ã€ŠMartial Morpherã€‹


 Chapter 1: Beyond Human

    Warning its pretty mature!

    Growing up in the forest in Alaska isn¡¯t as tough as one might think. My grandfather has raised me since I can remember and he used to do most of the hard work until I was 5 years old. At 5 I was chopping wood, and hunting for our next meal.

    This might sound ridiculous to normal people, however I am not normal. It took me many years to accept Gramps orders to never leave the forest and enter towns. At first I thought he was crazy. He always schooled me and put me to work so I never got the chance to enter a town anyways. For some reason he said our life will end if I go meet anyone else other than him.

    Back to what I was saying about not being normal. I have a photographic memory which helps me in all subjects of school and learning language too. I know Spanish, Russian, Japanese, French, Italian, and others, even Latin for who knows what reason. This is where it gets really creepy though: I know a language called Draastifarian. Sounds like major bullshit right?

    That¡¯s not the only thing weird either. Gramps made me learn the economics, hierarchy, history, races, etc. of this fantasy place.

    Many times I wanted to just get a chair and knock him unconscious so I could go out hunting. But that would probably kill him which would be a no-no. With my photographic memory as a 19 year old I am learning subjects that someone with a PhD. would get so confused and pissed off then start using the textbook for a doormat.

    Where the hell do I get all of this material? Well it¡¯s my loony paranoid grandfather¡¯s stash. By stash I mean cellar that has so many textbooks it would make an Ivy League school raze cities for!

    Anyways now for the ridiculous section again. I am 6¡¯ 4¡± and have hair with two shades. The roots of my hair is red, midway through a strand it changes to black. Also my eyes are red. Though this red is not the bright kind you would find in a normal redhead person. It¡¯s crimson like blood, which makes me look intimidating.

    Not only those features but also the final ¡®fuck this bullshit¡¯ feature of mine is my ability to morph my appendages. Yeah, who needs an axe to chop firewood? I haven¡¯t touched that axe in years, hell I don¡¯t even know where it is. My hand can turn into an axe head. Now it¡¯s not like it turns into metal, no, my skin stretches and hardens better than the actual axe could ever hope for. One swift motion and I could fell even an oak tree if I stretched my skin enough.

    Who knows if this is even skin in the first place? It could be synthetic material that can conform to my wishes.

    It does have a limit though. My appendages can only stretch from one hand length away from the tip of my fingers. Meaning I can only stretch my arm about 8 inches farther than normal. And this goes for any direction. I can spread my skin on my arms and make a shield. Or I can make a short sword.

    My appendages, also my head (both heads) can be altered too. And I can morph it to a certain extent. I can¡¯t morph into a bird head or anything but I can change certain parts without shifting the bones too much. This is the simple way to put it, there¡¯s more anatomy and physiology to it, but this is easy to understand.

    Unfortunately for some damn reason I can¡¯t change my hair color or eye color. Well I guess it looks cool so no harm done. My hair is long and I have it put in a small ponytail but not in a girly way. I made sure of that.

    I need to mention something else about my skin. It¡¯s pretty much normal Caucasian except for the black and red veins that start from the end of my fingers, up my arms, to my chest, then neck and stopping behind my ears.

    Both colored veins twirl around each other in each strand from the fingers making it look like I have 5 red/black DNA strands on each side of me going up to my head. Personally I think it looks badass but in the books I¡¯ve read there is no one else that has this. It¡¯s one of the reasons Gramps says I can¡¯t go to civilization.

    During my life I have also been given basic martial arts training. Very basic because I can¡¯t get far since one of the major factors of training is sparring. Gramps has been training me to try and use ki for meditation and fighting but he said I won¡¯t need to use it until later and to not use it until then. Whenever that is?

    Oh well. My body is harder than steel and I also have superhuman strength. Yeah superhuman strength is another perk of being a freak. So when it comes to sparring I can¡¯t do it without squishing Gramps on the first hit. However most of my day is spent reading, learning, hunting, and training. I am never bored or without something to do.

    -----The Day Where Shit Hit the Fan----

    After lifting weights in the morning I walk to the living room. The cabin is as big as a normal sized house from the suburbs (at least the books tell me so) instead of being a cold damp wood place. We don¡¯t have electricity, cable, internet and such so it¡¯s pretty quiet most of the time.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.Gramps is nowhere to be seen though. Usually he would be somewhere in the house grumbling about the cold weather right about now.

    *creeeeeakk*

    The front door opens slowly and gramps enters with a pale face and hunched over like he¡¯s about to vomit. Except his clothes are soaked.

    Not soaked with water. With blood. Startled, I run to him before he falls face first into the floor.

    ¡°Gramps! W-what the hell is happening?! Who did this?!¡± Anger blinds my fear until he speaks.

    ¡°Jared, *Huk* don¡¯t worry about it, *Kuk* just go into my room and grab the crystal on my nightstand and break it!¡±

    What? He¡¯s talking about crystals at a time like this?! He must be on crystal meth if this is the shit he¡¯s spouting with a hole in his side.

    ¡°NO! we need to help you get to saf-¡°

    Before I finish my words a small rock gets thrown at us and rolls to his legs.

    Wait? A rock? No I¡¯ve seen this in some of my recent history books on wars in the late 1900¡¯s.

    Yeah it was on page 76 with a picture and text under it that said ¡®M67 Grenade is a fragmentation grenade used in the Vietnam War by the United States. Known for its area damage, it can be fatal to anyone in a 5 meter radius.¡¯

    ¡°HOLY SHIT!¡± I yell while trying to use my skin on my arms and legs to make a shield over Gramps. However I spent too long lost in thought and only managed to cover half of Gramps.

    The explosion went off. There was a ringing in my ears unlike anything I¡¯ve heard before.

    Disoriented I make sit back and look down at Gramps. What¡¯s left of him.

    Sorrow and guilt. That¡¯s what dominates my mind. The old man who raised me with an iron fist, but cared about me the most. The only other person I know. The last thing that tied me to this world.

    Caught up in despair and weeping pitifully I hardly notice the men in black jumpsuits holding guns rapidly approaching. One of them empties their magazine on their MP5 right at my body.

    The bullets barely puncture my skin, rolling off my arm.

    I¡¯m done with this shit. Are all people like this? Wrecking people¡¯s lives? Killing their loved ones? To hell with that. Standing up and forcing myself to look away from the stumps that used to be my grandfathers legs I stare straight into the gunman.

    And I snapped. That¡¯s the gist of it. It was ugly but felt right. Vengeance. If they want to fuck with me when I didn¡¯t do anything then they were going to be 6 feet under.

    Turning my right hand into a hybrid of a lions paw and human hand while my left arm changes into a serrated sword, I burst towards them with inhuman speed. It was sloppy but I didn¡¯t care, I was enraged.

    I appeared in front of the attacker and without hesitation brought my hybrid paw down on his skull through his helmet, crushing it into pulp along with its eyeballs. I never looked away from his eyes. The terror he showed was delightful and if I wasn¡¯t high on adrenaline and pumped for vengeance, then I would have vomited.

    His buddies don¡¯t want to give me a chance at killing them so they also unload their weapons into me. At least they tried to. I sprinted too fast for them to follow and arrived at the next guy to slice him. I say slice but it was more gruesome than that. Using my serrated edge on my sword it brings more pain and gore than expected.

    I bring it down on top of his head with the strength of many bears, watching as he gets cut in half. His organs and brain matter go everywhere making the other guys tremble in fear but me in anticipation.

    The other 3 got close to the same treatment. The first lost his legs then his head, the second had his a paw swiped though his chest all the way through his ribcage and to his heart, where I then skewered it like a shish ka bab. Looking around for the final gunman I see he is holding another grenade far out of the blast radius. He chucks it at me with a smile on his face.

    So I catch it with a smile on my face.

    Making use of my superhuman speed I dash towards him punch him in the gut, then drop the grenade down his pants and haul ass out of there. He went out with a ¡®bang¡¯.

    ----1 day later-----

    After burying Gramps I realize again that now there is nothing holding me here. Remembering his last words about the strange crystal I walk into his room to grab it. Whatever it is he wanted me to crush it so I did.

    That day I figured out what Draastifar is.

 Chapter 2: Welcome to the Clan

    So this chapter has some sexual stuff in it, but just to let you know, this is a martial arts story so there wont be much other sex stuff. However it will have it, so just ignore it if you don''t like and read the other parts of it. The sex is only a little bit of the story

    WARNING: Mature

    -------------------

    Now that I broke the crystal it has teleported me to a large room with stone walls and no objects or furniture of any kind. The only thing around is the magic circle I am standing on and a door on one side of the room.

    To quench my curiosity I go to the door and slowly open it to peek out. After making checking both directions of the hallway I step out of the room and walk in one direction. The hallway is quiet and an eriee silence fills my surrounding, except for the sounds of my footsteps.

    The sounds of my footsteps seem to reverberate off of the walls while walking down the corridor. On the walls are various large paintings of people. That makes my body freeze as I look at the people the paintings depict.

    Red/black hair, red eyes, and two DNA-look-a-like strands on either side of the neck going up to the back of their ears.

    They look exactly like me, except more rugged and scarred. Scarred is strange since I have yet to find anything that can cut my skin back home. Other than the small puncture wounds of the military looking people who shot me.

    Shaking off the strange vibe and people from the paintings I continue down the corridor until I see a door. Finally! Another door. As silent as I can I slowly open it and step inside. The interior is a bedroom with a couple of couches seated across from the largest bed ever. So are the nightstands next to it. The bed is black and pink in color and has a canopy with cloth that looks like what the rich would buy.

    Before I get to look any longer, a blade appears in front of my neck and the light flickers for an instant before I feel pressure on my back. With my arm twisted I can¡¯t see who it is but it doesn¡¯t take long to figure out since he whispers to me.

    ¡°Who are you intruder and what are you here for and why should I not snap you neck like a twig immediately?¡±

    Shit this is some ninja stuff, I didn¡¯t even notice him when I walked in. That isn¡¯t the weirdest thing either. The ninja guy

    isn¡¯t even speaking English. It¡¯s the same language Gramps taught me: Draastifarian. I might as well spill the beans on why I¡¯m here. If I piss off this guy who knows how many others there are in this building. Even though I am confident in my morphing combat abilities, I¡¯d rather not test it out. Who knows, those paintings of people who looked like me had scars, so this guy might be able to inflict more damage than normal.

    Best not to underestimate opponents.

    ¡°Uhh sorry mister, my name is Jared Bane and my grandfather told me to break a crystal, so I did and ended up here. Also I would like to keep my neck the way it is please.¡±

    ¡°Jared Bane?¡± For some reason he drops the dagger and mutters my name in disbelief.

    I take the risk and turn to look at him. He starts inspecting me more, looking at my hair then my eyes and finally notices my red body strands. Now he looks like he¡¯s going to piss his pants in fright. You¡¯d think he saw a ghost or something.

    ¡°Yeah that¡¯s me what¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°P-p-please forgive me I had no idea, I didn¡¯t mean to attack you, and I should be executed for my ignorance!¡±

    The ninja guy then scurries over to his dagger, picks it up and almost plunges it into his heart before I stop him.

    ¡°What the hell are you doing? What¡¯s going on?! Don¡¯t kill yourself!¡± This is ludicrous. One moment hes about to make me a human pincushion and the next he wants to shank himself.

    ¡°A-as you wish sir. We must tell the elders about your arrival, they will be ecstatic to see you! Please come with me.¡± He bows then starts walking away leaving me flabbergasted.

    Apparently we made too much noise because someone on the bed starts stirring and sits up half-asleep. Woah she is gorgeous. Black long hair down to past her shoulders, and blue eyes. Also she has almost no clothes on so I can see her perfectly shaped body and ample breasts. If I had one word to describe her it would be ¡®goddess¡¯.

    She finally fully wakes up and is shocked to see me standing next to Mr. Ninja, who is still bowing except at the door now.

    This time I hear Mr. Ninja¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Lady Melody, sorry to wake you, this is our new Clan Head, Jared Bane who has returned to the clan. It is a special occasion and we are heading to the elders to bring the good news. Would the Lady be willing to join us?¡± He uses the same humble tone when speaking to me, so she must be pretty important. Wait, clan?

    She turns to look at ninja guy then to me with a weird expression. Hmmm, some of my books said that it is lust. Yep, definitely lust. Since I haven¡¯t been near a woman my whole life I don¡¯t really know how to react to that so I just try and put on my best smile.

    ¡°Yes, I will join you soon sir just let me get dressed please. Drake can you send some servants to help me pick through my wardrobe to find a good dress?¡±

    Apparently Mr. Ninja¡¯s name is Drake. I look back at him to and he still has a ninja mask on but I can tell he is salivating over her body as much as I am.

    ¡°As you wish, I will send them right away. Please follow me Clan Head.¡± One last look at Melody and we exit the bedroom.

    After walking back and passing the door I first exited from, we take a couple turns and Drake asks me to wait here while he tells the servants to go and help Melody out. Now that he¡¯s returned I follow him to a room with a huge double-door entrance.

    ¡°Please enter, sir.¡± He opens the door and bows again, which is really odd considering I don¡¯t feel that important.

    Calling it a room is an injustice. It¡¯s more like an auditorium with pillars on both sides. In the middle is a table that reminds me of the Knights of the Round Table. Except for the fact that they are all old looking men and that there are at least a hundred other guys in a ninja get-up lined along the wall. And a heated debate seems to be going on.

    ¡°-I¡¯m telling you Knife, we need to gut those human bastards, cut off their head and mount it like an animal! Those assholes think they are the true powerhouse here. Bullshit!¡± Oh that¡¯s one sailor mouth geezer right there.

    ¡°Vindel, I understand your hatred for them but we are too few and they have a whole kingdom! The whole point of staying off the map and surviving is to stay off the fucking map! Go find a book to read or better yet take a shower. You smell like a beggar/slut hybrid from the red light district!¡±

    Okay, never mind. Maybe all these guys are really blunt with their words. Gramps obviously taught me not to shout curses to others, even though I may be lacking in the social aspect; pretty much everyone knows not to let loose the f-bomb in

    the middle of a meeting. The last part of the paragraph was pretty accurate though. I can smell him from the entrance.

    Speaking of entrances, time to make mine, I guess.

    ¡°Uhhh, excuse me, apparently I¡¯m a clan head or something like that? I don¡¯t really feel special thooough.¡±

    All eyes turn towards me and I feel like a mouse in front of a viper. Maybe I should take my coat and shirt off so they can see my DNA-strands. Taking off my coat in front of a bunch of geezers and ninja¡¯s feel weird but I do it anyways. When did I become an exhibitionist?

    Everyone gasps when they see me. Okay come on and say something guys this is embarrassing. What¡¯s even worse is the old dudes or ¡®elders¡¯ are starting to cry.

    Then they all stand up out of their chairs and in kneel on one knee in sync. So do all of the ninja¡¯s. then they shout:

    ¡°WE GREET THE CLAN HEAD!¡±

    Good god that was loud. I just scratch my head because I have no idea what to do¡­

    ¡°Ah its ok guys you can stand up.¡± Awkward¡­

    ¡°Clan Head please come over here, we have a throne where each Head sat. It has been over 100 years since it has been occupied.¡± He points over to a pretty majestic looking throne placed at one side of the table.

    He wasn¡¯t lying saying it¡¯s been a long time. There is dust on the chair. Are maids not allowed to touch it because it¡¯s sacred or something? Dust doesn¡¯t really matter because I don¡¯t care about getting dirty, but these little things irk me. OCD is the closest thing to it I guess. During the awkward silence I brush of the dust. I probably look like wimpy doing this.

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Taking my seat I finally get a good look around the auditorium-let¡¯s call it throne room from now on-and it was bigger than I thought. There are small areas where the wall is extended and has a few tables and chairs. Maybe for a small party?

    First thing I need to do is get my bearings on what is happening. Draastifar¡¯s history was always with its small skirmishes and maybe an occasional war, but when Gramps was teaching me he never mentioned the clan or hiding from humans.

    And the part about how they said ¡®humans¡¯. I guessed that I was the only one that wasn¡¯t human in here because of the obvious appearance difference. But it seems like these people who look like human¡¯s aren¡¯t

    ¡°Can someone give me a background on the clan and why we are against humans and why all of you look human but say otherwise?¡±

    Knife the seemingly more mature elder despite his name explains.

    ¡°This has to do with the history of humans evolving into 2 branches several hundred years ago. It was over a period time that mana and ki was discovered. Some people could use mana while others could use ki, and one cannot have both.

    Mana was more popular because it was easier to learn and less physically demanding. Thus magi were rising in power, and also warriors started to learn how to control it. Warriors could control the mana in their bodies for a short period of time. Like a burst of strength in the arms, or toughening the skin for a few seconds.

    However, warrior¡¯s versions of increasing strength is crude compared to ki. When a person trains with ki it is not temporary. Your muscles break down then reform over and over again. Making them more powerful each time. This gave practitioners strength beyond what a warrior could reach.

    The bloodline of the people who could use ki were hailed as the best fighters. Even though they were the best, they did not flaunt it and try to terrorize or start wars. Each just wanted to train and meditate without interfering in politics and power struggles.

    This didn¡¯t calm the king at the time. He was paranoid and thought for sure the martial artists were gathering forces and waiting for the right moment to invade. But he knew his kingdom of mages and warriors couldn¡¯t do this on their own. So he bribed other races to join in on the war. Furthermore the fact that ki users can live as long as elves or even longer because of infusing our ki, made him see us as an even larger threat.

    The dwarves of the west were promised a sizable amount of mines in the human kingdom.

    The beast tribe of the east were promised a percentage of shares from livestock trading and farming.

    The demon race of the south were promised weapons and armor.

    Unfortunately for them, the woodland race (Elves and such)  decided against joining the alliance, saying they would rather remain in their ancestor¡¯s forest biome.

    The human kingdom¡¯s territory was split in two. The north part of it was mostly inhabited by ki users. The south by the magi/warriors. The Alliance gathered and marched onwards towards the martial artist territory.

    It was a bloody war that ended up with the martial artists being overrun by the alliance and forced to extinction. At least that is what everyone thought. The last surviving clan, the Bane Clan, retreated and moved to the elven woods. Humans would never dare enter the elven territory due to the home ground advantage of seemingly endless woods and traps.

    The only reason why we survived through the woods is the martial arts we practice. We rely on speed and perception, rather than those big hulking warriors from the human kingdom. Elf traps are child¡¯s play. When our human race betrayed us in that war we no longer considered ourselves human.

    Also the one that gave our lives for us-the previous leader-who has the morph ability made it to where the clan could keep running. We 10 elders have been taking care of the clan until the next head shows up.¡±

    Wow they have really been holding out for a long time. Except they are all going to be looking to me for help on managing

    this organization. I guess I can ask for help from the elders though. They surely don¡¯t expect me to know everything.

    ¡°Elders I am new at this so what do you think would be a good idea to start doing? I¡¯m sorry for my incompetence.¡±

    ¡°No no, it¡¯s perfectly fine sir we understand it¡¯s your first day and this is big news. Let¡¯s rest for today and tomorrow we can work on your training! Vandel will be your teacher for the most part. He also helped train your father.¡± [Knife]

    My father? I guess I can¡¯t see him huh? My mother isn¡¯t here either. Maybe the same thing happened to her.

    ¡°Ah okay thanks, I guess I¡¯ll get going¡­Uh I don¡¯t know where to go¡­¡±

    ¡°Drake, show to the Head to his living quarters!¡± [Knife]

    ¡°Right this way sir¡±

    Following Drake we go through some hallways and enter my room. And it¡¯s amazing! It is at least 4 times as big as

    Melody¡¯s room. In perspective you could fit 5 of my cabins in here. There is a living room with furniture that is even more expensive looking than Melody¡¯s bedroom. Not to mention my bathroom that has a bathtub engraved and lined with silver and gold. Furthermore my bed is waaaay too big for me to ever use it all. Drake¡¯s voice brings me back to reality.

    ¡°Sir if you ever need anything just clap your hands twice and one of my brethren will be at your service immediately.¡± He points to his outfit, meaning his ninja buddies.

    ¡°Sure, thanks for showing me here.¡±

    ¡°No need for thanks, it is my honor to be of service!¡± After that he disappears from sight as if he faded into nothing. That¡¯s awesome I wonder if I get to learn that hehehe.

    Well, time to go to sleep so I¡¯m ready to train in the morning. I wonder why I never saw melody. She said she would meet up with me¡­

    -----2 hours later------

    [Author note: Due to comments I put this adult scene as a spoiler. So if this still isn''t enough to satisfy your distaste in this, then you can just go to the next chapter and ''erase'' this from your memory]

    [ALSO, the reason they are about to get it on, will be explained in the chapters later on! This isn''t some random sex scene!]

    <b>Spoiler</b> : <input type=''button'' value=''Show'' class=''spoilerButton''>*creeeeaaaak*

    The sound of the door opening wakes me up. Sitting up quickly to see who it is, there is a shadow moving slowly towards me.

    ¡°Umm hello who¡¯s there?¡±

    I try doing the clapping thing to get one of the ninja¡¯s attention but nothing happens.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Jared, Didn¡¯t I tell you I would see you later?¡± Oh shit its Melody!

    Before I can open my mouth to reply, she jumps on the bed in only underwear on top of me. My head freezes up but thankfully my other one takes over. It seems like I can¡¯t hold back and I grab her breasts and start teasing them.

    ¡°Ahnn, it seems like you need to let out some steam. Go ahead an-¡°

    I immediately reach up and pull her into a deep kiss, then move her body under me so she¡¯s laying on her back. Without rush I pull her panties off while kissing her again breathlessly. Taking off my clothes too, I line up myself with her wet core and impale her quick, not caring if she is a virgin or not.

    Propelling in and out of her tight hot cunt while gripping her huge breasts, she her sheath starts to tighten up and finally releases her juices. I¡¯m still not ready to give in yet so I go even faster with overflowing desire.

    ¡°Oh fuck yes Jared, go fas-¡°

    Taking that as my cue I drive even faster and grunting in wild sex while she has another orgasm. Feeling mine about to climax I put it in as far as it can and let it all out while she is whimpering. Both of us have light sweat while I take it out and lay next to her.

    "God we need to do this again.¡± [Melody]

    ¡°I¡¯m still not done.¡±

    Needless to say we went on for a while after that¡­

 Chapter 3: Speed vs. Strength

    Here is chapter 3 hope you all like it

    ----------------

    Waking up I notice that a couple of spheres are pressing against my right arm. Hmmm, yep, it Melody¡¯s mountains. Now I have to be extra careful to move without waking her up. Don¡¯t want to be rude since it is just barely getting light outside, so it must be early in the morning. I quickly exchange my arm for my pillow with timely success.

    That was quite a night. Maybe it¡¯s just a one-time thing or not. Personally I think this is going to happen again, however I have other things to attend to. Walking over to my gigantic wardrobe I put on some light leather boots and pants. Along with a black undershirt with some light leather chest armor and gloves. They did say I¡¯m going to train today so it would

    be better than casual clothes.

    Plus I¡¯m a the leader of a clan so I need to look strong, even though all of the other people here could kick the shit out of me. Anyways once I¡¯m done suiting up, I leave the room because my clap-clap gesture would wake up Melody. And just as Drake said, a ninja appears out of nowhere, kneeling, and waiting for my orders.

    ¡°Sir!¡±

    ¡°Uhm, yeah so where is breakfast?¡± Scratching my head confused, he then tells me to follow him to the dining hall.

    Along the way ninjas would be like shadows descending from somewhere and taking a kneeling position every few steps or so. I can only imagine where they might have been hiding the whole time. The ceiling looks empty. I pity anyone else who might try to intrude upon this fortress.

    Which poses the question: How have they lived incognito for so long? I went ahead and asked.

    ¡°Sir, that is because they never get near enough to the castle and its surrounding area, since we immediately dispose of them. Furthermore if any humans get close we can spread our senses using ki and tell where they are. It is an advantage over the humans we have. Human mages can only sense mana in another being. Since we don¡¯t have mana, they cannot tell where we are. There are also other countermeasures we have for staying hidden. Our location is a big factor too. Elves naturally don¡¯t explore very far throughout their lands. They are content to stay in their villages and a small radius around it. Humans are the conquest race. They cannot gain enough land. Nothing is too much for them.¡±

    ¡°How¡¯s that any different from what the elder was saying yesterday about going against the humans?¡±

    ¡°Well the goal is different. We want revenge plain and simple, not to take back our land. Taking back our land would be a secondary goal if we finished the first.¡±

    Right after he finishes his explanation we enter the dining room. Again it¡¯s much larger than expected. Also the two elders

    Vandel and Knife are sitting across from each other. They both stand and bow, which is kind of awkward so I just wave hello and go to sit at the head of the table. At least, that¡¯s where the last plate is so I assume that¡¯s my chair.

    After sitting down several maids enter with an array of different dishes with all kinds of food types I have never seen.

    They are both staring at me, when I realize I¡¯m supposed to eat first.

    ¡°So you said I¡¯m going to be training today?¡± I ask hesitantly.

    ¡°Yes sir, after breakfast we¡¯ll go out to the training grounds to test your strength, speed and endurance. After that I will decide on a training method based on your skill. However when we are out there please understand that I will not be treating you as Clan Head, you will be my student.¡± [Vandel]

    Sounds easy enough. It¡¯s still hard to feel like a leader, so this could be a stress relief.

    How wrong I was¡­

    -----1 hour later----

    ¡°You have no skill whatsoever. All the muscles in all the wrong places for our clan¡¯s martial arts.¡±

    That¡¯s Vandel¡¯s summary after seeing me do exercises.

    ¡°So what do I do to condition myself for the right style?¡±

    ¡°You have enough upper body muscles, but the clan emphasizes speed and agility, rather than strength and defense.

    Warriors (humans) tend to focus on strength so they just add muscle weight and don¡¯t give a flying fuck about anything else. Using ki we gradually gain a better defense as we have breakthroughs. You already have a solid defense that puts you ahead of the others, however it is still not good enough. A mage or a magically enhanced warrior can still give you serious injuries.

    Right now, your muscles need to mostly be in your lower body to give you more speed. After that our techniques will be easier for you to learn. As of today you will wear 50 johk (pound equivalent) weights on each leg and only take them off when you sleep and bathe. Also do you already know any meditation techniques?¡±

    ¡°Yes grandfather taught me how to do ¡®Resting Talonbane¡¯.¡±

    ¡°WHAT?!¡±

    ¡°Oh? Is it that great?¡±

    ¡°Y-yes of course it is! It is one of the greatest meditation techniques only known by a select few individuals. I don¡¯t even know it. Everyone else¡¯s are only pseudo version of that. If you can please use it for the next 2 hours and I will be back after that to tell you about your endurance training.¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Nodding my head, I then sit down in lotus position and close my eyes. I have to create an image in my mind of my body and the red/black strands that come from my fingertips. Now that I can see the strands, the next step is to separate the strand from my fingers and move them along my body to my chest. Slithering like a snake along my skin, the strands meet where my sternum is and form several circles like a bullseye alternating between black and red strand-circles.

    From what Gramps told me, when doing this you take two layers (one black, one red) and peel it away from the bulls-eye.

    Once they are unattached you move those to an area which you want to destroy and rebuild. It¡¯s similar to a breakthrough, but controlled. This is only usable with my ancient technique ¡®Resting Talonbane¡¯. Truly ¡®form¡¯-idable, hehehe

    Right now I need to give more strength to my legs. Moving the two strands together down to my left leg, I put them in position over my calf muscle. The red strand destroys, while the black strand rebuilds. To destroy I have to move the red strand in a circular motion counter-clockwise. Like unscrewing with a screwdriver. Then I have to rotate the black strand in a clockwise motion, building the muscle back stronger. Think of it as removing and old screw to replace it with a new one.

    Except I didn¡¯t realize just how much strain this puts on the body!

    *Crack* *POP*

    ¡°AAAAAAAHHHHH!!¡±

    It feels as if I put my muscles against a cheese grater and slid back and forth, shredding them. The pain puts me on the edge of consciousness, threating to knock me out. Staying awake on pure willpower I start to rotate the black strand easing the pain a small amount.

    If I rotate the black strand too fast it will not shape correctly and deform it. Which I will then have to do the procedure again. No telling how bad that will be. Trembling in pain and gritting my teeth I finally get to the end of the rebuilding and finish.

    Now that I am done with my left leg I have a spark of curiosity, and send the strands up my legs and back to my chest to re-attach themselves to the bullseye instead of going to my other leg. Slowly peeling off each layer at a time I move them back to the original positions before the meditation. As a side note, the stronger I get the more red/black double strand layers I will be able to peel off at a time. So right now my limit is 1 double layer. Since there are 10 strands there are 5 layers of two. Meaning 5 double layers. Using 2 double layers would mean I could do both of my legs calf muscles at one time.

    Later on Vandel would tell me that my father could only get to the 3rd double layer while he was alive. That¡¯s another tale for another time though.

    Now I only have one new enhanced muscle on my left leg. Exiting meditation and standing up from my lotus position, the pain from the rebuilding is mostly gone. Now for the experiment.

    I jump up using my right leg only, and it¡¯s the normal one, so nothing great happens. I only get about 2-3 feet. Then I use my left leg and there is a major difference. I jump about 4-5 feet. Holy shit, that¡¯s high!

    I must really look like an idiot right now. I can just imagine all the ninjas hiding and watching me right now.

    Now that I can do this is makes me wonder what would happen if I rebuilt my finger several times. Maybe I could flick a boulder at someone. Or if I rebuilt my eyes? I think I¡¯ll wait on that one. I¡¯m not very confident that would work.

    I quickly sit down and work on my right leg before the 2 hour time limit finishes.

    ------After 2 hours-----

    ¡°Along with endurance you will also learn balance. The trees around here aren¡¯t like normal trees. The branches on these trees are very hard to break. They can also grow on mountains, and that¡¯s where your endurance training is going to be.

    You will be jumping from limb to limb scaling the mountain. If you fall off once, you will start over. Furthermore you will be wearing the leg weights. The mountain is not completely vertical. It has an angle similar to a hill. Each time you fall make a small cut mark on a high branch to tell how far you got. You will do this all day, and are allowed to bring food in a backpack. However you cannot touch the ground at all. Any time you touch the ground you have to start over. I don¡¯t care if you have to stick your ass out of the tree and shit off the side of the branch, you cannot tough the ground. People will be watching your progress so don¡¯t even think about cheating hehehe.¡±

    I think Vandel is a sadist. Definitely a sadist! And that mountain is gigantic!

    Time to be one with the forest and jump through trees like a monkey.

 Chapter 4: Hungry Opponents Stand Off

    Greetings guys, this chap I decided to release today, even though I was going to keep writing and make it a longer chapter and just release tmrw. Buuuuut I didn''t really feel like it,  lol :D  Hope you enjoy!

    ------------

    ------In the outskirts of the Elf territory on a mountainside----

    *Whoosh* *plop*

    ¡°Oof!¡±

    That is the 25th time I have slipped dropped from a damn tree after jumping. Each time I would make it farther by about 20 yards then slip, lose balance and end up kissing the ground with my face and have to restart. In those stories how the hell did Tarzan do this shit? And he even used vines! There are no vines in this forest unfortunately, nor are there friendly gorillas who will give you a lighthearted wrestle to cheer you up.

    There are hidden ninja¡¯s but I would rather fall off the empire state building than tussle with those shadow walkers. Well, if I could even get back to Earth where the tower even is. Not like I want to anyways.

    Breaking me out of my dazed stupor is a blood curdling scream that would make my synthetic looking skin get goosebumps if it weren¡¯t, you know, synthetic-ish. Not stopping for a plan to think about, I immediately sprint towards the sound.

    My legs going on auto-pilot while my mind is spinning on what to do when I get there, a clearing opens up to show a waterfall and a small sandbank. On the sand fighting for dear life is a woman, probably 19-20 years old with a face full of fear like she¡¯s seen the devil himself. What she is looking at is a mystery to me, until I follow her eyesight.

    About 20 yards away is a boar with tusks that that threaten to shred you to bits without so much as a flick. It¡¯s eye¡¯s also glint with a need for easing its appetite with a fresh produce of scared-humanoid-meat. Not to mention the sloppy drool hanging from its chin. The boar almost the height of a horse and how it¡¯s able to stand with those stubby legs is beyond me.

    It notices the new walking meat entering the clearing and looks in my direction. Apparently it thinks it¡¯s his lucky day, a two-piece combo; one medium-well steak with the added lean beef. Unfortunately the lean beef doesn¡¯t intend to stand there and get devoured.

    I lower my body and get in a sprinting stance, and just like an Olympic runner, take off at the start of my ¡®mental gunshot¡¯. Except unlike an Olympic runner, the speed I¡¯m going is twice as fast with my enhanced leg muscles. The boar seeing that I am rushing towards him, also starts doing his hobble-sprint looking combination. Seeing it run like that puts a glint in my eyes that sees him as food too. Let¡¯s name him Porky.

    Traversing the distance between me and him at high speed we meet each other in what Porky thought would be a clash of two hungry animals, however I have other plans. Using my leg strength I jump in the air 5 feet in an arc collide with both feet right on top of Porky¡¯s head.

    Caught off-guard and unbeknownst to him until the last moment, I had morphed the skin on my heel and toes into that of a makeshift 5 fingered eagle¡¯s claw. Also shredding my boots in the process. Making sure the skin was as sharp as I could resembling talons I sink both skin-talons on the heels of my foot right into its eyes. My 10 toes scrunched up to point downwards extend into its neck.

    Using the momentum still attained from the jumping forwards earlier, I do a quick body tuck in, breaking the neck of Porky in the process. With a satisfied thud of his body and a growl from my stomach I totally forget my surroundings thinking about cooking Porky until:

    ¡°AHHHHH Help!!!¡±

    The lady that brought me here in the first place squeals like Porky when he was alive. Wondering what the hell could possibly be hurting her now, I look back in time to see familiar ninja¡¯s holding her in a beheading-execution-style position.

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°Whoa guys what the hell are you planning?! I was about to cook Porky and have a pow-wow with her!¡±

    ¡°My apologies sir, but we need to execute her.¡± He turns to one of the other ninja¡¯s who pulls her hair back revealing pointy ears. Huh. Well, shit. Maybe I can come up with some explanation that would be accepted by these bloodthirsty maniacs.

    They definitely won¡¯t let her go back to wherever she comes from. Also a lover wouldn¡¯t work either. Something like ¡®Yo guys, race equality, MLK, I¡¯ve got a dream where this Elf sleeps with me.¡¯ That wouldn¡¯t blow over well. I also just got here so I don¡¯t really have a right to go around tossing weight (not in a literal sense) even if I am ¡®Clan Head¡¯.

    The way I see it the most hypocritical and extreme method of what I just said is to take her as a slave. Gramps said slavery is legal in Draastifar. It would also ensure her safety.

    ¡°Okay I think a good idea if I take her back as a slave.¡±

    Silence. Just the crickets in the background. And a soon-to-be pork chop on a plate.

    ¡°Sir I didn¡¯t realize you like the woods that much. Elves are like the life of the woods. After how many times you fell off the trees I would think you would want to storm the Elf capital and light it on fire.¡±

    I try to stifle a laugh but fail miserably, while the elf girl is still trembling even worse after hearing the last bit of that.

    Ugh, one thing I forgot about. What will happen when Melody hears about this? There could be a drought in my bedroom for a whole month.

    ¡°Yeah I know, but I don¡¯t really want to see her die, and if we have her as a slave she can work around the castle. She should be of use. Ah but leave her here, you guys can stay if you want too. I¡¯m going to try and skin Porky and make some food.¡±

    ¡°By your will, sir!¡± The ninja''s decided to leave though. But not before handing us the necessaries to prepare the food.

    After getting some fire starting supplies and using my arm as a skinning knife I make sure not to puncture the gut, and cut out the flank. I also skin the legs then cut them off so I can cook them too. Then I spend a good amount of time cutting branches off of a couple trees. Which took forever since they are elven trees and super durable. Making a crude grill took a while but for the most part the whole process was quick and it tasted damn good too.

    When I was about to call out to the elf woman I realized I haven¡¯t asked her name yet.

    ¡°Um, so what is your name?¡±

    ¡°Usually the person gives their name first before asking.¡±

    Ugh, society¡¯s manners. I fail on that part. Can¡¯t really blame me either.

    ¡°My name is Jared Bane.¡±

    Judging by the look on her face, it seems she figured out who I am. Or rather, who my family is.

    ¡°M-my name is Allianna.¡±

    ¡°Then I¡¯ll call you Ally since it¡¯s easier.¡±

    ¡°Muu~, Elves take pride in their names¡­¡±

    That was sort of cute. Argh not time to get side tracked.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I couldn¡¯t let you go free. If it was up to me I would give you back your freedom.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s ok, I don¡¯t have any family anyways. Not anywhere I need to be either.¡±

    Hmm, she¡¯s just like I was before coming here.

    ¡°Well now you¡¯re my ¡®slave¡¯ so you have a place you need to be, and I¡¯m sorry about the family thing. I don¡¯t think I can help you there.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s ok.¡±

    As I walk go back to tending to the fire I thought I heard ¡®I¡¯ll figure something out¡¯. Nah, maybe I was just hearing something else.

 Chapter 5: Alterations and Vibrations

    Hey I just wanted to let everyone know that I am taking the concepts of ki and creating my own spin/version of it, so any die-hard wuxia/xianxia fans be warned, lol :D I''ll try my best. Hope you guys like it!

    ----------------

    ------1 month since beginning of endurance training-----

    I¡¯m finally going to get to learn some of the clan¡¯s martial arts! The first two weeks of training I was getting better at balancing and timing the jump from one branch to another. I sort of cheated though. Using my feet I morphed them to be curved similar to rock climbing shoes.

    http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$T2eC16dHJGoE9nuQg1-kBRY0nHOEo!~~_35.JPG</a>

    Doing this helped me grip the branches better, and all was well and good until Vandel figured it out and so he decided to up the weight amount attached to me. From total of 100 johks (lbs.) to 200 johks. At first I really wanted to curse at him but remembered that¡¯s not the manner of a Clan Head. I think he realizes that too and uses it to his advantage. Ugh.

    Anyways, to help counter that, when he wasn¡¯t looking I used ¡®Resting Talonbane¡¯

    I started destroying and rebuilding my quadriceps to help absorb the impact of the fall, and also doing the same for my hamstrings helped my legs flex and extend better on the lift-off. One thing that surprised me was that this technique can also strengthen tendons too. So along with the 2 other parts, I strengthened my Achilles tendon just to be safe.

    The next thing that I thought of was my keeping my face safe if I got hit there. Even though what I¡¯m doing will barely help its better than nothing. Like I said in the beginning, I can morph my head¡¯s structure. I can only change my facial structure to a certain extent. And when I say change, I mean moving the bones around.

    Right now, though, to strengthen my face I only need to destroy and rebuild (let¡¯s say D&R) the facial muscles. The ¡®masseter muscle¡¯ helps you move your lower jaw up and down. It is one of the most powerful muscles of mastication (process of chewing food). It is also large too, so it is the best choice for the moment. I would rather choose the larger muscle rather than a small one, since I really want to get this over with.

    And there is a damn good reason why. When I¡¯m destroying this muscle, my jaw was hanging down, looking like a zombie. At first I thought it would be like the movie The Grudge. After all, the science textbooks never showed what would happen when you tamper with your chompers like this!

    It hurt like hell too. You should have seen one of the ninja¡¯s face, he was freaking out. I made it worse too, by trying to say ¡®It¡¯s alright don¡¯t worry.¡¯ But it came out as ¡®ih arah ga waya.¡¯ Which did nothing to calm him down. The poor guy was yelling hysterically and worried he¡¯d be executed for letting the Clan Head turn into a Man-Baby. Fun times.

    Well, anyways the next thing I did was make a lot of my other muscles around my cheek (Zygomaticus minor/major and Levitator labii superioris) stronger and when I rebuilt them, smaller. This was all in preparation to move my cheek bones closer and tighter to the middle of my face. Why? Because it will help decrease wind resistance on my face when running. Even though it¡¯s a very, very, small amount of change in drag, at least it¡¯s better than nothing. Furthermore, I changed my rounded face into a more pointed chin than oval face. Similar to changing the end of a jewel from oval to marquis.

    [Auth note: here is a picture of what I¡¯m talking about. Think of how anime characters have their faces.

    http://worldtrading-usa.com/WTUSA%20GRAPHICS/JEWEL%20CUTS%20.jpg</a>]

    This also aided the bone moving effect. Now I look similar to an elf with a human appearance. More of an Elf prince with a lot of muscle, rather than a Human rugged face with a lot of muscle. Except for the fact that I have red eyes and red/black hair. Maybe I made too much of a change, because now all the female ninja¡¯s and servants are looking at me with the same eyes Melody does.

    Back to the story now, after my month of monkey-jumping up a mountain, today Vandel will help me with combat training.

    ¡°Now that you have gone up the mountain with those weights on and finished your endurance training, don¡¯t think you can slack off on it. You will still need to run in the mornings. But for combat training you can take those off.¡±

    Reaching down I undo the straps holding them and with a loud *Clank* they drop to the floor.

    ¡°Okay, now what?¡±

    ¡°Sprint to the edge of the field and back once, so you can get a feel for your speed without the weights.¡±

    Well it is my first time, so I quickly push off and break into a run. Wow, without the baggage I¡¯m running at a speed that could rival a stallion galloping. This speed is definitely faster than anything a human on Earth or probably even a magic enhanced warrior could do. Getting to the end of the approximately 100 yard field in 5 seconds, I think of a way to quickly stop.

    Morphing my right hand and fingers into that of a five finger steel-skin velociraptor claw, I dig down into the ground and turn at the same time. Stopping after 5 inches of dragging it through the dirt, I use the same hand to help my enhanced legs take off again.

    After making my way back to Vandel, I still can¡¯t believe how fast I¡¯ve become. However Vandel just slightly smiles like he has seen better. Well if he fought alongside my father then he most likely has.

    ¡°So how did I do?¡±

    ¡°Hmmm, the morphing was kind of cheating, but I guess I didn¡¯t say you couldn¡¯t. Now that you understand your new speed, the next is see if you can properly apply it.¡±

    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    ¡°How do I do that?¡±

    ¡°All you need to do is poke me, tap me, or just somehow touch me.¡±

    Eh? Is that all? Well maybe I can extend my hand at the last mome-

    ¡°Oh and no using your morphing.¡±

    Psychic!

    ¡°Alright I¡¯ll try.¡±

    Right before I finish the sentence though, I¡¯m already moving towards him. He must have suspected that because as I get right next to him he already dodges away, leaving my hand where he once was. Aggravated by my miscalculation, I dive to grab him again but ending the same way. This goes on for another 30 minutes ending with me stopping,

    ¡°Why can¡¯t I catch you?¡±

    He chuckles then sighs. ¡°This was impossible from the start, I wanted to see how long you went until you gave up. You lasted longer than you father though, he lasted 15 minutes.¡±

    Hearing that helps a little bit, but is still irritating.

    ¡°To catch me you need to learn a skill named ¡®Gliding Steps¡¯. This skill was one of the first of the Bane Clan techniques. Do you know why most of our names refer to the sky and avian creatures, specifically about talons?¡±

    ¡°No, grandfather never said anything about the clan.¡±

    ¡°Well then it¡¯s time to learn the small history on the beginnings of the clan. The moves are based on the legendary creature Talonbane. Bane raised the Talonbane without even knowing how great it was. Until it gained adulthood and bestowed it''s part of its blood to Bane. Usually people have ki channels and if your channel is large enough you will have the red veins show up on your skin like you do. There used to be many practitioners with the red veins, and it is only rarely hereditary. That is, until the Human Race-Rift War, when most of them died at the hands of the mages. Anyways, what sets Bane apart from others was the black vein, or strand as you like to call it. The black strand is what Bane was bestowed by Talonbane upon reaching adulthood. The black strand is a whole other ki channel that runs alongside the red ki vein/strand. Bane was also the one who gave Talonbane his name obviously derived from Banes name. This is a legend, however, and no one knows how Talonbane gave the blood to Bane for that alteration. Whether it was from drinking or something else, no one has any evidence. We only know that the Bane family line is only able to harness these powers and even in the family is it rare for one to have both channels. Your father had it but your grandfather didn¡¯t have it.

    He only had the knowledge of the secrets which he handed down to your father and some to you. Furthermore most of our books with the secrets have been lost due to the war. Also when you move your channels around to D&R, it has to be done in meditation, so don¡¯t think of moving them in the middle of battle to fix a muscle. You need to be sitting still or you could really misplace and mess up your joints and muscles.

    Another way to tell you have the blood of Talonbane is your actions. When you morph have you notices you lean towards using something with claws, or some animal¡¯s body part? Instead of using a tool made by people that could have done the job just as well?¡±

    He¡¯s right, I have. The lion¡¯s paw back in Alaska, even though my other hand was a sword, but still. Then when I took down Porky I used my feet as eagle claws. Including when I just made a velociraptors claw.

    Not waiting for an answer he continues:

    ¡°Now that the history lesson is over, time to teach you ¡®Gliding Steps¡¯. This technique focuses on emission. People¡¯s ki has two focal points. Absorption and emission. Absorption is when you absorb your ki in your body and move it to another part directly from your dantian. For example, if you want to do something like smashing a boulder with your fist, you would move the absorbed/condensed ki towards the front of your fist, exploding on impact. Emission however uses the ki in an attack to go outside of the body and affecting the surroundings. Sometimes you can even materialize the ki into making a transparent figure like a fist or a dragon if you¡¯re a master.

    This relates to ¡®Gliding Steps¡¯ because it makes it as if you are gliding over the surface of something not creating any sound at all. Because what you do is emit your ki from the bottom of your feet, passing through the grass, dirt, snow etc. and directly into the ground. It¡¯s making it to seem like you never even touched it in the first place.¡±

    Okay well he is glossing over the science of it probably because technology and science isn¡¯t advanced as Earth. Basically my speculation is that the ki uses the energy to pass the vibrations of the grass and your body weight colliding together straight into a deep part of the ground. Since sound is made by vibrations the ki then negates the sound audible by the naked ear. Of course this is my take on it, because ki has always been a confusing concept for modern day scientists.

    Back to the situation at hand:

    ¡°Okay so I just need to feel the energy and release it out of my feet each time it touches the ground?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not that easy, and definitely going to be harder for you.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll figure out soon. I¡¯m going to go eat and be back later to see your progress.¡±

    Ugh, damn old man.

    Sadly I see what he means in the next few minutes.

    I already know how to push the ki in my body wherever the hell I want to, so I¡¯ve got that covered. So, taking off at a slow jog and then running, I ¡®emit¡¯ the energy from my feet and visualize it going through the grass and to the ground. And it did.

    I created a 4-ft long radius and 1-ft deep crater where I pushed off, causing me to trip on my face and eat dirt.

    For once I think that having too much power is annoying.

 Chapter 6: Step and Glide

    Hey guys, here is the new chapter that is a preparation of sorts in the storyline. Hope you like it! :D

    -------------

    -----After a lot of cursing and craters-----

    Finally I can run using ¡®Gliding Steps¡¯ however when I start out I still make a crater. Since I have to push off and lean to get speed for the start it pushes down on the impact the strongest compared to the following steps. Vandel wants me to learn through practice and make take it in ¡®strides¡¯ at least that¡¯s what he says. Damn old man.

    Doing many retries gives me an idea based on what the body already naturally does when running. Using my toes I extend the skin another 2 inches (barefoot this time) and sink it down into the ground to use as traction for a swift take-off. I make sure to leave the ground in an almost untouched state by retracting the skin during when I pull out of the ground. It works great. Like my own version of track shoes!

    After tuning my legs-that¡¯s what I will call it now-with the meditation technique is the final test for this.

    ¡°So do you think you can catch me no-¡° [Vandel]

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    Before he could finish his sentence I appear before him almost instantly causing his face to distort in shock. However he is truly a master because at the next moment before I can get to him he also uses ¡®Gliding Steps¡¯ to evade.

    ¡°Tsk, quick old bag of bones.¡±

    Although he doesn¡¯t know that I am only at half speed. I¡¯m wearing a big pair of sweat pants crafted by Melody. Yes, she can do that. And other things with her hands, teehee.

    Okay getting back on topic, under these sweat pants are the weights he made me use for the last month and some. And

    I¡¯m about to get the reaction I¡¯ve been waiting for.

    -----Vandel P.O.V.------

    Hmph this kid thinks he can catch up to me? He hasn¡¯t even gained that much speed since he started practicing ¡®Gliding Steps¡¯. Still not at master level. It took me 5 years to master this technique. I could run circles around this brat. Time to put him back in his pla-

    *Clank* *Clank* *Clank*

    What the fuck?! Where did he get the third one? There are only one per leg!

    -----Jared P.O.V.-------

    Yep, that face is priceless. It looks like someone took a shit, put it in a box and used Christmas wrapping paper with a bowtie, then placed it under the tree for the kid intended just to open it with the stink permeating throu-okay maybe I¡¯m getting a bit carried away, but you get the idea. Well if you don¡¯t, its similar to escaping a an underground prison after 30 years then realizing the whole time you were on an island in the pacific with sharks in the surrounding waters. Despair.

    He thought he was training a dog, when it turned out to be a wolf.

    Oh and the third weight was my own invention just for today. Weighted underwear. I had to make sure it didn¡¯t stand out but still serve its purpose of shocking him. Now that I have my weights off it feels like stretching after a long nap/

    *Whooosh*

    ¡°What are you staring at?¡±

    I appear next to him standing casually with my hand over my eyes acting like I¡¯m trying to see something in the distance.

    I¡¯m faster than he is and it feels good. Hey call me an immature kid if you want, I don¡¯t care.

    ¡°W-well you have passed¡­even though my pride has already flown miles away, I¡¯ll just have to accept it. And it¡¯s time you get what your father used when he was adventuring the continent.¡±

    Saying that, he heads into the castle, returning a few minutes later. Holding in his hands is something that looks like a wetsuit. Except they are in clothing shape. Skin tight t-shirt, leggings, socks, even underwear. He also has boots that I assume are made of the same material.

    ¡°This is the morph-suit created by your ancestors and used for all of the morphers for the last centuries. It will stretch as far as you can. Conform to anything you alter. Usually the previous owners would only wear the socks and underwear.

    Mostly because using the fabric makes it hard to use your skin as a sharp weapon or anything that needs to be sharp. The boots do the same, so you can just wear them instead of the socks. However I will leave you with all of it to do what you wish.¡±

    ¡°Are you serious? This is amazing!¡± I was wondering what I was going to do about ripping boots.

    ¡°Yep and you can wear it whenever you want. Melody also told me to give you this.¡±

    He grabs a coat out of his satchel. It looks like what Sherlock Holmes would wear. A black trenchcoat that covers my arms so no one will be able to see my black/red strands along my arms. It¡¯s comfortable and has many pockets on the inside for later use.

    ¡°Wow I¡¯m really going to have to thank her for making this.¡±

    ¡°And last but not least, something from me.¡±

    He puts his hand in back in his bag to grab a black ring.

    ¡°Now this is a interspacial ring that you can store items in. It¡¯s got enough space to last you forever. I already gave up ownership of it so all you have to do is emit your ki into it and it will fuse with you until you wish to give up ownership or you die. All you have to do to check what is inside is think about opening it up in your mind.¡± He then walks away before I can thank him.

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    I can just imagine what scientists on Earth would give to study something like this. I quickly fuse it and check what¡¯s inside. Survival tools, ninja uniforms, bundles of wood, throwing knives and stars, dry food rations, and a single book. I put my new clothes in the ring and then take out the book to see what it is. After all, books are a wealth of knowledge.

    ¡®Elemental ki¡¯ is the name. It¡¯s interesting, because as I read through it, it talks about using ki emission to create different elements. Like lightning for example. Or you could make some something combust then explode when you attack someone, or from mid-range and throw it. It¡¯s just like how mages use spells, however it¡¯s chantless and there is so much more versatility and options for attacks. What sets ki practitioners apart from mages is evolving.

    Mages are born with a set amount of mana and cannot increase it no matter what they do. Granted, they can buy accessories to use as back-up mana, but such things are over the top expensive. Ki practitioners can cultivate their ki supply making it stronger and easier to do certain attacks.

    Going back to what I was saying about versatility is a project I have been thinking about for the past few days. The clan has a blacksmith that I have been meaning to talk to. And now that I have this book it makes it possible to go through with the plan.

    I make my way over to the blacksmith whose name is Coren.

    ¡°Coren, can you use a metal that won¡¯t expand when put under intense heat after being shaped when molded?¡±

    ¡°Yessir it¡¯s called Crontium!¡±

    He motions me over to black metal ingots sitting by the anvil. Just what I need. After telling him to start heating them up to melting point, I take out some of the firewood made from the hard elven trees and lay them on the ground. Using ki and my morphing skin, I form a inside out version of a revolver cylinder and press it into the wood to create a mold.

    Yes, I¡¯m creating a gun. Only one though, because this will take forever. Also the bullets will take longer and the barrel too.

    When created I¡¯m only going to use it for something I cannot kill without my morphing abilities. After all, when given such powers, why use a gun the whole time?

    After many failed attempts and re-melting I finally create all of the parts of a revolver. The revolver is a little bit longer than a snub-nose since that is the longest I could extend my skin using the mold. Now that I have the parts I assemble I together and take a second to admire my work hehe. But it¡¯s still too soon to celebrate. Creating the mold for the bullets was an even more daunting task. It took many tries and calculations to create a suitable bullet and casing mold that was as close to perfect as possible. However now it is finished after a whole week and a ton of cursing from Coren about the ¡®devils device¡¯.

    And if you¡¯re wondering about how I used a propellant to shoot the gun, it goes back to the ki combustion. I just use the combustion instead of gunpowder.

    Just as I get it perfected and create a few boxes of ammo with 100 rounds each and store them in my space ring-yes that¡¯s what I¡¯m going to call it-Vandel and Knife call for a clan meeting.

    ¡°Clan Head, while you have been training, we elders have come up with a great idea to better enlighten you for when we prepare to come out of hiding and make our presence known.¡± [Knife]

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me there¡¯s another mountain to be scaled?¡±

    ¡°Hey, that helped you get stronger and you know it, brat!¡± [Vandel]

    ¡°Vandel, not now, we need to tell the Clan Head of our plan!¡± [Knife]

    ¡°As I was saying, the plan is to send you to the Human territory to become and adventurer! Doesn¡¯t it sound great?¡±

    ¡°Uh, I guess. But you don¡¯t expect me to go alone right?¡± Adventurer? Kind of clich¨¦, old man.

    ¡°Of course not, your members have already been decided!¡± Hey, hey didn¡¯t you ask me whether I wanted to do this or not?

    You already had it planned. Oh well.

    ¡°Just tell him who it is you idiot! [Vandel]

    ¡°Alright alright, it¡¯s going to be Drake, one of his officers, and lady Melody.¡± [Knife]

    ¡°Hmmm can I also bring Ally?¡±

    ¡°Clan Head I would advise against bringing a slave on the journey, it¡¯s going to be perilous.¡± [Knife]

    Oh they actually started warming up to her! That¡¯s great!

    ¡°I agree Knife, if a slave dies then that¡¯s a waste of free labor.¡± [Vandel]

    ¡°Exactly.¡± [Knife]

    Or not.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry I can protect her. I¡¯m sure she¡¯s not totally helpless either.¡±

    ¡°As you wish sir.¡± [Knife] & [Vandel]

    Time to visit the land of traitors!

 Chapter 7: Experimental Success

    Hey sorry about the late arrival guys. Anyways I hope you enjoy hehe :D

    Warning: Mature

    -------------------

    -------Before the trip-------

    ¡°Clan Head can I talk to you for a second? In private?¡± [Knife]

    As we are packing for the trip and I¡¯m loading one of the horses, Knife walks over to me with an expression I haven¡¯t seen before. He has a serious face which is kind of unsettling. So I follow him to a room in a building opposite of the stables.

    ¡°Sure, what is it that has you so uptight?¡±

    Making sure no one is around he looks back at me before beginning.

    ¡°Well the thing is, Vandel and I have been in the circle of elders for the longest time and have seen many things. We also understand that if the clan is to announce ourselves we will be demolished like what happened in the war. The real motive for this ¡®adventure¡¯ is for you and the others to secure connections with some of the humans, both magi and warrior to side with us.

    The only way this can happen is because our spies have been reporting that one of the human kingdoms have been flaunting wealth and disregarding the common populace. Nobles and the royal family don¡¯t give a rat¡¯s ass about the taxes they impose, no matter the price. Usually this wouldn¡¯t work because of a sort of checks and balances. The other two human kingdoms would step in should they get out of line. However the king and the royal family has bribed the other adjacent human kingdoms to not intervene.

    This has to do with our situation. If we can get individuals who want to either leave the kingdom or set it straight by violent means, then we will have allies. Think of yourself as an undercover ambassador of sorts. You can start at that place, the Kingdom of Durst, and join the adventurer guild to gain contacts and allies to aid us. The guild is the best option because the adventurer¡¯s hate the nobles just as much as the common folk. Nobles see the guild as a nuisance because they cannot directly control the guild, so they instead use underhanded tactics that work well.

    Now it might be hard to mask yourself so no one knows you use ki. However if you use absorption attacks then people will just think you are strong warriors. Or you specifically can use the ¡®Elemental ki¡¯ technique that Vandel gave you which will seem like any magic spell. Just use it in moderation.¡±

    This was a lot to take in. But first is one thing that doesn¡¯t add up.

    ¡°Why would Vandel agree to this? Wasn¡¯t he the one who was yelling about rushing in headfirst and attacking the humans?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it did seem that way at first, however as we are the two elders with the most power or say in matters, it would be less suspicious if one of us always disagreed with the other. If we were to both think that we should stay holed up in this castle all the time, then the others might get wind of our idea and probably be kicked out of the circle. Better safe than sorry.¡±

    ¡°Okay I understand, we are going to leave in a few minutes, thank you and Vandel for all of your help the past month.¡±

    After we both shook hands, I exited the building and went to meet with everyone back at the stables.

    -------Leaving for the trip-------

    The horses are similar to Earth¡¯s however are larger in size also making it easier to pack more things onto them.

    Technically I had enough stuff in my space ring to not even need anything, however the others still needed things so they used my horse too.

    Melody is dressed in a leather outfit that shows off her beautiful curves. And I think she knows that too because I might have been staring too much. Ally was in a casual outfit the servants wear. Drake was in leather armor much to his chagrin. He likes the ninja outfit better, but that isn¡¯t normal in the human kingdom apparently. His officer whose name is Tara. I have seen her before in her ninja suit but now that she is also in a leather outfit like Melody, I can see her stunning looks too. Blond hair and pericing blue eyes that look like they see right through you. Similar to Drake¡¯s. She looks like someone who would kill you just for staring at her breasts. Thank god I¡¯m the Clan Head or else my family jewels would not be intact. She didn¡¯t seem to mind as much.

    ¡°Clan hea-¡° [Drake]

    ¡°Drake you need to start calling me by my name Jared. Calling me by my title will just bring unwanted attention.¡±

    He didn¡¯t look pleased at all but relented nonetheless.

    ¡°Well we should probably get moving. The village nearest to us is 10 days away on horseback.¡± [Drake]

    Hm, that¡¯s pretty far away. It gives me time to spend with Melody on the way though. Hopefully there might be some monsters too since the only thing I have killed so far is Porky. Well I have killed a lot of time in my room with Melody but that¡¯s a different subject altogether.

    Without another word we all saddle up and leave the castle behind. I¡¯m ready to leave these damn trees behind. Our trip for the first 10 days is going over a small mountain that was next to the mountain where I trained my ass off.

    When we set up camp Ally would do the cooking, Drake and Tina would hunt, while Melody and I would spar against each other. No I¡¯m not talking about that kind of spar, we would actually hone our skills next to the camp. It was a few days ago when I learned that Melody was a fighter on the level of Drake.

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    A simple story actually, but one where I learned an important lesson. When I woke up in my bed instead of the usual morning kiss on both heads, she walked in with a tray of food and a drink. Happy to oblige, I ate the food and she said she was the one who tried making it for me to see if I liked it. I would have been smart enough to shut up and endure the horrible tasting food, however it was so nasty I completely forgot my surroundings and started trying to choke it back up and yelling curses and silent apologies to my taste buds. The next thing I know there are 5 shurikens stuck to the bed¡¯s headboard, pinning my shirt in an outline of my body. Then I feel really guilty about what I did while at the same time thankful for still being alive. Needless to say I didn¡¯t get any that night. Ah yes, the important lesson: Don¡¯t upset a woman that is so dangerous that it makes America¡¯s nukes look like bottle rockets.

    Anyways most of the day is spent with us on alert for any mishaps that could occur. All of us except for Ally of course, spread our ki to check our surroundings at all times. We would rather not be ambushed by some bandits unknowingly.

    Even though there are very few bandits because it¡¯s almost impossible to find Elf cities, there are still some who wish to get lucky on some unsuspecting merchants.

    Speak of the devil, there is a group waiting to ambush us only after our second day of journey. I signal everyone to stop, even though they already knew, it was more for Ally¡¯s sake. It¡¯s time to welcome my new test subjects for my recent body strength enhancements.

    ¡°Get out here ya dipshits, we know your there!¡± Hey, gotta sound intimidating every once in a while. Drake looks at me and smirks at my attempt to look like a badass. Yep it didn¡¯t have an effect on the people I know.

    I try to not show my damaged pride as the bandits stroll out from the bushes unaware that they are about to meet their end. The one who leads the group of 5 seems to be the leader, and looks like a human. The others I can¡¯t see the faces of since they have masks on. The leader with a large stature stops about 10 meters away from us with a grin on his face that looks like he just finished disposing of the weak babies in Sparta.

    ¡°Hum, good job at sensing we were there, you don¡¯t seem like merchants, but that matters not. Just give me all of your money and the three women. Maybe we will let you go after we make you watch us as we defile them in front of you, hehehe.¡±

    This gives his minions a laugh while I¡¯m gripping the reins like it would be his throat, and grinding my teeth at the same time. I look over to Melody, Ally and Tara who have an obvious face of disgust plastered on them. Without even answering the bandit rapist, I jump off of my horse and land on the ground close to him.

    Not even caring about keeping my identity secret I immediately form both of my hands into claws with talons that would probably make Talonbane proud. The expression of fear on the leader¡¯s face is proof that I¡¯ve done a good job.

    After letting him admire my sharp creations I use ¡®Gliding Steps¡¯ to zoom in front of him and surprisingly he raises his arms to block my incoming shredding. Unfortunately for him his arms are now stumps, as the other half of his arms fall to the ground with a satisfying *thud*.

    ¡°What are you waiting for you useless fucks?! Attack him!¡± He yells in a half angry, half scared voice.

    Sensing the oncoming attacks from the other 4 I quickly evade backwards leaving a trail of failed sword thrusts and slashes. Suddenly one of them is riddled with throwing knives like a porcupine and falls over twitching until finally frozen and dead.

    Since the bandits are standing stunned at what happened to their cohort, I take this opportunity to finish off Stumpy.

    Right as I get to him though I feel a sharp pain in my back, telling me that I was too careless to watch behind me. One of the bandits got a good slash on me, sending me into rage-driven back kick with my leg transformed into a stake. My pseudo-stake leg pierces his heart before he has time to react with the point appearing out of the back.

    Retracting and reforming my leg I pull it out of where his heart used to be, leaving a gaping hole with the ends of the ribs peeping through the inside of the hole. My mind fully driven by bloodlust, turns back to the handicap leader who still has face of shock similar to my first encounter with the grenade thrower back on Earth. Sporting an evil grin, I grab the top of his head with my now regular hand, like a basketball and clench his skull. In an instant I extend all of my fingers piercing his head like a pin cushion, watching as his eyes cloud over while blood trickles down his forehead making me laugh sinisterly. Sometimes I get a bit too into this. After extracting my bloody finger nails and wiping it on his shirt I deliver a final strike to the jugular just because he threatened to rape the woman I love.

    After taking in my surroundings and noticing the other 3 lying on the ground with their throats also gone and tracheas sitting next to them. The adrenaline high stops and my normal feelings return back to me along with the smell of bandit remains wafting through the air. Drake is standing above one of the bandits smiling like he won a billion dollars.

    ¡°All in a day¡¯s work.¡± [Drake]

 Chapter 8: Ignorance

    Hello, this time it''s a smaller chapter than usual, sorry about that. Oh and if anyone would like to talk to me about making a cover photo for this novel, it would be much appreciated. I''ll make sure all credit goes to you too, so don''t worry lol

    Anyways I hope you enjoy! :D

    -----------------

    -----During the night of the 4th day of trip to village-----

    Where am I? Right now surrounding me is a large forest however it is very different from the Elf forest. The trees are wider and taller. They look similar to the redwood trees in California. The forest gives off and eerie feeling since there is no background noise such as birds chirping.

    Deciding to try and figure out what is going on, I walk around observing the strange area. Suddenly I feel an immense pressure that stops me in my tracks. Along with a rough but old voice insinuating wisdom beyond what one could imagine.

    ¡°You are in my realm. The first morpher to enter since my master Bane.¡± [???]

    Master? Does that mean this is the voice of Talonbane? If so that means when I went to sleep I entered his realm somehow, but I don¡¯t remember doing this on purpose.

    ¡°Yes you are correct, I am Talonbane, very good observation. However I have no way to enter your realm, or world

    Draastifar. As for why you are able to enter my realm unlike your predecessors it is quite simple. When you were on Earth, your body was naturally absorbing the ki of your surroundings. Yes, I know about Earth ho ho ho. Anyways, on Earth there is many times more ki compared to Draastifar. Draastifar is thick with mana compared to Earth. Conversely, ki is less permeated on Draastifar than on Earth.

    Another thing you should know is that those two elders and the other clan members don¡¯t realize that mages have evolved tenfold compared to when the Race-Rift War happened. Their spies didn¡¯t realize that, thus the incorrect information fed. It shames me how idiotic they could be in their observations.¡± [Talonbane]

    Right after that a bird swooped down and landed before me. Calling it a mere bird is an insult though. It was probably the size of what a dragon looked like. Its talons were red and its feathers black. The eyes were a piercing red that looked like in its eyes you were just a measly cockroach. The terror that it emitted could probably make someone go into shock and die. It opened it huge beak and spoke:

    ¡°Do not worry Jared, you are not going to be my dinner, I have no need to eat ho ho ho.¡± [Talonbane]

    I make an audible gulp that I swear could echo through the silent forest. Getting over my initial shock and checking to make sure I didn¡¯t soil myself I ask:

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®evolved¡¯?¡±

    He shows what probably would be a face of anger if he were human before explaining.

    ¡°After the war, the kingdom¡¯s finally got their peace and began to focus on magic and different applications for it since their mana pool cannot be expanded. Over time they created different constructs to help them in battle.

    Before the war they had golems of course, however those were few and far between. The mages would have to first create the golems which wasn¡¯t that difficult but it was the controlling of the golems that would be difficult. The magi would have to be very close the golem at all times, to focus their mana and channel it to make it move. Thus I would make it easy for the enemy to just fire an arrow or get close to the weak magi and kill him, thereby making the golem just a useless sculpture.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    Now though, the Mages Guild has figured out how to take the crystal¡¯s dropped by monsters in dungeons and infuse their mana into them, creating a sentient golem that will follow the mages orders. It will go around and kill the enemy without the need for mana channeling.

    Another new way the mages have evolved is spirit animal summoning. Mages could always summon a spirit to aid them but the spirit would only stay insubstantial and give you certain ¡®blessings¡¯ to increase your power for a small amount of time. Nowadays when you first bind yourself to a spirit animal they figured out how to bind part of it to an item. The item-like an accessory-can call the spirit animal into our world in a material being, instead of an insubstantial being. Thus magi can summon wolves, scorpions, even a Minotaur or in very rare cases a dragon.

    Still, do not fear, your own potential for evolving is greater than a mage. You have only reached the tip of the iceberg. I am reminding you to never underestimate your opponent. There is one final piece of knowledge I must impart upon you. Whether you will act upon it is your choice.¡± [Talonbane]

    Talonbane pauses to let all of this information sink in before he continues.

    ¡°I am not the last of my kind. I have a child that still lies dormant in an egg, waiting for another Bane descendent to raise her. Unfortunately she is a half-blood of my race. She will still be powerful when growing up, just not as much as I was.¡± [Talonbane]

    What?! Another Talonbane? Wait a minute, half-blood? Then who, I mean what did he screw?

    Talonbane looks at me then chuckles. Oh shit it forgot he can read my mind.

    ¡°Ho ho ho, it was a long time ago and I barely remember it. But not because it was so long ago, but because I was wasted during a festival and saw a bird that was probably the most beautiful avian creature ever! So I went over and shov-well sorry, this old bird sometimes forgets to stop blabbering.

    Regardless, should you decide to help hatch and raise her, I shall bestow you the knowledge of where she is. You only need to focus in your mind on wanting to locate her, and it will show you the direction needed to take. This should be good enough for our first meeting, I will keep in touch with you occasionally. Plus, you currently have a woman that is ravaging your manhood, so I won¡¯t keep you any longer, ho ho ho.¡±

    After thanking Talonbane, he taps my forehead with one of his talons, giving me the directions on where to locate his daughter.

    After that the creepy forest and the wise bird fades into non-existence while my eyes open to see melody doing a number of stimulating things to my area, while giving me a sexy bewitching smile. Life is good.

    Now my main objective also has a side objective:

    -Secretly gather forces through the Adventurers Guild in Durst to help make it easier for when the Bane Clan enters the world stage.

    -Recover Talonbane¡¯s daughter to help raise.

    Another thing I need to do is reconsider my strength now that I learned from Talonbane about the spirit animals and golems. Ignorance in this case is anything but bliss. Time to continue the journey!

 Chapter 9: Training and Contemplation

    Okay I got a new chapter for you all.

    By the way, the story is going to get a bit darker as far as the MC''s emotions go. I mean he is not going to turn into someone who doesn''t have feelings and no morals, he''s just gonna embrace the evil.

    So if you don''t like gore and dark themes, you should probably stop before you read.

    Anways, hope you enjoy :D

    -----------------

    ------7th day of trip------

    After thinking about whether I should just find Talonbane¡¯s daughter first or not, I think it would be better to grab her first.

    There¡¯s a few reasons for this.

    1.) She will be a great help in later battles. Just think about a black bird descending from the sky and slicing people to ribbons.

    2.) I need to stay on Talonbanes good side. Maybe he can give me some powers or something so I can get stronger personally. Since I am about to get stronger as a group with his daughter.

    3.) I have always wanted a pet bird.

    There is one thing that has been bothering me for the past few days though¡­what do I name her? It¡¯s going to be hard to name her something serious. All of my past ones have been evidence that I can¡¯t come up with a serious name

    For example, Porky, Stumpy? What¡¯s next? Birdy? Not if I don¡¯t want to incur the wrath of her homicidal father who is on a god¡¯s level. Most likely he will give me god-realm nightmares for the rest of my life. I just hope she isn¡¯t bird-brained.

    Who knows, maybe he screwed a parrot and I¡¯m going to have a chorus every time I go into battle. ¡®Prepare to die asshole!¡¯¡­¡¯*Chirp* Prepare to die asshole *Chirp*¡¯. If that happened I wouldn¡¯t mind calling her Polly and receiving nightmares till death.

    Anyways, I¡¯ll cross that bridge when I get there. Using the technique Talonbane told me about, the mental ¡®GPS¡¯ tells me it is in the direction of the village we are originally heading to.

    These past few days Drake has starting teaching me swordsmanship with both my morphing and an actual sword. The sword he is teaching me to use is very similar to the Japanese wakizashi. The reason for this is because not all the time will I be able to use morphing. Furthermore, if I am facing more than one or two opponents, the sword can be faster than fists. Also when I morph my arms into swords its about the same length as the wakizashi.

    And if I thought Vandel was a sadist, then I was ¡®sorely¡¯ mistaken. Drake is a good teacher but he goes into drill-sergeant-mode, never even complimenting when I do something good. I can see the look in Tara¡¯s eyes, it¡¯s like ¡®Don¡¯t worry Clan

    Head, I¡¯ve been there, just endure.¡¯ Ugh, Tara¡¯s such a saint. Unfortunately this training impedes on my nightly sessions with Melody. Massages from her is about all I get. Eh, take what you can get. Drake¡¯s drill sergeant voice breaks me out of my late night fiasco flashback.

    ¡°ATTACK ME YOU MORON-MORPHING-MAGGOT! REMEMBER NO FLASHY MOVEMENTS!! THIS ISN¡¯T SINGLES NIGHT AT A WHORE HOUSE YOU GODDAMN MOUNTAIN MONKEY!!! YOU GOTTA MAKE SURE YOU EVADE FAST ENOUGH TOO!! UNLESS YOU CAN EVADE AS FAST AS MY EX-WIFE WHEN I KNOCKED HER UP THEN WE WILL BE HERE ALL DAY, UNDERSTAND DIPSHIT?!¡±

    Well most of the time it is like this but he does also give good advice every once in a while. Except the trade-off is listening to his life story that could probably be made as a series of books if written down. However the book would definitely need to be in the +18 age section.

    Back to the story though, after 3 days of torturous sword training, added with my perfect memory along with my inherent reflexes, I got fairly good. Still, I would rather just gather ki, convert it to flame on my morphed hybrid hands and go postal just forgetting about swords. Alas, I cannot do so because of the consequences that follow.

    Since coming here, every time I kill something/someone I get less and less emotionally perturbed. It¡¯s like my feelings are swaying towards more callous and even to the point of enjoying the bloodbath during battles.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Does that make me crazy? Maybe it¡¯s the part of me that wants control. My whole life was under the strict supervision of Gramps, and not allowed to step foot near towns. I had no say in it, and I had no say in his death. I was confined my whole life and didn¡¯t have a choice.

    Now I can punch through someone¡¯s ribcage, and crush their heart with my right hand, while morphing my left hand into clamps to grab his intestines. Then pull the intestines out along with the rest of his bowels, take the small intestines and play jump-rope while his buddies are gazing in horror.

    After that grab his friend by the head an lift him up, then hold him there and twist his body to see how many rotations it takes for neck to break apart, dropping the body to the floor. Or I could use my sword and aim for all of one of the guy¡¯s tendons so he can¡¯t stand or even move his arms. Hehehe

    Shit there I go again, delving into my own gore-galaxy.

    Finally we ride up to the village on the 10th day just like we expected. It¡¯s larger than I expected with stone walls. Stone walls are usually only in cities, but I guess there are earth mages that can whip up an anti-monster wall in quick time.

    There are two guards at the gate that look like they would have better chance of discerning moles from freckles rather than thieves from common citizens. Not to mention the amount of fat they have is enough for two winters. I think I¡¯m going to have to name them Porky Version II.

    The Porky v2¡¯s finally see us after their nose gold mine excavation. Judging by their reaction, they weren¡¯t successful.

    Great, now I have to talk to an angry Porky v2 and try not to morph my hand into a knife and slice his nose off thereby cut off his gold supply forever.

    ¡°Eh? Who the hell are you and what are you coming here for?¡± [first Porky v2]

    He glances at me for maybe a millisecond before snapping his eyes to the other three women¡¯s mountain ranges. Why can¡¯t I find someone that thinks with the head on top of their shoulders and not the one between the legs! Actually that sounds somewhat impossible unless they are gay.

    Also for the record Drake doesn¡¯t stare at any breasts in our group. There¡¯s a damn good reason for that. But that¡¯s a wife torture story for another time. I digress.

    Trying to hold my temper in I respo-

    ¡°Fucking human who do you think you¡¯re talking to? I¡¯ll give you three new assholes so more men can gangbang you when I throw you in a dungeon!¡± [Drake]

    Ugh, Drake and his filthy mouth I swear, it¡¯s going to get us arrested someday, if not today, that is. And we have a dungeon? Makes sense. Well, I decide to try and salvage the conversation as best I can so I can go and rest in an inn and take a hot bath.

    Releasing my pressure and bloodlust to a height just enough to keep them awake and frozen--but unfortunately their bowels decide to run away without their vessel¡ªI kindly ask, with underlying tone of venom:

    ¡°Kind sirs, we need to enter this village for rest, so if you would kindly let us in, then we will kindly take our leave before you find yourself in a ¡®sticky¡¯ situation in the bottom of a dungeon.¡±

    I had to emphasize the ¡®kind¡¯ part to make it sound like I wasn¡¯t two seconds away from chopping their limbs off and making a new doormat from the poor Porky v2¡¯s.

    Yep I¡¯m definitely going off the deep end. It¡¯s just those type of people that piss me off. Turning back my attention to the matter at hand, I notice the matter that left them since I put too much ki pressure on the horndogs. Ew, I just need to get this over with and find an inn.

    ¡°A-ah of c-c-course, milords, please e-enter!¡± [second Porky v2] He opens the gate then bows. First Porky v2 is still frozen in fright like a sculpture.

    Kakakaka, with a grin on my face we enter the village after our 10 day journey. Tomorrow we will go find the egg to hatch.

    Huhuhuhu I almost wish it was Easter.

    I look behind me and Ally is giving me that stare that says ¡®Did you really have to make them piss?¡¯

 Chapter 10: Swift Action

    Apologies on the late arrival guys. This chapter is a little bit longer if that helps?

    Hope you guys enjoy it! :D

    Warning: Mature

    ---------------

    -------Entering the village heading to the inn-----

    I¡¯m looking around the village like a child at an amusement park. I mean this is stuff out of books! Minus the shit on the road and the occasional stray dog peeing next to a beggar. Poor beggar, he¡¯s going to have to find a new vacant street corner.

    To brighten his day I fish a Draastifarian silver coin out of my space ring in my most inconspicuous manner possible.

    Trying my best to put on a friendly smile I toss a coin to the beggar in hopes of him catching it. Maybe the worst throw ever in my life. The coin misses by a wide margin and rolls into the puddle the dog left. But I realize the beggar is blind and then he follows the noise of the coin hitting the ground and rolling towards the liquid, then you can guess the rest¡­

    Melody looks at the beggar then at me, holding her laughter. Eh, she doesn¡¯t seem to have as much remorse as me.

    ¡°fufufu Jared I¡¯m not sure whether he¡¯s lucky or not. Maybe you should have let me throw it to him.¡± [Melody]

    Uh, yeah I have definitely seen enough of her accuracy. And I¡¯d rather not again. There are still holes in the headboard of my bed. Holding my shoulders I tell her ¡®no thanks¡¯ before we finally arrive at our destination. ¡®The Hunchback Hearth¡¯.

    That sounds like a Witch¡¯s house. If this wasn¡¯t a village I¡¯m pretty sure I would hear an old lady cackling, along with and angry mob with torches and pitchforks. Well, who knows, maybe in this world witches are actually a type of mage that doesn¡¯t trap little children for immortality and instead heals people with spice and everything nice?¡­Psh, that would be as crazy as saying Drake is able to have a conversation without spewing curses. Impossible right?

    Anyways we open the door to the inn which is has a ¡®hearty¡¯ atmosphere. All is good until¡­

    ¡°Clan hea-Jared, we are finally away from the shit-filled road, my apologies for making you go through that.¡± [Drake]

    All I could do is facepalm as the whole room goes silent with all eyes on us and very angry expressions visible. I try to at least keep from starting an all-out brawl that would end in a massacre,

    ¡°Ah, Drake they can¡¯t help it, the village is poor and they can¡¯t afford something like a sewage system. It¡¯s not their fault.¡±

    Oh I just made it worse. Leave it to the guy that has zero social experience. Time for plan B, ¡®action speaks louder than words¡¯. I pull out my pistol from my specially made holster-thanks Melody-and fire a round into the ground (Can¡¯t fire into the ceiling, don¡¯t want too much damage). Hm, maybe is used the phrase in the wrong context, but it still did the job.

    The ki pressure mixed with my pissed of face and topped with the foreign weapon brings the silence much needed. Next phase of plan B:

    ¡°Where is the person who can get us some rooms?¡± Again, with my best smile of course.

    ¡°Over here young¡¯un. Put that goddamn loud metal piece away first.¡± [???]

    In the doorway behind the counter appears a person exactly what the inn¡¯s name would describe. A hunchback. I stare with the ¡®amazed child¡¯ eyes before snapping back to reality. And he doesn¡¯t give his name so I¡¯ll pick Hunchback. I walk over to Hunchback while receiving the many glares of the dining crowd we had just made fun of¡­

    ¡°I would like two rooms please. For one night too.¡±

    Reason? Drake, Tara, and Ally in one room, and Melody and I in the other. I already tried to invite Ally into our room earlier but Melody doesn¡¯t trust her. Or is it just possessiveness? For my own self-safety my mind told me not to inquire further. Not if I didn¡¯t want to get some tonight also hehe.

    Hunchback eyes me for a second, probably trying to figure out who¡¯s pairing with who. I¡¯ll let his(?) imagination run wild.

    ¡°That will be 3 silver, kid. And meals are included¡± [Hunchback]

    I hand the coins over before Drake can cause any ruckus about something like ¡®Clan Hea-Jared should stay here for free, be thankful we don¡¯t shank you.¡¯ Although it sounds harsh I wouldn¡¯t put it past the guy. He is still getting over like 3 ex-wives, so he is as tense as a pimp in a police station.

    Then, since we haven¡¯t eaten yet we go to the corner of the inn and pick a booth to sit at. Mostly because I¡¯m hungry and also because it would be good to hear what is going on locally. As if on cue a big bearded muscular numb-skull stands up and shouts around his ¡®minions¡¯,

    ¡°The baron thinks he can make us adventurers pay for entrance into the village? And he expects us to just dish out money like a fucking banker? Are we going to stand for this shit?!¡± {numb-skull]

    ¡°NO!¡± [minions]

    Woah that¡¯s loud. Where is the Hunchback mediator when you need one? This is actually interesting to watch though. Medieval rebellion? ¡®Stick it to the man¡¯? Maybe finding allies in the human kingdom might not be as hard as I thought.

    ¡°That¡¯s right! Those nobles and their schemes for making us bow down and lick their pretty boots won¡¯t work on us!¡± [numb-skull]

    ¡°OHHH!¡± [minions]

    Heh, more power to ya big guy. I think he is about to go overboard though.

    ¡°Those nobles are just a bunch of bitches that think they own our pockets like a sex-slave! How about we raid the Baron¡¯s house and sell him to a slave trader and see how it feels to be a sex-slave! What the hell does he know about being a sex-slave?!¡± [numb-skull(formally male sex-slave)]

    ¡°¡­¡± [minions]

    Trust me the inferred revelation is not what brought the instantaneous silence.

    While numb-skull was ranting he didn¡¯t notice at the end a young man entering the inn with two guards behind him. The young man was wearing expensive gaudy clothes that hinted towards being nobility. And added the fact there is guards following points toward the ¡®Baron¡¯ that numb-skull was mentioning.

    Unfortunately the big guy during his glory speech was facing away from the door so he had no idea that he just plotted a kidnapping and selling of a noble. Well there goes any hopes of finding allies in this place.

    Oh and furious doesn¡¯t even begin to describe the facial expression on Mr. Baron¡¯s face.

    ¡°What the hell did you just say peasant?¡± [???]

    Numb-skull looks like he just woke up in his wife¡¯s bedroom with a different woman, caught in the act. Turning on his heels he stutters,

    ¡°U-uhh Lord Godwinn I-I-I didn¡¯t mean that last part about the sex-slav-¡° [numb-skull]

    Before he can get that last tid bit in the trusty guards are already upon him and ramming him face first into the wall while fastening his hands behind his back.

    ¡°You are arrested for plotting to kidnap the Baron!¡± [trusty guards]

    They then drag him out of the inn while he is yelling and crying for forgiveness. I hear a sentence from Lord Godwinn, something like ¡®Sex-slave eh? Sounds like a good punishment¡­¡¯ that¡¯s when I stop listening. The guards don¡¯t forget to give the minions a menacing glare, hinting for any of them to come up and join their ¡®boss¡¯. They all look around at the floor like they dropped a fork. Hmmm, can always count on friends.

    The commotion dies down after that with just whispers from other tables about what happened. Nothing noteworthy to remember. The whole scene did show how correct Knife was in describing the situation between adventurers and nobles.

    After we are done eating we go upstairs to our rooms to turn in for the night. Drake just snorts when he sees the shit-eating grin on my face as I open the door and Melody follows me into the room.

    The room is normal and bare, sort of like my room back at the cabin on Earth. Just a bed and a desk in the corner with a chair. There is also a small dresser and chest to put items in. While inspecting the interior I didn¡¯t even see Melody take off her clothes until he coughs with an *Ahem*. Now I¡¯m inspecting her body, and after that, well you know¡­

    However I finish quickly because I already have some stuff to do huhuhu.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    -------4 hours later-------

    I have waited for her to go to sleep and so I quietly rise out of bed and slip out through the window. A second floor drop is nothing for my body as I land, roll forwards and use ¡®Gliding Steps¡¯ to blend into the shadows running silently high-speed.

    Before I left the room I also unequipped all of my unnecessary clothes besides my morph-suit and a black balaclava-made by Melody of course hehe.

    http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SqTGa4t0L._UL1500_.jpg</a>

    This stealth errand I¡¯m running is to test how well I can blend into buildings and fight by using my training from ¡®Drill Sergeant Drake¡¯. And where do I test my skills? None other than Lord Godwinn¡¯s estate. Go big or go home.

    Eh, home doesn¡¯t sound too bad, there is Melody and Ally-ugh I¡¯m getting off track here.

    Anyways, getting my head out of the gutter, I find the Baron¡¯s estate-can¡¯t miss it, it¡¯s huge-and see the two guards posted at the entrance of the place. The walls are quite large but nothing I can¡¯t handle. Although it would be possible to jump up to the top of them if I absorb the ki into my legs, I would rather test my combat skills. And what better way than to fight some unsuspecting underpaid, beer-belly guards?

    I sneak up on the one standing to the right of the gate who, fortunately isn¡¯t talking to his buddy next to him. They are about 10 meters apart. It¡¯s a big gate.

    Blending in with the shadow the wall casts, I position myself behind him and slowly unsheathe my wakizashi without making a sound and then drive it straight into his back, piercing his heart while using my other hand to cover his face so he won¡¯t make a sound.

    Knowing that when I move him from his standing position to lay him down will alert the other gate guard, I pull my sword out of his body with grotesque *shliiing* and instantly start moving to the other man. Before he can see the incoming figure that I am, he¡¯s already departed from this world. A quick beheading did the trick.

    Content with my work, I jump the wall and blend back into the shadows. I¡¯m not worried about the guards changing shifts only to realize their buddies are dead and regret that they never paid you back the money they owe. Probably a situation that seems legit. Hey, brothels ain¡¯t cheap. At least that¡¯s what Drake says. No wonder he has 3 ex-wives.

    As I ponder the subject of wages and re-marriages, I dodge a couple of guard patrols and hear the occasional dirty jokes made, I finally see a window on the second story of the mansion. Making sure no one sees me doing my superhuman Olympic high-jump, I easily enter through the window and observe the inside.

    It¡¯s a room that looks like some kind of huge supply closet for the maids. Various tools and such used to clean the building. I pass through the small room and get to the door. Quietly turning the knob and opening the door a crack, I spot no one in the hallways.

    The interior of the hallways is similar to the clan¡¯s castle, just on a smaller scale. The walls have small candles instead of torches, and the inside walls are made of wood instead of the outside and frame made of stone. Stone is more expensive after all in this world. If you had magic it would be no problem, but this backwater village doesn¡¯t have the money for that. At least, doesn¡¯t have the ¡®adventurers money¡¯ I should add.

    Sending my ki-sense out I can sense 3 people in 2 rooms up ahead. Two in one room, I¡¯m guessing the Baron and his wife maybe. The other is most likely another family member. It¡¯s too bad I haven¡¯t developed my ki-sense enough to detect the various life signs for age. To do that have to be able to emit some of my energy in an amount that isn¡¯t monstrous into their body, then bring it back and it will tell me their age, date of birth, and other health information.

    It¡¯s like looking up medical records through a computer from the network. It can be handy at times, but also invasion of privacy, not that it matters I guess. The problem is, if you send too much of your ki into the body it will hurt them. Much like when I can emit ki from my fist punch into their body to cause internal bleeding. So right now I don¡¯t plan on making a person into a human-smoothie just to see if they are a kid or not.

    Back to the situation at hand, I continue down the hall to the room with two people. Just as I am about to arrive, of course a guard has to walk into my ki-sense and I detect him. With nowhere to hide, I pull off one of those ninja moves where you jump up to the ceiling and use your hands and feet to hold yourself in place.

    Yeah, I got the run-down on how to do it when I was finally getting pissed at waking up in the morning and opening my door to see a ninja leap down and bow to me. Scared the living hell out of me every time. Also I didn¡¯t really want to be an ass and command him to stop greeting me every morning, so one day I just opened the door and walked out stark naked. Never saw the guy again.

    Anyways right as the guard is below me I drop like a monkey from a tree-ugh bad memories-on top of him, and snap his neck but grab him before he falls and makes a noise. Now that it¡¯s over, I make my way back to the bedroom the two people are in.

    Slowly opening the door I see Baron Godwinn and a woman asleep in a bed. The plan is to find the keys to their dungeon and free numb-skull. Also to loot anything valuable. Yeah I¡¯m stealing things, but do I care? No, because they are potential enemies and the guy just irks me. And a small part of me that detests what their ancestors did to my clan.

    Wow look at me, here to be a secret ambassador that is supposed to stay impartial and be practical. Yet I¡¯m pissed that something the guy didn¡¯t even do but his ancestors did to us. No human is perfect. I¡¯m far from perfect. Tattoos and bird-blood in my veins and such.

    It takes me a while to find the keys with one of them that looks different from the others. It looks like it would fit in a prison lock. Larger than the others and made of sturdier metal. Not as fine cut as the others. I also ransack their room for any valuables huhuhu.

    It takes me a while to dodge guards and get to the dungeon. I quickly dispatch the two guards that are standing at the entrance. Entering the dungeon, for the most part it¡¯s empty except for a cell at the end of the room. The cell is similar to a huge dog cage and has a solemn looking fellow sitting in it. Oh Numb-skull, how far you have fallen. Life has gone on rewind eh? Once a slave, then free, then a slave again. I also ignore the price tag that is hanging on a thread from one of the bars, and open the lock.

    He sees me finally and speaks up,

    ¡°Hey you¡¯re the guy with the shit-stain servant right? You¡¯re here to save me?¡± [numb-skull]

    Well now I am considering not to¡­

    Trying my best to pull off a smile I reply,

    ¡°No, I¡¯m here to buy you.¡±

    He gives a terrified look as if he was being bought as a slave- erm, maybe I shouldn¡¯t say it that way. Just wanted to spook him.

    ¡°Just kidding, I¡¯m only here because I have nothing else to do besides hack and slash some people.¡±

    Oops that wasn¡¯t much better. He finally calms down and exits the cage. After the both of us exit the dungeon he takes the clothes from a dead guard and puts them on. We both exchange a few words with him thanking me and I tell him my name. He tells me his name but I pretty much stick with my name I decided, I like it better.

    We part ways and I merge with the shadows, leaving as quickly as possible since I have no idea when the dead bodies will be found. It only takes me a few minutes to get back to the outside of ¡®The Hunchback Hearth¡¯ near where my room is. I absorb ki into my legs and hop into my room.

    Unfortunately Melody is sitting on her bed with her legs crossed, and her eyebrow raised. Definitely not happy. Then proceeds to tell me in a quiet but threating tone,

    ¡°You¡¯re going to tell me where you went. And now.¡± [Melody]

    ¡°Guh- Yes ma¡¯am.¡±

    She¡¯s got me whipped.

    ~~~~~~~~~

    AN: Don''t worry I will get to the searching of Talonbane''s daughter. The egg hunt will commence soon teehee

 Chapter 11: Her name is not egg

    Hello, I have the next chapter and I hope you like it...

    ---------------------

    ------After the scolding from Melody/Next morning------

    The tales of my adventures consisting of freeing a former male sex-slave went over well with Melody. Hm, if you call getting chewed out (oops not the best choice of words), ¡®rebuked¡¯ because I didn¡¯t bring her along.

    Maybe my outlook on women is completely wrong compared to Earth. I¡¯m not one of those guys who thinks women should stay in a house and cook me my ¡®sammich¡¯ all day. But when your girlfriend wants to shank people because she hasn¡¯t had the opportunity yet, then it¡¯s a little bit of a shock. That¡¯s what she was mad about. I feel a smidge of pity for her foes. And also respect for anyone who has eaten her food then criticized it and lived to tell the tale.

    Anyways after having to sleep on the floor as my punishment I didn¡¯t get much sleep. So when the sun came up and breakfast was ready I almost plowed down any obstacles in my way to the diner in the common room. Obstacles being a sleepy headed Drake, almost Tara, and the door to my room. R.I.P. ¡®Woody¡¯ the door.

    Now that I have my food I go ahead and sit in the corner table like yesterday night. Only, suddenly a revelation and sense of foreboding hits me! As I¡¯m eating scrambled eggs I think about Talonbane¡¯s daughter! What if she is about to become scrambled eggs! A chef at a restaurant could be making a special omelet for a rich family! Guh, if she becomes a ¡®#1 special with bacon on the side¡¯ I¡¯m going to be killed over and over again in my dreams. Not just that, I won¡¯t have a pet bird¡­

    Tara my saint comes to the rescue,

    ¡°Jared do you not like eggs? The cook probably put a good amount of time into making it, but I think he will understand if you want something else. You need to eat so you¡¯ll stay healthy, we can¡¯t have you run on an empty stomach.¡± [Tara]

    Such simple words but when it comes from her mouth and her weird accent that shouldn¡¯t belong on this world-British by the way-it calms me down. I will smite any who try to take her virginity! Only I can do such thi¡ªum I¡¯m getting off track here hehe. One more thing about her:

    The reason I know she is a virgin is because in our clan, women growing up as ninja keep their purity until training is finished. Around 18. Once they are finished with training, they can either keep being a ninja or do different things among the clan. Staying a ninja they have to remain pure so they can stay focused on their job. When choosing the non-ninja route they don¡¯t have to remain pure.

    For example, Melody used to be a ninja (apparently pretty good, my bed¡¯s headboard and my shirt can testify to that) then she was chosen to be the lady for when the clan head is supposed to return. Thus the reason she rushed in ¡®head¡¯ first¡ªer, rushed in excitedly. My mind is eternally in the gutter. Can¡¯t help it. I¡¯ve tried.

    Also we have talked and it did start out to her as a task that she was prepared for, for a long time, but after a while she admitted that she does have feelings for me. Whether or not that¡¯s true, only time will tell.

    So if I were to compare the two women together, Tara would be like the younger version of Sister Mary from Christian religion, and Melody would be the seductive succubus incarnate. Although I say Sister Mary, it¡¯s wise not to forget that she can also be a ruthless, agile, cold-natured ninja ready to pounce on any target ordered to eliminate.

    But that just shatters my outlook on her caring heart, so I¡¯ll ignore that version of her. As for Melody, thankfully she doesn¡¯t have a whip¡ªas far as I have seen¡ªand also doesn¡¯t see me as a victim for her to suck the life out of. Ahem, as far I have seen of course. Hell, if I had to die making love to her, it wouldn¡¯t be a bad way to go.

    Ally is a complicated case among the three women. Melody sees her as a pet. It¡¯s not that Melody is a bitch, rather, the culture in this world is deeply ingrained with the concept of slavery and indentured servants. I treat Ally as an equal and I think she still has that ¡®Elf pride¡¯ as I call it.

    Sort of like the Japanese. When they were put in internment camps in the U.S. they still held their pride of being Japanese. Of course I wasn¡¯t there to see it, however books have been written about it. Similarly, the pride/honor of the Samurai during the Warring States period.

    Well enough of the minor history lesson, our group of 5 has finished our meal and are heading out of the city to follow my mental EggGPS. If only I could learn how to do this and offer it as a service somehow. I wonder if there is a patent in this world, Gramps never told me. Maybe it could be put to all kind of locations and it would point you there.

    But if I do that and it points the way directly to the destination and tells you to go through a dangerous place and you die then that would suck. Oh, maybe I could put someone¡¯s voice in there to tell you to go around it. Hm, who¡¯s voice though? Melody¡¯s would be too distracting, so probably Tara¡¯s soothing voice hehe. Oh shit Melody is glaring at me. How does she know? Ah, it¡¯s probably the grin on my face.

    Based on the direction EggGPS is telling me to go and also looking at the map I have, it should be in the major city named Rennal. Luckily there is a road leading from the village to the city. That means it will take us about 5 days with horses and probably no monster encounters.

    --------5 days later after using EggGPS--------

    Rennal compared to the village is like comparing a hotel bathroom to a portable toilet at a construction site. Once again I have the childish look of amazement plastered on my face. Furthermore I haven¡¯t seen a single stray dog piss yet!

    The interesting fact about this city is the layout. It¡¯s got 2 sections, one being the nobility, and the other for adventurers.

    Now you may ask where do the middle-class/low-class residents live? In the adventurers side there are inns for long term or permanent stay. It¡¯s similar to apartments on Earth.

    You are considered nobility if you can get a standalone house. Mainly because the standalone houses are more like mansions. Personally as far as how the creators of this city sectioned off the two social castes is probably one of the reasons the two don¡¯t get along. No chance to mingle with each other.

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Anyways my egg senses are telling me that she is in the nobility section. Ugh, and even worse, it¡¯s saying on the farthest side of the section where the Duke lives in his overblown glorified mansion. Just as I¡¯m about to walk over and inspect the place a piece of information from a bystander reaches my ears,

    ¡°Did you hear about the huge survival tournament the duke is going to host?¡± [Gossiping bystander 1]

    ¡°Ah yeah you mean the one where the prize is some kind of weird red egg?¡± [Gossiping bystander 2]

    ¡°I wonder what is inside of it. Oooh if I enter and win I¡¯m totally going to cook it. Sounds yummy.¡± [Gossiping bystander 1]

    ¡°Hell yeah I¡¯m thinking like 3 servings of scrambled eggs or omelets. Maybe even use it to help make a cake?¡± [Hungry bystander]

    ¡°No! I must save Megg!¡± [Me] That sounds like a good name¡­need to hurry and register for this shit.

    ¡°Hey where do I sign up for this?¡± [Me]

    The three of them stop their conversation and inspect our group before saying,

    ¡°You can register over there at that huge tent that has guards with sign-up sheets. Good luck and let me know if you¡¯re going to have a feast with the egg if you win.¡±

    After listening to their evil plans for Megg I tell the others to follow me to the tent where we can register. The tent is quite large. Its colored green and about half of the size of a circus tent. There are people packed inside with several tables that has attendants taking names down.

    Surprisingly the competitors aren¡¯t newbies. There are a lot of veterans mixed in, such as warriors with weapons that look like they have been through several battles. Also the posture of and gait of those people shows they are professionals. It¡¯s like there are no openings even when they are casually walking around.

    The others in our group notices it too. Drake looks like he wants to go wild and slaughter all of them on my command.

    Good thing I¡¯m the one giving the commands and not the stab-happy ninja. Even Tara looks like she wants to test her blade. Scary. Can¡¯t say I don¡¯t blame them, must be because our clan has been in hiding and any chance to let loose on some warriors and mages is satisfying.  Except for Ally, she looks claustrophobic and is holding her nose. Yeah it smells pretty bad compared to her usual forest biome. Sweaty warriors.

    I walk up to one of the many attendants while noticing that many of the contestants are in groups of 5. It seems like this might be some kind of battle royale.

    The attendant is a human woman who looks to be in her mid-twenties with brown hair and brown eyes. She smiles as we approach,

    ¡°Hello, my name is Reina, you must be here for the competition?¡± [Reina]

    Oh she¡¯s pretty cute, and kind of innocent too, even though her posture says otherwi-Ow! Dammit Melody caught where I was looking. Anyways,

    ¡°Yep, the 5 of us are entering.¡± [Me]

    She looks over us then asks each of us our names. We oblige then she speaks to us,

    ¡°Okay this competition as you have probably observed is split into teams of 5. In your case you already have 5 so you don¡¯t need a substitution. There are 100 teams, meaning 500 people in total. The area the Duke has sectioned off is next to our city on the mountain range Trinity. Our city and surrounding town¡¯s best mages have set up a magical array that has barriers that will tell you if you are out of bounds.

    If you are out of bounds for more than 30 seconds you will be disqualified. So try not to go near the barrier because it¡¯s your own fault if you get attacked and thrown out of the barrier for too long. Each of you will wear a badge that shows your team name inscribed on it. This is for identification purposes and because it interacts with the barrier to let you know if you have gone outside of the barrier.

    The badge will stick to your skin on your neck like a tattoo¡ªdon¡¯t worry it doesn¡¯t hurt¡ªbecause it doesn¡¯t impede your movement speed and such. Also we are not responsible for injury or death. You can always give up by all 5 members (or remaining members) agreeing to surrender. Then the badge will teleport you back to our headquarters which will be set up at the base of one of the mountains.

    The goal of the competition is to wipe out every team and be the last team standing after the end of the 30 days given. When there are 50 teams left, you will all be teleported closer together. This is to keep it going faster since the mountain range is large. When there are 25 teams left you will be teleported again. And again at 10.

    Many mages are doing their best to cast these mass teleportation spells and keep the barrier up so don¡¯t sit and dawdle. Try to thin the numbers before the 30 days are over. Others will do the same. The prize for the winning team is the mysterious red egg owned by Duke Valent. Furthermore, even if you don¡¯t end up being the last one standing, there are still prizes for the teams who have eliminated the most other teams. Obviously they don¡¯t get something as good as the main winner.

    That¡¯s the summary of the competition and it will start in 3 days, to give everyone time to prepare necessary items, weapons, and survival gear.

    One last thing, what do you want your team name to be?¡± [Reina]

    Everyone looks deep in thought. Hmmm, time to use my awesome naming skills:

    ¡°Green Eggs and Ham¡± [Me]

    ¡°No.¡± [Melody]

    ¡°Meggalodon¡± [Drake]   Ah, I see what you did there. Wait, they used to have those too?!

    ¡°Hell yea sounds aweso-¡°  [Me]

    ¡°Nope¡± [Melody] Ugh, since when does she call the shots?

    ¡°Eggs and Bacon¡± [Me]

    ¡°Still no.¡± [Melody]

    ¡°Deviled Eggs¡± [Drake]

    ¡°¡­¡± [Everyone]

    ¡°Agreed!¡± [Everyone]

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Oh btw if you find some kind of loophole or part where it looks like the rules are flawed or doesn''t really make sense please comment below :D

    Yeah and I know this sounds so much like Hunger Games, but honestly I''m not trying to do that. Plus any type of battle royale survival setting is bound to sound like Hunger Games. So sorry if you felt like I copyrighted or something. Wasn''t my intention to.

 Chapter 12: Fight or Flight

    Hey guys I made this story do a 4 day time skip. Why, you might ask? Because I''m trying to keep this an action story, and going through 4 days of prep for the competition the MC is going to is frankly a waste of time, but there is going to be parts of the story that tells what they did during those 4 days. Also I''m starting out with a different PO.V. so don''t be freak out lol.

    ------------

    Warning: Mature

    -----1 day into the competition----

    --Stealth Warrior P.O.V.¡ª

    Our team has been waiting for a good competition for a while. Lately the adventurer guild¡¯s missions are too easy, but when we learned about this it was opportunity knocking on the door.

    The 5 of us consist of me, a warrior that specializes in stealth and recon. I use daggers most of the time and also throwing knives. Obviously my armor is leather and minimal too, because I need maximum speed and minimal friction when I go in for the kill. And I do kill.

    Some of my team is kind of squeamish about killing other humans but I don¡¯t give a shit. If someone stands in my way they are no different than a goblin or an orc.

    The other members are a warrior with a battle axe, another warrior with a sword and shield, and then 2 mages. The first mage is a healer and the other focuses on ice attacks and summons an ice wolf. So in all, we are a typical dungeon conquering team.

    The only team I am afraid of in this competition is one named Raid Mages. I can¡¯t tell if they are the only ones who managed to cheat the system here or not. By this I mean, all 5 are mages and all five have ridiculously strong summons, so it makes it equivalent to having 10 members in one 5 person team. 5 people and 5 summons.

    Anyways now is not the time to contemplate what I do not know. Since I am the scout in our team I usually stay in the trees, jumping from branch to branch ahead looking for enemies. And I definitely found one. They look like a bunch of idiots going through a stroll in a park not even alert to who could be snooping.

    Especially the guy with the long black hair and red eyes with the black suit and huge black. He¡¯s looking at the trees like someone shit in his tea. Maybe he hates trees or wants to burn the mountain forest down?

    What is really interesting is that they all have leather armor and from what I can tell there are no mages or heavy armor warriors. There is an elf with a bow which is kind of weird. Usually elves stay in their forest hugging trees and whatnot. Must be an outcast or something.

    They all focus an agility and speed from what I can tell. Best to go back and report to the others about this. Suddenly I hear the black haired man speak to the only other man on the team,

    ¡°Hey Drake what do we do when find a team? Should we show mercy and ask for surrender before we end their lives?¡± [Black-hair, red-eyes]

    The man I assume named Drake seems to ponder on the question for a moment before answering,

    ¡°Surrender? What does that mean, hahaha, first we rip their finger nails and toe nails off then we force them to make a necklace with them and then cut their feet off and make them dance like a shaman around a campfire with their tongues cut out while trying to sing about how much they want to run away but it sounds like a bunch of gurgling. Then when they can¡¯t dance anymore, we throw them in the fire and after they are roasted we just piss on the fire and find some water too, to stop the flames from spreading and walk away. Or if you want we can...¡± [Drake]

    He goes on for about 5-10 more minutes coming up with several sick torturing methods that make it difficult not to release my bowels in the process. I was so fixated on doing that, that I forgot to go back to my group and tell them to turn a different direction so we don¡¯t accidentally run into these demons. My team is walking here and finally found these bastards so there is no hope.

    I see them walking directly toward the demon-like group about 10 meters away. Well nothing I can do about it now. I¡¯ll just see what our shield and sword warrior does. He¡¯s our ¡®leader¡¯.

    ---Jared P.O.V.---

    After we prepared in the last few days for the completion {which meant that we had to get Ally a bow which she is actually very accurate with) we are finally walking through the forest trying to find a team to beat.

    None of us are really on alert since we have our ki spread out so any enemies around us will be noticed if they are in range. And speak of the devil there is a person hiding in the trees. I want to try and scare him just for fun and see if he will run away and lead us back to his group.

    So I¡¯m just going to let Drake take over on that since he needs to blow off some steam. I think he did a little too well though, since I just listened to the most awful types of torture in a total of 10 minutes.

    The most scary part of this ordeal was that I spotted Tara my lovely saint looking like she was getting off on it. Nooo! My saint is actually a sadist! Or it could be masochist¡­but I don¡¯t want to find out. Does she have a split personality?!

    So is Ally the only normal person here? The answer is no. After Melody visited her one day, the next she turned into one of those subservient ¡®Master¡¯ people. But this is a story for another time. Our group has Tara the masochist or sadist, Drake the deranged battle-hungry bloodlust fighter, Melody the nymphomaniac, Ally the master/slave submissive personality, and last but not least, I with a demented bloodlust with an automatic on/off switch that I can¡¯t seem to touch and only changes during a fight.

    {Author¡¯s note: You didn¡¯t think I would make normal/sane characters right? Hehehe of course I wouldn¡¯t. It¡¯s no fun having mundane personalities}

    Anyways Drake¡¯s monologue worked in a way that I didn¡¯t expect. The scout was scared stiff and couldn¡¯t tell his friends to get the hell away from us, so they ignorantly walked up on us haha. The other 4 and the scout look like a well-rounded team and have mages. First time I will see mages, it should be dazzling.

    The muscle head with the sword and shield who I infer is the leader steps up to us in a prideful way with a look of distain saying,

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°Just surrender, you look like an amateur group we can wipe the floors with. Piss off.¡± [swordsman]

    Hah, if heard what Drake said earlier he would probably be the one surrendering. I know as hell I would if I were in his shoes. Well, in his boots I mean. Out of the corner of my eye I can see the scout frantically waiving his hands to the leader like he¡¯s drowning in water. Before he can tell the leader to stop I get Drake¡¯s attention and nod in the scout¡¯s direction.

    Drake understands immediately what I mean and takes off towards the tree to silence the guy. Thus it starts the battle. The rest of my team don¡¯t even need to say anything, because I move first going straight towards their ¡®leader¡¯ at high speed.

    The bird-brained guy is better than I thought because he shows a surprised face for a small moment before getting into a defensive shield position.

    Meanwhile I know that Tara is going versus battle-axe man, and Ally versus mage who summoned a wolf made of ice.

    Back to my fight, I adapt to the first time going against someone with a shield doing a maneuver that confused the knight. After using ¡®Gliding Steps¡¯ I stop right in front of his shield and use two extra of my swords previously held under my coat.

    However I am not holding them with my hands. Using my skin as a method, I extend the skin on my back like a clamp to hold the hilt and move the morphed skin along my back holding the sword towards my waist. Now I looks like my waist is the front of a stag beetle.

    http://www.wartimehousewife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/stag-beetle.jpg</a>

    Think of it like having two magnets and cloth. One magnet on either side of the cloth stuck together. Hold the ends of the cloth together and pull up with the magnet and move it to different parts of the cloth. The cloth will extend out wherever the magnet is. The ¡®magnet¡¯ is the hilt of the sword, and the ¡®cloth¡¯ is my skin.

    The reason I did this is because I can technically bypass the shield around the sides of it and attack the person holding the shield. The difficult part is not only hitting where I want using my skin clamp, but also making it look like I used some kind of contraption and not morphing.

    Thus I hovered my hands over the skin clamp all the way until it went to my hips, to make it look like I was moving them into a holster of some kind. This is what I was practicing the last few days and it still needs a little bit of work but during a battle unless someone is specifically looking for morphing it should be fine. Which I might add, barely anyone alive knows about morphing, except for a very few amount of major scholars. Since the rift with the mages and ki practitioners was hundreds of years ago there probably is little amount of information on morphing. I still need to be careful though.

    My stag-attack only managed to make a couple cuts on his thighs where his armor wasn¡¯t guarding. It also caught him off-guard so that helped too. Seizing the opportunity, I quickly side-step to the right while inconspicuously retracting my swords to act as a ¡®belt¡¯ to guard my waist. Using the momentum of the side-step I do a sweep to the back of his legs.

    I was hoping to knock him on his back with that move but it only brought down to a kneeling position, and at the same time he tried to bash me with his shield. Luckily I was preparing for that and rolled away not taking any damage. So now he has two cuts on his leg and the back of his left leg is definitely hurt. While I currently have no damage.

    Noticing this he has a furious look and makes a growl while starting to stand up. Unfortunately I have other plans. Earlier I didn¡¯t put any ki into my leg sweep, just to see if I could drop him with raw strength. Now that it didn¡¯t work I¡¯m going to use ¡®Elemental ki¡¯ and emit ice.

    Right now I cannot shoot ice out of my body like a mage but I don¡¯t need to. Running after my roll, I get to him before he can stand and put my index finger and middle finger together. Emitting ice along my two fingers, I quickly trace it from the back of his neck, penetrating his armor along his spine. I stop at his waist content with my vertical line of ice.

    Then I absorb ki into my hand and chop three times from top to bottom of the ice, breaking his spine into small pieces. He is no longer able to move. This was done in less than two seconds even though it sounds like a long process.

    After that he slumps onto the ground screaming in pain, and without any pity or feeling other than the euphoric sound of ending one¡¯s life, I use both of my waist swords to cross-attack his neck and decapitate.

    I look around and see the situation with my other teammates. Drake killed the scout who is currently bisected with both parts under the tree. Now he is holding off the ice wolf and about to destroy it while the mage and Ally are both shooting projectiles at each other. The mage keeps making ice shields to stop the arrows. Tara is still fighting the battle-axe man who keeps getting healed, and she can dodge the axe but he rejuvenates from every attack. That leaves me to take down the healer.

    Right now during this whole battle I don¡¯t have any qualms about killing a woman, and only realize what I did after the fight. Unfeeling and ruthless is me right now. Happy-go-lucky is my attitude outside of fighting.

    Understanding that once the healer dies, the Battle-axe man will later die, I ¡®glide¡¯ over to the woman and end her life. I at least don¡¯t intend to drag it out like their ¡®leader¡¯ before. I punch her stomach, knocking the wind out of her, disarm her grabbing her staff and skewer her heart. Making it a quick kill.

    Now that she is dead, Tara quickly dispatches the battle-axe man, and joins the others thus ending the fight successively.

    Again, only later do I realize that I killed a woman. One of the things that will haunt me in my dreams. From a peaceful life in the woods on Earth to a battlefield.

    However it is kill or be killed out here.

 Chapter 13: Anyone Home?

    Hey everyone hope you guys like the chapter :D

    I¡¯m going to be using warrior ranks and mage ranks more often since it is a good way to compare the MC¡¯s strength and other stuff. I will use them from now on, however not in this chapter specifically.

    Remember that the ranks go like this:

    Warrior 1,2,3,4,5-10

    Mage 1,2,3,4,5-10

    I might also add ranks for the ki practitioners too so it might be easier. Not sure yet.

    -----Day 3 of competition-----

    In the past couple of days we have found 4 enemy teams. But none so far that have given us a run for our money, besides the first one with the scout.

    However I¡¯m starting to think I radiate an aura of bad luck. ¡®The wrong place at the wrong time¡¯ sort of thing. And it leads me to making mistakes that could either be bad luck or sheer stupidity! Yesterday we found a small cave that looked uninhabited. Until the ¡®owner¡¯ of said establishment greets us with a hearty welcome. Straight to my face.

    It was Bruce Lee reincarnated into a mini-bear. Actually I would rather fight a bear than take on this smug martial-art-looking specimen. A martial artist getting attacked by an animal that seems to know martial arts. The irony.

    I didn¡¯t even have time to contemplate the type of evolution this thing would have to go through to spin kick my face, before it was ready for more. Now I¡¯m going to say this, I would normally be averse to killing such a cute animal. If it weren¡¯t chopping me like a sushi chef during rush hour.

    Oh and where are my friends when I need them? Rolling on the forest ground laughing until they starve or die. They would hope the former, since I¡¯m still too confused on what¡¯s going on to figure out their punishment.

    Well, I should probably finish this before it gets too embarrassing and becomes a ¡®battlefield-story¡¯ that will become a legend of the ¡®Brave Jared and his Furry Foe From Hell¡¯. I don¡¯t want the battle scars to prove it.

    Not that it¡¯s claws can penetrate that deep¡­I digress, anyways I¡¯m laying down on my back, with it sitting on my chest, with me getting pummeled and currently pissed off. So I reach up and ¡®bear-hug¡¯ the little bastard, then morph the skin on my entire chest into dozens of spikes like a porcupine, killing it instantly. Acupuncture death complete.

    Drake finally calms himself after a minute or two after I kill the small beast. Barely holding his laughter in he apologizes and adds,

    ¡°Erm, sorry Clan Hea- Jared, but when you killed it you might have wanted to do it a little more cleanly, now we can¡¯t salvage the meat for dinner tonight¡­¡± [Drake]

    Damn, he¡¯s right. I admit I just wanted to try out that move once. I got it from remembering about pine trees and their pine cones back on Earth and also porcupines so I decided to assimilate it into my moves. Fortunately there are no small abundance of animals to hunt and cook in the mountain.

    After that we just hauled Bruce Lee Jr. off into the woods and then took residence in its cave. I was expecting there to be nunchaku and some kind of wooden training dummy, but I guess my hopes were a little too high. There was a fair amount of human bones scattered about. Bruce Jr. had one hell of an appetite. Only later do I figure out the name for the animal is Chacku.

    We then eat after Drake comes back with something similar to a mountain lion. I have no idea how he found it, maybe he started singing near a place that had them around. His singing is terrible. I¡¯m not sure if it would even show up on a decibel meter¡­It¡¯s loud and sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Well scratch that, it would be 30 people with nails and like 2 chalkboards. One hand for each chalkboard.

    Anyways, now that I¡¯m full and comfortable I sit in a lotus position, close my eyes and go into meditating with the ¡®Resting Talonbane¡¯ technique. I focus on my red/black strands on both arms and slowly move the ends where the fingertips are, shifting them up my arms and to my sternum.

    I¡¯ve been doing this for weeks, steadily improving my muscles over time. Today is different though. I¡¯m going to detach the second layer. Vandel was very vague about the second layer because the previous morpher of the clan (last clan head) didn¡¯t give much information about it. Apparently he just said it made you stronger. It¡¯s kind of ominous and I¡¯m hesitant to peel my strands off like an onion. But hey, like Machiavelli said: ¡°Never was anything great achieved without danger.¡±

    So I move my already detached layer over to the palm of my left hand to stay there while I work on the second layer. After a few deep breaths I pull on one side of the layer delicately to make sure I don¡¯t end up causing permanent damage. The first time to peel the layer is the hardest.

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    The feeling is close to what it¡¯s like to put a fishing hook on your finger and you start to pull. It puts me in a lot of pain and my reflex is to stop and try again later, however I know that I need to be prepared for the rest of the competition. Help is help, no matter the size.

    Finally the layer removes itself from the dartboard-like red/black circle, leaving the other 3 layers together. Now I move the second layer to my right hand. From now on I¡¯m going to refer to the first layer as Alpha and the second layer as Beta, since it¡¯s easier.

    Since I have Beta now, it¡¯s time to test it out. A muscle that I haven¡¯t been focusing on ¡®upgrading¡¯ lately is the deltoid muscle. It¡¯s the shoulder muscle that helps provide rotation and to basically ¡®watch over¡¯ you¡¯re other muscles of your arm and your bones when carrying heavy objects. This will aid me in maneuvering different weapons of various weight and sizes, if I don¡¯t use morphing of course.

    So I take the red strand from Beta and rotate it counter-clockwise in hopes of ¡®destroying¡¯ the muscle so I can rebuild it. Too bad it has a different idea.

    Instead of destroying the muscle it starts to destroy the skin on my shoulder. The pain is worse than the muscle and it¡¯s sizzling like bacon on a frying pan.

    ¡°AAAAAARRGHHHHHH, FUCK!!!¡± My incoherent yelling mixed with the mighty F-bomb scares the hell out of everyone else and Drake almost trips onto the fire when adding wood.

    They all crowd around me but I don¡¯t have time to talk to them because if I stop halfway then the skin will grow back deformed when I use the black strand. After what felt like a century of sizzling and occasional popping, I can finally use my black strand to rebuild the epidermis. I get right to it without a moments waste and turn the strand clockwise, building it back up.

    After it¡¯s finished and looks in its former state, I relax and tell everyone its fine. Drake mentions the smell of burnt skin could give us unwanted complications, but I¡¯m too lazy to listen and really intent on seeing the fruits of my labor.

    Right as I¡¯m thinking this, there is a draft of chilly air that enters the cave. Even though my body is tough enough to just shrug it off its still enough to notice. Apparently for melody it is too because she has eyes as wide as saucers,

    ¡°Jared, you¡¯re on fire!¡± [Melody] She is pointing at me with an expression as if I said: ¡®open sesame¡¯, turned around and shrugged like the door didn¡¯t open when it actually does. Okay that¡¯s not the best explanation but it fits the situation. Oh I rhymed, ehehe. Back to the problem at hand:

    I give her an incredulous look before turning around, and well, yep I¡¯m on fire. At least a part of me is. Care to take a guess? My shoulder or my ego? Nope my ego was deflated and shriveled up after the duel with my mini arch-nemesis earlier. Yep, the answer is my shoulder.

    So out of surprise I think about how to get flames off of me. I would rather not be the group¡¯s mobile barbeque cooker. And thus the flames actually extinguish. Then it strikes my brain like a Tibetan monk with a gong, on what exactly is going on!

    Let¡¯s try thinking: ¡®It¡¯s too damn hot in here!¡¯¡­*Fzzzz* my shoulder suddenly is covered in ice. This is definitely going to be useful. It seems I don¡¯t have to directly emit ki into and out of my shoulder and use the ¡®Elemental ki¡¯ technique. I can just think and it will do. A lazy cheat for a lazy person. My body knows me too well.

    However it makes me wonder just how much Beta did to my skin. Thinking of another idea, I stretch my skin out as far as I can. Just like I guessed, my skin can stretch farther by about 4 more inches. This means now I can almost make a regular sword instead of a short sword when I morph.

    Even better, it seems like my skin on my shoulder is waiting for something. It¡¯s a different feeling, kind of unique. Like it¡¯s watching out for something or someone. I test my theory by emitting my ki on my fingers, and converting it to ice. Then I poke my shoulder and my shoulder gets set ablaze, instantly evaporating the ice from my fingers. That¡¯s pretty handy.

    ¡®A sentient defense mechanism at your service!¡¯

    ¡°Your hair is on fire¡­¡± [Ally]

    She looks at me worried but at the same time holding her nose because of the smell. Meh, elves and their sensitive senses¡­Oh shit it is on fire!

    I immediately send a thought to my shoulder and tell it to cut it out. And it does.

    I swear it seemed like it was grinning. Such a thing isn¡¯t possible right?

 Chapter 14: Upgrade

    Hey sorry about the late arrival, writer''s block, I''ll make it up to you guys in the next chapter for sure!  [th_015_orz-v2.gif]

    --------

    ------Jared¡¯s Dream Realm------

    Hmm, it seems I¡¯m back here again, hopefully I didn¡¯t mess up anything or cause too much trouble. Hah, somehow my mind wanders towards such things like ¡®Early bird gets the worm¡¯ when I should be looking around for the old wise bird. Speaking of wise bird if there were a Talonbane on Earth I could just imagine something like Owlbane preaching ¡®The pen is mightier than the sword!¡¯

    But I digress, walking for a few minutes I finally feel the tyrannical presence of the owl counterpart that holds my dreams in the palm of his hands¡ªer¡ªtalons.

    In a clearing a tree that rivals Yggdrasil towers over all of the other trees, daring me to attempt to climb it. Well lucky for you I don¡¯t have an axe the size of the Empire State Building nor a WMD else you would already be destroyed and served as fuel for my Dream Realm Campfire Version 1.0

    As I walk near the tree I spot a small doorway previously unnoticed. And it¡¯s exactly where Talonbanes aura is exuding out of. I enter the tree while mystified on how the hell a super-sized bird could squeeze through, and get my answer immediately.

    Leaning back on a wooden chair is an elf with gray skin and red eyes staring at me with an amused expression. It¡¯s probably due to my mind processing how an old bird could look like a humanoid. Even though I¡¯ve read fantasy novels talking about powerful monsters that can transform when they desire.

    {Authors note: It¡¯s easier to just look at this pic to imagine what he looks like. Even though this shows he¡¯s in battle just use your imagination and put it to the current setting}

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KSFm-GVxvW4/U7-I7BnLMhI/AAAAAAABIZo/XDBqdqCQ_Hs/s400/640x448_8894_Dark_Mage_2d_fantasy_fire_darkness_mage_dark_elves_picture_image_digital_art.jpg</a>

    Reading my mind like always he starts talking,

    ¡°That was worth seeing your amused face, kid. Master Bane was surprised the first time I transformed in front of him a long time ago too. I was making small talk with some of his women and he walked in, pissed that someone was ¡®flirting¡¯ with his beauties. Before I could say otherwise, he challenged me right on the spot. Right as he was going to attack I went

    back to my Talon-form and scorched his hair hohoho.  Anyways do you have an idea why I brought you here?¡± [Talonbane]

    Nope not at all.

    ¡°Um, actually I was expecting we would be in a nest on a tree when I met you again. This place is interesting.¡±

    ¡°Well that is no place for visitors, even though you¡¯re not really a visitor since it¡¯s technically your dream haha. So back to the topic, the reason I have visited you is to warn you of the dangers that come with fighting mages and warriors.

    When I was watching you fight the stealth warrior group, you probably asked yourself why it was too easy. That¡¯s because the warriors and mages in the group were each rank 3. If I was to put your strength into a warrior¡¯s ranking system you would be at rank 5. However because they use mana and you use ki it¡¯s not an exact estimate.¡± [Talonbane]

    I figured I would be a higher rank and stronger than that. It¡¯s kind of shocking but makes sense at the same time. I have only just unlocked the second layer of my 5-layer DNA. Also the fact that I only know two actual techniques doesn¡¯t help my case either.

    ¡®Gliding Steps¡¯ and ¡®Elemental Ki¡¯ are the only techniques in my repertoire currently. Maybe I can build off of ¡®Elemental Ki¡¯ and create an upgraded version, but I have yet to think of anything.

    Injecting ki into people when using ki presence doesn¡¯t count. This is because when doing it in the middle of a fight there isn¡¯t enough time to focus on completing the action. Furthermore, to inject ki into a warrior or mage while they are awake is not possible at my level of skill. This is because their mana can unconsciously block out that kind of attack while fighting.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    The only way to succeed in this is to disrupt their concentration with a physical force. This is how internal strikes are executed. Punch a part of your enemy¡¯s body at the same spot you want to pass your ki into and scramble their organs like eggs. Well you would have to be very strong to scramble them, but bruising or tearing can occur easily.

    Talonbane continues,

    ¡°You have great strength but you also need to keep upgrading your defense. ¡®The only defensible war is a war of defense¡¯.

    Something I wish I could have told Master when we were still roaming the world. Alas, we were both hot-blooded back then and didn¡¯t give a rat¡¯s ass about what dangers lie ahead. If there was a dragon, we would kill it and take the treasure. If there was a pompous noble we would punch him. Also if there was bar fight, well, usually we would be the ones that started it so¡­

    Anyhow, some advice I can give you, is to think of a dragon¡¯s defense and you¡¯ll be fine.¡± [Talonbane]

    Dragon? That advice is kind of cryptic but I¡¯m starting to understand what he means.

    ¡°Okay thank you for the advice, and don¡¯t worry about your daughter-¡°

    ¡°Megg?¡± [Talonbane] He looks amused, so that¡¯s better than what I thought would happen. Part of me expected to turn into a vegetable after enduring hours of dream-horror, but it seems I was graced by Lady Luck. Oh thank you my Lady and may you bless me again tonight with melody hehehe know what I mean? Ugh, Talonbane read my mind again, I can see it on his face.

    ¡°Erm, yeah that¡¯s the name I chose, and if you don¡¯t like it I can chang-¡°

    Before I can finish my sentence he boots me out of his ¡®tree house¡¯ and my mind fogs, then I wake up from dream land.

    Time to start another day of hunting humans, right after I play with some ¡®self-plastic surgery¡¯ of course.

    -----Two hours later-----

    The last two hours I have been using my second layer in meditation to rebuild my skin to be resistant to elements. I¡¯m not sure how well it will do in an actual battle since mages vary in strength.

    Now I am going to heed Talonbane¡¯s advice on replicating a dragons defense. First I will start with my torso. I take off my shirt and begin morphing my skin, stretching out straight about 7 inches in 10 rows from the top of my chest, down to my navel. It makes it look like I have 10 thin shelves extending from my torso.

    Then I morph all of the ¡®shelves¡¯ to lean downwards like how dominoes would fall, making them lay on top of each other. Similar to a dragons scales.

    {Authors note: looks like this pic, except his human skin scales only have one on each row. http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/inheritance/images/e/ef/Scales_Background.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20101216134534</a>}

    After my morphed human scales are made, I make sure and curve the ends and sides of each scale so when someone attacks me it will slide off of my skin. Similar to a knight¡¯s armor. However it would only slide off if the person isn¡¯t infusing mana into their attack, otherwise the curves would only lessen the impact by a small amount.

    This should help my defense increase by a substantial amount. It kind of looks weird though, I feel like an old man with wrinkles on my body. Oh well, if it works I guess I shouldn¡¯t complain.

    I continue to do this on other parts of my body, back, thighs, arms, etc. Explaining it shouldn¡¯t be a problem since my morph suit looks like leather even though it¡¯s black. Most people would just pass it off as a guy who likes to wear leather on his whole body.

    Now it¡¯s time for the Deviled Eggs to go hunt some eg¡ªuh¡ªteams.

    Next chapter is going to be a fight scene since I know I haven''t put in one lately!