In the throne room.
I enter the throne room and, for a moment, I pause. The space is large and rectangular, with tall windows along the walls, guarded by numerous guards. Suddenly, the burning in my chest intensifies, spreading throughout my body.
The feeling of lightness vanishes, replaced by an overwhelming heaviness. The shadows in my field of vision become sharper, and then I see them: sixteen figures in robes, sitting or lying around an incandescent circle. Suddenly, my immunity to gravity disappears, and I feel myself falling for real. Barely a few seconds pass before I hit the cold marble of the circle.
"How...gross!"
Lying on the polished marble, the floor is only inches from my face. I can see every vein in the stone and a pattern etched into it. I try to get up, but my body feels strange. Looking at my arms, I freeze. They are covered in black hair.
What is happening to me, where am I, what am I, what am I?
I stare at my arms, incredulous, when something hard hits me in the head.
"DROP!"
The guard's shout echoes through the room, "You fucking monster!!!".
The sound of pounding reverberates in my ears, "Thud," "thud," "crunch," "thud."
I'm being punched and kicked from several directions. All I can do is curl up and hold on, as I can't control this body nor do I have any idea what is happening. I try to move to better defend myself, but the new body I'm apparently in feels heavy and sluggish, as if it hears my commands but doesn't understand them.
⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩.
- Congratulations, the Pain Resistance skill has advanced to level 2!
- Resistance to pain
√ Level 2.
- You feel 30% less pain.
- Physical damage reduced by 1%.
"Why is this happening, stop him, someone save me, I'm your hero, aren't I?"
King Raden Feldster says, "Enough! What's going on over there?"
The Royal Guard replies, "Your Majesty, it's a beastman!"
"A beast man, are you talking about me, is that why I'm hairy?"
King Raden says, "Zamart, check him."
The chief court magician, Zamart, says, "As you wish, Your Majesty!"
I hear someone approaching, followed by some words in a language I don't understand. I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm thankful the pounding has stopped for the moment. Between the fall to the ground and the blows, I feel nothing but pain throughout my body.
Zamart shouts, "STATE!"
As the wizard completes his spell, I get my first glimpse of my character's screen. It seems to float in front of my eyes, visible even if I close them.
==========
- Name: Klein.
- Race: Black lion.
√ "Mandatory mission!"
√ Mission: SURVIVE THE WELL!
- Objective: to survive and find a way to escape from the pit.
- Reward: 10 stat points.
These messages appear as I fall, and I desperately try to slow down enough to survive the fall. The Safe Fall skill seems like it will help, but I'm in no position to check, and I don't want to trust my life to a skill I just obtained and don't fully understand yet. A few seconds later, I see the bottom of the pit. The first thing I notice is a large pile of bones directly below me.
Then, I see a small green-skinned humanoid creature right next to the pile of bones.
"Is that a goblin?"
In a split second, I decide to aim for the creature to cushion my landing, as falling on the bones would probably mean instant death. I push myself slightly towards the creature with my hands and feet. As soon as I make contact, I roll to try to minimize the damage I take. I roll five or six times before hitting the wall fairly hard.
⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩⟩
- Congratulations, the Tenacity skill has advanced to level 2!
- Tenacity
√ Level 2.
- Your strong willpower allows you to resist death.
√ End +4 HP +15%.
"Ayyyyyyyy! That hurt!"
I'm surprised it worked and that I'm still alive, but my whole body aches. I don't even want to think about how much worse it would hurt without the Pain Resistance skill.
⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩⟩
- There are new missions available!
"New missions, huh, I'll take a look at them later!"
Speaking of looking, I realize that I can see the room around me just fine, even though it should be almost completely dark down here. There is a little light coming from the well above, but not enough that even a cat couldn't see well in this well. It looks like a round room with five passages leading out of it; the walls are made of large stone blocks joined together like in a medieval castle.
Glancing into the nearest opening, I see a thick layer of dust that doesn't look like it hasn't been touched in a long time. Considering that the main thing I want right now is a place to hide, recover and try to figure things out, this sounds perfect. I get up in a lot of pain and turn to walk down the hallway.
Unfortunately, on my first step, something goes wrong and I end up falling flat on my face.
"Thud!"
"Whew!"
It better not become a habit to stare at the floor an inch away. I turn around, look at myself and notice for the first time that my legs are bent backwards, like an animal's, instead of the way I was used to.
'No wonder I can't even walk properly!'
After several attempts, I manage to get to my feet and crawl into the passageway. I realize that I'm leaving footprints in the dust, but I'll have to hope that, if there are more goblins, they'll be too stupid to notice them. After about six meters, I reach an area where the wall and ceiling have collapsed, blocking the tunnel.
As I look at the collapse, I notice that the passage is not completely blocked; there is a small gap in the upper right corner through which I could pass. I crawl down the slope of the collapse and try to push myself into the space. I struggle, grunting and squeezing to get my new body through the gap.
Once I succeed, I find myself in a five by ten area between the landslide and the end of the tunnel. I decide this is the best I can do at that point, so I sit with my back against the wall, plan to check my stats and mull things over, but almost immediately fall into a deep sleep.