《Bloodlines》 Chapter 1 - A needed change of scenery I''m depressed, Or rather I should say I¡¯m unhappy with my current life. I work a dead-end job and have no romantical attachments with anyone. I have a couple of friends, but I usually keep to myself by reading or playing video games. I love to read because it''s an escape from this dreary life I''m living. I''m currently walking home from work. First thing I do when I get home, hop on Discord to see what the boys are up to. Zach Cody, Matt L, Davey and my cousin Eli are the only ones on. I join in the discord channel and everybody''s memeing each other as usual. M: Hey guys what''s going on? Z: Asuhh dude ML: Hey E: Sup cuz C: Suhhhhhhhhh dude D: Heyyyyy Mike ML: What''s everybody up to? Z: Hey Matt, you heard about that new disease going around called Sugma? ML: No whats sugma? Z: SUGMA DICK! E: lul D: How on earth did you fall for that? C: ROASTED Z: All joking aside for a second Mike, you heard what''s happening in china right now? M: What''s happening in china? Z: CHINA SEE DEEZ NUTS *M has logged off* Sometimes I really hate my friends, like a lot. After logging off of Discord, I open up Chrome to see if any of the novels I¡¯m reading have been updated. ¡°Release That Witch¡± has two new chapters, ¡°Forgotten Conqueror¡± has a new one, and ¡°Goblin Kingdom¡± has about five chapters I''ve somehow missed. After catching up on all my current novels, I decide to check out some other books,and after a while I decide it''s time to hit the hay. I take my sleeping pills, lay in bed and put my sleep machine mask on my face. That''s the last thing i can recall before waking up in an eerily quiet white room. Where the fuck am I? this is one weird dream. Oo perhaps this is a lucid dream i''ve heard so much about. (M) I start to try and materialize fire in my hand to test my theory but no matter how hard I try nothing happens. As I stand there puzzled, the hair on my arms begins to perk up. I feel someone''s presence but can¡¯t see anyone or anything. Yo is there anyone out there? Hello? If someone is there please stop being so God damn creepy and just come out. (M) Suddenly this old man, no I should say ancient man appears out of thin air right in front of me. Then a young girl suddenly appears right next to him. Hello there child. How are you? (???) Umm okay I guess. I''m going to go out on a limb and say this isn''t a dream is it? (M) No currently you are in Limbo. (???) Im dead? Well I suppose this is the part where I beg for you to send me back because I have so much left to accomplish with my life. Well I¡¯m sorry, I shall do nothing of the sort. My ass is glad to be dead, finally I can just relax. (M) What? Why are you so calm, also you''re not dead bud we just plucked your soul from your body so we can have this chat with you. We need you for a special mission. Well be sending you to another world filled with dangerous monster and magic. We need you to- (???) Sign me up. I''m in. Say no more I''ll do it (M) I know this is a lot to take in right now and you probably want some time to think it over, Wait did you say yes? (???) Yes I said yes. This is like my ideal freaking scenario. I''ve read like a hundred books on this shit. I''m beyond prepared to do this. Lets go send me now. (M) Okay, umm we thought we''d have to do more honestly to get you to say yes. You''re friends Cody, Zach, Davey, Eli and Matt all required more time and explanation before they agreed. (???) WHAT?! You''re telling me not only do I get to go to another world filled with magic and monster but I get to bring the homies? SICK. So what''s the scenario, who needs saving, who is the evil lord that needs to be killed? OOo or is it a deadly dragon. Or maybe a disastrous demon bent on exterminating all life? GOD im hyped as hell. Wait one question who are you guys? (M) I am Maglir and I am the God of Mana. (Maglir) I am Juno and I am the Goddess of life. Also there is no big bad guy you have to defeat. The reason were sending you and your friends to our world is because we need you to accomplish two things; One establish your own bloodline and clan, and two become a God of this world. (Juno) Bloodline? What do you mean by that? (M) Basically we are going to give you a new body. Feel free to customize everything about it; race, class and finally your bloodline. (Juno) Bloodlines are a special power only you can wield. They are divided into three parts; Awakening which is what your power will start off as, Ascendance which is when your power has significantly evolved, and finally divinity which is when your power allows you to attain Godhood. Nobody else can have it except for those you sire. It is your bloodline that you must protect and prosper. Once your bloodline has gotten strong enough and you have become powerful enough you will be able to ascend and eventually become a god of our world like us. (Maglir) Okay like I said before let''s do this I''m ready send me in coach COME ON. (M)Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Then a screen appeared in front of me with all sorts of options for different races to choose from. Available Races: High Elf High Demon High Human High Beast-Kin High Orc High Elemental High Draugnir High Dwarf High Undead I looked over the races and most seemed pretty self explanatory. I started to select them one by one to see the little descriptions. High Elf: A pure blooded Elf, They are taller than most humanoids, with the trademark pointy ears and dangerous proficiency in the Arcane Arts. High Demon: High Demon''s are the original form that Darkness took when it was created. They have increased life spans, high regenerative abilities and can consume the blood of their enemies for sustenance. They are extremely weak to Holy magic and Ice magic. High Human: The original Humans were not as squishy as their modern day equivalents. They have the most potential of all races in that they have no inherent weaknesses or strengths. High Beast-Kin: Large creatures with Humanoid forms, they¡¯re ferocity is legendary, but are known for being comically trusting of others. High Orc: Ancestors of modern day Goblins, Trolls, and Ogres, they have a tendency to be blinded by rage and will fight until the last drop of blood is spilled. Average intelligence is a joke commonly used against them. High Elemental: Primordial beings that ruled Dominions long before the other races, beings of pure affinity. Some say they are the oldest creatures of the land, wrapped in mystery and forgotten traditions. High Draugnir: The Father of all Dragons. All Dragons, Kobolds, Lizard people and Wyverns are descendants of them. Boasting impressive strength both physically and magically, they¡¯re an all most extinct race. High Dwarf: Short, stout, and gruff those are the three words used to describe High Dwarves. They have close to no aptitude in magic and usually too focused on mining and smithing to learn anything unrelated anyway. Greed is a common trait among their race High Undead: Before they were the cannon fodder for young adventurers, the High undead were an intelligent and strong race. Having apparently infinite life spans and with no need to eat or sleep, they¡¯re a mighty foe. Extremely weak to holy magic. After pondering for a bit I had decided upon High Demon. It would fit this new persona i wanted to create. I would become someone who would be willing to do whatever it took to accomplish my goals. Would you like to finalize your race decision? I selected yes and it brought me to a new screen filled with the different types of classes. The following classes were available Available Classes: Sorcerer Druid Magic Swordsman Ranger Barbarian Knight Assassin Summoner Paladin I began scrolling through the classes to see what each one did. Sorcerer: A purely offensive mage. You use powerful magic to destroy your enemies. Health:50 Mana: 300 Health Regen: 1 HpM (Health Per Minute) Mana Regen: 15 MpM (Mana Per Minute) Druid: Commune with spirits to find your true calling. Let the creatures of the forest guide you on your journey. You are a force of nature. Health: 150 Mana: 200 Health Regen: 6 HpM Mana Regen: 10 MpM Magic Swordsman: Adept at both magic and the blade, you are deadly with either. A good balance of both magic and physical attacks. Health: 200 Mana: 150 Health Regen: 7 HpM Mana Regen: 9 MpM Ranger: Long distance rogue type. Adept at tracking. If you''re doing your job right the enemy will never know what hit them. Health: 250 Mana: 100 Health Regen: 10 HpM Mana Regen: 6 MpM Barbarian: You are rage incarnate. You are the one man army. Barbarians prefer to overpower their opponents with raw strength. Health: 275 Mana: 75 Health Regen: 12 HpM Mana Regen: 4 MpM Knight: You fight with honor. Enacting justice across the land with your sword and shield. A perfect balance of offense and defense. Defend your allies and vanquish your foes. Health: 300 Mana: 50 Health Regen: 14 HpM Mana Regen: 2 MpM Assassin: You are a master of death. You possess extensive training turning everything around you including your own body into a weapon. A one man killing machine. Health: 175 Mana: 175 Health Regen: 8 HpM Mana Regen: 8 MpM Summoner: Summon companions to aid you in your journey and realize that there is strength in numbers. 1v1 you might not be as strong but 1v5 or 1v100, then you''ll have the advantage. Health: 100 Mana: 250 Health Regen: 3 HpM Mana Regen: 13 MpM Paladin: A bastion of light and all that is holy. You are the destroyer of darkness. Healing allies and killing the forces of darkness are your only goals. Health:75 Mana: 275 Health Regen: 6 HpM Mana Regen: 10 MpM Most of the classes were cool but half of them didn''t suit me. I''ve never been the healer type, nor have I ever played the tanky role or been a front liner in games. I usually always pick the damage dealing mage role, but this time I thought I''d try out something a little out of my comfort zone; the Assasin. Come on a demon assassin, that sounds like the coolest shit ever. Would you like to finalize your class decision? Yes. (M) The third and final screen came up next telling me to pick my Bloodline. I knew I had to choose carefully as I had to use this power to establish a clan and achieve Godhood. I had to think long term. Surprisingly there were less options than the previous two times. There were only five options. Available Bloodlines: Eyes of the Conqueror: The power to impress your will upon all those and force them bentah you. Everything you see belongs to you. Magnetic Monarch: The master of magnetism all metal bends to your will. Spatial Sovereign: The ability to access a pocket dimension, works like an inventory. Four Horsemen ¡®Famine¡¯: You are all consuming hunger. You need to feed. Devour your enemies. Hand of the Damned: All you touch are ill fated, none are spared from your eternal curse. Four of them sounded really cool. Four Horsemen ¡®Famine¡¯ seemed way to dangerous. Can''t complete my goals by eating everyone and everything around me. Eyes of the Conqueror would fit my goals but I don¡¯t want to force people to help me. Magnetic Monarch and Hand of the Damned both seemed too linear and like there wasn''t much room for growth. That left Spatial Sovereign, I felt like there was more there than meets the eye. I locked in my choice and the final prompt appeared. Complete character creation? All decisions are final and cannot be changed once your new body has been formed. Let¡¯s do this. (M) So guys/Gods/whatever you want me to call you, what''s next? Do we wait while I like load in or whatever? (M) You may refer to us as Gods Michael. (Juno) Now good luck may your adventure be a fun filled one. (Maglir) Then everything went white again. Chapter 2 Where are we? I woke up on the ground in the dark. Looking around, I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. After a couple of minutes I started to look for the exit. I began to notice I seemed to be in a temple of sorts. I wandered out of the room I was in, into a dimly lit hallway. There were torches lining the walls. As I walked down the halls I realized I could hear something at the end of the hall. I took off into a sprint. As I entered the room I spied two creatures arguing. One looked to be an orc about 7 ft tall covered in blood red tattoos with black skin, wearing nothing but furs on his body. The other seemed human at first, around 6¡¯5 with dark green scales and a tail. Well I guess if he has a tail and scales he¡¯s not exactly human. FOOLISH PEASANT! I am the main character and I say we split up to look for the others. (Orc man) NO! We should stay together. What if we run into something neither of us can handle alone? Then what will you do? Also stop calling me a peasant it makes you sound like a douche Matt. (Tall dark and scaly) Wait did you say Matt? Codes is that you? (M) Mike? Whats up man? Woah you are horrifying to look at. ? Yeah Cody is right, you are scary as hell Mike, and that¡¯s coming from an Orc. (ML) What do you mean? (M) Dude you have horns and jet black eyes. (ML) Says the 7 foot tall goth troll. (M) I¡¯M NOT A TROLL! And I¡¯m 7¡¯4 and built like a freight train and bitch you best not forget it. (ML) Anyways Mike, Matt and I were just discussing whether or not to split up and look for the others. Now that you¡¯re here why don¡¯t you decide? ? Why does he get to decide, I¡¯m the main character (ML) Why don¡¯t we stick together at least till we find everyone. There''s strength in numbers after all. (M) So Mike what¡¯d you put your stat points into and what class did you pick? I¡¯m a Paladin High Draugnir, which is kinda like the father of all dragons. ? And as you so duly noted earlier, I am a High Orc Knight. (ML) Wait stat points? What do you mean? (M) Dude did you listen to the Gods when they summoned you? They told us all about affinities stats and stuff. ? Actually I kinda just said yes and then quickly picked my race and bloodline. (M) Say status and you can bring up your stats and allocate points. It¡¯ll also tell you your affinity (ML) Status (M) Name: Michael Race: High Demon Class: Assassin Affinity: Void Bloodline: Spatial Sovereign HP: (175/175) MP: (175/175) Health Regen: 8 HpM (Health per minute) Mana Regen: 8 MpM (Mana per minute)Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. LVL: 1 STR-0 INT-0 PERC-0 VIT-0 WIS-0 DEX-0 CHRM-0 Remaining Stat Points: 10 HP and MP stood for health and mana points respectfully. Apparently each level I would automatically gain 10 of each. I recognized most of the stats but I wasn''t sure if they all did exactly what I thought they did so I tried to concentrate on each one to give me more information. Strength (STR)- Damage of physical attacks. Every 2 points of STR gives x.2 DMG modifier, Affects base health. +4 total health per point Intelligence (INT)- Mana pool. How strong spells are. +5 total mana per point. Every 2 points of INT gives DMG x.15 modifier Perception (PERC)- Ability to see through illusions and perceive things for what they really are. Awareness to traps and danger. Vitality (VIT)- Health regeneration. Affects lifespan, Every 5 points of VIT = 1 year added to lifespan. +1 HpM (Health per minute) every two points Wisdom (WIS)- Mana regeneration. The ability to think things through +1 MpM (Mana per minute) every two points Dexterity (DEX)- Affects flexibility, nimbleness in actions and overall speed. Charisma (CHRM)- Affects the way others perceive you. How attractive you appear to other people. I decided to put two points into intelligence, strength, wisdom, dexterity and perception. I figured I¡¯d be going for an allrounder approach to my stats. Next I noticed it said that my affinity was Void. Hey guys what¡¯s an affinity, it says mine is Void? (M) Luckily for you I asked a ton of questions to the Gods. Your affinity is the type of magic you are most suited for. It doesn''t mean you can''t use other types of magic but that it will be easier to use Void spells in your case. ? Well Mr. Know-It-All, since you¡¯re so wise where are we? (M) Actually I don¡¯t know, the Gods didn¡¯t tell me where they¡¯d be putting us. ? Okay so Matt what¡¯s your affinity? (M) You can¡¯t tell from these sick tattoos? I have the blood affinity. (ML) And I¡¯m a dual affinity Light and Fire, it''s related to my bloodline actually. Its Holy Flame, it allows me to heal my party for 25% of their health once a day. ? Mine is called Spatial Sovereign and it allows me access to a pocket dimension, its kinda like an RPG inventory. Matt what¡¯s yours? (M) Well as the main character I had to pick something that would fit me perfectly. I picked Regeneration. It allows me to be constantly regenerating health at a rate of 30 health per minute and heals all minor wounds, poisons, and ailments etc. So I¡¯m tanky and I can¡¯t die (ML) Don¡¯t think that¡¯s what that means¡­. ? Okay I get all that but what exactly are Bloodlines? I mean it seemed kind of vague. (M) Bloodlines are gifts given to us from the Gods. They are special powers unique to each person that can only be passed on through lineage. Jeez man, you really didn¡¯t pay the slightest bit of attention to a god of all people. ? Yeah whatever Cody, let¡¯s go look for the others. (M) We started to head down one of the branching hallways from the room in search of our missing friends. I began spacing out as we walked. I couldn¡¯t believe in my wildest dreams that something like this would happen me. I was so God damn excited to get started on our adventure, but first we had to find my cousin and our missing friend. We walked for another 30 minutes in silence. Cody and Matt had finally shut up long enough for me to think about the situation we were in. What was I going to do if either Zach or Eli were dead? This world might be more dangerous than I had originally thought. I really should¡¯ve asked more questions to the Gods instead of just blindly agreeing. As I was having my internal panic attack we had arrived at the next room to find two people just relaxing. One looked to be a dwarf covered in armor but significantly taller than you would normally think. The other guy looked just like a normal person except his hair was blue and his eyes were like a crystal clear lake. Stop right there. Who are you? (Blue hair) Zach Chill. (Dwarf) Dude don¡¯t use my real name! They could be enemies, look at them they¡¯re all monsters. (Zach) Zach relax, do you think I¡¯d expose our names if I didn¡¯t know who we were in front of? That¡¯s obviously my cousin as well as I¡¯m assuming Cody and Matt (Dwarf) Eli? Zach? What¡¯s up guys? ? Oh Hey Cody, it¡¯s good to see you guys again (Z) So what¡¯d you guys pick as your race, class and bloodline? (M) I¡¯m a High Dwarf Barbarian and my bloodline is Four Horsemen: War. It¡¯s like a living armor thing. Imagine if venom was made of metal. (E) And I am a High Water Elemental Sorcerer and my bloodline is water elemental powers, kind of like a waterbender from avatar. Well what¡¯re you guys? (Z) Dude that¡¯s so sick. I¡¯m a High Draugnir Paladin. I dish out heals and damage. ? Yeah and I¡¯m a High Demon Assassin, basically an allrounder (M) AND I¡¯M THE MAIN CHARACTER! (ML) What? (Z)&(E) He means to say he¡¯s a High Orc Knight and he will be our tank for the remainder of our adventure. Now that we¡¯re all gathered together let¡¯s get the hell out of here. ? Agreed. (Everyone) We continued onwards in our group wary of any traps on monsters but found very quickly that there just weren''t any. We walked for what felt like hours with Matt constantly complaining about the lack of action. Eventually though we found the exit. We pushed open the doors and were assaulted by bright sunlight into our eyes. Being in a dark tomb for the better part of a day will do that to you. We looked around and noticed we seemed to be in a forest with trees for miles in every single direction. The tree¡¯s were huge as well. As soon as we went outside though we heard the call of a bird. We looked up and saw a humongous eagle creature circling us from above. What the fuck is that? (ML) Then a black dot started falling from where the eagle was and it was getting bigger and bigger as it soared at us. GUYS RUN FOR COVER! ? We all started to run from the approaching object and find a boulder or tree to hide behind to avoid the falling meteor. Just as the object was about to hit the ground we heard someone shout something and it wasn¡¯t one of us. Levitate! (???) The object stopped five feet from the ground. It was actually a person hovering above the ground wearing a cloaked robe of some sort. Heya Kiddos (???) Chapter 3 The Mysterious Man and a Little Bit of Action Levitating 5 feet off the ground in front of us was a tall Elf male wearing dark red robes and a cloak around his shoulders. Who the fuck are you? (ML) That¡¯s no way to speak to your elders young one. (???) Sorry about our friend there, he¡¯s a little rough around the edges. I¡¯m Mike, the rude ones Matt, and that¡¯s Eli, Zach and Cody. (M) But he has a point, who are you? (Z) What do you mean elders? You look younger than we do. (E) Looks can be deceiving you talking trashcan, I¡¯m 122 years old. You may call me V. (V) Hey my armor doesn¡¯t look that bad. Right guys? Right??? (E) Wait your name is Vee, like V E E? ? No my name is V like the letter V. (V) Like Vendetta? (M) Like what? (V) Never mind. (M) So what are a couple of newbies like yourselves doing out here in the Devouring Woods so far from Oasis? (V) Devouring Woods? Oasis? Is that where we are? (Z) Yes we are currently in the Devouring Woods, it gets its name because of how few people make it through the woods alive. It¡¯s crawling with tier 3 creatures which are extremely dangerous to newbies like yourselves. Luckily I¡¯m here and I can help you get to Oasis, which is the only safe place in the entirety of the Devouring Woods. (V) Hey, who you calling a newbie? (ML) The five LVL 1 greenhorns in front of me? (V) Fuck you. (ML) How can you tell our levels? And what is Oasis? (Z) I can tell your levels because I know the spell Scan, it allows you to see a target¡¯s stats. Oasis is a city not beholden to any country. It is ruled by a council of the seven strongest people of the city. It¡¯s about a mile north of here if you walk. (V) Can you show us the way there? If there are so many Tier 3 creatures won¡¯t it be too dangerous for us? ? Can you teach us Scan? Sounds like it would be quite helpful. (M) Sure. (V) Slow down guys. I have a couple questions for the talking meteor. Why are you helping us, what exactly do you have to gain? (Z) Woah there Billy, chill the fuck out. I¡¯m just your friendly neighborhood Elf, trying to help some lost travelers that I happened to find out in the woods. Now do you want my help or not? (V) My name¡¯s not Billy. But yes, we would like your help. (Z) So how do we learn the spell Scan? (E) Basically I¡¯m going to send the spell knowledge straight to your brain all you have to do is let it happen. (V) As he spoke, a ball of mana came out of him splitting into five parts and going into all of our heads. A prompt appeared in my head. New spell knowledge detected would you like to accept? I accepted it and a wave of knowledge washed over me. It was like I had known the spell my whole life. I just knew how to use Scan. I turned to Zach and scanned him. A flood of information washed over me and appeared in my peripheral. Zach Race: High Elemental (Water) Class: Sorcerer Affinity: Water LVL: 1 HP: 50/50 MP: 320/320 This was crazy. I then tried to use it on V. V Race: Elf Class: ??? Affinity: ??? LVL: ??? HP: ???/??? MP: ???/??? Hey, don¡¯t do that, it¡¯s rude. Ask before you scan someone. Also you should say the phrase ¡°spell list¡± to bring up all the available spells and skills you can learn at level one. You can only pick one though so choose wisely. (V) How come all your stats are question marks? I could see Zach¡¯s why can''t I see yours? (M) Because I¡¯m a higher level than you. Don¡¯t worry about it too much. (V) Spell List (Everyone) We all brought up the spell list to see what spells were available for each of us. My available spells were as follows. Arcane Arrow: Caster shoots a condensed arrow of mana (Cost:15 DMG:15)This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Void Slash: Caster focus void energy on their hand or blade (Cost:20 DMG:35) Detect Trap: Allows user to detect traps (Cost:15 DMG:X) Detect Poison: Caster can detect poison (Cost:20 DMG:X) Night Vision: Gives user ability to see at night time like it was during the day (Cost:25 DMG:X) Smokescreen: Creates a smokescreen around target (Cost:20 DMG:X) Cloud Clone: Creates an illusionary cloud clone that mimics the caster (Cost:30 DMG:X) Minor Teleport: Teleport 10 feet in any direction that is visible (Cost:25 DMG:X) Minor Dispel: Dispels all magic of this tier and below (Cost:50 DMG:X) Summon Familiar: summons casters familiar (Cost:20 DMG: X) I guessed that spells and skills were dependent on your class and affinity. All of them seemed so useful. Summon Familiar sounded different but I already had enough friends with me. Detect Trap and Detect Poison would prove useful in the long run but after reading the list I knew what I had to pick. Minor Teleport was too cool to pass up. A teleporting Assassin, sign me up. As we finalized our choices we huddled up to discuss what we all had picked. Rollcall. What spells or skills did you guys pick? I picked Minor Teleport. It has a range of ten feet in any direction I can see. (M) Forcepalm for me. It fires a condensed burst of force at an enemy. It¡¯s not long range though, but hopefully my armor can tank some of the damage I¡¯d receive when fighting something. (E) The system actually let me pick two spells. I chose Water Bullet and Icicle, the first spell shoots a bullet of water at the enemy, and Icicle shoots well, an icicle. Both are long range attacking spells (Z) Well the main character needs survivability so I picked Unyielding Spirit. It allows me to survive any attack with one health as long as it¡¯s not like a beheading or something. (ML) I chose Minor Heal it heals 1 HP every 5 seconds, it costs 1 MP per HP I heal. ? Right after we finished having our discussion we heard the trees start to rustle. A loud hissing sound could be heard. I had a bad feeling about this, a VERY bad feeling about this. Just as I had this thought a gigantic snake barreled into the clearing where we were gathered. It was at least 150 feet long and 25 feet in diameter. Oh and did I forget to mention it had two heads. Hissssss (Twin Headed Basilisk) Maybe its friendly guys? (E) Somehow I doubt that. (Z) I used Scan on the creature and it really didn¡¯t look good. Twin Headed Basilisk LVL: ??? HP: ???/??? MP: ???/??? Okay so clearly this thing was a higher level than us. A significantly higher level than us more than likely. Guys I can''t see its level or health or anything. I think we¡¯re in some deep shit here. (M) Yeah thanks man, really helping the morale. (Z) Maybe V can help us. (E) No can do Kiddos, I do not do snakes. Toodles. (V) V¡¯s eagle then swooped down and grabbed him soaring into the sky. Looks like we were on our own here. The snake was staring at us with both of its heads, watching and waiting. It looked like it was sizing us up to see if we were going to do anything. Codes you got a plan? (M) Yeah, SHIT! Umm I¡¯m thinking. ? Codes just think and relax man, you''re supposed to be the calm one (M) Okay, okay. Alright I got an idea. Zach start pelting him with Water Bullets. Matt you pull aggro but try not to get killed we have no idea how hard this guy hits. Eli try to get in close and do some damage with your new skill. Your armor should hopefully cushion the blow if he hits you. I¡¯m going to cast my healing spells on you guys and try to keep you topped off. ? Got it! (ML,E,Z) Wait Codes, what about me? (M) You¡¯re our wildcard Mike. Just go where you¡¯re needed and do what you can ? Just as we finished our discussion and got into our positions, the Basilisk hissed at us and started its attack. It charged at Matt. He tried to dodge but the snake was just too fast. It slammed into him. Right before he hit the tree we heard him cast Unyielding Spirit. He hit the tree hard and slumped down. I used Scan on Matt to check on his health. Matt Class: Knight Affinity: Blood LVL: 1 HP: 1/328 MP: 0/50 Well it looked like Matt was down for the count. I teleported to him, hoisting him over my shoulder and then teleported away. I checked my MP and it had gone down by 75. It looks like teleporting another person counts as it own separate teleport cost. I only had 115 MP left. Which means I had another four teleports before I was out of MP. Zach was pelting the Basilisk with water bullets. It was now soaked in water and so was the surroundings, but it didn¡¯t seem to be doing too much damage. The Basilisk now focused on Zach. Things were starting to look bad. ZACH RUN! ? The basilisk then swept its huge tail at Zach. If that hit him it was game over, and I don¡¯t think this world has respawns. So I once again teleported in shoving him out of harm¡¯s way but the tail grazed me flinging me into a tree. I had landed on my arm. I looked down and my arm was bent at an odd angle. That was going to hurt in the morning. My HP was now at 88, that hit cost me 100 HP. But for now I tried to push past the pain, the fight was still ongoing. By this point Eli had starting baiting the basilisk¡¯s attention. HEY YOU SCALY PIECE OF SHIT. I¡¯M RIGHT HERE COME AND GET ME. (E) Eli kept chucking rocks at the Basilisk and had successfully pulled aggro away from Zach for the moment. Guys my armor says to aim for its eyes, it¡¯s that things only weak point. (E) Wait did you just say your armor talks? Shelve that topic for later but if we get out of this we¡¯re having a long talk about everyone¡¯s capabilities. (Z) Codes Heals please (M) Got it Mike. Minor Heal! ? Cody started healing me, and my HP was slowly climbing back up to full. It didn¡¯t however do anything for my broken arm. Eli darted forward towards the Basilisk as it swiped at him. He dodged low and the tail missed him. He tried using Forcepalm but it didn''t seem to be doing any damage. Cody¡¯s heals combined with my base health regen, meaning I had 20 HpM. So it would only take 5 minutes to get me back to full health. Matt was still off to the side unconscious, Cody was busy healing me and I was running on fumes. Zach and Eli didn¡¯t seem to be doing much damage to the creature. If we didn¡¯t think of something fast we were all going to end up as snake food. Codes any ideas? (M) Thinking man. ? Not trying to rush you or anything but could you possibly think faster? (E) Yeah I¡¯m currently sitting at 30 Mana, I only got three spells left so we better make¡¯em count. (Z) Okay I got an idea. Zach summon an icicle, Mike try to teleport above the snake and jam the icicle into its eye. Eli hammer it home. ? Zach summoned an icicle and tossed it to me. I grabbed it with my one good arm and boy was it freaking cold. Then the snake stared at me with both heads and it almost looked like it¡¯s two heads were smirking at me. It was time to show this thing we were not to be fucked with. It dashed at me with its mouths wide agaped. Guess it figured it was just going to eat me and be done with it. I teleported straight above it. It lunged at me again and I narrowly dodged it. I tried to grab onto its neck but it was still slippery from all of Zach¡¯s attacks. I teleported on to the top of its head and jammed the icicle into its eyeball with all my strength. It screeched in pain. I then teleported away to safety. My job was done. Zach had summoned his last two Icicle spells and had fired them at the snake he luckily got a shot straight into the other head¡¯s eye. He had zero MP now so he was effectively useless. The Basilisk was roaring in pain and thrashing around on the ground. It had two icicles jutting out of each one of it¡¯s head¡¯s eyes. Eli then rushed at it jumping into the air. FORCEPALM! (E) He slammed the first icicle into the right head¡¯s brain like a jackhammer killing it instantly. The snake didn¡¯t take this lying down, it slammed into Eli knocking him into a nearby tree. His armor seemed to have barely kept him alive. By this time I was back to full health. I used Scan on Eli and his HP was in the red so to speak. Eli Class: Barbarian Affinity: Fire LVL: 1 HP: 42/283 Armor HP: 1/100 MP: 45/75 Codes! (M) On it buddy. ? Cody started focusing on healing Eli so he was once again predisposed. I had a broken arm. Zach¡¯s MP was regenning at a rate of 16 MpM so he wouldn¡¯t be back to full for another twenty minutes. By this point I had regenerated enough mana for one last teleport. ZACH toss me an icicle! (M) Got you man. (Z) The now one headed Basilisk was now eyeing us much more carefully as I wielded my makeshift ice sword. It finally got tired of waiting and it at charged at me. I used my broken arm as a shield. The snake bit into it sending jolts of pain into my brain. This was the worst pain I¡¯d ever felt before. I couldn¡¯t even describe it. Barely standing, I then used my good arm to bring down the icicle into the beast¡¯s other eye. Blood spurted out of its eyes, coating me in it. It started twitching on the ground as it let out one last hiss. Is it finally fucking over? (Z) Then I passed out from the pain. Order Of Corvus 1 Corax¡¯s POV You have your orders MOVE OUT! (The Master) Yes Master (???) We all left the room instantly. As I headed out of the room I was waved down by one of my fellow Crows. All of the Crows belong to an Order called Corvus. We are all given a codename as soon as we enter the Order. There are only seven of us at any given time. If we are to perish in battle we are instantly replaced. We exist for one purpose and that is to be our master¡¯s hands and feet. My codename is Corax and the woman rapidly approaching me is called Enca. Heya Corax whatcha been up toooo? (Enca) What do you want Enca? (Corax) Yikes! So rude. I just wanted to know if you¡¯d be needin¡¯ help with your mission? Mine¡¯s pretty easy so i figured being the good older sister type I¡¯d offer to help you out. (Enca) Fuck off, you know I don¡¯t like to work with others. (Corax) I walked off away from her and headed out of the Master¡¯s mansion. I began walking down the streets of Arcadia. That¡¯s the name of the city in which my lord governs. As I walk past storefronts, parks and shrines I see statues of crows everywhere. Here we are worshipped as the seven protectors of Arcadia. They know not our names or faces only that for as long as Arcadia has stood so has its Order of Corvus. It fills me with great pride to see an actual difference in people¡¯s lives based on what I do. After walking for what seemed like an hour I arrive at the edge of Arcadia. There is a gate in front of me. One more step and I will leave the safe and secure Arcadia and enter the outside world. I take a step and I¡¯m instantly teleported through space. After going through the gate I have arrived in the center of the city of Oasis, one of the last free cities in Terra Grandius. While most countries have fallen to the human empire of Ralazar. They''re quite vocal about their opinions on other races and it¡¯s not what you¡¯d call friendly. I decided to see if any news involving my mission could be found at the local pub The Friendly Farmer. I pulled up the hood on my cloak so it would cover my face. One of the core staples of my order is to maintain anonymity. I walked over to the counter and ordered the house ale. I paid in exact change, not trying to be seen as cheap or extravagant. Remember I¡¯m not meant to be remembered by people. He passed me the ale and I took a seat at one of the many tables. I leaned against the wall and began to focus. I activated the spell Enhance Senses and focused it on my ears. A wave of sound rushed over me, threatening to deafen me. But this wasn¡¯t my first rodeo. Soon enough I was able to quiet down the ambient noise like people eating and drinking, glasses clinking together and the roar of the kitchen out back. I filtered out all of that noise and started to scan all the nearby conversations. I¡¯m telling you man, I shagged me a proper beast last night (???) This food is fantastic and this ale is so sweet (???) ANOTHER ROUND BARKEEP (???) I¡¯m telling you man she¡¯s been spotted near the city of Voitress in the kingdom of Oliresh (???) Who? Wait you don¡¯t mean the famous thief Golden Viper? (???) Bingo. I then focused on that conversation to gleam as much information on my target as I could. Hush yourself. Do you know who''s looking for her; The Crows and that means that Golden Viper is in some deep shit. (???) Bullshit man. The crows don¡¯t exist, they are an urban legend used to scare people straight from fucking with Arcadia. No one¡¯s ever even seen them (???) Dude that¡¯s the point. It¡¯s said if you happen to meet a Crow it means your time has come. (???) I got up from my table. They didn¡¯t seem to know too much about my target other than a general location. I will never get tired of hearing how non-Arcadians perceive us. In Arcadia we are the celebrated silent guardians. Out here we are seen as bloodthirsty boogeyman. I then left the pub and headed for the outskirts of Oasis. As I neared the edge of Oasis the giant fortress like walls that have kept Oasis both neutral and safe, towered above me. They must be 80 feet tall and 20 feet deep. I looked around and silently activated the spell Greater Detect Life, which allows me to sense all life essences within 50 feet from myself. It also works through solid objects and barriers. It¡¯s quite handy for a tier 3 spell, and it only costs me 200 MP. After not sensing any life within my immediate area I activated one of the enchantments on my cloak. It¡¯s called Polymorph: Crow and it turns its wearer into a crow. I transformed and flew into the night sky. If I flew straight there it should take me about a week of flying to get to the Oliresh Kingdom, luckily for me Voitress was on the edge of the country bordering the Devouring Woods. On my way there I went over the mission I had been given. An object was stolen from my Master from his mansion in Arcadia by a woman known only as the Golden Viper. This was unforgivable. How dare such trash invade his home. My mission was to relocate the object and neutralize the target. Easy enough. A week later I landed in a forest near Voitress. I deactivated the Polymorph: Crow enchantment and turned back into my human form. This cloak given to me by the Master is so helpful. I gave it a once over with Appraisal and boy does it never fail to make me let out a chuckle. Cloak Of Corvus: HP:1000/1000 INT REQ: 100 Enchantments: The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.Polymorph: Crow Shroud Of Darkness Phasewalk Regenerate Shroud Of Darkness covers the wearer in pure darkness, I mostly use it to terrify my targets and cover my face so my identity is never known. Phasewalk allows the caster to walk through non magical solid objects, and Regenerate just slowly regenerates the health of the cloak so that its basically indestructible. As long as one piece of fabric remains my cloak will regenerate. It honestly doesn¡¯t provide much in terms of armor but that¡¯s not what the cloak¡¯s purpose is. I wandered towards the city of Voitress with my hood up. Luckily unless your perception is above 250, the cloak appears as just a plain black cloak. When in reality it¡¯s comprised of hundreds of raven feathers. I walked towards the gates of the city and saw some city guards doing inspections on travelers. Voitress has always been a thriving city with impregnable walls even bigger than Oasis, you aren''t getting into this city unless they let you. I couldn¡¯t just fly over into the city either. They have magical barrier which acts as a dome around the sky of Voitress. The dome doesn¡¯t let anything in or out of it, be it animal or human. I walked towards the checkpoint and the two guards. They basically just pat you down for any dangerous materials and check your registration. I pulled my hood back so as not to appear to frightening or dangerous. Hello traveler. Do you have your registration? Also are you carrying any dangerous artifacts or contraband on you today? (Guard 1) Yes sir, and no I¡¯m not carrying any contraband. (Corax) The second guard patted me down and I handed him my registration. Says your name here is David and you¡¯re a B rank adventurer? Whoa so you must be pretty strong right? (Guard 2) Cut it Donny, you''re dishonoring the City Guard. Just let the poor boy go. (Guard 1) Yeah sorry about that, you¡¯re good to go sir. (Donny) *Chuckles* Thanks gentlemen, have a great day. (Corax) I strolled past the gate and the guards and headed into the city. Boy was it bustling, granted it¡¯s not as big as Oasis but still Voitress was impressive. People were lining the streets hawking their wares. Prostitutes were hanging around alleyways propositioning young men and women. And the smells, you could smell street vendors and open air restaurants all around you. This place was an assault on the senses. This is why I hated big cities, there¡¯s just too much going on. Didn¡¯t matter though I had a mission to accomplish.. First thing I had to do was find her. So I looked around for a quiet place to think and found a cafe up ahead. I went there, ordered a coffee and sat down. Time to get to work. I sipped at my coffee and then closed my eyes. Next I activated Greater Mana Sense another tier 3 spell which allows the caster to sense the mana of all creatures within a 100 foot radius. Then I combined it with Enhance Senses another tier 3 spell to broaden my mana sensing capabilities to around a mile in each direction. These two spells combined cost me a total of 450 MP. I figured she was using a glamour to disguise herself and she¡¯s supposed to be pretty high leveled, so I needed to search for someone with a large mana pool that was fluctuating while keeping the spell active. I found three possible targets and marked where they were in my head. I left the cafe as it was getting dark. I walked into an alleyway to get onto the roofs to follow my leads. As I entered the alleyway I saw six men follow me into it. They were staring me down, things were about to get interesting. Hey buddy give us all the money you got on you. (Head thug) And if I don¡¯t? (Corax) Then we gut you like a fish and leave your entrails out to dry! (Thug 2) HAHAHA God I haven''t laughed that hard in a while. Thank you truly. (Corax) I used the spell Scan on them and found that of the 6 of them the highest LVL out of them was 16 and that was the guy I assumed was in charge. I then cast Dome Of Darkness on the alleyway so that passerbyers couldn''t see anything. I activated Shroud Of Darkness cloaking my body in shadow. Couldn¡¯t have people remembering my face after all, not that these guys were going to live to tell the tale. I used my ring of holding to pull out my twin katanas, Ripper and Life Giver. Where¡¯d those swords come from? Wait is he a spatial magician? Fuck maybe we should leave boss. (Thug 3) Stop being such a pansy, there¡¯s six of us and only one of him. We¡¯ve got this (Head Thug) Before we begin let me tell you two fun facts. One this sword Life Bringer I''ve got here, well it¡¯s going to make you wish I had used my other sword Ripper by the time I¡¯m done with you. Alright gentlemen, any last words before we begin? (Corax) Fuck you! Get em boys (Head Thug) My two katanas are very special. They are both enchanted. Life Bringer: DMG: 150 STR REQ: 150 INT REQ: 75 Enchantment: Major Heal. For every one point of damage done heals by 15 points of HP on target. Ripper: DMG: 100 STR REQ: 350 Enchantment: Reverse Iron Maiden: Spikes shoot of sword in one foot radius like a porcupine dealing 100 points of damage. The first thug rushes me from the front. I don¡¯t bother dodging his punch, it¡¯s not like he can hurt me. His arm collides with my chest and sickening crunch is heard as his hand is crushed against my chest. I kick him in the stomach sending him into the wall, rendering him unconscious. Then three of them decide after that little show of strength to all attack me at once. One has a knife and is charging me the other two are casting spells at me to try and catch me off guard. The first man goes for my eyes. I grab his wrist and redirect his blade into his sternum, then pull the knife down. I open him up like a zipper, spilling his organs onto the street. He screams in pain before shortly dying. By this point only a second has passed and the two guys casting spells are terrified. I do not wait for them to finish off their spells. I charge the one on the left as he finishes his Earth Spike I jump above it and land right in front of him. I pull out Life Bringer and stab it into his outstretched palm and my sword sinks into his flesh all the way to his shoulder destroying all his veins, arteries, and tearing through skin and muscle tissue. He cries out in pain begging for mercy. Just as soon as it entered his arm I have pulled it out and there is no scar visible. The wound is completely healed. His health is still at full. He drops to the ground grabbing his arm and screaming. FUCK AHHHHHHHHH (Thug) Three down. I stare at my next victim a smile appearing on my face. They can¡¯t see it though, all that''s visible is shadows. I jump at the second man as his Fireball spell hits me square in the jaw. He burns away the little bit of stubble I had grown, he''s going to pay for that. I grab his head and place Life Bringer to his throat. I slowly begin to saw at his throat, with blood spurting everywhere, it¡¯s in my eyes and nose and I end up swallowing a bit of it. I keep sawing until I get to the bone and then I saw through his neck. He¡¯s screaming for dear life and clutching his neck. I pull my sword back and once again there¡¯s not a single mark on him. His neck still in one piece. He drops to his knees holding his neck and sobbing profusely. All that¡¯s left is the boss and his right hand man. They¡¯re staring at me like I¡¯m some kind of demon. The boss shoves his henchman at me and the guy is shaking uncontrollably. I dash forward and horizontally cleave the man in two. It instantly heal and he drops to the ground screeching in pain. Now it¡¯s me and the boss squaring off. He pulls a battleaxe off his back and aims it at me. His posture and figure is all wrong. You can tell he¡¯s scared shitless. In a last ditch fight or flight moment he runs at me. Wielding the axe above his head he swings down. I unsheathe Ripper and parry his blow. I then stab him in his left shoulder and activate the enchantment of Ripper. Metal spikes shoot out of my sword in every direction exploding the man¡¯s shoulder. His now mutilated appendage drops to the ground spewing blood onto the alleyway. He grabs at his now missing shoulder trying to stop the blood flow. Cauterize Wound. (Head Thug) He screams in pain as fire magic sears into his flesh closing his wound and leaving the scent of burnt flesh in the air. He falls to his knees and looks at me. Who are you? WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? (Head Thug) Who I am is not important. What is important is the lesson you learned today. Beware the Crow¡¯s Caw lest you need a reminder (Corax) At this point the alleyway smells of piss, shit and sweat. Vomit and blood liter the walls and ground. All you can hear is crying and puking. I sheathe my blades and put them back into my ring of holding. I jump onto the rooftops and dispel the Dome Of Darkness, as I head into the night. I have much more to do before morning. Chapter 4 LVL UP Matt¡¯s POV I woke up with a pounding headache. I jumped up and looked around ready to see a giant snake eating all my friends. But then I saw everybody sitting around a fire chatting calmly. Everyone looked good except Mike. His arm was wrapped up, using his own shirt as a sling. I groggily stumbled over to them to hear what they were saying. Then Eli jumps up and hit the snake with a Forcepalm sending the icicle straight into the brain of that basilisk. Codes is laying down heals and shouting out commands like some sort of General. I¡¯m firing Icicles and Water Bullets but Mike you my friend are the hero of today. If you hadn¡¯t did that last gamble, we¡¯d all be dead. (Z) What gamble? What happened exactly. (ML) Look sleeping beauty is finally awake. (Z) Are you alright Matt? You took a pretty massive hit in that fight. (M) The gamble is that Mike here almost lost his arm killing that twin headed Basilisk. Cody healed him up but his arms still broken. Hopefully that town that V told us about will have a proper healer. (E) Hey I did my best. I even had to use my Bloodline on you guys. ? Don¡¯t worry, Codes I don¡¯t blame you at all. (M) What about me? Why does my head hurt so much? (ML) You my friend got the shit knocked out of you. The Basilisk almost one shot you. (Z) Seriously? (ML) Yeah dude you kinda let the team down. (E) Fuck you. I didn¡¯t let the team down, I¡¯m the tank and I don¡¯t have a shield or weapon. (ML) None of us have weapons man and we all still did our part. (M) Alright enough! We have too much shit to do to be arguing like this. We still need to figure out what spells we¡¯re all going to pick. And how we¡¯re going to place our stat points we got from our level up. ? Level up? (ML) Dude you didn¡¯t notice since you were passed out but check your status screen. (M) I thought status and brought up my current stats. Matt Class: Knight Affinity: Blood LVL: 10 HP: 418/418 MP: 140/140 Health Regen: 44 HpM Mana Regen: 2 MpM STR-7 INT-0 PERC-0 VIT-0 WIS-0 DEX-3 CHRM-0 EXP:3900/51200 90 stat points available to allocate Holy hell 90 points? (ML) Yeah we leveled up nine times from the fight with the basilisk. (E) Also my health and mana went up by ninety points each? (ML) Yeah I believe that every time you level up your health and mana go up by ten, I could be wrong though. Alright should we allocate our stat points now that Matt¡¯s awake? (M) Before we do that we have the elephant in the room to talk about. Eli you said your armor can TALK? (Z) Um yeah it does. It has since we spawned into this world. I guess it¡¯s sentient or something. I think I¡¯m the only one who can hear it. Also it doesn¡¯t talk constantly only when I¡¯m in danger does it really speak up. (E) Ohhhkay. So basically our five man party is actually a six man party? (Z)Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. So do you guys have any ideas how you want to build? ? I think I¡¯m going to be focusing on burst damage. I wanna get in, kill something and quickly get out. (M) I¡¯m going to go for pure health tank build. The only thing I learned from that basilisk fight is I need to be able to take more hits so you guys don¡¯t have to. (ML) Aww how thoughtful. (Z) Fuck off. (ML) I¡¯m doing a well balanced build but focusing on sustained damage and staying in the frontlines so Mike doesn¡¯t have to. (E) Since me and Zach are going for mage builds we should put most of our points into intelligence and wisdom ? I allocated my points and take a look at my improved stats. Matt Class: Knight Affinity: Blood LVL: 10 HP: 750/750 MP: 140/140 Health Regen: 45 HpM Mana Regen: 2 MpM STR-90 INT-0 PERC-0 VIT-2 WIS-0 DEX-8 CHRM-0 EXP:3900/51200 Then we decided to pick out the spells we would need going forward. Cody informed me that it seemed like every five levels we would be able to pick out a new spell. I had the following eight spells to choose from. Blood Spear: Create a spear of blood to throw at your enemies. (Cost:10 MP DMG:20) Sturdy: Become an immovable object. Dispelled upon movement. Caster still takes damage. (Cost:20 MP) Nullify Pain: Caster nullifies all pain they would receive for the next ten minutes. (Cost:15 MP) Barbed Wire: Caster uses magic to surround themselves in spiked mana. Causes damage on touch. (Cost:15 MP DMG:10) Damage Exchange: Caster absorbs the damage an ally takes for one minute. Blood Armor: Caster gives up 10% of their total health to form a blood armor that absorbs damage in place of casters HP (Cost:40 MP) Lion¡¯s Heart: Caster summons the courage of a lion resisting mental debuffs (Cost:30 MP) Hemostasis: Stops the caster¡¯s wounds from bleeding for five minutes no matter how severe they are. (Cost:50 MP) Guys I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s the same for you, but it seems like the available skills and spells are catered to your class and affinity. And maybe even your desires. (ML) I was thinking the same thing honestly. Make sure you carefully select what spells you want. Remember not just to think about what you want but what is best for the team. ? Got it. (M,E,Z,ML) Cody¡¯s words hit home with me. I don¡¯t think they were just directed at me because he¡¯s too nice to do that. I had a lot of thinking to do. So who''s going to be the leader of our merry band of misfits? I vote me since I¡¯m the main character (ML) All in favor of Codes? (M) Aye (Z&E) Okay I guess I¡¯m our leader ? But he¡¯s the healer! I¡¯m our first line of defense keeping everyone safe (ML) Overruled. (Z) Cody¡¯s POV I¡¯m scared. One second I¡¯m chilling at home, the next my friends and I are in a life or death battle with a huge twin headed Basilisk and I¡¯m in charge. Any one of us could¡¯ve died. This world is terrifying and I seem to be the only one taking this seriously. The others are acting as if this is one big adventure and I¡¯m over here worrying about everyone''s safety. I can¡¯t wait to get out of this forest and be in the safety of a town. Anyways time to pick my spells for my level up and distribute my points. I picked my points and looked at my current status. Cody Class: Paladin Affinity: Holy/Fire HP: 233/233 MP: 450/450 Health Regen: 11 HpM Mana Regen: 15 MpM STR-17 INT-17 PERC-23 VIT-10 WIS-10 DEX-7 CHRM-16 EXP:3900/51200 I had a good balance of attack and defense. I made my charisma high since I figured as the leader of our group I should be likeable to make up for Mike and Matt. Then I took a look at what spells I had available. Blinding Light: Caster creates a blinding light that confuses and stuns everyone in immediate area (20 Feet). (Cost:20 MP) Holy Ray: Fires a burst of holy energy. Basic light spell (Cost:10 MP DMG:20) Minor Cure: Heals minor poisons and ailments. (Cost:15 MP) Mend: Heals broken bones (Cost:25 MP DMG:15) Purify: Purifies desecrated things such as undead or dark creatures using holy power (Cost:45 MP DMG:50) Fortify: Buffs one of target¡¯s stats by five (Cost:50 Buff:5) Cleansing Circle: Projects a healing aura around caster healing targets within it for 50 HP over five minutes. (Cost:60 MP) Holy Shield: Creates a shield of holy energy around target (Cost:10 MP = 5 Armor) Lots of good spells to choose from. If I picked Mend I could fix Mike¡¯s arm. Minor Cure would be helpful if we ran into another snake and it turned out to be poisonous. Purify and Holy Ray would allow me to have a more active role in combat. Holy Shield and Cleansing Circle sounded amazing. I decided to wait and hear what everyone else picked before I made my decision. So what¡¯d you guys pick? ? Blood Armor and Hemostasis. Essentially an armor spell and a blood clotting spell. You know, stuff to make sure the main character doesn¡¯t die. (ML) Wait you only picked two spells? I got four. I¡¯m starting to think its either related to my race or my bloodline. Or both. I picked two offensive spells; Geyser Blast and Ice Spear. And then I picked Dispel to have a defensive spell and Summon Familiar because I¡¯ve always liked pets. (Z) I picked Rage and Steel Body. One turns my mana into rage and allows my spells to do twenty five percent more damage at double the cost. The other turns my body to steel for five minutes reducing physical damage by twenty five percent. (E) I chose Cloud Clone which creates an illusionary clone of me and Blade Storm which is an attacking spell where you rapidly slice at an enemy with blades. Figure it¡¯ll be helpful when I finally get some weapons (M) Okay based on what you guys have chosen I¡¯ll pick Purify which does holy damage to undead and dark creatures and Holy Shield which gives one of us a holy shield proportional to the mana I put in.. Now question what are we planning on doing with the basilisk corpse? It¡¯s might be worth something in town. It could even be possibly turned into armor or weapons. ? Mike you said your bloodline was like an inventory right? Can you try absorbing it into your inventory? (Z) Yeah I can try (M) Mike slowly walked over to the basilisk corpse and put his hand on it. He closed his eyes and the snake started swirling around getting smaller and smaller before being absorbed into his palm. Night was quickly approaching so we set up a watch rotation. Mike volunteered to go first, so the rest of us crowded around the fire we had started and tried to get some sleep. Little did we know it was going to be a long night. Chapter 5 A Long Night I¡¯m bored. I¡¯m currently watching my friends and cousin sleep. Cody was worried that we might get attacked by something in the middle of the night so he told us we had to set up guard rotation and I volunteered to go first. So far two hours have past by with no monster attacks. Now that the action has died down from earlier today I¡¯ve finally had time to think about what has happened to the five of us. Cody was right I was too quick to agree to the God¡¯s request. I should have asked more questions. I never think things through. It¡¯s tough though because for the first time in forever I feel alive, like truly alive. That fight with the basilisk was the most exciting thing I¡¯ve ever done. I guess all it takes to make you not want to die is something trying to murder the shit out of you. Then the forest went silent. There was no sound of creatures scurrying or bugs chirping. It was way too quiet. Then I heard it. The snapping of twigs, the rumbling of the earth. Something was coming towards us and it was BIG. I had to wake the guys up. WAKE UP! (M) Huh? What? Why are you yelling? (E) Something¡¯s coming towards us. Codes what do you wanna do? (M) I think I got a plan. First step recon. Mike create a Cloud Clone and the rest of us will hide behind some trees. You teleport above us into the tree branches and? What about the rest of us? (Z) Matt will be front lining so Matt cast Blood Armor on yourself three times now. It¡¯ll deplete all your mana but it should only take you five minutes to regenerate the health you lost by using the spell. Eli you¡¯re at the frontlines with Matt. Zach and I will hang back and support with spells when we can. Okay everybody get behind some trees. ? Just then a nine foot creature burst into the clearing where we were. It was huge, weighing at least a thousand pounds. It was covered in scars and had grey skin wearing a dirty loincloth.. It¡¯s eyes were slitted like a snakes but yellow like a cats. It was holding a five foot long wooden club. This thing was terrifying looking. I used Scan on it. Nocturnal Troll LVL: 25 HP: 3000/3000 MP: 50/50 HpM: 300 MpM: .5 The troll stared at my Cloud Clone and then raised it¡¯s club and baseball swung at it. My Cloud Clone has half the health I do, giving it only 172.5 health. This thing had just one shot it. That meant Zach couldn¡¯t possibly survive a hit. I was still hiding in the branches above the troll when it suddenly spoke. Puny creatures come out and fight like real men. Only cowards hide. I¡¯ll grind your bones to dust and make a stew out of your insides. (Troll) ICE SPEAR! (Z) Zach¡¯s spell hits the troll right in the face embedding itself in its brain. I use Scan to check the troll¡¯s health and notice Zach¡¯s attack does 131.25 damage. Everyone relaxes and comes out from behind the trees. It seems to be dead. Then it roars and rips the Ice Spear out of its face and roars at us. It regenerates the health it just lost in a matter of seconds. This fight isn¡¯t even close to over yet. The troll then takes off towards Zach. Just as the troll reaches him, Matt shoves him to the side. Then troll turns and directs his club at Matt. Matt firmly plants his feet into the ground and puts his arms out to stop the club. And surprisingly he does. Matt somehow stands his ground and catches the club using both hands,but is being steadily pushed back by the giant Troll. I¡¯M THE MAIN CHARACTER! DON¡¯T YOU EVER FORGET IT, YOU STUPID TROLL! (ML) If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. And he¡¯s ruined it. (M) Matt keep up the great work. Hold him steady, Eli do your thing. ? Eli rushes forward and activates Steel Body and Rage. He jumps behind the troll and activates a Rage enhanced Forcepalm, hitting the troll in the back for 50 damage. Once again the troll regenerates his health as Eli jumps away. The troll is angry now. He shakes Matt off his club, throwing him off into the forest. Hahaha pitiful creatures you have no hope to defeat me. I can smell the weakness on you. None of you can do enough damage to even hurt me. I¡¯m going to savor the skin on you. Matt, Eli, try to wrestle the club out of his hands! Zach start shooting Water Bullets towards its feet. ? Matt and Eli each ran to one side of the troll. Zach started pelting the troll¡¯s feet with Water Bullets until the ground started to become muddy. With a MpM regen of 22.5 he could fire a Water Bullet every 30 seconds free of charge essentially. The spell was too weak to affect such a powerful creature but Cody seemed to have a plan so we went with it. Then the troll did something we didn¡¯t expect. WHIRLWIND! (Troll) The troll started to spin around in place swinging the club around in a circle, with wind magic surrounding him. I checked his MP and the spell had used up half of its total mana. This looked really bad for Eli and Matt. I had to do something. GUYS WATCH OUT! Codes do something! (M) I¡¯m thinking! ? The club barrels into Matt and Eli sending both of them flying through the air. I teleport to my cousin from my tree and then teleport him to the ground safely. Matt slams into a tree and falls to his feet. I take a second to Scan both of them and see where there health¡¯s at. Eli HP:150/455 AP (Armor Points):0/190 MP:165/230 Matt HP:315/750 AP:0/225 MP:20/140 Boy did that hit fuck them up. It hit them for 660 damage. Luckily Eli had used Steel Body to reduce the damage and had his living armor. His armor had now been reabsorbed into his skin while it regenerated. Matt had fared much better but his Blood Armor had been obliterated. He was now clutching his abdomen in pain while his Blood Armor lay in a puddle around him. If I didn¡¯t have this damn bum arm I could play a more active role in the fight. SEE NOW I¡¯M PISSED. NOBODY HITS THE MAIN CHARACTER! (ML) Matt charges at the troll. The troll swings at him and he expertly dodges underneath it. He jumps up and uppercuts the troll in the jaw shooting its head backwards. Then Matt goes low and grabs the troll by its balls and squeezes as hard as he can bursting them almost instantly. The troll keels over in pain clutching its now crushed balls. Those will regenerate but for now it¡¯s in massive pain. It tries to grasp at Matt but slips in the giant mud puddle surrounding it that Zach had created. It¡¯s howling at us now screaming obscenities. Eli has gotten up by now and heads to the back of the troll and starts using Forcepalm to repeatedly slam the troll¡¯s head into the ground. It¡¯s now laying flat on its stomach. Guys hold it down. I got an idea. ? Zach fires off a couple Ice Spears into its appendages locking it into the ground. Then Matt kicks its club away as he and Eli sit on an arm each. I Teleport onto its back and try to weigh it down some more. Cody runs over to the troll lifting its face to his. Spitting in Cody¡¯s face it begins to speak to us. Stupid creatures you should know you don¡¯t have what it takes to kill me. Eventually I¡¯ll get free and when I do I¡¯ll dine on your spleens (Troll) Not going to stop me from trying. ? Cody still gripping the troll¡¯s head plunges his fingers into its eyes. After destroying the troll¡¯s eyes he starts repeatedly casting spells into its brain. PURIFY PURIFY PURIFY PURIFY PURIFY PURIFY PURIFY PURIFY PURIFY PURIFY! ? The troll kept naturally regenerating as Cody continuously liquified its brain. It screamed bloody murder as Cody did it. I can¡¯t even imagine the pain it was in. It only lasted a minute but it felt like we were there for hours tormenting this creature. It deserved it. Fuck this troll. Cody finally ran out of mana and we all rolled off the creature exhausted. The troll had long since passed out under Cody¡¯s onslaught against it. I guess it couldn¡¯t handle the pain. We took a long hard look at the unconscious monster. I watched with wonder as its destroyed eyes began to slowly heal and regenerate. This was when Cody had had enough and began to violently vomit. Bleaugh. Dude how on earth did you manage to kill that basilisk? I didn¡¯t even fully kill this monster and I feel sick to my stomach ? I don¡¯t know man. Maybe because it wasn¡¯t a humanoid creature it was easier to kill? (M) Weird man anyways I¡¯ll top everyone off with my bloodline real quick. Holy Fire! ? Truth be told Cody was right, I had taken another creature¡¯s life and I felt nothing. Maybe something was wrong with me. The troll started twitching and stirring in its sleep. It was time for us to bounce on out of here. We began to once again head in the direction of Oasis. Unfortunately there was no way we could kill this troll at our current level. That meant no extra EXP or Level ups. Found you. (???) Oh fuck what now? (M) Chapter 6 Another Weirdo Found you (???) Just then a six foot seven green orc walked out from behind some trees. He was covered in chainmail armor and wielding a two handed flaming axe. This guy looked like more trouble than the troll. He had huge tusks jutting from his mouth and short cropped black hair. He had a scar crossing over his left eye which was pure white and glossy. He looked like he¡¯d seen some shit. Umm who are you? (Z) Don¡¯t worry about it I¡¯m only here for my bounty (???) He motioned towards the unconscious troll. Then he walked over to it and brandished his axe. He swunt down and sliced its head off. Then he silently casted a fire spell at its body bursting it into flames reducing it to ashes. I¡¯m taking this head. Bye (???) Wait who are you. How did you so easily kill that troll that almost murdered me and my friends? (E) Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s not important (???) Great another weirdo. First Vee now this guy. (ML) Wait did you say Vee? How do you all know that pretty boy? (???) He taught us a spell and then left us to die. We¡¯re not his biggest fans right now (Z) Ahah good. That bastard owes me money. Anybody that hates him is a good friend of mine. Name¡¯s Volk by the way. (Volk) Volk? That name is sick. I¡¯m Matt, and that¡¯s Cody, Eli, Mike and Zach (ML) Thank you, by the way you boys aren¡¯t from around here are you? (Volk) What makes you say that? (Z) Well for starters you¡¯re only level ten each. You also aren¡¯t hiding your status which is something everyone who goes to Oasis does. And finally you¡¯re all a group of races I¡¯ve never seen. (Volk) We all tensed up as he said that. Did he perhaps know we were sent by the Gods? What would his reaction be if he found out? Would he attack us because of it, we still didn¡¯t really know how the people of this world viewed the Gods. Relax boys, I¡¯m one of the good guys. Bit of a scumbag but regardless one of the good guys. (Volk) Okay thank you. Now you said something about hiding our status¡¯. How exactly do we go about doing that? ? Basically as long as your perception stat is higher than theirs you are able to hide your status from them. Now are any of you boys hungry? I don¡¯t have much on me but I got some jerky. (Volk) JERKY? (ML) He means yes we¡¯d love some jerky. We¡¯re quite hungry. (E) It was then I realized we hadn¡¯t eaten since we got to this world. I didn¡¯t know about my friends but I was starving. We looked to the fire we had started and it had been put out during the fight. It seemed we were in luck though and Volk quickly cast another fire spell lighting up a new fire. Volk had a serious look on his face. He told us to sit down around the fire while we talked.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. So let¡¯s start with the obvious; you¡¯re not from around here. (Volk) Correct. We are actually from- (E) Zach bumps Eli in the arm shutting him up. Where we¡¯re from isn¡¯t important and also I don¡¯t trust you. Last guy we decided to trust fucked us over big time. And now you say you also know Vee. Yeah¡­. no thanks buddy we don¡¯t need your help. (Z) Relax. Now, If I meant you harm you¡¯d already be dead. And yes that is a threat. The only thing I care about is profit. And as to my motives it¡¯s simple; you¡¯ll all owe me one for saving your miserable lives. Also I want the troll¡¯s ashes. It¡¯s a rare ingredient used in alchemy and sells for a lot and I stand to make a pretty penny with that much. (Volk) Oh well then. (Z) Or we split the troll¡¯s ashes 50/50 since it was us that first found him. (E) Haha fair enough lad. We¡¯ll split it evenly. (Volk) Just then Vee comes out from behind one of the trees. YOU! (Volk, ML) Hey guys. Whats up? How¡¯d that snake thing go? (Vee) WE ALMOST DIED! YOU LEFT US FOR DEAD! (ML) Dude what part of ¡°I don¡¯t do snakes¡± did you not get? (Vee) Vee where''s my money you bastard? (Volk) What money? (Vee) The money you promised me for helping you hunt those Glacial Tigers. Now pay up before things get nasty. (Volk) Nasty? Sounds like fun. Also Volk do your best to not forget who you¡¯re speaking to. You aren¡¯t strong enough to even get past my summons. (Vee) Wanna bet? (Volk) Volk brandishes his axe and gets into a fighting stance. We all start to step away from the incoming fight. A magic circle appears in Vee¡¯s palm and two other magic circles appear on the ground in front of him. This was going to get dangerous so I begin to teleport my friends away from the battle as Cody healed everyone up. Second Tier Summoning: Penguin Knights. Meet Carl and Dave they¡¯re cute but deadly. (Vee) Two creatures materialized in the magic circles. They were five foot tall fully armored penguins. They were wearing heavy armor and had a shield and a blade attached to their wings. They growled at Volk in defiance. These penguins looked ready for war. FUCK HIM UP VOLK! (ML) Quiet down child (Vee) Vee launches an ice shard at towards us. It hits the tree right near Matt¡¯s head. Lads don¡¯t get involved no matter what happens. This is a dispute that can only be settled by combat. (Volk) Volk last chance you sure you wanna do this? You sure you want me to embarass you in front of these kids? (Vee) Levels aren¡¯t everything Vee (Volk) Alrighty then, come get this work. (Vee) Volk seems to teleport right in front of the penguins. He swings his axe into the first penguin. The penguin easily blocks his attack and bashes it away with his shield. I decide to use Scan on the penguin knights to see what their levels are. Carl Race: Penguin Knight LVL: ??? HP: ???/??? MP: ???/??? Dave Race: Penguin Knight LVL: ??? HP: ???/??? MP: ???/??? Great another creature stronger than us. (M) Vee just stands there pretending to yawn. Come on Volk put up more of a fight man. You¡¯re boring me. (Vee) Volk charges at the penguin knights and starts repeatedly slashing at them with different spells and attacks. CROSS SLASH! HEAVY CHOP! EMPOWERED SLASH! (Volk) He lept firing off spells rapidly and the penguin knights just kept tanking the hits. It had been over five minutes and they didn¡¯t seem any worse for wear. Volk then activates his axe¡¯s enchantment. It bursts into a golden flame, giving off heat to the surrounding area. Let¡¯s see how your pets handle this. (Volk) We could only sit there and watch knowing, full well that getting involved in this fight would spell certain death. Volk started doing actual damage to the penguins now. The heat was affecting them greatly and he seemed to be doing some real damage, at least to our eyes it seemed that way. Alright let¡¯s finish this. Penguin Knights attack. (Vee) For the first time in the entire fight the penguins went on the offensive. They each went to a different side of Volk and began laying into him with their blades. To Volk¡¯s credit he wasn¡¯t doing too bad. He was spinning his axe around him trying to block their onslaught. The penguins sped up their attacks on him and cuts started to appear all over Volk¡¯s body. Dave then sliced at Volk¡¯s leg slashing it open and bringing him to a knee. Then Carl shield bashed him in the face knocking him out. Well that was quick. (Vee) We came out from behind the trees and stared at Vee. Besides summoning the penguin knights he hadn¡¯t raised a finger towards Volk. The summoner class was something to be wary of. His summons were downright scary. Vee unsummoned his knights and then walked towards us dragging Volk¡¯s body. So what was that about fucking me up? (Vee) Umm I didn¡¯t mean it. Please don¡¯t kill us. (ML) Relax I¡¯m not going to kill you, there¡¯d be no point. (Vee) No point? (Z) You guys wouldn¡¯t give me any XP Billy. (Vee) My name¡¯s not Billy. (Z) Okay Billy. Anyways you guys need a ride to Oasis? I¡¯m headed there now anyway. (Vee) I guess we¡¯ll take you up on your offer. ? Another summoning circle appeared on Vee¡¯s hand and the ground only this time the summoning circle was massive. A great Roc materialized in the circle. It was the size of small plane and covered snow white feathers. It put its head down and beckoned for us to climb aboard. We got on, pulling Volk¡¯s unconscious body aboard and it flew towards Oasis. Chapter 7 Oasis As we flew on Vee¡¯s Roc a city began to gradually appear in front of us. It was magnificent. It had gigantic walls surrounding it. Vee brought us down in front of a huge gate. We hopped off and Matt carried Volk in a fireman''s carry. Why didn¡¯t we just fly into the city? (E) Because there¡¯s a Mana Barrier covering the entire city. (Vee) Mana Barrier? ? It¡¯s a tier four spell using a massive amount of mana to create a truly impressive barrier of powerful energy. (Vee) Tier four? What do you mean by that? (Z) Wow you guys really don¡¯t know jack. Well Billy, spells are divided into six tiers. Tier zero is reserved for cantrips and minor spells. Tier one is your most basic of attacking spells. Tier two is where things get semi serious, those spells are much more dangerous and a proficient fighter can kill someone with one of these. Tier three are spells that can change a fight into your favor no matter the circumstance. Tier four are on the level of natural disasters and tier five is the stuff of legends and Gods. Oh okay. So what can you use if you don¡¯t mind me asking? (M) A gentleman never reveals his secrets. (Vee) God you¡¯re weird. (ML) We walked up to the gate and saw a line of people waiting to get in. There were several guards of varying races all checking cargo and people. We approached one of the lines and waited our turn. When we got to the front of the line a lizard man and a human were beckoning us to come forward. Registration or permit please (Lizard man) Umm we don¡¯t actually have any. We¡¯re not from around here. ? Well then we can¡¯t let you in. Sorry. (Human) What are we going to do? We need to see a priest in order to fix my friend¡¯s arm. (Z) Don¡¯t care, not my problem. No one gets into Oasis without a permit or registration, especially suspicious looking people carrying an unconscious orc. NEXT (Lizard man) Okay. ? Hey guys it¡¯s cool. I¡¯m going to vouch for these guys. (Vee) Huh? OH SIR. (Human) Both men immediately salute Vee as if he was a general visiting the barracks of his soldiers. They stand at attention as if ready to receive orders. Sorry sir for not noticing you before. And sorry for the way we¡¯ve treated your guests. You are obviously free to go in at any time. (Human) At ease boys, at ease. You know I hate all this formal crap. Just treat me like a regular person please. (Vee) Sorry sir no can do sir. As one of the founding members of the council you are our superior. So we have to treat you with the utmost respect. (Lizard man) Okay then whatever, we¡¯ll be on our way. (Vee) Did he just say council member? You don¡¯t exactly seem like the type. (ML) Well looks can be deceiving. Now come with me time to head to one of the local churches (Vee) We entered the gate and were immediately flabbergasted at the sights. There were people everywhere. Stores lined the streets and there were even food carts offering all sorts of delicacies. And the smells, I could smell steak and fresh bread baking. Some of the storefronts reached four stories. This town wasn¡¯t like the medieval city I was expecting. There were no castles or wooden shacks. Instead everything was constructed out of brick or metal. The structures were extravagant looking with what looked like neon signs lighting up each store. Wagons pulled by all manner of creatures were following basic traffic laws and kept to different sides of the brick road. I was going to have to rethink my opinion on this new world. It didn¡¯t seem to be as archaic as I had originally assumed. Holy shit. Shouldn¡¯t there be homeless people and the whole place smell like shit? (ML) Ignore him. My question is how do you have neon signs here? (E) Neon? What¡¯s that. If you¡¯re talking about the signs their just translucent crystals filled with light magic. (Vee) Don¡¯t worry about it Vee (Z) Vee then took Volk from Matt and placed him against a wall. He then cast a spell. Downpour. (Vee)Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. A small cloud formed above Volk¡¯s head and began to downpour on him. He woke up coughing water and groaning. What happened? (Volk) Dude you got your ass beat by Vee. Like you got mopped. (ML) What? Wait where¡¯s my axe? (Volk) It¡¯s right here (M) I had placed his axe into my space for safekeeping. I materialized it behind my back and handed it to him hoping he wouldn¡¯t notice what I had done. Where¡¯d that come from? How did you do that? That wasn¡¯t here a minute ago. (Volk) Stop bothering the poor kids. We¡¯ve got places to go and people to see (Vee) We parted ways with Volk and followed Vee down the main street. Vee then stopped and whistled loudly. A carriage pulled over to the side of the street and the driver waved us over. The driver was a pretty elven woman. The carriage was pulled by a weird creature that looked like a combination of horse and dinosaur. It was a horse with three horns, one on its snout and another two up near the top of its head. It was covered in rock-like scales and had a long flowing reptilian tail. It made a combination of a hiss and a neigh. This creature was strange. I asked the driver what type of animal it was. This cutie? His name¡¯s Brave and he¡¯s a Tricorn Lizard. Which is what you get when you breed a Tricorn and a Rock Lizard. These are the best type of animals for pulling carriages. They¡¯re fierce but once you tame them they¡¯re respectful and listen to commands excellently. I¡¯m Suzie by the way. Hop on in guys. (Suzie) We got into the carriage and sat down. The carriage was nice on the interior with padded seats and carpet. It was also cooler inside than it had been outside. Vee hurried us in and told us to shut the door because we were letting the cold air out. How the heck is it so cool in here? (E) What do you guys not have cooling magic where you¡¯re from? (Vee) No we don¡¯t but we have something pretty similar ? Suzie was it? Mind taking us to the hospital dear? My friend here has a broken arm. (Vee) Sure sweetie (Suzie) Wait did you say hospital? Aren¡¯t we going to a church to find a priest for Mike¡¯s arm? ? Yes the hospital, where else would you get medical treatment? Ohh you thought because I said priest it was something religious based. No priest is just a class of people who choose to heal have. Don¡¯t get me wrong we do have churches but those are a place for worship not medical attention. (Vee) We headed towards the hospital and all of us were staring out the windows in amazement of the scenery. Everywhere I looked you saw all manners of ages and races. I had originally thought a fantasy setting came with racism of some kind but we could find nothing of the sort here. I watched as group of lizard men walked through the streets carrying scimitars on their waists. I then saw what looked to be a troll but a little smaller selling meat kebabs from a food cart. There was a group of children playing ball in a park we had passed as well as some elves doing yoga. This was the most magical place I had ever seen. We finally arrived at the hospital and Vee flicked a silver coin at the driver. She caught it and said thanks. Then she headed along on her way. I stared at the hospital in front of me. It was a six story building made of marble and steel. This place was crazy. It had an archway with two statues of a older man and a young girl holding their arms out lovingly. The archway was made of white marble and said the words Oasis Hospital on it. Safe to say we were in the right place. I walked towards the doorway and found a reception desk and a waiting room. I walked to the reception desk with Vee while the others sat down in the waiting room. What brings you to Oasis Hospital today? (receptionist) I think my arm¡¯s been broken. (M) Name? And are you part of any guilds? All members of major guilds get a discount here. (Receptionist) My name is Michael and I am not currently apart of any guilds. (M) She takes a look at my arm and asks me if there is anything else wrong with me. I say no and she tells me to sit down and a nurse will come get me when it¡¯s my turn. Thirty minutes go by and a male human nurse finally calls my name. By this point I¡¯m so used to the pain in my arm I barely notice it. He leads me down a corridor towards an examination room. Michael? Says you¡¯re here for a broken arm? I¡¯m Darius by the way. If you need anything just let me know. I¡¯m just going to have to ask you some questions. First how¡¯d you break your arm? (Darius) I was out with my friends in the Devouring Woods when we were attacked by a Twin Headed Basilisk. We defeated it but at the cost of me getting my arm messed up and bitten into. (M) Okay do you mind showing me your arm? (Darius) I show him my mangled arm. He puts on some gloves and begins to poke and prod my arm with various metal instruments. Do you feel any discomfort when I do this? (Darius) Not really. My arms been hurting so long I kinda just got used to the pain. (M) Okay I¡¯m going to go get the doctor just stay here for a bit. (Darius) Darius leaves the room and shuts the door behind him. I look around the room and I¡¯m shocked by how sterile and advanced the room is. I¡¯m sitting on a metal table with some cloth over it. The cloth smells fresh and like its never been used before. Fifteen minutes go by and a female doctor comes in. What shocks me the most about the doctor is she¡¯s an orc. She has on a white coat and a stethoscope around her neck. She¡¯s wearing glasses and has on a nice button up and some tan pants on. She¡¯s actually quite pretty. She is missing the tusks in her mouth. I can only assume female orcs don''t have them. She¡¯s holding a clipboard with some papers on it. Michael I¡¯m Dr. Novak please lay flat on the table. First things first though. Nullify Pain. (Dr. Novak) She casts a spell on me and instantly the incessant buzzing that the pain had become goes silent. In fact I can¡¯t feel anything. It¡¯s a weird feeling, losing one of your five senses like that. Okay let¡¯s begin. X-Ray. Hmm yeah your arm is definitely broken. I can also see where the snake bit you sending bone shards into your bloodstream. Luckily this is actually quite a common injury and you should make a full recovery. (Dr. Novak) Doc you¡¯re telling me we don¡¯t need to amputate? I thought I was a goner (M) Funny. Okay lay still for this next part. Would you like to be put to sleep? (Dr. Novak) No I¡¯m fine doc. (M) She pulls out a scalpel from the drawer and begins making a vertical incision along my arm. As she¡¯s doing this she casts Hemostasis on me stopping the blood flowing out of my arm. I look down and almost faint. It¡¯s a surreal experience being awake as someone slices open your arm and starts feeling around in there. She then casts Mend on me. I watch as my radius and ulna quickly reassemble themselves. I¡¯m betting if I could feel this I¡¯d be screaming. They lock into place and then I watch as the bone shards race out of my bloodstream and reattach to the bones. Then she casts Cure on the wound to prevent any infections and then Heal to close the wound. All in all the procedure only took five minutes. Alright you¡¯re all set. The Nullify Pain spell should be wearing off any second now. If there are any complications please don¡¯t hesitate to come back and see me. (Dr. Novak) Okay thank you so much doctor. (M) She leaves and I head out the room after that. I walk towards the waiting room to see my friends all hanging out. They rush me as soon as I walk through the door. Matt picks me up into a bear hug. You bastard how¡¯d it go? You good now? (ML) Ouch Matt you¡¯re going to break my ribs and they¡¯ll have to fix me again. (M) Okay okay Matt let him go ? It''s good to see you¡¯re alright now cuz (E) Yeah Mike I¡¯m happy you¡¯re okay. (Z) Alright kiddos now that Mike¡¯s all healed up we have to head to the next stop on our tour. (Vee) Fuck that. Who says we¡¯re going anywhere else with you. Now that Mike¡¯s okay we don¡¯t need you anymore. (ML) Is that anyway to treat your savior? Who do you think just paid for his medical bills? You think that was cheap? You guys are going to follow me one way or another. Even if I have to drag you kids kicking and screaming. (Vee) Sorry Vee. You¡¯re right, you¡¯ve been nothing but helpful since we arrived at Oasis. Where to next? (M) Just to be clear, I don¡¯t like you or trust you. We¡¯re going to this next place with you then I don¡¯t wanna see you again. (Z) We begrudgingly walked out of the hospital following Vee as he hailed another carriage. We got in and I started to unpack how today had gone so far. First we were attacked in the middle of the night by a Nocturnal Troll and Volk saved us. Then him and Vee fought and Vee wiped the floor with him. After that Vee took us to Oasis and we parted ways with Volk. Finally Vee brought us to a hospital and paid for my medical fees. What I couldn¡¯t figure out was why the guy who left us to die was now helping us out so much. I started to fall asleep in the carriage. I was exhausted after all. Chapter 8 The Council I was awoken by an elbow to the ribs courtesy of my cousin. He was letting me know we were here. We exited the carriage and stared at the building in front of us. If the hospital was a masterpiece of architecture this place was a fucking fortress. It was an armored citadel of metal and magic. I mean you could literally feel the mana radiating off of this place. Vee led us to the doors and we noticed there were no guards here. Cody also noticed this and decided to ask Vee about it. So Vee how come there are no guards here? ? Because nobody is stupid enough to attack the Council (Vee) You mean nobody¡¯s stupid enough to attack you? (Z) Yep except Volk I guess, but he¡¯s always been an idiot when it comes to money (Vee) We finally reached the doors and Vee held out his hand and uttered a spell. Arcane Key (Vee) A magical looking key appeared and slid into the lock on the doors. The doors swung open and we entered. Lights lit up the hallway and there were metal statues of warriors holding different types of weapons. Eli and Matt were greedily eyeing the weapons. Don¡¯t touch if you want to live to see another day. Those are all metal golems. If anybody but a member of the Council touches them they¡¯ll activate and attack you. They¡¯ll also attack you if I give them a command so do be careful. (Vee) Matt and Eli immediately backed off of the golems. We continued to follow Vee into a conference room at the end of the hallway. Inside were seven people sitting down at a round table. They were all a variety of races and all looked very intimidating. Hello travelers welcome. You may call me Oracle. (Oracle) Oracle was an elderly human woman. A grandma type if you will. She was a tiny thing much smaller than all her fellow council members. But if she was on the council she had to be strong. Yo I¡¯m Galileo (Galileo) Galileo was a handsome rogue of sorts. He was wearing a bandana over most of his face. He looked just like a regular human except the horns growing out of his head and the jet black eyes marking him as demonkind. Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Krehan (Krehan) He was a Orcish male with grey skin. He was sitting there with a smile on his face showing off the trademark orc tusks. Mwuahaha I am Brianna the Death Mage. Cower before me. (Brianna) Great someone else besides Vee was a weirdo on this council. She seemed to be a Dark Elf from what I could tell and she was a smokeshow. She was wearing armor that left little to the imagination and accentuated her voluptuous figure. She also had those crazy eyes I recognized from all my exes. Ignore her, she¡¯s always like this around new people. I¡¯m Jaxon. (Jaxon) Jaxon was a beast of a man. He had vaguely wolf like features and had huge muscles all over his body with his clothes straining to contain them. There was a ferocity to his eyes though, like a monster was just beneath the surface. Hey name¡¯s Elric (Elric) If I thought Jaxon was a beast this was a man who could only be described as a fortress. He was easily ten feet tall and as wide as a truck. The final members of the council was covered head to toe in golden armor. He introduced himself as Roland. Beneath the armor was a scaly visage that looked at us in disdain until his eyes landed on Cody. He jumped out of his seat and prostrated himself on the ground in front of him. MY LORD (Roland) What are you talking about? (Cody) We all stared at the exchange in wonder until Roland spoke up again. Forgive me for my outburst my lord. To answer your question, You are a High Draugnir correct? (Roland) Instinctively we all went into a defensive stance. Relax we mean you no harm. What I¡¯m trying to get across is that I am a Dragonkin the closest thing you can get to being a dragon. But you Draugnirs are said to be the race that fathered the modern dragons. You are a God in my eyes. (Roland) Back to the main topic at hand. We are here to help you otherworlders. (Oracle)Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. How do you know that we¡¯re from another world? (E) Because I¡¯m a Seer. It is an evolved class of Druid. Do you know what a Seer is? (Oracle) Someone who sees? (ML) Thanks Matt (Z) No. It is someone who has a high enough perception to be able to have visions of the future. And I had a vision of five heroes from another world sent here by the Gods themselves. (Oracle) One problem with that; We¡¯re not heroes. We are not here to save the world or whatever. We were sent by the Gods but they gave us a different kind of mission. (M) That¡¯s fine but in my vision I saw that we would help you five get stronger. So that¡¯s what we¡¯ll do. One of us will each mentor one of you. That will leave three of us behind to handle the cities affairs and defenses. Does that sound alright with you five? (Oracle) Getting stronger? Sign me the fuck up. (ML) That¡¯s fine by me (M) Sounds good. (Z) Yes please (E) Thank you for the opportunity to learn from beings such as yourselves. ? You all should go to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild next to register as adventurers. It¡¯ll make your lives much easier. (Oracle) Okay but how do we get there? (Z) Don¡¯t worry about it. Vee will lead you there (Oracle) Vee¡¯ll do fucking what now? (Vee) Just do it. I¡¯m not asking. (Oracle) *Sigh* Okay. Let¡¯s go kiddos I got places to see and people to meet (Vee) Vee then led us out to the street and began walking. Aren¡¯t you going to hail us another wagon? (E) Do I look like I¡¯m made of money? We¡¯re walking. (Vee) We followed Vee for a couple of blocks until we had arrived at what I assumed was the adventurers guild. I thought it would be a rustic looking wooden building but it was fairly nice looking. It was a brick building interlaced with steel beams and wooden pillars. You could hear raucous laughter permeating from inside. The smell of alcohol and food was prevalent in the air surrounding the Guild hall. We stood there mouths agape as we marveled at the building before Vee brought us back to our senses. Oi wake up kiddos. It¡¯s time to go inside. (Vee) Character Sheets (Council): Vee Race: Sun Elf Class: Elemental Summoner Affinity: Ice LVL 150 Stats: Health: 1840 Mana: 3250 Health Regen: 40.5 HpM Mana Regen: 89 MpM STR- 60 INT- 300 PERC- 130 VIT- 55 WIS- 152 DEX- 55 CHRM- 150 Krehan Race: Dark Orc Class: Balance Monk Affinity: Fire LVL 150 Stats: Health: 2408 Mana: 2150 Health Regen: 89 HpM Mana Regen: 52 MpM STR-152 INT- 120 PERC- 120 VIT- 150 WIS-100 DEX- 120 CHRM- 140 Brianna Race: Dark Elf Class: Death Mage Affinity: Darkness LVL 150 Stats: Health: 2350 Mana: 2800 Health Regen: 52 HpM Mana Regen:115 MpM STR-200 INT-200 PERC- 100 VIT-102 WIS- 200 DEX-50 CHRM-50 Oracle Race: Human Class: Seer Affinity: Nature LVL 150 Stats: Health: 1730 Mana: 1850 Health Regen: 156 HpM Mana Regen: 35 MpM STR-20 INT- 30 PERC- 500 VIT-300 WIS- 50 DEX-1 CHRM-1 Jaxon Race: Lycan Class: Moon Warrior Affinity: Air LVL 150 Stats: Health: 3848 Mana: 2050 Health Regen: 39 HpM Mana Regen: 27 MpM STR- 512 INT- 100 PERC- 20 VIT- 50 WIS- 50 DEX- 150 CHRM-20 Galileo Race: Demon Class: Outlaw Affinity: Void LVL 150 Stats Health: 2083 Mana: 2175 Health Regen: 33 HpM Mana Regen: 33 MpM STR- 102 INT- 100 PERC- 200 VIT- 50 WIS- 50 DEX- 200 CHRM- 200 Roland Race: Dragonkin Class: Templar Affinity: Holy LVL 150 Stats Health: 2775 Mana: 3275 Health Regen: 56 HpM Mana Regen: 36 MpM STR- 300 INT- 300 PERC- 50 VIT- 100 WIS- 52 DEX- 50 CHRM- 50 Elric Race: Half Giant Class: Crusader Affinity: Crystal LVL 150 Stats Health: 2575 Mana: 2275 Health Regen: 132 HpM Mana Regen: 60 MpM STR- 250 INT- 100 PERC-50 VIT- 252 WIS- 100 DEX- 100 CHRM- 50