Eli woke up face on the ground with a massive headache in the middle of a clearing in the woods. His first thought was that Lambert had drugged him, he knew she had feelings for him but he always pretended not to notice her advances. He would really have to put some punishment on paper if she was screwing with the squad dynamic before a deployment. This was not ok and she knows better. However, as he looked around he could not really place where he was, the trees seemed like the ones around the base but there wasn't a building that he could see in any direction.
The last thing he remembered was going to the bathroom in a bar with his squad for his birthday. Now he was in a small clearing with nothing but woods in every direction. As his head cleared he took a better look at himself. He was in his normal boots, jeans and a t-shirt, no injuries or any visible differences. He felt good, his right arm didn't hurt, which was odd since after his first deployment, it always hurt. A box like a touch screen tablet with a red outline filled his vision.
"SYSTEM ERROR"
"Non-Monster beings are not allowed on a world going through the tutorial."
"Please enter a dungeon within 48 hours or your world's changes will cause death."
"Scanning for nearby dungeons"
"Closest dungeon is 'Cacophonous Caverns' lvl 10 to 20"
"Please travel north for 27.3 miles to enter this dungeon"
Eli read the screen, then read it again. Scratched his head, slapped himself, closed his eyes and opened them again. After a third read he decided to take a deep breath and take stock of his situation. I'm thinking too lucidly for this to be a dream or a hallucination, that slap hurt but not as much as it should have and the sting was gone quickly. Maybe some kind of drug induced psychosis. He ruffled his hair and was shocked to feel how long it was. Eli moved some of it in front of his eyes to get a look at it, it was silky black, maybe the blackest thing he had ever seen. In the moon and star light it almost seemed so black that it was like a hole in the light around him. He had not had long hair since he was 15, but even then his hair wasn't this black.
After checking other parts of himself for color changes, he decided that he would have to start moving if he wanted to learn more about what was going on. He decided that heading north was probably best since every direction looked the same, dark woods with rays of moonlight breaking through the tree canopy. Now, Eli thought, how do I determine north with no landmarks and no compass? Just as he thought that a small arrow in the top left of his vision with a small "N" on it appeared in the same color and font as the previous screen. So the screens react to my thoughts it would seem. Kneeling down he took in a few slow breaths to try and control his panic, "Adapt and overcome", he said out loud to try and get himself to snap out of it.
Eli decided to sit down on a nearby log and take a second to try and figure out what was happening. So far things were off, and not the screens or the woods or his hair, but something else in his core, his center, his soul. He didn't know what to call it but he knew it wasn't something he could ignore. Eli was breathing heavy, heart racing, muscles tense, this felt a lot like a panic attack, except he wasn't having intrusive negative thoughts on a loop in his head. This felt more like something familiar but new, like a mix of the feel of an adrenaline rush when you hear gunfire for the first time and the feeling you get when you miss a step on unfamiliar stairs in the dark. There's that split second when all thought stops and there is only the panic of the unknown.
While all these thoughts were causing an internal panic, a sharp pain dug into Eli's right calf muscle. This is what he remembered being shot felt like, a pain that was so unexpected and sharp it forced his mind to focus on it and look down. A black beetle about a foot long was about half way to taking a large chuck of his leg out. When he looked at it, still in shock from the unexpected pain, a small box appeared above it.
"Black Stinger Beetle, Level 2"
"A black beetle with a toxic bite that stings"
Eli's brain was sort of short circuiting trying to wrap itself around the panicky adrenaline feeling, the pain and the monster who looked like it was delighted to find food. The beetle's pincers were pierced into his muscle enough that Eli thought he would lose his leg if he ripped it off himself, or at least have a hard time walking ever again. The beetle made a chattering noise and the log he was sitting on started to vibrate. This was bad and his gut was telling him that it was dangerous.
Through his hazy thoughts he looked down at the log and then back at the beetle, the word 'toxic' in its info box made his face turn white. He decided that the best option was to roll away from the log to at least give him time to react to whatever was coming. The beetle didn't let go and just kept chittering. From one end of the log, 10 smaller beetles came out. These varied from 3 to 6 inches long and were various shades of grey. As Eli was staring at what was coming to eat him another info box came up.
"Beetle, Level 1"
"Among the weakest monsters in existence."
Eli was feeling the tense panic feeling stronger now and it started to feel like he was going to explode, like his insides wanted to be on the outside. His muscles wanted to expand beyond his skin, his lungs and stomach wanted to come out of his mouth. He fell to his hands and knees and started vomiting red and black blood and heaving heavy breaths while his eyes were so wide from pain, panic and shock they felt like they would pop out of his head. The smaller beetles were closing in and he could feel the toxin from the beetle on his leg getting worse. With no good ideas coming to him in his current state he decided that ripping the one beetle off, regardless of the damage, was the only way he was going to survive.
He could probably step on the other ones and find a stick for the big one. Laying on his back he brought his knee to his chest and grabbed the bug. He could feel its pincers getting tighter around his leg, but at this point he had resolved himself to the damage that was coming. With a sharp yank the beetle's pincers were ripped out of his leg and he screamed in pain, letting out all that energy that he could feel in his body. Black blood was gushing out of his leg far faster than he thought was possible without passing out causing him to dry heave while laying on his side. After a few very shaking breaths he realized that he was still holding the beetle and it was being very still. The kind of still a rabbit exhibits when it's trying to not be noticed by a wolf.
The stillness of everything was very puzzling to Eli as he started to look around and not just at his injured leg which he was sure was going to be a fatal wound soon enough. The beetle in his hand seemed to look right at him with what Eli guessed was shock, and the little beetles were completely still or maybe unconscious. He was worried that the beetle in his hands would start to move again and take off one of his hands so he tried to squish it while holding it but its body was too hard. He tried to pull it apart but again aside from removing a few legs it wasn't hurt.
So to solve 2 problems with one plan he started smashing it into the ground while crawling in the direction of the smaller beetles and soon he was slowly damaging the big beetle by smashing it into the smaller ones. After all the smaller ones were smashed the big one looked almost dead so just kept smashing until he couldn't move his arms and he was sure it was dead. After 3 large breaths more screens came up letting him know it was over.
"Combat Completed"
"You have defeated a Black Stinger Beetle etc."
"150 Experience earned"
"Congratulations"
"Experience level increased from 1 to 2"
"You have gained 1 free stat point"
"Skill 'Smash' Gained"
"Skill 'Weapon: Hammer - Novice' Gained"
Eli laid on his back just breathing heavily hoping rational thoughts would come back to his mind, although the fight was over, his pain was not. To his surprise, it was lessening a bit after each breath. Finally he sat up and took his blood vomit and toxin stained shirt and wrapped it around his leg. He didn't quite have the energy to get up yet but his mind was clearing some and he knew he needed more information if he was going to survive. He reread the previous windows and his eyes hovered on the "1 stat point" line, he thought that this was starting to seem more like a game as time went on. Concentrating on stats, a window appeared and he read his Information sheet for the first time.
"Current Stats"
"Name: Elias Konzak, Race: Human (Aberrant), Realm: N/A"
"Magic level: 2, Body level: 0, Soul level: 0"
"Stats: Strength 4, Reaction 3, Vitality 5, Intellect 3, Wisdom 3, Resistance 4, Will 25"
"Free stat points: 1"
He felt that his stats all sounded low except for his will stat, but maybe since you only get 1 point per level they weren't too bad. On the bottom of the window there were tabs with the first one highlighted. Stats, Skills, Nodes, Body, Soul, Inventory, were the titles of each one. He started to click through them, he was on the stats tab so he moved on to the skills tab
"Skills"
"Weapon Skill: Hammer / Balance / Novice"
"Skill - Novice - Passive"
"Increases damage with all blunt attacks by 10%. Weapon skills stack with all other bonuses'. You may only have one weapon skill at a time. Skill increases as proficiency is proven."
"Will Skill: Empty"
"Nodes:"
"Earth node: Smash level 1"
"Skill - Common - Passive"
"Increases damage with blunt weapons or objects by 10% on point of intended impact. User must hit the intended target for this skill to trigger. Mana cost: Minor Skill increases as proficiency is proven."
This was a lot of information for Eli to take in, some subtle hints to things that he was not ready to think on until he was feeling better. He thought about the window closing and it vanished. Eli attempted to stand, but just fell over when he put weight on his injured leg. He landed on the larger beetle and another window appeared, this window plus the pain in his leg plus the toxin in his system caused him to dry heave again. After he got control over his stomach, he read the new window.
"Would you like to loot: Black Stinger Beetle etc?"
"Yes/No"
His mind was getting foggy again but he tried to think 'Yes' but nothing happened. Then he tried to poke it with his finger and still nothing happened. Finally he tried poking the yes button with an imaginary or mental finger and it worked. The beetle melted into a liquid, collected together then turned into motes of light that entered his chest. Another window popped up explaining his loot, this was starting to get exciting, thinking that he might get a weapon or something to help him survive.
"You have received 150 system credits"
"You have received 1 minor health pill"
"You have received 1 Beetle meat"
"You have a personal dimension storage inventory, all looted items are sent there automatically."
Winching and getting dizzy again from the toxin rushing through his blood, Eli quickly opened his inventory tab and a grid popped up with the first 2 slots containing a picture of a red pill and a picture of a grey colored steak. He used his mental hand to grab the pill and place it in his real hand. A description appeared after concentrating on it for a second.
"Minor healing pill"
"Swallow pill to increase vitality by 5 for 1 hour, or chew pill for fast health replenishment."
Eli immediately put the pill in his mouth and started chewing, and chewing and chewing. After about a minute of chewing what tasted like a dirty carrot but had the texture of old gum, he felt his pain lessen in his leg and his mind started to clear up a bit. Survival was starting to feel more like a possibility, if he can keep increasing his level and stats, as well as getting helpful loot, this might not be the nightmare he was starting to feel like it was. And with that thought, all the other feelings started to rush into his chest, holding back emotions in the middle of tense deadly situations is something he was good at even before his military training. However, once the tense external situation was resolved, a tense inner situation had to be addressed next.