Charlotte sat atop the stone, eating the beef stroganoff in wait for my assessment. She wanted to know which attributes to invest her points into.
I lifted a hand, asking, "Well, what are your current stats?"
She responded, "Let me check."—"I have five points in Body, twelve in Mental, twelve in Senses, and fifty-five in Magic."
My eyes widened as I heard how high her magic attribute was.
With a curious tone, I wondered aloud, "With your current amount of magic, how long do you think you could use that transformation spell?"
She brought a finger to her chin as she took a second to think about it.
"I could probably hold that spell for twenty to thirty minutes."
Giving it a second of thought, I then concluded, "Perhaps you should raise your strength by five and your magic by twenty."
She nodded and then replied, "Done."
We spent a few minutes chatting and getting to know each other, though it was more like I was getting to know her and not vice versa because whenever she tried broaching the subject of my personal history, I redirected the conversation. I was too ashamed of my past to let her know about any of it.
From our conversation, I learned that Charlotte grew up on a farm and regularly worked with animals, explaining why she wasn't freaked out by the stench and dirtiness of our current predicament. I also learned that she had only recently left the rural life to live and study in Spokane as a student in the field of medicine. She mentioned that she always wanted to be a doctor so she could help the sick.
"You know, you're a really great person," I told her.
Her cheeks burned pink.
I followed up by confessing, "I just… wish this World Shatter didn't happen. You were really going to reach high places, and yet… that opportunity was taken from you."
She quickly sputtered, "N-No, it's not a big deal—"
"And there I was, a hopeless loser who wished for all of this. I didn't even once consider in all my fantasizing that this world was one that people worked so hard to create. It was right there in front of me… And I didn't even see it."
She tried stopping me, but I persisted undeterred.
"Well, I got my wish, and that wished has destroyed this world. I ripped away you're ambitions with my selfishness. I stole your dreams—no, the world's dreams."
I rested my head in my hands and sat in silence till it was broken by a sudden laugh, one that was quiet but quickly grew louder and more deranged with each passing second. Before I knew it, I was laughing like a crazed lunatic.
I stood up from the stone on which I sat, laughing and yelling, "I did this! I did it all!"
I heard charlotte whine, "Stop. You're scaring me," but I was too far gone to care any longer.
I was the arbiter of this world. I was its main character. I was someone special.
Suddenly, I felt a firm smack against my cheek, causing me to fall on my ass.
Charlotte angrily yelled with tears welling up in her eyes, "You didn't do any of this! How many times do I need to tell you that to get through your thick skull!"
She raised her hand to slap me again but stopped right before doing it, saying, "You didn't cause any of this no matter how much you wished for it. You're just a normal person like everyone else. And like everyone else, no matter how much you wish for something, it won't make it come true. And if it does come true, it's still just a coincidence."
She had a fierce look in her eyes, the eyes of someone passionate in the words she spoke, almost as if she knew from personal experience.
I was speechless.
She lowered her raised hand back to her side and angrily strode out the door, leaving me inside to contemplate how silly I was acting. I knew she was right. I knew it the whole time, and yet I still chose to believe otherwise.
I wasn't the main character of this story; I probably wasn't even a background character. The fact that World Shatter is happening is entirely unrelated to me. It would've happened even if I died from a heart attack a month ago.
I wasn't special, not because I had a misfortunate past and lifelong trauma, but because I never tried to be someone special. I always just expected it would come to me as if I were entitled to it—as if I didn't have to work hard to become someone special. In reality, I was lower than trash, not even worthy of pity. And only now, after all these long wasted years, did I finally realize it.
Tsking at my stupidity, I stood back up and leaned against the wall, whispering to myself, "I guess I should get ready to send her down, then."
Packing away the cooking supplies into a bag, I stepped outside to see Charlotte facing away from me with her arms wrapped up in her chest, shivering from the cold frigid air.
Unzipping the bag, I pulled out a fuzzy jacket and snuck up behind her, quickly wrapping it around her.
She jumped in surprise as I backed away, declaring, "I'm sorry for being an idiot. Your words made me realize something very important, so thank you. I really do mean it."
She blushed and murmured, "Whatever."
Stepping over to the ledge, I pulled the harness out from under the snow. It was connected to a small boulder by a length of rope. The boulder was almost impossible for me to move when I set it up last night, so I knew for sure it was going to be a safe anchor.
Handing Charlotte the harness, I instructed her to put it on, which she did. Walking her over to the ledge, she gave a worried look and spoke with a shaky voice.
"I'm scared. Are you sure this is safe?"
I smiled and comfortingly responded, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
She stammered, "B-But—"
"Nothing will happen to you. I'll make sure of it."
I put my hands under my shoulders and lifted her up into the air effortlessly. She was as light as a feather, but I suppose that was to be expected with someone her size.
Setting her back down, I stated, "I'll be holding on to you like it was my own life on the line, okay."
Her face flushed red as if I did something to embarrass her. She simply nodded silently and backed away.
I picked up the end of the rope and wrapped myself around the boulder, explaining, "I'll slowly lower you down to the bottom. Then once your down, unhook yourself and holler backup, so I know to pull the rope back up."
"O-Okay—" She said, pausing and then asking, "W-Wait. So how are you going to get down?"
"I'll find a way," I said without a clue as to how I would be getting down.
She peered over the ledge, nervously saying, "A-Alright."
Crouching and climbing down the ledge, the tension picked up on the rope, causing it to shoot out from under the snow it laid under.
With my improved senses, I could hear her hyperventilating as I slowly lowered her down the edge of the cliff. However, these reverberation waned the further, and further down she descended.
The rope's heavy tension released as I heard Charlotte yelling something that I couldn't quite distinguish due to her distance.
Quickly pulling the rope back up to the top, I stepped back inside the mouth of the roc for one last time. In its mouth, the two hiking bags laid side by side, joined together by a carabiner.
Picking it up, I stepped back outside and hooked the carabiner to the metal ring that held up the harness. Then kicking it off the ledge I grabbed the rope and stopped its quickly accelerating descent. The force tugged me forward a bit, but I managed to counteract it.
After a few minutes, I heard Charlotte shout again, so I pulled the rope back to the top. Now all that remained was for me to go down.
Hooking myself into the harness, I threw down whatever length of rope I could and approached the ledge. Grabbing the length of rope tightly, I tugged to make sure there was no give. Seeing that there wasn't any, I hopped off without hesitation.
I fell a few down a few feet until the stretch of rope I was holding onto stopped painfully jerking my shoulder and smacking me up against the slick pillar-wall.
Luckily, I had managed to hold on, and I was now suspended on nothing. The only thing keeping me from falling was my grip on the rope.
"Fuck. That was stupid." I gasped with the wind knocked out of me.
Recovering my senses, I reoriented myself against the pillar-wall so that my feet gripped onto its surface. The wall was slippery with ice, something I hadn't calculated for.
Slowly and carefully rappelling down the rope, I heard Charlotte call out words of encouragement.
"You can do it, Henry! Don't look down!"
She really was the sweetest woman ever. Regardless of whether I was afraid or not—and I wasn't—her words were very comforting to me. I appreciated it very much.
I had already gotten halfway down in record time. I needed to prove to charlotte that I could hold my own in a sticky situation, and this was how I would do it.
When I was about fifteen feet above the ground, I heard something that sounded peculiar. Playing it off, I continued descending when suddenly the rope snapped right where the rope extended down the ledge.
I watched as the rope and I came hopelessly tumbling down. Within those last few seconds, my ears canceled out all sounds except for my sigh of disappointment.
Darkness.
***
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[Qualification (Survive certain death 5 times) met]
[User (Henry Miller) Is Advancing]
[Cataloging User (Henry Miller) As Class (Survivor) Into System Database]
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