“Is this guy human?” Greg pulled a pair of pants from the closet and investigated the two inch wide hole in the back. They’d arrived back at Maeve’s apartment, which his UI had told him was also a designated safe zone, and Greg was excited to put on some actual clothes, eat food, and sleep.
“He’s a parduc. Why?” Maeve called from the other room.
“Just curious.” He wasn’t sure what a parduc was, but hopefully it had a tail. He pulled on a set of pants, keeping the spandex on underneath, and a loose-fitting shirt. Whoever this guy was, he was a lot beefier than himself.
He emerged back into the spacious living room of the apartment. They were on the ground floor of one of those massive apartment buildings they’d passed on the way to see Brannoc. He’d suspected such a large building would have less…personality, but he was surprised with just how chic the little apartment was.
The pentagonal central room had high ceilings, ten to twelve feet he guessed, with little recesses where Maeve had put plants with thin leafy fronds. Each wall lead to another room, shared restroom, kitchen, and the two bedrooms, with the final being the one that led outside.
It reminded him of Autumn. Her stupid fern she insisted on keeping in his apartment. Her refusal to let the thing die.
“You alright?” Maeve asked before shoving a fork full of greasy noodles into her mouth.
They’d stopped at a take-out spot near the apartment and picked up something that smelt heavenly. Fried, salty, and unapologetically drenched in grease. Exactly what he needed. He dropped onto the couch across from her, a short coffee table between them with numerous boxes of food on it.
He didn’t answer, opting instead to just start stuffing his face. Not having eaten anything of substance for at least three days had left him ravenous, and between the two of them they finished enough food for five people in under twenty minutes. Greg groaned as he leaned back on the couch and sat his hands on his distended stomach.
“I needed that.”
Maeve chortled, wiping her face with a paper napkin. She reached up into her storage space and pulled the engine she’d been working on earlier, clearing a spot on the table before setting it down. When he didn’t hear any tinkering, Greg cracked an eye open and stared down his body at her. She was staring back at him, little button nose shifting back and forth with her lips as she wrestled with something she wanted to say.
“I’m already beyond in your debt, Maeve.” He said matter-of-factly. “Just say it.”
She huffed and crossed her arms. “It just seems really rude.” She paused for a moment, then succumbed to her own curiosity. “But fine. What did Brannoc tell you?”
Not to trust anyone with what he said mainly. Greg lifted his head slightly to look at her. She was trying to hide the excitement, though she couldn’t keep her body from bouncing slightly.
“Just what I was.” He shrugged. “Answered some questions I had.”
Maeve pouted. “That’s not everything.”
“No, it is not.” Greg sighed, heaving himself to an upright seated position and feeling his overstuffed stomach shift uncomfortably. “There’s some weird shit about me, but he said not to tell anyone I don’t explicitly trust. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but I don’t know if I trust you like that yet.”
She pursed her lips, looked him up and down, then grinned and gave a curt nod. “I guess that’s fair.” She immediately went to tinkering.
It didn’t take long for Greg to pass out, the gentle clinks of delicate tools working on the fist sized engine a strange lullaby for an even stranger day. The gentle metal on metal sounds reminded him of Autumn. Each turn of a wrench sounding more like a knife hitting a cutting board the further he faded.
He was at the restaurant again. Clinking silverware, background conversations, the subtle gust of air as a waiter rushed by, and her gorgeous honey-colored eyes filled with disappointment. This time, it came with oh so helpful UI messages that popped up to the side of her head. These were different. Far less clinical than the normal messages, they felt like someone was speaking to him. Not particularly nicely either.
She’s begging for you to fight. Show any semblance of a fucking backbone. You sure you loved this woman?
Could you be any worse of a partner? It’s honestly sad.
She dumped you in public, and I still feel worse for her.
Were it not for the sudden banging sound from behind him and the hushed cursing, he likely would have suffered through another twelve hours of sleep. Eyes fluttering open, he half expected to wake up in his bed with his phone blaring that annoying chime alarm.
He’d been laid on his side, a pillow tucked under his head, and a blanket draped over him. Maeve tiptoed around the couch and peaked over his head to check to see if she woke him.
“Aww fuck.” She muttered. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. You want some coffee?”
“Yes, please.” Greg yawned and pushed himself up into a cross-legged seated position. He looked down at his knee, still blown away by the lack of pain. If he were to try something like this before his body was apparently totally reconstructed, he would not have been able to walk properly for days.
He reached into his extradimensional space and pulled out the skill book. If he was going to use it, now was the time. He cracked open the cover and the message popped up exactly where he’d left it.
Basics of Swordsmanship:
Would you like to absorb the Basics of Swordsmanship skillbook?
Yes/No
Yes.
The pages of the book fluttered in front of him, characters lifting off of them and flying into his eyes. He threw himself back on the couch, but the onslaught didn’t stop. His heart raced and he started batting at the air, but made no contact. Maeve had run into the room and was saying something. He couldn’t hear her, but she wasn’t freaking out.
She couldn’t see it.
It wasn’t actually happening. It was just how his brain was processing, absorbing the skill.
“You alright?” Maeve cocked her head to the side, bright red braid slipping over her shoulder.
“Think so.” Greg rubbed his eyes. The letters had slowed, but were still coming from the book. “Drowsy still, I think.”
Maeve nodded. “Extra strong coffee coming right up.” She flung the braid back behind her and skipped off to the kitchen.
You’ve absorbed Basics of Swordsmanship.
You are now proficient with short swords, long swords, rapiers, greatswords [Fragment Surge—Error]…fucking swords, you get it. You can swing… [Persona Suppressed]
You’ve gained 1 point of dexterity and 1 point of strength.
“Good thing I got that sword.”
###
Volatility levels increasing. No longer in a designated safe zone.
The blinking bar was enough of a reminder, but he was growing used UI notifications sounding in his head. Greg grimaced as Maeve popped the manhole cover off with the end of her wrench and bobbed her head to the side.
“In ya go.”
“I’m second guessing my decision. Maybe we should go see if I can get a job at some shop? Maybe I can sell magical clothes or something?” Greg grinned sheepishly.
“You’re afraid to go into a sewer and you want to sell Dragonheart artifacts? Don’t think so. Get in the hole.” She gestured with her wrench to the gap in the concrete.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
He winced, took a deep breath, then took hold of the ladder and made his way down. By the time he hit the bottom wrung of the ladder, his hopes of holding enough air in his lungs for the venture had already failed. He took in a gulping breath, preparing himself for the overwhelming smell of raw sewage…but it didn’t come.
Maeve came down behind him, pulling the cover back over the hole and plunging them into darkness. For a moment his mind flashed back to his first moments on this world, surrounded by the dead that had apparently been the catalyst for his cosmic voyage. Maeve’s heavy footfalls on the wet ground beside him, followed by a bright light that illuminated over her head, pulled him out of it.
Greg eyed the strange contraption. It was sort of like an autonomous drone with a little lantern built into the center. “Where do I get one of those?”
“It’s a Maeve special.” She slapped his shoulder and started walking, the drone following behind. “I’ll make you one.”
Now with light, the sewage lines were not as ominous as the ritual circle tunnel had been. They were much larger, twenty feet high and at least that far apart, faint green lights glowed on the ceiling every forty feet, and the channels that the water ran through had grates over them to keep anyone from actually falling in. On either side of the channels were five feet of stone paths to walk, so it was unlikely that was going to happen, anyway.
Greg was about to ask where the monsters were supposedly hanging out when the water beneath a nearby grate started to slosh over onto the path. His hand opened in the storage space above his head and grasped his sword as a thick, segmented, tubular form rose from a space in the grates and…unceremoniously flopped onto the stone in front of them.
“What the hell is that?” Greg asked.
“Guttergrub! Look how cute he is!” Maeve’s voice rose several octaves.
At the sound of her voice the yellow tube lifted its conical end and turned toward them. Its end opened like a mouth, an even more tubular tongue extended.
It panted.
Greg’s head started to buzz. That same static feeling coming over him, like he’d had the day he’d been sacrificed. Which was possibly the weirdest thought he’d ever had. Shaking it off, he walked toward the guttergrub and scanned it.
Guttergrub
Passive creature
Not unlike worms you’re used to. Just bigger and with more personality! On Etheon, they are normally found in swamps where they feed on decaying plant matter. Large cities have brought in populations of these little critters for their special filtering capabilities. Put in dirty water, clean water comes out.
“So the guttergrubs literally clean the water. That’s disgusting.” Greg moved up closer to it and knelt down. Now that he was near it, it gave off the same smell as a recently treated pool.
“Oh, don’t listen to him.” Maeve said to the grub, scratching the top of whatever was its head as it panted at him. “He just doesn’t know you’re the sweetest ever yet.”
Greg shook his head and stood back up to look over Maeve and the worm creature. “So what kind of monsters are we looking for?”
“We,” she indicated between the two of them, “aren’t looking for any monsters. You should be. I’m just here to make sure you don’t get eaten.”
“Fine.” He grumbled, stepping around Maeve and moving down the tunnel. Her drone hummed over his head, illuminating fifteen feet in any given direction. Now that he’d experienced the chemical smell of the guttergrubs that was all his senses could pick out. It was almost enough to make his eyes water. Ahead, he spotted a soft green light at what looked like a tunnel crossing. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Maeve was still following before pushing forward.
The green bulb hung from the ceiling of the tunnel where two paths met. Without any reference for how large the city was, it was hard to say how far the tunnels went. He’d have to dedicate some time to exploring Rhobair once he got things figured out. One crisis at a time.
“Monsters usually enter from the seaside or the drains outside the walls. You’ll wanna take a left or a right. Left path is shorter.” Maeve whispered to him as if the assistance might disqualify him.
He took the left path, as Maeve had suggested, and it wasn’t long before the sounds of voices echoing through the tunnels met them. Distressed voices. He looked back at Maeve who reached up and pulled a crossbow from her extradimensional space that sported a comically large drum magazine. She gave him a nod, and he started running.
NEW QUEST!
Help the Teenagers Kill the brinegulpers
Two teen Gifted have been swarmed by brinegulpers. Assist them in dispatching the monsters.
Rewards:
20x brinegulper legs
100x copper obols
100 experience
“Behind you!” a voice called out from the darkness.
The tunnel’s echo made pinpointing the location difficult at first, but after several errant turns, an obvious sign pointed down another tunnel. A cone of fire lit up the walls a few hundred yards in front of him, followed by deep bellowing croaks.
The buzz of the drone grew louder over his head. His lungs burnt, having not felt this kind of exertion since his college football days. He lifted the sword to his side at an angle and foreign knowledge filled his mind. The knowledge from the book.
The kids fighting the horrifying creatures couldn’t have been more than sixteen, though with each gout of fire the young man shot from his fists it lit up their faces enough for Greg to see the scleraless eyes. The creatures they were fighting were everywhere.
Quadrupedal, they clung to the walls with thick webbed feet ending in large suction cup toes. A vaguely luminescent fluid leaked from gills located just behind the forelegs on their slick, bloated bodies. Eyes bulged off the top of their heads like a frog, but disappeared when they opened their mouths what seemed beyond ninety degrees to let out low gurgling croaks.
The fire didn’t seem to be doing anything but lighting the area up for the other teen to bring her massive hammer down on the creatures. It was too slow. There must have been fifty of them that he could see, crawling along the walls and ceilings, leaping at them to attack, and a few dipping into the water and coming up with guttergrubs halfway down their gullets.
If fire wasn’t doing anything, radiant strike would have to do.
With the technique of someone who had a basic idea of how a sword worked, Greg drove his blade forward into the disturbingly squishy section of meat between a brinegulpers eyes. He’d expected skull, but was not met with anything hard until he’d almost buried the entire sword into the creature’s head. He tried to pull it out, but whatever he’d hit deep in the creature’s body refused release.
The brinegulpers eyes crossed to focus on him. Even with a foot and a half of steel lodged in what amounted to its forehead, it struggled to open its mouth and snap at him. Greg lifted, legs shaking, but once he’d broken the suction of the beast’s feet from the ground it was surprisingly light. He brought the sword over his head and pounded the skewered brinegulper into the ground over and over until it relented and released his sword.
Volatility eclipsed 15%
16 of 100
Divine resonance eclipsed 25%
40 of 100
It became apparent to him about halfway through the fight, when one of the frog catfish hybrid creatures from hell lept at him, what Brannoc had meant when he said that the book would teach him the basics. His brain knew what to do, side step then downward slash across the gills. His feet…did not get the message.
He tried to dodge, but only managed to bump into the young woman wielding a hammer as big as him. The brinegulper’s teeth dug into his side, and already being off balance, took him under the water.
Panic shot through him.
Greg flailed wildly, stabbing at the creature as its teeth dug deeper into his stomach and hip. The teeth weren’t large, but they were sharp, and he could feel his flesh being ripped into. He pumped divine energy into it with every downward thrust, while trying to grab at anything as it took him down.
Trying to stop the movement was a losing battle. It was a much stronger swimmer than the awkward lumbering hops out of the water, and the channel was far deeper than he’d thought. It must have dragged him down fifteen feet, and he still hadn’t hit the bottom. Greg needed to kill it. Fast.
Volatility eclipsed 40%
46 of 100
Divine Resonance eclipsed 40%
70 of 100
New Ability unlocked
Ability
Ruin Edict
Level 1: 0 of 100
Execute the will of the gods at any cost
After eclipsing forty resonance, you may choose to convert all resonance into volatility. This will heal any non-lethal wounds and temporarily double your strength, dexterity, constitution, and luck for a limited time.
Cooldown: Long Rest (minimum eight hours)
Decrease all Resonance to 0
Lasts 1 second per 1 resonance
After the effect ends, increase volatility by half the amount of purged resonance.
It probably would have been smart to to do some calculations before activating the ability, but he didn’t. The resonance bar emptied immediately, and a tiny picture of a human flexing appeared near the top of his vision, indicating he had just over a minute before the buff would end. Just over a minute before his volatility spiked by thirty-five, not including any abilities he used while he was trying not to die.
The dark water suddenly filled with light, making it a simple task to see his next steps. He drove the sword between the bulbous frog eyes and left it there. His feet found the bottom of the channel, and he drove off of it while digging his fingers between his suddenly freezing flesh and the sharp teeth. He pried at the jaws, eventually freeing himself from its bite before shoving his hand into its mouth. Grabbing the buried blade, he planted his feet on the front legs of the beast and ripped backward.
The corpse of the brinegulper slowly sunk to the bottom as Greg pulled himself out of the sewage channel. The battle above the water was still going, though the enemy ranks had thinned considerably.
He glanced at the buff indicator again, a thin line crossing over it in a clockwise motion to indicate how much time was left. Ruin Edict would run out soon, so he was going to take advantage of each moment of it. His stats were terrible, even with the skill book increasing them, he had barely felt any effect moving from three to four dexterity. Moving from four to eight though…he felt that.
Greg deftly dodged another brinegulper that jumped in his direction, grabbing it by its open jaws and using its momentum to hurl it toward the hammer teen.
“Heads up.” He called out.
The hammer swung as the frog fish flew across the channel in her direction and collided with its squishy body in an explosion of green and purple flesh and goo. He’d abandoned trying to stab the things to death, now using his sword as a means of keeping the beasts in place while he stomped, punched, or threw them to the woman to obliterate.
When the final brinegulper fell, he glanced up at his buff duration. Only a few seconds left. Hands on his knees, he gulped in air. It had been a long time since he’d seen a gym, but he hadn’t realized just how out of shape he was.
QUEST COMPLETED!
Help the Teenagers Kill the Brinegulpers
Rewards deposited into your inventory
20x brinegulper legs
100x copper obols
100 experience applied
“Greg.” Maeve’s voice was low, reverent. “Sweet Mother Below.”
Greg straightened up and looked over at her. The fire fist teen recoiled beside her, but Maeve held a hand up to shield her eyes. Shield her eyes due to a wildly bright light…that was coming off of him. He glanced down, the dozens of tiny wounds in his side and hip were radiating light, as well as the wounds on his hands where he’d gripped the blade multiple times.
“What the fuck…” Greg muttered as he lifted the shirt to examine them. Ice filled and covered the exposed flesh, giving the light radiating from them a crystal-like filter to go through. Maeve was muttering a prayer he didn’t recognize, but when the buff timed out, it took the light with it.
Volatility eclipsed 75 percent. Get to a designated safe area immediately.
78 of 100
