I slowly began to feel myself coming back to consciousness. I felt like I had been hit by a ton of bricks, and they were still lying on top of my head. I had a migraine that was pounding like a set of pahu drums at a hula festival behind my eyes. I opened my eyes slowly to find I was in a dimly lit room with a couple of torches on the walls off in the distance. I found myself lying almost fully reclined with just my head and neck propped up against some kind of stone wall. I sat myself up slowly as the pain started to subside, pushing myself up first onto my elbows, then to a fully sitting position. I had to put my hand to my head as a sense of vertigo overtook me momentarily, I placed one hand behind me on the floor to brace myself so I didn't fall back and hit my head, and my vision started to swim.
After a moment, the vertigo lessened and I was able to look around more at my surroundings. It looked like some kind of cave had been hollowed out to be a room. The walls looked as though they had been worn away over many years as a natural cave formation would be, and the floors were stone with some dirt covering them. While I was looking around, trying to make sense of where I was now after having been in a place of endless white before, I noticed three colored bars at the top of my vision. They were nearly transparent until I focused on them, at which point they became more vibrant and opaque. The one on the left was a vibrant red, the one in the center was royal blue and the one on the right was either dark lime green or light forest green, I never was very good with colors. I focused more on them, noticing an HP, MP, and SP next to each and a pop-up appeared in my vision the same way they had when I was inspecting the race statues.
HP: 100/100
The HP bar is the representation of your remaining hit points. Once the hit points reach zero you will die. Take care not to let them get too low.
MP: 100/100
The MP bar is the representation of your remaining mana points. Once the mana points reach zero you will be unable to use mana for magic. Take care not to let them get too low as running out of mana can produce mana headaches.
SP: 100/100
The SP bar is the representation of your remaining stamina points. Once the stamina points reach zero you will be unable to move. Take care not to let them get too low while in any dangerous situations.
"Well, that was interesting. That felt like the video games I used to play on Earth. Does that mean I have some kind of character sheet as well?"
As soon as I said this out loud another screen popped up in my vision,
Name: Callan Ryder
Race: Human
Class: Error!
Level: 1
HP: 100/100
MP: 100/100
SP: 100/100
Total XP: 0 XP to Next Level: 1000
Attributes:
Unused Attribute Points: 0
Strength: 10
Constitution: 10
Dexterity: 10
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 10
Luck: 10
Non-Combat Skills:
Combat Skills:
None
None
The character sheet looked like most of the ones I had seen before so the information wasn't new to me. But what did it mean that I had an error in my class? I tried focusing on the error and the field just blinked red and nothing more happened. Deciding I wasn't going to get an answer right away I tried to take in my surroundings. The character screen followed my vision around the room no matter where I looked. I tried to turn my head faster but only succeeded in making my headache begin to come back. I looked at it again.
"I wish I could just close this screen," I said out loud, a bit of frustration in my voice as I thought about having to navigate with it in my view.
No sooner had I said this, than the screen disappeared and my vision was clear again. I thought about bringing it back up and it opened in my vision. Then I thought close and the screen closed and was removed again. So clearly this was all done through my thoughts. I started to look around again, now that I didn't have a set of information blocking my vision.
It appeared to be a dimly lit cave that didn't have much in the way of decor. The walls were a brownish-grey color like you'd expect from a stone cave probably in some kind of a mountain. The walls weren't quite smooth but looked as though they had been worn away somehow. It reminded me of the caves I visited in New Mexico when I took a vacation with my family to visit Carlsbad Caverns, only there were no stalactites or stalagmites that I could see. The torches on the wall flickered in sconces that looked as though they were made out of the walls themselves. Two of the torches were on either side of an entrance at the far end of the room, and two more were positioned at about the middle of the room directly across from each other. I looked down at myself and found I was just in the basic starter clothes for most games. A simple cloth shirt and shorts with no shoes. Since inspecting other things had yielded more information already, I tried inspecting the clothes as well.
Item:
Basic Rags
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 10/10
Defense: +0
Item Quality: Poor
Item Rarity: Common
That sucks. What, I couldn't even get a weapon to start with? All I had was something to basically keep me from being naked, and it was doing a pretty piss poor job of that too, noticing a couple of holes in places. I had to stop myself. I was thinking of this as a game where the players usually started with a weapon. But this wasn't a game, was it? The AI that I had spoken to hadn't even known what a video game was. And this felt different than the games that I had played in the pods back on Earth. There was always this slight feeling of disconnect when you played those games that, while it was the most realistic gaming experience ever, always still had this feeling that you weren't actually the character. This felt just like it was my body moving.
I looked around the room one more time now that my head had completely settled. As I was looking around, there was a flash of light from my right and once it vanished and my eyes readjusted, I noticed a small pile of rocks against the back of the cave I hadn't seen there before. They blended in well with the wall of the cave and it was pretty dim, but that definitely wasn't there a moment ago. I decided to go investigate. I needed to see if I could find something in this cave to fashion into a weapon.
When I got up to the pile of rocks it was about as high as my knee. They were stacked up and leaned against the back of the wall almost as though they were hiding something. Was this my chance at a hidden treasure? Had something heard my complaint about no weapons and realized that a mistake had been made? As I pulled away the rocks I found that what was underneath was actually some kind of egg. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but I guess maybe it could be food. It was larger than any egg I had ever seen before. Ostrich eggs were supposed to be pretty big, but I had never held one before and I was pretty sure it was bigger than even those were. It was a dark grey color with black blotches in places and a really rough exterior and bumps that poked out covering it.
I reached out to touch the egg and got another prompt.
Egg Bond:
You have been the first to touch this egg and have now tied its fate to your own. As this egg has been bonded to you and you are in a dungeon, it has now been added to your party as well. The bond you have created with the egg means that if it dies, so do you. Once the egg hatches this status may change. Good luck.
"Are you kidding me?!" I cried indignantly, instantly regretting touching the egg. "Now I have my fate tied to this egg? And what did it mean 'now a part of my party'? How does a breakfast staple become a party member? I'm in a dungeon?! How did I end up in a dungeon? If the egg dies, I die?! Does that include if it gets too cold? Do I need to sit on it? Will sitting on it break it, causing me to die? Once it hatches the status MAY change? There isn't a guarantee? What the hell kind of egg is this anyway? And, come to think of it, WHAT THE HELL IN GENERAL?!"
I stomped around the room for a minute swearing to myself and complaining about giant chickens and my luck. I tried to calm myself down, knowing that getting all riled up at this point wasn't likely to do anything but make the situation worse. I took in a few deep calming breaths, tried to think about the things I could control, and what my best options were given what I knew.
I suddenly felt a prickling sensation starting at the base of my spine that rushed up to my head and caused me an intense sense of pain and burning behind my eyes. I fell forward onto my knees and elbows with my hands clutching at my eyes and rolled around on the ground trying not to scream, remembering only with a small instinctual part of my brain that I was in a dungeon. Then, as suddenly as it started, the pain just was gone and I had yet another notification. This time instead of popping up right in my vision, there was a small blinking exclamation mark with a circle around it in the side of my vision just under my Stamina Bar. I focused on it and the pop-up notification appeared in my vision.
Congratulations!
You have just had your class adjusted to Dragonrider! You will now be able to bond with your dragon familiar once it hatches. The bond between dragon and rider is one of the deepest bonds in existence. Take care to ensure that your egg hatches.
I could only sit and stare dumbly for the next five minutes or so. A dragon egg?! This was a real-life dragon egg?! And I was the first one to touch it so I bonded to it?! This was the stuff dreams were made of. I was going to have a dragon familiar! Once it hatched, of course.
Reality began to settle in on me. I had to wait for this to hatch. That could be days, weeks, maybe even months, or years! And I was in a dungeon. Which I had to get out of. And since I wasn't sitting on the stairs leading out, I would likely have to either complete the dungeon or find the exit. As a level one noob with dirty rags, no weapon, and the forced need to protect this egg with my very life, I didn't like my odds right now.
"Get it together Callan. You can do this. You have been in bad situations in games before, you can figure this out."
But this was different. This was real life. This wasn't a game anymore. Was it? No, the pain from those other changes was too real. VR pain wasn't like that. It stung a little to remind you to pay attention, but even dying in the games wasn't one-tenth as painful as that class upgrade was. No this was real, unfortunately. I was going to have to really be careful.
"Nope, this isn't real. I can't be thinking this is real. What kind of crazy do I take myself for? Mama didn't raise no crazy person. I am just dead, that is all. Dead at a really young age from something horrible. I can't be in a video game! That's absolutely absurd."
I heard a noise suddenly from behind me. It almost sounded like talking, but in some language I couldn't understand. I turned around and saw the path leading out of the room with some shadows now dancing on the walls in the shape of some creature moving down the hall.
"Then again, I could be careful just in case I'm not dreaming or dead."
I hurriedly put the rocks back over the egg and moved to the side wall to be out of the line of sight of the entrance. I pushed myself back against the wall and waited. Two small creatures walked into the room. They looked like the Goblin statue that I saw back in the reincarnation room. Small, humanoid, ugly as the day was long, greenish skin, warts in very unfortunate places, and they smelled like a pile of dog crap. This was perfect since goblins were almost always starter monsters, they should be easy enough to kill. Having trained in martial arts for so many years on earth, I received a black belt in Tae Kwon Do first, and later in Judo. Goblins being humanoid, though small, and me being unarmed, I should be able to use many of the techniques I learned on the goblins, and since they were short, they had a short reach. It should be like fighting children right? I dismissed that disturbing, yet hilarious image quickly. I'd be at a distinct advantage in this fight, minus the weapons. I stared at them for one more moment and got two more pop-ups.
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Goblin Scout:
Level: 5
HP: 150/150
MP: 10/10
SP: 100/100
Goblin Scouts are the lowest ranking of the goblins. Used mainly as fodder to ensure that the rest of the clan gets a warning of invaders, they are usually the weakest of a clan sent out to find any information about the surrounding area or be a meat shield while the others retreat.
Congratulations:
Skill Unlocked: Inspect
You can use inspect to gain useful information about items, and creatures. As you level this skill more information will become available to you.
Skill Level: 1
Skill Rank: Beginner
That was useful. Inspect must be something I can do on any item or creature. I tried inspecting a rock on the ground and nothing happened. I tried inspecting the walls and nothing happened.
A thought hit me then. What if these were people who were reincarnated as goblins? Could I kill someone who might have been from the same place as me? Could I kill someone in general?
That was the moment I realized I had spent too long reading my notifications, playing with my skills, and pondering the philosophies of the universe. One of the goblin scouts looked over at me, stared for a moment while its tiny brain caught up to its eyes, and screamed something in its strange language.
"Hi," I said weakly as I waved a hand at them and thought frantically about what to do next. "This isn't what it looks like."
One pulled a dagger and the other readied the spear it had been using as a walking stick. It stabbed out at me and I barely dodged out of the way. Then the spear wielder stabbed out as well and I moved to not get stabbed again. Alright, no more worrying about the implications of murdering someone. These little turds are trying to kill me, so the gloves are off!
The goblin with the spear thrust it out at me again and I dodged to the right out of its reach only to find that was exactly what they wanted me to do. I found the second goblin had lunged as well to the right of me with its dagger. As I tried to turn my body so as to give as small a profile as possible while avoiding the spear, the dagger caught me across the stomach leaving a shallow cut. Nothing serious, but it hurt! I saw my HP drop from one hundred down to ninety-five and a bit of blood showed where I was cut.
"Shit! That hurts!" I cried, putting a hand to the wound instinctively.
I growled but had to give them credit, that was a pretty good move for goblins, which I had come to think of as much less intelligent than this. So, time to take things seriously. I readied myself in a fighting stance with my right leg out in front of me, my left leg back, my right hand held up in front of my body open fist, and the left held back to the side of my body at chest height. I turned my right hand, palm up, and made the universal come and get some sign, curling my fingers in a few times to taunt them. The goblins had moved back slightly at my sudden change in posture, but when I made the hand gesture they sneered and charged forward together.
I moved right so that the dagger-wielding goblin had to move around his friend with the spear, giving me a moment to focus on the reach weapon. As I suspected, the spear-wielding goblin stepped forward, cutting his compatriot off, and stabbed out at me. Dodging slightly to the right again to miss the thrust, I grabbed the haft of the spear as the head passed me and yanked hard, bringing my knee up into the stomach of the goblin as I did so. The breath went out of the little creature and he let go of the spear, doubling over on the ground. I continued the movement to the right to stay out of the dagger's reach and turned the spear to grab it properly. Now having a weapon the dagger-wielding goblin paused, looking at his friend on the ground.
I nodded, showing that I understood his hesitation and that they had underestimated me. I then moved forward as quickly as I could, feinting to stab at the dagger-wielder with the spear and as he tried to back peddle out of the reach of the spear, I turned the thrust into a sideways slash at its neck. Its eyes went wide as its backward momentum couldn't be changed to dodge the attack. The blade of the spear bit into its neck and a spray of blood erupted from the artery in its neck. It tried to screen but only gurgled as it dropped the knife and grabbed at its neck.
That was a death sentence if I ever saw one, so now I focused on the first goblin. He was back to his feet and staring slackjawed at its companion. It looked to try to escape, but my movement had put me between them and the exit. It snarled at me and dove to pick up the knife. I stabbed out with the spear, but the little monster was quicker and grabbed the knife and came up in a roll ready for a fight. Seeing that he had no escape, he ran at me at full speed and then jumped into the air with the dagger at the ready.
I moved right again and let him land on the ground and thrust out with the spear, taking him in the side. This time, because it wasn't his neck, he did scream out in pain. I quickly pulled the spear out and snap-kicked the goblin in the face, sending him spinning to the ground from the force. As he hit the ground I rushed forward and stabbed the spear down into its chest with all my force. The goblin's eyes went wide again and a gurgling sound came from it as its face screwed up in pain. It tried to reach on hand up to the spear in its chest, but I twisted the shaft. The hand paused and then fell to the ground as the goblin died.
As the life left the goblin's eyes, I once again got pop-ups in my vision. I took a moment before I opened them, staring down at the lifeless forms of the goblins before me. It took me a moment of reflecting before I was able to look at the prompts. I had never killed anyone before. This was a new experience. I had done it in games before, but there was always a degree of separation between you and the actual killing. This was so much more real. I was covered in blood now too from the exchange. I had to harden my resolve though and commit to what I needed to do in order to stay alive, but I found myself almost shaking now that the adrenaline was wearing off. These goblins would have stabbed me, killed me, and eaten me without even thinking about it. I couldn't let that happen. At the same time, they were so small, and in death looked so helpless. My stomach began to hurt again where I had been cut by the knife. There was a bit of red blood starting to show on my shirt from the gash now in addition to the goblin's blood. No. I could not just let this second chance at life go without some kind of fight. These creatures had come in here, and instead of talking or taking me prisoner, they had lashed out with weapons to hurt or kill me. With my resolve firm, I looked at the prompts.
Congratulations!
Skill Unlocked: Unarmed Combat
You can use your hands, feet, head, and other parts of your body to cause harm to others. Continue to train with your body to upgrade this skill.
Skill level: 1
Skill Rank: Beginner
Congratulations!
Skill Unlocked: Spears
You can use weapons such as spears, polearms, glaives, and other such weapons with some effectiveness. Continue to train with these weapons to upgrade this skill.
Skill level: 1
Skill Rank: Beginner
Level Up!
You have earned enough XP to advance to the next level. You are now level 2! Continue to work hard and push yourself to gain more XP to continue to level up. As a human, you now have 5 attribute points to distribute as you see fit.
Wow! That was great! Leveled up already! But how do I tell how much XP I got from the fight? These prompts acted just like the ones in the games I played in the full-body immersion VR systems I used every Sunday back on Earth. Maybe I could just think about what I wanted to find. I thought "Logs" and a screen appeared with the information I needed.
Battle Log:
-Goblin scout hits Callan with dagger for 5 points of damage
-Callan hits goblin scout with knee (unarmed damage) for 5 points of damage each
-Callan hits goblin scout with spear in critical area for 200 points of damage
-Goblin scout is slain +500 XP
-Callan hits goblin scout with spear for 70 points of damage
-Callan hits goblin scout with foot (unarmed damage) for 5 points of damage
-Callan hits goblin with spear in critical area for 150 points of damage
-Goblin scout is slain +500 XP
-Level up
That is really cool. I can see everything. And, bonus, it didn't pop up in my fight to distract me. They must have a system to keep that from distracting you similar to the VR systems back on Earth. It was really annoying when you would play games that didn't think about that aspect of the immersion and you'd get killed because you were distracted by a random pop-up in a battle. I should look at my character sheet now to see what is new.
Name: Callan Ryder
Race: Human
Class: Dragon Rider
Level: 2
HP: 100/100
MP: 100/100
SP: 100/100
Total XP: 1000
XP to Next Level: 2000
Attributes:
Unused Attribute Points: 5
Strength: 10
Constitution: 10
Dexterity: 10
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 10
Luck: 10
Non-Combat Skills:
Combat Skills:
Inspect: Beginner 1
Unarmed Combat: Beginner 1
Spears: Beginner 1
Where to put those five points? That was a really tough question right now. I had no idea what was involved with being a Dragonrider, which was now clearly going to be my class. The best thing I could hope to do was put the points into something that would help me right now. I wondered if I could inspect the attributes to get more information on them. So I tried focusing on one of the attributes.
Strength:
This attribute controls the carrying capacity of an individual as well as how hard you are able to strike an opponent.
So just like the games. Let's check the others just to be sure.
Constitution:
This attribute controls how resilient you are. HP is increased by 10 for every point placed here, as well as a tiny rise in your resistance to poison and disease.
Dexterity:
This attribute controls your movement and flexibility as well as your accuracy with distance weapons. Every point placed here will increase your stamina regeneration as well as increase your mobility, making you more agile and limber, and causing you to be more accurate.
Endurance:
This attribute controls how long you can continue to move. Each point placed here will increase your SP by 10.
Intelligence:
This attribute controls the amount of mana you are capable of holding. It also controls the number of spells you can learn at any given time. Each point placed here will increase your MP by 10.
Current spell capacity: 5
Wisdom:
This attribute controls how fast your mana regenerates. Each point placed here will increase your mana regeneration rate.
Charisma:
This attribute controls your ability to interact with people. Each point placed here will increase your ability to interact with others in a positive manner.
Luck:
This attribute is as mysterious as the cosmos are vast. Each point placed here will increase your luck (for better and/or worse).
That damn Luck skill was always the same. No one could really give you a good reading on what it did. Sometimes it would really pull through for you, but others it would feel like it worked against you. No matter. There were other more important attributes to worry about. Since I had no spells currently, Intelligence and Wisdom seemed like less important stats. Charisma was just screaming "You won't use me in a dungeon", so that was out. That left Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Endurance. Honestly, having only been in one fight so far, and with little knowledge of what to do with the points, I decided I should just wait to see where I needed them. The difference isn't likely to be that great with so few points unless I pound them all into one stat.
With that, I decided I needed to loot the corpses. I already had the dagger and spear, but I wondered if they had any other items. I walked over to the bodies and stared at them for a minute. God, they were ugly. Was I really going to have to search them for the items? I thought about it for a minute longer, then did what I thought any gamer would do and bent over and thought "Loot" with a hand outstretched.
Bupkis. I tried saying it out loud.
"Loot," I said, really focusing on the prospect of getting all the items they would have had on their persons.
Nada. So I guess I needed to take what they had. I steeled myself and reached to pat them down to see if I felt anything on their person. They didn't have much clothing, so I rolled the first one onto its side and noticed a pouch tied to its side. I lifted part of the cloth that they used to essentially just cover their dignity and noticed it was just too thin to have any kind of pockets or conceal anything. I did the same to the other goblin as well after removing the pouch from the first that was attached to a belt, which I also took. The second one had absolutely nothing. The other goblin's pouch held five copper coins, some string, a couple of rotting fingers, three smooth rocks, and a piece of flint.
"BLEH!!!" I growled out as I dropped nearly everything I had pulled out of the pouch looking at the rotting fingers and realizing what they really were. They were grey in color, shorter than my own finger, and shriveled from being removed from their host for so long. One of them even looked a little chewed on. I was about to throw up now. I carefully picked up the other items trying not to touch any of the rotten flesh and kicked the fingers closer to the goblin corpses.
Most of that was useless to me, but I was able to take the pouch and the belt, which magically seemed to change in size to fit me as I put it on and tied the pouch to it. Now that was handy. Never again would I need to find someone to tailor something to me if everything fit magically like this! I only kept the coins and the flint. I inspected the items.
Item:
Worn Belt
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 10/15
Defense: +0
Item Quality: Poor
Item Rarity: Common
Item:
Small Pouch
Item Type: Storage
Durability: 20/40
Storage Space: 1 cubic foot
Item Quality: Poor
Item Rarity: Common
Item:
Rusted Dagger
Item Type: Weapon
Durability: 8/10
Attack: 2-8 damage
Item Quality: Poor
Item Rarity: Common
Item:
Iron Short spear
Item Type: Weapon
Durability: 9/10
Attack: 5-15 damage
Item Quality: Poor
Item Rarity: Common
Item:
Flint
This item can be used to start fires when struck against a stone. It could also be carved into a primitive blade if the proper skill is learned.
Item:
Copper Coin
The primary currency of the continent, this coin is the smallest denomination of currency.
So, nothing great. But, still better than what I had before. I also took the rags the goblins had been pitifully calling clothes from them to see if I could make some kind of carrying case for the egg. The poor excuses for clothing the goblins had been wearing were absolutely disgusting. They were no more than loincloths, oily, dirt-ridden, looked like they had never been washed, and had some kind of stains on them that I didn't want to stop to think about what they might be. Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough material to make anything that could carry an egg of that size. So I put what I had in the pouch, put the dagger in my belt, while taking care not to cut myself with it due to the lack of a sheath, and carried the spear in one hand. I went back and uncovered the egg from its hiding spot under the rocks and placed it under one arm. The egg was about the size of a beach ball, though egg-shaped, so it wasn't too difficult to carry in one arm. Seeing nothing else of interest in this one room I decided it was time to set out and see if I could make it out of this dungeon somehow.