《From Vampire to Paladin》 Chapter 00.1 – Prologue Part 01 ¡°As impossible as it may seem, the world of our forefathers had no magic of its own. The only time that there was any magic at all was during the early stages of our forefathers being copied from Earth to Terranopes, but even then it was only the barest trickles of magic. However, because their world was never intended to have magic, these trickles of magic showed up, they behaved¡­ oddly, even if they worked after a fashion. To make matters worse, their world did not have any of the magic training aspects that ours does, which served to make matters even more confusing for them.¡± Excerpt from The Birth of Our World, 1006 A.B. Christopher Leroy Knightsen, Kansas City MO ¡°See you next time Sensei!¡± ¡°Be safe going home!¡± I replied as the last of my kenjutsu students left for the day. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will!¡± They replied right before the door closed behind them. With my students gone, I checked all of the bokken and other practice weapons to make sure that they had been put away properly. That done, I changed back into my street clothes and carefully placed all of the reproduced antique weapons I normally used for decoration into my duffle bag surrounded by towels and other padding so that they don¡¯t get damaged. Well, except for the spear of course, because there is no way I¡¯m fitting that into a duffel bag. Instead, I ensured that it was properly sheathed so I could carry it on my shoulder for the fifteen-minute walk home. I also put both of my personal bokkens into the bag on top of everything else so I could practice my katas in the morning. With everything ready, I stepped out of the door, locked it, and headed home whistling, which I don¡¯t normally do. Looking back at the past week, I realized that for the first time in a while, life was looking up for me. I had a new wave of transfer students, most of whom were actually interested in learning what I had to teach. On top of that, the twenty-year legal mess surrounding my Grandparent¡¯s Will had finally been resolved, allowing me to finally access the antique weapons collection that they had left me. At this point I spent several blissful minutes planning how I would organize said collection, completely forgetting to pay attention to where I was going. ¡°Heads up Grandpa! Coming through!¡± Snapping out of my thoughts, I barely had time to dodge the young man blitzing down the sidewalk on a bicycle. ¡°Run Forest!¡± I yelled after him, earning a ¡°Ha!¡± from a passing teenager. With that crisis averted, I looked around me to get my bearings, only to realize that I was five blocks past my street. Shrugging, I turned down the next alleyway on my left, which was the beginning of a shortcut I used on occasion. About the time I was ten steps into the alley, a conversation drifting around the corner caught my attention and sent my senses scrambling for their battle stations. ¡°Hey, there little lady, what''s a pretty little thing like you doing out here on a cold, dark night like tonight? What say we take you home and warm you up with some... fireworks?¡± said a man in the unmistakable honey-dripping voice most often used for pick-up lines the world over. Given his strong Texan accent, I decided to call this fellow Cowboy #1. Considering that it wasn''t particularly cold or dark at this hour on such a lovely summer evening, I knew this might not bode well for the lady in question if she said ¡°No.¡± Deciding to help her, I gently set down my duffle bag and spear up against the wall before pulling out both of my bokkens before continuing forward. ¡°Back off fools, I am not interested in any sort of offer that you might suggest.¡± replied the lady in question with a voice like frozen steel, making it blatantly obvious to anyone with a working brain that she was not even vaguely interested. I rounded the corner just as she finished speaking, and finally got a better picture of what was going on. There were five thugs standing in a line across the alleyway and given that they were all dressed in matching jackets with some sort of skeletal snake emblem, they were probably all members of the new gang I¡¯d heard about. With that done, I started evaluating the thugs individually rather than as a group, and I wasn¡¯t very impressed. Since the big guy in the middle was wearing cowboy boots and a matching hat, I assumed that he was Cowboy #1. There wasn¡¯t anything particularly special about the rest of the thugs, so I decided to number the rest of the gang members from left to right, so I had something to refer to them by, excluding Cowboy #1 as he already had a name. I mean come on, surely they have more of a personality than what I was seeing here from behind! Other than the jolly Texan giant in the middle who was clearly a white man, the rest of the gang looked like they could be from just about anywhere in the world, they were all about the same height and weight and wearing identical outfits. I finally got a look at the ¡°damsel in distress,¡± and my estimate of the thugs'' intelligence dropped significantly. I had already known that they weren¡¯t the brightest since they¡¯re doing this within two blocks of the police station, but propositioning a lady like this one is a whole new level of stupid. Yes, she was indeed a very pretty little lady, but she was no trollop. She was about four foot six, with blue eyes, black hair pulled back into a bun and a dusky complexion, wearing a tight-fitting grey t-shirt with the Air Force emblem on it showing off her muscles, blue jeans, and marine issue combat boots. To make matters worse for the thugs, I could tell by the way that she was standing that she possessed far more martial arts training than your average airman. Judging by her appearance, she may be somewhere around fifty years old, but I¡¯d give her a fifty-fifty chance of winning the coming fight on her own.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Then thug #5, whose brain appeared to work just a teensy bit faster decided that he should add his own two cents to the conversation by asking, ¡°But we just want to take you home and give you a night that you won''t soon forget! What is wrong with that?¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong is that I¡¯m not interested. At all. This is your last warning. Back off you fools, and I won''t break your faces even more than they already have been.¡± she replied in a voice that was even colder than before, which I hadn¡¯t thought was possible. Cowboy #1 proved that he wasn¡¯t in charge for the sake of his common sense as he crossed his arms and said ¡°Don¡¯t be silly, of course you¡¯re interested. What woman wouldn¡¯t be? Besides, how''s a little thing like you going to even reach the face of a big man like me?¡± Oh, you poor fool! That is the last thing that you should have asked a lady in her position! ***** Pamela Josephine Daniels Ugh. What a day! First, I have to deal with an excessive amount of obnoxious jerks all day and then I get lost on my way back my new apartment. How did I even end up in this part of town anyway? It had been a long week since I had gotten transferred from active duty to one of the recruiting centers in downtown Kansas City. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time that I¡¯d gotten transferred halfway around the world without any notice whatsoever, I¡¯m in the military after all, but this was the first time since boot camp where I was transferred on my own. Being transferred with a unit isn¡¯t too bad because a good unit backs each other up on and off the battlefield. As if being transferred on my own like this wasn¡¯t bad enough, I was also forced to live in civilian housing for the first time since I¡¯d joined the Marines at eighteen. After fifteen years in the Marines and another seventeen years in the Air Force, living off base was taking some getting used to. Unfortunately, I was so down in the dumps that I didn¡¯t notice I¡¯d taken a couple of wrong turns. Once I did notice, it was too late ¨C the thugs had blocked off the alley behind me, leaving my only exits either through them or with them. Lord Jesus help me. I prayed. I can¡¯t do this on my own. ¡°Hey, there little lady, what is a pretty little thing like you doing out here on a cold dark night like tonight? What say we take you home and warm you up with some... fireworks?¡± said a rather large man who was dressed in some sort of jacket with a snake-thing sprawling across the front as he stopped directly in front of me. Well, this should be interesting. ¡°Back off fools, I am not interested in any offer that you might suggest,¡± I said in the voice I used with recruits who were preparing to do something rather stupid. At that moment another man rounded the corner behind them in a fighter¡¯s crouch with a slightly curved wooden rod that somehow reminded me of a sword in each hand. He was not a large man, but at exactly six feet tall, he wasn''t a small one either, and he was clearly of at least half Japanese descent. He was dressed in black leather with his hair up in a topknot and some of those foot-shaped slip-on shoe things that go in between your toes on his feet. However, the very first thing that I noticed was the predatory grace with which he was quietly sneaking up behind the group of thugs. He may have been somewhere around my age, but clearly, this man was no slouch when it came to a fight. Backup has arrived! I thought to myself. Then one of the other thugs decided to speak up. ¡°We just want to take you home and give you a night that you won''t soon forget. What is wrong with that?¡± I have no idea who these guys are, and just because I won''t forget it doesn''t mean I will enjoy it. ¡°What¡¯s wrong is that I¡¯m not interested. At all. This is your last warning. Back off you fools, and I won''t break your faces even more than they already are.¡± I said in an even harsher tone of voice. ¡°Don¡¯t be silly, of course you¡¯re interested. What woman wouldn¡¯t be?¡± Denied their leader as he crossed his arms. ¡°Besides, how''s a little thing like you going to even reach the face of a big man like me?¡± If a rejection flies over a man¡¯s head at angels 50, does it still make a sound? I thought as I took a deep breath and prayed for strength before answering his second question with a demonstration. ¡°Like this!¡± I yelled as I kicked the leader in his family jewels as hard as I could. Between my combat trained legs and marine issue combat boots, it didn''t matter if he was wearing a cup, he was going to be in some serious pain. While he was busy folding in half to protect himself, I pulled my foot back to its starting position, before kneeing him in the face as soon as it was in optimum range. He hit the ground with a thud and stayed there. I don''t think he was dead, but I had no time to check at the moment since his friends were still up and kicking. I expected the thug who spoke up earlier to step up and take command of the group since he seemed to have the most initiative after their leader, but I was wrong. That honor went to a different thug, who drew a switchblade out of his pocket and pointed it at me proclaiming ¡°Lady, you just made a bad choice. We were going to make sure that you had a good time, but now you are going to be in a world of hurt before we are done with you!¡± As he was saying this, the samurai, as I decided to think of him tossed one of his not-swords to me over their heads. Of course, while this was happening the rest of the thugs drew their own knives and started to come towards me. Immediately after I caught it, I swung the not-sword at the head of the thugs¡¯ second in command. He tried to duck, but I still managed to whack him over the head hard enough that he dropped like a stone to join their leader on the ground. Then another thug attempted to stab me with a predictable downward swipe from above his head, which I blocked with one hand on either end of the not-sword before dispatching him with the same method as their leader. Looking around for another opponent, I discovered that the samurai had ambushed the other five thugs while I was busy with my three. ¡°Wow. That was fast! I thought that it would take longer than that to deal with all of those idiots!¡± I said. ¡°Nah. Most of the time long fights happen when those doing the fighting are evenly matched and it is a fair fight. This was NOT a fair fight.¡± replied the Samurai. ¡°True. Thanks for the assist by the way! I''m Pamela.¡± I said as I stuck my hand out in introduction. ¡°You''re welcome! I''m Chris,¡± he replied as he shook my hand. ¡°At this point, we should probably call the cops and let them take care of these idiots before we leave.¡± ¡°Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Do you want to make that call, or should I?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do it. I have a friend who is a cop and he should be on duty at the moment. Besides, the cops are used to me helping people deal with gangs around here.¡± he said. ¡°This wouldn¡¯t be the first time that I have rescued someone from some group of idiots who think they are so tough because they are in a gang.¡± ¡°Really? How often does that happen?¡± I asked. ¡°Far more than I would like,¡± he replied as he put his phone up to his mouth. ¡°Yo yo yo! What is up my dude?¡± blared Chris¡¯s phone before it could even ring once. ¡°Heya Howler, I just rescued a damsel.¡± ¡°Again? Where you at?¡± ¡°I¡¯m in an alleyway two blocks east andfive blocks to the south of my apartment building, and there are nine thugs on the ground.¡± ¡°Aight. We¡¯ll be there in a moment, just turned onto your street. See ya soon!¡± Howler said before he hung up. ¡°Wait, why did you call me a damsel?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a running joke between Howler and I. This wouldn¡¯t be the first time I rescued a pretty lady on my way home.¡± ¡°Let me guess, his nickname is Howler because he¡¯s loud,¡± I said. ¡°Would you like to borrow a pair of earplugs?¡± Chris asked. Chapter 00.2 – Prologue Part 02 ¡°The only magic that came close to working properly in the world of our Forefathers was the very lowest level functions of the stronger Relationship Bonds that we take for granted. Even there, however, it behaved in an unpredictable manner, rendering it almost unrecognizable. The only reason that it is recognizable at all is that it still had the same intent ¨C to tie people closer together.¡± Excerpt from The Birth of Our World, 1006 A.B. Christopher Leroy Knightsen An hour later after dealing with the police... ¡°Well, that was fun. I guess the next step is to help you find your apartment?¡± I asked as I shouldered my duffel bag and my spear. ¡°Sounds good to me. Here¡¯s my address.¡± Pamela said as she handed me a piece of paper with some rather flowery handwriting on it. ¡°So, you¡¯re my new upstairs neighbor!¡± ¡°Wait, how did you know that I¡¯m lost? When we gave our stories to the police, they did a good job of making sure that neither one of us could hear the other. Howler even managed to talk at a normal volume level for that part!¡± ¡°I have no idea, the question just popped into my head when I was just trying to decide what happened next.¡± ¡°Other than rehanging the antique weapons on the walls you mean?¡± ¡°Huh, it looks like whatever this is, it¡¯s going both ways. Since it was Howler¡¯s partner that took my statement and he¡¯s been to my house before, I told him that I was bringing them back home. I never said I was hanging them on my walls.¡± ¡°Well now, that is interesting. Before we continue, I have a brief side question to ask: If you use them as decoration, why would you take them down in the first place?¡± ¡°I was hosting a surprise birthday party for a friend of mine and I don¡¯t trust some of his other friends within twenty yards of a paring knife when they¡¯re sober, let alone these beauties when they¡¯re drunk.¡± ¡°Ouch. In that case, I don¡¯t blame you. Weapons and drunk people don¡¯t tend to make a very good combination.¡± ¡°No, they don¡¯t do they? Anyway, while I¡¯d like to figure out what¡¯s going on between the two of us with the whole info sharing thing, there¡¯s not much we can say without more data.¡± ¡°Agreed, unfortunately.¡± I paused considering. ¡°Would you like to grab a bite to eat together after I hang these back up?¡± I asked patting my duffle bag. She glanced at me sideways. ¡°Are you asking me out on a date?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re interested, then yes.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a date. Let me change into something a little more casual first, then I¡¯ll meet you back at your place. I get the feeling that it¡¯ll take you longer to hang those up than it will for me to get changed.¡± ¡°Alright then. Shall we go milady?¡± I said offering her my free arm. ***** Pamela Josephine Daniels Sure enough, when I knocked on his door thirty minutes later he was still hanging his weapons back up. ¡°Come on in, I¡¯ve only got one weapon left to hang,¡± Chris said as he opened the door. ¡°Feel free to take a look around, or you can talk to me while I hang it up. Either way is fine with me.¡± ¡°I think I¡¯ll watch and talk. We are going on a date after all.¡± I replied. ¡°Love your outfit by the way. It looks much better on you than the grey and blue you were wearing earlier.¡± I had changed into a yellow blouse that was tight enough to look good while loose enough to be modest, a frilly orange ankle-length skirt and a pair of bright red slippers. I¡¯d also added a pair of earrings that I¡¯d inherited from my Grandma with a single blue, red and yellow colored bird hanging from my ears. ¡°Why thank you. This is one of my favorite outfits, even if I don¡¯t often have an excuse to wear the earrings with it.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± He glanced at my ears as he started unwrapping the last thing from his bag, then he did a double take and froze.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Um, hello? Earth to Chris!¡± He shook himself out of it and then kept muttering ¡°You have got to be kidding me.¡± As he unwrapped what I assumed to be a sword of some kind, probably a katana or something. Turns out I was right. What I wasn¡¯t expecting was that the repeating bird pattern on the sheath of the blade perfectly matched the birds hanging from my ears. I was about to take off one of my earrings so I could compare them when Chris somehow fumbled the unwrapping such that he dropped the sword. We both dove for it and managed to catch it at exactly the same time, which is when a strange thing happened. Something grabbed us and pulled us out of our bodies so that we were looking at a still image of ourselves standing there holding onto the sword. There were two things that made the whole experience even stranger. The first was that we were in this together. I don¡¯t mean we were going through the same experience side by side. Instead, we were actually joined together in some fashion that let us feel the other person intimately, almost as if they were a part of us that just happened to be over there somewhere. That little bit of separation provided by the ¡°over there somewhere¡± feeling was just strong enough for us to tell where one of us stopped and the other began without interfering with the connection. The second thing that made it stranger was that our lives were flashing before our eyes, but rather than seeing what had happened we saw what would happen in the world of our birth. It would have been embarrassing with someone else seeing so much of our lives with the two of us tied together like we were, but it was happening so fast that we couldn¡¯t really have time to comprehend it before it was over. Suddenly we were sitting together on a couch in what looked a bit like Chris¡¯s living room: the carpet on the floor was the same as was the light fixture and the walls, apart from most of the doorways disappearing. The front door was still there, and obviously the couch we were sitting on and the light on the ceiling, but that was it. The only other contents of the room were the air, our clothing, and us. ¡°What just happened?¡± asked Chris. ¡°I have no idea,¡± I replied. We just sat there for a moment enjoying the other person¡¯s company while we tried to process what had just happened. An indeterminate amount of time later, Chris spoke up. ¡°Well, I may not know what comes next, but I have to say that I¡¯d rather do it with you by my side than any other way.¡± ¡°Agreed. Whatever happens, we¡¯re in this together.¡±
Congratulations! By agreeing to work together in substantially less than fifteen minutes the two of you have completed your first quest with flying colors! Also, given the events that led up to this point, your relationship has been upgraded from ¡°Friendship¡± to ¡°Courtship¡±!
¡°Huh?¡± we said in unison.
Greetings man and woman! I am the World System and it is my job to help everyone adjust to the new world that you will be living in. But I don¡¯t want you to merely adjust, I want you to thrive! Also, before you ask, I know your names are Chris and Pamela respectively, but this way is more fun.
¡°Thank you for answering our question,¡± I said. ¡°My next question is why us?¡±
As much as I would love to answer more of your questions, I have rules that I have to follow and those rules tell me that I have to send you on to the next step. I have one more automated message to give you after this one, then the two of you must touch the door handle at the same time to open it, then work together to get it closed again. Also, once you get the door closed only my automated systems will be available for the next five days. Just follow the quest lines and you¡¯ll be fine.
We looked at each other, then back at the floating blue textbox in front of us at which point it got replaced with a final message.
When you are ready, open the door together and begin your adventure! Be prepared to close it together fairly smartly as well¡­ Time until holding room despawns: 0:29
¡°Well, I guess we had better get moving.¡± Said Chris as he stood up and headed for the door. ¡°True. I wonder what it means when it says we¡¯ll have to work together to get the door shut.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure but there¡¯s only one way to find out.¡± ¡°Alrighty then, let¡¯s open the door on three. One¡­ two¡­ three!¡± As soon as we opened the door we were blasted backwards by a howling blizzard that threatened to simply blow us away. In fact, I would have been blown away if Chris hadn¡¯t somehow been directly behind me. Me being in front of him gave him the instant he needed to get down on one knee and brace himself. Having successfully prevented us from being blown away, he then pushed me forwards so I could actually reach the door again. Once I managed to grab the door, it didn¡¯t take too much effort to get it halfway closed allowing me to take shelter behind the door as I tried to push it closed. The blizzard was strong enough that I couldn¡¯t push it any more than halfway closed until Chris joined me behind the door. With both of us behind the door pushing as hard as we could we finally managed to get the door closed. It took us a surprisingly long time, but we got it closed. To our surprise, rather than hearing the latch click into place, the entire door simply disappeared leaving us stranded in the middle of a snowfield. ¡°Where are we?¡± I asked. ¡°It looks like Antarctic¨C¡±
Congratulations! Due to the level and classification of your relationship plus the strength and nature of your respective magics, your starting location has been upgraded from Level 01 Placid, Temperate to Level 10 Monstrous, Arctic! Due to your starting location, all training limits have been lifted! Go forth and conquer!
¡°Oh.¡± ¡°In that case, I guess I¡¯ll call it Antarcticoh.¡± ¡°Ok. That¡¯s fine with me!¡±
Congratulations on naming your first continent! Reward deferred until after you survive the ambush.
¡°Uh-oh. That doesn¡¯t sound good.¡± ¡°Nope.¡± Chapter 01.1 – New World, New Rules Part 01 ¡°There are times where it is best to learn something by taking it slow and listening to the instruction of those who have come before, and sometimes the best way to learn something is to jump in the deep end. Not that our Forefathers had a choice. There was nobody that came before them, and they weren¡¯t merely thrown into the deep end ¨C no, they were launched out to sea. The odd thing is, all of them agree that this was necessary. If they had not been introduced to their new world in this fashion, then they would never have gotten the level of control they needed in time to do what they did.¡± Excerpt from The Birth of Our World, 1006 A.B. Christopher Leroy Knightsen
Congratulations on naming your first continent! Reward deferred until after you survive the ambush.
¡°Uh-oh. That doesn¡¯t sound good,¡± I said. ¡°Nope,¡± Pamela replied. Naturally, the next thing I did was look around to try and figure out where this ambush was coming from and came up with nothing. ¡°Do you see anywhere for the ambush to come from?¡± I asked. ¡°Nope. I see some kind of pine trees all around us near the horizon, and some sort of crystalline-mountain thing off in that direction, but other than that all I see is snow.¡± ¡°Huh. Your eyesight must be quite a bit better than mine because all I see around us is snow and sky with a vague green line between them.¡± At this point, I realized that despite looking at everything around us we had yet to move our feet after the door disappeared. Pamela must have realized the same thing as we both took a step at the same time. I don¡¯t think either of us knew where we were going, but we still took a step so we weren¡¯t just standing there twiddling our thumbs. Then a truck-sized creature burst out of the snow roughly six meters away from us, roaring as it came charging straight at us. Both of us screamed incoherently and dove out of its way in opposite directions, which wasn¡¯t a surprise. What was surprising is that as I dove I instinctually pulled a longbow from somewhere and shot the polar-gator in the roof of its mouth with an arrow made of light. I¡¯m not sure whether it was my arrow or Pamela¡¯s fireball that exploded and blew its head off, but either way, it was most definitely dead when we rolled back to our feet. Before we could stop to think about what we¡¯d just done, thousands of much smaller monsters came bursting out of the snow around us, clearly upset at the death of the larger one. These smaller monsters ranged from the size of a football to the size of a large dog, with the footballs outnumbering the dogs by a significant margin. That was all I really had time to notice before a tidal wave of hunger and rage smashed down upon us. Still operating on instinct, I shot the incoming horde twice with my longbow with six arrows in each shot for a total of twelve arrows. Each arrow then split into dozens of smaller ones completely decimating the first two ranks of monsters, giving me the moment I needed to switch my bow out for a war hammer. The fight started to blur together for me at that point, and at first, I thought it was because I was desperately trying to fend off the monsters before they got to me, while also making sure that none of them got past me to hit Pamela from behind. However, it quickly became obvious to me that this fight was staged like the tutorial boss fight in a video game ¨C the monsters would attack in a given manner until I had learned to beat them off with the most appropriate weapon. At each stage of the fight, there was an unknown something inside my head that was guiding me through each step. What I learned was that I had six different weapons/weapon sets to choose from, and I could switch them out instantly whenever I wanted. These options were bow, longsword & shield, quarterstaff, spear, Warhammer, and the one I was most familiar with, katana & tanto. The tricky thing is that each weapon set was enchanted with elemental magic except for the last pair which was enchanted with pure or arcane magic.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. The other advantage of the tutorial function, once I got used to it and started to relax a bit, is that it gave me time to look at the monsters as individuals rather than a horde of furry mouths. They were a combination of a polar bear and a crocodile, with the head and tail of the croc, the legs of the bear and a torso that was an odd conglomeration of the two, all wrapped up in the fur, and (presumably) fat of the bear. All of them were surprisingly fast for their size, but they were rather predictable in their movements, making them much easier to fight. Once the tutorial was satisfied that I knew everything that I needed to know, it paused and let me fight the remaining monsters of my own accord while we waited for Pamela to finish her Tutorial. ***** Pamela Josephine Daniels It took me a while to get used to the way that the Tutorial fight worked, but eventually, I was able to calm down and learn what it was trying to teach me. I may not have paid much attention to any sort of fictional setting back on Earth, but I knew enough to recognize that I now had elemental magic, namely fire and air. The early stages of the Tutorial forced me to separate the two magics and use them individually, flipping back and forth between the two faster and faster as the fight progressed. Only when I had sufficiently mastered them individually did it let me use them together. The thing that scared me is that I could feel how much power I was wasting with each spell due to my lack of skill, yet the well of power at my center barely flickered, unmoved by my feeble efforts to drain it. Even when I finally got to combine the fire and air together, more than doubling the drain on my core, I was unable to put a significant dent in it. To make matters worse, once I finished with the combined section, the Tutorial informed me that it hadn¡¯t done anything to increase the amount of power available to me. Before I could panic, the Tutorial commanded me to take my core and wrap it around my body like a cloak. After being subjected to its drill sergeant esque behavior for an indeterminable amount of time, I obeyed without thinking. Unlike any of the other spells it had taught me, all of which involved pulling threads or beads of power from my core, this one wasn¡¯t aimed at the world around me - it was aimed at me. I was expecting a massive amount of pain, but it never came. While it did hurt briefly, it was completely overwhelmed by a feeling of freedom. When my vision cleared, my head was at least fifteen feet off of the ground, and my field of view was much broader than I was used to. I didn¡¯t need to look down at myself to know that I had transformed into a bird of living flame.
Congratulations! Both of you have finished the first stage of the Tutorial: Individual Instruction! Prepare yourselves for the final stage of the Tutorial: Teamwork & Communication!
said Chris in the back of my head. I agreed, looking around to see where the next attack was coming from. Before we could continue, one final polar-gator erupted from the snow, except this one was the size of an aircraft carrier, begging the question of how exactly it managed to hide under the snow. Like the ones that came before it, Papa polar-gator charged straight at us roaring his head off. Unlike all of the others, he was too big to move very fast, so his charge had a definite lumbering quality to it. We both exploded into action as some facet of the connection between us, combined with the lingering influence of the Tutorial, allowed us to formulate a plan that should work in a single heartbeat. Given the size disparity, melee combat with Papa seemed like a bad idea, so we decided to try and stay out of his reach. I took to the sky, circling around Papa lobbing fireballs and wind blades at him from twice what I judged his actual range to be while Chris backed off and began charging a light arrow. Sure enough, Papa quickly became enraged and tried to chase me around in circles, and I could feel the power building inside Papa, who was presumably charging up some sort of ability. Fortunately, Chris fired his supercharged arrow into Papa¡¯s eye on the second half of the first lap, killing him instantly before he managed to get his ability off.
Congratulations! Both of you completed the Tutorial without a scratch! Normally I would reward you for completing a Quest without taking any damage, but, sadly, this option was disabled for the Tutorial. Instead, have this deferred reward from earlier:
Congratulations! You just named your first Continent! Reward 01 (Necessary/Custom, Rare): Custom Fireproof (2,200¡ã F) Camping Gear Set Reward 02 (Rare): 250,000 exp. (Saved until the Global Leveling System Unlocks, requires Level 10) Reward 03 (Necessary/Custom, Divine Providence): Civilization Founder¡¯s Set
¡°Wat.¡± ¡°Understatement of the millennium.¡± Chapter 01.2 – New World, New Rules Part 02
¡°Another thing to keep in mind is that the World System was designed to ensure that our Forefathers succeeded. If you don¡¯t believe me, ask it yourself. There was one exception, but that is a topic for another time. Regardless, having the System actively helping them gave them a great deal of freedom in their choices, but it also bound them to follow certain paths. It may have been rather gentle in its bindings, but it is the World System. What it wants, it gets.¡± Excerpt from The Birth of Our World, 1006 A.B.
Christopher Leroy Knightsen Now that the fight was finally over, I finally got a chance to actually look at Pam¡¯s new form, and boy was it a doozy. She had gone from a rather small lady that was maybe 120 pounds soaking wet to a flaming bird that was roughly the size of a bus. Her torso, legs, and wings were that of an eagle, with a raven''s head perched on top and a peacock''s tail trailing behind. Obviously, her plumage was aflame, but she wasn¡¯t just orange and yellow. No, the entire rainbow was present, from the hard to see red of hydrogen, to the almost emerald green of copper, to the dazzling violet of potassium. asked Pamela as I continued to stand there with my jaw on the ground like an idiot. she muttered to herself as I started regaining my scattered wits.
Congratulations! You just named your entire world! Reward deferred until the appropriate time!
¡°Wait, why did I get that message? It was Pamela who did the naming,¡± I asked.
The pair of you are Lifebonded, which is the strongest Tier of Relationship Bond. Before you ask, no, that does not necessarily mean that two people will fall in love, though you two are already heading down that road. Generally speaking, Relationship Bonds are more likely to form platonic relationships than romances. It is entirely possible for one person to have multiple Relationship Bonds, but only one of them can be romantic at any given time. The price for attempting to have multiple romantic Relationship Bonds at the same time increases with the strength of the Bonds involved.
Relationship Bonds, especially Lifebonds, allow the people involved to share many things that would otherwise be unshareable, such as exp, health, mana, and quest rewards. However, different Bonds share different things in different ways, so you¡¯ll have to figure out how your specific Bond works the hard way. That said, the higher the Tier of the shared item(s) and Bond(s) involved, the more likely they are to respond in¡­ unusual ways. For various reasons, your Lifebond is more likely to share and/or duplicate rewards than many others.
Okay then. I¡¯m not sure what to make of any of that. Going back to why I was staring, I have to say that your bird form is very pretty.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t say I blame you for that one.¡± ¡°Alright. I¡¯m not really hungry yet, so I¡¯ll try and get the Camping Gear Set out and set up camp. Hopefully, there¡¯s a stove of some kind in the camping gear.¡± Pamela replied as she started gobbling up dead polar-gators off of the ground. While she was doing that, I decided to look at my inventory to see what we had. It was only after I had pulled it up that I realized that I knew how without being told. Mentally shrugging to myself, I saw that my inventory was divided into three sections: Equipped, Personal, and Lifebond. The Equipped section was self-explanatory, consisting of a 3D picture of me with tags for everything that I was wearing and a separate section for the weapons in my quick-select. However, unlike every videogame I¡¯d ever played before, it also included tags for my socks and underwear, and it didn¡¯t seem to have a limited number of slots. Instead, it only seemed to be limited by whether or not I could physically wear the item in that fashion. The personal section of my inventory held everything of a personal nature that wasn¡¯t equipped. This included the wedding jewelry I¡¯d inherited from my grandparents, my journal, several keepsakes I¡¯d acquired over the years, and, oddly enough, all of my spare underwear. The rest of my clothing was in a subsection of the Lifebond part of my inventory. There was another subsection that was set aside for Pamela, but it was minimized by default. Sort of like how a married couple might each have their own closet in their shared bedroom, but wouldn¡¯t look in the other person¡¯s section unless they needed to access it for some reason. The rest of the Lifebond section had a wide variety of things, the most notable items being the Camping Gear Set, Civilization Founder¡¯s Set, and a pair of boxes, the first labeled as ¡°Transferred Apartment Contents: Chris,¡± and the second was Pamela¡¯s. When I tried to open mine to see what was in it, I got an error message.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Error: no long-term dwelling selected. To open this box, a long-term dwelling must be selected or constructed.
Shrugging, I mentally selected the Camping Gear Set to see what was in it and got an interesting list:
Custom Fireproof (2,200¡ã F) Camping Gear Set The set includes: 01 x Tent (10x10x8, auto-setup, contains all the other items) 01 x Cast-iron Skillet 01 x Stainless Steel Cooking Pot 01 x Cooking Tripod w/ Attachment Clips 02 x Bag of Holding (inventory system compatible, Soulbinds on pickup, Autoequipped) 50 x Clothing Repair/Replacement Kits 75 x 1 lb. of Assorted Spices 02 x Custom Sleeping mats 10 x 1-Year Toiletry Kit 02 x Cooking Polar-Gators for dummies - A Beginner¡¯s Guide 02 x Foraging for Nincompoops - A Beginner¡¯s Guide.
I looked around for a flat spot to set up the tent in between all of the corpses, bloodstains, and assorted craters of the battlefield. Finding one, I mentally selected the tent expecting to have to set it up manually. To my surprise, because I already knew where I wanted it, the tent simply popped into existence. It was a ten-foot cube with a pyramid on top, the entire thing patterned like Pamela¡¯s feathers intermixed with a wide variety of weapons, ranging from antique wooden swords all the way to the newest generation of machineguns. Before I could open the tent to look at the interior, Pamela landed next to me, shifted back to human form, then passed out and flopped on her face. ***** Pamela Josephine Daniels When I finally woke up from my nap, I discovered that Chris had moved me into the tent and placed me on what was clearly my sleeping mat. His was black with a glowing sword embroidered in the middle of it, while mine had the top half of one of my tail feathers covering it, which was nice. I would have expected something like this to be rather gaudy, but somehow the colors worked together well enough that it was a thing of beauty. The odd thing was that my sleeping mat and I were in the middle of the tent and the cooking tripod was set up above my head. There wasn¡¯t anything attached to it, it was just sitting there. Well, I¡¯m not going to find any answers in here. I guess I better go find Chris. ¡°Oh good, you¡¯re awake!¡± said Chris as I stepped out of the tent. ¡°Are you cold at all?¡± ¡°No, why would I be cold? Also, why was the cooking tripod set up above my head?¡± ¡°Would you like the good news, the odd news, or an actual answer first?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ Let¡¯s go with the good news first I guess.¡± ¡°The good news is that I don¡¯t think you¡¯re capable of freezing to death. Or at all really.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°We¡¯re in some sort of frozen wasteland. Ish. We might just be in the middle of some kind of frozen lakebed. Either way, it¡¯s really cold out, you¡¯re wearing snowshoes, a pair of gym shorts, and a very modest sports bra, and you just told me you¡¯re not cold.¡± ¡°What!?¡± I looked down at myself and sure enough, I was wearing far less than I should have been, yet I wasn¡¯t cold. What he hadn¡¯t mentioned was that I could see sweat slowly steaming off of me as I stood there. ¡°You could have at least tried to put one of your shirts or a blanket around me!¡± It was only after I started yelling at him that I realized I was only yelling out of habit and my outfit didn¡¯t really bother me. This was partially because Chris was a complete gentleman, keeping his eyes on my face except when he was pointing at the various pieces of my outfit, and partially because of what we¡¯d shared during the Transition. I may not be entirely sure where our relationship was going, but it was blatantly obvious it would not be platonic in nature. ¡°I did try. I got a warning about your Elemental Body Control Level being too low, whatever that means, and then it took whatever item I tried to put on you and deposited it in the shared section of our inventory.¡± ¡°What? Why would it do that?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not entirely sure, but I do have a good guess, which brings us to the odd news. I think the World System deposited us here because of the control issues that you¡¯ll be having with your body temperature and such, as evidenced by the fire-proof rating of the camping gear and the fact that I was able to use your head instead of a campfire to cook my lunch.¡± ¡°What!? Why!? How did it even occur to you that might be a thing!?¡± ¡°When you switched back to your human form, you passed out before you could light the campfire, then started melting your way through the snow at an alarming rate. Fortunately, I¡¯d already set up the tent and our sleeping pads, so I was able to just pick you up and carry you to the tent without too much difficulty. I had to pause and set you on several of the larger polar-gators so I had a hand free to unzip the front of the tent. When I came back to pick you up, you¡¯d started burning your way through their fur in several places and I could hear them sizzling under their fur. After that, I set you on your sleeping mat and went to take a closer look at the burned sections." "Huh. Well, there''s another advantage of being Lifebonded." "Oh? And what might that be?" "You''re immune, or at least highly resistant, to my body temperature. Actually, now that I think about it, you seem to be comfortable wearing less than you should in this climate. I mean, your outfit looks good for a particularly cold day back in Kansas, but that''s a far cry from the Arctic temperatures around here." "True. Love the color pattern on your sleeping mat by the way.¡± ¡°Thanks. Wait, where did all of the corpses go? I know I ate a bunch of them, but there should still be several hundred, if not several thousand, of them laying around on the ground out here. The only one I see at the moment is Papa¡¯s.¡± ¡°I was getting to that. You slept through the night, and I¡¯ve only been awake for about an hour today. In the meantime, it occurred to me to try to test the storage limits of our inventory, so I decided to try to create an emergency food supply.¡± ¡°In other words, you spent several hours running around in circles picking up corpses.¡± ¡°Yes. Surprisingly, after the first fifty or so an entirely new section of our inventory opened up, and it appears to be reserved for the civilization we''re going to found. While I¡¯m sure it has more limits somewhere, so far the only one I¡¯ve found is the size of the individual objects it can hold.¡± ¡°Ah. Are you sure that we''re going to found a civilization? That seems like a pretty audacious goal to have right out the gate." "I don''t think the World System is going to give us much of a choice. We haven''t even been in the world for two days yet, and it''s already given us the Founder''s Set and the reserved section of our inventory. Heck, we''re in a LitRPG world and it hasn''t even given us levels at this point, yet it''s already hinting at founding a civilization." "That''s fair."
Warning: Global Leveling System startup occurs in three days. I recommend finding a safe place to call home for quite some time before this happens as the monsters won''t be scared of you anymore once the Leveling System is online.
"Um¡­ ok. I guess we''ve got a goal now. The question is how do we know where to look?" "Let''s check out that Crystal mountain thing I noticed yesterday. You can show me what you''ve learned about the inventory system along the way." "Let''s see how fast we can travel first, it''ll be kinda hard to teach you anything while we''re running, but otherwise that sounds like an excellent idea. Let''s do this." Chapter 01.3 – New World, New Rules Part 03
¡°That said, do not wrongly assume that our Forefathers had everything going their way. As they discovered the hard way, they were not the only ones in this new world. There was also a great evil, the very same one that we are fighting today. If our Forefathers had been created with the rest of the world rather than copied from elsewhere, things would have been very different in ways that we can barely even begin to speculate. One thing that all of our Forefathers agree on is that they would have been far more likely to give in to the evil.¡± Excerpt from The Birth of Our World, 1006 A.B.
Christopher Leroy Knightsen ¡°Hey Chris,¡± said Pamela a hour or so later, ¡°since we¡¯re in a LitRPG world, shouldn¡¯t we have a character sheet or something?¡± At this point, we¡¯d eaten breakfast, packed up, and had just started walking towards the crystal mountain thing that we¡¯d decided to check out.
Character Sheet Functions currently inactive. Activation will be concurrent with Leveling System.
¡°Oh. They really weren¡¯t kidding when they said we were dumped into a completely new world were they?¡± ¡°Nope,¡± I replied. ¡°However, I find it interesting how often the World System jumps in and answers our questions.¡±
Automated Answering subsystem is active. Current authorized users: 2. Current Sub-system Capacity: 1000 users
¡°So, the computer is bored,¡± I paraphrased. ¡°Well, it will be useful while it lasts.¡±
User possesses Adam & Eve level priority override. Minimum System load threshold for response lag: 125%
¡°Well then. That¡¯s not ominous at all!¡± said Pamela. ¡°Given the way things have gone so far, I think we¡¯ll just have to get used to it.¡± ¡°True. It¡¯ll be interesting to see how long it takes us to cover the intervening 120-ish miles on foot.¡± ¡°I miss my car,¡± I sighed. ¡°I may not have used it much since it was only a ten-minute walk to work, but having to walk for several days straight is rather annoying.¡± ¡°I¡¯m thinking we should see how far we can get on the first day and then plan from there. Worse comes to worse, I can shift and fly us the rest of the way there.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan. For now, though, why not try running for a little bit? You know, take advantage of the fact that we¡¯re not in our fifties anymore.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± she said, looking down at herself. ¡°Wow. You¡¯re right, we look like we¡¯re somewhere in our mid-twenties! ¡°Last one to the edge of the forest is a rotten egg!¡± she finished, sprinting ahead. ¡°Hey, no fair!¡± I yelled, running after her. ¡°Nana-Nana-Boo-Boo!¡± she yelled back without slowing down. Oh, is that how we¡¯re doing this is it? Alright then, time to use a little magic. I thought to myself as I equipped my Quarterstaff and used its air magic for a speed boost to race past her. she yelled, switching over to mental communication since the air magic I was using would have drowned out her words. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. she said, catching up to me and starting to pull ahead. I said, wishing I had just a little bit of her power to increase my speed just a little more. To my surprise, I was able to borrow a bit of her power to do exactly that and we reached the forest neck and neck. Then we both slowed down to a fast jog and dropped our respective speed-boosts to avoid faceplanting into a tree. ¡°Well darn. Now we¡¯re both rotten eggs,¡± I said. ¡°At least we don¡¯t smell like one.¡± ¡°Are you- drat.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I had the perfect comeback, but I¡¯d rather not start a forest fire accidentally-on-purpose.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fair. Besides, I¡¯ve clearly been sweating all night without deodorant or a bath. I have no illusions about how I smell at the moment.¡± ¡°On a different note, neither of us are out of breath or anything, and there didn¡¯t seem to be a noticeable price for the speed boost.¡± ¡°Huh, you¡¯re right. Shouldn¡¯t there be a price for that kind of magic beyond just the mana required for the spell?¡±
Price temporarily negated due to dormant leveling system. Normally, the price is [(1 + 0.01 * boost-factor) * (1 -- spell-level * spell-mastery) / (agility-stat / 10)] * default-stamina-drain.
¡°Thanks!¡± Pamela said.
User status: Welcome!
¡°Anyway, I¡¯ve seen what¡¯s in the Camping Gear Set we got, but what¡¯s in the Founder¡¯s Set?¡± she continued. ¡°I don¡¯t know, let¡¯s see.¡±
Civilization Founder¡¯s Set (Dual-Soulbound) The set includes: 10 x Settlement Founder¡¯s Stone 10 x Settlement Upgrade Stones 10 x Villiage Upgrade Stones 10 x Town Upgrade Stones 01 x Capitol Upgrade Stone. 01 x Palace Foundation Stone (requires at least 9 x Settlements, 1 x City) 02 x How to Found a Civilizations for Ignoramuses - A Beginner¡¯s Guide
¡°I guess that means that it¡¯s Soulbound to both of us?¡± ¡°Probably. At least it includes a Beginner¡¯s Guide.¡± ¡°True. So what did you learn about the inventory system while I was sleeping?¡± ¡°Not all that much really, it won¡¯t take me too long to explain. The most obvious thing is that it¡¯s divided into three sections¡­¡± ***** Pamela Josephine Daniels Most of the rest of the day was nothing special, we just kept traveling through the coniferous forest in more or less a straight line. We did encounter a few creatures, most notably a monkey/squirrel hybrid that kept trying to steal something from our bags until we started killing them when they got too close. They were kinda cute the first two or three times, but after that they got rather annoying in a hurry. We tried to discourage them without killing them, but then they started throwing pinecones at us and suddenly they weren¡¯t so cute anymore. On the plus side, they do explode nicely when lit on fire. We¡¯re not entirely sure why, but they do. There was also a couple of carnivorous plants, all of which seemed to prefer me over Chris for some reason, so mostly I¡¯d lit them on fire before I¡¯d understood what was happening. Several of them tried to use some sort of sleeping gas or contact sedative or something on me, but they didn¡¯t seem to work very well, probably because of my elemental affinities. About an hour before the sun started to go down and we started looking for a campsite for the night, I decided to climb a rather large tree to see where we were. As we¡¯d gotten closer to the mountain, the trees had gotten much thicker and we¡¯d lost all sight of the mountain about an hour before. If it hadn¡¯t been for what little sunlight that did make it through the branches we would have been completely lost. ¡°Hey Chris! Only two more miles to the mountain thing! Let¡¯s keep going and see if we can find a cave or something!¡± ¡°Aright! I thought you said it look like it was at least one hundred and twenty miles from the clearing/frozen lake thing where we started?¡± ¡°Well, we¡¯ve been jogging all day and we were able to use our speed boosts from time to time. It may not be too much of a difference at once, but it all adds up over the course of a day.¡± ¡°True. Oh hey! Check out this hole under this tree over here! It looks like the perfect place to camp for the night. It¡¯s just big enough for the two of us, it¡¯s sheltered from the elements, and it doesn¡¯t look like there¡¯s anything living in it at the moment. I say we camp here and then finish the journey in the morning when we have sunlight to actually see what we¡¯re looking at.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan to me,¡± I said as I finished climbing down the tree, before we worked together to set up camp. ¡°Wait, why do you have two blankets but I don¡¯t have any?¡± ¡°Because you¡¯re an anti-cover hog now.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Remember how I said that every time I tried to put a blanket on you it ended up in the shared section of our inventory?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± ¡°Well, when I came back to check on you an hour or two later, I discovered that you¡¯d somehow managed to shove all of the blankets out of our shared inventory and into my own.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re saying that instead of stealing your covers, I was giving you mine.¡± ¡°Pretty much.¡± ¡°I guess I¡¯ll get used to my new body temperature eventually. Anyway, let¡¯s eat and then sleep. It¡¯s been a long day.¡± ¡°Yes it has. Here¡¯s some leftover stew from yesterday. I¡¯m going to go off that way to dig a latrine. Just in case you¡¯re asleep by the time I get back, Have a nice night!¡± ¡°You too! Sleep tight and don¡¯t let the bedbugs bite!¡± ¡°I won¡¯t! I¡¯m not biting them back if they bite me first though.¡± ¡°Why would you do that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s what Grandma always said when putting us to bed at night.¡± ¡°Huh. Well, good night Pamela!¡± ¡°Good night Chris.¡± Chapter 01.4 – New World, New Rules Part 04
¡°One thing to keep in mind is that evil can be very sneaky. Our Forefather¡¯s didn¡¯t realize the significance of their first contact with the evil¡¯s minions ¨C how could they when they didn¡¯t know that the evil existed? It didn¡¯t help that the Evil¡¯s first attempt to hinder their progress had been blocked by the World System before it even began. The second contact, however, was much more obvious and was the first true victory of the light, even if it would be generations before the enormity of our victory became clear.¡± Excerpt from The Birth of Our World, 1006 A.B.
Christopher Leroy Knightsen Once we had gotten packed up and moving the next morning, it was a matter of minutes to cross the remaining distance to the edge of the forest around the crystal mountain. From this close, without the woods in the way, the view was breathtaking ¨C especially when the sun finally cleared the horizon far enough to start lighting up the mountain, which lit up the world around it in an ever-shifting rainbow of colors. I may have been relatively new to the whole magic thing, but even I could tell that there was a great deal of power flowing through the mountain, even if it was chaotic and uncontrolled. There was a part of me that wanted nothing to do with this, but it was drowned out by the little kid in me that saw an opportunity for adventure. An opportunity that I couldn¡¯t pass up. Apparently, neither could Pamela as we both started running up the mountain. Naturally, as soon as we both realized the other person had the same idea, it became a race. A race against what, I¡¯m wasn¡¯t sure at first, but it certainly wasn¡¯t against each other. We were having too much fun making the climb together for it to be a competition between us. As the race progressed, I began to feel our opponent looming malevolently behind us somewhere, trying to turn us against each other. Up until now, I had thought that my faith was all but dead, that the death of my parents and grandparents had shredded it into oblivion. In that moment, however, my heart told me that we could not let the darkness win. Sure, there was a small part of me that wanted to give in to the darkness, to forego the responsibility in front of me, and in other circumstances, I probably would have. I never wanted to be responsible for anyone but me. But my faith wasn¡¯t the only thing telling me not to let the darkness win. Despite my fear of responsibility, time, and time again, I kept ending up in charge of one group or another. When I saw people who needed help, I just couldn¡¯t sit there and watch them continue to fall apart. I had to go help them. Eventually, I had helped so many people around me that they would all come to me for help, and I would give it to them, or if I couldn¡¯t help, I¡¯d send them on to someone who could. My heart was simply too big to do otherwise. In this case, it wanted me to fight the darkness with everything that I had ¨C except I knew that it would not be enough. Not when every instinct I had was telling me that even with our newfound magic, our strength would not be enough. I was reminded once again of the old proverb that ¡°Death is as light as a feather and duty is as heavy as a mountain, yet every day we choose to shoulder our mountains and keep going.¡± What that saying doesn¡¯t tell you is that sometimes duty itself is the only thing keeping you going. When you are set up to become the progenitor of an entire race, your duty isn¡¯t just the people around you, but also to those who will come later. It is the most onerous burden I¡¯d ever carried, but for the first time in my life, my sense of duty was working with my fear of failure. I knew I could not succeed ¨C but I also knew of someone who cannot fail. Someone whose strength and wisdom are unparalleled. Someone who cares far more than I ever have or ever will. I don¡¯t understand why he let so much of my family die, but this fight is not just about me, it¡¯s about the future of this world.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. For the first time in decades, my heart, mind, and soul cried out to God for help, and He answered. I don¡¯t know what He did, but somehow Pamela and I managed to get to the top first, placing our hands on the very peak of the mountain simultaneously.
Location claimed for residence.
Warning: someone is attempting to steal your residence!
Theft denied due to the Progenitor¡¯s Prerogative. Activating Defensive Measures.
Then a tidal wave of white burst out of the mountain and swept me away into darkness. ***** Pamela Josephine Daniels When we started racing up the crystal-mountain-thing together, I was somewhat surprised at how well we were able to predict the other person¡¯s reactions to the obstacles we faced. But my surprise took a backseat to enjoying the time together. After all, some things in life are meant to be enjoyed, and this is one of them. That changed once the darkness stopped hiding and started trying to trip us up, and I was reminded once again that different people struggle with different things. Through our Lifebond, I could tell that Chris was struggling with his own issues as we raced the darkness to the top. It wasn¡¯t exactly easy for me either. Still, I was only dealing with the fear and other emotions actively being projected at us by the darkness, mainly because I¡¯d resolved my crisis of faith years ago. Even so, I was under no illusions about our ability to defeat the darkness on our own. There is already too much darkness living in our hearts for us to maintain the purity of soul necessary to defeat the darkness. Sure, it might be possible to remove some of the darkness from our hearts over time, but the darkness is too ingrained in who we are for us to ever completely get rid of it on our own power. That requires help from someone who is the very definition and source of all that is pure, and right, and true. So I turned my heart towards heaven and prayed to God for whatever He thought we¡¯d need to succeed in our endeavors, then focused on the climb in front of me. Sure, I could have kept praying, but the very foundation of faith is trust in the unseen. So I trusted that He heard me the first time, believed that He knew I¡¯d keep praying if I could, and focused entirely on the task at hand, trusting that He would come through. It¡¯s a good thing that I did too as Chris was so lost in his internal struggles that he wasn¡¯t paying attention to the mountain in front of him the way that he should, which made it my job to guide his steps as well as my own as we raced upwards. Fortunately, there weren¡¯t any cliffs in our way, just a bunch of upward sloping, uneven terrain, so all I had to do was help him keep his balance and guide him through the smoother sections. Every now and then, I had to help him over a particularly rough patch when there was no smooth path, but mostly it was smooth-ish sailing. It galled me that there were a few instances where he helped me more than I helped him, which I chalked up to divine providence just as much as Chris. To make matters worse, the darkness started throwing some sort of shadow spears at us, which we then had to dodge as we made our way to the top. The good news is they weren¡¯t very accurate, nor did they move particularly quickly. Chris even managed to dodge several of them without looking at them, which is an impressive feat considering how distracted he was. The bad news is the number and accuracy of the spears increased as we climbed, making it even harder to make it to the top before the darkness did. When the darkness added some shadow boulders and then lightning to the mix, I had to focus so hard on keeping the two of us alive that I lost all track of time, so I was just as surprised as Chris when we finally made it. As we reached for the very peak of the crystal-mountain-thing, I wondered why it was so important. What is so special about this location that the shadow is desperate to claim it first? Then our hands made contact simultaneously, and we somehow claimed the area for ourselves.
Location claimed for residence.
Warning: someone is attempting to steal your residence!
Theft denied due to the Progenitor¡¯s Prerogative. Activating Defensive Measures.
Everything went white, and I knew nothing more.