Chapter 32 - Understanding How To Play
Zenith's eyes were widened with shock and surprise; he didn't know what to make of the situation. "Cosmic Contrast?" He had no idea what the hell that was, let alone that he had a resonance ability unlocked. "It doesn't make sense. I don't feel like I have the ability. When did it happen?"
He pushed it aside for now, thinking a little about it. The stats window didn't seem to show much else, other than his health being 100% and his Resonance currently 99%, 1% down from using his abilities in the battle earlier. He tried other words. "Inventory, Equipment, Settings, Rules, uh, Ability list! Resonance ability list!?"
Yet all he got for each one was a simple [Unavailable]. He sighed, disheartened, but considered the situation. "If I'm getting a 5x reward for each enemy I'm killing, this alone is a freaking miracle. That being said, I'll have to take full advantage of this while progressing carefully. There's bound to be loot and other things hopefully."
Zenith then sped past the hallway. He wanted to test something, so he decided to go back and forth while running, and to his surprise, he got the [Enemy Encountered!] prompt again. This time it was a single Resonance creature. Before the thing even realized what had happened, he dispatched it for 25 XP.
"Bingo..." Snickering to himself, Zenith continued this pattern again and again. Each creature he killed would utter a disheartened wail of pain and discontent before dying. Finally, after finding another pair of 3 creatures and killing the final one of the trio, he heard a jingle sound that reminded him of Mirabell.
[Leveled Up! Health and Resonance have been Restored. Attributes have been increased by 2!] Zenith was excited. "Attributes!" He called out, getting a prompt right away.
[Strength: 25
Dexterity: 23
Intelligence: 26
Luck: E^$R$&R&O&$R
Charisma: 21
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable]
Zenith was confused right away when he saw that his luck had an error on it. It made him realize that his situation may be a little unique, the luck he suddenly had from Allspace and then his seemingly unlocked resonance ability he had no idea how to use. "Well, I can think about the situation later."
Grinning with a look that resembled Fable when he was feeling greedy, Zenith began to kill more creatures again and again, but he soon found the experience he was getting lessened a little. He was now only getting 35 upon killing three. After killing several dozen, he leveled up again, but ignoring it in the meantime, he tried to find more creatures, encountering a single resonant creature, and then slapping it to death onto the ground with his gauntlet. He looked at the prompt that came up. [No experience awarded due to skill difference.]
"Tsch, figures as much." Continuing further into the dungeon, he hadn't encountered much else. Though he saw 2 doors on the side of the dungeon, he rushed over and tried to open them but found nothing happened. [Iron key required] Zenith, though, wasn't really satisfied, or maybe he just wanted to see what rule he could bend. He tried every attack he could think of, but the door, let alone the bricks and ground of the dungeon, didn't even budge, only a simple [Iron key required].
"What sort of person was the individual who made this relic site? Did they like video games that much? Having that sort of power and being bored enough to do this, should I laugh or cry?" Zenith wasn't sure how to react. He couldn't deny, though, that he felt a bit of a thrill. He didn't know how the outside world would react to him finding a place like this; many would be crying from envy. "Heh," he grunted.
Walking a few steps away from the door, the combat prompt appeared. [Rare Creature Encounter!] Zenith looked surprised but not shocked; it was normal in RPGs for there to be rare creatures. What surprised him was that the creature, despite looking like the normal resonance creatures in form, was a size larger, with spikes on its back.
Zenith looked seriously at it and rushed over to try and end the battle quickly. But the creature was not stupid; it rushed too. And when Zenith punched out, the creature did so in return. When the two traded a blow, Zenith stumbled back a little while the creature did a few feet, but it caught itself and screeched, lunging at Zenith.
"Ok, fine!" He formed a longsword from his gauntlet and gripped it with both hands. With precision, while the creature was in mid-air, he slashed at it, cutting its right arm off cleanly as it screeched in pain and turned to tackle Zenith, hoping to impale him with its body spike. When Zenith's sword struck its back, it bounced off a bit, and the two separated again.
"Mighty Earth, Seize & Imprison!" Zenith spoke up the moment they parted. The creature, having barely gotten its footing and feeling its back hurt, suddenly found itself bound by pillars of earth that appeared out of nowhere.
"Gleaming Fire Burns A Path!" This was another low-ranked rune ability, Flame Sphere, he had read on the way to this place, given by Fable. He wanted to improve his skills in it. He willed the ability, though he felt he had gotten it wrong as a ball of fire formed in front of his left palm but seemed unstable before dispersing.
Zenith didn't look satisfied with his failure. The creature had taken this chance to destroy one of the pillars and escape the gap, but what it encountered was another batch of earth pillars from Zenith. This made it roar in fury and indignation.
"Shut up!" Zenith then attempted the Rune ability again. For some time, the creature was roaring in anger as it became Zenith's unofficial imprisoned test subject. Zenith, in the end, felt a little dizzy after casting the Earth Grip. Zenith rushed over and beheaded the resonance creature that seemed to accept its fate. [5x Reward: 500 Experience Awarded. Drops Found: Iron Key x1]
Zenith, who was reaching for a nutrient pack from his kit, looked shocked and surprised. He then looked at the ground and saw a normal-looking iron key. He reached down and grabbed it and looked around. He thought carefully for a moment and wisely decided to recover first.
"I almost got the hang of the Flame Sphere too. That thing gave quite a bit of experience. It's disgusting that I got a week of progress from just over an hour here; Fable would be crying if he knew what he missed out on." Zenith laughed inwardly.
After spending some time to accumulate his resonance, Zenith stood back up. He had been pondering about his resonance ability, but no matter what, he just couldn't figure out how to use it. "Forget it, I'll ask Fable or Jenabell when I'm back." He walked over to the wooden door while holding the key. He couldn't find any lock to insert it in, so he simply pressed the key against the door, and unsurprisingly, the key and the door both vanished into light particles.
The inside of the room was small and narrow with a single wooden chest and a torch. Zenith tilted his head a bit, and maybe still retaining some youthful nature, he rushed over to it and looked around to see if it was trapped or not.
"Well, it can't be bad since I had to kill a rare creature for a key." He then knelt down in front of the chest and opened it. His eyes widened in a bit of confusion. Reaching in, he pulled out the object. [Inventory unlocked: Potion of Regeneration Acquired.] It was a small vial of pink liquid that glistened a bit. "Information?" Zenith asked, shooting his shot into the wind, but pleasantly, he got an answer. [Restores 5% of base Health and Resonance per second for 1 minute. Usable only under level 20 for full effects.]
"Whoa! What a disgustingly overpowered thing," he spoke in awe. He couldn't imagine the credits he could rake in if he could make this; he had never heard of such an item before. But here it made sense as it was a game-like relic site.
He thought of storing the item, and suddenly it vanished instantly. Then he spoke the word "inventory" and saw a floating window with empty slots and a single one filled with the potion. He understood how to play a bit. "Ok, it's making more sense now. This is really a real-life video game relic site." Licking his lips, Zenith eagerly awaited what he might find behind the second door, so he rushed out and began to pace around back and forth, hoping to encounter another rare variant.