It's been about a week since I was pushed into the grove by Rak. He could've given me a better notice, but I didn't resent him for it, it was pretty funny at the time.
It has actually been such a crazy experience for me. Not like I wanted to try to survive more than just a couple days, but the thought of making this grove my territory was… exciting.
As I hustled through the trees, jumping through like Tarzan, swinging through vines, I thought about my last week living here.
This grove wasn't just filled with animals, nocturnal mostly, but even the plants seemed to have minds of their own. If you laid too long on the grass, it would actually start pulling you underground.
I had to nearly figure that out the hard way.
There would be days where I'd sleep on a rock and later learn how to make a hammock. My time in the grove made me learn a lot. I even crafted my own equipment.
It felt as though I was playing a survival game, but actually using a real body in order to feel pain, hunger and fatigue. Well, my body recovered greatly due to my physiology.
Which I started to think about more. Considering my character was a lycanthrope, at character creation, he never had any issues with turning into a werewolf without me actively doing something to make it happen. The primary issue with that is, that it was regarding my virtual body. The question now is, will it happen as a natural random occurrence?
If I was to transform due to a random event, like a full moon or bloodlust, then the grove is a great place for all that to happen.
Right?
Well… I started to think, what if my lycanthrope body climbed out of the grove? Would I be able to and where would it take me?
There were a lot of unknowns in trusting such a chaotic situation, and I wasn't planning on trying to figure that out anytime soon.
Turning into the lycanthrope form would put me in a berserk state. As a player, you could control the urges and berserk state, but there were times when something called bloodlust overload occurred which made any lycanthrope immediately act on its own.
In-game, this would be as if an AI was controlling it, so I imagine that could be the case, or just always the case.
I put trying to figure out my lycanthropy on the back burner and surviving like normal.
That was until randomly, I started to feel massive hunger pains.
Before the start of the next week came along, I was going about my day normally. Finding some animals to hunt, procuring some water for the day and fixing where my next house should be.
The grove was constantly shifting, so I had to keep moving. The entire landscape was alive, and it would always morph to make mountains appear or even valleys.
On this day however, even after eating, my stomach started to churn like I never ate at all. It was searing pain, like my heart and organs were on fire.
It was even visible as my veins lit up a bright orange color as if it was hot metal.
It lasted for about thirty minutes, but felt like hours. I couldn't tell what problem was occurring nor what the origin of the pain was.
Once the hunger pains subsided, I felt as if I went through a heart burn, it was a terrible experience so I took the day off, deciding to feed on preserved meals today.
Getting preserved meat wasn't as difficult as I thought. Since the sun wasn't able to enter the grove, I hung cut meats over a fire using ropes I crafted myself. The smoke allowed the meat to cook and dry all at the same time but gave it a… smokey flavor.
About the sun, the only light given into the grove, is a massive hanging array of crystal way above. It was at least a hundred feet up. It also was the only light source in this place.
The crystal seemed to work off of solar energy, able to dim and produce a light like moonlight when the sun sets outside. It was interesting how this ecosystem had its own form of light for the plants and animals to use.
The next day came around and I began hunting early this day since I tore through my dried reserves yesterday.
Entertainment in this place is lacking, especially someone who comes from modern times. So what I did in place of this boredom was to hunt.
It's not like I slaughtered a population of bush thumpers, a type of rabbit like species that is a bit more rat like in appearance with massive feet and sharper claws, or the occasional wyrmbits, these flying snake-like creatures but had tentacles that it used to swim through the air like a spiral added onto the fact it has a head like a dragon. I named the wyrmbits myself as they were a creature I haven't seen.
I was mostly hunting, had a game, no kill, just the search and chase. It was fun for a while, until I realized… I did need to kill creatures.
Out of all the creatures here, they mostly ranged from levels of ten to twenty-five from what I could tell. Using the mirror, I could see the levels of all these creatures, which made leveling up a breeze, since I didn't have to guess which ones were worth more, and left a lot so I didn't exterminate the entire grove.
There was one beast in this place which was going to be my goal to get to the highest level I could. It is the most aggressive beast in this place, the apex named Rudy. It was named after a character in one of my childhood favorite movies, and I call it that as it has a very dinosaur appearance, but most importantly, its head alone dwarfs me.
It mostly feeds on large aquatic mammals that I call moss bison, as they look similar to bison but their… fur, for lack of a better term, has a mossy look to it, or is actually moss. I never tried to find out for myself.
Rudy is stacked when it comes to the xp it'd give, most likely, and he doesn't seem to be as dangerous as the Shade. Which is a bit of a weird situation since the Shade had much more going for it, like illusions and a very large dexterous body.
It might've been pure luck that I managed to activate that unknown technique, which I tried replicating ever since and never could.
Besides the apex, there were plenty of other smaller enemies around where I could increase my level up and eventually get to each of the apex's to finish off my time here.
I took out the mirror again to see where I was at level wise.
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King; level 19
EP: 46 -> 0(46)
Strength - 11 -> 30
Dexterity - 12 -> 30
Constitution - 9 -> 16
Intelligence - 8 -> 12
Charisma - 10 -> 10
Luck - 12 -> 20
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I decided to put more points into intelligence this time as I wanted to focus on my magic's firepower instead of relying on my physical capabilities. For some reason, my luck was different from my other stats. I didn't need to put any points into it, which I wasn't going to start complaining about.
In the meantime, while I was farming random monsters, I was creating a list of spells I should be capable of using.
Monsters were also different from natural born animals and beasts. Monsters are the culmination of negative energy and they periodically spawn after a given time when negative wavelengths circulate. I don't really know the specific details, but this most likely has to deal with things like death or negative emotions.
So I had enough mobs to test out which spells I could use while also not destroying the main ecosystem, as those were the only ones I could get food from since monsters tend to evaporate into energy.
The spell list I curated was as followed;
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I also figured out I had a slight affinity for the light and air elemental magic, due to my already gifted fire based attribute. I never dealt with them prior but I was able to lucky happen across a couple of useful spells that just so happened to have similar names as terms on earth.
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The spell list wasn't terrible, but I did lack in long range spells. I had firebolt and windblade, but pretty much everything else was mid to close range. This meant that trying to whittle it down from a distance would prove much harder or take ages to do.
Planning around these spells would be tricky to say the least.
The next few days, I grinded some more levels to get myself up to a decent level, only three less than what I assume Rudy to be at.
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King; level - 21
EP: 50 -> 0(50)
Strength - 11 -> 30
Dexterity - 12 -> 30
Constitution - 9 -> 16
Intelligence - 8 -> 16
Charisma - 10 -> 10
Luck - 20 -> 20
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After the hunts, I tried to track down Rudy. His footprints were very large so it wasn't difficult trying to follow them and eventually they led me to a decently sized cave.
My goal was to gauge his level, just so that I could see whether or not I was capable of killing him now, and what I could focus on during my leveling.
It took hours of waiting until the ground below me started to shake.
The tremors were proof Rudy was around. I staked out until I saw his massive maw coming from the treelines opposite of where I situated myself.
I turned the mirror to him, and tried to get a read on his stats. They were blurry, so much so that I couldn't even try to see his stats, so I took my finger and wiped the surface of the glass, and then the blurriness cleared up.
However, I didn't expect to see what I saw.
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Lithotherium feroxpluma; level - ???
EP: ???
Strength - ???
Dexterity - 25
Constitution - ???
Intelligence - 4
Charisma - 8
Luck - ???
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There were so many question marks, that I had to rub my eyes to see if I was in reality or… I guess not reality, but whether this was true or not.
It was.
I tried to think of other plans, maybe just take the long route and whittle his health down until he becomes weak? If that was an option, it would be most important to know what his constitution stat was in order to actually know where his health stat would be around.
Then a thought came through.
〈Isn't this the perfect place to test my lycanthropy? The issue would be that I have no idea how long the transformation would last nor if my beast form would even stay in the grove.〉
With a long time trying to decide whether or not to use my transformation, I ended up not doing so, since there was no guarantee I would survive or if my transformed self would even be controllable by me.
For the time being, I just continued to slaughter the monsters here as there were too many unknown variables that would come from turning.
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Another week passed by. My leveling up slowed down tremendously after that, not even getting to twenty-two.
It went up by six since I started which is very slow considering my initial jump in levels after defeating the spipents. It was weird that I leveled up so fast when dealing with them which only could occur if their level was far higher than my own.
〈What if they were high level too? But then, how was I able to perceive their movement? Well, it wasn't like I could half the time, but I felt like I could dodge them.〉
I kept trying to wrap my head around the issue. Could it be similar to Rak's situation? A high level but the inability to allocate stat points? If that is the case then I'd understand because even in RTM, mobs could level up just like players could. The issue with that would be the fact that monsters have no ability to apply stat points.
I thought a little longer on this topic. It almost seemed like there was a glitch in the game that allowed everyone to level up, but no means to increase their power. I couldn't even begin to understand what that would mean.
I took out the mirror to look at the stats I've accumulated.
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King; level 21
EP:(50)
Strength - 30
Dexterity - 30
Constitution - 16
Intelligence - 16
Charisma - 10
Luck - 20
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My eyes locked onto the words "EP" for a brief moment. This would be my stat points, but that would be "SP" instead, what does the e stand for?
I gave up thinking about it after a few minutes. Even in the game, I never questioned it and simply thought it was a weird typo. Something strange about it keeps running through my mind however.
I went back to fighting beasts, but it was clear that this area was lower level than my own. I wiped out most creatures in here with a couple hits. The only one I just couldn't think of taking on was Rudy.
As much as I would like to stay until I get to Rudy's height, I doubt that I could. He was most likely the field boss of this area, and an elite rank. Elite ranks being creatures or people that far exceed the typical normal ranked enemies. They have higher stats than normal and are walking disasters in of themselves.
Walking away from this moment is a bit tragic, but perhaps I will come back here once I get to a level where I can match Rudy. Then, I decided to go back to where this all began.
Standing under the large cliff that I was pushed into, I yelled out Rak's name. "Hey you fucking lizard! Get me out of here!"
〈Is he not here?〉
I yelled again.
It wouldn't be much of an issue, since it was obvious he was doing his own thing, so I decided to stay there for a bit and wait.
Assuming that Rak at least checks into the grove once in a while, I rest around the cliff and wait.
And waited…
And waited some more…
During this time, my heart began to burn up again. It didn't last too long this time, but I was still worried about what was happening to me.
I looked up the cliff.
〈Is he coming? It's taking him a damn long time. Wait, did we even set up a point to meet back? He did kind of throw me in here without a plan.〉
In about five more minutes, I saw a silhouette from the light that shined through the opening of the tree.
I waved at what I presume to be Rak, but instead, I was greeted with a large bolt of dark magic.
The bolt exploded underneath my feet, faster than I could perceive or react. It wilted the ground beneath me as the shockwave blew me back dozens of feet.
I slam into multiple trees as they shatter upon impact. Finally a much thicker and larger tree stopped my path causing a crater in the tree that sits there while I fell from being pinned onto the trunk.
The impact was far more than I could handle and I immediately blacked out.
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Waking up after an unknown amount of time, I looked around while my eyes still sagged with fatigue. Seems like I was chained up in a cage outside of the grove.
My eyes dart around. Trying to figure out what issue I found myself in.
The cage was inside of a carriage. It was a metal box with barred windows around it so I could only see outside. A low monotone voice was speaking to himself like he was on the phone.
"The target has been apprehended."
The distorted voice came from a tall cloaked being who wore a black mask that only showed glowing red eyes from behind it. In fact, all five kidnappers were wearing the same getup. The man who was talking had more of an official feel to his uniform, making me assume he is in charge.
The leader took two of his minions aside to converse. After a few seconds, the two disappeared out of sight and the last three people began to crowd around the cart and began to get ready to depart.
Holding my aching left side, I blurted out without thinking, "So you fucks got something planned with me? You don't look like tourists."
I smirked trying to play it cool, but they seemed disinterested to play along.
The man with the low distorted voice calmly says, "If I were you, I'd just get comfortable. Your life is terribly short now."
"Ooh, scary man over here." I mock him. "Look asshole, I don't give a damn where you take me. Suck my left nut. I got people ready to come get me at any time." I wasn't really telling the truth since I have no idea where Rak went nor do I have contact with my allies back on Auralis.
"We will be able to get what we need out of you, wanderer."
At the sound of that label, I froze.
〈They know? How? This doesn't make any sense, I haven't really made a big scene yet.〉
I collected my thoughts. They wore dark colors and had masks that are almost pure black like a shadow. They found me and called me a wanderer, so it was clear who they were.
"I assume you are the religious freaks capturing wanderers? How'd you know I was here?"
"Just sit there and be silent."
At his protest, I got a bit annoyed. It sucked that I had no ability to move as I was pretty injured, which is weird considering I should've regenerated anything that was damaged. Seems like he has some way of halting my lycanthrope regeneration.
A single thought ran across my mind. If I was only surrounded by people who are going to cause me harm, then why not use this chance to transform?
With that in mind, I began to concentrate deeply. I tried to peer into my psyche or mind, where the "other me" was at.
The deeper in my mind I wandered to, the greater the feeling of being dragged into a space felt like. As if my body is sinking into the ocean depths.
It took some time finding, but I suddenly was inside my own mindscape. It was a dark forest of a mental realm as howls were heard off in the distance. I stood there as the dark dead trees around me began to flicker into flames.
The forest bursted out into a sea of fire that tore everything down. A bird of prey's caw echoed throughout the fire that roared
I couldn't understand why I was witnessing these phenomenons but one thing was for certain, these landscapes are what my inner beasts are best acquainted with.
〈Why are they showing me this?〉
The flames subsided slightly as a wolf appeared through the fire in front of me. It stared at me, like it was peering into my soul.
Behind me, a large bird on fire soared into the sky, illuminating the night. It was the phoenix I defeated prior to my resurrection. The same one in fact.
This was most likely due to me absorbing its soul, now it's conflicting with the lycanthrope within me.
The phoenix dove down and crashed into the wolf as the canine jumped at it. A large magical explosion occurred between them sending me back yards away.
The combination of the two creatures formed together to create a unifying monster. Mostly resembling a wolf but with a more bipedal form, and a fire within its chest that seemed like a furnace of unending flame. It had fiery wings on its back as well, like the phoenix and the wolf combined into a single entity, my new transformation.
This creature born from the combination of the two hearts I have acquired seemingly coexisted in perfect harmony like they were made for each other.
I couldn't tell what the significance of this event was, but something seemed to mark a new era in my evolution.
The wolf started to transform itself into a quadruped and then its giant form laid on the grass. It looked like it was smiling like a jester. Its grin wide as it looked to me.
"Look at you. You look delicious. I'm assuming you are my new host?"
Host? What is this thing talking about.
"No worries, you don't have much time here anyway. I'd like to see you again, so mind visiting me sometime soon?"
The world around us shook. It seemed like I could only keep this up for a little bit. A force pulled me away, and as my body was flung to the sky, everything disappeared.
I opened my eyes, noticing a spark of mana erupt from the cage and shock me.
My body was blasted backwards towards the end of the cage. I slammed into the wall with force that seemed like it would break down the carriage itself.
"Ah, so it seems you tried transforming huh?" A snarling, hyena-like snicker came from the front of the carriage.
A man with red hair and an almost sinister looking mask looked back at me. The eyes of the mask showcasing an eerie laughter with a smile spread wide across the face.
"So sad! HEHE! You won't be doing that. Aw poor poochie!" His jester mentality makes him sound clinically insane.
"How much do you know about me?! Where are you taking me!"
Anger ensued within me as I charged the front of my cage and bashed against it. I was more than just annoyed now, I was angered. At first, I had a little bit of confidence that I could get out, but the conflicts have proven otherwise.
"Oh, we know everything about you… Finn."
My heart sank into my chest.
〈How does he know? My real name?〉
"How?" I ask in utter disbelief.
"You think you can hide from our gods? You wanderers were all part of the pla-"
"Carter!" He immediately was cut off by the leader. "You know how grave it is to speak of such matters outside the church."
Carter knocked on his head in a silly manner. "Oops, my bad! Just thought a dead man should be allowed to hear it."
"Dead man? Well, that's if you can keep me dead, plus you'll have to find a way off this gigantic tree."
I ate my words immediately. The carriage ran straight towards the edge of the leaf and I felt the wheels drop as the connection to the ground ceased.
It felt like the gravity was switched around not reversed but that there wasn't any. It lifted the carriage in a bizarre way, almost like I was floating in space.
The horses in the front were metallic and began to run through the air as they gripped onto footholds within the sky itself using nothing but air.
"What the hell is going on here?!" I asked in confusion.
"Oh right, hehe heh you don't know a sing-le thing!" As the jester almost sang a tune. "Well if you want to kno-ow! This land is completely DAMAGED! The great divines fought here, and the ecosystem crumbled beneath their mighty power. The god of space's divine mana was too much for the earth, and the trees absorbed that mana into their roots and began to shift."
What surprised me more was he made his tone more serious to explain the last part.
"And now that you know that, you must also know that you are the fiend that caused it all!" He was beginning to raise his voice as he spoke, his anger was obvious.
The third cloaked figure, which I have yet to hear, spoke out. "Worry not Carter. This walking error's time is limited. Let the poor thing alone as he reflects on his actions."
They must've been speaking about the Final War that Rak mentioned to me. It seemed that my presence, or something I did caused the entire world to flip upside down.
It sucked since I didn't know anything nor is anything obvious even when explained to me. It was like a puzzle that was already finished, but I just couldn't see the puzzle itself.
The horses gracefully pranced down from the leaf as it surfed a wave of air and gravity. It was like the wind itself made way for the carriage to float down.
Upon reaching the solid ground right in front of a massive crater where this biome of upside down trees were present, the carriage darted off.
The horses started to continue on a road that led itself into a forest and did so for quite a while.
Eventually, we pass by the treeline and enter a clearing. The road pathed up the mountain as the road got more winding and harder to traverse.
Looking out the barred windows, I started to mess around with them a bit. "Are we there yet?"
…
Another minute went by. "Are we ther-" The cage glowed red as the cage shocked me again. "Ow damnit! It was just a joke. Can't have fun for the last hour of my life or something?"
They didn't seem amused.
Outside, there were other creatures that seemed to keep themselves going within the mountain.
There were rock-based beasts and even flying monsters around. It was completely different then being in the jungle and there were still creatures that never existed in the game before.
Not too long after we entered the mountains did the carriage start to slow itself into a halt. Out from the side, the jester-like maniac opens the door.
"Well, here we are!" He sings, almost like a lullaby.
"Oh boy, I hope I get a fair trial."
The jester snickers, "You? A trial? The gods already sentenced you, you have no trial to speak of."
The jester grabs my chains and drags me along. "Hey! A little easy on the grip there pal, you might scrape my beautiful skin. I moisturize you know!"
I am taken to a massive castle-esque structure. Its doors were tall but they were seemingly only there for decoration as a smaller entrance appeared. It's like a laser cut away a piece of the door and the piece fades to non-existence.
I get pulled through the portal and step out into a grand entrance. Purple flames that rise from braziers and a carpet that leads down the hall.
This place was massive. It was like it was a castle underground for some uber wealthy overlord. Most likely a lich by now too.
They dragged me down multiple halls and stairways until finally, they threw me into a huge cell.
The room itself was bigger than what I'd think a cell would be and the walls were made out of dark stone.
Instead of metal bars, there was a glass pane that separated me from the outside.
"Well, count your days. The transport will be ready to activate tomorrow morning, so get your final days rest while you can." The stern masked man walked away and left me in the dark cell.
I laid back on the side wall and stared into one of the corners. I couldn't believe I was not only captured, but by the very people I was supposed to never meet. This couldn't have gotten any worse.
Sitting there thinking about all the things I could've done more to take care of the situation, led my eyes to become heavy and fall asleep.
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I had a dream.
It was a dream about my past. About my parents.
My family was a normal one. My sister and I would constantly get on each other's nerves as our parents would to each other, but it was a good family.
We stuck together and we did everything together. We weren't rich, nor were we poor. We were a perfect blend of being well enough to enjoy life and the company of each other.
The issue was, my parents' past caught up with them.
My mother was a part of a major family within the states which had corporations scattered around the country. They were filthy rich. To say that they had power is an understatement. She apparently ignored the wishes of her father for an arranged marriage to an up and coming self-made billionaire that was from another major family, and then she ran away.
My father was the polar opposite. He was from a near homeless household, living at the end of the barrel with his four siblings and his parents. Supposedly, his parents got into heavy debt to a rotten company run by some gang members and couldn't pay it off. Father's parents passed away due to poor health and left him as the eldest of his siblings to fend off and take the debt onto himself. Having to drop out of school and get a job, he was able to take care of his family.
Fast forward to when we were a happy family, it seemed like both of them moved as far as they could, to Canada, in order to break away from it.
First came the gang that my father was still in debt to. They came in and took valuables from our house, and nearly emptied it out. We were stuck in a position of having to call the police which made a track of where my mother lived. It also was the time where we figured out our dad had criminal charges on his name.
Dad was sent back into the states which made my mother fall into depression, but before she could recover, her family came by to take her away. They used the fact that our dad was a deadbeat criminal who hid plenty of things away from us.
That left my sister and I alone to ourselves since mom's family was adamant on not bringing us with her. Instead, our "family" gave us a few hundreds of thousands of dollars to live our lives how we pleased.
I was fifteen when all this happened.
It was a time where I couldn't hold my emotions down, making me lash out more than I ever did.
To most people, I just tell them my parents passed away and I got the house and money from their wills. It's at least the easiest thing to say without explaining the complications.
I was able to figure things out on my own while helping my sister with her life as well.
Since that moment, I was never able to see my parents again.
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King; level 21
EP: 0 (122)
Strength - 32
Dexterity - 32
Constitution - 16
Intelligence - 11
Charisma - 10
Luck - 21
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