It wasn't hard to follow that thing. It was recking the nerves of Ker, for certain. They followed that thing, this beast, for quite some time. Never loosing site of it, but also never completely closing in on it. Ellora, as hostage, did whatever she could to delay it. Still they reached the point this thing wanted them to.
In a small, valley-like area they saw walls. Not the walls of normal houses, not even that of a castle, the walls were made of thousands of red bricks, stacked impossible close to each other. Those walls, wore clear signs of time, still made a strong looking building.
The beast wanted to withdraw inside that building. They acted quick: sending Adam towards the entrance, Helm neared from the front and Hallauer and Finn flanked. That actually worked. The beast, now clearly in a bad spot, decided to jank Ellora towards Helm. With that he was forced to move his blade to the side and halfway catch Ellora. The beast used that moment to attack Helm from the other side. Just that it stopped short, before the final strike. Rather more fitting, it was stopped by Hallauer, who hold it's other arm in ironclad grip. Finn moved first and landed a blow with his knife between it's rips, next Hallauer hit it with something in his left hand over the head. Helm profited from the group effort and cut down its arm, that Hallauer still held. The thing was now staggering backwards, a fleshly tearing sound was heard and through its left leg appeared Adams Longsword. It fell to the ground, squirming in agony - making its impossible sounds. It started to limp on all four appendages and used its tail to catapult it outside of their range.
Obviously heavily wounded, now just a target and not anymore a predator, Helm took just a moment to go certain Ellora was fine and set after it. Adam followed without hesitation and for reasons unkown to Ker himself he followed in pursuit. Maybe it was anger, to avange his crippled friend, maybe the lust for battle took hold, whatever it was, it drove Ker to hunt this thing with fervor.
Outside the building was a sign, a sign that no one of the attack group bothered with. That sign hold carved in words in a old, nearly forgotten language:
Institutu explo atio causa chi
They followed the thing in close pursuit. Corridor after corridor, hall after hall, they pushed deeper into the facility. It became clear that this building was more than just some ancient house. It was a construction of a marvel. Tubes, pipes and metallic things they had no names for existed at the side of the halls. They also didn't care too much about anything else, than to get the promised kill.
Finaly the area opened into a giant hall, lined with mostly broken glass walls. The thing stopped to turn towards them, threateningly in the position of a scorpion. Helm dared the first strike in its direction, Adam followed close behind and scored a hit in its tail. Ker stood there, drawn shortsword in hand, suddenly aware how outleveld and out of his depth he was. While the experienced frontfighters whiled down on the beast, Ker could only watch and wonder: would he ever reach such proficiency.
His boldness swindled as he became aware of his situation. He opted for safety and made a few careful steps back. When cold steal gripped his neck from behind and lifted him rough in the air. Ker struggled uselessly, even hitting whatever hold him, did not work out. He was moved in a mechanical way, towards the center of this hall. Whatever carried him did not care about his safety one bit. He neared the place where the beast fought. Of course it noticed him and positioned itself in his direction. Helm abruptly aware of his dilemma seemed in thought. Then Helm, the ever strategic swordfighter, leveraged the change in battle and focused on the beast, instead of helping him.
Ker saw the opening that presented itself to Helm. And saw it pass. Ker was dragged along a scene he could hardly believe. Helm and Adam were fighting the beast, winning, part for part slaying it, while he was abducted into the unknown. He shouted for help, knowing none would come. As he was put in the middle of this strange place, he saw how Adam pint down the vile beast and Helm impaled it in a final, victorious strike. Even than he saw how they hesitated, how the machinery around him awoke to life and started to grabbing his leader and their right hand. When this did not work and they started to do actual damage to the arms, the machine changed to attack the invaders.
Ker could not do anything, hold by iron restrains, to helplessness condemned, watched the people he thought of as companions, fellow adventurers to turn their back and leave.
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Ker sat in a weird contraption, outgoing oval shapes surrounded the round platform. The arms started to get busy. Ker could not see what exactly was going on. Then one of the arms closed in on him. First irritated, he saw the arm had a glas cylinder with a pointy stick at the end of it. The needle object drew closer and his entire body tensed up. In horror he watched as the needle pierced in his defenseless arm. He felt just a peaks and then the glas cylinder filled with his blood. He had to admit it wasn't as horrible as he imagined, he still felt violated in his personhood.
There seemed to be a lot of devices Ker could not explain at all. Finally the processes came to a halt. The four oval shaped forms began to rise and slowly closed around Ker.
His heart beat faster, eventually he would be encapsulated in darkness.
He remembered his level and class, sp he summoned his status out of desperation.
Status
Name: Ker of Eldoria
Class: adventurous Berserker (rare)
Level: 3
HP: 150
MP: 80
Statistics
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 7
Constitution: 15
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 7
Stat Points: 0
Skills
Shortsword 5 (basic)
Passive Abilities
unique ability: instinctive perception
Titles
Dominion: you won against someone with higher level. +5 str
Noble heritage: you are of noble blood, good for you. +1 to all stats
Starting adventurer: you started your first real adventure, good luck. 5% faster stat growth until level 10.
He could see most of his status, only specifics and hidden things were visible via magical devices. Most of his stats were lower than 10. That was very acceptable for a starting adventurer. But still, he wished for more strenght, more abilities, more power. He could have broken out, no, he would have never come into this situation. Aa they were attacked by that monstrosity, he could have helped, saved lifes. They might... but it was a fruitless thought. And he knew better than to dwell on the past. Better to live right now. That was what he remembered from his grandparents. And now he had to accept his unfortunate circumstances.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
This capsule-egg filled with a warm liquid. Ker tried to hold his breath. At first that worked fine, until he inevitable failed. He breathed in the liquid... and then breathed out. That was the weirdest experiece so far. Nothing had been usual, but this took the first place without competition. Why could he breath in this liquid?
It wasn't just the liquid, he was submerged in, it was a low hum, that he heard and felt in his body. Like a sound, but pervaded his entire beeing. His body started to slow down, he became drowsy. His eyes had difficulties staying open. Was it okay to just fall asleep here? Certainly not, but what could he do. He tried to force himself to stay awake, just to experiece moments of blackouts later. Those moments stretched every time until there were only flashes of lucidity.
Meanwhile, inside the facility complex processes, including calculations and appraisals, took place.
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*(translated for better understanding)
... specimen Nr. 1 from 3
Identifying...
----------------------------------------
Species: Human
Supspecies: -
Found trace of angelic origin: 0.0001 %
- > to low to manifest
Appraising...
----------------------------------------
Class : adventurous Berserker (rare)
Level: 3
Abilities: instinctive perception (unique)
Swordfighting (basic)
Passive abilities: rage (basic)
Special organs: -
Can not detect organs/mutations fitting to abilities
----------------------------------------
Analyzing bone density... muscle structure... skin composition... neural capacity...
Conclusion:
General body composition: average
Processing data...
Looking for improvements
- > neural systems too complex
- > connection to host necessary
Connecting...
Suddenly Ker felt a stabbing pain at his neck. Sound, noise, smell, lights flickered as haste impressions before his mind. There didn't seem any order, just random sensations forced onto him.
Connection established
A voice wispered to him, interchanging from female to male:"What do you desire? Your wish, one wish, many desires."
What did he wish for? To be out of here, to be home... pictures took form of him being strong, winning against beast and men... to have the power to decide his own fate. To hold power, become strong enough that nothing anymore stands in his way.
The voice called again:"What is your fear? Your fears, show what you want to get away from."
The scenes changed from victory to defeat. He saw again the scenes of his experiences. How they were attacked and failed to protect themselves. How he was left alone, weak.
He didn't like that feeling at all. He wanted to get away from his weakness at all costs.
Optimizing parameters
Processing hosts input
This time it was a slur of voice, pictures, smell and feelings that spoke to Ker. It asked what form he wanted, what he wanted to become/be. Ker was confused, he was a human and he looked like he looked. He did not understand what was asked of him.
Staying in present body parameters
Preparing to change/optimize body
Main direction: potential growth
What followed were many different impressions of pain, Ker could do very good to never experience. To his luck, he was most of the time unconscious. Partly asleep he still felt the torturous operation of his body being turned inside out, changed, cooked and electrocuted. At least Ker was convinced that was what happened to him.
Beeing has been processed
State: pre-evolution
Ker woke up and felt stiff. He did not feel exactly pain, but overall unwellness would be correct. He felt as if he was exchanged.
The egg opened and washed him with the fluid out. The first thing he noticed, were the lights. This chamber was illuminated from up and partly from the walls.
Another thing he noticed were his missing closes. He was robbed of all his clothes. Even bare naked, he remembered were he was and the more pressing matters. There was no sign of any beast. What hunted them, was now gone, only stains on stone remaining.
There were also no fellow adventurers. Since he didn't know how long he was held captive, he made finding his companions first priority. Second were clothes.
So he started to look around. Lots of large broken glass windows. Weird machines and the contraption behind him. There was no love lost to this place so he moved on. Sadly he couldn't remember exactly the way back and to guess at every corner. He opted for every second right and when there's natural light then follow that.
That proved to lead to the outside. Ker emerged from somewhere out of the building. 'Good enough' was his thought.
Daylight streamed through trees and bushes. He was generally happy that he finally could see things clearly. Now he kust had to quickly find his way back. That proofed actually quite simple, he just had to follow on side of the building and arrived at the entrance they used.
The bigger problem was, when have they been here and when was now. Or simply, how much time had passed.
So he looked for tracks and unsurprisingly found remains of the last battle. Clear human footprints. They obviously didn't care to hide their tracks. So he could just follow them and then... he was very unsure of what to do. How would they react and how should he react and for that matter what would he do. He was very unsure of that. He felt deep sting in his heart on the memory how they legt him behind. He felt betrayed. He would certainly not do anything good.
On another matter he needed to know what was done to him. He felt different and still the same. He was certain that he was still himself at least.
So he summoned his status:
Status
Race: Human Beast- Evolution 0
Level 0
HP: 100
MP: 100
Statistics
Strenght: 8
Dexterity: 9
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Stat points: 0
Evolution points: 0
Skills
-
Passive Skills
-
Hidden Skills
Titles
First Human Animal:
You are the first of your species on this planet: Welcome! 10% to all stats
First Primer:
The first of your species: 15% faster leveling, 10% faster stat growth, 10% more Evolution Points
That was a lot to process. He was a human what? That made no sense. Where was his name? Why was his name not in his Status. He was Ker of Wellscheidt. He was certain of his name, his heritage, but it could not be found. Tears started to well in his eyes.
Then there was the mention of human beast, he definitely was human and no beast. He would not accept his ridiculous status. To that, there were EP and the mention of an Evolution, only beast had Evolutions. It was basicly a miracle how those happenend and worked. Only the tamers guild might have answers, but they were extremely secretive. So probably no Answers from them.
And he was level 0. That's the level of a baby. All adults over 14 had at least 1 level. It was childsplay to get the first level.
When he looked at it from this angle, he was not that screwed after all. Just gain one level after the other. His titles would help him greatly in this effort
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As he learned from his swordteacher, with focus you could reach anything. So he decided to put all his effort into gaining his first levels. To that he looked for little critters. Small animals, aka easy opponents. He was well aware of the area je was in, the wilds. A very dangerous place people seldom enter and even rarer leave.
So mice and voles will do.
Finding any was a little problem, but catching any proved far more difficult. He tried to sneak and failed instantly. A mice noticed him and run away, the same happened with a squirrel and a vole. So he tried a different strategy: he got a nice round stone, sat down and waited in silence. That worked to the point until he did throw the rock. It did not hit.
How high level are creatures here?
Nonetheless Ker stayed focused until he hit a vole. The trick was to throw in front of the vole... and to have some luck. The vole fell over and stopped moving. Ker sprinted to his felled prey, grapped it in one hand and smashed his other hand in its head. He guessed right, the vole wasn't dead, just stiff. The small animal twisted and bit in his hand. So he smashed his fist without hesitation in its skull until it stopped moving.
You killed 1 small animal: vole
1 level gained
New title: first blood: you killed a small innocent animal with your brutal bloody hands. +5 to all skills
That was not what he expected. Than again, what expectations could he keep in the light of recent events. Probably none.
So he happily moved on to his next kill. Also his stomach rumbled and his eyes met the dead vole in his heand with disdain. He wouldn't really eat an animal raw, would he. His instincts disagreed and his stomach joined the sentiment.
Slowly the vole was brought to his nose. It reeked of wet pelt. He really didn't want to eat it, but his very beeing resisted to let go of the nutrition source. He knew he had to eat, his instincts were happy with raw food, actually raw animal corpse. So he tried to convince himself to cook the animal first and make it into food. That internal debate lastet a few moments, apparently his instincts were a really strong defender of food now, thought later.