Locate the Forgotten King, and return his lineage to the throne of Thergiam. Beware of traps, and The Beast.

  The text flashed in front of his eyes, with the word Objective over it. Pi’ve was still hovering over the open chest, feeling the blood trickle down his body. There were four items inside the chest, but his head was too clouded, and he had lost the ability to tell the items apart. His head swam with a hundred thoughts, pain from the gash on his collarbone and neck making it impossible to sort them in any sensible fashion.

  Pi’ve was exhausted, and his health points were declining fast. 51… 47… He could barely concentrate enough to keep the staff alight. Both his stamina and mana had been dropped really low, so it was just a matter of time before he collapsed outright. The combination made him want to vomit. The tingling in his body made him shiver, and it did not help that the cave itself was cold and damp. Despite the rather pressing fact that he was bleeding out at the moment, he could not evade the thought that he hated nausea, and particularly vomiting, and kept having to swallow as he produced saliva.

  His hands shaking, he picked up the first item, which was a small bottle of clear liquid. It had a wooden stopper in it, and looked new. It must have been made by the system; the Jin. He inspected the item.

  [Stamina potion (Rare)] - Replenishes stamina. Amount of stamina replenished based on the rarity of potion.

  Pi’ve stared at it for a second before he inwardly exclaimed, as he was too tired to do it outwardly. He unstopped the bottle and drank a mouthful, but nothing happened. Do I need to drink it all? A glimmer of hope in the back of his mind made him aware what the other two bottles could be. It must be his desperation from seeing the health bar decline. He finished the bottle, and looked at his status menu. Confirming that he had to finish every last drop, he looked at his replenished stamina. In an instant he felt reinvigorated, but the tingling still persisted. He went on to the next bottle. 36… 32…

  [Health potion (Rare)] - Replenishes health. Amount of health replenished based on the rarity of potion.

  Pi’ve exclaimed in triumph as the identify skill revealed what the bottle contained. He unstopped the little vial, as he felt his body get noticeably weaker, and drank the whole thing in one mouthful. Within seconds he felt a warmth from deep within that confirmed that the potion had worked. In an instant he gained 25 health points, and he could visibly see his health going up at a faster pace. His health had dropped to 24 points before he had taken a swig of the health potion. A few seconds later he had 49 points, the blood from his wound by his neck had coagulated quickly, and then the health points went up one point every ten seconds. He counted to be sure. His body regained some of its colour as his strength returned and he began to feel much better.

  Finally he could bask in the moment for a bit. He was not about to die, and he had so far been successful in his quest. He felt like he could conquer the world, and he was invincible. What would the next part of the quest hold? He did not care— or, he cared, but it did not matter, for he would manage it what ever it was. Pi’ve looked through the crack between the doors to see if the creature was still there. He could not see anything in the dark, but he assumed the beast could still be nearby.

  He placed the two empty bottles in his satchel and inspected the next item, which he guessed would be a mana potion.

  [Mana potion (Rare)] - Replenishes mana. Amount of mana replenished based on the rarity of potion.

  He drank the whole bottle straight away, and as he checked his menu, he saw that his mana pool of 140 had been fully replenished. He had received two more points in wisdom after the level up and received 20 more mana points because of it. While he was at it, he checked his status menu to see where he had grown.

  Status

  Name: Pi’ve

  Age: 20

  Race: [Human - lvl 5]

  Class: [Wizard - Initiate Mage]

  Profession: N/A

  —

  Health - (51/94)

  Mana - (140/140)

  Stamina - (80/80)

  —

  Stats

  Strength - 12

  Toughness - 8

  Intelligence - 22

  Wisdom - 14

  Willpower - 12

  Perception - 16

  Endurance - 8

  Free points - 4

  —

  Race skills

  [Inspect (Unique)]

  Class skills

  [Conjure Light (Common)]

  [Corporeal Manipulation (Uncommon)]

  Profession skills

  N/A

  Titles

  [One and only (Unique)]

  One more maximum health point added, 20 mana points, and after the potions both mana and stamina had been filled. His health points were still adding up, and at this rate he would be at full health again within an hour. Intelligence, wisdom and perception had gone up two points, while he had received four free points to allocate. It was difficult to know where to put the free points, even when he saw that toughness and endurance was currently lacking. Did he actually need to raise his endurance? Toughness had yet to reveal its properties.

  He decided to give strength another shot and placed two points there, while the other two he placed on toughness, ending up with 14 strength and 10 toughness. They sounded akin, and therefore he thought that it could bring some advantage to scale them together. However, now that he had filled his mana and stamina and the tingling and drowsiness had vanished, and he had allocated all the points that he had received at level 5, he still had another item to inspect.

  [Satchel of Holding (Epic)] - Wearing this item unlocks your inventory. The inventory is an artificial spatial room within the system where you may hold items for storage. This satchel of holding can hold up to a hundred (100) individual items. Identical items does not stack. The satchel is set with a time dilation spell, and items will deteriorate slower within it.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  He had inspected this item last, as he already had a satchel which was as good as any he thought, despite its basic rarity, and believed that the one he had was larger purely by the physical size of it, but this new satchel had other qualities which outstripped the old one by a vast margin. Pi’ve took off the satchel he was wearing already, and placed the new one over his shoulders. Text appeared in front of his eyes.

  Do you wish to transfer items from your prior satchel into the Satchel of Holding (Epic)? [Yes] or [No]

  He chose Yes.

  Items not worn, or superfluous, has been placed inside the Satchel of Holding (Epic)

  The satchel and all its content disappeared into thin air, and Pi’ve knew instinctively where they were. He could open his inventory by mentally concentrating on his new satchel, where he could see his items.

  He noticed again how damp the cave was. It was dripping from the ceiling, which was only a half a meter higher than him. On the walls moss was growing abundantly, and the walls themselves were made of bricks. Every few meters along the cave there were sconces with torches that had burned in the past. Pi’ve began to walk slowly along the hall.

  Bricks were missing on the floor, so he had to stay sharp as he moved through the cave. He noticed that he did not really have to move his head or eyes as much to see where he was going, and realised perception made that possible. He could focus on other things while he was walking with ease.

  Further down the cave, Pi’ve saw a thin string spanning across the cave from one wall to the other. He walked up to the string, and inspected it. It looked like it was going right into the wall, but there was no hole where it entered. Had he not invested points in perception, he likely would not have spotted it. This, he thought, would be the first trap along the way to the Forgotten King.

  Slightly suspicious and cautiously, Pi’ve poked at the string with his staff carefully with a fully stretched arm. He wanted to see what the traps did. Nothing happened. Then he tried to push the string a little farther, and that too did nothing. Maybe the trap was too old, or did not work. He pushed the string farther in the direction he was supposed to go, and heard a click. He was taken by surprise and started as he fled a few paces back.

  BOOOOOM

  It sounded like a canon. Bricks and debris flew out of the wall five feet down from the string. The room reverberated loudly.

  After the dust had settled, and Pi’ve had inspected the passage once more, he walked slowly through the cave again. He saw another string at head height twenty feet or so further down. He ducked under it, and was careful to watch out for any other strings which came after it. A little further down, he saw a lever on the wall, which he had mistaken for a torch. He did not pull it, and walked on.

  The lever plagued him the next few seconds, as that was the only one that had not been hidden, and would have to be pulled willingly. Not pulling that lever could be the wrong move. He stopped then, and felt the floor sink a teeny amount, and then he understood. An audible click sounded above and he looked up. There was no ceiling. Then a loud metallic crash sounded. He was surrounded by a cage. He had about three feet on each side to move from where he stood in the middle.

  He looked around for the door of the cage, and when he saw no hinges anywhere, he knew that he had been trapped inside a cage which would not open. He would have to lift it somehow and climb under it. He put his staff on the ground and tried to wriggle his fingers under the iron cage, but it was too heavy to lift even an inch. He looked around for a couple of seconds trying to see if there was anything that he could do. How could he possibly lift this cage even with corporeal manipulation? Had he underestimated the cave?

  Suddenly the ground started to shake slightly. He quickly picked up his staff again and they linked almost instantaneously with each other. The cracks between the cobblestones begun to smoulder and crumble and seep through the cracks. Then, the first rock fell. Then the other. Pi’ve began to panic. Where was he supposed to go? There was nowhere to go. There was no floor!

  He understood then that the whole ground would disappear, and that he was trapped. Suddenly he noticed that the cage had an iron edge around at the ground level, and that he could barely stand on it. As the very last rock cracked and lost its hold, it fell through the abyss that had opened under him. It was so far down that it was all pitch black and no rock had yet to sound that they had reached the bottom. Just a miniscule moment before the rock had fallen, he jumped towards the cage, and grabbed the cage frame His foot slipped on the edge and he found himself hanging by one arm, with the other clutching his staff.

  He yelled out for help, but knew that it would not be a fruitful call. He knew he had to rescue himself. He was hanging on with his left arm— far from his strongest— but in this do or die moment, he suddenly had all the strength he needed. It could prove wise to have invested in strength. He pulled himself up slightly and reached high enough to grab on with the other arm, his staff in his hand between the cage bar. He had a bad grip, but there was nothing for it but to try hoisting himself up. He slowly lifted himself up, and with a little swing to the right, he managed to get his heel onto the cage. With his foot and his two arms on the cage, he slowly dragged himself up, finding himself clutch at the cage heaving for air. He had used thirty out of the 80 stamina he had already.

  How could he get out of this cage? There was no door he could open. The roof was as barred as the walls, and the floor was wide open for him to fall down—

  Great! He scoffed internally. He cursed. He must get under the cage. But how. If only he had something to aid him.

  With his arms bent around the bars of the cage, he mentally looked through his satchel. How he knew that he had to mentally look through the new satchel, he did not know, but as he did, he had the inventory pop up in front of his eyes. A hundred squares, only five items were inside; the rope, his last satchel and the three empty bottles from the potions. His knife was fastened by its sheath to his belt, and his pouch too was hanging there.

  He was thinking hard, but as he did so, the cage lurched and dropped a few inches, and slowly lowered down the open shaft. He closed the inventory, keeping the items in mind, and looked around. What was there to see? The ledge of the cave which he had to get to, and a candle on at sconce over it. The walls were flat, and there was nothing to grab onto. Could he survive the fall? No.

  Could he use the knife to maybe climb the wall, forcing it through the cracks… Rope… Something to hold on to…

  The sconce! It was made of iron, and was nailed to the wall. That had to be sturdy. If only he could get it over there. The cage had lowered another feet, so before it went too far, he would have to get the rope over to it, or else the rope would not reach under the cage.