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Chapter 3 - James the magician

  James woke up in agony, feeling like molten lava was running through his veins. In pain and still absolutely confused by his surroundings, he tried to sit up, only to fall back down as he realized he still couldn’t move his right arm.

  Now in even more misery than before, he decided to just lay there for a while until the pain receded enough for him to move again. A few minutes later and finally seated, James recalled the events of the previous day.

  So everything was real after all. I was half expecting to wake up back at home, this just having been a particularly bad nightmare. he thought while looking at his shoulder. Spotting that his improvised bandage got loose at some point during his nap, he carefully took it off. Glancing at the disturbing wound that was hidden below it, he was startled to notice that it seemed slightly smaller than before.

  How did that happen? he asked himself. That shouldn’t be possible. Did I accidentally sleep for a whole goddamned week?

  Giving it another thought James guessed that it probably was something to do with the System. After using his 11 points in intelligence for once he finally remembered the fact that his vitality was most definitely a few points higher than when he arrived.

  So vitality increases my natural health regeneration. he concluded. That’s really helpful and all, but it’ll probably still take a few weeks till I can move that arm again.

  Not exactly fancying the idea of hunting with only one arm, James instead decided to explore his temporary home a bit more, but not before eating his mossy breakfast. While walking around he realized that the cave was nearly perfectly round, had a fixed width and didn't have any tunnels leading away from it. This led to his assumption, that some monster probably created this space as a nest, possibly even the Spiked Terror. A few minutes of walking later, he noticed that it was slowly getting darker and darker the further he went, the purple moss gradually losing its glow.

  I definitely shouldn’t walk any further. James mused as he reached a point, where he could barely see anything, the purplish light having nearly dissipated. Just as he was about to turn around, he spotted an orange light in the distance. Unsure whether that was just some more weird moss or some glowing monster, he stood as still as he could while trying to look for movement or any noises that would hint at danger.

  Probably not a monster. He concluded after a few minutes of absolute silence. Hoping he was right, James steeled himself to take a closer look as he didn’t want to share a cave with potential monsters that might eat him in his sleep.

  Very careful to not make any noise, James started slowly sneaking closer, a new sharp rock in his left hand. Ten agonizingly long minutes in complete darkness later, he could finally make out the source of the light. In the middle of the cave, hovering at the height of his head was an orange orb the size of a football, illuminating its surroundings.

  Relieved that he didn’t have to fight any new monstrosity, but still cautious, he made his way towards it. Spotting no immediate danger, he decided to take a closer look.

  Why is there a perfectly spherical orb just floating around in this random cave? James questioned. Maybe the Terror was staying in here because of this? It might be some ancient magical object, that will allow me to become a powerful mage or something.

  Like a complete moron and proving that contrary to his beliefs, intelligence does not decide how smart one is, he touched the orb with his hand. Triggered by that action, two blue boxes decided to surprise him, causing James to jerk back from shock, tumbling back a few steps and taking his arm off the glowing orb.

  

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