2 Arrival
Within the shadow crawler den, moments after Mina fell to the floor, every living thing, suddenly and quietly, collapsed.
Mina, Erick, Tale, Kuya, Prica, the Fenex, the Rock Snapper, and the shadow crawlers. All of them lay on the ground, their lives reaped by an unseen and unstoppable force, that of the system itself.
An eerie silence replaced the previously frenzied atmosphere found throughout the maze. Battles that were being waged fell silent, explorers that were mapping or arduously solving puzzles fell silent, creatures that had been prowling the maze for prey fell silent, all within the maze fell silent, but for one place.
A few feet away from Mina's corpse, a portal burst into existence. Winds howled through the crawler den as air rushed into the portal, trying to fill the empty space beyond.
The wavering blue glow of the portal illuminated the grim reminders of the fight for survival that had been raging minutes ago. Thousands of shadow crawlers were tangled together, forming a mountain of legs, mandibles, and keen, sickle-like arms. Their antennae hung limp, dangling freely from their heads, a sure sign that every crawler within the den had died.
Perhaps the most ghastly sight to be found was that of the Rock Snapper's corpse, still standing, locked in eternal combat with the adult crawler that had died stuck in the iron grip of the crab's pincers.
The portal's glow flickered once, then twice, and finally a third time before spitting out a repulsive, inhuman creature onto the maze's smooth, frigid floor.
Having delivered what it needed to, the portal vanished with a *ziiip*, whence it came.
[Wicked Circles of Sin Evocation complete! Destination reached!]
[Your Evocator has died!]
[Evocation bonds have been released!]
The evoked creature lay still on the floor, attempting to understand its current situation.
It could somehow understand what those intruding messages meant, but that only made its confusion grow.
Where was this place? It knew that mere moments ago, it had been wandering the Silent Plains when it was suddenly beset by a seemingly unstoppable blue foe.
At first, it was glad. Finally, a challenger had appeared in its domain, but then it realized whatever this challenger was, it wasn't something it could defeat. Indeed, no matter what it did, it could not stop this blue enemy from chasing after it.
Once it was certain this enemy was far beyond itself, it became depressed. After all this time, when a challenger finally appeared, it was not even able to have a proper battle.
Unwilling to shame itself further, it stopped and allowed the overwhelming blue enemy to swallow it whole.
However, instead of dying, it seemed to have been taken by the blue challenger to where it now lay. While it was still confused, there was nothing stopping it from observing its surrounding.
And as it looked around, it was thoroughly shocked. Not because of the carnage and death that could be seen anywhere you looked in the den, no, it was the fact that there were any corpses at all that shocked it to its core.
It was positively livid at the sight of fresh corpses, something it never thought it would ever see. After all, back in the Silent Plains, there was nothing but bones covering every inch of ground in sight. And as far as it had known, it was the only living creature to be found in the entirety of the Silent Plains, so being confronted with real signs of life for the first time in its own life made it absolutely ecstatic.
It now also realized that blue foe might not have been an enemy. Instead, it could only think of it as a savior.
[Dimensional incompatibility detected!]
[Initializing new status setup!]
[Adjusting entity dimensional properties for System Assimilation!]
[Compensating for missing data!]
[Status setup in progress...]
[Status setup complete! Please say or think of the word "Status" to view your status!]
The sudden barrage of messages caught it off guard, but it was pleased that this place seemed to be accepting its presence, not unlike that other area it once glimpsed on the horizon, beyond the Silent Plains. A place it had yearned to explore but sadly could not since the whole place seemed to move further away every time it tried to get closer.
The creature lingered on its desolate memories for a moment before slowly turning its attention back to the situation at hand.
The message said to think of or say the word, "Status," didn't it?
[Name: ???????]
Age: ???
Species: ???
Race: ???
???: None
HP: ???
SP: ???
MU: ???
Attributes:
??? = 4
??? = 1
??? = 0
??? = 0
??? = 9
??? = 7
??? = 7
??? = 8
??? = -15
??? = 2
??? = 0
??? = 2
Skills:
???: C
???: I
???: I
???: I
???: I
???: I
???: I
???: I
Perks:
??? (MAX)
Deeds:
Impairments:
???
???
[------]
Now, this was new. It certainly didn't have this back in the Silent Plains. And the first thing that caught its eye was the first line. The question marks that obscured its name confused it since it doesn't remember ever being given a name that was that long.
Thinking back on it...
It could only wonder how the only other resident of the Silent Plains must be feeling after its disappearance.
It could imagine Joel being quite indifferent to what's happened, after all, Joel never really moved around much or even talked very much for that matter. He'd only ever given it a name and occasionally spouted incomprehensible words.
It was certain Joel had called it D, and that was how it came to refer to itself as well because if it was not D, then what else could it call itself?
[Display Name has been updated!]
