Once more, Kaizul opened his eyes to see a hovering notification from the Nightmare System.
Quest Failed
Time survived: 12 minutes.
Participation Award
+1 Nightmare Point
Quest Initiated
Survival of the Fittest
Difficulty Minimum
Body Reduced to 10
Mind Reduced to 10
Spirit Reduced to 0
Attempt 131
Stay strong Master.
Once more, he read through the message. It was both frustrating and therapeutic. Since he had first slain that dumb Caterpie, he had failed to defeat the thing a single time in all his deaths.
He realized that a large portion of how he had killed the thing the first time resulted from a combination of luck, timing, and suicidal tactics.
First, when he had sidestepped, his trip had turned out for the better. Not because of his tumble was viable for long-term survival but because it allowed him to throw his entire weight into pulling the Caterpie over the edge of the branch.
He had since then landed quite a few blows on the Caterpie. However, no matter how hard he hit, the Caterpie stayed on the tree as if glued. He had since discovered the reason for this to be a pair of small suction cups the creature possessed on its underside.
Sometimes, they would jump at him like the first had, releasing their grip from the tree as he tried to shove them over the ledge. Unfortunately, none of those attempts had yielded fruit since the first.
Fortunately, he had also found another avenue to pursue. He learned on attempt 73 that as he hit the Caterpie, though at first it seemed like he wasn't doing any damage to the creature, it slowly moved more sluggishly.
He was also almost certain that the suction force it could exert on the tree would decrease as its exhaustion grew.
Once more he stood. The first thing he did was to walk across the tree's branch. At the end, some leaves were visible, and some were larger than him. While watching the foliage, now from experience always wary of another creature hiding within, he plucked two leaves off the tree before palming them, one in each hand.
A few moments later, the same Caterpie crawled up over the edge of the branch. The one he now knew so well. Preparing himself, Kaizul watched the Caterpie, preparing himself for even the slightest twitch of the creature's body.
The Caterpie reared up to get a better angle, and Kaizul lowered himself, preparing to roll just in case. He didn't, as instead of using Electroweb, the Caterpie released a string shot attack.
As it flew toward him, Kaizul's eyes sharpened. He dashed toward the Caterpie, directly into the line of fire before blocking the string with the leaf he had brought just moments before.
Once this stuff got on you, getting it off was almost impossible; especially in combat. The Caterpie, assuming its attack had succeeded, pulled back on the string to pull Kaizul closer.
Rather than releasing the leaf, Kaizul grasped tighter and allowed himself to be pulled in. Moments later, the Caterpie launched forward with a tackle attack. Minding his hands to make sure nothing touched the string shot; he sidestepped the tackle.
Using the leaf in his hand, he brought it underneath the Caterpie and slapped it over the creature's mouth. The Caterpie, now with its own thread logged in its mouth, began trying to spit the offending substance out.
Seizing the moment, Kaizul dashed forward. Watching the human child barreling toward it, the Caterpie gave up trying to dislodge the attack and, realizing that it could no longer perform its other moves, charged him with a tackle.
Now, witnessing the incoming Caterpie, Kaizul crouched down, and leaped over the head of the Caterpie. He then spun around and lashed out with a kick that met the Caterpie just as it was turning to face him once more.
Caterpie Kaizul had discovered, most likely because of their strange manner of movement, were not the most adept creatures at turning around. Not to say they were slow by any means; in fact, they were deceptively fast for creatures of their size and shape.
Still, using this advantage, he had struck the creature. At first glance, the bug only winced before glaring at Kaizul. They charged each other once more. This time, as Kaizul once more dropped lower, the Caterpie's eyes sharpened. Rather than allowing him to jump over it again, this time the Caterpie leaped.
But instead of jumping, as soon as Kaizul witnessed the creature leaping from the tree, he dropped into a roll. Then, lashing out with both his legs, he slammed them into the Caterpie. Its eyes opened in shock at the small human who had not only used its own webbing against it but also just baited it into sacrificing its unique advantage by leaving the tree. Said a dawning horror then replaced shock as it fell over the edge of the branch.
Muffled cries reached Kaizul's ears, but he felt no sympathy. Hesitation had gotten him killed more than once. He had attempted just that last maneuver almost ten times, and this was the first time he had succeeded in it.
Notice!
You have slain a Dream Caterpie and obtained some loot!
• Caterpie Antenna [Common]
• Fresh Caterpie Meat [Common]
Looking at the notice, Kaizul had to stop himself from shouting out loud. Instead, he just shook with excitement as he did a huge fist pump.
'YES! I DID IT!' he practically screamed in his mind.
He had died so many times. Most of the deaths taught him something, but in truth, some of them were just him screwing it up. Once he had rolled too far, and sailed right off the edge of the branch. But that didn't matter, because now he had inexorably proven he could beat them.
Sure, it was difficult, and sure he was inconsistent at best right now, but he would practice. With this, he had proven not only that he could beat the Caterpie, but most importantly, that he could survive 24 hours.
He wasn't sure how many attempts it would take; he wasn't even sure if he'd still be sane by the end, or even sane right now. He knew death was one hell of a motivator, but was it normal for humans to adapt to it so fast?
Kaizul didn't know, and in truth, didn't really have that much time to ponder it further, after all, just in the time he had been thinking about it, yet another Caterpie had made its way from behind a group of leaves, and with a string shot, made itself a bridge over to his tree.
Preparing himself for another fight, Kaizul would once again, minutes later, be taken by the not so sweet embrace of death.
It would take another sixty attempts before finally something would change. In that time, Kaizul had grown increasingly skilled at defeating the first Caterpie in combat. Not enough to defeat two in a row, but enough that he had killed four more in his fights.
Now, he stood, having just for the first time beaten a Caterpie so badly its grip on the tree gave out, allowing him to toss it over the edge. And to his delight and moderate confusion, this time when the notice came about its defeat, something had changed.
Notice!
You have slain a Dream Caterpie and obtained some loot!
• Caterpie Antenna [Common]
• Fresh Caterpie Meat [Common]
• Bestiary (Caterpie) [Common]
Kaizul didn't really know what to expect from the unique item, and frankly still couldn't use his inventory and as such couldn't check it, but it didn't matter. With this, he had confirmed that they could drop other items.
As he was pondering this, a Caterpie that had somehow realized his distracted condition jumped at him from behind. Kaizul immediately fell into a crouch as his leg came up in a kick that caught the creature mid-air and sent it flying over the edge to join its other brethren.
"Ha ha! You thought I wasn't paying attention, huh? Though you could get the drop on me? WELL NOT TODAY DEMON BUG!" Truly, many would one day praise Kaizul's skill and talent, but today was not that day.
Soon after realizing that for the first time, he had defeated two of the aforementioned "Demon Bugs", Kaizul saw several other string shots that someone had attached to his tree.
Now faced with three separate Caterpie, his end was swift, painful, and most importantly, a powerful killjoy.
_______________
Kaizul wasn't certain how much time had passed now. The pain of death quickly dulled his joy of defeating the creatures. Repeatedly, he faced brutal and traumatizing levels of suffering. And yet, every time he grew close to giving up or had that strange feeling of something being very wrong, his nightmare system would repair his declining mental state.
Now, he was mostly silent. Or at least, he certainly spoke less, even though he didn't think he was depressed. He certainly didn't feel happy. No, right now, he could best describe what he was feeling as being focused.
He didn't enjoy it, oh definitely not, but he could endure it. Not sure if it was healthy, but he didn't have that luxury. He would live, or he supposed, he would persist. That would have to be enough.
Kaizul didn't really have a choice in the matter. And at some point? He really couldn't bring himself to care about it. This was just the way things were. So be it.
Instead, he focused his mind on more productive ventures.
Quest Failed
Time survived: 26 minutes.
Participation Award
+1 Nightmare Point
Quest Initiated
Survival of the Fittest
Difficulty Minimum
Body Reduced to 10
Mind Reduced to 10
Spirit Reduced to 0
Attempt 1259
Stay strong Master.
'Okay, I've confirmed it now. After I kill the first Caterpie, the one on the next tree will come after about five minutes depending on how long the fight took. But it's not just that one. At the ten-minute mark, it seems like all the Caterpie I can see begin making their way toward me. At first, it appeared the cause of this was that I stayed too long in the same position, but even after moving, they continued to chase me. No matter how good I am at fighting the little devils, it won't matter if I fight ten at the same time. No amount of skill will bridge that gap.'
'Since that's the case, I need to prevent myself from taking more than three at a time. It can't be that my power would make this impossible. At least assuming I'm not in some kind of eternal torment. With that being the case, there must be something I'm doing wrong.'
Kaizul continued thinking, doing his best to reason his way out. Quickly dispatching the first Caterpie, which still took focus but was getting far easier, he sat to spend the precious time he had before they all jumped him to consider.
Notice!
You have slain a Dream Caterpie and obtained some loot!
• Caterpie Antenna [Common]
• Fresh Caterpie Meat [Common]
• Carapace (Caterpie) [Rare]
'Nice, rare drop.' He thought.
Now, as he pondered his dilemma, the time came, and the Caterpie swarmed him. He watched them move. From one tree to his own. Then he drew his gaze back over the rest of them. Slowly, he formed the seeds of an idea. He didn't finish it before fighting the Pokémon, but it was there, and on his next attempt, the idea bore fruit.
Now seated after once more defeating the Caterpie, Kaizul calculated. If he took a circle and scattered twenty points within that circle. Then, if all the points on that circle moved toward the circle's center. Then points would come faster as time went on.
Put into practice, that is to say, that the further from the center of the circle you got or in this case, the further from Kaizul, the more area the added distance would bring to the circle. More area meant more points, or in this case, more Caterpie. And if his logic held true, then that meant the only way he could survive…
'I need to keep moving constantly. I won't be able to rest in the same location for more than just a few minutes at a time.' That means that I need to not only kill the Caterpie, but conserve my energy while doing it. And by the end, I'll need to kill them while suffering from deep exhaustion. Both from being awake for 24 hours straight, and from lack of food and water, all while spending the whole-time fighting.
Just thinking about that was enough to make his head spin. And he found himself breaking into laughter. He supposed it might be technically possible, maybe. And this was supposed to be the minimal difficulty?
Putting aside that depressing realization, he had only one conclusion.
'This is gonna suck.'
[Author's Note]
Hope you all enjoyed it!
I'm not sure if it was easy to read or if I did a good job explaining that last bit, but I hope it at least conveyed the idea.
Leave some feedback if you think I could have done anything better, as I'm still a bit new to this.
With that, I'll see you all next time! (Assuming you bother to stick around)
If not? Best wishes!