《Doctor Who: Test Runner》 Doctor Who: Test Runner Prologue ¡°They are waking up.¡± ¡°Already? I thought we would have more time.¡± ¡°It seems so.¡± I heard voices ring out, piercing through the dullness of my mind. What was going on? ¡°Looks like they are a he after all¡­ It looks like we got lucky with the body too¡­¡± ¡°Aw,,, I was really hoping that they would be a girl¡­¡± What were they talking about? What was happening right now? Why was my mind so hazy? I could barely think¡­ ¡°Take a look at the analisis, we really lucked out with this one.¡± ¡°Survivalist¡­ worked as a civil engineer and technician¡­ I think you are right, we really lucked out.¡± ¡°And check out the way he died, he took on four guys that tried to rob him and actually managed to kill them in the process¡­ with one of their buddies'' knives too. Impressive for a human from a unawakened world.¡± I felt a flash of a memory at what I was pretty sure were a man''s words, an alleyway, four guys, a bloody knife in my hand and a stab of pain in my chest¡­ ¡°Oh, take a look at this¡­ the world he was from knew of our universe¡­ Incredible. I had heard of this before, but check it out¡­¡± ¡°That makes this quite a lot easier. We don''t have to explain as much.¡± Memories started flickering to life in my head, flashing by and waking up my mind as if I was sleeping, but that wasn''t quite right¡­ it was almost as if I was drugged before, but not quite¡­ my mind felt as if some repressor was being released¡­ My mind was becoming whole again, which was surprising. Why was that surprising? ¡°He looks almost aware again.¡± My memory started coming back fully as the man said those words. My name was Kiliad Jones. That sounds about right anyway. My life started running through my mind, almost as if I was watching a film through my own eyes. Five year old me playing a video game, ten year old me playing around with a TV that broke, fifteen year old me assembling a model of a bridge in school, twenty year old me earning my diploma, thirty year old me at work¡­ Thirty year old me looking at a stone pendant in a hospital¡­ no, I wont think about that¡­ I moved on through my memories, finding myself sitting by a campfire in the woods and eating a rabbit I caught, then in a river, a mountain. I was running from myself out in the forest, alone. My mind was not in the best state after what had happened, but slowly through those months I found a part of myself that I hadn''t known before. The wild was¡­ freeing. There was life all around in a way I had never known in the city. It was incredible. Then I found myself back in a city again. I don''t remember why, but I had the vague feeling of getting myself some more supplies, maybe a nice new hatchet. But then I found myself in a back alley, surrounded by four boys all with knives in their hands. I felt myself spring into action as a kid threw himself at me, with the look of murder on his face, punching and kicking like an animal until I found myself with the kid''s knife. Then the rest were on me, and my body flew into action. I had taken quite a few combat classes during my time, and my time in the wild had only amplified my skills at fighting. Though I had never killed. But¡­ They made me. After a moment of short and brutal fighting, stabs and slashes from the knives and punches and kicks coming to an end as I stood in a pile of the collapsed thuggish boys, then I felt the final stabs of pain coming from one of the many wounds those boys gave me in the fight and everything went dark. Death came for everyone, so I wasn''t really panicked or angry or anything. Just¡­ disappointed. My life was short. It felt almost pointless in the end. But now¡­ I opened my eyes. I didn''t know what to think. I felt myself dying, and it was unmistakable. There was no chance I could have survived. So¡­ why could I open my eyes? Why did I still have eyes? Thoughts of that type rushed through my mind while I looked up at a bright blue sky, with confusion so deep that I was sure I had never felt anything close to this before. Not even when I tried to find out why deleting that one item from a video game I was designing made the entire world change to red. A dark figure moved and covered my view of the blue sky, and caused me to blink and turn my head to the figure in confusion. ¡°Welcome back.¡± I heard coming from the dark figure above my body, sounding like the man''s voice that was talking to the woman before. ¡°Back? Back where?¡± I said in confusion, realizing that I was lying on the ground as I did and staggering to my feet while I asked and looking around with sharp and confused eyes. I took in the sight around me with growing confusion. I was in a grassy forest clearing, with large boulders set in a circle around me and therefore around the center of the small clearing. But I wasn''t alone, as there was a man and a woman standing on either side of me. The man was tall, and looked very muscular, with black hair and a black robe. The woman looked basically the exact opposite to the man however, as she had bright blond hair that was cut short and had a bright white shirt alongside a pair of blue jeans. ¡°Back to life, I suppose.¡± The man answered my question simply, deadpaning and making my head reel. ¡°Back- Back to life?¡± I asked haltingly ¡°Where am I?¡± I asked, concerned and a little bit scared at this point. Something was going on with these two people, and I did not like it. ¡°You are inside our realm, Kiliad Jones.¡± The woman answered with a bright smile, making me frown. ¡°Realm?¡± I asked, questioningly and getting to the point of my confusion. ¡°Ah, I see.¡± The dark man cut in then, looking like he was seeing something in front of his eyes that I could not see, ¡°Your universe does not have any true knowledge of the gods, just myths, rumours and stories... That does make this a little difficult.¡± The frown on his face clearly showed his displeasure at that information. ¡®Gods. Right. So, this is the afterlife then.¡¯ I thought to myself with a sigh, before speaking up to the two people with me. ¡°So you are deities then? And this is what, an afterlife?¡± I asked, cutting straight to the point. Honestly, I had hoped that there would be some sort of afterlife. Heaven, reincarnation, whatever. Death had not really scared me, and it definitely didn''t scare me now that it was over with. ¡°Afterlife¡­ Now that is an interesting concept.¡± The older black haired man mused for a second, ¡°I suppose in a way, the answer would be yes. We are deities, and you are about to begin your next life. Your afterlife.¡± I nodded at his answer, taking everything at face value. The younger woman spoke up next, making me turn my head to her. ¡°But before we send you there, there are quite a few things that we need to talk about. This is important for both of us and we only have so much time, so you need to pay attention.¡± The goddess started off, looking rather like a school teacher as she did, ¡°First things first, we need to bring you up to speed about how reality works and all that.¡± She said with a sigh, looking to the man in a clear attempt to pass off that particular explanation to him. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The man looked back at me with a nod, apparently fine with the role that he had been assigned by the other deity. ¡°Reality is complicated, as you might expect, but I can simplify it for you. There are thousands of gods and goddesses across the omniverse, living inside their individual realms inside the god plaine. Divine energy is very important for deities, and you can imagine it being basically the currency and food of all gods and goddesses. We can''t live without it.¡± The black guy started off his explanation with me nodding along. ¡°But, that power can only be gained in certain ways.¡± The god continued seriously, ¡°Namely through a supply that is generated by a living soul inside a universe in the mortal plane with a link to our realms, producing and filtering devine energy by staying alive.¡± He told me, letting things click into place inside my mind instantly. ¡°So you reincarnate people into various universes to help you gather energy. I am getting iseki¡¯d.¡± I say slowly, with a grin. I always liked that genre, and now two deities are saying it''s real? Hell yes! ¡°Yes, that''s about the gist of it.¡± The woman said quickly, before the man started speaking again. ¡°Your universe has quite the amount of clever terms. I will have to remember those.¡± The god noted before continuing with his lecture, ¡°So we will be sending you into another universe with your newly alive body, and you will have to survive inside that universe. But there are several other things that we have to discuss first. You will be granted a link to the two of us, in the form of a disciple quest system with a few changes for your situation, granted two in-world bonuses of your choice, and sent into a planet that we have created for you to live on between your quests throughout the universe.¡± The god explained, making me pause. ¡°Hang on, could you tell me about quests, the system, bonuses and the planet before you do that? Or the universe in general?¡± I asked quickly, making sure not to make the mistake of going in with only the absolute minimum of information. If videogames and life in general have taught me anything, it was that going in blind was a good way to mess something up, and potentially die. And that was something that both the deities and me wanted to avoid, going by their talk of energy. ¡°Yes, I was getting to that.¡± The older man said with a straight face, then he did a few quick motions through the air as if touching a screen while he talked. ¡°A quest system is the most basic system there is, and it can be created with very little energy. The basics of this system is that you can communicate with us, be given various quests to do different things around the universe for us, and then be sent into the location of the quest to try to pass the quest and gain some rewards or fail and end up back on Fera, which is the name of the planet you will be surviving in between quests.¡± As he finished his explanation of this new system, I suddenly felt a weird pressing sensation in my mind. It wasn''t painful or even uncomfortable, just odd. Then a screen popped in front of my eyes. ¡®I suppose that is how I gained access to this system?¡¯ I thought to myself as I looked at the black rectangle that appeared in the air before me, with white words reading ¡°User Killiad Jones recognized.¡± flashing on the screen before it vanished. ¡°And now you are connected to the system.¡± The god finished his swiping motions and looked back at me. ¡°Now, if you call ¡®Status¡¯ you will be able to see the details of any active quest. That will be important when you get a quest.¡± He explains to me, which I nod to. ¡°Status.¡± I say to the air, and I watch as a black screen blinked into view in front of my face again.
Name: Killiad Jones Race: White Human Sex: Male Age: 30 Active Quests: None.
¡®Ok, well¡­ it works I guess. Its not particularly useful apparently, but I guess it will be important later.¡¯ I thought to myself before mentally dismissing the system screen, causing my view of the two deities and the forest clearing to be uncovered. ¡°Good.¡± The god said with a nod and a smile as he saw me do that before placing his arms behind his back and continuing with his lecture. ¡°Now that you have a basic idea of what the system will be, let''s discuss the universe that we are sending you too.¡± He said, moving on. ¡°Your world already knows about this universe in the form of a TV show, probably from some sort of small multiversal encounter, and you liked the show quite a bit. That show was Doctor Who.¡± The god proclaimed, causing my eyes to widen with shock. I was getting sent there!? Hell no! The goddess who was standing just to my right at this point started to laugh, looking at me with amusement. ¡°That was the exact look that he had when he took a look inside the universe for the first time.¡± She commented with a smile and bright eyes, glancing to the god. ¡°And I can''t go anywhere else?¡± I asked hesitantly, thinking about my actual rather extensive knowledge on the Doctor Who universe, and suddenly realizing the amount of danger that everyone in that universe was in practically every day. ¡°I am afraid not.¡± The dark haired god said with a grave look, clearly not wanting that to be the case. ¡®There is something deeper there.¡¯ I realized, ¡®He dont want me to go there either, but he doesn''t have a choice.¡¯ ¡°It''s not that bad.¡± The goddess protested looking at me with a smile, ¡°We will be making sure that your quests are not too dangerous for you, and we will be following The Doctor throughout his timeline so you will have some forehand knowledge to work off of, and possibly a luck bonus during quests from the Universal Will if you don''t interfere with the timeline too much.¡± She said with a bright smile, but causing me to blink in confusion. ¡°Universal Will? Is that like a consciousness of a universe, or like fate?¡± I asked hesitantly, unsure on if I should trust fiction in this case or not. I mean, that is sometimes the term that is used to describe basically the will of the universe which can be called destiny or fate, or the consciousness of the universe itself that guides events inside itself. ¡°Yes, it would be the consciousness of the universe. This particular Universal Will is a bit heavy handed on crafting events around The Doctor, it apparently took a big liking to him.¡± The black robed god said, explaining things with a frown. ¡°You should be aware of the Universal Will in any case, but you need to be cautious around interfering with Canon. Universal Wills ensure that a Canon event happens anyway, but any attempt to change it even on accident will cause it to give out consequences that it deems fit. Your quest system notes the amount of interference, but it is important to know that there are consequences. Potentially deadly ones.¡± The older man told me with a grave look. ¡°Right.¡± I said with a nod, accepting the new information without hesitation. ¡°Now that we have cleared that up, we should move on to introducing you to the world you will be staying on between your quests.¡± He continued before he looked at the younger looking goddess with a nod and stepped back, letting her take the floor. The woman smiled and started talking immediately, ¡°Good. So, I made this planet, Fera, myself and I placed it inside the universe to act as a rest zone from your quests.¡± she told me with a smile and waving her hands in seemingly random motions, and causing a large ball of light to appear in the air, the colors shifting until I could see that she was showing me the planet. It looked similar to earth honestly, not looking very special. The main difference was in the shapes of the continents, and the lack of any cities or lights coming from the planet. ¡°I based this planet off of a particular world that I gained the pattern to when I was younger, and I think that it will pose quite a challenge for you. It has a magical energy infuseing the planet for starters, influencing the world and changing the natural animals, plants and resources, and also acting as a source of power for monsters along with acting as a natural shield against almost any sort of scanning technology inside the universe. It also has no humans, so you don''t have to worry about finding people in the world.¡± She started explaining with a manic smile as she looked out on the world as if it was her child. ¡®Magic¡­ it has magic¡­¡¯ Was my only thought, as my mind went numb at the word. ¡°Oh, I forgot to mention that this energy will be completely harmless to you in its natural state and won''t affect you at all.¡± She continued, making me frown. ¡°Are you trying to say that I won''t be able to do magic?¡± I asked, annoyed at the idea of the animals doing more magic than I could. ¡°Yes.¡± She told me bluntly, causing me to sigh while she started messing with the globe again, this time zooming into a view of a large island, forests and even a large volcano resting on it. ¡°This is where you will be sent to, when we send you in-universe.¡± She said, pointing out the cost line of a section of the island and then dispelling the hologram of light after I took a good look at the island. The goddess stepped back after she dispelled the hologram, and she looked to the older looking god who spoke up as she did. ¡°Now, all that is left is for you to be given your two bonuses and you will be sent into the universe.¡± He said to me with a vague smile and looked at me expectantly. ¡°Um¡­ Is this a two wishes thing, or does the bonuses have some sort of restriction?¡± I asked hesitantly before asking for anything. ¡°Of course there are limitations.¡± The woman said with an almost impatient tone, ¡°You can ask for any simple item for a bonus, you can even ask for a very small power like an other-dimensional inventory, but that''s basically it.¡± she explained quickly and causing my brain to kick in. ¡°Right, those sound like good options. I guess for my first bonus I would like my survival gear from my old life, and for my second bonus the inventory sounds great.¡± I said after a moment of thinking. Realistically I didn''t have many options according to the goddess, so I just went with what I thought would be immediately useful in the survival situation that I was told Fera was going to be for me. ¡°Those are good choices.¡± The god confirmed with a nod, ¡°The survival gear is no challenge, but let''s talk about this inventory. I am afraid that we are going to have to put some limitations onto it.¡± The dark robed god told me, looking a bit disappointed. ¡°Right, that sounds fair.¡± I said evenly, looking at the god with expectation. Any inventory is better than no inventory I guess. ¡°A good solid limitation in this case should be limiting what can be stored. I believe that only allowing items that you created or quest rewards would do. Add on the normal limiter of having to be in contact with what you want stored, and I believe that should work nicely.¡± The man told me, thinking it over and leaving me slightly surprised. ¡°And that''s it? No size or amount limit for the inventory?¡± I questioned, slightly confused. That is normally the deal in fantasy, you get an inventory the size of a closet or a few inventory slots. But he didn''t mention that at all. ¡°No, I don''t believe that will be necessary.¡± The black haired god smiled at me with a gleam in his eye, apparently approving of the lack of a size limit. ¡°And I believe that it is time for you to get started in Fera.¡± He said suddenly, as if a countdown had started, ¡°Remember to survive. You must survive. Always.¡± He announced with a grave look as the goddess beamed. ¡°We will be watching!¡± Chapter one: First day in Fera I reeled suddenly as several things happened in an instant. Firstly, a heavy weight appeared on my shoulders, causing me to stumble a bit as the unexpected shift left my balance to start to panic to counterbalance my body. Secondly, I could feel what I could only describe as a shift in my mind that did not help at all with my balance issues. Probably something to do with the inventory that I asked for. Thirdly, I was now on a sunny hill in the open air faceing a beach with a view of the ocean behind that. The shift in location was instantaneous, going from standing in the forest clearing faceing two deities to being on a hill, a steep one no less, looking out across an ocean to the horizon that a split second ago was the face of a goddess with the smile of a crazy person. ¡°AHRG!!!¡± I shouted out in confusion as my balance lost the war it had against gravity and I tumbled to the ground, rolling out of control down the hill and coming to a rest face down in the sand that made up the beach at the bottom of the hill. ¡®This was definitely the most disorientateing thing that has ever happened to me without any doubt whatsoever.¡¯ I thought with a sense of nausea that I was trying to repress desperately so I dont throw up. But even after all that I found the will to get up after a second or two processing the sudden changes that happened, and I got onto my hands and knees before sitting down heavily, very aware of a not so foreign weight on my back and shoulders as I did. Ignoring the sand in my clothes and on my body for now, I look at my shoulder quickly and then my eyebrows raise in shock at a familiar sight. I reach my hand onto a set of familiar straps and I shrug them off quickly, swinging the reason of the familiar weight onto my lap to get a good look at it. My face breaks into an easy smile as I recognise the large object in my arms, it is a large brown leather camping backpack with two bundles of cloth tied onto it. My backpack, that contained all my survival gear from my time in the Canadian wilderness during the last summer. I had lived with this stuff for months in the wild without any contact with civilization. I had really needed the time away. ¡®But now this might just be one of the only landlines to survival. I think that is how that phrase goes anyway.¡¯ I thought to myself as I looked it over carefully, seeing that it was exactly the same as it had ever been. I opened up my pack and went over my inventory anyway, making sure everything was there. ¡°Sleeping bag, small tent, first aid kit with bandages, band-aids, a box of wet wipes, clean cloth, soap and empty medicine bottles¡­¡± I listed as I pulled things out of my bag, ¡°My hatchet, my hunting knife, a full metal water bottle, four days of MRE rations, flint and steel, a trash bag, razer, multitool, compact mirror and my tiny pot.¡± I finished my list with a smile and a nod. ¡°We can work with that.¡± I said with a smile as I packed everything back in and slinging the backpack onto my shoulder again to take stock of the new environment. I was standing on what looked like a sandy beach, to what was probably an ocean judging by the fact that I couldn''t see the other side, the beach was pretty long too and it stretched on for quite a while with a few rocky patches here and there. The shape of the beach seems to be quite rounded out so I could only see the small section I was on before it was covered by taller hills. There was nothing in particular on the beach, so I turned in a slow circle and looked out behind me. There were decently steep grassy hills after the shoreline, like the one that I rolled down on, which made it impossible to see anything beyond. The whole area was practically barren, grass dirt and rocks everywhere, no large plants like a tree, no animals. Same goes for the beach as well for that matter, just sand and rocks. ¡°Now, I think this is a good time to figure out how my inventory works.¡± I comment, focusing on the weird new feeling in my mind that happened when I ended up in Fera. It felt a little odd when I didn''t focus on it, but only in a constant ¡®something is off¡¯ vibe instead of anything serious. But when I did focus on it, something strange happened. It was almost as if the feeling in my mind almost expanded, like the neck of a bag opening up or a portal. I could feel a sense of emptiness after that shift. I suppose that would be my inventory? It''s empty now, and the limits for placing things in my inventory were ¡®you have to have made it, or it''s a quest reward¡¯ so I guess I can''t really do anything now. I doubt that the two divine beings changed the rule to let me store my backpack. I stared out at the green and bright landscape around me, pulling my focus away from what I was sure was my inventory and back to the situation at hand. ¡°Taking everything at face value, I think I am on the beach of an island in another world after being teleported by a pair of deities.¡± I commented with a straight face, then I broke out laughing from my own statement. ¡°God¡­ What a day¡­¡± I said with a grin. Honestly I didn''t particularly care about my new situation too much. Honestly this was practically a dream come true, though with considerably more lethal danger involved. And honestly, this was going to be fun. More fun than work anyway. I have always wanted more fantasy in reality. Let''s get going! I started to jog up the grassy incline, and after a minute I ended up at the flatter top of the hill I landed on and I looked out on the island in an awe that left me stop jogging and stand with wide eyes and a softer smile on my face as I admired the view. It was much better than the model that the goddess¡­ oh, I don''t think I got either of their names¡­ Anyway, what she showed me. The sky was the bright afternoon sky, the sun high in the sky above me, and around me there were large lush hills and deep green valleys, with the glimmer of a huge expanse of deep blue water that could be a lake surrounded by even more grassland that seemed to go on almost forever from my view. Except for the distant edge where I could see a line of trees from a forested area that seemed to take over a large section of the nearby area. But even beyond that, there was a rocky mountain that was letting a stream of dark smoke into the air alongside the clouds. An active volcano. That probably won''t be a problem¡­ but what is a problem is the fact that this island was fucking massive. That lake was at least five miles of walking away, it looked bigger from here then the distance to get to it, and there was not even a ¡®large¡¯ lake on the island compared to the size of the whole thing, practically just dots of blue here and there. Either that was actually just another part of the ocean, or I had severely misjudged the size of this island. I put my hands into my pockets with a sigh as I looked out on the picturesque landscape of bright color and I thought about my next steps. ¡°First things first, that goddess told me that there was magic and monsters on this planet. That is a pretty important fact.¡± I thought after a moment of realization, and I slung my backpack off my shoulder again. I dug through it for a second, taking out my hunting knife and its sheath which I attached to the side of my cargo pants, and my hatchet. They are probably the best weapons I am going to have for a long time coming. Steel blade and wood handles for both of them, though the hatchet''s handle is getting a bit old and worn down with the leather wrapping starting to come undone around the edges. I heaved my backpack onto my shoulders again and I lifted my hatchet into my arms before I stood up, standing at the top of the hill with the hatchet at the ready. Any weapon is better than no weapon, even against monsters. Probably. ¡°Now, I need to think about food, water, and shelter.¡± I thought as I scanned the landscape again. ¡°If that is a lake, it could have drinkable fresh water, and animals would probably come to it to drink so it would be a good place to get more food as well. As for shelter, I have a tent so I can set up camp pretty easily.¡± I told myself, letting my tendency to talk to myself rise up as I thought. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°So, let''s head to that lake.¡± I decided firmly and was about to start my hike when a screen blinked into existence in front of my eyes with a ping. I was instinctively confused for a second before I reminded myself of the quest system that the god and goddess had given me before I was sent to Fera, this world. Writing appeared on the black surface of the system interface as if being typed out by someone. I started reading the message from my¡­ I guess they counted as my patron deities? Does that make me a warlock? No, nevermind.
Good start so far, you are going to be getting a quest from each of us right now. -Monque, god of Trials and Challenge.
I read the words on the screen, but as I started to think about what it actually meant the screen shifted and I had two more sections of text appear, replacing the previous message.
New Quest received: Set up a defensible camp. To see the details and rewards of this quest, go to the status page and look under Active Quests. New Quest received: Survive for one week. To see the details and rewards of this quest, go to the status page and look under Active Quests.
I read the notifications quickly as I read the message from the god, and I opened my status menu after a second to take a more detailed look at the quests.
Name: Killiad Jones Race: White Human Sex: Male Age: 30 Active Quests: Set up a defensible camp. -Monque, god of Trials and Challenge. Details: The island you are currently on is a highly dangerous place, with high mana levels giving a high amount of both monsters and an above average manabeast population, so you need to create someplace that you can call home and rest without much fear of being eaten. Instructions: You must establish a place to rest, eat and live in, that can be defensible. Rewards if succeeded: A defensible camp. A small supply of wood logs in your inventory. Penalty if failed: A higher chance of being attacked. Survive for one week. -Nemunue, goddess of Survival and The Wild. Details: Your purpose in this universe is to survive for as long as possible, and that is a challenge in the wild of Fera. Instructions: Do not die. Rewards if succeeded: You continue to live. First off world quest. Penalty if failed: Permanent death.
Interesting. The factoid about high mana levels equaling danger was definitely not new to me, as I had guessed at something similar based off of fiction novels, but it was still good to know. Maybe I could leave the island eventually and get to a less mana dense area. But other than that new tidbit of knowledge, the quests I had gotten were nothing spectacular and were pretty much exactly my current goals anyway. I was about to leave to find a better spot to set up camp, and I was definitely not about to try and stop surviving. But the reward and penalty section was nice. For the defensible camp quest, I would get a defensible camp once I made a defensible camp (Obviously), and a supply of logs! The logs were definitely going to be useful, especially as I don''t need to go find and cut down some trees if I get the supply. And for the survival quest from the goddess, well that was an even better reward. Or worse. I guess it depended on what the ¡®in-universe¡¯ quest actually was. But it should be interesting either way, and a break from Fera. The penalty behind the survival quest was interesting as well, because I found it odd that the goddess specified ¡®permanent¡¯ death. Would there be a normal death penalty with the chance of my revival to life? Would my patrons do that if I died? I guess it is probably better not to find out if I can help it. And I got the two deities'' names and titles! It was so weird just calling them the ¡®goddess¡¯ or ¡®god¡¯. Monque, god of Trials and Challenge, and Nemunue, goddess of Survival and The Wild. They were interesting names at least. And the titles were interesting as well. They seemed to pair up quite well, trials of survival, and the challenge in the wild, but while they might pair up it definitely gave me a not so nice glimpse into the possible quests I could be doing and my future life. But whatever. I mentally minimized the system screen and started walking through the grass towards the distant lake.
It turned out that my rough distance was pretty accurate. It took me just over two hours, according to my watch, and the fact that the sun was only a few hours from setting by my estimate. Hum¡­ looking at my watch, I realize that I forgot to check over my body to see if there was anything else useful that I might have. Maybe I have something in my pocket¡­ Though I doubt it. Despite the realization, I continue to scan my environment for a few seconds longer. I was standing a little ways away from what I found was definitely a freshwater lake, having taken a small taste of the clear water a few seconds before. The lake looked like it was decently calm, but there was definitely some flow, probably heading into the ocean somewhere. There were no animals or monsters around, though they could be over the next hill and it would be hard to tell. That''s the problem with hilly landscapes. Which is why I choose a flat area on top of a hill overlooking the lake as the spot I would set up camp. It''s over monsters, I have the high ground! I chuckled to myself as I set down my heavy backpack that had been digging into my shoulders a bit during my long hike, and I looked down at myself for what I realized was the first time. Nothing seemed any different from what I had been used to, my body seemed in its normal muscular yet thin state. I was wearing my tan cargo pants, a black long sleeve shirt, a baseball cap which I didn''t even feel until I checked myself over, my brown leather bomber jacket and finally my sturdy black and brown hiking shoes. It seemed I still had exactly what I was wearing before I died. I checked the pockets next, but I wasn''t really hopeful I would find anything useful. Nothing in my pants pocket, and nothing in every pocket except for the small pocket on the left side of my chest, right above my heart. There was a hard bulge there when I patted myself over, and I stuck my hand into my pocket curiously, my fingers wrapping around a slightly warm ridged thing and what felt like a slip of paper that I took and brought out of my pocket. It was a stone circular pendant on a leather string, carved into the shape of a wolf''s head. ¡°How¡­¡± I muttered, stunned at seeing the pendant. I made this pendant with my own two hands, and I was never without it after¡­ But I had taken it off when I was about to get into the fight that killed me. It wasn''t right. I shouldn''t have this. I don''t deserve this. I nearly let the pendant fall to the ground because my hands were shaking so hard at the sight, but I kept it in a tight grip as I took a slightly crinkled slip of yellowly paper and turned it over in my hand, noticing there was writing on it. ¡°Consider this a gift, Kiliad Jones. Know that she would want you to have this no matter what.. -Nemunue.¡± I placed the pendant back inside the pocket I found it inside without a word. I knew that she was probably right¡­ but that didn''t mean that it hurt any less. I stood up straight, and I looked down at my backpack with a steely look on my face. I would keep on going, and now doing that meant setting up camp and surviving on another world in another universe. Chapter two: Monster problems I set up camp quickly, well¡­ I set up the tent quickly. I don''t have much to set up to call my hill a camp yet. All in good time though. All in good time. I will have a proper house to call my own here one day, and maybe a good spaceship if I get particularly lucky with a quest. Who knows¡­ the future is up to me now and whatever logic or laws that applied back on my Earth would be closer to a suggestion here. I set out everything that I didn''t really need with me all the time, which in this case was just my sleeping bad so I put it inside my tent and I stepped out, thinking of looking around to see if there was anything useful around, maybe edible berries or something, when I heard a ping and a black system screen appeared in the air in front of me.
Quest ¡®Set up a defensible camp.¡¯ has been completed. Rewards obtained: A defensible camp. A small supply of wood logs in your inventory.
¡°Huh, I guess that setting up what I had was all that I needed?¡± I commented with a bit of surprise. I had expected the quest to be more difficult. Then I felt a shift in the odd mental space that was my inventory. I could feel that my inventory was empty before, like you knew that you were wearing light clothes. But now it was as if there was a weight that was added inside my inventory. It didn''t feel heavy or anything, it was just there. I concentrated on the weird section of my mind like I had when I first arrived, and I could sense that my inventory was not empty any more. I couldn''t feel much about the interior or my inventory, but I could use my mind to almost sift through what was inside and I could try to figure out what it meant. In this case it was pretty obvious that they were the logs for my quest reward. I now had ten logs about as long as I was tall and about two times as thick as my arm. And these were whole logs too, not split ones like I thought I would get. On top of those ten however, there were two really thick ones that were close to my kneecap in terms of height and a little thicker than my body. Alongside this mental scan of my new logs however, I got the distinct feeling that I could open up my inventory in the real world to take them out. It was truly strange, as I have never felt anything that I could even compare to how my inventory felt in that moment, so even if I described it nobody would understand truly. The strangeness of that feeling aside however, I did what any normal person would do and I gave the mental instruction to my inventory to open up in the real world. I got the feeling that to open it I had to choose a spot to place the thing I wanted to take out. I chose directly in front of me, and I watched as one of the two larger logs appeared in the air in front of my legs and slammed into the ground with a thud. It was rather simple to use, and I appreciated the mental instructions that my bonus came with. I would probably be a bit lost about everything without it, but it was also extremely simple once I understood it. Besides understanding my inventory better, I now knew I had access to a pretty big supply of firewood and a wooden stool for my camp. All I need is some decently sized rocks and I can make a decent fire when I need to. But with that sorted out and the afternoon/early evening sun beaming down on me I started to walk down my hill to the lake to collect some stones for my fire pit. I spent the rest of the evening setting up my fire and by the time that I had it going the sky was already turning dark, letting me see the stars in the sky. There was no light pollution on this planet, so the sight before me was outstanding and left me awed at the beauty of this world. Though two phrases that I learned from a friend stood out in my mind at that moment. ¡®You can only see the best in something once you have seen the worst in everything else.¡¯ was one saying, while the other is ¡®Behind every pretty face could be the teeth of a predior¡¯. Never mind that she was talking about girls at the time. While on the surface, this world was beautiful and untouched, but under that surface and in the wild untamed world that I suspected it to be¡­ things were as ugly as the worst part of any city. But with so much beauty surrounding me, even now¡­ that is a hell of a lot of teeth. With that oh so comforting thought I went into my tent to sleep for the night, bringing my hatchet in with me. My set of teeth were a bit small for a world like this.
I woke up quickly, refreshed and alert. Being out in nature tends to bring out the best sleep for me for some reason, but this was definitely not the norm back when I lived in the city on Earth. There was a cool breeze that was playing across my face as I opened my eyes and I blinked as the cool air stung against my watery eyes. I wiped off my slightly wet face quickly before sitting up and maneuvering out of my sleeping bag, putting my boots and my jacket on before I grabbed my hatchet just in case and stepped out of my small tent and out into the open air with a sigh. There was nothing different in sight, and my surroundings seems particularly devoid of life so I allowed myself to relax as I looked out around the landscape, thinking of my next moves. ¡°Honestly¡­ while I have food for most of the next four days in MRE¡¯s I need to check out the area for a solid supply of food. Fishing, trapping wild animals, hunting, tracking. But I need to do a bit of a search of the area for any of that.¡± I thought out loud to myself with a nod, letting my rather hands on survival experience take over. What followed immediately after I made my decision was a good meal of army standard meal packets. Good for military standards that is. If I had not long ago gotten used to this stuff, I would have had a more negative perspective on my meal quality. It was enough to keep me going, and I guess that''s all I need for now. Then I spent some time burying the paper wrapping in the ground nearby, digging into the soft grassy dirt with my hands enough to make a small hole, knowing that it is biodegradable. I went over to my new stool and proceeded to check myself over to make sure that I was ready to search the area with a more in depth examination. ¡°Clothes are good, knife good, hatchet is checked off, baseball cap on¡­ I think that''s all I need?¡± I listed, before stopping to check through my stuff in my mind to make sure that I didn''t need anything else. ¡°I guess I should use my compass when I go out farther, but I am good for now.¡± I affirmed to myself before standing up from my log and starting to walk to the lake to see if spearfishing or equivalent was viable. The lake seemed to have a rather steep drop off around the area that I had set up camp, with it looking to be around waist height a few feet into the lake, and while logic might suggest that was probably a good thing for my fishing prospects¡­ reality disagreed. There was nothing swimming around near the lake''s more shallow area where I wouldn''t have to swim to keep my head above water. I was pretty sure that fish were normally swimming around freely during the early morning, and it was still quite early with the sun just barely above the horizon. So¡­ There goes thoughts of the easy fishing that the lake could be. With that apparent bust, I started examining the land for signs of any animals that might live close enough to use this as a drinking spot. Experience and nature itself states that any animals would stay near a source of freshwater, and this was a pretty big one out in the open. There should be herds of animals that came around this lake to get a drink. With that knowledge in mind, I was not surprised by seeing several animal prints in the muddy ground about ten feet away on the banks of the lake. I took a closer look at them, thinking of what kind of animals left the tracks. They looked rather like hare or rabbit tracks, but they were really big so that left me a little confused. One of the larger paw prints was even about the size of my fist. Well¡­ the goddess did mention magic having an effect on the world and changing the natural animals, so maybe there are giant rabbits around? Sounds like a good source of food if I have ever heard of one. One of the first animals I ever hunted and cooked up was wild hare. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I did take the time to check the rest of the edge of the lake for other tracks and things as well, and I did find several other interesting things. There was a large area by the lake that had hoof prints in the hardened mud, about enough for a small herd if I was guessing right. There were also smaller tracks about a dozen or so feet away from those prints that seemed like they probably belong to a group of larger buffaloes, or something similar at least. Something more interesting happened while I was out tracking that drew my attention from the ground to the sky with the squawk of apparently very loud birds as they flew overhead. They looked like mildly oversized seagulls from where I was standing by the lake as they swooped down to the water in one huge group. What do you even call a hoard of seagulls? Whatever. ¡°CAW!!!¡± I heard sounded out and I flinched instinctively as I turned towards the source of a loud and angry caw. T-that was a¡­ a fucking massive raven. It was the size of a car! A REALLY ANGRY CAR! The seagulls gave squawks of panic as the unit of a bird dived towards the hoard of seagulls, catching a good five in its beak as it went through the group before pulling up and flapping away into the sky once more to look down on the seagulls that had flown away in a panic to the other end of lake. The raven seemed almost disdainful of the group as they flew away in disarray, and I could hear it letting out another insanely loud caw as it flew away to my right and eventually disappearing on a line of cliffs in the distance. That whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth as I stood on the edge of the lake after watching the fight. That was the kind of thing that called this place home?! I don''t even know what to say. That was a huge bird, huge enough it could probably eat me whole, and the overgrown seagulls didn''t even put up a fight. I was pretty sure that I couldn''t take even a couple of those gulls, and there was that monster out there?! I gave a sigh. Honestly this was pretty much what I expected when I saw that crazy look the goddess had when she looked at this world and by extension this island. Well¡­ nothing I can really do about it I guess. Just keep minding my business and hopefully I don''t end up running across a monster like that thing up close and personal anytime soon. I shook my head, shaking off my shocked state with quick decisive action. Back to the hunt. I have an idea of the kind of land animals that come around here, and so I think I can try my hand at tracking them to their home territory, burrows in the case of the giant rabbits. I walked around the edge of the lake for a few seconds to find the rabbit tracks once more, and I found them after a few seconds. Now came the difficult part of tracking.
I crouched on the crest of one of the many hills that were around this part of the island and I looked across to a different sight then I was used to after inspecting the landscape. It was a rather large cave-like earthen entrance in the side of a hill. I had traced the large rabbit tracks through the grasslands that was this corner of the island until I eventually found the end of the tracks, where they all converged and headed inside the large burrow. Overgrown rabbit burrow found. But there was a very concerning fact that I realized as soon as I saw the entrance to the rabbits home. The thing was big enough that I could walk inside without my head brushing the top of the entrance. There is a fact that you need to know to realize the significance of this fact. Rabbits build their homes by digging with their paws, and they end up with burrows barely bigger than their body¡¯s when on all fours. Rabbits that made a burrow that I could stand in and walk around in comfortably, were as big as I was. That was some massive rabbits. Adding on to the fact that they were nearly four times as long as they were tall, they would be even more massive. What was with this world and huge animals?! It was a good thing that rabbits were prey animals and not- Ah. That''s really not much better. If the normal prey animals were this big, then what the fuck was eating them and just how big are they? I gave a shiver as I had that thought. I did not want to come across a fox two times the size of these rabbits and therefore, me. I guess I could worry about that when I found out if my thoughts had anything behind them¡­ For now however, I was the hunter in this situation¡­ I think. I mean, I have a hatchet which can serve as a decent weapon, my knife and I was stalking one of the entrances to a rabbit''s burrow. The fact that I could be stalking literal magic monsters notwithstanding. I stayed crouched for a good few minutes, watching the entrance to get a good look at my prey before I tried to do something potentially stupid, like going inside the burrow. Strangely, nothing came out of the burrow while I was there. While I was crouched there I gave a shiver as a weird chill crept in. ¡®That''s odd, why is it so cold now? What happened to the sun that was trying to cook me?¡¯ I thought to myself, not really concerned but a bit relieved. But it was at that moment that I looked down at myself and I realized that there was a patch of darkness around my body that stretched along the crest of the hill. A shadow. Now that sight put me on edge and I tensed my body instinctively as I turned my head to look quietly behind me. On the top of the next hill over, a little ways away, there was a dark form blocking out the sun and casting its shadow on the landscape as it stood up straight on its hind legs. It was a rabbit alright. Horrifyingly, my estimates of its height seemed spot on with it looking about four times my height from here. But while I was getting a good look at the monstrosity, there were several odd things about it. The most obvious thing was that this rabbit had horns. Two curved spiraling horns, like you would see on an antelope, were situated on their foreheads, pointing into the air as it was on its hind legs looking around carefully. Then next I noticed the more subtle differences from a normal rabbit from Earth. Its eyes were forward facing, being situated like a human below a forehead and above the nose, and its eyes were bright red. If that was not enough to suggest that this type of rabbit was not normal then the teeth would prove it¡­ they were pointed and filled its entire mouth with two sets of literal fangs in its open maw. This was not, in fact, the normal prey species that I was used to back on Earth. This was an evil bunny. And it was really not funny when it was three times as tall as me. Then it looked directly at me. I stared at it. It stared at me. I rose to my feet. It let its body fall forwards on its four legs again. Then it started sprinting in my direction. ¡°DAMN IT THAT THING IS FAST!¡± I shouted out in a state of panic as I saw it start moving, clearly running way faster than I could. I started sprinting away anyway. Would you stay still when a killer rabbit was charging you down?! I was off that hill in a blast of speed, the adrenaline really pushing my body as I started focusing on my breathing to get away faster. Down the hill to the lake. I have no idea what I would do when I got there, but I needed to get away from the monster rabbit that was chasing me down so I ran there anyway. I gripped my hatchet in my arms as I ran, though I wasn''t sure what it could do against something like that, especially in my extremely inexperienced hands. I looked back as I ran down a hill, and my eyes widened as I caught a flash of white fur before I instinctively ducked and rolled to the side, barely dodging the leap of the rabbit as it rushed past me in the air. It landed at the bottom of the hill with barely a pause from the landing as it spun around to face me again, teeth bared as it hissed out a bone chilling shriek. I stood my ground this time and gave the beast a hard look with a almost bestial growl of my own. I couldn''t run like that for long, and honestly I think that this thing would catch up really quickly if I tried. It took ten seconds for it to catch up last time, and that was when it started a good hundred feet away at minimum. Now it was just about halfway down the hill I was on, a dozen feet max. I raised my hatchet in my hands in a defensive way and stared down the beast, my heart in my mouth but my hands steady. This was not the first time I had been in a bad situation, but this was definitely different with me facing off with something this big. ¡°Trial by fire, huh?¡± I muttered to myself, cursing my two patrons as I did. This was all their fault. Why couldn''t I just be sent to somewhere normal? This universe has some version of planet Earth, why not plop me there in the twenty-first century? Sure I would have to go through some stuff, but why did they put me on or even make Fera!? I thought that they needed me to survive, not get killed by a mad overgrown rabbit that wants to eat me! The rabbit hissed out another shriek, then it started running up the hill with its head pointed down and horns facing me, ready to spear me. I quickly moved to the side to dodge the incoming car sized rabbit and I swung down with my hatchet as it passed by me, sliding a bit on the grassy ground. All that I have seen of the rabbit''s attack pattern seemed to be two specific attacks. Charging like a bull with its horns and leaping into the air to almost pounce on me, probably to get its fangs in me. But as several notable people pointed out, bulls have quite a hard time changing gears once they are charging, and so I placed my bets that this atack had the same drawback. Though it was almost fixed by the rabbits natural flexibility and dexterity, nothing could break the law of physics as was proven when my hatchet bit deep into the rabbits neck as it charged past me, leaving it embedded deep. The rabbit stumbled at the pain of my attack, before tumbling over itself and turning back to me. I was ready to curse and was reaching for my knife, which I knew wouldn''t be much help, but then its legs gave out as it gave a shaky step forward and it lay still, blood coming from the deep wound I somehow managed to make and my hatchet sticking out of its body. It was dead. I laughed out loud as I realized this and sank to my knees as the adrenaline wore off slowly. Chapter three: Life goes on After my ¡®the hunter becomes the hunted¡¯ moment with the giant horned rabbit monster came the hard part of my hunt. Taking care of the body. Usually back on Earth, that wouldn''t be a problem unless the body in question is human, but in this case¡­ with said body being three times my size in length and just less than as wide as I am tall. Save it to say, I had to think pretty hard about what I could do to harvest or even transport the rabbit''s body. I would be having rabbit meat for a week, and the only reason that it isn''t longer is that I have no way to freeze the meat and everything left after that point would probably go bad. My camp was a good ten minute minimum length walk from here, and I knew that because I had to walk up the largest hill nearby to get a good look around and spotted the top of my tent in the distance. I didn''t have any way to really carry the rabbit meat if I cleaned it where it died, and I would have to carry it in multiple trips even if I did. There was a good chance for other monsters to come and strip the corpse clean or even just to check out the area soon, and they could be an issue if they are anything like the other monsters I had seen in Fera. A lot of problems without any clear solutions. But I was a creative guy, so I put my mind to work to find the solutions. Problem one is transportation of the body or parts of the body. Problem two is that I had to leave the area as quickly as possible in fear of attracting more attention. The meat going bad was not a problem of the moment however so I left that one for later. ¡®First things first, I needed to clean and cut the body to get the meat and possibly the fur. I couldn''t take the entire body in one trip, so it''s best if I get a move on with processing the body.¡¯ I thought to myself as my mind started working on my problems and going over to the corpse. I carefully took the hatchet out of the beast''s body and set it aside before I took out my knife and got to work. While I worked on the body, my mind went over my problem and tried to look at it from all angles I could imagine and thinking of all the resources I had at the same time. I shouldn''t try to bring anything more than I could use or needed, so I made a mental list of anything I could or should leave behind. The fur wasn''t necessary for me right now. While the organs of monsters might have a use or something, I definitely did not know them enough to say that they would, or if they did the use if worth it. The bones could potentially be good resources for things like structures or tools substituting for wood or potentially metal, though generally bones were not that strong and there weren''t many bones that I could think of a use for immediately. Sinew was probably going to be useful as rope or string so I will need some of that. The meat was definitely good to keep, maybe about a third of the entire amount of meat would be eaten before any of it went bad if I ate just rabbit for that time. But that was also a good sized chunk. About three feet long and a foot wide if I boxed up that amount of meat. That was about a extra third of my body that I would have to take to camp, which was a good walk away. The weight aside, I couldn''t just pick up a pile of meat that size with my arms and expect it to stay in one piece. I had to package it up into something, and that was the pivotal point of the problem. I needed a pretty big bag for that. I could run to my camp and bring my camping backpack and stuff it full of meat and settle for the amount that would fit, which would be just less then the third I had thought I should get, but there were two issues with that solution. One, I couldn''t just dump everything else out of my backpack as I didn''t have anywhere else good to put all my stuff, and storing the rabbit meat inside my camping backpack for a week or more did not appeal to me. Two, I did not want to get my camping backpack all messed up and stained from holding all the fresh and bloody meat. I could also cut off the hide of the rabbit to wrap the meat up in as well, but that has the issue of holding the bag of meat the entire walk, alongside the increased likelihood that I drop it by accident and get the meat all dirty. I could probably think of something to negate those issues though, so I decided to keep my options open. Then while I was going over everything that I had back at camp, I remembered that I did have a sizable and empty black garbage bag. However, I did not want to try my luck to see if the plastic would be able to carry the meat all the way without tearing and it had the same carrying problem as the rabbit fur bag idea. But with all those ideas in mind, I started thinking and I realized a way that I could combine my ideas to cover the downsides of my plans. First, I could put the plastic bag inside my camping backpack and lining it to hold the meat and prevent any potential leaking fluids from the meat, preventing the actual backpack from getting all messed up, and also providing a good way to store the meat once I got back to camp. I could also wrap up the rabbit fur in my arms to bring that along if I feel up to it, though that might be a problem as the amount of fur the rabbit has is a lot. I could make a rug from the rabbits fur. Probably best to leave it for now and come back to see if I can take it on a return trip. I spent several minutes after that to clean the rabbit, focusing on speed as I was pretty sure that I had limited time, and causing it to go along quite fast for a body the size of the rabbit. By the time I had finished I had stacked up quite the pile of bloody guts, but I had also set aside quite a lot of meat and sinew on the layed out rabbit pelt that was ready for me to take once I was ready. I had gotten quite bloody in the process, but it was fine considering the state of the grass on the hill. So I got moving my way to camp, though not as fast as I had hoped due to the fact that my legs were honestly a little worn out from running away from that rabbit before I managed to kill it in that stroke of luck. It didn''t help either that the sun was bearing down in my eyes the entire way, despite my baseball cap, and the heat was incredibly high compared to every other day here. I considered washing off my blood soaked hands in the lake, but begrudgingly decided against it due to the fact that I would be getting them bloody again very soon. I went up to the tent and grabbed out my camping backpack, before proceeding to dump everything out into the tent to empty it and grabbing the folded up trash bag as I headed out, zipping the tent up behind me. I then started walking with the backpack and garbage bag in my hands, one hand shoving the black plastic inside while the other was already zipping up the bag before I slung it onto my shoulders. It felt a little odd without the usual weight behind it that it had since I got it. I walked to the hill where I had killed the rabbit carefully because I wanted to take my time to make sure that there weren''t any monsters around, but I still made good time and reached the spot in about fifteen minutes. The rabbits'' remains were undisturbed from how I had left them when I returned, which was a relief. I took a knee on a spot of grass without any blood on it and took off my backpack to get it ready for holding all the meat. What followed after that was simple. I took the plastic garbage bag out and opened it up, placing it inside the camping backpack to act as a lining for the backpack to keep it clean and to keep the meat easy to take out, then I got to work collecting the meat and the sinew into the bag. It was pretty easy to do and after a few minutes of placing chunks of meat and piles of sinew into my backpack I reached the neck of the bag. I lifted up the camping backpack experimentally to see how much it weighed, and I was not surprised I had to put a lot of effort to lift it into the air. There was enough room in my camping backpack to fit a child into with ease, and I had filled it up to the brim with fresh meat. The thing probably weighed around the range of an average man. I could lift it decently enough if I was using both arms, but it took some effort. In the end I hoisted the bag of meat onto my back, almost staggering against the added weight. I could walk to camp with the large bag of meat, but it would not be fun. As I started walking away to my camp however, I realized how much I had misjudged my assessment. It definitely was not fun, but that was not the best description of the next twenty minutes. It was literal torture. By the time I got to camp, the late afternoon sun had caused my entire body to go red and get covered in sweat. My legs were burning with an intense fire. I was gasping for every breath. I was a mess. I let the bag of meat off my shoulder as soon as I had reached camp and sat down heavily on the wooden log that acted as my stool to recover. ¡°I¡­ am not¡­ doing that again¡­ anytime soon.¡± I moaned out as I rubbed my sore legs and wiped the sweat from my face with my equally soaked leather jacket¡¯s sleeves before peeling off the jacket a second later and tossing it against my tent. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I spent the rest of the afternoon resting, though I did eventually get up to walk down to the lake eventually to get cooled off and clean up a bit. I didn''t feel particularly brave so I decided not to test my luck and actually go into the water, but I did take the time to scrub off the rabbit blood and splash some water onto myself while wishing at the same time that I had another set of clothes I could change into. Normally I would be fine spending the time to take off my clothes and wash them a bit in the mostly clean lake water, but I did NOT want to end up fighting off some beast without any clothes on. That would be too far. Eventually I would end up washing them, I knew that for a fact, but it would be later when I was about to go to sleep for the night and had less of a chance to encounter a monster while naked. Despite the fact that a good amount of predators were nocturnal. As soon as I had refreshed myself a bit with the cold lake water, I did not spend the time resting as I had been doing before. It was definitely evening by that point, and so I had to set up a fire and cook up the meat that I had pushed myself so hard for. As a side note, I managed to think of a way to increase the amount of time I could hang onto the meat without it going bad. Because I had the meat in my plastic garbage bag, I realized that I could tie up the open end to seal the opening off. That led me to think of places I could store the meat to keep it cold. Then I remembered a book I had read where they found a solution to my problem in a similar environment. I could toss it into the edge of the lake to keep it cool. So that''s what I did. I of course set up a few stones to make sure that it couldn''t roll away or something with a few stones, but that led me to the moment I found myself in. I had a fire in front of me soon enough, but then I realized that there was a small problem with cooking up the rabbit meat. I didn''t have a spit or anything similar. The most I had was a small pot that I had used before to boil some lake water to refill my water bottle. In the end I decided to just put a smaller chunk of meat that I cut off a bigger chunk in the small pot and just place that directly into the fire. After about half an hour of cooking the soon sizzling meat later and I was chowing down on my rabbit steak while watching the sun go down. The rabbit meat was absolutely delicious. Maybe it was the amount of work I had put into this one meal, but it tasted like the best thing I had ever eaten. In that moment I realized something that hadn''t quite clicked before. Despite the new environment and the encounter with the beast of a rabbit earlier, I was strangely at peace with my situation. It felt familiar to my long vacation survival trip into Canada¡¯s wilds, despite the new beasts that made this land home. The trees and plants were similar, this sunset was almost nostalgic, I was sore all over from hard work. Yep, everything seemed to add up to a normal end to the day, despite the contents of said day. I could easily see this place becoming home to me.
It was on the final day of my first week on Fera before I knew it, and I was sitting on my stool eating some more rabbit for lunch. The last four days hadn''t been very eventful besides the occasional sighting of beasts in the distance. I didn''t waste any time though, as I had plenty to do now that I had a decent supply of food and access to water. Namely creating a weapon that I could use to kill monsters more easily, and exploring the immediate area to see if there was anything else of interest nearby. The exploring was the easier of my two tasks, and went by without a hitch. Though disappointingly I didn''t find anything of particular interest. Mostly just the occasional interesting plant. The weapon was a bit of a difficult task however. I may have had some practice and experience with crafting things in general, but I did not have any experience crafting stone age weaponry. I would have to make a weapon from stone and wood of course because there isn''t exactly a source of iron or steel around here. I would use bones from the rabbit I killed as that would have been easier, but I was not feeling great about my chances to make it there without encountering a beast. It didn''t help that my predictions were correct and I have seen several scavenger birds come and go from the area from a distance. I wish that wasn''t a problem, because using those horns on the rabbit would make great spear tips, but it was too big of a risk to actually go to collect some of the remains. So I decided to wait a while longer until I started making bone weapons. So with a rough plan in mind for a stone tipped spear, I began to work. The shaft of my spear was the easy part, and came out looking decent from one of the long logs I had gotten from my quest. After I had the long wooden handle however came the part I wasn''t quite sure about. Making and sharpening a stone tip for my spear. Now, I could have tied my hunting knife to my wooden shaft but I decided against it for multiple reasons. Firstly, I wanted to be able to use my knife for carving any future woodworking projects, and secondly I needed something to cut up and process any monsters I hunt. I was planning to attempt to chip away at a spear tipped shape rock to give it an edge, like I heard about a few times when people were talking about first nations people making themselves weapons, but once I got started I found it was not as easy as I thought. I broke several rocks just trying to find out which rock was stronger then another, then once I found out which types of stones would be best for my project I spent close to two days working slowly on forming my spear tip. In the end I managed to make something that should work, a larger thinner stone in the shape of a leaf spear blade with two notches on either side of the blade to attach the stone to the spear shaft with my string. So with both halves done, I moved onto the next tricky bit of the process. Rope made from the rabbit sinew. I knew how to make it luckily enough, so I moved onto that step quickly. I took the unprocessed sinew and separated it into the strands of fibers before I started to weave it into a cord that I kept adding to until I had a few feet of cord. That part of the process was honestly a bit therapeutic and went by quite fast with me ending up with my end result towards the end of the day, giving me just enough time to carve the notch into the shaft and then placing the stone spear tip into it and tying it up firmly as I could to keep it all together. By the end of the sixth day I had been on Fera, I had finished my stone age spear. It was pretty decent work, and I was quite proud of my work. It was about six feet long, and the stone tip was quite sharp and strong. A good hunter''s weapon. With a decently ranged weapon at last, I had to consider some things. Mostly I just considered whether or not I should go explore a bit farther out to see if there were any other monster homes or burrows around the area. With my new weapon I was feeling a bit braver, so I decided to go through with my small expedition after I had completed my survival quest for the week and completed the in-universe quest. So I was now spending some time at my camp eating lunch on the last day of this week, waiting for nightfall when I expected the quest to be completed. The meal went by rather quickly and I spent the rest of the afternoon looking out at the landscape around me to look out for anything unusual out of the ordinary green plantlife. I saw nothing all that afternoon, but that didn''t last until the sun went down and in that evening I saw something that was way out of the ordinary. I saw a speck of white moving its way across the landscape, fast as a train as it moved steadily towards the lake from its position a few miles off to the left side of the hill my camp is on. I stood up as it moved closer, and I could barely make out what was coming closer as it moved to a spot along the hills to the bank of the lake. It looked like it was about as tall as me, but it also looked to have four legs. I could see its white fur glinting like silver in the sunset. I could see the dull yellow glint on its head. It was a horse. Not just any horse though, as it was moving incredibly fast even for a horse galloping. Then there was something else that set it apart from your average horse as well. It had a bright shiny horn on its head. ¡°Is that a unicorn?¡± I asked, absolutely perplexed as the animal moved to the lakes edge a little ways away and dipped its muzzle into the lake and started drinking. Against my better judgement I started to creep forwards towards the beautiful animaI, grabbing my spear as an afterthought. But I wouldn''t need it. How could such a beautiful animal attack me? And how could I attack it? As I approached the horse-like animal it seemed to notice me as well, and I could feel a sense of welcome joy permitting from the animal like friends seeing eachother again. I smiled at the feeling and approached the beautiful animal steadily. The unicorn then seemed to grin at me, and I grinned back. Until something inside me snapped me back to my senses and my grin turned to a look of horror. The unicorn was disgusting, covered with mud and with dirty white fur with patches of red. Blood was all across its body. But there was not just blood on its fur, no. Blood soaked muzzle and teeth as it bared them at me. A red horn that was still dripping. Red eyes like that of the rabbit I killed. I stumbled back as it turned its body to face me. ¡°The hell was I thinking!? What happened!?¡± I shouted to nobody but myself as the unicorn dipped its head down once more, horn facing me. Right before it charged however, I heard a loud ping that made me look beside me to see a black screen that appeared with white words on it.
Quest ¡®Survive for one week.¡¯ has been completed. Rewards obtained: You continue to live. First off world quest.
Then in a blink of an eye I vanished from Fera, leaving a very confused and annoyed unicorn behind me that was just denied its next meal. Chapter four: Plastic vs spear I was suddenly in a white room, breathing heavily with wide eyes that were darting around the blank room I found myself in. I sighed and collapsed onto the floor though keeping a hand on my spear, my mind racing with the event I had just gone through and I started processing things quickly. For some reason the teleportation was easier than the first time when I was getting transported to Fera and I didn''t really feel any sort of huge disorientation, though my surroundings suddenly being different was still disorientating. Maybe it was because of the added weight of my backpack and being on a hill the first time around was the main source of my disorientation. Also unlike the first time around, there was a little bit of consistency from before the teleportation. The system had remained constant in my vision giving me notifications that were telling me what was happening.
Off world quest has been granted. User has been transported to Quest Selection and Preparation Room. Suitable in-universe quest has been selected.
The system wrote out, showing me what was happening. I got transported to a room to get and prepare for my first in-universe quest. I sat up and read the new notification that appeared on the screen carefully, my head and eyes feeling a bit odd from the sight of the shadowless and equally lit white room that I was inside.
Name: Killiad Jones Race: White Human Sex: Male Age: 30 Selected in-universe Quest: Survive against the Nestene Consciousnesses soldiers. Location: Earth, London, England Description: Following your knowledge of events inside the universe, this is the first event or episode in your memory and so you will follow the events that you are aware of to give you a slight edge with your foreknowledge, in this case into the situation of the first episode of series one. The Nestene Consciousness is attempting to invade the Earth to make what amounts to a breeding ground for itself. But to begin this invasion it needs to produce soldiers to take over the Earth. The Nestene Consciousness has taken control over an abandoned building to produce more powerful soldiers for its invasion force, and you will be sent there for three days. Primary Goal: Survive for 72 hours inside the factory. Requirements: Stay within the building for 72 hours without dying. Rewards: Your continued survival, resources collected in-universe. Penalties: You automatically fail the quest, permanent death. Optional Goal 1: Destroy all the new soldiers before your time limit has passed. Requirements: Kill, destroy or otherwise disable all Nestene Consciousness soldiers that have been produced by the production line and are within the building before 72 hours have passed. Rewards: ??? Penalties: N/A Optional Goal 2: Stop the production of Nestene Consciousness soldiers. Requirements: Disable, destroy or otherwise render the production line unable to produce Nestene Consciousness soldiers. Rewards: ??? Penalties: N/A
Ok, that was a lot to take in. The in-universe quests were formatted quite a bit differently from my normal quests. Instead of a quest and a single line with instructions on how to complete the quest, there is now a main goal and two optional goals. But that is not the reason I was thinking hard on how this would work. I was concentrating on the details and name of the quest. It talked about how in-universe quests would work, and it basically says that it will be following the events that happen in the show. How that would all work out in the future was a bit worrying, with the amount of episodes of the Doctor being in completely hostile situations for a long time being a lot. I mean¡­ the two deities in charge of the quest system wouldn''t send me somewhere I couldn''t survive in, right? But for right now, I am on the first episode of series one. I had never seen the older stuff and the details said that the quests will be following what I have seen, so that''s probably why I am not starting at the very first episode or comic or book or whatever of Doctor Who that ever existed. And I was sure that detail would stop me from dying in some stupid way, judging by the amount of mystery that the show was basically about. I am getting off track. So, the first episode of series one¡­ Was it called Rose? Whatever. Basically an invasion of a sapient/sentient molten plastic slime thing that can mentally control plastic via some kind of signal. It used mannequins as its main attackers in the episode. But the description says that it took over a building that they turned into a factory for soldiers. That does not add up at all. The mannequins were not made by the Nestene Consciousness, just kind of controlled. Though the gun thing didn''t quite add up I suppose. I was never a huge fan, just a casual enjoyer. Maybe this is how Canon goes. Plus there is the possibility that the show wasn''t entirely accurate. But all in all, I am most likely fighting a small army of mannequin soldiers over the course of three days, who are trying to make more of themselves, while I cannot leave the building. I am obviously going to try to achieve the optional goals as well, despite not knowing the rewards, because I don''t really want to just hide for three days. I just made a spear and even if it''s terrible and literally from the stone age, I am going to use it. Then just as I had finished thinking of my new quest and was about to say something along the lines of being ready, I got a ping and a new notification screen showed up and writing started being typed out.
I had to change the survival quest parameters just to keep you alive, you know. Three times you almost died in your first week from doing stupid things. THREE. You''re lucky I saved you at the last second. -Nemunue
Ok, that''s new. ¡°Hey! It is not my fault that I was attacked by monsters!¡± I responded automatically, protesting against her words. ¡°And what do you mean three, anyway? I was only attacked twice, the giant rabbit monster and that damn Unicorn!¡± I said, her words catching up to me and making me confused.
Ignore her, we are glad that you survived on that world with as little information as you did. You have received your first in-universe quest now? -Monque
¡°Yes, I have. Survive for three days against those plastic soldiers inside an abandoned building.¡± I responded to my other patron, focusing briefly on the quest screen before turning back to the deities messages.
You understand what to do then? -Monque
¡°I believe so.¡± I responded, though pausing as I decided to ask a question. ¡°Are the events inside the universe different at all from the shows I watched while I was back on my Earth?¡± I curiously asked the screen and the two deities that were using it.
You will have to find out. Consider it a challenge. -Nemunue
I sighed as I read that but begrudgingly nodded. I suppose this means I will have to be careful about relying on what I remember from the episodes I have a quest in.
Are you ready to start your first true quest? -Monque
I nodded at his question, standing heavily and holding my spear at my side while planting it firmly against the white ground.
Then good luck. -Monque Have fun! -Nemunue Seriously Nemunue? He''s not going to-
Then the world around me shifted as the system screen disappeared in the blink of an eye and suddenly I was somewhere else. The shift in my surroundings caused by the teleportation was again quite disorientating but it did help that I was expecting it. The little shock or whiplash my brain gave me whenever that happened made it quite hard to think for about two seconds while it tried to process things. Maybe I should close my eyes next time and see if it helps with the disorientation, lessen the differences my mind goes through or something. I would probably get used to it over time, but I do not like how teleportation makes my brain feel¡­ You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. When I had recovered to scan my surroundings, holding my spear at the ready as I did. My surroundings were lit from dull late evening daylight through a set of broken windows along the walls, but I could see enough of my surroundings to relax a bit and rest my spear at my side. There were large wooden work tables and large stools scattered all over the place alongside huge chunks and various boards of wood, most of them having cracks or cuts and there was some of what looked like wood working tools scattered around the place there was a section along the wall where the tools looked like they should go as well, but there was only a hammer put in its proper place. There were also a few stations along the back of the wall where there looked to be scattered welding or metal working gear alongside some lockers and a few closets but I wasn''t sure as it was a good distance away. This room was pretty big, with the ceiling making the room seem very spacious, making this building at least two floors as I could also see a large metal platform with stairs leading up to it with a door high up on the wall the platform was positioned on. It looked like I was in some kind of shop. There was also a wall that seemed to separate the room to create some kind of storage space with a whiteboard and a desk near the end of that wall and when I looked at those sections of the room I corrected myself. ¡°I am in a school. A wood working room in a school.¡± I quietly said to myself as I looked around. ¡°Good spot for resources¡­¡± I continued and I started walking around to take a close look at everything, moving between large sections of wood boards that looked like they were thrown about just to create a mess years ago and never touched again. The dust alone would have told me this place was abandoned even if I didn''t know that already from the quest description. I went by and looked the whole room over as quietly as I could, knowing that there could be living mannequins just outside the door and I was pretty sure that they could hear. Somehow. Ten minutes later I had a good idea of what was all in the room. There was a mildly rusty set of hand tools that I had managed to collect together, a hell of a lot of wood scattered around the place though most wasn''t in the best condition, a couple of power tools, a welding station and finally some sheet metal. The power tools and welding station would be useless as there was no power in the building, but everything else could be useful if I have something to do with them. While wood and hand tools weren''t the most useful in my situation it would be more than useful back on Fera. But by the end of my time exploring the room, I had realized something that made me curse. I didn''t have any way to actually carry any of the stuff in the room. My backpack was back at my camp in Fera. I wasn''t quite sure how the reward that says I get resources collected in-universe for the main quest would work, but I was pretty sure that I wouldn''t be able to make a pile of things I wanted to keep and it would appear in my inventory if I get the reward. It probably just applies to resources on my person or something similar. That also meant that I had no food either. The water situation was¡­ somewhat fine, as there was a rusty and decrepit sink in the corner of the room that gave mostly clear water. However, as there was no other source or supply of water I would have to risk it. Food on the other hand was something I would most likely have to go without for the next three days. I would survive that long no problem, but it would be annoying. Assuming I don''t get something from the water that is. Back to the resources problem however, there was a fix to my problem. I could make a bag out of something. Maybe I could even store it in my inventory while it had things inside? It made sense I guess. But the problem with that solution is I have no material I could make a bag out of in the room, meaning I would have to search for resources outside the wood working room. Plus I don''t know if there is anything that could work to make a bag to begin with, even if I search the entire school. Sometimes there is a fashion class or similar that could have fabric and stuff for a bag, but who knows. However, searching for resources in general is a good thing if I can make my way around the building undetected and probably worth the risk. I just need a good plan in place. In fact I need a general plan for taking on the soldiers that were being made in the building as well. I needed to do all that planning later though as it was getting late, I was feeling tired from the day''s work and my adrenaline spike from the unicorn influencing my mind and trying to eat me was catching up to me. I needed to sleep, and honestly wooden tables aren''t the worst place I have ever slept¡­
It was later the next day that I was ready to enact the first step of my plan. Scouting and scavenging. Technically the only step in my plan so far, but I would figure the rest of it out later as I need information before I can plan anything beyond ¡®kill them all¡¯ or similar things. So I was ready to start looking around the building, though slowly and carefully to avoid any attention. I would be operating under the assumption that there could be a mannequin around every corner and behind every door, making sure to keep my spear at the ready at all times. I had made my way up to the platform thing that led up to the door to the second floor, at least that''s what I was assuming it to be, and I was standing ready with my spear positioned in front of me. I turned the handle quickly and peered through the crack in the door with my spear pointing into the crack as well. Beyond the door there was a dimly lit hallway, with the only sources of light being open or broken doors along the hallway. The hallway was empty though, so I opened the door farther to get a good look. The hallway was mostly empty, with only the occasional garbage on the floor and the dust. To the right of the door I was in, the hallway seemed to come to a dead end though there were doors along the entire way, and another hallway that led somewhere else. To my left however, it was basically the same except I could see a set of doors leading to a stairwell and another hallway leading off the hall I was in. I walked out into the hallway slowly, keeping an eye and ear on everything around me. It was deathly quiet and I saw nothing out of the ordinary decrepit abandoned school hallway look. But as I walked to my right to take a look around in that direction first, now beside a stairwell that was built beside the point where the hallway connected with the other hallway, I started hearing faint noises coming from farther down the hallway. It sounded like it was coming from beyond a broken down door about half way down the hallway, or around there anyway. It sounded like dull but heavy thuds, like something heavy and large hitting the ground every few seconds. It was probably nothing good, but it would also probably have something to do with the production line that was mentioned in the quest description. Maybe that''s where the machinery was? I started walking down the hallway towards the broken down door where the sounds were coming from, watching my footing to keep my noise down and watching my surroundings to avoid something sneaking up on or seeing me. I got to the door without any problems whatsoever, and I could hear that the sounds were definitely coming from beyond the door that I was now beside. The broken down door was sitting by the doorframe, completely unattached, and I could read a brass looking tag on the door that read ¡°Automotive¡± something or other. I peered through the large hole left by the destroyed door, taking a good look while still being covered by the doorframe. My eyes dilated at the bright sunlight that filled the room that I was looking in on, then they widened after I realized what I was looking at. Directly beyond the door was one of those platform things that had stairs down to the floor, like in the wood working room, and I got a good look at the room beyond that despite the railings slightly blocking my view. There was a smaller moving truck inside the room, with the back being open and some boxes of something inside. Though they wouldn''t be there for much longer as mannequins were tossing the boxes out of the truck and across the room, making the thumping I heard. I couldn''t see where exactly they were throwing it because it was below the platform, but I could barely hear them being picked up and moved again. This was probably resources coming in to fuel the production line. I backed out of the doorway carefully and I started walking around again to see if there was anything else I could hear. I wanted to know what happened after the boxes of something were taken away, but I couldn''t hear anything else other than the truck being unloaded while I walked away. So I began exploring the hallways once more, making a mental map of the second floor. I started walking down the second hallway opposite to the wall with the loading bay door soon, then I paused. I could faintly hear a buzzing whir sound out to my right, sounding like machines. Or a production line. I identified where it was coming from immediately, another door to the right of the hallway just a little farther down and out of the way of the main hallway. I walked to it and I stood in front of the closed door for a second, pausing to listen for a second. It was definitely coming from somewhere behind the door, this door probably leads down into the first floor like the loading bay door did. I opened it slowly and cautiously, the slight squeak of the door making me wince. It wasn''t loud enough to attract any attention from anywhere beyond a few feet from the door so I took my chances and opened it more before looking through the crack. ¡®Definitely the production line¡­¡¯ I thought to myself as I looked down at the mess of machinery and conveyor belts humming away, with dirty plastic mannequins working around it. I didn''t get to see anything more than that however, because as I looked I saw one of the mannequins move its head. Pointing directly to the door I was behind. My breath caught in my throat and I froze instantly, trying to be as still as possible. I don''t think it saw me¡­ After a moment that felt like an hour, it turned away and continued to work. I backed off quickly from the door and began to quickly back peddle away from the door, though I was as quiet as possible. I don''t think it saw me, but these things were a form of hivemind if my memory serves me right. If it saw something, then it would have sent guards up to check out the area, not run at me or something just as dramatic. And honestly I did not want to try my luck. I started to jog my way quickly down the hallway with my spear still firmly in front of me and then turned right when the hallway ended and then to the end of that hallway until I hit a dead end. Opening the closest door I scanned the room with a once over to make sure there wasn''t a mannequin waiting for me and then walked inside, shutting it as quietly as possible behind me. I sighed in relief as it shut before I turned around to take a good look at the room I was inside. There were tables and shelving all over the place and brightly colored but dirty walls and floor, but what caught my attention was the brightly colored fabrics that were all over the room. ¡°Wow.¡± I commented, thinking about how much luck I had just to randomly find this room as I looked around. Then I saw something move beneath the rubble in the room, causing me to freeze and hold my spear at the ready, pointing it at the source of the movement. Then I saw a hand shoot out from under the pile of fabrics and random trash. A dirty white plastic hand. Then another shot up. Then another pair from under the mess. Then two mannequins sat up and began to stand. But there was no way in hell I was just going to stand by and watch as they got up and ready to kill me. I moved swiftly across the room, closing the distance between the two of them and me and swinging my spear to knock them back to the ground. Then I started clumsily stabbing at one of the living plastic monsters, piercing through the chest and head of it. Then something weird happened. I heard a crack on my final thrust into the mannequin''s face, and it suddenly went still. I couldn''t ponder on what just happened though, as the other mannequin had gotten itself into an upright position with its hand raised above its head beside me. I threw myself out of the strike range as it swung down, the plastic seeming to blur from the speed of its strike as it missed. Then I hurriedly got to my feet once again and thrust my spear into the mannequin''s head. I heard a similar crack to what I heard coming from the first dummy and it went limp, carrying my spear down with it. I looked between the mannequins in confusion. Something inside their heads broke, making them stop moving. That was odd, as I didnt think that had ever happened. I thought I would have had to tear it into bits before I managed to kill it¡­ Then I heard thumping coming closer to the room I was hiding inside. I looked up, panicking and looking for somewhere to hide as the sounds approached. There! A closet! I ran into it, shutting the doors as I threw myself inside not a second too late as I could hear the noises stop outside the room I was in. Then there was a loud crash and sound of splintering wood, probably the door being broken down by whatever was outside. Then I heard the thumping coming inside and I held my breath. Then nothing. I couldn''t hear anything happening. It must have stopped. I spent a full minute sitting in that cramped closet and trying to control my rapid breathing from the short fight before I could hear anything else. Then I could hear heavy footsteps retreating down the hallway. I didn''t move though. Only idiots went out the second they thought that something had gone away. I stayed in that closet for half an hour. Chapter five: Making a plan That was an experience. Before today, I had never been in a situation remotely like that. And it was fucking terrifying. But I didn''t dwell on that for long. I moved on, in this case by taking a closer look at the two plastic mannequin ¡®corpses¡¯ I had made with a great deal of confusion. Mannequins controlled by the Nestene Consciousness don''t just suddenly fall over dead if you spear them a bit. In fact, from what I knew nothing except interrupting the signal from the Nestene Consciousness really ¡®killed¡¯ it. It was a lump of plastic being moved around by alien powers or whatever, even taking their arms off would only make the arms move by themselves as shown in the episode. Something doesn''t add up. The crack I heard coming from their heads right before they died might be the reason. Maybe this version of reality was different from how the show portrayed it? I walked around the bodies for a few seconds, looking at the entire thing to see if there was anything I hadn''t noticed before. I didn''t see anything but the normal mannequin shell and the puncture holes from my spear in their heads however. So my next natural step was taking a closer look at the heads. I leaned in close, taking a good close up look at the head itself but most importantly inside the decently sized spear made holes. The heads looked normal like normal mannequins on the outside, not that I had much experience with mannequins but it looked close enough to me. On the inside however, inside the mostly hollow head of the plastic man there was a glint of metal that I could just barely see through one of the holes. It was lucky that I could even see that much inside the rather dusky and dark room. The windows provided just enough light that I could see without tripping on all the trash and things on the floor, but good lighting conditions for anything except a dark mood it was not. The mannequin wasn''t wearing anything over its plastic body, so I could see that it was luckily able to be taken apart. I popped off its head quickly, and brought it over to one of the broken windows to get a good look with better light. It turns out that even with the better light from getting closer to the opening in the wall that used to be a window wasn''t much help, mostly because of me looking through holes, but I could see that it was some kind of metallic sphere that looked like it was held in the center of the head cavity by some small rods. I had no clue what it was, but I was pretty sure that destroying it caused the Nestene Consciousness to lose control over it so it was probably fine to take a better look at it. I took my hunting knife from its sheath at my side and put it against the hard plastic head before starting to cut it open to get a good look at what I was dealing with. After a moment of slight struggle against the hard plastic casing, I had the entirety of the face portion of the smooth mannequin head off and I tossed the chunk of plastic aside while staring at the thing in my hands. The entire head was filled with structural rods supporting a small device that took the center most position in where a human brain would be. It was spherical and made of some kind of coppery metal, but it was cracked and burnt. I must have accidentally hit it with a lucky spear thrust. The plastic rods seemed to not hold up against a spear and didn''t do anything against it, as I can see by the broken rods around where I had stabbed this one. Just from what I remembered happening, it was clear what had happened. This was most likely what that production line is doing. Making this universe¡¯s plastic men get mini receivers inside their own heads, instead of the large scale transmitter that affected every plastic out there. Though that probably increased the distance these soldiers could work, it did also present a huge weakness to me. ¡°I guess I should go for the head.¡± I chuckled to myself as I tossed the head away. It''s not much use for me besides letting me get some more information. My mind wasn''t entirely convinced of something that started bugging me. Was this really the more powerful soldiers that they are making? Just the normal plastic people with a chunk of metal inside their heads? Maybe I am missing something¡­ I shoved the thoughts to the back of my mind for now. I needed to get to work again.
As soon as I got my little insight about the situation I am in, things started to move for real. I only had three days, including today, before the quest was over. So things needed to start moving along. I needed to scout the building and around the soldiers, I needed to come up with a plan around that and finally make my moves enacting my plan once I had it. If all went well, I should have had a full plan by the end of the day. I did not have a full plan by the end of the day. Scouting went as well as could be hoped, without being discovered and a lot of information gathered about the schools layout alongside some rough enemy positions. But I had a problem using that information to somehow create an actually good plan to kill everything without killing myself with just my spear and my knife. I was not a tactician or a soldier, and never was. ¡®Was¡¯ being in the past tense because I was definitely going to get some practice in this universe. But for now¡­ I was pretty lost. I was outnumbered against super strong hivemind plastic people with only the clothes on my back, the spear and knife at my side, and the trash alongside the scraps that filled the school building. The scraps being completely useless for anything here on Earth, especially against the Nestene Consciousnesses soldiers as I had seen them destroy metal pipes with a chop of their hands. But what they had in strength and numbers they lost in finesse, speed and possibly perception. All in all, I had to be sneaky and careful about this or I would die. But them being a hivemind also means that if I get spotted by one, I get spotted by all. So possible diversionary tactics combined with guerilla warfare should work? I remembered that they also had a range advantage when it came to it, unless the guns in their arms weren''t present in this version of reality, so I needed to work around that. Corners would be my friends if it came to a straight out fight. Hit and run and ambush tactics. But that wasn''t a plan. The most of a plan was to lure some if not all the guards for the truck they were using to get more resources every morning away and slash the truck''s tires to stop the intake of resources and run before they got back. There was a stairwell and the platform thing on the second floor, so I could lure them up the platform to the second floor and run to the stairwell, walk through the hopefully undefended door on the first floor and into the loading bay, disabling the truck before making my escape. After that, I plan on holing out in the stairwell where I should have several advantages if they find me. Two exits, stairs possibly giving me a head start due to their speed and lacking maneuverability, two corners where I can ¡®ambush¡¯ them, and possibly the high ground if they come from below. Though I could also just lure them into the stairwell after I slash the tires and get rid of them faster. Something to think about. After that¡­ I got nothing. Worst case scenario is that I just have to settle for only getting the quest for stopping production completed and leave the other mannequins alone while I hide. But a third quest reward would be great, even if I don''t know what it is. I won''t quite risk my life on it though. I could try to just make a lot of noise or something to draw a group of them out and ambush them in groups? The hivemind aspect would mean that they would learn to counter my tactics though. As far as I am aware, the Nestene controls each mannequin directly so it is against its tactics that I am up against and it had fought in the time war before it came to Earth. Realistically, I was kind of screwed. But hey, it''s obviously not that smart or it wouldn''t have let the Doctor anywhere near it with the anti-plastic vial. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Besides, maybe I just don''t understand something and I am going up against individual beings instead of a single mind? It would be much easier if everybody doesn''t know the full extent of what is happening. Everything is possible really. This universe might be hugely different from fiction, it may be exactly like the movies, I believe only my patron deities really know. Though they did refuse to tell me, so I have no idea. Whatever, I don''t need to know everything. All I need to do tonight is try to think of how to kill things.
Day two of the quest already? Yesterday went fast. Two full days before the end of the quest. So I had to make today count. I did come up with a rough plan for how I wanted to go about my secondary quest goals, but it wasn''t much to boast about. I would stop the production line by removing their ability to receive new resources, aka slashing the tires of the truck, and killing the loading+driving crew in the stairwell. There were only three of those, so I wasn''t very concerned about that part though. What I was reasonably concerned and stressed about was the second half of my plan. I didn''t even give myself a clear time table for the second half of my plan just because I wasn''t sure how anything would all turn out. My plan was basically to lure the factory/production line workers up the stairs in the common area where it was situated, and deal with them with the hit and run tactics I thought should work best. I would wait until they reached the door to the second floor and when they came around the corner, I would lunge at the head of the first one through and try to kill it with one blow before I run through the hallway and around a corner where I would wait again, and repeat that through the entire floor or building if it came down to it. It was definitely risky, but not as much as a head on confrontation would be. Minimizing risks. That is what actual strategizing does, huh? None of this whole ¡®If we do exactly this we won''t ever be even seen¡¯ business. Not in battle. Though maybe I could pull something like that off if I get a quest to steal something. Maybe get an alien artifact from a museum¡­ I chuckled at the thought, then instantly grimaced as I drank the bad water that was my breakfast this morning. Oh how I can''t wait to get back to my uncivilized and absolutely wild planet to drink and eat some actually good water and food. Great, now my mind is on food again¡­ My stomach is already complaining about that reminder¡­ I started to sigh. But my exhale sputtered to a halt as I heard a distant scream, coming from somewhere inside the school building. I sat up abruptly, grabbing my spear from its position beside a table and I started to run. I swore as I heard it increasing in volume the closer I got to the door. I was out of the woodshop in an instant, my head swiveling towards the source of the noise. It was coming from the loading bay. I cursed again. ¡°Of course somebody managed to get into the loading bay!¡± I said, annoyed but worried as I started sprinting down the short hallway and in front of the doorway that lead to the metal platform where I could see down into the loading bay room and I took a second to get a good hold on the situation while I held my spear firmly, my eyes darting to the source of the screams instantly. There was what looked like a teenager cowering against the closed garage (Probably technically called a loading bay) door, with five of the mannequins shuffling around closer to him every second as he just shouted and screamed in horror as he watched them get closer. There were boxes that seemed to have toppled out of the back of the van, clearly not the mannequins doing. Just how this guy managed to get into the van in the first place was a wonder in itself. Why, I had no clue. Maybe it looked like a good place to sleep for a few hours to the guy and he had to hide while they were loading the truck? None of that mattered however, as the second I saw that I ran and leaped over the railing on the mezzanine and landed heavily on the floor, only staggering a moment after a momentary flash of pain because of my landing before I stood straight. ¡°OI! YOU HUNKS OF PLASTIC! OVER HERE!¡± I shouted to divert their attention from the kid to myself before I steadied my hands on my spear before I raised it up in my grip and thrust it towards the back of the nearest mannequin¡¯s head while throwing myself into the fray. The teens'' screams died out as soon as he heard my shout, but I was more concentrated on the mannequins all turning to me at once. My initial thrust seemed to strike true and I managed to hit the side of the mannequin''s head. But I didn''t hit the control orb thing as it just kept turning to face me, not paying attention to the spear in the side of its head at all as I held it firm. I gave the spear another good firm push, as I struggled to stop the thing from coming any closer or even turning around its head while I could see the other four start to come closer in front of me, just behind the one I was stabbing and walking menacingly. As I pushed however, I felt a yerk and heard a crack with a small pop as my spear apparently pierced through the control orb and my arm was left holding up the weight of the mannequin corpse on my spear. I gave the spear a firm yank with both arms, letting it come free and the mannequin fell to the ground while I took a step back to gain some distance from the other four mannequins that were drawing closer still. I had no time to do anything however as the second the one mannequin fell, the other four mannequins started to move faster, reaching their plastic hands out in a grabbing gesture, clearly intent on strangeling me to death. They were all on me in an instant, but that second warning I got was enough to duck below their grasping arms and backpedal against the rail of the stairs that lead up to the metal platform overlooking the loading bay. I leaped up and over the railing, pushing myself away from the Autons and onto the stairs getting a slight reprieve as they started to jog around to get onto the stairs themselves. I looked over to the kid again, quickly trying to make sure that he was ok. He was ok, but I could see him stare up at me with wide eyes. ¡°You need to get out of here!¡± I called out to him, raising my spear to chest level and pointing it towards the plastic drones who were now on the stairs below me. ¡°But don''t go out on the first floor!¡± I warned as I saw him move, ¡°There are more of them all over this place! If you can''t get out through the loading bay door, just hide! I will be back as soon as I deal with these!¡± I directed him and I could see him nod with a tight jaw before I had to redirect my attention to the first plastic man in the line they were forming on the staircase, giving the first in line a sharp stab in the forehead from my higher position and getting rewarded by a crack as I pulled back. ¡®Thats two down. Three left.¡¯ I thought to myself as I watched the front mannequin collapse on top of the mannequin behind it and nearly topple it over before it fell to the side and onto the floor below. I went ahead and stabbed at the third one, but the mannequins seemed to have learned my atack and for the first time, they countered my attack by swatting at my spear and only leaving a scratch on its face. My spear on the other hand nearly went flying across the room to the floor, but I managed to hang onto it and I was only sent reeling instead of disarmed. ¡®I was really not ready for that¡­ I have been underestimating these things¡­¡¯ I thought with some surprise, but I decided to correct my mistake immediately as I turned to run up the stairs with the plastic men right behind me. I stopped at the platform and stepped to the left two feet and stabbed at the front mannequin diagonally as they came up, still looking forwards. Their mistake. My spear punctured the head before the front mannequin made it to the top step, halting its movement alongside the other two behind it for a second as it tried to reach up towards the spear with its clumsy arms. I started jerking my spear around, as if I was trying to slice everything inside and pumping my arms around furiously before I connected with something solid and I put my full body into a push into my spear and got a thump in return, making the mannequin almost fall and making its hand fall to its side. I say almost fell because it started to find its footing less then a second later. ¡®What was that?!¡¯ I thought, a mix of I withdrew my spear and stabbed at its head while it was still disorientated, and was rewarded by a firm crack and it fell over for good this time, collapsing on the stairs and hindering the progress of the other mannequins below as they had to push it aside before continuing to move quickly up the stairs. I quickly retreated once more as they made their way onto the platform just a few feet away and I was out the door on the second floor in an instant, turning to run. Then I stopped cold and stumbled backwards as a black glossy fist came thundering past where my head used to be. There was a completely glossy black plastic figure standing by the door, its mussels defined and its face gone with white lines traced its body. ¡°Shit! Why do I have to be right!?¡± I screamed out as the actual upgraded version of the Auton soldiers stepped towards me with fluid motions and a grace that the lesser mannequins did not have, raising its leg to deal a lethal blow as I reeled from the sudden emergence of another attacker. Chapter six: Throwing the plan away Oliver P.O.V. I swear, I was just trying to get out of the house and away from my mother for a few hours¡­ How could I have known that the random pile of boxes on the side of the road would be picked up soon! I will admit, it wasn''t the brightest idea to go inside one to get away from the chill, but what the bloody hell is going on!? I got picked up somehow, and brought into a truck. I was already panicking by that time, but when I realized that I was being driven off I started scrambling out of the box I was inside and I found myself locked in the back of a truck. Then an hour of being thrown all over the place against the walls and the boxes later, the truck stopped and the doors were flung open. I pushed myself out of the truck, sending the other boxes tumbling out of the truck. Then I realized that I was locked inside a garage or a loading bay. I was already panicking by that time, thinking about how I would explain why I tossed out the plastics and stuff in the box, but then I saw the people I thought were mannequins start moving around the loading bay and towards me. I lost it and just started screaming my head off as I scrambled my way in the opposite direction to the things and eventually against the loading bay door with the costumed men coming closer all around me. Then I faintly heard a hard man''s voice cursing and shouting something I couldn''t quite hear, but I was more scared then I had ever been and my mind had gone blank. Then I heard a thud, and I looked up with wide eyes at the sight of a man standing straight behind the people that were coming towards me and I was really confused at the sight. He looked like a homeless man, wearing what looked like hand washed and beaten clothes, the beginnings of a dirty beard and holding a stone spear. He would look funny if his expression was so panicked and hard, his face fully serious. ¡°OI! YOU HUNKS OF PLASTIC! OVER HERE!¡± I heard the man shout, and then with a grunt thrusting his spear into the back of one of the men¡¯s heads. I saw the other people all around me react instantly as I recoiled, turning slowly to face the man. I felt myself grow quiet at the scene, looking on with horror. My eyes widened further though when I saw that the man who was just speared in the head, didn''t even flinch and kept trying to turn towards the man with the spear while the man wrestled against it. Was this some kind of¡­ movie set? A prank? No way, this was as real as it could get and there was no camera anywhere. I heard a slight snap as I saw the man wiggle his spear around inside the thing''s head, and I watched as the figure went limp instantly, the man retracting his spear and letting the thing fall to the ground lifelessly. It looked dead¡­ The man turned and backed away from the other approaching things as they reached out with their arms, but the man leaped over the railing to the mezzanine stairs and away from the reaching arms. He turned back to me with a concerned look in his eyes and carefully kept his spear pointed at the other things that were following him onto the mezzanine, up the stairs. ¡°You need to get out of here! But don''t go out on the first floor!¡± I heard him shout warningly, looking mildly panicked as I started to get on my knees. ¡°There are more of them all over this place! If you can''t get out through the loading bay door, just hide! I will be back as soon as I deal with these!¡± He shouted instructions as he backed away a bit. ¡®There are more of them? Who are they? What are they?!¡¯ I thought in panic, but I found myself steeling my nerves as I looked in the man''s eyes, his age and experience reassuring me a bit. I gave a nod and I started running the man''s words and what I just saw in my mind. These things, whatever they are, were trying to kill me and the man distracted them and is leading them away from me. He is trying to save me by leading them away¡­ he is in danger¡­ I found myself starting to wrestle with myself about what I needed to do as the man made a fighting retreat with his primitive spear, killing two more before he ran out the door. I looked after the retreating figures with wide eyes, still not moving. I heard the man shout out ¡°Shit! Why do I have to be right!?¡± and I saw the man fling himself back and out of sight. I scrambled to my feet as I heard two loud cracks, then a loud bang! I flinched and ducked down behind the truck out of instinct as I heard the gunshot, then covered my ears as several more rang out. I shakily got to my knees after the shock started to wear off as soon as I found myself alone, peering around the van to see nothing. I was alone with a few body¡¯s of the things that were trying to kill me and whoever the other guy with the spear was. I started to walk quickly over to the body¡¯s to take a look at them, before I recoiled in confusion as I saw a large hole in each of their heads. A hollow hole, like a layer of plastic was pierced. These things¡­ were made of plastic? How¡­ How was that- I shut down the thought and I felt myself rise to my feet and looking around carefully for any more of these things. It didn''t matter what they were, not really. I felt my face harden as I examined my surroundings with adrenaline rushing through my veins.
Killiad P.O.V. I fell to the ground with a thump, just barely keeping my grip on my spear as I tried to scramble away from the black Auton as his leg came crashing down just where my legs were and creating a small crater in the school building''s tile floor. Thank the Gods that this thing isn''t as fast as a human¡­ Just this bit slower than me makes a huge difference in combat. Though if any more of these things attack me at the same time, I would die no question. If I had tried to go through with my plan to draw away groups of the workers at the production line I would have more than a few of these things on me, even if they didn''t try to search for me¡­ I would have most likely died. As I tried to plan how to kill the other upgraded Autons, I was interrupted by the spike of adrenaline that was caused by the black plastic model raising its arm and the finger portion falling away on a hinge. Revealing a gun barrel that was now pointing at me. I rolled to the side and dodged the first shot as it blasted away a chunk of tile from the floor, the bang of the gun loud and making me flinch but it wasn''t as loud as I have heard from other guns. Either this thing was silenced or this wasn''t designed like a modern gun. I was getting distracted again. I blinked away my shock and I pushed myself to my feet, throwing myself up and away from the Auton''s second shot. Then I was off down the hallway and praying for luck as I tried to keep my running in a unpredictable zigzag down the hallway away from the plastic man as I heard it fire another bullet at me one at a time, one of which actually nicked my shoulder the second I raced around the corner, causing a sharp sting but it was just a small cut thankfully. I never thought I was lucky, but that was some luck. Admittedly I am pretty sure the Auton didn''t have the best aim, but I am lucky I am alive. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I crouched down a bit and I held my spear at the ready just around the corner of the hallway, ready to spear the black mannequin that I could now hear running down the hallway after me, its footfalls loud and exactly like the loud thumps I heard when I was hiding inside the closet yesterday. I did not realize until just now that the normal mannequin foot soldiers didn''t actually make all that noise when they walked, so the loud footfalls are either a lot of normal mannequins or an Elite Auton. The Elite Auton Soldier whipped around the corner in an instant, my reprieve not as long as I had hoped. I thrust my spear upwards towards its featureless face the second it came into my sight, but it was deflected by a quick and unexpected deflection by the soldier¡¯s hand and just barely causing my spear to graze the side of its head before I pulled back quickly. The Auton clearly wasn''t expecting for me to be waiting for it to come around the corner, but it reacted quickly and sent its open hand to chop at my head, which I dodged by leaning to the side while retracting my spear. My brain could barely keep up with the fight, but I found myself rising up straight with a leap backwards as the Autons karate chop was followed up by a kick that just barely passed in front of me. Taking advantage of the Autons slight loss of balance that happened from the missed kick, I pushed myself forward again and thrust my spear towards his chest. It was pretty clumsy and the extension nearly caused me to lose balance, but I managed to hit the things head solidly and pierced through the plastic face. It just kept going, raising its hands to try and grab my spear that was protruding from its face. I pulled away quickly, cursing under my breath. I didn''t hit the control orb. It was definitely close though¡­ The black Auton seemed to grow faster and more wild from my failed strike, moving in towards me with a quick lunge with its arms stretching out to my neck. That threw me off a bit, and from my off balance position my body was angled towards the mannequin so there was only one thing I could do, so I abandoned my my spear by dropping it to the ground and rolled underneath the soldiers outstretched arms with a speed and grace I didn''t know I had. I stood up quickly behind the mannequin and threw my entire body at it, making it stagger and allowing my arms to go around its neck and head, pulling at it from behind. Then all I could really think of was yanking off the mannequin''s head, so I pulled with all my strength as I hung onto the Auton''s back against its flailing arms and legs as it tried and failed to either hit me or get me off. Then I heard a pop, and I found myself falling while the mannequin''s body faltered and my arms shot up with the head in my arms. I kicked myself away backwards, stumbling a bit as I held onto the damaged plastic head. I looked at it while the body tried to recover, the hole created by my spear was pretty big and I could even see the control orb through the hole. My hands started moving quickly as I reached down for my knife while holding the head firmly under my arm. The body started moving towards me again, its hands reaching out, but it was too late to save itself. My hunting knife slid easily from its sheath and I swung my arm with all my might into the head, causing a crack as the control orb was pierced and the body fell limply to the ground. I let the head fall to the ground with a thud as I turned around, all the bumps and hits I got from throwing myself around catching up with me as I exhaled with my knife held loosely at my side. Then my breath hitched as the second I turned around, I was suddenly face to face with a white mannequin soldier and I flinched backwards out of instinct. Luckily, the normal mannequins weren''t as fast as the Elite ones, so with my split second reaction the karate chop that was aiming for my head passed just an inch in front of my face with a whoosh of air as it hit nothing. There was another just behind it as well, walking steadily to me across the short stretch hallway. I shoulder checked the lump of plastic hard, sending it stumbling back and making my shoulder hurt a bit from the hard plastic impact. My adrenaline high was fading fast if I could feel the pain of such a small impact¡­ I pushed through the pain that was suddenly biting at seemingly every part of me and following through, slashing my hunting knife at the dummy''s head and causing a long but shallow cut in the mannequin''s face. I didn''t let up however, and I pushed myself forwards even more, stabbing downwards at its head, puncturing the top and causing a sharp crack as it fell dead. But while I was focused on this Auton, the other one had come up beside me and swung its hand at my right shoulder, connecting with a solid thunk and making me feel like my entire arms were on fire from the pain and making me drop my knife. I cried out in pain, but I got control over myself and I found myself using that pain to fuel a loud angry roar, the pain clouding my mind. I leaped forwards and punched it in the face with my hurt arm, causing it to take half a step backwards and causing me to howl in pain again as my arm felt like falling off. I stumbled backwards, clutching my arm to my chest as I felt myself fall to the ground. But I just wouldn''t let myself and I found my arms and legs start to move without any thought on my mind, the pain seeming to block any thoughts and making me feel numb as I prepared to run towards the spear behind me that I had dropped a few seconds ago. But as I looked, I could see the mannequin fall to the ground with a kid standing behind it, holding a knife. I could feel my mind clear a bit as I saw the kid, the pain starting to fade just a bit. ¡°Thanks for that¡­¡± I mumbled a bit to the kid, tired beyond belief. ¡°No problem.¡± The kid said quickly, brushing it off before he turned serious. ¡°What the bloody hell is going on!¡± He whisper-shouted quickly, looking into my eyes with some panic but a lot of determination. ¡°No time¡­¡± I said quickly as my mind started clearing again, whirring into gear. I was still in a lot of pain, but I pushed through it and moved quickly, picking up and sheathing my knife that was lying on the floor by me before jogging heavily down the hallway past the black Autons body and grabbing my spear before I turned back to the kid and started jogging unsteadily down the hallway. ¡°Come with me! I need to get back to the loading bay!¡± I called out as I ran, hurrying past him back down the hallway and towards the loading bay without hesitation. The kid seemed to understand my urgency and he quickly started jogging along beside me. ¡°You are in pretty rough shape, your arm got hit?¡± He asked as he looked me over with a frown. ¡°Yes. It''s fine.¡± I responded tiredly, already out of breath from the fight. The kid seemed to disagree judging by his face, but he kept silent as we entered the main hallway again and together we walked onto the metal platform in the loading bay. ¡°Try to open the door!¡± I called out to the blond kid beside me before holding my spear firmly and quickly ran down the stairs. I made it to the bottom in no time, rushing over to the van and stabbing my spear into one of the front tires and popping it with a hiss, already pulling my spear out and moving onto the next tire ready to pop it too. This van wouldn''t be going anywhere without tires, and I don''t see how the factory can work without the materials from the van¡¯s deliveries. The loading bay door started opening once I had popped the last tire, and I walked around to see the British kid running down to me from the metal stairway, looking at me with concern. ¡°Ok, you get yourself out of here. Just run. I don''t think they will follow you.¡± I said seriously and quickly as I started to faintly hear footsteps coming from outside, though his expression shifted to confusion as I said it. ¡°You aren''t coming with me?¡± He asked, worried for some reason. ¡°I cant.¡± I told him, then cut him off as he was about to ask more. ¡°Listen! They are coming, you need to run quickly!¡± I said firmly, leaning on my spear. ¡°No!¡± He told me, his face twisting. ¡°I am going with you!¡± He asserted quickly, and I started shaking my head, pointing towards the open garage door before he cut me off. ¡°I am going with you.¡± He said firmly, and the growing volume of the footsteps marching on the first floor coming closer made me realize I was out of time. ¡°Fine, come with me! We need to hide!¡± I said quickly, running towards the stairs to the second floor and letting the kid follow behind me, being careful not to hit him with the butt of my spear as we ran together upstairs and away from the soldiers. Chapter seven: Reassessing the situation The not quite abandoned woodshop room¡¯s second floor door was flung open with a slight thud as I stumbled onto the platform with the boy following behind me and quickly slamming the door shut with a much louder than before taking a close look around us. The room hadn''t changed a lot since I had arrived. There were still piles of broken and damaged wood all over the place. The dust was ever present. The only thing that had changed was I had cleared out the area around a table and moved the bigger stuff to the side of the room so I could move around the room without feeling like I was trying to do parkour. I sagged and sat down on the platform, looking myself over and checking for any actual injuries. I was sore all over, and I had a few bruises¡­ My left shoulder had a shallow cut from that one shot that was looking ok¡­ my right arm however was hanging limply by my side and it hurt like hell even while I wasn''t trying to move it. I wasn''t a doctor, but I had some experience and a few first aid courses so I was pretty confident that the auton''s last blow had dislocated my arm. Lucky that it was only dislocated, really. I groaned a little, leaning my head back in defeat only to see the boy who had ended up in the loading bay running up the stairs to the platform holding a big chunk of wood in his arms. ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked the kid coming closer after a moment of confusion, looking between him and the wood with creased eyebrows. ¡°I am barricading the door!¡± He explained with a quiet but hard voice. ¡°I don''t think that would do much, those things have chopped metal pipes in half with their hands.¡± I commented with a sigh, causing him to curse and drop the piece of wood to the ground without a word. He then just sighed and sat down across from me, putting his head in his hands in silence. I let him deal with what was going through his mind, staying quiet and listening to the silence. Then the kid spoke up, not looking at me with his head resting on his knees. ¡°Just what is going on? What are those things?¡± He asked in a fragile tone, as if everything was hitting him hard in that moment. I took a moment to think through the pain of my arm for the best way to put this, before giving up and snorting. ¡°Sentient plastic aliens. Technically, it¡¯s a single alien controlling the bodies.¡± I said quietly and seriously before sighing and giving a full explanation. I went over the basics, how it was trying to invade and kill off the humans to make this a factory world. How it was trying to make better, upgraded soldiers for itself in the form of the black mannequin that I had killed in the hallway. I also went over how the mannequins worked as far as I knew, going over the connection between the mannequins and the main consciousness and the metal control orb in their head. Then I trailed away into silence, wincing a bit from the pain again. The kid seemed to need a minute to take in everything that I had said before shaking his head and looking me in the eye. ¡°I wish I could call you a liar. I really wish I could. But I can''t, not after what I just saw you do and what they did. I believe you.¡± He said haltingly, and I could see the dull fear in his eyes as he remembered what had happened. He was just a kid, really¡­ This was something that he shouldn''t have dealt with. Hell, I was only taking this so well because I had some survival experience in the wild and I knew beforehand what I was getting into. But I could see in his eyes that he was strong. Temporarily banishing his fear after looking into my eyes. ¡°I am Oliver. Oliver Pronsky¡­¡± He suddenly introduced himself, raising a hand to shake mine. ¡°Ah, I am Killiad. Killiad Jones.¡± I introduced myself as well, though I didn''t shake his hand. ¡°Sorry, my shoulder is dislocated. That last one got me pretty good.¡± I said, sighing as he frowned and withdrew his hand before looking concerned. ¡°...Do you know how to set it, or-?¡± He asked hesitantly, looking uncomfortable as he looked at my shoulder before looking away uncomfortably. I gave a bit of a chuckle to that, ¡°Yes, I know how. I have just been trying to ignore it until I can work up the nerve¡­¡± I explained with a self deprecating grin. He didn''t seem to know how to take that explanation and just gave a brief nod. ¡°So¡­ who exactly are you anyways? How did you get involved with this? How do you know about this?¡± He asked hesitantly, waving vaguely around and referencing the alien factory/invasion. I wondered what I should tell him. Tell him that I was a reincarnated guy from another universe who was on a quest from two divine beings? No, that was just plain stupid. ¡°I¡­ I am just a guy who happened to be around the neighborhood. So I wound up here a few days ago.¡± I lied, though maybe because of the pain or what the kid already knew from me talking he frowned disbelievingly. ¡°You with the government? MI6 or something?¡± He suspiciously asked as he looked me over in some confusion. ¡°No.¡± I said, taking a deep breath and giving up on my lie instantly. ¡°Ok, you wont believe me if I tell you the entire truth, but what I can say is that I am basically a normal guy with some survival training and experience who got caught up in all of this a few days ago. As for how I know about everything¡­ well you won''t believe that either, so let''s just say I was told about what was going on before I came here to try and stop the factory here.¡± I explained, telling the truth this time, though omitting some of the stranger details. The kid seemed suspicious at first, before he gave a sigh of his own and leaned his head back against the wall. ¡°Right. Aside from what you are not telling me¡­ I trust you. You saved my life down there man, and I take my debts seriously. I owe you one.¡± He told me seriously, then he grinned. ¡°So, you got any food around here?¡±
So it turned out that telling the kid that I didn''t have any food for the last two days seemed to spark something in him and he declared that he would sneak out through an exit he knew, that was out of the way enough that it was pretty safe, and get us some food. So that''s where he is now, walking to a mcdonalds for an early lunch/late breakfast. He was curious as to why I couldn''t leave the building for another day yet, but when I hesitated he decided to just drop it and order for both of us. Wow, I cannot wait for some fast food crap right now. I haven''t had any¡­ well I hadn''t had any food that I didn''t make myself in the woods for around two years. How time flies. He left about an hour or so ago so he should be coming back soon, but for now I was alone in my ¡®base¡¯ and sitting on the table that I had slept on for the last two nights. ¡°I really need to set my arm¡­¡± I said to myself, looking down and wincing as I saw the bump that was caused by my dislocated arm. Then I grit my teeth and before I could think about it any more, I just did it. I swore a lot through my gritted teeth for the next minute or so, but aside from the pain I think I was alright and the pain of moving my shoulder did go down after a minute or so. I thought that it would be worse if I was being honest, I had seen some pretty bad reactions even with pain meds. Though I did have a high pain tolerance I suppose. Anyways, once I wrapped up my right arm in a sling from some fabric I got yesterday I had to stop and lie down on my back to rest for a minute to think. I couldn''t use my dominant arm now, not properly anyway. I could injure myself if I pushed it too far this soon, but more importantly it hurt like hell and I couldn''t move it with anything resembling strength or coordination. I think that the factory is disabled because they don''t have a working truck that they can use for more resources, at least for now, so that is one optional goal done. As for killing all the upgraded soldiers before the end of tomorrow¡­ Not a chance. Not a single chance. Maybe I could if there was only one more of them or something, but this factory has been going for who knows how long. There could be an army already. I did not want to risk it. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it I was injured in a way that prevented me from really fighting, though technically I could use my spear one handed. And I don''t think I could take on more than two of those things at a time without being killed even while I was uninjured. Hell, I got my shoulder dislocated while fighting two of the normals towards the end of the fight. I had a spear, and a knife. They had super strength and guns in their hands. I have to give up the wish of fighting any more during this quest. It was just hanging out/hiding in this room and recovering from here on out. Well, I should also make a sack from the fabrics I collected to carry the wood working tools that are currently lying on a table to my right. Maybe that was a project for this afternoon or tomorrow though. I needed to relax¡­ ¡°Oi, Killiad! I¡¯m back! And I brought some friends!¡± I heard called out from the mezzanine, making me lean my head backwards to look up at him. Oliver was back, apparently. There was a crew of five kids with him as well. Two girls and three guys. They looked rough, like Oliver, and they looked like they were probably sleeping on the streets. They looked nice enough though, despite their hard and grimy looks. Basically a bunch of kids that looked somewhere between homeless kids and poorer kids from a bad neighborhood. I took the second of them walking curiously into the woodshop behind Oliver to take a closer look at them, along with finally taking a good look at Oliver at the same time. One of the girls looked a lot like Oliver, their blond hair seeming to match along with their dark grey eyes, but while Oliver seemed a bit taller with a fuller frame the girl seemed rather short and looked maybe a year younger while also looking pretty thin. Their styles seemed pretty different as well because while Oliver was wearing a dirty white and blue T-shirt and black camo pants that contrasted his dark skin, the girl was wearing a button up white shirt tucked into her jeans, making her look older and oddly professional then she appeared at first sight. I could see that two of the boys looked like family too, both of them big muscled guys who looked like they had more brawn than brain, both wearing matching black thin padded jackets over white T-shirts and grey sweatpants, with hard suspicious expressions as they looked around. Yet, despite their bulk they looked and struck me as stealthy enough that if they stood in the shadows and closed their eyes, they could disappear from sight. They moved steadily and smoothly, seeming light on their feet. Maybe twins judging by how similar they looked, especially while wearing matching outfits like they were, along with their matching brown buzzcuts. The only other girl was walking beside the first girl, who I was tentatively labeling as Oliver''s sister, looked like a heavy set tomboy with black hair and a general boyish look with short black hair, loose black clothes and dark eyeshadow conflicting with her pale skin. Finally walking through the door onto the mezzanine last was a guy in blue jeans and a blue button up shirt with near shoulder length wild hair who also seemed to be carrying a guitar on his back with light and dirty, yet smooth skin. I noted with a bit of amusement that this group wouldn¡¯t make a bad dungeons and dragons party line up. Two¡­ paladins? Who are probably family, two twin rogues, a tomboy barbarian and a bard. I smiled up at the group as they turned their eyes to me. ¡°Hey! What are these guys doing here?¡± I asked carefully, looking at Oliver with some confusion. Before he could answer though, the girl who I had pegged to be his younger sister gave a little squeal as she looked at me and started running down the stairs, pushing past anything in her way until she stopped in front of me and started examining my shoulder and my arm with some noises of consternation. I looked between her and Oliver in confusion as she looked my injuries over. ¡°...That''s my older sister. Olivia.¡± He seemed to sigh, looking embarrassed and shifting on his feet. ¡°She¡¯s studying to be a doctor. Just¡­ let her take a look and get it over with or she will bug you until you let her.¡± He explained with a note of annoyance and amusement at his sister as he reached the floor and walked alongside her, ¡°She made me let her tag along when I was talking to everybody about coming to help.¡± ¡°When you were talking about doing what?¡± I interjected quickly, getting over the surprise that Olivia was and starting to realize why the kid had invited his friends over here with me and the aliens literally the next room over. ¡°Right! So, you have met my sister Olivia-¡± The shameless kid said and ignored me while starting introductions to the other kids, trying to turn my attention. ¡°And this,¡± He pointed to the guy with the guitar, ¡°Is Noah.¡± The kid smiled brightly and gave a wave. ¡°June.¡± He pointed to the large muscled girl standing away from everyone who gave me a brief nod. ¡°Finally, Aaron and Darin.¡± He pointed to the twins, who both gave me grins as they were introduced. ¡°Ok. Well, I am Killiad as you know, and you all need to leave.¡± I said seriously, and seeing the glances of confusion of the kids to Oliver who shifted on his feet again, more uncomfortable than ever. ¡°Killiad, what-¡± Oliver asked me after a moment, before being cut off by Olivia, his sister as she took a step back. ¡°Ok, I need to know just what the hell you dragged my brother into.¡± She demanded of me, looking pissed. ¡°You clearly just had your arm injured and probably dislocated. The top of your shoulder has a bullet wound that has not been cleaned at all. And you have a damn stone age spear!¡± She shouted, putting one finger up after another before snatching my spear from beside me with a look of disgust like she took it as a personal insult. I sent a look to Oliver, that made him look abashed before I turned my attention to Olivia. ¡°Your brother didn''t tell you anything?¡± I asked the girl, who snorted at the question. ¡°He was saying some shit about aliens, area 51 and MI6. Honestly, like you expect me to believe that.¡± She said dismissively, making Oliver look a little mortified. Noah, the twins and miss muscle behind them didn''t seem to care though, with Noah looking interested, the twins sharing a seemingly knowing look, and the rugged tomboy didn''t seem to care as she sized me up. ¡°Ok, so first off-¡± I tried to interject quickly, keeping my voice down and serious, but this time one of the twins cut me off. ¡°So¡­¡± Started the twin I was pretty sure was Aaron, with the other continuing and finishing the sentence. ¡°Where are the drugs my man?¡± He said, looking around interested, ¡°Must have some good stuff judging by Oliver¡­¡± I let my head fall in my hands as Oliver''s sister started screeching at me furiously. God, why..? ¡°Please just let me explain!¡± I shouted over the red faced woman, the snickering of the twins and the groans of Noah and Oliver. June just seemed to be relaxing for the show as she took a seat by the stairs. Then I heard a dozen sets of stomping footsteps out on the first floor. I realized that we were in the same building as a factory that made a small army of living plastic soldiers. We were shouting in a building full of aliens. Not very smart. Admittedly, I was pretty sure that they didn''t have ears before this¡­ but they didn''t care. Both Oliver and I leaped to attention in the instant we heard the sound in the short silence, with the others seeming to have various reactions. June seemed to straighten instantly, snapping to attention and turning her head to the door. Noah turned slowly in some confusion to the door. The twins looked at eachother and started making their way slowly and carefully to the door in the background, ready to bail. Olivia¡­ well I don''t think she even noticed. ¡°We got to move! Second floor, down the hallway to the left as fast as we can!¡± I called out instructions instantly, and together Oliver and his crew with the exception of his sister who was looking pissed and had just started to realize something was going on, but having no idea what, I grabbed my spear back from the girl with my working left hand in an instant as I threw myself quickly to the ground from the table, making her recoil. Oliver was shepherding the others up the stairs to the second floor door before he ran over and grabbed his sister''s arm and started dragging her away. ¡°OI! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!?¡± She shouted, struggling against her brother and me as I grabbed her other arm, dragging her away from the danger. Then as we didn''t answer besides a quick whisper shout from Oliver to stay quiet, the woman seemed to hear the sounds of the marching Autons coming this way. ¡°Wha-¡± She started speaking, going slacker in our arms before we all jolted as a loud banging could be heard coming from the door. Then the door splintered, and we could see five upgraded black Auton soldiers standing in the doorway looking in on us as Oliver and I struggled to get the shell shocked girl up the stairs. I grunted, before lowering myself down in a squat in a split second decision to hoist the smaller girl up onto my shoulder in a one arm fireman''s carry in a flash of pain and adrenaline before I started sprinting alongside Oliver up the stairs. Chapter eight: Wolfs Blood We ran like hell was after us up the cold iron stairs, outpacing the Autons'' rapid approach to the bottom of the stairs. Olivia was screaming and she even hit me a few times while trying to scramble away wildly without any thought. I kept a tight grip on her however, ignoring the blows with gritted teeth. My shoulder REALLY did not like being hit this soon after it was dislocated. But I was controlling my breathing to stem the flow of pain, so I just braced myself as I flung open the decrepit door all the way open and tossed the rabid girl next to her brother. ¡°Get out of here!¡± I called to the kid and then turned around with my spear in my good hand, ready to stop the five soldiers following us at the doorway. ¡®A half decent choke point. If I could get them-¡¯ I started formulating a plan with my wild and very strained mind, full of desperation to get the kids safe and out of the warzone, but an instant before I could put my thoughts into words, the black and white lined figures of the upgrades emerged into sight on the stairs to the second floor. With a deep grunt of effort, I charged through the door once again and thrust my spear with hard determination, though that probably wasn''t enough for a spear this unbalanced while injured. I could instinctively feel how much my spear was off by using it one handed however, so I tried to counterbalance it by holding it closer to the tip. It reduced my range by quite a bit¡­ but it was worth it when my first strike hit true with the sharp crack of plastic snapping in the lead plastic man''s head before it could react. After the first fell however, it became a thousand times harder to deal with the other four that pushed their dead comrade off the stairs and out of the way, keeping their strong hands up and ready to deflect any attacks in a robotic but almost boxer-like stance as they marched forward to meet me. I cursed and turned back the other way, running and nearly charging through the door and intending to head around the corner. I couldn''t follow through with it however as I nearly ran into Oliver and Olivia who were, for some reason, standing still and arguing just in front of the door, Oliver trying to drag the stubborn girl away while she stood fast for some reason. But no matter what it was about, I was sure that despite how stupid the sight before me was, I didn''t have time to solve whatever argument they were having. I ignored what they were saying and just ran to them without a pause, running on instinct. ¡°LISTEN TO YOUR BROTHER, FOLLOW YOUR BROTHER, AND GET OUT OF THE BUILDING!¡± I commanded, yelling in her face to get through to her. She seemed taken aback, but nobody had any time to do anything because in the next instant, the plastic men barged through the open doorway and they raised their arms, swinging them down to the closest intruder. Me. I grunted and sidestepped the first attack of the leading Auton, but then I had to quickly move to the side and backwards once again because two of the emerging Autons fanned out towards me behind the other one. The fourth one didn''t seem as intent to follow me though, and it stepped slower through the doorway. I barely saw it turning its head over the shoulders of its brethren, but it was unmistakable that it was looking at the cornered-looking brother and sister on the other side of the three Autons arranged before me. It took a step. I felt a searing heat by my heart. It took another step. My vision turned red and I growled with pain, my view seemed to grow up just a bit as well, but I barely noticed it in my dull and pained mind. I could dully hear some shouts from down the hallway and I caught a glimpse of Oliver''s friends coming in behind me with terror in their faces. It took one more step, and the Autons arrayed in front of me raised their arms with the fingers falling away with a slight clunking sound as they revealed their gun barrels. I charged, my blood running hot and my mind blank except for the emotions of anger, hunger, but most of all RAGE. Not blind rage, righteous rage. The kids were in danger. I felt fabric rip and suddenly my arm was free, my makeshift spear held firmly in both hands as I cocked my arm back and threw it into the Auton that was approaching Olivia and Oliver. It connected with a thunk and subsequent crack that rang out for a second, though it sounded almost dull to me as pain clouded my mind. The spear pierced through the thick plastic head and out the other side, connecting with the wall behind it and sticking into its stone surface. I had no time to think about what I just did though. I was at the line of Autons, who were pointing their gun arms at my chest. But they seemed slow, and I stretched out my arms in an instinctual action and tensed my hand in a strange way, feeling a flash of pain coming from my fingers before I drove them forwards into the three with my bare fists and body. I felt powerful in that moment. Strong. Fast. I wasn''t thinking, I was just doing. I lashed out at the three plastic soldiers in front of me, though strangely I didn''t punch them. I slashed. My open palms looked strange, though I didn''t pay attention to them. I just slashed, and two dead upgraded Auton¡¯s lay at my feet with deep claw marks in their heads, revealing a scraped orb of metal with similar claw marks. Then I turned to the last Auton, standing tall and loudly growling at it. It was slow in my eyes. Turning around, it tried to point its gun hand at me. I was too fast. I crouched down and sprung at it with the power of my hind legs, flying into the air and then impacting the wall with a plastic man caught between me and it. I didn''t feel the impact quite as I should have, it felt almost muffled. The Auton didn''t seem affected much by the impact either, as it was still moving and pushing at me with its arm while slowly trying to bring its gun arm to bear. I didn¡¯t let it. I found that it stopped moving when I tore its head in half with my teeth, spitting it away. It tasted like plastic and oil. I bared my teeth down at its body, feeling unfulfilled. I looked around me, my head clearing as my pain seemed to fade. Oliver and Olivia seemed to be almost frozen in time and the place where they had been before the Auton tried to attack them, looking down the hallway where I had just been in what looked like fear in Olivia''s case and wide eyed wonder in Oliver''s case, their eyes seeming to slide slowly towards where I was. I turned my head down the hallway, and I saw the other teens doing much the same. Stopped dead in the hallway and staring slowly like time was still. Though their expressions differed a lot. I tilted my head to the side, watching with wide eyes at the strange sight. But then I caught the scent of the unique oily plastic scent that was on the Autons and my instincts started howling at me sharply in my mind and I howled in response, turning my head sharply and starting to sprint on all fours like a bullet down to the stairwell that leads to the first floor. The hunt was on now.
P.O.V. Monque I was walking through the hallway of the small modern house, out in the woods that was the joined realm and domain of me and Nemunue. It wasn''t exactly a surprise that when we created a realm that combined our domains it shaped itself in the form that it did. A modern house, well modern in the world that the human we were sponsoring was from anyway, which I could see was one of the greatest trials and challenges of his world. Modern life in his world¡­ couldn''t compare to a dungeon. And with it being surrounded by the wild, which is Nemunue¡¯s main domain alongside survival, just made sense. She just went out in the forest for now, I remember her saying something was weird about the wildlife, something about wolves. So it was up to me to watch our- My steps faltered when I saw a particular blinking red light on the large screen that took up the observation and meeting room of the house. Red was viewed as bad, so whatever was going on was most likely bad. I boosed myself with my legs to the room and I quickly looked over the screen with furrowed brows. The screen was a bit of a surprise when it popped up. Me and Nemunue were content to watch through the divine anchor that was the quest system, but one day we woke up and went to this room and found it sitting innocently on the wall with a whiff of Universe Energy. I don''t know how exactly they''re even is a universal will as strong as the one in that insanely weird universe that Killiad named the Doctor Who universe, but I had only heard rumors of minor gods adding permanent things to a realm that was not theirs and especially not without notice. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. In fact it was so weird that I suspected Nemune to be playing a prank for a good few minutes. But no, the damn universe will was somehow influencing the realm. It would be terrifying if I wasn''t sure that I could prevent it from happening on a wider scale in the future. Not that I had done that. For all that happened inside the universe, the universe will itself didn''t seem particularly hostile. More¡­ playful. It had supreme power over its own universe, but it used it to create stories and events through its own strange timeline around a few people, in particular the Doctor. In fact, if I had literally any other choice that did not lead to me and Nemunue dying of starvation I would have chucked it back into the Void where we had managed to find it. But I didn''t, so I grabbed Killiads soul from a black market dealer in the underworld of some major god and inserted him into the universe. Fera, the world that Nemunue created, was a bit of a surprise to me when she told him though. I hadn''t expected her to be able to alter the universe. But she told me that the universe will allowed it and even helped out once they talked it over. How a goddess and a universal will talk is beyond me though. But I am getting off topic. The screen itself wasn''t that complicated, most of it projecting a three dimensional viewing screen with the edges covered with different switches, charts I couldn''t understand and yes, lights. Red however, I had not seen before so I had to read the label and caused me to double take. It was labeled ¡°Divine Energy Detector¡± with a light blinking beside it that read, ¡°Major Body Alteration Detector¡± that was blinking with a bright orange. The labels were a bit dubious, but I knew that they worked after some experimenting earlier. They seemed to be related as when I looked at the viewing screen I saw a mass of fur and teeth that was ripping apart an Auton soldier like it was a toy. A werewolf. Though strangely it seemed to have a stone grey, unlike its natural black fur, piece of artwork in the form of a wolf skull merged with its chest. I looked at it and I could feel the divine energy pulsing from it. ¡°How the hell did he find a divine artifact¡­?¡± I asked myself with furrowed brows. It wasn''t a terrible thing to find, unless it was cursed or had some kind of link back to the maker''s realm. Mortals can become very powerful in a universe with even weak artifacts, which was only a good thing. Something that was concerning however, was I had no idea where or when he could have gotten such a thing. And the fact that there seemed to be a latent direct connection to a god really amplified that concern a thousand fold. I could block the signal and connection that it had, maybe even permanently, but that was all I could do. I couldn''t even destroy the thing as it was a divine artifact from another deity. I guess I just have to figure out what the hell happened down there. And to think, I choose this quest to ease him into the universe. I suppose that after the universe will started interfering with the quest I should have figured that something was going to happen¡­
Killiad P.O.V. I wasn''t quite sure how I knew that all the Autons, upgraded or otherwise were dead inside the building, but I did. I was inside the gym when I seemed to come back to my senses again, surrounded by at least two dozen plastic bodies that were torn and ripped into chunks across the floor. It looked like a massacre. ¡°Did¡­ did I do this? What-¡± I asked myself horsley, staring around with an unasked question in my mind crowding my thoughts. I had done this. But how? The little I remembered from the fight, if it could be called that, was strange. I seemed to remember¡­ I had claws? I had felt myself changing. I had become something not human. But the strangest thing was¡­ while I was whatever that thing that I became was¡­ it felt normal. Better than being human even. The world seemed slow, I felt my mind was fast and strong and wickedly smart under the surface. But absolutely savage. Primal. I shivered when I thought back at the looks of terror on the teenagers faces when they looked at what I became, despite the lag caused by my mind perceiving them faster then they saw me, then I shoved those thoughts aside. Its not worth it to try and beat myself up for scareing some kids when I have no idea what the fuck happened. I wasn''t me when that happened. I don''t know what happened, but I wasn''t in control over my body. Not completely. I could feel that under the surface I was there controlling it, but it wasn''t quite all me, like I experience as a human. It was interesting, and terrifying all in one. The body influences the mind, I guess? Souls exist, so I have no clue how all that stuff interacts with the physical mind, different bodies produce different experiences and tendencies I suppose. But on a less scientific note, I took a seat to try and steady a sudden nausea and looked myself over, trying to ground myself in the present and not start losing myself in my thoughts. My clothes had a few rips and looked stretched out now¡­ I looked pretty clean and holding together really well all things considered. But what caught my attention was my arms. More accurately, the fact that they were both fine. The makeshift sling I made was gone, and my arm was hanging free without any pain whatsoever. It had healed. But now I was hungry and thirsty and drained as hell. Probably some kind of backlash against the transformation? I still have no clue how that ¡®transformation¡¯ happened. Maybe my patron deities stepped in to help me out? I would have died, and as far as I could tell they can''t let that happen. Though somehow that explanation didn''t sit right with me. I remembered some burning sensation coming from my chest before the transformation, but that''s it. Speaking of that, I looked down at my chest more closely, specifically the left side. At first, I didn''t see anything. My leather jacket was looking normal on the surface, with the exception of a rip or two. But when I started my chest down, I noticed the absence of something. My pendant was gone¡­ I almost immediately looked into the pocket, only to find that it was empty. With a burn mark in the shape of the wolf pendant burned into the lining. I opened up my leather jacket and looked into the inside. It had the burn mark as well, though there were no holes. My shirt also had it in the same exact place. Then I grabbed the neck of my shirt and looked under my shirt. There was a tattoo of a wolf''s head, the exact shape and style that the carving on the pendant was. That shocked me and I started moving my hand to touch it. I never had a tattoo. I hated needles. So how..? Then it moved. Its face twitched and I could see its fur start flowing like it was in a wind, its eyes opening up, looking at my fingers and jaw opening in what looked like a wolfish yawn. If I wasn''t already sitting down, I would have fallen down in shock as my hands hurriedly retracted and I let out a ragged gasp of shock. I tore off my leather jacket and my black shirt, my heart racing and my mind reeling from what I saw. I tossed them aside and I found myself looking down at my chest in shock. It looked back at me, its head and eyes moving on my chest as if it was three dimensional in its two dimensional state. ¡°What the fuck¡­ I- What?¡± I stuttered in a low tone full of shock. ¡°Well that''s not a nice greeting, Killiad.¡± The wolf replied in my mind, its words resounding in my mind and sounding like an old woman general. ¡°Right¡­ So, I am either very high right now or my pendant turned into a tattoo which is also alive.¡± I said to myself, giving my cheek a slap just in case I was sleeping. I wasn''t dreaming. ¡°My name is Loupa, you know.¡± It commented with a sniff of disapproval. ¡°Did the goddess truly tell you nothing? No, I suppose she wouldn''t have had the time¡­ And this doesn''t feel like Tera. I thought I would have woken sooner.¡± It started talking, its dull feminine yet hard voice starting to play tricks with my mind as they bounced around. It was hard to understand what she was saying, but I got the gist of it. ¡°How¡­ Just how did you get into my pendant? What are you?¡± I asked, haltingly with my mind thoroughly in shambles after everything that had happened. ¡°Ah¡­ I am a spirit constructed by Adel Lupricada, goddess of wolves and imbued into your pendant to wake and allow me to bestow some power unto you when the time is right. Though this isn''t quite where I had assumed we would be. Another universe, one of the outer universes at that.¡± It started explaining, then it turned pensive as its nose flared up, sensing something and seeming to think. ¡°Why? Why exactly did this goddess do that? Does she want something with me?¡± I asked, processing everything that the wolf told me at face value. Whatever she was, she was added to my pendant sometime during my life on Earth before I died most likely. At least that is what it wanted me to think. Though, if it knows that I wasn''t from this universe then¡­ that leant some credibility to her? But she also said that she was made to bestow power unto me. Me. As if this was a personal thing. As weird, nonsensical and unlikely as that sounds. ¡°I believe that her partner has plans for you. The Wolve-¡± She started saying calmly before breaking off suddenly. ¡°Wait, something is wrong.¡± She announced, fear starting to crop up in her voice suddenly, and causing me to tense up slightly as I could feel her presence in my mind start to almost¡­ peel away. ¡°NO! NO, YOU DAMN GOD, YOU MEDDLE IN THINGS ABOVE YOUR STATION! I AM A DIVINE ARTIFACT OF-¡± It started shouting in my head, and I could see its tattoo start to wrestle with something invisible, before it started condensing and cutting off the voice of the artifact in my mind and suddenly I could feel a heavy presence being forced out through my chest. The pendant rippled through my skin like it was water, and then fell to the floor in front of me with a dull thud. Chapter nine: Only human I took three hurried steps backwards and fell to the ground, staring at the pendant. The one I had made with my own two hands, oh so many years ago. ¡°How¡­ No, why is any of this happening? ¡®How¡¯ does not matter. This is the god''s playing with my life, and I am not a god. I am human, mortal.¡± There are things that I cannot control¡­ as I am now. But that is a thought for the far, far future when I am not sitting in a dirty abandoned school building. Thoughts started to fill my mind and I felt my head and heart was heavy. I spent minutes and minutes just sitting sprawled on the dirty trash and plastic covered ground, looking at the pendant. I stand up heavily through the mental and physical exhaustion that have started plaguing me lately. I am still looking at my pendant. Whatever the gods'' intentions are, and I am sure that there are multiple playing with my life, all with different goals, I am not going to leave my pendant here. I remember clearly the day when I had first sanded over the stone wolf''s face, the day that I gave it to her, the day she gave it back- No¡­ I can''t- shouldn''t remember that¡­ I stopped thinking for a moment with a tight face and suddenly all the stress was gone, and leaned down to pick it up without hesitation or fear any more. This was mine. The gods could fuck off. It was warm. Perfectly normal once again. I tightened my grip around it and without having any time to think over my actions I slung the cord that my pendant was on around my neck and let my pendant fall to the center of my bare chest where I watched it sway before it stilled. I looked up and out at the room with gritted teeth, feeling a tightness in my chest that had nothing to do with any injury or tiredness. My shirt and jacket were just a foot or so away from me, lying on the dirty grey floor in a heap. I took careful steps towards them and shook them both out before putting them on one at a time, sliping my shirt over my head and sliding on my jacket before zipping it up, covering my chest and my pendant along with it. It is said that there are only a few times in one''s life that truly defines who we are. I thought I would have experienced them all a while ago, prepared to die in the wilderness of Canada as a shell of who I was. I remember when I was ten, accepting a girl my own age into my parents house after I realized what she had been through and giving her food and my own bed. I remembered when I gave this same pendant to her when I first admitted that I loved her almost ten years later. I remember when I was watching the woman that she had become two years after lying in a hospital and giveing the pendant to me again with her dying breath. I remember running. From everyone, everything. I gave a choked sob, letting the thoughts come without the normal resistance I might have given previously before smiling. I could feel a piece of my heart settle in my chest with my decision and a warmth like I hadn''t felt in years flooded me. I sank to my knees and closed my eyes for a long second before rising again with wide open eyes and a bittersweet smile. Then I started laughing. A deep chested laugh, one that I hadn''t done in a long time. There was no thought behind it, I just felt silly all of a sudden. I laughed until my chest hurt, when I quieted down with the same smile on my face. My memory still hurts me. But that''s alright. I accepted the pain. A reminder to myself, in the future. I started walking once again, feeling strangely weak and light as I made my way through the Auton corpses to the door that led into the rest of the building I found myself in. I didn''t have to open up the door, as it was lying in bits on the ground nearby, so I walked out into the desolate and ravaged hallway without any issue besides watching where I was stepping. There were some small scrapes in the walls and floor around me, alongside the remains of one or more upgraded Autons and I spent a second looking down at them, almost marveling at what had happened here. I had done this, not some god or spirit. I felt it. This was me, in control of my power. I looked out at the hallway around me for a second longer before I started walking through the hallways at random, looking at what I caused during my attack. Though I wasn''t sure what I was doing, I could feel that my mind was internalizing something. It was a feeling, not something that I could really put to words in my mind, but I could feel it wasn''t quite understood by me in the first place like it wasn''t realized yet. I walked through the entirety of the first floor before I found the wrecked assembly line with cut power lines and several smoking electronics alongside melted plastic and shattered metal. It was right in the center of the school, in what was probably the cafeteria before the school was abandoned. There were white mannequin Auton corpses here mainly, and they seemed less destroyed then the upgrades but no less dead. I seemed to remember they were more fragile on the inside than the black ones so I had to use less brutal attacks. I stopped there for a moment, that strange feeling almost bubbling to the surface of my mind in that place. But then it stopped and I started walking again, to the second floor. I made my way to the stairwell that I tore my way down when I first started the hunt and soon I was stepping up stairs covered in scratch marks on the walls and floor. I remembered flying through the stairway, like a beast on all fours because that''s just what I was. Then I emerged through the doorway and onto the second floor. I looked out, and I could see the events of the fight play out while I looked at the results. After I transformed and my arm healed I threw my spear, killing the one who started to approach Oliver and Olivia, the teenager and his older sister. I saw its body lying a good few feet away from the stairwell, still against the grey wall with my spear like a spike in its head. The others all had claw marks or huge cracks, but not this one. I tilted my head to the side as I walked down the hallway and to my makeshift spear and the Auton it was stuck in. I could feel that strange feeling creeping up to the surface of my mind once again and I could feel the heat and heaviness of my pendant against my chest. I leaned down above my spear and wrenched it out of the plastic body, flipping my spear and planting its but into the ground as I looked it over. The spear itself wasn''t any different besides a few small cracks, but I wasn''t really thinking about the spear itself. No, I was thinking about my own actions. I had thrown my spear first, killing the Auton that was threatening the kids before I even thought about killing the ones pointing their guns at me. I had placed them above myself. I remembered at that moment, nothing else was on my mind. Then I transformed into the beast to protect them. I could feel a strange pulse of a hot and tingling energy starting to flow through my body as I started to relive the moment in my mind, the power coming from the pennant yes, but also from myself. As I turned my attention to it, I could feel that my emotions were acting as a catalyst to the power of the Pendant. Righteous anger, protectiveness, fear¡­ All of the power I had fueled my transformation with made this energy mine. Like it was tempered by me into my own. But as the catalyst to this energy it ate off of my emotions and my body. I felt weaker as I felt my energy start to be consumed. But it was a natural and constant part of me now, like it had been unlocked as simply and completely as turning a switch. It was simply something that happened now, fueling my body. It would have the side effect of wearing me down faster, mentally and physically. The feeling I had felt before through the halls, it was my own power caused by my own emotions as I looked out at what I did. It was strengthening my body, even as a human. I didn''t feel much difference now, but I had a feeling that before long I would feel a huge difference. My feelings powered me now, in a unique way that I hadn''t ever experienced before, that I doubted any human like me had experienced before. It was me, unique. Experimentally, I willed that power to flow from the Pendant again as I thought about this and it followed my desire. It moved from the Pendant into my body, and from there I could feel the changes that it caused with a clear mind. Stolen novel; please report. Everything changed at once, but for whatever reason I could feel this transformation was much slower then when I had done so the first time. My emotions were less strong now, and I didnt have the same conviction or strong overwhelming desire that I did then. So with less fuel giving it power, it would be less strong. But that realization aside, I could feel and I could see my legs shifting to become longer and I could see fur start to grow out while my skin became thicker and my body became hotter. My legs started to bend in a way that would be very bad for a human, but in this case I could feel that my legs suddenly got another joint that allowed me to easily get on all fours properly. My arms lengthened as well, growing in volume and thickness to have as much muscle as my werewolf legs while my hands grew and suddenly sprouted long claws from each digit that I could see were meant for either digging into the ground for more traction while running or cutting through skin and bone like butter. My right hand that was still clutching onto my hand made spear seemed to creak the wood as I held it, I was much stronger now. My chest seemed to grow in length a bit as well, but it seemed to mostly just grow in muscle density and volume. My head and neck also changed into a more elongated and wolfish shape while becoming wider and gaining sharp fangs and wolfish teeth, and I could feel my ears shifting to stand up straight and grow in a triangle to allow better hearing. My sight did shift during this transformation, from what a normal human would see to what a wolf might see on top of all a human had to offer. I could see into the shadows better than I had ever been able to, like a night vision. My color spectrum seemed to deepen as everything in the world seemed to become more saturated and gain more contrast, but also gain a very slight tint of red. And my sense of smell, that transformed into something that was incredible. But also terrible, due to the state of the abandoned school. Then my transformation was complete. I looked down at myself for a moment seeing the almost absurd picture of the black furred werewolf that was me, in combat pants and a leather jacket that was definitely too small. Before I could do anything but look, my new sense of smell caught wind of someone that smelled familiar to me. I recalled in perfect detail that scent from hours previous on the teen boy I saved, Oliver. I turned my head and I caught sight of the boy, looking down the hallway from the stairwell on the far end of the hallway and at me, his expression somewhere between curiosity and worry. I could smell his emotions coming off of him, like a weak scent in a breeze. He had a bag in his hand that smelled strongly, but really good at the same time. Food? Some kind of cooked meat. I tilted my head to the side while he seemed to slowly and carefully emerge into the hallway. From my perspective he looked slower then he probably would have looked from a human perspective. It was a bit eerie, watching the world in slow motion. I slowly found the power behind my transformation started to falter and sputter out as I lost my concentration, and I found my body shrinking back into a human again. It felt strangely weak, and vulnerable. But those feelings only lasted a split second, causing me to give a small uncomfortable shudder before I relaxed. Oliver watched my body turn from wolf to man through the entire process, with only slightly widened eyes and a quizzical tilt to his head to show for it. He paused when I turned around to face him fully, and he stopped completely when I started walking towards him. There was conflict in his face, seeming worried and maybe a bit scared but I could see his power through it when he looked me in the face. I was smiling with a bit of a quizzical tilt of my own. He sighed and started towards me again, a relief in his face along with an expression of gratitude. We walked up to each other without any words spoken until we met in front of the woodshop that I had made my small base out of just two days before. Though it felt like much longer. ¡°Hey, kid. What are you doing back here?¡± I asked him with a sigh of relief as I looked him over questiningly. He looked fine, better than while he was being threatened by the Auton soldiers and any time I had seen him before that. Probably took a shower. ¡°Don''t call me that, old man.¡± Oliver scoffed with a small smile before holding out the paper bag he had by his side. ¡°I brought that food. Sorry about not getting it sooner.¡± He told me with a slight wince and his smile dipped into a tight and worried frown. ¡°Thanks, Oliver.¡± I thanked him, letting out a breath and giving him an appreciative nod. ¡°And don''t worry about it. Thank you, really. I am hungry as hell after all of this, so some good food would really help.¡± I thank him with a weak chuckle and a grin, feeling a pang in my completely empty stomach and feeling the lack of energy that the Pendant had consumed to fuel my rampage earlier. Oliver gave a grin at that as well, patting me on the shoulder as he walked through the open door and walked onto the mezzanine, holding out the food and putting it into my hand while he took a seat on the cold metal, just in the same place beside the door he had sat in after I had rescued him. I sat opposite to him on the mezzanine in the same place I was in as well, opening up the bag of fast food and reaching into the bag for some food for the first time in two days. Though again, it felt much longer to me in that moment then I could have thought before. ¡®If I feel like this after every time I transform, then food and water might just be a way more important problem for quests. Back on Fera I will most likely be fine, lots of monster rabbits to eat and a whole lake of mostly clean water, but who knows about out in the wider universe, I don''t want to starve to death on a spaceship or something stupid like that. My inventory would be a very important part of a solution for problems like this.¡¯ I thought to myself, getting a little carried away in my thoughts as I stared down at the burger I had drawn out before taking a huge bite and starting to scarf down the food like a starving man. I groaned in joy as I ate it, despite my thirst bringing down the experience with my dry and almost rubbery feeling mouth. I hadn''t had anything this good, never mind something I hadn''t made myself from something I scavenged or hunted, for a good few years¡­ I needed to do this more often if I could. One forgets about little things like this when living in a civilization after a while I suppose, but damn! ¡°I am really sorry that I can''t pay you properly for this, but thank you. Really. I haven''t had an actual hamburger for years¡­¡± I moaned out between bites, trying to slow myself down and savour it while it lasts. Oliver grinned at that, drawing out another burger from the bag and taking a bite out of it with a small wave of his hand vaguely. ¡°No, it''s alright. You saved my life, twice. You deserve a free burger at least.¡± He explained, waving me off and turning solemn for a moment. Then he smiled with bright mischievous eyes as he reached into the bag once again and drew out a can of Coca Cola and handed it over to me. ¡°And a can of pop.¡± He added as I widened my eyes with a grin as I took it and cracked it open with a hand before taking a sip and sighing as the cool liquid washed away the dryness of my throat and mouth. ¡°You are a lifesaver.¡± I told Oliver seriously as I took another bite of my burger. He looked down at his boots with a smile on his face that told me he was enjoying this as much as I was. We ate in silence for about a minute more, but soon enough Oliver broke the silence as he looked over to me. ¡°I didn''t want to bring everyone over here like that, but I let them all tag along anyway. It''s my fault that we all nearly died. And I know that you saved all of us in the end anyway, but that''s on me and I don''t know¡­¡± Oliver trailed off, and I looked over my Coke at the kid as he looked at the ceiling, seeming lost and vulnerable. I really wasn''t the best person to talk to about emotional, guilt things¡­ But as I looked at the kid, I could feel for him. ¡°I have been where you are at.¡± I told him, remembering a time during a camping trip with friends where I led my friends into a cave. That turned out to not be the smartest decision when we collectively found out that there was in fact a bear sleeping farther in, that somehow we hadn''t woken up during our little exploration. Our situations weren''t exactly the same, but it was close enough to me to relate and judging by the kid''s face that was all he needed to hear. He gave a nod and a sigh, looking over to me again. ¡°How did you¡­ deal with it?¡± He asked, and I could hear the unasked question of ¡®How do I deal with it?¡¯ in his voice as he looked at me. I suddenly realized that he looked up to me, I think when Oliver saw me he found a role model. That kind of stumped me for a second before I shrugged it off mentally, just willing to help the kid where I can while I can. ¡°We talked. Me and my friends, we all sat in one big circle by a fire and we all talked.¡± I answered, giving him the simple answer before I got into it. ¡°The thing I realized from that talk, was that everyone blames themselves for things like that. Survivors'' guilt is always a powerful thing even when nobody dies. They all blame themselves for almost getting others killed, even if they just find the smallest and most flimsy reason why they could be at fault they blame themselves. But nothing is really only one person''s fault.¡± I explained, remembering how everyone said something they should have done better, or not done, during the cave incident. ¡°Thank you, most wise and gracious old man!¡± Oliver joked with a laugh, and making me realize that I had indeed been playing myself up a bit with that. ¡°You are most welcome, young man, I hope that you find my guidance and advice well!¡± I gave a snort while I smiled, responding in kind before laughing a bit. The thing is when things get serious, anything that breaks the build up and the mood instantly releases huge walls of tension and repressed emotion that causes everything to become a thousand times more funny. My laugh made Oliver start to laugh, and soon our laughter started to grow together until we were both grinning like loons and laughing until it hurt where we clutched at our stomachs and tried to finish our meal through our smiles and occasional small bursts of laughter. Chapter ten: Send off After the laughter settled down between Oliver and me, we were left in a comfortable silence for a few moments. We finished eating our meal at about the same time as each other soon after we grew quiet though, and something had been bothering me for a little while now so I looked across at the kid again. ¡°You know¡­ I don''t really know you. And you don''t really know me. That doesn''t sit quite right with me, even if I wont see you again after all this.¡± I say slowly, and I can see the kids eyes dimming a bit as I said that. ¡°Are you sure that¡­ You won''t?¡± Oliver asked slowly and hesitantly. I felt odd at the question. I knew for a fact that the only way that I would see him again, through some random chance, was if I was on a quest somewhere on the Doctor¡¯s timeline. That meant danger to anyone involved. But, looking at the kid and recalling his weird little family, somehow I couldn''t help but hope that I could see him again. Then I tempered those crazy thoughts as I reminded myself of the danger. ¡°If I do, then there''s a good chance that you are the most unlucky kid alive.¡± I chuckle with a half smile at my own joke. ¡°I don''t get time off after all.¡± I comment, explaining myself a bit to the kid who looked a bit confused. That seemed to clear his confusion as he peered out down at the Auton corpse on the floor below us. He looked back up at me, grinning like mad after that though. ¡°I think that I would be the most lucky kid alive if that happened. Fighting aliens trying to invade the Earth twice? You kidding me?¡± He laughed a bit, with bright eyes. ¡°If anything, I think I am going to be seeing a lot of you over the years. I heard something about a crazy agency that says they deal with aliens from Aaron. He is a bit of a ¡®realist¡¯ nerd, but he has some good sources every once in a while. Maybe I should take a look sometime.¡± He said, a little bit of a fiery light in his eyes. Huh¡­ UNIT, I suppose. ¡°I wouldn''t be so confident in getting in with them.¡± I note, thinking for a second before snapping back to reality when he just gave me a sideways look. ¡°And besides, you really shouldn''t. You could be anything-¡± I started, before seeing him shaking his head with a bit of a smile and stopping myself. ¡°I am going to be a bloody alien hunter then.¡± He announced with a wicked grin. Well¡­ the kids got a dream. It''s not like he is some child dreaming of being an astronaut, no. This is the kid who saved my ass from that Auton and I saved in return. It''s¡­ not entirely unreasonable, sadly, to join up with UNIT or something and save humanity. I rested my head against the edge of the metal platform and I could feel the cold metal poles start to cool down my neck. Then I smiled. ¡°Well kid, then maybe I will be seeing you around.¡± I said, already looking forward to it funnily enough. ¡°Maybe next time you will be saving my ass more than I am yours.¡± I challenged a bit, and Oliver smirked at that. ¡°You kidding old man? I am going to save your ass so hard that you won''t know you needed saving.¡± He announced with bravado, his grin challenging me in turn. ¡°Ha!¡± I scoffed off his words, but I could feel the ghost of a smirk on my face as well. A challenge then. We both seemed to forget my original statement after that. Maybe, just maybe, things would go from here through time. And space. Wait- When did the quest turn into this? This is so cliche.
So apparently we had that conversation way too early. That was a finisher exchange, when there is still all of tonight and the following day until the evening where I would just be kind of stuck in the not quite abandoned building. But I explained that and so me and Oliver weren''t stuck in awkward silence, and Oliver left soon after to get some sleep after today''s events. He did also promise to see me off tomorrow though, so he would be coming back. I ended up going down to the table that I had slept on for every other night of this quest and falling to sleep fast, waking up in the very early afternoon and feeling pretty sore but well rested and with a clear mind. I just stared up at the ceiling for a while, trying to relax on the hard wooden table with my jacket beneath my back and head. I had never felt high and mighty before¡­ and sitting in the middle of an abandoned school really hammered home that I probably wouldn''t ever. Sleepiness be damned, even with my jacket beneath me my ¡®bed¡¯ was way too uncomfortable to rest on for very long. RIP table, I will not miss you when I''m gone. I sat in the quiet rays of sunlight and the swirling dust, looking around aimlessly for a moment. Then my gaze caught sight of a pile of tools that I had arranged ages ago on another table for me to pack up to bring back to camp. ¡®I had forgotten about those¡­¡¯ I thought to myself as I stood up properly and went over to the pile before looking around for the fabric I had brought back here to make a bag out of to (hopefully) put everything in my inventory. Though I hadn''t mentioned the bag thing when I asked for the ability or tried it out before, I felt logically it should work? I still needed a bag first. And the fabric I need to make the bag¡­ is gone. Oh! Right, I used it as a sling. Then tore it off when I turned into a werewolf, violently. Into ragged strips. ¡°Well, there should be more fabric than just what I had picked up.¡± I commented dryly before starting to walk slowly towards the mezzanine that would lead me to the second floor where the fashion room I got the fabric from was. Anyways, I knew what I was going to be doing for the rest of the quest. Scavenging and cobbling together a bag for a bunch of old worn down tools in an abandoned school. Yes, very much what a multiversal traveling reincarnated magic werewolf that a pair of gods was sending on quests throughout time and space would do. Well, it''s not like it won''t be useful on the crazy uninhabited fantasy-esc island on the planet that a goddess made for me to live on. Wow, I really dont get how my life is so grounded yet so insanely sky high in terms of insanity compared to a regular life. Well¡­ as regular as you can get in a universe where there are thousands upon thousands of aliens and monsters and people with insane tech around, doing their things. Not to mention the life of the immortal Doctor running around everywhere in time and relative dimension in space trying to prevent the universe from collapsing and the lives of all the people he picks up through the centuries. What a universe. What a life. If past me could see me now¡­ Actually they would point and laugh at me as I walked through an abandoned building as they worked on electrical cables or design a bridge for the city. Or maybe point and laugh as they hunted rabbits in Canada. But that''s beside the point. The fact that I can say that¡­ Damn I have one heck of a life. Laughing a bit at my life, I started to get to work on my scavenging.
Oliver P.O.V. ¡°No! We are not going back! We shouldn''t have gone in the first place!¡± Olivia protested, waving her arms around wildly. She was definitely having a panic attack¡­ I looked around me in the small club house and at the faces of everyone inside. Olivia hadn''t ever been in here, and in fact I tried to hide it from her until today. Noah looked pretty zoned out and was staring at the ceiling from his chair, holding onto his guitar on his lap silently. Noah being silent, despite not being able to talk due to some accident when he was a kid, though you wouldn''t know it to look at him, was never a good sign. He was the definition of a hyperactive ADHD kid with his guitar. Darin and Aaron were in a corner together as far as they could get from Olivia in particular and they were looking annoyed at her in general. Below the surface though, I could see that Darin was mad. At himself, I think. What Killiad said about survivor''s guilt even when nobody died seems to be hitting home for him. Aaron looked puzzled though. Like he was thinking hard and things weren''t making sense to him. That was fair. He was a bit of a science nerd, so werewolves and aliens¡­ didn''t fit. Only June seemed to be fine really. She seemed a bit pissed and annoyed and rebellious, but then again¡­ she always did. She is really soft with people, unless she was fighting them or angry with them, but she genuinely didn''t really care about most things like earth shattering revelations about the universe. I kind of envy that. She was probably just pissed that she couldn''t give a piece of her mind to the plastic aliens! But unlike June, I had thought about what happened a lot. I couldn''t do anything. At first, sure I helped out Killiad against the last mannequin. But after that¡­ I slowed down Killiad when we were running to hide away when he was too injured to deal with things. Which only happened because I did not arrive in time to help fight before he was hit. Then I let Olivia and everyone over to his hideout, and they proceeded to attract the aliens to the room and us where everyone almost died. Killiad turned into a werewolf to save us, and that was a whole pile of weirdness that I didn''t want to touch on, but it was so impossibly close. Inches and a second would have been all it took for Olivia and me to die. The others would have hopefully been fine, they made it out before us, but I nearly got my sister killed because I wasn''t ready. I wasn''t thinking, and I didnt have the power or resources to deal with anything. What I said to Killiad wasn''t about seeing him. If I could fight alongside him, then I would know that I am better. I wouldn''t be weak like that again if I could help it. And not just for me. Olivia was talking fast, working herself up into a huge panic. ¡°Olivia! OLIVIA!¡± I interrupted her quickly, holding her shoulders as I reeled her in, making her stop talking and look at me. She was breathing heavily and her eyes were red and raw. Not just from tears that I would assure her that I hadn''t seen her give, but fear. I had seen people for what they were on the streets. It was hard not to when your single, alcoholic mom kicked you out of the house every chance she got. Her life had broken when she and I nearly died in that hallway. Mine did too, but I would not let her start stressing and shutting down on me. ¡°Calm down.¡± I said to her, looking her in the eye. She nodded and I released her shoulder, taking a step back. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Killiad is leaving this afternoon. I am going to say goodbye, and it''s your choice whether you are going with me or not. He saved us, guys! It''s the least we can do.¡± I explained, firmly and looking around, before letting my eyes rest on Olivia. ¡°Ok! Fine, I am going!¡± Olivia announced, looking annoyed but her face told me all I needed to know. ¡°I am not letting you walk into an abandoned school with a crazy guy who might or might not be a werewolf.¡± Was what her face said, and I almost smiled in amusement at the way she would probably have said it. I doubted it would be nearly as nice. ¡°I am going.¡± June announced soon after Olivia, and I turned to see that her face seemed to light up at the prospect. I hesitated. ¡°June, you can''t fight him.¡± I told her firmly. She didn''t seem to care, so I just sighed and looked at the other three. Derin looked really opposed to the idea and was sitting back with arms crossed as he scowled at Aaron who was looking back at him. Then Derin sighed and gave a nod, prompting Aaron to turn back with a grin and give me a thumbs up. Noah hesitated as I looked over at him. He bit his lip, looking around at everyone. Then he groaned and looked to the ceiling. ¡°Alright! I am in!¡± He announced, as if giving in to some terrible idea he was being pressured into. Which was ridiculous. Nope, no pressure here at all.
Killiad P.O.V. This wasn''t quite what I had in mind for a send off when Oliver told me he would be coming back. Apparently everyone else that he brought with him the first time, before the attack, ¡®decided¡¯ to come along too. At least that''s how it looked as they all walked in behind Oliver on the platform and made their way down the stairs. Oliver was grinning, but everyone else was decidedly not. They didn''t look happy to be back. The big muscle bound emo girl was interestedly staring at me, but not in a negative or harsh way. The dude with the guitar seemed to be slinking towards the back of the group and seemed to be making himself smaller, not meeting my gaze but keeping track of me. One of the twins seemed to be looking towards me in a guarded stance while he stood with his brother who seemed to be looking almost as interested in me as the emo girl. Olivia was just glaring at me. Slightly hesitant when I looked over at her, but she also stood in front of her brother despite him walking around her to walk over. I had just finished making a sack from all the fabric I had scavenged, and I was actually just about to test if I could put it in my inventory without having to wait for the quest to be completed so it could be a quest ¡®reward¡¯ and able to be stored. Though if it came to that, the sack might have been a time waster. Time that I could have used to figure out the ¡®werewolf pendant thing¡¯. Not that I think I could do much to understand anything by just sitting around and transforming a couple times and draining me before the quest ends. It seemed more of a practical experience thing. We would see. I stayed in my crossed legged position on the table with my new sack to the left of me on the table. It looked like a bunch of cloth covering a bunch of tools at the moment. Most likely because that is exactly what it was. My spear by my other hand, resting against the side of the table ¡°Hello again.¡± I said to the room at large, looking around at everyone but staying seated where I was, hands in my lap. They looked on edge enough as is. ¡°Hey! I brought everyone over.¡± Oliver said back to me, grinning as he walked over. ¡°Just in time too. About ten minutes until I¡¯m gone.¡± I complimented, looking out at the broken windows on the wall and looking out at the way the light shone with the almost setting sun. It was clear that it was almost around the same time that I got here three days ago by that, but I also knew how soon it would be due to the system starting an hour-long countdown (fifty or so minutes ago) to let me know the quest was almost over. I have a feeling that this quest was supposed to either have me fighting the Autons until the timer ran out or not complete the side quests at all, but the wolf woman changed a lot of things. ¡°Ten? Why ten minutes?¡± Aaron asked hesitantly from a few tables over, looking over at me puzzled. I grinned at that. ¡°That''s when my ride gets here.¡± I say, leadingly and kind of truthful but still grinning at my own words. I am going to surprise the hell out of these guys and it is going to be glorious. ¡°Just who do you work for?¡± Olivia questioned, trying to look disparaging and disdainful as she looked around but I could hear a genuine but hesitant curiosity in her voice and see it in her eyes. ¡°Well¡­ myself kinda. Though the two upstairs are the ones who send me places like this every now and again. Just the three of us really, and they leave me alone most of the time as far as I can tell.¡± I explain vaguely, knowing that if I outright said I worked for a pair of divine beings I wouldn''t do me any favours. Olivia seemed rightfully unimpressed, but before she could say anything the tough looking girl stepped up looking completely disinterested in Olivia''s words. ¡°I want to spar before you go. You and me.¡± She demanded firmly, stepping forwards. I blinked a few times at that. ¡°Um-¡± I started, confused and about to say alright but Oliver interrupted. ¡°NO! June! You can''t fight everyone you meet!¡± He exclaimed, groaning as if this was a repetitive problem. I blinked again at that before grinning again. Honestly¡­ that''s the kind of cool problem with weird friends that I had all the time back... Wow that took me down a trip to memory lane. Real fighting wasn''t a problem of course, but I¡¯ll be damned if Ky didn''t try to one v seven all of us in PvP every time we got together. Oliver saw that and chose to not comment while June looked pissed, but did not argue as she walked around to sit on a table a little ways away. ¡°Ok¡­¡± I sighed out as I looked around at everyone around me. ¡°First thing that I need to say to you all is I am so sorry.¡± I apologized, looking everyone in the eye individually. ¡°You shouldn''t have been in the building at all and I didnt tell you what the situation was, like I should have.¡± I explained carefully ¡°None of you should have been put in danger like you were.¡± The room was a bit quiet after that. ¡°Come on, that was positively tame.¡± June scoffed, easily breaking the mood with a bright expression as everyone turned incredulously to her. ¡°There wasn''t even any cheaters with guns like in a real fight. The werewolf thing was really cool though.¡± She commented, conversationally. ¡°Right¡­¡± Darin said slowly, glancing to his brother. ¡°Actually for us it wasn''t all that bad either, we just ran¡­ and forced June to run. Oliver, Olivia and you were the only ones who really saw the whole thing. We realized that Oliver and Olivia weren''t behind us, so we ran back but by the time we turned the corner you were standing over mannequins.¡± Aaron told me, and making me blink again, in confusion with some relief this time. ¡°Well that''s good.¡± I said, relief sounding in my voice. ¡°Hell no!¡± June exclaimed suddenly, ¡°I should have been with you three! I would have knocked those stupid plastic fuckers to hell and back for trying to touch Oliver! And Olivia.¡± She continued, furious. I gave a nod to her, in some amusement. Then the room grew quiet as nobody seemed to know what to say. Then a guitar sounded out in the background and I looked to see Noah sitting on the stairs to the platform, his guitar held on his lap as he started to play intently nodding along to the music as he played. It was a bit of a fast song, with a bit of a classical adventure feel. Though it sounded a little more woody or fuller, if that''s the right words, then classical. Nobody seemed to want to speak anymore once the music started, and we just sat around and listened as he played. He played for a few minutes, the music rising and falling, going from calm to chaos to fear and then back to chaos. Then towards the end it slowly shifted to a slower, yet still chaotic tune that sounded more cautious but filled with relief and ease. Maybe a bit of hope and finality. Then he finished, looking up to Oliver and his friends before turning his head to me with a nod. Olivia seemed mostly confused by the whole thing, but Oliver, June and the twins were looking between him and me. June settled first, seeming unsurprised and maybe even as if she was already thinking something and it was just reaffirmed as she turned to Oliver. ¡°You know he¡¯s got a point. Everything went insane, and nobody could have known any better. Besides, it''s over now.¡± She commented, and I could slowly see what had just happened. Noah communicated through music to his friends. I think he is mute¡­ That right there is dedication if he is. ¡°Right.¡± Aaron agreed quickly, before smacking Darin. ¡°Ok! He¡¯s right. We should move on.¡± Darin agreed, giving Aaron an annoyed look and smacking him right back as he did. Aaron didn''t seem to care and grinned over at Oliver and Olivia. Oliver looked relieved, but also looked intently at his sister in front of him. Olivia was still glaring up at me, not giving any ground as I looked her in the eye. Then all of a sudden, her expression relaxed just a bit out of nowhere for a fraction of a second before her gaze lowered and she turned back to Oliver questioningly. ¡°We can trust him. And if you don''t want to, trust me.¡± Oliver seemed to get the message she was giving and responded confidently. Damn¡­ that did not make me get a lump in my throat. Not at all. I cleared my throat anyway and looked to the side of the room to a window where I could see the quickly fading sunlight to distract myself. I took a look at the system countdown that was in the corner of my vision, reading it quickly. One minute. ¡°Well¡­ I got one minute and counting. Then hopefully none of you see me again¡­¡± I commented, turning my gaze away from the system window to face the kids around me. June, Aaron and Oliver frowned, though I could see Oliver was more of a determined frown while the others were disappointed for whatever reasons they had. Olivia seemed more relieved than anything. Noah just gave me a nod, with some curiosity in his eyes. ¡°See you around.¡± Oliver challenged me, rejecting my words with a grin. ¡°I don''t doubt it.¡± I challenge him right back with a similar grin. Olivia looked like she was about to say something indignant, but then just deflated with a sigh and turned around to walk out. ¡°I am heading home.¡± Olivia announced quietly and walked out of the room through the first floor and out of sight. Thirty seconds. ¡°Wait! Before you go! Are there more werewolves?! Vampires?! Magic?!¡± Aaron asked quickly, looking panicked and dying to know the answer. I grinned and paused, thinking back to the show. ¡°Well¡­ hard to say really. I would say no, but I can''t really say. There is nobody like me out there though.¡± I responded slowly, and smiled at the kid''s reaction as he seemed to be a bit let down but also relieved. Ten seconds. ¡°By the way, there are a bunch of dead Autons all around the building, do you guys want anything with them?¡± I asked as I stood up on the table, grabbing my spear with one hand and my bag with the other, getting ready. The teens laughed a bit at that, though looking a bit confused as they stared up at me. ¡°Goodbye!¡± I said sincerely, smiling down at the group. Three seconds. They all called out goodbye to me or waved as well, though looking increasingly confused. I grinned. Time to blow these guys minds. I looked up at the ceiling. ¡°BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY!¡± I shouted to the ceiling, grinning wickedly as I heard the beginning of gasps that were cut off half way as I found I was looking at a blank white room with a large system screen popping up in front of me. I pumped my fist to my chest with a wicked grin as I laughed. ¡°Always wanted to do that.¡± I exclaimed before relaxing a bit in the quest room and looking at the system screen. I started reading it for only a second but then, as if it was glitching, a new system screen appeared in front of it.
What the hell did you do!? -Monque
Chapter eleven: Divine counsel Monque P.O.V. The damned human had the gall to look confused. At least he looked panicked about it too. I was looking down at the screen he was being projected on in the observation room, the cool breeze on my neck from the open window of my house inside Nemunues and my realm. I have started calling it my house for the last few hours, because it seems Nemunue isn''t going to be staying here very much if she spends this amount of time out in the forest regularly. It''s been a while. I have been meaning to send her a ¡®text.¡¯ But ¡®texting¡¯ was a new thing so I haven''t really figured it out and so I was putting it off. But back to the point, a god''s damned Artifact just said that it was given and made specifically to Killiad in particular. And it told him her name. Adel Lupricada, goddess of wolves. I didn''t know the name, but that didn''t mean anything really. Goddess of Wolves was a very specific domain, and specific meant powerful. If limited by adaptability and practicality. What wolves as a divine domain would encompass I had no idea though. And what in the Eternal Hells did this random human from some corner of the Omniverse, with nothing really particular or impressive to his name, actually do to make a goddess GIFT HIM an Artifact!? WITHOUT him even knowing!? A PIECE OF HER VERY BEING!? Either this goddess was stupid beyond belief, which I doubted, this guy was some insanely devoted believer and worshiper, which would have been very easy to see while he was a soul, or the final and most likely option. This human had something in him that we missed. Some kind of power or potential to be powerful. But the fact that he doesn''t have any kind of attachment, spiritually, to this goddess could potentially mean that he hasn''t been claimed by them. Which means, we cannot be faulted for buying his soul if they ever find out. ¡­unless he was stolen from someone or even randomly picked up on his souls way to someone by the black market dealer we bought him from¡­ Fuck. The chances of that were astronomical. We knew that going in, but who expects this?! All of this and more have been going through my mind for the last day. So I knew exactly what I needed to do now. ¡°Never mind. I apologize for the outburst.¡± I said, closing my eyes and rubbing them hard. ¡°I don''t know why you have a, very likely very powerful, goddess¡­ gifting you¡­ that Divine Artifact, and there''s nothing that can be done about that. SO, both of us are going to deal with this right here and now.¡± I said slowly and carefully. I was trying very hard to watch my words as I watched the system transcribe them onto the communication screen in front of Killiad. He looked uncomfortable and I could see a hand go to the pocket with the Artifact, though he didn''t say anything. That almost made me scowl and laugh at the same time. As if he could do anything to stop me from destroying that thing. But no. ¡°You will say exactly the following. I swear upon my soul that I will never reveal the fact that I was aware of the nature and origin of my Pendant to any affiliated with a divine power other than Monque, god of Trials and Challenge.¡± I demand. ¡°What? You want me to-¡± He started to ask, but I felt a flair of anger rise up and interrupted him. ¡°SAY IT.¡± I screamed at the screen and at Killiad. Even though he only saw my words, he still flinched a bit. That made me smile. Then frown at myself at how low I must have fallen to be happy about making a mortal flinch. He did say it after that, and I gave a sigh of relief. If he told anyone even slightly knowledgeable about the divine about this, they would know instantly what this whole thing could mean. Then I sat up and tapped the screen a few times to replace the communication screen with the quest analisis and reward screen. I have had enough of this for a day.
Killiad P.O.V. That was probably the most confusing and also inexplicably terrifying moment of my life. My divine patron just glitched reality, yelled at me through a chat window, demanded I swear on my soul with a divine NDA to him, and then vanished. At least that''s the fevered impression I got. The screen that was covered up by the angry red glitching chat window was revealed and had a bunch of stuff written on it, but I took a second to think to myself before I looked at anything. ¡®There is something going on with some gods and involving me specifically for some reason, involving the Pendant, which is some kind of divine gift from a goddess that my patron doesn''t want me to tell anyone about. Ever. So¡­. most likely he is not on good terms with them?¡¯ I thought to myself confused. ¡®But¡­ I do not know nearly enough to know anything for sure. All I know is that Monque doesn''t want me to tell anyone remotely related to gods besides him that I have a Divine Pendant that was given to me by another divine being.¡¯ I summed up everything in my head with a bit of confusion. ¡®Why? Wait- Is this an ownership thing? He wants others to see me as his and Nemunue¡¯s, and possessing something divine that wasn''t from him or her has some kind of political implications?¡¯ I thought to myself with some disgust and uncertainty and decided it was as good a theory as I would probably get. I hate politics.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Well, let''s go with that. Plus, despite the whole near death quests and the monster filled world I spend my time doing, this was probably the coolest and most exciting thing that has ever happened to me. Who knows if that will change, but getting involved in some divine political maneuvering and warfare would definitely suck. Getting deleted from reality and my soul getting eaten or something was not something I wanted to happen. Let''s just keep my head down. That will work. Definitely. Probably. Possibly. I can hope anyway. I took a glance at the system screen in front of me and then turned my full attention to it as I started reading curiously.
Quest: Survive against the Nestene Consciousnesses soldiers. Primary Goal: Survive for 72 hours inside the factory. Requirements: Stay within the building for 72 hours without dying. COMPLETED Rewards: Your continued survival, Bag of worn iron tools (3 hand saws, 2 laithes, 1 hacksaw, 2 files, 3 chisels varying sizes, 2 hammers, 1 mallet) Optional Goal 1: Destroy all the new soldiers before your time limit has passed. Requirements: Kill, destroy or otherwise disable all Nestene Consciousness soldiers that have been produced by the production line and are within the building before 72 hours have passed. COMPLETED Reward: Auton handgun (low grade plasma beam weapon) Optional Goal 2: Stop the production of Nestene Consciousness soldiers. Requirements: Disable, destroy or otherwise render the production line unable to produce Nestene Consciousness soldiers. COMPLETED Reward: Used to upgrade Goal 1 reward
¡°I am sorry, but what?¡± I asked out loud, blinking as I looked at the screen. I got my bag of tools I scavenged, which was obvious as it was in my hand still along with my spear, but I was focused on the optional goal rewards. Or reward really. ¡°Why did it combine the rewards¡­?¡± I asked hesitantly, looking at it strange. It was probably normal though, as nothing answered though so I shrugged it off in favour to stare at what it said my reward was. Auton handgun. I think there is a pun in there, but¡­ ¡°Did I just get an alien laser gun as a reward?!¡± (Plasma technically, but everyone knows that thanks to Hollywood, laser guns are just terms for anything that shoots bright beams of stuff!) I didn''t actually expect much for rewards, considering my previous best reward was a stack of wood. Though said wood was going to be very useful considering my situation on Fera. Were quest rewards always this good? Though actually¡­ I wouldn''t have had a single chance to actually do both quests and survive naturally so if anything, this should be the lowest possible reward I could be getting for quests of this difficulty. But, despite the system rewards possibly being a bit stingy, I was honestly pretty stoked. I felt that strange feeling of some things going into my inventory space in my mind again, and I took a step back as my spear and the bag of tools stopped weighing me down as they vanished. Now that I have had my inventory for this long, it has started to feel rather normal as opposed to the constant sense of wrongness where my inventory was located in my mind. Like a sense of weight, steadying it somehow. I took a second to take a look inside, opening its neck as I observed everything inside. My remaining six logs, firewood, that extra stool sized log, my new bag of tools, my spear¡­ and a weirdly shaped hunk of plastic floating suspended in space nearby. I took a closer look at that in particular and I directed it to come out in my hand. I laughed out loud as I looked at it. ¡°It''s a handgun! Hand gun!¡± I laughed as I looked down at the plastic gun in my hands. It was close to a black, upgraded Autons gun in design, but with a trigger and handle built into the palm shape, a addition of a small transparent screen on the top inside the hollowed out thumb that looked like a sight and a gauge of some sort on the left side, and the part of the hand that would normally click up was made into one whole piece with the barrel out of the pointer finger. It looked hilarious. Especially so because the hand in question was also in the finger gun shape. I did hold it carefully, but I couldn''t bring myself to look at it seriously. Then I underwent a huge amount of vertigo in a split second, nearly making me fall to the now muddy ground I was standing on. ¡°HEY! You need to start warning me when you teleport me!¡± I shouted to the air, annoyed as I stood up straight on Fera, back by the stretch of lake I had been nearly killed on before the quest. I sighed, turned around to look for camp and then marched back to it as soon as I spotted it on the hill to my left.
Monque P.O.V. Now that our human has been taken care of, I can finally relax¡­ Ah, nevermind. I need to contact Nemunue. She has been gone for a concerning amount of time. ¡°Though she did say that she would be gone for a while, something about wolves-¡± I commented to myself, trying to find an excuse to not have to struggle through the weird system that she insisted on making after she looked at Killiad¡¯s life. Then I stopped dead as I realized what I was saying. ¡°Wait a second. Wolves, acting up in our realm. Goddess of WOLVES who possibly had Killiad¡¯s soul stolen from her. FUCK! NO!¡± I realized, a chill was spreading through me as I suddenly looked up towards the window in horror before I turned around to run for my room and the phone Nemunue had given me inside it. Was it possible for a goddess to get into our realm without us feeling the disturbance? Maybe¡­ if they already had a connection to the realm, or something under a shared dominion. Like a wolf, in the realm of a goddess of the wild, and a goddess of wolves... Oh dear. ¡°Please¡­ Please let this not be what I think-¡± I started feverishly saying in a panic, but then I froze once again as I turned around. I wasn''t alone. Chapter twelve: Hunter I was halfway up the hill my camp was resting on top of when I realized something was up with the camp. ¡°Why is the tent..?¡± I started to ask myself, looking up at the tent in confusion. It was strangely misshapen, and I swear it looked smaller. ¡°Shoot¡­¡± I said, cursing my luck as I started jogging up to the campsite. I reached the campsite a moment later and I groaned with exasperation and a little horror at the state it was in. The tent had a few holes and tears on its sides and the poles looked snapped in places. My backpack was open and looking not so great with my gear all thrown over the campsite. ¡°Animal.¡± I grunted and closed my eyes in annoyance. I hated when something messed with my stuff and I wasn''t there to do anything about it. That was always the biggest thing that made me travel light so I could bring everything along with me whenever I left wherever I had set up camp. I suppose that me being teleported away really defeats that. Before I started getting my camp back together and taking an inventory, I started to look around. I had the bad habit of forgetting to check for whatever did the thing in the first place when I was starting out in the wilderness, but I learned my lesson from the squirrel that did it coming and stealing more right out from under me. Tracks¡­ ¡°Those are hooves.¡± I note, concerned as I spotted some definite hoof prints. ¡®Unicorn. It has to be.¡¯ I thought to myself, looking around the area with a slight shiver at the thought of the unicorn by the lake nearly gutting me after it mind controlled me. Things of terror. And according to the tracks¡­ There was a unicorn coming and going from this camp for the last few days. A single one, if the various ages of the different tracks was any clue. ¡°No way this is a coincidence.¡± I groaned out, looking around watchfully. I had only ever seen the one unicorn anyways, so why would more suddenly be coming daily out of nowhere? No. ¡°Great. A unicorn with a grudge is coming after me.¡± I commented, clenching my fist around my spear as I looked over the hills and the lake around me. Then I sighed and looked down at the mess of a camp. I needed a camp before I could do anything, like setting up defences. Not that I had much time or resources for any real defenses. Then with a ping, a system screen appeared in front of me.
New Quest received: Kill the unicorn hunting you To see the details and rewards of this quest, go to the status page and look under Active Quests. New Quest received: Find a way to get to the forest To see the details and rewards of this quest, go to the status page and look under Active Quests.
I opened my status page an instant after that, my brows furrowing.
Name: Killiad Jones Race: White Human Sex: Male Age: 30 Active Quests: Kill the unicorn hunting you Details: You are being hunted by a monster named a unicorn whose territory you set up camp in. Kill it before it kills you. Instructions: Kill the unicorn. Rewards if succeeded: The body of a monster and all of its components. Penalty if failed: A higher chance of being attacked. Possibly death. Find a way to the forest Details: The forest is a gateway to the rest of the island, where many different things lie. You must reach it to obtain further quests and resources, but it is full of many dangers and many more lie in the way to it. Instructions: Find a secure way to the forest and reach the edge of the forest. Rewards if succeeded: Off world quest. Future in world quests. Penalty if failed: Delaying of future quests.
Well, these are interesting. I needed to kill the unicorn anyways, if what I was imagining the situation to be was true, but the forest was interesting. ¡°Gateway to the rest of the island¡­ If I remember the hologram thing I was shown correctly, then that''s true enough. But does this mean¡­ this is a starter zone?¡± I wondered, looking down at the lake. I had seen some crazy things in the area, so maybe not? Hopefully. Well, getting to the forest would be for later. ¡®Unicorn hunting¡­ I can plan while I work on cleaning this mess up¡­¡¯ I thought to myself, turning away from the system and letting it close as I got to work quickly cleaning up the camp, watching the sun going down as I did. I took a quick inventory as I worked and thought. I had a collection of things that I could put into my inventory, so I made sure to put them inside as well. The bag of wood working tools I had just got and I had six whole logs I had from the camp quest alongside firewood and the two stools that went into my inventory, alongside the sealed bag of meat that I retrieved from the cold water I had placed it in before the quest. Then all that was left was the stuff I could stuff into my backpack. A few feet of rope, my sleeping bag that miraculously survived the attack in my tent without any damage, said tent, a small compass, a small first aid bag with bandages, some band-aids, box of wet wipes, soap and 3 empty med bottles, flint and steel, a razer, my multitool, a compact mirror, my good old small pot, my old hatchet, full water bottle and 2 days worth of MRE¡¯s. It may seem like a long list, but realistically this is the bare, bare minimum or below. I could make what I needed, and put them in the inventory as I go though, so my carryon supplies shouldn''t increase at least. It was bulky enough as it is, and I would be carrying my spear and hunting knife with the hope I wouldn''t have to use it.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! I only spent a few minutes cleaning up. I haven''t lost anything, if I remembered what all I had correctly anyways, and so I just packed everything up but my tent. My tent¡­ wasn¡¯t beyond repair, but at this point I didn''t have the resources or wanted to spend the effort on it. It may be waterproof, but at this point I was starting to see it as just a piece of cloth. Something that blocked my view and didn''t protect me at all. So I just packed it up and put it away before starting to walk. I was heading to the one direction that I knew would protect me from the elements without giving away my location and a fair distance away from where I knew that unicorn would come looking for me. But I kept my spear at the ready while hiking to that location. It definitely wasn''t safe. But I had an idea to make it more safe at least for the moment. I was talking about the horned rabbit¡¯s burrow that I had tracked the first rabbit to. And nearly died without getting close, but I killed one and it was getting late. Late enough for them to be asleep? Maybe not, but I had a certain furry edge of my own now if it came to a fight and a bit more practical experience with my makeshift spear. I could take on a giant horned rabbit or two, surely. Though maybe the Pendant wouldn''t give the same kind of boost if I was just fighting for food or survival of myself. I guess it depends on the situation and my emotions¡­ That might be problematic sometimes. Though I was always good at controlling my emotions, could I make myself fuel them to the level I need to be as powerful as I needed to be in any given situation? I would definitely find out anyway. I felt like a hiker as I walked over and around hills, following the path I had taken previously in the direction of the rabbit burrow with my spear in my hand as I leaned my weight on it like a walking stick. I was pretty tired after yesterday, though the muscle pain I would have expected wasn''t present. The werewolf¡¯s healing factor I was guessing did more than cuts and bruises. Though the hunger that came after transforming and fighting and healing¡­ Let''s just say it balanced it out. I was kind of out of it for a good while, but it quickly became obvious. The walk seemed to take ages, with me trying to constantly watch everywhere all at once, but I made it quickly and without any actual problems. I saw a few birds and insects, and I swear I saw a squirrel in one of the sparse trees, but those were regular looking and didn''t even get close. Well¡­ the squirrel was glowing a bit and had a cool looking staff while it stood on its branch¡­ but it didn''t do more than that. Maybe I could take a closer look if it didn''t mind sometime later? I mean, squirrels aren''t that bad. Then again¡­ this is another planet. I can forget that sometimes. Anyways, I arrived. The area seemed devoid of life, and the gaping hole that I could only see the edges of from where I was standing seemed particularly ominous with the sun setting and everything getting darker. So I took my time looking around the area before I started towards the hole. Grass, a few large trees here and there on the hills, the dark green forest in the distance and the ever present mountain or volcano at the heart of the mountain in the far distance. I couldn''t see the ocean or the lake at the bottom of the hills. No animals, besides some birds in the sky. Definitely no monsters. Unless they were invisible. Or underground. Damn, that is probably going to haunt my thoughts. I shrug off the tension and start walking, watching my feet and making sure to move as silently as possible. Not that it was all that hard with this thick grass muffling every step I made. I walked for several seconds before I was by the edge of the entrance to the rabbits burrow. Then I turned around the corner. A mass of white fur was coming right towards me, horns pointed down as it charged to the open air. I reacted instantly, hurling myself back around the corner and out of the way. ¡®WHAT THE HELL- I just got here!¡¯ I cursed in my mind, and made my way backwards. How did it know I was here? Is its sense of smell that good?! But after a few seconds of waiting¡­ nothing came out. Then out of nowhere I heard a thump and a dull screech, that sounded oddly pained and the ground shook a little. ¡°Wha-¡± I started to say, confused, but I shut myself up quickly as I saw something. There was a glow on the dirt and grass by the entrance, a dull blue one that made me think of a jellyfish I saw that glowed. But way bigger and brighter. I heard a chittering, the sound of a lot of things rustling and hitting the ground repeatedly as whatever it was moved closer as it grew slightly louder. Then a hiss sounded out, and the light pulsed as the sound of a squelch could be heard duly from my position beside the entrance. I start to feel myself starting to transform with the fear and adrenaline that came with just what I could hear. Then I found myself making the transformation stop. I didn''t want to waste energy with an early transformation. The emotions were repressed a bit as I focused on thinking things through, though I could feel the pound of my heart beating like a wardrum. Something just killed one of the horned rabbits in its own home, and even before that it made this one run away. Think, timeline. Rabbit spots this thing, and tries to fight. It gets wounded or it''s poisoned and then tries to run. It collapses and the thing catches up, finishing it off. There would most likely be more than one because of the number of rabbits. More would have escaped. Plus the glowing. Which is weird¡­ because anything that glows doesnt live near the surface normally. Oceans or deep underground were the main places where things glow. Except for a few small exemptions. Thank you biology. So¡­ either it will stay underground¡­ or I need to kill it anyway. Almost as if the system was responding to my thoughts, I heard the sound of getting a system notification and I looked to my right where I saw the black screen floating.
Emergency Quest received: Contain the breach To see the details and rewards of this quest, go to the status page and look under Active Quests.
¡®Contain the breach?¡¯ I thought in confusion as I stared at the name before snapping back to reality and opening the Active Quest page with a thought quickly, carefully listening and looking back to the burrow entrance before I started reading.
Contain the breach Details: The world of Fera has many different parts and things that are hidden and should remain so for the planet''s sake and all life on it. The Underworld is one of those, and the most easily found. A new path from the Underworld to the surface world was accidentally formed when a cavern unusually close to the surface was breached by burrowing manabeasts. The creatures of the Underworld will find their way up through this breach and enter the surface where they will likely spread and multiply across the surface of the island you are currently inhabiting. So it falls on you to close the breach before darkness comes across the land and they come out. Instructions: Prevent monsters and manabeasts from the Underworld reaching the surface. Kill or drive back all monsters and manabeasts from the burrow. Defend or block up the breach to prevent further passage. Rewards if succeeded: Loot gained during duration of the quest, 24 large stone bricks Penalty if failed: The likely corruption of the surface, possible death, increase in long term difficulty to survive
¡°Oh my god. God¡¯s.¡± I breathed the second I reached the end, forgetting about the possible monster in the burrow and standing up straight. ¡°That- That''s insane. Seriously?! What the hell Nemunue!¡± I worked myself into a half whisper shout, looking around as I sent the system screen away. ¡°The Underworld. WHY IS THIS A THING?! WHY IS IT TRYING TO CORRUPT THE SURFACE!?!? I officially hate rabbits. This is it. THE RABBITS BURROWED INTO THE UNDERWORLD NOW. This is personal. THIS IS TOO MUCH! FIRST THE DAMNED HYPNO UNICORN HUNTING ME, NOW THIS!?¡± I screamed out, rage filling my voice and I could feel myself starting to transform into the werewolf again without a care about alerting the monster around the corner I was coming. I didn''t stop it this time. I grew and sprouted fur, time slowed, my claws sharpened alongside my senses as a tint of red covered my vision. I roared into the sky and started running, spear in hand, towards the entrance to the burrow. ¡°LIKE HELL I AM GOING TO LET SOME STUPID RABBITS ACCIDENTALLY ¡®CORRUPT¡¯ THE ISLAND! THIS IS MY GODDAMN ISLAND! HELL TO THE FUCK NO!¡± I growled out as I ran, fury fueling my body. I rounded the corner, just in time to see a giant glowing centipede rear its bloody head up from the corpse of one of the giant horned rabbits, its fangs dripping with its blood. I threw my spear and pierced its head, letting it get stuck a foot into the ceiling with a crack as the monster''s body fell to the ground in a mass of legs and blood with the body of the rabbit it had just killed. Half the spear fell to the ground. I growled and ignored the sight as I ran on all fours into the burrow, ignoring the spear. I don''t think it would be very useful. I got claws, don''t I? Chapter thirteen: In the earth It was strange how natural being a werewolf was to me. Learning to walk with a completely new and different body would be¡­ Insanely irritating at least. But I could feel certain instincts that translated my instinctual and mental commands into movement just as a normal human body does. And muscle memory as well, that was the main force behind going on four legs as I padded into the hole in the dirt at a way greater speed then walking on two would ever get me with a lot more control. Humans really were nerfed with their two legs, but I supposed that hands made up for it most of the time. This however was not one of those times, as I was crouched low on all fours in my werewolf form as my rampant furious emotions fueled my transformation. ¡®The age of the human starts when the monsters no longer need to fight¡­¡¯ I pondered to myself, wondering at the speed of the world around me and the speed of my mind. It made everything seem almost boring, but that ended rather quickly when I entered a branched off path and spotted a large mass of webs and a dozen small creepy crawlies started to spill out as they felt my approach. Small being about the size of my face that is. My werewolf face that was much bigger than my human one. I let out a growl as I looked at the colorful markings all over their bodies and the shells on a choice few. The tanks are the shells, teaming up with the poisonous to take down prey much bigger than themselves¡­ Smart. That''s nature for you. I grinned my stretched out face and I felt my gums being pulled back into a snarling smile with my pointy teeth very visible instead. I let out a growl that seemed to give them pause. ¡®Poison wouldn''t be a bad resource to have in some situations¡­ I might even work it into a weapon or trap if I can plan it. The shells¡­ well I supposed they looked cool? They might even be decently tough. Or maybe they will surprise me and they will become important to something.¡¯ I thought clinically despite the raging emotions going on with my body. ¡®But I suppose having the remains intact is not feasible.¡¯ I noted a bit sarcastically, rising onto my forelegs as my claws stretched out on both hands, bearing down on the spiders. To their credit, they didn''t back down and they gave chitters as they started arranging themselves exactly as I thought they would. The shelled spiders moving in first and the fastest, the colorful ones slinking along beside and behind them as they charged with the rustle of their many legs against the dirt and walls as they moved to attack. I moved instantly, grabbing one of the shelled spider''s legs and throwing it to a cluster on the wall before proceeding to do the same with another one that was closing in, throwing it at the cluster on the other wall. The ones on the wall fell to the ground with the impacts, with one or two actually dead just from the impacts. Then all I had to deal with was the lungeing spiders on the ground, flying through the air after jumping themselves towards my torso. I swatted them aside and into each other with some disgust. This was incredibly easy¡­ They were just too small and I was too fast for them to be a challenge. I felt my emotions ramping down a bit as they fueled me just a bit less and I let it, decreasing the power I could use and conserving my strength as I felt the ease of smashing my fists and claws into their carapaces and those carapaces into each other, tearing through them with ease that didn''t really change much as I found the world around me speeding up a bit and my strength decreasing as well. But I didn''t transform back. Soon enough I was left alone in the webbed up and goo covered passageway with the last monster curling up and dying. I gave a growl as I shook my hands, trying to get the spider gunk off of my hands without success. Annoyed now, I started moving again through the cobwebs, breaking them with only a bit more effort then I would have expected and tossing the tangled mess aside, clearing the tunnel. I growled again in annoyance, starting to move quickly down the passageway on all fours once again.
I let out my latest growl of being pissed off in the last few minutes. All that I had fought during the entire time I had been in the twisting earth, was pest control. Small bunches of beetles the size of a cat, spiders the size of a dog, a bunch of flies the size of tennis balls with teeth, and more disgusting insects besides. But that was it. And I couldn''t find anything in the burrow either as I was pretty lost. Well, I could find my way out easily enough if I traced the airflow, but I couldn''t find the breach that the system was so worried about!! In fact, I think I have gone through this exact tunnel before. I couldn''t even find a single path that did not lead to a dead end farther down. Now that I couldn''t hear or smell any more monsters nearby the surface however, I started playing it smartly by marking tunnels with my claws. Lines in the dirt that aren''t hard to miss if you didn''t know what to look for, but I did know where to look so I was fine. That was when I found out that I had gone in a circle when I saw a branch in the tunnel I was in that was marked by me. Only one path that wasn''t marked yet, to my right. If this is a dead end, I swear I am just going to collapse this entire burrow and forget about the entire thing and hoping that the ¡®breach,¡¯ if it even existed, collapsed with it. But I started down the path with a long suffering growl building in my throat. ¡®I hate mazes¡­¡¯ I moaned internally. It was strange but as the emotions I was using to fuel myself started toning down and my power was reduced, I seemed to feel more and more human even with the fur and claws and the teeth of the werewolf form. It really made everything worse and added a kind of edge to the agony of boredom and disgust. I paused. Looking down the tunnel, I noticed a strange glow on the wall before a corner. I heard a low chitter and the sound of something big moving. I grinned, feeling all the power of the Pendant flow through my body again in full. I howled and I started picking up speed, ready for a good fight. Looks like I finally struck the right path. I can''t believe it was the very last one I checked. ¡®Maybe I should have turned human and just gotten out my hatchet from my backpack¡­ that was still on my back. Huh, I didn''t even feel it.¡¯ I thought to myself as the weight of pushing myself into being a werewolf for this long, even at the low level of power, pressed back on my body and mind. Hunger. Muscle pain. It bit at me and had been for a while. I grunted as I ran, the blue bioluminescent glow coming from the other side of the tunnel coming closer by the millisecond. The chitters and thumping of the creature beyond also seemed to be ramping up in volume as I bounded forwards like the massive wolf that I was. Just as I was about to reach the corner, the cause of the glow rounded it first at a speed that made me stumble and nearly faceplant as I looked up. It was similar to the centipede that had killed the rabbit by the entrance, but there were very clear differences. It was longer, thicker, and its plating was a darker blue alongside its large set of jaws that put the original to shame. Clearly more¡­ grown? Stronger at the very least¡­ And it was coming fast, some kind of glowing thing foaming from its mouth as it locked its gaze on me. It was moving almost as fast as I was when I was running on all fours in werewolf form, and even with my sped up brain it seemed it was moving as fast as a professional runner. I had less than a second to react, but my body seemed to decide my course of action for me at the shock. I kept going forwards at an even faster pace to meet it head on. I let loose a howl before it was on top of me.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Then under me as I leaped over its jaws and pincers quickly to avoid being pierced through and eaten like a snack. I landed with a thud just below its head, by a crest in its interlocking thick armour plating. I grabbed hold of the crest and held on tight as the long armoured bug reacted to my movement by starting to thrash around against the walls, hoping to shake me, but I remained firm with my grip strength. But as it did, I wasn''t idly hanging on. The more fleshy parts of its body was covered by the thick chitin armour, but as history has proven, all armour has weaknesses. And I had found one rather close to the head, where I was clinging on. The crest of the armour that I had hanging onto to be precise. Beneath its crest and just before the head plating, was unprotected insect flesh. So naturally while I kept one clawed hand firmly planted against the body of the centipede alongside my legs that I hooked around underneath this particular section of plates, I dug my other claws into its flesh. I dug like the flesh was sand, and I got covered with the green goo that the insides of the monster was made out of, but it paid off when I ripped chunks of the monster''s head free from the inside, negating the armour entirely. It thrashed for a little while more while I dug in, but eventually it stilled on the ground, its legs flattening against the ground and its glowing shell growing dim slightly as it died. I climbed off somewhat shakily, from a combination of disgust and weakness in my entire body. I could feel that I almost transformed back while I dry-heaved uncontrollably and fell to the ground. ¡®God¡­ I miss killing the spiders now¡­¡¯ I thought as I looked at the chunks of green and blue insect flesh all over my body and the head of the monster itself. ¡®I changed my mind¡­ I don''t actually want a fight anymore.¡¯ I thought weakly, and again I felt the press of the unnatural hunger caused by fueling my transformation. It was geting to the point of too much. I couldn''t keep this up for much longer¡­ ¡®I got to find that damn breach¡­¡¯ I growled out in my mind, as I growled out in the physical world. I was having a really, really bad day. I just need for it to finally be over¡­ ¡®Just keep going until then.¡¯ I forced myself to my feet, looking at the monster and the tunnel it came from with determination. I let out a growl again, this time stronger as I leaped forwards and up, starting to run over the corpse to get past it. ¡®Is it weird that actually fighting isn''t what is the most tiring? It''s using the Pendant just to be able to fight and win. It''s way more tiring and demanding than even that last fight I just had.¡¯ I thought to myself with annoyance as I ran, the pressure of the Pendant increasing minutely by the moment. I had minutes at best to stay in this form¡­ So I needed to be fast. I sped up a little more, pushing my werewolf body to its limits through twists and turns inside the tunnel that I knew led towards the breach. The air was damp and cold on my fur, rushing past my body and letting off some of the heat that my fur had trapped in. My mouth was open and panting, letting the refreshing air fill my large lungs and pumping in and out the oxygen repeatedly. The floor was slowly growing damper as well, which I noticed when I started almost slipping on it whenever I made a sharp turn. But only just a bit damper really, and it was nice. I kept going, and eventually I was sure I was almost there. Unlike the other parts of the tunnels in the burrow, this one had clear sections in the wall that had grey and yellowy stone poking out through the dirt in patches. And as I went farther down, I saw the amount of stone grow and grow. Then I saw what I knew for sure was the breach. It was a ragged triangle like a cave might have farther into it, rocks broken around it and a glow seemed to spread from some of them as they had a glowing liquid dripping from them. Dirt was scattered around like it was pushed and tossed in every direction around the breach that painted a sudan push from beyond this entrance and something emerging. Probably the centipede things. Beyond the opening, was a bright glow. I narrowed my eyes at the brightness, and looked back behind me for a moment as I realized something. ¡®Now that I think about it¡­ How was I able to see? There was no light and I am deep underground¡­ Do I have night vision in werewolf form? I must have.¡¯ But I shoved those thoughts aside as the blue bioluminescent light beyond the rocky hole pulsed and brought me back to the moment. I found the breach¡­ Now what? ¡®The quest said I had to defend or block the breach and prevent anything from coming through¡­¡¯ I thought hesitantly. ¡®But it didn''t say how long.¡¯ I realized suddenly, mentally opening the quest again and making sure I was right¡­ Which I was. I felt myself turning back human in that moment with the utter shock of the revelation making me distracted from holding the form. I cursed everything as I looked at the breach in front of me at the end of the tunnel with some horror and fear in my voice. It clouded my mind before I managed to pull myself together. I slung my backpack off my shoulders, dumping it on the ground and opening it in a flash. I dug around for a second, before withdrawing my good old hatchet. It wasn''t much¡­ Especially now. I was weakened by the Pendant now that my transformation was over, making me really, really hungry, a thirst that I barely managed to quench by drinking from the bottle of water that I had carried with me, and most of all my entire body was just tired. I doubted that I had any juice in me left for another fight. I couldn''t transform back into my werewolf form either due to just how exhausted I was now. ¡°You know¡­ I think the quest was completed. Want to give me those stones to block up this entrance now or what?¡± I asked out loud, to the system, the pair of deities that had brought me here, anything. I was just about done as I sank to the floor, putting my back against my backpack with my hatchet balanced on my lap in my hands. I watched the glowing breach, guarding it. Not that I could do much now. I waited, waited for something to happen. I was cold now. My clothes stuck to my wet sweating skin uncomfortably. But nothing happened. Nothing at all. Everything was still and silent, other than my deep but ragged breathing. I felt the unnatural hunger kick against my stomach again, and I grunted. That hurt. I needed to eat¡­ I had six MRE packs and the bag of raw rabbit meat that''s in my inventory. I don''t think I could cook if I wanted to, so I guess that leaves the MRE¡¯s. That takes some of my emergency provisions, but that is what they are for. Situations like this. I reached behind me and pulled out one of them and tore open the packaging and started scarfing it down while making sure to watch the breach closely. The pulses of blue light seemed to be coming more frequently, but only just. That was the only change thankfully. I finished the pack, and reached for another as I could feel the hunger still hurting. The food that I ate seemed to be absorbed quickly, and used to start recovering. But I needed more. I ripped open the next one and ate it. Then one more. That was a full day''s worth¡­ Three meals. But it was worth it as the pains of hunger faded entirely and I could feel energy start to flow back into me once more. Though my head was tired, my body could keep going for a little longer if I needed. I didn''t realize the importance of my thoughts that I would need more food then normal as the Pendants powers fueled my body. It was unreal the way I recovered after eating, and definitely some kind of side effect to the ability I had now. Some kind of improvement of my recovery to facilitate the Pendant feeding off my body and emotions to empower me in turn. I stood, closing the backpack behind me and holding my hatchet in my hand as I turned to look at the crack in the tunnel. I needed to do something to complete the quest¡­ I just didn''t know what. ¡°I don''t think I could get more information on how to complete the quest now?¡± I asked the air, and this time something responded. A system screen appeared.
There is an immediate threat to the surface close by the breach that is making its way closer in an attempt to reach the surface. You must stop it before it reaches the breach to complete the quest. Time before arrival: 10 minutes and counting.
Chapter fourteen: In the underworld I started running forwards to the breach the second I read the message, putting my newly recovered body to good use as I could feel my newly rampant emotions fueling my body into a higher speed then I would normally be capable of. ¡®Really?! An immediate threat to the surface, ten minutes until it reaches the breach?! What the hell kind of quest is this?!¡¯ I thought to myself furiously as I swiped away the countdown to concentrate on the here and now and ignore the upcoming boss battle. I had spent a lot of time gaming way back when, that time feeling so long ago that I nearly couldn''t believe it had happened. Though a few years is not all that long when you think about it with some perspective, I had changed so much in my last two years on earth that anything before that seemed like another life ago. Even the first few days. But that old life still clung on as I couldn¡¯t help but see this quest like a level of a videogame, or a dungeon raid in dungeons and dragons. So I knew what I needed to do to prepare, and then all I could do is hope I get a good nat twenty if this thing is too high level for me. God, that brings me back¡­ I could almost imagine I was one of my characters that happened to share my skill set. A werewolf with a paladin-monk multiclass. He was quite the fighter. And I was the last of the party alive, going to confront the BBEG at his underground lair. ¡°You run towards the chasm in the rock, the strange unnatural light from beyond it becoming clearer the closer you get.¡± I heard Jayden, my friend and dungeon master for this session, narrate in my head with his dramatic voice. He was always the best at that, even when we were younger. I was seated across from him, looking down at the figurine on the table between us and the others all around us, watching silently. Kalie beside Jayden, working with him with a dark smile as usual. Ky pumped me up with energetic jumps as he worked out the tension in the room and giving me a pat of support on my shoulder. Zach, Cally and Georgia arrayed around the table between me and the two Dungeon Masters, unable to do anything. Zach looked chill, but I could see the ways his eyes narrowed at Jaden that he was razer focused. Cally was biting her nails as she looked restless and anxious with her gaze bouncing around between Jayden, Kalie, me and the board arrayed out before us. Georgia''s eyes doing much the same as she shuffled from one foot to another, her eyes a little more vacant as she pictured and analyzed everything that was happening. And Isabella¡­ I pace my breathing as I approached the entrance, squinting and trying to peer at what awaited me inside. ¡°You stop just before you pass through, observing the environment you find yourself in front of. You appear to be standing before a large pond of water that also appears to be the main source of light in the cavern. Thousands and thousands of tiny lights seem to permeate its surface, moving and swaying in an almost hypnotic pattern. The structure of the cavern seems to be rather normal for an underground cavern, with it having a rounded shape and the shape seeming to stretch around at a bend opposite to you, the rest out of sight. The ceiling seems to be made of stalactites, with small dots of blinking and pulsing lights taking residence on it making it look like an alien starscape. Though you are sure in both cases of the light that it is simply various tiny glowing insects in reality.¡± I heard Jayden narrate with some whispers from Kalie who was reading some notes of hers alongside his narrating. I looked around as I saw just that, thinking to myself that I should probably avoid the glowing bugs if I could help it¡­ The chance that they were poisonous, especially with Kalie being who she was and the bigger ones being venomous as well. I took a step into the room, trying to keep my eyes on everything. Then I noticed the smell permeating the room. ¡°There is a stench emanating from everything around you now, one that could be described as sulfur, wet earth, minerals, dust and rotting meat, coming from seemingly everywhere.¡± Jayden announced, and I recoiled while trying to ignore it. It really did stink, even with my human nose. Then I looked out at the underground pond, and I noticed it flowing and moving in and out of the cavern I was inside even without the interference of the insects. This must be a branch from a larger underground stream or river. I started to move again, watching where I was stepping and moving towards the only path forwards, towards the bend in the underground tunnels so I could take a look around. I kept to the dry edges of the passageway, not stupid enough to go into water that was who knows how deep and with who knows what in it. ¡°You walk slowly along the stone, your shuffling footsteps echoing a bit even as you try to stay quiet. After a few seconds of careful walking, you make it to the corner of the tunnel.¡± I turned my head around the corner so I could get a look at what I was walking into before I did, the warning of the system still in my mind along with all the other insect monsters that I killed. They came from here, so there would be more. ¡°You see the underground pond seems to lead around the corner, being fed by a small lake that reminds you of a mountainous cove in shape, lit up with the glow of glowing insects the same as the offshoot of the cavern you came from. There is much more dry land around the edges of this small lake, and a large rock jutting from the lake in almost the direct center of it. There are also plenty of large rocks almost the size of your body standing up around the edges of the water and stalactites forming here and there. The water is more lively here as well, with bubbles rising from somewhere under the water and ripples large and small all over its surface.¡± ¡°You also see several dozen passages into the cavern, most with the water stretching into them but some seem to lead in the opposite direction you came from and those are almost completely dry.¡± Jayden says, looking down at a paper I can''t see along with his Co-Dm, who is now grinning as she plays with some dice with her hands. ¡®There is totally something in the water¡­ And probably more monsters waiting out of sight in the other tunnels.¡¯ I think to myself as my eyes widen a little, my heart pumping blood to my head as I feel a bit of panic encroach. I stifled it with a deep breath, ignoring the stench. ¡°You are going to want to check the water. Just to be sure before the fight. You don''t want to get surprised when you are already fighting.¡± Georgia said instantly, giving me advice from across the table. Kalie instantly smacked her, and giving her trademarked harsh baby-face look. ¡°No! You are dead, remember!¡± She called out in protest, only for Georgia to smirk. ¡°My incorporeal spirit whispers it to him as we follow along behind him while invisible.¡± She announces, and gives a look of approval to Kalie and Jayden. Jayden looks at her for a second, internally debating whether or not to allow it. ¡°Fine, you can talk to him as spirits. But you have to make a D20 roll for how clear your words are in the future.¡± He allows with his typical compromises added on. Georgia gave a satisfied nod while everyone brightened at that, even Kalie. I grinned. Ky immediately makes a roll, looks down at me and grins. ¡°Avenge papa for papa, pup!¡± He calls out in his best impression of an old grandfatherly voice. I sigh. ¡°You are not my dad, idiot! I am older than you are!¡± I called back to his ¡®spirit¡¯ in my mind which caused him to laugh, then I concentrated on what to do. ¡°Right¡­ so this is the most stereotypical thing to do but I am going to pick up that rock over there and throw it into the water.¡± I said to the others on the table in my imagination, in reality tossing a stone that was by my feet into the center of the body of water. ¡®Testing the waters.¡¯ I thought amused as I looked at it flying in the air. I watched in silence as the stone smacked the water, ripples spreading from the point of impact slowly with the little lights of the glowing bugs gliding away from the rock and creating a dark hole in the water. Nothing seemed to happen as I waited for a few seconds.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Then I saw a ripple coming from in the water, seeming to emanate from the rock protruding from the water. And as the ripple went through the water this time, all the insects turned dark in a tide and it was as if they disappeared from anywhere remotely close to the rock or the deeper parts of the water. And I saw something moving and rippling with colors of blue as another light seemed to pulse into life under the water''s surface to replace it. A solid mass this time, replacing the firefly-esc glowing water bugs that had gone dark. And it was moving up to the surface of the rippling water. ¡°A glowing figure slowly rises from under the surface, the water falling in curtains around its large serpentine body and highlighting its dark blue glowing eyes that lock onto you instantly, its body curling and writhing in the water in a way that makes it look angry and restless. It seems to assess you for a moment as you assess it. Its body reminds you of stories you have heard about sea serpents from the depths of the sea, only this one does not have scales but instead a glowing blue exoskeleton like the underworld centipedes you have killed before and grey skin beneath that that makes it clear that it is some kind of eel. Its long thin head and circular eyes also resemble that of an eel.¡± Jayden narrated the description of what appeared to be happening before me in my mind and I could hear the collective winces from my dead party. ¡°Its head alone however, is almost as long as your entire arm and on top of that, the length of its body that rose above the water is easily two times your height with the rest of its body curling around the entire circumference of the lake which you can see shining through the water clearly now, much longer.¡± Jayden announced to the table, and Kalie cackled a bit maniacally. I stood strong, keeping my eyes on its own eyes in an attempt to watch its movements for any sign of attack while I winced internally and I could feel the touch of fear grab hold of my heart as I looked up at it. I started to transform, the world slowing down just a touch around me as I grew just a bit more tall and much stronger and faster than ever. I could almost imagine my friends around me in the cavern as I stared down the monster. Ky was shouting hype to me as he shadow boxed in the air behind me, Zach was leaning in the shadows and watching the monster just as carefully as I was, Cally was hyperventilating a little as she looked at it with a little awe, Georgia was a dozen feet away at the edge of the water, studying it. On the opposite side of me, Jayden was standing a little expectantly beside Kalie as she was beaming with excitement with her bright but somewhat creepy smile. And just beside me, I could almost feel a delicate and supporting hand on my chest, seeming to cover my Pendant that was around my neck once more. I nearly looked away from the monster''s face by instinct at the feeling, but I controlled myself. It was just my imagination¡­ She was gone long before I even died on Earth. I needed to act in the real world now. I pushed aside my imagination to the back of my mind, the faces of the others disappearing from my mind. But the feeling around the Pendant stayed. I faltered a bit, looking down and touching my pendant for a moment. That moment was all it took for the eel monster to attack, the standstill broken by my distraction. It lunged towards me, its body uncurling and thrusting forwards like an elastic snapping out with its body under the water punching it forwards in a quick darting attack, its mouth open and its many teeth each the size of my thumb as the water was thrust aside by its fast movement and lapping up onto the dry rock around me. If I didn''t register the sudan movement in the corner of my eye or if I wasn''t transformed and my mind moving two times faster than a normal human mind, my head would have been bitten clean off my body. But as it was, I barely managed to move my hands in front of the creature''s wet mouth, my claws curling around its open mouth and holding it tightly open as I tried to push back against it in the second before it withdrew. It didn''t quite work however, as although my reaction was quick and my hands were firm and my body was strong, I couldn''t overcome physics as the entire weight and force behind its lunging attack sent me back with enough force that I was sent flying off my feet and crashing against the rocky wall behind me. I growled in pain as I felt my furred form smack against it with a solid thud, the back of my head feeling sore as the shock of the impact washed over me alongside my middle back and shoulder. My leather jacket and my fur on top of my thicker skin must have deadened the impact quite a bit however, because after I shook my head I felt completely fine. I didn''t feel much of the the drain that my healing caused either. Still, after my firm awakening to the situation before me, I felt caution push back against the instinct to run right back at the serpentine monster and just start clawing and tearing through its protections. I got up from my belly on all fours as I kept my eye on the monster that looked like it was about to lunge back at my prone figure in a heartbeat and leaped to the side as it came forwards, its head hitting the stone where I used to be a second prior with a crack and causing it to let out a high pitched shrieking hiss that sounded like a cry of pain as its own force, size and weight worked against it. It withdrew back a bit slower than before, clearly stunned a bit by the impact, and I could see a small crack in the plates on his face that oozed that blue luminescent liquid that I was familiar with coming from the shell. And a hint of red underneath it. I howled as I recognized it as a moment of weakness for it on the instant before it realized it as well, and then I started to push myself off the ground on all fours and sprinting to the stunned eel¡¯s figure only a few feet away. Its eyes widened slightly as its left eye caught sight of me just in front of it, but there was no time for it to react as the second that it saw me I was upon it. I ended up body slamming into the head of the eel monster with a final leap propelling me into its side, and pushing it back a good four or five feet with the initial impact, shaking its head with an impact once again in the process although much less powerfully then against the rock. But the bodyslaming was not what my attack was, and I could feel my claws dig into the cracked armour plate on its forehead, digging into the flesh underneath and widening the crack until its entire forehead plate was a spider web of cracks. But I only managed to stay on for two seconds before I was thrown by the big head of the eel as it whipped it around in pain, flinging me into the water on the opposite side of the entrance. The monster was hurt now, and my claws had apparently done a good deal of damage to its head, as blood flowed freely down its head as it turned to glare into my eyes with a whiplike motion. It rose higher, writhing in a hypnotic and distracting glowing armoured swaying dance, the light on its armour pulsing. That made me blink. This is a weird, almost distracting ability for a predator to have. Maybe used to lure or distract prey? But nothing about this makes sense¡­ Animals don¡¯t usually work like this, unless they are incredibly specific hunters. It''s just how nature works. It let out a hiss that bounced and echoed all around the room, sounding pained and angry¡­ But also scared and warning perhaps? Though I couldn''t exactly say, it was the hiss of a monster eel. And a wounded one at that. Then in a split second, it moved. But not like I expected and not towards me. Its glow went out with a bright flash, and then it sunk back into the water. It was almost invisible in the water with its sudden flash of light immediately before almost complete darkness making my eyes have to adjust, but I could see the pattern of ripples on the water''s surface moving as they headed through the water and towards a flooded tunnel to the left of the entrance I came through. Then it was gone, and the little glow bugs in the water slowly started glowing hesitantly in a wave as the monster fled. I blinked, transforming back with a little bit of mixed confusion and relief as I looked where it had left. ¡°You know¡­ They are still animals at their core, aren''t they?¡± I commented to myself, realizing that it had backed off and retreated to save its own life. I had thought that monsters would fight to the death. That they would be like monsters from stories, that only care for mindless killing. Apparently not all would be. Then in the moment of peace after the battle, a notification sounded and a black system screen appeared so suddenly I flinched at it before realizing what it was and reading its message quickly.
Your actions have attracted the threat to the surface, and they increased their speed while also bringing along a significantly powerful entity. Due to significantly increased threat level, rewards have been updated to include an off world quest and possible future in world quest chains. You must stop these threats to the surface, or havoc will rain on the island. Time until arrival: 10 seconds
¡°TEN SECONDS!?¡± Chapter fifteen: Havoc I didn''t know what to do. How could I prepare for a possibly world ending monster to come fight me in ten seconds, in a cavern? Nine seconds left on the countdown. Ok, in my inventory I have¡­ those tools I got from the school, a few long logs, two stool sized logs, firewood and a bag of rabbit meat¡­ And in my backpack I have my camping stuff, but I left that just in front of the breach when I came running. My hunting knife in its sheath, Pendant on my neck, spear destroyed ages ago, and my hatchet is where I dropped it at the very beginning of the fight with the eel monster. Yeah, that''s a bit embarrassing. I completely forgot about that. Do I rely on my claws in werewolf form too much? I have only ever used my spear as a throwing weapon, and never actually used any melee combat weapons in that form. Five seconds. I could hear an angry hissing chatter coming from the very same tunnel that the eel fled through, making me shiver. I leaped towards my hatchet, still in human form, and wrapped my hands around the handle and holding it just behind my shoulder as I held it ready to strike, transforming into my werewolf form. And it was right on time too, because the second I transformed and the world slowed and turned to a shade of red in my eyes, a sudden movement from the tunnel the thing was probably approaching startled me. There was a rumble that felt like a small earthquake and a huge gush of water was thrown up into the air, coming from the tunnel''s mouth and creating a spray of water that doused the entire cavern including myself, and as it passed I could see what caused it. The entrance now had significantly less rocks around its opening, and in its place a large body stretched out from it into the center of the underwater part of the cave as it floated like a log on the water. The scraped and bleeding corpse of the glowing eel that had fled seconds prior. Its head seemed to hold the most damage, the wound I had made before now a crater with its head plate ripped almost clean off and the blue glowing substance mixed with the water inside the hole. The rest of the body seemed to have impact marks as well, parts that shattered and hung loosely attached to its bloody flesh. And it was most definitely dead. It''s hard to stay alive when you can see the grey matter of its brain, which looked like it was put in a very angry blender. I cursed under my breath, my hatchet almost falling limp as I stood up straight on my hind legs, my muzzle pointed at the entrance where it came from. I didn''t even hear a fight, just the chittering and I saw the results of the fight out in front of me, causing the water to go from glowing blue to dark red as the blood drained out into it. The cavern was much darker again, though I could see fine with the glowing bugs on the ceiling and my possibly night vision capable werewolf eyes. So I could see what emerged from the tunnel next with perfect clarity aside from the small amount of dust floating around in the air from the broken entrance. It was the size of a dog, but that didn''t make it any less ominous or scary. In fact, that made it worse. A head in the shape of a triangle with two bulbous eyes sticking out, pincers and antenna sticking out in between the large eyes. Its body leaning forwards, bulky and encased in a dark green exoskeleton like the rest of its form. A long elongated body jutting out behind its midsection, four insectoid legs balancing its body on the body of the dead monster with three claws making up each of its feet. Its arms however, were distinctly different as they emerged from its shoulders just below its head, but they were shaped strangely. Its upper arms and forearms would have looked like a human arm if they weren''t green, armoured, with the twiglike structure like an insect. But where hands would have been were scythes of a whiter part of its exoskeleton. It was a praying mantis. A very deadly looking one, the size of a golden retriever, without its earth counterparts camouflage and designed to look as deadly as possible with its sleek and sharp form. And judging by the corpse it was on top of¡­ I didn''t doubt that it lived up to its looks. And its smell¡­ It smelled like death and decay to my nose, even from this distance. With a hint of venom. I tensed, feeling my heart beating in my head as my vision tinted into a deeper crimson. This was undoubtedly the monster that I needed to stop. I held my hatchet securely in my arms, ready for anything as I slowly stepped to my left without turning my body or head to maneuver myself towards the tunnel entrance I had come from without breaking the apparent standstill we were at. The mantis didn''t seem to care much as it stared at me without making a sound, unmoving. Assessing. There was an intelligence to its eyes, though I wasn''t sure how I felt that way because they stayed rather still and inexpressive without a human-like face or skin. Its twin antennae twitched here and there, aimed towards me and tracking my movements. Seconds passed in silence, the only noise coming from the water as it flowed in and around the body in the water. I came to a halt in front of the tunnel, still watching the monster and daring it to come closer with my animalistic eyes. It let out a chitter, raising its scythe like arms into the air to make itself look bigger and more dangerous than ever. I let out a growl in return, standing straight with my grip firm on the hatchet in front of my chest. This was a moment of challenge. You see it in the wild all the time, where the two animals size each other up, identifying who is the prey and who is the predator along with not just a little of the animalistic equivalent to grandstanding. This mostly happens when both or neither sides want to fight, but have something pushing them to fight. Though strangely I got a feeling this thing¡¯s intentions were not quite aligned to that motive. It swayed and leaned this way and that, looking and testing for an opening. It wanted to fight. I could sense a feeling of glee in its eye, a sort of bloodlust. Though tempered somewhat. They were icy cold and calculating, and hot blooded at the same time. I responded in kind, keeping my feet grounded firmly as I looked into its eyes and made myself tall. I growled again, deeper this time as a warning. ¡°Go back where you came from, mantis¡­ You don''t want to fight me.¡± I growled out a warning, my attention razer focused. The emotion of my words and body language would hold as much importance as my hatchet that was glinting in the low light of the cavern. I really didn''t want to fight this thing. I REALLY didn''t. Though if I had too, then I would give it my all. And mutual destruction was a deterrent all by itself. You never fight a beast with its back against the wall, that was embedded in nature¡¯s rules. It seemed to still, its antennae twitching harder and faster as it seemed surprised almost. Like it understood. It tilted its head to the left, its scythes coming down to rest in front of its body though still ready. Though it didn''t move back. I went quiet, lowering my guard as I hunched my back to normal and held my hatchet down just a little to show a mutual action. Then something strange happened. Its antennae seemed to shiver, like a wave of vibrations passing up their length and I could hear a strange buzzing pass through the air. Then I heard something, not coming from the air but from my own head as I felt a small vibration pass into my skull from the direction of the mantis. I growled a little, warningly and putting my guard back up. Magic. Then the buzz sharpened into a clear sound that rang clear in my mind. ¡°You speak?¡± I heard words, completely understandable and clear though utterly inhuman. More chattering and buzzing like an insect rather than the smooth voice of a human. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. My eyes widened and I almost dropped my hatchet, my body going a little limp with surprise as my mouth fell open in shock. ¡°You speak?¡± I asked out loud, repeating its words in shock. ¡®It can talk!?¡¯ I thought to myself in absolute shock as I felt myself straighten up a bit as the thought ran around my head. ¡°Yes. What is your kind?¡± Its voice rang out in my mind again, and though I couldn''t be exactly sure I read its tone correctly, I got the feeling it was curious though still on guard. I felt myself transform back slowly as my concentration on keeping up my werewolf form along with my heightened emotions I had been using to fuel it faded and the power of the Pendant faded along with it. It only took a second, and I stood straight after it was finished. I shivered as the weakness I could feel hit me like I was coming down fast from an enticing high before I answered the praying mantis. ¡°I am human.¡± I answered simply, though I supposed that I wasn''t entirely human anymore, physically, that didn''t matter much. Not when I was talking to a sentient bug on another planet, or more accurately, in another planet. ¡°How do you know of my kind, human?¡± It asked next, unmoving from its position on top of the floating dead eel across from me though its stand didn''t seem threatening it seemed wary. ¡°I have heard¡­ stories from my home. Of a species like yourself.¡± I said slowly to it, explaining vaguely. But that seemed to be enough for it, because it seemed to relax just a touch. ¡°You are from the surface?¡± It asked next, glancing behind me with a hint of anticipation. That made me tense up a bit. ¡°Yes¡­¡± I confirmed slowly and warily. The quest said that this¡­ thing, was a threat to the surface. It said that about any and all things from the underworld, but it put a lot of emphasis on that. If this thing got to the surface, I would fail the quest. Though more importantly, apparently life on the surface would be wiped out or something. Like an invasive species wiping out other native ones. Exactly like that. And I happened to live there. There were enough monsters as is. ¡°Why are you here, human? The Underworld is not kind to those not of itself.¡± It asked, seeming to me curious, then he seemed to wave away his previous question as he turned to look behind him back to where he came from. ¡°Would you be willing to take me and another to the surface with you when you return?¡± He asked next, cautiously as if sensing I was tense with this line of questioning. ¡°I have been told you are a threat to the surface.¡± I replied somewhat hesitantly, watching its reaction. ¡°You have? Why is that?¡± It asked, seeming genuinely surprised by the statement as its mandibles clicked, seeming restless but not coming any closer. But I knew better than to trust it. But the question gave me pause. Why is it a threat to the surface? Before the system was talking about how the monsters of the Underworld would spread, reproduce and ¡®corrupt¡¯ the surface. But this is one monster, and an intelligent sapient one at that. ¡°I mean no harm, and I assure you that my friend does not either.¡± It interrupted my musings, and I squinted across the distance at it. ¡°Your friend?¡± I asked as I looked to the tunnel that the mantis came from. It clicked its mandibles, and looked back at the entrance as well. It was then, almost as if on cue, that something much larger than the small mantis emerged from the tunnel. My guard raised as I looked up to the figure as it walked on top of the body that almost filled the entrance, ducking down to avoid hitting its head before standing straight. Normally I would be shocked to see someone even slightly human, and I was, but that wasn''t what caught me off guard as I saw them. No, they were made of dirt. And rock. It seemed about my height, with its free flowing body shaped into a human form orbiting in a circular motion that ever here and there revealed a fist sized hunk of crystal or gem that seemed to be like someone took a brown gem, cut it in half, then glued it together with blue crystals. The core of it I would guess. ¡°An elemental?¡± I asked, genuinely shocked. ¡®Not what I expected. Ok, yeah. No way I am fighting these things. I would die. Instantly. Doesn''t matter if the Pendant heals me or not, I would die. ¡­In a straight fight.¡¯ I thought to myself as I looked between the pair. ¡®A earth elemental, possibly with another element if the core is any clue, and a praying mantis that straight up smells like death, decay and poison and killed something that nearly killed me, without a fight. Separately? Maybe. Together? Hell no.¡¯ I realized quickly, putting my hatchet down slowly. ¡°Right¡­¡± I said to the pair with a grimace. ¡°So I think we got off on a bad start. My name is Killiad Jones. What would your names be?¡± I asked with a small smile as I tried to not show panic. The mantis can talk at the very least, and they said that they ¡®meant no harm,¡¯ so I could talk my way out of this? Unless it wants me to lower my guard. Come on, the Doctor does it all the time! He has only had¡­ A few hundred years doing stuff like this to get good. That doesn''t really help, does it? ¡°You can talk?!¡± I heard a remarkably high and girly childlike voice come from the big moving figure of rock and dirt ask with clear excitement. She then turned to the mantis, and picked it up in her arms like a dog. ¡°Did you hear that? They can talk!!! I haven''t seen another person down here in FOREVER!¡± She said energetically, making me blink at her enthusiasm as she bounced up and down holding the mantis, her face stretched into a wide smile. It looked really weird, considering that her body was made from floating moving rock and dirt. Kind of cute though. Like a cute happy toddler. Which made this entire thing weirder. ¡°Uh¡­ Yeah. I can talk.¡± I responded somewhat confusedly as I looked up to the pair from their position above me on the corpse floating in the lake. I glanced at the mantis, seeing it glaring at me with a hardness in its eyes that warned me off of commenting on why the elemental child was holding him up like a pet. I cleared my throat, turning my eyes away and looking up into the face of the elemental. ¡°So what''s your names?¡± I asked again with a little softer of a voice, faced with what I was pretty sure was the elemental equivalent to a child. Or just one that acts like one at the very least. ¡°Oh! I am August, The Oncoming Fall! But that''s too long, so you can call me Augi! And this is Slicer-of-dry-leaves, but call him Leif. He is a good boy! Do you want to play?¡± The elemental responded in a rapid fire excited tone that left me trying to process what she said. ¡®August, The Oncoming Fall. She has a title literally naming her imminent destruction. Though Slicer-of-dry-leaves is a little more tame. More of a description than a name, but that''s probably just a cultural thing? I think I read names like that here and there in fantasy around some monster cultures. Augi and Leif¡­ Why does the ¡®imminent threat to the surface¡¯ have to carry around a child?¡¯ I thought to myself, processing things before glancing at Leif again. ¡®Is this a play on his part? Why don''t things make sense?! Everything is confusing.¡¯ I wondered, trying to figure things out in vain. ¡°No, no, I don''t think I can play right now¡­ Maybe later?¡± I responded absentmindedly to the elemental¡¯s question out of hand, figuring out how to work things out in my head. ¡°Right¡­ So You two want to head to the surface..?¡± I asked somewhat tensely to Augi who is still holding a quiet Leif in her arms. ¡°Yeah! How did you know? Do you know where it is?! We have been looking for a loooong time!¡± She confirmed emphatically, bobbing her head up and down quickly and flying down from the body to land on the stone ground in front of me and bouncing energetically, her core glowing brightly. I took a step back from her, especially careful to avoid touching her or the praying mantis in her arms. ¡°I do know where it is. But why do you want to go to the surface, Augi?¡± I asked, a small edge to my voice as I did. ¡°I dunno!¡± She replied happily and simply. I paused. We stared at each other for a moment in silence broken by the sound of Augi¡¯s body swirling around in an invisible grip. ¡°You don''t know.¡± I asked, just to confirm I had heard right. ¡°Yup! I just know that I wanna go! I wanna explooorre!!¡± She replied emphatically, her energy seeming to go up at the prospect and then she seemed to get distracted and lifted off the ground a bit to fly in circles around me as she happily started laughing again. With her mildly unwilling passenger mantis still in her arms. I couldn''t help but start laughing, the tension of the whole situation deflating instantly. ¡®Ok, come on system. This is a little girl. With a deadly monster as a pet/friend, but they seem harmless enough with her around.¡¯ I thought with some derision, though a hint of warning started sounding as I thought the words. ¡°You know what? What the hell. I am going to need to keep an eye on you two, but you guys can come along with me, if you want?¡± Chapter sixteen: ERROR It was only a few minutes after I had made my offer. An offer which was emphatically accepted by the hyper elemental and silently agreed upon by the mantis. I decided that it was probably best to figure out my immediate situation before I escorted two monster people to the surface. So I had a talk with the two of them, during which I told them that I needed rest before we left to explore the surface and that they would need to stay in the caverns for a while before I came to get them. Which was true, but there were a few complications to that. Firstly, I was pretty confident that the elemental was basically a child and would probably act like one. Meaning there was no chance that she would stay put for however long I needed to take to figure things out, get myself ready to start hiking towards the forest where the system directed me to. And then there was the off world quest that I needed to figure out. I reached the end of the tunnels of the rabbit burrow, nearly in the open air, soon enough. I had spent some time collecting the bodies of the monsters in my inventory as I went, running along the tunnels and with a simple tap of my hand I brought it inside my inventory. I had gotten every loot as a quest reward, funnily enough. It''s really quite useful, maybe even overpowered if this happens a lot as I didn¡¯t even have a limit for how much I could hold. The only problem was keeping track of what I had¡­ But in this case I could do a quick inventory when I set up camp. I couldn''t help but look up at the moon that was rising in the sky as I panicked internally. It was bright red tonight, oddly enough. Blood moon. And it looked like a storm was coming, dark clouds starting to cover the bright sky. Neither of what I saw bode well¡­ As I looked, a system notification popped up in my view causing me to look down at it, distracted from my thoughts with the sudden and random interruption.
Emergency Quest ¡®Contain the breach¡¯ has been- [ERROR] You have endorsed a threat to the surface yet established friendly relations, but also maintained your position defending the breach and halted all passage to the surface. Requirements in conflict¡­ Seeking admin attention.
¡°What? The system is erroring?¡± I asked, frowning as I wondered how concerned I should be with this development. ¡®Well¡­ I got two divine beings watching over me and they can probably fix their system, right?¡¯ I was comforted by the thought, but before I could relax more writing was written on the screen and attracted my attention.
Admin unavailable- [ERROR], limited system admin status has been requested- [ERROR] granted to entity [ERROR], entity [ERROR] votes for full quest completion. No other admins available. Conflict resolved.
¡°What the fuck was that? Did- did the system just glitch? Nemunue? Monque? Another entity has become a system admin?! What the hell does that mean?!¡± I started panicking as the system started showing even more shocking and concerning things one after another. The quest coming up as a ¡®conflict of requirements¡¯ was almost exactly what I expected after my sudden decision, hell I thought in the split second after I made the offer I might have failed the quest. A system error wasn''t terrible. ¡®But what the hell is this?! Admin unavailable? How?! They are divine beings. And what the heck is Entity ERROR?!¡¯ I got no answer.
Conflict resolved by admin input. Emergency Quest ¡®Contain the breach¡¯ has been completed Rewards obtained: Loot gained during duration of the quest, 24 large stone bricks, off world quest, possible future in world quests.
¡®Well¡­ I completed the quest..?¡¯ I tried to look at the bright side of all of this, before a sudden shift in the screen caught me off guard.
Quest reward ¡®Off world quest¡¯ from quest ¡®Contain the breach¡¯ has been revoked by entity [ERROR] due to judgements that the reward was unfitting for the quest. All other rewards not currently dispensed to be dispensed immediately.
¡°Off world quest¡­ revoked? Well¡­ I suppose it''s a good thing. I still need to figure things out here, leaving for who knows how long would be bad¡­¡± I commented out loud at the notification, though I frowned. ¡®This really is not good though. An ¡®entity¡¯ that possibly took over the system, and therefore basically my life now, is now dictating my quest rewards and possibly quests in general¡­¡¯ I thought to myself privately, feeling a bit of a chill going down my spine. I did feel the feeling of a large amount of stones appearing inside my inventory, confirming that I got the rest of my rewards though. 24 large stone bricks. ¡®And even worse, I have no clue what is going on. My divine patrons are doing nothing, they might not even know what is happening if they really are busy. Now-¡¯ I worked up a bit of a sweat at the implications. I was alone. Then-
Hello, Killiad Jones. -[ERROR]
The system screen blinked at me, the message updating in real time as the words appeared on the screen. A weird blue light seemed to almost emanate from it, throwing me off as it seemed to come alive and rotate in a pulsing pattern, though only lightly. THAT was concerning even more than getting a message from whatever took over the system. A change to the system screen had only happened like that when Monque had talked to me the last time. At least this time it looked tamer. No glitching or chaotic red. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
You have no need to fear. Your god¡¯s are indisposed, though hopefully only temporarily. I will be watching you in their absence, as Nemunue asked me to. -[ERROR]
¡°Ok¡­¡± I muttered with a small shake of my head, a little bit of the worry about what was going on fading. ¡®But how do god¡¯s become indisposed? And why would I need ¡°watching?¡± Though¡­ It''s probably related to the system. Does the system need a controller working things behind the scenes? Do Nemunue and Monque always watch me?¡¯ I pondered with a bit of a frown. ¡°And just who, or what, are you then?¡± I asked, unsure how best to go from here now that I was talking to this other person. ¡°The system is not giving you a name¡­ It''s just flagging you as an error.¡± I explained a bit more, feeling a bit awkward as I looked at the now blue system screen.
Names are a tricky thing. I have many, and I have no true name that can be spoken in words. Though in this case¡­ You may call me The Vortex. That has always been a favorite of mine. As for what I am¡­ You will see in Time. -T???h???e??? ???V???o???r???t???e???x???
¡°The Vortex¡­¡± I read their name slowly, something not quite sitting right as I read that name. ¡®Strange. It almost feels familiar, but I can''t quite place it.¡¯ I thought, then glancing at the corrupted text where The Vortex was barely decipherable with some misgivings. The system is not handling things well.
Now I should go. But know that I will be watching. Be watchful, chosen of god¡¯s, my approval does not come without sacrifice or cost. -T???h???e??? ???V???o???r???t???e???x???
And with those cryptic words the system screen vanished leaving me in the dark night, seemingly alone. I chuckled a bit. ¡®Now I get a melodramatic god. My patrons should take a lesson or two.¡¯ I thought with some satisfaction and lingering confusion. ¡®Though there were things that they hinted at¡­ The Vortex, many names, seeing what they are, calling me chosen of god¡¯s¡­ And getting its approval. Sacrifice and cost. Right. So, I should watch out for what the heck that''s about.¡¯ I thought deeply for a moment, frowning, then I shook my head. ¡°Eh, whatever. That went as well as I could have hoped¡­¡± I reassured myself and the empty air in the rabbit burrow. Or warren technically. Time to move on. It took half an hour to set up a campfire and cover some ground with the remains of my tent to sleep. By then it was raining outside¡­ I had made a good decision to come here, and stay here. Because of the tunnel entrance¡¯s location in a hill, water didn''t go far inside and I was well away from the entrance where it was nice and dry. With the campfire, it felt quite nice. The heat washed over my body from the campfire while I could listen to the rain outside without getting wet. I decided to go ahead and retrieve some rabbit meat and put my rabbit meat in the usual cooking pot and let it cook so I could eat a decent supper. Even after the full 2 MRE packs I had eaten after I cleared the rabbit tunnels, I was starving. Food is going to end up being a huge problem down the line. I had enough rabbit for a while if I don''t get into a huge fight last I checked, but that''s still a problem. Because no way that ideal was happening. Speaking of food, I needed to look through my inventory. Figure out just what I got and what I have now. ¡°Wow, that''s a lot of mangled bodies¡­¡± I commented as I focused on sorting out my inventory in my head, my mind''s eye moving around and sorting things out inside my inventory. It only took a thought to move things relative to each other in my inventory thankfully. I could make some order inside it.
In the end it took the entire length of the rabbit meat cooking for me to make a sort of sorting system so I could figure out what I had. And it was quite the list. I only vaguely knew what I had at this point without paper to count and actually inventory things. Plus, I barely knew what half of the things I had really were. For example, I had a grand total of around sixty monster insect corpses of varying species and sizes. The two glowing centipedes, around a dozen of the medium dog sized spiders with shells and a dozen more of the poisonous ones, a dozen beetles of the same size, at least two dozen softball sized fly corpses, a few of some kind of worm around the same size as the others with a big toothed mouth, and then less then ten crickets about that same size, though there might be two types like the spiders were. A whole lot of dead bodies. And I left the eel behind, so unless the pair in the cavern wanted it I would get that as well. I had no clue what I would do with them. MAYBE I could get some kind of food from them, but I am sure that most of them are poisonous. Maybe there were poison sacks in some of those that I could get out and use for hunting though. And the shells could be a good resource. Especially the glowing ones, which I could definitely use for light. But that''s a hell of a lot of work butchering things I haven''t seen before or have the vaguest idea what they are like inside. And time plus effort are things that I need to use efficiently. But time before processing the bodies is not an issue, is it? I remember that inside my inventory, time doesn''t pass. The corpses would stay fresh. Well¡­ They wouldn''t get worse at least. They were already either in pieces or with huge parts of damage, and I didn''t collect them immediately either. I set aside all the bodies in a separate area inside my inventory for later, a little distance from the other stuff. That other stuff being the tools from my first off-world quest, a bunch of wood of a few different sizes and types, my garbage bag of rabbit meat¡­ and my Auton handgun. Honestly¡­ I didn''t put much thought into that when I got it, mostly just getting a laugh about the hand-shaped gun. But I wasn''t sure about what it could really do. I should try it out tomorrow. I gotta hand it to the gun, it''s quite disarming and I am handing a hard time taking it seriously. Pun¡¯s absolutely intended. If nothing else, the handgun could replace my flint and steel for sure. I bit into the last chunk of rabbit meat, ripping it from the fork tool in my multitool, chewing and swallowing down the tough meat from beside the fire. I looked around at the inside of the rabbit made tunnel I was inside, feeling a bit of mixed amusement and satisfaction as I surveyed my surroundings. ¡®The rain died down¡­ It doesn''t sound as loud as before.¡¯ I noted as I struggled into my sleeping bag to warm up a bit and sleep. As I was falling asleep, I noted a subtle white glow start to bleed into the tunnel from the direction of the entrance. But I didn''t worry about it, much too tired after everything. The warmness of the fire and my sleeping bag combined with my absolute tiredness was insurmountable. I felt like my eyes were covered in sand paper, and so I closed them. I relaxed as I slipped into darkness. I was finally done with today¡­ Everything was just too much. Thank the gods and The Vortex, whoever and whatever that was, it was over¡­ ANNOUNCEMENT! This isnt something that I want to do, but things are happening that happen to be very freetime consuming in my life as of right now, likely until late April. So I am taking a break from writing during that time, but I will be coming back at that time when I settle things down to the point where it is an option again. I am doing this for all my storys. Sorry about this, anyone who was waiting for a chapter! This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.