Side Story: Berkel

                There isn’t much to know about me my names Berkel I was just a simple village boy that grew up on the outskirts of Meghan the strongest kingdom out of the four, I was raised with a strict hand from my father and a nurturing love from my mother at first I hated my father for his rules and punishment.

                But as I got older I realized that it was concern and hope behind his actions he wanted better for me and to teach me right from wrong and to be a good older brother for my twin sisters that will be born in a few months’ time. After coming to the realization that I need to be a man and a great older brother I stepped up around the village.

                For the first few years after my sisters were born I spent every waking moment helping my dad in the fields and the smithy, going around assisting the other villagers with day to day tasks, only after that I would spend the rest of the day with my siblings after mom finished their teachings.

We would run amok getting into everything and just enjoying the world and out time together, as the years passed I became a man and had to help more around the village which I welcomed I still spent time with my sisters but soon I had to move out and make my own home. With my 18th birthday coming to a close I spent the next week with my sisters, father’s and villagers help building my house a little way from my parents.

                In our culture once a man has built his home he is to pick a profession and find a good wife to wed and lay to make future generations, I was never short on marriage proposals after all I was a hardworking, caring and great with kid’s man but I just didn’t feel like settling down yet I still wanted to satisfy my burning blood first.

                Not soon after that actually 5 months after deciding I wanted adventure a kingdom wide announcement was made that they will be venturing far to the west into the forest of Acrain, where massive beasts of all sizes reside along with untold riches. After hearing the news from the messenger I ran to my parent’s home and told them I wanted to apply for the scouting force.

                At first my mother and sisters started to cry and beg me not to go while my father restrained himself from beating me silly but after looking into my eyes and seeing my determination he sighed and accepted. Turning to my mother and sisters he told them I am a grown man and console them explain how I would be alright and how their boy was strong. After hearing those words I too came into the family hug and started balling saying il be fine and il come back when I am on leave along with trying to send mail monthly.

                For the last three weeks I was there before I would be deployed to the capitol to receive my training I spent every waking moment with my family and helping around their house not leaving once.

And as time does it flew by in the blink of an eye and on my sisters 11 birthdays i departed for the capitol bags in hand.

For the next gruesome three years they drilled into out unit every formation, command, intel, surviving regimen and training method into our bones to make sure we survive and make it back home with all the news from the expedition.

                After our training we were all station in our own division, most of my friends got sent to different ones while a couple came with me. And from that day The Fesdar Division began.

                For the following 6 months we marched on and on through marsh lands, mountains, valleys, rivers and the badlands before we reached the end of the explored land the border of the Acrain Forest.

                For years none have dared explore it in fear of what lurks in the undergrowth and the darkness where the sun will not shine for the trees block out all light refusing the heavens.

                After reaching the boundary we set camp for a week to recuperate and regain our energy as well as plan safety measures as well as defensive formations, we were not cutting corners on the venture for we all want to return to our family’s and bring back great news to the kingdom we love.

                For the first few days fear started to take root for at night the sounds of beats and monsters fighting would wake us at every moment violent, ruthless and gnarly sounds wiggled their way into our minds, Thankfully the kingdom decided to put a priest in every division to buff, heal and purify to increase the odds of success.

                As far as we knew there were a total of 31 divisions that are spread out along the border to enter at different points to increase the chance of finding riches, ruins or anything of value along with as much information on the beasts we meet that’s why we also have a cataloguer.

                As the week’s end approached we began to hype ourselves up in preparation for the march into darkness. And the day finally approached as we got into our defensive formation shield barers on all sides, the blasters behind them with all supportive units in the center along with our division captain.

                If your wondering what I am then your probably guessed I would be a shield barer but you would be sadly mistaken I am the trump card the Juggernaut, positioned in the back I am incased in a power suit made by the dwarfs that has 4 separate launchers on the shoulders with a great sword in my right hand and a cannon on my left. Fully powered by mana cores where if a single one goes bad it could cause an explosion that will cover an area of 275 ft.

                Hearing this may make you wonder why in the hell would anyone pilot it and why would anyone use it where if the core gets damaged you could wipe out the whole unit, and those are good questions but through trial and error the dwarfs were able to make the new mana cores out of mithril and orichalcum making it damn near indestructible unless a dragon decides to use it as a chew toy.

                So if any big baddies come out il pummel the fuck into particles before it can even meow, now after we all get into formation we start are trek into the forest, after about 30 yards in visibility becomes almost nonexistent so we have the shield barer’s active their mana charged flashlights on the shields along with my fog lights located on my torso.

As we march further in we start to run into beasties most of them are small fries so the blasters take care of them, but once in a while I get to come into play and it’s saddening how easy this expedition is getting but that may be me becoming overconfident. After we have marched for over 16 hours we spot a clearing up ahead and start to approach it to set up a base camp to make reconnaissance easier.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

                But as soon as we get within better visible range of the clearing we notice its infested with SlyBacks, which are basically miniature sized dragons without the wings and size but instead are fast with razor sharp talons while their body is lined in fine fins that can cut through iron like butter.

                While in some cases they act alone but most of the time they are a pack minded species that group up and take down even dragons if they have enough, so defiantly not something we were glad to walk right into. Without warning they start to stir from their afternoon sunbath and as on command we start unloading into them.

                In most cases I would be bombarding the area but it could alert even more monsters to our area and cause us more trouble then we already have so we left the damage to the blasters which where handling the situation well until something we only ever heard about in children horror stories from heroes that have long past. A Quadra Meg SlyBack Alpha Female the worst thing to run into after a male which we won’t run into if there is a female for she eats her mate after giving birth to a litter and I do believe they are the ones we are currently blasting to pieces.

                So as you could guess she raving pissed and the blasters cannons don’t have the force to blast through her hide and that where we could only prey nothing else is in the vicinity if she is here. As soon as she comes through the tree line heading straight for us I whip out our strongest arsenal the A.R.K which stands for Anti-mana rail-accelerating Kinetic launcher that basically super charges a piece of condensed metal, applies an anti-mana rune then fires the metal at about 3,000 mph giving it enough force to pierce up to a full grown wyverns hide and searing a dragon’s.

Within moments I fire of three rounds two to the legs dropping her to the ground and one straight into her head exploding it instantly. Even though these things are insanely useful they drain the mana cores by about 15% per shot, cannot be made in bulk like the blasters cannons and have terrible accuracy at long distances.

With the mother out of the picture the blasters finished up the SlyBacks without further delay and we began to clear out the bodies cutting up most for their meat, hide, claws and fins for materials.

With an outpost set up we began rolling out the tents and setting up the communication system, along with setting up wards along the perimeter to scare of any beasties.

With the primary concerns set up everyone starts to settle down and relax after a long day’s battle, some started mingling and others got to their own tasks but I decided to wonder of to the back of the camp and just daze of into the forest relaxing my body from being in the suit for the past few months.

As I almost fall into a nap from the warm sun, the gentle breeze and the chatting behind me something catches my attention in the tree tops, at first I thought it was some type of bird but as I looked closer and focused my attention on it I froze, what I was staring at was anything but a bird 12 pairs of eyes that glow like a rainbow, its limbs and body lined in glowing streaks, a metallic shimmer that shows it has a hard exoskeleton that’s damn near metallic, the size about the same as a mule and if you look closer you can see human like intelligence radiating from its glossy eyes.

At first I wanted to book it back to the tents hope in my suit and eradicate the fucking thing but as I calmed myself down realizing it’s not doing anything nor looks like it plans to as though more curiosity is felt from it. As it watched our division from above quietly in the tree tops so did I watch it from the shaded rock I am resting on. As times passed it just continued to watch and seems to learn our interaction’s with each other causing me to wonder something myself, most would call me insane hell even I would because only beings that go through the naming ceremony will show up in the standard identify everyone uses day to day while we use observe on beasts and monsters this helps differentiate being from beast. But no matter how long I stared at it observe never activated leaving all but one thing left and as I call out [Identify] I am shocked at what I see and as if the being noticed it was being inspected it jerks its head looking at me with its beady eyes as if it was trying to read my soul.

                As soon as it caught wind of me it bolted through the tree tops towards the west deeper inwards and I didn’t plan to attempt a chase for it, instead I looked at what popped up before I got side tracked by it noticing me:

You have used [Identify] on an unknown species due to this limited information is shown, fur further details please ask target for more details for update.

Name: Onigrakir Race: ???? (????)

Level 18

????: 5,685/6,790 Mp: 2,760/3,890

After looking at what was shown I was speechless not once have I ever heard of any spider being that big nor looking anything like that now even identify can’t explain what I just saw and what is with all of the question marks I mean all I got was its name, level and mp. Everything else like the race sure I can understand not knowing that but what about that 5,685/6,790 shouldn’t that be hp if not then what the fuck is it.

As I torment myself trying to figure out what I just saw my division captain comes up to me and asks what’s wrong because I guess I look depraved. After explaining to him what I just saw he got the most bizarre expression that then turned into a grin while facing me he said: Now we have a target that must be caught alive at all costs to be brought back to the king.

And those words marked the events that will come to be known as the Acrain Forest Desolation Catastrophe.