Chapter 13 The Decision

A black orb formed in the figure’s left hand before shooting toward Elysia. She dropped to her stomach as the orb shot overhead. Another orb flew toward her prone form, forcing her to roll to the left. Before it could launch another orb, Elysia jumped to her feet, dashing toward the figure spear crackling with electricity.

She brought her spear down on the figure’s left hand, forming an orb. It extinguished the orb as it pulled its hand out of the way. Another orb formed in its right hand. Too close to dodge, Elysia brought her spear shaft up to block the orb. The orb ate through the shaft, splitting it in two, but gave her enough time to dive out of the way.

Elysia stared down at the two halves of her spear as another orb flew toward her. After dodging the orb by sidestepping to the right, Elysia turned her glowing amethyst gaze on the perpetrator. Her veins lit up as her anger flared. She grasped at as thick of thread as she could while pointing the two pieces of her spear at the figure. Purple lightning arced between the two pieces before striking the figure with a deafening crack.

-100 charge.

20 charge.

The lightning strike burned through its robes, revealing a glowing green crystal heart. The figure stumbled back several steps before recovering, forming another orb, throwing it at its swaying target.

Elysia’s unfocused eyes widened as she saw double orbs shooting toward her. She dropped onto her stomach, successfully dodging the orb.

She tried to jump to her feet, but her sluggish body refused to respond quick enough as another orb barreled toward her. Stuck on her hands and knees, she rolled to the left, only to meet another orb. Her eyes landed on the crystal heart, causing a last-ditch idea to form. She electrified both halves before tossing them both from her knees toward the figure as she dropped to her stomach.

Her back engulfed in pain, forcing a scream from her throat as the orb grazed her back burning through the leather jacket, leaving a deep gash down the length of her back. Elysia’s back spasmed before going numb as her limbs went limp.

Through her foggy mind, she heard an otherworldly screech as a potent wave of death radiated through the chamber. Everything went black just as a notification appeared.

Killed level 15 Lich.

An hour later, Elysia roused to find herself lying face down on the stone chamber floor. She groaned as she lifted herself to her hands and knees. Before she could take in her surroundings, a list of notifications displayed in her vision.

Achievement! Lucky shot.

“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”

Reward: One attribute point.

So I really killed it? I thought I was gonna die for sure. To confirm it, she stared through the text at the robe clad skeleton crumbled to the left of the coffin with two spear halves sticking out of it.

Elysia shook her head at the absurdity of her lucky throw, fully agreeing with the system achievement on this one as she returned her focus to the text.

Achievement! Underdog.

“Either by stupidity or overconfidence, you faced off against an opponent 5 levels above and won.”

Reward: One attribute point.

Hey! I asked it to let me go. Not like I had a choice in facing it. If I had my way, I would be sitting on my soggy yacht, probably cleaning. Speaking of Umbra, I really hope she didn’t float away. Actually worse. What if my raft got washed away by the tide?

Level up! Level 11 Channeler.

Level up! Level 12 Channeler.

Level up! Level 13 Channeler.

I hope it isn’t Friday. I really don’t want to deal with any more horrors.

Novice spear proficiency level 6.

I’ll need to make myself another spear. I wonder if the library survived. It would be awesome to find a book on spear combat. If only the Internet didn’t die. Actually, did it die? I never tried, but somehow I doubt it survived without someone to maintain it. After I get out of here, I should travel north to Seattle area. Maybe I’ll find out more about what’s going on.

New skill gained! Twin Lightning Rod Discharge.

Would you like to slot the skill?

I should experiment with my Lightning. So far I’ve gotten random skills, but I think I’m better off working to create skills I’ll use regularly. Like I doubt I’ll use this new skill much because if I have a broken spear I have other issues. If I have limited slots, I’ll need to be careful what I choose. Actually, can I change what I have slotted? More things to experiment with once I get out of here.

Elysia climbed to her feet, turning toward the exit only to find it still sealed. Am I trapped? No, that doesn’t feel right. If this is the boss room, there should be an exit somewhere.

She scanned the chamber, finding no other exits. Out of curiosity, she approached the fallen Lich, catching the sight of shining crystals at its feet. While keeping her eye on the supposedly dead Lich, she bent down, touching the largest of the crystals, a black, perfect sphere radiating a familiar warmth. The palm sized crystal warmed her hand but nothing else soon losing her attention as she stashed it in the inside pocket of her shredded leather jacket. Her eyes returned to the other crystals, seven identical glowing blue sphere also radiating warmth but feeling different from the black crystal. Figuring they must be important, she dropped the acorn sized crystals in her pockets, joining the black crystal.

As she turned to the right, her eyes peered into the coffin, finding no bottom instead a dark tunnel leading down.

Afraid to pull out her spear halves from the Lich, she left it there as she approached to the coffin, staring down at the dark hole within. Should I risk it? Maybe there’s a second Lich and I don’t have a weapon. Though I am topped off so I could launch a few lightning attacks in an emergency.

After several seconds of staring down, she let out a sigh before climbing into the coffin. I hope this is the last time I end up in a coffin for a long time.

A thought formed, causing her to jump out of the coffin, grabbing a leg bone from the Lich as every summoned skeleton vanished. I really should be grossed out by this, but after spending so much time around zombies, a bone is quite tame. I guess I lied about avoiding coffins. It only took me a few seconds to enter one again. Am I cursed? At least this time it was voluntary, somewhat. If I had my way, I would climb the steps to the surface or not be here at all.

Elysia shook her head as she dropped the tibia into the hole, listening for any sounds. Several seconds passed before a splash resonated up through the hole. Damn, that’s deep. At least there’s water at the bottom. Though it could be filthy like the floodwater. I hope I don’t break something by falling into the water. I’ve heard it feels like concrete if you fall from too far up. Either way, I have little choice. Maybe I’ll get lucky and fall on something and kill it for a level up. I can’t keep on relying on level ups to heal myself. I should’ve died several times by now.

She sucked in a deep breath before closing her eyes and stepping forward, plummeting into the depths below. Contrary to her expectations, instead of falling straight down, she fell a few meters before landing with a thud on a slick stone slide, eliciting a squeak. Before she could recover, a scream ripped from her throat as she shot off down the perfectly smooth stone water slide.

Her body rocketed down the slide for several seconds before shooting airborne, soaring for a dozen meters before plummeting to a pitch black underground lake. A splash echoed through the cavern as she dropped into the lake while curled into a ball. She swam to the surface, sucking in air before treading in place, scanning her new surroundings, but found herself blinded by the darkness.

Despite the danger of playing with electricity around water, she grasped at a thread from her core, willing it to light up her veins. Her surroundings lit up purple as sparks of electricity arced off her body into the water. She ignored her electricity as she scanned the cavern once again, spotting a tunnel to her left. While keeping her light running, she swam toward the tunnel only for the damaged leather jacket to impede her strokes. She worked her way to way stone platform raised out of the water to the right of the tunnel, climbing on the shore before ripping off the belt cinched around her waist and allowing the jacket to fall off. She glanced down at her soggy and filthy sweatpants before slipping them off too, leaving her in a holey tank top, underwear, and hiking boots.

With her hunting knife, she sliced up the leather jacket, creating a pocketed strip to store the crystals, tying the strip tightly around her waist. She gave it several sharp tugs, but it held firm. While nodding in acceptance, she re-fastened the hunting knife to her right thigh. Her eyes scanned the dark cavern for anything she may have missed finding nothing, so she jumped back into the water, freestyling her way into the tunnel.

With practiced ease, she swam through the water aided by the current. The swim lasted several minutes before she came upon a dead end. While treading in place, she scanned the walls before sucking in a deep breath and diving below. She blindly ran her hands over the walls, finding an opening. Aided by her increased lung capacity from the endurance attribute, she swam through the hole for several more minutes before her lungs began to burn. She picked up the pace, finding herself in an open area a few seconds later. After orientating herself upward, she swam with all her might, breaking the surface with a gasp. While panting for breath, she spun in a circle, immediately recognizing where she was. To her right were moss covered boats still tied to the pier floating in a crystal clear lake cut off from the ocean by a narrow strip of land.

Congratulations! You are the first to conquer The Forsaken Town!

Reward: Name and date beaten displayed to all who enter, +10% damage to undead.

The Forsaken Town: First conquered by Elysia Arashi May 20 AS 1

Too exhausted to think about it, Elysia willed the message away as she swam toward what remained of the beach she unloaded her trash at. With an ungraceful flop, she dropped to the sandy shore, rolling onto her back staring up at the blue sky.

Elysia spent several minutes basking in the sun before sitting up, groaning as her stiff core protested. Now what? Do I have to force my way through kilometers of densely forested town or swim? Actually, scratch that. No way will I swim through that disgusting water. If only the passage didn’t seal up, I could probably get one of these mossy boats running. I really don’t want to deal with another zombie. What if I accidentally stumble into the dungeon part of town? Ugh, I miss the days of lounging on the couch or running along forest trails. Though the later was the start of this mess.

After several seconds of indecision, she trudged toward the tree line with a resigned expression. She pushed her way through the pine trees along the shore, scraping her bare arms on the needles. Fortunately for her, after forcing her way through several trees, the forest thinned out, impeded by the parking lot and road. Good thing I kept my shoes, otherwise this would be a pain. Still, waterlogged hiking shoes aren’t fun. I won’t be able to get a replacement for them unless I find another cycling shop, so I can’t ditch them.

She walked down the road around trees westward while staying as south as she could to avoid the dungeon northern side. Her eyes wandered to the tree ridden, nature reclaimed houses bordering the street on her voyage. There really isn’t much left. I doubt I’ll find anything usable in any of these houses. It’s a miracle the gas station near my raft survived relatively unharmed. I’m definitely not returning to the north side, though some buildings seemed to have survived. Who knows what the dungeon did to anything edible.

An hour passed before a familiar clearing became visible through the trees. She first trotted to the shore, finding her raft still tied to the tree. Despite the overwhelming urge to jump on the raft and return to her yacht, she turned to the gas station.

Elysia pulled the door open and ventured inside. Now drying off, her filthy clothes made its presence known, drawing her to a small clothing section. She untied her makeshift leather crystal holder before ripping off her already ruined tank top, glancing down at the stained sports bra before again ripping it off and slipping on a simple black T-shirt a size too big for her. She did the same to her underwear before pulling on a Navy blue pair of shorts, fortunately her size though a little short for her liking.

After making herself somewhat decent, she scanned the shelves of shirts, shorts, sweatshirts, and sweatpants. I may as well replenish my wardrobe.

She pilfered the rack of pull string bags, stuffing every piece of clothing remotely her size in each until she had six filled bags and her crystals in a seventh. With her clothing stash in hand, she ventured out of the gas station through the hole in the forest to her boat, dropping the bags before returning to the gas station.

With dozens of bags left, she grabbed another handful and trotted into the cleaning section, stocking herself with as much shampoo, soap, and cleaning supplies as she could fit in the bags. After dropping them on the boat, she returned yet again, this time filling bags with meal bars, more jerky, and, of course, chocolate.

Finally, she untied her raft, pushing it into the water and hopped on, starting the engine with a single pull. While dodging debris, sunken buildings and ships, she scanned the bay, searching for Umbra. With each passing minute, her anxiety ticked up a notch. Elysia passed by the mayor’s mansion, but she still couldn’t spot her yacht. Her eyes gravitated toward the listing fishing boat, but shook her head as she continued on.

The water became choppier as the open ocean neared, but still, there was no sign of her yacht. Crap, will I have to steal another boat? There’s no way my little raft will make it to the next town, and who knows if it has any boats. The only other boat of a decent size that might be savable is the listing fishing boat. It’s a shame that those three nice boats beached themselves on my high school.

Despite the choppy water bouncing her raft, she continued further, over the flooded Marina several meters under the surface. She caught one of the bags filled with clothes when a wave sent it flying. After releasing the throttle, she tied the pull strings to cargo tie-downs along the sides of the raft before continuing on southwest, following the current.

While keeping the shore in sight, she stared out at the ocean. A half-hour passed before she spotted something black on the horizon. She veered her boat westward, bouncing off waves, praying it was Umbra.

A smile broke out as the sleek black yacht came into sight, only for horror to replace it as her motor sputtered. She grasped the red gas tank, eyes widening when she found it empty. Her head swiveled between the distant shore and just as distant yacht weighing her options.