by David Burke
Later, Jay realized that this was a defining moment. He didn’t drop his spear but instead tightened his grip on the shaft and focused everything he had into pinning the creature to the ground. It was a clawing, screaming fury of fur about three feet in length and with six legs each ending in a wide paw tipped with wicked-looking claws. Though he was bigger than the creature and even though he had Enhanced Strength, Jay still felt it nearly twist away from him, which would have ripped the spear from his arms. He sure didn’t want to be facing this creature without the spear between them.
His mind scrambled for help as his supposed comrades were paralyzed by fear or shock and simply looked on. Then in a moment of clarity he remembered how he had been able to accidentally focus his Stamina energy into enhancing his speed and now he consciously attempted to do the same thing for his strength. He felt energy flow from deep in his core. It was an odd feeling but he could still sense it and it was intoxicating. Arms and legs tensed and then it felt like they became iron bars. The pressure he felt from the six-legged fury reduced and for the moment he felt like he could hold it there forever.
As the euphoria of his enhanced physique ran its course he felt a draining in his core. He could only maintain this for a limited time and he knew it. The creature had also started trying to reach the spear shaft with its claws; if that happened the wood would only stand up for so long.
Then there was a streak of darkness and a moment later Amelia was standing over the dead body of the creature. Her dagger was sheathed in a black energy and dripping the beast’s life blood. He could make out that it was Amelia but her very figure was muted and hard to focus on.
“It worked,” she exclaimed.
“What worked?” Huong spoke, the terror which had paralyzed her before now broken.
Amelia looked surprised to be asked that. Maybe surprised that she had spoken out loud in the first place. “Oh nothing, just an ability that I wanted to try out.”
“Well whatever it was, it looked cool how you were covered in darkness and that thing you did with the blade was awesome. But anyway, thanks. I don’t know how much longer I could have held that,” Jay sighed as he spoke.
“What was that thing anyway?” Liam asked.
“I honestly don’t care. I wanted to explore but looking at my status I can tell that we have passed the fifteen minutes so we have succeeded at the first quest. Let’s leave and then regroup outside. We need to talk about how we can handle this better in the future.” Jay’s voice was neutral but everyone could still feel the condemnation.
“Fair enough,” Huong muttered.
All four turned to walk and strangely enough, Amelia walked directly next to Jay this time. Maybe it was a bond they felt through the shared risk they had taken, but whatever it was, Jay knew he felt closer to her, and she seemed to feel something too. Behind them, the other two also walked side by side. Seeing how scary this forest could be probably made it so no one wanted to feel alone. Liam carried the carcass of the creature of his shoulder and didn’t seem to be bothered by its weight.
Once they reached the door, they all breathed deeply in relief and one by one went through with Jay waiting for the others to go first. As each of them passed through the doorway they got a message. Jay’s read as:
You have completed Quest 1.1 and earned 200 credits (Value of Exploration)
Status Improvement Summary
Precognition 5: +6% (10%)
Enhanced Strength 1: +10% (17%)
One-time message: Welcome to the rest of your life. Accept. Strive. Improve.
Chapter 15 - Hard Realizations
Once they exited the jungle, they all found themselves in the room at the top of the ziggurat. Each of them was too stunned by the last message to speak. The realization was settling into each of them in a different way. Jay stood there silently, Huong was quietly crying, Liam just tossed the carcass to the ground and sat next to it with his back to the wall.
It was Amelia who spoke first as she said, “Fine fuck it. If some cosmic asshole wants to screw with our lives then I guess there isn’t much that we can do about it but damn if I am going to cry about it anymore.” She then proceeded to storm out of the room and down the stairs.
Kenzie and another dozen girls that Jay didn’t recognize were waiting at the bottom of the stairs. They probably all wanted to find out about the dungeon. Amelia just walked past them without stopping so Jay figured he had to be the one to say something. As he came down the stairs he said, “I will tell you all about it but I think I need to report to the council first and then let Jasmine fill everyone else in.” Some grumbling followed but in the end he was left alone and the others wandered off to do who knows what while Kenzie went to get Jasmine and Mia.
A few minutes later, Liam had made it down the stairs and dropped the carcass off with Jay. He said he was going to go wash the blood off, since there was a good amount on him. They had forgotten to cut the throat of the beast before carrying it out and so it had leaked a good amount of blood down Liam’s front and back, staining the only clothing that he owned. He said something about going to the ocean which Jay didn’t think was a very good idea, but figured that everyone had to process these things in their own way.
Once all the council was assembled, Jay suggested that they go up the stairs so that they could be assured of meeting in private. He had used the time while waiting for them to open up the creature and drain it of the rest of its blood. So now he simply carried it up so that they could examine it in more detail. The most frustrating thing was that no name for the creature came up nor any indication of what parts of it might be useful. This place, wherever it was had the feel of an RPG game yet there were no prompts to know what to do with the creature. He certainly wasn’t a butcher and had no practical skills for dealing with the creature's remains.
It was just another way in which there were so many confusing things about this place. The directions he got from the voice in his head were to be focused and to descend. It suggested that he only had a limited amount of time to do so. The same sort of message came as a warning from the dungeon. This was his life now supposedly and he needed to accept, strive, and improve. It was like he was being tested, like all of them were being tested. The questions remained though. Who was testing them and equally important why were they being tested? Logically then also what happened if they passed the test or worse, failed?
He left off his grim thoughts as they all reached the top of the stairs. He allowed Huong to share about the alien jungle. She did a better job of explaining it from a botanical perspective and her terror came through strongly, which impressed the deadly seriousness on the rest of the council. Jay was scared and felt underprepared but it would be inaccurate to say that he felt terrified. There was even a part of him that was excited.
Of course, he had less to lose by not being able to return to Earth than most here. At least that was his assumption. His dad was still alive, but things had been so cold between them that even when they had lived under the same roof they could go weeks without saying a solitary word to each other. Being told that there was no going back made it easier for him to cut out that part of his life, like excising a wound. The counselor he had seen briefly after his mother and sister’s deaths would have undoubtedly said that he was avoiding dealing with emotions he felt, but he didn’t really care. He had enough practical problems here without dwelling on touchy feeling stuff.
The rest of the council took the news that this was not Earth and that they were stranded here badly. First with disbelief and then anger as though Jay and Huong were somehow to blame. Eventually though Jasmine reined everyone in and they started a practical discussion. It was decided that there was no way to keep this from everyone, so they might as well get it out into the open.
Jay pointed out that simply pushing to explore the jungle was not viable either. They had survived but that was only by luck or what he assumed was his precognitive skill. Since most of the time they couldn’t contro
l these skills it was felt that perhaps working in groups of four to try and help each other practice and try to develop these skills would be more valuable. They still would need to do the initial quest to get everyone 100 credits. Then hopefully those would last them for a few days and maybe by then some breakthroughs could be made on their skills. It was the sort of plan that was patched together with generous portions of hope and wishful thinking but it was all they had now. Jay didn’t mind it either because he had some ideas about how to develop his skills. More than that, he had seen how effective Amelia’s shadow blade had been and thought that maybe some of the others would have skills useful for combat.
It was decided that Jay would escort groups of 3 girls back into the dungeon so that they could each complete the quest. The 3 would share communal spears and daggers that Jasmine had bought with the credits she had collected from the slain. By Jay’s math it would take 7 hours to get 28 groups of 3 into the dungeon but it was felt that it would be safest to have someone who had proven to know at least a little bit about how to use a spear with them rather than sending groups of 4 without him. Ultimately they decided to discuss the cat lizard creature later and Jay went to get some water and get ready while the rest of the council set about organizing everyone into groups so that they could go one right after the other.
Chapter 16 - Escort Service?
Over the next six hours, Jay ran group after group through quest 1.1. No sooner would he finish one group than the next group would go down. He ended up running 24 groups into the dungeon with only thirteen people left to go through including the three remaining council members. It had been agreed that as the leaders they would wait till the end of the line.
The first plan he had was to do physical training so that he could increase his Enhanced Strength and Speed skills. They were the ones that he felt would be the easiest to increase and which provided passive benefits. The thing was that he found himself being self-conscious once down in the dungeon with a group of beautiful girls that he didn’t know. So instead of running and lifting or doing push-ups he ended up chatting up each group. He justified it by telling himself that it was important to get to know the other people he was stuck with. His entire world had devolved into 88 other people.
The trips had overall been much easier and only twice were they attacked, but of course that was because they stayed right by the cliff wall and didn’t get near the jungle. The first attack had not been very intimidating. It was a poodle-like creature that had some kind of high-pitched sonic attack. It was painful but one thrust of his spear ended the threat. The girls with him had been disabled by its attack but Jay just chalked that up to his increased durability and regeneration, something that almost none of the others had besides Liam.
The second attack was more serious. It was a massive creature that looked something like a bear but with feathers over parts of its body and four tails each ending in a ball-shaped bony club. It broke out of the jungle and roared a challenge. It had to have been eight feet tall while standing on its hind feet. Jay’s initial reaction was to tell everyone to flee, even if it ruined the quest completion, but since the creature was roaring at first, it seemed to be trying to scare them away or show its dominance.
At that moment Jay decided to take a chance and try out another of his abilities. “Get your spears out but if it gets past me then you probably want to run through the doorway.” Then without waiting for an answer he pulled one of the three rocks he had collected out of his jean pocket. He started thinking about his Accelerate skill. This was just an untested theory at this time, but it was a logical guess in his opinion. He didn’t exactly know how to make his Stamina go into the skill. Or wait, suddenly he had a thought. Maybe this type of skill was what PSI was for.
With that thought he tried to visualize what he wanted. He tried to think of a rail gun, imagining throwing the rock and then using his ability to accelerate its speed while flying through the air. The problem was that while it was relatively easy to think of increasing his physical attributes because he was accustomed to using his body, just using his mind to speed up a rock in the air was more akin to magic than anything he had ever experienced. Still he couldn’t shake the sense that this was how it would work.
Rearing back with his arm, he threw it full power at the beast. He reached out with his mind, pushing past the sense of silliness he felt in doing this and believing beyond folly that he could make it work. He felt a spike of pain through his head and then could have sworn that the rock doubled in speed at the last second, just before it crashed into the jungle.
The bear didn’t seem to be bothered by the rock and continued roaring and posturing. Jay laughed at himself, feeling silly that after all that work-up he had missed. Nothing for it but to do it again, so he pulled out both of the other rocks after propping the spear up against the cliff wall at his back. He focused on capturing the same sensation but now knowing that it was centered in his head just like the Stamina he used for his physical skills was centered in the middle of his chest.
He threw the first rock and was able to watch it accelerate once, twice, and then a third time. It flew faster than an arrow before slamming into the creature’s shoulder. The spike of pain was still pretty intense but he felt like he had the feel for it even better. The bear couldn’t ignore this rock as its roar was more of pain than bluster now. It dropped to all four feet and started to charge forward, but the injured leg didn’t work right and so its pace was somewhere between a hobble and a charge.
Jay flung the second rock with his other arm and this time the accelerations came more easily but for some reason he couldn’t manage more than three of them in a row. Still the rock was traveling eight times faster than he could have thrown it even with his enhanced strength. How he knew that exactly was something of a mystery to him but not one he pondered; it was just something he knew in his gut which came to him even as he was activating the accelerations for the first time. This rock slammed directly into the spot where the shoulder and neck of the bear met, ripping into its flesh and apparently severing an artery as blood started to gush out all over its feathers and its movements became even more erratic.
Jay didn't want to back down but the creature was only feet away and he had to instantly decide, fight or flight. Something came over him and he grabbed the spear in one hand before stepping to the side, then focused on increasing his strength as he thrust the spear forward into the same spot his second rock had penetrated. The spear drove two feet into the bear from the strength of Jay’s arms but more so by the stumbling momentum of the creature. This thrust must have been enough to finish the creature because even as he danced out of its path, its body slammed into the cliff wall and after a powerful shudder, stopped moving.
Jay was almost shocked to find that he had not escaped unscathed. His adrenaline had been running so high that he hadn’t even noticed that the final swipe of the creature’s paw while he had been making the spear attack must have just barely caught him. Even that light contact had been enough to open up his jeans as well as skin and muscle in his quadriceps. As soon as the adrenaline left his body, Jay stumbled to the ground crying out in pain as he grabbed his leg, getting blood all over his arms and the front of his t-shirt.
Once the initial shock wore off, Jay realized the cuts weren’t that deep but they still smarted like the dickens. “I don’t suppose any of you have any type of healing power do you?”
The three of them all looked at him with dumbfounded looks on their faces. With so much time to talk today he had met dozens of gorgeous, talented, and creative girls, or maybe he should start thinking of them as women since they all ranged from 18 to 25. Why was it that the one time he got hurt that he had to be stuck with the airhead group?
Through gritted teeth he insisted that they all share their status with them. The first one looked like she had some kind of elemental kinesis as her abilities, the second had something called Crystal Formations, finally the third one had a Kinesis ability
called Metabolic Acceleration: Other. He struggled trying to remember her name through the pain. “Daphne, I need you to try and use your ability to accelerate my metabolism. I need to try and heal these wounds before I bleed out too much.”
“But, but, I don’t know how to do that.”
“Please, trust me. I didn’t know how to throw the rocks so fast, but I tried and was eventually able to make it work.” Then he explained as best he could how he had been able to focus on pushing energy out of the center of his head and how he had to think about the purpose he wanted to use it for. He was starting to feel woozy. He hoped she understood but he started to focus his mind on moving stamina energy from the center of his body into his Regeneration skill. He felt the wounds healing up faster and pushed more and more of the energy into the process.
The feeling of itching and tingling in his skin was annoying but he was certain that he was healing faster. It wasn’t like the X-Men’s Wolverine such that the wounds were literally closing before his eyes, but he saw inflammation and redness decrease and felt the effect of the healing. The problem was that the core at the center of his being was quickly emptying out of stamina energy so he could probably only maintain this pace for another minute at the most. Interestingly enough as he got better at manipulating the regeneration skill, he realized that his passive regeneration rate of 4 made it so he healed 8 times faster than a normal human. Then when he pushed he was able to increase it 4 more times so that he was healing 128x normal healing. As impressive as that sounded at first, some quick math told him that meant that a wound like this which might normally take 6 weeks to fully heal would still take almost eight hours to heal up.
