Chapter 7: RPG Stuff(1)

"You aren't going to believe this future me. I am straight up Sung Jinwoo from Solo Leveling. Ain't no fucking way bruh. This shit is so fucking hype like I can kill things and level up from it. SAO type shii. You know the part where Sung Jinwoo goes to the dungeon that's in the subway. That's literally me right now. He's me." 

- Dean's Diary

DEAN

November 11th(Veterans day), 2022 - 12:03 pm

"Today's the day huh?" I asked. "Finally some free time to check out the dungeon." 

Sitting down on my chair and with my boots up on my desk. Having the window open, letting the gentle breeze hit me. The sunlight hitting down my face. I took the key out of my inventory. 

"You think we'll find something cool?" 

'We will obviously. I just hope nothing is too dangerous for us.'

We'll be fine. 

'Don't get cocky now that you have powers, Dean. Arrogance is a downward spiral to death.' 

It's not arrogance, Gravitum, it's confidence. I put my feet down and got up to leave my room and into the living room. I put the key back in my inventory. 

"Hey Ren, tell mom and dad, I'll be back. I'm gon go hang out with friends." I lied. 

"Okay, Dean. Be safe." While getting a perfect score on the last song in Pararappa the Rapper on playstation. "Easy." 

I smiled and left the house. It didn't specify what train station, so I'll just go to the one at Richmond. It's closer. It didn't take long walking there. It took me 20 minutes to get there by walking normally. As I got closer, it gave me a prompt. 

(Please enter key)

I put the key in

(Key inserted)

Once I did, it's like the opacity of the world just went down. Everything was so transparent like I had x-ray vision able to see through walls.

(Please follow the path)

I looked forward and the path forward was highlighted by purple. Purple wind, arrows, and even lines on the roof, walls, and the floor guiding me which way to go. 

I went down the stairs. Some people walked past me and even through me. It turns out they also can't hear me either. I was startled at first but I retained my composure and went down. I kept going until I was at the station. 

(Please wait for the train)

I waited a bit for the train to pull up. When it did, people came out of it. When everyone was out of the train it gave me another prompt. 

(Please enter when User is ready)

'I don't think you can go back if you enter.' 

"It doesn't matter, I just want to get stronger."

'Is the price for power worth it? You don't have to do this, Dean.' 

"I know I don't have to do this, I want to. And the price for power? We'll see when we get there." I said to them as I went inside the train. The doors shut behind me. The lights inside and outside the train started flickering. Then all the lights disappeared. Some seconds passed and the lights in the trains became purple fluorescent lights. Outside of the train was pitch black. 

Once the train moved, it felt like a roller coaster going down. The train began to break apart and then disappear into nothing. As I'm floating in a black void. I couldn't move just floating in circles by the void. Out of nowhere, I was being pulled somewhere. I feel like I'm getting dragged from my back across the void. I was being dragged so fast that I wanted to puke but I couldn't. I still couldn't move. Everything felt so cold like frozen in ice. I was too slow to process, I didn't know but my vision is now filled with stars. Millions of them. I didn't know but I can feel my body heating up while going down. 

Like falling back down to Earth. Moments later, it turns out I literally am falling back down to Earth. Entering orbit and still falling down. My back facing towards the Earth. Passing through clouds after clouds. And I somehow broke the sound barrier which was kool. I couldn't turn my body to see what's behind me. I could only see the stars, the blue sky, and the clouds farther and farther from my view. As I kept going down, leaves and trees began to fill my field of vision. 

A loud explosion occurred and I passed out. 

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3:09 p.m. 

Fuck. My head hurts. I turned over to my side and tried to get up. At least I don't have to p-. I vomited on the floor. And there goes my breakfast. I checked the interface clock and it's 3:09 p.m. It seems I was out for about 3 hours. I pulled myself up. 

I checked my surroundings. The ground where I was standing was a small crater in the middle of a forest. Most of the trees around me were burnt. Some were still on fire so I decided to put them out with water. 

After I had done so, I decided to wander around. There was so much vegetation everywhere that I felt like I was going back and forth in places. I wish there was a map or something. 

(Mini-map Unlocked)

Wow, thank you system. I kept walking forward. "Where do you think we're at?"

'I don't know. What does the map say?'

It just says unknown location. Everything is foggy and the only way to get rid of it is by walking continuously. 

'Hmm weird. We could be anywhere. A dungeon that resembles Earth, another planet, another world. We won't know until we meet with the locals.' 

 Locals? I think I can find some. I hear some talking deeper in the forest. As I got closer to the noise, I heard movement like running away. When I got to the place where there was talking all there was, was a girl with glasses and a bull cut that had on tattered clothes in the middle of the forest and aimed her bow at me. 

"Woah, woah woah woah," I put my hands up. "I'm friendly." 

"Who the fuck are you?" she asked. 

"Chill, chill, my name is Dean." I said while my hands were still in the air. "Can you please put the bow down." 

"No, how did you find us?" 

"I just woke up and wandered around the woods."

"Like I believe that." 

"It's the truth." 

"I don't think he's lying, Dani." A girl with blue hair came behind the tree. "Just put the bow down. I don't think he'll hurt us like those monsters." 

"Fine, Daniela." Dani put her bow down and it disappeared from existence. "But if you do something fishy, I won't hesitate to put an arrow through your skull." 

"That's fair." Realizing her bow disappeared. "Where did your bow go?"

"To my inventory." She replied. 

Before I can ask more questions. "You both can come out now." Daniela said. 

Two girls came out with a dude on a wheelbarrow. One of the girls had stripes of green and black wolf cut hair and also had tattered clothes. The other one had long curly brown hair and she too had tattered clothes. The guy on the wheelbarrow didn't, he had normal clothes on. A jacket and sweatpants. 

"What are you guys doing out here?" I looked at them. "What happened to you guys? And what happened to him?" 

"The world did." The girl with striped green and black hair said. 

"Prato." The girl with curly brown hair said. 

"It's the truth, Allice." 

"I don't understand?" I asked. 

"What do you mean you don't understand? The world has gone to shit. Monsters are spawning and they're killing innocent civilians, somehow the fucking land is being terraformed, a game like system interface appeared and everyone has powers and classes like in rpg games." Dani replied. 

"Oh shit, that's crazy." None of this ever happened in my world. So where the fuck am I? Wait… world?

 "What planet is this?" 

"Earth." They responded with weird glances at me.

"Okay at least something is the same. What year though?" 

"2020." Daniela answered. 

"Oh… Okay what the fuck…" I put my thumb over my lips. 2 years before 2022. What is going on? "Wait, you guys never had a pandemic?" 

"What pandemic?" 

"Oh my fucking god. You're telling me I got isekai'd right now." I put both my hands on my forehead. I started pacing back and forth. 

"We don't know what you're talking about. You sound crazy." 

"You sure I can't shoot him?" Dani asked. 

"No." We both said. "I'm from a different universe, dimension, uh world whatever." 

"Prove it." Dani said. 

"I don't know how to prove it." I shrugged and put my hands out. "Okay look, in my timeline, world whatever we never had the system initiation or whatever bullshit is happening to your world right now. All we had was a flu-like pandemic during this time. That's it, nothing else and the world recovered in a year or so as we rushed to make vaccines." 

"Sounds tame compared to ours." 

"Yeah I know. It is." 

"But that begs the real question, how are you here?" Daniela asked. 

"That is a long story." 

"We've got nothing but time." 

"To make a story short, I had a system initiation but only for me. From what I can tell the only person I know who has it in my world is me. It gave me a key to a dungeon in my initiation." 

"See it wasn't that long." Dani said. 

"That's… odd." Daniela said. 

"It is. I don't know why I was chosen." I sensed danger coming from deeper into the woods. I was about to move till Daniela grabbed my arm. 

"Don't move. They don't know we're here." 

"How?"

"Questions later. Just don't talk or move until I say so." Right after she said that, you could hear loud noises of howling, growling, and a rumbling coming toward us. 

Hundreds of monsters came out of the trees and ran past us like we weren't even there. As soon as we heard nothing coming from behind us, Daniela said. "We should be fine now." 

"How did they not see us?" I asked. 

She pointed towards the dude on the wheelbarrow. "That is Longnern. After touching the book, the world went into shit so I don't think you can rule it out as a coincidence. Monsters don't see us because of the book we've tested before. Don't ask if it goes any deeper than that because we don't know." 

"Cool name. What happens if you attack the monsters?" 

"That monster and only that monster you attack becomes aggro on you." 

"That's broken as fuck." 

"It is, we've been abusing it to get stronger." 

"What happens when you leave him?" 

"We didn't measure the range of how far till we leave the safe zone of the book but we know that once the monsters lock onto you, they won't stop aggroing you until you are far away or kill them." 

"Damn." 

"We should get going." 

"Yeah." 

We kept walking forward where the monsters came from. Me and Daniela were ahead of the group while the other three were behind us. I turned to look at Prato pushing the wheelbarrow that Longnern was in behind me and Daniela. 

"So how did you guys end up in this forest." I asked. 

"We don't know. When Longnern opened the book in the library at our high school, we all passed out so I assumed the world did too." Daniela said. "Right after we woke up, the library was filled with trees and plants. As we left, we realized only the library was standing no part of the school was nowhere to be seen. No one was also there after we woke up, it's like the whole school was a ghost town." 

"Can I touch the book?"

"If you want." Dani said.

'DON'T TOUCH THE BOOK'

Quest: (Don't touch the book)

Penalty: (Death)

Alright, I guess I won't. 

"Dani stop it." 

"What? I didn't do anything."

"You know that touching the book drained us of our health and mana. I don't wanna hear it."

"Fine, I'll be nicer." 

"Alright change of topic, how long has it been since the world was like this?" I asked. 

"A week." 

"I'm sorry." 

"Don't be." 

"I don't care for whatever reason a god would do this but he can kill himself." 

"How do you know it's a he?"

"I have a feeling it is." 

"So where are we going?" 

"I don't know." 

"So, you're saying we've been walking all this time with no sense of direction?" 

"Yes."

"That's crazy. Uh, so where are we heading to then?"

"We're just looking for other survivors." 

"Huh." 

"What do you mean, huh?"

"I was sent here for a reason but I just don't know why. Like what am I supposed to do?" 

"Uh-"

"Don't answer it. I know you don't have the answer to my questions. It's fine. I'm just wondering if I can go back home." 

"I know how you feel. You're welcome to stay with us in the mean time." 

"Thank you."

"It's the least we could do." 

"Can you scan something for me?"

"Sure." Daniela pulled a shield out of her inventory and tossed it to me. 

"I can only see the name of it and the level requirement but not the stats or abilities." 

I scanned it. 

Valkyrie Exotic shield(Legendary)

Description: 40+ Strength, 40+ Endurance, 20+ Vitality, 5+ Agility, 5+ Dexterity when equipped. These stats are doubled when user's hp is below half. These stats are tripled when user hp is below 25%. Shield's durability also doubles or triples depending on user stats. Shield can store incoming damage to be reflected back. User can see the progress bar when reflection is available. Permanently bonded with Daniela Sandles. Requirement: Level 10. 

"It says you gain 40 strength, 40 endurance, 20 vitality, 5 agility, 5 dexterity when you equip the shield. Stats are doubled when your hp is below and are tripled when your below 25% hp. You have the ability to reflect damage back and it even shows a progress bar of how much damage you need to receive to reflect the damage back. Seems broken as fuck." 

"WHAT! It does all that? What the fuck but okay I need to calm down. That's really weird for us when we tried to identify it, it's just question marks. Only thing I can see is the name of the shield, how it's permanently bonded to me, and the level requirement." 

"Yeah I don't know why."

"What level is your identify?"

"Level?"

"You don't have a level on identify?"

"No, I don't have a level on it." 

"Weird." 

"Yeah." 

"Our identify level might be too low and yours doesn't even have a number. Maybe that means yours is maxed out?" 

"Maybe." I shrugged. "Even I don't know the answers to that. Where'd you even get the shield?"

"I got it when I got my class basically. We all got specific items tied to our class. My class is Valkyrie. We protect heroes. Did you receive a specific item for your class?" 

"Nah, I didn't. The katana I picked up and the pure spirits I bonded with gave me the ability to meet the creator of the universes. Then he or she, I don't get their pronouns but they gave me the system. I never received the items."

"You met the creator?" 

"I did, maybe, I don't know what it is. Maybe it is or isn't I don't know I'm confused on that." 

"Well, it seems like they meant for you to receive the sword and the spirits."

"Maybe but I highly doubt that." 

"Why? You don't have faith?"

"I do its just I don't know what to believe anymore."

"Yeah I get that but Survival is all that matters. We wasted some time worrying thinking about it and I don't wanna waste more time thinking about it. Let's see if our system interface is different. Here, accept my invite to the party."

"Uh okay." 

Daniela Sandles has invited you to her party

Would you like to join?

(Accept) (Decline)

"Okay I accepted it." 

You have accepted her invite. 

"Wait for it." 

You have join Daniela's party.

"Woah, I can see all your health and mana. Even your items but not your stats for some reason." 

"You can toggle making your stats public or not. Really depends on you."

"Oh." 

"It's not that we don't trust you, it's just a safety precaution." 

"No it's fine I get it." 

The ground rumbled. The ground began to break apart. We all separated and ran away. Pieces of the land began to rise up. Two gigantic hands rose through the ground and slammed both their palms on the ground. They began to pull the rest of its body up. A mountain giant with trees on it back formed in the middle of the rubble and began to stand up. 

What the fuck is happening. We scanned the giant. 

FOREST TITAN

"Can't have shit in Richmond." 

I identified the giant which tells me its description. 

Description: With mastery over terrain but specializes in nature. The forest titan movement is incredibly slow. The giant relies heavily on projectiles rather striking with its body. With its usage of its core, it can teleport anywhere in a 50 miles radius. After it teleports it has to reform its body by pulling the terrain out of the ground. Its core is it weakness. 

"Alright, the giant still doesn't see us due to being close with Longnern." As Dani said while we all regroup back to Longnern. "So we don't have to fight him and can just go around him or wait it out till it leaves.

"Yeah, I'm down to do that." I said, agreeing with what Dani suggested. 

Quest: (Slay the Forest Titan)

Reward: (Portal back to your world)

Bonus reward will be adjusted once User completes quest.

My eyes widen with the new notification I got. I can see the others, standing still reading the quest we all received too. Slaying the giant will finish the quest and I can go home. Why did it take this long for it to give me a quest to go back home earlier? Why didn't the system give me this quest when I first got to this world? I could've finished it way earlier. Something's up. 

"Did you receive a quest to slay the forest giant, Dean?" Daniela asked.

"Uh yeah, I assume you all did?" They all nodded. 

"Making an assumption but I assume your reward is differ from ours since you're not from this universe." 

"Maybe, the reward I would receive if we slain the giant is a portal back home to my world."

"That's good. I wish we can all join you back to your world but I'm pretty sure the system won't let us." 

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." She smiled. "Our reward is a countdown to when Longnern wakes up." 

"That's good, you guys have something to look forward to."