Chapter 4: Enlightenment and Reunions

With a groan and a thundering headache, Rory regained consciousness. He was confused for a moment as the ceiling above him was moving until he realised he was being dragged along a tunnel by Peter and the cricketer from earlier. Hearing his groan, they both stopped, lowering him carefully to the floor.

After quickly checking him over and appearing satisfied that Rory was okay, Peter playfully stated, “Well it's about time you woke up, we were getting tired of dragging your sorry ass.”

With a grunt of effort, Rory managed to get to his feet, swaying unsteadily as he did so. "What happened?”

“What do you mean, what happened? You lit up like the 4th of July, scaring the bats away and the crap out of us and then you go and flop on the floor, going into the deepest sleep I’ve ever seen. I lost count of how many times we hit your head on rocks while we were forced to drag your heavy arse,” Peter replied angrily.

Sensing the hostility, Rory quickly took a step back, almost falling as he did so. “sorry if I’ve upset you over something, but thank you for not leaving me behind.”

“If? If! you’ve upset me?” Peter all but shouted, his cheeks turning red and a vein on his forehead visibly pulsating in his anger.

"Let me see? First you have stuff appearing from nowhere and landing on top of you and you claim you have no idea what’s going on, then fire appears from nowhere consuming both you and one of those bloody bats, leaving you total fine but the bat as ashes. Bats, may I remind you, that hardly anyone else had been able to hurt in the slightest and had left three people withered husks! And you still act like the village idiot who has no idea about anything, like it’s normal for people to spontaneous combust!”

Peter was so worked up; Rory was afraid he might be attacked at any moment. Before anything could happen, a massive hand softly gripped Peter’s shoulder.

“Easy there fella. I’m sure our friend here has a perfectly reasonable explanation. Rory, was it? My name is Samwell and please, could you explain yourself?” The cricketer, now known as Samwell asked.

Sighing in relief, Rory calmed down and started to go through his recent notifications to try to find out what had happened to him. “Yeah... just let me check what the system is telling me. "

Ding – used Mana to work magic for the first time, title Fledgling Mana user received.

The path of magic is long and difficult. While no one would call you a mage, through unique circumstances you have nonetheless taken the first steps towards magehood. + 1 to Wisdom and intelligence.

Ding - you have defeated [Subterranean Spectral Bat] you have killed a being 10 levels or more above you. additional experience received.

Ding – Condition: Mana exhaustion received.

Through whatever means, you have completely depleted your Mana source, resulting in forced unconsciousness. With repeated training, Mana exhaustion can be overcome. Warning: overuse can also result in loss of life.

Ding – level 2 Reached – 4 stat points awarded.

Ding – level 3 Reached – 4 stat points awarded.

Ding – level 4 Reached – 4 stat points awarded.

The notifications were a lot to process but Rory still decided to allocate his unspent stat points straight away putting half into Strength to take it to 20, hoping that would be enough to not be overpowered so easily next time and the rest he split between intelligence and wisdom also hoping it would be enough to stop him going unconscious again if he decided to try using magic.

Straight away, Rory noticed a difference. Some of his strength returned after feeling so drained from the bat and his headache subsided. Feeling more like his normal self Rory was able to get his thoughts together and give Peter and Samwell an explanation.

“You have to understand this all happened so fast I’m not 100% positive on what exactly happened, but from what I can gather in the induction room I got hit by one of the attacks the big monsters were throwing about, I somehow survived it by getting flung into the por...”

“What do you mean you survived getting hit by one of them? They were making mincemeat out of people just by stepping near them!” Peter interrupted.

Sighing at the interruption, Rory continued, “just let me finish Peter. You asked for an explanation and I’m trying to give one. When I entered the portal, the system stated I was dying. It was only because so many of us survived the induction room that the system restored my body and rewarded me. One of the rewards was a blessing of flame and when the bat attacked me, I panicked and somehow used the blessing to burn the bat away.”

Peter was frowning at Rory's declaration but before he got a chance to comment further, Samwell spoke up. “I’m guessing the ridiculous outfit you're wearing was one of the other rewards?” seeing Rory nod Samwell continued “right I see, I think it’s best if we catch up with the rest of the group, we’ve wasted too much time already and I don’t like our chances if something else comes along and finds only the three of us,” as he finished speaking Samwell dragged Peter along with him as he carried on down the tunnel.

Rory was soon left alone. While he was still confused about everything that was happening, he decided to think on it on the way and carried on after them.

Hours of walking later, Rory had caught up with the rest of the group. Several of the group looked in poor condition, having to be supported by others and, in one case, even carried. While Rory’s health points had fully recovered after his ordeal with the bat he noticed his body still ached and the puncture wounds had stopped bleeding but had not fully healed making him realise that while his bodies recovery rate had greatly increased with the introduction of stats, it still took time to recover fully and he wondered what the limit was.

All of a sudden, a commotion started at the front of the group with excited shouting, reaching Rory’s ears. Getting closer to the front, Rory was able to see what the commotion was. The group had reached the end of the tunnel and emerged into a vast cavern with a glittering pool in the centre. The main cause of the commotion were the two hundred odd other people gathered in the cavern. No one noticed Rory’s group's approach until they had started to mingle with each other, the group's individuals eager to reunite with familiar faces.

For the first time since he had been transported to this hell hole his body's urges caught up with Rory and he practically ran to the body of water and all but inhaled it in his rush to rehydrate himself. Several minutes later with a stomach full of only water, Rory had managed to clean himself of the various bodily fluids that had plagued him throughout his journey however try as hard as he might he could neither store water in his pouch or clean it of its disgusting slime.

While Rory was doing his best effort in trying to drain the pool of water, Peter and several of the self elected leaders of their band of abductees had gathered together to discuss what had happened to each of the separate groups and to plan what happened next.

Apart from the group Rory had been in, only one other group had come up against monster. Goblins! Goblins had attacked one of the groups, one second they had been walking down a tunnel and the next part of the wall they had just travelled past had retracted and a small horde of vicious child sized humanoids with pronounced buck like teeth, beady red shining eyes, dagger like ears and the smell of an unwashed wet dog, had attacked the group from the rear with weapons made of scraps and bits of bones, quickly overpowering ten of the group. By the time the group had realised what had happened and managed to rally themselves, the goblins had retreated back into the wall, which had sealed itself back up.

In total, the group of survivors numbered 303. After 10 were presumed killed by the goblins, 3 turned into husks by the bats and two others had died by falling down deep crevices never to be seen again.

The group's supplies were looking bleak as well. Thankfully everyone had managed to drink their fill from the lake but no one had admitted to having any food. About a third of the group didn’t even have proper clothing, thankfully no one was naked anymore with enough jackets and coats able to be given to people without anything, lack of footwear was a serious problem and cuts and blisters were becoming common place in the people who had not enhanced their physical stats enough.

With Rory being so single minded in his pursuit of getting rehydrated and clean, he had failed to notice he had become surrounded. As soon as the group realised he was done with the water, a barrage of questions was shot at Rory.

“how did you manage to get to level 4?” asked a nondescript teenage boy.

“what do you know of the system,” Asked another.

“someone said you could turn into fire!” squeaked a young girl.

“fire? Really? Can you teach me how?” asked an over eager observer.

“what’s with that disgusting bag?” enquired a young man.

Another began, “why does your onesi-”

“hold on a second!” Annoyed at the multitude of questions Rory interrupted.

“I know that everyone is scared and that you all want an answer to whatever hell we have been put in, but the truth is I don’t know much more than you guys. When we were in the induction room, the system rewarded me for living through an attack by those monsters with the ability to create fire as well as the weird items I have. I can’t teach anyone how to create fire as I barely know how to control it myself and I think that for other people to be able to use magic, you first need to find something called an orb of power. As to how come I’m level 4, my group got attacked by a bunch of massive bats and I managed to kill one, but I think everyone will soon have the opportunity to increase in levels as bound to not be the only fight we get into and we are going to have to fight to survive.”

Multiple people in the group seemed eager to ask more questions but before they were able to do so, Rory pushed through the crowd and escaped, not wanting to spend anymore of his limited energy on answering a barrage of questions.

Having escaped the crowd, Rory made his way to one of the walls that was away from any of the tunnels and wearily sat down, his onesie scratching against the rough cave wall. Now that he was alone, partially sated and somewhat safe, he took some time to figure out a new sensation that had become apparent to him since he woke up.

Where before Rory had been oblivious on how the inside of his body worked, now if he concentrated he had a faint image of three spheres orbiting his heart, one of a brilliant ice blue that was the smallest but that he instinctively knew was his Mana, the second burned with a hungry orange glow that represented his fire magic while the third was fuzzy and indistinct and gave him a headache just thinking about, if Rory had to guess it was his lightning magic.

Concentrating on the orb of Fire caused it to vibrate in anticipation, like it was eager to be released so it could consume everything in its path. Rory concentrated more on the orb of power and the power contained within it responded to his will, bursting out of the palm of his hands as a two foot continuous jet of flame. Try as he might Rory was only able to change the length and width of the flame or make the flame appear on either hand or both, he could not change it into a fireball or to appear on any other part of his body. Maintaining the flame steadily ate up his Mana points. With one part of his situation partially resolved, Rory laid his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

Status page:

Name: Rory Richardson

Class 1: level 4 - None

Attributes:

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 16

Endurance: 17

Vitality: 22

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 20

Available points: 0

Health: 220/220

Stamina: 170/170

Mana: 173/204

Blessings:

Child of flame

Child of lightning

Titles:

Cheater of death

first kill

Prodigy (locked)

Fledgling Mana user

Resistances:

Lightning resistance - lvl 14

Flame resistance – lvl 12