《Another End》 Prolouge — Ardvites Mistake In the beginning of Earth¡¯s long and troubled history, for the most part things went well. Earth was a mana rich planet that was inhabited by all kinds of magical beasts and creatures that had their levels, stats, skills, and titles regulated by an interplanetary system. Throughout a billion years, these beasts and creatures evolved and went on to found their own civilizations, cultures, and countries. The proud and haughty Merpeople built their grand kingdom on the ocean floor assured of their safety far below the waves. They were the world''s most prolific race in water combat and had no equals when it came to pride and patriotism. The peaceful and withdrawn Bird Beast-men built a great floating monastery on a magical flying island which only they could access. They built their monasteries in the mountains beneath their flying citadel to spread their buddhistic religion to the rest of the races who could not fly. The stout and resilient Dwarves lived a tribalistic lifestyle and inhabited the more tropical parts of the world, mining up so much gold and other precious metals that they made a city out of them. Dwarves became renowned craftsmen for their specialization in the enchantment of weapons, armors, and even buildings. The Beast-men banded together forming a large nation within a tropical forest valley. With their superior strength and special talents, the Beast-men constructed a grand capital that attracted travelers from all around the globe and built their castle¡¯s spiraling towers until they seemed to reach the heavens. For another 1.2 billion years these races continued to rule the world. That is, until she showed up¡­ The Goddess of Birth, Origin, and Beginnings, Ardvite. Ardvite had been partying with the gods of alcohol and merrymaking when she had gotten a little too drunk and wandered off from the festivities. Ardvite drunkenly wandered the universe for several years until she stumbled and landed upon the comparably small world of earth. Ardvite began to casually observe its inhabitants while enjoying her 5th bottle of godly ambrosia. Ardvite took notice of how the beings of this planet slowly and subconsciously used the surrounding mana to evolve themselves over the course of hundred of thousands of years instead of being simply created fully formed when their planet originally made them. Intrigued by this concept, Ardvite thought it would be a funny idea to create a race that actively sucked up mana to evolve themselves at incredible rates. As a result, Ardvite created the first primordial humans that began to rapidly suck up all the mana that almost all life on the planet needed to live, quickly killing 90% of the world''s total population within the first 5,000 years. Unfortunately Ardvite could not intervene in this situation and save the mana of earth as she had passed out in the middle of her 6th bottle of ambrosia after she finished creating humans. By the time that those 5,000 years had passed, all of the ambient mana on the planet had been sucked dry by the evolving humans and earth lost both its connection to the world system and all of it''s mana dependent races. Humans became the dominant race of earth, inhabiting the former empires and cultures of creatures they had inadvertently killed. The Greeks inhabited the scant amount of ruins that the Merpeople left on the land and learned of the great city of atlantis that had crumbled to dust at the bottom of the ocean at that point. Monks inhabited the monasteries of the Bird Beast-men and took on their religion and traditions. They too began to spread stories about the mythical flying temple of Shangri-La, which had in fact crashed into the ocean when the mana it used to float had run out. The indigenous people of the Mexico region told stories of a great city of gold whose records were carved into the ruins that they fooled themselves into thinking that they had created. In fact the golden city ¡®El Dorado¡¯ as the conquistadors later called it had collapsed under it''s own weight without runes and enchantments in place to hold it up. Over the years the city was slowly buried by the surrounding jungle until not a trace of it could be found. The great fertile tropical forest valley that the Beast-men had inhabited dried up, died, and was buried under an entire desert. The only indication of its former glory was a single solitary river that ran through the middle of the valley and the spires of the beastman castle that poked up through the desert. Humans later came upon this valley and settled in what little land was available and took advantage of the buildings that were conveniently towering over the desert. Later these humans would use those spires as a place to store their most revered dead.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Finally, around 12,000 years after she had accidentally ruined the world, Ardvite woke up from her drunken slumber with a nauseating hangover. When Ardvite pushed through the numerous bottles surrounding her, she noticed something was ¡­ missing. For a couple minutes she tried to figure out what was wrong before she finally realized¡­ ¡®...there''s no mana anywhere in the air¡­¡¯ Ardvite quickly looked back to her empty bottles of ambrosia and alcohol and then remembered creating a race that sucked up mana at incredible rates during her drunken stupor. ¡®...I seriously fucked up, didn''t I?¡¯ Ardvite quickly got up and traveled to the largest source of human activity nearby. When she reached it, she was shocked. The humans had created giant stone buildings reaching to the heavens with advanced technology that supported them even without the use of mana. Then she witnessed how they continued to destroy and pollute the planet despite knowing the consequences. ¡®Well not like it really matters, the planet was already dying rapidly from a lack of mana anyway, they¡¯re just speeding up the process¡¯ Ardvite sighed and pulled herself together. She had created perhaps the biggest mistake in godly history. She was a Goddess of Birth, Origin, and Beginnings and yet she had created a race that had not only ended the circulation of mana in this world but had inadvertently killed 90% of the world''s population. And that''s just what they did by existing, notwithstanding all of creatures that had hunted to extinction. If word of this got out she would never hear the end of it from the godly community. She would hear constant mocking jokes from other gods asking how a goddess of beginnings could have possibly ended something. Ardvite steeled herself as she realized that she would have to both reintroduce mana into the world¡¯s core and keep a low profile so that other gods would not notice her involvement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ardvite quickly realized that the fastest way to reintroduce mana, cull the human population, and to restore the diversity that was destroyed by humans was to have the humans drop bombs filled with massive amounts of mana on each other. Ardvite had seen how quickly humans would fight each other simply because of a difference in culture and knew it wouldn''t take much to induce all of them into all out war. Not only would this serve as a way to cull the human population, but it would kickstart the planet¡¯s mana streams and reconnect it to the world system. Additionally large amounts of mana being injected forcefully into creatures that hadn''t even felt mana in the past 7,000 years would either cause them to die or mutate, resulting in more diversity. Thus with her plan ready, Ardvite set out to fix her mistake as quietly as possible. First she indiscriminately blessed all of the world''s high powered explosive devices with massive amounts of mana that would be released upon impact. Normally doing something as large scale as this would draw massive amounts of attention from nearby sentient life. However the life on this planet hadn¡¯t felt the presence of mana for the past 7,000 years, meaning that it would be hard for any of them to notice mana after all that time without feeling it. Her next task was to then induce the humans into firing these mana enhanced bombs at each other, after that she could kick back and relax with another bottle of ambrosia and celebrate a job well done. The rest of the work would do itself. First she caused international incidents between the largest countries on the planet, kidnapping officials in foreign countries, killing citizens on vacation in rivaling nations, and having government officials publicly denounce one another. Next she rallied up the smaller countries to band together against the larger world superpowers. The majority of African nations rallied together to create the Great African Nation, which became one of the world leaders in manpower. Saudi Arabia absorbed Yemen, Oman, Iraq, and Syria and became the Arabian Commonwealth. Finally every country on south america except for Brazil partnered together and became the Southern Alliance. The smaller countries drew themselves back from world politics and armed themselves in an effort to show brinksmanship. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No one knew who fired the first atomic bomb, but soon after the entire planet had divulged all of their payloads all across the world, no country was spared at least some destruction from their enemies. In the time that it took the first missile to fire and the last missile to land on it¡¯s location, the war had ended and only a day had passed. It ended in total defeat for all nations involved, there were no winners. Ardvite looked on this situation happily as she drank ambrosia on the earth¡¯s moon. Her work here was done, and no god was any the wiser As she finished her bottle a little pop up message appeared before both her, and every surviving sentient creature on earth. ========================= The Planet:Earth had regained its mana and reconnected to the world system. Welcome back Planet: Earth ========================= Chapter 1 — The Beginning A beer can impacted my forehead, roughly jolting me awake, then went flying off into one of the piles of similar cans scattered around the room. I opened my eyes to see a small room that stunk of beer, sweat, and grease. There were piles of beer cans and pizza boxes scattered about the room and on the couch that dominated the center of the room sat a large blob of flesh that was otherwise known as my stepfather. ¡°Hey kid, go get me ¡®nother pack of beer!¡± he shouted at me as I slowly woke up. I didn''t say anything and instead just put on my shoes, picked up my house keys and grabbed some money then left. This was a common interaction between us since my mother had died. My stepfather was a former heavyweight boxer, and when he got drunk he showed it. I had enough bruises, cigarette burns, and scars on my body to prove that. As I walked to the only convenience store in town, I wondered how my life had culminated to this point. I was born in born in Japan in 1999. My father was the first son of one of the most influential clans in the nation, the Shimahara. My mother on the other hand was just a common Japanese girl, someone you could find anywhere. From the stories my father used to tell me, he fell in love with my mother at first sight, and through many trials and tribulations they were married, settled down, and had me. I know, I know. It sounds like something straight out of a shoujo manga. In fact I¡¯m pretty sure there actually was someone who based one off of them. Moral of the story, I was the ¡®young master¡¯ of one of the richest and most powerful families in Japan. However my grandfather, the head of the family, despised the fact that my mother, a commoner, and by extension me, a commoner¡¯s child, were in his family. He would often argue with my father, telling him to divorce my mother and abandon us, he wanted to get rid of us and keep his lineage as free from common blood as possible at all costs. However despite his hatred for me and my mother he could not simply throw us out because my father threatened to leave with us if my mother and I were thrown out of the family. This threat was enough to keep my grandpa quiet and off our backs, until the accident. When I was 10, my mother and father took me on a family trip from Tokyo, the place where the Shimahara had their main house, to Kyoto, the place where our clan originated from. Instead of taking a limousine, a helicopter, or a private jet, my dad wanted to take just a normal family vacation without all of the pressure from our clan so that we could just pretend for once that we were normal people. Those were the last memories that I had of my father. On the return trip home we were impacted by a drunk driver, killing my father and injuring my mother. Before my mother and I even had time to grieve, my grandfather seized the opportunity. Without my father¡¯s protection, my grandfather claimed that he could not look at us because it reminded him of his precious son kicked us out of the house. He made sure that the main family and all of the branch families would never let us rest, sending hecklers, thugs, and one time even an assassin after us. My mother and I were powerless to stop them, so instead we just ran and ran and ran, and it frustrated me to no end. The scorn of my cousins, uncles, and aunts as my mother and I were forced out of the house and onto the streets with nothing other than the clothes on our backs. At the moment that I saw that I swore I would have revenge in my heart. Afterwards, both homeless and penniless, my mother moved from town to town doing odd jobs then leaving when the family¡¯s hired goons started to come after us. Eventually we had enough money to buy tickets for a plane ride to Washington, hoping to get away from the ever watching eyes of the clan. Finally, after several more years of running, hiding, and perseverance, we managed to settle down in a small town that we thought our family didn''t have eyes in, Coniston.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Coniston was a small town in the rural Washington wilderness. The only things there was around 100 houses, a small video rental store, a diner, a fast food restaurant, a clothes store, a school, and a national guard armory that''s just a little ways outside of town. That''s it. When we got there, my mother quickly found someone who wouldn''t object to marrying her and had a shotgun wedding for temporary citizenship for the both of us, as we were technically illegal immigrants. Unfortunately the man she married was a fat slob who pretty much locked her in his room fucking her and drinking all day. As it turns out, the family had found out we were coming to Coniston and payed the blob off to marry my mother, then imprison us in his house. He mooched what little money we had for beer and cigarette money to ensure that we couldn''t leave the town, then drank himself into oblivion everyday on the money the family gave to him. Eventually, after a month of this, in one of his drunken rampages, he hit an empty bottle over my mother¡¯s head and accidentally killed her. She was the last thing I had left. And then boom, suddenly she was gone. Doubly unfortunately for me was the fact that used the family¡¯s influence to bribe the sheriff, one of only 3 cops in town, to cover up my mother¡¯s murder and bury her in an unmarked grave in the woods . That. Was. The. Last. Straw. I wanted vengeance on both him and my grandfather. Although there was possibly no hope for me getting revenge on my grandfather, there was a much larger and easier opportunity to kill my stepfather. From that point onward I began to set up an elaborate way to kill my stepfather as painfully and as slowly as I could. I used the free time when I had when I wasn¡¯t fetching him beer and cigarettes to dig a root cellar underneath our house at night. It took me several months of nightly diggin to make it deep enough to be soundproof from the neighbors that were separated by a treeline. Then I used pieces of wood that we had laying around in the forest we called a backyard as makeshift supporting beams and floorboards for my impromptu torture chamber. I had everything ready except for an alibi and a place to store the corpse. On that day I was still debating on what to do with the lumps of flesh after I had butchered him like the pig he was when I went to the convenience store. For me it was normal, like any other day. I greeted the old cashier at the convenience store like I did every time I went there, ignored the racist remark he made about me, and picked up the things that the pig asked me to. After making my purchases under the name of my stepfather, I returned home and threw the plastic bag full of beer and cigarettes at him before turning around and exiting the house. ¡°Next time aim better you little faggot, and you throw like a girl!¡± He shouted at me as I left the house to go into the backyard. I sneaked into the cellar that I had hidden all of my precious items in and checked on my supples. The only thing illuminating the small room was a single candle that I lit as I walked in. Inside the small dirt room was a pair of sheers, an axe, and several metal files that, all of which I had stolen from our garage and had plans to using on him. As I was making a check on the blades and their sharpness, there was a loud rumble and everything shook. I tried to quickly rush outside, but suddenly felt queasy and dropped to the ground vomiting. I heard something behind me and turned around to see a blue pulse of light come through the dirt wall behind me. As it flowed through me I felt an impact on my body, and power coursed throughout my body. Like it had gone into overdrive, I felt every part of my body quickly heating up then start twitching.As this happened in the span of a few seconds, I did not even have time to think about what was happening before vomiting out blood and passing out on the ground. Chapter 2 — Upon Awakening I had a dream. I was a pure white fox running through a large open plain with a smattering of tribal looking huts behind me. I kept running away from the tents and finally I looked forward and saw what awaited me on the other side of the clearing. There was a large blue furred wolf sitting patiently with electric yellow eyes. Next to him was what looked to be a small green dragon with large wings and intricate scales. Standing on top of that dragon¡¯s head was a fiery red bird with an inquisitive look in his eyes. Somehow I knew that these creatures were waiting for me as I continued to bound away from the tents to their side of the clearing. I was filled with an inexplicable sense of joy as I leaped through the large field to them, and right as I was about to break through the tree line, I suddenly woke up.
¡°Uggghhhh¡­¡± I slowly raised my head and breathed in and out a few times before realizing something... I wasn''t dead! ¡°HAH, EAT THAT YOU SHITTY MISSILE. YOU FAILED, I''M STILL ALIVE ASSHOLE!¡± I shouted joyously at the fact that I had survived what should have been a life ending event. ¡°Now where am I¡± I said while finally opening my eyes to see what sort of situation I was in. There was rubble and bits of concrete around me, but strangely there was also moss and plants like I had been unconscious and Coniston had been destroyed for many years. Something felt¡­ off though. It was like I was more sensitive to everything around me.
The Planet: Earth had regained its mana and reconnected to the System. Welcome back Planet: Earth
¡°WHHHHHATTT THE FUCK?!?!¡± I shouted as I jumped back several feet. Unfortunately the small screen followed me as I quickly scooted backwards on my butt. I could feel something soft pressing against my butt, but the small screen took a much larger priority. I had read enough LitRPG novels and books to realize what this was. A system message. ...They were real¡­. ...holy shit¡­ After I had processed this information, I had an idea. Mustering up my courage I weakly muttered a single word: ¡°....status¡­¡± My face illuminated as I saw the glowing blue screen in front of me and had to slap myself several times to make sure that I wasn''t just dreaming. Directly in front of me was my very own status screen.
Status
Name: Shizuko
Race: Kitsune
Age: 16
Class PsionSubclass(es) ¡ª¡ª¡ª
GenderFemaleTitlesLegendary Beastkin: Kitsune
HP300Mana50
HP Regeneration2/secMana0.5/sec
Blessing(s): Blessing of the Fox Goddess
level: 1
STR40DEX60
VIT30INT100
END40WIS80
Skills/ Traits (tap to open)
There were so many different things I had to react to first. Firstly, Legendary Beastkin? So I''m not even human anymore? What the hell is with that! And now it''s calling me a girl! I am proud upstanding (not very)manly boy I''ll have you know! True, I may have always buried my face in books, but that''s besides the point! I have my man¡¯s pride you know! And Shizuko isn''t even my name! ¡­ although I can''t remember my name right now¡­ fuck. For some reason it just felt right to be called that, but it''s still too girly! And what the hell is with that main class!?! Psion? Like the guys who can move stuff with their minds? Thats a class that should be in a sci-fi world, not here! ¡­ Seriously what the hell¡­ After a few minutes and I had calmed down enough to think rationally I checked the small drop down window that contained my skills. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Skills
TelekinesisOne of the starting skills of the Psion class. The user can interact with things by using their mind and pick up on the emotions sentient beings project mentallyLVL 1
PyrokinesisOne of the starting skills of the Psion class. The user can move create combustions and small flames by accelerating molecules in the air with their mindLVL 1
CryokinesisOne of the starting skills of the Psion class. The user can move create water and ice by slowing down molecules in the air with their mindLVL 1
ElectrokinesisOne of the starting skills of the Psion class. The user can move create electricity by exciting molecules in the air with their mindLVL 1
AnalyzeGives detailed information about whatever the user is looking at. Be it flora, fauna, the environment, etc.LVL 6
Traits
Perfect MemoryGives the user a Photographic Memory
Beastkin PhysiqueRacial trait of all beastkin. Grants higher strength, dexterity, vitality, endurance, and a better senses of smell, sight, and hearing.
Blessing of the Fox GoddessGrants a faster mental processing power and a better intuition/danger sense.
Legendary Beastkin: KitsuneChanges the holder¡¯s race to Kitsune and grants all the benefits it comes with.
Well then. Didn''t know what I expected. This is kind of broken for a level one isn''t it? Telekinesis sounds really overpowered in a large scale fight where people are dying and dropping their weapons. I probably even lift a gun and have a small floating armada of weaponry behind me when I go into battle. Although, Pyrokinesis, Electrokinesis, and Cryokinesis also look really interesting. Isn''t this just basically the ability to use magic without consuming mana. Why am I focusing on the fighting potential of myself when I don''t even know my situation? Of course I am! I am in an unknown situation in an unknown environment where the entire planet could be in a similar apocalyptic scenario. Just the introduction of the system would cause mass hysteria and rioting, not mentioning the large number of bombs that were probably dropped on the rest of the world... I slowly sat up to assess my environment and take a look around when I noticed my chest was¡­ larger than normal. Are these¡­ breasts? Then is down there?... ...it''s gone... WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?! THEY STOLE MY LITTLE KNIGHT! WE HAD SO MANY UNFULFILLED ADVENTURES TO GO ON TOGETHER! HE WAS TAKEN TOO YOUNG! calmdowncalmdowncalmdowncalmdown Lets think about this one step at a time. Bombing of hometown I can accept, the world was already on it''s way to WWIII. Status screen is much harder to swallow, but sometimes you have to accept the truth that''s staring you in the face. BUT TURNING ME INTO A GIRL IS NOT LOGICAL IN THE LEAST! I sighed and fell onto the ground in a daze before shouting out in pain and standing up. I had sat down and suddenly my butt hurt. I behind meand therewasafluffy fox tail sticking out of the area just above my butt. I''m really not human anymore¡­. I don''t think I have anymore energy to react to this. Congratulations system, you''ve broken me. ¡°UGAGAGAHH¡­.¡± I know stomach, I''m hungry too. Lets just calm down and address all my changes after I get some food in me. Line Here All around me was the rubble of what used to be Coniston. For some reason instead of fires and a large amount of corpses like I was expecting, there were only trees and moss covering the silent concrete buildings. If I really had been passed out for many years, than would I even be able to find food? And if I had been passed out for all that time, how was I still alive and un-aged. Well I suppose magic does exist now, so I shouldn''t worry about it. I quickly walked myself down the overgrown road and into the nearest house with a wide open door and moss growing all over it''s roof and walls. It was a small thing with one floor and only 4 rooms, a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. All the houses in Coniston were built in the same track, that so there wasn''t really much surprise or confusion from the layout. I quickly walked through the living room, ignoring the fluttering of my tails behind me as I focused on my task. In a rush to get out of the silent and creepy house, I raided the refrigerator and cabinets for anything edible. Surprisingly the fridge was still cold which meant that electricity hadn''t fully been used up yet. So why the fuck was everything so overgrown? I sighed as I grabbed several sodas and some water and put them on the counter. Next I opened the cabinets and found some expired corn tortilla chips, a bag of goldfish, and several types of off brand cereal that tries really hard to make itself look like big name brands so that people will accidentally buy it. I grabbed everything besides the expired chips and put them on the counter next to the soda and water bottles. I quickly looked around the kitchen and found several plastic bags which I put all of my loot in and walked out of the door as fast as I could so I could get out of the oppressive silent atmosphere of the house. As I walked back down the street to where I had woken up, I saw it. My first corpse. I was surprised when I first saw it. It was a middle aged man with greasy black hair, a tank top and cargo shorts with flipflops, not really the best dressing for washington, but that was his problem. At first I thought that he had just passed out on the side of the street. However as I approached him I could tell that he wasn''t alive. He wasn''t breathing and his skin was a sickly shade of white. Quickly realizing what had happened to him, I backed up. It was very serene. There was no blood, no gore, no signs of death. Just a man laying down on the side of the road. Despite not knowing this man I felt a tear roll down my cheek. This corpse just confirmed what I already knew. Most likely everyone in Coniston bar me was dead. It also confirmed that this hadn''t happened years or even days ago, the body hadn''t even started to rot. I threw up in my mouth a bit when I thought about what I could have seen if the body was rotting when I came across it. Realizing that this was not going to help my appetite, I gave a quick apology to the corpse and continued down the road toward the outskirts of town where there wasn''t an oppressive and creepy silence. After getting out of town, I sat down on a large piece of concrete with moss all over it and opened my bag of goodies while I tried to put the image of the corpse of the man out of my mind. I opened the box of cereal and popped open one of the water bottles and ate and drank both of them at a terrifying rate. Within 5 minutes, not only was there 2 empty water bottles in front of me but also an empty box of off brand cereal. With my stomach filled I decided I finally had to address the reality of my situation. Most likely the world is caught up in some kind of fantasy apocalypse. If this ¡®system¡¯ changed me with mana, it probably changed the rest of the world too. Hell I wouldn''t be surprised at this point to see a monster. I am currently in the outskirts of my destroyed and overgrown town and have been turned into both a girl and a beastkin. This is probably one of the least safe places I could be right now, and I should move to a more populated area to seek help. But wait what if people attack me for not being human? That''s probably a worst case scenario, but if I want to survive and get food and protection I''ll have to take that risk. Hell there might even be other people like me who aren''t human anymore. So here''s the game plan: Step 1) Go to the military base and procure a means of self defense Step 2) Raid the town for a large supply of food Step 3) Follow the highway to Coniston back to a major populated area Step 4) Find out what happened to the rest of the world. Alright, let''s do this. Chapter 3 — First Encounter It was completely gone. In the place of what once was the National Guard Armory was now a large pile of rubble and broken glass. Besides the incredibly damaged sign that read ¡°National Guard Armory, trespassers will be shot¡± most people wouldn''t have figured out what the building used to be. When I had first saw it, I was shocked. It was like the building had seen the approaching missile and hit the ground. Literally. I decided that something might have survived the blast and slowly walked over the rubble and debris looking for anything that might be of use. It didn''t take that long before I found a spot where I could see an intact room beneath the gaps in the rubble. The holes clearly weren''t small enough despite how my body changed. I had to come up with a way of getting into that room. Wait. I had crazy amazing powers now right? I''m pretty sure telekinesis was one. Alright let''s try this! ¡°Telekinesis!¡± ...nothing happened¡­ Well I can now confirm that skills are not voice activated, that''s a bit relieving. It would be awkward both emotionally and tactically to shout out the names of my skills as I used them. So skills were just actions that you could perform, but how do I actually perform them? Since it''s telekinesis it should be a mental thing right? I closed my eyes and thought about what would be the best mental image to form to try and pick up rubble with telekinesis. I thought for a while and went over a long mental list of things that could grab objects from a distance before deciding which one would be best.I attempted to picture one of those sticky hand toys that you could buy in the toy dispensers for 25¡é at the diner. I imagined an invisible one coming out of my head and grabbing onto the rocks that impeded the path in front of me. Slowly I thought about using the hand grabbed onto the rock to lift it up into the air. I heard a crumbling and slowly opened my eyes to see a large floating rock in front of me outlined by a light pink haze. ¡°I did it!¡± I shouted happily, accidentally breaking my concentration and causing the rock to fall back onto the pile of rubble. ¡°damn it...¡± This time I kept my eyes open and stared intensely at the rock, once again imagining the invisible hands picking it up. I watched as the rock was wrapped in a light pink and began to unsteadily float up into the air. I moved the rock to the side and gave a shout at my victory against the destroyed building fragments. After that one piece of rubble, I began to slowly get a grasp of how to lift things with telekinesis while I excavated the rest of the hole in the rubble until there was a hole a little larger than me in the ground leading into the dark and quiet basement. I took my first several steps down the rubble pile that had formed into pseudo stairs down into the basement and suddenly realized that despite having no form of lighting and being underground, the basement looked almost as bright as it did outside. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn''t seeing things as I looked around but the basement was still brightly lit and easily visible. I realized that this probably had something to do with the fact that I wasn''t human anymore and quickly served to dampen my mood. Sighing I continued through the basement. Most of the rooms were filled with rubble and mostly unexplorable, however there were 4 rooms that were devoid enough of rubble to be navigated. The first 3 of 4 rooms that I could explore only had cobwebs and empty containers, ¡­ a bit disappointing really. But, as I slowly entered the fourth room, something inside it began to move. I thought that it might have been a surviving soldier, and boy I couldn''t have been more wrong. As I ran towards the humanoid shape to see if he was okay, he turned to face me and showed his bright glowing blue eyes and let out a screech. What was in front of me was a zombie. Just looking at it made me want to throw up and run away. It had clearly once been a soldier stationed at the armory and had died somehow. His left arm and shoulder were completely gone down to his waist and you could see the guts about to spill out the gaping hole in the side of his stomach. There were shards of concrete buried into his entire body, some even sticking out of his exposed intestines.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. With a second screech, the creature charged me before I could get away! ¡°s..stAY BACK!¡± I shouted and instinctively closed my eyes and put my arms out in front of me. I waited for several seconds, expecting the ragged corpse to tackle then kill me, but strangely I felt no impact. Timidly I opened one of my eyes to see the zombie stopped in it''s tracks several feet in front of me, surrounded by the dim pink glow that I had come to associate with telekinesis. I breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed for a second, before noticing the zombie slowly moving against it''s mental restraints and knew that I didn''t have much time. What do I do?!?! I''ve never killed anything larger than a bug before, and I only killed them on accident! Plus even if I tried to run away, I expect that it would follow me. I mentally reviewed my skills again and remembered the 3 attack skills that I had gotten after my ¡­ change. Pyrokinesis? Traditionally fire is the bane of undead, but this is real life not a game or novel. Plus there''s the possibility that it would shrug off the flames and come after me, then I''d have a flaming zombie chasing me instead of a normal one! Electrokinesis? I''m not sure that electricity would work on an undead abomination, in fact weren''t several undead abominations created because of electricity? The only thing left was Cryokinesis, that could work. If I fire an ice blade at his head I could take him out right here. His head is his weak point right, I don''t know I''m trying really hard not to look at him or his disgusting wounds that make me want to throw up. Okay don''t panic. Just use telekinesis to stop the molecular movement of an area in the shape of a blade. How the hell am I gonna do that! I glanced up from my mad rush of panicked thoughts and realized that the zombie was slowly gaining more control of it''s movements. Okay, thinking faster now. Let''s live through this. Make a bunch of my little sticky hands, then make them really really really small. Grab the air and force it to stop moving. stop moving, stopping molecular movement. I took a deep breath and looked to the space in front of me where I pictured the particles condensing. Floating in front of me was a crescent shaped blade of ice 2 feet wide and about 4 inches thick. Success! Now just grab it with a bigger hand and throw it as hard as I can at the undead¡¯s neck and pray I can actually aim. I watched in astonishment as the floating crescent ice blade raped in a pale pink light suddenly flung off so fast I could feel a gust of wind hit my face and I instinctively closed my eyes. Several second later there were two meaty thuds hitting the hard concrete floor and I slowly opened my eyes. In front of me lay on the ground the zombie soldier¡¯s decapitated head and desecrated body. I breathed a big sigh of relief before promptly collapsing on the ground and vomiting out all of the off brand cereal I had eaten earlier. I almost died. That thing was going to kill me. I hyperventilated a bit thinking about it. As my eyes wandered around the room, looking at anything but the zombie I noticed an odd shape sticking out of one of the piles of rubble that littered the room. It looked like the wooden stock of a rifle as I slowly got up and staggered my way to the pile. When I got there I realized it was definitely a rifle, the stock was sticking out of the rocks like the sword in the stone. I grabbed the stock of the gun with both hands and pulled it out of the rubble then brought it up close to my eyes. It gave off a strange glittery shine almost as if the entire gun emitted a faint light. Well now I have a magical glowy gun, but no ammo. Fuck. I wondered why it glowed when I remembered one of my skills ¡®Analyze¡¯. ¡°How do I analyze it through...¡± I wondered out loud. Maybe it''s voice activated? ¡°Analyze.¡± ¡­but nothing happened¡­ Well then it''s probably mental! I stared at the gun and thought out ¡®Analyze¡¯ and suddenly a pop up window like my status screen appeared in front of me.
Name: Legacy
Grade: Artifact
A weapon used by a Veteran during the last World War. When the Veteran died, the only thing he left to prove his existence was this rifle. After absorbing enormous amounts of mana, it has turned into an artifact. Legacy can fire bullets by condensing ambient mana in the air, a skilled user can add an element to these bullets.
Well this would have been very useful to find this before I got attacked by that zombie. I looked around and realized that the zombie and Legacy were the only 2 things in this room so I decided to flee the basement before anything else made a suprise guest appearance. I quickly scurried across the room to the exit of the basement, my 9 fluffy tails billowing out behind me making me realize I would have to find a mirror soon to see what I looked like now. As I fled the room, I tried not to look at the fallen zombie or it''s decapitated head. As soon as I got out of the basement I breathed a big sigh of relief and inhaled the fresh air. Step 1, completed now onto Step 2! Chapter 4 — The Final Stretch I hooked the strap that was attached to legacy around my shoulder and proceeded to stealthily make my way in between houses aiming for the local dinner. ¡®Why stealthily¡¯ you might ask. Well I didn''t know how many zombies were out there and I wasn''t about to take any chances. I was hoping to get into the Diner¡¯s giant walk in freezer, as long as it had power then I had a good chance of finding some fresh food. As the diner came into my view I noticed what I would currently consider a worst case scenario. There was a zombie wobbling back and forth in front of the diner¡¯s counter, dripping blood and bodily juices all over the floor. After seeing the first zombie, it was a bit easier to look at the second one without vomiting. This one was missing its right arm and had large chunks of flesh burned off all over its body. I calmed myself down as I looked at it I decided to attempted to use analyze on it. If it worked on Legacy, it would be sure to work on this zombie!
Name: Zombie
Level: 6
An undead monster formed when a corpse is left in an area that has high concentrations of mana. Zombies seek out living beings to eat the mana in their flesh, if a being has absolutely no mana in it zombies will often ignore it. Zombies tend to never leave the area they were created in as the high density of mana is the only thing keeping them moving.
I considered pulling Legacy off of my back and taking a shot at the zombie, but I did not have much confidence in my aim and I had no way of knowing how loud the shot would be. Because I already had experience in it, I decided to do what I did to the last zombie, cut it¡¯s head off with an ice blade. This time it went much smoother than the first time I fought a zombie. I sneaked closer to the diner and focused on preventing the molecular movement of the air directly behind the zombie¡¯s neck, creating a thick ice blade behind it. Before the zombie even had enough time to turn around, its head was falling to the ground. I looked around one last time for good measure to make sure nothing was around be before I stood up and cautiously made my way into the diner. There was still some cold food on some of the tables but for the most part the ground was covered in broken plates and food. I went around the counter and went into the kitchen before looking around and finding the walk in freezer. It was a big metal door that wouldn''t look too out of place in a prison. There were several latches on the side of the door to keep it closed which I quickly removed. As the door swung open I was hit by a wave of ice cold air and started shivering. Then I had an idea, I grabbed a couple of my tails and draped them around my body. Surprisingly they were really warm, and I couldn''t even feel the cold with them around me. With my new tail blanket, I walked in the freezer and looked around for easily carryable food. There was a couple bags of frozen peas, some cabbages, 3 cartons of eggs, a tied bundle of pre-cooked lunch meat, a bag of apples, and a gallon of water. The only things that I could eat right away was the lunch meat and the apples, I never liked cabbages, and it will most likely rot before I get a chance to eat it. I pushed the cabbages away from me and snickered when I thought ¡®my cabbages!¡¯ I piled up the food that I was going to take with me and attempted to lift them with telekinesis. They slowly began to rise into the air before I felt a massive pain in my head. I ignored the food and let it drop to the ground as the pounding in my head grew stronger and I collapsed to my knees. ¡®Shit, what the hell is thi-....¡¯ Were my last thoughts before I passed out from the pain. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I woke up I was covered in a thin layer of ice and frost and was freezing cold. The oversized t-shirt and pants I had on did nothing to protect me from the cold. I still had the after effects of my migraine, but for the most part the pain was gone. In front of me was two system messages glowing brightly in dark freezer.
Telekinesis has increased to level 2
You can now move more objects for longer periods of time before succumbing to intense headaches
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Cryokinesis has increased to level 2
You can now create more ice blades and ice encasings before succumbing to intense headaches
I guess that explains the migraine I got before I pass out. That''s also probably the drawback to the Psion class, it has strong abilities at level one, but it gives you migraines if you overuse them. I decided I would try to use pyrokinesis to warm up my cold bones and get rid of the icy crust all over my body. I pictured my little telekinetic sticky hands grabbing onto all of the molecules in the air in front of me and violently rubbing them together. In front of me several sparks flew out of the air before a small fire illuminated my shivering face. I cupped my hands and put them next to the fire which quickly melted the ice off of me. After that I slowly moved the small fireball all over my body to melt the frost off and warm me up, taking extra care to not burn myself or my new tails with it. I wanted to get out of town as soon as possible. I wasn''t very tired after my headache induced nap, I could see fine in the dark with my new night vision so traveling at night wouldn''t be a problem, and I would prefer to get out of Coniston before I became a zombie¡¯s snack. I would sleep in a tree when I get tired. When I was done warming myself up, I picked up the lunch meat by the string it was bound with then picked up the gallon of water and the bag of apples with telekinesis. My head gave a dull throb of pain when I did, but I ignored it. I peaked out of the freezer and realized that it was night, although now that I had great nightvision, that didn''t mean much to me. I looked around and didn''t see any shambling zombies on the street so I quickly exited the diner and made my way through the streets toward the outskirts of town. If anyone saw me it would look quite strange, a teenage bo-fuck ¡­ girl sneaking through a destroyed city with a rifle on her back holding onto a slab of tied lunch meat with a glowing bag of apples and jug of water floating behind her as she walks. As soon as I get out of this ruined city, I''m going to have to find a mirror to see what I look like now. As I reached the highway that was the only entrance/exit to Coniston I looked around to make sure nothing was around. I had only been a 15 minute jog from the diner to the highway, and surprisingly I didn''t get tired despite jogging the whole way. Maybe this body was better than I expected. At the entrance to the highway there was no one except some cars and trucks with slight moss on them. I turned around and gave one last look at my home town. ¡°I''m off to see the world now, bye¡± I muttered under my breath as I turned around and began to walk down the ruined highway to see what had happened to the rest of the world. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first few hours of walking were filled with nothing but empty road, a scant number of cars and lingering headaches. A few of the cars still had their passengers locked inside, glassy and lifeless eyes staring out at the world they no longer inhabited while most were deserted. I tried not to look at the corpses and continue walking, I would never find out if the rest of the world was like this if I stopped to give each and every last one of them a proper burial. As the sun became visible on the horizon, I decided to stop for the night and realized one fatal flaw in my plan. As far as the eye could see I was surrounded by pine trees. I was most likely going to have to stay inside of the pine needle coverage if I wanted to have any safe rest. Needless to say, I wasn''t looking forward to it. I decided to stay in one of the trees closest to the road that looked the sturdiest of all the trees around. My fingernails are sharper than before, but I don''t think I could use them to climb up. So how the hell am I gonna get up this tree? What do I have on me that I could use? Meat, nope. String tied around said meat, nope to short. Water, nope. Large rifle strapped to my back, nop¡­ I''m such an idiot. I slung Legacy off of my back and put it down on the ground on it¡¯s side. Very carefully I stood on top of it then used telekinesis to slowly lifted Legacy with me balancing on it up into the tree. At first the pine needles almost made me fall off, but I regained my balance and managed to find a sizeable branch that I could sit down on about 11 ft off of the ground where the branches started. The pine needles blocked my vision of everything except what was below me, so I had a nice dark spot to sleep through the day in. Once I had gotten comfortable, I Set my food down and began to eat a few bites of my lunch meat, a couple sips of my water, and an apple as desert. Not exactly high class, but after everything that had happened to me it felt like heaven. I put all of my food down on the branch, except for the meat which I kept on my lap to keep it from getting dirty and I slowly fell asleep to the sound of the swaying trees. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BARK! BARK! ¡°...mu~uu¡­..5 more minutes..¡± BARK BARK! GGGRRRRRR ¡°i''M UP!¡± BARK BARK BARK BARK!!! I wearily opened my eyes and looked around. This wasn''t my house¡­.. ...oh right. I remembered everything that had happened to me and I wondered what had woken me up from my well earned rest. I looked down and below me in the evening sun was a pack of wolves with a sickly bone-tan fur that was partially covered in blood on both their maws and their claws. They had bright red eyes that seemed to almosts glow with a deadly light to them. ¡°...gulp¡­¡± The wolves were all licking their lips hungrily and looking up the tree at me. I could feel their stares boring into me, just waiting for one of us to make the first move. Then the biggest wolf leaped onto the tree and attempted to slowly climb up it with his claws. I quickly used analyze on it.
Name: Dire Wolf Alpha
Level: 23
A type of devil monster. Dire Wolves are wolves that have absorbed too much sinister mana, mutating them into creatures who hunt for pleasure instead of food. Dire wolves are known to be incredibly sadistic, often playing with their prey before killing them. Dire Wolf Alphas are leaders of Dire Wolf packs and are substantially stronger than the average Dire Wolf.
¡­...that doesn''t look good¡­. Chapter 5 — Small Town Girl in the Big City The Dire Wolves were loudly howling as the Alpha tried to climb up the tree. I looked down as I quickly pulled Legacy off of my shoulder and noticed that the Alpha had a smug smile on his face as if he knew that I was going to be easy prey. This bastard! I aimed Legacy at his head as he struggled to climb up the 11 ft he needed to reach me. He was about 3 ft away from me when I pulled the trigger without hesitation blinded by the anger that I felt from him looking down on me. BANG BANG BANG The Alpha¡¯s smug, wolfy smile slowly crumbled as it realized it had 3 holes in its head and it fell backwards off of the tree. SPLAT The others dire wolves formed a ring around their dead leader and seem to look at him in disbelief
You leveled up to level 12!
You have gained the skill: Marksmanship
The other wolves began to yip in panic and flee but not before I took a few pot shots at those among them who were slow to get away from me. I didn''t manage to kill anymore of them, but I did manage to a great shot off through the paw of one of them who then proceeded to limp away while yipping in fear. That felt greeeeat!! The look on those wolves faces was priceless! I decided to check on my status while waiting to see if any of them were going to come back for another round thinking I would be down from the tree.
Status
Name: Shizuko
Race: Kitsune
Class PsionSubclass(es) ¡ª¡ª¡ª
GenderFemaleTitlesLegendary Beastkin: Kitsune
HP340/340Mana35/50
HP Regeneration2/secMana Regeneration0.5/sec
Blessing(s): Blessing of the Fox Goddess
level: 12
STR42DEX61
VIT34INT100
END41WIS80
Skills/Traits (tap to open)
Well my mana, WIS, and INT didn''t increase at all! At least my other stats and my HP went up and I learned that Legacy costs about 5 mana per shot, but if my mana isn''t going to increase anytime soon I doubt I''m going to be able to be a magician. Just my fucking luck! Suddenly the world is thrown into a magical apocalypse and I still can''t use magic! This is like changing the difficulty from 10 to 11. Well at least I have mental powers, I guess that will at least help to make up for the difference ¡­hopefully. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Skills
TelekinesisOne of the starting skills of the Psion class. The user can interact with things by using their mind and pick up on the emotions sentient beings project mentallyLVL 2
PyrokinesisOne of the starting skills of the Psion class. The user can move create combustions and small flames by accelerating molecules in the air with their mindLVL 1
CryokinesisOne of the starting skills of the Psion class. The user can move create water and ice by slowing down molecules in the air with their mindLVL 2
ElectrokinesisOne of the starting skills of the Psion class. The user can move create electricity by exciting molecules in the air with their mindLVL 1
AnalyzeGives detailed information about whatever the user is looking at. Be it flora, fauna, the environment, etc.LVL 6
MarksmanshipA passive skill that helps to steady aim and increases damage dealt with all gun based weapons by 2%LVL 1
Traits
Perfect MemoryGives the user a Photographic Memory
Beastkin PhysiqueRacial trait of all beastkin. Grants higher strength, dexterity, vitality, endurance, and a better senses of smell, sight, and hearing.
Blessing of the Fox GoddessGrants a faster mental processing power and a better intuition/danger sense.
Legendary Beastkin: KitsuneChanges the holder¡¯s race to Kitsune and grants all the benefits it comes with.
Next up is Marksmanship. It seems like a useful skill if I want to be a sniper or sharpshooter. I''ll have to use Legacy to improve the skill. I took one last look around the tree to make sure that the wolves had left before jumping down and looking over to the Alpha¡¯s corpse. I should have been disgusted or fearful after killing something with a gun, but instead looking at the dead animal with several holes in its head made me strangely hungry. My instincts started shouting at me to tear off the fur and skin with my claws and eat the meat. It took a lot of effort to tear my eyes off the corpse and to the lunch meat that I had with me. I didn''t even bother to tear pieces off, I ripped into it like a wild animal, consuming over half of it before I realized what I was doing. New lesson, animal instincts are scary. Well at least I wasn''t hungry anymore. I walked back onto the road when I realized I had another bigger problem, I had to pee. This may not sound like a big deal, but I was a girl now. I would have to take off my pants and look down there if I wanted to pee. sigh Let''s get this over with. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well that was humiliating. I had to completely take my pants off to safely pee without getting my them wet, meaning I had a full view of that. It was also really hard to get my pants down without hurting my new tail. Tails are a menace for pants. I feel like I lost a bit of my pride after that. I slap my cheeks to get my mind focused, I don''t have time to waste here, I have to find out what happened to the rest of the world. After the little incident with the wolves and my bathroom troubles, I continued to walk down the road for a couple more hours until I could finally see the end of the treeline. I picked up the pace and started to run to the edge of the trees, hoping to see what had happened to the Seattle. It was a disaster The road that I had been walking ended on top of a cliff that overlooked most of the city before attaching itself to one of the major highways. It was fairly dark out but I could still see the ruins almost perfectly with my night vision. Trees and vines had grown over most of the city, while the port side of the town had been partially flooded. The Space Needle had been split in half and had fallen over into the city, destroying several large buildings and a few more buildings had collapsed from what looked like explosions. The highway that I was on had been hit by a building that was falling over and had collapsed onto the ground. Well this is definitely a worst case scenario. I don''t know how I''m even going to get into the city at this rate. The highway is completely collapsed and it''s way too high up the jump down safely! This is just my luck isn''t it? I started to walk down the road toward the collapsed section to see if I could see any survivors from the top of the highway. When I got there I realized I could see much farther than I ever did, even when I had worn glasses before ¡­ wonder what happened to those things. Oh well, don''t need them now anyway. I looked around to see if I could find any movement among the buildings that might help me find survivors if I was lucky, monsters if I wasn''t. After about 3 minutes of solid staring at broken buildings I spotted some movement out of the corner of my eyes. Something darted between the buildings a couple blocks over. I unslung Legacy from my shoulder and straddled it like a broom. Very very veeeery carefully I lifted up Legacy with telekinesis and began to slowly fly toward where I saw the movement. I made sure to stay above the buildings just incase anything decided to surprise attack me while I went between them. I kept scanning the area where I saw movement to see if I could see whatever I saw before again for several minutes before finding it again. I set myself down on top of one of the few larger buildings that was yet undestroyed. I looked down to the group of moving things and tried to figure out what I was looking at. I tried to activate ¡¸Analyze¡¹ but nothing happened, guess I was out of range. I looked down and realized that I was looking at a small group of green skinned humanoid figures in loincloths wielding sharp sticks and pieces of broken, warped rebar poles that had been sharpened. They were standing around a laid out cloth that had a bunch shiny objects on top of it and were violently grunting and shouting at each other. Given my extensive knowledge of all things fantasy I can say without a doubt that they can only be one thing ¡ª Goblins! If anyone saw me they would say my eyes were sparkling right now. Down below me were real live Goblins! This really is a fantasy apocalypse! It confirms my theory! Before I could even think about killing them and taking their loot however a woman in trench coat and a gas mask charged around the corner coming straight for the Goblins. She had black hair and cute black cat ears with a white inner and black tail with white tip. In her hands were two bloodstained kitchen knives, and before I could see anything more, all of the goblins were lying dead. What amazing speed! I couldn''t even see her! She went around a kicked each goblin in the gut to make sure it was dead, but none of them moved. Just as I was about to call out to her, she turned and looked up at me and disappeared again. I sighed and was about to turn away from the edge of the building before she appeared in front of me! How did she get up here! Before I could even shout her fist connected with my face, knocking me out cold¡­.