Far From Vanilla: Modded Game Reincarnation

The monster was unsightly in appearance, a cross between an infected and an unfortunate host. The flesh of the mob was still plump and peachy, but multiple holes and tears could be seen.

It was a corpse put together, not by the skillful hand of surgeons, but by the mandibles of the monsters that crept within the dungeon. It looked as if it were in a cycle of perpetual torment, the victim, now used as a tool, had seemingly frozen amidst it's last scream.

But the dungeon was silent. 

It was pitiful to look at. 

Isn't it unfair? How does a thing like this still live, whereas in this world, where the remains of someone disappear?

What If it were someone you cared about, in this state, dead and gone, but not gone at the same time?

What would you feel?

The corpse inched forward at a snail's pace, its whole form inching forward on clumsy steps. It no longer had a mind to move its own legs, for it was now a hollow shell, a puppet controlled by strings, spider thread.

“God, you look like you've seen better days.” I stepped back, creating more distance between me and the monster.

I readied my ax by gripping it tight with my right hand.

  I threw the torch at it for some sort of distraction. As it flew in the air toward the infested zombie, I swung my axe at it with both hands.

Swish!

But I missed it. “What?” 

I expected it to just ignore the flame entirely, or the flame obstruct its view somewhat, not to completely throw itself away in the nearest opposite direction away from it.

I looked at the monster with confusion. Were they afraid of fire? An odd discovery

The monster was not done however, and it disgusted me even more with what it did next.

Crack!-- 

The stomach of the zombie exploded, and hundreds upon hundreds of small spiders poured out of its entrails. Intestines, stomach, lungs, heart, everywhere– they flowed through and back into the darkness.

“Bleh–” I gagged again, “Man, I’m never going to unsee that, am I?”

I picked up the torch and illuminated all three of the hallways. In Front of me, straight from the entrance I entered, was a clean hallway. To my left was a cloudy hallway, perhaps from the cobwebs or whatever was scampering inside, and a bloodied hallway was located on my right.

An old, bloodied hallway to be exact. What looked like bloodstains had long since been replaced by black mold.

“Damn it.”

With the adventuring company behind me, I had to choose. A clean hallway, a spider-infested hallway, and an unknown hallway.

Because of the consequences of my actions, I need to somehow let them go through first. They’d probably catch me immediately if I did so, but if I ran through the cobwebbed halfway, I’d be overrun by spiders. 

This hallway was the best option I have. No matter how ominous it is. 

It took me quite a while, and my torch eventually lost its light. However, I did not turn it back on. I thought deeply and carefully, and when I had decided, my decision was further reinforced by a loud voice.

 It wasn’t loud when it reached me, but the volume carried it down the long hallway to me. 

Fools, why would you broadcast your presence to monsters that see through waves!?

I looked forward, and I made out more details than without the torch, only minus the color. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness.

“Let’s go…”And I entered it.

I put on my hood as an extra layer of protection for my head and lifted up the face mask to shield my nose.

Whatever was in this hallway, it reeked of decay. Recent decay.

I walked somewhat blindly into the path, sticking only to the right wall. No matter how many turns I took, I kept to the right.

Like a rule to never break. If I got lost, it was game over.

scoring the walls at regular intervals with my knife and when I tried again, my knife completely missed.

“What?” I stopped and tried again, only this time, I figured it was no longer a wall. “A room?”

It was an open door to a very large room. This time I lit my torch, adding ever more tar onto the stick to guarantee a longer lifespan.

I entered the room with my axe ready in hand and stabbed the torch onto the crack in-between the stone bricks. Only when the light began to spread did I notice a lever on the right side of a doorframe. 

“It looks like a light switch… should I flick it on?”

Da-Dum! Thud!

My heart throbbed once, loudly and I felt the kinetic energy of being skewered from behind. There was only phantom pain, for I had not been hit yet, but the degree of the warning was enough for me to turn..

It was my skill in action. It predicted me getting hit by something coming at fast speed. But even with it’s prediction, I couldn’t dodge it.

Simply because, my mind couldn’t send the information fast enough to my body. 

Stab!

“Ugh!” I gasped, thrown back by the force of the arrow.

I was just shot by an arrow. 

Something shot the arrow at me.

I gasped for air, the pain unbelievably unfamiliar and disabling, but I had to move.

Thnk!

I pushed myself off the wall and across to the switch. In the instant after I did so, an arrow flew by, and nailed the fabric of my coat onto the wall.

“Damn it–” I jumped up again, adrenaline numbing the pain in my side. I reached for the lever and flicked it down.

To be more accurate, I punched the lever down to turn it on.

So when light began to appear inside the room sequentially, starting from the closest lanterns to the switch to the furthest of the room.

They weren't strong enough lights to completely illuminate everything and blind me who had adjusted to the darkness, but they were enough to give me an idea of what the room was.

From the doorway, and to the end of the room, were lined rows upon rows of books lined on bookshelves. There were some cobwebs, but those were the size made by house bugs, and even then they were completely covered in gray dust.

The room was so dusty it was like it had just snowed inside. 

But the visibility provided gave me a scope of what I truly was facing. 

A room full of archery-skilled undead skeletons. 

I remembered my complaint about non-standard entity generation, back when I faced that skeleton from inside the tower, and I regretted my words as I lungged again to dodge a flurry of arrows.

Thud! Thud! Thud-Thud-Thud! Thud!

They whistled as they came for me, unlike the very first arrow, and a line littered my path as I hid behind a bookshelf.

Over a dozen undead shot at me, and covered my exit in arrows. To make it worse for myself, I had closed the door when I came in.

I wouldn’t be able to leave even if I wanted to. I’d have to risk getting turned into a pin cushion. I didn’t even have the energy to curse, because I was busy gritting my teeth from the pain on my side.

But the answer to my problem was simple. “I need to kill every single one of them…”

But simple did not mean easy.