Jeff stood waiting, sword in hand. Despite Jinx’s attempts to reassure him that deaths ‘hardly ever’ occurred during the tutorial, he was on guard for anything.
This time, after the flash of light in the far corner of the sim chamber, no music, but instead a rattling sound, together with a sibilant, almost hypnotic hiss reached his ears first.
With a sinking feeling, Jeff stared at the approaching shape, undulating and writhing across the floor towards him.
NAME: Mistress Kessia
RACE: Ningish Serpent
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Evil
HEALTH POINTS (HP): 40/40
MANA POINTS (MP): 30/30
REWARD: 30 Coins
Total Attribute Points: 29/200
“Snakes. That’s just great…” He muttered to himself. Jeff had felt an aversion to snakes from an early age. Once, while attending kindergarten at the age of 5 during a particularly hot summer in the city, he had been bitten by an escaped rattlesnake. The owner of the facility had her living quarters above the children’s play area, and her boyfriend, a reptile enthusiast, had forgotten to close one of the cage doors in his vivarium.
Luckily, the paramedics had administered anti-venom in time, so the symptoms of the snakebite were mild, but Jeff remembered spending the next few days tossing and turning in his bed, drenched in sweat and unable to sleep.
The creature approaching rapidly towards him was like no Earthborn snake Jeff had ever heard of. He reckoned she was at least 25 foot long and thick as a telegraph pole, brightly patterned in alternating bands of purple and yellow along her length. Her massive head was hooded, like a cobra, and from her sinister mouth poked forth a forked tongue at least a foot long, hissing and tasting the air as she slithered towards him. Finally, she was equipped with a massive rattle at the end of her tail from which emanated the disturbing noise Jeff had noticed initially.
Mistress Kessia paused around 30 feet in front of Jeff, coiling her body sinuously round and round until she had created a pile of her own body from which her head emerged. Peering straight at him with her inscrutable sapphire colored eyes, she opened a black lipped mouth and spoke in a decidedly feminine voice.
“Greetingsss Jeff. We can do thisss the hard way, or the easssy way. Your choice.”
Peering up in the air, Jeff called out in a voice laden with scorn “Come on, is that the best you’ve got - a crappy Jungle Book rip off?”
Kessia abruptly reared up and opened her mouth wide to reveal a cavernous mouth equipped on either side with two wicked looking fangs. Rocking her head back then abruptly forward, she spat an arc of fluorescent green fluid directly at his face.
Taken by surprise, Jeff was unable to dodge the viscous stream in time, some of it hitting him on the side of his face and dripping down his neck.
A notification flashed up on his interface.
[You’ve been poisoned] Ningish Serpent Neurotoxin Venom - -10HP, 30% reduction in Strength, 50% reduction in Cognition
Jeff stumbled backwards, frantically wiping at the green slime on the side of his face. Luckily for him, the poisonous jet had missed his eyes, but the pain of the acidic liquid was bad enough. What’s worse, Jeff felt a strange trancelike mood slip over him, reducing his ability to think straight. Shaking his head, he ran at the serpent, shouting an incoherent battle cry.
Kessia uncoiled herself and darted forward to meet his charge. As Jeff approached, he raised Stormcaller over his head, bringing it crashing down on the reptile’s snout. Kessia at the last moment swerved to the side and avoided being struck directly between the eyes, but Jeff still managed to slice through the scales on her right side, creating a long shallow wound from which oozed dark blue blood.
In response, Kessia began to glow, scales lighting up along the length of her body as she triggered some skill. Her jaws gaped open, wider than seemed physically possible, revealing the cavernous interior of her mouth. The serpent reared up above him; still disorientated by the neurotoxin, Jeff had no time to react as Kessia dropped down on him in an impossibly fast blur, her mouth so wide he caught a glimpse of her razor sharp teeth passing by as he was swallowed whole.
Jeff’s head and upper body were now being squeezed violently by the rows of muscles lining Kessia’s gut. He could feel his feet still sticking out of her mouth but the rest of him was being constricted brutally, and Jeff felt himself start to pass out from the pressure and lack of oxygen.
He had dropped his sword on the ground as he was being swallowed, not that it would have done him any good as his arms were pinned against his sides by the peristaltic movement of the snake’s digestive system.
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Trying not to panic in the dark humid environment of Kessia’s belly, Jeff thought of the goblin dagger and pulled it from his inventory into his right hand. Using the last of his strength he stabbed outwards and managed to pierce a hole to the outside. However try as he might, he was unable to make the hole any larger with the bone blade. Remembering at the last moment the [cutting edge] skill, Jeff was able to use the goblin knife to slice a hole wide enough to escape out of, kind of like unzipping a sleeping bag from the inside.
Jeff rolled out of the gap he had created, covered in Kessia’s slimy internal juices. By chance, Stormcaller was close to hand, so Jeff was able to grab the sword and swing at Kessia’s head as she lunged down towards him. His strike was a clean one, and Kessia was completely decapitated; her head went flying across the floor, tongue still protruding and issuing an angry hissing sound, whilst her body slumped to the ground, unmoving.
Sighing in relief, Jeff brushed himself down and examined his most recent wound. An angry blistered welt covered one side of his face, where he had been struck by the neurotoxin. Gingerly dabbing at it with a disposable tissue, Jeff managed to clean it up somewhat, and the pain began to subside. However, he felt that another Potion of Healing was required from the store. Calling up the store interface to make the purchase, he was surprised to see that the stock of coins in his inventory had not increased after defeating Kessia.
“Jinx, what happened to…” he started saying, only to be interrupted by a sharp pain in his leg.
Glancing down in shock, he saw that Kessia had somehow come back to life and was biting into the flesh of his lower left leg. Kicking out with his other foot, he managed to dislodge the snake’s teeth from his calf muscle. Seriously pissed off now, Jeff struck down again and again with his sword, succeeding in hacking off the serpent’s head once more.
Panting, Jeff kicked the head off to one side and then turned back to observe what happened to the bleeding stump at the end of Kessia’s now shortened length. A green glow emanated from the stump, and in front of his eyes, a new head started to grow. Within a minute, a ripple ran down the length of the body and the newly grown head was complete. Kessia opened her eyes and almost seemed to grin at him.
“You can’t defeat me that easily, Jeff.” she hissed, opening her mouth wide and spitting another stream of green neurotoxin at him. Jeff dodged the flow of poison and once again sliced through the creature’s neck.
This carried on for some time until Jeff decided to employ a different technique. Grasping her head in one hand, he used his other hand to stuff her tail into her wide open mouth. The tail went in easily and despite Kessia’s struggles, Jeff was able to continue to feed the bulk of her body into her mouth; the more he fed in the smaller she got. She went from something the size of a space hopper… then a basketball… then down to a baseball in size. Finally she was no bigger than a golfball. Jeff continued squeezing and rolling, until with a pop, Kessia was no more than a greasy stain on the palms of his hands.
Once again, Jeff was rewarded with more coins, denoting the end of the challenge. He quickly purchased a Potion of Healing from the store and downed it in one.
Exhausted, Jeff flopped to the ground and let the potion do its work. Soon he had fallen into a deep sleep.
Jeff awoke feeling both hungry and dehydrated. Looking through the store, he purchased a [Magical Water Flask] for 20 coins which provided an infinite stream of pure drinking water. Quenching his thirst and using the cool clean water from the flask to clean up as best he could, Jeff’s thoughts turned to food. The last time he had eaten seemed like days before, and the protein bar he had found in his pocket earlier had not made much of a dent in his hunger. No food was available on the store unfortunately, so in desperation, Jeff pulled from his inventory the dried meat he had looted from the goblins earlier.
Hesitantly, he took a small bite of the meat, which had the look and texture of biltong, a type of cured beef he ate on occasion. The flavour was good, reminiscent of chicken. Jeff hesitated no longer and tucked in to the tasty strips of unidentified meat.
From the severed heads of Mistress Kessia which lay scattered about the floor, he harvested 12 of her sapphire like eyes; [Ningish Orbs of Mana Replenishment], which according to Jinx, would temporarily boost his available Mana points by 50%. Jeff decided to hold off on using these, reasoning that they would be more effective when he had levelled up and grown his Mana point pool.
The next two ‘days’ proceeded in similar fashion. Jeff defeated a succession of system generated NPCs, managing to raise his Total Attribute Points to 67/200. He also managed to collect a variety of different loot items of varying value, including an enchanted helm that gave +5 defence, a bladder filled with poison harvested from a field of purple worms, a stout pair of magical hobnailed boots (in his size) which he liberated from a cockney speaking Orc, and a bag full of edible toadstools which gave a +5 HP buff with every mouthful.
He’d also built up a decent stash of coins for future purchases in the store.
NAME: Jeff Nostro
RACE: Human
ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good
HEALTH POINTS (HP): 80/80 +10
MANA POINTS (MP): 70/70
INVENTORY:
ITEM: [Long Sword - Stormcaller] Legendary Rank - +12 Offense
ITEM: [Goblin Bone Dagger] Common, +2 Offence
ITEM: [VogelCorp Ether Powered Chainsaw] Common, +2 Offense
ITEM: [Periapt of The Erstwhile Tree Gods] Uncommon, +2 Vitality, +2 Endurance, +10 HP - Equipped
ITEM: [Ningish Orb of Mana Replenishment] Rare, +50% Mana Boost (temporary) x 12
ITEM: [Ring Mail] +2 Defense - Equipped
ITEM: [Helm of Enchantment] +5 Defense - Equipped
ITEM: [Orcish Battle Boots] - +2 Speed - Equipped
ITEM: [Bag of Fairy Life-Cap Mushrooms] +5 HP with each mouthful (76% remaining) COINS: 189
Strength: 11
Speed: 7+2
Vitality: 9+2
Endurance: 9+2
Cognition: 14
Offense: 8
Defense: 9+2+5
Total Attribute Points: 67/200
CLASS: Steel Mage Level 1
SKILLS: Path of Arcana & Blade, Necromancer
Finally Jinx declared that he had improved his stats enough to proceed to the lounge to meet the other contestants in the tournament. Squaring his shoulders, he pulled Stormcaller from inventory and held it in readiness by his side. “Ok Jinx.” he signalled his ascent.
Once again, Jeff fell through a seemingly endless void, dimly lit by distant nebulae and stars. The journey was far shorter than the previous time, and after only seconds he found himself standing on level ground once again.
Jeff turned to look at his surroundings. He was outdoors this time; an Earth-like sky stretched overhead, punctuated occasionally with small fluffy white clouds. He stood on a vast plane which went on for miles in all directions, apart from a small mountain in the near distance. The ground underfoot was hard compacted clay of some sort, with the occasional lowly shrub or weed poking through. The totally normal looking sun hanging directly overhead gave a pleasant warmth, and Jeff felt himself start to perspire with the added bulk of the ring mail. Seeing no immediate threat, Jeff stowed the armor in his inventory, but kept Stormcaller in his hand, just in case.
A new system notification popped up.
Pre-Tournament Elimination Round
Reach the Lounge within the time limit. Stay Alive.
A flashing yellow arrow appeared in his vision, pointing towards the small mountain in the distance. At the summit an icon appeared, labelled ‘Lounge’. A countdown started ticking down in the corner of his vision. He had just under 24 hours to reach the destination.
Sighing, Jeff shelved the visions of comfy sofas and some real food for now, and started trudging in the direction of the mountain.