JESSIE : LEVEL 2

DAY 6 : F-DAY, FIRSTWEEK, AGNI, YEAR 1

OUTSET 2 : RUINS DUNGEON 1 : SPIDERS

Somehow, my singular goal of obtaining a katana has left me with a longsword, massive debt, and probationary admission to not only the largest guild in the world, but also a global orgy franchise. I don't quite know how to reckon with that. So instead, I head out.

For the first time, I pass through the Town of All Beginnings’ actual entrance. So that’s what’s at the end of the fence… You’d think there’d be a road or something. Moving through the arches, I step from packed cobblestone, directly onto lush grass infested with flowers the way my mom’s old apartment was with weeds. The instant that foot accepts my full weight, I get three notifications.

[ NEW MAIN QUEST: TOURNAMENT OF ASCENSION — SUCCESS: EARN YOUR RIGHT TO ASCEND — XP: 2,097,152 — REWARD 1: RIGHTS OF ASCENSION — REWARD 2: 1 RANDOM UNIQUE ITEM OF CHOSEN TYPE — DIFFICULTY: NIGHTMARE ]

[ NEW ULTIMATE QUEST: BECOME A HERO KING — SUCCESS: CONQUER HEAVEN — XP: MAX — REWARD 1: 1 DIVINE ITEM — REWARD 2: 1 DIVINE INVITE — REWARD 3: 1 DIVINE THRONE — REWARD 4: 1 DIVINE BED — DIFFICULTY: DREAM ]

[ NEW HIDDEN QUEST: UNITE THEM — SUCCESS: COMPLETE THIS QUEST TO SEE ITS DESCRIPTION AND REWARD — XP: 64 — DIFFICULTY: EASY ]

Not exactly actionable, are they? The system’s a little slow on the uptake with these… Or maybe quest stuff just can’t happen in towns?

Putting aside the extraneous revelation, I dismiss the unneeded system nonsense crowding my vision. I then re-crowd my vision with different system nonsense as I expand my minimap, zooming out enough to see my new goal. Which is in the middle of, as far as I can tell, nowhere. But Apparently, that’s precisely where I can find the only dungeon in a thousand miles that can maybe, sometimes, rarely drop a katana.

And, of course, that particular loot comes only from the boss. So I’ll have to fight my way through the whole thing just for a single chance. Which means I’ll have to keep clearing it again, and again, and who-knows-how-many-more times. Not to get the best katana. Not even to get a particularly good one. Just to get any katana at all. And, of course, it’s an estimated ten-hour walk on foot. Which is, of course, the only way to get there.

Fuck, I’m grouchy… Probably all the socializing. Well, at least I have a chance to try this.

[ COMMON TOGGLE ON: RADIAL AWARENESS ]

I was wondering what this would feel like. But nothing seems to change. Actually, upon closer inspection, I realize that I’m now distinctly aware of a flower slightly behind and to the left of my right shoe. And all the little blades of grass under it, come to think of it. And the dirt under that. There’s a worm moving around in there. Huh… With a shrug, I face my waypoint and start running.

Almost immediately, I lose track of time. Wow… I guess shoving all my points into speed and stamina paid off. I’m sprinting faster than ever, yesterday’s running leap included, and I’m nowhere near out of breath. I swear I used to get more exhausted from laying in bed. And thanks to Radial Awareness, my body practically auto-dodges every obstacle in my way as I run full-tilt.

I mean I’ve always had great reflexes. Jumping ability notwithstanding, it’s the only physical attribute I was ever legitimately proud of. And I thought a bit of forewarning would help my little tripping issue from earlier. But this? This one Skill alone practically turns my natural ability to kick James’ ass at fighting games into a real-life fucking superpower. Mentally sprinting right past that thought, I grasp the closest one I can think of. Like how with the added reflexes from my Speed STAT, I might even be able to beat Thomas at… NOPE. No time to think about that.

Relatability aside, I just sort of ‘know’ everything about anything within around half a foot of my body. It doesn’t even matter how fast I’m moving. Or if I close my eyes. I don’t even have to think about it. In fact, the few moments when I do are the only times I fuck up and trip all over myself. Also rocks and stuff.

But when I’m not getting in my own way by consciously overthinking any given step? The time it takes my body to close the distance with anything I can possibly trip over is more than enough for me to subconsciously adjust my overall positioning to compensate. It’s the same with the logs, the trees, their roots… Everything. I feel like I’m phasing through it all like a ghost. Even with all my Aptitude points going into Stamina, my MP still recovers faster than the skill can drain it. And speaking of Stamina, those points were apparently the difference needed for my SP to recover faster than all the sprinting in the world can deplete. It doesn’t matter how fast I go. Or for how long. I don’t so much as get winded.

I can even sing while I do it. And that doesn’t run me out of breath, either. “Can you PAAAINT-” I take a running leap off a rocky outcrop. “With all the COLORS of-” I land in the middle of a small flower-covered forest grove, arms in the air like I just landed the final jump in a gymnastics routine. “THUUUHHH-WIIINNND!!!” Holy fuck, I just realized… I’m smiling. For real this time. Not from opportunism or self-satisfaction or something being funny or any of that. Just pure, unadulterated joy. My mouth is stretched wide and everything.

For most people, that probably isn’t saying much. But for me? Practically unheard of. I just stand there for as long as it takes my smile to disappear naturally. I refuse to end this early. As my involuntary face distortion fades more and more into voluntarity, I finally lower my arms, thankful, for so, so many reasons, that no one was around to see any of that. Moment well and truly over, I get going again, content about having gotten as much out of that as I could. And I feel good about that. Seems like a healthy way to be. Even if I do still have the ‘overthinking it’ part to work on…

Nearly two hours after leaving town, my alleged ten-hour run ends. Expanding my minimap just to be sure, I verify that this is, in fact, the right place. And in front of me is, unmistakably, ‘some kind of ruins’. It matches the shitty description from that quest hall map perfectly. I know I was going fast, but five-times speed? Actually, yeah. I could buy that. Just because it was easy and fun doesn’t mean it wasn’t efficient. I saw how fast I was going. To be honest, I’m just kinda disappointed I’m here already. I could keep running… Not like I have anywhere to be. But no, I still really want that katana.

Not to diminish the fact that this has to be the first time I personally beat the walking ETA for anything. Feels like a weird thing to be proud of. But… I am. I’m proud of myself. About athletics. Wow… It’s true. Sometimes, you really don’t know how much you need something until you get it. I bask in that for a moment. About as long as I stood in that clearing back there. Then I take a deep breath of fresh air. “Whelp…”

[ PRIMARY WEAPON EQUIPPED: STEEL LONGSWORD — DAMAGE: 11 PHY ]

With a light tug, I feel the sheathed longsword just kind of appear on my waist. It feels… Wrong. Just wrong enough to be off-putting. But not quite wrong enough to put my finger on why. I’m really not a fan of this sword-based uncanny valley thing I’ve got going on here. Gotta find a katana…

First things first, though. I square myself, facing a boulder just outside the ruins’ shimmery purple entrance. Now how do you activate-woah!

[ COMMON ACTION: IAI QUICKDRAW ]

Unsheathing my sword faster than I thought possible, I accidentally fling it in the general direction its hilt was facing. I wince as the sword leaves my hand, flies through the air, and ineffectively clatters off the side of a tree.

[ SP: 304/320 ]

For a minute, I just look at it laying on the ground over there. Worse than the singing by far… With each passing second, I’m increasingly overcome with existential embarrassment to be in my own skin. Even after my SP recovers and the world resets to a point where it might as well have never happened. I think I’ll just go ahead and pretend it didn’t. But I guess at least that’s proof-positive that practicing was a good idea after all…

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After a long debate with myself about how to avoid doing so, I walk-of-shame over to my sword and gingerly pick it up. Re-sheathing it, I walk back to the rock with only slightly less shame, brace myself, and try again. And again. But every time I try to slice into the rock, it bounces off. What kind of shit-ass magic sword did I just blow all my money on? But it definitely does have a damage rating… So it’s not like the sword can be truly ineffectual. System windows don’t lie. I think. At least I’m not throwing the thing around anymore. And I’ve been standing here ineffectually practicing for… How long?

Belatedly, I notice that it’s dark now. With an upwards glance, I flinch in surprise to find the moon hanging overhead in the night sky just where the sun was last time I checked. When did that happen? Suddenly far more wary of stagnating at the start than fucking it up, I turn away from my practice rock and towards the purple barrier separating dungeon from woods.

Nodding to myself, completely unprepared, ready as I’ll ever be, I charge into the unknown ruins. As I do, I bellow a war cry to mask the fact that if it were up to me, I’d never actually do it. Except thanks to having never bellowed anything like a war cry, it comes out as incoherent shrieking. “GYAAAH!!!”

Jumping into the transparent purple barrier, it feels like I’m transposing through a massive, impossibly thick soap bubble. But instead of popping like it clearly should, it just kind of wraps itself around me, closing back together once I’m through. It’s a curious effect that I ignore in favor of frantic screaming and swinging my sword back and forth. Ineffectually as it turns out, seeing as how the only thing waiting for me on the other side is the same empty moss-covered courtyard I pictured upon reading it was ‘some kind of ruins’. No monsters, traps, or threats of any kind. Feeling rather silly now, I stop screaming.

The whole place is… Empty? Well then…

An archway decorates the otherwise uninterrupted courtyard walls denoting each cardinal direction. Other than the one I just passed through, the three others each lead into a different, sharply downward-curving hallway. I’d have to get closer to see more than a few scant meters down each path.

So, picking one at random, I make for the tunnel right across from me.

As I approach it, I hear some faint skittering noises from somewhere in the distance.

“Fuck.” I go faster.

They get louder.

“Fuck!” I accelerate.

The pattern continues.

“-FUCKFUCKFUCK!!!” Scrambling for the archway at a dead sprint, I do everything in my power to somehow outrun the skittering now coming from everywhere at once.

Still seeing nothing out of the ordinary, my Radial Awareness picks up something big a few inches from my head. Above… And falling!

With the same unconscious reaction I had with every root and uneven patch of ground on the way here, I feel the stone beneath my feet crack as I launch myself forward with everything I have. So much so that my legs immediately start to ache. That would’ve barely been a notable result of exercise around this time last week. But now? Never mind the joyful forest jog earlier. This has to be the fastest I’ve ever moved. Not fast enough though. Mid-jump, all my forward movement vanishes as something grabs, and subsequently crushes my legs between it and the stone floor.

I can’t do much besides lay where I landed, trapped, and eliciting a dull, groaning whine. Ow… My thighs… This is an entirely new kind of pain. Even those bullets from a minute ago… NOPE.

I vaguely feel the weight of my longsword slowly sliding out of its sheath and ineffectively clattering on the floor next to me, even as I fight the urge to scream from the pain. But if any actual sound comes out of my mouth, or the sword as it clatters, or the ground it clatters on, I can’t hear it over a distinctly worse noise.

The skittering I was running from is literally deafening now. And my radial awareness is picking up more than just the slamming of what, as I crane my neck around, I now realize is a distinctly hallway-shaped stone slab. And, to my horror, it’s flush with the ground. There’s no doubt about it. My legs from the knee-down are pancaked underneath.

The pain… Where’s the pain? My thighs hurt like hell, but… Oh. The nerves are destroyed, aren’t they? Oh god, my legs…

I try to move. I can’t. Just like when… Oh god.

Already objectively less than stable, I can’t quite tell when I truly start to panic. I barely even notice the movement I’m sensing.

The skittering is all around me now. Like before, only closer. Much, much closer.

I run for it. But no. I don’t do that. Not even a little bit. Focusing past, above, and beyond the stabbing pain from my ruined legs, I struggle to do something. I’ll settle for anything. I try everything. But I’ve got nothing. “Help…”

More skittering.

“Somebody!”

Louder skittering.

“ANYBODY!!!”

But there’s nobody. Just skittering. Closer. And in front of me now.

“HEEELP!!!” But no matter how well I accept my own weakness, the only help that comes is exactly what I was afraid of. I can’t see anything in this unlit tunnel. But they’re close enough for my radial awareness to pick them up. Spiders… Big spiders. Big, harry spiders. ‘Werespiders’? Wait, no… ‘Spiderwolves’? It’s at this pedantic debate with myself over pointless terminology that my panic comes full circle, overwhelming my mind’s firm desire to run as far from the situation as it can get.

In a moment of clarity, I snap back to reality. But as soon as it reasserts itself, reality leads right back to fear. Fear leads back to panic. But this time, panic leads to courage. Courage leads to action. Pure, unthinking action.

Out of fear, I grab for my fallen longsword. In a panic, I remember that the closest path between two points is a straight line. Courageously, I make full use of all my knife-throwing experience, combined with my new superhuman strength, and throw the sword straight at the thing.

It flies fast. And true. And spinning, straight at the spider’s face.

“YES!!!”

Not having bothered dodging, the massive furry spider gets wanged in the many-eyed forehead by the steel longsword’s leather hilt.

I watch in despair as a nearly transparent red ‘7’ floats up from the spot it hit. “What..?”

It clatters to the hallway floor.

In retrospect, I remember that I’ve never actually thrown a knife before. I only saw it in ‘cartoons’. It looked so simple… “FUCK!!!”

The spider, now clearly aware that I’m trapped underneath the rubble, bounds forward and reaches me in a moment.

“FUCKFUCKFUCK!!!”

Surging forward, it bites into my outstretched throwing arm.

An equally transparent red ‘11’ slowly floats up from the alarmingly deep spiderwolf bite.

“AAAH!!!” Despite the scream, I barely feel the bite. Oh god, I’m in shock… That knowledge only deepens my panic. “Ohfuckohfuckofuck-”

The kytanous spiderwolf bites me again. Another red ‘11’.

“Aaah!” I can’t move. I’m totally helpless to-

Another bite. Another ‘11’ floats up from the wound.

Am… Am I actually in shock though? No… No, the bites just don’t actually hurt very much. That’s when I notice my last few notifications.

[ HP: 128/256 ]

[ HP: 117/256 ]

[ HP: 106/256 ]

Oh for crying out loud…

Even as everything falls into perspective, the spider bites me again.

[ HP: 95/256 ]

In a fit of indignation, I punch the spider in the same spot my sword hit. A transparent red ‘20’ floats above where the punch landed. So I punch again. And again.

But that’s all I have time for before it bites me once more.

[ HP: 84/256 ]

I keep punching. I score three solid hits. 60 total damage. One last punch accompanies a lone red ‘9’.

All together, its legs and head detach, leaving only a basketball-sized torso to fall and splat on the ground like some kind of fucked-up deflating meat-balloon. Then, a golden, sparkling transparent ‘1’ floats up out of the mess.

Giving me no time to celebrate the first monster I ever killed, two more spiders skitter up and bite me as soon as they’re close enough to reach.

[ HP: 62/256 ]

I punch them too. But I only have time for one hit each before another shape obscures my view from above. It’s furry. And oddly smooth. And carapace… FUCK.

Each of the three spiders bite my left bicep, right shoulder, and nose respectively.

[ HP: 29/256 ]

“FUCK!!!” I don’t even have time to get the new spider off my face before the world cuts to black.

[ HP: 0/256 ]

[ YOU DIED — XP DEBT: 63+64=127 — RESPAWN DELAY: 8 HOURS ]

…FUCK!!!