《Climb of Nimrod. (Lit-rpg, Comedy)》 Hey, It me, Nim! Uhh... Holy Tartarus. I was awoken with a sharp banging head ache as I sat up from the wall of the little alley way I was thrown into. Fuck... Where is my bag? I looked around the dust ridden alley way as I spralled around in an attempt to find out if a rat was chewing on my shakka. I was searching, and searching, and searching, but nothing. Every single pot that I had looked behind had absolutely nothing. Those Dogs stole my bag! I made the sudden realization in my utter horror, as I knew that Appa would be mad that I lost my only bag after trying to mess with some of the ''Guards'' he told me over and over again to not play with. ...Can I somehow just find it? I started walking towards the most likely location of where they had gone with my bag, and prepaired my legs for a lot of running. As I walked out to the street I passed by only a single stall with with tasty looking fruits and supply''s, but just had to grimace because I had all my money stored in my bag. Sigh* I continued walking untill I reached my location, The church. I hated this place, but I knew that the Guards would be here, because it''s they place that Balthazar had the most control over. I quietly sneaked over to the side of the church while avoiding the patrolling guards by hiding behind all of the boxes of random stuff they had. Tap! Tap! Tap! I quickly made my way over to where all of the confescated bags were and started looking through them to find my reasonably small bag. Holes? Nope... Holes... Ah, there. I grabbed my bag and started turning around wh- "What do you think your doing here Rat? I was sure I threw you into that alley way? Whatever, I''ll just do it again." The gruff voice made me extremely on edge I tried to jump back. One of the guards had sneaked up on me while I was busy looking through the bags and had grabbed me and picked me up by the back of my tunic. He has a Manic smile as He grabbed my clothes with both of his hands and started preparing to throw me to the other side of the street. "No! Stop!" I screamed in protest as he kept changing up his throw, untill he threw me into the street with a brutal throw. WHAM! I flew across the street, and before I could process it I slammed into the wall of the ally way with a smack. Ow! What the Tartarus! My Head ache reached new heights as I gnawing pain made it hard for me to focus on anything. I complained silently as I rubbed my Head in pain and I sneered at him while slowly starting to walk back home with my bag now in hand. My walk back was mostly unperturbed. People haven''t been walking around the city as much as they used to, when Balthazar started enforcing his ''Love'' people have stopped going outside of their houses for different reasons. The only remaining venders were starting to close up shop, and I had a feeling that this city might be desolate soon of people kept moving out of the tower. All of my friends had either ascended or had just left the tower because there parents wanted better lives to themselves. As I walked back and looked at the rickety gate of the orphanage that had the word ''Home sweet home'' written sloppily on them I sighed and got ready for a mouth full from Grampa Appa. Creak. The soft shifting of the metal gate was enough to get Balef''s attention, as he sprung up from the cold sand pit to greet me. "Oh! Hi Nim!" His bulbus but still decently defined stomach bounced as he made his ways towards me faster then I had ever seen him.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. He spoke enthusiasticly as he ran around me in circles, I had a feeling he had big news. " Guess What!" I chuckled and asked him. "Did one of your skills evolve?" I was joking around, as Evolution required somebody to do something extraordinaryly difficult to even get close to doing so. He of all people would ne- "Yes!" Buh I had lost my breath in surprise, as I looked at him to see if he was lying, but I saw absolutely zero reason he would lie. " W-what Skill?!" He spoke before I could continue screaming. "Shh! I''ll tell you, but we have to go inside first so none of the Guards hear us!" As he led me into the orphanage, I was absolutely gobsmaked that Balif of all people had done something impressive enough that the system had evolved one of his skills. If this was all some kind of elaborate plan then I''m gonna be seriously pissed. I was still being guided through the multiple doors of this surprisingly large housing area when we suddenly stopped at the room that we shared. ''37'' We walked into room 37 and we sat down on our bunk bed in the window lit room where he went up to my ear to and finally spoke. "Un-armed" ...Wait, he evolved his Weapon skill!?! That''s even more rare then geting a Healing Skill!! I jumped up and restrained myself from screaming while thinking about the implications. He could go get a job! He could go ascended! He would- leave me. Just like all the others who either moved with their parents who had evolved skills, or had gotten their own evolved skills. At this realization I sat back down, with the sadness spilling from my face, knowing there was a chance I would never see my best friend again. He saw my face of despair and hugged me with the entirety of his being for a long while. After we stopped hugging, he suddenly perked up like he had an Idea."...Hey, Nim, you know how having an evolved skill technically makes you an adult? What if I just... Adopt you?" I perked up from my position on my bunk and looked at him... Honestly, not the worst Idea we ever had. I stood up and had a massive smile on my face, sure I wouldn''t be able to most of the awesome stuff that comes with ascending, but I would be able to get out of this dying town! ...but one issue. Accually getting adopted. If I did get adopted, I would have to be evaluated by Appa, and He can be ferocious when we attempt to pull stunts to this degree, so It''s not even guaranteed that it gets accepted. The chances are so slim that It might just be better to just try to grind one of my skills to evolution by pushing it to level 10. Me and Balif thought about it for some time while we chose a plan of action. Balif saw what I meant but stayed true to his idea as a back up, but I felt like I would rather try my plan then having to get adopted by somebody my age. I checked my status to see what skill I would try to evolve. Name: [Nimrod ''Nim'' Azure] Title: None Stats: Str: 2 End: 6 Con: 4 Dex: 12 Agi: 9 Per: 9 Skills: [Misbehavior] Lv.9 [Acrobatics] Lv. 5 [Sand Resistance] Lv.2 [Stealth] Lv.4 [Un-armed] Lv.3 [Play fight] Lv.2 Looking at my skills, I was barely even close to leveling up anything to evolution, and for most of my skills I had absolutely zero Idea of how to level them. Like sand resistantace that I got during a sand storm and does something like reducing damage taken from sand, or my [Misbehavior] skill which just levels up when I disobey Appa. I wasn''t really sure what its Level bonus ment but it was there I guess. Leveling up skills just requires you to do what the skill is says, but if you want to evolve somthing you have to do something that stretches the skin in a certain direction, and this causes it to essentially specialize in a certain area. The reason why pushing something to level 10 made it evolve was unsure, but I would take anything at this point. I told Balif about my situation and his eyes sparked and he dragged me out of the room and towards the backyard. "Whoa! Where are we going Balif?" He sparked with excitement and spoke up while we went to the small ring that we made in the back for us and the other kids. "I''m gonna show you what my new skill can do!" We jumped into the ring and I put my hands in the usual position, while Balif did something strange. Rather than the regular form of just covering our stomaches and heads, he had his hands down low, almost to his waist. He was standing with one foot in front of the other with both of his fist facing upwards and out from his waist. He didn''t take his usual move if striking first, so I charged up to him as fast I could. In a mere second I was already up in his face and I threw a punch straight to his unguarded face. WHAM! Just when I thought I had landed a punch at his face, he punched me in my chest and I was launched backwards to the edge of the ring. Ouch! Ok, time to change it up! I rushed in again, but this time rather then coming straight at him, I crouched down to his side and attempted to hit his side. WHAM! He hit me square in the jaw and My vision slightly blurred and I lost my footing while I was falling to the ground rapidly. My mind was disoriented for a second and I stopped thinking. I couldn''t just loose like this. It was time for something to change. My mind unfroze and I learched back up before I could be knocked out. "Huff- Huff- Huff..." I slowly rised, feeling the muscles in body protest about the overuse of them while trying to win a fight against somebody I wasn''t ment to beat with my sub par skills. My body rebeled against me, and I rebeled against the unfairness of what was happening. I don''t want to be left behind by my friend, and I definitely don''t want to take the easy way out through being adopted. I wanted to earn my way to the next teir, I didn''t care if It wasn''t guaranteed to work. I can''t continue to live everyday getting beat up and laughed at for being to weak or having no parents. I don''t need any of those excuses. [Misbehavior] Lv.10 ¡ú [Rebel] Lv.1 [Rebel] While skill is active push limits by a degree. *WARNING! Your race is not made to have limits pushed! I... Did it? My head ache re-emerged with vengeance as I felt a sharp pain all over my body, I think I was screaming but I wasn''t really turned in at the time. Thump. I fell weakly to the ground as Balif started holding me up while saying something like ''Why is blood coming out of your Eyes?!'' I passed out as I saw Balif quickly carry me to Appa, who started working his magic the moment he saw my state.
"...Do you believe he is ready?" I sat in my ruined cell and rattled the chains restricting my arms behind my back and left me in neeling position. "...He has to be ready. We don''t have much time before the lower floors of the tower will be crushed. If anybody can do it, I know it is our son." My wife held a wishful expression as she faded back into nothingness, I was left alone in my very own cage once more. Ascension of the Tower ... Damn, He really did evolve his Un-armed. After a while of just sitting on Appas medical table I started reflecting on what happened. I thought about the stance that Balif, I thought about my approach to attack, and how he seamlessly countered my attack before I struck him. I thought about my evolved skill. The feeling of unfairness and anguish and anger just stirred inside of untill it exploded. Like something inside of me had snapped and repaired it''s self to be stronger then ever before. Thinking about my experience, I also thought about how Balif evolved his skill. It was normal for people to evolve skills while under extreme circumstances, like if they are in danger or if something is pushing the skill in question to its upper limit. That''s not to say everyone can evolve a skill at anytime, It''s much harder to evolve the writing skill compared to evolving a resistance skill because it''s harder to find a situation where you would be stressed enough to evolve a writing skill compared to a Resistance skill which is designed to help you survive. I was still contemplating about what had happened, when Appa walked in. He has golden amber skin but his body was covered in the wrinkles of time. He has small glasses on his well shaven face, and a short pointed hat covering his bald head. He held a look of both pity and professionalism as he looked at my form on the table. "... Nim, please don''t scare me like that again." He walked towards me slowly with his cane and I frowned at his words. "Isn''t this what you wanted? I finnaly evolved one of my skills! I can go to the higher tier now!" I screamed at him despite knowing it was entirely my fault that he was even talking to me right now. He sighed and sat down next to me on the rickety table. "Nim, Look at your self! Do you think that this kind of thing is a little joke?" I flinched at him raising his voice, but still looked down and tried to see what he saw. I looked down to see dry skin over skin that was holding onto the bones of my ribcage. I was skinny, but never this skinny. My skin was sickeningly dry and they way my skin was almost squeezing into my bones made me nauseous. I looked over at Appa for some kind of answer, but he just signed me to look at my status. Name: [Nimrod ''Nim'' Azure] Title: None Stats: Str: 1(-1) End: 6 Con: 3(-1) Dex: 12 Agi: 9 Per: 9 Skills: [Rebel] Lv.1 [Acrobatics] Lv. 5 [Sand Resistance] Lv.2 [Stealth] Lv.4 [Un-armed] Lv.3 [Play fight] Lv.2 I looked over at my stats and I was horrified. The only ways that people usually lose stat points is because they permanently injure themselves, and I stated panicking. Did I cripple my self? What do I do if they don''t let cripples into their 2? What if Balif still leaves me behind?! Seeing me with despair in my expression, Appa held me in his arms like he did when I was still 5 cycles old. I sobbed loudly and pushed him away even though I knew I wanted to be held and cared for, but I still wanted to let Go. Not let go of Appa, but let go of all of these feelings. I wanted to swim out of this pool of regret and anger but I was too stubborn to accept that I wouldn''t make it out. Creek... The door of the room slowly opened and I saw Balif enter into the room with tears visible in his eyes. He has heard what happed. He has been waiting outside of the door to see if I was okay and to support me even if I wasn''t. Instantly I stopped crying. The pride that refused to show it''s self in fornt of Appa reappeared and didn''t allow me to show vulnerability to best friend. I wiped my tears and Shakily stood from the table and hugged my friend. I hugged him for a good 30 seconds before I grabbed his arms and threw him back. WHAM! He smacked into the wall of the hallway and was briefly surprised that I did that, then saw the manic smile on my face and mirrored it, as we started fighting right then and there.
... [Play Fight] Lv.2 ¡ú [Play Fight] Lv.3 After a fight that was cut short by Appa, Balif and I got reprimanded for doing something blatantly stupid, Like fighting right in front of the person that is supposed to not let us fight. Anyways after the whole affair I felt better. I even go a level in play fight for the first time in forever. Whenever Balif or I got upset, we fought to blown off some steam. At this point it was a habit that was unbreakable due to how much we get upset about things that don''t matter. Like when we were debating if stream bird meat was better then sand worm, and we ended up getting beat up by some Guards because we trashed a shop in our little squabble. Usually I was the loser, but I had never lost like I did yesterday, At the very least I landed a couple of good strikes, but the difference between us was now to large to chalk up as a difference of skill levels. Both of us were nothing compared to those who apparently live in some 11th Teir of the tower, but we were good enough to defend our selves from the everyday theif or pickpocket. I mean, everybody knows there are 10 Teirs, Why was the rumor even made up? All this thinking and reflecting is starting to hurt my head... Balif and I continued to walk to our room as instructed by Appa to start packing our things to get ready to ascend to the 2nd Teir. I was looking around my room for any spare change that feel out of my bag, when I felt a pain in my chest and frowned in pain. Is this a side effect of losing Con? Whoosh... The normal warm winds rushed into the room, filling me with a sence of nostalgia even though I haven''t even left yet.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I looked out of my window and admired the view for perhaps the last time. Bright blue Stream birds contrasted against the Deep orange color of the 2nd Teir of the tower. I looked directly forward and saw the greenish blue sky shine a golden orange tint as the sun slowly set down for bed. I looked down from the sun to see the cracked Red ground of the desert beneath the 1st Teir. The vast amounts of sandstorms that happen here are because of the massive sandstorms that make their way to the first layer, Painting everything an orange rust like tint. To be honest, the 1st Teir looks like mostly rundown and is seemingly surviving off of fumes. It looked decrepit and dirty, but it''s all I''ve ever known, so it was home. KNOCK! KNOCK! Hearing the loud knocking, I saw out of my window to see the Guards standing out side of the gate with a couple of kids that seemed to also be going up to the 2nd Teir. "BALIF! NIM! RUSS! Get out here!" Appa called out loudly for us, and we both quickly double checked we had everything and walked to the front gate of the Orphanage. I opened the gate and one of the guards walked up to me. "Nimrod Azure?" He quickly stated my name and I quickly nodded my head to confirm, he then walked over to Balif and Russ and did the exact same. I didn''t know Russ very well, but I know he''s been trying to leave 1st layer ever since he was dropped off at the Orphanage by the Guards, I can remember he was talking about some ''They Just mad I was trying to eat'' thing but that was a pretty common occurrence since shops have been driving up prices, and kids stole what they couldn''t afford. Still kind of messed up they killed his entire family over something like that... Whatever. After a quick second we started moving to the Ascension Point in the middle of the 1st layer. As we walked by the few remaining stalls on the streets one of the kids stole an apple while neither of the Guards were looking and stuffed it into his pouch. He smiled Big enough to hear, but he didn''t even seem to need the apple. Unlike some of the other kids, he has sandles on, I could tell he was from a family. Everybody was dead silent because we knew that Guards had short tempers, but some slightly sneered at what they saw the kid do. The shop keeper noticed what had happened, but didn''t do anything, because if he started to beat a kid who was about to Ascend in front of a guard then he could get the classic Guard punch to the gut. We continued walking untill we were met by a large circle with a symbol that I couldn''t make out with large gold and blue structures surrounding qit on all sides, like a 4 petaled sun bloom. "All right! Everybody into the teleport matrix!" One of the guards that were guiding us yelled out, and started pushing kids into the circles forcefully. I looked at the kid that was thrown to the ground because of the force, and looked over at Balif who was looking at me the exact same way. All of us didn''t want to be pushed to the ground by then so we just jumped into the ''Matrix'' as we were told. "Blah Blah Blah, A bunch of stuff I''m supposed to tell you, have a good trip and don''t throw up all over the Teleport pad in teir 2! I don''t want another pay cut..." Suddenly after the Guard finished saying that, the floor beneath us started heating up like metal under the sun, and after a while all of the kids who didn''t have shoes started dancing around to stop their feet to burn. "HAHAHA! STUPID! HAHAHA!" The kid who stole the apple earlier was screaming laughing at the kids neer him that were jumping to avoid the pain, I could already tell I don''t like him. After a few more agonizin minutes of dancing around the 4 obelisk lit up and I felt extremely uncomfortable, then I all I felt was pain.
I awoke again on a something strangely cold. The second I noticed I was laying on it, I felt my muscles start shivering to warm it''s self. My teeth chattered in my jaw and I could see little things floating through the air, and avoided breathing to hard, as to avoid getting whatever this stuff is inside of my Lungs. After a second I refocused and realized I just made it to the 2nd Teir. I had just done something that not just anybody can do. Sure like a lot of people can make it up here, but some are stuck down in Teir one because they lack talent or the skills they have just don''t match them. "SNOORRR..." I focused back into what is now and not what was then, when I hear the familiar snore of my bunk mate. After a second of contemplation, I decided that I shoul make his have to figure this place out with me. WHAM! I sent a punch straight to his face and it connected with just as much force as intended. "OWW! Dorok, I''m up!" After landing my strike, I pointed up wards towards the sky He complaid only a light bit more, then looked up to see what I saw. Beautiful Greenish blue waves fell from the sky and gently exploded into little white modes of cotton. At this point all of the kids, except for the some that were throwing up, Were looking up at the sky in amazement. Looking done from the sky I saw large... Bushes? Like berry bushes but on long sticks, and instead of leaves they were the little dark green pins you would use to fix ripped clothes. I continued to look around as Balif said something In his infine, weapon skill evolving knowledge "Blue!" ...How the Tartarus did this guy even evolve any skill? sighing while rubbing my temples In looked at what he was saying his profound words about. Directly ahead of us, there were guards. Not just any gaurds. These were the blue gaurds Although the normal gaurds wore greenish black uniforms, Blue Guards were completely different. These were the hot shots. Wore masks to protect their identitys. The only times that I had ever seen a Blue gaurd was when someone was escoured to the 1st Teir because of some horrible things they apparently did. Balif and I had determined that we should never try to fight one of them, even if we had a numbers advantage. Why? Because they had a (Excuse my Suntarian) Fucking annihilator. Annihilators are highly powerful and expensive pieces that could only be made with a specific skill and were powerful enough that They were banned from public use after some kind of accident on a higher tier. One time while I was just walking around, a pickpocket tried to steal one. I didn''t even have time to process it before there was nothing but a blob of meat on the floor. I still feel squimish to this day... Refocusing in on what was in front of me, The blue gaurds voice was clearly distorted, but also a higher pitch then I expected. "Welcome to Teir 2 wastes of space, you will now be moved to your family''s compound, or your assigned schools." After the final word, the normal gaurds behind the blue gaurd reached into their belts and pulled out multiple pairs of boots that clearly did not fit in there. What the Tartarus? They threw them at all of our feet individually then signed for us to put them on and walk with them. All of the kids that were going to their family''s were led directly north, while the rest were led to the East as we all put on the stuffy by warm boots. We slowly stood from the massive Metal plate on the ground and people started shooting to whichever way we were going. Balif and I followed the way going East as we marvels at the white, slippery sand. I tracked through the cold sand as I felt a strange feeling in my fingers and nose. Like having little needles on your finger tips and having them poke at your nose. It was like nothing I had ever experienced! Of coarse Balif was being Balif, and was shoveling the Sand into his mouth and mumbling something. I wanted to reprimand him for doing something that idiotic, but I think he might have been onto something, so I grabbed a small amount of it and took a bite. It melted in my mouth instantly, and saw steam fly out of my mouth. Ohh! Neat. As we continued treaking through the narrow opening between the massive bushes, we slowly got closer to a large blue and grey structure, like some kind of castle you would find in a kids bedtime story. I walked in silence while I slowly ached due to the cold that was chilling me to the bones, making me shiver an sneeze as my body was covered in the water from the cold sand. The cold was distracting enough that almost tripped on the side of a large rounded street, and was absolutely stunned by the sight that I saw. The large castle that we were walking up to was in clear view now that it wasn''t blocked by the large pines that rose from the ground. It looked elaborate, intricate, and beautiful all at the same time. It was like nothing I had ever seen in person. "Hey! Keep up with the group!" The guard had seen that I was Trailing behind, and yelled at me to keep walking towards wherever we were headed. SMACK! The gaurd landed a good hit in my back and I was jolted to attention, and quickly ran up to the Balif and rubbed my back in pain. Ow! Fucking dog... The pain of the cold and the gual of this Gaurd was slowly starting to get on my Nerves. "You good dude?" Balif asked me if I was alright as I slightly dragged behind him as we continued to walk, but I just gave a quick nod as I kept going forward, hoping to get out of this cold faster if I did so. "Bro, peep this!" Balif breathed out a large cload of stream as he attempted to cheer me up. I chuckled a little bit just kept walking to keep the little heat I still had. Why is it so Durgon Cold? The coldest it ever got in the 1st Teir was when a large breeze hit the tower in a weird way! All of us kept walking a little longer untill I started seeing some familiar structures, like Some Store signs and alleyways that led to other streets. Strangely enough, there were basically no shops that weren''t inside of some kind of room, and The shops were absolutely massive, having at least 10 items for sell at every single one! I oggled at these vendors, but could see people trading little bronze disc for them instead of actual money. The shopkeepers were even accepting them instead of throwing things and telling them to ''Get out of here before I get a guard!'' ... We continued walking till we were in a little area with 2 rickety buildings with signs on the top. The left most one read ''Mr.Dells Academia for the talented'' This little shack looked barley large enough for 5 people, but it was pristine compared to the Right most one. While the right most one read ''Mr. Killinghan''s School for the troubled'' This shack was the worst of the 2. It swayed despite the lack of wind, and I could practically smell the rust that peeled off of it. The Blue guard standed with their arms crossed at the Left most shack and a normal gaurd was in front of the Right shack. "Alright! When we call your name you will enter the door to our left! Do NOT try to run or we are authorized to use our batons!" As I hear the word baton I flinched, thinking about the time I had stolen a bun from a Gaurd and got smacked with it square on my knee. Couldn''t walk straight for a week.. The Gaurds wasted no time to start calling out names that I didn''t recognize and we spent a while just sitting there. . .. ... .. . "Russ Arclage!" I perked up at a recognized name and I saw him walk towards the Left Shack, before he disappeared like all the other kids did. "Balif Sun!" Balif was surprised when his name was called by the Blue gaurd. I was almost flabbergasted before I remembered that he somehow evolved a weapon skill, so it was pretty much guaranteed that he was going to the fancy pants school... But I was a little worried that we would be separated. I''m sure that wouldn''t happen though. I mean, I''m sure my skill was good eno- "Nimrod Azure!" I was shocked out of my thoughts as the normal gaurd at the rightmost shack and despair filled my soul and weighed me down. I acted like I was despairing, but I should have guessed that I wouldn''t go to the school for people who have healing or equipment creating skills. I rubbed my eyebrows after only slightly crying, and got up from my sitting position to start slowly walk to the Little shack. ... "Oh come on kid! Hurry it up! If you pick of the pace mabey I''ll give you a little tip." The Gaurd yelled out words that I barely even processed as I ran my way over. Just as he opened the door that made people disappear, he whispered in my ear. "Don''t let the teacher know your from the 1st Teir." SLAM! The door slammed close before I could question him, and I felt my brain slosh around my head. Disingenuous Lier CHINK. CLANK. I was awoken by the sound of metal and felt a dropping feeling in every fiber of my being. "G- *Cough!" I instinctually gulped, but I choked on my spot and gagged. I looked around my surroundings, but my vision swam and I hastily shut my eyes again to avoid throwing up. My nose was stuck closed by something, but as I tried to grab it off of my face I felt the skin of my arm slightly tear as chains that were holding my upside down dug into my flesh. "Ow! God..." I quickly complained about the pain as I tried to wiggle my way out of the cuff off of my hands. CLANK. Jingle~ I was quitely trying to move my small hands out of the chains that were folding my upside down on the ceiling but I couldn''t see what was accually holding my hands so I was having trouble escaping like usual. "Please...!" With a quiet POP-ing noise I had successfully gotten one of my hands out, so I let it hand there for a second to try to realise my other hand as well. I pulled hard, CLANK. I have it another shot. CLANK. I put all of the strength in my little body to use and gave it one last shot. "Grrrh!" POP! SKRGHT! CLANK. With a loud pop and some blood pouring from the open scrape on my arm, I had made it out of the chains I still couldn''t see. I let both of my arms hang as I breathed for a second to finnaly think about where I was now that I had slightly calmed. I am starting to feel a little light headed... I hadend realise that I had already just been hanging for 15 minutes despite my bleeding wound and I was just sitting there like I still wasn''t in a dangerous new place. "Where the Taurterus am-" SLIT. I heard somebody speak from behind me but before I could say anything the voice cut off and I hear the sound of something tearing at flesh. "Now let''s keep it down. We wouldn''t want to wake the others, now would we~?" An gravely optimistic voice practically giggled as he spoke as soft as he could, Sothing about this guy set me off and made it feel like lead was drilling through my stomach, and tearing through my flesh. I was took scared to move... But something about what just happened intrigued me enough to muster up the stupid bravery to turn my eyes to see what had happened. Jiggle~ The chains that were holding me rattled at the slightest movement of my body, and I lost my cool about the situation and took in a sharp breath due to my mounting fear. ... The large bone thin form of somthing that didn''t seem human lowly turned to my direction after doing something to the person behind me. BUM-BUM I froze completely, but my hard was beating loud enough to hear. BUM-BUM BUM-BUM He edged ever so slightly towards me and, a knew I had to do something before he did the same thing he just did to me. "Grrgg" SHANK! POP. I got one of my legs out of the restraints, but my foot was hurt in the process. "Hah... Come on!" I hyped my self up to help with the pain, and my other leg was freed with a the very same scaping and popping noise. Slam. I weakly flopped to the ground as I was relised from what had contained me. Creeeaek. I could hear the cold metallic floor bending as this large creature came closer towards me. As before I couldn''t clearly see it because I was stuck to the ceiling in this mostly dark room, now I could see that it had a large leather bag made of what seemed to be meat donning it head, obscureing my view of it. The blood in my vains cooled and I froze like a block of ice. Something happened instinctually. Without even controlling my body, I had already started snakeing a long the floor towards the side of the room in desperation, just hoping that this person hadn''t seen me due to the object covering its head. "Where are you trouble maker~?" "Hehe... HAHAHA!!!" The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Hearing his voice I felt like crawling into the smallest form I could and cowering, but my body has better ideas. As quickly and quietly as I could I tried to move as if I was apart of the shadows that lurked the corners of the room and kept my distance from this large grey creature. "I know your in here." For the first time he has used a serious tone and I felt frozen to my bones, my body wouldn''t even move on instinct and I felt as if caught in the claws of a predator. "I-Inhale, O--oout hale..." I attempted to silently recite the words that Appa taught me to use if I was ever being overwhelmed by my emotions, but my breathing quiverd I shook on the ground as the cold of the metal floor burned into my wounds. "...Huhzzafa....Grglgl?" I felt light headed and nauseated but I knew I had to get out of here before anything else, so I swallowed my throw up and continued attempted to lurk within the shadows despite not being able to move. [Stealth] Lv. 4 ¡ú [Stealth] Lv. 5 I felt my self walking quieter and with much less need to focus as I felt the level refine and improve my technique of sneaking within the darkest areas I could. I slitered on my stomach as I avoid bumping my open wounds against anything that might get it infected. Hiss... I attempted to act as much as a viper as I could in desperation and I slowly hissed and whimpered to help deal with the searing pain beating down on me as I slowly made my way anywhere other than here. "I can smell your blood~!" "Don''t even Think you can get away." I was frozen again, I wanted to just stop. I wanted to stop everything, I wanted all of this to end... But in the end I rationalized and relized that stoping wouldn''t just fix this. I had to do something-- I couldn''t just run away from this, at least not this time. "-Ugg!" I stood up painfully with my injured ankles, and I got my hands into the familiar stance that I had every other time that I had gotten ready to scrap with someone. I ain''t running from this. [Bravery] Lv. 0 ¡ú [Bravery] Lv. 1 Reduces the effect of Fear I didn''t give it time to react as I ran towards it as fast as my injured feet could take me. WHAM! I elbowed it square in the back of its knee as I attempted to make it lost balance and fall to the ground. KRUNCH. A sickening snap occured as it''s from folded in on its self like marionette that just wiggled its strings from its conductor. I had jumped back in surprise, but the figure stopped moving after I hit it to the ground with my simple move. That was... Easy? I kept watching it for 5 more seconds before I remembered that my wounds were still bleeding all over the place, so I started making haste towards anywhere that had some amount of light. I finnaly took time to see the room I was in and took in everything around me. With the small amount of light that was let into the room through a light leading to a hallway, I could see others that were hanging just like I was, in the dirty bloody and grimy chains that restricted them upside down. Ugg! That would explain the smell at least... I could see piles of blood and other bodily fluids that I didn''t even want to think about as I slowly stepped through them with my bare feet towards the only exit in the room. As I stepped through the multicolored liquid while trying to keep my mind off the stench, I looked at the news skill that I had developed. Hmm... I think this just means it''s easier to not be scared, but I guess the system is known to be cryptic in its messages sometimes. finally reaching the light I am finally free from the stench of the blood and sweat and tears as all of it washes off of me as I pass through the stone door way towards the bright white light. I turn towards where the light is coming from in the hallway and see a ladder that leads upwards towards somewhere. I creeped through the slightly brighter room, using stealth really just because I felt safer while doing so and made my way towards the cool bronze ladder leading up. Hopefully there aren''t anymore sur- BZZT. I was launched against the wall in agony as my fingertips felt like they were popping and my vision went entirely white. I-I can''t see! I panicked due to the sudden loss of my favorite sense and was beaten by the wall after being slammed against it with a near inaudible noise. Or was it audible?... Did I also loose my hearing!? I could hear the quiet groaning of somthing behind the wall, clearly in pain. ...Now I kinda wish I couldn''t. As I sat against that wall I was thrown at, I could see the white slowly fading as I could see again after 3 minutes of passive waiting. After recovering my eyesight, I calmed enough to look around and understand what was happening. Ok, so I had been in the snow with Balif, then I was sent to Mr. Killinghan''s or whatever school, then I was hanging upside down in a horrible smelling room with kids that had also gotten sent there. My assessment? I am at this so called ''School'', and I wanna get out! After realizing where I was and what I wanted to do, I started trying to figure out some way to get through this little hatch in the ground that had the electrical ladder. Perhaps I could not use the ladder somehow? Looking up the hole, I could see that it was at least 4 mes tall, so it might be difficult to just jump my way up there. ...Well that''s not gonna work... Maybe I can just find a different way up? I took a look around for any other passage ways with light in them, but no such thing was there. All I could see were 2 large doors that were shut close, and the before mentioned ladder up. Walking over to the large door to the East, I gave it a little push. Creek. The door slightly moved, so I gave it a better push the second time. Creak. The door had moved enough for me to wiggle through the small opening that I had made and get a peak of the room. Sand. Lots of it. Not anything I hadn''t handled yet! Finally stepping all the way through the door, I was surprised the door didn''t shut be- SLAM! "..." Any ways. I look around the room to see that it is much larger on the inside then it looks on the outside just like your moth- SHWIP! All of the sand in the room starts spinning around in a circular pattern, clearly in some attempt to hurt me, but no much is happening thanks to my sand resistantace doing its thing. I walked up to this little sand tornado and simply walked through it with my eyes closed and felt around till I bumped against something with my hip. It had a grippy texture, and unlike the ladder it didn''t shock me when I touched it, so I grabbed and pulled. CHINK. This thing made a loud noise and I saw as this little sand twister disappeared back into pure sand. ...Alright then. I walked out of the now wide open door and looked back at the ladder before I did anything else. I would go give it a try, but I''m not trying to lose my eye sight again. Finishing my thoughts, I walked towards the wall directly north of the ladder. Applying the proper amount of pressure the first time, I open the door and take a peek inside. I could see small piles of burning stuff and I could smell something similar to a singing bird that was cooking similar to how Appa did it, but I chose to ignore it because of the massive amount of heat that felt like it was actively drying out my already dry skin. Hellish Tartarus that''s hot! I step out of the door way to catch a quick break before I enter and get cooked by the room. How the hell do you deal with heat like that? I mean I''ve seen hot, but not that hot! I looked around, making sure there wasn''t any water or something I could pour onto myself to cool down in a hurry. ... Nope still no water. What other cold liquids are there? ... I mean there is the pit of bodily liquids? That was at least a little cool... But that''s also nasty... But I don''t think I have another choice to get outta here! I walk my way over to the room with hanging people again, and quickly cover my self in the cold and disgusting liquids while keeping my eyes and mouth closed tight. DUNK. I instantly jump out and walk back to the room before I have to redo what I just did. Crrk. I open the door and walk through looking frantically for the lever. SMACK! Click. I ram into a switch and it clicks as I run outta there before the liquid can stick to my skin. The smell is horrible! I only slightly gag as I give ladder one last try. Tap. ...No zap? I rocket up the ladder and look at the outside world. I am amazed at the lights of the second Teir once more as I am seeing the lights in full action out here. Strangely enough there is no snow, but rather large fields of fertile grass that matt the land like the pastures of a wealthy farmer. I take a deep breath in and accidentally get a little sip of nearly dried blood on my face and I gag once more. "g- Cough" I hear simthin behind me speak. " Did you just say cough?" What the Tar-