WORD Battle (ALPHA) - Swamp Level

It's good, but remember, you are not affected by poison and thus you don't have to worry about having 'ck' in your story.

 

He/She/They has/have revised it.

I know, but I want to take on the challenge regardless.
Lumia is attempting quilt from Wisp #3 by the way.
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Alva Quinn attempting 'stomach' from 'Wisp #4 (Poison)'.

 

Kuzunoha finally made a move. With a powerful attack, the Modifier snuffed out the fire wisp (#8). With one of their own dead, the remaining nine wisps began to agitate even more and their attacks became more varied. Lumia continues to get bombarded by attacks from fire wisp (#1) and poison wisp (#3) causing burns and coughs. Meanwhile, poison wisp (#4) felt the pain from Alva Quinn's last attack and rammed into the Modifier, injecting Alva Quinn with a strong dose of toxins. The toxins flowed through the Modifier's body, causing a series of diarrhea to occur.

Debuff Effect: @Miku cannot use the 'ss' and the 'ck' in his/hertheir next post. @Alva Quinn cannot use the 'f' in his/her/their next post.

 

I regret putting up a false bravado. Two letter restrictions were doable, but the single letter restriction is a nightmare.
________________

Alva Quinn submitting 'stomach' from 'Wisp #4 (Poison)'.

Spoiler: Story Content

883 words
---------------

Heavy rain was pouring on the tropic jungle. The enemy were hidden among the bushes, covered in mud and their dead comrades’ blood. Their scent and tracks were gradually erased as time passes. Bravo’s tracking ability had become useless under these circumstances.

Ground combat was not an option. The enemy were local veterans when it comes to concealing their presence, and it appeared that the current weather would not change soon either. Our leader had ordered us to climb the trees and gain the high ground due to these circumstances.

The squad complied without saying a word back, and we waited until the enemy makes a move. According to our intel, the enemy were having a mandatory break when our attack began 600 seconds ago. As we had presumed, despite having plenty experience regarding the humid territory, the enemy greatly lacks discipline, which comes to our advantage in our surprise attack.

360 seconds later, the enemy was spotted marching towards our position. Charlie covered our rear. Bravo unsheathed her dagger and gave a nod. Delta pulled his bow’s string and released it immediately. An arrow travelled through the loud rain and hit an enemy by their leg.

Without a second to waste, Bravo jumped towards the enemy, pierced her dagger through an enemy’s stomach and twisted the handle. That enemy will go down within minutes. The other three did not take more than one second to understand the situation and one enemy jabbed his gladius sword towards Bravo. However, the customized short sword was caught by the woman’s iron gauntlets. Bravo then released her dagger and stabbed the stunned enemy with her gauntlet’s sharp end. One more enemy dead. The remaining two attempted to run away, when one’s torso got pierced by Delta’s arrow.

Bravo was about to chase the last enemy, when I ordered her to halt. The rain was slowing down our movements. Bravo won’t make it with her gear. By the time Delta nocked his third arrow, the last enemy was already long gone, hidden by the lush vegetation.

As the rain kept pouring, our leader ordered us to retreat and rendezvous. We arrived at the base within approximately 1800 seconds, when I was given the order to report the assault.

…

“Well then Sir Echo, I express my gratitude to you. You have done well in this mission. Please, by all means, return to your lobby and tell the other knights to rest. In addition, you are allowed to take as much beverage as you want. You have all earned at least that much. Just don’t empty the whole supply, understand?”

The conversation ended with a man standing up and saluting to the woman behind the desk. The woman continued to smile brightly at the young man until he was outside her workplace. As soon as the young man was no longer in sight, her smile dropped in an instant, and an expression brimming with hatred was displayed instead.

“The rebels were planning to attack this base when there should have been nobody who knew about it. …to think that we already have to deal with a mole this early. What shitty day.”

…

“Cheers men! Today’s high score was 12 kills done by Bravo! Better luck next time Charlie, you will get some kills next time. I am positively certain it will happen!” our leader announced. Three low-pitched groans, including my own, composed a depressing harmony. It couldn’t be helped that Bravo was today’s MVP though. Specializing in close quarters combat and tracking, she is an expert when it comes to physical strength despite being the only girl within our squad. One might even compare her with a hunting dog, and she wouldn’t mind it. Rather, she would probably take that as a compliment instead and laugh while slapping our back.

Delta is blessed with a recursive bow which was able to let him shoot an arrow 70m away, but knowing how to use a bow and actually hitting the target are two separate matters, so it will probably take him a while to master it since he had only obtained the bow a week ago.

Charlie on the other hand has yet to receive any blessing despite how we all have been living six months in this new world. How this all started is a pretty generic story; transported to another world. No accidents. No deaths. Just a sudden occurrence.

Our surprise, despair and decisions were generic. We were cadets, and there were multiple small-scale wars going on between two countries. It was easy to see what we were supposed to do. We may not have carried over any guns or modern weapons, but our constitution and experience were enough to grant us the rank that is just beneath legitimate knights.

Our very existence and our relationship with the kingdom will never be revealed to the public thanks to our leader. We consider this is a good thing though, especially when you don’t want countless megalomaniacs to capture you to monopolize your ridiculous abilities.

We decided to hit the hay when we realized we had been partying until midnight.

…however, we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw what happened the very next day. Had I known that this would happen, I would’ve never partied that night.

 

I identify myself as a 'they' by the way. I apologize if this is inconvenient.
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Alva Quinn attempting 'thought' from 'Wisp #4 (Poison)'.

 

Alva Quinn submitting 'thought' from 'Wisp #4 (Poison)'.

Spoiler: Story Content

787 words
---------------

Getting betrayed by the ones you trust the most is something you often read in many action novels, so when I was transported to another world against my own will a year ago, I had always feared this would happen to me eventually.

I look down and see the tip of a blade piercing through my chest. I recognize the blade immediately; it is the cursed blade which prevents any wounds from healing and disables the target from controlling mana. I did not even try to look back, and asked my ex-partner:

“It’s about time you betrayed me, Elizabeth. Now tell me, since when did you plan--” I got interrupted by the blood that was starting to fill my lungs. I had always believed that coughing blood was stupid whenever I watch anime, but now I understand how they felt.

“…you had even anticipated this moment? No wonder you are called the Devil. As I thought, I can’t let you live after all,” the female knight said.

“Where are the others? Surely they don’t want to miss the death of the puppet who beheaded the demon king?” I taunted Elizabeth while being dissatisfied that she had yet to answer my question.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Those fools are trapped within your web of lies. Not to mention, if you were to have a self-destruct ability then the citizens of the kingdom would have been harmed.”

“Aaah… So that’s why you led me to this abandoned forest with only four mages.”

The female knight flinched after hearing my words, and after understanding that hiding was useless, the mages revealed themselves. I can sense that one of them had been recording these events since the beginning, while another mage had been holding an orb that transmitted the current events to a faraway place. Seeing as they were donning high quality royal robes though, it was painfully obvious that my death was planned by the royal family.

“Everyone, get away from him!” Elizabeth shouted. Immediately thereafter, the mages had erected multiple barriers. Physical barrier, magical barrier and elemental barriers, multiple layers at that too. However, even as I stood there, not moving an inch while bleeding from the cursed sword that is still lodged in my body, there was one thing that concerned me.

I glanced at my back. The barriers were shaped in a dome-like structure, blocking any form of light, but I could see her clearly with my night vision ability. What I saw was Elizabeth, trapped within the barriers along with me, looking towards me with hate written all over her face.

“Oho? Instead of running away, you plan to die here together with me?”

“My death had been sealed the moment I joined your little ‘party’. Rather than dying as an old woman, I would rather die with honor,” said the female knight. I clicked my tongue. To think that I was working this stupid. Doesn’t she think of the consequences of my death? …I guess she really is no different than a puppet. The only difference between her and me is that I can still manipulate the strings that controls me.

It is slowly getting difficult to breathe. I won’t have much longer to live. The reason why I am still so calm is because I have casted reincarnation magic before I entered the demon king, so even if I die, I will always come back to this world. In a sense, the spell had made me an immortal. Of course, I have never told anyone about this matter.

The irony of this story is: I didn’t possess the ability of self-destruction, so these puppets were being worried for nothing. I wonder what their faces would look like when I anticlimactically die without any resistance…

…on second thought, this ending doesn’t fit me at all. I want to see how this story ends, but if I were to reincarnate, I will only hear the ending that is passed down by mouth. I… didn’t want that, but my body was already close to death’s door.

Coincidentally, there was another body in the vicinity, wasn’t there?

“Hah! If that is the case, then I shall curse you, Elizabeth! I will not kill you, but you will forever regret living as a knight of the kingdom! Your pride, honor, and love for your kingdom… I will drag those with me down to hell!”

Not a bad speech, if I say so myself. During that time, I had also casted possession magic and cloaking magic. By the time I had finished giving my speech, I was already possessing Elizabeth and I watched how my body fell over.

Now then, my dear puppet, let us see the consequences, shall we?

 

Alva Quinn attempting 'car' from 'Wisp #4 (Poison)'. I will be using the Basic Rhyme skill to change 'car' to 'bizarre'.

 

Alva Quinn submitting 'car' from 'Wisp #4 (Poison)'. I changed it to 'bizarre' using Basic Rhyme.

Spoiler: Story Content

836 words
---------------

Dust is dancing in the air, and my ears are ringing. I think that a nearby room has been destroyed by the explosion. To think that I would be a victim of an explosion just when I was about to clean the dishes... rather, I can’t believe that anyone would attack Theta City using explosives. Had it been Delta City or Eta City, then they might be more common, but the residents of Theta City are mostly composed of the poor; not many people could afford buying or making explosives, and even if they are one of the 5% who could, then they shouldn’t have a reason to attack the slums.

I stand up and opened the door to the main hall. Fire was spreading through the apartment through the carpet. It appears that the room opposite to mine is the victim of this attack. I don’t know much about my neighbors, but I don’t remember anyone living in there… Was it a random attack then?

Bizarre thoughts started filling up my mind. The first possibility that first appeared was: “The higher-ups have finally lost it and started to destroy the slums for entertainment.” But in doing so, they would attract attention from other cities. After Beta City’s incident, the leaders of this world had spent all their resources to tackle down all crimes world-wide, and they were VERY thorough about it.

Having said that, what the leader of this continent actually did was focus on maintaining 12 of the 23 cities. With Beta City gone, their goal was to ‘purify’ half of the continent and maintaining it, while giving multiple healthcare facilities as ‘apology’ to the remaining 11 cities. The distribution center is an example of such facilities, with the other popular facilities being the public hospital, public school, public bank, and the underground prison.

If the higher-ups of Theta City were to suddenly go rogue, then the higher-ups of other cities will most certainly find out about it and punish them severely. Considering the pros and cons, the first possibility couldn’t have been the case.

The second possibility was that this is a terrorist attack. I had suspicions that this apartment was built on behalf of this city’s higher-ups, so this building represents themselves in a way. If the terrorists also think like I do, then they would have left the vicinity by now.

There is a third possibility, which is similar to the second possibility, but the odds of that happening is nihil. The last time I saw ‘them’ was when they were sent to the underground prison.

As I was thinking about the possibilities, I look towards the room of my neighbor. The door had been blasted, and I can see the outside through the breached wall. The night is dark despite the street lamps, and the toxic air is flowing through. I didn’t take my gas mask with me, but I could see someone entering the room as clear as day despite the smog outside.

I recognize that person very well. My eyes widen the longer I look at the figure of the terrorist. No, she isn’t a terrorist. She is a rebel.

“Well, well, well! If it isn’t our lovely traitor Rose!”

Her red hair matches with the flames burning the room. She had cut her long hair short, but it is still beautiful as ever. Her once innocent smile is now filled with hatred towards me. I step back out of reflex; she has an assault rifle on her hand.

“How have you been? Are you eating well? Do you enjoy life now that you have casted your past… casted US aside!?”

I slammed the door shut and fell on the ground flat. Rain of bullets penetrated through the wooden door for a while before it stopped. I didn’t move. It took no longer than two seconds before the second volley was fired. It’s a tactic that I had taught her.

After the second volley, I ran towards my bed, took my gas mask, and exited through the window. My room is located on the first floor (EU) of the apartment, so I landed without having to break any bones. I hastily wore my gas mask and ran towards the streets.

How did she escape the underground prison? Although not comparable to the best prison in this continent, that place is still a prison not everyone could escape from. It has double the security compared to the distribution center, and the whole prison is encased in three meters thick lead walls. The air vents are too small for even a child to fit, and the connection to the sewers is only accessible from the outside. Plumbers would groan from the latter as it meant more work for them when they have to fix the pipes, but this shows just how secure the underground prison is.

I kept running and running, and even though I didn’t hear anyone chasing after me anymore, I kept running until I reach my destination.

 

Alva Quinn attempting 'advice' from 'Wisp #4 (Poison)'.

 

Poison Wisps (#3 and #4) wavered a bit at the attacks from Lumia and Alva Quinn. In anger, Poison Wisps (#3 and #4) injected some toxins into Lumia and Alva Quinn respectively, causing them to puke all over the place.

"Wwwwwwweeee!" Lumia and Alva Quinn dry heaved after vomiting today's breakfast and lunch.

Debuff Effect: Both @Miku and @Alva Quinn cannot use the 'we' in their next post.

 

It's all part of the challenge. But, if no 'w' is too hard, I can change that.

 

@Miku @Alva Quinn I've changed the 'w' restriction to 'we'

 

#plznomoresinglecharrestrictions
#secondattempt
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Alva Quinn submitting 'advice' from 'Wisp #4 (Poison)'.

Spoiler: Story Content

701 words, without any 'w' as bonus challenge
---------------

At some place, at some time, there is this land, and there is this era. The land is made of dirt, and creatures called humans are born from the land that is made of dirt. The era is boring at that beginning, but it becomes one of violence as time progresses. The reason of this is the humans' existence.

Humans are odd; they are not even. They are symmetrical from the outside, but the organs that humans have are not symmetrical.
Humans are odd; they look the same, eat the same, die the same. They are the same humans, so perhaps it is because of that, that they desire to separate themselves.

Humans are born the same, but not all humans like exactly the same things. They make different groups called tribes. Tribes become clans. Clans become kingdoms. Kingdoms become empires. Humans claim bigger and bigger lands as time passes. But the land? The land is still dirt. It is dirt, but the humans have nothing else but dirt, so they take pride in having dirt.

There are more than one tribe. More than one clan. More than one kingdom. More than one empire. One day, violence escalates from a dispute over land. Humans begin to fight over dirt. Nobody stops the fight, and thus many humans die.

Humans are born the same. They are born from dirt. Humans return into dirt after they expire. Many humans die at fights. Fights keep happening. More deaths appear than births. Fights keep happening. They keep happening until three humans become the rulers of all dirt of the land.

The rulers are sad, because humans are no longer born from dirt. A human corpse require time before they turn back into dirt. There is only enough dirt in the land for the rulers to stand on. Anything else is just a sea of human corpses.

Having nothing else to do, the rulers do nothing. Time passes, but the rulers do nothing because there is nothing to do. Only after a long, long time do the corpses of the humans turn back into dirt. By the, the rulers are old. They are old, and they are smart.

Humans are born from dirt again. They see the three rulers. The three rulers cry from joy and tell the story of the past. The rulers do not desire to fight anymore. They desire peace. In the end, the rulers get their peace. The rulers give their all giving the recently born humans peaceful advices about not fighting over land. The old rulers rest in peace after passing the history of the land of dirt to the humans of the next generation.

The humans of the second generation live in peace, but they do not teach the history and advice given by the dead rulers to the next generation. The humans of the third generation are the same as the humans of the first generation. They are the same humans, and yet they are different. Humans are odd.

The humans fight again. This time not over land, but over age. The humans of the third generation fight the humans of the second generation. There is no reason. The younger humans rebel for no reason. Many humans died, old and young.

The old humans do not fight, but they can defend. The young humans fight, but they are not good at it. Many humans die regardless. The death count is drastically less than that of the first generation, but it is a lot regardless.

Time passes, and three hundred humans remain. The second generation humans expires, and third generation humans finally understand the feelings of the second generation as the fourth generation are born. The third generation, out of paranoia, kill the fourth generation immediately as soon as they are born, leaving only three humans on the land. After that, the cycle repeats.

...

The moral of the story? There is none, kid! Look around you. All I see are some steel pipes and concrete. You and I are in prison for crying out loud! I am just making this story up to pass time! I got nothing else to do in this godforsaken city, just like the old rulers!

 

Alva Quinn attempting 'chalk' from 'Wisp #4 (Poison)'. I will be using the Basic Rhyme skill to change 'chalk' to 'boardwalk'.

 

Alva Quinn submitting 'chalk' from 'Wisp #4 (Poison)'. I changed it to 'boardwalk' using Basic Rhyme.

Spoiler: Story Content

910 words, inconsistent
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The sun is setting down, painting the horizon in a relaxing warm color. I could tell that it is beautiful without my sunglasses, but I would rather not take the risk of becoming blind. Fortunately for me, there is always my trusty camera I can rely on to make memories of these mind-blowing scenery. I have had this camera for months now, but I have only used it in the recent week. I am a type who doesn’t get attached to objects for very long, so I know that I will put the camera down one day. Yet that is also the reason why I make the most out of my time with this camera!

I take my time until the sun has fully set before I walked downwards to my parents. I am currently at a vacation resort on a private island. The boardwalk is recently built and doesn’t creak at all. I am kind of weak to scary ghost stories. Horror movies, serial killers… my stomach can’t handle those. Luckily, we won’t stay here for long as we were only invited by my father’s friend at work.

When I opened the door, I saw my father and my mother sitting on the table, talking about dinner. It did not take a while before my pet dog Rufus rushed in from the kitchen to greet me. I joined my parents for dinner, and we talked about our day. We set up a projector screen and watched the images that I have made for the past week.

A lot has happened in just one week; a friend broke a leg while he was playing football, I met an old lady who is loved by a lot of cats, I visited by aunt’s birthday party… and now we are taking a break on a private island. It’s not every day that we can enjoy this. There were many reasons why we accepted the offer to go on a resort, but the biggest reason was simply because we had to take a break. My parents are very kind, but they are too committed to their jobs. People say that they should work at a job they like, but my parents doesn’t know when to stop! XD

In my case though, I just finished yet another year of school. One more year before I can finally graduate. I have been hearing that the final year of high school is going to be tough, so I really need some time for myself!

.
.
.

I dreamed that I was in a detective world where... it is basically also a game, of sorts. The screen is my POV, and there is a mini-screen on the right bottom corner of my view which shows me the places where the hints are. There were... four men, whose lower bodies were crushed by... it's basically as if they were stuck on the wall. I don't know how else they would've lived.
It appears that... the rich guy had $100, bought $1,000 fake money with $50, tried to bribe the big guy, and the thief guy stole $50 from the rich guy in secret, and also tried to bribe the big guy. The big guy didn't want to be bribed, and lashed out.
Meanwhile, the culprit of whatever appears to be the seemingly insane blacksmith-looking guy on the far left.

This part of the dream is the only reason I am writing this journal again after such a long time. I appear to have third point of view where I can see myself; like from an astral plane. There is this demonic bell instrument on some bell-tower which is basically the same like the one from MC Gakuen from Mizuryu Kei, but then for murder.
The day starts with an introduction of a father and a mother --both are not mine, but their appearance later suddenly becomes mine. It was a weird switch. Then, from my astral plane, I can hear the monologue of the antagonist, and his exposition of the machine. Then I HEARD the sound of the bell, while I was in a semi-asleep state in my dream. (I didn't think that was possible.)
The sound is not that of a bell, and it has the name of "Demonic Vocal Chord" or something. Very disturbing name, even more disturbing sound. I thought that, since I was in a dream, I would be immune to it.
I heard the "song" and it was damn awful. It is a literal brainwash repeat pattern with a low frequency that resonates with / through your skull to your brain. I then woke up in the dream, back in my astral plane, watching my "parents" look their garden with big ponds, with boardwalks and bridges all around. They then found corpses on their lakes, and called the police. The police then found some disturbing skulls, and Dr. Brennan from Bones (TV Series) was called.
Literally fast-forwarding in-dream, I was shown my parents looking at their security videos, only to see themselves kill those random innocent people. I don't know where the heck those victims come from, but I have not forgotten that I had also been roaming around like a madman. Apparently, instead of accepting the reality where I needed 6 hours of sleep after staying awake until around 3AM in the morning, my brain tried to give a supernatural explanation of why I woke up too late for today's lecture.

It has been over a week and a half... I am sorry for not showing up after such a long time.

 

Alva Quinn attempting 'grandfather' from 'Wisp #10 (Poison)'.

 

Wisps - Level 3 Detected!
The three Ice Wisps, seeing that more and more of their brethren killed in combat, gathered together and merged into a large blue humanoid wisp the size of a dwarf. The three level 1 Ice Wisps had became a level 3 Frost Spirit!

 

Alva Quinn submitting 'grandfather' from 'Wisp #10 (Poison)'.

Spoiler: Story Content

1101 words
---------------
My grandfather died when I was around five years old. The last memory I have of him was when he played chess with my father. I don't remember how he died, but I remember attending his funeral. We gathered at some place, and I was handed down a small bottle with what I believe to be water in it. I was asked to drop some of it into his casket before passing the bottle to the next in line. I never saw the process, but I heard that my grandfather being cremated in the end.

Around two months ago, my grandmother passed away. I am now twenty... no, twenty-one years old. Unlike my grandfather, I have made a lot of memories with my grandmother. Most of them being the times when we played card games together. I remember those happy memories.

When her time was approaching, we could all sense it. I forgot whether it was a hospital or a hospice, but I remember her being unable to move much. It was so bad that even staying awake became difficult for her, so near the end my uncles and aunts had a video call together and recorded it. Even though her eyes did not open, we kept talking. Talking about our present and reminiscing about our past. In the end, she passed away in peace.

When I heard the news of my grandmother's passing, I oddly took the news surprisingly well. Now don't get me wrong: I am most certainly not happy with the passing of my grandmother, but I did not feel any sadness nor did I shed any tears either. At that point in time, I thought that perhaps I was simply in denial, that I have to process my emotions. Yet weeks after weeks, nothing happened. I unconsciously monitored my parents' emotional state in the meantime, and... I believe that they were also prepared for the day this might happen. My parents know that nobody lives forever on Earth, which is why they keep striving to improve themselves every day, so that when the day they approach the end and look back at their lives, they could be proud of it and be sent to heaven.

Two months have already passed, but unlike what my parents expected of me, I wasted those two months being idle. Attending classes only when I have to, I barely passed my exams while neglecting my practical homework. I do not have any hobbies, nor do I exercise a lot anymore. I have nothing but myself to blame for it, yet I don't feel any shame either. As time passes, virtues such as guilt and shame have left my system, leaving an empty shell with no motivation to improve myself. I am an introvert who is too shy to talk with my friends. In time, we talk less and less, and eventually we stopped talking at all.

While I hope that future me will improve themselves, I can't say that I look forward to the future as I write this sentence. I feel helpless as I understand my situation is worsening because of my unbearable attitude, yet without any proper motivation, without any guilt and shame, without loving myself... I can merely stay being a loser. The acknowledgement hurts, yet what hurts even more is that despite acknowledging that fact, I couldn't bring myself to change my poor state either. My gaming addiction have taken me over, and even when I block access to one distraction, I always manage to find access to another.

I have gone to the point where I had to ask one of my few remaining friends to help me by reminding myself to study, and while it works for a while, I don't know how long I can maintain this... awkward situation. I may be agnostic, but if the devil truly exists within all humans, I believe that mine has already captivated my soul. I don't know whether I am still able to be salvaged or not, but I know that if I am left alone as is, I will die a dog's death.

There are some days when I would dream of having a partner who would be strict to me, but as I never sought for them in reality, they remained nagging at me in my head. Every time my mind wandered between reality and the world of sleep, they would sometimes appear before me, complaining about the tasks that I have forsaken. They would be disappointed at me, but never forsake me. However, as they are not real either, they were not able to change me.

I don't know when it started, but I am very self-conscious of myself. I don't know the exact reasons as to why either, but from what I understand, being self-conscious seems to be a bad trait. Especially when I deny to change myself. Nobody may be perfect, but when someone does something bad, others would usually warn that person to not do the bad thing again, and the person would usually comply and change their behavior. Unfortunately, when it comes to the self-conscious me, I also have a very terrible trait of not wanting to change my behavior.

This may sound cliché, but it all started when I was a child. Back when I was around six years old, I was blamed of something I believe to be not my fault. The teacher yelled at me, and asked me whether I am going to change or not. Naturally, not seeing why I would ever change when I was not in the wrong, I answered with a firm "No" to which the teacher sternly repeated her question. Not knowing what I did wrong, got confused and showed that expression on my face. It was only when the teacher repeated her question for the third time when I answered with a weak "Yes", and the matter was dropped immediately afterwards.

I don't know how I came to this conclusion, but ever since that day, I have always always ALWAYS hated the mere thought of changing myself. Being young, I did not know the details of how I was exactly "not going to change", but as time passes, that event has become one of the few memories that shaped me into the person I am now. Sometimes I ask myself: Had I been more open to changing myself; Had I gained the courage and drive to commit myself into following the good path; Had I never been swayed by distractions such as games and novels; Would I have changed anything at all?

This time, it has been over a year and a half.
Yikes! I am sorry for not showing up after such a long time.
I don't know whether this game is still alive or not, but I would like to submit this nonetheless.

 

Alva Quinn attempting 'oatmeal' from 'Wisp #10 (Poison)'. I will be using the Basic Rhyme skill to change 'oatmeal' to 'glockenspiel'.

 

Alva Quinn submitting 'oatmeal' from 'Wisp #10 (Poison)'. I changed it to 'glockenspiel' using Basic Rhyme.

Spoiler: Story Content

1200 words
---------------
In a silent chamber, no sound could be heard other than the ticking of the clock and the occasional trickling of a leaking water pipe. The humidity in the room was suffocating, but at the very least it did not smell as bad as the sewers. [REDACTED] opened his eyes, but he could not see anything. He was blindfolded. Hurting himself by exerting force to his limbs, he learnt that his hands were handcuffed to a single lead pipe to his front, whereas heavy rusted iron balls was attached to his ankles.

"It could have been worse," the XX year old boy thought.

Being the heir of the [REDACTED] Conglomerate, he had become accustomed to being kidnapped and being saved by his bodyguards. Depending on the abductors, [REDACTED] would usually have to endure two to three days of suffering before he would be found. On several occasions, the kidnappers would beat his face, kick his abdomen, or lash his back with a whip, but [REDACTED] bit through the pain and was grateful for not having his fingers or eyeballs be removed from his body like he had read in his favorite spy book collection.

[REDACTED] calmly sat on the hard concrete ground and removed his blindfolds with ease. It was not as if it was very difficult to do in the first place, as there was no actual obstacle preventing his head to reach his hands in front of his head. He blinked for a couple seconds to adjust his vision to the illumination of his surroundings, but he was surprised to see nothing but darkness.

"This is odd... Why is there nobody keeping eyes on me?"

Given his past experiences, it was a standard to have at least one person ensure that the captive that is himself would not escape or behave suspiciously. He had thought such was the reason as to why his mouth was not gagged. It was common sense for any kidnapper to prevent him from crying for help. The boy had been kidnapped multiple times, and assumed that his kidnapper must have had hidden him in a place outside the public view. Not wanting to alert the kidnappers, the boy decided that he would only shout as a last resort.

As time had passed, [REDACTED]'s eyes began to adjust to the darkness and he started to recognize crooked outlines in his vicinity. He was chained at the corner of the chamber, surrounded by stacked wooden crates which obstructed his view from the rest of the room. The cube-shaped crates were barely beyond the reach of his legs. He could not make out the contents as there were no identifications on the crates. The boy could see something shiny sitting on the edge on the top of one of the crates.

"I feel like I am boxed in like a cat. Why is the security so lax? Is this some sort of psychopath's reality show?"

He had an idea as to how to get out, but instead he opted to wait for a little bit longer to ascertain the presence of his captives. Waiting for his bodyguards was an option he could have chosen, but he could not always rely on them forever. At one point during his lifetime, he would have to grow into an adult be able to take care of himself. Having been abducted for so many times, the boy believed that getting used to being kidnapped is simply part of growing up.

After sharpening his ears for a couple seconds, he came to the conclusion that there was nobody around him, and began to toy with his handcuffs. It was an poor choice to handcuff anyone at the front. The boy kept rotating the chains until they were locked into each other. It took him a couple of minutes before the chains were tangled, after which he used the leverage of the chains against itself to break the chains. The cuffs remained on his arms, but at least he freed his hands. The boy walked over to the stacked crate and shook them as silent as possible. The action caused the shiny object to fall onto his hands.

"Oomph. That was a close call! Ack, that hurt a lot!" [REDACTED] hissed as his fingers were temporarily stuck between two small hard pieces, that appeared to be parts of the shiny object.

"What is this thing anyway? This texture..."

Within mere moments, [REDACTED] judged that the object was made of metal. He recognized the object to be a glockenspiel, an instrument resembling a xylophone, except its components mainly consist of metal instead of wood. His hands were pinched between two of the metal bars for a moment. Fortunately it did not cause any open wound.

Believing that there was nobody in the vicinity after having moved for such a long time, the boy decided to destroy the instrument to salvage its metal bars. He lifted the iron balls attached to his ankles, and dropped it on the standing glockenspiel, separating some bars from its original body. He kept doing the same trick until he obtained the long bars. Although slightly bent, they were still sturdy enough to be used.

The boy looked at the iron balls and the chains attached to both his ankles. "I could have simply dragged them with me, but there was no way I can run away with that thing dragging my legs."

The chains that bound the heavy rusted iron ball were to big to recreate the trick he did with the handcuffs, but they had a big opening within them, which just happened to be big enough to fit two of the metal bars. The boy inserted the bars such that they were in a T-position, and exerted a credible amount of force into the bars, which were then transferred into the rusty chains. While he knew this method was very unreliable, he was somehow able to find the weakest chains within the both links after having repeated the process for dozens of minutes.

"What is going on with this situation? Did I really just happen to get lucky to break the rusty chains, or were these chains rigged to be vulnerable...?"

He did not understand which group of amateur kidnappers would abduct the heir of [REDACTED] Conglomerate and leave him chained without supervision, but he felt very fortunate nonetheless. He moved the crates aside to found nothing but more crates and random items in the storage chamber he was locked in. There was only one passageway attached to the room, leaving him with not many choices for his escape routes.

After walking for a while through the long passageway, he finally found a source of light through the gaps between a wooden door. He held his ears next to the door to listen to the other side, only to be met with silence. It was possible that his abductors were nowhere near his location, and if such truly was the case, then it was a golden opportunity for the boy to escape. Unable to maintain his patience, [REDACTED] opened the door and got greeted by a new bright world.

"..."

"W-What... What is the meaning of this!?"