A blanket of the queen’s webbing covered my entire field of vision as it descended, burying me alive in its thick substance.
Gasping for air, I strained all of my working muscles to rid myself of the webbing to no avail. Tremors vibrated on the floor I laid on as the queen dragged itself closer with its unstable legs, the injuries it sustained were severe enough to immobilize most of its limbs at this point.
But it didn’t need to be healthy. Any attack from the queen would be enough to finish me off.
I cursed at the situation that befell me. Anger, anguish, regrets, every negative emotion I kept deep inside flared out as I roared with my reddened eyes glaring at the queen’s figure.
However, right before the queen finished its attack, another giant shadow smashed against her wounded stomach, bursting its contents in an orange explosion.
I couldn’t hear what happened. But what I saw was something I’d never expected. In the midst of our battle, we’ve both forgotten about the third party that has been here with us from the very beginning. Perhaps it was thrown away when the queen slammed the ground at the start of our fight, but the reason why it’s here no longer mattered.
The worker ant, in its dying breath, chose to retaliate against the queen.
As much as I would like to, the sudden attack didn’t quite finish the queen off, despite it being on its last breath. It bit the head of the worker ant, smashing its carapace between its mandibles with a inaudible chomp. The ant thrashed around inside the queen’s jaw, trying to wring itself out of its vice-grip hold.
The opportunity wasn’t lost on me; I drew the blade I kept on my waist and swiftly made an incision on the webbing, pulling it apart and freeing myself after. The queen was still busy dealing with the unexpected assailant as I limped my way out of the bindings.
I saw the Worker Ant struggle to keep itself alive before its limbs hung lifelessly as the queen smashed its head completely. It then threw the lifeless body of the ant across the massive lair; the effort draining its last supply of energy.
Eventually, the grasp of death took hold of the queen’s body. Its head fell from the exhaustion, generating a huge quake as it bounced in front of me. I stared at it straight in the eyes, witnessing the red glow of its eyes waning, replaced by a black, empty void staring back at my gaze.
The scene left me in disbelief. The queen was about to die.
Gripping the sword in my hand, I walked closer. In contrast to its furious stare previously, the gaze I see now was one of loneliness and regret. I could almost make out what it was trying to say, even with no words being spoken.
The cold steel of my blade plunged the queen between its eyes.
[You killed Lvl. 15 Maddened Red Ant queen]
[Congratulations! You leveled up!]
[Congratulations! You leveled up!]
[Congratulations! You leveled up!]
[Congratulations! You completed the task : Kill the Maddened Ant queen.]
[Congratulations! You acquired the achievement : Big game hunter. +3 constitution.]
[Rewards are being processed, you will see a chest after you step into the portal.]
“Haaa…. Haaa…. Haaa….” Coughing, my legs lost their will to stand as I collapsed on the floor. The euphoric high of my victory completely took control of my rationality. With tears streaming down my face, I laughed uncontrollably beside the dead queen.
Despite the fact that I couldn’t hear anything and with both my legs and my left arm not functioning; This was the first time that I truly felt that life was worth living. Long gone were the futile efforts to better my life, long gone were the results of my efforts to end up in waste.
It turns out that having your achievements and efforts rewarded felt good.
How do I even describe it? It’s like a state of being that you’d savor and desperately crave for once you felt it. A feeling that was almost too addictive.
A circle of light conjured itself beside me, breaking me out of my reverie.
The Portal.. It’s from the system. I thought, using the rest of my energy to lay face up. But before that…
I opened my status page.
Player : Zane Black
Race : [G - HUMAN]
Level : 7
Health : 4/140
Stamina : 10/140
Mana : 32/50
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
ATTRIBUTES
Physical [5] :
[Strength] - 6 [base : 5] [sub + achv : 1] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Dexterity] - 9 [base : 5] [sub + achv : 4] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Constitution] - 9 [base : 5] [sub + achv : 4] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
Mind [0] :
[Intelligence] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Willpower] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Capacity] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Free Main Attribute points : 3 ]
[Free Sub Attribute points : 3]
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
Classes :
[]
Skills :
[]
Achievements :
[Death’s door(2)] [Big game hunter]
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Affinities :
[]
Talents :
[]
That was way too close.
I put all my main attribute points into the physical stat and distributed the rest of the points into dexterity. A massive wave of power washes over me, on a scale that I’ve never felt before. Like the euphoria, I giggled from the pleasure I’m getting.
That felt way too good.
Afterwards, I looked back at the scene of carnage before me.
The ant queen lay motionless in the middle of its own lair; Its corpse being a physical reminder of what had transpired in this lair. Extending my hands, I reached for the queen’s mouth, getting a feel of its tough carapace.
[Extract boss item?] [yes] [no]
Huh? This never happened before.
The moment I pressed yes, a light appeared on top of the queen’s body. Streams of energy formed between the body and the light as it sucked something out of the queen, gradually growing brighter while the streams faded. The light floated gently towards me, transforming into some type of gem shaped like an emerald, but it was completely black, almost devoid in color.
[Beast core of the Mad queen : A component that can be forged into multiple types of weaponry. One use only.]
The queen’s carcass remained the same, but there was no longer any response when I touched her this time. My eyes wandered around the lair one more time, checking if there was anything I missed.
There’s nothing else here.
Grabbing the gem with me, I got up and stepped into the portal.
Bright light flooded the portal, filling my vision with its brightness before I felt the air warp around me. A few seconds later, I found myself back in the same pit that I fell into. The sword and belt that were hoisted on my waist were gone, as if the contents of the cave itself had all but disappeared.
But that’s not the end of the world, I thought, as the form of both my spear and backpack were presented neatly beside a blue-ish chest. I hurried over to my backpack, nearly choking as I guzzled a potion down, a desperate attempt to restore my health as soon as possible. Storing the gem I found afterwards, I let myself rest while watching the potion working its magic.
My body healed partially and I regained my hearing, but a single potion wasn’t enough to heal me to full health. I checked my health, calculating how much the potion healed me by. It now sat at 54/170. So 50 a pop?
I consumed 2 more potions, leaving me with 2 remaining potions on my backpack. My health now sat at 154, a comfortable amount, but I could still feel some soreness and pain as I stretched both my arms around.
Once that was over with, I grabbed my spear and directed my focus on the chest.
[Blue - tier chest : Rewarded by the system by completing a dungeon. Bountiful gifts are found inside.]
With a smile, I walked over to the chest and heaved it open. Blue Light seeped through the opening as I lifted the chest lid before the system bombarded me with a list of messages :
[You acquired 1x [rare] Shadow - step skill book.]
[The system has awarded your dungeon completion with the A rating. You managed to clear the dungeon on your own, through sheer luck and will.]
[1x [epic] Enchanted cloak of shadows rewarded.]
[1x Main attribute stone acquired rewarded.]
The chest then dispersed into thin air, leaving a stone, a book, and a dark cloak on the ground. My eyes were wide agape as I picked up each item on the floor.
[[rare] Shadow - step skillbook : Select an empty spot within your vision, then your body will be dissolved into the shadow and teleported to that destination. Uses more stamina while the user is in the light, while costing half otherwise. The longer the distance, the higher the stamina cost.]
[[epic] Enchanted cloak of shadows acquired. : A special reward from the system. Wearing it will bind the cloak to the user. The cloak can only be removed if the user wills it. While in the dark, the cloak will generate a dark mist around the user, cloaking the user within. Wearing it gives +2 dexterity. Self-repair.]
[1x Main attribute stone. Use to gain 1 main attribute point.]
What a crazy set of rewards. I made an internal fist-pump. Patience running thin, I snuggled myself with the dark cloak and bound it to me.
[Enchanted cloak of shadows bound to Zane Black.]
Cool, now How do I use these?, I thought, analyzing the skillbook and the stone that were in my hands.
Right after that, both the objects I held shone and dissipated into nothingness. My eyes furrowed when a flood of new information was directly injected my memory. It was filled with the images and pictures of the skill, [Shadow-step].
[You used the skillbook : Shadow - step skillbook ]
[You acquired 1x main attribute point]
Gasping for air, my legs buckled as I almost fainted from the sudden influx of information.
So that’s how you do it.
I re-enacted the images on my head, internally selecting a spot in the pit, before I felt my body losing all of its weight and sensory input as I zoomed through the air, reappearing in the spot as my senses returned. I attempted another shadow step but found myself unable to do so for a few seconds.
There’s a hidden cooldown. Let’s see.. About 3 seconds?
Satisfied with the test, I opened my status window.
Player : Zane Black
Race : [G - HUMAN]
Level : 7
Health : 154/180
Stamina : 10/180
Mana : 32/50
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
ATTRIBUTES
Physical [9] :
[Strength] - 10 [base : 9] [sub + achv : 1] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Dexterity] - 18 [base : 9] [sub + achv : 7] [equipment :2] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Constitution] - 13 [base : 9] [sub + achv : 4] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
Mind [0] :
[Intelligence] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Willpower] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Capacity] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Free Main Attribute points : 0 ]
[Free Sub Attribute points : 0 ]
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
Classes :
[]
Skills :
[Shadow step - epic]
Achievements :
[Death’s door(2)] [Big game hunter]
Affinities :
[]
Talents :
[]
Stamina’s dangerously low. I thought, putting the main attribute into the physical stat.
I took out a ration and gulped it down; Instantly, a rush of energy entered my consciousness as I felt more awake and lucid. The ration had increased my stamina by 100, doubling the amount the potion gave me.
Satisfied with my gains and with the lack of imminent danger, I used this moment to figure out the true limits of the body that I had.
The first test I did was my jump height. Before, my straight jump was only about 18 inches up, an above-average score on the earth, but with the new jump, I felt like I was floating in the air. Now, I leaped a tiny bit more than 2 times my height, which translated to about 150+ inches, give or take. That was inhumane by the earth’s standard.
I can jump that high just from a 10-strength investment? I mused to myself.
There were no weights around that I could use to test out how much I could carry, but I knew that my body felt significantly limber and lighter. The spoils from the cave were enormous, even if it came pre-packaged with a dose of traumatizing, near-death experience.
But no matter how terrifying that ant-queen was, she was nothing compared to the shadow stalker I met. A part of me wondered if I could face that creature now with my newfound strength, but I scoffed that idea off since I knew that it’ll kill me for sure if I see it again.
Not yet.
I looked at the top of the pit, wondering if I could climb myself out of here. I jumped to the wall and planted my arm in a crevice, still surprised by the height I reached and the nimbleness I had. Without the ant and the use of both of my arms - and my spear - the journey up there was almost too easy.
The sun was setting when I climbed out of the pit. Glancing below, I let out a sigh of relief, thankful that I made it through another day.