(Book 1 Complete!) Side Quest [Isekai / LitRPG]

As Logan nervously shifted his palms against the rocky surface of the cave wall behind him, he recognized the familiar gritty texture of partially worn away stone. It was the same coarse feel he observed at the dead end section where he woke up. He cracked a look over his shoulder and squinted, simultaneously pulling out the blue tile as he held it closer for inspection; the torch slugs weren't near enough to attack him yet, but their light illuminated the wall for him.

"Well, this might be my lucky day," he said, grinning at the wide stretch of the coarse stone. Without hesitating, he went full force with two of the stones bundled under his arm, one in each hand, wasting no time at scrubbing away at the wall, just as he had at the dead end. He didn't bother holding the tile up for light, either. Unlike the narrow channel of coarse stone he first encountered, this stretch was a wide band. Once he started the first groove, his stone scrapers fell into a natural flow working.

The light from the approaching torch slugs lit up more of the tunnel, making the massive horned shadow loom larger on the wall.

He gripped the stones tighter and doubled his efforts. Come on…

Logan once worked as a dishwasher in a burger joint. He still remembered that first day, when his boss had stomped over to him, yanking a recently cleaned pot from the sanitized pile to thrust it in Logan's face.

"You call this clean, kid?" His manager plunked the pot down, then snatched the steel wool from Logan's hand and scrubbed. Chunks of burned food sticking to the pot's interior flew like shrapnel with each vigorous rub.

Logan was only thirteen, and his boss had intimidated him.

"This," said the burly man, "is clean. Use some elbow grease. I've got twenty other people I can give this job to."

Well, Logan had left the job eventually, but at least they hadn't fired him over poorly scrubbed pots. He was the best scrubber after that day. If anything, Logan was often the prime candidate his boss pointed to for a good work ethic.

He hadn't shared that story with his father until years later. His father just grunted and said he should've known better than to need the lesson at all.

"Come on, Logan. This is just like scrubbing caked grime off the pots at Sizzling Stan's." With renewed vigor, chunks of brittle stone dislodged in patches that would have made his former boss beam.

In place of Sizzling Stan's burger grease burning him, slugs launched their goop.

The first spatter hit his shoulder and fizzled with a loud hiss. It burned, but not as badly now with his Heat Resistance. He took a moment to glance up. Only one slug had made it near to him, so he aimed one stone in his hand and hurled it at the bright orange creature's amorphous head. It fell to his feet.

Critical Hit!
You have killed a Torch Slug (level 4)! Experience gained!

Logan smirked. "Sweet."

Error. Race unselected. Experience gain deferred.

Before Logan could digest the prompt, a quick, rhythmic chittering came from the shadow's direction. A barbed, black trident of glossy carapace emerged from the hidden corridor, glinting with orange-red light. When he analyzed, a label appeared above it, naming the monstrosity a Dreadmaw Beetle.

Logan groaned, returning to his task. The name alone was enough to keep him from wasting time reading a full analysis. He only had a few more stones, and he could soldier through a little burning mucus. He figured his chances of breaking through the stone were higher if he poured his all while enduring the attacks of the two new slugs that had reached him, rather than losing valuable excavation time by downing them just for something worse to reach him.

Spittle flew from his teeth as he carved at the stone, straining to ignore the two hot, wet slaps that threatened to send him to his knees. At the fifth attack, he was gasping heavily, and a third slug had joined, with the bulk right behind. In his periphery, a massive black shape blotted out the deeper cavern's glow, but Logan feared glancing that way would give him a heart attack.

Then he saw the faint ray of light shine through the loosened stone.

"Yes!" His voice was hoarse and sent him coughing, so he shut his mouth.

If he had invested his determination in getting through the wall before, now he was flying at it with a fury. This was life or death, after all.

With the one patch exposed, it became simple work to break a sizeable chunk off. But his fingers were raw from digging with the sharpened stone chunks. He growled and tossed the stones aside, formed a fist, and then punched as hard as he could through the stone near the weakened segment. The force sent his whole body following as he tumbled through an opening into a refreshingly cool chamber.

Rock dust filtered through the air, and he hacked as he tried to breathe it in after expending himself. He rose to his feet and clasped his elbow over his mouth to act as a crude air filter. Sweat streaks carried blood, grit, and half-dried slug substrate down his biceps and pooled into his elbow crease. The bitter taste of the mixture made him gag.

"Stupid slimeballs," he shouted through the fresh opening when he had regained his breath enough. He watched the hole warily to confirm the slugs didn't follow him inside this haven.

They didn't but he tensed when the deadly trident horn popped into view. It clacked at the open breach, filling Logan's current chamber with echoes. It stayed there too long for his liking, Logan fearing it might widen the breach and enter, before it finally shambled by. That beetle was as large as a tiger.

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When satisfied the menacing beetle wasn't coming back and the sticky lumps were too dumb to chase him, he finally faced the rest of the inner chamber. His jaw dropped.

Gray cave moss hung in huge clusters, along with a green moss and vivid purple flowers. The green moss's unoriginal name was Green Cave Moss, and it apparently boosted stamina regeneration rates. The purple Thalara's Mercy flower held an oil vital to bleed-stopping potions.

Like actual potions.

Sunlight filtered in five different rays, all at various slants and differing thicknesses. This place was beautiful.

Hidden Objective Discovered: Unearth the Kalashi Ceremonial Chamber.
Reward: (1) Ceremonial Cornucopia.

"Who would come all the way here for some ceremonies?" He immediately grabbed what he could of both types of moss and a few flowers, but most of the plantlife was out of reach.

One of the larger sunbeams, with freshly churned rock dust swirling languidly in its light, caught Logan's eye. It rested on a stone slab, atop which sat a full-on spiraled horn, overflowing with grapes, apples, seared steak, and pretty much everything he would expect to see in a Baroque-style painting, plus more. I don't think I've ever seen meat in those paintings. He also doubted the meat was Nebraska-fed beef in a place like this.

That wasn't the only altar, either. Seven other wide slabs bore similar bounties, although only the first one contained food.

Analyze.

Bounty of the Feast
Produces (1) Invigorating Meal every 24 hours.
+5 Vitality, +5 Endurance
Requires: Life Affinity.

"Huh." The mere sight of food made Logan salivate. How long had it been since last night's dinner, which had been a microwaved Cup O' Noodles and a string cheese. The sunbeams meant it was still daytime, and it couldn't have been an entire day since he encountered the first torch slugs. But he wagered it was later afternoon of the same day, if not early evening. He could certainly eat his fair share of the fruit, even if he avoided the questionable meat.

First, though, he wanted to check the other options. Logan focused on the greater collection of items, and tags appeared above each altar. The two nearest cornucopia labels identified them as Bounty of Famine and Bounty of Silence.

One at a time, he checked them out.

Bounty of Famine
When activated, gain +15 to Willpower, +10 to Endurance, +10 to Strength for 6 hours once a day. Contact with an enemy will inflict vertigo for disadvantages on blocking.

Bounty of Silence
Improves meditation effectiveness by 1.5x. Abilities requiring concentration no longer require singular focus, although costs incurred will increase by 1.5x.

Analyze is level 5!

The differences between all three options left Logan scratching his head. The Feast option sounded most appealing to his grumbling stomach, but what did it mean that it required the Life affinity?

He focused on his status again, and this time noticed an Affinity spot, although the display listed it as Unassigned. He was fairly certain that hadn't been there last time. "Perhaps things show up as they become relevant?" That made sense from some of the video games he had played.

That didn't draw him any more toward the Feast option, though. If anything, it made him more hesitant. He currently had no affinity, and no idea how to get the Life one specifically. Could he still receive the invigorating meal benefit without it?

And as good as Life sounded right now, he didn't know what else affinities did. His status didn't give him detail when he tried to drill deeper. Would he be locking himself into something he couldn't change later? The other bounties didn't have affinity requirements, and seemed less restrictive.

The Famine option provided some better stat bonuses, some of which would over double his base attributes. But they were only temporary, and if he was currently level 0, those attributes would definitely go up. Would a hefty daily temporary increase now be worth it if it meant little in the long run? Was this even a hefty increase? He figured the Famine option's Vertigo affliction would make for some interesting attack tactics, but it appeared limited to touch. What if he needed something ranged? The slugs outside were a prime example of the range limitations.

At face value, the Silence option seemed the least flashy. But the longer he looked at it, he reconsidered his first impression's accuracy. A 1.5x multiplier would scale over time, and it sounded like it lifted some generic restriction as well. It might prove far more invaluable, assuming meditation was a worthwhile skill… if it was a skill at all. It didn't show up on his status page, but perhaps he just needed to learn it.

He skimmed the other bounties: Iron, Ash, Symphony, Rain, and Radiance.

"Ash sounds cool. Let's check it out."

Bounty of Ash
Fire spells become 3x more powerful if Fire spells are the only learned spell type.

"I knew it! Spells… Awesome." He twirled his finger through the air and imagined himself shooting death beams. "Good to know they have types, too. But if I get some, I don't want to limit myself to just Fire-typed ones."

Bounty of Iron granted a percentage increase to Endurance and allowed somebody to mine and craft ironware without requiring tools—neither to extract the ore or forge it, it seemed. While Logan was curious what that would look like, he knew there were far superior metals out there beyond iron.

Bounty of Rain didn't seem to do much beyond being able to make it rain, and while that might help against torch slugs, it seemed pretty niche otherwise. Bounty of Radiance, despite its cool name, seemed to summon sunshine and make undead monsters flee as long as it was summoned by a living being.

"Undead… gross."

The last was Bounty of Symphony. As soon as he Analyzed the final cornucopia, though, a small countdown timer appeared, giving him 30 seconds.

"Are you kidding me? Is that to make my choice?"

The timer kept ticking, so he quickly checked out the details, and it was all about heightening awareness and improving coordination with allies, with a limitation to the Balance School.

He added Schools to the list of things he didn't understand, but easily removed the bounty as a viable option for the same reason of not wanting to be locked into something he might regret down the line. The fact it mentioned allies gave him hope he could indeed find someone who knew more about what was going on than he did.

14…
13…

He really didn't think he had much of an option. The Bounty of Famine and Bounty of Silence were the two most logical to him and what he could foresee for himself. But Famine might not be as generically useful as he increased his attributes.

4…
3…
2…

Congratulations! You have chosen the Bounty of Silence!
Words may cause harm, but not if you don't hear them.
Meditation effectiveness is 1.5x stronger. Abilities requiring concentration no longer require singular focus, although costs incurred will increase by 1.5x.

Meditate skill not found. Initializing…

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill!
Meditate (Uncommon), level 1!
+2 to Perception, +2 to Willpower
Amidst chaos, you have discovered the art of sitting still and pretending everything's fine. With practice, you might even believe it. For now, focus on not falling asleep. Improves regeneration rates while in meditative stasis. May not be used while in combat.

The floor shook the moment he gained the skill, and a thrill crept into his chest as a pleasant tingle buzzed in his brain.

When the exhilarating, heady rush subsided, though, he noticed the floor still trembled.

"Uh…"

Then he realized that wasn't the only thing moving. The slab surface that had held the Bounty of Silence was now empty. Where the massive cornucopia overflowing with feathers had gone, he didn't know. But a vapor rose from the depths of what now looked less like an altar and more like an opening crypt.

Logan stumbled back as a bony hand emerged from it, dust popping off knuckles clad in desiccated skin.