“Get away from me!” Peter screamed. He tried getting away from him, hobbling on his walking stick.
“I’m sorry,” Tyler said, trailing after him. “I’m sorry okay.”
“Shut up,” Peter said. “Shut up, shut up, shut up.”
Tyler placed a hand on his shoulder trying to reassure him but Peter shrugged.
“You just watched,” Peter cried. “You just watched while those big kids beat the shit out of me. When they broke my leg you just… you just…”
Ran away. Tyler ran away. When those high school kids ganged up on a bunch of middle schoolers, Tyler just ran away. He hated it when big kids beat his friend up, he hated it a lot but he was weak. He wouldn’t be able to do anything. He was just a middle-schooler. Sure, he hated it but if he tried anything they would have just beaten him up. He didn’t do anything wrong.
“I’m sorry Peter,” Tyler said. “I tried.”
Peter’s laugh was hollow. “You didn’t try anything. You ran away like you always do. You chicken. Go ahead and run away now. It’s the only thing you’re good at.”
Peter hobbled away from Tyler, the words he said weighing in on Tyler like an iron pendulum on his chest
…
“Oh God, it’s you,” Tyler muttered.
“Hey what’s that supposed to mean?” Wesley mumbled. “Aren’t you happy to see a familiar face in this fucked up world?”
The first unwritten rule of the class of 2020 was that nobody liked Wesley. He was the guy who reminded the teacher that they had homework and kissed the teacher’s ass whatever chance he got. It was no surprise he made prefect.
“You’re the Scribe?”
“The one and only baby,” Wesley said. “Joe was about to kill me but then he found my abilities useful so here I am. Been holed up in this library with no human company except Tanya here giving me the usual batch of Potions which…”
Wesley turned to Tanya. “You have a new batch, right?”
Tanya shook her head. “God dammit,” Wesley muttered.
“Did you just say two months?” Tyler asked.
Wesley nodded. “Yeah, two months. Why?”
Tyler turned to Tanya. “How long have I been here?”
“You arrived at the church a week ago,” Tanya said. “It took you a while to recover.”
Wesley’s eyes widened. “Whoa, this is like some Christopher Nolan time travel shit.”
“Back to the topic,” Tyler said. “You said Joe found your ability useful. What is your ability?”
“Punch me.”
Tyler punched Wesley in the face causing his nose to crunch. Wesley’s nose started to bleed. “No hesitation, Jesus.”
Wesley placed a hand over his nose as he climbed up a ladder that creaked under his footsteps. Tyler followed.
Wesley’s room was located in the attic. In it there was a simple white bed with messy bedsheets and a desk littered with books and files.
Wesley picked up a piece of paper and a feather quill. Suddenly his eyes glowed silver as he started writing on the paper. After a few seconds his eyes returned to their normal brown colour and he showed Tyler the paper.
Hero: Tyler
Patron God: Dionysus
Level 2
STR 8
SPD 6
LCK 1
“Those are…”
“Yep, your stats,” Wesley said with a grin. “Well three of them but if you hit me with a spell, I’d be able to see your magic and if I hit you, well…”
Wesley slapped Tyler across the face. Tyler remained unfazed but suddenly Wesley’s eyes glowed silver again and he started scribbling across the parchment.
DEF 6
“Interesting,” Tyler said. “How does this work?”
Wesley took out his shirt.
“I don’t want to see that.”
Wesley ignored him and turned his back revealing a symbol that looked like a circle with horns on top of a cross painted across his bony back.
“My patron God is Thoth,” Wesley said. “Egyptian God of the Magic and the moon. My ability is Scribe of the Gods which allows me to write down a person’s stats whenever I’m attacked by them.”
“That’s cool,” Tyler said. “But can you put your shirt on?”
Wesley put his shirt on. “Joe made me write down everybody’s stats when he found out what I could do.”
“Do you have Joe’s stats?”
Wesley shook his head. “Of course not,” Tyler muttered.
“Do you his cronies stats?” Tyler asked.
Wesley nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“Nothing,” Tyler said but, in his head, he was starting to feel a plan chug into motion.
…
“Why didn’t you fight back?” Richard, his older brother asked. Richard was in college. Always going around town with his leather jacket and motorcycle, it was his parents who called Rich to pick him up after school because they’d be busy. It was also Rich that broke up the between him and a bunch of high schoolers.
Tyler held a pack of ice to his swollen eye. He tried moving his body but his bruises started to groan so he stood still.
“Because…” Tyler tried finding the reason. “Because…”
“I saw it in your eyes,” Rich said. “Before I got there. You wanted to fight back. Why didn’t you?”
“I would’ve,” Tyler said. “I would’ve but I wasn’t strong enough. They were older than me and they would’ve… would’ve…”
“You’re lying,” Rich said.
“I’m not lying to you,” Tyler interjected. “I swear I would’ve…”
“I didn’t say you’re lying to me,” Rich said. “You’re lying to yourself.”
Tyler snorted. “Lying to myself, how can I…”
“You were scared of getting hurt, weren’t you?”
Tyler laughed. “No, I wasn’t. What are you on about, I could’ve taken em I was just…”
“Ty,” Rich said. “There’s nothing worse than a man who doesn’t stick to his ideals.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Rich chuckled. “You’ll get it when you’re older I suppose.” Rich shrugged. “Want some ice cream?”
Tyler snickered. “You bet.”
Tyler got up but immediately his body cried in protest. Rich chuckled.
“You know what, stay here,” Rich said. “I’ll go get that ice cream for you.”
…
All around town they stared at him. They stared at his wounds like they’d never see bruises and scratches before. They stared at his tattoo blazing out in the sun and at the symbol of Dionysus that was emblazoned in the centre.
“A-are you okay?” Tanya asked, reaching out to help.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Tyler muttered but the sweat drenching his body and his skin being as red as a zit said otherwise. “Just need to make a few more rounds town and…”
“What the hell is going on here?” Joe roared. The people in town cleared out as Joe walked amongst them, the flabs on his belly bouncing with each step he took. As soon as Tanya saw him, her grip around Tyler tightened and her eyes turned away from Joe.
Joe turned to Tanya; eyes red with anger. “I told you immediately after his visit with the Scribe to take him to that little tavern of yours but what do you do?”
“Joe, calm down,” Tyler muttered but it seemed his voice was blown away by Joe’s anger because he didn’t seem to hear him.
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“What the hell do you do?” Joe said, pulling Tanya’s arm. She let out a soft cry as Joe pushed her to the ground. “Tell me, what the hell do you do?”
“I…”
Tyler clenched his fist. He hated seeing her like this. He wanted to do something, anything but…
What?
“I can’t hear you.”
“I…” Tanya said, starting to sob. “I…”
Joe raised his fists. “Tell me right now or else.”
He shouldn’t do anything. Why should he? He’d just be ignored. Joe wouldn’t hear him. Sure, what he was doing was wrong but what would Tyler do? What could Tyler…
No.
No more excuses.
“I just wanted to…”
“I said I can’t hear you!” Joe growled.
“I just wanted to…” Tanya broke into a sobbing fit.
“You little bi…”
Tyler stood in front of Joe. Joe stopped his fist.
“Get the hell out of my way!”
Tyler raised his hand in surrender, giving Joe his best smile despite the burning hatred he felt through his body.
“Look I told her I wanted to take a look around town,” Tyler said. “That’s all.”
“Without your shirt on?”
Tyler shrugged. “I see every Hero around town without their shirt on. I thought it was cool.”
Joe grunted. “Don’t walk around like that when you’re wounded. You never know what ideas these NPCs get.”
Tyler nodded, giving Joe his best forced smile. “I’ll keep a note.”
Joe turned to Tanya. “Make sure this bitch gets you some medicine. None of this would have happened if she had just followed basic instructions.”
Tanya yelped as Joe kicked sand into her face. He spat at the ground in front of her before walking off. When he was out of sight, Tyler helped Tanya up, cleaning the dust of her clothes.
“T-thank you,” Tanya said. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.
“Do you know anywhere we can go?” Tyler asked. “Anywhere we can get you cleaned up.”
Tanya pointed at a house in the far corner. Tyler nodded, letting her lead him to the house and giving her a smile whenever she turned to look at him.
…
The first thing that greeted Tyler as he entered the house was the awful smell.
It smelt like an odd mixture of sickly-sweet herbs and spices mixed with the smell of rotten meat and eggs. Tyler was surrounded by a wall of shelves littered with a wide variety of colourful ingredients and what looked like eyeballs. Hanging by the windows on a thin wire were a wide variety of dried leaves and what looked like lizard skin and snake tongues.
“Just mind the smell,” Tanya said. “Magical ingredients tend to smell bad.”
“What is this place?” Tyler asked, his eyes going through the shelves seeing what looked like human bones, mushrooms and a toe the size of a slug.
Tanya stopped in front of a musty wooden counter. Behind the counter there was a fireplace with a huge black pot hanging over it.
“A potions shop,” Tanya said. “My potions shop.”
“Your potions shop?”
Tanya nodded. “Just lie down over there…”
Tanya pointed to a small corner cordoned off by a big white sheet. Behind the sheet there was a bed that looked very uncomfortable. Tyler lay down on the bed. Tanya went through the shelves before settling on a large jar of the same green balm she placed on his body earlier. She rolled up her sleeves, carrying with her and sat by Tyler’s side.
“I used to be the town’s doctor,” Tanya said, rubbing the soothing balm on his wounds. “My father was the mayor and he sent me to a school over at Narminia.”
“Narminia?”
“The central kingdom of this continent,” Tanya said. “I studied over there and came back here with knowledge in brewing and medicine to assist my village with the Waves.”
“I see,” Tyler said. Tanya told him to turn to his side so she could place the balm on the wounds on his side. “Did it help?”
“It did but the Waves grew more and more savage,” Tanya said. “A lot of our capable men went out and only a few returned.”
Tanya was quiet. Her silence made Tyler think that maybe she was attached to one of those ‘capable’ men.
“My father decided that our town needed a warrior summoned from another world,” Tanya said. “As many of the towns around us had been ravaged by the Waves. He offered me up for marriage to the Heroes, said it was necessary. We carried out the Ritual and…”
“Joe happened.”
Tanya nodded. “At first while he was still adjusting to this new world, he was… different. He looked confused, he barely even talked to me. Once he realised his power…”
Tanya started sobbing. “He killed my father. He started carrying out more and more Rituals and brought in more and more warriors. Some just as bad as he is. And soon our Village and its people became nothing more than playthings for Joe and the other Heroes. Most of the Heroes who didn’t agree with Joe either left or were killed by Joe and none of us can leave because of the bandits and monsters that roam the land.”
Tanya started sobbing. Tyler reached out to sooth her. Tanya perked up a little before going back to crying.
“I just wish…” Tanya sobbed. “I just wish there was something we could do.”
There was a silence as Tyler pat Tanya in the back as she cried. After a few minutes she stopped.
“You should be fine now,” Tanya said. She went to the counter and picked up a box with half a dozen bottles of a green liquid. “Take these to the Scribe.”
“Do I have to charge him for it?” Tyler asked.
“Yes,” Tanya said. “But he’s developed somewhat of a dependence on them so just say I put it on his tab.”
Tyler stood by the crates before realising something.
“I almost forgot.”
He picked up the potion that Tanya had given her before they went to meet Wesley.
“You said I should drink this.”
Tanya nodded. Tyler took a swig of the drink and…
The weird blue screen popped up again.
God of Brewing activated.
Potion
Ingredients- Regen herb, slime orbs.
Tyler paused, staring at the screen for a while.
“A-Are you alright?” Tanya asked.
Tyler didn’t hear her.
“Excuse me,” Tanya said. “Are you alright?”
Tyler started at her blankly before regaining his composure. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine it’s just…”
Tyler looked around the shelves and at the bottles strewn about them.
“You told me you run a potion shop?”
Tanya nodded.
Tyler felt the cogs in his brain start to turn. “Is it possible for me to have a sample?”
…
She was talking to him again.
Catelyn was talking to Robby, again and Tyler could feel his heart sting. He was lying down with his chin on his desk, feeling like shit and staring at Catelyn and Rob to make himself feel even more like shit.
“Did you even ask her out?”
Sitting in the desk in front of him was Sam short for Samantha, she stared at Tyler with a grin before turning her chair around to face him. Sam was the girl everybody knew hung out with the boys in the class but she mainly hung out with Tyler. Her short hair and permanent grin made her look boyish and if it weren’t for the mandatory skirt and blouse (and her breasts, never forget the breasts) she could have easily passed off for a boy.
“I can’t just ask her out,” Tyler said. “You have to wait for a special moment and…”
“No, you don’t,” Sam said. “This isn’t some young adult teen movie. This is real life. You think Robby waited for a special moment.”
“Robby is a douchebag,” Tyler said. “And girls like douchebags.”
Sam looked offended. “First of all, that’s incredibly sexist. Second of all…”
There was a pause.
“Second of all?” Tyler asked.
“I don’t have a second of all,” Sam said.
Tyler sighed.
“You told me you started talking to her, yeah?”
Tyler nodded but he was starting to get impatient, he knew what was coming. “Yeah.”
“But did you ever show an interest in her?” Sam asked. “Did you ever make an effort to show her you liked her instead of gaping at her like a starstruck baboon?”
Tyler groaned. “I’ve heard this before.”
“And I’ll say it again,” Sam said. “Tyler you’re the smartest guy I know but you’re literally the biggest idiot when it comes to yourself. Whenever you want something, you never act like you do. You just beat around the bush and make excuses until you lose that something. And then you blame everyone else besides yourself when you lose that something.”
He saw Catelyn laugh at a joke Robby was making while, touching his shoulder.
“What do you know?” Tyler mumbled.
“I know enough,” Sam said. “We’ve been friends since middle school remember?”
Tyler sighed. “Whatever. Doesn’t matter anyway. It’s our last year of high school. We have to focus on getting our grades up otherwise…”
“There you go with the excuses again,” Sam said. Tyler let out a frustrated groan.
“Can you just lay off about this?” Tyler asked. “Jesus.”
“I won’t Ty,” Sam said. “I won’t until you stop being scared.”
“I’m not scared,” Tyler said. “What am I scared off?”
“You’re scared of what you want,” Sam said. “You’re so scared of what you want that you make up every excuse to not want it anymore.”
Tyler sighed. “Whatever.”
They sat there in silence and didn’t talk to each for the rest of homeroom. They stared at each other from the corner of their eyes and Tyler was ready to apologise for making a big deal out of nothing before homeroom ended but before he could there was a flash of white light. It felt like they were burning and soon they were in the stars, all 37 of them, blazing in a ball of fire as they descended down into an earth they knew nothing about.
Tyler never got to apologise.
…
Tyler opened the door to the library with his attack, defence and speed up and while resistant to fire, wind and ice magic.
“Wesley,” Tyler called into the empty library. “Wesley it’s Tyler.”
Tyler closed the door behind him. “I need to ask you something. Something important.”
There was silence. Tyler almost tripped over a book.
“I got your potions.”
Wesley marched down the stairs and dashed towards Tyler.
“Gimme,” Wesley said, lunging after the box of potions.
“I need information first,” Tyler said, pulling the box out of his reach.
“And I need my potions,” Wesley said lunging for the potions.
Wesley almost grabbed hold of the box but Tyler wrapped vines around his wrists and pulled him back.
“Come on Ty,” Wesley said, his voice jittering. “Help out a friend. Don’t you remember the good memories we shared together?”
“We barely hung out,” Tyler said. “Besides these potions are looking really tasty.”
Tyler popped open the potion bottle and brought it inches away from his mouth.
“Okay, okay fine,” Wesley said. “I’ll tell you what you need just please don’t drink my potions.”
Tyler undid his grip around Wesley causing him to fall on the floor. Tyler knelt down to Wesley.
“What do you know about this world?” Tyler asked.
Wesley groaned, his body squirming as he heaved himself up. “I know plenty. What do you need?”
And Wesley explained everything. From how Waves only happen every month during a full moon and the major kingdoms and alliances. But Tyler wasn’t interested in that. He was interested in more technical matters.
“Why are the tattoos on our backs different?”
“Well, the symbol on our backs represent our Patron God and…”
“Yeah, I know that,” Tyler said. “But our tattoos all have this same circular shape but at random points they branch out. I told one of the Village artists to draw the tattoo on my back and the tattoo on someone else’s back. They’re these weird lines that branch out, compared to other Heroes mine are either longer, shorter or not there at all.”
Wesley nodded. “I see. What you’re talking about is proficiency.”
“Proficiency?”
“Proficiency is how good we are at a certain skill,” Wesley said. “Depending on your Patron God your proficiency and even stats change. Proficiency effects the magic, weapons and armour you can use. With weapons and armour, you can use weapons and armour you have a low proficiency level with and your proficiency will improve the more you use them but with magic you can’t use any spells that your Patron God is not compatible with.”
“What do you mean compatible?”
“Your patron god is Dionysus, correct?”
“How do you know that?”
Wesley grinned. “I spent most of my time in this library. I know almost everything there is to know about this world.”
Tyler paused. “Go on.”
“Since Dionysus is the god of brewing and madness,” Wesley said. “I expect you’re mildly proficient in fire magic and very proficient in water, grass and manipulation magic.”
Tyler opened up his proficiency table and sure enough Fire magic was at proficiency level 3 and the rest were at 5.
“Damn.”
Wesley grinned. “Never underestimate a nerd. But your Patron God benefits don’t only extend to magic and weapons. They extend to stats too.”
“Stats?” Tyler asked. “How?”
“Well, nobody’s stats are the same,” Wesley said. “Depending on what we did and how we were in our previous world our stats are distributed differently. A bodybuilder would have high defence stats, a martial artist high attack and so on. Our Patron God provides a boost to one of those stats. For example, Dionysus gives you a plus two boost to magic and so does Thoth, my patron God.”
“What are your stats like?”
Wesley gave a strained smile. “They’re really amazing,” he lied. “Can I have my potions now?”
“One more thing,” Tyler said. “What’s Joe’s Patron God?”
“Pele, the Hawaiian God of Volcanoes?” Wesley said. “That would mean he got a boost to attack and is compatible with fire and earth magic.”
Tyler handed the potions to Wesley who snatched it greedily away from him and started gulping it down.
“Why do you want to know so much about this anyway?” Wesley asked, throwing aside the empty potion bottle and opening up his second one.
You’re so scared of what you want that you make up every excuse to not want it anymore.
There’s nothing worse than a man who doesn’t stick to his ideals.
You’re a chicken. Go ahead and run like you always do.
He thought about Tanya. How he hated how she was being treated. He thought about how much he hated Joe. More than that, he hated bullies. He’d had run ins with plenty of them throughout his life.
Tyler knew what he was going to do.
“I’m going to get rid of Joe,” Tyler said. “And make this village mine.”
To be continued…