He found himself standing in a long, dark hallway. There were huge walls on each side of him, made from dark grey, almost black stone, but he was definitely outside somewhere, judging from the night sky. The walls towered maybe 15 meters tall, and above them there was a strange purple sheen, because instead of the dark sky of earth, there was a purple glow from the carpet of stars above.
The walls were wide apart, and the path stretched around 5 meters in width, while reaching quite far into the distance in front of him until a bend obstructed it from view. Behind him was just grey stone wall, and touching it, it felt rough, moist and very cold on his fingers. At first, he thought it might be climbable, but looking up towards the top of the walls, there were ferocious spikes, where the widest parts of the spikes, had even smaller ones, pointing down towards him, like a warning.
Trying to come to terms with what just happened, he remembered, the ability!
He concentrated on the now even brighter pulsating light in front of him, and got a plethora of notifications.
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Congratulations gained EX ability: Checkpoint. Create a checkpoint in space and time. Cooldown: 24:00:00
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“What does this even mean, how do I activate a checkpoint? Is there a spell I have to learn, and how do I return to it after I’ve used it?”
While talking aloud about the ability, when he said the word checkpoint, strange white and black runes started appearing around him in the air for a couple of second, before dissipating into light, and on the screen in front of him, the skill was now on cooldown. He also could swear he felt a little bit colder, like he lost something of himself.
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EX:Checkpoint Cooldown: 23:59:54,53,52...
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“So, I just have to say the word checkpoint?” he asked the air.
“Did I just waste my only ability?”
He decided not to dwell on it right now, because he had started hearing the sounds of clashing and screaming coming from the other parts of what he guessed was the maze, just a little while ago.
It had said something about a maze on that notification he got before he was teleported, and hearing the noise coming from above the wall, it further cemented that belief. What was most important right now though, was that it sounded like people were fighting and dying out there! If there was danger, he needs to learn as much about this place as possible!
The light on his screen was pulsating even more brightly than before, and concentrating on it, he got even more text popping up in front of him.
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“Welcome to the trial of the tower, we have provided you with an inventory ring, with the storage of 1 m3 for your convenience. If you want to see your stats, just wish for your stat-screen to appear in front of you. We have also provided you with a basic weapon inside your storage ring. Quests have already been provided, good luck!
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What? A ring with actual spatial storage? He looked around for it on the ground, but found the ring already on his finger, a tiny silver thing. Following the instructions and concentrating on the ring, he was actually able to visualize a space in front of him, just like a projection. Everything was translucent, but he saw quite a battle-scarred and blunt small sword, lying on the ground in the space, and willing it out, it appeared in his hand.
“This is amazing!” he thought, while also unable to shake the feeling that something wasn’t completely right. “Oh yeah, the screaming!”
The screaming was gone.
The clattering was gone.
The world was in complete silence.
He looked at the final couple of notifications and saw something quite troubling.
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Floor Quest. Beat floor 1.
Together with your fellow humans, you have been placed in a deadly maze, full of danger, but also full of opportunity for growth well beyond normal means. Beat the floor in 30 days, or all of the challengers will face extinction. (The Boss only has to be beaten once)
Time remaining: 29 days 23 hours.
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Another screen popped up just after.
Personal Quest: Make it to the Beginner Village. Make it to the safety of the Beginner Village! You have been provided with a wisp of light that will show you the way. Travelled paths will be makred on your digital map. Best of luck challenger. Reward: 50 exp and Minor healing potion.
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Looking closely at the space in front of him, he could see some white, stardust like light, showing him a path in front of him, like the breadcrumbs in Hansel and Gretel. Also, at the corner of his vision, like in a video game, he could see a round map, showing a white dot centering on where he was standing, on the dead end of a path.
“Let’s just check my stats before I get going”
Thinking about stats, another screen popped up in front of him.
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Simon (Human) Level 0 (0/150) No class (5 points awarded upon level up) Strength 7 Dexterity 11 Constitution 9 Intelligence 20 Wisdom 8 Charisma 10
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This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Instead of hyping Simon up, the stat-screen actually made him even more somber than he already was. This was his entire being, summed up into numbers, but this was not a game, this is real life. Although it is incredible to be able to increase your attributes just by clearing challenges, he wasn’t sure the challenges were going to be all that easy, because judging from the screams he heard earlier, it didn’t sound like the humans were winning.
If 10 were averages for each stat, he was actually quite lucky, but seeing that both his strength, and constitution were below average, he was quite worried. After all, with only a small sword, what was he supposed to do with anything other than strength?
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He started walking after the white stardust, and although moist, he found the air pleasant, and the green moss slathered in patches on the walls, quite endearing.
He was moving at a slow walk, but the only thing that saved him from the trap, was that he was focusing on the moss on the wall. One second everything was normal, and he was walking around in a great maze following a magic stardust wisp. The next moment, two vines propelled of from the wall to the right of him, straight towards his torso.
Although freezing up for a split second, he was able to avoid one of the vines entirely, but the other one grabbed a hold of his leg like a rope and started squeezing like it wanted to crush his bone.
“Aaaarrrhhhg!” he screamed.
It was horrible, and every second it was coiling harder, dragging him closer to the wall, where three more vines were now waiting, ready to crush him to death.
The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt in his life, and he was in complete agony. He was crying now, trying to get away from the wall, but it was still dragging him closer and closer. He looked over at the wall again, and something in him knew he had to do something now, because if he got into the range of the other three vines, he was dead. Luckily, he’d had his sword in his hand at the time of the attack, and the pain had only made him coil his finger harder upon the hilt, and he now started doing what anyone would do in a similar situation.
He started hacking the vine with all his strength, while swearing and screaming, glob falling from his nose and mouth. It was a race against time, and although he was able to cut chunks of the vine, he kept getting closer and closer to the wall. He was just a couple of feet away from the reach of the other vines, when finally, he was able to cut free from the vine. He dragged himself on the ass away from the wall, before he laid down on the ground breathing heavily.
The vine was still attached to his leg, just above his foot, like a bandage coiled too tight, and uncoiling it from his body, his entire leg was throbbing in pain, his leg a giant bruise, a blue and purple mess.
He tried standing up on the leg, and was luckily able to stand, but putting more than just a little amount of weight on it, wrought agony all the way through his back up to his neck. The pain was horrible, and he felt dizzy and sick, wanting only back to his comfortable apartment, with water on the tap, and no attacking walls.
But somehow, he knew he had to continue, because there was nothing behind him, and the beginner village, sounded like a beacon of light, to his tired mind.
Although moving with a limp, he found he was able to hobble past the trapped wall, by moving close to the other side of the wall. It seemed like you had to be within a certain radius to make the vines activate. Getting past the wall, he was moving even more slowly now, and after hobbling forwards for around 10 minutes more, being on guard for more traps, throwing stones at walls and paths, he came before what could only be described as a crossroads.
The wisp shined just as strongly in each of the three directions, which must mean that they all ended up at the village, but which was more dangerous. He tried inspecting them, but there were no differences, and no skill activated. His head was throbbing terribly now, and his lower leg had started to swell up terribly.
He tried analyzing the problem rationally, looking for clues to which of the three he should go for, but in the end, he couldn’t concentrate on the problem and just went for the middle one.
Limping forwards for a little bit, it didn’t take long until he saw artificial light in the distance, while the light from the wisp was only getting stronger and stronger. He was getting close!
He was walking at a faster pace now, and only about 40 meters from his location was a mirror-like shimmering portal leading to the village, with wooden buildings and artificial light shining from antique black lamp-posts.
Then they saw him.
He hadn’t been looking around him, instead concentrating on the portal out, when suddenly two waist-high green goblins jumped out into the corridor in front of him. They had been crouching close to a moss patch on one of the walls, and while the first goblin was already charging him headfirst, the other had already knocked an arrow.
The goblin was screaming in a high-pitched battle cry and was approaching him faster and faster. Dazed, Simon walked back one step, before reading his sword in front of him, hands shaking slightly. The goblin had brown sharp teeth, dark yellow eyes, and looked both lean and intelligent, but it was still smaller than him. The problem was the archer goblin.
But the arrow he was ready to dodge, never came, it was waiting for the first goblin to make a move.
The charging goblin came in, small sword in hand, jumping at him, slashing with his sword towards his throat.
He just managed to block the strike, but the launching goblin made him fall to the ground, and the goblin was already hacking at him a second time, straddling his torso. He didn’t have time to block the second strike with his sword, and tried grabbing the sword hand of the goblin, but he was too late, and the slash made a huge gash all across his left arm.
He screamed in rage, pushing the goblin of him, and with adrenalin fueled strength slashed out with his good right hand, tearing up the goblins entire face, from ear to ear. The goblin fell limp, yellow eyes glazed over, while blood was still gushing from Simons left arm, the pain blinding him completely. It was over in a heart-beat, but blood was still gushing out of the long gash on his arm, pooling on the ground under him.
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Killed Level 1 Goblin Earned 50 Exp
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He looked over at the other goblin, still arrow knocked on it’s bow, waiting for him to move closer towards it. He had tears in his eyes, and just know noticed that he'd been screaming the entire time, rasping up his throat completely. He tied the loin cloth of the goblin, tightly around his arm, hopefully stemming up the bleeding a little, but everything was so full of blood, he couldn’t see much difference.
He got up to his feet, left arm hanging limply to his side, right arm shakingly holding the rusty sword, and his only good foot now just barely holding his weight. He felt lethargic, the adrenalin from the first fight completely gone.
Walking slowly towards the last goblin, ready to dodge, he didn’t even see the goblin release the arrow, before he heard a sharp thud, and saw the feathers sticking out of his stomach. He fell to the ground, cradling the arrow at his stomach with his right fingers, the sword now laying on the ground. Glob and tears were falling from his face, and he could just make out the goblin with a small, curved knife now in hand, through his teary eyes.
The last thing he saw before blacking out, was the ugly goblin, jumping at him, knife pointing straight towards him-
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He came to with a scream, standing in the same hallway it all started, his hand slightly cold from touching the stone wall, his body still in perfect shape. He was just like he was at the start of the challenge, and he could only think of one logical explanation as to why.
He had respawned at his checkpoint after he died.