Chapter 1

Walter walked through the dimly lit evening forest. He breathed in deeply as a breeze rustled the leaves in the canopy above. The green lay like a blanket around him, the pine scent a soothing incense. He couldn’t help but look up at the moon. It was so good to see the moon again—his moon. The shadows the moon cast on the branches danced around him. His mood turned as he heard the two pairs of footsteps behind him. He readied himself.

“You know we can’t let you just up and leave without saying goodbye.”

Walter turned to regard the newcomers.

The horizon-spanning collection of trees, bushes, and grasses was now a curtain, hiding away what was sure to be nasty business. One of the two was a giant. He was muscular, but covering the muscles was a thick coating of flesh that cut the figure of a grizzly bear. The other was tall and thin. He had a scar along his right cheek. The scarred man spoke again.

“You know the rules, Walter. You want a clean break, you have to pay the price.” The two men stood in front of him now. Close enough that the decidedly neanderthal odor of their breath overpowered the pine.

“Guys, we don’t have to do this. I’ll leave. You’ll never see me again. Just tell Chris you gave me a solid beating and we can all move on.” It was a desperate attempt.

“You’re right Walter.” Walter’s eyes widened. He couldn't believe it actually worked. “We don’t have to do this…But we want to.” Both men donned a cruel grin. A sucker punch found Walter’s soft stomach. Tears welled in his eyes, blurring his vision. Walter collapsed to the ground. He gasped for air.

Chuckling, the grizzly bear took a step back and watched as the thin man kicked the man he had downed. Walter barely had enough time to cover the back of his head and curl into a fetal position before the beating started in earnest.

“Stop that!” Out of the green veil walked a stranger, someone that neither the pair nor Walter had seen before. He held a staff out to the side and his face began to change. His teeth grew into fangs, forcing his mouth into a predatory smile. His hair grew past his ears and his nails extended into savage points. His gaze turned vicious.

The bear turned to him. Saying nothing, the massive man slid a pair of spiked brass knuckles onto his hands. A grunt punctuated a kick to Walter’s head as the thin man gave a final blow before ceasing his onslaught. He turned back to look at the wolf-man and drew a wicked-looking knife.

“Brotherhood business. Piss off.”

The words elicited a low growl from the stranger. He charged at them, faster than the pair had expected, but not too fast for them to react. He swung his staff in a rapid arc. The large man blocked the overhead strike, he used the other hand to capture the weapon. His fist shot forward, seeking the wolf’s unprotected midsection. The wolf slithered around the punch. Claws cut bloody rents along the bear’s face. The man stumbled backward and released the staff, wiping stinging blood from his eyes.

Scowling, the thin man cut at the wolf. Toward his face, his chest, his arm, his chest, his neck, his leg. The man cut nothing but the air. The wolf-man’s staff shattered the hand holding the knife and the blade fell to the dirt. He then ducked under a haymaker from the bear. The bear roared when the staff dislocated his shoulder in answer. The two broken men plotted as they glared at the stranger.

“Run.” He barked. “While you still can.”

The thin man turned to look upon the torn face of the giant. He laughed. “You’re a dead man walking.” He turned to the bloody, beaten heap lying in the dirt. “You too. Both of you. Dead.” He nodded to the large man and they began to disappear into the trees, tails between their legs.

The stranger’s teeth, hair, nails, and, finally, eyes returned to a human appearance. He walked toward Walter. Walter viewed him with equal parts fear and awe. And envy. “Who are you?”

Three Months Earlier…

“Hi, my name is Danny. Welcome to Furry Friends. How can I help you today?” Danny routinely answered the ringing bell as the door to the pet store swung open. He finished arranging the chew toys on the shelf. Danny tried his hardest to play the extrovert, but his shift was only half an hour away from ending. No one answered. Danny rose from his squatting position once he had placed the last of the dog toys in its place on the shelf. He turned to see the silent customer, but his muscles wouldn’t respond. He stood, paralyzed, staring at the shelves full of dog and cat toys. Except…there weren’t any shelves, at least, not anymore. In their place was an endless expanse of blank white. The subtle smell of pet food and air freshener was gone. Everything was gone, even the box Danny had been re-stocking chew toys and catnip from. Suddenly, a rectangle of color abruptly entered his vision.

[Welcome to the Multiverse. Integration Initializing. Please Stand By…]

“No!” Danny snapped awake. A moist film covered his forehead. The pungent odor of a day without showering or deodorant rose to his nostrils. The sunlight from the tiny window caused him to blink away the sleep. He lay uncovered in a small bed, almost child-sized, in a cramped room. But not his room. So, it was all real after all… Danny realized. The vision of the prison of white and video game-esque message had happened last night. Actually happened. Danny couldn’t believe it, but the claustrophobic dormitory room asserted the reality of the position he was in.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Danny walked into the large, open main chamber. The main chamber had prayer mats ordered in uniform rows. The floor was made of natural-looking cobbled stone. The walls were a uniform light gray brick. The vaulted ceiling was made with a dark wood that lacked any polish. Rustic. At the back of the room was a raised stage with another prayer mat, presumably where the leader of whatever kind of religious service that took place here would be. Opposite the stage was the only way in and out of the stone temple. Danny walked through the tall arch.

The peppery smell of pine accosted Danny’s nose as a cool breeze blew through the courtyard. Danny looked around the area for a second time. The courtyard Danny was standing in was bordered by a forest. The trees were not packed tightly together. Their canopies were tiered, and spaced far enough apart for ample sunlight to break through and feed the ground-hugging shrubbery and grasses. The forest looked serene, but as Danny noted how it stretched on and on without end, he felt…less than relaxed. Still turning, Danny regarded the temple he had just exited. A paved path cut through the courtyard and led to a set of stone stairs. Three white pillars stood on either side of the ponderous entrance, holding up a balcony the likes of which a king might use to address his subjects. Above the balcony, the roof extended and sloped upward toward a central ridge. On each of the four corners, there were additional ridges. It reminded Danny of Asian architecture. Skin warmed by the sun, Danny raised his hand to shield his eyes from the light.

Now that the panic of suddenly finding himself in an unfamiliar place was gone, it was quite majestic. The picturesque views were almost enough to quell the anxiety rising in his throat. Almost. The feeling of the soft ground under his feet, the wind on his face, the sun on his back, was enough to convince him it was real, but he pinched himself just to be sure. Definitely not in a dream. One last test. Status and sure enough…

Daniel Robert Moore Jr.

ANOMALY: CODE MX109E76K

Bloodline: @!MX109E##

Body: 5

Qi: 5

Soul: 9

System Functions:

Class Abilities:

Skills (0 / 4):

The window hovered in his vision. It moved when he moved and turned with him so it was always front and center. When he had first appeared in the whiteness, before being teleported to wherever this temple was, Danny had received an error code, and been branded an anomaly. Apparently, there was some tutorial supposed to be going on, but Danny was ineligible due to this “anomaly” status. He wondered if the others were still on Earth. If he was still on Earth. Danny’s stomach grumbled. Loudly. Pushing those thoughts away, Danny focused on the task at hand, finding something to eat.

The sound of steps echoed as Danny walked through the empty halls of the temple. He had already explored one wing of the temple, that was where the dormitories were. Danny hoped that the other wing would have a kitchen or a pantry. After all, if there were bedrooms that surely meant that there would be a place to store food. Ahead Danny saw a doorway that opened into a larger room. Not as large as the prayer chamber, but much bigger than any of the bedrooms. A low growl broke the silence. Danny hoped that this hallway would lead to the kitchen.

The hallway did not, in fact, lead to a kitchen. Danny found himself in a library. Bookshelves were arranged in orderly, uniform rows with room for walking between. Danny ignored the protests from his belly and investigated further. The books had a handmade look to them. It seemed that each book was bound in leather and looked more like a journal than the mass-produced hardbacks he was accustomed to back home. Danny ignored the thought that he might be somewhere instead of “home” and instead focused on the spines of the books. The titles were in a strange language. It was flowy and seemed based more on pictograms than a set of letters or syllables. That was complete guesswork, Danny had barely passed high school English, he had no right to comment on the structure of a language he had never seen before. Still, it felt good to focus on something, anything, other than the increasingly aggressive demands of his stomach. Suddenly…

[Conditions Met. System Function: “Identify” Granted.]

[Identify: Provides system-approved details about an item, individual, or creature. Also automatically translates speech and writing of similar-intellect sapients]

Once the System messages disappeared, Danny saw a screen translating the title of the book he was focused on like real-life subtitles. [Pride of the Lightning Dragon Emperor Cultivation Manual] is what it said. That’s…extra. Danny thought. It probably sounds better in their language. With his newfound ability to comprehend, Danny opened the manual and began to skim through.

The first page was a summary by an “Archive Master Buford Whitebeard,” a name that made Danny chuckle. The summary described the origins of the manual: some mythical warrior had fought a dragon and, after slaying it, developed a technique based on dragons and their “peerless ferocity and strength.” Not all that peerless, because the Archive Master rated the manual C-tier. Barely passing. Danny thought. Such a crazy origin and title just for a measly C? After the summary and rating was a breakdown of the method. It was all about…breathing. How to inhale and exhale, and how long to hold each. The different parts of your body to focus on and when. It was a guided meditation, in Danny’s estimation. What does that have to do with fighting dragons? Danny was hopeful that the rest of the book would provide the connection.

Once he turned past the first section, titled “Awakening,” Danny was met with another System message.

[Ineligible. Complete Stage I: Awakening to View]

Then another…

[Conditions Met. System Guide Granted. Please Stand By…]

Before the window closed, a small blue light began to glow mid-air. The intensity it shone with grew and grew until it began to change into shape. Human shape. A small, more like tiny, human shape. The form was about as tall as Danny’s hand, fingertips to heel. Then it sprouted butterfly wings. No. Way. Danny thought as he saw a fairy blink into existence before his very eyes. The male fairy wore light blue clothes under his worn leather armor. His face had skin the color of sun-kissed clover and soft, boyish features. His hair was a chestnut brown and kept shortly cropped. He held a constant near-scowl as if the very world around him was not up to his standards. His eyes were a deep amber. Interrupting Danny’s gawking, the fairy said, “Welcome to the Multiverse, native. I will be your guide for the duration of the Tutorial. You will answer me with yes sir or no sir. Clear?”