Harry Potter: The Gamer's Dimension Chapter 2

Hi all,

Here’s the next chapter. I will be aiming to get the last three chapters for this story out next week, as well as two more chapters decided by the poll, which will be posted tomorrow.

Chapter 2

Tom Riddle screamed and vanished with a loud clap.

Harry dropped the diary and slumped down, relieved that his ordeal was over. He never imagined that he would have survived after being confronted by Voldemort when he entered the chamber. His relief was so potent that it almost distracted him from the pain radiating from his arm.

The Chamber of Secrets had become the site of a fierce, life-or-death battle. The aftermath was evident in the widespread devastation within the chamber, from the massive Basilisk's lifeless body to the scattered rubble. A diary lay in a puddle, soaked in black ink and punctured by a fang. This diary had been the catalyst for the nightmare events that occurred throughout the school year, but Harry had managed to put an end to them. Unsurprisingly, Voldemort was revealed as the mastermind behind the ordeal, though his methodology had been anything but ordinary.

He ripped off his shirt sleeve, exposing his arm, and watched in horror as black veins sprouted from the wound and gradually climbed up his arm. Unlike what Voldemort expected, he didn’t die immediately after being bitten by the Basilisk. But if he didn’t act soon, he would.

He didn’t understand why Fawkes had left the chamber after dropping the diary in front of him. While his timely assistance was the reason Harry could destroy the diary, it was odd that the Phoenix had disappeared afterwards and not witnessed the outcome. His presence would have been a huge comfort in the face of the perilous situation he was currently facing.

When he remembered Ginny was still in the chamber, he glanced over to where she was lying beneath the statue, but she had not moved. Shouldn’t she be waking up now that the diary is gone? Tom had stated that she was "too far gone." Was that actually true?

Harry swallowed hard, feeling sick. The only reason he came down here was to save her, and it appeared that he might have failed. What would Ron say? Would he blame him?

He was about to crawl over to her, but then realised he had a more pressing issue. Harry crept over to where Tom had dropped his wand, grunting as he knocked on his injured arm. He picked up his wand, trying to muster the courage to do what he had to do next. If he was going to survive, he had to make a difficult decision. Lose the arm or wait until the poison spreads throughout the rest of his body and he dies in agony. Thinking about it this way, the decision was easy to make.

The black veins had reached his biceps.

"The only problem is doing it," Harry muttered. "What spell can I use to sever my arm?"

A bright flash from the corner of his eye startled him, and he turned his head. To his surprise, a strange gate appeared out of nowhere in the centre of the chamber.

Harry squinted. He had to be seeing things, right? Had the poison caused him to hallucinate?

“Enter the gate,” a voice whispered in his ear, causing Harry to yell in fright.

He looked around and couldn’t see anyone. Where did the voice come from? In an attempt to clear his mind, he raised his uninjured arm and lightly slapped his face. This was not the time for him to lose control of his facilities.

"It is the only way to save the girl," the voice said again. “And your arm. Enter the doorway before time runs out and gain your inheritance.”

“Fuck!” Harry groaned, climbing to his feet. He stumbled over to the gate.

The surface of the gate shimmered and fluctuated as if it had a life of its own. Harry reached out his hand and gently touched the substance that comprised the body of the gate. He could feel a wetness and a slight chill, yet there was still some resistance when he pushed on it. Thick and weighty, like a dense liquid.

A tendril emerged from the liquid and wrapped around his wrist. Gasping, he wrenched his arm back. With a lot of exertion, he managed to break free from the tendril's grip and tumble backwards onto the ground.

Harry stood back up and raised his wand, preparing for another attack. "I guess I will have to ignore the mysterious gate and go with the other option. Make a note to yourself, Harry. Never listen to..." Harry's voice trailed off, his gaze fixated on the door.

The liquid had shifted, forming distinct words on the door's surface.

The Gamer’s Dimension

Dungeon: Snake Pit (Tutorial)

Level Range 1-5

Scenario: Two arms are better than one.

Primary Objective: Defeat the Dungeon Boss to acquire the item to heal your arm.

Bonus Objective: Locate the soul renewal potion to save Ginny Weasley.

Time Limit: 60 minutes

Failure: The player loses his arm; Ginny’s death.

Notice: You will be initiated into the System the first time you pass through the gate.

He stared in disbelief, his mouth open. "The Gamer's Dimension... This can't possibly be real, can it?"

Harry felt a twinge in his arm and looked down to see if the poison had reached his shoulder. He didn’t have time to consider whether the thing in front of him was real or if it was a potential danger to him. He needed to decide whether he should take the risk. He looked back at Ginny, biting his lip, before gathering his courage.

If he were being honest, he was more concerned about his own life. He had nothing against the girl, but he didn’t know Ginny very well. He had no idea why he had come down here when he could have found a professor instead. Professor Lockhart didn’t count, as he was a fraud.

“I guess I will take a chance with this strange gate.”

Having said that, he stepped forward and touched the gate. The tendrils reached out and ensnared him, and he allowed them to draw him into the gate. He felt a brief coolness as he passed through the gate, then succumbed to darkness.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Harry awoke and sat up from the ground where he was lying.

“How did I get here?”

Then he remembered stepping through the gate and looked down at his arm. To his surprise, the poison had not spread any further. He didn’t know how long he was unconscious, but that shouldn’t have been possible. There was no pain, which was both comforting and strange. He did some arm exercises and discovered that he had a full range of motion, despite not being able to feel anything.

He stood up from the floor and looked around the room. It appeared to be a room from inside an old tomb, with large stone blocks covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt. A single torch was affixed to the wall, which dimly illuminated the room. It was empty except for the large wooden chest in the centre. There was also a door leading out of the room.

At that point, he realised he didn’t have his wand with him. He was certain he had brought it with him as he stepped through the gate. He searched the ground around him, concerned, but the wand was nowhere to be found. That was the one item he didn’t want to lose in the present situation.

“Should I see what’s in the chest?”

Harry approached the chest and lifted its lid, revealing several items inside. He picked up the scroll on top of the pile, and it instantly disintegrated into motes of light that rushed into his head. Startled, he was about to back away when he suddenly felt a rush of information enter his brain.

Harry stood like a statue, absorbing and comprehending the information contained in the scroll. He had just received some basic information about his strange new situation, and he found it hard to believe. To see if it was genuine, he tried one of the commands he had received.

“Status.”

A virtual display appeared in front of Harry, showing his parameters.

=============

Harry Potter

Age: 12

Level: 1

Experience: [0]

AP: 0

SP: 0

Resources

HP: 50/50  MP: 100/100

Attributes

Strength: 5

Vitality: 5

Dexterity: 5

Intelligence: 5

Willpower: 5

Magic: 5

Defence: 3

Titles

The Awakened

Deadly Poison [Suspended]

Soul Parasite

===============

"So it’s true," Harry muttered.

He had a basic understanding of the situation thanks to the information that had been downloaded into his brain. When he passed through the gate, he gained the power of the Gamer, which granted him abilities similar to those found in role-playing games. The System, the entity that granted him this power, was kind enough to provide several examples of role-playing games, as he had no prior knowledge of them.

He had parameters, which were numerical representations of his overall ability, and he could learn skills that were similar to spells but far more diverse. Speaking of them, he decided to check his current skills.

The System had given him a list of commands that allowed him to navigate to menus displaying the various functions that comprised the Gamer's abilities. Currently, he only had a few options.

“Skills.”

=============

Total Grimoires Obtained: 1

General Grimoire: Skills Unlocked: 2

Occlumency (A)

Assess I (E)

=============

It appeared confusing at first, but Harry quickly understood what was going on. A grimoire was a book containing a collection of skills that were related to one another in some way. When he obtained a new grimoire, the skills were added to the grimoire board, and he could unlock them by spending skill points. They could be obtained through levelling up or by completing specific quests and tasks.

Every skill he unlocked had already been mastered, but their utility was determined by their rank and associated attributes. The rankings ranged from the lowest F tier to the highest S tier. Some skills can be upgraded to improve their ranking and performance by investing more skill points.

The Assess skill was the perfect example of this occurrence.

===========

Assess 1 | Active | Rank: E | Upgrade: 2SP | Cost: 5 MP | Attribute: INT

Description: Allows the player to assess a monster's parameters if its level is less than twenty. If the target's willpower exceeds the player's intelligence, it may resist this skill.

===========

As long as he did not encounter monsters above level twenty, there was no reason to upgrade this skill. The ability to identify an enemy's weaknesses was extremely valuable, though, so he would have to at some point.

The other skill he received was occlumency, which was a discipline that existed in the wizarding world, but he had never heard of it. It protected his mind from intrusion, which was a necessary skill considering that he needed to keep the Gamer ability secret. The only disadvantage was that it was a specialised version of the skill that did not provide additional benefits, such as memory retention. Still, he wouldn’t complain about gaining such an amazing skill.

Harry wanted to delve deeper into his ability, but he was aware that he was running out of time. He only had sixty minutes to complete the dungeon, or he would fail. He knew the difficulty of the dungeon wasn’t high since it served as a tutorial, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

Returning his attention to the chest, he reached down to grab a few scrolls. There were differences compared to the one he grabbed before. They were appraisal scrolls, which were consumable items that could show him information about a piece of equipment.

He put them aside for a moment before grabbing the next item, a pair of glasses. They appeared to be a more stylized version of his current glasses, but he was not sure if they had any other features. This is where the appraisal scrolls came in handy. He took one of the scrolls and pressed it against the glasses, and he was met with a prompt. When he pressed yes, he was presented with a display window displaying the glasses' specifications.

=============

Gamers Spec’s | Level Requirement: 1 | Epic  | Type: Support | Enchantment Slots: 2

The Gamer's Specs enable the player to see a Heads-Up-Display, a feature that visually overlays information on the player's vision. These include status bars for HP and MP, status conditions, mini-maps, and enemy parameters. New features can be added by discovering and applying new enchantments to the piece of equipment.

Enchantments attached:

[ Gamer’s HUD]

[Twenty-twenty Vision]

============

Harry took off his old glasses and put on the Gamer's Specs. He immediately noticed the difference in visual acuity. He had no idea how poor his eyesight had been until he looked around and saw everything in greater detail. He tossed his old glasses away, grinning, because he was no longer going to use them.

The HUD was certainly an adjustment, as several images in his peripheral vision distracted him. There was also a timer in the top left corner, which was currently counting down from fifty minutes. Harry realised it must be the time remaining in the scenario that he needed to clear.

The last item was a pair of black gloves with intricate runes carved into them. He applied another appraisal scroll to them and read the information displayed.

=============

Gamers Gloves | Level Requirement: 1 | Epic  | Type: Attack/Support | Enchantment Slots: 4

The Gamer's Gloves allow the player to cast spells attached to them without any training. It already comes with a spell attached, and another four spells can be added by finding and attaching spell enchantments. These are freely interchangeable. The only drawback to this piece of equipment is that it reduces the effectiveness of all spells it casts by half. Uses the player’s magic to cast the spell.

Enchantments attached:

[Wandless Magic]

[½ Spell Efficiency]

[Invisibility]

[Intangible]

[Spell: Lightning Bolt]

============

"Bloody awesome!"

He raised his arm and directed his hand towards the wall. Knowing instinctively how to cast the spell, a symbol appeared in front of his hand, followed by a bolt of lightning that struck the wall and left a small scorch mark.

The glove included a few security features that would allow him to keep the gloves hidden from others when he returned to the real world. The only disadvantage was that each spell dealt a fixed amount of damage and was half as effective as an equivalent spell that didn’t require gloves to use.

He shrugged. Without his wand, it was the only weapon he had for dealing damage to monsters. He was currently in a dungeon, which was a construct that existed in a separate realm from the world known as the Gamer's Dimension. There were monsters inside them, and he had to kill them to progress and earn experience points for levelling up.

The ultimate goal of the dungeon was to make it to the final room, where the Dungeon Boss was waiting, and defeat it. Depending on the scenario, clearing the dungeon resulted in rewards that affected the real world in some way. In this situation, he would be able to save both his arm and Ginny's life. If he didn’t clear the dungeon in time, he would be punished. In this scenario, he would lose his arm and Ginny would die. Even though he would survive, the consequences of failing were unacceptable.

Harry checked his MP bar on the HUD and discovered that the lightning bolt only required 3 MP to cast. He should avoid wasting his MP.

He glanced at the door. It was time to conquer the dungeon. Before doing so, he retrieved the three remaining appraisal scrolls and opened his inventory menu. He placed the scrolls in one of the empty slots before closing the menu.

This was another useful feature that allowed for the storage of an unlimited number of items. It functioned similarly to a stasis charm in that it kept the items perfectly preserved, allowing him to store things like food inside while keeping them fresh indefinitely. It was also a transferable function, so he could use it in the real world.

He walked over and opened the door, only to be met with deep, inky darkness. When he heard a noise, he shut the door immediately, his heart racing. He took a moment to calm himself down.

“There was no regretting his choice now, so I have to put on his big-boy pants.”

Harry retrieved the torch from the sconce and held it in his left hand, leaving his right hand to cast spells. He opened the door again, and the torch illuminated the area immediately outside. There was a corridor, but it only went in one direction because the other side was a dead end. He stepped outside the room and began walking down the corridor.

His senses were on high alert. He strained his eyes forward, but the torch only illuminated a few metres in front of him. If something was going to attack, then he wouldn’t have much time to react. Some faint sounds reached his ears, but it was hard to pinpoint where they were coming from. He had only been walking about twenty feet when he heard a hissing sound.

He raised his right hand, expecting a monster to appear in front of him, but a shadow leapt from his side and grabbed his arm. He screamed and flailed his arm, attempting to dislodge whatever had latched onto his arm. The scream was not from pain, as his poisoned arm, which had no feeling, was being bitten, but rather from surprise.

He did notice that his HP had decreased, however. So he shoved the torch into his attacker, who turned out to be a small grey snake, and the creature hissed and released his arm. Harry took a few steps back, deciding to take advantage of the opportunity to assess his opponent.

“Assess.”

=============

Basilisk Snaklet | Magical Snake | Level 1 | Type: Normal | HP: 20 | MP: 5

Primary Attributes: Dexterity: 10; Intelligence 7

Defence: 5; Magical Defence: 5

Skills

Glare: When an opponent maintains eye contact for more than two seconds, they are temporarily paralysed. The length of time depends on the opponent's willpower.

Poisoned Fangs: Has a 20% chance to poison the opponent. Increases by 1% for every point difference between its strength attribute and the opponent's vitality.

=============

It didn’t say anything about its weaknesses, but that didn’t matter in this case because he only had one method to kill it. As the snake lunged at him, Harry raised his right hand and released a lightning bolt. It struck the snake in midair, sending it slamming into the wall behind it. Its HP bar nearly bottomed out, only leaving a slither behind. He reacted quickly, racing forward and stomping on the grounded snake, killing it.

There was no point in wasting MP by casting a second spell when it had so little HP left. Thankfully, it didn’t have the resistance that an actual Basilisk had.

A notification appeared on his HUD.

============

LV.1 Basilisk Snakelet killed!

5 exp earned; 1 dimension coin earned.

Basilisk Snaklet Essence was found.

============

Anything a monster dropped was automatically added to his inventory. He took a moment to check his resources and discovered that he had already lost ten HP from one bite. To be fair, the snake had been latched on for some time. He would have to be cautious and manage his resources, or he would die in this dungeon. If his HP fell to zero, then it was game over.

Harry raised his torch to examine the wall from which the snake had emerged. He discovered a small hole in the wall where the snake could lie in wait to ambush its prey. He expected this dungeon to be simple, but that wasn’t the case.

He continued walking down the corridor. The strange thing he noticed was that it was not a straight corridor but rather undulating, like a snake. Some foliage began to appear, sprouting from the walls, ceilings, and ground as if nature were gradually taking over the structure.

Something dropped from the ceiling. Harry jumped back and quickly prepared his hand for another spell. Another monster had appeared, and he unleashed another lightning bolt. But this time, his aim was off, and the snake slithered forward, biting into his leg. Harry grunted in pain as he carefully aimed and fired another spell, this time striking the snake. The thing released its grip and writhed furiously on the ground. He stomped on it and finished it off.

"I am starting to hate these things," Harry groaned. “Is this really a tutorial dungeon?”

Harry pulled up his pants leg to examine the puncture wound. Fortunately, he had not been poisoned; otherwise, things would have gotten interesting. But he had lost more HP. At this rate, he wouldn’t last long.

The primary issue was that the snakes were small, quick, and liked to ambush him. He didn’t have much warning either, as they were not visible on the mini-map. So far, it has only been useful for mapping out the dungeon. Perhaps he should spend some points on Dexterity when he levelled up.

Continuing, Harry was more cautious than ever, but he was aware that his time was limited. He encountered five more snakes and only got bitten once. The layout of the dungeon changed when he came to an intersection with paths leading in all directions. Now he faced a dilemma, as he didn’t know which direction to take. If he spent too much time exploring every nook and cranny, then he wouldn’t complete the dungeon.

“It doesn’t matter which direction I choose.”

Harry no longer hesitated and took the right path. He continued down the path until he came to a dead end, where he was confronted with an interesting dilemma that was illuminated by two torches on either side. There was a massive hole in the ground in front of him that was too far for him to jump over. However, there was a small platform in the centre from which he could jump to the other side. A chest was waiting for him, tempting him to take a chance and jump across the gap.

“This is definitely some sort of trap.”

Harry wanted to leave right away, but one thing kept him from doing so. What if the potion that could save Ginny was in the chest? There was no time to come back if he chose not to open the chest. The System was playing with him, knowing he would be confronted with this dilemma.

“What would Hermione do?” Harry mused.

Why was he thinking about her in this situation? Nonetheless, the question allowed him to make up his mind. He didn’t want to give up before even trying.

After setting the torch on the ground, Harry took a few steps backwards. He dashed forward, leaping onto the platform. In an instant, he felt the platform beneath him shift, prompting him to leap across to the other side. When he looked back, the platform had disappeared into the darkness. He realised that he was now trapped on this side of the hole, with no obvious way out. Would he be trapped here while the time ticked down to zero?

To exacerbate the situation, he heard a series of hisses from behind him. He turned around to see the wall behind the chest recede into the ceiling, revealing a small alcove with several snakes waiting for him. He immediately launched a lightning bolt at the snakes, striking two of them. But that still left three unscathed, and they launched themselves at him.

Harry instinctively crossed his right arm across his body to protect himself. The snakes sunk their fangs into his arm, and he slammed it against the wall several times, taking advantage of the fact that it couldn’t feel anything. The snakes dislodged from his arm, but the damage had been done. On his HUD, he could see that his HP was low, but there was also a symbol depicting that he had been inflicted with poison. Even though the arm was currently suspended due to the Basilisk poison, it didn’t stop him from being poisoned again.

Knowing he didn’t have much time left, he launched a lightning bolt at the downed snakes, killing them. By that time, the two snakes in the alcove had recovered and were ready to attack again. They launched themselves at him, but he ducked at the last second. They flew over his head and fell into the hole.

The snakes had been dealt with, but that didn’t mean he was safe.

His HP had dropped below five as a result of the poison status. Ignoring the notification that the battle had ended, he staggered over to the chest, woozy from the poison. He used his strength to lift the lid, hoping to find something that would help him in his current situation.

There were six vials in the chest: two red, two blue, and two green. He had no idea what any of them did, so he chose to drink one of each. After drinking the blue one, he noticed that his MP was immediately restored to full. The red one replenished his HP. Finally, the green bottle contained an antidote that neutralised the poison.

“Bloody hell.”

At that moment, he felt profound relief mixed with annoyance. He had risked his life, and all he received were potions that improved his condition. The System was trolling him. Furthermore, he wasted time, and the remaining time was now only thirty-eight minutes.

On the bright side, he still had some potions, which could come in handy during the boss fight.

He placed the remaining potions in his inventory and glanced at the notification on his HUD. He was surprised to discover that he had gained experience from the snakes that had fallen into the hole. Furthermore, the snakes were all level two, so he received six experience points rather than five. He opened his menu and discovered that he now had a total of fifty-five experiences.

Curious about how much experience was required to level up, he spent the experience, which was sufficient to raise him to level two. He gained five AP and two SP, and his HP and MP increased by twenty-five. Harry wasted no time in using his Ap to increase his Dexterity to ten. With so many snakes lurking around, having more speed was critical. He had considered Magic as well but ultimately decided against it.

Harry considered spending his skill points, but he didn’t have much time to browse his menu right now.

The platform reappeared after the battle had ended. Before leaving, Harry searched the alcove for any items, but it was empty. He jumped back over to the opposite side and returned to the intersection. This time, he went down the left corridor and killed seven more snakes, which was much easier thanks to his improved dexterity. However, he made the mistake of steering into one of the snake's eyes for too long, causing him to become paralysed. He had to endure an agonising ten seconds while the snake used him as a chew toy. In the end, he lost nearly half of his HP but experienced no other ill effects. But it was a valuable lesson not to become too complacent.

He continued to gather experience, money, and the monster's essence. He wasn’t sure what the latter was for, but he had a feeling he would find out eventually. As he walked, he considered how he would distribute his AP in the future.

The attributes were unusual in how they affected his overall performance. All of the attributes initially only had one effect, but this increased with each increment of twenty-five. For example, his Dexterity currently increases his speed slightly, but increasing the attribute to twenty-five would add an additional effect. It added a strategic element to how he used his points. Did he put everything into one attribute to get the extra effect, or did he spread out his points more evenly?

Another consideration was how his attributes influenced his skills. His overall performance would be influenced by the skills he acquired and the combat style he adopted. Magic was the most important attribute because it not only affected the strength of his spells, but it also acted as a barrier to a variety of powerful spells, abilities, and equipment.

At the end of the corridor, there was a small chamber with a pit that covered the entire space. Down in the pit, there was another chest, but there was a monster placed beside it. It wasn’t another Basilisk Snakelet, but rather a humanoid with a snake’s tail. It held a spear in its hand and appeared to be proficient in using it.

The monster had either not noticed him or was ignoring him, so he took advantage of the opportunity to assess it. Fortunately, it was within the range of the skill.

=============

Echidna | Magical Snake/Humanoid | Level 3 | Type: Elite | HP: 100 | MP: 20

Primary Attributes: Dexterity:15 | Intelligence: 12

Defence:12 | Magical Defence: 12

Skills

Glare: When an opponent maintains eye contact for more than two seconds, they are temporarily paralysed. The length of time depends on the opponent's willpower.

Venom Fangs: Has a 40% chance to poison the opponent. Increases by 1% for every point difference between its strength attribute and the opponent's vitality.

Spear Thrust: An attack that is both fast and powerful. Has a 30% chance to bypass the target's defence and deal direct damage.

Constriction: If it wraps its tail around you, it’s almost impossible for the victim to get free.

=============

Harry frowned. It was not going to be easy facing this opponent. The terrain in the pit was rough, which would slow him down and make it harder to avoid the monster. He couldn’t attack from the doorway either because the lightning bolt didn’t have enough range to reach the monster.

Harry looked around the chamber, contemplating how he would approach the fight. He spotted something above him that may just give him a chance to win.

“Let’s do this.”

So, what do you think? In the next chapter, Harry races against time to complete the dungeon before it’s too late.

Thanks for reading.