《The Dark Soul Chronicles: Soul Warlock》


 Book 1: Soul Warlock - Prologue: That鈥檚 Enough

    Endless knowledge, so vast that it is impossible for mortal beings to even understand .000000001% of the knowledge that it possess. What kind of person or being would possess this kind of understanding ¡­¡­..this much power ? God. Many religions, worlds and dimensions refer to him in different ways  from supreme being to Omamdmadaa in some religions. Some even refer to many minor & major gods as if they are the original and most powerful. Little do they know that the true original god is out there.


    Few beings know is that there are many gods in many dimensions but none of them are as powerful or as knowledgeable as the original who is known simply as God to the few who do know of him. The other gods and life in general in all dimensions and worlds were all created by the original.


    The reason why nobody can possibly fathom and after the initial creations of gods and life in the many dimensions the true god has done very little to interfere or be involved. There is one particular dimension that interests him  greatly. This dimension contains one particular little planet that is vastly different than many of the others. This planet is Earth.


    After he created the universe and allowed Random chance to dictate what would happen surprisingly enough the thing with the smallest chance happened and life was made on earth different then most places. Being the all knowing and powerful true God he knew exactly how it was going to happen  and that it was going to happening, but being the all knowing and powerful God you are...you have to get enjoyment from the things that you can.


    It watched the world and life develop from single cell organisms to fully functional mammals, birds, fish and Invertebrates. The rise of the homo sapiens was what was most interesting to god. From crawling out of the primordial ooze as an amphibians to slowly becoming ape like beings and eventually becoming the modern humans that are alive today.


    With the increase in intelligence a lot of the more simple struggles became a non priority for the homo sapiens. They went from being pack like beings in the wild similar to the apes in the jungles of today to developing tools ,more and more complex hierarchies until they developed out of this environment almost completely. Many of them built great cities, recorded the knowledge of their forefathers and spent all of their leftover time getting fatter and fatter and stagnating as a society. Sure they still had advances in science technology and many other fields but they started to care less and less about the more unfortunate of their inhabitants of the world and decided instead to let their greed control them.


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    They stopped showing the emotions and attributes that made them so fascinating and strong. Their will to help each other and band together so that even the weakest or most unfortunate of them could survive.The people at the top of Society would steal, lie and trick others for power, for knowledge for their greed. Many people in the bottom would do the same and help those at the top for their own personal gain. Instead of helping the poor who can¡¯t provide for themselves they decided to be gluttons and eat as much as they can well many laugh and become overweight as well as lazy. Buy bigger homes with more amenities than they could ever use or need while others simply have no homes and are left to try and survive on the streets with no shelter or safe places. The humans kill each other for land, food, women and even fun.


    On Top of all of this humans decided that to use their greed  to destroy the environment, animals and delicate Eco system.. Burning limited resources that result in the ozone being destroyed. Manufacturing harmful chemicals and then letting them run into bodies of water and destroy the natural wild life. All of these things set off large chain reactions and sadly enough most people care little or not at all about it. Humans with their greed figure it''s fine because the ones at top are profiting and it''s convenient. The care little for the people who will have to deal with their harmful choices in the decades to hundreds of years in the future¡­.if they can even make it that long.


    God got disgusted by this behavior and bored of the direction that this world was going in. So as the all mighty, the supreme being, the true god, the Omamdmadaa it decided to spice things up. Even the playing field a bit with the new system that will change things in this dimension irreversibly. Things are going to be very different. The ¡°strong and powerful¡± ones that help destroy his Creation will lose a lot of what made them strong and powerful. The weak will have the chance to rise. To become incredible, to become super...to become deities themselves if they play their cards right and posses an ungodly amount of luck.

 Book 1: Soul Warlock - Chapter 1: Meet Titus

    Buzz buzz buzz the vibrating of my phone woke me up at 6:00 am, ahhhh I yawn and stretch my arms out very far. I can barely function and think coherently from my long night of studying , work and just general college activities. They have kept me up far too long once again. But the early bird gets the worm! Or is it eats the worm? It''s too early to think this deeply. I have been letting myself go lately so it''s about time I get back to my regular schedule of workouts and school.


    I can''t wait to piss, it feels like my bladder might explode as usual. I drink a gallon of water before bed so every morning is like this. As per usual the door seems to be stuck so I groggily slam my shoulder against my bathroom door a few times to get it to open. I really lucked out being the 6''8 and 250 pound man that I am or otherwise who knows how long that would of taken me to do. My tiny apartment bathroom is a whopping 12x 12 feet and the only place that fit in my budget for school so it was either this place or be homeless. I quickly brush my teeth and get dressed for a quick morning run. It''s just another day at Sunny EastDale University. Fully dressed in sweats I head out on my three Mile run. I''m in decently bad shape compared to what I use to be so it was hard but the weather was perfect and the sun just came over the horizon so it was quite enjoyable as well as beautiful seeing that yellow ball of sunshine peek over the horizon. Nothing like jogging around campus while listening to a good playlist to get your blood pumping and heart going for the day.


    I finally finished my run in 0:26 min! All my hard work is paying off and it won''t be more than a month or two until I''m back in shape. The end of my route was still a 15 min walk away from my apartment so I started to head back walking leisurely as a cool down.


    About 5 min into the walk back and when I was at the edge of campus I ended up running into Tye Shin. Tye Shin is my 21 year old friend who is only a few inches smaller then me. He''s a big Korean guy who I met at my gym while we were both taking a bunch of the martial art classes that they offered on sale to students as a packaged deal. He weighs in at about 215 pounds with blonde hair and he can always be seen in full sweats or basketball shorts because he''s too lazy to dress appropriately unless we are going to a bar. The only reason he even "dresses up" then is because not many girls are receptive to a man at a bar in workout clothes and in Tye Shin''s world dressing up is a pair of blue jeans followed by a comic book T-shirt or a band T-shirt.


    Tye and I give our usual complicated greeting of fist bump, bring it back, hands up high, 2 handed high five, knuckle bumps and more for about 30 seconds before we end it in a bro hug.


    "It''s been such a long time since I have seen you Tye!!! How have you been man?"


    "I have been doing pretty good man pretty busy with all my class work and gaming but it''s nice to see you again."


    Although we may not look it Tye and I are insanely large nerds and have a habit of not hanging out for a bit besides the gym from getting all wrapped up in fantasy novels, Sci Fi shows, manga, comics, cartoons , anime and video games and anything else that may catch our fancy.


    After about 15 minutes of small talk Tye and I agree that we will meet up at 8:30 pm to play a relatively new massively multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG for short together. We lucked out and got a free month with the first expansion for just $8.00 and want to play as much as we can before it cost too much money for our broke student selves. When this usually happens we stop and move on to a new game. We have already played through Quest Of The Immortal Titans, Rings Of Our Lord, War Of The Gods, Fantasy Fate Online as well as a ton of Real Time Strategy games (RTS) like the entire Master & Conquest series and Demi-Devil wars.


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    To say the least we might be slightly addicted to video games and a bunch of other nerdy things but as long as we worked out and did our school work nobody could complain to us about it and we couldn''t be happier with our lives.


    After a quick shower and a change of clothes I spent all day in classes. 9:00- 11:00 am was Risk Analysisment 1:00-3:00 English 402, 3:45- 4:45 Economics 343, 5:00-6:00 Cyber Forensics. As a Cyber Analysis & Defense Major my classes have been getting more taxing every year.


    Mentally exhausted I decided that I needed to be physically exhausted too and attended a plethora of martial art classes at the gym. Just some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and boxing until 8. After rolling in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and getting knocked around a bit in boxing sparring I was a little beat up and covered in sweat so I ran from the gym to my apartment to shower before Tye and I met up for some quality gaming time.


    I just stepped out of the shower when I hear Knock Knock Knock Knock "Open up motherfucker I came to game and get fucked up!!!''


    I can''t help but laugh and yell "hold on fucker some of us didn''t skip out on the gym today!!!"


    I grab some clean sweat pants and a T-shirt and open the door to see a eerily similarly dressed Tye holding a bag from the liquor store and a bulky looking backpack.


    It''s about time you let me in man! I''m dying to get started on this game. Yeah yeah Tye I''m sure it was hard waiting outside for 60 seconds I say and then softly chuckle.


    We sit down on my couch and pull out our laptops, mouse''s and connect the computers to the two 40 inch flat screens I have set up. They may not be the newest but they are a hell of a lot better then our tiny computer screens. While we wait for the game to start up Tye brings out a big bottle of Cinnamon whiskey along with a stack of red plastic cups.


    "Let the games begin!!!" We cheer and start chugging the whiskey and start to pick our races in the game. I pick a dwarf because it''s different from what I usually pick (badass bad/evil looking characters) and the class of Death Emperor.


    Tye cracks up at my choice and shakes his head. "Since we are clearly picking the weirdest races we can I''m gonna pick


    Demi-Panda because it''s a giant fucking panda and who wouldn''t like that?!?!?" He picked a Rogue class and starts to yell "IM A ROGUE FUCKING PANDA TITUS!!! BETTER WATCH OUT" while making corny hand chops and kung fu moves on my couch.


    Bwahaha the floor laughing at his display of martial proneness. Tye proceeds to fill our cups up again. "We are going to need to finish this tonight Titus!!!" You don''t have a choice he yells at me.


    "You must have me confused with someone else I have no problem finishing it!!! My only real question is....do you think you can hang and handle this much whiskey little girl Tye?"


    We cheers again and let the games begin in earnest.

 Book 1: Soul Warlock - Chapter 2: Shits Changing

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    Chapter 2: Shits Changing


    My mouth is completely dry and I have a pounding headache. I¡¯m getting too hot from the sunlight from the window baking my dehydrated body so early in the morning.


    I finally can''t resist the heat anymore and crack my eyes open. The sun is barely coming through my window so it must be early. I check my phone and it''s 10:00 am. Well damn we had a hell of a night. I slowly get up and walk to my bathroom and see little bits of puke on my toilets rim. Ewww!! I mentally yell.  I don''t think that was me but I''m gonna pretend it was Tye either way so I don''t have to clean it, I think to myself evilly.


    Most things don''t make me nauseous but there is something about regurgitated food that just gets to me. I think it has to do with the chunks and the smell. Especially if it''s on my porcelain throne.


    I front a devilish grin. Looks like someone couldn''t handle their booze I exclaim while pissing for at least 90 seconds straight. Ahhhh, I moan pleasurably. I really needed that. I walk over to my kitchen and grab two bottles of Hydrate & Refuel and see Tye slumped over on the couch with his legs sticking over the edge and a big ol puddle of drool coming down his face. Damn, he can barely fit on this motherfucker. I must look weird as hell too on this thing.


    I start to record  on my phone and stealthily approach him then yell ¡°WAKE THE FUCK UP LOSER!!¡±


    Tye¡¯s eyes jump open and he looks aghast then scared as can be for a few seconds until he realizes it is me yelling at him. Good morning sunshine! I say in the most feminine voice as I can manage. "Would you like something to drink, your pillows fluffed, anything at all?"


    "I want you to hand me that drink and shut up! Ugh, I didn''t drink anywhere near enough water yesterday before all that drinking and my head is pounding." He proceeds to chug the whole liter and stare at the now empty bottle of whiskey and sticky table.


    "I may have overdone it just a little bit Tye, just a smidget" he says while holding his pointer finger and thumb close to his face and barely apart. I push his feet to the side and sit next to him so I can gulp down the rest of my drink too.


    "I agree man", I was smart enough to drink water all day since I knew I was going to the gym so unlike your dumbass I don''t feel too bad after having something to re-hydrate.


    We bring  the MMORPG we played last night  back up on our computers and were shocked to find out that we were somehow able to reach level 29 for him and 25 for me in our whiskey induced blackout gaming session. " At least we know I''m the better gamer even when I''m too drunk to remember!" I see him sporting what must he the smuggest grin I think a person could ever manage.


    "Fair enough Tye , you win this round but I''ll catch up in no time." We continue to play until noon when my stomach makes weird growling noises with a little bit of bubbling so we order a pizza from the shopping plaza a block down the street to split.


    We head outside and it is annoyingly bright to our dark room video game eyes so we squint and move through the surprisingly warm weather for this time in November very slowly while our vision adjusts.


    We finally walk into PizzaDome our favorite pizza spot and hope to see our friend working the front but unluckily they weren''t there so I guess it''s no free breadsticks or soda today. Tye tries poorly to chatup the young 20 something year old brunette at the register and secure us something nice for free but he does a terrible job and I swiftly walk out with the pizza and tell him to hurry before he can embarrass us anymore. I have no problem with him striking out but I don''t want to be known as the ¡°weird guy''s friend¡± every time I walk down and across the street to get pizza.


    I walk into the convenience store next door while he awkwardly runs out of the store. I grab a few sports energy drinks to go along with our pizza.


    "Way to go Tye your smooth moves have prevailed again to hook us up with a sweet deal and meal" I sarcastically point out to him.


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    "I could of gotten us something if you just   given me a few more minutes man! I''m sure you could of...." I smile and laugh at him for a little bit during the walk back home. We are just a few houses down when it happens...


    Tye and I grab our heads and I feel a large pain similar to what I imagine  a thousand migraines and hangovers all hitting me at once feels like while someone cuts my skull open. My head feels like it''s being split open and I start to yell involuntarily.


    I look up for a quick glance as I''m on my knees on the pavement and I can see Tye grabbing his head with his mouth open but I can''t hear anything over my own yelling. Everyone who I can see outside is grabbing their heads with their knees on the ground. Children, the elderly and every man and women as far as I can see.


    "Hellooooo humans!" A voice yells in my head and the pain suddenly stops as if it was all an illusion the entire time.  As I look around frantically, I''m trying to find who is talking. "There is no use in looking around you won''t see me and yes I''m talking to you all in your own heads."


    "I can do this because I am god." I look and see Tye with his mouth wide open and a lot of people who were around us too share the same wide mouth expression.  Many are on their knees with their hands together as if they are ready to prey in a moment¡¯s notice. I guess I''m not the only one hearing this then and since their is no way all that pain I just felt  is fake then I''m certainly not asleep¡­.


    As hard as this may be to believe¡­..this might really be god or at least a being so far removed from human understanding and powerful that it may as well as be a god. Something that can affect us all like this is certainly not something that we can compete with or any human can anyway. I contemplate all of this while slowly standing up and checking the pizza to make sure it''s alright.


    God or not I''m gonna be pissed if this pizza is all messed up while I''m this hungry.


    "Mortal men and women I have been watching you since you were created and have seen you all change from microorganisms to amphibians who crawled out of the primordial ooze billions of years ago to what you are today" he proclaims within everyone''s mind.


    "But I went from being proud and fascinated from the changes you have been able to make to sad and disappointed to things that you have done."


    "When survival became easier for the majority of you and food a non-issue you decided not to help the other humans who struggle to feed themselves and to survive in their environments but rather to over eat and throw away anything extra rather than share it with those who would literally kill for a meal."


    You also decided to destroy a lot of the other creations that started off just the same as you as small organisms in the ocean in whence life came from on this planet. Often for no reason other then you can. Not to even mention the countless things you do to destroy the environment and the delicate Eco system that this planet operates on to survive."


    "Instead of making sure your fellow human beings have shelter and support you have decided to make your own homes bigger,more extravagant and even kick them out of their homes so that you can prosper more and become richer to spend on frivolous  things. These are just a few of the ways you have disappointed me if I wanted to I could go on for eons in the things that you humans are lacking but instead I decided that this will be the first and last time that I speak with any of you and that I''m going to implement a new system for you all."


    "Since you humans like to treat life like it is a game I decided to make it just that. In exactly  three hundred seconds the world you know of will have changed completely. The weakest will have a chance to rise up and become gods themselves and all of you will have to fight to survive in this new system and live. Not to mention the animals and nature itself will become a great obstacle for you all to try and overcome."


    "Muhahahaha! Good luck you will all need it!!!"

 Book 1: Soul Warlock - Chapter 3: Magic Is Real

    I''ll uploading another 2 today If I can sit down and write for a few hours somewhere. Laptop is broken and it''s too much to do from my phone all the time.


    Chapter 3: Magic Is Real!


    Tye and I sprint the last few 100 feet from the sidewalk to my house in 15 seconds flat. I grab the door lock the deadbolt, safety chain and then we push my extra couch against the door then stack the table and a few cheap chairs I had right on top of it. We did all of this in a matter of 20-35 seconds.


    Huffing and puffing we look each other in the eye. "Titus"! Tye exclaims with a assortment of emotions showing on his face from confused , scared, angry and a few more.


    "Calm down Tye!!!!!" My heart is beating out of control. It''s a little scary but it''s not every day God talks to you and explains that everything is going to change soon for EVERYONE!!!


    I''m frantically waving my hands around like an idiot and panicking just as much as him when he just bursts out in laughter.


    "Hahahahhahahahahahahhhahaha!" I stare at him awestruck at first but then it hits me too "hahahahaha¡­.."


    I don''t know  why we both burst out laughing but it happened. Maybe it was because of the stress and the absurdity of this situation but once I saw him cracking up I couldn''t help but join in and fall victim to the panic hysteria laughter. It''s crazy but when your  entire worlds being shook upside down, you laugh.


    Slowly while catching our breath I announce ¡°there has to be a smart way of going about this¡­¡­he said the new system will UGHHHH!"


    There was a sharp pain in my head again for barely a second then suddenly all I see is. Blackness, everything is pitch black with no changes or difference in anything that I see around. No light no shapes no nothing, I can''t even see my own hand in front of me.


    I hear a soft chuckle  then the words ¡°System Update Complete¡± appears in bright white. Followed by ¡°All organisms found in the Zion Theta System EIFOFR 329412 are now subject to the rules of a SSS World Evolution System.


    All of a sudden my vision is back as if nothing has happened and Tye and I make eye contact.


    "Did you see it?!?!?! We say in unison, so we aren''t go crazy Titus, we both saw it say something about SSS World Evolution System. Don''t forget  Zion something or other and a upgrade happening¡­."


    "TYE CALM DOWN!" I yell at him the best thing to do in this situation is too try and remain calm and analyze this from a *ping*


    Suddenly a menu pops up eerily similar to a game menu most commonly seen in RPG¡¯s and MMO¡¯s that I¡¯m familiar with. I don''t know how I know it but although I can see it in front of me its also see through at the same time. The screen is dark red with black letters on it.  Displayed on it is my Name: Titus Black, Race: Human, Class: None. Under that were typical game elements known as stats. Health (20), Mana(7) Strength: (13) , Intelligence (10).


    I reached out trying to touch it but to no avail. My hand just passed through it.


    I¡¯m staring at the numbers in front of me studying them for a bit. I don''t know if these numbers are even good or not. Completely flabbergasted and reach out to touch them when just as my fingers are going to make contact¡­ mere millimeters away it disappeared.


    "Fuck?!?! Did I break it?"


    "SCREEN ON!!! STATS!! STATUS!! DISPLAY! NOTIFICATIONS!! OPEN SESAME STATS¡­"


    Nothing worked. I try thinking about what the different stats mean and suddenly a perfect recollection of how it looked visually red box, black text and all appears in my mind.


    This is getting stranger and stranger but I''m guessing it will only physically appear in front of me sometimes? It could be at Special times or possibly it only appears in front of you the first time and never again?


    Well I guess it doesn''t really matter as long as I view them when I want to.


    I think about Red text box again and it appears once again.


    Name: Titus Black, Race: Human, Class: None. Health (20), Mana(7) Strength: (13) , Intelligence (10).


    I¡¯m familiar with most of these terms already. Health should be the same as how many hit points I have / how much damage I am able to take until I die. There is no telling in depth what it does without hurting myself but i''m certainly not gonna do that just to maybe find out how this works. Not right now anyway.


    It seems my health is my highest stat so I hope this means I¡¯ll be harder to kill. Commonly when it hits 0¡­ you die. Hopefully I never need to learn if that''s true or not.


    My race is human , does this mean that there are other races out there now besides humans?!?!?!


    If God exists or Gods? Then it¡¯s certainly not too far fetched.


    I¡¯m going to have to investigate this further when I get a chance. If there are other dangerous races out there now then it''s going to become very imperative that I figure out what they are and if they are friendly or not.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.My Class should be the same as a job in most games and since the system was just implemented I obviously don''t have anything yet.


    Hmm well jobs can sometimes be professions so. This is getting a little confusing and all conjecture with the little to no information I have to work on this.


    If I have a stat for Mana then...Magic must exist in the world now!!!!!


    FUCK YES MAGIC!!!!!


    I don''t know what''s happening yet but as a video game and fantasy nerd I may have secretly deep down believed and hoped for the existence in magic.


    Of course I knew it wasn''t real but some childish dreams are hard to let go. Not like I thought it existed before or tried to cast magic a few times¡­.ha-ha, yeah that would be weird.


    I don¡¯t know what my options are for a class but since I have barely any mana at (7) I¡¯m assuming a class that uses mana will be hard to get. Not to mention I don''t know how Mana works... but there is no way I¡¯m turning down becoming a wizard, mage, magi, sorcerer  or any variations thereof if there is a way for me to do that.


    Anyway I need to figure out these stats if I can..


    Strength should be how much power I have while Intelligence should be pretty self explanatory as my ability to collect and apply the knowledge I gain as well as skills?


    That''s what these mean most commonly in the gaming world but I''m feeling pretty damn sure.


    As much as you wish for stuff like this to happen¡­ This shit can get so fucking scary that''s easy to under or over think something and make a mistake so huge if it was a book or video game you would be yelling about how the protagonist is making all the wrong choices.


    These are just tentative guesses though since there is no real way to know the effect of anything without gaining or losing a point to examine how it makes me feel.


    I''ll have to just wait until that time to get a better understanding of the stats part of this system. How else did this change?


    What about Tye? Shit kinda forgot he was here for a few mins...


    "Tye what do your stats say? "  "It just says Name: Tye Shin Race: Human, Class: none. Health (13), Mana(24) Strength: (6) , Intelligence (15)"


    "God damn it! That is some bull shit I yell at him!" There is no way that you should have that much more Mana than me?!?!?!


    "It''s clearly because I''m smarter than you Titus!"


    "What do you mean?!?!?!"


    "Well usually the more intelligent characters in games  get a higher Mana so it only makes sense that I''d have more than anyone you know!"


    "That is true but for all we know we have extremely low stat numbers Tye!"


    "Plus if we don''t know how to use it then there is no point in having it at all for now."


    He finally lets his big grin turn into a small smile after that.


    Tye bursts out in laughter and proclaims ¡°I always knew I was a genius but it''s good to know that the rest of the world can know how they fail in comparison to me in clear numeric numbers."


    "I''m practically fucking Merlin!"


    "I always knew you had a thing for old hairy men¡­."


    "What?!?! You know that''s not what I meant."


    "Yeah , Yeah sure¡­ You like what you like Tye."


    "Plus hate to really rain on your Merlin parade but we don''t know if it''s even connected to how smart you are. It could be a million different things, even randomly selected."


    "We need to plan our next step on what to do and figure out what he meant when god said  the animals and nature in and of itself will become a great obstacle for you all to try and overcome"


    I lean my back against the wall and slowly slide down to the hardwood floor. Not the most comfortable position but we used all the chairs and couches I had to barricade the door.


    I''m not sure if that was a smart idea yet or a terrible one¡­


    Slowly I close my eyes. Focus Titus, Focus.


    God said something to the gist of  ¡°the animals and nature in and of itself will become a great obstacle for you all to try and overcome¡±.


    By nature God must of meant everything that comes naturally¡­ So animals, plants, landscape things like that are going to become some sort of obstacle?


    I think whatever God wanted to do he finished already and we are fine¡­.. But what did he do?


    Now we have the ability to see our own stats for certain attributes but it''s all stuff that already existed.


    It''s almost as if the light above my head finally turned on. Of course things like health, strength and all that pretty much existed in the pre-system change from whatever we were on to the SSS class one.


    The only thing on the stats that is different is Mana!! Mana is now in the world and we have definitive numbers for things like strength and Mana.


    If that''s the case maybe Mana will somehow interact with the nature itself?


    If that''s the case I could see the problem. Animals with magic powers¡­.although that sounds rad as can be it would also be scary as fuck.

 Book 1: Soul Warlock - Chapter 4: Limpy vs Squirrels

    Sorry for the delay! I had to write, edit and upload this all from my smartphone. Hopefully I can finish the fifth chapter today too (almost half way through). Always looking for editors, proofreaders and cover art if anyone wants to help with any of those email me at [email protected]</a>


    Chapter 4: Limpy vs Squirrels


    We sit on some cheap lawn chairs I had. Which may have been stolen from I don''t know where while drunk.


    Apocalypse or whatever you want to call this or not I need to eat or I¡¯m gonna go crazy. *Gurgle Gurgle* my stomach seems to nosily agree with me.


    We both grab a few slices and devour it as if it was our last meal.


    "Whhhaat do yooou mphmm think we should do next Titus?" It''s hard to tell what Tye is saying with pizza in his mouth. It''s definitely not helping that he''s chewing and talking at the same time.


    "I thought you were suppose to be the smart one I retort back to him? Just because I¡¯m a genius doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m not opened to some ideas Titus." He tries to say it in a dignified way but his acting skills are terrible and its hard to be regal when you have a mouth full of pizza.


    Hahaha, Alright well if Apocalypse movies have taught me anything we need to first gather some *RUUMBLE SCRUNCH SCRUUMBLE SCRUUUNCHH.*


    A few blocks away or so I can hear extremely loud noises. It sounds like something destroyed a house or two. Not far from the noise of demolition at a construction site.


    Then it turns into the noises from a scene out of a monster attacks Tokyo movie but with fainter yelling from people due to the distance.


    I peek out the right side of my window so that I¡¯m not seen and Tye walks to the left side and mimics my slow and nimble movements to peek too.


    What I see¡­¡­...Well quite frankly we might be fucked.. It is no less than terrible outside now.


    As far as I can see the streets have turned into Complete and utter chaos.


    I see smoke rising from random places in the distance and a few cars speeding down the road. They are blatantly ignoring all of the road rules and I can''t blame them


    Then I see them. Hordes of people from the park another 300 ft down the street or so. A lot of these people must of been having fun at the park.


    There must be at least 50 people or so. I¡¯m fairly bad at guessing  things like numbers but I must be in the ballpark of it.  Give or take 50 or so people.  I will admit, I¡¯m extremely terrible with numbers.


    They are running from what vaguely resembles a pack of Squirrels but these were far from normal squirrels.


    Instead of being our kitten sized soft fuzzy friends that you may be use to was something in-between  the size of a medium size dog and a small dog.  Looking somewhere around 45 lbs.


    They are no longer the cute and cuddly little critters that people would sometimes feed junk food to.  With their larger size sharp teeth and red pupils they looked absolutely demonic!


    There are no less than 13 of them . Most of them seemed as if they are made up of nothing but pure muscle. I don¡¯t know what their workout regiment was but I have to get on it if it will make me look that ferocious!


    I can see blood on their tiny muscley arms. They are now sporting little  red claws on their tiny little hands.


    In some shorts and jersey is a kid about 18 years old. He is slowly lagging behind everyone else with a noticeable limp.


    1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 seconds later and the rest of the group is gaining ground on the Squirrels but I don¡¯t know how long they can run from these scary looking bastards!


    Limpy Mcgee is getting gained on fast though on the other hand¡­..


    He turns around right in time to see a squirrel mid air jumping at him.


    BAAAAM! It lands right on his face AHHHH!!!HHEEEEL¡­


    His screaming is quickly cut off by the squirrel ripping the sides of face off with its razor sharp claws. His cheek bones on both sides of his face were ripped off.


    In less than half a second after that  it dived head first into Limpy¡¯s head and used those sharp new teeth to dig into the middle of his face a few inches into his forehead. In what could''ve only been a few seconds Limpy was dead.


    The squirrels followed the firsts lead and swarmed his body. Quickly all biting into him and his clothes.


    11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20 seconds since I noticed limpy. His flesh is already being stuffed in the cheeks of the once lovable squirrels like nuts.


    The rest of the park goers slowed down and looked behind themselves when they heard him scream but once they realized he was dead they ran even faster.


    Nobody wanted to see him get eaten and even more of them didn¡¯t want to get eaten themselves.


    Luckily for them they seem to be too busy gorging themselves on limpy to care about them.


    "Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck!"


    I stumble some and fall backwards out of sight of the window.


    "Titus We need to block these windows out now!"


    Tye looks at me with a panicked face and wide eyes. I couldn''t agree more with him and give him a quick head nod.


    If FUCKING SQUIRRELS are now carnivorous little monsters then I don''t know what else might be out there to attack us!


    The huge windows in my living room use to be great since it let a ton of light in and offered a great view but now it''s a huge risk and hazard.


    If squirrels can bite through a skull then they can destroy a glass window.


    It''s safe to assume squirrels weren''t the only thing that changed too! Hopefully not everything is as bloodthirsty as them but there is a good chance other animals will be and if they get through a glass window¡­.we will be royally fucked.


    We search my place and decide to take the shelves out of my cabinets as well as my big wooden bookcase apart for the thick wood.  I have some nails in my tool box that could come in handy.


    They are nowhere near as big and sturdy as I would like but they will have to do for now.


    As we are nailing the boards over the glass I''m trying to formulate a plan.


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    Our first step should be to fortify this place as good as we can then we can deal with all the other problems that come after  that.


    No time  to worry about food or other people when you might get killed from not preparing properly.


    We start to try and board up the big windows in my living room as fast as we can.


    Luckily enough there was enough wood with a decent amount to spare once we took the doors off the cabinets to use.


    It only took us about 10 mins flat to do the big window in the living room.


    It is just good enough that if something wants to get in it will at least  have to work a bit harder to get in for a meal.


    An added bonus is that people will have a harder time if telling anyone is inside. If we stay here long term that''s going to be very important because if movies taught me anything it''s that in survival situations your fellow people can become just as big of a threat as whatever situation or thing you''re facing.


    There is only two windows in the living room. The second one was half as big as the first one so it is only about 5 feet long versus the 10 feet we has to cover for the first one.


    It only took a few minutes in comparison but we were rushing and the adrenaline had worn off so we were both feeling a need to take break if only for a little bit.


    A few moments  to rest won''t hurt us at all before we get back to work. And it''s better than being tired out when we really need the energy.


    Sitting down and hydrating more is definitely going to help us more than


    KLREEEESHHHK!!!


    The sound of glass breaking hits us both at the same time in the living room.


    The sound of the glass shattering came from the only other place in my apartment with a window...my bedroom.


    Tye and I both grab a lawn chair each. They are made out of a weird mesh and some hollow cheapish metal so we didn''t see the point in using them for the barricade.


    They might be a useful distraction for whatever broke that glass.


    Maybe an impromptu shield or weapon if the situation calls for it.


    I really wish I would''ve sprung for something better myself. But free chairs were better than no chairs. Especially since they were stolen in the first place.


    Too late now to worry about this. I grab the EEEEEHK!!! "What the fuck?!?!!!"


    Whatever broke the glass in my room makes a noise halfway between a shriek and squeak sound.


    Whatever it is that noise is not encouraging.


    With a hammer in one hand and the chair in the other we slowly tip toe through my hallway¡­.We hear the crunching of glass breaking. The sounds of something thrashing around.


    Tye and I make eye contact and I gesture for him to open the door while I get the chair up and the legs facing towards whatever is in my room.


    Of course Tye doesn''t get what I''m trying to convey to him until my 6th try. He completely ruined what could''ve been a very badass moment for us.


    He kicks the door so it flys open all the way and I rush in chair in front of me.


    My eyes immediately look up to the corner of the room where the small window is located.


    Half way stuck in my window struggling to get through is a giant rat. Or what I think use to be a rat. I have been lucky enough to not encounter many rats in person.


    I think that the Mana being released now is causing mutations in animals. First it was the squirrels now rats!


    So this wasn¡¯t just any rat it looked to be about 5 feet long. With bright blood stained sharp claws and a mouth full of jagged teeth. Too many teeth for its mouth actually. It has black eyes and they were still beady looking but now they has small red pupils. It''s grey fur is a bit longer than before and it looks tougher seeing as the cuts it got are quite small. There are specs of blood on it from the glass none the less.


    "WHAT THE FUCK MAN! WHAT THE FUCK! Tye yells from behind. I think that use to be a fucking rat Tye. Holy shit it got big!" I think his yelling got it a little agitated because it starts to squirm a bit more vigorously after hearing his voice.


    It snarls at us and I smell an extremely foul odor coming from its mouth. It starts to struggle harder and is moving left and right like a worm or snake trying to force itself more into the house from the apartment.


    Luckily enough this window was pretty narrow so it got stuck in it part way into its intrusion.


    Well now may not be the best time but I must confess I''m a bit of a slob.  Not too terrible because I always keep my public spaces clean in case people come over but my bedroom is another issue.


    I have dirty clothes everywhere and books, papers, workout equipment...pretty much anything you could think of a person may own is strewn across my bedroom floor.


    I make a point to put all my dirty dishes in the kitchen but that doesn''t account for things like junk food.


    I got my first care package from back home last week. On the floor stuffed with some opened and unopened food is my care package. It just so happened to be very close to the window  so it must of been close by and smelled  what it hoped would be its next meal.


    I¡¯m guessing and decided it wanted it but didn''t realize it couldn''t fit now and that led to it getting stuck.


    Stupid fucking mutant rat. "Tye, Hand me your hammer and take both of these chairs. I''m going to have to kill it¡±.


    "If it makes its way completely into the room¡­.. we may not be able to take it and if we do we could get injured and that may lead to us being fucked."


    He hesitantly looks at me and then puts the hammer in my other hand and grabs the chair I was holding.


    Oooooooohm- wheeeeeew taking a deep breath I try to calm myself down.


    I walk slowly but confidently  towards the rat.


    I get halfway there and it''s thrashing and snarling intensifies as it eyes me. This is not going to be fun I think and sigh deeply.

 Book 1: Soul Warlock - Chapter 5: Fighting & Decompressing

    I might aim for a chapter a day for the weekdays. A less violent chapter now but I hope it is still enjoyable


    Chapter: 5: Fighting and Decompressing


    In one quick fluid movement I get within striking range of its head and swing my right arm down as hard I can with the flat end of the hammer right in the middle of it''s head.


    TIIIING the hammer seems to do almost no damage at all to it and it starts to hiss at me and struggling even more. The entire window frame is shaking now. Little pieces of glass are falling on the floor.


    Titus fucking hit it harder!  Hit it lots more before it gets into the fucking room!!! ¡°Fuck Tye, I got it!¡± Leave it to him to point out the painfully obvious.


    It''s easy to give instructions and advice when you aren''t doing it! Of course I need to hit it harder and more!!!


    I hold both of my hands with the hammers in them behind my head.  "AHHHA!" I yell and swing the hammer in my left hand down as hard as I can.


    There is another Ting sound but it seems to be getting duller. It''s almost the sound from metal hitting metal. I don''t think things can get much weirder than iron skeleton mutant rats but if I say that out loud I''m sure it will be.


    I pull my left arm back and at the same time swing my right arm as hard as I can. The Ting sound is getting softer and softer with every hit. It''s hard to identify or categorize it but with every hit it''s like I''m hitting something super hard and it''s slowly getting softer and softer. It must be getting ready to break! With renewed vigor I keep the motion of left hand right hand swinging over and over up. The Rat¡¯s struggling intensified at first but after about 30 seconds in it started to slow down.


    After a full minute and a half of me swinging as hard as I can at its head as it struggles to get in I finally hear it.


    CRAACK it¡¯s head is cracked open and blood starts to splatter all over.


    Oddly enough it sounded the same as cracking a nut. It''s weird the simple things you notice at what should be extremely traumatizing moments.


    Instead of being grossed out by the giant red mass of blood squirting everywhere I''m just thinking about how it sounds just like the noise my dad''s nut cracker would make when he was eating Walnuts after work.


    I  can feel a small sheen of sweat covering my face, chest and arms but I continued to bash its head and more blood flying everywhere on me but I ignore it.


    I lost in the blood lust. How dare this filthy rat try to enter my home and attack me!


    I hear yelling from Shin and feel his hand on my shoulder. I stop and let both of the hammers fall on the ground.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine ,I don¡¯t know what came over me but at least we know it''s dead¡±.


    "Who knows maybe with magic it could of survived somehow man?" I just blurted out one of the lamest excuses possible but I don''t want to creep Tye out in this kind of situation.


    I take some deep inhales of air and try to calm down my heart. When it finally slows down we  both look up to see some of its teeth and most of its brain laying against the wall and ground.


    There is even little tiny bone fragments from its skull laying around. Much less than what I would of thought seeing as I''m not exactly a pushover when it comes to raw strength.


    ¡°You need to clean up some Titus¡±. I look down at my arms and chest covered in blood and nod my head.


    ¡°Make sure to clean up well and change your clothes. We don¡¯t know if this rat had any diseases or something that is transmittable and now you are wearings its blood like a new coat¡±.


    "Good idea. I have some gloves for cleaning in my closet along with bleach, sponges and everything else you could need to clean up the floor and guts."


    ¡°If I clean myself up in the shower, can you handle cleaning this up until I''m out? I''ll finish it once I''m prim and proper.¡±


    Tye nods his head and I walk into the bathroom while he rummages through my closet grabbing different bottles of bleach, soap, buckets and the like.


    I turned the water on and up almost as hot as it would go . Slowly I take off my clothes and as I disrobe I see how messy that really made me.


    My clothes are ruined. There is blood all over my arms. From my chest down my shirt is covered with the rat''s crimson blood. My pants are doing no better with blood covering my crotch area and even on my thighs too!!!


    I look at my palms and see bruises on my hand from me gripping the old well worn handle of the hammer so hard.


    Hopefully I didn''t get too much blood or anything in the cuts.


    I stand under the shower head and let it wash  over my head and drip down the rest of my body. Staring into the drain I see a lot of blood flowing down it This is when it really starts to sink into me¡­.


    The world as I knew it..as we knew it is no longer the same. Sure I have read and played a lot of games with similar storylines to a degree but it''s completely different This is real life. There is no extra lives, restart, checkpoints or anything like that. We really don¡¯t know how this world has changed but if something as simple as a rat has turned into a 5 foot long killing machine then what about things that use to hunt rats?!?! are cats going to turn into tigers? Are we fucked¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­..


    I try to get a handle on my emotions. This is no time to lose control of myself or breakdown.


    It''s odd, mentally I''ve always considered myself pretty tough but the fear of the unknown out there is really nagging at my conscious.


    It may be simple for something I would of laughed at before to eat, kill me or do whatever it wants but it isn''t what I know that''s scaring me but the unknown out there that is so terrifying.


    I shake my head  under the water. This is not the time to think about all of these things.


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    I grab my fluffy loofah and soak it in some cheap all purpose industrial soap I ordered.


    I couldn''t pass up the savings and it can be used on your body or to clean so it''s two birds with one stone. Not to mention it smelled like delicious peppermint.


    I slowly scrub my arms as hard as I could followed by my chest, legs and hands. To the point that I thought that i may have peeled an extra layer of skin off.


    I wash my hair and face just to be extra careful. Then step out of the shower and throw my bloody clothes I had on into a plastic bag then another plastic bag before it ends up in my garbage.


    I finally feel clean again! There isn''t a spot of blood on me. I''m feeling a little nervous though. Just to be safe I should disinfect any cuts I have.


    I mean if regular rats are known for carrying a ton of diseases and even things like the plague in the past then these super rats might be some next level disease carriers


    I get some peroxide and rubbing alcohol and slowly wipe my cuts clean using them and a clean washcloth. It burned a bit more than usual but that''s a good sign right?


    I made sure to wrap the cuts on my hand with some  waterproof bandages to be extra safe and careful.


    I stare in the mirror for a few seconds before  I decide it''s probably a good idea for me to brush my teeth and use some mouthwash in case anything got in my mouth from when i was trying to not die from a mutant killer rat attack.  Plus magic and mutants or not I''m gonna take my hygiene seriously.


    I brush my teeth and swoosh mouthwash around in my mouth and gargle with it for at least 200 seconds.


    I rinse out my mouth with water after. I never really understood why they always make mouthwash taste so minty. It leaves such a terrible aftertaste in your mouth.


    I wrap a beach towel around my waist because when you are over six foot a regular towel feels like you are wearing a mini skirt


    I walk out and I can see Shin on his hands and knees with a medical mask and gloves on scrubbing the floor really hard with a couple of foamy bubbly buckets. one of which is already starting to turn red.


    ¡°I am pretty sure I got all the blood off me Shin¡±. He looks over at me and nods his head.


    ¡°This stuff is really hard to clean up so I have been using a mix of bleach and soap to make sure it kills anything left over¡±.


    ¡°Smart idea¡± I yell to him as I pick through my closet in attempt to find something comfortable to wear.


    I should pick something that will protect me but not make me look like a dumbass.


    I grab some men''s running tights and sweat pants since I figured the extra coverage would be very useful in the event that i get blood all over me again it won''t have a chance to go directly into any small cuts on my legs. That means I won''t hopefully get any weird rat diseases or anything else terrible from another mutant animal.  Something as simple as an infection could cause huge problems now.


    I grab a long sleeve dry fit shirt and cover that with a hoodie.


    ¡°Shin you aren''t going to like this but I have an idea that may be extremely stupid or genius for whenever you are done cleaning that up¡±.


    Hopefully he didn''t notice how I''m weaseling out of the cleanup.


    He looks at me and mutters what I am pretty sure was just ¡°probably an idiotic idea but rather then some ideas I could use some help cleaning up rat blood and pieces from your floor¡±


    ¡°Say anything Tye? Ahem Ahem no nothing just got a little bit of a cough right now.... No biggie."


    I  have to grab a few things and then we will see if I''m a genius or idiot.


    I rummage through the bottom of the sink and grab a few thing and throw them in an empty crate from my room. It used to store a lot of my workout gear, boxing equipment and such but I don''t see how that stuff is going to help much now.


    I grab the rest of the tools from the toolbox and throw them in the crate too and a few things from the cleaning closet before I walk back into my room.


    Tye is pretty much done cleaning up the mess at this point when I just drop the crate right next to him and he jumps back and gives me a dirty look.


    ¡°Thanks for the warning Titus we wouldn¡¯t want to scare someone during the mutant monster killer apocalypse because that would just be dumb huh?¡±


    ¡®First of all it''s not my fault you weren''t paying attention. Second of all Mutant monster killer apocalypse sounds very redundant to me. Wouldn¡¯t Monster apocalypse work fine as a name?¡±


    "Fuck you!!!" He says while shaking his head. "What was your idiotic idea this time anyway?"


    ¡°Well the voice before said life was like a game right? Right.."


    ¡°So in most games when you kill an enemy monster what happens?¡± "You get an item drop and some copper usually or whatever currency they use in game."


    ¡°Right my boy Shin but you are forgetting something important..¡± hmmm well depending on the monster you get a special item from it.


    ¡°Exactly!!! I don''t know what kind of special item a rat would have but obviously it didn''t magically drop a rat potion, armor  or anything when I killed it¡­¡­¡±


    I reach down into the toolbox and grab an old saw from carpentry class I took  and his eyes get wide when he realizes what I want to do.


    "You mean you want to¡­..?" I nod my head in response.


    ¡°You are exactly right, I want to dissect it to see if we can figure out how these things work for the future. Secondly and almost more importantly I want to see if it will have anything of use on it that we can harvest for the future¡±


    "Fuck, this is going to get nasty Titus."

 Book 1: Soul Warlock - Chapter 6: Mysterious Orb

    Sorry it took so long everyone.  My proofreader/editor got sick and just finished fixing my last chapter so releases might be erratic until they feel better.


    Chapter 6: Mysterious Orb


    We take some of the garbage bags from the crate. Slowly we open them all the way up and cut them open from the sides so they cover more of an area.


    After we put down about 10 feet worth of bags layered on top of each other I took out the old hand saw I had and put on some plastic gloves and put on one of the surgical masks.


    ¡°And let the fun begin!¡± I declare as I place the saw on the neck of the rat which is still trapped in the window even as a corpse and begin the sawing slowly.


    It was an extremely tough job to do. Its fur and skin were extremely tough and it took 20 minutes of sawing its head to get it completely cut off from the rest of the body. I cut a bit higher than intended and could see it''s salivary glands. Staring at its muscles and insides as blood started to drain from its neck all over the floor.


    ¡°Pretty glad I put those bags down now¡± Shin just gives me a really dude look?  But I pretend that I never saw it.


    After I got it''s head off I laid it down on the ground and started to saw it from the middle of its head down. My goal is to split it open and examine its head. It was a lot faster this time since I bashed its skull in until you could see part of its brain.


    Tye Shin started to get disgusted at this point and slowly walked out of the room while covering his mouth.


    ¡°Yeah Yeah Shin no problem at all. I can do this all by myself at this point because I don¡¯t find this part disgusting at all¡±. He yells sorry from the other room, but what he doesn''t know is that it doesn''t really bother me at all...


    I have never had a problem with dissecting things since high school. I don¡¯t know why though. It may have something with me always being a vegetarian. I have had a few different meats like  fish, and chicken but I am not really crazy about them and for the most part just stick with vegetables, eggs and milk for my diet, so you would think this would freak me out. Oddly enough when I would dissect stuff in high school i just felt strangely detached during it and interested. It didn''t matter if it was a frog, fish, bird, pig or anything else. I would just follow the instructions and be perfectly fine with the whole process.


    To be honest I was more than fine with it and kind of enjoyed opening them up to see how they worked and for someone with as bad as handwriting as I possessed I was surprisingly good with a scalpel.


    To the point of the teacher always praising me during dissection days in biology class and even going as far as to use the samples of what I cut out of things as an example of how you should do things and to show off the different parts of the heart, brain and such.


    At one point I was the one showing everyone how to do it instead of my teacher!


    Well anyway ¡°enough getting distracted¡± I say out loud and saw a bit faster into the brain of the rat.


    Once I am about halfway through its head the saw hits something hard. Something extremely hard. As hard as I tried  I couldn''t get past whatever the saw was hitting.


    I think it''s even breaking the saw some¡­.


    The metal is bending a little and the saw¡¯s teeth are becoming quite dull from hitting it.


    I give up with the saw for now just in case I break it. There is no telling when I''ll be able to get another one if this breaks and it is an important survival tool.


    I remove it from the rat¡¯s head just to discover that the middle of the saw¡¯s teeth where i was rubbing against whatever is in the rat''s head are broken.


    ¡°Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck, I was hoping they just became dull! A broken saw is just a useless piece of metal¡±


    I grab the scalpel I had from my biology intro class in college from my crate and start to cut my way down in chunks. I was moving piece by piece of the pink rat brain into the trash next to me. It was a extremely slow and tedious jobs but my goal is to get to the hard object slowly.


    At first I didn''t want to damage it but it looks like my concern was unfounded since it was destroying my tools!


    It took a few more minutes of moving rat brains but I finally reach it!


    I cleared out the area around it only to find something amazing when I finished ripping the brain matter off of it.


    It is something similar to a pure black marble with red veins running throughout it. It is definitely larger than your run of the mill marble with its two inch width and one inch height.


    I immediately yell for Shin to come over and he runs over from my living room, looking a lot paler than he did before.


    ¡°You alright man?¡± I¡¯m fine he says to me. Then he looks over at the open rat head with brain matter everywhere and it''s cold dead eyes and I see his face get a few shades paler.


    ¡°You are going to have to get use to things like this for the future man. We don¡¯t know what else mutated yet but it''s safe to assume that this may have happened to every animal out there so we may need to kill a lot more of these things just to survive. Plus learning or at least trying to learn about how they work could save our lives in the future¡±.


    "I know , I know, I know! Killing them isn''t the problem it''s the smell of them mixed with all the different parts of their body, brain and insides in general that really bother me man, but I¡¯m sure I can get use to it Titus!"


    I nod and smile at him. ¡®Why are you giving me such a creepy smile Dr. Titus.. While you are covered in blood and brain bits?¡±


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Well Shin that is because of this¡±, I open my hand to show Shin the 2 inch black sphere with red veins throughout it.


    "What do you think it is? I don''t have the slightest idea what this is or what it means but it''s hard enough to break a saw and has a pretty cool ominous look to it so I have a feeling that we should keep it. It may just become very handy in the future¡±.


    I spent the next 45 minutes cutting up the rest of its head and extracting as well as studying anything that seems like it would be useful. Besides its teeth that smelled horrible but were surprisingly healthy and long with the average of 3 inches at its shortest and 7 inches for a few of the longer ones there wasn''t anything of real use on it.


    ¡°With a little bit of cleaning we might be able to turn its teeth into something useful and I''m sure the rest of this, Tye Shin¡±.


    "I was thinking they would make good improvised knives if I can get a proper handle made and put on them."


    I did use the opportunity to look at a few things and I realized that its eyes were a lot larger than it use to be even when you took into considerations how big the rest of its body grew its eyes grew larger even more so. So much that they looked slightly out of place on its head. I don''t know what that means exactly but I can guess it isn¡¯t anything good if the current trends continue.


    I look up at the window where the other 70% of the rat is stuck and look at Shin.


    ¡°We are going to have to go outside and get the rest of that you know¡­.¡±


    "What?!?!? I know it sounds bad but we don''t really have a choice¡±. What do you mean Titus!?!?!? It''s definitely not safe to be out there."


    ¡°As true as that may be I still need to dissect the rest of it on the off chance we can find anything of use. On top of that we will need to be able to close the window and board it up. That''s not even to mention the fact that we have a bloody piece of meat sitting right outside my place which I feel a few mutant carnivores may want to take advantage of and if they eat that they may come and attack us to try and eat us too¡±!


    "Fine , that makes sense and all but god help me if I die I am going to haunt the shit out of you for the rest of your life!"


    ¡°Haunt me Tye Shin? Damn right Haunt you. I''m going to blame you and make every intimate moment you may ever have weird and creepy by doing ghost things¡­..like whispering ¡°hey sexy¡± and ¡°yes baby¡± in your ear while you try to have sexy times with the ladies."


    "ha-ha-ha-HA-ha! Fine with me" I laugh at his joke and smile or at least I hope that is a joke because I''m not taking any weird things off the table yet until I learn how things work now.


    Shin starts to grab some gloves to get the parts of the rat we can¡¯t use.


    ¡°Make sure you throw them in a bag and triple bag it with plastic bags from the grocery store.¡±He nods at me once and goes back to work.


    I think he''s trying his best to not be grossed out by the rat carcass so I figured it would be a good idea to let him just focus.


    I go into the other room to try and examine the orb some more. I don''t know what it is about this orb but it''s insanely fascinating. What kind of purpose did it have in this mutated rat? Or is it just something that got stuck in it? Maybe some sort of weird magical tumor?


    I put the ball away in my pocket for now. There is no use in worrying about what it is for now.


    I go over to the closet  and grab a fresh set of clean clothes. Just some simple pants, sweatshirt and a hoodie. I made sure to grab a decent pair of boots just in case. Although they wouldn''t be the best choice if I had to run for something the added protection they offered made me feel immensely better considering the entire mutant animal situation, so I decided to wear them anyway.


    Soon after I was dressed Tye was ready to go out too. He was still holding a large chair, a hammer and a bag of all the things I deemed useless from the rat creature for now. It was really just a bag full of its brain and some  organs. I decided to keep its hide and bones on the off chance they provide some sort of use but I don''t want the rest of its meat or anything because honestly who in their right mind is going to eat mutant rat when they have better choices? Certainly not me!


    I''m also not too keen on keeping its meat around while trying to figure out what it does. If I can find anything more interesting than rats I may have to keep some organs.


    Shin decided that bringing the whole chair out was going to be a bad idea.  After  grabbing one of the small hand saws I had available he tried to quickly cut the legs and part of the back off to make it less cumbersome but it still took about 15 min to completely his shitty chair shield. In the end it was simply vinyl fabric seat with legs cut off and just a small amount of the back left on it. He realized it would still be hard to hold with one hand but beggars can''t be choosers.


    I personally thought the vinyl fabric wasn''t going to really help at all but if it makes him feel better then who am I to tell him it''s a dumb idea.


    He grabbed it from the small part of the back that was left and we turn to leave.


    I still have the two hammers in my hand  and clang!


    I jump into the air and turn around to see shin dropped his poorly improvised shield on the ground before we even made it outside.


    "Sorry Titus! It was an accident." I give him my trademark death glare. He fumbles with the shield a bit before giving up and just leaving it on the floor.


    ¡°Ready Tye? Ready!"


    "Then let''s get moving!"

 Book 1: Soul Warlock - Chapter 7: Survival

    Sorry about the huge delay. Haven''t given up on the fiction just had too much stuff happening at once to work on it at all between school, work and life in general. Updates will be more frequent but completely irregular now. Which means maybe something every other day or nothing for 2 weeks. Enjoy!


    Chapter 7: Survival


    We walk into the small hallway that leads to the staircase upstairs and outside. It dawns on me that there are four other apartments filled with people here that could cause a lot of trouble in the future or help us.


    ¡°Fuck¡±, I really wish I got to know my neighbors at some point so I could better guess  if they would be a help or a hindrance.But as long as they weren''t too noisy I didn''t see the point in interacting with them. To be honest I''m unsure if they are males, females, around the same age¡­.pretty much everything about them is a mystery to me. It is probably best to just avoid that for now and deal with it when we getter a better grasp over the situation. Which may take awhile seeing as how this is a life and death situation where fucking magic has become real.


    I look out the glass windows next to the door for the first time and realize that everything has changed far more than I thought in these first few hours. More more than I considered possible.


    There is smoke coming from a hell of a lot of places in the distance. Some of the places are not so far away. The sun is still out and bright since it''s not even 4:00 pm yet. So I guess we have that going for us.


    We are looking for obvious dangers before we move too far ahead and all I see is empty streets. Not a car or truck can be seen driving around. There are a few cars parked, scattered around but 90% of the people in the area seemed to of drove off somewhere else.


    Given that this was  once a decently populated area¡­. this is giving it quite a creepy feel. Almost like the Apocalypse has just happened and all the good people have ascended and we are the ones that are left behind.


    Maybe even an alien invasion, zombie invasion, but I guess this time it is just a simple animals mutating into monsters after god spoke to everyone and magic now existing scenario? You know that totally classic trope.


    I mean it could be far worse than it is so far.


    I think while we scan the surrounding area looking for a sign of danger or something out of place.


    We don''t see anything suspicious or any movement besides the wind. We slowly move around the building. I turn my head left and right to make sure nothing has seen us or is even remotely near us to attack us yet.


    With the coast clear and the danger seemingly gone for now we sprint the length of the building at about a good 80 feet.


    I guess all our luck wasn''t gone yet since we were able to safely get this far. My window is about 20 more feet away from the corner where we are on the right hand side.


    ARHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!


    Shit I think and dive in between the large blue recycling bins the landlord finally put behind the building near the dumpsters.


    Shin is quick to follow me and I crouch down in attempt to hide myself but still be slightly ready for any danger.  Hopefully it won''t come to that.


    Well peering as little as I can past the bin I look towards the woods. What I see is a large canine howling loudly and quickly another  AROWOOOOOO follows it from the distance.


    I can''t tell what breed this dog use to be or if it was even just a dog before but its face held a semblance of a pitbull¡¯s but that is where any semblance of a normal dog and this beast stopped.


    It''s fur was a mix of black and brown and its overall size seems to be around 7  to 8 feet.


    It''s legs were rippling with muscles half as thick as a tree trunk.


    You could even see ab muscles on its torso. What kind of scary monstrous fucking dog has so many muscles?!?!?!


    There is no way I''m fighting that or surviving a fight with that in one piece.


    Soon after those thoughts raced through my mind 11 more dogs of varying sizes and breeds emerged from the woods and submissively put their heads down near big black. It was impossible to say what all the dogs use to be but I thought I saw signs of what use to be husky, retriever and Shepherd in some of their heads but it is hard to say for sure.


    I duck my head back behind the bin bringing my finger up to my lips when Tye gives me a strange look.


    He leans forward to peek but reaching my hand out I stop him and move myself closer to the wall of the building.


    ¡°One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten¡± I count in my head mouthing the numbers but not saying them in attempt to count more accurately.


    If they haven''t left by the time I got to 300 then we are going to have to risk moving stealthily to get away from them.


    279, 280,281,282


    I hear a weird noise then chanced a quick look to see a big white van speeding down the triple lane road to the left of us.


    In-between the dogs in the woods and street.


    Chasing after it were great horned beasts. They are the size of a horse but with elk like antlers that were sharpened to resemble knives. Even from where we were hiding I could see that their original ivory color was dyed red on most of them with little bits of debris, dirt and¡­.. clothes on them.


    They quickly sped by in the direction of downtown and EastDale University. The strange horned elk beasts were surprising able to keep up with the car and the canines quickly followed them probably looking for their next meal as well.


    I count to thirty after they leave just to make sure it''s safe and we rush over to my window. I slide the two hammers into the pockets of my pants, too scared to put them down when I may need them in a pinch.  I grab the legs of the rat. One in each hand and brace both of my feet against the wall and pull as hard as I can.


    ARRRRGH.


    It seems to be stuck in the frame and it may not be possible to move it like I thought¡­.


    Shin comes over and grabs the left leg with both arms and I do the same with the right. We both brace our feet against the building and after 15 seconds of pulling like our lives depended on it¡­.because it does. It finally starts to move some.


    Finally getting a taste of success we pull even harder.


    PLOP.


    Tye¡¯s ass as well as my own quickly fall hard against the cement payment but the little over half of the rat''s corpse that was stuck in the window is finally gone.


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    I quickly throw it into a garbage bag from inside and triple bag it just in case.


    I got a bit of blood on my hoodie but it won''t be a big deal. Clothes are the least of my problems right now.


    Shin takes the bag full of bloody guts that he has from the half inside and swiftly runs to the corner.


    I stand there with my mouth agape until he starts to spin extremely fast in circles with his trash bag of guts in his hand until he lets it fly a good 50 feet into the woods. He sprints back to my door and I quickly run after him looking around for danger but we luckily made it back inside of my apartment without any injuries or danger following us.


    We quickly move the couches and furniture against the door again to better barricade ourselves.


    ¡°Smart move throwing the bag Tye¡±


    Once the door was barricaded we head into my bedroom to fix the broken bloody window.


    It didn''t take long and with the use of some disinfecting wipes and part of a closet door we managed to fix and reinforce the window.


    We finished and moved back into the living room where we sit down on the floor slowly trying to think of what we need to do next.


    ¡°The first point of business should be deciding what to do next and gathering information¡±,Tye says.


    That''s when it dawns on me. I haven''t checked the fucking internet for information yet. God that''s fucking dumb of me. I¡¯m 110% gonna blame that on Tye Shin.


    It''s like when you watch a horror movie and realize one cell phone call to the authorities would stop the killer. I went over to my laptop to do a quick search for some popular forums to see if anyone is talking about what''s happening.


    ¡°Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck!¡± I try searching over and over but I don''t have any luck at all. I can''t get the internet to work or WiFi to even show up.


    I try to plug it in directly instead via the Ethernet cord but still no luck connecting to the internet.


    I knew things could get worst I don''t know why I tempted fate and said they couldn''t! Things can always get worst!


    ¡°Tye I need you to check your cellphone and see if you can connect to the internet¡±.


    Tye takes out his cellphone and his screen is all black. ¡°Sorry Titus I must have forgot to charge it in my drunken splendor last night". He casually walks over to an outlet to charge it.


    A few seconds after he plugs it in ¡°There might be a problem Titus¡±.


    ¡°What kind of problem Tye?¡±


    ¡°Well either my charger is broken or the electricity is out¡±.


    I quickly run into my room and grab a few different chargers to try. Long ones short ones they all fail. ¡°Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck!¡±


    We even ran into my kitchen, bedroom and living room trying all the different outlets to no avail.


    If there really is no more electricity then¡­.our situation has gotten even more complicated and fucked up than what it already was. And it was already pretty fucked up.


    I run over to the fridge and sure enough the light on the refrigerator isn''t turning on. Luckily enough I don''t have too much food that absolutely has to be refrigerated but I do have some stuff in the freezer that may go bad.


    We need to start planning ahead and with the animals mutating along with the chaos that has been unfolding food availability may become a big concern.


    I''m trying my best to not feel overwhelmed by everything that is happening but I don''t think I''m succeeding well so I close my eyes and breathe in and out a few times. ¡°Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one¡± I feel a lot less panicky now.


    After contemplating for a few minutes I decided that the best way to handle this is to divide tasks between Shin and I to handle.


    Shin will use my huge Hydrate brand container, the same kind people pour on their coaches after a championship win and fill it with water now while we still have it but first he is going to need to boil it.


    It''s probably still safe to drink without boiling but I''d rather be safe than sorry.


    After that he is going to use all the perishable ingredients that we have in the fridge. It¡¯s better to cook those now so that we will have food longer instead of just letting it go bad.


    ¡°Thank God!¡± the gas stove is still working for now or we would really be fucked.


    While he is filling up the 12 gallon Hydrate container and cooking everything we have I dig out an old rectangular cooler and fill it with ice and frozen food for now. This should keep our frozen food a little bit longer.


    While Tye is cooking the food aka our future rations, I plan on dissecting the rest of the rat to see if there are any more useful materials before chucking the useless stuff into the woods.


    I put down trash bags in layers just like before and get the tools out to dissect the second half of the rat. I had to use an expensive Japanese knife for cooking, since the saw has seen better days, to cut through the second half of its body.


    I''m pulling through its guts and muscles in my bedroom and I hear ¡° Mama Mia I¡¯m the best cook in the universe¡±  in a terrible Italian accent from Shin.


    I shake my head silently and dig through the rest of the rat. I suspect the rat bones,pelt and tail may be the only useful things I can gather from it.


    It seems to be mostly be the same as a normal rat except for the fact that everything is bigger as well as sharper.


    I had to take extra time to clean and cut off its disgusting tail because it may be useful as a whip or something else. It was strange because it''s tail was about 6 feet long and pitch black once I got it all clean.


    Throwing the useless parts into trash bags and cleaning up I decided that it is a good idea to check on Tye¡¯s progress.


    He''s humming some unidentifiable song as he cooks. I can see empty cartons of milk , Macaroni and cheese, fried eggs, pasta, grilled cheese, regular sandwiches piled high with cheese. Lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and more.


    He even started to stack the nonperishable food on the counter so there are plenty of soup cans and bags of rice that I can see.


    I grab an old notebook and a  pen and start to discuss what are next move needs to be to survive in this violent hellhole of a world.

 Book 1: Soul Warlock - Chapter 8: Training & Preparing

    If I hit 50 followers I''ll release a chapter again within 48 hours. Most likely some time today or early tomorrow. Point out any mistakes or inconsistencies you notice. Also what would you do next if your were in their shoes?


    Chapter 8: Training & Preparing


    There are simple basic necessities that everyone needs to survive. At their simplest it really just comes down to food, water and shelter.


    As of now my apartment will do as a shelter. We were able to fortify this place with the furniture and by boarding the windows up it is essentially as safe as we can make it with the materials I just had laying around.


    That''s one less thing we have to worry about but I''m not sure how long this place will be safe¡­


    I mean If a simple mutated rat can break in then there is a big chance of something else coming eventually and killing us without much of a struggle on our part.


    The good thing is that food and water is covered for at least a few weeks if we ration off everything.


    Well would be good for a few weeks if Tye Shin and I were your average sized college students but seeing as we are pretty large guys in overall size we will be lucky to get 10 days or so out of all the food we have.


    Our bodies basic calorie needs are pretty high seeing as we are both over 200 lbs and over 6¡¯2 feet tall.


    The biggest two problems we will face will be what to do when we run out of food and what to do while we wait for it to run out.


    I can admit it I''m pretty spoiled when it comes to modern technology. Without electricity there isn''t much for us to do and boredom combined with the magic apocalypse isn''t going to be too healthy for our sanity.


    ¡°Shin we are going to have to leave eventually for better supplies...any idea on what the best place to go would be?¡±


    ¡°Hmmmm Titus, maybe we should gather supplies from the pizza place across the street?¡±


    ¡°No point. Although they may have some food that''s still good it will be hard to keep it fresh long not  to mention we are going to need more supplies than just food if we plan on living through this long term. I don''t know about you but I don''t think my apartment is the safest bet for long term survival and I''ll go crazy if your face is the only one I see for too long¡±


    Tye Shin had the nerve to show me a face of sadness and grab his chest in a slow melodramatic manner. ¡°Titus you are breaking my heart, how could you not want to see this beautiful face every day and every second?¡±


    I decide on just ignoring the big oaf and focusing on the real problem. Long term food, safety and magic! Magic and safety are probably one in the same. If we can figure out how it works we should be able to get some level of safety.


    That means food is what we should focus on first.


    We can always just raid apartments, houses and stores I suppose until we find others we can trust. Perhaps there will be communities out there that figured out how to survive. Even the government has had to of taken some kind of action by that point!


    Until then it will probably be best to train as hard as we can inside and build anything that may come in handy survival wise later.


    I run the future plans by Tye Shin and he agrees with them. Although it may not sound like much of a plan it''s enough direction for us to focus our efforts on now and that''s what really matters for our sanity plus survival.


    With this settled I think ¡°Status¡± again and the familiar red box with black texts pops up and the information flows into my head.


    Name: Titus black


    Race: Human


    Class: None


    Health: (20)


    Mana: (7)


    Strength: (13)


    Intelligence: (10)


    There seems to be a lot of things missing from the status window. Most games have agility, titles, stamina, affinities, skills and even more but the ones I can see now seem to be awfully basic.


    ¡°Tye I know I asked before but can you give me the rundown on your stats again?¡±


    ¡°I don''t see the point but sure man no problem¡±


    Name: Tye Shin


    Race: Human


    Class: None


    Health: (13)


    Mana: (24)


    Strength: (6)


    Intelligence: (15)


    ¡°Hmmm he doesn''t have any other attributes or categories either. I know I''m missing something important but for the life of me I just can''t seem to figure it out!¡±


    I think this all quite loudly in my head but I don''t mention why to Tye Shin yet no point in getting him involved in why my intuition is telling me something is wrong with no real evidence.


    With the immediate future figured out I decided to devise a training plan to try and raise my statuses. Seeing as I have no idea how to raise my health or mana I''ll just have to leave those alone for now.


    Instead I''ll focus on strength and intelligence. Strength should have to do with how much power I have. For example how much I could bench press or lift. It should apply to the maximum amount of power  or force I can possibly put behind something like how hard I can punch.


    My best bet for training strength will he push ups for now. I''ll do 200 in a row now and up it by 25 every day to see if that works in raising it. If that doesn''t do it I''ll have Tye put things on my back while I do them.


    As for intelligence it should be a status that affects my ability to gain and apply knowledge. It may even affect the speed or my ability to remember things. With that being said I''m pretty embarrassed that Tye has 5 more points of it then me. He may be my friend but he''s not exactly known for being a deep thinker.


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    I should be able to raise it by just reading some of the books I have laying around. As big of a fantasy genre nerd as I am there isn''t much besides moral lessons to be learned from those books so I will be better off reading some of my course work books to raise Intelligence.


    It could come quite in handy seeming as I have some books on leadership strategies as well as how to work through problems with logic as well as some real world examples and case studies discussing proper planning and how to avoid pitfalls of the past. A lot of them have to do with technological failures but not all of them. These should be pretty useful to me especially in the world''s current situation.


    Well I guess that''s settled then. For strength I''ll do push-ups, squats , burpees, sit ups of increased difficulty every day. At least 200 each. In my spare time I''ll study what the course work books I have and if I run out I''ll move on to some of the fantasy novels I have and maybe learn something useful.


    With the status plan worked out I told Tye Shin my idea and he agreed to try and do the same to get his status to change. Just like that it began.


    ---------------------------------------------------------


    It has been 8 days since we started the study and workout all day everyday plan and I don''t think anything has changed so far. I mean I do feel more fit and the food we rescued from the freezer and fridge is all gone but other then that there has been no real changes.


    Except for¡­..well sometimes we hear weird growls and noises outside. Even an explosion of some sort a day or two ago followed by some distant screams.


    I''m not exactly a cowardly person but not knowing what''s happening outside is getting to me big time. It''s weird how humans work. We have a big fear of the unknown but hardly worry about the tangible things we should be worried about like accidents, going hungry, getting sick or anything like that. It''s always the fear of what''s happening or what''s going on in the unknown that gets us scared.


    I don''t think I''ll ever openly admit it and judging by Tye Shins face when the screaming happened I know he feels the same but I''m pretty fucking scared of the outside right now.


    I was expecting for a +1 intelligence or +1 strength from all the working out and learning we have been doing so far but it hasn''t happened yet giving me little hope in increasing my statuses.


    What has to of been the 300th time I call my statuses up again to check for a changes.


    Name: Titus black


    Race: Human


    Class: None


    Health: (20)


    Mana: (7)


    Strength: (13)


    Intelligence: (10)


    ¡°There isn''t any changes and I''m starting to think this dumb thing is broken now. Tye Shin have you gotten any changes in yours yet?¡±


    ¡°STATUS!!¡±  He yells it as if he was some super hero powering up and in a completely serious manner.


    Name: Tye Shin


    Race: Human


    Class: None


    Health: (13)


    Mana: (24)


    Strength: (6)


    Intelligence: (15)


    ¡°Still no changes here on this side either Titus¡±.


    Understanding the statuses is important but at this point it is only going to cause more problems than solutions by stressing and worrying about it.


    The working out has been good for us so far. Can''t expect to be able to out run killer chipmunks or take any of these mutant beasts if we don''t work hard and gain enough strength to be able to. Whether the status reflects this or not I have increased the amount of stamina and strength I have these 8 days so far. It''s the same with Tye Shin.


    Now that all the perishable food is gone after 8 days we had to move on to the non perishable foods I have. Luckily enough I have about 15 lbs of brown rice, 4-5 pounds of canned black beans and a good 10-15 cans of assorted soups, fruits and veggies like greens I have been avoiding eating before this. If we stretch it right we may be able to last a couple more weeks on these supplies before we have to venture elsewhere.


    Tye puts a big pot on the stove and tries to get the gas to lite up but it seems the gas has gone off finally just like the electricity.


    ¡°Fuck fuck fuck fuck¡± I can''t help but say my favorite curse word a few times.


    I check the water next and it still seems to be working no problem.


    ¡°Tye we need to figure out how to cook this rice and boil this water at the very least or its gonna cut down on how long we can last inside at the very least¡±.


    After 10 minutes of thinking with no solid ideas we decide to split up and check my apartment for something that may be useful.


    After another 20 minutes I found just what we needed! I found a small grill for tailgating. When I say small I mean exactly that. It''s about slightly smaller than the biggest pot I have.


    Using this and some coal I had we are able to cook some rice and boil some more clean water just in case. With this our most immediate problems have been solved for now but this comfortable lifestyle will only last as long as the food does.


    Worrying won''t do us any good though. We both grab some bowls and chow down on some food before we sleep for the night.