《Dimensional Colleseum》 Prologue - The Birth of Jester Prologue The Birth of Jester
A cracked porcelain mask lays within a dimly lit cavern, small beams of light passing through small cracks in the cavern entrance. These insignificant beams of light lit a mural depicting a strange race interacting with various deities. Inky black shadows begin to fall from below the beams of light, as wisps of bright light fly outward into the world. The shadows confirm upon the mask like vultures waiting for a meal to present itself. Slowly the mural begins to glow a slight purple tinge. This purple aura condenses itself into a small ball of energy constantly moving and shifting. The small wisp of purple energy moves around the small confined space, wherever it moves the shadows scatter and flee. After hours of quick movements, the ball of energy comes into contact with the mask.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Slowly the cracked mask begins to hover over the cavern floor the glow of energy fusing the mask into a full coherent piece of art. Steadily, purple threads and shadowy energy begin to sprout from the back of the mask, cascading downwards the purple threads form into a long coat of complex patterns. Underneath this coat lies a body made of stars and galaxies that slowly climb upwards towards the mask. The figure slowly slumped over towards the ground examining it''s newly made form, raising his long fingers towards the cracks in the stone entrance before it simply disappeared washing the small room with a blinding light. As the form stood on the precipice of which it was born its voice rang out down towards all creatures found on the planet below. Come one come all, and welcome to the world''s greatest entertainment since the fall of Rome. Life, death, victims, voyeurs, the best of society, the lowest of plebeians and to keep it all extremely interesting, todays patrons could very easily be tomorrow¡¯s entertainment. All compliments of the ultimate goddess fate. Now all that¡¯s missing is the stage. Book 1 - The Beginning of the end - chapter 1 Chapter 1 The beginning of the end
The sun barely broke through the dirty smudged windows of an old run down apartment building, revealing a multitude of books on various subjects such as astrophysics, anatomy, string theory, astronomy, and much more. Among this trove of knowledge laid a man draped in various rough brown blankets, messy brown hair flowing down to form a five o¡¯clock shadow on his face, a green shirt and a blue scarf hanging from his neck. The room was bathed in a serene silence that seemed to calm the mind of those within. KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK. The young man shifted as the knocking continued to disturb the peace, finally arising from the pile of books and blankets, moving towards the door extremely annoyed at the disturbance of his rest by the unceasing knocking. He opened the door revealing a young girl about the age of 22 dressed in a light brown suit jacket and tight black pants. As he moved to reproach her for ruining his sleep she interrupted him for the second time today. ¡°Michael we need to go. The administration won¡¯t let you off with another warning if you don¡¯t ever come in to teach your class. You can¡¯t keep relying on me to wake you up every morning.¡± With an impressive sigh Michael began adding layer after layer from his selection of leather coats. ¡°Junia, please don¡¯t go and tattle to the admins. They already don¡¯t like me; they don¡¯t need a reason to fire me.¡± At that statement they begin moving towards the main campus building, groups of students moving throughout the building, avoiding the pair of professors as best they could. Michael took hardly any notice in the people or situations around him following his preordained path he had set himself through the building. As he arrived at the lecture room sighs rang throughout the large group of students. With as much casual disinterest as one could muster Michael began to fill the large chalkboard with a variety of information, all information that had run through and from his mind many times before this. The class passed on with the same monotony as all those before it and eventually, the bell rung and the students were set free.
Michael Nueroghast I went downstairs towards the cafeteria as I run some numbers through my head about the books I¡¯ll be reading tonight. It seems like I¡¯ll have to run back to the bookstore tomorrow or I might run out, but tomorrow was also the day of the big lecture by CERN, which means that I¡¯ll not be able to really go out tomorrow and look for them. Oh well, I¡¯ll figure it all out tomorrow. As I got back to my room, I laid back down upon the pile of books that I called home. I grabbed one of the larger ones and continued off from where I left off last night, but after a couple hours of this I ran out of new books to read. Looking out the window revealed a starry sky that seemed to defy the very concept of air pollution. With nothing left to read I reluctantly turned the TV on to distract myself.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. CERN announces a new test today using the recently discovered ¡°Jest¡± particle, tomorrow will be the first test in order to discover the effects of this particle.
¡°Come one come all and welcome to the world''s greatest entertainment since the fall of Rome life, death. Victims, voyeurs, the best of society, the lowest of plebeians and to keep it all extremely interesting today''s patrons could very easily be tomorrow¡¯s entertainment. All compliments of the ultimate goddess fate.¡±
¡°On behalf of myself jester I welcome all the new participates please acclimate yourself to the new system then please move to your nearest Fate Zone¡±
As I stared shocked at the sudden interruption, I didn¡¯t notice the pulsing of the stars outside my window or the change that flowed through the sky, and I certainly didn¡¯t realize that this would be an event that would end in the death of humanity.
Nix Aegis I moved through the nearly empty gymnasium, looking around at the bored faces of the audience and the even more bored faces of the competitors. I swear this city has the worst fencing circuit in existence: I literally care about this more than the instructor does. As I move towards the stage I ready myself and stand distanced from my opponent. He jumps back in fright as I move quickly towards him landing three solid hits on his chest securing victory in the final match. As the tournament died down and the few parents and friends who were invited out here left, I made my way out of the showers and left the arena. ¡°Well that was as boring as the last one. Hopefully the regionals will be more exciting then the local competitions¡±. I walked around the streets, taking the occasional shortcut here and there as I made my way back to campus. Hopefully the seniors were right and the professor never shows up for his own class, otherwise she would be in trouble with the school board again. Looking up at the unusually starry night sky I began to notice a change in the pattern of the stars. The black void between them shifted like a piece of fabric being shredded to pieces, leaving only the glowing stars that seemed to fall from their position in the heavens swirling past the earth in a cosmic dance until everything froze. Finally painting a cosmic background across the sky tainting the air a light purple where a massive gas giant seemed to move with the earth around a massive rip in reality destroying everything around it. Standing shocked at the scene that formed around me I hardly noticed the small ding as screens seemed to appear in front of my eyes, announcing this event to the world
¡°Come one come all and welcome to the worlds greatest entertainment since the fall of Rome life, death. Victims, voyeurs, the best of society, the lowest of plebeians and to keep it all extremely interesting today''s patrons could very easily be tomorrow¡¯s entertainment. All compliments of the ultimate goddess fate.¡±
¡°On behalf of myself jester I welcome all the new participates please acclimate yourself to the new system then please move to your nearest Fate Zone¡±
... Book 1 - The Beginning of the end - chapter 2 Chapter 2 Fate Zones
Michael Nueroghast Staring at the screen in shock I start attempting to wave it away, as soon as my hand comes into contact with the bright blue screen it seems to shatter into particles of light falling to the ground. Well then is everything going to calm down or is the world going to keep breaking? ¡­ *Ding*
¡°Thank you for your questions about the JEST system. Any questions can be sourced through the help function accessed by thinking *help*¡±
God dammit. Okay, calm down let¡¯s think about this if this universal ¡°prompt¡± is telling me to do something then it''s probably best to do as it says. ¡­Help¡­ please?
¡°Help Options¡±
  • Status ¨Copens status screen
  • Fate ¨C shows the direction to the nearest fate zone
+You must unlock fate points in order to access new commands+
Well that¡¯s certainly helpful. The world''s a video game and there are only two commands, that¡¯s going to help. Well at least I don¡¯t have to go searching for a fate zone, this thing apparently tells you exactly where they are. So is this classic RPG swords and magic, or is this going to be laser pistols and spaceship type game? Well, only one way to really find out. Like I did for the help command, I think about the word status and suddenly. *Ding*
Name Michael Neuroghast Class N/A Race Human
Phys ------------- Ment ------------- Fate points 0
Str 8 Int 24 Stat points 0
Dex 14 Wis 13 Class points 10
Agi 9 Will 10
Con 10 Cha 8
Well that¡¯s certainly accurate; if 10 is the average then it¡¯s got me down pat: smart, but nothing much else. Well then since that¡¯s apparently all I can do without a fate zone, then I guess I¡¯ve got no choice but to move. Will there be monsters and stuff outside my door ready to attack whenever they get the chance? Not likely: if there were then these thin dorm walls would¡¯ve been torn down instantly. Well then here we go. Fate The word seemed to ring out like a gong had been rung right next to my head, a small 20 sided dice appearing directly in my vision directly to the south, not budging no matter how I moved. So no path there, we¡¯ve just got a d20 on the horizon here huh. Well better than going in the wrong direction completely and ending up in the middle of nowhere. As I begin to head down towards the door I hear a large group of students gathered around the front door of the dorm. ¡°Okay, okay everyone calm down. What¡¯s going on here?¡± ¡°Mr. Neuroghast, you teach quantum physics, do you get what¡¯s happening,¡± a young man dressed in nothing but his bathrobe asked. After taking a look outside I understand why everyone¡¯s freaking out: the scenery of the sky had completely changed. No longer were we the only planet within miles of void, rather we were a pebble to the massive entity we orbited: a massive gas giant that seemed to dwarf Jupiter in comparison, that seemed to dye the sky around us in a light purple color. Over the horizon of the gas giant one could see space shattering around itself like a spider web of flashing colors over a black background. So lasers and spaceships probably, it¡¯s either that or Lovecraft, and sorry H.P but I¡¯d prefer a spaceship right now. Turning my view towards the south I still see the silver dodecahedron pasted over my vision. Well seems my apprehension to get a car didn¡¯t really pay off. Oh well, guess I¡¯d better start running.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Hugh, Hugh, Hugh That was the worst decision I have ever made in my entire life. Why the heck would running be so hard to pull off. It¡¯s supposed to be a necessity for survival. As I pulled my tired, exhausted body up from the ground I finally got a good look at the building ahead of me: a stone tower that rose up above the treeline. Once it got to about 500 feet in the air, a metal cable seemed to rise up into the atmosphere connecting itself to a black cube about 1000 feet up. The stone was beautifully etched with designs that seemed to come straight from the Renaissance. On the inside there was various booths and screens lining the wall with about 8 balconies surrounding a gigantic dodecahedron locked in the centre of the room, constantly spinning, seeming like it would never land.
¡°congratulations on entering your first fate zone¡± Due to your race¡¯s situation you gain the following choices (choose two)
  • Customization
  • Title: sigil of the latecomers
  • Title: the story-tellers
  • Title: Creators of Wonders
Well that¡¯s certainly foreboding, but you know what they say never look a gift horse in the mouth. Hmm which ones should I choose; though it¡¯s not like they give you much information. Customization seems to be the most variable but the others seem more vague and misleading. I won¡¯t take sigil of the latecomers, but the other two certainly sound interesting. Story-tellers might rely on the charisma or intelligence stat which means it¡¯s a large gamble, but I¡¯m not sure what creators of wonders would require. Well no time like the present to make mistakes and be a fool. ¡°Customizations, and Creators of Wonders¡±. You have gained the title Creators of Wonders (rank 1). This title grants one the ability to imbue objects that they create with different forms of energy. This energy grants the object different effects when used.
¡°You have chosen customization, please choose a way to customize yourself¡±
  • Variant race
  • Stat placement
  • Shifter forms
Well more options to choose from. Stat placement seems useful but quite dull, meanwhile variant race and shifter seem like they¡¯ll change my body. Variant race seems like the most suitable option, and may give me a more precise choice than the others. Variant Race
*JEST system specification has been activated, choosing variant race based off of signifying characteristic* characteristic chosen ¨C name (Michael Neuroghast) new variant race created ¡°Mental Wisp¡± ¡®commencing variant change¡¯
Nix Aegis I finally arrive at the Fate Zone, it was only about 5 miles south of the city and into the woods neighboring it. I still have all my fencing gear on me, though they probably wont do me any good in this situation. This building looks massive from the outside as the multiple stone arches from the towers base. As I walked inside I noticed a large group of people standing around the outer ring of the building, seemingly avoiding the large dodecahedron. *Ding*
¡°congratulations on entering your first fate zone¡± Due to your race¡¯s situation, you gain the following choices (choose two)
  • Customization
  • Title: sigil of the latecomers
  • Title: the story-tellers
  • Title: Creators of Wonders
¡°Congratulations, due to a minor God noticing you you have been offered the class: void paladin
  • Class: Void Paladin
    • Condition: (scion of the void)
Well, that class doesn''t sound terrifying at all but still, a class offered by a God has got to be at best pretty good. But what''s with the condition; do I get sick if I take this class? Well it''s more cool sounding stuff, and that''s usually my strategy in games anyway, other than that storytellers sound like a good choice. Story-tellers, and Void Paladin You have gained the Title The Story-tellers This title allows for the manipulation of the universe through the weave.
¡°You have pledged allegiance to Trixis of the void faction. Due to this, you have gained the class void paladin, and the race scion of the void¡± JEST system has recognised a pattern. Synchronisation will commence The story-tellers title will be fused with void-paladin *Fusing* You have unlocked the class: speaker of the void
Uhmmm what exactly happened there. It can fuse? So what does Scion of the void give me then? I don''t really feel any different, definitely not like a completely new race. Status
Name Nix Aegis Class Speaker of the void Race (activate change) Human (scion of the void)
Phys ------------- Ment ------------- Fate points 0
Str 13 Int 11 Stat points 0
Dex 19 wis 8 Class points 10
Agi 16 Will 12 patron Trixis
Con 13 Cha 16
Oh looks like I''ve got to activate the change then, why is so needlessly complicated, all the other things just happened in the background. Ugh, why is all of this even happening? I didn''t wake up this morning and think ¡®I want to be a different species of human today¡¯. Oh well. Activate change At that, I began to feel a burning sensation in my left chest, almost as if I was having heart burn but over ten times over. I looked down my shirt in order to try and find the source, and there from my chest was spreading pitch black tattoos that began to spread up and down my body. Everywhere the tendrils moved an intense burn filled my body, at this sensation I fell to the floor almost unconscious due to the pain. Finally black void took my vision and all went quiet. Book 1 - The Beginning of the end - chapter 3 Chapter 3 Mental wisp
Michael Neuroghast I awoke to the sound of ringing in my ear, as I pulled my body up from the floor for the third time today. I looked around seeing if somehow it had all been a dream and that I was still in my palace of physics books. No, welp that sucks. I fall to the ground screaming and it''s not even a dream. As I look around I see that I''m still in the fate zone. Well, at least no one kidnapped or killed me while I took a well-deserved nap. Hmm so what actually happened there, what kind of race is a mental wisp?
¡°Congratulations you have gained a custom variant race¡± ¡°Bonuses due to race changes¡±
  • You are now considered a half-spirit
  • You now have access minor spirit magic and the Spiritual Energy resource pool
  • You now have access to psionics and the Mental Acuity resource pool
  • You have gained half-spirit racial abilities
    • Magical flight
    • Shifting form
    • Energy manipulation
  • You have gained access to the psionic racial abilities
    • Telepathy
    • Telekinesis
    • Sensory link
+since you are half-spirit, when shifting to spirit form you will lose Phys stats proportional to Ment stats+
Uhhhh, wow that''s a lot of stuff. Is it okay for me to have this? Is this normal for people in the system? Well let''s try some of these things. First things first, how do I change form. Standing up and looking around the fate zone there seems to be much more variety within the group then before. One of the large groups of people who looked like elves from a generic fantasy setting, I went to tap on their shoulders but my hand passed right through them. Looking between myself and then I realised what was wrong: I was transparent, and probably invisible to them. Looking down at my legs revealed an even greater shock. Where my feet and calves should''ve been, now there was only a slight tapering point, a full foot off the ground. What the heck is this? Am I stuck like this? Is this the spirit form? I guess it made sense that spirits are invisible. Well then if I am already stuck in spirit form, then the only question is how do I shift out of spirit form. Looking around I see one of the screens lining the wall empty, rushing over and moving directly though other people I see the text that so many had been huddled around looking at when I had first arrived.
Welcome to the Dimensional Colosseum Here is where you will test the power of your race vs others You will challenge monsters, beasts, spirits, Gods and much much more Every cycle two random races within range of the system will be pulled to the shatter arena Massive cullings of the weakest beings will commence at the timers endA case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Humanity has a cycle to prepare for the 21st culling In order to prepare all races have access to a monster planet accessible by any fate zone
Well, that certainly doesn''t sound too great, how long is a cycle anyway? How much time do we have? I began looking around at the crowds beginning to form in the fate zone I see that many are already beginning to gear up in any way they possibly can: guns, swords, what appeared to be magic. Many were huddled around stalls or other people. Seeing the chaos forming on the first floor I begin to fly up towards the second floor. There are stalls lining the wall, barely leaving any space in between. I fly up to one and see a variety of crystals and stones. Behind the counter stands a figure draped in black robes with a pure white ceramic mask covering his face, looking around every stall had similar people manning them. ¡°Uhh Hello sir can I ask you a question?¡± Without even turning his masked face, He answers me in a most monotone voice, ¡°What would you like to know young spirit?¡± ¡°Uhh, well this is a bit of a strange question, but how do I shift out of spirit form?¡± ¡°You simply need to condense your drifting magic into a condensed form around you.¡± ¡°Uhh ok thanks, I guess I''ll try that.¡± Ok sooo that didn''t help at all, how about my status. ¡®Status¡¯ Seeing my status screen confirmed something for me, this screen was everything about me, things that even I didn¡¯t know. For instance, I now had both the MA and SE pools powering my body. I begin reaching out for the spiritual energy and find it relatively quickly. It''s the material that forms my entire body, meaning that like the shopkeeper said, all I have to do is condense it into a form that I want. I¡¯ll just go with what''s natural. As the energy forms around my body, It aligns itself similar to how my old body was formed, since all the delicate organs and inner body parts now my body is made entirely of Spiritual energy, and while it feels extremely strange it also feels natural as if my body was meant to be formed like this. Nix Aegis
As I woke up and looked around my surroundings, all I saw was pitch black darkness. It stretched on for miles on end solidifying around my feet. My tattoos had turned a glowing purple, overlaying upon my now grey skin. Reaching up I see my hair is now a bright white with streaks of black and purple. Around me was nothingness, at least it was until two massive purple eyes opened before me. Voices whispered incomprehensible discussions around me, silencing whenever I turned towards them. Suddenly from directly in my mind I hear a voice, ¡°Well Well my new champion, why come to visit so early, especially after the JEST banished my gift to the wayside and replaced it with their own.¡± ¡°Uhh , well you see I uhh don''t really know how I showed up here, I just changed my race and then uhh, well then I ended up here.¡± ¡°Well, either way, you are now one of us. For better or for worse, take my gift and use it to spread the power of the void among your people.¡± ¡­ I woke up in the fate zone, completely disoriented and confused. What the heck was that thing? What were the whispers? What was she angry at the system for? Ughh, this is a massive headache. Standing up and looking around I see that a rather large crowd had formed around my body that had fallen on the ground. Warily, I reach for my foil and try to form a threatening pose, They all seem to back away at the sight of me having a weapon. With this I walk towards the stairway that leads to the upper levels. *Ding*
¡°Congratulations you have become a faction based variant race¡± ¡°Bonuses due to race changes¡±
  • You are now considered a voidling
  • You now have access void magic and the Void Soul resource pool
  • You have gained voidling racial abilities
    • Shadow blades
    • Luminescent
    • Primal fear
    • Void travel
Looking down at the only possession I brought here, I realise it''s not quite the same as a normal foil. Firstly it''s got a actual blade about an inch in length and sharpened to points on either side of the black metal. It was situated more in the rapier category than any foil should be. Guess I instinctively activated the first and maybe third ability. Sitting on the edge of the balcony I slowly begin to realise that the world is actually broken, and it''s probably never going to fix itself. I''ve got to learn to live here if I want to do anything worthwhile, no more running away. I clench my fist and begin to feel pain as my grip tightens and then I finally let it go purple blood falling and staining the ground. Book 1 - The Beginning of the end - chapter 4 Chapter 4 The new world Michael Neuroghast
I moved around in my new body as it finally formed around me, While it was certainly different from what I was used to, the period of confusion had been short and generally more of a nuisance rather than anything significant. I began to explore the other options the fate zone provided me. While many of the shops had interesting items, none were obtainable without acquiring something only obtainable through hunting on the monster planet. The screens lining the wall also appeared to be more helpful than a cursory glance had shown. These screens were where one could spend the points found in the status screen. Through using my 10 class points, there were a variety of classes available to me: artificer, psionic mage, enchanter, all variants on those base classes. I decided to put off the decision for now. Using my ability of flight allowed for a much easier experience moving through the tower than everyone else, However, I was prevented from entering any floor above the 8th. The third floor, in particular, had some interesting options. It seemed to base its shops on titles and crafting. Already people seemed to be practising skills, anything from leatherwork to weapons engineering seemed to be available. Looking down on the large group of latecomers now entering the fate zone, I realised that groups were beginning to form already. One group were those who embraced the new reality, and the other those who were scared and lashing out towards those who had supposedly shattered their worldview. Looking down at my hands which now were more like ghastly images than actual physical material, I began to wonder why I found all of this chaos normal. It felt like the dull grey world had been dyed by a myriad of colours, almost as if I always belonged here, like this. It was certainly an interesting theory. Below the conflict had begun to escalate, and it appears to have been caused by one of the new groups of entrees. They had large bodies that seemed capable of crushing iron with enough effort. Nearby a small group of variant humans seemed to be keeping someone from charging towards the laughing group. Taking a closer look at the variant human he looked like an elf that seemed to have a large bruise across one side of his face. ¡°Why do people act like this, they start to feel powerful and suddenly they act like their untouchable.¡± The leading figure of the large group let out a large laugh causing everyone''s attention to be directed towards the small group. ¡°Look at this everyone, the little demi here is mad that he got hurt. If you didn''t want to get hurt so bad then you should¡¯ve stayed a human like all the smart ones here.¡± Seeing the attention the man was gaining the small group of elves clenched their fists then moved away towards the entrance of the monster planet. ¡°Hahahaha, look at that their runnin¡¯ off to where they belong¡± Everyone watching the confrontation either walked away or ignored it, not bothering to intervene. After the large scene, many of the variant humans left through the Monster World looking to avoid the group of large men. ¡°Might as well try it, there''s no better target¡± I activate elemental control and target it towards the leader of the small group, curious as to how it will work for a mental spirit. The spiritual energy that forms my body begins to flake away and move towards my target, slowly it converges around his eyes allowing me to project illusions into his own perception. While it might be fun to mess with him right now there''s not much reason too besides honour and glory. Now that I know what it does that was all I really needed. Blocking myself from his vision as I walk towards the gateway that leads towards the monster planet I see that beyond the gate sit a variety of screens each with a different list of information decoding different locations to explore. Looking through the various screens I see one that draws my attention.
Wild Spirit Clouds (upper atmosphere) Requirements - magical flight Features (spirit colony) Monsters [Malicious Spirits] [Avian Nightmares] [Wyverns]
Well, that seems like it''s perfect for me in my new form. Might be a bit difficult if I''m immediately thrown into danger, but hopefully, I can fly fast under pressure. Pushing the screen before me a bright light encompasses me before I''m left standing within a small temple floating atop a solidified cloud. Looking upwards there were only thick purple clouds shifting and moving extremely fast. Below me, the storm continued but small openings revealed a small planet that in comparison was probably much larger than earth. Shifting over into my spirit form the world around me seemed to change, where originally was rushing cloud cover now rested a large city of towers. Below, rocky islands seemed to float seamlessly in the clouds. Various small lights moved from place to place glowing in various colours. ¡°This is beautiful¡± ¡°Sure is isn''t it¡± Hearing the voice from behind me I jump away in fright, before quickly looking over my shoulder. Standing at the spot where I was previously was a grey and blue women who was swimming through the clouds like they were water. Upon seeing me noticing her she began releasing an unrelenting tsunami of questions. ¡°Your an interestin¡¯ one ain''t ya, all purple and shifty. Your almost like one o¡¯ those air spirits. Are you an air spirit from above the cover, what''s it like? No your not an air spirit, but then what are you? Do you know what I am?¡± With one finger pointed towards herself she began to swim circles around my floating form.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Confused at the unrelenting chatter that proceeds her appearance, ¡°So I suppose you''re a spirit then, probably an air spirit.¡± ¡°Nope, I¡¯m a Naiad variant. So now I can live and dance in the clouds up here. Well, then strange spirit what are you doing here?¡± She says hanging upside down from a cloud floating slightly off the ground. Still reeling from the series of questions and statements, I was barely able to utter a response. ¡°Well, I was hoping someone would help me learn how to control some of my abilities.¡± ¡°Well, then why don¡¯t you go see Gi Ryall?¡± Nix Aegis
Standing before one of the many blue screens that populated the hallway I debated my various choices there were the popular ones that everyone was moving towards grassfields, the glass forest, mistwood, and various other standard fantasy locations. The mistwood seemed interesting because it currently had the longest line of elf variant humans, but also had a notification for a great treasure. It all just seemed like too much, far too many places to explore and plunder far too many secrets to find hidden in the monster world. Deciding on an option I walk over towards the glass forest screen waiting for the line to close in before taking a closer look at the screen.
Glass forest (main surface) Features (rudimentary town) (destroyed ruins) Monsters Crystal beasts Light elementals Glass swarms
Well if there''s a town they might also have supplies for sale that are actually buyable, or it just means I''ll have a place that is easier to protect. ¡°Well then let''s head out¡± A bright light envelops me before I appear inside a gazebo-like structure seeming to be at the centre of a large collection of tents inside a perimeter of barbed wire. People moved large pieces of a wooden crystal from place to place as they began to try and build a sturdy wall using the strange material and large collections of barbed wire. Two elf looking gentleman stood before the gazebo. One of them was dressed in a grey suit and a navy tie looking like he just walked off of wall street he simply stood there waiting a few seconds before they spoke up. ¡°Welcome to the glass settlement if you would like to help us with the construction project then please go talk James over there if you want to help the hunters then please go talk to Jesse when he returns from scouting the area around the wall.¡± Spouting out this obviously prepared speech the man seemed to stare at her waiting for some semblance of a response. ¡°Well, I really just wanted to go out and fight some of the creatures listed on the screen.¡± ¡°Then I suppose you''ll want to talk to Jesse about joining the hunters or as he''s begun calling it the guild. He should be back at about noon until then you can either help build up the town or head around the perimeter like Jesse he just left a couple hours ago.¡± Moving towards a small opening in the fence I began to wonder how this place had been constructed so quickly. It wasn''t large but was surprisingly organised and developed for a town on a planet that had only appeared in the sky about 18 hours ago. I expected a small camp of tents at most but it appears that they''ve already got a functioning group of builders with a half-built wall. I would have expected something like this after a week of the system but this seems to be moving far too quickly. Standing at the edge of the clearing I take a look at the crystal forest trees made of crystal wood with leaves each reflecting out a myriad of colours into the air. The ground was littered with sharp pieces of wood that looked as if they could cut through flesh by themselves. A layer of light mist sat in the air feeling like a cloud of sawdust whenever my hand passed through it. ¡°Well then guess it''s time to move out¡± As I moved through the dusty air I found it harder and harder to breathe until finally had to cover my mouth with a loose cloth. The light around me would occasionally brighten intensely before calming down to a calm shine in the air. Once I arrived a fair distance into the forest I began to hear a loud shattering sound from my left. Looking over I saw a warthog made of thick and dirty crystal appearing like a moving statue with Glowing green eyes.
Crystal Warthog (Threat 4)
¡°Threat 4 what does threat 4 mean¡± staring at the sudden screen that interrupted the fight I suddenly felt a heavy blow against my stomach knocking me backwards about 5 feet into one of the trees. The pain rocketed into my system looking down I saw that the hog was rearing for another charge quickly dodging to the side I watched the hog as it rammed into the tree causing a large dent in the wood. Looking down at my stomach I see two cuts set a glow with purple blood. Staring down the crystal beast I point my foil forward as shadows begin to coalesce around the blade before dancing around my forearm like a dancing beast. The hog turns towards me and begins another charge towards me. I move to the side before stabbing towards the hogs exposed side easily cutting through the tough crystal dyeing the outer crystal a dark hue. The hog charged for another 8 feet until it finally stopped, before turning around once again and facing me. Another charge and another stab this process went on three more times before the Hog began to keep its distance. This thankfully gave me the chance to try and deal with my wound, ripping off a part of my shirt I used it to wrap around the two wounds that now lied in my stomach. Looking up I was barely able to avoid the boar as it charged forward at me while I was distracted. In the process tearing off the cloth that sat over my mouth as the dusty air moved into my lungs I began to cough heavily eventually purple blood ejecting from my mouth. Looking at the hog I let my anger take over as the shadows that now rested under its skin began to form blades and borrowed its way deeper into its crystalline body. A high pitched screech radiated from its body. The last thing I saw before blacking out was one of the system''s screens.
Congratulations You have slain a crystal warthog (threat 4) You have gained 20 fate points You have gained 10 silver ker You need 100 FP to purchase a threat increase