《Lewis Clarke and the New World》


 Chapter 1 - The New World

    Lewis woke to heavy turbulence for the third time in as many hours, the Michigan weather welcoming him back with a familiar icy grip.


    ''Home sweet home.¡¯ he reminded himself as he stared at the approaching winter storm.


    Glancing at the tray table beside him he quickly snatched his sleeping neighbours in flight cookie, the middle aged man could teach a class on how to be inconsiderate on a plane and Lewis felt no hang-ups on stealing away this small victory.


    It was never easy to sleep on planes no matter what, especially when he was stuck between a snoring jerk that didn''t care for personal space and a window that he couldn¡¯t help but stress just looking at. Whether it was a good thing or not though he¡¯d learned to manage his fear of heights after his mother had gotten sick. Living on the other side of the country meant frequent flights.


    At the very least this flight wasn''t a sudden emergency redeye for the sake of a hospital visit and the dread of his Mother¡¯s final whispered goodbye, by all accounts she was actually doing well the past weeks, no, instead Lewis was finally using up his overtime and even the last of his sick days to surprise his family at the beginning of December for an entire month of festivities like his most treasured memories as a child.


    The thoughts of stockings full to bursting with chocolates and gingerbread houses with his fathers homemade apple cider were quickly interrupted by the need to make cider of his own. ¡°Excuse me, sir?,¡± Lewis was forced to poke the fully reclined man beside him who responded by stirring slightly and grunting, ¡°sir?¡± Lewis he poked and spoke harder this time, ¡°What the hell do you want?¡± the man hissed back ¡°I NEED to pee¡± Lewis stressed the word but only got a ¡°well squeeze past and quit bothering me¡± in return.


    The only reason the jerk wanted to sit there was so he could stare at the flight attendants asses anyway, that and he was closer to the drinks cart when it came by.


    So it was at that moment - he would later tell people - when he managed to finally unbuckle himself and was straddling the huge dick that almost killed him a strange grey window appeared up in front of him.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%; background-color: rgba(126, 140, 141, 1); border-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); border-style: double; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 60%; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle">Congratulations your world is being seeded!


    Please prepare for initialization.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Lewis was stunned, crashing down onto the businessman''s lap as people all over the flight shrieked and a steward toppled into the drinks cart he was pushing.


    ¡°Argh what the hell did I jus-¡± before the drunk man being ridden could finish his rant the words were replaced by a new box.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%; background-color: rgba(126, 140, 141, 1); border-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); border-style: double; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">


    Your species technology will now cease to function as the planet is integrated and randomized


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">


    As you are in danger due to this you will be transferred to the nearest ''safe'' location and restored to full health


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Lewis felt sick, even more than that he felt wrong, none of his senses worked and every ounce of his being just knew that whatever was happening shouldn''t be. It didn''t help either that his brain pulsed with the power of a hundred migrains as blinding light filled his eyes but he couldn''t close them with his currently wrongbody. ''Ew'' was the only thought he managed to produce before his mind and body suddenly returned to him in peak condition, possibly better than he''d ever felt as he once again felt reality after his brief vacation.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Or at least he thought it was reality but at the same time a bunch more grey and even blue boxes appeared. So he did the only sensible thing and closed his eyes and hoped they would go away. When he opened his eyes a moment later the boxes had indeed disappeared, but then his eyes nearly popped out as he saw open sky in their place.


    "What the-" The arrogant businessman was cut off again as they hit the ground only half a metre away. Lewis crumpled down on top of him and immediately began covering the two of them in bile and the cookie he''d received from the stewardess an hour ago as his stomach seized and emptied. Shamefully he also emptied his bladder like he was planning to do just moments ago.


    Lewis felt the warmth spreading in his tracksuit pants quickly turn cold, it was the wind, a real breeze but that didn''t make any sense. He was in an airplane a few seconds ago, none of this made any sense, why else would he have just felt like he had every hangover he''d ever had combined into one brain melting super hangover and lots of boxes popping up everywhere. ''I''m having a stroke'' he considered as the only reasonable explanation. Lewis also felt a hard shove in his side as he was sent sprawling away from his human cushion''s ruined suit.


    He was fine to be out of his own mess at least but then Lewis didn''t stop tumbling.


    He remembered suddenly the breeze and the view of an open space and most importantly the box that said he''d be transported nearby. At this point a new instinctual terror called out to him, one that was very different from the feeling of wrong from before. This new instinct screamed at him to cling to solid ground like a cat about to have a bath and he did just that, this feeling made sense and it was right because it told him to LIVEand Lewis wasn''t going to go against a feeling like that even on his worst day.


    So he shrieked while he clutched and scrabbled and grasped at anything he could but he was on some sort of steep hill, and there were cracks and crevices he could dig his fingers into but the ground kept giving way. It was bark, Lewis suddenly realized, not dirt or rock or clay or even sand. He was sliding off an enormous branch as he dug his fingers into the loose bark that was desperate it seemed to be ripped away just to spite him.


    He made eye contact with his killer as the open sky took him. Memorising his face and swearing vengeance on the prick in the soiled suit no matter what form he would take in his next life.


    Fear overtook everything Lewis knew as he fell. He was scared of what the boxes meant and the monstrous bird creatures he could now see above him, he was afraid of the tree he''d fallen from that speared the sky past his comprehension and the winds hurtling past his body, he was terrified that he''d never get see his family again and that he would die shortly, but out of everything he was dreading in this moment it was that he never got a chance.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Mile High Club


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Freefall for a mile or more</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">+1 Endurance</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Lewis Balled his fists and screamed and cried out at the unfairness of the world while he continued his free fall.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">New Skill ''Fear Resistance'' learned</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    He never had a chance to figure out what the boxes meant or explore the tree he''d appeared on, hell he would''ve wanted to see the whole world now it had been ''seeded'' and ''randomized'' or whatever.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" border="1" cellpadding="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">


    10 Mile High Club Member


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 90%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Freefall for 10 miles or more</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">+3 endurance</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    To add insult to injury he had stats and skills now if he could believe his eyes and the annoying boxes. he''d always loved games like rpgs and would''ve surely gotten super strong and learned magic and stuff using his stats and skills.


    By this point he knew the ground shouldn''t be far off, he''d already apparently fallen for 10 miles but he couldnt even see the top of the tree when he started. Maybe it was the adrenaline wearing off or his body thought it best but his conciousness started to fade.


    The last thoughts Lewis had as his body closed in on an endless vista of cloud were dreams of a world where he could grow strong and learn about what happened while he explored all over the place wherever he wanted to with his family and maybe even new friends.


    Then Lewis hit something hard enough to shatter most of his bones and everything finally went black.

 Chapter 2 - Learning to Crawl

    A slow pulsing pain echoed through limp limbs, slowly but surely rousing the young man they connected back to. The tremendous pain was immediately recognisable but even so the man felt joy when he woke up, truly happy that he had somehow survived his perilous fall. Lewis could have briefly ignored the agony coursing through every cell in his body to celebrate but sadly the feeling of broken bones and internal bleeding got him past the point of doing a happy dance rather quickly.


    He also couldn''t dance because he couldn''t move. At first Lewis chocked it up to being paralyzed but the pain in his limbs told him otherwise, it turned out that he was instead stuck upside down in some sort of tube made of flesh, lots of his own blood and something pale and goopy that he didn''t want to look too closely at... Nope Lewis was just going to ignore the viscous white sludge... Plenty of other things to look at like the back of his eyelids! Okay fine, anything to distract him from the pain.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Cloud Whale Snot - Ingredient</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ''Great'' he thought failing to hold back tears from physical and now mental pain.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">New Skill - ''Indentify'' Learned</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh good, a "New Skill" that meant something else to focus on other than whale mucus, claustrophobia and of course the feeling of his damaged bones shifting. Needless to say Lewis focosed on the new box hoping for anything to help him out of his currently sticky situation.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Identify - Level 1


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Scan objects and entities for further information.


    Amount of information based on skill level.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A sigh escaped him before he could hold back and new pain shocked his body like a fish tank full of toasters. When he was able to Lewis thought about it briefly and decided to make the most of it, not his ravaged body that is, but his new ''skill''. Now he could at least entertain his mind to keep the fear of his new slow death at bay.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Fear Resistance Level Up!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Lewis immediately hated whatever entity unleashed this plague of boxes on his life but at least he was finally making ''progress'' if it could even be called that. This at least meant his skills could get stronger, so he ran with it and started identifying the whale snot again because there wasn''t much else going on to keep him sane.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Cloud Whale Snot - Ingredient</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Okay, ''Cloud Whale'' was a new one, and what did it mean by ''ingredient''? Like you could cook this stuff? Lewis felt like putting fire to whale snot could only end badly plus in his position he felt like an expert on the substance. Thinking of food though Lewis realised he hadn''t eaten anything but a cookie for at least 16 hours at this point and he had lost even that baked treat to the evil businessmans clothes.


    Lewis had to take a time out then because his dumb human brain thought ''Oh, looks like you''ll have to eat whale snot then.'' but of course that wouldn''t be necessary, he was probably going to die of blood loss soon anyway. Then again he had pocketed the other cookie he''d pinched from his nemesis because he was snoring as the attendant was handing them out. If only his fingers, wrists, elbows or shoulders did anything right now the combination could manage to wriggle the cookie free.


    Lewis could move his neck and jaw, but that would only result in whale snot and that just wasn''t a possiblity.


    So he identified again, and again, and again, and again, without result until finally a spark of genius crossed his addled brain and he used identify on himself.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Lewis Clarke Level 1 Human</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ''Hmm that was a bit disappointing'' Lewis admitted, he was hoping for a character sheet or status screen if he was being honest. Then one suddenly appeared as he thought the word ''status''. Ask and you shall recieve apparently.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <th style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Lewis Clarke - Level 1 Human</th>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <th style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Titles


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Dungeon Denizen, 10 Mile High Club</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </th>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <th style="width: 50%; text-align: center">


    Stats


    free points - 5


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Strength</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Endurance</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Vitality</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">5</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Dexterity</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">4</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Intelligence</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">4</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Wisdom</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Luck</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">4</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Health 8/50</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">Mana 40/40</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Skills


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Camp Site Level 1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Fear Resisitance level 2</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Identify Level 1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </th>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That can''t be right, a couple things already seemed wrong here. Had Lewis already managed to break this thing? He didn''t remember getting this ''Dungeon Denizen'' title or the ''Camp Site'' skill. It was good thing then when some more convenient boxes popped up while he focused on the words.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">


    Dungeon Denizen


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Spawn in a dungeon after world randomization</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">+5 free stat points, unlocks ''Camp Site'' Skill</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Camp Site - Level 1


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">


    You can set a camp site in a safe zone clear of enemies where your health will slowly recover.


    Recovery rate based on skill level.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    There we go, now things were starting to fall into place! With these things he might have a chance. First he needed to figure out how to get this skill to work so he could hopefully recover from his life threatening injuries.


    Video game logic is great, all hail the god of the boxes, transparent and shiny may they be.


    After some mental commands Lewis forced himself to speak aloud, "Camp Site," and "Safe Zone," he said to no effect other than getting a bit of whale phlegm in his mouth and pushing his body through additional pain that he noticed alarmingly caused his health to drop down another point to 7.


    Oh god the taste.


    Something was wrong though, other than literally everything that was happening of course, the skill should be pretty intuitive Lewis thought but perhaps there was something missing, the whale might count as an enemy he thought, or maybe he wasn''t supposed to be squashed inside a pleghm tube upside down? Yeah thinking for a moment, that might not be counted as safe enough to let the thing work.


    If the whale was an enemy he was doomed so there was no point dwelling on that idea, he had to work with what he had and pray to the boxes that getting out of this slime hole would be his best bet.


    What he had to work with he realised were his new skill points from his status screen. He wasn''t sure how they worked exactly but they might be the key to getting himself out of this mess.


    Strength seemed pretty straightforward just making him stronger. Dexterity might improve either speed of movement or fine motor skills. endurance then could be how many hits you could take or how long you could run around for without getting tired he supposed, If Lewis had to guess though it made sense for this one to be the former as a way to explain his survival so far. the vitality and intelligence stats both fit neatly with his health and mana respectively just because the numbers matched up, and sometimes the simple answer is the best one. Leaving wisdom and luck but both were a total mystery, in most games luck didn''t make much sense as a stat but it did lot''s of stuff all the same and wisdom was usually tied to magic either to replenish mana or make spells stronger.


    He didn''t know how much his stats reflected his real body either, which to be honest wasn''t that great at the best of times but with a starting point of 3 in strength, did that mean he could suddenly become almost three times as strong if he put all his points in? While Lewis really, really wanted an easy six pack it was clear that probably wouldn''t help him right now.


    Lewis thought quite hard about how he could get out of his current problem and quickly decided that Luck could be anything or nothing so that was out. Intelligence and Wisdom were definitey not the answers, he didn''t need to ponder the Universe.


    What he really needed right now was firstly not to die, which meant Vitality or Endurance would need to get a point or 2 as his health was apparently dropping slowly but surely due to his injuries, and secondly he needed to get out of this weird ''whale tube'' thing.


    ... ''OH GOD!'' It finally hit he was inside a whale, probably the blowhole. Actually fingers crossed it was the blowhole.


    Depending on his exact whale positioning he might need to reorganise his list of priorities but for now at least he wanted to not die, and get out of the ''blowhole'' so he went ahead and put a point into vitality since that was based on his health, it raised his maximum health by ten points, comfirming his suspicions about the stat but sadly it didn''t give him any current health on top of his now 6 points, it seemed he had to recover using his ''Camp Site'' skill but the only thing he could think of to let him use it was to get to solid ground free of ''enemies'' which he hoped once more the whale wouldn''t count as.


    He couldn''t pull the point back out of vitality he realised even though it did absolutely nothing right now! So he was stuck with his boost and left with 4 measly points and too many useless options, with strength and endurance he might be able to pry himself free without killing himself but he doubted he could push back against the whales orifice with his broken body.


    The only option left to Lewis lay in Dexterity, perhaps if it enhanced his bodily control he could finally wiggle his dying body to freedom before he ran out of health and his second chance at life expired.


    Lewis closed his eyes briefly to remember the man that kicked him off the tree the size of a dozen skyscrapers before mentally jamming 3 points into dexterity and another into endurance to hopefully give his body a better chance at successfully moving withought killing himself.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <th style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Lewis Clarke - Level 1 Human</th>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <th style="width: 50%; text-align: center">Titles


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Dungeon Denizen, 10 Mile High Club</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </th>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <th style="width: 50%; text-align: center">


    Stats


    free points - 0


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Strength</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Endurance</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">9</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Vitality</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">6</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Dexterity</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">7</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Intelligence</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">4</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Wisdom</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Luck</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">4</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 50%">Health /50</td>


    <td style="width: 50%">Mana 40/40</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Skills


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Camp Site Level 1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Fear Resisitance level 2</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Identify Level 1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    </th>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After checking his status one more time he was ready. He could immediately feel the effects of his new dexterity working as planned, instinctually letting him feel and maneuver his body more intuitively, the pain even lessened slightly while he moved with the new point of endurance toughening him up a bit more.


    His long arduous crawl had begun.


    Lewis couldn''t tell how long it had been before he lost another point of health, longer than between losing the others despite the steady pace he set he knew that much. He figured out he could keep the numbers for his health and mana in the corner of his vision after that.


    A long time later Lewis came back to himself as another point of health dropped away, he couldn''t open his eyes any more, glued shut essentially by Cloud Whale snot but his health and mana could still be seen if he wanted.


    Finally Lewis felt his forehead miss the wall of the blowhole, instead pushing the bridge of his nose onto an edge, ''THE  edge'', he celebrated mentally.


    After a few more moments of wiggling Lewis checked his health to find it still on 4.


    His shoulders were now out of the orifice and he was getting close to dropping into this new wide open area but Lewis couldn''t help but hesitiate still, what if he fell too far and hit the ground with a splat instead of his moment of victory? What if he''d only been a few inches shy of the top of the blowhole at the start of all this and now he''d doomed himself once again?


    Lewis took a steadying breath, stopped doubting himself and took a leap of faith out of a whales blowhole into an airsack covered head to toe in bloody snot like a real man!


    Lewis hit the ground with a sickening squelch instead of a splat like he''d feared but he didn''t die, the man managed to use his campsite skill successfully with a thought before blacking out after the blood stopped flooding into his brain.