Chapter 11
Magic and a Massacre
I looked in, and all I could see was black. There must have been some enchantment or some kind of magic on the thing cuz I couldn’t see past the lip of the small pouch. So I thought fuck it, and I reached my hand into the bag. As my fingertips passed into the darkness, a window, much like when I viewed my stats sheet, popped open in front of me.
This, however, was not my stat sheet but an inventory of the items in the pouch. There was a total of ten slots in the inventory, and only six were in use. My eyes went wide as I realized what I held in my hands. It was a magic bag of holding, like in a video game. Holy shit, this was amazing.
I grabbed the other pouch just to check if it was the same, and yep, fuck, it was another bag of holding. This one had six slots, and three were in use. This time, I actually checked what was in each slot. It was all water. Like I mean, it was literally all filled with what must have been their water rations. Each slot just had a water droplet in it and a little number 100 in the corner.
The reason I knew for sure it was water, by the way, was because when I focused on the first slot with the water drop symbol, it started to feel like the bag was filling with water.
When I moved it around, I could feel the water sloshing around inside, but when I looked in, all I could see was endless blackness. So, I took the next logical step, in my opinion. I walked over to the kitchen area and found a pot. Then, I started pouring water out of the pouch like a water skin. After about 30 seconds, the stream stopped, and I focused on the bag in my hand.
I thought there might be a way to call open the inventory without poking my finger into the bag every time. Sure enough, after about a second of thinking inventory and holding the bag, a window popped open. I looked at the first slot in the inventory and the small number in the corner of the box now read 99.
I walked back over to the chests where the two women were and told them about the bags. I told them how the bangs worked and about all the water in side them. Beth walked over to the chest and grabbed the other bag of holding. She held it in her hand, and then it looked like she was focusing really hard. Then her eyes widened, and it looked like she must have successfully pulled up the inventory. After a few moments, Janet and I kinda just looked at Beth and waited for her to tell us what there was inside. A few seconds later spoke up,
“Well, not that great. There are some metal ores, some clothes, a nicer cloak that looks like the others we found, and the rest is, I think, food and stuff.”
“Well, that’s cool. It’s not super useful to us now. I mean, water is nice, and food, well, if edible, is nice too, but the real reward here is the bags themselves, I think”, I said.
“Yeah, I agree. It’s gonna make trips to the tree house with gear a lot easier.”, said Janet while Beth nodded seriously.
I laughed at Beth’s look at Janet and then asked Beth to help me try to get the other two chests open. She nodded and walked over to help me out. We dragged one of the chests over closer to where Janet was. It was made almost identical to the first chest, just twice the size and locked.
“Well, I say we just smash the lock off, right? Hell, we don’t have a key, and I don’t want to go digging through bodies to find the keys, do you?” Beth said. I smiled. “Yeah, that seems like the only option to me. Like you said, fuck digging through bodies for a key, that would suck, so yeah, break that shit,” I said, and Beth nodded.
The next second, Janet lifted her axe and slammed it down between Beth and me into the lock, snapping it clean off. It hit the floor and went skirting across the room. Beth pushed Janet’s shoulder with a pissed-off look on her face, “Hey! If you had hit me, I would have stabbed you, asshole.”
After Beth said that, Janet stepped back into a ready stance, axe raised like come at me bitch. Both stood there for a second before they both started laughing and relaxed their stances.
Then Beth punched Janet and said, “But seriously, don’t do that, you scared the shit out of me.” Janet chuckled, then said,
“Okay, my bad, just wanted to fuck with you guys a little.”
“Mission accomplished, dork, but come on, let’s see what is inside this thing,” I said, then kicked the chest that Janet had just opened with my foot lightly. Janet smiled, and we all bent down as Janet lifted the lid. Inside were some coins, but they didn’t even fill the box enough to cover the bottom of the chest.
It was probably around eighty of them, and then there were about five blueish-white crystals. The crystals were super cool looking. They would shift from mostly blue to mostly white like a fog constantly moving under a glass shell.
When I picked one up, it was heavy, well, not really heavy, but for its size. It must have been solid, not hallowed, and it was kinda fucked with my brain. They looked like they should be lighter than air with the way their coloring moved about like smoke, but they felt like solid crystals.
“Ooh, those things are super cool looking. Like what the fuck?” Janet said. Beth could only agree with her. I handed them each one to check out. While they were checking out the crystals, I checked with them if It was okay to open the other chest, and they told me to go for it.
I pulled the other chest over and positioned it so if anything flew off the lock when I hit it, it wouldn't ricksha and hit Beth and Janet. I asked Janet if I could borrow her axe, and she made a snarky comment about how my “tinny spear” wouldn't cut it. I just gave her a few sarcastic chuckles and then just walked back over to the last locked chest with Janet's axe over my shoulder.
I lifted the axe over my head and slammed it down, hitting the lock dead center and breaking it in two. The broken pieces of the lock bounced away in different directions for a few feet, then rolled to a stop. Janet and Beth looked over at the noise but soon returned to inspecting the crystals again.
I popped the top open and looked inside. There were only two things inside. Another small pouch. I assumed it was a bag of holding, like the other ones we found. When I picked it up, yep, another bag of holding, but it had fifteen slots instead of ten. That was a cool, slight upgrade from the first two bags.
The other thing in the chest was something wrapped in cloth. There were a bunch of weapons in groupings of ten that took up five slots, and the rest of the bag was empty except for one other slot that held four of the blue crystals as we’d found in the other chest. I placed the bag to the side for now and pulled out the bundle of cloth, then started to unwrap it. The clothes were not clean. There were stains all over, and it was slightly damp.
I don’t think it was water, but it might have been. It might be water. Let’s just say that, honestly, it was kinda disgusting. I unwrapped it as fast as I could while touching it as little as possible. When I had it mostly unwrapped, I lost hold of the thing and kind of dropped the contents to the ground. Then I just tossed the nasty blanket aside.
I looked down to see what had dropped onto the floor, and by now, Janet and Beth were looking over at my dramatics.
“What are you doing?” Beth asked, but of course, Janet had to add her two cents,
“Yeah, you okay, spazoid?” I blushed a little, then just thought fuck it
“Yeah, you know what? That shit was gross, and I wasn’t going to touch that shit any longer than I had to. You would have done the same thing,” then I thought about how Beth had dived in headfirst when we’d looted those dead Caprainki and rephrased my words.
“Well, maybe Beth wouldn't have freaked out, but you for sure would not have touched that thing, Janet,” I told her. She stuck her tung out at me, and Beth laughed with a, that’s what I thought, look on her face. I smiled at Beth’s smug look and Janet’s scowl and looked at what had fallen out on the floor.
I belt down and the first thing I noticed was that it was two items, and that those two items were a set of metal bracers. They looked like they were made of bronze, but it definitely wasn't new. It looked dirty like it had seen better days for sure.
There were what looked like old blood and other bodily fluids stains all over them, but they were intricately engraved with crazy designs and weird, what I thought at least might have been some kind of writing.
I took off the braces I had on and put the ones from the chest on. As I was putting them on, I realized there was no way to fasten them. There was just a loose leather strap affixed from one side to the other with no buckle. Fuck, I guess it’s one size fits all, and I’m not in the all-group.
As soon as the first bracer was in place, however, it resized like fucking magic to fit my arm perfectly. Kinda scared me at first, honestly. I got worried it was stuck and I'd just put on a cursed item or something, but as soon as I thought about removing it, it loosened up once more.
Okay, shit, that scared the fuck out of me. Once more, I just held the brace in place, and after a second, it tightened down. I placed the other bracer on, and once it had tightened onto my arm, I felt a pulse of power flow through my body, but that was it. I felt like I should have gotten a notification. Oh, dam, that little exclamation mark was blinking in the corner of my vision. It must have gotten a level from the fight with the Caprainki’s.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I checked my notifications. I had four kill notifications and a notification that was weird.
“You have had your body infused with the element of fire, and you didn’t burn to ash from the inside out. Wow, congratulations! You have gained a resistance to the element of fire. Usually, resistances take prolonged exposure to the element in question, but infusing your body directly with an element is extremely dangerous and stupid. With risks come rewards. Plus, five to fire damage resistance. You may see a decrease in damage and pain from the element of fire.”
That was a long notification shit! But that was awesome, so I could grab hot pans off the stove and play hot potato super well. I'm way better now, sick! Then I checked my battle log, and it turned out that I had been affected by a “Laser Blade,” I had been hit with elemental damage, and my body had been infused with the element of fire. Holy shit! That’s fucking scary infused with the element fire! I didn’t know what that meant, but if it meant pain like the kind that had sent me to the ground crying, then that was bad, really bad, and I needed to avoid that kind of damage in the future for real! I calmed myself down. Then I read my last notification it was a level-up notification.
“Level up! You were Level 6, and now you’re.Three stat points have been awarded. You may freely distribute these as you see fit. Kill, get stronger, fight for money, these are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer!”
With that, I decided to distract myself with my character sheet.
Travis Mullins
Level: 7
Race: Human
Experience needed to next Level: 4,250/4,380 XP till next Level.
Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)
Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)
Resistances:
Element of fire
*Item is influencing stats
*Strength: 21
*Dexterity: 16
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 15
*Constitution: 21
Luck: 14
+3 free stat points
Hell yeah, fucking level up mother fucker! I put one point into Dexterity and two into Strength.
Travis Mullins
Level: 7
Race: Human
Experience needed to next Level: 4,250/4,380 XP till next Level.
Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)
Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)
Resistances:
Element of fire 5%
*Item is influencing stats
*Strength: 23 (26)
*Dexterity: 17(20)
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 15
*Constitution: 21 (24)
Luck: 14
Wait, what the fuck was this? Item is influencing stats. My Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution had all increased by three points, and they had a number in parentheses that must be the stat points when boosted. So, I was getting nine stat points in total from the braces I just put on. That’s crazy!
“Hey, so got something here I think you guys are going to want to see,” I said. Beth and Janet walked over, and I took the bracers off and handed them out to Janet and told her to just put them on.
She looked at me like really, and I just told her to put them on and that she’d see what I was talking about. She put the first one on and just looked at me like fuck you. “yeah, um, these don’t fit me, Travis?” Janet said. In the middle of her sentence, it tightened down on her arm, and she yelped and dropped the other bracer she was holding. I just smiled at her like, yeah, I know. She gave me a dirty look as if saying thanks for the heads up, asshole, and I didn’t say shit.
What the fuck, Travis? Is this cursed? Am I stuck with these now? Wait, you got them off. How do I get them off, Travis? What the fuck?” Janet said. I just held up my hands in a placating gesture and said,
“It’s good. You just have to will it, and it will loosen up. You're good, but don’t take them off. Put the other one.” She gave me another dirty look but still went to put the other bracer on. when it resized, and she had both bracers on, I could see it when the wave of stat points hit her.
She looked at me like what the fuck and I told her to check her stat sheet. The next second, she had a far-off look on her face, and then she was back.
“What the fuck! That’s amazing holy shit. These things give me Strength, Dexterity, and a Constitution boost. I got three points in each! That's crazy,” Janet said.
“Wait, really, wow, that’s great, all from that set of bracers?” Beth said, wide-eyed.
“Yeah, I guess that better gear will give stat boots, but the real question is who gets them?” I asked them. The two women looked at me like what? Then I saw it dawn on them, like, oh fuck right, we all can’t wear them at the same time. That moment was kind of funny to witness, not gonna lie.
“Well fuck how do we pick cuz? I’m guessing everyone wants them?” Janet said. Me and Beth just nodded.
“Well, I say we take turns for now, then draw straws or something to see who gets it later. That work for you two.” Janet said. I didn’t want a fight, so I just told Janet that was fine, and Beth just didn’t care and thought Janet’s idea was fine.
“Beth, your watch still working?” Janet asked.
“Yeah, still good. Why?” Beth asked back. “Well, okay, so maybe I wear it for two hours, then we switch, and I give it to you or Travis, and then we Just keep the rotation going for now like that?” Janet said, laying out her idea to us.
“Fine with me I said. Beth looked at Janet like the fuck.
“What?” Janet asked.
“So cuz I’m the only one who was smart enough to be wearing a watch when the world ended, I’m now just automatically gonna be the timekeeper, fuck you guys.” I just started laughing at the bewilderment on Janet’s face after realizing she hadn't even considered that.
After a second, Beth’s hard, pissed-off expression melted, and she started laughing.
“It’s okay, Janet. I was just fucking with you. Dam, your face, oh my god, that was totally worth it. It’s all good, Janet. I'm fine with being the timekeeper, but wow!” Janet just rolled her eyes and said,
“come on, we don’t want to be in here forever. What’s our next step? Should we do a tree house run, or do you want to keep going and explore some more of the dungeon?”
“Well. I think we need to head back to the main room to move on anyway. Why don’t we just do a tree house run? Wait a second, hang on, did you get levels like, did you destitute your stat points already?” I said. They looked at me like what the fuck are you talking about.
“What? You got stat points if you leveled. Just making sure you’re staying up to date on our power-ups,” I said. Janet and Beth just laughed. “You're right, Travis. Sorry, we just did that right after the fight. Sorry, we didn’t remind you. Next time will let you know.” Beth said.
“Oh, okay, well shit, my bad, thanks. Yeah, I kind of forgot. You know, with the pain and the loot. Oh well, I’m all good now and up to date. Let’s just get the fuck out of here. We grabbed all our loot and dragged it all back to the safe room.
When we had it all back in the safe room, I smacked myself in the forehead hard. “Ow fuck” I said, then rubbed the spot where I smacked myself.
“You good?” Janet asked as she and Beth chuckled at me from over by the pond. “Yeah, I’m good just realized we could have used the bags of holding to bring everything here and that we almost carried all this shit back to the tree house like this.” Janet and Beth stopped laughing, and I could see the aw fuck cross their faces. “Ssshhhhittt, well fuck okay, let’s fill these up,” Janet said, and we each pulled out a bag of holding. I kept the fifteen-slot bag for myself, but they didn’t need to know that. Everything fit, and we even had spots left. Beth had poured out a bunch of water and left only three slots with one hundred potions in each.
Still felt like overkill to me, but she said fuck it and told us it was always better to have more than you need than less than you need, and I couldn’t disagree when it was so portable. I joined Janet and Beth over at the pool of mana, kissed water, and drank up. Then, we all checked our gear and our wounds then left the dungeon.
We stepped into the safe bubble outside the dungeon. There, we all stopped and stared at the scene before us. It was a battle between an army of little T-rex guys agents, about twenty of those lizard-bear creatures, and I really couldn’t tell who was winning. It was a fucking blood bath.
Little T-rex bodies lay all over the ground, but there were definitely some lizard-bear bodies dead, too. The T-rex guys were getting hit hard. They just seemed to be never-ending and coming from everywhere.
“Oh fuck, what the shit?” I said in a soft voice, more like a thought that had slipped out.
“Wow, this, this is horrible,” Beth said in a soft, almost scared, voice. Janet was just starting with her eyes wide. We stayed and watched the battle for a while. At one point, Beth said that we’d been there for forty-five minutes.
It was about ten minutes after that that the battle took a turn for the worse for the Bear-lizard guys. They were doing great and holding their own for a long time, but there were just too many of the little T-rex fuckers, and they just kept biting. When they bit down, they tended to lock their jaws and just hold on until they were killed or the piece of flesh they were chewing ripped free.
In that case, they would chew the meat, swallow it down then jump back in the fray. In the end, the little T-rex guys managed to win the day. Death by a million bites is a bad way to go, in my opinion. There was one lizard-bear guy left, and it tried to run. As it turned and ran the little T-rex things when ape shit. I think they knew their victory was close, and all the remaining little fuckers jumped the big guy.
The bear-lizard managed to make it out of our sight line. We still heard it when it got taken down, a loud guttural hiss like a growl of pain, then nothing. There were bodies everywhere. A bunch of Bear-lizards and what looked like hundreds of the little T-rex things littered the area.
Plants and small trees were crushed and splintered, grass and dirt were ripped up all over, and everything was covered in blood. It almost looked like the area had now become a swamp of blood. Janet was the first of us to move. She lifted the axe off her shoulder, a small grin appearing on her face a brief second before she breathed out.
Then she charged out of the barrier right at a group of about six of the little T-rex things. My mouth dropped in shock. I was kind of still reeling from the forty-five-plus minute killing fest we’d all just witnessed. I watched Janet as she ran full out at the group. When she was about ten feet from the small group, they noticed her, and at first, it looked like they didn’t quite know what to do. Then I think instincts took over, and there was just something bigger than them barreling down on them, and they all got into a defensive posture.
The little T-rex guys began to crouch slightly, lower their heads a little, and started hissing. They waited like that as Janet got closer. When she was on them, she swung out with her axe in one fluid motion. Her strike was low and horizontal. Janet's strike killed all but two in one hit.
As she swung, most had been too slow to move out of the way of her strike, but the two she missed had immediately jumped back and away, saving their lives. That wasn’t the end of the altercation, however. Instead of taking off like I thought the two little guys would, they must have been running on a high from the battle cuz they jumped right at Janet’s face.
Then Janet moved fast. She stepped back, reversed her axe, and swung up and across her body, smacking the two T-rex guys out of the air in four different directions. Then Janet was running back toward us at full speed with twenty of the things right behind her.
As Janet got to the barrier concealing the entrance to the dungeon where Beth and I had been watching this shit play out, the T-rex guys slowed, then stopped right in front of the barrier, sniffed a little, then, as if realizing something, they all turned and booked it until they were out of sight.
“What the fuck, Janet!” I said, and just kinda stared at her, like, what the fuck? She just winked at me. Then Janet stuck her tongue out at me and said, “What, oh come on, the little dinosaur frog guys are leaving. Let’s get the fuck out now while we get the chance.”
Beth shook her head like what the fuck and then just said, “Come on, Travis, let's go.” I just shook my head because, in my thoughts, all I could think was, really, a fucking frog dinosaur! Fucking Frog Dinosaur! They were obviously Mini T-Rex Dinosaurs, not FROGS!