"So what you're telling me is that I'm going to be a multiversal Biologist regardless of my credentials," I say, still rather confused about this whole ordeal, but deciding not to question this lest I get smited by the eldritch being made of flesh and plants.
"Indeed, your actual findings are irrelevant, as thousands before you have found the ins and outs of creatures throughout the multiverse." The voice echoes throughout the void as their countless eyes stay focused on me in a rather unsettling way.
"You are to simply provide another perspective; your chances of truly finding something new are so astronomically low, you are more likely to meet another one of my siblings." They say as I just nod my head slightly, having expected as such since there was no way I was their first field worker.
"I see, so my job is to help prove a hypothesis into a theory and theory into fact," I say, which gets the blinking of the thousands of eyes as a yes. "Well, I hope you are aware that my reports will be rather poor until I get better at this, especially until I get proper equipment as well."
"As to be expected, I care not how well the report is but rather that it is made at all." The eldritch being says with a drawn-out pause. "Your first assignment will be How to Train Your Dragon. I implore that you don't send the dragon manual or borks papers as your own findings."
"I'll keep that in mind, so do I get dental at all with this job, or any benefits?" I ask, trying to glide over the clear threat of my annihilation from the universe if I straight copy another's work.
"You'll be given immortality and heightened regeneration; the rest is decided by a system my brother made, and I won through a bet." They say, as I feel as though I hear a small hint of pride over that last bit, but I decide to ignore that and just be happy I won't be torn to shreds too easily.
"What kind of immortality and regeneration, if I may ask?" I say with my hands together with an internal prayer, that the regeneration is like Wolverine's and not Deadpool's, or even better if my immortality is like Lobo's.
"You will be immortal in the way that you will not age nor succumb to disease or illness. Your regeneration would be closest to spiderman letting you heal most wounds over a week rather than months to years." The most beautiful eldritch being says. Definitely not lying to myself due to the wonderful gifts I've been given.
"While the system you will be given is related to Gachas or gambling, though with several rules added to make it more fair and make you properly work when assigned to a world. That way you don't believe you are stronger than us." They say becoming terrifying once more, though somewhat understandable, as you don't want your employee trying to kill you and take over your business.
"I can work with that. I also think I'm out of questions to ask, so I'm ready for my first assignment," I say as I do a mock salute. Then feel my entire body twist as though I went down a water slide wrong, then feel myself go poof.
—----------------------------
I slowly feel myself materialize again as I appear into the world, my eyes needing a bit to adjust, having adapted to the rather dark and grayed-out space that is the void. My surroundings consist of oak, maple, and birch trees, with there being a lot of ferns and moss.
'I think the archipelago was based between Greenland and Norway, if I remember correctly.' I think as I look around and decide that finding a cave would probably be a smart choice to start off on.
Unless I want to become a snack of course, which I would prefer not to be. 'Now, how does my system work exactly? I probably should have asked that.' Now realizing I did have more questions to ask. 'I wonder if I should try the classic words like status.'
[Status]
Name: Erik
Age: 18
Title: Lumenweeps Champion
Tickets: 5
"Well, that worked better than I imagined. Didn't even need to try the others," I mutter as I look at the rather lackluster status menu, but also quite happy it doesn't consist of a mile-long list of attributes and such. Though my curiosity led me to look at the three tabs besides status.
Which read off Gacha, Achievements, and Inventory. 'I'm assuming Achievements is how I earn tickets and maybe some other miscellaneous things. Inventory is self-explanatory, and Gacha is just gambling.'
'Let's see what Achievements there are first to see what I need to do.' I think as I mentally select the tab, to see a separate window open which has its own three sections. World, Advancement, and Discovery.
'So I'm currently in the World tab,' I think as I look through the achievements and see how they are focused on killing dragons, taming dragons, and fighting vikings. 'Somewhat seems like the achievement lists from Minecraft.'
I then go to the Advancement tab and see how this one is mainly focused on production and how to survive in the wild, other basic essentials, and actually study biology from scratch. 'Well, this is rather helpful.'
Finally, I check the Discovery tab, which is solely focused on finding things out about dragons and their biology, ecology, and physiology. As well as what you can do with their byproducts. 'So this one is a bit of a mix between advancement and world.'
'Okay, so Gacha time, let's go gambling.' I think as I give a small prayer to Lumenweep and their unnamed sibling, which made this system. As I then see three options, though the third being grayed out.
'Item, Random, and World. I'm assuming World decides where I go next after here.' I think as I look at the other two, with Item being one ticket each and Random being five. 'Considering I only have five, I should probably do Item, since I can't afford to go all in just yet.'
I then take a long, deep breath as I click Item and watch a wheel appear and start spinning, seeing at least a hundred different options that it can land on before I see it slowly stop, and all five items I received appear on a list.
[Gacha]
Tongs
Dragon-Proof Metal Spear
Gronckle Iron Formula
Month's Rations
Deer Pelt
'Well, that's not bad at all. I got a weapon, food, and a couple of other things.' I think with a small nod as the tab auto switches itself to inventory, which kinda looks like a Minecraft inventory, but never-ending and infinite stacking.
"I think the best thing here is the inventory," I mutter with a small smile as I pull out the Dragon-Proof Metal Spear, it being surprisingly lighter than I expected. 'Have to learn how to use a spear now.' I think as I jab it forward, the thrust feeling awkward and off balance.
'I'll get used to it eventually. Now, back to finding a cave.' I think with a small pause while trying to imagine what I may need. 'I'm going to need to make an axe, which means I'm going to need vines or a lot of grass.' As I look around and see nothing besides trees and bushes.
'This is going to take a while, the spear should make a good walking stick though.' As I start my legendary journey for a cave That hopefully, won't be home to dragons, wolves, or bears.
—----------------------------
"Fuck me, Fuck me," I yell as I scramble through the woods as a very angry Monstrous Nightmare chases after me. "I didn't mean to wake you up. I'm sorry." I yell as I turn behind a tree, as a breath of fire goes around the tree, making me just a bit crispy.
"Okay, how to fight a Nightmare. It's only a giant self-igniting dragon that can tear me apart and happily eat what remains." I mutter as I pull my spear back out of my inventory and send a prayer. "Just don't die or lose a limb, and I'll be able to recover," I say to try to hype myself up.
I then go to turn to see the Nightmare staring down at me, growling with one of its eyes, a foggy white, and several scars dotting its body, some clearly from arrows and spears. While others are a bit harder to distinguish.
"We can talk about this right," I say with a nervous smile as the Nightmare then ignites itself, making me want to piss myself, yet that won't help me live. "Hard way it is," I mutter as I grip my spear.
The Nightmares' jaws then coming straight for my head as I try to get out of the way, with them barely missing and my shirt now on fire. Which I quickly pat out. I then make the brave choice and run off once more, knowing damn well I probably can't win at the moment.
My surroundings seem blurry as I run as fast as I humanly can, but the big boy behind me is faster than I am and quickly gaining ground. "Fuck me, man." I groan out, trying not to cry as I turn around, confusing the Nightmare a bit as they go to breathe fire at me.
Seeing this, I try to launch my spear forward like a javelin and, surprisingly, hit the Nightmare. Just not where I was aiming, which was the inside of the mouth; instead, I got the back. 'Probably shouldn't have thrown my only weapon.' I realize as I look at the Nightmare growl in pain, though mostly unaffected by it.
I then watch it turn its head and pull the spear out and throw it to the side before looking back at me. 'Why can't life be easy?' I mentally groan as I start running again, this time for the spear instead of just away.
The Nightmare quickly sees that and comes straight for me, but thankfully ducking behind a tree in time for it to smash against it, causing the tree to fall over, but the nightmare also being dazed as I make it to my spear as it comes back to its senses.
'A weapon from Monster Hunter would really be helpful right about now.' I joke as I get in a relatively bad form for holding the spear and look at the Nightmare, trying to hype myself up for what is probably going to be a painful and losing fight.
"Come on fucker, you're not going to let me go, so we might as well do this properly," I yell, trying to sound brave more for myself than to sound intimidating. My body shaking, knowing I could die, and there being a very high chance of it regardless of what I do.
The Nightmare lets out a roar in response and charges at me as I do the same. Their body still alight as they come closer to me, I try to roll out of the way like its dark souls and not succeeding so well, and get claws raked down my back, making me yell out in pain.
I then stumble up to see the Nightmare trying to snap its jaws onto me, making me quickly get out of the way and thrust the spear forward to the best of my abilities, cutting its neck and making it bleed. Though the wound quickly cauterizing itself from its fire.
"Come on, that isn't fair," I yell as I try to think of the best way for me to win this fight, if at all. Though the Nightmare is unheeding of my protests as it comes at me again, claws heading towards my head, which I evade before the Nightmare tries its jaws next.
Not being able to dodge its teeth, I put my spear forward, keeping its mouth ajar and smell the coming of its fire as I duck. Its fire then blazing straight over me and landing on a tree, my spear blacked like charcoal, and now to the side out of my reach.
'Channel my inner viking.' I think as I punch the Nightmare as hard as I can, which nudges its head but does little else than that, except hurt my own hand and only make the dragon madder than they already were.
The Nightmare then slaps me aside with its tail and sets my clothes on fire again, making me roll on the ground a bit as I grab my spear to catch its claws, which I somehow parry to the side and scramble up to barely thrust the spear quickly enough to lodge it in the dragon's side.
My eyes lit up in excitement at the scene before I get whacked away and receive a giant three-clawed gash down my chest, making me breathe heavily and struggle to get back up as the Nightmare pulls out the spear with a loud roar of pain before snapping its head towards me once more.
The shaft of the spear now broken from its teeth. "Fuck me." I groan, the Nightmare taking a deep breath as it goes to breathe fire once more, I run to the side and towards the broken spear so I can try and use it as a dagger at least.
"Let's try channeling my inner Nagyunn instead," I whisper as dragon breath blazes behind me, grabbing the spear head, and turn towards the Nightmare. Their breath cuts short as they go to bite me, and I try to dodge, but their bite manages to catch my arm.
"Fuck you, you stupid lizard," I yell as their teeth dig into my arm, and I stab the spearhead in the Nightmare's eye repeatedly until it is just a mess of gore. The pain causing them to let my arm go, but it being practically useless anyways.
I stumble a bit but charge forward, dodging under a clumsy claw strike, the heat of the Nightmare, burning my skin and my hair as I start stabbing it in the throat repeatedly until all that is heard is gurgling sounds instead of its roars.
And yet with its dying breath, it slaps me as hard as it can with its tail, sending me flying into a tree trunk and knocking the air out of me, though thankfully they're dead now. "I really need a nap," I mutter as my eyes close involuntarily.
—----------------------------
"Ouh." I take in a sudden gasp of air as I thrust awake, my vision swimming as I look around, my head hurting, and my entire body overheating as if I were sick. 'Where's the body?' I think as I try to find the dead Monstrous Nightmare.
'It can't still be alive. Otherwise. I wouldn't still be breathing.' I think, trying to figure out what happened. Then deciding to check my body to see that most of my wounds have somewhat scabbed over or are in the process of it, while the burn marks on my body are already mostly healed.
"Thank god for regeneration," I mutter as I slowly get up with my entire body aching, as I do with the only thing still being here is the broken spearhead, as well as a note carved into a boulder.
"If you somehow live to read this kid, thank you for the free Monstrous Nightmare corpse. Though you're likely dead." I read out loud, completely taken aback. "Assholes stole my loot and left me for dead," I yell out in indignation.
"That fight was an overall loss. I didn't get the body to study. I'm now in a fucked state until I rest for another two to three days. And my damn spear is broken." I yell out as I kick the boulder, which only ends up hurting me.
"Maybe I can claim the dragon's cave as mine now," I grumble as I stumble my way through the forest and towards where the dragon lived. Which took at least an hour compared to the previous thirty minutes it took me to walk there.
'I guess this will be home until I can make a hut or at least furnish the place nicely.' I think as I go to the back of the cave and lie down. 'Time to eat, I guess.' I think as I pull out some rations, which consist of hard bread, jerky, and berries.
'Let's see if I got anything for killing the Nightmare.' I think as I open the system and get a single notification.
[Achievement]
Kill a Monstrous Nightmare
Reward
5 Gacha Tickets
'That's it, nothing else. No congrats or something special.' I think as I just look at the achievement, a groan before entering the Gacha tab and spending away my five tickets on items to hopefully get a new weapon.
[Gacha]
Bone Shovel
Stone Harpoon
Deer Pelt
Hide Gloves
Bolas x3
'Better than nothing, I guess.' I think as I pull out the hide gloves and put them on, as well as the two deer pelts to use as a blanket. 'Mine as well sleep until I'm properly recovered.' I think as I close my eyes.
—----------------------------
'Okay, it's been three days, and I'm completely recovered and barely any scars too.' I think as I look myself over and do a small stretch before putting the pelts away. "Time to get started, I guess. Let's go find some vines," I mutter as I make my way out of the cave.
'Okay, find vines so I can use them as rope, make an axe, and cut down some trees. So on and so forth.' I list as I start wandering through the forest picking up just about everything I come across, from pebbles to shed dragon scales.
After a couple hours of scouring the island I finally found some vines and more than a couple of dragons which I had to sneak around or past. 'I can finally make an axe now.' I think as I grab a decent stick and sizable rock and wedge the rock into the stick before tightly wrapping the vine around the stone axe head and stick.
'This should be good enough I think, especially for the smaller trees.' I nod as I look around and go to a relatively skinny birch tree and try hacking at it which gets me a little over half way and letting me push the tree the rest of the way so it can simply snap in half.
"Timber." I yell as the tree comes crashing down with a thud. A small smile on my face as I then see an achievement go off, making my brow raise and try to stuff the tree into my inventory. Which surprisingly worked better than I expected, as I then opened my achievements.
[Achievements]
Fell a tree with a crude axe
Reward
1 Gacha Ticket
'Better than nothing I guess.' I think as I go back to cutting down some trees and happily aiding the cause of deforestation and the wails of future generations. After a couple hours of cutting down some small skinny trees I came out with eight birch trunks.
'Now let's roll this Gacha ticket and see what I get.' I think as I stare at my favorite activity, mainly because it is my only activity.
[Gacha]
Dragon Root Seeds
'Finally something good came from this.' As I smile at the Gacha screen and try to remember where I'm supposed to plant these. "I think it was constant sun they liked." I mutter trying to recall correctly as I walk back to the cave.
'But once I figure that out I can easily take down dragons and see their reactions to dragon root. How long it takes to get it out of their system, and what has a higher resilience to it.' I wonder how much easier this will make my studies.
—----------------------------
'It's been about a month, but I can finally start my first harvest of dragon root, albeit a small one, but one nonetheless.' I think as I walk to the sunny clearing, I made for the dragon root and see the growing stalk in the distance.
"Still bigger than I thought it would be." I am still rather surprised at how quickly it grows, as I then pull out one of my many stone axes and start cutting it down, and then moving on to the next and the next.
Getting me a total of fifteen dragon root stalks, though barely budding, but getting me a lot more seeds as well, making up for my impatience. "I can finally start my studies," I say with a smile as I make my way back to the cave and plan on what dragon I should hunt first.
"Considering this isn't going to fit into my pot, I should probably cut this up into a good amount of chunks, each filled with water. After that, I think I cover arrows or other weapons in the liquid." I say as I start hacking at the dragon root.
After about an hour, I have all fifteen stalks made into sixty chunks small enough to fit five per pot. "This should be small enough to let the dragon root boil down." I say to myself as I start pouring water into three pots from my inventory. Which I thankfully found out I could store in there.
Freshwater from a stream on the island, not wanting to chance salt water messing with the effects in some way. "Now I let it sit until it becomes a green solution, I believe, and I should have my dragon root concentrate," I say with a smile.
As I let the dragon root boil down, I go to limbing trees and doing maintenance on my tools, even if they are just stone. 'It's a good thing I had that month of rations, it let me learn how to forage and fish.' As I start to recall my first fishing attempt.
Especially my many failed fishing trips and struggle to properly forage, and almost died of poisoning, but my immortality and regeneration saving me. 'Was able to find out what makes good poisons, though.' I think as I look at the many berries and mushrooms in my inventory.
'I need to learn how to make glass and how to forge metals for the future.' Trying to now think of who can teach me blacksmithing. I then remember about sand busters and if I can abuse how their fire works to make glass for me, and if not, just loot their dens for valuables.
An hour of wandering thoughts and possible ideas which may or may not lead to my death, the dragon root finally finished boiling down, showing a lovely green solution, which I then pull out my crudely made stone arrows and dip them into the solution one after another before putting them into my inventory until each one is covered including my other weapons.
Then pouring the rest of the solution into my inventory and starting the next batches. After they are started, I walk outside to a couple of tables I made and put the arrows down where the sun will shine down on them to help the process of them drying.
"I may be able to start hunting by tomorrow." I think as I go back to doing an array of things and flipping the arrows every half hour to make sure they dry evenly and quickly. The rest of the day quickly zooms by, following the same process of dragon root solution and flipping arrows and weapons until they dry.
"I should have enough dragon root solution for now, and it shouldn't dry all that quickly in my inventory, taking around a week, which should be quick enough for me to hunt a couple of Nadders," I say to myself as I go over everything in my cave before going to sleep and getting ready for tomorrow's hunt.
—----------------------------
"Please let this go well," I mutter as I stalk behind a Nadder as it currently feasts on a deer, slowly knocking the arrow and pulling the string back, not caring where I hit the Nadder as long as I hit it at all.
"Shall you rest well in the afterlife." I whisper as I loose the arrow, which barely hits, embedding itself in the lower thigh, making it let out a screech and wobble as I look around, trying to flap its wings and get away, only seeing me as I slowly walk towards it.
"Rest well," I say to it as I pull out my spear and quickly kill the Nadder by stabbing it through the eye and into the brain. "It feels wrong to kill something without it fighting back at all," I mutter, though knowing I can't exactly have morals as I have to kill at least one of every species to understand their biology and physiology.
I then hear the ding of me earning an achievement, knowing what it probably is, and put the Nadder into my inventory so I can process it later and at least make use of every part of it. 'I can use its spikes as spears and arrows.' I think as I start my search for another dragon, maybe a Zippleback or Nightmare.
After a bit of a search, I came across a Gronckle. Which is immune to dragon root, and I can't hunt it with the tools I have now. 'Gronckle hunting will have to wait for a future date.' I think as I turn around and head in a different direction, hoping to find something I can hunt.
After another search, I came across a Zippleback. The two heads seem to be discussing with each other and are promptly distracted, making my life easier. As I knock another arrow and stalk my way closer before drawing the bowstring.
I then loose the arrow after finding a good spot. "Fuck." I mutter as I see the arrow miss and hit next to the Zippleback, making the two heads snap towards my direction and see me making the two heads growl as green gas starts oozing out of one of the mouths.
I hurriedly knock another arrow and draw the string, though the Zippleback sees that and seems wise enough not to stand in one location as one head keeps releasing gas, slowly clouding the arrow in a fog and very possibly leading to a very painful explosion if I don't kill it.
"I take back my previous statement that the dragon fighting back is preferred," I say as I hear a twig snap and hurriedly shoot an arrow in that direction, but only hearing the thwacking sound of my arrow hitting wood.
I quickly put the bow in my inventory and pull out one of the spears I placed in dragon root, and get ready to stab in any direction that I may see or hear a Zippleback. A second later hearing the faint sound of the other head's teeth as all the gas explodes, slamming me hard against a tree.
My vision dazed and blurry with my body burning in pain. "Damn lizards," I mutter as the Zipplebacks' heads come from around the tree, one on each side, making me realize how fucked this situation really is.
Yet I try to stab one of the heads or necks, though they pull back before I can hit them. making the other head try and bite me. I Quickly tried to dodge but only ending up with dragon teeth tearing into my shoulder. "Fuck." I yell out as I pull out an arrow and stab it into the bottom of the Zippleback's jaw.
Making their eyes widen, and the bite around my shoulder loosen before stopping in its entirety as they fall over onto the ground, their body twitching and looking around panicking as I pull out the spear again and stab them through the eye as I did the Nadder.
Making sure to do it with both heads since the Zippleback has two brains, and sadly, having to feel the pain of one of its heads and practically its brother die before it does as well. "Should have gone down easily." I groan out.
"I still feel bad, though, knowing they have two brains, feeling your other head die can't be enjoyable. So I apologize for that." I mutter as I rub my shoulder and look down at the Zippleback, not proud that I'm dragon hunting, but still curious what I can learn from their biology.
I then get the body into my inventory and start my way back home so I can sit down and rest, so my shoulder can heal properly, as well as the new burns that are littering my body from its wonderful explosion.
—----------------------------
{A/N Well, good people, that is the first chapter of the reboot. As you can tell, this will be a bit different as well as shorter. As the previous chapters were ten thousand words each, and these will probably only be four to five thousand, though I'm going to try to make it five thousand words per chapter.
I would also like to say there will probably be a couple of time skips every once in a while in these chapters, though they won't be any longer than a month at a time, and if they are longer, it will be after a major event, like the first movie. But aside from that, I'm going to try my best to keep this decently paced, not too fast, not too slow. But who knows if I can hold true to that.
Also, if you're thinking that the Gacha rewards are kind of useless, that's because they are. I'm actually spinning for them since I made a giant Item wheel using wheel of names and have been spinning it every time Erik's gotten tickets. So it may be all over the place unless something is needed to drive the plot forward.
Lastly, for every fight and encounter, I have been flipping coins or rolling dice to see how it goes, so for example, the arrows, I flipped a coin and rolled dice when it came to attack. That way, it doesn't feel like Erik instantly wins and actually has to try.
So that will be all. I will see you all next week with another chapter. Or at least I will try to see you all next week. The only consistent thing about me is that I'm inconsistent. I will now leave his status below.
[Status]
Name: Erik
Age: 18
Title: Lumenweeps Champion
Tickets: 13