Chapter 1: The Cave

I can feel the breeze blowing against my skin, but it doesn't feel cold. I can feel the stone beneath my feet, but despite the rough surface, it doesn't hurt. If this is a dream, it is the first time I have ever had a dream like this. This whole dream has been weird. First, my car became possessed and then that creepy voice started chanting before sending my car into the river. Now I am in some dark cave… only I can see perfectly fine. I really must be dreaming because no one should be able to see this well in a cave with no light source.

"Welcome, Scarlet Duncan,"

"Race: Vampire,"

"Level: 1,"

Um… why are there words in front of me? A small semi-transparent box with text suddenly jumps in front of me. If this is a dream, it is the most realistic dream I have ever had before. It is probably because my childhood friend Alex and I were talking about an old RPG we used to play that I am dreaming about this. Well, if this is a dream, I might as well make the most of it until my husband wakes me up screaming that I am going to be late. There's a more information button at the bottom of the box. I wonder if I… no, I don't even have to touch it. I just need to think about touching it.

Person Information:

Name: Scarlet Duncan.

Level: 1.

Race: Vampire.

Race Bonus: +50 HP and MP.

Title: Vampire Queen.

Title Bonus: +20 HP and MP.

Sex: Female.

Age: 18.

Affiliations: None.

So I really am a Vampire and not just any Vampire, a Vampire Queen. My eyes widen as I see the bonuses gained from my title and race. My sleepy brain must have been feeling very generous to give me those bonuses. If this was a game, I would have been calling this race out for being so overpowered. But the most surprising thing is my age. I'm nearly thirty-one, but it says I am eighteen. I was playing games like this when I was eighteen, so maybe that is why my character is eighteen. Part of me always wanted to go back to being a carefree teenager, so I guess my dream made it a reality.

Ability List:

Immortal: The power to never age and recover from almost any injury.

Unnatural Strength: +10 Strength.

Unnatural Senses: Can see in the dark and hear people whispering from 100 meters away. Can smell blood up to 500 meters away.

Unnatural Healing: Regenerates 1 HP every 5 seconds.

Weaknesses to Silver and Holy items: Suffer x10 damage and can not regenerate for 10 minutes.

Weaknesses to Sunlight: Sunlight lowers HP by 1 for every second you are exposed. You cannot regenerate until out of direct sunlight.

Greater Resurrection Blessing: X2 Gains when levelling up.

Curse Immunity: Immune to curses.

Well, most of these look standard for a vampire. Immortality, strength and a weakness to sunlight are common knowledge, but I am surprised about the weakness to silver. I will have to be mindful to remember that.

I can see being immune to curses to be a beneficial ability. Still, again, I will have to be careful. I would feel horrible if I accidentally hand someone a cursed item because I didn't pay attention to the curse thanks to this ability. I have no idea why I got the Greater Resurrection Blessing, but I guess my brain was just feeling generous again to my dream self because having double gains from levelling is so overpowered.

Skill List:

Master Tracking: Can follow any tracks that are up to 24 hours old.

Master Silent Step: Footsteps don't make a sound.

It doesn't seem right to have two master skills right off the bat, but I'm not that surprised after seeing the generosity of my mind earlier. If this is the type of game where you hunt monsters, then I can see both those skills being very useful. Not only can I track whatever I am after I am after but approach it without a sound too. If I am up against a particularly strong opponent, these skills can give me the edge I need to win.

Character Stats:

Health Points: 85.

Magical Points: 85.

Armour Points: 0.

Speed: 5.

Strength: 15.

Constitution: 5.

Dexterity: 5.

Intelligence: 5.

Wisdom: 5.

Charisma: 5.

Available Points: 10.

Damage Bonus:

Melee: 1.

Range: 0.

Magic: 0.

This is just like a standard RPG. Looking at the stats information, I can see that Speed = Dexterity, HP = Level x 10 + Constitution and MP = Level x 10 + Intelligence. I also have another ten points to spend on improving those stats. If this is just like a standard RPG, then I guess I will play to the strength of the strength of my race.

Character Stats:

Health Points: 85.

Magical Points: 85.

Armour Points: 0.

Speed: 10.

Strength: 20.

Constitution: 5.

Dexterity: 10.

Intelligence: 5.

Wisdom: 5.

Charisma: 5.

Available Points: 0.

Damage Bonus:

Melee: 2.

Range: 1.

Magic: 0.

With this, I can use my characters naturally strength and stealth to my advantage. Dexterity usually affects stealth-based skills, so I hope it is the same here. The way I spent those points made my character a quick hit and run type of character who will strike hard and fast, hopefully bringing down my target before they can even hit back. Now let us see what else my dream has given my character. I also have a good idea now about how the damage bonus works too. It doesn't say, but I am guessing that Melee = 1 per ten Strength, Range = 1 per 10 Dexterity and Magic = 1 per 10 Intelligence.

Spell List:

Calm of the Night

Effect: Puts target at ease.

Range: 100 Meters.

Magical Points Cost: 10 MP.

Cooldown: 60 seconds.

Require: Can only be cast at night.

Teleport

Effect: Travels up to 100 meters x Magical Points put into the spell.

Range: 100 meters +.

Magical Points Cost: 1 MP +.

Cooldown: 300 seconds.

Enhance Abilities

Effect: x2 Speed and Strength for 60 seconds.

Range: Self.

Magical Points Cost: 50 MP.

Cooldown: 180 Seconds.

I am disappointed to see I don't have any attack style spells, but I can see the Enhance Abilities spell being one I cast a lot. I can see the Teleport spell helpful, but I have no idea where to go with it, and I can see it eating through my MP if I need to start travelling vast distances. I guess I will have to use that spell sparingly and only as an emergency escape method until I have more MP than I can possibly hope to burn through. Now onto the last part of the information, I have brought up.

Items Equipped:

Weapons:

Cursed Sword

Damage: 10 + Melee Damage Bonus.

Curse Effect: -10 Speed.

Worth: 100 Gold Coins.

Armour:

None.

Clothing:

Hooded Tunic

Armour Points: 0.

Worth: 10 Gold Coins.

Inventory:

Backpack

Effect: Holds up to 50 items.

Worth: 10 Gold Coins.

Water Canteen

Effect: Filled with one litre of blood.

Worth: 2 Gold Coins.

Money:

Gold Coins: 10.

I feel sick when I see I have a canteen filled with blood. I am a Vampire, but I wish that hadn't had to give me that. Hopefully, I will wake up before I need to drink that blood. At least I have a weapon, even if it is cursed, but I wish I had some sort of armour to go along with it. It seems I will have to be more careful not to get hit. That just means I will have to try and get more stealth skills soon. On top of my gear, it looks like I have some money, but my pockets are still kind of light. Maybe I could sell my cursed sword at some point and buy a normal one since it apparently is worth quite a bit of money. Maybe I could even find some treasure in this cave and experience what it is like to be a wealthy lady before I wake up.

Now there is only one thing left to do. Explore this cave and see what my dream has to offer before my husband wakes me up. Part of me feels bad because I am probably late for the grand opening and left Alex to do everything I promised him I would do, but I am also excited and curious. I never had a dream like this before and might not have one again, so I will make sure to enjoy every second of it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My body feels so light as I run through the cave. My skills really are working wonders as I don't hear a single one of my footsteps echoing through the cave. I run through a tunnel in the cave, not really knowing where it leads, but it doesn't matter because I will be waking up soon anyway. I wonder if I will find anything interesting before then.

Leaping through the air, I have to cover my mouth when I land because of the girlish giggle that escapes my leaps. I haven't run like this in years. I start getting carried away, testing out this new character my dream gave me to control. I run, I leap, and I find myself laughing as I run, feeling lighter and freer than I have in years. I hope I don't have an embarrassing look on my face as I sleep. If I do, my husband better not take a picture of it.

I am starting to enjoy myself more and more as I discover what this body can do. To my delight and surprise, I find myself able to run on walls for sort periods of time, and I can leap forward at least twice as far as I could in the real world. It would be great if I could somehow bring my speed and ability to jump long distances back with me when I wake up. That way, I could become a famous olympian. Unfortunately, I doubt my clumsy body would be able to do things like this when I wake up. I can dream that one day I could, though.

"New Item Discovered,"

"Iron Ore,"

I let out a yelp and nearly fall over when that notification pops up out of nowhere. They should do it more subtly. I could have been hurt if I was doing more than just running. The notifications shouldn't even appear in a place where it will block my view in the first place. I wonder if there is a way to move it to the bottom right of my vision.

"Command Confirmed,"

"Notification Location Has Been Moved,"

That was easy. Like before, all I had to do is think about something, and it happened. This is a really easy interface this dream has. But now that I have taken care of those pesky notifications, let us have a look at this iron ore. Where is it? I'm guessing it is this brown patch on the grey stone wall. I don't think I have the tools to mine it, but I wonder what it is worth.

"New Skill,"

"Analysis Level 1,"

Perfect, so I just have to use this skill, and I can see how much this ore is worth right? I'm not sure, but I guess I just have to think about using a skill to use it.

"Name: Iron Ore,"

"Amount: Units Unknown,"

"Worth: 5 Gold Coins per unit,"

"Tool Required: Wooden Pickaxe,"

"Analysis Gains 1 EXP,"

Sweet it worked. If only I had a pick, I could have made a small amount of money. There is probably more iron ore around. I even gained some exp for the skill as well, so I guess with a higher level, the more I can learn about an item. This is just like the games I used to play with Alex. I wonder if I can just spam it on this iron ore and level it up some more. I sigh when it doesn't work. I should have known it wouldn't have been so easy. Since I can't mine this iron ore anyway, I just turn and resume running. I am bound to find something I can do soon.

I don't really have a direction or destination in mind, so I take random turns and hope not to run into a dead end. So far, every tunnel I have followed lead to somewhere else, and like I said before, I don't really care if I get lost since this is just some crazy dream. As I run, I find enough pieces of iron ore that when I stopped to use my Analysis, I got it up to level two.

"Name: Iron Ore,"

"Amount: 7 Units,"

"Worth: 5 Gold Coins per unit,"

"Tool Required: Wooden Pickaxe,"

"Analysis Gains 1 EXP,"

As you can see by my last use of the skill, I now can see how much iron ore there is. I can still only use it once per item, so I still can't spam this skill to level it up faster. Still, at the rate I am going, I could easily make it so that skill is at level five or six by the time I wake up, maybe even end this dream with my Analysis skill up to level eight.

This dream is incredible, and I can't believe my mind is even capable of making something like this cave. I've seen underground rivers, bats sleeping, and even rats creeping along the ground. It is not the most ideal creatures to dream of, but it is still impressive how much detail my mind could put into this dream. Even now, I am walking through a cave and can hear a waterfall or maybe it is a fast-flowing river in the distance. I pick up the pace hoping to find out soon.

"New Skill,"

"Sprint Level 1,"

That's perfect. Looking up the skill quickly, I learned that it will only increase my movement speed for one minute, and I need to wait ten seconds before using it again. Still, I don't hesitate to use it. I am running at least twice as fast in the blink of an eye, and soon I can see daylight up ahead. Wait, isn't sunlight bad for me?

I try to stop, but I can't. My feet skid across the floor, trying to slow myself down, but it is too late. Before I know it, I am exiting the cave. I close my eyes, expecting to feel my skin burn and receive a notification warning me of the danger, but nothing happens. Slowly I open my eyes and let out a gasp at what I see.

I am not outside, for starters. Instead, I find myself standing in a vast, well-lit cavern with a lake fed by a waterfall on the right side and a small two-floored building on the left. It looks rundown, but I am sure it can be turned into a nice place to live if I put a little work into it. All around me, everything is so green with large fields and several trees scattered around the area. In the lake, I can even see fish swimming around. Above me, I can see a large crystal that seems to be what is lighting up the room.

"Name: Day Simulating Crystal,"

"Worth: Unknown,"

"Analysis Gains 1 EXP,"

"Analysis Now Level 3,"

I guess that crystal simulates the type time of day in this cavern. I slowly walk into the cavern, startling some bird which in turn startles me when they suddenly fly off. I wasn't expecting there to be any birds down here. They angrily squark at me from a nearby tree branch, and I try to apologize. Still, they probably don't understand a thing I am saying.

Approaching the house, I am starting to get the same feeling the I used to get whenever I walked by the building Alex and I turned into our café. It looks abandoned, but I am not quite sure. Staring up into the windows, I can't see or hear anyone or thing inside. I walk up to the door and knock but still, I can't see or hear any signs that someone is here.

"Hello," I call out. "Is anyone here?" I wait, but still, no one replies to my call. "I'm coming in." I push on the door finding it unlocked and smoothly opening up without so much of a squeak from the hinges. "I don't want any trouble and will leave if you want me to."

Inside, the house is surprisingly in good shape. There is dust and a few pieces of wallpaper pilling from the walls but nothing too serious. I was expecting to see some holes in the walls and floors, but there are none of those. There aren't even any spider webs in the corners of the rooms. This place can't be abanded, or if it is, it can't have been empty for long.

"Hello," I call out again. "Is anyone here?"

Again only silence meets my call. I guess no one really is here. I walk through the house with nothing better to do, finding it empty apart from a stove and few cupboards in the kitchen. There is a basement as well, but I don't want to go down there right now. This place could be a really lovely home if someone showed it some love. Still, since this is just a dream, I have better things to do before waking up, so I decide to keep on exploring, hoping there are more places like this to find. Running back into the cave, I quickly find another tunnel to follow and reactivate my sprint skill.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My imagination is more impressive than I first thought. Although the only ore I find is iron, I still notice that each and every tunnel I rundown is different from the left. Sometimes it is only the size of the tunnel, but other times, it is the addition of water, moss or wildlife such as rats and bats. I never even realised just how much I could imagine, but this dream is showing me just what my mind is capable of. I keep running as fast as I can using my sprint skill so much it quickly reaches level two, adding another minute to the length of the effect.

Soon I find a river that I have to jump over, then some rocks sticking out of the ground I need to avoid, and finally, I have to slow down and crawl through a part of the cave with a low ceiling. I don't know why the cave is getting so difficult, but I hope it isn't because I am waking up. I know it is selfish of me to say this when Alex is waiting on me, but I want this dream to last just a little bit longer. Now there are even thick cobwebs I need to push through with bats and rats tangled up in white cocoons of sticky webs. This stuff is going to be stuck in my hair for weeks. I guess it is a good thing that I am sleeping right now, and it is not my real hair.

Quickly I am through the wall of webs and find myself standing in a small cavern with webs covering every surface and some strange looking green stones piled in the centre. Stepping closer, I notice there are some blue dotes on the stones, and when I touch on, it is surprisingly smooth to the touch but soft enough I could probably break on if I wanted to. I wonder what they are…

"Name: Giant Cave Spider Egg,"

"Amount: 26,"

"Worth: 2 Gold Coins per egg,"

"Extra Information: 2 weeks until they hatch,"

"Analysis Gains 1 EXP,"

I jump back the moment I saw these were spider eggs. I guess I am in their nest right now. I shiver at the thought. I slowly start to back up before one of the spiders notice I have invaded their home. I hate spiders and really don't want to have to face one. Hopefully, I can leave unnoticed like I arrived and not have to fight one. Unfortunately, I find that I am not so lucky.

I see it crawling out of one of the tunnels with its long hairy legs spreading out. I hate spiders. I hate the way they look, the way they move and the way they always seem to end up on my shoulder. Why did it have to be a spider? I would rather face a dragon barehanded than this. I draw my cursed sword as it moves closer to me, staring me down with those creepy eyes. I wish I didn't have to fight a spider.

"Enemy Detected!"

"Name: Cave Spider,"

"Type: Monster,"

"Level: 5,"

"Health Points: 55,"

"Magical Points: 5,"

"Armour Points: 1,"

"Speed: 5,"

"Strength: 10,"

"Constitution: 5,"

"Dexterity: 5,"

"Intelligence: 5,"

"Wisdom: 5,"

"Charisma: 5,"

"Damage Bonus,"

"Melee: 1,"

"Range: 0,"

"Magic: 0,"

"Abilities,"

"Thread Armour: + 1 Armour Points,"

"Analysis Gains 1 EXP,"

At least, it is not as powerful as it could have been. Still, I can't let my guard down. My Analysis may not have said it, but I wouldn't be surprised if this spider could shoot out webs to trap me. I have never fought with a sword before, so I take up a stance I have seen used in a movie and hope it is correct.

"New Skill,"

"Swordsmanship Level 1,"

As soon as I get that skill, I quickly readjust my stance. I don't know how I know how to do this, but my body seems to know how to move, so I trust it and allow myself to fall into the stance my body wants to. It must be that new skill I just gained telling me what to do. And it comes not a moment too soon as almost as soon as I am ready, I see one of the spiders long hairy legs coming down right on top of me. I can do this.

I have to roll out of the way to avoid being crushed. The cobwebs on the ground are sticky, and I am sure if it wasn't for the strength of my character, I would have been trapped and helpless. I hate to think about what would have happened to me then. I most likely would have ended up like the countless bats and rats decorating the walls in a white cocoon. I have to dodge again as the spider tries to crush me once again, then a third time.

I can't keep doing this. This spider is going to get lucky if all I am doing is dodging. I dodge the fourth leg, then a fifth. I need to fight back before it hits me. This is so much scarier than when I used to play on my computer, but I grit my teeth as I dodge the spiders sixth attack. This is it. I quickly recover and launch my own assault. With a single slash of my sword, I cut off the spider's leg, making it howl in pain. I didn't even know spiders could even make sounds like that, but I ignore the noise and watch the spider's HP drop-down from fifty-five to forty-four.

I can do this. I smile as I figure I only need a few more hits like this, and I won this fight. As long as this dream doesn't turn into a nightmare, I will win this. The spider starts to attack me again, but I quickly start dodging everything it has thrown at me. The spider is slower and more sloppier without one of its legs, but it still attacks me with all its might. I struggle to catch my breath amongst this onslaught, but I am still hanging in there. I slice off another leg after the spiders next attack, dropping its HP down to thirty thirty-three.

The spider retreats back, and I fear it will start shooting webs at me any second now, so I keep close. I follow the spider as it backs up against the far wall slashing into its body, taking the spiders HP down to twenty-two. I quickly slash it again, bringing the monsters health points down to eleven, causing the spider to try to run. I don't let it escape. As the spider tries to flee down the tunnel, it emerged from I am right behind it. Before it can even stick its head into the tunnel, I slash its back, killing the monster. This is definitely a lot harder than it was in any game I played before. I think the only time I sweated like this before during a fight was during a battle with a boss.

"Victory!"

"EXP Gained: 50,"

"Items dropped: Gaint Spider Silk x2 and Giant Spider Meat x1,"

"Swordsmanship Gains 1 EXP,"

"Title Progress: Monster Slayer 1%,"

I did it. I really won. I want to cheer. I want to celebrate, but that probably isn't a good idea since I am still in a spider nest. I probably said this a million times before, but I hate spiders, and I don't want to fight another giant one again. So I slowly back out of the tunnel taking out the tunnel I entered through to escape from this nightmarish place. I feel sorry for leaving some of the bats and rats that I see are still alive, but I can't risk drawing the attention of more giant spiders, so I leave them behind. I will just find a new tunnel to explore and see where that leads.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back here again. After running into one dead end after another, I finally found another tunnel, but this one leads to that same cavern with the lake and house in. I guess I will just hang out here until I wake up. This place is safe enough. I have explored all the tunnels, and so far, I have only found that spiders nest to be a threat. Unfortunately, I will have to go through said spiders nest to explore more, which I really don't want to do. So I will just lay by the lake and wait to wake up. I must be so late for the opening of the café. I will have to spend years making it up to Alex because of this. I wish my husband would wake me up already.

Walking over to the lake, I notice how much darker the cavern is. The Day Simulating Crystal is dimming, which I take as a sign that it is getting close to nighttime in this world I dreamt up. I hope it is a good sign and I will be waking up soon and haven't missed the opening ceremony for the café. I take off my shoes, wondering if I can dream of the way the water feels if I were to dunk my feet into the lake. The water looks so clear it feels like a same to stick my feet in there when they must be dirty, but I decide to do it anyway since this is only a…

I jump and gasp, covering my mouth with my hands. When I stared down at the water, the person that stared back at me wasn't me. Nervously I look back down at the crystal clear water and confirm it wasn't just my imagination. The person I see looks only a little like me. I still have the same facial structure by my skin is so pale it looks like I have never even seen the sun while my blue eyes have turned red and brown hair turned black. It is just a dream, I tell myself as I calm down. It is just a dream. I'm glad this is just a dream, and I will wake up looking like my usual self.

Laying down, I let my feet dip into the lake, surprised by how realistic the water feels. It reminds me of when I was still dating my husband, and we would hang out by the lake together. That must be how it feels so real. Closing my eyes, I feel myself drifting off to sleep as the birds in the cavern quietly talk to each other. I can't understand them, but I guess they are wondering who I am and why I am sleeping here. It doesn't matter. I am probably about to wake up soon, and this world will cease to exist. As I feel myself drift further and further off to sleep, I hope Alex isn't too mad at me for being late. Feeling myself drift off, I hope I will open my eyes in the real world soon, but something is nagging me deep inside that maybe this isn't a dream at all.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Damit! Where is she? Everything is ruined thanks to those fools. Even though their bodies are cold and their bloodstains my walls, I still want to hurt them. It wasn't supposed to be this way. I had everything planned out and was ready to get married, but she is gone. I will find her. She will be mine.