《World fusion: Chaos》 Chapter 01 AN: ... Another side project. Also, I wanted to use the tables...:P. Let''s make it the last one or I won''t be able to advance with the other stories... And I''ll have even less time to enjoy novels/mangas/animes/games... ****************************** Erwin Russel was a young man hastly returning home after cutting his holidays in Spain short. He had hesitated a lot before finally deciding to move. He was quietly staring at the sky, on his seat next to the window, completely ignoring the noise made by the engines of the A350. The crimson red sky. It wasn''t like that before. The sky used to be blue, but it started to change several days ago. And it wasn''t the only thing. On the 21rd of July, year 2015, red spots started to appear in the sky all over the world. The scientists couldn''t detect anything. All they could tell was that at some place the sky started to look red instead of the usual blue, even though there was no change in the composition of the atmosphere at those places. Within 4 days, it grew to cover the whole sky. On the third day since the appearance of the red spots, thunderstorms started to appear as well. And by thunderstorm, it mean lightning and thunderstrikes appearing in the air over a wide area and moving along the wind, even with the total lack of clouds. It was as if there were invisible storms clouds with invisible and intangible rain, and the only thing detectable were the electrical and plasma discharges. Sometimes, people would claim to see blue lines briefly appearing in their field of view. The number of people experiencing it grew at an alarming rate within 2 days, and nobody could deny it anymore. As if it wasn''t enough, earthquake were becoming a daily occurrence all around the world. They were small ones, harmless, but it made the anxiety of people rise, especially in places like Japan and the west coast of the american continent. ------- Erwin lived in Toulouse, France, with a friend of his parents after they died in an accident a few years ago. He had just finished highschool and went to spend a month with one of his spanish friends for summer. When the strange even started, he refused to move, scared that something would happen on the way, and after a week, decided to act. On the 28th he choose the fastest mean of transportation, airplane, to rush back to his gardian place. The plane had barely finished crossing the Pyrenees when a deafening cracking sound was heard, followed by a weird schockwave. The passenger of the plane started to panic, thinking that the plane was breaking appart. Little did they know that this peculiar phenomenon struck the whole world at the same time. Erwin looked just surprised on the outside, but inside he was panicking like mad. His gardian was an engineer working for Airbus, a man who loved planes. And Erwin started to love planes as well under his influence. Because of that, he had also started to watch the aircrash investigation documentaries on National Geographic channel. His mind went through all the scenarios of accidents he had seen, preparing for the worst. The plane was shuddering a lot, the metal was creaking as numerous schockwaves continued to assault the it and the people within. Erwin''s heart was beating loudly in his chest, his pupils were dilated by the intense fear gripping him. Another jerking motion pushed his head toward the window and his mind was captivated by the sight outside. There were black stripes in the sky, a deep black that seemed to absorb any light. There were lightning strike, but no thunder sound reached them. Then the stripes created ripples in the air. That''s when Erwin realised that the problem didn''t come from the plane, but from outside. He was seated a little behind the wings, and looking at the one on his side he didn''t see anything wrong with it. Since the plane was still fine, it would be possible for the pilots to make an emergency landing that wouldn''t kill everyone. And then the power went down, and seconds later the engines stopped. ''¡­ Holy shit, no power means no hydrolics... '' And the plane started to go down. Erwin, like most of the people in the plane, started to scream and cry. Shortly after, the notification appeared in the view of all the people in the world.
WARNING Cataclysmic event: World fusion occuring. The consequences will be dramatic. Be wary of possible lethal situations occuring around you.
¡°... What the fuck??¡± ------- For a moment, Erwin and a minority of people in the plane forgot their fear as they read the notification. The othrs were just to busy crying, panicking or even praying. ''World fusion? You mean that all those strange phenomenons were precursors of a merging of our world with another? What the heck is going on? And what''s up with the fucking panel?'' The lights flickered and Erwin was reminded of the situation. The plane was diving with its engines down, and the sky was cracking like glass. The people around him were screaming while the sound of the plane cutting the air in its descent could be heard clearly. But Erwin was no longer as worried as before. If the lights flickered, it means that electric power was available again, and that there was a chance to start the engines again. So, this non-believer started to pray. And they did a few minutes later. The noise of the engines roaring back to life was like the whispering of an angel to Erwin''s ears. Alas, they had already lost too much altitude, and the engines and the plane had been damaged. They could no longer stay in flight. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Ladies and gentlmen, I require your unwavering attention please... As you have noticed, we are in the middle of an emergency, and we can''t reach the nearest airport. We will do our best to land the plane with as little damage as possible. Follow the instructions of the cabine crew, and may god be with you.¡± ------- Erwin''s heart sank after hearing that. The flight attendant used the microphone to give the instructions, and people braced for impact. Erwin put his backpack under his seat and looked at the window one last time, and saw trees getting closer and closer. He saw the first tree snap at the passage of the wing, closed his eyes and waited. After several tremors and breaking noise, there was a strong and loud impact, and the plane rolled over while breaking in half with the deafening sound of metal tearing appart. The row of seats in front of Erwin disapeared while spraying metal and bodies pieces around, and a big fireball nearly burned him alive. He was saved by the movement of the rear part of the plane, turning the teared section away from the front of the plane. It still burned his arms and part of his face though. The plane had crashed near a steep slop. After a feww more seconds, the rear part of the plane went to a complete stop. Erwin was dazzed, but still alive. Slowly, the cry of other people and the pain of his burnt arms awoke him.With groans of pain, he checked his body, and was releived to see that noone of his bones were broken, and he could still use his arms. He detached his belt and left the plane. He fell to the ground, and noticed he had stumbled upon his backpack. He smiled and put it back on. Then he registered the whole sight of the crash. Near him was the rear part of the plane, it had been cut in half just in front of him. Further, the front of the plane was burning hard, especially around the wings. The last part near the cockpit was still relatively well, and some people were slowly living through the front emergency exit. Seeing them, he remebered he wasn''t alone, and went to help the other wounded people still in the rear. He didn''t want to go near the burning half. Though he avoided death, other were not as lucky at the rear of the plane. Some got killed by luggages and fragments impacts on the head, and a kid who was traveling with his parents got his neck broken by the violent motions of the plane. There were a few with a broken arm or leg. The survivors gathered under the direction of 3 flight attendants and the copilote. The other members of the crew died. Out of around 300 passengers, there were only 70 survivors. ------- The copilote started to explain the circumstances, that due to another strange phenomenon, the plane was damaged. He also mentioned the strange notification he saw while he and the captain were trying to regain control of the plane. People tried to protest, but when a third of the survivor confirmed the words of the copilote about the notification, they could no longer deny it. When someone pointed out the previous apparition of blue lines, and the other things that happened the last several days, people were forced to accept it. ¡°Then, when do you think the rescue will come?¡± asked a young, frightnened woman with her son near her. The copilote hesitated but Erwin answered. ¡°There won''t be any rescue.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°The notification said that our world was merging with another. It means that our world will no longer be the same. The geography will change, some places will disappear while other will appear. Some cities won''t be supplied with electricity anymore. There will be too much chaos for the authorities to spare assets to look for planes crash survivors. More importantly, there is also the problem of the living beings from the other world we are merging with. They could have appeared anywhere, in the wilderness, or in the middle of a city. In that case, it would create even more chaos if they were hostile or dangerous. Each year in our world, people died from predators attacks on land or on water. It''s something you forgot because you lived comfortably in towns. And now, we are in the wilderness and will have to deal with possible unknown predators here. We don''t know if the nearest town is still at the same place, we might as well be moving toward an even more dangerous place. There are plane fragments everywhere, I suggest you to use them and make yourselves a makeshift weapon, and find something to hide the scent of blood from your wounds. Good luck!¡± ''Yup! People who deny the reality or the worst case scenarios are the first to be fucked by reality!! Like the stupid woman in high school of the dead or the arrogant guys in some disaster movies. I don''t want to be fucked!!! Like Michael Liberty said, when imagination clash against reality, reality is rarely the one to back down!'' As he said that, he walked at a brisk pace toward the carcass of the airbus, while the other were still pondering about what he had said. He had said his part and had no intention to wait for them to agree or not. Even if they didn''t, he had no obligation to stay with them. The survivors couldn''t readily accept what he had said and were still talking among themselves, most uncomfortables with the term ''weapon''. But soon, other started to leave the group to follow Erwin''s actions. They though that with everything that occurred within a week, it wouldn''t be strange if the situation got worse. ****************************** AN: You know Blackthrone, Change: New World, This game we call life and the like? I jumped on this train called ¡°world turning gamey and creating lots of problems¡± :P. Chapter 02 AN: This story was supposed to be fast paced compared to my other ones... I don''t think I''m doing a good job at that... At least for now... ****************************** While working on his new task, Erwin though of the notification, and its implications. ''It can''t be, did things turn out like in a game? Should I try it? I think I should... Status!''
UNAVAILABLE System upgrading to merge the laws of the differents worlds.
''You''ve got to be kidding me!! Things are going to be really ugly in the future. Wil I even survive? People like to think that bad things happen only to other, but for the other, we are the other. Shit, I''m gonna die, right? Fuck it! Shit, shit, shit!!'' Erwin quickly found 2 pieces of metal with which he made a poor quality short sword and a dagger. He used clothes from the dead to warp the handles. As he finished his weapons, a scream of pain was heard near them. A man shot out of the bushes with his pants down and a fresh wound spewing blood on his arm. A second later a quadrupedal creatures jumped on his back, making him fall to the ground. The creature tore through the flesh of his neck with its mouth and finally broke it with a sickening sound. Seeing this, the survivors that were still talking fell into panick and started running away in all directions, but it proved to be useless. Others creatures came from surroundings and picked them one by one. Of the 70 or so survivors, only 20 of them choose to follow Erwin''s advice. Of the 50 or so people that wasted time, 20 were quickly dispatched as they tried to run away. The others were now running toward the armed group, asking for help. ------- Erwin decided to run away toward the steep slope as he doubted any creature would lay an ambush there. He was followed by 4 of the other people who had made makeshift weapons and 3 others who wanted their protection. However, some of the beasts ignored the preys they were about to kill and went after Erwin''s group. He was appaled to see the monsters ignore those who were near them to go after him. Erwin though that he was really going to die this day. Erwin wasn''t the kind of guy who did physical activities regulary. He was only interested in games, novels, music and aeronautics. He was 174cm tall for a weight of 82kg, a little overweight. On this day he gave his thanks to his gardian, who would often drag him along when he trained with his friends on parkour. Thanks to him he had gotten stronger and more agile than what his looks suggested, he had a good balance and had learned to break his falls. Aside from the severe pain on his burnt arms, he went down the slope without much troubles. He quickly got rid of his backpack to avoid damaging its content during the fight.The same couldn''t be said for the 7 people who followed him. One of the armed people pierced her own throat with her makeshift spear, and was now squirming on the ground, suffocating in her own blood while trying to stop the bleeding with her hands. An unnarmed one fell magnificently with his head first against a protubing rock, cracking his skull open and dying on the spot. As for the creatures that went after the group, they didn''t fare any better, many of them broke a leg or more. Most of them were dazed after reaching the bottom of the slope, and Erwin didn''t miss the opportunity. While the other 5 people were recovering, he went to the nearest monsters. They were the size of a wolf, thinner, but with bigger and sharper claws and fangs. They didn''t have any fur either, and their eyes were looking in slightly differents directions, they looked completely mindless. He slashed the throat of the first one with surprising ease as his weapon didn''t have a sharpened blade. Black blood spurtted out of the wound, but Erwin had already advanced toward the next monster and cut his throat as well. One of the other survivor also went in action, killing one the monster near them and wounding the others. Now evryone present had recovered from their dazzed state. One of the unarmed guy took the makeshift spear of the girl who killed herself and the 5 survivors went near Erwin as the monsters started to surround them. ------- That''s when things went from bad to worse. The wounded monsters started to glow, a golden colored glow, and their cuts and broken limbs started to heal. Erwin and another survivor didn''t miss the source of the phenomenon. At the back, nearly hidden in the shadows, was a giant flower, nearly 400cm wide and 150cm tall, a beautifull flower that seemd to be made of crystal, with a multitude of colors. One thing crossed Erwin''s mind, ''healing magic''. ¡°No fucking way!! As if things weren''t already shitty enough!! Now fuck it, I don''t want to die!!¡± screamed one of the 2 girls of their little group. As if to mock her even more, the 6 humans were surrounded by a dark glow, and they suddenly felt heavier than before. Erwin looked at the guy next to him, the guy looked at him at the same time, then both of them looked at the strange flower. With another quick eye contact, they charged toward toward the monsters blocking their path toward the flower. ''We landed right next to it, and it felt threatened. It called back its minions to deal with us. When we went toward the slope, we made it panic and recall the ones who were killing the other idiots. That flower is controlling them, healing them and debuffinng us. We must take it down quickly'' In their weakened state, Erwin decided to try and use the momentum of the monsters against them as they launched their offensive against the humans. However he had to roll on the ground the next second to avoid a lunging attack, sending spears of pain in his mind as his burned arms went in contact with the ground. The monsters had become faster, and he barely managed to slice the throat of the second one to attack him as he rolled further away. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. He heard the scream of pain of the other survivors, but ignored them. Thankfully, the monsters were rather light, so he could at least kick them aways to buy time. He ignored the pain in his arms and swung around to punch and cut the monsters that assaulted him. His comrade wasn''t as lucky, and was struggling on the ground to protect his vitals from 4 monsters. Erwin ignored him and used the small opening it created to advance toward the flower. ------- 20 meters was a long distance to cover when fast and deadly monsters were behind you. 2 of the monsters that were ripping his comrade appart went after him, and 2 others who were attacking the last 3 survivors changed targets as well. Erwin''s mind was working at its fastest pace to find a way to reach the flower before getting killed. The only thing that came to his mind taking into account the light weight of the opponents and their numbers was a spinning-top. So, he started spinning while slowly advancing toward the flower. The claws of the monsters were deflected by his makeshift weapons, or brushed aside before they could dig too deeply into his flesh. He was still suffering numerous injuries while advancing, and the beasts were healed each time they received a serious injury. Few of them had died. As he was about to collapse, the last living girl of the group hacked at several monsters from behind, slowing them down enough for Erwin to use this chance. After sending the last 2 monsters that were in his way toward the others to hinder their path, he made a final dash on the last 10 meters to reach the giant flower and used his remaining strenght to leap toward the center of the flower, where its heart or core was most likely to be. Using all the power he could muster, he hacked at the flower''s central parts and around, spraying some translucent liquid around. The petals were moving around as if trying to get rid of him, but it was useless. He finally reached a hard piece, and focused his efforts on it until it broke. The flower shuddered one last time before getting limp and starting to slowly lose colors. Erwin then lost his strenght and fell face first on the place he had butchered, unknowingly ingesting some of the flower body fluids and a piece of its core. He was tired, all his wounds hurt and he had lost a lot of blood. He just wanted to rest. ------- The monsters, after the death of the flower, had become completely stunned and confused, and the survivors used this chance to finish them of. Of the 5 others who were with him, only 2 survived, the girl who had helped him and another man. The guy who was with him at the beginning was in pieces, same as the last unarmed guy. The other one died from blood loss after the end of the battle. As Erwin was about to lose conciousness, several notifications appeared in his view.
WARNING Worlds fusion complete. The new world has stabilised.
You have defeated the unique boss monster Rainbow Crystal Flower
You are the third to defeat a boss type monster since the beginning of the world fusion. You have gained the title Boss killer
You have ingested a part of a boss monster while the worlds were still merging. As such, you have aquired some of its traits and abilities
You have aquired the Rainbow magic trait Effects: Gained basic affinity to all elements. Able to use any support magic. Can''t use any offensive magic. Growth speed of combat related skills reduced by 50%.
You have aquired some resistance to the water and earth elements
You have aquired some skills Healing ¨C Detoxification ¨C Strenght enhance ¨C Agility enhance ¨C Strenght decrease ¨C Agility decrease ¨C Contract ¨C Mana sense
The beauty of the rainbow crystal flower has rubbed off on you, increasing your charisma
''You''ve got to be kidding me...'' ****************************** AN: Yep, you got it! I want my protagonist to be a supporter with weak and limited offensive abilities. Chapter 03 AN: I''m not use to make tables, and lazy me don''t want to make too much of them, nor making complex ones or ones giving too much details. F**k the tables where there is even the %age of level advancement, or the rank of a skill... ****************************** Erwin was surprised by the serie of notifications appearing in his view. He looked at them twice before having his attention brough back to his physical condition by a small surge of pain in his back. He remembered that he had been seriously injured and was bleeding a lot. Without immediate treatment he would die. Then he remembered the new skills he had aquired, among them was healing. ''Good, now how do I use i- oh! How handy, the knowledge just came to my mind! It''s the charge and release kind of spell, not the continuous one. I''ll have to cast it multiple times... Hooo, so this is what mana feel like, not quite like a liquid,not quite like a gaz, both warm and cool at the same time, it''s so mysterious... Focus, focus, now isn''t the time!!!'' After silently casting the spell several time on himself, his wounds had stopped bleeding and were partially closed, but he was still in a serious state. As he stood up, he noticed the last 2 survivors lying on the ground in a very bad state, and he took care of most of their injuries. He used nearly half of his mana according to what he could feel. He didn''t want to empty his mana pool. ¡°... What the, that was the same thing the weird flower used on the monsters!!¡± said the man. ¡°How come you can use it? Wait, why didn''t you use it earlier?¡± ¡°Because I couldn''t. I didn''t have that ability before...¡± ¡°... What the hell... That was definitly magic... Is the world turning into a fantasy??¡± ¡°It''s more like our world merged with a fantasy one... Monsters, magic, things must have become really crazy everywhere. Though I almost died, I''m glad I followed your advice, and I''m glad I followed you here. If not, we wouldn''t have found that flower, and we would probably have been killed by those beasts. By the way, the name is Diane, I just finished my first year of college.¡± ¡°Erwin, just finished highschool. And you?¡± ¡°David, bus driver. Since we are done with these beasts, what do you guys think we should do?¡± ¡°Check your status. Just like in games, you can see your personal informations. Just think of it and it will appear in your view.¡± ''I have yet to see mine as well. Status!!'' He heard the other 2 gasp in surprise, but he ignored them and focused on himself.
NAME:Erwin RusselRACE:Human
AGE:18GENDER:Male
LEVEL:14BONUS POINTS:35
Titles
¡°Boss killer¡±
LIFE:80/ 182REGEN RATE:70%
STAMINA:63 / 185REGEN RATE:60%
MANA:111/201REGEN RATE:80%
STRENGHT:38CONSTITUTION:44
AGILITY:35DEXTERITY:49
INTELLIGENCE:57SPIRIT:39
WISDOM:40CHARISMA:45
FIRE:15/00WATER:15/20
EARTH:15/20AIR:15/00
LIGHT:15/00DARKNESS:15/00
ARCANE:15/00CHAOS:15/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(0%) - Illness(0%)
''Level 14? And here I though I would be level 5 or 6 or something like that. Wait, I did kill a few monsters and the flower boss! 35 bonus points eh, probably gained 7 levels. What does ¡°Boss killer¡± do?''
Boss killer: +10% to all stats when fighting boss-type monsters
''My regen rate aren''t 100%? Ah, it must be because I''m not in the best condition right now... Ok, it''s good! ¡­ What''s up with my elemental affinities? Ah, I see. The first number is the affinity, the second number is the resistance. So far, so good. Now, the skills!''
TRAITS
¡°Rainbow magic¡±
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
HealingActive01
DetoxificationActive01
Enhance: strenghtActive01
Enhance: agilityActive01
Decrease: strenghtActive01
Decrease: agilityActive01
Mana sensePassive01
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
ContractorActive01
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ''No surprises since I''ve seen the notifications... Wait, what about everything I learned up until now? Or does it only record the things acquired after the fusion? Maybe they will be added after I us them... Special ability, contractor?''
Contractor: Can make a master-servant contract with defeated opponents
''This is gold!!! That must be how that crystal flower got its minions... Wait, how did it enslave them? It had no offensive abilities? ¡­ ¡­ Ah, the notification did say I gained some of its abilities, but not all of them. Whatever, what I have gained now is really good!!'' While Erwin was looking at his status, Diane and David did the same as well. They weren''t completely unfamiliar with games, so they didn''t have much trouble understanding the differents parts. They saw that Erwin was concentrated so they waited a bit for him. But Diane got anxious. ¡°Hey Erwin, are you done yet? We shouldn''t stay here, it reeks of blood. We should go back up, salvage what we can and get away from here. Blood attract predators and I don''t feel like staying in this place where so many people died.¡± ¡°She is right, we should move. You said that we couldn''t count on our knowledge about the geography, but we also can''t stay still. Let''s get all the food, water and tools we can from the wreckage and move toward the nearest place we can think of. It will be a start.¡± ¡°... I agree. However, since we are going to spend some time together, we have to define roles in case we are forced to fight again. As you know, I''m now able to use magic, that make me a mage, the healer of the group. Diane, since you magnificently got my back earlier, that makes you an attacker. So, David, you will be the defender of the group. In short, you will draw the attention of the enemy, Diane will flank or backstab them, and I will keep you alive. Also, you remember when the flower made us weaker and slower? I can do the same to our enemies.¡± ¡°... Just like a game uh. Well, you do have the vibe of a gamer... I don''t really like it, but I agree.¡± ¡°... So I will be the meat shield uh. I guess it''s the duty of the older ones to protect the younger ones. And since you can heal me and weaken the enemy, I''m no longer that worried... Now that is settled, let''s get back up.¡± ¡°Settled? Did you already distribute your bonus points?¡± ¡°Bonus points?¡± replied David. ¡°When you defeat enemies or accomplish tasks, you gain a level. When you gain a level, you get bonus points to raise your stats, like strenght, dexterity and the like.¡± ¡°I had 10 bonus points and distributed them evenly between strenght, agility and constitution.¡± ¡°Since you will be our defender, you should put them in strenght and constitution.¡± ¡°Oh, I see, wait a bit... It''s done.¡± ''I didn''t distribute my points! I will put 15 in spirit and 10 in intelligence for my magic, and 10 in agility for survival (running away and dodging)'' Before leaving, Erwin took the pieces of the flower core and petals, and a bit of its body fluids in an emptied plastic tube of sweets. The notification said that it was an unique monster, and Erwin didn''t want it to just disappear. He recovered his backpack and they went back up. They went back to the wreckage of the plane, and as expected, there were mostly dead people. There was still 6 people alive. 2 were seriously wounded, 3 were salvaging what they could, and one was just starring at empty space. ¡°I''ll say it right now, you 2 didn''t shy away in front of the danger, and when most of the beasts were after me, you didn''t try to use that chance to run away, you even supported me. But not everyone is like you. I can trust you, but I don''t trust the others. They are the kind that don''t like to think of the worst case scenario, and do something stupid when shit goes down.¡± ¡°You spend too much time in front of a screen¡± said Diane. ¡°I do like spending my time in front of a screen, but I''ve also seen things with my own eyes. It''s fine to have them with us and all, but there is a limit to what a person can do. I almost died twice today, we all did. These guys refused to admit the severity of the situation until it was too late, then came begging for protection. You can bet the only reason they survived is because of what we accomplished down there. I won''t waste my mana on someone who won''t put their life on the line, someone who might use us as bait to stay safe or run away.¡± ¡°... Fine, even though I don''t like it, we will stay cautious around them. There is strenght with numbers after all, let''s take them in the group. Besides, we were all on our way toward Toulouse, sticking together won''t be a problem since we have the same objective... Thinking about it, your guys are lucky, I''m a bit familiar with the Mid-Pyrenees region because of my job, there are many places I can recognise.¡± ¡°Another thing settled then. Let''s hurry up guys, we need bags of food, water, tools, clothes and cosmetics!¡± ¡°Since we are in a bit of a hurry, here!¡± Erwin cast speed and strenght enhancement on Diane and David, and went back to work. David told the others about the basic plan, while Diane went to look for supplies. Erwin focused on making makeshift tools, weapons and protections. After making makeshift hammers, hatchets, arm guards, leg guards, and a shield, he gained a new skill.
Skill acquired: Crude equipment crafting You can make better crude tools, weapons and armors with raw materials
¡°This will be handy at higher levels.¡±
Skill acquired: Linguistics You can learn new languges faster, and use them easier in a written or spoken manner
''Right, french isn''t my native language'' Once the preparations were completed, the 9 people left the crash scene and moved toward the north. They didn''t have much food and water, their means of protection were of poor quality, they didn''t know what lay ahead of them, but they moved forward in this dangerous world that was now theirs. ****************************** AN: What will happen to those plane crash survivors? Find out in the next chapter, sceduled for some time in the future... Chapter 04 AN: No tables in this chapter (not like each chapters need a table, right?) ****************************** During their travel, they had to deal with groups of monsters on several occasions. After the first 2 encounters, Erwin strongly insisted for the 6 others to do their parts. Aside from him, everyone gained a level, but all his enhance and decrease spells leveled up. At that time, he started to think about magic, and mana. Aside from casting the spells, he couldn''t move his mana and couldn''t separate the elements. After all, he had affinity to 8 elements. He also wondered if there were others methods to raise ones affinities. In the middle of the first night they spent in the wilderness, Erwin woke up while screaming, trashing around for a few seconds and darting away from the others with tears and snot on his face. David and another guy who were keeping watch got startled, and the others woke up in a panick. Diane paled when she saw the state Erwin was. ¡°Erwin, what''s happening?? David, something is wrong with him!! What should we do?¡± ¡°... There is nothing wrong with him.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± At that time, Erwin had stopped screaming and was panting hard with a knee on the ground. ¡°He survived a plane crash and saw people die in that crash. He was attacked by monsters and almost died at their hands. He saw people being killed by those monsters. The world we knew has changed and became more dangerous. All of this happened within the same day. Not everyone can cope up with it. Some people will faint, some will go crazy, some will fall into despair, some will shut down some of their emotions. Some, like the red haired girl over there, will break.¡± The red haired girl in question was the survivor staring into empty space. She no longer reacted to anything, she was like a soulless doll, blindly following anyone who held her hand, not reacting to danger, not reacting to pain. The one who took most pity on her was Diane, and she made efforts to take care of her. She peed and shat on herself without a care, and Diane had to clean her up. She was just a shell, but others took pity on her and decided to keep her around, thinking that maybe bringing her back to the civilisation will heal her mind. ¡°In his case, most of his feelings and emotions were blocked. It''s like some people who learn that someone they were close with died, and only start to cry during or after the burial ceremony. Now that he had time to rest, to assimilate everything that happened with no distractions, the weigh, the seriousness, the horror of the situation bareled down on him in the form of a nightmare. I had a crazy one myself when it was my time to sleep... It''s still the middle of the night, get back to sleep... Even if you can''t, lie down and let your body rest.¡± ------- The next day, the group came upon a railway, which went from the east to the west, and following David''s advice, they went toward the east, that earned him the orientation skill... Until they came atop of a cliff. The railway was broken there. The cliff was several kilometers wide, from the north to the south-east in a crescent shape, and almost 300 meters tall. A dark forest with weird looking trees lay at the bottom, and extended to the horizon. In the distance, within the forest, they could see the ruins of a town. Aside from the red haired broken girl, they were all speechless. They were all a little knowledgeable about the geography of southern France, they knew this scenery shouldn''t be there. The railway had given them hope that not many things may have changed physically, especially considering that the signs they saw on the way indicated a town was near. But the sight in front of them confirmed their fears. The ruins were definitly remnants of the town that should have been there. And the appearance of the forest didn''t reassure them at all. One of them went closer to the edge and observed the cliff in more details, before returning to the group, who had istanced itself from the view. ¡°... I can''t believe it!!¡± said David as he started to silently cry. ¡°Looks like the path toward Toulouse is gone. Shit, the city may have disappeared just like this one!¡± cursed anothr survivor. ¡°You wasted our time leading us here, you asshole!!¡± ¡°So you''re losing it, eh? You''re not happy? Noone is forcing you to follow us, you can leave anytime you want.¡± said Diane. ¡°I''m telling all of you guys right now, I intend to continue to move toward Toulouse. I won''t believe it''s gone until I confirm it with my own 2 eyes. I want to confirm wether my gardian survived or not. I also think of going into that weird forest and reach the ruins of the town. If there are ruins, then there are things to salvage. David, Diane, what do you want to do?¡± ¡°Are you serious? That forest doesn''t look good at all. Morever, the trees seem to be packed together so it will be dark, and there are probably a lot of bushes. You''ll get ambushed easily in there.¡± said David. ¡°Wether we like it or not, we don''t have a choice but to go down.¡± said one of the survivor. ¡°And why would we do something so stupid??¡± replied the one who was panicking. In reponse, the guy pointed toward the way they came from. The ground had become dark, and the darkness was squirmming and getting closer to them. These were definitly some kind of insect monsters, and there was an insane amount of them, completely covering the ground, and the sound of hundreds of squirmming insects reached them. ¡°... Ahaha, they remind me of the beetles in the movie ''The mummy''.¡± said the man who warned them ¡°Let''s move!!¡± he added as he darted toward one part of the cliff that seemed usable for descent, and started to go down. As they were about to follow him, Erwin suddenly grabbed Diane''s shoulder while she wanted to take the red haired girl''s hand. ¡°How do you intend to climb down with her?¡± She froze on the spot. The cliff was more than 200 meters deep, they didn''t have any rope, and climbing down with her on ones shoulder would be too dangerous. It would have been fine on a shorter distance, but not 200 and more meters. And the red haired girl wouldn''t put any efforts into staying in a secure position. A single mistake and they would very well die together. There wasn''t time for extended thinking, she had to make a decision within the next few seconds, and had tears in her eys as she stared at the broken girl. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. The others were already descending. Erwin looked at the approching insects, then locked gazes with David. They both knew it was hopeless for her. He cast the speed enhancement on all 3 of them, then the strenght enhancement on himself. Feeling the effect of the magic, Diane turned toward him, just in time to see him tackle her and lift her while moving toward the cliff, David just behind him. The red haired girl didn''t react to anything and was just standing there. ¡°NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!¡± She struggled to get free from him, but without succes. He reached the place where the others had come and started to descend, still holding Diane with one arm. Diane had the time to see the insect swarm the red haired girl. She didn''t react nor utter a single sound when they ripped the flesh from her legs, when they tore her tummy open, spraying ripped internal organs and blood on the ground. As they were descending, they could hear the sounds of the insects feasting on the girl''s body. Some tried to follow, but they weren''t good with vertical surfaces and fell. Diane held onto Erwin hard as he cautiously descended the cliff, the rock dangerously cracking under their combined weight. In a short period of time he had to swiftly change between the nubbins in the rock several times, some giving away undertheir combined weight. We were going down at a much slower pace than the others since I had to triple check before resuming the descent. ¡°If my cousin was still alive, she would have looked just like her¡± she whispered in Erwin''s ear while crying. He stiffened for a bit, but continued to climb down. Since she was holding onto him, he could use both of his hands. Now he understood why she was so adamant in helping the girl. It didn''t have anything to do with girl''s solidarity or something like that. It was because of an old wound. After a few meters, she had calmed down enough to move on her own. As they got lower, it became easier to climb down. However, noone of them was used to climb down for nearly 200m, and their hands and arms had started to hurt. The guy who was panicking earlier didn''t put enough strenght in his grip and slipped to the side, he tried to recover but it was already to late. In a loud cry of horror, he fell, ceaslessly hitting protubing rocks as he went down with nasty sounds. He had stopped to scream after the second hit. Seeing this, the other got even more carefull on the way. ------- When they reached the bottom of the cliff, they all earned the climbing skill. They also got to see the body of their former comrade, ripped apart by the sharp pieces of rock encountered on the way down. The head had been blown into pieces when it reached the ground. In short, he had become a bloody mess. They had gone from 9 people to 7 within an hour, and knowing they had to cross this forest didn''t make them feel any better. They were abou to move when one of the survivors noticed Erwin didn''t move at all and was gazing at the forest. ¡°... What''s wrong?¡± ¡°... This forest, there is a lot of mana in it. I didn''t feel any mana where we came from.¡± ¡°So what? This forest wasn'' part of our world, but from the other. So of course there would be mana in it and not in our forest. Now le-WHAAAAAAAAA!!!¡± The survivor was interrupted by a vine warping around his foot and dragging him away. David and Diane immediately went after him. After being quickly dragged over 30 meters he was lifted in the air and the predator revealed itself. At first it looked like a small stocky tree, but it turned out to be a giant flower with small sharp teeth on the inner side of its petals, and it held he poor guy right above its head. Being enhanced by Erwin, Diane threw her spear at the vine. It jerked and dropped it''s prey right next to the lethal hole. The jerking motion pushed him to the side and saved his life. David hacked at it''s body with his hatchet, but it was tougher than it looked. The same couldn''t be said for the vine, who was severly cut after 2 quick strikes from Diane''s makeshift machet when it tried to attack again. With its vine useless, the plant monster was just an easy target. The others aside from Erwin joined in the melee fray and it was quickly killed. ¡°This is going to be very, very troublesome...¡± ¡°Hidden carnivorous plants possibly at every corners... Great, that''s just great...¡± ¡°These simple carnivorous plants are the least of my worries.¡± said Erwin. ¡°In video games, plant monsters often have the ability to poison, paralyse or confuse a target by releasing spores in the air. The 3 of us already met a troubleso-¡± ¡°WHATCH OUT!!!¡± Erwin dived to the side on impulse when he heard the warning, and 2 giants spiders landed right where he had been. The guy who had warned him was about to attack but was held back by David. More spiders were appearing from the depth of the forest. Many more. The smaller ones went straight for the freshly crushed corpse at the bottom of the cliff, but the bigger ones stood now between Erwin and the rest of the group. The bigger spiders reached 120 to 130 cm in height, the smaller ones were around 50cm. ¡°Shit, they were attracted by the scent of blood. Erwin, there are too many of them, we can''t reach you!¡± said Diane. There were now around 30 big spiders between Erwin and the group, and more smaller ones were coming from the forest. ¡°Forget about fighting them, these spiders are agile insects, remember how they jumped at me. There are to many of them and some are probably poisonous. Run away. Our primary goal is the ruined town, if we can''t meet there, then go nortth, north-east until you find a road or something! I hope we will meet again.¡± said Erwin as he backed away from the spiders heading his way. With that said, he gave the others one last speed buff and went his way, numerous spiders after him. The others, seeing him leave, went there own way with their share of spiders. They now had to flee from the spiders while being wary of other plants monsters. ***************************** AN: ... Chapter 05 AN: Chapter 5, the ruins ****************************** David and Diane didn''t know if they were lucky or not. While being separated, they were in the bigger group while Erwin was on his own. However, that also meant they would n longer benefit from his buffs and healing, and in this forest with spiders and plant monsters everywhere it would be troublesome. On the other hand, Erwin could use more of his mana to heal himself, buff himself more often and debuff more enemies. However there were no longer anybody to watch his back, if he got seriously caugh once he would be done. ------- The spiders were fast, as fast as Diane. And Erwin knew that she was faster than an average human, he had seen how fast some really athletic persons were. If not for the agility enhancement he would have been caugh. He focused on putting as much distance between them as possible and used healing on himself to make sure any wound he may have gotten while descending the cliff were closed. After all, the spiders came because of the fresh corpse. Erwin was silently cursing in his mind, throwing insults at the all the gods he knew for all their recent bad luck. Sometimes, some vines would suddenly move toward his legs. The first time, he had completely forgotten about their existance, and thus caugh off guard. He cast agility and strenght decrease on the perpetrator to slow it down while it dragged him. It gave him enough time and stability to violently slash at the vine. All of this didn''t take long, but it was enough for the fastest spiders to get close. One of them close enough to jump at him, but he slashed at it while it was in the air, luckily hitting the head and lethaly damaging its brain. Erwin was now running with his gaze slightly turned toward the ground, ready to jump each time something moved on the ground. When his enhancement ran out he would recast them. Like that, he ran for 20min before stopping, tired. He had gained a skill along the way.
Skill aquired: Parkour Your movements in an obstacle-filled path is notably improved
Satisfied by the notification, he sat down against a tree to catch his breath. Once he had recovered, he noticed that it had been a few minutes and there were no signs of the spiders. Erwin though they must have given up on him. He suddenly got worried about the others. ¡°Shit, did they manage to get away despite the lack of buffs? At least I hope David and Diane are ok... No, now isn''t the time to think about others, I should stay focused and advance toward the ruins. There is still a lot of walking to do in this damn deadly forest.¡± On his way, he came across several other plant monsters and small groups of spiders. He mostly ignored the plants but did exterminate the small groups of spiders, he could spare the mana to debuff each members of the groups. After killing the last spider, he was about to leave when he stopped and looked at it again, and the others. ''Wait, I don''t have to stay alone, do I? I could probably have tamed some of them with my contractor skill. If I tamed a leader, would the other still follow it? Though, I wonder how effective a spider would be against another spider. Wait, I can already deal with groups of them. By adding one new pet with each new group I would be able to grind the contractor skill while increasing the number of minions/meat shield!! Moving in this forest and sleeping would be a lot less risky. Let''s do that!'' When Erwin encountered the next group of spiders, he killed all of them except for the bigger one. He used the blunt side of his makeshift sword to break all of its legs on one side. The spider was around 120cm tall, dark geen, almost black, with a thin, barely noticable green patern on its back. Its numerous eyes were dark red. Erwin found the spider kinda cool, even though he didn''t particulary like them. He put his hand on top of his head and used the contractor skill. After a small colorless glow, he got a weird feeling from the spider. ¡°... Is that defiance? It''s resisting?¡± Erwin increased the pressure of his hand on its head and tried to will more mana into the skill, without succes. He could make best use of his buffs with soldiers, and as he was alone he definitly needed one. His nonchalant attitude was replaced by his will to dominate the wounded spider and survive. His will was conveyed to the spider through the link created by the skill, and the wounded spider with little intelligence and sentience couldn''t do anything about it. A mark appeared on its head and the colorless glow disappeared.
Contract successful Gamora Spider has become your faithfull servant
''Tch, so a contract can also fail. Defeating an opponent isn''t enough, I have to somehow impose my will and overcome theirs... So those things are gamora spiders eh.'' though Erwin as he started to heal the spider. ''¡­ Servant''s status!''
NAME:-RACE:Gamora spider
AGE:2GENDER:Female
LEVEL:12BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
Erwin Russel''s first servant
LIFE:187/ 228REGEN RATE:90%
STAMINA:199 /223REGEN RATE:89%
MANA:100 / 100REGEN RATE:87%
STRENGHT:30CONSTITUTION:42
AGILITY:58DEXTERITY:61
INTELLIGENCE:20SPIRIT:15
WISDOM:10CHARISMA:13
FIRE:00/-15WATER:13/00
EARTH:09/00AIR:00/00
LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:07/11
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(31%) - Illness(18%)
-
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°No name? Since you''re my first servant, I will give you a nice one... Wait, I don''t know of any famous unique spider...¡± ''When you think of spider, you think of agility, poison, web, hunter... an assassin build... an assassin using strings... Sadira from Killer Instinct!!'' ¡°From now on, your name will be Sadira.¡± As he said that, the mark on her head briefly glowed, and when he checked back her status the name was on it. ''Handy! What about her abilities?''
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
Poisonous biteActive5
Thread generationActive8
SurvivalPassive14
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
''Nothing noteworthy, as expected of a spider. Though, survival? I guess all beings living in the wilderness should have that... Now, I should raise my troops and contractor skill while I advance toward the ruin... Wait, it used about a third of my mana. I can''t use it anymore today or I won''t have enough mana for my magic during battle.'' ¡°Guess it will be just you and me for a while. Follow me.¡± ------- He resumed his travel with Sadira behind him. Each time they encountered monsters, he would order Sadira to hide, then he would wound half of the enemies and order Sadira to kill the wounded. He would kill the others himself. They reached the first ruined buildings at the end of the afternoon. Sadira had gained 2 levels, and Erwin put all her bonus points in agility. His healing, buffs and debuffs skills had leveled up as well. The buildings had turned into rubbles, and twisted or torn metals. It looked like they had fallen from a higher place, they were completely crushed. Some pieces of roads were in the same state here and there. There were less trees and bushes, but still enough to remind people that is was within a forest. It would be useless to look around there so he advanced further. There were old traces of blood sometimes. Probably people that fell alongside the buildings, splattering upon impact and eaten by spiders and other things. He continued to advance for several minutes, and noticed that the rubbles were made of bigger pieces. It has also become more silent. He noticed that before, there were still birds noise around, but here he could barelly hear one. He put his back against a tree and carefully looked around, including above his head on the branches of the tree. Nothing. ''Shit! This place is probably more dangerous... Think, what kind of animals can be found in a forest? I already found insects and plants. There should be canins things like wolves or felins things like tigres. There can also be lizards and snakes... Or humanoid monsters, goblins and orcs... I hope monsters just avoid this place because it''s new and full of stranges smells. I should hurry and find a place to spend the night.'' He advanced with his legs bent and weapons in hands, checking the ground and the branches of the trees as he moved. There were more and more ruins of buildings, with bigger pieces intacts. It was as if the buildings in the outskirts fell from a higher position than those near the center, or their fall was slowed by something compared to the buildings in the outkirts. He soon found a building that was partially intact ¨C at least the upper floors weren''t completely ruined. It looked like an appartment buildings. In the few rooms he could go in, almost everything was broken. He didn''t spend much time in there since the place was constantly creaking. Later he found another building, less damaged. Again, only the upper floors survived. He found some canned food inside, but nothing to drink. He then realised that he would need to find some drinkable water soon. He left the building to go to another one. A suspicious and loud craking noise warned him of the danger, and he spun around, weapons crossed in front of him. He was knocked to the ground, but the monster that attacked him retreated after having its front legs wounded by the weapons. ¡°Sadira, stand back!!¡± He ordered as he cast the buffs on himself. He didn''t have the time get up when the beast attacked him again. Once again, he tried to parry the attack, but he wasn''t successful and the beast sunk its fangs in his right shoulder. ¡°GHUAAAAAAAAA!!!¡± In retaliation, Erwin struck the neck of the beast with his left hand. The beast growled in pain, and Erwin strongly kicked its tummy, disturbing its balance, and stabbed the same place he had struck before. ¡°GROAAAAR!!!¡± The beast roard in pain this time and released him. Its claws had bitten into his flesh, and along with the wound on his shoulder he was bleeding a lot. He was finally able to get up and have a good look at he beast. It was a crimson red panther, with crimson eyes. They looked at each other for a bit, when it prepared itself to attack again, Erwin debuffed it and counter attacked. Since he couldn''t do much with his right hand, he used it to defend and pierced the front right leg of the beast. He then pressed the attack. ¡°Sadira, poison bite!!¡± Two seconds later, the faithfull spider had jumped on the back of the beast and bit the nape of its neck before retreating. The beast roared louder than before, and started to spasm while producing gargling sounds. It became unsteady on its leg, and fell to the side. Erwin quickly killed it. He butchered its hind leg of and went back inside the building with Sadira behind him. Once inside, he tossed the leg in one of the rooms and told Sadira to eat it. He used a bit of his remaining water to clean the wounds after stopping the bleeding with heling magic. He used the rest of his mana to close the wound and even used detoxification magic just in case. He went in the least accessible room, and after ordering Sadira to stand guard at the entrance, he quickly ate the content of a can and fell asleep. He had another nightmare that night but didn''t have the chance to wake up in the middle of it. ****************************** Chapter 06 AN: Chapter 6: Reunion ****************************** It was still dark when Erwin woke up. He was in a gloomy mood due to the dreams he had during his sleep. He didn''t know wether to be happy or sad. Happy to have been able to sleep without interuptions. Sad to not have been able to cut the nightmares short by waking up. He decided to check his status before deciding what to do for the day. He had gained a total of 2 levels and 10 bonus points which he placed on dexterity and spirit.
NAME:Erwin RusselRACE:Human
AGE:18GENDER:Male
LEVEL:16BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
¡°Boss killer¡±
LIFE:224 / 224REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:222 / 222REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:328/ 328REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:38CONSTITUTION:44
AGILITY:45DEXTERITY:54
INTELLIGENCE:67SPIRIT:59
WISDOM:40CHARISMA:45
FIRE:15/00WATER:15/20
EARTH:15/20AIR:15/00
LIGHT:15/00DARKNESS:15/00
ARCANE:15/00CHAOS:15/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(0%) - Illness(2%)
-
CONTRACTED SERVANTSTYPELEVEL
SadiraSpider14
TRAITS
Rainbow magic
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
HealingActive02
DetoxificationActive01
Enhance: strenghtActive03
Enhance: agilityActive03
Decrease: strenghtActive03
Decrease: agilityActive03
Mana sensePassive02
Crude equipment craftingPassive01
ParkourPassive03
LinguisticPassive10
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
ContractorActive01
''Though I''m glad my skills leveled up a bit,what''s up with linguistic and parkour? They leveled up too fast!!...Or not, since they were basically skills I had before the fusion.. They will probably increase at a fast rate until they reach their true actual level. What about Sadira?''
NAME:SadiraRACE:Gamora spider
AGE:2GENDER:Female
LEVEL:14BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
¡°Erwin Russel''s first servant¡±
LIFE:266/ 266REGEN RATE:83%
STAMINA:160 / 260REGEN RATE:69%
MANA:116 / 116REGEN RATE:47%
STRENGHT:30CONSTITUTION:42
AGILITY:68DEXTERITY:61
INTELLIGENCE:20SPIRIT:15
WISDOM:10CHARISMA:13
FIRE:00/-15WATER:13/00
EARTH:09/00AIR:00/00
LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:07/11
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(31%) - Illness(18%)
Tired
''What''s up with her stamina and her regen rate? Wait, tired? Crap, I told her to stay on guard and she didn''t sleep. No wonder her regens are messed up and her stamina half depleted.'' ¡°Sadira, come here and sleep until you are fully rested.¡± ''What about her skills?''
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
Poisonous biteActive05
Thread generationActive08
SurvivalPassive14
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
''No change either uh. I''ll wait until she is fully rested before I go and look for the others.'' ------- After around 5 hours, Sadira was fully rested, so they cautiously left the building. After wondering for a bit how to effectively look for the others, Erwin decided to rely on Sadira. It seemed like these gamora spiders had a good sense of smell considering their first encounter. So, he instructed Sadira to find something with a smell similar to his own. The smell of humans. He hoped that Diana still had a bit of his smell on him, it would make things easier. Of course, they were searching around the side he came from. On the way they killed another red panther. This time again, he baited the beast and had Sadira flank it and poison it, however he didn''t give her its meat, eating could wait for later. Sadira picked up on a scent, and within 20min, led him to a ruin where David, Diane and another guy were hidding, in a building with some rooms that could still be used for shelter. ¡°Finally found you guys!!¡± ¡°...Erwin? You really were alright?¡± ¡°... Damn it, you can''t believe how relieved we are to see you now...¡± groaned David. ¡°Wait, you guys are in a horrible shape!!! Just shut up and rest, I''m going to heal you right now, we can talk later!¡± All 3 of them were full of cuts and bruises. David had it worse than the others, he had been bitten by a spider. His skin had almost turned purple, and he was full of improvised bandages. Erwin used half of his mana on him just for healing and detoxification, and he used some of the rest on Diane and the last other guy of their group, named Greg. After healing all he could, he told them again to rest. He waited near the entrance of their shelter, staying on guard with Sadira hidden in a corner. In the middle of the afternoon, Diane went to him. ¡°Diane, the big spider hidden in the corner over there is my pet, Sadira, so don''t attack her.¡± ¡°What? WHAAAAAAA!!! What the fuck, Erwin?¡± she said while taking a stance. ¡°Like I said, she is my pet, don''t hurt her.¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.¡°She?; How do you know it''s a girl? On top of being a nerd you''re also an amateur entomologist?¡± ¡°Nope! And spiders aren''t insects! I can tame monsters. How did you guys end up in such a pitifull state and what happened to the 3 others?¡± ¡°... Without you, dealing with the spiders had become terrible.When we were separated, the other were running in front, Greg opening the path while David and I were the rear guard, trying to reduce their numbers or at least slow them down by wounding their legs. It worked, and Greg helped us avoid the carnivorous plants. But we still lost one during the escape. He fell and was swarmed by the smaller spiders, David and I couldn''t do anything.¡± She took a seat at his side and continued the story. ¡°We encountered many groups of spiders on the way, David and I avoided getting bitten with a bit of succes, but one of us didn''t. He died within 30 minutes. The last one became the prey of a big red cat. We were already wasted at that time, we didn''t have the energy to fight anymore. We found this place yesterday evening, and took turn to stand guard during the night. By the way, I got the athletism skill from running in the forest, it decrease my stamina consumption and increase it regeneration, and give me a boost in runnng speed...You really saved us... And also, thank you, for carrying me back then. Thanks a lot...¡± ¡°Don''t mind it... Since you seem fine, you shouldn''t have much trouble guarding the place. We need food and water. Especilly water, I had planned to look for water today. Here, eat this canned food with the other. My spider and I are going to look for other supplies.¡± ¡°You''re not seriously thinking of exploring the ruins with just the 2 of you?¡± ¡°The guys need rest and they need you to stand guard, and we all need food and water. We better get them while we still have the strenght to move around. And I can deal with the spiders and the ¡­ big red cats like you call them.¡± ¡°... Fine...¡± ¡°Also, tell the guys I think travelling should be postponed for now. It''s too dangerous. We should stay here for a while to get stronger, to level up. If we get stronger, travelling will be a lot less dangerous. I''m going now, I''ll see you guys in the evening... I should get my hands on strong cleaning products to help hide our scent and the scent of blood. Ok, I''m going now, take care! Sadira!¡± Diane watched as the big spider responded to its master''s call and left the building behind him. A wry smile crept on her face at the strange sight. ¡°... You too.¡± -------
You gained a new title: Healer Slightly raise the efficiency of healing spells and the learning speed of related skills
''Nice title!! Now, I''ve to get my hands on one of those red panthers. If Sadira is like an assassin, the red beast would be an attacker like Diane, but better than her, it would also serve as a nice scout thanks to its senses. I have almost 330 points of mana, so I''m not likely to run out of it considering my current consumption during battle. Let''s get a new pet!'' Once at a good distance, Erwin cut himself to bleed a little. He had found a place with several rubbles around. Sadira was hidden in a nearby dark alcove made by broken pieces of buildings, and he waited. Not too long, after around 30min he was attacked by a red panther. He was already prepared for an attack, so he defended against the charge of the beast without much trouble, and reduced the agility and the strenght of the beast right after. Then he ordered Sadira to attack. As the beast turned around to face her, Erwin struck its hind leg. Sadira pinned it on the ground and visciously bit it throat. She also injected a good amount on poison, and the beast died within seconds. Erwin face-palmed, he had forgotten Sadira couldn''t understand his true intention, which was ''capture''. He decided to leave it aside for now, it would be better to hunt these beast with someone who can hold back. He doubted Sadira could understand it at that stage. ''¡­ I should probably raise her intelligence. For her next 2 level up I will put all points in intelligence. 30 in intelligence should be enough for her to learn and understand a bit more of what I expect from her in certain situations. Then after that, for each level she will gain I will put 3 points in agility, 1 in dexterity, 1 alternatively in strenght and constitution.'' Erwin decided to forget about getting another pet for now. He had Sadira eat the beast and focused on getting supplies from the ruins. When he got back, he had gathered food for 5 people, but barely enough drink for a day for each of them. But since there were plants and many beats around, he was certain there would be a drinkable source of water nearby. He got back to the shelter where the other were. ¡°We''re back with gifts!¡± ¡°Why, thank you! I didn''t know it was my birthday today¡± said David. ¡°They aren''t birthday gifts, they are ''recover well'' gifts for injured people. Sorry, no apples, I know you would have loved it if Diane did cut them for you. I think?¡± ¡°... We will talk later¡± said Diane. "How funny, she got the nursing skill for taking care of us!" Remembering how she took care of the broken girl, Erwin though it wasn''t that surprising. ¡°... You really have a spider pet... Do you even need us to survive?¡± asked Greg. ¡°In this area? Probably not. I''d say this area will be the safest for us for a while. But we won''t stay here indefinitly, and I''m pretty sure we will face greater danger on the way.¡± ¡°Anyway, you have my thanks for the healing, and the food.¡± ¡°That''s right, eat and get some energy for tomorrow. We will do a lot of grinding.¡±
NAME:Diane BeaumontRACE:Human
AGE:20GENDER:Female
LEVEL:12BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
-
LIFE:194/194REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:194/194REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:167/167REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:48CONSTITUTION:49
AGILITY:53DEXTERITY:51
INTELLIGENCE:47SPIRIT:39
WISDOM:37CHARISMA:37
FIRE:00/00WATER:00/00
EARTH:00/00AIR:00/00
LIGHT:03/00DARKNESS:00/00
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(0%) - Illness(0%)
-
NAME:David GeraultRACE:Human
AGE:29GENDER:Male
LEVEL:11BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
-
LIFE:213/213REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:210/210REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:157/157REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:52CONSTITUTION:61
AGILITY:40DEXTERITY:42
INTELLIGENCE:37SPIRIT:46
FIRE:00/00WATER:02/00
EARTH:03/02AIR:00/00
LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:00/00
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(7%) - Illness(5%)
-
****************************** AN: More tables in this chapter Chapter 07 AN: Chapter 7, the little fuckers :D ****************************** The 4 people (and the spider) had woken up early and just finished their breakfast. They were getting ready for a day of exploration and training. Exploration to find a source of water, training to gain levels obviously. ¡°Eh? My constitution increase by 3 points compared to yesterday!¡± said David. ¡°What? Really?¡± ¡°You too? Mine increased by just 1 point. I though I may have made a mistake, but hearing you say this I''m glad my memory hasn''t failed me yet.¡± replied Greg. ¡°... I gained 1 point in agility and 1 in constitution...¡± added Diane. ¡°... I see. You gained those points in constitution because your body got hurt and you recovered. It''s like in The Elder Scroll games. To raise the level of your heavy armor skill you must get hit. To raise your athletism you must run or swim. Now that I think about it, my gardian had said that when people train, the muscles get damaged, and repair themselves while strenghtening themselves. I guess that what applies. But you had to be heavily hurt to gain just 1 point. In Diane''s case she had to move around like crazy to gain her point in agility. It is possible to raise our stats without leveling up, but it is harder. But it''s something I intend to do anyway. I will get myself hurt like crazy every evening and heal myself to raise my constitution.¡± ¡°Hey, that''s crazy!!!¡± ¡°It''s not. Right now I''m level 16, and I''m sure I can reach level 19 by the end of the day. If I can get 3 levels within a day, that mean that I''m still in the early stages when it''s easy to get stronger. That mean I''m still weak. I want to survive the trip to Toulouse, and I don''t think we have seen the strongest things a fantasy world can throw at us. I will keep my level up bonus for my intelligence and spirit, and I will raise my healing level by healing myself as well...¡± ¡°I think you''re exagerating, is what I would like to say, but I don''t want that statement to bit me in the ass later. But I also don''t want to feel that amount of pain again, I''m not that brave...¡± said Greg. ¡°I still think your pushing yourself too hard!¡± retorted Diane. ¡°You know, monsters aren''t the only problem we will face. You should already know that in times like now, people can become very wild or barbaric, because they know that the authorities won''t be able to punish them. We will probably have to deal with unfriendly humans. Also, the status and notification system isn''t from our world, but from the other. Now a question. Why would there be such a system if all the living beings of the other world weren''t smarter than common animals?¡± ¡°... In other words, there are living beings capable of speech, intelligents beings with a language, a culture, and probably the ability to make tools, and weapons... And we don''t really know how advanced they are... Though if it''s a basic fantasy world then it will be similar to the medieval times, more or less.¡± ¡°Isn''t it always the case?¡± ¡°No Diane, there are fantasy settings with some countries having advanced technology, enough to have flying ships and artillery as powerfull as what we have here, or more.¡± said Greg. ¡°That what I was talking about back then when I explained why there would be no rescue operations for us, when I mentioned hostile living beings. Monsters are rather easy to deal with, because their method of attack is usually simple and limited. But against intelligent enemies with possibly good weapons...¡± ¡°No way...¡± ¡°As a mage, I need to put most of my points in intelligence and spirit to raise my mana pool and magic efficiency, but I''ll also need a good constitution in case I get hit, so it won''t be a 1 hit kill. The moment I lose consciousness in tne middle of a battle is a moment that can seal my, our fate, because I''m the only healer and supporter we have. Diane, David, you got lucky that I gained my magic right before losing consciousness and not after, or we would have bled to death.¡± ¡°... You really though about it a lot, did you?¡± ¡°Yep! Whatever, let''s go. Sadira, find water!¡± ¡°Why are you asking her? No, nothing, never mind, I understand.¡± ------- Sadira led them back into the forest. On the way they had to deal with a few small groups of spiders, but they were quickly eliminated by the 3 attackers with the support of their mage. After nearly an hour, they arrived to a small river, no more than 6 meters wide and less than 2m deep in the middle. The water was quite clear and flowing at a good pace. Once they got close, after looking around for a bit, Erwin silently made his way toward Diane and used all his strenght to push her forward. After flailing in the air for a second, she fell in the cold water with a loud splash. She quickly regained her balance and violently turned her head toward the bank of the river with a dangerous glint in her eyes. Seeing David and Greg looking confusely between her and Erwin, she sent a viscious glare his way. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°... You bastard, what was that for?¡± she asked in a low tone. ¡°Oh no!! Now your clothes are wet!! Well, since they are already wet, no point in taking them off. You can just wash yourself with them on. Since you don''t need to take them of, we can stay around while you wash yourself and stand guard.¡± He said with an obviously fake surprised tone. ¡°It''s better than living you here alone in this dangerous forest because you wouldn''t want to be seen naked. Now feel free to clean yourself dear lady. You can brush yourself with the smooth stones lying at the bottom of the water.¡± ¡°... ¡­ Fine, I get your point. As thanks for the insight I will help you with your special constitution training EVERY evenings.¡± she replied with a very cold tone. Erwin visibly got pale hearing this, and the other guys just looked around like it was not their concern. Though Greg couldn''t help a smile from forming on his face. They each took turn washing themselves, though the guys could allow themselves to get in the water in underwear. ------- Erwin was the last to go, and as he left the water, Sadira emited a small screech. Through his small link with her he could tell that it was a warning sound, and told the other to raise their guard as he quickly put his clothes back on. Shortly after, small noise could be heard, getting closer. There were definitly many beings moving their way. They came into view several seconds later. They could be best described as a mix between a chimpanzee and a goblin, around 140cm tall. Dirty dark green skin and fur, face, ears and hands like a goblin, with yellow eyes, but the feet were closer to that of a monkey. They were armed with rudimentary clubs and spears made with wood and stone, and there were more than 2 dozen presentThey were ugly, with no tail, and naked, with their penises dangling around. They were ugly and naked, with their penises dangling around. Diane furrowed her brow at that sight, and it turned into a scared and murderous glare when some of them got hard seeing her and slowly moved her way with excitement on their faces. Erwin cast strenght and agility enhance on everyone, and ordered Sadira to stay next to Diane, while the little monsters were creeping closer. He then used as much mana as possible to debuff a maximum of them, the closest ones. That signaled the start of the battle. ¡°Whoaaa!!¡± ¡°What the fuck?¡± The little fuckers were fast! And they had decent strenght as well. They reacted the moment they felt the magic being cast on them. They got within striking distance at such a speed they were all surprised. David got stabbed in the arm and leg before he could react, and Erwin almost got hit by a thrown spear as he frantically defended. He quickly healed David as Greg tried to hold back the others guys, resulting in him receiving several wounds on his arm, leg and belly. Erwin couldn''t stay at the back this time and went to defend Greg while healing him. He had arms and legs guard, so he made full use of them to defend against the numerous and fast attacks heading his way. His presence at the frontlines lessened the burden on the others, and David and Greg recovered enough to resume the fight, but it was tedious. The little monsters were more used to handling their weapons than the humans. David, Greg Erwin and Diane had the advantage of weight, which disturbed the little monsters enough. Erwin used a large chunk of his mana once more to debuff the other monsters that were at the back. And it was just on time as some of them threw their spears at them. Due to the sudden loss of strenght and agility the moment they released their weapons, their aim went totally off and they hit their allies at the frontline. 2 of them died. Erwin shuddered when he realised how close it had been. The only one without much trouble was Sadira. She was the fastest among everything present, and put the little fuckers that went her way on the defensive, even piercing the flesh of some of them. Erwin truly felt proud of her at that time. Diane had it easier since they wanted to capture her, and were aiming at her arms and legs, which were slightly protected. They couldn''t aim for the tights and shoulders because she had the advantage in range. Or maybe she didn''t have it easier. Their lust filled faces and their erect dicks did nothing to keep her calm, and her movements were slowly becoming wilder, more frantic. She was strating to panic thinking of her possible future fate. Erwin noticed her growing panic, and couldn''t think of anything to calm her down. So he did the opposite. ¡°Damn, guys, we are really screwed.¡± ¡°You''ve got to be kidding me!¡± ¡°Nope. For this little fuckers to be so desperate they would lust after Diane, the world must really be screwed.¡± *SNAP!!!!* ****************************** AN: What was that snapping sound? Chapter 08 AN: Chapter 8, levels, skills and a new pet. ****************************** One of the little fuckers was about to slash Diane''s arm when her spear bruttaly came into contact with its head. Its eye got crushed as its cranium was fractured. The power of the blow reached the brain, causing lethal damage. The neck didn''t resist and snaped to the side as its body was flung against its companion. Both of them skidded on the ground 3m away from Diane. The others ugly creatures were surprised by the sudden development, and gave an opening noone of the 4 humans missed. David pierced the throat of the one in front of him and kicked the head of the guy who tried to retaliate, albeit a little to late. He was pushed backward and impaled against the spear of the one behind him. Greg slashed the 2 in front of him at the ankles with a sweep, crippling them. However, his makeshift spear broke. Erwin slashed at the face of the one who tried to stab him while he dodged the attack. The cut was on the forehead, and the amount of dark blood flowing out of the wound would blind him. Sadira stabbed the chest of one of the monster and bit the neck of the other. But the one who was fealing the most damage to the enemy was Diane. She was emitting an aura that intimidated the ugly creature. Her agility and strenght had slightly increased, and it was enough to give her a complete advantage over the little fuckers. And she went on a bloody rampage against them. She looked at them like absolute filth and didn''t hesitate to stomp on their balls and stab their dicks. Her 3 male teammates froze in horror at that sight, but she didn''t register it, she was solely focused on the ugly monsters. They had started to become hesitant, and Erwin, David and Greg pressed the attack. David, who was supposed to be the tank, was now acting as an attacker since most of the ugly bastards had their attention on the deadly woman they wanted to fuck earlier. However, instead of lustfull gazes, they had anxious, almost scared look in their eyes. Their end was a brutal one. ------- Once all the monsters got killed, Diane turned toward Erwin with an angry glint in her eyes. Erwin paled, and remembering what she did to the little ugly things he didn''t waste time to explain his actions. ¡°I saw you were starting to panic because you knew they wanted to rape you. Your movement were becoming wild and inefficient. However, I didn''t know what to say to calm you down or cheer you up in those conditions. Anger is more usefull than fear or so they say, so I decided to make you angry.¡± ¡°Anger is more usefull than fear? Didn''t you take this from Schwarzenegger in Terminator 3?¡± ¡°Nope! But now that I think about it, I wonder how action movies actors are doing, especially those who played in supernatural or fantasy movies... I digress, sorry.¡± ¡°... Well, thank you!¡± Her expression turned from angry to satisfied, though Erwin wasn''t sure if she had really calmed down. ¡°I gained the skill ''Furious will''. When in danger and angry, it raise my strenght and agility, and reduce my stamina consumption and pain perception. I can intimidate opponents with lower levels or lower spirit. I also gained the spear mastery skill.¡± ¡°Whoa!! 2 new battle skills well suited for an attacker! Congratulation!¡± ¡°I got 1 of them thanks to you, so yeah, thank you.¡± ¡°Actually, I also gained 2 skills, spear mastery and physical resistance, and just like the name suggest, it reduced damage from physical attacks.¡± ¡°And here we have someone who gained skills suited for a tank... I guess the 2 of us will have to suffer a lot every evening for a little while. What about you Greg?¡± ¡°... Nothing. But I gained 1 level!¡± ¡°I gained 2 levels!¡± said Diane ¡°... I got 1 level.¡± added David. ¡°... 1 level for me too. Sadira also gained a level. Well, we were buffed, they were cursed, and yet we could barely keep up. They were strong. Good thing their equipments and skills were rather poor. And I''m sure they weren''t the strongest of their race. Same with the spiders, I don''t think we''ve seen the strongest ones.¡± ¡°Aren''t you too pessimistic? ¡­ The worst part is that it''s probably not wrong¡± said David. ¡°It''s still morning, not even 9. Let''s rest a bit, then we will hunt spiders until the end of the afternoon. They are the weakest monsters, but they should be able to give us 2 or maybe 3 more levels today.¡± After putting Sadira''s bonus points in intelligence, Erwin started to decapitate the ugly monsters. ¡°What the fuck are you doing?¡± ¡°If you''re moving somewhere and you see human heads on a spike, would you still move forward or go in another direction? Of course you would go in another direction. And I want these little fuckers to do the same. I don''t want them near this part of the forest where we get our water, I don''t want them to ambush us here. So I''m going to do something barbaric to scare them away from here.¡± ¡°That''s just crazy¡± said Greg. ¡°Young man, I think everything that happened to us these past few days is getting to your head. There is no need to do something like that, we are not monsters.¡± ¡°No, we aren''t. But we are surrounded by monsters. And this is something monsters understand best. These little fuckers are probably the most dangerous creatures for us here, and I want them to think twice before trying to mess with us again, I want them to fear us. At least that will buy us time to get stronger before they decide to go after the ones who killed nearly 30 of their kins. If you don''t like it, don''t do it and don''t watch.¡± ¡°It will protect my pussy from those filthy creatures, so I''ll help.¡± David and Greg couldn''t do anything to change their minds so they stayed at a distance. After finishing the gruesome task, they rested for 20min before going toward the area where they first came in the forest. Both Erwin and Diane gained a title from their gruesome work.
Title gained: Barbarian Attacks with primitive weapons deal more damage, slight increase in chances to intimidate an opponent of similar or lower level
------- They spent several hours hunting the spiders. At a certain moment, as Erwin gave the final strike to a spider, he felt his makeshift blade touch something hard, something which reminded him of the rainbow crystal flower. He cut open the corpse of the spider, under the disaproving and disgusted face of David and Greg, and pulled out something. It was a small, dark green crystalin orb, and after observing it for a bit, he noticed the tiny amount of mana present in it. ¡°What is this thing?¡± asked Greg. ¡°... It''s a monster core...¡± ¡°A monster core?¡± ¡°Yes. In some fantasy settings, monsters are magical creatures who live thanks to their core. The core is like a mana battery that sustain them, a vital part of their bodies just like the heart and the brain. I killed the crystal flower by breaking its core. Monster cores contain mana, the stronger the monster is, the more mana the core contains. They are used to power up enchanted weapons, armors or other various tools, or used in alchemy. I''ll collect them, they might be usefull later.¡± They continued to hunt spiders, and Erwin would collect the cores after each battle. They took a break at noon, and continued to hunt in the afternoon, also going after the carnivorous plants they would find. Halfway through the hunt, Greg gained the spear mastery skill. They went back to their base near the end of the afternoon. Since they had hunted a lot of monsters, despite the little experience they gave, everyone was able to gain 2 levels, 3 for Greg. But they also had to search for preys a lot, so at the end of the day they were all quite tired. ------- Still, Erwin decided to leave the base for a bit alone, under the pretext of a serious call of nature. The true reason was to bait one of those red panthers and tame it. Since himself and Sadira had leveled up, he was worried the panthers would avoid him if he wasn''t alone. He cut himself to bleed a bit and wandered cautiously in the ruin filled area. Within 30min,, he effectively attracted a beast, and thanks to his preparadness he avoided death. He was moving around with his armored arm on the back of his neck, thus, when the beast attackd him from behind it didn''t manage to go after his neck. Beside, he regulary casted agility and strenght enhancement on himself, so he wasn''t overpowered by the beast. After the initial attack, Erwin quickly turned o the side while repulsing the beast with his now injured arm, and casted the strenght and agility decrease on it. Then he attacked with his functional arm and occasional kicks, his injured arm used for defense. He first attacked the neck and the head, to suddenly go after the legs. The beast was too surprised to dodge, and with it''s front leg injured it couldn''t move fast enough to prevent Erwin from moving to its back and striking the rear legs as well. Once the beast got down, Erwin released his weapon and beat it up before activating his contractor skill. Thanks to his experience with Sadira he knew he had to impose his will on it. That was why he beat it up before, and using his determination to survive and reach his home, he managed to make the red beast submit to him.
Contract successful Scarlet Wildcat has become your faithfull servant
NAME:-RACE:Scarlet wildcat
AGE:3GENDER:Male
LEVEL:14BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
-
LIFE:128 / 327REGEN RATE:43%
STAMINA:278 / 322REGEN RATE:69%
MANA:180 / 180REGEN RATE:87%
STRENGHT:40CONSTITUTION:50
AGILITY:57DEXTERITY:55
INTELLIGENCE:23SPIRIT:27
WISDOM:15CHARISMA:23
FIRE:08/10WATER:00/00
EARTH:06/00AIR:02/00
LIGHT:03/00DARKNESS:03/03
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(11%) - Illness(7%)
-
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
TrackingPassive16
SoutingPassive12
SneakingPassive17
SurvivalPassive18
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
¡°A guy eh... and a scarlet wildcat, with affinity to fire... I know, from now on your name will be Ras, like the red giant from Hercules constellation.¡± Same as for Sadira, his status changed when he was given that name. ''You have some very interesting skills, they will be very usefull for our travel. It''s getting late and I''m very tired, better get back.'' After healing the both of them, they went back to the base. On the way, he briefly stopped and looked toward where the center of the town should be. He had the feeling that there was something there.
Skill aquired: Perception Raise your sensitivity, your chances to notice particulr things and detect danger
-------
NAME:Erwin RusselRACE:Human
AGE:18GENDER:Male
LEVEL:19BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
¡°Boss killer¡±, "Healer", "Barbarian"
LIFE:266/ 266REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:263/ 263REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:422/ 422REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:38CONSTITUTION:44
AGILITY:48DEXTERITY:57
INTELLIGENCE:70SPIRIT:65
WISDOM:44CHARISMA:47
FIRE:15/00WATER:15/20
EARTH:15/20AIR:15/00
LIGHT:15/00DARKNESS:15/00
ARCANE:15/00CHAOS:15/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(0%) - Illness(2%)
-
CONTRACTED SERVANTSTYPELEVEL
SadiraSpider17
RasWildcat14
TRAITS
Rainbow magic
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
HealingActive03
DetoxificationActive01
Enhance: strenghtActive05
Enhance: agilityActive05
Decrease: strenghtActive07
Decrease: agilityActive07
Mana sensePassive04
Crude equipment craftingPassive01
ParkourPassive03
LinguisticPassive14
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
ContractorActive02
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
NAME:SadiraRACE:Gamora spider
AGE:2GENDER:Female
LEVEL:17BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
¡°Erwin Russel''s first servant¡±
LIFE:228/ 228REGEN RATE:83%
STAMINA:160 / 223REGEN RATE:69%
MANA:100 / 100REGEN RATE:47%
STRENGHT:31CONSTITUTION:43
AGILITY:70DEXTERITY:62
INTELLIGENCE:32SPIRIT:18
WISDOM:17CHARISMA:13
FIRE:00/-15WATER:13/00
EARTH:09/00AIR:00/00
LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:07/11
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(31%) - Illness(18%)
-
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
Poisonous biteActive07
Thread generationActive08
SneakingPassive01
SurvivalPassive14
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
NAME:Diane BeaumontRACE:Human
AGE:20GENDER:Female
LEVEL:16BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
"Barbarian"
LIFE:304/304REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:308/308REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:222/222REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:65CONSTITUTION:53
AGILITY:61DEXTERITY:51
INTELLIGENCE:47SPIRIT:39
WISDOM:38CHARISMA:37
FIRE:01/00WATER:00/00
EARTH:00/00AIR:00/00
LIGHT:03/00DARKNESS:00/00
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(0%) - Illness(0%)
-
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
Furious willActive01
Spear masteryPassive02
AthletismPassive07
ClimbingPassive01
NursingPassive01
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
NAME:David GeraultRACE:Human
AGE:29GENDER:Male
LEVEL:14BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
-
LIFE:299/299REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:296/296REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:201/201REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:58CONSTITUTION:67
AGILITY:43DEXTERITY:42
INTELLIGENCE:37SPIRIT:46
WISDOM:41CHARISMA:33
FIRE:00/00WATER:02/00
EARTH:03/02AIR:00/00
LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:00/00
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(7%) - Illness(5%)
-
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
Spear masteryPassive02
Physical resistancePassive01
ClimbingPassive01
OrientationPassive05
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
NAME:Greg MoutonRACE:Human
AGE:25GENDER:Male
LEVEL:14BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
-
LIFE:225/225REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:225/225REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:202/202REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:47CONSTITUTION:49
AGILITY:49DEXTERITY:46
INTELLIGENCE:50SPIRIT:40
WISDOM:42CHARISMA:48
FIRE:00/00WATER:00/00
EARTH:00/00AIR:00/00
LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:00/00
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(3%) - Illness(11%)
-
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
Spear masteryPassive02
ClimbingPassive01
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
****************************** AN: What lies at the center of the ruined town? Find out... some time in the future... ... Chapter 09 AN: Chapter 9, shopping. ****************************** ¡°I''m back!¡± ¡°Where the hell have you been? We were worried you know?¡± said Diane as Erwin appeared at the entrance. ¡°I wanted a cat!¡± Then they looked at the red beast that appeared from behind him and stopped at his side. ¡°His name is Ras, a scarlet wildcat. Ok, listen. I wanted to tame one of them since I first discovered them. It''s not that I don''t like you guys, however we have gotten stronger. Animals have better instinct that men, they would have kept their distance from a group. That''s why I went alone. I was sure you wouldn''t want to leave me alone, so I lied. And as I''ve said before, I can take care of myself in this area.¡± ¡°Still, you should have explained instead of keeping it to yourself. We wouldn''t have minded that much.¡± said David. ¡°Well, don''t mind it David. As punishment, I will take care of his special training to raise his constitution¡± she said with a smile that reached her eyes, but not in a reassuring way. She took her spear and advanced toward him. Erwin paled, then resigned himself and told his pets to stand back as Diane dragged him by the neck into an empty room. That evening he emptied his mana solely for healing. The next day, he had gained 3 points in constitution and a level in healing. Diane gained a level in spear mastery. ------- ¡°Everyone, for today, the 3 of you will be hunting on your own.¡± ¡°Why is that?¡± ¡°Is it because of Diane''s care yesterday?¡± asked Greg with a grin on his face. ¡°Nope. It''s because with 5 or 6 people in the group we won''t gain enough experience. Yesterday we were able to gain up to 2 level with 5 persons. If we want to gain a single level today, we must use smaller groups. Besides, the population of spiders has diminished, meaning less kills for each of us. I have a rough idea about the positions of the territories of the differents species we encountered. Between the south and west of our position is the spider''s territory. I guess that between the south and the east is the wildcats territory. Between the west and the north, there should be the little fuckers. It is just an estimate. And the power of the individuals may vary in certain areas.¡± ¡°So you suggest us to hunt around the south-west area so we can hunt spiders and wildcats?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What about you?¡± asked Diane. ¡°I will explore the outer layer of the ruined town, from the north-west to the south-west passing by the west. I''m wary of the center, I don''t want to go there yet. Also, I have the ''crude equipment crafting'' skill. I want to retrieve as many tools and materials I can to make better equipment. And I will probably find more usefull things.¡± ¡°I see. It''s a nice idea. But why are you wary of the center?¡± asked Greg. ¡°I can feel that there is something there, my intuition tell me that, and probably because of my mana sense as well.¡± ¡°Then we shall avoid it as well¡± he replied in a somewhat hurried fashion. ¡°I will start with the northern area this morning, make a break at noon here at the base, then do the southern area in the afternoon and be back before dusk.¡± ¡°Ok. Then, Diane, Greg, let''s go. See you tonight.¡± ¡°Be carefull.¡± ¡°It''s you guys who should be carefull, you won''t have any support magic nor any healing.¡± ------- When they left, Erwin got a look at the content of his backpack. There were some important papers, a notebook, his laptop which seemed damaged but not ruined, his 3DS, and the remains of the crystal flower. Those were his remaining personal possessions, along with the clothes he was wearing and his phone in his pocket. Ever since the world fusion, there had been no signal available, so he had turned it off, only checking it twice a day to save some battery. What he needed were tools and materials to improve their current equipment or make something new. He was going to look for the ruins of hardware stores and garages, others stores dealing with crafting materials and tools. With that he would look for protective clothing. He also wanted all kinds of cleaning products. Another building he wanted to find was the police station, and with luck, some guns inside. Food and water were no longer much of a problem, so he could take care of it later. He put his possessions in a ruined drawer in the base, put the empty backpack on and left with his 2 pets to look for his targets building while moving north. On the way, he noticed that he didn''t find any car wreckages. In fact, there were barely any pieces of roads and sidewalks, just ruined buildings. He took notice of several places with materials and tools he could take, but he realised that moving everything would be annoying. He needed some kind of cart or trolley. He found 2 shopping trolley and a travel backpack. I filled one trolley with all the manual tools I found, and the other with the few battery powered devices I could get my hands on. The travel backpack was filled with cleaning products and the normal one with diverse fastening and binding tools. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He carried his backpack at the front, the travel packpack at the back, and a trolley in each hand. 3 hours after he left, he was back in the base, tired despite using buffs on himself. He placed everything in the ruined room where he left his possessions and took a good break. An hour later he went out again, and came back 2 hours later with whatever protective clothes and tailoring tools and material he could find. It was around 2 in the afternoon when he started to think about what to do with everything he found. He made a harness with big pockets so Ras could carry things as well, then he left, this time to get materials. It was a lot harder than he expected since he was looking for good metal pieces. Around 4 in the afternoon, while exploring the south-west area, he found a garage with a lot of usable materials and tools, and most importantly, a blowtorch. Erwin decided that this place would be his workshop. He emptied his bag there and went back to the base, not without getting some food on the way. ------- ¡°Welcome back. How was your shopping day?¡± asked David. He smiled and led them to the room where he put all the things he retrieved. ¡°Whoaa, you found a lot of things.¡± said Greg. ¡°And we''re going to move almost everything here to another place tomorrow morning. I found a nice workplace around 45min away from here.¡± ¡°Then why not just move the base there?¡± ¡°No Diane. There is a chance to attract something there due to the noises and the smell. Thinking of smell, some of this products are to be scattered in the area to cover our scent. Remember ''I am legend'' when Will Smith sprayed some liquid at his door steps.¡± ¡°Are you some kind of survival expert or something?¡± asked Diane in a slightly mocking tone. ¡°Nope. You know, many movies, books or even games depict world-changing events, be it natural disaster, human mistakes, aliens or supernatural events. We know those things are fictions, but some people ask themselves ''what if it really happens? How to survive?''. Those people ask experts in various field how things would most likely happen in reality, and how to prepare themselves for that. Some documentaries were made for things like survival in zombie apocalypse. I''ve seen some of those documentaries about things that most deem unlikely or impossible. And you know what, some of them make you realise that the world is full of incredible things. Long ago, some people in southern america said that the end of the world would be in 2012, however some experts found out that the right year could be 2015. And here we are in summer 2015, with the aftermath of a dimensional disaster in our hands.¡± ¡°¡°¡°...¡±¡±¡± ¡°It doesn''t sound that crazy anymore right? It made me want to both laugh and cry.¡± ¡­ ¡°Enough about about that, how was your day?¡± ¡°We all gained 2 levels, including in our spear mastery skills, and I gained a level in my physical resistance skill. Fighting without you is a pain in the ass.¡± ¡°Too bad for you, cause I''ll be spending the whole day in my workplace tomorrow. As for you, you can either continue to hunt in the forest or explore the ruins while looking for usefull things. If you chose the second option, let me remind you to stay away from the center. In fact, you should just do that. Explore the ruin while I make better weapons and protective gear for us.¡± ¡°Are you that good with your hands?¡± asked Greg. ¡°More than the average citizen. I''m familiar with the DIY. So is my guardian, who is an engineer.¡± ¡°Then we will leave it to you.¡± ¡°Now, David, let''s suffer together tonight at the hands of our comrades. All for the sake of surviving the days to come.¡± ¡°... Nah, I''ll pass.¡± ¡°... If you say so. Well, Diane, you up for this?¡± ¡°Not tonight, fighting without you was tiring.¡± After eating, they all went to sleep. All except Erwin. He was observing each of the monster cores he retrieved the day before, focusing on the mana inside of them. He also tried to move his own mana at will. Unless he cast a spell, he still didn''t achieve that. He though that, maybe, his mana perception wasn''t high enough. After all, there were 8 elements and he couldn''t differentiate them yet. ****************************** AN: ... Chapter 10 AN: Chapter 10, "Hammer time!!" ****************************** The next day, Erwin''s mana sense had reached level 6. But he still couldn''t tell the difference between the elements. He decided to leave aside as he had other things to do for the day. After eating their breakfasts, they moved all the tools, items and materials Erwin had gathered to the garage. ¡°You know, you suggested us to explore the town while you work on the equipment, but before that I think we should gather a lot of water from the river with jerrycans or other big containers and store it, so we can avoid going to the river too much. We should do that while the... ''little fckers'' like you call them, decide to come back¡± said David. ¡°A pretty good idea¡± replied Diane. ¡°Before you leave, you can already take these¡± said Erwin as he handed them a machete each. ¡°I''ll try to make some kind of seath for them later.¡± ¡°Thanks. What else do you intend to make?¡± ¡°David, you''re our defender, you need armor. I''m not talking about chainmail or full plate armor, I will reinforce some clothing with metal and other materials to protect the vitals. Also, when you''re done with the water you should look for a bike helmet, I will reinforce it later. I will also try to make a shield for you. For Diane and Greg, reinforced clothing. Once you start exploring the town, go toward the north north-east, around 1h away from the base, and look for sport stores for shin guards and elbow pads, and head protector used in martial arts. I didn''t have enough room yesterday, I also forgot to look for sturdy working boots so search for some of your size. If you can, look for a police station, for guns, and for anything we might have forgotten now.¡± ¡°We will take care of it. I look forward to what you will make for us, also, my spear suck¡± said Diane. ¡°Of course I intend make better weapons!! And some protection for my pets, yes.¡± ¡°Well, looks like you will be very busy. We will leave you now, see you later!¡± ¡°Take care.¡± ------- Erwin told his pet to stand guard at the entrance, and started to organise everything he had gathered. The manual tools on one side, the battery powered ones next, the glues and adhesive products on another place, the things to be dismanteled here, and the things that would be reinforced there, and so on. Then he carefully analysed the blowtorch, looking for any kind of damage. Satisfied with what he saw, he tested it... from behind a cover, using a makeshift plier with a 4m long handle. Since there were no problems with the tools, he started to work on the equipment, and to make things easier he buffed himself. The new spears were the easiest to make, since he found a lot of bladed object and sturdy poles in the ruins. The ones he made for Diane and Greg were very sharp and longer than what they had been using until now. The one for David was a bit shorter and heavier, with a longer blade. He also made a long and thin spear for himself, since he should avoid getting close to his opponents. The makeshift blade he used was heartlessly discarded. Then he started to think about the protective gear for David. Even if he was a healer, there were still things magic couldn''t do. He could mend cuts and broken bones, but there was probably nothing he could do about a severed limb. Some injuries could instantly put someone out of combat even if they weren''t life-threatening, and some others would lead to certain death, instantly or not. To avoid certain death, the head, the heart and the neck must be protected. If the limbs and the joints are damaged, the battle ability will seriously decrease, and that can lead to defeat. A strike to the crotch will lead to defeat as well. Using the blowtorch, he cut some spare parts of carbody from the garage in strips of specific lengh, then pierced them. Afterward he bent them in specific shapes. He wanted to do something similar to a roman legionnaire armor.
Skill aquired: Mathematics You can make faster and more complex calculations
He used twice the amount of metal strip necessary to double the thickness of the armor, triple thickness around the chest and the spine. However, for the neck protector he would have to wait for David to come back with the bike helmet. He did the same for Diane and Greg, but without increasing the thickness of the plates and they were completely sleeveless, since they were the agile kind of attackers. The interiors were padded with strips of protective clothing. He used strong glues to put everything together. The strings to open and close the armor were on the sides, and all strings used to keep the differents parts in place were well hidden from view and harm when the armor was fastened. The size wasn''t a problem since he was already familiar with the build of his travel companion.
You have gained the Crafter title The things you make will be better, and learning related skills will be easier
He had just finished the third armor and was taking a break when the guys came back. ¡°We brough you presents¡± said Greg as he came in. ¡°So, how was your... day? You''ve got to be kidding me, did you seriously make these? Whoa...¡± ¡°I think the presents I have for you are better than the presents you''ve got for me. David, Diane, try these. This one is for you Greg.¡± ¡°No way, you really made armor? I''m wondering just how good you are with your hands.¡± said Diane. ¡°... You do know that what you just said can be taken the wrong way, right?¡± asked Greg. ¡°But I''m sure you guys are smart enough to take it the right way!¡± she replied with a bright smile. While the 2 were bantering, David put the armor on. ¡°It is nicely done. It''s a little troublesome when trying to raise my hands high, but it probably won''t be much of a problem. It feels really sturdy.¡± ¡°But it''s still crude. And here I though you would make me a revealing, sexy armor like in tv and video games, I''m disappointed.¡± ¡°Hahaha, I would love to, unfortunatly, boob armors are death traps. But you know, there is the saying ''the best defence is offense''. In that case, this saying applies as well: ''the best armor is no armor''! Fighting in the nude will save your life. Worry not for we are here to watch your back. Carefully.¡± The 3 guys chuckled a little, then went back to testing the new armor and weapons. Meanwhile, Erwin took a look at the things they had brough back. There were the shin guards, elbow pad, knee pads, boots, and the bike helmet. They also got medical supplies from a pharmacy. Since it was already late in the afternoon, he decided to stop crafting for the day and looked at his status. His ''crude equipment crafting'' skill had gained 4 levels and he gained 3 points in dexterity. Sine he buffed himself during the whole crafting session he gained a level in ''agility'' and ''strenght enhance''. Most important things, is that he gained a level from crafting. He realised that it wasn''t necessary to fight to level up, a very important things in this dangerous world. After sharing his discovery, he decided to put the bonus points in dexterity. ------- Since he got some free time, he decided to use it to increase his mana sense, so he decided to take a stroll with his pets at the outskirts of the ruined town, while the others went back to the base. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. He switched between trying to feel the mana in the air, in the forest, in the town, in the mana core, and finally within himself while casting buffs and debuffs on himself and his pets. He would even order Sadira to poison him and Ras so he could use detoxification and healing magic. He gained a level in detoxification magic, and surprisingly, 3 more in mana sense. The fact that he switched his focus between very differents sources of mana and moving mana was probably the cause. This continued until night. After another grinding session with Diane, he healed himself one last time and went to bed. Just before sleeping, on a whim, he tried to move his mana again, and he felt a difference. He cast agility enhance on himself and noticed something. The mana consummed was slightly different from what he used to feel. While concentrating on his mana more, he noticed many differences, 8 in total, as many as the differents magic elements. He cast strenght decrease on himself, and this time it was a mana different from the one used for the buff. He assumed the first one was mana with the light element, and the other, mana with the darkness element. He also noticed that the elements didn''t move the same way. Remembering the feeling, he tried to move the dark mana.
You have gained a new skill: Mana manipulation
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NAME:Erwin RusselRACE:Human
AGE:18GENDER:Male
LEVEL:20BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
¡°Boss killer¡±, "Healer", "Barbarian", "Crafter"
LIFE:298/298REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:295/295REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:445/445REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:40CONSTITUTION:47
AGILITY:48DEXTERITY:60
INTELLIGENCE:70SPIRIT:65
WISDOM:47CHARISMA:48
FIRE:15/01WATER:15/20
EARTH:15/20AIR:15/00
LIGHT:15/00DARKNESS:15/00
ARCANE:15/00CHAOS:15/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(0%) - Illness(2%)
-
CONTRACTED SERVANTSTYPELEVEL
SadiraSpider17
RasWildcat14
TRAITS
Rainbow magic
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
HealingActive04
DetoxificationActive02
Enhance: strenghtActive07
Enhance: agilityActive07
Decrease: strenghtActive06
Decrease: agilityActive06
Mana manipulationActive01
Mana sensePassive10
Crude equipment craftingPassive05
ParkourPassive04
LinguisticPassive14
MathematicsPassive09
PerceptionPassive03
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
ContractorActive02
****************************** AN: Experimenting with magic, who can resist it? And Erwin has an advantage in this field!! Chapter 11 AN: Chapter 11, Radio. Sorry for the delay --I realised that, considering what I had in mind when I first started writing this story, the characters should have gained more skills than that (and some titles). I made some modifications in the previous chapters to add the said skills. I also added wisdom and charisma attributes in the status screen, and reduced the amount of life, mana and stamina gained each level. No need to check the previous chapters since there was no change in the events, just wait for the next time when I''ll show the statuses. ******************************
You have gained a new skill: Mana manipulation
''¡­ I see, up until now I was using the spells without really knowing how they were made, how they worked. The tricky parts were probably done unconsciously or by reflex. I made a big progress in magic today! I even gained 2 new points in wisdom. Tomorrow, once I''m done with crafting I will train my magic. But it''s troublesome, while I''m taining and crafting, Sadira and Ras don''t do anything. Should I order them to support the other 3 in their hunts? I could have Sadira work on weaving her web. As for Ras, I guess he would make both a good scout and an attacker. I can have him guard th other 3. I wonder if I can asl them to hunt on their own? No, Ras intelligence is still too low to work efficiently with Sadira. And I''m afraid they''ll egt in trouble with injuries without me. I''ll think more about it tomorrow...'' The next day, he got surprised by what Greg said. ¡°We should try to climb up the cliff from where we came from.¡± ¡°What? Why?¡± ¡°Ah, we forgot to tell you yesterday, but we tried to get something out of a radio that looked functional, but didn''t get anything¡± said Diane. Erwin facepalmed loudly. Because there was no network available on his phone, he believed that there was no long range communication available. He forgot that even though he couldn''t contact people from his side, he still could get infos from around the world by listening to the radio. When he was salvaging things, he completely disregarded them. ¡°... What the fucking hell... I feel really retarted right now, I want to hide...¡± ¡°We understand how you feel, we felt the same yesterday when we tried the radio. We forgot to mention it because we didn''t get anything out of it. We believe it''s because we''re here in this magical forest that we can''t get anything, that maybe the magic hinder the reception.¡± said David. ¡°I see. I think it''s a reasonable idea, however I''m still worried. That cliff is very high. Besides, if the problem comes from the forest, we will probably need to get some distance away from it, and I''m worried we will cross path with those dreadfull insects once more... Well, you should continue thinking about it. Today I''ll finish with the crafting, then try to have Ras gain another level so I can raise his intelligence.¡± ¡°We will try to get some climbing gears and whatever could help us climb that cliff¡± said Greg. ¡°Once that''s done we should probably plan for a 2 days trip, 1 to get far enough from the forest and try the radio, and another to come back.¡± ¡°Fine with me. Just tell me when you''re ready. Ah, thinking about magic, yesterday I gained the magic manipulation skill.¡± ¡°Eh? Hey, when you cast a spell, doesn''t that mean that you manipulate the magic?¡± ¡°What I did before, was... something like a subconscious action, using something without knowing how it worked. Well, I got some insight about magic. You see, to use magic, you must first be able to sense mana. Once your mana sense reaches level 10 or so, you should be able to sense the differents elements. And from here, you should be able to learn how to manipulate it. Of course, I believe that the elemental affinity comes into play for sensing an element and manipulating it. I believe a minumum affinity is needed. When I gained the abilities from the flower, the system message told me that I had gained basic affinity for the elements, which is 15. I believe it''s the minimum necessary. As to how to raise one''s afinity toward an element, I can only guess. I don''t even know if it''s possible.¡± ¡°Eh, magic... I really want to learn some! I want to launch some fireballs at the monsters¡± said Diane. ¡°Magic is usually quite time consumming to learn in fantasy stories. Learning to sense and manipulate the mana must involve a fair share of meditation. If one must raise his or her affinity to an element first, it would mean even more work. A lot of time would be used before you would be able to properly cast your first, weak spell. You don''t need that much time to learn to use a weapon enough to kill a weak monster. Thus you can start to earn money earlier, while the mage must have some money to sustain himself during the time he spend just learning to move mana¡± said Greg. ¡°That''s one of the reasons why learning magic is more expensive than learning how to use weapons. Do you have the patience and the funds necessary? I don''t think so.¡± ¡°... I can still dream right? And who knows, maybe I have talent...¡± ¡°Forget it, it''s not your thing. I think it fits Erwin well, since he is more of... an indoor person.¡±. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.¡°Why don''t you just say that mages and nerds fit each other?¡± she said while smirking. Erwin ignored them and left to work. At the beginning of the afternoon he was done with the equipment and went to hunt with his 2 pets. It was mainly for Ras. He gained a level and his intelligence was raised to 27. Erwin raised his mana sense to level 12 and mana manipulation to level 7. David, Diane and Greg explored th forest a bit more and each gained a level fighting against the scarlet wildcats. The next day they got some equipment for rock climbing and trained a bit at the cliff. They also used that time to secure the path they would use up and down by using anchors. This way, they would have an easier time when they would leave to try and get informations through the radio. That would also raise the level of their climbing skill. That day, they secured half of the distance, and the following day the secured the other half. They also gained a few points in strenght and constitution. However, Erwin wouldn''t be able to take his 2 pets with him over the cliff. At least it would be impossible without further preparations, and since it would be a small trip there was no need to take them. Also, with their intelligence, Sadira and Ras got used to hunt together under Erwin''s guidance, with Ras launching a surprise attack first and Sadira sneaking in the back to deal a critical strike. Their intelligence allowed them to learn, which in turn raised their wisdom. Erwin was sure they could survive 2 days without him. They left the next day in the morning, climbed up the cliff, and moved away from the forest for half of the day. Then they stopped and started the radios. To be sure they wouldn''t miss out on something, they took 3 radios that seemed to work. With David and Diane keeping an eye on the surroundings, Erwin and Greg trifled with the radios. They tried the news stations and the emergency frequencies, then other radio stations. The radios weren''t the best quality ones, the reception was really bad but they were able to get something. It was the chaos everywhere around the world. France was in physically in pieces, and some parts were at war with other factions from the other world. While the french government was still alive and struggling, the spanish government was no more. Germany seemed to be in a better state than France, but british were truly on the verge of collapse. Belgium lost half of its territory to dangerous monsters, but they seemed to keep to their territory. Switzerlands was ravaged by volcanic activity and earthquakes. On the other continents, the USA were in contact with 2 differents kingdoms from the other world and were almost at war with them. China was in complete chaos along with India. The most surprising news was that Japan was almost completely gone. People estimated that 90% of the japanes population there had died. Finally, it was confirmed that there were fantasy races such as dwarves, elves, demons, beastmen, and a few others. France was curently at war with demon clans. The 4 also got the confirmation that Toulouse still existed, but it was one of the city at the frontline of the war against the demon clans. They all had acquitances, friends and families there, so knowing that war was upon them made their hearts sink. After learning all they could, they stayed silent for the rest of the day. They didn''t talk much that evening and went to sleep with their chest heavy. The next day, they had a little talk before going back to the forest. ¡°I though we should stay in the forest to get stronger for the travel, but I wasn''t really expecting to spend a lot of time there. But since it''s been confirmed that the country is at war, it means that we will most likely encounter demon soldiers on the way. They won''t be just normal citizens that had to fight their way, they will be trained and experienced fighters and killers. We don''t know what happens to prisoners, if they take any, nor what happens to non-fighters. I say we must conquer the forest before heading toward Toulouse. That is if you still want to go there. I still want to go there, I want to confirm wether my gardian is still there or not, he is the only family I have.¡± ¡°... I don''t know. Fighting to survive in the wilderness is different from fighting in a war, because it''s most likely to happen if we go there. I can''t do it. I''m just a bus driver. Dealing with the little fuckers was already scary enough. But demons? I''m not going to a place where hostile demons lies. I will stay with you until we find a french town, but after that I''m leaving. Sorry about that Erwin.¡± ¡°Don''t be, it''s fine.¡± ¡°I''m the same as David¡± said Greg ¡°After everything we went through, and everything we will have to go through, I certainly won''t push my luck and go into a warring area. I will leave with David.¡± ¡°My parents live in Toulouse. Not only them, but my uncle and my godfather as well... So I guess I''ll have to stick with you.¡± ¡°Yeah... Well, let''s go. There is still a long way to go.¡± The others nodded and they all left for the forest. ****************************** AN: Now the title of the fiction is truly justified. Chapter 12 AN: Been a while. Here is the new chapter: Dungeon. Enjoy. ***************************** After getting back to their base in the ruined forest, the group started to train more seriously. While they were away Sadira and Ras gained a level each. Erwin put all points in intelligence for Ras and dexterity for Sadira. Erwin spent half of his days training his magic skills while the other sparred and trained their martial skills. There were 2 against one battles. The solo side would get buffed while the duo side would have one of the members debuffed. There would also be one-on-one battle with one side buffed and the other debuffed. Greg though it was good to experience being at disadvantage in strenght and speed against an opponent. Thanks to those sparring sessions, their weapon skills grew at a good speed. They learned to deal with multiple opponent of human intelligence, and they also learned to cooperate with each others, getting used to each other'' fighting style. And because they have differents fighting styles, they also got used to differents kinds of enemies. David was the tank type relying on defense and power, Diane the attacker type relying on strenght and agility, and Greg the sneaky type using hit-and-run tactics. As for the pets, when Erwin and the others were training, Sadira was traning in using her web. Erwin wanted her to be able to quickly make some traps with her thread or quickly bind a target. He wanted her to be good at using her threads. As for Ras, he would sometimes join Diane, David and Greg for sparing. The others 3 got used to fight strong and agile beasts while Ras got used to fight armed humanoid opponents. After the training in the morning, they hunted in the afternoon. However they hunted in groups of 2, changing teams everydays except for the 2 pets who always hunted together. Erwin taugh Ras to scout and Sadira to launch sneak attack when Ras engaged the prey, so they were getting used to their respectives roles. Erwin gathered a lot of magic stones from the defeated monsters. This life style lasted for 10 days. During their hunts they slowly advanced towards the areas of the forest with stronger spiders or wildcats. There were also a few encounters with the little fuckers, who started to be more active. At the end of those 10 days they all gained 7 levels, 8 for Ras. Spoiler :
NAME:Erwin RusselRACE:Human
AGE:18GENDER:Male
LEVEL:27BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
¡°Boss killer¡±, ¡°Healer¡±, ¡°Barbarian¡±, ¡°Crafter¡±, ¡°Mage¡±
LIFE:308/308REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:328/328REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:440/440REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:44CONSTITUTION:55
AGILITY:57DEXTERITY:65
INTELLIGENCE:70SPIRIT:75
WISDOM:53CHARISMA:50
FIRE:15/01WATER:16/20
EARTH:16/20AIR:15/00
LIGHT:15/00DARKNESS:15/00
ARCANE:15/00CHAOS:15/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(10%) - Illness(4%)
-
CONTRACTED SERVANTSTYPELEVEL
SadiraSpider25
RasWildcat23
TRAITS
Rainbow magic
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
SwordPassive03
HealingActive08
DetoxificationActive07
Enhance: strenghtActive11
Enhance: agilityActive11
Decrease: strenghtActive13
Decrease: agilityActive13
Mana manipulationActive10
Mana sensePassive12
Crude equipment craftingPassive07
ParkourPassive07
ClimningPassive05
LinguisticPassive14
MathematicsPassive09
PerceptionPassive05
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
ContractorActive02
NAME:SadiraRACE:Gamora spider
AGE:2GENDER:Female
LEVEL:25BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
¡°Erwin Russel''s first servant¡±
LIFE:264/264REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:236/236REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:140/140REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:36CONSTITUTION:48
AGILITY:85DEXTERITY:75
INTELLIGENCE:30SPIRIT:20
WISDOM:26CHARISMA:17
FIRE:00/-15WATER:13/02
EARTH:09/01AIR:00/00
LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:09/11
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(31%) - Illness(18%)
-
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
Poisonous biteActive11
Thread generationActive12
SneakingPassive09
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
NAME:RasRACE:Scarlet wildcat
AGE:3GENDER:Male
LEVEL:23BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
-
LIFE:334/334REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:305/305REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:180 / 180REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:49CONSTITUTION:59
AGILITY:66DEXTERITY:64
INTELLIGENCE:30SPIRIT:30
WISDOM:20CHARISMA:24
FIRE:08/10WATER:00/00
EARTH:06/00AIR:02/00
LIGHT:03/00DARKNESS:03/03
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(11%) - Illness(7%)
-
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
TrackingPassive26
ScoutingPassive09
SneakingPassive16
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
NAME:Diane BeaumontRACE:Human
AGE:20GENDER:Female
LEVEL:23BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
¡°Barbarian¡±
LIFE:398/398REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:380/380REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:266/266REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:79CONSTITUTION:60
AGILITY:77DEXTERITY:57
INTELLIGENCE:49SPIRIT:42
WISDOM:43CHARISMA:38
FIRE:04/00WATER:00/00
EARTH:00/00AIR:02/00
LIGHT:03/00DARKNESS:00/00
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(5%) - Illness(2%)
-
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
Spear masteryPassive10
Sword masteryPassive05
Furious willActive03
ClimbingPassive05
AthletismPassive15
NursingPassive04
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
NAME:David GeraultRACE:Human
AGE:29GENDER:Male
LEVEL:14BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
¡°Defensor¡±
LIFE:476/476REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:437/437REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:264/264REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:68CONSTITUTION:85
AGILITY:51DEXTERITY:52
INTELLIGENCE:40SPIRIT:46
WISDOM:44CHARISMA:35
FIRE:00/01WATER:02/00
EARTH:05/02AIR:00/00
LIGHT:01/00DARKNESS:00/00
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(7%) - Illness(5%)
-
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
Spear masteryPassive09
Sword masteryPassive08
Physical resistancePassive08
OrientationPassive07
ClimbingPassive05
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
NAME:Greg MoutonRACE:Human
AGE:25GENDER:Male
LEVEL:21BONUS POINTS:00
Titles
¡°Rogue¡±
LIFE:320/320REGEN RATE:100%
STAMINA:308/308REGEN RATE:100%
MANA:260/260REGEN RATE:100%
STRENGHT:56CONSTITUTION:52
AGILITY:66DEXTERITY:60
INTELLIGENCE:50SPIRIT:40
WISDOM:42CHARISMA:48
FIRE:00/00WATER:00/00
EARTH:00/00AIR:00/00
LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:00/00
ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00
RESISTANCES:Poison(3%) - Illness(11%)
-
TRAITS
-
SKILLSTYPELEVEL
Spear masteryPassive07
Sword masteryPassive09
ScoutingPassive05
ClimbingPassive05
SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL
---
------- At the beginning of the 11th day, as they were eating their breakfast, Ras started to growl and his ears dropped. His gaze was fixed toward the outside of the base. ¡°Prepare yourselves!!¡± said Erwin. ¡°... I''ll gather some of our supplies, you never know¡± added Greg. The other just nodded. Erwin advanced to the entrance of the base, his 2 pets following closely behind. He carefully looked around but didn''t notice anything, except the birds that seemed to be flying away in the distance. The direction was where they came from, the cliff. Erwin got a bad feeling when he realised this. ¡°... Guys, I don''t know what it is that Ras noticed, but I think we should move away from here really soon.¡± Without waiting for an answer, he went and gathered all his possessions, and Diane and David did the same. Ever since the crash, they never hesitated when Erwin gave a suggestion with a serious and worried face. They believed in his intuition. If not for following him, they would have died at the crash site. A for Greg, is was a cautious guy to begin with. He may have been shaken at the beginning after the crash, but he had quickly recovered his witts. A faint buzzing noise could be heard, growing louder, and Ras growled once again more loudly. Even Sadira got restless. ¡°Let''s move!!¡± As they got outside, they saw what had alerted Ras. It was the bugs they encountered at the top of the cliff. However, there was a significant difference, they had wings. They had wings and they were flying toward their direction. Diane''s face turned almost blue and her breathing got ragged. The guys turned eathly pale. The number of insects visible was overwhelming,and they were moving faster now that they could fly. The 4 people remembred how the broken minded girl got shredded into pieces in a matter of seconds. ¡°We have to move. NOW!!¡± screamed Erwin as they started to run. ¡°But to go where? With their speed they will catch up!¡± added Diane with teary eyes. ¡°... We have to go to a place that will be dangerous for them.¡± ¡°... Are you serious?¡± asked David. ¡°Yes. Let the dangerous monsters fight each other while we sneak to the side. It''s that kind of gamble. That''s why we are going to the center of the town. It''s the closest dangerous place in the area. The only one we can reach in time.¡± They ran for a few minutes, and during that time the flying insect got close, barely 15m behind them. The noise their wings was emitting and the numerous clicking sounds were nervewracking. Their hearts were growing heavy and their innards were twisting with anxiousness. However, past a certain point, the surroundings started twisting, and the sky that was a clear blue turned into a crimson color. The position of the buildings infront of them had changed, and there was a rotten smell in the air. The noise made by the insect was slowly fading as well.
You have entered Tarbes Special Dungeon You can''t leave this area without capturing the dungeon core
***************************** AN: I changed the values for the life, mana and stamina of the characters, but I was too lazy to updates the previous chapters. It''s just a small detail. Chapter 13 AN: Chapter 13, Horrifying enemies... Nice chapter number for the enemy ***************************** ¡°Huf, huf, gasp... Tarbes... Special Dungeon? Huf, huf, huf... You mean, this ruined town is Tarbes?¡± asked Diane. ¡°Huf, ha... Tarbes shouldn''t be around here.¡± said David. ¡°Many things have changed in the world, gasp! Huf, huf, huf, Damn, my throat hurt... But that''s not important. What matters first is that... Huf, ha... we have escaped from the flying terrors.¡± ¡°Ah, you''re right, huf. We were so surprised by the sudden, huf, huf... Change of environment, we completely forgot about them.¡± said Greg. ¡°WHA? That was dangerous!!¡± replied Diane. ¡°You''re damn right. I can''t believe we were that distracted either...¡± added David. ¡°... Actually, it may be due to the fact that the noise they made disappeared, as it was what we mostly relied on to locate them. We uncnsciously knew they were gone, or something like that.¡± said Greg. ¡°... You can say some weird things that make sense. Enough about that. The second important thing is that we can''t leave this place without a fight.¡± ¡°That''s right, it said we couldn''t leave without capturing the core.¡± added David. ¡°In games, dungeons are full of monsters and there is a boss to defeat. You think they drop loot?¡± asked Diane. ¡°If the monsters outside didn''t, I doubt they would. And with the rotten smell in the air, I doubt anything left by the monster would be good...¡± ¡°And look at the surroundings. It''s creepy, and it feels like I''m stuck in another dimension, or another realm, like in Silent Hill. That really scare me...¡± added Greg. As if on cue, Ras started to growl again. The group started to hear some steps coming from a small road to their right. Soon, humanoid figures appeared, and with them, the stench increased as well, making Ras sneeze several times and Sadira shake her head. The things were skinless humans, with the surface of their flesh melting as if it was corroded by acide. The flesh had started to rot as well. The irises of their eyes glowed red, and their teeth and the tip of their fingers were pointy and sharp. As they advanced, they leaked some rotting body fluids as well, from their eyes, nose, ear, mouth, breasts for the women, and between their legs. Diane turned away, got down on one knee and threw up. Erwin, Greg and David barely kept control of their stomach. David''s breathing had become ragged again. All 4 of them had gone pale. The peace lasted for a couple of seconds, then the monsters charged toward them. There were 3 men and 4 women. They weren''t fast, probably slower than when they were living, but it greatly startled the group. Most likely because of their disgusting appearance. With each steps they sprayed a little of their horrible body fluids around, and even Ras and Sadira recoilled. ¡°No way we are going to touch those things. RUN.¡± He didn''t wait for the other to respond and suddenly pulled Diane, who still had a knee on the ground.Because of that, she lost her balance and had to put a hand in her vomit to avoid falling. She scowled in anger and disgust, but seeing the things that went after them she quickly forgot about it. ¡°Ras, take us where the smell is weak!¡± ¡°¡°¡°Good idea!¡±¡±¡± After a few minutes of running away and avoiding some areas following Ras lead, they ended in a run down video game shop. They swiftly blocaded the entrance and windows with the shelves, and hid behind the counter, breathing heavily. It took them a few minutes to calm down. After dropping her fist on top of Erwin''s head, Diane went to the storage room to clean her hand. She came back a little later, with both an annoyed and grateful expression on her face. ¡°Guys, I think we''re quite screwed this time.¡± ¡°Explain.¡± said Diane. ¡°Those horrible things are walking nests for diseases, and we are all close combat fighters. I can''t even make Sadira and Ras participate in the battle. My detox magic is only level 7. I don''t think that is enough to protect anyone from all the toxins those things are carrying. They project body fluids everywhere when they moves, so even if you block or dodge an attack, you can still be infected.¡± ¡°It isn''t a big problem. I bet we can find some raincoats or something, and do shit like in the first season of The Walking Dead. They used waterproof gear to coat themselves in zombie blood and guts. Don''t look at me like that! I''m just saying that there is a way to protect ourselves from the shitty liquids... Wait, you paded the interior of the armors with protective clothings! Ah! But we still need to do something about the little areas of exposed skin.¡± said Greg. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°... Yeah, you''re right... The second problem is supplies, water and food. I don''t think we''ll find anything safe for consumption in this rotten dungeon. Had a look around? Everything is aged and corroded. I''m wondering if we can even use the canned food that lies here, though I''m not optimistic. Same with water, I don''t know if the plastic bottles handled the unnatural aging well.¡± ¡°... We only have 3 days worth of food and water. Your pets have nothing, not even water. If we share with them, that will leave us with 2 days of food and water. If we don''t clear this dungeon in 3 days, we will be as good as dead since we will get weaker from lack of nutrition.¡± said David. ¡°You''re right. Also, about those monsters, they may be slower than us, but with those wicked, clawed fingers and pointy teeth, I bet they also have abnormal strenght to make up for their lack of speed. I don''t know how well the armors I made can fare against them. And there will be no repairs. We didn''t meet many of them, but considerng all the changes of direction Ras made when looking for a safe place, I''m assuming there are a shitload of them. And they probably are the weakest monsters here.¡± ¡°Any other bad news?¡± asked Diane with a defeated face. ¡°Not really... I think we should focus on constitution and agility for the next few levels, to be ready for an eventual shortage of food and water, and to avoid getting hit and then be infected by something nasty. Or even to run away from a crowd before we get trapped. 2 in constitution, 2 in agility, 1 in strenght... Oh!!!¡± ¡°What?¡± asked Diane. ¡°I can use Sadira''s threads to make small traps and trip them, or restrain their movements! Wait, the thread is produced by the body, so all her nutrition will go there and she will starve faster! And here I though I got a nice idea to deal with the monsters of this dungeon.¡± ¡°... Sadira is a monster, or a magical beast? So maybe it doesn''t use nutrition, but mana or stamina?¡± asked Greg. ¡°I don''t know, I never checked that. I just assumed it would be like normal spiders. Let''s check it out now.¡± He ordered Sadira to make some thread, and sure enough it consumed something. But it was both mana and stamina, around 1 point of each per meter of thread. She could make up to 130m of thread in one instance. It was decided that they would use her thread to hinder them. They decided to look for a small group of zombies, as they decided to call them, and lured them in an alley, with thread put around knee level between the walls. The zombies effectively fell, unable to maintain their balance or rip the thread. They became easy targets for their spears as they directly aimed at the heads, piercing their brains and killing them. Unfortunately for them, the defeated zombies started to rot at a faster rate, releasing an even more foul odor. All 4 of them couldn''t stand it and threw up. Even the 2 pets hastly and painfully fled away from the melting corpses. Except for Sadira, all of them had tear in their eyes. The smell was so terrible Erwin was scared the air would be contaminated, so he used a lot of detox magic as they ran away. Because it was still early and their time in the dungeon was limited, they continued to hunt. Some zombies were a dreadful sight for the group. They came across a man who lost his 2 balls as it ran toward them, petrifying the guys and making Diane laugh at them. Yet, later, they came across a bimbo who lost her breasts while attacking them. They made a disgusting sound as they burst into rotten pieces of fat and liquids upon touching the grounds. The nipple rolled away.This time it was Diane who got stunned. Though the other were stunned as well, they did make fun of her in revenge, but their faces were deathly pale. By noon, they had cleared a large area and gained 2 levels. They were exhausted, mostly due to the horrifying sights and impossible smell. ¡°Guys, I think that we will have terrifying nightmares involving them for quite some time... Just thinking about it makes me want to cry... Usually, after watching a horror movie I would watch or read some porn before going to bed, but I have the feeling that watching naked women won''t help... It will make things worse I think.¡± ¡°... You''re ruining things for me you know?¡± said Greg in a dejected tone. ¡°Hahaha!! No, I''m sparring you the bad surprise!¡± They all laughed a little, but it was a hollow laugh. They had to resume their hunt to gain levels and capture the dungeon. ****************************** AN: Next time in The Walki-I mean, in WF, a new enemy! And no, I''m not dropping my other fictions