!!! STILL IN COMBAT – DUNGEON !!!
Quitting out of the game while challenging a dungeon will forcefully respawn you at the last Civilisation Crystal you interacted with, or the closest City you were in, once you return to the game.
This process will take some of your EXP, Currency, and Items as compensation for combat-quitting.
ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO QUIT THE GAME?
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CANCEL | QUIT
“Sorry... Arthur.”
Beau clicked on the quit button and lifted her virtual reality headset off of her face.
She lies on her bed for a while with teary eyes, thinking about how to fix the mess she’d made.
Goddamnit, Beau. You and your stupid mouth...
She began to take off her virtual reality headset, disconnecting along with it the many electrodes that allowed her thoughts to be converted into the actions she performed in the game; speaking, walking, eating food, basically everything.
Beau was still amazed at how far virtual reality technology had come.
Everything was brain-computer interfaced nowadays, allowing for direct movement control through brain waves.
Sure, she had wanted to actually move around while she played, but she’d need to have bought one of those massive omni-directional pads that took up a lot of space.
But for someone like Beau, who lived in a tiny apartment and had no money, this will have to do. She’s just thankful that World of Lyaveist had made virtual reality so popular to the point that things got less expensive and more commercialised.
She’s broken out of her musing, however, when she remembers what had just happened, quickly picking up her phone from her bedside table and calling Andrew’s phone as she tries to think of an apology.
“The person you are calling cannot accept calls at this —”
She exits the call as soon as she realised that she’d been blocked, switching to Discord.
Blocked again.
She storms out of her bedroom, grabbing a coat as she leaves her room in the apartment complex, and makes her way to Andrew’s home.
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The Packmother slowly steps towards me, forcing me to walk away from the dungeon exit, my dagger pointed in its direction.
I make as much distance as I can between myself and the predatorial wolf, the dagger still held in front of me. I assess the damage done to me, inspecting the injury on my head, my eye, and then my own status.
[Head - Scalp]
Current Status Effect(s): Severe Bleeding, Useless Clotting
Severe Bleeding: Losing HP at a rate of 50,000/hour.
Useless Clotting: Will never fully clot without treatment due to status effect – Severe Bleeding on [Head - Scalp].
Can be treated with a Skill, Spell, or Item that lessens or nullifies the status effect – Severe Bleeding.
[Left Eye]
Current Status Effect: Blinded
Blinded: Limits vision in the [Left Eye], worsening depth perception, which results in a higher likelihood of missing attacks and a lower likelihood of blocking attacks.
Will be lessened or nullified if the status effect – Severe Bleeding – is lessened or nullified and obstructing blood is removed from [Left Eye].
Can also be temporarily nullified through the removal of the obstruction of blood in [Left Eye] caused by [Head - Scalp] Severe Bleeding, but will return after a certain time limit has passed.
Name: Arthur Patten
Class: Bandit
Level: 14
HP: 16,483/19,000 | SP: 15,814/19,000 | MP: 5,000/5,000
Notable Items:
* A simple, well-maintained steel dagger;
* An old, scuffed, simple wooden earring on [Left Ear - Lobe];
* A worn-out leather gambeson;
* [Rucksack]:
* Rations of Jerky;
* Dried Fruits & Berries;
* Canteen of Spring Water;
* Spare Cloth Shirt;
* Spare Linen Pants;
* [Rucksack - Hidden Compartment]:
* A Shard of Shifting;
* Pouch of Coins (13 Gold, 68 Silver, 81 Copper);
* A bedroll made of cow hide with an outer layer of a non-descript fur for insulation, attached to [Rucksack - Straps].
I manoeuvre the thick rucksack to be in front of my body, with the hope that it would be able to sustain even the slightest bit of damage and protect me that extra bit more, hiding my face behind it in a way so only my eyes could be seen over it.
My right eye never loses the Packmother, a focus and sheer will I’ve only experienced a handful of times in my life as we slowly make our way through the forest.
I rotate my path to try and force myself back onto the side closest to the dungeon exit, the wolf seemingly allowing it as I finally have my back turned to the dungeon exit.
But I know better than to fall for such a plain and obvious trap.
Turning my back now would leave me vulnerable, and outrunning a wolf without a Skill is nothing more than a dream.
A moment passes as the Packmother and I continue this dance, keeping the wolf in my sight and slowly making my way to the dungeon exit one step at a time. My hand reaches inside the rucksack in front of me, digging deep into the hidden compartment.
Shard of Shifting
Description: A shard that was ejected out of the Shifting Meteor.
When crushed through any means using your body, it heals your HP to full, nullifying ailments, illnesses, and negative status effects, and provides a single boon of your choosing up to a certain extent – all of which comes at a cost.
Has an affinity to INGENUITY and PROGRESS, its elements being TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOMANCY, and TRANSFORMATION.
Recovers: 100% of Max HP in 5 seconds
Applies Status Effect(s): ???
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Quality: Pristine
Cost: 10 Platinum
The coldness of it saps the warmth from my fingers before I cup it into my mouth and tilt my head back — keeping the tiny shard in between my teeth — as I fake a gulp.
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Umbra, Night-Fur Packmother
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In the Womb of the Earth Dungeon, currently in combat with the intruder in the middle of the forest
It has been a moment since the tall intruder had swallowed something, but he remains unchanged, his eyes still focused, his head pouring with blood.
It is not some form of healing, it seems.
Fortunate for her but also worrying. She knows not what he has planned up his sleeve, leaving her with one choice.
To bide her time.
In hopes that the bleeding she’d inflicted upon him made him sluggish, she takes a sudden step forward to test his reflexes, earning a quick swipe from his dagger that misses her entirely before she takes a step back.
It is not time yet.
She continues this dance, the tall invader’s confidence wavering.
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The Packmother has me backed up into a really fucking shitty position, repeatedly closing the distance to snap at me before it retreats from my dagger's reach, never giving me time to breathe.
I feel my vision getting blurry as I stumble backwards over nothing before quickly catching myself, steadying myself once I was upright, and inspecting the new blue box that appears.
Status Effect applied: (Head) Light Dizziness
[Head]
Current Status Effect: Light Dizziness
Light Dizziness: Makes it difficult to stay upright and remain orientated, resulting in a minor increase in the likelihood of stumbling.
Will be nullified if the status effect – Severe Bleeding – is lessened or nullified and enough time has been spent resting.
Can be treated with a Skill, Spell, or Item that nullifies the status effect – Light Dizziness.
The wolf had gotten low to the ground when I had stumbled, looking all too likely to have pounced on me had I fallen over. I contemplate biting down on the shard.
Not yet. I can still get closer to the exit, I can’t use it too hastily.
I change the way I plant my feet and the position of my knees, now more stable to keep myself as steady of a footing as I can get.
The ground beneath me rumbles, a sensation all too recent and familiar, as another Giant Nightcrawler bursts out of it. I only just narrowly dodge out of the way, rolling past a tree and bolting in the exit’s direction, using the Giant Nightcrawler's sudden appearance to get as close as I can to the exit as it blocked the Packmother's straight path to me.
I turn my head to where the exit is, redirecting my chosen path while tossing the rucksack back into its proper place on my back as I run, the Packmother running around the massive worm and bounding towards me with a terrifying speed as the worm wriggles back into the earth, burrowing back into the ground.
Turning my torso around as I run to the exit — the incline of the terrain now at an angle instead of being flat — I throw my dagger in the direction of the wolf in the hopes that it slows her down enough, watching as it sinks deeply into its right shoulder.
Unfortunately, this does not affect the Packmother as she still bounds after me, the dagger embedded in her shoulder not even making her strides worse by even just a tiny bit. A tide of earth shifts beside her as the Giant Nightcrawler burrows nearer and nearer to where I am, closing the distance.
Unbeknownst to me however, a ginormous, fallen, dead tree blocks my path, lying horizontally across from me on an upward slope as two trees lock it in place instead of keeping it from rolling down the hilly incline.
Many bioluminescent mushrooms of all colours litter themselves throughout its dark brown bark, the bright, blinding daylight outside of the cave just a few dozen metres past and over the wooden obstacle.
It is far too tall — easily taller than I am — to be vaulted over and far too wide to be quickly gone around, the Giant Nightcrawler audibly gaining ground with the rumbling earth. I stand there with my mind conceiving every possible possibility of overcoming this obstacle before giving up and turning back to look at the monsters approaching, my hands held up in a defensive stance, my head still pounding with pain and slightly disorientated.
The soil ahead tears itself apart as the humongous worm monstrosity nears, rapidly snaking its way up to where my position is. I look around, desperately searching for where the Packmother is, piercing through the darkness of the forest as my vision glances about the trees and different hiding spots it could be in.
I see a glint of metal on the ground where I once was a few metres before, almost hidden amongst the dry, brown leaves. My dagger.
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Umbra, Night-Fur Packmother
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In the Womb of the Earth Dungeon, currently in combat with the intruder in the middle of the forest
You have casted One With Shadows.
You have become one with the shadows, allowing traversal through the darkness that surrounds us all.
Any pocket of physical darkness that exists can be traversed through, but each shadow must be in contact with one another to be able to move from one to the next.
Magical darkness cannot be traversed through.
You are invulnerable while in this state, with the exception of LIGHT and DARK damage.
You will be forcibly shunted out of this state if any form of light touches where you are in the shadows.
Movement is capped at your Max Speed.
Initial cast of the spell is 1,000 MP, depletes MP at a rate of 1,000/second.
Due to the spell’s DARK nature, any LIGHT attacks made against you while in this state will deal double the damage.
She sprints through the realm of shadows, a direct inversion of the true world, closing in on the intruder as her mana depletes rapidly.
The intruder’s arm hangs low, the same arm that had thrown the sharp thing into her shoulder.
A fitting target.
She shifts back into the real world right before she bites down hard, tearing through the weakling’s soft flesh and breaking bone, blood gushing down into her gullet.
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“FUCK!” I cry out as something heavy pushes into my stomach, bowling me onto my ass and into the ginormous tree, an indescribable sensation erupting through the nerves in my arm, agony running through my veins as it gushes pure crimson.
I look down to where my right forearm is, seeing the Packmother’s head shaking violently as it tears off the remaining sinew from my arm, a blue box appearing, the Giant Nightcrawler now only a handful of metres away.
I ignore it all — the monsters and the blue box warning me of the lost arm — instead focusing on the shard in my mouth.
I bite down.
You have used Shard of Shifting.
Recovering 100% of Max HP in the span of 5 seconds.
Nullifying Status Effects: [Head - Scalp] Severe Bleeding & Useless Clotting, [Right Elbow] Intense Bleeding, {Missing} [Right Forearm].
Remaining Status Effects: [Head] Light Dizziness (rest for 15 mins to nullify), [Left Eye] Blinded (remove obstruction of blood to nullify), [Full Body] Minor Blood Loss (rest for 8 hours to nullify).
!!! WICKED MESSAGE !!!
Artilligent, The Shifting Meteor, speaks to you, Arthur Patten.
Something that lacked the base primal emotions that sapience grants to us all enters my mind, something cold, hard and calculating invading me as it stares deep at my soul, a questioning lilt to its voice.
“What is it do you require?”
I shout through the pangs of torture my very being suffers through, my voice coarse from the exhaustion hanging over me, “FUCKING KILL THEM!” I kick the Packmother’s face away from my legs, landing heavily onto its snout as it snarls from the impact, baring its bloodied fangs in retaliation.
“Lacking specificity. Choosing boon randomly.”
Before I could even say anything about the unjustness of the Shard, the wave of relief finally hits my body as the five seconds pass, my body going through a state of heavenly euphoria as it numbs everything.
Right before my very eyes, my arm begins to regrow rapidly, the black-as-night wolf now wary as a metallic sheen coats the growing limb, reflective and polished to the high heavens, before the sheen disappears — an arm left and substituted in its place.
The Giant Nightcrawler bursts out of the ground a metre away from me, flying high into the air as it follows a trajectory that would land straight onto my stomach as I lay there. It falls from the air, closing the distance.
It’s going to eat me alive.
“Boon chosen.”
You have acquired the boon: Bodily Rematerialisation.
My MP plummets to zero as my right fist erupts into sparks, clashing against the toothy maw of the Giant Nightcrawler and sending it away with enough force to prevent it from landing on my body, instead being sent off to the left of me.
I stare at wonder at how that had just happened, looking at my right arm as I inspect it.
{Remateralised: Steel} [Right Forearm]
The rapid footsteps of the Packmother regain my focus, as I lift myself back up to standing with the help of the tree behind me.
The leaves on the ground are disturbed, some floating in the air. A silhouette that’s darker than the moonless sky runs off into the distance and deeper into the dark forest, a trail of blood lagging behind in its path.
Thank the Divines...
I turn to look at the writhing worm, seemingly still concussed from the collision we’d had.
I look back to my steel arm, a savage grin on my face.
I walk to the back end of the Nightcrawler, my metallic fist reared back behind me before it plummets down into the monster repeatedly, turning it into a goopy, bloody mess.
You have leveled up to Level 15!
Allocate your single instance of 2000 Points into one of the three stats!
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Andrew quietly sobs to himself on his bed, his eyes still feeling like dirt was on them as he rubbed them of his tears.
The stitches from his top surgery had come undone when he had thrown the virtual reality headset against the wall, the pain worsening how he was feeling at the moment.
I’m not a girl... I’m not — I know I’m not...
The trauma his parents inflicted never really went away.