Shoutout to Willie Epps and Savagesmiley for becoming new Patrons!
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His reward for the task selected, Eden was led out of the mansion by the guards, and under Morgan's orders, a squad headed by Alex led him to his destination.
The island was not very big, so they only had to walk for half an hour to reach their destination. It was in the middle of a lush forest, and it was a dark cave. It looked really out of place, and it gave Eden an ominous feeling.
The surroundings were also completely silent. Normally, in the middle of a forest, there should be all kinds of noises, be it birds, small animals or just the wind blowing past the trees.
But the only sound Eden heard as they approached the cave was that of their footsteps. They stopped a small distance away from it, and Alex said, "This is it. We will be waiting here until tomorrow at noon. If you have not returned by then, we will assume you failed and return."
Eden rolled his eyes at the man, "Thanks for the vote of confidence."
He was ignored by Alex who ordered his men to set up camp. Seeing this, Eden turned his attention to the ominous cave, where the object of his side quest supposedly resided. Whatever that key was.
… Well, standing in front of the cave would not lead him anywhere, and Eden did not exactly have any preparations to make, so he walked in resolutely.
The moment he stepped in, Eden felt something brush past him, a sort of scan, if he was right. Eden guessed that it was the barrier that stopped Morgan and his men from entering the cave.
What was more surprising however was that the moment he passed by that barrier, his surroundings suddenly got completely dark, any source of light gone. He looked back, but where the entrance should have been, he only saw darkness. He tried to take a step back, but only found a rugged stone wall.
Meaning he was trapped.
It was not the best situation to be in, but he was not completely helpless, even in complete darkness. Although he was no Daredevil, Eden still did have much better senses than the average man, so he was not completely lost either.
But he had to prepare first, before any exploration. Back outside, it was not that he no preparations to make, but that they could not be shown to the group of guards.
Opening his inventory, Eden first took out the Necronomicon, and feeling its weight in his hand already made Eden feel safer. He did regret a little not making a spell for dark vision, though.
He could not have known he would find himself in this kind of situation, so it was unreasonable of him, but that did not stop him. It was an idle thought in the first place.
Other than the Necronomicon, there was something else of interest in Eden's inventory, and that was a small cube with a name on it: Kure.
Eden interacted with it, and instead of appearing in the real world, Eden received a few items, as well as a notification.
[You have received 350 Dream Points!]
It was a miser, but that was to be expected. Eden's run had been exceptional, even for a Nightmare, which was already peak performance among players.
Of course, there would be Players who went through more than one world in this mission world as well, but those would be those who stagnated enough to still be allowed in this kind of beginner world, so it did not change anything.
The items were slightly more interesting, though.
[Glock 19]
[Rank: Common]
[Attack: 25]
[Capacity: 15 Rounds (Loaded)]
It was a rather good gun, and although it did not match his past 1911, it was still a viable option for fighting from a distance. It also came with thirty additional 9 mm bullets, as well as a holster.
But even better were the two potions Kure had, both Minor Health Potions, bringing Eden's total to 4. That was the equivalent of 100 HP.
Taking out the gun and the holster that came along, Eden placed them at his hip, inwardly wondering what the reaction of natives would be to it. They had not reacted to it when Kure had used it, but considering Eden then killed him, and the gun disappeared at his death, maybe they had not had the time to see it.
But by the current time period's standards, the gun was stupidly powerful. The ability to quickly fire shots, and 15 of them at that, was well above any regular flintlock. Eden was sure Dreamland would find some way to balance it out though, as he doubted just a Common gun could allow one to dominate battlefields.
Either NPCs' guns would be boosted, or the NPCs themselves would be boosted in such a way that they could fight back against these kinds of weapons.
Or maybe not. This was only Eden's first mission world after his tutorial, and it was probably the case for most players present as well, so maybe Dreamland had been lenient, and allowed such a clear advantage.
Whatever it was, Eden was glad he got another weapon, but it was time to move. He did not know how long it would take him to find his way through the dark cave, and he only had until dawn of the next day.
Now, being in total darkness did hamper Eden a lot, it was not like he had ever trained himself to move in complete darkness, nor were his senses so strong he could navigate perfectly, but at least, if anything else were to come, he should be able to hear it.
As for his spells, the only one that could potentially give him some light was Strengthened Fireball, but expending 180 MP just for some momentary light was not a very smart decision.
So, for now, Eden followed along a wall, advancing through the cave.
His earlier impression of being within a labyrinth-like cave was reinforced as Eden took many turns following along the wall, and while being in darkness was intimidating, Eden was also in complete silence, which was a relief.
Keeping track of time in the cave was tenuous, but after what Eden felt like was an hour of walking around the tunnel, he felt something else for the first time. He heard a crunch as he stepped on something, breaking it.
This caused Eden to stop abruptly, which is when he finally heard something else than his own footsteps and heartbeat for the first time in the past hour. Something was rolling on the floor. Something hard. And more than one.
Not only that, as whatever he had stepped on, it was trying to move.
Rather than stomp harder on it, Eden crouched down and grabbed it.
Indeed, it was hard. It felt like a long stick, slightly irregular, so probably not man made. The broken edges were also sharp.
After a moment, Eden realized what he was holding: a bone.
And so were the other things that were rolling. Except they were not rolling anymore. Instead, they creaked, as if they were being put under some kind of pressure. And something was moving towards him. Several things, on second thought. Most probably enemies.
Although tempted to use Superior Fireball, as that would not only give him enough light to see what was happening, but also take some of them out, Eden refrained from doing so as that would mean nearly emptying his MP without even knowing what was attacking him.
Instead, Eden took Jason's Machete in one hand, and the Glock 19 in the other. He was no Gun Fu, but that was not the purpose. As for the Necronomicon, he placed it in his coat's pocket.
Eden waited, until they got close enough to him, until his main advantage in the darkness appeared: his danger sense.
His Talent never disappointing, Eden stepped back, and felt the wind from the missed attack lightly impact his skin. He might have missed it outside, where there would always be wind and other things to distract him, but he felt it clearly here.
Now keenly aware of in which direction the enemy was, Eden pointed his gun its way, and fired, his eyes peeled.
When a gun was fired, unless there was a silencer, it would create a muzzle flash, which was a small burst of flames coming from the gases produced when shooting, and his new Glock 19 was no exception.
It would usually not be enough to properly lit up the area, even in total darkness, but Eden had already been in there for more than an hour, meaning his eyes had long adjusted to the darkness.
Adding to that his enhanced senses from both his high attributes and his Talent, for the faintest of moment, Eden saw the outline of the enemy in front of him, which in turn allowed him to use Analysis.
[Skeleton]
[Title: N/A]
[HP: 29/40]
[MP: 0/0]
[Strength: 5]
[Agility: 2]
[Physique: 6]
[Intelligence: 0]
[Wisdom: 0]
The results of Eden's analysis were relieving. He was stronger than them. And their agility was very low.
It also appeared Eden had managed to hit it with his gunshot, probably in the head from the faint moment he had seen it. Unfortunately, it also meant it had resistance to this type of damage, though it was to be expected.
After all, even with his 10 Physique, Eden was 95% sure a head-shot from his Glock 19 would still mean instant death for him, the last 5% being in case he somehow managed to get shot by a trashy Assisted Player.
Back to the skeleton, as a being made only of bones, and with no weak spots, a bullet to the head was hardly a critical shot.
Still, Eden had dealt some good damage, despite resistances, meaning using a better attacking method would result in good damage.
Skeletons should be resistant to slashing and piercing damage, but weak to bludgeoning damage.
Unfortunately, Eden did not have a hammer, but a machete.
It seemed he would have to rely on his good old fists.
As the status page of the skeleton closed, Eden kept his grip on his machete as he punched at the skeleton with it in hand, both for the increased Strength it granted, and to not break his hand, and felt his hand smash against its rib cage.
Despite his increased attributes, it still hurt to punch bones, but it had the intended effect as the bones cracked under his fist, and the skeleton audibly fell to the ground.
Eden also heard something metallic fall to the ground, meaning it had dropped whatever weapon it was using. Still, just to be sure, Eden took a step forward, bringing his foot down onto its corpse, completely breaking its rib cage.
It had not been the only skeleton however. Eden counted three others, by the sounds they made. Eden could not tell of any difference between them and the one he slayed, so he used the same tactic.
Two attacks came at him at once, which Eden dodged by lowering himself, while punching forward, his fist meeting its target.
Eden had not only learned how to wield a machete with his virtual instructor, but also CQC, or Close Quarter Combat, which included how to maximize the power behind a fist.
He may not be any master martial artist, but he was still good enough to break the bones of old skeletons.
Relying on the danger sense from his Talent, Eden swiftly dispatched the skeletons, which he then was able to confirm used swords. Unfortunately, no good loot dropped, as even the swords were rusty ones that did not enter the system's eye. He still picked them up in his inventory though, just in case.
Eden's inventory was not infinite, but if he ever did need space, nothing stopped him from throwing this trash away. And until then, if he ever was in a situation where he may need them, then good for him.
Was Eden a hoarder? Possibly.