Chapter 4 – “You sniveling ape.”

Name: Trey Bon

Level 1

Class: None

He felt like he was losing his mind. This place – wherever he was – felt incredibly realistic, and that bothered the living hell out of him. It shouldn't be real...

But his senses told him otherwise. He sat up, scratched his head, and solidified his resolve. "I have to do something... I can't just sit here, wallow in my own misery, and wait to die. How fucking pathetic would that be..."

But what could he do?

There was really only one answer to that question... he didn't have many options here. Glancing towards the stone ramp, he began mustering the courage to take the trek downwards... into the darkness. He picked himself up, dusted himself off, and headed forwards.

Until he heard an unearthly screech from above.

Whirling around at the unexpected sound, Trey's eyes widened as he saw a strange bird - the size of a large dog - ripping through the air towards him at a nose dive. Its skin was leathery and reddish brown, with large yellow eyes and a long pointed beak.

Was that a fucking pterodactyl? Really? After he'd just respawned he was being attacked again?

He only barely managed to dodge to the left, avoiding being skewered by the long pointed beak of the first as the boney protrusion of the animal punctured the stone with a crash.

Trey came up in a roll with his heart pounding. He scrambled backwards to put his back against he pillar, gaining some time to examine his attacker as the creature took the next couple seconds to pull its mouth from the rock.

It wasn't a pterodactyl after all... but it looked very similar. Its wingspan was a little longer than he'd first thought, with hooked claws at the dorsal aspect of each wing, and talons on its feet. It had a long slender tail that writhed about like a snake in the back, and black feathers protruded along the back of a frill on its neck. The beak was also strange... it wasn't just bone, but rather coated in an alloy or gray metal.

As Trey watched this ugly creature rip its head out of the ground to look at him, Trey couldn't help but think about how utterly absurd this all was.

But fuck-all if he'd let this bastard bird brain get the better of him.

His fists clenched and he gritted his teeth, getting into a stance to roll to the right as he prepared himself.

The creature didn't waste any time, let out another ungodly screech that hurt his ears and charging ahead the same way it'd done the first time - only this time the bird was much slower because it wasn't airborne. He rolled under its wing as its long beak slammed into the totem, and he avoided two more snaps of the beak before they both came to a standstill to look at one another.

It only weighed as much as he did, if even that, so Trey was confident he had a chance to beat this fucker into submission. So when it made another lunge, he let it pass underneath his arm and slammed a fist into its eye.

The creature screeched again, this time in pain, and reeled backwards - striking out with its talons at him as it fell back. The strike caught Trey's right thigh and left shallow, bloody gashes in three linear markings.

"FUCKING BIRD!" Trey slamed another fist into the side of its head again, dazing it and then wrapped his arms in a lock around the beak. Heaving with a grunt, he turned his body to the left and slammed the aggressive dinosaur-wannabe back-first into the totem. "FUCK YOU!"

The bird flapped wildly, trying to free itself from Trey's grip as it was slammed into the totem twice more. On that third time, Trey heard something crunch and the creature went from a screech to a straight up scream.

A mechanical, feminine voice whispered into Trey's mind. “You have acquired the Hand to Hand Combat skill. For inquiries, be sure to pull up your status page for more information."

The thrashing became more violent, and the talons of its feet finally found a hold on Trey's abdomen.

Trey cursed and flung the creature away to avoid further damage, but the claws had put some really nasty hits into his front. "Jesus that hurts..."

He lifted his eyes, and saw the bird nursing a broken claw along the dorsum of its wing. A moment later and it caught his gaze, its bruised yellow eye narrowing in anger. They stood there, nursing their wounds and glaring at one another until Trey screamed out and charged to end the miserable bird's life.

With a final squawk, the creature frantically flapped its wings and took off into the sky again. Trey came to a stop, panting and glaring up at the fucker who'd managed to get away. Twenty seconds later and the creature had flown off into the distance, out of sight, into the black clouds of ash high above.

Trey sank to his knees, grimacing as the shallow cuts along his body continued to bleed. It wasn't anything that'd kill him, but it definitely made things uncomfortable. Sweat trickled down his abdomen and thigh to intermix with the red droplets of liquid, and he dragged a hand across his skin to smear it against his body.

"God... damn..." Trey said between heavy breaths. "This is getting ridiculous."

His adrenaline was still going, even though the fight had ended. His heart beat fast and he felt more alive than he had in a long time. Perhaps... perhaps this was something he'd needed. A fair one on one fight that got his blood pumping... and a minute later a small smile crept over his lips. He glanced over to the ramp leading down into the cave, and let out another heavy breath of air.

“Fuck it!” said Trey as he stood up. It was time to do what he'd planned on doing a couple minutes ago. “If I’m gonna be stuck here I might as well play this damnable ‘death’ game. Fucking laughable.”

He said it loudly, and in large part was trying to encourage himself, still grappling with the idea that he was in another world. God damn it, why did this have to happen to him of all people? How the hell had this even happened?

Picking himself up and dusting off the dirt from his bare skin, Trey did what he had been afraid to do since getting here. He steeled his resolve, jogged over to the cold stone ramp leading into the cave below, and after taking a deep breath he slowly began descending into the darkness. It was the only way off this elevated pillar of rock, and he was tired of waiting around doing nothing.

He crawled on all fours, feeling his way down the narrow path for what seemed to be forever. It was a solid couple minutes in reality, until he finally felt the pathway end and he touched cold moist dirt beneath his fingertips. He couldn’t see anything very well, with the pale red light from the sky above hardly making its way into the deep pit he’d crawled into. It took him a minute of continued crawling around, blindingly feeling with his hands until he caught sight of something odd. He could barely make out a small passageway lit by a strangely shaped white lantern deep within the cave off to his right, the light being so dim that he’d almost missed it entirely even despite his eyes doing their best to adjust to the dark. It had taken him about half an hour just to reach the bottom, and now that he was finally there he was happy to have a goal. The lantern was put there by someone, or something, and it drew him in like a beacon.

Where else would he go? After all, he didn’t want to wander around aimlessly.

He continued to crawl, brushing aside small rocks and weird shrubs that were scattered about the interior of this strange place. Another ten minutes of hesitantly slow progress and he had finally reached the passage.

The lantern overhead glowed a white light and was shaped in the form of a humanoid skull, though horns protruded from the forehead of the item and it was too high for Trey to reach. It hung over a small hallway built into the cave's rock wall that went directly inwards for a little more than a couple meters. Down the hallway an enormous, old, and rotting wooden door three times the height of Trey was closed in front of him. He approached it, examining the ancient sigils carved into the wood and put forth a hand. It was cold to the touch and smelled… musty. He tried opening the door by pulling on the rusted metal handles but to no avail, finding it was much too heavy for him to even budge despite his best efforts.

Grumpily he humphed and tapped on it with his knuckles a couple times to see if anyone was inside, with a hesitant glance backwards to make sure that monster who’d killed him earlier wasn’t around. His eyes couldn’t penetrate the darkness beyond the light of the lantern though, so he was hesitant to call out after the timid knock had given him no results. Putting his ear up to the door he couldn’t hear anything either, and he was beginning to think that no one was home.

Upon inspecting it longer, he noted that the wood looked frail enough to break. So Trey went back to retrieve a larger rock from the cave’s bottom. It took a little while to find one of a good size considering he had to feel around with his hands, but eventually he brought one back that was twice the width of his fist. He triumphantly took it back to the door, looked around again to clarify to the best of his ability that he was still alone and began hammering at the wood with all of his might.

A couple of hits into it yielded no results, but to his satisfaction - the door began to chip away on the fourth strike.

Trey grinned and redoubled his efforts, wanting to get past the door as soon as humanly possible. “Nice! Now we’re getting somewhere...”

Pieces of rotted wood soon littered the ground and – eventually – Trey was able to see into the next room through the small hole he had made. Another lantern very similar to, if not a replica of the skull lantern he had seen down the hall, lit the area on the opposite side of the thick wooden barrier.

He raised an eyebrow as he peered through the hole. “Huh. Very interesting."

What he saw was an old rusted spear, leaning against an ancient wardrobe. He didn't have time to look further though, because he heard a loud booming crash out in the cave behind him.

He whirled, heart pounding and not knowing what to expect. The sound did not come again though, and he quietly made his way out to the entrance of the hallway. He looked around, but his eyes still couldn't penetrate the darkness beyond the lantern's glow.

“Ok so… thinking rationally about this... I assume this is the monster’s nest…” Trey trailed off.

Find it.

“I need to... find it,” Trey whispered to himself. “Gotta find him. Her. It.”

Kill.

“...Kill it. Kill it? With what?”

Kill. It.

“Yes... Must go back to get that spear behind the door...”

From his right he heard another noise. That's when he finally saw what had created the noise, a large mass moving about ten yards away in the darkness. He began to turn around, preparing to spring away as fast as he could, but behind him a deafening roar released from the monstrosity. Dark tendrils sprung out from the dark, encircling his legs and trapping him there in place.

What the fuck were these!?

He began to strain, struggling against his bindings with everything he had. He pulled and tugged with his hands, but these bindings were as strong as cold steel. He was pretty sure that even if he died again he would come back, just as it had happened before, but dying was not only terrifying - it was incredibly painful.

He could hear the monster directly behind him now. Its huge body made thudding sounds that grew closer with every step, and its breath was ragged with subtle growls. He stood deathly still in the dim light of the skull lantern, and he quickly realized he was helpless to free his legs. Trey slowly looked back over his shoulder, wide-eyed just as the creature stopped to stand on its hind legs directly next to where he stood. Trey’s mouth immediately dropped in awe - and above all else, he noticed that this monster had the same clawed hands that'd dragged him down into death when he'd been eaten the first time.

The creature was what Trey could only assume to be a massive gargoyle. It stood 60 feet tall, had a long slender tail that ended in a sharp point at the back. It had two huge obsidian-black wings spread out on either side and shallow white eyes that didn’t have any pupils. Its long pointed teeth protruded from a crooked smile as it slowly lowered its face to within a couple feet of Trey on the ground.

 

     WARNING

     WARNING

     WARNING

BOSS FIGHT HAS BEEN INITIATED. DREADLORD VORSHOK HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED AS A BOSS RATED ENEMY RELATIVE TO YOUR PARTY’S SKILL LEVEL. KILLING DREADLORD VORSHOK WILL RESULT IN A HEROIC TRAIT FOR ALL SURVIVORS. PREPARE YOURSELF.

Dreadlord Vorshok’s status page basics:

- Name: Dreadlord Vorshok

- Maximums: 1908 HP, 1002 MP, 970 SP, 1/1 DP

- Race: Obsidian Gargoyle, Demon

- Level 323

- Class: Exiled Guardian

- Chaos and Dark Attributes

- Traits: Flying, Predatory, Rash, Temperamental, Brutish, Cunning, Bestial Might

 

[Ancient Demon Dialect] “How do you keep coming back?” demanded the massive gargoyle in a menacing, deep voice that almost sounded like a bad impersonation of an insidious man using an electrolarynx… which was one of those voice boxes you’d see cigarette users have after years of smoking way too much. “I have already killed you, human. You should be dead. And the last time you died... your soul seemed to elude me… I have little patience and am already beginning to tire of this. Know that this is Vorshok’s realm, MY realm, and you are not welcome here.”

A bell sounded within Trey’s mind and a mechanical female voice stated the following: “Your first encounter within the Nirvana Worlds has automatically instilled the language of ‘Ancient Demon’ into your memory banks. All other languages must be learned through practice or by other means. This is a one-time message and will not be repeated.”

Trey sat there speechless for a few moments, but then straightened his back and frowned. The knowledge of the new language flooded his brain, and he could finally communicate with the oversized bat. Why not try it now?

[Ancient Demon Dialect] "Ahem." Trey cleared his throat, his frown becoming a scowl. "I just wanted to say that you look rather beautiful this fine evening."

The gigantic gargoyle raised an eyebrow, obviously not amused. It bared its teeth and let out a low, rumbling growl.

Perhaps flattery was the wrong approach, so Trey tried the pleading option. "Any chance you could... ya know... just let me go? I'm sure I'd make a terrible pet, and with my recently poor hygiene since getting here I probably don't taste very good. Also, I really don't want to be here anymore than you want me here. So... how about we call it a truce, you stop KILLING me, and I just walk my fancy ass right on out of here? How about that hmmm?"

Trey gave an awkward smile and two thumbs up, keeping a dead-pan expression as the beast continued to glare down at him.

"You speak my language..." The gargoyle muttered, crossing its arms and extending its wings. "That is... interesting... but know that I do not make deals with lowly humans like yourself. No matter, you sniveling ape. I will continue to crush you until you no longer intrude upon this sacred ground.”

Trey's stomach dropped and he sighed as he realized what was about to happen.

It reared up once more and it’s wide smile displayed many rows of enormous teeth. Lifting its right hand to shoulder height it summoned a ball of black and blood-red flames. Black and crimson lightning rocketed out from the ball of energy to intertwine with the flames, and with one last roar it threw the magic directly into Trey – dissolving him upon impact as well as much of the ground he stood upon.

***

Days later, when Trey respawned, it had grown dark. There were no stars in the sky, and the only light seen amongst the void of black was the green glow emanating faintly across the runes of the boulders nearby. Only now he could read some of it. The glowing green words ‘Drahst Pillar’ were inscribed into one of the boulders on his left.

“You have regularly taken extreme amounts of damage over a short period of time. The body has adapted: You have acquired the Resilience trait. +100 HP, +3% resistance to all damage. Mental fortitude increased. Congratulations. For inquiries, be sure to pull up your status page for more information.” The feminine mechanical voice stated within the depths of Trey’s mind as he woke from another respawn.

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Name: Trey Bon

HP 200/200, MP 100/100, SP 100/100, DP 1/1

Race: Human

Guild: None

Class: None

Level 1

Status Alerts:

• Remaining Skill Points: 0
• Remaining Stat Points: 0
• Current Permanence cycle: ON
• Current Bound Point: Drahst Pillar
• You died again. Still level 1, so no level penalty.

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