WolfWrites

The Calling of Wrath - Chapter 38 - Decision and Theory (Patreon)

Published:

2022-08-04 16:52:17

Edited:

2022-08-18 13:33:27

Imported:

2022-10

Content

^^^ An image of the reavers.

Hockathrix ^^^ Except add a duck beak.

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Cassandra
Year 819 | Month 2 | Day 2

Almost as soon as my consciousness returns to me, my eyes begin to flutter open and I find myself, well, still alive, but also in some strange sort of white room. With a System note flashing in the center of my vision.

I slowly rise to a sitting position from my spot sprawled out across the floor of the pure-white room.

The slightly fog-addled mind quickly snaps awake once I read about the appearance of the Fiendish Primates.

Red and black… monkey…

So… the thing that knocked me down the cliff in the first place?

I stare at the note for a few minutes, just watching the timer slowly tick down before eventually turning to look around the white room.

Just… how long have I been in this room…?

The room itself doesn’t have anything outside of the fancy looking red and black door, with everything else just being a purer white than anything I’ve seen before.

I focus my attention on the note again.

It says 0 days, so that means I’ve likely been in here for at least a single day. Which would certainly explain why I’m feeling so refreshed.

My eyes narrow a little before I open my status.

A strange feeling runs through me as I see my accumulated EXP before I shake my head.

After leveling to level 16 to see if it would cure me of my drowsiness and finding it to not do a thing, I decided to save up the rest of my EXP. Especially since realizing just how badly the EXP penalty was.

For the monsters that were ten levels below me, the EXP they gave was reduced all the way down to only about three tenths of what they should have given.

I glance at the door for a second with my lips pursed in thought.

Should I go ahead and level up now? Or should I wait till after I get the EXP I need to unlock my Tier Breach Mission…

If I go ahead and level up now, then I’ll get another two levels of stats, which should help my survivability in the dungeon. But at the same time, it’ll make it a lot harder to get more EXP while I’m in there.

I lie back down on the ground again with a groan.

Damnit, why couldn’t the System just tell me how strong the monsters will be in this place?!

Even without leveling up now, it still took me about a week just to get enough EXP to level up twice. So if I level now, it might just take even longer to get that same amount of EXP again, depending on how strong the monsters are in the dungeon.

But at the same time, am I willing to risk my life just to be able to level up a bit faster?

I stare up at the ceiling as the countdown continues to tick downwards nonstop, with this question constantly repeating itself in my head.

Several minutes pass by in silence before I eventually mutter, “Fuck it,” and quickly assign my EXP to level up twice to level 18.

Whether that was the right choice or not doesn’t matter now since it can’t be reversed.

And with that thought, I let out a sigh of relief and climb to my feet before turning to face the red and black door. The door has a fancy red frame, with a black colored wood of some sorts and the same tree symbol in the center of the door as is in the corner of my vision.

That symbol… it really makes me wonder if the World Tree has something to do with the System…

I shift my weight to one leg and cross my arms in thought.

It wouldn’t be too outstretched of an idea since the World Tree is a rather grand existence whose Sap and Ichor can elevate a being in strength and even grant certain benefits once someone is fully attuned. But at the same time, if the World Tree is in our plane, then why would the System be initialized here last out of all of the planes? That just doesn’t make sense.

I uncross my arms as I step closer to the door before leaning forwards the inspect the tree.

I’ve only ever seen the World Tree four times.

Once when I was born, and then every five years after that.

Actually, now that I think about it, I’m supposed to go again this year, since I’m turning twenty in just a couple of months, but this whole thing has kind of made me forget about that.

I shake my head at the thought before thinking back to what I remember of the World Tree.

It’s enormous size is easily the biggest factor to remember. But it was also… kind of majestic.

The tree let out a faintly ethereal, golden glow around its leaves, spanning thousands of kilometers in length. And just the sight of the small little golden lights that practically seemed to drip from the leaves down to the water and ground below was always extremely beautiful no matter how one put it.

And while this small symbol obviously can’t picture that, it does look quite a bit similar to the World Tree I remember…

I purse my lips for a few more seconds before shaking my head and standing up straight.

Enough of that.

I reach out to touch the door, causing a bright white light to shine from it, engulfing the entire room with me in it.

Time to see this dungeon.

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