LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 1: Respawn
Chapter 1: Respawn
Zach groaned nervously as he ducked and dodged his way through the throngs of people while making his way down one of the busier blocks in the garment district of Whispery Woods. It was a dumb idea to come down this stretch of commercial madness. What the hell had he been thinking? As things were, he was already running late enough to class, and he was about to show up even later as he noticed road workers drilling loudly into the sidewalk ahead of him. So now, he’d have to cross the street to the opposite sidewalk and then inch his way closer to a lesser-busy block further up—assuming he could even get around the giant cluster of people who all intended to do the same.
I hate living in the Whispery Woods, he thought.
It was bad enough that there was so much noise you could barely hear yourself think, but the city was so dense and so populated it felt downright claustrophobic at times. It was a massive metropolis of impossibly tall skyscrapers and loud, fast-moving hover vehicles. As he stood on the corner of the street and waited for his chance to cross, he watched, mesmerized, as hundreds of Dual-Engine Hover Vehicles—DEHVs—whirled past his vision, blasting him with a never-ending gust of wind as they zipped by. Why was it taking so long for the light to change?
“Hey, Zach! There you are!” a voice called from somewhere off behind him. Zach was surprised he could even hear it at all with all the drilling from the crews repairing the damaged sidewalk and all the merchants shouting at pedestrians to come and buy their various foods, gadgets, gizmos, and whatever else they were selling.
Zach glanced over his shoulder and sighed at the sight of the overly energetic girl that came blasting into his field of vision. “Zach!” she said cheerfully. “Wait up! Don’t be mean.”
Fourteen-million people live in Whispery Woods, and somehow Kalana finds me every single day.
Ever since the beginning of the school year, Kalana had followed him almost everywhere he went; as far as Zach was aware, he was Kalana’s only friend. She was introverted around everyone but him. Why him? He had no idea. Kalana could easily have become one of the more popular girls at school if she could only get over her low self-esteem. She was a bit on the shorter side, with short, dark brown curly hair and curious green eyes that peered out at the world with wonder. She was also pretty hot—even if she hid it behind overly modest clothing and an almost religious devotion to shyness. Her ears were also slightly more pointed than the average person’s, and Kalana had once claimed it was because she had Elvish blood in her despite Elves having gone extinct thousands of years ago. It was a nonsense claim that Zach couldn’t take seriously.
“Hey, Kal,” he said weakly. Why did she always have to bother him when he was in a rush? It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy talking to her, but she didn’t run as fast as he did, and if he had to keep pace with her, it’d slow him down. Not that it really mattered at the moment.
Muttering a curse, he kicked the empty air in front of him, causing a brief outline of the electric-like, reddish-brown crossing barrier to briefly appear before disappearing less than a second later. To protect pedestrians from the instant—and gruesome—death involved with having a DEHV turn you into roadkill, no one would be able to cross the street until the light changed.
“How come you didn’t come to my apartment this morning?” she asked him, her lips bunching up as if hurt. “You never wait for me.”
“Because you take so long to get ready. Oh, and I overslept to begin with.”
She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. “You love school too much. Nerd.”
At this, Zach laughed. “I don’t love school, dummy. It’s just I hate living in this crap-hole city, and the only way I’m getting out is if I get into a good college with a good major, like…I don’t know, engineering or computer science or something.”
“You really don’t like it here?” she asked.
Zach gave her a firm shake of the head. To say he hated the Whispery Woods would be the understatement of a lifetime. It was filthy, the crime was getting worse every day, and it was too overpopulated. He wanted to live in the much more spacious, comfortable suburbs just outside of the city. His dream was to own his own home in some high-end neighborhood like the DreadWound Catacombs or maybe even—if he did really well for himself—he could even afford to live at the top of a skyscraper in a much nicer city like one of those high-risers in the Tomb of Fire or the smaller but more stylish condos in the Plains of Mist.
Zach sighed. Most likely, he’d be stuck here forever. Money was just too hard to come by and rising up the ladder was just way too—
“Zach! The light changed,” Kalana said, snapping him out of his trance.
“Oh—oh, right. Let’s go!”
Without saying another word, he reached out and grabbed her hand, then began dragging her behind him as he raced across the street with her. Why did her face turn red? Was she cold? It was the end of spring, the weather was turning warm, and the sun shined beautifully across the big blue sky above. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well. Thankfully, she wasn’t too sick to run, as she was able to keep his pace for once while he dashed through street just in time for the barriers to reappear and the noisy, gusty, avalanche of fast-moving DEHVs to resume.
Spinning his body sharply to the left, he took off at another run, nearly knocking Kalana over as he bolted down the sidewalk past four dilapidated, fifty-story-high apartment buildings with restaurants at their base level—all of them out of his price range despite being housed in such run-down, practically crumbling buildings.
I don’t even have 20g to my name. I need a damn job.
Until last week, he did have a job delivering pizzas, but freaking Kalana had been having those “dreams” of hers again or whatever the hell they were, so he’d had to go over to her apartment and comfort her. The girl was crazy, always having these bizarre nightmares that would then become Zach’s problem. Ever since she moved into the apartment across from his three years ago and decided on her own to be his new best friend, she pestered him at all hours of the day. Still, sometimes, when he looked at her from just the right angle, he couldn’t help but feel this tiny little pain in his chest that…
No! What am I thinking? This is Kalana we’re talking about!
Running as fast as he could manage, Zach continued his mad dash down the sidewalk with Kalana until, once again, something just had to get in his way. This was really turning out to be a terrible morning. It was almost 9 a.m., school started at 8:30, and yet something else just had to pop up and get in his way. It was bad enough he hadn’t had time to comb his wavy, jet black hair or slip into anything more sophisticated than a plain white t-shirt and a pair of black track pants, but now, in what was already a late start, he grunted in disbelief as a pudgy man in an orange hardhat stepped in front of him with his palms held out.
“Can’t come this way, kids,” he said to them.
“Why the hell not?” Zach snapped. “I need to get to school.”
The man shrugged. “Bunch’a boys decided it’d be funny to knock down a power line, so we’ve got ourselves an electricity hazard. Should be fixed in an hour.”
“An hour? I don’t have a damn hour. Look, I’ll step around it. Just let me pass.”
“No can do, kiddo. Where you headin’, anyway?”
“We both attend HS-54.”
He nodded, then spat a wad of yellow-green onto the street. “Your best bet is”—he pointed off behind him and to his left—“to take 45th and Blood Wolf down and keep going until you hit 47th, then make a right, and you’ll—”
“Dude, I know how to get to school,” Zach interrupted him. “I’ve lived in this garbage city all my life. I need to get there on time.”
Once again, the pudgy man shrugged. “Don’t sleep in next time, kid. Not sure what ya want me to tell ya.”
“Whatever. Kalana, let’s go.”
Without looking behind him, he took off at a fast walk in the direction indicated, fairly certain that the girl would follow behind him. Even amid the raucous sounds and the buzz of drilling, he was pretty sure he could hear her agitated footsteps as she tried to keep up with him. Not that he needed to hear her to know she was there: that became perfectly clear as he abruptly stopped short, and she bumped into him. An idea had come to him: a pretty damn good one, too.
“Ouch, Zach! What the hell?” Zach spun around on her so fast that she flinched. “W-what’re you—”
“Kalana!” he shouted. “I have an idea.”
She scrunched her lips together and regarded him skeptically. “Your ideas usually end with us getting into trouble.”
He waved off her remark, then nodded his head at the apartment complex behind him, at the base of which was a mid-range clothing shop and shoe store. “Let’s go through there.”
“Where?”
He grabbed her hand—gently this time—and moved it so that it was oriented off towards the left side of the building, where a fenced-off section blocked off an entrance to an alleyway. “There,” he said.
Kalana’s eyes widened just a moment before she again narrowed them. “That’s dumb. We can’t go there.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s unstable!” She marched over to the fence that spanned the short distance between the apartment complex and an office building parallel to it. Then she pointed to the sign with the yellow background and red exclamation point. “You love reading, Zach. So read!”
Zach laughed, rolling his eyes. She took everything so seriously. “They just put that up as a precaution. It’s so you can’t sue them for like a million gold if you get hurt.”
Just behind her was a sign that read: WARNING: DO NOT ENTER. SERIOUS RISK OF INJURY OR DEATH DUE TO GROUND INSTABILITY. Zach approached so that he stood next to her and directly in front of the sign. Then he flicked it dismissively.
“If we cut through here, we can get to school…well, not on time, but I won’t miss my test.”
“Well, we’re not gonna,” she said, her tone leaving no room for debate.
“Maybe you’re not. But I am.”
“But Zach! You read the sign. It’s too dangerous to—”
Zach ignored her and hopped into the air, only just managing to grab the top of the fence with both his hands. Then, grunting with exertion, he lifted himself until swinging his right leg over the top of it, the rest of his body following. Then he dropped back down, landing in a crouch and sending a shock into his knees. In hindsight, he should’ve thrown his backpack over first so that the heavy holobooks didn’t weigh him down. That was what Kalana did, anyway.
“I thought you were too scared?”
“I am!” she said, her backpack nearly landing on top of Zach’s head. He had to step backwards, nearly being clobbered by the thing. It landed on the ground in front of him with a whoosh. “But if you’re going, so am I.”
He laughed, then watched as she awkwardly climbed up, swinging her own leg over the top of the fence. Kalana usually wore very long, plain skirts. Yet the motion of her leg as it cleared the fence caused it to hike up, and for just a brief moment, Zach unintentionally saw her underwear, which caused an immediate flush of heat to race into his cheeks. He quickly averted his eyes both out of respect and because he wouldn't be able to handle Kalana taunting him about being a pervert.
Reaching down to grab his backpack and sling it over his right shoulder, he craned his neck in the direction of the alleyway. “Let's keep going, Kal.”
She slapped him, and he glanced at her, confused. “You’re gross,” she said.
“Huh? What are you talking about.”
"You know."
"No I don't."
She gave him a brief look of disapproval, narrowing her eyes at him. But thankfully, she didn't press the issue. Together, the two of them made their way down the narrow alleyway, which was only wide enough to fit two normal-sized people standing side by side. Even still, they walked single file, with Kalana behind him.
“How are we gonna get over the fence on the other side?” she asked. “It’s taller than the one we just went through.”
“It’s simple. I’ll boost you up, and then I’ll climb it. I can probably jump high enough to reach that.”
She grumbled as the two of them passed the halfway point between the fence they’d just hopped over and the one they were heading towards. “We’d better not get stuck here because of you. Then you’ll be even later for school, and I’ll be the one who feels dumb about it, because I knew this was a bad idea and I let you do it.”
Zach laughed derisively and rolled his eyes. “Kal, you need to stop being such a worrywart. That’s why you’re always having bad dreams.”
“That’s not why,” she said, somewhat more angrily than Zach would’ve expected. It actually caused a pang of guilt to creep into his chest. “And for the record, you can say whatever you want about my dreams, but you’re lucky I don’t tell everyone in school that last week I caught you—gahhhhhh!”
Kalana’s scream startled him, but not as much as his own scream. With a loud, snapping-crunch, a crack—no, tear began to form under the pavement between his left foot and the wall of the apartment complex, expanding in a straight line so that it ran from him, to Kal, and to a little bit into the distance behind her.
“Oh, man, this is bad,” he said with a gulp. “Kal, why did you insist we come this way?”
“Shuttup!” she snapped. “What’re we gonna do? Should we stay still or run?”
“I don’t know.”
“I dunno either! If we run, it might make it worse.”
“Yeah but…if we stay completely still, then what? Do we call the peacekeepers? The flame department? We’ll get fined or worse for being here. What do we even do?”
“How about listen next time when the sign tells us it’s too dangerous!”
Zach frowned. “Kalana, I asked you what we should do not what we shouldn’t have done. Okay, just stay calm. I’m sure everything will be just—”
With another snapping-crunch, another tear formed, splitting the ground in a straight line that once again ran from just beyond his right foot to an inch or two in front of Kalana.
“—fine?” he asked.
And then there was a final crunch, and this one was louder than any other sound he’d heard today in the noisy city. With a desperate cry, he called out Kalana’s name, and then the ground gave way completely. Before Zach knew what was happening, he found himself falling into the dark depths below the city. The sound of their screams joined together, and the two of them yelped in horror while they fell faster and faster and faster. They were going to die, weren’t they? Zach had just gotten them both killed. Even as he fell to his certain death, he regretted letting her follow him. He deserved this for his own stupidity: she didn’t. Why had he been so stupid?
After what seemed like ten eternities but was probably closer to five or six seconds, Zach slowed dramatically until coming to a halt. It was only then that he realized he was underwater. Less than a split second later, he heard a loud splash followed by the form of Kalana’s body shooting downwards next to him. It was so dark in here, but there was just enough light for him to realize he was staring into her eyes, and she into his. The surprise and fear in those green orbs was overtaken in a matter of moments by both indignation and a sense of relief.
Together, the two swam upwards and resurfaced—or at least Zach tried to. Just as he was about to come up for air, he realized he was weighted down too much by his backpack, which had fallen off his shoulder and had somehow gotten stuck to a rock down below. Somehow, one of the straps had actually gotten itself tied around his foot, and try as he might, Zach could not break it free; thus, it was tethering him like an anchor.
Panicking, he struggled to breathe; Kalana, unsurprisingly, did not. Kalana was an amazing swimmer; whenever they went swimming in the lake during summer vacation, she would show off how long she could hold her breath. It was almost inhuman the way she could stay under for ten, twenty minutes at a time. That really came in handy now as she swam over to him, unzipped her own pack, and then removed a pair of scissors that she used to cut the strap and set him free. Together, the two swam up and above the water line.
“Oh, Gods above!” Zach shouted, gasping and panting. “I thought I was going to die there.”
“You were gonna die there,” Kalana said. “You’re welcome.”
“Th-thanks,” he whispered. “Uh, where are we?”
Treading the water, Kalana darted her head around. “No idea. Val En Sha!” she cried.
Zach literally squawked in amazement as a light popped into existence above her curly-haired head. It wasn’t very bright, but it was just enough to allow the two of them to see a few feet ahead of where they currently swam. Not that Zach cared about where he was anymore. Not after seeing that. He was in such awe of what he’d witnessed that he almost forgot to kick with his feet, nearly submerging himself back under the water.
This can’t be real. This is impossible.
“Kal, you have an ability?” he asked, shocked to the point he struggled to breathe, though this time not due to the water.
Of all things, she rolled her eyes at him. “It’s just a torch. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“Yes it is! I’ve never, ever, ever seen someone have an ability before. Except on TV during the yearly tournaments.”
“So? You’re acting way too, you know, impressed about this, Zach. It’s basically just a flashlight, and those only cost 5g at the hardware store.”
“Yeah, but…but it’s something! When was the last time you saw someone who could actually do magic or anything?”
“What’s it even matter?”
“Also, since when do humans have racial abilities? Everyone who’s taken basic history knows that only El—” he gasped—“you really do have Elvish blood in you.”
“Duh. I told you that the day I met you.”
“But…but no one does.”
“I do.”
“Okay, but…wow, this changes everything.”
“Why? Because I can make a torch above my head? It’s really not a big deal. You better not treat me differently or nothin’! I’m serious. Now can we just get out of here please? My clothing is soaked and I feel grimy.”
“I'm not exactly comfortable either, Kal.”
“Yeah, but this is all your fault,” she growled. “So you don't get to complain. And also don’t bug me about the stupid ability, either. You’re being annoying today.”
“Okay, fine. But I just have to say: you realize you could be the coolest kid at school if you showed that off, right?”
“Well maybe I don’t wanna be.”
Swimming further into the darkness, the only sound that could be heard other than their arms as they navigated their way across the water was the intermittent sound from a now rather angry Kalana. How mad was she? Zach gulped. He wasn’t sure if she was mad because of his reaction to her ability or if she was mad that she was soaking wet from what was—hopefully—not sewer water. Or could it be that she was more irritated over the fact that he hadn't listened to her when, in all fairness, he probably should have.
Wherever this place was, it was big. It took nearly twenty minutes of swimming before they found something dry to stand on. It was a ledge just ahead of them. Given that Kal’s torch was less bright than a cheap-end flashlight, they nearly bumped into it, which would have hurt. Still, even if it wasn’t as bright as a hand-held, battery-operated flashlight, it didn’t make it any less cool. It was still something.
Hoisting himself up onto the ledge and then onto what felt like a rocky, cavernous floor, Zach spun around, held out his hand, and then pulled Kalana up next to him. She had her arm folded across her chest, and the fact that she noticed that he noticed she had her arm there only seemed to intensify her glare as she bared her teeth at him.
“Not going to lie to you,” he said, hoping to change the subject. “I have no idea where we are.” He reached into his pocket, hoping his phone’s GPS would shed some light on the situation. “Oh, and great, my phone’s busted. I can’t afford another one. I don’t just have 500g lying around!”
“Your own fault,” she said. “You did this to your own”—her eyes bulged, and Zach gulped—“self? Ahh! Mine’s busted too. You’re buying me a new phone, Zach.”
Flailing his arms in outrage, he shouted, “How? I can’t even afford to buy my own phone!”
She poked him in his chest—hard. “I don’t care how. You’re buying me a new phone. It’s your fault we’re here.”
“No—not really! If you think about it, you insisted on following me. I was just going to leave you behind. This is at least half your fault.”
“Nah-uh,” she said. With her soaking wet hair, her scrunched up pouty face, and the way she folded her arms over her chest, Zach, in that moment, for a reason he couldn’t even begin to explain, wanted to kiss her so badly that it actually hurt. It was an instinct that had come along so suddenly he hadn’t been expecting it.
“Why’re you looking at me like that? What’s the problem now, dork?”
“It’s…it’s nothing,” he said blinking several times before spinning around to face away from her. “Let’s just find a way out of here.”
For the next several minutes, they ventured deeper into this expanse of rocky terrain and utter darkness, their only source of light coming from the one Kalana had summoned above her head. Twice more, she had to redo the spell, and on the third one, she made a nervous-sounding moan and said, “I can’t make another one of these, Zach. We need to hurry.”
“Huh? Why not?”
“I can only do it three times every twenty-four hours.”
Zach didn’t mean to chuckle, but he couldn’t help himself. “Why does such a weak-ass ability have such a long cooldown?”
From the glare in Kalana’s eyes, Zach could tell he’d touched a nerve. He wasn’t sure why, though. But from the look of her, she was definitely feeling defensive. “Well, so I guess it’s not such a cool ability after all, huh?”
“N-no, it still is!”
“You’re a liar. You think it’s lame.”
“I don’t! You saw how excited I was before.”
“You were faking.”
“Wait, time out. You are the one who told me it’s just a lame ability or whatever. Or no…I think your exact words were that it was ‘no big deal’.”
“So? I still wanted you to think it was…you know what? I don’t wanna talk about it. Keep walking, pal.”
“Jeeze, fine!”
Aside from the drip-drip-drip of water from the ceiling and the occasional squeak of what was likely a bat, there was very little to see or hear in this place aside from a puddle every now and again. Making sure Kalana wasn’t falling behind, Zach continued to lead the two of them towards what he was beginning to fear would be an endless stretch that spanned the entire city. What if there was no way out? What if they got stuck in here forever and died of starvation or dehydration? Their phones were broken, so they had no way of calling for help, and because the city was so short on gold, it would probably be months—if not years—before any crews came around to fix that patch of broken ground.
I’m just scaring myself. I need to be cool. Keep it together.
He hoped this wouldn’t be the place of his death. He had too many dreams. He wanted to be successful. He wanted to live in a nice home. And just now, for whatever reason, he just decided in this moment he wanted to someday marry Kalana, even as it made him cringe to think of it.
“Hey, I see something up ahead!” she said cheerfully.
Well, at least she isn’t mad anymore.
“What is it?”
“I dunno.”
The source of light only cast a few feet in front of her, and Zach had no idea what she was talking about. Then again, she always did have amazing vision. He didn’t doubt she’d spotted something. “Is it a way out?” he asked.
“I dunno what it is. It’s straight the way we’re going.”
“Well, that’s the only way we can go.”
“Shuttup.”
“Fine, whatever. Anyway, that light source isn’t going to last much longer. We really need to pick up the pace.”
Without waiting for her to reply, Zach took off at a sprint, the sound of his feet tapping down against this rocky underground cavern now the only sound to be heard—at least until, a few seconds later, the sound of Kalana’s footsteps joined his. She was a bit behind but not by much.
“Wait for meeeee!” she called.
Zach laughed. Why was she so cute when she was worried or angry? It almost made him want to run even faster just so she had to yell out to him more. But that probably wasn’t a good idea as, the farther he got from her, the less he could see. In fact, he was now submerged in complete darkness. Glancing over his shoulder, the only thing he could still see was the source of light coming from Kalana as she hurried to his side. Once alongside him, she stopped short. Then her eyebrows rose to the top of her face, her mouth fell open, and she lifted a shaking, trembling finger.
“Kal?” he asked, becoming concerned. “What is it?”
Rather than reply, she opened her mouth even wider, her finger shaking even more uncontrollably. “Zach. Z-Zach. Zach. Zach!”
“What?”
“Look!”
Zach turned his head back around—and then nearly died of a heart attack right there on the spot. The shock of what he saw hit him with such unbelievable force that it made the earlier sight of Kalana using magic feel like a boring math lecture. As his eyes struggled to cope with what they saw before him, he needed to actually put in effort just to breathe. It wasn’t a stretch to say that this was, literally, the most astonishing thing that he had ever borne witness to. Nothing could or would ever come close.
On the ground before him were three creatures. Two were frogs the size of big dogs, and one was a rat the size of a house cat. But that wasn’t what made him fill with such disbelief and awe that his knees nearly buckled; no, it was what appeared in white lettering above the creatures’ heads: Level 1.
“Are these mobs?” he said with a gasp as what felt like a million volts of electricity caused his skin to prickle.
“I…I think so,” Kalana whispered. There was a small smacking sound, and Zach briefly turned his head to see her covering her mouth with her hand in what had to be the same level of amazement that he himself felt.
“That’s impossible. There are no spawns in Whispery Woods. There’s no spawns anywhere anymore. These can’t be mobs. There haven’t been any for five-hundred years or maybe more. Right? Or was it a thousand? My history textbook is back where we fell. So I…I don’t know what we’re seeing.”
“Ruhhbbbit,” croaked the dog-sized frog. “Ruhhbt.”
“This can’t be real. This can’t be really happening.”
“I think it is,” Kalana said. She pointed. “I think those are mobs and this is a spawn.”
“That’s impossible! Only the elites have spawns. There are no spawns left in most of the world. If there were, some rich dude would’ve bought the entire neighborhood around it by now and farmed it for himself. No one’s leveled up in…well, who knows?”
Everyone knew that almost the entire population of the planet of Galterra was level-1. Only the special few at the top could rise. They were like superheroes. They were stronger than the average person, and they could do things—incredible things. They were like Gods among men. No one really knew for sure why people destroyed all the spawn points after the rise of industrialization. The history books weren’t clear. The only thing people knew for sure was that only those who were special got to level up.
“Should we…” Zach inhaled sharply. “Should we…kill them?”
He flinched as Kalana grabbed his shoulder and squeezed. “No, you dork! We’ll die. We don’t have any weapons or equipment. No one does! No one’s ever even seen equipment except on TV.”
Zach returned his attention to the beasts. “They don’t look so tough to me.”
“Zach, no! I will never forgive you if you get yourself killed.”
“How come they’re not attacking us, anyway?”
Kalana, on a shaky, uneasy-looking foot, stepped forward so that she was now directly beside him. “I think they’re passive. Meaning, they’ll only attack if we attack first.”
Under his breath, he muttered, “I wonder if they can only attack three times every twenty-four hours.”
As pain entered his back, he realized she’d heard him—and had slapped him. Zach ignored it. Instead, he shook his head, still in a total state of disbelief. “Do you realize what this means, Kal? If we kill these things, then we can come back when they respawn. And we can kill them again. And again. And again. We might level up. We might even…we could get to like level four!”
“Stop that. You’re gonna talk yourself into doing something really dumb, which is how we ended up here in the first place. People like us aren’t, uh, you know, supposed to be…this isn’t our world.”
Zach gritted his teeth in frustration. She was right. This wasn’t his world. But he couldn’t accept that, could he? He was tired of this filthy city. He was tired of living a mediocre life below the poverty line in this low-end city where the best food money could buy still sucked! There was so much more out there in the world.
With his left hand, he tapped his right shoulder blade three times in a row, and as usual, his stats popped up, the numbers floating in the air before him. Like just about 99.9% of other humans on Galterra, he was level 1, with 1 strength, 1 dexterity, 1 constitution, 1 intelligence, 1 point into speed, and 1 point into luck. Same as any other boring, ordinary human he had ever met or would ever meet.
No one ever really bothered to check their stats anymore. Why would they? Intelligence had nothing to do with how smart someone was, and luck? Well, if he had any of that, he wouldn’t be living in the Whispery Woods, now would he? Oddly enough, strength did have real-world effects if he recalled correctly. But for intelligence to matter, you needed to have access to spells or something.
I wonder if Kalana’s light would be brighter and last longer if she had more of that.
Frowning at him, Kalana asked, “Why’re you looking at your stats? What are you, five?”
The only real use the stats had to anyone was to goof off during class and make it hard for the kid sitting in front of you to see the blackboard. Everyone was fascinated with it when they were young, though. Little kids at the park would run around with their stats out and pretend to be higher-level. But it was just a boring fact of life once you got out of kindergarten. Not something anyone really thought about anymore—though Zach did recall a guy once getting arrested for leaning forward in a taxi-DEHV and intentionally bringing out his stats to blind the driver, causing a major accident that killed fifteen people.
“I’m just thinking,” he said.
“Well, don’t. This has nothing to do with us. Just…let’s go.”
Zach nodded as Kalana, taking charge for once, began to walk away. He followed her—or at least he wanted to.
I don’t want to keep living this boring, garbage life. I want to be someone. I want to go places!
“Zach?” she called to him. “Zach!” she repeated more firmly.
This could be my chance. This could be my ticket to a better world. I can be someone! I can…even if I only ever get level 2, I’ll be better than everyone I’ve ever known.
“Zach!” she practically screamed. “Don’t. Don’t! You better not, dork. I swear, you better not.”
“I’m sorry, Kalana. I have to.”
“No!” she cried. “Zach, I swear to the Gods above, if you even think about—”
He did it. He had to. He knew he had to. Pulling back his fist, he decked the frog-like creature on his left, slamming his fist into its face. At the same time, Kalana’s words cut off with a gasp, and there was a brief moment of silence, during which a tiny little number “1” popped up for a brief instant above the dog-sized frog.
Zach swallowed. “Oh sh—”
“RRRRRRRRRIIBIIIIIIT!” it roared angrily.
The creature jumped into the air, spun around so that it faced him, and then kicked out with its legs, slamming them into Zach’s chest, causing pain to flare up immediately as he was thrown several feet backwards, slamming into the rocky wall behind him, which hurt even more.
“Zach! Zach!” Kalana cried.
“Oh, Gods above! What have I done?”
“RRRRRRRRIIIIIIBBBIIIIIIIIIIT!” it roared again, and so did the other one. Both began walking towards him, their eyes turning from white to red, seemingly glowing. The rat also made an angry-sounding squeak and started crawling towards him.
“I pissed it off. Oh, damn. I pissed it off!”
Zach turned around and fled, running as if his life depended on it. He was going to die. For real this time! He should’ve taken the win the last time he’d thought he was going to die and hadn’t. But now? Now he was definitely going to die. And this was made clear to him as the frog outran him, jumping again, and this time kicking him in the small of his back.
He was sent forward and he landed with a rough plop down onto his stomach. The fall hurt. It hurt badly. In fact, now that he thought about it, the fall hurt way more than the two times he’d been kicked. Like, way more.
Wait a minute…
He scrambled back up to his feet as the two frogs and the rat surrounded him. Roaring again, the frog jumped, spun its body midair, and kicked—only this time, Zach crossed his arms, making an X-shape, and he absorbed the impact. It still pushed him back a few feet, but it didn’t hurt to the extent he’d been expecting. Then he grinned.
“Kalana! I think we can do this!”
Once again, he struck out, slamming his fist into the face of the same frog he’d attacked earlier, only this time using even more of his strength. The frog recoiled and roared in pain as a “2” appeared above its head.
I hit it for 2 damage. Is that good or bad? I don’t even know.
“I can’t believe you got me into this! You’re gonna get it later!” Kalana yelled as she jumped over the frog and landed by his side. Then she too punched the frog, hitting for another point of damage.
“RRIIIIIIIIIIIIBIIIIIIIT!” Zach pushed her away and jumped to where she’d been standing, absorbing the impact of the frog’s retaliatory attack. At the same time, the other frog went in on him, and twice more, he was pushed back. Then the rat bit him—and that really hurt.
He cried out in agony, swinging his foot furiously as the rat’s teeth sank deeper and deeper into the right side of his heel. Finally, he managed to knock it off, and based on the amount of blood that began to ooze out and run down onto the rocky floor, the thing had taken a chunk of his skin off.
Kalana gasped. “You’re bleeding! Zach, we need to run!”
“We can’t outrun them. They’re faster than us. They’re—oh Gods it’s going to bite me again.”
Zach threw himself out of the way the exact moment the rat shot towards him like a rocket, snapping at the air where he’d just been standing. Pain entered every joint in his body as he impacted roughly with the hard ground. Fueled by nothing but adrenaline and a will to live, he scrambled back up to his feet, ran forward, and with all his strength, he kicked the Gods-forsaken beast with every last ounce of his strength, causing it to lift up and off the ground and slam with a disgusting-sounding slap into the wall he himself had just collided with only moments prior. The kick itself only did 2 points of damage, but the impact with the wall did 10!
He charged after it, intending to hit it again. But before he could so much as cross half the distance between himself and the rat, it simply rolled over, made a sad croaking sound, and then disappeared into a puff of smoke. And then he saw the numbers that would change his life forever.
+50xp. (2xp + 48xp first-time new adventurer bonus)
Level up!
+1 str (2)
+1 con (2)
+1 spd (2)
Wave Slash Acquired!
He was so stunned and so fascinated by what he was seeing that, for a few moments, he totally forgot where he was or what he’d involved himself in. He was reminded only as Kalana called out to him, fear and desperation in her voice. “Behind you, dork!”
Both frogs were kicking out at him at the same time. There was no way he was going to avoid their attack. It was impossible. Sure, he’d try. But there was simply no humanely way possible that he could actually be fast enough to—
He cried out in shock as his own feet propelled him backwards at a speed that only a professional athlete could rival. “What the…?”
“How’d you move that fast? How’d you…” Kalana gasped. “Zach! You’re...oh Gods above! You’re level 2!”
“I’m…level 2?” he asked, still struggling to come to grips with any of this.
“You did it. You actually, really, truly did it. I’m gonna cry. I can’t believe it. No one’s ever leveled up. This just isn’t supposed to be possible anymore!”
Zach, still struggling to process it all, noticed a glint of something metallic in the corner of his eyes. “Holy crap!” he shouted. “Kal! It dropped something. An actual, literal drop. Like for real! Like there is actually an actual, literal drop right there.”
“And it’s mine!” she said excitedly, practically skipping over to it with the biggest smile he’d ever seen on her.
“Like hell it is! I killed the thing. It’s—ahh, crap!” Zach leapt out of the way as both frogs converged on him again. “I don’t know what dropped, but whatever it is, it’s worth more than our lives. And it’s mine! I need it. Don’t even think of taking it.”
“Nah-uh. It’s mine. It says so itself.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? We’re not in a party!”
“Yeah we are. We came here together and fought together.”
“You hit the frog thing once!”
Even as denial struck him, he couldn’t deny that the item, whatever it was, did in fact belong to Kalana, or else she wouldn’t have been able to walk forward and casually pick it up. Only after was it picked up would he be able to grab it off her like it was any ordinary thing you’d find around the house—or at least he was pretty sure that was how it worked.
“Whoah, cool! Hehe. It’s a dagger.” She tapped her right shoulder three times, and her stats popped up—and so did something else, too. Her inventory. Zach had never actually seen an inventory page before, because no one in the world he was ever likely to encounter would ever have something that would make it appear.
Even as he continued to dodge the attacks of these stupid frogs who, now that he thought about it, did the same exact repetitive and easily avoidable attack over and over, he began to read the words that had appeared before Kalana.
Dagger of Whispery Woods: discovered by Kalana Vayra.
2-5 physical attack damage
+1 int, +1 con
(500 seconds). Enables the user to summon a lesser bolt of lightning, doing between 5-15 magical damage to one target
50 range.
“Wow, this is so cool,” she said.
“Yeah, it really is,” he replied, filling with confidence. “Also, I’ve mastered dodging these things. If I hadn’t been so scared, they never would’ve hit me so many times. Look, watch this.” He laughed as he easily glided out of the way of their stupid frog-leg attack again and again. “We are gonna be rich, Kalana! Rich! Once we sell that, we’ll split the profits and—”
“No!” she said, curling her lips.
“No? You’re going to take all the money?”
“Nah-uh. I’m not selling it. It’s mine.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Yeah, I am. It dropped for me and I want it. I’m gonna try it, too!”
Zach sighed. “We’ll talk about that later. Just be careful because I’m standing right—OH MY GODS ABOVE!”
Without warning, and happening so fast that it was quicker than a blink of the eye, a bluish-grey bolt of lightning materialized in the air just above the right-most frog’s head, briefly illuminating the world around them and zapping the beast, causing it to croak in agony. It was the one that he had socked a few times. To his amazement, it suffered 11 points of damage. Which meant that, if he were to walk up to a random person and punch them with all of his strength five times in the face, getting hit by that magical bolt of lightning would still hurt more.
Or maybe not. My strength went up. Am I stronger now than I was before?
The frog stopped moving. It rolled over, died, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. “I leveled up!” Kalana cheered. “Zach! I’m level 2 now!”
“Whatever,” he grumbled. “I basically did all the work on that one. Hey, let’s finish off this other one together, huh?”
Kalana laughed and nodded. “Let’s do it!”
It was still so fresh. It was still so new. It was still settling in his head that what he had just stumbled upon would forever change the trajectory of both of their lives. He just needed time to appreciate it. He just needed time to realize that, right now, in this moment, with 2 strength, he was now the strongest kid at school and probably the entire city. Maybe a professional weight-lifter who had spent years perfecting his body would be able to match him. But maybe not.
I can’t believe I leveled up. Is this a dream? Am I going to wake up and find out this was all in my head?
As his thoughts nearly caused the frog to send him packing again, he decided to worry about the ramifications later. For the first time in since the dawn of the industrial age, someone had found out a spawn point: and it had been him and his pal Kalana.
Nothing could ever be the same.