Epic of Bee

I whirled around, and the blue skirt I was wearing flared out as I turned around. There was a flickering image of my Boxy Bee floating in the air before me, and I sighed.

"Don't do that to me! I almost peed a little!" I shouted at Hilda, and she gave me a smug look.

"Serves you right for jumping into something like this without talking to me first!" Hilda scolded.

"You were busy! Plus, that doesn't change the fact that I would have had to do this whether you were here or not. Now, would you please tell me where the hell I have landed?!" I complained.

"I don't really know. Have you checked these?" Hilda asked as she flew around the room until she stopped near the rings that were raised up from the floor.

"What do you mean that you don't know?!" I asked in surprise.

"Well, as you can probably tell, I am only partially here. Someone decided to jump into this without giving me a warning. Time has stopped out there, and you are not on Kadeon anymore, so I don't know what this place is," Hilda said, but her image was starting to fade.

"Wait! You can't go! Damnit! I am tired of being left to do everything myself!" I yelled at Hilda's fading image, and she laughed at me.

"You were the one that said you wanted to be able to do things on your own, so take this as a chance to grow and get stronger. We will all be holding our breaths for your return!" Hilda said as she faded away.

I growled and kicked the air, but it was useless. None of this was going to get me out of here.

I walked over to the three rings, and the moment I was about five feet away, there each lit up. In each one of the rays of light that shot up in green, red, and purple were standard-looking weapons.

The first weapon in the green light was a bow and arrow, but nothing fancy. Precision ranged weapon, but it would be hard to aim without practice with something like that.

The next was in the red light, and it was a basic sword. It would be a pure melee offense, meaning that I would have to get in close to inflict damage.

The last weapon in purple light was a twisted staff with a small purple gem at the top. It must be a magical staff of sorts, another ranged weapon, but less accurate, but maybe more damage, or wider range.

I looked over the three and decided that the sword was probably the safest choice. I wasn't great, but I knew how to use one, so I reached forward into the light.

[Melee Class Chosen!]

[Select your first Power-Up!]

Once I grabbed the sword, I instantly knew that I could do two types of attacks. Normal and hard, but the hard was a slower horizontal slash that needed to be charged.

The other two weapons disappeared, and they were replaced with their large two-foot tall cards with writing on them. Each one of them was lit up in a blue color, and I started to get an idea of what this was.

"So, this is like one of those phone games, hmm?" I mused as I looked over each card.

[Increase Attack Speed 1]

[Increase Attack Range 1]

[Gain lightning Damage 1]

Each was useful, but I decided to go with attack range since I was using a melee weapon. If this was the same as other rogue-like games, then I would have around eight slots to fill with skills that I could level.

Once I chose it, all the cards disappeared, and a doorway opened in the wall in front of me. There was a swirling purple cloud blocking my view of the other side, but I assumed that it must take me to the first room.

Before I walked forward, there were some more things I wanted to look at.

There was a red bar in the top right hand corner of my screen that said 10/10, so I assumed that would be my health. Hopefully, that meant that I would be able to get hit up to nine times before dying.

That was another concern, dying.

In the games, you had infinite lives to try to clear one hundred floors in a row, but there was no guarantee that was true here. I really had nothing to go by other than past life experience of a phone game!

I tried swinging the sword a couple times, and no matter how I tried, I could only slash in a horizontal arc. Not only that but the speed and strength were fixed as well, so even just making a motion to strike forced me to strike forward.

Next, I tried to make my heavy attack, and it was like my body knew what to do. I extended my sword to the side, and my body lowered as I counted, and I started to glow red.

My sword arm pulled back across my chest at precisely eight seconds, and my sword burst with red light. I instantly dashed forward five feet while slashing, creating a red blade that traveled another ten feet.

The attack looked strong, but there was a significant flaw with the heavy strike. The total time to use it was ten seconds.

Meaning pretty if the room was about the same size as the twenty by twenty-foot room I was in, I would get interrupted before I could get the skill off. It also might be attacking farther only because of the power-ups.

These were all things that I would have to keep in mind going forward as I stared into the portal that waited for me.

I could do this! I had overcome that damned mountain, filled with bugs, so this should be a cakewalk, easy!

I walked forward, starting to feel better, and got ready to do deadly combat with the first foe I saw.