Chapter 27 – Aftermath (Patreon)

They had been so close, and then that bloodthirsty idiot, Gretchen, had ruined it all. The Rogue was no better than theirs despite his disturbing ability to blend into the darkness of the room.

Eventually, they would have flushed him out!

Now, tumbling end-over-end, Jimmy had to admit that he had bitten off more than he could chew.

He had seen the battered remains of his charges. That left only Glenn and himself.

The Archer was falling alongside him, screaming just as he was dropped into the lightless abyss. There was no telling what was happening. The darkness was absolute and the roar of the wind was only outdone by the thunder of the water.

Something cracked in the darkness, though Jimmy couldn’t have said what it was.

He discovered it a moment later when he collided heavily with a thick, water-logged beam of wood that shattered on his armor and dented the metal breastplate.

A wheezy laugh faded away far above his head. By the sounds of it, Glenn had managed to grab hold of a beam.

The life-defining difference ended up being Dexterity. All of Jimmy’s Strength, Vitality and Fortitude didn’t do much for grabbing onto the ledge he crashed into next.

He should have been able to grab hold of something, but it had come as such a surprise that his fingers were too slow to react when he realized what he had hit.

Jimmy slipped free and tumbled away into the darkness.

For the first time in his life, Jimmy regretted listening to orders. The System’s multiverse had offered endless opportunities, and he threw it all away by being loyal to his boss.

The fall was a long one. Jimmy had more time than he wanted to dwell on his current circumstances and how he ended up here.

But that would be a hell unto itself. A place, if it existed in this multiverse, he was certain already had a spot reserved for him. Not just with the blood on his hands from this place, but from before as well. So, he kept his mind occupied by humming the tune to Carry on my Wayward Son in the darkness.

He took solace in the fact that he wouldn’t even see the ground coming.

***

Luke jolted awake, heart pounding, sweat coating him like a film. He didn’t remember passing out, but there was no mistaking the disorientation and grogginess.

Every ache and pain played a symphony of cruel delight across his body. He had gained a few new ones, hot red needles of pain coming up from his calf and several cuts along his arms and sides, with what he suspected was a very high fever.

He cursed within the solitude of his own mind, wishing he had picked Healer as his class. Anything else to fix his present circumstances.

But if he had passed out… what woke him up?

Looking around, Luke found he was still in the same passage he had collapsed into before. Nothing had changed that he could tell, though the water had slowed to a trickle outside, suggesting it had disgorged the bulk of its payload.

He strained his hearing. Aside from the occasional drip-drip of water, he didn’t hear anything.

Then his head buzzed again like a phone set to vibrate. There was no other way to put it. Just as the buzzing faded, he understood where it came from.

It was that same other-knowledge that insinuated itself into his mind from all the skills he was able to use now.

The Company Shop was opening up.

Summoning up the shop, told him he had 5 minutes left until it opened. Which meant he had been out cold for quite a while.

Well, that’s not good.

He racked his mind for what to do. He had no potions left. All he had left was that red-eyed monster meat. After the soggy descent down the sewers, he seriously doubted it would do more good than harm anymore.

Desperation urged him on to check the inside of his cloak for it, anyway. The pain and exhaustion flimsily excused away the cold, simple logic of sewage water plus meat equals more sewage.

It had taken on a decidedly putrescent film of green slime, but he found when he wiped it off with his hand that the meat underneath was still, surprisingly, good.

Am I actually going to eat this?

Unsure whether it was his dehydration, mild starvation, lack of sleep, or any number of ailments he surely had now, after swimming in that cesspool, Luke put the meat away again.

Tempting as it was to eat it, he didn’t trust his own mind to make that decision.

Buried deep below all the pain was that familiar feeling of warmth and comfort that told him he had leveled up. And for it to be cutting through the agony, it had to be several at once.

Luke had an idea. He tried to get up.

It wasn’t a good idea. Likely one of the worst I’ve ever had, Luke admitted to himself with brutal honesty.

The wound in his leg throbbed and pulsed, forcing him to slide back down and hazily rethink his decision. Rolling up one pant leg of his slacks, Luke stared with horror at the hole in his calf.

The arrow must have been dislodged at some point. He could see straight through the muscle to the other side. Worse, red veins were crawling away from the wound in what he was sure was the direction of his heart.

It took every single point of his Willpower for Luke not to throw up. Maybe some Fortitude as well, if it worked like that. He did his best to focus on his breathing, rather than continue to stare at the infected wound.

When that wasn’t working, Luke desperately turned to his notifications, itching away at the back of his mind. There were… a lot.

Turns out, causing a tsunami of trash made the System credit the perpetrator with all the kills that resulted from the act.

There was something deeply useful about that, but Luke was hardly in the right frame of mind to figure it out. For now, he stashed that nugget of insight away to examine later.

Looking over the notifications for the deaths of his would-be assassins made him feel a little crummy. Not only because there were two missing notifications–4 instead of 6–but because a few of them were hilariously low level.

To the point that he wondered if Marcy and Henry had sent them intentionally to their deaths. Which only made him feel even dirtier than he did. Was he just used as a clean-up crew for some of their more problematic followers?

He noticed that there was no mimic defeat notification amongst them all. That accursed thing had survived.

Which… was fine. It was fine. He definitely didn’t get the sinking feeling that it bore a grudge toward him at all.

Despite his current state, he wondered how difficult the mimic would be to fight. Maybe it would have something more interesting and challenging than a simple charge attack like those rats.

Perhaps its loot would be good too.

I am going to look at every treasure chest I find with extreme suspicion from now on. No way am I going to get snatched by one of those, Luke thought.

He had killed an Archer and Mage, both level 4. As well as a level 3 Warrior and level 5 Mage. That last one, Gretchen McFarland, had far more Fate than anybody else. She had 10 points, which was unheard of and from what he understood, utterly impossible for her meager level 2 Human.

Was the Mage’s high Fate stat the reason she lived as long as she did?

All told, just from defending himself, Luke had gained another 15 Fate. Slightly more than a 50% bump since he last checked.

There had been a variety of little monsters, nothing more than level 8 in the mix, but enough of them had been killed that it didn’t matter.

Aside from the levels they granted, he gained a decent amount of LP from them when combined with what he earned from the assassins sent after him.

Missing 2 though,he reminded himself. He was willing to bet it was the Archer and Gladiator that had been chasing them. They seemed in charge, which meant they were likely higher level.

Somehow, those two had survived the fall. He didn’t know how, but then again, he didn’t know how he scraped by either. The gloves certainly helped.

He didn’t look forward to meeting them again. Hopefully, they were in a worse state than he was. Granted, that was fairly close to death as it was.

Luke particularly did not like thinking about that, so he busied himself in his System prompts.

Level Up! Your [Thief] Class has reached Level 13.

Stat points earned: +4 Strength, +6 Dexterity, +2 Perception, +2 Vitality, +2 Free Points.

Level Up! Your [Thief] Class has reached Level 14.

Stat points earned: +4 Strength, +6 Dexterity, +2 Perception, +2 Vitality, +2 Free Points.

Level Up! Your [Human (G-Grade)] Race has reached Level 7.

Stat points earned: +1 All Stats, +1 Fate, +1 Free Point.

Leveling up so many times certainly made him feel better. Of course, not being crushed under a mountain of pain would be ideal as well, but leveling up was welcome indeed.

Seeing the state his body was in, Luke tossed all 5 free points into Fortitude, hoping it would help him resist the infection and whatever else had gotten into his bloodstream.

Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but he did actually start to feel a little more clearheaded after adding those free points into Fortitude. Not much, but it was a slight reprieve all the same.

Additionally, all the level ups in Thief and that single level up in his race pushed his Vitality considerably higher and his Fortitude a little higher. Altogether, that would help his body pull through and recover easier, compared to having no increase in stats at all.

“It would be just my luck if I defeated all the assassins, surfed through the damned sewers, survived all attempts on my life… then got killed by a damned infection.”

Status

Name: Luke Solus

Race: Human (G-Grade - Level 7)

Class: Thief (Level 14)

Profession: N/A

Vital Resources

Health Points (HP): 81/420

Mana Points (MP): 17/190

Stamina Points (SP): 22/200

Stats

Strength: 55

Dexterity: 87 (+2)

Endurance: 20

Fortitude: 18 (+2)

Vitality: 42

Perception: 36

Willpower: 19

Wisdom: 19

Arcane: 14

Fate: 45

Free Points: 0

Luke grimaced at his vital resources. He didn’t remember spending that much stamina or mana, but he wasn’t exactly paying attention. His only focus had been staying alive.

At least his SP was a nice and even 200. Though it didn’t feel like much of an upside at the moment. His Fate was even higher than his Vitality now.

His HP was the lowest percentage he’d ever seen it. His mana was all but gone, and his stamina was tapped. It was almost as if something was attacking him on all three fronts.

As far as he knew, it was.

There was no telling what was in that water.

Suddenly feeling like his lungs were about to burst, Luke turned to the side and let out a rib-cracking cough that splattered his hand with flecks of blood.

Oh good. I’ve got that going on now.

There was only one bright spot to this rather dismal look into the future.

As his skull buzzed again, letting him know the Company Shop was only 2 minutes away now, another notification popped up.

Company Shop currently unavailable.

Time to Unlock: 0h:2m:0s

Fate Bonus: -45s

New Time to Unlock: 0h:1m:15s

Luke stared at the notification. Wait, I get to access the shop a second earlier for each point of Fate I have?