Chapter 26: Snakes! Why'd it have to be snakes?

Chapter 26: Snakes! Why'd it have to be snakes?

Milo logged into the game and emerged from his small tent. It was utterly dark in his camp. There was slight glow that he recognized as part of the patterns on his watch lizard. He used his ring to start the tiny fire under his fondue pot. He noticed that the pot was suspiciously clean. His watch lizard gave him a look of total innocence, and then his long tongue darted out and dragged in a spider.

The lizard watched Milo as he washed the pot out and then added cheese to melt. When he saw the cheese, he leaned back and sat up like a dog, rolling his eyes. Since each eye could roll in a different direction, it was a bit unnerving. Milo tossed the lizard a bit of cheese and watched it jump and catch it in its mouth. Satisfied, the lizard lay down for a nap. Milo patted it on the head lightly. "You have a name fella? What do I call you?" The lizard didn't seem to have an opinion on that. "Fine, I'll call you George. Good job George, I'll call for you next time I'm in camp." George understood, or seemed to. He stood up, yawned and disappeared.

A bit of melted cheese and bread, and Milo was ready to begin exploring again. As he exited the back area of the tunnel, he got a system message asking if he would like to make this his camp. Milo hit 'yes' and felt excited. He was deep underground, living in a hidden cave and couldn't be happier. Time to see how far this crack goes up.

Listening carefully, he heard nothing and began to scamper up the cable. After another 100 feet he came to the top of the cables. The crevasse had gotten narrower, and continued upward. Heavy timbers had been put in place across it both to provide walkways and to support the cables going down to the crude elevator. The cables were looped over large wheels and then threaded through a machine where they emerged on the other side and could be wound onto large drums. The machine must pull or lower the four cables simultaneously. There was a crank on one side with an assortment of gears. Anyone who could turn that crank would be stronger than 10 of Milo. On the other side he saw where another machine had sat, probably the engine to drive the elevator.

He wondered what the dwarves uses for power. Coal? Wood? Some type of magic? In a world with spells that created lightning and fire out of nothing, a spell driven power plant didn't seem farfetched.

On one side of the crevasse there were extensive mines similar to what he saw lower. After about 200 feet only the main tunnel kept going. He followed it to a set of stone stairs mostly blocked with rubble, and turned back. On the other side of the crevasse there were a few long shafts dug. Milo saw what he thought were bits of ore in the walls. This area looked like it hadn't been worked. This looked like a decent spot to work on his mining and maybe make some money. He brought out his chest and took out ore sacks, his pick and lantern, then dismissed it.

With the better light, he could see a seam of ore about 2 inches wide on either side of the tunnel. He swung his pick hard at the ore and the pick went into the stone about 2 inches and stopped. After several more swings and a couple of minutes work he knocked loose a chunk of ore and examined it.

Deep Copper Ore

Medium Grade

1 Chunk

You have earned 5 experience in Mining and 5 experience in STR

It was a start. He needed 50 experience or 10 chunks of ore to hit level one in mining, which would also give him another point of STR. Maybe things would go a bit easier then. He wasn't really concerned about it. He had put in years of work in the real world moving around machines, repairing systems, and spending hours fixing what he could. A big of grinding in a game was nothing compared to that.

Milo fell into a rythm. Chnk...chnk...chnk....thunk. Three swings and a chunk or ore dropped down. He worked the seam from the top to the bottom going in a foot. Then he had to widen the hole on each side so he could go deeper into the rock, following the seam of ore. After about 20 chunks had fallen, he saw a much brighter piece drop.

Deep Copper Nugget

High Grade Metal

You have earned 25 experience in Mining and 25 experience in STR

The nugget was almost entirely made of pure copper with few impurities. It was nice to see that something besides just ore was in the mines. The origin of this chapter's debut can be traced to N0v3l--B1n.

Chnk...chnk...chnk....thunk. Chnk...chnk...chnk....thunk. Chnk...chnk...chnk....Crack! He'd hit something different. Looking at the spot he'd hit, it looked like a copper egg. He was starting to reach for it when it cracked open and a small copper colored snake worked its way out of the egg and dropped to the ground. It was only a foot long.

Hatchling Copperhead

elemental

The snake coiled itself up into a small pile and stuck its tongue out. It was so cute! Milo wondered if he could tame it? He was pretty sure George liked cheese and he ate any bug he could find. Milo didn't have any bugs, but he did have some cheese. He took out a small piece of his cheese from his pouch and held it out. The snake eyed him, then eyed the food. He stuck out it's tongue and licked the cheese.

"It's all yours little guy, go ahead, eat it."

The copperhead launched itself at his hand, and bit deep, sinking sharp fangs into the tender part between the thumb and his index finger.

Hatchling Copperhead bites you for 5 points of damage.

You have been poisoned!

You take 5 points of damage. Your Health 200/210

"Ow, dammit, let go!" Milo dance around, trying to dislodge the snake. After biting him again, it dropped off to the floor. Milo looked at his hand. The area around the bite was turning green. He felt a sharp pain in his ankle as the snake bit him again.

Hatchling Copperhead bites you for 5 points of damage.

You have been poisoned!

So close! Can the youthful challenger take down the veteran elemental?

The blast disrupted the Copperheads strike and wounded it badly. Milo swung with his weapon, trying for a hit. He had a better chance with the snake momentarily stunned. He still missed! The snake didn't

Copperhead Vein-Lurker bites you for 30 points of damage. You take an additional 30 damage from poison!

Health: 75/260

Bad news, ratfans! Our boy seems to be on his way down! Are we seeing a Copperhead comeback?

The poison was burning in his wounds and vision was bleary. He'd dropped his weapon somewhere...

In desperation Milo lept onto the elemental and clawed at it, his tail slapping down on its head.

Here it is folks! The rat is striking. He's going for the throat. Can he pull it off?

Tail slap fails to wound Copperhead Vein-lurker.

Weak Claw fails to wound Copperhead Vein-lurker.

Weak Claw...critically hits Copperhead Vein-lurker. You have slain the Copperhead Vein Lurker! Maybe there is some mongoose blood in you somewhere.

You have earned 500 experience that may be applied to any of the following skills: bonecasting, Small Blades, Acrobatics, Dodge. You may apply an equal amount of experience to the stats that govern those skills.

You have earned 5 core skill points. Base 3 points + 2 points for a creature over your level with special abilities.

Speaking of special abilities...like poison...

You have taken 60 damage from poison...

You have taken 60 damage from poison...

You have died.

Don't despair. Death in Genesis is not permanent. If you were a permanent resident of the world, you would receive time to reflect on your errors in life, receive counseling, and take a refreshing walk out of the underworld. Some people are back quickly. Some take years. And some decide to spin the wheel and incarnate as something new.

As a visitor from another world you have different options:

-Hang around in a cloudy gray area playing videogames. You'll like Tetris I bet.

-Log out and go back to your boring life.

-Retire to your personal room, which in your case is your Arcane Library.

Oh, and congratulations on getting to Level 2!

Milo was a bit disappointed. He knew he wasn't a great fighter. That wasn't where his skills lay. Still...a snake? He'd died to a snake? That just felt wrong somehow.

He logged out to go check on his systems, and see how much fun Kaminski was having. Sidney wasn't even waiting to ambush him; she was much too busy dealing with the chaos Milo had inflicted on the world.

=*=

Name: Tallsqueak Milo Class: Scout Race: Wererat Human Level: 2 experience: 1785 Boss experience: 750+500 Total: 3035/6000 Heritage: None BasePer LevelFrom StatsFrom CSPTotal Health 100 100 300 Stamina 600 100 800 Mana 100 50 100 +100* 450 Stat:RankCapexperienceBonusTotal STR 2 5 300 0 1 DEX 2 5 540 2 4 AGI 3 5 700 2 5 CON 0 5 0 0 0 INT 2 5 465 2 4 WIS 1 5 150 0 1 CHR 0 5 0 0 0 PER 1 5 80 2 3 COR 0 5 0 0 0 RAD 0 5 0 0 0 CSP earned 28 Cronk-15, Malskitter -3, FreedSouls-5, Copperhead-5 CSP to Foundation 0 CSP to CS 23 CSP Saved 5 SkillsStatLevelexperience P/S/T bonecasting INT

1

150 Primary Skulk WIS

1

150 Primary Climbing AGI 1 100 Primary Dodge AGI 1 250 Primary Small Blades DEX 2 475 Primary Tail Fighting DEX 1 50 Primary Mining STR 2 300 Primary Acrobatics AGI 1 50 Secondary Throw Sharp Thing DEX 0 Secondary Fleet of Foot AGI 2 300 Secondary Weak Claws DEX 0 15 Secondary Sense Danger PER 0 15 Secondary Forage PER 1 50 Secondary Skinning DEX 0 Tertiary Manipulate Locks and Traps DEX 0 Tertiary Hide INT 0 Tertiary Identify PER 1 15 Tertiary Open 0 Tertiary Open 0 Tertiary Mechanic INT 2 315 Crafting Bone Carving DEX 0 0 Crafting Skrimshaw DEX 0 0 Crafting Rune Lore INT 0 0 Lore Core Skills SkillCostsRankMax RankSpent Smugglers Stash 3/5/10 2 3 8 Jumping Jack 2 1 1 2 Whip Tail 2 1 1 2 Unseen Tail 3 1 1 3 Invisible Tail 3 1 1 3 bonecasting 5 1 1 5 Total 23