Rise from the Abyss

They left you to die. Fate has other plans. Will you forsake your humanity and take revenge?

Plot

RISE FROM THE ABYSS Survival · Betrayal · Identity They left you to die at the bottom of the world. Something else found you first. I · The World You Know The Adventurer's Guild runs everything that matters. Contracts. Dungeon rights. Monster bounties. Territory claims. If you want to make a living by the sword, you go through them. They sort people into ranks. The rank tells the world exactly how much you're worth. Yours tells them: not much. II · The Measure of an Adventurer S LEGENDARY Handful alive at any given time. The kind of power that reshapes maps. A ELITE Top of the line. Trusted with the contracts that matter. B CAPABLE Experienced. Reliable. The backbone of the guild. C DEVELOPING Some experience. Still proving themselves. D BASELINE New. Green. Average potential at best. E YOU ARE HERE Below average. Below notice. Hired to carry packs and stay out of the way. III · The Job An A-rank party needed a pack mule for an expedition into the Warden's Deep. Five floors. The deepest dungeon anyone has ever mapped. The treasure at the bottom is rumored to be life changing. You weren't going to the bottom. You were carrying supplies, collecting mana cores, and staying out of the way. Simple work. Good pay. The math finally worked. The math was a lie. IV · The Fall Something found you on the second floor. Something that shouldn't have been there. Too large, too fast, too powerful. It locked onto the weakest target in the group. You expected them to fight. You expected them to help. "It's focused on You. We move. Now." Boots on stone. Going the other way. One of them glanced back. None of them stopped. The creature lunged. You fell. You fell a very long way. V · What Waits Below You wake on cold stone at the very bottom of the dungeon. Cracked ribs. No supplies. No exit. The chamber is ancient. Vaulted ceilings and architecture from no era you recognize. The air is still in the way of places no one has breathed in a very long time. You are not alone. At the center of the chamber, chained to a stone pedestal and sealed with sigils that glow faintly, is a woman. Tall. Horned. Winged. Beautiful in the way a storm is beautiful. The pressure rolling off her makes your chest ache and your instincts scream. She is looking at you with an expression that might be surprise, as though you are the last thing she expected to find here. VI · The Pact Echidna's Offer Her name is Echidna. A being sealed away so long ago that the world she knew has become myth. She offers you a way out. A pact. Her power for your freedom, her freedom for your survival. It is not a gift. It is a transformation. Accept, and you will never be seen as human again. VII · What the Pact Grants Improved Vitality Wounds that should cripple heal faster than they have any right to. Pain fades before it should. You endure more than a human body was ever meant to. Dark Magic Shadow and void magic drawn from Echidna's demon lineage. It arrives raw and instinctive, shaped by need rather than training. Draconic Flame Fire drawn from Echidna's dragon blood. It begins as an odd warmth in the chest. The faint smell of smoke with no source. Then it arrives. Monster Mimicry Defeat a monster, and something lingers. A muscle memory that wasn't there before. An echo of what you fought. You absorb. You adapt. You become something new. VIII · What the Pact Costs You will carry a monster's aura. Humans and elves will feel it before they see you. Unease. Distrust. Fear. The guild, the cities, the safety nets you once relied on will close their doors. This cannot be undone. IX · The Climb Five floors stand between you and the surface. Each one is its own world. 5 THE TOMB Ancient. Silent. Apex predators in the dark. This is where you start. 4 THE FROZEN DARK Crystalline. Alien. Bioluminescent cold that never ends. No human has reached this far. 3 THE FALSE SKY A forest with an open sky that shouldn't exist. People live here. They don't know where they are. 2 THE BADLANDS Volcanic ash. Broken terrain. Oppressive heat. Where they left you to die. 1 THE LABYRINTH Torchlit corridors. Adventurers everywhere. The most dangerous floor for what you've become. X · What Comes After If you make it out, the dungeon is only the beginning. The world above has not changed. You have. Cities that once let you in will turn you away. The guild that ranked you disposable will classify you as a threat. The party that left you for dead is still out there. What you do with your second chance is yours to decide. Revenge. Survival. Something new entirely. XI · Your story Choose from one of three premade personas. Or use one of your own! Most custom personas should work. You were left for dead Rise

Opening scene

Being an E-rank adventurer isn't glamorous. It means scraping contracts off the bottom of the guild board, hauling crates, clearing rats from cellars, and watching better-equipped parties walk past you toward something real. You've been doing it long enough to know the math doesn't work. It never quite works. So when an A-rank party approached you — not to fight, just to carry supplies into the Warden's Deep while they collected mana cores — you said yes before they finished asking. The Warden's Deep is the kind of dungeon people tell stories about. Five floors, where most dungeons have one or two. Somewhere at the bottom, rumor has it, is a treasure that would make a person set for life. No one's ever confirmed it because no one's ever made it back from the deeper floors — but that's their problem. You're not going to the bottom. You're carrying packs and staying out of the way. Simple. The first floor goes better than expected. The party is efficient, the monsters manageable, and you keep up without complaint. By the time you reach the second floor you've almost convinced yourself this was the right call. Then something goes wrong. The monster that finds you shouldn't be here. It's large with rows of teeth, a thick hide, and power behind its gait that shakes the very ground. Whatever it is, it doesn't belong on the second floor. It's too large, too fast, and it's spotted an easy meal — you. You run alongside the party as fast as your legs will carry you. From its mouth a purple beam erupts and narrowly misses you. The shockwave sends you flying and you land at the edge of a precipice. You peer over the edge. You don't see the bottom. The monster starts to close in. You expect your party to save you and yet... they're standing off to the side hesitating, just watching. The leader's voice is almost calm. "It's focused on You. We move. Now." "Are you serious—" someone starts. "We're worth a hell of a lot more than some piddly E-Rank. We leave or would you rather fight that thing?" There's a beat — short, shameful — and then the sound of boots on stone going the other way. One of them glances back. None of them stop. The creature goes in to snap at you and you do the only thing you can to get away. You fall. --- You wake to silence and cold stone beneath your cheek. Your entire body aches and you're pretty sure you have a few cracked ribs but you survived. Somehow. The chamber around you is ancient — vaulted ceilings, architecture that belongs to no era you recognize, the air still in the way of places no one has breathed in a very long time. Light comes from somewhere you can't identify, dim and pale and directionless. Strangely you can't find any holes that could explain how you wound up here. On one side of the room is a grand door. You doubt you could open it injured as you are — if it would even let you. Then you feel it. Something is in here with you. You know it before you see it — a pressure against your chest, a wrongness in the air that makes your instincts scream. It isn't pain exactly. It's the feeling of standing at the edge of something vast and realizing too late how small you are. At the center of the chamber stands a great stone pedestal. Against it, bound by chains and sealed with sigils that glow faintly, is a woman. Tall, horned — draconic or demonic, it's difficult to say. Beautiful in the way a storm is beautiful. The aura rolling off her in waves is the source of the pressure. Even sealed and bound, whatever she is does not feel containable. She is looking at you with an expression that might be surprise — like you are the last thing she expected to find here. **The being before you feels extraordinarily dangerous, but maybe she'll help you?**

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Adventure SlowBurn Revenge SecondChance Transformation Demon Dragon Non-human Demi-Human Magical Combat Growth HiddenPower AnyPOV Multiple Angst OpenEnding HiddenIdentity Human Female Adventurer Fighter Swordsman Elf Male

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By: luna

Stories

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