7 A fighting chance.
Cold.
That was the first sensation Ryan had felt, one that made its way through his clothes and sent a shudder through his bones. His body against the chilling, rock-hard floor felt a level of discomfort he had never experienced.
Ryan attempted to open his eyes, but a searing pain shooting through his head shut them back up again. He could feel it—the throbbing at the back of his head where he was hit and sent unconscious.
"Ugh," Ryan groaned as he attempted to force his eyes open again, and his gaze met only darkness.
He turned around, each movement an agonizing flood of pain through his entire body. He felt utterly fatigued, but even worse, he was starving, almost as if he could die of hunger at any moment.
"Where..." Ryan's voice trailed off as he saw the bars. They blended well with the darkness, barely reached by a measly attempt at illumination from a light source distant away.
Ryan stood. With swaying steps, he walked over to the bars, putting his hand on its cold metal before wrapping his fingers around the bar with a strong grip.
"Crap," he cursed under his breath. He knew where he was now.
He had no grand expectations for a dungeon. In fact, for a medieval-type world like this, he had fully prepared himself for the worst. Yet, this somehow managed to be even more terrible than he had thought.
He tried to look outside his cell, but he couldn't see anything. Only a dim light coming from his right, and nothing could be heard but the constant drop of water from that direction. It felt like a companion to the suffocating silence or an endless countdown to his sentence.
Then Ryan turned to his left; there was nothing, not the slightest trace of any light nor the subtle echo of any sound—just a dead quiet and God-awful darkness, one that reeked of despair and sorrow.
Ryan let go of the bar, stepping back slowly. "Two days at most," he muttered as his back met the wall before sliding down to sit on the cold ground. "That's how long I can keep my sanity here."
Then he remembered the blue floating screen. It had helped him survive the beast attack, so it definitely wasn't him hallucinating. Maybe it could help him get out of here or, at the very least, stop him from going mad.
"Appear," Ryan commanded, his voice echoing through the darkness.
Nothing happened.
"Show," he attempted again, yet he received the same response—none.
'Maybe I'll act like I'm using a mouse,' he raised his arm, moving his wrist as if trying to open the menu of a game. Yet, even that didn't work.
'Maybe it was a hallucination?' he thought as he tried to remember if he really saw it, imagining what it looked like in front of him. Just then, the blue screen appeared before him again.
=========
[ Adrian 'Ryan' Godborne ]
==========
Title: [Harbinger of Chaos]
Magic Affinity: [Primordial Chaos]
Chaos Energy Level: [1]
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Stats
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Strength: [10] | Agility: [5] | Endurance: [5]
Intelligence: [10] | Chaos Reserve: [5] | Magic Potential: [0] |
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QUEST > [Beast Tide survival] (unlocked)
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Skills > None
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"Oh, wow," Ryan had never truly had time to grasp just how insane a blue screen displaying his physical attributes was. Perhaps he had been going through too many strings of unfortunate events to care, or he was now bored enough to give it any thought.
"My strength, agility, and endurance weren't this high last time it showed. Is that why I could manage against that monster?" Ryan wondered. Then, almost on cue, another blue screen popped up to his side.
-----------
(F) Rank Chaos shard consumed
Effects:
STR + 8
AGI + 4
EDU + 2
------------
'Oh, so it was the chaos thing that did that,' Ryan thought as he read through the screen.
'If I can get more, I'll be able to get really strong then?'
"Give me more chaos shards!" Ryan commanded. However, this time he did indeed get a response.
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QUESTS
Main Quest--> [Save Azkai from the beast tide]
Reward-> 3 C Rank Chaos shards
Failure - > Death
Sub Quests -> [Complete all daily physical training]
- > [Complete all possible skill training]
- > [Escape dungeon]
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[Would you like to see available learnable skills?]
'Yes,' Ryan thought.
--------------
Learnable skills
Black burst
Memory Alter
Soundless step
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[Would you like to begin skill and physical training?]
'What do I have to lose?' Ryan thought as he accepted the prompt, with a smile on his face—this might just be his fighting chance.
