《World: Evolution》 Chapter 1 - World Evolution: Activate! The bathroom pass was probably invented by a bored student, most likely in an Advanced Placement Spanish class like mine. Don¡¯t get me wrong, languages are extremely interesting, but the verb conjugation always got to me. Thus, my current trip to the bathroom--in the furthest location from my class possible. Truthfully, it was. I had to pass two other bathrooms to get there. I was walking down the long hallway on the back side of the school, the side that buts up against the soccer fields and the protected county Wetlands beyond it, when a blue box appeared in front of my vision. The box said:
World Evolution countdown activated. Transfer initiated. Evolution will commence in 20 minutes.
Strange. Beyond strange, in fact. At first the random appearance of the blue box startled me, then I realized what it was, or at least what I thought it was, and had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn¡¯t dreaming. Then I wondered if I was hallucinating. I looked past the box at the other few people in the hall and while I couldn''t see a box in midair in front of them, their vision was clearly transfixed on something invisible just in front of them, presumably the same or a similar message to mine. The box disappeared and a small countdown timer appeared in the upper right corner of my visual field.
19:59
19:58
19:57
Walking into the bathroom, I turned on a faucet and splashed water on my face, then looked in the mirror. My own face, my blue eyes, stared back at me with curiosity and concern. I brushed a lock of my long brown hair out of my eyes, then re-did my ponytail as I walked to a stall, shutting myself inside. As the bathroom was empty, I quietly tested out a theory. "Show status window." A blue box appeared that read:
Status window not available at this time. Please reattempt after countdown timer reaches zero.
Success! While somewhat freaky, in that my world appeared to be changing into an RPG, , recognized by these blue status window that looked similar to game status notifications in PC games I had played before, I had the sudden thought that my greatest dream might be coming true! I could be a real-life RPG character! That first status box mentioned something about a World Evolution--maybe that¡¯s what this is: an evolution of the world into an RPG! An upgrade! A Level-up! Amazing! Observing the countdown timer continuing to tick by, I snapped out of my reverie. I tried a couple other commands including "Show Help Menu," "Show Skill Window," and "Show User Menu." All of the above gave the same blue status screen telling me to wait until the countdown completed. I gave one last try before planning to head back to class. "Show User Manual." Another blue box appeared.
Full access to the User Manual is denied due to user restrictions. Press the arrow below for limited manual access.
A blinking arrow button appeared below in midair, which I promptly touched, and it worked just like a touch-screen interface. A map appeared leading me to a particular library shelf. I finished in the bathroom with about 15 minutes left on the timer, and walked rapidly toward the library, my long legs taking me there much faster than most. At 6¡¯3, I was one of the tallest students in the school, and it made me quite adepts at track and field, of which I was a long-distance runner and hurdler. Instead of the usual librarians, I met a short, thin man with curious eyes. I nodded as I passed, and made my way to the bookshelf where the status notification led me. As I arrived at the designated location, the item became outlined on the shelf in blue and the map disappeared. Looking at the book itself it was actually more of a small hardback booklet, containing only a handful of pages. The cover was a light spring green with gold lettering that said "World Evolution User Guide." I opened it up to flip through for a moment, and as I opened it another status box appeared, obscuring my vision of the book.
+2 Wisdom and Intelligence for locating Evolution Items prior to Evolution Countdown Completion. Item has been permanently added to your inventory and cannot be dropped. Inventory space has increased by 1 permanently.
I was about to read the booklet but decided to wait. Seeing the countdown was at 11:57, I hurried to leave the library and head back to class. "Wait." The strange librarian called after me. "If you are leaving, you will want this, but I recommend remaining here. It will be safer.¡± He handed me a school map, but this one wasn¡¯t just a simple printed paper--it was laminated and was made of thick paper. I was puzzled, but took it, thanked him, and left. I made my way back into class, which was in an uproar. The teacher, Senora Grabel, had completely lost control over the class. Everyone was talking and shouting and laughing, and one or two students were sitting there completely freaked out--one of them was crying. I sat down and quickly started to read through the User Guide. "Welcome, User, to World Evolution. To begin, there are some main information points to consider. 1. The rules of science are not all the same as they used to be, and magic is much more prevalent than in the world''s previous devolved state. 2. There are a limited number of Safe-Zones located throughout the world. It is impossible to die in these locations. In each Zone, the Zone Warden''s word is law provided it does not attempt to cause harm. 3. Multiple Status commands can be used to provide information on the Akashic Display, the series of blue boxes you have already seen. These commands can be verbalized or thought. The main Status displays are as follows: Status Window Skill Window Inventory Quest Log Help menu User Guide Other status displays may become available under certain circumstances. 4. Certain actions unlock skills or increase vital statistics (stats). Stats and skills cannot be erased, although certain items, spells, Users, and other actions can alter them. 5. These changes are permanent and cannot be reversed. This is not a game, there is no ¡°do over.¡± 6. Each User is given 5 inventory slots on Evolution. It is possible to obtain additional slots by absorbing Inventory cubes dropped from Users who have died. Each cube will contain the total inventory slots of the dead user along with all of the items contained in their cube, and can be used to increase one¡¯s own inventory size. 7. Additional User Guide data can be obtained through experiences, and this guide will automatically update as new data is obtained during life experiences. This guide can also be copied by touching it and saying "Duplicate." Each user may only possess one copy. 8. Except under special circumstances, death is final. 9. Good luck! You will need it.
+1 Luck from the Evolution for finding this User Manual.
After reading this, I had about 8 minutes left, and a few thoughts formulated in my mind: 1) The status boxes and User Guide suggested I was now in an RPG, however strange or fantastical that may seem. 2) This world is probably not as safe as I might hope, as RPGs in all reality are plagued with monsters and even Player Killers(PK) in Player-versus-Player settings (PVP). 3) The strange librarian seemed to know something. His comment about the library being ¡°safer¡± couldn¡¯t have been a coincidence. It might be a Safe Zone. 4) I needed a weapon and fast. 5) Anything I could do to get a head-start would be a wise move. If this is a game, players start out with limited resources. Discovering this beforehand allows me to gain extra resources. I grabbed my book bag, put it on, instructed my friend Dee, short for Denise, who sat next to me, to do the same. She began to question, but I simply stated ¡°I have special knowledge about this and you need to trust me. It could mean life or death. Follow me or stay, but I am leaving.¡± To her merit, she stood up and grabbed her bag. Together we raced out of the library. We ran down the hallway toward the gym, which unfortunately for us was on the other side of the school. I was a runner, she was not. I got there in two minutes, but she was left far behind. I began to rummage furiously through the gymnasium supply closets, and found what I was looking for -- the Baseball team¡¯s gear, including metal bats and baseball helmets. By that time Dee had breathlessly arrived and I handed her a helmet. ¡°Put this on.¡± I commanded, donning one as I spoke. I then pulled out four bats, handing her two. ¡°Run to the library as fast as you can, and don¡¯t stop until you get inside. Go find the librarian when you get there. I will be right behind you.¡± She nodded and left. I rummaged around a little bit more, keeping an eye on the timer. I found what I was looking for: the archery club¡¯s locker. I quickly grabbed three bows and slung them onto my back. Grabbing as many arrows as I could fit into as many quivers as I could hold, I took an armful of them and the two bats and took off sprinting toward the library. I had not more than a minute left, and I determined to make this my fastest running time, ever. I made it back to the library with 0:06 seconds left. The beady eyed man was standing there holding the door open to me, with Dee standing behind him. "Quickly!" He shouted. I dashed in and collapsed on the floor as he slammed the door behind us. Panting, and dragging myself off the floor, I watched the last few seconds count down.
0:04
0:03
0:02
0:01
0:00
World: Evolution Activate!
A shrill noise sounded everywhere, and a blinding light flared outside, which I could see through the massive panels of glass against the outer wall of the library, which overlooked the soccer fields. My vision had spots for a few moments, but as my vision cleared I looked and everything was different. The librarian was now wearing leather pants and a leather vest, with a white shirt underneath. He had multiple pieces of jewelry on his hands and wrists which I had not noticed before either. The view outside had totally changed. Dark clouds blanketed the sky and a massive wind was blowing. Trees were being uprooted and thrown and I saw one of the soccer goals slide across the field before taking off in the air. To say I was shocked was an understatement. It was like the whole world outside was undergoing an unprecedented shift. I could feel tingling on my skin, like even I was being affected somehow by its energy. "Do not worry.¡± A calm voice behind me said. ¡°You are in a Safe Zone, one of few in this area, and the Evolution¡¯s destructive powers cannot reach you here. I know you have many questions but I am limited in what I can share at this time. I recommend you read your user manual. It is in your Inventory.¡± I was still winded, and started pacing around the area just inside the library entrance to slow my heart rate and breathing, which were still pumping rapidly from my sprint. After the storm subsided, as did my racing heart, Dee began to pick up the scattered mess of arrows that had spilled from their respective quivers when I collapsed. I was a bit confused at the inventory reference, then remembered what I had read in the User Guide about inventory slots, and how I hadn¡¯t been able to access status windows before, and it all clicked in. "Show Inventory!" I called out. A small game-style inventory box appeared in midair in front of me. I touched my hand to the book-icon that represented the User Manual. As I did so, I could feel the book under my fingers, so I grasped and pulled. It came out easily. Closing the inventory with a word, I flipped through it briefly. It was the same as it had been a few minutes prior. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Dee asked. ¡°It¡¯s a User Manual.¡± The even-stranger librarian explained. Dee must have had a confused look on her face, because after a pause he explained further. ¡°I am a User. You are a User. We are all Users.¡± ¡°Oh. So Users are people then.¡± Dee said contently. ¡°No, not people, but beings. People, or humans, as you call yourselves, are only one race of User. There are many more. For example, I am a Tuatha De Danaan, one of the beings you often call the ¡°Fair Folk¡± or the ¡°Leprechauns.¡± While we don¡¯t randomly hand out gold like your mythology states, we do have ways of appearing and disappearing, and the Fair Folk have traveled on and off this planet for thousands of years.¡± ¡°Wait, you¡¯re a leprechaun?¡± I exclaimed. ¡°That¡¯s not possible.¡± ¡°Says the guy who followed a blue screen that only he can see to find a book on a shelf titled ¡®World Evolution User Guide.¡¯¡± he rebutted, ¡°and for someone who doesn¡¯t believe in leprechauns, you seemed to move awfully fast to obtain that archery equipment and those helmets and bats. I¡¯m a leprechaun. The problem is that what you think a leprechaun is like is not exactly what we are like. Although, I do love a good practical joke.¡± He smiled. ¡°And where are my manners? My name is Bardon Danu. I am the Zone Warden of the Library at your service. Please, come in further and make yourselves at home, at least for now. I expect that we will start to have others join us soon enough. I know this is a lot to take in, but take a few minutes to review the User Manual.¡± We turned toward the library desk, which was located in the center of the massive mostly-rectangular room that was the Library. As mentioned before, the far window showed the sports fields, and the center was mostly filled with rows upon rows of bookshelves. To the left was a series of computer stations, and to the right were groups of tables for studying and research. Beyond both the computers and the tables, on the far sides of the room, were comfortable sitting areas, with couches, recliners, large stuffed chairs, and an occasional beanbag chair. The room itself had vaulted ceilings that spanned three stories in height overlooking the room. Denise and I walked past the library desk on the right toward the tables, and sat down next to each other. We huddled together over the thin booklet and began to read, her for the first time and I for the second. After completing this pamphlet, I touched it and said "Duplicate." A second copy appeared in midair next to it, which Denise took and placed in her inventory. We turned back to the Zone Warden. "I presume you have many questions, but first I have a gift. It is not often I see ones as resourceful as yourselves, especially to obtain a User Manual prior to Countdown completion. As such, I would like to give you each a single skill of your choice within my means." Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "Do you mean like a game-skill? I asked. ¡°Can I get something that lets me use magic or heal or identify or repair?" "Yes, all of the above are possible, and more, but there are limits to what the rules will allow me to do, and I also cannot teach you crafting skills I do not know." "What magic do you know?" Denise asked. "And is this seriously like one of those roleplay games? That¡¯s what the User Manual made it sound like. Those have never been my thing. They¡¯re much more up your alley, Perry.¡± "I know a variety of magics, but if magic is your desire, I will teach you Mana Manipulation, a prerequisite for any magical skill." Denise agreed, and Bardon placed his hand on her forehead. His hand emitted a rainbow light for a few moments, then he moved his hand and Denise stared off into space again, presumably reading a status box, then she began to jump up and down, excited. "I can use magic!" Turning to me, Bardon said, "And what would you like, Peregrine?" "I am somewhat torn, to be honest. I want to use magic, but I think an Identify-type skill would be very useful, and is sometimes hard to get. Also, healing skills are very useful too. What do you recommend?" "I recommend Mana Manipulation, as Light-based and Nature Magic are the branches of magic that perform healing. As for Identify, you should be able to learn it here today if you apply yourself." "Mana Manipulation it is then, please, Mr. Bardon." I replied. He repeated the same procedure for me as he did Dee, and I had a status window appear as well.
You have learned Mana Manipulation, a skill that allows you to use magic.
I plied Bardon with more questions, including some understanding of how skills are obtained, which are accomplished through repeat actions, skill books, special events, or direct impartation as he did with us. Direct impartation is possible only those at the Master Level or higher in that skill. Bardon explained the race-system and Drops system, as well as the Resurrection process. As Bardon explained to us earlier, each living being is considered a User, including insects. Each race is able to evolve, almost limitlessly, although evolutions require certain conditions be fulfilled to occur. For example, the length of time and level of experience needed for a single ant to become large enough or intelligent enough to combat a humanoid is inordinate, and thus rarely happens. Drops are much like they are in games, whereby each opponent we killed in combat would drop special items out of their inventory. In addition to drops, other items could be stolen or taken from others regardless of whether they are dead or alive, provided they are not soul-bound to that person and are external, such as in their pockets or around their neck. Resurrection is a tricky one, as it is very UNLIKE most RPGs. Resurrection only occurs if someone has the passive God-skill "Return Life," or "Resurrection." The former skill is in regards to oneself where the latter is able to revive others. Bardon also explained a bit of what happened to the school and surrounding world, albeit minimal details. He explained that part of the Evolution process was a very Darwinian procedure where the most fit survived. At the time of the Evolution, all other races are given the option to move over to this world through a one-way portal. As it turns out, the school had basically been transformed into what I would call a Dungeon, and hallways and other rooms were being taken over by other races. As the newest Evolved world, Earth was prime real estate to take over and Humans, among other beings, were in the line of fire. Outside the building was much the same, although with a higher level of danger due to the space allowing for larger and more dangerous races to spawn. In reality, it seems this same thing was happening all over the world, and it really was a race for survival. Bardon explained that at times a weak race would leave their own world seeking shelter and at other times a strong race would come seeking conquest. In other words, anyone and anything could have crossed over to our world. As he explained this, I realized that the Library was empty except for the three of us. I asked him about it and he explained. ¡°Unfortunately, the magic of the Safe Zone makes it impossible for anyone to exit or enter for an hour after the Evolution has occurred. For your own psychological benefit, I have occluded the windows to the hallway and made this room soundproof as well, so that you will not have to hear the plight of many of your classmates.¡± ¡°What do you mean ¡®plight¡¯,¡± Dee asked. ¡°Quite honestly, slaughter.¡± Bardon replied. ¡°I have been through 6 different Evolutions, and they are bloody. They are violent. Creatures with far more power than you appear in this world and take over. Their means of ¡°takeover¡± usually involves killing those already present. There are some who survive, and that is part of why the Organization created Safe Zones--so ones like you can survive long enough to have a fighting chance. No matter how many times I live through this process, I have never gotten used to it. I lost my beloved sister and both of my parents in our own Evolution, and the skills we learned were to survive. That is why the Tuatha De Danaan are known for their ability to hide, even in plain sight. It was the difference for us between life and death, and still, many of us died at that time. Evolutions are a fact of the universe, but I do not pretend to think that this universe is kind.¡± ¡°What, so we just wait in here while everyone else dies?¡± I shouted. ¡°That¡¯s not good enough!¡± I dashed over to the door and yanked the handle. It didn¡¯t budge. ¡°Unlock this now!¡± I raged. ¡°As I said before, this cannot be undone. The magics that govern the Safe Zone close this room for an hour after Evolution, with no one going or coming. If not, the Evolution itself would destroy the magics of the Safe Zones, and there would be no safe place for anyone. Those who make it through the first hour will have a chance at survival. There is no other way. I might add that the way you made it here, it didn¡¯t sound like you told too many other people about what you suspected, or what you read in the User Guide either. If you have to blame anyone, you might start by blaming yourself. That single secret might have caused other people to come here too, and they also might have made it through the Evolution. As it is, usually less than 20% survive the first hour, less than 10% the first day, and the numbers usually go down from there until they level out.¡± I stopped pulling at the handle and walked back toward them, defeated. I felt I couldn¡¯t accept this, but Bardon was right. I didn¡¯t say a word to anyone but Dee, and I ran out without thinking of anyone else but the two of us. As it was, our Spanish room was just around a few corner from the Library and it would have been easy for the whole class to evacuate here as a safety measure. As I was lost in my thoughts, Bardon continued to speak. ¡°I am sure you have many more questions, and a lot to take in and mentally digest, but we must get started at the important things. The longer you wait to train, the harder it will be for you and for anyone with you. Your world has turned upside down, and you cannot act and live the same as you used to. Earth has now become a war zone on a multi-planar, galactic scale, and only those who are strong or are able to escape or hide come out on top in the end. If you want to become a survivor, then I can help you, but only to a point. Before venturing out from here, you need to obtain a few skills, the first of which is Identify. It will help you understand the value of objects, as well as the power level and ability of other Users. He had us open our book bags and look closely at each item for a minute or so, thinking of all the characteristics associated with that item and observing it with a fresh eye, trying to notice the minute details. After that period of time, if we saw a blue status box appear, we could then move to the next item. He directed us each to a table to spread our items out, and suggested we switch tables when done. He set us to our task, then pulled out a book and began to read. I stared at him. ¡°How can you read at a time like this?¡± I asked. ¡°Habit, I suppose.¡± He said. ¡°Besides, like I said, I¡¯ve been through this 6 times already. It¡¯s not new to me. And I already have the Identify skill. Your world, however, has always been a source of fascination. If I can¡¯t change anything, I might as well enjoy a good book.¡± With that, he wordlessly turned back to his reading. I couldn¡¯t help the feelings of disgust I felt for myself at that moment, watching him sit there and read a book while people were outside dying, but this was still all too surreal. I looked over at Dee and could tell she was having her own internal turmoil. In all honesty, we both were having trouble focusing. ¡°Do you really think it¡¯s as bad as he says?¡± Dee quietly asked me. ¡°I have to imagine. I mean, as crazy as this sounds, I saw the status boxes, and you did too. We saw that crazy storm outside, and everything else, including the User Guide, only confirm what I think we both know deep down. Everything has changed.¡± ¡°I¡¯m kind of scared.¡± Dee admitted. ¡°Me too, but in a way I¡¯m also kind of excited. I mean, honestly, this is the kind of thing I always dreamed would be cool to have happen--for life to become like a game. Now that it¡¯s becoming real, it is hard to believe. I think all we can do right now is push past the fear by just focusing on the task at hand. Let¡¯s try to Identify this stuff and get the skill, and then we can figure out what to do next.¡± Turning my gaze back to my belongings on the table, I started with my house keys. After around a minute a status box appeared.
House Key: key to the Bell household.
I continued this for my wallet, school books, pencils and other school supplies, then moved on to my Track uniform and the other random items in my bag: mini sewing kit, pocketknife I forgot to take out of my bag from last weekend''s camping trip, three hairpins, two rubber bands, a pair of shoelaces, toothbrush, lavender and peppermint essential oils, and a paperclip. Each item provided a blue status box with minimal data. I also did this for the baseball helmet, bats, and archery supplies I brought. Denise and I switched tables and repeated these actions. Nearing the end of her supplies, I gained a blue status box that said
You have learned Identify. This skill allows you to identify the animate and inanimate, including objects and Users. Mana cost: 5 mp
Denise apparently got the same status because she turned to me smiling. Calling up my skill window I observed that Identify and Mana Manipulation were both ranked at Beginner 1 0%. While it gave me another few questions for Bardon about skill ranking, I suggested we re-Identify all of our items again. I had almost completed my table of belongings when I ran out of mana. "Hey, I am going to meditate and see if I can sense mana, as well as see if it helps refill mana or gain me a skill. It usually exists in most games, so it probably does here too.¡± Dee had run out of mana as well, but she opted to pull out a book and read instead. 20 minutes later, I couldn¡¯t handle meditating any longer. My mind was still in a whirlwind, and while I normally would have settled down into a somewhat serene state, I could tell I wasn¡¯t anywhere close. However, my mana had refilled about 2/3 of the way, so I continued to Identify the remaining few items on my table. Dee put her book down and joined me. When we finished our own belongings, we switched. When we ran out of mana, I meditated again and she continued reading. The second time I could still only last for fifteen to twenty minutes, but I could tell that my mind had stopped racing and my thinking had settled. I had just gotten to that ¡°peaceful calm¡± feeling inside my body when I felt the need to stop again. I completed the items on her table, and was rewarded with my Identify skill reaching 26.2% in experience. I was disappointed at what I felt was slow experience growth, but as I thought more about it, in-game the exp. grown was very gradual as well. After all, if after that short time I had already hit Level 5, in a few hours I would be a Grandmaster. No, slow and steady it would have to be. While Identifying our Items we discovered that our Spanish Language textbooks had become Skill Books, books that we could use to learn the Spanish Language. We had to ask Bardon how to use them though. He briefly looked up from his book and said, ¡°How do you learn anything normally from a book?¡± ¡°Read it?¡± Dee guessed. ¡°Exactly. Read the book and you¡¯ll get the skill.¡± He had a twinkle in his eye, and I had the feeling there was something he wasn¡¯t telling us. ¡°So the ONLY way to learn a skill from a skill book is by reading it?¡± I clarified. He smirked, grinned wider, then said, ¡°Since you asked, no, it¡¯s not. The faster way is to put your hand on the book and say ¡®Learn Skill¡¯ and you will learn it too.¡± ¡°Then why would you tell us to read the whole book then? It¡¯s a LONG book!¡± I complained. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m a leprechaun. I already told you I like practical jokes.¡± Bardon replied. I was a bit blown away at how thoughtless that was, as I could have wasted an hour or two of time reading through a Spanish book when I could simply touch the thing and learn the skill, but I was happy I had seen through his trick. I¡¯d have to pay closer attention when talking to him in the future. Placing my hand on the book I said ¡°Learn Skill.¡±
You have learned Spanish. This skill allows you to speak and understand Spanish. Due to the level of the Skill Book, additional proficiency has been added.
On a whim, I went to the Languages section of the Library and began to Identify the various skill books. In under 5 minutes I had learned the following: Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Latin, Dutch, and as lame as it might sound, Klingon.
Due to multiple language skills learned, they have been upgraded into the Languages skill. Additional changes have been made to the skill and all proficiencies have been averaged.
Due to learning ten skills in a short period of time, you have received the Title ¡°Quick Study.¡± This title allows the User to acquire all new skills 10% faster.
For learning ten skills in under ten minutes, +10 to Wisdom, +5 to Intelligence. For being the first in this Evolution to accomplish this, +3 to Luck
Wow! All these stat gains, just for learning skills! This is amazing! I excitedly called out ¡°Show Languages Skill.¡±
Languages Skill, Beginner 2 - 17% (Passive): this skill allows the User to learn and retain languages. Proficiency Level is displayed and measures the level of Language understanding. Higher Language skill increases the speed at which Proficiency is acquired. Through this skill, languages can also be learned by direct impartation, or hearing it spoken or reading it without prior understanding. Languages: Spanish Italian Japanese Portuguese French German Russian Latin Dutch Klingon
Looking at my watch, I noted the time, and over an hour had passed since we came into the Library. The doors should be able to open. I cleaned up my belongings, putting them all back in my bookbag, and put the bag in the inventory. The full bag took up only one slot. I was able to put three of the four quivers of arrows and one bow into the remaining slots, grabbed a bat and donned my baseball helmet, then walked out through the Library doors. All was fairly quiet--eerily quiet. Looking down the hall I could see piles of debris. I opened the classroom door to one of the rooms across the hall from the Library, and was shocked at what I saw: blood and bodies everywhere. In the center of the room was a large wolf with grey fur who looked at me, snarled, and leaped toward me. I slammed the door right before he hit it, but he was moving forward with such force that his head slammed through the door.
-180 hp Grey Wolf has been stunned for 5 seconds.
I took my bat and started bashing his head with it. I was both scared and angry that this wolf had tried to kill me and had killed an entire room full of people. Status notifications continued to flood past my vision.
-84 hp
-76 hp
Critical Strike! -173 hp Grey Wolf has been stunned for 5 seconds.
For hitting in the same spot, additional damage is added. -105 hp
This continued for a minute or so until I got another notification:
Grey Wolf has died. You have gained a level.
I rushed into the Library without looking back, heart practically beating out of my chest.
Status Window
NamePeregrine BellAlignmentNeutral
Level1GenderMale
RaceHumanInventory Spaces6
TitlesNone
Fame0Infamy0
Health (HP)630 / 630Health Regen rate0.5/sec
Mana340 / 340Mana Regen rate0.2/sec
Stamina320 / 320Stamina Regen rate0.2/sec
Sustenance100% / 100%
Strength 12Wisdom13
Agility12Intelligence16
Dexterity10Vitality13
Luck3 - -
Credits: ---
Re: Chapter 2 Teaser and Progress Report I am hoping to start posting new chapters within the next week or so, as they are already written, but after reviewing some of the writing reference material on this site I discovered just how much planning I didn''t do prior to writing. I do a fairly good job of storyline development in advance, but I didn''t do that with any characters. Over the next week or two I will be working on clarifying the personalities of the few main characters, as well as changing and updating some items in the story that just don''t make logical sense (such as a lack of reaction to the Evolution changes in the beginning--the MC is entirely too accepting that his entire world has turned upside-down). This will probably result in a re-posting of the first chapter with notable edits, but I don''t want to leave you all hanging with nothing. So . . . below is a teaser for the second chapter, two segments based on what I have so far (without pretty tables): After a very enjoyable dinner, whereby I identified every food within the visible range, I thanked Bardon and got back to work. I began by exhausting my mana on Identifying books and other library materials. Each time my mana ran out I would meditate until it refilled. Over the course of a few boring hours, I managed to get my Identify skill to Beginner 3 at 32%, and Meditate to Beginner 2 at 27%. I found that if I focused quite hard during meditation, I could just barely start to sense the existence of my meridians. It was around 10pm, but having nothing better to do than sit around, read, or sleep, I decided to continue. I hit Beginner 5 at around 1:30 am, but since I was still awake and only had a few bookshelves left, I kept going an hit 72% before I ran out of books to identify, which also just barely pushed me to Beginner 4 in Meditation at 3%. I found I was now able to clearly sense each of my 12 meridians, and also the 8 lesser vessels. I hadn''t been able to find any books on them, but as I meditated more and gained awareness of the 12 main meridians, I found my awareness of the 8 slowly grew. I decided to try an experiment effort calling it a night at 3 am. I began to meditate again, but this time I Absorbed mana instead of just meditating. I sent the extra mana cycling through my meridians instead of just holding it in my mana core, also known as the dantien. As I did this, I found it flowed quite naturally, and my meridians accepted the energy quite readily. When I reached a certain point I heard another status notification sound. Instead of ignoring it, I learned my lesson, opened my eyes, and read it. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. [Warning: You have reached maximum mana capacity. Further mana absorption will be dangerous.] I stopped absorbing, but continued to meditate and observe the mana flow in my body. After a while, I noticed my mana channels imperceptibly grow bigger, as though the absorption had exercised them slightly and they had responded. Curious, I opened my status window and looked at my stats. While my base stats had all remained the same, my mana pool grew by 2 points and my stamina by 1. I had done it! I did a celebration happy-dance inside then settled down on one of the armchairs to sleep. ------------------------------------------------- What must have been five or ten minutes later I heard a high pitched noise that was near-deafening, and it continued for a maddening amount of time. I received a status box when I heard the noise and was suddenly dizzy, nauseous, and had a splitting headache. [Due to the Shrill Cry you have been afflicted with dizziness, nausea, headache, and disorientation. All movement has a 60% deficit for 5 minutes and Agility is temporarily reduced by 80%.] I could barely read the status, but it basically told me what I already knew--I was crazy sick and mostly unable to move. I waited helplessly for the five minutes to be over, hearing all kinds of carnage outside. At one point during a hard impact against the classroom wall the cinder block of the room broke inward. I was very afraid the fight would continue in the classroom but luck was on our side and it didn''t happen. [Shrill Cry Debuff has ended. Movement speed and Agility have returned to normal.] At five minutes the symptoms instantly subsided. Hearing no further activity outside, I slowly crept toward the open hole in the wall and peeked out. I saw the corpse of a hulking beast just outside, but nothing else was visible. "Identify," I whispered. [Ywedd-fyll Weir corpse: a rare beast that has the ability to change its physical form. It''s Mana core can be affixed to items to add magical qualities and the meat, when cooked properly, can permanently raise stats. It''s leathery skin can be used as a crafting item.] Jackpot! I thought to myself. Too bad we nearly died. I wonder if that other beast is coming back. . . Chapter 2 - A Dying Request I have re-written the ENTIRE first chapter based on constructive feedback. If you have already read it, you will need to re-read it or you will be very confused. ^_^ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ¡°How¡¯d it go?¡± Bardon asked, as he observed me run back into the Library. Presumably he had seen the whole thing through the clear glass windows. ¡°I almost died!¡± I exclaimed. ¡°This crazy huge grey wolf killed everyone in that classroom, and it jumped after me when I opened the door. The only reason I¡¯m alive is because it got its head stuck through the door and I kept stunning it with head shots.¡± He sighed. ¡°I am glad you¡¯re alive, but I warned you before for a reason. You are far too weak to venture out there by yourself, and certainly not without at least a little extra training or planning. I am guessing he was at least level 8, if not much higher, so you might even have gained a level or two from killing him, but your act was foolishness. I cannot leave the Safe Zone often, or even for long, as my magic is part of what sustains it, but I will do it just this once to help you collect his Inventory cube and any other drops. You might as well loot the room while you¡¯re at it, if you don¡¯t mind looting the dead, that is.¡± He motioned me back outside and over to the room. I forced the door, complete with wolf still stuck in it, open enough for him to slide past, then me after him. The room was absolutely a mess, but there was no one else alive in the room to attack me. Bardon leaned down and picked up a small cube. ¡°Here, this in the Inventory cube. Put that in your pocket.¡± I stuffed the grey cube, about the size of a tennis ball, into my jeans pocket. He looked around the room and pointed to the wolf carcass in the door. ¡°Take that and drag it back to the Library. I will use it later. Everything else here has been trashed, but you might find some things of interest if you loot every corpse in the room. You might even earn a skill.¡± He suggested mysteriously. I wasn¡¯t too keen on looting all the dead bodies, but blood had never bothered me much, and they didn¡¯t smell that bad. I figured that in reality, the dead wouldn¡¯t miss anything, and it would be better for me to benefit from whatever they had on them than to miss out. In a survival sense, that unknown item could be the difference of life and death. I can¡¯t really say how many bodies I actually looted, as some of them were mangled and in pieces, and it was impossible to count. In fact, I found the thought of counting the bodies somewhat morbid, but there was a part of me that wanted to know--how many of my classmates had actually died? I was conscious that the Warden was standing at the door guarding, and waiting for me to finish, so I made sure to move steadily. I made sure to start at one corner, and when I finished a body I moved it over to the corner to join the rest, until there was a large pile of dead in one corner, and a bloody mess all over the rest of the floor. When I was finished, I had obtained nine purses, seven wallets, and a random smattering of other money and jewelry, along with scores of books, bookbags, some with significant rips, almost all of which were bloodstained, and various other items contained in the bags. Only one single sweatshirt was blood-free, and that only because it was tucked inside a bookbag off in a corner under a desk. I Identified as many of them as I could until my mana ran out, but for the most part I saw nothing special. The cabinets didn¡¯t reveal much, but the teacher¡¯s desk had a set of car keys, a wallet with a male ID, presumably the teacher¡¯s, a metal letter opener, which struck me as a possible weapon to use, and a few other belongings, including a bagged lunch. I took the lunch with me as well. As soon as I did that, a status window popped up in front of me.
You have obtained the Scavenger skill. This skill points out items that may be of value or use on bodies, as well as increases the likelihood of successfully harvesting useful items from the bodies themselves, such as fur, horns, or claws, and can influence the quality of the extraction. At higher levels this skill increases the Credits obtained from the User by a percentage.
¡°I¡¯m all finished.¡± I said to Bardon, pointing to the large pile of items near the door. ¡°Let¡¯s start by taking out the Inventory cube, hold it in your hand, and say ¡®Expand Inventory.¡¯¡± I did as instructed and saw the following:
Your inventory has increased by 38 slots. 14 items have been obtained.
¡°Now say ¡®Open Inventory¡¯ and look at what is in there.¡± I did as instructed, and found six of the new slots filled with meat, three filled with other food items, one had a ring in it, and another a canine¡¯s tooth. Another still had an eyeball, which I found kind of gross. At least the tooth seemed remotely reasonable. The last item was a sword. ¡°It told me there were fourteen items, but I only see thirteen.¡± I complained. ¡°Can¡¯t the universe do math?¡± ¡°Look closely at the Inventory window--you should see something titled Credits. Is there a number under it?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes, it says 7.83.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the total number of Credits you obtained from him, as well as any other money you picked up and put in your inventory. Credits were the fourteenth item, and are the TransGalactic Currency. All money of any currency will automatically convert to Credits by the conversion rate at that time when placed in your inventory. Now, next you need to . . .¡± Bardon gave me step by step instructions on how to allocate the various items I obtained into my inventory. He had me put all money, including credit and debit cards, gift cards, etc. into my inventory. Most of them disappeared and the Credits number grew, although by a fraction of the actual dollar amounts. Even the teacher¡¯s cards only added a few credits, and I can assume he had more money than most of the students in his accounts. All together it left me with 38.42 Credits, although I had no clue what the actual buying power of 38 Credits was. Next, he had me Identify and sort the books. All skill-related books he had me keep, along with any book of the first of its kind, and the one that was the highest quality. I had already learned all of the languages the school taught, but Bardon had me keep them anyway. He said that if I used them later it would add experience to my current Languages skill. The rest, such as the nineteen Economics books, I left, except he had me give him one. ¡°What do you want that for?¡± I asked. ¡°I have a skill called Library Science that has a subskill called Card Catalog. It allows me to know whether I have read a book before and whether it is contained in any specific library of my choosing. That one isn¡¯t in this Library, and I haven¡¯t read it. You have a few others I will want as well.¡± He directed me to hand him a few books, none of which were skill books, and none of which I wanted anyway. I did so gladly. After going through all the books, I had to go through the book bags, jewelry, and other items. I put all the books in bookbags and placed the bags in my Inventory to clear them out of my way, also reducing the number of slots I used, then began to Identify any remaining items. Most of the jewelry was junk like watches and plastic earrings, but there were a few items of actual precious metals, and a few necklaces and rings that had actual precious or semiprecious stones in them. I put the valuable ones in my inventory, tossed the junk in a pile, and continued. I did also save about eight watches, most of which I was able to fit in my inventory, saving them for when my battery ran out. There were a number of cell phones and such, and I turned all of them off and put them in a bag. They had no service, and if they were of any use it would not do to run down the batteries. I hadn''t even checked for electricity yet, as this room had a big window and was well lit by the sun. Any items with interchangeable batteries I removed the batteries then saved both the electronics and the batteries. In the end the rest of the little stuff like rubber bands and such I piled in a bag and put that whole bag in my inventory, filling it completely. From there, I stood up, finished. Bardon directed me to come and follow him, and with that, he left and stood in the hallway while I extricated the wolf¡¯s head from the door and slowly dragged his body across the tile flooring toward the Library. I continued to struggle with it once inside the Library, except it was harder now due to the carpeting. Once inside, Bardon pointed at the carcass with his index finger and it floated up in the air. He walked across the Library into what used to be the Computer Tech room. Opening the door, I peeked in to see a huge kitchen. ¡°Where did this come from?¡± I exclaimed. ¡°It¡¯s part of the Safe Zone. Do you recall the Safe Zone rules outlined in the User Guide? I can basically make this place however I want it to look. The computers were useless, as there was no internet signal for you all to make use of, so I transformed the room into my kitchen. I will make some food from this later. He floated the body onto a long steel table, turned, and went back to the Library Circulation desk in the middle, motioning for me to follow. ¡°Later, if you like, I can start to teach you Cooking, as I will be making us dinner from this guy here. You might even be able to help me skin him and get some practice Scavenging. It''s a useful skill especially when it is sufficiently leveled." I thanked him for the offer, then I decided to practice Mana Manipulation whereas Dee just continued reading her book. I am a bookworm, and love to read, but in a situation like this I am surprised she could sit there and read for hours on end without doing anything else. No matter. Actually, I went and asked Bardon first, but he simply said ¡°Trial and error is an amazing teacher,¡± and continued his own book. So, I went back to meditating to see what I could figure out, and this time was able to easily enter a mild meditative trance. I remained there for a few minutes when I heard the sound of a status box appearing. Opening my eyes I saw another status window.
You have learned Meditation. This skill allows you to regenerate mana and health at a faster rate. At higher levels this skill will allow you to regenerate stamina and additional benefits will be added. + 0.2 mana/sec +0.2 health/sec
Success! I told Dee the skill I just got, expecting her to be jealous, but she smirked at me before saying, ¡°Yes, but I bet you didn¡¯t get the Bookworm skill. I hadn''t thought about it, but it made sense given the time she had spent reading that she had gained a skill from it. "So what are the benefits? What does it do?" I inquired. "It increase my reading speed and retention, letting me do more of what I do best--read. After all, as the President of the Reading Olympics, school or no school I have a reputation to maintain. I might also add that I got 1 Intelligence and 1 Wisdom just from all the reading I was doing, and two Intelligence just for obtaining the skill!" Dee excitedly exclaimed. "So how long did you have to read to get the skill?" I inquired. Probably about an hour and a half total, maybe almost two hours. It all sort of ran together after a while. Although, I did finish one book and start on a second at the time, so there''s a chance that had something to do with it. You want it too, don''t you." She stated. "Of course I do. Who wouldn''t want a skill that makes me smarter and read and retain information faster?" I smiled. Dee went back to her reading and I turned inward, focusing on meditating, and within a few minutes I began to sense a ball of energy within my body. I continued to focus on it and after a few more minutes I became able to more clearly visualize this glowing ball of blue light, presumably my mana center. I heard the sound of the status box, but I continued to meditate anyway. I imagined mana streaming in from the world around me and filling my mana core, much like I had done in the past during Qigong meditation. I heard another status update, but ignored it and continued. As I did so I saw my mana start to flux and go out of control. It thrust me out of my meditative state and I became nauseous. I felt super-full of energy, but it was making me sick. I quickly started to identify the chair, table, and nearby books, figuring that it was due to having absorbed too much mana. As I Identified objects, the feeling slowly lessened, then was gone. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I mentally willed for the status messages to reappear, and they did. The first notified me that I learned the Meditate skill; the second stated I had learned Absorb, but that continued mana Absorption would make my mana core unstable and I would have to discharge the mana or dire consequences would occur. As it turns out there is a lot to learn about magic. I decided that my magic-play had come to an end, as further experimentation without guidance could prove disastrous. Every fantasy book I had ever read suggested either supreme luck or serious aptitude was required when self-teaching magic, or a horrid curse or other disaster would befall the character in question. Finished with Meditating for the moment, I opened my Inventory to explore what was there. The meat was just edible meat. The eyeball and canine both he the ability to be used as crafting items, whether in cooking, alchemy, or even tailoring or weaponry for the tooth, and may have had some arcane use for the eyeball. The ring was actually a bit of a find. It''s appearance was unique, in that the ring was like two rings that were attached to each other, but one slightly smaller than the other and that fit inside the first. It also, when not worn, could spin inside the first one, almost like a gyroscope. The ring''s properties matched the unique design of the ring.
Gemini''s Ring of Rejuvenation: Doubles Health and Mana regeneration
I immediately equipped the ring. This was a real find! It didn''t just increase it, but double whatever my current regen-rate was! I was going to show Dee but decided against it. I didn''t want her to be jealous, and I figured it might be better to keep some things secret. I heard some new noises and looked up to see a handful of other students walk into the Library. Some of them had clothing that was torn in places, and a couple of them looked injured in one way or another. Bardon welcomed them and explained the Safe Zone rules, then directed them to some of the couches. I didn''t recognize any of them, but I decided to be friendly and introduce myself. We had a short conversation, and they had come from somewhere upstairs. Of the six of them four were from the same class and had a run-in with some kind of flaming snakes. Most everyone in their class had died too, but they manage to escape and hide in a bathroom. The bathroom had a pair of spider-like beings that were the size of volleyballs, and one of their group had died, but they managed to kill the two spiders and safely hide for a while. The other two were a teacher and single student who had found refuge in the bathroom along with three other injured students after the rest of their class was killed or wounded by frogmen with tridents. The teacher, Kevin, had managed to take one of the tridents and fend them off just one enough for a few to escape, but even so the tridents were poisoned and the injured students had died. Kevin defended the bathroom at the door after they arrived until they made a plan to attempt to escape the building. On their way toward an exit, they passed the Library and noted that Bardon was there. They decided to risk it and it turned out to be a good move. Here they were able to rest and heal. I let them know about the Language skill and offered them some of my extra foreign-language books from my bag. Two of them accepted but the other four politely declined, apparently not seeing the value of learning languages at a time like this. The conversation died down after a bit so I excused myself to go find Dee. We consulted on what to do next, as we couldn''t stay in the Library forever. We decided that before exploring we should gather more information. I pulled out the school map Bardon gave me, and saw that the map itself showed what was CURRENTLY there, not what had been there before the countdown. Each classroom was marks in some way, and appeared to show what type of Users had torn over that are. The most noticeable change being that the gym was now the Bog of Baldori, Slime King, and the Kobold Army that was in the Auditorium, but there were other changes too. We decided to start exploring the hallway outside the library a little further to test out the new environment. I learned a little from my past almost-death from the wolf and we opted to pick rooms that didn''t sound as threatening. to reduce the risk. We ventured out of the door to the left. The hallway was darker than normal, and we headed around the bend toward our Spanish classroom to check on everyone else and see what had become of them. We passed a stairwell and rows upon rows of grey student lockers until we arrived at our classroom. Standing in the doorway I could see the room was empty of people, except I observed a large, leafy, vined plant in the far corner of the room. The desks and chairs were in absolute shambles,nap though the room was surprisingly not-bloody like the one with the grey wolf had been. Without moving any further into the room I cast Identify on it. Identification failed. I tried it five more times until it succeeded. Turns out I was able to spam Identify with no cooldown, also known as the period I would have to wait to use the skill again. I didn''t have any other active skills so I would have to test the cooldown idea later.
Ingus Fertinalis/Fertile Vineweed, Level 19: a carnivorous plant that uses protein derived from meat sources to build its vines and procreate.
"That plant is the enemy." I warned Dee. "Watch out for its vines." I looked a bit more closely and realized that some of its vines trailed up the wall and into the drop-ceiling. I quickly jumped back, knocking Dee down, but my quick movements saved me. As I did that a series of lightning-fast vines shot down where I had just been standing, breaking the tiles below. I lashed out quickly with my bat, smashing them before they could recover and change direction, then I back pealed further to get out of range. I had thought a plant would have been easy, but from the experience I just had and how it looked like the other students might have died, it was way above our experience level. What we needed was an easier foe. We started to walk forward down the hallway, past the Guidance are on the left and the art rooms down a hall to the right. The hall in front of us led toward the cafeteria and administration offices, but we heard loud noises crashing around and we looked for a place to hide. On our left was a glass-enclosed office that was used for Attendance, and we rushed in there and closed the door behind us. It was all clear glass so didn''t hide us, but it at least cut down on any noise we might make, and we crouched behind the tall counter there. Luck was on our side and nothing else was back there. Dee didn''t want to look but I peeked my head around the corner at the bottom. At first I saw nothing, but the loud noises grew louder and the building started to shake. I started to hear growls and what sounded like birds or cats fighting. An amazing sight came into view--what looked like two beasts fighting. They each had a lion''s body and tail and the head of a large eagle. Their wings were light blue in color and must have been six to eight feet long each. Instead of paws, their front legs were more eagle-like and ended in talons. One was a little larger than the other and the coloring on its wings was a few shades darker blue than the other. "Gryphons." I breathed. I was in awe. These powerful, formerly mythical beasts were both ferocious and at the same time majestic even in the midst of their clash. Their bodies flying against the flor and the walls was causing the shaking, and their talons as they ripped and sliced into one another''s fur and feathers and caused the screams of pain to rise unbidden from their mouths. "Identify"
Golden Gryphon: Level ??? This is a half-lion half-eagle who is of a highly intelligent and noble race.
I ordered about the hidden level, but my attention was transfixed and I couldn''t help but keep watching in awe. A short distance behind them came a dozen or so small, humanoid, hooded creatures, dressed almost entirely in black. One of them held a very ornate looking white staff that appeared to be fashioned of either ivory or bone with arcane gold adornments and an angry red glow emanating from a large red gem affixed at the top. He uttered words in a language I could not understand, and as he did rays of black shot from the staff and struck one of the gryphons, halting its leap toward the other and knocking it onto its side. The smaller of the two took the opportunity to pounce on the injured gryphon and it flung its body toward our hiding spot. The glass exploded and I pulled my head back to protect from injury. As it was, I still took shrapnel damage, and I am sure Dee did as well.
-26 health from flying glass.
The countertop shuddered from the impact, but the metal framing holding the glass absorbed some of the impact and our hiding place, for at least a few minutes, remained intact. The gryphon landed and its head bounced on the tile. I couldn''t see anything else of its broken body, but its head landed about six inches from mine. It''s eyes widened in surprise at first, then it seemed to almost smile dimly, and I suddenly heard a voice inside my head. "Human. Help me." It pleaded. "I don''t know how." I thought back, somewhat startled by the sudden telepathic intrusion. "I don''t know how to heal and all I can do is Identify and Meditate. I am weak." I hated admitting that, but it was true. A barking command in that guttural language sounded again outside and the other gryphon sounded like it ceased its attack. "You may be weak now, but please, find a way to save my brother. He is all I have left and they have captured him under a spell. He isn''t himself, and they will destroy his mind, then his body. I followed him to this Evolution to rescue him, but have lost this battle and can go on no further. I have failed. You are my only hope." [ Quest: Set the Captive Free A Golden Gryphon''s dying request is that you rescue its brother from captivity and ensorcellment to the Kobold High Priest. Quest will fail if the Gryphon loses its mind or dies before being set free. Rewards: ??? Penalties: Guilt and regret [/window] "I would like to try, but I am too weak. How can I defeat them?" I asked, tears forming in my eyes.
Quest accepted.
"I give you this." A blue piercing light shot from its forehead to my right shoulder for a split second.
. You have received the Mark of the Gryphon: +20 Intelligence, +20% to all stats when Health is below 20%. You have learned the skill Touch of Light.
With that, his head disappeared from view as his body was dragged forward and the sounds of crunching glass and twisting metal could be heard. The last thing I heard from him was a heart-rending scream, then all was suddenly silent. Tears were streaming down my face as I mourned this beautiful beast who had connected with my heart for just a few moments. That guttural language continued as a number of those little beings chattered with each other.
Language Skill has been activated. Current Gurian Comprehension: 1%
I turned and looked at Dee and could see the fear etched in her face. I do not believe she heard the telepathic conversation, and she was terrified we would be found, which under the circumstances was reasonable. I gripped my bat just in case someone came around the corner and found us, but they sounded very busy with the gryphon they had just killed. We sat there, breathing as quietly as possible, for at least thirty minutes. Even after they sounded like they left I waited for three more minutes before peeking my head around the corner. I surveyed the area and except for the mangled remains of that beautiful beast, the coast was clear, so I stood up and beckoned for Dee to do the same. I crept forward and searched what little of the body was there using my passive Scavenge skill, but literally nothing was left except for a few feathers scattered on the floor from a broken wing. I Identified them and they appeared valuable, so I reluctantly put them in my Inventory, but my heart wasn''t in it. I did it solely because at any moment a single item might spell the difference between life and death. Wasting no more time, we ran back to the Library without looking back. Chapter 3 - Skill Upgrades It was clear to us that almost everyone in our class was dead, most likely eaten by that plant. Maybe a few escaped out the door, but who knows where they were now or if they were even still alive. We hadn''t seen them by now, so unless they escaped outside, it was unlikely. There was a band of small, vicious, black-robed humanoids running around with powerful magic and a gryphon under their control, which I was now tasked with setting free. This World Evolution, although mirroring an RPG, was no game. This was a life and death struggle, and I refused to lose. I was rapidly realizing my shortcomings under this Evolution, and I had a few more questions for Bardon, including the level system. I had taken a peek at my status and skill windows earlier, but they now looked like this:
Status Window
NamePeregrine BellAlignmentNeutral
Level1GenderMale
RaceHumanInventory Spaces44
TitlesQuick Learner: minus 10% exp needed to learn all new skills.
Fame0Infamy0
Health (HP)630 / 630Health Regen rate0.5/sec
Mana610 / 610Mana Regen rate0.2/sec
Stamina320 / 320Stamina Regen rate0.2/sec
Sustenance100% / 100%
Strength 12Wisdom23
Agility12Intelligence41
Dexterity10Vitality13
Luck6 - -
Mark of the Gryphon: + 20% to all stats when Health is below 20%
Credits: 38.42
As a Level 2 human, I knew I was weak, although I had received a few stat boosts from my achievements and from the Mark of the Gryphon. Speaking of, it did mention that there was a mark. I started to look at my body to see if there was an actual mark somewhere, and I found that on my chest, over my heart, there was a small figure of a gryphon tattooed there. It had such realism and detail it seemed almost alive, and it looked like the gryphon who had died almost an hour earlier and a tear came to my eyes yet again. Blinking them back, I went and asked Dee to show me her stat window as well. In comparing her stats to mine, mine were mostly slightly higher, but my physique was much better than hers, and while we were about as smart as each other, I had a significant boost to my Intelligence just now as well. I wasn''t clear on what these stats did, exactly, and I would have to get clearer on that and soon. Reviewing the User Guide again, it pointed out that stats and skills could be raised in a variety of ways. After comparing stats with Dee, I plied Bardon with questions on training, stats and status information, and if there was any way to view levels of other Users. Viewing ones level required Identify to reach Beginner 5. Once there it would happen automatically unless the other person was over 50 levels higher. At Intermediate 1 that cap was removed and it would show everyone''s level. Physical training would increase stats, but only when one reached near exhaustion. Stamina would have to be maintained during this process to prevent incapacitation, starvation, and ultimately death. The problem was that I had no steady food source, and thus no reliable way to restore lost stamina. I had a few pieces of meat from the grey wolf, and Bardon said he would cook the old meat, but that was the extent of our food supply. However . . . I had a hunch. In my limited experience practicing Qigong, a form of Chinese energy meditation, I had heard of masters who literally lived on life-energy. They were called Breatharians, because they lived on breath and sunlight, not needing to eat or drink. If it was possible for them to do it, and this was supposedly an evolutionary change, maybe mana was a more condensed or upgraded version of qi. Bardon stated he couldn''t really tell me any information on it, but from what he didn''t say, I gathered a lot. It appears there is some sort of rule system in place that even he wasn''t willing to break. He did mention that he didn''t know how to do what I was suggesting, and that he had never tried. The way he looked at me and the tone of his voice as he said this was odd--he clearly was telling me there was more than at face value, confirming my suspicions. From what I could gather, what wanted to do was difficult, poorly understood, or both. The way he answered my questions, or rather didn''t answer them, indicated I might be missing something though. I decided to look up all I could on Chinese meridians and Qigong, as well as Breatharian practices. The Internet was down, so that option was out. I was left with books. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Denise was happy to hole herself up and read for now, and I wasn''t really into hanging out with the newcomers at the moment, so I found myself a stack of books related to Chinese medicine. Unfortunately the one book I wish I had was at home, but it was a book I had kept for reference, not one I memorized. As a high-schooler, practicing acupuncture or other Chinese medicine was out of my range, even though I was planning to be a doctor of some kind in the future. Or at least it had been before the Evolution, but anything was possible now. What I could find between a few books on aromatherapy, one on shiatsu massage, one on tui-na and another two on Qigong gave me a basic outline of the 12 main energy meridians and a large number of acupuncture points. It was a good starting point. Additionally, after reading through three of the six books I got the Bookworm Skill as well, and gained 1 stat point in Intelligence from the reading. The new skill was minimally helpful at finishing the books, but it would eventually be much more useful. In the meantime I was hungry, I am sure Dee was too, and I hadn''t unraveled any of the mysteries of mana Breatharianism either. I sought out Dee and we put our heads together on what to do. We were quite far from the cafeteria and who knew if there was even any food left, or if the lasagna from last week had mutated into a meat-eating lasagna-creating pasta dish. We were in a bind, so we asked Bardon if he was going to cook the wolf anytime soon. He was, and his offer to teach us the Cooking skill held firm.
You have entered The Warden''s Kitchen. A 5% increase in experience is received for all cooking, alchemy, or other food-and-meal-related skills while in this area.
Bardon made some midair finger movements.
You have been invited to Bardon''s Cooking Party. Accept/Reject
I accepted, slightly confused. "We''re just Cooking. Why are we forming a party?" "Don''t you know?" He asked, puzzled. "You can share experience when crafting in a party. This way, I can cook the majority of it so you don''t mess it up, but you will gain some cooking experience for it, and with the extra 5% bonus you should get your Cooking skill as well. It''s the least I can do, considering you killed the beast for me. "Thank you very much!" I exclaimed. Bardon showed us around his kitchen, then he showed us how to drain the blood, skin the animal, and remove the meat from the bones. Bardon was very skilled and it was apparent he had done this many times before. We watched as he cooked pounds and pounds of meat to juicy perfection. The aroma was heavenly, and Bardon used extravagant-looking seasonings I had never heard of. Incidentally, using my Identify on the herbs gained the additional 5% exp. gain due to their cooking-related use. When I discovered that, I identified every herb and cooking utensil in the kitchen, bringing me just up to Beginner Level 2 at 1.6%. Bardon gave me the skin and teeth and claws from the wolf and instructed me to store them in my Inventory for another time. I rolled the teeth and claws into the skin and stuffed it into an empty bookbag, then placed it into an Inventory slot. Bardon invited the other 6 who had come in before, and another dozen or so who arrived sometime in the afternoon as well, and we ate heartily. After a very enjoyable dinner, I thanked Bardon again and began training my skills in earnest. I began by Identifying books and other library materials. Each time my mana ran out I would meditate until it refilled, which even with my Regeneration Ring took about 20 minutes. Over the course of a few boring hours, whereby I also took reading breaks at times when my mana was empty and I was bored with meditating, I managed to get my Identify skill to Beginner 4 at 12.7%, Meditate to Beginner 2 at 27%, and Bookworm to Beginner 2 at 3.6%. I also found that if I focused quite hard during meditation, I could just barely start to sense the existence of my meridians. It was around 10pm, but having nothing better to do than sit around, read, or sleep, I decided to continue. I hit Beginner 6 at around 1:30 am, but since I was still awake and only had a few bookshelves left, I kept going and reached 72% before I ran out of books and other items to identify, which with all my meditating and reading put me at Beginner 3 and 19% in Meditation and Bookworm just obtained Beginner Level 3 at 8%. With the upgrades is Meditation I found I was now able to clearly sense each of my 12 meridians, and also the 8 lesser vessels. I hadn''t been able to find any books on them, but as I meditated more and gained awareness of the 12 main meridians, I found my awareness of the 8 slowly grew. I decided to try an experiment before calling it a night at 2:40 am. I began to meditate again, but this time I Absorbed mana instead of just meditating. I sent the extra mana cycling through my meridians instead of just holding it in my mana core, also known as the dantien. As I did this, I found it flowed quite naturally, and my meridians accepted the energy quite readily. When I reached a certain point I heard another status notification sound. Instead of ignoring it, I learned my lesson, opened my eyes, and read it.
Warning: You have reached maximum mana capacity. Further mana absorption will be dangerous.
I stopped absorbing, but continued to meditate and observe the mana flow in my body. After a while, I noticed my mana channels imperceptibly enlarge ever so slightly, as though the absorption had exercised them and they had responded just a little. Curious, I opened my status window and looked at my stats. While my base stats had all remained the same, my mana pool grew by 2 points and my stamina by 1. I had done it! I did a celebration happy-dance inside then settled down on one of the empty armchairs to sleep. Chapter 4 - Beginners Luck It was late morning when I woke, and except for the unusual position I slept in, as I am not used to sleeping upright, I felt pretty good. Dee was already up and a few more had wandered into the Library in the night or before I woke up, most looking haggard, a few appearing injured. I spoke with them for a short while, discovering they had made their way from the gym but it took all night to get through the hallway, partly because they were injured and partly because they were exhausted and fell asleep for a while in a corner, very lucky that no nighttime prowlers found them. I decided that the gym was going to be a good place to grind and raise my level, based on the slimes they identified as being there. After all, slimes in most games were the easiest. Dee had gained more stats in Int and Wis as well due to her increased reading, and thus a little more mana, and in addition to raising my Identify to a useful level and would be able to glean valuable combat data, I also gained 1 more Int and 2 Wisdom from my own reading the night prior. Before we left the Library to do any leveling, I insisted we read a few skill books I had found the night prior among the various library shelves, all of high looked useful. There was Fireball, an attack spell, Herbalism, a medicine and alchemy related skill, and Slash, an attack skill for use with a bladed weaponry. We had to read The Fireball book together so we both could get the skill, as if we did it automatically, only one of us would get it. After 30 minutes of speed-reading with our Bookworm skills, we learned Fireball, but after Dee got bored and went off to do some more reading, I just learned the other two skills quickly. I couldn''t help but have the feeling that in spite of our encounters yesterday that she doesn''t understand the nature or severity of our predicament. I tried to explain but she wasn''t really listening, and her response to my suggestion about learning Slash was "I don''t like weapons." Hopefully she will be an excellent Mage, because I can''t see her doing anything with Meyer combat. I guess that would leave me to draw all enemy aggression and attention. We put on our helmets and I had a bow in hand with quiver on my back, two bats in my inventory. I kept my pocketknife on hand. To make some more Inventory space I also activated the other 15 or so Language skill books I had on hand, and raised my Languages skill to Level 7 at 14.3%. It seems that Skill books give about 30-40% experience each, at least at lower levels. I would have to keep an eye out for more language books as they were a really easy way to raise my Languages skill. As we walked out of the library I realized we had tons of lockers in front of us, veritable treasure chests, but no way to open them. I decided that I would have to learn how to pick locks at some point soon. That, or find a janitor''s key or a crowbar. We turned right toward the gym and discovered that the halls were not only poorly lit, but that mushrooms had started to grow along some of the walls. I Identified one, and it was somewhat poisonous. Another identical one next to it was edible, and the next after that was also poisonous. I picked a few of the edibles and let the rest go. Until I had a way to heal, trying to see about developing poison resistance would have to wait. Dee also took a few that I handed to her and ate them, and I snacked on a few before storing the rest. They tasted a bit spongy, but had good flavor. The trip down the first part of the hall was uneventful, but as we came upon an open door with significant stench wafting through it, I decided to approach slowly. As I peeked around the corner I saw what looked like a furry mass on the floor. In actuality it was a swarm of rats, and on identification discovered two things. First, they were almost all level 1 or 2. In other words, weak, but then, so was I. Second, they were crawling all over piles of something I could not see clearly, but from the looks of it I probably didn''t want to know. I suspected it was former schoolmates or teachers, but if so, what killed them? I didn''t figure the rats had, but I was learning I could never be too careful. Maybe the rats were poisonous or something. They had not noticed me yet, so I quietly shut the door, which fortunately swung outward. From there, I looked around to see if I might draw any other attention before continuing. Seeing nothing, I explained my plan to Dee then we hopped into action. I took out one of the metal bats, closed my eyes, and swung at the pane of glass in the upper half of the door. After busting a hole in the glass, Dee and I took turns shooting fireballs into the mass of fur. I started getting notifications like crazy, but ignored them until I ran out of mana. Most of the rats in the room were dead and the few that weren''t were on fire and half-dead. We waited for the fire to die down before doing anything else. Good thing the walls were cinder block and the floor was tile. We each gained four levels from roasting the rats. We entered the room and I swiftly shut the door behind us to prevent any remaining rats from escaping. In surveying the room I found a few rats and some babies in a corner cupboard, and I left them alone. These animals were such easy prey that given one we might be able to make a small hunting ground, at least until we and everyone else who wanted to use them got a few levels higher. There were a smattering of almost-dead rats on the floor, so we put them out of their misery. This pushed me over to the next level, making me Level 7. I also observed scores of small gray cubes, which we split evenly between us. I showed Dee how to use one, saying "Expand Inventory." The cube became fuzzy and disappeared and I received a blue status box.
. Your inventory has expanded by 5.
We both began using the cubes like crazy, and in a single minute I had gained almost 300 Inventory slots. It was official: rats are fantastic to grind, at least for low-levels like us. I was really happy now; I wouldn''t have to worry about running out of inventory space anytime soon! Looking in my inventory I discovered very rat-like items--bits of cheese and other scraps of food and cloth. I found a pair of earrings in one slot that raised total mana by 30, but even though my ears were pierced at the love and my cartilage, they were really girly, so I gave them to Dee. I found a few rats who were dead but not badly mangled or burned, and I put them in my inventory as well, but not before Identifying one. [Olef Faction Rat Forager corpse: this dead rat is slightly burned. He is a low level rat and will not be missed by the Faction. Rat forager? Olef Faction? I thought to myself. I recalled my conversation with Bardon and the World Evolution message saying about this world being a prime location for other Users to live, and that almost any living creature could become a user. Since they had all teleported from somewhere else, I wondered if they were still coming and appearing, or if all of them had arrived. Only time would tell, although I hadn''t seen anything red pawn like in games. Not yet anyway. Not knowing anything about Alchemy or Alchemy ingredients, which the Warden''s Kitchen notification had mentioned, I also cut off about twenty rat''s tails and put them in my inventory. They stacked, meaning that the inventory showed rat tails and listed a number next to them, although each one used up an inventory slot. This was somewhat convenient, as I could store 200 of the same item without having to hunt through the entire inventory to get them. The prized item that I found in my Inventory was a fixed-blade knife, complete with sheath, and I was surprised the rats even had one. "Identify."
Basic Hunting Knife: this knife is designed for skinning animals. Watch out, it''s sharp! Attack 4-9 Durability 19/20
Dee didn''t want it, so I affixed it to my belt on the right side. We rummaged through some more closets and cupboards and such, but all other items were ruined by the rats. I did find a purse in the teachers'' desk which had some cash and a small canister of pepper spray. I gave Dee the pepper spray and we split the money. It also had some credit cards and such that we split. I gained another 20 Credits; I assumed the teacher wouldn''t need them. There was also a scarf in the drawer, which on Identification had no stat benefits, but Dee took it to wear. I handed each of us a pair of scissors, and I grabbed a letter opener I saw as well. It had minimal damage and wasn''t sharp, but it wouldn''t hurt to have another option for a stabbing weapon if needed. We left the room and made our way further down the hall toward the gym. We went room by room. Two rooms were empty and had no items of significance in them except for a few books. I guessed that these classes must not have been in use during the Evolution, as they were in pristine condition. The map seemed to indicate they were unclaimed space. I was on the lookout for any other harmful monsters but did not see any at first. As we passed a stairwell on our right we heard a loud screeching noise, like metal on metal, and loud thumping and banging sounds, like large objects being thrown around. I realized it might be the Gryphon again, and I hissed at Dee to run back to the Library. Suddenly a large body fell down from the upper landing and landed on the ground. We didn''t wait to find out what it was, if it was alive, or if whatever was attacking it was going to appear, and we darted toward the nearest open door. Slipping inside we found ourselves in a small computer lab. Dee gingerly closed the door and we looked for places to hide. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Looking around, it seemed to be in a state of disarray, with computers knocked everywhere. However, any danger in here couldn''t be worse than the certain death that waited forbid out there. Seeing no threats, we hid. The fighting continued outside, and something was either rammed or thrown into the wall outside the room we were in every few moments. The building shuddered and I wondered how long the wall would hold up. There was a closet on the far wall but only had room for one of us. I told Dee to hide there and I would find somewhere else. I hid behind a desk on the far end of the room. It was a horrible hiding place but if something did come into the room I at least would not be immediately visible; it was better than nothing. Hearing loud shrieks and screams outside, as well as continued tremors, we waited, hoping and praying for safety. What must have been five minutes later I heard a high pitched noise that was near-deafening, and it continued for a maddening amount of time. I received a status box when I heard the noise and was suddenly dizzy, nauseous, and had a splitting headache.
Due to the Shrill Cry you have been afflicted with dizziness, nausea, headache, and disorientation. All movement has a 60% deficit for 5 minutes and Agility is temporarily reduced by 80%.
I could barely read the status, but it basically told me what I already knew--I was crazy sick and mostly unable to move. I waited helplessly for the five minutes to be over, hearing all kinds of carnage outside. At one point during the torturous waiting period an impact against the classroom wall broke the cinder block inward. I was very afraid the fight would continue in the classroom but that was about the time the fighting stopped. Someone must have won.
Shrill Cry Debuff has ended. Movement speed and Agility have returned to normal.
At five minutes the symptoms instantly subsided. Hearing no further activity outside, I waited another minute, then slowly crept toward the open hole in the wall and peeked out. I saw the corpse of a hulking beast just outside, but nothing else was visible. "Identify," I whispered. [Ywedd-fyll Weir corpse: the corpse of a rare beast that has the ability to change its physical form. Its Mana core can be affixed to items to add magical qualities and the meat, when cooked properly, can permanently raise stats. I''s leathery skin can be used as a crafting item.] Jackpot! I thought to myself. Too bad we nearly died. I wonder if that other beast is coming back. . . I hurried over to tell Dee what I was doing. She decided to remain hiding while I worked. I crept outside, keeping a watchful eye and trying hard to be quiet. Once outside I could see just how massive this Ywedd-fyll Weir beast was. It was probably the size of a large bear but with a bulkier body. It took some time, but I was able to remove a large sheet of its hide. It was hairless, had legs and arms with sharp claws that appeared metallic, and its bones were extremely hard. I couldn''t make even a tiny scratch on its bones with the hunting knife. This made me wonder just how monstrous the beast that killed it was, and I hoped it wasn''t the Gryphon I was supposed to set free. Looking further it had a gaping hole in its abdomen that was dripping with a dark fluid of some kind, most likely blood. I guessed that is where the mana core must have been. Harvesting as much meat as I could in a short period of time, I put it all in my inventory, doing my best to copy what I had seen Bardon do. Next I turned my attention to the claws. I tried to cut them off but they were too sharp, and I gave myself a cut instead. I decided to see if I could sever them at a joint, which was successful. As gruesome as this seemed, it was no worse than the one time my dad took me deer hunting. Mind you, I felt bad for the deer at the time, but deer aren''t crazy beasts from another realm hell-bent on my destruction. Anyway, it took more time and the knife''s durability was at 3/20, but I was able to remove both sets of paws and stored them too. I stored the knife away in my Inventory as well, as I had no way to repair it. Finally, I decided to look around the beast a bit more, if for no other reason than to attempt to use my Scavenging skill. It was too heavy for me to move too much, but since I had removed a significant portion of meat I was able to flip its arm and a leg over and the Weir beast rolled off of a few cinder blocks, where something caught my eye. Reaching down to pick it up I saw a gray cube, which I immediately activated. Searching my Inventory, which grew by another 370, I found less than ten slots filled. The first turned out to be a bunch of stacked pieces of metal of some kind that even on Identification I had never heard of: beryllium.
Beryllium: a lightweight metal that is extremely durable and is able to withstand high heat. It mixes well as an alloy with copper and can be missed with Aluminum as a cost-saving measure. This sample of beryllium is non-radioactive.
I had NO idea how I would ever use this, but it seemed like a high-quality item, so I kept them. The next item was a sword, conveniently complete with belt and scabbard, which I promptly equipped.
Steel Ranger''s sword: A sword once owned by an Elven Ranger. Restrictions: - Strength 20 - Agility 30 Options - +3 to Agility - + 2 to strength - +1% chance of causing Bleed status Durability: 107/120
My Strength and Agility were both low, so i would need to allocate stat points to use it. I was curious though, how would stay requirements affect my ability to use the item? I tried swinging the sword without sufficient strength or agility, and while it was difficult, I was still able to use it. There must be something else to it. Maybe it was that the Options didn''t apply until you had sufficient stats. Hmm. . . I would have to ask Bardon about that later too. I allocated the minimum stats requires from my level-ups, leaving me nine stat points left. I kept them in reserve until I got a better picture of what stats I would need more of. The next number of items were all food or other items that seemed like they might be for Cooking, Alchemy, or other crafting. The final item was breathtaking and a major find. I couldn''t imagine I could be so lucky! It was a silver- colored necklace with a pendant. The pendant was a deep blue sparkling gem about the size of a quarter, cut in the shape of a crescent moon, and bound again in the silver-colored metal.
Moonrider''s Crescent Pendant: this pendant is one of a series of jewelry designed to give the bearer safe passage through the Umbrian Gate. Restrictions: - must be humanoid - 80 Intelligence - 1000 mana one-time requirement to equip. -soul-bound once equipped, cannot be dropped. Options: - +10 to all stats - 3% resistance to Darkness magic - able to cast Cure Poison three times a day, mana cost 100 per cast - immune to chaos magic in the Umbrian Gate
. Identify has reached Beginner level 7.
As my stats weren''t high enough, I stashed the item in my inventory and made my way back inside to get Dee. We both agreed that our venture was profitable, but with that unknown powerful beast running around, most likely the charmed gryphon, it was better to play it safe and head back. At the very least we had set up a possible training ground for the future. As we left, I closed the fire doors that led to the stairwell, hoping it might discourage the predator from coming downstairs and hoping that I shut it upstairs and not on the main floor. With that, we quietly walked back to the Library.