《Fantasy In A Turtle's Shell.》 Prologue + Chapter 1 Devil made a deal. Not with humans but with animals. He wanted the humans power but human race was protected by God. He needed them to defeat God. Most of the animals accepted the agreement. Turtle race was one of them. Our protagonist¡­ was a turtle. * * * I was a human. I knew it was a dream from the beginning. But I didn¡¯t resist its flow. I looked at my surroundings. It was a simple human house. There wasn¡¯t anything that took my interest so I just went outside. The light from sun was too strong for me that I closed my eyes for a while. When I opened my eyes there was a colourful and crowded street. Too many humans at one place, it scared me at first. But I said in my mind ¡°I need to go right now.¡± No, it was a strange sight. I wanted to stay there a little more. Why was I going? Where was I going? Still, I walked away from there. My feet were walking into narrow streets. After some time, I arrived where I wanted to be. There was a wooden door that opens to a big building in front of me. Like I didn¡¯t want to disturb the people inside, I opened the door slowly. When I stepped inside, there were two feelings in my heart. Two opposite feelings. First one was comfort. But it didn¡¯t belong to me¡­ The only feeling that belonged to me was fear. The fear to suffer because who I am, the fear to die. I understood what this place was. It was a church. It was a link between the God and the world. * * * The body that I saw everything from, stopped when it entered inside the building. Then, surroundings started to glow. I involuntarily looked at the ground. There was a little turtle there. * * * The man knelt to come near me, and said ¡°What a nice little turtle, but what are you doing here, you are not allowed to come in.¡± I was trembling. His voice, his smiling face, his interrogating eyes, all of them scared me. After all those years I finally understood why human were that powerful. They had an aura that none of us would have no matter how hard we tried. We really were inferior. * * * He touched my forehead with his forefinger. I woke up from my nightmare. I woke up to my nightmarish life. I was just a powerless turtle. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sun was shining as always. But it was noon already. My shell was really hot. I didn¡¯t know why but when sun came over me I didn¡¯t woke up. Instead I saw that nightmare. Before hurting myself much more, I decided to go to a tree''s shadow. But in a dead forest it was hard to find a tree that can cover a 5m long turtle. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. I decided to go deep into the forest. Even if most of them didn¡¯t have leaves, they could still protect most of my body with theirs. Where I slept was a shore near a lake. The big sized races like turtles couldn¡¯t make themselves comfortable in forests, obviously there is not much place because of trees, so we lived on the outskirts of forests. Why were we living near a forest when there were more comfortable places? Because demons were controlling forests and they were our leaders. When we made an agreement with Devil, we didn¡¯t know about the others. Still, when we saw them, we didn¡¯t care about them. Because we thought they were our allies against humans. Oh, we were wrong. When the time to conquer human lands came, I and many others understood what we were to them. Stepping stones. Even if we won, they wouldn¡¯t keep their promises. It didn¡¯t matter though. Because we lost. In every attempt. Ahh, anyways, those were old days. And I don¡¯t want to bore¡­ umm¡­ someone. * * * Speak of the devil. As I stopped when I found a good spot to cool myself off, 2 demons came while loudly talking. ¡°Oh look at that, 6LDG, a cute turtle.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the legendary coward, right? What a nice grey colour you have!¡± ¡°It was a good decision to come here. I heard turtle meat is delicious.¡± Those ******¡¯s. They were men of a Lord Demon. I knew it because of the blue band on their arms. ¡°You can¡¯t kill me, so just go.¡± I dealt with them for years. Because there were two things they needed to know that even if they tried their hardest, they still wouldn¡¯t have been able to get me. First, because of my talents, I couldn¡¯t get more powerful. Second, because of my talents, I didn¡¯t lose any fight. ¡°We will see, let¡¯s fight.¡± Umm¡­ maybe someone needs to know what they look like. They both were from the goat race. 6LDG had goat legs while they both had horns and dark red skin. The other goat''s horns were longer and he had human legs. He was 7LDG I guess. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s fight.¡± So the short fight started. <6LDG & 7LDG vs. 2LGT> <7LDG activated Demonic Jump.> <6LDG activated Demonic Jump.> It was a basic skill that goats could use. With red and black lights coming behind them, they jumped right on me. They were quick, but at the same time, stupid. Not knowing your enemies'' talents, not knowing how it didn¡¯t die for all these years, they could die from a mistake like that. <2LGT activated Fog of Cowardice.> When I became fog, they just fell inside me, and stood there not knowing what to do. Like I said, you can¡¯t kill me. <2LGT activated Calming Gray.> But neither can I. With the 2 goats falling asleep, I slowly walked away. Chapter 2 - Encounter with a Good Rabbit When I found a good spot, far away from the goats, I slowly dropped my body on the ground and pulled my limbs into my shell. My days always past like that. I woke up because of the sun, I walked to find a place that I can rest, I slept even though the trees hurt my body, and when the night came I walked back to my original sleeping spot. While I was thinking how boring my life is, someone tapped my shell. ¡°Hey, 2LGT, how are you?¡± As I bring my limbs out, he jumped in front of me so I can see him. ¡°Hi 5LBR, I¡¯m fine.¡± ¡°What are you doing here, Weren¡¯t you living near the lake, what are you doing at west side?¡± ¡°There was some problems so I decided to come here.¡± ¡°Let me guess, the new guards were the reason.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Ah, I wish I was with you, we could kill them.¡± I looked at 5LBR. He was the calmest rabbit I saw. Without jumping around, he was standing still, leaning against his big sword. ¡°No, it would cause more problems. They won¡¯t mess with me again.¡± ¡°If you say so.¡± We just stood there without saying anything. After a while, he tried to continue the talk. ¡°Why don¡¯t you let us level you up? There is a village 3 days away. We can bring the injured and let you kill them.¡± What he said made me little angry. But I didn¡¯t let him know that. ¡°Didn¡¯t I say that before? Even if I get to level 7, there is no attack skill for me to use.¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. This wasn''t the true reason actually. It was true but even if I didn''t gain any attack skills, I could still get stronger. We lost badly against the humans. Assaulting a small human village was only pitiful in my eyes. ¡°Whatever, we are not fighting with humans anyway. Actually, I think the demons are retreating.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°The Lord Demon of this forest wasn¡¯t here for almost two months. Maybe two guards came, but 10 guards went with the Lord as well.¡± There were only 20 guards protecting this forest from humans. I mean, all of the animals knew how to fight of course but Devil didn¡¯t trust us to leave only 12 guards without the Lord. We could betray them. There was something else behind this "retreating". ¡°That''s interesting. The sun is setting by the way. It would be better if I go.¡± 5LBR seemed unhappy. ¡°Okay. I wanted to talk a little more but you like sleeping, right? Can I come to talk to you tomorrow?¡± Hmm¡­ ¡°I don¡¯t know about tomorrow, but you can come anytime else.¡± He seemed a little confused. Because I didn¡¯t do anything other than sleeping so he wasn¡¯t waiting this answer. ¡°O-of course. See you later then.¡± ¡°Bye.¡± I turned and slowly walked to south-east. The lake was at that direction. But, when 5LBR went west as he jumped, I turned back and started to go west. I guess I can¡¯t sleep tonight. I need to see a friend. Chapter 3 - Encounter with a Hero ¡°I don¡¯t want a blue one. You can¡¯t trust them. They do everything for power. I want a red one. They are like Berserkers that I heard about.¡± I stopped when I heard those words. Who were they? I didn¡¯t know them, so they were either humans or some runaway animals. They weren¡¯t demons because I didn¡¯t hear any demon that talked like that. And I was at a tight point. I couldn¡¯t turn there, so I tried to walk backwards. * * * I stopped. There was a pointy thing in my sacrum (Where the tail is connected with the body). And it wasn¡¯t a tree''s branch. ****. Someone was behind me. * * * 9 hours earlier *POV Maxwell* I desperately held the door. I felt like I was about to faint. Why did I feel like that when I entered the church? It was the place that I lived for years. It was the God¡¯s home. I felt relaxed whenever I was here normally¡­ So, it wasn¡¯t because I entered, right? Yes, heat just made me dizzy and it was a coincidence that I felt it while I was entering the church. I waited till I feel better and went to my room. When I turned the door knob to see if the cleaner was here, it opened so I walked in casually. ¡°Oh, High Priest.¡± I quickly bowed. High Priest was looking at the books in the bookshelf. ¡°Welcome, Maxwell.¡± ¡°What brings you here, Sir?¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. He put away the book in his hands and slowly walked to me. ¡°I need you for something Maxwell.¡± ¡°What is it, Sir?¡± ¡°I came here with a Savior¡¯s Blood.¡± ¡°A Savior¡¯s Blood?¡± ¡°Yes, you heard that demons are retreating, right?¡± ¡°I heard Sir.¡± ¡°They are thinking that it is because Devil is planning to attack.¡± What? Are they attacking after 400 years? ¡°So, Savior¡¯s Bloods are forming an army. There is 24 young Savior¡¯s Blood but there are too many adventurers that wants to be in an adventure and animals are with us as well. Even our king, as a Savior¡¯s Blood, sends his 1000 soldiers.¡± ¡°But, why a Savior¡¯s Blood is here?¡± ¡°He wants demonic animals as well.¡± ¡°Why sir?¡± ¡°You know the history records right? They were few deserters from demonic animals that didn¡¯t want to fight in the last war. And after 400 years there may be more of them that wants to join our side.¡± ¡°I understand Sir. Then we are going to the Dead Forest of Snapdragon, right? When?¡± ¡°He is waiting for you right now.¡± * * * I looked at the child that was walking in front of me. He was only 13 years old. High Priest said "young Savior¡¯s Bloods". Were they all children? He had a maid with him, and the King sent 2 royal guards and an assassin. ¡°My sister says if there is a choice, we should get blue ones. They are the most powerful. But I don¡¯t want a blue one. You can¡¯t trust them. They do everything for power. I want a red one. They are like Berserkers that I heard about.¡± ¡°Shh, a big demonic animal is here.¡± As the assassin said that, he jumped to a tree and disappeared.