I groaned as I sat up, wincing as I did. My whole body was sore, and I felt like I’d been run over by a bus multiple times. I was also pretty sure I was seeing things because there was a huge spider corpse in front of me and a rather lavish looking treasure chest next to it.

  “My head is killing me,” I said, wincing as the sensation of sitting up finally caught up to me and caused me to feel nauseous. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, but found it impossible to do so as I noticed some flashing icons in the bottom of my vision. Suddenly a rush of information hit me at once, and I opened my eyes and threw up.

  I did that for about two or three minutes – macrocycles be damned – before stopping and wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. I didn’t even care that I’d gotten muted while cursing the stupid unit of time.. “Ugh…” I groaned as I sat back on my rear, wincing as I felt the annoyance of my tail getting in the way. I quickly repositioned myself and opened my notifications. I watched as the menu appeared to glitch and go static-y for a second upon opening, but ignored it due to the massive wall of text that was waiting for me.

  You have taken 10 points of Fall damage from: 35 ft drop.

  You have dodged an attack from: Level 2 Goblin Scout.

  You have dodged an attack from: Level 2 Goblin Scout.

  You have defeated Level 2 Goblin Scout.

  You have dodged an attack from: Level 10 Giant Spider.

  You have assisted in defeating Level 2 Goblin Scout.

  You have defeated Level 2 Goblin Scout.

  You have dodged an attack from: Level 10 Giant Spider.

  You have dodged an attack from: Level 10 Giant Spider.

  You have taken 0 points of Melee damage from: Spider Claws.

  You have taken 0 points of Melee damage from: Spider Claws.

  You have taken 6 points of Melee damage from: Spider Fang.

  You have dodged an attack from: Level 10 Giant Spider.

  You have defeated Level 10 Giant Spider.

  I couldn’t help but feel like there should have been more included there, and no sooner had I thought that, did I notice what looked to be a filter of some sort. Selecting it revealed that I was currently viewing damage and victory notifications, but had options for attacked, pinned, and captured. I vaguely remember having been caught in that spider’s web, and the stupid thing having pinned me down, so I left those unchecked and unchecked the current options, before selecting just the attack filter.

  You have dealt 20 points of Melee damage with: Claws.

  You have dealt 1 point of Melee damage with: Claws.

  You have dealt 20 points of Melee damage with: Claws.

  You have dealt 99 points of Melee damage (33 x 3 Vital Organ damage) with: Iron Rapier.

  You have dealt 100 points of Melee damage with: Iron Rapier.

  You have dealt 100 points of Melee damage with: Iron Rapier.

  “Dang, I must have lost control again to have hit 100 points of damage against that thing. Though, the damage with my claws is pretty impressive."

  Out of curiosity, I toggled the victory messages alongside my attack ones, and confirmed that I managed to kill two of the three goblins with my claws, the third having died due to friendly fire, it seemed, which – now that I thought about it – I recalled Amy having mentioned.

  My eyes suddenly went wide as I looked around. “Amy?” I called out, looking for the stupid furball. Last I remembered seeing her she was nuzzling against me while I was on the ground, but I don’t remember why.

  “She’d looked concerned about something, but what?” I asked aloud, only to suddenly feel the force of a furry animal attack me from behind.

  “Naomi!” Amy’s voice cried out in relief. I turned to see the stupid thing trying to nuzzle against me, but I held an arm out to stop her.

  “What’s going on? What happened?” I asked, causing her to pause her unusual display of emotional affection. Amy hesitated for a moment, and I narrowed my eyes. “Amy, don’t even think about lying to me.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “But–” She started, only for me to glare harder at her. “Fine,” she eventually gave in. “That spider poisoned you,” she said, pausing for a second to mess around with something before my Combat Log popped up again.

  You have been poisoned by: Level 10 Giant Spider. You will take 10 damage every cycle for the next 20 cycles.

  You have taken 10 points of poison damage. 19 cycles remain.

  You have taken 10 points of poison damage. 18 cycles remain.

  You have taken 10 points of poison damage. 17 cycles remain.

  I skimmed through the rest of the notifications as they were mostly all the same, the only difference being the updated timer telling me how long I had left before the poison expired. The final entry on the log caused my breath to catch in my throat, however, and my heart to skip a beat.

  Oh dear, you're dead!

  “I… Died?” I asked, my voice trembling as an overwhelming sensation of fear mixed with something else I couldn’t put a name to wash over me. Memories of my final moments came flooding back to me as if a dam had broken and set them free. I shot a glance at Amy, only for her to shake her head at me as if knowing what I was thinking, likely because she did.

  “It was a traumatic experience, and you blocked the memories out yourself; I had nothing to do with it.”

  Her words did little to offer me any comfort, and I found my eyes glancing back at the message again, as if doing so would change anything, but it was the same message every time I looked. I knew that if I didn't do something, I would begin to spiral, so I dismissed my log and cleared my throat.

  Remembering the treasure chest, and what Amy had said prior to entering this room, I turned my attention to it before saying, “So what's this loot you mentioned earlier?”

  Amy tilted her head as she looked up at me, her overly concerned expression having been replaced with her usual emotionless self. “Well, you did defeat the mini-boss, even if it shouldn't have been here, so The System rewarded you with some loot. You normally get some for defeating monsters – I've been collecting it for you – but nothing you've gotten so far will compare to what's in this chest,” Amy said as she started to make her way toward it. “Some of the drops you got from the spider could be useful though for a ranger, and I collected enough of the spider's poison that you should be able to make an antidote or two.”

  “Oh?” My ears perked up at that and as they did I suddenly realized that my helmet was gone. In fact, I realized that my whole set of armor was gone. I checked my Personal Space and, sure enough, it was all stored, alongside my rapier and the various other items that Amy mentioned she’d been collecting on my behalf. “Thanks for storing my gear,” I said before making my way to the chest and examining it.

  I had said that it was lavish looking, and as I ran my fingers along it, looking for an opening, I was beginning to think that lavish wasn’t a good enough word to describe it. “It is an unusually generous chest for a beginner level dungeon,” Amy commented as I moved behind it to see if I could find an opening, only to pause.

  “Is this thing a mimic?”

  “A what?” Amy asked, before a second later answering her own question. “Oh, no. I’m surprised you knew what those were. I don’t think any of the games you played growing up referenced them.”

  “No…” I said, frowning at the continued invasion of my personal memories. “But I did at least get the memes.”

  “Ah yes, of course, memes. How could I have forgotten about those?”

  I snorted at her response, a rather unusual sound escaping my mouth which I imagined would keep most Beastfolk from doing it again, but I was exhausted, and with just Amy, so it made me laugh. Once that was done, I turned my attention back to the chest, frowning as I still didn’t see a way to open it. “How am I supposed to get this open?”

  “Hold on a second,” Amy said, walking up next to the chest to examine it. “Hmmm…”

  “Hm?” I raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised at how long it was taking Amy to figure this out. “Aren’t you supposed to know all about these things?”

  Amy ignored me as she circled around the chest, somehow making her cat face convey a frown as she did. “This whole thing is odd,” she finally said, stopping back where she started and looking up at me. “This chest doesn’t appear to be able to be opened, at least, not with what is in the dungeon.” I noticed her tail beginning to swish in annoyance as she muttered to herself, “A mini-boss when there shouldn’t be one, an unopenable chest… That alert said she’d been informed, but this smells of her already…”

  “What’s that?” I asked, eyebrows raising further as I watched Amy put a paw on the chest before making it vanish.

  “Hm? Oh, nothing. Don’t worry about it. For now, I’ll keep this chest in my storage – it's too big to put in yours – and I’ll see what I can do about getting it opened.”

  “That’s lame,” I said, feeling defeated at the lack of immediate loot.

  “Not as lame as being less than 200 experience away from your next level.”

  “Oh? Where do you see that?”

  “Under your Class menu, dummy.”

  “Ah…” I let my voice trail off as I opened the Class menu.

  Primary Class Details: Elaran Thorne

  Class: Martial Artist (Modified); Class Tier: 1

  Experience: 17,433; Level: 17; Bonus Points Per Level: 0

  Bonus Points Earned: 0; Bonus Points Spent: 0; Unspent Bonus Points: 0

  “Huh,” I said, blinking in surprise. She was right, but more surprising to me was the fact that I instinctively knew that I was 161 points away from my next level. “How does that work, anyway?”

  “How does what work?” Amy asked as she started to lead me out of the room we were in into yet another dungeon hallway.

  “Well, on Earth I didn’t have any levels – none that I’m aware of, anyway – yet here I know that to reach Class level 18 I need to be at 17,594.”

  “Ah, that’s just a general System awareness that everyone has on higher tiered Servers.”

  “It’s weird, having knowledge like that forced into your head,” I said with a huff.

  “For once, I actually agree with you,” Amy said, looking back at me and giving me what appeared to be a smile before leading me deeper into the dungeon.

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