ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter Two: At Night Crept

I was facing the ground, so my view was limited to the dark stone of the cavern floor, but it was enough to tell that I was being moved somewhere. I was slowly swaying back in forth in time with the clicking sounds of hard feet on stone.

I vaguely remembered learning that the best time to escape capture was during transportation. If I was going to act, it needed to be now. Likely the creature would believe me still paralyzed by the venom, which gave me a single chance. After that I would lose the element of surprise. Unable to move other than to blink, I had no choice but to put my faith into this new system of skills and feats that seemed to have replaced sanity and common sense.

Every time I closed my eyes I still saw the burning red eye glaring down at me as tendrils of darkness devoured my world. Perhaps, as it claimed, this Hegemony of Worlds was able to stop that destruction, or perhaps had been behind it all along. Either way, I would use everything that had been offered to me and find a way to escape and survive in this new hell. Hopefully some of my old world, and my old life, would remain.

I quickly thought "stats" and a screen, hopefully invisible to others, appeared about twelve inches in front of my eyes. My physical and mental stats ran from six to eleven, with intelligence being my highest. Eleven hardly seemed impressive, however, as my perception was ten – this was likely a representation of my average eyesight of 20/20. From this I decided that 10 was likely the average stat, and that my degraded physical stats were a biproduct of the relative ease of surviving in the modern world.

Looking at "Strength" a message explaining it was presented, the system was intuitive and capable of responding to my intentions, it seemed. A useful invasion of privacy, as far as mind reading goes.

Strength is a measure of your physical capabilities. Strong individuals can punch harder, jump higher, and run faster. As your strength improves your muscles will become denser and more responsive, increasing the amount you can carry, your melee damage, and your speed in and out of combat. Each point increases Health by one.

It looked promising, but I wasn't sure the three points of unallocated stats I had would be enough to break the silk webbing that had bound my body. I quickly scrolled through my other stats and skills, but nothing seemed likely to aid my escape. Looking again, a thought struck me.

If I'm not smart enough to think of a solution, maybe I should make myself smarter?

It was crazy, and I was wary of letting this new system mess with my mind. I could let it increase the density of my muscles or the flexibility of my joints and tendons and remain me, but if it made me smarter would my mind still be my own? How does the system even measure intelligence, maybe it would just turn me into an automaton unable to think creatively or imagine any solution outside of a set of pre-decided parameters? I would have my memories but lose my humanity.

Concentrating on the stat brought up its description once more.

Intelligence is a measure of the speed and adaptability of your mind, as well as your ability to notice and interpret patterns. Intelligent individuals can solve problems faster, learn more quickly, and remember things longer and with more clarity. Each point of intelligence increases Mana by 5.

It wouldn't break my bonds, but it could possible help me to find a solution I wasn't seeing. Having decided, I stopped hesitating and mentally clicked on the (+) next to intelligence three times.

Congratulations! You have put three points into a single stat before completing the tutorial!! You have unlocked the feat(s) – Able Learner ®

Able Learner ® - Having focused on Intelligence during the earliest part of your training you find that you are more easily able to pick up new ideas and concepts. Where others struggle to learn new skills, you are adept at it. Decreases the difficulty of learning new skills and increases the rate at which you improve Intelligence based skills!!