Lone was speechless...
Has he read the notifications he reread them again and again. It was one thing to find out that he was right about the dungeon but a completely different one when he found out about his rewards. The quick succession of each screen popping up freaked him out, making him swing his stick at air before he could've let his panic subside.
After calming down and reading the pop-ups for the 5th or 6th time, he opened up his status window.
Name: En-Lonnoch Nickname: Lone
Species: human
Current level: locked Current titles: locked Current stats and status information:
locked
Bank: stat points and experience
Locked until requirements are met.
Timer: age requirements are met 1,274: days 4: hours 7: minutes
45: seconds
Special stats granted: +5 to all base stats, stats partly released under special conditions. Continuing forward stats will increase when sufficient effort is made. Notice: 50% of earned stats will be banked.
You are currently in the dungeon field time speed increased by 100%.
Titles' effects have been suppressed.
Lone's head was spinning. It was a lot of information to take in, but what he was mostly focused on...
'Time increase? What does that mean? Does it mean I get older faster? Or does time just pass by faster? Both, right?'
That's when a system window popped up.
Dungeon system interface: Subject: time speed increase Answer: your perception of time will increase by 100%. Example: while you experience 2 hours inside the dungeon, others will experience 1 hour outside. Second example: if you were to experience 10 years in Dungeon, you and your possessions would not age 10 years, but 5 years.
Lone again found himself rereading another window. Yet again, with more questions.
'Now there's a dungeon interface window? Is it different from my system window? Well, I might as well ask.'
"Umm. What is a dungeon system interface? And is it different from my system window?" He said in a voice louder than intended. As he winced, the window popped up.
The dungeon system interface is due to the reward of Title of: ×!=#÷,
Trait: Ledger of the ×!=#÷,
'So this was part of one of his mysterious titles but weren't they supposed to be locked? Was this some sort of work around he could exploit?' but before he could continue thinking yet another window popped up.
Dungeon system interface: No. This is a special permission given by the system due to the system restrictions on early Rewards. Dungeon interface trait is granted only to this dungeon.
His eyes were getting tired of rereading these persistent pop-ups... And even the chime of when they did appear was starting to get annoying. He then realized that he'd been standing there for a while now, then started to think of his other questions that he'd yet to ask. Mainly about his stats and what sufficient effort was. That wasn't even mentioning the plus 5 to all stats that he got.
'Was plus 5 even noticeable?' he thought to himself 'maybe I should try asking the dungeon rather than my own system. Wait, I'm still in a dungeon! Should I really be focusing on this right now?!' he looked around and saw nothing that was dangerous, at least that he could see. Then he noticed some rocks on the ground closer to him, maybe around 10 ft away. They didn't look small but they weren't very big either, maybe the size of a football and strangely uniform in shape.
It was then he saw out of the corner of his eye one of them moved. It was only a little but when he turned his head it was still rocking slightly. He turned to look at the other rocks all of similar shape and size realizing there were over 10 of them surrounding him.
He still had the staircase to his back so he wasn't really that worried but played it cautious anyway, he took the long stick in his hands and in one long vertical motion slammed the end into the closest rock. Not knowing what to expect he was a little surprised when it didn't move to dodge or crack open like a watermelon but bounce and roll around a little. What surprised him the most though wasn't how the rock reacted but how much faster and easier it was to swing the stick in his hands, hitting harder than he had intended.
Before you could finish marveling at his Newfound strength, the rock began shaking and then a motion that reminded him of insects like roly polies legs begin to sprout from one side of the rock. It almost looked comical how it was trying to get up, it being stuck on one side.
Not missing his chance at what looked like a weak underbelly he decided to jab as hard as he could. Satisfied in seeing him doing some actual damage he grinned and hit it again to finish it off. A crunching sound echoed throughout the cave.
A window popped up over the carcass of...
"It's called a Rock Beetle? Well can't say there's a better name for it." he said not sure why the name surprised him a little. Then turned for his next kill ignoring the chimes of other pop-ups. To his surprise all the Rock beetles had foregone their disguises and seemed to be slowly charging him. Getting a better look he could see the mandibles and eyes directed at him, when one stopped 3.ft away looked at him and with no warning started spitting a sticky thread up and over his head, it's slowly falling on top of him. Before it made contact though he decided to get out of the way, using his stick to move and direct anything he couldn't Dodge. While he was doing this the other Rock Beatles got into position and started shooting as well.
He then decided it was not a good idea to stay here any longer and time to head back up the stairs. This was already a major win for him, getting outside the wall investigating the forest, seeing the farmlands plus the homes or barns, and of course the crown jewel finding a new dungeon. Of course he wasn't forgetting the titles, rewards, stats and just the general Mountain of information he got from the Dungeon Interface! But time wasn't on his side.
He would have to figure out how his stats had increased, he would have to memorize his way back here, not to mention remember his way back to the Village, figure out some way of asking about dungeon Rewards...
'gah!!! Damnit! just one thing at a time figure it out all later!' he thought to himself. There were just too many possibilities for him to go and try and figure it out now. So he decided to put it off until he got back.
He was at the top of the dungeon entrance now. Looking up at the sky, realizing time had been flying, it looked like the sun was going to set in less than an hour and he wasn't confident in finding his way back in the dark. He had to hurry.
He noticed on his way back that he had less of a hard time remembering where to go and how to get back. He also noticed that he wasn't even getting tired yet. He just felt faster and lighter. I didn't take him much to guess that it was the +5 to all stats but he didn't expect it to be this significant. He still had to rest but it was less than he expected. He just couldn't understand how the stats added up to this kind of increase in ability.
With minutes to spare he reached the village right where he had exited the field. It was here when things got tricky. Leaving have been simple enough hearing the guard snore but coming back the Twilight setting upon the village making the figures in the guard tower look like shadows, while the sun still covered 2/3 of the field would probably make him stick out like a sore thumb.
Figuring there was nothing much else to do, Lone began moving forward from stump to stump. After about a minute he was a third of the way when all of the sudden.
"Thunk"
Right in front of his face and arrow sank into the stump in front of him.
Lone could hear shouting. "Who goes there! Answer or I'll..." He heard an audible smack and more shouting."Ya damned fool! It's the ophan brat ya don saw leavin hours ago. Ow are ya so dum!" The first man answered back equal in temper "you old shit for brains that's why I didna shot I'm in the ead! I was waiting for your damned Eyes to tell if it was im or not!" Another audible smack came from the tower, then another "OKAY OKAY! stop hitting me ya mightin break yer hand boy. I was at fault there ya happy?!" It got quite again and Lone wasn't sure if he could move yet but the more he listen to the conversation only told him that he wasn't as sneaky as he thought he was.
' well isn't this embarrassing, I wonder if this means they told on me or not? Either way it doesn't seem like it's going to end well for me' he thought as the outcomes ran through his head.
"OH! Here she comes!" He heard the older guard shout "How'd she get out the gate so fast?" The younger question
Lone had heard the stomping of footsteps before their words made sense to him. His thoughts going blank for second as he felt sweat run down the his back
"craaap." He said to himself in a low mumble.
"Where is he!?! I'll break his little legs and have him on his knees praying to Mightus till morning!!!" A woman's voice calls out in a low, almost happy sounding rage.
She was still out of sight so he had a chance to get back to the treeline before she could catch him. Breaking his legs was definitely off the table... Maybe. But a punishment at step or two below that though. They do have healing Magic after all.
As fast as he could he made for the tree line, if he could make it in there, he had a chance of losing her. She was faster than him but he bet he could lose her behind a tree or two.
"Oh no you don't!" The woman immediately zeroed in on him, as he could hear her crash through the foliage, loud crunching and snapping behind him. "Where do you think you're going!"
Lone couldn't help himself as he shouted back "My Safe Place!!! Maybe a nice moonlit stroll! Or how about I'm going to pick flowers!" He huffed as he had to come to a stop.
There in front of him sitting in a very feline-like manner, a black haired, green eyed Beauty. Her car eyes catching the last bit of the sunset giving her a very Predator esk glare. Her nun outfit hiked up in an almost indecent manner but gave her enough Mobility to pounce if need be.
"Hey Ceilie." He said huffing out of breath his small body and high voice playing the innocent row badly. "How are you! You look good!" He pretended it wasn't a problem
Her ears flicked and a rather aggressive purring sound came form her. She was not happy with him. "I had to do your share of the chores Loney, then hear from a creepy guard that's been bothering me that a young brat was sneaking out of the village. Do you know how worried I was? Then after hours of looking, you finally come back only to start running back into the mountain." She said in a calm manner that was the opposite of her normally happy and cheerful voice.
"To be fair, it wasn't you I felt the need to run from." he said trying to not flinch as he heard the crunch behind him.
Then a large Shadows seem to cast itself over him. He turned around to greet his pursuer, then he had to look up at the big woman. She was a 6' , maybe a little taller, beautiful to look at, long red hair like an apple, big brown eyes, and a very seductive hourglass figure and if he wasn't 7 years old, nun or not he would shoot his shot at either of the holy women.
Unfortunately that isn't the case. The woman in front of him with arms crossed a smile on her face and eyes filled with rage looking down on him and said "Do you have anything to say before I ring your scrawny Little Neck, boy?" he hated the way she said boy half as an insult the other as if to say she didn't believe it.
So he found himself speaking before he could stop himself "I don't know sister? What did you want to hear." he had said sister in the same tone that she said boy in. He could see half the rage in her eyes disappear and her big smile turned to a smirk.
"dumb and ballsy." She said,"It puts a smile on my face, but it's not going to save your ass from turning purple for a week."
Lone then said "yeah yeah I know, I'm your favorite, but May can you please fix my hair first?" he heard an ear flap behind him.
"No, that'll be part of the punishment." May said, still grinning.