Socks, you can never find the second. Did it get lost in the washer, did you misplace it, or perhaps a boggart came in and stole it while you were sleeping? These deep philosophical questions plagued Hunter as he looked at his newest loot.

  Hunter had been fighting the Cowirds repeatedly, trying to get stronger, and he had inevitably gotten some loot. "Why only one?" he asked himself again, looking down at the boot, one of his two new armor pieces.

  He had gotten a left boot. It was a nice light brown, made of full-grain leather. It looked brand new, but he wasn't about to walk around in a single boot. He placed the footwear in his inventory as he looked at the other; it was a vambrace.

  Again, the vambrace was on its own. It fit on Hunter's right arm better than his left. It was matte silver in color and had interlocking segments leading all the way to the elbow. The metal was as light as aluminum, but when tested against the sharp beak of the Cowird in one of his fights, it hadn't even sustained a dent, so it was many times stronger than any metal he knew.

  Hunter had just returned from his last fight when a new screen appeared.

  ———————————————————————————————————————————

  Ability unlocked

  Amplify

  ———————————————————————————————————————————

  "Amplify," he said to himself, playing around with the word. "If this increases my abilities, I'll be invincible." Hunter liked the idea of this new ability but needed to find out what it did, so he did what any sane person would do.

  Hunter stood up and held his hands out in the most menacing look he could muster, then yelled, "AMPLIFY!"

  Nothing happened.

  A few more moments of nothing happening, and even he felt his face grow warm at trying that. "It was worth a try." He consoled himself.

  He tried a different method, saying it in his mind this time. Again, nothing happened.

  "Let's think this through." He said out loud, "If I have gotten this ability from my fights with the Cowirds, maybe it's a fighting ability." Hunter looked down at his barbed bone lying on the ground.

  Picking it up he again tried to mentally will his ability to manifest.

  To his surprise, it did. His weapon, which had been the size of a dagger, shook as it grew. Each part of it expanded, even the grip. It took only a few seconds until it stopped, and when it did, the barbed bone had grown to the size of a short sword. It now looked wicked, almost like a sharp tooth pulled from a dinosaur's mouth.

  He gave his new weapon a few test swings. It was easy to swing but had a good amount of weight behind it. Then something caught his attention. A new blue bar appeared in his vision, this one slowly lowering.

  "Blue?" he wondered, looking at his weapon. He placed the weapon down, and it started shrinking again. His new bar immediately started increasing again. "Not a cool down, then," he muttered.

  Picking the weapon up, he reactivated the ability. Suddenly, the bone grew again before his blue bar started lowering simultaneously. This time, he waited until the bar ran out. At that point, his weapon shrunk back to its dagger state. "Weird." He said, happy to have a better weapon in his arsenal.

  Hunter took in his work from the last few days. "Weeks?" Time was starting to blur for him. Now, only three-quarters of the roses were left. He had gained 24 xp just from eating them, and even though they tasted good, he was getting a little sick of the lack of variety.

  This made his mind wonder, "How many skill points have I gotten since I decided to stay and fight?" the amount of xp for fighting the Cowirds had started going down by two every four he had fought; that was part of why he decided to stop grinding for now, but in total, he had gained about 130 xp.

  Hunter had gained six levels, earning him thirty points to allocate. He placed eight into strength, durability, and agility. Although Hunter didn't know what intelligence or wisdom did yet, he didn't want to leave them in the dust, so he placed four into wisdom and two into intelligence.

  Hunter could see the difference in his body and in his fights with the Cowirds. His body was starting to put on some real muscle, and he could move much quicker than he had ever been able to on Earth. Even when he was hit by the Cowird, the wounds were much more minor and never life-threatening.

  Feeling accomplished, he pulled up his stats.

  ———————————————————————————————————————————

  Stats:

  Strength:

  17+1=(Hard-worker)

  Durability:

  16+3=(Hard-worker +2 from achievements)

  Agility:

  18+0=(-1 Sloth +1 Hard-worker)

  Intelligence:

  10+4=(+1 Hard-worker +1 Good Liar +1 Daydreamer +1 Prey)

  Wisdom:

  11+3=(+1 Hard-worker +1 Daydreamer +1 Prey)

  Level 12

  XP 194

  ———————————————————————————————————————————

  Hunter was also starting to feel more adept at using his weapon. If he was honest with himself, unless he was goofing around, he could easily kill the Cowirds without taking any hits.

  He felt a rush of excitement at that; he was ready. He walked up to the room he had gotten to know so well, the marble floor, every inch having been splattered with his blood in the last few days.

  This time, the Cowird was waiting in the middle, staring at him with its dark, beady eyes. Hunter stared back, activating his new skill and walking in. He even waited for it to lift its head into the air and screech, activating its blood-red eyes.

  The Cowird jumped.

  Hunter didn't even dodge. Instead, he stepped forward, catching the bird's beak on his glove, momentarily stunning it. Then, with one swing, he sliced its head in half, killing it.

  The expected notification appeared.

  ———————————————————————————————————————————

  You have killed Cowird-minion of Vegesteria. 3 xp earned

  ———————————————————————————————————————————

  Frowning, he looked at it. As well as the xp going down, the xp between levels was increasing. Unless he found new monsters to fight, he wouldn't be leveling up anytime soon.

  Hunter felt another rush of energy as he looked towards the next flight of stairs. He was definitely over-prepared, but now there was no way he could lose.

  Walking up, he was hit by the warm air like a wall and momentarily froze. It reminded him of home, always knowing if the weather said it would be 90 degrees to expect it to feel like 100.

  The longing he felt for that familiar mugginess was odd. He had hated it, but somehow, it made him long for it all the same. That feeling was short-lived, however, as he again spotted the quivering pile of roots in the middle of the floor.

  Hunter looked down at the grass. There was no wind, so it just stood there undisturbed. He stepped inside the room's boundary, reactivating his ability and laser-focused on the roots.

  "If it's stuck, I might be able to kill it without fighting," he thought, slowly making his way up to the root bundle.

  Then, standing above the root pile, it exploded.

  Hunter was thrown back hard against the invisible wall. Even with his new durability, he felt his back crack as he slid down it. He groaned, pushing against the wall with his arm as he got up.

  "What was that?" he questioned, looking back at the roots. To his surprise, the animal inside hadn't broken out; in fact, he doubted there was ever an animal inside. Instead, the roots had unfolded into a stringy mess of branches waving in each direction. The center that they had been curled in on was a lush pink flour reminiscence of a lily, only it was streaming green mucus.

  Hunter watched the flailing appendages, trying to see a pattern or way of attacking. They didn't look pleasant to be hit by and were slicing through the air fast enough to make a light whistling sound.

  With no way out and the blue meter ever decreasing, he started making his way forward. The flower's attack had no apparent pattern or method; it almost looked like the plant had no way of knowing where he was.

  Even so, he got just within the flower's striking distance and waited.

  Bam.

  A root struck his side hard, not hard enough to throw him this time but enough to leave a nasty welt that just broke the skin.

  Hunter gritted his teeth, trying to get ready for the next attack.

  This one came from below, aiming for something that would have definitely put him out of the battle; his body responded faster than ever, his sword coming down and slicing through the root,

  Hunter waited, trying to see a reaction from either the plant or the root. There was none; the root just lay there, and the now shorter appendage on the flower continued waving wildly.

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  He took another hesitant step forward.

  Two roots came at him, one aiming for his leg and the other his head.

  He struck at the one above him, slicing it in two; Hunter gritted his teeth to prepare for the second.

  It hit, striking his leg just above the knee and making his leg partially buckle.

  He groaned in pain, pushing back up as he prepared for another attack.

  Another one, this one aimed at his head,

  Ducking, he sliced sideways above him, slashing it.

  Another two these aimed for his head and side.

  He stepped back just out of the reach of the one going for his head and cut the one aiming for his side.

  He was only three steps away.

  One he didn't see hit his chest directly, kicking the air from him.

  Wheezing and through watered eyes, he sliced through another root.

  Two more.

  Two at once again, both were aiming for the same leg.

  He sliced through both.

  One more.

  Three roots came at him, one at his chest again, one to his side, and since he was close enough, one looped around toward his back.

  He sliced through the one at his chest and continued his momentum to the one going for his side.

  The one at his back hit.

  His bare back erupted with pain as it hit right under his shoulder blade. He cried out in pain as his hand almost let go of his sword.

  However, the hit inched him closer, and he took a half step, prepared to kill this flower.

  With his blue meter empty, his sword shrank back to a dagger. "No!" he screamed and lunged anyway.

  This close, with a small blade, he had to get right above it, and as he did, he was pelted with roots.

  The pain of a million strikes riddled him as he struck, plunging the blade into the flower's stem,

  The flower continued, turning his body into a pi?ata.

  He used the green mucus as a lubricant, twisting his knife repeatedly and cutting it from its base.

  The roots finally ran limp.

  Hunter slumped down onto the grass, letting it catch him.

  Everything stung, Hunter was brought up by a very strict dad, but even his beatings didn't compare to the state his body was in.

  Raising an arm, it was riddled with bruises and lacerations, blood slowly flowing from purple skin.

  His back was on fire; he could feel some blood flowing into the grass even as his bones twitched.

  Finally, he released the pressure in his head, and a notification appeared.

  ———————————————————————————————————————————

  You have killed plink-minion of Vegesteria. 15 xp earned

  ———————————————————————————————————————————

  "Still no level up," he muttered, wiping away some tears, "Damn, that was much worse than I expected. Should I go back down?"

  He felt empty at the thought—all that effort to make it here, and he could barely fight this plant. He looked at his red bar, "still four-fifths full. No, my health is still high." He felt the need to push on. He would see what was on the next floor. If he didn't like it, then he could turn back.

  Even though he was ready to go to the next floor, his body screamed for him to wait. He was tired. "Tired?" he thought. Now that he thought of it, he hadn't slept since... while Hunter hadn't slept since he got here. "Is it because of this body, or is it another thing the healing fog does?"

  Still in pain, he pushed himself up to a standing position. "The sooner I get this done, the sooner I get healed."

  The flower was already turning into dark smoke, significantly more than the Cowird. For only a second, he wondered if the smoke smelled the same, but he stopped himself from testing at the last moment.

  "Not worth it." He muttered, plugging his nose as he walked past.

  The feeling of mugginess suddenly disappearing as he walked upwards again surprised him. "It's almost like a greenhouse, "he thought," just without any doors to hold the heat and humidity in."

  A wave of dread and fear suddenly hit him like a truck, and he stumbled. Having to brace against the wall, Hunter looked around wildly to see why he felt like that. "Am I being attacked?"

  But no. As Hunter searched for the reason behind his sudden mood swing, he found an emptiness that had been building since he arrived at that last floor. "That room feels like home." He hated the mugginess, but it had always been a part of his life, and this room had brought a feeling of safety back to him for a few moments until it ripped it away just as quickly.

  Sitting down, he thought about what he left behind. "I wonder what their reactions were when I disappeared?" Hunter knew his family probably couldn't care less that he disappeared; in fact, they may have been delighted.

  "Some parents they were," he muttered before stopping himself. No, as bad as they were, I would have never met my friends if I wasn't royally messed up."

  He stopped himself from spiraling further. What he would miss was his friends; they were always with him. He and his friends had some of the craziest and, funnily enough, most sobering experiences ever. They understood him. They were his family.

  "I might be able to find a way back, " he said halfheartedly, but the lone thought of seeing his friends again was enough to push him to his feet. His friends deserved his best, even if it would fail in the end.

  Cresting the stairs, he looked into the next room.

  Brown, so much brown. Where the last room was bright, humid, and clean; this one was dark, cold, and dirty. Literally, multi-foot-long large spheres of dirt covered the room, and not only that, but the spheres also hovered mid-air.

  Each side of the room was dirt; there were small pathways he could squeeze through with about a foot to spare, but not without being surrounded by the dirt spheres.

  The room was dark, but it was more of a dim light than pitch black. Hunter looked for where the light came from but couldn't see anything. He looked down for his shadow so he could try to guess a direction, but he had none, not even the smallest bit.

  He held a cupped hand to his face, trying to see any darkness. In the cupped hand, the air lit up the inside as if it were the light source. "How does that work?" he asked himself. Hunter needed to write down all these questions so he could ask someone.

  Then, a reflection caught his eye. It was only there for an instant, then gone.

  He looked toward the center of the room, where he thought he saw it.

  Nothing, no sound, no movement. Hunter walked closer.

  Nothing.

  Hunter put his first foot onto the dirt. He knew that unless his whole body went in, the monsters wouldn't attack.

  That was when his foot slipped through the dirt and kept going, slurping as he fell into the mud.

  Everything smelled of Earth as he pulled his head back inches.

  It also tasted like Earth. Hunter spat out some rogue mud that had found its way into his mouth. "Gross," he thought. A reverberating feeling came from the mud; he could hear something in his bones.

  His bones vibrated with the sound, almost as if his skeleton were a tuning fork. His teeth rattled as he kept trying to find purchase in the slippery muck.

  Eventually, he found footing and stood up slowly; the vibrating stopped.

  A flash of silver appeared between two of the spheres.

  By the time he looked, it was gone.

  The sound appeared again, and his bones started vibrating.

  The amount they were vibrating was increasing.

  Hunter felt a primal fear; it was getting closer.

  He backed up, trying to at least have his back to the invisible wall.

  His foot hit the back. He stopped looking for any movement in front of him.

  His bones were starting to hurt as the noise increased.

  With a flash of silver to his left, he activated his ability.

  Another flash was only a few feet to his right.

  He gripped his sword harder.

  The vibrating almost made his brain feel numb.

  A flash in the mud to his left.

  He focused.

  The sound disappeared.

  Silence.

  The mud was perfectly still.

  His heart entered his throat as it pounded.

  More silence.

  A flash of silver was before him as jaws opened wide, aimed at his face.

  Hunter tried to bring his sword up, but it was too close.

  Multiple rows of teeth flew toward him, making a low vibrating sound.

  He was able to get his vambrace in front of him.

  The teeth latched onto his armor, making a reoccurring scratching, rumbling sound as they moved like a chainsaw, trying to tear it apart.

  The creature looked like a worm, only if it was five feet long, had silvery skin, and had teeth from hell itself.

  The monster had black eyes rounding its round head.

  Hunter jabbed his hand at its eyes, hoping that what worked for sharks would work here.

  His hand dug into its eye socket, causing its teeth to vibrate more and the screeching on his vambrace to reach a new crescendo.

  He pulled the wet flesh as hard as possible, causing a dark liquid to flow from its eye.

  The monster recoiled, releasing a low warbling that shook Hunter's bones.

  It slunk back into the mud.

  Hunter quickly examined his vambrace. It had minor scratches, but the monster's maw, however mighty, could not dent it.

  Hunter refocused, looking straight, using his peripheral vision to catch any movement.

  A flash to his left.

  "Let it get closer." He told himself.

  The vibrating returned.

  The vibrating to his right.

  "Don't trust it, it could be a trick."

  Louder than even last time, the vibrating almost made his brain turn into pudding.

  Gone, the sound disappeared.

  He waited.

  The flash of silver right in front again.

  It had breached the mud and was flying right at him.

  He brought his sword up lightning quick.

  This time, he was quick enough.

  One hand over the other, he braced.

  The monster bit down on his blade, this time making a rough grinding sound as its whole body weight from the jump pressed upon him.

  Hunter leaned back with the strike, wanting to use the invisible wall to brace himself, but he fell right through it.

  He, his sword, and the monster attached to it flew out of the mud and down the first few steps of the stairs.

  Hunter groaned as his back hit the hard wall, knocking a little air out.

  The monster out of the mud was still powerful. It held its jaw on the blade and jerked around like a dog with its toy.

  He brought up his other hand again and started striking the open wound, causing the flow of dark blood to become a river.

  The smell enraptured him, worse than the smoke. This blood smelled of an outhouse and burnt flesh. Even so, he continued relentlessly clawing at the beast's face, its focus still on his blade.

  His eyes burned with the smell.

  Then, finally, silence as the monster's body went limp.

  With almost nothing left to give, Hunter pushed the monster's weight off him, looking at the blinking blue bar.

  It was almost entirely empty. Hunter had nearly run out of time again, not having the energy. His health bar had gone down to half just from that fight. He could feel the scabs that had started to heal, freshly opened again and pouring blood.

  He let his mind release its frayed hold on the notification, and it appeared.

  ———————————————————————————————————————————

  You have killed Metal cestoda. 23 xp earned

  Level up, now level 13

  ———————————————————————————————————————————

  Still focused on his health bar, Hunter watched it rise a small chunk, bringing him a small amount of relief. "Finally, another level."

  Hunter quickly put three points into agility and two into strength. "I need more speed, and if I'm going to fight in this mud, I need more strength." This brought both of them to or above twenty.

  He sighed, feeling the rush of the stat gain on his body. It wasn't as great, but it still made him smile every time.

  Then his smile dropped. Why didn't the invisible wall stop him? Hadn't he felt it?

  Grunting, he got up and walked back over to the side of the mud pit. Looking down, the pit had a two-and-a-half-foot drop, and the sides were the same material as the floor, "So I felt the edge of the mud pool with my foot."

  "And I thought I was invincible." He laughed at his own ignorance. "Funny how the world puts you in your place." He was about to clear the notification when he noticed something—no, the lack of something.

  "Not a minion of Vegesteria?" He looked at the room and then at the metal cestoda's body, which was still there. He wasn't sure when it started, but the room was slowly falling apart. The mud was turning a lighter gray, and the room felt brighter.

  Hunter felt a chill at the worm's not disappearing, the lack of shadows, and the worm not being a minion. He hated not knowing what was happening, and all he knew at this moment was that this room didn't play by the same rules as the others, so he didn't want to stay.

  He walked past the worm on his way downstairs. He sat down when he reached the last step, waiting for his blue bar to refill.

  As he sat there, he took a minute to wipe off some mud that was still clinging to him. In the mugginess again, his mind returned to his time on Earth. "I even miss the traffic; that's how you know I'm losing it."

  His bar refilled before long, and he turned his attention to the middle of the room. There it was again, the plink. "At least this one plays by the rules," he said, standing up and walking toward it.