Zach commanded his spider to climb inside the window, something immediately assaulting his vision. Looking around, he saw blood. It was splattered everywhere, setting a contrast to the pure white walls, ceilings, floors and lights. A few bodies, obviously guards, were scattered about. As Zach looked over the scene, he almost gagged. Absolutely repulsed, he silently commanded the spider to creep forward. There were three people, all male. Each were wearing normal guard outfits, although it was hard to see over all of the gore. Huge, deep scratches were embedded in each of them.
While Zach surveyed the atrocity, something on the edge of his vision caught his attention. Quickly commanding the spider to look around, Zach caught sight of something akin to a monster. It looked like a panther, except bigger. And scarier. Muscles ran through its body, rippling with every step it made. As soon as Zach saw the beast, he froze. He’d never seen anything that scared him more in his life.
The thing was walking down the hallway in the direction where Zach’s spider was. Unable to do anything but just watch, it soon came within about ten feet of him. With a ding, a screen popped up.
Encountered Dark Panther (Level ??)!
An animal primed for Dark Deities, it will only initiate fights with those who it believes contains the essential lifeblood.
Completely ignoring the bodies, the dark panther continued down the hall. Within several seconds, it was out of sight. Zach let out a shaky, metaphorical breath, then processed the notification that had appeared, noticing that it’s level was replaced with question marks. I’ll bet that my damn spider’s perception has something to do with this, he thought, not really caring. In truth, he was still exhilarated from the encounter.
After taking a breather, Zach decided to get back to work. It ultimately worked in his favor that the guards were dead, because he needed them in order to leave. Commanding the spider to crawl over to one of them, he searched the corpse. Thankfully, Spectate was still pretty unrealistic, making the experience seem less than real.
Zach’s spider crawled over the body, finally finding what he wanted- a keycard. Since all of the inmates’ cells had an openable steel door, each guard would obviously had some sort of device to open them.
Now came the hard part, being able to pick up the card. Up until now, Zach had just used his skill to move the spider. I suppose it shouldn’t be too much different than that, right? He thought to himself. Zach focused on two steps: moving over to the keycard like normal, then using the same technique to visualize picking it up. Opening his eyes, he was pleased to have been met with success. The spider had scooped it up in its jaws, a ridiculous sight, seeing as the card was about twice as big as it.
Congratulations! Skill Summon is now Beginner Level 2!
Current Maximum Summons = 2!
Waving away the notification, Zach stopped to think. If he had- he quickly checked his status- 10 strength, while the spider had 1, that meant it was effectively 10% his own. Doing some quick mental math and comparisons, he became a little surprised. For such a little thing, it certainly could carry its own weight.
Anyways. Zach, remembering the way to his cell, commanded the spider to head down the hallway, walking along the corner of the ceiling. He soon caught sight of another dark panther. Quickly stopping, Zach fearfully waited until the beast passed. Thankfully, it strolled away without any trouble.
Breathing out in relief, Zach continued on. He soon arrived at his cell, the wall marked by a specific code: ‘B7GYU4’. The same combination of numbers and letters was on his prison uniform, so Zach made an educated guess when it came to identifying the correct room.
He hesitated. It would be so easy to simply open the door, stop Spectate, and make a run for it. If I wanted to die, sure, he thought. What am I, a complete idiot? Those panthers will tear me apart. I need some sort of plan. He paused. Well, the max summons I can have is two now, so let’s start there.
End Spectate? Zach guessed the correct command. Bingo. The world blipped back to normal. He was sitting on his bed, swaying back and forth a little bit. After regaining his balance, Zach noticed that he was incredibly thirsty. He needed to hurry. Immediately, he started putting his plan into action. He quickly summoned up another spider, making it identical to the first he’d created. Then, he brought up its status screen:
Summon #2 (Name: Spider)
Level: 1
Class: LOCKED
HP: 20/20 (Regen: 1/min)
MP: 20/20 (Regen: 1/min)
Titles: None
Achievements: None
Stats:
Intelligence: 2
Wisdom: 2
Strength: 2
Vitality: 2
Agility: 3
Dexterity: 2
Luck: 1
Endurance: 2
Perception: 1
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Charisma: 1
Skills: LOCKED
Zach read over its attributes, taking note of each one. They made sense, accurately reflecting his progression to the second level of Summon. Though, the only thing that really made a difference was its agility, which had increased from 2 to 3.
Okay, he thought. Spectate Summon #2. The world blacked out, placing Zach in his newly made spider. He had to admit that he was kind of getting used to it, although that made it no less unsettling. Humans were made to live in and control their own bodies, after all.
Zach had his second spider start moving towards the wall. Instantly, the thing shot off towards the window, climbing up and coming to a rest on the sill. Astonished, he just watched as the entire event took place.
It must have picked up on my desire to go to the window, even if I didn’t push the command to it yet, Zach thought. And its speed is insane. To think it only increased one stat point… He did some quick calculations. Well, if an average human’s top sustainable running speed is around 20 miles per hour, that means that my first spider must have been moving at about 4 mph, and this one 6. A person walks at about 2-4 miles an hour, I believe. Realizing the potential of each point, Zach thought, Wow. I wonder what happens when other beings get too powerful? Surely there’s a plateau of some sort.
Anyways. Shaking himself out of his stupor, Zach continued with his plan. He commanded his second spider to follow the same path the first had, finding that it was much easier to do. Once he saw his first spider, Zach knew to keep going. His goal with this one was to search the prison, looking for the closest exit. It was as simple as that.
…
A few hours later, Zach had a pretty good layout of the prison. At some point, he’d come to realize that electricity still seemed to work, which was a little confusing. He’d thought a case like this would involve the removal of modern human creation, or at least that was what he'd heard. So, he asked the system:
For the sake of protecting your planet, many technological advancements that have been previously judged to interfere with the system will be removed.
8h:43m:56s remaining until changes will be made.
Technological advancements? Zach asked, curious. That’s pretty vague. It probably means things like guns and whatnot. If militaries use their firepower in order to fight, they won’t learn how to use the system. Although- he paused. It does seem pretty counterintuitive to remove our technology in order to force us to progress. Shaking his head, Zach pushed the thought out of his mind. Whatever. I’ll leave that to the beings who’ve broken the laws of, well, everything.
The prison was, by itself, pretty simple. This particular one had been dependent on guards and technology, so it would be much easier than Zach would have thought. Excluding, of course, the monsters that were in the prison. While climbing around, he’d seen a few other types of beasts, all just as scary as the panthers. None of which attacked Zach’s spider, which wasn't alive. But Zach himself was. So, he devised a way to avoid them.
Plotting out the points where he’d need to avoid monsters, Zach waited and Spectated. He’d noticed while exploring the dungeon that they seemed to have some sort of pattern, and wasn’t disappointed. The building of the prison he was living in was built in the shape of a square, the monsters mindlessly looping around the same floor, over and over.
…
In about an hour, Zach was ready. Taking a few deep breaths, he waited until the next panther was out of sight, then commanded his first spider to unlock the door. As it slid open, he counted down the time in his head. Three minutes and 47 seconds. Tiptoeing down the hallway, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He had lined up the each beasts’ patterns so that he wouldn’t encounter any of them. That is, if he did this correctly. Human error and all.
Soon, Zach reached an intersection of the hallway. He needed to turn left, making his way down the stairwell and onto the first floor. The problem was, the situation there was completely different.
Black like the panthers, the creatures there walked on two legs like monkeys, were about four feet tall, and muscled beyond belief. Zach counted down 12 more seconds before continuing, stepping quietly and at an even pace. He could feel his heartbeat through his chest, thumping like crazy. Thankfully, he arrived at his next destination without trouble- the first floor.
Thankfully, all seemed to go as planned. At last, he arrived at the entrance. With a swipe of the key card, which he had obtained from his spider, the door beeped open. Outside the prison, a few layers of yard continued for a few hundred feet, each followed up by outposts and barbed wire. Nicely enough, no monsters spawned outside. Otherwise, Zach feared that he’d be screwed. I’m pretty sure it’s the border of the dungeon, he guessed. Shaking his head, Zach headed outside.
Immediately, the fresh, evening air assaulted him. It was early fall, Zach's favorite season. Beyond the fencing of the prison was a field, stretching for a few hundred feet. Past that was a forest. Exhaling deeply, he sank down to the grass, thankful to be alive. Spending a few minutes laying down, Zach knew that he needed to get up.
He wasn’t done yet. Now that he had observed the monsters of the prison and was out of immediate danger, it was time for part two. Out of the ordeal, he’d gotten a couple of new levels:
Congratulations! Skill Spectate is now Beginner Level 3!
Congratulations! Skill Summon is now Beginner Level 3!
Current Maximum Summons = 2!
After seeing that he hadn’t increased in maximum summons this time, Zach was a little disappointed, but understood the reason. Otherwise, Necromancers would have thousands of incredibly powerful minions running around after getting really strong.
Zach wasn’t able to Summon anything larger than his tiny spiders from inside his cell because of his tiny window; and wasn’t able to do so elsewhere in the prison for obvious reasons. So, the only chance he had was now. I need food in order to survive, Zach thought, And so do the guards. So they must have a stockpile of it somewhere, I just need to find it. The spiders are much too small to carry anything worthwhile. So, he continued, Let’s get started with Summoning something. I need a creature big and strong enough to carry supplies. As long as I don’t aggravate anything, I think it’ll be fine.
He shrugged. An ordinary human should be okay, right? Plus, he knew the shape of one better than anything else. Destroy Summon #1, he thought, choosing the weaker of the two. The last time he had checked, it was still in the prison, sitting on a wall.
Nothing happened, no notifications, flashes, sounds, or anything. Curious, Zach tried spectating it, finding that he was unable to. Shaking his head and deciding to move on, Zach started working on summoning his human. He closed his eyes, replicating a five-foot, black haired, blue-eyed joe schmoe, then quickly Summoned it. No need to be perfect.
Opening his eyes, he was met with an… abomination. Zach turned around, immediately cursing himself to eternal damnation. It looked as if God had given a child his putty, or whatever he uses to make humans, and the child tried to replicate them. It was absolutely awful. Its fingers were blobs. Its toes were blobs. Its face was a blob, with several smaller blobs embedded within.
“What the absolute fuck did you create?” Zach asked himself.