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Chapter 3: Hitting My Stride

I placed all my remaining points into the Determinator tree. Four notifications generated.

Determinators are walls of stone, each of them an unstoppable force. +5% to regeneration stats.

Less a mind and more a machine, they tread in one direction. Forwards. +5% to regeneration stats.

To stop one is to kill one. To befriend one is to align yourself with one. +5% to regeneration stats.

For they have wills of steel and minds of metal. You are now among them. +10% to regeneration stats.

As I resolved myself for what was to come, I held onto what these sayings said. Even while I gripped with this new reality, each of these sayings pumped me up. But yeah, my regen increasing by 30% was a nice bonus. It left me regenerating around five health a minute. With my damage resistance, that was more like five and a half.

So, I could get five health a minute against however many bats I could fit in the radius of Agony. Not the most promising thought, but whatever. I could handle it. I had to. What I really needed was to learn how to use Agony. As I pondered about that, a message interrupted my thoughts.

Agony – Drains all nearby unit’s health, including the caster. The more health the caster drains from themselves a second, the larger the effective range of the aura. Damage to self is reduced by constitution. Willpower increases damage of Agony. Current conversion: 1.08(Willpower bonus)/0.945(Constitution bonus) = 1.14

I rubbed my temples while stopping my eyes from going cross. Oh man, math, and it was even beyond a third grade level – my greatest weakness. Taking a second to adjust, I made sense of it. Willpower helped Pain Tolerance while the constitution attribute made me more difficult to damage. With that in mind, I willed the power to activate.

Like a firecracker in my skull, a headache formed along with a stinging discomfort all throughout my body. A bead of sweat dripped down my forehead after a minute, and I wondered how much health I lost. This must’ve been a pretty massive amount I lost each second considering how much it hurt.

An interface appeared in the right corner of my vision, displaying health, mana, and fatigue. Convenient.

It would’ve been really helpful during the battle with the bat, but I took it with a grain of salt. I was clearly an outlier for what this system had in place. On the top left corner of this HUD, a debuff was showing,

Health loss from Agony – [5/min]

I gaped at the sight. I questioned my existence for a moment, perturbed that this much pain amounted to so little health lost. The sheer discomfort amazed me before another notification appeared,

Skill level! [Pain Tolerance | Level 13]

A eureka moment popped up in my mind as I put the dots together. My Pain Tolerance gave me the skill points for the Determinator tree. I wondered what all the skill levels were when a list appeared,

| Ave Maria(lvl 1), Pain Tolerance(lvl 13), Desperation(lvl 8), Death’s Dance(lvl 6), [Dodging(lvl 1) |

These were the skills and descriptions from earlier. They acted in vague ways, so I wanted a clear, crisp understanding of what they did. This system, whatever it was, didn’t fail me.

Ave Maria | Level 1 – Plus %0.5 to success rate of risky plans.

I couldn’t believe this was a thing.

Pain Tolerance | Level 13 – Minus 13% of perceived pain.

Desperation | Level 8 – Additional willpower granted when desperate.

That was a powerful buff when I would need it. A useful skill for sure.

Death’s Dance | Level 6 – Plus 6% to damage dealt when receiving damage.

Dodging | Level 1 – Plus 1% to dodge speed and minus 0.5% to dodge reaction time.

Every single skill proved useful, most of them life changing. It seemed the Schema gave me skill points when I was using the skill; a reward of sorts for using the buff. That meant that I could use Agony for Death’s Dance, Pain Tolerance, and maybe even Desperation if it came down to it.

In fact, these skills had been gained by simply doing what the skills were. After a little brainstorming, I thought if I did some of my boxing, the schema would recognize it as a skill too. I put myself in my normal fighting stance, my feet set slightly wider than my shoulders. I set my shoulders high and forward, keeping my chin protected.

My backfoot left the ball of my foot planted while my front foot pressed hard into the ground, letting me lean forward. Unlike some boxers, I grounded my front foot when I fought. I wanted the power so I could hit hard and heavy, like a hammer. That strategy gave me my fighting name: Outlast. I prayed the name would be true in this situation.

Swinging a few times, I fumbled my forms, even though I practiced them many times before. Agony’s perpetual pain distracted me, so I willed the ability to cease. It did. I went through a few hooks, jabs, overhands, and straights before a notification appeared.

Pugilist | Level 1 – Many have chosen to wield weapons aside from their bodies. You’ve chosen a simpler, straighter path, and it rewards you with blinding hands of hardened steel.

I raised my fists in success, the Rocky theme playing in my head. I checked the skill.

Pugilist | Level 1 – Plus 1% to fist hardness, fist speed, fist damage, and general speed when using only fists for weapons.

I swung for a few more minutes in my little rock cove as quietly as I could. After about half an hour, I worked up a good sweat as I read my notifications.

Skill level! [Pugilism | Level 8]

The bonuses from the skill already made a difference. It defied all my expectations, honestly. I made a year of progress at my gym in just a few minutes. In particular, my fist’s speed astounded me. My fists blurred in my vision at times, though that might’ve been the sweat and dehydration.

Thirsty or not, this gave me some joy and confidence. I cracked my neck before glancing back at the bat I killed. Two other bats devoured swooped in, gorging like ravenous dogs fighting over a steak. I winced in disgust before tapping my forehead with a knuckle. I needed to get serious here. Sure, getting stronger was fun, but if I went about it with a lazy attitude, I would die here. I had better things to do.

Like not dying.

I ramped up Agony till it matched my health regen. The splitting headache, stinging sensation on my skin, and the burn in my muscles kicked in. It disintegrated me with a slow, steady drain, and the sensation hounded me. After a few minutes of adjusting, I threw some punches out. It reminded me of fighting in the final rounds of a boxing match. In other words, utterly miserable.

I went about trying to get the willpower to really put out while training before a bat flew over my head. I froze faster than a housemaid caught stealing. The bat landed on a stalactite fifty meters away before covering itself with its wings, disappearing entirely amongst the stone.

At that point, I glanced up at the darkness away from the glowing pools. The bats were invisible. Like, invisibility cloak levels of invisible. Those killers waited out there in the caves, sitting there, biding their time. In fact, it seemed outright strange how they hadn’t noticed me yet.

I shrugged off those concerns though. Other, pressing matters engulfed my attention, like the idea of the blind bats roosting everywhere. That anxiety mounted until cold sweat poured from my brow. I could be surrounded by the damn things in every direction. I would need the ability to take on dozens, maybe even hundreds at a time, not just one. Either that or I would be torn apart by a horde of them just like the one I managed to slay.

Skill level! [Desperation | Level 9]

I needed to power up at a speed that defied convention.

With that realization, I opened my character menu and found thirteen tree points. I glanced at my options for trees.

| I Fledgling[0/5], I Beginner[0/5], I Fighter(Kill a creature 20 levels above you)[0/25]|

Based on my deduction skills, Determinator II should’ve been available. It must’ve required something I hadn’t done yet, so I silenced my indecision. I needed to hurry. I put all the points into the Fighter tree.

A fighter enjoys the thrill of battle and the taste of blood. He fights for pleasure, not out of necessity. +1% to general resistance multiplier and physical power multiplier.

You seek to join them and live for battle. You thrive on glory. You need nothing else, for what else is a warrior but the sum of his battles? +1% to general resistance multiplier and physical power multiplier.

Taking a moment to resolve myself, I decided to survive this cave. I swung my fists with renewed vigor. Like lightning coursed in my veins, I struggled to improve. I thought of counters, weak spots, even ways of shifting my weight. I tried moving as little as possible to dodge my invisible opponents. Sweat poured from my forehead and armpits in minutes.

It turns out, training while disintegrating my own body was absolute hell. I mean, training was already hard. That and the abject terror from my situation strained my mind unlike it ever had been. Still, I put in the time and effort to get the task finished. It was something about me. Sure, I silently complained about whatever I needed to do, but I would get it done once my mind was set.

Just as well, death was a primary motivator. Its looming threat steeled my mind, and I kept at it. As I did, my thoughts drifted to the people I’d known. Most of them assumed I was stoic. Michael knew otherwise. I hoped he was alright, but after what that bat had done to the stone, I doubted it. That pained me, but there was still a chance he and Kelsey survived.

I grasped that chance. Hours passed, and my eyes grew heavy. I couldn’t tell how much time had gone by since I started training or the Schema activated. There was no sun, no phone, or any real reference for time.

That was a strange habit of mine, actually. I was one of the few students I knew without a phone. I never liked how they seemed to consume whoever used them. It was less like a person owned a phone and more like the phone owned them.

Thoughts like that passed over my glazed eyes as I kept on training. Even as exhaustion took over, my movements grew sharper and stronger with each passing minute. I’d unlocked several skill levels, along with a new skill or two. The sound of a corpse being chewed helped me there. It pushed me forward as a constant reminder of what would happen to me soon if I stopped.

At the peak of my fatigue, I walked over towards my refuge of overhanging rocks before falling asleep on my side. It’d been a long day, and fear kept me up no longer.

*****************************************************************************************

After a pretty bleh rest, I awoke with bats chiming above my refuge in a swarm. Instead of scooping up the many insects across the cavern, they stumbled around as if they were trying to escape. They must’ve been hungry, several of the bats stooping to cannibalism earlier, but they avoided every bug out here.

I must’ve been a bug to them because they ignored me as well. I couldn’t fathom why, but it gave me an opportunity that I wouldn’t take lightly. I opened my character menu spotting thirty seven tree points. I finished the Fighter tree with twelve of them, leaving me a clean twenty five remaining. Three notifications appeared.

So fight on in your life. Find meaning in war. Find fulfillment in bloodshed. Become the battle, and breathe it in. +1% to general resistance multiplier and physical power multiplier.

There’s so little left in these corpses you stand on. You’ve built bridges of bodies and swam in oceans of blood. +1% to general resistance multiplier and physical power multiplier.

For you are war incarnate, a monster in a man’s flesh. Swallow that darkness, and be swallowed by it in turn. +1% to general resistance multiplier and physical power multiplier. Fighter II unlocked.

I took a sharp breath as the sayings spoke aloud, each of them both eerie and inspiring at the same time. I checked out the remaining talent trees.

| I Fledgling[0/5], I Beginner[0/5], II Fighter(Kill a creature 30 levels above you)[0/50]|

Welp, the first Fighter tree gave me great gains already, so I chose it before placing all my tree points into it in one go. Two notifications appeared in succession once more.

You continue your path. Known by many names, but mostly known by what you leave behind. +2% to general resistance multiplier and physical power multiplier.

In your wake is nothing. You know no family. Your joy is the clash of steel, the spray of blood, the carnage that comes from killing. +2% to general resistance multiplier and physical power multiplier.

I disagreed with a few of these sayings, but I needed them either way. While the bonuses were small, they added up over time. I checked out my skill levels to inspect my progress.

| Ave Maria(lvl 1), Pain Tolerance(lvl 17), Desperation(lvl 13), Death’s Dance(lvl 11), Dodging(lvl 3), Pugilist(lvl 18), Physical Fitness(lvl 7), Focus(lvl 5) |

Counting it all up, I gained seventy five total tree points. I glanced at the bonuses of Physical Fitness and Focus.

Physical Fitness | Level 7 – To condition one’s body is to condition one’s mind. You’ve used the latter to achieve the former, and so, you gain strength and speed in turn. Increased stamina usage during activity, but increased strength as well.

Focus | Level 5 – An untempered mind is a ghastly thing. It goes where it pleases, fulfilling impulses instead of goals. You’ve decided against that path. To that end, your mind is an instrument of your will. Increased skill gain when focused.

I raised a shaking, celebratory fist. This skill explained where a lot of the other abilities came from. I would be able to grind these up to something, especially the Physical Fitness skill. The strength bonus meant I gained some speed, which would be essential. No matter my skills, I still need as much regeneration as possible for what I planned on doing.

Noting that, I opened my character menu.

Character Screen

Health – 128/198 | 5.15/health a min | Mana – 40/40 | 0.80/mana a min | Stamina – 198/198 51.48/stamina per min

Damage Resistance – 6.1% | Mental Resistance – 8% | Elemental Resistance – 0% | Plasma Resistance – 0% | Radiation Resistance – 0%

Physical Power – (+)9.8% | Debuffs – Agony(5.15 hp/min)

The screen changed a little, likely due to new buffs. It didn’t surprise me, considering this Schema warped reality. A dynamic interface wasn’t exactly stunning.

Peering at the numbers imbued optimistic thoughts of taking on another bat. I swatted those hopes for now after considering my last battle. Luck saved me then, not my own skill. Relying on chance again, especially considering how low my luck stat was, appalled me.

Flashes of the bats rotting teeth and breath flooded my mind. I gasped before shaking off some jitters. This wasn’t the time for that. For now, the bats still swarmed around me. I tolerated my growing thirst while mentally preparing myself for more training.

It was all I could do.

After the horde died down to a standstill, I got back onto my feet. I shadow boxed with the discomfort of agony raging in the back of my head. Time dragged on again, and my motivation waned. It seemed hopeless to kill these bats. I stood no chance in my mind.

But, a few close calls with the bats reminded me of why I kept at this. This wasn’t the time for doubt; this was the time for Desperation, which gained a few levels now that I mentioned it. After a few more hours, I lost all steam for training. My mouth dried out, my lips cracking some. My throat burned with thirst. I needed water, desperately.

Hunger hounded me with a burning stomach too, but that paled in comparison to my thirst. Intense exercise without water weighed on me, destroying my will. I wanted a few points in willpower soon so I could keep pushing myself. Before that, killing a bat took priority, so I placed ten more skill points into the Fighter tree.

Loneliness is success to you. It means everything has fallen to you already. That silence is your home.+2% to general resistance multiplier and physical power multiplier.

I preferred livelier surroundings, personally. After brushing up on my status, I planned out a mad dash towards the pools of glowing water. No matter how dangerous, I couldn’t silence the call for water anymore. It just looked so damn sweet. Thinking of a way over to a glowing pool, silence popped up as my solution. I needed to be quiet.

I could be right beside a bat so long as they didn’t hear me. Putting that thought into action, I snuck around my little cove of rocks for a while before a notification popped up.

Skill unlocked! Sneak | Level 1 – The shadows are your cloak and silence your friend. They speak to you with umbral shades, and you speak to them in action.

I practiced the new ability with agony burning me down. All the while, I rolled, dodged imaginary swords, I even karate chopped some people down. Joking aside, I leveled my Sneak, Dodge, and Pain Tolerance all at once for a while. Once I got some of the skills unlocked, I enacted my master plan.

Be. Really. Quiet.

I snuck around for about ten feet before a bat rustled above me. As its wings unfurled, the bat appeared into existence from nothing. It defied all rules of logic or physics, yet it occurred in front of my eyes like a surreal dream. I froze in place that instant, my blood running cold as ice.

The bat swooped down. In a wild panic, I pulled Agony back from the beast. It landed on the ground beside me. The creature opened its mouth, tasting the air for me. Waving its wings, it got closer and closer until it was inches from me. Cold sweat poured down my back as I held my breath. I could feel my blood beating in my ears. My left eye twitched from my overwhelming dread.

But I stayed still, and I got another notification.

Skill level! [Desperation | Level 17]

At that moment, something snapped in me. I despised this Schema. That indignation planted its seed in me, and it fed off that fiery spark of fury. I hated this damn thing. I hated it with a burning passion. My teeth clamped as my fists clenched. It mentioned an error when it summoned me into the BloodHollow Caves.

This entire predicament, my life, turned into this hell because the system made an error. I would die from a glitch. As the bat breathed down my neck, my ire fumed like smoldering embers in fire.

Skill unlocked! Scorn | Level 1 – To feel anger is one thing, but scorn is another. It judges the object of anger as worthless, a failure in all ways. Scorn may ignite, but it may also inspire. You decide what it’s worth will be to you.

The quote spoke out while the bat opened its jaws beside me. Between its teeth, rotting bits of meat festered like a week old roadkill. My body told me to run, but my mind understood that if I didn’t stand still, I’d die here.

Turning my face, I stared at the creature as it pulled back from me. It tilted its head towards the ground, rubbing a stone with its claws. The bat glanced up before flying back up. The wind from its wings brushed the sides of my face, cool and refreshing. I let out a slow breath of relief at its ascent.

I put my hands over my face, terror still consuming me. My eyes burned before I gave myself silent taps on my forehead, snapping myself out of my trance. It didn’t matter if I wanted to lie down in hole and die. I had to move on. Taking a second, I willed Agony back into action. I snuck for a few more feet, gaining levels in the skill as I did.

I reached halfway between the pools and my cover of rocks. My backpack sat a few feet away, full of goodness I could eat. My stomach roared at me to stop and ravage the packages of jerky and trail mix. I silenced its calls. The water came first.

I paced further, reaching the cyan-shaded pool in about ten minutes. As I arrived, I deflated like a balloon. I shut down Agony, the lack of pain coming in like a wave of fresh air. I placed my lips against the water before I drank it in.

Cold, crisp, and refreshing, I drank until my gut swelled. I waited a few minutes before drinking again and again and again. I sat in that tiny little piece of heaven, savoring the delicious flavor. It was a moment without the constant pain, effort, and thirst.

The moment flew by, however. I breathed deep and slow before lifting myself from the pool. I wanted to bathe, but that was going to take a while. It was more a distant dream then a pressing desire. Sneaking back, I reached my backpack after five minutes. I took out several pieces of jerky, scarfing them down before carrying what was left of my trail mix. Sneaking back, I reached my outcove with a far fuller stomach.

I gave myself a five minute break before turning Agony back on. Biting me like the cold of a winter morning, Agony hurt like hell. Engulfed in it, I started yet another grueling training session. It was better than thinking. If I dwelled on my situation, many aspects of it stuck out to me like sharp rocks underfoot.

I had no say in being here. This system jerked me here while I was unaware. The cold, the dread, even the hurt from Agony, they pressed on me from all angles. Despite those misgivings, I enjoyed parts of this process. The leveling, the training, and the growth, they gave me a motivation I never had before.

However, the bad parts of this dungeon outweighed the good ones. By a lot. By a colossal, consuming amount. Those thoughts burned in my mind as I trained. That ire helped me ignore the pain. I reveled in daydreams where I inflicted this torment tenfold on whoever caused this Schema. I envisioned smashing their faces to bits. I imagined ripping out their teeth and stomping their stomach. It gave me solace.

Waking up from that hypnotic state, I took a breath. My gut told me that submerging in that malice was a bad idea. Considering the amount of sweat on me, I trained for hours here. I stretched my arms, keeping myself together in the silence.

A notification appeared.

Skill level! [Scorn | Level 13]

I frowned before checking out the new skills objective bonuses.

Sneaking | Level 11 – Noise is mitigated while sneaking, but stamina consumption is raised. Effect increased by skill level.

Scorn | Level 13 – While in scorn, your strength, endurance, willpower, and Pain Tolerance increase, but your charisma and perception decrease.

So maybe wallowing in Scorn wasn’t such a bad idea. I mean, sure, I’d be really dislikeable while it activated, but I needed those buffs. They worked great with Agony as well. Glancing at my character screen, I had thirty seven unused skill points. I put fifteen points into II Fighter, finishing the tree. Two notifications appeared.

You are a warrior, a soldier, a mercenary. You are whatever you need to be to battle. +2% to general resistance multiplier and physical power multiplier.

For in battle, you leave only death in your wake, yet when fighting, you are truly alive.+2% to general resistance multiplier and physical power multiplier. +10 health and stamina.

I fist pumped in triumph. That tree gained me a point of endurance’s worth of health. With twenty two skill points left, I peered at my trees.

| I Fledgling[0/5], I Beginner[0/5] |

Having nothing else left, I put the five points into each of them.

You’ve learned how to move through your new found screens. +5 health, mana, and stamina.

Now you’re going out into the harsh world created by the schema. Prepare yourself for its trials. +5 health, mana, and stamina.

They weren’t terrible by any means, but they weren’t anything special either. No new tree opened up for me when the others were completed. That made sense to me. The schema rewarded genuine effort and difficulty, not endless grinding. In order to progress, I would need to accomplish something first.

I mean, if you could just endlessly grind out the skill trees, then becoming ridiculously powerful would be simple. Everyone would be strong. No one would be dumb enough to go out and die without any real reason for it. They would just knit, jog in place, or practice some other skill until they were godlike.

In order to progress from here, my only option was upgrading my current skills until I could kill the bat. Otherwise, I would end up as a part of the bat feces piled in the corners of the cavern floor.

It was time to hit my stride.