Season 2: Chapter 177: Record and Memory (1)
Thump.
Almond fell somewhere and landed on his back.
[Abyss - 2nd Floor]
Only the vaguely flickering text indicated that this place was the next level. Utter darkness surrounded him.
While the upper level was dark, this place was even more so. It felt devoid of light as if there was no sky. Only a black aura could be seen when looking up.
Thud. Thud.
Almond stood up and dusted the dirt off his clothes.
"It seems we've made it to the next level."
He looked around and saw a forest just as dense and dark as before. However, there were only tree trunks and no leaves.
'The leaves are obscured by those black clouds above.'
It wasn't that there were no leaves, but they couldn’t be seen from here.
'Ah, right.'
Suddenly, a fact crossed his mind.
Whoosh!
Almond immediately leaped toward the bushes and drew his bow. The blue bow vibrated slightly, ready to be fired at any moment.
Whoosh...!
Almond remained vigilant and scanned his surroundings.
'They should be around here.'
He had momentarily forgotten that Swift's party also crossed over to this level. They would undoubtedly aim for his life.
Almond continued to look around in silence.
'What? Why aren't they here?’
The chat overflowed with mockery. Almond felt perplexed when a sentence suddenly came to mind.
[Everyone starts as far away from each other as possible.]
Almond let down his bow, realizing the fact that this sentence was apparently the rule for this level.
'We're placed at the maximum distance apart.'
Perhaps these measures were taken to prevent immediate slaughter upon arrival on the second level.
'Then Luna is far away too.'
They had agreed to stick together, but Luna would also be far away. He felt the need to find her.
'Is it necessary?'
He wasn’t sure if it was truly required. Choosing wrong could lead to getting killed and her combat abilities weren't exactly helpful.
"What should we do now?" Almond asked the viewers.
The viewers suggested hunting and leveling up until the rules were clear.
— Just farm until something comes up
— Level up
— You’ve gotta get stronger
Indeed, becoming stronger was obvious with unpredictable rules potentially emerging.
'Become stronger...'
He remembered that runes could be used to enhance weapons. However, Almond had something else to do first.
"Should we try deciphering the runes now?"
The task at hand was to decipher them. After deciphering the runes, investing everything into weapon enhancement would significantly increase his strength.
With that thought, he reached into his pocket only to find...
"Huh? There's something else here?"
Rustle.
He felt something else in his pocket. It felt like a long piece of paper.
[Contracted Skill Scroll - Shadow Sword Technique]
— ???
— Oh
— Got it
— What is this?
"What's this?"
He read the description.
[A scroll inscribed with a skill pre-contracted with a deity. Has a low probability of appearing in the abyss. Use by tearing the scroll.]
It seemed tearing the scroll would grant him the skill without any penalty. Why was such a great item just sitting in his pocket?
— Oh? It seems you can steal skills
— Shadow Sword technique, nice
— You killed him and stole it
"Ah. I stole it."
The Shadow Sword technique was the ninja's skill. By killing him, his skill transferred to Almond.
"So it was that kind of game?"
To think you could steal skills by killing someone. This was probably why Swift tried his best not to expose his skills knowing he had skills that would make him a target.
'It wouldn't hurt to learn it.'
Having a skill versus not having one made a big difference.
Almond immediately tore the contracted skill scroll.
Riiip.
[You have acquired the contracted skill!]
Along with this notification, a detailed description of the skill appeared.
[Shadow Sword Technique]
The ability to link with a sword and freely control it in the air, assuming there is only one sword. Consumes 5 mana per second.
The consumption will increase with more swords.
As he read further, something seemed odd.
"Ah, but I use a bow..."
— LOL
— Oh right
— Useless then?
The skill was good, but it didn’t match Almond's weapon. More than just this notification appeared.
Ding.
Ding.
Several more notifications popped up.
[You have felt mana for the first time!]
[You can control approximately 300 mana!]
He felt mana for the first time. Learning the skill also made him aware of mana, but the chat grew noisy.
— 300???
— What, starting with 300? LOL
— Was he a mage?
While he didn't know how much three hundred mana was, the viewers’ reaction suggested it was a considerable amount.
Notifications continued to appear.
Ding!
[Please note! The deeper the abyss, the more total mana you have!]
[Please note! Killing participants will absorb some of their mana!]
[Please note! Increasing your level also increases your mana capacity!]
His level was high and he had killed quite a few participants.
'Killing to gain mana... just like Raina's battlefield.'
This setting was also seen in Raina's story mode. It seemed similar mechanisms were at play here.
"Now that I think about it, I might become a target for anyone wanting to steal this skill."
— True that
— Do NPCs even know about that?
— Right
[UncleBen has donated 5,000 won]
[With great power comes great responsibility]
A humorous voice recited the proverb, albeit with some mismatch.
"I don't have a sword, so I've gained the responsibility without any perks."
— LOL
— Responsibility without pleasure LOL
— The weight of being the head of the family
Another donation questioning him came in.
[Froggy has donated 1,000 won.]
[Why start reading the descriptions all of a sudden?]
— LOL
— Almond weeping
— That's because of the mission window, you'll know~
— Desperately trying not to die LOL
Someone pointed out that Almond started reading descriptions after he received the mission to clear the story mode without dying.
"You told me to read the descriptions," Almond smoothly brushed it off.
"Anyway, I'll start with enhancement first since I've become a target now."
He took out the runes he had obtained from killing the woodslasher.
[Copy Rune - Lika]
[Explosion Rune - Ahemors]
They had long letters and short letters. Now was the opportunity to decipher them with everyone far apart.
"Let's start with the easy one…”
Babam!
[Vivik has donated a whopping 100,000 won!]
[Enjoying the stream haha. That explosion rune looks good.]
"... Staying alive comes first, so I can’t shoot myself. I'll start with the long one. Thank you for your donation, Vivik."
— LOL no curve shot
— No getting hit LOL
— The master of curve shots
Almond naturally picked up the explosion rune Ahemors.
"Let's see..."
First, the alphabet of Ahemors was A-H-E-M-O-R-S. Fortunately, the alphabet representation was written out. It would have been difficult to spell out such ambiguous sounds.
Almond started to apply the rune letters.
"S, R, E… These were already there..."
Having deciphered the rune letters of Winferestin, he already knew the shape of the rune letter for S.
"I found the corresponding ones."
He matched the other rune letters one by one, finding all their corresponding letters in the alphabet.
Now, it was just a matter of finding what these letters could reveal about his body.
"Phew. This is going to take a while."
How long had it been? Almond managed to find this among the sentences on his body.
[M■ST FIN■ ■■NA]
[MEMORIES ■EE■ FA■IN■] [■I■■ SWIFT]
Although much was still missing, he had filled quite a bit in.
One notable thing was Swift's name.
'It looks like there's something in front of Swift’s name too. First name and last name?'
Swift was commonly used as a last name in North America. The part in front was likely a first name. With a bit more searching, he could find out the first name.
'There are words that are completely found.'
The biggest gain here was undoubtedly completing the word memories. It would be great to discover something new based on this word.
'What can I infer from this?'
Almond tried to figure out the remaining letters based on what he already knew.
'Memories...'
MEMORIES ■EE■ FA■IN■
The sentence was almost complete and it didn't seem like there was room for any more nouns. He could figure it out.
'What could come after Memories that has ee?'
There weren't many words that could follow a noun and included ee. In fact, it was determined already.
"Keep!"
That had to be it.
Memories Keep FA■IN■
He completed the second word. It meant memories kept continuing to do something. Now, he needed to figure out what that was. What kept happening to memories?
Considering the world of LIL was all interconnected, Almond recalled a lot of things.
"Falling?"
He would have known right away if it had two Ls. The letter count didn't match, so that wasn't the answer. What did it even mean for memories to fall?
"Ah?"
Yes, memories. Almond suddenly had a flash of insight.
"Memories..."
He cautiously filled in the blanks.
"... Disappear."
Fading. He completed the sentence.
Memories Keep Fading
Memories continued to disappear. Both the letter count and the meaning made sense.
— Amazing...
— What's with this nutcracker!?
— Who is this guy!?
— Report for cheating, please.
— Looks like a report case LOL
The chat raced up at the rare sight of Almond using his brain.
— Wow LOL
— So he was just more comfortable solving things physically!?
— Stop the backdoor advertising, nut!
Almond was about to respond with a satisfied smile when...
Thump!
"!?"
A sound made his heart drop, the letters started to glow, and...
[Accessing memories.]
His vision turned white.
***
[Beginner Tip: Memories are not information, but interpretations. Thinking that every game loss is due to your teammates is a similar mistake!]