Chapter 031 - Departure

The once nearly bare shelves were filled with things now. Small wooden crates filled with stacks of playing-card sized slips of metal and glass. There were rows of jars filled with various powders and substances Anna had never seen before. Odd looking tools with delicate tips and edges that looked more like pens and styluses than something to be used for engraving. Anna turned in a circle and stared in awe.

“Now this is an inheritance,” Catherine commented mildly, approaching one of the crates and pulling out a card made of what appeared to be iron. She examined it briefly before putting it away.

Anna rubbed her neck. “Is this normal?”

Catherine turned her way. “Honestly? Besides the Tome of Wisdom, this is a bit slim even now. Completing an inheritance trial is a huge accomplishment for someone of your level, on a newly integrated world no less. While the riches here are tiny compared to the greater multiverse, on your world I cannot even imagine the head start you have earned.”

Anna scowled and stared at the book. “I’d hardly call it earned. This was basically put here just for me.”

Catherine snorted. “What did you do before the integration?”

“I was in school, what does that have to do with anything?” Anna demanded.

“You reek of blood and iron, you already are developing the build of a warrior, and your aura screams one thing and one thing alone,” she turned to look at the swords again, “Obey or die. You have seen your own kind of hell already, this is the least of a reward for your suffering.”

Anna looked down at herself, at her tattered gear and reached up to tug at her blood soaked and messy hair. She ran a finger through a thick knot on the verge of turning into a dred and looked up at the knight’s back. She scoffed and turned back to the materials she’d been given. “You’ve been eyeing those swords since we got in here. Take one already, I don’t use swords,” she bit out in irritation. “Would it have killed you to be this polite when we first met?”

“I was in hell, Annastasia, literally,” Catherine shot back and pulled one of the swords off the rack. It was a slightly over-long blade. A bit too short to be a greatsword and too long to be considered a ‘longsword’. It also had odd protrusions part way down the blade that Anna figured weren’t standard. “This is a weapon from my homeland. A guard-breaker. The notches catch swords for long enough to redirect a swing or pull a weapon out of the way to use your free hand for a grab or punch. A good weapon for someone who doesn’t like using shields.”

Anna glanced back at the sword and then the weapons up on the wall. All of them were bladed and didn’t really suit her tastes. There was no armor either, just materials for her new ‘profession’. She was wondering about where she was going to put all this shit when she spotted the barrel she’d seen when she first entered the room. She walked over and pried the lid off, stopping dead in her tracks and dropping it on the ground with a clatter. “That is… a lot of essence crystals.”

The barrel was filled with them, piled nearly to the lip. She reached in and plucked one out.

Petite Essence Crystal (Mortal-Common)
This crystal contains a small amount of essence. Used to assist in refining or as a crafting material.

Catherine walked over and whistled, she picked one up and turned it over in her hand. “You should hold on to these. They are valuable and could be good for trade and your profession. Wasting them on refinement would be foolish.”

“They could get me to level ten, maybe,” Anna mumbled, irritated that Catherine had called out her exact thought.

“With a poor foundation,” Catherine countered. “That is the easy route. Refine essence properly and gather it through battle or meditation.”

“Meditation?” Anna asked, putting the crystal down.

Catherine cocked an eyebrow. “You do not meditate to gather essence gradually? How long has the integration been going on?”

Anna crossed her arms, “I got glitched out of the tutorial when everything happened. That was about three weeks ago,” she grumbled. “I feel like I’m going too slowly. There’s a guy I want dead but I’m nowhere near strong enough to deal with him.”

Catherine stared at her like she was talking crazy, “You’re level five.”

“Yeah.”

“In three weeks? From fighting alone?” Catherine demanded.

“I got a level from a small pile of essence crystals half way through but that’s about it. Yeah,” Anna grunted, “What? Not good enough for you?”

Catherine pinched the bridge of her nose. “I am seriously reconsidering my decision to not bother you with picking up prayer. Killing non stop for three weeks. No wonder your aura makes me feel like you want to stab me in the throat.”

Anna frowned, “I kinda want to stab you anyway right now.”

The woman just turned away, “We have a lot to work on, after we get out of this place. Do you have a storage ring?”

“A what now?”

Catherine groaned, “Great. Let me check my inventory,” she mumbled and began waving her hands. She cocked an eyebrow. “Interesting.”

Anna crossed her arms, “What? You get to keep all your inventory slots after you died and lost everything else?”

The knight pulled back a strand of black hair over her face and gave Anna a sidelong look. Anna couldn’t help herself, she started to grin at her. “You did, didn’t you?” she asked. “You’ve got the inventory space of some big-shot but no levels to speak of. Is that it? Miss pontiff to pack-mule?”

“I am not going to be your courier,” Catherine growled.

–

After they finished loading everything that wasn’t nailed down in the treasure room into a very grouchy Catherine’s inventory they gave the room one last look over before Anna was satisfied. Catherine, for her part, only held onto the sword she favored while packing the rest of them away. The only thing left to do was leave. They made their way back through the pillar of light that they’d come in through and back into the Lobby. There, Anna took a moment to breathe in the humid air of the chamber framed with boiling water.

“What is the situation outside?” Catherine asked.

Anna shrugged, “No idea. Last thing I saw was this asshole Skeletal Champion-thing talking about putting a collar on me. I dipped into the dungeon and have been in there ever since.”

“Skeletal Champion? Is that your ‘enemy’ you mentioned earlier?”

“Yeah,” Anna growled pulling out her club and adjusting her grip on it. “I bet he’s still waiting outside.”

“Level?”

“Twenty-five,” Anna exhaled.

“Then this will be a short time in the land of the living,” Catherine rumbled. Then she paused and turned to look at Anna. “Wait, you said you were ejected from the tutorial to your world, yes?”

“Yeah?”

“Your world that is currently undergoing an integration. There should be a timer showing how long is left until the end of the integration and tutorial,” Catherine said, “Can you find it?”

Anna frowned, What is she getting at? She pulled the timer up and checked it. Indeed only a month had passed since the integration had begun and the timer 

Days left until integration of Earth: 349 Days, 1 hours, 42 minutes.

“349 days left,” Anna said and rubbed her eyes. “It’s almost midnight from the looks of it. No wonder I’m so fucking tired.”

Catherine seemed to mull something over before nodding to herself. “Second question, were you able to see where this skeleton champion was originally located?”

Anna crossed her arms and shifted left and right, thinking back. “There was a black cloud rising miles and miles away from where I was. He came from that direction.”

“A good distance then. There might be a chance we’ll be safer than you think when we leave,” Catherine said thoughtfully. “During an integration the planet goes through numerous changes over the course of the year. Sections of the world are shuffled and reshuffled periodically. It is possible your foe is not outside at all.”

Anna whirled, “What?” she demanded. “No!”

Catherine tilted back a bit, “No?”

“No!” Anna barked, “No! He doesn’t get to get away from me! Not another one! First Chloe and then…” she clenched her fists and started to pace back and forth. “No one threatens me like that! No one gets away from me!”

“Anna, calm down,” Catherine said. “He’s still out there.”

Anna whirled back and met her eyes. The rage burned in her chest as her blood roared in impotent fury. It felt like something was taken from her. Another chance at vengeance. Another chance to dominate someone stronger than her. She reached up and ran her fingers through her hair. It wasn’t fair. This whole situation just got worse and worse every day it felt like. She closed her eyes and scoffed. Who am I kidding? If I went out there right now and he was outside, I’d be dead or worse. I’m no match for him right now.

She crouched and forced herself to breathe.

“I want to hit something.”

The knight chuckled. “I would be surprised if you ran out of things to hit. Consider it a chance to get strong enough to punish him when the time is right.”

“I’ll find him. I swear it.”

“I do not doubt it,” Catherine agreed. “Do not dwell on it, though. For all we know your world has not experienced its first shuffling yet. We could step outside and die right away beneath his wrath.”

“And if not?” Anna grumbled.

“Prepare, get stronger, level up, and I will educate you. The system clearly has shown you no mercy after being ejected from the tutorial,” she said.

Anna wiped her nose and huffed, “Fuckin’ system. If it had a face I’d…” she exhaled and shook her head. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“Agreed,” Catherine said. “Do you recall what the weather was like outside?”

“Hot as balls,” Anna muttered and put her hand on the doorway leading out of the dungeon. As the world around her faded away and everything momentarily became a glitchy nightmare, notifications began to appear.

Inheritance of [ERROR - RESTRICTED] - Part 2 (Harrowing)

Return when you are stronger. Girl. The first floor is yours.

Reach Level 25 (5/25)

Rewards: Access to the Second Floor

<System Alert!>

Access and Permissions of dungeon [error - undefined] have been modified. You now have permission to enter a non-hostile instance of the first floor of [error - undefined]. This instance will provide no rewards or essence to you from creatures slain. You may give others permission to enter the original version of the first floor as you see fit.

The notification vanished before Anna could give it any serious thought. Any further considerations were blown away with the icy wind that blasted her in the face. Her feet landed in deep snow and she squinted against the gale, raising a hand to pull her hood down over her face. She opened her mouth to speak and coughed, her body barely warming thanks to her ring as the chill creeped into everything. Before her was a vast snowy wasteland and clear white skies. She coughed again, “What the hell?”

“It definitely shuffled!” Catherine shouted over the wind. “Do you have shelter?”

Anna held her hand up against the wind and squinted again. From where she was standing the precinct should have been visible. Did only the big rock get tossed about or- she spotted an angular black shape in the snow about a mile or so off and her eyes went wide. “I see it!” she shouted back, “The building I woke up in during the integration is over there!” She pointed towards the distant shape and Catherine nodded.

“We should hurry, we’ll freeze to death out here!”

SHAAAAAAAH!

The raspy howl took them both off guard and they turned to see a trio of skeletons lumbering towards them in the snow. Their bodies were covered in ice and it looked like they hadn’t moved in ages. “Your friend left a trap for you!” Catherine shouted.

Skeleton Footman - Level 6

“No shit!” Anna barked back and drew her club out. She pulled her helmet out of her inventory as well.

“They have hands! Watch those horns!”

“Focus on the ones coming your way instead of my fashion choices!” Anna retorted as more skeletons came from the other side. She clenched her jaw and drew her presence all the way in. She hadn’t forgotten what the Skeleton Champion had said about her vanishing at some point. They couldn’t see her like this. As she suspected, the three heading towards her paused before changing their trajectory to march towards Catherine. Anna sneered and leaped forward as Catherine shouted behind her.

“Annastasia what did you just-”

Anna wasn’t listening anymore. The only thing she wanted to do was crush these motherfuckers beneath her boot. Her club collided with the first skeleton’s head and cracked as she drove it straight down into the soft snow. She raised her foot and smashed it as her blood warmed in her veins. She swung to the right and into the next one’s ribcage. It didn’t even look at her, its glowing eyes flicking down towards its beaten comrade instead. It bent in half under the force of her blow and she snapped her hand out towards the last one, a firebat exploding against it. It staggered and she was on top of it, hitting it over and over until its skull crumbled.

She was on her feet, panting hard. She turned to Catherine as her senses returned to her and found the woman taking short steps backward, moving left and right as the skeletons swiped at her with their pointed fingers. One lunged at her and she whipped her sword up across its path, catching it on the chin before snapping a hand out and grabbing its jaw. Catherine pulled and her blade slipped through the joints of its spine, severing the head. She tossed it at the next one and kept moving.

Anna’s lip twitched. Experience, huh? Maybe I should take her ‘training’ talk seriously.

AWWOOOOO!

Anna’s heart soared. She turned just in time to see those glowing eyes she knew so well growing larger as a hunched shape darted across the snow in their direction. The lion in her veins was overjoyed. This would satisfy her for now. She switched gears and went from mute to max volume. Her presence blasted out like a bomb going off and she roared as all of her strength went into leaping out of the snow and throwing herself at the skeletal hound with every ounce of fury she had.

“I’M BACK, YOU FUCKER!”