Chapter 3: Tetrapod

Riley continued to fight through waves of enemies. Some of the fights were trivial, others pushed Riley to his limit. Each of the battles tested a different component of combat. The orcs had tested his tactics, the slimes his footwork and accuracy.

Riley was forced to pick up a bow to kill these spider monstrosities that had legs as hard as steel. His least favorite fight was one he had to do in complete darkness. He had to hunker down in his barricade for that one, blindly thrusting out his spear until he hit what he later found out was a shadow monster.

The abilities that each monster dropped were a tantalizing array of powers. Each one more impressive than the last, which had only firmed his resolve to wait as long as he could before choosing an ability.

But Riley was regretting that decision now. He was rapidly approaching his limits. Despite taking breaks between rounds, he could feel his exhaustion creeping into his core. His bones felt like ice and his hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Surprisingly he wasn’t thirsty at all despite the intense workout had been doing. There must be some magic shenanigans at play.

I should have taken the Shadow Step ability, Riley thought to himself for the thirtieth time. Teleportation was an ability that could fit into almost every single build, and it had an oversized impact on the battlefield. But if Riley didn’t have a way to make his own shadows he could be easily countered, and he couldn’t justify using two of his slots to make the teleport ability fuctional. He might as well be a mage at that point.

Not that there was anything wrong with being a mage. But they tended to be squishy. Which is great when you can respawn. Not ideal when you can’t.

Riley got up and prepared himself for the next round. He wasn’t sure if he wanted this next round to be another group of enemies, or a single monster. The groups would exhaust him further, possibly too much to continue. But the single enemies were quickly approaching his limits as a normal human.

He had yet to level up and had no magic or abilities at his disposal. He could only hit so hard, could only move so fast. Riley was certain that if he wasn’t at the peak human physical condition, he wouldn’t have been able to reach nearly this far into this bonus round.

Riley declined the Rain of Arrows ability and was ready for his next encounter.

A single flash of light took up the center of the arena. Riley didn’t try to surprise this foe. Not every monster was human like, and what was a critical blow to an orc, was a broken blade to a steel-foot spider.

What appeared from the flash of light was a nobleman. He was tall and thin, had pale skin and deep ruby eyes. The noble came into the arena in the armor of the courts. Silk robes covered livery in the shape of a blood red crescent moon.

“You’re a vampire,” Riley blurted out.

“Hmm?” The monster replied. “Oh, you’ve heard of us? Well, aren’t you just delectable. And so much more interesting than the usual cattle that make it this far. Oh no need to be so tense, we’re not animals. We can set aside our differences like civilized folk. Now come here and let me take a look at you.” He flashed Riley a sultry smile and Riley’s heart rate quickened.

Riley found himself drawn towards the vampire — no, the nobleman — his sword arm dropping as he wondered why he thought he would ever possibly need it. No man so dignified would ever stoop so low as to dirty their hands themselves. They probably had servants for that sort of thing.

Perhaps he was hiring? He seemed like a good sort.

“Hmm, oh yes, you’ll do marvelously,” the nobleman said as he cupped Riley’s face. Riley felt himself blush at the man’s touch. He hadn’t realized he bent this way though the news wasn’t unwelcome given the circumstances.

“Would it be too forward…” the nobleman said hesitantly, “no, forget I said anything.”

“No, wait, what were you going to say?” Riley was ready to agree to just about anything.

“Well, I was wondering if I could have just a taste. A nibble. You’d hardly feel a thing.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Riley was confused, he didn’t have any food on him. He would have offered already if he did. Then he remembered, oh, he means blood.

It was like a cold bucket of ice had been poured over Riley and he shivered. “You want to taste what?”

His image of the man before him shattered his mind reeling. How could he? What if Riley had diseases, this man didn’t know him. Ugh, just the thought of it. Uncooked too, if the Earth’s stories matched reality. There could be any number of things in Riley’s blood. What if he had had worms! Perish the thought.

Gone was the sultry nobleman. In his place was a base creature of gluttony. Riley couldn’t bear it, his heart was broken and he turned his head away, averting his eyes.

The vampire took it as an invitation and opened his jaws ready to take a bite.

Riley’s sword plunged through its heart, a tear glistening in his eyes.

Shock was plain on the vampire’s face, he tried to utter a final word but blood bubbled up instead.

The spell was broken, and Riley remembered where he was, what he had been doing. Did I almost… Riley’s thought trailed off as he realized what he had been about to do.

It was only his disgust at consuming real meat that had partially broken him from its spell.

Riley had only ever eaten meat in virtual reality, where everything was nice and sterilized. The thought of trying something and not knowing exactly where it had been brought bile to the back of his throat.

Riley tried not to think about the possible new fluidity to his identity. Perhaps it was a spell, perhaps the spell had unlocked something. That was for future Riley to figure out. Far future Riley.

Riley felt the irony as he inhaled the vapors from the vampire’s corpse. The power consumed by his mask.

Leech

Damaging creatures of flesh and blood will heal yourself for a small amount of the damage dealt.

Riley wondered how this ability compared to the Heal ability he had seen previously. There were no obvious resources in his status sheet — no mana or stamina bars — as far as he could tell.

Did he pass on an ability that he could cast endlessly only to receive a version worse in every way?

Riley wasn’t sure. But this ability did fit into his end built. Not perfectly, Paladin’s typically wielded holy light, not necromantic life-stealing. But who knew if those classifications even existed in this system.

So far each of the abilities of the same theme had been an improvement over the last, he would have to assume it was the same here.

Riley wasn’t very convinced, but he knew if he didn’t choose this ability Riley didn’t think he would get one in this arena. He would still get the points for defeating all the monsters, but Riley was guessing the real prize was access to these abilities he wouldn’t find as easily outside of this enhanced tutorial.

Riley accepted the ability and the mask glowed brightly as its power seeped into Riley’s body. It was unlike anything Riley had every felt before.

It was like a fire had been lit in the very center of his being. The power flooded into his core and the fire blossomed into a blaze before settling back down.

Energy coursed through Riley’s limbs, and he could feel… something coursing through him. Riley didn’t have the vocabulary to properly express what he was feeling but it was like the power was boring through his body but adding something instead of taking.

At the end of it Riley felt like a new man.

Congratulations! You’ve accepted your first ability. While it may not be impressive now all abilities can grow into something fearsome.

You may freely swap your ability slot, though you will be unable to progress past level 10 until you fully attune an ability, locking it in place permanently.

Congratulations, you may now gain experience points. Defeat monsters to level up. You may use the stat points you gain upon level up to make yourself stronger. Overcome your limits!

Riley groaned. The inefficiency! He could have been freely swapping out the abilities and testing how they worked. Using them against the waves of enemies. He cringed just thinking about all of the experience points he had lost not accepting that first ability.

Then Riley felt anger. That first tutorial message had misled him! It said choosing the right abilities was important, which implied that you should pick carefully.

How many levels had he lost? How much further behind was he than everyone else who went through the tutorial? Was he going to be under leveled? Oh no, Riley was doomed to die a pitiless fool.

Such was life.

Riley dismissed the message and accepted his fate. A bright light appeared in the arena and an eight-foot man made of stone was left in its place.

Its legs were as thick as tree trunks and its eyes glowed with the inner light of molten lava.

The sword in Riley’s hand felt more like a toothpick compared to the monstrosity before him. He ran to the weapons rack and grabbed a war hammer instead.

The golem lumbered after Riley picking up momentum until it was an unstoppable force. Riley scrambled to get out of the way and he barely dodged as the monster slammed into the barricades smashing them to smithereens.

The golem slammed into the wall of the arena and stumbled backwards, stunned. Riley took the opportunity to swing his war hammer with all of his strength trying to take out a leg of the golem.

The war hammer landed with a crack. The force of the blow almost shook the weapon from Riley’s hands but he kept a hold of the hammer.

As he raised the hammer for a follow up blow, he felt that it had gotten lighter. Looking up he saw the hammer was missing its head.

The crack wasn’t from the golem, it was from his weapon. Riley was so stunned he didn’t see the giant fist which killed him.