Zahn squinted across the bright arena ring at his opponent, the bright sunlight reflecting off the packed sand nearly as much as shining down from above. Standing nearly a hundred feet away and heavily armed was the first fighter who’d been promised a turn facing the uninvited guest. Burnato the gladiator swung his massive curved sword around his body with a happy grin as he stalked towards the Player standing still where he was instructed. Zahn’s squinting for a handful of seconds brought up a small display hovering above the muscled blonde brute showing a bright green health bar fat and full stretched from shoulder to shoulder in the air over his head and the man’s name Burnato above it. Along with the name came a red skull figure in a red outline, telling the lowbie how little a chance he had at killing the thug. Focusing his intent he triggered his Observe ability, which finally gave a result.

Level: ??? | Gladiator Burnato

HP: 1257 | Disposition: Enthused

Are you fucking kidding me? Zahn’s immediate reaction was a shock that froze him, before the absurdity he was facing continued a running dialogue in his head. No wonder he killed me with one stab. But surely he’d be strong enough to pull his sword free from my gravestone? Ha haha, he’s weaker than a rock. Before his rambling thoughts could run too far the armored smirk leaned forwards from his jog and charged across their stone-lined circle to reach his prey in a matter of breaths. As the hulk and blade lunged close Zahn fell back out of his stupor and tried to jump to the side, activating his Skill to get more distance.

He felt the wind pull against his skin as the sand disappeared from beneath bare feet before an impact slamming into his legs spun him head over heel in a flip that landed him breathless on his side, paralyzing pain radiating from his legs.

-104 Health. Gladiator Burnato used Fighting Sprint.

You have suffered a Debuff: Broken Leg! You cannot stand or use any Skill that requires your leg(s) until the injury is healed.

You are stunned!

The ground his pounding head lay against spun on its own, the yellow sand and grey stones swimming as other fighters moved in the distance. Staring at the thick dark belt of rock that was the arena wall make the harsh glare from sky and sand seem as a great pair of yellow cats eyes staring at him as he swam through-

Your debuff Stunned has worn off.

Reality snapped back into Zahn as pain once again made itself known, and air stubbornly refused to enter his lungs. Twitching enough to roll onto his back was a mistake, as the pain flared again before a shadow blotted out the sunlight. “Too bad,” was all he could hear before a blade plunged into the space beneath his chin and light vanished behind another message.

-43 Health. Gladiator Burnato used ‘Too bad’.

You have died!

Time seemed to pass as a moment of darkness before Zahn found himself gasping for air on the altar in its dim dusty room once again. He blinked away the usual welcome back message and found he’d lost another level, down to eight. Fighting to bring his racing heart back under control, the Player considered his options as he clutched his healed throat. I have no gear, weapons, and one magic book with one spell in it. I can’t take a single attack from the guy who’s looking to kill me. I don’t know where I am compared to the only city I’ve been to, or hell even that village. He glanced at his map in the top right of his Heads-Up Display before realizing he did know more than he’d thought. Stepping out into the sunlight had marked a crude circle around himself, which was a clear distance north and west from the Dungeon he’d entered days before. Or maybe longer than days? Why doesn’t this damn thing come with a calendar? Silently griping about the game he remained trapped in did nothing to help his situation but did bring down his pulse enough to claim he was calm as he spun his legs off the stone slab and began leaving his respawn room once more.

By the time the discouraged Player reached the end of his short path out of the room, he found the sun had moved quite a distance across the sky and the various fighters stood milling around the wide arena and fighting some small monsters and beasts in groups. The large arena loomed around him, its tall dark walls of cut stone gave him no comfort even in the meager shade they provided. He squinted around the fighting sands and saw the warriors dancing in their places and facing off with a number of the evil-looking squirrels he saw back with his raid group and a handful of similar sized creatures. Thinking of his old group shot a pang of regret through his chest that he pushed aside, determined not to dwell on the fistful of people he thought he was getting to know. Murderers. Focusing again on the scurrying creatures, he eyed what looked like a brown bush given legs about a dozen feet away and tried to Observe it, getting frustratingly little back.

Level: ??? | ???

Without any kind of introduction or name, the creature remained as mysterious to him as it had before he tried his ability. The beast jumped to the side to dodge its opponent on long green legs that made the Player think of a plant with green shoots for root-legs before he realized the fighter dueling with the bush could clearly see him and stood far too close for Zahn’s liking. The lightly armored man in question seemed distracted chasing his prey, even swinging something that was somewhat sword-shaped if completely the wrong scale. While the gladiator had an impressive build, nobody ought to be waving around something metal with dimensions of a surfboard — something that didn’t seem to matter much as the warrior grunted and reversed direction with his absurd weapon and swung the ten-foot slab of iron back the other way to miss the dancing bush yet again.

Looking away from man vs plant the lowbie kept to the left wall and followed its curve around the edge of the arena. The first time he’d been brought through here was involuntary and dragged by hulking muscle which left surprisingly little time to gawk at the scenery. The tall walls stood more than three times his height and reached far higher outside the stands. He could see seats in staggered rows reaching to several tiers, with the outer walls pocked regularly by curved stone openings into even more seats high and far away from the action. The inner walls were only broken by the doors embedded into them regularly, with his own altar room’s exit tunnel breaching directly across from the biggest doors Zahn had ever seen.

Leaving a squat and dusty doorway to see what should have belonged on a castle across the sand made him feel like some dirty beggar who wandered somewhere he wasn’t welcome. Each time he looked away from the huge iron-bound wooden gates he found his gaze eventually drawn back to the absurdity that was doors nearly twenty feet tall. What even needs something that big? Blinking away he looked to the other ten doors around the edge to compare them and found another door that didn’t match the rest. If his altar room were north and the huge gate were to act as south, the cardinal west he could easily see as he meandered around the left wall was as ornate as his own door had been crude. Standing shorter than the gate but larger than its surrounding reasonably-sized ports and shining in the afternoon light was a mesh of copper gold and silver in weaving patterns drawn to mimic a skull. Though shorter than the monstrosity that reached the top of the inner walls, the skull door retained a break down the middle with each door pull acting as dangling earrings.

Walking along the left wall and staring across the wide area, Zahn didn’t notice as he passed two closed doors until he felt a wash of cool air pass by making him spin. Directly across from the gilded face sat the only other open doorway, its thick metal double doors rusted and obviously less maintained than the rest of the wooden ones. Above the rusty entrance hung what looked like a complete portcullis tipped with spikes pointing down at him from its sconce in the ceiling. The swirling air brought a smell that snapped his eyes back down to look into the ominous hallway and found the same dark stone that made up his prison’s walls formed a tunnel that ran far back lined with cells. The closest few were well lit by the first torch within the jail and let him see their doors were hanging open and containing nothing but piles of hay and a feeding trough, smelling like someone had left their dog in the rain and encouraged him to roll in shit before bringing him back inside. Well at least I’m not locked up here. Muffled noises sounded deeper within the hallway, making him take an involuntary step back towards the hot sand. Yet.

A far louder clash rang out behind him, and the Player spun in place for the second time in as many minutes. He couldn’t see bushman but he did have the misfortune of seeing someone else he knew perform a beautiful strike.

Burnato, a cheerful grin splitting his clean-shaven face, barked a laugh as he brought his curved sword around in a swing that took a hairy leg off a spider the size of a van. Zahn watched the skittering arachnid as it reared silently on its remaining legs and wiggled pedipalps at the gladiator who skipped back and to the right before the monster finished its attack. A blob of purple something shot from its face and punched a small crater into the ground where its foe stood moments before, spraying sand and spew before the man lunged back into range. Spinning on his heel, Burnato cut away two more of the legs the massive spider used to stand and jumped back once more to laugh and dance to the side. Even without taking limbs off, his speed at circling the beast was far greater than the spider was able to turn in place which brought him back and behind it before the beast knew what happened.

Jumping and clearing over six feet of air, the warrior leapt from a standstill to tuck into a somersault just as the arachnid realized he was behind it and shot strands of its webbing. The gooey white substance missed prey and ground completely as it spread wide enough to wrap another monster and fighter pair completely and slam them into the wall behind them. The chipper brute landed his leap over the spider’s body and spun on his heel again, bringing his sword around to slice at eight eyes and severed the offending face-legs before following his swing with an overhead chop deep into its head.

The Player watched from a safe distance as the huge bug shuddered and fell to the ground, its five remaining legs twitching and curling in its death throes. The long trail of spider’s webbing remained anchoring the monster to its trapped prey against the wall and would have been funny if not much bigger than Zahn’s own body. Before he could muse further on the proper ending to anything that spins webs, a laugh he was quickly hating even more than backstabber Barruc’s giggle echoed around the stone walls.

“Aha! I said you would return!” Dreading the sight and knowing he realistically had nowhere to hide, Zahn dragged his gaze from the webbed gladiator suffocating against the wall and faced the chipper slayer who would happily bury him in the sand. “I was not sure if we should trust the Master’s word, but lo and behold. You’re back after all!” The unfairly muscled brute was walking closer much too fast for the Player’s liking but didn’t seem to care in the least about personal space. Burnato stopped less than an arm’s length away, and leaned down to fake a whisper.

“I found the secret, see,” he hissed with a smile, weaving his sword back and forth between them. “You surprised me the first time, but I learn quick. Master even tells me so. If I just stab you, and pull it back out before you turn to stone, I can keep my weapon!” Zahn furrowed his brow in confusion as he stared back up at the thug who grinned and chuckled back. “You won’t be taking Marta from me again, Mister Player. We get to have a fair fight every time from now on.” Nodding to himself and straightening up the gladiator jerked his head back over his shoulder. “Besides, I think I already know what you’re looking for. Follow.”

Turning and walking away, the warrior headed towards his kill and pointed with his blade to something Zahn hadn’t seen before while spectating the fight. Another gray obelisk stood squat at waist height, rising up from the sand. He couldn’t see any impact from where he’d landed that morning, but the grave marker looked identical to his earlier one sans blue-green sword. Following the gladiator at what he considered a fair distance, the lowbie reached his grave as the thug stood grinning and read the same words as before. Glancing back at Burnato only gave him another annoying smile and gesture towards the stone, to which Zahn heaved a sigh and slapped his hand against the rock.

Just as before, the grave seemed to shimmer at its edges and shake for half a second before each face crumbled into fragments and dust that fell inwards before disappearing entirely and leaving the packed sand unmarked. The lowbie looked back at the gladiator who was still grinning, even as he raised his blade up again.

“And now that you got your grave, you’re a good target again!”

Not quite stupid enough to stand still for his tormentor, Zahn triggered his Jump skill and launched himself to the left in an effort to dodge the right-handed Burnato the brute coming after him. His neat dodge saved his life, even if not his health. Pain rocketed up his legs and left him in shock as he landed heavily driving the air out in a scream. “Aaaaahhhhh!” Flopping onto his back showed the Player his left foot was gone entirely and right leg held a deep gash in his calf.

-97 Health. Gladiator Burnato used Slice!

Your leg has been crippled!

You cannot walk!

“I knew you could talk!” The thug’s voice rang out far too happy for the brutal disassembly he was committing against the low-level. “You haven’t had a peep to say to me till now, you even took that last death like a champ.” He could hear the shrug in the man’s voice, “I guess dismemberment it is then.”

Gritting his teeth to inhale without swallowing his tongue, Zahn blinked the notifications away rapidly as the hulking murder machine loomed closer and waved his deadly blade again. Prone on his back left the lowbie limited choices as he bucked against the ground and felt something far too heavy land on his right shoulder before the too-bright yellow sky shattered into darkness from the outside of his vision in like a fading viewscreen.

-60 Health. Gladiator Burnato used Slice!

You have died!

Respawning back on the altar breathing in the musty air was more comforting than Zahn was willing to admit. Blinking away the now-familiar respawn message, he saw that by losing yet another life he’d lost experience but not enough to bump him down to seven yet, seemingly keeping with the promise of half a level per rebirth. But what happens when my exp meter is empty? A glance at his clock showed him a few more hours had passed and evening was fast approaching. Staring through his translucent HUD he found his eyes tracing the lines of the dusty wooden beams holding up his ceiling in the Player’s only refuge. Tabbing through the various panels available on the display hadn’t brought up anything useful to his immediate captivity, and trying to make sense of his map hadn’t brought him any closer than before. He now had a more detailed circle separated from the rest of his map, but the sketch remained crude and reminded him of charcoal more than magical ink. Popping open his Status tab showed him that he hadn’t lost any of his hard-earned stat levels from his deaths, but the total experience value was stubbornly decreasing at every rebirth.

Turning away from his description he eyed his overhead compass to see not a single quest location marker blinking at him, almost as if even his built in system recognized he wasn’t able to just simply travel at the moment. The bottom of his permanent visual companion held his quick use slots and remained empty, including his quick spell slots. Eyeing what was an optional suit of armor he saw the bottom left of his vision held a partly see-through drawing of his Grimoire, which he immediately summoned to float in the air next to the altar. Flipping open to a seemingly random page, he found the opening of the Fire Magic section glowing red against the grey and brown parchment enough to give light to his surroundings despite the curving dark tunnel exit.

He glanced around by the new light and found enough encouragement from his companion to sit up and thumb through the Fire pages. His first spell Fire Spit sat prominently at the first page but as he turned expecting to see blanks he found two more pages of the same spell, each depicting the next ranks of the same spit. Rank two was scribed as Searing Spit and listed requirements he couldn’t quite make out in the glowing crimson Magi script. The third variant called itself Scorching Shot and clearly outlined a need to nest the third-tier missile in a layer of second-tier Fire mana just to hold the thing, let alone launch it.

“When the hell did I learn these?” Accidentally musing out loud, Zahn’s head snapped up as his gaze jumped from corner to corner in the mostly empty room. Can’t be too careful. Quiet is safe. Quiet is alive. Repeating the mantra he made for himself as a teenager he found his heartbeat beginning to slow, easing himself back into the magic book floating inches above his lap. Turning the page from the higher-ranked spells he found the rune drawn by his old Master Orinoth onto palms of waiting pupils of fire magic to cast the Fire spit spell from his hand. The shape looked familiar to him now, and he flipped back between it and the page he had for Spit to verify the sigils were almost identical and in a slightly different order.

A rattle from outside his den reminded him of the grim reality waiting outside, no matter how much he wanted to push the death waiting away. Dismissing the book with his programmed toss into the air, the Player heaved himself to his intact feet and shook his body to try and brace himself once more. Just gotta walk out there in a canvas loincloth and touch proof that I died. And die again. And again. Blinking in the darkness at the prospect, Zahn quickly made a resolution to himself. I’m getting out of here no matter what it takes.

As if in answer to his silent vow, a window appeared with a welcome announcement.

You have discovered the Quest: Escape the Collisae!

This is a Hidden Quest. You have multiple ways to accomplish this Quest.

When you have selected a viable path, your next goal will be displayed here.

Survive!