I tapped my foot to the quiet, weirdly comforting muzak. It was like a mix between a lo-fi dubstep and smooth jazz, a concept I would have hated had I only heard of it on paper. The elevator had been set to move only one floor, to 101. I guessed that was where the rewards were given to victorious fighters. But I had been in the elevator for what felt like a long time. For all I knew, it had only been thirty seconds and my increased perception, along with my anticipation, was expanding that window of time well beyond what I would normally feel.
After what felt like an eternity, or perhaps another minute, I couldn’t be sure, the doors slid open. I was not prepared for what I saw. Marble floors, gold-trimmed chandeliers, fresh flowers in intricate vases, all that I had seen before. Wildly over-the-top exhibitions of wealth. That was what I expected. Instead…
“Come, Master Blackwood.”
I took in the sight. It was the Announcer, truly in the flesh. His voice carried like it had in the arena below, but without artificial amplification. It had a booming resonance, reminding me quite strongly of Ving Rhames, one of my favorite actors. That was where the resemblance ended, however. The Qhuvois stood around nine feet tall, another semi-educated guess based on their size relative to the trees. That’s right, trees.
The room didn’t have walls that I could see. I wasn’t even certain I was in a room. Instead, it appeared to be a clearing in a dense forest at night, complete with the sky filled with stars twinkling far above. The trees were familiar, more like what I had seen while camping in Colorado, or backpacking through Washington, certainly nothing native to Nevada. Tall, with green leaves or needles, the room was richly scented with earth, clean air, and mossy trees. There was a hint of a smell deep under everything else, but I couldn’t place it. I was certain, however, that it wasn’t blood. That smell would never be unfamiliar to me again.
I started walking toward the Announcer, noting that it felt like real grass underfoot, where there was grass. Otherwise, it was loamy soil, fallen leaves, needles, and sticks, even some moss and mushrooms. The whole experience was made far more real when the doors to the elevator slid shut, cutting off the light it provided. I was in the forest at night, and the silence was deafening.
“You’re a Qhuvois,” I said. It was more to stop the sudden ringing in my ears than anything. I was a city kid, not someone used to the quiet of the country, or worse, the dead silence of the woods when nothing was moving. Even the wind seemed to be holding its breath.
The Announcer nodded. “I am. I take it, then, that you’ve met another of my kind?”
“Yeah,” I said. I didn’t even need to increase the volume of my voice. The quiet air carried it to the angel, and their voice to me just as well. “I met Douma a few floors ago.”
The Qhuvois shifted their head, appearing like an owl, and two eyes opened. I felt a little flare in the back of my head. “Douma is on floor twenty-three. He’s the first major boss.”
I nodded. “Yeah. We had a bit of whiskey together. Damn good stuff.”
I came to a stop about ten feet from the still-unidentified angel. My response had apparently not appeased them.
“We are on floor one-hundred-one. It is pure luck that one-hundred was even open. We focus on it first, so that employees can relax with some entertainment between shifts. We are not scheduled to open for over two months.”
I tilted my head, much like the Announcer had done a moment before. Douma had said two-and-a-half months. That had only been a few hours before, by my estimate.
“What’s the date?”
The Announcer shook their head. “I do not understand.”
“The day, on the calendar?” I held a hand out and moved my other hand to indicate flipping through one.
“I think this is an artifact from before the system, yes?”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah… why?”
“We only use the system. You can check the current date-time by thinking that.”
I did, and a number popped in view.
124,665,044,124,967
“Woah,” I said and held both hands out. “Is there a way I can make that… more digestible?”
“You consume numbers? What an interesting species.”
I shook my head and my hands. “No, no, nothing like that. I mean, the number is too big. I think it’s in the trillions. That’s way too big for me to make heads-or-tails of.”
“Ah, I see. Think ‘current era’ at it.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
I did, and a new number popped up.
14e2C1b3a
I shook my head again. “Okay, it’s a lot shorter, but that is a coded sequence if I’ve ever seen one.”
A rich, sonorous laugh echoed out from the Announcer. “I forget, your tutorial is currently ongoing. You are something of a special case. I will explain it to you. Fourteen-E stands for fourteenth Era. Two-C is second century, one-b is first band, three-a means third annum. There should be some numbers after that, but you might have it truncated. What is relevant is everything after the fourteen-e.”
I nodded. “Thanks, uh,” I said with a shrug. “Do you have a name, in common,” I said as I remembered Douma trying to tell me his name in his native language. “You know, that I can address you as?”
The Announcer tilted their head as if thinking, then nodded. “Yes. You may call me Anubis.”
I took a half-step back, then stumbled and fell on my ass. “A-anu-bis?”
“Ah, I see you have heard of me. My last visit to your world was… eventful.”
I dry swallowed. “Yeah, you could say that. You know there are myths about you?”
He smiled, and it was unsettling. My vision flickered, and I saw, just for a split second, the head of a Jackal grinning down at me. Then it was gone and only the emotionless visage of the six-ish-eyed angel looked down at me. I shook my head and decided I wasn’t going to let him intimidate me, regardless of his level. Slowly, deliberately, I stood and faced Anubis.
“Well done, human. Few have the fortitude to withstand my aura like that.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know about any aura, but your jackal face won’t scare me again.”
Anubis nodded. “You are quite strong, indeed. Now, I believe I owe you a level.”
He gestured out at the forest, a gentle wave as if introducing a dear friend. A massive boar trotted out from the treeline a moment later. It looked wrong, however. It had the body of a boar, the face, even the tusks, but the pelt was wrong. It looked like it had spines or… quills. Like a boar had been cross-bred with a porcupine. I decided to call it a piggypine. It waited ten steps away, snorting lightly.
“I owe you…” Anubis sighed before continuing. “Fourteen xp.”
“Yeah, that seems… I mean, the quest was nice.”
Anubis shook his head. “The thing is, Craig is actually supposed to go down sometimes. There’s never really supposed to be a hard-core fight. We expect fighters around six, maybe seven. And it should be months after the tutorial ends, not months before.”
I laughed. “Really? You think people will be level six by the time they reach floor one-hundred?”
“Dungeons are meant to be completed in teams, often comprised of six members, which means rewards are split six ways. This is a beginner dungeon, where level one fighters enter, then wash out at floor one-hundred around level six.”
“Oh, buddy, I have some bad, bad news for you.”
Anubis looked at me with squinted eyes. I couldn’t tell if it was anger, disgust, me calling him buddy, anything. I plowed onward. “We humans are remarkably stupid creatures. Not to mention, your dungeon is located near one of the greatest monuments to human individualism and stupidity on the planet. We, humans, that is, are going to challenge this dungeon alone. Some might figure out eventually that teams are allowed, but you’re going to have solo combatants running through at much higher levels. You’ll probably see level ten or higher shortly after the tutorial finishes storming through the first hundred levels, breaking and stealing everything they can.”
I wasn’t sure, not in that weak moonlight, but I thought I saw Anubis grow paler. He blinked, and I felt pressure build in the back of my mind, but then it passed.
“I see. Perhaps we need to fine-tune this dungeon.”
I shrugged. “I’ve been having a good time, but Craig was the first halfway-intense fight I’ve had so far. The Kraken, the boss in the big slot machine on the first level, was way too easy. I shouldn’t be able to take down the floor boss with a legendary weapon I got after like three minutes of effort.” As I spoke, I felt the Chillspine Sliver give off a pulse of cold, like it knew I was talking about it.
“This is good feedback. As for your reward, you need only slay this monster, and you will reach level ten.”
I looked at the piggypine. It shuffled in place, making little squeaking and snorting noises.
“Is it going to, uh… do anything?”
Anubis shook his head. “No. It is being held in place by my will.”
“That hardly seems like a fair fight. To get enough experience to push up a level, it has to be at least eleven.”
He nodded.
“Okay, so let me fight it. For real, I mean.”
“If you die,” Anubis said, a note of warning in his voice.
“If I die, that’s my fault. At least the piggypine had a chance of its own.”
“Piggypine…? An interesting name. I like this. Very well, you may fight it.”
The piggypine roared, a high-pitched porcine squeal mixed in. I felt my eardrums rattle and it felt like my ears started to bleed. Before it finished its war-cry, I dashed in. It rocked its head as I closed the distance, wielding those big tusks like swords. I dodged and put my whole body weight behind a superman punch. It screamed, a human-like sound that set my teeth on edge and made my skin crawl. The piggypine rocked back, then fell on its side and started to thrash, even as I lay far too close to the tusk for comfort. I kneed the bottom of its jaw, heard bone crunch and saw teeth scatter, then jumped up and dropped a crescent kick on its bloodied eye. The sound of its eye popping, its skull caving in was indescribable. I wanted to throw up again, but I held it back through sheer force of will. This was a kill-or-be-killed world now.
Level 11 Piggypine killed. 20 xp awarded.
Level up!
+2 to strength, constitution, agility, +1 to wisdom, intelligence, charisma, +1 free stat point.
Rank up!
Titles awarded: Ranker, Primordial Ranker.
“That was… underwhelming,” I said. I shook my head and stood straight, looking at Anubis. I wanted to loot the corpse, but wasn’t sure what the protocol was for this kind of thing. He smiled at me, as if he knew something I didn’t. I figured that was going to be the case with everyone I met. Then I fell to my knees.
“Try not to fight it, that makes the pain worse.”
My vision started to turn red, then a cone of darkness wrapped in from the outside. My body grew cold. Then it felt like I was on fire. This was like every cold, every flu, every stomach bug I had ever had all wrapped into one. I vomited, and felt my throat, tongue, even my teeth and face coated in an oily substance. I fell to my side, shaking uncontrollably. Then, with no warning, it was gone. I was left feeling exhausted, sticky, and foul smelling.
“Ugh,” I moaned.
“First rank up? What am I saying, of course it was. Congratulations, young master. You are the first in your world to rank up. I will watch over you until you wake, then we will have a new conversation. One about your future.”