Chapter 8

After an unknown amount of time I finally woke up, more than a little groggy having to pull myself up and out of bed without the help of the sun window throwing its artificial sunlight into my tiny room. Sitting up on the bed it takes me a moment to come to the reality, I’m not going to school. I could very well be going to war today, and I have no clue what for or what against. Collecting everything I try to prepare, but it’s hard when you don’t know what to prepare for. As I take up the yewtalon idol it heats up in my hand before returning to normal, leaving a feeling of a splinter in my hand, but nothing was there…

Putting that aside for now, it was time to focus. What were those sounds? Nevermind actually, I hope I don’t get to know. So after that, where is anyone?

Leaving my old home, it’s not too dark, surprisingly. Light reached down the streets and at least a little bit seemed to find its way into every crevice, with an occasional streak of light coming in from little breaks in the layer ceiling. This further prompted me to get out of here before it started falling down too. Axe in hand I slowly creeped my way west trying to ignore the little clicks or clacks I heard. 3 hours later I made my way to the end of the western industrial sector where the rest of the way had collapsed and melted until it met the land outside of the city. I can probably use the semi-slope of rubble to slowly make it out of the city, the climb down wasn’t too big of a surprise. What laid beyond the broken slope did though. Staring off confused I heard a small ding and a glimpse of a panel.

Surprise surprise. Guess who it is. Just kidding I won’t make you strain that small little brain you have, my precious shadow. Yes, yes it is I, your amazing and mighty god Yros. If you’re seeing this, congrats on making it through sub-realm adjustment and welcome to your true new world. I could have had this show up sooner to explain, but that’s no fun. As you can most likely see, the world’s landscape has taken a turn. To put it simply, bringing your world and galaxy from that micro-dimension should have resulted in a magnificent explosion, and while that would have looked great those snobby bastards didn’t want to lose the opportunity from your species. So they used their powers to allow the galaxy to expand, including the world you are on, making it much larger and adding some new things. Some tears may have occurred but overall the world you are on alone should have around 4 or 5 times the land it previously had. That’s all, just wanted to make sure you won’t be afraid of the new lands. Oh, and the other gods likely spread the people out in the new land. They too like a good show. Go on now any begin to conquer.

This whole thing is like some weird nightmare and dream at the same time. First the night sky and now a great forest and mountain range, I wonder what else the ancient writers wrote about that might come true. No reason to wait I suppose. Going into a giant forest sounds much better than staying in a ruined city with whatever is creating those sounds at night.

The climb down honestly couldn’t have been worse. A crumbling melted pile of rubble with shards of glass, stone, synthetic wood, and much more where any part could collapse at any time. Trying to use 2 metal pipes to climb down managed to help prevent my hands from being shredded completely, just mostly. It took a total of 2 and a half hours to scale the slope, yet the sun while getting to the middle of the sky was moving oddly slowly. There’s no way for me to be sure of it though. From scrap pile to vibrant green grass was… shocking to say the least, lacking any sort of transition.

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Forests are weird, so many trees and all these bugs. Maybe this is what they meant by in the past there were bugs that didn’t need to exist and many that did the same thing and fought. Nature untamed, and unmodified by science, it’s nice but chaotic. If any of my teachers or those government scientists made it I’m sure they’d be having a fit over their delicate balance of human needs and giving the world the bare minimum to function for humans being broken, or maybe they’d be filled with greed over all this extra stuff to abuse. I’m not one of those hippie freaks though and their anarcho-terrorist movement they had been building. Just glad that the playing field looks like it may have been evened a bit between people like me from the lower layers and those at the city tops.

Only a little bit after walking into the woods with all these weird bugs I’d never seen even in the books before I heard some rustling and a growl. A beast the size of a motorcycle slinked out from the brush, its brown fur matching the earthy tones of the dirt and soil of the forest floor. Must be one of those bears from the books, I thought the books said that Langdon Megacorp City had the last of those. Shit it’s fast..!

Acting on reaction I swing the axe out, only for it to barely dodge back, and clip its left shoulder. Without time to think on my poor form, I growl seeps out from a locked mouth of sharp teeth making me step back just as it lunges out at my neck. All I can do is raise the axe up in the way. Needless to say I was unprepared and when its teeth gripped into the handle it was ripped out of my hands. Sweeping past my side a paw swiped my waist. If only I could say I manned up and withstood the pain, but I had been lucky unlike my friend Leo I had never fallen into a slum fight. Falling to my side I grasp at my waist and feel a warm moistness that covers my hand. I hear it drop the axe and turn back to me, I have no clue what to do…

I look up and see it speeding at my face, all I can do is raise my hands in front of my eyes and look away as I feel teeth shred my forearms and push me to the ground…

Brown Wolf (~level 7) slain

Level Increased to 6

First Beast Slain

A voice like a wispy growl from the rumbles of a dying tree on the verge of snapping snakes through my head trying to entangle my mind as the aching of my body intensifies.

~”Such a sad host to have… Give up and let me have this body if you are to be so useless in the face of so little danger. I promise if you give me your soul it will be painless, you would not have to suffer as you do, and I will do great things with this form of yours.”~

Mutation: Yewtalon Will (Budding)... [???? Corruption]

Vitals dropped below half… Tend wounds, Find Shelter…

… I think this is where it fades to black and I wake up later right?

No..? Damn.

Staring up at the light behind the leaves of the trees I feel my whole body pulse with my heartbeat. The pain is too much for me to try and move, I just lay there as a warm moist sensation spreads down my arms and side.

Soon enough as the breeze rustles the leaves it all turns cold, and yet I remain awake.