Chapter 2
Grassy Questions
Asher hardly had a moment to wake himself up from the morning delirium before the searing pain scorched through his limbs once more, and the drab but familiar scenery of the cabin was swallowed up in the maw of darkness. A moment passed swiftly, however, and he found himself afoot a thick, fluffy cloud, with 199 other people everywhere about.
At the center, seemingly waiting for them, was the same eagle from yesterday, wearing an even dapper, white suit. He was a showman, it seemed, splaying open his arms as a rancor of doves fluttered out before his speech began.
“Hark, all ye worthless, pointless, and soon-to-be-dead mortals, I bid thee welcome! I do hope thou hast enjoyed a restful night's slumber, for it may well be thy final repose. Beneath us, beneath these fair clouds of Sandoria, doth lie the Grassy Lowlands, a forsaken parcel of the Empire's domain where foul creatures have thrived and festered for many an age. Thy challenge? Survive, ye humble selves, and wield thy blade in the name of the Lords! Each among you shall choose thy first weapon and embark upon the quest of ages—tame the Lowlands! The swiftest ten, in years' wisdom most seasoned, shall advance to the next round. As for the rest? May the Shadows embrace thy souls. If thou hast any queries... refrain. For none here doth care! Go forth now, and immerse thyself in blood—whether 'tis thine own or another's, it matters not.”
It was quite a mouthful, and many parts of the speech flew over Asher’s head as his only close encounter with Shakespeare was in the fourth grade when he was tasked with playing some background brick of nothing in one of the plays.
However, before he or anyone else could even begin to mull over the speech, the clouds beneath disappeared, and they began to fall. He wanted to scream, to rip his throat apart, and yet no voice would come out. Certain he would splatter on the ground and die, he closed his eyes and forgot everything. But the splatter never came--and neither did the pain.
As he opened his eyes, he recognized that he was standing in a field of tall grass occasionally interrupted by massive, building-sized boulders and an occasional oak tree. It was rather flat, though misty some two hundred yards in the distance. Beyond the nature, there were several windows that appeared in front of him. A quick look-through told him that it was the choice of the starter’s weapon: Wooden Sword, Wooden Bow, and Wooden Staff.
Wooden Sword [Common]
Level: 1
Effect: Slice forward in the direction you are facing, dealing damage to all monsters within the distance. Has 1% chance to strike twice.
Damage: 3
Attack Speed: 1 attack per second
Reach: 1 yard
Wooden Bow [Common]
Level: 1
Effect: Shoot an arrow in the direction you are facing, dealing damage to monsters it passes through. Has a 1% chance of firing a secondary arrow.
Damage: 2
Attack Speed: 1 attack per second
Piercing: 3 enemies
Wooden Staff [Common]
Level: 1
Effect: Shoot a fireball in the direction you are facing, dealing damage to an enemy. The fireball homes in on the first enemy in its trajectory. Has a 1% chance of exploding on impact, dealing damage to everyone within 2 yards radius.
Damage: 1
Attack Speed: 1 attack per second
Asher mulled it over for a moment before electing to go with the staff--he didn’t know the mechanics of aiming, and he wasn’t comfortable needing to be close to whatever he would be fighting, which left the staff as the only choice. He wouldn’t have to aim, just face the general direction of the monster, and he suspected most others would pick the staff as well. It’s not as though it was the best choice--there really wasn’t one, as every weapon had its benefits--but considering he had as much experience slaying monsters as he had slaying wild lions, it was better to be safe than sorry.
The countdown began--it was rather overwhelming since it presented itself as massive numbers in the sky counting down from 10. There was no other information, no other guidance, nothing. Just cold, indifferent apathy. Luckily, or unluckily, Asher was used precisely to that... for better or for worse.
The number reached 0, though nothing changed immediately after. He remained standing at the spot, firmly gripping the wooden staff that just looked like a random, wooden stick one would find in the forest, and he began to wonder whether the damn thing could even be used to whack something, let alone toss balls of fire at enemies.
The cackle appeared, prompting him to look to his right.
Leaving the ‘mist’, he saw a tiny thing lumbering forward... excruciatingly slowly. In fact, it was so slow, that Asher relaxed immediately--but only for a moment. It was a noob trap. It had to be. For how much those damn things seemed to resent humans, they would never just give them a ‘free out’. He immediately faced the monster--a spider-like thing with four feet and green, glistening scales--and raised his staff.
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A whirl of flames appeared on top of the staff for a moment before it burned forth in the direction of the monsters. It flew rather swiftly, crossing nearly two hundred yards of distance in less than a few seconds; it curved toward the end of its trajectory and slammed into the monster. By the time it did, however, a few more balls of fire were whirling forward. Every time the ball reached the monster, the number ‘1’ appeared above its body. By the third fireball, the monster exploded in the shower of pus and gore.
The stench was overwhelming, even at a distance. Asher keeled over and vomited--in part because of the colorful explosion of gore and guts, and in part because of the permeating stench--but recovered swiftly, looking around and locating two more monsters that had appeared. He began to face them.
He didn’t really ‘control’ the staff; it fired a ball of fire once a second, and it fired it in a straight line to where he was facing. There was no ‘kickback’ or recoil or anything like that. In fact... it was kind of boring, Asher concluded. He slew the two monsters before recognizing that there were three more approaching from the other end. By the time he slayed two, the world seemed to crawl to a standstill, and three windows, once again, appeared in front of him--he had leveled up, and had to choose his reward.
Muscle Training [Common]
+10 Health
Level: 1/99
Nimble Footing [Common]
+0.3 Movemenet Speed
Level: 1/50
Wooden Staff [UPG +1]
Level: 2
Effect: Shoot a fireball in the direction you are facing, dealing damage to an enemy. The fireball homes in on the first enemy in its trajectory. Has a 1% chance of exploding on impact, dealing damage to everyone within 2 yards radius.
Damage: 2
Attack Speed: 1 attack per second
Without much thought, he elected to upgrade the weapon, cutting down the number of fireballs he needed to slay a monster from three to two. It was only then, too, that he noticed the abnormality on the right side of his vision--when he focused on it, letters appeared detailing his current ‘Quest’.
Quest: Grassy Lowlands [1]
Slay Monsters: 5/50
Slay Rare Monster: 0/1
Reward: 10 Souls / 1 Divine Gem / Beginner’s Shop Unlocked
Asher watched as the sixth monster fell, and four more spawned. He’d also just now realized he didn’t even move all this while, remaining stationary as though his body was a turret. While aiming his staff in the direction of the four monsters, he began to move around--it was effortless, he realized, but also... strange. He didn’t seem to ‘spend’ any stamina but he moved at a constant speed. He couldn’t slow down or speed up... at all.
It was extremely uncomfortable at first, almost akin to wearing someone else’s skin. But rather than stopping, he pushed through, realizing he had to get used to it. There was something within him, buried deep under all the anxiety, fear, and terror that was pushing him forward. Otherwise, he knew, he wouldn’t be able to stand so sternly in the face of horror and barely flinch. Whether that ‘something’ was his or whether it was part of the package of this place, he didn’t care. Whatever it was, it was keeping him alive.
By the time he killed his 15th spider, he’d leveled up again.
Strike Prowess [Common]
+1 Damage
Level: 1/99
Wooden Staff [UPG+2]
Level: 3
Effect: Shoot a fireball in the direction you are facing, dealing damage to an enemy. The fireball homes in on the first enemy in its trajectory. Has a 2% chance of exploding on impact, dealing damage to everyone within 2 yards radius.
[Uncommon Effect] -- if the fireball kills the enemy, it explodes into 6 embered shards that fan out in a 1-yard circle, dealing damage to the first enemy hit.
Damage: 3
Attack Speed: 1 attack per second
Wind Steeps [Common]
Type: Passive
Level: 1
Effect: Increases movement speed by 1 per enemy killed for 2 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. New stack refreshes duration.
Though he was tempted by the Wind Steeps option, he elected to upgrade his weapon again. In most horde survival games, at least at the very start, it was best to just upgrade the raw damage of the starting weapon or spell as much as possible. It didn’t hurt that the staff also got the secondary effect which would help with mobbing.
He hadn’t nearly understood the systems just yet--but it was quite different than most of the games he himself had played. He wasn’t tasked with surviving for 10 or 20 or 30 minutes, and the map itself wasn’t infinite; in fact, the mist remained in place as he moved, meaning that four hundred yards squared was all there was. There weren’t any extra ‘buildings’ or ‘shrines’ that he could interact with, there was nothing to break... if this were a game, it’d actually be quite boring.
The monsters spawned slowly, he wasn’t in any danger of dying, and his sole attack was an ordinary fireball. However, it wasn’t a game, and thus he was glad that the ‘game’ was as it was.
Slay Monsters: 35/50
Rare Monster Spawned!
Spider Queen [Rare] [Level 5] has spawned!
Alongside the spawn of the stage’s boss, the remaining 15 spiders all appeared at the same time, as did another selection window as he’d leveled up once more.
Nimble Footing [Common]
+0.3 Movement Speed
Level: 1/50
Wild Thunder [Rare]
Level: 1
Effect: Automatically summon a blast of thunder with the nearest enemy as the center, dealing damage to every enemy within the blast area. Has a 3% chance to stun every enemy within the blast area.
Damage: 1-6
Cooldown: 8s
Range: 30 yards
Blast Area: 3 yards
Dash [Common]
Level: 1
Effect: Dash in the direction you are facing. Has a 1% chance of not incurring cooldown.
Dash Length: 4 yards
Cooldown: 10s
Just as he was about to select the Wild Thunder option, a familiar figure appeared in front of him--Qyne fluttered in front of him with a cheeky yet knowing smile.
“You’re about to be stupid, you moron,” she said.
“--you almost gave me a heart attack, y’know?” Asher said. Luckily, the world was still ‘paused’ so he wasn’t wasting time chatting with her.
"Tsk, tsk, this is why all you humans are corpulent wastes of matter," Qyne sighed, rolling her eyes in perfect sync with clicking her tongue. "I've been slumbering for a long-ass time, and I don't wanna go back just yet, so I'll help you. Consider it a debt that you toad-looking muttonhead will have to repay. Choose the Dash.”
“...” Asher stared silently, and she stared back, her gemmed eyes almost aglow in the light. “If I do, I’ll live?”
“Who knows?” she shrugged her shoulders. “That’s up to your boilerplate brain. I’ve done my thing, and if you die even with this... shit, your mother should have taken care of you a long time ago.”
“Jesus...” Asher mumbled under his breath, shivering and shuddering for a moment, but opting into the Dash. Perhaps it was moronic to trust her, someone who hadn't said a good thing about him all this while... but his gut feeling was telling him that it was the right choice. And, for better or for worse, he always trusted the damn thing. And he wouldn't stop now, not even in this seeming death.