《Tale of the Stone-Born》 Prologue Red. Blood, pure and fresh as if it just came from a wound. Rain, the cold feeling of it''s pattering embrace cooling my body from the warm blood on it. I look around, my eyes blurry and straining to see, as I notice all the corpses around me. Their mangled, twisted bodies showing them beyond all repair. I chuckle to myself lightly, considering I''m in no better a position than them. I suddenly start coughing hard, blood dripping out my mouth. Stupid fucking war... What was even the point of this? Those Xenos... They fucking did this.. Clutching to my gun, I wince in pain from moving even that much. I look down to my body, tearing up as I notice how evident my death will be. I had an earth Spike impaled in my gut, from those unnatural Xenos! It''s a miracle that I haven''t died yet... Then again, it may be considered a curse. I can feel my stomach acids slowly melting and bleeding out my insides... I can''t even talk without making it worse... Looking up, I see one of those damnable Xenos. Tall, pitch black with what seems to be tendrils out of it''s head. It had bright blue eyes, a long spiked tail, and a gaping maw... That it was using to eat my fallen comrades... One of the others that were still alive anyways. It looked as if they gained power from eating things that were alive.. As if they needed something from things that were specifically alive at that time..This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. I look back down to my pistol in hand. Maybe... I can stop them from at least getting the chance of using me to get their power. I lift the pistol up, groaning loudly from the pain, getting the monsters attention. I point the gun up the inside of my chin, planning to blow my brains up. The creature stood up and started walking to me, ignoring it''s now dead meal. I give it a bloody grin and say my last words; "F-Fuck... You.. Xenos!" A glowing white butterfly lands on my nose suddenly- Where did it come from?.. No, it doesn''t matter. I have to shoot quickly! The creature is starting to realize what I''m about to do and is reaching out to stop me... A Flash of chilly blue eyes and hazel hair crosses my vision. The young woman sighing as she gazes at me, before speaking, "I swear.. If you die on me out there, I''ll fucking kill you." Her voice trembling slightly, her eyes watering.. the most vulnerable I''ve ever seen her- A large smile covering a childs face, her innocent green eyes showing more pain than she''d ever wish to admit to.. An unknown Xeno Disease quickly killing her from the inside. "Daddy.. C-come back soon... P-please.." Her words hoarse and forced.. ... Im sorry girls.. I couldnt come home... *Boom! ... ... ... Standby for Soul Destruction: 0/ERROR Admin Interference detected. Standby for Memory Destruction: 60%/100%... Error Admin Interference Detected. 60%/60% Complete Standby for Reincarnation: 20%... 40%... 69%... 88%... 99%... 100% [Good luck Mortal~] Rebirth 1 Some say that after death, you''re taken to a tunnel that leads to heaven or hell. Some say that after death, you will be stuck in limbo for eternity, or will cease to exist. Some even say that after death, you would reincarnate to some sort of animal, demon, or some other shit based on how good you were in life. However... I was in none of these situations it seemed. All that surrounded me, was a static grey area. Nothing as far as my sight will see. I''m unable to move, to speak, to smell, and to touch.. Which may be because I have no physical form at the moment. I''m simply a floating ball of white energy; most likely my soul. I can remember a couple of things from my life, like how and where I died, my former weapons and those damned aliens... But not too much else right now. I can''t remember my name, nor my friends faces or names, or even what my planets name was... Damn.. Was that the price of death? To not be able to remember most of your previous life? Wait... What if its ''cause I''m here?? What if I''m losing my memories at this very moment?! I have to find a way out of here! Yet... Looking around is futile. Even if the exit was right in front of me, I couldn''t reach it due to not being able to move... Suddenly.. Multiple voices at once speak behind me, "Kekekeke, Well Well~ If I''m seeing this right, doing this will result in a lot of fun things, eh?" The voices say behind me, sending a chill down my spine at how in synch those dozen or so voices sound. "Mm... Yes, you''ll do nicely~ Let''s see how far you''ll go. You have my Blessing~" What?- Looking behind me, I see a woman covered in bandages nearly completely, the only features visble besides the worn out wrappings were glowing blue eyes and messy emerald hair reaching down to the womans knees. "Good luck~" it said, before a semi-transparent message appears before me. [Blessing of The System Granted] [Reincarnation Complete. Standby...]
Terra was once a decently typical fantasy world. It had magic, a monster here and there, and a couple of different races. However, it changed ever since The System integrated into it. The System showed one their flaws, and their strengths. It gave them the ability to become better than they could ever be otherwise, which was a blessing... However, it came at a price.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. The System saw how few monsters in the world there were, how they were close to extinction... So it helped them by creating what is known as Mana Cores. Hundreds to thousands fell from the sky in a self made event, in an attempt to later on save monster kind... However, sentient races are greedy by nature. They took the cores for themselves, with a select few being able to absorb and harness its power for their own, while the others used it to make technological advancements, unknowing to what they were truly capable of... An elderly man, named Frank, who was in eternal grieving from losing his family and friends, had an idea, if narrow minded, of what these stones were capable of. He was on the path of a Reviver, a strange mix between Necromancer and Golem Maker, in an attempt to make sentient life. A sentient life that can continue where he left off, make better choices than him, and live longer to do more research... However, this lead to him being even more isolated from his village, due to his seemingly insane plans to play God. His first success was when he was 78 years old. It was a female made from the body parts of different humans, brought to life by placing a Mana Core in place of her heart. Her name was designated "Stein".. However, he found her unable to communicate and threw her to the wolves in the nearby forest. His second ''success'' was when he was 102 years old. It was even worse than his last one, being unable to talk, yet still found a strange way to communicate. It was the size of a head, with no fingers, strangely wide feet, and tiny sharp teeth in its mouth. It was designated "Bill", due it faintly resembling a duck.. If a duck had human skin with no feathers, and eyes that popped out of its head. He made this little abomination by melting animals parts, and using his unique Class ''Reviver''* to sculpt the melted animals like clay, and placing a Mana Core in its brain. It was impure however, therefore making it useless despite the knowledge that came with making it. He similarly tossed the creature to the same spot in the forest as he did Stein. However, this time, he promised himself he would make the perfect being to help him. He melted human parts from his local cemetery, purified them with stolen holy water, sculpted it to look as human as possible, and then solidified it a bit with holy fire, to make the body sturdy and blessed. Then he used some tools to help make some liquid Manacores fill its empty head and empty heart area, before placing a solid mana core fought under where the collar bone. With a confident smile, he strapped the body down to his wall. This creature would be different, he said to himself. It had the best of all previous experiments, had a stomach, a dozen mana stones worth inside of it, its both purified and handmade... It was almost a natural being.. and to get anywhere closer to perfection, he would need help. Thats where this little guy will come in... What could go wrong? He''s planned for practically everything he needed to do in order to truly succeed... So, with an air of finality, he then touched the stone with his smile still in place, and said words he''d regret for the rest of his life, All of his 120 years of experience not preparing him for what''s to come... "Revive." Rebirth 2 Emptiness. That''s the first thing I felt when I was born. The lack of beating where my heart should''ve been, the utter lack of that warm liquid flowing through my veins, the lack of real eyes to see, or a tongue to taste with. I even lacked the weight of bones in my body... I thought that being reborn again would be an amazing experience.. Yet all I could feel was cold... The emptiness.. Then there was something else. A small, distinct feeling I''ve grown very familiar with over my time in the Great War... What was it called again..? Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by a long series of glowing white on black messages. [You have been born into a new and unique Species! +20 stat points, Title received, x2 exp gained] [You have been blessed by The System! One ability available when requirements are reached. All stats raised by 3 per level, +50 stat points] [You are Born of an abundance of Mana Stones! As such, you gained the ability "Domain Lv. 1"] [You have been reborn from another world, kept a majority of your memories! Title has been gained, as well as a skill from your past life.] [As an abomination of magic and nature, you have received the following curse (Randomized based on the cursed one); " Curse Of Gluttony"] ... Fucking hell.. I should''ve guessed it by now, that this System was a thing after seeing those couple first messages.. Its just.. I can''t believe it. Its crazy, yet here it is, right in front of me! Its just like those vague RPG memories I had as a kid, even like those little stories I would''ve read online occasionally.. But if that''s the case.... ''Status?''
Name: N/A Alignment: Neutral
Level: 1(0%) Title: Primordial (+)
Race: Human-Chimera Hybrid Class: N/A
Hp: 279/280 (Cursed) Mana: 400/400
Str: 10 Agi: 4
Dex: 6 End: 14
Luk: 1 Int: 20
Wis: 30 Stat Points: 90
Huh.. It looks a lot more basic than I thought. Perhaps the designer was lazy? Well, just makes it easier to understand I suppose. But wait.. Why is my health one point down, when I haven''t even done anything yet!? Maybe its this cursed thing? Let''s see what it says.. [Cursed: Curse of Gluttony- You have been cursed to feel hunger and the want to satisfy it. -10 health per hour. Requirements to satisfy; Eat to stay at Max HP for 24 hours, Wait a duration of a month, or Walk down the Path of Gluttony.] That''s.. A pretty bad Curse. Kinda expected, but still... At least its not immediately gonna kill me, but definitely something I wanna take out as soon as possible. I am willing to try and take it off via the first suggestion, mostly because I have too little information on this world. If I stay like this for a month, I may die due to this.. Same with Path of Gluttony. I have no idea what that even means, so I''ll stick to the first. However, a voice interuppted my thoughts this time. It was groaning constantly, and dry as if it hadn''t had water in days. It was definitely male, but I don''t think its human.. "Subject 88 has seemed to have awoken, and seems to be very calm about its situation. It hadn''t made any noises since its awakening, although its clearly alive." The old voice, seemingly devoid of emotion, said in my direction. I heard the vague sound of him writing down something while he spoke.. I groaned loudly, and it sounded inhuman to my ears. Like a mix between a snaked hiss and a boars grunt.. This prompted the man to speak once more. "Ah! Its reacting to my voice it seems. That shows at least an animals level of intelligence." He spoke, as if it was nothing amazing. I heard his footsteps come closer and closer, before I felt a dull pang on my face. It didn''t hurt, rather, it felt as if he hit me with a pillow. I could feel the momentum and force beiphind the hit, but it did no damage. [-50 HP] ... Well, maybe a bit of damage... Damn, that was a hard hit. A few more of those and I''d be dead! The most terrifying part of that is that if I didnt know how much damage it did, I wouldnt have thought it was very serious... What the fuck is going on?? "Ah yes, it even has a good amount of Endurance it seems. Good. Time to give it a small field test to see how well it may interact with society... Then again, this poor subject is likely more blind than a bat. It''d probably be best to give it at least some way to see, due to its lack of eyes.." The man said, before I can feel something very thin pierce my neck, some sort of fluid- "Grant Skill, Echolocation." [Gained new Ability; Echolocation- Able to see through the sounds you and others make.] Wow! What a useful and completely vague description! Gotta love lazy Systems!If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Internally rolling my eyes at that, I hum lightly, despite my lack of tongue. Doing this allowed me to see things for the first time in this life, though it was more like seeing the white outlines of a black canvas... However, it was much better than the pitch black I was quickly getting unnerved by. I saw a small room full of tools, dissected bodies, papers, and many other typical things you''d expect from a. Mad Scientists lab. The most curious thing I saw however, was the Mad Scientist himself. He was very tall, if he chose to stand up. He had long spiky hair with a lab coat, as well as what seemed to be some sort of small antenna at the left side of his head? He sat down on a rolling chair, before rolling over to me and grabbing my chains. My body crumpled immediately, not used to not having bones, and my body didnt seem able to move by itself. It was a tad annoying, considering how he dragged me with the chain that was connected to my neck, but I at least got my body to crawl soon after we left his one room house.. Somehow. Crawling after him chained up like this was getting me pissed off. The amount of noises the forest made helped me see all around me, which was both an advantage and a distraction. An advantage cause I couldn''t really get surprised by anything nearby (Of course, I was occasionally surprised by the monsters that sometimes came to my view), but it proved to be a distraction which caused me to slow down and get dragged some more via that evil chain.. Growling lightly, we soon stopped at the entrance of what seems to be a small village. The man looked at me, and gave me a vague smile... A smile I didn''t like one bit. "Now, prove to me your worth by getting me some groceries, okay? Meanwhile, you can test this new drug I made that should help with your.. People skills." He said with an evil smirk.. Before I even had time to react, I was stabbed with another syringe, but this time, he didn''t say anything. He didn''t need to. After all, the message in front of me said it all... [You have been affected by "Berserk". For 3 hours, you will feel all your negative emotions raised by 300%, in exchange for your stats raising x30.] My head suddenly ached as I opened my mouth impossibly wide, the sudden rush of sadness, regret, anger, confusion, and other such emotions were raised beyond my comprehension. I looked around for that horrible and vicious man who created me, only to see he completely disappeared, leaving me with just my chains and my naked (albeit, humanoid monster-like physiology) body. I screamed out in rage, before I heard a scream in return. I turn suddenly, faster than I ever thought possible, and looked directly at a young woman covered in armor. A town guard, armed with a spear and guarding the gate.. Right right, this was a town! A place where batches of meat come together for me to do with as I pleased. I sensed her fear, her primal feeling of wanting to run away... Yet she didn''t. All the better for me, I thought to myself licking my ''lips'' with some long sticky tongue(?). I finally could remember what I felt earlier! The feeling I hadnt felt since before the war...I was absolutely Starving...
POV- Village Elder I''ve seen many things in my long life. I''ve seen Orcz try to take my village, I''ve seen pirates raid and rape my people, I''ve seen abominations occasionally come in only to be chased out, and I''ve seen adventurers even try and politically(or not so politically) take my village over. Of course, The Orcz were slaughtered, providing us a feast on Orc meat. The pirates were raped and raided back, increasing our army, population, and morale. The abominations were never seen of again, hiding deep in Drownfog Forest. And the Adventurers? I got them into a political trap where they and their descendents shall forever protect and serve this village. Forever. We were a decently powerful village, with vast resources and a coastal trading port. Of course, I got plenty of power built up for myself. I was a Elven blade master, on the path of the Spear. I was truly a respectable power in the region, even at my old age of 234. I chuckle to myself at the thought, before I suddenly hear screams outside. A raid? It was nighttime, so it was certainly possible, yet who was stupid enough to try and raid us? I quickly out on my heavy armor, it feeling light despite of that, and grabbed my spear. "Get the men ready! We are under attack!" He yelled, before bursting outside with a torch. What he saw.. Was something he wouldn''t forget anytime soon. He saw the guts of men, women, and children lying about. Bodies half eaten, as their intestines were thrown about like it was some sick party. Some of the guard were even on the ground, their spears impaling them from their private areas, ending up sticking out their mouths or eyes... That was without mentioning how their armor, along with their bodies, had huge chunks bitten out of them. It was a sight so brutal, that he was too shocked to move for a moment. But only for a moment. Grimacing, he heard nearby screams and quickly ran to it with some of his speed, making it there quickly. Once he reached it, he quickly identified the creature that was causing all of this, fighting against some of his commanders head to head. It was a disturbing creature, having no eyes, looking human if not for its very long and sharp "teeth". The teeth were made of the same matter the creature was made of, and suddenly, it came to him what this was. ''An abomination''. He hasn''t seen any of those in years, decades even. And this was the most violent of them all... But his intuition was trekking him something was up with this. Why would it suddenly attack for no reason? It didn''t even seem to mind the multiple gashes on its body, which was highly unusual for a creature.. Unless it was deliberately sent here, and either ordered or drugged to attack this village. This... Was a tremendous boon it seemed. One of the very few abominations wasn''t willing to run due to the order. Because of this, it was possible to capture, even tame it. If it could be tamed.. Well, it was very likely that it could either be sold to the Egyptians for a high price, or able to defend the village. Win-Win. He chuckled to himself as he walked over to the creature that was clearly losing. The casualties would hurt morale and even a bit of long term production, but it would be worth it. Keeping this thing here too long would be bad for morale, so selling it would be a good idea. The gold should make up the damages, food, adventurers, and supplies costs for years! He lightly slapped the back of the creatures head, not even using an quarter of his power for this, before the creatures head slams to the ground and knocks it unconscious, its lack of eyes contrasting in a very morbid way with its pure white ''skin''. He looked around to see the damages, and sighed. He was getting too old for this crap.