Leto studied the surroundings, laden with fog. Thick and gray, it swirled in unfelt air currents and flowed like a smokey river. The little creek still burbled through the intersection nearby, and a vine of berries ran along the tree wall next to him. When he looked at the berries, a deep ache ran through his body. One of his hands reached for the vine. God he was hungry, and the deep red of the berries reminded him of the pastry that had taken up so much of his dream the night before.
A shiver ran down his spine, halting his hand mid journey to the vine. The marten in his dream had told him not to eat the pastry, so maybe, he should avoid the fruits that reminded him so much of them. He was unsure how long it had been since he had eaten, or even had a sip of water. The maze is dangerous, and he couldn’t trust anything it gave him. Grabbing his club and shield, Leto staggered deeper into the wooden halls.
His body and his mind felt heavy as hunger, thirst, and exhaustion wore him down. Hours passed as he stumbled through the maze, barely noticing a change in his surroundings at all. The world around him flickered, his eyelids trying to force themselves closed. A few steps later, one of his feet caught on a root and he tripped with the grace of a baby giraffe.
“Woah son, I got you.” A rough hand gripped his arm and hauled him to his feet. Tim brushed dirt off of Leto’s jacket and laid a hand against his cheek. “We have to stay on our feet if we are ever getting out of here.”
Leto paused for a moment, his brain chugging through layers of exhaustion that had grown there. Finally, he nodded, a small smile coming forth as he adjusted his grip on the club, sliding his hand slowly down its grip.
“Yeah man, I’m sorry. I think everything is getting to me.” He flipped the club around and began to use it as a walking stick. “At least I’ve got you. I can’t imagine going through this alone.”
“You probably would have eaten the first one of those berries you saw!” Tim laughed, “I bet you just turn into a tree if you eat one. No way all of these trees are natural.”
Leto laughed along with him, their raucous joy echoing through the branches above them.
Eventually, the maze began to change. Leto’s earlier exhaustion was nearly forgotten and Tim told him stories as they walked to distract him from the hunger pangs. After an hour of this, one of their turns took them into a hall with thick brush growing along the walls. Heavy green growth swallowed the usually wide path, making a space of only about three feet for them to walk. The light of late afternoon filtered through the thick leaves in a beautiful, dappled way. Fog that had become a constant fact flowed away as if it had never been there at all.
“I don’t trust this at all.” Tim said.
“Well, at least this is new.” Leto offered, “It probably means we are finally going the right way.” The two of them brandished their weapons, Leto taking the front and Tim following close behind. A few steps into the brush, they froze as movement shook a few branches in front of them.
“Duck!” Tim screamed and Leto dropped to his knees. Looking up, Tim’s hatchet swung through the air where he just was, connecting with a squirrel that was larger than his head. Leto only caught a few glimpses of the creature before it was flung back into the brush, but its usually friendly teeth were now sharpened to a point, and its legs were full of coiled muscle. His club slid into a grip that had started to become comfortable to him.
“Move!” Leto cried as he activated Swiftstep and charged down the overgrown hall ahead of him. Branches to his right swayed and he swung out at another squirrel that leapt at him. He had misjudged where it would come from and only clipped the rodent. However, the force was enough to alter its flight path to miss him. Spittle sprayed from its mouth as it passed within inches of his face and hissed at him.
“HAHA that was a close one!” Tim roared from behind him. Leto chanced a look behind, and saw the big man pounding along behind him, a wild grin overtaking his face. A shiver ran down Leto’s spine as a feeling of deja vu settled over him.
His thoughts were quickly interrupted as a screech of another squirrel brought his attention forward. It came from his left and he swung his shield up and out, sending it back into the brush with a sickening THUD.
“Hah, Return to Sender!” Tim’s voice rang out. It soothed Leto, giving him extra strength as they ran through the greenery.
↞↠
Elijah appeared above its head, his makeshift spear gripped tightly in his arms as he fell toward the Ark Beast.
‘Aegisurge!’ He thought to himself and a thick wave of mana rippled over him, reinforcing his body against the coming impact. The spearhead was pointed directly at the beast’s spine, and barely resisted as all of Elijah’s body weight pushed the spear through. Immediately it shivered and fell to the ground, dead. Elijah panted, pushing himself off of the corpse. As he caught his breath, he studied one of the beasts that the Ark Spirit had created to fill its tutorial woods. The general shape reminded him of a wolf, with a very canine build and some fur, but that is where the similarities ended. Scales covered most of the body, with the fur poking through the gaps in some of them. Its tail was long and lizard-like, and its face reminded him of an alligator more than anything else. Six eyes ran down its snout, most of them closed or twitching as death took it. A ringing noise echoed in his head, nudging him to open up his status sheet. A new window graced him first, blocking his view.
Congratulations Pioneer! You have reached Level 5! Your stat increase looks like..
Strength + [2]
Dexterity + [2]
Constitution + [3]
You have reached the First Threshold! A new skill will be generated for you…
Threshold Skill Acquired// Might and Space Affinity influencing generation…
Spearcall: Summon a golden spear to your hand. A weapon at your beck and call. The longer that the user goes between summons, the easier it will be to summon.
Upgradeable
“Well now,” Elijah said to himself, “There’s an interesting one.” Mentally activating the skill, Elijah pulled up his stat sheet to see where he had landed with his new growth.
Status// Elijah Callahan//Level 5
Designation: Pioneer
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 9
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 9
Charisma: 5
Skills…
Affinities…
Achievements…
Satisfaction filled him, seeing his strength at double his starting value. Hunting for the past week had influenced his stat growth heavily, all of his physical stats seeing the most growth. Something about this ‘First Threshold’ had given him a few more stats than he usually received. Although he looked down at his body taking notice of all the wounds that covered him, it had been a pretty intense fight. This was one of his first solo hunts, and the Ark Beast had gotten a few good chunks of him. It was no wonder his Constitution had raised so much. The first stat raise he had gotten for Constitution had been from a really nasty blow to the head on his second hunt. He chuckled to himself, thinking about just how much he had improved in a short amount of time. Stats really did a wonder on the body.
“WOAAAAH!” A feminine voice pealed out from behind him, “Where did you get that?!”
Elijah turned, seeing Sara coming from the direction of the Safe Zone. Her red hair was tightly braided against her head and a little ball of fire spun around her. She had been practicing with her skill almost non stop since she received it.
“Get what?”
“The Pope.” she said sarcastically, “The spear dork, what did you think I was talking about?”
Registering the weight in his hand for the first time, Elijah took in the sight of his new weapon. It was nearly as tall as he was, and gold from haft to tip. The spearhead seemed to sprout from the length like a flower from a stem, with two small points near its base like sharp leaves. The whole length shimmered like he was staring into a cylinder of melted gold.
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“A new skill,” he muttered, taken aback by how beautiful it was, “Spearcall. Just summons a weapon for me.”
“Just summons a weapon huh?” Sara put her hands on her hips. “That thing is crazy cool. You are totally the protagonist my friend.”
“You gotta stop saying stuff like that Sara.” Elijah used Spearcall to pull himself to his feet. “People are going to think you are crazy. Also, if there was a protagonist, why would it be me of all people?”
“Uhhhhh, I don’t know, straight white male with space and time powers.” sarcasm oozed from her “That totally doesn’t sound like a protagonist in western fantasy to me.”
“Yeah haha, I guess that kinda sounds like me.” Elijah laughed nervously, trying not to think about certain parts of her statement and shoved her. He had meant it playfully, but he had not yet gotten used to his new strength bonus. She was sent several feet away and sprawled in the dirt.
“Oh shit Sara I’m sorry!” He ran over to her and began to help her up. He thought she was crying for a second before her soft noises turned into laughs.
“Oh no, look at me, strong boy who doesn’t know his strength, I am definitely not due to some sort of training arc by a mysterious mentor because I am TOTALLY the protagonist.” She laughed the whole way up until they stood very close to one another and she quieted down. She looked up into his face and blushed. “Not that I would mind being part of that story.” She stepped into him, and he jumped back.
“Sara, um, we should get back.” He ran his hands through his hair, realizing that he had let go of Spearcall. Elijah cast around for it but it seemed to have just disappeared. Soft footsteps drew his attention back to where Sara had been, and now after her as she ran back towards the Safe Zone. Relief and guilt settled in him as he watched her go. He hadn’t even told his parents yet, how was he supposed to tell his sister’s friend.
Shaking his head, he scooped the Ark Beast corpse over his shoulder and followed her path back towards camp.
Elijah carried the Ark Beast over the Safe Zone border, halting for a second to watch its body dissolve into golden light. Dropping to the ground were several pounds of edible meat, a long sheet of scaly skin, and a few teeth and talons.
“Elijah, come on man.” Jared complained. It was his job to collect all the spoils of the hunts. “You have to learn how to butcher out there.”
You could skin and butcher any Ark Beast you killed out of the Safe Zone, and anything you salvaged would be fine as you carried it through. But if you brought the corpse itself, it would do the process for you, with a smaller overall yield.
“It’s not something I’m good at, friend.” Elijah rubbed the back of his head, guilt building in him. “I really did try to learn but each time I would just bring back less than if I let the Zone do it for me.”
Jared sighed and motioned for Elijah to hand the items to him. “I get it, I do. Just try if you can. Our total haul is better in teams that know how to butcher.”
“I will, I promise.” Elijah said as he scooped up the items off the ground. “You have to admit though, the Zone does a great job.” Where the butchered items hunters brought back had to be cleaned and evened out, the materials given by the zone were pristine and portioned.
“That I will give you.” Jared nodded with a laugh and headed off. He called over his shoulder “Grant was asking around for you. He’s over in the Mayor’s place.”
“Thanks!” Elijah called, and headed toward the center of the zone.
In the week that they had been there, their little community had developed very quickly. A few dozen huts had been built, and more were getting built every day. A few of the builders and carpenters had developed non-combat skills as they worked, which gave Elijah a sense of relief. If the Ark System had only given out combat related skills, he would have been worried for the future of humanity. What is a society where every single person develops ways to kill each other, there had to be some sort of balance, some other options for advancement.
Elijah greeted a few people as he went through the camp, not recognizing everyone. He had been pretty isolated since he started hunting, spending nearly every day in the surrounding woods. Most of those he knew were other hunters, collectors, or medical staff from when he visited his mother. Coming to the largest hut in the Zone, he knocked heavily on the wood door frame before pushing through the Ark Beast skin curtain that served as a door.
“Hunter Elijah, reporting in.” Elijah blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted to the light change.
“AH! Elijah! Good to see you.” Grant's voice bounced around the small crowd that had gathered inside the Mayor’s hut. The leader of each hunting group was there as well as the Mayor, the Commander, and several of the better hunters that weren’t on a team like him.
“We were just discussing a report we received late last night.” Grant beckoned for the young man to join him in the circle.
“My mom said that Amir came back pretty messed up last night.” Grant nodded at that.
“Yes, he came across something out there, a huge Ark Beast. He barely got away with his life. His Camouflage skill saved him, and he basically crawled back over the Safe Zone border.”
“Where did he come across it?” Elijah asked
“Off to the north, near the waterfall. What do you say, are you down to hunt?” Grant grinned like a maniac, and a few chuckles rustled from the gathered hunters.
“Hell yeah. I’ve got a new thing I want to test.”
↞↠
Leto and Tim had settled in an intersection, all four paths around them plastered with dense shrubbery. They turned slowly, back to back as little feral creatures sprang from the brush. Leto had activated all four of his skills and the mana drain was pretty intense. It was necessary though, as a veritable army of mutated squirrels, badgers, frogs, weasels, and even birds assaulted their position. Each animal had been larger than it should have been, with the claws or teeth of predators. Their body structure varied animal to animal, even those of the same species. Leto had no idea what to make of it, and neither did Tim when Leto had put the topic forward to him.
Leto kept Swiftstep activated so he could react faster to any attack. Wild Strike was next to be activated when several of Leto’s attacks had done almost no damage to a few of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Woodland animals. Infernal Vitality had been next, as a heavy set bird with wicked talons had scored a deep cut on his head. The last to go on was Twilight Eyes, as he was having extreme difficulty hitting some of the more agile animals. It took him a strangely long time to think of the skill, as each of the first three had been activated within a minute or two of each other. Twilight Eyes had been almost ten minutes into the fight, a good six minutes after any other skill. He had gotten more and more frustrated as he missed his attacks, and the skill seemed to activate itself. It was like for a moment, he had forgotten he had the skill at all.
He was shaken from that thought as another bird dove at him, but this time he caught it on the very tip of his club. He felt the cracking of its bones radiating down the weapon and it spun away mangled into the bushes.
“Nice one!” Tim’s voice called out over his shoulder.
“Thanks!” Leto turned and called back, “I almost didn’t see it.” As he turned, Leto got a look at Tim. For a moment, he thought he saw a tip of a spear jutting from…
“Look out kid!” Tim called, and knocked a large red frog from the air. Leto shook the image from his mind and returned to the battle.
It was a drawn out affair, and by the time it was over, Leto had almost no mana left in his body. The two men laid out on the grass, chests heaving as they caught their breath. One by one, Leto began to deactivate his skills. Swiftstep and WIld Strike, because he didn’t need them anymore. He let Infernal run for a little while longer as a few scrapes closed up and quickly shut it off to conserve mana. When he went to deactivate the final skill, he hesitated. Why had it taken him so long to remember he had that skill? Had he remembered at all, or had it just activated itself? Rising onto his elbows, he looked over at his friend.
“Hey Tim, weird thing, have you-” His question was left unfinished as he took in his friend.
Tim lay there, catching his breath, but he didn’t need it from what Leto could see. Because from his gut, shoulder, and chest stood three spears that were caked in blood. In fact, Tim’s whole chest was thick with the stuff.
“OH FUCK TIM!” Leto screamed and backpedaled on his hands away from the man. Tim raised his head and looked confused for a moment. When they met eyes though, it was like Tim saw something there, and his facade dropped. A grin, a wicked foul grin split his face and he laughed.
“Ohhh, you should have seen how happy you were to see me. The look on your face was just delicious!” Tim cackled and stood. As he did, his body cracked and squirmed, his flesh and bones shifting. “This is the best hunting ground that mother has found in aaages.” His clothes melted into his flesh, and several new limbs split from his torso. His whole body darkened, turning black and what looked like an exoskeleton began to form. The grin grew and grew and split into two mandibles, six new eyes pushing their way through his flesh. When his transformation was finished, he looked like a bipedal spider, two legs and six arms, squat but terrifying. Hair sprouted all along its body, and it had four sharp talons on the end of each arm.
“You’re lucky kid,” the spider thing said, its mandibles clacking as it spoke. “Mother won’t let us kill you yet. You aren’t ready. But,” it bent down to look in his face. “Soon. Soon.” He cackled again, waving sharp fingers at Leto as he shimmered and disappeared into light.
Leto’s breath came in sharp bursts as he sat on the verge of a panic attack. His arms were wrapped around his knees and emotions roiled through him like an ocean storm. The grief of Tim’s loss hit him again like it was the first time, accompanied with hunger, thirst, and a huge wave of physical and mental exhaustion. How long has it been since he slept? A film over his mind that he hadn’t realized had been there peeled away, and he realized he had been in the maze for over a week now. ‘Tim’ had been with him for almost two days.
“What the hell is happening to me?” Leto asked quietly, begging for an answer. His exhaustion hit him in another wave, forcing his body to shut down and he slipped into sleep.
↞↠
Report
“Yes Lord Spirit. The number of released entities is higher than initial data suggested.”
Conclusions?
“There are two Lord Spirit. Either the general mana stored in Earth’s seal was much higher potency than we realized or…”
Or?
“Or…well, someone, the entities were organized. Which should be impossible as they were stored in their semi-mana state and had nothing like consciousness.”
It seems we have an opponent. Bring forward the release for the Hunter series homunculus.
“Yes Lord Spirit.”\
↞↠
“Leeeeeetoooooo.”
Leto sat up, a cold sweat running down his spine. His dream had been terrifying. Had it? He wasn’t sure now, it was just beyond his-
“Leeetooooooo.”
He turned toward the voice, echoing off the walls of the maze. Night had fallen, and the moon peeked between the many trees above him, shining light just on the center of the intersection. Shadows were thick around him, like tar had been spread over every other inch of his surroundings. Leto pulled himself to his feet, watching as someone pulled themselves from the darkness. Cheeroonear stood, atlatl and spear at the ready.
“Dinner time boooyyyy.” The spear thudded into the trunk directly next to his head.