---Maddy---
Maddy grouped up with her partners after a sleepless night and asked what they wanted to do going forward. Jess’s death penalty was gone – slept off like a cold – and she was raring to go. As a group they had two main options. They could use their newfound status from clearing the dungeon to find quests in town – Jess argued it would be a waste not to stick around here for a while grinding…
Or they could leave and travel to a new area – Maddy had found a map and researched the surroundings. They were in the weakest area currently – a ‘low level’ zone right by the tutorial behind them. In every direction away from the tutorial the difficulty slowly rose.
They had already basically wasted a day – Jess on cooldown and her preparing and then enacting the contact with the necromancer.
They should push ahead while they were still near the start of the curve – there were already six other groups who had completed the dungeon after them and the number of players walking around had skyrocketed.
At least thats what Maddy thought.
Finally after laying out all her thoughts her teammates agreed that it would be best to move on – there was a carriage that left daily to the nearest city and they were going to catch that as ‘guards’. Their status let them join the trip for free – it also let them gain money for defending it in the case it was attacked.
Maddy brought her group to the merchants preparing to leave and signed them up reading over the terms of the contract she had heard about once more.
Free meals, free room, free transportation. Sure they were only paid if they had to defend the carriages but that was still a great deal for ‘adventurers’ who just wanted a trip.
All three of them accepted and got on the open top of a carriage – its roof like the top of a double decker bus with railings and benches.
Maddy was more and more sure this was a good idea.
There were several cities they could head to each winding between monster nests. They could even leave the carriage to fight some monster nests if they wanted – there were several close areas and culling the monster numbers in them was always appreciated.
The monster nests along their route were well mapped out – essentially they were blobs in the wilderness that increased the ‘tier’ of the surroundings to a certain ‘level’. Inside them, there were several creatures of a certain theme that were well documented. Halfway along their current route for example there was what was known as a ‘tier 5’ ambush nest. A stretch of wilderness full of creatures with an average strength of ‘tier 5’ that hid and confused one’s senses.
Will of the wisps that led travellers deeper into it. Spindletwisters that burrowed through the ground and attacked your legs. A dozen noted monsters with recommended hunting strategies strengths and weaknesses.
It was nice seeing the type of hunting ground they would pass and Maddy already noted one she might head into along their trip.
The rest of their travel should be safe – sometimes monsters would appear or travel outside of those nests – and wild monsters appeared in the night no matter the location – but the biggest threats all seemed safely contained.
You could pick your opponents and travel to them.
Maddy felt better and better about the world she was in. The map was worth its weight in gold.
There was a single place that broke those rules. The badlands. Because it grew and shrunk the danger zone was marked far on either side of it and signs placed periodically warning any to stay away.
There was a simple reason for that.
While monster nests had a few creatures that were stronger than average – ‘field bosses’ as they were called – the difficulty was always stated. It was somewhat fixed – as much as ‘difficulty’ could be – usually plus or minus a tier at the most with each tier being a measurable 'strength'. They were also usually a gradual shift – the outer edges full of weaker monsters than the middle section.
The badlands on the other hand were a mess of linked nests that broke through and spilled around one another. Tier 1 monsters right beside tier 10+. Monsters who's only weakness was fire beside fire-resistant monsters – or even monsters who grew stronger in the presence of flame.
Synergies that made everything much worse.
The land itself grew dangerous far beyond what a normal nest allowed – leading to almost dungeon like interactions between the environment and the monsters in it. Designed monsters with optimized set ups – but without a lesson accompanying them. Designed but not to the benefit of those who faced them.
A wild unpredictable ecosystem that no sane being would enter. There were so many potential monster types and everything shifted and churned day by day – even if you survived a short trip into it safely retracing your steps the following day could find you in an area much worse than you had found the day before.
No one sane would ever go there when there were perfectly good ‘fair’ challenges everywhere.
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---James---
Several Hours into the night, James was attacked.
Maybe in a different universe – one where he hadn't gotten the ‘light but deep sleep’ ‘skill’ he might have died. As it was, he woke up to a giant bug creeping down the trunk towards him and nearly fell off his branch.
The bug was pitch black and indistinct in the shade of the tree, but James's night vision was stronger than natural and his fist surprisingly strong for his awkward perch on a branch.
As James punched upwards groggily, the much decreased faint buzz from his stomach buckled.
It felt like he was vomiting for a half second as the tingle surged upwards passing through his throat and chest then slipped out and ran down his arm. Mid-swing the last vestiges of tingle gathered in his fist and pulsed when it hit. At the exact moment James’s fist hit the shell of the creature, a faint flash lit the surroundings – dim but comparably bright in the near darkness.
His fist sank through carapace like butter and in the brief light from his attack, James could see.
The creature was entirely unique and set off an instinctual twinge of revulsion. It looked like someone had glued dozens of insect parts together – mishing and mashing spider legs and praying mantis claws and dung beetle pincers on a centipede body with five bulges that were reminiscent of ant torsos...
💤 Achievement get: I'm awake! I'm awake! (Rare)
Description: Survive a sneak attack on your sleeping form unharmed.
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Stat: +4 reaction speed.
The light faded quickly and with it the last of his tingle, but James was already ahead – the giant bug falling off the trunk and past him towards the ground below.
It was not a silent decent – the bug had let out a loud hissing noise as soon as it had been hit and combined with the flash of light James could hear dozens of creatures heading his way.
Dropping to a lower branch and kicking off of it, James activated [haste] and began running away from his location. Nine seconds later his run became less controlled – his limbs began smashing branches and tripping over the foliage in the dim light.
Suddenly James broke through the treeline and the light of a moon high above lit his surroundings.
He was standing on the edge of a grassy plain once more, staring out at a literal field of monsters.
There had to be a hundred creatures, some recognisable some not, each focusing towards him…hungry.
Slowly James backed into the shade of the trees once more then turned and ran.
Why were there so many monsters at night? Where had they come from?
A crashing noise behind him signaled creatures reaching the treeline behind him and starting their pursuit.
Around him the forest seemed to still, the faint noises of small fauna fading as they hid from James’s pursuers.
James ducked under a massive knot of branches sliding along slightly muddy ground before scrambling back up and continuing to run. A few seconds later a loud crash rang out as something impacted and obliterated the obstacle James had bypassed.
Feet pounding into the ground James tucked his head down and ran and ran – after just over a minute of dashing James reached the other side of the biome. He slid out of the treeline and looked out at a second field of monsters.
…this feels like a bad slapstick comedy.
He could hear the crashing sounds far behind him even as he spun and re entered the forest – this time aiming in a third direction.
Frantically glancing around as he ran, James picked a new tree and climbed it. He jumped and scrambled – reaching a solid nook even as the first creatures passed by beneath him.
Several ran past but more still looked up at him.
A wolf with ethereal floating fur sniffed and shifted its head up towards James’s perch. Its red eyes squinted in concentration as they landed on him.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Two massive hairy snakes came up behind the wolf as if coordinating and began to climb the tree. Wrapping around the tree like a spring the two hairy poles corkscrewed up towards James as he struggled to snap off a brittle looking branch.
Looking down just as they reached his feet, James kicked out even as the first creature lunged and bit at his system provided shoes.
At the moment of impact, he instinctually activated his new skill. Faint feedback from it told him he had successfully gathered… something. He didn’t have time to study the sensation – The snake's head jerked back even as the second’s hairy maw lunged.
James collected that impact as well.
It felt like filling an endless bucket with holes in it – James could tell the more impacts he stored the faster they would leak away. Grabbing a branch above, James jumped slightly and tried to stamp the first snakes lunge into the branch – even as the second disappeared around the side of the trunk once more.
Foot landing awkwardly and rolling James flashed back to his attempt to jump on a snake in the tutorial even as the force of his foot rolling it along the branch decapitated this one.
Below a sea of creatures had appeared – the most dangerous looking a humanoid wood-coloured and textured creature that could almost reach his current branch with its branch-like fingers.
Around the side the second snake's hairy snout wrapped around near James’s head – an attempt to sneak attack his position but he punched out once more dumping the charges he had gathered from the previous attacks into a single punch which flashed out slightly faster than he could swing normally. His fist impacted the head sideways even as it attempted to bite him and blasted the snake off the tree, its long furry body losing its grip and twisting out into the air.
🌳 Achievement get: Tree Pugilist (unique)
Description: Box high in the branches of natures bounty - not box a tree.
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Stat: +2 Knuckle defense
Stat: +2 Arm muscle power
Climbing up a bit higher James found an easier to defend position and began taking each creature one at a time.
He was well rested and fully awake as minutes dragged onward into an hour. The attacks slowed after the first two and he found it relatively simple to defend his position – most of the dangerous-looking monsters weren’t climbing up toward him. The stream of creatures that could climb were kind enough to mostly come one at a time. It wasn’t what James would consider easy – some attacks leaked through and most of his body was covered in scrapes and slices – but it was maintainable.
As if listening to his thoughts, a creature showed up to flip the stalemate on its head.
What James could only call a troll pushed aside two trees just within view and stepped toward him. Its head was nearly level with the branch James was on and its thick stubby fingers moved surprisingly fast across the distance to grab him.
James felt trapped – a small crowd of creatures below, a solid trunk at his back and the massive sausage fingers reaching out towards him from the front.
James couldn’t see a way out of his predicament. An image of him being munched on by the foul yellow-stained teeth in front of him filled his head.
He could just allow it to happen? Revive back at the city and try again after the death penalty faded?
It would be easy. He had done enough.
No.
James refused to go down without a fight. He refused to be beaten passively – he didn’t want to die again.
Above anything else James didn’t want to lose.
He jumped – grabbing the branch above him – and swung his lower body even as the massive fist closed just below his feet. Pulling his whole body forwards he twisted and hurled himself down the arm.
Towards the creature.
Activating old reliable, James [haste]d forward towards the creature’s face.
The troll swung its second hand – its left arm wrapping towards its right like some couch potato swatting a fly – the fat fingers jiggling as they slapped its biceps right in front of him.
James’s perch began to fall as the troll dropped both of its arms and he lunged forward
He was doing it. He was dodging everything.
Speed.
Speed is the answer. Skill games always have dodging the answer instead of blocking. It doesn’t matter how much damage something does if you never get hit.
He just had to be faster. Faster. Faster.
Jumping onto the hand in front of him and then kicking upwards, James’s body lunged up to the troll's shoulder. He didn’t have a branch anymore but that was fine – he had his body. His body would be his weapon.
James flew sideways – turning on a dime on the troll's massive shoulder and lunging towards its slowly turning head.
Time to use everything.
Curling his arm into a fist James dumped his impact storage feeling his hand blur slightly and shoot forwards.
It felt like he was wearing a glove as he plunged his fist toward the troll's right eye.
With a squelch, his fist popped through the eye and kept going. His arm was suddenly buried nearly completely into the creature’s head.
👀 Achievement get: See this fist? (unique)
Description: Punch through a massive eye.
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Stat: +2 Knuckle defense
Stat: +4 Arm muscle power
He was killing it. He was definitely winning.
Spasming his hand James laughed. He could feel the lumpy mess around his arm. He had to be digging around the troll’s brain. Any moment now.
The troll's hand wrapped around James’s body and squeezed.
It has to be dead soon.
Slowly James found himself pulled off the creature's shoulder. His arm slowly ever so slowly emerged from the eye socket absolutely covered in a greenish slime – a wet sound accompanying its extraction.
James struggled even as he was pulled up and held at arm's length away from the monster.
It was…smiling. Its almost humanoid face stared at James in malevolent glee as the goop around its eye grew and patched the surroundings.
Over the course of thirty-something seconds, all indication that James had attacked it was gone. Its face was now unblemished – its ugly grey skin had grown through the goop all the gore that had fallen down its face had almost evaporated.
The troll reached out with its second arm and grabbed onto James’s – his right one, the one he had used to punch the creature.
Pinching then yanking the troll began to pull. James’s arm was extended out and held tight. Incredibly tight.
His skin and bones had been enhanced by over a dozen defensive stats by this point. That wasn’t an insane amount but it was a significant one. It was to the point that James felt like his arm was sturdier than a normal human had any right to be.
The troll twisted and something popped.
The bones and skin were enhanced…they could deal with a lot of impacts.
The troll spun James’s arm skin twisting in around his shoulder like a sausage being formed. James leeched each tug and twist. He dragged as much force out of the troll's drag as he could.
A final tear and his arm was off. A massive rush of charge filled James’s skill – more than anything up to this point.
The arm flopped in the troll's massive hand in an almost comical manner the shock and light pain made James laugh. The crunch as it was brought up to the troll's teeth and began to be chewed was anything but humorous but James continued to chuckle. If anyone were around to watch they would have thought he had lost it – his pained laughter was almost maniacal.
Twisting, James bit down on one of the troll's fingers his teeth sinking through and biting off a small chunk of skin and green goop beyond.
His monster meat knowledge was filling gaps in his memory – the troll had to be a monstrous equivalent of a ‘distributed body’. The way it healed could mean it had an incredibly strong distributive body – the fact that James’s attacks had actually pierced it pointed to a different option however. It had a monstrous version of a skill. Some sort of healing affinity. Life-based. That meant its flesh had a chance of having a healing component as well.
This hope filled James’s head as he ripped and swallowed a chunk of flesh off the creature's finger. This hope-filled his mind even as a pungent sweaty taste dripped down his throat.
🥩 Achievement get: Mutual cannibalism. (unique)
Description: Eat of something that is currently eating of you. Tit for tat. An eye for an eye. Bite for bite.
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Stat: +20 Blood defense
The troll brought James’s whole body towards its face opening its mouth wide teeth bloody from James’s arm.
This was the end.
He had done all he could.
No!
It was ironic how much James now struggled for his life. Less than a week before he would have said he didn’t care if he lived or died. Right now, he would do anything to survive just another second. Breathe and continue struggling for a single moment.
Ripping all the charges out of his arm being twisted off, James pulled down and twisted with all his might – dumping his “revenge attack” into a spinning escape.
Maybe that had been enough, Maybe the hand had started to loosen as it made to toss James into the troll's mouth. Either way, it worked. James found himself squeezing through the bottom of the fist and falling back towards the ground.
Skill break?
Yes No
The ground came up hard James landed on his back and smashed his head into the soil. [Haste] was off cooldown. He had to activate it.
James stared upwards without moving for a solid moment. The troll was bending down to pick him up again. The ethereal fox – patiently waiting all this time – was bounding towards his fallen form.
[Haste]
James was moving even before he was fully upright. He had nine seconds to run. Nine seconds to lose dozens of creatures. Nine more seconds to live.
His charge broke through an encirclement of monsters – several snapping mouths or grasping appendages being ignored as he thundered through the trees.
High above, light was beginning to filter through the trees. The first rays of dawn.
He just had to make it till daytime. There were fewer monsters then. He could survive the next day so long as he reached it.
James broke through the treeline. A sandy biome met his eyes, a single monster in front of him. The monster was something like a hunched monkey with an impossibly large mouth – an upper jaw that started around its ‘head’ and a lower jaw well into its belly.
James jumped still sped up by his cheat, moving forward with his one saving grace.
His foot kicked out – smashing off the top of the monster's head as he ran.
Stumbling for a second James landed and jumped forward again. Ahead of him a giant pool of water awaited his sight. A crystal clear pond – or miniature lake James wasn’t sure of the correct classification – met his sight.
Reaching the edge James dived forward.
A cool rush broke across his head dark splotches blinking across his eyes for a second.
He had hit the water hard – his [haste] fueled dive flinging him forward like he had just left a cannon.
Deeper into the water James swam awkwardly. [Haste] deactivated and he felt a rush of clarity come over him.
His right arm was completely gone. His enhanced body prevented it from being deadly but he was still bleeding steadily – worse so in the water. James treaded red water slowly bleeding out into the pool.
Near the shore, the fox had arrived and was staring at him.
Several smaller monsters were starting to appear behind it. This was it. They were going to swim towards him. Maybe this pond had a shark or something in it. The world seemed to have it out for him right now.
James continued to tread water watching the fox. The light of dawn was bright by this point. Around the fox creatures seemed almost to disappear one by one, some dug into the sand others flickered out like a bad connection, still others turned into goop like the creatures in the tutorial had. The fox turned and walked away.
🌅 Achievement get: Survive a night in the ‘badlands’ (Unique)
Description: The first to do something many would deem insane. You have survived an entire night deep in the chaotic spill of corruption. A fluke or the first of many? Only time will tell.
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Stat: +9 Free Body power.
Stat: +9 Free Body defense.
Stat: +9 Free Body speed.
James continued to tread water for a while before swimming towards the opposite shore.
One-handed, James slowly but surely dragged his body out of the water.
His whole body ached – hundreds of scrapes and bruises he had been ignoring throbbing into existence. His missing arm was a raw ache. A pinprick of pain hovered around his cores. Despite that James was happy. He had done it. He had survived.
He had won.