SMACK!

34 Prey Eliminated

SMACK!

19 Prey Eliminated

Lukas glared at the screen, taking a strange pleasure at seeing it vanish. It was comforting to pretend that his dirty look was what made it flee with its proverbial tail between its legs.

…

Maybe it wouldn’t be coming back this time.

He sighed, before returning to his task with renewed zeal.

SMACK!

27 Prey Eliminated

“Oh, for God’s sake. These aren’t prey! They’re plants, you hear me? Plants!”

He received no response.

Since the alienware showed a modicum of intelligence, Lukas had hoped it was programmable— as in, it would learn about his preferences and adapt to be a more comfortable aid to him. It was why he’d taken it upon himself to educate the screen in matters of common sense.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t making much headway— both in making the screen more user friendly and in understanding how it worked.

Like now.

For some inane reason, it was classifying every single inch of the bryophytic outgrowth as prey. Logic dictated that if being a living organism was criteria enough to be labeled ‘prey’, then flora and fauna shouldn’t have been the only things recognized by Scan. After all, even bacteria and microbes and other microscopic organisms were technically ‘living’.

And yet, they weren’t. Not according to the screen.

Perhaps… perhaps there was something more to this entire ‘being alive’ definition to be classified as prey? Maybe an additional criteria was size?

It was a plausible theory, but Lukas needed more evidence to be sure. For now, he’d just chalk it up to yet another one of the screen’s idiosyncrasies and leave it at that. Especially after a futile two hours of playing twenty questions with it regarding the difference between food and prey.

SMACK!

31 Prey Eliminated

Obtained Experience (+1)

This was the latest curveball that life had decided to throw at him. As if he wasn’t already confused enough.

From what he’d gathered over the last hour, every 130 Prey Eliminations awarded him a single experience— whatever that meant. The value awarded was always a whole unit, which meant he wouldn’t gain anything until fully eliminating an arbitrary minimum quantity.

What the accumulation of these experience points led to was still unclear.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to ask...

“How much have I eliminated so far?”

Prey Eliminated: 2294

Obtained Experience (+18)

“What do I do with these… experience points?”

Level up.

Level up? It almost sounded like some sort of video game.

“And what does leveling up do?”

Evolution of host statistics and soul.

Evolution of the soul.

Well that sounded morbid. Still, in a place where a human could be quantified by measures like soul capacity and experience and other strange figures, it made sense that growth could be defined similarly.

A blank screen flickered in front of his eyes. Whether that was an affirmation or condemnation of his thoughts, he wasn’t sure.

With one final smack, Lukas glanced down at his new collection. While he didn’t major in botany, he did have a functioning understanding of the more common plant types— mostly from the nature excursions he used to take with his grandfather. There was no way to make sure if eating random bits of moss was safe, but it was certainly better than trying his luck with the bat-creature.

A small, more honest part of him acknowledged that his decision was partially affected by the screen’s classification of the moss as prey. Needless to say, Lukas immediately buried the thought with extreme prejudice.

This should be enough. For now, at least.

It wasn’t meant to be a substitute for food. Rather, he just needed something to keep his stomach content for the next few hours while he looked for something more appetizing. But before that—

“Can you analyze the moss on the wall?”

Yes.

Lukas suppressed a groan. “Right, sorry. I mean, analyze the moss on the walls.”

Analyze [Level 1]

Dicranum Moss — Bright green plant with deep roots. Grows on moist, porous rocks. Its brown pigmentation indicates rot.

That was… actually useful.

The moss directly in front of him was entirely bright green, which he translated to meaning fresh. A brown tint usually indicated fungal or bacterial outgrowth, which was certainly not safe to consume. Perhaps that’s what the screen meant?

Assuming, of course, that its information could be trusted.

He’d have to carefully only consume the green parts.

Just then, his stomach grumbled once more.

Might as well test it.

Carefully picking up the cleanest of the moss, he separated it into its composite parts— the roots and the leaves.

Then, he brought it to his nose and took a whiff.

No unpleasant smells.

That was good. Unpleasant or pungent odors generally indicated bacterial growth.

Next was the contact test. Tearing off a piece of the moss leaf, he crushed it and rubbed it on his wrist.

No bumps, rashes or itches.

That was another point in its favor.

He waited a couple more minutes, just to make sure there would be no delayed reaction, before moving onto the next test. Very carefully, he rolled the moss leaf piece into a tiny cylinder and rubbed it over the edge of his lips.

And then he waited.

After waiting several minutes with no reaction, Lukas sharply inhaled and put the little cylinder in his mouth, slowly starting to chew and picking up the pace soon after.

It was sweet, indicating the presence of sugar— glucose, probably. It wasn’t bitter or soapy either, which meant it likely wasn’t poisonous. Still, better to be safe than sorry. Lukas held the food in his mouth for a full fifteen minutes, carefully monitoring for adverse reactions, before finally deciding it was safe enough to swallow.

It wasn’t much, but all the moss he’d been smacking would keep him satiated until he found some real food. The real concern now was water.

Lukas looked around. The walls were damp, and moss was growing off of them in various places, both signs pointing to a nearby water source. As long as he found it quickly, he wouldn’t have to worry about succumbing to his own thirst.

Perhaps there was a running stream or a lake of some sort? Unless he was in some sort of subterranean layer beneath the river bed, which brought forth a whole different set of issues.

Either way, he needed to stock up on some more moss. Who knew how long he’d have to suffer inside these caverns?

With a sigh, Lukas turned back to the wall and began to smack.

Prey elimination, round two. Begin.

It was another hour before something interesting finally took place.

The screen had been steadily incrementing his experience values as he killed his moss-prey. And right when his twentieth point was awarded, something else came forth.

Accumulated Experience Crossed Threshold

Current Limit Exceeded

LEVEL UP!

ATTRIBUTES

CHANGE IN PARAMETERS

Level

+1

Soul Capacity

+4

The last time the screen had thrown up a bunch of variables, there were oddities— oddities he physically experienced inside his own body.

And now, the screen was telling him that he’d undergone some kind of quantifiable change once more.

Lukas closed his eyes and tried to feel within.

...

Nothing.

“I thought I was supposed to level up?”

The screen flickered, before reforming into a larger, more elegant interface.

SOULSCAPE

Name

Lukas Aguilar

Race

Human (Earth)

Level

2

Experience

0

Threshold

80

Experience Conversion Ratio

23%

Utilized Soul Capacity

0/104

His net Soul Capacity was now 104— that was more than before. Did that mean his soul had grown? Did he perhaps increase in power?

He certainly didn’t feel anything special.

So…. what happened?

Feeling apprehensive, Lukas put it out of his mind as he considered the other bits of information. Each of the terms were interesting in their own way, but one thing stood out above all else.

Human. With Earth in parentheses.

For some reason, the screen had chosen to specify that, as if it wasn’t already a given.

It irked him, mostly because it implied that he wasn’t on Earth anymore. And maybe even that there were other planets with humans inhabiting them. Was it possible that there were more people like him, people who had been sucked into this hellhole?

All of it led back to the same two questions.

Where am I? And how did I get here?

For the first one, he now knew he was in some place called the ‘Crypt of Fiendish Worms’, but he had no idea what that meant. And as for the second, he still had no leads. All in all, he was nowhere close to being able to answer either of them.

Truth be told, Lukas still hadn’t ruled out the idea that this was all some sort of dream experiment. Perhaps killing himself would wake him up? It may have been an extreme step, but this entire experience was so disjointed from normalcy that he had trouble considering any of it to be real.

Lukas wasn’t suicidal. In fact, he had gotten used to living a fairly solitary life after his breakup. But now, with Emma pushing her way back into his good graces, their old vibrancy was slowly coming back. Perhaps— perhaps their relationship could have rekindled, had he given it a second chance.

He’d never know.

At least, not until he was out of this place.

Shaking himself out of such morbid thoughts, Lukas glared at the moss as if it was singularly responsible for all of his suffering.

If he wanted any chance of better surviving this endeavor, he would have to start moving around and mapping the area. Then, after identifying a water source and a safe place to rest, he would finally find a way out of this place. No matter how long it took.

He was going to survive this experience, no matter what it took. And the bat had already shown him firsthand that he’d need to use everything he had— and then some —to make it out alive.

Luckily for him, the greatest tool in his arsenal was all too willing to aid. All he needed was to ask.

It’s question time.

“Screen,” Lukas called out. “What’s Soul Capacity?”

Like a faithful puppy, it popped up in front of him.

The intrinsic capacity of a soul to hold information.

Lukas frowned. That was certainly interesting.

“What sort of information?”

Developed Skills. Acquired Skill sets. Biological data.

“Biological data.” He rubbed his chin, making sense of the information in context of what he already knew. “So... it’s like DNA?”

It is like Soul Capacity.

Lukas rolled his eyes. The screen really was a master at giving out non-answers.

...Now that he thought about it, the screen would have made a pretty decent lawyer.

But as annoying as it was, he needed to find some answers. And if twenty questions was the only way to do it, then he’d either play or die trying.

“How do you develop a Skill Set?”

By developing one Skill first. Then a related Skill. Then another related Skill.

“And their accumulation will create a single skill set?”

He got an affirmation in reply.

Well, that was simple enough. It was almost like school. People studied a bunch of related texts to gain a more complete understanding of a certain subject.

“And how do I develop a skill?”

Perform a special action using Lifeforce or Mana.

“And how exactly do I use lifeforce or mana?”

By developing the Skills to do so

Lukas shut his eyes in exasperation, mentally counting down from ten.

This was going nowhere. Every single answer only led to more questions, and with how little he knew about this world, his interrogation could conceivably go on for days before he managed to extract anything substantial.

That said, not all hope was lost.

As far as the realms of fantasy were concerned, the word mana was far from an unknown quantity. Mana, magical energy, Prana, Qi— different fantasy systems used different words to define the same energy. Usually, this had something to do with casting some sort of magic spell.

The concept was so alien to him, yet also all too familiar. It was a dichotomy that nearly pushed him back to his previous theory about it all being a dream, and how killing himself would probably snap him out of it.

Lukas took a deep breath, forcefully calming himself down.

“Alright then, let's take it from the top. What is lifeforce, and how does it work?”

Energy that promotes growth. Organisms capable of generating lifeforce do so in small increments until it reaches full capacity.

“And what if it cannot generate lifeforce?”

An empty screen was all he received.

No answer then. That was surprising. Even so, it had been useful.

That meant that organisms were effectively lifeforce batteries. If one ran out of charge, it would become empty and, if the implication held true, cease to function and die. And since a bat was a living creature without the capability for complex thought, lifeforce generation and consumption were probably more tied to the physical side of things rather than mental.

Once again, not very different from the fantasy realms he had read about and watched in movies.

Lukas rolled his neck. As long as he wasn’t about to run into a gentle giant waving admission to a magical school in front of him, he’d be fine. Though, with his luck, he would probably end up in a far more sinister situation than that. It was only day one, and yet he’d already nearly bled to death because of—

His thoughts screeched to a halt.

Ever since the bat had attacked him, he’d been feeling weakened and terribly hungry. While he hadn’t eaten anything since he’d arrived— other than some moss —the sudden hunger felt far more… conspicuous.

But now that he thought of it, when the bat first bit him, he instantly became hungry. Exhausted, even. At the time, he had chalked it up to some sort of venom, but now he wasn’t so sure.

Did the bat somehow... drain him of his lifeforce?

If the same rules applied to him, then maybe eating something would help him feel less lethargic. He couldn’t be sure, but it was as good a plan moving forward as any. That, and he needed to continue doing something physical until he did a ‘special action using lifeforce’.

Or mana.

At this point, he really didn’t give a damn what the difference was.

He considered the screen once more.

“I need to use this lifeforce thingy to perform a special action that counts as a skill, right?”

The window confirmed his theory.

Lukas grimly nodded, staring at the unending walls of moss.

“Time to start working!”

SMACK!