This darkness was nothing like the darkness he experienced previously. There was no voice, no great feeling, no guide. Nothing. "Oh wait... Guide, show me my character sheet."
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Name: Frank Terra
Age: 24 years old
Mana: 80 (71/80) (Regen 1 per 5 minutes)
Level: 2 (10/20)
Stats: strength 10, agility 8, vitality 5, intelligence 8, endurance 10
Extra stat points:4
Equipment:
Skills: Mana sense (level 0), Vampiric Vines (level 1), Parasitic Host (level 1)
Innate powers: Earth Control (Mid level mastery: high level potential), Plant control (low level mastery: high level potential)
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"Ooooo there's a couple new things. The mana gauge explains why I felt more tired during the fight. Well... for the first two it was more like a slaughter. Then I got hit..."
"Wow two new skills. I wonder how I created them. It was kind of a blur after he insulted me. I didn't mean to kill that mage though he just got in the way." Frank thought as he was drifting along. He would probably hurl again when he remembers that he killed someone.
This time it was a human that he killed. Not some gremlin or whatever the guide called it. But that raises another question… why were people so cruel? He was pretty sure they would have taken his money and map. Had he been killed as well? Or thrown into jail to rot?
Frank started to panic when he might have just died prematurely. He had so much to live for. So much time to try and recover. Was it all gone like that?
Soon the darkness got a tinge bit lighter… then it faded into black and white shapes… then colors, very blurry colors. Soon enough, albeit still blurry, he could see where he was. Getting up from the floor he could see he was in a cell.
"Ah… so jail it is. I wonder how cruel this place will be. At least I have something to defend myself with" thinking about the parasitic host skill he… created… he remembered the vine and what he did. Their skin breaking, their muscles being drained and flattened, their blood being consumed by the vines.
Although he didn't have any food in his stomach he still threw up whatever else was in there. "Hey idiot, here's your food," another guard said as he passed by the cell door. A bowl of what looked like liquid animal fats and rotten bread with some meat.
"Ugh, gross," he said as the guard left. But his stomach convinced him otherwise. Sighing he ate until his bowl was empty. The room around him was all stone and rotten wood. Clear signs of decay filled the room.
Right next to him was a skeleton chained to the wall. It's leg was broken into splinters and its arms broken in certain parts. Standing up he tried to find something to do. But all there was was a bed, two buckets, and some vines breaking through the wall.
"Damn it. Hopefully they allow us time to go outside like on Earth or else I'm screwed. Damn it... I should have just let it go, the stupid idiot did give me some valuable info though. There is indeed a local military or something like that with knights and mages."
"And he said something about me not being an awakened... Like with magic... is my mutation not magic or is it something else entirely. Whatever, in any case I should be able to dig myself out with the help of my plant and earth manipulation."
"Hmm if I recover one mana point every five minutes and I've got back around six then that means I was out for about half an hour. For being hit in the head with a giant stone I would say that isn't too bad." Walking back over to the overgrown vine digging through the stone Frank tries something.
For the first time since he got to this world he was going to try to manipulate his mutations to their extremes. He figured out that they can activate unconsciously like with the goblin and when he was blinded by rage, but he didn't know if he could actively control it and its ability with that.
"Alright, lets do this." Positioning his hands in front of the plant he tried commanding it to move. But all it did was sway left and right for a couple seconds. "Hmm, every time it actually attacked someone I was either in danger or enraged. Maybe the intent matters more than my casual commands?"
Putting his hands back up Frank imagined what he wanted to happen. He thought in very small details everything that he wanted to happen. Suddenly the vine shot forward at a small rat sleeping in the skeletons corpse. It pierced it and went through without trouble.
"Well it did the motion that I wanted but it didn't use the magic spell that I wanted. Why wouldn't the magic activate? I thought about that happening in the process but it didn't. Maybe I need to actively say it like I did to the knight."
Trying again on another rat in the room on the opposite corner Frank imagined exactly what he wanted to happen but before setting it in motion he said "Vampiric Vines". The vines immediately shot forward like previously but before it got to the rat it expanded as the spell intended. This slowed down the vine and it bounced harmlessly against the rat. The vines being completely dead.
Walking up and picking up the vine he tried to figure out what went wrong. "Did I cast the spell too early. Well... at least this place is full of rats." Taking the broken twig of the branch Frank tried to see if he could still manipulate it, but to his surprise it was stuck in its magical transformation.
He tried unbending it and controlling it with his mutation but it didn't respond. "Hmm, Vampiric Vine" He tried casting it again but it only grew more with the left over energy it gained. Though it seemed to not be able to hurt him.
He took another branch off of the vine and just started manipulating it. He caused it to expand, shrink, and change shapes. His mana did not decrease but he got more and more tired mentally. "Hey guide, what is the fuel for my mutations?"
-Your guess is as good as mine user. The mutation was not caused by the guide or the gods-
"Can you label a gauge like my mana but connect it to my mental fatigue?"
-....-
-The request has been granted, what would you like to call it user-
"Just label it Mental fatigue. Oh and make sure to notify me if it gets above lets say 70%"
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Name: Frank Terra
Age: 24 years old
Mana: 80 (73/80)
Mental fatigue: 15%
Level: 2
Stats: strength 10, agility 8, vitality 5, intelligence 8, endurance 10
Extra stat points:4
Equipment:
Skills: Mana sense (level 0), Vampiric Vines (level 2), Parasitic Host (level 1)
Innate powers: Earth Control (Mid level mastery: high level potential), Plant control (low level mastery: high level potential)
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"Ok. So now I have my mana and my mutations, two separate powers but both just as deadly. Hmm Frank is a boring name... I should come up with a different one. New world new me after all. I'll think of one later." He still didn't know how to combine the two powers but he could experiment with those later.
"I need to find a time where the guards wont pass my cell as often. If they see that a dangerous person has escaped into the city they will set off the alarm. I should get more power first. I don't know how strong I am compared to the people of this world." Just like that a couple days passed.
His routine of practicing his powers, eating the rotten food, and sleeping was becoming boring and exhausting. He needed to get out, to travel the world. Maybe even meet some people from Earth to team up with them.
-User, the map has been downloaded. You may use it to learn where you are, notice it only has the information from the previous map that you bought. Good luck-
"Really? Nice to know I wasn't cheated out of that. Now... where to go after I escape from here?" On one side there was a forest that spread to the ends of the map. There were four cities of about the same size as the one he was currently in, in an 100 mile length that way.
North was where that field that he woke up in connected with the forest. That was all farm land though, no towns whatso ever. The final side was an archipelago that connects the closest city with this one.
Gagging as the moldy bread touched his tongue he forced the bread down his throat. No matter what he needed to be stronger. Just as he had gotten used to the cold, dark jailcell a guard started unlocking the cage.
"Hey smartass, they're banishing you from this city. The council has no record of you so they assumed you were either a traveler or an other worlder. Either one means that we don't have any record of you."
"They'll forgive Harks death but Matthews death, the mage that you killed, was done in cold blood. You will be banished from the city of Marth and if you come back you will be treated as a murderer. That means death or imprisonment."
Surprised that they would let him go, Frank decided this was better than escaping and being wanted. Nodding to the guard Frank followed him out, but not performing Parasitic Host on the vine growing in the wall.
Now with two plants inside his soul he felt more power coursing through him. But that was besides the point, he was going into the wild without a plan or resources to use on himself. "Does it matter which city I head to or just get out of this one?"
"The counsel just said your banished from this one, they aren't putting up a bounty or a notice in other towns. They just want you gone before people try to take the law into their own hands." Walking towards the gate that he came out of Frank decided where he would go.
'The forest, its the best place I can get stronger. I don't know my limits yet so I'll steal from the farms and survive by passing through the smaller towns, avoiding the larger cities until I'm strong enough.'
"Time to start living"