Two lives left: chapter 2

Coby stumbled two steps as he fell a bit on a narrow strip of land beside a seedy, stinking swamp. The sounds of the city around him were gone, replaced by an eerie groaning of skeletal black trees and the bubbling of the black ooze ahead. Pockets of tiny, bright red mushrooms grew across many things that weren't submerged.

"Where are the others?" Brad said, his voice shockingly loud. "Hundreds of people went in, but it's just us?"

Coby looked around and saw that only their small group was here, with no signs of any others, no tracks, no figures in the distance. Nothing.

"Perhaps we were somehow grouped together?" he said as he watched Jace pick up a piece of black wood and break it experimentally. The moldy wood barely creaked, more like wet cardboard than wood.

"Perhaps-" Brad began, then he fell quiet. All of them froze into place, unable to move. The swamp seemed to pause, a bubble mid burst, and trees mid sway.

Another scroll opened up, the dry paper seeming almost more real than the silent swamp behind it. Like the first time, words began coming from the top, and Coby quickly started to read, cursing at how fast the text scrolled down.

"Welcome, Earthlings! You are among the few brave or stupid enough to attempt the tutorial! The rules are simple! If you make it out alive, you will gain a single personal revive. This revife will grant the power of a full resurrect, so if you manage to disintegrate, you will find yourself back with a new random body! Rejoice at the Randomness!

Now then, on with the tutorial's instructions!

Depending on the group you entered with or which you were randomly assigned to, you will have one day, or twenty-four hours, to finish the tutorial. The time starts when the tutorial zone closes. Sharp ones will realize that those who entered first might get more than a day. Lucky you! Now, if you manage to complete the tutorial, you will get a single, random level two class shard. Class one shards will drop -also randomly- from anything you manage to slay as well as from other humans! Not that I'm trying to goad you into killing your own, of course…"

A blood-red smiley, the ink slowly rolling down, appeared on the next line before the text continued.

"Now then, after this message disappears, your random stats will be rolled! Starting to get the picture? Also, from this point on, you will get experience for certain actions: killing my beautiful little darlings, sneaking past traps, or disarming them and-

Well… just figure out the rest yourselves!

Lastly, until you gain a class, your levels will be rather lackluster. Sorry about that. Do make sure to collect the class-shards, and I hope you can find higher-level ones! Now, I've seen some interesting things about blue screens and odd things in your books, but I'm sorry to say you will get none of those! It's too bothersome to create, so enjoy your scrolls.

Much love, Xium!"

The scroll disappeared as fast as it had come, and Coby blinked in surprise as he swayed forward.

"Fucking little information," Margot hissed. "And who the hell is Xium?"

Coby ignored her as pain flared up across his left wrist, and cries of surprise rang from the others. He pulled up his sleeve to see a tiny tattoo of a rolled-up scroll appear on his wrist, quickly becoming clear. The pain increased as an empty indentation appeared above it, almost like a gem socket. Then it stopped, and he realized he had been holding his breath.

"What the absolute FUCK," Tiff screamed as she raised her arm. "My mum's going to kill me!" Her voice echoed out across the swamp.

Well, if nothing knew we are here, now they do, Coby thought as he swallowed.

"Dammit, Tiff," Margot snapped, looking around in fear.

She wasn't the only one, as Coby and the others looked to see if anything was going to run and attack them.

Tiff did the same, white and swallowing constantly. After a minute, Margot breathed out and shook her head.

"You should be more fu-" she broke off when Tiff turned away and vomited on the ground.

"No, what? Are you okay, Tiff?" Margot whispered as she moved closer.

"Calm her down," Brad said as he looked at his wrist, then at the others. "So, is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?"

Jace frowned in confusion while David stood beside him, his deep black eyes silent as he shrugged.

"The scroll gives information," Coby thought aloud as he touched it. A thick scroll materialized in his hand.

"Damn," he said. "That's cool."

He opened the scroll and saw an almost default character sheet.

Shit, I hate rolling, Coby thought as he looked at the values.

Then he frowned. Shouldn't there be default values in there for his current stats?

"Look on the back of the scroll," Brad said, and Coby looked up to see the burly guy examine his own scroll.

Coby flipped his over and saw an explanation of the attributes and skills, many of which looked familiar. He was about to turn it back to the front, dismissing them, when he saw an oddity.

"A higher strength allows the usage of heavier weapons, whose base damage is greater," he read aloud, surprised.

A quick look showed no information on added damage from strength, nor for dexterity, which just stated: a higher dexterity will allow the use of difficult-to-use weapons, which grant specific effects like bleed and others.

"They changed it," he muttered, quickly reading through the other stats. Constitution was the only one that worked roughly as he would expect, although each added constitution gave far more health than he was used to. Intelligence now also increased the usability of almost every skill he saw in the list, as did wisdom, with both overlapping on multiple occasions. Charisma was as he knew but had one odd added benefit. It allowed the distraction of foes so the user could bypass their defense or get a head start at fleeing.

"I recognize some of these," Brad said, moving closer to Coby and pointing at charisma. "I've seen this usage in some online games before."

Coby looked at him, slightly surprised that Brad had picked him to talk to and even more so that the muscled guy had remembered stat usages in games.

"I've not, but I do know that many things have changed or been added compared to the game they said this is based on," Coby said as he looked over the skill list.

A soft gasp came from the side, and they both looked up to see Jayce, frozen with his arms outwards. He was shaking and shivering as his body became blurry. Then, as it began sharpening again, Coby couldn't believe what he saw.

Jayce had been a tall, lean guy with an athletic build, thin compared to Brad. Now he was at least a head taller, had massive shoulders, and his shirt and jacket were torn at the back and sides to accommodate the bulk. He looked at his own hands with a startled grunt.

"That's weird," he said, shaking his head. "I feel… odd. Why did everything become puny?"

David stepped next to him and looked at the scroll still dangling from his hand.

Jayce swirled around, staring at David. "What?"

David just shook his head and pointed at the scroll.

"Right… I clicked those things… then something happened," Jayce said, rubbing his head. "Everything seems so weird." Suddenly he turned and looked at the swamp. "I wonder if there's something to eat in there!" The frown on his face disappeared, and he grinned as he tossed the scroll away to walk forward. The scroll vanished as it hit the ground.

Margot and Tiff followed him with worried looks, while David seemed sad.

"He turned stupid," Brad whispered, turning to Coby. "Shit… I hadn't thought it would be this much!"

"He has an intelligence of seven," David said, his voice deep and sad and shocking Coby, who had thought the other wasn't capable of speech.

"And strength?" Brad asked.

"Sixteen."

"So, if size matters, that means I'm at fourteen now," Brad sighed. "I wonder what I'll be left with when I roll." He stared at his sheet when they heard a loud ripping sound, and all looked to Jayce.

He had pulled one of the smaller trees out of the swamp by its branches, seemingly delighting in hefting the person-sized thing above his head a few times. Then he tossed it away, the tree sailing away into the swamp, disappearing into the darkness where it slammed into something.

"Or not," Brad said, swallowing. "Let's get this over with."

Coby watched as the heavy-set guy looked at his scroll, then hesitantly pressed the click to roll button behind strength. The button disappeared, and numbers flashed across it, faster than anyone could read. Then they slowed, almost like a wheel of fortune. There was even a soft ticking, and Coby saw Brad tense as a four and a seven approached. It slowed rapidly, thirteen and fifteen appearing above.

"Come on, come on," Brad hissed, his fist clenched. With a soft tick, the wheel rolled into the thirteen, still moving, albeit ever so softly. "Almost," Brad whispered as the number fifteen slowly approached. Then, almost with a content sigh, it clicked in before it settled on the fifteen.

"Yeah!" Brad whooped. He clasped a hand over his mouth, but his body began rippling oddly before he could apologize. It lasted much shorter than with Jayce.

The others took a step back and glared at him, and Brad's shoulders slumped as he looked down. Then he looked up forcefully.

"Sorry, but you have no idea how hard I had to work for my body. It would suck if it would just… disappear like that."

"I think seven intelligence will suck more," Margot snapped as she looked at her scroll. Then she looked back at Brad, and Coby saw a soft gleam appear in her eyes. "I wonder…" she muttered.

"What?" Coby asked.

"Isn't it convenient that both of these muscled fools got a high strength? The chances aren't that high for that to happen… What if there is a difference between the first one you select and the rest? Maybe a way to-"

She hesitated, her finger over intelligence. Then she pushed it down without any hesitation.

She may be on to something, Coby thought as his eyes narrowed.

When the wheel finally stopped on a fifteen, Margot's eyes flashed with a bright light that quickly faded but left a gleam as she straightened up and cocked her head.

"I thought so," she said. "They made it so that you at least get the thing you desire most at a reasonably high level."

Or its luck, Coby thought, recalling how the dice sometimes played with your mind - letting you believe things that weren't true. Although this wasn't a real dice, he had a feeling it wasn't that different.

The real question is, are you smarter now? he thought.

As the people around him began to decide what their main stat would be, Coby gazed at his list.

I can live with many things, he thought as he looked at the list, but I agree with Margot. I wouldn't want to live stupid!

Still immensely worried, he pushed on intelligence, barely noticing that Margot followed his every move and nodded before staring at his wheel with almost as much intensity as he did.

A three and a five appeared, then a seven, as the wheel slowed rapidly.

There should be a high one now, Coby thought as he looked at the edge.

A twelve appeared, the wheel so slow he knew it would be cutting it close when a thirteen appeared at the edge.

"Shit," Margot whispered next to him, but Coby wasn't listening. His mind was speeding up, and he prayed it would hit thirteen. Even then, would thirteen make him smarter or stupider than he was?

His heart was pounding as the square slowly crawled across the twelve towards the thirteen, and he almost fell down when it finally ticked over. Instantly he felt his mind clear up, as a fog he had never noticed was pulled away, and something scrubbed through his mind, wiping away mental cobwebs. It seemed to last for a long time, but when it finally stopped, he saw that nobody had moved, and only Margot was staring at him with a weary grin.

"I guess thirteen is still pretty good. Feels weird, right?" she asked. "I wonder how much smarter two points make me compared to you."

Coby thought on it for a bit, trying to find any differences in his reasoning skills. He was happy that he was smarter now but slightly annoyed that this meant he hadn't been all that smart before. He tried some calculations, the first thing that came to mind, and instantly knew he was better at math now. No more flunking for him as he recalled the lessons he had tried to force into his weary brain. Most of the things seemed logical now, even trigonometry, which he had never understood. What was more impressive, though, was his ability to recollect things. Many memories seemed like they had happened last week.

"I don't know about smarts," Coby finally said. "To me, it feels like an old, clogged engine was serviced and a dirty window was wiped clean."

Margot blinked as she looked at him, then laughed. "Says you. Well, I guess unless things change, we will be the ones doing the thinking around here!"

Coby knew she was trying to make him feel better about not getting something like her, but he just nodded. As he looked around, he saw that everyone was now pressing the different buttons. Tiff was standing to the side, her tall, agile body slightly filled out. When she turned to them, he let out a strangled grunt. Her face was almost too perfect, all imperfections from before gone, and she now looked like the photoshopped models he had seen in magazines.

"Yeah, I was afraid of that," Margot whispered. She sighed, then walked towards Tiff and pulled her away, whispering in her ear.

"Let's see what everyone got then," Coby muttered, moving past the others and seeing if there was a pattern to the rest of their values.

Ten minutes later, he stood beside Margot, their heads together as the others walked around, pushing and shoving things, laughing and seemingly oblivious to danger. Most had one or two high stats and a few lower ones. Brad, with seven on wisdom and nine on dexterity, had gotten two of the lowest scores, but he had only been sad when he got a twelve on his constitution. He still said he wanted to go for Paladin, but Coby wondered if he would even qualify with only thirteen in charisma.

"So, it was luck after all," Margot muttered as she looked at David.

Coby followed her gaze and sighed. The tall man had shocked them all when he had picked wisdom, but what had shocked them more was when he had gotten an eleven. Thirteen could perhaps be seen as the low-end of good, but eleven never was. It was a bit more than average at best.

"It means there is no way to guarantee any values anywhere," Coby agreed. "Let's just get this over with then… Worst case, you get low on the rest, and we try to find you a wizard shard as fast as we can."

Margot frowned. "I'm still going for a rogue and pray we find an Arcane Trickster or similar subclass."

Coby thought for a moment, then nodded. "I wouldn't start with dexterity then. Although it shouldn't matter, nobody got two high roles in a row so far. The system might be rigged."

"I noticed that too," Margot said as she smiled at him. "I'm going to do dexterity after I get a roll below ten and see what happens. And you?"

"I'm not sure yet," Coby said truthfully. He'd not forgotten about Jessy's advice, but with thirteen in intelligence, that seemed a bad choice now. He might pick a sorcerer; however, the chances of him getting a high enough charisma seemed small. Of the others, none had gotten any second value above fourteen, with David getting not a single value above thirteen.

Margot nodded, then pulled out her scroll and selected strength.

Coby absently observed her as she filled out her attributes, his mind drifting away a bit. When she was finished, he took a quick look and couldn't the jealous grin that came to his face.

"Could be worse, far worse!"

"Yes, but I would have loved a fifteen on dexterity," Margot said as she gazed at her scroll. "And something about that nine in constitution…" she whispered. "I don't know, but it feels dangerous."

Coby couldn't find anything intelligent to counteract that, but he agreed. So far, the highest constitution had been Jayce, with fourteen. The others all had lower than twelve. It almost felt too inconvenient. After a sigh, he pulled out his own scroll. He was the last one, and the rest was now starting to get restless, wanting to see what they could do with their new strengths.

Let's see how lucky I am, Coby said as he pressed strength.

The wheel spun, and when the numbers began slowing, a ten appeared, slowly coming to full view with a sixteen behind it.

"Won't make it," Margot said, and Coby was almost sad to know she was right.

A woosh of pain rippled across his body, and for a few moments, he stood shuddering and shivering. When it stopped, he felt light on his feet, and a quick look showed he had defined muscles on his arms.

"So… I guess I was below average," he said sarcastically, grinning at Margot.

"Who cares," she said, seeming uninterested in his self-deprecating joke. She pointed at the sheet. "Stop procrastinating and continue."

Coby hesitated, then finally pressed wisdom.

"Odd choice," Margot said.

"It's fine if it's high or low," Coby said. "if it's high, I'll go with Druid. If it's low I might get a high roll on constitution."

"But what about charisma?" Margot asked softly, looking up in confusion.

Coby ignored her and kept his eyes on the wheel. To his surprise, wisdom stopped at ten, and he frowned. That wasn't exactly low, now was it? It was average at best, just like his strength. For a second, he wondered if he was going to be one of those, everything between ten and 13 guys, and he shivered.

He glanced at charisma, unsure if he wanted to gamble a low one on that. It was his only caster stat left, and he was still thinking of becoming a Sorcerer, or perhaps even Warlock. The trouble was that he needed dexterity and constitution to stay alive as he probably didn't have the strength to wear heavy armor. The likelihood that he would get hit seemed high, even if, or perhaps because, he went Warlock or Sorcerer-

Or Bard, he suddenly thought. He'd forgotten those were casters!

He shook his head to regain focus and looked at constitution and dexterity. Those would increase his survival, which he would definitely need. Besides, ten wasn't high either, so he had no idea what to expect of the next roll. With a worried frown, he pressed charisma, getting a relieved smile from Margot.

"Thought you were shallow for a moment," she said with a warm smile.

Her joke and the purity of her smile surprised Coby so much that he almost missed the end of his role. A quick glance made his eyes widen in surprise.

"Oh shit," he whispered as the fifteen slowly rolled into view before stopping smack in the middle of the square. It almost felt like the dice had betrayed his true desire, which was ridiculous.

A wave of heat traveled across his body before centering on his face. The feeling was far stronger than when his strength changed. For a moment, he feared his skin would melt, but then the heat faded and changed to itching. Ten seconds later, it all stopped, and he sighed in relief.

"That hurt," he muttered.

"Uhuh," Margot said, and he looked up to find her gawking at him.

"Please tell me I don't look like Tiff now?" Coby asked, suddenly remembering the effeminate, pretty boys on the covers of magazines Jessy's sisters read.

Margot swallowed, looked straight into his eyes, and shook her head.

"Nuh-, I mean, no. But if you survive this, you are going to have an interesting time," she whispered before blushing and looking away.

That bad, huh, Coby thought as he grinned and looked at the two remaining attributes with a sinking feeling. He was mostly set if he wanted to become a charisma-based caster class. But he wanted some survivability, and he needed either con or dex for that, though preferably both.

"Dex first," Margot whispered.

Coby thought for a moment, then agreed. Still, he wanted to know why she thought so.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because based on what I've seen, the chances seem high that you will get a low roll now. However, if you get a low dexterity, you can still wear armor, but how will you fix a low con?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Coby said as he pressed dex.

The wheel rolled into view, but he ignored the values until it had slowed so much that only two options remained, and by then, his eyebrows had shot up, and his mouth had fallen open. It barely rolled past a sixteen and into another thirteen, where it came to a stop.

"That would have been interesting," he muttered.

"Yeah... Sadly, this means that unless you are extremely lucky with the next roll, you will be in the same mess as the rest of us," Margot said as she got up and looked around at the others. "They are about ready to leave. Get it over with, and let's go."

Coby noticed she appeared to look away, feigning disinterest but kept casting covert glances at his face.

That is going to take some getting used to, he thought. He had never really gotten much attention from the opposite sex. Not that he was ugly, he was just too average and skinny.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered, thumbing constitution and casting a silent prayer.

Ten seconds later, Coby and Margot stood frozen as they gazed at the fourteen shining in the center, flanked by a seven and nine. Coby barely felt his body morph and warp again, as tiny pains and aches he'd not even noticed seemed to whittle away, replaced by an intense feeling of comfort.

"Christ, maybe you should become our paladin?" Margot muttered.

Coby absently nodded, then shook his head as he realized what she had said. "It's not high enough. Even if I can increase it more, it's not that great.

Besides, although he had nothing against Paladins, the idea of running in first to draw the initial blows didn't appeal to him one bit. No, another idea was slowly growing in his head as he gazed at his really high average stats.

"I wonder," he muttered as he looked at his full stat sheet, holding it out to Margot, who had moved closer again. "Does this give me the highest average scores?"

"Yes, but only barely," she said. "Jayce and Tiff are close, but that's because they both have a sixteen, and you don't."

A scream tore through the silence while the scroll in his hands vibrated. A line appeared below his status.

> You have all finished your character creation, good job! Now let the fun begin!

The line vanished, replaced by a rapid countdown.

> 3, 2, 1... go!

Fuck, Coby thought as he felt his skin crawl.