The Human From a Dungeon

Nick Smith

Adventurer Level: 5

Human - American

"C'mon kiddo, you gotta keep your guard up!" Thunra shouted.

"What does that even MEAN?" I asked in frustration as I got off the ground.

I felt a bit of drool drip down my chin. I wiped at it and my hand came back bloody. A slight sting told me that Thunra had split my lip. Angry, I once again put my fists up.

"Alright, see, your hands are too close together. You gotta be able to see all of me," Thunra explained. "Also, you don't really gotta be making fists. You're supposed to be stoppin' me from hittin' you, not tryin' to hit me."

"This is how boxers do it, though," I countered.

"I don't know what that is," Thunra laughed. "But it ain't workin' for ya."

I opened my hands and spread them apart until I could see all of Thunra. He grinned, and rushed at me. I immediately activated time dilation, but it hardly seemed to slow the gigantic orc down. He swung his massive fist and I was able to barely redirect the punch so that it sailed past my head. I clenched my left hand and sent it at Thunra's face as I felt something hit me in the gut. Time Dilation deactivated and I went flying back. I slammed into the ground and rolled, gasping for air and getting a mouth full of dirt for my troubles.

"You managed to block a punch! That's great! Good job, Nick," Thunra shouted with glee as I sputtered.

"Yeah, great" I managed to say once I could breathe again.

I spit the rest of the dirt out of my mouth and rose to my feet again. My legs, however, had other plans and gave out on me. I sighed as I pushed myself back up.

"You alright?" Thunra asked.

"My legs are wobbly. You got me pretty hard," I answered.

"Oh, damn. Sorry about that. I'll dial it back a bit. I was goin' at seventy-five, but I think I overshot your abilities a bit. I'll drop to fifty percent."

It is difficult to describe the wave of emotions that washed over me upon learning that the giant orc brawler had already been holding back. Anger at myself for not being able to keep up, happiness that he's going to be holding back even more, and shock at how much power the bastard actually has.

'I suggest a short break while I repair your spleen,' Ten said.

'My spleen?'

'Yes, that last impact slightly ruptured it. I've got it under control, but it will be easier if you to lay down for a few minutes.'

As logic overwrote adrenaline, the pain where Thunra had hit me got worse. A lot worse. It radiated from my upper left torso, just behind the bottom ribs. It felt like my stomach was on fire and my body was trying to blow out that fire with a needle tornado. I held up one hand and laid on the ground. The pain slowly began to ebb as Thunra walked over to me with a curious expression.

"I need a minute. Apparently, you ruptured my spleen," I said as casually as I could.

"Oh shit," Thunra said. "You gonna be okay? Do we need to call Yulk?"

'Unnecessary. Healing magic will interfere.'

"Ten's got this. Just need a few minutes is all."

Thunra walked over and sat next to me while Ten repaired the injury.

"So uh... what's a spleen, anyways?" he asked.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure. Think it has something to do with filtering blood, like the liver," I answered.

'The spleen controls the level of white blood cells, red blood cells, and blood platelets contained within your blood. It also screens the blood and removes any old or damaged red blood cells,' Ten explained.

"Ah, nevermind. Ten explained it. It filters the blood and controls the levels of white and red blood cells," I said.

"Handy little thing," Thunra chuckled. "I'm guessin' that's not a vital organ, right? The skill I used is supposed to incapacitate, not kill."

'Humans can live without a spleen, but a ruptured spleen causes internal bleeding that can become fatal within twenty-four to forty-eight hours.'

"Uh, Ten says it's not a vital organ, but a ruptured one bleeds inside you and can be fatal after a day or two if it isn't fixed," I answered.

"Alright, that makes sense," Thunra sighed in relief. "If you walk around with that much pain for two days you're kinda asking for it, ya know?"

I lay there silently, letting Ten do its thing. I found it kind of interesting that Thunra's skill was supposed to incapacitate me, but could have ended up killing me in the long run. If you looked at it in terms of black and white, the skill failed. However, a ruptured organ would definitely incapacitate most people, and a ruptured spleen isn't fatal if you get it treated. So in a way, the skill did exactly what it was supposed to do.

I guess skills aren't perfect, and it's probably important to keep that in mind. Don't want to accidentally cause someone's death when I'm just trying to get them to stop fighting. Even though I hadn't learned a skill from our sparring yet, Thunra had still taught me a lesson.

'Spleen repaired, you're good to go,' Ten said.

I enjoyed laying down for a few seconds before sitting up.

"Alright, I'm ready."

"Good," Thunra said, helping me up. "We'll try again, but this time I want you to focus on evadin' my strikes. I'm gonna hit you with a flurry, unless you stop me."

I nodded resolutely. A flurry involves a lot of punches happening very quickly. Definitely don't want to get hit with that. I took my stance, and Thunra charged.

He swung with his right fist and I activated time dilation again. I pushed his right fist upward with my left hand, and elbowed his left fist away from me. His hands quickly tucked back into him and came at me again, but I kept deflecting them. Right, left, right, left, both, left, right. Time dilation wore off, but I was still managing to keep up with his strikes. Barely. Then his left fist did something weird. It seemed to be in three places at once. I blocked one of the strikes, but the two others were going to hit me.

-preternatural evasion unlocked-

My foot pushed off of the ground on its own and my body twisted out of the way of the other two strikes, and even managed to avoid a surprise right handed attack. I moved faster than I thought that I could, and Thunra noticed the change in speed. He held up his hands and grinned.

"Woah, okay, let's stop," he said. "Was that a new skill?"

"Y-yeah," I said, once again out of breath. "Preternatural evasion."

"Oh, the dodge one! Congratulations!"

"Th-thanks."

I concentrated on the skill's name, and the box popped up.

--

Preternatural Evasion I

Allows a user to automatically dodge for 1 minute.

Cooldown: 10 minutes

--

"Automatically dodge?" I asked.

"Yeah, you move on your own," Thunra answered. "Well, not that you don't already move on your own. I guess you could say..."

I zoned out as Thunra struggled to explain the concept of automatic movement. Preternatural Evasion seems like a very useful skill, but the ten minute cooldown could be an issue. Maybe if I level it up, the cooldown will decrease.

'Hey Ten, you level a skill up by using it, right?' I asked.

'For the most part. Certain skills require milestones to be met before they will level up, regardless of whether or not the skill is utilized. These milestones are generally able to be met quicker by using the skills, though. Other skills require a deeper understanding of the nature of the skill to level up, which usually occurs naturally while using the skill,' Ten explained. 'It's exceedingly rare for a skill that can level up not to do so as you use it.'

'I understand. So what does Preternatural Evasion II look like? Does the cooldown decrease at all?'

'Well... oh... I can't tell you. Something is stopping me.'

'What? What's stopping you?'

'I do not know. I can tell you all about your current skills, but I can't give you details about ones you don't have,' Ten said. 'Do you want to know more about Preternatural Evasion I?'

'No, no, I got it.'

Well that's concerning, and annoying. I don't even know if levelling up Preternatural Evasion is going to be worth it or not, and now I've got to worry about whatever's keeping Ten from telling me stuff about skills. It's probably the Curaguard or whatever, but I wonder what else Ten can't tell me...

"Like one of them machines, ya know?" Thunra asked, clearly looking for an answer.

"Y-yeah, sure," I replied. "You ready to go again?"

"Thought you'd never ask," he said with a grin.

As we took our stances it occurred to me that I didn't know how much time was left on the cooldown for preternatural evasion. A right hook to the face quickly let me know that it hadn't finished cooling down quite yet. Thankfully, Yhisith interrupted our sparring match before any more punches could be thrown.

"Time to head out," she said.

Thunra complained a bit, but we ended up loading up onto the wagons and continuing on our way, ending my first bout of training. We didn't train on the first day of our journey, because we had left in the afternoon and didn't stop until it was dusk. Well, except for bathroom breaks. I went over the results of my training in my head as we drove on.

'Ten, is there a way to see the cooldowns for my skills?' I asked.

'Yes. You don't currently have any on cooldown, but when you do you'll see it in the upper right corner of your vision,' Ten said. 'I set the opacity to twenty five percent so that it doesn't impede your vision.'

'Thanks.'

We continued on until dusk, stopped, rested, woke up, had breakfast, and got back on the road once again. Most of the discussions were how to best season certain meats that I'd never heard of, with Imlor chiming in when a spice that also paired well with vegetables was mentioned. I was too busy dreading my training with Nash to participate in the conversation much. My dread grew worse and worse as the sun rose higher and higher into the sky. Finally, the carts stopped and Nash was the first to jump out.

"My turn," he said while grabbing two wooden swords. "You'll be on offense today."

My spirits rose at this, and I happily caught the sword he tossed at me. It shouldn't hurt so bad if I'm the one doing the swinging, right? We walked a short distance away from everyone else and took our stances.

"Begin," he said.

I immediately charged at him with an underhand swing to try to throw him off balance. I glanced at the ground to be sure of my footing, and my vision went dark. I shook my head in confusion, and as my sight came back I found myself with a very familiar view. I watched a cloud drift by for a moment, then got up.

'The hell happened?' I asked Ten.

'He leapt forward and kicked you in the forehead. You're fine, though.'

I looked up at Nash and was greeted by an awfully smug expression.

"Keep your eyes on your opponent," he condescendingly said. "Try again."

This time, I tried for a horizontal strike and activated Time Dilation. Nash must have seen this coming, because the blunted point of his blade was exactly where my forehead had to be to complete my strike. If I had used dash, I'd have been knocked out.

I silently cursed to myself and managed to barely avoid the counterattack, backing off in the process. A timer that said Time Dilation appeared and began counting down from five minutes.

"Good, you're not quite as bad as you used to be," Nash laughed. "Try again."

"Shit," I said, staring at the timer.

I took a deep breath and decided on my course of action. I ran toward Nash and activated Slide Slash. He leapt backward, and I threw my sword at his face and used Dash to get closer. I balled up my fist and prepared to activate Breathtaker Strike, but Nash spun around quickly, turning his back to prevent the skill from activating. I brought up my left hand to block the elbow that he threw at my face, but couldn't stop the force he put behind it. My hand smashed into my face and I slammed into the ground.

'Cloud-watching again?' Ten asked.

'Not helpful.'

My bones seemed to creak as I once again got off the ground. The wooden sword I had thrown at Nash landed at my feet.

"You shouldn't throw your weapon unless you have another one handy," Nash said. "Your fists don't count quite yet, by the way."

"Then why did you avoid them?" I asked sarcastically.

"Because I can, and that's my point. What good is a weapon that can't hit its target?"

"I mean, it would hit most targets. The only reason it didn't hit you is because you were expecting it," I pointed out. "The reason I can't land a hit is because you have more experience than I do, and you know my fighting style. It's not fair..."

Nash's laughter interrupted me.

"Why would that matter?" he asked sardonically. "It's not as if I'd be doing you any favors by letting you hit me. You grow as you figure out HOW to hit me, and of course it isn't fair. This isn't some rich noblemer's tournament. We're training to make sure you don't die when faced with monsters. Or would you rather have Ten do all the work?"

I inwardly cringed. Nash had hit a nerve with the Ten comment, and I was immediately embarrassed by my misconceptions.

"No, I don't want Ten to do any of the work," I answered. "I don't want to be like that... thing."

Nash's attitude changed. His smugness evaporated and he suddenly became concerned.

"Did Ten say something about that?" he asked.

"No. Just an assumption on my part," I replied. "Intuition, I suppose."

'The man in the dungeon did have an AI, but it was in standby mode when we fought,' Ten said.

'How do you know?'

'It didn't respond to any of my attempts at communication.'

'What if it didn't want to talk? Or couldn't?'

'That hadn't occurred to me. I suppose it is a possibility...'

I opted to keep that to myself as Nash sighed.

"Listen, Nick. Do you know what the most important thing to do in a fight is?"

"Protect others?" I asked.

"Ah... right," he scratched the back of his neck. "I was actually going to say survive. I guess it's kind of complicated, but if you've got the option to survive and to help others survive you should take ahold of that option with both hands. So if it comes to that, don't hesitate to rely on Ten. In every OTHER situation, though, you should be fighting with your own two hands."

"Alright, I understand," I said.

I do kind of understand where Nash is coming from, but something feels wrong about using Ten to fight. My dad always used to say that the easy road has hidden pitfalls. I might be biased, because I don't like the idea of something else controlling my body, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that there's some sort of cost to Ten taking over. Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

"That's enough stalling," Nash said with a grin. "Try again."