Drifting (1)

You trip and fall to the ground, arrows clashing across the stony walls around you. One grazes your thigh, but you quickly scamper to get back on your feet, to keep moving. You can already see your goal just at the end of the tunnel. A plinth, atop which rests a deep black gemstone, encased in glass. More arrows clatter into the darkness ahead, and another hits you in the shoulder. A loud scream of agony escapes your lips, as you feel your bone get shattered by the arrow, but you keep going, staggered somewhat by the suddenness. Tunnel vision and adrenaline keep you going; you know that you’re going to die, but… at least you’ll have achieved something.

The ones chasing you are the rightful owners of the dungeon; at least, those that own the land and first exploration rights. A group of six, mostly soldier types. They were guarding the entrance when you entered, but since you set off a magical trap they’d set, you were found quickly. You had used an invisibility potion, but… alas, the trap forcibly revealed you.

Another arrow hits you in the back, and you end up falling to the ground, scrambling to reach it. It’s so close, just a few meters away now; almost within your reach. The core of the dungeon, that if you touch will grant you a boon; whether it’s an artifact or something else depends on your luck. You’re wearing one that’s about to break; a ring with one charge remaining. A charge that’ll convert the next boon into a higher-tier one.

So… you must reach it. Whatever you do. Your other artifact’s charge let you temporarily open a new path to the dungeon core, but that’s going to close soon. And a black core… means it’s not a dungeon you could’ve ever cleared by yourself. Shouts and demands from the guards go unnoticed by you, as you manage to will yourself to move, to take the final few steps to claim your prize. Only a step away, an arrow hits you in the throat, and you fall forwards, dying. You’ve heard of dungeon cores healing those who touch them; you’d experienced it firsthand. So long as you’re alive when you touch it… you’ll be alive to claim your reward.

What you weren’t expecting to happen was for the blackness to consume you, to wrap itself around you tightly and to not let you go. It flows across your body like a liquid, but feels more like clothes as it covers you. But not the… comfortable kind of clothing. The uncomfortable kind; the kind that sticks to your skin and seals you in like a tomb. Your consciousness fades.

---

Until light forces you awake. You groan and breathe in the… strangely polluted air. It tastes acidic on your tongue as you open your eyes. The moon is shining light seemingly directly into your eyes, and you hiss and squint, trying to… get used to it instead of being blinded by it. Once you do, you find yourself in an open coffin, dirt covering most of your body. Trying to sit up, you find yourself quite… weak. Almost drained of energy.

Before your eyes, a black orb appears. Innately, you understand its meaning. The… boon of the dungeon, its… effect. You’ve been sent to another world. And… you need to grow strong enough to return to your own… if you even want to do that. Another aspect you understand is that… your death is meaningless. As you’ll simply… go back in time some. It depends on… factors, but generally it’ll be long enough to avert the death. As determined by… what, you’re unsure.

Energy slowly returns to you, as you climb out of the hole. And as you get up, you end up finding the final part of the boon. You’re wearing new gloves, up to your elbows. Black, silky and… regal, almost. Like the rest of your clothing, it’s dirty, but… unlike the rest, it’s undamaged. The knowledge of what they do is… unclear. Maybe it’s the artefact of the dungeon, rather than the passive boon. Or maybe it’s another part? It must’ve been quite a high-tier dungeon, then.

The surroundings… are strange. Woodsy, and… not like the graveyard you were expecting.

Houses in the distance seem to be made quite strangely, but as knowledge of the world slowly seeps into your mind, they’re… less strange. The world is more advanced technologically than the one you come from. Lacking magic, they’ve relied on science to become better.

But that changed quite recently. Magic came to the world, alongside new threats. A different yet similar threat to the dungeons on your homeworld is coming after this world. And those who fight it are called ‘Hunters’.

You grunt as you get up, brushing off the dirt. Your gloves feel… really nice, but as you try to take them off you realize you can’t. At least, not physically. When you tap into magic, you can force them to retract. Partially, into simpler gloves that go to your wrist, or into simple silk bracelets. You will them into their bracelet form, and start walking towards the buildings. They seem… abandoned, though. Or, at least, unused.

A - Explore the buildings

B - Circle around and try to avoid civilization

You head for the buildings, finding the doors broken inwards. With a shiver, you head inside, to… explore. While exploring, you find more broken doors, and… blood. Old, dry blood. And signs of chaos. So… someone or something broke in and attacked people. Either way… you find a lot of things left behind. Clothes, tools, other useful things. And… a lot of useless stuff.

You do change into some of the clothes you find, though. And the… underwear is much nicer. If a bit looser on you, but they’re also softer and much more comfortable. You’re used to wearing a wrap with padding, but… these ‘bras’ are nice. Continuing to explore, you find out what seems to have happened here. It seems that one of those portals has breached, similar to a dungeon break, where the monsters within spill out if there’s no clear.

Heading further, you climb to the roof and look around, getting your bearings. It seems that where you are is the outskirts of a city, and you can pretty easily tell what the quarantine radius is. You start to head down when a noise catches your attention, from behind. A loud wooshing and somewhat crackling sound. You glance back, and freeze in place, as a lady coated in flames hovers a few steps off the edge of the building, staring at you.

“What’s a civilian doing here? How’d you get in?” She asks, demanding answers.

You don’t… really have any answers, though. Instinctively, you back towards the door.

She frowns and dashes closer, a wave of heat following that brings discomfort and anxiety. Not painful, but it’s like a blazing inferno a couple steps away from you. “Answer me, civilian. And maybe we won’t have to arrest you.”

We? You think to yourself, then sigh. “I…”

What do you say?

(write-in): Panicked “I don’t know???”

You panic; unsure what else to say, you simply blurt out a hasty response. “I-I don’t know??” You back into the door, finding it closed behind you… when you left it open. Maybe some kind of spring pulled it closed and you didn’t notice?

She rolls her eyes. “Stop lying, lady.” She lands in front of you, stepping closer as her flames retract; she doesn’t want to burn you yet. She reaches out to grab your wrist. You try to dodge, but she’s too fast.

Yet, what happens is not at all what you’d been expecting. You were simply expecting to get caught… but when the black liquid that once flowed across you suddenly shoots out from your silk bracelet and into her arm, you both are surprised.

She releases her arm and backs away, flames returning to her. “W-what the fuck did you do?” She asks angrily, a sword made of fire forming as she aims it at you.

Hesitantly, you shake your head. “I-I don’t know. I-I sw–”

She slashes, and you tense up, but her sword stops a moment before connecting; just far enough to not harm you. “W-wh… ngh… f-fuchh…” She shivers, swaying a bit before collapsing to the ground, her flames extinguished alongside her sword. The black orb you see in your mind seems to have drained.

You blink in confusion, staring at the collapsed woman in front of you. “U-uh…” You stutter, unsure what to do. “I-I…” You quickly go to open the door, to try to escape.

She wakes up before you can, though. But… different. Her eyes seem… darkened, to you. A black mark that’s easily hidden by hair has formed on her forehead. A small seven-pronged star. “W-what the fuck did… did you do to me, you fu– mistress?” She then blinks. “M-mistress? N-no, what… nh…” She rubs her head, shaking it a little.

You watch, even more confused now. Mistress? You think to yourself. You’d never been called that; being born a commoner, you have called others that though. Primarily nobles and similar, people you’d worked for.

She shakes her head again, then looks back up at you. “W-we should go before… anyone else finds you, mistress. I… I-I want to figure out what the fuck is going on, but we can’t… do that if things aren’t safe for you.” She blinks. “W-why do I care about you? F-fuc– nngh.” She winces in pain and shakes her head again, shivering. “F-fuck it. Let’s go.”

You sigh, accepting this for now. If she’s… confused, and seemingly unwillingly subservient, it at least means you’re probably safe around her. “Where? A-and how?” You ask.

“Back to the guild.” She grunts, taking out a stone. “We’re gonna use a recall. T-the rest of my team will find it odd that I left, but… f-fuck, I just wanna keep you safe for some reason.” She shivers and holds out her hand, for you to hold it.

You hesitantly take it, and she crushes the stone in her other arm. The world around you melts away, replaced with the warm interior of a building. A much fancier, yet more… lifeless building. Like a government building or something; very… bureaucratic, with little life to it. She pulls you along to a side room, which seems to be for conferences and such. With a switch on the wall, she blacks out the windows and turns on the lights before releasing you. “S-stay here, I’m…”

Your stomach growls, and you shiver. Hunger… has finally shown its annoying head. “S-sorry.” You mutter softly, used to… apologizing for your own needs.

She shakes her head. “I-I’ll bring you something, and… a few things. Just… just stay here. I’ll lock the doors so nobody else can… can get in for now.” She seems… shaky, but recovering. Unsure why she’s helping you, but still doing it despite that.

You… nod and take a seat in one of the chairs, relaxing a bit. It definitely feels… strange, but… if you can figure out how it works? It’ll be quite a useful thing to have at your fingertips. If only you could… introspect yourself properly.

A - Poke around the room after resting for a bit

B - Wait patiently for her return

You get up a moment later, the curiosity pulling you to explore the room. You find many things that don’t… make much sense to you. Strange boxes made of a strange material, ‘plastic’. One has a glass lens on the front and is aimed towards a flat, clean wall. The others seem a bit more complex, and have separable components that connect via a softer, bendier material, that still feels like plastic to you. There are also other things around. A more metallic machine that… had buttons with cup symbols on them. The text above reads Espresso, Coffee, Cappuccino, and then some other buttons that you can’t quite… parse at the moment.

There are also some pamphlets, ones you could read through, but avoid, and… a few other things. It’s certainly… a room that would be useful or a group meeting. She called this place a ‘guild’, which… means the room makes sense. Guilds would generally have meeting rooms like this. You sit down after you’re done poking around the room.

The door clicks and she reenters about 5 minutes after you’ve sat back down, bringing with her some things. A tray with some containers on it, a strange bottle, and some papers. There’s also a bag over her shoulder, the contents of which are unknown. But it seems heavy due to its inertia. “Do you… have a name, mistre–” She coughs, shivering. “Mistress?”

You ponder it for a moment, but decide to simply use your name from the past. “It’s Rune. No… last name, I’m not a noble.” You state. “And… uh, you may call me that. Rather than mistress, I… I don’t know how I feel about that yet.”

She nods a bit, putting the things down on the table. “Alright, Rune.” She seems… to relax from not having to call you mistress. “Are you even a civilian? Based on… what happened, there’s no way you could’ve done what you did, or… even gotten to that building, I think.”

You tilt your head, in confusion. “I don’t even… know what I did. Nor… how I got there. I kind of just… woke up.”

She blinks in confusion. “Wait, really?” She sighs and takes out a crystal and a machine to place it into, then slides it over to you. “Place a hand on the crystal.” She orders, then flinches. “U-uh, please.” She adds.

“Why? What does it do?” You ask, hesitating.

She shivers, managing to resist answering for a moment. “It’s… twofold. It is a tool for investigating peoples’ abilities, and measuring magical compatibility. I… want to see if you’re a hunter or not. And… what you did to me. But if you want me to l-look away, I wo–” She tenses up, shaking her head. “I will.”

She was about to say she won’t, but… changed her mind. You sigh. It would certainly be useful to investigate yourself with it… but whether you want the firebird to know what your abilities (if any) and magical compatibility are is… a dilemma. On one hand, it’s useful to have a second perspective on things… but if she finds a loophole to escape you’ll be in trouble.

A - Ask her to look away, then touch; say you’ll consider letting her look

B - Ask her to look away, then touch; don’t say anything more

C - Let her look when you touch

You sigh. “You may… look.” You reach out and place your hand on the crystal, expecting to feel unease. Yet… it’s pretty nice. Surprisingly so, in fact, and you relax. After a bit, the crystal changes color, slowly going through the spectrum of… heat-emitted colors? Since it goes from a deep red, slowly going towards yellow and white. Then… bluish white. And stops there.

The firebird seems surprised by this. The surprise doesn’t cease as a display pops up, listing information about you. A bit little, but it’s enough to get started, you suppose. For proper introspection, you’d need… something interactive and something way more detailed. Not… a machine, but something innate; a power or… some kind of fuckery.

But… still. Based on the info you can understand, you’re a hunter. Whatever Low C means, you’re it apparently. You only have two listed abilities, both of which have their names garbled and an error next to them. Error: could not be analyzed (and 91 more errors) on both of them.

“Uh… what does that mean?” You ask, pointing at the Low C ‘Rating’.

She blinks a bit, then nods. “U-uh, that means your… average physical state is similar to an average low-ranked C-tier hunter. I’m A-tier, in the top 10. But those… abilities. I’ve never seen the machine fail like this.” She shivers a little. “S-so, uhm… normally I’d have to report this, but… I won’t if you don’t want me to. Both your status as a hunter and the abilities that can’t be analyzed. It’s… both law and guild policy.”

You sigh and nod a little. “Keep it secret for now. I want to… know what it means first. What about the crystal color?”

“White? Uh… that means you’ve got perfect compatibility with magic. Which… I only know of a few who’ve been reported as white.” She doesn’t seem to notice the blue hue to it.

“… I just realized, I haven’t asked you your name.” You direct her away, lifting your hand off of it. The device quickly shuts down.

“A-ah. My name’s Lily Nirn.” She smiles a little, but it falters a moment later. “I… I’ll try and keep it secret, but understand that… someone like the guild leader could force me to say anyways. Since he will find out about this… happening, eventually. That I took an outsider into our building and… protected her from others. That… I borrowed test equipment for you.”

You sigh and nod; he must be quite powerful. You focus on the tray, and your own thoughts. Opening a container, you start to eat. Some kind of oil-cooked potatoes… rather delicious. There’s still things in the bag, too. And… your own safety is at risk. You could also have her kill you, trying to force yourself back to the buildings before you met her. Whether it’ll… work, or whether the relationship you have with Lily will continue is… unclear.

Especially since you don’t know how to recharge the orb yet, which… as far as you can tell is the source of this… forced obedience.

A - Focus on finding out more about the world

B - Ask more questions (write-in)

C - Order her to kill you