Prologue
Mister Piggy
Kyoka studied the pig like person or rather the person like pig that was standing a few meters in front of her. Maybe it was the so called male chauvinist pig?
"Let us put bad jokes aside for now" she thought to herself as she started to analyze the situation.
After she had received the strange message followed by the countdown from the mechanical sounding disembodied voice earlier, this pig (let's call him Mister Piggy for now) had appeared before her.
No, considering the fact that the environment around her had changed from her familiar school ground to a strange forest it was more reasonable to think that, somehow, she had appeared before him.
And speaking of Mister Piggy, despite the cute name she had given him Mister Piggy was not particularly cute. Rather than an anthropomorphic pig character you might see in a children's movie he was more closely resembling a monster you might see in a horror movie.
He (because it was obviously very male) wore no clothes and instead his wide barrel like body was covered (although not covered enough) with coarse dark hair. He was standing on thick powerful looking legs that seemed somewhat short in comparison to his torso. His arms were similarly disproportionate but muscular enough to fit a bodybuilder.
It seemed like a creature that had no business being bipedal but was so anyway.
On top of the disproportionate hairy body sat a pig like, or rather boar like head that could only be described as evil looking. Its mouth was filled with uneven rows of long tusks and its small yellow eyes were glaring at her hungrily while he was making low pig like grunts and breathed heavily through his snout. She was sure that if the creature had lips it would be smacking or licking them.
All in all, it reminded her of one of her father's business associates, although Mister Piggy was definitely more fit than Mr. Yaemura. And while Mr. Yaemura was known as a somewhat ruthless and cutthroat businessman, she had never seen him wield an oversized wicked looking cleaver like Mister Piggy did.
Studying the dark metal cleaver Mr. Piggy held in his three-fingered hand, and his evil looking face, She tensed up
"Now, do not panic!" She thought as to calm herself down "Do not jump to conclusions, the fact that he is holding a tool means that he most likely has some level of sentience, which means I might be able to communicate with him peacefully"
She let out a breath, relaxed her posture and gave Mister Piggy what she hoped was a polite smile.
"Good day, my name is Tendoujin Kyoka, pleased to me..." the pig monster cut her off with a loud squeal and dashed towards her with his cleaver raised high.
She threw herself aside just in time to dodge a wide swing of the cleaver. The pig creature had closed the distance with a surprising speed despite its large bulk and short legs.
It continued to barrel its way through the underbrush almost colliding with a tree before coming to a halt. It turned around glaring at her, its hunger having seemingly turned into hatred letting out a menacing squeal as if to say "How dare a mere human dodge the attack of this great Mister Piggy?! Curse you Tendoujin Kyoka!", or something along those lines.
"Well enough speculation about Mister Piggy's emotional life for now" She thought as she instinctively took a fighting stance " It seems like he can move quickly thanks to sheer leg power. However, once he gets his momentum he has a hard time slowing down quickly, and in combination with the short legs he probably has a hard time changing direction while running"
In theory, this should make him a perfect target for throwing techniques or counters, a large opponent rushing at her blindly with little control of his own momentum.
Since her father in addition to her other lessons had made her learn martial arts for the sake of self defense, she had experience sparring with larger opponents, and there had even been times when she had used her techniques outside of practice.
Mister Piggy was not that much taller than her, as she was quite tall for a Japanese teenage girl or for a woman in general for that matter.
However, she had her doubts about how effective her techniques would be on Mister Piggy after all he was not a human being. He might not be much taller than the martial artist and delinquents she had faced, but in terms of bulk and power he probably surpassed the limits of any human being and his proportions were quite different compared to a human.
"If I had been transported to this place a few minutes earlier, when I was still in the Kendo hall, I would at least have a bamboo sword in my hand" she thought as she was slowly backing away from her opponent while not breaking eye contact or lowering her guard.
"No, if I had been transported a few minutes earlier I would have been barefoot out here in this forest" Her outdoor shoes may not be optimal for fights on the uneven and overgrown forest floor, but they were definitely better than nothing.
Shoes aside, she still had her Kendogi on, rather than her school uniform, as she had been heading towards the groundskeepers shed before she was transported.
" I need to find some sort of weapon quickly" she thought as she tried to take in her surroundings as much as she could without taking her eyes from the pig monster, and she noticed a branch lying on the ground between them.
While Kyoka considered whether or not she should risk going for the branch, Mister Piggy had had enough of making pig noises and glaring and suddenly ran at her with yet another blood curling squeal.
This time she was more prepared, and instead of throwing herself aside she sidestepped his attack and started to run towards the branch. When she passed by the creature however, she felt something bite into her left shoulder.
"Did he cut me?" she thought as she let out as hiss of pain. "No matter, I must take the branch before he can turn around and go after me"
She quickly reached the branch and scooped it up while turning around to face her opponent. Unfortunately, the pig monster was already upon her. She didn't have the time to think, but thankfully her years of Kendo honed reflexes took over and she raised her branch in a two-handed proper sword grip to block the cleaver descending towards her.
When the cleaver hit, her branch split like the useless piece of wood it apparently was, but at least the trajectory of the cleaver was changed and cut through the air above her, narrowly missing her head.
For a moment, she felt the same rush she always felt while facing off with and standing her ground against strong opponent's in matches or sparring.
"You certainly aren't lacking as an opponent Mister Piggy" she thought to herself, feeling her lips turn into an involuntary smile.
Her grin of excitement turned into a grimace however, when a sharp pain washed over her from her wounded shoulder. She was not sure how badly wounded she was, but blocking an attack from an opponent with monstrous strength certainly had not made it any better.
She avoided his next swing by stepping to his left side, giving up on trying to block his attack.
Since the creature was holding the cleaver in his right hand, she was now facing his unguarded left side.
"Right, no point in trying to block him, the differences in strength and weapons is simply too large. Instead I will strike him before he can strike me!" She thought while bringing down her branch on the creature's head before he could turn around, loudly yelling "DOOO!" (Kendo Kiai for strikes against the head) out of habit, putting all her weight and strength into the attack.
The strike landed cleanly on the creature's temple, the already shortened branch splintering even further.
For a second she allowed herself to feel triumphant, the creature turned towards her, letting out a snort while blinking testily.
"You certainly are tough Mister Piggy", she thought before the creature backhanded her across the chest with his unarmed left arm, sending her flying several meters and falling to the ground with the air knocked out of her lungs.
She desperately attempted to get back on her feet while gasping for air, her wounded shoulder throbbing with pain and her chest aching from the impact.
"Why isn't he attacking?" She wondered as she stood up slowly on shaking legs, leaning against a tree-trunk for support "I am in a completely unguarded state. Is he being cautious?"
She turned to face the creature, her back leaning against the tree.
Mister Piggy looked at her with a sneer on his pig face.
"Standing my ground against a strong opponent?" she thought to herself, trying to catch her breath "To Mister Piggy I was not even an opponent to begin with, just a meal that caused him some slight annoyance"
The creature approached her at a leisurely pace, not even bothering so raise his weapon.
"Really, what am I doing? Running around swinging a stick and getting into fights? Father would say it was a behavior unbecoming of the only daughter of the Tendoujin family."
She giggled to herself, feeling lightheaded probably from blood loss. The wound might be worse than she had thought.
"Even thought Mister Piggy was the one who started it. Just like those delinquents who were harassing that girl. she thought remembering the incident just before summer break "Father is definitely going to lecture me when I get home, saying I should have run away and called for help instead of acting like some sort of hooligan".
The creature, snorting in what she imagined was the pig equivalent of a chuckle, was now close enough for her to feel his foul-smelling breath on her face.
She waited for the cleaver to come down and finish her off, but surprisingly, the final strike never came.
Through her blurred vision she noticed that he had dropped his weapon to the ground, and instead of being concerned with killing her, he reached out and grabbed at her breast roughly with one hand and at her thigh with the other. What she thought of as hungry grin had in fact been a leer, Mister Piggy turned out to be much more like Mr. Yaemura than she had expected.
"Well, maybe he'll eat me when he's finished" she half heartedly tried to twist away from him, but he was simply to strong or maybe the blood loss had made her to weak.
"Why didn't I run away instead of picking up that useless twig?"
Mister Piggy seemed to grow frustrated by being unable to pull down her hakama, but with his strength he'd manage somehow even if he couldn't untie the belt.
"Why didn't I run away...?" she wondered to herself "If I had run instead of trying to fight, I might have been able to get away. It was the same with those delinquents, I could have tried calling for help before stepping forward myself".
She had had it drilled into her countless times by her martial arts instructors, that violence should be her last resort and not her first.
Thinking back on it. she really had been acting reckless. Why was she like that? Did she have a childish desire to play hero?
"No, that's probably not it" what she had felt back then had not been any strong sense of concern for the girl, after all she barely remembered her face now. It had been a strong sense of exhilaration at being able to move and strike without the restraints of sparing or matches, the feeling of her body and mind being unshackled and free.
"I'm sorry father, it seems like despite your efforts I did not grow up to be a respectable daughter of the Tendoujin family." She thought of her father as he lectured her calling her reckless and headstrong, though somehow his face seemed less stern and authoritative than she remembered and more concerned and frightened. "I'm sorry father..."
She was snatched out of her thoughts as the creature grabbed her wounded left shoulder harshly as to hold her in place. The sudden jolt of pain cleared her half-conscious state of mind and made her realize something, she was still holding on to her broken branch in her right hand.
Glancing down towards her right hand she noticed that the end cut off by the cleaver and then bashed against the creature's head had turned into a sharp splintered mess (she also noticed that Mister Piggy's little piggy was not so little anymore).
"That's right, I choose to fight because I wanted to fight, so I might as well stay true to myself and fight to the end! If I can still stand I can still move, if I can still move I can still fight!"
She jammed her broken of branch into the wrist of the hand grasping at her belt and he pulled it away with a pained squeal. She didn't know how much damage she actually inflicted considering his armor of muscles and pig's hide, but all she needed was for him to let go of her lower body for a few seconds in order for her to land her next attack.
As her father originally had her learn martial arts for the purpose of self-defense, she had studied several techniques prohibited in matches.
She resorted to one of the most fundamental and ruthless doctrines, that of using your hard parts to target the opponent's soft parts, putting all the strength she could muster to use, she kneed Mister Piggy between the legs.
He squealed and stumbled backwards while bending over in pain grasping at his most treasured spheres as to ensure himself they were still there. It was of course the wrong course of action, but it takes discipline, adrenaline or madness to ignore pain.
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Now completely free of his grasp, she raised her broken branch to deal what she hoped would be the finishing strike.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion as she leapt towards him stick raised, and she heard a strange loud noise which she realized was her screaming. Not a martial arts kiai this time, but simply an animalistic noise .
Mister Piggy was focusing his attention on her yet again and she could see in his eyes that he realized what was about to happen but it was too late to do anything about it and her broken of branch sank into his left eye socket and she sidestepped him as he fell to the ground, letting out a squeal loud enough to hurt her ears.
For a second she allowed herself to think it was over, but the creature continued to thrash and squeal on the ground.
She stared at him, dumbfounded and exhausted, as he started to push himself up from the ground on unsteady arms and legs, the decimeter long branch still sticking out of his eye socket.
"Ha ha... you really are a monster, aren't you Mister Piggy" she laughed tiredly, considering her options. Should she try to run away after all? No, she was sure her blood loss was pretty severe by now. Add to that her exhaustion and it seemed unlikely that she would be able to run very far before passing out "And besides, I want to win! If it's the last thing I do I want to defeat this damn piggy somehow!"
And then, through her blurred vision, she saw the cleaver that he had dropped to the ground earlier laying right between her and Mister Piggy and suddenly she yet again had the energy to act.
"Discipline, adrenaline or madness?" She thought as she picked up the cleaver "I wonder which it is Mister Piggy?" She said out loud.
She looked into his one remaining eye which was crying tears of pain? hatred? fear? all of the mentioned?
"By the way, Mister Piggy earlier you were kind enough to let me get up back on my feet, i hope you'll forgive me for not returning the kindness".
She briskly closed the distance between them, kicking away his right arm from underneath him. She had been worried abou whether or not it would be enough considering his inhuman strength, but the pain was making him unsteady, and without the support of both of his arms his heavy frame crashed back to the ground.
She grasped the cleaver in a two-handed grip. Although its shape was closer to a meat cleaver than any sword she had ever seen, it was obviously intended as a weapon considering its length (or possibly for butchering elephants). It was almost as long as a katana though heavier than any of the real blades she had tried out, which was not surprising considering the width of the blade.
The blade was a dark shade of gray and looked like iron rather than steel. A heavy weapon made for crushing bone and cutting of large chunks of flesh. Not exactly suitable for elegant swordplay, but perfect for the current task at hand.
She brought down the cleaver and cut into the creature's thick neck. However, the wound was unexpectedly shallow and even as blood was splattering on her he squealed in pain and somehow managed to grab hold of her leg.
"How tough are you Mister Piggy?" she let out, astounded at the life force of the creature. She quickly brought down the cleaver at his arm and managed to give him a deeper cut this time. She wasn't sure, but she thought it reached the bones. At least he let go and she took the opportunity to deliver another chop to his neck.
The second blow was still not enough to finish him off, but she continued hacking away not giving him any time to get his bearings, pain shooting through her left shoulder with each impact.
Eventually he stopped struggling and squealing, but she continued chopping time and time again, as if working at a blood spurting piece of firewood, until eventually his head separated from his body.
She collapsed on his back gasping, she had a notion she should be disgusted by laying on top of the creatures corpse, but considering she was already drenched in his blood it seemed a bit late to be concerned about cleanliness.
As she laid there, trying to decide whether she should fall asleep and possibly die from blood loss on top of the decapitated Mister Piggy or whether she should try to do something to stay alive, she suddenly heard a disembodied mechanical voice talking straight into her head.
Congratulations, you have reached Level 1, you now have access to your status screen, as well as 10% to allocate to your stats.
Congratulations, you are the first of your system integration group to level up. As a bonus you will receive an art.
You have received [Warriors rising] rank 1, please view your status screen for additional information.
For a moment she was stunned, it was the same strange voice she had heard before she got transported to this forest, and yet again it said something incomprehensible.
"What on earth does all this mean?" She had a vague recollection of overhearing some of those terms from her classmates talking, she thought they might have something to do with computers, but she did not really use computers for entertainment, so she was not quite sure. "The voice said that I had access to some sort of screen and that I could view it for information but how exactly do I access it?"
The second she finished her thoughts she became aware of something in the back of her mind, like a memory trying to resurface. She focused inwardly and suddenly several symbols appeared in her mind. The symbols were extremely complex and seemed more like abstract pieces of 3D artwork rather than any type of written language she knew of. Yet, she somehow knew the meaning of the symbols.
Name: Tendoujin Kyoka
Race: Human
Age: 18
Stats
Strength: 14 (14)
resilience: 10 (10)
Vitality: 12 (12)
Agility: 15 (15)
Dexterity: 32 (32)
Perception: 19 (19)
Intelligence: 67 (67)
Focus: 79 (79)
Mana: 10 (10) Mana pool 100/100
Unallocated status upgrades available 10%
Paths
None currently
Arts
Warriors rising rank 1
Blessings
Otherworldly gainer
Kyoka frowned, name, race and age seemed obvious enough. The second part called stats appeared to be a list quantifying her physical and mental traits.
She focused on Strength and the symbol somehow provided her with a bit of additional information.
Strength
The kinetic power produced by your muscles affects carrying capacity, striking and so on.
"So strength determines how strong I am? It seems self-explanatory enough"
She moved on to the next Stat in the list.
Resilience
The durability of your body when faced with external forces such as kinetic energy, combustion and corrosion.
"In other words, it's toughness I guess?".
Vitality
The body's restorative abilities such as healing rate, immune system and overall health.
"So, my overall health is rated 12? Considering the blood that I have lost and the risk of infection, I would certainly be glad for a somewhat higher number".
Do you wish to upgrade your Vitality stat?
The voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Upgrade? Now that I think about it, there was some mention of unallocated upgrades.
Is the voice suggesting that I can somehow upgrade my so-called stats?"
Do you wish to upgrade your Vitality stat?
The voice repeated itself.
"Yes" She thought experimentally
You have 10% worth of upgrades available, how much do you wish to put into vitality?
"10%" At this point she needed all the health she could possible get.
You wish to increase your vitality status by a factor of 10%. Please confirm.
"Confirmed. Now let us hope this will really work".
Vitality has been upgraded to 12 (13.2).
A warm feeling flowed through her body and she immediately felt slightly less exhausted and listless, but she realized she needed to do more to ensure her survival.
"First, I need to at least stop the bleeding, until I can find some way to take care of the wound properly".
She pulled down her Kendogi jacket from her left shoulder, took a look at the wound for the first time and winced.
The wound didn't seem to be particularly deep, which explained why she was still able to move her left arm fairly well (as long as she could endure the pain).
It was wide, however, like a really bad scrape and while blood was not squirting out at a rapid pace it had trickled out in a steady stream. Her left shoulder, upper arm and chest were colored red by half dried, sticky blood.
Luckily she had her tenugui towel stuffed away inside her jacket. it was not exactly a sterile bandage, but it would have to do, although she wished she had something to clean the wound with first.
"Is there nothing more I can do, apart from simply hoping that it won't be infected?"
Though she had certainly taken care of scrapes and cuts she gained during training, that had been with modern bandages and antiseptics. Wilderness survival skills had unfortunately not been part of the tutoring she had received.
She raked her mind trying to find something she had overlooked
"...Is urine sterile?"
Later, her wound wrapped and taken care of for now, she returned to analyzing her stats
Agility
The overall mobility of the body including factors such as balance and movement in general.
"It seems to be referring to motor skill, or maybe gross motor skill specifically".
Dexterity
Precision movement primarily focused in the appendages.
"Dexterity on the other hand seems to be referring to fine motor skill".
Perception
The ability to perceive the world around you through the six senses.
"Six senses? What would the sixth one be? Maybe intuition?
Intelligence
Your ability to assemble and utilize knowledge.
"It seems like intelligence in this case, is defined as memorization or possibly learning capacity in general, and maybe logical analysis skills?
Still, my intelligence is quite high compared to all the previous stats. Am I supposed to be considered some sort of genius?
No, considering the fact that humans are somewhat slow, weak and frail compared to other animals our size while being many times more intelligent than most other animals, it makes sense that stats focusing on mental capabilities would be far higher than our physical stats. And the fact that my dexterity is also on the higher side is probably related to my opposable human thumbs"
Focus
Focus is the traits of willpower, concentration and self-control. It is an integral part of manipulating mana to use and develop your Arts.
"Willpower, concentration and self-control?" she let out a soft chuckle and wondered whether her father would be proud of her seemingly high degree of self control or insist that she was simply willful.
"But still, manipulating mana to use arts? I am fairly sure mana is supposed to be some sort of fictional force used to perform magic. Well, after all that has happened it really would not be surprising if some supernatural phenomena like magic existed.
Speaking of magic, I did gain a so called art didn't I? The one called [Warriors rising]".
She was kind of curious about it, but decided to move on to her last stat first.
Mana
Determines the size of your mana pool and mana recovery rate.
"So mana essentially determines how much of this supernatural force I have available for use. Since my mana pool shows one hundred, it seems like one mana in my stats equals ten mana in the mana pool".
That reminded her, before she had been transported from the school ground the voice had said something about how she would gain ten mana because humans were supposedly defined as a lesser creature. So, that meant her mana had originally been zero before the transport. It made sense after all, until now her only knowledge of mana had been that it was some sort of fictional phenomena. However, it seemed that her body, or possibly her soul if such a thing existed, had been altered to produce or absorb this fictional substance.
She focused inwards, trying to feel if something was different with her body. Though it was difficult to tell through the ache and exhaustion, she imagined she did feel a strange pulsating feeling slightly beneath her navel in the center of her body.
The alterations made to her should probably alarm her. However the fact that she was able to increase her vitality had probably increased her chances of survival significantly, and she would take any advantage she could get for now.
She tried focusing on the Mana pool symbol.
Mana pool
The current amount of mana available for use.
No information she had not already learned from the mana stat, nothing about the speed of the mentioned recovery rate or anything else useful.
Now finished with her stats she moved on to the next section of her status screen.
Paths
None currently.
You have not yet reached the required level for unlocking a path.
Even if she had not gained a path, it would have been helpful to be told what a path was and what the required level for unlocking one was.
The explanations really varied a lot when it came to degree of helpfulness.
"Oh well, it can't be helped if there's no information, for now let's take a look at my one art"
Warriors rising rank 1
A common body enhancement art with combat focus, that allows you to draw on your mana pool to temporarily increase all of your physical stats, Strength, Endurance, Vitality, Agility, Dexterity and Perception.
You have reached the first rank out of ten
"So this so-called art will increase my stats even further, although only temporarily I suppose it will only last as long as I have mana remaining, however long that might be".
While the art seemed useful in various way, what caught her attention was that it would increase her vitality even further, if just temporary.
At this point she had no reason to doubt that the explanations were truthful, and that she really would be able to use this seemingly supernatural ability.
She tried focusing harder on the [warriors rising] symbol, and she felt her mana pool in the center of her body, open up like a blossoming flower while power spread throughout her body. The effect was not as dramatic as she had imagined, she felt slightly stronger, less exhausted and the world around her seemed a bit clearer and she was somehow more aware of her body. Fortunately, the increased awareness of her wounded shoulder did not make it more painful she did not understand the logic, but she was grateful.
"It would be nice if I could get some exact percentage on how much my stats have increased, like when I leveled up" she thought while trying to see if she could get some more information on her [Warriors rising]. Nothing new came up however. She noticed that her mana pool was now showing 95/100 rather than 100/100.
While the increased vitality would decrease the risk of infection and so on she decided she should be careful not to use up all the mana, and to keep some in spare. Having increased physical abilities, however slightly, would be useful in case she had to fight another Mister Piggy, or some other woodland critter.
Keeping her mana pool in mind she took a look at the final section of her status screen.
Blessings
Otherworldly gainer
As an individual integrated from another world into the Nexus, you will receive accelerated gains in levels, path compatibility and Art proficiency.
"So this means I will level up faster than, the natives of this place I suppose. Will I have to kill other creatures like Mister Piggy to level up? I still do not know what a path is exactly, but supposedly this blessing will be helpful when it comes to paths as well and it seems like it will help me increase my rank in [Warriors rising]"
Aside from the information about her increased gains, the description gave away another important piece of information: "So, this so-called Nexus is apparently another world after all"
It wasn't really at surprise at this point. Besides the monstrous creature she had named Mister Piggy, there were other clues. If you looked closely at the grass and the leaves the color was slightly bluish. Some of the stones had moss with a golden tint growing on them, one of the trees close by had a black trunk covered in knife sized curved barbs and while she was not exactly an ornithologist, the bird songs from the forest sounded strange to her. If it was birdsong at all, it sounded a bit like a car alarm operating in short burst.
She summarized the situation to herself.
"1. I have been transported to another world that seems to be inhabited by at least one type of life form best described as monstrous.
2. Being transported to this world has granted me strange abilities. First of all, the ability to upgrade my inherent traits also known as stats by leveling and then the ability to temporarily enhance myself further through the usage of the mysterious power known as mana. Both abilities are gained through the act of killing previously mentioned indigenous life form.
3. Considering the fact that other people in my surrounding seemed to be hearing the same message as I did and the message when I received my bonus mentioned that I was the first of my integration group to level up, it's reasonable to assume that other people have been transported to this world.
4. I'm wounded and have lost a significant amount of blood and I have no medical supplies, food or water".
Having summarized her situation, she moved on to her current priorities.
"In order to survive in this world, I will need to obtain nourishment, try to find other people and, most likely, I will need to level up. Although it is possible that creatures Like Mister Piggy are rare, it is probably safe to assume that this world is quite dangerous, and increasing your abilities through leveling up is the best way of ensuring your survival.
The most effective and safe way to level up, would probably be together with companions rather than alone, supposing I can find some reliable people or any people at all.
As for my wounds, finding medical supplies seems unlikely so I will just have to hope the increase in my vitality stat and the continuous usage of [Warriors rising] will be enough to keep infection away. However, I will still need to find food to sustain myself and replenish my lost blood. Foresting is unfortunately not one of my skills, particularly not in an alien world. There is no way for me to tell which plants are edible, except for trying them out and potentially get poisoned, and I have no experience in hunting animals..."
Her thoughts came to a stop.
In her hand she held an oversized meat cleaver and on the ground laid a huge slab of bloody pork.