by Simon Archer
Pumice Crustaceous Corpsemonger, beast Lv 5 (deceased)
Harvested: -99%, Hunter Lv 35 required
Harvested, my ass. Yeah, the ‘honorable tribe’ of dead bodies now smeared with blood was sure to use every stone of its body with respect to the beast’s role in the circle of nature. What a beautiful and majestic culture, just throwing the remains against the walls. How not wasteful.
What was I so angry about? I didn’t even know what I was going to get from harvesting it. But the fact that I would never know now would probably haunt me forever. I had to settle for that stupid rat. What was a disease-ridden rat going to give me? I’d been robbed.
Now to make sure I wasn’t dying. Looking at my health and magic, I was confused by the math that was going on. If I was keeping track correctly, factoring in the armor, I’d taken four damage from the crabs, then another thirteen from the slam, and now another twelve. With my increased endurance from gaining that gladiator level, I should have been dangerously close to zero, with some lost magic from two spells. But, plain as day, here were the results of the whole fight:
Health: 13/30
Magic: 146/146
Alright, so how did that work? How was I not almost dying right now? I had a solid twelve more from where I thought I should have been, which would have meant that I was getting an exact average of six extra damage reduced every time, not counting the attacks where I only took one damage. Did I have my own resistances? That would have explained it. It didn’t show up on my level update screen from before, but something I wasn’t seeing was getting me some unseen protection.
See, this was why I wanted to see those damn abilities, or just have access to my character sheet in general. I wished all of that would have shown up somewhere I could have seen it. I could have done the math properly, then, and not be off by a third of my own health. I could have taken a risk that I shouldn’t have taken back there, like collapsing this place on top of me.
Looking away from the corner of my vision, I picked myself up from the ground and found myself greeted by yet another blue update screen:
Defender has increased to: Lv 2
+3 Endurance
And then another:
Spellweaver has increased to: Lv 2
+1 Intelligence
Spell type augments now increase in level at twice the usual rate
And then finally:
You have increased your level to: Lv 2
+2 to all attributes, skills, spell augments, abilities, defenses, and strikes
Abilities gained: Status Screen, Determination
That was what I was talking about! Sweet monkey Jesus, I was on a roll. How long had it been? Less than ten minutes at most? A level every five minutes, and I was going to reach level one thousand in a couple of weeks. And did my eyes deceive me, or did that ability say ‘Status Screen’? Did that mean what I hoped it meant? Was I finally going to be able to explore my abilities at my leisure? Was this the moment? I didn’t know exactly how long I’d been gone from Earth, but it felt like ages. I was beyond ready to know my own secrets.
I carefully, tensely, excitedly, and slowly tapped on the screen to see those next few screens come up, one by one:
Jeremiah Thorne, Human Novice Mage Lv 2
Health: 120 Magic: 244
Armor: 13 Aegis: 63
Abilities: Seed of Voloth, Omni Potential, Growth Beyond, Final Act, Otherworldly, Harrowing Experience, Status Screen, Determination
Magic School: Omnimage
Spell Strength: +48 Magic Salvage: +68
Strike: +38 Resolve: +40
Specialization: None
Spell Level Maximum: Unlimited
Spell Augment Maximum: Unlimited
Mage Attributes
Strength: 38 Intellect: 48
Endurance: 40 Cunning: 36
Charm: 35 Sense: 48
Spell Augmentations
Elements: Death Lv 3, Earth Lv 3, Flames Lv 4, Impact Lv 3, Nature Lv 3, Lightning Lv 3, Mind Lv 3, Poison Lv 3, Radiance Lv 4, Space Lv 3, Time Lv 3, Twilight Lv 3, Water Lv 3, Wind Lv 3
Types: Aura Lv 3, Beam Lv 3, Blast Lv 3, Bomb Lv 4, Control Lv 3,
Creation Lv 3, Enchantment Lv 4, Hex Lv 3, Self Lv 3
Job Skills
Mundane: Acrobat Lv 3, Artisan Lv 3, Beastmaster Lv 3, Covert Lv 3, Defender Lv 4,
Doctor Lv 3, Hunter Lv 4, Gladiator Lv 4, Generalist Lv 3, Presence Lv 3, Pugilist Lv 3, Researcher Lv 3, Trickster Lv 3, Sniper Lv 3
Magic: Alchemist Lv 3, Demonologist Lv 3, Elementalist Lv 3, Mythozoologist Lv 3,
Occultist Lv 3, Priest Lv 3, Spiritualist Lv 3, Spellweaver Lv 4
Special: Analyst Lv 13
Oh, okay, so everything got pumped by two with that last level. That was awesome. Was that going to be the pattern for every level? Three for third level, four for fourth, five for fifth? Oh, sweet mercy, I was going to reach some stupidly high levels in some of these skills, I could already tell. I just had to hope that it would have been enough to fight off a god. It had to be.
Despite the explosion being much larger than I’d wanted, I considered this a smashing success, and not just because I’d smashed myself against the wall. Mostly because I hadn’t brought the ceiling down and smashed myself with the rubble. And I was getting stronger, smarter, and faster with every passing moment.
And my health display disappeared, so I was back to full strength again, and then some. Now I just needed to get out of here. And that meant seeing where I was going. With a small bit of focus, I magicked up some radiance, creation, control, and just a touch of nature together in the hopes of creating something like a floating light that could have followed me around. Making spells had become more intuitive now that I could have actually done it, since my mind was starting to make the connections between what I wanted to do and how to get there much more efficiently. That Intellect attribute was doing some work. My imagination was already exploding with ideas about how all of these different augments combined.
The experiment worked flawlessly! Opening up my empty hand, I brought out a wisp of light, which gently floated up into the air, glowing a bright blue that illuminated most of the chamber I’d popped into. It had cost a whopping twenty magic points to make, the most expensive spell I’d created so far. Was that a waste? Eh, I’d have had to see. With all of these levels exploding on me, I only hoped that my magic reserve could have kept up. But something returned my magic to me naturally, so I watched the numbers carefully to see what exactly that meant and would happen now.
Not a second later, the twenty I’d lost bounced back to full. A small, green ‘+68’ popped up next to it, the same number as my Magic Salvage score. Was I able to ‘salvage’ that much magic in moments all the time? That seemed stupidly powerful. That explosion was only about six to eight points, and it shook the room. Hmm. Maybe I needed to start adding a bit more juice to some of these spells. Couldn’t hurt.
Speaking of the room, I decided to give it a better look since the new light made the room about as lit up as a fluorescent bathroom. As a whole, there was a spooky vibe going on, with the dead bodies lining the walls, and the sarcophagi in the ground, just like before. The explosion had taken its toll on nearly everything, unsettling even the furthest wrapped bodies from their rest to be off center of their stone beds.
While the effective area was extensive, the actual damage wasn’t so terrible that it would have counted as destruction in most spots, per se. Almost everything was still intact, except for the one stone tomb that was missing half of itself, almost perfectly. The stone bed and the body on it cut off at the same spot, as if something had just taken a big bite out of it. That seemed… disrespectful. Fantasy burial sites were not something to disrespect so lightly. The nightly patrols of underpaid workers weren’t so much the problem as was the risk of… upsetting the residents.
In the spirit of honoring the dead or discontinuing to dishonor it, I resolved to find the nearest exit before my foreigner's presence desecr
ated this sacred tomb any further. As the light followed me around, operating perfectly as I’d hoped, I stepped toward the exit, a little archway on the far side of the room, only to find glowing white lines slowly shaping the outline of an invisible humanoid figure, floating off the ground and between me and my exit:
Delilah LaBroque, Undead Lv 18
Health: 3240 Magic: 500
Armor: 90 Aegis: 30
Abilities: Undeath, Bodiless, Purity of Mind and Body, Beyond Limitations, Fast as Lightning
Mmm, shit. Too late. And way beyond what I can fight. Time to work on that charm skill.
11
“I know this looks bad,” I spoke to the floating figure illuminated by my special sight to see invisible people, hoping not to have to fight at nine times my own level, “and I’ll be the first to admit that mistakes were made. In that spirit… to that effect, rather, I move that we part ways, and I promise never to visit this sanctuary for the honored dead ever again upon pain of eternal damnation, or however you feel like punishing interlopers. Deal?”
The haunting figure floated there silently, bobbing and swaying gently, without moving any sort of muscle on the transparent silhouette. No matter how long I felt willing to wait, this floating specter wasn’t making a peep.
This was a ghost. There was a ghost in front of me. I was talking to a ghost, and the ghost was right here in front of me. And it was a stupidly high-level ghost. A drastic change from the previous level of ghosts I’d met previously. How long had the ghost been there? Was she always watching since I came into this world? That would’ve sucked, but it might have saved everyone some time in me explaining what happened. The only problem was figuring out how to hit a ghost if a fight broke out. Could ghosts have even been hurt? Did magic hurt them, or did I need something special? What were the ghost rules here?
And why wasn’t I scared? If a ghost had shown up at my apartment like this, or even at my work, with all of my coworkers there, I might have peed a little. And I knew that this ghost outclassed me by leaps and bounds. And yet, I didn’t feel the need to run or pee. I needed to live through this.
“Um, hello?” I tried to prompt a response from the silhouette. “Is that a yes? A no? A maybe? How about this; remain silent and spooky if you’re completely fine with me going away without any repercussions, or say anything at all, and we can discuss the matter further?”
The ghostly figure still didn’t respond or move.
“I know you can understand me,” I called out to the spirit, “You can’t fool me. I have witnesses that show I somehow got some kind of permanent universal translator thing going on, so I can talk to anyone. Unless you can’t talk at all? If not, then what are you doing here? Am I actually talking to someone, or is this some kind of illusion?”
“Why have you come here?” The ghost finally said something, speaking in hissing whispers, like ghosts were prone to.
I assumed it was the ghost speaking now, but the voice itself sounded like it was echoing off of every wall in the whole structure before it got back to me. It sounded pretty spooky, I’d admit. I didn’t know why I wasn’t quite afraid at the moment, but that was helping me make clear-headed decisions.
“I didn’t mean to in the slightest,” I responded, “I wasn’t the one casting the teleportation spell in the first place. Because we were under attack and extreme duress, the spell was hastily cast. This tomb, or crypt, or whatever we’re calling it, was just where I got dumped off at the other end. No malicious intent was had by either Torlith or me for this sacred place. What is this place, anyway?”
“Lies!” the ghost accused me, pointing to the coffin I’d accidentally pulverized. “You have come to desecrate these tombs and steal the treasures of the dead. I am bound to punish you for this insolent crime.”
“Hey, this broken coffin over here,” I swooshed my hands over the half-coffin I was referencing, “was a complete accident, okay? I didn’t know how strong my spell was yet. I’m new to all of this magic stuff. Cut me some slack.”
“A novice mage is not capable of such destruction!” The ghost’s voice echoed with her rage. “I can sense the power emanating from you. You are a thief and a spy, and I must slay all who trespass upon these grounds.”
“First off, yes, I am a novice mage capable of this much destruction,” I said, giving her the ‘finger guns of rebuking’ to accentuate my words. “The fire bomb that destroyed that coffin was quite literally my second spell ever cast. My first was lighting up this bone,” I put the light enchantment on my bone club to show her, “and also now my fourth spell as of this moment. The third was this light right here.”
“Do you think I’m a fool?” The specter strafed me to the right side of the room, her outline passing through the coffins she floated by as she moved. “How would a novice mage know where a ghost is when they do not wish to be seen? And you already have sufficient mastery over two elements of magic and many more ways to cast them. How would all of that be possible for a novice mage?”
“The answer to that question,” I thought about how to deliver it simply and failed, “is super complicated. I’m not even one hundred percent sure how it all works, or even a little. I was bumbling about in the dark for a bit until I killed that rat over there.” I pointed to the dead rat. The thing was much uglier and greener than I imagined, like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, but hairy and with a bare tail. “Then my magic finally started to kick in with my level. Now I’m learning how all of these magic powers and levels work around each other. Do you know what a level is? Is that a thing? Do I sound crazy?”
“The powers and skills of a mage are measured by lunarum stones in levels.” The ghost lady floated closer to me. “How stupid do you think I am? Do you believe that I am a novice? Is that why you’re attempting to appeal to me as one?”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” I put my hands up and backed away, “Dear God, no. Hell, no. You are so goddamn out of my league that I’m trying to talk my way out of dying here, and I’m not just talking about how beautiful you probably are that I don’t deserve to be even speaking to you. I need to--”
“You can see me?” the ghost backed herself behind a coffin, failing to hide part of her body behind it, “How is that possible? Are you even more powerful than even I can sense?”
“Yes and no,” I answered confusingly, “To all of those questions, except the one about possibility-- you know what, it doesn’t matter. I have very complicated abilities that I need to learn a lot more about. I’m just now beginning to develop them, and I need to get back to the surface to get started so that I can kick Grune and Zuak’s collective asses.”
“Who are they?” she asked me with an angry tone that belied a genuine curiosity.
“The first one’s a god sorcerer, and the second one’s a squid monster cultist… thing,” I said, still not sure if Zuak could ever have been considered classifiable. “It’s all complicated. I don’t really understand most of it myself, and I am running down to the last of my knowledge at this point in the conversation. Again, I cannot stress enough how absolutely new to everything that I am, and the only way I learn more is if you lead me to the surface. Or just point me in the right direction, and I can find it on my own. Maybe. Hold on, wait. You don’t know who Zuak or Grune are?”
“No,” Delilah said, failing to hide a tinge of sadness in her tone, “I have been down here a very long time. I do not know how long. It could be hundreds of years.”
“Oh, damn, I’m sorry,” I said, “I guess we’re both going to be pretty new when we get to the surface, then.”
“What?” The ghost was confused by my words. “I will not be leaving this place. I am bound to it, as I am bound to eliminate all intruders. Like you.”
“Do you happen to know what’s binding you?” I asked, giving her abilities a look to see if I had any options, “I can’t say I’m good at all of my spells, but I’m sure I could get something going with all the stuff I can do. Maybe I can free you.”
“There’s nothing that a novice paladin can do,” Delilah rose up in the air, accusing me of being a paladin based on the magic she’d seen. “Even if you were a necromancer, there isn’t one powerful enough to break the chains that bind me without destroying me. I have entertained your hopeful notions for long enough.”
“Hold on for one second!” I stalled, “I have a dabbling of necromancy. I just need to figure out how to use that.” I checked all of her abilities, depending on my Intellect score to pick up any useful information:
Undeath
This creature has been brought back from the dead, either in body or in spirit. As such, they are not burdened with the necessities of life, but neither are the blessings that can come with it.