《Wiley Riley's Adventures》 Chapter 1: Fred?! On a normal day just like any other, a normal guy wakes up in his bed, and struggles with all his might to get through another day of tedious work. Just like every middle class man in his late 20s he cant stand the monotony of the same routine everyday. "Raaaaah", a roar escapes my mouth as i force myself up out of the sweet comfort and safety of my soft bed. Another day, and im already late but I dont care. Most of my work cannbe done remotely. Makes me miss the days of real cyber security where it was more then monitoring local networks for unauthorized connections. Back then terrorist were actively trying to steal our countrys classified information to hurt my fellow countrymen, and my favorite part stealing the information they thought was safe. I felt like i was protecting, like my everyday mattered sure it sucked waking up before the sun, and sometimes sleeping in crawl spaces. Lost in thought, reminiscing about the past i go through my every morning tasks of personal hygeine and searching for work clothes in the many baskets around my laundry room... haha folding is for chumps. I get in my car, the point of no turning back. Before i start the ignition the thought of calling out and crawling back into bed crosses my mind many many times before the engine growls with stuttering excitement. As im driving down the road day dreaming about things that could be. Seeing cars at dealerships i wish i could buy. places i wish i could live. Wanting for all the wordly goods without effort. But even i know you cant attain something without the real desire. But its nice to dream right? Even if its shallow ? Beeeeeeeeeeeep! Honking brings be back to reality, i can see in the distance. A huge fully loaded semi fishtailing between lanes. Time seems to slow, my heart beats fast and i can see if i dont take any actions now it could be my last minute alive. I look for my escape options to my left is 2 lanes of cars with practically no space and to my right is oncoming traffic. I see the semi getting closer. impact is any minute the truck swerves into the median. Its so close i can see the driver passed out with a beer can in his hand. IMPACT IN 5 4 3 2. I close my eyes wanting for death, for pain , for gruesome agony. I wait and wait. A voice interrupts my thoughts. " Heeeey there you can open your eyes now. I got things to do places to see im not gonna wait around all day for you." The sharp almost nasally voice pierces my eardrum as if its inside my head. I open my eyes and stare straight ahead to see the semi truck and the front of my car crushed like a soda can. I look to my right and see a old man sitting on a ball, that reminds me of a giant dragonball from dragonball ,classic. My senses slowly return as the short old man stands on top of the "dragonball" i notice his long beard thats down to his feet his pointy shoes with bells on the tip. I look back to his face to see bushy eyebrows that practically cover his eyes, and a shining bald head that would put master roshi to shame. "Alright enough of this staring nonsense your not gonna die... well i shouldnt say that" my eyes immediately sharpen, " relax im not here to kill you if i was i was id just let our buddy overtired truck driver do the job for me. No, what im hear to do is give you an opportunity." His huge white mustache parts way to a Cheshire cat smile.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I look at him finally calming down and able to think clearly. I can tell this strange man is not a benevolent angel, there''s definitely a catch. My face falls serious , and i respond with just one word,"explain". His smile falls into a scowl," my my, arent you the perceptive little one. Taking a defensice position against your savior. I remember when humans were gratefull to see a god. They would fall on to there lnees and prostrate themselves just to see a glimpse of our power." His expression turns to one of interest," But you, Riley M¨¹ller, you have always been a bit different." He pulls out a list from the air and puts on a monicle that was tucked intro his shirt pocket hidden behind his massive beard. "Hmmm lets see went through basic training while still in high school attended dive school, pathfinder school, sniper school, rasp, air assault, sere school. The list of training goes on and on. You were honor grade and iron soldier. You took everything the army offered and passed with flying colors in just 3 years. Then you became a "Cyber security expert" He chuckled loudly as a screen appeared in midair of me and my team crossing the mohave desert in search of hidden enemies,the screen flashes forward to the assassinations and the chaotic engagement that happened after. He controled the screen to zoom in on my actions as i professionally and accurately took shots with my m9 against men armed with automatic machine guns. My entire team was dead all my friends gone, just me. The new guy tripped the alarm alerting the entire secured compound. I killed the entire encampment with just my pistol, and the ammo from my team. My face fell but inside i was excited that was one of my favorite moments of my life, i remember making it to the evac zone with a thumb drive worth more then all our lives the location of every vip the enemies were hiding. That was my first silver medal in the 10 years i was in it was constant fighting and death i grew to love the battlefield. But the war was over due to the classified nature of my job. The army wrapped it up as cyber security and gave me an easy government job to live out the rest of my days but i wasnt done every cell in my body got excited seeing it. The screen stopped, the gods chesshire smile returned with a big sniff he let out an exasperated breath of air," I can smell the adrenaline pumping off you, strange i didnt sense this just a moment ago before your untimely death." He stopped for a moment, i came back out of my thoughts into reality," so what is it you want.... " His smile grew bigger," How would you like to return to war, to a war so big this world could he destroyed by the lowelist of the applicants. I can teach you, and train you to control your power." "My power ?!" I immediately interrupted disregarding him talking about casually destroying an entire planet. No one would know but im huge nerd. Isekai, wuxia, xanxia, litrpg. I would love to throw myself into theese high fantasy worlds to live out my desires. "Yes, you have an innate gift. Time is limited i only have" he closed his eyes," two more minutes of manifestation. In short i will train you for 1000 years you will become the strongest you, you can be and hopefully unlock your hidden potential if you dont you will die and no one will miss you. If you will notice the semi about to impact you. look behind the man asleep." I did and saw tendrils drapped over the mans neck leading to a creature only seen in anime silky black skin crimson red glowing eyes. The god interupted my inspection." This is not as accidental as you think, you have enemies bigger then youn know. So will you accept my proposal. Oh i forgot after the millenial of training you will be my champion or herald. You dont have to pray to me or be a slave but all i ask is you mercilessly slaughter my enemies, as well ss your own" haha he laughed loudly I thought for a moment and time began to move slowly i heard the crunching sounds my car, knowing i didnt have much time left i yelled," i will become your champion". Everything went black and a messgae in white bold text appeared. You''ve became the first champion of the god Fred. He control''s the power of illusions, formations, and earth. Welcome to Hells citadel. Chapter 2: Survival When consciousness returned to me, As i lay there getting my bearings i could hear the drip drip drip of water hitting something hard. My surroundings were open and i could feel the cold hard rock underneath me. I stood up focusing on sound cause my eyes were useless. I check around my neck were i always kept an emergency survival kit disguised as tooth. The top unscrews and i pour the contents on to my hand and feel around for the waterproof easy strike matches. As soon as i strike the match on my jeans, the surrounding bombardes my eyes. Skeletons of human and beast ive never seen scatteres throughout the floor. in front of me are rusty but sturdy looking iron bars. When the flame extinguishes i rip a strip of shirt off myself then grab a femur next to me and wrap the shirt around the tip of the bone firmly securing it. I light my second match. Then use that to light the shirt making a shitty homemade torch. When i finally get the torch lit, and the room illuminates. i get a better look around, in the corner of the cell under some bones i see something strange i move over to it carefully and pick it up. My pupils constrict and my heart races its a brown book with the title "Skill Book" this is it this is how i survive i open the book and the first page " No free skills for you, things must be earned to be valued Welcome to Survival training, you''ll be given no food there arent any animals within 1000 miles of you, there Is no shelter and notHing living besides you and maybe some alGae. The only way to pass this training is to... survive. See you on the other side, hopefully -Fred" As i finish reading the message my aggravation reached a new peak. Silence ensues. The drip drip drip rings louder in my head i see the iron bars and my aggravation turns to fury. My immediate death has been turned into torture. Maybe this is hell ? My hell? Being forced to starve ? I recongnize my anger causing my sanity to fade, i feel hopeless. Theres nothing i can do but wait to starve. Then it dawns on me he just said no food? What about water,youll die much faster without hydration then without food. Ive personally gone upwards of 3 weeks without food. But water you get what 2 or 3 days max ? Not sure myself. The drip drip drip rings in my ear again. It hit me i was focused on the hopelessness instead of trying to thrive. The dripping sound must be ground water from somewhere im not sure if its clean but i should collect some. I dont have a bowl but my shirt should be able to absorb a fair amount. I take of my shirt and place it under the leaking ceiling. I return to the center of my cell and sat cross legged time to plan out my next move. Judging from the book i have my goal is to survive but how when he clearly mentioned no food or animals. I proceed to take inventory of my things i have on me. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.Okay i have my multitool, my knife that i personally forged. Some 550 coord from a bracelet i made ages ago on my first deployment. Thinking to try the most obvious first he take out the file section of the multitool and walks towars the iron bars. I arrive and reach out to touch the iron bars. OUCH! my finger jabbed hardly against an extremly hard barrier before they could make it with an inch of the bars. Magic? It crossed my mind and immediately got excited, then immediately sad. I pushed the file slowly toward the bar just make sure. Boop it bounces of the barrier and this time i see a ripple accross an extremly transparent circle. It almost seems like i can see runes dimly light up but it fades to quickly. Hmmm i imagine this was specifically put here to be able to handle any amount of force i could produce just to be sure i proppes my quickly extinguishing torch up grab the biggest and heavist bone i see about 5 ft tool and, woah, about 150 lbs. I straines my muscles then ran towards the bars. Using all my strenght i transfer all the potential energy of my body to head of the bone. And the bone slams hard against the barrier a loud vibrating sound fills the room and i drop the improvised mace to shield my ears. I see the runes light up much more clearly this time. But just barely so. Seems my conjecture was right. Quite a good sound maker though. I un cuff my ears and the high pitched ringing fades just as all the light. The torch had finally burned up all the material, and the familiar darkness assaulted my surrounding swallowing up my hope a bit at a time. ...... 10 days passed Im able to navigate my cave well now i have 2 matches left. But ive mapped out the room in my head. The water wasnt poisoned. At least i know its kept me alive this long ive just been wringing out my shirt into my mouth every once in a while at least that bastard god was able to give me water. Ive constructed a medieval ramming system using the abnormal bones and 550 coord. The payload weighed about 800lbs. Some of theese bones are very heavy. And i have about 10 foot of string. This is my last hope. Normally this should be enough force to break down a solid iron door little on some iron bars. But the barrier is a mystery. I positioned the ram in front of the barrier, using pully and countereright system i pull back the payload to the maximum and tie it off to a bone ive set into the ground. Ive found some of this abnormal bones are harder then my folded damascus knife. Its incredibly. I put my homemade ear muff own, rip favorite work jeans. Then cute the coord with my knife the bones tied together speed toward the barrier. The 550 coord audibly tensioning. BAM! I see it the impact and white light assaults my eyes. PAIN!. my body is thrown to the back of the cell and i collapse my consious fading in out. Before im finally out i close my eyes think. One hell of a firework. Chapter 3 - Survival Part 2 - The Pit My eyelids fluttered open to the pitch-black room. I begin to recall what happened and remembered I had finished my project and had finally begin to the test the results. On its maiden voyage the ram slammed into the mana barrier, tons of feedback followed.... and then nothing. the concussive wave must have thrown me against the back wall and knocked me unconscious. I summoned all my strength to check my body for injuries, everything seems to be in place as my weakened hands brush past my pant pockets I feel a bulge that wasn¡¯t there before I quickly slipped my hands into my pockets and pulled out the known object the texture feels of some sort of paper. I wonder if something is written on it. I have two matches left. This might be the clue I need to proceed. I quickly decide there¡¯s not point in light if your dead and I didn¡¯t have any better ideas I slowly pulled out and unwrapped the last two matches I cautiously remove on and place it on the ground next to me as gentle as a father. I then rewrap my last source of light and gently return it to its hiding place. I return to recently placed match pick it up and strike it across my jeans. AHH! the light burned my unaccustomed eyes luckily, I was able to keep a hold of it. I forced my eyes open despite the streams of water running down my face from the irritation. and looked at the paper. "You idiot your supposed to survive not kill yourself. How many times does it take assaulting a magic barrier and getting HURT from the rebound to stop hitting the barrier, I understand magic is new to you but you¡¯re going to need to adapt quickly last shot p.s. for real this time I don¡¯t care if I Seee you get killed I won¡¯t interfere again. p.s.s, stop hitting the barrier its annoying.... See you soon - Fred" Wow so he saved my life I¡¯m assuming and healed my wounds that explains a lot. It''s obvious he''s hinting at seeing something or the SIGHT anagram in the book but I don¡¯t get it. I fall to the ground in a fetal position as a stomach cramp assaults me and the pain takes all control of my body as I writhe on the ground. I pull myself together and start crawling towards the sound of the dripping, sweat streams down my face into my eyes as I pull myself closer inch by inch. When I reach I grab the shirt and wring all the accumulated water into my mouth and I force myself to swallow it. Returning to the fetal position the intense pain calms to a tolerable level. I lay there breathing my thought returning to me after being lost in that black hole of agony. I must persist with my back on the ground and my eyes closed I stomp I foot hard to prepare to get up. Bam! I slam it on the hard-stone floor the sound resonates through the cavern, I can almost feel the waves of force spreading from the point of contact into the surrounding earth.... Wait I can feel it. the more I focus on it the more clearly the picture becomes. It fades. AGAIN! I slam my foot on the ground and focus on the sound waves reverberating off the walls the energy spreading to the surroundings. A complete image appears in my head I can clearly see everything in this room. But it¡¯s not stone its metal. and there aren¡¯t any bones just rods of steel. and I look to where the door is and... there nothing no bars... it couldn¡¯t be... if there isn¡¯t anything physical there I know the barrier is there... I stand up close my eyes and take a stance and stomp hard on the ground again standing up I can get more leverage, I get an even clearer picture I can see into the next room it¡¯s a lounge, with a person sitting on the couch behind him is a table full of every food imaginable my mouth waters and my stomach. I look around and I feel the ground and I now I feel only the smooth metal no longer the dungeon. I decide to light the final match. I pull it out and for the last time strike the match against my now jean shorts. the match blazes and around me I no longer see the cave but a metal room with random junk scattered throughout it on the wall I see a power panel I walk over there open the power panel and throw the breaker...This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Light assaults my eyes and when my pupils adjust I see what I can see the room very clearly and even the magic barrier, aka a door on the right of the door was an exit button. I slowly walk over and press the button. The barrier falls and I walk into the next room to see Fred laying on his ball watching tv pigging out on popcorn. The screen he is watching is 4 cameras set up in the room to monitor my progress I walk further into the room and look at him he turns around and we make eye contact a smirk appears on his face. just as the aroma of food assaults me and my instincts take over as I¡¯m forced to topple end over end to get some nutrition in my body I¡¯m naturally a big guy I need meat! after gorging myself on succulent rib eyes and French deserts the finest cuisine this world knows. I look over to see Fred setting next to me. He puts his hand on my shoulder and my slightly emaciated figure returns to its healthy look my pain goes away and I feel absolutely normal he looks at me congratulations you barely passed. You first power you have is to commune with earth as shamans would say but it to put blankly you can bend the earth to your will. There are many different channels people choose to do this with. You copied tophs ability to see while she is blind and you were able to break the low-level illusion I had cast on you. quite an interesting scenery for you to come up with a cave prison stranded in the middle of nowhere great idea. I do applaud you on the device despite how stupid it was. Break a god¡¯s barrier with a mere mortal metal. Never... as he rambles on and I¡¯m staring with a blank face getting my humanity back emotions flood me as he speaks first anger for the torture I went through then bliss when he tells me the extent of the power I can feel my connection with ground firmly now that my body has healed and I¡¯m in full health I¡¯ll have to experiment later. when I understand I was stuck in an illusion the entire I realize the true terror of the magic I¡¯ve always read about I could¡¯ve died the worst possible death with my path to freedom and food just a button away, Alright you passed round 1 with a ehhh.... %80 -40 for being a brute +20 for speed and style. I am able to give you the choice between 2 common rewards. !) Earth Magic 101: beginners guide 2) Claws of the Earth Dragon Part 1 of 6 So basically, the option between being a mage and being a magic melee that sounds like a very generic wuxia title is he just trying to peak my interest. So, Fred what do I have to earn both of these, His face lights up I¡¯m glad you asked if you can defeat a D ranked demon beast in hand to hand combat you may have both. DEAL!