章 4: The Scent of Death
Pat.
Pat.
Pat.
Ellis's footsteps softly sounded as he walked through the halls keeping his left hand on the left wall to make sure he could make his way back to the starting room if he needed to by the wall his hand was on backward. Cautiously, he peeked his head around every corner to check it out before he worked his way down to the next fork in the never-ending halls. After about twenty minutes of sneaking his way through the dimly lit hallways, he heard an inhuman shriek and froze in his tracks. Up ahead there was a bend in the passage.
Ellis pressed his back into the wall and slowly shuffled his way toward the turn in the hall. Right before the turn, he stopped. He could hear loud gushing and ripping sounds from around the corner.
Ellis slowly moved his head and peeked around the corner to see a disgusting looking creature, about four feet tall, face down rummaging through a dead large toothy rodent. The beast had bloody-ash colored skin that looked extremely dry, scaly even. It had long, pointed, leathery ears and a round, oversized head. Its long, curled tail had a spike at the end, and it had two large talons protruding from its feet that looked monstrously sharp.
Ellis shuddered and pulled his head back from around the corner, his heart beating out of his chest.
Should I turn around and try one of the other paths? Or maybe wait for it to leave? No, too risky. It might head toward me and then I would lose the ability to sneak attack it. There's probably no way for me to make it through this floor if I never fight. I'm going to have to get some experience if I want to make it out of this place alive.
Ellis solidified his resolve. He was going to kill this monster.
He held his dagger in his hand tightly and peered around the corner once again.
The monster was still occupied, ripping the flesh off the dead carcass, about twenty steps in front of him.
Ellis exhaled slowly trying to calm himself as much as he could.
Alright, let's do this.
Ellis edged his way around the corner and stealthily made his way toward the monster. As he approached the monster's exposed back, he wrinkled his nose in disgust.
This thing smells horrible.
Ellis wasn't sure if it was the monster or the corpse below it, but whatever it was it made him nauseous.
He took one more step and was within stabbing distance of the monster. Ellis raised the knife high above his head and swung it down with all the strength he could muster.
SHOOK!
So tough!
Ellis panicked and froze. The tip of the blade had barely managed to pierce the creatures back, only causing a small narrow cut.
SHREEK!
The monster flung around and swiped its claws toward Ellis's chest. Instinctively, Ellis dodged backward, but he wasn't fast enough. The claws ripped through his clothes protective shield and into his chest, rending the flesh from his body. Ellis was sent tumbling backward in agony, the dagger flew from his hand. The monster didn't give Ellis a moment to assess the damage before it pounced on top of him. Ellis rolled to the right as the monster landed. The talons on the monster's foot caught Ellis's arm as he rolled away and ripped open a huge gash. Ellis heaved himself to his feet quickly and jumped backward, preparing for the monster's next assault.
Ellis surveyed the ground around him searching for the dropped dagger. It was about ten steps away from him to the right. The monster was about five steps away to his left.
Ellis made a split-second decision and ran for his weapon.
Eight steps away.
The monster leaped toward Ellis, swinging its claws ferociously. Ellis dove forward and, by a hair's width, managed to escape the onslaught of razor-sharp claws.
Five steps.
Ellis conjured every ounce of willpower in his body and bolted for the dagger.
The monster had missed him and crashed into the wall of the hall but had recovered fast and was already gaining on him.
Two steps.
The monster lunged forward with its talons out in front of its body ready to rip anything in front of it to shreds.
One step.
Ellis threw himself at the dagger on the ground. He snatched the blade up in his hands and rolled over to see the monster in the air above him baring its teeth, coming down for the kill. Ellis plunged the dagger into the belly of the monster as it fell on top of him driving the dagger even farther inside the beast's gut. Ellis rolled backward and kicked the monster off him, sending it flying down the hall.
The monster hit the ground and wreathed in pain. It struggled to get up as blood pooled on the ground below it.
Why won't this thing fucking die?!
Ellis wasn't in too good of shape himself. He had multiple scratches, holes, and tears all over his body. His blood had stained most of the hall they had been fighting in and he was starting to feel lightheaded.
I have to end this now.
With his last ounce of strength, Ellis lunged forward at the monster and it followed suit. Right before they clashed Ellis gathered every last drop of anima in his body to his palm. The monster swung its claws at him, and Ellis threw his shield up to block the attack. He managed to stop the attack for a few moments before the monster overpowered him and shattered his wooden shield, but a few moments were all that he needed. Ellis thrust his palm into the wounded stomach of the monster and let loose a surge of electricity.
ZAP!
Smoke rose from the stunned beast's gut and the smell of burnt flesh filled Ellis's nostrils. A look of astonishment came over the monster's ugly face before it keeled over and hit the ground, dead.
Ellis looked over the dead monster's body breathing heavily, he had won. He didn't dare try to move, it was a miracle he hadn't passed out yet due to blood-loss and drying out most of his anima core. As he gazed down at the charred corpse, he noticed a multicolored smoke oozing from it.
Whoosh!
The rainbow-colored smoke shot straight into the TowerCard markings on his chest and they began to emit a bright white glow.
Ellis felt a surge of power course through his body. He felt stronger, faster, more aware, and a little less tired from his fight. The pain from his wounds even lessened a bit. The white light coming from the symbols on his chest faded away until the symbols went back to normal.
What was that?
Ellis held his hand to his chest and called his TowerCard.
Name: Ellis Ryne
Level: 3
Age: 17
Race: Human
Class: None
HP:15/151
AP:5/57
(10) unused stat points!
STR:5->6 AGL:6->8
DEF:5->7 CON:3->5
INT:8->10 LUC:5->6
So that's why I feel so much stronger! I leveled up a couple of times! Almost all my stats have increased by at least a little bit and I have ten stat points I can use to make myself even stronger. Right now what I need is defense so I'll put a three into DEF and save the rest for later since I'm not entirely sure what they all do right now.
(7) unused stat points!
STR:6 AGL:8
DEF:7->10 CON:5
INT:10 LUC:6
Skills:
Language Comprehension LV. 2
Spark LV. 2
Shock LV. 1
MONSTERS DISCOVERED:
Imp - Imps have greyish-red, extremely tough skin. The skin is rough and scaly to the touch. Imp's stand about four feet tall. They have long rounded ears and an oversized head. It has a scorpion-like tail with a stinger at the end. They have two large talons on each of their feet that they use to rip their prey open. At the end of their short arms are long, razor-sharp claws. They rarely travel in groups.
Killed: 1
TITLES:
Tower-Walker - Survived your first encounter with a monster and killed it. (gain +1 to all stats and the Skill: Identify)
It also tells me the monsters I've killed. So that thing was an Imp and it must have been a pretty high level to make me level up three times. This Tower-Walker title is also pretty good, it gave me a new skill that I can identify things with. With the amount of anima I can use now, I'll have to test lightning bolt out again whenever I recover because I might be able to use it closer to its full power. More importantly, I gotta figure out how to recover or I might die.
Ellis slowly slid down on the ground bracing himself with the wall behind him and pulled his satchel into his lap. He took out the water skin and the bundle of cloth. Using the waterskin he poured a little bit out onto his wounds to clean them before using the cloth to wrap his wounds up. After bandaging himself up, Ellis gulped down water and rested for a few hours. Little by little, he started feeling better and his bleeding had stopped.
"Gah!"
Ellis grunted in pain as he moved to check his TowerCard. He checked his HP and noticed it had risen to up to 30/151.
So, I can recover slowly by taking care of my wounds, that's nice to know although I'm screwed if another monster shows up while I'm still like this.
Ellis slowly looked through his satchel once more for something else that could help him. His eyes landed on the two mysterious potions, so he decided to pull them out.
One of the bottles contained a red syrupy liquid and the other, a blue syrupy liquid. He pried the cork out of the red bottle and brought it to his nose. It smelled sort of like lemonade. He inspected the bottle closely before he decided to try out his new skill.
"Identify!"
[Greater Health Potion]
A little floating grey box appeared before him startling him slightly.
Weird. So this is a health potion. I guess that means it should heal me right?
Ellis closed his eyes and brought the red potion to his mouth to take a sip. It actually did taste like lemonade. He took another gulp. Suddenly, a surge of warmth engulfed his body and soon all his wounds felt like they were on fire. With the pain from his injuries increasing, Ellis clenched his chest and writhed in agony.
After a few minutes, the pain gradually subsided leaving only a dull ache.
The pain is gone! Before I drank the potion, my whole body throbbed in pain but now all that's left is just a dull ache. My muscles don't feel sore anymore now also!
Ellis let go of his arm and peeled the bloodied bandage off.
Underneath the bandage, there was only a scar. It was like he had been hurt years ago and all that remained of the wound was a faded white scar.
Ellis checked his HP again and discovered it was completely full. He was in perfect condition.
This potion is amazing! If the red one heals HP then the blue one must restore AP, right?
"Identify!"
[Greater Anima Potion]
A grey box popped up once again confirming his question. Ellis took a sip of the blue potion and he could feel the warmth from his anima core filling up as well as his mental fatigue drifting away.
After a few more sips, the warmth stopped getting stronger and Ellis confirmed that his anima was at max as well.
He jumped up and assessed his body before confirming his body was back in perfect shape and stronger than ever. Ellis looked down at the dead monster.
I better see if there's anything I can scavenge off this thing before I continue. I could probably use its hide for protection since its so tough.
Ellis looked over the monster deciding what would be the best way to cut it up before using his knife to skin the monster as best as he could, trying to keep the hide in as big of chunks as possible. When he was done skinning it, he moved to cut chunks of meat off it. He could cook up the meat and eat it. It might not be very good, but at least he would have some kind of sustenance. While he was cutting a piece of meat off the chest of the creature, he felt his dagger hit something hard that didn't sound like bone. He pulled his knife out and noticed a small blue rock embedded farther inside the creature's chest around the size of a fingernail. Using the tip of his blade, he pried it out and discovered that it had the same warm feeling that the anima in his chest gave him. Ellis used Identify on the odd rock to try and figure out what it was.
[Anima Gem]
Not knowing what it did or could be used for, he set the gem aside and continued butchering the monster, gathering some of its larger bones to use later.
He cut the claws off the fiend to use later because they were fairly long, about the length of his index finger, so he planned on somehow fashioning them into a weapon or something of the sort later. He then cut the spike off the monster's tail since it was about the same length as his dagger, he planned on making the spike into a new dagger. Next, he moved onto the monster the one he fought had been eating. He pulled the sharp teeth out of his mouth first and put them aside figuring that might be useful for something. The meat on it was ripped to shreds and not good, but a large part of its hide was still good. After cutting off the good part of the hide he began using his knife to dig through its chest and inside he found another blue gem quite a bit smaller than the first, about the size of a pea.
Ellis packed everything he scavenged up into his satchel including the broken pieces of the wooden shield and headed back to the room he started in to plan his next course of action.
He had survived his first encounter with a monster.
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