《Re:Ghoul》 Chp 1: IM ALIVE!!! The hero and his party entered the dark and menacing castle of the demon king. There were no monsters obstructing them as they made their way towards the demon kings chamber. The large ornate doors opened by themselves. You could see a tall imposing figure sitting on his throne alone in the large room. "We have come to slay you evil demon king!" said the hero. With that the hero and his companions charged at the demon king. The female mage companion began chanting magic while the rogue companion rushed towards the demon king alongside the hero. The archer began shooting volleys of arrows that have been enchanted with magic, supporting the hero and the rogue companion. After a long drawn out battle, as the demon king found an opening and was about to slay the hero. But at the last moment the rogue stepped in between them and was struck by the blow. The hero roared in rage and took that moment to cut off the demon king''s head. "Allen! Are you alright? Hurry drink this potion. You can still make it!" said the hero. "No. I''m done for. Hehe.. we had a pretty fun ride..." The rogue''s hand went slack and the life was extinguished from his eyes. The hero wept tears of sadness while the female mage and archer tried to console him while trying to wipe their own tears. Then darkness. Well... If you hadn''t noticed by now. I''m the rogue that sacrificed my life for the greater good of saving humanity. Well. I don''t regret my life and I am content with what I did. Although I do regret not being able to confess to... well never mind. What''s done is done. My spirit was traveling to the place where all souls go to after death. The cycle of reincarnation. Suddenly I felt something tugging at my soul. The tugging got harder and harder until I was unable to resist the pull and my soul was dragged off, away from the cycle where I would have soon been reborn. I felt myself entering something and then I heard someone laugh maniacally. "HAHAHAHA!!! It''s ALIVE!!!!" said the unknown voice. I turned my head and saw an old man with a black robe and had a hood over his head as he was laughing at something. My new body felt... odd. I felt very sluggish and I could not move my body well. I looked around and saw... Shit... I was terrified. Dead corpses were crawling out of the ground and they looked horrifying, like it was from a nightmare. I''m guessing the old dude did this because he kept on rambling about how he would get revenge and how they were wrong or something. I felt an incredible thirst in my throat, and suddenly that old man''s throat looked very appetizing. I could not control this incredible urge of mine to eat his flesh and drink his blood. I approached him slowly. I wondered why I was moving so slowly and realized that I was just like the other corpses. Pieces of my flesh were dangling by a thread.. or skin... and there were maggots crawling out of me which should have been painful but I could not feel them. All I felt was the craving for flesh. "Hahaha yes... Come to me my creation." said the old man. I got closer and closer to him. When his throat was within reach I lunged and bit it. The taste was surprisingly delicious. It was like sweet nectar from the gods. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I chewed on his throat as he looked on me with surprise and horror. I continued to eat him without any thoughts but the urge to keep on eating his wonderfully delicious flesh. The other undead that were raised alongside me gathered and ate him also. I tried to stop them from eating him because he was all mine but I couldn''t find the will to focus on anything else other than feasting on his flesh. The old man died while screaming in horror. I don''t know how much time has passed but when I came back to reality I realized what I had done and I was disgusted by it. All that was left was the bones of his body. I looked around me and the undead creatures surrounding me were moaning and saying incomprehensible things. Then I noticed a small box that said that I had leveled up. What is level up? I had no idea what that was and just ignored it. ''Hmm... I am currently in a different world from my own.'' I had no idea what I was going to do. The environment around me suggested that we were in a large cemetery and I counted about a hundred of us undead monsters. The others were just randomly wandering around but never went too far. After observing them for a while I decided that I would leave this place and explore this new world. As soon as I left the cemetery I stumbled across a teenager and his face went pale at the sight of me. The urge of eating his guts overwhelmed me and I began chasing him. The boy shrieked and ran away but tripped on a rock and fell. That gave me enough time to reach him and I began devouring him as he screamed for help in vain. ------ I am a 17 year old high schooler. I am an otaku. I have always dreamed of being a hero that would save the world. One day while I was walking home from an uneventful day from school there was a blinding light and suddenly the scenery changed and I was in a dark and gloomy forest. I was a little scared but that I realized that I must have been summoned in a different world! I quickly was motivated that I came here for a reason. I was here to save the world from the demon king. Since I didn''t know where I was I decided to look around this dreary forest. There was a rustling noise behind me and out of the trees came out a zombie. I nearly pissed my pants. It was seriously grotesque looking as it had maggots all over its body and I could see its rotten flesh. The stench was also terrible and I ran away. I stumbled over a rock and the zombie got closer and closer. It began biting me and I scream in pain for help. ''This is just a dream right? What''s going on? I''m supposed to be the hero! Why is this happening to me?'' I could feel its teeth digging into my flesh and the pain blinded me and I passed out. ---- MC POV When I snapped back into reality I realized that I once again ate someone. I was seriously depressed and felt bad for the person that I killed. I vowed to never eat someone ever again. -------- Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I wrote this because I am in a little stump with my other fictions. Chapter 2: Evolution A/N So there must have been a little bit of confusion from the first chapter. During the first chapter there was a shift in point of view where the point of view went to an inhabitant of earth. So in order to cause less confusion I will show when the point of view changes. ------------- Earth Jim Casy was a hulk of a man that was about 6"5 and person that you wouldn''t expect to be in his late thirties. He was currently in his car waiting for his suspect. He is a CIA agent working for the United States government and he is undercover. ''Sigh... what is the world coming to... there have been numerous cases of people disappearing like magic and there are still so many problems going on in the world.'' ''Well... at least this is my last gig before I retire and I get to spend more time with my family.'' Jim spots two shady looking people that are walking and turn into a dark alley. He follows them with his gun in hand and asks for back up just in case. He peeks over into the dark alley that is barely illuminated by the moonlight and he isn''t surprised to see the two men exchanging drugs and money. "Freeze! CIA!" said Jim. He approached the two suspicious characters cautiously. The two men looked at each other and suddenly dashed away. "Goddammit!" Jim swiftly went after them. But he tripped on a crate that was blocking his way and he fell. It felt like he was on drugs. For what was supposed to be a short fall lasted a really long time, and when he hit the ground he saw a completely different scenery than where he was supposed to be. "What the hell? Where am I?" MC POV After I ate the poor kid I wandered around in the forest. Whenever I spotted an animal I chased it because of the intense hunger that I felt and the gnawing pain in my stomach forced me to chase it. I was able to catch some unsuspecting rabbits and squirrels but the pain was always there and I couldn''t make any audible noises, just some moans and growls. Every time after I eat a fresh kill my body feels lighter and I get a short burst of strength. But whenever I go without food for a long period of time my body deteriorates and I get sluggish. I also saw the little bright blue window and touched it. What surprised me was that it showed various aspects about myself and I was shocked about what I had become.
Status Name: Jericho Race: Undead (Zombie) Class: N/A Level: 2 EXP to next LV: 13 Vitality: ¡Þ Strength: 7 Agility: 5 Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 1
Unassigned points: 4
''What is this?.... Undead?... well obviously... hmm.... I think this shows me how strong I currently am. What are unassigned points?'' I decided to test something out. I tried to grab a rock but my body would not respond the way that I wanted it to and it kept on slipping out of my hands. After much difficulty I was able to grasp the rock that was about the size of a plate. I walked around with the rock for a long time. I occasionally dropped it and it took an even longer time to pick it up. I don''t know how long I was holding this rock and walking around but by the time the sun came back up another window popped up.
Strength +1
Yes!!! My hypothesis was correct. It seems like I can increase my stats by doing certain activities. This would have been tremendously helpful in my previous life... A wave of sadness passed over me as I reminisced of my former life and my friends. I snapped out of it and brought myself back into reality. ''Hmm... well doing this takes a really long time and I don''t have the patience to wait so long to bring up just one point in my strength.'' Suddenly the smell of blood hit me like a hammer hits an anvil ( I was gonna say hit me like a truck but he was never on earth before). My vision went red and my primal instincts as a zombie emerged as I slowly followed the scent of blood. I dropped the rock and I ran? (do zombies run?) towards the delicious smell. It turns out that I wasn''t the first one to arrive there. There were already other undead feasting on the body of a deceased man. I rushed towards the dead body and tried to get my share of the meat. I had to push around the other undead in order to bite into the savory meat. Within minutes the meat was gone from the body and all that was left were bones. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. As blood dripped from my chin there was a howl off into the distance not far away from my location. The other zombies and I turned around to see what made that noise and it turned out to be a pack of wolves. They looked starved as I could see their ribs. There were about 7 of them circling around us and they growled threateningly. There were about 10 of us undead and I didn''t like my chances of survival because the undead around me, I assumed were stupid. The alpha wolf that was at least half a foot taller than the other wolves rushed towards the nearest of my undead brethren and began tearing him apart. The others soon followed after him charging into us. Luckily for my none of the wolves targeted me so I took this chance to attack on that was busy attacking one of the other undead. I picked one that was busy chewing on the rotting flesh of one of the zombies and I opened my mouth wide and bit down hard onto the back of its neck. The wolf yipped? (idk) in pain and squirmed around but I refused to let go and continued to bite and chew my way through its fur. The taste and smell of blood got me into some sort of frenzy and I was no longer able to control myself. I don''t know how much time has passed but when I snapped back into reality I was covered in blood, was missing chunks of meat from my body and there were dead wolves all around me. It looked like there were 2 others of my brethren that survived the battle and were busy eating the corpses of the wolves. I was hungry and so I dug in also. I decided to eat the alpha wolf because he was the biggest and had the most meat. by the time we were done my stomach was bloated and it looked kind of disgusting. There were only 2 dead bodies of the wolves left and I ignored them as I noticed the blue window pop up again.
Level UP +2
Status Name: Jericho Race: Undead (Zombie) Class: N/A Level: 4 EXP to next LV: 71 Vitality: ¡Þ Strength: 7 Agility: 5 Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 1
Unassigned points: 12
I was curious about what the unassigned points were for so I put in 5 in intelligence because that was my lowest stat and another window popped up.
You have now reached a certain amount of intelligence to be able to resist your nature to a certain degree.
Whoa... does this mean that I can control myself in the sight of blood? I decided to put the rest of the 7 points into agility because I was a rogue in my past life and I always liked to depend on my speed and I missed the feeling of running. After allocating the rest of my points into agility I tried running the the effects astounded me. I was clearly faster than before. I tried looking for more animals to kill but I wasn''t able to find any that gave a lot of experience. I was only able to find beavers and rabbits. Because of my enhanced speed I was able to catch them with far more ease than before. I was walking around again and I came across the clearing where I had the battle with the wolves. I saw that the other 2 corpses of the wolves were gone and all that were left were the bones. But I noticed that the bodies of my undead brethren were still there. I was curious about what would happen if I ate the flesh of a zombie so I took a big bite and swallowed.
For eating your own kind you have gained the Title: Cannibal
Congratulations! For meeting certain requirements you have gained the privilege to evolve! Be warned evolving will reduce your level back to 1 and your stats may or may not change. Would you like to evolve? Yes or No?
---- Thanks for reading guys! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Chapter 3 A/N Sup guys. Sorry I haven''t been posting recently. Frankly I have become really lazy and I just didn''t feel like posting anything until now. ----------- Jim Casy POV (The CIA dude from the last chapter) It has been a week since I arrived in this strange new world filled with all sorts of mysteries and magic. I am currently traveling with a wandering merchant that I was able meet by chance. *Flashback* (One week ago) ''Where the hell am I?'' As I looked around I saw that the scenery was completely different from the alley where I was chasing the drug dealer. I wondered if I was dreaming and pinched myself. I felt the pain and realized that I was not dreaming or drugged up. I was very disoriented. My surroundings told me that I was currently in some sort of forest with many different kinds of wild plants. I decided to wander around to figure out how I got here. Suddenly I heard a scream from a man and I rushed over to the direction of the noise. To my surprise I saw people wearing some sort of medieval clothing and they looked like peasants from the look of it. There were about 10 of them and they were carrying swords and there was a middle aged man with a potbelly that was lying on the ground looking at the group of men in fear. ''What the hell?'' I thought. I couldn''t just walk away from this mugging and stepped forward to protect the man. I took the gun out from the holster and yelled, "Freeze! Put your hands down and drop your weapons!" "Eh? Who da hell ah yew? Playing hero eh? Get em lands!"-Bandit Leader The group of poorly dressed men brandished their rusty swords and came at me. Without hesitation I shot my Berreta 92 and quickly shot three bullets straight in the heads of 3 bandits and they fell dead. I saw some weird window pop up but I ignored it and look cautiously at the bandits. The leader of the group panicked and he ordered a retreat. I went up to the man that was laying on the ground in finely dressed clothes and asked him if he was alright. "Thank you very much stranger. I was about to get robbed by those bandits. How could I ever repay you?"-Random dude Since I knew nothing of my current situation I just asked him where the nearest town was. He told me that it was a week away on foot and since he was headed in the same direction he offered to take me with him. He was curious about my strange clothes and I simply told him that I was from a different land. At first I thought these guys were just cosplaying or something but then I realized that I was in a completely different world which creeped me out. I needed to find a way back home to my family. It took about 6 days to reach the nearest town and during that time I learned a lot about the world I was in by asking questions to the man that I had saved. His names was Septimus Barrows and he was a wandering merchant that sold different kinds of goods around different towns. He worked for the Brendall Organization, which was owned by the Brendall Clan. They were one of the top three trading companies in the entire continent and they held a large amount of economic and political power. Luckily he gave me a new change of clothes so that I wouldn''t stand out in the crowd. He was a friendly fellow and I grew to like him. He told me that the area we are currently in is ruled by many different lords that squable frequently over land. He told me that because of my strength I would definitely be hired by the lord as a soldier, but I said I would think about it. He showed me a map and pointed at the area we were at. I saw that there were dozens of different towns that were each ruled by a different lord. Septimus told me that in the east there was the Xian Empire who has great martial artists that are said to be immensely powerful, and to the west there is elves where they reside in the Great Forest. In the north are the dwarves in their mountains. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I found out that the east was basically an asianic empire kinda like the Chinese. I wondered if they were the same and wanted to visit them. But I reminded myself not to get too caught up because I had to focus on getting back home. I looked at the map and saw that the Xian Empire was about half the size of China which was about 1/4 the size of the continent we were on. Septimus told me many stories about great wizards and heroes and I was like a little child again listening to theses fascinating stories. I was interested in the elves and dwarves and wanted to meet one. I remembered about the window that popped up and it said that I had leveled up. I had no idea what that was about so I asked Septimus. He looked at me as if I was crazy but went on to explain that the in this world you could level up and get stronger but it was really difficult to do so. I wondered about my status and opened my status window.
Status Name: Jim Casy Race: Human Class: N/A Level: 3 Vitality: 52 Strength: 15 Agility: 12 Dexterity: 19 Intelligence: 11
Unassigned points: 8
I was shocked at what I saw. Septimus told me that the average vitality was 30. I had over 50. ''Hehe I must be a super human or something.'' He also explained to me that vitality was like your stamina and your health. Vitality was also used to cast magic. The idea of magic really interested me and I asked for more information but he told me to search out the Mage Guild in the town because he didn''t really have that much information about magic. I figured if I learned magic I could find out a way to go back home. I didn''t know what to do with my unused stat points so I just left them there. After we reached the city Septimus gave me 500 zins as thanks for thanking him. After we shook hands we parted ways. I learned from Septimus about the currency system of this world. Zins are the basic form of currency. An average family can live off of 30 zins a week. I talked to some people and was about to find out the general location of the Mage guild. With grim determination I stepped into the Mage Guild. Jericho POV (the zombie dude) I clicked yes on the screen and I blacked out. When I woke up I saw the my body was no longer rotting and that I my skin was very pale. The sunlight irritated my skin a bit but it didn''t do permanent damage. I wanted to try out my new body so I went to train. ---- Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Comment rate and review. Also don''t expect frequent chapters. Chapter 4: Change A/N Sup guys its been a while. I''ve recently been a wuxia novel called Coiling Dragon. It''s sooo good. Too OP. So I''ve decided to incorporate some of it into my story. You guys should read it. http://www.wuxiaworld.com/cdindex-html/ ----- Jim Casy POV (The CIA dude) Sigh... I am currently in a tavern drinking beer... Basically the head of the mages guild wouldn''t even see me even after I ranted and swore and caused a commotion I was eventually kicked out. So now here I am drinking beer thinking about what I am going to do next, when suddenly. "You stupid slave!" Says the unknown man, as he kicked her onto the floor. "Get back up!" He slaps the middle aged woman and she goes down to the floor again. Strangely nobody interferes and just ignores them. Jim Casy gets enraged by how the people are treating this situation. "Hey what are you doing? Stop that!" Jim Casy goes up and pushes the man in fine clothes away from the woman. "HUH?! Who do you think you are?" The man and his lackeys behind him proceed to brandish their swords menacingly. "Hmph. You think swords will scare me?" Jim proceeded to take out his gun and he immediately shot 3 of the 6 subordinates behind the rich man. "W-What?" The rich man was stunned at how easily this stranger killed his guards. They were all 5th level warriors that he hired for a high price. He knew that he was in trouble and wracked his brains in order to get out of this situation. This man with the strange weapon was not to be dealt with. ''Hmph. What the hell? This world is terrible. They even have slavery! I''m gonna need to show them about something called Murica!'' Thought Jim. Suddenly a huge man that was about 6"5 came into the tavern who was wearing a cloak that covered his body and the hood covered his face. But one could immediately tell that his body was very muscular and had a lot of power in it. "Big Brother!" said the rich man as he cried out in joy. ''Hehe. Now that big brother is here that stranger is a dead man. Big brother is a 9th stage warrior. No one can beat him!'' Suddenly Jim felt a very dangerous feeling emanating from that man and he shot his gun on instinct. But the cloaked man was easily able to dodge the bullet and suddenly appeared right in front of Jim. Jim was stunned and didn''t know what to do. He never thought that a human being was capable of dodging bullets. "Hmm... What an interesting weapon you have there... Sadly you bullied my little brother. And for that you are going to have to die." The cloaked man''s arm barely moved and Jim''s head came toppling off onto the floor. ''Huh? What just happened? All I remember is the cloaked man suddenly move and then darkness was all around me.'' Jim was in the darkness for a long period of time. He was able to move his body a little bit but it didn''t respond to him very well. He was about to go mad from the darkness. The only thing that stopped him from going mad was the occasional bump from another being that he felt, but he didn''t know what it was so he didn''t try to communicate with it for fear of retaliation. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. But suddenly he felt massive pain. Something was pushing on him really hard. He felt like he was being forcefully pushed out of this darkness. "#(%)#TH#)(U%()#*$)!@#!" There was a loud scream and he came out. He was scared and began to cry out. He noticed that his voice was different... like a baby... He opened his eyes and saw a huge man with a grin on his face and he passed out. Otaku POV ( the dude that got rekt by the zombie) I felt miserable. I was eaten by a zombie and I died. But I suddenly felt my soul leave me body and go somewhere else. I entered into a realm of darkness and I was scared that I was being punished for my sins. But after a while I felt that I was in some sort of liquid. Eventually I figured out that I was actually in the body of a baby! I was ecstatic. I was being given another chance! I promised myself that I would live this life to the fullest and become strong. I decided to check out my body and move it around a bit. I was able to discover that I was actually a twin! I tried to get sibling to move around a bit but it wouldn''t respond. I feared that I might have killed it from being too rough so I decided to leave it alone and let fate handle it. After along while I was finally born. Seems like I came out second. I was really happy to be finally out of the womb. When I looked around at my surroundings I saw that I had a twin old brother ( I saw his tiny penis). He looked pretty cute. Since I was technically over 20 years old spiritually I decided that I would be the older brother and take care of him well. I saw a woman that was covered with sweat. She had Asian features and had a very pretty face. The person I assumed to be my father was a skinny man with brown hair and a small mustache and he looked a little above average in looks. My father was holding me and my mother was holding my brother. They were speaking in some unknown language and I was tired so I went to sleep. Jericho POV I was able to find a small pond and see my reflection. I look very similar to a human except that I look very pale and my black hair and eyes look sort of menacing. While experimenting with my body I found that I can run much faster than a horse and had the strength of about 10 grown men. I was easily able to lift large rocks. ---- Hey guys hope you enjoyed the chapter. So for this story I plan on having three main characters so I will be changing the point of view (POV) frequently. If you have any questions please ask them below or pm me. I know that Jericho''s (ghoul) part is very short but I wanted to get the other two main characters parts out of the way first. Comment, rate and review. Chapter 5: Slavery Jericho POV While wandering around the forest and experimenting with my new body I decided to open my status and check it.
Status Name: Jericho Race: Ghoul Class: N/A Level: 1 Vitality: 200 Strength: 30 Agility: 45 Dexterity: 15 Intelligence: 10
Unassigned points: 15
(I decided to take the exp out) Wow. I was absolutely stunned I could not believe how much stronger I got just from evolving. I assumed that I am now much stronger than the average human. My first goal was to find human settlement and somehow try to integrate myself there and learn more about this world. So I decided to wander aimlessly in the dense forest. After about an hour I came across the two same zombies that fought with me against the wolves. This time for some reason I was able to hear their thoughts. They were mumbling things like "hungry... thirsty..." I tried to communicate with them this time. "Come to me." To my shock they actually obeyed my command, then another window popped up.
You have learned a new skill! [Undead Dominance] You are now a higher evolution of an undead species and can now control the undead that are lower level than you. Max undead able to control: [2}
I was secretly surprised and also excited that I learned a new skill. After experimenting with the zombies I realized that I could only give them basic commands. If my commands were too complicated then they didn''t understand and just stood there dumbly. I also found out that I can issue commands mentally instead of having to verbally tell them something. With my new lackeys and new found confidence I once more began to traverse through the forest in search of civilization. I soon realized that they were more of a hindrance because they were very loud and slow compared to me. Whenever there was a wild animal they rushed towards it blindly without thinking and the animal was able to quickly escape their clutches. If a dangerous animal were to find us because of their loud noise I knew that we would be screwed. But I was confident that nothing in this forest could threaten me. I decided to move on ahead of them and have them follow behind me at about half a mile. Soon the sun began to fall and night arrived. I was planning to rest here and sleep, but then I realized that I was already dead and I didn''t need sleep, which was kind of funny. Suddenly I heard noises of swords clashing and scream of pain. I realized that there was a battle going on. I told my subordinates to stay here in case they attracted attention towards us and I swiftly went alone towards the direction of the battle. I hid inside a bush and saw a frightening scene. It was really dark but for some reason I was able to see clearly like it was day time. There were 4 men battling each other and they were extremely fast. It was 3 vs 1 and there were 6 people lying dead on the ground. They were faster than I was in my previous life and much much stronger. (imagine like the wuxia/ high level martial artists fighting or something) I could see that the single man was clearly losing the fight and was breathing heavily. "Huff, Huff. Who sent you after me!" The lone man was bleeding in several places and looked exhausted. "Ha ha ha ha. There''s no need for you to know. You are a dead man now." Said the man in dark clothing. He rushed forward with fearsome speed and the man''s head went flying and the body went limp and fell down to the ground. The 3 men quickly left after the murder of that one man and when I decided that it was safe to come out I inspected their bodies. I telepathically ordered the 2 zombies to come to my location and I began searching the bodies for something valuable like a map that could help me get out of here. The 6 dead man didn''t have anything worthwhile except swords and a few knives and the clothes on their backs. They didn''t even have any gold on them which I thought was a pity. But when I looted the man that was the last to die I found a book that was titled, "Qi Cultivation forDummies Beginners". I thought that this was interesting and decided to keep it. When the 2 zombies arrived we ate the dead men and we decided to leave this place before any other wild animals came because of the blood. When we reached a good distance away I took out the book and began reading it. What surprised me was that this was clearly in a different language from my home world but for some strange reason I was able to read it. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. It went to talk about qi cultivation techniques and how I should meditate in order to reach the first rank warrior level. It explained in great detail about how I should calm my breathing and mind and to clear my mind and focus on my internal energies also known as qi. It specifically states that it is different from spiritual energy which is also known as mana and is different because that is what mages use. Warriors use qi to strengthen their bodies in order to achieve super human results through training and mages need spiritual energy (AKA mana) in order to chant spells and the like. Curious, I followed the instructions within the book and began to meditate. I searched long and hard inside myself and was able to feel some sort of strange power inside of me. Excited, I tried to grasp it but it slipped away. I attempted multiple times and this exchange continued for a long time but I refused to give up and finally I was able to tap into the unknown power. I felt strength surge throughout my body and it felt exhilarating. I never felt such a rush before. I knew that I had just reached the 1st rank of warrior. My body felt a couple times stronger and lighter. When I opened my eyes I saw that it was day time and asked one of my zombies how long I was meditating. He replied by saying that I was meditating for 2 days! I was astounded by how much time has passed. I took out the book again and began to read the rest of the book. The book explained that a qi expert could cultivate his qi up to the 9th rank and after that he could enter the saint rank which was a rank revered by man. Apparently only 1 in 100,000 is able to reach that rank. The states that it could take hundreds and possible a thousand years to reach that rank which shocked me. The book explained that by reaching a higher rank in qi the persons life span also increased because their qi fuses with their body and becomes much stronger. It is also the same case for mages and how they cultivate their mana. The book also taught me that warriors can use special skills that that can be taught. For example there was the [Shock Wave Fist], in which the warrior concentrates his qi into his hands and when he punches his enemy his qi sends a shockwave to his enemies body sending them flying. It also gave instructions on how to learn this technique which I read and immediately tried to do. But I found that it was actually quite difficult to control your qi and to make go down to your hands. So I went on and finished the book. The rest of the book just spoke about other techniques but didn''t have the instructions on how to learn them. But it told me that the [Shock Wave Fist} was only a rank 1 skill that was a basic skill that almost all warriors knew. This disappointed me and also encouraged me to hurry and learn this skill. I spent days in the same spot trying to perfect this skill, and within 2 weeks I was finally able to master it. I also found out that while I was meditating I didn''t need to eat because my qi was nourishing my body. I felt that I was currently in the middle 1st rank phase and I needed a while of cultivating my qi before I could reach the 2nd rank. I was still curious about this world and wanted to speak to humans. I completely forgot that I was no longer human and searched for them like a fool. After a few days I came across a road and was excited. I followed the road for a week and with my speed I was able to quickly reach a small village. I left my zombies behind because they would most certainly frighten the villagers. I was wearing a cloak from one of the dead men that died in the fight from where I was able to get the book. As I entered the small village my instincts told me that something was wrong and suddenly I felt a pain in the back of my head and I blacked out. When I woke up I was in chains in a paddy wagon with other humans and some looked at me in fear. They were also chained up and looked gaunt and hadn''t been fed in days. I realized that someone somehow snuck up on me and knocked me out and I was now probably prisoner or worse, slave to them. I realized that my connection to my zombies were cut because I couldn''t communicate with them, which either meant that they were dead or I was too far away from them. We were on the carriage for days while traveling on the road. Our captives occasionally fed us a small moldy piece of bread and gave little water. But eventually we finally reached a city. During my captivity I attempted to meditate and cultivate my qi in order to escape but for some reason I couldn''t sense my qi at all. I noticed strange markings on my chains and realized that they were probably inhibiting me from using qi. We reached the market place I saw plenty of other slaves that were being shown on display and I felt fear in my heart. Chapter 6: Bend over Jericho I was sent up onto the stage in order to be displayed to all of the potential buyers. There were a variety of races being displayed: dwarves, elves, humans, many different kinds of beast men, and all sorts of monsters that were in cages. The captured slaves were shown in front of everyone naked and was humiliated in front of everyone. Female elves were all very beautiful and they fetched high prices on the market because of all the lascivious men who ravished their bodies while they could do nothing. Dwarves were bought for their skill in smithing and their strength. The female beast men were primarily also used as sex slaves also like the female elves. Usually the male slaves were all bought for harsh manual labor in which they usually die in about 10 years because of the cruel way they are treated. I was bought by a thin man with a mustache. Based on his clothing he looked like some sort of noble. I had no clothing on and it was embarrassing but I didn''t make any facial expressions. My new master put a drop of his blood onto my slave collar and I now became his new slave. First he began inspecting my body. What I didn''t expect was when he told me to bend over he inserted his finger into my anus. I cried out in surprise and he simply laughed and stated that I was healthy. He gave the slaver coins and we left the slave market. Monsters like me, I found out were usually bought for entertainment. We monsters are put into a ring and have to fight to the death. My master bought me for 50 gold coins which was quite cheap compared to the female elves and beast men but he only bought me because I was a rare type of ghoul. My master led me inside a large building and we were led downstairs to a large underground room that could easily fit in over a thousand people. There was loud cheering and betting going on in this room and it was filled with the stench of sweat and tobacco. My master dragged me over to another man. They exchanged some pleasantry and I was soon sent off to another room where it was filled with many magical beasts and slaves. The stench of waste hit me like a hammer. I gagged at the smell. It was much worse than my two zombies. I was sent over to a section where all the monsters were and they simply chained me next to a wall and I just sat there. I was in that room for over 3 days. A man would come in twice a day and feed us some type of gruel that tasted horrible but we were all starving and devoured the food without complaint. Because I was with the monsters they could obviously not communicate with me, so I had no one to talk to and was quite lonely. But I knew better than to underestimate these monsters because who knew when I might have to fight them in the ring so I studied the ones close to me very carefully. I remember reading from the qi cultivation book that monsters also have ranks up to saint rank and that they are very dangerous and the higher the rank they are the more intelligent they become. But after analyzing them I figured none of them were higher than the 5th rank which made me a bit more relieved but then I realized that they could all still kill me. I attempted to cultivate my qi but because of the slave collar I could not do anything. On the 5th day of my captivity I was dragged out and brought into the ring where people were cheering for my death. I was very nervous and anxiously waited for my opponent to enter. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. What came into the ring was a giant chicken that was the size of a horse. I thought that since it was a chicken I had nothing to worry about. But when one slaver took off the collar that also prevented it from opening its mouth it roared like a ferocious beast and I could see rows of sharp teeth that could easily tear me to shreds. We were both restricted in our boxes and could not leave. Men outside of the ring were placing their bets on who would win. Suddenly while I was distracted a bell rung and the doors in our boxes that were containing us were opened and the giant chicken rushed towards me. I dove out of the way as it tried to peck me. It''s speed was ridiculous. It was at least a 2nd rank monster and I could barely dodge its attack. I opened up my status and quickly put in all of my stat points into agility. Luckily I made it in time because I was able to dodge easier than before. For about 5 minutes it was basically a game of cat and mouse where I was constantly trying not to get killed by the horrifying chicken. But eventually I made a mistake and I fell to the ground. The annoyed chicken saw its chance and brought down its talons straight down to my head. I don''t know if it was luck or whatever but it missed my neck by barely a centimeter and a crack formed on my collar. Suddenly I was able to feel my qi again and I was able to jump up and unleashed a torrent of shock wave fists to the chickens head. The chickens head was badly deformed and I was covered in blood. All of the onlookers looked at me in shock and I saw that I had leveled up. The few people that bet on me were rejoicing and I saw my master, the person who bought me was very happy, while the majority of the crowd looked angry. I remember from the book that ranked monsters have cores which can increase qi cultivation and mana so I cut open its body and eventually reached its heart where the core was. I also ate some of its flesh which wasn''t that bad. Eventually some of the guards had to come in and take me back by force. I couldn''t do anything to resist because they were at least 6th level warriors and I would probably have been killed. They didn''t take the 2nd ranked core that I took from the dead chicken and I was led to a room where they told me to wash myself. After I was fully cleaned I was forced to put on a new slave collar because the other one broke, but this one was different because it allowed me to use qi. It seems like my master didn''t expect me to be able to use it and so he contacted some people in this business to get me the collar that humans use. I wondered how much money I earned my master but then began to cultivate my qi. I knew that I needed to get stronger in order to have a better chance of survival. I quickly refined the core of the chicken and it took mean entire day to finish. By the time I was done I was only at the mid level stage of the 1st rank. I sighed and knew that it was going to take a long time before I could go into the 2nd rank. 1 week has passed since my first battle and I was still in the room where all the monsters were but each day I steadily cultivated my qi. I was called upon to battle again in the ring after one week of rest. I wondered who I would be facing this time. ----- thanks for reading