《Ghosts of the Battlefield》 Chapter 1 - You will be my Horsemen Cars droned past as shadows on the sidewalk trudged monotonously forward in the failing twilight and drizzling rain. Shoulders were slumped in their black and white suits from the daily toil they had just completed, and they began the journey home towards light, warmth, sleep and the promise of yet another draining day. One of the soulless husks raised a vibrating phone from his pocket and sighed deeply, looking at the caller ID. Answering quickly, he spoke in a clear, bright voice that was entirely at odds with his previous post-work survival state. ¡°Hi, Mum¡± ¡°Can you swing by the shops before you get here for Sarah¡¯s birthday¡±? a shrill voice exploded into his ear. No hello again, he reflected as he winced before lowering the volume on his phone. ¡°What do you need¡±? He asked before suppressing another sigh. Rapid-fire instructions followed as he turned down a side street. At this point, getting home was looking like a losing prospect. As the list continued, his voice became flat as his responses grew shorter. ¡°I can get that from¡ªI¡¯ll need to¡ªyes, but¡ªokay, yes, yep, okay, yes, yes, I¡¯ll see you soon.¡± He was sure she had hung up before he even finished saying goodbye, as he ended the call and placed the phone back in his pocket. Getting everything she needed would mean a 20-minute detour across town, plus another delay to catch another train after the one he would now miss before he could make it to his parent¡¯s house. As he walked down the street towards the busier shopping areas, the heavens opened, and a deluge poured from the skies. The soulless husk turned his face to the skies and sighed for the 3rd time in as many minutes. ¡°Well, crap.¡± As he resumed his trudging, his phone rang again. Taking the phone out again and looking again at the caller ID, he frowned before answering in the same happy voice he had used. ¡°Yes, mum¡± ¡°And Thomas, this time, don¡¯t be late. I don¡¯t want us to have to wait for you like every other family event,¡± his mother spoke coldly. ¡°Yes, mum¡±, He responded dully, but his feet increased in speed regardless. He ended the call and pocketed the phone again, striding quickly to the end of the street and making his way to the crossing nearby. His mother was usually dismissive of him, ignoring him in favour of his ¡®smarter, better looking and overall, much better sibling¡¯, at least in her eyes. But he was weary of attracting her ire. His mother pretending he didn¡¯t exist was a much preferable alternative to her lectures and scathing critique of his life, job and, well, everything. She didn¡¯t even use Tom like he preferred people to, which he reflected on, was just like her. Tom stopped at the crossing, drenched, waiting for the green signal to cross the road. Looking around, he saw others shuffling along the streets under the safety of their umbrellas or running around trying to find some of the scant shelters in the shadows of the buildings while preserving some of their dignity from the falling torrent. Looking across the street, Tom could see others in a similar predicament. A flash of white amongst the black and dark blue suits caught his eye, and his attention was drawn to a small cat sitting on top of the pedestrian signal box. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. The cat was completely white except for the middle of its forehead, where a tuft of black fur in the shape of a diamond sat. As he looked, Tom was reminded of his childhood, a Christmas gift from his father that arrived wrapped in a box and had jumped purring into his arms as a tiny kitten. Misty had been his best friend right up until his sister had developed allergies, and she had been summarily booted from the house over his desperate pleading. This cat looked identical to Misty, although she would have been well and truly dead by now, being that she had been kicked out of the house twenty-odd years ago. Not surprising, he thought to himself, there must be thousands of cats like that out there. He turned to look at the cars passing and resume his wait in the downpour when a thought occurred. Looking back at the cat, he noticed two things. One, the cat was still sitting on top of the signal box and was staring at him. Two, the cat was bone dry. There was no sign that the cat was sitting in the middle of the early evening rain storm. The second point was a tad confusing to Tom. He was pretty sure that the city hadn¡¯t recently installed random cat shelters, certainly not ones five meters up a pole with no roof. However, the more concerning point was that he could feel its eyes boring into his. It was staring at him. Its eyes never wavered and remained locked on his, like a predator hunting its prey. Tom shuddered as he looked into its eyes. It should have been too far to see anything. The road was twenty meters across, but Tom could see into its eyes as they drew him in. As he stared back, a vortex of swirling lights rotated silently in its eyes. The pedestrian signal changed to green and started to chirp its song. Without taking his eyes off the cat, Tom stepped forward onto the road with the other waiting people. He had not gone more than a few steps when the blare of horns, the crack of glass shattering and screech of mutilated metal assaulted his ears. He felt his body wrench sideways, and he saw only darkness. Despite what had just happened, there was no pain. On a slightly more concerning note, however, despite opening his eyes and looking around, he saw only darkness. All the sound had disappeared as well. He tried to shout out, but he couldn¡¯t hear anything. He could feel his limbs moving, but they touched nothing. It was like he was submerged in a swimming pool of nothingness. Tom¡¯s mind raced. What the hell is this? Where am I? What happened? Ah crap, mum is going to kill me. Before he could catastrophise what his mother would do to him for being late to his sister''s birthday, a white light slowly grew in intensity until it blinded him. After a few seconds, the light receded, and he was left staring at a ceiling that looked like it was made of obsidian, dark blacks with hints of silver that ran through it like cracks. The feeling returned to his hands and feet; they felt like they had been in an ice bath, and agony rushed through him like thousands of pins and needles had suddenly been stabbed into his body. He groaned and registered that the sound had returned as well. As the pain faded slowly from his limbs, he sat up and checked his body for damage, grasping each limb as if he expected them to fall off. Finding none, he looked around to find himself in a room that matched the ceiling, with strange silver markings on the walls. Confused, he found himself lying within a silver circle made of weird symbols that looked like they had been carved into the floor. He realised he was lying next to three other people in similar circles. They looked just as confused as he did and checked their arms and legs just as he had. He noticed that the circles were all connected by silver lines to a larger circle intricately decorated with swirls and multiple rings made of the same symbols and deeply engraved into the floor. Just as he started to get to his feet, an explosion rang out from the circle in front of them, and a wave of black fire swept through the room. A figure clad in black, torn and ragged robes rose from the floor as more black flames consumed the silver lines on the floor. Tom could only see two burning silver orbs within the deep hood the figure wore as it looked down at them. It raised its arms wide as skeletal hands emerged from the ends of its robe, and a deep, cold, hollow voice rattled from the figure. ¡°Welcome to the apocalypse,¡± it said ominously. ¡°You have been chosen, and you will be my horsemen.¡± Chapter 2- Yes, But Also No No one moved for several seconds after the ghastly figure made its pronouncement. Tom stared at the figure. His mind refused to work, and his mouth gaped like a fish out of water. He would have stood and run but his body was frozen solid, nothing moved, nothing worked, no matter how hard he will his body to something, anything. ¡°Ahhhhh¡­. Was that too much?¡± The arms on the hooded figure slowly descended to his sides and the fires behind him slowly died out, as it hummed out a voice that could only be described as, well¡­ normal. ¡°What¡­. the fuck¡­. just happened?¡± said a confused voice from Tom¡¯s left. ¡°Ah good, at least you¡¯re not mute.¡± Said the hooded figure cheerfully. ¡°As I just said Dave, you four have been chosen, by me, to serve as my horsemen of the apocalypse.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ look that still doesn¡¯t explain much.¡± The heavy-set guy on Tom¡¯s right said as he slowly stood on shaky legs. Tom agreed. His mind was filled with questions. ¡°How the hell do you know my name, is what I want to know.¡± Dave, the voice from the left, came again; more forcefully this time. Tom looked over as he rose to his feet to see a wild-eyed and bearded man wearing a long-sleeved grey sweatshirt lying on the ground, glaring at the hooded figure. ¡°Well, firstly, I know all your names: Dave, Tom, Mark, Adam.¡± He said as he pointed to each of us in turn. ¡°Because I have been watching all of you for a very long time, Earth is about to go through some very big changes soon and you have been chosen as the first of your planet to ascend to the multiverse and join the rest the enlightened beings that call it home.¡± The hooded figures voice took on a grandiose tone as he raised his arms back up and struck a dramatic pose. No one moved again as Tom and the others stood looking at the hooded figure in disbelief. If Tom hadn¡¯t just been transported here magically somehow, he would have thought that this was some weird gameshow with hidden cameras and an announcer about to pop out from behind a hidden door. ¡°Yeesh, tough crowd¡± The hooded figure said tightly. ¡°Fine, this should explain things¡± he sighed. *DING* A calming sound rung through Tom¡¯s head as a blue screen popped up in front of him. *Welcome to the System, beginning Introduction* More swearing was heard from Tom¡¯s left as the screen scrolled up to reveal more writing. Status Name: Thomas Moore Race: Human (G) Class: None Subclass: None Level: 0 Attributes Strength: Estimating Agility: Estimating Endurance: Estimating Vitality: Estimating Intelligence: Estimating Wisdom: Estimating Skills None Titles Selected of Lemures A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Affiliation None Tom read the screen. It wasn¡¯t answering any questions. A series of words and numbers that made little sense and raised yet more questions in his head. What is this? The hell is a Human(G)? Why are the attributes estimating? What do they mean? Why does this look like a game? But most importantly¡­ ¡°What is The System?¡± Tom asked aloud. ¡°Glad you asked¡± the figure said, raising its arms wide into the air again as the black flames at his feet rose back to their original towering heights. ¡°It is a way of life, a controlling force of unconscionable power, a superpower of galactic proportions. It is the nexus of the universe, it has dominion over everything, it is the arbiter of all that ever was and is. It is all those things and more. It is, supreme.¡± The figure heralded grandly, his voice reverberating off the walls, creating an echo that lasted well after he had finished speaking. Silence reigned in the room as the four humans stood dumbfounded. ¡°Seriously?¡± the figure muttered under his breath. ¡°Alright look¡± the figure sighed as he lowered his hands and spread them out before him, the fires behind him also dying back to embers on the floor. ¡°The system is essentially like your earthly gods, but with more power. A lot of more power.¡± ¡°Ok¡± said Tom hesitantly, the figures mood swings making him even more nervous. ¡°And what does it have to do with us?¡± ¡°Glory¡± the figure boomed, raising his hands back towards the ceiling as the flames redoubled their efforts to burn the ceiling down. ¡°The system is the crucible for all planets, all races, all people. Through its trials and tribulations, you will all learn true power. You will conquer worlds, galaxies even, as you gather armies that cover continents and leave your enemies trembling before your might.¡± Another moment of silence passed in the wake of the outburst. ¡°I¡¯m dead right? This is just some weird hallucination before I die, right?¡± said the 2nd person on Tom¡¯s right, Adam, he guessed from the figure¡¯s introduction before, who was looking on with a bemused expression as he clutched his temple. ¡°Yes, but also no¡± the figure responded cheerfully. ¡°You all technically died back on Earth before I brought you here. I managed to heal you all and stuff your souls back inside your bodies. I will accept your gracious adoration now.¡± ¡°I died? W.. Bu¡­ But I feel fine now. There nothing wrong with me. How does that make sense?¡± Dave yelled, clutching his chest, his face strained. ¡°Well, yeah. That¡¯s the thing with being healed. It makes the owie stop hurting.¡± Said the figure with a healthy dose of sarcasm. ¡°Although you gave it a red hot try there, Dave. I didn¡¯t know it was possible to take that much heroin and cocaine at once. Talk about trying to ride the white lightning. That must have been one hell of a trip before, you know, your heart basically exploded¡± Dave stood there, his eyes bugging out of his head as the figure pointed at him, extolling his manner of death. Am I really dead? Tom thought to himself. He thought back to the moments before he appeared in the room, easily able to recall all the details. The rain, the cat, being forced to get things for his sisters party, not looking forwards to having to deal with his family, especially his mother. It was all there. He remembered the car hitting hi¡­ did he? I felt something, but it wasn¡¯t pain. The hell happened to me? Tom¡¯s mind was still muddled, almost like it moving in slow motion with all the revelations pouring out of ¡­. He didn¡¯t even know the name of the¡­ thing? In front of him. His mind was whiplashed, trying to figure out some sort of normalcy, and the yoyoing mood of the figure was really not helping. He looked to his right, the two men standing there had equally puzzled and confused looks on their faced. ¡°Well anyway I¡¯d love to stay and chat, but I have other things I need to do.¡± The figure explained happily ¡°Also,¡± He said, his voice now taking on a dark and dreary turn ¡°you guys are boring as hell. Do you know how expensive this was to do? It took a lot of time and money to set all this up you know, and your all standing there like someone just hit you over the head with a hammer. You could at least do some worshipping or something, seriously what does a god have to do around here to get some love.¡± The figure grumbled as he removed a small brown sack from within the folds of his sleeve, before throwing the sack to the figure on Tom¡¯s right, Mark, he assumed. ¡°Here, you¡¯ll need this. Good luck with the trial¡± ¡°Wait, what Tri¡­¡± A voice started to say, before a black void opened up beneath the feet of each four men, sucking them in. Tom instantly felt the floor disappear as his stomach lurched. He felt his feet being pulled downwards, but the rest of him sorta.. stayed in place. From Tom¡¯s perspective his legs, as they passed through the circle of darkness, became elongated like thin strands of noodles. His torso quickly followed and he watched as he became spaghettified before his eyes. He looked up as his neck and then head pass through. The light from the circle slowly dwindled before shattering into a kaleidoscope of colours that slowly shrank from view. As the light finally faded, his mind registered that it was the same feeling as the tunnel that had brought him to that strange room in the first place. He felt for his chest with his arms. He could tell he was gripping himself by the increased pressure he could feel in his chest, but just like last time, could not feel anything in his arms or legs, even though he could tell he was moving them. Just as that thought crossed his mind, a bright light exploded near his feet, and Tom was forced to cover his eyes. He felt an impact on his back, and found himself rolling ass over head as landed on something hard and flat. Forcing his eyes open, Tom blinked rapidly to force them to adjust to the brightness in the room. He found himself in lying on a grey stone floor that had been somehow made perfectly flat. Not a single imperfection, chip or dent marred its pristine surface. The walls of the room were also made from the same perfectly flat grey rock, and they formed a square about 15 meters square. One on side of the square lay a simple wooden door with a handle that was currently closed. On the other side opposite the door, smack bang in the middle of the wall, was the black portal that appeared beneath him in the other room. Before Tom could even move however, 3 other figures came rocketing out of the black hole. Straight into where Tom was now laying. Some slight screaming, swearing and then grunts of pain echoed around the small room as the four of them experienced a more fleshy and painful version of a dodgem car pileup, and then tried to untangle themselves and crawl out of the sorry heap of ¡®slightly¡¯ injured flesh and bone that now lay on the floor. ¡°Well, that sucked!¡± Came a low voice from within the pile. Some groans answered him as they continued to un-pretzel themselves from each other. Finally, Tom managed to get out from underneath the rest of them and found his feet. A thought occurred to him, that was quickly verbalised by ¡®Adam¡¯. ¡°Okay, now that we have survived the hands down worst¡­ whatever the hell that was in... wherever the hell we are, can someone tell me just what happened?¡± Before anyone could respond, another calming *DING* was heard in Tom¡¯s head, and a blue screen popped up in front of him. *Welcome to the Trial Dungeon of Lemures* Please enjoy your stay Chapter 3 - Why do I have to get stuck with the pointy stick? From the glazed over eyes on the faces of the other three, Tom assumed that they had received the same pop up that he had. You have been selected by the majestic, mysterious and magnificent Lemures, Lord of the Malignant dead and keeper of the Corrupted Souls, to partake in his trial dungeon. Inside this dungeon, you will face the trials of The System and be tested by its tribulations, as many have before you, in accordance with the will of The System. If you succeed, power and glory await you. If you fail, only death will welcome you with open arms. Progress is the key to your survival. *Trial Dungeon of Lemures Level 1* Time Remaining ¨C 23 Hours, 58 Minutes Enemies Remaining ¨C 50 Dungeon Requirements: ¨C Reach the end of the dungeon alive 0/1 ¨C Kill Enemies 0/1 (Stage 1) "Well, that kind of explains things, I guess" sighed Adam. "Who is this Lemures though? Think he was the guy from before?" he said as he looked at the others. ''Probably, he never shut the fuck up long enough to ask." Stated Dave in clipped tones. Tom looked over at Dave. He was swaying slightly as he stood with his fists clenched and eyes glazed over as he read the screen. He had a wiry frame, thin but with some muscles in his arms, and shoulder length black hair. Probably a runner, Tom thought as Dave''s eyes refocused on Tom''s, revealing that they were heavily bloodshot. Or maybe that guy was telling the truth after all, If he really is this Lemures, Tom thought to himself. Dave''s skin was pasty white with an almost yellow tint to it. He was not particularly healthy looking to Tom. "He did seem to love talking," Tom agreed quickly, diverting his eyes back to the screen. "So, this dungeon, I''m assuming that we have to get through it", Tom stated heavily. "At least it would seem so, with the whole death warning and whatnot." The 4th member, Mark, who had yet to say anything, grunted in reply. "We only have a day to do it too" replied Adam. "What do you think happens if we don''t do it before the timer runs out?" Mark looked at Adam. "Progress is the key", He quoted grimly in his deep voice. "We win, or we die." A moment of silence passed as the group absorbed that statement. "That kind of matches what the¡­ person said before. He said the system was designed to help conquer other people and planets, gather armies, that kind of thing. So I guess the system likes to have people fight and prove themselves through conflict." Tom''s announcement caused some grimaces to appear on their faces. Dave''s trembling had gotten worse at that statement as well. It looked like he was vibrating with how much he was shaking. "Plus, it literally says if we don''t win, then only death will welcome us with open arms. I''m going to take a wild leap here and assume that means we die." Adam said. "Um, by the way, not sure if anyone else has noticed. But¡­ ah¡­ the black portal¡­ thingy¡­ is gone." 3 sets of eyes swung to the wall where, just minutes before, they had come shooting out like they had just gone down a water slide. The wall was just like the others. A pristine blank grey slate. The portal was gone. "Fuck¡± shouted Dave. "Fuckity, Fucking, Fuck." He shouted as he stomped back and forth in a small circle while chewing on a fingernail. The rest looked on with varying degrees of concern as Dave showed off his impressive swear repertoire. "Calm down", Adam started, "Let''s just ¡­" "NO, FUCK OFF WITH THAT SHIT." Dave roared, spittle flying from his lips as his eyes darted around the room and the three others. "I SHOULDN''T BE HERE, I DON''T DESERVE WHATEVER THE FUCK THIS IS." Dave''s hands started to jerk as he swung around to face the others. "ONE OF YOU DID THIS. WHO IS IT. I SWEAR TO GOD I''LL KIL¡­" Dave had started to advance towards the others with his left arm pointed shakily in their direction. Tom jerked backwards, flinching, as the other man came closer. Thankfully, any potential violence was quickly and effectively stopped by Mark. He rushed forward, slapped Dave''s arm aside and picked him up by the throat. Holding the struggling man above his head with a single outstretched arm. "Stop talking", He drawled menacingly. Dave struggled briefly in his clutches, his arms and legs making windmills as he tried to free himself from his human shackles. His yellowed teeth were clenched together as he tried and failed to fight against the larger man. Tom and Adam stood watching, neither willing to get involved. Mark was strong. He stood there with Dave in one meaty fist, easily holding him aloft. Mark was already a head taller than both Adam and Tom and obviously worked out. His arms and shoulders were swollen, and his loose singlet barely covered his chest. The man was a mountain of muscle. A choking noise started to emerge from Dave as Mark squeezed. "OK, OK" he managed, as he grabbed onto Mark''s arm with his left and tapped it with his right. Mark dropped him on the spot, and Dave fell to the ground and collapsed like someone had just cut the strings to a puppet, limbs splayed out around his body as he greedily sucked in the air. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. "Yeah, can you, like, not do that again," deadpanned Adam as he looked at Dave. "I don''t know about you two, but I kinda feel like If we start flipping out like that," He hooked a thumb towards the heaving body on the floor "we are going to end up real dead, real soon." Tom nodded; he wasn''t enthusiastic about being here in the first place but having someone flip out could make this already bad situation worse. "Okay, let''s see what''s going on here" Adam said as his attention return to the screen. Tom followed suit. Looking at the dungeon information again, he was reminded of how similar it was to some of the games he would play at his friends'' house on weekends when he had been able to convince his parents to let him. "We have to get through the dungeon to survive if we take the text as gospel," Adam mumbled loudly enough for the others to hear. "We have to get to the end alive, duh, and kill at least 1 enemy, of which there are 50 and what kind, it doesn''t say. Great" "It says stage 1 next to the kill enemies¡­ requirement? Quest? What do you think that means?" Tom asked. "Hmmm, maybe it''ll change to something else after we do it?" Adam said. "I wonder¡­." He said before he raised his hand and poked at the air in front of him. "hmmph, It doesn''t really give any more information. It just says that it''s not required. But the other thing does, says we don''t have to kill all the enemies to get out." "Really?" Tom asked, surprised, before reminding himself that even if it looked similar, this wasn''t a game¡­ well, at least he was pretty sure. Tom raised his hand and poked the words Reach the end of the dungeon alive 0/1. Another smaller screen popped up in front of the main screen. ¨C Reach the end of the dungeon alive 0/1 This is a required task. The task will be completed when the trial taker reaches the exit room at the end of the dungeon. Tom checked the other one requirement, which he guessed were called tasks. ¨C Kill Enemies 0/1 (Stage 1) This is not a required task. Kill one enemy from the dungeon. Well, that was easy enough, Tom thought to himself. As he thought that, something else occurred to him. I wonder if the other screen has more info as well. Tom paused as he wondered where it was. He tried flicking the screen and sliding his finger up and down, but the screen with the dungeon information refused to do anything. How do I close this? He started to think, and as soon as he thought the word ''close'', the menu disappeared. "Huh," he exclaimed. "What?" said Adam as he looked over at Tom. "I just thought the word close, and the menu closed." He answered. Adam looked back at his screen, and a second later, he jerked backwards. "Holy shit, that''s cool, this shit is like a video game." he grinned. "I thought that too; I wonder if we can open the other screen from before, the ones with our names and stuff." Tom grinned back. He started trying words in his head. Open! Nope. Menu! Nope. Attributes? Nothing. Information. Not that, either. Status. The blue screen finally popped up. Status Name: Thomas Moore Race: Human (G) Class: None Subclass: None Level: 0 Attributes Strength: Estimating Agility: Estimating Endurance: Estimating Vitality: Estimating Intelligence: Estimating Wisdom: Estimating Skills None Titles Selected of Lemures Affiliation None "It worked!" He shouted excitedly. "I said ''status'' in my head and it open up for me." He started poking around the menu hurriedly, but there really wasn''t much else that could be found. Neither his name, race or levels revealed anything, nor did any of his attributes. His class, when selected, only provided a short message. Class: None Your level is too low to choose your level. You cannot choose your class until level 10. The only thing that did reveal any information was the Title, which it turned out all four of them had. Although the information it gave wasn''t what Tom would call detailed. Selected of Lemures You have been chosen by the god Lemures to undergo his trials as a prospective champion. Should you succeed, Lemures will grant you great rewards. They still didn''t know who Lemures was, despite what the figure they assumed had been Lemures had to said to them before sending them here, or what being his champion meant. This ''System'' was curiously light on the details and heavy on the mystery and intrigue. Despite spending 30 minutes poking around in the screens and saying random words in their heads to find any other information or hints, they were no further along than they were before. They had found that all their status'' were the same. Their attributes were all estimating, and they had no skills or anything except the title. The only other thing they found out was that saying the name of the thing they wanted more details on in their heads or just thinking about it would enable the smaller extra detail screen to appear. "Ok, so we have no classes, whatever they are, no information on what is in the dungeon, no weapons, no food, no water, a drug addict going through withdrawal, no way to get back home, no idea where the hell we are right now and a single wooden door to who knows where, oh and a little over 23 hours to finish dungeon where we assume everything is going to try and kill us." Adam summarised as he sat cross legged in a circle with the other 3, Dave having calmed down enough to join them, although he continued to sneak glances at Mark. "So we''re fucked is what you''re saying," said Dave, his voice wavering as his hands shook. "Maybe, we''ve checked basically everything we can besides opening the door itself", said Adam "The only thing we haven''t checked yet is this", he said, placing the small brown sack in the middle of the circle. "Ol ghostie said we would need it, so I''m guessing it must have something important in it" he explained. "So stop stalling, and let''s get on with it", Dave said as he leaned forward to grab the sack. He pulled the cord, tied up the top of the sack, and upended the bag in the middle of the circle. CLANG A metallic racket assaulted their ears as a series of objects, far larger than the sack itself, fell out of the sack and onto the ground. A series of small bottles fell out of the sack, along with a small assortment of items that made their eyes open wide. Mark stood and walked over to one of the objects and picked it up as a wicked grin spread across his lips. It was an axe. The axe looked fairly plain, it wasn''t a war axe or one designed for combat, instead it looked like something that Tom''s dad might have used to cut wood on one of the rare family camping trips. It had a wooden haft about a meter long and a simple heavy metal head with a blade about the size of Tom''s hand. Marks'' actions spurred the others into action. Adam picked up a solid looking long sword. The blade was about a meter and a half long with two deep grooves carved into the length of the blade down either side of the middle and on both the back and front and a simple straight crossguard at the head of the hand and half handle. Tom picked up a shorter but similar-looking sword and a simple wooden shield that was about 50cm in diameter. It had a handle on one side and a leather strap in the middle that he used to strap the shield to his left arm. It was heavy, and he had trouble lifting it, let alone moving and fighting. He tried to mirror some of the fighting moves he remembered from movies he had seen and some moves from a particularly memorable history lesson about wars in Ancient Greece, where his teacher had brought in his medieval role-playing gear. It felt awkward and slow; the shield made him feel off balance, and he quickly tired from just a few minutes of practice swinging. But he wanted to keep the shield; he would rather have something solid in between him and anything that was trying to kill him. A sarcastic voice cut through Tom''s focus. "I''m happy that you all are having fun swinging your toys around, but why do I have to get stuck with the pointy stick?" Chapter 4 - A Smell of Rotten Eggs Dave waved around the spear with obvious disdain. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with it?¡± Adam asked. ¡°Look at it! It¡¯s a fucking pointy stick,¡± Dave replied angrily while pointing at the head. ¡°How am I going to kill anything with this piece of shit.¡± The spear in question was about a head taller than Dave at 2 meters tall and was small enough for Dave to wrap his hand around the entire pole. However, Dave¡¯s main complaint seemed to be the sharpened point at the top of the spear, which was around 30 centimetres long. At its widest, the metal head of the spear was only about 5cm across before narrowing to its point. Tom remembered from his days at school in his beloved history class that this was probably a shorter version of a pike, something that foot soldiers had used across Europe and the Mediterranean during the times of Ancient Greece and Rome. ¡°It¡¯s a spear; millions of people have been killed with them in Earth¡¯s history. It¡¯s probably the easiest thing to use, actually,¡± Tom explained to him. ¡°Then you use it, you can barely carry that stupid shield of yours, how do you expect to kill anyone when you can hardly move?¡± Dave replied as he took a few steps towards Tom and gestured to the shield with the spear. Tom grimaced. ¡°So what? If they come at me, I just need to keep this between me and them. You read the dungeon info, I just need to survive and make it to the end. I don¡¯t even have to kill anything¡± he said defensively. ¡°Actually, the druggie makes a point¡± Adam weighed in from where he stood, taking practice swings with his longsword. ¡°Hey, fuck you¡± came the expected response from Adam. He really needed to expand his vocabulary, Tom thought to himself. ¡°Everything we know so far basically says that the system expects us to fight and win. You said so much yourself.¡± Adam said as he paced lazily over towards the two. ¡°I remember; I was the one who said it¡±, replied Tom somewhat reluctantly. ¡°Well, we have 50 things beyond that door that are, presumably, trying to kill us. Now, as much as I¡¯d like to hope that they plan to attack us with 50 fluffy bunnies, I somehow doubt that¡¯s what we are going to be going up against,¡± Adam pointed out. ¡°We¡¯re going to need everyone to pull their own weight.¡± ¡°I know, we all heard and read the same stuff,¡± Tom said heatedly. He knew he wouldn¡¯t be able to fight for long with the sword and shield. The shield with its solid wood construction, was heavy and even the few minutes of what he could loosely call practice, had left him exhausted and barely able to raise the shield. The sword was lighter, but he had no experience with it outside of trying to replicate fighting moves from movies. His best bet was to just drop the shield and try and use the sword, but not knowing what was on the other side of the door made him hesitant without something he could use to hide behind. He didn¡¯t say this to the others however, he was starting to catch on to the benefits this situation had given him. Here he was with 3 other people he had never met or even seen before. He didn¡¯t know them and they didn''t know him. As much as the tidal wave of uncertainty made him feel petrified at the thought of being in an unfamilar situation in an unfamilar place with unfamiliar people, he realised that this was just what he had needed. A fresh start. Somewhere away from his family, where his mother couldn¡¯t control his every step, where his dad wouldn¡¯t look down his nose at him in disdain, and where the world wouldn¡¯t revolve around his sister''s every whim. Although the initial entry into this place had almost literally scared him shitless, the almost 45 minutes since then had allowed him to think clearly about everything, and he had come to the conclusion that he could take advantage of this. There was, however, one slight problem with this plan. Adam strolled over to Tom and put an arm around his shoulders. ¡°Look, I¡¯m not saying that you''re going to drag us all down or anything, but you¡¯re a smart man; I can tell you¡¯re educated, after all. I think you know that you are a little out of your depth here,¡± Adam said smugly. ¡°I think we both know that.¡± Adam¡¯s words hung in the air. Tom¡¯s jaw clenched as he looked at the heavy shield hanging from his left arm. Tom was not a fighter, and his few minutes of practice, he had to admit to himself, had made it painfully aware to not only him but apparently the others as well. As much as he might want to restart his life through the intervention of the system, he would have to survive it first. ¡°Look, I get it, ok. I have no idea what the hell I¡¯m doing with this,¡¯ He snapped as he lifted the sword up, ¡°I can barely lift the shield, but what do you expect? I work in an office all day! I doubt any of you know how to use any of this stuff either.¡± Adam tilted his head, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips. ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t know about that,¡± He said, looking pointedly at Mark, who stood over to the side of the chamber swinging his axe with the same wicked grin on his face. ¡°Great, so one person here knows how to swing an axe, but so what? I¡¯m not going to step out there just so the first thing we come across can gut me like a fish because I don¡¯t have this,¡± Tom said, tapping the shield with his sword. Adam waved a hand as if brushing off Tom¡¯s concerns, his tone silky but sharp. ¡°I¡¯m just saying, maybe you should leave the heavy lifting to, you know, those of us who can actually do it. Maybe, if your plan is to not actually fight ¡­ I don¡¯t know, figure out where to stand so you don¡¯t get in the way of the people who can handle the real thing?¡± he said, sneering at Tom. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Tom shrugged off Adam¡¯s arm and took a step back. ¡°Back off¡±, he growled. ¡°I¡¯m using it; if you don¡¯t like it, then you can wait until we actually meet something and see how I do.¡± Adam scoffed at Tom. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s see how the mighty warrior goes then.¡± He spun on his heel and walked past Dave, who had stood with his arms crossed, watching the drama play out with a smile on his lips. He approached the door and turned to face the others. ¡°Are we all ready to go?¡± he called. Mark halted his swinging, his grin forming a tight line as he walked across the room towards Adam, pausing to collect the brown sack that their weapons had been in. Dave and Tom followed him over. Tom was still eyeing Dave and Adam after their previous words. ¡°Let¡¯s get going then¡±, Adam said as he opened the door and cautiously stepped through, followed quickly by the others. The room they stepped into was dark; only the light from the doorway into the room they came from created any light. The floor was uneven stone about 3 meters across, pockmarked by small dips and pockmarks. The walls were much the same, and they curved up slightly to form a tunnel around 5 meters tall. It was a stark contrast from the room they had just come from with its perfectly flat walls. The group started slowly edging forwards, the light from the doorway extending outwards to reveal that the tunnel began to curve to the left, about ten meters from the door. Mark moved ahead of Adam, his steps quiet and solid, as he approached the curve. Keeping his body close to the left side of the tunnel he slowly crept around the bend, keeping his head slightly tilted forwards to see in front of him. Tom and the others hung back, it was clear to them that Mark knew at least a bit about what he was doing. The quiet man hadn¡¯t been upset at all by any of the events that had so far transpired, and he looked to be perfectly comfortable creeping forwards in the darkening tunnel. Mark quickly twisted his body and walked out of view of the other. ¡°Hey, wait!¡± Tom started to call out before Adam held up a hand, silencing him. A few moments later, the light in the tunnel vanished, leaving them all standing in complete darkness. ¡°Oh, for fucks sake¡±, came a voice from Tom¡¯s right. That could only be Dave, Tom thought to himself. The angry man¡¯s vocabulary, or lack thereof, makes itself known again. A sigh in front of him revealed that Adam was still there, too. Tom was about to say something when an orange glow appeared in front of them, coming from beyond the bend in the tunnel. A minute later, as the light grew steadily brighter, Mark reappeared carrying with him two sticks, the tops of which were on fire. ¡°Found these,¡± He said, handing one to Adam. Tom caught a whiff of rotten eggs as the torch burned in front of him, casting a yellowish light around them and giving off a black, sooty trail as it moved through the air. Oddly enough, he remembered from his high-school history lessons that many torches in ancient Rome had used pitch or pine tar mixed with lime and sulphur to create a torch that could burn for an hour or more and was even strong enough that you could stand in pouring rain without it going out. Tom turned around and looked back at the way they had come. The light from the torches highlighted a solid rock wall where the door they had just passed through had once been. He pointed this fact out to the others, to mixed reactions: more swearing, another sigh and a shrug of the shoulders. ¡°No going back now I guess, at least we have these¡± Adam said as he twirled the lit torch above his head. ¡°They should be able to get us through this place, hopefully.¡± It was at this point that Tom had to break the news of his high school memories to the group, with predicatable results. ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you just a bundle of good news¡± Dave responded sarcastically. ¡°He can¡¯t hold a shield for shit, but he can tell us that we¡¯re about to run out of light again.¡± ¡°Hey, it not my fault, would you rather we run out of light suddenly during the middle of a fight then?¡± Tom said defensively. ¡°Hmm, can we put one out?¡± asked Adam, ignoring Tom and Dave¡¯s outbursts. ¡°That way, we only burn one at a time and double the length they can burn for?¡± ¡°With what? He said they can burn in the rain and I don¡¯t see any water for us to use¡± said Dave. ¡°No, but if we used our clothes, we could smother the fire and put it out that way, starve it of oxygen, like covering a firepit with dirt,¡± Tom explained. At this, Mark took off the shirt he was wearing and put it over his hand. He grabbed the tip of his torch, covering the entire lit head with one meaty paw. The shirt instantly produced some dark smoke, but Mark wrapped the head up with the shirt tightly until the smoke turned to a light grey and slowed to a thin stream. ¡°look at that; he is a genius after all!¡± Adam chuckled as he stepped over and clapped Tom on the shoulder. ¡°Let¡¯s go; not much light is left on that,¡± Mark said, pointing to the torch in Adam¡¯s hand before turning back and starting to walk back around the bend in the tunnel. The others followed him quickly, with Mark in the lead, Adam with the torch next and Tom and Dave bringing up the rear. As they walked, the tunnel started to twist and turn, but it remained the same uneven, featureless grey rock walls for the most part. Occasionally, the group came across a simple iron banded sconce embedded into the wall, sometimes with an extra unlit torch and sometimes not. Tom had asked Mark if the torches he had found had been lit when he had found them, to which the big man had stopped and turned to look at him with a blank expression and a raised eyebrow. It had taken Tom a couple of seconds to realise how dumb of a question that had been. Other than Tom¡¯s momentary brain fade, the group had continued in silence. The sound of their shoes and boots slapping on the rocky floor echoed around them. After twenty minutes of following the tunnel, the group had gathered another 3 torches, which they had kept unlit for when the first two eventually ran out. Ahead of them, the narrow walls of the tunnel suddenly widened, as they entered into a domed chamber with 3 other branching paths. Tom could barely see the other side of the chamber from the light of the torch, but before he could start to inspect anything, he nearly walked into the back of Dave as Mark halted the group with a raised fist. Adam stepped to Mark''s left as the larger man hefted his axe in his right hand, holding it midway down the shaft. Tom stepped to the right to see past the others. He froze and gasped as he saw the thing that had made Mark pause. A figure stood in the centre of the chamber, swaying slowly and making the odd clicking noise. However, it wasn¡¯t the figure per se that had caused Tom to react the way he had. Gleaming white bone turned slightly yellow as the flames from the torch reflected off them; they were unnaturally sharp and clean, and not a shred of flesh, muscle, or fat remained on them. The ribs were prominent, hollow spaces where organs should have been. Its skull was the most unsettling part¡ªits jaw hung open slightly, crooked, giving it a perpetual, sinister grin as it slowly opened and closed, making clicking and clacking sound with each movement. Dark, empty eye sockets stared out at them, except for where the pupil should have been. Two glowing purple irises flickered to life, burning faintly in the depths of the bone. The eerie violet light was cold and unnatural, casting a ghostly glow that made Tom¡¯s breath catch in his throat. A skeleton stood in the centre of the chamber, staring at the group and clutching a rusty sword. Without a noise, the skeleton raised the sword, which it clutched in its right arm towards them, and charged. Chapter 5 – Skeletons are Hollow The purple glow of the skeletons eyes intensified as it ran towards the group, the irises flaring slightly with each step. Tom felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead. Even though he was standing behind Mark and not directly in the path of the charging bundle of bones, he could feel a pull towards it from somewhere inside his very being. It was almost as if its eyes could see into him, into his thoughts. The rest of the skeleton might have been long dead, but those eyes, they showed a predators hunger. Tom froze at the sight of the charging skeleton, an otherworldy feeling paralyzing his legs. Mark however, bared his teeth in a wolfish snarl before charging towards the skeleton. Tom watched as he ran forward, awe struck at how the man showed no fear or any sign that he was in anyway as affected as Tom was. The skeleton moved faster than Tom would have expected, not that he knew how fast he should have expected a skeleton to move, the only skeletons he was personally familiar with were the museum type and moved as quickly as the person wheeling them around in their cases moved. Mark quickly closed the distance to his target, which showed no emotions or any sign that it was concerned about the pending combat. Just before Mark reached the skeleton, he dived forward, turning his headlong rush into a controlled tumble just under the outsretched sword of the skeleton. Landing on his shoulder and rotating to his feet, he exited the tumble in a crouch underneath the sword and just to the left side of the skeletons body. With the haft of the axe in front of his chest, One hand near the midpoint and another near the axe head, he stuck out the axe into the path of the skeleton, which had continued running forward, and had yet to take any action to Mark¡¯s movements. The impact wasn¡¯t very heavy, Mark had just emerged from his roll and didn¡¯t have much momentum behind him anymore and wasn¡¯t able to swing the axe with much force because of the position in which he held it. A dull crack echoed from the impact as the axe made contact with one of the bones of the ribcage. The skeleton wobbled slightly to the side after the impact but continued to run forwards at the same pace, as if it had only stumbled slightly on the uneven floor of the cave. Mark however, had been knocked to the ground as the axe haft had been knocked backwards from the contact hitting him in the chest and pushing him to the side, combined with his momentum from his roll it had sent him sprawling to the floor. He kept a grip on the axe and quickly regained his feet, moving once again to strike the skeleon, but it had continued to run toward the rest of the group, leaving Mark several meters behind and now in a chase to catch up. Seeing that Mark¡¯s charge had failed, Adam looked over his shoulder at Dave and Tom as he cast the torch aside. ¡°Well, let¡¯s see that shield of your in action then,¡± he said as he took several steps back to put himself even with Tom and used both hands to hold his longsword. This put Dave as the closest to the charging skeleton, less than 20 meters at this point with Mark another 10 meters behind that, running hard to catch up. Tom hesitated, the feeling from before having receeded somewhat, but his limbs still felt like lead. He tried to moved but no matter how much he tried he was frozen in place. The sight of the skeleton¡¯s eyes triggering something fearful inside of him. Dave seeing this, bounded back behind Tom and gave him a shove forwards with his shoulder. ¡°Useless bastard,¡± he screamed, the manic look from his outburst in the room before having returned, but was now tinged with fear Tom could see from his wide eyes. Tom stumbled forwards from the shove, a weird whimpering grunt passed his lips as the saw the Skeleton less than 10 meters from him. The clattering footsteps of the skeleton echoed through the chamber, each step faster than the last it seemed to him. It wasn¡¯t stopping, and now it was looking and charging right at him, its burning violet gaze locked on his own. Tom swallowed hard and lifted the shield as best he could, trying to brace his legs to prepare for the impact but they wouldn¡¯t respond. His arms and legs shook uncontrollably, even as his mind screamed for him to raise the shield. Every second brought the slapping footsteps closer, the sight of the purple eyes growing larger. 8 meters. 7 meters. 6 meters. With barely 5 meters between them, Tom finally managed to force his arms to raise his shield high enough to cover his body. his arms shook with the effort, but he forced himself to hold it steady. Tom finally snapped out his panic enough to drop the sword in his right hand, he reached over and grabbed the handle of the shield with both hands and braced himself by leaning forwards. Every fibre of his being was screaming at him to drop the shield and run, but by then skeleton had reached him. Tom could only duck his head behind the shield and hope. Without stopping or adjusting its sword, the skeleton drove its tip into the wooden shield. Tom felt the impact through the shield as the sword slammed into it. The sword hadn¡¯t pierced the shield but instead, all of the force had been transferred throuhh the shield and into Tom, as he flew backwards from the impact, landing several meters away. He landed on his back in a slight depression on the floor that caused him to slide for a few meters, his head cracking into the side of the depression as he came to rest. The shock of the landing had knocked the wind from his lungs and he struggled to breathe, his head pounded from the impact. He tried to get up, but his head swam and his body fel too heavy to move. The light from the torch caused shadows to dance on the ceiling as he lay there groaning. As his head settled, a sharp crack and rining noise sounded in his head. He forced himself to sit up, using his right hand to push against the floor, he still couldn¡¯t move his left arm. Another sharp crack came as Tom looked up. Adam stood to the side of the skeleton, which had turned to face him, and they both swung their swords at each other. Adam¡¯s blade flew upwards from the impact, as Adam deperately tried to maintain a hold on it. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Despite the diminutive look of the skeleton, it was incredilby powerful, as Tom had just discovered. Its thin bones, lacked visible muscles and skin, but Tom could see that it was easily overpowering Adam who had now exchanged a couble of blows with the skeleton in the time that Tom had taken to shake off the initial shock of the impact. Tom looked down at the shield covering his left arm. The shield itself looked fine apart from the massive gouge that now decorated the top half of the shield, which looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. The wood was dented severly and pieces of it had shattered, jutting out from the impact site. His arm was numb, and he tried to move it but it only managed to move a few inches before the strength gave out. Rolling to his side, he slowly got to his feet. His legs still shook but he managed to stand, just as Mark finally caught up to where Adam and the skeleton dueled each other. With a roar like an angry bear, Mark stepped into the fray, swinging his axe with both hands from the end of the haft, cracking it into the side of the skeleton. A snap rang out, and the skeleton was forced back a few steps from the impact. Tom couldn¡¯t see any damage to the skeleton, but before it could set its feet, Adam stepped in with his longsword driving it down in a double-handed vertical slice towards the skeletons head. The skeleton was able to block the blow, narrowly managing to raise it¡¯s sword in time to find the edge of Adam¡¯s blade. The rebound allowed Adam to raise the sword over his head again, but instead of wailing on the skeleton¡¯s sword, which was still raised in defence, he instead used swung it over his shoulder and down under the skeletons sword arm and into its ribcage. Another snap rang out, but this time Tom could see a crack had appeared in the rib that Adam had made contact with. The skeleton took a step to its left in recoil, but managed to lower its sword arm to again block another strike from Adam. Adam and Mark both advanced towards the skeleton but Tom could see they were too close together. Adam¡¯s sword twisted towards Mark as he prepared to make another attack and Mark was forced to duck underneath the sword. ¡°WATCH IT!¡± Mark snarled, trying to catch his breath after his initial charge and catch-up. Adam didn¡¯t reply, his short but fierce bout with the swords leaving him breathing heavily, but he waved lazily in the direction of Mark and the skeleton, as he rested the tip of the long sword on the floor. He was clearly ok with leaving it to Mark to take on, while he took a break. Before Mark could take advantage of Adam¡¯s offer to have another go at the skeleton, a wild scream piereced the air of the cave as Dave came flying past both of them, spear brandished in front of him. He sprinted towards the skeleton, who stood silently, watching the interactions of the group. Dave ran forwards before stopping just in front of his target, placing a foot solidly on the ground and thrusting forwards with the spear with a desperate shout. The spear flew forward and pierced the ribcage of the skeleton, fitting between two of the ribs, and stabbing into the empty space it protected. A wide grin spread across Dave¡¯s mouth. Then the skeleton raised its sword again. The triumphant grin on Dave¡¯s face dissapeared as his eyes opened wide in horror. The spear had gone right through the skeleton, it had even pierced the otherside so that now the spearhead was outside the body of the skeleton and the haft was inside it, but that hadn¡¯t killed it. Dave quickly tried to move out of the way, but the momentum from his reckless charge caused him to overbalance and he took another step closer to the skeleton. His hands had a deathgrip on the spear haft and as it slid through the ribs of the skeleton, so too did Dave move closer. Tom looked on in despair as the sword began its descent towards Daves head. Dave¡¯s knees gave out and he crumpled to the ground, letting go of the spear with one hand and leaving it hanging halfway through the skeleton as he collapsed. As he fell, his weight pulled on the spear and the skeleton was pulled towards its left, towards where Dave fell. The skeleton swung down its right arm before a thunk sounded out, and the sword stopped moving in mid air as it collided with the spear haft jutting out of its body. Dave looked up in surprise, as his hand that had been pulling on the spear let go. The skeleton staggered slightly and stood more upright as the weight that had pulled off balance suddenly released. The sword was still embedded in the spear, where it had made contact as it had swung at Dave. It moved to try and pull it out of the wood, but Tom could see that Mark had gotten in range again. The axe this time was accompanied by an angry roar as it sliced into the bones of the skeleton¡¯s neck. It connected and the bone cracked and broke apart. The skeleton¡¯s head flew upwards as it disconnected from its body, flying a short distance away before landing on the floor, rolling a few times before coming to rest before Tom. He looked into its eyes once more as the purple irses eventually faded and disappeared. The rest of the body collapsed, whatever energies that had been keeping it alive and together had ended with the removal of its head. The bones fell into a heap on the ground with a clatter and its sword clanged to the floor before it disintegrated into dust and blew away on a breeze that no one could feel. Tom slowly sank to his knees, only now realising how fast his heart was beating, and how ragged his breathing was. He looked up at the others. Dave was still on his back, lying next to the pile of bones where he had fallen. his eyes were still wide open and was breathing hard. Adam was crouched on the balls of his feet, his sword across his knees as he smiled, looking at Dave and Mark. Mark however, looked pissed. An angry expression was painted on his face as he stared at the remains of the skeleton, his teeth bared now in a grimace instead of a smile. The group was silent as they recovered, until Dave spoke up. ¡°That¡­ was not ¡­ how I expected¡­ that to go.¡± He said as he tried to recover his breath. ¡°Yeah,¡± Tom agreed with him. ¡°Note to future self, Skeletons are hollow.¡± ¡°But how cool was that though?¡± Dave replied sitting up. His eyes were still wide open, but instead of fear it looked like they alive with excitement. ¡°I mean, I nearly died, but that was awesome. I feel ¡­ great, I feel alive. Wow.¡± Tom looked surprised at that announcement, but one look at both Mark and Adam revealed that they were nodding along with what Dave was saying. Marks expression had turned from one of anger and now had a slight smile as he looked at his axe. Who are these people Tom wondered to himself. The fact he nearly died only made him more anxious for what was to come, not excited. He wanted a fresh start, he wanted to be a new person, but as he sat there on his knees on the rocky floor, he wondered for the first time if he would be able to survive to start that new life. ¡°Oh, hey, I got a blinking thingy in the corner of my eye, anyone else?¡± Dave asked. Tom looked around and he noticed that there was a small blue exclamation mark surrounded by a box in the bottom left corner of his vision. Looking at it opened another smaller menu. Notifications Kill notice ¨C Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior You have killed a Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior. You have been granted 10 Experience Points Level Up ¨C Lvl 1 You have gained a level. You are now Level 1. Your attributed have been calculated. You have gained 1 Skill Point. Ok, Tom thought to himself, time to see what else this system has install for us. Chapter 6 - Evaluate Tom was excited to see what changes had occurred to their status screens as a result of reaching level 1. Ignoring the others, who had started to discuss some of the notifications they had received, Tom opened his status screen. His heart still racing, both from the fight and the excitement from wanting to see what changes had happened. Status Name: Thomas Moore Race: Human (G) Class: None Subclass: None Level: 1 (0/400) Attributes Strength: 4 Agility: 6 Endurance: 5 Vitality: 5 Intelligence: 9 Wisdom: 8 Skills 1 Skill point available Titles Selected of Lemures Affiliation None A quick look at his status screen revealed that he finally had attributes. The only problem was that he had no reference for if they were good or bad. He also didn¡¯t know what each of them actually meant. Was 5 strength good or bad? What did it actually do for him? Could he increase it? Tom had lots of questions, but few answers. Well, nothing else left to try to poke around a bit. He thought to himself. It wasn¡¯t long before his poking around yielded some results. Although said results were a bit of a mixed bag. Strength: 4 Measures your physical abilities. Affects your physical attack damage and physical strength. Affects your muscle mass, lifting capacity, and the amount of force you can exert. Strength was the most basic of his attributes. Lift stuff, push stuff, and punch stuff. He assumed that by affecting the size of the muscles, they increased his strength, or something to that affect. Mark probably had the rest of the group beat here, Tom could fit both his biceps inside just one of Marks and he¡¯d probably have room for more. Agility: 6 Measures your speed, reflexes, and coordination. Affects your movement and reaction speeds, as well as your ability to dodge attacks. Affects quickness of movement, fine motor skills and your perception of actions around you. Agility also made similar sense, it measured his ability to move and react, but it also suggested that it could impact his awareness. Which made sense to Tom, after all, the sooner you were able to see or sense something, the sooner you could react to it which would improve the reaction speed of the person. Endurance: 5 Measures your stamina and physical resilience. Affects your ability to resist the physical strain of actions and to resist fatigue. Affects your recovery rate, your resistance to physical exhaustion and energy reserves. Vitality: 5 Measures your overall health and life force. Affects your ability to take damage, recover from injuries, and resist diseases and poisons. Affects your durability, overall health and your body''s natural healing process over time. Endurance and Vitality were essentially different sides of the same coin. One handled his body¡¯s endurance and stamina, allowing him to continue fighting or exerting himself over long periods, while the other was responsible for his overall health and resilience, determining how much damage his body could take and how quickly he could recover from injuries. He couldn¡¯t readily explain how they would do that, and the description didn¡¯t provide much in the way of explanation. He assumed that endurance increased the amount of red blood cells, which would explain the increased endurance, increased white blood cells might improve disease resistance, but he couldn¡¯t think of anything that would directly improve his overall health and durability. But when he considered the remaining two attributes, anything was possible really. Intelligence: 9 Measures your cognitive ability Affects your ability to learn and understand, as well as your proficiency with magic. Affects your memory retention and processing speed, as well as your magic potential and understanding. Wisdom: 8 Measures your insight, practical knowledge and foresight. Affects your ability to interpret subtle cues around you and better understand the nature of things. Affects your magical efficiency, capacity to predict potential outcomes and make informed decisions in complex situations Intelligence and Wisdom was where things got interesting. He read through each several times, absorbing every word. He¡¯d always had a good memory and had been able to pick up most things fairly quickly at school, apart from sports, he always spent more time in the library than on the sports field. History, Geography, Maths and Science had come naturally to him, even his English and other languages were pretty good, except for public speaking, which he hated. Not that he expected being able to speak the few phrases he¡¯d memorized in German or French to come in handy either, not when another Skeleton was trying to skewer him like he was a human shaped piece of barbeque meat. What he was excited about was the fact that magic was real, at least according to the descriptions. He remembered as a boy he¡¯d often pretend that he could shoot spells and perform magic, not the children¡¯s party magic tricks mind you, but real magic that he could use to change his life, make new friends and free himself from his parents. These dreams had died a long time ago, but now, he had the opportunity to make them come true. As his excitement at the thought of magic grew, a thought suddenly popped into his head. If magic is real, I wonder what powers it. Is it like video games and uses something like mana? How do I find out? What about skills what do they¡­ Oh! While ruminating about magic and its sources, he inadvertently started to consider the possibilities of the skill window and possible skills, which resulted in another little window popping up in front of him. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. New Skills Available Available Skill Points (1) Shield Mastery (Basic) (1) Strike (Basic) (1) Evasion (Basic) (1) Sense (Basic) (1) Fortitude (Basic) (1) Reinforcement (Basic) (1) Recovery (Basic) (1) Resistance (Basic) (1) Multi-Tasking (Basic) (2) Processing (Common) (1) Mana Sense (Basic) (1) Evaluate (Basic) (2) Intuition (Common) (1) Meditation (Common) (1) His options were interesting, to say the least. Tom hadn¡¯t been sure what to expect, but he was both over and underwhelmed by his options. But before he could start to investigate any further, the sound of someone calling to him broke him out of his focus. ¡°Oi, genius, we¡¯re trying to talk to you!¡± Tom looked up. The other three were staring at him from a few meters away. ¡°you¡¯ve been like, thousand-yard staring with unfocused eyes for 10 minutes,¡± said Dave, who waved his hand in front of his eyes to demonstrate. ¡°Yeah, you kinda locked up there for a bit; you didn¡¯t respond at all,¡± added Adam. ¡°Sorry, had a lot to go over suddenly, I got a bit caught up.¡± Tom replied. He unwrapped the leather strap holding the shield to his arm and left it on the ground as he approached the others. It was heavy, and his body was still tired and sore from the freight train-like impact he''d taken. ¡°I¡¯ll bet, we¡¯ve been going over the notifications and other stuff, so what did you find?¡± Adam asked. The discussion that followed answered a few of the questions that had been floating around in Tom¡¯s head since the fight. It turned out that all four of them had gotten the same 10 experience points from killing the skeleton. Mark, however, because he had killed the skeleton, had gotten 20 bonus experience points on top of kill experience. All of them had also reached level 1 and been given their attributes and skill points as well. Tom started to make a mental list of all the things they went over, wishing that he had access to a notepad or a book. Just as he thought that another menu labelled Journal popped up. He relayed this to the others, who tried it themselves. ¡°This system thing wants to make things easier for us,¡± Mark drawled. ¡°I think you''re right,¡± Tom replied. ¡°It seems to want to prioritise fighting; almost every message we¡¯ve gotten so far has mentioned the word struggle, or given us a quest to kill things, or just made it easier for us to get to the killing.¡± ¡°Well, why didn¡¯t you say that before?¡± said Dave. ¡°Oh gee, it sure would be nice if we had a map to get through this shithole cave?¡± he asked flippantly as he raised his arms to the ceiling of the cave. The group waited for a moment before Dave lowered his arms. ¡°Well, it was worth a try,¡± he said sheepishly. Adam rolled his eyes before looking back to Tom. ¡°So, what were your attributes?¡± he asked Tom. Another short discussion followed, during which each member relayed their attributes to the others. As Tom had suspected, Mark had a 10 in strength, and no one else had come close, with Adam at 7 and Dave at 6. Tom was also the weakest at 4, which hadn¡¯t surprised him. The closest he¡¯d ever come to a workout was packing his room when he had moved away from his family and into his own place, and his books weren¡¯t all that heavy. Surprisingly, Dave and Adam shared the highest agility, with 8 each. Adam had handled himself well with his sword, but Tom was surprised by Dave, whose effort against the skeleton had nearly ended with him losing his head. They quickly worked out that the highest for any attribute the four had gained was a 10, and each person had 2-3 attributes that were in the higher range for attribute numbers. Marks highest were strength and Endurance, Adam had agility, endurance, and wisdom, while Dave had agility and, oddly enough, vitality. The man looked the least healthy to Tom but was the healthiest of all of them according to their attributes. Adam had burst into laughter upon hearing from Tom that his strength was only 4. ¡°I knew it,¡± he chortled. ¡°The way you went flying as you blocked that thing was fucking hilarious.¡± ¡°Yeah, it was great fun,¡± Tom replied sarcastically. ¡°Ahh, don¡¯t be such a baby; we told you that it wasn¡¯t a good idea to take the shield; it turns out the guy with all the brains didn¡¯t use them to listen.¡± Adam crowed. Tom was annoyed at Adam¡¯s gloating when his comment about the shield reminded Tom about the skills he could take. ¡°Hey, speaking of, I got skill I can take for shields, what skills did you guys get?¡± Tom¡¯s question prompted another round of show-and-tell from the group. Many had similar skill options to what Tom had seen, and they seemed to fall into one of several different categories. There were a few weapon-based skills, like his shield mastery. Skill: Shield Mastery Attribute ¨C Strength Rarity - Basic Cost ¨C 1 Skill Point Stopping a blow is the first step to avoiding death. Unlocks basic knowledge of and proficiency with all basic shields. Increases amount of force blocked by shields by 1.5% per level + 1% strength. Mark had gotten, and already bought, Axe Mastery (Common), which along with also being a strength-based skill like shield mastery, had offered similar bonuses except for being used to deal instead of block damage. The only other difference was that as a common rarity skill, it offered greater bonuses, providing double the bonus of Tom¡¯s basic skill and also came with a secondary effect, allowing it a chance to cause a bleeding, damage of time effect on certain hits. Going down his list of skill options, he had 2 strength-based (Shield Mastery (Basic) and Strike (Basic)) , while Mark had been offered 3, 2 of which had been common rarity. Tom wasn¡¯t sure yet, but it seemed that the higher your attribute, the more likely you were to get either more skills or a higher rarity skill for that attribute. He said as much to others, who checked their own skills. By comparing their skills they worked out that any attribute with less than 4 only offered one basic rarity skill, Dave had a 3 in wisdom and only had Meditation (Basic) as his only option for that attribute. Any attribute between 4 and 7 would get 2 skills, and of those skills, at least 1 they had a chance to get a common rarity skill. Tom, as did the other three, had access to both Evasion (Basic) and Sense (Basic); however, only Dave had access to a common rarity version of Sense. Skill: Sense Attribute ¨C Agility Rarity - Common Cost ¨C 1 Skill Point Your eyes can be tricked, but sound and smell cannot hide. Increases the sensitivity of your sense of smell, sight and hearing by 5% per level + 3% Agility The only difference between the two versions was that Tom¡¯s basic version only had 2.5% per level and +2% agility. Finally, any attribute between 8 and 10 would get three options, with at least one being common. However, this last group of attributes also gave another benefit. Two of Tom¡¯s skills, Multi-Tasking (Basic) and Evaluate (Basic), both cost 2 skill points instead of 1 like the rest. Inspecting the skills didn¡¯t reveal any direct reason as to why, but it gave Tom a clue. Skill: Multi-Tasking Attribute ¨C Intelligence Rarity - Basic Cost ¨C 2 Skill Points True mastery is processing multiple threads of thought at once. Unlocks the capacity to split focus between various tasks. Increases the efficiency of handling simultaneous actions by 2% per level + 1.5% Intelligence. Skill: Evaluate Attribute ¨C Wisdom Rarity - Basic Cost ¨C 2 Skill Points A sharp mind is the first tool in assessing the true value of things. Unlocks the ability to provide increased insights into the world around you by extrapolating your knowledge and intuition. Increases the accuracy, amount and insight of assessments with each level and with increases to your Wisdom. Both of the 2 cost skills had the names of other skills within their descriptions, and they were even highlighted. Multi-tasking mentioned processing, while Evaluate mentioned Intuition. Skill: Intuition Attribute ¨C Wisdom Rarity - Common Cost ¨C 1 Skill Point Gut feelings can be sharper than logic, listen to your inner voice. Enhances your ability to understand or know something without needing to think or reason. Each level increases the knowledge or conviction gained from a situation. Skill: Processing Attribute ¨C Intelligence Rarity - Basic Cost ¨C 1 Skill Point A sharp mind can cut through indecision and complex thought. Enhances your thought processes and ability to analyse situations and patterns. Increases cognitive processing speed by 2% per level + 1% Intelligence. Checking their descriptions, Tom could see that there were definitely some similarities between them, and he had an idea about what it might mean, but he would need to wait and get another skill point to test it and who knew how long that might take. As he thought that, he remembered about the tasks that they had been given for the dungeon. He opened the information page again to check. Trial Dungeon of Lemures Level 1 Time Remaining ¨C 21 Hours, 46 Minutes Enemies Remaining ¨C 49 Dungeon Requirements: ¨C Reach the end of the dungeon alive 0/1 ¨C Kill Enemies 1/1 (Stage 1) Just like he thought, the first stage of the Kill Enemies task had been completed. He focused on the task and he heard a *DING* in his head as another screen popped up. Task Completed Trial Dungeon of Lemures Level 1 ¨C Kill Enemies 1/1 (Stage 1) Reward ¨C 1 Skill Point Trial Dungeon of Lemures Level 1 Time Remaining ¨C 21 Hours, 46 Minutes Enemies Remaining ¨C 49 Dungeon Requirements: ¨C Reach the end of the dungeon alive 0/1 ¨C Kill Enemies 1/11 (Stage 2) The task had rewarded him another skill point for its completion, and the task had changed to stage 2 where they had to kill 10 more enemies to complete it. Looking back at his skill menu, he smiled as he saw that he indeed had 2 skill points to us. The others nodded as he told them about his discovery. ¡°It makes sense, kinda,¡± said Adam. ¡°This whole thing is feeling more and more unreal to me, it¡¯s like a giant video game, like VR or something. At this point I¡¯m just going to roll with whatever happens,¡± he said, raising his arms in mock surrender. At this point Tom had suggested that they discuss their skill choices it as a group, so they wouldn¡¯t choose any duplicates or anything that wouldn¡¯t directly assist them through the dungeon. But this suggestion was soundly rejected when Mark had gotten bored and walked off, with Adam and Dave following suit, leaving Tom standing alone. Well, I tried, he thought to himself. Looking back to his list of skills, he thought about what he might take; several were interesting propositions. He particularly wanted to get Mana Sense, but that was only because he really wanted to see what magic was like. Strike was also tempting, but his lack of strength would be a bit of an issue, also the fact that his skill level with his sword was about as good as a kid with a stick pretending to be a knight at preschool. His gaze caught Mark, who had wandered over to where Tom had left his shield. Mark picked it up, strapped it to his arm and began to practice wielding both at once. He was quite good at it, too, Tom thought. Looks like it¡¯s been decided that I¡¯m not good enough with the shield after all, he thought glumly to himself. Seeing as that decision had been made for him, he turned back to his skill list. He wasn¡¯t strong enough to pick a strength skill or a weapon skill, not that he could use Shield Mastery without a shield. He might be able to use Evasion to survive, but that wouldn¡¯t help him if he needed to fight, so most of the others that he had access to. He did have one particular skill that the others didn¡¯t have, one that when he had seen it he had been intrigued by the possibilities it might offer him. If he couldn¡¯t fight, or fight well enough by himself, he could at least see if he could support those that could. That way he could make himself a valuable member of the team, instead of just the fleshy roadblock he had been in the skeleton fight. It¡¯s time to do some testing, he thought to himself as he spent both skill points on Evaluate. Chapter 7 – How Long is a Piece of String? Instantly, Tom clutched his head as a wave of agony spread from his eyes to the back of his head. To Tom, it felt like he was being electrified, the pain building as wave after wave assaulted him. He fell to his knees, gritting his teeth as the waves built to a crescendo before it suddenly stopped. The pain vanished just as quickly as it had started. Tom wobbled back to his feet, his legs unsteady and shaking. Just as he stood back up, a surge of boxes appeared across his vision, peppering his view with snippets of blue boxes and black text. A new form of agony threatened to overtake him as the boxes overwhelmed him. He had no sooner wished that the boxes would go away when, to his surprise, they did. The headache that had started to build began to recede as he started to take stock of what had just happened. He opened his status screen again. Status Name: Thomas Moore Race: Human (G) Class: None Subclass: None Level: 1 (0/400) Attributes Strength: 4 Agility: 6 Endurance: 5 Vitality: 5 Intelligence: 9 Wisdom: 8 Skills Evaluate 1 (15/200) Intuition 1 (0/25) Titles Selected of Lemures Affiliation None The skills Evaluate and Intuition had both appeared in his status menu, just like he thought might happen. When he had read the skill description for Evaluate and saw that the word intuition had been highlighted, he had thought that the skills must be connected somehow. He¡¯d had a few ideas for what it might mean, but the simplest idea had been that Intuition must have been a prerequisite skill for obtaining Evaluation, so the reason for it costing 2 skill points wasn¡¯t because it was a more powerful skill, but because it required obtaining another skill entirely. He felt that Multi-Tasking would also work the same way, requiring the skill Processing to obtain and use and therefore there would be other skills that would use the same method to unlock. Just as he had that feeling, he watched as the counter on Intuition increased by 1. Intuition 1 (0/25) > Intuition 1 (1/25) Seeing this, Tom pulled up the details for Intuition. Skill: Intuition 1 (1/25) Attribute ¨C Wisdom Rarity - Common Gut feelings can be sharper than logic, listen to your inner voice. Enhances your ability to understand or know something without needing to think or reason. Each level increases the knowledge or conviction gained from a situation. Seeing the changes to the skill detail window confirmed for Tom the feeling he¡¯d had before about Multi-Tasking and Processing must have come from the Intuition skill; it also confirmed that the skills could gain experience with use. looking at Evaluate showed that he was already at 15 out of 200 experience points for the skill which, he guessed, had come from the onslaught of windows he had been barraged with when he had first unlocked the skill. He wasn¡¯t sure what would happen at the next skill level or what the max level was for the skill, but the very idea that he could just improve the skill from use alone made him excited to try it out. He looked down at his pants, the same ones he had been wearing the whole time since he¡¯d found himself in this ordeal. Triggering Evaluate was easy enough; just thinking about it caused the same blue window from before to appear in his vision. Black Pants A pair of black pants designed for men. Quality: Basic Bonuses: None Condition: 43% The description was underwhelming, but Tom wasn¡¯t sure what he should have been expecting. These were the cheapest pair of work pants he had been able to find at the store after all, they weren''t a pair of legendary pants made of silk or whatever passed for a high-quality material under the system. They sure wouldn¡¯t last for too much longer at this rate. He checked the counter for Evaluate, but it had remained the same. He looked around, trying the skill on some other nearby items, his shoes, shirt, the floor, and anything that he could see in front of him. The window appeared, and the text displayed some basic information, but the counter still refused to increase. Looking around, he focused on Mark, who still stood some distance away, still practicing with his axe and the shield he¡¯d taken from Tom. Activating Evaluate caused the window to appear again. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Mark King Gender: Male Race: Human (G) Level: 1 Class: None Again, the window didn¡¯t display any earth-shattering information, but this time, the counter for Evaluate had increased by 1 to 16/200. Tom wondered why the skill had increased from this use but not from any of the others. He realised that Mark hadn¡¯t been in view when the skill had first activated. Maybe it only works the first time I use it on something or someone, he thought to himself. He felt the activation of Intuition this time as information and understanding worked themselves into his mind. He felt that his interpretation was mostly on point, but something else was missing or not entirely correct with how he thought the skill worked. Looking again at his experience counter for Intuition he saw that it had increased again by 1 to 2/25. This confirmed to Tom that Intuition worked as the description of the skill indicated, that knowledge and understanding would be given to him to further his own understanding of the topic. I wonder what the limits of this skill could be, Tom thought to himself. Do I have to be actively involved in thinking about the topic, or will it just come to me when the situation happens? Do I have to come to some conclusion first? The first two increases in the skill experience only happened once I thought I had come to some understanding of the skill. I¡¯m going to need to start taking notes about this and test it some more. For Tom, even getting a hint of understanding of how his skills worked was a good start, but he¡¯d have to experiment with Evaluate to find out what was missing from his own understanding. He had no idea what it might be, but he did think it was weird that when he used the skill on something, it showed such little detail about it that it was barely worth it. He was intrigued by the skills and how they worked and let his inner curiosity take over as he inspected everything within the light of the torch. Windows popped up on weapons, clothing, the skeleton¡¯s bones, and, of course, both Dave and Adam. The information was the same for most items, simply informing him of what they were, their quality level, and if they had any bonuses, of which there were none. Not a single item had any bonuses to them at all, not even the weapons. He was able to find out the last names of Adam and Dave at least, but other than being rank G humans and that Dave''s full name was David, not Dave, not much else about them was shown. David Lynch Gender: Male Race: Human (G) Level: 1 Class: None Adam Fletcher Gender: Male Race: Human (G) Level: 1 Class: None He¡¯d been able to increase the counter of Evaluate to 25/200 by using it on everything and everyone he could see, but he hadn¡¯t been able to pick up any other details from Intuition yet. That¡¯s more to test, He thought. The skill description says that will get more accurate. Does that mean more information? Clearer information? Will it be more reliable? Too many questions, not enough details yet. He checked the dungeon information to see that they had 21 Hours and 21 Minutes remaining to complete the dungeon. Looking around at the others, he called out to them as he started to walk over to where he¡¯d dropped his sword, which conveniently was near the torch. He¡¯d already used Evaluate on it in his frenzy of scanning things earlier, but he checked it again as he walked. Handheld Flame Torch A torch made of wood, pitch, sulfur, and lime. Quality: Basic Bonuses: None Condition: 12% The others came together as he picked up his sword and stuck it through his belt before walking over to pick up the torch. ¡°This torch won¡¯t last too much longer, and we still have a lot of the dungeon to cover. Has everyone finished with their skills and stuff?¡± he asked. The others all nodded. ¡°We still have a couple of torches left, right? How much longer do you think that one¡¯ll burn for?¡± Adam asked Tom. Tom relayed to the others what information Evaluate had given him of the Torch. Doing some quick math, he arrived at the conclusion that each torch burned for about 3 hours, given the percentage left on its condition, and he said as much to the others. ¡°We have four more torches that should be fairly fresh¡± Tom said, turning to Mark who had them shoved in deep pockets in his pants leg. Mark fetched them from his pockets and held them out to Tom, who evaluated them revealing that they were at 95%, 86%, 98% and 100%. ¡°Some of them had been burning when we found them, so that makes sense,¡± Tom said. ¡°Assuming that some of the torches started to burn when we entered the dungeon, that means that any that are still burning will run out in about 20 minutes or so. These torches will last us another 11 and a bit hours if we only use one at a time.¡± ¡°Will that be enough?¡± Mark asked. ¡°How long is a piece of string?¡± Tom shrugged in response. ¡°What?¡± said Dave, looking confused. ¡°The hell does string have to do with anything?¡± ¡°It''s an idiom,¡± Tom said before quickly adding more information as he saw Dave about to erupt. ¡°It¡¯s a common saying that means there is no exact answer to the question. It could take us 2 hours, or it could take us 10 hours. We don¡¯t know anything about this place, where it goes, how big it is, or what we¡¯ll face.¡± Dave grumbled in response to his answer. Adam gestured to the other side of the cave they stood in. ¡°Well, seeing as you¡¯re the one with the knowledge skills, you can choose where we go next,¡± he said. ¡°That skill of yours should be helpful with finding our way out of here.¡± Tom nodded and led the group toward the centre of the cave. Roughly 50 meters in diameter, the cave was wide enough so that standing in the middle, the light from the torch would just barely reach the other side. Tom stood in the middle and looked around at the walls. Above the tunnel they had just come from was a circle with a dot in the middle. Turning in a circle, he could see another tunnel at a dot with two circles and the third had a dot and three circles. Oh! A simple organisational code like a counting system or a suggested order, maybe? It depends if this place was set up to just be a dungeon or if it had another purpose before this. Hmmm, not enough information to tell yet, but since Intuition hasn¡¯t fired again, that¡¯s also telling me something unless I¡¯m completely wrong about how it works that, in which case I¡¯m screwed. As he looked around, he saw an indent on the wall between the second and third tunnels. It stood out to him because, until now, the tunnel walls had been very uniform. Other than the sconces that had held the torches they had collected on the way, they had been blank and nearly completely smooth to the touch. Tom led the group over. Inspecting the indent, they found a rectangular imprint in the wall, roughly 1 meter wide and 2 meters high, roughly the same shape and size as the door leading into the dungeon from the odd, almost waiting room they had been portalled into at the start. I wonder if that guy is watching us bumble about down here; I hope you''re getting your money¡¯s worth, he thought to himself. In the center of the indent were two deep cutouts that pointed into the rockface. Both were roughly the size of Tom¡¯s hand; one, he could tell by looking into the hole with the light of the torch, was a pyramid shape with 4 faces leading to a point inside the rock. The other was in the shape of a cone, a singular curved face that tapered to a point. Keys maybe? Or something to unlock a way through? I¡¯m guessing we have to go down each tunnel, kill a bunch of things, and retrieve each of whatever fits into these slots, and that will open the way forward, Tom postulated to himself. A moment later, his thoughts were confirmed by a now familiar rush. Intuition confirmed his hypothesis by providing him with the knowledge that this was fairly common in dungeons. It would require the participants to go and seek out the objectives, therefore face combat and struggle to overcome the obstacles. I think I¡¯m getting the hang of this now. It looks like Intuition can provide either confirmation if something is correct or at least partially correct or provide me with information to give more context and understanding, especially if I¡¯m not likely to know already, but at the same time, it won¡¯t give me everything I need to know but will hint at what I¡¯m missing. Annoying, but better than nothing, I guess. Tom narrated all this to the group as he was inspecting the wall and making his findings public. Adam was interested in what else Intuition could do, suggesting that based on the wording, it could, based on Tom¡¯s own knowledge and skill, be used to probe people for information or test for lies. It might also have other effects, like possibly acting like a detector of sorts. Dave was looking nervous again and was starting to shake. Probably either the adrenaline is wearing off from the fight before, or he¡¯s about to go into withdrawal. Actually, how does that work? If we died and got transported here, what happened to the drugs in his system? Do they stay there or were they cured when we got healed, as the guy said he did? Mark looked bored. He¡¯d started swinging his axe around again, almost like he was shadow-fighting someone. He reviewed the dungeon information once more. Trial Dungeon of Lemures Level 1 Time Remaining ¨C 21 Hours, 3 Minutes Enemies Remaining ¨C 49 Dungeon Requirements: ¨C Reach the end of the dungeon alive 0/1 ¨C Kill Enemies 1/11 (Stage 2) They had just over 21 hours to kill 49 enemies in a dungeon they had only just entered, of which their first fight had very nearly been the end of at least 2 of their group. That bodes well for the future, Tom thought to himself. They¡¯d have to go down both tunnels at some point, Tom knew, but which one first? \ He tapped his pockets, looking for his wallet or a coin to flip, but found nothing. To make things simple, he decided on numerical order, and after lighting another torch before the old one ran out, the group made their way down the tunnel marked with two circles around the centre dot, which Tom had decided was the number 2. It was time to pick a fight with a dungeon. Chapter 8 – Well, That Sucked The tunnel changed slightly as they left the cave. Where the previous tunnel, which Tom referred to as tunnel number 1, had been about five meters tall and 3 wide, the new tunnel, tunnel 2, was around 15 meters wide and 10 meters high. The floor, however, was more pitted and uneven than before, which made walking more treacherous in the low light. It wasn¡¯t long before they ran into another skeleton, except this time, there were two of them. Just like the first skeleton, they were standing dead still in the middle of the tunnel, not moving, just swaying back and forth. To Tom, it looked almost like they were dormant or asleep, maybe. The group had been standing further away from the skeletons than the first one they had encountered back in the cave; Mark''s enhanced senses had alerted the group to their presence well before they were shown by the light of the torch. Tom used Evaluate on both, earning himself another 2 experience points, which he wasn¡¯t expecting. He¡¯d thought that since they were the same type of creature, they¡¯d only count for one, but it seemed that Evaluate thought otherwise and was counting each creature as its own separate entity; he wondered if it would be the same for objects and other items like swords, he¡¯d have to test it out later. The information he received from Evaluate was pretty slim. Skeleton Warrior Race: Undead Level: 1 Based on what they had encountered back in the cave, they thought that these skeletons must be on the same level as the one they had killed. Based on this, the group split into 2 teams. Mark, the only one with a shield, would handle one on his own as he could block and attack effectively on his own. The other three would work together to take on the 2nd skeleton. Tom would hold the torch and provide light, but he would focus on his group''s skeleton over trying to provide Mark with light. This was because of the short discussion they¡¯d had on the walk before they¡¯d encountered the current skeletons. Mark, along with taking the Axe Mastery skill, had also taken the Agility skill Sense, which, he informed them, had enhanced his eyesight and hearing just enough that he was confident that he would be able to make it out in the shadows. Even if it hadn¡¯t, Mark would probably be able to move around enough to stay in the light Tom thought. Adam had taken Sword Mastery to go with his longsword, along with an Agility skill called Quick Hands, which improved weapon handling and precision, according to him. Dave had similarly taken Quick Hands but was refusing to take Spear Mastery because of his disdain for the weapon and was waiting to find a better one that he liked. Judging by the fact that all 3 of the others had gotten weapon mastery skills from the weapons they had hit the skeleton with, and Tom had only gotten Shield Mastery, he suspected that if he participated in the fight by at least hitting the skeleton with his sword, then he would also be offered Sword Mastery in his skill menu and likewise, Mark would get Shield Mastery for using the shield against his foe. With nothing else to organise, the two groups split and moved toward their targets, which both noticed their approach and reacted in the same way as the previous skeleton. They raised their swords and pointed them towards their target (Mark and Adam in this case) and charged silently, their purple irises pulsing inside their heads. The fight went better than expected, at least on Mark¡¯s side. From what Tom saw, he¡¯d been able to block his skeleton¡¯s charge with his shield by angling the face upwards, so the sword scraped across the surface, losing much of the intended force, instead of trying to stop it dead as Tom had. Of course, Mark¡¯s strength was more than double Tom¡¯s, so he was able to absorb the remaining force easily and swap to attacking. Tom had noticed it back in the first fight, but Mark was very proficient with how he attacked, even before he had gotten the level up and Axe Mastery. He must have been a former soldier or a police officer, maybe even a boxer, someone who was used to hand-to-hand combat and could keep their cool. After stopping deflecting the sword thrust, Mark set about ruthlessly dismantling his opponent. Swing after swing hit bone while he bobbed and weaved around his opponent¡¯s sword. Tom wasn¡¯t sure if it was the skill or not, but within a few seconds of starting the fight, Mark had already cut several ribs from the chest and removed the skeleton¡¯s non-sword arm from the elbow down without taking any meaningful blows himself. His fight, on the other hand, was not going as smoothly. Adam had rushed forward with Dave in tow while Tom, with his torch, had stayed back and a few meters to the side of Dave so he could provide light, which hadn¡¯t worked well. The skeleton had charged toward Adam, who had dived out of the way of the blade as it neared him, leaving Dave now in its path. Dave responded with a banshee yell of anger as he was left to tackle the rapidly approaching threat. He managed to lower his spear in time and use it to batter away the arm of the skeleton by crouching down and using his body weight to move the end of the spear quicker than he could with just his hands. Unfortunately for Dave, while he was concerned about the sword, he forgot about the thing holding it. The skeleton, who had still been running the whole time, collided with Dave in a clatter of bones and flesh. The sound had reminded Tom of his first job as a teenager when he¡¯d worked for a local butcher who had been the father of one of his few friends in high school. The man would take the carcass of the animal from the fridge, heft them onto his shoulder, and then slam them down on the prepared wooden cutting bench that he used to dismantle them for his shop display. That same deep, dull slap as flesh and bone met the surface of the cutting bench was the same sound that the skeleton and Dave¡¯s body made as they came together. Dave was flung backward; his spear, knocked out of his hands by the impact, went flying above Tom¡¯s head and clattered to the ground. He landed on his back, the momentum rolling him up and over several times before he came to rest on his stomach. The skeleton had also fallen from the impact but unlike Dave, it had managed to keep a hold of its sword. While it slowly picked itself up from the ground, Adam approached it from behind. Having dived out of the way to avoid the skeleton, he had used its collision with Dave to approach it without risk of being attacked. Swinging his sword down with both hands, he struck the skeleton at the joint in its shoulder just as it had managed to rise to a crouch. The sword passed through the joint, and the arm, along with the sword it held, dropped to the floor. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Adam grinned at the successful attack and drew his sword back for another swing. The skeleton, however, was not going to let Adam have his victory so easily and swung its entire body around to its left, catching Adam in the side of his ribs with its left elbow. Before Adam could react to the attack, the skeleton had drawn its arm back again and punched Adam in the chest, sending him stumbling backward as he clutched his chest with gritted teeth. The blow seemed to have winded him as he struggled to stay upright while his chest heaved breathlessly. Seeing the skeleton prepare itself for another follow-up, Tom gripped his torch and sword tightly and rushed forward. He wasn¡¯t entirely sure what he was going to do, and he was still petrified of getting into another fight. But, he thought to himself, if he didn''t do something now, then it might get to Adam, and he wasn''t looking in the best shape. As he closed in on the skeleton, which was still facing toward Adam, his heart was in his mouth. If anything happened now, no one would step in and help him like last time. Adam and Dave were both down with injuries or trying to recover, and Mark was still busy with his own fight. He dropped the torch as he ran and gripped the sword with both hands, his knuckles turning white. He closed within striking range and started to swing; the skeleton had managed to find its feet and had taken a few steps towards Adam, who was still trying to catch his breath. His arms curled around his body to the right so that his sword jutted out behind him, horizontally to the ground. He planted his left foot firmly into the ground next to where the skeleton stood and twisted his body to the left, bringing his sword around in a great arc, his arms fully extended out. As the sword swung closer, time slowed down. Tom could see that his sword was on target to bisect the neck of the skeleton and hopefully kill it. But as he watched the sword glacially follow its path through the air, he felt a moment of¡­ something, then he saw with horror that the skeleton had begun to turn to face him. As it turned, it ducked slightly, and his sword, instead of cutting cleanly through its neck, ran full force into its skull, cracking the formerly pristine white bone, before glancing upwards. The blow knocked the skeleton back to the ground, while Tom was spun about until he tripped on his own feet and fell onto his back, his head smacking into the ground, leaving him dazed. His sword flew out of his hands and into the air, becoming a missile that streaked toward the other fight occurring on the other side of the tunnel. His head spinning, Tom winced as he tried to stand up, but he felt something grab his leg. His eyes bolted open, and he cried out in terror as the skeleton, still on the ground, managed to grab onto him with its remaining arm and was beginning to haul itself over towards him. He scrambled backward, breaking free of the skeleton¡¯s grasp, his arms windmilling as he desperately grabbed for handholds on the rocky floor. The hollow sockets of its skull seemed to burn with that eerie purple light, pulsating faster, almost in rhythm with Tom''s racing heartbeat. His breath hitched as the skeleton¡¯s bony fingers scraped and clattered over the ground, inching closer to him. A sickening chill crawled up his spine as he felt the skeleton''s iron-like grip on his leg again. He tried to pull his leg free, but it was locked solid; his pants tore as he desperately kicked out, lashing the skeleton''s face and chest with kicks, but it barely slowed the creature¡¯s relentless crawl as it moved up his body. Tom¡¯s mind screamed at him to move, to do something, but he was frozen, his muscles locked with fear as the skeleton¡¯s face loomed closer, teeth clacking together as though it was savouring his terror. His scrabbling hands finally found something behind him that he could grab, and he locked on it with his left hand. He pulled, and it came away from the ground; bringing it before him, the light suddenly increased in brightness as the torch he grabbed came into view. With nothing else left to him, he shoved the torch forward, jamming it into the skeleton''s eye socket. The skeleton jerked backward off of Tom¡¯s body as the torch made contact, then started to thrash around wildly, its remaining arm flailing around. Tom moved back a few meters to give himself some breathing room as he watched the spectacle. The skeleton continued to thrash around for a few moments before stopping, its arm falling to its side. The head stopped moving, and the clattering stopped. The skeleton collapsed, each bone falling away from the others into a pile on the ground. The skull, with the torch still embedded in its eye socket, crashed on top of the pile. A blinking notification appeared in the corner of his vision. Notifications Kill notice ¨C Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior You have killed a Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior. You have been granted 13 Experience Points You achieved the final blow. You have been granted 40 additional Experience Points Tom collapsed backward, resting his head on the ground. He let out a giant pent-up breath in relief. ¡°Well, that sucked¡± He lay there for a moment, recovering his breath, feeling his racing heart start to subside, and the throb in his head start to fade. For the first time since the fight started, he noticed that there was no sound in the tunnel. No clashing of swords, no clattering of bones. Opening his eyes and propping himself up with his elbows, he observed that Mark already won his fight and was now bending over to pick up something from the ground. Adam had sunk to one knee and was using his sword as a learning post as he greedily sucked in breaths. Dave was still lying on the ground, unmoving. Tom groaned as he rolled to his knees and tried to stand. His body protesting about the most recent physical activity quite vehemently. ¡°You all good?¡± he called over to Adam. ¡°Yeah,¡± he managed, clutching his ribs. ¡°Just taking a breather.¡± Tom nodded and wandered over to where Dave lay. His skin looked paler than usual, but since the light from the torch distorted the colour somewhat, he couldn¡¯t tell for sure. He slowly crouched down and put his fingers on his neck to check his pulse. Just as he made contact with his skin, Dave¡¯s eyes snapped open, and his hand latched onto Tom¡¯s arms. ¡°Don¡¯t. Fucking. Touch. Me.¡± Dave growled at him. Tom stood up and backed away as Dave slowly started to sit up. Ok, note to self, don¡¯t fuck with that guy. Fucking crazy. Tom thought to himself. He turned around and started walking back towards Adam when he noticed Mark approaching him. He stood in front of Tom and raised his arm towards Tom. He had Tom¡¯s sword in his hand, which had last seen flying across the tunnel during his fight with the skeleton. Tom offered his thanks to Mark, who nodded as Tom took the sword and walked over to a hump in the middle of the tunnel to take a seat. Tom used Evaluate on the sword. Iron Short Sword An Iron Short Sword Quality: Basic Bonuses: None Condition: 85% He sighed loudly. Two fights in a row, and in both, he¡¯d very nearly been seriously hurt or worse. He wasn¡¯t cut out for this. At least his sword was still in good nick and could last a few more fights before he would need to consider changing it out for another weapon. He noticed that the blinking notification had appeared in the corner of his vision again. Opening it, he saw that he had another kill notification Notifications Kill notice ¨C Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior You have killed a Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior. You have been granted 20 Experience Points He laughed quietly to himself as he stood in the middle of the tunnel. Somehow, he¡¯d managed to help Mark kill his skeleton. He wasn¡¯t sure how, though. At this point, however, he didn¡¯t care. The skeleton crawling after him and nearly dying for the second time in as many hours had left him feeling rattled. He wanted every edge he could get his hands on. He wanted to survive this. He knew he was weak compared to the others, but he wasn¡¯t going to just give up. Not yet, at least. This would be his new start, and he would do whatever he needed to do to make it work. He was about to open his status menu once more when Mark stood up quickly. ¡°More coming¡±, he growled in a low tone, gesturing towards the inky depths of the tunnel. Chapter 9 – Intuition Tom looked in the direction Mark was pointing, he couldn¡¯t see as far as Mark could with his enhanced eyesight, but he could still hear the clattering and shuffling of the approaching enemies. He moved next to Mark, who was busy readjusting the straps holding the shield to his arm. Tom looked around at Adam and Dave. Dave was still trying to find his feet, shaking his head as he tried to force his wobbly legs to support his body. Adam was a bit better, he¡¯d managed to find his feet at least, but he was still clutching his side. He had started to make his way slowly over to where Mark and Tom stood using his sword as a crutch, his mouth set in a grim line. Turning back to the inky black of the tunnel, Tom could just start to make out some the figures who were emerging from the gloom. The first figure he could make out was another skeleton clutching a sword. There was at least one other shadowy figure behind it, still making its way forward. Tom dashed over to the pile of bones left behind when the skeleton he had killed collapsed and grabbed the torch from where it had fallen. He ran back to Mark just as the light from the torch unveiled the first skeleton shambling forward. Using Evaluate showed that it was another level 1 skeleton, just like the others. As the skeleton fully emerged from the shadows it stopped and followed the same attack pattern the other three had performed, raising its sword towards its target and then charging. As the skeleton began its charge Tom turned to Mark, who had lifted his shield back in front of his chest to counter the charge. ¡°Hey, can you do what you did to the last skeleton again? Block its charge and shove it away from you?¡± he asked. Mark shrugged as watched the rapidly approaching skeleton. ¡°Probably,¡± he rumbled, seemingly unperturbed by the sight in front of him. ¡°Why?¡± Tom slipped behind him, checking on where Adam was, who was still using his sword to hobble slowly towards them. ¡°If you can, I might be able to get a hit in before it recovers,¡± Tom said, with as much conviction as he could. Mark nodded, then braced himself, holding the shield with hands, his right hand awkwardly holding both the axe and the shields handle. Just before the skeleton hit, Mark angled the shield face so that it was tilted backwards and to the left. Keeping just the right side of his face out from behind the shield, he tracked the sword until it contacted the shield. Thankfully, the skeletons didn¡¯t seem to change their attack patterns so far, and it continued to charge forward all the rest had before it. The sword did as it had done before, instead of digging in it deflected as its momentum carried it forward. As the sword scraped across the surface of the wood, Mark pushed up and out with both arms, causing the shield to hit the skeletons sword arm and make it bounce off into the air, as the skeleton kept moving forward, bumping into Mark¡¯s shoulder which he had lowered into a position to barge into the skeleton¡¯s ribs. The skeleton reeled away off balance from the impact with Mark¡¯s shoulder. Its body twisting back and to the side as it tried to control the momentum and bring its sword back down. Mark let go of the shield with his right hand and now only clutching the axe haft, drew it back to strike at the neck of the skeleton as his left arm was flung wide from being used to push back the sword. The skeleton acted quickly and already its sword was starting to move back towards Mark with speed, aiming for his now open chest. Seeing his chance, Tom stepped forward, ducking under the shield, his sword held low to his right. Careful to not cut Mark¡¯s leg, he brought the sword upward and around in an awkward swing, twisting his entire torso. His right arm was too close to his body to achieve much more force than just a wrist flick, but he managed to hit the skeleton¡¯s blade as it came level with his head. The impact travelled up Tom¡¯s arm, the vibrations threatening to shake his arms from his body. Tom gritted his teeth, squeezing every muscle and bone in his body. Willing them to hold against the strain. Begging them to last just a few seconds longer. He was slightly taller than the skeleton and as wrestling swords moved lower and lower, he was able to lean forward and push down toward the floor, using his body weight to assist him. Suddenly, the pressure stopped and the tension in Tom¡¯s straining body was released. He nearly fell on his face as his arms tried to bury themselves in the rock floor and he overbalanced, rolling over his shoulder. Getting up into a crouch, he saw the head of the skeleton rolling past him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that Mark had managed to cut the skeleton¡¯s head off with his axe since Tom had been able to block it for just long enough for him to get his axe into position to swing. ¡°That worked out well,¡± Tom said as he got to his feet and turned to Mark, who nodded in response, then raised his axe and pointed over Tom¡¯s shoulder. Another skeleton had emerged from the gloom and was beginning its pre battle charge routine of raising its sword. Tom couldn¡¯t see beyond it, but the sounds of shuffling indicated that there was at least one more waiting in the darkness, making its way towards the light. ¡°Again?¡± Mark asked him. ¡°I¡¯m ready if you are,¡± he replied. The technique worked well for the individual skeletons, Mark¡¯s weight and strength allowed him to soak up the force of the initial charge, while Tom could dodge around him and either block the sword or get a hit in to keep the skeleton off balance, or even try to stab the torch into its eyes like the first one he had killed. 10 minutes and 6 destroyed skeletons¡¯ later, Tom lay exhausted on the ground, his chipped and battered sword beside him. The strategy that he and Mark used had worked well, and as the skeleton¡¯s had streamed in 1 by 1 from the darkness to charge the duo and they had been able to cut them down with minimal issue. A few of the skeletons had given them trouble, when Mark¡¯s initial shove hadn¡¯t been enough or the skeleton had been able to recover quick enough, but Mark¡¯s quick reactions had allowed Tom to just barely get away from the cutting edge of the skeleton¡¯s sword. He had narrowly escaped one such quickly recovering skeleton when he¡¯d had another bout of time slowing, allowing him to step back just in time. The same feeling as before filling him. Tom had even managed to kill one himself, after Mark had given it a well-timed shield bash as an experiment that had knocked it to the floor. Tom had been able to dive onto its sword arm to pin it down, while he stabbed it through the neck with his sword to decapitate it. Adam had recovered enough to assist in the last two fights as well, his ribs must have been causing him some pain still, but he grit his teeth and dived right in without either Mark or Tom asking him to help, taking tom¡¯s place to keep the skeleton¡¯s sword locked up, while Tom and Mark went for the kill. Tom was glad he did, his lack of stamina was beginning to catch up with him. He knew it would be a liability in longer fights. Another problem to solve in the future. Meanwhile Dave had been somewhere else behind them, making the odd noise here and there as he vocalised how much he hated the current situation. Usually with the word ¡®fuck¡¯. The skeleton had hit Dave in the chest as they had collided, based on the sound alone Tom guessed that he probably had a cracked rib at least, but as he had rolled over by the force, his head had also hit the rocky floor. Based on what Dave had been complaining about, Tom thought he might also have a concussion. Thinking about the skeletons¡¯, Tom thought it odd that every single skeleton had the same blade. It was even odder still that some swords would fragment into ashes and disappear after the skeleton holding it died, while some remained afterwards, even using Evaluate on the swords or the skeletons hadn¡¯t shown any differences and didn¡¯t produce any new information about them either. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. After the fight the four of them had decided to take a small break. Partly because Tom was pretty tapped out and because Dave was still woozy and needed to lie down, which he also complained about endlessly. Tom grabbed his sword and lifted it in front of him as he used Evaluate. Iron Short Sword An Iron Short Sword Quality: Basic Bonuses: None Condition: 53% The blade now had several small chips along the edge from where it had hit the opposing blade edge of the skeletons. It could still cut but he decided that he would need to keep an eye out for a replacement. At the rate it was going he would need to swap it out soon. He finally opened the blinking notification box, and a torrent of updates spewed out. Notifications Kill notice ¨C Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior You have killed a Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior. You have been granted 20 Experience Points Kill notice ¨C Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior You have killed a Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior. You have been granted 20 Experience Points ¡­ Kill notice ¨C Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior You have killed a Lvl 1 Skeleton Warrior. You have been granted 13 Experience Points Calling up his status window showed that he had made quite a dent in the experience needed for the next level and was now just over halfway there. He¡¯d also made some more progress with Evaluate, busily scanning each skeleton and sword that had come within eyesight of him. Status Name: Thomas Moore Race: Human (G) Class: None Subclass: None Level: 1 (239/400) Attributes Strength: 4 Agility: 6 Endurance: 5 Vitality: 5 Intelligence: 9 Wisdom: 8 Skills Evaluate 1 (45/200) Intuition 1 (5/25) Titles Selected of Lemures Affiliation None Intuition had increased as well but he was still a bit unclear as to why it had. He hadn¡¯t had any sudden revelations or anything of the sort. He did remember experiencing something during the recent fights when the slow motion happened, but he wasn¡¯t sure what that meant or if it was the thing causing Intuition to increase in experience. He checked the description again. Skill: Intuition 1 (5/25) Attribute ¨C Wisdom Rarity - Common Gut feelings can be sharper than logic, listen to your inner voice. Enhances your ability to understand or know something without needing to think or reason. Each level increases the knowledge or conviction gained from a situation. Nothing in the description directly mentioned slow motion or slowing time, but Tom was drawn to three ideas from it: that gut feelings could be sharper than logic, that listening to your inner voice mattered, and that some knowledge could appear without conscious thought. Tom hadn¡¯t studied psychology, but from the wording, he guessed these ideas might point to instincts¡ªthe body¡¯s reflexive wisdom, that used countless subtle cues to alert the senses even if the mind didn¡¯t fully register or process them. Instincts, he realised, were like a finely tuned warning system, picking up on things he didn¡¯t always notice consciously: the way someone''s voice dropped in pitch, a faint rustling sound that was out of place, or a sudden tension in the air. Even if his mind didn¡¯t have time to process these signals logically, his body knew something was wrong. Thinking back, he remembered those gut reactions¡ªa fluttering feeling in his stomach before something went wrong, goosebumps in moments of tension like walking down an unfamiliar street, or the deep sinking feeling right before a test or an interview where something would almost certainly go wrong. His body had always picked up on more than he was aware of, warning him even before he could put it into words. Now, he realised that the wording, that gut feelings could be sharper than any logical thought, might refer to when his body picked up these cues and by focusing on them, could create small pockets of time when his body and brain hyper-focused on them. By focusing so much it would process them in sharper detail. Focusing intensely on the most critical inputs while filtering out distractions, which is probably what led to time being appearing to be slower as his brain processed things. This wouldn¡¯t be real time slowing, of course, but rather his body and mind working together to create a more focused, precise awareness that mimicked it instead. As he thought this, the familiar feeling returned, and he watched as the counter increased for Intuition. This time he paid attention to the feeling, it was like a flash of clarity, like his brain had just emerged from a fog and he could see clearly now. Intuition 1 (5/25) > Intuition 1 (7/25) Tom figured that he had come to 2 conclusions when thinking about how the skill worked, how instincts worked and how the skill was able to use them to slow down time when he was fighting. Which would explain why he had been given 2 experience points. But not only that, he saw that the skill description itself had changed. Skill: Intuition 1 (7/25) Attribute ¨C Wisdom Rarity - Common > Uncommon Gut feelings can be sharper than logic, listen to your inner voice. Enhances your ability to understand or know something without needing to think or reason. Enables you to sense immediate threats or intent instinctually. Each level increases the knowledge or conviction gained from a situation and the level of perceived intent. The new skill description seemed to agree with Tom about what he had discovered. But of a more important note was the fact that he could upgrade the skill itself! He¡¯d have to test and see if it was just the skill unlocking features that were already there or if it was his understanding of the mechanics behind the skill that allowed the change, but either way he was excited. Weirdly enough, it reminded him of high school science, thinking about how and why things worked, testing them to see if he was correct and then going back to the drawing board if he was wrong. He thought back to all the skills he could take on that list and imagined all the potential upgrades and changes he could make. Especially when he finally unlocked magic. He smiled at the thought. Calming down after his discovery, he called up the dungeon information menu next, checking on the task progress before he got too carried away. Trial Dungeon of Lemures Level 1 Time Remaining ¨C 20 Hours, 42 Minutes Enemies Remaining ¨C 40 Dungeon Requirements: ¨C Reach the end of the dungeon alive 0/1 ¨C Kill Enemies 10/11 (Stage 2) They had nearly finished Stage 2 of the Kill Enemies task, having killed a fifth of the total enemies in the dungeon. I wonder what the reward will be. Another skill point? Or something else? Hopefully food actually. He hadn¡¯t realised just how hungry he was. They had been down here for hours already and, for Tom at least, it had been getting close to dinner when he had ended up here in the first place. The hunger was beginning to gnaw at him now. The initial feelings of fear and panic had given way to other emotions as they had progressed through the dungeon, and with them had come the rest of his bodies needs. Hunger, thirst, rest. Just more things to worry about. Getting to his feet, he walked over to where the others were gathered. Adam seemed to have recovered from the hit to his ribs, while Dave was still a bit wobbly on his feet. Mark, in what was quick becoming his default state at this point, was bored and had started playing with his axe while they had waited for each other to finish. Getting their attention and after ensuring that everyone was ready, receiving a cursory ¡®fuck off¡¯ from Dave in the process, Tom suggested that they keep moving. 10 down, 40 to go. The group set off down the tunnel again. Tom hoped, weirdly enough, that somewhere down here was a sandwich he wouldn¡¯t need to fight to the death over. But more importantly, it was time to try out his newly upgraded skill. Chapter 10 – Cowards Dave had been relegated to torch-holder duty, which freed Tom up to help Mark and Adam with defence. especially since Adam, although he hid it well, was still grimacing with each step. They had not encountered anything in the last 30 minutes as they walked along the tunnel. The near-constant tension, as they strained their eyes and ears for any sign of more enemies, had led to a few incidents. Mostly because a certain someone didn¡¯t want to hold the torch. ¡°All I¡¯m saying is that we should share it; that means that no one would have to carry¡­¡± started Dave as he attempted to pass off the torch again. ¡°We already said no, for the fourth time. We¡¯ve barely even started walking. Just hold it up and stop complaining,¡± Adam replied tersely, as their back-and-forth continued. Being hurt probably isn¡¯t helping either of them control their emotions, and the loud noises aren¡¯t a smart idea either, Tom thought as he watched the latest version of their verbal back and forth. Their bickering had been going on for a while, and Mark and Tom had remained, for the most part, silent observers. After the latest exchange, Mark, who had been leading them down the tunnel, stopped and turned to face the others. ¡°Stop, too loud¡±, he stated, looking between Dave and Adam before pointing back down the tunnel. ¡°Smell is getting worse.¡± Tom sniffed the air; the musty scent of the tunnel still hung heavily around him. A mix of earthiness with a mineral sharpness thick with moisture, like wet stone, created a cool feeling as he breathed in. The lingering hint of sulphur from the torch created a sharp edge to the air that stuck to the back of his throat. Yet underneath all of that, there was something else. It smelt sweet but also not, like a hint of something sour was hiding in the mix of smells. Mark, with his enhanced senses, could pick out the underlying smell much better than the others. ¡°I can smell something,¡± said Tom. I''m not sure what it is, though. It smells sweet, like too sweet, almost like fruit that¡¯s been left out for too long. ¡° ¡°Smells like my dirty clothes basket back home,¡± said Dave. Adam looked at him with a wrinkled nose and a raised lip. ¡°How long do you leave your laundry for it to smell that bad?¡± He asked with an incredulous voice. ¡°What? I wash it like everyone else,¡± Dave responded defensively. ¡°Not what I asked. You know what, I don¡¯t want to know anymore.¡± Adam said, putting his hands up to signal that he didn¡¯t want to continue the conversation. ¡°Mark, what kind of smell is it?¡± Tom asked quickly, hoping to deter Dave from continuing to try to explain his laundry habits. Mark sniffed gingerly, and Tom wondered just how strong his other senses were. He knew his eyesight could see in the dark or at least provide better vision in low-light areas, but what about his hearing and smell? Just how much would he be able to tell them about what he could smell? ¡°smells like¡­¡± Mark paused for a moment, looking up at the roof of the tunnel. ¡°Rotting meat¡± he decided, ¡°It smells like rotting meat, really bad rotting meat.¡± The others screwed up their noses at his pronouncement, but there wasn¡¯t much they could do about it. The only other way was back the way they came, which would take almost an hour, and then they would need to explore the other tunnel. For all we know, the tunnels might be connected, and it¡¯s just one giant circle. ¡°We keep going.¡± He spoke. The others nodded. Except Dave, who scowled before hiking his shirt up and over his mouth and nose to form a makeshift facemask. The smell became noticeable after another 5 minutes of walking. 5 minutes after that, Tom was considering adopting Dave¡¯s approach to the situation; another minute later, he had. As he inhaled, the stench hit him, thick and vile, catching in his throat and flooding his senses. It was overpowering, seeping into his eyes, skin and clothes. He wasn¡¯t sure how Mark was able to deal with it because the man was striding forward like nothing was wrong. He didn¡¯t even show a hint of discomfort. Adam and Dave were suffering alongside Tom. The only difference was that Tom and Adam were doing so in silence, whilst Dave was freely acknowledging the situation. At least he was doing so quietly, reduced to mumbling under his breath after Mark had given him a withering glare and a pointed reminder that Mark was still holding and willing to use his axe. They had just rounded another bend in the tunnel when Mark suddenly stopped. Tom moved to the side and looked past. It was another cave, similar in size to the first one they had come across, with another tunnel of the same size as the one they had just waked through on the opposite side. A pedestal stood in the centre between the two tunnels. It was several meters tall and was covered with swirling curls and lines that snaked their way around the entire thing, with spikes jutting out from the four corners. Tom couldn¡¯t make out any more details but Evaluate showed that it was made of the same type of rock as the rest of the walls and floor. The stench was overwhelming now. It was like the four had stepped into a supermarket trash skip after 2 weeks in summer. The only problem was Tom couldn¡¯t see what was causing the smell. The floor of the cave was barren and empty, just like the other cave and all the tunnels the four had walked through so far. Adam started to walk forward into the cave; Tom went to follow him until he realised that Mark was still standing still, his eyes darting around and his mouth slightly open. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°What is it?¡± Tom asked. Adam and Dave turned to the others at the question, their eyes on Mark as he stood silently, his eyes now locked on the tunnel ahead. Tom could see the man was trembling, his arms and legs twitching while his head stayed still, which didn¡¯t bode well. Anything that could terrify their best fighter to this extent would be bad news. ¡°Something is down there, something strong¡±, he whispered, as if he didn¡¯t want the sound of his voice to travel across the cave. He seemed frozen in that moment. It was almost like his body wanted to flee while his mind stayed still like it was paralysed. Tom turned and stared into the darkness ahead of them. He couldn¡¯t see anything, but Mark was the only one who had Sense, so it made sense that no one else could see as well as he could. I wonder what it is? Whatever it is, it¡¯s probably much stronger than us if Mark is anything to go by. If this dungeon follows video game logic, we might be approaching a boss or a mini-boss of sorts. Which is weird because we¡¯ve barely fought anything so far. So, what to do now? Go back and try the other tunnel? We should probably at least check out the pedestal, but would that trigger whatever is in the tunnel? What if the room is the trigger? We could test that, actually; there¡¯s nothing behind us. Okay, let¡¯s go with that. Tom turned to look at Adam and Dave so he could share his thoughts and concerns about the cave and the potential enemies they might face. However, it seemed that not all of them shared Tom¡¯s concern for the situation. ¡°Well, look at that, the big oaf is scared and needs mummy. He¡¯s actually shaking in his boots,¡± laughed Dave, who clearly wasn¡¯t taking the situation seriously, or maybe he¡¯d just lost his mind. Tom stood there dumbstruck. He¡¯d already known that the man was a bit unhinged; his outbursts and behaviour had made that clear. But Tom never thought that he might do something this outright dumb. ¡°Seriously, you have to be kidding me,¡± Dave¡¯s berating continued. ¡°It¡¯s an empty fucking room. What? Are you scared of a spiky block all of a sudden? Ooooooh, scary, I might scratch myself on the side.¡± At this point, Tom decided to step in. Adam was standing off to the side, watching with one hand over his mouth. Tom got the distinct feeling that he was enjoying watching this spectacle. Meanwhile, Mark had recovered somewhat from his previous state and was now staring at Dave with narrowed eyes. His face was uncovered, but somehow, he was able to put up with the smell. At least he¡¯s somewhat back to normal. I just hope he doesn¡¯t kill Dave, although it would make it quieter around here. And we wouldn¡¯t have to deal with his whining. But I reckon old mate might not be pleased with one of his newly resurrected things being killed again. ¡°Hey, can we not start this right now?¡± Tom began. ¡°We¡¯re in the middle of a dungeon, surrounded by things trying to kill us. Let¡¯s not start throwing shit at each other and trying to piss each other off.¡± He tried to calm things down using a soft voice, something he hoped Dave would listen to. He was wrong. ¡°Too late for that dickhead. You¡¯ve been pissing me off since we got here. You think you''re so smart, but you can¡¯t even hold a fucking shield, right. You are weak! Everything you¡¯ve done since the start has just been relying on someone else to do it for you. Your useless; every fight, you¡¯re hiding behind shit for brains over there.¡± Dave raged, pointing at Mark. His muffled voice was fiery. Tom winced. Dave really wasn¡¯t holding back. The painful thing was he wasn¡¯t wrong. In each of the fights so far, Tom had always been behind someone or something. In the first fight, he¡¯d only been in it because the skeleton had charged at him, and he had to be saved by the three others. He¡¯d only survived because he had insisted that he take the shield, even though he could barely wield it. In the 2nd fight, he¡¯d basically used Adam and Dave as a shield and a distraction so that he could try and sneak up on it; even then, he¡¯d failed at his sneak kill and only managed to kill it due to dumb luck and fire. In the last fights, he had relied on Mark to take the initial hit, deflect the skeleton¡¯s swords, and flip it off balance; then and only then had Tom actually stuck his neck out to try to fight. It had been the same years ago when he was a teenager. Hiding behind friends at school to stand up to bullies, folding to his parents and sisters at every turn because he didn¡¯t want to fight them or rather, he hadn¡¯t had the courage to stand up to them. He would rather fold and give in. It was only when someone else was willing to stand up that he was willing to stand behind them. Dave was right. He was a coward. Tom had thought he was doing well to adapt and take advantage of the chance this represented. He¡¯d thought he could use this as a way to improve himself. Yet here he was, already back in his old habits. ¡°So, if you''re too scared to do anything on your own, and he¡¯s too scared to walk into an empty room because of the big scary spiky pole, then I¡¯ll do it for him,¡± Dave yelled over his shoulder as he turned and started stomping his way into the cave. Tom moved to stop him, but Dave was too quick. Before he could get close to him, Dave had crossed the threshold and stepped into the cave. Nothing happened. Tom stared at the cave, waiting. Yet Dave kept walking right up to the pedestal until he slapped his hand straight onto the flat surface. Keeping his hand on the surface, he turned until he faced others and gave them the one-finger salute. ¡°What do you think of this, huh? Look at the big scary rock. Look at me touching it. You cowards going to come and join me?¡± He taunted. Adam looked at Mark and Tom; he still had his mouth covered by his hand, as if he was thinking or was shocked by what was happening. But Tom could see the crinkle around his eyes and the slight dimples in his cheeks despite the hand trying to hide them. ¡°Well? Shall we join him now since nothing bad has happened?¡± Adam¡¯s tone was mocking. He was enjoying every second of watching them squirm. Tom felt his jaw clench as he glanced at Adam, whose barely contained smirk did nothing to hide his satisfaction. It was as if Adam knew exactly how uncomfortable this made Tom, and he was revelling in it. Tom shifted uncomfortably but forced himself to stay put, refusing to let Adam get under his skin. He heard Mark move up next to him. He moved with small, rapid steps, his hands clutching and unclutching his axe and shield constantly. He looked at Tom and nodded a few times. Tom nodded back. Together, the 3 of them stepped forward into the cave. Tom was waiting for something to happen, for the other shoe to drop. And it did. Several things did. All at once. A shimmering purple and pink veil slid into place behind them as they stepped out of the tunnel, but they didn¡¯t have time to look at it. At the same time, an enormous roar resounded through the cave. Around the circumference of the cave several dirt mounds suddenly appeared, slamming up through the rock floor, creating giant fractures in the floor that spread over the outside 10 meters of the cave. The entire cave quaked from the simultaneous impacts. Tom looked at one of the mounds that had busted through the rock. As he watched, a human hand broke through the top of the mound, followed by a second. He looked at the other mounds to find that the same thing was reoccurring at each mound. Dave was still standing in the middle of the cave, touching the pedestal. His shirt had fallen from his face, revealing a look of abject terror spread across his features. Recovering his wits, Dave started to spring back to the group, the torch and spear still in hand. Just then, Tom began to feel the ground shake. A rhythmic stomping that grew louder with each beat reverberated through the cave. Mark, still standing beside Tom, hadn¡¯t moved at all. His eyes never even left the gaping maw that was in the tunnel opposite them. With a quivering voice, he announced to the group, ¡°It¡¯s here. It¡¯s here.¡± Tom looked over to the source of the stomping, the same thing that Mark had seen and been terrified of. ¡°Oh, you have got to be shitting me!¡± Chapter 11 – Level 2 Tom¡¯s first thought was that whatever it was, it was truly horrifying. The thing towered over them even from a distance, easily 3 or 4 meters tall; its pale, greyish-green skin was mottled with dark purple patches of skin that were peeling off to reveal festering black skin. Black veins bulged beneath the surface of the patchwork skin, like spiders crawling through its body, spreading their legs in the place of blood. It had three massive sets of arms, each as thick as Tom¡¯s head, grotesquely muscled. The fingers were elongated and tipped with broken, yellowed nails. They constantly twitched as if the thing could barely control them, waiting for something to grab, to rip, to tear apart. Its body was clothed in rags that used to be clothes, but little remained of them apart from patches of fabric covered in dirt, blood, guts and worse. The stench they had been dealing with before suddenly became much, much worse as the thing stepped into the cave. A mix of rot, bile, and something like the rotten egg smell the sulphur in their torch gave off swam around the group, almost thick enough to be a liquid instead of a smell. It was as if the thing was carrying the scent of the grave with it as it walked. A faint greenish mist clung to its skin, adding to the aura of putrefaction that surrounded it. The face was the worst. It had black eyes with a white, bloodshot pupil that seemed to never stop moving. They both rolled in their sockets in all directions, uncontrolled. Its face was a slab of vaguely human features that hung slack from its skull frame. The mouth lolled open, and a fat, purple tongue hung out as saliva oozed out and over it, then cascaded down onto the floor. Tom¡¯s second thought was that it was a zombie, like those he had seen in movies, with their stereotypically over-the-top makeup and special effects. After using Evaluate, however, he first confirmed that yes, it was, in fact, a zombie, but also that it was so much worse than that. Reclaimer Zombie Race: Undead Level: 5 Not only was it a zombie, but it was also a special kind of zombie, and it was also at level 5. Tom and the others were still at level 1. As he was checking the reclaimer¡¯s ¨C limited ¨C details from Evaluate, he saw that other figures had finally fully emerged from the dirt mounds. Zombie Race: Undead Using Evaluate on them, he could see that they were all between levels 1 and 4, which was better news, but there were still 14 of them plus the big one. ¡°Not good,¡± he said aloud. Using Evaluate on the shimmering light behind them did little to ease his panic. Force Barrier A magical barrier immune to physical force. Blocks the application of force in both directions. It is powered by the dungeon itself and cannot run out of power. The barrier had completely blocked the path out of the cave behind them. Judging by the description, it wouldn¡¯t be easy to break either. They were well and truly trapped. ¡±We¡¯re trapped; the glowing thing is a barrier; it¡¯ll stop us from getting out,¡± he announced. ¡°No shit¡±, Adam responded. ¡°Got any genius plans yet?¡± Tom surveyed their situation. Apart from being surrounded, outlevelled, outnumbered, and up against a mythical entity that was literally double their size, it was still pretty bad. There were a few bright points he noticed as he watched, and Tom focused on those to see if he could work out how they could survive this. The big guy moves really slowly¡ªactually, they all do. Maybe I can use that. We need to start whittling them down, or we¡¯ll be surrounded by them, and then they¡¯ll crush us with numbers, or the big guy will just crush us, literally. The good thing is right now we have some space. Each zombie has about 10 meters between it and the next one. We could go both ways and take two on with a group or stay together and take one at a time. He looked the zombies, the closest was about 15 meters to their right. It didn¡¯t look very fast or powerful, but something about it gave him pause. Safety in numbers, I guess it is. ¡°I have an idea,¡± he announced just as Dave reached the group. ¡°We¡¯ll move to the right as a group and clear out the zombies around the outside.¡± ¡°Wait, these things are actual zombies? For real?¡± asked Dave, slightly out of breath from his recent sprint. Tom gave him an angry look that he mostly ignored. ¡°We need to clear out the regular zombies before we get surrounded or the big guy corners us,¡± He explained, detailing the levels of the zombies approaching them. ¡°If we go right and if we can take out the zombies as each of them gets to us, then we can safely focus on the last one without having to worry about the small fries.¡± Mark slammed his axe against the side of his shield, his eyes still wide, but he no longer appeared to be as panicked. ¡°Let¡¯s go¡±, he barked and moved towards the first zombie, a lvl 1. It had the same mottled grey-green skin as the bigger reclaimer zombie, but it lacked the 3 sets of arms and its towering height. It did, however, have the same smell. The group charged after Mark, Adam and Dave close on his heels. Dave still had the torch, and he awkwardly tried to hold the torch while holding the spear with both hands and ended up not being able to hold either well enough to use. Tom angled off to the side, aiming to come around the right side of Mark and attack from the side. Mark chose to rush in, crossing the distance with powerful steps until he was in range, his axe screaming through the air to bury itself into the neck of the zombie, only for his axe to come to an abrupt stop halfway through the neck. Tom almost tripped on his own feet as he witnessed this. That swing would have taken the head off the skeletons they had been facing beforehand easily.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Mark stood holding the axe after his failed beheading, his eyes wide. The zombie, apart from a slight jerk when the axe had hit, hadn¡¯t moved. It began reaching for Mark, both its arms stretching out from its sides towards Mark''s chest. Tom was close enough now to see that the fingers on each hand had nails sharpened into claws that looked deadly sharp. Mark finally reacted in time to let go of the axe and take a step back as the zombie reached for him. He wasn¡¯t enough to avoid its nails, however, that tore through his shirt and into his skin, digging canyons into his flesh as they were dragged across his chest. The zombie attack was stopped short when Adam came charging through on Mark¡¯s left and impaled the zombie in the chest, driving the sword deep into the zombie''s chest, stopping several inches deep. The remaining force from his charge drove the zombie back several steps as he kept driving forward with his legs, leaning into the blow. Tom came in next, swinging his sword down vertically. He tried to keep it straight, aiming to cut off the left arm of the zombie. Instead, it came in a shallow angle, biting into the arm and carving a path diagonally, stopping as it hit the bone. Before Mark¡¯s failed attack, Tom had expected his sword to cut straight through the arm, leaving the zombie with only one arm and two ways to attack people if you included their teeth like in a traditional zombie attack. While he wasn¡¯t an expert at sword or combat in general, years of watching documentaries and studying history had told him that people could easily be beheaded or have their limbs cut off by a decent sword hit. Tom came in next, swinging his sword down vertically. He tried to keep it straight, aiming to cut off the left arm of the zombie. Instead, it came at a shallow angle, biting into the arm, carving a path diagonally through the arm, stopping as it hit the bone. Before Mark¡¯s failed attack, Tom had expected his sword to cut straight through the arm, leaving the zombie with only one arm and two ways to attack people if you included their teeth like in a traditional zombie attack. Instead, it felt like he was chopping wood. The initial force of his swing had been expended, chopping through the first half of the arm before the bone blocked it. The sword rang painfully in Tom¡¯s hand as if he had just struck steel with a hammer. Adam kept driving with his legs, and the zombie was pushed back again, almost taking Tom¡¯s sword with it. He managed to yank it out before he lost his grip and moved to strike the arm again; raising his arms up, he aimed for the same spot. His second swing was better than the first, but he had missed the gash he was aiming for, hitting the elbow of the arm, cutting through the flesh and stopping at the bone as before, causing the zombie¡¯s arm to bend slightly, bringing its claws dangerously close to his face. This time, as he pulled his sword, it didn¡¯t come out as easily. The bones and flesh of the elbow had closed around the sword when its elbow bent, locking it in place. Adam¡¯s momentum had stopped, and he could no longer push the zombie back any further. Giving it a solid kick in the chest, he wrenched his sword out, leaving a gaping hole in its front. As the zombie was forced back by the kick, Tom¡¯s sword was ripped out of his hands, still stuck in its arm. What the hell is this thing made of? Tom thought to himself as Dave rushed in to have his turn. His spear was held in his right hand, while his left was still holding the torch. He held the spear low, nestling it in the crook of his left arm. It was an awkward way to hold it. So much so that he had to run with his body facing diagonally toward the zombie instead of the face-on. Running right up to the zombie, Dave drove the spear into its guts. Not even bothering to thrust the spear, he just used the momentum from his run to force the spear into the zombie. The spear pierced through the zombie and emerged from its back in a splatter of gore. But little actual damage appeared to have been done, however. The zombie barely moved, and Dave was forced to let go of the spear and duck underneath its arms as it reached for him, leaving his spear, as well as Tom¡¯s sword and Mark''s axe still embedded in the zombie. ¡°Fuck¡± Dave screamed, lashing out with his torch and hitting the zombie in its shoulder, leaving a blob of burning tar behind. The zombie, which had remained completely silent throughout the entire ordeal, resumed its march forward, utterly unconcerned with the 3 weapons sticking out of its body and limbs. Regrouping with Mark, Tom checked on the bigger man¡¯s condition. The zombie¡¯s claws had dug deep into his skin, leaving his shirt in tatters and his chest bleeding heavily, forming a dark pooling stain on his shirt. He was clutching his chest, trying to stem the bleeding, but otherwise looked fine. Taking stock of the wider situation, Tom looked around to see that the zombies were still approaching them, some being forced to detour around the pedestal as he had hoped. The closest zombie, other than the one they were fighting, was about 10 meters away still, Adam¡¯s wild charge having pushed it away and buying them more time to deal with it before having to face the others. Good, that¡¯s bought us some time, but we need to kill these things quicker, or we¡¯ll be screwed in a few minutes when the rest get closer. Adam began attacking again, using his longer reach with the two-handed sword to avoid the zombie''s grasp, slicing its arms and chest. His attacks did little more than scratch the surface. He did, however, manage to dislodge Tom¡¯s sword from his arm. His blade struck the arm as it reached for him, causing it to flex straight and for the sword to fall to the floor, where it was quickly swiped up by Dave. Dave launched into a whirlwind of swipes, stabs and slashes, crisscrossing the zombie with cuts that did little more than what Adam had been able to do with his. Dave celebrated the whole time, clearly ecstatic with gaining a ¡®proper¡¯ weapon over his lacklustre spear. But as Tom watched, his concern with the situation deepened. As Tom watched, the wounds from the swords and even Adam¡¯s charge, which left a deep stab wound, were beginning to heal, slowly closing up and repairing themselves. Already, most of the zombie was wound free apart from the deep cut left in its arm and Mark¡¯s axe still stuck in its neck, as well as the burn mark from the torch that Dave had hit it with. It can heal itself? Well, that¡¯s bullshit. How the hell do we kill this thing? Just as he had that thought, an idea came to him. ¡°Adam, stay in front of it and get its attention; Dave, you need to get behind it and cut its head off! Aim for Mark¡¯s axe and cut it from the other side. Use your full force!¡± Tom shouted to them. ¡°Shut. Up. Don¡¯t. Tell. Me. What. To. Do,¡± Dave yelled back between swings. Regardless, he ducked behind the Zombie, lifted the sword up behind him and swung it like a baseball bat at the zombie¡¯s neck, cutting into its flesh and stopping, with a clang, as it hit the blade of Mark¡¯s axe. The head of the zombie flopped to the floor, followed by the rest of the body, as well as the axe and spear that had been stuck inside of it. The notification box started blinking in Tom¡¯s vision. Notifications Kill notice ¨C Lvl 1 Zombie You have killed a Lvl 1 Zombie. You have been granted 50 Experience Points Finally, it was dead. But there were still 13 others plus the Reclaimer to go. The zombie gave them a massive boost to experience, but it wasn¡¯t enough to level Tom. Mark and Dave, maybe, especially if the final blow bonus was similar to the Skeletons they had fought. Dave had probably just earned over 200 experience, which should have been enough to level him. But there was one more thing he could do to fix that. He looked around, seeing the closest zombie was still another few meters away and they still had a decent gap between them and the next set of zombies. The entire fight had only lasted a minute or so, but it had felt much longer. If they were going to survive, they would need to kill them faster than they had this one. He hoped this would help with that. He opened the dungeon information window. Trial Dungeon of Lemures Level 1 Time Remaining ¨C 19 Hours, 57 Minutes Enemies Remaining ¨C 39 Dungeon Requirements: ¨C Reach the end of the dungeon alive 0/1 ¨C Kill Enemies 11/11 (Stage 2) Sure enough, the zombie kill had finished the 2nd stage of the kill enemies task. He checked the rewards quickly, hoping that it would give him something that would help. He wasn¡¯t disappointed. Trial Dungeon of Lemures Level 1 ¨C Kill Enemies 11/11 (Stage 2) Reward ¨C 1 Skill Point Reward ¨C 200 Experience That should be enough experience to level me! This should help. Checking his notifications revealed the good news he was hoping for. Level Up ¨C Lvl 2 You have gained a level. You are now Level 2. You have gained +1 to all attributes. You have gained 1 Skill Point. Opening his status window confirmed that all his attributes had increased, which was a good start, but they would need more than that. Thankfully, he now had 2 skill points to use. He smiled as he checked his list of skills. Oh yes, that one will do nicely. Chapter 12 - Ember Spark Several new skills had appeared that he could take with his two skill points. Available Skill Points (2) Shield Mastery (Basic) (1) Sword Mastery (Basic) (1) Strike (Basic) (1) Evasion (Basic) (1) Sense (Basic) (1) Fortitude (Basic) (1) Reinforcement (Basic) (1) Recovery (Basic) (1) Resistance (Basic) (1) Multi-Tasking (Basic) (2) Rapid Processing (Basic) (1) Magic Sense (Basic) (1) Ember Spark (Basic) (2) Meditation (Common) (1) The sword mastery had appeared just like he thought it might, but it wasn''t a great idea since he was currently lacking a sword, and Dave was unlikely to give it back based on how much fun it looked like he was having. It also wasn¡¯t the skill he had his eye on. Skill: Ember Spark Attribute ¨C Intelligence Rarity ¨C Basic Cost ¨C 2 Skill Points Harness the smallest flicker of flame, a spark that dances at your fingertips. Conjure and control small embers that deal minimal fire damage to single targets. Each level increases the intensity, range and control of the flames by 3% per level + 2% Intelligence. Another 2-cost skill, which, on its basic description alone, would allow him to summon fire somehow. He was pretty sure the previous skill would be the Magic Sense skill; nothing else made sense otherwise, but he didn¡¯t bother reading the skill description. Without hesitation, he selected the skill. The very idea of being able to wield fire excited him but also filled him with ideas for how he could use it in the situation they were now in. Instantly, he felt a warming sensation deep in his chest that slowly grew. With each breath he took, the feeling grew warmer. At first, a gentle warmth spread throughout his chest, like he had been drinking coffee or a hot chocolate on a cold day, but it quickly grew uncomfortable, then painful, as the heat consumed him. He was burning from the inside out, the pain almost unbearable, yet he couldn¡¯t move or scream. His body became locked, his muscles clamping down and refusing to cooperate. His lungs cried for air as he lost control of his body. The fire then moved from his core to the outside of his body, his very skin and eyes seeming to be on fire. Tom¡¯s eyes grew dark as he lost his vision. His hearing was filled with the sound of his own racing heart; everything else was drowned out by pain. He started to panic. In his mind, Tom imagined his skin melting from the heat, eyeballs liquifying in his skull and evaporating into nothing, bones turning black as they charred before turning to ash, his hair igniting. His lips, nose and ears turned to wax, drooping down and running down his skin. Visions of what he once was being turned into a hairless, skinless thing and slowly melting into a puddle before turning to ash filled his head and he tried again to cry out. He tried to force himself to move. The vision filling his head gave him the strength to fight against the prison that was his body. Straining against his locked muscles, desperate not to be locked in a tomb of his own flesh. Minutes passed as he struggled, trying to twist and turn, bend, kick, or move any part of his body, yet his body refused to budge. Without his eyes or ears, he could not see or hear anything. He hoped that the others had noticed by now, not that they could do anything to help or, in the case of some of them, would do anything. Suddenly, the heat left him, and he collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath as the muscles released their hold on him. His vision slowly returned, and he ran his hands over his body. Everything was just as it had been before: skin, muscles, bone, hair; nothing had been touched. It had all been in his mind, yet it certainly had not felt like it. He felt odd, as if he was both too hot and too cold at the same time. He shivered, his muscles craving warmth and his fingers numb, even as he felt sweat beading on his forehead and under his arms. His hearing and smell returned in a rush of noise and sensations, hearing the slow shuffling of feet, the gasping of breaths, and the putrid stench of the room, which he had forgotten all about, returned in full force. He turned and looked around for the others, wondering what had happened to them and why he was still alive after being essentially knocked out of the fight for an extended period. He found them almost precisely where he had last seen them. Mark had taken off the shredded shirt he had been wearing and was in the process of tying it around his chest to try and stem the bleeding from the gashes the zombie had made. Adam was leaning on his sword, taking a breather as he looked at something with glazed-over eyes, probably checking something to do with his status or in a menu like Tom had just been. Dave, however, was charging at full speed, with Tom¡¯s former sword awkwardly held over his head along with the torch, with both hands, towards the closest zombie. Tom wanted to laugh at how funny it looked. The 4 of them had struggled to kill 1, and he was going at it alone. Tom looked around for the zombies. The closest one, the one being charged at by Dave, was still a good 6 or 7 meters away. The one beyond that was still about 15 meters away, and then the rest had started to clump up into groups of 2 or 3. The big one was still slowly making its way towards them, but it would take a while.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. All in all, it seemed only a few moments had passed in real-time, while for Tom, the agony had seemed to last for minutes. His chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath, but he noticed something as he ran a hand over his chest. The fire that had consumed him before had left something behind. A dull warmth sat in the centre of his chest, behind his ribcage, like a bed of coals buried beneath the sand. When he focused on it, it grew hotter and started to spread. He wasn¡¯t sure how to use it or what it was, but he had a vague inkling of what to do. Trusting this feeling and recognising the invisible hand of his newly upgraded Insticts skill at work, he imagined the warm spot in his chest spreading through his body towards his left arm. Holding his palm up, he felt the hot sensation spread from his chest to his shoulder, following the path he had just drawn in his mind. He imagined it now flowing down his arm and into his hand, forming a pool in his palm, and the feeling followed, creating a river of warmth from his chest to his palm where it sat, gathering just below the skin. Imagining that hot sensation now rising through his skin, he saw a tiny fireball begin to form in his palm. The instant that it formed, it started floating, hovering just above the skin of his hand. Just as the flame formed, he felt the warm sensation stretching from his chest leave him, like a rubber band being stretched and then released. All the warmth he had been feeling along the path he had made snapped away from the core of his chest and flowed out of his body and into the tiny flame. The flame itself was no bigger than his pinky finger. It sat in the centre of his palm, just flickering. It didn¡¯t give off any heat that Tom could feel, although he wasn¡¯t sure if his body was still feeling the effects of before. Before he could inspect his flame any more, deep exhaustion spread throughout his body, leaving him feeling like he¡¯d just pulled an all-nighter and badly needed to sleep. But he didn¡¯t have time to rest. Not yet. A high-pitched cry of anger caught Tom¡¯s attention. Turning around, he saw that Dave had started to attack the zombie he had been running towards a moment before. Swinging the short sword at the zombie''s outstretched arms. His cry had also alerted the other two. Mark had finished turning his shirt into a makeshift bandage and started walking towards where his axe had fallen. His blood was still seeping down his chest, but it looked to have been slowed by the big man¡¯s first-aid efforts. The initial fear he had shown upon encountering the zombies had disappeared from his face, with his usual tight-lipped expression back in place. On the other hand, Adam had finished whatever he had been looking at on his menus but hadn¡¯t started moving yet. With his sword resting over his shoulder, he watched Dave begin his solo assault on the zombie. With the rest of the zombies slowly approaching, Tom had to act. He had some time, but he didn¡¯t know for how long. He didn¡¯t know how long or how well Dave would be able to fight on his own, given that all their fights until now had been mostly group affairs. He had two ideas that he hoped might help them kill the zombies faster and survive. The problem was he didn¡¯t know if they would work like he wanted them to. Struggling to his feet, his legs still feeling like jelly, he staggered forward after Mark while trying to keep his left arm steady. He wasn¡¯t sure if the flame could go out, but he didn¡¯t want to find out the hard way. Tom wasn¡¯t sure if he could summon another flame based on how he was feeling. Looking back toward the weapons, he didn¡¯t want the axe; that was Mark¡¯s, and Tom had no wish to get between the big man and his axe. He wanted the spear, the weapon Dave had initially tried to force Tom to swap with at the beginning of the dungeon in the starting room. Mark grabbed the axe and moved towards where Dave was fighting, experimentally swinging the axe and shield around. Tom knelt to pick up the spear. Moving the short distance had already caused a painful cramp in his right thigh. He couldn¡¯t remember the last time he¡¯d had this much exercise since high school. He thought, as he grabbed the spear, that there was nothing like repeated exposure to life-threatening events to kick-start an exercise program. Holding it out in front of him, he inspected the weapon. Wooden Spear An iron spearhead and wooden shaft. Quality: Basic Bonuses: None Condition: 76% It had taken a few knocks, but it was still in great condition for what Tom needed it for. First, he needed to test a few things. Taking his left hand and the flame floating on it, he placed it next to the spearhead. Next, using the same method he had used to create the flame, he tried to force the warmth in his hand to move and attach itself to the spearhead. He hoped that since the skeletons had reacted badly and died almost instantly to the fire from the torch he had jammed into its eye socket, the zombies would have a similar reaction or at least make killing them more manageable. He had good reason to think that it would. Dave had hit the first zombie they had fought with his torch, leaving some sticky residue behind and setting fire to its skin. The body of the zombie had remained behind, unlike the bodies of the skeletons, and the burn mark was clearly visible on its shoulder. Small cuts, nicks and slashes had healed up and disappeared during the fight, but the burn mark was still there. Tom thought that if nothing else if they could burn a spot on the zombie and then attack that area, it might make a weak point they could exploit. Tom imagined the warmth in his palm extending over to the spearhead, but the flame refused to move no matter what he tried. He tried the spear shaft next and had the same result. It seemed that once the flame was outside of his body, he appeared to lose the ability to manipulate it. Trying to get the flame to move, he imagined it returning to his body by having the warmth merge back with his hand. The flame shrank and disappeared back into his palm in a reverse of how it first appeared there. Tom could now feel the warmth back under the skin in his hand, it felt unnatural, like it didn¡¯t belong there. Imagining the warmth flowing back up his arm and back into his chest where it had come from allowed him to move it back until it merged with the dull heat in the centre of his chest. As soon as it had merged, Tom¡¯s body perked up like he had been given a shot of adrenaline. Instantly, the exhaustion he had been feeling disappeared, leaving only a slight tiredness behind instead of the full-blown exhausted state he had been in before. He tried again; this time, he imagined the heat from the centre of his chest flowing down the arm to the hand and the spear itself instead of stopping at hand. But the same process occurred as soon as the heat left his hand. The flame formed in his palm; he felt the same exhaustion, and the flame stopped moving. Tom felt disappointed that his first idea had been a failure but didn¡¯t have time to dwell on it too much; he could already hear Mark fighting behind him, which meant he needed to hurry up and get back into the fight. Fortunately, he had thought of a backup plan when he first had this idea. Pulling the spare torch he had stashed in the back belt of his pants and began to unwrap the fabric from around the handle and wrap it around the back half of the spearhead, leaving the sharpened front uncovered. Once he had wrapped the fabric with its sticky pitch concoction around the spearhead and the top 15 cm or so of the handle, he repeated the earlier steps of creating the tiny flame. It was much easier this time; he¡¯d barely had to think about it, and he¡¯d been able to create the flame in his palm and use it to ignite his spear. Getting to his feet, he held the spear in front of him. The flames were merrily dancing around the top of the spear where the fabric had been wrapped but hadn¡¯t appeared to have set the wooden shaft on fire yet. There was no telling how long it might stay like that, however. Looking back at the others, Tom could see that Adam had finally joined in the fighting. Between the three of them, they had killed the zombie Dave had started out fighting, but now they were facing down two slowly approaching zombies coming from opposite sides of the circular room with others closing in. Dave and Adam veered off to the side to tackle one, leaving Mark to take on another on his own. Tom was glad. He knew he could fight well with Mark; they had proved that in the tunnels before. Setting his spear in a two-handed grip, Tom rushed after Mark. It was time to get back into the fight. Chapter 13 – He had a spear, and he had to stab things His legs burned; It was like he had pulled every single muscle simultaneously. Each step sent waves of agony radiating from his thighs and calves. He forced them to work and move, each step faster than the one before. The more he moved, the better he felt. The pain decreased with each step into a dull pulse that faded away into nothing as he picked up speed. Tom had never been a good runner; he¡¯d never even stepped on a running track during high school. During his physical education classes, he¡¯d always done well enough to pass but never done overly well, but that was what happened when your favourite pastime was reading and studying in the library. His usual speed had been a brisk walk at best; anything more had usually resulted in him breathing for dear life after 20 meters with his hands on his knees. The fastest he¡¯d ever had to run in the past few years was to catch the train or the bus, which, thankfully, hadn¡¯t been too often. Yet right now, it felt like he was running faster than he ever had before. Not only that, but despite the hours of walking and fighting they had done previously, he didn¡¯t feel tired, nor was he running out of breath as quickly as usual. He wondered if this was a side effect of gaining the new skills or if it was the effect of the attributes he had gained. He wanted to investigate this effect more, dive deep into the changes occurring to him and find out what was happening. But there was something a bit more critical happening right now. The other two had already started work on their zombie when Tom caught up to Mark, who took one look at Tom, nodded to him and then proceeded to charge forward at the zombie he had been headed toward. Tom followed close behind; his spear held low across his belly. Tom¡¯s plan was similar to the one they had used back in the tunnel, with Mark as the battering ram to stop the zombies in their tracks while he would attack from behind Mark. The only differences were that the zombies were much tougher and harder to kill than the skeletons they had fought, and he had a spear instead of a sword, so blocking would be more difficult. However, he hoped the extra reach of the spear and makeshift fire spearhead would make up for those differences. It seemed Mark had the same idea as Tom. He charged up to the zombie, a slowly advancing level two. This time, he didn¡¯t take a swing with his axe. Instead, he braced himself behind his shield, putting it in front of his left shoulder, leaning into it and pushing it out just as he ran into the zombie at full pelt. The shield first struck its outstretched arms, flinging them upwards before smashing into its chest. The hit flung the zombie backwards, turning horizontal in the air and striking the ground with its upper back before rolling with the remaining momentum from the blow. It ended up lying on its face a few meters from where Mark had collided with it. But Mark wasn¡¯t finished yet. Brandishing his axe with his right arm, he ran forward, and before the zombie could begin to rise, he aimed for its neck. The blade didn¡¯t bite very far, stopping just before cutting through the spine, almost a quarter of the way through its neck. They were prepared for it this time; Mark instantly ripped his axe from its neck and straddled the corpse, using his weight to keep it pinned to the ground. Tom, meanwhile, was still running forward and jumped into the air just as Mark pulled out the axe, aiming to come down just in front of where the zombie had come to rest. Putting his spearhead downward, he held the spear two-handed, angled diagonally across his torso. He aimed for its neck and jammed it into the gap Mark¡¯s axe had recently vacated as he landed, sinking into a crouch with the force of his landing. The flames from his spearhead had blinded him a little, but with a target lying still on the ground, it was hard not to miss. With all his weight behind the spear, plus the extra speed from his running leap, he was able to punch the spear all the way through its spine and all the way out the other side of its neck. His notification box flashed at him, confirming the kill and its experience points. Notifications Kill notice ¨C Lvl 2 Zombie You have killed a Lvl 2 Zombie. You have been granted 112 Experience Points You achieved the final blow. You have been granted 225 additional Experience Points Level Up ¨C Lvl 3 You have gained a level. You are now Level 3. You have gained +1 to all attributes. You have gained 1 Skill Point. The level-up was a welcome surprise, and Tom only hoped that they would have a few more of them by the time they had to face the Reclaimer. Tom looked up to see Mark with glazed-over eyes as he went through his notifications and menus, but another thing had caught his eye. The bleeding from Mark''s hastily bandaged chest had slowed even further to just a tiny dribble from one of the cuts on his chest. Tom remembered that one of the attributes in his menu, vitality, had mentioned it controlled or affected the body''s ability to recover from injuries. If Mark¡¯s bleeding had just slowed, it must mean that he had gained a level, and the resulting attribute increase had helped his body recover from the attack. If that was the case, Tom¡¯s stamina and speed increase must come from the same attribute increase. This really was starting to feel more like a video game to Tom, and if it weren¡¯t for the pain he had experienced over the past few hours, he probably would have believed it if someone had told him he was. The next zombie was still a few meters away, time enough to make use of the skill point. Tom had lots of skills that he could take, but checking the available list only revealed a few choices that might help him in the current situation.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Available Skill Points (1) Shield Mastery (Basic) (1) Polearm Mastery (Basic) (1) Sword Mastery (Basic) (1) Strike (Basic) (1) Evasion (Basic) (1) Sense (Basic) (1) Fortitude (Basic) (1) Reinforcement (Basic) (1) Recovery (Basic) (1) Resistance (Basic) (1) Multi-Tasking (Basic) (2) Rapid Processing (Basic) (1) Meditation (Common) (1) The weapon mastery skills were the most obvious choice. He had a spear, and he had to stab things. Getting better at stabbing things would kill them faster and help him live. Simple enough. But then he started to think about the other options and what they might be able to do. He hadn¡¯t read all the descriptions back when they had first unlocked the skills, and he didn¡¯t have time to do so now, not with their next opponent only meters away. It annoyed him that in the almost six or so hours since they had entered the dungeon and with all the walking they had done, he hadn¡¯t even opened the menu and checked all the skills. He reminded himself to check them all out later. Maybe Strike would allow him to kill the zombies with one shot since it was a basic damage skill, but compared to the other three, he didn¡¯t have a lot of strength, so while it might help do damage, it was unlikely to let him kill them in one hit unless he could hit their heart or brain. Evasion might help him dodge their attack, especially if he could use the feelings from Instincts to help predict their attacks. Maybe Meditation could put him into a trance of some kind where he would become a zombie-killing machine with no distractions¡­. Yeah, that wasn''t very likely. Through his screen, he could see that Mark had finished whatever he had been doing and was starting to get to his feet. Tom looked at the list and made his choice. He wasn¡¯t sure what would be the best choice. He didn¡¯t see any point in keeping the skill point for later; the only skill he had that required two skill points was Multi-Tasking, and he didn¡¯t think that being able to think of or do multiple things at once would help here, nor did he think it likely that a new two-point skill would appear that could solve all his current problems. But picking something now might give him the edge he needed to make sure he got out of this alive. In times like this, he relied on the tried-and-true method used by engineers, mechanics, teachers, and most militaries worldwide when dealing with problems, or at least problem users. Keep it simple, stupid. He picked Polearm Mastery (Basic). He closed his menus and stood, wrenching the spear from the newly re-made corpse. The fire from the spearhead had blackened the hole made when Tom had landed, and tiny embers still smouldered even after Tom removed the spear. He turned to the next target Mark was heading towards, a level three this time, and stepped forward. As soon as his foot hit the ground, his body was wracked with pain again, and his muscles seized tight, stopping him from moving further. This time, the burning sensation came not from his chest but from his head. The pain wasn¡¯t as bad as before; instead of a flesh-melting fire, it was more the start of a migraine, a heat that wouldn¡¯t go away and began to build as it pulsed over and over again. As the pain started to build to uncomfortable levels, each pulse caused flashes in Tom¡¯s mind. Slowly, the flashes came together to form images, images that started to move, Movements that began to look familiar. Three scenes played on repeat in his mind, broken TVs stuck on repeat, showing the same scenes over and over and over. He watched for what felt like hours, fascinated, as ghostly figures moved before him, wielding all sorts of weapons, some he recognised, others he did not, in graceful flowing movements¡ªan eerie dance of flesh, wood and steel. The scenes played out before, suddenly, they stopped. Just like before, the pain stopped in an instant, as did the scenes in his head; his muscles released themselves, and Tom was once again freed from his flesh prison and just like before, barely any time had passed in the real world. Mark started picking up his pace and getting behind his shield for another charge. Tom quickly followed him, forcing his now aching legs to fight the pain and move. The pain wasn¡¯t as bad this time, and he was quickly back up to full speed, or maybe even slightly faster. Tom wasn¡¯t sure if he was imagining it or not, but he didn¡¯t have time to ponder it. Mark repeated his actions, slamming into the zombie with his shield and pushing it back a few meters until it regained its balance. The zombie had been able to stand its ground this time, and he hadn¡¯t been able to send it flying like he had previously. Despite this, he readied his axe. Keeping his shield in front of his body toward the zombie, he twisted his torso to the right, extending his axe as far back as he could. As his axe reached the end of the backswing, the blade turned pitch black and was surrounded by a glowing red halo. Tom watched as Mark leapt forward with the glowing axe, bringing it across his body in a horizontal strike on the zombie, hitting it full in the chest. The axe opened a massive gash, half a hand deep into its chest, entering just under where the heart should be and carving through several rib bones before exiting near its right shoulder. The blow rocked the zombie back a step, but it recovered quickly and moved forward again, reaching for Mark with its claw-like nails. After the massive swing, Mark tried to raise his shield in time to block the arm, but the force he had applied to the swing had turned his body almost 180 degrees, so his shield was now almost behind him, on the opposite side of where it was needed. Seeing that he couldn¡¯t raise the shield in time, Tom charged forward, putting on a burst of speed that surprised him at how much faster he was than before, aiming to get between the two and block its attack somehow. Just before he was about to dive in between them, his mind burned again, and one of the scenes from before began playing in his head as he moved. The ghostly figure in his mind gripping a spear similar to the one he held, moving it in slow but sure movements. Without realising it, his hands began to move as they copied the figure in his mind, placing themselves shoulder-width apart at the centre of the spear in an overhanded grip with a roughly equal distance from each end, with his left hand closer to the spearhead. Tom felt like he was no longer in control of his own body. The autopilot was on, and someone else had taken over while he watched and waited for his turn at the controls. As the zombie reached for Mark with its right arm, he stepped in, putting his spearhead end under its arm. His arms rotated clockwise following the scene, knocking the spear into the arm and forcing it upward. With the same movement, Tom moved the other end of the spear behind the outstretched leg of the zombie, tilting the spear and his body backward before following the clockwise motion. The butt of the spear hooked the leg forward, catching the zombie off balance and causing it to fall onto its back. Continuing the rotation so that the spear tip now faced toward the ground, he let go with his right hand and grabbed it further toward the butt of the spear while his left hand changed grip. With a jerk, the scene in Tom¡¯s head stopped playing, and he suddenly had control again, with the headache disappearing along with it. He stepped forward and thrust down into the carved open chest of the zombie as it lay on the ground. It went only a little deeper than the original cut, the remaining flesh and bones stopping its descent. But that wasn¡¯t Tom¡¯s aim. Dragging the spearhead along the cut, Tom began to burn the flesh of the creature''s chest. It turned black and began to bubble as he pulled the spear and its flames ¨C still happily flapping and waving ¨C through its ruined chest. He pulled the spear out and stepped back. The green-grey skin and sickly purple skin had been burned black, but most importantly, no healing was going on; the cut remained as it was. Bingo, Tom thought to himself, just as Mark, who had recovered from his first swing, came in with a thundering roar as his overhead axe swing landed right on top of the zombie''s chest, breaking through the now blackened flesh and into its heart. The notification box blinked as the zombie stopped moving. The two looked at each other briefly, then started moving towards the next zombie. Another one down, ten to go. Chapter 14 – A Basic Plan They charged forward towards the next zombie, another level three. This time, Tom was in the lead. Holding his spear pointed low to the ground, he stopped close to the zombie, intending to thrust into its gut, when another scene began playing in his head. Once again, he became a passive observer as his body followed the actions of the vision in his head. The previous vision had shown him what he thought was a sort of utility style of combat, where he could defend and attack depending on how he used the spear. This one was more offensive-focused, or so it seemed. The vision started in a position similar to what he was in now. The butt of the spear was held low with one hand near the waist while the other held the mid-point of the shaft up near chest height. As he watched the vision, his body moved on its own like before. His hands took the same positions on the spear, and his body moved to match. As the zombie moved closer and reached for Tom, the vision and his body, both stepped forward with his front foot in a lunge while pushing the spear forward and up with both hands, bringing the lower hand up to the chest and thrusting the upper hand to its maximum reach. This extended the spear about one and a half meters from Tom¡¯s body. The spearhead drove straight into the base of the zombie''s neck, punching through it and out the other side. The impact knocked the zombie slightly off balance, but the spear must have missed its spine because it regained its balance and tried to move forward again, which was made more difficult because the spear stuck through its throat. Tom¡¯s body and the vision then reversed their motions, drawing back with both hands while stepping back with the front foot, yanking the spear out of the zombie''s neck, leaving a ragged, blackened tear. Tom¡¯s body returned to his control as the vision faded from his mind. Mark was behind him, rushing to pass him on his right. Tom repeated the actions he had just witnessed, following the same steps and thrusting with his spear. He aimed for the neck again, but this time, his accuracy wasn¡¯t as good as when the vision had been in control, instead stabbing into the upper chest of the zombie just below its neck. The impact knocked it back a step but did little else, with the zombie trying to resume its forward march, arms reaching out for Tom again. However, his second thrust, while not a killing blow, would be able to set Mark up to finish it off if Tom was able to move it slightly. Tom leaned into the spear, driving his feet into the cavern floor, finding enough grip to drive himself forward and left, turning the zombie almost 90 degrees. Mark must have activated a skill because his blade was turning black, and the red halo reappeared again as he stopped next to the zombie and using the momentum from his run to swing down vertically, chopping its left arm off at the elbow. Tom wasn¡¯t sure exactly what skill it was; it could be Strike, the basic skill he had in his list of available ones, but he couldn¡¯t be sure. He¡¯d have to ask Mark about it later. The effect of the blow was impressive; however, not only had the skill been able to cut through the zombie''s arm, which Tom had been unable to do with his sword before, not that his strength was at the same level as the others, but it had also been able to cut into the heart of the previous zombie with only two hits. If Mark could keep using the skill, it would make killing the zombies much easier unless Tom was able to get his spear accurate enough to hit one of the vital points of the zombies. Which, he was guessing, based on what had killed the previous ones, would be their brains, heart or spines. The zombie couldn''t move much with the spear still stuck in its chest. Tom braced his legs, leaning into the spear, twisting it, burying the head and its flames slightly deeper into its chest. However, the zombie still hadn¡¯t stopped trying to attack, and its right arm refused to remain still, swinging and grasping at both Tom and the spear. It couldn¡¯t reach Tom; the extra length of the spear kept him well out of reach, but it could reach the spear. Aside from trying to hit it, the zombie could not grab or get a firm hold on the shaft, leaving it unable to do anything about it. Taking the time to recover his stance after his first swing, Mark moved behind the zombie and swung his axe again, this time without the glow of the skill, and sliced into the back of its neck, cutting into the middle of the hole left by Tom¡¯s first thrust. With the blackened hole as the starting point, the axe was able to easily cut through the spine and halfway through the neck, leaving it flopping forward onto its chest. Tom¡¯s notification box flashed at him as the body collapsed sideways, Tom using his spear to push it to the side. His spear was still embedded in its chest, and the flames had started to crawl up and around the entry point of the wound and spread across its chest, using the flesh as fuel and starting to burn. Tom moved to pull his spear up and out, but an alarm began blaring inside his skull, drowning out his other senses. He was deafened and blinded; his world shrunk in on itself as all his senses aligned to focus on the alarm and the source of danger. Time slowed for Tom. He couldn¡¯t see any threat but only looked at the corpse and his spear. He felt something behind him as the hairs on his neck stood up. An odd noise whispered past his ear like the air had been torn in half. Realising that this was probably the work of his Instincts skill, he focused on what his gut was telling him. He felt something was behind him, but he wasn¡¯t sure how far or what it was going. It had to be another zombie since they were the only things they had to worry about for the moment. Trusting Instincts, he crouched, bending his knees and hoping he was right. As he ducked, he felt something rush toward his neck. As time sped up again, his senses returned to normal. As he reached the bottom of his crouch, something touched the top of his head, ruffling his hair before moving past it. Letting go of the spear, he rolled forward over the top of the corpse, using his legs as a springboard. Coming to his feet, he turned around to see that he had been correct. Two zombies stood where he had been just before, one slightly in front of the other, which had just slashed at him with its claws. Using Evaluate showed that they were both level 4. Tom realised that when he pushed the zombie around to make it easier for Mark to attack it, he moved closer to the other zombies without thinking about it, making him their next target. He had been too focused on the fight and made a mistake that could have killed him. A chill ran down his spine as he stared at what could have been his death. He¡¯d been so caught up with his success that he let it go to his head. His typically methodical and thought-out approach had been abandoned with his and Mark¡¯s rapid growth and success over the past few minutes, and it had nearly killed him.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. The crash of steel behind him saved him from more agonising thoughts. Turning, he saw Dave and Adam fighting a larger group of six zombies clustered together to fight the pair. The sound he¡¯d heard was of Dave swinging his sword recklessly at a zombie, only to be blocked by Adam¡¯s sword, preventing Dave from hitting both his target and Adam himself. Angry shouts from both parties ensued, but it was enough to break Tom out of his thoughts. He looked back to his own fight in time to see Mark carefully wading toward the two-level fours. He didn¡¯t charge in like last time; instead, he used his shield to ward off the arm attacks of one while he swung with small, controlled arcs at the other, hitting the 2nd zombie''s arm. He circled to his left, grabbing both zombies'' attention and drawing them away from Tom and his still corpse-bound spear. Tom recognised what he was doing, buying time. Moving back to the corpse, which was starting to burn more brightly as the flame took hold from deep within its chest, he wrenched his spear out of it. Stepping away, he used the corpse and his spear as a light source to check the situation out lest he be caught again. Mark was facing two zombies directly, but a third and a fourth were not close behind them, and it wouldn¡¯t be long before they grouped up and became a real problem for the two of them. Mark had seen this, however, and his circling movements had put the two he was dealing with between him and the others. Meanwhile, the reclaimer zombie was still headed their way. It had made it around the room¡¯s centre''s pedestal and was about 20 meters from them, but it was slow and would take some time. Time enough, Tom hoped, to deal with the rest of the zombies. A basic plan came together in his mind, and he moved with a purpose. With the two-level four zombies'' attention focused on Mark, he circled behind the first so that it was between him and Mark, but the approaching zombies were off to his front right. This way, he could keep the approaching zombies in sight and not risk being blindsided by them again. Getting close enough to the first zombie, he was about to attack from below with a thrust, as the second vision had shown him to do, when the third and final vision assumed control. Once again, his body moved along with the vision as he watched. Instead of attacking directly, as he had been about to do, his arms rose to position the spear to the side of his head just below the eyes. His hands rotated slightly but didn¡¯t change position; the spear, now held at head height, was pointed slightly down, aiming at the zombie''s throat and chest. Taking a step, his body lunged forward, and his hands shot out, his right arm at the butt of the spear, pushing it and his left controlling the direction. Since it was now at head height, he could see that it would be easier from this angle to attack someone''s upper body instead of the way the second vision had shown him. As he thought this, the spear impacted the side of the zombie''s neck, punching through to the other side, the flames from the spearhead starting to lick the side of his target''s face. As it exited the other side of the neck, Tom regained control of his body, and the vision ended. Stuck in a somewhat awkward position, he had an idea. Moving forward, he slid his hands toward the tip; as he reached the midpoint of the spear, he assumed the position that the first vision had shown: equal distance from each end. Stepping back, he rotated his upper body left and twisted the zombie off its feet as the spear pulled it off balance. Pushing the spear so it was vertical, he stepped onto the zombie¡¯s back, pinning it to the ground with one leg; he removed the spear before quickly placing it over the centre of where he could see its spine and leant on it with all his weight. The spear sliced through its neck, and the zombie stopped moving. The kill was confirmed a moment later by the flashing notification box. He looked over to Mark, who had also used Tom¡¯s attack to good effect. He stood over the zombie, each arm pinned by one of his legs, having knocked it down somehow. Standing above the zombie, he sent his axe careening down into its skull, splattering blood, brain and bone in all directions. With the last two zombies almost within touching distance, Mark backed away towards Tom, who began to circle to the right, ensuring that no one or nothing had snuck behind them. Once the further zombie was behind the nearer one, they both attacked. Mark blocked the initial strike while Tom, following the movements of his third vision, skewered it with a spear through its eye directly into the brain, killing it instantly. The last zombie fell just as quickly. Mark took its attention while Tom slipped behind it, tripping it over and allowing Mark to hammer two quick axe strokes through its neck, cutting its head off. They both paused for a moment. The recent exertion and near-death moments left Tom out of breath and Mark panting slightly. Checking on the reclaimer and seeing it getting closer, he motioned to the other pair, still battling it out with a now slightly smaller group of 5 zombies. ¡°We should help them out and kill the rest before we have to take on this thing,¡± he gasped. ¡°Agreed¡±, Mark replied before starting to jog away. Tom looked back at the reclaimer, worrying about its sheer size, let alone its three sets of arms. He took off after Mark. ¡°Once we kill the rest, and it''s just him, we can spread out and buy ourselves some time to put a plan together¡±, he panted as he ran. Mark nodded. As they ran, Dave managed to kill another zombie. He must have been using the same skill as Mark, as his sword turned black and cut through the neck of the zombie closest to him, leaving four left. When Mark and Tom reached them, Dave and Adam had been cornered, the zombies driving them up against the wall. They each attacked one, Tom preferring to go with what he considered his trip and spear method, using the spear as the first vision had shown him to make it fall over before stabbing into its head and brain. Mark meanwhile opted for the straightforward axe to the back of the head approach, splitting the zombie''s skull wide open in one blow. Mark and Tom''s interjection allowed Dave and Adam to take care of the other two zombies, who were dead in short order. ¡°What took you two so long?¡± panted Adam as he and Dave caught their breath after having fought for several minutes without a break from what Tom could tell. ¡°We were...¡± Tom started, but Mark raised his hand quickly to catch his attention and then pointed. Tom turned to look in the direction Mark had pointed to. It was the Reclaimer Zombie, which, instead of continuing to walk slowly towards the group, had stopped just before the pile of dead zombies where Mark and Tom fought. ¡°What are you idiots looking at?¡± Dave snapped as he sat on the ground, his chest still heaving and his usually pallid face looking flushed. An ear-rattling roar echoed around the cavern in reply to Dave''s question. Dave and Adam¡¯s heads snapped around at the sound. The Reclaimer stood watching the group. Its three sets of arms twitched constantly, muscles bunching up as it clenched and unclenched its fists. The black and white eyes, which had been rolling continually, unable or unwilling to focus on anything, stopped. One eye was completely black, while the other, with its white, bloodshot pupil, was staring at the corpses on the floor. Slowly, the black eye turned until the pupil emerged from behind the bottom eyelid to stare at the corpses as well. Adam¡¯s voice, spoken in a loud whisper, came hesitantly. ¡°Should we be doing something about that?¡± he asked. As if tempting fate, as soon as Adam had finished speaking, the reclaimer roared again. Its white pupils turned blood red and began to glow. It started hammering the ground with fists, forming fissures as the ground cracked and broke. As the four of them watched with concern, the concern slowly turned to fear; fear then turned to horror as the monster in front of them began to change. Chapter 15 – The Zombie Reclaimer The Reclaimer Zombie slammed all six fists into the ground with a final thunderous crash. For a moment, nothing moved in the cavern. Then, the change began. Tom could see a purple haze surrounding its fists, which started to condense and become more solid with each passing second. He could barely make out what was happening beneath the haze, as could the others. Starting with its jaundiced fingernails, the haze passed over them, turning the skin and nails pitch black. As the skin blackened, the haze seeped into it, replacing its black blood. The transformation oozed up its arms, moving like molten tar as it flowed slowly across the mottled greyish-green patchwork. It left behind a shining black marble pulsing with unnatural purple veins, glowing faintly like phosphorus in the dark, lighting up the area around it with a veil of purple and green. The creature''s three sets of arms elongated grotesquely; gunshots sounded out as sinew and bone cracked and snapped, reforming themselves to match their new shape. The hands curled and lengthened, the fingers becoming thinner and sharper, becoming jagged, obsidian talons, each nearly the size of the sword Dave held. The talons stretched out, grasping out as if to tear the air in the room apart. As the wave of change passed over the torso, it expanded like a balloon, ribs cracking outward, creating a mountain range of protrusions beneath the skin before they broke through, forming a jagged jungle of bone and blood that overlooked a valley of sickly grey skin that was unchanged by the haze. The green mist which surrounded the beast was sucked into these bony extensions, the chest expanding as green mist fought with purple haze until finally, the grey valley in the middle of its chest was filled with the sickly green gas. Traces of it floated from the broken bone tips, creating small clouds like the tops of trees, a putrid parody of nature and life. As the haze passed its legs, they began to swell, the muscles bulging under the skin before they pushed through like a bloody worm emerging from its cocoon. The skin sloughed off until the legs looked like fire-ravaged tree trunks, the skin hanging off like peeled bark. Tom had gotten used to the stench in the room, the smell of rot and decay mostly blending into the background as they fought their way through the ambush. But as he watched, the stench intensified with the metallic tang of ozone and the sour tang of something he couldn¡¯t quite place. His stomach roiled, and he gasped, fighting back the urge to vomit as his stomach threatened to unleash what little was left inside of it. He looked up just as the final phase of the change began. The reclaimers'' blood-red eyes burst as the purple haze passed over, twin points of searing green light replacing them. Looking into the light, Tom lost the fight with his stomach, and a small pool of bile escaped his mouth as his stomach churned. He wasn¡¯t the only one. Both Adam and Mark were suffering the same fate, with only Dave managing to keep what little dignity he had left. The slack features of its face tightened into something feral, its mouth elongating into a jagged maw lined with uneven, dagger-like teeth. Once fat and sluggish, the tongue became a whip dripping with thick green sludge that dribbled out onto its chin and down onto the floor. The transformation over, the Reclaimer stood silently, watching the four of them. Tom looked over at the others. Mark wasn¡¯t doing too well. He was still on his knees; his weapons were beside him on the ground where he had dropped them. His hands trembled and shook as he stared open-mouthed at the monstrosity in front of them. Adam had picked himself up off the ground, but for the first time since they had met, Tom thought that he looked unsure, his brow furred and mouth set in a grimace. Before, he hadn''t panicked in the fights against the zombies either, seeming to take everything in stride and would charge into battle headfirst. But now, he gazed at the reclaimer listlessly as if mentally checking off his options, each one worse than the one before. As Tom turned to look at the final member, he was already walking past him toward the Reclaimer. His short sword was clutched, white-knuckled, in his hand. His teeth were clenched together as his mouth slowly split into a smile across its face, too wide, too deliberate, his yellowed teeth on display for all to see. His eyes were narrowed as they stared at the Reclaimer, locked on, unmoveable. As he stalked forward, a steady stream of vitriol and malice was uttered under his breath as if his anger was a spell he could cast on his enemies. As Tom watched, Dave began sprinting, the volume of his hate-filled ranting increasing with each step until he was bellowing his strange war cry from the top of his lungs. The Reclaimer matched him in kind, roaring out a counterargument of bile and spittle before loping forward into a charge, all six of its claws spread wide. As they drew closer, Tom couldn¡¯t look away. The spectacle was so bizarre it almost made him forget about everything that had happened today. He was expecting the result to be a red smear and bits of pieces of the angry man spread around the cavern, but instead, something else happened. As the two were about to collide, Dave slid feet first under the reclaimer, narrowly missing the claws that grabbed for him and leaving a small gash in its onyx flesh as he swung his sword mid-slide. Hopping up on the other side, he commenced a series of slashes that tore into the reclaimer''s back, causing it to turn and reach awkwardly for him. At the same time, he scurried about, dipping under claws, scrambling between its legs, and somersaulting over its feeble attempts to grab him, slashing all the while with his sword. The only thing that didn¡¯t surprise Tom was that stream of insults, swearing, and promises of further violence didn¡¯t stop the entire time. He stood watching the fight flabbergasted, his brain was refusing to accept that what he was seeing was possible. How is he doing that? He thought to himself. I would be a pancake on the ground or cut to ribbons by now; how can he duck and weave like that? Just as the thoughts entered his head, Adam turned to face the two of them. The salesman was back. ¡± Come on, you two, we can¡¯t leave him to fight that thing alone; we¡¯re not here for a holiday at the beach after all.¡± He smiled as he spoke, gesturing towards where Dave and the reclaimer were playing their high stakes catch game with one arm while his other lazily flipped the sword onto his shoulder. Tom looked back to where the fight was happening. How are we supposed to fight this thing? What does Adam expect us to do? Nothing I can do would help against that thing! Tom¡¯s mind raced as he thought about what to do. Spear? Dave¡¯s sword can barely cut its skin, the spear might do a little better, but I doubt it. Be a distraction? Dave is faster than I am and no way in hell I could avoid that thing for long enough! Hit and run with Mark? No way in hell, one hit from that thing would crush him. Fire? I still haven¡¯t figured out how to use it yet¡­ This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Every tactic and idea from the fights against the skeletons and zombies seemed to have a counter when he thought about the Reclaimer. He could feel his heartbeat rising, and his breathing quickened with each idea he shot down. There was nothing they could do. They were all going to die here, and there was nothing he or the others could do. His eyes widened as he came to his conclusion, his breath increasing again in time with his heart rate. He looked back at Adam. Adam hadn¡¯t moved. He stood looking at them, waiting, his still smile plastered on his face. What does he expect me to do? There is nothing we can do¡­ is there? Tom looked at the spearhead, which was still alight. The flame was still only burning around the bottom of the spearhead, where he had wrapped the oily tape from the torch. As he stared into the flame, a calm overcame him. He could feel a soothing warmth spread from the pool in his chest to every part of his body. As the wave reached his heart and lungs, he felt his breathing and heart rate calm down and return to normal. As it reached his head, his thoughts slowed and crystallised; parts of ideas came together to form a semblance of a plan, a way through that they might be able to use to survive. He looked at the other two. ¡°Have you two checked your statuses yet and applied your skill points?¡± he asked. Mark¡¯s head shook as if waking from sleep, his eyes refocused on Tom. He nodded. ¡°Yup, I specced myself out as a proper swordsman. I probably won¡¯t be able to dodge like him,¡± said Adam, chucking a thumb to the side to indicate Dave, who was still pirouetting and dancing around to avoid the Reclaimer''s claws. ¡°But if I can get in sword range, I can do some decent damage; just forget about me taking a hit, though.¡± ¡°Right, quick plan then. You and I help Dave. I¡¯ll try to distract it while you get behind it and see if you can cut through its ankles. If you can get through the skin and get its tendons and muscles, we can limit how much it moves, which means it¡¯ll be easier to take down and avoid.¡± Tom detailed as he got to his feet. ¡°Can you take a hit from that thing with your shield?¡± he asked Mark as he sued Evaluate to check his shield¡¯s condition. Finding that it was still in good condition, he refocused on Mark. ¡°Yes, maybe one or two at least.¡± He responded with some hesitation. To Tom, it seemed like he was calmer now. As more parts of a plan came to his mind, he thought that if they could keep Mark¡¯s attention on the fight, maybe they could stop him from breaking down again. During the fighting, he had seemed fine; it had only been the initial appearance of the Reclaimer and its transformation that had unsettled him. ¡°Good. If Dave and I keep its attention, you two can attack from behind it. Mark, if it tries to attack you guys and you can¡¯t dodge, you¡¯ll have to block it for you and Adam.¡± Both men nodded after Tom finished issuing orders. ¡°Look at that; the general is back,¡± Adam said in a tone that Tom wasn¡¯t sure was mocking or relieved. ¡°Glad you weren¡¯t going to leave everyone else to do the work.¡± Tom only realised after Adam had finished speaking, but for some reason, his nervousness when speaking to the others was gone, as was his trepidation of fighting. He¡¯d been trying to hide it since the beginning, trying to be someone other than the person he had been before. If this had been yesterday and had been back in the office, he would never have spoken like that, giving orders to someone else. Now, though, he felt like he didn¡¯t care what others thought about him. He could still feel the warmth from the pool in his chest spreading about his body. I wonder if that thing in my chest is doing that? Something else I¡¯ll need to figure out once this is done. All three of them started to make their way toward the fight. Dave was beginning to slow, his breathing rapid, and his shoulders slumped. I need to get in there now, or he¡¯ll be caught soon. I still don¡¯t know how I¡¯m going to manage to dodge that thing. I can¡¯t move like Dave¡­ yet¡­ As Adam and Mark peeled off and started to run around the reclaimer to get behind it, Tom stopped and activated his full menu, which he hadn¡¯t checked for some time. Status ¨C chapter 12 Name: Thomas Moore Race: Human (G) Class: None Subclass: None Level: 4 (2725/3200) Attributes Strength: 7 Agility: 9 Endurance: 8 Vitality: 8 Intelligence:12 Wisdom: 11 Skills Evaluate (Common) 2 (58/60) Instincts (Uncommon) 1 (1/30) Magic Sense (Basic) (6/25) Ember Spark (Basic) (3/25) Polearm Mastery (Basic) (9/50) 1 Skill point available Titles Selected of Lemures Affiliation None The three points he¡¯d gained in each attribute had been a nice bump, on paper at least. Apart from his stamina being better and maybe running slightly faster, he hadn¡¯t really noticed any of the other effects of his increased attributes. I wonder if they are fake, something to keep us going without actually giving us anything. I wonder if whoever designed this used to run my company, they would have fit right in there. Refocusing, he quickly checked his skill list. There hadn¡¯t been any changes, but he hadn¡¯t been hoping for any. There was one skill on which he was pinning his hopes of survival. Even with a shield, he didn¡¯t rate his chances of surviving a hit very high, so his only other chance was to use Instincts as much as possible and evade the Reclaimer''s attacks. He had only one skill that would be able to help him with that. Selecting it, he quickly read its description. Skill: Evasion Attribute ¨C Agility Rarity - Basic Cost ¨C 1 Skill Point Dodging is as much an art as it is a reaction. Unlocks the ability to anticipate and avoid attacks with precision. Enhances the speed of reflexive movement and reaction speed by 2% per level and + 1.5% Agility. Checking the description, the skill would only give him a very modest increase in his reaction speed and reflexes. But it might just be enough for what he needed. The last time Instincts warned me, I just got out of the way in time. If I have this, I¡¯ll have a better chance at dodging anything that thing throws at me. I only need to hold its attention for as long as it takes Mark and Adam to cut through its legs. So maybe a few minutes at most. Any more than that, and I¡¯ll be in trouble. He selected Evasion, and seeing that Mark and Adam were almost in place, he ran forward, yelling at Dave to get back and recover. Dave didn¡¯t even turn to look at him, and Tom didn¡¯t need to hear him know that he had already started a verbal retort, but in his new frame of mind, Tom didn¡¯t care about what the other man thought of him. His mind felt refreshed and focused as if he had just spent a week preparing for an exam at high school, and he knew everything he needed to get a perfect score. He had barely gotten within a few meters of the Reclaimer when Instincts started screaming at him to move. He could feel that the threat was coming from the direction of the Reclaimer, but he couldn¡¯t tell if it was the Reclaimer or something else. Looking around, he noticed the Reclaimer standing above the fallen corpses of the zombies he and Mark had killed. It had grabbed two, holding them in its claws, while standing above another two. Without warning, one of the reclaimer''s hands snapped forward, the zombie in its hands went flying, and Instincts went ballistic.