SWNOVELS System Change: Chapter 2
Derek’s words echoed throughout the darkness. He knew he shouldn’t have doubted the portal back then. He knew what flags were, and he created one by voicing his doubts. It’s just like when someone says, ‘at least it can’t get any worse.’ He shook his head. It always gets worse.
Looking around at what used to be the portal between the camp and the battleground, there was nothing but darkness. It wasn’t the type of darkness that takes some time for your eyes to adjust before being able to make out figures. No, it was darkness in its purest form.
There was no light, no way of finding out which way went where. Maybe I’m only going to be stuck here until Silvi opens another portal. I mean, it is her portal that I got stuck in. It has to connect to her… right? For the usually pessimistic man, it was hard to be optimistic about his situation.
With no directions or clues as to where he was, Derek sat. I might as well make myself comfortable. There’s no telling when she will make another portal. With a shake of his hand, he summoned some meat and beer from his storage bracelet. Not knowing what his future looked like, he pushed the thoughts out of his head and tried to stay positive.
And with this mindset, time passed…
A glaive sliced through the darkness at such a speed that it created a whistle as it moved. A sudden change in trajectory interrupted the whistling before the weapon stopped high in the air. Then, the whistling resurfaced as the blade fell sharply toward the ground.
Suddenly, all movement in the area stopped as a notification rang in his ear.
Glaive Mastery has reached level 8.
Finally! I’ve been swinging this thing nonstop for days now… I think. Hell, I don’t even know how long I’ve been in this godforsaken hellhole. Derek reached for his chin to caress the stubble that had appeared… no, not stubble, a full-blown beard. Damn, a beard. I can’t believe I’ve been stuck inside the portal long enough to grow a beard. It’s not even one of those little ones either.
Even during the worst days of the so-called ‘apocalypse’, Derek managed to shave his face once or twice a week. He may have been… less than social, but he still had to make some appearances, and he enjoyed the occasional outing to a bar.
Now, however, none of that mattered. From what he could tell, he was alone in the darkness. He had a certain understanding of how fast his facial hair grew, so at least with the length of his new beard, he had some idea of how long he had been stuck.
I’m not saying I ain’t already a little crazy, but if it wasn’t for my meditation skill, my psyche would be in a much worse state. Derek fumbled around with his now shoulder-length hair, wondering if it was still the same coal-black that it used to be, or if the stress of being stuck alone in the darkness with nothing more than himself to keep him occupied had introduced some gray.
With nothing else to do, Derek checked out his meditation skill.
Meditation (18): Become one with yourself. Recovery of HP, MP, and Stamina increased by 180% while meditating.
If nothing else, the meditation skill allows me to swing my glaive more, Derek thought as he checked out the new skill and title his time trapped in the portal had brought him.
Enhanced Perception (6): By not using your sight, your other senses become stronger. Your ability to use other senses while choosing not to use another enhances those senses by 30%.
A lot of good that does me. 30% of no sound is still no sound. He longed for the days of cell phones with as much music as he could handle at the touch of a button. He would never make fun of disco or country music again. Sighing, Derek looked at his new title.
Pacifist II: After countless days of slaughter and pools of blood spilled, you have remained passive for an extraordinary amount of time. +25 WIS.
“Heh, heh, heh!” Derek chuckled uncontrollably. This title gets me every time. Nothing increases Wisdom like sitting in the dark with your thumb up your ass for months on end. Eventually, Derek calmed down. He may have been losing it, but at least interacting with the system gave him some comfort. It had been months since he lost hope in Silvi being able to bring him back, so the system interactions were his only real attachments he had left.
But all good things had to come to an end.
While meditating one day, Derek’s eyes shot open with a start at a new system message.
Error… System detected host moving out of system range.
Error… Host losing connection with system-controlled area.
Error… System connection lost.
Please move into system range as soon as possible.
“What the hell is going on?” Derek was frantic. Moving out of system range? Have I been traveling the entire time I’ve been stuck? How fast am I moving? Am I moving at the same speed as I was when going between Silvi’s camp and the battlefield? How far were the portal openings from one another? It had to of been at least 75 miles. If I was moving that speed, and I remained at that speed when the portals closed, how far have I traveled?
Question after question flooded Derek’s brain. But, as he thought about it, he doubted himself. That can’t be right. Even being generous, I couldn’t have traveled more than a couple billion miles, at best. I would still be in our solar system at that distance, and I know it should be entirely covered by the system.
Then Derek had a terrifying thought. What if the traveling speed actually slowed down while the portal was open? How much faster would the tunnel be when closed? Derek clutched his head in his hands and screamed, “This sucks!”
He took a deep breath to calm himself down. Okay… think… with my Endurance and Vitality stats being so high, I don’t think I have to worry about eating anymore, so I won’t starve. Let’s see… Status.
Status
Error…
Please move into system range as soon as possible.
Does this mean that I’ve lost the system, too? Derek slumped over with his face in his hands. He closed his eyes and adjusted his breathing. Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief. At least I can still meditate. That means I should be able to use my other skills as well.
He once again slipped into his meditation and waited…
“Goddammit!” Derek threw the dagger in his hand to the ground. “I can’t even kill myself.” With no chance of being rescued, he had given up. Before, he could estimate how long he had been trapped in the darkness, but now, time completely escaped him. He was 27 years old when he was originally trapped. Now, he was unsure if he was 30, 40, or even 50. He could have been trapped in the darkness for decades. He just didn’t know anymore.
Even though the system left him, he still had all his skills and stats intact. This was both fortunate and unfortunate. His high Endurance and Vitality meant that neither his Strength nor his weapons were strong enough to cause lasting damage to him. His high Endurance meant that he struggled to inflict any wounds, and his high Vitality meant that any wounds he caused healed before the damage was serious.
Starving himself was also out of the question. He theorized it would be hard to starve with stats like his, but he tested it anyway. The results? He was miserable. Once his body entered a state of starvation, it drew its sustenance from him. Derek was able to feel his body eating itself, then his Vitality healed any part that was malnourished. It was a vicious cycle that he didn’t want to experience again.
He tried different things, but in the end, he always slipped back into meditation and simply let time go on. While meditating, years could pass in a blink of an eye. So, that’s what he did. If he couldn’t physically end it all, he would leave it to time. Nobody could escape time.
Of course, in the back of his mind, he wondered how crazy all the failed attempts at his own life made him. But he comforted himself with the thought that any rational person in the same situation would have done the same thing.
“Yep, I’m not crazy at all,” he spoke to the glaive laying across his legs. “You go ahead and keep watch. I’m going to go meditate for a while. Wake me up if something happens.” He ran his hand over the bladed end before slowly closing his eyes and slipping back into meditation.
“Huh? What was that?” Derek’s eyes shot open as he stared into the infinite darkness. He seemed to notice something… odd. However, he soon calmed down. It’s nothing… just my eyes playing tricks on me… again. Still, he stared into the distant darkness, with a vain hope that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him. Then a loud pounding sounded off in the distance.
He shook his head. Hallucinations were commonplace for him—though he usually didn’t have multiple at the same time. Still, with a small amount of hope, he closed his eyes and focused his enhanced hearing on the drum-like noise in the distance. Either my hallucinations are getting worse, or there’s actually something out there. For the first time in ages, he felt excited.
The crashing sound once again thundered throughout the darkness. No longer did he have to focus to hear it. The noise bellowed again, even louder. This time, however, something in the darkness changed. A small line seemed to appear.
As Derek stared at the line, it soon formed into a crack. Then the crack spider-webbed and grew with each crash. Behind the fissures in the darkness seemed to be a light. As the cracks increased, so too did the illumination behind them.
This is it! Derek grabbed his glaive and jumped up. Finally, a chance to escape or die… or both! Either option was fine to him. There was finally a change in the darkness after countless years… decades, and he wasn’t about to miss it.
Derek summoned his armor from his storage bracelet… well, everything but his helmet. His unruly facial hair dashed all hopes of fitting his head inside. He took off toward the cracks in the darkness, prepared for any outcome, from death to freedom.
He finally arrived at the fissures. With no better idea, he jabbed the blade end of his glaive into a crack and began to pry. Something… happened. Holy shit! It’s moving. The crack grew wider as the blade entered. Then, using the shaft as a lever, Derek pushed.
His glaive had turned into a crowbar, but Derek didn’t mind. He was making headway. Slowly, pieces of darkness fell from the wall and disappeared. Hours passed as the banging continued and the pieces fell.
Derek finally removed enough pieces of darkness to see through to the other side, to see what was causing the crashing sound. What he saw was a gigantic black fist. I giant fist with claws and all kinds of other kill-me bits… awesome! If he couldn’t escape, then maybe his new friend could do him a solid and kill him. Derek tried to use the Identify skill on the creature.
Please move back to a system designated area to use this skill.
I should have expected that. Still, he didn’t care. He was going to have company soon. This gentlemanly creature was his ticket out of this hellhole, and by God, he wouldn’t look a gift… beast in its mouth.
Finally, the clawed hand pushed through one of the openings and reached into the darkness. When it pulled back, it grabbed at the edge of the crack, ripping the darkness out with its hand. It reached in again, this time with both hands, and began removing piece after piece of the darkness.
Before long, it stuck its head inside and started hauling the rest of its body in. Soon, a nine-foot-tall creature with a pitch-black body and fiery red eyes stood before Derek.
“Hey, man… or woman! Thanks for making me a door. It was really starting to get boring in here.” Derek walked up to the creature and patted it on the shoulder.
Suddenly, the back of the monster’s hand hit Derek in the center of his breastplate, leaving a fist-sized dent in the armor. Derek coughed. “That wasn’t very nice.” He viciously slashed his glaive down onto the creature’s arm with Heavy Blow.
The blade bounced off the creature’s skin with a loud ringing sound. It didn’t even break the skin. The monster glared at Derek with its fiery eyes and opened its maw, revealing a row of sharp, fanglike teeth. “Woah, woah, woah,” Derek pleaded with his hands up. “That was just a greeting where I’m from. I was only saying hello. I mean, you hit me, I hit you, now we’re besties.”
Unfortunately, Derek didn’t have time to chat with his new best friend. In his peripheral, the cracks in the darkness were slowly repairing themselves, shutting out the light once again.
“Anyway, it was nice to meet you. My name is… Silvi… yes, Silvi… with an I. Make sure you look me up if you ever visit Earth. Sorry, I couldn’t stay longer to chat, but I have to get going. Bye, Bye!” Derek dashed toward the opening, feeling the wind streak across his hair as he ducked under a blow from the monster. He dove through what was left of the opening and into the light. He was finally out.
“Freedom!” he shouted as he fell.