《Castaway of Aturge》 Chapter 1: Prologue-The ship the tempest "Things don''t always go how you hope, don''t you think lad?" a burly man wearing a raggedy old set of pirate wear said to the boy beside him. "The gales have shredded the sails to thousands of pieces, the mast isn''t gonna hold out much longer either, and the rest of the ships falling apart. If I knew better id say God had it out for us with the sheer power of this blasted storm. In the end, I guess ill be able to retire with the rest of the crew finally; we were getting too old for this anyway." Looking out into the stormy seas, the man mutters "to live by the sea and to die by the sea." Looking out of the window of the Flor de la Mar replica into the stormy seas the boy murmured "One thing is for sure, the ship won''t be able to hold on for much longer, at least I got you to wear that ridiculous pirate costume in the end." As if hearing the boy''s resignation thunder roared, and the wind howled a cry of triumph calling forth the waves once more overturning the ship and invading the cabin with a salty fury. Looking out into the raging sea, the boy bitterly smiled as the water swallowed him. ******************* An unknown amount of time past in perpetual darkness So it seems like I''ve died, huh? Its a lot darker than I thought it would be. interrupted from his musings by a rough aged voice, Euan jumped back in surprise or at least tried to. "Welcome to your consciousness boy, and no, you''re not dead yet." "Is it you God?" A little amused with his guess, the voice replied to Euan, "No, and neither am I the devil either if you were wondering." Relieved and a bit disappointed Euan looked around into the darkness "Then who are you? You''re able to talk to me inside of my consciousness so you must be at the very least somewhat powerful." "Powerfull yes, but enough chitchat boy, I''ve come to give a talentless human like you a boon."You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. "A boon? what for?" Smiling "Of course to survive the Slandbar of Atugre child." "Slandbar? why would I nee-" A light began to appear in front of me "Survive, grow, and learn. As you struggle to surpass those of Atugre, you''ll discover many things and possibly obtain the ability to leave, good luck and goodbye. " "wait! don''t just throw me into some Atugre and leave me after some pep talk!" After a few minutes of pointless namecalling and complaining sighing Euan looked down towards the only other thing in here, a swirling ball of light. They say curiosity killed the cat, but on the other hand, it''s also what made Columbus famous. Steeling his nerves, he reached out to touch the ball of light only to be met with the light dissipating, revealing an ancient-looking grimoire. The faded intricate designs along the cover and clasp made of a dark goldish material gave the grimoire an ancient air; the most surprising part was the title printed in obscure gold symbols, although being an unknown language the symbols were still understandable. Euan... Hahn? Why my name? Why is my name here? And more importantly, why am I able to read this? Unlatching the book he was greeted with more dark gold unknown yet comprehensible symbols alongside an illustration of himself naked. [Page 0 Race: human Name: Euan Hahn Rank: unranked Enhancements: none Aether: none Boon: The Bestiary Description: a human by the name of Euan Hahn. As he has yet to obtain any Aether Euan Hahn is still an unranked human despite being given The Bestiary by a higher existence.] Browsing through the list of symbols, his focus landed on the third line. Unsure what it meant by rank he instinctively blurted it out. "Rank?" As soon as the words left his mouth a much smaller set of symbols appeared under it. [Rank-A classification of the realm an individual or object is at, usually by their power or the amount of Aether they contain or able to control. Note that a higher rank may not mean being stronger than someone with a lower one as strength is only one of the many categories used] Raising an eyebrow at the convenience of that, he looked down to the next thing on the list. "How does it go again... Enhancements?" [Enhancements-An evolution to an area, be it a reinforcement of its current abilities, a different path, or a new ability altogether.] "that makes things a little bit easier, what about Aether?" [Aether-What holds all things together] "well, that was almost no help. how about The Bestiary?" [The Bestiary-A bestiary created by a powerful existence, it currently accompanies Euan Hahn as his boon.] Sighing in disappointment at how little information he received for the last two questions he closed the grimoire hoping to figure out how to leave only to be overwhelmed by a blinding light. Somewhere on an island, a boy lay soaking wet in the sand. Chapter 2: Sand Beetle The blindingly bright light slowly faded into the darkness of the night, looking up into the night sky Euan dazedly murmured. "Beautiful" Trillions of stars spotted the pollution-free sky forming countless foreign constellations, with an occasional shooting star the sight seemed almost ethereal. Though one problem came up, there were absolutely no familiar constellations ¡ª not a single one. In a panic, Euan looked around in search of something to ease his worries, any sign of civilization at the very least. Where is this? Please tell me that whole thing with the book was a dream. I can''t be stuck in some Slandbar of Aturge; this isn''t right. Its a prank from the captain for making him wear that pirate suit yea this is all a hoax. "Captain! Where are you-" His agitated yells were interrupted by the sight of a giant sand colored beetle with dark brown patterns, unlike its Omophron cousins who grow a few millimeters at most this beetle was nearly the size of a coconut. Usually, it wouldn''t be an issue if the fact that the beetle wasn''t running towards the cause of the commotion, him. Taking into account the dozen or so slightly smaller beetles running alongside it and now you have a small swarm of land piranhas after him. What are those? Giant beetles? Run I have to run, I can''t let them catch me even if it is a dream. After running quite a bit of distance, an entirely spent Euan sat down in a little nook in the beach dunes; shuddering from the cold of night leaning against the wall he reaches out into the sand with a bit of trepidation of what he might feel. This tiredness, the wind, and the texture of this sand. This isn''t a dream, is it? As the reality came crashing down on him, his worries shifted from himself towards the captain and his crew. Hoping for their safety, he dusted away what sand he could from his clothes as he got up. Looking around for any giant beetle groups with some nervousness after remembering the size of their mandibles and sighing in relief after seeing none he headed out looking for some vantage point. I''ll look around the beach for a bit if I can''t find anything ill head inwards towards the treeline I see in the distance. After wandering for almost an hour and a few run-ins with a few giant beetle groups, he managed to find a reasonably large boulder. Climbing to the top after quite a bit of effort, he took in the view of the surroundings, or at least a kilometer''s worth. The beach was quite large it was roughly a kilometer from the sea to the edge of the beach, reaching into the territory of the forest, so he wasn''t able to see too far, while at his two of his sides were an endlessly glistening sea and a wall of trees and shrubbery. The sea, while beautiful, was not much of a concern, the forest, on the other hand, was a bit of a problem. The sheer amount of trees and shrubbery packed together alone the border made it near impossible to traverse without something to cut down foliage and other things blocking the way. The beach itself was not much either if you didn''t take into account the hundreds of giant beetles spread out through his vision. They were mostly grouped up into groups of a dozen each with a coconut sized leader guiding them, though there were a few wanderers. If my memory serves me right, my boon is The Bestiary; I wonder if I can use the same function I used on the words for the beetles. Fixing his eyes on one of the wanderers an illusionary roll of parchment unfurled in his vision. [Sand Beetle] [Race: Beetle-Sand Beetle Name: Giant Beetle Upgrades: none Aether: 1 Rank: 1 Description: a beetle that makes it''s home in the sand, unlike its unranked cousins, this species has absorbed the bare minimum of Aether to become a ranked creature.] Smiling that his guess was correct, he read through the symbols on the parchment. So its called a Sand Beetle? And the name part is what I called it; I wonder if it would keep what I call or put down what others call it. And for Aether, it looks like its the reason the sand beetle is so giant. Wait, if I get this Aether would I become a giant? He shuddered at the thought of a version of himself over ten times his size hulking around in the street. There''s nothing much on the beach, and the ocean is a no go, so the only thing left is the forest. It''s a bit too dense for me to go through, but I might as well check it out close up and see wha-.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Jumping down his thoughts were interrupted by a cracking noise coming from his feet, looking down at the remains of a sandy shell with a pungent green liquid seeping out from the pile of shell and flesh. "A beetl-?" His question was interrupted by a wave of sudden darkness, causing him to embrace mother earth headfirst. An unknown amount of time later in perpetual darkness, his daze was interrupted by the appearance of a book in his vision. Gazing at the Ancient tattered grimoire, he reached out and grabbed it. So I''m back here again? It should have happened when I stepped on that- Sand Beetle was it? Now that I''m back what do I do, is it something to do with the book? Opening up the grimoire, he was greeted with a different page, unlike the last time, instead of there being a human illustrated near the symbols was a beetle, a Sand Beetle. Upon reading the Symbols, he froze. [Page: 1 Race: Beetle-Sand Beetle Name: Euan Hahn Upgrades: none Aether: 1 Rank: 1 Description: a beetle that makes it''s home in the sand, unlike its unranked cousins, this species has absorbed the bare minimum of Aether to become a ranked creature. Due to The Bestiary Euan Hahn now can use a Sand Beetle as one of his forms, note reverting to his human form can only be done after a 24-hour cooldown and may require a high amount of Aether to sustain it.] Panicking at the last sentence, he hurriedly flipped to the first page in his grimoire. [Page 0 Race: human Name: Euan Hahn Rank: 1 Enhancements: none Aether: 1 Boon: The Bestiary Description: a ranked human by the name of Euan Hahns, as he has obtained some Aether he is capable of changing into different forms as per the abilities from The Bestiary. Turning back into the human form is temporary and will undo when Euan Hahn is incapable of supplying the amount of Aether needed, the amount of Aether used increases according to the Rank and Enhancements Euan Hahn has, external forces can also affect the amount required. Note that Each has a cooldown of a minimum 24-hours, any increase can be affected by the rank and a few other factors.] Looking at the greyed out image of himself, he began to quiver at the thought of what was going on. Looking down at his hands holding the grimoire he was a bit relieved at the sight of them, deciding to take things one step at a time he took a deep breath and closed the book, to once more face a blinding light envelope the darkness around him. Waking up the taste of sand and viscera, he ended up throwing up a bit before wiping away whatever he could. Looking up to the sound of shuffling he was surprised by the sight of a few Sand Beetles surrounding him, jumping up to climb up on the boulder he was overwhelmed by a burning sensation spreading throughout his entire body. Collapsing and screaming in utter anguish he saw his hand slowly transform and shrink, the rest of his body following his hand begun to shrink till he was the size of a coconut and then gradually reform into inhuman ¡ª a hard sand-colored carapace with brown patterns running along the top. Six sharp appendages for arms and two antennae above the head, finishing off with a pair of fanglike mandibles. Remembering the words written in the grimoire as he looked at the towering boulder- which at once was although hard to-climbable, now a hulking monstrosity akin to Mount Everest. Clicking his mandibles together at the unfortunate coincidence of the transformation, he turned with his back facing the rock ready to fight for what small chance at life he had. Though as if fate decided to spare him the Sand Beetles paid no heed to him and ran to the remains of the squashed Sand Beetle, to then begin eating it. Would this be considered cannibalism? Not wanting anything more to do with the sight he tried walking past them sneakily, sadly sneaking around in a body that he had for only a few seconds wasn''t entirely possible and ended up with one of the Sand Beetles turning his way. Out of fright and instinct he lunged at the Sand Beetle and bit as hard as his mandibles could at the beetle''s neck join under the carapace, and with surprising ease managed to crunch through spraying out a bit of greenish fluid. Pushing his head up to overturn the Sand Beetle, he tossed it on its back, and unfortunately its greatest weakness. Unable to turn back over ending the Sand Beetle''s life was easy, in a few more crunches to the soft underside of the head the Sand Beetle died after a few twitches. Looking down at the dead Sand Beetle Euan was filled with an unknown emotion as foreign energy combined with him. The horrid taste of the greed fluid quickly brought him back to his senses, looking around to see if any of the other beetles noticed the entanglement and to his horror over half of them were staring right at him. Back peddling and running towards the opposite direction faster than he imagined possible with his stubby six legs he turned slightly to see if any were giving chase, which ended up with him sprinting even faster after seeing four Sand Beetles only a few feet away from him. A while later after he collapsed in the sand after finally losing sight of the group, he thought back to what the feeling he got was after killing the Sand Beetle. If I compare this to some game the book would probably be my account, the pages would be my characters, the race name and name are self-explanatory, the rank is like someone'' levels, the enhancements can be something like equipment or abilities. As for the Book or Talent as what the powerfull existence mentioned would be something like a Goldfinger. His thoughts kept on going till the energy inside of him began to spread throughout him, letting him return to that familiar burning anguish. Collapsing from the pain his body began to change once more, although not as drastically as last time the pain similar to having your nervous system catching on fire didn''t lessen at all. Thankfully the lack of vocals in a Sand Beetle kept him from screaming out and attracting more unwanted attention, after the painful ordeal he got up albeit shakily and looked around to see if he was still safe. The first thing he noticed though it may have just been a misconception he felt like he gained some size. After confirming he was alone, he walked around a bit to familiarize himself with his new six-legged body, it took him a while but before the sun came up he was able to walk properly, among his new appendages his mandibles where the easiest to use due to lack of complicated motions needed for them, open and close was all he needed, the fact that he managed to run so well while being chased was quite astounding though he chalked it up to his desperation and instinct having more control of himself at that moment. Chapter 3: Sand Beetle haven Remembering how this whole issue began, from when he stepped on the Sand Beetle then to his frantic fight with a second one. Both times had one thing in common, and that was the mysterious energy flowing into him when he killed both of them. Thinking back to the changes in The Bestiary because of that, he remembered how he gained one point of Aether. Aether, was that what it was? If it behaves as a hybrid of mana and experience, then that would make sense, no it is more like the more mana one has, the higher one''s rank will be. It''s similar to playing a mage, as what keeps them from spamming an overwhelming amount of spells is either an insufficient mana pool or cooldowns, cooldowns aside, having a higher amount of mana usually means more firepower. If that''s true, then I should have gained more Aether after killing the second Sand Beetle. The Bestiary has a section that shows the amount of Aether I have, and if its the same as my other abilities, I only need to focus on it. Closing his eyes and focusing on the thought of using his grimoire, a grimoire appeared in front of him. Secretly rejoicing at his success, he tried to open up his eyes, but with no luck, panicking a bit he remembered how closing the book always kicked him out of the darkness. Opening up the book to the first page, he smiled when he saw the amount of Aether he had. [Page 0 Race: human Name: Euan Hahn Rank: 1 Enhancements: none Aether: 2 Boon: The Bestiary Description: a ranked human by the name of Euan Hahns, as he has obtained some Aether he is capable of changing into different forms as per the abilities from The Bestiary. Turning back into the human form is temporary and will undo when Euan Hahn is incapable of supplying the amount of Aether needed, the amount of Aether used increases according to the Rank and Enhancements Euan Hahn has, external forces can also affect the amount required. Note that Each has a cooldown of a minimum 24-hours, any increase can be affected by the rank and a few other factors.] Chuckling at how happy he was for an increase in one point in Aether he looked through the next page and saw that the Aether amount was the same, 2 points exactly. While curious about the correlation between the two amount of Aether, he put it aside due to a lack of information about it. My only question at the moment is if the amount of Aether you get from killing the Sand Beetles stays the same. And if you need to directly kill them, if there is no change then farming the beetles for a while is possible, hopefully until I can get strong enough to go in the forest. If I don''t need to kill them all directly, I can herd them into a tight place and drop something big on them, that way, I can kill them with more efficiency. Though unfortunately finding something large enough to kill a group of Sand Beetles may be a bit of a challenge, the only rock I''ve seen so far is nothing short of a mountain to me, I can''t even climb it let alone move it. Closing the Grimoire, Euan was soon engulfed with the same blinding light. Looking up at the already bright sky he looked towards the sun to see if there were any differences in it or the amount there, thankfully and disappointingly there was only the same old sun. It''s already so bright out, I guess focusing on using the grimoire took more time than I thought, thankfully nothing happened during that time. Now for my priorities, the powerful existence told me to survive, grow, and learn. I''ve survived so far but to keep myself from getting killed I need to grow and learn, growing, I assume would mean absorbing more Aether and increasing my abilities. As for learning, I may need to learn more than just what The Bestiary has to offer, where I am, and what the norms of this place are is one of the things I need to focus on, especially what others deem as common knowledge, standing out too much when I get my human form back would be troubling. As he was near the shore of the beach and the tide was still relatively low, he came across a few patches of seaweed and other ocean plants occasionally. There were some shells, but they were all unable to withstand any force from his legs and broke only after applying a small bit of pressure, so he ended up ignoring those until he came across one almost twice the size of the others and a darker shade of grey. Pressing one of his legs down on it he was surprised that it didn''t break, let alone leave even the slightest of marks. Raising a non-existent eyebrow at sight, he applied more pressure only to be met with the same conclusion, repeating his action again but with his full force focused on one point he was shocked to still see nothing, not a single mark was left on the shell. Picking up the shell with his mandibles, he decided to save it for later, who knows, a hard shell can be used for quite a bit even as a beetle. Scouring the area for any more hard shells only to be met with disappointment. After an hour of walking without anything new, the first pangs of hunger began appearing. So this body also gets hungry, I guess that should have been expected. There is not much here other than sand, sand, and more sand; eating the sea is simply out of the question, and the forest is too far away for me at the moment. Looking around, his gaze lands on one of the many plants washed ashore from the sea, a piece of wavey green seaweed. Edible? I think so, though I''m not sure about this type of seaweed though. Though I don''t really have a choice, amongst all of the kinds of plants here, this is the only one that looks familiar. Reaching down with his mandibles, he tore off a small piece and ate it, it gave off a salty taste but other than that it was quite bland, like chewing sawdust. After feeding himself for a few minutes, he managed to fill himself with enough seaweed to keep him running for the rest of the day, and then some, this, however, made him feel a bit bloated. With a full stomach, he decided to walk it off while pondering his next course of action. Walking around like I''m doing now is pointless, I''m getting nowhere, and the only thing I got out of this was a single shell. It could be used as armor if I was able to strap it on my back, but I have neither the ability to do so or the supplies, the seaweed might work as straps, but they tear too quickly, so that''s out of the question. I might be able to use it in a fight against the Sand Beetles, whacking them with it is going to do nothing so maybe pushing it in between their mandibles into their mouth might work, that may work.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. The shell aside, how should I go about attacking? Its all but sand around here so an ambush from under the sand? Afterward, I can bury myself, so I won''t be ambushed while I''m looking through the grimoire. Steeling his nerves, he decided to give it a try, after a few minutes of wandering and observing the patterns of the Sand Beetles around him he chose a spot on the path of one of the wanderers. Setting aside the shell he was carrying he buried himself just enough that he would be able to feel it as the Sand Beetle walked over him and would be able to act without too much sand hindering his movements. As time slowly passed and within a few minutes the sound of something skittering along the sand, holding his breath as his nonexisting sweat flowed down his carapace he waited for the Sand Beetle''s first two feet to pass over his head. As soon as it passed, he lunged upwards with all his strength clamping down his mandibles on whatever he could get ahold of, unfortunately, luck wasn''t on his time as it was for his second kill, and he ended up clamping down on the rims of the Sand Beetle''s shell. In a struggle to get the advantage, he attempted to push the Sand Beetle over, but due to a lack of proper footing with a hole underneath him he wasn''t successful and ended up falling back with the beetle on top of him. Seeing as things weren''t going as he hoped, he let go in an attempt to clamp down on the softer underside of the shell, and this time being successful despite the constant struggle of the Sand Beetle he clamped down right under its head ending the Sand Beetle''s life in a few seconds. After welcoming the sensation of gaining Aether, he dug a hole and proceeded to bury the carcass of the Sand Beetle. Now that the Sand Beetle is buried it shouldn''t attract any groups unlike the first one, as a precaution I should burrow underground some distance away. Burrowing under the sand, he placed his focus on the thought of using The Bestiary, and shortly after the familiar sight of a grimoire appearing in the darkness took place. Looking at the Aether for his Sand Beetle form he was reassured that his theory was correct, precisely 3 Aether, one more than before. [Page: 1 Race: Beetle-Sand Beetle Name: Euan Hahn Upgrades: none Aether: 3 Rank: 1 Description: a beetle that makes it''s home in the sand, unlike its unranked cousins, this species has absorbed the bare minimum of Aether to become a ranked creature. Due to The Bestiary Euan Hahn now can use a Sand Beetle as one of his forms, note reverting to his human form can only be done after a 24-hour cooldown and may require a high amount of Aether to sustain it.] Flipping over to the first page in the grimoire, he saw that the Aether was the same as the amount the Sand Beetle form had again. [Page 0 Race: human Name: Euan Hahn Rank: 1 Enhancements: none Aether: 3 Boon: The Bestiary Description: a ranked human by the name of Euan Hahns, as he has obtained some Aether he is capable of changing into different forms as per the abilities from The Bestiary. Turning back into the human form is temporary and will undo when Euan Hahn is incapable of supplying the amount of Aether needed, the amount of Aether used increases according to the Rank and Enhancements Euan Hahn has, external forces can also affect the amount required. Note that Each has a cooldown of a minimum 24-hours, any increase can be affected by the rank and a few other factors.] So far it''s they are both the same, I''ll do a few more up until I get five points in Aether to see if there is any change. I need some sort of base of operations or at least a place for a focal point so it would be much easier to map things out. Digging himself out into the open, looking around for signs of any Sand Beetles he noticed that the spot where he buried the dead Sand Beetle was dug up and the only thing left inside was a skeletal frame and other than that there were no other signs of them around him. Shifting his gaze up towards the sun to see how much time passed, and in the end, it was only around 2 hours. Shaking off the sand left on him, he headed off in the direction the stone boulder was located at after picking back up his shell. Sometime later, after trudging through the sand, he encountered a wide area of sand with bumps in the sand, which looked awfully similar to the shell of a Sand Beetle. At first, there was no problem, but after a few minutes of walking the frequency of the bumps appearing increase drastically to the point where there would be one every few feet. Focusing on one of them an illusionary scroll appeared above it, reading it he froze. [Sand Beetle] Looking around in a panic at the hundreds of bumps in the ground, he backpedaled a bit and stopped a few inches from one. Looking around, he began to move lightly-or as lightly as a giant beetle can-through the groups of Sand Beetles attempting to go around the large group back into the out area that held only a scarce few. Moving around and about he managed to get past the large group with only a few minor slipups which ended up only stirring the Sand Beetles, as he got to the out circle he resumed his journey in the direction of the boulder. Half an hour later as he passed the last of the Sand Beetles, a cloud of sand exploded in front of him. Surprised, he ended up dropping the shell as he jumped back only to see a sand beetle lunging at his from where the explosion occurred from. Dodging to the side as the Sand Beetle grazed the side of his carapace with its mandibles, he quickly took aim and countered his opponent by clamping down on his opponent''s backside with one of his pincers sinking into flesh. His opponent thrashing around in a violent frenzy managed to throw Euan aside, giving it just enough time to turn around and attack once more this time head-on. Crouching down the Sand Beetle''s attack went over his head, this time it managed to bite into something, one of his antenna. Unlike his unranked omophron relatives he sported a relatively small pair of antenna, only a centimeter and a half long. As the Sand Beetle proceeded to bite the antenna and then tear it off Euan was given a window of opportunity to strike, letting him bite right into the soft underside of its head killing it in a few seconds. After crawling out from underneath the dead Sand Beetle, he collapsed as his rush of adrenalin wore off, the first thing he noticed other than a lot of green fluid covering his eyes was the change in his surroundings or what changed was how he viewed his surroundings. As Sand Beetles have bad vision and a severe case of color blindness their antenna''s function entails through the use of Aether a way to fix that problem, it also picks up other things such as the vibrations in the air such as sound, it serves as a receptor for smell, and a few other things. As his antennas are responsible for quite a few of his senses mainly two things occurred, the first was a decline in his perception and a slight loss in color, the second was an excruciating pain only second to his body reformations, it felt as if all the nerves in his hand were injected with stimulants causing their sensitivity to skyrocket to the point that even the slightest of touches would feel like a thousand burning hot needles were piercing your arm. Then proceeding to cut into it with a pair of knives with serrated edges, then proceeding to rip it off. While the pain subsided quite a bit after the surge of Aether entered him. It still lingered, another positive is a small portion of his lost senses returned after the wave of Aether. While I cant see my antenna right now and I definitely don''t want to bring anything near the missing antenna to check, with the slight return of my senses and the lessening of the pain there''s a possibility that the Aether is capable of healing me. Remembering how close he is to the large group of Sand Beetles, he looked back to see over a dozen of them already up and running at him. Sprinting off after grabbing his not so useful shell he headed the way he was initially going, he only managed to run for a few minutes before needing to correct his course again as his muddled senses were messing up his direction from time to time. After a few hours of running and nearly going in circles a few times, he managed to shake off most of them except one persistent Sand Beetle, and by now he was already nearing the boulder.