The trial chamber stank of a combination of sweat and blood. I stumbled across this room by accident when exploring and solved this sliding piece puzzle on the pillars expecting a reward only to have a siren nearly burst my ear caps as it started blaring loudly across the dungeon pulling in halfings in ungodly numbers from all around.
The room was now decorated in somewhere between 60 and 80 halfling corpses, some decapitated, others missing limbs or simply cut in half. I am damn lucky they are so weak that a store bought machete is enough to cut through them almost as easily as a hot knife through butter, or I'd be toast. Actually, I'd probably have died of exhaustion long before I even reached here if they were any more difficult to kill.
Cutting through a halfing that runs at me and quickly elbowing another who approached from behind in the head, I shake my machete to clear it of blood. With how tightly I've been gripping this thing, I will definitely have a blister or two come tomorrow. My clothes have been ripped apart in some places, but all things considered they are in a decent condition as long as one were to ignore how dirty and soaked in blood they were. Ew.
"Well." I roll my neck, cracking it once to each side, while listening in on the footsteps approaching from my left hallway. Quickly, another group appears, eight in total. "At least it's not nine."
[Honestly, I thought you were gonna kick the bucket at somewhere around halfing forty.] Gali who was lounging on her stomach and kicking her feet in the air on top of one of the puzzle pillars said. [A for effort, gold star from me!]
"Thanks for the confidence." I say, flipping the machete in my hand to look cool to… myself. I nearly drop it but manage to catch it. "God, I hope these are the last ones."
[Yeah, it feels like we have committed genocide here with how many we have killed in the past three hours. Oh, is it just me, or do some of these look a bit stronger than the others? Think they have been nibbling on each other and other halfings for energy.]
They had short malformed bodies and their eyes showed no intelligence just like the others but as Gali said, they looked a bit better as far as their bodies were concerned. Don't get me wrong, they still looked boney and malnourished, simply not as much as the rest.
I step back and eye my enemies carefully. The most important thing I learned from the first wave of this was to keep track of all my enemies and not let them surround me, or at the very least be aware where around me the enemies were and who would be coming at me.
The first two charged ahead of the rest of the pack, screeching like feral animals, not the intelligent craftsman that they supposedly once were many generations ago. I duck low and swing my machete wide, cleaving the first of the halfings through the chest with my blade. The impact made my arm a bit more tense, but I quickly follow up on the other halfing with a kick to the chest that sends it tumbling back to its pack and onto the ground.
[6 left! Good going!] Gali's voice chimed in from above like a sports commentator.
The third and fourth came in together right after the first duo went down. I sidestep the first who comes in swinging its claws, barely avoiding contact as the creature not prepared to miss its attack falls to the ground after losing balance. I stab my machete down, right through where I think it's heart would be. The fourth jumps at me, but I don't even bother to pull out my sword for it, as I just grab onto its neck midair before smashing it down hard on the ground.
"Is it just me, or is this getting easier as time goes on?" I question, who would have known I'd be able to do moves like this. Definitely not me from a few hours ago.
[That's cause your Might and Finesse have both increased to F+. Oh watch out, there come the next ones!]
As Gali had warned, the next three charge in together. Perhaps slightly smarter than the rest, they split up to attack from different angles, forcing me to block the first jumping at my neck with its nasty teeth with my forearm. The bite on my arm could barely even be felt, but the contact was enough momentum to slam me backwards into a pillar. Damn, that hurt my shoulder.
I push through and ignore the pain, swinging my weapon down at the second halfing who was yanking on my coat to pull me down onto its level. I cut it's head diagonally in half, killing it instantly.
As the third one is still charging at me, I swing the arm, the first of the halfings is still biting onto fiercely, sending it flying right at the charging halfing. They both tumble over several times, dying from the impact as they hit a pile of my previous victims. The room is already littered with bodies, which should be absolutely traumatizing for me, but I really can't find myself caring. Maybe because they aren't humans and I don't think of them as nothing more than monsters?
Seeing all its comrades die right in front of its eyes, the last one looked at me and hissed angrily before charging ahead. Seriously, do you think you have any chance?
I simply point my machete forwards, and the mindlessly charging halfing is unable to stop itself in time, impaling its own head on the weapon. With that uneventful death, the last of the halfings is dead. I dispose of its corps from my machete by kicking the body off of it.
One second
Five seconds
Ten seconds.
"Is that it? I can't hear any more approaching." I ask, easing up on my stance. Seems like I survived. I'm a bit tired, but It's not too bad.
Gali floated down from the pillar and hovered right in-front of my face, looking at me with actual stars in her eyes.
[That… was disturbingly hot.]
"Don't even. Did you manually add those stars on your hologram appearance?" I ask, slumping down into a sitting position, resting my back against the pillar. "Please tell me that was it."
[Bleh] Gali pouted. [Yeah that was the last of them, for the entire dungeon, par the boss I believe. Now where is the rewards…]
As if on cue, a larger than the rest stone pillar rose from the ground in the center of the room. On it was a two-sided blade spear. It had a bone handle in the middle with two sharp blades protruding out on both sides, ending with a very sharp end that could be used as a spear.
I rose up in a flash, forgetting all about my exhaustion that was there just moments ago, and grab the weapon. I feel l am Darth Maul swinging this thing around…
(Image)
It is certainly not an easy weapon to use. I am trying to spin it around all cool like, but I am extremely slow and lame at it. That being said, it can be used to both slash enemies close or stab those I want to keep far away from me.
[There is something carved into the pillar, let me read it real quick.] Gali says, as I keep playing with my new toy-... weapon. [Ooh, looks like this is the last thing the halflings made when they were already sealed in here in hopes of being able to get out and present it as a reconciliation gift to the human empire. The handle is made out of a wyvern bone, and the metal used for the blades themselves is called Mithril. It's super light despite its size and extremely durable. Good find, I'd say.]
"Agreed." Guess I'm gonna be able to retire my little machetes earlier than I thought with this thing in my hands. Good thing, too, since I wasn't sure how the store clerk would react if I showed up every other day buying a new machete. Probably call the police on me. "You mentioned something about my stats increasing? And a boss left on the floor?"
[That's right! Open up your status panel!] Gali says, and I summon it as told.
******************************
Name: Reo Hill
Might: F+
Finesse: F+
Spirit: E-
Skills: None
Current Dungeon Floor: 1
******************************
"I do feel stronger, but how much does that plus at the end really change?" I question. It is kind of difficult to gauge my own abilities on the halfings as they are really just… too weak. They go down so easily, I think even a middle schooler would be able to take on an entire group by themselves as long as they had some protective clothing or armor like I do.
[It is hard to say exactly as they are quite ambiguous on the exact improvements you make and even two people with the same stats can have their differences but simply put if an F rank is your average civilian then an F+ would be a well-trained athlete. Moving forward, an E- is already at an Olympic level. Don't be too excited at reaching it so quickly, though, the further you go, the slower the improvement rate and the stronger enemies you will need.]
"Got it, I will temper my expectations. It makes sense, I wouldn't be able to reach the strength or speed of an Olympic athlete just by beating up on these weaklings. Now for the boss?"
[Oh yeah! I've been told by the others that you have cleared every enemy par the boss on the floor, which means I'm allowed to just lead you there, since wondering around blindly is just a waste of time. Follow me!] Gali says excitedly and flies off ahead. I sprint after her quickly.
The boss's chamber wasn't hidden or disguised. It was a massive wooden door etched with symbols that I couldn't understand or read. The wooden doors were already half-rotted away, but still barely hanging onto the hinges. Gali who floated just ahead of me did a spin and put her hands on her hips.
[Behold! The final challenge of your first dungeon! A being of wrath and decay, the Halfing War chief!] She narrated dramatically before returning to her normal voice. [How was that? Pretty good intro, right?]
"I'm absolutely terrified." I say in monotone, but Gali seemed satisfied, nodding her head repeatedly. "Well, no time like the present. Let's get this done."
I push open the door with the same hand that is holding onto my brand-new twin spear and step inside. The room is a surprisingly large and circular hall, perfect for a boss fight. The walls are adorned with torches that give a very creepy feel to the whole place. Those as well as the throne in the other end of the room made out of literal skulls and bones of other halflings. Neat.
On top of said throne sat the largest halfling I had ever seen at an estimated 5 feet (150 cm) which might not sound like a lot, until you have spent your entire evening fighting waist-high cannibals. Despite its impressive height in comparison, it was still just as malnourished and lacking of intelligence in its eyes as the others of its kind. It did however have some stitched together patchwork armor made of cloth, leather and maybe some skin of the other halflings. Real charming.
The halfling chief slowly rises from its throne and lets out a loud growl, raising its rusted cleaver above its head.
"Alright let's dance." I say, twirling my new twin spear in my hands only to fail miserably and drop it on the ground, forcing me to quickly pick it back up.
[10/10 technique.] Gali whispered sarcastically.
"Shut up."
The chief sprinted at me with surprising speed for something that looked like a malnourished garden gnome. It raised the rusty cleaver up high and brought it down hard as it approached my position, but I was already on the move.
I sidestepped and, letting the momentum carry me, extended the spear out in a sweeping arc, using the blade of it to cut the halfling's knee. Unsurprisingly, I feel no resistance whatsoever as the blade cuts the leg off at the knee like cutting through paper, causing the now one legged boss to stumble with a pitiful cry.
"Whoa, that's pretty good" I can't help but say, admiring my new weapon even more.
The halfling chief tries to recover, dragging its cleaver in a wide arc while supporting its body on the ground, but I only need to take a quick step back to dodge it before coming back in, now with the sharp end of the spear going right through the boss's chest.
It froze, looked down, then back up at me. With one last growl, it turns to dust and, scattering into the air.
[Boss defeated!] Gali cheered, popping some holographic confetti. [And it left a skill book for you!]
"A skill book?" I look back down at the still dissipating body of the boss and, just as Gali says, there lies a book on the ground where the boss had just been.
[That's right! The way skill books work is that they are not locked to one single skill, but are instead all blank. Once used, it will grant a skill based around either what skills you already have and would compliment you well, your fighting style or lifestyle. Since you haven't really developed a fighting style yet and have no skills, it will probably be completely random for you. Go ahead and open it.]
Gali urges me and being quite excited about this myself, I don't delay this at all and quickly grab the book from the ground and open it.
[System Notification: Skill book has been used]
[System Notification: Analyzing user and generating skill, 0%]
[System Notification: Analyzing user and generating skill, 15%]
[System Notification: Analyzing user and generating skill, 36%]
[System Notification: Analyzing user and generating skill, 74%]
[System Notification: Skill generation has been cancelled by The-Natural-Order-of-Things, who has intervened in the process and manually selected the skill "Inventor" for user.]
[System Notification: The-Powers-That-Be is angry at The-Natural-Order-of-Things and has intervened. Skill has been changed from "Inventor" to "Elemental Mastery".]
[System Notification: The-Natural-Order-of-Things has cancelled the skill generation entirely.]
[System Notification: The-Natural-Order-of-Things and The-Powers-That-Be are fighting.]
[System Notification: The In-Betweener has intervened in the fight and declared that The-Natural-Order-of-Things got there first.]
[System Notification: Inventor has been learnt]
"..."
What the fuck just happened. No seriously?
"Care to explain what this is about?" I ask Gali as she is staring off into the nothingness.
[Uhh… hold on, I'm listening to them right now…] She says as she continues staring at nothing for a few seconds before refocusing. [Right, so looks like two gods wanted you to have a skill of their choosing as your first one but got into a fight before The Living Tribunal had to split them up and The In-Betweener made a choice on what you get. Congrats on getting a good skill I guess?]
"Hey, if the skill is good, then I don't really care who it comes from." I shrug. If it came directly from one of the big god beings, then it must be good.
[System Notification: The-Powers-That-Be is displeased by your statement.]
[System Notification: The-Natural-Order-of-Things is displeased by your statement.]
[System Notification: The rest of the gods are laughing at them.]
Yeah, whatever, let's not concern myself with them.
"So what's it do? I would imagine something about inventing new… things? I don't know." By what The-Natural-Order-of-Things represents, I would guess It's something science related.
[That's right, it lets you invent things… kind of. Just think of what you want to make in your head, and the skill will then teach you exactly how you would make that. The exact materials, procedure and know-how needed will be right in your head. The skill however is limited by your Spirit stat, so the higher it is, the more complex things you can make.]
"That sounds… incredibly good. What's my limit right now? I have E- Spirit, right?" The skill does indeed sound amazingly strong. I was not the worst student, but I definitely did not have a head comparable to the likes of Reed, Stark or Parker. This would let me, if not actually be smart, appear to be one and make tech like those guys.
[Dunno, why not try it out? Just try to make some things and keep ramping down until you reach something you can make.] Gali suggests, and I concur. Now, where to start.
Uhh… how about the Arc Reactor?
[System Notification: Insufficient Spirit to use Inventor]
That was to be expected, how about something more simple… MK1 Iron Man armor. Tony made that in a cave with almost no tools. Though I guess the same could be said for the arc reactor.
[System Notification: Insufficient Spirit to use Inventor]
Hmm… What about a… small bracelet that could hold some adrenaline syringes which could be auto-injected into me with a voice command.
[System Notification: Inventor has been used successfully.]
Before I had time to be surprised or happy at the success, I had new information pushed into my brain. It was not uncomfortable in the least and a very quick process, after which I knew everything I needed to about 'my invention'.
What I would need to make it, the exact steps on how to make it, and felt like I would have no hiccups if I were to produce one. This is quite amazing, I will have to experiment further to figure out the limits of what I can make with this.
For now, though, I was excited to just get out of here and throw off these somewhat tattered and blood soaked clothes off of me. I would not even bother washing them from all the filth, and instead just buy new ones. I did after all make several thousand dollars just from this little outing, so I could afford that. Hopefully I will get some real armor before the enemies get too strong.
***
Author Notes: This is the longest chapter yet, at about, 3100+ words. This is since I missed out on a chapter yesterday as I wasn't home.
For those that don't know about the G.O.D.S comics, The-Natural-Order-of-Things and The-Powers-That-Be were some new cosmic beings introduced there.
The-Natural-Order-of-Things represents science and the natural world, while The-Powers-That-Be represents the magical and mystical side of the world.
Im not following the cosmology of marvel 100% accurately, but I'll try to at least to a certain extent while doing a bit of my own thing. I don't think I could follow it completely faithfully even if I wanted to, since it's all really hard to understand and the canon has changed so many times.