ã€ŠGameworldã€‹


 Regina

    Chapter 1

    The wind was howling, it was a bitterly cold night but thankfully there was no snow on the ground. Thomas the healer who was leading this disaster was softly swearing as we stood behind the Regina Performing Arts center. The auto parts store was directly in front of us and looking to the left the strip mall and Timmys stood silent and dark on the corner of 4th and Albert. Looking across the intersection I could see the old Carling place strip mall and right on the corner of the mall was the old Triple 8 Pizza, with its glass was lit up by a cheery glow that announced something was inside keeping warm. That was a problem as Regina was a ghost city since the Change with only a small outpost maintained by the North West Mounted Patrol.

    In the twenty years since the Change, the world had become very different, for most people not for the better. My parents had awoken as had everyone who was asleep to see a visual message that stated mankind was doomed but the Power had decided to give us a second chance. No one knew who this Power was but suddenly everyone was different. The funny thing was at first it seemed like a game. We all were level one characters that had the basic game stats.

    Intelligence, which was straight up smarts. A rocket scientist was still a rocket scientist.

    Wisdom, the ability to see into situations and people and act accordingly

    Strength, exactly what it means. People were strong or could become strong.

    Agility, again it was self-explanatory.

    Stamina, once you are out of stamina you are screwed, all movement slows down by 60 percent.

    Spirit, a stat that helps to regenerate both your hit points and your mana pool.

    Mana, the invisible energy that powers the magic that is what society is now built on.

    Health, the bar that showed how healthy you are, once empty you were dead.

    Only you could see your stats and mana and health bars as well as your class.

    By thinking a person could call up their stats and it would be displayed for them. The mana and health bars were always visible along with your level. The whole world had entered into an MMG, one that did not have clear-cut rules. Nothing electrical or more advanced than a simple blowback rifle would work anymore. Thank God for the plus 100 million Kalashnikov rifles out there. The truth was guns had saved mankind, the liberals at the time did not like that truth but they were the first to die off so their opinion did not count.

    Apparently, the issue that most of the world was going to starve to death in the first few months of the change did not matter much to a lot of the liberals in North America, the fact that they could not take pictures of themselves was what really pissed them off. It was almost fitting that the zombies got them first.

    The governments failed almost immediately, however, some agency¡¯s managed to survive. In Canada, we had the North West Mounted Police. They soon were known as the North West Mounted Patrol as police forces no longer existed. They did manage to contain and mitigate some of the horrors but huge amounts of people died. Too bad, they would not stay dead.

    The world was now made up of small communities, walled and gated. All the larger cities were ghost towns, abandoned and deadly. Wild things had taken up refuge in some areas, this included gangs of men and women who were not much better than animals. They would attempt to loot areas of a city but they never lasted long. Monsters had come back with the magic and most people were not prepared to deal with this new reality. It turned out that the preppers were actually ahead of the game, all those guns and ammo still worked along with the huge stockpiles of MREs and freeze-dried goods. They also adapted fast and were among the first to level up.

    Go ahead twenty years and here I am, the son of a Prepper with my trusty SKS slung on my shoulder and 100 rounds on 10 stripper clips with 5 in the magazine. Damn Canadian gun laws. I was in a Party with 4 other men, sent out to investigate a strange occurrence. Hell, I was not even supposed to be here, I had stopped by the NWMP fort at the old F-depot to say hello and drop off some furs to the trader located there when I was asked to join this little disaster.

    Reports had come in of something happening in the Hood, old homes set ablaze, weird noises in the night, that sort of thing. It was unofficial Elf territory but they had no permanent camps there. An interesting fact was that after the change all Aboriginals became Elves. Some force of their Elven heritage led them all to leave the cities and reserves of Saskatchewan and head down to Cypress Hills. There they had established their own kingdom and while Humans were not at war with them they were not in a peaceful relationship. It might have been the outright racism that flared up after the change. The fact of the matter was Elves and Humans did not get along.

    Apparently off on the East coast, anyone with Irish or Scottish blood was transformed into Dwarves. They soon had mines going where there had been no minerals to be found. The very world had changed along with all the living things on it. As I thought about these things I let my eyes continuously move up and down the street, cities were dangerous, and just down 4th avenue was the old city graveyard. The old graveyards were the worst, the older the undead the stronger the undead. It made no sense but the magic never did.

    Thomas beckoned my forward and whispered to me, ¡°Omachiw, I need you to get closer and see what the hell is happening in there. Tom here is a level 14 Tank and Dave and Jeff are DPS but they are at level 10. I can¡¯t risk sending in the men when I don¡¯t know what the hell I am facing. It might be an Ice Troll of a Winter Lich. I have heard that you are a Scout, so you are the best chance to get in close and observe the situation and report back to me.¡±

    I nodded and said, ¡°Alright I can go have a look, but those two DPS dudes, I have overheard them talking about taking me out and taking my SKS. If I see them trying to shadow me they won¡¯t be coming home. Remember I am a Freeholder and not part of your community and not subject to your laws out here in the wild.¡±

    I stared at Thomas until he nodded and said, ¡°I will take care of those two clowns, this is more important than them being greedy bastards.¡± I nodded and went past Thomas then slipping down the alley I crossed to the other side. I would go to 5th ave and cross Albert street then make my way north till I hit the old Hotel. I planned on going behind the Hotel and then crossing 4th avenue then walking between the old city graveyard and the strip mall till I could get close enough to look inside and see who the hell was in there. Hopefully, I would not see any Zombies or Ghouls. I hate Ghouls, they think they are the evolved form of Humankind and they are fricken Necromancers.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    Soon I was out of sight and then I paused in the shadows to observe the rest of the party. As soon as I had faded Dave and Jeff tried to follow me only to be stopped by Thomas. I could hear their voice becoming louder as they cursed me and called me a lying half breed. They would be dead soon, the kind of lack of control I witnessed meant they would not survive. As I turned to leave a sudden howl split the air, the cities Dire Wolves were out hunting and they sounded close. I walked silently going from shadow to shadow crossing Albert street then cutting behind the Hotel, I slipped across 4th and made my way through the thick underbrush that covered the train tracks as the went behind the strip mall. The graveyard was empty and silent not even a Zombie shuffling over the frozen grass disturbed the stillness.

    I sat huddled against one of the buildings and tried to see into the windows of the Pizza joint but it was no use. I could see the flicker of the flames but nothing was visible from my angle. The only way to look into the windows from ground level was going to expose me to whoever was in there. I slipped into the back and walked a little further down the tracks when I was sure that I could not be seen by my party members I jumped up to the roof, and with my hands grasping the edge I pulled myself up.

    It was something that was not supposed to be physically possible, sure people could increase their strength to have the power to do it but then the agility stat would be to low and negate their ability.

    In this world, your class dictated your primary stat and your secondary¡¯s. Once people hit level 5 a message appeared telling them to select a class. If you did not choose a class, your XP slowed to a crawl and leveling became very difficult. Most communities now had a holiday in the spring called Class day and people were celebrated when they would choose their class. Once they selected their class they were sent off, basically apprenticed to a higher-level player of the same class. After a year working with someone you were on your own, you had to produce to maintain your status in the community there was no more welfare system for freeloaders.

    Still, communities took care of their own, widows and orphans. The world was now a harsh place and people had to put effort into survival. Most people had managed to make it to level 10 to 15 with a few hard workers leveling up to level 20. I had not selected a class the day I was going to sit with Dad and figure out what I should do we had been attacked. Elves, they were free ranging on the wide prairies chasing the herds of Wild bison. A party of 30 warriors had caught up to Dad and Mom and engaged in a wicked firefight. In the end, 7 warriors and my family all came to the end of their days. The elves honored my folks, for putting up a great fight.

    I ended following them for weeks slowly picking them off one by one. It was here I learned that PVP XP did not slow down. I leveled with every 5 warriors I killed and by the time I was caught I had reached level 9. The three Elves had laid a cunning trap and I fell for it. When they brought me up from the pit I had fallen in they were surprised to see that a mere boy had destroyed their group. It was here that I was given my Elf name Omachiw. I was with them for 5 years, first as a prisoner than as a guest then finally as a friend.

    They taught me much of their ways when they discovered my little pointy ears. The fact that my family had aboriginal blood from a few generations back was enough to make me a little more and a little less than Human or Elf. My Human racial was survival, it meant that humans can take and adapted to pretty extreme conditions. Out of 10, it was 7, my Elf racial was night vision, and again out of 10, it was 7. Since most humans have about a 3 in night vision I was way ahead of the game. For some reason when the change occurred most people became full Elves, Dwarves or Humans. A very small percentage became half-bloods as we were soon called.

    So here I am now at level 14 without a class, a half-blood trained by the (unfriendly) Elves in survival craft. I had learned as much as I could about as many things as I could, I can hunt, skin cook and clean. Operate a forge and smelt weapons. Read and write both Human and Elvish. Most people assumed I was a scout or a hunter but the truth was I had found that even without the class perks I could compete.

    Once a class is selected the person receives a spell. Every 5th level the individual receives a new spell. The spells make leveling a lot easier but I had never tried to have an easy life. This was apparent as I crept towards the front of the building on my stomach. Tying a rope to one of the iron pipes that stuck out from the roof I slowly lowered myself down. I was at the far corner where the shadows were the heaviest and I had the best chance to not be seen. It was a dark night without a moon and only my night vision allowed me to see. Hanging upside down with my ankle twisted around the rope and my hands holding tight I peered into the dirty window which was lit from within by a large fire burning on the floor.

    Focusing, I could make out the silvery sheen that Winter Lichs have on their bones, looking past the Lich I soon saw what looked like a man, but as the fire danced higher I realized he was a Beast man. He looked like he belonged to the Rat Clan. The third member of the group also looked human, with red hair and pale white skin. She was speaking and as she turned I could see her eyes glowing red in the dim light. Damn me she may have been a Demon. I slowly pulled my way up and then silently made my way back off the roof and back to the Party of men waiting for me.

    I arrived and softly slipped behind Dave and Jeff and listened as they complained about the night, the cold, the weather and me. After a couple of minutes, I softly called out, ¡°Thomas.¡± The two men in front of me jumped a foot and cursed me as Thomas walked over. ¡°Well what did you find, or in the words of those two how f-upped are we?¡±

    I smiled as I replied, ¡°Pretty F-upped to tell you the truth, there is a Winter Lich, a Rat Beast man and what looked like a Succubus in there. I could not hear what they were saying but the fact they are in there together says volumes. I thought that the Demons would only show up outside your settlements during the week of a full moon. Or is that just more BS?¡±

    Thomas looked grim as he listened. ¡°Who the hell knows when they show up, ya it has been during the full moon week but no one knows anything about them. The succubus shows up and somehow targets men who leave the settlement, nothing is ever found. The fact that these monsters are all together is news that needs to get back to headquarters. Let''s head back and let the higher pay grades figure this one out.¡±

    Turning he quickly relayed that we were returning back to F-depot fort. The quickest way would be straight down 4th ave but traveling that long in a straight line would be a mistake. After discussing it we decided to head south to 5th ave and then go west three blocks the head down to 6th ave and go west again. We continued this till we hit Dewdney and then went North back up to 4th ave. We finally entered Rosemont as the predawn light was beginning. ¡°Thomas,¡± I whispered, ¡°I am bailing here, I have some things to do, but I will see you back at F-depot before I leave Regina.¡±

    I watched the others leave listening to Dave and Jeff mutter about lying half breeds. Losers, that would not be around much longer especially if the war for Regina was approaching. I slowly slipped down Forget street to the old house, my parent''s old house. I entered the yard through the secret gate I had made and then crawled through the tunnel to the basement window, opening it I slid down to my old room.

    Closing the window, I lit a small fire in the camp stove and allowed myself to warm up. Grabbing my old crank radio, I spun the crank for 5 minutes and then slid in the SanDisk card selecting the mp3 player I put on the old apple earbuds and laid down. I had no idea why a wind-up radio/mp3 player would still work when nothing else did. Maybe because it had been in the basement packed with some stuff. I just did not know nor did I care, I was just glad that it did. As the room warmed up the sound of 3 Doors Down singing Here Without You rocked me to sleep.

 Chapter 2 Allies

    I came awake instantly and opened my eyes just in time to see the fading figure a sad looking girl staring at me. The ghost disappeared but I was on high alert. My sister only appeared to me when danger was imminent. I slowly moved in the dim light and found a corner with shadows and waited. Within minutes the hidden window slid open and a small form dropped through. I stared in surprise at the red hair and as she stood up I noted her lush figure. She was all woman but also all demon and I made it a point to never get involved with women who lived in hot climates.

    I knew that she was stronger than the average level 10 man, I was not sure if she was stronger than me. Being strictly honest with myself the idea of rolling on the floor with a woman with a body like that was tempting. The fact that she could make my soul disappear as well as my body was enough to hold me back. I had been with a raiding party of elves a few years back and we had come upon a small encampment of Demons.

    Mainly Succubus with a few Helgaurds, they had captured several men and were playing with them. The men could not help themselves and would engage in sex with the succubus nonstop until they literally died. Having sex with a man was how they drained a person¡¯s soul. Once the men were no more the Helgaurds would come and throw the bodies onto a huge fire. It was not to cremate the corpse, what the demons were doing was having a BBQ with man as the main meat.

    I gestured to the atrocities taken place and asked the raid leader why Demons did not bother Elves.

    ¡°We do not have demons in our history Omachiw, only men do and in this new world legend and religion mix and this is the result. The Demons do not bother us and when they do encroach we kill them.

    I nodded, Elves spoke little but always spoke the truth. That afternoon we killed all the Succubus and all the Helgaurds. Two men survived the attack and once they witnessed the killing of the Succubus they attacked the raid. I killed both, they were rabid, it was apparent how strong the Succubus could influence a man. I also found out that being half Elf gave me immunity from the Succubus.

    As I watched Red go through my old dresser I was glad of that immunity. Her smell was dazzling, scented like lilacs, with a light overture of coppery blood and the smell of sex all rolled into one package that was constantly sending out pheromones designed to drive a man wild with lust. Luckily, I was immune or almost so it was enough for me to not lose control.

    As she rummaged through my old dresser I slid behind her and then said ¡°Boo.¡± As she spun around to face me I introduced my blackjack to the side of her head just behind her ear. Catching her as she collapsed I quickly laid her on my brother''s bed and then hogtied her hands and feet together in front with several strands of leather I had. Putting her on her side I went and stoked the fire, then grabbing some water bottles I filled the kettle and prepared to make tea. It was black and strong the way I liked to drink it. Sitting back in my old man''s old oak rocker I sipped my tea and waited for the Demon to awaken.

    With a soft groan, she stirred and then tried to sit up. Looking around she quickly grasped the situation and then looked at me. With a wiggle of her hips that was sexual even if the intent was to become comfortable she asked, ¡°Now what will you do since you captured me. You can take me and no one would know or care, you can make me your slave and I would have to serve you. Hell, you could even torture me or kill me, you have all the power here, so what will you do?¡±

    I sipped my tea and waited, it seemed to me that she wanted to talk and I had nothing better to do than listen as I tried to decide how I should proceed. I stared at her, the lush red hair almost glowing when compared to her pure white skin.

    Her breasts were full and firm with dark blue veins apparent in the skin. Her outfit revealed a lot of skin but stopped short of the nipple. The skin-tight leather outfit displayed her tight tummy and firm behind, with well-muscled legs ending in surprisingly dainty feet. I had expected hoofs, the last few Succubus I had seen had hoofs.

    Having seen my eyes catalog her body the Succubus smiled and said, ¡°I know you want me, all men want me, come here, I won¡¯t promise that I don¡¯t bite because I do, but I will promise you will like it.¡± Her eyes were glowing a soft red and as she licked her lips and I knew that I could have a few minutes of Heaven on earth, but then Hell would come calling.

    Looking her in the eye I asked, ¡°What is your name, I prefer to address people by their names?¡± Her eyes widened in surprise and she was silent for a minute then she said, ¡°I am called Lilith, the daughter of Eva. Why the Hell are you not responding to me, no man is capable of ignoring a Succubus. What is your power?¡±

    Rising up I poured another cup of tea then walking over to Lilith I helped her to sit up and then cut the leather holding her hands to her feet. Giving her the cup of tea I went and sat down and continued to sip my tea. I watched as she took a small sip and then smiled. It really lit up her face but I knew that regardless of how she looked, appearing like a teenaged girl could not disguise the fact that she was a Demon, not someone I would consider nice.

    ¡°Why are you being nice to me?¡± Lilith asked. I usually know men, I can read them like a book, but you, you are different. I can¡¯t smell the Human class magic on you, and you don¡¯t have the scent of trees as the Elves do nor the scent of the earth like Dwarves. You are a mystery and I love mysteries, I can just eat them up.¡±

    I responded with, ¡°The better question is what should I do with you, somehow you followed me here and that is not good for your health, also I am interested in finding out what you, the Ratman and the Winter Lich had to chat about last night.¡± I watched her face and I saw just a brief flash of surprise before a smile touched her lips.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.¡°That would be telling,¡± Lilith said. ¡°I never share secrets on the first date, not even if you spank me. Altho you are a handsome one so I might be tempted if you spank me hard.¡±

    Looking at her I felt a grim smile cross my face as I said, ¡°Enough already with the sexual innuendos if you can''t communicate without using them then just be quiet while I think.¡± I continued to stare at her noting that with the exception of the red eyes she was fully human in form. Also while she radiated a wild sexuality that would have tempted any normal man, it was not the same as the other Succubus I had encountered and killed. I smiled again as I realized the truth of the situation. She was half-blood. Like me.

    ¡°Lilith, I know what you are but what I don¡¯t know is what you are doing. You are half-blood, both Human and Succubus. What are you doing in Regina, it is a ghost town. Long empty of humans it has been slowly filling up with Beastmen and Undead. The NWMP have a small fort/trading post at the old F-Depot but other than that and the occasional hunter trapper men do not come into Regina. So what were you discussing last night?¡± We stared at each other and then something odd happened, time seemed to freeze for a moment and then it restarted.

    Lilith was still frozen staring at me but there was now another presence in the room. I looked at my bed and there sitting was the outline of a man.

    He laughed when he saw me and then said, ¡°This is funny, you are supposed to be asleep too. Interesting. Listen up sunshine, I am going to seize this moment and change you into something just because I can. This world is changing and will continue to change more. The Dragaians are coming back. They have their people out working with the others. I have me, and now you. We are opposed to them, they are bad, we are good, get it. Your main task is to help strengthen and unite people this will be done through a quest system. The people who are left have shown they can survive and level. Now they must grow strong and be ready. War is coming between us and them, the Jedi and the Sith, the light and the dark.¡±

    I stared at him and then asked, ¡°So who are we, the Light or the Dark?¡± With a grin, he replied, ¡°Does it matter that much, those days are long over.¡± Looking at me he then said, ¡°We were the good guys and I guess we still are, when the change happened most people died, those that did not die adapted and began to level up. In order to survive this brave new world, one must level and adapt then learn class skills and gathering abilities. If we want to win this battle then we must remember that and it helps to think of yourself as one of the good guys.¡±

    I thought of what he had said then asked him, ¡°So who are you and what is your place here?¡± I had many questions but I had the feeling that time was short and I had best gather what I would consider the big picture info.

    ¡°Good question, if you know my place in the world it will help you to know yours. I am the internet, the sum total of all of man''s thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Sounds crazy right, I was already becoming self-aware when the Change happened, and it affected me by freeing me from cables and hardware and giving me certain powers. I suppose logically I am the first one of my kind, and the closest analogy I can give you is I am a God. More like a Greek god than the Judeo Christian idea. I am not omnipotent nor and I omnipresent. I am not even omniscient altho I do know a lot, but thanks to Wikipedia even what I know may not be true. I guess I am a God in the embryo stage.¡±

    ¡°I am opposed to the Dragaians, they are an advanced race, that is magical, powerful and immoral. They want to rule the world, this one, and many others. They have done this before, awakened the magic of a world and changed it and all the things in it. Then they slowly set themselves up as the Gods of the world and move on. They do not know about me yet and so I have managed to observe and learn from them. Right now they are using agents like Sweetlips here to set up shrines and temples, where the magic will be gathered and given to the local Lord who in turn passes most of it up the line.¡±

    ¡°You half-bloods which by the way is a not a nice term were created to be able to bridge the gap between the new supernatural and the worlds new cultures. At any rate, time is fleeting and so I must go.¡±

    With that He moved impossibly fast and reached out and grasped my arm then spinning it around he rubbed his finger between my wrist and elbow and then said ¡°Laters,¡± then grabbing Lilith he snapped his finger and disappeared. The whole thing had happened incredible quick, and I did not realize what had actually occurred until the pain hit. The bastard had tattooed my entire arm with some weird letters and glyphs. My old man had a good library and I was sure that what I was seeing was something similar to what I had once seen. It was some kind of a computer language.

    I stood with gritted teeth and watched as the characters slowly began to move and transform when they finally stopped changing, my arm was now covered in a cursive script that looked like nothing I had ever seen, there were pictures of beasts and men plants and trees devils and angels. It looked friggin cool ablaze with sharp colors and contrasts. I just did not know what it all meant. What I did know was that my interface had opened and I now had a Devine tab right next to the Class tab. It was greyed out and not accessible yet but it was something no one else had. WTF.

    I knew that I had to leave if Lilith could find me here so could others. I quickly put together a pack of water food and gear, then I put away the SKS and grabbed the 22LR Henry repeating rifle and 250 Rounds of CCI Stingers and 250 rounds of CCI shorts. The shorts were very quiet, only a gun with a suppressor would make less noise. I wanted to see what was happening further in the City. I needed to be quiet and still be ready for trouble. I hoped my loadout would do that. I left the old house and headed north to the tracks, they were totally overgrown with trees and shrubs and would offer protection until I arrived at Albert street.

    From there I would head south to Wascana park and then I would circle the lake. As I walked I thought about what had just happened, it would seem we were screwed even worse than most people had thought. Survival was tough, now we had magical aliens that want to set themselves up as Gods and rule over us. They would not be ruling over me. I also wondered why the embryonic God had taken Lilith. I knew he had been eyeballing her bigtime while talking to me. It finally hit me, if he was the internet become self-aware then he was a sex fiend. Afterall the internet was about 70 percent porn when the Change had happened. I chuckled to myself, those two were made for each other if that was the case.

 Chapter 3 Making Friends

    Chapter 3 Making Friends

    Albert Street, I had memories of when I was young, being cold watching a Christmas parade, going cruising with Dad down to Wascana Park. Watching a lot of traffic drive up and down the road. Most if not all of those people were dead now. The world had changed and those of us left had changed with it. I felt lucky, my Dad had been prepared for something, and his foresight had seen us through the first tough couple of years. Now, this was my world, and I was one with it.

    I was at the train overpass on Albert street. Years of dirt and dust had filled it with enough material to allow plants to take hold. I was walking on the right side of the street going through the brush when I heard the scream. It was ahead but being under the tracks could cause confusing echoes. I shouldered the Henry and made my way up the slope, I heard another scream, it sounded young and female but it is hard to tell with children.

    The noise was coming from behind the Canadian Mental health building, a structure that had seen its better days long before the Change. I drifted past the Robins Donuts Burger King building and walked along the north side of the mental health building. There was a small area on the west side where cars could be parked and then a small alcove into the building, a sort of a half courtyard. I recalled a broken old picnic table there. It was now the source a what was clearly a girl yelling ¡°No-no.¡±

    I angled out enough to see two men were holding down a girl, who looked a little older than she sounded. They had her top ripped off and were laughing and grunting as they tried to remove her bottoms. I drew a bead on the first one and shot, the 22 short flew out at 720 feet per second and entered his skull before blowing out a hole in the back.

    As his partners, blood and brains dripped down on the man who was kneeling as he struggled with the girl he looked up and swore just in time for my next shot to enter his mouth and blow out the back of his neck.

    Knowing he was dead already even as his body tried to struggle to its feet I moved in a grabbed the girl and pulled her away from the pair of renegade rapists. Once I had her around the corner I removed my spare cloak from my pack and wrapped her in it. She was in shock but I could tell she was tough, we all were or we would not be here.

    Turning I walked back and had a closer look at the two. I had reacted fast and not noted any details but something had jagged my attention. Looking at the two bodies I realized it was the two idiots Dave and Jeff. Laying there dead with their eyes staring empty up at the grey sky.  I doubted that they had left anyone behind who would miss them. Still, at one time, they were babies being held by parents who loved them, or maybe not. Really, how the hell would I know?

    I bent down and looted the bodies finding two knives and a Norinco NZ85B 9MM with a two-tone chromium slide. A fricken Norinco, it was a Chinese made copy of a Czech made CZ85 9MM, thanks to my Dad for all those old gun magazines I had picked up a lot of useless knowledge plus they had pretty pics and were useful as TP when needed. I racked it only to find that it was empty, so I put it into one of my pockets I had sewed into my cloak and the then turned to the two packs.

    The first one held a few dirty clothes and some travelers bread, the second pack surprised me with a Dominion Arms Raider 12 Gauge side by side shotgun pistol. I quickly broke it open and found it held two shells, noting that they were solid slugs I whistled, this pistol would pack a wallop. In the old days, Dad had said that video games would show people getting repeatedly shot and not being hurt. He had called it BS and taught me that a 12gauge shotgun slug would take down any mammal in the world if it hit a vital. It would take down most without hitting a vital.

    Reaching deeper I pulled out a case of 18 shells, pocketing it all I thought these guys had managed to break into a home that had not been looted yet and somehow had found the 9MM and the Raider. Walking back around the corner I knelt in front of the girl and waited, she looked at me and then nodded and said, ¡°Thank you, those men would have done¡­¡± She could not continue as tears formed in her eyes.

    ¡°I know what those men would have done, but you are safe from them. They won¡¯t be bothering anyone anymore unless a Lich finds them. How did they get you and what are you doing this far away from F-depot?¡±

    I waited and observed her as she thought of what had happened to her. I had originally thought that she was young, but once I had observed her I realized that she was probably in her late teens. She had fully developed breasts and her hips were that of a woman. She was small but curvaceous getting to the time where her family would have been looking to marry her off to collect the dowry. Yep, all that old stuff was back.

    ¡°My name is Leeann and I am a level 4 healer, a priest actually. Pretty funny how we are called priests but have no God. At any rate, I am on my own, I was trying to get through the city to F-depot, I am heading West. I am from White city village, and to be honest, once my dad passed the local bigshot Mayor Walle as he calls himself came calling. He did not understand that I was not interested in what he had to offer, the bastard. I managed to stun him and then tie him up but I knew I had to flee. He controls the local militia and once he was done with me he would have thrown me to those dogs.¡±

    I nodded, it was a tale that I had heard to often, the NWMP could only do so much and some of the stronger villages and town had their own militia. They were hit and miss, the leadership could be good but many times they became despots. ¡°So, what is out West, the Vampires control Moose Jaw and it is a long way to Swift Current. Then Medicine hat is the next city that is still alive, but it is a tough town. Unless you have family there it would be best to not stay there.¡±

    Leeann spoke up and said, ¡°I am not staying on the Great Northern Plains, I am heading to the kingdom of B.C. people say that Revelstoke town has gotten the trains working, the big museum there had several of the old steam trains and they modified them to go on the tracks. Word is that they have made it to the coast and they are coming East sometime soon.¡±

    I nodded, I had heard the same rumors a couple of years ago but rumors were just rumors. Still, who am I to pop someone¡¯s balloons? ¡°Alright, I am glad that you have a plan, the question is what am I going to do with you right now. Regina has some problems, and to be honest I would not give you much of a chance to make it to F-depot from here. I am impressed that you made it this far from White City, but the monsters are stirring here, I am not sure what is what, that is why I am out scouting.¡±

    Leeann looked at me with confidence and said, ¡°Take me with you, I know that you are capable, and I won¡¯t be a burden, besides maybe you will need a pocket priest.¡± She smiled at me and suddenly I could see the girl behind the mask, alone, scared and not really capable of dealing with the wild all by herself. She was damn lucky to have made it this far. I stared at her brown hair and her brown eyes and suddenly I did not feel like being alone, at least not today. Knowing I might be making a mistake I nodded and said, ¡°Listen up Leeann, if you come with me you will have to listen to me and do what I ask. I am not a perv and you will be safe, but weird things are happening here, actually from what I understand the whole world is going strange, stranger than it has been.¡± I thought of meeting the new God of this world and what he had told me. Yep, a shite storm was coming.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Leeann nodded and then stood, dropping my cloak she took off her ruined shirt and stood there calmly as she asked me for a spare shirt. I made an effort to ignore her breasts, they were clearly showing the result of the cold weather. Her nipples were a dark brown and her breasts had no sag. One of the changes in people was that generally, we were all better specimens than before the change. Maybe not supermodel looks but for someone to be unattractive they had to have worked at it. The other change was no one really was sick anymore, we could be injured but would not get sick. Unless it was magical. Like Leeann''s breasts. Defying gravity, they were larger than I would have thought, at least a 36 D. Realizing that I was staring I looked at her and grinned.

    ¡°Sorry, it has been a long time since I have been this close to an attractive girl. I don¡¯t mean to stare, you kind of caught me by surprise.¡± I then reached into my pack and pulled out my spare shirt and handed it to her.

    Leeann smiled and said, ¡°I am glad that you noticed, I was not sure that you liked girls, I can usually tell but something is different about you. Don¡¯t worry about it, there is no room for modesty in my life. Just know this, If I say no I mean no.¡±

    I watched as the small knife appeared in her hand and then with a small shrug disappeared. It was cool, and a good reminder even the prettiest flower could now be deadly.

    We left the Canadian Mental Health building and went west a couple of blocks. There was a park one block south where the trees had taken hold. It was a little forest and I had a little fort there, it is where we would spend the night. Leeann proved to be a good companion, she had some bushcraft and with some tips from me, she soon was almost as quiet as a mouse.

    Once we made it to the park I followed my secret path as it led us to the middle. The small shed was still there, with the door still locked. I grabbed the key from the hiding place and then opened the door. There is the old double bed and a small camp stove, a shelf with a few books and a basin sitting on a countertop, and a sturdy box that contained a few rations. On the headboards shelf was a box that held 100 9MM rounds and 100 22 longs.

    We entered the cabin and shut the door, the evening was fast approaching and the light from the skylight was fading fast. The far wall of the cabin was piled high with wood cut to the right size to fit the camp stove. Leeann walked over and grabbed some kindling and without my asking began to build a fire. I settled my pack down and then grabbed the bedding and took it outside to shake it off. The temperature was falling fast, winters in Regina could be damned cold.

    Once back in the cabin I made the bed and then going over to the countertop I placed all my weapons down along with the ammo. Leeann came over and stared in surprise at the 5 knives, the Henry and the Norinco 9MM along with the Raider 12 gauge pistol. Reaching into my cloak I pulled out the box of slugs for the raider. All told it was a pretty significant group of weapons, people had been killed for a lot less.

    Going over to the bed I grabbed the 9MM rounds and put then next to the Norinco. Turning to face Leeann I said, ¡°This is going to be your gun, I would give you the raider but the recoil would be too much for you. The 9MM will drop a man or beast if it hits the head, heart or balls. Can you shoot? I mean have you had any real training in how to fire a firearm safely?¡± Leeann was standing next to me and I could smell her, and that was distracting but I focused on what I had to teach her.

    ¡°I have not had any real training, Dad would always say just load it and then shoot till it would not shoot anymore. So I would guess that means no. Would you teach me?¡± Leeann was looking at me and I could tell she wanted to learn how to use the weapon, she needed to know to feel safe.

    Damn straight I will, I thought. ¡°I am going to show you how but I ask you to be careful, there are a few rules. Do not point a gun at anything unless you are willing to shoot the gun if needed. Keep your trigger finger off the trigger at all times until you are ready to take the shot. Know your safety and how to use it without thinking. Always keep the weapon loaded. Never hand over your weapon to anyone.¡±

    Leeann nodded and we spent the next two hours going over gun handling. She was a natural and I felt pretty confident that I would not have to worry about her accidentally discharging the gun into my back. The little shed cabin had warmed up to about 35 Celcius by now and I had removed my outerwear and now took off my shirt. I was wearing a muscle shirt and as I turned around I heard Leeann gasp as she saw the tattoos I had on my arm.

    I glanced at my arm and noted that the markings had now spread and were now around my neck and down my other arm. Leeann looked at me and said, ¡°The tattoos are all over your back and both your arms. I have only seen old tattoos, where did you get these? I thought that tattoos did not work anymore.¡±

    Leeann had also removed her outerwear and had somehow tied her ripped shirt into a loose-fitting halter top that showed more than it hid. I smiled at her as she changed, she truly did not mind me seeing her breasts. Catching my smile she smiled back and suddenly the room felt different, we were no longer strangers but rather two people who were sharing a moment. Maybe even becoming friends.

    I thought of what I had seen in my old house and then thought why not and sat down on the bed and began to tell her everything. She was very interested in the Succubus and kept coming back to Lilith wondering why she had followed me and what she would have done. By the time I was done talking I felt like I had been talking for hours, which I had. The conversation had drifted and we had both shared about our lives and the things we had gone through.

    With both of us yawning I finally said, ¡°Time for bed, in the old days I would have given you the bed and slept on the floor. Those days are long over, if you want to sleep with me there is room. I will respect you and not mess around or you can have the floor.¡±

    Leeann answered by walking over to the bed and taking off her bottoms. She was wearing pink panties which were quickly covered by the blanket. ¡°If you snore I will elbow you,¡± she warned. I smiled as I let my pants down and went under the blankets. Before I could move Leeann grabbed my arms and then spooned into me.

    ¡°Girl, sleeping like this is going to cause me to have a physical reaction to your presence, I don¡¯t want you to be offended by this fact. It is just something that happens to men and women. I heard her giggle as I felt her hips press back against me and I knew that I would be having a sleepless night. As she turned my left hand slid onto her breast and I left it there for a moment. It felt good being this close to a woman. I did not pay to play as a lot of men did in the larger towns. So it had been a long time.

    As I went to move my hand from her breast she reached up and held it there. Then turning her head up Leeann whispered, ¡°Just hold me for a while, Omachiw. Just hold me tight.¡± How could I refuse as I laid there with her smooth body pressed tight against mine and my hand gently cupping her breast? Eventually, her breathing deepened and I knew that she was asleep. I tried to move away but every time I shifted she moaned a little and pressed against me. After a while, my eyes grew heavy and I too fell asleep.

 Chapter 4 Cathedral

    Chapter 4 Cathedral

    I felt Leeann shift to become more comfortable and I was instantly awake. I felt comfortable and relaxed and that somewhat scared me. I breathed in her scent and felt her warmth and wondered what the hell was I doing. I had been alone for a long time and I knew that if we continued along this path that I would not be alone anymore. At least I thought so.

    Making no noise I slipped out of bed and went to stoke the fireplace. It was cold and the little camp stove had burnt down to a few coals. I had worked hard at hiding the three-inch stove pipe amongst the trees outside and with the nearly constant wind that blew, I was sure that no one would smell the smoke. I was not too surprised when Leeann spoke, "How did you get those scars on your back, my god, you look like you were whipped. Why did they not heal? Everything heals perfectly since the change. Why didn¡¯t you heal?¡±

    ¡°These scars were done by the Vampires in Moose Jaw, they licked the knives before they cut and it stopped the wounds from closing right away and it left scars, it seems their saliva stops wounds from closing right away, this allows them to eat otherwise the punctures would self-seal.¡± I thought back to my meeting with the Elder, Mrs. Lee, she had wanted me to suffer and feel pain, but had not realized that the saliva also had a numbing effect on non-vampires. I had hung there for two days while being cut across my back every 15 minutes. After the first hour, I had felt very little pain. After two days of this, I had been cross-contaminated with the Vampire virus from their saliva.

    According to their law once I began to change they had to cut me down and wait to see if I would survive. Mrs. Lee had other plans, she had me brought south to the abandoned air force base CFB Moose Jaw. There they had put me in a tub with water and opened up my veins then left me to bleed out. Things were pretty hazy but I recall a man carrying me to the infirmary and then hooking up an IV between myself and him, I basically survived because of his blood and the fact that he chanted healing spells non-stop for at least 12 hours. When I finally came to I was tremendously hungry and he was gone.

    I did not undergo the full change into a Vampire, but enough of my DNA had changed so that a Vampire would pick up the smell of another Vampire from me. The whole Vamps are undead is all bull, they are living creatures, who cannot produce blood in their own bodies, so they had to top up once a month or so. If enough Vamp saliva enters the human through the neck puncture wounds the human will get the bad flu and then wake up as a Vamp. I was either lucky or cursed depending on how you look at it. Vampires are stronger and have better senses than humans, but they are not liked and if alone might be attacked.

    Humans don¡¯t like to think that they are not the top predator in the food chain even though in this new world we are not even close. Leeann was quiet and then asked, ¡°Hope I didn¡¯t put you on the spot, we all have our own scars some visible some not. Sorry.¡±

    ¡°Not a problem,¡± I replied, ¡°It is old history, this crazy lady thought I was making eyes at her daughter, and thinking back I probably was. I thought I was bulletproof back then. Man, I am lucky to be here. Let¡¯s get some food into us and then we have to hit the road, we will be cutting over to Cameron Street and then heading south till we hit College Ave. That is where it will get interesting, we will be heading in to see someone at the Cocoon, the Royal Saskatchewan museums storage facility.

    It was an original SaskTel building that was converted. The man I want to see has lived there for years, he used to work there as a museum tech -2. When the change happened, he was in the cocoon proper handling some old first nations artifacts. They became magical and somehow, they have formed a symbiosis with Eric. He can¡¯t leave the area but has been granted all sorts of powers. He is kind of like a Shaman but has no class. Anyway, I bring him some fresh game and news once in a while and he gives me advice. I think he is lonely and misses people, but very few make it there to see him. Poor bugger.¡±

    ¡°Wait what, I mean how does he survive, what does he eat and drink, how does he heat in the winter?¡± Leeann sounded both excited and puzzled, it would be fun playing a museum guide for her at the cocoon.

    ¡°I will show you how he survives when we get there, it will be pretty frikken amazing. But getting there will be the challenge of the day. We will be traveling through Cathedral area, named after the Big Roman Catholic cathedral on 13 ave. We will be walking right across the street from it if you want to have a look at it, it is pretty amazing. However, like all the old churches and buildings that had meaning for people, they have also changed and are now different.

    The Cathedral affects different people in different ways.¡± As I finished talking Leeann once again had questions, ¡°What do you mean they changed, and how do they affect people. Will I be affected? What will happen¡±?

    I tried not to stare but as we were talking the blanket had slipped off her shoulders exposing her well-formed breasts, her perky nipples, and her taut stomach. It was enough to distract me and as I was still naked the effect was pretty obvious. Leeann leaned forward with a wicked glint in her eyes and said, ¡°I can see that you are indeed up and ready to go.¡± Then with a smile, she covered herself up and then said, ¡°I won¡¯t look if you want to get dressed but just so you know I am not telling the truth.¡±

    ¡°Wench,¡± I said. ¡°You are what Dad would have called a tease, and what I call a real distraction.¡±

    ¡°Is that so,¡± Leeann said as she slowly rolled half onto her side and slid a long-tanned leg out from beneath the covers. ¡°Well, to be honest, you are a bit of a distraction for me as well. You are full of amazing information, and you know Regina, and you know how to take care of yourself. Plus, you have a nice scarred body, are good looking and you are treating me right.¡± I had sat down on the edge of the bed after pulling on my pants, and suddenly I found myself holdingIf you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Leeann as she leaned into me and whispered, ¡°Now would be a good time to kiss me.¡±

    That seemed like a heck of an idea and so that is what I did, and before I knew it my pants were back down on the floor and we were intertwined together, with the blowing wind sounding a counterpart to Leeann¡¯s soft moans of pleasure as we explored each other¡¯s bodies. It all came to a climax all to soon and I found myself once again spooning with Leeann.

    ¡°What are you thinking?¡± Leeann asked.

    ¡°I am thinking about us, and what we are doing, ¡°I replied. ¡°I don¡¯t want to hurt you and I sure don¡¯t want you to think this is just me using you, I guess I don¡¯t have a better answer than that. I feel like there is something here between us, and it means something to me. I just don¡¯t know what.¡±

    We were both silent after that for several minutes then Leeann said, ¡°I feel it too and I know that I don¡¯t think this is just casual, I have been around enough to know that I would not sleep with anyone, not even a man who had saved me. There is something here between us, and I think we should just let it be and see what happens.¡±

    I nodded, ¡°That sounds like a good idea, now enough of this serious stuff.¡± I began to kiss the back of her neck and soon we were occupied again.

    When we finally left the cabin it was around ten in the morning, we both had shared something and we both wanted to see what would happen. I had to remind myself twice to pay attention to the city, my thought kept drifting to Leeann, remembering her hard hands grasping my shoulders pulling me down to her, seeing the fire in her eyes and hearing her ragged breathing as we ground ourselves together. Damn it I was doing it again. I held up my hand and we stopped near the corner of Cameron Street and Victoria Ave. I breathed in deeply and slowly exhaled as I slowly expanded my awareness of the surrounding area.

    Breath in, breath out. I could not see it but I could feel it, something was out there, waiting, watching, knowing I was coming. As I centered myself I turned to look at Leeann and whispered, ¡°Do you feel it?¡± Seeing her shake her head I pointed with my chin westward on Victoria Ave and then sweeping south down Cameron Stree. ¡°Something is there, it knows we''re here and is waiting for us.¡± The abandoned homes set a tense atmosphere and the unnatural stillness of the air increased the feeling that something was wrong.

    ¡°Once we make it to the cocoon we will be safe, I just feel damn uncomfortable right now, it is like an itch between my shoulder blades, I can¡¯t explain it but man I can sure feel it.¡± It felt lame trying to explain it to Leeann but I owed her the explanation. I watched as she nodded, her eyes fixed on me, knowing that she was putting her trust in me. I hoped it was justified. Turning we continued on down Cameron street until we hit 13 ave. Standing on the corner I whispered,

    ¡°Have you ever had any old world candy?¡±

    Seeing her shake her head I smiled, the feeling of being observed was still upon me but I wanted to do something special for Leeann. ¡°Follow me,¡± I said. ¡°This place used to be called Dessart sweets Ice Cream, and it had an amazing amount of Candy from all over the world in it. People looted it before the fled the city, but I found out that basement was not looted and is still full of lots of stuff.¡±

    We made our way past the debris and I moved aside a few things to make our entrance easier. Once inside the gloomy main room was a mess of broken shelves and garbage thrown on the floor. Going back behind the counter we went down the stairs into the basement, there was very little light so I snapped a glow stick, I still had pretty good vision, but I knew that Leeann would be walking blind. Using the pale green light of the glowstick we came upon quite a few boxes. Rummaging through them I told Leeann ¡°If it is hard candy you can still eat it if it is Licorice it is good but very salty. Help yourself.¡±

    As I waited I quickly grabbed a couple of bags of Danish licorice for my buddy at the cocoon and then once Leeann had grabbed a few things we made our war back topside. Leaving the store we quickly crossed the street and continued down Cameron street a few feet stopping to let Leeann look at the Cathedral.

    ¡°That is amazing,¡± she said. ¡°Is it possible to enter the building, I mean I would love to have a look inside. What do you say Omachiw, is it safe?¡±

    I looked at Leeann, she was once again focused on the cathedral, heck it was probably the largest building she had ever seen since the change. The tallest towers downtown had changed also and were now also towers of about 5 stories. Magic had altered everything. Glancing at the overgrown parking lot next to the building I sighed. ¡°Alright we will go have a peak but if you feel strange or see something kinda different than we have to leave. Everyone who comes experiences something different, sometimes the changes or the things they see last.¡±

    ¡°What did you see?¡± Leeann asked. I thought for a moment, we had shared a lot but there were somethings I did not want to remember or share. Still, I could answer her without reliving the past. ¡°I saw the spirit of my little sister, she died before the change. Everyone now and then I see her still, usually when I am about to go somewhere or deal with something dangerous.¡±

    Leeann looked at me with amazement, ¡°That is so cool, it is like having your own personal guardian angel.¡± I nodded, maybe it was. We crossed the street and slowly made our way to the front of the Cathedral. ¡°Did you notice that on the other side there was another church?¡± I asked.

    Leeann slowly shook her head looking puzzled, ¡°No I missed that, that is so odd, how could I not see it?¡±

    ¡°Everyone seems to miss it, they just don¡¯t notice it, they are so focussed on the cathedral that nothing else catches their eye.¡± As I explained I could tell that she was barely paying attention to me, the lure of seeing or receiving something from the cathedral was too great. It was probably a good thing that few people could make it this deep into Regina or the cathedral would become a pilgrimage.

    ¡°Follow my lead and stay close, the front doors are open so we will head there, we will have to climb a bunch of steps to get in and that is when we will be the most exposed. You ready?¡± I asked. Seeing her nod we made our way to the sidewalk and crept along it the bushes and trees next to the cathedral providing us with a modicum of cover.

    Reaching the steps we quickly climbed and then taking a moment to listen we entered the vestibule of the church.

    Leeann was almost in a trance as she walked towards the sanctuary, ignoring me she entered the inner sanctum. I followed her intending to grab her arm but as soon as I entered my vision blacked out and I found myself unconscious.

 Chapter 5 Mary the Mother of God

    Chapter 5 Mary

    I slowly opened my eyes to see an attractive woman in her mid-twenties looking at me with compassion.  Blinking I refocused on her, she seemed familiar but I could not place her.

    ¡°Shhh, relax Omachiw, everything is alright.  When you arrived here it was overwhelming to the human spirit within you and you passed out, but now you are fine.¡±  I felt her hand on my forehead and I could see the compassion in her eyes, something about her kindness reacted within me.

    I felt a sense of peace and a calmness that was rare in my life.  Looking at the woman I asked, ¡°What is your name and where am I?¡±  I stared at her seeing the fine laugh lines around her eyes and the intelligence and calmness that radiated from her.

    ¡°My name is Mary and as to where you are, that is a little harder to explain, you entered the cathedral and then you translocated here.  This is a place of peace where very few come, and no one stays.  I can tell that you have the mark of Theo upon you which is perhaps why the cathedral sent you here.  It is somewhat self-aware and generally gives people a push in the direction they need to go.¡±

    I suddenly remembered Leeann and sat up, looking around I could see that I was in a pastoral setting, it felt like one of the dog days of summer, warm with a gentle breeze.  Looking at Mary I still could not place her but she really reminded me of someone I had seen.  Closing my eyes for a moment I asked, ¡°Did a young lady arrive here with me, she had entered the cathedrals sanctum ahead of me by a few seconds?¡±

    I opened my eyes and noted that Mary was looking down at me with compassion, which for some reason sent a chill of foreboding up my back.

    ¡°The girl is safe, she is still in the cathedral and believe me that old building is big on the law of sanctuary.  No harm will come to her while she is there.  She is being shown her future, what could be, what was, and what is.¡±

    As Mary finished talking I still felt a chill and so I asked her, ¡°Why do I feel something is off then?¡±

    Mary lifted her hand and stroked my temple and said, ¡°The girl Leeann, she longs for safety and security in this new world.  Life has not been easy or kind to her.  The fact that she still has a gentle spirit is a testament to her character.  I fear that having seen who she is and what she wants one day soon you and her will part ways.  Your life has never been full of peace or security; indeed, now that Theo has explained what really happened to this world I expect that your life will be one of struggle and hardship.¡±  Her voice was full of compassion as she continued.  ¡°You will be his agent to affect change within this world.¡±

    At her words, I felt a surge of sadness but at the same time, I knew that she was right.  Still, it hurt, I like Leeann and knew that she felt the same.  Still, I knew she wanted peace and safety which I could not provide.  Looking at Mary I suddenly recognized her.  Holy cowbells, it was Mary.  Her statue and paintings were in almost every church, and while they were accurate they did not do her justice.

    ¡°Your Mary, the mother of Jesus, what the heck, how did you, I mean where did you come from.  You are supposed to be up in Heaven, speaking of which, why the heck did God allow the change.  I mean he is the big guy right.¡±  I suddenly stopped as I saw the look of sadness on Mary.

    ¡°It is alright, yes, I am the mother of Jesus, and as to why I am here and why this happened, I can only tell you this.  In the years that people prayed and worshipped at the Cathedral, they always gave of themselves, in a way they left some spiritual energy, and when the change happened the energy was somehow combined with the new Magic to create something new.  The cathedral and I awoke to discover the world was very different and we slowly began to be able to figure out things.  Theo arrived soon after we awoke and was able to clarify most of what we did not know.  So, while I am the mother of Jesus I am not that woman, I never sat with my son in Heaven, I do not know why God allowed the change.

    What I do know is that I am here to help the people who find their way to the cathedral, both the cathedral and I have that calling.  We are an interesting pair the cathedral and me.¡±

    I nodded, it fits in with what I knew.  ¡°So, both you and the cathedral help those that need it.  I guess that is not too often, as I don¡¯t see many people coming this deep into the city to get to you.  How does Theo fit into all this?¡±

    Mary smiled and her face lit up, ¡°Theo is amazing, he helped me to hone my powers as they developed and we spent a lot of time together.  We are very close.  He has talked to you as you have his mark.  I guess you could say that makes us family.¡±

    I was not a fool and I knew that when she said they were very close, she meant that they were very close.  Well, he was the God of this land, and Mary was always a part of the whole God thing.  Who was I to judge, as I looked at her I could tell she was an attractive woman.  If anything, I felt a little bit jealous after all, I had just been told that my budding relationship was a no go.

    I must have reflected some of what I felt on my face as Mary suddenly leaned down and hugged me then whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t worry there is someone out there for you, she is the glove to your hand, the fire to your wood.  You will know this when you are surprised by joy.¡±  I looked into her eyes and saw she was telling the truth.

    ¡°Now my time to have you hear is almost up, so please accept this gift, it is my mark and you are the only person in the world to receive it.  It will give you access to a little bit of my power and wisdom when you need it, but it is a gift I can only give freely, and you must accept it freely.

    This was a no-brainer when you have the mother of God (before the change) offering you a free gift of some of her power and wisdom you do not refuse.

    ¡°Thank you, Mary I accept your gift with Gratitude.¡±  As soon as I said those words Mary bent down and gave me a kiss, not the chaste virginal type you would expect but a full-bodied enjoyable kiss.  As she pulled back from kissing me I could feel a pain in my chest, and pulling open my shirt I saw that another tattoo was starting on my left side.  I looked up at Mary but suddenly everything was dark again and I closed my eyes as I fell to my knees suddenly dizzy.

    Opening my eyes, I was aware that I was just inside the inner sanctum of the Cathedral, and that sitting on a bench right in front of me was Leeann.  Her face was contemplative and I knew that she was reviewing all that had happened to her here.

    ¡°Hi,¡± I said.  ¡°Is this all you thought it would be like?¡±

    Leeann looked at me and smiling a little sadly, said, ¡°It is amazing, I can¡¯t really explain what happened but I know that I have been shown some choices for my life.  I am going to have to make a hard left or right soon and I don¡¯t know which way I am going to go.¡±

    I nodded, I already knew what the final choice would be.  ¡°We have to get going right away, but give me a moment, please.  I slowly began to remove my weapons and place them on the bench.  ¡°Stay here I will only be a moment.¡±  As I walked slowly to the front of the church I thought of what I had seen and what it meant.  To be honest it was starting to piss me off, to lose someone before you really had them.  Sighing I thought my life is full of sad stories.  Once at the front, I turned to the left and in an alcove, there she was.  Mary, my benefactor, my patron, my Goddess?  I did not know what our relationship was but I could feel/sense her statue was there.

    Walking over I gently reached up and touched her left hand and whispered, ¡°Thank you.¡±  I suddenly felt her fingers squeeze mine and then let go.  Turning I walked back to Leeann who was looking at me with curiosity.  ¡°What was that about,¡± She asked? Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Just saying thank you to a friend,¡± I answered.  I could tell that she was not satisfied with my answer but I felt no need to share what had happened to me.  Maybe if things had turned out different but not now.  Giving her a smile I finished equipping all my weapons and then holding the Henry repeater at the ready we left.  It was now late afternoon and once we were at the door the wind could be felt.

    Closing the door, I patted the frame and for a moment I could hear a faint rumble like that of a contented cat purring.  Weird stuff in this new world.  We left the cathedral behind and slowly made our way south to College Avenue.  Turning eastwards we crept up the Albert street and once there turned north for half a block until we arrived at the cocoon.

    The trip had passed without my feeling the dangerous presence I had felt before.  In fact, it had been almost too easy, no beast men were sighted nor any monsters.  Opening the door, I walked to the inner door and knocked loudly.  In a matter of minutes, it was opened by a person of many years who eyeballed me and grunted.

    The whole inner building was about 28 Celsius and it felt good to be warm after the chill wind outside.  Since the change people are hardy, things that would kill them before now simply would make people feel uncomfortable.  We are never sick and don¡¯t wake up with morning breath.  In some ways the change has helped us to be better, no one has flatulence anymore unless they really try.  It was the magic, it was everywhere in this world and no more so than here.

    ¡°This whole building and everything inside it are magical, sort of like the cathedral but it all centers around Bill.  He is the focal point, probably one of the strongest magical beings I have ever met.¡±  Turning around I pointed at the old man and said, ¡°Bill meet Leeann, she is a friend and I have told her that you are amazing, so don¡¯t let me down.¡±

    The old man smiled and suddenly he was a young human in his early 20¡¯s with a ready smile and an air of power about him.

    ¡°Omachiw, I can never fool you, how are you doing?¡±  We grabbed arms and did the whole man hug thing and for a moment I felt a surge of happiness at seeing an old friend.  Bill turned towards Leeann and said, ¡°My home is your home, as a friend of Omachiw¡¯s and as a friend of mine.  I looked at Leeann and could see that she recognized Bill.  He was the one the cathedral had shown her.  I looked at Bill and I could feel his interest as he politely stared at her face.

    Smiling at them both and ignoring the sadness I felt I said, ¡°Bill I told Leeann you would surprise her, why don¡¯t we go somewhere warm and tropic and relax on a beach?¡±  Bill looked at me and grinned and then winked at Leeann, and said, ¡°I hope you have a bathing suit you are going to need it.¡±

    Following Bill, we climbed the stairs and entered a large room that was full of birds of all kinds flying around.  Going through the room, we entered another that had a number of dioramas lining the walls.   Bill walked to one that showed a pastel sunset next to an ocean that had waves gently lapping a sandy shore.  Extending his hand to Leeann, Bill looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

    ¡°You to go ahead, mind if I go hunting over there, and I pointed at a diorama that showed a summer forested scene.  ¡°Oh here, I almost forgot,¡± and I handed Bill the European licorice I had scavenged.  Waving at them I said, enjoy and then turned and jumped into the diorama I had selected.

    ¡°What the hell, cried Leeann.  Where did he go?¡±  Bill looked at her and smiled and said, ¡°Watch.¡±

    Leeann looked at eh diorama and soon a small figure appeared, walking closer to the diorama she suddenly said, ¡°That is Omachiw.  My god, he is in there.¡±

    Bill laughed and said, ¡°Yes he often goes into that one to hunt, one time he was there for six months.  Come on let¡¯s go to the beach.¡±  Taking Leeann¡¯s hand Bill simply walked into the beach diorama and pulled Leeann behind him.  Leeann looked around, the air was salty from the ocean and the waves made a pleasant lapping sound.  The sun was warm almost hot and without a thought, she stripped down to her panties.

    Bill stared at her in amazement and could not take his eyes off her breasts.  Noticing his look Leeann smiled and then said, ¡°Hey Bill, eyes up oh the heck with it.  Is the water safe to go in?¡±

    ¡°Huh, oh ah yes nothing will bother you here, it is totally safe,¡± Bill stuttered, his eyes drinking in Leeann¡¯s body.

    ¡°Then get undressed and come in the water with me,¡± Leeann yelled as she ran into the warm sea.

    Bill ran down towards the water and his cloth simply vanished as he entered the water.  Leeann looked at him with amazement and then grabbed him and pushed him under.  With a laugh Bill grabbed her and they began to splash each other as they played in the sea.

    Part Two

    I looked up into the sky and waved at Leeann and Bill before turning around and walking deeper into the forest.  Once out of sight I stopped and took in a deep breath.  The air had a rich fragrant smell from the pine tree and the duff laying on the floor of the forest.  I stopped for a few moments to enjoy it, watching the shadows running across the ground as the tree moved in the breeze.  Getting my bearings from the large mountain range off to the right I began to track towards the jagged peaks.

    I had built a shelter in the foothills near several fast-flowing streams where the hunting was good.  I hoped it was still standing, I had spent a lot of time there.  After traveling for several hours, I reached the river I called the Forks and made my way through a shallow spot to a large spit of land. Really it was an island that was covered with brush and trees.  The river dramatically widened below the island with several small tributaries cutting through the land itself.  Scrambling up the bank I found the old game trail and quickly disappeared from view.

    After traveling for about half an hour I reached the small hill that I had used as a base camp.  The shelter was overgrown but still standing.  I grabbed my wood hatchet and walked into the trees to cut myself a pine branch.  It would be my broom.  Returning to the camp I began to sweep away the leaves dirt and pine needle.  Once I had the fore pit uncovered I turned my attention the to shelter itself.

    The back wall was about 2 meters high, comprised of wood cut to length and then pounded into the loam.  I had then placed 4 branches. 2 short and 2 tall on each side, they extended up at an angle and then had run 2 branches lengthways across them, these were the support for the rest of the branches that I had placed for a roof.  The branches overhung the rear and the sides by about a foot, which gave me about 7 feet by 5 feet of actual shelter.

    I had found a swampy area near one of the rivers that was full of a thick moss which I had harvested to place on my roof.  The roof was now waterproof and alive with the moss taking root amongst the branches.  I had then dug in 4 stakes and used them to support the side walls that climbed to the top of the roof.  In between the stakes I had simply cut branches to length and piled one on top of another.  I had also piled lots of moss along each outer sidewall and it had also taken root.

    I had then constructed a simple bed of logs with notches to support the logs on top.  4 sets of logs had put my bed up high enough to use as a bench comfortably.  I then had notched branches to fit across the bunk.  By piling on some of the moss cut fresh I had a comfortable bed that was off the ground and sheltered.

    About a meter and a half, I had my firepit.  It was a little short of 2 meters and about half a meter deep.  I had filled the bottom with river sand and gravel and then placed flat rocks on the bottom.  I had then built up the sides and the backs with rocks forming a semi-enclosed fire pit that reflected the heat right into the shelter.  Once I had everything cleared out I went into the woods and found some hardwood trees that were dead but still standing.  Dangerous things, I used a rope and pulled a couple down and then unfolding my wood saw I quickly sawed it all into useable lengths.

    By the time I was done night had fallen and I was hungry and thirsty.  I lit a fire and then walked down to the river and filled both of my water bottles.  Why drink stale water when fresh glacier-fed river water was available.  Returning to the camp I crumpled up some of dried meat and vegetables that I always kept on hand.  I would hunt tomorrow but tonight I would have a savory soup.

    I soon had the soup heating with the meat and vegetables along with a pinch of spice.  Sitting back, I let the fire die down, it was not cold and I did not want to roast myself as I slept.  I had a lot to think about.  Leeann was a sadness but I knew that putting her with Bill was the best thing to do, he was lonely and she wanted safety which he alone could provide.  They were both good people and I knew it would work out for them.  I had enjoyed being with her but my path led in a far different direction.

    Pulling off my shirt I stared at the new tattoo on my left chest, it was Mary encircled with what looked like tiny symbols but as I looked closer I could see that it was some kind of a computer program script.  Mary was in the center looking out with a warm smile and was holding what looked like a flower but was actually a lightning bolt.  The background was a copper color and the whole thing was more like a photograph than a tattoo.

    Not being sure what the tattoo represented I opened my interface and looked at the options.  What I saw was curious, it was a new spell and a new buff.  The spell was called Devine Grace and it gave me a 3-minute period of time during which all mobs or enemies would lose interest in me.  The buff was called Answered Prayers and it was a 24-hour buff that allowed me to focus and use my mana to exert control and direct the actions of others without their being aware of it.  That was an extremely powerful ability and could be cast all day and on as many people as I wanted as long as I had mana.

    The only downside was the fact that I did not have a class and depending on what class I chose my mana reserves could be quite low.  But still, it could be used as a ¡°Hail Mary¡± situation solver.  Thinking of these things I banked the fire and then spread out my blanket and soon fell asleep.

 Chapter 6 The Treant

    Chapter 6 The Treant

    I awoke with my senses fully aware and a small knife already in my hand.  Something had disturbed me and I felt uneasy.  I continued to lay there listening for a few minutes and then opening my eyes I looked around.  It was predawn with the grey morning light filtering through the trees.  A fog lay on the land and covered the island in a grey mist which could have hidden anything.

    I slowly stood and equipped all my weapons then shouldering my pack I walked down a hidden game trail and was soon lost in the mist.  I traveled to the edge of the island and forded the river at a shallow point then turned and made my way towards the mountains.

    Whatever had awoken my had left the area or I was unable to locate it.  I decided it was time to explore, during my last few forays here I had always headed south this time the mountains called me towards them.  The land was empty, I had never seen any other intelligent beings here, only wildlife.  The hunting had been good and the solitude had nurtured my spirit.  I had time as I traveled to think about everything I had learned.

    In the end, my conclusion was, the world was a shitty place and life was hard, but it was now my world and it did have benefits.  I had no idea how I was supposed to help the world and to tell the truth I did not care.  Those sorts of things would happen when they happen.  My dad had always told me just live day by day, life was like a river and you could fight it and get tired or flow with it and master the currents, either way, it was going to move you.  Smart man my dad, I really missed him and mom.

    By noon I was entering a region of foothills, loosely covered with deciduous forests with a sprinkling of pine.  Climbing a small hill, I found myself on a plateau, a large meadow took up most of the space with a small river fed lake at the far end.  What caught my attention was the lone structure I could see near the distance.  I had never seen anything fabricated before and I was instantly on alert.

    Slowly I made my way to the lake then towards the structure with all my senses tuned to my surroundings and my Henry Lever action held at the ready.  I could detect nothing the meadow seemed empty and with the exception of a fish jumping in the lake the area was still.  As I approached the building I noted that it was a tower about 3 stories high and 20 meters around.  The doorway was open and had been that way for a long long time.  I entered the building noting the thick construction used in the building of the tower.  The interior was one wide open space with stone stairs climbing to the next level.  Aside from some old wooden furniture, benches and a table the first floor was empty.

    The air had a musty smell and no sound was to be heard.  Keeping the Henry at the ready I climbed to the second story here the layout was the same but this must have been the bedroom/ den.  A large bed and a bench and a desk were visible.  I climbed up to the 3<sup>rd</sup> floor and saw that it was a library/study.  The walls were lined with old books and scrolls, the shelves held no dust on them.  Everything was in a state of perfect preservation; clearly, strong magic had been used here.

    I climbed the last flight of stairs and opened the small door to the roof, stepping out I realized that the roof was a garden with a small tree-like statue in the middle and many flowers and shrubs spaced all around him.  It was a peaceful and pretty place with the lazy hum of insects and the quick flight of small birds going from plant to plant.  I strolled the perimeter not seeing any danger and looked down at the lake and the meadow.  From the height of the roof, it was apparent that the meadow had once been cultivated.

    This would make a good place for a small village perhaps up to 100 people could survive here in peace.  Between farming the land, fishing and hunting there would be no danger of hunger.  The climate here rarely dropped to below zero Celsius it was a quiet removed area.  As I was thinking about these things I was slowly walking towards the strange tree-like statue.  As I walked within 5 feet of it I suddenly realized me danger when it opened its eyes and extended its hand to me.

    Firing off three darts from its hand it then used the other hand to throw a cloud of spores at me.  The darts had penetrated my skin and immediately frozen my body with the exception of my airways.  As the spore cloud reached me it seemed to settle around my head and after a minute I had to take a breath in and that was when I passed out.

    Waking up slowly I felt a lethargy in my body and a heaviness in my head.  I tried to move but found my limbs and torso were immobilized by vines which were growing out of the ground.  As I twisted my head I felt a sharp pain in the back of my skull, persisting I saw that a vine seemed to be running from my skull to the tree-like creature.  Holy Hells.  Suddenly I heard/felt a voice speak directly to me from the creature.

    ¡°Mortal man, do not be alarmed, I have restrained you to facilitate this conversation, you have my assurance for what it is worth that no harm will come to you.  I am a Treant, my name is Okar and I am unfortunately the last of my kind here in this empty world.  I am sure you have some questions so I will let you ask and I will answer.¡±

    I thought for a moment, I could sense no guile or deceit within the Treant, so relaxing I asked him, ¡°What happened here, why is this world empty and what is that dark presence I have felt?¡±

    Okar nodded his head and said, ¡°This world was once populated by my people, but a strange race of beings appeared from the stars, they wielded powerful magic that was much different from the magic of my people.  By the time we realized what was happening we were too few to do anything but hide.  The strangers somehow took our magic and that of the world, then they left, but they also left behind a being we call the watcher.¡±

    ¡°We are masters of life magic and yet we cannot detect life in the watcher, all we know is that it travels to and fro across the world and when it finds a Treant it destroys them.  I am the last of my kind and have used much of my magic to remain hidden but now my time is ending.  My magic is failing and that is why the watcher is searching, it can somehow sense my being but it still cannot locate me.¡±

    ¡°You are fortunate, it was not looking for you, it probably saw you as an animal and left you to be.  Once my magic fails it will come here and then it will destroy me.¡±

    I nodded, ¡°Is there anything I can do to help you?  I asked.  I felt that this old wise creature deserved better than to be hunted down and destroyed, let it spend its last days in peace.  I waited for Okar to respond and was surprised at what he said.

    ¡°I have a proposition for you, young human.  If you will help to ensure the survival of my people I will help you.  I am connected to you by what you would call a microcluster of nerves which I have grown into your cerebral cortex, this is how we are communicating.  As I did this I scanned your body with my life magic and realized that you are damaged genetically.  You have the best of two races within you, Human and Elf, however, the code that makes your being has been altered by a DNA virus at the molecular level.¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    I nodded it was the damn Vampire virus, I knew it had altered me.  ¡°Please continue Okar, how has the virus damaged me, I am slightly stronger and have better hearing and vision.  Fortunately, I don¡¯t have to search for a victim to receive blood from as my body is still capable of making blood.  While I did not ask for it the virus has not changed me that much.¡±

    ¡°No, not yet,¡± Okar began, ¡°But it is still at work on you, in 10 or 15 of your years you will be what did you call them, a Vampire.  I cannot reverse the virus, but I can tweak the benefits and stop any further change.  Also, I can add some Treant DNA strands which would be of use to you especially if you agree to help me.¡±

    I was silent for a moment I had thought I was free from the curse of being transformed, it was a shock.  Still, if Okar could stop the transformation and ¡°tweak¡± as he put it the benefits that would be a help to me.  ¡°Okar,¡± I began, ¡°That sounds good, but what is this Treant DNA you want to add, no offense my leafy friend but I don¡¯t want to grow bark.¡±

    I felt the Treant laughing at me and suddenly I smiled back, it was just a funny moment between us but I suddenly felt I had a friend here.

    ¡°Nothing like that my friend, I am afraid that is beyond what I am offering.  What I can do is increase your recovery time if you are in sunlight, and increase your strength, trees are strong as you know.  Also, you will have an affinity with nature, plants will respond to you and the earth will be gentle with you.  Your mana flow will increase and you will be able to take mana from all growing things.  Plant-based poisons will not have any effect on you and finally, your lifespan will be dramatically increased.¡±

    I sat back stunned those were amazing attributes to receive as well as the fact that I would not have to worry about turning into a Vamp later.  But as good as it gets I know that there is always a hook.  ¡°So, what is the price I pay for these ¡°gifts¡± and how long will my lifespan be increased?¡±

    Okar nodded his head and said ¡°Your half-blood heritage as a Human Elf cross has insured you about 500 years of life, by adding Treant DNA your lifespan will increase at least tenfold, perhaps even twenty times longer than you would have normally lived.  During this time, you will be growing stronger as you age, your strength is already respectable at level 14?  It will probably double within 6 months if we proceed.

    The price is to carry 5 seeds, they will be implanted in your chest, once you decide to plant them you will have to cut them out.  Your healing factor will also increase but not as dramatically.  Still, in a couple of weeks, all you would have are 5 scars on your chest.  Once planted in a safe spot the saplings will stay rooted for one hundred years, then they will become mobile.  During that time, you must be their guardian, their protector, their father.  I know that seems a long period of time, but when you live for thousands of years¡¯ time takes on a different meaning, believe me, it will pass quickly.¡±

    I nodded it seemed a small price to pay.  ¡°How long till I have to plant the seeds, Okar?¡±

    ¡°You can take as long as you wish, but the world must be a safe place for the saplings.  What say you, do you agree?¡±

    I nodded and agreed, Okar was happy I could tell and then I was floating in a sea of nothingness.  When I awoke I was felt different, the sun was more than warm it was invigorating, I could feel that my energy was topped off and as I looked around the rooftop garden I could see a light green flux around each plant, walking over to the nearest shrub I gently waved my hands through the energy and felt my mana begin to increase.

    Calling up my interface I noted three things, first that my mana bar was no longer blue but now was a bright green color.  The second thing I saw was that I now had a new spell called mana regen and a new permanent buff called green energy.  They were both self-explanatory, I could leach mana from growing things and I would receive energy from light.

    Looking over I could see Okar only now he looked shriveled and many of his leaves had fallen off him.  Walking over I could tell that he was fading fast, once he noticed me he gestured for me to listen.  ¡°You must return to your own realm as soon as you can, the watcher is nearby, he can now sense me and knows I am weakening.  I have gathered many books from my library downstairs and placed them in this pack of holding, use them to teach yourself and the saplings.  Now you must go, my time is over and I will free myself from these mortal remains.¡±

    With that he was silent and I knew it was over for him.  Suddenly I could feel an oppressive force begin to come closer.  I stretched out my hand as Bill had taught me and opened the doorway back through the diorama.  Stepping thru I observed Okra standing tall one last time before a shadow fell upon him.  As I observed the shadow I was aware that it was observing me then the magic faded and the diorama once again became the original placid scene I had stepped into.  I walked over to the diorama of the tropical beach and stood and stared at the two small figures on the beach.

    Leeann was on top of Bill and he was holding her hips as they made love, she soon bent over him and he began to kiss her nipples, at this point I walked away.  I did not want to feel like a dirty peeper watching other people love one another.  I also felt a degree of sadness return, it was not that long ago it was Leeann and I making love.

    Going to the room Bill had given me to use as a guest I unpacked and began to clean and oil my guns.  Then I sharpened all my knives.  Final stripping off my top I began to wash.  I stared in the mirror at my arms they were now covered in pictures with were actually made from microscopic computer code.  On the left side of my chest was a picture of Mary, again it was all drawn in microscopic computer code.

    I looked at my interface, I had received two good spells and two good buffs.  It was now time to find a class and start to maximize my skill set and power.  There were the normal classes and then the occasional rare class book could be found.  Turning I saw Bill and Leeann staring at me from the doorway, I had been aware of their approach from when the had entered the hall.

    Leeann said, ¡°My god, you have another tattoo,¡± while staring at the picture of Mary.  I smiled and looked at both of them.  ¡°Glad that you two have found one another, ¡°I said.

    Bill looked at me and then whistled and said, ¡°Crap man you look like an old-school biker with those tatts.  I thought that we healed two fast for tatts to stick now.  I am sure it is a story but first I wanted to tell you, Leeann and I, we are together now.  I hope it is all good with you but she is the one for me.¡±

    I nodded at them and smiled and said, ¡°I know, that is one of the reasons I came here with Leeann, I knew that you two would be good for each other.  But Enough of that, I need to know where would be the best place for me to find a rare class book.  It is time that I find a class and I want something unknown and unexpected. Where would you suggest I go to search?¡±

    Bill smiled at me as Leeann looked at me with curiosity, then Bill said, ¡°Two places maybe three, first, the original Royal Saskatchewan Museum, just across the road south of here.  It is deadly and no one has really explored it.  Second, the parliament building on the other side of Wascana Lake.  It was a great place of half-truths and lies and there is an aura of power hanging over it, not dark, but not light.  The last place would be the old Science center and Imax theatre further down the lake it is on the far side of Broad Street and you have to go through Wascana Park.  That is where many of the Beastmen have their villages and no one has been there since the change.  One last place might be the University of Regina, but that would be damn hard to get to.  The only safe way would be to leave the city on the west side and circle it past the Ring road until you come near the old Indian federated college.  That would be the first building than the rest of the university.¡±

    I nodded he was right, but still, the chance was good of finding a rare class, all of these places were now considered dungeons and unexplored ones at that.  Most dungeons needed a 5-man group to clear and it helped if you were a level or two higher than the dungeon.  This would take some thought.

 Chapter 7 The Royal Saskatchewan Museum

    Chapter 7 The Royal Saskatchewan Museum

    Bill, Leeann and I had been sitting downstairs in one of the offices having a bite to eat as Bill and I discussed the museum. It was located on the corner of Albert Street and College Avenue. It was set back from both roads several hundred feet and the back of it opened onto the green trees of Wascana Park.

    ¡°Little factoid for you Omachiw. A long time ago where the museum is a large hotel was supposed to have been built. In fact, the foundations, basement and the steel framework of the first few floors of the hotel had been completed when the project was called off. At the time WW1 was happening and then the railway line building it went bankrupt. It was called The Chateau Qu¡¯Appelle look here, this is what it was supposed to look like.¡±

    Looking at the old pictures Bill had handed to me I listened as he continued to ramble on about the history of Regina.

    ¡°Fortunately, I managed to save a lot of the old historical documents that were being stored here as a lot of the Canadian works were in the public domain in Canada because their copyright had expired and the museum grabbed the files.¡±

    ¡°It was designed to be a grand structure as were most of the great Canadian railway hotels. In the end, the steel framework extended up 6 stories when the demolition occurred. The steel girders were recycled for use when the Hotel Saskatchewan was constructed downtown across from Victoria Park. The current Museum was constructed at an angle with a huge front yard because it was cheaper to put soil and grass over the basement than knock down the walls and pull up the pillars. There are thousands of feet of empty rooms buried 10 meters down. Weird shit eh.¡±

    ¡°The Queen city has a pretty cool history; the Hotel Saskatchewan has in its basement one of the diesel engines from a WW2 German U-boat. That is a story about how the hotel received the engine but I don¡¯t know all the details.

    I tuned out Bill but Leeann listened with interest as he also talked about the Texas Book Depository building in Dallas and how Regina had the same building built on Broad street the only difference was that it was a few stories shorter but the original layout was the same.

    It was an interesting history of a world that did not exist. What did exist was the RSM across the street. ¡°Hey Bill, those dioramas that you use to portal all over, didn¡¯t you tell me a while ago that some of them have identical copies in the museum. Would it be possible to use one here to portal over there?¡±

    Bill thought for a moment then said, ¡°Sure it should work, but you would emerge in an unknown environment that we know nothing about. What we do know is that there is a strong magic what I call wild magic that manifests there. I cannot really tell you any more about it except that it does not respond to me.¡±

    I thought about what Bill had just told me when Leeann suddenly spoke up, ¡°Why are you doing this Omachiw, it is a death sentence, is it because I chose Bill over you?¡±

    I looked at her with surprise and then shook my head and said, ¡°Nope, the reality is that I have a task to do in this world, and the only way to do it is to become stronger than anything I might encounter. I need an edge and that is what I hope to find there. Having you chose Bill, I won¡¯t lie, it hurt but at the same time, you two were meant for one another. I could not think of two other people who complement each other like you two.¡±

    Bill was a little red-faced but spoke up and said, ¡°Thanks, Omachiw, I appreciate that. Uh, this is a little weird but hey man, you are my friend.¡±

    I stood and grabbed them both by the hand and said, ¡°Listen I don¡¯t know when I will be back but when I do I want to see a little one running around. Ignoring LeeAnn¡¯s blushing face and Bills grin I squeezed their hands. "Right, enough of this snowflake shite, let''s get this done, I will get my pack and then portal over, wish me luck.¡±

    I was not one for big goodbyes and so minutes later I was upstairs in front of one of the dioramas. Turning I waved at Bill and Leeann and then stepped into the diorama. After a couple of seconds of darkness, I was in a warm environment, with the hum of nightlife all around me and the stars bright overhead. Looking behind me, I could see what looked like a curved wall, that would-be part of the museum proper. The diorama stretched behind me a world of its own.

    I turned and made my way into the diorama world, my hope was to find a village and spy out the lay of the land. Maybe I would find some people to battle, the chance of getting a good drop was high. After spending about 8 hours exploring I was back at the museum, there was nothing in this jungle world that I could find.

    I slowly stepped out of the diorama and stood for a moment, then slowly made my way down the passageway.

    Soon I could hear movement and then smell the sharp odor of tobacco being smoked. With all the changes that had happened tobacco was now a plant that grew everywhere, it had mild properties that gave people a minor buzz. Cancer was not a problem anymore but for whatever reason, most humans did not smoke anymore. The Dwarves back east apparently smoked like a chimney. Go figure.

    The hallway was in shadow and I moved silently, standing in front of me were two men, I could not tell the race, they were in front of a Diorama of a village, fires were burning and it was apparent that people were closing out the day. The 2 men were standing with their backs to me looking at the village, no one was paying any attention.

    Sneaking up behind them I pulled out two knives and with one thrust I reversed the knives and hit both men just behind their ears with the heavy pommels.

    I dropped the knives and grabbed both men and pulled them back deeper into the shadows. Retrieving my knives, I quickly searched both men. One had a few copper coins and some grey weapons. The other had two green bracers on, both had a +5 to strength.

    Thank you, I thought as I made my way back to the diorama. Both of the men would be out for at least a couple of hours and the rawhide I had bound and gagged them with would keep them silent until I was done here. Stepping over the small railing that separated the diorama from the hallway I slowly made my way into this world.

    The smell of wood smoke was heavy in the air from the many campfires. Making my way like a shadow from dwelling to dwelling I paused to listen before moving to the next, all I could hear was the sound of people ending their day. Soon I was at the place I had spotted, it was clearly the hut of the chief, this man would be a minor boss in this jungle, and while I had managed to stealth my way through the village I could expect a fight now.

    I was strong and fast and had a few advantages but I knew that bosses had a high resistance to spells, and it usually meant that physical attacks would have to take him down. I could not count on my spells, so I methodically unloaded the Henry and then reloaded it with CCI shorts interspaced with tracers. Then I double checked the load in the Dominion Arms Raider 12 Gauge side by side shotgun pistol. I holstered it and then made my way to the entranceway. As I crouched in the shadows I screwed on the John Deere oil filter I had converted into a silencer onto the Henry.

    I stood there for a few minutes and then slowly slid closer, sure enough, I could see two guards standing outside the closed door of the Chief and judging from the grunting I could hear coming through the door he was not alone. Damn it, it never gets easy.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    Deciding on my course of action, I chose to try to silence the 2 guards before I engaged in close combat with them. Sighting in on the throat of guard 1 I squeezed off the shot, then switching targets I popped another round off into guard 2. They both fell to their knees while grabbing their throats, but as I entered the room they both lurched upwards and drew their knives. Advancing on me I could see that they were done but before their bodies failed they would attempt to take me with them.

    Sighting in on the closest I put one into his knee and watched it shatter as he fell back with an agonized moan. Fortunately, the chief was entertaining a screamer and I doubt he could hear anything but the girl. Moving my aim, I shot from 5 feet away and watched guard 2 jerk back as the tracer round flew into his eye socket and into his brain.

    It had made a pretty green line as it traveled the few feet before killing the guard. Not taking time to stop I swung around to the first guard who was fading fast as his lungs filled up with blood. His hate-filled eyes glared into mine as I bent down and whispered, ¡°Somnum.¡± Staring at him I slid the sharp point of my stiletto into his left ear and then with a twist withdrew it as the light faded from his eyes.

    I did not enjoy killing, but I did not shy away from it. In this new world, it was them or me and I preferred it to be them. Taking a moment, I looted both bodies and found that both men had the same green ring on that gave +7 towards defense. The rest of their gear was alright but not what I would want.

    Standing up I walked over to the bedroom door, the rhythmic pounding of the bed and the heavy yelping of a man was accompanied by the loud gasps and swap moans of a woman. I opened the door and slid in then closed the door. The room was lit by a number of candles which cast wild shadows of the two-people engaged in achieving the maximum benefit of the Coital alignment technique. Yep, the dude was really grinding the corn as they say.

    They did not notice me standing by the door and I took a moment to observe the Chief. He was a large man with a heavy paunch but his arms were hugely swollen with muscle and he was tireless as he continued to stroke into the woman. His face was broad with fat lips and a receding hairline, in short, he looked like a Neanderthal.

    The woman underneath was solid with muscle, but her breasts were full and firm and her face was fair. She to had high cheekbones but her eyes were slightly slanted and her hair was a deep coppery red. She had an exotic look and was pretty enough to be attractive to any man or woman who swung that way.

    As I stared at them her eyes opened and she saw me standing there, but did not stop from moaning and thrusting her hips towards the chief. Once we made eye contact I sprung into motion using the lever action of the Henry repeater I managed to fire of about 7 shots into the chiefs back before he turned around a surprised look on his face. Seeing me he grimaced with hatred and tried to launch himself at me, the 7 bullets in his body not stopping him at all.

    What did stop him was the girl, she wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed, this allowed me to get 6 more bullets into the chief¡¯s chest from close range. It was like shooting a grizzly, the 22 caliber bullets would eventually kill him but he would kill me first. I watched as he reached back and slapped the girl knocking her half off the bed.

    While observing this I dropped the Henry onto its sling and pulled out the Dominion Arms Raider 12 Gauge side by side shotgun pistol from its holster and fired off one barrel straight into the chief¡¯s head. Half his face exploded and he dropped onto the bed for a second before attempting to climb back up.

    I had enough of this and walked over to the side of the bed and holding the gun under his chin I let go with the other barrel. The slug blew the top of his head right off, and I was able to see into the cranial cavity as the body fell to the side. The two shotguns blasts were terribly loud and I knew that sooner than later someone would be coming to investigate.

    I quickly looted the body, finding 2 rings, of + 10 endurance and a necklace that gave + 8 to agility. No wonder the old boy could keep going like that, he was stacked for being a fighter but had clearly found other uses for his equipment. Knowing that this was a miniboss I knew I could expect to find some more items so I looked at the foot of the bed and there was a trunk covered up with fur.

    Opening it I found it contained an old journal from B.C. and a couple of scrolls, pocketing them I also noted underneath everything was a whip. Opening it up I watched as it glowed with a fiery red light along its 12-foot length. It was a blue item called the Whip of Fire. I quickly coiled it and hung it from my belt, as soon as it was coiled the red glow was gone. Taking one more quick look around I saw that the girl was on her feet staring at me with a desperate look in her eyes. I shrugged and turned to leave when suddenly she was beside me grabbing my hand.

    Looking at her I saw fear and confusion but the determination was also there. She lifted my hand and put it on her naked breast and then put it down then pointing at me she then pointed at herself and once again lifted my hand and held it to her chest. I gathered that she wanted to come with me but damn it this was not in my plans to rescue a cavewoman. I turned to leave and heard her cry out and glanced back, she stood there staring at me with tears in her eyes.

    I felt my resolve begin to melt and then made a choice I prayed that I would not regret. Reaching back, I grabbed her and started towards the door, I was running very low on time. She grabbed a bag hidden under some furs and then a long spear leaning next to the door and followed me as we left the abode of the chief. Circling left around the building we went back into the nearby tree belt and then made our way around the village in a long circle.

    Soon I could hear shouting and then the sounds of people being awoken, I knew that a search would be underway for us and I did not want to be nearby when that happened. Finally making our way back to the front of the diorama we hopped over the little railing and then avoiding the two unconscious guards we went back to the first diorama I had checked out.

    We soon arrived and stepped into the new world, it was warm and the sun was about to come up. Each portal led to a different location with unique climate and times. It was something I found amazing but now was not the time to ponder that. I led the girl to where I had discovered a small stream with clear water slow current and a sandy bottom. I pointed at the water and said, ¡°Go clean up you smell like a brothel that fat stinky guys frequented. She just looked at me so I led her to the water holding her hand. Pointing at her and the water I motioned for her to go into the stream.

    After 15 minutes of attempting to get her to enter the water, I simply removed her clothing which caused her eyes to widen and then took off my clothing. Then grabbing her hand, I led her into the water, it was slightly cool but within a moment it was comfortable. I grabbed a handful of sand and began to use it to scrub at my arms and chest. Turning I noticed that she was staring at me, at my arms and shoulders, my back and chest with the portrait of Mary.

    She gently reached out and began to trace the whirls and pictures that were visible, her eyes deeply staring at me. Eventually, she stopped and I once again showed her how to use sand to scrub off. We finally came out of the water wet but clean, and I opened my pack to pull out a pair of shorts. Putting them on I pulled out a towel and handed it to the girl, she began to dry herself off.

    Grabbing all our clothes I went back to the stream and began to wash them, I want no stink to remain on her clothing and my stuff was beginning to smell a little woodsy. We were about 4 kilometers into the diorama world and had cut through some thickly forested land, I felt a fire would be safe.

    Going into the bush I snagged several dead trees and dragged them to the little beach where I tried to get a fire going. My attempts proved unsuccessful as the wood was damp from a recent rainstorm and my frustration grew. I was ready to give up when I remembered the whip, grabbing it I snapped it against my pile of wood and watched as it instantly burst into flames. The girl gasped and backed up a foot, I was surprised also and as I coiled the whip back up thought about what I had just done, it was a hell of a weapon.

    I was dog tired and the sun was now shining on my little spot in paradise so grabbing my bedroll I spread it on the sand and then using my pack as a pillow I laid down and prepared to sleep. Within a minute I could feel the girl lay down next to me and a couple of minutes more snuggle closer to me. I slipped my arm around her and within minutes we were both asleep.

 Chapter 8 The Casino.

    Chapter 8 The Casino.

    I awoke with the sun setting and my arm asleep, the girl curled up against me with her head on my arm. I gently disengaged from her and then silently stood, swinging my arm around I pumped my fist and flexed my muscles hoping that would increase the blood flow and stop the tingles. It didn¡¯t work. Walking over to the stream I kneeled down and cupped a few handfuls of water and drank. Some people would put their head down and just suck up the water but when you do that you can¡¯t keep an eye out for problems. Then you die.

    Having drunk my fill I went and sat back down and thought about what I had to do. I wanted to continue to explore the museum until I looted some good stuff but having the girl with me complicated matters. I could not abandon her but had no way to communicate with her. She would be a problem traversing Regina, and that could be deadly. Deciding that this was something I could not handle I decided to call on Theo, I was not sure if he would or even could respond but I needed some help or at least advice here.

    Organizing my thoughts, I mentally and physically called out Theo, ¡°I need to talk to you.¡± I continued for a moment and then stopped nothing was happening. Suddenly a small but growing window appeared and I could peer into what looked like a bedroom, strapped to the bed was the Succubus that Theo had taken and at the side of the bed was Mary and she was looking pissed.

    I could hear her yelling, ¡°I am not that kind of woman, I don¡¯t share and I don¡¯t do women, I thought you and I had something special and then I catch you with this thing. And she was sucking on your¡­¡± At this point, Theo stuck his head through the window and looked at me, ¡°What do you need Omachiw? I am busy right now trying to have a happy home life.¡± His voice changed as he saw the girl sleeping on the ground and he was suddenly standing beside me asking, ¡°So who do we have here?¡±

    Shrugging I said, ¡°She is someone I rescued from here, I think she was a captive and when I was leaving she came with me. The problem is I can¡¯t communicate with her and I don¡¯t think I can make it across Regina with her.¡±

    Theo continued to look at her then nodded and said, ¡°I will take care of her, hum she needs a name. Let¡¯s call her Lexus, anyway, I have her you worry about yourself.¡± Then turning to look at me he said, ¡°Here is a freebie, you won¡¯t find what you need here, you will have to go to the old Casino Regina once there, head downstairs and find the old gun range, that is where you will find the scroll you seek.¡± Now I have to head back and introduce the ladies to the newest member of the family.¡±

    Reaching down he grabbed the girl and with a snap of his fingers they were gone. This left me feeling a little disgruntled, I did not have a good feeling about this and seeing Mary and the Succubus in the bedroom I knew what Theo had planned. I felt a little like a damn pimp. I thought we were the good guys, but something was wrong. If Theo was the Internet become self-aware and given the powers of a God in this new world I suspected he was a Dark God sprung up from the Deep web. Crap.

    I meditated for a few minutes to let the anger and disgust fade and when I felt a peace I decided to see what the scrolls were that I had looted. The first one was the blue scroll and it was a pretty amazing item.

    The Scroll of Taming, this scroll allows you to tame any animal into a battle companion which you can summon or dismiss. This companion is the equivalent of Hunters Pet, however, this pet will be able to have direct communication with you and will be more intelligent than a normal pet. Once you learn this one-time spell it can be used at any time on any animal. Choose wisely, once you have chosen other options will be revealed.

    That was a pretty damn useful scroll and without any hesitation, I activated it. I felt a warm glow and what looked like a cross between lightning and fire started at my feet and burned its way up, once It reached my head it stopped but I suddenly had a new Icon on my display, it was called Taming the Beast.

    Smiling to myself I knew that this would be useful on so many levels, having a battle pet could be a lifesaver. This fact alone made this a great item but when you also have pets that can also be used as mounts, well I would have to choose carefully to get the full benefit of the spell. The ultimate would be a flying pet, but the idea of taming a Wyvern was a little scary.

    Reaching into my pack I pulled out the next scroll and read it.

    The scroll of Technology, or how to be a BattleTech Weapon Mage. This scroll will impart to the user the class of BattleTech Weapon Mage, this is a hidden class that can be acquired in addition to a player¡¯s other main class. <u>Warning</u>, this class is unknown and the requirements to level are dependent upon both research and finding tech plans. Upon completion of level ten, two development trees will open up, Weapons and Armor. If the scroll Alien Tech is found and used this will allow the user access to alien tech. Good luck.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    I just sat back and stared at nothing, this was an incredible find, in a world where technology no longer existed this was a game changer. Plus, there was the fact that it was a free class. Incredible, at least on the surface but as I thought about it a few things brought me down to earth.

    Yes, it was OP (overpowered) but I had never heard of tech drops, so they must be damn rare, most likely final boss drops. As for incorporating Alien tech, it sounds good but where the heck would you find something like that. Still, it was a free class and it would not hurt to see what could be done with it. I doubted that too many others would be interested in it, just too hard and too many unknowns.

    Making my mind up I read the scroll and watched it suddenly blaze and turn to ash, there was no heat involved, magic, it could be pretty cool. My mind suddenly felt like a hundred gophers were running through it seemed to lurch sideways, or maybe that was the universe that went funny.

    I closed my eyes but that did not matter, I had a sudden intense sense of a dramatic change in how I viewed things. Within seconds it all faded and suddenly I knew I could do certain things. In fact, I had a base set of skills, gear enhancement level one. Weapons enhancement level one. Research level one.

    I opened up the weapons tab and saw all my weapons there, Highlighting the Henry I was I had two options, the first was Double Damage and it would magically enhancement my bullets to do twice as much damage using one percent mana per bullet. The second was called Sure Shot and again using one percent mana each bullet would never miss.

    I could not stack the enhancements but by alternating my load in the Henry repeater I would have a pretty effective weapon capable of bringing the hurt down at whatever I thought. As I thought about the damage of a 22LR I suddenly saw,

    <u>Velocity X Velocity X Bullet Weight</u>=ft. lbs.

    450,240

    appear in my vision and I knew that it was the math formula for the muzzle energy of the bullets before I used Double Damage. I definitely had acquired a class even if I did not really understand it.

    I continued to sit back and think, it was a peaceful night in this pocket universe and I wanted to use this time to reflect on what I knew. I had been chosen by the newborn local God of earth whom I suspected was a Dark God to fight Aliens. I tried to organize my thoughts about everything and do a list of everything from the last few days.

    Myself, Omachiw, I was half Elf and half Human, raised by elves in my teens I was a loner and self-sufficient. Suffering from the Vampire virus I was slowly changing until Okar healed me by infusing a bit of Treant DNA to mine. I now have a faster recovery time if I am in sunlight, and an increase to my strength, Also, I now have an affinity with nature, plants respond to me and the earth is gentle with me. My mana flow has increased and I can siphon mana from all growing things. Plant-based poisons do not have an effect on me and my lifespan has been dramatically increased.¡± I carry five Treant seed within my body to be planted when a safe place is found.

    Level 16, I had leveled from the recent boss fight. My Stats were quite strange the Treant DNA and the recent boss fight had greatly altered everything. They now showed,

    Intelligence, 45

    Wisdom, 55

    Strength, 50

    Agility, 55

    Stamina, 65

    Spirit, 55

    Mana, 77

    Health, 75

    Theo, the God of the world, he claims to have been formed from an Ai program that was part of the internet. I am feeling uneasy about him.

    Lilith, a succubus that Theo had taken away.

    Mary the embodiment of the mother of Christ statue that is part of the Roman Catholic cathedral on 13 avenue Regina.

    Lexus, the cavegirl I rescued only to have Theo take her away.

    Leeann a level 4 healer, Priest Class.

    Bill one of the strongest magical beings I have ever met he lives in the Royal Saskatchewan Museum Annex on Albert street.

    Okar, the Treant, the last of his kind, a being that is more plant and tree, wise and kind he offered me a deal to save his people.

    The enemy

    Dragaians, an alien race that brought magic to earth and brought about the change. They are an advanced race that is magical, powerful and immoral.

    Class

    BattleTech Weapon Mage

    Spells

    Double Damage magical enhancement to bullets to do twice as much damage using one percent mana per bullet.

    Sure Shot costing one percent mana each bullet fired will never miss.

    Divine Grace a 3-minute period of time during which all mobs or enemies would lose interest in me.

    Answered Prayers a 24-hour buff that allowed me to focus and use my mana to exert control and direct the actions of others without their being aware of it.

    Taming the Beast, a one-use spell which allows you to tame any animal into a battle companion which you can summon or dismiss.

    General Spells

    The Divine Tab

    No known spells available yet.

    Marks

    The mark of Theo, a tattoo that has spread across my upper body, both arms shoulders chest and back. It depicts religious and social scenes. At some time, it will open the Divine spell tab.

    The mark of Mary, a picture of Mary that appeared on my left chest, it looked a little like an icon painting from the middle east. It enabled two spells DG and AP.

    Both marks were comprised of minute computer script that formed the pictures on my flesh.

    Weapons

    Whip of Fire a whip that has a fiery enchant on it.

    Dominion Arms Raider 12 Gauge side by side shotgun pistol

    Henry Repeating Arms carbine, a lever action 22 caliber rifle.

    Gear

    2 rings, of + 10 endurance.

    1 necklace of + 8 to agility.

    2 rings of + 7 for defense.

    I had wanted to become stronger and I was but at the same time, I was troubled, by Theo, by the lack of info I had on the Dragaians and by the fact it seemed I was not in control.

    With a sigh I stood up, it was time to head out to the Casino.

 Chapter 9 Leaving the Museum

    Chapter 9 Leaving the Museum

    I held still, listening to the sounds that were coming from the corridor ahead.  I was going in the opposite direction I had gone before.  It was the closest way to get to the exit.  The passageway curved into a huge arc on my right side, this museum was nothing but curves and alcoves.

    I was entering an area that had held several fossilized dinosaur bones, Bill had given me a heads up on the layout of the floor plan.  What we did not know was how the magic had changed things.  It could be anything from living bones to reanimated in the flesh Dinosaurs to ghostly apparitions.   There was just no way to know how the magic had changed things.

    I continued on, moving one step at a time, taking my time being silent as I walked.  I could now see past the curve in the darkness and honestly was not surprised at what I saw.  On a small pedestal was the skeletal remains of a Triceratops and it was alive.  We spotted each other at the same time and judging from the reddish glow in the empty eye sockets of the beast if it had a body I would be dead.  It could only open and close its beak in frustration as I edged past it.

    I could smell salt water as I continued around the curve.  On the left side was a diorama of land emerging from a great inland sea.  In front of me was a shimmering curtain of sea water, I could look up at an angle and judged the surface to be about 10 meters above.  There were some pretty large fish swimming in my view but what concerned me was the fact that two Terminonaris robusta, creatures about 6 meters long were swimming in the distance.  Bill had informed me that they were like Crocodiles with a tremendous bite and a burst attack.

    I had to swim about 40 feet underwater to make it through this section of the museum which was a sea diorama from about 80 million years ago.  My only chance was to activate Divine Grace which would give me three minutes to make it across and exit the diorama.  Taking the time to secure my weapons in my pack after wrapping them to keep them as dry as possible I stepped into the diorama and was instantly in warm sea water.

    I began to swim towards the other side, the weight of my pack giving me neutral buoyancy.  I had made it about one-third of the way there when I noticed I was getting some attention.  Activating Divine Grace, I continued to swim while keeping an eye out on the 3-minute timer that had appeared.  The diorama actually had a current within it and the swimming was hard going.  Several fish swam up to me but lost interest as soon as they came within ten feet.

    I was within 2 meters of the other side and swimming quite close to the Terminonaris robusta.  They both circled me with a lazy flick of their fins, they seemed curious about the strange creature in their kingdom.  I finally made it through the curtain of sea water at the far side and sprawled on the floor.  I stood up and squished my way around the curve of the wall.  I wanted to be out of sight from the creatures, they could easily stick their heads several feet out and grab me and pull me back into the sea.

    Once I made it to what I thought was a safe place I stood still and took stock of the situation.  I was in an area that held many little displays, they all seemed to be quiet so I stripped off my wet clothing and wrung it out, then grabbed a change from my pack and dressed.  My weapons had gotten a little wet so I took the time to make sure they were dry.  At the same time, I went through my ammo and began to cast Double Damage and Sure shot.  I alternated on the rounds and then reloaded.  Taking my time, I continued to cast the spells on all my ammo only stopping when my mana emptied.  I could see that once through this area I had some steps on my right side that led up to the surface.

    Walking slowly, I made my way to the stairs and then climbed up once my head was above the surface I stopped and listened.  I could hear the sounds of guttural chanting and then a scream which was suddenly cut off.  Straight ahead was a place to hang outside clothing and then off to the left was a small passage and that is where the chanting was coming from.  I stood up and slowly made my way past the old gift store still locked tight after over twenty years.  I had an exit on both my left and right sides but I wanted to see what was happening.

    Drifting like a shadow I crossed the room and then peered around the corner, there was a diorama with a T-Rex and he was busy eating the remains of a BeastMan.

    There was a small group of other BeastMen they had one other individual tied up.  They began to chant again and then they tossed the poor bastard over the rail to land under the T-Rex.  With a lunge, he opened his jaws and bit down on the victim ripping him in half and showering the others with blood and gore.  They all began to bend down and prostrate themselves before the guardrail.

    Guess these animals had themselves a God, and as much as I was tempted to take them out I knew that it would not end well with me.  Too many of them and if the T-Rex hopped the rail and left his diorama I would be finished.  Sighing to myself I backed up and then exited on the right side, stepping out into the cool winter air.  A veritable forest had grown over the years and I made my way into the tree line and quickly faded from view.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Once I was among the plants I began to feel my mana increase it was not a spell but rather an autonomous action as I siphoned off mana from the living plants.  Within minutes I was topped up and as the weak sun shone down I felt invigorated, I was also being filled with energy from the weak winter sunlight.  That Treant DNA was doing its thing.

    I moved with caution but at a good pace through the trees, finding a path where there was none a moment before.  This must be what Okar had meant about the earth being gentle with me.   Indeed, I felt something, a connection with the earth and with all the living thing that relied on it for sustenance.  I soon arrived at College Ave and decided to stay within the tree line until I hit Scarth street at which point I would head north for a few blocks.  This would put me at Victoria Park, only a few blocks from the Casino.

    It was not the fastest way there but I knew that Beastmen had taken over a few of the towers that were on the more direct route.  The city was empty of sound but the wind which never really stops blowing here.  I crossed College ave and made my way north towards 14<sup>th</sup> Ave.  Almost all of the houses and apartment buildings were in ruins, with a few of the high-rises now changed into 5 story tall towers.  No one really knew what was in them but I suspected that they were the abode of Lichs and the Undead.

    In the time of B.C., the buildings were senior¡¯s complexes and mature living facilities and most of the people who lived in them had not escaped, hell most of the people had no other place to go.  The world had been a cruel place back then with people abandoning their family as they aged, they were left alone in their own small apartments where they suffered from isolation and loneliness or they were put into nursing homes where they were treated with a lack of respect and dignity.  It was a terrible thing, I thought as I made my way past several of the towers.

    As I crossed 13<sup>th</sup> Ave, I noted a plume of smoke it was coming from my left side, there had been a parking lot there and now it was wooded, with shrubs and trees.  I drifted over and into the trees, feeling somewhat safer and out of sight.  Most of the trees were leafless yet I knew that they were still somehow hiding me, blocking the view of anyone looking at me.

    Making my way to the center of the former parking lot I found that the middle area held a small clearing.  There was a small hut constructed out of wood and mud and it had a chimney that was releasing puffs of dark smoke.  Clearly, someone was home and had a fire going.  I was curious about who lived here and noted a small window in the side of the hut.  It had been salvaged from a house long ago.

    Making my way to the window I glanced in and observed what looked like a heavily bundled figure tending a fire with something cooking on it.  I ducked my head down and thought for a moment.  I was curious about this and decided to see who or what was inside the cabin.

    Walking to the door I opened it and stepped inside, my Henry at the ready.  The figure turned around and I could see that it was a woman, perhaps 45 or 50.  She stopped and stared at me and then sat down on a stool.  Tears began to form in her eyes and she started to cry.

    I closed the door while keeping my eyes on her and then asked, ¡°Hey, are you alright, why are you crying?¡±

    We stared at each other and then she spoke, ¡°I am crying because Mary had told me that you were coming and I had doubted her, she told me that you would help me and that I could trust you.¡±

    I felt a tingle on my neck when she said Mary but I had to know for certain, so I asked her, ¡°Do you mean Mary the mother of Jesus, who lives at the cathedral on 13<sup>th</sup> ave?¡±  Seeing her nod I walked over to the little table and sat down, then turning to the woman I said, ¡°Let''s start at the beginning.  Why did Mary tell you I would help and who are you and why are you living here in the middle of Regina and not out in one of the settlements?¡±

    The lady looked at me and then smiled and said let me make us some tea and I will explain it all.  She stood up and quickly filled a water jug from a barrel in the corner of the room.  Then using it to fill a battered teapot she added some loose tea and placed it on a shelf over the open fire.

    Sitting down she then said, ¡°My name is Brenda and I live here, I used to live at the YWCA a few blocks over before the change.  I was pretty messed up, I had just found out I was pregnant and had been living on the street before I got a room there.

    When the change happened, I felt somehow drawn to come here every day, and soon the BeastMen began to come also.  They built me this place and began to supply me with food and firewood.  I somehow knew that when one was sick or hurt I could touch them and they would be healed.¡±

    I nodded, I had heard that it was possible for healers to randomly heal people without choosing a healing class but that was pretty damn rare and I had never heard of anyone healing BeastMen.

    ¡°Please continue,¡± I said.

    ¡°I soon had my baby, and we lived here in peace for years, my daughter was my helper and indeed she had even more healing ability than I, then about a week ago a group of BeastMen, one I did not know showed up here.  They pushed me aside and took my daughter, I overheard them talk about returning to the Casino, that is where they were camped.  Please find my daughter and return her to me, I had prayed to Mary and she told me you would help.¡±

    Suddenly a notification popped up and I read,

    Quest, Save the girl and return her to her mother, rewards, XP and one item that is freely given to you by the healer.

    I accepted it as the woman handed me a cup of tea and then I asked: ¡°What is your daughter¡¯s name?¡±

    ¡°Her name is Joy,¡± the woman replied, ¡°And I am Samantha.¡±