character Status
Health : 20/56
Stamina : 26/34
Mana : 55/75
Conditions : Chilled (Stamina is drained at 2 points per second, remaining duration 10 seconds.)
Class Sheet
Class : Wizard
Level : 1
Spells Book : Tome of Mike
Cold Extremities_Lv 3:: Active Spell_Cost 14 Mana_ 0 Second Cooldown_You remove the warmth from things you touch. Deal 16 Cold Damage per second with a 25% chance of causing Chill and Frostbite. Lose 3 health per second the longer this ability is active. You can activate this ability on each extremity. Scales with Intelligence and Constitution.
Frost Armor. _Lv 1:: Active Spell_Cost 20 Mana_ 5 Second Cooldown_ Give a protective layer of Ice on a target object or creature. Target gains 75 points of Elemental Armor however they lose 1 Stamina per second. Has a 50% chance of applying Chill and a 15% chance of applying Frostbite to Melee attackers. Scales with Intelligence and Wisdom.
Cause Fear. _Lv 1:: Active Spell _ Cost 10 Mana_ 3 second Cooldown_ You're perceived combat prowess has allowed you to manipulate the hidden Stat Will. Enemies you target within a short cone are forced to reconsider attacking you and have a 20% chance of being effected by Terror. Scales with Wisdom and Charisma
Race Sheet
Race : Dwarf : A hardy race often hailing from planets known for their frigid temperatures and dangerous untamed wildlife. They are ingenuitive enough to carve into Mountains with stone tools but also diverse enough to flourish in any climate and Temperate Zone.
Racial Bonus Stat : Luck
All dwarves are born with an innate ability to Level UP the Bonus Stat Luck.
Racial Passives
Dark Vision : Can see perfectly fine in the dark. Though some users can suffer nearsightedness during the day.
Hard Body : Rarely notices extreme cold or heat, Status effects and Damage related to Fire and Cold Damage is reduced by 2 and have 30% reduced duration.