Civilization

[ Here is your reward. ]

[ + 10 Agility

Bonus for completing a cursed challenge: +5 Strength, + 5 Vitality ]

Kingston did say that he got stats for the first challenge too, but I didn't expect that I would gain more than him. However, cursed challenged? Even the name had been changed to suit.

Name: Ian

Race: Human

Faith: 4256/10,000 ( Reach 10,000 to pick a Religion )

Happiness: 20  ( Happy ) 905/1000 ( Reach 1000 for a Golden Age )

Culture: 10 / 500 ( Reach 500 to choose the first Social Policy )

Health Points (HP): 30/60

Mana Points (MP): 15/15

Strength: 35

Vitality: 30

Intelligence: 30

Dexterity: 25

Agility: 45

Luck: 31

Skill: Enhanced Agility, Quickstep, Cleave, Charge, Stealth, Eye of the Roc (Passive)

I compare my stats to the monsters that I have fought and realize that I was getting closer to them. My Agility had surpassed the monsters, while my Strength and Vitality were catching up.

[ Are you ready for the next Challenge? Yes/No ]

I pick myself up and took some deep breaths, calming my nerves and focusing my mind. Once my breathing became more stable, I answered.

"Yes." - Ian

[ Second Challenge: Survive ]

I ready my knife and crouch down, remembering what Kingston had told me, however, I knew it was going to be different. The black space around me lights up, blinding me and forcing me to close my eyes, but even without my eyes, I could hear the surrounding space changing. I hear sand blowing and some of it even brushing against my skin. The rough coarse sand stings each time I feel the wind blow against me and as I open my eyes I start to see the new environment that I landed in.

A saturated reddish-yellow sea spanning as far as the eye could see. I could feel the stabbing heat piercing into my skin from above me. I have only been here for seconds, but my lips are already chapped, and I can feel my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth. I grip my knife as it burns the palm of my hand. No matter how much it hurts, I can't let it go, it's my only weapon.

I carefully look around, brushing my feet along the sand as I turn and look behind me. The sand below my feet starts to rumble and vibrate softly. I could see the individual grains of the sand shift back and forth. Whatever is coming, is coming in fast. I let out a breath and wait patiently for whatever it is to come. I glance around, taking in any movement, but I could only see the sand vibrating faster and harder.

A low rumbling starts to echo in my ears and the vibrations start to affect my body. I could hear my teeth chattering, and my arms and legs felt like I had pins and needles. I start to realize that the air in front of me was slowly becoming hazy as the sand starts to pick up with the wind. I feel thousands and thousands of tiny knives digging into my exposed skin. My eyes sting the longer I have them open, and I resort to squinting to protect my eyes.

With each breath, I feel my lungs getting stabbed, and I start to cough, although it was my mistake. With each cough, I breathe in more sand and I collapse to my knees in order to breathe properly. A sandstorm?

In the corner of my eye, the surrounding space starts to blur. More sand gets picked up, and I start to feel the pressure of the wind around me as the sand gets thicker and thicker to the point I couldn't see my hand when I stretch it out. I cover my mouth with my shirt and shield my eyes with my hand as I crouch up. I couldn't hear anything but the howling of the winds and the roaring of the sand.

My HP was slowly chipping away the longer I was in the sandstorm. To make matters worse, a sand spike appears below me, piercing through my right foot. I fall to the side as I try to take it out, only to find that the sand was as solid as a rock. I lift my knife up, hitting the sand spike with the handle, breaking the spike into smaller pieces, but my efforts were in vain. Sand spikes appear from the ground, stabbing into my thighs and calves, slowly approaching my stomach. I grit my teeth with each spike piercing through my body and with the last spike puncturing through my stomach, my HP went to 0.

[ You have died. ]

[ Live on then, Yet Hang: 3657:47:45 ]

I open my eyes again to the scorching sands, but instinctively place my hand on my stomach. The pain went by so fast that I remember it so vividly. I gulp down what little saliva I had left and try to think of a solution to this challenge.

I couldn't see any enemies, but they could see me.  They attacked via the sand, but that might have been a skill or magic since the sand harden after stabbing through me, or it hardened and then stabbed into me. My vision was blocked even though I had the Eye of the Roc, which meant that the sand was thick enough that it didn't allow me to see through it. The description said I would be able to see through fog, heavy rain, and hail, so I assumed I could see through a sandstorm as well, but contrary to my assumption I could not.

What am I surviving from? From Kingston's experience, he survived by waiting. Is it the same thing? But my HP slowly drops due to the sandstorm…

My thoughts run wild trying to think of a solution, but the sandstorm was brewing. The ground vibrates and the sand starts to get kicked up with the wind. I try to not stay still in this attempt and start running forward. It didn't matter if this worked or not, but I need to try different things in order to figure out the solution to this challenge.

I run forward as the sandstorm slowly becomes thicker and faster. My HP slowly depletes, and I take into account the time, knowing the spikes will appear any second now. I start dodging side to side, zigzagging forward trying to predict the spikes, and to my surprise after doing that a couple of times, the spikes start to attack me and I could see the way it forms.

As I ran around, I keep my eyes shielded with one hand and kept a close eye on the ground. The sand in the area where I was about to step started to move hastily in a spiral, and like an explosion it formed the rest of the spike, stabbing the air before solidifying. I awkwardly dodge the first spike by twisting my body in midair and immediately activate Enhanced Agility and Quickstep to dodge the next spike as it aimed for my other foot.

I never stop moving as spikes form from the ground one after the other, aiming for where I would step. It took a lot of physical strength to dodge each spike, since I have to focus onto everything on the ground to pick up the minute detail of the sand. At the same time, I have to make sure my eyes are protected because the moment I take my eyes off the ground, I get punctured in the feet, like a whale being harpooned. I couldn't move the moment I got attacked and the momentum I had built up recoils on me, making me fall and thus becoming prey for the spikes.

I die and I die. Over and over.

If my blood could be seen from previous runs, I would have covered the whole desert with it. I could feel my body slowing down after the 5th death. My body reacted slower than I would have wanted even though my mind is active, my body is starting to refuse to move.

I took a break on my 6th attempt, instead of moving around, I sat down and close my eyes. I know I would be sacrificing the curse timer, but I felt if I didn't take a break for a bit, my body would just break down. I took deep breaths and calmed my mind. I let my mind escape from the howling winds and roaring sands. Looking up at the burning sun as it slowly gets covered in reddish yellow clouds, then I saw it.

I didn't know if what I saw was real or if it was my mind playing tricks on me since I had been so out of it in this attempt. Hiding in the front of the solar rays was something small, brown, with 8 legs. A spider floating in the air, but was it real? The sandstorm had covered my vision before I could even confirm if what I saw was real.

I let myself die without any resistance, thinking only about that small figure that I saw in the sky. The moment I came back, I look up, searching for it, and lo and behold it was there. Floating in the sky is a small brown spider with furry legs and 8 emerald eyes. I couldn't believe my eyes. I blink and pinch myself, but it was real.

"That's it, isn't it?" - Ian

But then how do I get there? That thought crept into my mind as I stare at the spider as it waves its front legs around. The wind slowly picks up the more the spider moved its front legs. That small monster is commanding the winds and the spikes and yet even though I know this fact I couldn't do anything. It's up there and I'm down here.

My heart sinks as the helplessness sinks in.

I could only stare at the monster as it continues to produce a raging storm. My head wobbles around and my legs collapse. I sit on the ground, staring at the monster as it prepares the symphony of my death.

I close my eyes and lay on the ground, accepting it.

What else can I do?

I die once again.

[ You have died. ]

[ Live on then, Yet Hang: 3500:21:10 ]

[ Live on then, Yet Hang Activates. ]