Panic stabbed at him, but it failed to land a strike. He would not falter, not succumb to the pressure. This hadn't been the first time his ability to run was tested.
'Level up'
"fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, this is not the time!" Noah furiously thought.
A long sewer, streaming green waters carrying a foul stench, and worst of all, giant rats. The monstrous type of rats, the shameless type, the type you sneer at when you catch a glimpse of them.
Seven of these rats were chasing Noah down the sewer, he had taken a seemingly harmless quest. "Investigate the sound," it said, "Investigate the fucking sound," it said. And honestly, the sound could have been anything. Goblins, lizards, bandits, ogres or practically any other creature, in all actuality, Noah was lucky to only have found rats. However, if you were to tell him that, his head might have exploded from rage.
Noah felt everything but lucky. He thought this would be a stealth mission, a recon type. "A go there, then, go there" type of quest, but of course it wasn't. Of course, it had to be him getting chased through a dim tunnel, his rapid steps echoing loud and his breath growing wide.
The horrid stench created by all the shit and piss in the tunnel was getting lighter. Noah found it disgusting, but not disgusting enough to notably affect him. He had gotten used to such stenches when he worked for the Caba stable. His one and only job were to clean up Caba shit, and somehow, it managed to have a unique smell of shit each time.
In front of him, he saw bright light land on the rough stone floor. It wasn't very far, he could almost feel the light massaging him. His body now coursing with fervour, his eyes tunnelled down on the exit. He had become oblivious of everything around him.
He slipped, a banana peel had somehow made it onto his path. He felt shocked more than anything. It was probably some cursed workers choice of food. Noah's caught sight of the rats running eagerly towards him, they had just gotten their source of fervour.
Noah knew what he had to do, with the few seconds he had, he mentally prepared himself. He brought his hand up towards his face and pinched his nose. Just when the rats were about to reach him, he forced himself into the filthy, powerful, water. The water pushed forcefully towards the direction he had come from, he gasped for air and felt some of the filthy water slip into his mouth. He felt the urge to puke.
The rats collectively looked at the spot the human dropped into the water, they looked at each other as if he was crazy. Even they, greasy, messy, nasty rats who had grown up in the sewers would never consider going into the water. There was a limit to these things!
Noah washed up onto the sun-strucken beach. He fell on his back as he gasped for air, fresh air. He started convulsing until he threw up all the piss, shit and trash he had unwillingly swallowed. He eyed the clear blue sky and admired its simplicity.
"Stats" he said.
In the middle of his vision appeared a box.
--
Level: 10
Skill points unassigned: 1
Agility: 10
Stamina: 7
Magic: 5
Strength: 7
Charisma 5
Luck: 5
Skills: Basic sword fighting level 2, sprint level 3, Scared shriek level 1(newly acquired, think about it to get a detailed explanation.)
Class selection available!!!!!
---
"A new skill" He thought, slightly intrigued.
His eyes ogled onto it and the explanation opened.
--
Scared shriek
Scared shriek evolves into sirens shriek
A vocal attack, causing the enemy to flinch. Higher success rate on weaker enemies, no success rate on higher tiered enemies.
--
"Of all the goddamn skills I could have gotten, it had to be this disgrace of an ability. It just had to be me!"
However, his mind was quickly taken away from that fact. He had started with the worst as he always did, he was truly excited about what came next. His eyes turned towards the class selection text beeping in red light.
--
Classes available
Warrior
Rogue
Archer
Mage
Leader
Shaman
Beast tamer
…
--
The class list continued to descend but Noah didn't care about that. He had finally reached level ten at the age of 16, after two gruelling years of questing. He had thought about which path he would go down, the answer was obvious. It felt natural, instinctual even, he didn't have the slightest regret when as he chose Rogue.
His stats page appeared once again.
--
Level: 10
Class: Rogue
Skill points unassigned: 1
Agility: 15
Stamina: 7
Magic: 5
Strength: 8
Charisma 5
Luck: 6
Skills: Basic sword fighting level 2, sprint level 3, Scared shriek level 1, Sub-Stealth level 1 (passive), backstab level 1
--
His eyes almost popped out as he saw his agility, it had been increased by 5. He couldn't believe it. He already knew this would happen, because he had asked more experienced adventurers, but seeing it first hand was completely different.
He decided to add the unassigned point into agility making the total 16 before he closed the stats page. Speed beat strength in his eyes.
On top of that, he had gained the two renowned skills, sub-stealth and backstab. He heard that these two would go on to evolve into mighty skills. He felt joy circulate throughout his body. With his regained energy he stood up and made his way towards the adventure hall.
The road was composed of neatly cut stone, the capital was crowded like always. Above the countless people, he spotted the battered down sign depicting a sword going through a shield.
"The adventure hall," Noah thought.
He opened the door and was met by the sight of stillness. At this time of day, a lot of adventurers would be outside doing quests, by night this place would be crowded like every other spot in the capital.
There were however three people still inside of the building, the quest assigners. He walked up towards one of them. When he got close enough to return his quest he noticed that he had made one of them pinch their noses. He had forgotten that he had bathed in sewer water just now.
He felt a bit bad, but that didn't stop him from completing the quest. The wrinkled and folded, stinky quest paper was found inside his left pocket, he took it out and opened it up. He showed them the quest, it looked like the one with her fingers pinching her nose was about to throw up. "What do you think I had to go through?", he thought.
They quickly gave him his reward, not because they were grateful, but because they wanted the foul stench to go away. And so he did, he didn't enjoy smelling like shit. The reward had been ten copper coins, a hefty haul, he went to the closest inn. The "Goldbeard inn", he was badly greeted there but no merchant would turn away coin.
He got the cheapest room, he mainly wanted to use the waterstones, he walked in the direction of them. Once he had finished bathing in the cold water produced by the waterstones, he made his way towards the market.
Running had taken a hit on his stamina and he felt hungrier than a lion. He bought salted jerky, it wasn't the tastiest but it was cheap and that was exactly what he needed. Once that was finished he made his way back to the adventure hall.
He walked to the quest board, which was the spot to accept quests. He looked upon the quest board and one caught his eyes. It could prove risky though.