In shadows deep, where lanterns fade,
A gambler’s hand, a pact was made.
With rage of fire and cards of ash,
The stakes are blood, and the play was brash.
A whisper stirs, a deal is struck,
The devil grins, a turn of luck.
But tread ye soft, on peril’s thread,
For fortune smiles where death shall tread.
The tolling bells, a foolish wail,
The fateful wager shall never fail.
Risk it all, your soul to keep,
Or join the lost where they all weep.
“The fuck was that?!” Eden yells out in terror, as the rhyme plays again and again, wailing like a banshee in the phantom night. “Wait. Everything in this place talks in riddles and hints for some reason, so by that logic, there must be a hint in this song. Dark lantern... demons... deals... Is it that dark hallway?” Eden asks himself. And after some thought, Eden decides to take a chance and go to the chest, expecting the danger that may lay.
Creak, creak, crumble. The floor loudly shakes and slowly cracks as Eden walks to the wooden chest. The light starts to lose its glimmer, as the lanterns covering the room in light reach not this foul hallway. When he gets in front of the chest, the light has almost completely faded into the abyss. Eden then attempts to examine the wooden chest. It looks ancient, much like a pirate chest found in modern day. This idea is enhanced further by the gold lining where the top and bottom connect to lock it shut, which the chest very much is. but when he touches the lid, the floor surrounding the chest suddenly caves in. He would have been surprised, but the obvious trap was expected. He then goes to untense his body for the 25 ft (7.62 m) drop, but it was rather pointless, as there was a pile of hay where he was to land. When he gets up, he sees just about nothing due to the darkness, pardon a few things nearby. He notices a few spots where water drips from the stone ceiling. To contrast this rather dark room, there is one corner that has a ray of sunlight, with a massive boulder near it
How original. What shall be next? Will a get ambushed as well? Eden thinks, laughing to himself, unaware of the true nature of the predicament he was in. As Eden looks around, the previously dark room turns to a blue hue through the countless lanterns around as he starts to look around.
Notice! Quest “The Chicken Hunt” (G+) has been activated
The Chicken Hunt- (G+)
You have landed inside a chicken labyrinth, and you need to exterminate all the chickens in the area.
Requirements-
- Kill every chicken in the area.(Incomplete)
- Destroy or take all the eggs. (Incomplete)
- Must be done in 1 hour or shorter.
Rewards-
- +1 level to a job skill.(F grade limit)
Upon failure-
- Instant death.
We pray for the success of the player “Eden”.
“Of fucking course I landed in a dungeon!” Eden yells out in fury, as 5 chickens appear in front of him. Right above the heads of the chickens, it says “Rabid Chicken- (H)” And there is a green bar with a heart next to it, fully filled.
“Cluck! Cluck cluck cluck!” The Chickens scream out as they charge at me, nearing my position. However, the chickens are no very fast, so Eden has all the time in the world to plan out his strike.
Okay, I should think this out here. There are 5 chickens rushing at me, and all I have to fight with is a knife, some matches, and a hoe. The matches would take too long to kill, and it is not like the stone is flammable enough to burn, so that is out. The hoe and knife are left, but the knife is better suited to collect the chicken's corpse rather than kill them outright, so that leaves me with the hoe as my best weapon. Eden decides, as he draws the Hoe outside his inventory and gets ready to strike down the chickens.
Passive skills, “Chicken Wrangler” has been activated.
Eden slams the hoe down on one of the chickens. The sheer force of the swing launches the chicken, and the ground underneath cracks even more than before. The chicken is flung to the nearby wall to the left of him, well over 50 ft (15.24 m) far. The chicken got crushed on said wall from the sheer might Eden’s swing had. But unbeknownst to Eden, the chicken still lives, albeit crippled.
Jesus Christ! That attack was far stronger than I thought it would be. Could it be the work of this skill? As Eden questions his new-found strength over the chickens, he gets his head back in the game and starts swinging at the leftover chickens. Eden swings his hoe again and again, cracking the surroundings with his force, along with smashing the skull of the 4 chickens with ease. Eden notices that the green bar shot down and would disappear after he killed the vile beasts.
Notice! Skill “Chicken Wrangler” has its proficiency slightly increased.
Nice! So you can level up skills through practice as well. Eden Realizes. However, what he still had not realized that the first chicken to be struck had not died just yet. As when Eden finishes the destruction of the rabid chickens, a loud screech fills out the room, and the chicken’s talons swing on Eden’s back. The pain the courses through Eden’s body makes him aware that the chicken had somehow survived the attack.
“FUCK! Oh, going to kill you for that one, you moronic chicken!” Eden yells out in rage from pain. Eden does an upwards swing at the jumping chicken, as it lines up right with its “eggs”. The chicken screams once more, but this time out of pain rather than from wrath. The chicken dies in a rather shameful way for both parties, and Eden feel a bit of second-hand pain from the strike, almost feeling bad for the chicken.
Notice! From your underhanded retaliation to a weaker foe, you have met the requirements to obtain the skill, “Low Blow”.
Low Blow- (G) Passive
(You are a cowardly fighter who will strike dirty even when you would win otherwise. This skill forbids you to obtain any job from the knight class tree, and you will have a worse relationship with the strong of the race you did this cowardly move on (Chickens). But those who are weaker members of the race will be more submissive to you. However, your scumminess has given you an increased amount of damage and accuracy when aiming or hitting the genitals, and all attacks have a small chance of dealing their damage to their genitals given it would do more damage. You also have a very small chance to make the target infertile if they are a male.)
What the hell system! Why did you give me this skill? It is so needlessly cruel to all I face, and heavens forbid I get into a sparring match with someone, they will kill me on the spot if this skill backfires! Eden worries, thinking of all the beings that could lay in this place, realizing how fucked he could be now if he faces them and low blow activates it effects. But he wastes no time worrying over such problems and starts to explore the labyrinth. It is a small, dark tunnel that is just barely big enough to fit into, clearly made by and for chickens. There are also little pockets in the walls that contain nests. However, most of them are empty, with only a few sleeping chickens, seven in total, that Eden can easily kill and gain a small increase in his chicken wrangler skill.
How am I going to find all the eggs? Eden wonders, as he checks out his system tab, noticing the level up bar now says (13/100). So I got 13 EXP, lined up with the amount of chickens I have killed. I guess each chicken is worth 1 EXP then. Eden realizes, as he now looks for anything to speed up this process. As he does this, he sees his egg finder skill and lights up in joy. “Yes! So this skill does have a use after all!” Eden says in glee. “Activate skill “Egg finder”!
Activating skill “Egg finder”
1...
2...
3...
Success!
Skill Egg finder has been activated!
All eggs in a 100 ft (30.48 m) radius will have a green glow around them if they are in a place you would expect them to be.
As the skill is activated, Eden scans around and notices a bunch of green lights in the wall nests. As he walks up to one of them, he feels like he had been a fool, as he was not looking in the corners of the wall, the place where the eggs were stored. As he walks around, putting all the eggs in his inventory in case he needs them, or feels like eating them.
Notice! You have gained 67 eggs! Eggs will be sent to storage.
Notice! You have completed one of the objectives in “the chicken hunt” quest.
Destroy or take all the eggs. (Completed)
“Well at least I got that part of the quest competed. But where could the other chickens be? They cannot be all dead, or else that part of the quest would be labelled completed” Eden asks himself. “Those chickens seem to be even more rabid than their name implies, so they should have charged at me by now given they know I am here.” Eden says loudly, hoping for another overused trope to save him, but to no avail no chickens run at him. Eden then instead choses to go down the pathway, which narrows further, forcing Eden to fully start crawling.
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Half an hour later. He finds the end of the small pathway, tired from all the searching. But when he reaches the end of the tunnel, his eyes meet a baby chicken, which sits right in front of him. The baby chicken, while looking like one of the rabid chickens, is much more docile, not even moving when Eden crawls up to it. The small chick has a massive head and large eyes, unfit for its rather small body.
“Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!” The baby chicken goes, but it then quiets down and slowly walks towards Eden. He prepares to strike the chick, believing this to be nothing but a feint to put his guard down. In his eyes, all these chickens are the same.
“You will not trick me you dastardly chicken!” Eden yells as he is about to throw a punch at the defenceless chick, which is hard to accomplish while lying down. But while Eden does this, the chick starts to snuggle up with him, like he was the mother who birthed it. When the chick does this, Eden lowers his fist, as he has lost his killing intent towards the cute chick.
What are you doing Eden? Why am I attacking this helpless chick? It has done nothing wrong! But if I do not, my journey will end here, all for a nameless chick. No! Eden, do not become like one of them! There must be some other solution! This system is like an open world game, and no open world game worth a damn would force you upon only one solution to a problem! Eden thinks, praying his guess was right about the prideful system. Just then, in Eden’s favour, a new system message popped up right in front of him.
Notice! A secret path has been discovered by the player “Eden”. If the player decides to take the new path, the quest “the chicken hunt” will be replaced with the quest “the chicken rebuilding: part 1”.
In order for the player to activate the quest, they must spare the chick, however you will be unable to claim the rewards from the former quest “the Chicken hunt”.
The chicken Rebuilding: part 1- (B+)
An entire colony of chickens, except for one chick, has been slaughtered, but even the weakest of nations can reform with enough help. Support the former rabid chicken clan and reform them back to their glory days.
Requirements-
- Rebuild the rabid chicken labyrinth. (incomplete)
- Have at least 30 chickens in the labyrinth.(1/30) (incomplete)
- Have the colonies be able to survive without consent support from you. (incomplete)
Rewards-
- +3 levels to all farming and taming related skills.(A grade limit)
- Gain the title “Saviour of the chicken colony”
- The absolute support of all chickens in the rabid chicken colony.
- +500 EXP.
Upon failure-
- Hatred of all chickens.
- Gain the title “Failure of the Chicken colony”.
We pray for the success of the player “Eden”.
Notice! You have heard about titles for the first time! Explanation is available! Would you like to hear the explanation? Yes No
Great! It seems I was right, but in a different way than what I thought. Should I take the hard way out with the new quest, or should I let the chick die and enjoy my easy rewards? I want to save the chickens, but do I have the ability to? I mean, it is a B+ grade quest, but the risk might be worth it. Eden ponders, deciding if it is worth the gambit to take the deal, but the chick's warm, soft feathers brush up against him, clouding his judgement in favour of the chick. It was a rather rash play, as picks to take the quest from the charm of the chick, but he at least asks what a title is beforehand, wanting to know what they are.
Titles are very rare skills that can give numerous buffs and debuffs. Titles are normally passive but can have activated effects as well. Also, a small selection of titles grant new skills, spells, and stats.
So It seems I have opted to take a rather risky gambit. Eden thinks, picking up the small, yellow chick, feeding the chick some of his random seeds. While the chick eats the seeds, Eden thinks of a way to protect the last chicken for the quest. This chick has no chance of surviving without my help, but I have nothing besides these seeds to help it with. Maybe I can use the resources around here? Eden thinks, as he escapes the small tunnel into the large room at the start of the labyrinth. When he gets there, he first goes to collect the hay he landed on, some random grey stones that were once attached to the wall and floor, and harvests the chicken corpses for some food and feathers.
Notice! Total amount of items added: 1 hay bale, 100 lb (45.36 kg) of cracked stone, 62 lb (28.12 kg) of chicken and 6.5 lb (2.95 kg) of feathers. Skill “Chicken Wrangler” has its proficiency greatly increased.
Okay, I do not really know what I expected to find, but I thought there would be something more useful. Maybe like some kind of food source, the most important thing for the chick. I mean, how else would have the chickens survived, unless they ate themselves. Eden thinks, sadly realizes that his thought is most likely true. But as Eden looks through his inventory to double-check on what he got, he realizes that he does have a way to give the chick infinite food. Even though he just fed some to the chick, he forgot about the seeds, or more importantly how you can grow seeds into something the chick can eat. Once Eden realizes this, He walks over to some of the wall holes that contain dirt. He then digs up and grabs the dirt, and place some seeds in the small light. After he does that, he then makes a shabby pipeline with stones to give the crops some water from the dripping ceiling.
There we go! Now I should probably bring over the chick now. Eden thought while walking over to the chick
“Chirp! Chirp!” The chicken goes softly, waddling around the room.
“I am over here!” Eden yells to the chicken, which now has spotted Eden and waddles over to him. Eden then leads the chick towards the small plot of seeds, but puts his hand out to stop the chick from eating the seeds he assumes are still there. But to his surprise the seeds have already begun to sprout like it had been planted for weeks.
“Okay, little chick, you should only eat from these if you are starving. Also do not eat the whole plant, make sure to leave any seeds in the ground. If you need a drink, take a little from the steam, but not too much. Got it?” Eden tells the chick that seems to understand what he said, but he is worried about the chick eating or drinking too much.
“Chirp! Chirp!” The chicken goes, pointing its little wing at the boulder, seeming to want Eden to check out the boulder for an unknown reason.
“Is there something important about this boulder?” Eden asks, to which the chick nods, seeming to understand his words. After the confirmation, Eden starts examining the boulder. There is nothing all the special about the boulder itself, but he does see a pathway behind the boulder when he looks through the cracks between the boulder and wall.
“You are a smart little chick now are you, little chick, no, I cannot keep calling you that, I should give you some kind of name.” Eden says, thinking of a name for the chick, getting completely sidetracked from the important information from how proud Eden is of the chick.
What should I call him? Maybe Little Bird? No not that. How about tiny cluck. No, that is even worse. Well the chick is smart so perhaps something to do with that? Eden thinks, where he suddenly thinks of a great name for the chick, Isaac, inspired by a bird from a manga series he once read. The chick, now named Isaac, seems to like the name, but points back at the boulder to return his focus to the original idea. Eden does not really care much, due to his lack of any real way to deal with the problem, but still bothers with it anyway.
“Okay fine, I will try to find a way to get through the boulder.” Eden says, but his words are practically valueless, as he was not clue what to do.
How should I do this? I really do not want to lift it, and I am doubtful I have any other method to move it. Eden concludes. But upon second thought he had an idea, the ‘collect’ skill.
The skill only says you can collect an item, giving it is not being used, held or out of range, but never anything about the weight. So in theory, the boulder should be movable by this skill. Eden realizes, about to put his plan into practice.
“Activate skill ‘Collect’!” Eden yells out as he raises out his hand. When he does this, the boulder and his hand get covered in a faint blue light, and he waits for the boulder to go to him. But to his surprise, the boulder only moves an inch at most, before the light breaks like glass.
Notice! Your level of the ‘collect’ skill is not high enough to move the material ‘ten ton boulder’. Skill is forcibly cancelled.
God-damn it! Eden screams in his mind. Why does the skill not say anything about the clear limit of what it can collect? Eden then wonders, but quickly gets over it. Anyway, I have to find another solution to move the boulder. Eden thinks. After a bit of time, then realizes that his best option would be through sheer force. However, Eden lacked the confidence to move something that was a thousand pounds, so he would use his hoe as a lever to fling the boulder aside, as he learned that would be easier.
Eden then buries his hoe under the massive boulder, hooking the bottom of it with the front of the hoe. He then pushes down on the hoe with all of his might, expecting the boulder to not really move much at all, as he had underestimated the power he now had. The boulder had been flung into the air, lucky not hitting anything he had built for the chick, and landed right next to the wall near the makeshift pipe.
Notice! Due to lifting the material ‘ten ton boulder’ with a low level strength stat, your strength has greatly increased
As he watched the boulder land, he notices that Isaac waddles over to it and is now pecking at it. But Eden is much more focused on what was hidden, and he turns over to see what was behind the boulder. There lies a circular room, which looks to be made of black stones. The room is no more than 6 chickens in diameter, with the outer third of the room being a moat of flowing water. A bridge connects the pathway which Eden stands upon with the centre of the room, and in there is an old, golden pedestal that holds a tongue-shaped key, reminding Eden of a snake. Eden, after making sure there were no visible traps, carefully walks over to the pedestal to grab the key, as he is still wary of any traps coming his way. But when he grabs the key, nothing happens for a while. Eden stays there still, until he hears a quiet snap, and notices a small string fall to the ground, and he hears the creak of the opening of a door, as death has knocked once more for Eden.
An arrow is fired at him, coated in some kind of green liquid, with Eden assumes is poison. While the arrow was fast, it fired from far away, giving him time to one thing. He raises his hand and yells out “Activate skill ‘collect’!”. And when he does this, the arrow gets covered in light, and then disappears, entering his inventory. But when he uses the skill, three more arrows, assumed to be poisoned as well, are sent at him with due haste. Luckily, now that an arrow has already been fired, Eden was well-prepared to use collect to grab the arrows, and he succeeds with the first two arrow steals, putting them in his inventory. But upon the collect use on the third arrow, he gets a system message instead of the skill’s effect.
Notice! You have gained the item ‘Poisoned decay arrow’
Notice! Your skill ‘collect’ can only be used twice in succession before it is put on cooldown. Cooldown- 5 seconds.
As this information is shown to Eden, dread covers his face when he realizes what this means, and he goes limp, accepting his fate. The use of ‘collect’ had drained much of Eden’s already lacklustre stamina, leaving him unable to dodge the attack even if he was not in shock from Collect not working. After but a short moment, the poisoned arrow hits him right in the gut, and plunges deep inside his chest. As the arrow penetrates his flesh, poison seeps through his body. His face starts to fade of colour, and he begins to go woozy from the poison.
Notice! You have been affiliated with the poison effect. This effect will last until cured and will drain away at the user’s life force. It is recommended that you treat this effect as soon as possible.
Eden falls to the ground, and begins to crawl out of the small cave into the larger area, hoping for some kind of miracle. But while he does this, me makes his way to the chick's area. When he gets their though, his head falls to the ground from both exhaustion and the poison. The poison slowly decays Eden’s body, and causes him to rot at extreme speeds, as his skin is falling off his body, peeling himself like an orange. As this happens, Eden screams out in absolute agony from the sheer pain of each and every skin molecule being turned neon green and falling off before even the pain sensors attached to them are numbed. Why can I not live a peaceful life? Why must I go through this pain? What did I do to decisive this? I just wanted freedom! Eden keeps asking himself, repeating the same questions in his mind, but never finding the answer when the poison enters his stomach, bringing about pain never known to him before. The poison has spread to everywhere pardon the places that would end his misery, both a blessing and a curse as Eden is now practically paralysed from the pain. The rot in his stomach makes him try to throw up, mainly blood, but the blood hardens as it traverses through his throat. If it were not for the holes in his body, then no air would reach his lungs. After 5 minutes, half of his belly has become puke green, with the rest having already detached, creating hand-sized holes. Eden has slowly moved what is left of his arms to cover the holes in his flesh, to stop the very slow process of his bleeding, extended from the odd properties of the poison. However, this brings upon unrivalled suffering to him. But when Eden is about to die, he feels a sudden surge of strength, as the system proclaims ‘Wounded Warrior’ has been activated.
Eden Status report-
Special abilities-
New! Low Blow- (G) Passive
(You are a cowardly fighter who will strike dirty even when you would win otherwise. This skill forbids you to obtain any job from the knight class tree, and you will have a worse relationship with the strong of the race you did this cowardly move on (Chickens). But those who are weaker members of the race will be more submissive to you. However, your scumminess has given you an increased amount of damage and accuracy when aiming or hitting the genitals, and all attacks have a small chance of dealing their damage to their genitals given it would do more damage. You also have a very small chance to make the target infertile if they are a male.)
Inventory-
New! 67 eggs.
New! hay bale.
New! 97 lb (44 kg) of stone.
New! 62 lb (28.12 kg) of chicken.
New! 6.5 lb (2.95 kg) of chicken.
New! Tongue shaped key.