Alright, now we’re talking! I’m alive and I have a quest. A quest! It’s like a fantasy come to life. Now how do I get out of here? Matter of fact where exactly is here? How far did I fall? Shit, guess I better look for the stairs. Does it even have stairs? I laughed to myself while bitterly shaking my head. Dusting myself off as I looked around. Peering into a deep darkness, that hasn’t seen any source of light for millennia, seeing as perfectly as if it were in broad daylight.
I found myself lost in the cavernous depths of a dungeon. Unaware of how far I had fallen or how long I was “dead” before I came back. I found corpses of some of my fallen comrades and considered packing myself a little snack. I know it’s technically cannibalism, but who knows when I will find food? NO! CONTROL YOURSELF! It’s not a life-or-death situation yet. Don’t disrespect the dead. You’re better than that.
“I'm not desperate yet,” I said while staring at the heavens.
Casting one last glance back at the potential food source I quickly brush myself off with a shudder. I started to collect several packs that weren’t buried in the rubble. It took me quite a while but I managed to collect several packs in good condition and I was able to scrounge up more than a few pickaxes. After gathering all the supplies I wanted to take with me I soon discovered my mistake.
Now, how the fuck am I supposed to carry all this shit with my little goblin self? I’m like 3.5 feet tall, this stuff weighs more than I do. I’d topple right over trying to carry this. I thought to myself while I repeatedly smacked my forehead. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
As I continued to try to knock some sense into myself an idea started to form. As the thought continued to develop I kept smacking myself. Eureka! My internal voice shouted as an idea came to me. Brilliant! Just brilliant! I rubbed my hands together and shouted, “Let's do some magic!”.
I shut my eyes and tried to center my mind. Focus! You want to use magic but you don’t know exactly how to. Hmmm, maybe thinking about it will work? Summon Golem! Hmmm. Summon Golem, please? Nope, that didn’t work either. Go, Go, Summon Golem! Ugh, why won’t this work? Summon Golem magic to activate? Scratching my head vigorously I pondered my failures. Maybe you just have to speak the spell? Can’t hurt to try. Here goes nothing.
“Summon Golem!”, I yelled.
As I yelled these words green energy started to flow from my hands into the ground in a steady stream. It was shocking at first because it felt like lightning flowing through my body, but that feeling vanished as the green energy pooled together and drained into the ground. Please be good. I thought to myself as I waited for the results of my first-ever spellcasting.
The ground in front of me started to rumble and crack. The rumbling became stronger as the started to widen. The cracks stopped as liquid clay bubbled out of the earth and flowed up and started to form a rough shape. The clay shape continued to grow until it stood at a massive size. Leave me be this damn golem is at least twice my size. Shit, it’s almost as wide as it is tall. Well, I’ll be damned magic is FUCKING AWESOME!
I stood in silence awestruck at my golem. MY GOLEM! I’m so cool. I admired my handiwork for a while. The Golem was a wondrous sight to behold. Massive in form and made of hardened rocky clay. Jagged edges and sharp points. Enormous hands that made grinding noises when moved. He was a masterpiece. He was perfection, rough as he was.
“I’ve created my very own beast of burden!” I shouted in excitement.
“Golem, as your Master, I command thee to pick up and carry my luggage,” I ordered.
“Yesss…. My Lord.” the golem replied in a gravelly voice.
“Yo… you can speak?” I blurted out in shock.
“Yesss... A little my Lord.” responded the Golem.
This is amazing. The Golem speaks. I mean yeah he sounds like a small child but he CAN talk. Calm down before you faint from excitement. Relax it’s only a golem YOU CREATED! As the excitement raced through every fiber of my mind the golem started to move. I watched as the golem lumbered over slowly toward the large pile of packs filled with equipment. With every step came the sound of giant rocks clapping together and the earth trembled.
The Golem's giant arms reached down and started putting the straps of the packs around his head. After it had finished he made his way back to me and looked at me with what seemed to be a rocky smile.
“I… Help…” it said with a grin.
I set forth on my journey to return to the surface, with my trusty pack golem by my side. Carefully making my way around the cavern I found myself looking for a way up. Usually, you find the Boss Room, and after you win you get an exit. I’m not sure if this dungeon has one. Or if I even want to find it, might be out of my league right now, based on how deep I am. I shrugged my shoulders and traversed into one of the many tunnels leading out of where I died. Guess we’ll find out eventually. I walked down this particular tunnel for what seemed like a long time but was about an hour before stopping in my tracks. Something’s different here. It smells different. As I stood still with the golem not moving I noticed it was eerily quiet. Too quiet!
The silence was grating on my nerves as I tried to listen and smell whatever it was that had me so on edge. My eyes darted back and forth as I tried to locate any signs of an attack. Right there! My ears twitched and I immediately turned and stared at the tunnel on my left. An ambush! Muscles tensed, hands ready to cast at the slightest provocation, I waited and crouched down. What am I fighting? Just reveal yourself to me, you bastard! As soon as my internal voice finished speaking a single monster hopped its way into my vision.
A slime! Oh, this will be easy. I sighed with relief after seeing it was just slime. Looking to my right I picked up the closest rock that had a decent size. Rock in hands I moved to commit a little slime murder with the vigorous bashing. As the slime hopped closer I brought the rock down repeatedly until I had made it into a pile of slime jelly. It was at this point that I heard several sickening squelchy plops as many slimes dropped from the tunnel ceiling. Oh shit! I just had to go and jinx myself. As I spun around to face the filthy ambushers, they started to hop and rush me.
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“Bone Armor!” I chanted.
Thick bone plates appeared in front of me and enveloped my body like a suit of armor. Sweet I bet I look so badass right now! As the bone armor formed on my body started to focus my energy on another spell. The energy started to pool in both hands as they began to glow, overflowing with my magic.
“Summon Spirits!” I roared multiple times.
Skulls cloaked in green flames burst into existence right before me as I felt my MP drain almost completely. One after another they appeared until five of them were hovering near me. Breathing heavily I steadied my drained body.
“Everyone attack!” I ordered.
The five summoned spirits soared toward the slimes viciously slamming into them repeatedly. Slimes started to break and the jelly started to boil as the flames wreaked havoc. As I was admiring the effectiveness of my minions, something heavy hit me in the back. I fell and hit the ground hard losing what little breath I had regained. I rolled away and tried to get back on my feet while several slimes ricocheted off my armor. After another roll and a few bone-covered punches, I managed to extricate myself and regain my footing. Damn! Still out of mana. I can’t cast anything until it regenerates. Ok, it’s your time to shine golem.
“Golem, defend me!” I commanded.
“Ok..” The Golem responded.
The Golem lumbered his great bulk over toward me and took up a defensive posture. As the slimes drew near us the Golem gleefully responded by savagely stomping on them. The Golem continued to stampede over the slimes, and some of them hopped in the air in an attempt to damage the Golem. Those foolish enough to do this wound up in the clutches of rocky fists and squeezed until they popped. A gravelly bellow of laughter erupted from the Golem as he stomped the slimes like he was a child playing in rain puddles.
I watched slack-jawed at the absolute glee in which my creation took in slaughtering my enemies. Absolutely amazing. Oh, man Necromancy was the right choice. These minions are awesome. I wonder what new powers I’ll receive as I level up and restore belief to Chooftoof. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. I stopped paying attention to the Golems' amusement and checked to see how my spirits were doing. The simplicity of flaming skulls just repeatedly bashing into an enemy and causing such destruction was mesmerizing. When the group of slimes was reduced to 5, the skulls started to vanish one after another.
Looks like Summon Spirits has a duration of a little over 3 minutes at level 2. It’s not bad. As the last of the spirits dissipated, the slimes renewed the endless hopping in my direction. I don’t haven’t recovered enough of my mana for the spirits needed for this fight. Guess we’ll see how well my other spell does. I waited patiently, baiting the slimes into the optimal area to maximize the effectiveness of this upcoming spell.
“Decay!” I shouted as I pointed to the slime in the center.
A dark mist sprayed out of the tip of my finger hitting the middle slime and dispersing in a cloud hitting the rest of them as well. These spell effects are pretty neat! The slimes briefly turned a deep purple before returning to normal.
What the hell? I get damage and status combat pop-ups? This world is so trippy. I was bombarded and knocked off balance by several slimes as I was distracted by the messages. I quickly recovered and started delivering punches to the best of my ability. Attempting to do as much damage as I could while also knocking them away to let the disease damage over time effect finish them off. It was quite a lengthy endeavor. These slimes while quite weak physically seemed to have a sizeable HP bar. Every punch that sent a slime flying, two more would replace it. Whew, this is tiring me out way too fast. I need to make myself better in combat situations. Need to have a backup plan for when my minions run out.
My punches started slowing the more my chest started heaving. Lungs working furiously to supply my tired and tiny arms with the required oxygen to continue fighting for my life. The slimes started to hit me more as my steam dwindled. Panic began kicking in as I counted down the seconds ticking by. Cracks laced my bone armor as I received more hits than I was dealing. One by one the slimes started to die as larger chunks of my bone armor turned to dust, until only one remained. It hopped and hit me square in the chest knocking me on my ass.
As I unceremoniously hit the ground the remainder of my bone armor shattered and turned to dust. Desperately trying to catch my breath I looked at the line of remaining slime. Mid hop the slime fell apart and landed on the ground with sickening plops. I sighed in relief as the last of the ambushing slimes was vanquished.
Level 7
Goblin
Youngling
Chooftoofs Chosen
HP : 120
MP : 150
SP : 140
Str : 7
Dex : 6
Con : 10
Int : 8
Wis : 7
Cha : 1
3 new skill points. Let's level up Summon Spirits, Create Golem, and Bone Armor.
Skills
Dark Vision
Summon Spirits Lvl 3
Create Golem Lvl 3
Bone Armor Lvl 2
Decay Lvl 1
Hot Damn! I gained enough experience points from fighting slimes for 3 whole levels. Man, I need to get out of this newb status and become a powerhouse quickly. But it seems I only get damage and status pop-ups from my attacks and direct damage spells. I wonder what else I don’t know about this world. Interesting to say the least... My train of thought was interrupted as I noticed shiny coins and items strewn across the battlefield. What the hell? I stood up and went over to examine these items.