I close the door to my bedroom and pull down my status sheet, ready to see the new stats now that I leveled up again.

Inner Light: (level 3)

A unique light attribute class able to learn every light attribute skill and uses mana directly for every skill. Class locks all other potential attributes and skill types. Skill usage limited only to quantity of Mana available

Mana:

4/36

Regen: 1.7798 per minute

Skills:

Cleanse

Clear body of foreign influences

Heal

Enhances natural healing

Flare

Coat external surfaces with light energy to give a light attribute to object

Sweet. Looks like another 20% increase in mana pool and regen? Yeah, I think that is right. How many decimal places is that regen going to go to? It would be annoying if my screen here was filled up with hundreds of the numbers if it got to that.

However, I must say I am a little surprised at the level up. I would have thought that level two would be harder to get to, was the jellyfish creature really worth enough for a level up? Sure, it was a surprise attack, but I fended it off rather easily.

…

Man, I’ve got to think of a name for those things, saying jellyfish creature uses too many syllables. How about… Wynot? Why not, I don’t care, I’m not good at naming things. I hereby dub thee ugly creatures Wynots. Be grateful for the name.

But seriously, I don’t think a single wynot is worth a whole level, there must be something else to it. Perhaps my use of the skills? But it seems too easy to level up just using skills over and over again. Maybe I got experience for curing my near constant infections. That makes sense to me, if the system considered each infection a low level enemy I defeat, it might give me experience every time I cleanse it. It’s worth considering, maybe I’ll go on a cleansing rampage and start taking out swaths of this stuff to see if I level up. It’s worth a try.

But for now, it’s time to focus on my other problem. Food. Sure, a person can survive much longer without food than water, but I will still need it eventually. Plus, my first world stomach is complaining to me. Its not used to not eating breakfast, not to mention working hard without anything. I guess I have babied it too much. If I had known I was going to end up in a place like this I would have disciplined it more. As it is, it is acting like a spoiled kid, shame on you.

…

Yeah, this is a problem. On my short hike outside my fortress I did not spot anything alive, besides the wynot. And all the fungus and mushrooms and what not.

Seriously though, it is really odd because there are the remains of an entire forest out there, fallen trees, sticks, bushes, foliage, the whole nine yards of a forest was out there, all dead. What does this mean? Soon, there will not be anything else left for the fungus to feed off of and it will die out completely. It’s not a long term plan, like a virus whose only goal is to replicate endlessly. Think about it, what would be the end result if a virus succeeded? There would be nothing, nothing left for the virus to use anymore and then it would die out too. I guess it is a mindless thing.

But the dead forest begs a question. Was it alive until just recently when it got invaded and destroyed by the fungus? Or is this just a setting of an artificial storyline?

Neither one of those ideas are good for me. Judging by how aggressive the disease of this place is, I hope that I am not on some planet somewhere (God forbid I’m on earth) getting blitzkrieged by this disease, I’d be basically alone in the whole place.

…

Here’s an idea, maybe I’m on a planet that has been a victim of biological warfare. It's possible I guess, but then again, the possibilities really do seem to be endless and none of that would explain how I got here anyway.

So I am leaning towards an artificial storyline setting where we will see huge rotting trees forever but never trees growing to become that big in the first place. Considering everything else, this seems most likely.

So, back to food. It’s not looking pretty but I’m going to have to look into eating some mushrooms. Properly cleansed of course.

Actually, I am very fond of mushrooms back on earth. My father always hated them though so none of us kids grew up eating them as mom wouldn’t make any meals with them in it. I remember that day though, like it was yesterday. I was in middle school and mom was sauteing a bunch of mushrooms in a pan in butter. I had never seen them in our house before but they smelled delicious and apparently she was making a nice snack for herself. At my upturned eyes she gave me a small serving, telling me that I might not like them, but it turned out I did not take after my dad in the mushroom hating department. They were delicious, especially when you add some salt to it. Mmmmmm, sodium.

Now, I too, purchase portabella mushrooms from time to time and cook them up just like mom did. It’s always a scrumptious treat. I can’t do it when my sister is around though, she doesn’t like the smell. Oh well.

Now, I don’t have access to fire or salt here though, so no matter what mushrooms I get, it won’t be nearly as good as what I would want them to be. In fact, I’m pretty sure they are going to be awful either way.

When my mp is back up to reasonable levels I head back out and start looking for some mushrooms. It’s really easy, as they are everywhere.

I stay away from the place where Pesos is “buried” and find plenty of mushrooms of every kind. I grab the nearest one, a large fat purple thing with a wide brim hat and almost no stalk sticking out from a dead tree. In the meantime I am very aware of potential jump scares during this process and I am keeping a close eye on everything. My right hand is on “Thor’s hammer” tightly. Dang, what was it called in the movies anyway? I can’t remember, stink. It would be cooler if I could.

Upon grabbing the mushroom with my left hand I am notified that I am infected. Big suprise. I cleanse myself, and then cleanse the mushroom, focusing the warm chills onto the obese shroom.

…

It slowly turns to purple dust and then falls away.

…

Crap, I thought that might happen. Considering the algae in the water did the same thing when I cleansed it, I am not surprised. I try a bunch more of the different mushrooms around me, hoping that maybe one of them would work for me, but none of them do. I am very disappointed.

…

How far should I take my experiments with the mushrooms? As I look down at my, now, pile of mushroom dust, I agonize over this tough question. Undoubtedly, further testing would become very, very unpleasant.

…

I guess this is important for my survival, but, oh man. Couldn’t the mushrooms just have worked like I wanted them to?

So I have two more experiments I could run with these things. The first is simple, I eat a mushroom uncleansed and then I use my healing skill to combat the harmful effects. I don’t think I can use cleanse while eating them because then they would probably turn to dust inside of me.

I don’t like this option because it sounds like it will be painful and just plain awful though I suppose that with my cleanse and heal skill working alternatively, I won’t have to fear for my life no matter how poisoned I get.

The second option is to take this pile of dust and just eat that. I know that all the negative effects are gone from it now at least, but it could also be just plain dust. It would be like eating carbon and trying to digest it, there wouldn’t be anything to digest and it would probably just wreck my bowels. Oh, my poor bowels, they are already starting to hurt just thinking about it.

…

So which do I try first? I suppose I can potentially answer both questions by just eating the mushrooms and if things go south, cleanse them into powder inside my body and see what happens.

…

Oh man, this is going to be rough. The things I do for food. Maybe I should wait until I am more desperate.

I am saved from making that decision by a notification. However, it was not a good notification and it's that blasted red and blue writing, is there a setting somewhere where i can change the color scheme?

Warning! A Vengeance Spirit has been sent after you!

What vengeance spirit? Is it that bastard wynot? Did he not learn his lesson? I pwned that noob, he should know his place in the food chain here, he doesn’t have the credentials to seek vengeance. I’ll destroy him again if he comes back.

On that note, I start looking around anxiously in case the phantom wynot can now live outside of water and comes jumping out at me from the trees. I gratefully put away the exotic mushroom I was going to eat and I slowly make my way back to my bedroom.

Besides the wynot, I suppose that zombie might hold a grudge against me, I did bash his head in without giving him a chance to speak. He could have been there to ask for a cup of sugar and just had really bad social manners, banging away at my door. And now the innocent misunderstanding caused him to turn into a vengeful spirit, how tragic.

…

I don’t know, can an undead creature turn into another type of undead creature?

...

On that note, what are the grounds for something to become a notification? I didn’t get a notification when the zombie or wynot attacked me but I do get one now? It seems to me the system is inconsistent with its message policy. I would have appreciated a lot more info up front, but it seems to be holding out on me, not bothering to give any explanations on anything, not on the rules, not on the leveling system, not even as to what a vengeance spirit is. Why can’t I get any data on my enemies, why does it have to be so stingy all the time?

I guess I have to be grateful for what I have, having a spirit come out of nowhere at you would be very difficult to fend off if I didn’t know I had to be wary for it.

I beat a retreat to my room, keeping a sharp eye out for flying spirit wynots. I actually took a couple of mushrooms in with me despite myself. I can’t stop my important work by worrying about a potential attack that could come from any time anywhere.

…

Gee, this is getting worse by the minute.

I peek out my door as I slowly close it, paranoid now about ghosts. Then I spot a moving figure in the distance, standing nobly on top of a hill crest a ways away. Then I see it turn its head up and howl like a wolf, clear and piercing in the air. It was then I realized I had forgotten about something. There was another creature here that I had killed and I guess considering my history with her she would qualify as a vengeful spirit.

That’s right, it’s Pesos that is now barreling down at me, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a happy reunion where I pet her head and say over and over again, “who’s a good dog?” while she prances around me, too excited to stay still.

Peeking out at her, I can see some details that would identify her as a spirit now. She is still all black with a grey patch under her belly, coming up to her face and now with red eyes. She doesn't seem to be covered in short fur anymore though, just a black coat in whatever spirits use as skin. There are also little black flames around her feet and tail giving her an incorporeal look. I’m glad that she is actually running and not flying at me. Hopefully she’ll stay with that limitation, but I am not going to discount that possibility. She looks pretty cool actually, if she was my pet familiar instead of my vengeful spirit, I would be stoked.

As it is, she is coming up on me fast, dressed to kill.

Have you ever seen a greyhound run? You probably have on TV at least, it's a pretty awesome thing. In full stride they run with a double extension gallop and I understand that that is a pretty rare feature in an animal.

I have had the pleasure of seeing Pesos run at full speed before, taking her to the dog park and letting her off her leash. It is an amazing thing to behold as she sprints around like a pinball, bowling over other dogs and what not. She can’t turn quickly obviously, but she is so fast and cool it hardly matters. It’s scary when she comes straight at you though.

Pesos had been a racer too, after she retired from racing with, I think, 3 wins under her coller, my twin and his wife adopted/rescued/bought” her. It’s a cool program that matches the dogs with willing owners. After they got the dog and learning how wonderful she was, several friends had gotten rescue dogs as well. It’s a beautiful thing.

It's funny though, my twin and his wife are both runners too, so they thought getting a running partner in Pesos would be great but poor Pesos has practically no stamina. After a few minutes of running she would be completely pooped. She only really had two gears too, either full sprint or a walk, neither good for the speed at which humans run. And it turns out Pesos was a big couch potato anyway, laying around and sleeping all the time. Ha, ha, I loved that dog.

Currently, Pesos appeared to be using her impressive speed to ram me. It was scary back when she was alive at the dog park and it is even scarier now to see her coming at me as a vengeful spirit, but a part of me is not understanding her plan. She is a 35 pound dog and I am a 140 lb man. No matter how fast she is going, I don’t think she will be the winner in a collision, especially if I take some precautions and prepare for her. Like I am doing now.

Sorry Pesos, looks like I am going to have to kill you again. No hard feeling please, I’ll be sure to properly bury you this time and not leave you to the mushrooms if that is what this is about.

I have a decent amount of mana, currently at 26, so I am confident I can use flare liberally here. Pesos appears to be aiming to breakdown my front door, though, with her bull charge, so I just lightly close it and coat the entire thing in flare. It’s costly at 3 mp a second, but judging by Pesos’ speed, she’ll be here any moment now-

There is a muffled “fwump!” and I feel the door shake a little. I wait a couple more seconds and then cancel the flare skill and open the door slightly, in time to see wisps of black smoke scatter and then fade away. I stare out intently at the wisps, but they do not appear to be reforming.

…

Huh, that was easy. Sorry again, Pesos, you really don’t have a body I can bury anyway, I hope that was not what this was about.

I stare out and the last of the wisps disappear and all is peaceful again in the world. Dang, that really was too easy. For something that seemed to qualify for a notification, it really didn’t live up to my expectations. What’s the catch? Suddenly a new notification appears, and I realize I should not have asked.

Vengeance Spirit defeated!

Countdown until respawn

I knew it. Poor Pesos, forced to attack me forever. Poor me, forced to kill Pesos over and over again.

I look up at the new timer in the top left corner of my vision. 1,356:36

…

I am guessing that’s minutes and seconds? So what, that’s… uh…. Hold on… A little less than 24 hours?

Dang.

Double dang.

This sucks. I bet I won’t be able to use the ol’ close the door in her face trick next time either, I bet she’ll be learning each time.

Oh man, I am pissed now. If her revival was a natural phenomenon I can understand, but if I remember the first notification correctly it said that Pesos was sent after me. That means there is somebody else out here who did this. He presumably wants me dead, but I’ve got his number now. There’s a good chance he’s the cause of all this in the first place too. Oh man, I’m going to find him and I am going to end him. I do not appreciate getting f***ed with.