There were advantages to being small and very skinny it seemed. It was surprisingly simple to clamber up the barricade and pull down enough refuse to wiggle though. Once I was on the other side I checked to make sure my small collection of knives, food and the metal pipe I had selected to accompany me was secured before I stalked out away from the sounds of beastial horrors beyond my comprehension. 

 

Seriously? Why would I ever go towards a horrible monster in a hallway without any cover at all. Rhetorical question, besides I was only mildly concerned about why exactly a barricade had been erected in the first place. After all, the barricade could have been established by the chaos worshipers.

 

I tried speed walking for a moment only for every muscle in my body to cry out in pain all at once having become fatigued after only a scant few dozen steps. I slowed my movements and continued down the slowly curving road keeping an eye out for any exit.

 

I wished that Livia had taken better care of her body before I got it. I suppose I was merely assuming things here but the context cues lined up fairly well. A chaos ritual had been performed and loyalists had tried to stop it. Then whoever the Pale Man was had smuggled me into this universe using one of the people who had taken part in the ritual. Unlike literally every other corpse my body did not have any icons marking it. None for chaos or for the Imperium. 

 

My feet had long started to ache, the rags I had tied over them in a pitiful approximation of footwear did little to protect them from the rough metal floor. I could already feel blisters forming in some areas and periodic stops to adjust the rags did little to help.

 

Eventually I settled down against the wall of the endless hallway and looked at my purchase options again. I had hoped I could avoid spending experience until I had a better idea of the value of everything but I needed an advantage now. It was also a good idea to see what changes to my characteristic scores would actually accomplish. 

 

Immediately the boon of muscle looked very tempting. An unnatural toughness should prevent me developing blisters right? Well I could not test that theory without committing myself to the big red bastard at least in some small capacity so despite the pain my poor feet were in I passed on selecting that option.

 

(100 XP, Boon of the Muscle: Grants +10 Strength, your body becomes more resistant to damage and heat, gain +1 unnatural toughness. +5% alignment.) 

 

Instead I elected to spend some XP on one of the aptitudes. Selecting fieldcraft after some deliberation for its bonus to toughness and to get an idea of how exactly the skill system functioned.

 

(Purchased:
Fieldcraft: Grants +4 to the Toughness Characteristics as well as Survival Training.

Toughness Characteristic 26+4=30

Fieldcraft aptitude gained

Survival skill increased to basic

60 XP remaining)

 

To my surprise I actually felt better, all the little aches and pains that had slowly grown over the short amount of time I spent in this body felt like they were soothed somewhat. I hoped that I was not feeling a placebo effect. I felt no little temptation to buy more toughness but resolved that I had already accomplished enough to keep moving, the most important thing for the moment.

 

I was about to head out when I looked down at my rag covered body and the improvised bundles I had made to carry my scant few possessions. The inefficiency of everything was nagging at my mind so I set everything I had down on the ground and untied all of the rough knots keeping the bundles together.

 

I had one long steel pipe, six knives, or perhaps more accurately described as shivs. I had three of the metal water canteens, one of them empty already, a small pile of bread and several of what tasted and looked like small baked potatoes. And finally I had twenty six of the coins I had found as well as a significant amount of rags I had stripped from the corpses around the altar.

 

(Inventory

Steel Pipe

X6 Shiv

X3 Canteen

X5 large rags

Rag outfit

1/2 ration of water

2 rations of food)

 

I blinked as I flicked through the system noting the new inventory section. I was sceptical of what exactly the system considered a ‘ration’ of food and water. It seemed like I had barely enough food to push back starvation yet the system considered this two full rations. It was correct however that I did not have enough water to last a day. I would have to locate a water source somewhere in this... facility? 

 

I quickly tied some of the rags into a large pouch with an actually secure knot this time before securing it onto the end of the pipe distributing the weight of my possessions more evenly over my body. I then pulled off my foot rags and bound my feet much more tightly and with knots that would not rub against me while I travelled along the hall.

 

Feeling much more ready for whatever this hell had in store for me and rather pleased with my purchase I began trudging forwards again. Musing on the XP system and how so far I had gained some points for gaining an insight into what exactly had happened at the sight of the chaos altar and some from completing a mission.

 

I probed the system to explain the missions to me and was rewarded.

 

(Active Missions:

 

Starter: Survive for 100 days 

Reward 500 XP

 

Starter: Discover current location 

Reward 50 XP

 

Starter: Find a secure location to rest 

Reward 50 XP

 

Starter: Find a clean water source

Reward 50 XP

 

Starter: Find a food supply

Reward 50 XP

 

Completed Missions:

 

Starter: Gather Supplies:

Reward 50XP)

 

It seemed like the system was feeling sorry for me and was throwing out some basic starter missions. Since I had completed the ‘gather supplies’ mission already I doubted I would get more XP for attempting it again. Now I merely had the prospect of supplies keeping me alive rather than providing XP! 

 

(Mission Offers:

 

Bloodletting: Kill a sapient creature

Reward 100XP, +2 Strength, +2 Toughness, Hot blooded trait: May enter a psychotic rage to gain combat bonuses and resistance to damage. +2% alignment )

 

It seemed I only had a single mission offer at the moment and there was little doubt about who exactly it was from. I did not exactly find the concept of entering a psychotic rage to be all that appealing at the moment but when my life was in danger that might be a very different story.

 

The endless hallway continued endlessly with any end to the thing obscured by its gradual turn. But I was no longer presented by solid pipes on the walls. To my right was an alcove, a doorway nestled into a bulge in the hallway with several markings for vehicles to stop at giving credence to the idea that people were not meant to walk down this hallway they were meant to drive! There were no vehicles for me to appropriate however so I merely sighed and approached the door.

 

It was a metal door with a keypad lock, one that was recessed into the top of the doorframe meaning the entire thing opened vertically, how very sci-fi and novel. Thankfully someone had already pried it open and kept it that way by propping the door up with a square steel sheet that I suspected was the lid for something.

 

Thankful for any chance to escape this fucking hallway I settled down into my knees and instantly regretted not giving them some sort of padding before crawling under the propped open door.

 

I found myself in a sitting area, there was an abandoned desk with a smashed computer built into it on the right and several benches affixed to the floor on my left. There were several doors leading out of the room all closed and all looking significantly less imposing then the propped open door behind me. 

 

I walked behind the desk to see if I could find anything, only to come up empty unless I wanted to collect bits of glass, metal and wires. Putting aside the natural compulsion to hoard everything and anything I gave the room a quick look over and found very little. Onto the doors then.

 

The first door, the one closest to the benches, was a heavy metal door that looked like it was sized for giants, like pretty much everything else here honestly. I pushed it open and stepped through into a room that stank of wet and mould as well as faintly caustic chemicals. Seemingly activating with my presence a light flickered illuminating a bathroom. There were two toilets in the corner of the room without a privacy screen around them. Utterly sinful bathroom design already. Next to them was a urinal trough. On the opposite side of the room were a row of sinks with a long and only mostly broken mirror.

 

There was also a mushroom growing out of what I believe to be a power outlet.

 

Putting the absolutely dire state of the room out of my mind I moved over to the sinks and turned the valve at the top of a tap to the right feeling a sense of giddy excitement as a stream of faintly metallic smelling water began to flow from the spout. I quickly drank some putting aside thoughts of water contamination and refilled my canteens.

 

(Objective accomplished, Find a clean water source, Reward 50 XP)

 

Again, the system had a dubious interpretation of the concept of clean, but XP is XP. That meant I now had 110 XP to spend! While I thought about whether I should spend now or save up my experience I looked into the cracked mirror, staring at my new face. 

 

Yup, that was the face of a starving looking woman alright. I had short, dirty red hair that looked like it had been cut with a knife and piercing blue eyes. Any beauty I might have had was rather diminished by my sunken cheeks and worn expression. I tried to smile but it just looked sad.

 

I was dirty, miserable and in a very fucked universe.

 

But I was alive! I could not let the fact I was weak, alone and worryingly female demoralise me! Survival came first, survival always came first. I had the system, I could gain power here, I could thrive here! Resolved I turned about ready to leave the no doubt mould contaminated bathroom only for my first step to send a sharp pain shooting up my leg and electing a shout from me. 

 

I stumbled back and fell back onto my bum as I clutched my bleeding foot, having just stepped on a small shard of glass that had escaped my notice.

 

Then there was a thunderous bang that would have no doubt thrown me to the ground had I not already fallen over followed by some kind of earthquake. Pressing a rag into my wound I held back the wave of helplessness that caused my entire body to shake and allowed myself a few quiet sobs. 

 

Things would get better.

 

They had to.