I sat up with a grunt, slowly reaching for the side of my head as I pulled out the adventurous twig. It had somehow made its way into my ear hole like it was on a reconnaissance mission.
I blinked. My mouth felt like it had been stuffed with moss and regret. My tongue was dry. My lips were cracked. Everything else? Stiff. Somehow, I’d passed out curled like a shrimp in the mud, legs tucked under me, face smashed against a root.
This tracked. I’d almost lost a bar fight against a nightmare nature documentary.
I was covered in mud, which was weird because when I passed out, I was definitely on dry land. I remembered being soaked and covered in other things… juices… but not mud.
Then the smell hit me.
A sound that was somewhere between a gag and a hiccup escaped my throat. It was awful—a mix of rot, blood, and, weirdly, grease. I must’ve just blocked it out while unconscious, but now my brain was wide awake and suffering. How the hell did a scent like this even exist?
Then I saw the lake.
Oh.
Oh wow.
What had once been a crisp blue basin surrounded by reeds and ready for a postcard was now… well, it looked like someone had poured a Costco-sized jar of gravy into it and seasoned it with roadkill.
The water was thick and dark. Fur floated in clumps. An oily sheen coated the surface. Dead eyes peeked up at the sky like they’d died confused and pissed.
I stared.
And stared.
And then I puked.
The retching was loud. Wet. Emotionally damaging. I emptied myself until there was nothing left but dry heaving and shame. Then I collapsed next to my puddle of former dignity and stared back at the lake.
That happened.
That actually happened.
I had killed them all. Not with a sword. Not with fireballs. Not even with my dented metal water bottle. No, I’d done it with a damn reed flute and what could only be described as the power of musical nausea.
Countless woodland animals. Dead.
And I was alive.
I laughed. It sounded harsh and cracked. It didn’t feel like a win.
My whole body still buzzed with the memory of the resonance—that horrible vibrating rush that saved me and nearly hollowed me out.
Somewhere in the distance, a bird chirped.
I flinched.
Nope.
I sat up fully and ran a hand through my hair, feeling the matted mess of dried lake funk and sweat.
I was still in my underwear. Somehow, I’d completely forgotten that I was basically naked through the whole fight. My brain had apparently decided to prioritize survival over dignity.
Looking over my body, I didn’t see any scratches or bruises. I’d definitely been scraped and hit a few times when the luckier animals had gotten close. In spots, there were patches of dead skin, almost like a healing sunburn. I was definitely healed. I had a good guess why—but that could wait.
I stood. My bare feet sank about eight inches into the mud. I started walking toward the rock I was experimenting on when this all started, hoping that I would be able to recover my clothes and bag that were nearby.
The shore was ruined. The grass was trampled. Most of the valley was muddy and filled with water. The once-peaceful valley now looked like a battlefield drawn by a five-year-old with a fascination for dead bunnies and a poop crayon.
The air smelled like wet fur and trauma.
And yet, I was still here.
Still breathing. Trudging through mud.
The notifications that had been going off since before I passed out were still pinging at the edge of my vision. Soft dings that I had been mentally swatting away like mosquitoes. They had kept coming. They must have been going off as I slept.
I ignored them. Again.
I needed to get out of this soup bowl.
Making my way to the rock which which I had sat on when I had started this whole mess, only the top bit was now above water, I started the search for my things. The animals had stampeded this area just as much as everywhere else, and my clothes and bag were not were I had left them. After a careful search, I was able to recover my bag, pants, and even my shoes with my socks still in them. I couldn’t find any sign of my shirt.
I put on my clothes and shoes, and started to check the contents of my bag. Though it looked a little beaten up it seemed fine. It had been submerged which was my only worry, though my phone and solar charge were waterproof – and a quick test I was able to turn my phone on. My keys and metal water bottle were fine, though I did notice that the bottle was about half full. I opened it and used some water to wash my mouth out before taking a deep sip. Packing everything up, I put the bag on, feeling the straps against my skin.
The bag strap brushed against my right nipple. Not something that I would normally notice, but NOW I HAVE A NIPPLE AGAIN.
Fuck. Will think about that later. Need to get out of here.
Looking around, I could not see any sign of my makeshift campsite. The whole area was under about 10 inches of water.
Just where did all of this water come from? The bodies couldn’t have added that much volume to the lake to make it to fill the valley.
Looking at the lake, I saw my answer.
There was a…corpse dam.
The lake was fed by a stream and had a stream exiting it towards the path out of the valley. The current had pushed corpses towards the exiting stream until they started to pile up and looked like leaves in a gutter.
Looks like the lake then started to overflow then, the stream coming into the lake being a decent size. I must have been out for awhile for the water to get to this height.
Yeah, think it’s time to really get out of here.
The land around the lake was a mess. Muddy, torn up, and covered in too many little corpses to safely step over. If I wanted to move without vomiting again, I needed a better route.
The stream.
It was still feeding into the lake from the far end. Untouched.
It was also elevated, and I can get away from this mess. It was the direction of firmer ground and no corpse sludge. I could also probably refill my water bottle there.
I limped my way toward the stream. The sound of running water was strangely comforting.
As I moved, I tried not to look at the lake again.
I failed. Multiple times.
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The edge was still littered with floating critters. But I noticed something strange. None of them looked… fresh. They were stiff. Bloated. Like they had been there for days.
Was that normal? Did this world rot things faster?
I didn’t want to think about it.
I focused on trudging through the mud.
I finally reached the stream which was shallow, only about a foot deep, with smooth stones lining the bottom. The flow was decent but steady. The water sparkled in the early morning sun, untainted by the carnage downstream. I stepped into the riverbed and started walking.
It was easier than pushing through the wrecked land. My boots sank a bit, but not too much. The water was cold, but it felt clean. Each step washed away a little more of the grime. I followed it for what felt like an hour, but was probably only ten minutes. The valley curved slightly upward here, rising into a gentle incline. I passed under leaning trees and stepped over fallen branches, the only sounds the gurgling stream and the occasional rustle of leaves.
I stopped near a large stone shelf, shaped like a natural seat beside the stream. The rock was warm in the sunlight. I sat down, dropped my bag beside me, and exhaled slowly. I looked over my shoulder back toward the lake. From this angle, I could make out about half of it. The trail of destruction ended just about five hundred feet behind me. Everything in front of me was clean. You could see the clean forest to the tree line and then the valley with its warzone appearance.
Wait.
IM IN THE FOREST.
Panic hit me and I started looking all around for anything about to attack. A Squirrel, raccoon, anything.
It was quiet.
Where were they? They should have attacked me by now, they barely let me leave the valley before.
Oh. They weren’t chasing me. There was nothing left to chase. I had killed everything.
I’d triggered a wave of aggro with that rock sound and it had just… kept going. I had thought I’d only drawn in the immediate area. But if I had to guess based on the sheer number of dings…
I’d cleared the entire forest.
I leaned back on the stone and looked up at the branches. Did these things respawn? That was the question. In a normal game, monsters respawned. But here? I had no idea. They weren’t normal, but that didn’t mean they didn’t repopulate the old-fashioned way.
If they didn’t… then I had just emptied the whole area.
Nope.. I really didn’t want to think about that either. I did not have the mental energy to digest the idea I had killed an entire forest.
I was all out of spoons. And forks. And all the dining wear at this point.
The dings were still there, just to the side of my attention.
Soft. Persistent. Rhythmic.
Okay. Time to look.
I thought the word: “Status.” Like magic the blue screen appeared. Though not the status screen like I expected.
I stared at the numbers. That couldn’t be right.
Eyeballing the figures, something that came naturally after years of auditing and spreadsheets - that was over 21,000 animals.
I blinked. That was about 45 thousand exp, including the weird ability stuff.
And I was level 18.
I sat further done into the rock. I’m not an animal lover, but still that’s a lot of things dead by my hand. I needed a moment think on this, I waved away the screen. Weird to that everything was only level one, I must really be in some sort of starter area. Would have taken a person years to kill all of those animals normally.
And that’s of course, when a new one popped up.
PAIN
Blackness.
I woke on the ground next to the rock.
There was a new blue screen in front of me, but I didn’t focus on it yet
Sitting up, I let out a groan. Seems I passed out again, I really need to stop doing that.
Wait.
Moving into a sitting position, I felt good. Like better then good.
My movements were just a little too smooth.
Testing my arm, it…just felt better. Like I could more precisely control where my arm was going. It was like moving from driving a shitty Honda civic to Ferrari, it was just smother.
I felt healthier too in a way that is hard to describe. It was like I went back in time, instead of the reaction of grossness at the idea of eating an entire pizza by myself at 30 yrs old, I was 15 yrs old again and excited at being able to try.
On top of that my…brain was better? I don’t know how to explain it, it just felt like I was more even keel. Everything I was looking at smoother and easer to understand, everything was taken in with less stress and felt like I could retain more of what I saw. I felt like I had had the ultimate massage and was able to take on the world.
This must have been the stat increases. My body feeling like it got a tune up must be the increase of strength, dexterity, and vitality. My Brain feeling better is probably due to the increase of intelligence and wisdom, the latter of which went up 6 points between the roll and the ability award. My Charisma had shot up too, but I didn’t feel more charming – though to be fair I haven’t had a chance to interact with anything with a personality since whatever this is started.
Reluctantly, I looked at the new screen.
I got a new ability? Well that is interesting, though it sounds like it won’t be much help right now against the wildlife I’ve been fighting.
Wait, isn't [Vicious Mockery] a Dungeons & Dragons thing? Though if I remember correctly that would allow you actually do damage to someone by calling them names, this seems like just helps you better insult someone.
Yay.
Probably going to be as useful as the sexy body ability that’s just been sitting there making me uncomfortable. I dismissed the prompt.
Sitting back town on the nearby rock, I brushed dirt and leaves off me. I pulled up my status to see where everything landed.
Abilities:
- Musical Resonant Frequency (Level 19)
- Adonis Quintessence (Level 1)
- Magic Mouth (Level 13)
- Vicious Mockery (Level 1)
May you find your Fortune on Fortune!
Huh, honestly looking at my status I got a feeling that I might be okay.