round two


    Thomas


    Thomas looked up towards the light at the exit of the cavern.


    "Ready to leave?"


    "Just a moment,"


    Anjan opened his eyes having meditated on his new powers. At first, he tried to draw it out in a mechanical sense, thinking about it as just the idea of a new ability. Now he focused on the energy he could feel. He channelled it through his hand and fire coalesced around his fingertips. With just his will Anjan cast his flame in a thin bolt, sending a small burst of fire forward to dissipate on the rocky cavern wall.


    "Did you just…”


    With a wide smile, he looked to Thomas. “I guess I’m now a pyromaniac.”


    "You mean pyromancer?"


    "There''s a difference?" Anjan asked with a sly smile.


    Thomas mentally facepalmed and then went back to his search, leaving his friend to meditate. He stood under the shade of one of the arches, embracing the temporary relief of shade. he looked next to him and resting against the wall was a decrepit armoured skeleton, mangled armour partly covering its upper torso.


    Anjan carried on meditating, trying to experiment with his power and test its limits. He focused on the bursting power roaring within him, the root of his fire. He mentally reached inside himself and pulled at the energy, and as he did it grew, like an erupting volcano. The fire came out without resistance, overwhelming his whole being. Anjan wanted to hold it back but couldn’t — he didn’t even know-how.


    He opened his eyes and was frozen in the realisation of what he had just done. Suddenly and rapidly he was engulfed in flames, an explosion of fire consuming his very being. Thankfully too quickly for him to feel pain.


    “Fucking hell" Thomas yelled, jumping back.


    Trails of fire and ash were scattered around Anjan''s burnt, mangled corpse. His face and eyes looked to have exploded, as if the fire had erupted from within him, burning away his skin. Thomas was backing away from the grotesque sight. Energy suddenly shot from the ground and hovered in the air, and a wind gathered as threads circled about in one spot in front of Thomas. After a period of surreal silence, something began to take shape; a ghostly ethereal figure became more contrasted and solid, slowly reforming a body bit by bit. T


    tendrils of mana were starting from bone and building to skin. Before long Anjan was whole again. His body reformed with a new set of cotton undergarments.


    “Are you ok?” Thomas asked the now newly formed Anjan.


    Immediately Kurt, the strange gremlin creature teleported out of the rucksack, materialized through a purple haze he moved towards Anjan.


    “Didn’t feel a thing,” Anjan replied. He looked over at his mutilated body, still curled on the cavern floor, with concern as the small creature stared menacingly up at him.


    "You think this is a game?" Kurt stated, bits of gas trailing off him as he spoke. His voice having a raspy echo to it.


    "No?" Anjan replied.


    "The pile of shit you over there, could have been the you here if you did that in the wrong place."


    "Well, that me has seen better days, but I don''t think you should be so judgmental of a person''s looks," he said.


    "What?.. Listen... You are not immortal and this magic shit you keep doing. It isn''t magic. It has rules."


    "You literally just called it magic,"


    "You damn, I''m going to need a month to get rid of this pain.


    In your body, your core, there is crystallized mana called your essence, when mana goes through that, it makes your firepower, if you don''t control it, your essence will turn your body into that shit. You will literally explode in flame."


    Anjan seemed to be attentively paying attention, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape. It wasn''t clear if this was out of worry for what he could have done or for more knowledge on what he could do.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    "I can''t deal with this right now man. Look at me, I''m leaking."


    Kurt groaned again, and went back to his tablet, teleporting into the rucksack, making it rumble and spray smoke with a thud before the blue light shone from it again. Anjan felt like Kurt was just a child that wanted to left alone to play his games.


    Thomas looked towards him slightly concerned


    “You''re not going to do that again are you?” He asked.


    “Can’t make any promises,” Anjan said in reply. He got an apprehensive stare in response. “What, I''m kidding," he said. Secretly suppressing an urge to experiment. A bit selfish, but he really wanted to find out how large an explosion he could make.


    Thomas took another glance around the skeletal corpse. The leather holding the armour together had withered away. It looked to have died a much more peaceful death than the new corpse of his friend.


    Anjan started on getting his armour back and it wasn''t long before he had managed to take most of it off of his old mangled body.


    “Still good?” he asked, holding an arm that had detached from his main body, the armour could still be used if he pushed his arm through.


    “Sure,” Thomas replied, standing over his charred remains.


    The amour had changed slightly in colour and was more ragged, singed around the edges but it still held together. He picked up his short sword, which had travelled a decent distance away, and went to chisel the crispy bits of himself off the salvageable remains of his amour almost gagging as the occasional whiff of burnt flesh overpowered his senses.


    Thomas looked to the armoured skeleton at the side of the room, ripped off a piece of metal and passed it to Anjan. The armour was black but appeared to shine slightly red as it reflected sunlight.


    The piece had its straps withered away. Anjan used it with his forearm and turned it into a guard that almost appeared as a natural part of his armour. He smiled at Thomas in thanks.


    "Round two?"


    "Let’s do this.”


    They exited the cavern in the same way they had previously. The rocky red maze gave them two clear directions: one leading towards the goblins, and another unknown.


    “The other way,” Thomas said shortly, noticing Anjan eyeing the path to the goblins.


    The maze of rocks was still just as messy, and they found themselves climbing over jagged spikes and ducking through overlapping walls to get through. Thomas climbed up a ledge to get a decent view. “Looks like we went the wrong way before,” Thomas announced.


    In the distance, towards where they saw the goblins, a white mist hung against giant mountains. This time, they had made the right choice. Not that way. “If we go the other way, we might avoid going towards the mountains, which from what I can tell look to be spreading the literal embodiment of frozen death.”


    “Good call,” Anjan replied.


    They kept low and avoided any open spaces along their course. Eventually, just as their stomachs began to grumble, the area became less barren. The vegetation was not all dead and tufts of yellowish-green grass had popped up in different areas.


    Suddenly Anjan saw in the distance a fast-moving small creature. He quickly motioned to Thomas. “Rabbit! Kill it, quick!”


    Thomas looked at him with an apathetic despair. “I’m a vegetarian.”


    “What? We could die!”


    “We’ll respawn anyway.”


    “And then die again…hungry." Anjan placed a hand over Thomas’s and said calmly, “Listen. If this is another world, there are two things you gotta not fucking do. First, don''t have a mental break down going ''Oh no how do I handle being in this new world'', and second, is have some screwed up empathy trip cause you gotta kill something. Like, this ain''t Kansas anymore motherfucker, so don’t act like a bitch."


    Kurt piped up.


    "Listen to the man, don''t be a bitch."


    With an expression that suggested he was more than slightly pissed off, Thomas gave in. “Whatever," he said, and lifted his bow.


    They stalked the prey, feeling shadows wrapping around them as they moved in silence. They began to feel more in tune with their surroundings as if they were blending into the plant and animal life around them. A loading notification was in the corner of Thomas''s awareness — a message that he seemed intuitively aware of, like a computer working inside his mind.


    Skill acquisition commencing....


    Assessing skill functionality....


    Simulation complete....


    Calibrating muscle-memory....


    Learned Skill


    Stealth


    You have an innate awareness of motion pressure and limb placement to conceal your footsteps. Blending in with your surroundings and interpreting the reactions of your pray feels second nature.


    Ignoring the notification, Thomas took out his bow and aimed his first shot; he fired. It missed, and the rabbit ran off.


    He cried out in exasperation. His hunger had become overwhelming.


    Simulation in progress....


    Enhanced time allocation due to poor initial ability...


    Simulation complete....


    Calibrating muscle-memory....


    Learned Skill


    Archery


    A skill affected by dexterity, intuition, and focus. Your senses have bonded with the bow; your muscle memory is enhanced. You are aware of the bow as if it were an extension of our arm.


    "This is so damn weird," Thomas added.


    "Oh yeah? Wait till you masturbate," Kurt shouted from inside the bag.


    Thomas gripped the bow tighter, now painfully aware he could feel the bow in his hand as if it was an extension of his arm. As if the system the small black creature told him about had somehow given him years of experience with the weapon.


    As they came to accept the loss of their food source, they decided to carry on. The occasional tufts of dry grass multiplied as the land slowly turned from barren to a savannah. The sun had begun to set and the area slowly came under darkness. A chill hit them, as though the heat of the day was a far-gone dream. Then Thomas saw it: in the distance, a collection of bushes — and not just any bushes, but ones lush with berries and fruit.


    The two scrambled over to them, desperate for any sustenance they could find. As soon as he got there, Thomas grabbed a berry from the closest bush immediately scoffing it down.


    “Tastes like coffee.”


    Catalogue in system? (y/n)


    Thomas mentally selected yes and the berry was noted down.


    Redbush berry Fresh +25% focus


    Between them they collected as many fruits as they could, finding them growing bountiful on the bushes along their path. Each fruit seemed to be similar to something they had seen on Earth but with a slight variation. With the way, things were it looked like a sort of speciation. On a spur of the moment, Thomas picked up some strange coloured grass.


    Notifications (31)


    Acquired item, State, Effects


    Redbush berries (18) Fresh, +25% focus


    Taint grass (6) Fresh, unknown


    Sundering oat (2) Fresh, intense vomiting


    Glue berry (4) Fresh, unknown


    Lunar fruit (2) Fresh, unknown


    One of the plants holding the Lunar fruit, a much large fruit almost like a large plumb, was more difficult to grasp. When it was eventually pulled off it appeared to glow.