《Arkhay (Writers block on this story..Sorry guys. might never add more)》 Everybody Loves Auctions (Prologue) Prologue Auctioneer ¡°Welcome gods and goddess''s to today''s galaxy auction! The first property on our list today is known as ''The Milky way¡± The listed property has one class four black hole at its center, slightly more then one hundred and fifty billion stars with many accompanying smaller black holes, planets and resources. Due to serious lack of any survey work or upkeep by the previous owner, stats on living creatures is unknown at this time. The property is being auctioned off AS IS, and is also free and clear of any loans or other entitlements. Seeing that the previous owner only setup the basics then ignored this property it is considered low in value and as such the minimum opening bid shall be set at one hundred thousand souls.¡± ¡°Now then lets get this show on the road, Who is going to start off the bidding¡± Hephaestus yells out ¡°I will bid one million, its worth that much just in raw materials¡± A powerful male voice loudly cry''s out and yells ¡°Hep you always were a sucker for ugly worthless things, even Aphrodite couldn''t make that worthless galaxy into anything worthwhile.¡± Aphrodite ¡°Ahem... Is that a challenge Zeus? It better not be or you''re going to be sleeping on the couch for the next thousand cycles¡± Zeus hearing Aphrodite''s words quickly teleports himself away from the auction. ¡±Better out of sight and mind for a while than THE couch¡± he thinks to himself. Seeing this byplay between the gods the auctioneer chuckles to himself and yells out once more. ¡°We have a bid of one million souls, Are there any more bids for this property?¡± A clear beautiful voice from the very back of the crowd of gods and goddess''s cry''s out ¡°fifty million souls!!¡± This large increase to the auction bid stuns many of those present, Such a high price for a low quality galaxy was unheard of!. Some in the audience silently started wondering if the owner of the voice knew something they did not. After a couple minutes the voice Is heard again ¡°Finish the auction!!¡± Causing the If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.auctioneer and many others to snap out of their shock. ¡°The going bid is fifty million souls anyone willing to raise the bid will have to match the current bid amount , One hundred million souls is the minimum bid. Anyone?¡±.............. ¡±Going Once for fifty million souls¡±... ¡°Going Twice¡±.. ¡°And sold for fifty million souls!¡± The auctioneer yells out. ¡°Come up here lovely voice and claim your new property¡± The crowd of gods and goddess''s part to make way for the voice, Who they see surprises many, Fortuna goddess of luck and fortune. What makes many curious is the fact Fortuna up until this day has never attended a property auction before. This raises many questions, Why now? Why this property? What makes it so special she would pay so much for it..................................? And what is the goddess Fortuna going to do with it? Only time will tell. A world of Nope (Chapter 1 ) Welcome everyone, Yes this is my first attempt at a novel. PETA members, Youngsters, People at work, anti-gun idiots, Beware this story is NOT for you. Nor is it family friendly there WILL be Cussing, Random acts of wanton slaughter, references to instances of rape and pillaging. Luckily or unluckily considering if your a prude or not there will be no in depth descriptions of sex. Why? Because i SUCK at writing such content. No matter how much i might enjo...Cough err ALSO There WILL BE NO PIE! in this story. Remember PIE Is a LIE! ¡­....................................................................................... Chapter 1 A World Of Nope ¡°When you''re wounded and left on Afghanistan''s plains, And the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains An'' go to your Gawd like a soldier¡± Rudyard Kipling,The Young British Soldier Hi my name is Rich hollings and this is a story about dragons, elves, and magic cake! Herm maybe not so much about cake, at least there is no pie, for pie is the lie. What follows past this point is a story that will hopefully explain to you the events that have recently shaken our world to its very core. In a perfect world I would have been able to ensure every man woman and child on our planet was informed about the changes before they happened. Sadly with over seven billion people on our planet that was not possible, even with modern communications. I Could just tell you what the blue screen message means, and also give you a in depth explanation on setting up your character. but then you dear reader would not understand the true purpose of the changes that are taking place. To comprehend the ramifications of our new reality you will need to start where all good stories start. The beginning. ¡°Richard Hollings!¡± My mothers voice yelled out ¡°Get your ass out of bed and down here, your food is getting cold!¡± Ugg.. rolling out of bed I start to get dressed. I had been having this great dream concerning a particular Baywatch babe and some..¡±cough¡± well lets not get into too much detail, you don''t really need to know about that. Sigh.. It was a good dream while it lasted. Quickly putting on my jeans a long sleeve shirt, some socks and shoes i head on out to the the kitchen. ¡°Sleep well Richard?¡± ¡°yea mom but you interrupted a awesome dream I was having¡± Mom Just shakes her head and laughs at me.. Sitting down we start to eat when mom starts to talk ¡°Dan called this morning, He asked me, to ask you if you would be interested in house sitting the retreat while he is out of town for a week¡± I started to get really excited hearing what my mom said, You see Dan or Uncle Dan my mothers older brother is one of those people, that other people have words and sayings about. The most common being "Gun Nut", But I have also heard "eccentric" more then once also. Just nice ways of saying "crazy" without actually saying "crazy". And the only difference between "crazy" and "eccentric" is how much money you have. I loved going to Dan''s, The openness, the solitude, Blowing things and small critters away with a high powered rifle. Err ignore that last part. This story is Definitely not PETA approved by the way. What more could a guy want? Yea Uncle Dan has a lot of nice firepower and it was always a high point of my rare semi annual visits, when he took me out to his small gun range at the back of his property. Officially Dan works for some government ''Think tank'' in the Washington D.C area, Although he mainly stays at his ''Retreat'' and does his work via the Internet. Why do I say Officially? Well let me just say that my uncle is more likely to turn into a liberal anti-gun nut then ever be stuck sitting in some office somewhere. Nether me or my mom actually know what he really does for work, I suspect he works for No Such Agency (NSA) or maybe Christians In Action (CIA). Looking over at mom ¡°Did Dan say when he needed me to show up?¡± mom nods ¡°He wants you there by tomorrow afternoon¡± Shocked a bit I state ¡°That is going to be tough, its a twelve hour drive from here to Montana¡± Nodding to me she asks ¡°So what should I tell him?¡± Not even have to think about it i responded ¡°Hell YES, Tell him I will be on the road in a hour¡± ¡°Ok, honey make sure you are careful¡± Sighing to myself at her words, she has always been a bit overprotective.(Love you mom) I finish eating, do my dishes and proceed to my bedroom to pack. Sixteen hours , a flat tire, two restroom/food breaks, a speeding ticket and a partridge in a pear tree...errr... later, I pull up to the gate to Uncle Dan''s property. Punching in the security code on the gate it opens up and I drive through. Going up the dirt road I can see Dan''s house, Now most people would be fooled into thinking that Dan''s place was a small one story building. What those people don''t know is that only the top floor is above ground. In reality his house has three floors, the only things on the top floor is a small workshop, kitchen, living room with a fireplace and attached garage. The second floor had a bathroom, three bedrooms and Dan''s at home office. The magic in my opinion is located on the third floor, This is where my Uncle has his ¡°safe room¡±. Why do I call it a ¡°Safe room¡± Well the only way in or out of this room is through a solid steel hard plate safe door that is a foot thick. Unless your packing some serious hardware it would take a very long time to get through it without the code. I once asked Dan why he had built it that way and his mumbled response was ¡°Rainy days¡±, At the time I was a bit young to understand that cryptic response. Magic you ask? Yes this is where Dan keeps those things of his that go Boom and Bang, many of which I am sure are not available to the average joe citizen. Which only brings up more questions. Parking in front of the garage I see a white envelope with my name on it in big red letters taped to the garage''s big door. Wondering why the letter is there I suspect that he might have had to leave early. Getting out of my truck, I go over and grab the letter. Opening it up I read, ¡°Hiya Rich, Sorry I couldn''t be here when you showed up but my boss''s are throwing a fit and want me there early. Make yourself at home, I left a couple Tri-tip steaks in the fridge to defrost. The code to unlock the house is your birthday. The safe room code is the same, Make sure if you go out and about to keep a weapon on you at all times. The sheriff called me up the other day and it seems there might be some rabid dogs running around the hills. According to the sheriff, some woman called in and reported that her poodle was attacked and killed while they were out jogging. Hehe Get this.. The woman claims it was a wolf five foot tall with glowing red eyes.. Probably just a rabid coyote or dog, been no wolves around these parts for more then a hundred years. P.s Make sure you clean any of the guns you shoot. p.p.s Don''t shoot up all my ammo, and stay away from the explosives.¡± chuckling at what Dan said I turn over the letter and notice more writing. ¡°P.p.p.s Stay clear of the old mine its gotten a bit unstable the last few years. If you need to get hold of me, follow the F series code.¡± Laughing I grab my old army Alice pack with my cloths from the truck and head on into the house. Tossing my bag into my usual room I head on down to the safe room, putting in the code the door opens up and I walk on through. Every time I have ever been here before Dan was always the one to go and get the weapons. This was the first time I had actually been inside, Curiously all that was visible was a hallway with doors. Opening up the first door on the left I am shocked at what I see, on the walls nicely mounted are hundreds of different pistols, everything from old flintlocks hundreds of years old to current models. Letting out a low whistle I start to feel like I am a kid in a candy store. Going around the room I notice my favorite pistol, the 1911 model gold cup .45, I loved shooting this pistol every time I got my hands on it. It just felt natural holding it in my hands, Picking it up I also grab six spare magazines and a Serpa 2 tactical thigh holster to hold it all. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Closing the pistol room door behind me I open up the door on the right, Once again its the same as the pistol room except this time its for rifles. Letting my inner child out a little a giggle escapes me, Looking over the room I am amazed as how many different rifles there are. Seeing a M14 with a quick release Red dot sight on it I pick it up and also grab a 4x by 14x scope Just in case I want to do a quick swap for something at longer range. Heading back to the hallway I close the rifle room door and walk to the next set of doors, Once again I open up the left door first. Inside all I see is boxes, the writing on one says ¡°Semtex¡± remembering Dan''s warning i quickly close the door and turned around and opened up the door on the right. Inside this room I find the ammo, it is easily one of the biggest rooms yet. On the walls are small signs stating what each section holds, pistol 9 mm , Rifle 7.62 etc etc. Seeing all this ammo and remembering Dan''s admonishment ¡°Don''t shoot up all my ammo¡± made me laugh heartily. After grabbing up some ammo for each of my weapons, I head up to the first floor to cook up that steak Dan had mentioned in his letter, before heading to bed. It being around eight pm and I was quite exhausted from the long drive. After cooking dinner I took a shower, locked up the house, set the security system to active and promptly fell asleep soon as my head hit the pillow. I am dreaming again about a certain Baywatch babe when my dream is once again rudely interrupted by reality. I am jolted out of my sleep by the security alarm, Grabbing my 1911 from the dresser I notice that It is four A.M in the morning. ¡°Well at least I got five hours of sleep¡± I mumbled still a bit groggy. I quickly threw on my jeans, loaded my pistol and proceeded to the bedroom door. Opening the door slowly I look out in the hallway, ¡°Humpff nothing, hope its just a false alarm¡± Moving out into the hallway I move to the stairs. Slowly working my way up the stairs I notice a noise over the sound of the alarm. ''Screeee....Crunch...Screeee....Crunch'' ¡°What the fuck is that?¡± I thought to myself. Nearing the top of the stairs I pause, The noise has me unnerved more then I would like to admit. ''Crunch, Screeee....Crunch''. At least the house lights came on automatically with the alarm I think. Carefully I edge up to the door frame and take a peek around the corner. I am man enough to admit, What I saw made me piss my pants. I would bet you would too. What I saw was a wolf in form, But the size of it was truly enormous. Five feet tall at the shoulder, coal black fur covered it from head to tail. At the ends of its paws instead of having normal claws this thing had what looked like metal. The Metal claws scraping over the tile floor was the cause of the Screeee sound, That not being frightening enough the shear weight of the beast was pulverizing the tiles it stepped on. It was at this point I kinda..Sorta lost it I am sad to say, my mind going at a mile a second ''Nope! noooo! Nope! Nope! Nope!...That thing is a big walking flesh tearing people eating fur ball of NOPE!!!! HELL FUCKING NO!'' I will spare you any more details on how my mind temporarily took leave of itself. I hope dear reader at this point you understand the gravity of the situation. Standing in my uncles house was something straight out of someones twisted nightmare, And there I was dressed in only a pair of jeans and a .45 caliber pistol. Yea.... Can you say SNAFU? That is a old military term kids, if your dyeing to find out try google. Luck seams to have been with me though, The beast had not detected me while I had that little brain fart attack of Nope. Most likely because of the security alarm blasting away and the fact it had its back to me. Calming down a bit, I took a firmer grip on my pistol, peaking around the corner again I notice that the fuzzball of nope had gotten the kitchen fridge open and was currently eating the last uncooked steak, package and all. ''Oh hell no, you sonofabitch your not getting away with eating my steak'' My mind screeches out. Not quite thinking clearly I rapidly moved around the corner, raised my pistol up and unloaded all eight rounds at the monstrosity. ¡°YAAAAAAAAAA¡±..BOOM..¡±AAAAAAA¡±.. BOOM ¡°aaaaa¡± BOOM ¡°aaaa¡± BOOM ¡°aaa¡± BOOM ¡°aa¡± BOOM BOOM BOOM. Who was screaming like a little girl? Yea that was me, Kinda lost steam a bit after the third shot though. By the time the fifth round had left on its journey towards the NOPE beast my uncles training on how to fire a pistol had kicked in and I was able to see the effects of my Rambo impersonation. Shots one,two and three had all missed, Shot four hit the steak stealing bastered in its ass. Shots five through seven were right on target, center of body mass. Shot eight though was the quite frankly a random act of god, it hit the beast of nope in the eye, deflected off the back of the eye socket and went north, turning its brain into a disgusting puree before explosively exiting out the top of its head spattering said puree all over the kitchen ceiling and wall. Upon seeing seeing the effects of my last shot my brain once again decided it didn''t like what I was seeing, It promptly decided to incite revolt in my body and told my stomach that the rebellion was on and to attack. Needless to say I spent the next little bit puking my guts out and generally not enjoying myself. I was just Happy I hadn''t eaten any Mexican food recently. (Pro survival tip, When sick eat peanut butter. Tastes the same coming up as going down). After that little bit of unpleasantness, I finally remembered to reload, doing so I took stock of the situation. Alarm going off, ''Check'' glass door in the kitchen smashed open, ''Check'' kitchen fridge smashed up a bit, ''Check'' Ceramic kitchen tiles destroyed ''Check''..........huge smelly Furball of nope with metal claws laying dead In the kitchen, ''Check''.......... ''Gag''...Brain and blood splashed all over kitchen, ''Retch..Check''. After assessing the situation I moved over to the alarm and shut it off, talking out loud to myself ¡°Ahhh silence at last, going to have to talk to Dan about how loud that thing is¡± I will not get into what I had to do to clean up the mess, ''You can thank me later''. I will say this though, I have a new respect for those who work in meat packing plants. It took a little over two hours to haul the wolf out of the house and get things cleaned up to an acceptable degree. Sense I didn''t have a flame thrower and I seriously doubted Dan would appreciate me burning his house down I had to resort to tossing buckets of water and using a mop on the worst of the gore. One thing did get my attention during my spring cleaning, When I hooked up the wolf to a rope attached to my truck and dragged it out. I noticed a glow coming from up the road. Right smack dab where Dan''s shooting range and the old Gold mine was located. The range and mine were hidden a bit by a ridge so I couldn''t get a direct line of sight on what was making the light. Thinking that discretion might be the better part of valor I decided to wait until the sun came out to investigate. Not to mention I didn''t want to meet any of Nope''s family in the dark. ----------------------------------------------- Sigh.. The formatting is driving me bonkers.. Should be spaced properly but its just NOT working right. What i am seeing in the edit is NOT what is being posted. gahhh Word count = 2778 A RATION OF HELL YEA! (Chap 2 Part 1) Chapter 2 A RATION OF HELL YEA! ¡°If any question why we died, tell them, because our fathers lied¡± Rudyard Kipling As the sun started to make its presence known, I was crouched down in the stairwell leading to the second floor. Trying to decide what the hell I was going to do, I knew for a fact that the shit had Definitely hit the fan. The question was, How big of a bite of the steaming shit sandwich I was going to have to take. Even though Dan and the local sheriff were on good terms. I knew that under no circumstances my Uncle would want the sheriff or anyone else for that matter poking around his property. So calling the locals was definitely off the list of things to do. I had two problems, I didn''t know if this was a one time thing or just the start. Lastly Dan had just left the day before, So sending him a SOS at this point would not cut the mustered. I quickly came to the conclusion that I needed more information, before sending out any type of mayday. I also had a idea where exactly I could gather that Information, If you boys and girls guessed the shooting range or old mine. ding ding ding winner winner chicken dinner! Making up my mind I double timed it down to the second floor. After a shit shower and a shave, I dressed in a new pair of Levi''s, struggled for a moment with a treacherous long sleeve shirt that did its best to kill me. Pulled on my socks and shoes. Grabbing my now empty Alice pack, I was now Ready to go. I headed down to the weapons locker, I needed to replace the ammo I used during the night and clean my 1911. It is a mortal sin in my opinion not to properly take care of your tools. Especially if you rely on those tools to keep you alive. And a Gun regardless what some may say is nothing more then a tool. A famous writer Robert A. Heinlein once wrote ¡°There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.¡± After replacing my ammo, cleaning my 1911 and drooled over all the eye candy in the vault for just a little too long, i made my way up to the first floor to get something to eat. Seeing the state of the kitchen I mumbled to myself ¡°Dan''s going to be royally pissed when he see''s this¡±. Noting the fact the fridge was a mangled total loss, I grabbed a couple hot pockets out of the freezer. Thankfully they had survived and only needed a couple minutes in the beat up microwave. After a half a hour of watching the sun rise I Realized I was procrastinating. grabbing my M14 I made sure I had all five spar magazines and checked that my 1911 was loaded and on safe. Double checking I was ready for a little bit of recon In possible Indian territory I headed out the door. [Editors note, Dan; Your not going to mention the pie story are you?] {Authors note, Rick: Dammit Dan I am telling this story and there is NO PIE!!} [Dan: fine have it your way, I still say the pie story is important and needs to be told] It was a cold crisp cloudless morning, There was a slight breeze coming out of the north and not a single bird was chirping. Alarm bells started ringing in my head, That little voice in my head starts talking ''Hold on a second, Where are the birds at?'' Looking around carefully I don''t see a single critter small or large in sight, ''Uh oh...This can''t be good, something must have scared everything away''. Up ahead I can now see the range and the entrance to the old played out hard rock mine. On closer examination I detected a faint glow coming out of the mine entrance. Keeping my M14 ready I slowly made my way to the mine. Once at the entrance of the mine I took a look inside, I see Nothing, just a warm feeling glow without any source visible. I scanned the area once more and made up my mind to investigate the mine further. Shouldering my m14, I pull out my trusty 1911 and took a step into the mine proper. There was a sudden flash like someone tossed a flash bang of bright light and then I couldn''t see a damn thing. Crouching down in my almost totally blind state I start blinking my eyes trying to get my eyes to start working again. ¡°Gahh, perfect time for something to eat me!¡± After what seemed like a hour but was really only three minutes my eyes started to work again. The first thing I notice is that I am turned around looking back out of the mine. There is only one problem. The scenery has changed drastically. What grabs my attention first is The rock quarry the range and mine was in, has been replaced with a lush green valley. The valley stretches out for at least ten miles, in the middle of the valley is a large deep blue lake. Surrounding the lake is a dense Forrest that reaches all the way up to the dead zone on the mountains around the valley. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. The next thing I notice is a big blue box hanging in the middle of the air. The damn thing looked like it was straight out of one of those online video games nerds like to play. Reading the Blue box it says
CONGRATULATIONS!! For being the first sentient being from Earth to Enter the Game Galaxy of Arkhay, you have been awarded with A Rare Title, 1000 fame, a one time use character modification mirror! One hundred Character Modification points!! That''s a value of over 9000!!! Souls!!!
You Have Leveled up!!
You have received a new title! ¡°First From Dirt¡± Title Rewards Grants passive trait "Guinea Pig" Grants Passive trait ¡°Lucky Bastard¡±
................................................ End of part 1, going to wait a bit for more votes on the OP question poll. A RATION OF HELL YEA! (Chap 2 Part 2) Well we are on a roll now ::) Doesn''t seem many people have noticed the story yet. Or maybe they don''t like the mature tag. .................................................................................................................................................... Chap 2 Part 2 After reading through both of the blue box''s, I was stunned. The First thing to come to my mind was ''What the hell is this shit?'' Noticing the signs that my temperamental mind was about to go on temporary vacation once again, I closed my eyes and took a deep calming breath and slowly let it out while counting to ten. ''DING''
Due to your success at calming your mind You have been granted a New passive skill Skill: Mental Fortitude Unexpected events no longer effect you like others 5% resistance against mind altering effects per level Current level = 1 11% to next level
Reading this new blue box''s message, I decided to make a list in my mind.. The obvious: I am healthy at the moment. I do not know where I am or what the hell is going on. I may be in danger. Blue box''s that won''t go away are annoying! Possibility''s: I died and this is heaven or hell. I was no longer on earth. Alien abduction. ''Hope one doesn''t show up with a anal probe'' Somehow I was transported into a game. Unknown: What is a character modification mirror? What is the deal with Souls? Who or What is responsible for all this? ''Eric Flint better not have sent a shard after my ass'' HOW Do you Turn OFF these Damn Blue Box''s!. ''Death to BSOD doesn''t sound good'' Taking a couple minutes to review my mental list and also to reread those annoying blue box''s I came to a few conclusions. Where I was I did not know for sure, But it wasn''t earth. this world grants skills based on your actions. Taking another calming breath I yelled out to the world, ¡°What god ordered up this mess and how the hell do you turn these blue boxes off!¡± ¡°Cough.... Ahemmm....¡± Looking around to see who or what was making noise I saw nothing at all but the mountains and tree''s. In a shaky voice I whisper ¡°Uhhh..Hello? Anyone there?¡± Suddenly standing in front of me a figure pops in view. ¡°Aaaaaaa¡± I cried out while throwing myself backwards. Landing on my ass I hear feminine giggle then a clear beautiful voice say ¡°Sorry to startle you. I forgot you could not see me while I was invisible¡± Seeing the owner of the voice I saw it was a woman. Not just any kind of woman though, She was easily six foot tall, Had a body of a goddess, Long silver hair that reached the back of her knee''s and a face that was the very definition of perfect. Hell everything I saw about her just screamed out to me perfection. ¡°So are you just going to undress me with you eye''s all day Richard?¡± Blushing with a bit in embarrassment I choked out in a rush ¡°Uhh sorry... Who are you? Where am I? Whats going on? How do you know my name?.....¡± Laughing she looks at me and just shakes her head a bit then says ¡°Your going to be a fun one to watch¡± blinking a few time''s at her reply, i sure as hell didn''t know how to respond to that comment. A few moments go bye and she finally starts talking again. ¡°You are currently on the New player planet Arkhay. Arkhay was the first planet in this galaxy that was modified for the new Reality matrix . As such every player from worlds that have not yet been fully integrated comes to this world when or if they find the portal. As to who I am.. I am the goddess Fortuna. And i am the new owner of this Galaxy¡± Carefully considering what I just heard I decided to ask a few more questions. ¡°First off, It''s a honor to meet you¡± She smiles and nods ¡°secondly I have a few questions if I may?¡± Fortuna giggles and nods once more. ¡°Ok, Can I return back to my own planet?¡± Fortuna ¡°Yes you can, Once you came through the portal the changes to you were made permanent. The only problem is that your world has yet to be integrated so if you do go back before that time you will not earn any new skills or anything¡± Confused I ask ¡°What do you mean by ''Integrated''?¡± Fortuna... ¡°Your worlds reality Is still operating on the old Galactic system. In just under thirty of your earth days time, The reality change wave will reach your planet and continue on until all of this Galaxy''s reality matrix has been changed to the new one.¡± After My mind finished doing a couple barrel rolls at her words I ask ¡°So What your telling me is that in thirty days my world will come to a end?¡± Sighing Fortuna reply''s ¡°No you silly, The only thing that will change will be some of the physics that used to govern your reality, mainly the addition of mana etc. Also the interface for all the changes will be installed at that time. On top of that the respawn system will also be initialized. A word of caution, If you do go back before your world is integrated don''t die...You won''t be able to re-spawn¡±.........Still confused i ask her ¡°Interface? Do you mean these annoying blue box''s that wont go away?¡±.... ¡°HAHA don''t tell me you haven''t figured out how to do that yet...?¡±........ ¡°Really?...... All you need to do is put your hand up to the box and push it to the side or think ''close''....." "I might as well explain how to access your interface and inventory also. For Most of the interface options all you need to do to access them is think or say ''Open'' then what you want to view. For instance ''Open inventory'' As a new player you have access to the Character, skills and inventory screens. Sometime in the future you may be able to unlock additional options. Why don''t you looking at your character screen first?¡± Thinking that was a good idea i said ¡°Open character interface¡± A big screen popped up in vision. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
¡­................................................................................................................ Name: [Richard] Race: [Human] Level [1 Xp 110/1000] Health 105/105 Stamina 101/101 Mana 105/105 ¡­................................................................................................................ Titles: ¡°First From Dirt¡± ¡­............................................................................................................... Strength: [11] Intelligence: [11] Vitality: [11] Wisdom: [11] Dexterity: [11] Luck: [66] ¡­................................................................................................................ Character Traits ¡°Guinea Pig¡±: Gives a permanent boost of 10% to all stats Class SS ¡°Lucky Bastard¡±: Gives +50 To the Luck Stat Class S ¡­................................................................................................................
At this point all I could say was ¡°Wow¡± which elicited another cute giggle from the Goddess who was watching me. Seeing me close my character screen she asks ¡°Would you like some advice on your character modification mirror?¡± At first I was confused, Then I remembered that the first message I received said something about a mirror. ¡°Give me a second to check my inventory¡± Saying ¡°Open inventory¡± another screen pops up, Looking at the screen I see a series of small boxes. All of the inventory spots are empty except the first two. I see a small mirror and what looks like a loaf of bread. At the top of the screen there is also words that say: ¡°Souls 1 Plat 0 Gold 0 Silver 0 Copper 10 Iron 0¡± Ignoring the disturbing ''Souls'' part for the moment I focus on the mirror and was surprised when a new smaller screen pops up with the mirrors name and information.
Character Modification Mirror Upon use the C.M.M will Grant the user a one time chance to change His or her physical appearance and Gender. Also gives access To The Character Modification interface menu Uses: 1 Using this item will make it impossible to Use another C.M.M in the future. Value: 1000 Platinum
Shaking my head over the description I ask Fortuna ¡°So..you think I should use this thing? Seriously a thousand platinum sounds like a lot of money¡± I hear her mumble something that sounds suspiciously like ¡°idjit Noobs¡± before she smiles at me and says something that made me blink ¡°Damn skippy I do¡± I ask ¡°why??¡± ...¡±Because Everyone and his brother gets one of these upon reaching level ten if they are born to this reality or when they enter like yourself. once used you can never use another under normal circumstances. So it is pointless even trying to sell. Generally it is best to use a mirror as soon as you get one. The main reason is it grants you access to the character modification upgrades interface." "Normally most people get anywhere from 10 to 100 character modification points by the time they reach level ten and receive their mirrors. It all depends on intelligence and a few other factors for each individual. They use those points to purchase upgrades, Upgrades take all forms can effect anything from how healthy you are to boosts that increase your stats and run from 1 point for common ones to 100 points for god class upgrades. A lot of them grow stronger the higher level you become, it is a good idea to get your mod upgrades as soon as possible. Realistically people such as yourself have a advantage over others because you can gain your mods at level one. Thus making you stronger in the long run.¡± Looking at the mirror again I could feel my inner greed daemon anguishing over the loss of that 1000 platinum. I had no real need to change my appearance, but if what fortuna was saying was correct the real value of this mirror was to make me stronger. ¡°Fortuna.. I would greatly appreciate your help in using this mirror. Do I need to say some random words like "klaatu", "barada", "nikto" to activate it?¡± looking at me in confusion for a moment she says ¡°No no, Just focus on it and think or say activate¡± Smiling and Nodding my thanks I do what she said. ¡°Activate¡±... End part 2 A RATION OF HELL YEA! (Chap 2 Part 3) Chap 2 part 3 Upon activation I found myself inside a small room, The walls were all white and the only thing noticeable was a fat guy standing in front of me. My first thought on seeing this guy was ''Damn he looks like he got hit hard by the ugly bus''. Stepping away from him to give the guy some space, the guy did the same exact thing. Suddenly what I was looking at clicked in my mind.. ''Aww shit is that really how I look?.....Fuck My Life'' It honestly was a bit disconcerting seeing myself in this manner. Don''t get me wrong while at the time I wasn''t exactly in the best shape or the greatest looking guy in the word I still thought I was at least decent before seeing myself like this. [Editors note; Boy before you used that mirror you looked like a fat orc mated with a hairless chimpanzee and you were the result!..Hey kids how much you wanna bet he misses this during final editing? Haha] That is why seeing myself like this made me start to rethink my opinion of my looks. Hearing a slight pop behind me I turn to find Fortuna regarding me with a smile. I say to her ¡°I am not really interested in changing my appearance..''Cough..'' but while I am here I might as well check out the options¡± Smirking at me knowingly she says ¡°I thought you might change your mind once your eyes started working again. Ok.. With this system you can change your appearance to anything you want, Want to look like someone famous on your world? This can do it. All you need to do is state what you want and the changes will take effect on your double. Once you are happy with the changes all you need to do is say ''accept changes''.¡±......... ¡°Would you like me to demonstrate what I am talking about Richard?¡± Happy for her help and without thinking I readily said ¡°Thank you,Yes please¡± with a evil looking grin she stepped towards my double and said ¡°Strip¡± resulting in me ..Well my alternate self instantly becoming as naked as the day I was born. Needless to say, my face turned bright red and my ears started to burn. Fortuna ¡°Now lets see here, lets get rid of that baby fat, ''Set body fat percent to one''¡± And poof just like that my naked double didn''t look like the Pillsbury Doughboy anymore. Fortuna Once more speaking starts making rapid fire changes ¡°set eyes, ears, nose, mouth symmetry to 85%, Clear up complexion and remove all scars. Increase muscle mass by 40%, set hair length to top of shoulders. Increase hand size by 2%¡± While she is making these changes she in walking around my double with a big grin on her face. Finally finished she nods to herself and looks up at me and says ¡°There are a lot of changes, But no one wouldn''t recognize you if you accepted this form, But I do have one last question for you.......¡± Looking at her grinning at me I suddenly felt a cold shiver run up my spine.. I ask ¡°umm what is that?¡± she says without batting a eyelash.. ¡°well your penis is pretty small would you like it to be bigger?¡± At this point I swear I thought I was going to have a heart attack, My heart was trying to beat itself out of my chest. My entire body turned a interesting shade of red. How do I know? THE DAMN Double was mirroring everything...So I COULD SEE IT! Turning around so I could try to hide my embarrassment. I mumble something like ¡°Do whatever you think best¡± and quickly put my hands over my ears. I really do not remember exactly what I said, I was still trying to recover from my near heart attack. After a few moments I feel her hand on my shoulder, taking my hands off my ears and without turning I ask. ¡°Is it done?¡± Fortuna ¡°Hahaha, you know you are really cute when you are blushing?..Anywho, Yes I am done. Now turn around and make sure you are happy with the changes before accepting them. Wouldn''t want you to regret this later because you didn''t look now would you?¡± Gathering my resolve I turn around and look at the results. Focusing on my new face I see that while there were changes It was still me. Looking at my chest I saw quite a few muscles I didn''t think I would ever have the same thing had been added to my arms and thighs. Knowing I had to look and if I didn''t and wound up with a micro dick I would probably kill myself, I finally checked myself out. No I won''t tell you what I saw, Just be happy that I am very happy with what I saw! I swear the entire galaxy god''s included are all grade A perverts. Quickly accepting the changes and making them permanent, I turned to fortuna and said ¡°Thank you for your assistance¡± Covering her mouth she says ¡°My pleasure Richard any time¡± ¡­.Yea she was laughing at me...I bet you are too...Just you wait... Your turn is coming. I coughed a couple times trying to regain a bit of my dignity I ask ¡°Now that THAT part is done whats next?¡± Fortuna ¡°Come over here to this interface screen and pick out what mods you want¡± Walking over to where she was standing I see a new screen pop up. The screen shows a impressive number of modifications. I ask ¡°Just how many mods are on this list?¡± fortuna ¡°currently there is a bit over two million modifications you could choose from¡± ''Well damn I think'' looking at her I say ¡°ummm.. Could you suggest a set for me? I know nothing about these mods and I think it would probably take a lifetime to go through them all.¡± she give me a grin that would put any cat to shame after eating a mouse and reply''s ¡°I figured you would need my help, Normally by the time people reach level 10 they have had plenty of time to find out what they want to get. Every time a new planet is added though there is always mass confusion and mistakes that happen. The system is good after it takes effect but the transition phase tends to be a bit messy. Now give me a little time and ill set you up properly¡±. In a relatively short time fortune announces that she is done and for me to check out what she had chosen.
Modifications ¡­.................................................................. Action Boy +1 state point per level effect doubles every ten levels Class: God Cost: 100 ¡­........................................................... Elementalist Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.unlocks the ability to learn all elements Unlocks job ¡°Enchanting¡± Unlocks skill ¡°Mana manipulation¡± Class:3 Cost: 50 ¡­................................................................ Enhanced vision You will NEVER need glass''s! higher level provides different vision options Level 1 0% Class: 2 Cost: 10 ¡­................................................................ Scrounger Able to find value in absolute junk Unlocks Job: tinker Higher level increases value Has hidden effect based on Luck level 1 0% Class: 1 Cost: 1 ¡­............................................................ Charismatic People like you! Unlocks stat ¡°Charisma¡± +5 to Charisma every 10 character levels Class: 1 Cost: 1 ¡­................................................................ Enhanced Sense''s You can sense things even dogs cant Effected by luck stat Unlocks job ¡°Tracker¡± Class: 1 Cost: 1 ¡­..................................................................
Noticing the fact that the cost was well over 100 i said "Uh Fortuna, i don''t have enough points to buy all these. I only have 100." Fortuna "The 100 your talking about was just your bonus for being the first from earth here. Your starter points based multiple factors is 63. Adding them together you have just enough for these mods" Looking back over the list I can''t help but be impressed and think ''HELL YEA!" over fortuna''s choices. Action Boy would give me ten extra stat points up to level ten. Then two points per level up to level twenty, It really was a cheat ability. Then again it did cost 100 points. But still....If anyone were to find out I would probably never hear the end of it. [Dan: Well well... That explains quite a bit. Damn cheater] Looking through the other mods I keep shaking my head and thinking ''Hot damn with these skills I will be a one man demolition squad''. [Dan: HAHAHA you might be now but you found out the hard way didn''t ya] Accepting the mods fortuna picked out for me I hit yes on the final ¡°are you sure¡± and found myself and fortuna back at the mine entrance. ............................................................... Chapter 2 word count 4152 A RATION OF HELL YEA! (Chap 2 Part 4) Authors note.. This was going to be the start of ch 3, but i decided it fit better as being the end of ch2. Just jells better this way in my opinion. And should get the majority of the world mechanics done with. (Not all..Just a good portion) .................................................................................................................. ¡°So.......We are back where it all started again¡± I state, looking over at fortuna, I figured that she was probably going to be leaving to do whatever god''s and goddess''s do pretty soon. Deciding to pump her for a bit more information I asked ¡±Fortuna...Whats the deal with souls its listed in my inventory as a currency?¡± She gets a serious look on her face ¡°Every intelligent being, in all the universes has a soul, a very small portion of those beings decide for whatever reason to sell their soul. I do not recommend doing that for any price, trust me when I say that what most of those souls go through......its not pretty. The second source of souls come from the damned, people who murder, rape or do other very bad things." "You see Richard, every god has at least one Galaxy like this one, They setup the galaxy''s rules then sit back and suck up as many souls as they can. Some gods....Well they make it especially hard on those who live in their domains. The end result is beings are forced to break the cardinal rules or die. Gods use these souls to buy and sell things like abilities and property. Evil gods don''t care at all about the souls they have, Some even take delight in tormenting them. I am considered to be a good goddess, because I don''t torment souls I have or make my galaxy cruel." "The Cardinal rules are pretty simple. One: Do not Murder, Two: Do not rape. There are Only two simple rules and yet.. millions of souls are collected annually. It is one of the reasons why I am changing the way this galaxy works, Those who are truly evil will get a one way ticket to a place place they deserve. Those who are not evil but get caught up in bad situations will get a second chance. There are other reasons I chose the reality setup that I did, but at this time...you don''t need to know. Maybe someday.... ¡± Considering this new information a question formed ¡°Who owned this galaxy before you?¡± she smirks and says ¡°That is a very good question Richard, None of the gods knows who actually created this galaxy. Or at least if they do they are not telling. The only things i know is that it was created then abandoned. The god seems to have completely ignored all of his duty''s. The only reason why this galaxy was put up for auction was because no owner came forward willing to pay the soul tax, so it was repossessed.¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. I burst out laughing ¡°HAHA!!! Even the gods have to pay taxes eh?!!! I guess the old saying ''you can''t beat death or tax''s is true!¡± Shaking her head at me Fortuna grins back. ¡°Well Fortuna thank you for all of your help, I am at a loss at what to do now. I should probably head back to my world and contact a few people. Only having a month to get the word out isn''t much.¡± Fortuna ¡° well you don''t have to worry about the time right now, The time compression between this reality and your old one is quite high. For every Earth day, six months pass''s here. So you have plenty of time to explore a and raise your skills up.¡± There are times in my life that I have been completely and utterly speechless. [Dan: Could have fooled me] Fortuna ¡°My time here is growing short. If you head south from here, on the other side of the lake is a small village. On the way there you should probably stay out of the thickest parts of the Forrest, there are many dangerous creatures. Make sure you bind your spawn point here. To bind yourself to a certain spot all you need to do is focus on the spot and think ''Bind Spawn point''." "If you die you will revive at that spot. But Be careful though, while there is no penalty to stats you will loose all Level experience and spawn naked. To get your belongings back, you will need to find your body and pray that what or whoever killed you didn''t take anything. Send your Prayers to me if you need anything, I might not always reply but i will be listening. Good luck Richard¡± And with a wink at me, just like that she was gone. Looking up to the sky I sent off a quick prayer thanking her for her help. .............................. End Chap 2 Wabbit Hunt (Chap 3 part 1) something might show up here.. ............................................. Chapter 3 Wabbit Hunt ¡°With Great power comes great responsibility¡± Stan Lee ¡°Day eight of the voyage we had to eat poor Winfred, I really can not recommend eating goat after this experience......¡± "cough" Oh!! Hey dear reader you made it to chapter three, Congrats on that. The last two chapters should have given you a good idea on most of the major mechanics the big ¡°Change¡± has made. If not, Go back and read it again...Go on I will wait here till your done........... Back already? Damn that was fast. Maybe your just humoring me....Oh Well on with the show! Standing in front of the mine, I looked out over the valley. The lake in the distance was a beautiful teal blue color, some of it was hidden by a small peninsula jutting out into the water. From my current location I could not see the village Fortuna had mentioned and I surmised that it must be hidden from view by the wood covered peninsula. Viewing my immediate surroundings, behind me was the cave with the portal back to earth. In front of me and to the left side is a steep slope covered in loose shale like rock that ended at the edge of the lake. Knowing how dangerous this type of rocky slope was I felt a little hesitant to set single foot on the treacherous surface. Rocky hillsides like this are notorious for taking ignorant hikers unawares, All it would take is one bad step and the hiker would get swallowed up in a landslide. Deciding that it was just too dangerous to go that route, even though it looked like the fastest way. I turn my attention to the right and see a narrow weed strewn path that quickly entered the deep Forrest and was lost from my sight. Looking around once more to make sure of my options I came to the conclusion that the Forrest path even with Fortuna''s warning was the best choice. Turning around in the mine entrance I focused on the ground at my feet and uttered ¡°Set bind point¡±. That done I pulled out my 1911 and focused on it .
¡­......................................................... Name: Model 1911 Gold Cup Level: 1 Durability: NaN Mana cost: NaN Damage: 20-150 Class: Soul Bound +5 Dex Hidden Hidden ¡­......................................................... Soul Bound items can not be traded Dropped or destroyed. Soul bound items level up with the user. Value:NaN
Seeing that information I felt lucky my jaw is attached to my head. Because if it hadn''t been I am sure I would have lost it somewhere. ¡°Holy shit!¡± I exclaimed, Hitting the magazine release I pulled it out and quickly focused on the ammo clip.
¡­............................................................. Name: Standard 1911 .45 magazine Durability:NaN Mana cost:15 type: Hydro shock hollow point Ammo: 8/8 Class: SSS Nodrop +50 damage Regenerating ¡­..................................................... This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.Rate of regeneration 1 unit per minute ¡­......................................................
Dropping to my knee''s I couldn''t help drooling a little bit, My pistol was already great before coming to this world. Now... With the changes to it.... A nagging little thought creeped into my mind spoiling my mood as I was drooling over my pistol ''If my 1911 at level one does this much damage, Just how powerful are the critters in this world'' realizing that there was only one way I was ever going to answer that question I reinserted the magazine into my pistol put it on safe and holstered it. Pulling my M14 off my shoulder I once again focused.
¡­.............................................................. Name: M14 Socom Tactical Level: 1 Durability:NaN Mana cost:NaN Damage: 100-450 Class: Soul Bound +10 Dex Hidden -10% aiming time Hidden ¡­......................................................... Soul Bound items can not be traded Dropped or destroyed. Soul bound items level up with the user. Value:NaN
Thinking over what I have read so far, I was happy about a few things. Unless I was misunderstanding the details nether of my weapons would ever break. Nether would they ever run out of ammo.. Well as long as I was given enough time for them to regenerate. Having six spare mags for each though I did find it hard to think of any situation where I would run out of ammunition. [editors note Dan: HAHAHA bet you feel stupid now dontcha] [Author: Sigh..How was i to know about that lemming invasion?] Pulling out the twenty round magazine for the M14 I once again focused my attention.
¡­...................................................................... Name: Standard M14 magazine Durability:NaN Mana cost:30 type: .308 Matchking boattail hollow point Class: SSS Nodrop Ammo: 20/20 +50 damage Regenerating ¡­................................................................. Rate of regeneration 1 unit per minute ¡­................................................................
It would seem that the properties of the magazine''s were quite similar. It only makes sense the mana cost would be more for my rifles ammo. It does a hell of a lot more damage then my pistol. Reloading the M14 I stood up and after looking out at my surroundings once more I headed down the trail. ..................................................................................... End part 1 Wabbit Hunt (Chap 3 Part 2) Something something ....................................................................................................................................... Following the path down the side of the mountain I couldn''t help noticing a feeling of oppressive darkness, getting stronger the closer I came to the edge of the Forest. The feeling got to the point where I had my M14 just shy of full combat ready. About fifteen feet from the forest boundary I froze stiff, I could SMELL something rotten in the air. The pungent smell was fighting a battle with my senses. My stomach was giving me all the indications of a serious attempt to turn itself inside out. Crouching down I started to study the area in a attempt to figure out what was making this vile roadkill smell. After a full minute of scanning and not seeing anything that could be what I was smelling, I was about to continue into the forest when. ¡°Crack.....¡± snapping my head in the direction of the source of the noise I spotted a dog staring at me no more then twenty feet away. It was a mangy.. scrawny thing, Yellow in color with greenish-yellow drool dripping from its jaws. The pupils in its eyes were so large there was not a hint of anything else. Crouched there, I instantly broke out into a cold sweat. I knew full well what that drool most likely meant...Rabies or some version of it. Unhappily my rifle wasn''t pointed in the right direction. I would have to raise it up about a foot and at the same time turn my body about thirty degrees to the right just to get this mongrel into my sights. Keeping my eyes locked with the smelly hound from hell, I oh so slowly moved my rifle to the right. Soon as I moved the pup took a step and let out a low growl. Freezing again I couldn''t help thinking about those nature shows where the lion was stalking its prey one step at a time. This dog was acting exactly like a lion on the hunt, And I was to be dinner. Shaken, I realized that the only way I was going to survive this without getting bitten was to roll the dice and hope i was quick enough. Somehow the mangy thing seemed to sense my intentions. Soon as I made up my mind it crouched down and with astonishing speed launched itself at me. Suddenly Time seemed to slow down, Turning my body it felt like I was submerged in a vat of glue. ''Blink'' The dog was five feet closer. It seemed to take agonizing minutes to bring my weapon to bear. ''Blink'' Finally having my rifle in line with the critter it was only six feet away. Pulling the trigger a loud ¡°BOOOOOM'' rang out and rolled crossed the valley the sound being weirdly distorted by the time dilation. At that point Time seemed to return to normal and the critter plowed into me ¡°Crunch¡± knocking me ass over teakettle. I cried out ¡°eyaaaaaaaahhhh¡± Coming to a stop I scrambled up onto my knees as fast as I could and wondered why the ugly critter wasn''t chewing me a new asshole. Looking back to where I had been crouching down before the ugly train hit me. I saw the mangy mutt laying still on the ground. At that moment one of those infernally annoying blue boxes popped up with its accompanying equally annoying ding noise. Ding
¡­.................................................................................. New quest available Quest Name: Old Yella was a good Dawg Quest: Go to the village of Washburn and inform Tommy Washburn what happened to his dawg. Rewards Unknown 500 points Familiarity with the residents of Washburn -100 Familiarity with Tommy Washburn Failure -500 Familiarity with the residents of Washburn Quest Cannot Be Refused ¡­.Time limit: 5 days ¡­.......................................................................................
''Well that just sucks, damned if I do damned if I don''t. Poor kid'' I thought. Keeping my m14 pointed at old yella I got back up onto my feet with a loud groan. I felt like one of those poor idiots who fall and get trampled at the mall on black Friday. Looking myself over I thankfully didn''t see any sign''s of any wounds, Just some bruises. Letting out a low whistle I sent a quick prayer to lady luck for my good fortune. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Making sure to keep my m14 pointed at the smelly mutt, I eased my way closer and around to the side to get a better look. I was pretty sure that the dog was dead considering I got a quest to go tell the village about what happened. I still took no chances, Rabies is no joke and I somehow do not think this world has a vaccine for it. Then again..I might be wrong, This world did have magic. Stepping around the critter I finally saw where my shot hit it. The entrance wound was smack dab in the center of its chest, it looked like it punched right on through and shattered its spine on the way out of its back. I and my stomach both seemed to be thinking the same thing. ''gruesome'' The smell that was rolling off the dog In almost visible waves, also wasn''t making me feel any better ether. Once again thanking lady luck I turned around and headed into the forest. As I walked down the narrow path I couldn''t help but think about what just happened. I thought to myself ''In someway that I could not explain time seemed to have slowed down to a crawl. ''Maybe time didn''t slow... but my perception of time'' I was definitely going to have to ask someone about this strange effect. I needed to know if I could learn how to control it or if it was just something that randomly happens. If I could control the effect it would give me a great advantage. But if it was just some sort of random occurrence...Things could go wrong very quickly. Putting thoughts about the fight and the strange time slowing mystery temporarily out of mind, I focused entirely on my surroundings once more. Thankfully The further away I got from the dead critter the less I could smell it. After ten minutes of following the trail the smell blessedly was gone. Moving along at a fairly decent clip while still making sure of my surroundings I soon came to a small meadow in the forest. Slowing down considerably I cautiously approached, looking out across the meadow I saw a strange sight. There was what looked like a 3 foot tall rabbit sitting on a large rock in the middle of the meadow. I say ''Looked like'' only because it had a vaguely passing resemblance to a rabbit. At this point i wondered if i should just put on a dress, change my name to Allice and go in search of the Queen of hearts. The Critter was sitting down on the rock with its back turned towards me. It was easily three feat tall and had ears that looked a lot like a rabbits but were sticking straight up and constantly turning back and forth like a radar dish. ''Maybe I should nickname this critter Radar Wabbit'' I think to myself. Remembering my last encounter with a critter I decided to act cautiously. Moving just inside the forest edge I made my way clockwise to a spot where I could see the front of Mr Radar Wabbit. Moving a fern out of the way I looked out onto the meadow, The critter was still sitting on his rock about fifty yards away. His chest was covered in what looked like blood, In its hands it was holding what looked like another of its kind heads. As I watched from behind the fern, I shuddered at what I was witnessing. At that moment in my mind Mr Radar wabbit turned from a cute bunny into MR Cannibal Daemon Bunny from hell. Looking around to see if the bunny from hell had any friends I did not see anything amiss. Lifting up my M14 and sighting In on the critter I smiled to myself and thought ''Elmer Fudd eat yer heart out''. Putting my sights red dot on the critters head I slowly breathed in and let it out half way, holding my breath I pulled the trigger. ¡°BOOOM¡± Down range the Bunny from hell''s head suddenly turned into a pink mist that went one way while its body flopped down the other. Seeing the results of my shot I yelled out ¡°BOOOM HEADSHOT BABY!¡± In retrospect... I really probably shouldn''t have yelled out like that..Heck what can I say I was happy with my shot. Getting back onto my feat I moved out of the treeline and was about thirty feet away from the now headless daemon bunny when out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of white. Snapping my head around I instantly regretted my decision to pop Mr Bunny in the head and break cover like a complete noob. Hopping faster then a dog could run there were three more of the fuckers closing In on me posthaste. Bringing my m14 up to my shoulder I flipped the selector from single shot to full auto. Taking in a good sight picture of the closest I fired off a short three round burst. ¡°BOOMBOOMBOOM¡± Seeing the little bastard crumple I moved onto the next one ¡°BoomBoomBoom¡± three rounds one hit..each time. Not having the time to switch back to semiautomatic I just stroked the trigger lightly on the last bunny.¡±Boomboom¡± Seeing that all the evil little bastards were dead I quickly loaded in a new magazine. About the time I finished reloading a sound reached my ears that turned my blood into ice water. ¡°Rumble snap Rumble crash¡± It sounded exactly like a stampede of small furry feet heading in my direction. Not bothering to even look towards the sound I ran to the edge of the meadow and down the path as fast as my legs could take me. .............................................................. Might get part 3 done before bed.. not sure its midnight atm :P nope. Not tonight. CLIFF Hanger dropped by. Wabbit Hunt (Chap 3 part 3) Kinda short Chap 3 part 3 ..................................................... Running flat out down the forest path I spotted a blind corner in front of me. Barreling around the bend in the trail I almost run right into some kind of large catlike critter. Startling the both of us. Not having time to slow down or do anything much but keep on going I passed the kitty in a flash. Glancing back over my shoulder after a few seconds I see the large feline standing still in the middle of the trail shocked into immobility staring back at me. Letting out a small giggle I think ''Whats that old saying... You don''t have to be the fastest you just have to outrun the slowest''.. I picked up my speed at that point, My legs were starting to burn and to make matters worse the trail was starting to go uphill fast. About a hundred yards past the bend and my feline roadblock I took another glance behind me. What I saw caused me to temporarily forget my burning lungs and legs. A tidal wave of evil bunny''s zerg rushed around the the bend and promptly tore that poor kitty to pieces. The damn bunny''s didn''t even pause for a second while dealing with that light snack. ¡°Holy shit!¡± I gasp out. Huffing and puffing and cussing up a storm between gasping for more air I reached the end of the trail. I was standing at the edge of a three hundred and fifty foot cliff. Below was the lake, to my right was closely packed tree''s and to my left was a group of large boulders. Thinking quickly I did not really want to make that leap into the lake for a few reasons. I had no idea how deep the lake was below me. More importantly a fall from this height even into water could kill me. Looking back at the oncoming hoard I decided my options were limited, choosing plan A ¡°Peace through superior firepower¡± I snatched my rifle off my shoulder flipped the selector to full auto and let loose a storm of sizzling copper jacketed lead. ¡°Boomboomboomboomboomboomboom.....¡± The group of furious furry critters were packed together like sardines. My bullets were slamming right through the front runners and even those right behind to kill those in the rear. Seeing the effects of my fire did not give me much hope though, there were hundreds of the fuckers coming at me down the path. Stripping out empty and Slapping in a new mags one after the other I was decimating them. The trail looked like a meat slaughtering plant had hauled its offal out into the woods and decided to paint everything with gore. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. By the time I slammed in my last mag for my m14 I noticed that a good majority of the critters were dead but there was still more then fifty left, they didn''t seem to care about their loss''s. At this point they had gotten to within fifty yards of me, Firing off my last twenty rounds at the hoard I screamed out ¡°REMEMBER THE ALAMO!¡±. Dropping my m14 I pulled out my pistol and while backing up towards the cliff proceeded to fire once more. ¡°pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop¡± Reload ¡°poppoppop....¡± I Reloaded my pistol with my last mag just in time to once again get hit by a ugly train of fur. ''Why does this keep happening to me?'' flashes through my mind as I was propelled over the side of the cliff. At this point my weird time slowing ability kicked in as I did a rather good impression of trinity from the movie matrix. If I hadn''t had a critter attached to my arm and leg I just might have enjoyed the experience of flying. Looking up I see the little bastards are doing their very own impression of a lemming train. ''Good at least these assholes are going to die with me'' I think. Turning my attention to the critters attached to my arm and leg I placed the barrel of my pistol to the head of the one on my arm first. ''Booom'' and then....As I was moving to shoot the one on my leg.. Everything went black. ....................... Skills ? What Skills? (Chap 4 Part 1) Its getting a bit deep ....................................................................................... Chapter 4 Skills ? What Skills? ¡°You have to make a choice in life Be The Wolf the Lamb Or the Sheepdog. I pity those who Choose the Lamb¡± Unknown (Author) Coming awake with a scream I jumped out of bed crash through a door then another one to find myself standing in the middle of a small village. About that time reality made itself known to my addled fear ridden brain. The first thoughts through my mind were ''Bed?...Doors ? What the hell! Where are the god damn rabbits from hell!'' Looking around I see a average medieval looking village, one you would expect to see at some sort of tourist trap in Europe. I see many people standing around looking at me with curiosity, some of these people though..Well they were not any kind I have ever seen before. Some of them stood about five foot tall were covered in different shades of light to dark brown fur. These ''maybe critters, hallucinations,people?'' had fox tails about two foot long. Their shape was humanoid in appearance, arms legs heads eye''s etc All looked pure human if you were to remove the fur. Seeing one that was obviously female I added ''breasts'' to the list. The only difference was the tail and a set of ears straight off of a cat or fox. The ''foxcat people?'' were dressed in a range of what looked like homespun clothing to a couple that had from my impression boiled leather armor. The ''humans'' were also dressed in the same fashion. The village itself had a homey feel to it, there was a blacksmith sign attached to one large building with a thatched roof. Another sign a little further down the row of buildings had a needle and thread design on it. In the center of the village was a well with a old style pulley system to draw water out of. Moving my head back and forth taking all this in, I suddenly felt a bit exposed. Glancing down I discovered why. Yep I was in my birthday suit. Thinking ''Not again!'' That was a bit much for my little mind to take and without a single bye your leave.... decided It was time for another nap. I hit the ground like a sack of unwashed clothes... Once again everything went dark. A unknown length of time later the inner me decided nap time was over. Opening my eyes I found myself back in bed again. My thoughts that maybe I had just been dreaming though were quickly dashed. This was not my bedroom nor was this my bed. ¡°Where the fuck am I?¡± came tumbling out of my big mouth. At my words a gruff feminine voice to my right replied startling me ¡°you are in the village of Washburn young man and you will keep a civil tongue in that head unless you want to loose it¡± Looking towards the voice I see a older woman frowning at me, she looks around fifty years old and has a powerful matriarchal appearance. Seeing her I am reminded of my Great grandmother.. Ashamed of my potty mouth a bit I said to her ¡°Sorry about that..I didn''t know anyone was here and well..all of this is a bit of a shock¡±. Her frown quickly turned into a smile and she chuckled and said ¡°That''s alright young man, No harm done this time. You just remember... from now on to keep that tongue of yours civil.. I would hate to have to cut it out.¡± My eyes went wide at that comment, I wisely just nodded my head. Once again she spoke ¡°So what is your name boy?¡± responding to the question in my traitorous voice I squeaked out ¡°Richard ma,am¡± Nodding her head she said ¡°Wish I could say well met but... you have caused quite the uproar in our little village. It was bad enough when little Tommy came screaming back into the village yelling about seeing you fighting those nasty were-rabbits. When the men came back to the village with you half dead and with two of those things still latched onto you..Well the talking and jaw jacking just got worse.¡± ¡°Then yesterday you took first prize¡± confused I looked at her and said ¡°Hu.....First prize?¡± Laughing loudly she stated ¡°yep! First prize! The most talked about person or event ever in our little village.¡± Saying this while laughing uproariously and slapping her leg I was still left laying there confused. I said ¡°Excuse me...What happened yesterday?¡± Causing the poor woman to almost faint from how hard she was laughing. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.Tears in her eyes she told me ¡°Yesterday afternoon you woke up screaming and tore out of here like the hounds of hell were on your heals and didn''t stop till you were in the center of town. Once there you took one look around and promptly fainted...... Wouldn''t have been all that bad youngster..But for the fact you were naked. That little fact is going to keep tongues wagging in this little village for a long long time.¡± letting out a long sigh and blushing a bit which caused the woman to start laughing again I gave my head a little shake at how ridiculous things had been going so far. Realizing something from what the woman had said I snapped my head back around and asked ¡°you said that was yesterday?..How long have I been here? And before i seem to be ruder then I already am may I have the honor of you name?¡± Grinning she said ¡°My name is Martha Woodburn and you have been here ever sense Leeroy Jenkins and some other men dragged you out of the lake half dead four days ago. I must ask you Richard what ever possessed you to fight those nasty were-rabbits? Ever sense those things moved into the forest a few years ago even battle hardened fighters won''t set foot near the place.¡± With a Sheepish look on my face I told her about what had happened to me over the last five days. As I was speaking her expression went from a smile to a frown then back again, Shaking her head and chuckling at my story she said ¡°That story is too far fetched to be a lie, Bad business ''Old Yella'' is.. Tommy is going to be crushed when he finds out.. No helping it I suppose, That dog has been a thorn in the village''s side for almost a year now. I for one thank you for putting that poor beast out of it misery. The goddess of luck surely must favor you..If that dog had even scratched you.....Well lets not talk about bad things that didn''t happen right now.¡± Standing up and moving to the door she says ¡°wait here a moment and I will bring you something to eat and some clothes.¡± My face turned a bit red at her words and I lifted up the bed covers....sure enough I was naked. again.. ''I have spent an entirely disturbing amount of time recently naked in front of others'' I thought to myself. After a few minutes Martha returned with my clothes and a tray of food. Noticing that my killer shirt wasn''t present, and had been replaced with a new one made from homespun cotton I asked ¡°Martha? What happened to my shirt?¡± answering me she said ¡°We had to cut it off of you to pry that were-rabbit off. Those things are worse then lockjaw turtles once they get hold of you.¡± Hearing her words I quickly looked to my right arm where the beasty had been attached and saw nothing but clean undamaged skin. Almost exclaiming WTF again I bit it off midway through and only said ¡°WHAT THE....¡± Glancing at Martha I saw here eyebrow raise up a bit. Ignoring her for the moment I poked and prodded my arm. ¡°Martha... Why is there no wound?¡± With a broad smile she said ¡°After your story I was expecting that question, Especially sense you are the first from a new world. I bet things have been pretty confusing to you recently.¡± Nodding yes to her she continued ¡°You have no wound because in this world they heal over time. How fast they heal is based on how bad the wound is etc.. As long as you don''t die your wounds will always heal.... I am sure you have many questions but for now why don''t you eat and get yourself dressed. I will be out in the kitchen when you are ready.¡± Thanking her as she left I turned to the food she had brought and attacked it like someone who hadn''t eating anything in over five days. After eating I threw back the covers and looked myself over. I marveled at all the changes I had gone through over the last six days. It boggled my mind about the automatic healing also... This was going to save millions of lives back on Earth. Noticing a blinking miniature box at the right of my vision I focused on it and suddenly was inundated with so many blue box''s it covered my entire range of vision. Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding ................................................................ End Part 1 Next part will have a lot of blue boxes mixed in. Fleshing out skills etc Skills ? What Skills? (Chap 4 Part 2) Chap 4 Part 2 ... Big list of stuff.. Dont skip because some dialog is here also. This section WILL change over time. .................
you have leveled up
you have leveled up
you have leveled up
....... ¡­. .. .
¡­................................................................ You have received a New Title ¡­................................................................ Title:¡±Wabbit Killer¡± Were-Wabbits everywhere Hate you 1 To all stats 100 Fame 100 Familiarity with People of Washburn 10,000 enmity with Were-Wabbits ¡­...............................................................
¡­................................................................ You have received a New Title ¡­................................................................ Title: ¡°Suicidal¡± Due to your Suicidal last stand against a overwhelming force of Were-Wabbits People will now Shake their Heads in wonder 5 to Intelligence when you are surrounded + 100 Fame + 100 Infamy ¡­................................................................
¡­................................................................ You have received a New Passive skill ¡­................................................................ (Dirty Tricks Tree) ¡°Sneaky Bastard¡± 10% Effect to all Dirty Tricks skills Class: A ¡­................................................................
¡­................................................................ You have received a New Passive skill ¡­................................................................ (Dirty Tricks Tree) ¡°Reconnaissance Master¡± 10% Effect to Hide, Silent Movement Level 1 Xp 126/10,000 Class: SS ¡­................................................................
¡­................................................................ You have received a New Active skill ¡­................................................................ (Firearms Tree) ¡°Rapid fire¡± 5% increased Firing speed 5% Increased Accuracy Effect time: 10 Min Mana: 25 Level: 1 XP 300/5000 Class: S ¡­................................................................
¡­................................................................ You have received a New Active skill ¡­............................................................... (Firearms Tree) ¡°Rapid reload¡± 10% Faster Reloading Effect Time: 10 min Mana: 25 Level: 2 XP 32/10,000 Class: S ¡­................................................................
¡­................................................................ You have received a New Active Skill ¡­................................................................ (Firearms Tree) ¡°Boom Head shot¡± 5% Accuracy 50% Chance to Kill in one hit Effect Time: 1 min Mana: 50 Level: 1 XP 10/100000 Class: SSS ¡­................................................................
A sudden thought came to me ''the blasted blue boxes just might not be so bad after all'' Reading the descriptions a few times a big shit eating grin spread across my face. I liked the name of that first title but I hoped no one would give me the nick name ¡°Elmer Fudd¡± Because of it. What worried me more though was the ¡°Suicidal¡± Title. Made me wonder if some burly men in a van would show up with a straight jacket someday. Never has made any sense to me that suicide is a Felony back in my world. I mean... Really!...... If the person succeeds what are the police going to do?..... Arrest your corpse? And making it a Felony only gives that poor sap more incentive to get the deed done right the first time... Sigh.. The silliness that is the American Legal system sometimes drives me to distraction good reader. Used to be "Land of the Free home of the brave"... Now days it seems its more like "Land of the Fee home of the Regulation." Don''t misunderstand my words though, I have nothing but utmost respect for men and woman in uniform...Gooberment officials elected or not? ..Not so much. Closing the ''Not so bad after all.....Maybe?......'' Blue box''s I open up my Character screen to see the changes and spend my level up points.
¡­................................................................................................................ Name: [Richard Hollings] Race: [Human] Level: 9 [Xp 110/10,000] This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Health 120/120 Stamina 120/120 Mana 120/120 Job: N/A ¡­................................................................................................................ Titles: ¡°First From Dirt¡± ¡°Suicidal¡± ¡±Wabbit Killer¡± ¡­............................................................................................................... Unspent points: 49 Strength: [12] Intelligence: [12] Vitality: [12] Wisdom: [12] Dexterity: [27] Luck: [66] Charisma: [12] Agility: [12] ¡­................................................................................................................ Character Passives ¡­................................................................................................................ ¡°Guinea Pig¡± 10% to all stats Class SS ¡­................................................................................................................ ¡°Lucky Bastard¡± +50 To Luck StatClass S ¡­................................................................................................................ ¡°Reconnaissance Master¡±10% Effect to Hide, Silent Movement Level 1 Xp 126/10,000 Class: SS ¡­................................................................................................................ ¡°Sneaky Bastard¡± 10% Effect to all Dirty Tricks skills Class: A ¡­................................................................................................................
Seeing that because of my passives and title ''First from Dirt'' I had 49 points I decided to put ten points into Strength, vitality, intelligence and wisdom. I then spent five points on Agility and the last four I put in Charisma. Because Hey! Being liked is better then being hated... My new Character Screen showed.
¡­................................................................................................................ Name: [Richard Hollings] Race: [Human] Level: 9 [Xp 110/10,000] Health 120/120 Stamina 120/120 Mana 120/120 ¡­................................................................................................................ Titles: ¡°First From Dirt¡± ¡°Suicidal¡± ¡±Wabbit Killer¡± ¡­............................................................................................................... Unspent points: 50 Strength: [22] Intelligence: [22] Vitality: [22] Wisdom: [22] Dexterity: [28] Luck: [66] Charisma: [14] Agility: [17]
(Author note. Yes I know I need to work on the math. This is just temp) very happy with my progress I closed out my character screen and brought up my skills screen i had completely forgotten about.
¡­............................................................................................................... Skills: ¡­............................................................................................................... ¡°Boom Head shot¡± 5% Accuracy 50% Chance to Kill in one hit Effect Time: 1 min Mana: 50 Level: 1 XP 10/100000 Class: SSS ¡­............................................................................................................... ¡°Rapid reload¡± 10% Faster Reloading Effect Time: 10 min Mana: 25 Level: 2 XP 32/10,000 Class: S ¡­............................................................................................................... ¡°Rapid fire¡± 5% increased Firing speed Effect time: 10 Min Mana: 25 Level: 1 XP 300/5000 Class: S ¡­............................................................................................................... ¡°Mental Fortitude¡± 5% resistance against mind altering effects per level Current level = 1 598/1000 Class: B ¡­............................................................................................................... Modifications ¡­............................................................................................................... "Action Boy" +1 state point per level effect doubles every ten levels Class: God ¡­............................................................................................................... "Elementalist" unlocks the ability to learn all elements Unlocks job ¡°Enchanting¡± Unlocks skill ¡°Mana manipulation¡± Class: S ¡­............................................................................................................... "Enhanced vision" You will NEVER need glass''s! higher level provides different vision options Level 1 45% Class: 2 ¡­............................................................................................................... Scrounger Able to find value in absolute junk Unlocks Job: tinker Higher level increases value Has hidden effect based on Luck level 1 0% Class: 1 ¡­............................................................................................................... "Charismatic" People like you! Unlocks stat ¡°Charisma¡± +5 to Charisma every 10 character levels Class: 1 ¡­............................................................................................................... "Enhanced Sense''s" You can sense things even dogs cant Effected by luck stat Unlocks job ¡°Tracker¡± Class: 1 ¡­...............................................................................................................
....................................................................................................... End chap 4 part 2 .. for now. Skills ? What Skills? (Chap 4 Part 3) some WAS here.... ................................................................................................................................................................. Chap 4 part 3 Liking what I was seeing but a bit confused about why none of the skills or jobs listed as ''unlocked'' showed up on my list. I decided to ask Martha about it I dressed and headed out. Finding Martha in her neat little kitchen cooking what appeared to be cookies..With my mouth starting to water at the ''maybe'' cookies. I asked ¡°Martha I was looking over my skills and stuff but some of them are missing. They say unlocked but they are not showing up on my list¡± Martha ¡°Oh that is because you only have them unlocked, or in other words you now have the ability to learn them. The entire skills,mods,passives and jobs section can be quite confusing if you have never had any experience with them before.¡± Thanking her for that explanation she noticed me staring at what she was baking. Laughing at me she shooed me out of the house with the words ¡°Come back in a few hours after you have had a chance to meet people and look around. I will have a few cookies ready by then. If you could ask Bill the blacksmith if he is done fixing my kettle while your out I would be grateful. ¡° Ding
¡­......................................................................... New quest While exploring Washburn Village Find Bill the blacksmith And Ask him about Martha''s Kettle. Reward: + 25 Familiarity with Martha Martha''s Famous COOKIES!!! Failure: No Cookies for You ¡­.........................................................................
Telling Martha that I would definitely stop by the blacksmith''s, I was about to leave when a arctic blast of air seemed to screech its way up my spine. In a panic I rushed back to the room I had woken up in and searched around frantically. Not finding what I was looking for I ran back into the kitchen and in a scared panicky voice said ¡°Martha!! do you know where my weapons are ? They are no drop and I shouldn''t have been able to loose them!!!¡± Shaking her head at me she said ¡°Silly if they are no-drop then your weapons will be in your inventory¡± Quickly saying ¡°Open inventory¡± it opens up and I see my M14 and 1911 along with my magazines. What I also see surprised me. There was more stuff inside my inventory then there should be. Martha seeing my confused expression said ¡°Ha found out about the auto loot system I see. Hope your luck is better then most. Drops from monsters are pretty rare around here.¡± Nodding to her I started looking at the ¡°Loot¡± that was in my inventory. What I saw was 32 Medium Quality Were-Wabbit pelt 5 High Quality Were-Wabbit Pelt 2 Were-Wabbit feet 1 Golden Wabbit Foot of Luck 1 Dog Collar And a partridge.... in a ...pear.... tree.......Cough...Err...Sigh..Sorry.. Examining the Golden Wabbit Foot of Luck first
¡°Golden Wabbit foot of luck¡± 100 Luck Class: SSS+ Soul bound No Drop
My eyes tried their best at that point to pop out. Quickly coming to the decision to never tell anyone about this item I sent lady luck a heartfelt prayer of thanks. Looking at the dog collar next.
¡°Old Yella''s Collar¡± Bring this to Tommy Washburn Quest Item
Looking at the descriptions to the Wabbit pelts and feet I see they are crafting materials used by a seamstress or Tailor. Remembering vaguely that there was a sign with a needle and thread I figured that was probably the best place to bring them to. Telling Martha ¡°Thank you again I will be back in a bit¡± I headed out the door. Walking out the door to Martha''s house I see the village once again. The people were going about their daily activities. They looked surprisingly happy considering how low tech the lifestyle here was. Well in retrospect I am sure I would be happy in such a environment also if I had never known anything different. A old saying came to mind while I observed the people. ¡°While in Rome.. do as the Romans do¡± With that in mind i headed on my way. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Seeing the Blacksmith shop I headed towards it to take care of the new quest I just got. I had almost reached the door to the shop when one of the ''foxcat?'' woman stopped me with a greeting. ¡°Well met stranger, How are you this fine day?¡± Smiling at her I replied ¡°Well met yourself, I am doing quite fine today. My name is Richard what might yours be?¡± Giggling a little bit she says ¡°My My you are a forward one. My name is Beth Tailor. I own the Tailor shop just over there.¡± She pointed. Nodding my head and trying to figure out what she meant by ''Forward'' I said ¡°Pardon me if I seemed rude, I am not from the area and do not know your local costumes.¡± Interrupting me with another one of her giggles she says ¡°Oh that''s ok Handsome¡± A bit disconcerted at this apparent flirting I stumbled through my next question. ¡°Uhh... Yes.. I recently fought some...uh.. Were-Wabbits and have a few pelts and stuff... Uh.. yes I was wondering if..maybe you would take a look at them? Maybe you could tell me if they are worth anything.¡± Giving me a Wink she said ¡°Sure let me see what you have.¡± Pulling out the Pelts and wabbit Feet I passed them over to her. She expertly looked through the different pelts and stated. ¡°These are really good quality! Your luck must be amazing! The medium quality pelts are worth one copper each and the high quality ones are ten copper each. The Wabbit feet though aren''t worth anything to me. You should bring them to Frank the Enchanter. He can turn them into good luck charms for a price.¡± Noticing how cold it was starting to get I had a sudden thought and decided to ask Beth another question. ¡°Beth can you make a coat out of these pelts?¡± Nodding her head she said ¡°Yes I can, I could make you a really nice fur coat out three pelts. I would suggest that if you don''t have gloves to have a pair made also. That would only take one pelt for a pair of gloves. Normally it would cost one silver to make them but seeing that your new here and a handsome hunk I will give you a discount...Herm lets see..Hows a straight up trade sound to you? I take the pelts you have and in return make you a coat and a pair of gloves?¡± Not knowing if this was a good deal or not I hesitated for a moment. After thinking it through I came to the conclusion that regardless if it was a good deal or not, I needed something to keep me warm. Smiling I agreed to the deal and after giving her the pelts and thanking her I tried to make my escape from the shameless flirt. Catching me by the arm she stepped closer to me and whispered to me in a sultry voice ¡°Come to my shop tomorrow big boy and I will have your coat and gloves ready for you.¡± Giggling to herself she turned around and walked off towards her shop. Looking up at the sky I said ¡°This is your idea of a joke isn''t it?¡± not getting any response I shrugged to myself mumbling ¡°Woman...Are nuts..No matter what race they are..¡± Glancing back up at the sky expecting a bolt of lightning I sighed with relief when nothing happened. Ding!
You have Amused the Goddess Fortuna -10 to all stats Duration: 1 hour 59 Minutes left
Looking back up into the sky I said ¡°REALLY???¡± Ding!
Yes REALLY...
Thinking that I should probably watch what I said more carefully in the future I once again got back to the business at hand. Talk to the blacksmith, ask about the kettle then track down Tommy Woodburn and finish the Old Yella quest. ¡­................................ End Chap 4 part 3 JOB? What Do I Need A Job Fer! (Chapter 5 Part 1) Authors blurb A note about "Appreciation".. There is a distinct Lack of it causing a marked decrease in motivation. ¡­........................... Chapter 5 JOB? What Do I Need A Job Fer! "We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse." Rudyard Kipling Entering the Blacksmith shop I I saw quite a few tools laying about and a couple of sets of different types of armor on racks, a few shields and swords but no blacksmith. (Clink..Clang..Clink..Clink..Hiss¡± Hearing the sound of metal being stuck in the back of the shop I made my way towards the sound. Pausing at one of the sets of armor I was impressed at the quality of it. What I was looking at on one of the armor stands was a set of Leather studded armor. I didn''t recognize the type of leather but that was to be expected considering I was new to this world. The armor itself was a dark color, Not pitch black but not exactly light ether. More of a dark gray. Taking a closer look I noticed squares of metal were somehow inserted behind the leather with a small nipple of metal poking through the leather itself. Giving me the impression of a blunt leather pincushion. Impressed with the set I Wondered to myself how such armor was made. ¡°Cough...¡± looking up at the noise I nearly repeated my performance from the day before..Although this time I had clothes on so I imagine I wouldn''t be as entertaining for the gossips of the village. What stood looking at me could only be described as a walking mountain of muscle. Easily seven foot tall arms as big around as my waist with the largest head I have ever seen on a human. Walking towards me a lot faster then something so large should be able to move the giant spoke. ¡°Ahh your finally here!! Let me have a look at you.¡± Grabbing me with his dinner plate sized hands he spun me around with an occasional Mutter of ¡°hummm.¡± and ¡°ahhh¡±. Not knowing what the giant was doing and certainly not wanting to piss him off I allowed him to poke and prod me as much as he wanted. After what seemed like a hour or more but could only have been a couple minutes the giant stepped back and pronounced ¡°Yer a bit scrawny but I think you might have some potential. Follow me to the Forge¡± Not knowing what the deal was or wanting to anger such a large man I quickly followed him through the door into his workshop. Looking around I saw tools of all shapes and sizes along with bits and chunks of metal laying all about the place. I couldn''t help wondering if this giant had ever cleaned the place. Coming to a stop in front of the glowing forge the mountain turned towards me and said ¡°Give me your hands a moment¡± Raising my hands up he roughly grabbed them in his enormous hands then seemed to study them. Ding
¡­.................................................................. New job Available Job: ¡°Apprentice Blacksmith¡± Would you like to accept this job? YES NO ¡­..................................................................
A bit shocked at the turn of events I didn''t know what to do. Thinking to myself.. ''What do I need a job for? I am a big Bad-ass critter killer! Taking a job is just going to tie me down''.. I was just about to select the no option when the Mountain interrupted me.¡±Whats taking you so long boy! You should know its a great honor to become my apprentice. People come here from all over the world begging to be taught by me.¡± This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Not sure how to respond to him I said ¡°Uhh. You must be Ben the Blacksmith. Martha sent me over here to ask you if you had finished with her kettle. As for the job.. I do not see why I need one.¡± At my words the Giant let out a roaring laugh ¡°HAHAHAHA¡± shaking his head at me he said ¡°Boy I know who you are, Martha came over last night and talked me into taking you as a apprentice. Know this boy you might be able to kill some low level beasts but without a job your going to be nothing more then a cripple. Leeching off the good people of this village.¡± Seeing my confused expression he continued ¡°Every person in the village takes on at least one job. Jobs that you have increase your abilities and stats. The Blacksmithing job tends to raise your strength and stamina not to mention a bit of fire resistance. On top of that you also learn a useful trade that benefits the village. You don''t want to be a burden on the village now do you boy?¡± Thinking to myself a little bit I decided to voice a few of my concerns. ¡°Ben I surely do not want to be a burden on the village. The problem is I have no idea exactly how long I will be here. This job surly must take years to learn. And I honestly just do not have that much time.¡± Letting out another one of his Booming mountain man laughs he says ¡°You will be surprised at how quickly you learn, In the long run though when the time comes for you too leave there will be no hard feelings. Martha and I know you will not be staying here for a long time. But both of us feel that before you do go you should at the very least learn a job in case you ever find yourself in need of food and such. Not having a job limits your options by a large margin. If you found yourself In a bad spot you could be stuck picking weeds or breaking large rocks into smaller ones..In other words Hard Labor. ¡± Weighing my options I couldn''t see the downside to accepting the blacksmiths offer. Selecting yes and then yes again on the ''Are you sure'' prompt two blue boxes popped up into my vision.
Congratulations on your first job Job: ¡°Blacksmiths apprentice¡± Blacksmithing level: 1 XP 0/1000 1 strength 1 Stamina Job class: B
Quest completed! ¡°Martha''s Kettle¡± 25 familiarity with Martha Return to Martha for your Cookies!
''Mmmmm fresh Cookies'' flashes through my mind. Slamming his hands together with a loud ¡°WHAACK!¡± Ben says ¡°Good! Good!. Trust me in the long run you are not going to regret your decision. Now then..Where did I put that kettle.¡± He starts rummaging around in the endless piles of stuff laying about. Occasionally I can hear him mumbling to himself ¡°no...not here¡± or a half whispered ¡°Where the heck is it¡± After five minutes of searching he suddenly cries out ¡°FOUND IT!!! Right where I left it..Knew it was there all the time!¡± Trying my best not to laugh of this big mans antics he hands me a large well used kettle. Looking at it I can see where the big man had repaired the handle on it. It was amazingly really high quality work it could easily be compared to anything done in my world with all its high tech. Shaking my head in wonder my thoughts were interrupted when the mountain spoke again. ¡°Take this kettle back to Martha, She has been after me about it for over a week. Be here tomorrow morning a hour before dawn and we will get to work.¡± Nodding I thanked him for his time and after telling him I would see him in the morning I took my leave and left the Blacksmiths shop. End part 1 ¡­...................................... JOB? What Do I Need A Job Fer! (Chapter 5 Part 2) Chap 5 part 2 Warning.. Bit of a tear jerker this section.. Maybe.. Hell i dono.. Sigh ..Well at least the MC cries. Dono bout you all. ¡­...................................... Walking out the door of the blacksmiths shop I couldn''t help feel I had fallen into a ambush. With time time difference being what it was.. one day on earth was six months here I knew that I had plenty of time. Just the thought of staying stuck in one place though had me a bit apprehensive. I didn''t want to be stuck in the village for the entire length of my stay here. Resolving to ask Martha a few pointed questions the next time I saw her I headed off in search of little Tommy Washburn. Strolling through the village I was impressed by how industrious the people were. Nothing seemed to be wasted and everything had a purpose. Passing by what could only be a small bakers shop the smell coming out of the door almost made me go inside. ''Ahh nothing like the smell of fresh baked bread'' I thought. Moving along taking in the sights I noticed quite a few people were watching me, most of the watchers were woman of various ages. They were clustered together talking in small groups of two or more I couldn''t hear what they were saying but by the giggling and glances they were giving me I had a pretty good idea what the main topic of their conversations were. Not seeing any little boys running around and not even knowing what Tommy Washburn looked like I came to the conclusion that the best way to find him was to simply ask someone. Seeing a particulerly large group of woman ahead of me I hid my trepidation at the coming conversation and figured that the more present the less likely the chance of one of them flirting with me was................... Just before reaching the group they all burst out in laughter..The group of woman with large smiles on their faces turned to face me. Walking the last few feat up to them I greeted them ¡°Good afternoon ladies, My name is Richard. It is a pleasure to meet you all. Would any of you happen to know where Tommy Washburn may be?¡± At my words all of them started laughing again. A bit nonplussed I was turning to leave when one of the woman reached out and took hold of my arm stopping me. Looking back at her friends she said with a small smile ¡°Hello Richard..Don''t let this bunch of gossips scare you away. They are still a bit young and don''t know how to talk to men without giggling like little girls¡± Which earned her a few frowns from the rest of the group. ¡°It is a pleasure to meet you Richard my name is Sara¡± pointing to each of the others she told me their names ¡°and this is Shelly, Trisha , Heather and Rachell.¡± Giving the group a slight little bow I said hello once again and asked where Tommy might be located. Taking my arm in hers Sara quickly dragged me away from the others eliciting a loud collection of boo''s and cries of ¡°No fair¡± and a lot of laughter by the others. I started to dig my feet into the ground but she promptly said ¡°None of that now, You want to see my Brother and the quickest way your going to find him is if I show you where he is. Besides if I hadn''t gotten you away from that group back there they would have eaten you alive. You are the only thing people have been talking about ever sense you showed up. Honestly I find it quite tiresome to tell you the truth. I know if I was you I would not like all the attention.... Why do you want to talk to Tommy anyways?¡± I was amazed at how fast the woman was talking while dragging me along by my arm, without a word I Dug out Old Yella''s collar from my inventory and showed it to her..With sadness in her voice she said ¡°Old Yella.. He was a good dawg til the rot took hold of him. Many in the village are going to miss him...... Don''t worry about having to kill him though.¡± Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.¡°Everyone will be relieved when they find out Old Yella was put out of his misery. Tommy isn''t going to take the news well....No not well at all. He and that dawg were inseparable for over ten years..That is until the rot took hold. No one in the village has had the heart to tell poor Tommy what happened. All he knows is his best friend disappeared about a year ago.¡± Looking back at me with a soft expression she said ¡°Please be gentle when you tell him.¡± Nodding at her request ¡°I will do my best Sara, I know what its like to have lost a loved pet.¡± About that time we came up to a large barn, Inside was a boy of about twelve years of age. Looking at him he was a handsome kid, he had long brown hair and like most rambunctious kids his age was covered in small scratches and covered in dirt twigs and leaves from whatever adventure he had been involved with during the day. At the moment we walked up he was thrusting a long branch with a sharpened point on it into the hay loft. Seeing this Sara Called out to him ¡°Hey Tommy how many you get so far today?¡± he happily replied ¡°seven so far!¡± I leaned over and whispered into Sara''s ear ¡°Whats he doing?¡± Laughing she said ¡°Hes waking Wats¡± Seeing my confusion Sara pointed at a pile of something on the ground. Taking a close look I see a small critter, it looked like someone took a Rat and crossed it with a Bat. It had the body and head of a rat but the wings and ears of a bat... Not understanding where the W in the name came from I decided I probably didn''t want to know nor did it really matter. Saying out loud for the boys benefit I stated ¡°he must be a mighty Wat hunter to have goten so many in one day¡± The boy turned from his ''Wat waking'' with a huge smile on his face and said ¡°Thank you kind sir, you sure look better then the last time I saw you! Near on half dead you were. Seeing you kill off all those were-wabbits was exciting!¡± Looking over at his sister he said ¡°What you all doing here sis?¡± Glancing at me with a slight wince she said ¡°Well Tommy Richard here has something to tell you¡± Tommy turned his eyes towards me expectantly. Coughing a couple of times I proceeded to gently tell the boy about Old Yella. At the end of telling a edited version of the story where His dog had saved my life from the Were-wabbits. I pulled out the collar and handed it to him. (Yes..I lied to the kid. He was better off remembering the dog with happy memories compared to the heartache the truth would cause.) Crying he reached out and took the collar. Looking up at me with heart wrenching eyes he asked ¡°Sob..Did he suffer?¡± At that point I couldn''t help myself and started to cry myself a bit. Sara gathered Tommy into her arms and hugged him tightly. ¡°No Tommy Old Yella didn''t suffer, your Old dog was a Hero in the end¡±. Nodding at my words he thanked me for bringing him the collar then turned around with Sara and walked away. Sara looked back at me and mouthed the words ¡°Thank you¡± Wiping the tears out of my own eyes and seeing that it was getting dark I headed back to Martha''s house. Ding
Quest completed: ¡°Old Yella¡± 500 Familiarity with residents of Washburn Bonus: 100 Familiarity with members of the Washburn Family Because of your Compassion shown to Tommy. 10 Silver Bounty Reward See Leeroy Jenkins for Reward
End Chap 5 Part 2 ............................................................. JOB? What Do I Need A Job Fer! (Chapter 5 Part 3) Authors note. I was going to stop writing for the night at midnight and finish chapter 5 in a part 4 tomorrow. But Lucky you all... I lost track of time and really got into writing the story. Its now 1:30 A.M and i am off to see what my pillow has been up too while i was away.. Hope you all Enjoy the end of Chapter 5 Wolfgar Chap 5 part 3 ............................................................................................................. Opening the door to Martha''s I was greeted by the smell of freshly baked cookies and another unidentified but mouthwatering smell. Walking into the kitchen Martha was in the process of setting dinner out on the table. Grabbing a handful of utensils I put a knife and fork at all three plates that were on the table. ¡°Martha..Is there going to be someone else coming to dinner?¡± Nodding with a smirk ¡°Yes I invited Frank over to join us tonight.¡± Thinking I had heard that name recently mentioned I silently racked my memory for the name. After a few minutes and still not remembering I gave up, I was about to find out who this Frank person was shortly anyways. Helping Martha finish preparing the meal and setting out a delicious looking and smelling roast along with some kind of vegetable that looked like a cross between a carrot and a potato. I asked her what the unidentified vegetable was. She informed me that vegetable was called a ¡°Carto¡± and that they were quite common in the area. She also told me that they they were a staple for almost everyone in Arkhay. Meat was only available when or if the hunters of the village were able to find game. On rare occasions such as spring and winter festivals the village would slaughter one of the ''as yet unseen by me'' draft animals for the party. All of the preparation for diner didn''t take all that long but it was a enjoyable experience nonetheless. Just about the time I was starting to wonder if Martha''s mystery guest "Frank" was going to show up there was a Knock at the door. Asking Martha if I should get the door she shooed me away and said she would get it. While I waited I ruminated over the days events a bit. I was upbeat about my circumstances but still a little wary considering that for all intents and purposes this world was total new to me and already almost succeed in killing me more then once. If you counted the Wolf of Nope in my uncles house it was three times I had almost died in under a weeks time. Granted I killed the Wolf before it even had the chance to get its paws anywhere near me. Remembering the critter I suddenly realized I never did ask the goddess Fortuna about the Wolf. Shaking my head I sighed ..The entire reason why I had gone to the mine In the first place¡­.and I up and forget about it all because of a pretty goddess stripped me bare.. Figuratively speaking that is...well.... Cough..You know what i am talking about.. About the time I finished reminiscing over spilled milk Martha Walked back into the kitchen leading a very old looking maybe ''Foxcat'' person. He stood at maybe four and a half foot tall, much shorter then the average members of his race that I had seen around the village so far. His fur was mostly Grey with patches of light brown here and there. His right ear looked like at some point in his life something or someone had sliced it in half from the top down. In his right hand he carried what looked to me a short Cain or walking stick. The last thing I noticed about the old gentleman was he walked with a pronounced limp. Martha introduced him as ¡°Frank Chanter¡± and said he was the local Enchanter for the area. Greeting the old guy I said ¡°Hello Mr Chanter, My name is Richard Hollings. It is a pleasure to meet you.¡± Nodding without taking his eyes off the food he proceeded to declare he was famished and he was ready to eat. He then took the closest seat to him sat down and promptly started to dig in. Put off by this rude individual I was about to say something when I caught Martha giving me a small shake of her head out of the corner of my eye. Deciding to take my Que from her I walked behind her and held her chair while she sat down. This elicited a rude sounding ¡°Grunt¡± and a ¡°Snort¡± from our dinner guest. Once again Martha gave me a silent signal not to interfere.. My mouth and my mind at this point were having a battle to see which of them was going to gain control first. My Mouth wanted to tell the old asshole off but my mind was yelling that it was a bad idea and it would be disrespectful to Martha seeing that she made it clear i should ignore this guys rudeness. It really was no contest in the end, The mind controls the body after all. My problem has always been my mouth tends to blurt things out long before my mind has any chance to intervene..Or at least that is what I tell myself.... Sitting down to eat I resolved to keep my mouth shut considering I did NOT know what the situation was and Martha certainly didn''t seem to want to cause a incident. After loading my plate with some of the ''Carto'' vegetables I looked over and saw the roast was nearly completely gone. Glancing at Martha''s plate I saw that she didn''t have any of the roast on her plate ether. Looking back at our ¡°Guest¡± I was starting to get quite angry. ''How dare this asshole come into Martha''s house treat her and me like garbage and then wolf down like a pig the vast majority of the roast!'' I thought. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. My mouth was just about to win its ongoing argument with my brain when I had a sudden thought and quickly calmed down..''This guy is old..Martha obviously knows what he is like and never would have invited him to dinner otherwise.'' Realizing that there was something going on I decided once again..I should stay silent and eat my food. After twenty minutes or so the old guy suddenly got to his feat and let out a enormous belch he then said ¡°He will do Martha, Thank you for the Meal. Have him come to my house after he is finished at Ben''s tomorrow.¡± And with that he turned around and limped out leaving me flabbergasted. Seeing my expression Martha let out a loud laugh and shook her head. ¡°So Richard what do you think of the Frank the Enchanter?¡± she asked. Not wanting to loose my tongue I edited out what first came to mind. Taking the high road and seeing if I could maybe turn the tables a bit I said ¡°Oh he''s a fine old gentleman, Never meet a nicer individual in my entire life.¡± While I was saying that my right eye seemed to have developed a major twitch, Maybe I was suffering from a stroke....I thought.. Upon Martha hearing what I had to say about our guest Martha nearly busted my eardrums with her laughter. She laughed so hard and long my ears still ring a bit from her gales of laughter and the resulting coughing fit that nearly made her pass out. At one point I seriously considered going out into the night to find some medical help for Martha. After she had recovered a bit I looked back over to her and asked ¡°Umm..Would you care to explain what all that was about?¡± Letting out a very unwomanly giggle for a woman her age she replied.¡±Oh that''s just Franks way of interviewing you for Apprentice Enchanter. I must say you passed with flying colors..Your the first to pass his little test you know..And thank you Richard for being indignant on my behalf. Frank isn''t all that bad of a person..He just has a unusual sense of humor.¡± Shaking my head at the entire situation I started to worry about my immediate future. Thinking that I was way out of my depth with this Grandmotherly woman I decided that for the time being I would go with the flow. Besides I was actually interested in learning more about enchanting. Maybe I could throw some super powerful enchants onto my weapons or something. Maybe make a Holy Hand grenade or a Grenade Nuke.. Who knows what might be possible with magic. Nodding to her to let her know I was ok, I asked her something that had been nagging my mind all day long. ¡°Martha what exactly is Franks and the other people like him...I mean.... what is their race called? On my world humans are the only recognized beings.¡± She answered ¡°They are named the Certs after their home world supposedly. Not much is actually known about their origins even by them. They have been on this world so long all knowledge of their people before coming here has been lost. Quite sad really..Not knowing your peoples past.¡± ¡°They are a humble people generally, but like anyone if you back them into a corner they can be quite fierce. Over the years they have interbreed with humans so much that I doubt there is a full blooded member of their race left on our world. They are well known here and on other worlds as being some of the best Enchanters to exist. People will travel through multiple worlds and pay huge sums just to have a Cert Enchanter enchant something for them.¡± While she was explaining the origins of the Certs we had both finished eating and started to clear the table. After helping with the dishes I was about to head to bed when Martha brought up a subject that I had completely ignored. ¡°Richard, if your going to be staying here while working at the blacksmith and learning from Frank we need to come to some sort of agreement.¡± Slapping myself in side of the head with my hand I turned to her and said ¡°Ohh Damn!! I am so so sorry for just assuming things. I really am quite ashamed of myself.¡± Seeing my sincerity she chuckled and said ¡°It is really ok Richard.... Now then..all I need you to do is once a week head out and do some simple hunting. Bring back some meat for the village. Shouldn''t be too hard for a big strong lad like you.¡± Sensing that there was more to the ¡°Simple hunting¡± then she was letting on, I wondered what this woman had up her sleeves. Knowing I probably wouldn''t get to the bottom of it that night I thanked her for everything she had done for me. Turning towards my new bedroom she interrupted my attempt to get away from her before she volunteered me for something new with a nice surprise. Handing me a medium sized cloth bag she smiled at me then turned around and left. Looking inside the bag a huge smile suddenly plastered my face. COOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!! ................................................... End Chap 5 little over 4400 words in total. You Missed a Spot (Chap 6 Part 1) little over 1800 words. Might be able to get part 2 and 3 done today.. Maybe. depends. Not feeling 100% Today.. And Uranus is out of alignment. We shall see. Enjoy .............................................................................. Chapter 6 You Missed A Spot ¡°If at first you don''t succeed Try try again¡± W. E. Hickson The goddess ran through the waves on the beach ¡­.her platinum hair glistening from the water. Running up to me with a happy smile she told me I had to get up. Her words Confused me, I was standing already. I took her in my arms tightly and said that I was already up.. Still with a happy smile on her beautiful face she told me once again louder this time that I REALLY needed to get up. Not paying any attention to her confusing words I pulled her in for a kiss... ''SPLASH'' ¡­ ''YAAAAAAAhhhhhhh'' I screamed out. Wildly looking about I see that I am back in my bed soaking wet and Martha was standing at the door with a dripping bucket. ¡°I called you twice before I got the bucket Richard. You need to get ready for the day or your going to be late. Breakfast is ready in the kitchen.¡± Seeing that I was finally truly awake after her words Martha turned around and closed the door on her way out. ''Why is it every time I am having a good dream it gets interrupted!!?'' My mind cries out. Letting out a loud ''Sigh'' I crawled out of my now soaking wet bed and proceeded to get dressed. After dressing I stripped the wet linens off the bed and bundled them up. Carrying them out with me to the kitchen I asked Martha where I could hang them up to dry. After telling me about the laundry line out the backside of her house we sat down to a wonderful meal of mashed up ''Carto'' and fresh baked bread. After eating and helping clear and clean the dishes I headed out the back door and hung up the wet bed linens. Walking back into the house Martha stopped me as I was getting ready to leave. ¡°Richard, A couple things before you leave. First I wanted to thank you for how you told my grandson Tommy about Old yella. Not many people would have shown the compassion you did. Also Don''t let old Frank get under your skin. I have a sack here with a bit of food for your lunch.¡± Handing me the sack she gave me a smile turned about and disappeared into her kitchen. Putting the sack into my inventory I headed out the door while yelling out ¡°Thank you Martha¡±. Walking to the blacksmiths shop did a good job of waking me up the rest of the way. It was still dark out but the suns rays were starting to peak out over the valley. I was looking forward to getting my wabbit fur coat and gloves soon. The temperature must have dropped down into the low forties over night. Just as I reached my destination Ben the blacksmith burst through the door in a rush. Seeing me he yelled out while running away ¡°I will be back In a couple days, Do what you want just don''t break anything!¡± This turn of events was quite unexpected, standing there I was doing my best impression of a deer caught in a cars headlights. Shaking of my ''Deer in Headlights debuff'' I was still at a loss as what to do. Walking through the shop once again and not knowing what I was going to do I took a survey of the shop. I couldn''t help but notice how cluttered and messy the entire place seemed. ¡°Thats IT!¡± I said out loud to myself. Knowing I knew nothing about being a blacksmith yet the only thing that I could do with some sort of confidence was to clean and sort the shop. Thinking that it was a great idea I once more looked at my new workplace. A low groan escaped my lips when I realized just how much work it was going to take to clean the place up. How do you eat a elephant dear reader? One bite at a time. After eating my lunch at noon I closed up the blacksmith''s shop and headed off to Franks small house on the other side of the village. On the way I noticed the usual groups of woman talking and giggling. Thinking that the locals seem to have a lot of free time on their hands to be standing around a gossiping I finally made it to Frank the Enchanters. For the second time that day just as I was about to knock on someone''s door the door crashed open and there standing in front of me was Frank. Thankfully or maybe not this time my new boss didn''t go running off without leaving me any instructions. The first words out of his mouth seemed to be a repeat of the night before. ¡°YOUR LATE..¡± and the Next gem out of his mouth equaly was designed to raise my hackles. ¡°Have you been rolling around in a fireplace? Your FILTHY!. Your not coming into my home like that.!¡± Yep I was covered from head to toe in dirt and grime..I had been working all day in the blacksmith''s shop after-all. Somehow I didn''t think this old coot would give a damn about what troubles I had to deal with. He just seemed to be a ornery old cuss just for sake of it. He Turned around and in doing so his tail slapped me in the leg with a thump. The Old Cuss snapped his head around and said ¡°Don''t you be getting fresh with me boy ill rip off your head and eat well for a few days! Get yer ass down to the lake and clean yourself up.!Hup hup on the double Daylights awaisting!¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Turning around and running off towards the lake I swear I thought I heard the old cuss laughing his ass off as he went back inside his house. Maybe it was someone else in the village ..I didn''t have time to check as I did a bum rush to the lake. Reaching the lake and knowing the damn thing was probably colder than a witches Tit. I threw myself in to quickly get over the shock of the cold water. Kind of like ripping a band aid off.. Better to get it over with quickly then going about it slowly. After scrubbing what dirt and grime I could off of myself and my clothes I climbed out of the water and realized that maybe jumping in had not been such a good deal after all. While it wasn''t exactly cold out it definitely wasn''t warm ether. By the time I had made it into the village proper I was shaking like a dog with a bad case of fleas. Pausing a moment to rub myself down and gain my bearings something warm suddenly encasing me. Looking around I see Beth Tailor stepping back from me after putting a blanket on my shoulders. Bowing to her I said ¡°Thank you my lady you doth saved my life this day¡± in my best British aristocrat accent. (it was a pretty poor attempt at a accent but hey..Who here in this world was going to know the difference right?) Laughing she said ¡°Your Welcome fine sir you looked like you needed a bit of warming up¡±. Here smile and laughter seemed to actually warm me more then the blanket at that particular moment. ¡°So Richard why are you standing here soaking wet?¡± she asked. I told her about how my day had been going so far and when I explained about Frank her face screwed up into a frown. Exclaiming ¡°Arrr that rotten old man is up to his tricks again!¡± She stormed off in the direction of franks. Not wanting to miss the show I quickly followed. I learned a long long time ago NEVER under any circumstances irritate a woman. Its just not conducive to a long and happy life. God forbid you make the mistake of doing it to a woman your married to..... (Words to live by dear reader) Hanging back just a little bit not wanting to get caught up in the potential battle that was about to be fought I couldn''t help notice how cute Beth''s ears made her look. For being covered in fur and having a tail she sure had a nice ass also. (Now before you cry foul dear read know this.. I the AUTHOR. Am a Male. Noticing things such as the above is ingrained into males before we are even born..So I don''t want to hear no BS about how I am Objectifying woman. If you don''t want that to happen don''t go running about in skimpy clothing and with enough makeup to paint a house! Nuf said?) [Dan: You tell em boy! Damn feminists] {{{Real author note:I Wonder how many readers will drop the story after that last part...If you honestly think its a bit over the top toss me a line down in the comments section and i will remove it.}}} While I was ruminating over Beths physical attributes we had reached Franks. Stalking right up to Franks door she started wailing on it with a passion. ''BAM BAM BAM'' yelling out ¡°UNCLE FRANK!! get your mangy ass out here!¡± The door opened up and a sheepish looking Frank stood in the door. I have to give the guy credit where credit is due. He did his best to placate the Hurricane standing at his door before it could blow him away.. ¡°Hello Beth what a nice surprise you coming to visit your old uncle frank....¡± Growling at him Beth laid into him ¡°What the hell were you thinking sending Richard down to the lake to clean up?! You know how cold that water is HE COULD HAVE DIED! You old Miscreant!. One of these days your jokes are going to end up killing someone. Then whats going to happen to you....¡± Her tirade there at the end lost a bit of steam. Nodding at her words he at least had the humility to appear ashamed. Turning towards me he said ¡°Richard I am sorry for how I have treated you up to this point. I am a old old man, And sometimes I let my sense of humor get away from me.¡± Looking at the old cuss I couldn''t help feel sorry for him a little bit despite how he had been acting. Taking a minute to think a few things through I decided to forgive him. No real harm was done..And there was the little fact that I DID want to learn enchanting. So it wasn''t totally Unselfish of me when I said. ¡°Apology accepted Frank¡± At my words Beth gave me a wide beaming smile winked at me and turned to go. As she was walking away she called out with laughter in her voice ¡°You boys play nice now.¡± and with the she was gone. Looking at me Frank pointed down at my pant leg and with a wink said ¡°You missed a spot boy!¡± End part 1 ......................................................................... Insert some random here.. You Missed a Spot (Chap 6 Part 2) Grumble grumble.......Burp .. one instance of the F word in this section.. God i feel like crap today...... Mumble ... Moan .. Might ...Maybe.. Dono.. Finished chap 6..today. only 7 pm here. .............................................................. Chap 6 part 2 Following frank into his house I was instantly struck by how clean and orderly it was. Everything I saw was in its proper place and there wasn''t a hint of a single rabid dust bunny in the entire place. Suddenly things started to make sense to me. Frank had what on earth was called OCD and it looked like it manifested itself in the ¡°obsessively clean spectrum.¡± There were many different kinds of OCD being Obsessive about cleanliness wasn''t all that bad considering. There was even a saying that went ¡°Cleanliness is godliness¡±. I just hoped that Frank wasn''t TOO Obsessive in regards to me. If he was things were going to be tough with me showing up after working half the day in the Blacksmith''s shop. Upon reaching a small workroom Frank sat down and pointed at a chair and told me to sit. ¡°Now boy, First things first. I noticed my niece Beth has taken a liking to you. I also know your not going to be sticking around the village all that long. So I am warning you right now. If you hurt that girl there isn''t a place in all the worlds you will be able to hide from me. Understood?¡± Confused but not wanting to anger the old guy I simply nodded my head. Letting out a ''grunt'' and then a ''loud fart'' frank continued. ¡°Ok Your here to lean about Enchanting.¡± My eyes started to water a bit...¡±The first thing you need to know about enchanting is ANYONE can do it once they gain the job.¡± A tear slowly made its way from my eye and a tickling sensation was irritating the back of my throat. Glancing up at me Frank said ¡°Now now boy I know you are happy to learn from me but that is no reason to cry over it.¡± Grabbing hold of my hands a blue box suddenly popped up.
¡­............................................................................. New Job Available ¡°Apprentice Enchanter¡± Using your skills you will be able to Enchant things Would you like to learn the Enchanting Job? Yes NO ¡­.............................................................................
Trying to take short breaths I quickly accepted the job. Getting kind of frantic I was racking my brain over how to quickly make my escape from the smell without offending the old coot. My mind screamed out ''DEAR GOD What the hell has he been EATING!'' when I remembered dinner the previous evening. Letting out a barely audible groan Frank once again misinterpreted..Or maybe he didn''t and was laughing his evil smelling ass off at me in silence. ¡°Don''t worry boy your in good hands I have never failed to teach my craft to someone¡±... At that moment I knew he was messing with me. Martha had said I was his first apprentice.. ¡°Alright now boy you have almost everything you need to get started with Enchanting. Like I said Enchanting itself Is something Anyone can do once they have the job. The difficult part is learning the Enchanting language.¡± He said as he was searching a large bookcase to the side of his work bench. The book case itself spanned the entire length of the room and was covered in volumes as small as a paperback to some that were over a foot thick. Picking out a rather small book only about two inches thick and about a foot tall and wide I continued on. ¡°Ahh here it is. The basics of Enchanting volume one.¡± He handed me the book with the first smile I have ever seen plastered on his face.. ''Does that smile have a evil ting to it?'' my mind asked itself. Sensing something was a bit off I took the book and opened it up. Flipping through the pages I saw that it described different types of materials that could be used and in another section what type of tools one should use for inscribing enchantments on items. There was also a section titled ''proper enchanting techniques''. After quickly checking the book over I had not seen any sign of a new language Frank had mentioned. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Looking back up at the grinning old man and with a sense of dread in my voice I asked him. ¡°If this is volume one..How many volumes are there?¡± I swear his grin got a bit larger at my question. Replying he said ¡°Oh you don''t need to worry... there are only two Volumes to the Basics¡± His words put me at ease at first until I noticed his grin had turned into a huge shit eating smile. Not knowing what I was getting myself into I ignorantly asked the obvious question. ¡°So um Frank..You say Enchanting is easy..All I need to do is learn the Enchanting Language. Umm which of these books of yours covers the language I need to learn?¡± Turning with that huge smile on his face he points at his book shelf and said ¡°Oh that..Its right there¡±... Not seeing what book he was pointing at I asked him for clarification. ¡°Which book exactly is it Frank?¡± Laughing he says ¡°Why all of them boy!¡±. I couldn''t help it ..My mouth took over and said ¡°The Fuuuuuuuk¡±. Frank started roaring with laughter after calming down a bit he explained. ¡°Boy why did you think Enchanters are so highly respected and prized? Yes any fool can put a simple enchantment on a item. That doesn''t mean the enchantment is going to last or be any good. You need to know the language and how to write it into the item your working on. A good enchantment that lasts is like writing a well written story. It takes time effort and a great deal of patience.¡± Turning serious Frank says ¡°Now listen here boy, Enchanting is one of the most powerful jobs in Arkhay. With the right Enchants you could do anything you can think of from flying to transporting yourself to a different world the uses of enchanting are practically endless. And if your not careful you can easily kill yourself or others. I am going to have to insist that you don''t try enchanting anything before I tell you it is ok. This is for your own good. The last thing I need is Beth showing up and giving me a earful after you wind up killing yourself by experimenting. Take this book and after you memorize it return here in a few days. Make sure you memorize it boy I will be testing you. Now go on get outta here I need to take a nap. Oh and Stay off my damn Lawn! Use the path next time.¡± In a shocked state over how much there was to learn I quickly stumbled out of Franks house. Getting outside I sucked in a few deep lungful''s of clean clear air and thanked the goddess for preventing me from passing out inside the house. Making sure I stayed on the short path to the village proper I set out to find a place to read. Walking down towards the lake I found a decent spot along its edge and proceeded to read. Many hours later after I finished the book I had to agree with the old man. Enchanting was deceptively easy. All one had to do to enchant a item was to know the words for the enchantment and then inscribe those words onto the item in question while focusing your mana into the inscription. The difficulty lay in the fact that the enchanting Language was massive. Easily more complex and descriptive then English. The scary part was if you messed up the inscription by using the wrong words, or slipped with whatever tool you used while making it. It could and most likely would ether kill you or someone else. Best case was nothing happening at all. The book I had just finished reading was full of cautionary stories about how impatient novice enchanters had seriously fucked things up. There was one story about how one idiot had blown up a good sized city. Reading this I gained a new found respect for the dangers and power of enchanting. In the wrong hands this could easily end up wiping out entire worlds. Seeing that it was getting dark again I made my way back to Martha''s house. End Chap 6 part 2 .............................................. Something You Missed a Spot (Chap 6 Part 3) Here lies the End of chapter six. May it rest in peace... Or not. Probably not considering at some point there will be changes made etc.. Well its the thought that counts right? On a somewhat serious note......I tend to have problems writing about interpersonal matters. Why i decided to stay away from the Harem idea. No i will not be adding a harem.. NO i say!....My inner perv says yes but my mind says no.... Frankly i just would never be able to pull it off or do it justice. I know my limits. That said this chapter tries to flesh out the MC''s reasons why he isn''t interested in a relationship "At this time" etc.(is using the word "Flesh" in that sentence considered a pun?) I most likely failed quite hard in my attempt..I really really don''t want this story to be just another random soft core porn story. It is what it is. and the best i can do atm. Maybe someday it will be better. /End incomprehensible ramblings of a mad mad fool......... Total Chap 6 word count 4777+ Hope you enjoy .............................................................................. Chap 6 part 3 On reaching Martha''s place I heard what sounded like a couple cats fighting coming from inside the house. Concerned about Martha I quickly rushed to the door and threw it open. Upon entering the house I see Beth tailor and Sara Washburn on the floor attacking each other. Martha on the other hand was standing in the doorway to the kitchen laughing her ass off and holding a bucket of water she was in the process of tossing onto the two girls fighting on the floor. ''She seems quite fond of that water bucket'' flashed through my mind while I took in the situation. With a splash...The water served its purpose. The two hellions on the floor both let out a screech at the dowsing. At this point I made my presence known by yelling out . ¡°WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!?¡± The looks on their faces when they looked in my direction was priceless. I wish I had a camera on me it was that good. The two on the floor turned a interesting shade of red, and I found out that yes a Cert could blush. Meanwhile Martha was still laughing quite loudly. The two woman quickly got back onto their feet and alternated from smiling at me and glaring at each other. With a sinking feeling I broke out in a sweat.. I suspected I knew what this little ruckus was all about but I prayed that I was wrong. I didn''t need that kind of distraction in my life right now and honestly I didn''t think it would be fair to a woman for me to get involved with one at this point in time. While this was going through my mind Martha had finally stopped laughing. Looking over at me she said. ¡°Welcome home Richard. I hope you had a nice day..¡± Glancing over at the two miscreants she continued ¡°I think you are smart enough to figure out what is going on Richard.. So I think I will leave you too it for now. Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes. Beth..Sara. Your both welcome to stay.¡± With that she turned around and quickly escaped to her kitchen. Feeling a bit envious about her escape and wanting to be anywhere but where I was at the moment I bit the proverbial bullet and turned my full attention to the two in front of me. Hoping against all hope that this really and truly wasn''t about what I thought it was I said. ¡°Hello you two.. Care to explain why you are trying to kill each other?¡± Beth started off first .. ¡°Its all her fault! She said you were her man and that I should stay away!. I saw you first so I.......¡± Interrupting her I looked at Sara and said ¡°Is this true? You are telling people that I am yours?¡± Looking down and not meeting my eyes she blushed quite deeply and in a small voice said ¡°Yes¡±... Shaking my head at my bad luck.. or good depending on how you look at things. I couldn''t help but let out a small chuckle at the situation. Running through more then a few fantasy''s some including a harem etc in my mind I quickly realized that it would be a major mistake for me to get attached to any woman from this world at this time. (Dan: Coward) The problems that came to mind far outweighed the benefits. Not only for me but for any woman who I was to ''Hook up'' with even if it was just temporary. I wasn''t going to be staying in the village for any great period of time. And for all I knew simply ''hooking up'' with one or both etc would introduce me to this worlds version of a shotgun wedding in spades. Don''t get me wrong I liked having sex just as much as any guy. I just have certain morals.. And jumping into the sack just to jump into the sack just was not something I did. I required..A connection. And while there was a certain amount of connection between both these woman It definitely was not enough for me to want to marry them or to put ether of them in danger. Looking at both of these beautiful woman I let out a sigh and tried my best to turn them down gently. ¡°Lady''s, You are both aware that I am not from this world and I will not be staying in the village forever right?¡± They both nodded that they understood what I was saying. Going on ¡°You do know that what I will be doing after leaving here will probably be very dangerous.¡± The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Once again they both nodded ¡°Well then I am sorry to say that while I am deeply grateful and flattered that you are interested in me I can not in good conscience be with ether one of you. In the way you seem to want. I hope we can still be friends though..¡± I said the last bit holding my breath. My hopes of nipping this little problem in the butt quickly were dashed though. Both of them exclaimed the same thing at the same time. ¡°WHAT?!¡± It when downhill quickly from there. They started asking questions like ¡°Don''t you like me¡±.. ¡°Am i not pretty enough for you?¡± They went on and on like that for a good couple of minutes. Finally they stopped with one last question that I felt I needed to answer considering it brought my manhood into question. Beth was the one to ask it. ¡°Do you like men?'' Choking a bit I quickly replied ¡°NO! I am not into men!¡±. I quickly went over the many reasons why I wasn''t willing to get into a intimate relationship with them presently. They listened to my long winded rambling often times incoherent explanation quietly until I was finished. And what conclusion did they come to ? They said they understood and that sooner or late I would come to my sense''s and pick one of them. Until that time came they could wait. ¡­.....Yep...It would seem I wasn''t going to be given the choice in the matter.[Dan: idiot] With the excitement temporarily over we all headed into the kitchen to eat. Dinner went by quickly even with the woman all talking about my sex life or lack of it. When a thought came to my mind and like any other idiot I had to ask about it. ¡°Why are you both so interested in me? Isn''t there any other men in the village?¡± All three of the woman looked at me with that ''LOOK'' The look that says ''Aww he really is a simple idiot''. After a few seconds Martha answered my question with a question. ¡°Richard..Just how many young men have you seen in the village?¡± Thinking about it for a moment I suddenly understood why my question was so stupid. In all the time I had been in the village so far I had yet to see any men my age, Plenty of woman running about but rarely a man. And the men that I did see were all ether really old like Frank or really young like Tommy. Looking up at the woman I said ¡°Let me guess.. All the unmarried men here are ether too old or too young?¡± Nodding sadly at my words Martha said ¡°Yes..And it is a growing problem not only here but also in other villages nearby. I dare say any village you enter your most likely going to end up with more attention then you seem to want. The birth rate for girls is six times that for boys on our world. No one knows why its just the way it is.¡± ''Awwww shit..The Mormons and others who think like them are going to absolutely love this world I thought''. Seeing that dinner was finished I stood up and helped clear the table. The woman shooed me out of the kitchen at that point saying a kitchen was a womans place.. Not something that I agree with by the way..I enjoyed cooking etc. But as the saying goes..''When in Rome''.. Besides this wasn''t my house and I didn''t make the rules. After saying good night to the ladies I headed into my room and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light. Over the next few days I was repeatedly woken up by Martha''s version of a alarm-clock. Her and that trusty water bucket of her''s quickly taught me a new skill. How to wake up on time. Sadly I didn''t receive any blue box stating this new skill though. Over those same few days I worked most of the time cleaning and organizing the blacksmith shop. After growing tired and extremely dirty doing that each day. I would grab the enchanting book Frank gave me and studied it. While the information wasn''t exactly hard I have never been that great with memorizing things. Happily that seemed to work itself out though on the third day when a blue box popped up. Ding
Congratulations you have learned a new passive skill ¡°Basic Memorizing¡± 15% faster Memorization Class: B Level 1 Xp 23/100
¡­............................................... End Chap 6 Thats Not a DEER! (Chapter 7 part 1) yawn.. midnight here.. last chap section for tonight. enjoy ................................................. Chapter 7 That''s Not A DEER! ¡°In a civilized and cultivated country, Wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen¡± Theodore Roosevelt Waking up on my tenth day in the world of Arkhay I was more then happy with myself that for the first time I wasn''t waking up soaking wet. Hearing a noise at my door I glanced up and saw Martha with her bucket standing there with a sad look on her face. I suspected she had grown fond of using her water bucket on me over the last four days. I was about to say something when she suddenly hauled back and launched said water onto me with a serene look on her face.. Yes..She was indeed enjoying herself. With a loud cry of ¡°What the hell Martha!'' I jumped out of bed and started with my usual routine that I had developed over the last few days. Namely stripping the bed linens getting dressed etc. All the while glaring at the madwoman standing in my door laughing at me. ¡°You do know I was awake right?!¡± I exclaimed. Nodding at me she turned around and as she walked out said ¡°Awake isn''t out of bed Richard!¡± Shaking my head in exasperation I couldn''t help but chuckle at our weird relationship. Grabbing the wet linens I once again proceeded to hang them outside to dry while I was off working and learning. After completing that depressingly routine job I headed back inside for breakfast. Entering the kitchen my nose and mouth were assaulted by a smell that instantly made my mouth water. Looking around I couldn''t'' spot what the hell smelled so good. I asked Martha what the smell was and she uncovered a plate with what looked like BACON!. God I missed bacon and eggs in the morning. Don''t get me wrong the mashed vegetable Carto stuff tasted a lot like sweet yams and made for a very nutritious and filling meal. But you just can not beat BACON! In the morning. Mmmm Hot Bacon... On the table was our usual morning fair.. Carto and fresh baked bread. The BACON was on a plate set between Martha and me. Sitting down and taking a piece of Mana from heaven I stuffed one end into my mouth. Biting down a explosion of taste entered my mouth, It tasted like BACON but it also had a distinct honey barbecue taste also. I let out a load moan of pure pleasure while chewing. Two kinds of food I loved the most combined into one small neat package. The only problem was there was so little of it to eat! After loosing my mind over a little BBQ Bacon it took me a few minutes to realize all the food was gone. Sighing In pleasure of the treat I asked Martha what the occasion was and where the bacon came from. She said ¡°Well that is the last of the Gipper in the village and sense today is your day to head out and hunt I thought you might like a bit of motivation. As for Bacon I do not know that word. But it sounds like the Gipper meat tastes like this Bacon?¡± Nodding in affirmative to her I said ¡°Yes on my world we have a animal called a pig. It will basically eat almost anything a omnivore. Bacon is meat that is usually cooked for breakfast and comes from the pigs belly area.¡± After finishing up my little speech about the pig and its glorious BACON. I asked Martha to tell me about the Gipper and said a silent prayer that somehow ''Ronald Reagan'' wasn''t running around on this world. The description of the animal she described put all thoughts of the dead president out of my mind. ¡°Well the gipper is a lot like the pig on your world. It too will eat anything it can get its mouth around. They really are a nuisance animal and are hunted relentlessly for not only their meat but also because the breed so fast. One pair of Gippers can produce twelve new Gippers ever two months. Because they eat everything they come across they grow really fast. From birth to full grown it only takes four months. If we didn''t hunt them they would quickly eat the entire world down to nothing more than dirt.¡± Understanding the full importance of managing these critters I asked her to describe them for me. What I heard was the stuff nightmares are made from. Martha ¡°Full grown Gippers reach about nine foot tall are about three and a half to four foot wide at the shoulders and twelve foot long. They walk on four legs and have a set of razor sharp teeth about the length of good dagger. They are extremely aggressive if you get near their territory, But if you kill one of the adults others will run away. The closest group of them is to the east of the village. You wont be able to miss where they are sense they destroy nearly everything around them. I suggest you kill one from a distance.¡± A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. What Martha described to me was a elephant crossed with a saber-tooth tiger on steroids. I could picture the monster in my minds eye, and it made me shudder more then I would like to admit. Picking up my dishes I washed them and went back to my room to get the coat and gloves Beth Tailor had delivered the night before. I was impressed with the quality of her work I thought the jacket made me look rather dashing to be honest. After donning it I couldn''t help thinking of the ''Fur is murder idiots'' back on earth and wondered if they might change their tune if they ever met a were-wabbit. One can only hope...Then again..Unless magic has some surprises I don''t know about there still is no cure for stupid. Heading out of the house Martha handed me my usual cloth bag with my lunch in it and wished me good luck on the hunt. With a nod and a thank you I took my leave. Passing by the blacksmith shop I stopped dead in my tracks. The door was open, I knew I had closed and latched it the day before so it being open meant something was wrong or Ben was back from his mysterious trip. I pulled out my M14 and after doing a quick check that it was is good working order I walked up to the door. On reaching the door I could hear someone working on something in the back. Figuring that it was the blacksmith I headed back to talk with him. Sure enough there was Ben working on some piece of metal mumbling to himself about what I don''t know. Calling out to him I said ¡°Hey Ben welcome back¡± Spinning around faster then a man his size should be able to move he stood up to his full height and said ¡°Oh its you..............Your late for work this morning boy. Have you been slacking off while I was gone? What exactly did you do while I was away?¡± A tad flabbergasted at his words I looked around the shop and saw the last 4 days of my efforts everywhere I looked. Everything was sorted out and cleaned, I had even setup and sorted all the tools in easy to reach places. Looking around I couldn''t understand why he couldn''t see what I had done. Glancing back at him I noticed a slight smirk on his face. I then groaned and said ¡°Everyone''s a comedian...¡± Seeing that his ruse was over Ben''s face grew a big smile and he said ¡°Boy when I had to leave I never expected you to actually do anything while I was away. Thank you for cleaning the place up, I have been meaning to do it for years but I just have not gotten around to it.¡± Noticing I had my rifle in my hands he then said ¡°What do you have their boy?¡± Showing him my rifle and explaining why I had it out and that I wasn''t going to be working at the shop today because I was going hunting for Gippers. Ben let out a low whistle at my rifle. Then a louder one once he heard about my Gipper hunt. Studying my rifle I could tell Ben became a instant fan of it, He seemed to like anything mechanical. After handing it back to me I pulled out my 1911 and showed that to him also. It was kind of comical how the big pistol disappeared in his big hands. After giving me my pistol back he said ¡°Those are some fine weapons you have there boy, I thought that you might have problems with the grippers at first but after seeing those my mind is at ease. Follow me for a moment I have something for you.¡± Following Ben into the shop front he stopped in front of the Armor stand holding the set of Leather studded armor I had seen the first day I was in his shop. Pointing at it he said ¡°That is yours now boy, hopefully it will keep you safe¡± Protesting that the armor was worth way too much as a gift got me nowhere with Ben. He just shook his head and said. ¡°NO. You worked hard cleaning this place up. What you did was worth more then a set of Leather stud boy and I will not hear you say otherwise. Now hush and put that armor on.¡± After putting my new armor on I was starting to think quite highly of myself. The armor itself was expertly crafted by Ben. Examining it I noticed that it gave me +10 to Vitality and the armor rating was fifty. {{{Authors note: Change/add etc these values}}} Wishing in a moment of vanity for a mirror I looked around and failed to see anything that would work. Turning around I said ¡°Ben I do not know how to thank you for this....Other then to simply say thank you.¡± Smiling at me he just nodded his head. ¡°So Ben. How do I look?¡± Ben''s smile instantly turned into a scowl and letting out a snort he said ¡°How should I know. Im not a woman.¡± Yea... I didn''t blame him for that.. Telling Ben I would be back to work in the morning he wished me well as I headed out. ¡­...................................................................... End chap 7 part 1. 1764 words. Thats Not a DEER! (Chapter 7 part 2) Guess i lied.. its now 1:35 am. Didn''t go to sleep Lucky you i wrote out part 2 Hope you Enjoy ............................................................................... Chap 7 part 2 Walking out of the village I was stopped by a hail from Leeroy Jenkins who was pulling guard duty at the gate. ¡°Hail What you going?¡± He said. I instantly noticed Leeroy wasn''t the smartest cookie but he at least greeted me with a smile. This was the first time I was meeting him..Well First time awake that is. He and a few others had fished me out of the lake after my little run in with the were-wabbits. Waving hello I said ¡°Hail yourself Leeroy, Thank you for fishing me out of the lake the other day.¡± He grunted and grinned at me. Then he said ¡°Leeroy gud swimmer¡± Smiling back at him I told him I was off to hunt a Gipper at my words his smile turned into a frown and he once again spoke. ¡°Gippys bad..You no go! Bad BAD¡± Before Hearing his reaction I thought him somewhat simple and equated him with Lurch from the old Tv show The Addams Family. Taking a close look at his eyes I could see that he was a lot more intelligent then his words gave credit. I didn''t know what was the cause of his speech problems but I could tell that while the buy might not be Einstein he sure as hell wasn''t special ED material ether. Pulling my Rifle off my shoulder I showed it to Leeroy in hopes of placating his concern. He took one look at my rifle and his smile instantly was back on his face. Letting out a laugh he said ¡°That good, Will do Gipper well. ¡± He then slapped my shoulder nearly knocking me off my feet, Damn guy was strong as a ox. I asked him where the gippers were and he pointed to a trail through the forest heading east. Saying goodbye and thanking him one more time for saving me from the lake I took my leave. Quickly making my way through the forest I kept my mark one eyeballs peeled for any critter that might want to jump out and bite me in the ass. It took me nearly two hours to reach the east side of the Valley, Once I got in the general vicinity I started to notice the complete lack of any sound and multiple signs of something having moved through the area. Coming to a large open area I saw what Martha had meant by these critters eating everything they found. I was standing at the edge of the forest directly in front of me was a cliff face to my right was the forest to my left was what some people on earth would call a ecological disaster area or maybe no mans land. Absolutely nothing was inside this area, No grass no tree''s NOTHING. This area stretched out for about half a mile bordered on one side by the mountain and the other three by forest. From the point where I was standing I couldn''t see any of the critters I was there to hunt. My plan was to spot one of the big critters from a distance and then move into one hundred to two hundred yards to take a head shot. Not seeing the beasts where they should be raised the hackles on the back of my neck. There is a well known rule while hunting things that tend to hunt you back.. Never loose sight of them.. Crouching down I moved as stealthily as I could closer to the rock cliff face. Looking the cliff over I had to nix plan A because I couldn''t see anyway to climb up it without hardware I just didn''t have. And I personally always thought that free climbing was for Adrenalin junky fools anyways. One wrong move and what goes up must come down..Usually ending in up as a unrecognizable bag of broken bones and flesh at the bottom. Nope.. HELL NO! Not going to happen to me. Keeping my eyes open I started working my way around the open area through the treeline. Going out into the open without any cover was just asking to get ett or worse. Moving along slowly it took me almost three hours to finally spot the small group of Gippers. They had been hidden by a roll in the landscape. Looking out at them I really really did not want to ever come into close contact to something that ugly and mean looking. But hey..i wanted my BBQ BACON! ¡­.Addiction sucks.. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Moving into a position roughly two hundred yards away from the critters I saw that they must have just given birth to a new litter. The small ..If you wanted to call something the size of a VB Bug car Small, Babies were actually kind of cute. As I looked at the group of three adults and four babies I witnessed nature doing what nature does best.. Terrifying you every chance it can get.. Think I am nuts?? Google spiders and look at the pictures tab.. Go on I can wait until your done screaming. To be honest good reader I am not sure I should tell you what I saw.. Many with a weak constitution will probably loose their last meal. As a compromise I will tell you the short version. Laying there watching the ''kinda cute'' babies running around I saw one run near one of the adults. In a flash of snapping and snarling teeth the poor critter was cut in half. The other two adults promptly got up walked over and started munching on their child. Now..I have read about how on earth Male lions would kill off cubs from competing lions to cause the females to go into heat again.. But this..This wasn''t anything like that. This was flat out just simple hunger in my opinion. Maybe someday a biologist will show up on this world and do a study. Who knows. But I for one lost all sympathy for the evil fuckers that would kill and eat their own young when there was food aplenty not far away.. Taking aim at the asshole gipper that had started the fratricide I aimed for its eye figuring that the brain was most likely somewhere near it. Gripping my rifle tightly I slowly squeezed the trigger.. ¡°BOOOM¡± that is when all hell broke loose. It was going so damn well until that moment. After the sound of the shot I saw my bullet hit just slightly higher then where I was aiming but it still struck the gippers eye and passed right on through to the other side. Right after being stuck by the round though my target didn''t play by the rules and lie down dead. Instead it jumped up onto its feet with a mighty trumpeting roar and went batshit insane. It attacked the nearest baby after cutting the thing in half it then turned towards one of the adults and proceeded to rip it a new asshole. I was laying there in shock that the damn thing hadn''t died from my shot I couldn''t understand at first how it could still be moving. The rest of the gippers were at this point all putting as much distance between them and the mad beast that was on the warpath. I have to admit I felt sorry a bit for what I unleashed on them. After a couple minutes the Gipper that I had shot in the head finished with the adult it had been mauling. Both of them were in a sorry state after the fight. I was just about to take another shot when it toppled over onto its side. ''What the hell'' I thought.. Watching the gripper carefully I saw that it was no longer breathing, Which brought up more questions then I had answers to. ''Maybe its like a chicken..Can still keep on kicking for a little while after you cut off its head..'' Remembering what happened with the Were-Wabbits I decided to keep my position for just a little while longer. With nothing showing up after about twenty minutes I decided it was time to go and headed out to the dead grippers. Walking up to them I could see that they were truly massive in size, Easily as large if not larger in some respects to a African elephant. It was about that time that a nagging voice I had been ignoring sense leaving the village made itself and purpose known. The basic gist of what my inner voice was telling me was.. ''Hey Dumb ass.. You don''t have a knife!!'' Doing a face palm I let out a groan. Turning around to head back to village I was pleasantly surprised to see Leeroy at the head of a group of woman and men on a large wagon drawn by some kind of domesticated draft animal. Leeroy walked up to me shaking his head and said ¡°Hard butcher no Knife! What do? Use teeth?¡± ............................................... End part 2 Thats Not a DEER! (Chapter 7 part 3) Looks like Chap 7 will have 4 parts. Might be more. Trying to work a few things in but. Having a bit of trouble getting through all the dialog and interactions here. Look forward to Part 4..And maybe end of chap 7 in a couple hours. or so. Hope you enjoy ¡­.............¡­.............¡­.............¡­.............¡­.............¡­.............¡­.............¡­.............¡­.............¡­............. Chapter 7 Part 3 I had no good response to Leeroy''s ribbing, He was correct that I had not thought out what I was going to do. So I just resorted to plastering a weak smile on my face and shaking my head. Seeing this Leeroy let out a laugh clasped me on the shoulder and said ¡°It.. Good..All..Make.. Stakes..Learn. Them¡± Nodding I was grateful to Leeroy for not rubbing in how unprepared I was, With a final shrug of my shoulders I said ¡°Live and learn..Lets get this BACON cut up and back to the village.¡± After the group had rolled up to the two dead gippers, I saw Sara Washburn hop out of the wagon along with the rest of the group. Walking over towards her with Leeroy in tow I couldn''t help but notice how shapely her ass was. While I was admiring her assets (pun intended) I failed to notice that she was looking at me also. ¡°Liking what you see Richard?'' She said to me. Snapping out of my ..Er. Asset perusing mode I am sure I my face turned a interesting shade of red. Coughing a couple times I was just about to apologize when I looked at her face. She was standing there with a huge smug grin. After a few seconds she said ¡°Like I said the other night Richard...Only a matter of time¡± Seeing that I was in over my head Leeroy saved my BACON by grabbing hold of my arm and leading me away from the she daemon with a chuckle.. Leeroy said ¡°Good..Match¡± and with that and another laugh at my stammered protestations that nothing was going on we got to work cutting up and loading the critters. Cutting up such large critters was something else..It took all ten of us to strip down and load just one of the gippers over four hours to finish. Looking up at the progress of the sun I knew that there was no way in hell we were ever going to be able to butcher the last one and make it back to town before nightfall. It was late afternoon already and as it was our group would probably not make it back In time as it was. Not wanting to give the villagers anything more to gossip about I avoided Sara Washburn as much as possible. It would seem that was probably not such a good idea because I heard snatches of conversation involving ¡°Lovers quarrel¡± and other such embarrassing things being said. ''Gahhhh I cant win no matter what the hell I do'' I thought. Getting a bit concerned about the time I grabbed Leeroy and pulled him off to the side for another one of our stimulating conversations. One where I usually do most of the talking. I explained my concerns about the time to Leeroy and after looking up at the sun he said ¡°It Good, Grippys. No ..Come ..Two ..Three ..Day¡± Ahh well that was good news I thought to myself. But still there must be other critters that would be drawn to the smell of blood and guts ..Surely? Asking him about this he once again spoke ¡°No.. All. Afraid.¡± I nodded my head in understanding but then a new question popped into my head. ''What now'' ..Looking around I suddenly saw the answer to my question. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. The woman were starting to setup a camp for the night. About this time I saw another group of villagers in a wagon appear at the edge of the forest. In the wagon I spotted Ben, Tommy and a couple other men that I had yet to meet. There were also a few more woman one of whom was Beth Tailor. Letting out a low groan at the sight of her I started to think of ways to make myself scarce. As the new group rolled in I saw that they had brought casks of ale and loves of bread with them. Everyone greeted each other with a atmosphere of jubilation. After helping unload the wagon of its bounty of liquid happiness I was about to make good on my plan to skedaddle off and hide...Cough. Err I mean I was going to go out and make sure no critters were circling back to attack...Cough.. My plans were crushed When Sarah walked up with Tommy and a older man I had yet to meet. Tommy was the first to speak and it came out in a excited rush ¡°Ho Richard! You are Amazing! Killing Two gippers in one day! When no one in the village has ever even killed one! Oh and hey this is my Father ¡± He said pointing at the man with the small group. Smiling at Tommys exuberance my right eye seemed to have suddenly developed a slight twitch. I said in a lighthearted voice that I wasn''t feeling ¡°Oh is that so?¡± I was about to continue when Tommys father spoke up ¡°Yes indeed Young man the people of Washburn are deeply grateful for what you have done here today. Normally the only way we gain the meat from these gippers is after they kill each other in a fight.¡± Looking over at Sara I could see that she had a sheepish expression and was trying to avoid making eye contact. The man then took a step forward and said ¡°Let me Introduce myself, My name is Abe Washburn. I believe you have already met my Son and daughter and of course your living in my Mother Martha''s house. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I would have introduced myself sooner but me and a few other men from the village were out taking care of a nasty pack of ''masochistic gay pikachu''s''* the last couple of weeks. We only returned to the village late last night.¡± After hearing what Abe Said that annoying twitch in my eyelid seemed to go into overdrive. It would seem that I had been ''Volunteered'' to be the local cleanup batter for critters they couldn''t handle themselves. What was giving my temper a bit of exercise was the fact that these people didn''t bother to just tell me all the facts before they sent me off to do the mighty white hunter thing. Taking a deep breath and letting out I put on a smile and decided that life was too short to let little things like potential death and scheming woman bother me too much. I said ¡°Its a great honor to meet you also Mr Washburn, You have a lovely daughter and a boy that is also a great hunter..''Giving him a wink'' Why just the other day I saw that he had killed at least seven Wats that were infesting a barn in the village. He does you great credit as a father.¡± Hearing my words Tommys face lit up like a thousand watt lightbulb. Abe ¡°Thank you for those kind words Richard... Now it would seem that we need to finish preparing camp for the night and get everything ready for the celebration.¡± And with those words the group of three turned away and went about doing just that. End chap 7 part 3 ....................................................................... *Just for you Claws8367 (Might stay in story might not..Did make me laugh though) Thats Not a DEER! (Chapter 7 part 4) Word count Chapter 7 total 6430 Finishing up this chapter i ended up writing a bit more then usual.. Edit.. Oh and a warning. Quite a bit of cussing in this section.. Then again.. If in a similar situation what would you say? Enjoy ..................................................................... Part 4 As the sun set on the day the mood was quite festive, The villagers were all standing around the large campfire that had been made to cook the gipper meat. Some industrious person had dragged a few logs in from the forest for everyone to sit on and many were resting on them after all the hard work. Looking around I saw there were many large tents made out of some sort of cloth setup. After grabbing myself a mug of ale I spotted Abe Washburn near the fire and decided I needed to ask about my own sleeping arrangements for the night. I figured I should probably get it sorted out ahead of time before my two potential she daemons took it upon themselves to make the choice for me. Walking up to Abe I said ¡°Hello Abe! Nice party we have going here. By the way would you happen to know where I will be sleeping tonight?¡± At my question conversations all around us ceased and everyone in earshot seemed to lean in with expectation. Laughing at my question and more then likely knowing full well my concerns Abe said ¡°Ah yes I thought you would join me and Tommy in our tent for the night¡±. Breathing a sign of relief I quickly accepted his offer. I couldn''t help but notice that both Sara and Beth each had frowns at the conversation I had with Abe. Letting out a chuckle at their antics I continued to mingle for the rest of the evening. Shortly before everyone turned in for the night Abe called for everyone''s attention. ¡°Attention everyone! Can I have your Attention please!.¡± Looking around to make sure everyone was present he continued ¡°Today a Threat was taken care of due to Richards actions. And the village has gained enough meat for a long time. In recognition of his deeds Ben will be taking one of the gippers large teeth and making a knife for him sense he seems to have misplaced his.¡± Which drew more then a few cheers and laughs from the crowd at my expense. The group as one started chanting ¡° Speech! Speech! Speech!¡± And seeing that there was no way I was going to get out of at least saying something I stood up from where I was sitting on a log and took a line from Julius Caesar.. ¡°Veni, Vidi, Vici¡± Seeing the confusion on their faces I sighed and explained ¡°I came, I saw, I conquered¡± That seemed to do the trick because the entire crowd roared out in appreciation. As people made their way to their tents both of my erstwhile suitors made pretty good attempts at trying to get me to go off to ¡°Talk¡± with them. Thankfully Abe was able to intercede on my behalf and sent the two away with a pout on their faces. It was definitely a strange situation I had found myself in the middle of. Taking first watch I said good night to Abe and the others and headed out into the night to my guard post. Other then a few suspicious sounding noises coming from Leeroys tent my watch was uneventful for the most part. I did not receive a visit from ether of the two girls thankfully, I didn''t know how I would explain to Abe what was going on if he caught me out there alone with his daughter. I suspected that he knew exactly what was going on ether way. In Small villages and groups there is no such thing as a secret it would seem. About the time I was to be relieved from guard duty for the night I heard a noise off to the south. ¡°Thump.....Thump....¡± I couldn''t see anything and the noise itself sounded like it was coming from inside the forest itself. Straining my eyes and staring in that direction a blue box suddenly popped up.
¡­............................................................................ Congratulations Enhanced vision has leveled up! Passive skill ¡°Enhanced Vision¡± Higher levels give more options Night Vision Level: 2 Xp 0/10000 ¡­............................................................................
Suddenly the night turned into day! ''Awesome!!!'' I thought to myself. The inner perv in me briefly wondered if someday I might gain every guys dream..X-ray vision. Putting such thoughts out of my mind I quickly scanned my surroundings with my new eye sight. ¡°Thump..Thump..Thump.¡± Still not seeing anything that could be making the noise I started to get a little worried because the Thumps were getting faster in duration and also seemed to be going through the forest from my right to the left getting closer. The fact that the camp was located only a hundred of so yards away from the edge of the forest also made me a bit concerned. It would not take long for something fast to race across that distance to attack our little camp. Not wanting to draw attention to my location from whatever was making that noise I quickly moved to Abe''s tent and stuck my head in the flap. Wispering ¡°Abe ! Abe Wake up we might have trouble¡± Groaning a bit he rolled over and seemed to ignore me. Reaching down I grabbed his leg and gave it a sharp jerk. He quickly jerked up and the next thing I knew I had a sword at my neck... At that moment I finally understood why Martha used her water bucket.....I resolved that if we lived through the night to find myself a bucket of my own if I was ever to wake up Abe again. Thankfully he stopped himself from skewering me. ¡°Wha? Whats wrong¡± he mumbled. Quickly telling him about the noises I saw his face go white as a sheet. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Jumping up he grabbed Tommy and shook him awake. ¡°Tommy..Run to the other tents and warn them a Fire lizard is in the area¡± Nodding at his fathers words he skedaddled out of the tent faster then a fox after a mouse. Able then turned to me and said ¡°Lets go¡± We made our way back to my guard spot, On the way there Leeroy and another man I didn''t know joined us. Leeroy was armed with a large maul and Abe and the mystery guy who I soon learned was named Red had swords and shields. At my guard post we all huddled up Red to my right Leeroy to my left with Abe on the other side of him. ¡°Thump..Thump..Thump.................¡± Looking at each of the men with me in turn I saw Red was shaking in his boots, Leeroy had a look of firm resolve on his face and Abe ..Well Abe kept looking back in the direction of the tents with great concern. ¡°Thump......................¡± Whispering To red I asked him ¡°So what is a Fire Lizard?¡± Giving me a look of pure fright he said in a broken voice. ¡°Its a Twenty foot tall Lizard that shoots Fire out of its eyes.. Extremely rare and the last one anyone ever saw wiped out one of the kings army companies all by itself.¡± At his words my eyes opened wide. I now understood what had these tough villagers spooked. ¡°Thump.....CRASH¡± Snapping my head back towards the forest at the new sound I finally saw the big fucker. And promptly lost my shit. ¡°The fuck! is a god damn T-rex doing here I exclaimed!¡± My loud exclamation caused my companions to ether side of me to jump a bit. All three of them turned their heads in my direction and gave me and evil glare. All the while this little drama was going on between us the Dino of Nope had turned its head In our direction. It raised its head up and sniffed at the air, Smelling something it must have liked it took a couple of steps through the forest in our direction. ¡°Thump..Thump...¡± Breaking into the open area at the treeline it was finally in full view only one hundred yards away.. Seeing its full shape and not just the top portion that had been sticking out of the trees my mind said.. ¡°eeeyup a fucking Trex! Your screwed now!¡± Getting sick and tired of this world springing unexpected shit on me I raised my rifle up took aim and proceeded to unleash a barrel full of lead jacketed greatness downrange. ¡°Booom booom boooom booom boom..........¡± The Trex took it like a champ at first my rounds were screaming in and smacking it upside the head and neck. I couldn''t tell what effect my rounds were actually having on the thing, Other then pissing it off that is. It obviously saw the muzzle flashes from the end of my rifle, it let out a god awful loud roar that shook the ground and knocked leaves off the trees. Turning its head to the side its eyeball suddenly glowed and a beam of fucking light lashed out and struck the ground not five feet away from me. Quickly reloading I screamed out ¡°What the fuck was that shit!¡± Answer good reader A T-rex shooting lasers out of its eyes!.. Meanwhile my companions to ether side of me had all seemed to have made like a tree and found other parts more agreeable to them, That is all except for Leeroy. Granted he was looking at me like I was insane.. But at least the guy stuck around if for nothing more then moral support. Opening up again on the Laser eyed T-rex of nope I tried to hit the big thing in its eye. I figured if I could take out its main gun it would be safer for all involved. My luck stat must have played a major roll in what happened next. Just as the beast was about to fire off another one of its eyes one of my rounds struck it a mortal blow. It just didn''t know it was dead yet. When my round hit its eye the critter let out a screech that would have broken glass if there had been any present. Whipping its head back and forth in what I could only imagine was agony the thing started running In our direction. Doing a fast ammo reload I flipped my rifles selector to Full-auto stood up and strode out to meet this Cretaceous era reject. It did not take long for the T-rex to reach fifty yards away from me. I had held my fire up till that point because on full auto ..Well its not easy to keep all your rounds on target. Considering I was shooting at something the size of a small barn though I didn''t think I was going to have much trouble. Pulling My M14 back up to my shoulder I let loose once more .. Boom ..boom.. boom .. forty yards.. Boom.... Boom ..Boom.. Thirty yards Boom.. Boom ..Boom. Boom twenty yards Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom : CLICK!. As I ran out of ammo the beast lunged at me with its mouth wide open. Throwing myself to the side I felt one of the critters teeth tear into my leg. Tumbling to the ground with a scream of pain I quickly rolled over and prepared myself to be eaten. At the same time my leg was doing its best to tell me I was about to die. Looking back I saw that the T-rex was laying still on the ground. I could see that the bugger was dead.. Trying to get back up onto my feet my body made a executive decision against my mind, decreed that I was in too much pain and decided it was nap time. End chap 7 ........................................................................ burp REDSHIRT (Chapter 8 Part 1) A long time ago i figured out the secret to life..(Think i was 16 at the time) You can''t make everyone happy. You can only do your best and hope that is enough. And if your best doesn''t include laughter.. Well you are the one who is going to be unhappy. Hope you enjoy ..................................................................... Chapter 8 REDSHIRT ¡°I came to a fork in the road, And Picked it up¡± Jim Upon waking up I found myself once again laying in my bed at Martha''s. Checking under the covers I saw that everything thankfully was still where it should be and in one piece. ''I could get used to this auto healing'' I thought to myself. Outside the room I could hear mumbled voices, glancing at the window in my room I saw that it was ether dawn or dusk. Crawling out of bed I noticed that I was once again in my birthday suit and wondered briefly just who was responsible for that turn of events. It had become something of a disturbingly frequent occurrence since I had come to this world. Spotting my clothes and armor laying on a chair in the corner of the room I quickly donned everything and walked to the door. Pausing I put my ear to the door crack and tried to make sense of what was being said. ¡°you should have told him¡± Said a voice, ¡°Yes I know....Do you really think he would have gone if I had?¡± said another voice that sounded like Martha''s. I couldn''t pick up the second voices reply it was too muffled. It didn''t take a rocket surgeon to figure out they were talking about me and my recent little hunting trip. Opening the door I stepped out into the hall. Walking towards the kitchen I put on my best poker face. Rounding the corner I saw Sara and Martha sitting down at the table. Nether one looked exactly happy I briefly wondered if they had somehow channeled my own feelings. On seeing me they both instantly switched from frowns to big smiles. Sara hopped up and with a more than friendly kiss gave me a big hug. Pausing to catch my breath after that zinger of a kiss I gave Sara my best stink eyed glare causing her to frown back at me. Motioning at the table i said one word ¡°SIT¡± a surprised look crossed her face at my forceful command. Thankfully she didn''t argue and took a seat. Looking at them both I crossed my arms and stood there for a few moments giving them both best disappointed look. Both of them seemed to understand what this was all about and had the grace to at least look regretful. Taking a small step back from them I began: ¡°Now then ladies, It seems to me that I have repeatedly said that I would not be staying here forever. And yet both of you..¡± pausing to look directly at Sara ¡°And your Confederate stalker Beth have been doing your best to keep me here.¡± I turned my gaze to Martha ¡°You have also gone out of your way to make sure I was apprenticed..Not to just one boss but two. The effect of which has been to keep me here in the village.¡± ¡°Now before we get to those oh so minor little problems I have a few questions... One..how long have I been out this time?¡± They looked at each other and seemed to come to an agreement between them. Sara replied ¡°Three days¡±. Nodding my head I continued. ¡°Three days..Well Damn...¡± At this rate I was going to spend more time asleep in this world then awake I thought to myself. ¡°Moving along..Did everyone make it back to the village ok?¡± At that question both of them suddenly had a sad look on their faces which was plenty enough forewarning that someone else had been injured. Once again Sara was the spokesperson for the duo ¡°Red..Died. I am going to miss seeing him walking around in his nice Redshirt...¡± Pausing at this news the first thing that crossed my mind was ''Aww shit how the hell did that happen.'' Then a nagging little thought came to my mind. ''Wait...Red..Redshirt?.........Alien Planet? WHAT the FUCK! This isn''t some episode of Star Trek!'' A chill spread its way up my spine..Looking up I sent Fortuna a quick pleading prayer begging her to tell me that all of this wasn''t some sort of reality TV show setup for the god''s entertainment. (God I hate reality TV) [Dan: Don''t we all brother] Alas Fortuna didn''t seem to want to talk. Putting my thoughts to the side I refocused on my two problems sitting in front of me. Thinking it was best to get all involved into this conversation I pointed to Sara and said ¡°Go get Beth¡± Nodding She quickly stood up and left in a hurry without a word.. Sitting down at the table I looked over at Martha and shook my head. Asking the question ¡°So tell me how he died¡± It turns out what happened wasn''t what I had thought. I had thought that maybe the T-Rex had somehow killed poor Red...''Redshirt..'' flashed through my mind again making me shudder. No that would have made sense. What Martha explained to me left me shaking my head. On the way back to the village Red had left the group on a nature call, When he didn''t come back the others went in search of him. What they found was Red laying dead on the forest floor holding a beautiful flower everyone knew as ¡°One Step¡±. Once you touched it you took one step and died. Why he decided to pick the flower was not known. ''What a senseless way to go'' i thought. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. It was at this point that Martha dropped the floor out from under me. ¡°Everyone in the village is going to miss poor Red.. Till he gets back I am going to have to make sure his wife is taken care of again.¡±............''Wait..WHAT?'' Glaring at Martha I said ¡°Gets Back?......¡± Not noticing my glare she happily went on ¡°Oh sure after he resurrects. It does take a week after all.¡± I just sat there thinking about her words for a few moments. Then the last word of what she previously said made its way to the front of my mind. ¡°Again?¡± I uttered. Nodding her head Martha said ¡°oh sure..Every time poor Red goes out of the village on a hunt or..Well any reason really he ends up getting killed every time he steps out of the village, the poor man. No one knows why. And his wife is starting to get tired of having to wait a week for him to come home every time he dies.¡± ''So resurrection takes a week.. Good to know'' Flew through my mind. Making a mental note to remember that I was about to continue when my two stalkers arrived. Seeing them I decided it was time to shit or get off the pot concerning these two. Standing up I motioned for them to take a seat. Sara it would seem had informed Beth about the general gist of the meeting. Nether of the two looked exactly happy or comfortable about the turn of events. Not sure exactly how to go about it I finally chose plan A. Bull in a China shop. Looking at the two beautiful woman I said ¡°You two willing to share me?¡± Not that I really wanted to be stuck in a relationship at the moment with ether of them. I figured I might as well explore my options if I didn''t have a choice. And they had made it abundantly clear that NO I did not have a choice in the matter. looking at each other in the way woman do, nether one seemed to like the idea at all. I was happy for that to be honest, One woman in a mans life is more than enough in my opinion. My problem currently was that I had two after me and that was causing way too much bullshit and it was distracting as all hell. Sara was the first to speak up ¡°No..That is not a proper solution¡± Nodding in agreement Beth quickly agreed with her. At this point Martha started to laugh. Pointing my finger at her I gave her a look and said ¡°HUSH You. Wait until this is over.¡± Stifling her laugh she just nodded and sat there with a smirk on her face. Looking back at my two erstwhile stalkers I said ¡°Well if you''re not willing to share then I am going to have to find a way of picking. Knowing you two you''re not going to give me a moment of rest until we resolve this issue.¡± Pulling out a Coin from my pants pocket I saw that it was a Nickle. How appropriate ..Now if only it was made of wood I thought. Let lady luck decide this mess. Telling the two what I was about to do I said. ¡°Tails for Beth and Heads for Sara¡± It only seemed fitting to me seeing that Beth had a tail after all. Before I flipped the coin I looked at both of them and said. ¡°Regardless how this turns out, Know that I like you both and I consider each of you a friend. You have pushed for me to make a decision and I hope whichever one of you isn''t chosen will remain so¡± Both of them quickly agreed that it would be so..I had my doubts about that though. Only time would tell. I wasn''t honestly comfortable with making relationship decisions based on a coin flip..But god dammit I was getting tired of these two stalking me everywhere I went. They asked for this ..Maybe not exactly how it was turning out but they did ask for it. Without another word I flipped the coin up into the air. Flip flip flip flip flip reaching its apex it started its journey back down. Flip flip flip flip Clink. It bounced on the table did its best to roll off the side but it just didn''t have enough energy. Slapping my hand down on it I gave Beth and Sara a look and asked them both. ¡°Ether one of you want to give up before we take a look?¡± They looked at each other and both of them had a look of determination on their faces.. Looking back at me they both said "No". Sighing I took my hand off the table and turned my back so I didn''t have to see. Three things occurred at the same time behind me, There was a loud squeal of happiness a moan of sadness and Martha''s loud laugh boomed out making me jump a bit where I was standing. Turning around expecting one of the girls to be crying I wasn''t prepared for what I saw. Beth and Sara were hugging each other and had huge smiles on their faces. Martha was doing her best to pass out from lack of oxygen. I heard Beth tell Sara with a smile ¡°Congrats..And good luck..Your going to need it with this one. I am happy for you.¡± Her words shocked me. I had been expecting fireworks or waterworks or some kind of works.... What I got was two happy and smug looking woman happily discussing how things turned out. I Muttered to myself ..."Women........." End part 1 ¡­.................................................................................. word count 1842 REDSHIRT (Chapter 8 Part 2) Thought this was going to turn into a short chapter but. At over 4k words its ok. I am going to be taking it a bit easier for the next couple days. I will try to at least. I have written a bit over 34k words of this story so far in ...7 days. Yea probably not that big of a deal. I am sure some of you here write that in just 2-3 days. Probably more. But this is my first story so.. Mehh I figure that the story will end somewhere around 75-85k words . So i am about 1/3 or so of the way done with this first book. Not exactly paying a lot of attention to that. The story will be as long or short as it needs to be. Hope you enjoy ................................................................................ Getting the sense that I had somehow been manipulated..Once again. I quickly came to the conclusion that things could be worse. Just Maybe I should shut up and stop looking the proverbial gift horse in the mouth and just go with it. It was what it was and I just hoped that in the long run I didn''t get bit while crossing the river with this nest of female vipers on my back. Shaking myself I broke out of my thoughts and turned my attention back to the ladies in front of me. ¡°Ladies may I have you attention please..¡± Hearing me they turned and looked at me. ¡°In six months time I will be leaving the village one way or the other. Between now and then I need to Learn my two jobs adequately enough to be useful. I do not know what you all have planed but that is what I am going to do.¡± All three of them tried their best to talk me out of leaving but in the end they finally seemed to give up for the moment at least. Noticing that it was actually evening time and Martha with Sara''s help had cooked up dinner we all sat down and had a really good meal. After the meal and the small talk concerning recent events and plans I got up to head to bed saying good night to them I walked to my bedroom. On reaching my room and opening the door I turned and saw Sara had followed me inside. Looking at her and without thinking I said. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± with a sultry voice and a wink she said ¡°What do you think I am doing here Richard¡±.. Needless to say I was kind of glad I wasn''t really tired that night. Because I sure as hell didn''t get much sleep. Over the next few months my life was like a washing machine.. Doing the same thing over and over. Get up go learn about blacksmithing get a book from Frank and memorize it. Come back home spend some time with Martha and Sara, Rinse and repeat... day in and day out. The only highlights of this time Other than spending time with Sara that is. Was my weekly hunting trips out into the forest. Nothing really exciting though. Just random critters getting blown away by my rifle. On the first few trips Red came along. Yes he wound up getting killed each and every time no matter what I did. That changed though when I convinced the poor guy to change the color of his damn shirt to something other than red. It wasn''t easy to do the convincing though. His argument was that if he didn''t have his red shirt on how would people know who he was?.. He is a decent sort of guy but I think his mother might have dropped him on his head a few times as a baby. Happily after I did convince him to at least try it one time..While it was a close call he succeed on making it back to the village with me without getting killed for the first time in his life. To say that he was happy and his wife was grateful would be saying that the ocean was wet. It really was kind of pathetic in a way. I really did feel sorry for the guy. All the time I was running around learning my jobs and occasionally hunting the women of the village were scurrying in a tizzy over the coming wedding. I never have been able to understand what a wedding does to a woman. It just isn''t natural in my opinion. Thankfully I was a bit too busy to get roped into having to sit around and help make the plans. I was told in terms even a monkey could understand that my input wasn''t needed or wanted and all I had to do was show up on the day in question. Naturally Ben and Frank took every opportunity to give me a hard time about getting ¡°Caught by those infernal Wiman¡±. Ben actually had me half convinced for a short while that Sara had come to him asking about a Ball and chain to attach to my leg. What made it semi believable was the fact I wouldn''t put it past her to actually do that. Yes..She is a bit willful. Thankfully Ben gave the joke away rather quickly. Or I just might have said ¡°Screw this im going home.¡± As the days went by my muscles quickly grew from all the hard work in the blacksmith''s shop and I would occasionally get blue boxes stating I had gained stat increases. Mainly Strength and stamina while I was at the shop but I also got a few points from my reading activity''s. What surprised me the most was how quickly my Memorization skill leveled up. After five months I had maxed it out at level five giving me a 100% faster rate of memorization and a bonus of 200% faster reading speed that showed up when I hit level 5. To say I was happy about that.. Well let me just say I took the rest of the day off and celebrated by going out and popping a few critters in the head with my rifle. That was a really great day. It would cut down on my training time by a lot. The day of my wedding Went by in a whirlwind I honestly do not remember much of it other than seeing the love of my life standing before me in a dress that..I am sure would probably be illegal in a few countries back on earth. I do remember being speechless at how beautiful she was.. So much so her father (The village head man) had to ask me more than once the important question. After that...Well I have been told I drank way too much, Made a fool of myself more than once, and tried to do something that involved a pie, three spoons, my two new knives made out of a gipper tooth and a Firelizard (T-Rex) tooth Ben and Frank gave me as a wedding present. No matter who I asked after that day no one would tell me exactly what I did. They just laugh shake their heads and walk away. As for my new weapons the T-rex tooth really was too damn long to be called a knife. It was more of a short sword then anything else. Ben had put a really tastefully worked steal handle on both of them making them looked really nice. After Ben was done he had given them over to Frank to enchant. The teeth were already pretty damn sharp before Frank got his hands on them. After he was done though they scared even me. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Frank had turned them into soul bound weapons (How he got some of my blood to do this is still a mystery to me..he''s not talking) and on top of that he put a sharpness enchant on them so strong that I could SHAVE steel with them like a hot knife going through butter. He also enchanted the scabbards to prevent my new weapons from simply slicing on through and dropping to the ground. I loved my new weapons.. They scared the shit out of me and I didn''t know how to use them but damn I did love them. I never did have a good track record with sharp things..It never ended all that well. It usually ended with me bleeding all over the place like a stuck pig. But hey! they were great conversation starters and I didn''t really need to use them....Right? The days after the wedding reminded me of all the times in the past I swore off drinking ever again. I figured by the way I felt over those three days if it wasn''t for auto healing I probably would have died. Now I am betting your asking yourself a bunch of questions like. What the hell What about Abe Washburn or how about going back to earth and bringing your relatives for the wedding. Sara''s father I found out knew all about what was going on well before even I did. How? I sure as hell don''t know.. I only know that the day after me and Sara hooked up the first time he took me out for ¡°THE TALK¡±. You know what I am talking about. The entire ¡°If you hurt my daughter¡± Speech. Luckily he approved of the entire affair and it had been at that time I found out he had actually made money on the deal. I turns out the entire village had a betting pool setup on who I was going to pick and how long I was able to resist. Abe won the who and Martha it turns out won the When. Much to the disappointment of many in the village. As my last couple of weeks in the village were going by me and Sara were having our first (Of many I am sure) arguments. The subject of our argument? She was insisting on following me into whatever crazy shit I got myself into. I on the other hand told her in no uncertain terms that hell would freeze over before I let her follow me into danger. I didn''t care that death in this world wasn''t the big boogieman it was back on earth. I didn''t want her to get hurt. Needless to say what I wanted wasn''t going to fly with her. It got to the point where Martha and Abe sat the both of us down and did an intervention. The end result of which made nether of us happy. Sara would get to come along as a healer and cook. But she wouldn''t be allowed to go to Earth when the time came for that. At least not until Earth had been changed to the new reality. I wasn''t happy because even hanging back she could get hurt and she wasn''t happy because she wouldn''t be able to fight. Somehow I did not think her promises to stay out of any ruckus I found myself in was going to last all that long when the time came.. Win Loose draw..Hell I didn''t know what to think at the time. You decide. Getting things packed and ready to go started another short-lived argument. I was happy with the clothes and armor on my back and my weapons in hand. Sara on the other hand insisted on taking enough supplies clothes and other stuff to pack two wagons. I say short-lived because it was at that point I found out that a persons internal inventory could hold anything and everything one might put into it without any weight. On finding out about this nifty ability I cried foul a little bit. Why if they had this ability they brought out wagon or even owned them? Well the wagons were so they ¡°didn''t have to walk¡± I was told.............I honestly didn''t know what I was disgusted with more.. The fact it took me almost six months to figure this CHEAT ability out? Or the fact the villagers only owned wagons so they could go out on joy rides in them. What was our destination you ask? We were going to be heading to the main human capital. Not surprisingly it was named ¡°New Arkhay¡±. Making me wonder why it had the ¡°New¡± in its name. It would be a journey of two to three weeks depending on what we ran into and the road conditions. On a map Frank had enchanted for us he had marked down quite a few hunting spots and also places to avoid. It was a nifty map, it acted a lot like a palm held GPS. You could put in destination markers and way-points, It also had a cool little ability to make notes about certain areas. Frank had loaded it up with as much information of this world that he had. Scrolling it out I saw it covered about half the known world. Why New Arkhay? Because it was the closest place I could go to learn magic. New Arkhay was the only place where a person could find teachers ..for a price that is. Being essentially broke I wasn''t sure exactly how I was going to pay for magic training but I did know I could figure something out. [Dan: If you haven''t noticed Rich wasn''t into thinking things through all that much back then] The day finaly came for us to leave, The entire village came out to see us off. I wish I could say I was a man about it and didn''t cry like a little girl, But I can''t. Well I could but it wouldn''t be the truth and my mother would skin me alive for that.. (Hi mom. Love you!) After most of the crying and other mushy stuff had taken place Ben ,Abe, Martha, and Frank presented us with a small bag of gold coins which promptly disappeared into Sara''s inventory. Ben thanked me for all the hard work I had done in his shop, Frank made noises about not being bothered every few days for a new book. Then promptly handed me four huge books to take with me so I could finish my education In enchanting. I could tell the old guy was going to miss harassing me. Martha and Abe both made us promise to come back as soon as possible. I didn''t have the heart to remind them that the only way back to my world was just on the other side of the lake. Saying our farewells me and Sara headed out. End chapter 8 ................................................. Chapter total word count 4146 ignore this.. Working out some numbers and background info. Ignore it if you want. How Time Works 1 Earth day = 6 Months, or 180 days Arkhay time. 2 Earth Days = 1 year Arkhay roughly.. 1 Earth year = 65,700 Arkhay days or 180 years 2000 Earth years = 360,000 Arkhay Years Monetary values From highest to least value Souls , Platinum, Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron 100 iron = 1 copper Reference = 10 Dollars USD 100 copper = 1 silver Reference = 100 Dollars USD 100 silver = 1 gold Reference = 1000 Dollars USD 100 gold = 1 platinum Reference = 10000 Dollars USD ??? platinum = ? Soul''s Reference = ????? Dollars USD Earth Characters Dan Holling''s= NSA, CIA, Think tank. Unknown Age= 45 Race = Human Home = Earth, Mountains of Montana Richard Holling''s= ???? Age = 21 Race = Haman Home = Earth, Seattle Washington Richard''s mother = ???? Age= 42 Race = Human Home = Earth, Seattle Washington World of Arkhay Characters Beth Tailor = Master Tailor Age= 23 Race = Cert Home = Arkhay, Village of Washburn Frank Chanter = Master Enchanter Age = OLD....??? Race = Cert Home = Arkhay, Village of Washburn Martha Washburn = ????? Age = 60''s Race = Human Home = Arkhay, Village of Washburn Abe Washburn = Village Headman Age = 40''s Race = Human Home = Arkhay, Village of Washburn Sara Washburn / Hollings''s = Healer , Richards Wife Age = 20 Race = Human Home = Arkhay, Village of Washburn Tommy Washburn Age = 11-12 Race - Human Home = Arkhay, Village of Washburn Ben = Master Blacksmith Age = ???? Race = Humanoid Home = Arkhay, Village of Washburn Red ''Redshirt'' = Meat shield... ?????? Age = 30-40 ?? Race = Human Home = Arkhay, Village of Washburn Leeroy Jenkins = Village Guard Age = Late 40''s Race = Human Home = Arkhay, Village of Washburn Known Races Unknown Humanoid Giant Race name = ???? Example = Ben Humanoid/Fox/Cat hybrid Race name = Cert Examples = Beth Tailor, Frank Chanter This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Known CRITTERS "Old Yella" Description = ''Dog'' Tommy Washburns Best friend until it got infected with something like Rabies. Threat = NA .. Its Dead "FireLizard" ''T-rex'' Description = 20+ foot tall, Shoots Lasers out of its eyes. Teeth foot and half long, Metal Threat = Extremely Dangerous Gipper Description = Nine foot tall , three and a half to four foot wide at the shoulders, twelve foot long. Foot long Metal like Teeth. Breed extremely fast. They taste like BBQ BACON!! Threat = Very high Were-Wabbit = 3-4 foot tall, Covered in White/Grey fur. Look like a cross between a Rabbit and a Wolverine. Threat = Extremely dangerous in packs. Eat their own kind. Ears act like radar dishes rotating back and forth. Notable Gear M14 = Earth Made Rifle, fires .308 Caliber Projectiles, Simi auto and Full auto. Is Soul bound Model 1911 Gold cup = Earth Made Pistol , Fires .45 Caliber Projectiles, Simi auto only. Is Soul bound Gipper tooth Knife = one foot long, Enchanted by Frank to be soul bound. Has edge that can cut through Hardened steel like it was Butter. Gift From Ben and Frank "Firelizard" ''T-Rex'' Short sword Tooth= Just short of two foot long, Enchanted by Frank to be soul bound. Has edge that can cut through Hardened steel like it was Butter. Gift From Ben and Frank Etc.. Work in progress Update on ..Well me. Its been..8 years..Wow. And i Just got access to this account again after such a long time. Life being what it is.. Deaths, Health issues, etc.. I have to be honest ...I don''t see myself writing any more of this story. Its been too long and i don''t have much energy now days to write.Though to be honest i did leave the story at a good ending point. No real cliffhangers..(i think). The Characters ride off into the sunset and you can use your imaginations to continue the story.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. All That said. I Want to thank everyone who responded to my first attempt at writing. Thank you everyon