《Bio Synthesis》 Chapter 1 Note: " " is for speech, > is for the main characters thoughts and / is for a sound made. Pain. Mind boggling, blood curdling, all consuming pain was the only thing Jake could feel. ¡°W-w-wwhy? why me?¡± the words came out of his mouth as a prayer instead of the rage in which he felt. Just 12 hours ago he was waking, looking forward to the days agenda and now here he was, cursing his choices. 14 hours ago.. BEEP - BEEP - CLINK! ¡°Ugh, stupid alarm¡± jake turned back over on his pillow after hitting the irritating alarm which mocked him at the ungodly hour of 6:00 am¡­ on a Saturday! There was a reason to the madness of the action however, as it was the last weekend he had free before returning to university. The return signifying his 3rd year as an undergraduate in a bachelors of science. Returning ultimately meant that Jake had a broad knowledge of how things worked at a basic level. ¡°Time for one last gaming session. Hmmm, totally going with the old favourite.. Prototype 2!¡± Jake loved this game. Usually he would just complete the basic storyline before getting overly bored of a specific game, but this one somehow always kept his attention. Going for his fifth 100% completion might sound absolutely stupid to everyone else and maybe also to other gamers, but jake just loved the thought of having huge metallic blades for appendages, rending flesh and leaving dismembered corpses in his wake. ¡°Alrighty then, its a clobbering time!¡± jake commentated as he powered up the PS3 that could almost be called retro soon in this 2017 world of virtual gaming goggles and other crap designed to keep kids as far away from mummy and daddies interest as possible. it was like this, Jake sitting on his small couch in his one bedroom apartment located just inside the CBD of Adelaide in South Australia, Australia that he spent his day. Living only every 4-5 hours to shit, shower and shave¡­ ok he only took a shit twice a day but you get the expression and he had to relieve his bowels and eat something every now and then right? As Jake was clearing out another nest with Sgt. James Heller, using the claws for a change which are really what they sound like. instead of having fingers the character has long segmented knives attached to hands that look like black masses of muscle with red pulsating veins. the only difference between normal hands and these homages to old Edward Scissorhands is in the fact that Heller only has 4 digits (3 fingers and a thumb). Suddenly there was some fuzzy sound that assaulted his hearing, just as white noise to start and then in the span of 60 seconds it became an all encompassing static that drowned out the world. at this point jake was tripping balls wondering if he really did smoke that pot his egotistical brother left over after laying siege to his couch last Saturday night.. or technically early Sunday morning. then something happened that made this all so much worse, a small blue box appeared in front of him. No, not on the television, literally about 30cm in front of his damn eyes all hovering in the air like some lingering fart.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. > Please tell me I''m just hallucinating right now. i mean i have been playing and living off Pepsi (Yeah i like it better than Coke, bring it the rest of the world) and Smiths chips since my morning coffee injection at around 6ish.. /sigh ok so maybe my snooze alarm confirmed it was actually 6:45 but at least they both start with the same thing.
POPULATION LIMIT REACHED PLANET ETA TO DECIMATION: 30 YEARS
¡­ ¡­ Commencing command: ¡°Operation Random¡± ¡­ ¡­ Congratulations, you are 1/10,000,000 inhabitants to be selected for relocation to the planet Prime. ¡­ Transfer begins in 45 seconds.
¡°Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me! Gods? And whats this bullshit of one in ten million? Thats like 0.1 something % of the worlds population?? Wait¡­ please dear god tell me that the narcissist didn''t get chosen! Pleaseeeeee..¡±
CAN NOT COMPUTE REQUEST ¡­ PLEASE VERIFY
¡°Umm, Please confirm if Daniel Steel is selected for relocation??¡±
REQUEST ACCEPTED DUE TO: ¡°FAMILY ALLOWANCE¡± PROTOCOL
Individual Daniel Steel was not selected for relocation. Would subject Jake Steel like to request a replacement be identified allowing the requested to participate?
¡°NO! I mean, no thank you. he can be left behind to receive a front row seat in earths destruction¡± > Phew! that was a close call! i know what you must be thinking and no I''m not a monster. That asshole deserves everything he''s sowed on this planet for himself and no way in hell am i saving him even if we do share blood. He''s been torturing and stealing from me my entire life and now Karma is kicking him in the balls. Nope, stopping myself there as theres no more reason to think about the sole remaining ¡°family¡± i have left. Catchya later wanker! The next thing Jake knew his vision was black, he couldn''t smell, taste, hear and what worried him the most was the only thing he felt was some really crazy nausea that threatened to empty his stomach in space? Well if space allowed you to live that is. Just as jake was trying to comprehend floating in space dressed solely in the blue jeans and black t-shirt ensemble he pretty much lived in, the world came crashing back in a hand grenade of colours and sensations. there he was in some giant hall with about 250,000 other randoms looking like they just received a punch in the gut. the weird thing he immediately noticed though was the fact that everyone looked like they were older than 18 and younger than 50. this was evident by the fact that he didn''t see any noticeable heads of grey and Jake always prides himself on being able to identify people quickly for one specific reason.. He hates them! > Ugh, sardines much? people are bad even on the best of days but this many in such close proximity, i already don''t like this world. Chapter 2 /unreasonable loud panicked chatter ¡°Hello¡­ HELLO!¡± /silence /cough ¡°Sorry about that everyone but you''re all quite loud in this chamber. Welcome to Prime and 1 of the 10 Human capitals spread out amongst the southernmost region on the western continent. This region is home to the humans of this world and its separated in the middle by a forest that continues to the northern coast. The forest however is home to the wood elves who are age old allies to the Human empire.¡± > Ok, so there¡¯s some random Gandalf character who can apparently float? I mean hell, its not everyday you see some cracked up old gramps with a grey beard and hair long enough to be tucked into his waistband¡­ if he had one that is, the old coots trying to be Hugh Hefner wearing that crimson robe like he''s some sort of.. mage? Yep definitely some magic shit going on and those people directly underneath are not going to be happy with a straight view of the wrinkliest balls imaginable. ¡°My name is Gerard and I''m currently the head mage of this towns mage guild, the town being aptly named Manasford as we are lucky enough to actually be the town holding the main branch of the guild. Now I''m sure your all wondering why your all here and expecting me to give an in depth explanation.. Well sorry but life''s a bitch and if we could control Fate then we wouldn''t be relegated to this western pice of fu¡­ /cough ..funtastic land. Anyway ill just cut to the chase on what we have amassed over the past ten thousand years give or take a millennia. Point one: when a world is not doing so hot the predominant (sentient) population are transferred here in part for their continued existence. Point two: no one knows why and the messages we receive have just been called Fates voice since earliest record. Point three: saying ¡®Status¡¯ either mentally or verbally brings up your individual Fate status chart. Point four: This concludes my responsibility, so have a fun life and don''t mess with beings stronger than you¡± /silence > Yep, batshit crazy old wizard who clearly doesn''t give a shit what happens¡­ Sweet. Ok lets check this shit. ''Status''.
Name: Jake Steel Profession: N/A Trait: Viroid Proto Class: G
VIT: 3.50This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. STR: 2.00 AGI: 2.50 PER: 2.50 INT: 1.10 WIS: 1.00
NOTE: stats are relevant to base stats of humans.
> What the hell?! I have an STD!?? I haven''t slept with anyone in like a solid ye.. Maybe i should just check what it is before committing, I mean I''ve never heard of ¡®Proto¡¯ before. Also looks like I''m twice as strong as a normal human? Focus, one thing at a time. Check to see if my dicks going to fall off. Jake focused on his Trait and thought ¡®Info¡¯. ¡°Wow, Fate knows Aussie slang¡±
Trait: Viroid Proto (G) 0.00%
The ability to consume certain organic and inorganic substances to replenish the body. Also allows for material storage inside the body as a resource stockpile. At current level of progression, minimal body alteration available depending on VIT and PER. Stockpile dependent on INT.
¡°Hey asshole, what do you mean your finished? What the hell are we supposed to do? And what does Class men?¡± Yelled some fat looking used car salesman. ¡°Fucking insects¡± mumbled the wizard before turning back around from his leisurely exit. ¡°I¡¯m feeling generous so i¡¯ll give you all a heads up about this world. It¡¯s not friendly. Class ranking pretty much decides your lot in life. It ranges from the lowest level of H- all the way to the cream of the crop at SSS+ which pretty much means your essentially a god. At present there are 2 such beings in the western continent, 1 being a half human, half elf, the other being all elf. By the way I''m currently Class A which means I''m outta here!¡± And just like that, the Merlin impersonator left seemingly as if teleporting. The rest of the mob at seeing this display started murmuring. Some however started heading for the giant domed exit roughly 20 metres away from Jake¡¯s current position. > This is the coolest Trait ever! Ok, ok calm down, i cant be getting a random boner in a crowd this size. Hmm maybe imagining it works? Ok focus Mr. Awesome this is your moment. As Jake started to visualise a sort of knife like appendage his right index finger slowly start to move. looking almost as if worms were now crawling through his veins, shaping and moving the flesh as they went along. He noted it didn''t hurt but just felt¡­ unusual would be the only descriptor. after the movement had ceased which only took a couple seconds, Jake could see a sharp, metallic needle like appendage attached instead of his finger by some sort of black tendons and muscles. What was a little disturbing though was the pulsating light blue veins spread along that connecting flesh. > Awesome! Pretty interesting though that I have blue veins. If I remember correctly the main character in the first Prototype had greenish ones and Heller had red so maybe its an individual thing? Oh who cares, I''ve got the coolest power ever! Well lets go see what Manasford has to offer, I don''t exactly have anything so I''m going to need to earn money and a town should surely have part time work. Onward and upward! Feeling somewhat ecstatic about the whole getting out of Dodge incident Jake started towards the ever increasing flow of human movement out the exit. The first thing his eyes saw however after adapting to sunlight, was the huge yellow sun in the sky accompanied by a smaller white one. ¡°Definitely not in Kansas anymore¡±. Chapter 3 As Jake walked out amongst the people of his world, he saw an entire town spread amongst them. The town wasn''t as archaic as he thought it would be however. Buildings were stone and very Victorian era yes, but the streets had cobblestone and were lined with lights that would presumably work at night. Turning his head, Jake saw the building they had just come out of and his mouth threatened to hit the floor. ¡°A concert venue? You¡¯ve got to be shitting me! Give me back my innocent wonder of this new fantasy world!¡± All over the exterior of the building were banners depicting young human and not so human teens in rather provocative clothing looking like they were singing. Then, as if to shatter his already cracked hopes, large lettering reading ¡®Manadium¡¯ was arched over the entrance/exit. > How the hell can I read this crap when I know it¡¯s not English? Some sort of ability for humans of different worlds to communicate when they get here? Ah screw it, it sounds like a pain to figure out so meh, out of sight out of mind. Surrounding the ¡®Manadium¡¯ stood boutique shops but what really stood out as wrong to Jake was the fact that there was literally an ¡®Armours ¡®R¡¯ Us¡¯ amongst them. having revived a little of the fantasy dream he had lost, Jake set out to follow the crowd which funnelled through the main street, slightly uphill, towards what he could only assume was some big government courthouse. After walking for what felt like 15 minutes, Jake was once again amongst the populace for what he swore was the last time, lining up to receive what looked like an information pamphlet and a watch of some sort. Finally after 2 hours of waiting Jake reached the front of the line and came face to face with a woman wearing half moon glasses, and who''s visage just screamed ¡®I¡¯m the office ice queen, so I dare you to hit on me¡¯. ¡°Place your dominant thumb on the watch face, take a pamphlet and then proceed to your left. Welcome to Manasford.¡± And that was it, in the most deadpan, monotone, ¡®hello, fuck off¡¯ one sided dialogue possible. Jake however, couldn''t be happier. Minimal socialisation was always a plus for him and besides, he now had a really cool looking watch to play with. Except that it had no hands and was essentially a piece of black obsidian circle on a black strap, that now looking closer, didn¡¯t have a clasp. > Right thumb on face.. of watch, done. Oh cool its like an Apple Watch! Personal communicator, wallet, information and recording device. Sweet, it only works for me with my DNA. Terms & Conditions¡­ skip. Ok, slip over hand to preferred wrist? Oh, cool it shrunk down to fit my wrist (left). Should probably look at that pamphlet now I guess. 10 minutes later and Jake was done with the basic information brochure. essentially it came down to a couple things: This city is walled off because there are some real nasty beasts out there who don''t play friendly, depending on their Class you can hunt them. The continent isn¡¯t fully explored but sometimes Dwarf visitors come to sell and barter. Apparently there are more kinds of Elves out there somewhere, and yep, the beast people share the populace in 3/10 of the human cities in which Manasford is one of them. There is no physical money system, only ¡®credits¡¯ which are stored on your ¡®band¡¯ (Apple Watch). The Hunters Guild is where people who seek to battle the beasts and pilfer lost treasures in the wilds go to make money from quests. Clans are subsets of the guild essentially, or are large families who make a shit ton of money from training themselves for hunting. Finally, the city is run by a council consisting of 11 members so that voting tie¡¯s are less likely.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. > Pretty informative stuff then about the city and how it works. Lets see, I have a moving map on my ¡®band¡¯, the time, and 100 complimentary credits which will get me maybe a couple nights at an inn after the week grace period is over. For ¡®new settlers¡¯ or otherwise known as refugees to have the privilege of squatting in the Manadium. Ugh this Mana everything is a pain in the ass, whats next ¡®Manarip Club¡¯? Ok, first things first I should sign up with the Hunters Guild otherwise know as the HG so I can earn some money. They should have shit kicker jobs considering the sign up Class is H, but i suppose the unlucky saps who have a H- Class must really be up shit creek. Forward! Oh wait shit, wrong way, now Forward! 20 minutes and 1 wrong turn later, Jake stood in front of what he assumed was the HG as it was damn near bigger than the Manadium. It looked like a massive department store from the front except that people with weapons strapped to themselves in various articles of clothing were coming and going from the large automatic doors. ¡°Fucking ruining my whole ¡®moved to another world¡¯ moment here Manasford, why cant you just regress back to the early 1700¡¯s or some shit¡± Jake muttered under his breath as he strode through the doors. > Fuck me, really? God damn starter RPG music playing in the lobby?! Im done, expectations shattered, tears run dry, no more fucks to give. As Jake was having a mental and emotional breakdown, he still wandered lifelessly across to an open information booth that had a man with floppy dog ears wearing a simple suit, sitting behind it with a professional but bored expression. ¡°Hello sir, what can the Hunters Guild do for you today?¡± Snapped out of his inner turmoil, Jake regarded the man for a whole 5 seconds before opening his mouth. ¡°G¡¯day, i was hoping to join up if thats alright? I''m not really sure the procedure or costs.¡± ¡°Well, its a standard 50 credit sign up fee along with a signed waiver that should you meet your unfortunate end whilst on a quest, the guild is not held responsible, along with a minimum Class restriction of H.¡± ¡°That sounds fair, is there a rule book or something I should read? and how do I accept these quests?¡± Jake could have almost swore he saw a tail of hair wagging rapidly behind the clerks chair. > This guy is probably bored shitless most days, hmm I wonder what his name is? Oh there it is, Benjamin? Really? a dog beastman with the nickname Benji? LOL. Benji opened a draw behind his desk, retrieving what looked like a USB stick except without the male port. Then he merely waved it over Jake¡¯s band upon which received a notification that the HG rules and regulations book was added to his information tab. ¡°There you are sir, now if you would please put your band on top of the information dock there, it will take the 50 credit fee whilst also updating your personal information and guild status.¡± Following Benji¡¯s advice, Jake placed his left wrist on top of what looked like a black scale sitting on the front left corner of the desk. After a beep and another notification about a credit transaction, Jake was waving goodbye to Benji as he made his progress towards the section on the floor labelled ¡®G¡¯, which he assumed corresponded to class. Chapter 4 > Wow, I think I just entered a try hard convention. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has either the most cumbersome steel junk armour, or just random straps of thick leather wrapped around themselves like a warrior gimp suit. These are my peeps? Jesus I need to class up ASAP. Hehe, class up, actually makes a lot of sense in this scenario. Is that guy hanging BBQ tongs off his belt? Hahahaha oh god I¡¯m literally seeing his respect drip off him. Focus man, focus. First I gotta get the money, then I get the power, and then I get¡­ crap well I¡¯ll remember it if it¡¯s important. As Jake performed his one man comedy show for the sole audience member in his head, he slowly moved further into the G section of the guild. Lined up on the walls were massive monitors with digital sticky notes explaining quests. Upon further inspection Jake noticed that the quests, although all rank G, still had a range of difficulty depending on their type. For example he found a ¡®-¡® quest that involved shovelling horse crap in the stables, a ¡®0¡¯ quest that required aiding a herbologist in acquiring herbs from just outside the wall, and then another ¡®+¡¯ quest denoting the retrieval of some kind of furry frog¡¯s tongue. ¡°Well lets make my debut nice and easy here on Prime, how about collecting this ¡®Buckweed¡¯. What a terrible name, but hey, at least its a basic component of an antiseptic.. or so the note says.¡± Tapping on the note with his finger Jake received a prompt on his band asking whether or not to accept the quest.
QUEST: Collect 50 bundles of ¡®Buckweed'' and deliver them to the guilds administration.
NOTE: Receive a hessian bag at front desk to carry the herbs. RESTRICTION: No time limit (reoccurring quest) REWARD: 50 credits.
¡°Accept, though no EXP? Well i guess that makes sense since there are no levels. Kind of like, keep developing yourself however you want style until your overall class goes up? Yep sounds plausible so I¡¯ll go with that. Damn I''m smart.¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. After picking up his sack, Jake then strode with purpose towards the sole gate leading north out of the city. However, little did Jake know that in the corner of the guilds ground floor a sinister shadow was watching¡­ > Nope just a coat rack, I''m losing it! Better pick up a water canteen on my way out of town though, and a couple strips of jerky. Don''t want to be questing on an empty stomach! Actually, it¡¯s a bit weird how I''m not hungry yet¡­ Food for thought, hehe I¡¯m hilarious. 30 minutes, 1 canteen, 5 strips of baffle jerky (some cow variant) and 15 credits later. Jake was emerging from the city in all his sweaty glory, looking forward to this new adventure of growth. 1 hour later. Jake, bending over in the shrubs roughly 1km away from the gate (still in sight because hey, knowing where to run to is always helpful) proceeded to pick a weed that looked slightly dead up from the ground. ¡°Whoo, thank god the band has an identify helper so i know what I''m looking for. 10 weeds to a bundle, 6 and a half bundles collected, who the man? I¡¯m the man!¡± /rustle > Hm? what was that?.. probably just farted. /rustle, rustle > Over there? Monster? Come, you shall fall before me mighty beast and become my first prey! As Jake was over embellishing his own strength to no one in particular, out from the foliage popped a white rabbit with a short spiralling horn protruding its forehead. Yes, the fabled beginner mob from almost any RPG! Standing tall on its hind legs it sized up Jake, cutely tilting its head. then out of nowhere the rabbit planted itself on all fours and sprung the 2m distance into Jakes chest in the blink of an eye. > Huh? Where''d the little bunny g.. ¡°OOOWWWWWWW!! YOU LITTLE FUCKING SHIT OF AN ASS, DILDO FACED SHIT!!¡± Realising that he was now sporting a new accessory, and that the bunny was constantly kicking its legs in an attempt to dislodge itself from his belly button. Jake, seeing blood spilling around the protrusion, did something kind of stupid. He came up with a sure win plan. ¡°Mwahaha I¡¯ve got you, you little shit. Be devoured by my awesomeness! I¡¯ll absorb your fluffiness and shit out your decomposed carcass as fertiliser!¡± Jake grabbed the little bunnies head, holding the horn still inside of him like a crazy ex-girlfriend clinging on for dear life. Then came the stupid part, he imagined the flesh of his stomach changing into the black mass of muscle that accompanied the body modification, willing it to envelop and digest its prey. Watching his plan succeed, Jake was grinning manically.. Until it started. ¡°Ugh, ow. Ow. OW! OWWW!! FUCKING SHIT, BURNING ACID REFLUX, BALI BELLY, WORLD ENDING MOTHER FUC¡­..¡± Jake blacked out. Chapter 5 Some hours later > My stomach feels like I just spent a week in Mexico eating street food. What the hell is going on? I don¡¯t remember going to bed¡­. Shit. Upon acclimating his eyes to the descending sun, Jake had an epiphany. He was dumb as dog shit! > Probably shouldn''t have tried absorbing something alive without at least testing something dead. Rookie mistake Jake, rookie mistake. Jake tried to sit up, but once his abs started burning like that one time where he tried to do more sit ups than his broth.. estranged family member. Thus he gallantly choose to simply look down his prone body to the bloody t-shirt he was wearing. Noticing the blood, Jake had a mini panic attack until he lifted it up. ¡°Damn, when did I get abs? I mean yeah i was always skinny but my stomach never used to pop out¡­ looks like rabbit agrees with me¡±. > So no wounds, scabs, or even scars. Toned muscles on my stomach and yep, pretty much everywhere. Totally nailed that fight then, although from now on ill only absorb something alive IF I¡¯m otherwise screwed. Do not want to attempt that again only for the monster to rip its way out! Let¡¯s see how my stats are, i never really noticed until i was holding that death balls head but my grip has totally increased. ¡®Status¡¯.
Name: Jake Steel Profession: N/A Trait: Viroid Proto Class: G
VIT: 3.55 STR: 2.005 AGI: 2.501 PER: 2.501 INT: 1.10 WIS: 1.00
NOTE: stats are relevant to base stats of humans.
Jake gazed lovingly at his status window, admiring the increase in VIT, STR, AGI and PER. 0.1 of a percentage may seem low but after only 1 day of adventuring, and only 1 fight, it was practically bus levelling. Although Jake seemingly gained power and advancement easily, he didn¡¯t truly realise how close he was to simply devouring himself. The rabbit was constantly thrashing around inside him during digestion but thankfully, due to its low strength, low class (H with little to no mana in its blood) and zero momentum for a charge, Jake survived.Stolen story; please report. ¡°Crap, better get back before they close the gates for the night. I¡¯m damn lucky no other midget unicorns tried to skewer me while I was down. To infinity, and beyond!¡± To the average observer Jake would appear bat shit crazy. However.. nope he probably is. A lifetime of distrusting people close to you helped build Jake a pretty solid interpersonal relationship with himself. He considered himself awesome, he agrees with himself, best relationship ever if somewhat unhealthy. Anyway in an isolated environment Jake is a downright chatty Cathy, in a crowd however Jake will just observe. Observation has served him well his whole life in avoiding irritating circumstances and now that those same circumstances could potentially be life threatening, Jake considered himself mentally ready for this world of broken dreams (Yep, he¡¯s still bitter about the whole idol group thing). /Siren blaring ¡°GATE CLOSING IN 2 MINUTES¡± ¡°Maximum effort!¡± Jake said to himself as he passed the guard all dressed up in what looked like brown armour, if it had a baby with a robot. Adorned on his left breast was the insignia of the city, an open tome with a staff as a bookmark. Pretty cool he begrudgingly admitted as Jake walked towards the Manadium. > Why am I still not hungry? Does consuming mean the same as eating food? Whatever, if it means I can be a little more thrifty then the grocery budget is getting a budget cut. So long as I don''t start looking at people and visualise steak. That could probably.. give me the runs. The crowds started getting denser the closer Jake got to the Manadium, something he wasn¡¯t enjoying but thankfully he didn''t have to worry about getting his pocket pinched. Pondering on the subject further, the map never really showed a slum section. Sure there are homeless people but the lowest cast here seems to rather indenture themselves as a maid or servant to a clan for a period of years as a sort of sudo slavery. The difference being, the ¡°Owner¡± has a duty of care to the ¡°Slave¡± and that laws are regularly enforced by the city guard, the ¡®Manardians¡¯ as they were called amongst the locals. So really not a whole lot of crime in the stealing money department, items and things from homes sure but not much in the way of open robbery. > I swear, whoever named shit here seriously needs a psych check. I bet they get hard every time someone says ¡®Mana¡¯ out loud near them. Time to drop off todays haul of Buckweed and then find a nice cosy corner to pass out in. Jake quickly made his way towards the HG only to find all the counters full with lines starting from a minimum of 5 people per booth. Frowning in irritation, Jake stumbled over to Benji¡¯s line again because he figured why not go to where you know? After roughly half an hour it was finally Jakes turn, just as Jake was stepping forward some massive mound of muscle swiftly cut him off and proceeded to talk to Benji. Jake was fuming and was about to reel back to punch the thing in the back of the head when it suddenly turned around and looked at him. His blood froze. > That¡¯s a chick? Standing there like an idiot struck by lightning, Jake couldn''t utter a sound. The love child of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brienne of Tarth eyed him up slowly from top to bottom and back again before quickly bumping her band to his. Just as quickly as she had appeared, she left, and Jake slowly came back to reality as he approached the counter. Turning in his haul in a perfect rendition of a manufacturing line robot he spun on the spot and proceeded with his coding. Just as Jake turned towards the exit his band suddenly flashed.
MESSAGE FROM: Clara Claptrap
Call me
Jake wept that night in his solitary corner of the Manadium like a recently deflowered maiden. Chapter 6 4:00 am.. Jake, wide eyed and refreshed, slowly sat up against the wall of the Manadium. The smooth limestone equivalent of this world was cool to the touch, indicating some morning dew or condensation. Upon inspecting his band, which he should have done in more depth. Jake realised that this was in fact, the second month of Fall. The calendar in Prime was rather simple, 4 seasons named Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall rounded out the year consisting of 3 months each, with each month holding 30 days. This completed the year, meaning it contained 360 days and was nice and easy for him to remember. Somewhat perturbed by the declined need for sleep, Jake decided it was a good a time as any for a morning stroll. The gate wouldn¡¯t open for another 3 hours so sight seeing was in order. Tip toeing slowly between the potential meat shields of his former world, Jake passed outside his temporary abode to scroll through his bands map of the city. While not an architectural wet dream, the city was still well planned out. A half circle protruding from the cliffs on the southern coast line like a woman¡¯s breast, with the northern gate as a nipple of entrance/exit. Closest to the cliff was the city guards barracks and training area, from there a walled off half circle showed the beginning of the Clan and important peoples homes. Then one more wall about halfway through the cities boob separated the rest of the general populace. Main Street led straight from nipple to ocean with the Manadium standing out as an odd cancer bulb in the middle of the plebeian section. The courthouse stood its equal, just nestled up to the rich people wall. Roads crisscrossed away from Main Street in an easy grid layout and Jake was satisfied simply meandering along the sidewalk, eyeing the shop faces of the main drag. > So many different shops, there¡¯s even a damn ''Gadget and Gizmos'' shop. Probably selling the bands and monitors? Ehh not like I have the creds to care. Ohh a blacksmith? I wonder what its¡­ really? ¡®Bobs Iron¡¯? I swear some people should be voluntarily offered out as bait for hunting groups. Let¡¯s see, the guild is just one street removed from main street so that makes it easy, and that street leads a little to the East where the big ass trading square is. Man I could go a cup of Joe right now, as black as my soul mwahaha, haaa I really need to do something productive. OH! BEST. IDEA. EVER!This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. 5 minutes later.. ¡°I¡¯m Wolverine!! HAHAHA¡± Jake, not taking into account the fact that the merchants were just stirring in their beds at the early hour of 5:45, started to wave his hands around in the air and laugh like a mad man in the middle of the street. He did have something to be proud of however. Jake had made tiny, needle like appendages appear in-between his four fingers¡¯ knuckles, resulting in the bitchiest version of wolverine to date. > Can¡¯t make a whole lot of metal.. LIGHTBULB!.. Do you think anyones going to miss this iron trash can? Nope? Good! come to me, my precious. The fourth day in the second month of Fall, year 3109, a man and garbage can became one. This day also represented the first time Jake broke a law.. In this world (because who hasn¡¯t been booked for pissing on a building after a night out right?). > Alright, Wolverine Mk 2! Oh nice, I have iron claws that at least look scary now! Its not like ill be cutting through dragon scales but beggars can¡¯t be choosers, heh, beggars, they won''t be happy about losing a fire pit. I¡¯ve decided, I shall call you my ¡®Trash Claws¡¯, for when I trash mobs.. it in no way depicts their origin story. ¡°FFFFFUU.mghhh¡± Jake cried as he muffled his screams. He considered that maybe waving around 20cm claws wasn¡¯t such a smart idea considering that he now had a missing chunk of his right quad. > That hurts like hell! Deep breath, IN.. and OUT.. IN.. and OUT.. Ok lets see if fixing stuff is as good as making stuff. Focusing on the wound, Jake imagined the muscles realigning, tendons reconnecting, nerves regrowing and skin resealing. Looking down at his leg through the hole in his jeans, Jake saw his skin wriggling all about, then simply flowing back into its rightful configuration. After healing however, Jake felt starving! Like he hadn¡¯t eaten in days while running a marathon of some sort. Fishing the last of his jerky out of his good legs pocket, he nibbled while pondering the mysteries of the universe. > So, I can manipulate my body to heal itself but it makes me hungry. Probably has something to do with that energy reserves thing the trait window mentioned. I think this is the first time I''m actually glad that I stayed awake for all those biology and genetics lectures. That knowledge will definitely come in handy. It¡¯ll be almost time for the gates to open by the time I get there so may as well get an early jump on the day after picking up some brekky and bread, hopefully I can knock out more of my quest today, this weed ain¡¯t gonna pick itself! And so Jakes day continued, until the fourth day of weed picking with only another 2 bundles to go, that did he realise something groundbreaking.. Chapter 7 ¡°You have got to be shitting me! Instead of tearing my hands up every time I yank one of these bastards out, I could have just made black, tentacle fingers and scooped the shit out of them!¡± As Jake was lamenting his limited intelligence, a small group of earthlings slowly made their way towards the forest area surrounding the cleared zone, north of the city. 2 guys and 2 girls suddenly stopped in their tracks, taking in the spectacle of a brown haired, brown eyed, young man kicking clumps of dirt around like he was trying out for the local soccer team. Slowly the group approached this strange creature and one brave soul amongst them, a guy who looked like Malfoy¡¯s asian twin, sporting cheap leather armour and a crappy bronze sword, decided to make first contact. ¡°Hey, are you alright?¡± Snapping out of his rampage, Jake whipped his head around like Willow Smith to gaze upon the group. ¡°Um, yes?¡± He answered, suddenly unsure of himself. ¡°Listen, we are going to try and subjugate some Furry Frogs if you want to party up? We have a couple close combatants and a couple ranged damage dealers but you know how 5 is the magic number. Party quest creds are split 5 ways and any creds from the kills are split evenly. I¡¯m Ximing by the way, the other guy who looks like a brawler is Stuart, and the 2 girls over there are Amy and Anna. They are both sisters who¡¯s dad was an American prepper so they know how to use those bows.¡± Jake swivelled his head to inspect the other group members. Stuart looked like he was friendly with the local steroid distributer, big, muscly, and black as midnight. Amy was the shorter of the 2 girls and probably a couple years younger at around 20, about 5¡¯5¡±, blond haired and blue eyed while Anna was a couple inches taller and her locks were more dirty blonde but the resemblance was uncanny. They weren¡¯t gorgeous like most first female encounters, but more friendly? Jake supposed, was the best description of their faces, plane Janes of the Californian coast. Yes, Monitors and fancy tech was seen in this world, however when it came to fire arms Prime simply skipped along. The main reason being that imbuing each bullet with a persons mana was almost impossible at a fully automatic rate, even if prepared before hand the mana never seems to sit well with the gunpowder so alchemists just decided to stop making it. when that happened the world of Gunsmithing simply ceased to be cost effective. So back to the basics they went, especially when wood was an excellent conductor of mana as it thrived in this world naturally. Jake found out the basics of the story on his morning stroll when he noticed that in every weapons shop window, bows were the norm. Thinking that it was a little out of place, Jake searched the local ¡®Mananet¡¯ on his band for information. Although the Mananet doesn''t hold the resources of the library and is really more of a forum for the cities populace, Jake was still able to find a couple people¡¯s queries about this strange occurrence. It seemed like some Texan was complainingabout the fact that he couldn''t get his hands on a Colt or Desert Eagle, was finally directed to the public library where he begrudgingly had to look in a history book on Alchemy. That was when shit hit the fan as ¡°Every Texan is born and buried with a gun¡±, or so he was posting everywhere.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Why would you want a random person though? I mean there must be tons of people to ask right?¡± Ximing, seeing the honesty in Jakes eyes was a little shocked. ¡°Dude, did you not realise that the clans have picked up a crap load of our people? At like 8am this morning they went around on a mad recruiting spree hoping to find people with good traits. Some of us rejected because we are Class G straight off the bat and wanted to try our luck, but a lot of H people joined up for the safety and security even if they will most likely be cleaning toilets. Hell, even some G guys got offers to join as a Clan apprentice, this one guy had ¡®Bill Wayne¡¯ as his trait and it said something about him being Bruce¡¯s illegitimate brother so he gets perks in gadget creation and suave. The Shadow Clan picked him up like a stripper grabbing singles.¡± > Batman is amongst us! Well I guess that means Fate must take into account who we are and what we aspire to be when we are assigned a trait, thats pretty awesome as it gives you the potential to climb and reach for it but requires you put in the work to Class up. I bet the Clans took those people in to find the ones with potential and those without will probably become serfs or disappear. Gandalf, or whatever (Gerard) did say that this world wasn¡¯t a nice place after all. Oh right, reply, stop looking off into space. ¡°Um, no. I kind of got an early start to the day. What traits did you guys get? Is it cool to ask that?¡± Smilling Ximing replied. ¡°Yeah its cool, no harm in asking. I got the ¡®Heaven Severing¡¯ trait which pretty much helps me imbue mana into my sword, it¡¯s a bit tricky because theres no numerical value of a persons mana, but come on, I''m not gonna complain when mana is a real thing. Stuart got something called ¡®Herculean¡¯ that boosted his strength stat and the girls got some kind bow stuff that helps their arrows or something, its not really my area of interest. What did you get?¡± Jake caught himself before he blurted his trait out. > I don¡¯t think people will take it too well if I tell them my trait is a virus. Resident Evil really didn¡¯t help my generation see things logically.. Or all the damn zombie movies. Maybe I¡¯ll just go with something that explains my trait broadly, yep, going with that. ¡°Mines called ¡®Hidden Weapons¡¯ and its pretty much a cool way of smuggling weapons into my body. NO! Not what your thinking of. They don¡¯t go up there, the weapons kind of meld into my skin? Like this see.¡± ¡°Damn, your like a member of Assassins Creed with that thing. At least you don''t have to worry about a spring mechanism if it literally comes out of your wrist.¡± Jake had just formed a thin, double edged knife about 3cm¡¯s wide and 15cm¡¯s long protruding from the underside of his wrist. This way he figured he could take on a rogue appearance and it would minimise the amount people saw him manipulating his body. Thinking over his past days of weed collecting, although he REALLY didn''t want to go hang out with these people, he figured the experience of hunting would be worth it. Plus, joining their group quest would net him some much needed credits, after all he had been slumming it a bit until he could hand in his picking quest. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll be the group rogue then. I¡¯m Jake, lets hunt some Fuzzies.¡± Chapter 8 ¡°Guys, this is Jake. He has some cool trait that lets him pop knives out of his skin and will be our designated rogue. I¡¯ll share the quest with him now.¡±
QUEST: Eliminate 15 Fuzzy Frogs and remove their tongues for verification.
RESTRICTION: Class G REWARD: 150 credits.
> Accept. No time limit? No worries! After Ximing¡¯s introduction to the group, Jake proceeded to walk in silence about 10m ahead as a scout. He immediately regretted his decision about being a rogue because what it came down to, was walking into tree branches and having the shit scared out of you every time you hear bird crap hit the floor. After nearly half an hour of the group making a slow sweep through the first 100m of forest parallel to the wall, Jake finally got a glimpse of the prey. There, sitting on its hind legs underneath a tree was a yellow frog of about house cat size. The difference between an Earth frog and this species however (apart from their size), was the fact that the Furry Frog had a coat of hair that would make a Labrador green with envy. Jake skulked away into the shadows, making his way bat to notify the group. ¡°Frog. That way. Couple minutes. Under tree. Plan?¡± > Ugh, hopefully that¡¯ll do because I''m winded as fuck! I seriously thought I¡¯d get some skill or shit from hopping shadow to shadow. Guess this place isn¡¯t as game like as it should be. Stupid bugs and glitches. Positives Jake, positives. At least I¡¯m not puking, guess that VIT is helping a lot.
Name: Jake Steel Profession: N/A Trait: Viroid Proto Class: G
VIT: 3.552 STR: 2.006 AGI: 2.51 PER: 2.505 INT: 1.101 WIS: 1.00
NOTE: stats are relevant to base stats of humans.
¡°What kind of tree? Birch like all these are? Was it a berry tree, Oak? Details little man.¡± Stuart wasn¡¯t too happy with the report it seems, but Jake had other things to worry about. Like the fact that his body didn¡¯t give a care to anything other than oxygen acquisition. Finally, after a minute or two Jake managed to gather his shit together enough to supply sufficient information to get the abomination off his back. Meanwhile the two sisters seemed content to just gaze lovingly at their bows like long lost lovers. Upon feeling his gaze they ruefully spared him a look before going back to their cooing.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. > I guess no sane person would adapt and go hunting straight off the bat would they? I¡¯d hate to see how much attention they give their other night time toys.. Crap this is no time for distracting thoughts. ¡°How about this guys.¡± Ximing said, gathering the group. ¡°Me and Stuart approach from the front after Amy fires a shot from cover. Once it¡¯s aware of us, both girls are free to fire until we get close. While all this is going on I want you, Jake to linger behind it so that it can¡¯t escape. Sound good? Great, lets do this!¡± ¡°For freedom..¡± Jake muttered under his breath amusing himself in his wit. After showing the gang where the little hairball sat, Jake slowly made his way behind the creature using trees and shrubs for cover. Finding a nice sized bush a couple metres behind the prey, Jake settled in to wait for the first signs of battle. He didn¡¯t have to wait long however as not five minutes later an arrow came out of nowhere, not even making a sound and pierced the frogs rear left foot, pinning it to the ground. Following a shriek and a roid raged yell, the next thing Jake saw was Stuarts fist glowing red before it missed and met knuckle to bark with the tree. Some splinters and swearing later and Ximing swiftly stepped forward and cut the frog in two with a sword that looked out of phase. Popping out of the bush Jake walked up to the aggregating group to see both the guys breathing heavily and Amy retrieving her arrow. > If they weren¡¯t so strange they¡¯d be pretty cool, all dressed up in their brown leather pants and elfish green shirts. Plus those quiver straps to a great job of splitting the cleavage.. The irony of how Jake pigeonholed the girls into the crazy slot was completely lost on him as Ximing got his breath under control. ¡°That thing was softer than I though it would be but still, it had a bit of AGI to dodge your punch like that Stuart. Maybe try not to yell as loud so it doesn¡¯t know your coming with all you¡¯ve got?¡± ¡°Hmpf, next time.¡± was Stuarts response to Ximings revised tactics. Amanda was selected to skin the creature because of the two people who didn¡¯t contribute, she at least had experience with the task. 20 minutes, 1 fluffy skin and a blue tongue later the group was ready for action. This setup continued for the rest of the day where the group only stopped to eat lunch, wrap the carcass¡¯ in a plastic garbage bag that Ximing brought along and the occasional water/planning breaks. Scoping out the forest for their ninth victim, Jake got blindsided. ¡°UGH, OW YOU MOajestic creature. Friends?¡± Jake, sitting on his ass was face to snout with a very unhappy looking grey wolf. Without giving him time to think, the wolf pounced. Jake managed to get his left arm up in time for the wolf to swallow his hand. Biting his lip as the wolf gnawed on the wrist bone trying to snap off a snack, Jake desperately went with the easiest weapon on his rage induced mind. Plunging the iron claws of the Wolverine deep into the beasts belly near its hind legs, Jake ripped his right arm up towards his face. two things happened next, one; a snap, yank, and POP he lost his left hand, two; he gave himself a nice bath in wolf gastric juice and intestines. Watching the light leave the eyes of his arch enemy, Jake poured everything he had into absorbing this adversary. 10 minutes later. ¡°Where is the little man? did he run off scared?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know Stuart, maybe he had to go to the bathroom?¡± /sniff sniff ¡°What stinks so bad? Was that you Ximing?¡± ¡°No. It smells more like vomit anyway¡­. Hi Jake, what happened to you?¡± Strolling out of the bushes into the little clearing the group had occupied for a drinks break, hobbled Jake. Clutching his newly reattached and healed left hand to his stomach to fight off the phantom pains of bone grinding. He had to go stomach diving to find the recently lost appendage but alas, it was stuck half way doen the wolfs throat. Objectively, Jake looked like shit and was literally covered in it. Clothes ripped to shreds and eyes that screamed ¡®I am done for the day!¡¯. Seeing their companions state of disarray the group decided to call it at 8. As they were walking back Amy finally twigged onto the story of Jake fighting a wolf and running away. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you have like, bite marks or something?¡± > Crap! Think quick man, come on years of lying about being late to Uni and missed due dates¡­ ¡°I heal quick?¡± > That works right? ¡°Do you have a high VIT stat or something?¡± ¡°Um, yeah it¡¯s pretty quick so small scratches heal fast.¡± That seemed to placate her as Jake released a breath he forgot he was holding. Chapter 9 The heroic party wandered through the gates to the guards and citizens cheering.. Or so Jake thought it should have been, if he hadn¡¯t smelled as bad as the Red Square nightclubs toilet on an early Sunday morning, gastric juices and unidentified substances. Outside of his 1m contamination zone, the group acted more like a body guard service than a party. Lamenting his fate as the bottom to the worlds dick, Jake kept it moving in the hopes that the faster he got to the public bath house, the faster he would actually reclaim his status as part of the public. After scrubbing every inch and orifice, Jake emerged from the bath a new man. While he was cleaning himself, the rest of the group went to hand in the tongues of the Fuzzy Frogs and sell what they could of the bodies. Seeing that Jake had another hour or so before they all met up again for dinner, he decided to scope out the local blacksmith of the area in hopes of purchasing some scrap metal to enhance his own personal alloy. 1 hour and a lot of disappointed sulking later, Jake was waiting out the front of the local pub named ¡°The Ale Way¡± or as the locals apparently named it, just ¡°The Way¡±. Ximing and co. spotted the dark grey cloud of depression hanging around their temporary rogue and decided sublimely amongst themselves that discretion being the better part of valour, ignored it in hopes of cheap beer and food. > Beer and stew combo for 10 credits.. well at least I¡¯ll be broke with a full stomach. I really need to finish that weed quest and this group one. I¡¯m running so low that my credits are a measly 8! Wait, nope it¡¯s 20 after the take on those extras Ximing sold. ¡°So guys¡± Ximing said. ¡°We should be finished with the quest early tomorrow morning. I think we should try out for one of the clans solely for the monthly allowance. What do you think?¡± Amy and Anna simply supplied a nod as confirmation while Stuart, sitting with his arms crossed trying to look intimidating merely scoffed at the thought. Upon further negotiation however he was led to see that while they could keep questing without a backing, they would soon run out of credits when rent on top of food and equipment costs started to pile up. Jake, upon realising that his penny pinching would be seeing dark days ahead, still adamantly refused joining a group of people. University was bad enough when he actually had to go to classes but at least lectures in this day and age were all online. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. > I¡¯ll just blend into the background while they talk about their futures. I mean its not like this group thing is long term anyway. After I''m done with these guys I should try and survive a night outside the walls. I need to get serious if I don''t want to be some rich assholes errand boy. Having made his stupidly stubborn mind up about his imminent demise, Jake wolfed down his meal, chugged his drink and then silently ghosted the group. ¡°What are your plans Ja¡­ Where the shit did that ninja go?¡± ¡­ Early the next morning, Jake arose from slumber in the zombie manner which was quickly becoming the norm at roughly 4:00am. Stretching and moving around like a 90¡¯s aerobic film instructor, Jake set off for a morning run which in no way was for his continued spree of garbage bin reposition. Suffice to say, the local patrols and street sweepers were awaiting a new and improved, line of trash cans to replace the obviously outdated missing ones. A lonely city budget accountant wasn¡¯t as optimistic however, as they now had an expenditure that didn¡¯t make sense, ¡°Who bloody steals a damn trash can!¡±. Upon seeing the group waiting near the now opening gate, Jake plodded along figuring that the bath tonight would feel so much better and that 2 in a day would be unreasonable. Getting a wiff of their solitary rogue first thing in the morning for the group though wasn¡¯t the greeting they were expecting. Thankful that the scout usually pissed off on their lonesome, Ximing was able to avoid all confrontation by addressing the elephant in the room. ¡°So, a couple more and then we are done. Let¡¯s finish this off by midday then and get paid!¡± It goes without saying that the first command was for Jake to scout the woods, something he took with a little more prep in his step because in his mind, he was scouting for his free abode as well. > Men can totally multi-task.. if it saves them money. I want a nice thick tree that has bottom branches at least 6 feet from the floor, maybe with a nice forest view and oh, Fuzzy! Need to report back.. WHY THE FUCK DIDN¡¯T WE JUST EXCHANGE BANDS! I could have saved so much time! 4 hours and one pissed off rogue later, the group ended the quest. ¡°Want to come back with us to turn the quest in or are you going to stay out here and finish that other one you were up to?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll stay here.¡± Jake replied in his usual gruffness when the group was in ear shot. He didn¡¯t know why, but as soon as his audience exceeded 2, verbal communication suffered. Thinking he must have some hidden trait of ¡®Loner-ness¡¯ Jake spun around and went off in search of his weed.. The legal kind. After finishing collecting his remaining buddies and on the way back to the gate an hour or so later, Jake received a notification of 30 credits being transferred to his account. Realising that the 150 credit reward was split 5 ways almost made him shit blood. ¡°30-0-3-0¡­30 fucking credits! Wasn''t it supposed to be 150! Fucking tight ass guild! No wonder assholes gather into a douche-dom! Clan members get salaries per week depending on their completed quests and the Clans themselves get all the credits from quests, so the higher guys must carry the lower ones a little then. I¡¯m sure they get ¡®taxed¡¯ though but still, who the fuck can afford this shit! Maybe I should take up Tailoring¡­ Nah I¡¯d be too tempted to stitch a dick into some pompous guys suit jacket or something. /sigh best go turn this weed in and get me my welfare payment.¡± Chapter 10 Jake wasn¡¯t too proud to admit it. The reason he hadn¡¯t returned to the guild after the last time was entirely due to the fact that he almost lost his gender identity. Clara Claptrap had scared the absolute clap.. >hehe, self pun. .. the absolute crap, out of him. The defiling of his band with that straight up DTF message almost made Jake consider replacing it, if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that he only had 80 credits to his name. The behemoth was the last thing he needed to see in his preparation to stay outside the protection of the wall. Jake definitely didn¡¯t want to be any more jittery than what he expected to be during his night of self discovery and roughing it. Sneaking in through the front doors and scanning the reception area of the HG as quick as super-humanly possible, Jake determined the coast was clear and the mission was a go. Almost running to Benji¡¯s counter, Jake quickly pulled out the gifted sack, returned it to the guild representative and swiped his band on the block before running back out. Leving Benji with a sad, lonely look on his face and droopy ears. After sprinting into a nearby side street and criss-crossing his way to the large market square, Jake finally calmed down enough to feel the cold sweat permeating his body. The market for once, was exactly what Jake expected from a fantasy world. Large pavilions in the centre surrounded by small make shift stands spreading out in an intricate spiral with lanes leading in and out of the hypnotic maze. It seemed that the closer in the stall was, the larger and more expensive its tent and thus its wares were. Stopping into a stand roughly halfway to the centre, Jake found himself in a BDSM wet dream. Ropes, leather straps, harnesses, whips, and even a gimp suit decorated its walls. Trying to look as normal as possible, Jake made his way to the shop attendant. The man was as wide as he was tall, built of solid muscle with a sculpted close brown beard, brown eyes, a beanie and completing his look were a pair of overalls. A normal lumberjack for all intents and purposes, except the man was ¡®standing¡¯ on the counter and barely reached a metre in height. ¡°Name¡¯s Bob, and this is me shop, Bobs bondage. what can I do for ya?¡± > A bondage Gnome? this world is going to hell in a hens basket! And another poor naming sense, who in their right mind just calls the shop a bondage shop? It¡¯s like ¡®hey guys, welcome to the date rape bar¡¯. I give up, I no longer care that the beauty of fantasy has forever more been tarnished.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°Jake, I need climbing rope.¡± ¡°Rope hey, we got some of that. 10m sound good? you want a thick, braided rope of something more thin and easy to restrict with.¡± > He so totally thinks I''m into that Japanese binding crap right? Ugh, my soul feels sullied just standing here. ¡°The thin one, how much at 10m?¡± ¡°It¡¯s 2.5 credits a metre so 25 credits all up¡± Not wanting to spend a second longer in this environment, Jake paid the gnome and legged it out of there. Some more wandering in the spiral netted him food rations, a cheap backpack, and a cool little ward necklace that¡¯s supposed to act as a weak monster repellant. The Woman who sold it to him looked like the old witch with the poisoned apple, but if the foot traffic was anything to go on, then she was definitely popular. Another 30 credits later and Jake was feeling broke again, dejected at how quick money was coming and going, he made his way to the gates. The towering monstrosities of Iron and black wood were slowly closing so Jake had to run if he wanted to go camping. Passing through the closing fortification, the guards shared looks that simply said ¡®One less mouth to feed¡¯, looking on with wonder at the stupidity of a newb. > Alright, let¡¯s do this! If I want to explore then I need to man up and learn to live in the wild. Good thing I watched all those Bear Grylls shows, I¡¯m totally going all survival of the fittest! With confidence in himself at an all time high, Jake started jogging for the tree-line. Moving through the forest at night bought chills and goosebumps to his skin, but the power of the simple minded pushed Jake on. A few bladder control issues and scares later, Jake finally came to the tree he spotted while scouting earlier that day.. He thought. It was roughly 3m in diameter and the lowest branch was 7ft from the ground. Swinging his rope up and over the branch, he tied off and pulled tight on the loop, securing it to the branch. Using the rope as a hand rail, Jake started walking up the trunk with a fair amount of difficulty. Thankful for his new increase in strength, he finally pulled himself up and collapsed like a sloth along his new bed. > Jesus that was rough. My forearms feel like that one time where I tried to break my 24hr record. Sitting back against the trunk, Jake pulled the rope up and looped it around his legs so he wouldn¡¯t fall off during the night. Thinking that he was now a survival expert, Jake nibbled on a ration pack of jerky before calling it a night, hoping the reduced canopy would keep him dry if any rain fell. > It''s not like anything can get my up here anyway and the ward should keep birds and insects away. Dumber words have never been said. Chapter 11 ¡°mmm, fluffy¡± Jake absentmindedly passed his hand through a warm, dark, bundle of fur completely unaware of who or what the fur represented. This would be the first mistake of the day in the early morning light. Slowly opening his lidded eyes, Jake came face-to-face, or more accurately face-to-whiskers with a snout as black as midnight, outlined by gleaming pearl teeth and two piercing yellow eyes that seared the soul. > I¡¯m fucked. Was the single thought that Jake was allowed before shadow covered the majestic panther, rolling and condensing, shifting until the form of a young female stood in-front of him. Perched on the tree branch, wearing nothing more than a black sundress that had obviously seen better days. ¡°Nip slip¡±. / Smack! A red, petit hand print blazed across Jake¡¯s left cheek signifying to the world what a jackass he is. Mentally chiding himself for speaking aloud, Jake finally took in the look of this exotic creature called a female. Black shoulder length hair, pale skin white enough to make a snowman jealous, and piercing yellow eyes with slitted black pupils. All in all, the young attractive woman looked to be around 18 years old, even if she was just reaching 5¡¯1¡± with small B cup assets. > She curves in the right places. A little cute mixed in with sexy and a shit load of deadly means I need to get the fuck out of Dodge! Slowly untying himself from his temporary purchase, Jake kneeled as demurely as possible, slowly coming to rest and almost eye level with the damsel of death. ¡°Um, hi?¡± Once again proving the majesty with which Jake projected himself, the girl however still looked.. for lack of a better word, absolutely pissed!This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°So, why are you here?¡± > Maybe she¡¯ll finally speak.. or at least look less likely to shove a stick in my face. knowing my luck, probably a blunt one too. ¡°I was wondering why someone would sleep in an easily accessible place, surrounded by monsters who are more than likely to eat you, only to actually be a pervert who I''m considering gift wrapping for them to indulge in myself.¡± ¡°So your looking for a pervert? WAIT! ... Please don¡¯t slap me again, I was just kidding, I¡¯m Jake and I wanted to get used to sleeping outside the gates if I actually want to do more than suck some Clan heads cock for credits.¡± > Phewww, nearly had a matching set of tribal marks on my face. How the hell does something that small hit that hard. Note to self, don¡¯t piss off women. Actually I¡¯ve probably made that same note a million times. New note to self, don¡¯t piss off a woman who can shape shift into a panther that has sadistic tendencies. ¡°Oh? Not a fan of Clans?So your a perverted idiot who no doubt finished one or two quests and now thinks that they can rough it out. You¡¯ve got some balls I¡¯ll give you that but ultimately your an idiot. Oh and I¡¯m Sasha by the way.¡± ¡°Thanks?¡± > How the hell did she compliment and insult me on a 3:1 ratio so easily..? What the hell does that extra X chromosome give them! While Jake was being compared to a hairless monkey that learnt to speak, Sasha was trying and failing to determine if this slightly above normal looking idiot had any potential. She was sure of one thing though, if he was a part of the new batch and already was looking to learn how to survive on his own, outside the walls then he may be an investment her clan was interested in. > Fuck it, lets see what this guy can do. ¡°Follow me and keep your mouth shut, I¡¯m going to see if your worth my time. Survive and you pass, fail and you will also pass, as shit from a monsters asshole. Understood? Good, follow.¡± > Why do I feel whipped without the fun part? I don''t want to follow some angry panther chick, maybe I should run? Looking back over her shoulder before she dropped from the branch Sasha sealed Jakes fate. ¡°By the way, run, and I¡¯ll skewer you on a low hanging branch for the scavengers to pick at.¡± Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Sasha descended to the forest floor looking up at Jake like the prey he felt he was. > Fuck it, she could have killed me in my sleep, what''s the worst that¡¯ll happen? That thought was the second mistake Jake made that morning. Chapter 12 As the sun peeked upon its highest crest, signifying the middle of the day. Jake collapsed to the floor sucking in as much oxygen as possible in heaping gulps. Standing over him ominously was the tiny terror his fear had come to known as Sasha. Never before had Jake perceived a more pure source of evil incarnate, and Jake had once met Pauline Hanson at a university event.. If that name doesn¡¯t inspire bed wetting then you obviously have never seen Australian politics. Imagine a racist Hillary Clinton with an even bigger stick up her hypocritical ass and Viola! Get the picture? > I¡¯ve been.. HUFF.. Running non-stop.. HUFF.. For 6 GOD DAMN HOURS! I almost wish something would try to kill me, at least then it¡¯ll be over! ¡°This should be far enough. I¡¯ll wait at the main gate and if you haven''t made it back by tomorrow morning when they open again I¡¯ll consider that you didn¡¯t make it. Have fun Jake and remember, things with big teeth and red eyes probably aren¡¯t your friends.¡± Still in a state of exhausted shock, Jake watched wordlessly as Sasha shifted back into her panther form and disappeared into the swaying shadows of the forest. Realising that he was currently standing in a clearing almost 7 hours away from the nearest settlement, in a forest packed full of things that want to eat him. Jake did the only thing a rational person would do in his situation. ¡°FUCKING BITCH!¡± He chose to be immature and swore aloud, probably alerting everything within a kilometre radius of his current position. 10 minutes and a whole lot of cursing later allowed Jake to cool his jets enough to analyse his predicament. > So I¡¯m about 7 hours north of the gates in the forest, about 40km give or take. Damn being superhuman helps increase how fatal stupid mistakes can be. I bet there are some mean monsters around here who wouldn¡¯t mind some light meat from another world. I¡¯m so fucked if something above G class gets a whiff of my sweaty butt crack. Figuring that he wouldn¡¯t have time if he was attacked, Jake slowly morphed his right hand (Mrs Palmer and her 5 daughters) into the metal claw equivalent of a basketball players, meaning it looked disproportionate attached to his body. Prepped and ready for roughly 5% of the shit Fate could throw at him, Jake headed south.. or so he corrected after noting that the sun was starting to come down ahead of him and not to his right as it should.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. All was smooth sailing for the first hour and Jake thought he may have become adept at stealth. Oh how wrong he was in the coming seconds as a lizard slunk out into the sun¡¯s early evening rays, peeking through the canopy. The problem with this however was that Jake barely reached the lizards shoulders. Keeping from freaking the fuck out, Jake slowly backed away towards the shadows and as luck would have it.. / SNAP! He stepped on the worlds loudest dry twig. The contest of sizing each other up was now on in full. Jake took stock of the likely end to his existence. 7 feet high at its zenith, 2 large red orbs with slitted pupils, grey scales that interlocked and looked like chain mail, a tail as long as its body totalling this massive mother fucker at around 25 feet long. Large and mean where the descriptors Jake associated with this creature and to the lizard, Jake was seen as the reptile equivalent of a toothpick. > I¡¯m so fucking fucked. If I make it through this I¡¯m going to rub a spiked dildo in catnip and stick it onto the guilds wall so that bitch of a feline fucks herself bloody in front of everyone! You are on my shit list Sasha, and I will ruin you! Of course while Jake monologued his tortuous fantasies about the were-panther the lizard slowly waddled over to acquire its new utensil. Realising that now would be a good time for a plan, Jake legged it. ¡°Stop chasing me! I won¡¯t even be enough to produce a fart, let alone a snack you stupid, cold blooded bitch of a dragon!¡± Lumbering through the forest, hot on his tail was the said lizard whom Jake was running from. Snapped trees and debris lay in its wake and the fact that it had to plough through the forest was the only reason Jake could avoid its maw. Going for broke, Jake decided to do something really stupid. Not just stupid for him, but so stupid he actually thought it may be brilliant. Concentrating on his power, he forced all the metal and mutation of his right hand to form one, long middle finger blade, backed up by a large mass of black muscle and tendons for support. Abruptly spinning 180 degrees on the spot, Jake sprinted to bridge the gap between prey and predator. The lizard was caught off guard by such a peculiarity and froze for a second before renewing its charge. Opening it¡¯s jaws wide, the lizard could almost taste its next snack not 2 metres away. Seeing Jake lower his centre of gravity the lizard dipped its head to better capture its meal. This was where Jake struck. Seeing the descending hole of death, Jake sprung from the floor towards its face. Narrowly avoiding the lizards upper lip, Jake human speared his right hand towards the softest flesh he could find, the tear duct of the creatures left eye. The momentum of the jump and the lizards own pace, ensured that the 1 metre long blade appendage sunk home through tissue to the soft brain matter of the creature itself. Now while this may appear heroic and gallant, the fact of the matter is, in the next instance Jake received his just rewards. / POP, POP, POP ¡°FUCKKKK!!!¡± 3 seperate dislocations to his wrist, elbow and shoulder thanks to the laws of inertia. ¡°FUCKING NEWTON!!¡± watching a dog sprint for greener pastures only to be whipped back due to its leash is funny, watching the human version however was stomach grabbing hilarity. Thankfully for the maiden hiding in the shadows, Sasha was able to laugh her ass off at Jake while the lizard issued its death throes and he passed out due to the concussion of being whipped around like a vibrator at an all girls school. Otherwise Jake may have realised he wasn''t as alone as he initially thought. Chapter 13 ¡°Oh god that was hilarious! Katy Perry would be proud of his drifting through the wind homage. Hmm? Why is his arm turning black¡­?¡± Sasha watched horrified as the entire right side of Jakes body shifted and writhed like a mass of worms. After expanding to twice its normal size the mass of flesh crawled and clamoured over the lizards face. Absorption of the carcass was slow going thanks to the thick hide of scales and Sasha looked on with the face a child might make when they had just opened a present Christmas morning. After watching David eat Goliath for the past hour, Sasha descended in her less hairy form next to the unconscious Jake. ¡°What a truly tasty treat you are going to be. Lets see here, Clan screen, member allocation, attach mentee. Ok now to just swipe our bands together.. Yep, and I¡¯ll go ahead and move your finger to confirm that for you my little devourer.. YAY! Now I¡¯ve got you¡± Jakes future being decided while he was passed out may seem cruel, but if the last few days are taken into account then it could also be argued that the man needed someone to smack him over the head once in a while. Now that the choice wasn''t entirely his however and the fact that Jake hadn¡¯t been bothered to check his bands privacy settings to make a condition like ¡°Conscious Decision Acceptance¡±, well he was reaping the naivety of his choices or lack thereof. Completely oblivious to his life''s new direction, Jake slumbered like a five year old having nightmares of Godzilla chasing him around a dilapidated Tokyo. Tying the rope he had bought along around his ankle, Sasha turned and made for Manasford with her new plow tilling the ground that they passed. Without this questionable treatment Jake probably would have woken up after an hour or two, with his head smacking into rocks, roots and random bits of the forest however his recovery time was prolonged. Sasha walked all night long through the forest and eventually came to the clearing before the wall roughly at 10am the next day. Somehow sensing safety, Jake arose from his slumber.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Ugggh, I don¡¯t remember drinking so why do I have a hangover¡­ And why is there so much shit in my hair? OW! That''s bright, turn the lights off!¡± > Jeez he¡¯s so loud when he wakes up, maybe I should have kept going until I had him at the Clan. Oh? Thats new, his eyes look just like the lizards, blood red and slitted. I wonder if his vision got better or something? Pfft, black fingernails as well? ¡°Hey Rory Mercury, your arm feeling better?¡± Hearing the voice of Lucifer snapped Jake back to reality. Popping up onto his legs, he cocked back a fist ready to Mike Tyson the bitch. Seeing the fight in those eyes Sasha decided to nip that insubordination in the bud with a pimp level backhand. 20 metres, 4 felled trees and a split lip later had Jake seeing stars. Holding onto his slipping vision with the reluctance of a fat kid approaching gym class Jake was able to stay with the realm of the living. Feeling his face heal slowly made Jake realise he felt full and satisfied even knowing that he probably hadn¡¯t eaten in a day. > Status. Holy crap! I have the vitality of a cockroach now!
Name: Jake Steel Profession: N/A Sub-Profession: Mentee of Sasha the Shadow Trait: Viroid Proto Class: G
VIT: 4.8 STR: 3.33 AGI: 2.9 PER: 2.62 INT: 1.102 WIS: 1.001
NOTE: stats are relevant to base stats of humans.
Seeing his inflated stats Jake wasn''t sure if he wanted to thank Fate for throwing the lizard in his path, or curse the living crap out of it. Considering he couldn¡¯t really do anything about it though helped push Jake to sit up and look at the raven haired feline equivalent of a bitch. ¡°Why do you look hot?¡± ¡°That was the shittest pick up line I''ve ever heard.¡± Sasha replied with a look of utter disgust on her face. / Sigh ¡°Not what I meant, I can like see that your body heat is higher than the surrounding air. It''s really weird, like I''m seeing you normally but my brain also sees you as an object of heat? What happened?¡± ¡°Your eyes are red and slitted like the lizards. Turn them back or something, its creeping me out that your seeing me like that. You also might want to do something about your manicure also.¡± > ?? The hell is she on about¡­ Why are they black?? Ok, concentrate, lets shift them back to a nice no-fill setting¡­ Thank god! I was not going to be happy if I had to prance around like some try hard goth! Eyes as well, although seeing like that is cool it¡¯s actually really disorientating to process all that info at the same time. Watching his features return to normal allowed Sasha to get the journey back on track and they made their way to the gate. > Why did my body change like that? maybe I ate something a little too nutritious and things skewed a bit? How about I go eat a horse and see if I get a larger leg? Chapter 14 Following the dungeon master that carried his own personal keys of freedom, Jake and Sasha wove their way through the common section of Manasford and into the Clan / Important peoples¡¯ area. After bitching and moaning half the morning about why he had to follow her, Jake was told along with the smile of a real estate agent to check his status. > Hmm? Why would this walking Dementor of life sucking recommend that... statusofwhythefuckingshitdoesithavetobeme!! Why is there a little black dagger next to my sub-profession? Why do I have a sub-profession? And why the fuck for all that is holy is she my mentor!?? Watching Jakes face change from perplexed to curious to horrified to downright suicidal out of the corner of her eye gave Sasha a tingle that she knew would make the day better. Realizing the slightly increased blood flow to Mephisto the mentor and attributing the blush as a huge warning sign, Jake made an about turn ready to sprint back into the maw of the recently deceased lizard. Having no forward momentum after several seconds Jake realized that physics wasn¡¯t working and that there was a very small white hand holding the hem of his waist. ¡°And pray tell where you think you¡¯re going my little Padawan?¡± > Allah, Buddha, God, Jesus, Chuck Norris, any holy being please grant me salvation and rescue from this unholy abomination!! ¡­ In another dimension one bearded and buff 70-year-old man sneezed suddenly, realizing that he shouldn¡¯t be getting a cold and that someone was probably praising him. Chuck went back to reading the script of another Expendables movie.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡­ ¡°Why are you praying? Thanking your lucky stars that you became my apprentice? Get up or people will think I¡¯m weird by association and that is not ideal in this part of Manasford.¡± Hearing the command of his section chief Jake rose from his knees in a perfect rendition of Frankenstein¡¯s monster and proceeded to waddle along in the very small shadow of Sasha. 20 mins after the public impromptu play saw Jake looking up at a very out of place Clan building. How did he know it was a Clan building? Well the large crest with a black dagger on it attached to the front door was a bit of a giveaway but what really shouted, ¡°Look at me, I¡¯m different¡± was the fact that the entire 10 story complex (too small to call a skyscraper) was painted completely black, perfectly rectangular and had black tinted windows evenly distributed around each side and level. > Did a 3-year-old design this? Black on black on black version of a stretched-out Rubik¡¯s Cube! Taking the mouth open incredulous look as wonder, Sasha felt a little proud and boasted to her newly acquired source of pleas¡­ partner. ¡°Pretty awesome, right? Welcome to your new home, The Shadow Clan headquarters or simply HQ. Surprise! That¡¯s what the dagger symbolizes and we are pretty much the elite rouge group present in this place. Each of the 10 floors is restricted depending on your class. G for ground floor and SSS for the top floor. Although we don¡¯t currently have a member of that class so it¡¯s used solely as the guild leader¡¯s office as he can go on any level. You on the other hand are only allowed to go as his as your master and as such should feel eternal gratitude to me as you can access the 7th floor belonging to A class members.¡± Looking as smug as Jeremy Clarkson when he wins a race on Top Gear, Sasha puffed out her very small chest and awaited the words of praise and awe she expected from her toy. > Note to self: That¡¯s why she backhands like superman, Ugh. Why did I have to think that I was going to be better than those idiots on Naked and Afraid? I could have avoided all this if only I had stayed in that stupid excuse for a fantasy stadium for another night! Why do I have to be so awesome and ahead of the idiot masses!? Seeing Jake openly weep before her made Sasha glow with pride at how her mentee idolized her. If only she truly knew how much Jake lamented his own amazeability¡­ yes trademarking of that word was purchased for himself... then she truly would have nut-cracked him into infertility!