Fred and his family carried on chatting into the night, Fred learned a lot from this ordeal, He was shocked and happy to find out about having the same souls and that at least half of his soul and his entire body was Isabella’s son. She might have still treated him the same in the case of other scenarios, but she might have formed depression if her original son’s soul was consumed or gone.
Then they moved on to the point that kick-started all of their conversations, the Ascension quests, all of them were surprised about Fred not receiving the standard quest, but that wasn’t considered shocking compared to what Fred explained about the super-soldier program. It took a little struggle for Fred to explain the concepts of bio-engineering, but with similarities with how levels and ascension evolve the body, they formed somewhat of an idea.
Fred explained how he wasn’t an orphan due to his parents’ deaths, it was more of being kidnapped and taken to a facility, to conduct the super soldier experiments, while the group didn’t understand experimental facilities or the point of them. George, while also finding it cruel, having a perspective of being a military man himself, could see the plausibility and reasons in doing so, especially if it gave an advantage to military power.
Isabella just hugged Fred, while silent tears dripped down her face, listening to this. However, the worst was yet to come, Fred explained the process of becoming a super-soldier to the family, although he had managed to perfect the methods since the early days, reducing the pain and suffering from the early experiments and increasing its effectiveness, the people in the room were grossed out by it. Johan not so much as he saw all sorts of nasty conditions in his field of work. However, he was surprised by Fred’s willingness to go through with it again. But Fred was like, ‘the idea and images that came to mind stopped creeping me out after the first 50 years of my life.’
Normally Fred would have to guess when his last ingredient would come in, but Johan had apparently pulled some strings and got them within a week. And he sat with Fred in the basement and watched as he moved over the plant properties that processed the chemical reactions to the leech, which Johan discovered was 5 times bigger than when he brought them in, “how come the leeches are so big Fred.”
“I fed them a special diet while messing with their genes to force the growth,”
“Genes? What are those?”
“In our world, we discovered that the human body was made up of tiny cells that connected.”
“O, that’s quite fascinating, there is a belief amongst the scholarly society of our kingdom that all things are made up of smaller things. Whether the body or other objects.”
“Well yes. if that wasn’t the case you wouldn’t be able to break stuff.”
“Yes, quite right, quite right”
“If I can make the tools in the future, I can show you proof of that, it may help you improve in your field.”
“Really? that would be fascinating, I would love that.”
“Well, inside each cell, there is another, smaller cell if you would, called the nuclei, this controls the cells, and inside that is something called the chromosomes, or genes”
“O, wow Really?”
“Yes, well you know the saying of bloodline? Or like, ‘he has my bloodline,’ as an example.”
“Yes, it gets mentioned a lot, especially amongst the aristocracy.”
“Well, the correct line to say is ‘He has my genes,’”
“O right”
“But the genes do a lot more than that, it is a list of instructions on how to build the body. Do I have blue eyes, Brown hair, will I grow tall, what natural talents will I have, what gender, or personality.”
“You ever notice that kids can share a lot of characteristics with their parents’ whether that is looks or mannerisms. Well, that’s your genes at work. And they come from your parents”
“That explains why you’re so much like your dad in many ways,”
“I am?”
“Yes, I notice in the mornings, especially during practice, your love for fighting and challenges as well as acting valiantly, and while you fight with extreme efficiency, as George described it, there is a flare of your dad in there.
“That’s why, I noticed this phenomenon, with myself,”
“Really, should you not act this way,”
“Back in my old world the institute didn’t care about valiant, they wanted stone-cold killing machines who prioritise completing the mission, regardless of method, and yet in the heat of the moment during spars in this world, I don’t think I have used any ruthless or underhanded tactics for the win, even in spars were failing to apply such tactics has led me to lose the match.”
“Wow, they really did a number on you kid.”
Fred had continued the operation while they chatted and was now “Finished.”
“Already, how you described it made me think it would have taken longer than that.”
“Yeah?”
“So, what’s the next step,”
Fred turned to see 35 beer sized bottles next to the wall of the hall opposite the cells, “Well this is where I’m going to need your help Doctor,”
“My help?”
“Yeah, you see these long pieces of sinew coming from the Leaches mouth with its jaw at the end.”
“Yes, why have you made them so long?”
“Well, the leach is now too big to be placed in my head, but I still need its teeth to sink into the brain stem. I have created these two metal tools, for this, I’ll need you to make a small incision on my back underneath my rib cage and just left of the spine, then I need you to push the stick to travel up my body following closely with the spine at the front of it up to my Brain stem, if you hold these two Crystals, nature and Metal, you should be able to ‘see’ what you are doing, then once you reach my brain stem, swap the nature crystal with the electric one.” As Fred explained he gave Johan the lightning crystal, asking him to activate mana sense, “see these two bright sparks on my brain cell?”
“Yes, I see them, have you modified that yourself?”
“Yeah, it was to increase nerve connections”
Johan had read a few of Fred’s papers and got the gist of what a nervous system was. “I see,”
“I need you to push the teeth in there,”
“Okay,” Johan pondered for a moment.
Fred pointed at the table he had Steven create, it allowed him to lay flat and had restraints, “this is going to cause me to start convulsing, however, you mustn’t stop, after you need to press these pullies on the handles and that will release the Leach jaws from the clamp, and then you can pull the tools out,” he had the blacksmiths create the parts for these tools as he hadn’t got round to building his furnace yet, the bricks were still in the storage shed, but he got preoccupied with other tasks. The pully was a crude bike break that would pull the spring clamp apart at the top using a wire.
“Is that it?”
“No, next is the leach, I need you to insert the leach in the incision you made and push it past the stomach to rest under the liver. Once it is done my convulsions should stop after 30-45 minutes”
Although Johan was worried about Fred, he was also excited about the surgery, he had never got the skill as most of his healing was through magic. However, after Fred told him about the skill and the high exp reward per level, he thought this might be a good opportunity for an ascension, he had capped out for 6 months by now and was umming and erring when to go through with it.
“ok, what next,”
“Operation wise that’s it, but here comes the next phase”, Fred pointed to the bottles at the back of the room, “those are probable to nastiest concoctions you will ever smell, and they don’t taste any better, they will make me slowly go weak and delirious for a time, but I must drink at least 2 bottles a day for 14 days, even If I say otherwise. Ignore me. Can you do that,”
“What, you think I’ve never managed unruly patients Fred, you’re looking down on me too much.” Johan chuckled
“Sorry.”
Johan tapped his shoulder, “relax kid, I can handle it, do you need to remain on the operating table for the 14 days?”
“No, but I won’t be able to move out of bed for the days and I’ll be in certain states of consciousness throughout the ordeal, I’ll suffer from bouts of cold and hot…” Fred warned Johan about the side effects that are expected to not worry him, “It should last 14 days, it’s known to go longer, but until I am in a full state of awareness and can get myself out of bed, I must keep drinking these, so I made spares.
___
Over the next 3 days, Johan and Fred decided to have the same talk over and over again, to prevent any mistakes from forgetfulness. Isabella, George, Steven and the two maids came down to watch the procedure. In the last week Steven and Jessica, both very close to Fred had been told the truth, Steven was a down to earth guy and didn’t think any differently about Fred, except for gratitude that Fred had shown him such trust, while Jessica was mesmerised about the fantastical tales Fred had, even Isabella and Kelly liked to sit in on his stories. Isabella and Fred bonded even more through sharing stories of their world about all sorts of myths and legends. George, now knowing Fred had a background in the military conversed with Fred about Military battles between the two worlds, but George quickly got scared of the sheer magnitude in scale and destruction Fred’s wars brought to bear.
In the room, all of the Girls had their emotions written on their faces even, though Isabella tried to hide it, while Steven and George didn’t show as much, probably to reassure Fred and for the girls to have a shoulder to lean on.
Fred was tied to the table, shirtless and had a small wooden tube to bite down on. He decided to look at his status one last time before the operation
Status
Name
Frederick
????
Age
4
Year(s)
4
month(s)
18
Day(s)
Ascension
1
Level
10
Body
Child
Race
Human
Culture
Franconian
Social
F Earl/ M Duke
Bastard
Exp
5120/5120
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100%
Exp Mod
280% (child)
Class
Affinity
Lightning
5%
None
Subclass
Stats
points
Condition
Health
100
1769
Stamina
100
2121
Mana
100
2991
Modifiable
Power
631
6.31
Density
464
4.64
Dexterity
631
6.31
Vitality
446
4.46
Endurance
859
8.59
Intellect
1076
10.76
Wisdom
1056
10.56
“Are you Ready Fred,” Johan asked, Fred just nodded. Then he felt a sharp sting on his back, luckily the back didn’t have as many nerves built up as per other parts of the body, as he didn’t have a way of creating any numbing agents. He gritted his teeth but held out, all things considered.
Johan managed to push his way up to the brain stem, then switched crystals as briefed. “I’m ready to connect now Fred.” Fred didn’t nod his head, there was a thin metal tool lodged in his skull at the moment. “George, come over.”
George came over, “What do you need Doctor?”
“When I connect, Fred is going to start convulsing. I need you to hold his head until I remove the Tool, then I need you to hold his shoulders as I insert the leach,”
“Got it,” George clasped Fred’s head, now he couldn’t nod even if he wanted to.
“Here goes,” Fred left a sharp stinging pain and then blacked out.
___
Fred found himself lying in a fox hole in the desert, he looked around and saw his mate Jerry in the next hole over, he could hear him shouting at Fred but, Fred couldn’t hear anything, there was a pinging sensation in his ears, Jerry leapt over to Fred’s hole and pushed him down and lay on top of him when he saw a black cloud suddenly raise from the ground a few meters from his feet, this seemed to have cleared his head. “Fuck Jerry, what’s happening,”
“You were in the blast zone of an artillery shell a few minutes ago and blacked out, we’ve been pinned down for a while now,”
Fred recognised where he was, they had just passed their way through the Qarqin river pass through the mountains heading for Qinghai, in north China. West Russia has finally been occupied 2 years ago but the east side had merged with China. At this time, they thought the war would last a few years at most, but who would have Guessed China could hold out for another 30 years, although most of that was the west wanted to build up some of their spent strength before a proper push and was hoping for diplomatic talks to resolve the war, but China had no intention of talks and was just buying time to build up. And then 10 years after that, talks would fail again, and the push continue.
Fred seemed to know what every step would happen in this battle and yet for some reason or another he didn’t try to change the outcomes to save his friends, it was like he was telling himself he couldn’t do anything to save his comrades and that they were already dead, even though he had time to pull Dave just a few meters to the left to save him from a direct hit from a mortar round, and yet he just watched it happen.
___
A few days later, Night had fallen, and Fred was woken up to take his watch with Peter. “You have been having those dreams again Fred,” peter asked with a very thick accent
“Yeah, I just don’t get it, was like I was in the institution again drinking that crap, only it wasn’t underground, I was in a fancy bed, and all, with large narrow stained windows, the people their clothes were old fashioned and there was this one woman, she seemed so familiar, smiling at me but with tears running down her face with puffy cheeks, saying it’s going to be ok.”
“Ha, the institution, caring for us, that must be a shitty dream,” his team here all had come from the institute, and with another 40 of them broke out of the place, it was major news at the time, as the genetic modification was outlawed in Britain, the government claimed to have not known about it. The fifty or so had only really got skills for warfare so most of them joined the military, who was more than happy to take them in. and they soon became the pride of the nation, working alongside the SAS and military intelligence. the government did an investigation into the matter with the institute and had found 4 more, only they had a lot more subjects, who also joined the military over time, and so he became the commanding field officer of this new regiment. The military didn’t want to promote any of them to a desk job as it would be a waste of potential, part of the process of becoming a Supersoldier is to think as rationally and as logical as possible and so this didn’t bother any of them.
___
He went on for almost 2 weeks in the desert, and every chance he had to close his eyes, whether sleeping or not, he would have those same dreams. But he suddenly started having trouble in the battle keeping himself awake, his friends had to start keeping an eye on him, but the medic couldn’t find what was wrong so kept giving him caffeine pills and other energy stimulants, but it didn’t seem to resolve anything, his mind kept feeling like something was pulling on it. He started getting nose bleeds and then slowly passed out to the sound of his teammates calling him.
___
Fred suddenly, sat up straight in a strange bed, startling the occupants. He was looking at each of them in turn with utter shock as he viewed the room and then saw an almost empty, stained-glass jug on the table next to the bed, it was probably filled with water, and he just puked in it, a lot, but his puke was all a sticky black substance and it smelled horrid. He almost filled the jug before finishing. When he was looking around the room, he didn’t recognise it or the people, but once he saw his puke, he remembered what he was doing, it was a mix of organ pieces, muscle mass, bones chunks, impurities, and all sorts of crap the human body liked to keep hold of. But had been gotten rid of as part of a cleansing and remodelling caused by the Leach in his body. “Fuck is it over,” it was only Isabella, Kelly, and Jessica in the room at first, but when he started puking Jessica ran off in a rush leaving the door open.
“How are you feeling Freddy.”
“1 out of 10 definitely wouldn’t recommend.” Fred just blurted out, usually, he tried to keep from using his old-world references, but he wasn’t in the mood to think more than he had to at the moment. Or to be more precise, he felt like his brain had drastically slowed down,
“?” Isabella was confused at the saying but got the gist of it.
Jessica ran back with Johan, George, and Steven in toe, but Fred was preoccupied with this body condition, ‘why do I feel so weak, did it fail, even my breathing went down, what’s happening,’
Johan, seeing Fred start to panic, grabbed the boy’s arms to gain his attention. “what’s the matter, Fred? Why are you panicking?”
“Johan, my body, it feels so weak, and my thoughts, they… they… they don’t feel as fluid, did something go wrong with the process? I mean the boost in strength isn’t as much as it will be when I stop growing but, I should still feel a slight increase in strength. Not a massive decrease.”
“Fred, you may have gained strength in this endeavour, but don’t forget, you ascended.
“Ascended?” Fred couldn’t recall what that meant, it felt so hard to access his memories at the moment.
“Yes Ascended, remember it reduces your level to 1, so all of your stats have been reduced to 1/10th,”
“Right, right, Yes,” Fred was starting to calm down but suddenly a message report entered his vision at the side, and the border of his vision was flashing red, trying to get his attention to the message.
“Once you calmed down have a look at your status to see what’s changed.”
Fred took a few breaths to calm his nerves. ‘status’
*Warning* priority message has prevented access from all system features until resolved.
“?”
“What’s a matter, Fred?”
“I’ve got a priority message from the system; I cannot access the system functions until I’ve resolved it. I’m having a look now.”
*Congratulations* You have created a new subspecies of humans, the system of humanity looks favourably on you and has increased your luck skill by 1 and awarded you 100 free stat points.
You have created a new species of human, please give it a name
Fred suddenly got a grin on his face.
*confirmation* do you wish to confirm the name you have chosen for this race,
Adeptus Astartes
Once confirmed you will not be able to change the name later.
‘Yes’
The system has connected this name to a reference of a fictional universe in your memories called Warhammer 40k, is that correct.
-Yes-
“Arrrg” Fred suddenly went from a grin on his face to one of utter pain, he felt like his mind was going to split open.
“Fred” Isabella screamed and ran over to hug him, the others looking just as nervous, but this lasted only a couple of seconds.
*Notification* the system has scanned the memories of the host for all reference material relating to Warhammer 40k and has made a personal copy.
‘What the hell, fucking warn me next time.’
New notification
*Congratulations* host has ascended to stage 2
You have gained the following traits,
Ascension bonus increased to 2%
You now have access to two classes; you now have access to two subordinate classes for each class.
Your level has been set to 1
Your exp has been set to 0
Exp requirement Base value has doubled
Free skill point base value has doubled.
Level modifier to free point skill has changed from 1.1 to 1.3
*Congratulations* you are now an Adeptus Astartes,
The Neurotic Leach has been assimilated into the body and is now a recognised official organ, named gene-seed, of the species, Adeptus Astartes. (+)
Gain an additional 50% free stat points per level up
The class has been changed to Legion trait, based on the known reference material.
Adeptus Astartes is recognised as a preferable subspecies for the survival of the race by the system of humanity and has given it the following effect,
Dominant genes, procreation between an Astartes and a base human will result in a 90% chance of producing a full-blooded Astartes, and a 10% chance of producing a full-blooded base human.
Modified diet requirements and options for Astartes (+)
___
At this time the guests in the room all received a status wide message,
*Congratulations* a member of the human race has created and advanced into a new soldier species of humans called the Adeptus Astartes.
A fully grown Astartes has a base modifier of *8 to all stat points. The subrace as the dominant gene’s modifier
procreation between an Astartes and a base human will result in a 90% chance of producing a full-blooded Astartes, and a 10% chance of producing a full-blooded base human.
All members of the human race have been awarded 30 free stat points, all new humans in the next 30 years will receive 30 free stat points
This had utterly shocked the room, a new species, and 30 stat point bonuses, no one invention had ever given more than 3 stat points in the last 50 years, but this was 10 times that in one go.
___
Fred was finally able to check his stats
Status
Name
Frederick
????
Affinity
Lightning
5%
None
Age
4
year
5
month
2
Day
Ascension
2
Level
1
Body
Child
Super-Soldier
Race group
Human
Culture
Franconian
Social
F Earl/ M Duke
Bastard
Exp
0/20
0%
Exp Mod
280% (child)
Sub-Race
Adeptus Astartes
Assimilation 5%,
*1.5 modifiers to stat points
Legion Trait
Legion Trait
Subclass
Subclass
Subclass
Subclass
Stats
points
Condition
Health
150
796
Stamina
150
954
Mana
150
1346
Luck
11
110%
Modifiable
Power
631
1.89
Density
464
1.39
Dexterity
631
1.89
Vitality
446
1.34
Endurance
859
2.58
Intellect
1076
3.23
Wisdom
1056
3.17