Chương 4: The Dimensional Traveler's Starter Kit

Evan started opening the remaining boxes, one by one. The majority were empty, but he found two Gems of the Sword, both common rarity, and a Gem of the Veil, also common. He carefully inspected all three, but his interface provided no useful clues about what they would do, except that they would unlock some kind of skill. He sat back down on the stone bench to consider his options. The shield gem had the better rarity, but it was very likely to give him a defensive skill. There was nothing wrong with that.

In fact, just thinking about the Spineback's spikes poking tearing into his flesh again made him want to activate the shield skill right away, but he needed to be smart. He needed to rank up so he could get more attribute points and hopefully also more skill slots, and if he wanted to rank up he needed to collect experience points. Which meant he needed to kill monsters, not just protect himself against them. What he needed was an offensive skill. That meant the veil gem was out, at least for now.

He weighed the two sword gems in his hand. Both were the same tone of green, with a metallic sheen to it, just like the blue shield gem. The big downside was that he had no sword. Would he need one to use the skill, or would the skill conjure a weapon for him? Was that a risk he was willing to take? Maybe the shield gem was the safer option. But then again, that one might require a physical shield as well. No. He wanted the sword skill. This was a world with monsters and magic.

If he wanted to survive here, he needed to be proactive, not overly cautious. Evan put the shield gem, the veil gem and one of the sword gem in his inventory, and focused his thoughts on the one remaining Gem of the Sword in his palm. His interface reacted. [Do you want to activate Gem of the Sword? Y/N] With one last deep breath, he mentally selected yes. The process of activating the skill gem was a lot less impressive than using the affinity crystal.

A few notes of uplifting music played in his ear, and then the gem disappeared from his hand, dissolving into glowing green particles that faded away after a few seconds. [You have bound Gem of the Sword to your Crystal] [You have received a new skill: Star Slash] [Star Slash - Tied to your Strength attribute A swift sword attack that deals both physical and celestial magic damage to your enemies. Mana Cost: 5 Cooldown: 15 seconds Increase your Strength attribute to improve this ability.] Evan read the description. It did not mention a conjured sword. Clinging to hope, he checked his inventory, but unfortunately no sword had magically appeared there either. It was just as he'd feared. His brand new skill was useless until he found a sword. After allowing himself a moment of self-pity, he stood up. His leg still ached from the monster bite and the wounds on his stomach burned.

"Okay then. Let's find a sword." With growing frustration, he kicked the stuck Spineback out of the doorway and continued to follow the hallway. He moved forward slowly, keeping his eyes open and checking every room he passed in the hallway, but all of them were empty. No boxes, no trunks, no chests he could search for weapons or armor. Whoever had designed this level had slacked off. He felt he should've found some useful gear by now.

Instead, after a left turn, he found himself face to face with three more Spinebacks. Evan froze as the ugly creatures stopped what they were doing and lifted their heads to look at him. Remembering the pain of the spikes, he considered just teleporting past them and then running away before they could follow him, but decided against it. He wanted those experience points. He needed those points. He just really wished he had some kind of weapon.

The wall to his left was caved in, and the floor was covered with rubble and sharp-edged rocks. He picked up one of the bigger rocks while the three Spinebacks came rushing at him on their stumpy legs, claws making rapid clicking noises on the polished stone floor. Evan took aim and launched the rock toward the Spineback closest to him. To his own surprise, he hit it perfectly. The creature didn't even have time to squeal as its whole front half was smashed by the rock.

Stunned by his early success, he nearly forgot about the other two until one of them snapped at his leg. Evan instinctively kicked the creature away. It squealed as it sailed through the air. He used [Teleport] to follow it, teleporting to where it crashed into the wall. His HUD displayed a health bar over the Spineback, and it already was in the red. Evan lifted his foot and kicked again. He heard bones crunch under his sneakers.

Yeah, those extra points he'd put into his Strength had definitely done something to him. He'd felt normal at first, but now that he was pushing against his physical limits, he could feel that those limits had shifted somewhat. His teleport ability was still on cooldown, so he sprinted back to the third Spineback. Reluctant to touch the spiky creature with his bare hands, he kicked this one too. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Right out of the hole in the crumbled wall. It squeaked as it sailed through the air. He couldn't see where it landed, but a few moments later, he saw a system notification pop up. [You have killed 3 spinebacks.] [You have earned 18 experience points.] [You have looted 21 mana stones.]"Just eighteen experience points?" Evan said, a bit disappointed. He'd expected more, although he had to admit he had little idea how much those numbers were worth. Maybe he'd find something about it in his menu.

He opened the main menu and immediately noticed that the progress bar under his name had moved a bit. It now sat at 7% progress to rank 2. Evan sighed. At this rate, he would have to kill a lot of Spinebacks. The sight of their bloodied and crushed remains made his stomach turn. It wasn't that he was bothered by the sight of blood—he was a nurse, after all, and had been covered in every possible body fluid the human body could produce—but he was usually the person who made someone feel better.

Crushing small creatures to death with his feet was new to him, and it didn't exactly make him feel great about himself. But what choice did he have? If this was all real, then he needed to find a way back home to his own world. He needed to get back to his dad. As interesting and exciting as this adventure into a magical video game world was, his father needed him. No one but him was willing to take care of him, so Evan couldn't stay here.

If he wanted to find a way home, he needed to learn more about this world, but he needed to be prepared to deal with whatever weird thing might be thrown at him. His gut feeling told him those spiky rodents were far from the worst thing that this world had to offer. With renewed determination, he continued his search for a weapon and, hopefully, an exit. The network of corridors, rooms, and stairs was confusing, especially considering that large parts of the building had caved in and rubble blocked his way.

He had to use [Teleport] once to cross a very large crack in the floor and then a second time when he reached a blocked doorway. Part of the ceiling had caved in, and rubble was blocking the way through. The first time he got there, he turned back to look for an alternative route, but after wandering the hallways for another hour, only to realize he was going in circles, he returned to the blocked doorway.

He could see that the hallway continued on the other side through gaps in the rocks, but the largest gap was barely large enough to stick his hand through. He tried to move some of the debris away, but quickly realized that his 6 Strength points weren't enough to move boulders. An idea crossed his mind. He read the description of his [Teleport] skill again, but nothing there told him if his idea could work. He would have to test it out.

In the room where he'd found the skill gems, he'd just looked at the spot he wanted to go via [Teleport] and it had worked flawlessly. Would it also work if the path was blocked as long as he could see his destination? Maybe it wouldn't work at all. Or maybe something horrifying would happen when his body tried to magically pass through space that was already occupied by another solid object. But what choice did he have but to try?

This was the only way forward, unless he wanted to follow the Spineback he'd kicked down into the courtyard and jump down about seven stories. He had to give it a shot, so he climbed up the pile of debris until he found a gap that gave him a good view of the corridor behind, focused on a spot within reach and activated [Teleport]. A split second later, he found himself on the other side of the blockage and breathed a sigh of relief.

After wandering around aimlessly some more, he finally found an open doorway that connected the building he was in to the walkway he'd spotted from the window. He looked down and immediately regretted it. He'd never been a fan of heights, and he was really high up. Like instant-death-if-you-trip-and-fall-high. Nervously, he glanced at the bridge. Just like the rest of the building, it was withered, overgrown, and didn't look especially structurally sound. Was it safe to walk across?

He could tell the bridge led to some kind of platform, and that platform had stairs leading down to ground level. He'd found no other exit so far, so this might be his only route out of this maze of a building. Still uncertain, he stepped through the archway onto the bridge. To his relief, it didn't immediately crumble under his weight. He took another step and was greeted by a pleasant trumpet sound in his ear and a very welcome notification. [Quest"Stranger in a Strange Land" completed!] [You received 40 experience points] [You received Dimensional Traveler's Starter Kit] Evan immediately retreated back into the building so he could check out his rewards without standing on a sketchy bridge twenty meters above the ground. The first thing he noticed when he accessed his menus was that his progress bar had grown significantly. He was still a long way away from reaching the next rank, but it definitely looked like actual progress had been made now.

The [Dimensional Traveler's Starter Kit] was a plain brown box in his inventory. When he focused on it, he got a prompt asking him if he wanted to unpack the box. He confirmed, and his inventory filled up with several new items. The first one was a book: [Skill Book - Complete Guide to the Valdorian Language Part I-VII]. The system asked him if he wanted to use the skill book now, but Evan selected no. He wanted to take a look at the other items first.

In the second slot was something that sent a surge of joy through his body. A sword! [Ordinary Steel Sword (common) - deals high slashing damage, high piercing damage, and low blunt damage]. He tried to pull the sword out of his inventory, and it materialized in his hand, just as the gems had disappeared when he'd added them to his inventory. Excited, Evan swung his new weapon around.

He had no idea how a sword was properly used, absolutely none, but having this felt a lot better than fighting monsters empty-handed. He also noticed a simple leather scabbard had materialized on his back, fastened to his body with a leather strap that crossed his chest. It took him two attempts to fumble the sword back into the sheath.

"Yeah, I'll definitely have to practice this before it looks cool." After the sword was safely stored away, he inspected the other items his reward box had yielded. He found two potions. One [Health Potion (common) - Restores 15 health points] and one [Mana Potion (common) - Restores 15 mana points]. Those potions would restore a little less than half of his health and about a third of his mana. Not amazing, but certainly useful in a tight situation. The other two items he'd received were skill gems.

[Gem of the Sword (common)], [Gem of Crafting (uncommon)]. A bit disappointed, Evan looked at his collection. A third sword gem and one for crafting. Nothing wrong with crafting, that would probably yield a useful skill, but he wasn't terribly excited about it. He couldn't use another skill gem right now, anyway, but hopefully more slots would open up when he reached rank 2.

His health bar was at 26/37, thanks to the wounds he'd received during his first encounter with a Spineback, but he wouldn't waste his only health potion to restore only eleven points. His mana had already fully recovered, thanks to his "gift", the special ability he had received when he'd activated the crystal, so that stayed in the inventory for later use as well. That left only the skill book. [Complete Guide to the Valdorian Language].

Evan assumed Valdorian was the language spoken in this world, and using this book would help him communicate with the people living here. If there even were people. For all he knew, this world could be populated by elves or goblins or something completely strange. Either way, learning a new language via shortcut sounded appealing. The only foreign languages he currently spoke were very basic Spanish and a few sentences of French, both remnants from his high school years.

He activated the book, not expecting much after using the skill gems had been rather uneventful. He was not prepared for the sensation it caused. His brain felt like it was being filled with water, like someone was trying to inflate a balloon under a water tap. The swelling feeling was incredibly uncomfortable, bordering on painful, and just when he thought his brain would burst through his skull, the feeling subsided. He let out a long breath and rubbed his forehead.

"Not great, but still better than Mrs. Gonzales' Spanish course." Despite the intense experience, he didn't feel any different. After unsuccessfully trying to say some words in this new language, Valdorian, he gave up the experiment. Hopefully it would just activate itself when he needed it, like some magical AI translation software. Time to continue his exploration of the ruins.

Feeling a lot more confident with a sword strapped to his back, he stepped back out onto the bridge and was immediately greeted by a bone-shattering loud growling noise, followed by a pained scream. A very human-sounding scream.