Endless Insanity

"Ugh" I groan as I slowly pick myself up off of the wooden floor, my head feeling worse then all of the hangeovers I had in my past life combined. "What was that for?" I question the statue infront of me, soon realizing that numerous cracks had appeared on its surface I slowly shuffle over to it and touch it, only for it to collapse on the floor, now only a heap of dust. "Huh, weird" I mumble as I proceed to pat myself of the dust that had got on me. All of a sudden I was struck with a headache ten times worse than the one I just had, I collapse to the ground as I feel information being poured into my head, skills I had never known before became something I could do with even my eyes closed, then I fell unconscious, for the second time today.

I woke up face down on the floor, saliva pooling below my face, having to peel myself off the ground I slowly stand up, only to realize that once the after effects of the headache had gone I was energized and had become faster. Steadying myself against a barrel I try to collect myself and gather my bearings, 'I summoned a statue of the God of Funger, or at least it was a statue until I said the nickname I had given the little girl in my past life, then it somehow possessed the statue and focused its attention on me, making me pass out, then I woke up and and had a massive headache and fell unconscious again, it was because of all the information coming into my head… That's it!'

It's hard to look for something in your brain, the knowledge had already become a part of me so it wasn't like I could look for something foreign, that was until I felt a presence in my mind and when I focused on it a message appeared. It played like a recording, resonating in my ears, "I am bewildered on how you know about the happenings in the dungeon, but if you are who you say you are, I would like to thank you once again for helping me ascend, I have empowered you and granted you knowledge on how to cast all the spells associated with me, I am watching you carefully human, see to it that you do not disappoint me".

I flex my hands and slowly come to terms with my new speed, 'It feels like I learned the entirety of the God of Fungers skill tree, in the game she had five branches in her tree, one gave +1 agility while the rest were spells, they were Rot, which would slightly damage the enemy and rot them from the inside, making them vulnerable to attacks, Mastery over Vermin, a passive skill which gave the ability to speak to those who are often left unseen like rats, crows and frogs, Flesh Puppetry, which would allow the player to puppeteer severed limbs in order to attack, and Mischief of Rats, which summons rats that deal a small amount of damage but has a high chance to inflict the Concussion status effect to all the enemies in combat. These are all good spells I can use, it's a shame I had to get knocked out twice for me to get them though, who knows how much time went by while I was unconscious…shit!!'

I quickly dash up the stairs from the basement and run over to a window as I look at the sun. I breath a sigh of relief as I realize only a few hours had gone by, equivalent to the amount of time that would go by whenever the player would rest in the game. I pat my chest and discover that Twig had left my shoulder 'did he leave after the first time I fell unconscious or the second time?' I think as I go all around the house calling his name. Once I get back to the basement I find him at the bottom of the stairs and notice him standing infront of a mouse hole in the wall "watcha doing there bud?" I ask not really expecting much, that was until I heard a voice, it sounded oddly like the rustling of leaves "Oh it's just you chum, you scared away the guy I was talking too". Trying to locate the voice my eyes lock onto Twig, "uh was that you talking Twig?" I ask as I crouch down to his level. "You can hear me?! It seems like that weird statue helped you after all huh, yup it's me talking pal" I hear its response.

"It tought me a few spells, one of which lets me speak to small critters, I guess that means you too" I say as Twig starts jumping around "who are you calling little eh pal? I bet I could take you in a fight" it said, psyching itself up. I poke him and he tips over onto his side like a cow being tipped, "I'll give you this round but I'll get you next time, now help me back up" it begrudges as it flails its legs. "So you said before, I interrupted you and scared away someone you were talking too?" I question as I put him back on his legs. "Yup, I was mid conversation with a rat when in you come stomping and hollering your lungs out all oaf like" I could almost feel the pout on his face as I ask "what were you talking about?", "I was gathering information about the area we're in, it turns out a lot of people are crazy like that lady you fought" I could feel his voice get softer as he touched on the topic of the lady, "it's fine Twig I'm going to have to get used to bloody scenes like that if I want to survive this godforsaken place, thanks for the tip though, now lets blow this joint!" I say as I pick Twig up and put him back on my shoulder.

"You got it pal, I was staring to get bored of this place anyway" it says as it jumps up and down on my shoulder while I walk over to the exit, "uhhh buddy, that rat also told me there's another exit beside the one we came in from, it's at the basement". "I know about that exit Twig, I'm going this way to test something". I stop at the dead body of the mad women and I hold my axe in a tight grip, "I didn't tell you every spell I got Twig but one of the spells I got from the statue allows me to control severed limbs like puppets" I say as I hold the axe above my head and then drop the axe like a guillotine, severing her arm as I step to the side and cut off the other one. Letting out a shaky sigh I pick up both arms and move over to a clean part of the house, "I don't really get why all this bloody stuff is creepin you out, it's just another Tuesday for me, anyway what's the limit on that spell of yours?" I hear Twig ask as I focus on the two severed limbs, "No idea Twig it never specified" 'in the game there wasn't a limit, will it be the same here?' I consider. I feel a slight headache come over me as energy was siphoned from me in order to connect me and the two arms, almost like a thin thread comprised of my will.

Slowly getting the feel on how to control them I have the left hand float in the air and wave at me, "woah that's cool!" Twig says as he jumps excitedly on my shoulder. Beside the initial drain and headache that quickly abated I don't feel the arms drawing upon any more Mind, "I guess I can control these hands indefinitely or at least until their destroyed" I marvel. Seeing no use for the hands right now I set both to float beside me, one hovering over each shoulder, almost resembling wings, 'in the game in order to use spells you had to spend Mind, which functions much like Mana does in a lot of fantasy novels, once a character hits 0 mind they would get Panphobia, the fear of everything. The flesh puppetry spell took 10 Mind, and although I can keep the spell up indefinitely I can definitely feel the lack of Mind, which means I won't have as much limbs at my disposal until I can get items that will regenerate my Mind such as alcohol or tobacco, the best item of course would be the Betel's stone accessory, which was a ring that restored 10% of the users mind over time, although the only garunteed way to get that would be in the city'

Walking out of the door I spot on my left side a woman who looked similar to the one I had killed and was also wielding two knives, she hasn't seen me yet though. Quickly crouching down to stay out of her view I turn to my right and speed walk over to the exit where I came from, "where are you going buddy the cities thataway" Twig whispers in my ear, I only speak once I reach the Woodsman's house and know for certain that the lady wasn't following, "I wanted to backtrack and get Woodsman's and his victims arms from their corpses, I gotta take every advantage given to me in this place" I explain to Twig as I cut off both of their arms. Focusing on them as I had with the first two I managed to form the same connection, feeling the same headache but instead of disappearing this time it stuck around and lingering in the corner of my mind, like a persistent itch. Having the two pairs of arms join the first pair hovering above my shoulders I massage my head a bit and start walking back to the town.

After exploring the town a bit I find myself behind the house I had first entered, looking around I see a rat standing near the back of the house. "That's him! That's the rat I was talking to before" Twig called out as he jumped off my shoulder and ran over to the rat, following him I make sure act as harmless as possible in order to avoid scaring the rat this time. Sadly as I get close enough to hear what they were talking about the rat skitters off again, I sigh "sorry I keep scaring your rat friend Twig", "oh you didn't scare him pal, he was just getting something from his rat hole to give to you" Twig explains. Just as Twig had said the rat came out of his hole, this time dragging something behind him, taking a closer look at the object I see that it's a glass filled with blue liquid.

"It's not safe here master, here take this it will keep you safe" the rat squeaked as I picked up the bottle, I gave my thanks as I picked up the blue vial, a healing item that would provide decent healing. It then said goodbye to Twig and me and went back inside its hole, pocketing the blue vial I walk out from behind the house, only to come face to face with the women I had hid from earlier. She charged at me, flailing her knives as she did so, cursing I run backwards trying to get some space between us. After a while it seemed the women had gotten tired as she began to slow down, still running as fast as I could I create more distance between us, then once I've made enough space I stop and focused on controlling the three pairs of arms. Sending them forward I have all six grab her arms and pin her to the wall, three on each arm. Slowly walking back up to her flailing form I ready my axe and swing it directly at her neck, severing her head cleanly this time to avoid unnecessary gore. Having the arms let her go her body flops to the ground, raising my axe once more I chop off both her arms and create a thred connecting them.

Twig comes out of his hiding place and drags with him a moldy bread, "sorry about leaving mid battle buddy, I just smelt some bread and had to find it" he said as I picked up the bread and threw it in my makeshift backpack, "it's no problem Twig, I appreciate your help in finding things for me" I tell him. Exploring more of the town I come across another mad villager, this one being a crazed man holding a sickle. Quickly dispatching him using the same tactics I take off both his arms and gain control of them too. The headache this time being vastly more noticeable, gritting my teeth I try to push down the pain as I take a few bites from a carrot Twig had found.

Taking steady steps forward towards a somewhat strong enemy I create a relatively easy plan on how to defeat him, "I just need to get him to lift up the mask partially fused to his face and he will inhale the pesticides leaking in his canister" I think as I face Vile, a villager that has a pigskin gas mask grotesquely fused to his face. Coming face to face to him he mumble something in his gas mask as he takes a menacing step towards me, "huh? What was that?" I shout back, he mumbles some more, "still can't hear you man, talk a bit louder" I say as I cup my hand to my ears and add extra effect by getting a pair of hands to cup my ears as well. Vile audibly groans as he lifts up his mask, revealing rows of spiked teeth, taking a deep breath he shouts "ONLY-THE VILE—" and then collapses in a fit of bloody coughs, dying right there and then. I clap my hands and shrug my shoulders at Twig who was looking at me with a blank face "that was easy eh Twig?", the pinecone only nods and mutters something about having enemies kill themselves.

Choosing to ignore that I chop off both of Viles arms, this time not immediately connecting to them for fear of getting an even worse migraine, instead I loop some rope I had found around them and hang them round my pants. I did the same for the two other villagers that were to the right of the town, one of them was another lady the other was a surprisingly strong pipe wielding mad that almost shrugged off my hands, I managed to cut off his head just in time though.

Exploring the town more I come up with some shillings, the currency of this world, and another small key, I also come across a house that had a sign over its door, it read Closed until tomorrow, 'right, this is a shop that sold a few goods, although even if I were to break in today the shopkeeper would refuse to sell me anything until the next day' I contemplate as I walk over to the chained up gate, taking out my bolt cutters I cut the chains and fully open the gate, taking a deep breath I walk into the city. In search of a way out, in search of power, and in search of booze.