Chapter 4: Instincts and Instruction

It turns out that Dexterity is basically how hand eye coordinated you are and mostly has to do with weapons in Templa although it also has an effect on other skills like lock picking. I think that I’ll level this a lot along with agility and a little strength (not as much strength because I’m not as interested in stand up fights as I am in hitting my enemies in their backs, hence my class) because fighting is extremely important in this game and with my class who knows when I’ll need to be able to pick a lock.

Mana determines how much magic I’ll be able to use. Oh yea, I GET TO DO FREAKING MAGIC? How great is this game? I probably won’t level this up as much but I won’t leave it out ether. Who could resist being able to do MAGIC?

This ties in with Wisdom which is how fast I regain Mana, much like regeneration is how fast you gain health (this was confirmed by Zim).

Another thing that Zim explained to me is the way that you level up these stats is by using them. For instance if I spend some time carrying rocks up and down a mountainside I would improve strength, If I go for a run I might gain agility or If I use a bunch of spells my mana or wisdom might level up.

One thing that I’m not happy about Is that I ended up sleeping outside on the pointy lava rocks. That was the most uncomfortable night I have ever spent (and my sheet used to be made of wool until we bought a better one). At least it’s over. And now I get to have my first real day in Templa, and the first new day of my life.

Zim has yet to come out of his house -A well hidden door that is impeded into the mountain (which used to be a volcano but is now dormant)- so I have decided to climb the mountain into which Zim disappeared, hopefully gain a few levels in some of my stats and most importantly, try to learn to fly.

I get a good handhold on a small crack about 2 and a half feet above my head and place a foot on a rock that is resting on the ledge that I am standing on. Heaving with all my might I manage to get my other hand to a hold that is about 3 feet above the one my right hand is resting on (quite painfully due to the rough rock I might add). The hand hold is also directly adjacent to the start of a crevice that goes up a good 30 feet to a spot just out of reach of the next small ledge where I could rest.

Pulling myself up to the ledge takes all my energy and I stand with my hands on my knees, crouched over and panting. I almost slipped a couple of times when I was quite high above my starting point and on the last one when I was pulling myself the last little bit I actually fell and just barely managed to catch onto the same crack that facilitated my assent. That was by far the scariest experience of my life and the only good things that I can pull out of me getting up here is getting maybe 1/3 the way to the top of the mountain and gaining 2 points in strength and 3 in agility (2 of the agility points were for catching myself all those times, especially that last fall) I don’t know how much of a difference It is going to make while I am climbing the rest of the way, but it better give me some advantage.

I think I might have to rest here for some time and I need to give some serious thought to how I might make some form of glove to protect my hands which are bright red, cut in several places, and probably going to blister.

~~~

After resting for what I would estimate to be 30 minutes I have finally mustered up the will power to continue up the mountain. While I was waiting for my batteries to recharge so to speak, I also managed to make hand wraps out of cloth that I cut from my cloak with the knife I have. When I was done, an interesting message appeared in front of my face.

You have created: simple hand wraps. Made of mere strips of cloth wrapped around the hands these hand wraps will offer some slight protection against sharp rocks when climbing but will do little else and have almost no value. Quality poor.

It seems like items can be created from raw materials here much like in the real world and when they have been made the maker receives a “recipe to make that same object which they can retrieve at any time. The simple hand wraps message, when I was finished reading it, moved into an icon on the edge of my vision that was labeled crafting recipes. When I focus on that icon it opens a window with all of my learned recipes A.K.A. my one recipe.

Anyway, this next section looks even more dangerous than the last because it is lacking a crack like the one that I used to get up to this point. What It does have is an abundance of sharp looking surfaces on which I can grab. Experimentally I grab onto one of these rocks and it presses into my the hand wrap and the raw skin beneath it but thankfully neither breaks. Reaching my other hand onto another of the pointy spikes I heave my body to a position where my foot can reach up to a small outcropping the width of 2 of my fingers. Using that as leverage I can pull the hand I had originally used to test the rock, my left, onto an outcropping even higher onto the mountain face while simultaneously lifting my right foot (which was previously on the ground) onto a jutting piece of rock that is about 1 foot higher than the platform that my left foot is on. Then, by carefully moving my hands and feet up the steep cliff always keeping 2 limbs on the rock at the very minimum, I manage to pull myself up another 15 - 20 feet.

Unfortunately it would seem that whoever (or more likely whatever) built and designed this cliff decided to make it a challenge for whatever champion decides to climb it. As I am pulling my heavy body up the last few feet small pebbles begin to tumble down. Spurred on by gravity even these tiny rocks can cause quite the impact, a lesson which I learn first hand when one of them hits the elbow of my outstretched arm causing it to buckle.

“AHH!” I cry out partially from the pain in my arm and partly from the fear caused when my arm buckled leaving all of the weight of my body to be held up by my remaining arm and threatening to send me tumbling down with the stones. I do have the common sense to look up however and what I see makes me forget all about the pain in my arm.

Several huge stones, as tall as me and at least 4 feet wide at their thickest points, are careening down the mountain after their minuscule brethren with the first headed directly for me. I only have maybe 5 seconds until it reaches me which is no time at all to try and safely get out of the way. My logical brain is working in overdrive allowing me to notice all of this in the fast depleting time that I have left, but it isn't what is causing my body to become coiled up like a spring, prepared to do whatever is necessary for survival. No, what’s doing that is instincts ingrained into my body from millions of years of time where the strongest and fastest survive and the slow and weak do not. I am but a passenger in my own body as it leaps from the rock face with every ounce of possible strength at a sight angle aiming for a small overhang a few feet from me that at this moment looks as if it is miles away. The second after I jump I Know that I’m not going to make it. The overhang is to far away and even my adrenaline pumped muscles weren’t enough to get me to it.

As the boulder rushes past me, close enough to feel air that was moved from it’s passage, I automatically reach out in one final, futile gesture to reach the overhang and save myself knowing that it won’t be enough. I close my eyes in preparation for my impeding death on the sharp rocks below and feel instincts even older than the ones that propelled me from the rock make two things snap out from their resting place on my back and a sharp jerk as it slows my decent… In shock from the change in my movement I flutter my eyes open just in time to see my hand, wrapped in cloth, grasping a bulbous rock, jutting out from a cliff face and feel my chest slam into stone so suddenly I lose all my breath and try to double over. When I’ve finally regained control of myself I find another handhold and 2 spots for my sandaled feet. Its only then that I notice the 2 scaly black dragonlike protrusions stretching out 10 feet, tip to tip, from my back. I know what saved me. My wings did.

~~~

After 10 minutes just reveling in the fact that I flew to save myself from certain death I have finally managed to pull myself together and continue climbing. Thankfully I don’t see any more boulders hurtling down on my head. As I heave with my arms and pull myself another foot up the mountain face towards the ever growing zenith (look it up) I am finding myself becoming even more thankful for the weird set of circumstances that led to my new life. But even as I do, I can’t help but wonder why the strange man would have given it to me. Surely he must have known what it would do for him. Or maybe that’s it. Would I myself have uploaded my conciseness to a computer if I had known that I would never have been able to return and that the process would involve melting my brain with lasers. Probably not rig-

Suddenly my retrospective train of thought is interrupted by the blinding brilliance of the sun shining directly in my face as it comes above the top of the mountain. I eagerly push myself up until I’m standing on top of the highest point for miles. Looking back I can see the tiny village with the buildings looking no bigger than a pebble literally shining in the morning sun. If I direct my gaze further downward I can look down on the flat zone halfway, no more like three quarters of the way up the mountain where Zim’s house is. I see how far I have come and throw my fists into the air. In this moment I am Queen of the world and I have conquered the impossible.

Of course this is when an annoyingly familiar voice cracks out like a whip making me jump and almost tumble back down the extremely steep mountainside.

“If your done admiring yourself we should really get on with your training.” Zim says in his own perfected voice of sarcasm that he uses all to often.

“Dude stop doing that!” I say exasperated and embarrassed “I could have fallen.”

“you could have… but you didn’t. If you had you would have died and lost most of the respect that you have from me.” he’s smirking now “I would have expected that you had learned by now. There is no such thing as codling with demons. We do things the hard way and if you don’t get it right the first time then there are consequences. Nature, much like us, is unforgiving and the consequence is often death.”

I wait somewhat patiently until he is done with his little lecture before bursting out “Yea, Yea, I don’t expect codling. I was just surprised. Deal with it. Do I really have your respect?”

“No” he answers with a perfectly strait face. Gah. I can never tell when he’s joking.

“How did you get up here. It took me…” I look at the shadow cast by a nearby rock. “about 3 hours. And I started at 8 ish. Do you have some sort of teleportation ability.” This last sentence was sarcastic.

“I do actually have a teleportation ability but I just took the path. It’s a good 20 to 30 minute hike.” He pointed at a small downside section at the opposite end of the mountain top.

Speaking of which, until now I haven’t really gotten a good look at the mountain. It is somewhat oval shaped with the longer distance being about 40 feet and the shorter being maybe 30 feet. The terrain is relatively flat (which is kinda of surprising given that it used to be a volcano, but if it was dormant long enough, I suppose erosion could have created this feature) and tilted a few degrees down away from the cliff top that I climbed up. The ground is the same sharp rock that makes up the rest of the mountain and a few scattered rocks mark the otherwise barren landscape none of which are more than 2 feet tall. The view is spectacular in all directions with the opposite side of the aforementioned village on the plain being a series of mountains similar to the one I am standing on but not quite as high.

Suddenly struck by a thought I turn back to Zim with a questioning and somewhat dangerous look and ask “Did you perhaps push a large boulder down the side of this mountain with the intent of knocking me off it to fall to my death.”

“I had no intention of killing you, I merely wanted to see how you would react. That was quite the impressive jump by the way and you appear to be a natural flyer.”

My vision has taken a slight red tinge and I turn towards Zim menacingly. “You pushed a boulder off a cliff towards me.” I take a step forward and find that my fists are clenched and one of them is holding the knife from my belt. I swing my hand forward (not the one holding the knife mind you, I didn’t really want to kill him, just get even for the boulder)-and suddenly find my face pressed against cold volcanic stone and a staff on my neck. The same staff that swiped my legs out from under me so fast I barely saw it.

“First rule of the Demon lands, Never fight someone you can’t beat.”

“Well how would I know that I couldn’t beat you. You’re like a hundred and three.”

“That brings me to the second rule of the demon lands. Think before you act. You used your essence sight ability on me and saw that I was level 105. Just in case you are too dense to do the math thats 103 above your level AKA 1. This also ties in nicely with the third rule of the demon lands: Judge someone based on their abilities, past adventures and to a slightly lesser extent their level. NEVER based on their age or appearance. You will learn quickly that it is all too easy to fake such things and basing any decisions on those factors will get you killed very quickly. Do you understand?”

My neck is beginning to feel like a punching bag must after being wailed on by a heavyweight champion so I can barely croak out “Yes, yes I understand”

“Good. You learn quickly.” He says, letting me up. Now, lets give your enemies at least a tiny threat to worry about next time. When you came at me your knife was clenched in a fist so tight it was shaking. Relax your hand more. Yes, like that. Now as a ghost class” (I guess Zim has some good essence sight himself.) “your most important ally is stealth”

He once again waves his gnarled staff and a new system message appears.

You have gained ability Stealth from Zim. This ability allows you to sneak near enemies without them seeing or otherwise sense you. This is a general ability and there are multiple specialized abilities that are modifications of this ability such as jungle stealth which will help you sneak while in a jungle. The effects of this ability can be negated by an adversary with the perception ability.

Hmm that is an interesting ability. It fits quite well with what I hope to become in this world too. I haven’t gotten the chance to go fight anything yet save for a boulder and this ability will probably help. It looks like Zim has read my mind and is smiling an evil little smile . Out of a pocket on the cloak that Zim is wearing he has pulled a large and vicious looking rat which looks to be almost as long as my foot even without it’s sizable tail and about 4 inches tall at is fattest point. Beady red eyes and sharp front teeth right below the whiskers complete the image.

I am not looking forward to fighting that thing.

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