9 Schema

They packed up in a minute or two, scrambling at times to get their stuff. When we started to leave, they pulled out orange crystals the size of my palm. They glowed brighter than torches, illuminating more of the cave and even exposing a few bats. Once we started walking, they gave me several pieces of bread and jerky. Before I scarfed the food down, I asked, "So what's the tutorial like?"

They frowned before Stacy said, "Well, it's kinda strange. Everyone got the message, then we teleported instantly towards a green field. David and I had been playing Nario Kart for the Mintendo Yii, and all of a sudden we were surrounded by a ton of people."

David added, "We all wore these white robes."

"Yeah, around us was this voice, like a robot's or something. It was like...a narrator for the blue messages appearing in front of us. It told us that we could check out any message we've ever gotten with a thought. It was all in our own personal tome."

David added, "If you kill someone, you get their tome, apparently."

Stacy glared at him like death, if death was a short, pissed off girl. She continued, "Yeah, thanks alot David. Real helpful."

I nodded and said, "Indeed. What did the voice tell you guys?"

David said, "That this world was being assimilated by Schema. Apparently, Schema is a super duper uber large AI. Apparently some far off race of people created it. The moment the AI was created, it rapidly expanded itself, feeding off the world's electronics."

Stacy said, "That's historical stuff, not what the voice told us."

I raised an eyebrow, "Where'd you figure this stuff out?"

She continued, "It's in everyone's archive. Schema gives every person a log with detailed explanations of why this is happening and whatnot. It's actually really interesting."

I nodded before David continued, "You just have to think of it, and it'll appear in a nice message format. It's convenient, to say the least. Anyway, the AI controlled the world before gaining control of some wicked advanced electronics. After a couple thousand years, it traveled to other planets and discovered that there's something out there."

I nodded as I said, "The sentinel told me about them. He didn't have a name for what it was though."

"Yeah, Schema said the closest word for it was 'Eldritch.' Sounds pretty bad in my opinion.'

Stacy said, "Yeah, they're pretty fuckin bad. It's all a bunch of ridiculous bullshit, but hey, so is Schema so..."

I said, "You're reffering to the schema like it's a person."

Stacy continued, "It is. You just think in your head, and it'll talk to you."

I thought to myself, Then why the fuck do I have you two assholes for company?

"It's terrible though. It's 100%, bonafide robot."

I nodded. Alright, that's why I have you two assholes for company.

A bat flies towards Stacy, but I walk in front of it. The bat smashes into my chest like running into an iron wall. I step back from the impact and wrap my arms around it. I crush it. The bat squeals as I squeeze the life from it. Blood shoots out its mouth. The Colossal perk essentially doubles my strength when I'm fighting without any weapons. That means squeezing things too.

I toss the deflated bat aside before saying, "So the schema is an enormous AI?"

Skill level up! [Intimidation(level 2)

Stacy gulped before replying, "Yeah."

I pursed my lips before saying, "Ok, so why is it, er, assimilating worlds? To stop the cracks or whatever?"

David nods and says, "Yeah..."

I roll my eyes before saying, "Guys, I'm not going to kill you. Calm down. I'm too busy trying to survive here."

They sighed. Apparently they'd been holding their breaths for a while now. Stacy said, "It's just scary. You're like, I don't know, 7 feet tall or some shit."

I stopped walking and turned to them. I said, "Wait a second, you mean to tell me that I'm taller?"

She nodded before I said, "Do you guys have a mirror?"

David dug his hand into his backpack as he said, "Uh, yeah, I do. It's pretty dirty though."

"Doesn't matter. I just need to see if my face looks any different."

He hands me a small, broken piece of a mirror. I pulled it from his hand and said, "Well fuck me."

There I was, looking like a giant. I was 7 feet tall. What the fuck. What the actual fuck happened. I'd bulked up some, though I was still lithe and lean. My hair fell down my sides, tucked behind my back. My hands were large and brawny. Callouses covered my knuckles, along with scars. One traced down the side of my forehead, from when I first fought the bat. I glanced at a few other parts of myself, noticing a few scars along my arms, sides, and chest.

My skin turned a bit...gray too. Not crazy gray but noticeably so. David and Stacy weren't short. I was just really tall. When I think about it, the bats and bears had gotten smaller, but everything was sort of dark all the time. It made it much harder to discern little details like that. The only light I had were these little plastic bags full of blue water. It made me look like I had little blue, glowing tumors all over me. With the streaks of dried blood on me, it was no wonder they were terrified of me.

With that in mind, I said, "Jesus, I do look like a troll."

For the first time, Stacy giggled and David laughed a little. My little saying had broke the tension. I handed David the mirror before saying, "I'll be taking on the boss here soonish. I'd say a week or two, when I get about 10 or so levels higher and finish some trees, I'll take him on. You guys are free to tag along."

They nodded while David said, "Sounds good to us. I didn't wanna mention it, but we really do need your help here."

I laughed before saying, "Oh yeah, I noticed. You guys would be chewed up and spit out by Baldag-Ruhl."

They paled and said, "What level is he?"

"At least level 100. I'm guessing 125-150ish."

Stacy choked on a cup of tea she was drinking. She said, "What the fuck? This dungeon's only supposed to go up to level 60."

I shrugged as I said, "Eh, I'm guessing it has something to do with me spawning here. It doesn't matter. What does matter, is that we have to kill him to leave."

"Couldn't he just, I don't know, let us leave."

"Did you hear his name? Baldag-Ruhl, of Many. That name makes Sauron sound like a schoolgirl. It's a hivemind that uses insects. It's ancient, hundreds of years old. I don't, and haven't trusted that damn thing for a second."

David said, "Do you think you'll beat it?"

I grinned and said, "I know I will."

They perked up at my confidence. We continued for an hour before Stacy said, "Why in the hell are these cave so big."

I said, "To hurt your feet, break your moral, and crush your spirit."

David frowned and said, "Anything else?"

"Be annoying."

Stacy whined, "Yeah, I already got that part."

We reached the next set of pools, these gray again. I said, "The blue pools are safe. Gray and pink are dangerous. Crimson means it's the boss, Baldag. Stay wayyyyyyyyyy back. Try not to die to bats."

Before they could reply, I charged towards the rock golem. I cut on agony when I reached a few feet from it. The golem met my charge with a monstrous clash. Bits of stone flung outwards. The clash left my ears ringing. We locked hands as the golem pushed me back, but I squat down. It pushed me down before I strained, pushing up.

Veins appeared on my neck, tracing down my shoulders. I grunted then roared as I lifted the rock golem off the ground. The golem kicked towards my face. I headbutt the things foot, cracking its boulder foot. I pulled the golem down and smashed it into the floor.

Cracks appeared in the ground from the force of the slam. The golem fractured all over as arrows snapped into stone around me. One stabbed into my back. I pulled it out and shouted, "Watch where the fuck your aiming."

Stacy shouted, "Sorry."

I drove the arrow into the golem's face. The golem smashed my jaw. I spit out blood before pushing it down onto the floor. I pulled my legs over its sides, pinning it down. I then ground and pounded it's poor face to dust. My blows blared across the cavern, like ripples of sound. The golem's life dwindled before I wrapped my hand around its face. I pushed it into the floor, again and again and again.

Once it fell apart in my hand, a notification appeared,

Enemy Slain. 93750 exp gained. +1 level.

It's like Schema knew I didn't give a fuck about any of the math anymore, so it stopped showing as much. Of course, stats were different, but it isn't like I need the formula showed every single time. I put a point into strength, getting a little rush.

I picked up the golem's core and drained the mana pool. As I paced back towards Stacy and David, I cut off agony. My wounds healed as they glanced at me. Dumbfounded, David said, "What's your strength?"

"20. I 've got a perk that helps with moving my body though." I clasp a hand. "It makes moving myself twice as easy, so if I'm just swinging my hands, I've got 40 effective strength."

Stacy replied, "I've been keeping my attributes all spread out. They all looked so useful."

I frowned as I said, "Invest into one attribute until you get 30 points, then move on to other ones. The perks that are attribute reliant stop there, to my knowledge at least."

They nodded, soaking my tips up with eager interest. I continued, "Some attributes go together real well. A perfect example is constitution and endurance. One gives you health, one makes that health better. Strength and dexterity would probably go well too. You get the idea."

They nodded fervently before David said, "And here I am with less than 10 in every attribute. This guy has over 20 in one."

I frowned and said, "My endurance is 48. That's by far my highest attribute. I'm level 58. I'm not going to be struggling to get 20 in a single attribute."

David glanced down. Thinking I hurt his feelings, I said, "Though there may be a jack of all trades perk for all I know. It sounds like it's worth checking out."

He nodded before Stacy said, "Well then mister brutal, let's get out of here."

I chuckled and said, "I actually got a skill for it. It's called dreadnought brute."

We walked and talked down the cavern until reaching yet another pool, this time with a bear. I charge it, maul it to death, and give the coat to them. It's an easy kill now. I just bully the bear and beat it to death.

I don't even gain a level from it. I suppose it isn't that hard anymore anyway. At this point, I had to let them know about my quest with Baldag-Ruhl.

"Alright guys. This is gonna be super gross. Hide near some boulders somewhere else. I gotta give this bear's meat to Baldag."

Stacy said, "What? Give it to him? Why?"

"Because it's either that or fight him right now. I chose the lesser of two evils."

They nodded before I called out for Baldag-Ruhl. A pile of bugs showed up a few minutes later. They made the shape of a mouth and said, "I see you've given me another delicacy."

"Only the finest."

After ingesting the corpse with the bugs, he said, "Good. You've helped me a great deal in my conquest of this cave. I will reward you for it. Come to me once more."

I said, "Of course, Baldag-Ruhl, of Many."

Seemingly pleased, the pile of insects strode off with a horrid clittering of legs. Once out of earshot, I said, "Alright guys. It's over."

Stacy said, "Fuckin bleck. That was utterly disgusting. What the fuck. Ewwwwwww."

David and I laughed at her girly girl grossout. A few seconds later, I gained a skill,

Skill Gained! [Speechcraft(lvl 1)]

[Speechcraft(lvl 1) - You've spoken with tact in your words for what you want. +1% to fluidity and wording during conversation.]

Hell yeah. A skill to mask my meh interpersonal skills. I said, "Come on. Let's go."

They nodded, and I gained another skill.

Skill gained! [Leadership(lvl 1)]

[Leadership(lvl 1) - You tread forward, others follow. +1% to compulsion of commands given while leading.]

I shrugged internally. That skill was worthless. Whatever, I need the skill points. We walked on until Stacy said,

"I can't keep going. I'm about to collapse here."

David added, "Like, how aren't you tired already?"

I frowned and said, "I've got a perk that halves sleeping and eating requirements. It's been more than just helpful."

Stacy snapped, "Well we don't. Can we sleep for, I don't know, like 8 hours?"

I shrugged as I said, "Eh, why not. I'll just train my skills or something."

They set up camp, cooking little bits of food and talking about the outside world. I stayed silent for the most part, tired of talking. I hadn't spoke in weeks really. Talking so much all of a sudden was exhausting.

The way they spoke made the outside world seem...chaotic to say the least. The monoliths had taken over all electronics, absorbing them into Schema. Without all the coordination of technology, a lot of governments had collapsed.

Of course they weren't completely done for or anything. Most towns still had little collections of police and whatnot. Nothing major had survived the crash though. Apparently the tutorial let you out in a random location after completing it. David and Stacy had held hands, and that kept them together during the process.

Of course this chaos was starting to stabilize. People formed groups and adapted. Humanity has a way of doing that. People had rallied against the new monster spawns after a few weeks. Lots of people died during the beginning of the process though.

Oddly enough, the spawns had a pretty damn logical answer to them. According to Schema, the universe's expansion led to cracks forming along space and time. Dark things would come pouring out of the cracks, destroying worlds, solar systems, even entire galaxies.

Schema had found a way of reorienting these cracks into something that made sense. In other words, Schema patched up the cracks. The process wasn't perfect though. Bits of these things would leak out and take form. These leaks were monsters spawning.

Earth was right in the middle of a giant rift, so the monsters spawning had been ruthless. Oceans of them poured out, so the system had reorganized the cracks into designated combat zones. Dungeons.

Of course, Schema only did this for the largest rifts. Many had been bigger than expected. For example, the BloodHollow Caves. If humanity didn't fight the tides, the eldritches would tear open the portals, releasing hell. Schema had given humanity a goal - cull or be culled.

What the sentinel had called the culling had been the initialization process. Schema didn't have time for details, so it just dumped it on new planets all at once. Large parts of the population died in the process, which it called the culling.

All the little pieces snapped together, forming a bigger picture. This whole time, this living hell, it was all because Schema didn't have time for all my bullshit. A few people missing from tutorials was of little concern for it.

With a deep and pained and tired sigh, I let it go. I couldn't even blame this AI for it messing up. It was just trying to put things together that were falling apart. I'd been a mistake, a little blip outside its radar this whole time.

The realization was like jumping into cold water. I wasn't special. I was forgotten.

I shook it from my face before standing over David and Stacy. There was still quite a few questions left unanswered. How did the cracks form? Where were the eldritches coming from? What had happened to the race that made Schema? I wonder if they're still here, wandering from world to world.

It made sense why the gate was defended so heavily now too. In essence, they acted as a lock for a door. The lock being the sentinel and the door being the dungeon's monsters. They set it up so that you needed keys for these locks so that not just anybody could walk in and out.

Damn, I need that key. I would probably be able to fuck anything up that's outside a dungeon. With that in mind, I went about a hundred feet from the camp. I cranked agony up, the mild ache almost comforting. It let me relax, in a warped sort of way.

I trained my skills, killed some bat, and leveled up once over the 9 fucking hours. Skills took so much time now to grind, and so did levels. My progress slowing down was like drinking motor oil. My willpower kept me focused though, almost like my body was a puppet and I was its master. The extra strength was appreciated too.

When Stacy and David woke up, they rumbled around the camp for a few minutes. I'd killed three bats before they died, but they woke up each time I did. Even a hardened veteran of war would be disheveled after weeks of constant danger. These were teenagers in over their head, just like me. They fared far worse.

I suppose I helped them quite a bit with relaxing though. I was used to the constant tension. It was no different than home. I'd sleep at school, practice boxing during the afternoon, and stay up all night to screaming and breaking glass bottles. My dad got violent when he drank too much. It wasn't until I hit 16 that I beat the shit out of him.

That was why Micheal and I went spelunking. I was about to be taken to juvy for nearly killing my dad. I wanted to just run away from it all. I succeeded way more than I expected.

I didn't like dwelling on it, or even thinking about it. Bad memories lead to bad thoughts that lead to bad actions. I wouldn't be like him, weak and pitiful.

No, I'd become strong. Strong as steel and hard as a hailstorm. I'd never be pushed into another piss filled toilet. I'd never let someone singe another cigarette on my skin. I'd never become the tormented.

I'll crush anything that tries, either under my heavy heels or my storming fists. I swear it.