by Simon Archer
I spun in a slow circle, hoping to find something else on the horizon, but other than the portal back to the Hall of Mirrors, I saw nothing much of interest. Hell, even that wasn’t that interesting because it was now blocked by the same ethereal chains that had barred me from returning to Earth. A quick glance at it revealed why.
You have entered a dungeon. This gate will not open until the dungeon’s boss has been defeated.
“Figures,” I muttered as I looked around once more. It really wasn’t that surprising because that’s how dungeons in Terra Forma had worked. Unlike worlds which could be entered and left at leisure, dungeons behaved differently. Let’s just say that there had been more than a few times I’d entered them and been unable to defeat it for days at a time.
Hell, some of the higher end championship matches I’d been in involved entering a newly created dungeon and trying to defeat it as quickly as possible.
A quick glance at my status page revealed a little more information, but not much.
It was no surprise that my stats, Strength, Intelligence, Agility, Fortitude, and Charisma had all dropped from their godly versions. Still, they were a bit higher than I remembered them being when I normally started new games in Terra Forma. That was interesting in and of itself, as was my current class.
Like in Terra Forma, I’d received a random class when entering my first dungeon. Some said it was based on the user’s stats and play history, but I was pretty sure it was just a random algorithm. Either way, the new one looked like it would be fun.
“Auramancer,” I said before reading the class description aloud. “An Auramancer has the ability to manipulate his aura as well as that of those he defeats.” It wasn’t a class I’d played very often since I tended to go for more physical classes when I could select mine, but I knew the basics of it from all the times I’d had it randomly assigned to me. In short, the more enemies I defeated, the more powerful I’d become.
That would be perfect.
Assuming I could find some enemies, of course.
I took one more scan of the surrounding scenery and, seeing nothing, pulled open my active abilities list.
There were only three abilities listed.
Auric Sense - The ability to sense the aura of those around you.
It was a skill I’d used a bunch of times, and basically, once it was active, it let me sense the aura of any nearby enemies, though there was a way to pour extra Aura into it for a limited time and activate an Overdrive effect to increase its strength.
The second ability was a bit more interesting.
Aura Infusion - This ability allows the user to infuse his normal attacks with Aura to increase their damage.
It was a pretty self-explanatory skill that basically let me consume Aura to deal more damage, run faster, jump farther, you know, that sort of thing, so I turned my attention to the third and final ability I’d been granted.
Auric Extraction - The ability to pull the Aura out of a fallen enemy.
On the surface, it didn’t seem like much of an ability, but it was the one that was perhaps the core ability for the Auramancer because the description didn’t quite do it justice. Sure, right now, it was just a way of regenerating Aura from fallen enemies, but I knew that once it leveled up, it would be truly devastating, especially when used in combination with Aura Infusion.
Unfortunately, right now, all three skills were at level one. I’d have to fix that.
I turned my attention to my special skill but found it was locked and blurred out. A quick check let me know why.
Your Special Skill has not yet been unlocked. Reach level five to unlock a Special Skill.
Well, I was going to do that, anyway. I flicked my wrist and cast Auric Sense, and like magic, my surroundings seemed to light up with a blue-green overlay. Only, unlike before, I could now feel the flow of aura within the air. There wasn’t a lot, but I could distinctly tell that there was quite a bit more to the northeast.
“That must be where the monsters are located,” I said to myself and made my way forward while keeping my eyes out for anything I could use to fashion a weapon. This was always my favorite part of Terra Forma, the very beginning when you had nothing but your wits and bare hands to guide you.
Unfortunately, while most locales had trees and stuff that I could break down to make a spear or something, I found nothing but earth, earth, and more earth as I made my way forward. There weren’t even large stones or anything. The biggest rocks I found were all about quarter-sized, but even still, I found myself picking up the small pebbles and pocketing them as I walked.
I’d made it about a mile when my Auric Sense pinged, and while there weren’t wavy lines around my head like Spider-Man, I knew, just knew, there was something behind me.
I spun on my heel to find myself staring at an ant the size of a small dog. Its black carapace shone in the warm light of the sun overhead, and its mandibles worked furiously as it settled its multifaceted eyes upon me.
“Hey, there, buddy,” I said as a small window appeared in the left corner of my vision letting me know this was a Giant Scout Ant. There wasn’t much else known about it because I didn’t have more information on the target, but that was fine since its name was white. That meant it was within a couple levels of my own, and that was all I really needed to know.
Instead of responding, it just darted toward me in a burst of speed that was quite frankly surprising given its massive size. I knew that, scientifically, Giant Ants shouldn’t really be able to exist because the weight of its body would make it difficult for its legs to hold its weight. I also knew I was in a fantasy world where the usual rules didn’t apply.
I stepped to the side as it got close, and as it rushed by me, I leapt onto its back, throwing all my body weight into the move. My shoulder slammed into the spot between its head and thorax, driving it into the soft dirt beneath us and sending us into a skid that hurt it a lot more than me.
It recovered a lot quicker than I’d expected though, and as I managed to cinch my arms around its “neck,” the ant began to buck like a bronco. Even with my Aura-enhanced muscles, it was nearly impossible to hang on, and only a moment later, I found myself flying through the air.
I managed to angle myself well enough as I came down so that I hit in a roll and popped to my feet just as the ant leapt for my face, mandibles thrashing. There was no time to dodge, so I did the only thing I could do. I reached out and grabbed its mandibles.
Immediately, the sharpened chitin of the ant’s jaws began to cut into my hands, but I ignored it, and instead pumped Aura into my hands and muscles as the creature bore down on me and drove me into the dirt. Its eyes were fixed on me as it struggled to bite down on my face and neck, but I managed to keep it away... for now anyway. A quick glance at my Aura bar told me I couldn’t keep this up for long because it was draining away at a furious pace. I had maybe ten more seconds… tops.
So, I did the only thing I could do. I pumped Aura into my legs and core and executed a move I’d learned in Sansoo Kung Fu when I’d first started out. I pulled the ant forward with my arms while kicking upward with my legs. The movement caused the creature to slide forward along my body, and as its face hit the dirt beside me, I rolled my body out from beneath its stinger while wrapping my arms around its hind legs before bringing my body to a sitting position on the back of its abdomen.
A loud crack filled my ears as the ant’s chitinous shell snapped in places and warm goo coated my legs, hands, and body because, believe it or not, ants were not meant to be put in a Boston crab.
The creature struggled in vain for a few more moments, but I never let go. After all, I’d lost more than a few lives in my early days from assuming a monster was dead when it wasn’t, so I kept the hold cinched in on the creature until I receive a message.
You have killed creature: Giant Scout Ant.
I didn’t really pay attention to the rest of the message because I was too busy focused on the last line of text filli
ng the corner of my vision just like it had in the game.
You have leveled up. You gain three stat points and one skill point to distribute.
It didn’t even take me a second to decide what to use. As an Auramancer, my most powerful stat was Intelligence, which was also the hardest stat to raise on its own. After all, it was pretty hard to make yourself smarter…
I dumped all three points into Intelligence. Then I put my skill point into Aura Extraction. It was a calculated risk, but I knew if I leveled it high enough, I’d gain the offshoot ability that let me pull Aura out of a live enemy, and that would be a game changer.
Satisfied, I turned to the corpse of the Giant Scout Ant and realized I could see green smoke rising out of it. That meant Aura was already starting to leave the corpse.
“Well, we can’t have that,” I said as I reached my right hand toward the fallen monster and used my newly leveled ability. There was a flash of light around my outstretched fingers, and then the smoke began to move toward me. The moment it touched me, I felt a surge of strength, and my green bar started to fill once again. Better still, the wounds I’d gotten on my hands healed over.
Unfortunately, healing my injuries took a lot more of the ant’s Aura than I’d liked, so even after I was done, I found my Aura bar was only about three-quarters of the way full. Still, it was better than a stick in the eye.
That done, it was time to do the messy part.
Harvesting the corpse.
Sure, once I was higher level and had more resources, I wouldn’t need to harvest every monster I found, but until I was in that place, I couldn’t do that. Once processed, the chitin could become weapons and armor, and the meat inside, food. After all, the last thing I wanted to do was starve to death here, and besides, a three and a half ounce serving of ant was about fourteen grams of protein back home. Hey, I’ve been to Brazil, okay? Let’s just say it tastes a lot better than you would think it would.
I moved toward the dead ant and carefully pulled off one of the ant’s legs that I’d broken earlier. It took some doing since I didn’t want to use any Aura to enhance my strength, so I just wound up twisting it at the joint until it came off with a squelch. Without even thinking about it, I summoned my inventory just like I had in the game, and it was only as I found myself staring at the grid in space, I smirked. I don’t know why I’d just expected it to work, but I had. Probably because so far, it had been so similar to the game. Either way, I wasn’t going to complain.
I deposited the ant’s leg into my inventory, and as it appeared in one of the little boxes, I smiled.
“Yeah, inventory management!” I pumped a fist. Then I set to work on the rest of the ant. Admittedly, once I pulled off one of the mandibles to use as a knife, it got considerably easier.
It wasn’t really that difficult once I set to it because I’d butchered monsters of all times a bazillion times in-game, and in addition to that, I’d also been trained by the world’s best butchers and skinners, both in the field and not. That didn’t mean it wasn’t a lot of work though, and by the time I finished, I was sweating bullets.
Still, I couldn’t be too upset because a pair of messages flitted across my vision.
You have learned the skill Hand Weapons (Primitive). Increasing your skill will increase your damage, accuracy, and speed.
You have learned the skill Field Dressing. Increasing your skill will allow you to more effectively harvest the corpses of creatures you encounter.
I stared at them for a moment before wiping my mouth with the back of one hand. I knew one thing to be true. I’d need to find water before I got dehydrated.
10
While my initial inclination was to head straight toward the mass of dots highlighted by my Auric Sense ability, I knew that would be silly because who knew how many ants I’d have to face at once when I got there. So, instead, I scouted out the territory around me and spent the next several hours hunting and stalking the Giant Scout Ants busily surveying the area.
There were two reasons for this. Reason one was simple. More kills meant more experience.
Reason two was a bit more nuanced because I had a hunch that if anyone knew where I could find food and water, it would be the Giant Scout Ants.
That had proved to be a fool's errand though because after I’d eliminated about twenty of the buggers, I hadn’t managed to find any food or water sources.
On the plus side, though, I had gotten myself to level four, which had given me an additional six stat points to add to my build. I wound up dumping just over half into Intelligence for a couple of reasons that were mostly related to Aura Infusion. See, I could use that ability to increase my strength and speed, and the power of that ability was largely based on my Intelligence. That meant that as long as I had Aura available to use, I could basically boost all three stats by boosting my Intelligence. Sure, if I ran out of Aura, I’d be in trouble, but by increasing my Intelligence, I also increased my available Aura.
So, win, win.
Even better, through constantly using the skill, I’d managed to raise it to skill level two, and three was right around the corner. It made me happy because it meant I didn’t need to use the skill point I got every level to increase it. And, better still, every level seemed to make it cost a bit less to use while also granting me more damage or speed.
Unfortunately, while I would have loved to put all my points into Intelligence, I was forced to put the rest into Fortitude because by raising the stat, I could decrease my body’s need for trivial things like food, water, and air. While air seemed to be in plentiful supply, both food and water were in short supply, unless I wanted to try eating raw ant of course. Truthfully, I'd have been more worried about food and water if I was planning on staying here a while, but given the number of enemies I could see on my overlay, I knew that this whole thing wouldn’t take more than a day or two at most. Even if I went slowly. And with my increased Fortitude, I knew I would make it even if I didn’t wind up finding food or water.
Boosting Fortitude also made me a bit tougher to hurt physically, and while I was pretty good at not getting hit, I did like the idea of being able to tank the ants a bit better. Besides, the less Aura I used for healing after a battle when I used Auric Extraction, the better because it meant I had more Aura at my disposal. That said, I also used all my skill points to level Auric Extraction to level four as well so I could pull more Aura out of my targets.
“Well, that seems like it was the last scout ant,” I said to no one in particular as I looked around the horizon. There were no more glowing dots in my overlay… at least not ones that weren’t closer to the central pack.
Nodding to myself, I started making my way toward the least dense cluster of ants that I could find. From the look of my overlay, it seemed like it was only a group of two or three, and as I approached them, it became obvious why they were grouped in clusters sporadically placed around the denser section of ants.
Giant Sentry Ant, its name was also in white, so normally I wouldn’t have been too worried, but being that there were two of them standing next to one another, that would make things a bit iffy. It made me wish I had some kind of snare skill. If I did, I could root one to the ground and then deal with the other one at my leisure.
I spent the next few moments trying to think of a way I could divide and conquer the ants but came up with nothing really usable. There simply wasn’t a lot available to use as far as the surroundings went. As I’d said before, there was just dirt, dirt, and more dirt.
Still, I had a tiny inkling of an idea, and if it didn’t work, well, I’d still be in the same spot of having to deal with two ants at once.
I quickly pulled off my hoodie and placed it into my inventory before pulling off my t-shirt. Then I used one of the mandibles I’d been using like a crude dagger to cut a piece of the shirt into a strip about four inches by two inches. Then I punched a hole into the top and the bottom on both of the four-inch sides about a half inch in. That done, I ma
de another set of holes on each side about two inches farther into the center.
Once I was finished, I set my rectangle down and cut four long thin strips, separated them into pairs, and then braided them together until I had some semi-strong t-shirt rope.
Next, I threaded one of my ropes through all four holes on the top of my rectangle and the other through the bottom of the rectangle. It took a bit of doing since the ends were a touch frayed, and I had to go up through the first hole, down through the second hole, back up through the third hole, before coming back down through the fourth hole. And I had to do it once for both the top and bottom.
That done, I pulled on the ropes until I had equal lengths of rope on both the bottom and top of each side. Then I made a loop with the top rope so I could fit it around my hand and wrist. Once I had it adjusted to my liking, I made a hitch knot and further adjusted it.
Satisfied, I took the bottom rope and tied a knot that I could easily grab while not having any slack in either it or the one tied to my wrist.
A moment later, I stared at my sling and smiled. While I wasn’t sure if my crude, two cord sling would actually work, I had no reason to think it wouldn’t. After all, it had worked just fine when I’d taken that month-long survival course out in the Appalachians, during the hours I’d spent practicing, and in the numerous times I’d used it in-game since then. I just normally hadn’t made it with my t-shirt.
Still, now it was time to try it out. I grabbed the knot between my thumb and forefinger so that my rectangle formed a hanging pouch. Then I took one of the pebbles I’d collected and placed it in my pouch.
Taking a deep breath, I moved a bit farther from the ants so I could practice. After all, this was real, not a game, and I likely wouldn’t get a second chance.
