《Sins Revenge》 Prologue Synyster woke up after getting knocked unsconscious when some small debris hit his head and all hell broke loose. Thankfully buildings in LA are built with disasters in mind, thought not of this scale, so some buildings still stood; luckily enough he was in one. While they did still stand they were in shambles, as was his mind. In front of his eyes appeared something that he would never have dared even think of. Half of his wifes body was completely smashed under the debris, only her head and upper torso was left untouched. In her wide open eyes a look of utter horror and pain reflected his own. He wanted to scream, thrash, cry but he could do none of those; he became numb and he couldn''t even register much less proccess any information his senses were trying to send to his brain. He was a soldier, and when he first became one he couldn''t have been more proud, because he was going to be part of the force making sure his country stays safe. But just a few short months later he realized how wrong he was. He was no defender, he was just a mercenary sent on missions to poor countries with resources within their borders they just couldn''t defend or even make much use of. All that pride he felt at the beginning was giving way to shame, so much shame; that overwhelming sense of shame was way stronger that the pride which was slowly crumbling with every passing day. He still had nightmares of that period. The faces of those he had slain, and the faces of his comrades who had been slain kept surfacing in those. Many nights he couldn''t sleep and on such nights he would drink until he passed out from the alchohol and exhaustion. Luckily for him, he never dreamt when he was passed out. Now seeing the one he loved, oh so dearly, die in such a brutal manner made his PTSD kick in, full force and with his mind as it was something finally broke, that last stand of humanity was torn to shreds. In the next moment, he felt weightless and suddenly he was in a luscious forest and in front of his eyes was a blue screen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings, citizens of Earth! Your planet has been claimed by our glorious Kerberi Empire. As you were, and still are, too weak to be used even as a slaveforce we have decided to implement some changes on the planetary level. First example of that is the terrain makeover. Do you like what you see? You were much too safe in those cities of yours and you were encroaching on the last few places not completely under your control, which we just can''t allow. In order for you to progress and become strong enough you need to live on the edge.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. The next thing we did was give you mana. Mana is a resource, which I recommend you learn how to use as fast as possible, as I believe it will be key to your survival. Now, we have to be fair, so every living organism will gain access to mana. With that in mind, let me give you an another tip, be careful of them, as anything, even the least dangerous of organisms before the change, could become deadly if you aren''t careful. And the last thing which we have done is "import" some sentient organisms from other planets. Many of which you will be able to recognize as you had quite accurately depicted in many of your stories or mythologies. All of you have been given some basic tools and equipment which could help you survive. Just say or think the word "Inventory". To check out your status screens "Status screen" and to see your skills say "Skill book". You will also receive certain Paths which will give you rewards based on how many Path points you put in. Said Path points are received each time a skill is learned or a skill levels up. Work hard until the next examination! If you do you may be rewarded, but if you don''t, well, let''s just say you better do! Bye for now! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Syn looked up from the screen, a murderous look in his eyes. ''They did this for no other reason that to make us "worthy" in their eyes!? Hmph, they shall pay''. He thought for a while more and came to the conclusion that this made it so no government in the wolrd can function anymore as it did, which means that new types of government will have to be made when people eventually banded together. And that is something he will definitely now allow. If they were to manage to succeed in doing so in this new "Dog eat dog" world, that would probably make them get ahead of the regular people, and as soon as the world stabilizes it will be more of the same old, same old. While he contemplated all of this, he scouted out his surroundings to make sure there were no threats nearby before he found a safe place to spend the night in. Before he fell asleep he tested out the commands and found a long military knife, a blanket and a weird stone with a red sigil on it, which he later figured out was a fire stone. It didn''t provide much in the combat potential side of things, but it was perfectly safe and easy to use to light a fire. He then checked out his stats and the stats that stood out compared to his other stats were intelligence and agility, with the former at 16 and the latter at 18. His other stats except for strength averaged around 10, strength being at 13. And at the moment he had no skills, so he didn''t know what to expect yet. His mind finally relented with all the shock and tragedy that happened today and he drifted away to blissful sleep. Chapter one: The Vow Syn awoke with a start hearing some thrashing in the distance and despite the early end to his rest he was fully awake. He slowly creeped through the underbrush and after a while a small clearing appeared, although it wasn''t a natural one. The trees in a 50 meter circle have all been cut down and small huts probably made of said trees were erect. The clearing was full of strange creatures milling around setting up their camp. These creatures were all of various shades of green, most of them small at barely over a meter height, while some of them were huge by human standards standing at 2,3 meters on average and barell-like chest, their bodies bursting with muscle. He focused his gaze on them thinking what the hell they could be, when a blue screen popped in front of his face, startling him so badly he plopped down on his ass, barely holding himself back not to make a sound. Annoyed, he focused on the screen, but when he saw the reward it was almost worth putting his life in danger, ALMOST.
Congratulations, your actions have earned you a new skill!
Identification(Passive, Active), Beginner 1(12%)
Passive: Your ability to notice hidden items, places or people has increased. Also makes you more likely to discover something you normally would not have the longer you observe your target. This effect increases with skill level.
Active: Identify an item, being or material within your vision. Amount of information depends on your skill level. If your skill level is too low, you will not receive any information about the target.
Orc Warrior, level 7
"Seriously!?" thought Syn "Well that''s not as useful as I thought it would be. Oh, it says it amount of information depends on skill level, hmmm. But what is an orc? Can I get information on this? Lets see. Oh, it worked!"
Orcs are a sentient race. They live in groups known as tribes and each tribe is lead by their strongest warrior, called the chieftain. While barbaric, they are very honorable and will not kill anyone not armed, children women or elderly, although they do practice slavery. Orcs are always at war, even with other orc tribes. They believe in the God of Bloodthirst, Grommash; every tribe has an altar upon which they drain the bodies of their enemies leaders of blood in tribute to him.
"Hmm, interesting race, that underbite looks really dangerous, and those tusks probably gouge through meat like a knife through butter. I will see if I can catch some alone by surprise. Their bodies look similar enough to a human body, there probably aren''t major differences in our anatomy, but since I don''t know how hard their bones are, or what kind of protection their ribcages offer, so my safest bet kill one would be to ambush them and run my knife through their throats." He also inspected the small humanoids which he found were goblins. It said goblins were one of the lowest class of sentient beings, but had enormous potential, because of the wide pallette of possible evolutions, even some of the higher races like ogres or orcs, but it didn''t happen often. At that moment his stomach rumbled and he finally realized how hungry he was, he hadn''t eaten in some 18 hours. He went back to his hideout to grab his knife which he left there, he had forgotten to put it in his inventory. Thinking back on that he realized just how utterly moronic it was to leave the one thing that can help him survive this lying around.Stolen story; please report. He once again went back to prowling through the underbrush and finally after 10 minutes he found something he could kill, it was a helpless deer nibbling at some bushes. He kept creeping closer, but the undergrowth was quite dense, so something rustled as he was walking and the deer got frightened and leapt away. Luckily, his military training kicked in and he threw the knife, which managed to hit a tendon on its calf, making it miss its next leap and fall to the ground, giving Syn time to stomp the deers head into the ground with his shoe. The kick didn''t manage to kill it so he quickly grabbed the knife and slit its throat.
Congratulations, your actions have unlocked several new skills!
Sneak (Active), Beginner 1(45%)
Muffle the sound you produce while walking and thus make yourself less likely to be noticed. The tradeoff being moving more slowly.
Throw Mastery (Passive), Beginner 3 (37%)
Increases your accuracy when throwing your weapon. Accuracy with this skill is determined by your dexterity, weapon type and skill level; weapon size also has a slight impact on accuracy.
Disable (Passive), Beginner 1 (24%)
Hitting your targets has a 1% chance to main, this chance is drastically increased when hitting joints, tendonds or other similar weakpoints.
"Wow, that is quite the harvest! Hahaha I am slowly but surely getting closer to my goal! But let''s not get ahead of ourselves, one step at a time. I should quickly get some meat and run back to my hideout, the scent of blood will probably attract predators, and I don''t want to face them. Well, not yet, I am still weak, but eventually..." he unsconciously licked some blood off the knife, cut out the calves and ran back. By the time he returned it gradually grew dark, once again afraid of other forest inhabitants he didn''t dare to light a fire so he ate the calves raw. Weirdly enough it didn''t taste badly. He sat there and all of a sudden howled with madness etched into his pupils. After that he stood up and announced loudly to noone in particular, it seemed as if this was an announcement for the whole universe. "You have destroyed me and my life. You had killed my beloved, you had killed the person who I used to be, and for that you shall all pay. I will come to you, I will come FOR you and I WILL kill you! You shall face your biggest sin, and you will fear me, for I will embody all sin. I shall rip your loved ones from your bloody hands, and they shall suffer the worst of fates at my hands. All for your sin, for your bottomless greed, for your insatiable lust, your monstrous gluttony, for your beaurocratic sloth, for your misguided wrath, for your bitter envy and for your baseless pride. From this moment forth I AM SIN" the last 3 words were said with such intensity it echoed for miles and kept echoing for quite a while, but instead of attracting predators, it frightened them and they fled until the echoes stopped.
Congratulations! The system has deemed you worthy of a reward!
The system had been observing everyone since it had been implemented and has deemed you worthy of a reward. You had been the fastest one to adapt to a proper mindset facing this gigantic change that had been brought on by the implementation of the system. A calamity had befallen you right from the start and it broke you, but, unlike many others, you picked yourself right up. That is an attitude fitting for a champion and as a champion you will be rewarded.
Choose one of the following affinities and you will be granted basic knowledge about the element: Darkness, Void or Space. Be aware that there are more affinities, but the ones shown are ones you are most talented in.
Sin thought for some time and decided that the one he would need most at the moment was... Chapter 2: Rewards ...Darkness! ''Darkness is definitely the one that will help me the most at the moment. I don''t even know what to expect from Void or Space. Ughh I should have played a few of those games my friends kept recommmending before I joined the army, this would''ve been much easier... Oh, well, I''ll figure it out eventually.'' I thought to myself when my head started hurting, it kept increasing in intensity until I thought it would split any moment now.
Congratulations, you have unlocked Mana Manipulation! This is the first step towards magic mastery! Good luck!
Mana Manipulation(Passive), Beginner 1 (0%)
Your body can now house and feel mana in your surroundings. You can also control the mana in your body, and the mana in your surrounding to a certain degree.
Congratulations, Darkness affinity unlocked! It is up to your imagination now to discover the uses of it, if you were to manage to invent a spell not yet discovered you will be rewarded.
1st requirement for unlocking an evolution has been unlocked!
"Ughhhhhh, son of a bitch!" he screamed out ''My head is still hurting, ughh, ohhh another reward?''
Congratulations, you have received a new skill!
Pain Tolerance(Passive), Beginner 5 (34%)
Enduring pain has managed to make you more resistant towards it. Your resistance increases the higher the skill level and your willpower stat are. Beware, just because you do not feel it, does not mean you are not taking damage.
''That will definitely come handy! A moments distraction in a fight can be lethal. I have to level that skill up as soon as possible'' I thought to myself ''Hmm I have gotten and leveled up a few skills, let''s see what kinds of Paths do I have''. "Paths" Available Paths: Beginners Path (0/10), Path of the Reforged (0/50), Path of the Stalker (0/25), Path of the Mana Adept (0/25) Initiate of Darkness (0/50), The M Path (0/20). You have 22 PP. ''Okay, Beginners Path is self-explanatory, it should also be quite rewarding and worth the 10 points. Path of the Reforged should have something to do with my soul, so I am not interested in that yet. The Stalker must have something to do with me stalking that deer, I believe that would be very useful right now. Mana Adept and Initiate of Darkness are also pretty much self-explanatory. And I have no idea what the last Path is, well, not that it matters.'' After thinking for a few more minutes I put 10 points into the Beginners Path. The first 4 points got me a point each in Strength, Agility, Constitution and Dexterity; the fifth and tenth point gave me a free attribute point each; and the other 4 gave me a point in Stamina, Intellect, Wisdom and Willpower. And I also decided to pour the other 12 points in the Path of the Stalker, every odd number gave me a stat point alternating between Agility and Dexterity. When I put the 10th point in I also got a skill.
Silent steps(Passive, Active), Beginner 1 (0%)
Passive: Muffles sound you would otherwise make while walking or running. Increases with skill level, and also slightly depends on the surface you are walking on.
Active: You can activate this skill to further reduce the chance of making sounds while walking.
''Hmm time to put my new skills and increased stats to use.'' I sneaked back to the Orc Encampment and looked around to see if there was any creature standing alone. I spotted a lone goblin but as I was sneaking closer it started sniffing the air and it was slowly but surely locking onto my location. I was certain it had found my scent so I quickly fled before it could find me and notify the others. When I was far enough I stopped and thought of a solution for a few minutes and I remembered an old movie I once saw. He was running away from an alien monster, that could see in infrared vision, and to hide he covered himself in mud. I could use that principle and use the earth to cover up my smell. I got to work right away and started rubbing earth all over my body and clothes. As I finished a notification popped up in front of me.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Congratulations, your ingenuity has unlocked a skill you would otherwise have gotten when you finished the Path of the Stalker. You receive an extra point in intellect and wisdom each.
Mask Smell(Passive), Beginner 5 (46%)
You can use different materials to mask your smell, to avoid notice. As your skill level grows you will need less materials to do so. If you were to manage to master this skill, you will be able to mask your smell at will without the use of materials.
''Awesome, lets see how I do now.'' I sneaked back to the Encampment and once again saw the goblin from before. I kept creeping closer but he didn''t notice anything. I inspected him and saw he was a lvl 5 laborer, should be an easy target, but I didn''t drop my guard. As I was 2 meters behind him I leapt forward, covered his mouth with my hand, which he bit in his panic, but I didn''t move my hand and slit his throat. His eyes soon glazed over and his body grew limp. I let it fall to the floor and it dropped like a sack of potatoes. The body was barely 40kg heavy so I threw him over a branch, hidden form view as I didn''t want to alert the camp before I finished inspecting their camp. I ripped my sleeve and covered my left hand to help stop the bleeding and walked around the perimeter. I soon came across a lone lvl 7 goblin sentry, the sentry was armed with a dagger, which could have been a short sword to them for all I knew. Once again I crept closer, but somehow he knew I was there and he turned back just as I was behind him. I tackled him to the floor and slit his throat, in his dying throes he managed to graze my ribcage with his dagger, luckily he was panicking because he was bleeding out. That dagger could have easily punctured a lung. When he finally died I took the dagger and took back off towards my hideout. On the way I looked through my notifications.
Congratulations, you have reached level 2. You have received 5 AP.
You skill Sneak, Beginner 1 has increased to Beginner 4. Your skill Pain Tolerance, Beginner 5 has increased to lvl 6. Your skill Silent Steps, Beginner 1 has increased to Beginner 3.
Your actions have unlocked the skill Ambush.
Ambush (Active), Beginner 3 (27%)
While striking from stealth your critical strike chance is increased by 20%. Damage done by this attack is also doubled.
''What!!??? Isn''t this a little overkill. Even this 20% crit. chance is a little overpowered'' My musings were interrupted by the pain in my side. i quickly took my shirt off and tied it around my chest to hopefully stop the bleeding. It was already completely dark before I managed to stumble in the little hole I hid in. In a few moments I was out like a light. Chapter 3: Progress I climbed out of the hole I hid in and looked around. Something was off, something was REALLY off. Did I grow smaller? Or did the everything around me grow larger? I stood in awe, the trees all grew bigger and the underbrush became much thicker. Everything became also much greener, a vivid green overflowing with life. The bark was also a deeper earthen brown, bordering on black, with stripes of light brown in places the bark was cracked. The crowns bursting with vitality, of both fauna and flora alike. The rustling of leaves, singing of birds, fluttering of wings, buzzing of insects and light howls and roars could be heard in the distance. All of these sounds by themselves may have sounded like cacophony, but it just interweaved together so perfectly, to Sins ears it may as well have been the greatest masterpiece, the lifes work of the greatest Maestro to have walked the Earth. For the first time since the start of this nightmare, he had been at peace. He just stood there, observing and listening to the masterpiece, for a good 10 minutes. But he snapped out of it, he didn''t have time for this, he had to get stronger. He would have time to relax when he realized his goals, but that time wasn''t now. ''This just made it much harder for me, this basically negated all the advantages I got yesterday. Hmm, I can think about that later, I need to find some food right now.'' I set out deeper into the forest in the other direction from the one I took yesterday. After 10 minutes I came across a small river, it was barely 2 meters across. Its bank was bare, except for a few small patches of grass, because it consisted of rocks and sand. I got closer and noticed the water was really clear, which seemed really weird as before this happened humanity was struggling to find some clean water sources because the environment was so polluted. I was reminded of the stories my grandfather use to tell me when I was a kid, for me at the time, it was like a fairytale. I remember how bitter and full of hatred for the mankind was as he spoke of it, although he tried to hide it. He always did his best to smile as he was telling me how life was while he was growing up, but even I could see he was bitter about the changes that happened. He would always have a mocking smile on as he spoke out the excuse the lobbyist and country leadership kept spouting "For the advance of mankind". I was broken out of my reminiscence when I noticed my own reflection. My face looked much more haggard, my hair was also dark now with almost crimson tips, it used to be chestnut brown with auburn highlights. Now that I think about it, my eyes also seemed black now instead of hazel. My face used to be round, I was too depressed to really try to keep in shape in the last few years. Now it was chiseled, I had high cheekbones and the lines of my chin looked sharp. Only the nose seemed not to have changed, I have a high nose, proportional to the size of my face. I also noticed the river wasn''t deep so after looking around I took my clothes off and washed the grime off my body which also seemed a lot leaner than before. Sadly, I didn''t have any container capable of holding liquid so I just got my fill and realising I saw some fish swimming around, though they quickly dispersed the second I got in the water. Coming up to a tree I snapped a branch off, it was straight enough to use as a spear so I quickly sharpened one end of the branch with my, now once again clean, knife. I went back to the bank and started observing the fish in the water. I inspected them and it showed it was just a normal lvl 1 Trout. Their movements were completely random, although not too fast. I prepared to lunge and when one finally got within range I stabbed out but it got away. I kept trying for a dozen more times, the result stayed the same, and contrary to my expectation, I wasn''t getting any closer. I thought for a while and realised I was being an idiot. I had a skill that could help me and I didn''t even think of it. This time I stood a little further away from the riverside and when I saw one close enough I threw the spear at it and... "Bingo!!!" I gathered a few branches and some dry grass quickly starting a fire, and leaving the fish to cook while I caught a few more. While I was eating I went through my notifications. My Throw mastery skill went up and I earned a new skill called Spearfishing. I stored 3 fish that I didn''t eat to have some food for later.
Spearfishing (Passive), Beginner 2 (75%)
Increases your accuracy while fishing with a spear. Also increases the effect of your Throw Mastery skill while using a spear.
On the way back I inspected each plant I came across, I picked them all. I remembered from Biology that a lot of nutrients the plants need and that define them are in the roots, so I did my best to dig round the plants with my knife to get them out with roots intact. I managed to find a few stalks of Aconite, the roots of which contain a poisonous substance with many sideeffects, ending in death after a few hours if not treated. Besides that I found Silverbloom, a plant big silver petals, and Earthroot, a thick root without any other parts to it, both of these can be used to make salves and potions used to heal wounds. These actions unlocked a new skill for me called Herbalism.Stolen story; please report.
Herbalism (Profession Skill), Beginner 2 (13%)
Grants you instinctive knowledge of herbs, their uses and how they are properly gathered.
After getting back I used a thick piece of bark and a stone to ground the Silverbloom petals into paste to spread over my chest wound but it seemed as if I would need some water to do so. On the way to the river I tried to move through the treetops, jumping form branch to branch, sometimes swinging, other times climbing and by the time I got to the river, after quite a few falls I finally managed to get a skill for it.
Parkour (Passive), Beginner 1 (4%)
This skill helps when making complicated movements at high speeds, especially so at jumps and climbing. Increases perception and reaction time when running. This skill also grants you the stat Balance.
Balance is a hidden stat unlockable trough certain special actions or when unlocking skills for which it is essential. It increases your ability to control your center of gravity. You can not add stat points to this stat.
I managed to make the paste and spread it over my wounds and slowly made my way back, doing my best not to fall. I started pondering and experimenting with mana, and my Darkness affinity and that was how my day passed. Training, experimenting, hunting and practising my Herbalism and Alchemy had been my routine for 3 months. I had done a few excursions towards the Orc Encampment and got myself a few more weapons. During this time I had tested out a few battle styles, but finally settled on the knife in my right hand because the edge was only on side so it could be held in a reverse grip, to be used to parry and block when my ambushes didn''t work. In my hand I held a short sword I had looted when I killed an orc who had wandered a little too close to my nest while hunting for game. My stats and skills looked like this after these 3 months had passed:
Name Synyster Race Human
Age 27 Level 10 (64%)
Stamina: 20 Intellect: 27 Agility: 33 Willpower: 14
Constitution: 30 Wisdom: 20 Dexterity: 23 Luck: 10
HP: 250 (HP regen: 5%/min) MP: 370 (MP regen: 6.5%/min) Strength: 20 Balance: 5
Skill List
Identification, Novice 2 | Sneak, Novice 5 | Throw Mastery, Novice 2 | Disable, Novice 3 | Mana Manipulation, Beginner 8 | Pain Tolerance, Beginner 9 | Silent Steps, Novice 3
Mask Smell, Beginner 10 | Ambush, Beginner 9 | Spearfishing, Beginner 7 | Herbalism, Beginner 10 | Parkour, Novice 5 | Alchemy, Beginner 6
Shadowstep (Active), Beginner 3 (45%)
Combining your understanding of the Darkness element, the importance of not being seen and your Ambush ability has created this ability. Your body dissolves into shadows and teleports in the shadows within your vision.
Short Blade Mastery (Passive), Beginner 8 (76%)
Increases your chance to critically hit while using short bladed weapons. Also increases your parry chance by 0.5 per skill level.
Parry (Passive), Beginner 4 (69%)
Enables system assistance proc when parrying blows. Helps correct your posture and blade angle. The chance for system assistance proccing is 0.5% per skill level. If you manage to parry a blow, the next strike with the same blade withing 1 second deals 50% extra damage.
I had 10 unallocated stat points left, but decided to keep those for now. I am quite pleased with my build, as it seems pretty wellrounded. My only fear is that it will one day come to bite me in the ass because I didn''t specialize. And my paths look like this right now: Available Paths: Path of the Reforged (0/50), Follower of Loki (0/50), Erebus''s Initiate (0/100), Alchemic Principles (0/5) Finished Paths: Beginners Path, Path of the Stalker, Initiate of Darkness, Path of the Mana Adept, The M Path Available Path Points: 24 Finishing the Path of the Stalker had given me an extra 5 points to Agility and Dexterity each; Initiate of Darkness gave me an extra 3% of Darkness affinity bringing it to 16% plus another 5 to Intellect and Wisdom; Path of the Mana Adept gave me a 2%/min increase to MP regeneration and also 5 to Intellect and Wisdom; and last but not least The M Path gave me a 3% increase to ALL resistances (including magical and physical) and 5 points to Constitution. Chapter four: Civilization Sin gathered his belongings and started on his way towards the river, the jog to it had been uneventful. There had been many changes in the time last 3 months. Some animals had gained elemental affinities, but none of them were any real threats. At least none of those in his surroundings, he hadn''t explored much. Some flora also seemed to have gained sentience, which could be seen by how the forest seemed to thrum around him. There was also that one time when he baited an orc into chasing him into the forest and a tree, under which they had been fighting, suddenly swatted the orc over the head with one of its bigger branches. That tree must have been pissed because those orcs had been cutting down tens of trees every day. The clearing which was only 50 meters in diameter at the time he discovered them was now over 200 meters wide. And although he kept killing them, their numbers weren''t dwindling, in fact their numbers had risen to over double the amount. ''The speed at which they are breeding is insane. I will have to deal with them when I become stronger.'' I got to the river and started travelling down the river. Humans are sociable creatures and usually can''t survive if they aren''t in communities, and if our history records are correct humans like to inhabit places at the river deltas or where they flow into some other water body. I kept running for 2 hours when I saw something fast approaching from the corner of my eye. Thankfully my agility is pretty high so I was able to avoid this likely fatal attack in time.
Eastern green mamba (Wind affinity), level 14
This arboreal type of snake is very secretive and quick, which makes it a perfect ambush predator. Now that she has attained wind affinity this ability has been amplified. By the lines on it''s body it seems to be on the cusp of evolving. Well, aren''t you lucky? If it had evolved you would be slowly dissolving in its stomach by now hihi.
''Wait, what!? I thought the system was inanimate, what the hell? It''s actually sassing me?'' "Whoa crap, fuck you system, you almost got me killed!" As he was distracted by the systems sassing, the snake snapped its jaws at him once again. He focused on the fight ahead of him and readied his weapons to slash at the mamba when it struck again. Though this time the mamba coiled and launched its body towards him, opening its jaws wide. Although he was startled he reacted in time, though the course fo action he took may have been a little stupid. He barely moved out of the way, and set his knife so that it would cut the snakes right side in half if it didn''t change directions midflight. And luckily his risk paid off, he didn''t kill the snake although it was hurt badly. If he fled right now it would likely die of blood loss. For the rest of the fight the snake didn''t manage to bite him, but it did smack him with its tail into a tree hard enough to disorient him. His instinct flared to life and he rolled out of the way when the snake smacked into the tree and he quickly severed its head with all his strength. "Phew, son of a bitch!" he heard some leaves rustling and decided that was his signal to bail, so he ran and didn''t stop until he finally reached a small town. It looked like something out of the middle ages, but considering every city in the world was levelled, and the planet wasn''t what it was, this could be considered good. It was surrounded by a wooden palisade, probably with some walkway on the inner side, because he could see people walking on it, probably acting as guards or lookouts. He started walking when he got in range, so they wouldn''t shoot him if they had bows, if they panicked. "Hey," he yelled "can I come in?" they finally noticed and they looked at him suspiciously, before one of them turned around and yelled for someone to get their superior. He only waited for a few minutes when someone came out of the gates with a small squadron of guards.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. "Hail, stranger, who are you and why have you come?" Direct, cool, I really don''t like dealing with beaurocrats or people who speak windingly. He had a small brown beard, and a cleanly shaven head, his features were quite unremarkable, not handsome, but not ugly either. "My name is Synyster, and I have been living in the forest since all of this fucking mess started. Thankfully I managed to come accross this town. What''s it called?" I tried to act friendly and not threatening, and I guess it worked since his face broke into a small smile at that. "Welcome then Synyster, we could use more people here, it''s tough living like this in the wilderness. My name is Bryan, and I am one of the officers in our little town of Delta. Yeah, yeah, not much imagination used but we had more stiffling matters to deal with, like surving, than to think of names for our settlement." He got a little worked up, I guess people were calling them out on the unremarkable name. " Say, do you have any talents or production abilities that could help us here?" "I delved a little into Herbalism and Alchemy, so I can make some salves, pastes or potions that would help heal wounds, or help with cleaning them." Bryans eyes shone brilliantly and he directly ushered him in, the little suspicion he held long gone. "Really? That would be most helpful, we don''t have anyone with any kind of working knowledge on that matter here. Would you be willing to produce some for us? We could give you a few people to teach what and how to gather and you wouldn''t have to risk yourself to gather the resources. What do you say?" I got really thrown off my game seeing his enthusiasm. I nodded quickly, hoping he would calm down a little. Damn, and here I thought he was normal, I really don''t know how to deal with his kind of people. " Sure, as long as I can help. So, who runs this place?" I asked as I took a look around the town, there were many shacks and cabins strewn around, as well as a few bigger, better built buildings which probably housed certain important facilities. There was one that caught his eye, because it was the only "building" built into the ground. There was constant smoke billowing from its top. "And what''s that building in the ground?" "Your help will be greatly appreciated, we will give you the position of the Alchemy Guilds Guildmaster, effective immediately!" His eyes crescent in shape by now. I gotta admit this guy was giving me the creeps. "As for the leader, it''s the currently strongest member of our little society, Kathrin. I will introduce you to her later on. That is our our smithy, we found someone who had been a premium blacksmith before the system was introduced. He was making those katanas and whatnot the wealthy liked to hang on their walls to show off. If there is anyone who liked the change brought about by the system, it''s our dear Smed." He seemed to have seen something in my expression because he explained further right away. "He was orphaned as a child, he never knew his parents, and all he had was his master who thaught him his craft. He didn''t really have anyone to lose to the system because his master had already passed away long before. So you can imagine how happy he was that he would finally be able to make products that would actually be used, and would serve a purpose other than as a decoration." "I guess I can see that. So what will be my responsibilities during my stay here? You know besides teaching?" He responded with a hearthy laugh "My friend, you are an eager one. Most people can''t wait to get out of my clutches so I can''t give them any more tasks. You have one of the most important tasks in this whole settlement and you want to more besides it? I wouldn''t have the face to do so. Just do what you want in your free time, and of course help out with defense if necessary, otherwise you are free to do as you please." He led me to a cabin which he told me I was free to stay in. It didn''t have much to it, but it sure beat sleeping in a hole in a forest. There was a simple bed and a table, and basically a circle of stones meant to be used a campfire, you know, for heat and making meals and stuff. He told me he would come get me when he needed me, and that I should come report to him should I decide to head out of the walls and left me to my devices. I still had some fish in my inventory so I ate it and went to sleep. I was exhausted and sleeping on a bed sounded really good. I went out like a candle as soon as I hit the soft grass.