《Homo Monstrositas》 Act I - Chapter I In the beginning Ker was asleep, the oh so sweet sleep. And then came the harrowing awakening. With ringing in his ears Ker woke up. ''What is this noise?'' As metal on metal sounded through the camp. Hallauer, the old chef, hit with his metalspoon on the used pot:" wake up, wake up, no time like the morning, brake up the camp and prepare for the hunt." All motivation aside, a painfull groan escaped his mouth. "Why, why so early in the morning..." to his complaints, a voice said yawning:" Because we''ll need all day to find the beast. And you whippersnapper, should prepare, for this is your first real hunt. Hear to the experienced adventures colleges, you may learn a thing or two." The voice belonged to an older boy, a fellow adventurer Helk or Snap how he was called. "Sure, sure and you are how much older, two years?" retorted Ker and saw a slight smile creeping ab Snaps face. "Once you are in my shoes..." but he couldn''t end his sentence as the firm voice of the expedition leader Helm rung out:" We are near the area where our target was last seen. So pack everything up and stowe all you don''t immediately need by the support personal. Make certain that your weapons are as sharp as you senses and prepare for a long hunt. For we will not risk to rest when nearby such a beast. Be aware and be alert, every hint may help us to find our well priced tatget. I certainly don''t need to remaind you all, that the target is worth pounds on gold, but only IF we find it! Now get back to the preperations, we will leave within the hour." That marked hasted packing and sorting for everyone in the entire camp. About two dozen hands were busy with breaking tents, filling wooden boxes and lifting those on cards. While this happend Ker asked himself where he put his dagger and the all-purpose knife. Not having enough time, he rolled up his sleeping back and gathered all the things he could leave for the time being. As wanted to stand up, a hand appeared just over his right shoulder, with exactly the knife he was looking for. "You forgot this" said Snap. "Thanks, I should have looked at the campfire." replied Ker slightly guilty. Snap grinned:" You just need to remember who your awesome mentor is." To that Ker rolled his eyes and a grounded female voice questioned:"So you want to take responsibility over the new ones. Take charge, show what is done how and get your ears chewed off by Helm for every mistake they make!" By that she grinned mischievously, while Snap''s eyes wandered around and looked for a distinct way out of the situation:" I think... we don''t have that much time... and I really need to pack my thinks." She sighed:" So I am stuck with you lot, guess I need tough earskin." Her name was Ellora, a blond woman, her hairs put in a practical ponytail reaching her lower shoulder blades. She obviously was strong build, a necessity for the job, but still with attractive features. Right now she was putting on a helmet, always with a side eye to her part of the camp, looking if everything was in acceptable boundaries. Ker was busy strapping on his own helmet and sword. Of course as a beginner adventurer he could only afford a leather helmet and a cheap, used shortsword. Actually he could be happy about it, since on his own he could have never efforded such arms. Including the tools that were lend to him as his lended-bearings. They said that it was normal and necessary so that he could work. But he suspected that his late ouncle Timboury had played a role in this. So he thanked his ouncle every day for the help. To be honest he didn''t know much about that side of his family, just that they had money and influence in large quantities. However, he focused on this moment where his future were decided. And he wanted to make certain that he had a good future as an adventurer. For that he needed the right foundation, fitting skills and good equipment. Skills came with time and equipment with better contracts, but on a good foundation he could work on right now. Ker inspected himself, all arms were cheap but reliable and the tools were lend and useful. All in all very acceptable. Just as the group started moving, he was ready as well. Ellora called him over:" So what do you know of the beast we''re hunting?" Ker quickly sorted the information he remembered:" It is sized between a big cat and a joung bull, it is supposed to have claws and teeth of a predator. It wields them as weapons to cut and bite, but it can manipulate the sorrounding and is cappable of basic tactics. It employed guerilla like tactics and frontal assault to singular people and groups. It''s strength was valued between level 10 and 20 over a month ago and should now be over level 30. But even when it is level 30, it is just a beast, should Helm allone not be enough?" To that Ellora smiled:"Yes and no. We allways engage as group. As you know, there is strength in numbers. And one person can only do so much. Tracking and hunting are very intimate bound to each other, still they are different parts. And who prepares and preserves the once hunted beast? Or catches it. After all there was at least one mage who wanted to pay an absurd amount of wealth if we catch it alive." Ker needed a moment to think about that. "Besides this, what else can you tell me about the contract" Ellora questioned further. Ker summarized the details he remembered: the bounty, the targed, the hunting area and potential groups of interest who might buy parts of a successful hunt. "Good, very good." Concluded Ellora, "Now, what about the hunting ground, what do we have to expect here and where do we have to tread carefully?" Ker draw a long breath, environment was never his strong point "Mhm, let''s see, we are in a wood, coming from the city of Wellsheid, still in the earldom of Merrechief. Then there is the region of he ''kilts in the east and the wilds in the nords. In this region we have to get an allowance for hunting regular beasts and a special allowance for magical and other beasts. So we should be ok. The region of the ''kilts we should only tread with an invitation, though I doubt Sheriff Cathal would give any right now..." to that Ellora lifted her eyeebrows. "However, the wilds we should simply avoid. Way to dangerous." Ker added quickly. Ellora looked questingly for a moment. Then she sighed:" How right this might be, it is largely unimportant for our situation. Far more focus should be put that the woods become swampy in the north. We will encounter several animals, with varying degree of danger. Then there are the lesser beast. Far less dangerous than beasts in their own right. But the paid money is far less. Also we have the beginning of fall. It is getting colder in the evening and we need to be carefull with our movement over uncertain ground."This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Ker nodded, he was missing quite something, but why was he a fletchling adventurer if not to learn. So he decided he would know the facts the next time he was on a hunt. Ellora was still satisfied with his answers and moved to the front of the group. Ker thought about his immediate future and how this hunt could go. Was he just here to observe, hardly, but what useful could he do. Just a short while ago he was teached the basics of tracking by their tracker Finn. Finn came from the greater island in the southwest. His real name was Finnch¨¢n ¨® Doiridh and he told Ker quite a bit about his homeland culture. That led Ker to wonder how different that culture could be from their culture. "Whast are brooding about?" asked Snap. "Was just thinking about my future, I guess going to the Drain''nadeks would be interesting. You now, where Finn is from." "Yes, that would also be far away. And I heard lots of stories from Finn about their brewery. He treads it like it''s an art form or something, but I think our Shinebrew is just fine, don''t need any Keel'' and no Kaly..." and with that Snap was interrupted by an overeager enjoyer of finer things:" Oye, with that your copin lad. When you never tried the nice dark brew of Drain''. The bitter on you''r toun, the taste of home..." Finn could hardly stopp himself when teaching younger people about the beauty of what he considered real beer. Snap looked incredulous:" I don''t need extra bitter beer, can''t see the appeal of that when the dark brew from the abbey is already way too bitter." "That just means you''re tastebuds are underdeveloped. You''ll need some education, too sad the last delivery by ship was just been made. Now you have to wait till next time, maybe some additional brew will be found in the cargo." Snap grimaced:" Nah, thanks I''m good. I rather wait even longer." Kel on the other hand hoped for a change in things. It was all the same every day. He wanted to explore the world, discover unknown magic, see magical beasts... His thoughts reeled to a stop, when the firm voice of Helm reched them. " Finn, we may just have started walking, I still expect you on the front of our group. So, would you move ahead and start looking out for tracks." "Ah, our very serious leader calls for me. In that case I rather o ahead and look for our bounty." Finn declared with a wink. From there on the hunting group moved with practiced ease. They looked out for any animal and lesser beast, slowed when anything new and potential fitting was found and tracked it to go certain. Until early afternoon they found nothing that would lead them to their target. So Kel was mostly to himself. Even in this large group, everybody got their task and since this hunt was especially important everybody took their part more serious. Kel tried to identify some tracks on the go, but anything that wasn''t a squirrel or a lynx was unidentifable for him. At least he could help catching food on the way back. So he decided to try to lean more into his potential role as a frontliner. After all his class was berserker. As it seemed not typical for the profession, was still usefull. Afterall they were mot hunting mere animals, but beasts. Adam, the full name Adam Wilkinson, said it was one of the group key roles and he was a swordfighter. Adam never spoke much and kept most things to himself, but Kel was positive on the class of Adam. It was also assumed that later on he would directly train under Adam. Since a frontliner should best teach a frontliner. However, his main task being aware of the sorrounding, was not an easy task. Just a simple one. He would have to be aware of what was going on around him, without getting distracted by anything specific and finally staying aware without getting lost in thought. Ker liked more to focuse on one thing, maybe a part of his class or maybe his personality. Then not getting distracted by all what was going on around him was difficult at best of times. And the last part was terminally in his endeavour. He was just 16, he had to wait until turning 16 before his mother would allow him to take part in a hunt. Luckily he gotten some training in fighting and hunting animals. He choose his class later than most people, at least most normal people he knew. But his parents insisted that a class should be picked with care, you have it for a lifetime. So he trained a lot and was schooled about languages, noble territories and rights. Even basic etiquette was on a plate for him, to his demise. Ker really hated it, all the norms and social rules. His parents had insisted, that he learns how to behave in a proper way. His mom, Hell'' thought it was endearing how he behaved like a little gentleman. And his dad Juno had several times pointed out how important proper behavior was in the presence of people of certain high standing. So he had no choice, but to accept the lessons begrudgingly. Now he was in the woods and no one cared for proper demeanor. Which was alright with him. Suddenly Finn called out, they found something, a lead, finally. A good part of the hunting party moved to the front to look what was gooing on. Apparently they found a slain animal corpse. Still fresh. Ker couldn''t see anything, but that didn''t matter to him. He used that opportunity to try and be completely aware of his immediate surrounding. One thing that came to mind was, that his ranger friend Snap was nearly dozing off. Ker couldn''t blame him, Snap only got work to do when the actual hunting started. Suddenly Ker''s hackles rose, a telltale sign that something was very wrong. Then a something descended with lightning speed from the tree tops towards his friends neck. Ker could only see the shade of something black and only because his special passive of his class he could anticipate the target of the attack. Ker swung his blade, still in its sheet towards the attacker. The attack was intercepted, but it looked futile, the strenght and speed were vastly beyond Ker''s. Snaps neck got pushed forwards and wounded on both sides. But thanks to Ker''s effort, the mandible looking things slipped off his blade and missed the arteries. As soon as the attack came, the thing withdraw its appendage. Snap screamed in confusion, Ker panicked for help and the entire party turned to them. Some spells were swung in the raw direction of the attack, but didn''t seem to hit anything. Also the chef Hallauer and the doctor of the group, Cooper, hurried towards Snap. They treated the wounds on his neck and seemed relieved. Mendoz''a diagnosed:" You had luck kid. Incredible luck. Your arteries were missed by inches. I think Ker is in for a tread when we come back. Maybe fetch him a rabbit or something." Ker was shortly after taken to the side and questioned by Helm and Ellora, Finn was also nearby. "What did you see, how did it look like, how could it attack us from behind when we were all alert?" Ker tried to answer the questions, but could only provide so much:" It looked black I think. I could only see a shade of it. It was very fast. It was extremely strong. I think it had scales. What attacked Snap looked elongated like a tail. And it had mandible-like things at the end of it. That is all I could take away from this situation." Helm sighed thoughtful: "That does not fit to the description we got. It sounds very distinct from our target. But it attacked the weaker ones first..." After Helm and Ellora discussed their further progression, Helm turned to his party: "We will chabge composition. The weaker members have to be accompanied by more experienced ones. We will also look out for ambushes from the rear." With the decision made firm, the group continued on. Act I - Chapter II We were all highly alerted, an understatement for me. But I forced slow breath through me, after all Snap said everything was alright. It was just a neckwound he joked. I knew he was nervous, but I didn''t wanted to let him down. I thought we both were freaked out. Just no one else in our group reacted too much, so we held in. With our changed party composition we continued on. Senses ever sharp. When it happened again - this time the attack came from the right side, to Greg our main Ranger. A Sniper, someone cappable to shoot a wild animal from several hundred feet distance. That was sadly absolutky useless, when attacked from next distance. Greg survived the attack, but was crippled, his right leg got cut. The tendons were cut through with the precision of a royal tailor. Not that Ker ever has met any, but he has seen what tailors for nobles could achieve with scissors and it was nothing short of wonderful. Greg got the short, necessary medical treatment. It was also not enough to bring him back to fightable condition. Therfore Helm was forced to make a difficult decision. Helm:" You can''t continue like this. At best you can stumble beside us, it will throw us back in our schedule and make the hunt much more difficult." Greg insisted:" I can still shoot...", he painfully grimaced as he reposition his leg. " I still can, just have to sit down, it will be fine." Helm denied:" No you can''t! Every movement for you is visibly painfull. I can''t risk this. You will be sent back towards the support group." Greg vehemently gesticulated:" You know how much worth this beast is. With the right shot at the right time..." Helm draw a sharp breath:" No, you will be sent back with Adam. You are wounded and participated, so you will be paid the standard fee for that. Now I don''t want to hear another word about it, we have to think about all hunters here." With that the discussion was ended. A makeshift stretcher out of cloth and sticks was build. Greg would be transported with this, not a comfortable solution, but a working one. Adam pulled a loud swearing Greg on the stretcher through the woods. Adam would most likely return in a few hours. It was surprising and at the same time logical how much more powerfull a high level person was. So they waited and waited. Snap and Ker occupied themselves with the old game ''I spy with my little eye''. Just the hunters edition. So the rules were tweaked: everything one knows by themselves is aloud; if the other one finds the target, but oneself didn''t know it actually, they get one point withdrawn; the other one only have a certain amount of breath time, defined by the choosing party, so between 3 to 7. Ker chose a vole, in quite the distance between trees, eating blackberries. That was his luck, since those voles are quick and not easily spotted. ''Snap should have a hard time'' thought Ker. "Just left of the birch, in front of the undergrowth, about 40 yards in that direction.", pinpointed Ellora with acute precision. She looked at Ker for confirmation. "Yes, that is correct", Ker sighed, "Did you have to spoil the fun." On that she retorted:" I just go certain that my pupils keep everpresent senses and don''t loose themselves in a game focused too far outside. Let''s tweak the game some more, anything you spot has to be within 20 yards. Plus points for anything in less than 10 yards and hidden in the treetops." With those additional requirements they continued to guess things in their surrounding, mostly wildlife. At one point Finn joined them:" Little bit red on the feathers, short beak and white in the span you said... there it is." He found it without effort, proving again what a good tracker he was. "Now what should I give you lads as a challenge..." Our nerves had mostly calmed down at that point, everybody tended to be more tired in their attention. After all humans can only keep so long watch with full attention. Finn looked around and seemed to find something in the distance, when THUD Everybody looked at the center of the little makeshift camp. Finn''s eyes widened in horror. Someone screemed. Ker could hardly progress what was going on. In the center of their group was a head, blood dripping from it. Blood was dripping out of it. The face, Ker knew it, Ker knew him - it was Greg. Just moments ago they send him away, to safety. It seemed many more had serious problems understanding what was going on. Then everything became chaotic. Another screem was heard, Hellauer, the chef gooten a headwound. Fighting was heard from the same direction, it instantly dissolved. Then Ker saw a black shadow flitting over the treetops to them. He wanted to warn Snap. Finn was faster, of course, standing in front of them and drawing his shortbow. Right as it attacked he loosened his bow. Even as Finn hit something in this creature, it just ignored the dealed damage and pushed through Finn towards Ker and Snap. Ker could now see it more defined and how he wished he wouldn''t. It had black scales on its whole body, pelt coming thtough on some places, long legs with claws as feet and long arms with claws that ended in human-like hands. From head to feed at least 8 feet. Its head was like a snout, but the pelt was covered in scales and four lines parted it in equal parts. The eyes were deepest black. Ker felt as he would stare into the abyss and it stared malevolently back. As its snout parted, Ker knew why it was parted in four by lines, they were four parts, lined with different teeth in all sort of direction. That made no sense and added to the confusion and scare of Ker. Than it bit and right in front of Ker the arm of his friend was effortlessly ripped to pieces. The beast take a look at Ker and spit his friends arm in front of him. Then it turned to attack someone different. In shock Ker could only make out that the other person was Helm. He fought valiant, regularly cutting into the thing, but was also pushed back by it.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Ker looked at his friend and the stump, Finn was treating it. Finn gave short orders to Kel, which he picked up with hesitance. He was like in a nebula. Nothing felt real. In the end he could help treat the hefty wound of his friend. The moment Snap was not anymore in vital danger, Fin draw his dagger in took of, his face in rage. Finn even managed to take the beast in surprise, ramming his dagger under some shoulder blades. That was the the last bit of resistance the beast needed. It jumped to the treetops and run away. In the chaos, Adam had returned andctried to join the battle. He looked worse for wear. Dried blood on his face, slight wounds on the left arm and for a short moment Ker could swear to see a desperate expression on his ever stoic face. The result was harrowing: 4 lightly wounded 3 heavy wounded 2 dead Just Helm, Ellora and Ker weren''t wounded at all. Helms armor held firm and was only dented. The light wounds were mostly superficial cuts. The heavy wounds were a headwound to Hallauer, one arm off from Snap and a stomach wound to Thomas the spellslinger. Greg and Vrenn were dead. Vrenn took basically care of all the little things in the group, including accounting and taking stock. Their fighting force was definitely deminished. Ker didn''t want to think on continuing this hunt. It was a disaster and all he wanted was to get home and be safe by his parents. He wanted his friend to return. Conscuisly he knew that Snap was crippled. Snap was Snap mo longer. Now his friend couldn''t draw a bow any longer and even with a prosthesis he would have a hard time. Complete healing was seldom and expensive. Finn looked at his friend and immediately understood the thoughts Ker had. "Oh, no worries, we find a way to be usefull for me. I''m certain I get a new arm made out of the finest metals, you''ll see." But his weak voice betrayed Snaps effords. Ker could only barely hold back his tears, for his friend. At least he told himself that. His lost companions, were not his close friends, still they knew each other for month. He trained beside and with them. Especially Vrenns dry humor would be missed. There is nothing Ker could do here, neither forvthe dead nor for the living. There was only leaving in his mind and returning with the people that remained. Apparently there was someone else who thought the same, Hallauer made himself heard: "That thing got us good, too good. We need to leave and be happy that we keep our lives. I tell you, that''s one dastartly thing, surely came right from maw of hell." Helm turned around in quick motion and fixed Hallauer with his eyes: "We all knew that this would be dangerous. But we all agreed to do this for the gold, that we will receive ones this is over. I knew Greg and Vrenn well. Vrenn was basically my left hand at this point. But we can''t undo what is. Let''s hunt and slay this thing." "You can''t be serious. That thing killed Greg, while protected through Adam. No one of us is really safe. We have to make way to get home. I say let''s leave this to the veterans of the garnison. Let actual militia deal with this problem." Helm argued: "We could harm it. It flew from Adam and was wounded there too. It bleeds. We have to hold firm, restructure, then we can hunt it down. Just imagine the piles of gold we get, when we deliver this thing. We are so close to pave our own path, fortune beyond anything we ever had." Hallauers eyes looked sad: "Oh no, I know those eyes, there of greed. I know exactly where this ship sails. That''s just like when I was part of the crew of captain blackbreath and their cursed route. Hear to yourself, that''s not the level minded man we know and followed. Look around and tell me who do you think you can throw next against that beast." Helm held in and took a good look around. He saw the worn out faces of fellow adventures, that have seen one thing too much. He glanced over Ker and Snap. Then he wiped with his hand over his face and seemed to come to a conclusion. "Fine, we leave from here. We look for the safest way back. Our priority will be safety from this point on. Ellora, Finn, Adam I count on you to find the best path and help on the way, since you are least wounded. We also need a way to transport the wounded safely and do all of this quick." He sighed "To work." Luckily the wounded could walk by themselves, they just needed some support from time to time. They couldn''t possibly carry the dead with them, so to honor them they burried them quickly and spoke a few words. There was nothing thes could do right now. Ker helped his friend for anything he would have needed two hands. Ellora and Adam helped the other two wounded. Finn was mostly busy tracking their way back. They tried to go a different trail than they arrived from, while also moving in most direct path. Ker noticed they turned slightly to the deeper parts of the woods. Then he smelled smoke from the other direction. Irritated he asked the others: "There is smoke in the woods. Why is there smoke? We didn''t make a campfire anywhere nearby." Finn answered from the front: "That''s correct. There''s smoke, we are movin around it. Should soon reach a point to avoid it." His voice still carrying tension, even if half surpressed, didn''t help the situation. Soon they discovered the further they were going, the further the smell of smoke spread. Just as if it was following them. Then they saw actual smoke in the distance over some trees. There was probably a fire and a fire meant mortal danger in the woods. Ker knew they had to get as far away as possible and that fast. Helm gestured something to Finn, who took turn to the deeper parts of the wood. They followed him close. Gone were the safe and secure look over the shoulder. They didn''t have the luxury to go certain that they weren''t followed. Some of the group cursed about this new development. Deep down Ker knew whos fault this was, that thing, that beast hunted them now. It was intelligent in some abominable way and now it could make fire. After a while they encountered first changes to the flora, less distance between the trees, weirder plants in different shapes and darker colors. That was a sign that they treaded now in the wilds. Ker thought they were more to the north and some pace away from the wilds, but obviously that wasn''t the case. Even if it was the wild, if they just turned fast enough there was little danger. Including that they were hunted by some apex predator there were more pressing matters at hand. That all changed, when dusk fell. Ker was in the woods before when it gor dark. Of course his parents weren''t pleased about it, he was still a child back then. So he knew, when it got dark visibility was limited, more predators were moving around, using the darkness as cover. He always liked the eerie atmosphere in the night, just right now it was everything else than welcome. The entire group stiffened for a moment and then moved on. Finn and Helm decided to turn again to finally find a way back, even if it was in giant arc. Ellora paused for a moment and looked irritated at some place in the woods. She moved her shordsword in the direction of a large tree. Ker couldn''t make put anything, when something in front of the bark shifted. As if there was a layer in front of the bark. In just a heartbeat the layer changed to black pelt and chitin. A clawed hand swatted the shortsword away, another shot forward and grabbed Ellora at her throat. In just a moment, an exchange of two movements it was decided. Everyone readied their weapons. And this thing hold Ellora between them and growled, snarled, clicked at them. Ker could swear that such a cacophony of sounds could not, should not exist. The tension rose with every movement they tried to get a better attack angle at that thing. Even in dim light Ker could make out that something was different about the beast, something changed. Then he recognized it had more pelt and less scales. Even the tale had changed, with a slight light at the end of it. Did it''s tail emit light - fire, Ker could only wonder by himself. When their group started to surround the beast, it shouldered, for a lack of a better word, Ellora and took flight. Of course Ellora had other ideas about that and rammed a dagger with her free hand in its arm. It seemed not to care. Everyone instantly took after it. Now even spared a thought about leaving one of them behind. At least Ker thought that was the case. Act I - Chapter III It wasn''t hard to follow that thing. It was recking the nerves of Ker, for certain. They followed that thing, this beast, for quite some time. Never loosing site of it, but also never completely closing in on it. Ellora, as hostage, did whatever she could to delay it. Still they reached the point this thing wanted them to. In a small, valley-like area they saw walls. Not the walls of normal houses, not even that of a castle, the walls were made of thousands of red bricks, stacked impossible close to each other. Those walls, wore clear signs of time, still made a strong looking building. The beast wanted to withdraw inside that building. They acted quick: sending Adam towards the entrance, Helm neared from the front and Hallauer and Finn flanked. That actually worked. The beast, now clearly in a bad spot, decided to jank Ellora towards Helm. With that he was forced to move his blade to the side and halfway catch Ellora. The beast used that moment to attack Helm from the other side. Just that it stopped short, before the final strike. Rather more fitting, it was stopped by Hallauer, who hold it''s other arm in ironclad grip. Finn moved first and landed a blow with his knife between it''s rips, next Hallauer hit it with something in his left hand over the head. Helm profited from the group effort and cut down its arm, that Hallauer still held. The thing was now staggering backwards, a fleshly tearing sound was heard and through its left leg appeared Adams Longsword. It fell to the ground, squirming in agony - making its impossible sounds. It started to limp on all four appendages and used its tail to catapult it outside of their range. Obviously heavily wounded, now just a target and not anymore a predator, Helm took just a moment to go certain Ellora was fine and set after it. Adam followed without hesitation and for reasons unkown to Ker himself he followed in pursuit. Maybe it was anger, to avange his crippled friend, maybe the lust for battle took hold, whatever it was, it drove Ker to hunt this thing with fervor. Outside the building was a sign, a sign that no one of the attack group bothered with. That sign hold carved in words in a old, nearly forgotten language:
Institutu explo atio causa chi
They followed the thing in close pursuit. Corridor after corridor, hall after hall, they pushed deeper into the facility. It became clear that this building was more than just some ancient house. It was a construction of a marvel. Tubes, pipes and metallic things they had no names for existed at the side of the halls. They also didn''t care too much about anything else, than to get the promised kill. Finaly the area opened into a giant hall, lined with mostly broken glass walls. The thing stopped to turn towards them, threateningly in the position of a scorpion. Helm dared the first strike in its direction, Adam followed close behind and scored a hit in its tail. Ker stood there, drawn shortsword in hand, suddenly aware how outleveld and out of his depth he was. While the experienced frontfighters whiled down on the beast, Ker could only watch and wonder: would he ever reach such proficiency. His boldness swindled as he became aware of his situation. He opted for safety and made a few careful steps back. When cold steal gripped his neck from behind and lifted him rough in the air. Ker struggled uselessly, even hitting whatever hold him, did not work out. He was moved in a mechanical way, towards the center of this hall. Whatever carried him did not care about his safety one bit. He neared the place where the beast fought. Of course it noticed him and positioned itself in his direction. Helm abruptly aware of his dilemma seemed in thought. Then Helm, the ever strategic swordfighter, leveraged the change in battle and focused on the beast, instead of helping him. Ker saw the opening that presented itself to Helm. And saw it pass. Ker was dragged along a scene he could hardly believe. Helm and Adam were fighting the beast, winning, part for part slaying it, while he was abducted into the unknown. He shouted for help, knowing none would come. As he was put in the middle of this strange place, he saw how Adam pint down the vile beast and Helm impaled it in a final, victorious strike. Even than he saw how they hesitated, how the machinery around him awoke to life and started to grabbing his leader and their right hand. When this did not work and they started to do actual damage to the arms, the machine changed to attack the invaders. Ker could not do anything, hold by iron restrains, to helplessness condemned, watched the people he thought of as companions, fellow adventurers to turn their back and leave.
Ker sat in a weird contraption, outgoing oval shapes surrounded the round platform. The arms started to get busy. Ker could not see what exactly was going on. Then one of the arms closed in on him. First irritated, he saw the arm had a glas cylinder with a pointy stick at the end of it. The needle object drew closer and his entire body tensed up. In horror he watched as the needle pierced in his defenseless arm. He felt just a peaks and then the glas cylinder filled with his blood. He had to admit it wasn''t as horrible as he imagined, he still felt violated in his personhood. There seemed to be a lot of devices Ker could not explain at all. Finally the processes came to a halt. The four oval shaped forms began to rise and slowly closed around Ker. His heart beat faster, eventually he would be encapsulated in darkness. He remembered his level and class, sp he summoned his status out of desperation.
Status
Name: Ker of Eldoria Class: adventurous Berserker (rare) Level: 3 HP: 150 MP: 80
Statistics Strength: 12 Dexterity: 7 Constitution: 15 Intelligence: 8 Wisdom: 7 Stat Points: 0
Skills Shortsword 5 (basic)
Passive Abilities unique ability: instinctive perception
Titles Dominion: you won against someone with higher level. +5 str Noble heritage: you are of noble blood, good for you. +1 to all stats Starting adventurer: you started your first real adventure, good luck. 5% faster stat growth until level 10.
He could see most of his status, only specifics and hidden things were visible via magical devices. Most of his stats were lower than 10. That was very acceptable for a starting adventurer. But still, he wished for more strenght, more abilities, more power. He could have broken out, no, he would have never come into this situation. Aa they were attacked by that monstrosity, he could have helped, saved lifes. They might... but it was a fruitless thought. And he knew better than to dwell on the past. Better to live right now. That was what he remembered from his grandparents. And now he had to accept his unfortunate circumstances.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. This capsule-egg filled with a warm liquid. Ker tried to hold his breath. At first that worked fine, until he inevitable failed. He breathed in the liquid... and then breathed out. That was the weirdest experiece so far. Nothing had been usual, but this took the first place without competition. Why could he breath in this liquid? It wasn''t just the liquid, he was submerged in, it was a low hum, that he heard and felt in his body. Like a sound, but pervaded his entire beeing. His body started to slow down, he became drowsy. His eyes had difficulties staying open. Was it okay to just fall asleep here? Certainly not, but what could he do. He tried to force himself to stay awake, just to experiece moments of blackouts later. Those moments stretched every time until there were only flashes of lucidity. Meanwhile, inside the facility complex processes, including calculations and appraisals, took place.
*(translated for better understanding)
... specimen Nr. 1 from 3 Identifying...
Species: Human Supspecies: - Found trace of angelic origin: 0.0001 % - > to low to manifest Appraising...
Class : adventurous Berserker (rare) Level: 3 Abilities: instinctive perception (unique) Swordfighting (basic) Passive abilities: rage (basic) Special organs: - Can not detect organs/mutations fitting to abilities
Analyzing bone density... muscle structure... skin composition... neural capacity... Conclusion: General body composition: average Processing data... Looking for improvements - > neural systems too complex - > connection to host necessary Connecting...
Suddenly Ker felt a stabbing pain at his neck. Sound, noise, smell, lights flickered as haste impressions before his mind. There didn''t seem any order, just random sensations forced onto him.
Connection established
A voice wispered to him, interchanging from female to male:"What do you desire? Your wish, one wish, many desires." What did he wish for? To be out of here, to be home... pictures took form of him being strong, winning against beast and men... to have the power to decide his own fate. To hold power, become strong enough that nothing anymore stands in his way. The voice called again:"What is your fear? Your fears, show what you want to get away from." The scenes changed from victory to defeat. He saw again the scenes of his experiences. How they were attacked and failed to protect themselves. How he was left alone, weak. He didn''t like that feeling at all. He wanted to get away from his weakness at all costs.
Optimizing parameters Processing hosts input
This time it was a slur of voice, pictures, smell and feelings that spoke to Ker. It asked what form he wanted, what he wanted to become/be. Ker was confused, he was a human and he looked like he looked. He did not understand what was asked of him.
Staying in present body parameters Preparing to change/optimize body Main direction: potential growth
What followed were many different impressions of pain, Ker could do very good to never experience. To his luck, he was most of the time unconscious. Partly asleep he still felt the torturous operation of his body being turned inside out, changed, cooked and electrocuted. At least Ker was convinced that was what happened to him.
Beeing has been processed State: pre-evolution
Ker woke up and felt stiff. He did not feel exactly pain, but overall unwellness would be correct. He felt as if he was exchanged. The egg opened and washed him with the fluid out. The first thing he noticed, were the lights. This chamber was illuminated from up and partly from the walls. Another thing he noticed were his missing closes. He was robbed of all his clothes. Even bare naked, he remembered were he was and the more pressing matters. There was no sign of any beast. What hunted them, was now gone, only stains on stone remaining. There were also no fellow adventurers. Since he didn''t know how long he was held captive, he made finding his companions first priority. Second were clothes. So he started to look around. Lots of large broken glass windows. Weird machines and the contraption behind him. There was no love lost to this place so he moved on. Sadly he couldn''t remember exactly the way back and to guess at every corner. He opted for every second right and when there''s natural light then follow that. That proved to lead to the outside. Ker emerged from somewhere out of the building. ''Good enough'' was his thought. Daylight streamed through trees and bushes. He was generally happy that he finally could see things clearly. Now he kust had to quickly find his way back. That proofed actually quite simple, he just had to follow on side of the building and arrived at the entrance they used. The bigger problem was, when have they been here and when was now. Or simply, how much time had passed. So he looked for tracks and unsurprisingly found remains of the last battle. Clear human footprints. They obviously didn''t care to hide their tracks. So he could just follow them and then... he was very unsure of what to do. How would they react and how should he react and for that matter what would he do. He was very unsure of that. He felt deep sting in his heart on the memory how they legt him behind. He felt betrayed. He would certainly not do anything good. On another matter he needed to know what was done to him. He felt different and still the same. He was certain that he was still himself at least. So he summoned his status:
Status
Race: Human Beast- Evolution 0 Level 0 HP: 100 MP: 100
Statistics Strenght: 8 Dexterity: 9 Constitution: 10 Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Stat points: 0 Evolution points: 0
Skills -
Passive Skills -
Hidden Skills
Titles First Human Animal: You are the first of your species on this planet: Welcome! 10% to all stats First Primer: The first of your species: 15% faster leveling, 10% faster stat growth, 10% more Evolution Points
That was a lot to process. He was a human what? That made no sense. Where was his name? Why was his name not in his Status. He was Ker of Wellscheidt. He was certain of his name, his heritage, but it could not be found. Tears started to well in his eyes. Then there was the mention of human beast, he definitely was human and no beast. He would not accept his ridiculous status. To that, there were EP and the mention of an Evolution, only beast had Evolutions. It was basicly a miracle how those happenend and worked. Only the tamers guild might have answers, but they were extremely secretive. So probably no Answers from them. And he was level 0. That''s the level of a baby. All adults over 14 had at least 1 level. It was childsplay to get the first level. When he looked at it from this angle, he was not that screwed after all. Just gain one level after the other. His titles would help him greatly in this effort
As he learned from his swordteacher, with focus you could reach anything. So he decided to put all his effort into gaining his first levels. To that he looked for little critters. Small animals, aka easy opponents. He was well aware of the area je was in, the wilds. A very dangerous place people seldom enter and even rarer leave. So mice and voles will do. Finding any was a little problem, but catching any proved far more difficult. He tried to sneak and failed instantly. A mice noticed him and run away, the same happened with a squirrel and a vole. So he tried a different strategy: he got a nice round stone, sat down and waited in silence. That worked to the point until he did throw the rock. It did not hit. How high level are creatures here? Nonetheless Ker stayed focused until he hit a vole. The trick was to throw in front of the vole... and to have some luck. The vole fell over and stopped moving. Ker sprinted to his felled prey, grapped it in one hand and smashed his other hand in its head. He guessed right, the vole wasn''t dead, just stiff. The small animal twisted and bit in his hand. So he smashed his fist without hesitation in its skull until it stopped moving. You killed 1 small animal: vole 1 level gained New title: first blood: you killed a small innocent animal with your brutal bloody hands. +5 to all skills That was not what he expected. Than again, what expectations could he keep in the light of recent events. Probably none. So he happily moved on to his next kill. Also his stomach rumbled and his eyes met the dead vole in his heand with disdain. He wouldn''t really eat an animal raw, would he. His instincts disagreed and his stomach joined the sentiment. Slowly the vole was brought to his nose. It reeked of wet pelt. He really didn''t want to eat it, but his very beeing resisted to let go of the nutrition source. He knew he had to eat, his instincts were happy with raw food, actually raw animal corpse. So he tried to convince himself to cook the animal first and make it into food. That internal debate lastet a few moments, apparently his instincts were a really strong defender of food now, thought later. Act I - Chapter IV Far in the inland at castle Morgwen in the main residence of Mellechiev Advisor Lanon:"We have reports that our men will not return. It is to conclude they all perished." Earl Mellechiev laconic responded:"Send 50 men for reinforcements." Advisor Lanon:"It is to suspect the targeted clan has considerable military strength. A good part of our elite fighters might be necessary to instigate enough damage." Earl Mellechiev waved his advisors concern of:"Just send the recruits. Put them in the colors of viscounty Brisgean and let them shout the ususal." Advisor Lenon added thoughtfully:"I don''t think an attack of recruis will amount to much. They will most likely be cought and questioned. Recruits normally do not have a high tolerance to torture." Earl Mellechiev gave a lapidary respons:"Just have them under oath. They are only aloud to attack and shout. I will consider this matter resolved." Lanon dutiful as ever answered:"Yes, my lord."
Ker struggled against his instincts. He never had this need to just bite into flesh. Comicall as the situation was, Ker rather focused to dind enough dry sticks to start a fire. Of course he knew how to make a fire, nut doing this on an unknown area, with kust one hand added considerable difficulty. In the end, he was happy enough with a smoldering pile of small sticks. Also he manahed to let go of the vole and dropped on the smoldering pile. Not really a campfire, but enough to slowly cook a small animal. When the smell of drying pelt hit, he remembered what he forgot. To butcher the animal in a corect way. So he took the vole of the pile and started to cut and tear its pelt away. Just with stones, sharp sticks and hands he prepared the vole. It definitely looked butchered up afterwards. With added breath and a good while the smoldering pile became a little fireplace. The vole became cooked and strarted to smell... ok. That was how Ker described it to himself. Finally he bit a piece from the vole. It tasted bland, like chicken, just different. His stomach stopped growling and his instincts were satisfied, other than that nothing happend. So he moved on. Let''s look at my gains. He gained 5 stat points. He didtributed them to strenght and Dexterity, since he needed more power and better aim. Also being faster would help him anyway. His strength and dexterity were both now at 16. The additional 5 points and the 10% were already visible. He decided to test his new stats and ran a short distance in the wood. What he thought was short was a good part farther. He was definitely faster and stronger. And so he moved onto his second hunt. This time he wanted to git a mice. Not to eat it, just put of spite for the denied kill. Finding a mice took a lot of patience from him. He had not become a berserker because of his patience, rather the opposite. If he still had any class or could gain one back. After scaring a few mice and finaly getting the kill on one, he relented to more productive actions. Rather hunting mice and vole, he needed to kill a beast. Just that undertaking was a problem with pitfalls on its own. He already did kill his first beast a few month ago. But he had help, at least some and it was an aggressive firelynx. Very aggressive he remembered. He got burns nearly eberyway and needed healing. His mother was not happy one bit. How she cared for him and shewed his fathers ears off. That made him sad for a moment. They surely were sad too and waiting for him. Ker took a strong breath in and focused on his next task: slaying a beast in the wilds. He was brave, not moronic. So he needed he foolproof plan, the right tools and well trained execution. First the plan, what did he know of beast in the wilds. Actually not much, there were strong, unrelenting and extremely dangerous. But little critters existed here too, so there were surely some not so strong beasts. He just had to find the right one. The plan was to make a trap, use spears to harm it enough until it died. Making a trap was again very possible for him. Just make a hole, put pointy sticks in it and cover the top. Bit would that work, probably not. Beats here were too strong, too good at surviving. He needed to make sure that the trap worked. He also thought about making a second trap to catch the beast simultaneously. Then he began gathering sticks, branches and stones to make some rudimentary tools. After a good while he had twenty ropust sharp sticks, a dozen weak sharpened sticks, three short speers and some sort of stoneshovel. Making a rope had not worked out. The leaves and undergrowth always tore when applaying some force. Therefore he opted to make the trap to fall in on itself and burying the beast. Now on to finding valid targets. He moved as silent as he could, always crunched down, always carefull not to step on something loud. Slowly he was leaving the fateful site of the building. His path wound through the wood, looking for unkown tracks in the ground. A large food print lay before Ker. Large in a sense that it was from a squirrel, but at ?east three times that big. Definitely a beast, but none he heard about. Squirrels were just little critters, so he surely had nothing to gear from one squirrel with a bit more mass. Following the tracks doubts necked in the back of his mind. Why were the tracks so visible, didn''t the squirrel need to hide. And why thinned the numbers on animals he could see. He had no answers to those things, instead he sneaked through the undergrowth. Ker noticed a large lonely tree and a scurrying being on it. Found you. Ker observed the squirrel carry things up the tree and down. Right now he had no chance of setting a working trap. So it was time to wait. Sure the squirrel was big, biggest squirrel he ever saw. But how dangerous could it be.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. In the evening the beast seemed to venture out, for whatever it had to do. So Ker moved carefull to the spot most frequented by the beast and started to dig. He sat the trap up as good as he could. It would even collapse. He moved the foliage over the hole, tried to cover up his tracks and lie down on a nearby spot. The trap was sat and ready. Good thing was he didn''t need to wait long. Bad thing was the squirrel was just built differently. It sat the trap, has fallen into it and screamed pierced by the sticks. The collapse of the trap could never hope to hold this little monster. It jumped bloodied out of the trap and landed beside it. Ker already on the move, did throw his first spear. It pierced the beasts hide and successfully angered it. That was in acceptable bounds for Ker. What wasn''t expected were the fury this very big and very angry critter had. In just moments it was on to Ker, biting slashing, kicking. Ker got hurt in seconds, even as he hold his spear against the onslaught. He would see no light against this squirrel, of things continued. So he waged his chances and thrown himself to the side. That gave him a moment to wound the beast more. But it in return wound Ker back, an unvoluntary exchange. They basicly wittled each other down. He had to find a way to get the upper hand. He still had two spears, one was on the place were he laid before. He baited the squirrel one step forward, accepted on wound to the shoulder and thrust the spear with his full weight behind it, in the squirrels right foot. That pinned the beast and changed the flow of battle in his favor. The rest of the battle were most one-sided exchanges. Ker took the last spear, aimed at the squirrel and thrust only when a hit was certain. Still it needed a while amd at long last it died. He received 3 level and 17 stat points. Also the system noticed him about his gains: Treesquirrel lvl 7 (I) slayn 3 levels gained Title: predator not prey recieved But there where no evolution points given. However he would recieve them was a mistery. Also he was bloody, wounded and in a bad state overall. So he didnwhat he could do and put 2/3 of his stats in constitution. Constitution: 27 -> HP: 270 That would also higher his defenses and indirectly his stamina. If everything still worked the same. Still he bled and started to look for plants to desinfect him and tread his wounds. But the plants nearby were foreign to him. Now his instincts started to rise again. They led him to the slayn beast. He could barely hold himself back, his body wanted this squirrel. Sure it was not a vile, but he still had standards. At least he wanted to gold himself to those. His body had a different idea, made his mouth salivate, pushed him closer to the dead beast when he finnaly slipped in his control. It didn''t taste that bad, just vwty bloody. Then it struck what he had done. He had tried to eat a animal raw, not even an animal, a beast. He gulped the hearty meat down. + 1 EP recieved What He got EP from eating raw beasts. That was something new. Now he knew where to get EP, but would he follow through, just like a beast. Well, he thought to himself, when stat points are vital for adventurers then EP must be kind of the same for beasts. He gulped at the thought of what he was abou to do. He steeled himself internally and bit down. After eating a good chunk of his slayn beast, his prey, he got 5 more EP and felt much better. His wounds receded, not completely healed, but far lesser in severity. He discovered a new way of treating himself. Also that was probably an additional option for other beasts alike. It wasn''t too bad, but now his mouth was bloody and he really wanted a shower. Not that there would be any in the woods. Beside his messy state, he felt chill. It was getting rapidly darker, it was autumn and he had no real space to take shelter. He tensed up at the thought going back to the facility. A cursed place in his opinion. Maybe he could find a different place to stay. He looked up the tree and winced. Going up there would be problematic. But with his new stats, worth a try. Moments later he found out how difficult it was to climb a tree. But nothing beats human ingenuity. So he got the first ordervout of the way, he cleaned himself as good as he could. Leaves were actually pretty usefull after all. Then he cut the quirrel open and put it on a branch from another tree. That way it would bleed out and could be skinned the next day. Then he used to of his spears as tools to climb the large tree. By reaching the first branch he asked himself how high he was and regretted the look down immediately. By the third branch he was certain a fall would be really bad. So he climbed higher and reached the den of the squirrel, at the midsection of the tree. His night proved to be crampy. He barely fit in the den. It was a rough build hole in the tree trunk filled with lots of different nuts, stuff and a few smaller bones. At least Ker knew now where to fund nuts if he ever felt like it. And he was relieved, because even monstrous beast squirrels behaved somewhat like normal ones. He tried to sleep, but the sound from the bottom of the tree were ungodly. Screams, screetches, wet sounds of tearing flesh. When all went still and the more normal sounds of the wood returned he drifted into deep sleep.
A new day may bring about new life. So the saying goes. Ker felt the same. He felt like a new being, fresh from sleep to start and conquer the day. So he climbed down and saw the reason for the nightly disturbance. The squirrel was completely torn to pieces. However, he had to see if he could use any of the squirrels hide. It turned out thecwas technically enough hide for short pants, but it was too torn to use properly. Ker sighed. He could at least use part of the hide to make very short pants to cover his intimate regions. The rest of the hide would still do for later use. So he choose a especially sharp stone and cut into already torn parts. He cut and tore, lay the skin free from the rest. It still needed preparation and drying. So he tried to delete as much fleshy bits as possible. He scraped the hide almost clean. The blood still stayned the hide. He hung the hide in the tree, this time on a higher branch. He still had to find his way back, make good on levels and find out how his weird new system worked. Did he always have EP and it was hidden. Is this normal for humans or... He really didn''t like the alternative. It would make him a beast, just above an animal. Something people hunted - woild he be hunted? A question opening completely new dangers. Afterall a fellow human is a wolf to men. It would do very good to get more levels, gain abilities and figuring out how to apply EP. This time he would change things up. He would make a proper trap and wait for the prey to come to him. Ker hunted voles with mediocre success, which still was miles apart from the day before. It even was fun in a way. He started to understand, why some people made sport out of this. He kept two voles for himself and three as bait. He hid the three voles under bit earth to not attract other hunters too early. The other two he prepared and cooked similarvto the day before. He definitely learned from his previous mistakes. Still the flesh was bland. Well saturated he planned his trap. First part was a deep hole. This time nothing would jump out. As the trap before, sharp edges were the first welcome for the target. Just that the sticks were no proper stakes. This time foliage would not be enough to cover the pit. He gathered sticks, leaves and foliage as cover. The sticks were arranged so that the next stick crossed the stick before. The sticks were loosely put innthe side of the pit. That created a nice pattern. It also proofed to cover the pit and give way at a certain weight. With leaves, dirt and foliage it nearly looked like the rest of the ground. Then the three voles were cut to spread the smell of blood. With three voles in the middle, the pitfall was ready. Ker also prepared more spears and a lot of stones. He would go certain that this time he had plenty of ammunition. Now he had to wait again. He definitely needed something to do in the between time. Act I - Chapter V The trap did lie in the clearing, Ker hid himself near the large tree. The ambush was prepared. Ker was ready. He had to drive some small predators away. The bait seemed already to work. It would have to show itself if it also worked for beasts. So Ker waited and waited. He became thirsty and slightly hungry, but prevailed. Until finally the moment of truth showed itself. A wolf with brownish pelt and long dark patches carefully neared its prey. Unfortunately that prey was the bait of another hunter, placed on a tested trap. In a leap the wolf catched two voles, the sticks gave way and the wolf plunged into the hole. A bloodcurdling scream filled the area. Ker was quick on his feet, tacking as many spears as he could and rushed to the trap. He knew, that a kill with a trap would only give a trapper good levels. Everyone else would profit much worse or get trapper as a class option. Ker did not want to become a trapper. He rather relied on himself than on tools. Now came the final test, how many spears would one beast need to die. Ker lunged spears in the pit with no end. Actually until he was left with two spears. It turned out this beast wasn''t weak, it was also extremely resilient. Bleeding severely all over its body, probably a broken paw and many times staked. No this did not look like a quick way to gain level. Still, Ker had learned a lot, like not to waste ammunition and that he needed more strenght. He invested 6 remaining points into strength.
Strength: 16 -> 23
With the last two spears he tried to hit vital areas. He did not hit. He missed with one spear. Ker sighed, moved to his pile of stones and relocated them near the pit. He gathered some more stones to go certain. Then he threw the stones with full force at the beast. The wolf suffered loudly andcKer just wanted to end this. He didn''t opt for maximized suffering. In future he had to change his ways of hunting drastically. The wolf slumped to the ground and its last breath left its maw.
Denwolf (II) lvl 1 slayn
1 level gained
Ker thought that it weird meeting the wolf alone. It was also a Denwolf, so probably a wolf from a den. Did that mean it was young? Ker neither knew nor cared to much. What he cared for most was to get the wolf out if the pit. This was his personal EP bank after all. A deep growl permitted the woods. Opposite the pit a glowing oair if eyes appeared. Then another and another pair of eyes could be seen. Ker lookes dumbfounded. A pack of wolf were approaching him. Never mind my question. Obviously the wolf was not alone and from the size of the other wolfs it was also a youngling. Ker really did not want end up as wolfsnack today, so he turned tail and ran. He put all his effort into reaching his safe haven, his tree. Just behind him the wolfes, way too near to climb the tree. Ker had to take a corner around his tree and sprint on. His survival was dependent on his speed, without hesitation he put all his stat points into Dexterity. He instantly dismissed the status window to focuse completely on running away.
Dexterity 16 -> 22
Ker could already feel the improved speed. He could have chosen strength, since it translated to a stronger body and that meant stronger legs, therefore more force to propell him forward. The thing was stats did not focuse and gave no understanding. To gain those people needed to train and gather experience in a specific field. The strength would be equally distributed through Ker''s body. To strengthen one part particularly and gain prowess he would have to train for month and years. This was not an option. He needed speed and flexibility right now. With over a third more points in Dexterity, Ker''s speed improved significantly. He gained distance from the wolf pack. Only to be reminded shortly later, that high level wolfs are high level for a reason. The pack caught up, growling and foaming at their mouths, two pounces behind him. Ker could practically feel the low, angry growl behind his right side. Time to change tactics. He started to zigzag like a rabbit, always short behind trees, to outmaneuver the wolfs and hide his path of flight. He gained valuable distance this way. Just that he was neither fast nor nible enough. He had to adjust his approach again, this time more literal. He choose to accelerate towards one tree, crash into it and use the momentum to bounce towards the next tree. This approach had to positives: his next direction was more random, he was slightly faster and he finnaly could avoid the foaming mouthed of the pack. It also had a great negative: he crashed into every tree along the way, adding damage and pain to him. The damage was near negligible, but the pain wasn''t. Both sides hurt like crazy, as of someone pushed him continuously against walls. The pain added to the exhaustion and depleted his reserves rather quickly. He needed a way out. And he found a way in. Before him opened a space with several large trees. All those trees showed similarity to the tree he had declared his own. One major point were the inhabitant: giant squirrels that bustled and hustled around. He had no time to stopp, not time to plan, no time to think. So he just ran right through all this and caused pure chaos. Close behind him the pack of wolfs, suddenly with a change of reality confronted. The squirrels confused and threatend pounced after Ker and defended their home against the pack. That left the wolfs occupied and Ker could actually flee. The squirrels were obviously no hunters and left him after a short distance alone. Ker was completely out of breath. His stamina must have been depleted. He tried to force himself to stand, but failed and dropped to the ground. He seriously hoped the wolfes would not hunt him any further, that would be the end of him. After a short rest he started to track his way back, very carefully. To avoid the squirrel den as the wolf pack. He made a huge curve around the squirrel den. And managed to avoid the wolfes. He questioned if it was even a good idea to return to his new place. He might be better of finding something new. Than again, that might make his situation even worse. He thought about returning to the facilty and shook his head quickly. That place was cursed, damned not to be treated at all.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. He returned much later, after a few stops and two catched voles later. At least he wouldn''t suffer much hunger. But he doubted the voles would suffice. On to new hunting grounds... he would say, but he clearly needed to first learn to survive reliably in this one. He neared his tree and the successful trap. The wolf corpse was still there. Letting it rot there would not help him, better get to work, no matter how dastartly it was. On the end he fished the corpse out of the hole via spear. Ker started to muse, that spears may be the way-to-go tools. He really wanted this to be different, this way of acquiring EP was not very human. He rather eat something cooked, with oil and spices lifted to culinary heights. This way he just hoped it would still be edible. Good appetite Ker really could not find the appeal on raw meat. But when his mouth closed around the flesh of the young wolf, a craving for flesh took root. As the blood touched his tounge, he felt a thirst for blood that overshadowed any lingering thoughts. In his desire for sustenance he devoured the flesh, the muscles and partly the organs of the young wolf.
+ 10 EP
New passive Bloodthirst acquired
He regained his senses after the debauchery. He was disgusted at himself. Would he ever get used to this, this new barbaric life. Ker was tired and full, his body showing clesr signs of tiredness. He cleaned himself like the day before, climbed the tree and lay in the uncomfortable hole. His sleep was not soft. He dreamed of something bad, he felt hunted, he had to run. There weren''t any pictures, but raw feelings in his dream. As Ker awoke, he felt refreshed, ready fo another day. Then again he didn''t want to repeat the occurrence from yesterday. Now he had 10 EP and no use for it. Not jet. He needed to find out how to use Evolution. Ker could not fathom the use of such a system. Maybe he really needed to go back to that godforsaken place. But maybe it would resolve itself with more EP and levels. After all what did he knew. So it was back to planning and trapping. He just wanted to avoid attracting another pack of wolves. Then he remembered the squirrel den, that would be either a very good or a very bad idea. He had to go certain to attract the beasts seperate. A bold plan formulated in his head. He would provoke one squirrel from distance, bait it into a trap, then look if the trap could hold or injure said squirrel. If the beast could be harmed by the trap, he would confront it with a spear. Maybe he should craft something else, like a staff or give the spear an edge. He was surely no crafter, but what choice did you have in the wilds. His spears before were more large sticks with a pointy end. This time he wanted a real weapon. So he looked out for a fitting branch. Of course Ker couldn''t find any. Since that seemed unlikely to just find a somewhat straight branch of his size, he changed his approach. He took two stone and refined one of them with the other stone into a cutting tool. That worked miserably, but it worked. Then Ker looked out for a fiitinh branch on a tree. That was a much easier way to go aboit things. He found several potential candidates, chose one random and started cutting it off. He also learned why a handle is a really good idea, because he cut himself several times in that task. Then he cut the bark of the branch and straightened it as much as possible. One end of the spear was divided into four slits. He eyed the drying pelt parts on one of the trees. He would have forgotten about them. Again he had to start a fire. The fire served the task to dry and harden the spear. Ker was very careful not to spark a fire on the spear. It was time to add the tip of the spear. Again he used a stone to refine the made stone blade. It was ardous and the result not nearly like he imagined. But the tip fit on top of the spear. Now he used stripes from the pelt to fixate the tip and complete the spear.
Title gained: Toolmaker
That was new. For some reason all the tools before didn''t count, but this one fulfilled the requirements to be called a tool. Also he got a title, just for making one tool. That''s not how titles were normally given, as far as he knew. The second task of this day was something he happily awaited, pants. He took the dried pelt and cut it into some form. He then bound this around his waist. Done were his very simple and just barbaric pants. But he wasn''t stark naked anymore. Time to hunt. Ker gathered sticks and stones and his shovel-stone. With that he embarked on his hunt for EP. But his enemies were numberless, dastartly, horrifying beasts, hidden in form of giant, cute looking squirrels.
As one of the cross-striped squirrels just climbed the outmost tree, a stone was hurled towards it. The arc precisely aimed, the stone destined to hit the head of the beast. It was angry. It''s head looked quickly around for the perpetrator. It found Ker in between the undergrowth. Ker in turn thought better of it and retreated. The squirrel gave chase. So far a success. Half way to the trap the squirrel seemed annoyed not to get close to the attacker and tried to return to its den. Ker could not allow that to happen. He hauled another stone against the beast. The squirrel just kicked the low thrown stone away. Ker had to resort to more drastic measures. He run to the squirrel and cut it with his spear across its back. That provoked a clear reaction, just as Ker hoped. The beast clawed after him and he had to retreat again. This time he really had to run. The squirrel would not let him off this time. Short before the trap, he hurried around it and awaited the squirrel. The beast triggered the trap focused only on Ker. One of its feet paws did fall into a small hole. There it was piked by a stick. That repeated with the secand paw and even with one of the frind paws. The squirrel was in pain and half stuck in small pit traps. Ker acted fast, he struck the beast repeated with the front and back of his spear. The wounds added, the bleeding increased, the squirrel became sluggish from blood loss. The final strike ended its struggle and granted Ker his well prepared victory. You slayn a Squirrel lvl 3 (I). Now again came the more barbaric act of consuming the prey for EP. Ker was going certain that no other predator was nearby. Then he dug in. It still felt weird afterwards. But now at least he lost himself in the act of consuming his slayn prey.
+ 3 EP gained
Still no sign of any usage. Maybe he simply didn''t reach the threshold. Ker prepared for another hunt. This time hevopted for mass instead of a singular being. He would have to make a big trap with enough stakes and enough ammunition. Also a way to retreat once things got out of hand would be nice. It might actually save his life. This time it would definitely take more time and effort than with the wolf. Maybe he could continously trap prey this way. Than again he rather hunted his prey directly. He sighed in face of his opportunities. Hunting squirrels right now might result in less EP and levels, but it would be faster and more direct. Ker actually saw no other way right now. He would trap the area around his tree and hubt squirrels for short time gain. He also didn''t have the tools and knowledge to create such a contraption.
After hunting three more squirrels he was very happy with the result:
1lvl gained
1lvl gained
2 lvls gained
+ 12 EP
Ker distributed his points where they were needed most.
Str: 32
Dex: 30
Con: 34
Int: 15
Wis: 15
He still had no idea about EP and the miraculous evolution, but he was definitely stronger than before. He was much stronger than as he entered the woods. He really felt he accomplished something great. With that feeling he returned home. Looked up the tree and was hit by dread. He would have to sleep in a little hole high up in a tree. That hit home hard. He really had a long way from where he was now. With that level-headed attitude he climbed the tree and peacefully fallen asleep. Act I - Chapter VI Ker awoke to something rather unamusing. A loud deep roar, the tree shaking, his newfound home in peril. As he looked down, he saw how deep in peril his place was. A bear of significant size began climbing his tree. Kee knew if the bear was here for him, just the tree or something entirely else. However, he knew very much that that bear could end him without a second thought. A stark reminder that his journey just began. As he watched warily the hulking beast climbing up, the beast turned its head up and looked im straight in the eyes. Ker froze. There was nothing he could ever do against such a primal creature. The difference in raw power and ferocity was worlds apart. But he could make certain that he survived. Ker broke free from his drozen state to immediately climb down on the other side of the tree. With every step, with every halt closer, he hoped the bear would just ignore him. Knowing his luck, he prepared to jump. Just in case. This case never happened. The bear completely ignored him. Ker felt relieved, the pressure of the survival situation lifted. Of course, he still was on guard. The bears must have a reason for climbing exactly this tree. No animal and no beast does anything in the wilds just because it wants to. So Ker distanced himself to a good vantage point to observe. The bear didn''t stop until reaching the top of the tree. It wasn''t interested in his ''place''. Ker saw what the bear was interested in, and he really didn''t like what he saw. There was movement up in the tree. The bear tried to reach something - a structure, which was hanging down from a branch. The creatures moved out the structure and flew towards the bear. Ker could hardly believe his eyes. Even from this distance, he saw wasps. He used his thump to estimate their size. They looked just above the size of one of his fingers. But this meant these wasps were as big as his head. Ker silently and quickly picked up his spear to move as far away from here as possible. He would not return to this place. It was not his home any longer. He found himself wondering what to do next. Leveling was one possibility, consuming more beasts for EP a next on his list. Overall, growing stronger was an agenda main point. He needed to learn how to survive properly and how his new world worked. Ker was basically in a new different world, with different rules and different goals. Ker stopped and took a deep breath. He decided to go back to the facility - the bad place. He would learn whatever was hidden there. Why something like this existed in the first place. His discoveries serve him how to overcome the challenges ahead. First point: food. Only a warrior with a filled stomach can fight good. That was what his mother had always said when he refused to eat his greens. A pang of pain ran through his chest. He would return and everything would turn out right. He refused to linger on that thought and its painful implicated feelings - he needed to move.
After consuming two voles and a few eggs he found, Ker felt ready to take his day on. He already knew the drill, made a trap field nearby, lied in wait and bated any weak enough beast to the traps. Since last time worked out just fine, he saw no reason to change a working plan. Ker observed the squirrels do their thing. He thought if they had any kind of society. A very primitive one, but a society nonetheless. Probably not. The first squirrel fell relitve easy, and Ker also looked for one of the weaker ones. The second squirrel caused more problems, and Ker had to fight harder and take some hits in. His left arm got sliced open and his right leg had to endure a nasty bite. But with eating the ''precious'' parts of the dead beasts, mostly its organs, the wounds healed. Healing meant closing the wounds and making it workable again. There were still nasty looking scars on his flesh. His bones were also slightly itchy on affected places. The third squirrel looked larger than some other. But Ker already progressed to level 10 and felt ready. That was before the fight with said squirrel. He lured it to the prepared traps. First, it avoided some, then it bulldozed through the rest, taking minimal damage in form of scars. Last, it thrown itself on Ker in a fit of fury, burying its teeth in his left side, while clawing in his right arm. His spear proved of minial defense against such a foe. Ker struggled to push the beast of him, still pinned down his spear diagonal between them. Ker let go of the now useless weapon, gripped with both his hands to the throat of the squirrel and pressed and clawed until it let off. Ker was now heavily bleeding and still locked in a fight. The squirrrel coughed weird. Ker eyed his spear, the squirrel''s eyes followed his gaze, he saw the intention in its eyes. Ker put his left foot back, readied himself and twitched. The squirrel instantly reacted with a jump to his weapon, throwing itself on top of it. Exactly what Ker waited for, stepping back just to let himself kneedrop on top of the squirrel. He voluntarily gave up.his weapon to gain the upper hand - or knee in this case. Even when it cracked under him, he let not go, putting his entire body weight on the beast to surpress it. The beast, still ferocious, struggled against the pressure. The situation now turned on its head, looked much better for Ker. He was still bleeding, slowly losing strength. So he decided for a slightly risky move. He pulled one leg closer to him, fiving the beast in turn more freedom with one shoulder. Luckily, only Ker had basic wrestle training. He profited on this by putting the free leg under the neck of the squirrel, twisting to put the other leg on top of its neck and closed. The squirrel made coughing noises, high-pitched to low gurgling noises. Until it dtopped moving. Until Ker finally got the message of the kill. His gains were good, but he didn''t get another level despite the power difference.
You slayn a Treesquirrel lvl 4 (I)
You slayn a Quickpacer Squirrel lvl 2 (II)
You slayn a Woodsquirrel lvl 5 (III)
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2 lvls gained
+ 3 EP
+ 5 EP
+ 7 EP
In total, he gained 16 EP. His bonus was already showing. Before this disaster, the additional gaines from his titles were rather meager. Having good titles was really worth it. He really did not like the raw beast eating business. But in his current situation, he couldn''t afford luxurious thought. That was also the reason he devoured most of the last squirrel without hesitation. Now, he reached his limit as it seemed. No more levels if he understood his situation correctly. The higher the evolution, the stronger the beast. That he had met no squirrles over lvl 5 indicated that they had to evolve then. However, he still had no clue how that worked. So he tried to do what every good scout would do, observe and learn. He looked at squirrels now for quite a time. Even if it was somewhat interesting in the beginning, it was also boring. Nothing different happened. Until one squirrel started a fight with a neighboring squirrel over some food. One of the beasts won, subdued the challanger. But it didn''t end there, the other squirrels suddenly focused on the pair. Ker held his breath as all the squirrels streamed towards the loosing one and ripped it apart in a flood of teeth and claws. Afterward, the seeming peace returned. Ker withdraws to assess his situation. Maybe it was not that good of an idea to hunt murderhobo squirrels. He really didn''t know where exactly he was. He recently discovered how to kind of survive in the wilds, just only against weaker beasts. But a big part was missing, evolutions. He accepted regretfully the decision to go back to the bad place. His walk to the facility was pretty uneventful. Ker was thankful for that since, in this hellscape of a wood, he had to be aware of every step he made. Wondering where to start looking, he arrived at the facility. He was greeted by the ususal overgrown walls and dark entryways. Inside the building, the light was dim, just what the late noon aloud to illuminate. For the first time, Ker took time to look at the walls. In some places, they were covered with words. He could not understand a single one and rather moved on. He would need someone with language skills, someone who would be interested enough to not only go through the deadly wilds, but to a not understood, dangerous place. The odds were slim. After walking for some time, he found signs with symbols and words hanging from the ceiling. The words were just a part of the mystery as before. The symbols made more sense. There was a weird beast on the sign to the left. There was one of those syringes depicted on the sign to the middle hallway. Bad memories occurred in his head and he stuffed them back in. There was a weird flower on the sign to the right. Since he was interested in beast evolution, he chose the path to the left. Soon enough, he encountered pictures and potential descriptions of various beasts. He recognized rwo of them: the famous griffin and the hippogriff. The first was a mixture of eagle and lion. He actually never saw one before but heard stories from the knights and his grandparents. The second was known to him since some of the higher standing knights had the honor of riding it. The hippogriff was a beast with the front of a giant eagle and the back of a horse. Thanks to one of the knights, Richard, he did pet a hippogriff when he was younger. The other beasts he didn''t know much about. A mixture of a snake and a normal chicken... A horse with large fishtail... A creature that had four legs and many snake heads... And last horned creatures walking upright, that looked simply evil. He couldn''t quantify what it was, their ragged horns, the large claws or the wide, sharp toothed grin. Ker simply rather never meet any one of those. He entered a large hall with lots of depictions and more words he could not read. There were also old scriptures, just the first one literally disintegrated to dust as he rried to unroll it. Ker thought better of it and didn''t touch any other thing in this room. One of the depictions holds what he needed, probably. An animal or small beast, wolf like, followed an arrow. Next, it was larger and had more mane. Then, it became gradually larger and more fierce with every depiction. Obviously, it was a description of evolutions. Now to the next part. Under it were another depiction, simi?ar but different. It showed a dog that was then inside a cocoon and evolved there to something else. The rest of the evolutions seemed to work without cocoon. Ker suspected what the cocoon was: the damned egg-thing he was placed into. And now it seemed he had to endure all that again. But could he really find his way home and survive. Ker gritted his teeth and looked into every niche and corner of the hall. He had to find something else. But what he found was just worse, a depiction in which every single evolution was inside the egg-thing. It was highlighted and probably important for whoever deranged had worked there. From the depiction alone, the evolution came of a stronger. Ker was also certain through firsthand experience that this poor creature must have been broken inside. No living thing should have to endure such torture continuously. It did not help, neither his mood nor his conclusion. He had to do it. He really needed quite some time to find his way back to the center of the wing, where the hall with the egg was positioned. It still looked the same as he left days ago. He walked up to it to inspect it. Ker could not make sense of his thing. Four big shell parts, like leaves, open to all sides. Inside looked like an amalgamation of flesh and metal-constructs. Dried fluid glued to the leaves. Inviting. The room still eerily dark, nothing activated jet. Not that Ker would know or understand any part of this. He still took time to look around since you never knew what you could find without trying first. Apparently nothing that helped him further his goals. Ker steeled himself, stepped on the middle platform and sat down. All his instincts wanted him to be somewhere else, but he had at least to try. Here we go.
The tent door was pushed aside. Ellora entered with a conflicted grimace on her face. "You said you could have done nothing to rescue him," Helm answered: "That''s now the fifth time. No, we were helpless in this situation. I fear there''s nothing thst could been done." "That''s what you say. And Adam is silent and doesn''t even comment on it. We had, we have a responsibility towards younger adventures we take in. I can''t believe we didn''t stop him." "I know." replied Helm somber. "And what is it with his family name, why withhold it?" ... Helm remained silent for a while. "He asked me not to tell anyone. He wanted to be accepted just as Ker, not as Ker of Eldoria." Ellora gasped in realization: "He was a noble. You let a noble die. Do you understand... we will be executed on return." It seemed Helm just accepted the fact in defeat. Ellora left the tent mechanically. Helm was left in thought. There will be send a search party. They will have to believe that we could have done nothing. They will have to... Outside in the camp, the mood was grave. Some looked more busy, some others more sorrowful. Everybody did something to distract themselves. Finn was sorting his tools, Hallauer did sharpen his knives, his look a mix between worry and nervousness. Ellora catching on: "You mistrust him actually returning. Giving reports in the guild could cost his head - and ours." A glance towards Helms tent, Hallauer grunted in agreement: "There were stronger men running and become lawless. Believe me." Ellora eyed him, "You knew of Ker, you who he really was." Hallauer nodded. Not far sat Snap, his eyes staring distantly at his knife. He rubbed his left arm, where it ended, and looked at it as if to ensure it was really gone. Ellora sat beside him, knowing it was not the right time for her to speak. Words only carry so far. She knew it would need a lot of time to process the events. It would need even more time to come to peace with the losses. There was a look of determination on Snaps'' face that showed he didn''t really believe Ker was gone.
In the meantime, in the deepest part of the abyss. 9 symbols etched with blood in black stone, 9 streams leading to a circle as the center piece. 9 creatures in large robes stood and chanted 9 different spell parts. In the center stood a figure, pleased with the progress. It was time to fulfill her promise. Act I - Chapter VII The machinery around the egg sprang to life. Ker sitting in the center piece was satisfied that this worked. Otherwise, he would have been in a fix. This way, everything worked fine. At least he hoped it dearly. As the egg closed, he realized he didn''t feel all that safe and good in this situation. Too late. The sides closed completely, all light was shut out. The egg filled with a strange fluid again. Then Ker remembered that there were more steps to the process. More unpleasant steps. He braced himself for what was to come. As Ker sat there like a chicken in an egg, he noted that the process seemed to have changed. There were no needles pricking him, no involuntary blood donation and nothing forcefully attached to him yet. He really hoped he didn''t just jinx his luck. The egg chamber became warmer, up to his own body temperature. It was not only warm, it was outright cozy. That wasn''t alright. He should stay awake and not trust this hell-machinery. But he felt comfortable, slightly dizzy and was a short time later overcome by sleep.
Return of specimen Species 127.376 Race human beast, unique First evolution initiated Evolution nr. 37.580
Adjusting conditions... Specimen put to sleep Measuring essence... Enough essence for full evolution detected
While the inner parts of the machine worked tirelessly to complete the first human evolution, the outside parts worked too. Different rings rotated around the evolution chamber. Different arms with magical devices scanned the being inside. Deep in the complex mechanical arms sorted through data and essential parts of specimen. Their foundation stored for later use.
Preparing Geneseed No additional human genome in gene bank Looking for fitting additions... Worms: high correlation Pigs: high correlation Apes: very high correlation Dogs: low mid correlation Ant: low correlation ... Angel: Very low correlation - existend connection - > looking for geneseed... - > found string: Azure Angel Preparing gene string Demon: very low correlation - opposite correlation to Angel seed - strong negative reaction expected Starting sequence: gene point strengthening process... Angel seed: 0.0001% -> 0.00015% -> 0.00025%... Intermission detected
A black portal broke violent into reality. A figure stepped through as elegant as dangerous. She looked pleased at the chamber: "What a beautiful find." Her voice sounding like snakes twisting over each other while she touched the chamber with her hand. "This one will be a nice addition to my - children. Let''s start this little experiment, shall we." After a part of her spinal marrow was extracted, she left through the same portal. One final time, she twisted like a wave back to the chamber: "I fulfilled my promise, now fulfill yours." She stepped into the portal. Said portal closed its eternal black entrance to the abyss.
Additional geneseed received Overlaying Azure Angel seed with human genome with Unnamed source Sudden changes in genome detected No rejection between new genes Applying genes
Ker was deep asleep. Inside that personal space, he had always felt naturally safe. Just this once, he felt a foreboding presence. It was a brief, uncomfortable visit. Deep in his sleep again, he felt something deeply unsettling, pervading him. It settled in him and spread. It was like a hostile takeover, just directed by himself. Then, a pain jolt through his back. His body seemed to accept the foreign parts as its own. There was something else surfacing from deep within him. Slowly but certainly wind its way out. Rage Hatred And also a strange serenity in it.
Integrating genes Genes accepted Starting evolution process Species body needs additional mana to begin evolution Mana reserves low Searching for additional mana reserves... Mana reservoir in bunker low Searching for mana reservoirs
Wilderness detected, mana concentration high, unstructured Woods detected, mana concentration low, unstructured High density area detected, structured Preparing for extraction
Far away in Wellsheid, inside the mage tower of magus Bellefold. The magus furrowed his eyebrows. Somebody tried to suck mana directly from his tower. How dastartly rude. Then he noticed how raw the method was. Even the barbarians in the north wouldn''t fall back to such an approach. With that, Bellefold meaned the warriors of the clans and not the druids they were in constant exchange with. He tried to locate the source only to discover that far more than his tower was targeted. He had to find out how large the affected area was. The magus did send his pigeon constructs out to report back to him. He was well aware that those constructs might soon dissolve in the current effect. He deployed countermeasures with a mere gesture. His tower protected and his spies underway, he decided to return to his project.
A butler hurried through the palace. "Earl, earl Mellechiev, urgent news, someone is targeting this palace, it''s a mana attack." Earl Mellechiev scowled: "This is an affront. I want this nuisance dealt with. Make haste." The butler stood unsure, fidgeting with his hands. Mellechiev, in his night robes, demanded: "What is it? Tell me why you are not taking care of this business." The butler answered meekly: "We currently don''t know where the attack comes from. It is disturbing our defenses and the high people visiting. We don''t know what to do or where to start." Mellechiev: "You have until tomorrow to take care of it. In any case of further disturbance or failure, the consequences will be decimation." The butler wanted to reply that this is a military disciplinary method just to realize how foolish that would have been. The butler hurried away, while Mellechiev groaned at the annoyances in the late evening.
Mana reserves filled to 59% Leakage detected No immediate action possible
A surge of mana built up to pave the way into evolution via force.
Mana surge prepared Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Equalize mana output... Full coherence reached Activate mana surge
A stream of extremely concentrated and coherent mana was forced right through the evolution chamber. That saturated Ker''s body instantly. His body had no choice but to adapt - this his first evolution was jump-started.
As Ker opened his eyes, he stood in his old childhood room. But he wasn''t small, he was gigantic in comparison to his bed, his wooden toys and the chair. He felt this was still his room, his sanctum. He would always be safe here. Something stirred him to walk to the door and open it. Behind the door was a forest. The trees were lighter in the beginning but grown darker with every step he took. Until he reached a lake in the dark wood. Ker moved to and saw his own reflection distorted in the calm water. It promised change. So he stepped into the lake, the water slowly immersed him. Ker was floating in the waters shaped by the reflection of his potential. Different versions of an outer layer came to his mind.
Mana-skin Mana surrounds him in a protective layer, mainly against mana attacks
Plant-skin Plants weave into protective armor absorbing damage
Stone-skin Skin as tough as stone, unbreakable defense against a wave of attacks
Moving Plates Large plates protect him and change according to damage
Chameleon-Hide The skin adapts to the surrounding, changing color
He was most intrigued by the stone skin. He didn''t know what to do with mana skin. He had never used mana before. The plant skin looked flexible, probably very useful to absorb damage. The plates reminded him of plate armor, which was very useful to wear, but Ker liked the option to not wear plate armor full time. The Chameleon effect was a simple no. No green Ker with brownish grey patches. Next, he felt options for a stronger, changed body:
Speed Foundation The muscles grow longer and move faster
Strength Foundation Muscles become bigger and he stronger
Endurance Foundation Muscles become more enduring, using blood more efficient
Mana Strength Mana is transformed into strenght
Stone Muscles Muscles harden on impact, reducing damage taken
In this case, he had a harder time deciding. All choices presented were good, valid options. More speed meant faster attacks, he could outmaneuver other beasts. And ge could run away faster. But Ker felt that was not his style of fighting. Strength foundation sounded pretty good, it definitely fit to him. More endurance would be good for long fights or exhausting tasks. That was not really in his interest. Again, something with mana, surely useful but he passed it up. Muscles out of stone sounded contradictory. Why would anyone let their muscles harden and freeze up. That would open any opportunity for an attack. He opted for a strong foundation since his methods aligned with that built. Visuals of his skeletal body appeared:
Hollow Bones The bones become hollow, therefore lighter. Allowing more dexterous movements but break easier
Elastic Bones The bones become more elastic, bend easier, less stable
Cross-Connected Bones internal cross connections stabilize the bones, more stability, heavier bones
Bone Growth The bones grow until the next evolution
This time, Ker chose instantly cross connected bones. It would be good against heavy attacks, falls and anything that will be thrown onto him. Especially the last option seemed suboptimal. He would grow until he didn''t fit anymore in any house? That was definitely not his goal. Many different shapes formed in his mental imagery:
Powerheart The heart becomes a central generator to continuously power the body
CNS-Jumper The central nervous system can be accelerated in short bursts to react quickly
All-Eating Stomach The stomach can eat and digest nearly anything found
Hightend Senses The five senses will be stronger and can detect more subtle signs and movements
Demonic Core $#=/^^$#??$
All options displayed were at the very least interesting. Ker would have loved to choose all of them. Except for the demonic core, that was outright scary. Why was this option even given to him. There was no understanding given to him, just a really bad feeling. He rather anything else. After feeling what every organ could do for him, he decided that the powerheart was the best choice for him. He needed way more power. And until now, he could live from voles and beasts. He didn''t want to stay in the wilds anyway. This was a means to an end. Better senses seemed good, but all the beasts announced themselves pretty open until now. Ker didn''t know what a cns was, but he knew that quicker thinking in dangerous situations could prove vital. He hoped that better stats would solve that problem on its own. His vision blurred, his body reacted and adapted. Integrating the changes hurt like hell. Ker felt pain revolting through his entire body. He really wished for it to end. His skin tightened until he felt it short before tearing. Crystalline structures built in his skin, making it more robust. Muscles did grow stronger, building the foundation for his body. Bones broke and reconnected. Building internal bridges to cross stabilizing his structure. His heart quickened, punching in his chest. It felt like his sparring sessions, just this time his trainer would punch from the inside out. The heart slowed until it clenched. As his heart calmed down, he could feel the enormous power provided by it. He also knew that it was more durable in general. After the unpleasant experience of evolving parts of his body, he became aware of different routes.
Homo Lupus As the human is wolf to humans, the body evolves to resemble this. The Homo lupus treads a path of a predator, hunting its prey with instincts and intelligence
Homo Mutatio The human adapts to the harshest of conditions. This path leads to a transmutable body and body parts
Homo Exploratio The human ever curious. This is the way to pathfinding, the body senses sharpen, instincts honed to always find the right direction
Homo Aspiratio The human spirit connected to the heavens and hell, which beckon with power. The spirit residing over the body gains superiority. This path should be tread with care since all must be in balance. Dormant stages may brake free
Homo Fames The human, an insatiable animal. The body and mind will be ever hungry. Both will adapt to consum anything
Those were the choices given. Ker was interested in all if them but limited to one. He knew it would define his life from this point forward. Homo lupus fit, since he hunted animals and beast alike. But he didn''t like the connotation of hunting humans. He wanted to be more human and not more like a wolf. Homo mutatio sounded interesting and repulsive at the same time. How would he look like with one claw and one wing. Where were the limits and would he still be welcome. Homo exploratio sounded overall usefull, just he didn''t saw himself as an Explorer. Adventurer yes, but not someone venturing to other shores to discover new lands. Homo aspiratio was the most nebulous choice. What did it mean, why aspiratio, presumably because he aspired to become more. Homo fames was a bit blunt for him. Sure, he had a massive hunger sometimes, but ever hungry was something he gladly passed. He chose Homo aspiratio with the reasoning that he needed a strong spirit for his journey. Also, how dangerous could those dormant stages be. This time he felt no pain. He actually passed out. In his unconscious state, he felt the evolution take place. His body, mind and spirit reached a new evolutionary stage.
Ker opened his eyes. In his hazy state, he barely noticed his surroundings. The chamber was open, light filled sparse the room. He moved his limbs to discover that he needed some time to adjust. His muscles felt strong and flabby at the same time. His bones felt numb in a way he could not describe. But he had boundless energy in him. Most likely because of his heart. After he loosened his body, he walked towards one of the more intact glass walls. The glass was more see-through than reflective, he still could see his basic features. He did change in subtle ways. His face was harder with sharper lines. His muscles were clearly more defined. He also felt larger, but that could be just wishful thinking. Sadly, he couldn''t see any color in the glass. He really wanted to see his new skin. His hair seemed also changed somehow. He accepted that he would have to find some water in a pond to get the full picture. Ker made his way out of the facility. Still on wobbly legs, he took in the midday sun. It was relatively warm for march. But he knew he wanted to be back home before it became really cold. And he just wanted to be home, with his parents, feeling the warms of being welcome. And for that, he had to fight hid way back. This time, no squirrel, wolf or other beast will stop him. First he walked to a little pond nearby. Just to see, it was full of mud. Oh great, of course it is full of muddy water. Ker took his spear and walked into the wood. This time, it was to do more than barely survive. This time, he would dictate the pace. His stomach grumbled. Obviously, evolving one''s body costs a lot of resources. His next target was the damned squirrels. He needed food and wanted to test his newfound strength. He could find his way bach to the squirrel den without problems. Now, the question was if he should just pick a squirrel for a fight or employ his trap strategy. This choice was interrupted by a high-pitched squeak. A squirrel had found him first. Ker was actually not really hiding, so this was to be expected. On then. Act I - Chapter VIII Red lines adorned the squirrel''s pelt. It seemed particularly fierce looking out for trouble. Ker didn''t want to disappoint. He swung his spear in a horizontal arc. The squirrel hit the oncoming weapon with its claws. Ker withdrew the spear just to stab in short order. The squirrel tried the same trick, only this time it couldn''t really hit the weapon. The spear grazed on one side and left a nasty wound in the beast. The squirrel screamed while attacking Ker. He made a step back and blocked with his spear. His hands weren''t as protected as his body and took some claw strikes. He nearly lost his spear. Ker hit the squirrel with the backside of the weapon. The hit landed, the squirrel grunted and the pattern on it started suddenly to fume. Flames erupted from the red pattern and started to stream on the squirrel. That was new. Ker wanted to withdraw, but the squirrel thought differently and bite his spear. The spear held firm for a moment, then flames covered the weapon and ignited it. Ker let go of his weapon to get around the squirrel for a better vantage point. But flames streamed on all sides of the squirrel. He also had little time to act. The squirrel already turned towards him to bite its new target. As the squirrel stretched its head for the bite, Ker punched it in the head. He recognized that it didn''t hurt him that much and this irritated the squirrel. It let off from biting, to claw at him wildly. Ker was hurt in the left shoulder and arm as he defended himself. Anger simmered in him, ignited by the pain he felt. He resorted to punching the beast again in the head. The beast clawed back and Ker punched again. Something in him drove him to mindlessly punch in the beast''s head far past after it stopped moving. As he came back to his senses, he was very certain the squirrel was dead.
You slayn a firetrace squirrel lvl 3 (III)
3 lvls gained
Ker decided to rather store the squirrels this time to devour and process them later. Right now, he was on fire. Just because his senses returned, his anger did not retreat. Ker quickly turned to the next squirrel and ran towards it. The squirrel was about to climb a tree, unaware of the predator nearby. Then, the predator got right behind the squirrel and jumped it. It struggled fruitless against the assault. As the squirrel succumbed to his attack, Ker punched it in the neck, killing it.
You slayn a Treesquirrel lvl 4 (I)
Both landed on the ground, but thanks to the short fall, it was just an inconvenience to Ker. Short after, he began to stalk on the next squirrel, just doing its daily business. It stood no chance against enraged Ker and was finally kicked against another tree. By now, the other denizens caught wind of the approaching disaster on the ground. That was in Ker''s interest since he now could await the squirrels for the slaughter. And slaughter he did. He had half a mind to distribute his points and gain the necessary strength and fortitude to continue. That lasted until a lower scream echoed through the treetops, speaking of untamed ferocity. A squirrel nearly his sice descended from of the trees. It had short bony claws, brownish pelt with white patches and freckles. Its head looked somewhat broader. It circled towards him while Ker circled in the opposite way towards it. Then they clashed. Ker started with a quick swing from the left while the squirrel clawed at him. The claws came in quick succession: left, right, left. Even though the first swing connected, it made little difference. Ker still had to draw punches and take some claws in return. Ker bled from his upper arms and partly from his chest. The squirrel has surely taken damage but not as much as Ker. So he had to up his game. He shielded his face with his arms and let himself get clawed. In return, he kicked the squirrel full thrust in the hip. The squirrel staggered back with a hefty grunt. It catched itself on all fours to proceed with caution. Ker saw a dangerous glint of intelligence in the squirrel''s eyes. It waited for him to make the next step. Ker, rather on the offense, prepared another kick to the head. But it didn''t go well, the kick was met with pointy bones protruding out of the squirrel. With this hedgehog defense, the squirrel won this exchange. Ker hurt his own foot badly with the kick in one of the bones. Pure pain flared in his leg. He had to think about a different approach, but the pain dulled his brain and a certain feeling in him threatened to take over. He shook his head, a bad idea mid-fight. The squirrel launched forward to roll beside him and enlarge the bones. This time, the bones become sharper and cut him. A feeling arose ever stronger, gaining hold and control over him. He wanted blood for blood. He desired to shred and tear. His right hand gripped one of the protruding bones. The left hand punched down on the head. He tore and pulled on the bone even as it cut into his hand. The squirrel tried to shake him off, which encouraged him more. The bone gave in and cracked. The squirrel screamed. It looked at him with anger, in that instance, its eyes met his eyes. But only hatred in darkness stared back. Ker, unaware of his eyes moved on his own, his mind filled with wrath. He had never experienced such extreme emotions. They were completely irrational as if he were hating the existence of his foe. At the same time, it gave him the drive to push on and the power to overcome his enemies. He used exactly that power to ram his foot into the squirrel and force it to the ground. In that action, he sliced his under leg open. Heavily bleeding, he resisted the futile struggle of the squirrel that further wounded him. He used the broken bone in his right hand to open the squirrel''s throat. Met with resistance, he gripped the bone with both hands and pushed the bone through the throat slowly into its head. In panic, the squirrel created several bone protrusions, which stabbed Ker in dozens of places. For the squirrel, it was too late. The last push killed it and saved Ker from the ongoing assault. Ker actually felt really miserable, bleeding basically overall, deep cuts and bite marks in his limbs and stab wounds in his body. He regained awareness, just enough to know that he was screwed. On his last leg he looked around. The other squirrels, rather not wanting unwanted attention, decided to flee upwards. He was going to die if he didn''t fix himself soon. The only way he knew how was eating the beast before him. Not given much choice he started to assess his felled prey. It looked pretty beaten down, the bones looking like an assortment of knives and daggers. He started to rip the beast up by use of his hand and the bone he gained in battle. Ker had to cut around the bones sticking out. He found out that the bones weren''t directly connected with the skeleton of the squirrel. The first bite was bloody, but tastet just as good. He savored the taste, letting the thirst take hold over him. Again, he was devouring the good parts of the beast. When he was done, he felt exhaustion draw on his mind.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. He carried the rest of the beast out of the den to his momentary storage place. It was more of a hole, but he didn''t care about that. It should just prevent other beasts from eating and damaging his prey. After somewhat closing the hole with earth and some stones, he looked up a tree. What worked one time might just work another. And this tree did not have previous owners. He climbed up the tree to a broader branch and lay down on it. Too tired, he fell instantly asleep.
Hours later, Ker woke up. It was already nighttime. He couldn''t see much, so he decided to stay there and do nothing until he would sleep again. In his boredom, he looked around and saw the stars in the nightsky. Hallauer once tried to teach him how to orient just with the help of the stars. Back then Ker had thought what a ridiculous idea that was. Now he wished he''d paid more attention. He could see large parts of the stars and their formations, only some were covered by branches and leaves. He identified a 5 star formation as the Scale. Further up was what he believed the Eye to the side he probably spot the Dragon. He continued observing the stars and making up formation that could be there.
After a not measured time Ker woke for the second time. It was morning, with all the animals and beasts making their sounds. He didn''t count how many times he woke up that cacophony of noises. Ker had lost track of time, but he guessed it was probably a week since he entered the wilds. He really wanted to go back, there were just a few things he had to do. First, he looked at his gained stats and levels from yesterday:
He felt that he was closer to his next evolution. However that worked, but he could feel how prepared he was for his next evolutionary step. Ker dug out his slayn prey to process them. He really didn''t like what was to come next. He tried to cut the pelt of the dead beasts as good as he could. That was not a very pleasant work but necessary if he wanted something like clothes. The step after that was what made him question his own humanity. At the side, the smell of the fresh flesh, he felt again a strong desire to devour. He knew he needed the EP and there weren''t many alternatives. Still, he had to try. The fire started tame, first some smoldering. The heat of the flames warmed him. It gave him a reminder how much he missed the warmth of a good campfire. Carved out flesh on sticks was positioned above the fire. Ker tested the flesh again and again until it was edible. It tasted bland, just a bit different. It saturated him, but it gave no EP. Which led to the harrowing conclusion he had to eat the rest raw. At least his insatiable hunger for flesh and innards took over. So he did not have to force himself to eat it.
+ 23 EP gained
At least he gained nearly as much EP as he had before in total. It should be unproblematic to evolve soon at this rate. Then again, training foundations was everything if one wanted to reach the peak. Ker repeated his first try to process the pelts. He scrubbed the pelts clean from the inside. This time, he rather opted for too much effort than too little. He also looked for some cleaner water to wash the pelts. He cleaned the pelts again with stones, just to go certain. In the last step, he did hang or span the pelts on high branches. Now, he just needed to wait.
He sure was bored. In his boredom, he looked after the squirrel den. He was instantly spotted. There was a squirrel guarding at the entrance direction he always came from. It squeaked and hurried up the next best tree. All the other squirrels obviously got the message too. They all climbed up the trees without hesitation. This kind of dominance felt good, but now Ker had no easy prey anymore. He walked back to his pelt-drying spot and waited.
It needed several hours until the pelts were finnaly dry. Ker recognized that stretching the wet pelts had been a mistake. They were now a bit harder and thinner than the other pelts. But he would use them anyway. Even the bony pelt from the bonepiercer would have a purpose. Ker made a rough version of a shirt and pants out of the softer pelts. With the bony pelt and the harder pelts, he made some kind of mantel. With the bones sticking outside, it looked pretty brutal. It had something basic, animalistic to it. How it held all together, through plant stems and sticks. It was not robust, but he wore clothes again. He looked at his status to confirm him.
Status
Statistics
Skills
Passive Skills
Hidden Skills
Titles
He made sure to ninvest all his stat points. Ker had to cringe slightly at the new title. But in the end, it was worth it. He felt ready. Now, he had to find his way back home. A travel route that took him with the others over two weeks. Alone, he would be faster. There were no support people carrying supplies, then again he would have to hunt by himself and take care of a sleeping place for himself. He laughed at the thought. He survived in the wilds on his own, nothing in the forest would be a challenge. To that, he had to find his way back first. He tried to follow the tracks from his group. But those tracks were many days old and nature recovered quickly in the wilds. The broken twigs and underbrush were grown over. The footprints in the mud were long gone. He could make out tracks from a boar family. But in the wilds their were probably beasts instead of normal boars. He was confident in his abilities but not that overconfident. In the end, Ker tried to remember the way. That worked out pretty badly. He nearly turned in a circle back to his starting position. He had to try something new. Since the wilds and the forest were still foreign ground to him, he decided to orient on the sun and the stars. He just had to make sure not to follow the sun, but use the shadow of trees to follow one route. He knew that the city must be somewhere in the south, a bit to the east. So he had to follow the first light of the dawn. The more difficult task was to keep the direction. For that, he would mark the position of the sun and watch the shadows. The shadows should move until they face in the nearly opposite direction. Since it was evening, Ker oriented in the direction of the shadows and walked on. Soon, it became night. Ker faced in the direction he started moving from the start and chose a random star in the same direction. In the day, he followed his plan. In the night, he could easily lose his direction and rather used that time for sleep. He discovered that he didn''t need that much food anymore. The beasts seem to sustain him for several days. That wondered him. After three days, his stomach grumbled and he had to hunt again. This time in the forest. He had left the wilds behind. Act I - Chapter IX Ker slowly made his way through the forest. He might have tracked some birds nearby. Bird tracks on the ground meant most likely a nest on the ground. There were a few birds who lay eggs on the ground. As Ker neared the nest, the Curlews tried to chase him away. But Ker was as insistent as hungry. After a few tasty morning eggs, he decided to hunt for small animals. That was a much slower success but rewarding nonetheless. Good saturated Ker moved on following his routine from the past three days. His gut was filled with eggs and smoked flesh, but he didn''t feel the same satisfaction as from beast flesh. He put those thoughts away since they were a thing for a more peaceful situation. Ongoing, he had to stop every few hours to eat something. He was nearly certain that was because of his changed built. He probably had grown somewhat. After all, his bones and muscles were altered. He wondered if these evolutions would continue the same way or differ from last time.
He made pace since the forest did not pose any threat to him. And every other animal actually tried to avoid him. After a good while, he found tracks, clearly human footprints. Over a dozen of them. His group must have come by. If he followed their tracks, he would rejoin them. He would meet his friends and fellow hunters again. What that would entail was unclear, but would surely show itself later on. A great gnarly oak tree stood at the edge of a clearing. Ker remembered the tree. They moved through this place on their way to the hunt. They also took the same route back. Ker''s mind was on a one-way track. He wanted to see familiar faces, knowing that his friends were okay. He didn''t linger on possible consequences and how he might react.
Pov Snap/Helk Snap, now rather bearing his original name Helk again, walked to Ellora: "I know you don''t believe me. But I know Ker is out there, I just know." Ellora followed with muted silence. Hallauer added: "Nah, he still might be alive. That boy is a surviver, my gut just says so." It has been about a day since they passed the old oak tree. It would be about three days more before they would leave the forest. From there, they would have to cross the fields, the first settlement and then would finally reach the city.
Ker was on a good path. The tracks were fresher and fresher. Muddy lines from pulled wagons, footprints and occasionally leftovers, like an apple stump. They tried to get home too and decided to eat while traveling. That wasn''t the best idea, but Ker understood. They hurried to get away from the woods to safer areas. He could literally smell them. It was like a scent overlaying the tracks. It reminded him of familiarity and friendship. The closer he came, the more distinct were the traces of smell. He could distinct other emotions like fear, sadness and grief. It moved something in him.
Pov Snap/Helk He was uncertain but had a feeling that they were followed. He glanced behind him to find the usual forest. Something followed them, or maybe not. He would have to ask Finn, but then he would have to walk all they to the front of the group. Right now, Helk was trudging behind. He just had neither will nor the stamina to push forward. Suddenly, his hackles raised. There was somebody on to them. As Helk turned around, he noticed movement in the greenery. He could not believe his eyes, who emerged from the thicket of the forest. That could not be. They said he was gone and didn''t make it back, but here he was. Ker truly appeared, wrapped in brownish-red pelts. He looked like a barbarian living in the wilds. As Ker came closer, it was obvious how rough he looked. Slowly, the others picked up on the change at the rear. Surprised faces and shouts were heard. Helk didn''t care in that moment. His friend was still alive. With teary eyes, he embraced Ker.
Ker was moving for hours non-stop. Following the track like a wolf on the hunt. Ever closer until he finally reached them. He walked through the thick underbrush and saw the wagons and people of his group. He also saw his friend. The one who always joked about being a senior adventurer to him. The one who''s life he had saved. Ker blended out the other people and embraced his friend like an older brother. But it wasn''t only friendly emotions that greeted him. Some of the behavior of the other were outright hostile. They most likely did not recognize him and expected a confrontation. That changed by the people in the rear when both friends reunited again. The front on the other side only got that someone had approached them suddenly. Still weery from the adventure Helm and Adam hurried to the back of the group. What they found stunned them, Ker stood there talking to Helk and the rest of the people. As Ker looked towards Helm, his face darkened and Helm felt the guilt pressing down on him. Ker''s emotions raged inside him. On the one side, he was happy to have found his group, on the other hand, his instincts wanted to retaliate. As Helm started to justify his actions, he snapped. His instincts took control and his rage came with a vengeance. He stormed towards Helm to everyone''s surprise that he was so fast. No one could react in time, only Adam thrown himself, Longsword drawn, between them. Ker swatted away the block and cut with his hands cross Adams face. As Adam relented, Ker blocked the strike with the back of his left arm, punching with the right into Adams ripps. Adventurers wore armor, just rather leather armor. In this case, it was not enough to prevent the damage and two rips cracked. Adam coughed in pain and had to forcefully compose himself to not open up more weak points. In this moment, he saw the abysmal black eyes of Ker and halted. Ker used that moment to take Adam by the shoulder and hurl him to the ground. Adam was also not prepared for this level of raw strength and he was flung several feet to the side.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Ker was in one leap in front of Helm. The man had his right hand on hos blade, but didn''t draw it. For some reason, Helm let go of it and protected himself with both his arms. But Ker was unrelenting in his rage. Tearing through hardend leather bracers, leading to cuts on the forearms of Helm. When the flesh of Helm tore, he had enough and answered with a swing that made Ker''s teeth shudder. That, in turn, just made Ker''s rage boil over. He forced one of Helms arms to stetch and bit down. Blood gathered in his mouth. It just drove him further over the edge. He hit and clawed with his hands incessantly. Blood covered the ground, two beings in a desperate fight to gain the upper hand. Something snapped, a body dropped. Ker, still in his battle frenzy, slowly gained his awareness back. His hands drenched in blood. His arms and body battered. A frame of someone appeared in his periphery. It was Helm. His face void of emotion, the gaze starring into endless emptiness. Ker shuddered at the realization: That was a murder. Did I kill someone? That can not be, I wouldn''t murder anyone. Wait, there are others around me... Ker didn''t, couldn''t face the people around him. He needed to get away from this. He ran. And ran and ran.
Only a sharp pain in his right arm made him stop. He looked baffled as he found a daggerwound in his right forearm. The pain became unbearable. He had to stop the bleeding and clean the wound. As he checked his body, he found a second smaller daggerwound dangerously close to the lower rips. Ker forced himself to slow down and look for appropriate herbs. He found one that ge knew would help against the bleeding. He crunched the plants and rubbed them on the wounds. He also held the wound on his arm together until he could do something about it.
In the midday light, a farmer brought his harvest in. Fresh harvested grain was gathered in bundles aside from the field. The farmer just returned to his field to continue the harvest. A bleeding man in rags - or pelts was making his way to the settlement. The farmer clearly wanted to help but was weary when he saw the battle scars. To that, the wounded man was wearing pelts like a barbarian. After all, it could be an outcast. On the approaching farmer, Ker''s eyes lit up. He had reached the first signs of civilization. Finally, he could rest, no more monsters downstairs, no more beasts out of the undergrowth. As soon as the farmer saw Ker was no danger, he helped him to his house. There, they met the farmer''s wife taking care of their three children. The two youngest were far more enthusiastic to meet the new stranger. The older child, already adolescent, showed at least careful interest. Short after, an old one from the village took care of his wounds. He was a healer, even being in old age, he still operated. Seeing the slow but steady hands work, Ker asked: "How long are you working in your profession in this settlement?" The healer furrowed his brows: "You are very well spoken for someone walking out the forest in rags." "I... my name is Ker... Ker of Eldoria." The eyes of the healer darted from left to right: "You are a noble! What in the works are you doing here and then just in rags and this condition." Ker let go of a deep sigh: "That is a rather long story. Let''s say we were hunting and everything went wrong. Actually I would like some clothes, something more civilized." "Sure, first your wound than a real bath and then clothes. How about that order." The healer snickered. Ker was very happy with that order. A bath was something very welcome he didn''t have the luxury of for weeks. After the healing, Ker already felt better. The family showed him a bath with steaming water. He definitely had to thank them later. The water felt great on his stressed, scared skin. He made certain to clean himself thoroughly. At some point, he couldn''t ward off the consequences of his stress. He just let go to enjoy his bath to the fullest.
"Mhm" - "Have we slept well." Someone spoke to him, he didn''t like the amused undertone of the voice. Then Ker opened his eyes and saw that he had slept in. "Yeah, sure, it was great, thanks." His answer was given in the self-conscious that he had dozen off. The healer closed the door again and there were fresh clothes on a chair. It was time again to look like a human being. The clothes were definitely not what Ker would wear. More on the farmer side of the style range. But Ker wouldn''t protest to look like a normal person. Actually he was happy to have clothes at all. As Ker walked inside the main room, he saw the old healer as well as steaming buns waiting. He even got food. That was more his idea of living. As he ate, the farmer''s wife apologized that these were reheated buns, not fresh baked ones. Ker didn''t care one bit. In comparison to vole, basically everything tasted fine and good. "I am very interested. How a noble son ended up in such a state in rags." "A noble son?" The woman asked and nearly dropped one of the dishes she was cleaning. "Oh right, we should probably introduce ourselves." He let Ker go first. "I am Ker of Eldoria, from the house of Reginald. My parents are Juno and Hellena of Eldoria." "I am Brian, to answer your question from earlier, I tend to people here since 30 years. It''s a nice village, at some point I just decided to stay." The woman nearly dropped to her knees as she heard from Ker''s house. Ker urged her to stand up and then settled for a deep bow from her. "My name''s Ina, just Ina. My man''s Erd and this is John and the two hiding behind the door are Ila and Enne." By the last words, he heard giggles from behind the doors. Ker kind of liked it here. It was simple, probably a hard life but simple. But he had to come back to his parents. They would worry about him if he delayed further. His mother most likely worried already about him. He didn''t know how to bridge the topic. "So, it is really nice here, but I think I should head home, you know." "Now? It is getting late, we don''t have horses or something like that." mentioned Ina incredulously. "As a dedicated healer, I advise to stay at least for now. Tomorrow, you might fetch delivery of grain to the city. Even with a horse, it would be several hours of travel." Ker didn''t want cause additional work to the nice farmers. "Maybe I could help with something. Maybe the grain..." At that, the eyes of Ina bulged: What, no no no, there''s no need for you, sir. Please, you can just sit here and we bring anything you need." Ker would rather not have given his name because of this subservient behavior. But he was coming of age and should learn to act appropriately. Also, they were right. He was in no condition to go for a day long run. He definitely should not be in any acceptable condition. But he felt fine. Thanks to the healing and his body, he was sure he could take the distance. Then again, maybe he should really rest, come to a halt. In the end, he agreed to stay for one night and then return. The family had of course not another bed for a visitor. They managed to get one from a neighbor. Meanwhile, Ker asked John, the adolescent child, how life was in the countryside. John was hesitant, not knowing how to speak to a noble. After Ker assured him that any kind of talk with him would be okay, the child relaxed more. John thought, that it was boring and he wanted to get away. Maybe become an adventurer. Ker had a different view on those things, thanks to his recent experiences. But he saw no reason to dim the hope the child had. He thought about it a moment and decided to tell the children a story. He just had to change a few things. And so Ker told the tale of his adventure. He omitted the deaths and overall horrible parts. He also added here and there some events. Ker was amused but the ohs and aahs of the three children. "You''ll see, I become the greatest adventurer and then I can tell you all the stories." Declared John as he was lead out of the room by his mother. Ker also had general introductions with the man of the house, Erd. Ker found him to be a very grounded, hardworking man.
The next day was very pleasurable for Ker and very busy for everyone else. With a more focused mind, he could see the disparity between them. The people here worked very hard, had very little and were happy for every good event in their life. However brief his stay was, it was beautiful in its own way. Ker said goodbye and got on his way home. It was more than a day of travel for a low-leveled person. But Ker had quite the high stats and was trained to the edge. His run home cost him several hours without getting into a sweat. The city guards let him since they recognized him and knew of his family. As he reached his home, a grand estate to every other house around, a butler opened the front door and his mother stepped out. She smiled with tears on her eyes. Finally home.
End of Act I
Announcement Good day readers, I have started a patreon page to enable contributions to my work. That will make it possible for me to concentrate more on my work and therefore alows you to read more, refined and edited stories. There is one additionaly story posted. It will be more in future of course.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Click here to read the new story and also as a link to my patreon page: Juno''s father takes care of guild business... The main story will soon go on, as well as editoring of the written posts. Act II - Chapter I Ker was welcomed home. It was a very emotional welcome. His mother hugged him dearly and she hurried to bring him in. "Juno, you wouldn''t believe who came home!" Hellena shouted in the house. "It is so good that you are back. How was it, how was the adventure?" Only after a non-stop bombardment of questions did she take a closer look at her son. "What are you wearing? It looks rustic." Ker, really happy to be home at last, endured the questioning with a smile. On her last question, he had to take a breath. And as he was about to explain things, his father, Juno, appeared in the hall. "Son, where''s the price of the game. Do tell, what kind of beast did you hunt? I want to see the trophy of my son''s victorious hunt." Then Juno inspected him, specific his clothes. "Is this a new trend, or did I miss something. Ker, what happened with your clothes and your gear?" Asked Juno quizzical. Ker knew he had to explain properly what happened and how. He also was aware that lying to his parents would probably work as well as usual, not at all. "Hell'', Juno I think we should sit down. I have a lot to tell you." Ker gave his bag with the pelt-clothes to the butler. He had kept everything but the underpants. Actually, he was kind of proud for slaying that bone squirrel and gaining its pelt. The atmosphere shifted from welcoming to unpleasant curiosity. Ker did not work out the story he would settle on. He could not tell everything, but he had to give the facts of the events. At first, he hesitated, but the gazes of his parents changed from curious to worried. Ker gave in to the oppressing feeling and told them how horribly wrong everything went. At first he just blurted out words. "I was so angry... I saw him... and then I-" then he realized that he had started at the end. He took a moment to calm down to start at the beginning and ordered his story while telling it. His mother became even more worried. She held now his hands to encourage him to go on. Juno''s mood shifted from irritation to outright anger. As Ker told how he was abandoned, his father cracked the mug he was holding. "Where is that Helm." Juno growled through his clenched teeth. Ker''s face became a shed of pale: "Well, that... that is something I will get to." He had to remind himself that his father''s anger was directed at the person who abandoned him. Probably abandoned him. In hindsight, he wasn''t anymore that certain. Ker then omitted what actually happened. He had a hard time accepting that he was now a beast. That even the Status showed him as beast. He believed that such a truth should not be shared lightly. His parents would most likely not believe him and struggle with this fundamental shift of their reality. Ker told them that he managed to flee the strange complex, how he survived and in the end, overcame nature to find his way back to man. Of course, he gave no mention of the Status notifications. The specifics of titles and stats were normally not shared anyway. It was also taboo to ask after those. The hardest part of the story was as Ker met his group again. He hesitated and stuttered, blocked by fear of their reaction. But he forced himself to tell about it, single word for single word. "Then... I saw him, I mean Helm... I felt a rage, I wanted to make him feel pain. But... I couldn''t stop, he fought back, I think and then... and then I blanked. I only know that fought with everything I had. I saw his face, when he was on the ground. I think he''s dead. I think... I killed someone." At this point, Ker''s hands were trembling. He tried to calm himself down, but he failed due to the stress. His parents'' unwavering patience just added to his internal pressure. After his telling, his parents gave each other a meaningful look. Juno finally spoke up: "Son, you did great surviving this harrowing experience. They should have never left you there. It was their fault for your suffering. You stood up for your honor. And you fought two experienced adventurers alone." As Juno saw that his words were less encouriging than thought he decided for a different route. "Ker, you are a noble by birth. They threatened your life by inaction and challenged your authority. I - we know that you are still young. We also made certain that your education is wholy rounded. We didn''t want you to become like the other noble bra... children. For pride and arrogance can lead to a fast downfall. Nontheless, we are proud that you overcame all your challenges. We are happy - and most important, relieved that you still live." "It must be hard to see things clearly right now. Therefore son, I will step out for a while and let Hell'' take care. No worries son, no one will dare to charge you for what happenend." Then Juno stood up, took the ritual duel blade from the wall as well as his old adventurer guild batch. With weapon and insignia armed he walked out their house. Ker could hear how the butler futile insisted:"My Lord, you can not go outside like this. Is this not.. a bit excessive. Please, let me at least accompany you." "No need Nellson. This will be but a quick visit." Their discussion faded into the background as the door fully closed and Ker focused back on his situation. He was in quite the trouble, even when his father could take care of any potential charges, he still was a murderer. At least he thought so. "Son, look at me" said his mother with a soft voice, "I know you feel miserable, you feel guilty. I know this because that is how your father felt after his first battle. I remember clearly his words on this fateful day: It was nothing like hunting'' beasts. The blood - it smelled like iron. Humans are so similar to animals, their bodies are... but it is wrong. It feels all wrong. It feels like my hands are tainted." "And with time the wounds of guilt heeled. We don''t expect you to be fine with this. But we want you to feel fine again. I think every man that went to battle felt those feelings. Let us rest those things for now, we see tomorrow what is tomorrow." With this she asked Ker if it is okay to go on. After a moment he nodded. "Good, on then, you need to look like a noble man that you are. Also you should smell like one and finally be treated like one." With this she knocked on the table:"Magda, make certain that our new gentleman here gets a fine bath, appropriate clothes. In the meantime I will call for a doctor to fully tend the wounds." Magda walked as quickly as her maid-dress aloud to carry out her tasks. First Ker was led to the family bath room. It was plastered with marble and adorned with embellishments and small figures on the wall. The room was painted in soft green and see-blue colors. Ker actually never went to the see, but his parents told him stories about their travels. Freshly cooked water was let in the bronze bath tub. Of course the bathtub itself was adorned with silver and a touch of gold. Ker was then left alone. To describe the bath as enjoyment would be a shortcoming in naming his feeling. Ker himself was baffled that the second bath could really feel even better. In the bathtub, this time relaxed and recovered, he had time to think. How did he return? How did all this start to go wrong? Why did it go wrong, why had this all to happen? He could find no answers to those question, but he asked them regardless. Question after question shot in the void of thought. His thought becoming heavy and sad. His chest felt heavy when he asked the important questions: why had Greg and Vrenn to die? What could we have done to change that? His mind drifted to the scene when Greg was wounded and later when... but he tried to force his thoughts away from it. In the end he neither could find answers nor completely ignore the questions. He held his tears in and focused his mind on his now, that he was safe by his parents, home.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
After the bath he clothed himself in the clothes left for him. Those clothes felt lacking, there were just basic wool clothes without any family emblem and no noble icons. In his be-wonderment he was led to another room. He was in this room before, many times actually. It was the dressing room. A lot of different dresses and suits and even some servant suits were stored here. Most of the clothes and fabrics were in the antic wooden wardrobe, but there were still so many clothes outside it seemed to be the opposite. The maid was taking measurements of him. Several times she asked to reposition him and plucked his clothes to shape. He felt a bit like a puppet. Soon all measurements were taken and the maid laid out some different colored fabrics to chose from. Another situation that left him rather helpless since he never had any kind of interest in that sort of thing. He just choose wool, cotton, silk and fur from different animals. The colors of his choosing were black, gold as an option for decor, yellow for patterns and of course orange as house color. Satisfied with everything the maid left with everything noted. He was given time to clothe himself in whatever he wanted to wear right now. Since this was already tiresome for him he took the traditional choice. That consisted out of similar clothes his grandparents had worn. Finally done with this part Ker moved one floor down. There was his mother ever patiently waiting. "You look great, just like your father, no wait just like your grandparents" she beamed at him with a giant smile. "You surely will become a great nobleman know from south to west." "Uh, thanks mom" he coughed "I mean thank you lady" "Oh no need for this, that is only necessary in front of other people. We as family will always be family" "Ok" he breathed out relieved, that none of the rules changed for him "But what is with the clothes, aren''t they expensive? Do we have that kind of money?" "Oh son, how nice of you to think of our finances, but don''t worry your uncle Timboury was here two weeks ago. He left us quite the sum to deal with. So we thought we just give you the best we can effort. "Hell'' was in thought for a moment. "Actually, we might just have to make a far greater investment than just clothes. So we want you to come with us to the main capital. We already paid for the travels in full upfront." "Ok, that sounds interesting any chance you might initiate me in your secret." His mother just winked and left him to guess. Soon the butler returned with the city doctor Valne''. Valne'' examined Ker. "No major injuries left. Nearly all scars clothed and healed over. Internal damage very minimal. Overall good healing progress, but the healing done was average at best. I administer this healing flask and can offer to heal the scars now." They decided to go for the suggested option. In the end the scars were basically completely retreated and his health fully replenished. The doctor excused himself as he had a lot more work to do.
As the week past by, Ker met his friends and spent time with them. Especially with Helk, they had to catch up and digest the events of their shared hunt. There was also the part of reporting back to the guild. A part Ker gladly put off and for some mysterious reason wasn''t hold accountable for. But at some point he had to make his report and deal with all the consequences. First were naturally his friends. Helk waited at the crumbling inner city gate, a symbol from another time. "Man, good to see you walking freely around. Not that i ever thought they would confine you, well maybe fine you." "Nah, until now nothing happened. I got nice clothes or rather I will get very fine clothing soon." Helk squinted:"You are wearing old clothes, are they from your grandparents" Ker could hear light teasing in his friend''s voice but decided to ignore it. "Yes exactly, those were the clothes of the ex-rulers of this country-side, cr¨¨me de la cr¨¨me, don''t you think so." "Mhm, I don''t know, do you think those words say what you''re meaning? However, how are you doing? Are you really fine?" The last question was much more careful, hidden inside the choice to answer if at all. "I¡¯m okay. I think I will come to terms what was and what is. So is life I think. I rather focus on the now, who knows what will be tomorrow. By the way, how are the others doing? What is with Jenna, did she manage to get a class?" "Not jet, she''s pretty disappointed about it. We''re establishes adventurers wile she''s just a county pumpkin. We might need to help out." "No worries, I am certain we can help her develop her ''ultimate class''." They met their friend group several corners down in the poorer parts of Wellsheid. Ker''s parents didn''t like that he was meeting with them, not because they were poor, because they were all trouble makers. But Ker never cared too much about that, he rather was befriended with them than most stuck-up noble kids. He found their attitude with both feet on the ground just more appealing. And right now he needed exactly that. "Hey there is our hero of the hunt, heard you returned in one piece, need'' to see that for myself" said a girl with open worn black hair and a mischievous glint in her eyes. She did wear leather armor over wool clothes and iron armor rings on both arms. Ker had to investigate those:"Where did you get those shiny beauties?" "I don''t kno''. Maybe found ''em, where lying around, lonely you kno''. Had to keep ''em - fr safeguards" "Ok, not gonna ask questions I will regret later. But don''t get caught, ok." Another adolescent boy looked up to Ker in outright be-wonderment:"You really returned successful. I mean, never that I doubt''d you, but... you know, it''s danger''s in the wild woods. D'' tell of your hunt, how was it? It must have been aw''some!" The boy''s name was Nemgrad and he was an orphan, earning his money through telling and retelling stories and tales. He sometimes retold stories he already had retold, not to the enjoyment of all his listeners. Ker hesitated on how much he wanted to disclose. He opted for telling a very, very rundown version of his adventure. Omitting most of it and redefining many of the events. Like that he evolved and now was a beast, apparently. Or that he was likely betrayed by the leader he had put all his trust in. the last part was changed for many reasons. One was that Ker didn''t want to put the adventurers he ventured out with in a bad light. After all, most of them were innocent or even his friends. And of course the end was shortened to: he found his way back to a village bordering on the woods and very nice people took care of him. Nemgrad was very happy, finally being able to tell a true story from his friends giving credit to their deeds and sharing some of that fame in form of coins. At the appropriate places in the telling, Helk nodded, to give it more credibility. Ker was happy and felt he finally arrived home. Not just family home, but a real home with friends. Act II - Chapter II Ker stood in front of big oak door. It had the emblem of the adventurer guild carved in iron on it. It was a winged lion on the right and an armed adventurer on the left, locked in struggle against each other. Ker breathed in. Ker Breathed out, relieved. It was time. He opened the guild hall, it looked definitely different from last time. The counter was in disrepair, some of the stone had cuts in it and the wooden columns seemed to have cracked. Ker took a look to the ceiling, what he saw gave him even less courage, there was a large slit going through the roof. Whatever happened here must have been like a storm, a storm that had passed by all other citizens since he didn''t hear of any strong night storm. He approached the half repaired counter, workers were still busy recreating the other half of it. "Good day, I would like to report about my hunt." The receptionist, a woman somewhere in her twenties with long well kept black hair, answered:"Good day to you too sir." First she spoke like to a young boy, then she looked at the family emblem and her eye twichted. "Mhm, Go day my Lord, we are expecting you. Of course you do not need to wait. Please go right up to the guild master. The left staircase up and the last room in the hall, where he is currently waiting. I hope you good business will conclude." At that she even bowed. Ker was a bit speechless at the exaggerated behavior. Sure, people reacted differently ever since he wore his full garment, but she overdid it quite a bit. His parents had insisted that he wore his new fancy clothes. Since he was now in full right to be called a viscount. Even if there had be no ceremony. They just weren''t that rich, compered to basically any other noble they could be easily called poor. Ker followed the described way right to the very normal looking door at the end o the hallway. Ker was imminently greeted as he opened the door. "Good day Sir. Or should I call you Ker of Eldoria, since you have come to full title about now." Ker entered the spacious room. "Sir is fine with me, mister Angar." Naturally Ker had met Angar before, since his father knew him, but only a few times. "First and foremost I want to express my condolences for the lost adventurers as well as apologies for what transpired on the venture. It is unpleasureable and therefore I ask if the apology is accepted?" The guild master really seemed to wait on his answer. "Yes I accept it." brought Ker out. "That is good to hear. Then let us continue. Then venturing party claimed to have found, slain and retrieved the beast. Do you want to contest their statement?" "No" at that Ker was puzzled, why would he contest the obvious. "They did really slay that beast. I would have never been capable of such a thing." "In that case they offered half of the earnings to you." That was even more surprising, since he really didn''t do much. "Okay, I mean, that is surely a lot of money, isn''t it?" "Indeed it is. We are speaking currently of 244.59 guilder or 6220.42 shilling or 147912 Heller in total. That will be 122.29 guilder just for you, Sir" "That is very generous, thank you, Mister" "It is less so generous, if we think of the original price for the beast and the actual danger it posed. It was heavily underestimated and the adventure party did us a great favor dealing with it before causing more harm." "We will send you the money to your estate via carriage delivery, if it is all right with you." "Yes that suits me just fine." "Good that we could take care of business that easily. Now..." Angar put two glasses on the wooden table in the middle of the room and poured in liquid from a hexagonal shaped bottle. "It is time to toast to your successful return, end of your first true hunt, coming of age and fully becoming a noble with title and what not." That was quite a lot, Ker had to agree. "Also" Angar added with a wink "To your new class upgrade, it is surely something special." That made Ker pause for a moment, he still had neither class and definitely no upgrade. Ker sat down anyway, on one of the comfortable seats and took a sniff of the liquid. It was certainly highly alcoholic. After one good gulp of the beverage Ker knew it was absolutely high-proof alcohol. Ker tried to put away the effects of the alcohol. but he just wasn''t used to that high degree of beverage. "How is the old man doing." At that Ker looked a bit confused. "I mean Juno, how is he these days?" "oh, he is fine, he had a lot to do lately and my parents prepared something for me. Other than those very fine clothes. But they keep being secret about it." "That''s how parents are. No worries I bet whatever they planned this time around, it will be to your liking." They then bid farewell and Ker was on his way home again. He still felt the beverage and tried to pretend it wouldn''t effect him. That was a challenge on it own, since it very obviously effected his gait. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? His parents greeting him with a knowing smile. "Did the good Angar poor from one of his better beverages again." Juno teased. "It is not like it looks, I can take it" Ker tried to defend and failed. "It has something good you know, our son is not a sturdy drinker like someone else." his mother teased Juno in turn. They were already prepared to leave the city with a teleportation formation. They still waited for the delivery of Ker''s price. It would add a considerable amount to their purchasing power. After the sum of 122.29 guilders arrived, they stored it in one of the storage rings and departed. Storage rings were used by everyone who had money, to which of of course counted most of nobility and also every merchant who has a right to call himself one. The teleportation formation was in an eight sided cubic building with flat roof. There was always a crowd in front of the building waiting for processing. Not all but many people travel between this city and the main city. The teleportation would be to another teleportation building where they would then travel on. That was what Ker knew, what Ker did not expect was the exaggerated amount of bureaucracy that would have been done before actually teleporting. Luckily they had their insignia ready and were given fast pass. In other words since they already paid beforehand and could be identified via insignia they waved through. Ker had his own insignia ring. His parents had commissioned his insignia ring when he was born. He had received it days earlier in a more private family ceremony. Ker could not remember when he was last time to one of the formations, but as it activated he felt a familiar feeling of displacement and dizziness hit him. But he managed. His mother giggled. "You did better then you were little. You had to throw up imminently, little Ker was soo cute." Ker flushed with shame and tried to distract himself from it. Even so the distraction didn''t work, he had to wonder about the main city. Mundor Leandris was centuries old, many times build on top of each other, all sort of people lived in all sort of stages in the main city. He had heard that the city was constantly created and recreated. Defined by its many stages for people in different status and very different living conditions. He was about to see, experience the real Mundor Leandris. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.First was another teleportation formation and Ker needed a short breather to align himself again. But then he exited the teleportation building and saw Mundor Leandris for the first time. A wide plastered rode led in a downhill curve away from them. There were two bridges, that actually were normal roads, above their pathway. Ker noticed rundown buildings used as living quarters and to offer mundane services as well as shops. They had in common to be in dire need of repair. Ker''s gaze following their road, meeting a wirrwarr of inter- and over-crossing roads, soon lost oversight. In the distance he discovered a new version of buildings, like someone would have stacked castles on top of each other and to round it out cathedrals were also flanged together in the mix. He wondered how one lived in this disorganized chaos of city. He also noticed how literally true the descriptions were. Also another thing he noticed was how poor and destitute some were. A lot of people surely would live in worse conditions than they would on the country side. Which made Ker question why they live in the city in the first place. He voiced his concern to their butler Nellson. "I do not know the answer to your questions, young Lord. I can only think of possibilities, like a steady income, a family that also stays in this city, maybe they do not see other options" At the replay of the butler, Ker let it rest. Not finding any satisfactory answers he moved on and followed his parents. They were happy for whatever reason. He couldn''t think of a single thing that was missing or stood out in regards for their travel. So he rather enjoyed the puzzling environment and nonsensical seeming city. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? Their accommodation was in the outer part of the inner city. To get to that they had to cross the wirrwarr that were the roads making a ring around the inner city. Inside that wirrwarr of roads and intersections, Ker mused that no one inside could know how it looked like from the outside or where they were. They even had to get a designated guide and predetermine their aimed location. After reaching their hotel, the guide thanked them for choosing his services and excused himself to further guide people through the indecipherable mess of roads. The hotel was explicitly created for lower nobility to fulfill their needs and expectations. Those were a lot higher than that of normal people. Ker knew that because of the living conditions of his friends and because his parents wanted him to understand the difference between stations. That said, the hotel included a room for him , one for his parents and a much smaller room for their stuff. This time only their butler accompanied them. There was also one main room and a private bath separated from the toilets. All in all it was still pretty luxurious for Ker''s taste. Sure they had that and more at home, but it was still expensive to have that available just for a visit far away from home. After they arrived they unloaded their storage rings to sort and order their luggage. In that the butler shined with his unique skill-set for taking care of all sort of mundane tasks. However they did not linger and shortly afterwards they departed again. This time they were headed to their mysterious reason for their travel in the first place. Of course his parents wanting him to discover the city a bit more, chose a runabout path to wherever their were going. This way Ker could see more of the actual inner city. To say it was lavish would have been an understatement. Colorful signs and embellishments on every shop and corner to draw attention and costumers in their vicinity. From green interlocked plants creating unique natural chains to reddish, yellow and even blueish stripes marking their respective business. Some offered clothing for the daily life, some offered services from barbering to leather work to customizing ones armor. It wasn''t like Ker had never seen a sales street it just was that Ker had never seen a sales street so self-destined to make the next sale. The street was not only packed full with shops but also with people. Everyone had to be somewhere in the early hours. That delayed them quite some time. The temptation to window shop was strong. There just was so many wares praised every step they took, it was an ongoing effort to resist. They arrived at the forging and blacksmith quarter of the city. Understandably it was situated somewhat more outside of the inner city. Clouds of black smoke rose from the chimneys of the workshops. The smell was very different to the lavishly used perfumes in the sale streets. It smelled like iron, smoke and sweat. The crass change of odor nearly overwhelmed Ker. Finally Ker stood in front of a half-opened iron gate. The letters were emblazoned in iron above the forge: Welcome to Nori''s iron forge. The butler opened the gate for them. And Ker''s expression showed his unrestrained anticipation. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? Two weeks ago The butler opened the door:"Good day my Lord. What unexpected joy to be allowed to welcome such esteemed guest." "Thank you Nellson. Are my nephew and her husband there?" "Lady Hellena is currently at home, while Lord Juno, I am terrible sorry my Lord, is taking care of business." "Good, then inform my nephew that her good old uncle had the idea to visit. Further on you should prepare the personal house vault for some refilling." "I will see to that immediately, my Lord" The butler carrying on his tasks disappeared into the estate. Only a moment later a voice called out. "Uncle Timboury, it is good to see you, what brings you here?" "I decided to pay a flying visit to deposit some gifts. After all can''t have a talent unsupported in this backwater of a town, when every noble brat gets stuffed full of resources." "Uncle! Watch your tongue, even if your right." They got situated around the living room table, where Timboury laid a storage ring in front of Hellena. "This is my gift to my grand nephew. Look into it, it is enough for specialized gear" After Hellena used a magical weighting scale her eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets. "Over 80.000 shilling!" Her Breath was caught for a long moment. "That is equivalent to more than 3.200 guilders if I''m correct. We can''t accept this. This is too much." "Just take it. It is a gift, it is meant to be used so that the sprouting talent in our family can grow and thrive. To be honest I want to see nothing more than that." " But why, how, that is such a large sum, what is with the taxes?" The last part was spoken with a hint of fear. Everybody knew hoe ruthless the royal tax collectors were. "No worries, all taxes are withdrawn, it is a noble gift and therefore exempt from further taxes. Also don''t worry about my finances. We had a few good years and I saved a little fortune over the years." Tears emerged up and streamed from Hellena''s eyes. They could make good on their promise to themselves to present their only child with something very special. "I can not express how thankful we are." "Oh let it go. It''s fine, we have to stay together as family. We all that is left after... now I''m getting sentimental. Really it is what I wish for from all my heart." They continued to talk about the very unique present Hellena and Juno had planned for Ker. Act II - Chapter III Behind the gate a world of smoke and ember awaited. Hammer blows on iron rang loudly through the forge. The butler tried to gain the attention of one of the smiths by clearing his throat. The butler trying his best still failed against the unrelenting ringing of iron on iron. Finally Juno showed mercy and shouted:"Mr. Gurtheac, are you present?" He put his hand placating on the butler''s shoulder. "Sure, I''m just ''round the corner" a gruffly voice sounded through the noise. "No'' need to worry. I was expecting thee. Do tell what did ya call me for all the'' way from Sibbiken" A short sturdy build man with short neck greeted them. his hair was stuck flat on the head with sweat. Ker couldn''t begin to imagine the hard work that goes into forging. Juno smiled and shook the smith''s hand. "We are here for the personal specified armour" "Aye, that''s what all the want. Do tell what specifics" "We want to order an armour for my son. Something very special, to give him an edge in the field. The important part is, it has to grow with him." "Ah, that makes things much more interesting. Is this your son. Let me t'' look what we hav'' here" The smith inspected Ker with his keen eyes. Walked around him and noted a few things loud through the forge. The clinging stopped, a sigh followed and a short but stocky build woman appeared with a small note-board. "Why do you nee''d me for things like this. Don''t yo'' hav'' yer disciple for that?" "I already sayd he is travelling for his journeyman years. He won¡¯t be back for a couple of year''s." The woman looked now at them and bowed in greeting. "Good day esteemed guests, this my brother from the mountains way up north. Don''t worry he''s always this grumpy." At that her brother snorted indignantly. "Now a little test, are ye ready boy?" asked the smith as he stopped in front of Ker. "Sure" was the short but certain answer of him. The smith just hold out one hand and planted one foot slightly behind him for stabilisation. "Good, you gonna press with all ye got against this hand, clear?" Ker, interested at the result of this test and to test his new found strength, instantly accepted. He pressed with his right hand against the smith¡¯s hand. Then he used both his hand for more power and eventually had to resort to using his legs to push forward. He now was using his entire body and couldn''t even budge the smiths hand one full inch. His eyes betraying his efforts to stay collected as he felt genuinely weak the first time in a long time. The smith naturally noticed his disposition. "Oye, you didn''t thought that I could be pushed back from a little whelp, did ye?" At his provocation Ker felt surge of anger and with that power flowing through him. His power translated to strength and now he could push back the smith somewhat, but he was dangerously close to losing himself again. Something dark started to gain hold in him, a glint of darkness in his eyes. "Alright, alright, that will be enough" the smith suddenly declared as he stopped the test. Much quieter the smith gruffed to himself. "Demons all of them, I swear." To Ker he eventually reached out his hand. "The name''s Gurtheac, come from the mountains of Sibbiken, nice to make your acquaintance." "My name is Ker, coming from the border town of Wellsheid, good to make your acquaintance too." Ker decided to just stick to his forename without title. This man didn''t seem to care about honorifics anyway. "Good lad your strong when you want to be. It will be a pleasure to make a growth item for ye." Gurtheac smiled. Juno also smiled, happy at his son''s development. A growth item, did I hear that right. We are here for a, no, my growth item... It felt like Ker''s earlier anticipation was already rewarded. His anger all but gone, he could hardly wait for his item. "Mr. Gurtheac, when do you think will it be ready?" Ker asked within a beat. "Ye can''t wait, can ye. But those thing take their time. It will need more of a month, specifically for ye lad." With that Gurtheac retreated in the forge to start the smithing process. As he turned he exclaimed:"I let ye take care of the rest, Hefraela" She pouted at that, but took care of the task nonetheless. "So ye people want a growth item, for ye son. That my brother said he is strong means something, ye know. Saw him seldom that ecstatic at a task." If that was ecstatic than Ker didn''t want to meet the opposite. However, Hefraela explained in raw how the process of forging a growth item worked and then dedicated herself to explain in detail the costs. "To sum it up, ye owe us now a sum of 3321 guilders. That is exactly 84460.2 shilling. How do ye wish to pay?" At that Juno nodded. "We wish to pay the full sum upfront. We have it with us at our disposal. Don''t want let my son wait any longer than necessary." "Really, I swear business with nobles and high adventurers is the best! In that case, good to make business with ye." she exclaimed spit in her hand and shook Juno''s. They bid farewell and set off on their way. Ker''s parents explained, they would stay less than a week. The actual armour would be delivered to them via messenger. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? They spend the week experiencing the main city. They looked at the weirdest to most imposing buildings. In Ker''s case it was more ogling at the strange awesomeness of the city. It started at the never truly straight roads and continued at the creative assembled shops and workshops. From the little he had heard about running a city he didn''t even dare to imagine the impossibility to run the main city. His father pointed out that this city had an additional mayor while being the area of the main residence of the crown. There were still a lot of parts of the city that were overlooked and not taken care of. Those were simply left to the citizens that had the luck or misfortune to live there. Those parts were also often slums or devolved to those. There was also one famous exception, a self-governed part that was ruled by rich merchants. They decided how their district grew, who were allowed to enter and the specifics of the rules inside. But in the end it still needed authorisation of the crown. It could only be speculated what kind of sum had flown in between those involved. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Juno explained that he was to the main city before, that it has changed was constantly changing, but never lost its charm. Hellena on the other hand laughed about her time here. She had lived in the main city for a short period and apparently made it, to her parents demise, to her playground. Among other things they were headed towards a training area, optimised for sparring. "Is it truly necessary that you have to spar" asked his mother annoyed. "Of course, I have to see how far my son has come. Ker also needs important lessons from an advanced adventurer." his father commented with a certain glee to his voice. "Oh sure, just that your adventure days are long over, just like my patience for people who come to late for dinner. So make sure that you come home on time." "Sure, just let the men have some fun. We will be home on time." his father joked. The training hall was a wide area parted into several smaller areas. They had to pay 8 shilling just for their personal area. That would have been a small fortune back home. For training gear they had to pay additional 4 shilling, while 3 shilling were pledge in case the gear got damaged. "That was good" Juno huffed. "Let''s see how good your parry is, strength is not be all end all" So they continued with a set of parries and follow ups. "Your left side is weak to a short swing, remember to fully turn your blade and catch my blade with your parier" But actually doing all the moves exactly as his father said were a completely different kind of matter. Ker struggled even keeping up with his father. His limits were very apparent to him. He also noticed that his father rather wanted to test his limits than teach him. His father was a very capable fighter, but not a great teacher. Which doesn''t mean Ker didn''t learn anything. "I can''t look at this any more. Is he trying to exhaust him or just messing with him?" said a huge burly man while shaking his head. "You have to admit the boy is quite persistent. And he adapts to every fighting stance and attack." noticed a woman beside the man. They both stood aside from the training area, observing the father son duo spar. "Okay I have enough. Let''s go over there and teach the kid some proper techniques." The woman retorted to the man "Sure, but your responsible for our cut time." The two people interrupted their training session with an introduction. "Good day, I am Jiero and this beside me is Amelia. We had the unfortunate luck to look at your sparring. How about we teach the kid some techniques in a proper way. So that he can take them home instead of just dodging them." Juno was getting slightly tired from the training, while Ker''s exhaustion was far greater. "That would be nice, I am Juno and the kid your referring to is my son, Ker. What kind of input could you give us?" At that Jiero snorted. "First, stay at one technique and train it till it sticks. Give the boy some breathing room, he''s fully exhausted, he can''t learn this way. Then stay in your stance and don''t change like a nervous cat. How can he ever learn the basics of stances if he has to adapt at a whim." "Oh, does that mean you want to take over the session." Juno furrowed his eyebrows. "Yes, that what this is. So make some place, I gonna make certain your son actually learns something today." The following session was far more structured, left Ker time and place to concentrate on one stance and one technique after the other. Overall he learned far more than before. He even had a quick sparring with Amelia. While Jiero showed him how to stay defensive at one place as well as how to make attacks count, Amelia taught him how to avoid cuts and adapt better to fast paced blades. Jiero was a mixture of a tank and a sword fighter, which showed in his style. Amelia was sword fighter with short sword through and through. Afterwards Ker and Juno thanked for the learning session. On the way home they summarized what they learned. Ker was focused on the first basic stances, while Juno had different discovery. "I think I am getting rusty on my old days. I am not any more that fit. Also we should hire the sword teacher back, to get you regularly lessons" "You are really not a good teacher, dad" "Well, let''s just say I was always more focused on fighting than teaching" ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? "Finally, the two men come home. Dinner is ready but only after you showered!" Were they greeted by Hellena. As they sad down after making certain not to reek any more of sweat, their butler remarked. "She wouldn''t let me or anyone help at all. It seems to be a personal meal. Please enjoy your dinner, I will be available in the stuff room" With that the butler excused himself. "After all, I should be allowed to make food for my family once in a while" commented Hellena, while putting down a large bowl with steaming food. They dug greedily in. Especially after their hard training they had all right to be hungry. Saturated Ker slept in. This day was full of events and experiences. Specifically the training would help him in the future. As his consciousness faded he entered his dream world. This time felt very similar to last time when he evolved. He entered first his own room in his home, ventured out into a forest, walked right into the familiar lake until he reached its centre. But there were no advances from there. He felt emptiness inside his stomach. An emptiness no food, no matter how good could ever satisfy. Instinctually he knew what he had to do. He wilfully exited this dream place and slept without further disruptions. As he awoke he already made plans to venture out and slay beasts. At best he could take some guild contracts, maybe long term culling and overseeing quests. Since those contracted him to one area where he was supposed to hunt a larger amount of beasts and no one would asks questions why he would hunt more than his designated target. "Good morning, my Lord. It seems we had a good long sleep in" greeted him their butler. "Yes, thank you. Did I oversleep?" "Do not worry yourselves, young Lord. This is a pleasure stay arranged by your parents. Therefore oversleeping is impossible. To regard your question, you slept till early noon." "Oh, that long" Ker found himself self conscious at the time he needed to sleep. Maybe his evolution always needed far more time. That could cause some problems later on. Especially when his parents wanted him to get out of bed. They might have questions. And he was definitely not ready to disclose his secret. To that matter, he still had no class, no name and no new skill. At this rate he would become desperate. As Ker sat on the dinner table eating his launch he thought how beasts would gain skills. Actually those skills were all bound to natural abilities which were in turn given through the body. So what could a human do, probably hit, maybe scratch, definitely kick. he had to try out those. Then there was the more concerning part of his latest title he avoided to look at, because it remembered him at the painful events of the hunt.
Kinslayer: You killed another human being. Due to your actions your double-nature gets strengthened.
The contents of this title were also worrying. What did that mean explicitly. What are his double natures exactly. He could not really make head or tail out of this. So he started his day by looking into training places nearby. He let their butler Nellson look particularly into places where he could train privately. The next days he trained every day different things just to unlock another skill. After excessive training he couldn''t achieve a single skill, not to say that his training would have been without use. But one day, as he returned from his training he walked down a side road which was more on the shady side. There a few equally shady figures leaned at the wall of a desolate building. Ker didn''t try to think too much about it and just passed by. Sadly it was hopeless endeavour to slip by unnoticed. Three of them gathered in front of Ker and one closed of the way behind him. Ker sighed, of course a bunch of lousy thieves had to pick a fight with him. Act II - Chapter IV "How about I give you a chance. The opportunity to back off and leave exceptionally unharmed." They laughed about his generous offer. It was worth a try. But some people had to learn the hard way. The man in the middle, probably their leader, started to talk. "It''s best if yo just leave your belongings here. Really, no daddy''s gonna..." Ker really had not time for this. After all he had to come home in time for dinner. His mother was pretty strict about dinner time. He simply charged forward, appeared before the baffled thief-leader and punched him straight in the face. The thief-leader landed stunned on his four letters.
Skill straight punch lvl 1 learned
That was definitely surprising. However he rather hurried in this situation and bodied one of the thieves to the left against a building. Since he didn''t hold back that thief hit the wall hard and was out cold. The right man had just enough time to draw a knife and throw it at Ker. He steeled his body by tensing his muscles. The knife struck true and clanged to the ground.
Skill Stone Defense lvl 1 learned
Unharmed Ker charged his next victim. That in turn was baffled that the knife was simply shrugged off. Before Ker could reach the Knife thrower, someone had thrown themselves on his back. "I hold him back, run" At this very cliche expression, Ker rammed his right elbow in the gut of his sudden attachment. The thief let him go and cowered pain struck on the ground. Free of his weight, Ker reached the last standing thief and used his newly gained skill straight punch. The thief hit the ground unconscious. He noticed a movement behind him. The thief-leader had pulled himself together and had grabbed the knife from the ground. Surprised at that Ker saw how the leader was now charging at him. Ker used his second leaned skill stone defense and took the hit on his left forearm in a defensive position. The Knife bounced off again and he used the opportunity to punch the thief-leader in the face and kick him back. He deliberately hold back. He didn¡¯t want to accidentally end someones life after all. He just defended himself and wanted to teach a lesson to a gang of thieves. Now that the fight was over, Ker could see that some of the were just boys around his age or older and at least one was a young man. "Let this be a lesson to you." He let it be at the warning, he already won and hopefully they would learn. It was interesting to him that he couldn''t learn any techniques in the usual way but had to learn through battle. That made it far more important to return to the wilderness and hunting beasts. Luckily their stay in Mundor Leandris was at its end. He would soon return to Wellsheid and start to adventure again. This time he might even bring his friends along to help them out. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? All the way on their way back home Ker was sunken deep in thought. He learned a lot in training with his new self-proclaimed trainers. Jiero and Amelia were very proficient in their chosen field and equally good in transmitting it. Additionally he improved his fighting style by training alone. But the real gains were the two earned skills. If he just had known that earlier. Now he could start to earn more skills and the means were simple, just fight a bunch of monsters with his desired skill. Intention also seemed to matter. "Hey son do tell, what are you brooding about?" His parents exchanged glances with each other. "Well, I thought about which monsters would be best to fight next. What quests should I take to help me best and how I can help my friends to advance" "That sound very amicable. But don''t trouble yourself over it. And considering your friends, they probably just need a good hunting ground. I am certain we can find something." His father had a very lax attitude to his concerns. His mother just rolled her eyes at his words. "As we would have been better in our days. At least our son thinks for himself instead of rushing into danger." As his parents started to banter he rather returned to his own plans and blended them out. His first idea was to focus in his 1. earned skill. Maybe he could level it up. At it was now it sat at level 1. It surely would proof to be even more useful the higher the level. His next step would be to try to learn new skills using weapons like a spear or a sword. Additional he could try to learn other martial arts skills, like a kick or different moves. He definitely would have to experiment a lot. As soon as he arrived home, he changed into provisional armor, mostly made out of leather with a bit of chain-mail to protect flexible areas. He walked straight to the guild to choose his next assignment. His parents of course demanded that he would also take a substitute sword with him. They would not let him venture out without a means to attack and afflict substantial damage. Additional he also picked a spear for experimental purposes. Even when he knew he most-likely wouldn''t need any weapons, his parents didn''t know this. He also felt a little better prepared for whatever he might encounter. Inside the guild hall Ker got to see the newly renovated building. It looked very similar to the old, just with a tidbit more extravagance to it. Less interested in the interior design of the guild hall, he moved directly to the counter and asked for any fitting new quests. After stating his identity the receptionist showed him three odd quests for his estimated level. Just that Ker definitely wasn''t anymore level three. The odd quests were also way too typical like clearing a building or helping newbie adventurers in their first quest/monster kill. There was an easy way out, level-identification. It was also most feared by Ker since he didn''t had the faintest clue what the results would show. Then again taking odd quests without the option to advance was out of question. So he accepted the risks to his person. "I don''t think those tasks are anymore my level. I would like to ask for a revaluation of my level." Quickly he added "I would also like that everything other that my level stays confidential. As viscount I would like to protect my privacy." That was his only way out, it was knew to him to rely on his title as nobleman and he started to find it ostentatious if not arrogant. But it did help in his case and the receptionist eagerly prepared the device in a separate room. Once fully operational, the receptionist collected the fee of 12.5 shilling and left Ker with very simple instructions. Inside the private booth, Ker placed both his hands on the black round sphere of the device. Just a moment later his level (18) as well his active as well as passive skills were displaced. Not a big problem after all, until Ker noticed that his class was missing. There was just a question mark. This machine could impossible find no class where non were. Retreating from the device only his level remained mirrored in the sphere. Ker called for the receptionist who wrote down his new level and nodded in understanding. "I will find new more fitting quests for you, my Lord. If you wish you can stay in this private booth and look them over fully undisturbed." Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. "That would be to my liking" Ker agreed to the arrangement. The new Quests were definitely more complex needing more capability in the fitting area. The range was from culling small beasts near the woods to protecting trade goods either inside or outside the city. Without question he chose the culling quest. After all there was nothing better than to kill some random beast while training his skills. It was also the best chance for him to experiment to learn new skills. Speaking of appropriate level, the quests were all too low-level for him but low key enough so that if he wanted to gather EP he could do so alone. Of course he had to actually avoid people, aka other adventurers, to conduct his business on his own terms. But he was certain that he should be able to pull that of easily. No was interested in some random beginner adventurer in one of their first quests. More annoying was that he had to give a pledge if he accepted the quest. That was done so that every quest taker would also follow through with their respective quest and do it in time. It was just minor currency for him, but annoying nonetheless. As he arrived at the Bridlewoods, the area his quests was located in, he noticed how serious it actually was. The quest just stated to cull rabbit beasts, it did in fact not put in the real numbers. That to say there were hundreds if not thousands of rabbit beasts nearby the fields. They threatened to eat most of the crop and with that endanger the upcoming harvest. As Ker had already seen when he arrived at the village a few weeks ago, harvest had already started. And for the collected farmers for these fields it looked grim. They probably would even hunger because of the rabbit beast plague. There was only one thing to do. Time to cull the overpopulation. Ker got to work. He charged in with his blade and struck true at the first unassuming rabbit beast. It was instantly slain.
Stripe rabbit beast lvl 3 (I) slain
Of course he would get no levels from such a weak beast. But if he continued on killing them, he might just get there. As it turned out it was harder than it seemed at first. Ker was confronted with the usual problem of hunters, a large group of prey that spread itself out as soon as he approached. Without the necessary focus he would never get there on time. He opted for focused attacks at single rabbits, which worked but also needed time. He was at it for hours now and killed just over a hundred rabbit beasts. That was far too slow for his take. It was also annoying that some of them tried to fight back, with considerable low results. He was at his first evolution level 18. Which gave him an idea, he was here to learn new skills so he should exactly do that. He tried several times to learn sword skills with as much intent as he could muster, but non were received. Then he put his sword away and positioned himself with his fists in a ready stance. Some of the beasts perked up but none approached him. So Ker lowered his stance until he practically sat on the grass. He also,lowered his defense to look weak. It somewhat worked one of the beasts slowly hobbled towards him sniffing the air. As it was close enough he struck out with his skill. Straight punch barely connected and send the rabbit flying. It crashed against a tree and played dead on the ground. Ker still saw its small breast rise and fall, it definitely wasn''t dead. So Ker changed that quickly, punching it in the ground as it tried to attack him. As result the ground as well as his boots were now covered in blood.
Cross-Stripe rabbit lvl 2 (II) slain
Straight punch lvl 1 -> 2
That at least worked, but it was still just bad in crowd control. He had to learn a better skill. He tried to fish the rabbits while charging through the mass of beasts. He often missed and only sometimes scratched some of them. Until he successfully charged by a rabbit far enough that it just hobbled to the side but also close enough that he could grab it with his left hand swinging outward. The rabbit flew in consequence to the side and slapped on the ground.
Fishing by lvl 1 learned
Now he could ran through the mass and throw rabbit left and right... just that it was another useless skill for his situation. That would just spread them out further, what he needed was the opposite. He needed to herd the herd or outright kill a bunch of them in one strike. That was when he heard a desperate squealing. Something was fighting for its life. And Ker was glad for the distraction. He observed as a wild boar young was cornered by a rabbit with zigzagged horns. It re-positioned itself to prevent the boar young to flee. The boar young was already wounded and seemed out of options. Ker didn''t want to interfere in natures struggle, just observed. The horned rabbit charged and ripped open a sight of the boar. It was close to its end, the boar was bleeding out. But the rabbit didn''t kill the boar, it hobbled to wards it and started slowly eating its flesh. That was unnecessary cruel, neither animals nor beasts acted that way. In nature it was all about survival and strive. Intentional cruelty had no place in it. Unwilling to let this continue, Ker charged forward, the rabbit just noticing him aimed to jump a way, but Ker used his skill Fishing by and threw the rabbit against a random tree. The rabbit slapped roughly against the tree, but seemed unharmed. It positioned itself towards Ker. He in turn readied himself. With a better view, he could now see the black eyes of the rabbit. There was something profoundly wrong with it. He felt it resonate in him and he didn''t like it one bit. The rabbit in turn charged at him, but counter feigned his punch by making a sharp turn and charging from the side. The impact hurt but didn''t wound him. In contrast it enabled him to hit the rabbit with a downward swing. That squashed the rabbit directly on the ground and definitely wound it. But it was unperturbed by his attacks and jumped between him and the boar. It obviously wanted to prevent him to get between it and its prey. Then it crunched one of the boars bones. Ker couldn''t believe it, but was it salivating. He also decided to end this, he control nearly slipping away. He charged full speed ahead grabbed the rabbit with the skill Fishing by, but let it go before finishing the throw. He turned his body to the side were the horned rabbit was in the air and punched it with straight punch.
Straight punch lvl 2 -> 3
The rabbit crashed on the ground, visibly hindered on getting up. Ker rather gave it no time and followed his attack with a kick. The rabbit could not avoid that attack either and was kicked right in the next tree. As it bounced off, Ker already on its heckles punched it again against another tree. It was heavily injured on the ground, seemingly shooting a glare at Ker. Ker felt some hideous power gathering in its small maw. It turned its head and fired a mass of concentrated malevolence at the boar. Ker''s control slipped and an overwhelming sense of justice took over. He stepped before the attack and dispelled it with his bare hand. With white glowing eyes he confronted the horned rabbit and delivered his justice with unyielding blows.
Demonic Hornrabbit (envy) lvl 3 (II) slain
1 lvl gained
Straight punch lvl 3 -> 4
Only as his phase ended he regained control over his doings and stopped punching the rests of the beast into the ground. He remembered the boar young and walked towards it. It was still living and still in pain. Should he end this poor things suffering or ... Act II - Chapter V With black blood dripping from his hands, seeing the poor boar young-ling in visible pain, he had to be honest to himself. He could never harm such a poor creature. So he neared it and slowly cooped it up in his arms. He remembered well that eating other beasts and devouring EP could heal oneself. It would surely work for the little boar. He thought a moment about the demon rabbit, but decided to rather not eat its corpse. no matter the EP gained it was tainted with disgusting black blood. For whatever reason he didn''t feel apprehended by normal blood, but this one was different in more ways than one. He would eat a lot of normal rabbit beasts, while feeding some of them to the boar. It was certainly just in Tier I evolution and would not need that much EP. It would also gain far more than him. As said so done. As Ker fed some of the remains from the hunted rabbits to the boar, he could see how the rabbits stopped eating and flew. They obviously rather weren''t in the presence of a predator. Even if they were beasts and wouldn''t mind the roles reversed. The boar young healed slowly, far slower than Ker would. It would have to be enough for now. Ker fed two more rabbit beasts to the boar young until it seemed fine again. Sure it was exhausted and by all signs just wanted to sleep again, but it was out of danger of dying. It even slowly neared Ker, sniffed at him and tried to make itself comfortable at him. Ker could hardly resist such cute antics. But he had to, he had a quest to fulfill and he would. So he prepared a little earth bed with earthen walls surrounding it, all for the tired boar. With that set up, it was out of view and direct harms way of the rabbits. Then Ker returned to the culling. With new fervor he ran in a circle around the large part of the rabbits. He couldn''t include all, they were far too spread out. Every time he came close enough to one, he used Fishing by and thrown it at the center where his sword rested. His goal was simple, gather the rabbits at one place first. Then find some magical skill and kill a bunch of them. Or just use his sword in wide arcs, that would work too.
Fishing by lvl 1 -> 2
Fishing by lvl 2 -> 3
. . . Fishing by lvl 5 -> 6
His skill level did rise nicely. Then again he did throw one- to two-hundred rabbits at the center. There they hobbled around, visibly shaken to be thrown around to just be all at one place again. His next part of the plan would take care of that. He ran to the middle, charged right through the rabbits, picked up his blade and swung it in wide arcs. At first he just hit empty air, but in the return swing he caught a few rabbits and cut them. He used this technique again and again.
Title rabbit slayer earned
After some while, Ker started to get tired. He had thrown hundreds of rabbits at the center of his ran and hit circle. And equally killed hundreds of rabbit beasts with his wide swing arcs. At one of the swings he put all his effort into completely forgetting about his task for a moment, only concentrating to hit whatever jumped there with his swing.
Skill wide arc learned
He couldn''t believe it. Finally he had a worthy skill he could use with a weapon. That thought made him pause. It just stated wide arc, not that any weapons would be included. he had to try it out. So he stood on the slaughter field surrounded by hundreds of rabbit corpses punching in the empty air with his sword. It did not work, at least not at first try. He changed his strategy and used the pummel to strike with his punch skill. Suddenly he got the same feeling when he used the skill with his fists. That discovery could change everything. He just had to use his skills when using weapons. The same was true for wide arc. He could deliver that skill with his fists in a swing. It worked more than fine. Then he heard a grunting in the background and saw the boar chase after a left rabbit beast. The rabbit was much more agile and skillfully avoided any confrontation. He let that go on for a while. Then he chased after the rabbit and cut it in half in one swing. The boar seemed sad for a moment, but then indulged itself in the rabbit meat without any hesitation. Ker also picked up some rabbits and ate them. When he started he felt his bottomless hunger take hold again. But he prevailed and forced his desire in the background of his feelings. He rather shared some of the rabbit beasts with the boar. In the following feast, he ate nine out of ten rabbits in comparison to the boar. Satisfied they both slumped to the ground waited out their meat induced exhaustion.
+ 1 EP
+ 1 EP
. . . + 1 EP
Title mass devourer earned
In total he gained 125 EP. Not every rabbit gave EP and none gave him more than 2 EP at maximum. Still with this he had gathered an amount of 150 EP. That should suffice for any major evolutions. He could also look forward for his first sole finished quest. Plus additional reward because the estimated amount of beasts was far beyond the real number. Another reason for not gaining EP for every rabbit beast he killed was that he simply could never in his life eat hundreds of rabbits. He already tried to limit himself to the juicy parts that mostly awarded him with EP. Still there''s only so much someone can eat. He was also pretty certain that he had enough for everything coming. He also felt that he was on the border of level 20 and short before his next evolution. But that was another matter altogether, first he had to check on the farmers nearby and then report his success to the guild in Wellsheid. He looked down at him and assessed that he was definitely covered with too much blood to have a friendly chad with the farmers. So Ker de-armored himself and cleaned as much as he could from his armor, his clothed and most of all his boots. He also tried to clean the boar in the grass, since it was surely a bad idea to let the little one wander around bloodied. That was just asking for another predator. In more presentable clothes he marched trough the devastated field towards the settlement. Behind close on followed a young boar ever curious about his changing environment. Ker sighed and tried to shooed it away, what was followed by confusion from the boar. Or he tried to bring it back to the wood and explain that it could go on live free there. It seemed not to care for that, it seemed actually not to care for the contents of his words rather than how he said them. That still made no difference in the end. So Ker trudged through the fields with his new companion in tow. He was well enough greeted by the farmers, even if most of them were cautious around him. They rather didn''t mind the little sniffing and grunting one beside him. It was that some of them saw how he handled the matter and opted for not upsetting the one who slaughtered a locust of beasts they could do nothing about. An understandable but still annoying reaction. Ker asked himself how many adventurers got those reactions, it couldn''t be that seldom. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Overall the farmers very happy that the issue was resolved. They had tried to harvest as much food as possible, but it would not suffice if they also had to pay taxes. Those taxes were normally paid in coins, more accurate in shilling and pennies or alternative in grains as food-stock. Not paying taxes or even stall the payment was out of question. The momentary directives didn''t even allow for an ounce of relieve. That left the farmers in a very bad spot. One where Ker couldn''t help them. He declared he would report that to the major in Wellsheid, but even than that would mostly come to nothing and therefore just resulted in hollow thanks and empty smiles from the farmers. However, Ker was on his way back to the guild. It would surely just need a day or two to confirm his quest. Without any worry he arrived at early night at home. His not-worry was instantly gone as soon as he saw an angry Hellena and a slightly annoyed butler stand at the entrance of the estate. Before she could could start to berate him a curious grunt was heard from somewhere at the level of their feet. The boar young was interested in the new people and what lay behind them in the house. His mother raised an eyebrow and Ker could only shrug his shoulders. To be honest he had no real explanation. He would simply go with the basic truth, which hi did. He told how he rescued the little one and that it had followed him. His mother sighed. "That may be the case. It still is no reason to return that late home. There are several other options, like sleeping at an inn, going home much earlier and returning to the quest the next day, like a normal person would. For now come in and take a seat at the table, the dinner is cold, since hours." He did exactly that and discovered what the boar actually wanted, the food. Of course it was the food. So he gave the boar some of the soup with sausage. A few bites in the boar curled up and slept in. Ker himself could eat nearly nothing of it, even the sweet bread found no place left in his overfilled stomach. The sweet bread had probably been hot short after baking, just a few hours ago. Ker winced at the thought. He might think of returning early, the next time. For now he was way too over-saturated with food to get another bite in. His mother looked judgmental at him. "That is the problem when you get home so late, you don''t have enough hunger anymore. You need to eat good to become a great adventurer." With that he was let go to return to his room. For the boar a basket was prepared where it slept in a side-room. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? As Ker slept he revisited the pond in his dreamscape. Enveloped by the waters he again was given choices for evolution. This time the choices for his outer layer were more defined.
Wood-skin The skin will be protected by an additional layer like the bark to a tree. The defense heightens in woods.
Iron-skin Skin as tough as iron. Nothing short of iron can penetrate the skin.
Adapting Plates Plates surround the body and adapt to the damage taken.
Outer Mana-hide A hide of mana protects the body at will.
Pelt-hide Growth Pelt growth is stimulated. The pelt will protect the body from environmental changes.
Only the first two were competing options. Ker didn''t how often he would be in woods, it seemed very dependent on the surrounding and was with that not his preferred choice. All others were weird or in the case of the pelt-hide just gross. He choose Iron-skin without any regret. Next was the strengthening of his body.
Speed Foundation The muscles grow longer and move faster.
Advanced Strength The muscles build on their foundation and grow stronger. It may come with a deficit in speed.
Endurance Foundation Muscles become more enduring, using blood more efficient.
Mana Strengthening Mana is used to bolster the strength momentarily.
Explosove Strength The muscles will be capable of a sudden massive increase in strength.
The choices were all really good again. Speed- as well as Endurance Foundation were again an option. And a good one as he discovered in his last quest. More speed would help to catch beasts better and more endurance would let him sustain longer battles and quests. Just Mana strengthening seemed less useful for him. Also Explosive strength, surely useful for quick bursts, were not his choice. But a foundation was only useful if one built on it. So in the end Ker chose Advanced Strength. More strength to the strength built. After that his skeletal body appeared in his mental vision.
Bone Shaper The bones will obey the unconscious will. They will reshape themselves after what is needed/wanted most.
Giant Frame The bones grow and rearrange themselves to a stronger, bigger frame.
Red-Yellow Core The processes of the bone-marrow will be enhanced. The bone-marrow will always provide enough oxygen, fight against infections and close wounds faster.
Mana enhanced Bones Bones Mana can be used to fortify bones. Also Mana flows easier through bones.
He could imminently exclude two options. He neither wanted to become a giant nor needed any mana. He was no mage afterall. Since his fight against the bone squirrel, he knew how useful active shaping of bones could be. But first this evolution sounded rather passive, less controllable and he rather kept his bones to himself. That left one option which was overall considered pretty good. So he took it. Different shapes formed before his mental image.
Devourer Stomach The stomach wall will be reinforced and made more expansive. With this the stomach can eat far more and varied food. It also will need more food to prevent starvation.
Energy Mixer (Advancement: Powerheart) Different energies can be used and drawn upon. They create a mix of energies, like a vortex, to power the body and mind.
Mana conducive Network A network of mana-veins under the skin guides the usage of mana.
Charger tendons Shortened tendons additionally grow at the hands and feet/paws. They enable quick charges and changes in direction.
His last four choices were rather easy. He already ate a lot, which could present a problem if he needed to keep that up on a longer quest. He also rather not experienced the pain of starvation. The Mana conductive Network was surely a nice thing for mages and the like. The Charger tendons would have helped in his last quest or in general. But with higher stats and more training he could reach that point anyway. With that concluded he decided for the Energy Mixer. What energies would mix and what the result would be was something to find out in the future. His body adapted and his body evolved in parts to the chosen evolutions. His skin tightened and reinforced itself. His muscles broke down and regrown even stronger. Advancing on his foundation. The muscles felt like they would be drained and too much pressure from the inside at the same time. The heart in his chest grew new adaptions and changed from the inside. It hurt like crazy. Luckily he did feel the pain only in a numbed version. Maybe that was because of him being asleep. No matter what it was, he soon slipped into the unconscious part of sleep. Noteworthy was that this was not a full evolution and just helped individual parts of him. It still seemed like that were just the first steps on a long and arduous journey. Act II - Chapter VI The next morning came rather quick, with loud happy grunts downstairs. Ker made himself ready and saw the reason for the morning tumult. The maid was feeding the little rascal with left sausage from yesterday. Ker just tsked at that, the maid reddened and excused herself profusely. Ker of course let that go, he was responsible for bringing home the boar young. At seeing Ker it let the food go and pumped into him with start-up. That didn''t even made him flinch but was so adorable that he squat down and pet the boar. Short after it returned to its unfinished sausage. Ker in opposition just started his morning meal. As his parents joint him on the dinner table they brought to subject what it meant to have a beast at home. With that they meant a tame beast in form of a familiar. Actually they were two versions of beasts someone could keep. One was the so called familiar, a bonded beast with a unique connection to its master. And then there were tamed beasts, who in contrast to its namesake, were most often not tame, but rather used to the presence of humans. The difference between those two were large. The tamed beast had to been hold in an appropriate stable, taken care of and approached with utmost care. It was pretty much a wild beast used to human environment with enough schooling to not outright attack every human. But technically someone could hold a completely wild beast in a cage and call it ''tamed''. That was historically speaking a very bad practice as a famous case demonstrated. A king thought it nice to hold a lion with golden fur in his palace. One day the lion was so annoyed that it hit the king over the head nearly decapitating him, but most certainly killing him. At least the legendary head knight and the entirety of his entourage was needed to subdue the lion. The directness and correct details hint that the story was just a few generations old. Looking at the boar he was certain that bonding it would be the right choice. But he was uncertain, maybe it missed being in the woods in the end. Or what was with its parents wouldn''t they miss it aka vice versa. He had to get a clear mind on those things. There was also still time, the boar was still young and he just met it. Besides that his parents had appointed a new sword and martial arts teacher. He would meet him after noon. That was enough time to report his finished quest to the guild and receive the reward. Something he was looking forward to. It wasn''t a lot of money, but it was his first sole done quest and a good first accomplishment. As he left his home, the boar grunted in towards him, he obviously wanted to accompany him. He caressed the hide of the boar and explained with a calm voice that he would only be away for short. It didn''t really satisfy the boar, so Ker ordered to the maid to pay with the young beast. That made surely her and the beast happy. While it was distracted Ker hurried away. It was nice morning walk to the guild hall. There was a rush to the counter, every adventurer looked to secure the best quests. After a short while a second queue opened to part the unruly adventurers and better process them. Ker used that to get to the top of the queue. That in turn lead directly to a confrontation. "Can you not see that we were in front of you. Boy go back in line were you started" The voice came from a man in the queue behind him. He wore heavy armor but looked like an adventurer in everything else. Ker couldn''t pinpoint it but this guy smelled strange, to say he didn''t trust appearance one bit. Years of practice in formal noble etiquette prevented him from clenching a fist or worse. He retorted lightly flippant. "That would be the case for the first queue. But this one just opened." "And? Just go back like everyone else, we secured this place." To that Ker simply raised one eyebrow. "You mean you ran forward and took this place like everyone else? Good for you, I just need to report my quest, your matters do not concern me." He could barely contain his smile at his own words. They arrived exactly as delivered, the adventurer started clenching his teeth into a grimace. But one look of the receptionist calmed him down. Fight were strictly prohibited inside the guild hall. Any further escalation would end in fines, withdrawal of current quests and could even lead to an outright ban. Ker was second in line and had therefore not long to wait. His report was relative short, everything was noted down. On his retelling of thousands of rabbits the receptionist looked surprised and outright skeptic at the claim to have finished the quest in one day. However according to his performances his reward was adjusted. Someone would be send to confirm his story and the money would be send to him. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? Back home he changed his clothes to his training attire. In one of the mirrors in his room he struck a sporty pose. At least he thought he did. It was short before noon. Time to get ready for his sword lessons. "Ker, lunch is ready" came a way too familiar shout from downstairs. It was of course from his mother. Nothing against good nourishment before a fight or training. Then again his family didn''t want him to eat in armor, but since he already wore it ¨C so it couldn''t be helped. His mother wore frown on her face. "It is not necessary to wear armor on the table. The eat doesn''t bite any more." "Mom, I already gone through the effort of putting on the training armor, how would I be prepared for training later?" "I think I have another talk with Dad later, you can be too prepared for training you know." There was a hint of amusement in her voice. Their lunch conversation interrupted by questioning grunts, the boar young was still hungry and asking for more. Ker filled its bowl full and happily stoke the hide of his new companion. There were many ambiguities about this actually, but he rather didn''t care about that right now. He learned from his father and sword teachers that focus on the now was often better than worry about later outcomes. He trained several simple sword strikes as well as repeated the lessons he learned in Mundor Leandris. Until his new sword teacher finally arrived several hours passed and Ker found himself resting again beside their estate. The boar was busy running around and wallow on the ground near his training area. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. In the distance an outline became visible. It had the frame of a man with a hat and something hanging from his back. It definitely did not look like a sword. It had a bulging belly, a slim neck ending in a head obscured in the light shining over the rooftops. The man, now becoming ever more visible, sauntered offside the walkway oblivious to any time of the day. His robes, of fine quality, casual like the rest of his style were a symbol of his entire being. On his back, now better visible, a Quinerne (an early version of a guitar). Ker, unusual to him, had a frown on his face. His so called sword teacher appeared late, with just some instrument on his back. He didn''t know if to laugh or to cry. If he was unhappy about this, then his parents would be angry. How could someone have such a lackadaisical approach to fencing. Ker was used to the more military type of teacher. Since his teacher from before had a military background and a fitting straight forward attitude. Something like hour of coming too late would be inexcusable. His new teacher was oblivious to such thoughts, in general as it seemed. He greeted Ker with wave and a likewise wide smile. "Good to see that you are prepared. Always ready" As the man arrived before Ker, he could not other but asked incredulously. "And who are you, sir?" "Of course" the man bowed with his right hand before his chest and his left outstretched, like minstrels before their audience. "My honors, I am Sagenfeld of Behlem. From a land far away, visiting to train a young aspirant in the deadly game of bladeswork. And who are you, my Lord." Sagenfeld made a step back as to give Ker the stage of introduction. Ker was a little confused and started to get irritated at these weird antics. However, for now he played along. "I am Ker of Eldoria. Son and heir to Juno and Hellena of Eldoria." Still Ker could not get rid off his doubt to this so called tutor, who were supposed to further educate him in fencing. What could such a phenomenon be teaching him? How to fence to him playing the string instrument? "And how exactly are you planing to tutor me? With your Quinerne?" Ker didn''t expect to reap a grin, a devilish one a that, from the man. "But what an excellent idea! To fence to fancy tunes we shall!" Sagenfeld unstrapped his instrument from his back and put one foot on the other knee to support his instrument on top of it. There he stood ready for his stringed battle of training. Ker nearly scoffed at that. He didn''t hold any illusions to be better than any good soldiers and most definitely not elites. But this man''s behavior was just too much for him. Skeptically Ker picked up his blade and positioned himself across the tutor. He faced away from Sagenfeld to have a free space to train. Sagenfeld meanwhile started to pluck the strings of his instrument. Every note was emphasized, clearly distinct from each other. Ker started to swing his sword. First he focused only on his blade, but soon he felt something was wrong. He missed the tone. His timing was off. So he adjusted his timing and narrowed down the margin of his misses. After some time his swings were synchronous with the tones. And then Sagenfeld picked up the pace, increasing the speed of the tone until they started to become a tune. Ker had to put considerable afford in to keep up with the tune. At some point his swings couldn''t match with the tune anymore and the strikes were neither cutting nor had any power behind them. He was becoming sloppy. "That''s good, fine enough. Let us rest for a moment" While Sagenfeld adjusted the strings on his Quinerne, Ker catched some breath. He also had to re-evaluate his opinion of this tutor. The tune seemed to be a good practice to find the maximum speed he could reach with proficiency. What would come next and how would his tutor qualify his prowess or his strength? As it turned out Sagenfeld had a tune for everything. Next was his cutting with the blade. For whatever reason his tutor was not plucking put edging the strings. This lead to Ker following the tune as best as he could and therefore to cutting motions. He could feel every time he was amiss. Normally he would just take sticks or planks to test his cutting. That worked fie enough, but showed only the outcome, it did not measure his motions. Soon enough Ker realized the tune could also guide him and help him while in motion. This way they continued until his father showed up to watch the training. "Brings back memories." Sagenfeld shouldered his instrument and nodded. "And how have you been? A nice house with a good family as I can see." "It played out well enough. How is you profession going?" "As you can see, I even got hired by a well respected family to nurture their youngest as well to full proficiency" A smirk played at the corner of Sagenfeld¡¯s lips. "I see you didn''t lose your edge. Will you stay for dinner, we invite you. No worries this time there is better than cooked-through earth lizards" Ker was interested what this was about. He followed them inside just to be send to clean and redress himself. After cleaning the grime and sweat from him, Ker joined them at the dinner table. They started to talk again about earth lizards. This time more for him, but also out of banter. Juno started to tell the story how they ended up at the foot of a mountain with barely any food, because of lack of planning. The had to resort to hunt and cook earth lizards. Some of those had flesh equally as tasty as earth and sturdy as leather. Hellena and their acquaintance Sagenfeld joined the telling by throwing in fitting comments. Their antics brought a smile to Ker''s face and made him wonder if he should look for a group too. Maybe his friends could catch up. With some work it should be possible. Of course he didn''t want to bring them into any risky situation. His eyes wandered between his parents and Sagenfeld. Without knowing how to ask he breached the topic. "How did it come that you went adventuring? How did you start out as a group?" "Well" Hellena answered "We didn''t start out as a group. Some of us wanted to venture out alone others were in different groups with very different goals. It was more a series of -" "Mishaps", did Juno throw in. "And entanglements", added Sagenfeld. "- Well that is one way to put it. However, we started from different situations and found us in a group that worked quite well together." "Like butter and grease" Sagenfeld stated. That brought him an amused side-eye from Juno. "I heard they burn quite well together..." "And don''t let me remind you that we didn''t earn a penny from that quest too" Hellena groaned. "Back to your question, the point is that you can find adventurers who fit to you no matter where you and they start now. You surely will find people you can venture out with now and then." That encouraged Ker to help his friends. After all he could at least try. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? In the evening he could but only wonder how is prior partly evolution changed him. It did not seem to have many effects yet. Maybe that just needed time or maybe was he growing? The little boar most definitely was and ate accordingly. He also ate a lot. Just a day ago he would be annoyed to have to eat so many eggs in the morning and so much flesh every lunch. But today he had even ordered their staff to make more eggs and eaten additional bread to his breakfast and his lunch. He also had eaten the most at dinner. They were complimenting him to be such a good eater, that he would surely become a great man and warrior. He had chosen that his heart would evolve instead of growing bones, but if he kept up the amount of food intake he wasn''t so certain anymore about not becoming a giant. He also did not figure out how to use his evolutions best or actually how to utilize them at all. Maybe his new tutor could help him, but could he be trusted with that. He didn''t even tell his family yet. Then again he could simply ask how he could utilize himself at best with no mention of his uniqueness. He could also ask how beasts were doing what they were doing, like creating elemental magic or suddenly enhancing their bodies. It would show what his choices brought him. Act II - Chapter VII Over the next three weeks he was training with Sagenfeld on his techniques. Specifically he was focused on speed, performance and strength. He made remarkable progress in that time. Of course that didn''t show in the first few days. "Just follow the tune! It will show it self" "That''s so easy said from your perspective" said Ker with sweat pouring down. He was at the same exercise for hours, relentless training the motions. Still he could not feel any improvement at all. It was to grind one''s teeth. "Maybe we should change exercises" "No, I can match that strike with my feet movement, I know it" "Fine, then again, follow the tune follow it along" It resulted in more frustration for Ker and he knew it was all because he was headstrong. But he didn''t want to give up. He wanted this technique to work and it should work right now. It didn''t. It helped Ker to get exhausted which was a first for days. He definitely had an increased stamina since evolving. Not to say that other areas, like strength, lacked behind, but it felt for him like they didn''t improve that much. In the end Ker had to end the training on an upset note and continue the other day. The next day Sagenfeld didn''t even ask to repeat the technique from day before. He moved swiftly on to the next training, improving Ker''s strength management. That was also easier said than done. Addressing it was a pain in the neck for both of them. Ker didn''t want to hear that strength could be applied in different forces, while Sagenfeld tried to get Ker to limit the strength in his swings. That way, the tutor''s logic, he would apply exactly the amount needed and not try to split a boulder every time. All things considered Sagenfeld was a patient tutor. He was insistent at times but never overbearing and especially not commanding. Ker learned actually a lot more under him than under the previous teacher. He would also rather trust the string plucking sword-teacher than the militaristic strict teacher recommended by the guild. If it was the familiarity to his family or just hoe he was as a human, Ker couldn''t tell. Still he didn''t trust him enough to entrust him the secret of his evolution. The question was if he could keep it a secret long term. He decided that he rather kept things going how they were now, it was weird thing to think about changing anything. He was happy after all. He also could delay his leveling since he was in a safe environment. One of the unexpected benefits of the training was the measurements of his growth. It wasn''t just that he became better at techniques, he really became stronger, a bit faster and tiny bit more flexible. But at times it also felt like his speed would stagnate, while his body strengthened in magnitudes. Another observation was that he was tough as nails or rather iron. One time he was so frustrated about his slow pace that he smashed a hand into and right though a brick stone. That was relative unordinary even for people in their 20th level. Than again most people didn''t focus on strength and durability. If this continued he would grow far beyond what others could achieve through training and stats alone. He wondered if it was him growing. Not in the sense that he was growing up but in the sense that he was growing into the evolution traits he chosen. It sounded plausible to him. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? He met Jenna at the plane outside of the city. The plane that was used as slime hunting ground. It would probably not yield much result, much like the times before, but it would show him Jenna''s capabilities. In comparison to him she was not afforded a teacher, had barely any fighting lessons at all and would definitely not go on an adventure to level up most efficiently. Her chances at becoming an adventurer, one of those that survive their adventures, was right now minimal. She did not have a class right now and a class upgrade would be near impossible this way. But Ker was unperturbed from all this. He was determined to help his friends. He set this entire day for it after all. "Ok, we will go to the slime hunting ground. Are you ready?" "Sure" came an unmotivated response "It will be like always" "Maybe, but that is only because the slimes are low-level. No worries I will make certain you get your class today" First Jenna looked irritated at his unwavering statement then she smiled slightly but said:"But don''t have to high hopes" They came across three small slimes. Obviously low in level. Ker nodded to Jenna, she drew her dagger and her kitchen knife. It reminded Ker that not everyone was fortunate to have a family that sponsored him. She attacked the first with a downward piercing attack. It connected and dealt considerable damage to the slime. She than cut with the knife the second slime and thrust both her weapons in the first. The first slime died in a low gurgle, while the second readied itself for an attack. She defended herself with an elbow, but it still seemed to hurt. She grimaced and cut and stabbed the second slime to death while avoiding the third. The last slime was a simple exercise in the end. "That wasn''t so bad" murmurer Ker. "Yeah, but I still didn''t get another'' level. It gonn'' need forever this way" Overall the performance was actually pretty acceptable from his point of view. Of course it was much slower than his fights were and she couldn''t even muster an ounce of his strength, but for her level it was good. Now he wanted to test something. "How about we go to a hunting ground" She just looked perplexed at him. "We are at a hunting ground. What d'' you mean?" He just smiled. "No matter you will see." They needed some time to get near the woods. In the end Ker had to carry Jenna and run there himself. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. "Yeee, that is fun. Thanks'' for lette'' me ride" "Yeah, but this is an exception ok. Can''t let everyone see that I take you with me via piggyback." As they arrived he even needed a moment to take a breath. But that was all he needed to be move on. Jenna needed a moment longer, rather to calm her down from excitement. Afterwards they entered the outer parts of the forest. It was similar to the place Ker took his last quest. he wanted to find something stronger than the slimes, but weak enough for Jenna to handle on her own. Of course the first beast he encountered was a special version of a hog. A hog with weird horn like bones protruding out. This was not a good sign. So he slowly backed away and signaled Jenna to sneak back. That is what they did undisturbed. They had to look further to find a fitting foe. Some time alter they found a rabbit beast. Maybe even one of those that disturbed the farmers a few day back. Ker could not other than smile. He motioned for Jenna to get ready. She positioned herself on the path of the rabbit beast, drew her dagger and knife and slowly closed the distance. Ker was also ready since this was a potential dangerous situation, even if more so for Jenna than ever for him. Naturally the rabbit picked up on the scent of the stalking person. That did not help much since it just turned towards Jenna while she jumped at the chance. The rabbit seemed to register in the last moment that its decision was a fatal one but all struggling was useless. It had already leapt off ground and could not hinder the impact of a dagger and a knife driven by the weight of a jumping adolescent person. The rabbit was heavily injured and Jenna just needed to drive the dagger in its throat to end it quickly. "I would have said that they look cute, but... I know how hostile beasts are to us humans." "That''s true. They are also hostile to each other by the way." "Really, how so?" "I encountered feral squirrel beasts... they were very volatile" "Mhm, did they also looked cute?" "Well, they were nearly as tall as you and had a lot of very sharp teeth..." "Oh" She widened her eyes at the acute description of squirrel beasts. However successful the first hunt was, it did in fact not give her another level. Just for one level they had to hunt three more low-level beasts. Two of them were rabbits and one was actually a plant, a level 2 vine. From her description it was named as arsenine vine lvl 2 (0). It was the first beast or rather plant that was under the first evolution. We only noticed it thanks to its strange behavior. A stem that moved on its own with leaves and a developing bud. It reacted to our presence, Jenna thought that to be a really strange plant and prodded it with her dagger, the plant lashed out and Jenna retorted by ramming the dagger in the sprout, killing the plant. She also got a title. "It just says neophyte control. I don''t know what it means" "And what is the description of the title?" "Let me see... ''you helped to control an invasive species: quest pending''. Weird, don''t know about it, did your parents tell you something about this?" "Nope, I have no idea too. We should ask them when we come back. I don''t even know what this vine beast was." "Oh..." "What is it?" "I got classes to chose!" "What? Really, finally, what did you get?" "Well the first is rogue, there is a (common) behind it" "That''s the description of the rarity. If you don''t want to sneak and stab things from behind you don''t want to chose rogue, it''s not a usual choice for an adventurer. What else?" "Then there''s ''black marketeer'', I don''t want it. I don''t like the black market. It is ''uncommon'' by the way" "Okay, the tell me what''s next" "Next is ''wildness gardener'', it''s ''rare''. But I''m not a gardener" "A rare class is really good, you know. You should really think about it." "I don''t know anything of gardening at all. Is it really that good" "You know, every adventurer starts with some class and the rarity is super important, because you get better stats and better skills for a rarer/better class. I got a rare class and I had to work years for it. The grueling training, the different topics I tried and failed at, you can be lucky that you can just jumper over all those hurdles." Ker thought at his very unsuccessful mage training and the hours spent chanting with no visible conclusion. Jenna pouted. "Ok, I took the class, what now. Do I have to plant things now or what do I do?" "Oh, congratulations! You have a class and a rare one at that. And no, I don''t think you need to start planting plants, but it might help. So how about we return and celebrate your success." "Sounds good. Oh wait, you gonna carry me back" She git starry eyes at that and Ker had to sigh. Then a loud deep grunting disturbed their talk. He turned around to see a wild hog in gallop at him. Ker crouched down in a defensive position since there was no time and took the charge head on. He stemmed against the forest floor, but was dragged on regardless. Then he was lifted up from the ground a hauled back against a tree. Getting thrown with your back against a tree hurt, a lot. Jenna screamed something and hurled herself with her weapons at the hog. It simply shrugged her off. She was still thrown to the ground and unrolled. The hog, more annoyed then hurt, shift its focus back at him. Ker knew a second charge against the same tree would not be a good idea. So instead of unsheathing his sword he leaped to the hog and grabbed its head with both hands. The feet were firmly planted on the ground. He could tell the hog was strong, but without a charge it had difficulties getting rid off him. Jenna tried a second and third attack with barely any result. The hide had now streaks and that was it. The hog then did something weird, it made itself smaller. Just to leverage his size and movement to throw Ker off. Even by his strength he had still been pushed back before. Now it made a small charge-leap from down under which was simply the wrong angle for him. So Ker let go of it and moved to its side. He gave it a good measured punch in the side which made it squeal in turn. It was furious. Steam rose from its hide, curled around in the wind and dispersed. The steam became thicker and the air around the hog hotter. Ker knew about evolutions and their strange perks. He also that they just managed to inconvenience it more. There was no major damage visible. And so Ker made the one useful decisions out of two. He turned around ran towards Jenna. "Jump on me and hold tide, we''re running" Jenna did just that. Ker halfway throw her over the left shoulder to be able to see forward. Luckily the edge of the forest was close. As he reached it he started run along the forest, not minding to look back. Behind him loud aggressive grunts could be heard. Those followed them for a short while and then became quieter. After they ran for over an hour they slowed down to catch a breath. "That was something" Ker acknowledged their situation. That hog had been far above him in evolution, he just knew it instinctively. "Yeah, that hog bogged you around." "Haha, very funny little grain back over my shoulder" "I would kick you for that, but since you''re carrying me back..." "Yeah, I hear you, what do you want to tell me" "I mean... thanks, for the class" "No worries, that''s what i do for a friend" On the way back they discussed more about her class. What it could mean and why she would get that kind of special class. Two of her stats were automatically distributed to Dexterity and Wisdom, A weird combination from Ker''s perspective. Dexterity was also weighted. She got two points for every point allocated in it. That was a huge advantage. Then again he could evolve his body and potentially even change it, not that he ever wanted that. There were so many open questions and only less answers he had. So he would definitely ask his parents. Also she should look to get a gardeners profession. When your actions determined your class and helped to further develop it, then it was only making sense to align the profession with it. "What do you mean, I should ask a gardener to take me in as apprentice. I got through all this trouble to become an adventurer. I finally can earn money that''s mine." "Okay ok, hear me out. Your class literally says gardener, maybe you can learn something from a real gardener and then somehow apply that as adventurer" "That sound far fetched, you know" "Well yes. Just give it some thought, you can still be an awesome adventurer, ok?" "Ok! maybe" Act II - Chapter VIII They arrived earlier than planned at home. The thing was it was probably later than dinner and for that matter later than his parents awaited him. For that reason he was surprised and not surprised to see his mom standing at the front door with an explicit awaiting gaze. It probably was noteworthy that he had just told his parents he would go outside with his friends, not exactly what he would do. It seemed his mother caught on to the fact that he wanted to help his friends in leveling and classes. But her reaction wasn''t exactly welcoming. "So, good that you returned from your venture. Maybe we talk inside after you sent off your friend. Good day to you Jenna." "God day my Lo- Lady. We''ve been hunting. And there was this strange plant, vine something and then a hog surprised us..." While Jenna started to retell their adventure with enthusiasm the gaze of his mother became even sterner. Why did you have to talk. He had to act quick, so he stopped Jenna from talking with his hand over her mouth. "Actually we want to ask you something about rare classes and quests." At that his mother raised her eyebrows. And then she sighed. "Ok, come in. We are going to have a few words with each other later." That was obviously a forewarning at Ker. As they sat at the table, the butler serving them water as they requested, his mother expectantly asked:"And, what exactly do you want to know? What did you encounter specifically?" His mother picking up on the situation. "We were hunting simple, nearly harmless rabbit beasts. When we encountered a vine. It was called arsenine vine and it was level 2. She killed it by destroying its sprout. Then she received a rare class, but a weird gardener one" "Hey, you told me to take it" Jenna protested his description. He also thought it would be better to just tell what they were doing. His mother would find out about it anyway. And they needed answers for their questions as well as for further developing his friends class. "AS you know son, rare classes are as the name suggests rarely given. To achieve one you have to put in a necessary effort and prove your worthiness. That is one of the theories. Another theory is that a person is given a class for a specific purpose. Both are not proven and more speculation. Some people believe more in one then the other. However it seems you got your class because of the effort, am I right" "Well it was just a little sprout, it could barely hurt me" "That is interesting. Vines are extremely dangerous for people traversing wild territory." At that she looked pointed at Ker. "Maybe there is a reason for receiving a class after all... what is your exact class and what is this about your quest?" "The class is named ''Wildness Gardener'', rare. And the quest says its pending. I don''t know what else to tell, I could tell you about the weighted stats-" His mother cut her off before she could blurt out the details of her class. "It is extremely rude to eve ask about class details. You do not owe anyone specifics about your class. Especially when someone wants to order you to tell about them. s that clear" "Ok! Very clear Miss, I mean Lady Hellena" "Good. Now to the quest. We, Ker''s father and mother, met one unlucky person with a personalized quest. It nearly ruined him to chase after it. Those quest can be very rewarding, but also very costly. And I don''t mean only the money aspect. It can cost years of afford, if not decades. It could very well take your life, so be certain before committing to any such quests. Beside you can live without ever fulfilling it." Jenna was in thought for a moment. "So this quest might be dangerous and I don''t even know the price." "To say it simply, yes. I think what comes next would be how to develop your class best. For that you should visit the local gardeners and probably ask for an apprenticeship. If that is worth it I can not tell you, but it might help. Another thing is to go to the adventurers guild and be evaluated to get your first assignment. Since your beginning you should consider to team up with a group of fitting people." That led to Jenna being even more in thought. "Now I would like to thank you for telling me about your class and probably prepare to departure for all the *things* you have to do." Jenna hesitantly stood up and left after promising she would convince the others to join their group. Afterwards Hellena''s sternness returned. "So, do tell me why you thought it a good idea to take her with you to the woods, going on a hunt alone." "Because there are not really better alternatives around. And she really needed a class" "That may be, but you also didn''t ask us for help. And you risked her life and so yours. To make it short, that was dump! We were really worried when you returned after your hunt and told us everything. I know I can''t keep you from going on adventures, but I''m still worried. A lot of things can happen out there. The further away from cities and people you get the more seldom and strange things you will encounter. But with that comes always danger. So when you next plan to go out to help someone of your friends tell us." "I will do that. Sorry Mom for making you worried so much" She sighed letting a lot of tension pass. "Since that''s out, mind telling me what you encountered and where exactly" She said much softer. He retold the story this time from beginning to end, not letting anything important out. "You had a lot of luck, son. Vines can become extremely nasty do deal with. Not to speak of their potential aspects, like poison. You would need an experienced adventurer to permanently deal with them." Than she made him promise that he would actually report such finding to the guild if he would ever encounter a vine again. Following her logic it would be safer to let the guild deal with that problem. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Another matter was the commissioned growth armor for Ker. Even after 4 weeks it did not arrive. On one hand it wasn''t untypical for deliveries to arrive later on the other hand the smith was very confident that the production would need 4 weeks. For whatever reason they had to wait and see how it turned out. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? Later that day, Ker met with his friends near Gord''s home. One of Ker''s friends, who just finished preparing the baking goods for tomorrow. Jenna was there snacking on salty bakery goods. There was also Nemgrad, eager to catch another story to tell and Helk of course. Helk did not have his title Snap anymore. Since he lost the left arm he was practically disabled. He had gotten a relative expensive prosthesis. It could hold a bow and therefore he technically could hunt again. Also his mood had considerably improved. How much was because of the prosthesis and how much was playing a good mood, Ker didn''t knew. But he definitely wanted to repay his friend for probably saving his life. Also one of their friends, Sarah, was not there. She was pretty tide lipped about what she was doing, Ker could only guess it had to do with her new job that she got after receiving her class. "So what are you talking about? Why are we meeting in the evening?" Gord answered. "Because it is the ideal place. we go hunting tomorrow. I got the day off. I could convince my dad to give the day free. And from here we can take bakery goods as provision. Isn''t that great." "Okay, do you have any suggestion where you want to hunt?" "There is a new place full of rabbit beasts" Jenna broke the news. "They gathered there just a day ago or so" "Really..." Ker asked incredulous of that suspicious coincidence. "Yeah, so we don''t have to travel that far, but we also have to hurry before other adventurers take that spot. Don''t want to share the spoils too much." It was a solid point Jenna made. She also caught on towards Ker''s narrowed eyes, but didn''t say anything. "That''s great isn''t it! We can hunt together again, this time in our own trustworthy group and safely. I also heard Jenna got now class." By that he smirked at her. She just rolled her eyes at his pun. "Actually, do you have weapons? I can surely bring a spare sword and shield. But I never saw Gord with a weapon." Gord looked slightly displeased. "I have trained with a weapon before. With a mace and a wooden shield." The way he said that, clearly transported how less he had liked it. At the questioning look of Ker he answered. "My uncle was here just a few days prior. He made good on his promise to train me when I was old enough. He showed me simple training methods and how to use a mace. He has shield berserker as class. It let''s him be very proficient with a mace, while storming forward with a shield. He said he had seen his fair share of combat. but I don''t think that was hunting." "So, you actually want stay and become a baker, right?" Jenna asked. They all new how much Gord loved his job and with that his father''s job. He love to do nothing more than be a baker. If possible. "So, do you now have weapons or not?" Gord shook his head, Nemgrad only smiled unperturbed, Jenna and Helk nodded. Of course Ker knew that both of them had weapons. "Then I will bring you a shield and a sword and look what else I can find. For you Jenna... I don''t really know what you would need, but I think a dagger is not anymore the best weapon." "Ok, whatever you have in mind. But I''m not gonna use shears!" She looked pointedly at Ker. Helk looked slightly confused at them. "Sure, I will find something suitable" Ker said placating, but not without a smirk. "I guess you are just here to fetch the newest story you can tell you patrons, right." Said Ker as he looked at Nemgrad. "Absolutely. I can''t care less for going on a hunt. It would be a short sad story, one no one would hear. So I rather stay where I''m safe and tell the tales." "No worries, for sure we are going to have to tell you a lot when we come back." Added Gord. "Does anybody of you guys actually know what is with Sarah?" Ker had to ask. He was occupied with training, doing his first quest and traveling for a personalized armor, therefore he was a bit out of the loop. Not even mentioning the fact that he was on dangerous hunt for about three weeks prior to that. "No, we are clueless as you are" answered Helk with a shrug. "I don''t know the specifics, but something about her is scary or better dubious. I can''t really pin it down." Added Gord. "I could ask around, but since I normally tell stories and don''t just gather them ¨C I think she would find out that we asked around about her and not appreciate it." mentioned Nemgrad. "Let''s not do this. I think we can ask her directly, but she always deflects questions in that direction." Who knows why she was hiding what she was doing and meeting her became a sparse pleasure. Sometimes she just appeared greeted everyone and left short afterwards. The more important task to concentrate on was to get the supplies, like bakery goods, water and such. The second most important part was to make certain everyone had at least some kind of gear. They would just hunt rabbits beasts and with Helk and him there, his friends group would be very protected, but he already encountered a deviating variant. He wanted to be on the safe side. He already experienced the worst case of going wrong and wanted to save his friends any amount of that. To that he felt insufficiently prepared, even for this small-time adventure. But he could not think of anything more to prepare his friends. "So, what do you think. Are we prepared with food, water bags and gear? It sounds like it to me at least." He looked questioning at his friends. "I would like a new dagger, y'' know" Jenna commented. "Thank you for caring that much about us" Gord said and meant it, then he threw another one in. "Maybe you could bring an over-sized rolling pin to smash the beasts and an equally sized cutting board to defend against the vile horde of beasts" Jenna just rolled her eyes and Ker deadpanned in response. To go certain he gave Helk a questioning look. "No worries I''m good. Really, you''ll see tomorrow there is still hope for the legendary ranger coming from humble beginnings." With all of their matters discussed they departed early. Normally they would spent more time with bicker and banter with each other, but they wanted to be ready in the early morning. As he was home, Ker told his mother about their hasty thrown together plan. Since it was near enough and just low-level rabbit beasts she approved. She also liked his hindsight and ordered butler Nellson to prepare fitting gear. To that counted not only weapons but also light armor. In this case it was really light armor, that would at best halfway fit his friends. Then again, some armor is always better than none. In the evening his father was excited to hear about his story. He was far more forgiving than his mother in those regards. That also meant Ker had retell his story again. He started to see a point in Nemgrad''s alterations of stories. If he had to retell the story again he would have to make use of that so called artistic freedom. In the morning he was prepared for adventure and for battle. He had his sword, leather armor, his water bag, an additional bag for provisions - and all of the stuff for his friends too. It basically tripled his carried weight. It started to somewhat heavy for him. he thank his mother and swore internally that next time he would plan and execute those plans for his adventures by himself. It was still in the very early hours. To make it short the sun was barely visible and had yet to illuminate the world. And with the sun also his mood was rising, since soon he could unload all this stuff to his friends. ?©¤©¤?©¤?©¤?©¤©¤?? "Were thon aw?" Asked one of the clansman. Before them the entire attacking company lay defeated. "Ay, thon were aw o thaim. Let''s tak some prisoners an quaisten thaim." Some time later a man with a scar running across his left eye approached the clans leader. "We couldnae find oot anythin. But it''s no because their sae patriotic, thare''s magic at work, sir." "Sae, we find us amiss i thon situation. It wad leuk like we wad be attackit bi forces o Timboury, but A know for a guid reason thon guid old Timboury wad niver betray our pact. We will ready ourselves an travel tae him. Dae tell Raibeart tae gather a small delegation. It''s probably nothin but let''s see whit''s gang on i the south." Act II - Chapter IX "Thanks a lot!" Groaned Ker as he dropped off all the things he was carrying for his friends. Everyone was there even Nemgrad. Well, everyone but Sarah. And Nemgrad was only there to see them off since he had nothing else to do in the morning. Gord took his shield and spear thankfully. Jenna received a short-sword. She ogled at it in fascination. Ker had to know what she was thinking. "What is it? Not you preferred weapon?" "That''s not it. This s a proper short-sword, do you know how expensive they are! I could get a little house for this one. That you even trust me with this." Ker had winced at her involuntarily hinting at the wealth disparity between them. He always wished he could help her and now that she had achieved a class, a rare one to that, he was certain she would find a way as adventurer. But for that they had to gain valuable experience and climb the ranks of the adventurers. And to help his friends with exactly this they were going to a nearby to hunt monsters. "Actually, know that I think about it, should we give them a rundown?" "Oh sure, that sounds like great idea. Show the pipsqueaks the rope." replied Helk to Ker''s suggestion. "In that case, hear up! There are several rules for adventurers. You could say there are five core rules every adventurer who want to call himself as such should always follow." "Rule one: Be prepared! Bring enough food, weapons and useful supplies with you. It is always good to have a bit more than too less. Or hindsight saves the day." "Rule two: Take care of your fellow adventurers! Support each other and equalize your strength and weaknesses to create a rounded group." "Rule three: Knowledge is power! Know the target / beasts, understand their pattern in behavior and attack. Know the surrounding of your target''s area. And know your limits." "Rule four: When you can''t win, run away! You are not a soldier, you are not fighting for some honor and not for your country. You are securing coin for your own livelihood and no one shall say otherwise." "Rule five: Trust yourself! You have to trust in your own capabilities, to come up with solutions and find ways even if none are presented." In heart Ker agreed with all of them, but in mind he didn''t know if he could pull it of just on his own. Just because he remembered well the speech of the guild master at the day he joined the guild, didn''t mean he would be certain in their message. The first one was clear, bring enough supplies and use them sparsely. He experienced himself how it is to have no food and shelter. Actually he had nothing other than himself when he was in the wilds. Therefore he also got the message of the fifth rule. In his opinion the most important one, no matter what others said. But the thing was that he couldn''t trust himself fully. He lost control over his own actions several times. One time it even cost a life... Rule two was obvious to him and at the same time hard to realize in their current group. It made perfect sense to use the strength of every member of the group to cover the weaknesses of one another. He just didn''t know enough about the weaknesses of his friends inside a battle. He also struggled to think about the implementation. It was too abstract for him. Rule three was also clear to him. He had enough lessons from Ellora about this topic. Then again after his unwilling expedition into the wilds he doubted his own knowledge would be enough or even sufficient. Some parts he learned might even be wrong. The worst was that he had no idea about his limits. His strength seemed limitless when in rage, if he was willing to let his control go. He also grew in the last couple of weeks. That was not only metaphorical it was also very true in all other aspects. He got slightly faster, somewhat stronger, his reactions got quicker and his body had also grown. He wasn''t eating for nothing. Rule four he understood fully. He experienced enough danger to know it was foolhardy to just go into battle and hope to win. That was probably for soldiers and esteemed knights, but most certainly not for him. "Mhm, but aren''t all people ruled by nobles." asked Jenna. "Yes, all people in this kingdom are governed by nobles and rules by royalty." confirmed Helk. "Okay, then why says rule four I should run away? What if noble demands that I do my job no matter what." she asked incredulous. Helk nodded "That is to protect the people who task themselves to do all the work which protects others. The guild are basically self-governed. Inside the guild the guild master has the highest authority. He can technically throw the ruling noble out of his guild in their own territory." "Was that ever done?" blurted Jenna in between. "No, that would be an extreme case. But there was the case of Eglart, later called Eglart the Wise. He often took quests alone, but always very serious. One time Morteheld a noble in the east, tasked him with a quest that would near guarantied suicide. After evaluating the situation Eglart refused. Morteheld tried to order the legendary adventurer, which led to a straight out refusal on his part. The noble in question didn''t took the well and send his men at Eglart. That also didn''t turn out so well. Since then the fourth rule is strictly enforced." "Oh!" Helk looked befuddled "Wait, shouldn''t you know about all this. You just joined the guild and our guild master is very rigid with the protocol." "Eh, I sneaked out, it was so boring." Ker rubbed his temple, that would not fly by his mother at all. She would be furious at him for dodging even the first step as adventurer. He and his dad had to convince her for month that it would be a good idea for him. In afterthought she wasn''t wrong about the dangers and he could hardly blame her for worrying too much. As they talked more about the strict and not so strict rules as adventurer they arrived at the field near the city. It was still early and basically no one else was present. But that would change soon enough, word travels fast and word about a new hunting-ground nearby travels like a bush fire. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. "Good" said Ker as he put his backpack down and stretched himself. He was good to go, a look at his friends suggested otherwise. Gord was breathing slightly heavy, Jenna tested the weight of her new sword, just Helk was fine of course. Having more stats and being trained to walk distances were one hell of an advantage. He nodded to Gord "Not a problem, I must show Jenna how ti utilize the sword best - or at all - anyway." The last part was coughed in his fist. Jenna immediately thrown him an annoyed look. Nothing he could do about, she still could hear pretty well and pick up everything spoken about, especially her. "Let me show you a basic stance and the first basic strikes." With that he stepped beside her and moved her sword-hand above her hip to her right side. He then told her to grab her hand with the other hand under the parrier. "Ok, left foot to the front and right food back. Both feed face to the front and try to balance the stance at about 50/50." "Good enough, that''s your first stance. From here on I show you the first three strikes." As he showed Jenna the very basics of the short-sword, Helk did the same with Gord. Just because Helk was a ranger didn''t mean he would have no idea about spears and shields. After they understood the absolute basics they declared themselves as ready. Ker saw no reason to disagree. This was as much training as they could get in short time. No better practice than hands-on experience. And so they moved in a classical formation on the field. Gord was the tank and therefore took the front role. Ker near him as sword wielder to protect Gord''s flanks. Jenna moved behind the duo near Helk, who was obviously the ranger. Her task was to protect the ranger from any straying beast attack. They chose this formation, because it would train the new adventurers basic party cooperation. It was the greatest weak point in Ker''s opinion and the quicker they could remedy that the better. As soon as they entered the field, the rabbit beasts reacted inside a certain area. That got Gord and Jenna alerted, but the more experienced adventurers didn''t react much and so they also tried to stay calm. Every beast inside that area had one out of two reactions, either charge and attack or hobble away. Most charged. Gord discovered fast a high stature is not always good, he had to move far closer to the ground to cover his body effectively with his shield. Rabbit beast could and would jump, but not that high. "Just see it as leg outwork" commented Ker with a slight smile. Gord just groaned since he wasn''t used to move this way. Despite Gord missing several rabbit with his spear and not blocking every dash he hold his ground pretty good for a beginner. He also managed to skewer some of the charging beasts. Ker let him make the experience, every mistake and every win would be good for learning. He only stepped in when a beast got too much around Gord. All in all the most beasts were pretty low-leveled and exactly right for beginners. Helk likewise only shot some beasts, more to get used to his prosthetic arm. His aim was way off, since the arm was neither natural nor had very flexible joints. But he adapted to it. His shots were meant to draw in some beasts to test and train Jenna. She in turn did a good job in dispatching the approaching beasts quickly. She still fumbled with the stance and not every strike was on point, but it worked. "Got a level!" triumphed Gord. "Good, what level are you?" "Level 2!" "Really" Ker had forgotten that Gord was a complete beginner that had never hunted any beast "That''s surprising. You are good for a complete beginner. Just tell me when something changes. Every level from now on you could be offered a class." "As you say, my Lordship friend" taunted Gord. Ker rolled his eyes "Just watch out, from your right comes a next one" So the carved a way through the field. Time went by and Gord achieved another level, Jenna became a bit more proficient with the sword and Helk could finally hit nearly every beast in a long range. Over the time the field of rabbit beasts shrunk due to an influx of adventurers. Rumor spreads fast and reaches nearly every wannabe and can-be adventurer. That led to Helk calling in a stop. They, mostly the two new ones, were getting tired, besides they progressed so much there was no reason for desperation. "So that''s it rookies! Let''s leave the field for now and let the others get their share. We already achieved our daily goal. God job Gord and remember to keep the shield closed to cover the body and Jenna good job preventing the beasts from reaching me. You should work on your fencing to get more variety, but that much is obvious." Helk groaned as he stretched his legs. "Finally, now does anybody want some nice fresh-baked bread." "I want some" with malevolence dripping voice claimed. Everyone in their friends group turned around. What say saw displeased them. It actually made Gord nervous and Jenna very alerted. Helk stayed calm, stepped slowly back his hand ready to knock another arrow. Ker stepped forward, skepticism reflected in his eyes. "We don''t know each other. How about you introduce yourselves first" Before them stood a group of five individuals, everyone had the gear of an adventurer but the man staying at front. he wore a full plate armor. Something rather worn in wars, since adventurers had sometimes to move large distances and other usability reasons. Also everyone from the opposing group seemed off. They weren''t concerned about the beasts to a point they might not even here for them after all. There was a glint in their eyes that promised trouble. The kind of trouble you get when you wander at night in the shadier parts of a city wearing expensive clothes and trinkets. And the following words even confirmed Ker''s concerns. "You are the little bastard who cut us off. We are the jackals and we like to claim our price ourselves. Now you are owing us!" Ker squinted his eyes in disbelieve. Who do they think they are! Cut them off, off what? "I highly doubt that. I neither know you nor does I or anyone of my group owe anything to you." The leader gesticulated with his hands "Oh, but you do! See there" he showed around them where the dead beasts lay "you hunted in our territory. now you owe us compensation. Mhm, how about the pelts, the pelts of the rabbits." Ker didn''t like the tone, he didn''t like the attitude of the assailant party at all. The claims were made up nonsense of course. The only reason he thought about an answer was his team. They were rather low in level, stats in consequence and with a lot less combat experience. He was responsible for his team, his friends. Helk already knocked an arrow, Jenna and Gord with weapons ready in hand, Ker knew his time for a measured response was gone. "Hey, i would not do this if I were you. Actually, guys what do you think, time for some tough lessons!" At that the assailants drew their weapons and all semblance of a peaceful solution flew right out of the window. Helk acted first, the arrow hit its target right in the eye. From such a short distance, even impeded Helk could hardly miss. The man with an arrow in his eye screamed while holding his head. The heavy armored leader swung a jagged sword at Ker, but the swing was off. Not only could he easily avoid the hit it was also too close, the tip was aiming far behind him. A realization struck Ker, that was were Gord stood. He would stand no chance against this group, especially not heavy hitter like the one before him. Ker barely managed to raise his sword in the half dodge he was in. With his effort he could deflect the jagged blade, with a screech it slid of his own blade. As reward he had the full attention of the leader on him. This aligned with his interest to keep the main threat away from his friends. They in turn were busy with the remaining attackers. Someone with a club engaged with Gord, another sword fighter aimed for Jenna and a mage casts spells at Helk. They also had an rogue fighter, but he was busy with - an arrow in the eye. Gord was quickly overwhelmed, he was too low in stats to keep up with an actual combatant. He also had no class yet and with that no related benefits. Additionally he was, just like Jenna, out of breath as the fight started. To call it a proper fight would include some order, it was more a brawl. As soon as the attacker got through Gord''s guard he kicked him to the ground only to lunge with the club. Ker would not allow it. He had to dive in between hoping his high constitution would hold. He also had to deflect another blow of the leading figure and managed to get in between the bone crushing lunge and his friend. The club practically bounced off his back, his breath forcefully spend. It did hold. Only to then feel a sharp pain in his right side.