Among the deadly calm of the forest—lay the motionless body of a handsome young Adult. The individual had shoulder-length jet black hair—darker than even the darkest of nights. He also had a pale white skin and a thin yet symmetrical face with high cheek bones which seemed to be lacking in vitality, but the young man's jaw dropping physique was like a natural correction to this statement.
At first glance, the boy's physique didn't seem that impressive as he was wearing futuristic clothing which completely hid the young man's body. But on careful consideration, it seemed evident that the young man had a lean, yet densely muscular physique—containing both visual appearance and capable of extreme levels of strength and mobility.
The young man stayed lying there, seemingly not caring about the world around him. Instead, It was as if the world around him remained still in response to the young man's presence.
And it continued for a while, after which something happened—Something that changed the tranquility of the atmosphere. The young man's eyes, which had been shut lightly, without any signs of movement—slightly flickered.
The young man's eyes flickered for a moment, and returned to its previous motionless nature. Then, not even a moment later, his eyes slowly flickered open.
The young man looked at the blue sky, his eyes showing a hint of perplexity and confusion.
"What a beautiful color...", The young man stated, seemingly not realizing that he had spoken the words out loud, nor did he seem to care of the fact.
He slowly sat up from the ground and looked around, trying to make out something about his location, but all in vain.
'Where am I? Wait, who am I?', The young man slowly looked around once again, trying to somehow figure out his current whereabouts or how he got here but all he gained was a blank slate. He couldn't even remember his name or who he was before today.
'Why can not I seem to remember anything?', The only ounce of information he seemed to possess would be the ability to think, learn, and comprehend or the ability to read, write, and speak.
He also possessed some basic knowledge—he could tell apart and identify things like plants, rocks, water clouds, etc.
Looking around, he could endless upon endless amounts of green fields In front of him. With occasional patches of trees and large plants—he concluded that he was in a grassland.
After gazing here and there for a bit, the young man got to his feet with no problem at all, 'I have to look around, maybe this place can give me some clues as to why I am here?', The young man concluded, starting to walk towards a random direction. He circled his initial laying space more than a couple of times but found no clue.
All he found was that he was in the middle of a sort of Oasis in the middle of a grassland area. And in the centre of the oasis, multiple trees were surrounding a body of water which spanned around 50 meters from one end to the other. The water in the pond was murky and grayish, so the visibility was very poor.
The spot where the young man previously lay was ten or twenty meters away from the central pond and the trees. And was just an open patch of grasslands with occasional small rocks scattered around. But no clue about the young man's inquiries was found there, it was just as if someone had just come down here from God knows where, and placed him without any kind of resistance and then left.
'There is nothing here. Maybe I can find something on my body that would help me', he thought as he patted his long futuristic tunic, looking for something—a desperate clue—a hope—or just something in general. He didn't like the fact that he didn't even knew who he was in this Godforsaken who's knows where place.
He wore a long tunic over a kind of slim-fitting body armor. The armor covered most of his body and provided decent levels of support, 'At least I'm not completely defenseless', he thought, his demeanor calm and composed since the beginning.
He was almost satisfied with his findings until his eyes landed on a type of bracelet, strapped around his left wrist. The bracelet had a futuristic design—consisting of a 2.5-inch thick, blue crystalline translucent material—surrounded by two thin pieces of jet black metal which had lines of the same crystalline material running through it. The lines glowed and dulled as if in sync with his heartbeat.
The armor had the same design as the bracelet which meant it also had these illuminating lines running through it but the difference between the armor and the bracelet was that the armor was made of a material that was not as hard as metals and was off-white.
'Let us see what we got here', The young man dabbled with the bracelet, touching it randomly at different spots trying to get some sort of reaction out of it. He didn't know why he wanted to do that but something deep in his conscious urged him to do that and he complied without any resistance.
He tried many different things which ranged from touching the black metallic rings to swiping his hand over the crystalline screen but it didn't work. But as he was about to give up, he suddenly had a realization and brought the bracelet up to his face. And almost instantly after a blue light shone from the crystalline screen, illuminating the semi-dark pre-dawn surroundings.
"Woah, what is this?", the young man exclaimed, almost getting surprised by the blue hovering panel in front of him.
'This is going to take a while, I should check my surroundings first. I do not want to get ambushed, and eaten by the wildlife here...If there is any at all’, he thought, the possibility of him being in a lifeless environment was not completely zero.
But the chances of that happening were slim to none at this point. So the young man shook his head, dismissing the stray thoughts out of his mind.
'Let us see...', he paused, looking around in the surroundings for a somewhat safe place. He saw many different places where he could sit—some small boulders, the trees near the pond, or some shade under the shrubbery in the vicinity, 'That is no good. It is better to avoid such places for now since I do not know what could be lurking there
The young man was cautious, he didn't think for a moment that he was powerful or something. He remained vigilant and aware of his surroundings, sensitive to even the smallest of movements in the vicinity.
'It is better if I stay here, out in the open instead. At least I will be able to tell who or what is coming before they reach me. If I stay in one of those places, the likelihood of an ambush increases significantly', The boy thought as he once again looked around his surroundings to find something unusual and sat down upon finding nothing.
'Now let us see what you have for us', The boy stated, looking at the holographic screen, which he had not closed in case he wasn't able to open it again.
Looking at the screen, he could see an interface laced with intricate but simple designs—six categories In front of him, each with its own sub categories attached, which excited him to a significant degree.
***
The six main categories and the sub categories went like:
- Character Information
- Character Statistics
- Special Conditions
- Evolution Status
- Map
- Biomes
- Points of Interest
- Landmarks
- Flaura
- Fauna
- Intelligent Species
- Climates
- Elements
- Blueprints
- Technology
- Diseases
- Evolution
- Special Phenomenona
- Anomalies
- Colonization Level
- Influence
- Alliances
- Alliance Bases
- Personal Bases
- Technology
***
Each of these intrigued the young man very much—but among these, some stood out even more than the others, For the young man at least. These were Evolution status from Profile—Biomes from World—Intelligent Species, climates, elements, blueprints and technology from Information—All of colonization— Inventory and Equipment.
But he shook his head, making all of the excited thoughts go away, 'I have all the time in the world, I can check that later as well. But first, I need to check out the information panel. Or something that I can possibly use.', The boy decided, clicking the
As soon as he clicked on the Sub Category, an information panel opened in front of him. The panel was full of information, but the first thing that caught his eye was the picture at the top right end of the panel.
The picture was that of a Divine and Mesmerizing Young Man with jet-black shoulder-length hair Sharp yet Ethereal, Peacock-blue eyes that could draw any person in with just a glance, and his Flawless symmetrical face that was the epitome of handsomeness.
'Is that really me?', He questioned, not believing his handsome appearance, 'I mean I'm not complaining. But anyways, let's see...'
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He shifted his eyes from the picture to the words written at the top of the top left side of the panel.
It was the words "Character Information", and below that was the information that the young man needed at that moment.
***
Name: Alex.
Title: Survivor of Armageddon.
Race: Human (Type 1 - Category 5)
Sex: Male-Straight.
Body Age: 20.
Personal Information: Locked.
***
'Hmm...Alex...Alex...So that is my name. I am at least glad to find that out', Alex hummed at the fact that he had something to call himself by. He was a little torn at the fact that he couldn't gain further information, but that feeble thought perished as soon as he laid his eyes on the next column.
***
Character Statistics:
Height: 6'7 ft
Weight: 100 kg (220 Lbs)
Physique: Athletic (Type three)
Eye color: Peacock Blue
Hair Color: Ash Gray
Skin color: Pale White.
Appearance Attractiveness: Divine.
Strength: 220 (Avg 100)
Speed: 220 (Avg 100)
Stamina: 220 (Avg 100)
Endurance: 220 (Avg 100)
Carrying Capacity: 220 (Avg 100)
Breathing Capacity: 220 (Avg 100)
Health: Optimal.
Base Knowledge: Basic - Level 2
Processing speed: Exceptional - Level 5
Emotional: High - Level 4
Social: Exceptional - Level 5
Adversity: Exceptional - Level 5
Adaptability: Exceptional - Level 5
Critical Thinking: Exceptional - Level 5.
***
'I see, so I am a well balanced individual when it comes to physical stats, but I think I am near to the top in the Intelligence scale... Interesting', Alex mused, confident in his stats, but he did not let his guard down in any way possible, still occasionally looking around his surroundings.
'And what is with that beauty? Divine? Do I really look that good?', He wondered, he knew it would be something like this when he saw his profile picture but he didn't think of it as much of a big deal, 'And what about my hair being Ash Gray? My hair are jet black'
Alex looked at his jet-black hair which were drooping over his shoulders. He rechecked the picture in the panel as well and it also had Jet-black hair.
'Is the change in my hair color somehow connected to why I am here? Or maybe I'm just overthinking things', He doubted whether his thoughts were correct or not. Trying not to delve into this matter further, he shifted his gaze from the appearance Attractiveness to something that further intrigued him, 'And what about this Type three Athletic build? I guess it is some kind of way to rank the capabilities of a certain physique, similar to how they are ranked in the Intelligence section.'
'Moving on', Alex looked past the Statistics section and hurriedly glanced past the special conditions section—which displayed if the user had any sort of special diseases or anything like that.
Moving past that section, Alex's eyes landed on the Evolution section which intrigued him from the first moment he saw it.
The Evolution section in layman's terms, recorded the growth of an individual over the correspondence of time and trials and it currently displayed the words "Type 1- Category 5".
'So I guess the more I actually progress in this place the more my evolution status rises? Or something similar to that and the fact that I started at Category 5 of type 1 should be enough proof that we could have started on a different level as well. Maybe higher or lower depending on the circumstances. I do not know what "Type 1" is but "Category 5" should be a decent one if compared to the previous level 5 statistics', Alex concluded as he looked once more towards the newly born sun in the sky.
'I shall have plenty of time to go through this later on as well. I should get moving, it is better not to stay in one place for extended periods, At least not until I can find a place which I can confidently say is safe', Alex concluded, looking once more at the blue hovering panel in front of his face. He took a secret glance at the "Map" section of the
He didn't have many expectations before looking at the Map section, but whatever expectations he did have, went down the drain once he landed his eyes on the empty map.
'Of course, it would be like this. Why would the map be registered, before I have even started to uncover it?', Alex mused, his calm nature and lack of expressions were in a way favorable to his current situation. He could remain calm and composed—making decisions that would work for him instead of panicking and making ones that would work against him.
Just as he was about to get up, a rustle in the shrubs a few meters away caught his attention. He instantly turned around without a moment if hesitation, his ears picking up the slightest of sensations from tens of meters away.
His eyes were glued onto the shrubs where the sound had come from. If it were someone else, they would've thought that the bush just moved due to the wind. But it was not the case for Alex since he had heightened senses.
He could faintly feel the presence of something in those shrubs. And whatever hid in those shrubs—was dangerous. Alex could feel it in his bones. A sensation, which he was feeling for the first time, yet it didn't feel foreign to him at all.
'It knows', Alex thought to himself, a bead of sweat running down his face. Whatever was in those bushes, was not human—Furthermore, it knew of Alex's presence and came here willingly.
'It is hunting me', He concluded, trying not to make even the minimalistic movements, yet slowly making his hand towards the knife strapped at his back. The knife had always been there, Alex had initially noticed it when he was searching for clues of his identity but considered it inconsequential in the grand scheme of things—when he found out about the bracelet's existence.
The rustle from the shrubbery came only once and followed it was the deadly silence. Something that tugged at Alex's nerves. He would've considered it better if the creature present in the bushes was some sort of big and ferocious creature which rushed at its opponents.
But it was not that—instead, the creature seemed more intelligent. It had purposely moved to gauge Alex's reaction.
Alex's eyes widened at the realization, he was about to do something when another sound came from a bush to his right. This time, he didn't turn his head in the direction. Rather his eyes moved to follow the movement of the beast.
'Are there more than one of them?', he questioned but instantly after the rustle from the right. Another one came from the left, 'There is definitely more than one of them'
Alex froze in his place, not opting to make any large movements as to not trigger any response from the creatures.
'Come on, come out', He waited patiently for any kind of response from the shrubs.
Suddenly he had a realization as his eyes, which had not shown much emotion up til now—widened in surprise. Before losing any more time, he jumped to the left—barely escaping the sharp fangs of a beast that likely intended to bite him in half—covering the distance of a few meters in almost an instant.
'It was close', Alex let out a sigh as he drew his knife and held it in his left hand, tightly gripping it in response to a further attack.
Alex looked at the location where he previously stood and became a bit shaken, the sole cause of his shock was the presence or Absence of the beast where he previously stood.
'Was it my imagination?', Even though he was caught off guard, this didn't change his calm nature— his brain ran at lightning speeds, concluding what could've possibly happened, 'No that was definitely real. It could not have been any other way'
His reasoning was justified when he looked at his previous spot—which although seemed empty at first glance—had traces of claw marks imprinted in the ground.
'There can three main possibilities—One is that the beast is alone but moves at speeds higher than I can register— The second one is that there are multiple of the beasts and they are working in sync—or the third possibility where the number if beasts are uncertain yet they possess intelligence and some sort of ability to camouflage themselves. And while any of these possibilities is bad for me, it would be ideal if it is not the third one', he concluded at breakneck speeds, his brain running faster than ever before but still not close to its limit.
Not even a second had passed since he had landed on this spot and he had already figured out the possibilities of what could happen. And even though he grimaced at the thought of the third possibility being correct. He knew deep down that was the case.
Alex looked at a rock near the ground, he kicked it hard towards his previous location. The rock flew at superhuman to sub-sonic speeds, shattering after hitting what appeared to be empty air.
But this had the intended effect Alex hoped for. A sharp and high-pitched shriek originated from the location as a beast appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
'So that is what you look like', the beast appeared to be a 2-meter-high, Quad pedaled monster with greenish insect-like scales and a ferocious mouth with four large fangs at each corner of its jaw and many smaller but razor-sharp teeth in its giant mouth.
The beast, which had been forced to let go of its camouflage, growled as a bone-chilling high-pitched roar, accompanied by a loud rumble echoed in the area.
Alex stood his ground in front of the mighty beast's roar, firmly planting his feet on the ground, ready for what was to come next.
'Come on...', Alex waited for the beast to make a move, still keeping his vigilance up—not ignoring that fact that there could be multiple of these beasts—just waiting for him to let his guard down and then pounce on him.
After finishing its angry roar, the beast charged at Alex, trying to pounce on him.
Alex remained perfectly calm in this situation. Taking a deep breath, he firmly planted his feet into the ground, used a bit of force, and made a jump in the air. The force was just enough to make him jump over and avoid the beast's attack.
While in mid-air, he maneuvered his body, spun it around, and brought down the knife in his hands at the beast's nape, making a hole in its weak scaled neck and causing the beast to let out a shriek in pain.
The beast's steps trembled because if the pain, leading it to stumble and fall face-first into the ground, injured but still alive.
This was mainly due to the limited reach of the knife which could not seem to pierce too deep into the beast's flesh.
Before Alex could pull out the knife from the beast's neck, another shadowy figure rushed out from the shrubs and ran at him at great speeds.
'Another one', Alex exclaimed in his mind, forcing himself to let go of the knife to dodge the beast's claws—which had lept over its companion, aiming to tear the smaller prey apart.
Alex jumped backward and off the first beast's back, successfully dodging the attack but the beast continued its pursuit not letting go of Alex's trail.
Due to the hasty dodge, Alex's feet didn't land properly on the ground, making him fall over and roll backward.
'Not good', He thought as he rolled to a stop, intending to get up as fast as possible. But at that point, the second beast was already in his face.
The beast opened its mouth and brought its open jaw down upon the prey which it had deemed defenseless.
Almost instinctively, Alex placed his hands on both of the second beast's jaws, trying desperately to prevent it from closing its mouth—which was large enough for it to swallow him whole.
But his attempts were proving to be futile—the beast was just too strong. Alex couldn't even begin to compare in strength to the ferocious beast which had lived out here and probably hunted all its life.
"Augh", Alex shouted in pain. Although his armor was still unscathed by the beast's claws, the force in its bite itself was enough to cause severe pain to Alex's body.
"No! I will not die here! Not today!", He proclaimed, to who? He didn't know. But it was as if his proclamation was answered—his gauntlets lit up with a dazzling blue light and Alex could feel the strain on his arms decreasing moment by moment.
"Haah, Finally", He let out a sigh of relief, not wasting any more time used the extra force proved by his gauntlets and started pushing the beast's jaws in opposite directions, causing the beast to shriek in pain and let go, jumping back to make some distance.
The beast couldn't seem to understand what had just occurred, it shook its head to get rid of the pain in its jaws.
'Now is my chance', He rushed at the confused beast, not giving it any time to recover.
The beast growled defensively, seemingly understanding his opponent's motive. It's desperately swun it's tail—which had a sharp blade like point towards Alex hoping to injure him or at least scare him away.
"Not today", Alex stated as he ducked under the tail, sliding on the ground and right below the startled beast.
"This is it! Let us see what you can do", He proclaimed initially but returned to his usually calm nature when he finished his words.
Deciding to finish it in one blow, he clocked back his fist, his gauntlets lighting up once again—but this time, the light being brighter than before. He drove his fist right into the beast's jaw, causing a bright explosion if blue light, which engulfed them both.
The light appeared for a moment at most and then vanished afterward as if it had never existed in the first place.
Before the light diminished, Alex could already see the figure of the beast still standing tall.
'One was not enough huh', Thinking of not giving the beast a chance if fight back, he clocked his fist once again. Ready to throw another punch but decided not to as soon as he saw the beast.
The beast although standing, had its lower jaw missing and had died as soon as the punch landed. It was only its body that remained standing.
'Phew. That was a close call. I would prefer to never be in that state again', He let out a breath in relief, dusting his clothes off the dirt and the beast's green blood which splattered on top of his gauntlets.
'What about the first one?', Alex thought, looking back at the initial beast which was laying down on the ground near the location it was initially struck.
Alex moved closer to the beast which laid on the ground, still alive but not moving.
'So that's what is was. It became paralyzed because its spine had been hit when initially stabbed it. No wonder it did not get up and help its friend', Alex mused, looking at the beast which laid on the ground without much resistance.
"Let's put you out of your misery first, big guy", Alex said calmly, not moving his eyes away from the beast's claws or tail—especially that tail. He knew full well the abilities of that tail. If Alex didn't have the armor and he didn't dodge that tail. It would've probably sliced him in half without much resistance.
'Wait a minute...What if I were to try this', He thought grabbing the knife—etched in the beast's spine with his gauntlets activated.
And if in response to the gauntlets call, the blade of the knife lit up in a blue hue, similar to the gauntlets themselves. The effect of this was very prominent as the beast's neck which was around more than half a meter thick—got severed and slid down the beast's body—killing it almost instantly.
'Well this is interesting', Alex thought to himself as he looked at the pale blue glowing blade—although his face seemed calm and expressionless—only he knew that he had been intrigued by the blade's—or rather the entire armor's abilities.
'If the blade and gauntlets themselves have such abilities, I can not wait to check what abilities the other parts have. But I should be careful, Most likely, these abilities are usable for only a limited time. The energy in them—I cannot seem to get a grasp on it and most likely would not be able to charge them in the near future. So, I think it is best to use these conservatively—likely in a life-or-death situation. I should try to find other ways to survive for the time being', Alex concluded putting back his knife into its sheath at the waist of his armor under the tunic.
'Anyways, what are these beasts? I do not seem to recall laying my eyes on them beforehand.', Alex tried to inspect what these beasts were—what was their origin—or how did they were able to sneak up to Alex without alerting his senses.
But before he could do anything, a black shadowy claw appeared in front of his face at breakneck speeds. But this time, Alex was ready for the beast's attack. For a moment, his entire body lit up in a blue light—specifically his armor, enhancing his entire body to inhuman levels.
Alex grabbed the two-meter-tall—five-meter-long beast by its mane which weighed around 2.5-3 tonnes and spun it around without much effort—throwing it toward the pond.
"I was wondering where the third one went", He stated calmly, his expression betraying his words. In all seriousness, he had already expected the third beast to attack when he took down the other two beasts.
Alex analyzed the creature's behavior very quickly.
Although it seemed like the beasts hunted in packs—it was not true as they only remained together and hunted separately. Meaning one wouldn't attack before the other had failed.
Their packing behavior told Alex that they were likely doing this in order to escape of rather fend off some bigger and much more dangerous predator.
The beast which was thrown around fifteen meters away by Alex—let out a shriek of pain as the pain from the impact assaulted its nerves. It rolled on the ground and got up near the bank of the pond, roaring defensively toward Alex's direction.
"I see", Alex stated, noticing something about his armor as well as the beast in front of them.
The beast let out a high-pitched shriek and was about to charge when—when it was grabbed from behind by a long protrusion—which seemed to resemble a long and scaly tongue.
"Huh?", It was as if Alex's natural instincts were alerted—urging him to get out if there as soon as possible—otherwise something really bad would happen. Alex didn't think further about this matter, using all the force in his body and activating all the parts of the armor, he jumped back, taking him forty to fifty meters away from the entire oasis—traveling a total distance of more than seventy meters.
His landing was rough—he fell on his back and rolled on the ground for at least ten meters finally sliding to a stop.
He didn't even check himself for injuries, turning his head towards his previous position—the Oasis—or what seemed like one from the looks of it.
And his eyes widened as soon as he did so. Truth be told, he had already expected something to be hiding in the pond and he wasn't surprised that he was true. He was surprised of the fact that instead of something begin in the pond—the Oasis itself appeared to be some sort of creature.
The trees surrounding the Pond split apart as what appeared to be eight large, 20-meter fangs emerged from the eight trees, and the shrubbery split apart to reveal many smaller teeth.
The fangs and the teeth started to gradually rise up and after a moment, it closed—trapping all of the smaller beasts within it—revealing the jaws of what appeared to be a large reptile-like creature.