Ambrose opened his Character sheet, hoping that maybe he could gain some information.
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Ambrose Edward Rogers Level 2 Human Nothing
Attributes:
* Strength of Body: 11
* Speed of Body: 11
* Strength of Mind: 11
* Speed of Mind: 10
* Strength of Soul: 10
* Speed of Soul: 10
Skills:
* Improvised Crafting Level 1 (Uncommon, Mundane)
* Jumping Level 1 (Common, Mundane)
* Perception Level 2 (Common, Mundane)
* Running Level 2 (Common, Mundane)
* Searching Level 1 (Common, Mundane)
* Stealth Level 3 (Common, Mundane)
Abilities:
* Blend (Stealth)
* Create Improvised Item (Improvised Crafting)
* Create Improvised Fix (Improvised Crafting)
* Fall (Jumping)
* Feel (Perception)
* Hide (Stealth)
* Jump (Jumping)
* Listen (Perception)
* Observe (Perception, Searching)
* Run (Running)
* Search (Searching, Perception)
* Skulk (Stealth)
* Smell (Perception)
* Taste (Perception)
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Ambrose didn’t find what he wanted, there were options available to him but none were what he wanted. He could choose to change between the meanings he could read, and the odd symbol representations, which also spread to his Skills and Abilities now. That definitely confirms to me that these are concepts.
He could also show his feat, not that he wanted to. Last of all was the ability to view each of the descriptions of Skills and Abilities again. There were many other smaller options too, all based around filtering or ordering that Ambrose didn’t bother with for now, only choosing to hide all of the Mundane references, a sneer on his face.
Ambrose began pushing himself faster, the corridor of rooms rushing by, taking only moments more to reach the end now that he wasn’t moving at a snail’s pace.
As he stopped running, he entered a new room. Different from the large circular room he had come from, this room was square in shape and had a large symbol on the floor. An exit to the left and the right of the room existed, but Ambrose took the moment to look over the large symbol. While it wasn’t anything he had, he was confident that this was another of the Concept symbols. Unless this is some kind of name, this is probably a Skill of some kind though without any furniture it’s impossible to tell what. The last thing in the room was a large box sitting inside the wall. A hole for a shrine maybe? As he was about to leave, the box caught his eye once more, a small fragment of cloth was sitting in it.
Only about an inch in diameter the somewhat oblong piece of cloth looked to be fancy but old, falling apart into a powder when Ambrose tried to pick it up. He was rewarded with some Skill level notices at least.
Not out of danger yet, if he ever would be, Ambrose moved on, heading towards the right exit. The new hallway slowly curved, so he hoped that by following it long enough he would return to the entrance, also hoping that whatever was outside had heard his god's dinner bell call and decided to follow it. He could certainly hear something nearby, footsteps echoing through the halls as something rushed down a nearby hallway, directionless. Dropping his speed down further, and covering more of his orb, Ambrose began to Skulk along.
No more empty rooms met him, instead small cubbies filled either side of the hall reminiscent of the larger one found in the previous room. The cubbies were far smaller overall, and each had a small plaque sitting below, though all were blank.
Ambrose couldn’t make heads or tails of why the building was empty. This looks more and more like some kind of weird barracks. Side rooms for training and crafting, a ton of rooms to house everyone comfortably, these cubbies would have been peoples armour and weapons.
As he Skulked along, Ambrose was constantly on edge. The sounds in the distance confirmed that his punisher, or punishers, were still after him, actively searching for him after the god confirmed his location. But that was better than the shadows. By reducing the light from his orb, mixed with the ever changing shape of the walls, Ambrose was constantly accosted by shadowy tendrils, his imagination ensuring him that they were the nightmarish claws of a creature right behind him.
It was because of this constant shoulder looking that Ambrose walked directly into a fleshy wall. Falling to the ground in shock and exhaustion Ambrose dropped his knife and began scrambling backwards. No longer covering the orb with his body, the light flared up.
A large creature made of thickened black flesh stood blocking the path, chunky legs explained the plodding noises they made while moving. Similar to the prey creatures found before, no signs of the creature being natural existed. Its face was a mess of noses, mouths, and eyes, with teeth peeking out in between, jutting out in random directions. The only clothing it wore was a necklace of tongues of various shapes and sizes, including several two foot long, freshly dripping with blood, black ones.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Fortunately the creature was slow, it reached out towards Ambrose who managed to scramble back to his feet, running once more. The creature behind him also began to accelerate, getting faster and faster as time went on. Ambrose was breaking away at first, but began to lose more and more ground.
Getting into the large room and heading for the hallway of rooms, the creature was only moments behind. Making a snap decision, Ambrose broke his belt and threw the pouch towards the creature, the orb barely moved, stopping to hover inches away from his fingers, though it was close enough and the creature was blinded, rushing past the turn. Ambrose left the orb behind and began to head into the door laden hallway.
Without the orb, seeing wasn’t easy, the dungeon had enough ambient light that, once adjusted, you could see the difference between wall and not wall. Ambrose, having just stared at his magic night light, could not.
Hand running along the wall he hid in the third room on his right, crumpled into the corner and focused on his Hide Ability, trying to make himself as small as possible.
The seconds ticked by, a slow and quiet plodding approached his hiding place.
The creature checked the first rooms.
The creature checked the second set.
Ambrose was aware of notifications appearing, one by one. His body was beginning to give out on him, the constant feed of adrenaline had been the only thing keeping him awake since he arrived, though even that was hitting its limits. With body shaking from fear, the notifications hit their peak as Ambrose felt the vibrations of a heavy foot land next to him.
Breaths from many nostrils filled his hearing as the seconds stretched on. The breathing stopped as the creature moved away, its vision had clearly not recovered enough to see the small form in the corner.
Ambrose didn’t dare move, letting the creature continue down the hall. Believing it would come back before long, Ambrose fought his desire to stay, sleep, and hope he would wake once more.
Instead he crawled out, slowly moving along the ground until he was reaching the outside of the light from his orb, where he stood and went to recover his things. A second creature lunged out at him from the darkness to his left. Ambrose’s ribs crumpled under the blow as he let out a strangled cry of pain. Thumping steps coming from the hall he was in left him no choice. The creature launched a slow follow up attack toying with Ambrose as it waited for its friend. Ambrose pulled himself forward and reached for his dagger. Gathering the knife from the ground he painfully rose from the ground.
In no condition to run, and delirious from the cocktail of adrenaline, pain, and exhaustion Ambrose decided it was time to take a stand and kill these creatures. “Alright you freaks, you want a fight, well ya got it” Ambrose’s words began to slur together. “I was pulled from another world by some d*BEEPbag god, that means I am secretly the strongest being ever, and have a super secret Skill that will save me at the last moment, letting me kill you dead, so F*BEEP YOU, this is MY anime moment.
Ambrose shuffled forward, stabbing his dagger towards the creature's throat. He began chuckling with madness at the direct hit, the blade sinking deep into the creature. “YES. DIE” The creature did not die, nor did it seem phased.
Grabbing the mess of a human by his head, the creature lifted Ambrose up, who pulled the knife out, spilling dark grey blood and blindly swung at the creature’s arm. Missing the mark, Ambrose slammed his hand into the arm. Before he could recover and swing again, the big meaty paw wrapped around his arm and snapped it to the side.
Ambrose screamed in pain, the creature dropped his arm and grabbed at the unleashed tongue it had been sent to claim. Ripping the fleshy attachment out as the hoarse screams intensified, before they were drowned out by blood. With its job complete, the creature broke down into a pile of dust.
Crumpling to the ground, face first, with broken bones, tears blurred his vision as Ambrose slowly continued choking on his own blood. Fate, or perhaps James, would not let him go just yet, as Ambrose felt a second wind fill his body as he levelled up for the second and final time. The sounds of additional plodding feet rattled his skull. He was picked up and tossed about by the growing group of creatures, they were all clearly the same thing, but different sizes and strengths, being scaled down versions of the one that had doomed him. With no tongue left for them to steal however, the creatures took pleasure elsewhere, breaking bones and eating flesh as fresh as you can get.
Ambrose Edward Rogers, the Sponsored of the God of the Mundane died in agony.
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A group of adventurers sat at the entrance to the old hotel within the Gaol of Neterin. They chatted amongst themselves quietly, taking a small rest before entering into the long abandoned building. “Hold up, I just heard something yell out in there” The group’s archery focused member, who had been the one to speak, raised her hand to get the others to stop as she Skulked towards the entrance, closed her eyes, and focused her Uncommon ranked Perception.
“Some idiot just decided to aggravate anything in there.”
“I didn’t think there was anyone else in here?” The group’s only properly geared member said. The armoured man was the party's tank so it made sense for him to be geared, he stood, grabbing his shield and prepared to rush in after whatever, over confident idiot had snuck into the dungeon alone.
The Ranger shrugged as the group moved in, torches out and ready.
The group searched the hotel, finding that whoever had snuck in had managed to beat a group of Loobins that had been hiding out in the reception and common room. There were signs of a large creature stomping around, it was clearly looking for or following the person down one of the halls.
The ranger looked over the signs in the room, utilising her Observe Ability to come to a conclusion as to what had happened “A big boy moved through here, looks like one of the Hungry wandered in and chased someone down that hall.”
Picking one of the halls to the side of the hall the creature went down in hopes of cutting the person off, before they got themselves killed, the group pushed on at speed.
When they reached the end of their hallway the group found no signs of the person they were searching for, nor the creature chasing after. “Damn, bad guess. We need to hurry”
Running forward, they rushed towards the tailoring room where they were greeted by a series of creatures they didn’t recognise, playing with the corpse of a man in his pyjamas underneath the light of one of the hotel’s Nightlights that occasionally appeared.
The ranger assessed the group of creatures. “Those are Tongue Punishers! He must have broken the rules. We can’t fight them, Run!”
The group began to do so as the group of Punishers chased after, though when they ran into another blocking their path, the group fought to their last breaths.
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In a place outside of Eramen, James watched on in glee.
“Ha! Well that was far more entertaining than expected, the idiot caused such brilliant chaos. That many Punishments left unfulfilled is basically going to write that dungeon off” The god clicked his tongue “What a shame, I guess now we have to wait until I can get a new one” The man turned to the swirling black mass that was the manifestation of Those Beyond, I do hope you were at least somewhat entertained?
Those Beyond just watched on silently, its enjoyment and desires going unknown.