Harry Potter: The Gamer's Dimension Chapter 2

Hi all,

Here is the next chapter. I have made some slight changes to the first chapter. The only major change is that I have replaced the attribute Charisma with Senses. I felt it better fit what I was going for.

After Harry pulled the switch, he immediately tensed, expecting another trap to trigger. However, the only thing that happened was a grinding noise sounded from the north side of the chamber. He noticed a small opening in the cave wall had appeared.

Should I check it out first?

Looking back at the last switch that still needed to be pulled, he decided to leave it for now and jumped off the platform. As he approached the opening, he peered inside cautiously. It was a small ante-chamber, containing a treasure chest. Unlike the previous room, this chamber was naturally formed, rather than a man-made one.

Harry approached the treasure chest. Stopping a few feet away, he cast a light on it to see if there were any traps. On the ground in front of it was another note. After picking it up, he looked around to check everything was clear before reading it.

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Gamer's Dimension Note #4

The player’s status and parameters within the Gamer’s Dimension.

Title: This represents the player's current accomplishments in exploring the Dimensional World. The further he progresses, the more titles he unlocks. Each title has a specific benefit that helps the player in some way. Only one title can be equipped at a time.

Experience Cache: Holds all the player's experience until he decides to spend it on increasing his level or obtaining a skill.

Level: This is a rough measure of how strong a player is at the moment. Spend experience to level up and earn five Attribute Points (AP). They can be spent to increase any of the seven attributes.

Resources

HP: (Hit Points) It represents the amount of damage a player can take. When it falls to zero percent, the player dies. Hit Points can be restored by resting, consuming potions, or using skills and spells.

MP: (Magic Points) It represents the player's current magic available to him. Magic is used to cast spells and use skills. When it gets close to zero percent, the player will feel the onset of magical exhaustion. It is not recommended to completely deplete your magic. MP can be restored by resting, or consuming potions. However, there is a limit to how often a player can replenish his MP per day.

SP: (Stamina Points) It represents the player's current stamina available to him. Stamina is used for a wide range of activities, such as combat, running, jumping and throwing. When it reaches zero, the player cannot perform any more strenuous activities, or he may fall unconscious. Food and rest can restore the player's stamina. SP is calculated from the combined average of Strength, Vitality and Endurance, then multiplied by ten.

*HP, MP and SP have hidden values that represent the actual true amount of each resource available. However, they have been converted to percentages to simplify things.

Attributes

Strength: It determines the player's physical prowess. It affects the weapons he can wield, and how much damage he deals in melee and unarmed combat. It also affects all physical feats such as athletics and how much he can carry.

Vitality: It is the player’s life force. By multiplying Vitality by twenty, it determines how much HP the player has. It also increases his resistance to physically debilitating status effects.

Endurance: This attribute determines the player's defensive capabilities. It determines what armour he can wear and how much damage he can sustain. This includes protection against physical and magical damage.

Dexterity: It affects a player's overall physical speed, balance, and agility. An essential attribute in any combat situation. In addition, it has a large impact on all crafting skills.

Intelligence: It represents the player’s magical reserves. By multiplying intelligence by twenty, it determines how much MP the player has. Also determines skill levelling speed and the availability of some spells and skills.

Willpower: It affects the player’s ability to resist pain as well as their ability to uncover hidden potential. Also, it affects the player’s resistance to debilitating mental status effects.

Senses: This affects how sharp the player's five senses are; their ability to see farther, identify more smells, taste more flavours, detect more sounds, and be more sensitive to touch. Also, it affects the availability of some specific skills.

Equipment: It lists the current equipment the player has equipped.

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"Seems pretty straightforward," Harry snorted.

He only had to read it three times before he was confident he understood everything. After adding the note to the database, he turned his attention to the chest.

Harry reached down and lifted the lid. Inside, there were six rolled-up scrolls. They were secured with a ribbon and had writing on their sides. After examining them all, he discovered that he had five Magelight scrolls and a Return to Camp scroll. Although he could guess what they did, he decided to test one of the Magelight scrolls out. He untied the ribbon and unrolled it.

He was almost blinded as the entire scroll lit up before disappearing from his hands. Above him, a huge ball of bright light appeared, floating in midair. A three-metre radius was illuminated around him. When he took a few steps back, the light followed him.

"This will be useful."

He cancelled the Lumos Charm. Now his wand was free to cast offensive spells, not that he had many at his disposal. Considering his current situation, he could only think of three that would be useful. The Fire-Making Spell, the Full-Body Bind Curse, and the Disarming Charm. Although he didn't know how effective the latter would be, given that the zombies were unarmed.

Harry packed the other scrolls in his bag. He wasn't going to waste time testing the Return to Camp scroll since it was pretty obvious what it did.

He returned to the previous chamber and pulled the last lever. This time, the rumbling noise was louder. On the western side of the chamber, a large section of the wall dropped, revealing a new passageway.

Before he explored it, he wanted to check out one last thing, now that he understood this game's mechanics a little better.

"User Interface on."

Harry blinked as several images appeared before him. It was very disorienting at first. Thankfully, his line of sight remained clear, as the images were located at the corners of his field of view. On the top left, there were three bars; red, blue and green. All three were depleted to some degree, with the blue one being the most affected. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out these were his resources: HP, MP and SP.

The blue bar represented his MP, which was around eighty-five per cent. He briefly checked his status page and confirmed that estimate. Harry was surprised that he wasted so much MP, considering he had only used the Wand-Lighting Charm. Then again, he had been holding the spell for at least ten minutes.

Below the three bars, there was a shield icon with two numbers: twenty-one and ten. He had to access the user interface settings to figure this one out. The numbers represent his physical and magical defences, with the latter being the lowest number. It was determined by both his Endurance attribute and the armour he was wearing.

In the bottom left corner, space was available to receive new notifications. After adjusting the settings, he would now only receive urgent notifications in a pop-up window. Everything else could be perused at his leisure.

On the top right, there were some pieces of information; location, time, and current quest status. The bottom right had a mini-map, which was a zoomed-in version of the detailed map in his menu.

Harry walked around for a few minutes, getting used to the user interface. The only other bit of information displayed is the enemy's resources. However, he would have to wait for another zombie to appear to see it in action. He didn't know how necessary it was, and it might be a distraction. If necessary, he could always disable it in the settings.

He entered the passage and continued west.

The Magelight spell was extremely useful. Not only did it illuminate a wider area in front of him, but he no longer had to keep his wand raised to light his way. The strain was starting to hurt his arm. Hopefully, the spell will last for a while. He had been keeping track of the time in order to determine how long it might last. The only drawback to the spell was that enemies would be drawn to the light.

Harry heard a groan and a shuffling sound before noticing another zombie up ahead. He returned his wand to his holster since he wouldn't need it. He would still use the dagger because he wanted to learn Dagger Mastery.

This time, the zombie was male. Although he was disgusted to see that his genitals were missing, nothing but a red mess between his legs. The only other difference was that it had some information above its head. Its name, and two bars, representing its HP and SP. It didn't have magic.

Now that he had already killed a zombie, he was calmer the second time around. Using the same tactic as before, he manoeuvred the zombie into attacking him while he had his back to the wall. He dodged, and the creature struck the wall, causing it to be stunned for a moment.

He got a few slashes in. When he missed the head the first time, he patiently repeated his tactic and killed it with a backstab to the back of the head on the following turn. Its HP bar was depleted immediately, and it fell to the ground. When the corpse disappeared, it left behind another five-pound note and an item he hadn't seen before.

"That looks fucking gross," Harry grimaced in disgust because it looked like a hunk of flesh. Using the Levitating Charm, he hoisted the item into a small side compartment on the outside of the bag. There was no way he placed it with his food inside the bag.

It took him a moment to notice that there was an apostrophe icon that was lit up on his user interface. When he focused his attention on it, a window popped up, revealing a new notification.

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The player has fulfilled the first requirement to learn the Dagger Mastery skill.

*Dagger Mastery | Active | Novice | Rank: 1 | Next: 0% | Cost: 0 |

• Increases short-bladed weapons' damage by 2%.

Do you want to spend one hundred experience points to acquire the skill? Y/N

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Did he even have a hundred experience points? Pressing yes, he was immediately notified that he'd learned the skill. Opening his status page, he saw that he had twenty experience points left. 

Closing the menu, Harry continued west and encountered another zombie in the passageway. This one was just as easy to defeat as the last. This time, the only loot it dropped was a five-pound note. The fights were too easy. He was starting to see why it's called the Beginner's Cave.

After another five minutes of walking, he came across an intersection that led north and south. It took him a moment to decide, but he headed south. After a series of turns, and encounters with two more zombies, he ended up in a small rectangular-shaped cavern with a small pond at the end.

There was an opening in the ceiling, allowing some light to shine down in the centre of the cavern. There were four zombies standing there. Could he lure them back into the passage? However, it wasn't narrow enough that the four of them couldn't just attack him together.

Is it better for him to just go for it and attack them all at once? One of them was easy enough, so he might be able to handle four if he was careful. Just as he considered throwing caution to the wind, he got an idea. He crouched down and picked up a stone. Aiming carefully at the west side of the cavern, he threw the stone at the wall.

Clack.

The stone hit the cave wall, followed by a series of smaller noises as it tumbled to the ground. The zombies immediately turned in that direction and shuffled towards the noise they heard.

As Harry entered the cavern he hugged the eastern wall, keeping a wary eye on the zombies on the opposite side of the room. Although he couldn't see them clearly, he saw enough. He didn't know how long they would be distracted before returning to their original position.

Harry reached the pond and breathed a sigh of relief. "They are so dumb."

The light from the Magelight spell didn't even attract their attention. The zombies must be only able to see from a certain distance away. He should be safe in this position. Harry turned around and peered down into the pool. The water was murky, so he couldn't see the bottom. Dipping his leg into the water, it reached his knee and still hadn't touched the bottom. Shuddering, he retracted his leg. He hadn't learned how to swim, so he wasn't dumb enough to enter the pool.

However, it gave him an idea to deal with the four zombies. Harry took a breath to prepare himself before approaching the middle of the room. As soon as he saw their faint silhouettes, he stooped. By sheer coincidence, the four zombies were all males.

"Hello there boys," Harry said flirtatiously, attracting their attention. "I can tell you're hungry. Why don't you come over here and take a bite out of me? I know you want to."

The zombies groaned and moved towards him. Harry sashayed around like he was on the runway and cocked his hip. "My gosh, you must be starving. I don't know if I can handle four men at once."

The zombies groaned even louder, stretching out their arms.

"So you're gonna treat me well? That's what they all say," Harry sighed.

As the zombies closed in, Harry gave up on his little amusement. Backing up to the edge of the pool, he waited for them to reach him. As soon as the first zombie came into range, it lunged at him. Harry neatly sidestepped the zombie, and it fell straight into the water. He didn't have time to celebrate, however, as two more attacked him together. This time, he was nearly struck as he dodged them, and it left him unbalanced as they tumbled into the water.

The last zombie aimed a punch at his head, and Harry rolled forward to dodge it. Quickly getting up, he saw that it had not fallen into the pool like the others. It turned around and shuffled towards him. Harry summoned his wand and pointed it at the zombie.

"Petrificus Totalus," Harry cried, waving his wand in a key-shaped motion.

The spell struck the zombie but had no effect.

"Useless," Harry cursed, quickly putting his wand away and dodging the zombie's attack.

He stepped towards the water's edge again, noticing that the zombies were still floating on the surface. However, they couldn't climb out of the pool.

The zombie attacked him again, and Harry stepped to the side and it fell into the water. Harry looked at the four helpless zombies with satisfaction. Even though they were in the water, one was right up against the pond edge. So he reached out with his dagger and brought it down on top of its head, killing it instantly. As soon as its body disappeared, another conveniently replaced it until all four were killed. He quickly scrambled to grab the money floating on the water, leaving the single piece of flesh alone.

As he retrieved the money, the mage light illuminated something he had overlooked before. It was an opening into a tunnel just under the water. He groaned in despair. It would probably lead to a secret room with treasure. While he wasn't too bothered by missing out on it, there was a high chance that there was one of the notes there too. If he didn't get it, he would never complete the quest and get the reward of experience points. Not something he was willing to do.

He munched on an apple while pondering his dilemma. He noticed that his stamina recovered by five per cent after eating the apple. When he drank some water from the canteen, he was surprised to find out how delicious it tasted, as if it had just come straight from a natural spring. It seemed to give him some clarity, as he thought of an idea to solve his problem.

Since he could learn skills by performing actions, why doesn't he try learning a skill for swimming?

Giving himself no time to think about it and get nervous, Harry sat on the edge of the pool and slowly sank into the water. He gripped the pool edge with one arm and tread water, trying to imitate a real swimmer. When he felt buoyant enough, he let go of the edge and began frantically paddling like a dog.

"This better be worth it because I look ridiculous," Harry muttered.

It took him ten minutes before he received acknowledgement that the skill was now in progress. During that time, the mage light disappeared, causing him to panic. After he calmed down, he decided not to use another scroll until he unlocked this skill for real. Half an hour later, he activated the prompt as soon as he received it.

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The player has fulfilled the first requirement to learn the Swimming skill.

*Swimmer | Active | Novice | Rank: 1 | Next: 0% | Cost: 0 |

• Increases the player's swimming proficiency by 5%

Do you want to spend two hundred experience points to acquire the skill? Y/N

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He immediately noticed that the experience points needed to acquire a skill had doubled. Hopefully, the trend isn't going to continue. He spent the points and acquired the skill.

Harry used another mage light scroll up so he could see what he was doing. A short stroke around the pool revealed his skills were barely adequate. He wouldn't be winning any races any time soon. Still, it felt amazing that he learned to swim so easily. Harry wanted to improve his swimming skill further before entering the tunnel, but he was already at thirty per cent of his stamina. Eating the food would help him recover some of it, but he didn't want to waste it if there weren't any more in the cave.

Harry looked at the time on the user interface. It was almost four o'clock. He really needed to find a way out of here and return home before the Dursleys missed him too much. Then again, what did he care about if he returned in time? As far as he knew, he could spend his time here indefinitely, as long as he found more food and water.

He took a deep breath and sank into the water. Swimming towards the tunnel, he tried to see the other side, but the water was too murky. It was a risky endeavour. Before he tried it, he held his breath underwater to see how long he could hold it. He lasted barely a minute. It did not fill him with confidence, but he had a backup plan. Harry grabbed the Return to Camp scroll from his bag and tucked it into his shirt.

If he got into trouble, he could use the scroll and return to camp.

Harry dived underwater again and swam through the tunnel. He was immediately struck by claustrophobia, never having been underwater before. It didn't matter if he had gained a skill on how to swim, as it didn't prepare him for the mental aspect. He fought down the panic and continued onwards.

After approximately thirty seconds, panic returned when he couldn't see an exit. Thankfully, after forty-five seconds under the water, he saw the end in sight. It opened up into a huge pool of water, and he had to swim frantically to the surface before he ran out of breath.

Harry broke the surface and took a deep breath of fresh air, relieved he had made it. He was about to swim to the edge of the pool when he was pulled back underwater by his foot. Before he could even realise what was going on, he felt sharp teeth sink into his foot.

He felt an intense shooting pain like hot knives were stabbed into his foot, and he almost opened his mouth to scream. He kicked out with his injured foot, but whatever had him held on fast. He could already feel the blood gushing out of his foot, and his HP was slowly going down. Looking down, he was greeted by the horrible sight of a webbed monster. Its user interface was identified as a Drowner, and it looked like an undead half-fish half-man.

Harry attempted to drive his dagger into its head, but the water resistance slowed his movement. Changing his plans, he let go of the knife and poked his thumbs into its eyeballs, digging in hard. Despite that, the thing didn't seem to feel any pain, so Harry had to try something else before he bled out or drowned.

He summoned his wand and cast a spell. He never even thought about the fact that he was underwater. When he tried to speak an incantation, water entered his mouth, and he choked. However, he managed to cast a spell of some sort. A huge gas-like bubble emerged from his wand, hitting the zombie's head. Instantly, it imploded, and the force sent Harry rocketing upwards, and out of the water.

Harry hit the ground hard and clawed at his throat as the water was expelled violently from his mouth. His body spasmed uncontrollably, and his lungs burned. It was only after it stopped that he felt the pain in his foot. He looked down to see his foot with a chunk of flesh ripped out.

"Am I going to turn into a zombie now?" Harry laughed hysterically.

Was he going into shock? He looked at his HP bar and was stunned to see that it was almost depleted, and it was still going down.

Harry quickly wriggled the backpack off his shoulders and grabbed the potion inside. He remembered the potion he had obtained and realised that it must be a health potion since it was the same colour as his health bar. He uncorked the vial but hesitated. Was he supposed to drink it, or apply it to his wound? Having no time to waste, he quickly drank it down. He grimaced at the flavour since it tasted like diluted dishwater. Was it really a health potion?

Harry was anxious as his health bar only had a sliver of health left. Thankfully, it stopped dwindling and rose slowly until it was at ten per cent health. More importantly, his wound healed right in front of his eyes, and the bleeding stopped. Shortly, his flesh was like new, with just the blood on his foot to suggest anything had happened.

Sighing in relief, he lay down to catch his breath. He was surprised to have lost so much health. Maybe the implosion from the improvised spell did some damage as well. He was lucky to be alive. It just shows that you should never be complacent.

A few minutes later, Harry stood up and looked around. The room fits the natural contours of the pond, a circular shape with enough room to provide a natural walkway around it.

The only thing of note was another treasure chest, so he opened it and checked out the contents inside. The first was a small gold crystal. Curious, he grabbed it and was prompted with a notification. He pressed 'Yes' after reading the text.

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The player has found the Skill Crystal<Rare>: Comprehension

Learn the skill? Y/N

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The player has learned the skill: Comprehension

***Comprehension | Active | Mastered | Rank: Max | Next: --- | Cost: 5 MP

• Gives the player insight into almost anything within the Gamer's Dimension.

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Harry blinked. The description was very basic and didn't even tell him how to use the skill. Did he just think of a topic or something and it would give him information?

He grabbed the next item, which was a leather belt with several small compartments on the front. Deciding to test out the skill, he focused on the belt while saying the skill out loud. To his surprise, it worked, and a window popped up in front of him.

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Potion Belt | Accessory | Uncommon | Level Requirement: 2

Description: Potions can be stored on the Potion Belt for easy access in an emergency. The belt can be worn with any outfit or equipment. All potions stored on the belt are indestructible. Capacity: 10.

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"That's convenient," Harry said. "But I need to level up first."

He spent all his experience and levelled up to level two. Considering his options, he decided to spend the five AP on increasing his Intelligence. To cast spells and use skills, more magic was necessary. He now had a total of three-hundred and sixty MP.

Now that he could equip the Potion Belt, he took a closer look at it. He checked the compartments and was delighted to find some potions stored inside. Three red and three blue potion vials. After using the Knowledge skill on the latter, he discovered that it was, as he had suspected, a potion for restoring MP.

After putting the belt on, he grabbed the last item from the chest, another gamer's dimension note.

Gamer's Dimension Note #3

Camps/Dimension Portals

Camps are areas of the map that are safe locations where the player can rest without fear of being attacked. Furthermore, sleeping for eight hours in a camp will fully restore the player's HP/MP/SP, and remove all debilitating status effects.

Dimension Portals can be found in Camps. However, the player needs a Dimension Key to make them appear so he can return to the real world. The keys can be found on certain monsters. The Gamer's Dimension will save his current progress, and he can return through the portals on the other side at any time. The portals are scattered through the Gamer's Dimension, and they lead to different locations in the real world. This means that you can use the Gamer's Dimension to travel to different locations in the real world, and vice versa.

Harry added the note to the database. He was happy that he found a way to return to the real world. Although exploring the Gamer's Dimension was cool, despite his recent trauma, he didn't want to stay here indefinitely.

He looked at the pond. There was no way he was returning that way. Suddenly, he remembered that the Drowner must have dropped some loot. But when he searched the water, there was nothing to be found. Tough luck.

Taking out the scroll from his shirt, he unrolled it. The scroll flashed, and he found his surroundings fading into darkness before reappearing in front of the fire at the camp.

Taking off his pack, he sat down on the bedroll. He may as well take the opportunity and sleep here to restore his resources. He could look for the Dimension Kay as soon as he woke up.

Laying down, he closed his eyes. The warmth of the fire made him drowsy, and he fell asleep.

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

The player has rested at a Camp for at least eight hours.

HP/MP/SP restored to full.

All debilitating status effects have been removed.

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Harry woke up with a yawn before sitting up. He checked the time automatically and saw that it was past midnight already. The campfire was still lit after all this time. Did it not need wood to fuel it?

Grabbing his bag, he retrieved the hard loaf of bread and munched on it. It wasn’t the most appetising meal, but he had eaten worse at the Dursleys. After finishing half of the loaf, he washed it down with water and stored it in his bag.

Checking that he had everything, he set off again. He returned to the intersection and headed north through the passage. Along the way, he killed another two zombies before reaching another huge chamber. However, this one was different in that it was below him, and there were stairs leading down to it. A gate barred his way, which was a good thing, as half of the chamber swarmed with zombies.

The strange thing was that they were moving as a group, seemingly chasing something. It wasn't until they turned back in his direction that he spotted a tiny figure running across the ground. Harry squinted, trying to figure out what it was.

"Hey! Open the gate!" the tiny figure screamed as it got closer.

Harry could now see that it was a tiny person, about two inches high. On its back were a pair of translucent wings. Even while shouting, the voice was barely discernible, but it sounded female.

"Dumbass! Help!" the tiny female screeched, breaking him out of his thoughts. She looked tired as if she had been running for quite some time. The zombies were close behind her.

Harry summoned his wand quickly and cast the Unlocking Charm on the gate. Thankfully, it only had a simple padlock, making unlocking it simple. He opened the gate and rushed forward, not even considering why he was risking his life for a stranger. As soon as he reached her, he bent down and scooped her up. Turning around, he bolted back to the gate and slammed it shut behind him. He cast the Locking Charm on it just as the first zombie crashed into the gate.

Harry retreated back up the stairs, even though he was safe from the zombie horde. Sitting down, he leaned back against the wall and raised his hand that was holding the tiny person.

He was correct about her being female. She had a Gothic appearance, with purple hair, purple makeup, and a dark purple dress with black borders and frills. The fact that her wings were bent was probably why she was unable to escape the horde by flying away.

"Hello," Harry greeted her.

The tiny female stood up and looked at him accusingly. "Next time, don't take so long to rescue me, mister."

"Next time, I won't bother, midget," Harry retorted. Although he wanted to know what species she was, he decided it was not appropriate to ask that question first. "What's your name?"

"The name is Celeste!"

So, what do you think? Next time, Harry and Celeste team up and look for a way to return to the real world.

Thanks for reading.