The head guard, who was currently walking beside Anjou with his two compatriots in tow, had introduced himself as Takrin. After giving Erin a bag of coins, he had let him on his way and escorted her down a different path.
“I have a question,” Anjou said.
Takrin stopped and got into her face. He spoke with a low growl. “No I have a question for you. Why is it you otherworlders are so naive as to think that when you come to our world, we would welcome you with open arms.”
“What?”
“Surpised?” Takrin spat on the ground. “Everyone on the continent knows who you Eaters are. Souls from other worlds that decide to come here and defile ours.”
“I haven’t defiled anything,” Anjou protested. “You think I want to be here?”
“And you think I give a damn about what you want? You defiled our world the moment those cores passed your lips. I don’t know who you were before, but here, we’ve had enough of you would-be heroes.”
“First off,” Anjou growled back, keeping her voice low and threatening, “your breath smells like fish and alcohol. Not a good combination if you ask me. And secondly, do you think you’ll be able to do anything to me? Your mistake was not tying my hands up when you arrested me, because I’m about to knock your block off and then I’m breaking those twigs over there, and the spears of course.”
Takrin smiled. “And your mistake little rabbit, was letting me get in close.” He made a quick motion and a sharp pain exploded from Anjou’s stomach. She looked down. A small knife protruded from her body and blood began to drip out and onto the ground. “You see, we have to take care of you Eaters before you get too powerful, and we pay handsomely for anyone who allows us the pleasure.”
Anjou tried to speak, but her mouth wouldn’t move. It became the same for her arms and legs, every part of her body. She couldn’t even lift her head. She had no choice but to watch as more blood poured out of her and splashed onto the ground.
“Lovely isn’t it,” Takrin whispered, almost seductively. “This blade is infused with a core that causes paralysis. We may not be able to consume them like you can, but we have our own ways.” His words became distant as Anjou’s vision began to cloud with blackness. And as the darkness consumed her, everything faded until there was nothing.
—
Ting Ting. Ting Ting. Ting Ting.
Anjou’s alarm clock went off. It was a loud brassy sound and was always just annoying enough that it gave her the motivation to get out of bed and turn it off. In order to turn it off she would have to walk over her dresser. That was David’s idea. But as the noise persisted it sounded off. The sound was more hollow and the timing of the pattern was too quick.
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Opening her eyes, Anjou was surprised to see that she wasn’t looking up at her bedroom ceiling. Instead she saw a bright yellow spot that hung far above her and it was in that moment that everything hit her. Both the memories and the pain struck her like a car. And on top of that, the alarm sound refused to stop. She looked around and finally spotted the plus sign in the corner of her vision. The one for her information windows. It was pulsating red in time with the tinging sound.
Slowly raising her hand, she pressed it and the windows popped up. None of the information had changed except for her health which currently read 2 out of 10. Unable to move much, she felt around her stomach. Her hand came back red and sticky.
Her eyes finally adjusted to the low light and Anjou saw that she was at the bottom of a well. The stone work of the circular wall was rougher than one would see on Earth, but it was unmistakable. Takrin must’ve thrown her down there after he had stabbed her, which begged the question, how did she survive?
By her estimate, she had been down there at least a few hours if not a day. Perhaps the blood had congealed enough that she hadn’t bled out. The answer came when she lowered her hand to the ground and felt something cold and squishy. She felt around and managed to grab a mass of something.
It was a slug-looking thing only larger and with bluish-purple skin, and about six times as slimy as the ones back home. A large glob of goo fell of the slug and splashed onto Anjou’s face, making her caught and sputter, the movement of which made more fall down in a rough approximation of water torture.
She threw the slug and it hit the wall with a wet splat before falling down. As it fell it made a wooden clunking noise. The kind you would hear on a pool table. With effort she turned her head and found a pile of purplish glowing marbles on top of more slugs. None of which were moving.
“Of course,” Anjou sighed.
—
You have eaten enough cores to level up.
You are now Core Level 1.
Your Intellect has risen to level 2.
Intellect ability Examine has been unlocked.
By eating enough Well Slug cores in succession, you have unlocked the ability Slug Excretion.
Because of leveling up, your health has been regenerated.
Your health is now 10 out of 10.
Anjou let out a sigh of relief. She had hoped for two things. The first was that there were enough of the slug cores to level up. And the second was that leveling up would be like in the video games and her health would replenish when she did. She was thankful that both of those things had come to pass. Unfortunately, the pain of the stab wound and the fall did not subside right away. That process took a bit longer and it was during that time that she experimented with her information windows and found that she could now see more information on the different things her windows told her.
The stats told her obvious things like strength was how hard she could attack and charisma was how much people liked her, and that her health would increase with every point in constitution. Her level indicators however did not tell her anything new, except for how many cores she needed to level up again, which was now 18. Then she went to her other window and examined the Slug Excretion ability.
Slug Excretion: You can now excrete a substance from anywhere on your body. This substance allows you to stick to walls and other surfaces. Warning, over use of this ability can cause extreme dehydration. Make sure to drink plenty of water, or eat water based cores to replenish your water level.
Current Water Level: 60/100 points.
While it is impossible to increase the amount of maximum water points, repeated activation of this ability can decrease how much water is lost when ability is used.
Anjou just stared at the ability for a few seconds. “And I thought food was the only thing to make me throw up.”