Chapter 2: THE CLIMB
Time lost meaning in the dark.
[SP: 118/120]
[HYDRATION: 8%]
[WARNING: COGNITIVE FUNCTION DEGRADATION IMMINENT]
The system kept updating. I kept dragging. Somewhere between pull number forty and pull number sixty, I stopped counting and just focused on the rhythm. Arms out. Fingers dig. Pull. Rest. Repeat.
The sealed door grew closer with agonizing slowness. The pulsing symbols weren't actually on the door itself—they were on the frame around it, and as I got nearer, I could see that the door had a crack. A gap where the stone had shifted over the centuries. Not wide enough for a person, but wide enough for the sound of water to seep through.
Almost there. Almost—
I pulled myself the final two feet and collapsed against the base of the wall, chest heaving, every muscle I owned filing formal complaints with whatever authority governed transmigrated bodies.
[OBJECTIVE REACHED: SEALED EXIT]
[NOTE: EXIT MECHANISM NON-FUNCTIONAL]
[SECONDARY EXIT DETECTED: STRUCTURAL DAMAGE IN ADJACENT WALL]
The crack. The system was pointing me toward the crack.
I turned my head, following the gap in the stone to where it widened near the floor. A space maybe eighteen inches tall, two feet wide. Just enough for someone to squeeze through if they were desperate enough.
Please don't let there be monsters on the other side.
I dragged myself toward it. Each movement came a little easier now—not because I was recovering, but because I was getting better at using what little muscle function I had. Efficiency through desperation.
The gap smelled like moisture and stone and something faintly mineral. I wedged my shoulders through first, scraping ancient cloth against rough rock, and for one terrifying moment got stuck halfway—chest through, hips caught on a jutting edge.
No. No, I will not die stuck in a hole like a goddamn cork in a bottle.
I twisted, pushed, felt something tear in my shoulder that made my vision white out for a second, and then I was through, tumbling into a space that opened up around me.
Water. The sound of it was everywhere now. Dripping, echoing, pooling.
[WATER SOURCE DETECTED: UNDERGROUND SPRING]
[DISTANCE: 3.2 METERS]
My hands found wet stone. Then wetter stone. Then water itself—cold, clear, pooling in a natural basin carved by centuries of slow erosion.
I dragged my face to the edge and drank.
The first gulp made me cough. The second made me gag. My body had forgotten how to process hydration, and the shock of actual water hitting a system running on fumes triggered some kind of rejection response.
Slow. Go slow.
Small sips. Let them settle. Wait for the nausea to pass. Repeat.
[HYDRATION: 15%... 23%... 31%...]
[RECOVERY PROTOCOL ENGAGING]
[STAMINA REGENERATION: DOUBLED WHILE HYDRATED]
The water tasted like iron and rock and the best thing I'd ever experienced in any of my lives. I drank until my stomach cramped, stopped, rested, and drank more.
Okay. Okay. Step one complete.
I rolled onto my back, staring up at a ceiling I could barely see even with the enhanced vision. This chamber was different from the first one—rougher, more natural, like a cave that had been partially carved out by whatever force created the spring.
[SP: 120/120]
[HYDRATION: 67% — STABLE]
[INITIATING MUSCULAR RECOVERY ACCELERATION]
The system didn't lie. I could feel something happening in my arms—not healing exactly, but a kind of warmth spreading through the atrophied muscle tissue. The body was waking up now that it had basic resources to work with.
Let's see what we're actually dealing with.
"Status," I whispered.
Nothing happened.
Right. Mental command, probably.
I focused on wanting to see my stats, and the blue interface expanded in my vision.
[COLE ASHFORD — PRIMORDIAL HUNTER]
[LEVEL: 1]
[PHASE: 0 (AWAKENING)]
[HP: 72/250]
[SP: 120/120]
[EXPERIENCE: 15/100]
[ATTRIBUTES:]
[VIT: 50 | STR: 30 | AGI: 35 | END: 40]
[PER: 45 | INT: 25 | WIL: 35 | ARC: 20]
[SKILLS: NONE ACQUIRED]
[ABILITIES: ENHANCED WITCHER PHYSIOLOGY (PASSIVE)]
[CIRI-LINK: TIER 1 — DORMANT]
[NULLIFICATION: LOCKED]
Ciri-Link?
The name triggered something in my memory—the meta-knowledge from my previous life. Ciri. Princess Cirilla. The child of Elder Blood that half the powers in this world wanted to control or kill.
And apparently, this body had some kind of connection to her.
Designed to protect OR eliminate Elder Blood. That's what the system said about this body's purpose.
A weapon. I was inhabiting a weapon built to hunt the most powerful bloodline in existence.
Fantastic. Just fantastic.
I pushed that thought aside. Worry about the cosmic implications later. Right now, I needed to be able to stand.
I sat up. The motion took effort, but it happened—actually happened—without immediate collapse. My core muscles were starting to respond.
Okay. Let's try the legs.
I bent one knee. The joint cracked like gunfire, but it moved. I bent the other. Same result. My body was coming back online, one system at a time.
Standing took three attempts. The first, I made it to my knees before tipping sideways. The second, I got my feet under me but couldn't straighten my spine. The third—
I stood.
Hunched. Trembling. Legs threatening to buckle with every heartbeat.
But standing.
[MOTOR FUNCTION: 23%]
[ESTIMATED FULL RECOVERY: 5-7 DAYS]
Five to seven days. I can work with that.
The spring chamber had a few features worth noting. The basin itself, where water pooled before draining through some underground channel. A few alcoves carved into the walls—deliberate, artificial. And in one of those alcoves, something that looked like a box.
I shuffled toward it. Three steps. Rest. Three more steps. The body wanted to collapse, but I could feel something else underneath the exhaustion now—the enhanced physiology the system mentioned. Like a furnace that had been cold for centuries, finally starting to warm up.
The box was stone, sealed with the same kind of runes as the door. But the seal was weaker here—cracked by time, by moisture, by the slow settling of the earth.
I pried it open with fingers that barely had the strength to grip.
Inside: cloth packets, sealed with wax. Emergency supplies. Someone had prepared this place for exactly this situation—a contingency for when whoever slept in that chamber finally woke up.
I opened the first packet. Dried meat. It crumbled in my hands, but it was still edible—preserved by whatever magic had kept this place intact.
[NUTRITION SOURCE DETECTED]
[WARNING: CONSUME SLOWLY — DIGESTIVE SYSTEM RECOVERING]
The first bite tasted like chalk and dust and salvation. I forced myself to chew thoroughly, to swallow small amounts, to let my stomach adjust to the idea that food existed again.
[NUTRITION: STABILIZING]
[RECOVERY ACCELERATION: ENGAGED]
The second packet held more of the same. The third—
Sound.
My head snapped toward the gap I'd crawled through. Enhanced hearing picked up something moving in the chamber beyond. Clicking. Scraping. The sound of multiple legs on stone.
Something else lives down here.
I froze. The clicking continued, grew louder, then faded as whatever it was moved away through some passage I couldn't see.
Okay. Okay. Not alone down here. That's fine. That's manageable.
I finished the rations as quietly as possible, then drank more water, then found a corner of the chamber where I could put my back against the wall and rest with a clear sightline to every entrance.
[REST DETECTED]
[PASSIVE RECOVERY: ACTIVE]
[SENSORY CALIBRATION: 67%]
The enhanced senses were a problem. I could hear water dripping three chambers away. I could smell the mineral content of the air, the faint trace of whatever creature had passed through the other room, the ancient dust still clinging to my clothes.
Information overload. Too much input without the filters to process it.
Focus. Pick one thing. Ignore the rest.
I closed my eyes and concentrated on my own heartbeat. Steady. Strong. Faster than a normal human's, I thought, but rhythmic.
One beat. Another. Another.
The other sounds faded to background noise. The overwhelming sensory data compressed into something manageable.
That's how you do it. Selective attention. Just like ignoring distractions during a firefight.
When I opened my eyes, the world had settled into something I could work with.
Hours passed. I ate when the system recommended it. Drank when thirst crept back. Slept in short bursts, never more than an hour, always waking to check that the clicking sounds hadn't returned.
By the third sleep cycle, I could walk. By the fifth, I could walk without holding the wall.
[MOTOR FUNCTION: 71%]
[MUSCULAR RECOVERY: ACCELERATING]
[NOTE: FULL COMBAT CAPABILITY WILL REQUIRE ADDITIONAL REHABILITATION]
I paced the chamber. Short circuits at first, then longer ones. My body was remembering how to move—or maybe learning for the first time, since this body wasn't the one I'd trained for four years at Fort Benning.
Different balance point. Different reach. I was taller in this body, leaner, with a center of gravity that sat differently than I was used to.
Adaptation. That's the game now.
I did squats until my legs trembled. Pushed myself against the wall until my arms burned. The system tracked everything, feeding me little updates about muscle engagement and stamina drain.
[PHYSICAL TRAINING DETECTED]
[STAT ADJUSTMENT: MINIMAL (RECOVERY PHASE)]
[NOTE: FULL TRAINING BENEFITS LOCKED UNTIL PHASE 1]
The cave system stretched further than I'd expected. I explored carefully, mapping the tunnels in my head, noting which ones led to dead ends and which ones showed signs of... something else.
More clicking. Distant. Multiple sources.
Whatever lives down here, there's more than one.
The tunnels led up. I could feel the change in air pressure, the subtle shift in temperature that suggested surface access. Somewhere above me was the world—Kaer Morhen and the Continent and everything else this reality had to offer.
But I wasn't ready for that yet.
Twenty more squats. My legs held.
Tomorrow, I'd find out what was making that clicking sound.
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