I moved toward the crash site with my pistol at low-ready. Though I felt like I was LARPing as a soldier, I was confident in my firearm proficiency. I knew the basics of gun safety, and dozens of hours at the range meant that my aim was decent.
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHOOSE YOUR SPELLS?]
A new textbox appeared in the center of my vision. I was really starting to feel a sense of passive-aggression from the System. It wasn’t so subtle in its suggestions that I integrate into its mechanics quickly. I figured that the System was on my side, ultimately. For one reason or another, it wanted me to level up and gain power, and I had to be alive to do that.
“Sure.”
A long list of spells appeared in my vision. To most people, the list would have been overwhelming, but I understood the list like the back of my hand. The spell list was taken, almost word-for-word, from a game that I was very familiar with: Dungeon King.
[PICK TWO CANTRIPS AND TWO 1ST-LEVEL SPELLS]
I didn’t even bother reading the entire textbox before I rattled off my answers. I had created so many first-level Mages in the wee hours of the morning that I could do it with my eyes closed.
“[Fire Arrow] and [Lightning Hand] for cantrips. [Magic Arrow] and [Aegis] for first-level spells.”
For the first of many times, a torrent of information entered my mind like a rushing stream. In an instant, I knew how to cast those spells. It wasn’t much information, because spells of that level only required you to point at your target and shout the name of the spell. Though all first-level spells worked that way, I knew that I couldn’t cast any other spells. Something in the System must have limited casting like that.
At the bottom right of the [Menu], a new pop-up labeled [Spellslots] appeared. Two small boxes like the bubbles on a scantron appeared next to a small text box with "Level 1" written on it.
A small pop up appeared in the center of my vision.
Fire Arrow: Ranged spell attack that deals 1-10 MD upon contact.
Lightning Hand: Melee spell attack that deals 1-8 MD upon contact.
Magic Arrow: Fires three projectiles that automatically hit unless interrupted. Each projectile deals 1-4 MD upon contact.
Aegis: Creates a barrier that completely covers the body and soaks up to 10 MD per spell level. This spell lasts for six seconds after casting, and it will block the [Magic Arrow] spell.
There were certain differences between the Revelation System and Dungeon King, as I was starting to see. There was no mention of Defense Class, and [Aegis] seemed to grant temporary hit points instead of making it harder to hit the player.
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As I walked, I began to wonder how the System quantified my pistol. Would it function like Dungeon King where a pistol was only as strong as a crossbow, or would it deal more damage? I used the [Menu] to navigate to the [Equipment] page and saw the item at the top of the list.
High-Capacity Pistol: This type of pistol is favored by law-enforcement and soldiers as a back-up weapon. It is quite effective against non-enhanced humans, but the System will soon make such weapons obsolete. Ranged weapon, deals 3-24 SD upon contact.
I was really starting to wonder what SD and MD meant. All my spells dealt MD, but my gun dealt SD. What did those abbreviations mean? Standard Damage and Magic Damage? Why did I have no MDC, then? Would all spells instantly kill me?
Just as I was about to ask the System another question, a loud noise echoed through the forest. It sounded like a tortured animal, like a gazelle or deer that had just been shot by an unskilled hunter. I raised my pistol a few degrees and moved toward the sound.
Soon, I came upon the source of the sound. Lying on the ground was a large buck that was writhing in pain. Something had clamped onto its skull, and it was screaming in abject agony. The strange thing attached to its head resembled an octopus with dark gray tendrils and a single humanoid eye.
Something about the creature deeply unsettled me. The creature moved as if it was completely unaffected by gravity, and it was clear that its tentacles were different from those of a normal octopus. I could tell that there was muscle and bone contained within those tentacles, and with each rapid movement, the bones cracked and shattered. The gray entity’s very existence was unnatural, and it would certainly tear itself apart if it continued to move like that.
The buck continued to scream as the creature bore into its eyes and ears. Within seconds, it had disappeared inside of the buck’s skull. The gray entity immediately began to integrate the buck’s skull, though it quickly became clear that the creature did not fully understand what the buck was supposed to look like.
The flesh and bone of the buck sloughed off like it was in the final stages of leprosy and was soon replaced by a pure-black mass in an approximation of a buck. The buck’s antlers fell to the ground with its scalp, leaving a shrunken black head that resembled that of a canine more than a deer.
The animalistic screaming came to an eerie halt, and the strange gestalt entity that remained of the deer slowly shambled to its feet. The black orbs that comprised the creature’s eyes turned to me as it began to move. I could hear the cracking of bone and the tearing of flesh as it began to stand.
I snapped out of my reverie as the beast began to stand. It was so unnatural, so horrifying, that I was completely paralyzed in fear for several seconds. With my senses returned to me, I did the only thing I could think of.
I began shooting.
The first bullet struck the creature in the head, but it simply pinged off as if striking steel at an angle. The beast was completely unharmed by the attack.
Not allowing the fear to slow my movements, I altered my aim and put two rounds into the deer’s midsection. It had just managed to stand, so the shot was quite easy. The bullets tore through the deer and destroyed many of the organs within. I knew that I must have hit its lungs or heart, but it continued to shamble toward me.
I stepped back in fear and fired three more times at the shambling deer creature. My first shot went wide, but the next two pierced its body and tore apart its insides. The deer had made it halfway to me when the damage to its internal organs simply became too much, and it fell to the ground.
I let out a sigh of relief and lowered my pistol just slightly. Even something like that would be killed by four shots to the body. Then, to my horror, the octopus-like entity began to detach itself from the failing body of its deer host. It wiggled and squirmed out of the deer’s empty eye socket, and suddenly began to shoot through the air toward me.