《John Smith》 The beginning John Smith ¡°Fuck my head hurts!¡±, muttered John as he slowly rolled out of bed to stand on the floor. As his vision started to lose the haze of sleep, an unfamiliar scene came into view, instead of his dirty, messy apartment and posters covering blue walls he was greeted to the sight of a tidy, small room with far too much pink for his taste. ¡°Where the hell am I?¡± Wondered John as he stumbled towards what he hoped was a bathroom, he wasn¡¯t sure if he was going to hurl or not but it was better to be safe than sorry he thought as he opened the door to the bathroom. As John was taking care of business he tried to replay the previous night¡¯s events in his head but was unable to come up with anything other than a vague sense of being both angry and very satisfied at the same time. Finishing up, he want to wash his hands in the nearby sink and take a much needed drink of water. Upon satisfying his thirst and washing his face in the sink he took the time to gaze at the man staring at him in the mirror, a tall, imposing figure stood with broad shoulders at just over six foot four inches with dark hair reaching past his shoulders and deep, ocean blue eyes that shine with intelligence looked back at him through the mirror, combined with the fact that he with the two hundred and sixty pounds of muscle it made him look very intimidating to most people. Chuckling to himself as he noted the swollen knuckles on his hands, the tender spot on the back of his head and the bruises that covered his chest and ribs, he thought it must have been even more of a wild night than I thought. Still at a loss as to where he was though he decided to investigate, but the smell of perfume and the decorative towels covering the walls of the bathroom made for easy detective work as he walked back into the room he had woken up in. Laying down with her back to him was a woman with long, golden hair that seemed to shine. John stood there admiring the sight of her exposed rear and womanhood as the blanket that had covered her fell off as John woke up earlier. An internal struggle took place inside his somewhat perverted mind as to whether or not he should stay for a second round or leave before things got awkward, eventually he remembered he was supposed to be meeting his cousin for lunch today and decide to let what remained of the gentleman in him win for now. Unfortunately for John however; as he was reaching the front door to leave, he was interrupted by a ding and a screen popping up in his face. Congratulations! You have been selected as one of the lucky 1.9 billion people available for selection of the available criteria from Planet Pesignation: Earth to be given access to the system in order to speed up the process of evolution for humans on this planet. If you are not one of these lucky few, if you are aged 57 or older you will be added to the system as NPCs and be given a profession that you will be most suited for. Children aged 13 and younger will be exempt from accessing the system until they come of age. Any people not selected among these criteria will be forcibly changed into monsters. Good Luck and Survive! ¡°What the actual fuck!¡± screamed John he read novels on this type of thing happening, but there was no way that this was real! At least that was what he thought until he saw three different colored bars in the upper corner of his vision. ¡°Okay, again what the fuck is going on? Either i¡¯m batshit crazy or this actually happening. In either case there is nothing to lose by accepting this as reality.¡± John muttered to himself as he tried to come to terms with the current situation. As he was thinking this he heard that growl coming from behind him. The growling was becoming louder as he turned around only to be greeted with the sight of an abomination of a woman combined with what appeared to be some type of toad. Her skin had turned a sickly green color, while the sclera had turned a deep red, and her complexion had become disfigured with warts and blemishes. ¡°Fuck fuck fucking shit what the fuck! Someone please tell me she didn¡¯t look like this last night¡± John yelled as he started to step backwards. As he stared at the creature John noticed words appearing above its head, LVL 1: Swamp Goblin Stacey,¡± Huh what the hell was I worried for, aren¡¯t goblins just trash and mobs?¡± he wondered aloud. This seemed to anger the creature as it lunged towards him with undisguised rage and bloodlust. John dove away from the monster and ran towards the kitchen as it crashed into the wall, he quickly grabbed the largest knife he could find and stood firmly facing the creature. It seems like years of sports and martial arts weren¡¯t going to go to waste any time soon he thought as the swamp goblin lumbered towards him. Once his enemy lunged towards him John ducked underneath its outstretched arms and step around to face the monsters back. As soon as he saw such an open target, John knew it was time to attack has he jumped towards the goblin and began to stab it in the back as many times as possible before it turned around. With a final stab John pushed the screaming monster down to the floor where he ended its life with a violent stab through the skull. As soon as the monster died a number of popups filled his vision, so much so that he was temporarily blinded. ¡°Well i guess i¡¯m not crazy after all¡± John said with a smirk he but was surprised at how easy it was to take the monsters life, he hunted quite often but the fact the monster had until recently been a girl should have made him upset at least a small amount, but he found no feelings about it other than accomplishments but he found his answer soon after.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Skill obtained Observe Active LVL 1 Skill obtained Cool Headed Passive LVL Max Level Up! Standard points added Title Gained Skill obtained Dagger Mastery Passive LVL 1 Skill obtained Stab Active Filing through the screens he decided to read the descriptions of each to gain a better understanding of his current situation Observe: Having trouble seeing stuff or just finding out what the are? Not any more! Skill allows the user to obtain information about the object being observed More information is given with higher skill level Cost: 5 mana/sec Cool Headed: This is a little gift from the system for being forced into such a compromising situation. Allows the user of this skill to calmly assess situations and make rational decisions. User is resistant to direct mental attacks Cost: None Level Up! Congratulations on being the first person to level up, you have been given a special title as recompense for your accomplishment. As a human you receive three stat points to be used on any stat except for luck. Title gained: First of a kind For being the first one of your species to achieve something significant you are awarded this title. Effects: obtain 1.5 times experience as normal Increases all state by 5 permanently Dagger Master: Want to be a master of Death and the shadows? Learning to wield a dagger is an excellent start. Effects: 10% damage increase when wielding daggers per level 5% stamina consumption decrease when wielding daggers per level Cost: None Stab: Want someone to not be alive? Try stabbing them! 150% damage Cost 30 Stamina John stood amazed by the seemingly easy gains he had made and he was especially pleases with the title given to him. Wondering what to next, John decided to look at his status while he planned out his next move. Name: John Smith Race: Human Level: 1 Title: First of a Kind Exp: 20/110 Points Available: 3 Health: 185 Mana: 150/150 Stamina: 320/440 Strength: 17 Intelligence: 16 Willpower: 15 Endurance: 17 Dexterity: 15 Agility:14 Charisma: 17 Perception: 15 Luck: 20 John smiled as he looked at his status, he figured that 10 must have been the human average as he add all three of his points into strength. Seeing as how he considered himself slightly slow physically this would be the base line he would use in the future. After giving it some thought, he decided to search around the apartment for anything else he could use before clearing the apartment complex of monsters to search for both survivors and possible experience and then returning to his home. Starting in the kitchen he piled up several knives along with a few boxes of matches after noticing that neither the electricity or the gas worked. After a half hour more of searching the only thing of note that he had found was an aluminium softball bath that fit surprisingly well into his large hands. Finally ready to go, he smiled as he approached the door because it was time to grind some levels. Spoiler: Spoiler 10 is the average stat for a human, health mana and stamina are set at a base of 100 and every point in a corrosponding stat increase the value by 10. If there are any other questions or comments please PM me Hello Hello everyone! First of all, I would like to thank everyone who takes the time to read this. Now I would like to give an update of my schedule, to be blunt I am a rather lazy person so the updates will be whenever I feel like posting or writing. When I do post, I will try to make the content as high of quality as I can. I decided to write this story to help myself get better as a writer and to hopefully give some people have another story that they enjoy reading. Another big reason for writing this was because I was tired of only being able to properly read a few of the fictions on the site because the majority of fiction''s grammar was very poor.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Also for those that have read the first chapter already, I edited the stat sheet to add Charisma and Perception, To everyone enjoying this story or still making their mind about it, please bear with me as the first few chapters are meant to build the System so there will probably be several edited chapters for a while as I am fine tuning things and trying to give things proper explanations instead of just a huge info dump, which i will probably have to do eventually. That being said thank you all for reading, another chapter should be out later today or sometime tomorrow depanding on my personal schedule. P.S. If anybody has or knows of a cover picture they think would fit this story please let me know, I have a few in mind, but more would be helpful Cleaning Up As John peered down the hallway he noticed the sounds of shuffling feet coming from his right and almost had his skull fractured from a green fist coming his way. A quick roll away from the hand gave him enough time to assess his attacker, Swamp Goblin, Seth, LVL 3. He noticed that this goblin seemed to be noticeably more faster and coordinated than the previous one he had killed as he brought his new bat up to bear. He lunged forward and smashed the head of the bat into the monster¡¯s solar plexus with a wet thud! Before the enemy had a chance to recover he swung the bat against the side of its knee and quickly began to bash its head as fast as he could. He was rewarded for his efforts with a satisfying Ping! And a fresh level up notification. He also noticed that once he leveled up his stamina bar was topped off again even though he had not rested for more than a moment. Skill Gained Mace Mastery (Passive) If you want to change someone¡¯s face, try a mace! Effects: 10% bonus damage per level 1% bonus to chance to stun Cost: None Skill Gained Two-Handed Mastery (Passive) Some people have big weapons, others have big dicks! Reduces stamina consumption by 2% per level Cost: None Level Up! Standard stat points added Skill Gained Bash (Active) Bash, Bash, Bash, a head, roughly down the street! Deals 150% damage when using blunt weapons Adds 15% chance to stun Cost:10 stamina Satisfied with the results of an easy, kill he checked behind him and seeing nothing but a shining object inside a red and green pile of mush on the floor he froze and almost did a dance in the middle of the hallway. ¡°Fuck yeah! There¡¯s loot drops too! Is this system going to be any easier for me or am I just really lucky?¡± he cheered as he dug through the pile to reveal a pile of silver coins. Unknown to john with a luck of 20, he could be considered one of the luckiest people on the planet. While the stat doesn¡¯t help much in day to day situations, loot drops and games of chance are heavily influenced by a person¡¯s luck. Before placing the coins in his pocket, he figured he would try for one of the most important things to a game system. Inventory! He shouted in his mind. Instantly a 10x10 square popped up and he placed the coins in one of the slots. Interestingly enough they didn¡¯t appear in a box but to the side with the symbols P:0 G:0 S:4 and C:0. Happy with his discovery, he set out to do what he had started to do and that was to clear some rooms. John figured the smartest thing to do was start closest to the exit that way he had an escape route should the need arise. Following that line of thinking he came to a door and knocked hard three times, all he heard in reply was a rhythmic thumping noise coming from inside. John slowly opened the door to reveal two more Swamp Goblins and the rhythmic thumping was soon explained as he stared in wonder at the two goblins currently doing their best to create more Goblins. The whole situation seemed almost funny to John because if he hadn''t been so lucky there was a high possibility of him doing the same thing with the formerly living goblin Stacey. Unfortunately for the pair of goblins they had chosen to face the other direction when getting their green funk one and failed to notice the towering figure grimacing as he approached with a bat overhead. With a resounding crack the male goblin had his head smashed like a melon while the female screamed in anger and fear! Seizing the opportunity, John continued his assault on the female goblin until he was sure she was no longer a threat. Once the fighting was over the familiar ding sounded but he ignored to search for any more coins laying on the ground, only finding a few browns ones John sighed in disappointment as he checked his notifications.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Title Gained: Voyeur Some people like to watch others get it on, for you it doesn¡¯t even have to be people. Effects: adds 5 points to perception ¡°Fucking seriously, is the system on fucking heroin or something?¡± John asked in a rage. ¡°Those damn, shitty goblins weren¡¯t even enough to get me to level 3 and then it¡¯s going to tell me this shit?!¡± John was angry until he noticed that either the goblins had shit themselves twice after they died or his sense of smell had gotten stronger. ¡°Huh I guess shitty titles aren¡¯t all bad, I just hope I don¡¯t get too many of them.¡± he mused aloud. After a brief search of the apartment for anything of worth to put into his inventory John entered the hall once again. His forays through the next four apartments had put him past level four and almost halfway to level five. With the latest room cleared he decided to recover a portion of his stamina and fill out his status with whatever stat points he had. ¡°Well I should probably think this through before I make any major changes.¡± John said as he pondered what exactly he should do. Currently his stats were high for his level thanks to his titles, but he knew that just adding them anywhere would be detrimental in the long run. John felt that his strength and combat skills were adequate but what he lacked was the speed to properly use them against faster opponents. Name: John Smith Race: Human Classes: None Level: 4 Title: First of a Kind, Voyeur Exp: 86/150 Points Available: 9 Health: 270/270 Mana: 260/260 Stamina:160/270 Strength: 15 (5) Intelligence: 11 (5) Willpower: 10 (5) Endurance: 12 (5) Dexterity: 10 (5) Perception: 10 (10) Charisma: 13 (5) Agility: 12 (5) Luck: 15 (5) With his title bonus granting him an extra five points he decided to spend six points in agility and put the remaining three points into endurance because he was feeling somewhat winded and tired after all of the recent fighting. To John the changes were felt almost instantly as he felt noticeably lighter as he stood up from the chair he had been resting in. John grabbed his bat to resume his new favorite sport of goblin smashing as he headed towards the back half of the hallway. Upon reaching his next victims door he knocked twice, counted to 5 and then very politely kicked the door down. ¡°What the fuck are you doing?¡± A voice called from the back room ¡°Are you trying to get me killed you idiot?¡± the owner of the voice yelled as the face of a young woman with sharp, gray eyes appeared from around a corner holding a compound bow drawn and pointed directly at him. ¡°Also, you stink! Just who in the hell do you think you are coming in here covered in I don¡¯t even want to know and smelling like a homeless man¡¯s left nut¡± the woman continued to berate him as John was left somewhat speechless. John took in the sight of the dark-headed woman as he noted the curves of her body and allowed his gaze to linger over her chest. Smirking he decided to use observe on her, Human, Meghan LVL 1 appeared over her head as he raised his hands and said ¡°Easy Meghan, I thought there would be a monster in here, I apologize for breaking your door down. Can you just put the bow down and we can talk?¡± John slowly lowered the bat to the ground before taking a seat in a nearby chair. ¡°How do you know my name? Why are you covered in blood? Are you crazy? Am I crazy? What¡¯s happening right now?¡± Meghan began firing questions at John, but kept her bow drawn and the firm against her cheek. ¡°If you sit down I will explain everything I know¡± calmly replied John. In the back of his head he was begging and pleading for his relatively high charisma stat to take effect. ¡°Fine¡± She said with a huff, but if you try anything you¡¯re going to end up with more holes in you than you came here with. ¡°Fair enough¡± John said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ll answer your questions in the order you asked, firstly it''s a skill called observe, if you focus on me hard enough you should get it, I¡¯m covered in monster blood due clearing out the front half of the hallway from Goblins and as far as I can tell, neither of us are crazy. I¡¯m not altogether sure what is happening outside exactly other than that the girl I was with suddenly turned into a monster and I didn¡¯t¡± John said answering her questions. ¡°Ah I just got the observe skill, I just have one more question for now.¡± Meghan said nervously ¡°Why does you name say that you¡¯re a voyeur?¡± ¡°Ah shit!¡± yelled John if these monsters didn¡¯t kill him, these fucking statuses would.