Bab 2: The Grind is Uncool
Mark stared at the level intently, hoping it would somehow just gain a new level. Unfortunately, this system didn't work that way. And it never would.
Sighing to himself, he took another look around the room.
The yellow wallpaper and its bladed design, the matted and deeply grayed carpet. The bundle of mushrooms that grew quietly in the corner. The buzzing, fluorescent lights.
"The Backroom's..." Mark muttered. His mind wasn't at the right place in the beginning, but now, after his first death, he finally took a larger look.
"Fuck me... Fuck Fuck Fuck. Ok, this could be worse... oh who the fuck am I kidding? It's already worse." Mark squatted down, using his hands to support his hanging head.
Shaking his head, he rose once more.
"Ok, if this truly is the backroom's, then this has got to be level 0. But if it is, how the hell is an Entity here?" Mark massaged his head, hoping to find the answer rattling in his brain.
Yet nothing came up. Level 0 in the Backrooms is and was meant to be the tutorial. The safe zone for all wanders. The hallucinates might not be all that friendly, but they were much tamer than the horror's that lie in the higher level's.
"I should rush to get to level 1. If I can get there, then I can get into contact with the various groups... but is that the right choice?" He looked around the room once more, before heading into a new room.
"I have a lot of advantages if the system is anything to go by. But if I also have immortality, and the ability to gain Skills from the entity's... wait." He paused himself.
"Have I become an entity?"
His mind blanked after that statement. It was a horrible thing to think of. Whilst many would say that becoming a hulking monster that can forever grow stronger would be a dream come true, many would also hesitate. Simply because they wish to keep their humanity.
Leaning his back onto the wall, Mark sighed. He shook his head and slapped his face. He wasn't about to get all mushy when in The Backrooms. That's how you get killed here. He needed to steel his nerves, and get to grinding.
He wandered around Level 0, hoping to possibly find another metal filing cabinet or something. He needed to create some noise.
Finding another filing cabinet, he picked it up and smashed it on the ground. The noise, whilst not incredibly loud due to the carpet, still produced an audible thunk.
One hound later, and much blood, Mark was a heaving mess. He could hear more growling and decided to book it from there.
[You have Killed an Entity! A Passive Skill has leveled up!]
Ignoring the System prompt, Marks ran as fast as he could, taking sharp turns here and there to throw the Entities off his tracks, and it worked.
With the Entities now off his trail, mark looked to his belt. Its metal piece was dented and bloody, and its service had clearly been done. Yet mark still wielded it.
Wandering around once more, Mark's mind wandered towards Entities.
Entities are monsters that wander the various Levels of The Backrooms. They come in various forms, and their behavior's completely different from the last.
"But the Backroom's wiki wasn't finished..." That's what worried Mark. Information is key in the Backrooms. Knowing if certain levels are safe or dangerous, if they have ways to go up levels or go down, the items that can be obtained, etc.
Entities are the main theme, however. They can either be the biggest obstacle or the best ally.
"If this place is truly the Backroom's, then the Entities that I've seen currently are Hounds. That brings up the question, how the fuck are there Hounds here?"
Hounds are classified as Entity 8. Their weakness are little, the only one being that they are intimidated by stare-downs, and their intelligence isn't to great. Their strengths are large however. Because of their Animal-like walking, their ability to run is much faster then that of a regular human, and their claws and large mouth's allow for them to tear apart someone quickly.
"Might be able to get the jump on them with a stare-down, but I'm not sure. The information I have is to little, and I kinda hope I don't have to do trail and error." Marks eyes widened slightly.
Growling sounds could be heard. They were slightly distant, but their volumes were increasing slowly.
"Guess I can find out now..." Mark muttered as he tightened his grip on the belt.
The Hound rounded the corner just moments latter. Its shaggy black hair covered its eyes, yet didn't seem to impede it's vision one bit.
Mark lowered his eye's to where the hounds eyes should be. He glared at it hatefully, still vividly remembering the pain the thing had brought him.
The Hound stared at him, and it's shaggy lock's parted to reveal it's eyes, yet, none were to be seen. The creature simply had no eyes.
Widened eyed, Mark gulped, yet continued his glare. He then began to approach.
The Hound began to growl, yet it's hands/paws? began to step back.
Continuing his slow march towards the creature, Mark continued to stare-down the Entity, until he was at least 3 feet away from the thing.
It simply gave up growling. It's head stared up at Mark, as Mark stared down it. Then, Mark swung.
The dented and damaged piece of metal slammed into the cranium of the creature, and a sickening crack and yelp escaped the creature, yet it was not give time to react.
Mark continued to bash at the creature's skull as blood and what could only be described as brain matter flew from the creatures skull. With each resounding crack of the skull, an equally loud yelp accompanied it.
In the end, all that was left was the creature's body, its head completely blunged and destroyed, as Mark huffed beside its corpse.
[You have killed an Entity! Experience has been gained for a Passive Skill!]
Mark raised an eyebrow at that, and checked on his only skill.
[ Lvl 2 Toughened Hide: You Skin is naturally Harder!]
"What?" Mark sat a bit in disbelief.How the hell did Skill his skills Level-up?
"How the fuck does this work?"
[ Skill Experience is gained from obtaining already gained skill's! For instance, to get from level one to level two in Toughened Hide, you need 1 Level one Toughed hide! To get to level three, you need 2 Level one Toughened Hide, or one Level 2 Toughened Hide! Each level up will double the needed "experience" of the skill!]
"Thats a mouth full of words." Mark muttered as he stared at the floating screen. What he could glean from this, is that its like those horrible Merge game's. To level up a Character from for instance, 20 to 21, you would need a level 20 card by merging a bunch of cards up a sort of ladder. Two level 1's make a level 2, two level 2 to a three, two level 3's for a four, all the way up to 20.
"Then I guess that means Hounds only give level 1 of Toughened Hide. How does the increase even work in this?"
[ Skill's will gain a 0.5, or a 50% increase each time they level up! ]
"Ok, can you tell me why you brought me here?"
No answer was given from the System. Mark dead-panned, but didn't take it to badly. He could have just be dropped here with a system that gave him no information about the levels or experience, so he was grateful for at least the information.
"I wonder..." Mark put his hand on his chin as he stared at his weapon, now destroyed beyond repair, pondering about something, before he started to wander again for more Hound's.
Quickly finding a new one, he employed the same tactic's as last time. Yet instead of bring the belt down onto the creature, Mark reeled back his fist, and smashed it's skull.
It yelped, yet no crack. So Mark just decided to start punched it constantly until it died, which took a bit amount of time.
When the poor beast was finally brought down, Mark was already booking it, as three hound's poured into the room.
[An Entity has been Killed! A Passive Skill has leveled up! ]
"I'm gonna fucking hate this grind."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone