1 Chapter 1

Coughing, blood filled sputum, the plastic tube violently came out of my throat. Other unfamiliar fluids intermixed with the now exposed contents of stomach heaved once more, constellations of unknown origin danced in my vision like fireflies concealed behind my eyes. I rolled out of the chair I sat in and coughed once more; the feeling of the tube withdrawn after who knew how long left my throat aching with a disgusting emptiness.

The stars intermingled into bright novae of light, imploding in my head. I lay on the floor until my vision returned and my windpipe constricted normally again. Flashes of a different kind came to mind, memories. They came to me like a soldier on foreign soil, familiar, but odd and out of place. My body was heavier than it should have been, and I cried out in pain just trying to get off the floor. My sobs and me quietly trying to move through a puddle of my own bile were the only sounds that filled the dark room. Alone. I felt more alone now than I ever had.

I had never felt more tired and unable to sleep. Eventually, my own urine, warm and humiliating, joined the voided contents of my stomach. Shame, pain, fear, but determination as well. I would not give up. Not yet.

I started with my finger, twitching them slightly, just bending the joints left me breathless. I was practically drowning in my own urine and bile. I worked through the pain, tearing up until I was shouting in frustration and pain.

I took the time to breath and start over again. Breathe and twitch became my steady rhythm for what must have been hours until I could start to move my hand. My focus turned to my feet; my toes proved to be easier, and in hindsight I should have started with them.

I exerted myself until I couldn't anymore, so I would rest, then I would rest and reflect, I didn't have a huge field of view, but from what I could see, the place looked just like the lab I'd worked in for years, but older, ruined. Founder's Craft. The company had nearly become a household name, our virtual reality games had taken the online world by storm.

No, we were not the first full-immersion VR company, but we were quickly becoming one of the best. The last thing I could remember, was that I had been at work testing… something, what it was I could not seem to remember, but it had been a breakthrough in our developments. My memories were interrupted by empty spots, like burned film on a reel.

Flashes then holes. My attention turned back to my body, I felt like I had not moved in a long time. My muscles seemed to have deteriorated and yet, for how long it must have taken I was still alive, without outside intervention I should have been dead long before my body had atrophied so much.

The chair. No, a pod, a sudden flash in my memory, like the reel had been partially patched, a new memory recovered. We had been working on an extended-period immersion capsule, what was it the techs in medical had said? That the pod could keep someone alive for years with no intervention. Suddenly, without warning, something appeared before my eyes, it was like a video game interface, like a semi-transparent glowing pop-up.

Quest Complete: "Prior Life," piece together the past. I was dumbfounded, it was almost like one our games, except this was not a game, this was reality. But maybe… I opened my mouth and spoke with a voice that sounded older than time, "open status." The window disappeared and a new one took its place, what it said amazed me further.

Name: Andrew

Race: Human

Strength: -2 [Atrophy] Info

Dexterity: -2 [Atrophy] Info

Constitution: 0

Intelligence: 2

Wisdom: -1 [Partial Amnesia] Info

Charisma: 0

Skills: None

It was exactly like a video game! I took a second again and noticed what I assume were status effects that were lowering my already non-existent stats. Instead of speaking again, I focused on opening the effects information window, like how I would in one of our games. A smaller window opened over my status window, under the effect, that displayed additional info.

Atrophy: Prolonged immobilization has resulted in severe muscular degeneration, -2 to strength and dexterity.

I focused onto the other status effect and a window opened for it as well.

Partial Amnesia: You have undergone significant trauma resulting in partial memory loss, -1 to wisdom.

Nothing I did not already know, but what trauma was the system referring to? Just how long had I been out? I tried another video game trick and focused hard.

Inventory:

Pen

I.D. card

Cell phone [Uncharged] Info

Crumpled paper

Helpful, immensely helpful items. Despite my shock at these bizarre revelations they would not help me move or get up. I refocused my efforts back to my body, I found my arms heavy, but movable.

Effect Removed: [Atrophy]. Hard work and perseverance have allowed you to regain control of your body.

Suddenly, as if all my muscles simultaneously regained their strength I could move again! Again, I opened my status and looked over it.

Name: Andrew

Race: Human

Strength: 0

Dexterity: 0

Constitution: 0

Intelligence: 2

Wisdom: -1 [Partial Amnesia] Info

Charisma: 0

Skills:

Determination, 0 Info

The effects were mostly gone, but now I seemed to have a skill. I opened its info curiously and read it.

Determination 0: The odds of success in a task goes up 1% if you work continuously.

One percent was not much, but I assumed eventually the skill would level up and get better. I pushed myself off the ground and took a step forward and immediately hit my foot on a nearby table leg.

You take 1 bludgeoning damage from [Table].

Ouch, I had completely forgotten about damage, I opened my status and noticed a new stat under my race.

Health: 99/100

So, what would happen if I ran out of health, I wondered. Carefully stepping around the room as my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, I noticed more details. The room was more of a mess than I had realized, papers, chairs, and even computer monitors lay on the floor where they had fallen and never been retrieved. There was no one in sight and judging from the thick layer of dust that lay on everything, there had not been anyone here in a long time. Where were my colleagues, my friends, Charlie, my own brother? No, he had not come to work, I remembered. He had been on vacation, but where I could not remember.

The walls were cracked and puncture in places, an earthquake? No, it could not have been. The lab was not located anywhere near a fault line. Perhaps there was some sort of accident? There is only one way to find out. I pulled the heavy sliding door open, the door squealed as I pulled it. The magnetic locks must either be without power or broken.

The hallway was no better looking than my lab had been, the walls and ceiling here were also cracked, so much so that in some places chunks of the ceiling had broken off and fallen, cracking the tiled floor and scattering shards everywhere, revealing the hard concrete beneath it.

A window popped into my view, throwing off my train of thought.

New Skill Acquired: Analyze, 0

I do not think I will ever get used to those alerts. I opened the info window of the new skill and looked it over.

Analyze, 0: You can identify simple objects using deduction and from conclusions based off evidence.

So, a deductive skill. I wonder how it works, I looked back at the pile of debris and inwardly thought about analyzing it. A small alert popped up in front of the pile.

Pile of Debris: A small pile of miscellaneous pieces of a structure from extreme structural damage.

It was not anything I did not know already, but I assumed that if I leveled the skill up it would eventually tell me more. After a lot of aimless wandering looking for anyone or anything that could explain what had happened. I ended up sliding around a huge collapse in the ceiling that had left most of the hallway blocked and I found myself in the staff breakroom.

I really needed a change of clothes, looking at my own disgusting ensemble it was obvious I could not keep wearing it. I found the first one in a locker, he looked like he had tried to take cover in his locker only to become trapped. It explained why the body was still in such good shape, it wore a nametag that I read without touching. Lee, I remembered him, he had become an intern last summer. I closed the locker door and went to mine. The door was harder to open, but eventually I pulled it all the way on its squealing hinges. I found my pair of casual clothes that I remembered leaving inside, as I reached out to pick them an alert opened over them.

Founder's Craft T-shirt (Uncommon)

Quality: Normal

An old T-shirt portraying the Founder's Craft logo.

Blue Jeans (Common)

Quality: Normal

A pair of blue jeans mass produced by a clothing company.

I took them and put them on, I was about to leave the stained pair when the system stopped me.

Would you like to assimilate these items?

I confirmed curiously and watched as they seemed to glow and then shatter into what looked like fractals. It was as if they had turned into glass and shattered.

You can now make: Button-Up Shirt and Slacks

New Skill: Assimilate, 0: You can integrate some items into yourself.

New Skill: Tailoring, 0: You can make the most basic of clothing.

Huh, I had not thought about if there was going to be a crafting option. I opened it the same way I did the others, focus. The window quickly opened and displayed a small picture of the items I had assimilated and a components list, several tabs lined the top, listing groups of items, none of which I knew how to make. I looked back at the items and their components.

Button-Up Shirt

Durability: 5

Necessary Components: Cloth (5), Buttons (6)

Additional Components: Optional

Slacks

Durability: 5

Necessary Components: Cloth (7), Button

Additional Components: Optional

It seemed like making things would be easy and that I could add extra items, but I had none of the components and now was not the time for experimentation. I moved with a purpose towards the buildings main entrance, I found a few more bodies, these skeletons. As I examined them an alert opened in front of them.

Would you like to assimilate skeletons?

I wanted to leave them be, the dead deserved respect, but… when was I ever going to get another chance to find out what would happen? I mentally nodded and the window closed. A light violently flashed from the skeletons and as I watched they stood up! I had reanimated them like an amateur necromancer, they stood idly or wondered around aimlessly, they did not seem hostile at least to me. I noticed a new feature above them, a name. "Analyze," I thought.

[Skeletal Scientist]: A skeleton who in their past life was a scientist, they are smarter than normal skeletons.

A second alert popped up in front of the skeleton's info.

Minimum dungeon requirements met. Do you wish to become patron to the "Founder's Craft Ruins?"

A dungeon management system? No game I knew of on the market had one, that settled things for me. This all had to be real, it was not a game. I opted for the "patronage" and the window closed for a moment before another opened.

Welcome Champion, all usable creatures and objects nearby will be assimilated. A sudden feeling washed over me, like the feeling when you are falling, the empty feeling in your chest, then the sudden stop. I gasped, "open my status."

Name: Andrew

Race: Human

Health: 100/100

Mana: 120/120

Level: 2

Strength: 0

Dexterity: 0

Constitution: 0

Intelligence: 2

Wisdom: -1 [Partial Amnesia] Info

Charisma: 0

You have (3) unused skill points

Skills:

Analyze, 0 Info

Assimilation, 2 info

Determination, 0 Info

Tailoring, 0 Info

A lot had changed, I had leveled up and my assimilation seemed to have gone up a lot when I created the dungeon, not to mention the skill points and mana! I chose carefully, I put one in wisdom to even it out and then put one in strength and one in dexterity. I closed the window and glanced back at the skeletons, they just stared back at me. Creepy. I looked around before picking up a good-sized table leg and handed it to one of the skeletons. Its name suddenly changed.

[Scientific Skeleton Brawler]: A Skeletal Scientist that has acquired a close-range weapon or stronger than normal physical strength.

So, they could sort of level up to, its tag above its head also seemed to have changed from white to a pale blue. I spent a little while experimenting with the system before a new alert appeared.

It is pitch black; you are likely to be eaten by something.

What. Hold on, what? Something entered the room behind me, I turned to the creature, it was a large shadowy creature with long inhuman clawed fingers, deep violet eyes, and ears that reminded me of a bat. It moved almost silently towards me but made no attempt to attack me.

Grue, lvl 3 has proposed a trade.

A trade? Monsters usually did not or could not trade. In fact, there usually was not any kind of communication. I accepted and the Grue held out a small object in its hand.

Pitch Orb (Rare)

A pitch-black orb that seemingly absorbs light, it allows communication with dark creatures.

I took the orb, it had no warmth or cold, it was odd.

Grue lvl 3 is declaring its allegiance, do you accept?

What the… I looked at the grue, it crouched prostrate, one of its backwards jointed legs bent. I shifted slightly. If I misdid this I might get gutted by a monster. "Rise, I recognize your loyalty. Have you a name?" I really hoped it understood what I was saying. It stood tall, at least seven feet and I almost winced when I heard it… when I heard him speak, "I have no name my lord. I am merely a servant to you."

Ok, kind of weird. "No, you have shown your ability to set aside your pride, I name you… Onyx."

He bowed, "you do me great honor, to be named after one of the blackest of stones, I am yours."

I looked at the orb in my hand, very practical. I pocketed it before I noticed that the grue's tag had changed.

Onyx, lvl 5

He had leveled up twice just by being named. I had heard of similar mechanics in some other games, but it was bizarre to see in real life. I pinched the bridge of my nose, skeletons, shadow monsters, and dungeons were all reality now? It felt so absurd.