‘You need to let me go,’ I said to the guard on duty. Unfortunately it was the burly dwarf soldier at this particular moment—the one who hadn’t even pretended to give me the benefit of the doubt.
‘The baron requests you as a witness,’ he replied, voice gruff.
‘And they usually imprison their witnesses, do they?’
The guard smiled that same mocking smile that I’d seen in the interrogation chamber. ‘They ain’t normally level zero.’
‘And that makes a difference why?’
‘We let you go, there isn’t any guarantee you don’t get killed by a bandit. Or a stray cow. Or a…’
‘...particularly strong gust of wind?’ the woman in the cell opposite suggested.
The dwarf pointed his thumb at her, as if to say “yeah, or that”.
‘I’ll be fine!’ I protested. ‘I’ll take it slow. I’ll go after some starter beasts—I’ll go kill some wolves or whatever is in fashion these days. Easy. I’ll be fine.’
‘Even most twelve year olds have a couple of levels of combat skills under their belt, though, don’t they? Not sure I’d fancy your chances against a wolf. Might be some rats in these dungeons, though?’
‘Oh good,’ I mumbled, casting a quick glance at the floor.
The guard turned to leave, opening the door to return to his post outside.
‘You have no right to keep me here!’
The dwarf responded only by raising his arms in a shrug, then closed the dungeon’s door behind him once more.
‘Very compelling,’ the woman opposite said.
‘Thanks.’
The woman’s dark brown eyes remained on me.
‘Can I help you with something?’ I asked.
‘How’d you get to this age without levelling up a single skill? You some rich noble or something?’
‘I’m…’ I started, then sighed. ‘It’s a long story.’
The woman gestured to the cell around her. ‘I got time.’
‘Well, I don’t.’
‘No?’
‘No. I gotta figure out a way out of here.’
The other prisoner smirked—I was getting really sick of these mocking smile that people couldn’t seem to resist. ‘Mm-hmm? Let me know how that goes, yeah?’
I rolled my eyes and turned away, but couldn’t help but feel like the prisoner’s own eyes were still upon me. Not that I could blame her; there wasn’t much else to look at around here. Certainly nothing prettier.
Right. What could I do?
Without skills, escape was going to be… I didn’t want to say “impossible”, so I went with “very difficult” instead. The only thing I had going for me? Five times experience gain—something that might just afford me an advantage. But I’d have to gain it from within this cell.
Once I got out of here, I figured, it’d be easy. I could level up my skills in no time, and I’d have the tools on hand to do so. And now that I knew the system—or rather, knew what I wanted from it—I’d make better choices. I wouldn’t underinvest in Dexterity, for one; that low Stamina was always a pain. And when I got the choice of abilities—every time I gain 5 levels in any skill—I’d be able to make smarter choices. Better ones.
Maybe this was a blessing in disguise.
As long as I could, you know, get out of here.
I looked around. One skill I could level up in any situation was Identification—all I needed were people or objects to study. It might not help very much in my escape, but it was a start.
Beginning with the most mundane object I could find, I stared at a stone wedged into the wall beside my bed. I forced myself to activate my identification skill even though I knew exactly what it was—I’d seen a good few of these so-called “stones” in my time on Alterra. It took a moment of concentration before the notification popped up.
Identification — +50xp
The subsequent notification informed me that it was, in fact, a stone. The type of stone, alas, remained a mystery to me at this level. I concentrated on another object—the bed beneath me—and activated the skill in exactly the same way.
Identification — +50xp
Identification increased to level 1!
Base Points gained — +1 WIS, +1 INT, +1 Free Points (WIS/INT)
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Ability unlocked — Basic Identification
Basic Identification (Identification) — Discover basic attributes for a particular object or person. Ability scales with [WIS] + [INT].
Level up!
You increased to level 1!
And there we had it! My first level. I was officially comparable to a two year old—Dad would be so proud. I felt a rush of exhilaration as these notifications appeared and my levels increased—one that wasn’t really comparable to, well, anything.
I’d forgotten, over the years, just how easy it was to level up entirely new skills. It took only 100xp for that first level, whereas the incremental xp requirement for each subsequent level increased by another 100xp each time. By the time you got a skill to level 50, you were looking at, oh, 150,000 or so until you got to the next level? Maybe a little less; maths was never my strong suit.
And I’d reached the skill requirements for my overall level to increase to level 1; I supposed that was very slightly less embarrassing. Only two more skill increases until I was level 2, as well!
With an increase to my skill, I’d got a few Base Points to invest. Not many, for such a minor skill, but it was something — one added to my wisdom stat by default, and another to intelligence. And then, of course, I had one free point to invest into either of them—I selected wisdom, as the intelligence-led boon to mana didn’t exactly interest me. Not that that was the only reason to invest in this Base stat, of course.
I breathed a sigh of relief; it was small progress, but it was progress nonetheless. If I just kept identifying as much around me as I could, I’d be levelling up before I knew it.
* * *
When I’d finally exhausted every object in my tiny cell, I had levelled up Identification to level 4, put 5 points into my intelligence and 7 into my wisdom, and even levelled myself up to level 2.
And I’d done it all under the curious gaze of the prisoner opposite.
‘Having fun over there?’ she asked.
I ignored her, scouring every corner of my cell for a new object to interrogate. I found nothing.
‘Can see you’re level 2 now,’ the woman said. ‘You must be very pleased with yourself.’
I couldn’t resist shooting her a dirty look.
‘Could identify me, if you like?’
Oops. I’d been spending so much time thinking about the objects inside my cell that I’d forgotten I could identify people too. I turned my attention to the irritating prisoner.
Level 27 ???
Race: ???
Gods damn it. I wasn’t high enough a level to identify her. Of course I wasn’t. Not if she was level 27 and I still level 2. And the worst part? She would’ve known that.
A smile stretched across the woman’s face. ‘What did you get? Nothing?’
‘Nothing,’ I grunted.
‘Thought not.’ She stared me down for a few moments longer, then stuck her hand through the bars of her cell. ‘Name’s Val, by the way.’
‘Wish I could say it was good to meet you, but…’
‘You could tell me your name, at least.’
‘Styk,’ I replied.
The woman looked fit to break into a smile once more. ‘Funny name.’
‘Coming from someone named “Val”.’
At this, the prisoner only shrugged. ‘You ready to tell me why you’re here, yet? Figure it has something to do with that low level of yours.’
I sighed, taking a seat on the edge of my bed, still in full view of the woman across the corridor. ‘Dunno if you’d believe me. Them up there’ — I gestured to the ceiling — ‘sure as hells don’t.’
‘Try me.’
I wiped my hands down my face. What was there to lose in telling the truth? Just another person who’d think me crazy, as well as weak. ‘A Player killed me.’
Val sat forward. ‘Sorry?’
‘I know, I know,’ I said, waving the woman down. ‘Players don’t do that. Players are honourable. Blah blah blah. I know all that. And yet… one of them killed me. Burned down a whole town while he was at it, too.’
Val studied me with narrowed eyes. ‘Are you messing with me?’
‘It’s not much of a joke, is it? Where’s the killer punchline?’
The silence that followed was strangely eerie; already it had been established that this “Val” had trouble keeping her mouth shut, so to see her do so without struggling…
‘Where?’ she asked, and all mirth was gone from her tone.
‘Plainside,’ I replied. ‘You… believe me?’
At this, Val smiled. ‘Oh yes, I believe you. After what I’ve seen… yes. At least, I believe that a Player is capable of killing—I don’t know about the whole “coming back to life” bit.’ Val rose, dusting down her slim-fitting light armour, and then shifted over to the bars of her cell, staring through them. ‘I need you to tell me everything you know about this Player.’
‘I’d tell you everything I know about everything if you could get me out of here…’
‘Deal,’ Val said, sticking her hand through the bars once more.
I looked down at the outstretched hand. ‘You know I can’t reach that, right?’
‘It’s symbolic. Is it a deal, or what?’
‘Is what a deal?’
Val looked at me like I was stupid. ‘I get you out of here, and you tell me about this Player.’
I scrunched up my face, blinking at this peculiar woman. ‘If you could break out of here, you’d be gone already.’
‘Not if I was hiding from someone.’
‘I…’ I put my head in my hands for a moment, not believing in this woman for a second. ‘Fine. Deal.’
‘Great!’ Val said, and twisted her outstretched hand so that the palm was facing upwards.
Moments later, the ground started to shake, and the stone around the bars of my cell began to crumble.
"Styk"
Level 2 Peasant
Base Stats:
Vitality — 0
Intelligence — 5
Dexterity — 0
Strength — 0
Wisdom — 7
Charisma — 0
Skills:
Identification — Level 4
Abilities:
Basic Identification (Identification) — Discover basic attributes for a particular object or person. Ability scales with [WIS] + [INT].
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +400%