Moonlight filtered through the small gap in the ceiling, falling onto the well below. A lanky hand, small and childish reached out as if it wanted to grab onto the light itself.
From the darkness of the hall, a boy slowly walked out. He was no more than 7 years of age, his cheeks sunken in and his eyes having lost all hope. He was dressed in red checkered overalls that were torn and dirty and some blood had dried up on one side of his head.
With his gray, empty eyes, the boy looked up at the moon through the gap, and some vitality seemed to return to his body.
With a pained smile, the boy scooped up some water from the fountain, and took a single sip.
Somewhere in the distance, the sound of creaking and groaning could be heard. And at the head of the fountain, the images of various gods and goddesses was carved out.
Having drunk the water, the boy sat down with his back against the fountain and closed his eyes, resting in the Moonlight.
"So... tired..." His hoarse voice echoed in the hall, falling on deaf ears.
...
...
...
Nathan had a dream that night.
It was a surrealistic fantasy. He was a trash collector in a world of trash and there was a gigantic, hundreds of meters tall shadow T posing in the horizon menacingly. The shadow had a glowing headband and another man in his dream told if whoever gets the headband gets to rule the world.
It was just like a fever dream. And it didn't take long for the fever dream to transition into a nightmare...
The seemed was set on fire and monsters were afoot shadowy figures were leaping at people and one of them kept chasing him no matter how much he ran.
While in the dream, Nathan once again noticed how his chest was constricting. He had trouble breathing like a weight was put on his chest and his senses were swelling up.
And then his eyes opened.
There was darkness around him, wrapped in a hazy mosaic. His tent was just as he had left it and his vision took a long time to settle down. And the first thing he noticed was a shadow.
Something was sitting atop his chest.
It looked to be humanoid enough and was curled into a ball. Its back was turned and the rippling muscles on it didn't make Nathan feel any sense of ease. Its skin was ebony black as if it siphoned all the light from the surroundings and he could see two large horns jutting out over his head.
The second thing Nathan noticed, was he was under sleep paralysis. His eyes trailed the monster's form but his body remained inactive, unable to move in any way.
The monster was cackling to himself in the tent. Nathan had been right. There had been a monster that had attacked him every night, from two days when he had the Christmas dream, to now.
And then, Monster Lore got to work.
The thing was Norse in Origin. It was a Mare. Creatures of the night that are associated with sleep paralysis - basically ancient sleep paralysis demons that sit on your chest and bring nightmares. Their weakness? Although they immobilized their victims that was really their only shtick. They were quite weak in terms of actual combat.
Nathan stayed calm. It was difficult to breathe so he took shallow breaths. His right arm tried to flex. It failed.
The Mare hadn't noticed his victim waking up. Not yet at least.
Nathan tried again and again and again, but the sleep paralysis gripped him from head to toe.
Eventually, some gave.
His finger twitched, and the monster's cackling stopped.
Nathan's eyes widened as he realized - it had known he was awake, it was only relishing in his helplessness.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
The monster jerked forward, jumping off his chest as Nathan's hand grabbed at the air. The Golden light from the Celestial Bronze filled the tent and a cruel light flashed with the whistle of the air!
Whoosh!
Slash!
The severed head of the Mare fell onto the ground before dissolving into dust. The monster's body burst into ash not a moment after, and a notification sounded in Nathan's ears.
[You have gained 1.1 Customization Points!]
Huff! Huff!
Nathan breathed heavily as he pushed himself off the ground. He looked where the monster had died. As a trophy, a curved horn was left on the ground.
"What the fuck." He said dryly.
The night was as quiet as always and Nathan couldn't hear anything else in the wild. It was only a single monster that had attacked him.
"Damn." He shook his head and picked up the horn. Then, he fed the cube.
[You have gained 0.7 Customization Points!]
That brought his previous 0 points to 1.8.
"I guess I got something out of that..." He flexed his arm, feeling the strength coursing through him.
His earlier strike had caught even himself off guard. The speed had been unreal, not something he could have achieved before his upgrades. He felt... reborn. All his organs felt brand new, screaming with vitality. His lungs brought in more and fresher air. His heart beat strong enough to want to leap out of his chest. He was stronger, faster, better in every way.
He now felt that if he wanted to, he could do things like fold his entire body backwards if he wanted to. Just a thought.
But then, Nathan realized something else.
His senses.
They hadn't receded.
His hackles suddenly stood on edge and a premonition surged through him.
He did not put his sword back into the inventory, instead, he crouched low and his hand grasped the camping mattress, throwing it back into his inventory.
Then, with a deep breath, he moved to the entrance of the tent and slowly unzipped it.
The air outside was still. His tent was at the entrance of the cave and faced away into the forest.
There was no visible movement here, but Nathan knew something was wrong. The forest was quiet at night, but not... this quiet. It was like the forest was holding it's breath, waiting for something to happen.
His instincts guided his vision, the darkness receding under his eyes. And then, he saw it.
A forked tongue tasting the air. A massive scaly head with terrible slitted yellow eyes and a pair of horns on its head. Between the horns rested a diamond shaped jewel.
The serpent's body was as thick as a tree trunk and coiled through the forest like a living river. It's crystal green scales blended in with the foliage... or it would have been, if most of the vegetation had been alive. Everywhere around it, the trees and grass had withered to become gray and ashen. The air itself seemed to have stilled in wake of this creature.
"Yeah, no." Nathan muttered to himself. He walked back into the tent and tore open the other end. At that point, he began to sense movement I the forest, and so, he did the only thing that seemed logical.
Run!!!
Whoosh!
Nathan ran like a man possessed. He did not even entertain the thought of fighting that thing.
Why?
Well, because that was the Uktena! It was another Cherokee Mythology monster that was associated with Misfortune, Underworld and Death! Its scales were resistant to almost all attacks and even if one could pierce them, the monster had a size and regeneration capability so strong that it was basically Immortal so long as a small point near one of it's horns wasn't pierced. As difficult as already piercing that point would be with an arrow, one couldn't even close the gap because it's breath was poisonous - almost a blight, enough to instantly wither away all manners of biological material and it's eyes could bewitch its prey!
In a line - fighting it was a death sentence.
Never mind killing it, Nathan wouldn't even get close!
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck..." He kept muttering curses under his breath as he ran further into the cave. He had no other option! Now, he could only hope there was a separate entrance to this cave!
Something broke behind him and the sound of something slithering and hissing sounded into his ears. His heart almost lurched out of his chest.
He could only hope to be led somewhere safe, away from the beast!
His legs carried him like the wind! He ran with a velocity of more than 30 meters per second, reaching an empasse deep within the cave!
"Oh no." The colours drained from his face. He heard more hissing close by, the Uktena was closing in.
He turned to the right. There, in the wall, there was a small opening that led into darkness.
Suddenly, Nathan remembered all the memes of cave divers, but he bit them down and moved into the crevice!
Boom!
As Nathan moved in through the gap, the entire cave suddenly trembled as if a heavy object had rammed into a wall. Nathan sweat dropped, realizing he might be stuck.
He looked deeper into the crevice, finding that it was widening just a little bit.
He gulped, and proceeded.
...
Nathan did not know how long he travelled through the gap.
Here he was, naked except for his boxers, hair and most of his body still soaked in Catoblepas blood and cold walls pressing close on both sides. Nathan suddenly began to wonder what he was doing with his life. He could have just become a normal author, plagia- ahem, writing various novels and living a good normal life. But no, he had to dive headfirst into monster filled territory and get himself stuck into a crevice worthy of a cave diver.
Just as he was cursing his luck, his senses began to pick up again.
His eyes widened and his muscles tensed, his entire body going on full alert again. He stopped for a moment, as if weighing his choices.
He could try to go back and check if the Uktena was there. But here he was, sensing monsters in a crevice?
Is there an opening somewhere? Are there any monsters that live in small cramped spaces? I hope not... fuck it, I'll just deal with it!
Gritting his teeth, he pushed further in, hoping for the best.
And then, after some more squeezing, the ground below his feet disappeared.
Gravity took hold of him, and just before he could twist his body to land on his feet, his back impacted solid ground. It was as if the gravity had suddenly flipped and the ground had shifted towards his back in an instant!
Thud!
"Ouch." He said, feeling the cold floor under his skin. This made him remember that he was, in fact, still only in his underwear.
He got off the ground and realized he was in darkness again. But his senses were still at an all time high. His eyes pierced through the dark and the round curving walls on both sides, made out of red bricks made all the wrong bells ring in his head.
He stood silently for a few seconds before moving ahead. His eyes drifted to the opposite wall, and there, a small symbol was emblazoned.
Δ
A Delta symbol.
...
...
A/N: Bonus Chapter(750 PS).
This was late because I hadn't prepared a bonus Chapter yet... You people are too fast.
Anyways, tell me your thoughts and suggest some things he can eventually make.
Ideally, I want something that can improve his Fitness and strength in the long run as I'm skeptical of going the generic route with the Super Soldier Serum or the Extremis or T virus.