“If we manage to get this right, we can finally get away from the human’s influence, maybe even start our own nation,” Bonesnapper was saying standing in front of the cave that hadn’t been there last season. His proclamation was met by cheers from the rest of the tribe that had come to listen to Bonesnappers speech. He looked pretty human himself, only a loincloth covering his private area. Most of us gathered around him wore loincloths to cover ourselves, the ones who didn’t have anything on to cover themselves were often of the opinion that it made them look too human. “We have to get to the core and form a contract with the being or take control of it if it isn’t self-aware before the humans find out about it and send a team to investigate,” Bonesnapper continued. He was the chieftain of our migrating tribe, and he had led us through this pass many times before to get to our summer hunting grounds.
I was pretty excited about this, and I wished to be one of the ones that were chosen to go with the chieftain into the cave. It was a dungeon most likely, we had been through this way last season and caves just didn’t appear by themselves, there had to be something magical involved. Dungeons were often caves filled with monsters and traps, but what made them so special was the core at the bottom, it filled the cave with resources and treasures to lure in people to brave its depths. What made dungeons so valuable was the fact that they renewed themselves when no one was in them, so you could leave it one day, your arms full of treasure and revisit it the next day and all the valuables would be back where you found them the day before. It was basically an infinite source of wealth if you were strong enough, and if we managed to form a contract with the dungeon core, we could completely bar the humans from entering it, forcing them to trade with us.
“But aren’t dungeons dangerous?” One of the people in the crowd asked after throwing up his hand, completely missing the point of raising your hand.
“Yes Bolivar dungeons are very dangerous, but this is a young one. It’s probably not even a year old at this point, but I will still only bring those who are willing to risk their lives. So, do we have any volunteers?” Bonesnapper asked after explaining things to Bolivar, and a sea of hands want up in front of me, mine joining them eagerly. “We need some people to stay behind to guard the entrance and make a camp to gather supplies,” at this, the sea turned in to a lake. “I will only take the most strong or extremely skilled fighters,” Bonesnapper declared, and the lake turned in to a puddle of a handful of people with their hands still in the air including mine. Bonesnapper chose three people who joined him in front of the cave before he turned to gaze at me. The woman standing to Bonesnappers right scowled before saying.
“You can’t seriously be considering him,” when Bonesnapper didn’t reply, but just kept looking at me thoughtfully her eyes widened in disbelief. “He’s not a real lupine, an outsider, he’s practically human,” she said in disdain.
“Give the boy a break Cara, Grayson has managed the transformation just fine and is an asset to the hunters. He has been with us for three summers now, and you have to remember that our ancestors were human too.” This seemed to surprise Cara, she grumbled a bit but acquiesced by saying.
“By your word chief, but I have the right to say I told you so when he screws this over for us,” no one else had any objections to me joining the team, so we lined up in a row outside the cave entrance to look back at the crowd.
“By the time we return, we will have conquered this dungeon. We will never be pray again.” A loud cheer met this proclamation by the onlookers. The chief nodded to us, and we all closed our eyes to begin our transformations. I concentrated on my body and willed it to change, after a short while I could feel the transformation starting by the pain of my bones rearranging themselves. I went through this ordeal almost daily and had learned quickly to cope with the pain. I felt long claws grow from my fingers and toes and thick fur appeared on my body. The pain was worst on my face around my mouth where a wolfs muzzle was growing, and my teeth turned long and sharp.
When I opened my eyes again, my companions stood and looked at me as if waiting for me to finish. They were all changed already, resembling bipedal wolves with some human characteristics. They were all various shades of grey or brown except for Bonesnapper whos fur was utterly black. The chief nodded at me and turned to walk into the cave, Cara scowled at me before she bumped my shoulder roughly as she went past me on her way to the dungeon behind Bonesnapper. We all followed her, words being unnecessary as we formed the standard hunting order with the chief in the front and me in the position of least honor in the back.
It was true that I had been with these wolf-men for about three years now, but I was still not fully accepted as a member of their pack. I had struggled for a long time with the transformation at first, that hasn't helped their view of me. The lupines relationship with humans is shaky at best and anything that reminded them that I was an outsider, born to human parents, made me even more of an outcast. It was true too, I had been borne to human parents but not in this world. I had been on the way home from my very normal nine to five office job when I had suddenly appeared in the middle of their camp. I had been their prisoner at first, but when I learned to shapeshift a bit, they grudgingly let me join them on a couple of hunts. This was my chance to prove myself, to gain some actual standing in the pack.
We moved through the cave running on all fours, scenting the air for anything dangerous we didn’t find anything until the cave ended and we entered a stone room with big mosaic plates on the floor. Bonesnapper turned to me and gestured for me to go first, the wolf form made it very difficult to speak, so we made hand gestured or managed the odd one word here and there if it was really important. Cara gave me a toothy smirk over the shoulder of the chief, doubtless hoping that I would trigger some trap and die for my efforts. I’d show her that I could be useful, I’d show them all. I backed up to get a running start, then I sprinted forward and jumped towards the wall and pushed off it to the far side of the room. I landed just beyond the plates on the floor, but I lost my balance and took a step back to steady myself out of reflex. I froze at the mistake, but for a moment nothing happened, so I raized my foot tentatively off the plate I had stepped on. There was an audible click, and something pricked me in the back, I lost all feeling in my body, and I fell over backward, depressing more plates with my weight. ‘Guess Cara was right, I really did screw up this time’ I thought before my vision turned black and I thought no more.
You have 118 potential points available, would you like to turn your accomplishments into points or choose for yourself if you want to keep some of them?
Grayson woke up in his bed to find the normal screen hovering in front of him. That had been a shit run, but hopefully, it had earned him enough points to bring his plan into action. I got out of bed and stood and looked around at the entirely white room I always woke up in after dying. I was back in my normal body, with no wolf features to speak of, that had been one of the more interesting worlds I had been sent to. Not only was his strength increased as a wolf, but all his senses got a massive boost as well, especially his sense of smell. I had been sent to multiple different worlds now, but nowhere had he heard of anything like that.
I could still remember the first time he had appeared in this room, with little information and no explanation he had quickly been sent off to his first world with no memory of this place. It was the same every time, he would be sent to some foreign world with no memory of this place or the other planets he had been sent to, so it was like the first time every time. I shuddered a bit at how naive I always was, but the memory loss was both a blessing and a curse, at least it let him forget.
Well, I don’t actually lose my memories, it’s more like they are blocked off or something, I can remember everything now after all. I had given up figuring out who brought me here or what they wanted with me a long time ago, whether it be aliens or some government experiment. Now I just focused on how I could help myself in the future, I dared not hope that I could somehow get out of this situation. Thinking of my plan, I turned my attention back to the hovering screen and picked the choose for myself option, a list of my achievements and what they were worth appeared in its stead.
Achievements:
Reached level 15: 9 points
Shapeshifter, gained another form: 12 points.
Pack initiate, on your way to gaining admittance into a lupine tribe: 5 points
Pack hunter, hunted in a group: 3 points.
Big game hunter, took down an enemy ten or more levels above you: 12 points.
Tsundere, someone has a crush on you but has a strange way of showing it: 7 points.
Skills:
Shapeshifter, level 9, your physical stats are doubled, and your perception is increased by a factor of three: 13 points.
Intimidation, level 3, able to lower your opponents resolve by threatening them: 4 points.
Tracking, level 7, follow the signs of your prey that they leave behind in the environment: 9 points.
Cooking, level 12, make food tastier and more nutritious by preparing it in different ways: 16 points.
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Attributes:
Strength: 38 (20), 3 points.
Constitution: 25 (17), 2 points.
Endurance: 43 (23), 4 points.
Agility: 35 (22), 3 points.
Dexterity: 31 (23), 2 points.
Intelligence: 33 (25), 1 point.
Willpower: 47 (29), 4 points.
Perception: 50 (15), 6 points.
Charisma: 30 (17), 3 points.
(0,5 * level * Con) + 100 0,5 * level=x x/Con
HP: 288/288 regen 3/sec at rest
(0,5 * level * End) + 100 0,5 * level=y y/End
SP: 423/423 regen 6/sec at rest
(0,5 * level * Int) + 100 0,5 * level=z z/Wil
MP: 348/348 regen 6/sec at rest
Some of these were a bit surprising, like the tsundere one, for example, I had thought most of the women on that world had hated me. That’s what a tsundere is though isn’t it, I shook my head to get back on track and sat down on the bead. I would be okay with sacrificing my progress as long as I could afford to buy the skill I was saving for. I turned all my efforts into points, being back to level one was always a bit annoying, but at least I had used some points previously so that I would have higher starting stats, thinking of that I opened another menu to look at my character screen.
Name: Lucas Greyson Age: 21 Gender: Male
Level: 1 Class: None
Strength: 20 Constitution: 17 Endurance: 23
Agility: 22 Dexterity: 23 Intelligence: 25
Willpower: 29 Perception: 15 Charisma: 17
HP: 109 Regen: 0,1/sec at rest
Sp: 112 Regen: 0,1/sec at rest
Mp: 113 Regen: 0,1/sec at rest
Point purchases:
Gain experience at an accelerated rate
+10 to all starting stats
Gain +2 to strength every level instead of +1
Gain +2 to intelligence every level instead of +1
Gain +2 to charisma every level instead of +1
Gain +2 to dexterity every level instead of +1
Novice elemental magic
Novice psychic
Novice survival skills
Basic martial arts training package
Basic melee weapons training package
Basic ballistics weapons training package
Translator module
I had tried to cover all my bases, it had cost a lot of points in the end, but I felt it was worth it. The problem was that he had a hard time accessing my skills once my memory was blocked. It was hard to learn magic on your own if you didn’t have someone to guide you, or I might be sent to a world that didn’t have any mana on it. I had so far not gotten any use out of the ballistics weapons training with the worlds I could choose from not being advanced enough or too reliant on magic.
Melee weapons training was more useful, but it didn’t tell me how to make the weapons, and if I appeared in the middle of the wilderness there was often no people around I could get weapons from. I would always have my arms and legs though, and the survival skills would usually kick in when I got hungry, and my thoughts turned in the direction of how I would survive. Psychic power was nice because it came from within instead of from the environment around you. Sure you could draw in mana to store it inside you, but you still needed water outside to either summon more or manipulate it. Psychic power scaled of both Intelligence, which made it easier to lift stuff with your mind and throw them around, and from charisma, which allowed you to read peoples minds and manipulate them to an extent.
The biggest problem I had was that most of my skills and knowledge remained undiscovered once I was planetside and started trying to survive, hence the plan. I got up from the bed and walked over to the world select terminal. It was a big touchscreen set into the wall, it had a big countdown showing 71 hours and 27 minutes when that countdown reached zero I would be sent to a world randomly. I had unlocked many different worlds over the years but I scrolled through the list and picked the three candidates I planned to choose from. Inez, Quilon, and planet 9, they all had magic and humans as the dominant race, Earth-like climates, and about medieval level technology. I still hadn’t decided which one I would pick, but I could do that after buying the skill I needed. I decided to have a shower and a meal first though, I didn’t actually need to shower as I would be spawned in the same state I always was in the first time I appeared in a new world, but it was good to feel normal sometimes.
I walked up to the perfect white wall opposite my bed, a rectangular piece of it slid backward and to the side as I approached, and I stepped through. The room I had entered was pretty small compared to the sleeping quarters. It was just big enough to fit a shower, a toilet, and a sink with a mirror above it. I removed all my clothes and stepped under the shower head and turned it on. The water was nice and hot, and I wondered for what felt like the thousandth time why whoever had put me here would waste resources on a shower when I would be sent to some other planet in a pristine condition. Well as good of a state you could be in working in an office for a day with a malfunctioning ac unit. My thoughts turned to other things as I washed under the warm water. I had loved some amazing women through the years, it was painful to remember them but in three days they would be gone from my mind, and I wanted to take this time to think back to the good times. Tears fell from my eyes and were washed away by the water, and I thought again if they had a body to bury or if it was somehow taken back to this place to be restored. If my body was left behind did that mean that I was just a clone, I had had these thoughts many times before and I shook my head to get rid of them they would only lead to frustration. In that way, I sort of looked forward to the memory wipe, I could look at things with fresh eyes and live through things as if it was the first time, some things you don’t want to live through for the first time though.
I turned off the water and set the shower to the dry setting, there was a tingling sensation all over my body, and I was completely dry again. I put my clothes back on and did my business on the toilet, I washed my hands and looked at myself in the mirror. I had pale skin, blond hair cut short, and blue eyes, I was told that our ancestors had moved to America from Sweden, but I had little connection with them and felt like an American still. A beard was starting to show as a small grey goatee around my mouth, it would always grow in like that in my youth and not until in my thirties would I be able to grow a full beard. I knew this because in my first world I had died at the ripe old age of eighty-four years old. I had a loving wife who had died in her sixties and five grown children. I had felt ready to die and had looked forward to meeting my wife again in the afterlife I had bought in to on that world. It had been very jarring to be brought back here as a young man again, I had been in a state, not understanding why I was here and remembering my old life on earth that I had not thought of for years. A random world was chosen for me, and I had learned to use the system there and to kill or be killed, it had not been pleasant.
I went out of the bathroom and said out loud, “I want a hamburger and fries, please,” whatever watched me must have listened as a table and chair appeared in the middle of the room with my junk food on it. I sat down and started eating and looking through the skills I had available, I found what I was looking for. Mind palace it was called, and it let you block off part of your mind and store different memories and information behind it, I suspect it was a defense against tacks on your mind, but I had another purpose for it. Unfortunately, It cost 500 points, and with the points, I had gotten from the recent run I only had 420 points available. I was afraid of this, but I didn’t want to wait anymore, so I decided to take on some disadvantages.
I opened the relevant tab and looked through the options there were things like diseases and disabilities, I could give myself cancer for 100 points. It was a bit tempting if I could find a way to cure myself I would basically be getting free points, but I wanted to make sure my plan worked first. Instead, I added a phobia, Arachnophobia was the fear of spiders, and I felt I had a good chance of avoiding them, there weren’t many other phobias listed here. That was worth 75 points and brought me up to a total of 495. All the other options were too debilitating, and I only needed five points. Then I saw a tab that I hadn’t noticed before, quirks, I opened it and at the top of the list was the perfect one. “you censor yourself when you try to swear or use bad language,” I read it didn’t sound too bad and it would give me the 5 points I needed, so I picked it. I didn’t feel any different, so I spent the 500 points to buy the mind palace skill.
I ate what was left of my meal and went to sit on my bed, the table disappeared a moment later along with the chair. I closed my eyes and activated my new skill, it was easy to use, my high intelligence and willpower coming in handy. I created a house in my mind with lots and lots of rooms, it turned out to be more of a mansion than a house. I filled these rooms with knowledge and skills, the doors were locked tight and would only be opened in very specific circumstances. I filled the basement with all my plans and ideas for escaping this cycle and locked it as I had done with the other rooms. It took quite a bit of time and when I opened my eyes the timer on the world select screen had reached zero. The countdown had ended, choosing a random world, prepare for imminent transport, was all it said before my whole body started buzzing.
“Oh sssugar,” was all I could say before everything went black again.