Did you know that human evolution would probably be delayed by hundreds of thousands of years if we hadn’t discovered fire when we did? Well, we might also have gone extinct without fire, but shhhh. With the ability to create fire, cave dwellers were able to provide warmth to survive cold winters, cook food, and increase their activity time into the night. With all that new-found time on their hands, they began to think, make tools, and develop culture. Eventually, when the dinosaurs were killed off, humanity was able to expand its activity regions rapidly and began to modernize over several centuries.
All because of fire. Which I didn’t have.
I was beginning to think that this trip outside of the character creation area was taking a while before I realized something. It’s dark, cold, and damp. I can’t see anything in front of me. And it hadn’t felt like we were moving for quite some time.
.
Scritch Scritch Scritch.
.
.
I want to go home. Uwaaaaa. I got dumped somewhere underground and I can’t see anything! It’s seriously scary when you can’t even see your hand in front of your face! It’s just this pitch black darkness surrounding me on all sides. What’s even scarier is that I haven’t even bumped into a wall, I’m just aimlessly wandering around hoping to run into something. I can even hear all the small noises of things moving around me because of <<Perception>> which improved my hearing.
Terrifying. I’m certain that they’re somewhere close to me, but it’s impossible to tell where exactly. They’re moving out of my way, but that makes it even scarier to think whatever if making way for me is also following me. I’ve been trying to avoid the direction where I can hear them, but it’s like the skittering noises are everywhere I try to go. All I’m doing is listening for the noises and heading away from them.
<<Perception has advanced to Lv. 2.>>
Gee thanks. Just what I wanted. I don’t think anything even changed, because I certainly can’t tell. I’m scared!
<<Arachnophobia Lv. 1 has been acquired>>
Arachnophobia: Prolonged proximity/contact to creatures of the arachnid species will induce the status condition of Panic. Higher levels of this skill allow less time to be needed for Panic to be induced and may upgrade Panic to more debilitating statuses.
. . . Hey hey hey hey hey hey. What just happened. Arachnophobia? There’s no way those can be spiders. Seriously? Spiders stick to their webs, right? They don’t crawl all over the ground.
Suddenly, all the noises around me just stopped. You’d think I would be happy. Ya nai. This is like a bad horror flick.
<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 2.>>
<<Perception has advanced to Lv. 3.>>
<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 3.>>
<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 4.>>
The worst part is not being able to see. Being left in the dark robbed me of vital information on how I should make plans for survival. Should I learn a skill for night vision? Or maybe sonar? Or was there something else that would help me more? I only have 2 skill points left though. What am I supposed to do about the spiders? Stare them to death with night vision? I bet these spiders are humongous and there must be tons of them. Would they leap at me as soon as I can see them? Would a single bite kill me? I barely have any resistance to poison if they’re toxic. I don’t want to die!
<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 5.>>
<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 6>>
Can <<Arachnophobia>> stop levelling up?! Before I had even realized, the menu screen was already in front of me, glowing faintly in the dark. Not enough to see anything around me except my hand though.
<<Status: Panic has been applied.>>
Oh jeez. Oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez. It was as if everything was waiting for me to make a mistake. Should I just learn a shield skill to protect myself? But I have no way to fight back, I’ll just be battered till I die! Why is it so hard to think of things? Is this the effect of panic? Are you telling me the <<Panic>> status makes me panic?
That skill? Yes, that skill! I’ll take it!
<<Vulka Lv. 1 has been acquired.>>
Vulka: A fire-type magic that deals low fixed damage for a low mana cost. Summons a small will-o-wisp like flame that follows the caster. Unaffected by the INT stat.
ATK: 2 MP: 1
“Vulka!”
Agh! My eyes! Why didn’t I think this through? It’s so bright my eyes are tearing up. I groaned as I held my hands to my face and bent over in pain. I’m not going to go blind from this am I? It’s not like looking at the sun is it? Luckily, the things around me were just as vulnerable to the sudden light as I was and ran off screeching. If they hadn’t, I would’ve been a nearly perfect target since I had basically blinded myself. As soon as I recovered though, there was a much larger issue on hand than nearly going blind.
“W-wha..”
<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 7.>>
<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 8.>>
<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 9.>>
<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 10.>>
<<The Arachnophobia skill has been maxed.>>
<<Willpower decrease has been negated by Mental Fortitude.>>
<<Insanity has been negated by Mental Fortitude.>>
I couldn’t even make a move. I was too terrified to, because right in front of me was a gigantic white spider with shining red eyes. Although I wanted to stay still and not move an inch, not even to breathe, my legs gave out from underneath me. I could feel a warm feeling spreading in my lower body. Slowly backing away was no longer an option. My breathing rapidly quickened and my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.
I ran. Left. Right. Left. Right. Even as I stumbled I kept on running. That’s the only thing that mattered right now. I should have been running so much sooner. Why didn’t I start running sooner?!
<<Procrastination has succeeded. Action speed increase by 500% with 1000% resource usage buff has been applied.>>
Anywhere but here was better.
Recastdev 