NOVEL FROG Chapter 1: Awakening
The first thing Miriam realized upon waking up was that she was definitely not in her bed. Ah, crap, did I fall on the floor? Why didn’t Tom wake me up? The surface beneath her back felt hard and gritty, almost like rock. Her bedroom floor was made of wood. I’m not in my room! Her eyes jerked open in panic, and she immediately shut them again. The light was far too blinding to see. As consciousness returned to her, she could hear sounds - the wind hissed around her, and faint booms came from far away. The air felt hot and rough on her skin, as if something huge was breathing on her. When she took a deep breath, she immediately coughed. The air tasted acrid, like the fumes from gasoline. She took a smaller breath, which was manageable.
Finally, she opened her eyes. Even as they watered from the intense brightness, she kept them open. When her eyes finally adjusted, she was staring at a wholly alien sky.
It took her mind several moments to comprehend what she was seeing. The sky was a rusty red with a yellowish haze suffusing it, like an artist’s imagined hellscape. Clouds of grey smog drifted lazily through the bloody sky, obscuring a bloody red sun. She turned her head, sweat beading on her face. She was lying on a hill covered with grey ash and gravel. Off into the distance, the ash-covered hills continued to roll.
I don’t think this is Earth, Miriam thought. This isn’t Earth! What happened? Where is Tom? Oh, God! Panic suffused her as she slowly got to her feet. She realized that her pajamas were gone. Instead, she was wearing a robe of grey burlap that reached to her knees. Is this Hell? Did I die and go to Hell? What did I do? I don’t think I’ve committed any egregious sins, have I?
[New Entity born: Entity: Miriam Ward. Greetings, Entity: Miriam Ward], a deep voice suddenly blared in her head. With a yelp, Miriam stumbled back.
“Who’s there!?” she demanded.
[Entering attributes of Entity: Miriam Ward to Order system.] [Uploading attributes.] [Attribute sheet pending.]
“What?” Miriam exclaimed. Whatever the voice was saying, it made no sense to her. “Uploading? Like a computer?” Were there computers in Hell?
[Upload complete. Access to Attribute Sheet granted to Entity: Miriam Ward.] As soon as the voice had finished speaking, a wave of energy shot throughout Miriam’s entire body, knocking her to the gravelly ground. As soon as the wave had passed, Miriam noticed something different. It was as if she had awakened a sixth sense - like sight, hearing and touch all at once. It was too weird and alien to properly put into words or even understand. As she began to perceive reality using this new sense, words began to appear in her vision, floating in the air.
Hp: 35/35 Mp: 5/5 Stamina: 5/5 Status: Healthy [Access to Attribute Sheet available.]
Attribute sheet? What? I have no idea what’s going on! I’m in Hell and there’s a computer voice talking to me and I’m all alone…
[Click on Attribute Sheet to access it.]
Click on it? Miriam had no idea what the voice meant.
[Click on Attribute Sheet to access it.]
Miriam tried to touch the words floating in the air, but they weren’t… there, at least not in a physical context. Then, some primal, mysterious instinct kicked in. She reached out with her mind for the concept of “Attribute Sheet”. Immediately, an enormous wall of text appeared in her vision that she read almost instantly.
Attribute Sheet of Entity: Miriam Ward
Name: Miriam Ward
Class/Level: Wretch Lv. 1
Stat Points: 0
Moves (basic):
Unarmed Lv. 1
Defend Lv. 1
Dodge Lv. 1
Moves (advanced):
Stats:
Hp: 35/35
Mp: 5/5
Stamina: 5/5
Defense: 5
Resistance: 6
Strength: 5 (+0)
Agility: 5 (+0)
Vitality: 5 (+0)
Endurance: 5 (+0)
Magic: 5 (+0)
Wisdom: 7 (+0)
Charisma: 5 (+0)
She stared at the display. “Holy shit! Are these my attributes?” It was a bit weird seeing all her physical and mental abilities quantified into words and math. Most of my attributes seem pretty low. Magic? This is definitely not Earth. Wisdom is higher than the others… Is that because I was a teacher? Anyway, I hope these low attributes won’t pose a problem in the future.
[Entity: Miriam Ward is currently viewing Attribute Sheet of Entity: Miriam Ward. Close application?]
Quickly, Miriam made the Attribute Sheet disappear from her vision. The display showing her HP, MP and Stamina remained in her vision, however. The whole scenario reminded her of what she had seen in video games. While she hadn’t played much of anything beyond Pac-Man in an arcade as a child, she had frequently noticed her less focused students playing games in class. The characters in those games had statistics like those Miriam was currently seeing. Am I in a video game? Please tell me where the hell I am.
[Error: Unknown Command.]
The voice wasn’t much help. Miriam sighed dejectedly. She got to her feet and surveyed the environment around her. The rolling, ash-covered hills continued off into the distance, beneath the rusty sky.
“Are there people around here?” she mused to herself. “If there’s someone around these parts, maybe they can help me get back home.” But she clearly wasn’t on Earth anymore. Chances were, even if there were people in this hellish wasteland, they wouldn’t even know about Earth, much less how to go there.
Oh well, walking around sure beats standing here, she thought to herself. The ground was painfully hot and rough under her bare feet as she ambled down the hill, and the sun and the smog caused sweat to flow out of her pores in droves. She walked up and down several more hills. The environment didn’t change at all, and there were no signs of life anywhere.
After around forty-five minutes of walking, she collapsed to the ground at the top of a particularly tall hill in a sweaty heap. Her entire body ached - her feet and lungs especially. Oh god, why me? What did I do to deserve this? She coughed as she accidentally inhaled a deep breath of ashy, acrid air. Suddenly, the voice spoke again.
[Entity: Miriam Ward has learned the Basic Skill: Enhanced Calluses Lv. 1. Basic Skill: Enhanced Calluses halves all pain experienced in lower legs and feet. Pain will decease by a further 1% with each further level (max: 100% decrease)]
As soon as the voice had finished speaking, Miriam noticed a significant reduction in the pain her feet were feeling. It went from a searing fire to a dull ache. The sensation was still present, but far more bearable.
Looks like this voice isn’t as useless as I thought it was, she thought to herself. She sighed in contentment. Then, a new idea came to her head. She inhaled deeply, ignoring the pain and subsequent coughing the acrid air inflicted on her. She exhaled deeply, then inhaled again. She continued to repeat the process, fighting through the pain.
Thankfully, her intuition was correct. After an indeterminate time (it was probably less than five minutes, but felt like an hour to her), the voice spoke again.
[Entity: Miriam Ward has learned the Basic Skill: Enhanced Breath Lv. 1. Basic Skill: Enhanced Breath enables user to breathe air of poor quality as if it was clean, filtering out toxins and pollutants before it reaches the lungs. User will be able to breathe air of worse quality with each subsequent level (max: indefinite)]
“H-holy sh-shit,” she coughed, inhaling again. The air tasted slightly less acrid and polluted, but it still burned her mouth and lungs. “C-can I level up this skill fur… further?”
[Query answered: All skills can level up with use. Additionally, skill levels can grant experience.]
So I CAN learn how to breathe in this noxious world! Miriam thought. I can level up my skills here! She laid down and continued her breathing exercise. After a few more minutes, the voice spoke again.
[Entity: Miriam Ward has reached Lv. 2 in Basic Skill: Enhanced Breath.] The air tasted even less acrid, but still was far from how normal air tasted. I can do this! I can beat the polluted air!
Leveling Enhanced Breath from 2 to 3 took far more time than she had initially anticipated. After over an hour of inhaling and exhaling on her back, the voice finally notified her that she had [reached Lv. 3 in Basic Skill: Enhanced Breath.] Now, the air tasted almost normal to her, albeit with a faint sooty taste like coal. She took a normal breath, the first one in hours. She smiled as the pleasure of taking a simple, normal breath suffused her.
A few seconds later, the voice spoke again. [Entity: Miriam Ward has been rewarded 1 point in Vitality and 1 point in Endurance due to training skills related to the aforementioned stats.]
Points? Miriam thought. She pulled up her Attribute Sheet and checked it. Two of her basic stats had increased by 1, which led to her Hp, Stamina and Defense increasing as well.
“Hey, that’s not half bad!” Miriam said to herself. “I can get more powerful just by breathing?” She remembered how long it had taken to get from Lv. 2 to 3 in Enhanced Breath. It would probably take a while, though. “Is there any other way to increase my stats?”
[3 stat points are awarded upon leveling up. Leveling up occurs once experience points reach a certain threshold. Experience can be gained by training skills and killing creatures.]
So I can get stronger by killing things, Miriam thought to herself. A tinge of sadness ran down her. Although she often ate meat, some part of her had always wanted to be a vegetarian due to the innate cruelty of the raising and slaughtering process that animals underwent. She felt guilty every time she killed a bug in her house. But this wasn’t Earth. According to all religious and fantasy literature she had read, Hell was populated by demons and other incarnations of evil that loved hurting and killing innocent people. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. If demons are present in this world, and they truly are evil, then maybe they deserve to die. Yeah, that would probably make it easier. Or I’ll have to kill them in order to prevent them from killing me. Whatever happened, she would be prepared.
Standing up, she immediately noticed a difference in her body. She felt like she had gotten a good night of sleep that caused energy to flow through her veins. She didn’t exactly exercise regularly, but now she felt like she could run for an entire mile. She decided to try her new energy out and began sprinting down a relatively flat hill.
She ran faster and farther than she ever had before. When she had been a kid, she had always done poorly in gym class. She had a particularly vivid memory of her third-grade classmate Vivian mocking her for her inability to complete a single lap around the gym without falling or panting.
“What’s the matter, slowpoke?” she had said. “Are you too weak to run fast, you little snail?”
Who’s the slowpoke now, asshole? Miriam elatedly thought to herself. She was so giddy with the excitement of running that she hardly noticed her stamina points slowly, but surely, trickling down.
As soon as that number reached zero, she immediately felt fatigued. She stopped running and placed her hands on her knees. As she took deep breaths, her stamina slowly recovered back to its maximum of 6. This is amazing! I don’t know why I didn’t do more running or jogging back at home! When I get home, I’ll definitely exercise more!
It hit her then, for the first time. If I get home. She was trapped in a strange land with a strange voice and a strange system that turned experiences into words and numbers. There was a very high chance she would die in this strange land, especially if she didn’t find water and food soon.
She stood up straighter, forcing her way through the apprehension. “No!” she exclaimed. “I will go home!” As she stood up, resolve coursed through her soul. She reminded herself of the strength that she’d acquired in just the past two hours. She’d conquered the polluted air and stinging ground of this world. She’d conquer everything else it threw at her.
Now, let’s get out of these hills and find civilization, she thought. There’s gotta be a road or a river or… something. She started hiking in a random direction, the rusty sky and crimson sun staring down at her like an anteater eyeing an anthill. But they failed to notice that this time, the ant was determined to not get eaten.